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Clashes in Nablus Emir, Sheikha Kahramaa to Moza arrive in Vienna stop direct VIENNA: The Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani arrived at Vienna International Airport yesterday to take part in the 5th Forum of bill payments the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations (UNAOC) which is due to kick off in the Austrian No more paper bills from April 1 Capital today. The Emir is accompanied by H H Sheikha BY AZMAT HAROON said, adding that six other big serv- Moza bint Nasser. The Emir ice centres were still fully func- is also accompanied by a high- DOHA: Qatar General Elec- tional. The corporation launched ranking official delegation. tricity and Water Corporation an iPhone application yesterday QNA (Kahramaa) yesterday said it which provides access to a number will stop accepting payment of of services in Arabic and English, Russia tells US to water and electricity bills at its including payment of bills. customer service centres begin- The system of printing paper push Syria rebels ning April 1. bills and delivering them by Customers can now pay bills post was costly and time-con- into peace talks through Kahramaa’s website suming, Al Theyab said. “Some (km.qa), its call centre (991), customers also complained that MOSCOW/ BERLIN: Russia Ooredoo and Qatar National they do not receive the bills by A Palestinian protester throws back a tear gas grenade during clashes near Huwwara checkpoint near Nablus, called on the United States yes- Bank self-service machines, and post. Ultimately, we decided to West Bank, yesterday. At least 25 people were injured during the clashes that followed a rally supporting terday to press the Syrian oppo- other banks. Bills can be paid go green,” he said. Among the prisoners on a hunger strike in Israeli jails. See also page 8 sition to hold direct talks with from outside Qatar as well. main e-services is an electronic Damascus, saying President Kahramaa plans to stop issu- system for tracking the status of Bashar Al Assad’s opponents ing paper bills from the said date. applications. must appoint negotiators. “We, in fact, launched the project “Using Service Tracking, cus- The crisis in Syria made on January 1, but we set a dead- tomers can track building per- up “the bulk of the conversa- line for April 1 — no more paper mits, connections and meter Certificate must for EU meat imports tion” between Russian Foreign bills after that,” Eng. Abdulla Ali installation, applied for via the Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Al Theyab, Manager of Quality customer services registration Secretary of State John Kerry and Continual Improvement number,” Al Theyab said. A new DOHA: A certificate from an certificate mandatory for all meat import of beef from Europe fol- at talks in Berlin yesterday, US Department at Kahramaa, said project has been launched to pro- authorised laboratory is now imported from European coun- lowing an outbreak of mad cow State Department spokeswoman yesterday. vide water and electricity connec- mandatory for all meat and tries. An authorised laboratory in disease, but three countries were Victoria Nuland said. He was speaking at a press tions to new buildings and those meat products imported into the source country should certify exempted from the ban later. After talks she characterised as conference that saw the launch under construction without delay. Qatar from European coun- that the meat/ meat product is Most of the meat and meat “really serious and hard-working”, of a series of electronic services The IT department at Kahramaa tries to ensure that they are not not mixed with other products. products in the local market are Moscow and Washington sounded that aim to make Kahramaa a has also introduced a service adulterated. A senior official of the committee sourced from GCC and Arab a rare note of accord over efforts “paperless corporation”. Last through which customers will be The decision follows a scandal recently disclosed that the panel countries, besides the United to launch talks to end the nearly week, Kahramaa, which serves able to check their bills, building involving leading food compa- was studying a proposal to make States, said the committee. two-year-old conflict, in which some 290,000 customers in Qatar, permits and service connections nies in Europe, after horsemeat a quality certificate mandatory “Investigations are going on 70,000 people have been killed. closed down its service centres at through a ‘SMS Solution’. A cus- was found in some of their beef for meat imported not only from (at) the regional and interna- Lavrov, ahead of the meeting the Post Office and City Center. tomer satisfaction survey con- products. Europe but also other countries. tional levels to identify the com- with Kerry, said he would urge “These centres were only for ducted by Kahramaa has revealed The Joint Food Monitoring The committee said in a state- panies involved in the scandal, Washington to lean on the Syrian bill payment, and since we have that satisfaction levels for the call Committee at the Supreme ment that it had intensified moni- and the issue will be dealt (with) opposition to drop requests for transferred to five other electronic centre’s services were higher than Council of Health (SCH) said toring of meat products imported accordingly once they are final- Assad to go, a demand he char- options for bill payment, we closed those for the services centres. yesterday that a decision had from Europe. ised,” it added. acterised as “unrealistic”. them on February 17,” Al Theyab THE PENINSULA been taken to make a quality Qatar had imposed a ban on THE PENINSULA Full report on page 9

Egypt balloon crash kills 19 Woman injured Big powers offer Mursi’s opponents to in brawl over Iran some sops ALMATY: Major powers boycott elections parking space offered Iran limited sanctions relief in return for a halt to the CAIRO: A n a l l i a n c e o f E g y p t i a n compete with the Islamists — said DOHA: A 30-year-old woman most controversial part of its opposition parties decided yes- there should be no elections for the was severely injured after being atomic work during the first day terday to boycott parliamentary lower house of parliament without assaulted by four women over of nuclear talks yesterday, and elections in protest at an elec- a law guaranteeing fair polls. a car parking dispute in the Al Iran promised to respond with a tion law they say favours the “There can be no elections Dafna area recently. proposal on the same scale. Muslim Brotherhood, increas- without a law that guarantees the The woman received multiple The talks in Kazakhstan were ing the chance that Islamists fairness of the election process injuries on her face, arms and the first in eight months between will sweep the vote. and a government that can imple- other parts of the body, accord- Iran and the five permanent mem- The boycott by liberal and left- ment such a law and be trusted by ing to the Arabic daily Al Sharq. bers of the UN Security Council ist parties opposed to President the people,” said Sameh Ashour, a Last Thursday, the woman plus Germany — the “P5+1”. Mohammed Mursi aims to under- spokesman for the NSF, who also had temporarily parked her car Western officials said the pow- mine the legitimacy of the vote called for “real independence of in front of a restaurant to place ers’ offer would include an eas- and shows the polarisation that the judiciary”. her order when four women in ing of restrictions on trade in has defined Egyptian politics Seeking to convince the opposi- a Land Cruiser appeared on the gold and other precious metals since Hosni Mubarak was toppled tion to take part, Mursi invited scene. if Tehran closes its underground two years ago. them to talks yesterday to address They called out to her to move nuclear facility Fordow. It raises the prospect of an concerns about the vote, but the her car in order to create park- The facility is used for enrich- election fought mostly between alliance declined to attend. “We ing space for their vehicle. Since ing uranium to 20 percent fis- Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood and tell President Mursi: talk with there was limited space, she could sile purity, a short technical step more hardline Islamist groups yourself and your party,” Ashour not move the car. from weapons grade. Western such as the Salafi Nour Party. The said. Mursi went ahead with the At this, the woman driving officials acknowledge an easing vote is to be held in four stages talks anyway. “I hope these elec- the Land Cruiser stepped out of of US and EU sanctions on trade between late April and June. tions will be fully fair,” he told her vehicle and began shouting in gold represents a relatively The National Salvation Front the televised meeting attended at the woman in the car. At first modest step. (NSF) — an array of liberal by Islamists, smaller parties and she used foul language and then Full report on page 8 and leftist parties struggling to independents. REUTERS reportedly pulled the woman out of the car to beat her up. Her three companions joined her in attacking the hapless Today’s edition woman. One of the women report- Qatar to host Egypt in football includes edly held the victim’s hands while a four-page special the others hit her. friendly match on March 7 supplement on A friend of the victim later Workers prepare a hot air balloon (right) for take off at a launch site DOHA: arrived on the scene and took her near Luxor before it exploded and plunged to earth during flight yes- The Qatar Football Association (QFA) announced that to a hospital. terday. The balloon was flying at 1,000 feet when it exploded and Qatar will host Egypt in an international football friendly match The police reportedly recorded on March 7. The Qatar national side ‘Al Anabi’, are preparing for caught fire during a sunrise flight. At least 19 people, most of them a statement by the victim while the two crucial matches against Bahrain and Korea Republic in Asian and European tourists, died. The victims included tourists from she was undergoing treatment March at the 2015 Asian Cup qualifiers. Earlier in December 2012, at the emergency unit of Hamad Japan, China, France, Britain and Hungary and one Egyptian. The pilot the Egyptian team defeated their Qatari counterparts 2-1 in the General Hospital. survived by jumping from the basket. Full report on page 9 friendly match held at Thani bin Jassim Stadium of Al-Gharafa SC. THE PENINSULA QNA WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013 02 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com HOME

DIMDEX 2014 to Bone injuries show unmanned aircraft systems among trauma DOHA: Doha International Maritime Defence Exhibition (DIMDEX) 2014 is set to be the largest event for mari- time defence and protection patients rise of critical offshore infrastruc- ture. Rotary wing aircraft and unmanned systems are set to be Forum opens to raise awareness an exciting new addition to the region’s leading naval defence BY FAZEENA SALEEM “We receive a minimum of 10 exhibition. such cases per day,” he said while It will be held at the Qatar DOHA: Orthopaedic injuries addressing a press conference on National Convention Centre among trauma patients are on the sidelines of the First Qatar between March 25 and 27 next the rise in Qatar. The Trauma Surgical Society Symposium and year under the patronage of Care Centre refers an average of Third Annual Advance Trauma the Heir Apparent H H Sheikh 10 patients every day to Hamad Life Support (ATLS) for Middle Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa General Hospital (HGH) for East and North Africa (Mena) Al Thani. surgery related to such injuries, conference at Hamad Education Held with the support of Qatar an expert said yesterday. Centre. The conference aims to Armed Forces and hosted by the The centre receives around raise awareness about trauma. Qatar Emiri Naval Forces along 6,000 patients every year, and Trauma is a leading cause of with a strong commitment from nearly 2,000 of them are admitted permanent disability and mortal- Dr Ahmad Zarour, Consultant, Trauma/Critical Care Surgery and Director of Trauma Critical Care at Hamad General neighbouring countries’ naval to HGH for treatment. At least ity in the country. But officials did Hospital (HGH); Dr Rifat Latifi, Professor of Surgery and Director of Trauma, HGH; Dr Hassan Al Thani, Head of defence forces, DIMDEX 2014 is 15 to 20 percent of those patients not reveal the exact number of Trauma, Vascular Surgery and General Surgery at HGH; Dr Saud Al Turki, Consultant and Head Section, Vascular the definitive expo for the indus- need surgery. deaths caused by trauma. Surgery, Department of Surgery, King Abdulaziz Medical City; Dr Subash Gautham, Director of Advance Trauma Life try to take advantage of current “The numbers of orthopaedic “Trauma is the number one Support, the UAE, and Dr Jamal J Hoballah, Professor and Chairman, Department of Surgery, American University and future procurement opportu- patients are significant. There are killer and this is the only disease of Beirut Medical Centre, during a press conference at Hamad Education Centre, yesterday. (KAMMUTTY VP) nities for all naval requirements large numbers of other injuries that can be prevented,” said Dr across the Middle East and North which require orthopaedic sur- Rifat Latifi, Professor of Surgery, can prevent it,” he added. and research. Doctors and nurses Qatar, a member of ATLS for Africa (Mena) region. gery. They are the major section Director of Trauma at HGH. The two-day symposium engaged in the fields are partici- Mena, will start a chapter of Brigadier Dr (Eng) Thani A in trauma cases,” said Dr Hassan “Even if one person dies, that features a multi-disciplinary pating in workshops to learn from American College of Surgeons Al Kuwari, Assistant Chief of Al Thani, Head of the Trauma, death is preventable. No one approach to various topics, from international experts who are in Committee on Trauma in Staff for Financial Affairs and Vascular Surgery and General should die because of trauma. If trauma and transplant to color- Qatar to share their knowledge March. Chairman of DIMDEX, said: Surgery sections at HMC. we take all safety measures, we ectal surgery, general surgery and expertise. THE PENINSULA “Qatar is bringing together the world’s leading commanders, industry leaders, key decision- makers, thinkers, academics, experts and buyers to exchange experiences, expand networks and develop future strategies for the Middle East summit discusses football stadium designs maritime industry.” “DIMDEX creates a critical DOHA: Different football sta- the 2022 FIFA World Cup. the next generation and think “Valencia has 17 neighbour- Qatar’s strong light to help keep platform for companies to present dium designs were discussed Nigel Eckersall, General about the legacy we are going to hoods and we created the facade the arena cool, even during sum- the latest technological develop- at the fifth Annual Facade Manager of Tangram Architects leave for 2022 and beyond.” of the stadium to incorporate mer months. ments to meet the 21st century Design and Engineering Middle and Designers Qatar and Marcos Gutierrez, GCC each one of them. The symbolism Presentations and exhibitions maritime security challenges,” he East Summit at the Inter- Chairperson of the summit, intro- Region Director of RFA Fenwick is that you have the whole city of were given by leading interna- added. Continental Hotel. duced the two-day event, which Iribarren Architects, explained Valencia inside the stadium.” tional façade experts in the field DIMDEX 2014 will build on As part of Qatar’s determina- began with an overview of differ- architectural design of the foot- He also talked about construc- of lighting design. Tapio Rosenius, previous editions. tion to explore new construction ent football stadium designs. ball arenas in Spain, one of which tion plans of the Education City Director of Lighting Design It is expected to see significant techniques, architects, engineers “We are in a pivotal time now included the Valencia CF Stadium. stadium for Qatar 2022, which Collective, gave a presentation on growth, with over 200 exhibiting and consultants from around the in Qatar as we have nine years He emphasised the importance of have been designed to har- the role of lighting in sustainable companies and an increase on world gathered to discuss ways of left to deliver our construction designing construction plans in ness power and reduce cooling building. He has been a lead light- the 79 delegations from 54 coun- designing eco-friendly buildings in plans,” explained Eckersall. “We the context of a country’s cul- demands in the region’s harsh ing consultant for over 100 in the tries and over 9,000 trade visitors the region. The summit is signifi- must be clever and intelligent to tural, social and environmental desert climate. Its sustainability UK, Europe and the Middle East. received in 2012. cant as Qatar is preparing to host provide sustainable buildings for makeup. features will reflect and distort THE PENINSULA THE PENINSULA WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013 HOME www.thepeninsulaqatar.com 03 Dragon Mart to bring Chinese flavour to Qatar Bilateral trade sees quantum leap

DOHA: China is spreading its wings in Qatar. After posting over 40 percent growth in the bilateral trade year-on-year in 2012, China is set to reinforce its footprint in Qatar with the launch of the Dragon Mart at the Barwa Commercial Avenue. The mart, which is expected to emerge as a gateway for the supply of Chinese products in the booming Qatar, would offer Chinese traders and manufactur- ers a unique platform to cater to the needs of this sizeable market. Barwa sources told The Peninsula Chinese companies are involved in that Dragon Mart has plans to Qatar’s key development projects. lease out a full unit of the sprawl- At least 22 Chinese companies are ing commercial avenue and would involved in Qatar’s various flag- A night view of the 8km-long Barwa Commercial Avenue, which stretches from Abu Hamour to Industrial Area. (SHAIVAL DALAL) be one of the largest trading cen- ship projects, including the New tres for Chinese products outside Doha Port and Lusail Projects. China has recently made its from agreements to encourage and business, the ambassador planning to open an interna- mainland China. Chinese companies are also par- entry into Qatar’s vibrant finan- investment, trade and construc- added. tional school in Qatar, where On Monday, talking to The ticipating in upstream devel- cial sector too. The Industrial tion projects. “I expect more Qatar is so important for China Arabic language would be a an Peninsula, Chinese Ambassador opment of Qatar’s oil and gas and Commercial Bank of China Chinese professionals to come that it has opened the national optional subject. Gao Youzhen (pictured) said sectors,” he said. Middle East has its branch in in to Qatar, once Qatar launches bureaus of two leading media China and Qatar are also China’s bilateral trade with Qatar Most projects are that Chinese Doha now, contributing to the some of the key projects that are groups in Qatar. The state-run offering scholarships to eligi- saw a quantum leap in 2012 and companies involved in are directly strategic expansion of the bank’s in the pipeline,” he said. media outlet Xinhua and China ble students of to pursue their the volume is set to surge further associated with the Qatar Middle Eastern business. Another key decision to pro- Radio have full-fledged offices in higher studies in top universities with in the coming years. National Vision 2030 and the 2022 China and Qatar have recently mote bilateral trade is to set up a Doha. of both countries. “Currently, a large number of mega event. signed a slew of contracts ranging trade commission to boost trade Gao said China was also THE PENINSULA

Ministry to publish names of firms violating labour law, says official

DOHA: The names of compa- Meer, Assistant Director of the with workers’ salary list last year. Law last year. Some 23 violations the Recruitment Department. give false information. nies violating labour law will be Inspection Department at the It is mandatory for the companies were detected in the beginning of Some companies are not There are other companies made public once the Ministry Ministry told a local Arabic daily. to submit details of salaries to the this month, he said. facilitating inspection proce- which did not allow inspectors to of Labour completes a review of The Inspection Department Labour Department on a monthly The most common viola- dures and they are not provid- check their premises, he added. its inspection rules, said a sen- will shortly hold a seminar for basis to ensure that they are paid tion is hiring workers with- ing necessary documents to THE PENINSULA ior official of the ministry. operators and employees of in time. out taking work permit from inspectors. Some companies “New rules for inspection are beauty salons to educate on new A company was found conceal- being prepared and it will be inspection rules before their ing the death of a worker on work announced soon. Once the new implementation. site to avoid contractual obliga- rules are enforced, the names Al Meer said that five com- tions, said Al Meer. of erring companies will be panies had been referred to the The Inspection Department disclosed” Mohammad Ali Al Public Prosecution for tampering detected 134 violations of Labour Envoy urges Filipino expatriates to exercise their voting right

Philippine Ambassador Crescente R Relacion with embassy staff at the new embassy building in Jelaiah. (KAMMUTTY VP) BY RAYNALD C RIVERA He called for the need to raise the change of regime from com- awareness among Filipinos on munism to relatively democratic DOHA: Philippine Ambassador the significant role they play in form of government in Russia Crescente R Relacion has urged nation building despite being far through Perestroika and also Filipino expatriates to exercise from their country. the Suharto regime was toppled their right to suffrage at the “If they don’t do their patriotic through peaceful student demon- upcoming Philippine elections duty it is condemning the Filipino strations. And very recently we for which an Overseas Absentee nation to oblivion,” he said, speak- had the Arab Spring so I don’t Voting would be held here. ing on the sidelines of the com- think Edsa Revolution is irrele- “I am urging Filipinos here memoration of the Edsa People vant today because we have seen to participate in the Overseas Power Revolution. the legacy that Filipinos have Absentee Voting to take place Twenty-seven years after given to people around the world,” from April 13 to May 13. This is a Filipinos toppled the Marcos he said. very important event in the polit- dictatorship, the People Power Meanwhile, on the promo- ical history of the Philippines,” Revolution remains very relevant tion of welfare of Filipinos Ambassador Relacion told the as a model for bloodless means of here, Relacion said representa- local media on Monday. changing a regime, said Relacion. tives from the Department of The ambassador rued the low “Edsa Revolution is a peace- Labour and Employment and turnout for registration which ful transition to power and the Philippine Overseas Employment is less than 10 percent of the Philippines was a role model to Administration are coming to Overseas Filipino Workers in the world on how to effect regime Qatar soon to discuss labour Qatar despite the fact that it was change through bloodless revolu- issues with their counterparts. conducted for a year. tion. This has been replicated over The joint commission meeting There are over 14,000 registered and over again.” on labour issues would address voters out of more than 200,000 After the Edsa Revolution concerns from both sides on the Filipinos here. The embassy has regime changes through peaceful deployment of Filipino workers, conducted field registrations in means have occurred, he noted. including the issue on Filipino several areas where there is a “We saw the crumbling of the domestic helpers, he said. large concentration of Filipinos. Berlin Wall, we also witnessed THE PENINSULA WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013 04 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com HOME

97pc of houses Qatar reiterates support have access to public water for Arab Spring states network: QSA

DOHA: The ratio of residential Minister urges UN rights council to take action against Israel buildings with access to elec- tricity, water and sewage serv- GENEVA: Qatar has under- revolution and the opposition. on the promotion and protection ices is relatively high in Qatar, lined its firm stance towards He called on the international of human rights,” he said. which reflects the welfare level supporting the Arab Spring community to support the coali- He added that Qatar is home to in the country. peoples and their legitimate tion until the Syrian people over- the United Nations Human Rights Qatar’s 97 percent of houses are demands and aspirations. come their ordeal and achieve Training and Documentation provided with safe water from the In a speech at the 22nd ses- their demands and legitimate Centre for Southwest Asia and public water network. The high sion of the of the Human Rights aspirations to live in freedom and the Arab Region, which provides percentage of houses connected Council, the Minister of State for dignity. a mechanism for close coopera- to the sewage network means Foreign Affairs H E Dr Khalid Dr Al Attiyah stressed the tion in building local and regional that waste water is disposed of bin Mohamed Al Attiyah cited importance of preserving Syria’s capacity in the field of human in a safe manner without affect- the catastrophic situation of the sovereignty, stability and territo- rights. Qatar has offered the cen- ing groundwater or the natural Syrian people due to violations of rial integrity. tre all support to enable it per- environment, a Qatar Statistics their rights. As part of supporting Syrian form its goals,” he said. Authority (QSA) data released He said that the acts of the people upon directives of the On Israeli practices against yesterday showed. Syrian regime, including the mas- Deputy Emir and Heir Apparent Palestinian prisoners and its Large amount of waste water sacres and use of heavy weapons H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al abuses against the Palestinian is re-used after being treated such as Scud missiles caused Thani, Qatar has provided $100m people, the Minister said that for irrigation in agriculture enormous destruction in Aleppo for the Humanitarian Support there was no doubt that a lack Jassim Omar Jamaan with his trophy. and green spaces in cities, thus and the use of internationally Coordination Unit of the National of Israeli cooperation with the reducing pressure on fresh water banned weapons against unarmed Coalition in Syria, he said. Human Rights Council and resources. civilians is a flagrant violation of Dr Al Attiyah said that Qatar its non-compliance with the QU hosts schoolchildren for Khor Al Udaid is Qatar’s humanitarian values and laws. appreciated the tireless efforts Universal Periodic Review, in mostly natural protected area. Qatar strongly condemned of the UN High Commissioner a precedent never seen by the Second largest protected area, the intransigence of the Syrian for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, Council, reveals clearly Tel Aviv’s Environment Day celebrations both marine and land, is Al Reem. regime, its noncooperative atti- and her office to promote and blatant violation of international The total area of natural tude and denial of access to protect human rights and funda- conventions. DOHA: Qatar University’s School, International School of reserves is about 30 percent of international observers to Syrian mental freedom, especially since He said that the international (QU) Department of Biological London, and Qatar Academy Qatar’s area. There are 11 natural cities, the Minister said. the world is going through chal- community should force Israel and Environmental Sciences in participated in the morning pro- protected areas in Qatar, including He said that the international lenges affecting the realisation of to follow the Universal Periodic the College of Arts & Sciences gramme comprising painting two which are a combination of community’s, especially the UN many rights. Review mechanism. He stressed hosted 175 children from four activities, a world water com- marine and land protected areas. Security Council’s, failure in solv- “This gives the Human Rights the need for applying the mech- schools in Doha to celebrate petition and designing smart In terms of air pollution, the ing the issue has revealed seri- Council a pivotal role and requires anism equally in all countries, National Environment Day. models for water. The students most relevant air pollutants reg- ous inability to respond to moral that we all adhere to international a matter which he said would The celebration, themed were encouraged to showcase ulated and monitored in Qatar challenges like the crisis of the standards of human rights for the enhance credibility and effec- “Water Conservation: Every Drop their entrepreneurship capabili- include particulate matter (PM10), Syrian people, and contributed to advancement and enjoyment of tiveness of the Human Rights Counts”, saw high-level participa- ties and innovation. They had a sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen the prolongation of the crisis and those rights.” Council. tion by QU President Professor discussion about the theme with oxide (NOx), carbon monoxide increasing the number of victims. He congratulated Ambassador Dr Al Attiyah also urged the Sheikha Abdulla Al Misnad, Kahramaa characters Qatoura (CO) and ground level ozone (O3). The Minister urged the Security Remigiusz Achilles Henczel on international community to shoul- Assistant Undersecretary for and Kahroub. THE PENINSULA Council to take its ethical and assuming office as President der its moral, humanitarian and Environmental Affairs of the Jassim Omar Jamaan from legal responsibilities seriously to of the Human Rights Council, legal responsibilities and take nec- Ministry of Environment Dr Lusail Independent Modern Minister returns stop the humanitarian disaster expressing Qatar’s confidence in essary and effective measures to Rashid Ahmad Al Kuwari, QU School was announced winner of and atrocities committed against his ability to run it. put pressure on Israel, the most vice-presidents, directors, heads the logo design of the theme. from Bahrain the Syrian people and bring those He also expressed apprecia- important of which is to resort to of department, faculty and staff. Head of Department of DOHA: Minister of Justice responsible for the crimes to tion for efforts made by Laura Security Council for a resolution Representatives from Qatar Biological and Environmental Hassan bin Abdullah Al Ghanem justice. Lasserre during her presidency. for the formation of an interna- Water and Electricity Corporation Sciences Dr Samir Jaoua said: and his delegation returned to He added that Doha hosted “Qatar seeks to cooperate tional commission to investigate (Kahramaa) also took part in the “This is a great opportunity to Doha yesterday from Manama last November a meeting of the with all countries to promote all attacks and actions taken by activities. raise awareness among youth as after participating in the Syrian opposition, which resulted human rights and find solutions Israel since the occupation of the The students from Lusail they play an important role in Manama Conference for the in the formation of the National to issues and challenges facing Palestinian territories. Independent Modern School, saving Qatar’s environment.” Purpose of Establishing Arab Coalition for the forces of the humanity in an approach based QNA Alkharizmi Independent Modern THE PENINSULA Human Rights Tribunal. QNA Total sponsors Emir’s Sword Race

DOHA: Continuing its support REC Chairman, Sheikh said, “Total is very proud to sup- for horse racing in Qatar, Total Mohamed bin Faleh Al Thani port Qatar Racing and Equestrian E&P Qatar signed a five-year thanked Total E&P Qatar for its Club in its various development sponsorship agreement with continued support. “Total E&P initiatives by being the title spon- Qatar Racing and Equestrian Qatar and REC have a long stand- sor of the highly prestigious the Club (REC) to support His ing relationship. We thank Total Emir Sword Race. Highness The Emir’s Sword E&P Qatar for its interest in sup- “This partnership comes with Race and Qatar Prix de l’Arc de porting horse racing, which is Total’s recognition of sports as an Triomphe Weekend in Paris. indeed a sport fostered by our fore- integral part of its corporate social This year’s Emir’s Sword Race fathers. We hope events like these responsibility and we are proud will take place tomorrow at the can elevate the status of horse rac- of being partners of such distin- REC racetrack in Al Rayyan. The ing not only in the region, but also guished sporting events. Horse rac- best Pure Arabian horses will be in the global arena”, he said. ing is not only a skill and a sport, racing against each other for the For his part, Stephane Michel, but is a tradition which brings all top honours in the event with a Managing Director of Total E&P of us closer to our roots,” he said. prize money of QR2m. Qatar and Group Representative, QNA RasGas to hold charity event DOHA: RasGas Company Limited (RasGas) will host a series of events to raise money for charity as a key element of its cor- porate social responsibil- ity (CSR) programme. The RasGas Charity Weekend, hosted for the 8th consecutive year, will start off with a gala din- ner today in which more than 350 of the company’s customers, suppliers, vendors and employees will gather to raise funds through auctions and other activities. “RasGas’ Charity Weekend is a main contrib- utor to Sunduk Al Kheir and is integral to our CSR programme. We are very pleased to be able to bring together so many members of our community whose generosity year after year, has made this such a huge success. This year, we are again looking forward to raising a substantial sum to provide support to deserv- ing charitable causes,” said Hamad Rashid Al Mohannadi, RasGas’ Chief Executive Officer. Proceeds from the event will go to the Qatar Paralympic Committee and the Qatar Cultural And Social Centre For the Deaf through, Sunduk Al Kheir. QNA WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013 HOME www.thepeninsulaqatar.com 05 Mouawad shows off HBKU offers tests for Grade 8, 9 students DOHA: Hamad bin Khalifa EXPLORE is a pre-ACT March 2, March 7, March 9 and University’s (HBKU) Test assessment and career inventory March 20. Centre is offering students for Grade 8 and 9 students, while Dates for the PSSS test are the opportunity to take the PLAN is a similar test for Grade March 2, March 7, March 9, and star of the exhibition EXPLORE, PLAN and PSSS 10 students. March 20. tests to help prepare them for The PSSS, an examination In addition to test administra- university admission process as developed by the College Board, tion, Test Centre also provides World’s largest internally flawless diamond unveiled early as possible. helps prepare Grade 10 students individual advice for students The tests were designed for for SAT. and parents interested in a more students to gain a better under- Both exams are officially tailored and personalised session standing of standardised tests scored by test companies and that explains university test- such as SAT and ACT, required students who take these tests ing and its role in the university for admission into HBKU’s part- will receive their results with admission process. ner universities. extensive feedback and advice To register for one of the HBKU’s Test Centre aims on preparation. above early test dates, students to encourage all students to The HBKU Test Centre will can contact [email protected] or take part in these tests as it is offer three tests throughout register in person by visiting the a great opportunity for them to March and April. Test Centre every Monday and be exposed to and prepared for Dates for EXPLORE tests are Wednesday between 11am and standardised testing at a young April 1, April 11 and April 20. 2pm. age. Dates for PLAN test are THE PENINSULA

Mouawad officials displaying the Incomparable Diamond Necklace. (QASSIM RAHMATULLAH)

DOHA: The world’s largest reaching Mouawad. It was in 1980 very special woman that absolutely internally flawless diamond was in the Democratic Republic of deserves nothing less.” unveiled yesterday by Mouawad, Congo that a little girl found it in The coloured shield step-cut the luxury jewellery and time- a rubble pile of kimberlite that was diamond is now suspended grace- pieces company, at the 10th sorted out because it was consid- fully from a striking diamond Doha Jewellery and Watches ered to be too bulky to possess any necklace featuring a cavalcade of Exhibition (DJWE 2013) at the diamonds. The diamond exchanged pristine, radiant diamonds of var- Doha Exhibition Centre. hands and was made public in 1984 ious cuts sublimely intertwined by Called the ‘Incomparable in its polished form. It was then put 18K rose gold. Diamond’, it serves as the pen- on display at several museums with “This is our fifth year at DJWE dant of Mouawad’s latest mas- the first one being the Smithsonian and for the third consecutive terpiece creation the ‘Mouawad Institute in Washington DC. year we have chosen the show L’Incomparable Diamond “Through creativity, patience as the location for the global Necklace’ featuring 91 diamonds and verve, the artisans at debut of our one-of-a-kind jew- totalling 635.40 carats in weight. Mouawad have crafted an ellery creations. The unveiling Incomparable Diamond is impressive and sublime diamond of our L’Incomparable Diamond graded by the GIA weighing necklace — giving the famous dia- Necklace is Mouawad’s special 407.48 carats. The necklace will be mond a permanent throne”, said gift for the 10th anniversary of on display at the Mouawad booth Pascal Mouawad, Guardian of the what we believe is the top event throughout the show, which runs Mouawad Retail Division. for the luxury market in the until Sunday. “Befitting a royal court, Middle East,” said Fred Mouawad, In its rough state weighing L’Incomparable Diamond Necklace, Guardian of the Mouawad 890 carats, the diamond made a leaves nothing to be desired except Diamond Division. long serendipitous journey before to grace the neck of a queen or a THE PENINSULA

Law journal publishes Issue 2 on QScience.com

DOHA: The International mediation, reforms on divorce QScience.com has also intro- Review of Law Journal published law, the legal basis of supervised duced an online commenting Issue 2 on QScience.com, the drug injection facilities, the lim- facility, which allows direct com- publishing portal for research its of prosecutorial discretion in munication on the article with the journals. Singapore and an Arabic paper on author and readers. The peer-reviewed interna- privatisation laws in Kuwait. This service adds to features, tional law journal covers contem- Arend Kuster, Managing including article-level metrics, porary legal discourse in all fields Director of QScience.com, said: measuring downloads and citations, of law. All content in the journal “We are delighted that Issue 2 and the personalisation and mobile is ‘open access’, meaning articles continues to build on the strong feature of the site which allows are free to read on the web and foundation of Issue 1 and that we browsing of content and access authors retain copyright on their have received such a high number to search alerts with Blackberry, works. Topics included in this of quality submissions, which iPhone and Android handsets. issue range from construction enhance the unique discourse.” THE PENINSULA 126 vehicles rescued from Sealine, Al Udaid

DOHA: Private Engineering Office has rescued 126 vehicles from the Sealine and Al Udaid areas since August 2012, Al Sharq reported yesterday. Wheels of majority of vehicles were sunk deep into sand on the beach and desert area and some vehi- cles lost their way at night, according to Salah Hassan Al Kuwari, Director, Private Engineering Office. “Many people face prob- lems in desert and beach area because they are igno- rant of the nature of the area. It creates more prob- lems at night,” he said. The Private Engineering Office is also planning to introduce a special number for people to call the rescue service near Sealine and Al Udaid area because of the increase of visitors to the area. More than 600 winter camps were set up in Sealine and 57 at Al Udaid in this season. A plan by Private Engineering Office and Al Wakra Municipality is under way to develop an area with facilities for families, said Al Kuwari. THE PENINSULA WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013 06 VIEWS www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

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Indecision in Italy Cartoon Arts International / The New York Times Syndicate

N TIMES of deep financial crisis and turmoil, political stalemate and uncertainty is what any country would least want. But such is the mess and confusion which the Cambodia’s War Crimes Icrisis creates that sometimes indecision reigns supreme. People grope for a solution and end up with indecision. Italy is the latest example. The general elections in Italy have produced what can Court at snail pace be called a stunning deadlock. Those stunned are not only Italians, who are struggling to cope with the aftermath of an BY JONATHAN POWER election which has produced no clear winner, but the entire now deceased Pol Pot and his hench- Europe which has a stake because Italy is in the throes of a man of the Khmer Rouge was almost financial crisis and any mismanagement of the crisis or failure T THE end of the Second World on the scale of the Nazi genocide of could undermine the entire European financial system. War, when the three allies, the Jews. Others point to the atmos- The genocide carried ABritain, the US and the Soviet phere of tolerance in the court, allow- No party came on top comfortably. The most remarkable Union, were considering what to do with ing the defence to hold the proceedings was the performance of comedian Beppe Grillo’s anti- the top German political and military with extraneous diversions. Indeed, out by the now establishment 5-Star movement which won a stunning 26 leaders, Winston Churchill had no com- the French lawyers who make up the deceased Pol Pot percent of lower house votes, fractionally more than the punction in saying they should be taken defence team seem to have no sense of centre-left Democratic Party (PD). His 108 seats in the 630 out of their cells and shot. Franklin right and wrong. Whilst I was in the and his henchman Roosevelt persuaded him that a trial courtroom, one of them was still argu- seat Chamber of Deputies and 54 in the 315 seat Senate leave was more in order. Stalin went along ing, interrupting the main proceedings, of the Khmer Rouge him holding the key to Italy’s political future. Sex scandal- with this. that the health of the prisoners was not tainted Silvio Berlusconi also made an astonishing comeback A trial it was with judges from the good and they shouldn’t be detained in was almost on the from humiliation, coming within a whisker of success. Before three powers — the first war crimes’ the prison made for them — with its the elections, pollsters and analysts had widely predicted that trial in history. It tried 23 of the German health facilities and TV — but should scale of the Nazi this would be the media magnate’s hierarchy and it took only 13 months to be under house arrest. The presiding complete. judge — a Cambodian — slapped him genocide of the last election and he would be clearly The trial in Cambodia, organised down but he still tried again another Italy’s woes beaten by his centre-left foes. They jointly by the couple of times, ignoring the president. Jews. are set to said he would eventually disappear UN and the It is one thing for the defence to argue from the scene. Bersani’s Democratic Cambodian gov- points of law and to try to shorten the Reporters covered the events of the compound as Party (PD) lost their commanding ernment, has had sentence but when they know that this genocide with great danger to them- elections have opinion poll lead and almost lost the only five people was the second worst genocide of the selves, such as Elizabeth Becker of the Unbelievably, in the dock but 20th century some reticence would not Washington Post who wrote a good book produced no election because of the rise of Grillo has taken seven be amiss. Working to drag out the trial on Cambodia and will give evidence to and Berlusconi. Prime Minister Mario Western years and is not is outrageous. the court in the coming days. Some clear winner. Monti received only ten percent of the likely to finish It is tragedy that it took 27 years of her colleagues lost their lives in an votes, showing Italians’ anger at his nations, before the end of from the day Pot Pot and the Khmer attempt to portray the horror. The film, austerity packages. the summer or Rouge were overthrown by neighbour- The Killing Fields, was shown in cin- following in the even early next ing Vietnam to get the court rolling. emas all over the world. It was hard not The winner is: Ingovernability,” ran the headline in Rome year. (One was Unbelievably, Western nations, following to know unless one didn’t want to know newspaper Il Messaggero, summing up the deadlock the footsteps of the convicted in 2010 in the footsteps of the US, voted to keep — like much of the German population country will have to grapple with in the next few weeks and one, the only the Khmer Rouge flag flying outside behaved when Jews were carted away as sworn enemies are forced to work together to form a US, voted to woman, has been the UN where the flags of every mem- right under their noses. government. A government which has to take extremely keep the Khmer released on health ber nation flutter in the river breeze, I walked around S 21, a converted tough decisions can’t be one which will have to fight for its grounds.) I asked and to allow them to sit inside the UN school, where thousands were tortured Rouge flag senior Western Assembly as Cambodia’s legitimate rep- to death. Their photos line the class- own survival. Some analysts are seeing another election soon, diplomats and resentative. Again I asked two senior rooms — some are only teenagers, some though none of the parties will be happy about it. flying outside two of the judges Western diplomats to explain how this in their 20s. A whole generation was The results were worrying for peddlers of austerity because on the court why could happen. One said they had been decimated and only lately has Cambodia Italians made a massive rejection of the austerity policies the UN. so long and they too young to remember but added that begun to recover socially and economi- applied by Prime Minister Mario Monti with the backing of found it difficult on asking, an older ex-ambassador was cally. The survivors and the families of international leaders. to answer. Some told that at that time the horrors were the murdered live with a silent pain. talked about the not well documented. Another one sim- One good thing about the court is The stalemate has sent shockwaves across Europe. Stock investigation part of the trial taking ply floundered, looking for an answer its outreach programme. Whilst I was markets fell sharply across the region yesterday due to fears too long, yet the evidence was growing that he knew couldn’t stand up in hind- there daily parties of teenage school- that it will inflame the European financial crisis. The Milan on trees. sight, even though in fact it couldn’t children were brought in to watch the market plunged by five percent and there were heavy losses Every major news outlet had reported stand up at the time. When I said that proceedings for a full day. in London, Berlin and Paris. Italian government debt slid in on it at length. The film The Killing to support a regime that committed The Khmer Rouge trial at last swings Fields, with its vivid re-creation of the second worst genocide of the 20th towards completion. “The moral arm value, pushing up the country’s borrowing costs, while the the mass murder, upset hundreds of century was totally and irredeemably of the universe is long”, said Martin euro hit a seven-week low as Europe’s debt crisis once again thousands of cinema-goers all over the immoral I could have cut the atmos- Luther King. “It bends towards justice”. dominated world markets. • world. The genocide carried out by the phere in both embassies with a knife. THE PENINSULA The other side Quote of Seoul’s tough riddle the day

RESIDENT-ELECT Park Geun- that trust building is required to broadening consensus on the Pacific security and sovereignty, its ambitious hye, in her inaugural speech, tackle the ‘extremely serious’ security Rim for a peace regime and making nuclear programme could be dealt with has said that a tough stance situation. Such a mindset could overtures to the North in the form of in a realistic manner. Pon national security is the need lead to furthering of dialogue and a resuming the reunification talks. What Park could do, at this point of India for some of the hour, and South Korea would not consensus with regional neighbours, The point is Pyongyang’s brinkman- time, as a leadership gesture is to go time has always compromise on it under any pretext. including Japan, China and many of ship acts are owing to its economic over the board to address the com- The carefully worded statement could the ASEAN countries, in order to check and socio-political marginalisation. munist neighbour’s socio-economic used Afghanistan be the beginning of a new diatribe Pyongyang’s berserk policies. The Stalinist state, which has been woes by funnelling in aid and assist- between both the Koreas across the The fact that Park didn’t play to the desperately looking for international ance to the maxim. North Korea, which as a second front, line of Armistice, as Pyongyang is too gallery by voicing a tit-for-tat militaristic acknowledgment — especially from has already signed an aid for food deal restless with the status quo in the response in the form of shooting out Washington, in terms of being recog- with the United States, will certainly not and India has over region. Park’s utterance that North some of her own missiles across the nised at par with its neighbours, seems mind interacting with Seoul, until and the years financed Korea’s recent nuclear test posed a sea — in an attempt of muscle-flexing to have inadvertently opted for a mili- unless its poverty-oriented grievances challenge to the survival of the Korean — is quite promising. The new leader, taristic role as a last resort. China, the are handled in a magnanimous man- problems for people only illustrates the seriousness who had vowed to follow her father’s allied-ally of North Korea, also believes ner. That can be a decent beginning Pakistan on that Senator Chuck Hagel with which such adventures are being footsteps in granting economic revival that the moment Pyongyang is ensured to engage a rogue and hypersensitive Obama’s nominee studied. Nonetheless, Park believes to the country, can do a better job by of a security shield guaranteeing its neighbour. KHALEEJ TIMES side of the border. for Defence Secretary WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013 VIEWS www.thepeninsulaqatar.com 07 Barack Obama is not out to ruin Russia

afford to postpone the modernisation of changes in Kiev and, more recently, in Moscow may its conventional forces, allowing them to Tbilisi have de-emphasised the Nato decay, while fully relying on its nuclear accession option even more. Russian become a more umbrella. Psychologically, being one of policymakers and strategic planners feel two nuclear superpowers helped the relieved: They no longer have to account Kremlin overcome the trauma of impe- for the possibility of US power projection equitable partner rial collapse and state disintegration. As too close to their borders. In the South a result, Moscow’s present concept of a Caucasus, they are happy to leave Georgia to the Pentagon in great power is the reverse of the classi- to deal with its own problems, and only cal one. It aims not so much at dominat- worry that the long but uneasy truce ing others as not being dominated by the between the Azeris and the Armenians areas from search stronger powers. Given that the Russian in Nagorny Karabakh may be broken. As military is no match for the Pentagon — Erevan’s formal military ally with forces and rescue in the or soon the People’s Liberation Army — on the ground, and Baku’s economic part- the Kremlin believes nuclear deterrence ner, Moscow has a stake in keeping the is the best way of preserving Russia’s situation under control — an interest Arctic, to fighting strategic independence. shared by Washington. This deterrence operates at both stra- The Nato enlargement spectre out of pirates off the tegic and tactical levels, making up for the picture, Ukraine has remained an the huge gap in conventional capabilities economic and geopolitical issue to Russia, African coast and between Russia and the leading military but it has ceased to be a military one. powers of the 21st century. Like the US, The Baltic states may be perennially wor- Russia, of course, has inherited from the ried about their big neighbour, and some anti-narcotics Cold War a nuclear arsenal that was Swedes may implicitly use Russia as an absurdly large, thus allowing for massive argument in favour of increasing defence operations in reductions under the START and New expenditures, but Europe has ceased to START treaties — but now the smaller be a priority for Moscow’s strategists. Afghanistan. the numbers have become, the smaller the Their only significant new activity along margin is for further reductions. Russian US President Barack Obama shakes hands with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the western axis has been the announced political and military leaders have also deployment of missile defences to counter Los Cabos, Mexico. BY DMITRI TRENIN identified three factors that weigh on Nato’s system — in the wake of a failure, their strategic calculus and impact policy so far, to reach an agreement with the arack Obama hopes to engage decisions: the steady US progress in the nuclear programme may differ from Russian empire will continue to rest in US on the issue. In the best possible sce- Russia in his effort to con- development of a global missile defence Washington’s, but it has zero inter- peace. nario, US-Nato and Russian defences can tinue reducing nuclear arma- system, the vastly increased capabilities est in a nuclear-armed Iran. Russians To many US observers, however, be operationally coordinated — with the ments. For the president, this of non-nuclear weapons systems that might prefer a different way of dealing Russia’s efforts there are virtually indis- Western system, while effective against is vital for advancing his goal can perform strategic missions, and the with Pyongyang than the very uneven tinguishable from former tsarist and third-country missiles, having no capa- Bof a world less reliant on nuclear weap- growing Chinese capability to dramati- US approach to North Korea, but they Soviet practices. Yet, the decade-long bility against the Russian nuclear deter- ons. For Moscow, however, nuclear arms cally increase its nuclear arsenal, should clearly see the dangers of living next to Chechen war, and the 10-year postwar rent. A formal treaty to this effect is not remain the bedrock of military security Beijing want. a country that is constantly testing its recovery have resulted in a settlement necessary, but a high degree of mutual and a key component of Russia’s inter- None of the above, for now, can appre- nuclear devices and long-range missiles. under which Chechnya exists as a virtual openness is. If this were achieved during national status. This does not neces- ciably devalue Russia’s nuclear deterrent, US-Russian cooperation at the strategic state loosely associated with Russia. It is Obama’s second term, it would amount sarily doom Obama’s approach, but it but, looking two decades ahead, each of level certainly creates a better pros- actually more stable and more prosper- to a real game-changer in US-Russian makes further reduction of US and these factors will become much more pect for coordinated non-proliferation ous today than other republics in the strategic relations, phasing out residual Russian nuclear arsenals contingent on important. This means that the US, if it efforts. Russian North Caucasus. As to Georgia, adversity now rooted in mutual mistrust Washington’s willingness to consider wants further cuts in nuclear weapons, Another issue is regional security. Next Russia’s military response to President and allowing collaboration to gradually Moscow’s security needs. The US should will need to credibly assure the Russians year’s US withdrawal from Afghanistan Mikheil Saakashvili’s 2008 reckless prevail. examine those requirements to under- that US missile defence deployments, is ushering in a number of uncertain- attack in South Ossetia was strong, but Finally, as Russia’s military reform stand not only what kind of a deal with while effective against third countries (ie ties in Central and South Asia. In post- also measured: Despite the popular belief progresses and its force modernisa- Russia is possible, but how Russia’s needs Iran), will not diminish Moscow’s deter- American Afghanistan, the Taliban are in the West, Tbilisi controls almost as tion continues, Moscow may become a relate to its own security interests. rence power. Washington will also need, likely to increase their influence, even much territory today — with very minor more equitable partner to the Pentagon Since the end of the Cold War nearly a when discussing tactical nuclear weap- as Pakistan and India will compete even exceptions — as it did before the war. in areas, from search and rescue in the quarter century ago, Russia has existed ons, to include non-nuclear systems with more intensely there. Russia’s defence Both South Ossetia and Abkhazia broke Arctic, to fighting pirates off the African in a heretofore unprecedented strategic a capability for precise strikes. Finally, policy these days focuses more and more away from Georgia and proclaimed inde- coast and anti-narcotics operations in environment. For the first time ever, it both Washington and Moscow soon need on contingencies along its southern bor- pendence in the early 1990s, although Afghanistan. faces no likelihood of a major war erupt- to reach out to Beijing to include it in ders, primarily in Central Asia and the now, unlike before the war, they also host The US may indeed appreciate a solid ing either in the west or in the east that the process of limiting nuclear arms and Caucasus. regular Russian forces. For the foresee- working relationship with a country that, might involve Russia. In another first, enhancing strategic stability. None of Moscow has been trying, with mixed able future, both places are de facto while being vociferously independent and there is no threat of a foreign invasion of these tasks will be easy, but all of them results, to revamp and strengthen the Russian military protectorates. The US straight-talking, is no longer expansion- Russia itself. And, finally, having recon- will be necessary if relations among the very loose post-Soviet Collective Security and virtually every other country sup- ist and ideological. Americans should ciled itself with the loss of both its outer world’s major nuclear powers are to be Treaty Organisation, which it leads, to port Georgia’s territorial sovereignty, so kick the habit of seeing mainly through empire in Eastern Europe and the inner further stabilised. deal with emergencies in that part of the conflict will only be resolved politi- the prism of its past experience with the one in what used to be the USSR, Russia Great-power stability is crucial for the world. A Eurasian economic union cally. Until then, it will remain safely Soviet Union, or through the optics of has no need to physically control oth- a number of reasons. One is stopping might help, but, to be successful, it will frozen. Russia’s domestic developments alone. ers and no interest in reabsorbing them further nuclear proliferation, mainly need to stay economic and voluntary. Moscow’s biggest benefit from Obama’s Obama’s nuclear bid, to be successful, within a new imperial construct. in Iran and North Korea, for which Americans should lose no sleep over it: foreign policy reset has been his down- requires an updated and comprehensive Thus, for nearly 20 years following Russia and China are key. Moscow’s Moscow’s desire, and ability, to impose playing of the Nato option for Georgia look at Russia. the breakup of the USSR, Moscow could assessment of the pace of Tehran’s its will on these partners is small. The and Ukraine. Since then, the domestic WP-BLOOMBERG For Iraqi women, democracy Castro successor has no charisma but is an is anything but liberation experienced manager BY HAIFA ZANGANA BY MARC FRANK Al Shahristani has acknowledged University of Denver who used to No wonder, 10 years after the that there are 13,000 prisoners in work for the Cuban interior min- decade on from the custody accused of terror offences, hen Cuban istry on intelligence issues and US US-led invasion of Iraq, invasion, the authorities are but he only mentioned women President Raul relations. “The promotion of Diaz- the destruction caused detainees in passing. “We trans- Castro named Canel should be seen as part of an Aby foreign occupation ferred all women prisoners to Wformer engineer- institutional change in the way the and the subsequent regime has accused by Human Rights Watch of prisons in their home provinces.” ing professor and long-time Cuban elite is promoted.” had a massive impact on Iraqis’ Al Shahristani’s statement is Communist Party insider Miguel Before joining the government daily life — the most disturb- violating women’s rights. one in a long list of contradictory Diaz-Canel as his first vice presi- in Havana, Diaz-Canel held top ing example of which is violence and misleading statements by the dent and potential successor on Communist Party posts in two against women. At the same time, them. Banners and placards car- them to be tortured, while occu- regime’s most senior officials — Sunday, he chose managerial important provinces, Villa Clara the sectarian regime’s policy on ried by hundreds of thousands pation troops could disclaim from Al Maliki speaking of “not skills over flair. and Holguin, centres of the boom- religious garb is forcing women of protesters portray images responsibility. more than a handful of women Diaz-Canel, 52, is the young- ing tourism industry as well as to retire their hard-earned of women behind bars pleading Iraq can boast one of the high- terrorists”, to his contradictory est non-military man to come so new private-sector activity, both rights across the spectrum: for justice. Iraqi MP Mohamed est execution rates in the world. In promise that he will pardon all close to the pinnacle of power in key elements of an economic Employment, freedom of move- Al Dainy said there were 1,053 a single day, on January 19, 2012, “women detainees who have been Cuba since the Castro brothers reform process being pushed by ment, civil marriage, welfare ben- cases of documented rapes by the 34 people, including two women, arrested without a judicial order took power in 1959. Raul Castro. efits, and the right to education occupying troops and Iraqi forces were executed — an act described or in lieu of a crime committed by He was appointed first vice That experience makes Diaz- and health services. between 2003 and 2007. by UN High Commissioner for some of their male relatives”. That president on Sunday at a meet- Canel well-equipped to help Castro They are seeking survival and Lawyers acting on behalf of Human Rights Navi Pillay as assurance was followed by parad- ing of the National Assembly advance those reforms, designed to protection for themselves and former detainees say UK deten- shocking: “Given the lack of ing nine women, cloaked in black where Castro also announced he make the economy more efficient their families. But for many, the tion practices between 2003 and transparency in court proceed- from head to toe, on the official would step down in 2018 at the and bring in more foreign currency, violence they face comes from the 2008 included unlawful killings, ings, there is concern about due state TV channel, Al Iraqiya, as a end of his second five-year term without loosening the Communist institution that should guaran- beatings, hooding, sleep depri- process and fairness of trials, and gesture of the regime’s “good will”. as president. Party’s political control. tee their safety: The government. vation, forced nudity and sexual the wide range of offences for Protesters and rights organi- Diaz-Canel would step into the “He has ties to the provincial Regime officials often echo the humiliation, sometimes involving which the death penalty can be sations estimate that there are presidency if Raul Castro could tsars of the party. Those leaders same denials of the US-UK occu- women and children. The abuses imposed.” 5,000 female detainees. The truth not complete his term. He rose are very important,” said Lopez- pation authorities, saying there were endemic, allege lawyers, No wonder, 10 years after the is leaking out, drip by drip. A few through the ruling Communist Levy. “They don’t appear in the are a few or no women detainees. arising from the “systems, man- invasion, the authorities are weeks ago, 168 women detainees Party’s ranks including key posts international media, but they An increasing number of inter- agement culture and training” of accused by Human Rights Watch were released and there were outside the capital and enjoys are a very strong power in the national and Iraqi human rights the British military. of violating women’s rights. promises of another 32 waiting some name recognition at home, island. They are kings in their organisations report otherwise. These same occupation forces HRW’s account is echoed by a to be released. No one accused though is far less well known own provinces.” The plight of women detain- trained Iraqi forces. Abuses often report by the Iraqi parliament’s of torture, rape or abuse has yet abroad. In Cuba, there is no political ees was the starting point for occurred under the supervision human rights and women, fam- been brought to justice. While he has only two years of campaigning, so proven loyalty mass protests that have spread of US commanders, who were ily and children’s committees, A quota system in post-invasion routine military service under his and strong connections inside the through many Iraqi provinces unwilling to intervene, as the which found that there were Iraq was designed to ensure that belt, Diaz-Canel’s ascent through party and the military are more since December 25, 2012. Their Washington Post reported: “Of all 1,030 women detainees suffering at least 25 percent of MPs were the provincial ranks has earned valuable than a media-savvy style. treatment by security forces has the bloodshed in Iraq, none may from widespread abuse, includ- women. That was applauded as a him strong ties with the military, Discreet would be an under- been a bleeding wound — and one be more disturbing than the cam- ing threats of rape. Responding great achievement of the “New connections that other up-and- statement in describing Diaz- shrouded in secrecy, especially paign of torture and murder being to these findings, Prime Minister Iraq” — compared with 8 per- coming figures who fell by the Canel’s public persona as he since 2003. Women have been conducted by US-trained govern- Nouri Al Maliki threatened to cent female representation under wayside in past reshuffles have worked his way up through the routinely detained as hostages — ment police forces.” “arrest those members of parlia- Ba’athist regime. But this token lacked. Communist Party over 30 years, a tactic to force their male loved In the aftermath of Abu ment who had discussed violence statistic has been trotted out “This is a major change in Cuba, even as other young cadres rose ones to surrender to forces, or Ghraib, detainees were handed against women detainees”. to cover up the regime’s crimes not just generational,” said Arturo and fell. confess to crimes ascribed to over to Iraqi forces. This enabled Deputy Prime Minister Hussain against women. THE GUARDIAN Lopez-Levy, an analyst at the REUTERS WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013 08 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com MIDDLE EAST World powers GCC wargames lure Iran with sops at N-talks Kazakhstan meeting to continue today

ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN: up to 20 percent — a level seen as World powers and Iran yesterday being within technical reach of weap- exchanged offers at “useful” talks ons-grade matter. in Kazakhstan aimed at breaking But Iran could envisage halting the a decade of deadlock over Tehran’s enrichment of uranium to 20 per- nuclear drive, despite low expecta- cent, if all international sanctions tions of any deal. against it were dropped, including The meeting in the Kazakh city UN Security Council measures, the of Almaty comes as sanctions bite source said. against the Islamic republic and US Secretary of State John Kerry, Israel still refuses to rule out air visiting Berlin, said there is a “diplo- strikes to knock out Iran’s suspected matic path” in the nuclear crisis and nuclear weapons drive. expressed hope that “Iran itself will There was no hint of any initial make its choice to move down the breakthrough with the first round of path of a diplomatic solution.” closed-door talks stretching late into The talks pit the world powers of last evening as the parties agreed to Britain, China, France, Germany, resume the talks today. Russia and the United States — rep- “We had a useful meeting today,” resented by Ashton — against the said a Western official. Iranian team of top nuclear negotia- “Discussions took place this tor Saeed Jalili. evening, (and) we are meeting again The talks are the first such Tanks take part in a military exercise at Udaira military range, 140km north of Kuwait City, yesterday. The joint GCC military wargames were tomorrow,” the official added. An encounter since a meeting in Moscow part of celebrations marking the 52nd Independence Day of the country and the 22nd anniversary of the end of the Gulf War with the libera- Iranian source close to the talks also in June 2012 and Iranian officials tion of Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. confirmed the negotiations would have doused expectations by insisting continue today. they will offer no special concessions. The world powers are offering “It’s clear that no one expects eve- Iran permission to resume its gold ryone to walk out of here in Almaty Gaza militants and precious metals trade as well as with a done deal. This is a negotiating Peres to lobby with Obama some international banking activity process,” said Ashton’s spokesman which are currently under sanctions, Michael Mann. shoot rocket into Western officials told AFP. Iran denies it is developing nuclear But in exchange, Iran will have to weapons and wants the world to for release of Israeli spy Israel to ‘avenge’ limit sensitive uranium enrichment respect its “right” to enrich uranium operations that the world powers — something current UN sanctions JERUSALEM: Israel’s releasing him. Next month’s save me. J Pollard.” fear could be used to make a nuclear say it cannot do because of its refusal Nobel-laureate president, visit by Obama, coupled with Speaking to high school stu- detainee’s death bomb, the sources added. to cooperate with nuclear inspectors. backed by thousands of fol- a perceived softening of the dents yesterday, Peres, who “We have come here with a revised The Iranians went into the talks lowers, is leading an effort American stance, is raising won a Nobel Peace Prize in JERUSALEM: Gaza militants offer and we have come to engage by issuing a string of comments sug- to press President Barack hopes that Pollard, 58, may 1994, said he would try. yesterday fired a rocket into with Iran in a meaningful way,” gesting they were willing to listen to Obama during his upcom- finally get his freedom. “I intend to raise the issue Israel for the first time in three EU foreign policy chief Catherine offers without softening their own ing visit to free convicted spy More than 65,000 Israelis of Jonathan Pollard during months, rattling a cross-border Ashton, who negotiates with Iran on position. Jonathan Pollard, ending one have signed a petition call- my meeting with President truce that has held since Israel’s behalf of the world powers, said in a “We will not accept anything of the most painful episodes ing on Obama to free Pollard, Obama,” he said. “(I) will do military offensive against the statement. beyond our obligations and will not between the two allies. the Facebook page of the US everything I can to convey this Hamas-run territory. Iran would have to stop enriching accept anything less than our rights,” Pollard was sentenced to life Embassy in Israel has been clear message: Jonathan Pollard Israel closed Gaza’s main cargo uranium to 20 percent and shut down Jalili declared before setting off for in prison in 1987 for passing flooded with pardon requests must be released from prison crossing until further notice, its controversial Fordo plant where Kazakhstan. classified material to Israel. and a nationwide campaign on humanitarian grounds.” an apparent warning to Gaza’s such activity occurs, a Western offi- Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Pollard is said to be in poor began yesterday urging Pollard, a Jewish civil- Hamas rulers to clamp down on cial said. Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow was health, and his case has become President Shimon Peres to ian intelligence analyst, was rocket squads. An Iranian source told AFP hoping that the talks would now a rallying cry in Israel. Leaders push for Pollard’s release. He arrested by FBI agents in “Quiet will be met with quiet, Tehran had come up with a coun- move into a phase of “bargaining” routinely call for his release and quickly agreed. In a video clip, Washington in 1985 after missiles will be met with a ter-offer, whose final nature would rather than just offering proposals. say his 28 years in prison are Peres is shown receiving the unsuccessfully seeking ref- response,” said Israeli President be determined by terms posed by the “There needs to be a political will excessive punishment. But stiff Presidential Medal of Freedom uge at the Israeli Embassy in Shimon Peres, adding that he big powers. to move into that phase. We call on opposition from the American from Obama. The camera then Washington. He pleaded guilty believes both sides “have a deep The source stressed “there was no all participants not to lose any more military and intelligence com- pulls back, showing the wall of to leaking classified documents interest in lowering the flames.” question” of Tehran closing the Fordo time,” he said, quoted by Russian munity has deterred a string a prison cell with the following to Israel and received a life Militants claiming affilia- plant where uranium is enriched to news agencies. AFP of American presidents from message: “Mr President, please sentence. AP tion with the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a violent offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement took responsibility. They said in an email to journalists that they fired the rocket to avenge the death of a Palestinian in Israeli custody. It was impossible to independently verify the claim of responsibility. The detainee, Arafat Jaradat, 30, died over the weekend after interrogation by Israel’s Shin Bet security services. Palestinian officials, citing an autopsy, said the detainee was tortured, while Israel says more tests are needed to determine the cause of death. Jaradat’s death sparked pro- tests in the West Bank, including near the town of Bethlehem on Monday. Two Palestinian teens, aged 13 and 16, were wounded in a con- frontation with Israeli soldiers. The older boy was transferred to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital after being shot in the head and was in critical condition yester- day, hooked up to a respirator, officials said. The rocket from Gaza landed south of the Israeli city of Ashkelon early yesterday, A Bahraini woman runs for cover from tear gas fired by riot police during clashes with protesters, in the said police spokesman Micky village of Zinj, a suburb of Manama. Rosenfeld. The rocket caused damage to a road but no injuries, he said. It was the first rocket fired from Gaza since Israel’s Bahraini cops acquitted of killing military offensive against rocket squads in the coastal strip last November. The Hamas militant DUBAI: A Bahraini court Matruk died on February 15, On January 31, a Bahraini group has ruled Gaza since oust- yesterday acquitted two 2011, from wounds sustained court sentenced a policeman to ing forces loyal to Abbas in 2007. policemen who were charged during a police crackdown seven years in jail for tortur- Over the past decade, Gaza with shooting dead a Shia on protesters who remained ing to death a protester during militants have fired thousands protester two years ago, camped in central Manama for the then month-long protests of rockets and mortar shells at lawyer Mohammed Al Jishi one month before authorities in Manama against the rule of Israel, and Israel has responded wrote on his Twitter account. completely razed their camp in the Sunni Al-Khalifa dynasty. with military strikes. In between The Higher Criminal Court the March of that year. A number of policemen are periods of cross-border vio- said that “as interior ministry On Sunday, an appeals court being investigated or are on lence, informal cease-fires have employees, the two policemen confirmed a December ruling trial for allegedly torturing taken hold. fired shotguns at the victim in which two other police offic- detainees after hundreds of Hamas government spokesman Fadhel Matruk without intend- ers were acquitted after being Shias were rounded up when Ehab Ghussein denied a rocket ing to kill him,” wrote Jishi, charged with killing protesters security forces crushed the pro- was fired, indicating Hamas was who represented the protester’s Ali Al Moumin and Issa Abdel tests in mid-March 2011. trying to distance itself from the family in the case. Hasan during the same period. AFP incident. AP WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013 MIDDLE EAST www.thepeninsulaqatar.com 09 19 killed in Egypt hot air balloon crash Russia, US LUXOR, EGYPT: At least 19 people, most of them Asian and European tourists, died yesterday when a hot air bal- loon crashed near the ancient start talks Egyptian town of Luxor after a mid-air gas explosion, officials said. The balloon came down in farmland a few kilometres (miles) from the Valley of the Kings and on Syria pharaonic temples that draw tourists to Luxor. Rescue work- ers gathered the dead from the Bid to find common ground field where the charred remains of the balloon, gas canisters and BERLIN: US Secretary of other pieces of wreckage landed. State John Kerry began talks Fierce fighting in One Egyptian was also killed, with his Russian counterpart Health Minister Mohamed yesterday aimed at bridging dif- historic mosque Mostafa Hamed told Reuters, ferences over Syria after voic- listing the other victims as tour- ing confidence the two could BEIRUT: Fierce clashes ists from Japan, China, France, find “common ground”. raged yesterday inside the Britain and Hungary. Earlier, offi- Shaking hands at the start historic Umayyad Mosque in cials had said all the dead were of the meeting in Berlin, Kerry Syria’s second city Aleppo, foreigners. commented he was “happy to see” as rebels battled troops at a The pilot survived by jumping Sergei Lavrov since “we know police academy elsewhere in from the basket when it was 10-15 each other” while the Russian the province, a watchdog said. metres (yards) from the ground, minister quipped he would sit The Syrian Observatory for said Ahmed Aboud, head of an down when journalists allowed Human Rights said rebels had association representing Luxor him to get to his chair. pushed into the regime-held balloon operators. Two other sur- Moscow and Washington have mosque from their positions vivors, both British, were treated differences over Syria — Russia at the southern entrance, at Luxor hospital, said Mohamed is one of the few big powers to and were also fighting troops Security personnel guard the wreckage of the hot air balloon that crashed in Luxor, yesterday. Mustafa, a doctor at the hospital. keep ties with the regime of in the Unesco-listed Old City. Travel firm Thomas Cook later Syrian President Bashar Al Assad Elsewhere in Aleppo prov- said one of the Britons taken to an incident in Luxor this morn- citizens had been killed. when the bus they were on col- and, with China, has vetoed UN ince, rebels pushed into the the hospital had died, taking ing,” Britain’s Foreign Office said Aboud said the blast had hap- lided with a train. Security Council resolutions that grounds of a major police the number of British tourists in an emailed statement. The pened in the pipe linking the gas Accidents affecting foreign would have introduced sanctions academy and seized one of its killed to three. The fatalities Japanese embassy in Cairo said canisters to the burner. He said tourists are rarer, but not unu- against Damascus. buildings after a fierce two- were caused by burns and by the it believed four Japanese had that it was an accident. sual. Five Germans were killed in Hours ahead of his talks with day siege in which more than impact, Mustafa said. been aboard and had sent staff Transport accidents are fre- December in a bus crash near a Kerry, Lavrov had slammed 70 combatants were killed, “We believe a small number of to Luxor to confirm this. France’s quent in Egypt. Dozens of chil- Red Sea resort. “extremists” within the Syrian the Observatory said. AFP British nationals are involved in foreign ministry said two French dren were killed in November REUTERS opposition who he said were blocking the start of dialogue in of dialogue”. “During our latest the war-torn country by making phone contact it seemed to me unrealistic demands. that he (John Kerry) understands He said that recent faint the acuteness of the situation,” Saudi getting arms hopes that dialogue was possible he added. between the opposition and the Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Salafist Muslims murdered from Croatia for Assad regime had dissipated. Al Muallem had said in Moscow “It seems that extremists on Monday that the authorities Syria rebels: NYT who bet on an armed solution in Damascus were ready to talk to the Syrian problem have pre- to armed rebels, the first time a Tunisian leader, says govt vailed in the ranks of the oppo- senior official of the Assad regime WASHINGTON: Saudi Arabia sition at this time, including had made such a proposal. TUNIS: Radical Salafist One of the suspects, he added, during a visit to Paris. has been supplying Syrian rebels the so-called (Syrian) National But the rebel Free Syrian Muslims murdered Tunisian “confessed to having accompanied “We are asking for a trial, for battling the regime of President Coalition, blocking all initiatives Army’s chief of staff Selim Idriss opposition leader Chokri Belaid, the killer on the day of the crime.” further investigation, for every- Bashar Al Assad with arms that could lead to the start of said that before any dialogue with four suspects arrested and Police sources had earlier told thing to be known.” bought from Croatia, according dialogue,” Lavrov told reporters could begin, Assad’s regime must the killer identified but still on AFP that those behind the kill- Belaid’s brother, Abdelmajid, to The New York Times. in Moscow. fall, among other pre-conditions. the run, Interior Minister Ali ing were adherents of the Salafist accuses Ennahda of being behind Citing unnamed US and Lavrov said there was “an “I am not going to sit down Larayedh said yesterday. movement, which is known for its the murder, which the party has Western officials, the newspaper increasing understanding of with him or with any other The breakthrough comes as radical version of Sunni Islam. denied. reported late on Monday that the the need to influence both the member of his clique before all Larayedh, named as prime min- They said one of the suspects “It’s Ennahda which gave the Saudi-financed “large purchase government and especially the the killing stops, or before the ister-designate, presses efforts was active in the League for the green light to kill my brother,” of infantry weapons” was part of opposition in order to persuade army withdraws from the cities,” to form a new government aimed Protection of the Revolution, a he told AFP. Khalfaoui was an “undeclared surplus” of arms them against putting forward he told pan-Arab broadcaster at pulling Tunisia out of a deep controversial group linked to the more cautious, saying only that left over from the Balkan wars unrealistic demands as the pre- Al-Arabiya. political crisis sparked by the ruling Ennahda party and impli- “Ennahda’s political leadership is in the 1990s and that they began requisite conditions for the start AFP February 6 killing of Belaid out- cated in attacks on secular oppo- involved.” reaching anti-regime fighters via side his home in Tunis. sition groups. The political crisis in Tunisia Jordan in December. That was “The killer has been identified The Salafists have been blamed has been aggravated with Belaid’s when many Yugoslav weapons and is being chased,” Larayedh for several violent actions in killing, with former premier started showing up in YouTube told a news conference. Tunisia in the past few months Hamadi Jebali resigning after his videos posted by rebels, it said. “Four other suspects have been — including an attack on the US own party Ennahda dismissed his Since then, The Times added, offi- arrested. They are Tunisians and embassy last September that proposal to form a government of cials said “multiple planeloads” of belong to a radical religious strand left four attackers dead — with technocrats. weapons have left Croatia, with ... which we refer to as the Salafist Ennahda being regularly accused Larayedh, also an Ennahda one quoted as saying the ship- movement,” said Larayedh. by the opposition of protecting member, was named on Friday ments included “thousands of Belaid’s daylight killing on those behind the violence. to replace Jebali. He has until rifles and hundreds of machine February 6 sparked deadly street Larayedh declined to com- March 8 to form a new govern- guns,” as well as an “unknown protests and strikes and exposed ment on who may have ordered ment, which he has vowed will be quantity of ammunition.” the widening fissures between the the killing, even as Belaid’s “for all Tunisians”. A spokeswoman for the ruling Islamists and liberals. widow, Besma Khalfaoui, urged He met with leaders of the Croatian Foreign Ministry told It also threw Tunisia into its authorities to flush out those secular Republican Party yes- The Times that, since the start worst political crisis since the responsible. terday after holding talks the of the Arab Spring, the Balkan revolution two years ago that “It is good to know who car- previous evening with Beji country had not sold any weap- ousted strongman Zine El Abidine ried it out, but for me it is very Caid Essebsi, ex-premier and ons to either Saudi Arabia or Ben Ali. important to know who ordered leader of the opposition move- the Syrian rebels. Saudi and Larayedh said the four people it... because this was a very well- ment Nidaa Tounes, an AFP Jordanian officials meanwhile arrested had “monitored (Belaid) organised crime,” Khalfaoui told correspondent said. declined to comment, the news- A member of the Free Syrian Army takes aim during clashes against forces for some time”. France’s Europe 1 radio yesterday AFP paper added. AFP loyal to President Bashar Al Assad in a street in Aleppo, yesterday. Shia militants threaten Iran exiles

BAGHDAD: The head of a new kick the group out of the coun- base known as Camp Liberty. Shia militant group in Iraq yes- try, but the Iraqi government It is meant to be a temporary terday threatened to carry out did not respond positively to our way station while the United more attacks on a camp for demand,” he said. “We will strike Nations works to relocate the Iranian exiles that was struck them again until they leave.” exiles abroad. by dozens of rockets and mortar It was not possible to independ- MEK members reluctantly shells earlier this month. ently confirm Al Batat’s claim began moving to Camp Liberty Seven people were killed in that his group was behind the last year. They previously lived the February 9 attack on the attacks, but Iraqi officials and in a compound known as Camp camp near Baghdad airport that MEK members say they are tak- Ashraf in northeastern Iraq. It houses members of Mujahedeen- ing his threats seriously. No other was twice raided by Iraqi security e-Khalq, or MEK, the militant groups have taken responsibility. forces, leaving more than three wing of a Paris-based Iranian “Mukhtar Army” appeared on dozen people dead. opposition group. Iraq’s govern- threatening leaflets delivered to Al Batat was a senior official in ment, which maintains friendly Sunni households in a Baghdad the Hezbollah Brigades, which is ties with Tehran, considers the neighbourhood last week warning believed to be funded and trained MEK a terrorist group and wants residents to leave or face grave by Iran’s elite Revolutionary its members out of the country. consequences. Guard. It was among the Shia Yesterday’s comments from The MEK opposes Iran’s cleri- militias that targeted US military Wathiq Al Batat suggest he shares cal regime and has carried out bases months before troops pulled the government’s goal, even if he assassinations and bombings in out in December 2011. disagrees with its handling of the Iran. It fought alongside Saddam Earlier this month, he exiles. In a phone interview with Hussein’s forces in the 1980-88 announced he was forming a new The Associated Press, Al Batat Iran-Iraq war, and several thou- group known as the Mukhtar said his newly formed Mukhtar sand of its members were given Army. He continues to use the Army group was behind the sanctuary in Iraq. It renounced Hezbollah name as well, suggest- attack and promised more attacks violence in 2001. The Obama ing he is trying to claim right- to come. administration took it off the US ful leadership of that group. It “It is time for the people of terrorism list last September. is unclear what links, if any, he the MEK to leave Iraq. We have The refugee camp is located maintains with Iraq’s Hezbollah. demanded that the government on a former American military AP WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013 10 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com INTERNATIONAL Kerry defends liberties, says Americans have ‘right to be stupid’

BERLIN: US Secretary of State right to be disconnected to some- Kurfuerstendamm and seeing John Kerry offered a defence of body else if you want to be. nothing but rubble. This was in freedom of speech, religion and “And we tolerate it. We some- 1954 ... the war was very much thought in the United States yes- how make it through that. Now, I still on people’s minds,” he told terday telling German students think that’s a virtue. I think that’s the diplomats, referring to West that in America “you have a right something worth fighting for,” he Berlin’s main shopping avenue. to be stupid if you want to be”. added. “The important thing is “One day, using my diplomatic “As a country, as a society, to have the tolerance to say, you passport, I biked through the we live and breathe the idea of know, you can have a different checkpoint right into the east religious freedom and religious point of view.” sector and noticed very quickly tolerance, whatever the religion, Kerry made the comments on how dark and unpopulated (it and political freedom and politi- his first foreign trip since becom- was) and sort of unhappy people cal tolerance, whatever the point ing secretary of state on February looked,” he added, saying it left an of view,” Kerry told the students 1. After one-night stops in London impression “that hit this 12-year- in Berlin, the second stop on his and Berlin, he visits Paris, Rome, old kid”. inaugural trip as secretary of Ankara, Cairo, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi “I kind of felt a foreboding state. and Doha before returning to about it and I didn’t spend much “People have sometimes won- Washington on March 6. time. I kind of skedaddled and dered about why our Supreme While speaking to the stu- got back out of there and went Court allows one group or another dents and earlier to US diplomats, home and proudly announced to to march in a parade even though Kerry reminisced about the time my parents what I had done and it’s the most provocative thing in he spent in Berlin in the 1950s as was promptly grounded and had the world and they carry signs the intrepid son of an American my passport pulled,” he added. that are an insult to one group diplomat and retold a story of “As a 12-year-old, I saw the dif- or another,” he added. sneaking across to East Berlin ference between East and West,” “The reason is, that’s freedom, with his bike. he later told the students. “I never freedom of speech. In America “I used to have great adven- made another trip like that. But I US Secretary of State John Kerry (left) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel during a news conference at the you have a right to be stupid - if tures. My bicycle and I were best have never forgotten it. And now, Federal Chancellery in Berlin, Germany. yesterday. RIGHT: Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shake you want to be,” he said, prompt- friends. And I biked all around it’s vanished, vanished.” hands at the beginning of their meeting in Berlin. ing laughter. “And you have a this city. I remember biking down REUTERS US Treasury pick Lew gets Ten years on, nod from senate panel Italy at crossroads Blair admits WASHINGTON: The US Senate Finance Committee yesterday voted yesterday to back President Barack Obama’s nominee Jack Lew as Treasury secretary despite qualms about his reputation Election results ring alarm bells across Europe Iraq is not as as a doctrinaire Democrat and his ties to Wall Street. Senators voted 19-5 in favour of Lew, with several Republicans joining with ROME: Italy was at an impasse he’d hoped the majority Democrats, paving the way for a full Senate vote yesterday after an election seen today. Obama nominated Lew, formerly his White House chief of as crucial for the eurozone failed Final results LONDON: Former British prime staff, to replace Timothy Geithner, who stepped down last month to produce a clear winner and SENATE (UPPER CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES minister Tony Blair admitted yes- after four years marked by the country’s deepest economic crisis provided a shock debut for a pop- HOUSE): 315 SEATS (LOWER HOUSE): 630 terday that the situation in Iraq since the 1930s. While Lew’s confirmation was always likely, his ulist anti-austerity party, rat- SEATS is “not nearly” what he hoped it reputation as a dogged defender of Democratic party stances in tling world markets and setting • Bersani: 31.63 percent (123 would be when Britain joined the tough negotiations with White House opponents raised hackles off alarm bells across Europe. seats) • Bersani: 29.54 percent (345 US-led invasion to depose Saddam among Republicans. Italian stocks plunged and bor- • Berlusconi: 30.72 percent seats including bonus seats Hussein ten years ago. rowing rates jumped after centre- (117 seats) awarded to the victor) He said he had made the best Steenkamp’s family hires lawyers left Democratic Party leader Pier • Grillo: 23.79 percent (54 • Berlusconi: 29.18 percent of an “ugly” choice between taking JOHANNESBURG: Luigi Bersani scraped a razor- seats) (125 seats) action against the Iraqi dictator The family of Reeva Steenkamp said yes- thin victory in the lower house of • Monti: 9.13 percent (19 • Grillo: 25.55 percent (109 in 2003 or running the risk that terday that they have hired an attorney amid a media frenzy parliament and the Senate ended seats) seats) Hussein would launch chemical over her death linked to her boyfriend, the South African up with no political force winning • The two remaining • Monti: 10.56 percent (47 and biological attacks against his Paralympian Oscar Pistorius. In a statement, the family said a majority. senators — one from the Val seats) own people or the outside world. they had appointed attorney Mike Venter and advocate Dup de Bersani warned Italy was in d’Aosta region and the other • The four remaining “There are actually significant Bruyn “to look after and protect our interests”. “We fully under- “a very delicate situation”. Stock from a vote abroad — do not deputies belong to improvements in many parts of the stand the intense media interest. However this is a very sad and markets in Europe, Asia and the belong to either of the main movements of Italian country for the people, but I agree traumatic time for us,” the family said. “For the time being there United States also fell on fears groupings. emigrants and one is from with you, it’s not nearly what it will be no interviews or discussions with the media whatsoever. of instability in the eurozone’s Val d’Aosta. should be,” the former Labour leader We humbly request the media to respect our privacy.” The Port third biggest economy as politi- told the BBC in an interview mark- Elizabeth based family have spoken frequently and emotionally cal analysts predicted either an ing 10 years since the invasion. through Reeva Steenkamp’s uncle Michael Steenkamp, while unsteady coalition government Around 162,000 people, almost refusing to pass judgement on the case. Pistorius was released on or fresh elections within months. voters but expected the country Germany, as well as France, 80 percent of them civilians, were bail last week and is due back in court on June 4. A majority in both chambers to stick to its pledges of budget also reacted nervously, with killed in Iraq between the start of of parliament is required to form cuts and economic reforms. German Foreign Minister Guido the US-led invasion and the with- British frozen food sales slump a government, leaving Italy in a Silvio Berlusconi’s coalition Westerwelle calling for a new gov- drawal of US forces in December state of limbo with a hung parlia- came a close second in the vote ernment to be formed “as quickly 2011, according to British NGO LONDON: British sales of frozen beef burgers collapsed by 43 ment that is unprecedented in its for the lower house, winning 29.18 as possible”. The big loser was Iraq Body Count. percent and ready meals by 13 percent in the wake of the horse- post-war history. Under the con- percent of the vote to 29.54 per- outgoing prime minister Mario Blair, who stepped down in meat scandal, data showed yesterday from retail consultancy stitution, parliament has to meet cent for Bersani. A third force Monti, who was drafted to run a 2007 after 10 years as prime min- Kantar Worldpanel. However, many Britons have changed the 20 days after an election at the — the populist, anti-government technocratic government in the ister, said he thought constantly products they buy rather than where they shop, according to latest, after which formal negotia- Five Star Movement (M5S) of debt-strapped country. about the people who lost their Kantar. “The issue has so far only affected the performance of tions begin with Italian President former comic Beppe Grillo—won Berlusconi defied all expecta- lives in the conflict. “But in the individual markets rather than where consumers are choosing Giorgio Napolitano on forming a big, reaping a resounding pro- tions that he would suffer defeat, end you’re elected as prime min- to shop,” said Kantar Worldpanel Director Edward Garner. “For government. test vote from an electorate fed winning votes on a promise to ister to take these decisions. The the four weeks ending 17 February, frozen burger sales were European capitals were quick up with austerity policies and a refund an unpopular property question is, supposing I had taken down by 43 percent and frozen ready meals declined by 13 per- to voice concern. “It’s a leap grinding recession to score 25.5 tax to Italians — out of his own the opposite decision?” he said. cent.” Equine DNA was first discovered on January 16 in beef into the unknown, which bodes percent in the lower house. pocket if needed. The 76-year-old “Sometimes what happens in burgers in Britain and Ireland, sparking a Europe-wide health poorly both for Italy and for the “We’re not against the world,” media tycoon will therefore con- politics, and unfortunately these scare which is still ongoing. rest of Europe,” Spanish Foreign Grillo told reporters yesterday. tinue to play a key role in politics things get mixed up with allega- Minister Jose Manuel Garcia “We’ll see reform by reform, law by and incredibly may be called on tions of deceit and lying and so on, Powerful Cyclone Rusty nears Australia Margallo said. The European law. If there are proposals that are by the left to form an emergency in the end sometimes you come Commission said it had heard “the compatible with our programme, coalition, analysts said. to a decision where whichever SYDNEY: Authorities in northwest Australia yesterday urged message of concern” from Italian we will evaluate them,” he said. AFP choice you take the consequences residents to evacuate as a powerful cyclone whipped up huge seas are difficult and the choice is ugly. and the weather bureau warned of “phenomenal rainfall” and This was one such case.” hurricane-force winds. Wild weather was pounding the north Blair suggested that if Saddam of Western Australia as tropical cyclone Rusty, upgraded to a Super snap was still in power now and Iraq severe category three storm, neared the coast and a second low- Strauss-Kahn in had seen an uprising similar to pressure system formed in the Indian Ocean. Australia’s major those elsewhere in the Arab world, iron ore export ports were shut as Rusty approached and author- court to seek ban he would probably have been “20 ities ordered evacuations in the sparsely-populated region. The times as bad as (President Bashar cyclone was expected to make landfall as a category four storm on tell-all book Al) Assad in Syria”. AFP today afternoon north of Port Hedland, about 1,300km north of Perth. AGENCIES PARIS: Disgraced former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn appeared in a Paris court yes- terday to try to ban a graphic new book by author Marcela Benedict to become ‘Pope Emeritus’ Iacub detailing their affair, say- ing it was filled with lies. VATICA N CIT Y: Pope Benedict the month, citing his age and fail- Lombardi said Benedict has In Beauty and the Beast, XVI will be known as “Pope ing strength, following a troubled chosen to swap his trademark Argentinian-born Iacub says she had Emeritus” and can continue to eight-year papacy dominated by red shoes for a brown pair given a relationship with Strauss-Kahn wear the white papal cassock scandals and Vatican intrigue. to him by artisans in Mexico dur- from January to August 2012, in the after he steps down this week, Scandals over paedophile ing a trip last year, adding that he midst of the scandal over accusa- the Vatican said yesterday. priests and cover-ups by their would also stop wearing the gold tions he sexually assaulted a New The retiring leader of the superiors have cast a dark shadow Fisherman’s Ring used to seal York hotel maid the previous year. world’s 1.2 billion Catholics can over his papacy, continuing into papal documents. Strauss-Kahn told the court the still be referred to as “His Holiness his final days, with activists call- Tradition dictates that the work was “despicable and false” Benedict XVI” and will have the ing for cardinals Sean Brady of ring be destroyed and a new one and had wreaked “havoc” on his additional title of “Roman pon- Ireland and Roger Mahony of the cast for each pope, but whether personal life. He said Iacub’s aim tiff emeritus”, Vatican spokesman United States to be barred from that occurs will be up to Vatican was simply to make money and Federico Lombardi said. the conclave. number two Tarcisio Bertone, the added that it targeted a man “who He will continue wearing the “It may seem desperate to camerlingo or chamberlain who is already down on the ground”. white cassock normally reserved make this call at this moment, will be “interim pope” until a suc- Strauss-Kahn is suing Iacub and for pontiffs after he resigns but we really believe the chil- cessor to Benedict is found. her publisher Stock for an attack tomorrow — the first leader of the dren of the world would be made The Vatican spokesman also said on his private life and to prevent Catholic Church to do so since the safer by the stroke of Benedict’s that a series of meetings of cardi- the book from going on sale. He is Middle Ages — but without the pen,” David Clohessy, director of nals to settle on a date for the start also seeking $132,300 in damages doubled shoulder cape, Lombardi the Survivors’ Network of those of the papal election conclave could and compensation from Iacub and said. Abused by Priests told a news start on Monday. Benedict holds a Stock, and a similar amount from The 85-year-old German pon- conference yesterday. final general audience in St Peter’s magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, A woman takes a picture of former Argentine soccer star Diego tiff stunned the world when he The Vatican meanwhile gave Square today, the eve of his formal which carried excerpts from the Maradona as he appears on a balcony in Naples, yesterday. announced on February 11 that more details on the delicate tran- resignation. work. AFP he would step down at the end of sition from pope to ex-pontiff. AFP WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013 ASIA / PHILIPPINES www.thepeninsulaqatar.com 11 Aquino warns sultan Robot restaurant in Malaysia standoff Philippine president asks Kiram to pull out his gunmen

MANILA: Philippine President from inciting war that carries a about $1,700 — and they want Benigno Aquino warned a sul- maximum prison term of 12 years. more. tan yesterday that he would But Jamalul Kiram III, 74, Kiram said the gunmen would face the “full force of the law” called a press conference from his lay down arms if the Philippines unless he withdrew his gunmen home in a poor Muslim enclave and Malaysia agreed to negotiate from Malaysia, but the elderly of Manila to insist the stand- terms for joint development of ruler remained defiant. off would continue unless his Sabah. He also said his followers Followers of the Sultan of demands were met. wanted to remain in Sabah even if Sulu have been facing off with “We have not committed (a) a financial deal was struck. “(They Malaysian forces for two weeks, crime,” Kiram said, adding his want to) peacefully settle in Sabah, after they sailed from their followers cornered in a fishing which is our homeland,” he said. remote southern Philippine island village in Sabah on Borneo island Aquino said the sultan had 180 homes to stake a territorial claim. would not initiate any violence followers in Sabah, up to 30 of A robot pushing a tray with dishes at a robot-themed restaurant in Harbin, China, yesterday. The outlet opened With the incident causing with the Malaysian forces. whom were armed. But Kiram in June 2012 and has 20 robots used in the kitchen or to wait on customers. The robots are also able to hold embarrassment to Manila, Aquino “But we are prepared to defend said he had 235 members of the basic conversations with customers. made a nationally televised address our lives and aspirations.” “Royal Armed Forces of Sultan to pressure the sultan into bringing Kiram says he is the head of the of Sulu and North Borneo” there. his gunmen back from Malaysia’s Islamic Sultanate of Sulu, which Malaysia has sought to ensure Sabah state. once controlled parts of Borneo, tensions do not escalate at the “If you choose not to cooper- including the site of the stand-off, site, surrounding the gunmen but Japan will not stop whaling: Minister ate, the full force of the laws of and southern Philippine islands. keeping their distance. the state will be used to achieve The sultanate leased northern Aquino cautioned the sultan justice for all who have been put Borneo to Europeans in the 1870s. that he could not expect to test TOKYO: Japan’s fisheries and Fisheries Minister Yoshimasa the mammals end up on menus. in harm’s way,” Aquino said. While its authority gradually the Malaysian government’s minister said yesterday the Hayashi said. Norway and Iceland also hunt “This is a situation that can- faded as Western colonial powers patience indefinitely without country will not stop hunt- He said the criticism of the whales in defiance of a 1986 mora- not persist. If you are the leader exerted their influence over the repercussions. ing whales, despite fierce criti- practice is “a cultural attack, a torium on commercial whaling. of your people, you should be one region, the sultanate continued to “The avenue of peaceful and cism from other countries and kind of prejudice against Japanese Australia and New Zealand have with us in ordering your followers receive lease payments for Sabah. open dialogue is still available to clashes at sea with militant culture”. Japan uses a loop- voiced outrage over Japan’s annual to return home peacefully.” Kiram and his family, as heirs us... We have not yet reached the conservationists. hole in a global ban on whaling expeditions in the Southern Ocean, Aquino also warned the sultan to the sultanate, receive nomi- point of no return, but we are fast “I don’t think there will be that allows for lethal scientific which the International Whaling that he may have broken laws, nal annual compensation from approaching that point.” any kind of an end to whaling research on the mammals, but it Commission considers a sanctuary including one banning citizens Malaysia — the equivalent of AFP by Japan,” Agriculture, Forestry makes no secret of the fact that for the ocean giants. AFP

Call for UN probe into USS Guardian set HK maid residency trial begins to be dismantled HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s Hong Kong’s 300,000 foreign semi-autonomous status and MANILA: Forty days Pyongyang’s violations top court yesterday began a maids receive a minimum wage rights since its return to China after it ran aground, the hearing to decide if the hun- of HK$3,920 ($505) a month and in 1997. If that were to happen, salvors who will remove GENEVA: Japan and the EU want the UN to launch an in-depth dreds of thousands of domestic benefits such as one guaranteed Beijing would also need to decide the USS Guardian from the probe into rights abuses in North Korea, Japan’s vice foreign min- workers who make a living in day off a week, but rights groups on the status of children born to Tubbataha Reef will begin ister said yesterday. the Asian financial hub are eli- say they face discrimination and a mainland Chinese parents who cutting the US Navy war- “Although the international community has repeatedly expressed its gible to seek residency. lack of legal protection from abu- weren’t permanent residents at ship into pieces, an official of concerns, it is deeply regrettable that the dire human rights situation The case, brought by Filipina sive employers. the time of their birth, accord- the Philippine Coast Guard in the DPRK (North Korea) remains unchanged,” Toshiko Abe said in maid Evangeline Banao Vallejos, Campaigners argue that they ing to Basic Law expert Professor (PCG) said. “We are schedul- an address to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. could reopen the controver- should not be treated differ- Lin Feng. ing the cutting and lifting of “Against this backdrop, Japan and the EU will jointly submit... a sial issue of the city’s judicial ently from others who flock to Lin said the government’s major parts of the ship like resolution including the establishment of a ‘new inquiry mechanism’ independence from Beijing and the former British colony to seek request to the court “puts the the mast tomorrow, and the on the human rights situation in the DPRK,” he said. whether the children of mainland professional work and are eligible judiciary under pressure, but they funnel on Wednesday,” PCG The resolution to create a commission of inquiry on North Korea Chinese parents can stay in Hong to apply for permanent residency can say no and we don’t need to Palawan district commander comes after UN human rights chief Navi Pillay last month decried the Kong. after seven years. seek clarification”. Commodore Enrico Efren “deplorable” situation in the country. Vallejos won a High Court rul- “If you have a purpose that is In 1999 the Court of Final Evangelista said. “But all of Pillay stressed that “an in-depth inquiry into one of the worst, but ing in 2011, granting her the right regular and your presence is law- Appeal ruled that children of these activities are subject to least understood and reported human rights situations in the world to request permanent residency ful and your presence is here for people who have right of abode the weather condition. Safety is not only fully justified, but long overdue.” status, denied to foreign maids seven years continuously... and also have that right, even if their is our primary consideration.” She described meetings in December with two survivors of North until then. there has been no discontinuity, parents were not permanent Korea’s network of political prison camps—believed to hold at least The government appealed you would expect to succeed,” residents at the time of their China gets new 200,000 people—listing rampant violations that “may amount to crimes against that the ruling in March, Vallejos’ lawyer Michael Fordham birth. stealth frigate against humanity”. arguing the authorities had said in court. Beijing subsequently ruled Abe said the regime in Pyongyang had also failed to address “with discretionary power to decide The government has said that children born outside Hong BEIJING: China’s navy sincerity” its abductions of Japanese citizens. who was eligible for residency the case should be referred to Kong were only eligible for right has taken delivery of a new In 2002 North Korea admitted to kidnapping 13 Japanese in the and that restrictions on maids Beijing for its reinterpretation of abode if at least one parent type of stealth frigate that is 1970s and 1980s to teach its spies about the Japanese language and were not unconstitutional or of the Basic Law, the mini-con- was already a permanent resi- expected to bolster the coun- culture. AFP discriminatory. stitution which sets out the city’s dent. AFP try’s maritime defences amid territorial disputes, state media reported yesterday. The ship, identified by the official Xinhua news agency as a “Type 056 stealth frigate”, US sailors admit was delivered to the navy in Thai-Malaysia talks may focus on rebels Shanghai. Navy commander Okinawa rape Wu Shengli emphasised the BANGKOK: Thai authori- charged with coordinating secu- importance of mastering its TOKYO: Two US sailors yes- ties and separatist rebels could rity matters with the military. equipment and capabilities terday admitted raping a be inching towards talks after In a 2012 paper it acknowledged amid ongoing maritime dis- Japanese woman in Okinawa nine years of violence and the a political dimension to the vio- putes, according to a front- last October, reports said, in loss of more than 5,000 lives in lence and proposed dialogue with page article yesterday in the a case that generated anti-US Thailand’s Muslim-dominated the insurgents, but the military, PLA Daily, published by the anger on the strategically vital southern provinces bordering which has a big presence in the People’s Liberation Army. island. Malaysia. south, is lukewarm. Skyler Dozierwalker, 23, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck “The military has had regu- Cambodia reports and Christopher Browning, 24, Shinawatra is meeting her lar contact with Malaysia. We 8th bird flu death attacked the woman in central Malaysian counterpart, Najib are not involved with the meet- Okinawa during a brief trip to the Razak, in Kuala Lumpur tomor- ing tomorrow, because this is a PHNOM PENH: A semi-tropical island chain. row and may seek help to make government initiative,” Udomchai 35-year-old man has become Dozierwalker told the Naha contact with insurgents. Thammasarorat, Commander of Cambodia’s eighth bird flu District Court he committed the “There are insurgent groups the Fourth Army in southern fatality this year. The victim, crime, while Browning admitted operating within Malaysia and Thailand said. from the northeastern prov- the charges but denied having Thailand that want to talk to Yingluck said she would discuss ince of Kampong Cham, died conspired with the petty officer the Thai government,” Paradorn the southern unrest in Malaysia in a Phnom Penh hospital, in advance, Jiji Press and Kyodo Pattanathabutr, Secretary- but government officials are not said Ly Sovann, Deputy Head News said. General of National Security using the term “peace talks” of the health ministry’s dis- Okinawa is the reluctant host Council of Thailand (NSC) said. and some ministers are opposed ease surveillance bureau. The of more than half of the 47,000 “We want Malaysia to facilitate to such an idea. Deputy Prime victim had eaten two ducks US military personnel in Japan. Thai PM Yingluck (right) is greeted by HK chief Leung Chun Ying before these talks.” Minister Chalerm Yoobumrung before he fell sick earlier this The rape led to a curfew on all their meeting in Hong Kong yesterday. The NSC brings together gov- ruled out negotiations with the month. US military personnel in Japan. ernment ministers and officials insurgents. REUTERS Despite the curfew, misconduct Sein in Oslo to forge involving US servicemen, much of ties with West it drunken, has continued to fuel anti-US sentiment in communi- OSLO: Myanmar President ties with bases. Thein Sein arrived in Oslo The attack came amid high Lanka detainees continue to be abused: HRW yesterday, beginning his tensions in Okinawa, which saw first trip to Europe to forge demonstrations last year against COLOMBO: Sri Lankan security forces Rights Council sessions in Geneva, gathered committed by seven soldiers between 2007 stronger ties between the the US deployment to the island continue to use rape and other forms of accounts of 75 cases of alleged rape and sex- and May 2009, the height of fighting during former pariah state and the of Osprey aircraft. Local activ- sexual violence to torture suspected Tamil ual abuse between 2006 and 2012 in legal and the war. Five soldiers had been dismissed, the West. The reformist leader ists charge they have a poor safety rebels nearly four years after the end of the “secret” detention centres in Sri Lanka. military said. landed at Oslo’s international record. civil war, a rights group said yesterday. “Most rape victims spoke to Human Rights “The report by the HRW is not more than airport for a three-day stay In 1995 the gang rape of a The New York-based Human Rights Watch Watch outside Sri Lanka, and corroborated a piece of speculative creativity and the alle- in the Scandinavian coun- 12-year-old Okinawan girl by (HRW) claimed widespread rape of detain- their accounts with medical and legal reports,” gations contained therein are far from the try to be followed by visits US servicemen sparked protests ees during the separatist conflict that ended it said. “All suffered torture and ill-treatment truth,” the military said. to Finland, Austria, Belgium resulting in a US-Japan deal to in May 2009, and said politically motivated beyond the sexual violence.” In the 141-page report, “We Will Teach You and Italy before he returns to reduce the huge US military pres- sexual violence by the military and police has The military dismissed the report as “specu- a Lesson”, HRW said most victims spoke to Myanmar on March 8. ence on the Okinawan chain. continued. lative” creativity, but said there had been five them after leaving the island and often bribed AGENCIES AFP The report, coinciding with the UN Human cases of sexual violence alleged to have been officials to get out of the country. AFP WEDNESDAY 27 JANUARY 2013 12 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com PAKISTAN / AFGHANISTAN US surprised New political party by Karzai’s ultimatum Wardak killings claim being probed

WASHINGTON: Afghan its elite special operations units President Hamid Karzai’s order from the province, Little said: that US special forces leave a “It’s premature to speculate on flashpoint province came as what the outcome of our discus- a surprise to American com- sions would be.” manders, who had no advance Secretary of State John Kerry, warning of the order, officials speaking at a joint press confer- said yesterday. ence with his British counterpart It is unclear what led Karzai to William Hague in London, said he issue a blunt announcement that had taken “appropriate note” of US special operations force would Afghan complaints which would have two weeks to withdraw from be “evaluated” by ISAF. Wardak, a key province southwest Karzai “had many legitimate of the capital Kabul, US officials evaluations of how sometimes said. “We’re not aware of any some things have gone or might incident that would have gener- be changed and be done better. ated this kind of response,” one We’re working on that. official said. “I can assure you we are finely On Sunday, Karzai alleged that tuned to the needs of the Afghan Afghans working with US forces people and to the most effective had tortured and murdered peo- ways to make this transition Former Pakistani nuclear scientist and chairman of Tehreek-e-Tahafuz Pakistan party, Abdul Qadeer Khan (third right), Syed Munawar Hassan ple in Wardak, triggering local together,” Kerry added. (centre), President of Jamaat-e-Islami party, and other officials during a meeting in Islamabad, yesterday. Khan registered the party last year to outrage. Nato-led International Wardak is a deeply troubled contest the general elections due in May. Security Assistance Force said it flashpoint where a Chinook heli- was aware of the allegations of copter was shot down by the misconduct but would not com- Taliban in August 2011, killing ment further until it had spoken eight Afghans and 30 Americans. to Afghan officials. It was the deadliest single inci- Top court demands strategy to protect Shias The Pentagon confirmed that dent for American troops in the a special panel of Afghan officials entire war. ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s top The provincial government, Chaudhry said. “This report has the government’s inability to stem and officers from the Nato-led Karzai has had a troubled court ordered authorities yes- which had been ordered by the not given us any satisfaction,” sectarian violence and raise seri- International Security Assistance relationship with Washington terday to develop a long-term court to present a report, said he said, ordering the arrest of ous questions about security as Fore (ISAF) is looking into for years and in the past he has strategy to protect Shias after it had increased the number of all those responsible for recent nuclear-armed Pakistan prepares Karzai’s allegations. often publicly expressed anger bomb attacks killed nearly police and was checking vehicles. attacks. to hold elections by mid-May. “There has been a joint com- after errant US air strikes killed 200 of them in the country’s It promised to instal scanners to The February 16 bombing was “You should plan a permanent mission established by ISAF and Afghan civilians. southwest. check for explosives. the second major attack on Shia solution, no one wants instability the government of Afghanistan to Analysts said Karzai’s move The Supreme Court rejected But Chief Justice Iftikhar Hazaras in Quetta in weeks. in Quetta,” Chaudhry said, adding look into the issues that surfaced conveyed Kabul’s growing distrust a report on intensified measures Mohammad Chaudhry said this A double suicide bombing on a it was the state’s responsibility to over the weekend,” spokesman of Nato and ita desire to impose to protect the minority ethnic was not enough. snooker club on January 10 killed protect every citizen. He told law- George Little said. “We’re trying their authority over local militia, Hazara Shia community after the “You have to take long-term at least 92 people, the deadliest yers representing the Baluchistan to seek clarity from the govern- who are trained by US forces but latest attack killed 90 people in measures, you should go to the ever attack on the community in government to submit another ment of Afghanistan.” operate independently in the war the Baluchistan provincial capital root cause of such incidents. Pakistan. report and adjourned the case Asked if the US would withdraw against the Taliban. AFP of Quetta on February 16. The steps taken are temporary,” The attacks have highlighted until March 6. AFP

Policeman shot Over two million dead in Peshawar Bomb kills two at Pakistan Sufi shrine wealthy evading anti-polio attack KARACHI: A bomb blast at The shrine, worshipped by tax in Punjab a Sufi Muslim shrine killed at Sufis who follow a mystical PESHAWAR: A Pakistani least two people and wounded branch of Islam, is also regularly ISLAMABAD: More than policeman was shot dead yes- 10 in southern Pakistan, police visited by minority Shias. 2.03 million wealthy people terday while protecting a polio said yesterday. But majority Sunnis pray at in Pakistan’s most populous vaccination team, police said, The bomb went off at Shah the shrine too, residents said, Punjab province are not paying bringing the death toll in such Lakhi Ghulam shrine in south- adding that such attacks were any taxes. attacks to 20 since December. ern Shikarpur district, some rare in the area. Less than one million peo- No one has claimed responsibil- 400km (250 miles) northeast Shias, who make up around ple in Sindh, 386,233 in ity for the killings. But the umbrella of Karachi, where devotees had 20 percent of the mostly Sunni Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 69,174 Taliban faction last year banned gathered to pay homage to the population of 180 million, are in Baluchistan, 5,311 in Gilgit- vaccinations in the tribal region of revered Sufi saint buried there. facing a record numbers of Baltistan, and 46,657 in Pakistan- Waziristan, alleging the campaign “At least two people were attacks which is in turn raising administered Kashmir (AJK) are was a cover for espionage. killed and 10 others were serious questions about secu- evading taxes, revealed data com- Yesterday’s killing happened wounded after a bomb exploded rity as nuclear-armed Pakistan piled by National Database and at Ghalla Dher on the second day at Shah Lakhi Ghulam shrine,” prepares to hold elections by Registration Authority (Nadra) of a three-day local anti-polio senior police official Pervez mid-May. and shared with the Federal campaign. “Two people came on Chandio said. On February 16 a bomb attack Board of Revenue for action. a motorbike. They opened fire and “We are investigating what in Quetta killed 89 people, while At the same time, the tax shot the policeman dead,” Mardan type of bomb had been deto- 92 people were killed in an returns filing rate in Punjab also district police chief Danishwar An injured victim is taken to hospital after the blast. nated and the motives behind assault at a Hazara snooker hall falls behind the rest of the coun- Khan said. AFP it,” Chandio said. on January 10. AFP try. In Punjab, 54 percent people, who are taxpayers, did not file returns last year. Data gathered from known sources identified five urban cen- tres of the Punjab where 100,000 Lawsuit against donation of to 439,901 wealthy people living 2,000 candidates in last general in palatial houses, owning luxu- rious cars, travelling frequently bullet-proof vehicle to Qadri abroad, possessing arms, holding multiple bank accounts and pay- poll had fake degrees: Panel ISLAMABAD: The ing hefty utility bills, were paying Association of Pakistani no income tax. ISLAMABAD: More than politicians did not ensure to national and provincial assemblies. Lawyers in United Kingdom has Lahore emerged as a major city 2,000 of 9,000 people who con- arrange intermediate and matric- A statement issued by the ECP filed a case against the chari- where 439,901 wealthy people did tested the 2008 general elections ulation degrees. in December 2007 said that dur- ties, which paid $69,000 for a not pay taxes in 2012, followed by had fake degrees, according The politicians who failed to ing scrutiny of nomination papers, bullet-proof Land Cruiser for 208,274 in Rawalpindi; 165,698 in to the Election Commission of run for the 2002 elections con- some 12,443 papers were accepted, Dr Tahirul Qadri (pictured). Faisalabad; 116,748 in Sialkot and Pakistan (ECP). tested the 2008 polls on the basis while the nominations of 916 The Charity Commission of 110,864 in Gujranwala. Neither the ECP nor Higher of fake degrees. candidates, including Pakistan the UK has accepted the petition. In Multan the number of Education Commission (HEC) About 13,490 candidates filed Muslim League-N leaders Nawaz Barrister Amjad Malik, wealthy people not on the tax has initiated any action to ver- nomination papers for around Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif were Chairman, Association of roll are 89,045; Gujrat 84,822; ify their degrees, officials said 1,050 seats of the National rejected. Pakistani Lawyers (APL), has Sargodha 59,548; Rahim Yar yesterday. Assembly and four provincial The nomination papers of 665 filed the petition against Minhajul Khan 56,561; Sheikhupura 52,979; Efforts in the past two years assemblies. candidates for reserved seats Quran International (charity Bahawalpur 42,742; Jhang 39,509; focused on the degrees of candi- But after scrutiny of papers of women and minorities were number 1102801) and Minhajul Jhelum 36,841; Toba Tek Singh dates who won the elections and and withdrawal of nominations, accepted. Quran Welfare Foundation (char- 35,277; Sahiwal 33,990; Attock became MPs. After the gradu- only 9,000 contested the 2008 The final list of candidates ity number 1084057) registered Asked about his recent peti- 33,495; and Okara 31,498. ation degree was declared a elections. was released after withdrawal of with the commission. tion against charities which The cities, which have more requirement to contest elections, Officials believe that around 25 papers. He complained that the money paid for the bullet-proof vehicle, than 90,000 people, but there some candidates managed to get percent of these 9,000 contestants According to the list, about collected in the name of charity Malik said that the commission are less than 30,000 people fake degrees during the 2002 held fake degrees and now they 9,000 candidates contested 1,070 had been misused by the char- will announce its verdict in three who do not fall under the tax election. are set to contest the 2013 elec- seats in the national and four ity for purchasing a bullet-proof to six months. net include Mandi Bahauddin, Officials said that after the tions for which the graduation provincial assemblies. In the vehicle and other political events. If the allegations turn out to Kasur, Vehari, Chakwal, 2002 elections, those stopped from degree is not mandatory. general elections, more than Malik said that his association be true, then the charity would Dera Ghazi Khan, Khanewal, contesting polls started making The ECP issued a list of over 81,000,000 voters were expected takes human interest cases very be blacklisted forever, he added. Muzaffargarh, Narowal, Kotli, efforts to get a degree and the 9,000 candidates who ran for the to elect their representatives for seriously and a recent exam- Malik said that it cannot be Hafizabad, Pakpattan, Khushab, majority of politicians succeeded. elections in 2008. 272 general seats in the National ple was of one charity which allowed that charities collect Mirpurkhas, Lodhran, Layyah, However, according to offi- A total of 1,3490 candidates Assembly and 577 in the four pro- was misusing the name of late money in the name of welfare Rajanpur, Naushero Feroz and cials, in most cases, while obtain- filed nomination papers from vincial assemblies. Pakistani child prodigy Arfa and spend it as per their wishes. Bhakkar. ing a graduation degree, most November 21 to 26, 2007, for the INTERNEWS Karim to mint money. INTERNEWS INTERNEWS WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013 INDIA www.thepeninsulaqatar.com 13 Law passed Rail fares not hiked, but fees raised to protect Minister Bansal promises to improve e-reservation system; opposition slams budget working

NEW DELHI: Train fares to note that the operating ratio of remain unchanged. Charges on Indian Railways — money spent women some services such as tatkal on recurring costs such as sala- and reservation will be hiked. ries, wages and interest to earn NEW DELHI: Parliamentary Freight charges will rise. The Re1 in revenue — had come down approval was yesterday extant, unreliable e-reserva- to 88 paise from around 95 paise. accorded to a bill seeking to tion system will be replaced. “Lower operational ratio provide protection to women As many as 106 new trains will announced by the minister will from sexual harassment at the be introduced. A swanky coach help provide for the much needed workplace, including millions will be added on select trains. funds which can help modernisa- of unorganised workers like the And all key stations will have tion,” the Confederation of Indian domestic help. escalators. Industry (CII) said, as the cor- The Sexual Harassment of These are some high points of porate sector largely expressed Women at Workplace (Prevention, Railway Minister Pawan Kumar satisfaction with the proposals. Prohibition and Redressal) Bansal’s Rs63bn ($11.5bn) maiden Passengers were happy they Bill, 2012 was passed by the annual budget for his ministry were spared a fare hike but hoped Rajya Sabha yesterday. It was tabled in the Lower House of promises on travel comfort will approved by the Lower House in Parliament yesterday that bor- be kept. September 2012. ders on populism with a fair dose “I hope the net ticketing system The bill covers under its list of of measures on fiscal discipline, improves. I’ve never managed a offences sexual remarks, demand safety and travel comfort. tatkal ticket. They seem to van- for sexual favour, or any act of The other highlights include ish in minutes. Hope something is physical advance or an unwelcome seven more executive lounges done on that,” said Satish Nair, an touch. at key stations, elimination of accountant here who finds it hard Moving the bill in the Upper unmanned level crossings, spruc- to get tickets to his hometown House, Women and Child ing up the Railway Protection in Kerala. Empowerment Minister Krishna Force for the safety of passen- The minister said railways Tirath said the bill will cover gers especially women, deploy- remained the single most impor- organised and unorganised sec- ment of a new anti-collision tant catalyst in India’s growth tors and include domestic work- system, free wi-fi in select trains story and was a vital organi- ers. “The aim is that women are and modern kitchens with strict sation integrating the nation able to work freely whether the quality control. from Baramulla in the north to workplace is in the organised or “The growth of Indian Kanyamumari in the south, and unorganised sector,” Tirath said. Railways is inextricably linked from Dwaraka in the west to Ledo The bill mandates an inter- with the growth of the country,” in the east. nal complaint committee for any Bansal said in his 80-minute The country’s railroad network, organisation with 10 or more budget speech — the last such ranked among the top five in the employees. For an employer not annual exercise for the United world, is spread over 64,000 km following this, the penalty will Progressive Alliance (UPA) gov- with 7,083 stations, to ferry 23 be Rs50,000. Repeated violations ernment before the next general million travellers and 2.65 mil- may lead to higher penalties and election scheduled in 2014. Officials check Railway Budget papers prior to the unveiling of the budget in parliament, yesterday. lion tonnes of goods daily on cancellation of licence or registra- “Indian Railways must remain 12,000 passenger and 7,000 freight tion to conduct business. financially sustainable so that automatic revisions in freight services such as tatkal, which has looking budget which presents trains. It employs some 1.4 mil- However, in the case of false resources generated can be tariff based on fluctuations in been hiked from a minimum of a realistic picture of rail- lion people. The railways’ sheer or malicious complaint, the bill ploughed back for efficient upkeep, fuel charges. Rs75 now to Rs90 for a sleeper way finances,” Prime Minister contribution to the economy and provides for action against the operation and maintenance of the “As regards passenger fares, class ticket and from Rs200 Manmohan Singh said, even as the role it plays in nation-building complainant in accordance with system itself for the benefit of the since these were revised only in to Rs300 for an executive class the opposition called it wanting is what has prompted a separate service rules and in any other rail users,” he said, setting the January this year, I do not intend ticket. in a host of areas. budget since 1920 — long before manner in case no service rules tone for frequent adjustments in to pass on the additional burden This apart, the clerk charges “The rail budget has definitely independence in 1947. exist. The bill covers employees, train fares and freight tariff. to them now and railways will have been hiked by between Rs5 exposed the UPA government’s Bansal, who represents clients, customers, apprentice or “The UPA government is sensi- absorb the impact of Rs8.5bn and Rs10 and cancellation charges inability and the lack of vision to Chandigarh in the Lok Sabha, said daily wage workers who enter the tive to the needs of the people and ($155m) on this account,” said have been raised by between Rs10 revive the ailing Indian Railways,” he was well aware of the problems workplace. It will apply to private it was after some wide consulta- Bansal, the first Congress party and Rs50. The enhanced reser- said Rajnath Singh, president of faced by passengers while booking sector organisation, societies, tions and deliberations that some minister to present a rail budget vation fee has been scrapped. the Bharatiya Janata Party, the tickets on the internet. He prom- trusts, educational institutions, revision was effected in fares from in 17 years. The hike in freight works out to principal opposition. ised a next-generation ticketing NGOs, service providers of com- January 22,” he said of the recent But where the passengers will around an average of 5.8 percent. Bansal said that while making system by the end of this year. mercial, professional or enter- hike in fares, while also proposing have to shell out more will be in “It is a reformist and forward all these proposals, he was happy IANS tainment activities. IANS

Omar urges PM Father sentenced to life for raping 9-year-old daughter to help return NEW DELHI: Saying a “girl the court ruled. “There is no girl child is to be worshipped and had raped their minor daughter committed by the convict depicts child is to be worshipped and crime more heinous and ghastly not raped. Sexual assault upon several times. extreme form of depravity and Guru’s body not raped”, a fast track court than the present one and no a girl child is the most sinful, She told police that her child brutality on his part. He has rav- here sentenced a man to life other crime can be more humili- barbaric and savage atrocity and was complaining of stomach pain ished his own daughter, who had imprisonment for raping his ating and disgraceful for a man hence not only highly deplorable for the last several days and she yet not crossed the single digit JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir minor daughter. than the act of seducing his own but severely punishable. One fails had consulted various doctors but age. A father is the protector Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Additional Sessions Judge daughter,” the order stated. to imagine how a person would there was no relief to the minor. of the honour and dignity of his had written to Prime Minister (ASJ) Virender Bhat, also slap- “The girl child is considered think of ravishing a minor, inno- After noticing swelling in the daughter and a girl child looks Manmohan Singh for the ping a fine of Rs60,000, held that incarnation of Mata Lakshmi in a cent girl and that too when the child’s body, she again took her towards her parents for every return of the remains of exe- the crime committed by the con- household. Hindu religion ordains girl is his own daughter who, in to the doctor who told her that kind of help and assistance in cuted terror convicts Afzal vict, being the father of the vic- us to worship the girl child as the fact, deserves to be worshipped the child was sexually assaulted. case of adversity,” said the court. Guru and Maqbool Bhat and tim, was intensely grave, serious manifestation of Lakshmi. There as a form of Durga.” Police had said that the “However, in the present case, also raised the demand at a and barbaric in nature. is a tradition prevalent in the In September 2012, the mother nine-year-old child then told the father himself has become meeting, the state government The convict would not be Hindus to worship minor girls on of the child registered a case her mother about her father’s the tormentor and has perpe- said yesterday. entitled to any clemency till he the last day of Navratras which against her husband, a resident act and a case was registered trated the heinous crime of rape The disclosure followed the spends at least 20 years in jail, is known as ‘Kanjak Puja’.” “The of Najafgarh, alleging that he against him. “The crime upon his own daughter.” IANS release of a letter written by People’s Democratic Party chief and former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed to the prime Communists protest minister seeking Guru’s body for NIA seeks custody of Govt defends his family. “In a letter to the prime min- Kerala leader ister on February 19, Omar Abdullah had strongly pleaded, terror group members handing over the mortal remains over rape slur of Afzal Guru to his family,” the NEW DELHI: The National authorities to present both of state government spokesman said, Investigation Agency yester- them before it. NEW DELHI: The govern- adding that in a recent meeting day moved a Delhi court seek- Maqbool and Khan had ment yesterday came out in with the prime minister Abdullah ing custody of two jailed alleged in July 2012 allegedly recced defence of Rajya Sabha Deputy had reiterated the demand of operatives of banned terror Hyderabad’s Dilsukhnagar, Chairman P J Kurien in the Afzal Guru’s family. IANS outfit Indian Mujahideen for where the February 21 blasts 1996 Suryanelli rape case with questioning over the Hyderabad took place, on the instructions Parliamentary Affairs Minister twin blasts in which 16 people of Indian Mujahideen’s Pakistan- Kamal Nath asserting that ‘No Akbarabadi were killed. based founder Riyaz Bhatkal, the inquiries had cleared him of District Judge I S Mehta issued National Investigation Agency charges. The minister said mosque existed’ production warrants for today (NIA) said. the allegations against Kurien against Syed Maqbool and Imran Their interrogation will might be politically motivated. NEW DELHI: The Supreme Khan, lodged in Tihar Jail. give information on the exact “A section of media and some Court was yesterday told that The two have been in judicial plan envisaged by Riyaz, the political members have sought no structure called Akbarabadi custody after police arrested agency said. to drag Rajya Sabha Deputy Mosque existed at any point in them in connection with the The twin blasts in Hyderabad Chairman Kurien into a rape time in Subhash Park near the August 2012 Pune blasts. killed 16 people and injured 117. case. It has emphatically been historic Jama Masjid here and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leaders walk with supporters during The court directed the Tihar IANS stated that he has never been an it was only the Archeological a protest for food security, in New Delhi, yesterday. accused in the Suryanelli rape Survey of India (ASI) which case,” Kamal Nath said, making could undertake any work at a statement in the Rajya Sabha. the site. “There is no evidence As soon as the minister stood of the existence of Akbarabdi up to defend Kurien, CPI(M)’s Mosque,” amicus curiae Ram Karnataka CM in Delhi to lobby over Cauvery row Sitaram Yechury said it would Jethmalani told a bench of be unfair for the government Chief Justice Altamas Kabir, to defend the deputy chairman Justice Anil R Dave and Justice BANGALORE: Karnataka the strategy to impress the cen- has been recommended by the by the tribunal. since it would affect “independ- Vikramajit Sen. Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar tral government against set- Cauvery Waters Dispute Tribunal The central government has to ence of legislature”. The objection Jethmalani, who has been said here yesterday that he ting up a Cauvery Management award. Karnataka has challenged set it up within the next three was overruled by Rajya Sabha appointed amicus curiae by the would meet central ministers Board (CMB) as the proposal the award also on the ground that months. Shettar has already Chairman M Hamid Ansari, after court to appear for respondent and MPs from the state in New for its establishment has been the state has been given less share written to Prime Minister which Kamal Nath gave details Sri Sri Sai Baba Om Ji, made the Delhi today to discuss steps to challenged in the Supreme of water than its needs. The CMB Manmohan Singh urging the of the series of events and said contention to the bench hear- protect the state’s interests in Court by Karnataka, he told is to ensure Karnataka, Tamil central government against set- it was proved that Kurien could ing a petition of Delhi legislator Cauvery row. reporters here. Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry get ting up CMB. not have been physically present Shoaib Iqbal. IANS The meeting is to consider The establishment of the CMB their share of water as awarded IANS at the place of the incident. IANS

WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013 16 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com MORNING BREAK

PRAYER TIME Aussie tycoon News in Numbers HOUSEHOLDS unveils plan EXPENDITURESCHART: 1 Fajr (Dawn) 4:43 for new Titanic Shorook (Sunrise) 5:59

Zuhr (Noon) 11:47 NEW YORK: Flamboyant Asr (Afternoon) 3:06 Australian tycoon Clive Palmer unveiled his plan yesterday for Maghrib (Sunset) 5:35 building a perfect replica of the Isha (Night) 7:05 Titanic — plus a lot of extra lifeboats. More than a century after the original, supposedly unsinkable WEATHER ocean liner hit an iceberg and went down in the North Atlantic, Palmer Qatari households have spent about Today Thursday Friday Weather thinks the time has come to com- Conditions: plete the unfinished journey to New Partly cloudy Partly cloudy Partly cloudy York. “The Titanic was the ship of Hazy to misty dreams. Titanic II is the ship where at places at dreams will come true,” Palmer first becoming High: 26° High: 25° High: 25° said in New York at the project’s QR4,583 (11pc) Low: 18° Low: 19° Low: 21° scattered official launch. clouds with Featuring the same rigid divi- slight dust. sions as in 1912 between first, sec- ond and third class, passengers will eat either in an ornate dining of their total monthly expenditures DOHA - SUN & SEA room or at a long common table. Passengers in the luxury section on their food needs. SUN TIDE SEA will enjoy the identical grand SUNRISE | SUNSET HIGH | LOW WIND staircase and reproductions of Qatari households’ diets included 95.3 kg of white and red meat the original Titanic’s Turkish 05:59 17:35 06:00 18:00 12:30 23:45 03-12 KT (fresh red meat, poultry meat and fish), about 25 liters of milk, bath and swimming pool. Rebuffing public scepticism about 5 packs of eggs, more than 84 kg of fruits, and more than THE REGION TODAY TOMORROW about the project, Palmer said 60 kg of vegetables. These quantities have seen a remarkable HI/LO WEATHER HI/LO WEATHER a contract could be signed with China’s CSC Jinling Shipyard development in comparison with their 2001 counterparts. MUSCAT 25/19 Partly cloudy 26/19 Partly cloudy within days, with construc- MAKKAH 34/23 Mostly cloudy 32/22 Partly cloudy tion starting by the end of this KUWAIT 24/17 Cloudy 24/17 Partly cloudy year and the launch in 2016. He Average monthly consumption of some food BAHRAIN 22/17 Partly cloudy 24/18 Partly cloudy wouldn’t say what it will all cost. SANAA 27/07 Partly cloudy 29/09 Partly cloudy Palmer refused to give the commodities for Qatari families (2001 to 2007) estimated cost, saying bluntly: RIYADH 25/13 Mostly cloudy 29/15 Partly cloudy Monthly DUBAI 27/18 Clear 27/18 Clear “I’m funding this myself because Measuring I want to spend the money I’ve Items Consumption Rate Unit BAGHDAD 23/12 Partly cloudy 24/12 Partly cloudy got before I die.” A larger than 2001 2007 life character who has made a THE WORLD TODAY TOMORROW fortune in mining, Palmer said Fresh Meat 33.13 35.8 Kilogram HI/LO WEATHER HI/LO WEATHER he was unfazed by the seeming Fresh Poultry temptation of fate in giving one 38.53 36.6 Kilogram ATHENS 14/07 Clear 12/07 Partly cloudy of the unluckiest shipping projects Sources : http://www.qtel.qa/Fresh Fish 16.69 22.9 Kilogram WASHINGTON 13/03 Chance of rain 07/02 Chance of rain in history a second chance. “I’m SYDNEY 28/21 Mostly cloudy 25/18 Rain not too superstitious,” he said. Fresh Milk 14.85 24.9 Kilogram LONDON 05/00 Chance of rain 07/00 Partly cloudy Titanic II will closely resemble PARIS 05/03 Chance of rain 08/01 Mostly cloudy the original, although with impor- Eggs 4.77 4.8 Kilogram ISTANBUL 11/05 Fog 07/03 Cloudy tant modifications, including a Fresh Fruit MANILA 34/23 Partly cloudy 34/23 Partly cloudy slightly wider hull and an extra 79.57 84.3 Kilogram layer of decking. DHAKA 32/18 Clear 34/19 Clear Fresh green stuff 67.15 60.1 Kilogram DELHI 26/14 Clear 24/12 Clear AFP Source : http://www.qsa.gov.qa/ ISLAMABAD 16/08 Rain 17/06 Chance of rain Transparent film uses light to power phone batteries

BARCELONA: A transparent to recharge. “With 10 minutes in there are more than 500 million film that costs just ¤1 ($1.30) to the sun you will be able to com- people with a mobile telephone make could bring an end to the municate for two minutes. To but it is a continent that is only 40 anguish of mobile phone users recharge completely you will have percent electrified, which means facing the dreaded dead-battery to expose it for six hours, so our people need energy to recharge message. technology is not necessarily for their telephones,” he said. Wysips, a startup based in Aix- a full recharge but rather for an Wysips plans to license the tech- en-Provence, southern France, energy boost for specific applica- nology to handset manufacturers, has developed a photovoltaic film tions,” Deblois said. who would decide the final price to which can be built seamlessly into “For example, for security if be paid by consumers. The cost of a mobile phone screen and deliver you have to make an emergency the film, however, is only about one the joy of life to a flat battery. call. So if you arrive at the airport euro per unit, Deblois said. At the world’s biggest mobile and you have your boarding pass After three years of research fair in Barcelona, Spain, the gadget on the mobile you can’t have a tel- and development, the prototype was luring interest from handset ephone that runs out of battery so is complete and a manufacturing manufacturers and its inventors you can just put it in the light and line with a capacity of eight million said they hoped the first mobiles recharge it.” units is being prepared in Aix-en- equipped with the Wysips film will Similarly, the film can get mobile Provence to start output in April, be in stores by the end of this year. phone users out of a fix when bat- he said. The factory is aimed only Wysips Chief Executive Ludovic teries go flat just when the time at proving that the product can be Deblois showed off a prototype comes to pay a restaurant bill, or mass produced, however. Wysips of a smartphone equipped with buy a train ticket. But in develop- expects handset manufacturers to the film at the Mobile World ing regions it could be even more produce the screens themselves, A worker of Wysips shines a torch on the screen of a prototype of a smartphone equipped with a photovoltaic Congress. By just shining a torch important, Deblois said. and it hopes the first such phones film at the 2013 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, yesterday. on its screen, the mobile’s battery “The African continent inter- will be on the market by the end of icon showed that it had started ests us in terms of market because 2013. AFP

Jellyfish exhibition Film on Kampusch’s ordeal premieres

VIENNA: A new film that says. But the violence and cruelty constitute Kampusch’s first attempts to portray Austrian inflicted on the girl by mummy’s admission that this happened— Natascha Kampusch’s eight- boy Wolfgang Priklopil, brilliantly when Priklopil would bind their year imprisonment by a man played by Denmark’s Lindhardt, hands together. who kidnapped her when she is all too accurate. Campbell-Hughes, the was just 10 years old shows the Unemployed telecoms engineer Northern Irish actress who plays horror of a living hell. Priklopil, 35, shoved Kampusch the older Kampusch, lost so much But the reality of the mental, into a van as she was going to weight for the role that she looks physical and sexual abuse was far school in Vienna on March 2, 1998, almost skeletal. “Playing someone worse than “3096 Days”, which and took her to his house in nearby real, you feel you have to give a bit premiered on Monday, could Strasshof. He shut her in an under- more. There was an understand- possibly show, says Kampusch, ground room measuring less than ing from the beginning that I whose ordeal came to light when six square metres, telling her that would suffer as much as she did,” she escaped in 2006. “I recognised the doors and windows were booby the 30-year-old told London’s myself (in the film),” Kampusch, trapped and that her family had Evening Standard newspaper. now 25, told Germany’s Bild daily forgotten about her. She was his Kampusch has given TV inter- this month. “But the reality was captive for the next 3,096 days views over the years about her much worse. You can’t show this until she managed to escape on ordeal and written a book also in a film however, it’s not sup- August 23, 2006. Priklopil killed called “3096 Days” on which the posed to be a horror movie.” himself later the same evening. movie is mostly based. For instance, she says, there The story shocked the world. At first, she says, she was dubi- were no screams of desperation The film — which was shot in ous about it being turned into a and hunger as shown in the two- English but has been dubbed for film but she persuaded by German hour film by Sherry Hormann German audiences — shows how producer Bernd Eichinger, who (Desert Flower), starring Antonia Priklopil, not content with keep- began working on a script but Campbell-Hughes, Thure ing Kampusch prisoner and hurt- died in January 2011. “Lots of Lindhardt and Amelia Pidgeon. ing her, gave her almost nothing things changed after the book but “I never screamed down there. to eat. No less disturbing are the I think that the movie brings a A girl looks at a fried egg jellyfish lit by a blue light at the ‘Jellyfish Discovery’ exhibition, at the SeaLife aquarium My body was unable to scream. It scenes of sex that started as she whole new dimension into play,” in Timmendorfer Strand, Germany, yesterday. was a silent scream,” Kampusch entered puberty — scenes which Kampusch says. AFP Wednesday 27 February 2013 17 Rabial II 1434 Volume 17 Number 5623 Price: QR2

Commercialbank records QR2.01bn net profit

Business | 18

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com [email protected] | [email protected] Editorial: 44557741 | Advertising: 44557837 / 44557780 Qatar hires UBS to Ooredoo Group CEO in Mobile Congress invest $3bn in VTB State-run Russian bank working on capital increase

DUBAI/LONDON: Qatar’s agency Interfax reported Qatar involved in situations where the sovereign wealth fund has hired wanted to invest at a 25 percent seller is seen as a bit desperate UBS to advise on a possible $3 discount. VTB had planned to and in need of funds. That helps bn investment in Russian state- issue new shares equivalent to in their negotiations for downside controlled bank VTB, a source at least 10 percent of its equity protection and guarantees from with direct knowledge of the this spring, raising $1-$3bn. After seller,” said a banking source who matter said. Russia’s second-big- President Vladimir Putin last has done business with the sover- gest lender, advised by Citigroup, month urged state asset sales be eign fund. has been working on a capital held in Russia, VTB chief execu- Bankers are working on a deal increase to support day-to-day tive Andrei Kostin said the deal that would appeal to Russia and operations. Analysts say the might be delayed. the Qataris, such as mandatory Moscow stock exchange is too VTB shares were down 0.2 convertible bonds providing Qatar small to supply VTB’s needs. percent late on, having traded with a substantial return via inter- Qatar Holding, widely seen as in a 4 percent range. One source est payments. UBS currently ranks an opportunistic investor, has a involved with the situation said 22nd in M&A advisory worldwide, history of investing in large banks while Qatar was an attractive against 11th in 2012 according to in need of capital. At the peak investor, VTB was talking to Thomson Reuters data. of the global financial crisis, it other sovereign funds. “If they The sovereign fund, believed to invested in banks such as Barclays make a co-investment (agree- have assets in excess of $100bn, and Credit Suisse on terms ment) with VTB there could be has been one of the most active regarded as favourable to the fund. plenty that the Qataris can do (in institutional investors in recent “Talks are very advanced”, one of Russia) which is mutually benefi- years, deploying the Gulf nation’s the people said yesterday about cial — good to attract capital and riches from plentiful natural gas Qatar’s discussions with VTB. good for them to have opportunity to buy stakes in companies rang- Ooredoo Group CEO Nasser Marafih during a news conference at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, The sources said the deal in Russia,” the source said. ing from carmaker Porsche to yesterday. The four-day GSMA Mobile World Congress, representing the interests of the worldwide mobile may still be called off on price “Qatar relishes these type of miner Xstrata. communications industry, will continue until tomorrow. disagreements — Russian news investments. They tend to get REUTERS WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013 18 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com BUSINESS

Al Meera Holding acquires assets Commercialbank records QR2.01bn net profit in Oman DOHA: Al Meera Holding Associates United Arab Bank and National Bank of Oman show strong results Company LLC has signed an agreement to purchase the DOHA: Commercialbank has business and assets of Safeer recorded a net profit of QR stores in Oman. The deal cov- 2.01bn in 2012 full year. This is ers the purchase of businesses an increase of 7 percent over the and assets of hypermarkets and net profit of QR1.8bn achieved supermarkets under the trad- in 2011. ing or brand name of “Safeer” The Board of Directors recom- carried on by the Safeer. mended a cash dividend payout AL Meera Holding LLC and Al of 74 percent of the net profit, Meera Development LLC incor- which equates to QR6 per share porated two subsidiary companies to recognise shareholders’ ongo- in the Sultanate of Oman, namely ing loyalty and the Bank’s strong Al Meera Oman SAOC and Al performance in 2012. Meera Markets SAOC, to manage Presenting the financial results the business acquired in Oman. at the ordinary and extraordinary “Further to the sale and pur- meetings of the shareholders of chase agreement of the five the bank yesterday, Chairman Safeer Stores in Oman we are Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Attiyah pleased to advise that on the close said: “Our banking associates, of business hours on 31st January United Arab Bank and National 2013, the seller has handed over Bank of Oman have both had the business and moveable assets excellent years, increasing revenue along with the inventories to the and profitability, and growing their buyer”, Al Meera noted in a Qatar lending. UAB delivered another Exchange filing yesterday. record net profit of Dh410m, up Athaiba (Safeer United LLC), 24 percent, while NBO increased Al Khuwair (Safeer Middle its net profit by 18 percent to OMR East LLC), Barka and Sohar 41m. Both banks are strongly posi- (Safeer Center International tioned to deliver further growth FROM LEFT: Abdulla Mohamed Ibrahim Al Mannai, Director, Jassim Al Mosallam, Director, H E Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Attiyah, Chairman, Hussain Ebrahim LLC), Al Falaj (Safeer Arabian in their domestic markets and we Alfardan, Managing Director, Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali bin Jabor Al Thani, Vice Chairman, Sheikh Ahmed bin Nasser bin Faleh Al Thani, Director, and Omar International LLC) are the shops continue to focus on strengthening Hussain Alfardan, Director, at the Commercialbank shareholders annual meeting at the Cb Plaza in Doha, yesterday. KAMMUTTY V P that would be controlled by Al our regional alliance”. Meera. THE PENINSULA Commercialbank continues to our Enterprise Business which we environment. Our business strat- 48.6bn with growth generated in above the Oatar Central Bank’s play an integral role in the growth launched at the start of 2012. The egy has seen the Bank protect its both the Wholesale and Retail required minimum level of 10 per- and development of Qatar and is Bank is well positioned to sup- core business in 2012, grow its businesses while the non-per- cent. Commercial Bank is com- committed to playing a central port the growth in investment in domestic corporate and retail forming ratio reduced to 1.09 mitted to delivering the highest Tomorrow last day role as the economy expands infrastructure that will arise from businesses and deliver alternative percent. To support the growth standards of service and value to and diversifies. The government Qatar’s successful bid for the 2022 sources of income”, said Managing in lending, customers’ deposits both our customers and to our of trading at QE’s has identified small and medium World Cup, he said. Director Hussain Al Fardan. grew by 9 percent to QR41.4bn. shareholders, and in successfully enterprises as a vital component “Commercialbank has deliv- The Bank’s total assets grew He said the Bank remains both delivering that ambition, we owe present building in Qatar’s economic future, and ered another record performance 12 percent to QR80bn on 31 well capitalised and funded with thanks to the loyalty, dedication DOHA: Tomorrow will we are helping to support and in 2012 achieving strong earn- December 2012. Lending to cus- the capital adequacy ratio at 17.0 and hard work of all our employ- be the last day for Qatar nurture these businesses through ings in a challenging operating tomers rose by QR6.9bn to QR percent at 31 December 2012, well ees. THE PENINSULA Exchange (QE) doing its businesses at its current building on the Grand Hamad Street. The QE will shift its all operations Al Meera rights issue fully subscribed to its new headquarters in QInvest is debt arranger for French assets Al Dana Tower, West Bay, DOHA: Al Meera Consumer Goods Company (QSC) announced opposite to City Center on DOHA: Investment Holding has also strengthened our ability yesterday that it has successfully completed the rights issue sub- Monday, March 4. Company Constellation has to partner with Aareal Bank and scription to increase its capital that was earlier approved during QE will occupy floors from appointed QInvest, Qatar’s Qatar National Bank who both the Extra Ordinary General Assembly meeting of the company held the 1st to the 5th of the main leading investment bank, as demonstrated a strong commit- in October 2012. The official source of the company said that the tower along with levels of the sole financial adviser and debt ment to the transaction.” value of the offered rights shares was QR950m whereas the sub- annex adjacent to the main arranger for the $950m acqui- Craig Cowie, Head of Real scription value received reached approximately QR1.3bn, indicating building. A temporary hall in sition of four French assets. Estate Advisory and Investments an excess value received of approximately QR393m — thus giving an the first floor of the tower will The transaction was funded at QInvest, commented: “We are excess value received of around 140 percent. be ready on Monday to host by Aareal Bank and Qatar excited to have concluded this Additionally, the concerned authority has earlier approved the sub- the investors. National Bank. Tamim Hamad Al Kuwari (left), and transaction which took approxi- scription process and the refund of the excess subscription to share- Most of the licenced bro- Tamim Hamad Al Kuwari, the Craig Cowie mately 16-months to close from holders, and in turn Al Meera Consumer Goods Company (QSC) has kerage companies will grad- newly appointed Chief Executive inception. We are grateful and informed Masraf Al Rayan to take all necessary action to refund ually open offices in the 1st Officer of QInvest, commented: estate advisory and financing pleased at the level of commit- the excess amounts to the respective shareholders at the soonest floor of the main tower to “QInvest is honoured to have franchise, and our ability to lev- ment from all concerned parties possible time. THE PENINSULA provide regular services to advised Constellation on this erage relationships with regional which made sure our Client could QE investors. prestigious transaction. The suc- and international financial insti- acquire key assets at an oppor- THE PENINSULA cess of this transaction is a testa- tutions to support Qatari clients tune time.” ment to the strength of our real and projects. “The transaction THE PENINSULA QATARI MARKET Bond Coupon Maturity Currency Mid-Price Yield Moody’s S&P Qatar Govt 5.15% 4/9/2014 USD 104.88 0.71 % Aa2 AA Qatar Govt 3.125% 1/20/2017 USD 106.00 1.53 % Aa2 AA Eurozone at 3-month Qatar Govt 6.55% 4/9/2019 USD 124.50 2.24 % Aa2 AA Qatar Govt 5.25% 1/20/2020 USD 117.50 2.48 % Aa2 AA Qatar Govt 4.5% 1/20/2022 USD 112.38 2.91 % Aa2 AA low on Italian stalemate Qatar Govt 9.75% 6/15/2030 USD 172.50 3.93 % Aa2 AA Qatar Govt 6.4% 1/20/2040 USD 131.25 4.41 % Aa2 AA LONDON: Eurozone shares PHLX housing sector index Qatar Govt 5.75% 1/20/2042 USD 121.75 4.41 % Aa2 AA sank to three-month lows rose 2.6 percent. The Dow Qatari Diar 3.5% 7/21/2015 USD 105.13 1.32 % Aa2 AA yesterday after an Italian Jones industrial average rose election stalemate renewed 92.07 points or 0.67 percent Qatari Diar 5% 7/21/2020 USD 115.38 2.69 % Aa2 AA concerns about the future of to 13,876.24. The S&P 500 Comqat 5% 11/18/2014 USD 105.75 1.58 % A1 A- the euro zone and sent inves- gained 4.67 points or 0.31 per- Comqat 3.375% 4/11/2017 USD 104.38 2.26 % A1 A- tors in search of insurance cent to 1,492.52. The Nasdaq QIB 3.856% 10/7/2015 USD 104.75 1.98 % NR NR against a deeper sell-off. Composite added 1.44 points or QNB 3.125% 11/16/2015 USD 103.50 1.80 % Aa3 A+ No group managed to secure 0.05 percent to 3,117.69. QNB 3.375% 2/22/2017 USD 104.50 2.19 % Aa3 A+ a majority in the Italian par- Dubai’s bourse made its Doha Bank 3.5% 3/14/2017 USD 104.25 2.39 % A2 A- liament, heralding weeks of largest one-day loss in three Qtel 3.375% 10/14/2016 USD 105.50 1.80 % A2 A political uncertainty and raising weeks yesterday as its heavi- the prospect of a government est stock Emaar Properties Qtel 7.875% 6/10/2019 USD 130.38 2.61 % A2 A of sworn enemies — the cen- dropped on lower-than- Qtel 4.75% 2/16/2021 USD 111.50 3.11 % A2 A tre right led by former prime expected dividend distribu- Qtel 5% 10/19/2025 USD 111.00 3.89 % A2 A minister Silvio Berlusconi and tion, while most other regional Rasgas 5.5% 9/30/2014 USD 106.88 1.10 % Aa3 A the centre left under Pier Luigi markets also retreated. Rasgas 5.832% 9/30/2016 USD 108.13 3.41 % Aa3 A Bersani. Italy’s benchmark Shares in Emaar fell 2.8 Rasgas 5.298% 9/30/2020 USD 112.00 3.49 % Aa3 A FTSE MIB index sank 4.9 per- percent to 5.14 dirhams, down cent to 15,552.20 points, posting from the previous session’s SOVEREIGNS its biggest daily fall in nearly a 51-month high. The developer Bond PDA* Maturity Currency Mid-Price Yield Moody’s S&P year and with all but two of its proposed a 2012 cash dividend Abu Dhabi Govt 5.5% 4/8/2014 USD 105.50 0.49 % Aa2 AA 40 companies in the red. of 10 fils, similar to that of 2011 Abu Dhabi Govt 6.75% 4/8/2019 USD 126.75 2.07 % Aa2 AA The EuroSTOXX 50 index and 2010. The stock had ral- Dubai Govt 6.7% 10/5/2015 USD 110.63 2.47 % NR NR closed down 3.1 percent at lied in recent weeks partly 2,570.52 points, its lowest fin- on hopes of a higher dividend Dubai Govt 4.9% 5/2/2017 USD 107.44 2.99 % NR NR ish since November 28. The payout. The emirate’s index Dubai Govt 7.75% 10/5/2020 USD 125.00 3.92 % NR NR move extends the euro zone slipped 1 percent in its larg- Dubai Govt 6.45% 5/2/2022 USD 118.00 4.08 % NR NR blue chip index’s retreat from est daily loss since February 3. Qatar Govt 4% 1/20/2015 USD 105.88 0.85 % Aa2 AA an 18-month high of 2,754.80 In Saudi Arabia, petrochemi- Bahrain Govt 6.273% 11/22/2018 USD 115.19 3.34 % NR BBB points hit at the end of January. cal stocks led declines on the Bahrain Govt 5.5% 3/31/2020 USD 109.63 3.93 % NR BBB The broader, pan-European bourse as worries over demand Egypt Govt 5.75% 4/29/2020 USD 93.50 6.91 % B3 /*- B- FTSEurofirst 300 fell 1.4 per- growth hit oil prices after Morocco Govt 4.5% 10/5/2020 EUR 105.75 3.63 % NR BBB- cent to 1,150.25 points. inconclusive election results in *Periodic Distribution Amount US stocks advanced yes- Italy. Investors fear a resur- IMPORTANT NOTE: terday after Federal Reserve gence of the eurozone debt Published by HSBC Bank Middle East Limited, P O Box 57, Doha, Qatar which Chairman Ben Bernanke crisis. In Qatar, the market is licensed and regulated by Qatar Central Bank and Jersey Financial Services defended the Fed’s bond-buy- recorded losses for a fourth Commission. Information quoted is from publicly available sources or proprietary ing stimulus before Congress, consecutive session, losing 0.9 data and subject to change. HSBC accepts no liability for any loss or damage arising out of the use of all or part of this material. This information is general and does not but he warned forced spend- percent, as investors reacted take into account individual circumstances, objectives or needs. The price of bonds ing cuts that could be trig- to dividend news and payouts. can and does fluctuate. The secondary market for bonds may not provide significant gered this week represented Qatar Electricity and Water liquidity or may trade based on prevailing market conditions. Past performance is not a headwind for the economy. slumped 6.1 percent as the a reliable indicator of future performance. You should consider these matters and Gains in homebuilders and stock traded ex-dividend. Gulf consult your financial advisor prior to making any investment decisions. other consumer stocks, follow- International Services tum- ing strong economic data, kept bled 8.7 percent. The company the S&P 500 up slightly and a reported a 64-percent rise in 5 percent jump in Home Depot 2012 profit and a dividend of lifted the Dow industrials. The QR1.5 per share. REUTERS WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013 BUSINESS www.thepeninsulaqatar.com 19 Global music revenues up first time since 1999 UK singer Adele’s ‘21’ biggest-selling album

LONDON: The music business source of digital music revenue Brazil’s Michel Telo was sixth broke a 12-year losing streak in in Europe. with “Ai Se Eu Te Pego”. 2012, posting a small but sym- Deezer has also expanded rap- While the focus was on growth bolic 0.3 percent rise in trade idly, reaching three million paying in the digital sector, physical revenues to $16.5bn, figures from subscribers worldwide. format sales still accounted for the International Federation Executives said the increasing 58 percent of revenues in 2012 of the Phonographic Industry number of digital platforms had down from 61 percent in 2011, (IFPI) showed yesterday. helped companies broaden their and declines in the CD market in The slight increase will come as revenue base, and more services many countries continued to pose a relief to record label bosses who coming on stream were good news major challenges. have watched the value of sales for the business. Overall UK album sales fell plummet from a peak of $28.6bn “Until recently, the vast major- by 11.2 percent in 2012, accord- in 1999, as illegal downloads and a ity of our revenues came from a ing to the British Phonographic reluctance to embrace the digital handful of countries,” said Stu Industry (BPI). Figures showed age hit revenues hard. Bergen, head of global market- CD album sales declined nearly Once again it was the digital ing, recorded music, at Warner 20 percent to 69.4million copies, sector that showed the strong- Music Group. although digital album sales rose est growth, and for the first time “Today, digital channels mean by 14.8 percent to 30.5million. more than compensated for losses we can monetise markets world- The three best-selling albums in physical revenues. wide much more effectively.” last year were all by UK artists. “At the beginning of the dig- There are ongoing tensions, Emeli Sande’s debut record Our ital revolution it was a common however, between record labels Version of Events was the most An engineer inspects an Airbus 330 of the Sri Lankan Airlines at the international airport in Katunayake, 30km north theme to say digital is killing and the technology companies successful with 1.4million copies music,” said Edgar Berger, presi- who distribute their music, par- sold, followed by Adele’s 21 and of Colombo, yesterday. The loss-making state carrier hopes a five-year plan to fly to more profitable destinations dent, international, at Sony Music ticularly over how revenues are Ed Sheeran’s +. Lana Del Rey’s and invest in a more fuel-efficient fleet will help it break even in 2015-16, its chief executive said. Entertainment. shared and who has the real Born To Die came in fourth and “Well the reality is, digital is power in a rapidly shifting busi- One Direction’s Take Me Home saving music. I absolutely believe ness landscape. was at five. that this marks the start of a glo- According to the IFPI, the most The IFPI, which represents bal growth story. The industry successful album of 2012 was the recorded music indus- AirAsia posts 238pc jump in profit has every reason to be optimistic British singer Adele’s “21” which try led by three “major” labels about its future.” sold 8.3 million copies from 18.1 Universal, Sony and Warner KUALA LUMPUR: AirAsia, AirAsia as we continue to defy the but through all these challenges Record companies’ digital sales million in 2011. Music Group, also stressed the Asia’s largest low-cost carrier industry in terms of operational AirAsia will continue to defend rose about nine percent last year US artist Taylor Swift came role the music industry played by fleet size, said yesterday that and financial performance,” said our leadership titles,” he said. over 2011 to $5.6bn and accounted second last year with “Red” (5.2 in the broader digital and social its fourth-quarter profit jumped Malaysia AirAsia chief executive AirAsia has grown rapidly for 34 percent of income overall. million), British boyband One media explosion. 168 percent year-on-year amid officer Aireen Omar. since Fernandes, a former record Download sales increased 12 Direction took third and fourth It said the top four figures in increased passengers. For the full financial year, industry executive, bought the percent to 4.3 billion units glo- positions with “Up All Night” terms of Twitter followers were AirAsia said in a statement AirAsia recorded a 238 percent failing airline in 2001. It initially bally. Digital album sales rose 17 and “Take Me Home” respec- pop stars — Justin Bieber, Lady that net profit for the quarter jump in net profit to 1.88bn ring- had only two aircraft in operation. percent to 207 million. tively (4.5 million and 4.4mil- Gaga, Katy Perry and Rihanna — ending December 31 stood at git despite a 1.0 percent rise in the The group now has a total Subscription services such as lion), and US singer Lana Del followed by US President Barack 350.65m ringgit ($114.08m), up average fuel price this year. fleet of 120 A320s and has set Spotify and Deezer “came of age” Rey came fifth with “Born to Obama. from 130.68m ringgit in the same Its 2012 revenue increased by 11 up subsidiary budget carriers last year, according to the IFPI, Die” (3.4million). Officials vowed to continue quarter the previous year thanks percent to 5.0bn ringgit. in Indonesia, the Philippines, and are expected to cross the 10 In the digital singles charts, their fight against online piracy to “a seasonally strong quarter”. Group chief executive officer Thailand and Japan. percent mark as a share of total Canada’s Carly Rae Jepsen by urging Internet service pro- Revenue for the quarter was a Tony Fernandes was bullish The airline, one of the biggest digital music revenues for the first claimed the crown with “Call Me viders to block access to illegal record 1.41bn ringgit, up 10 per- about the year ahead as AirAsia customers for European aircraft time. Maybe” (12.5million copies sold) sites, demanding search engines cent, as more people flew the air- expands its model — no frills and maker Airbus, is expecting 360 Spotify has more than five mil- followed by Belgian-Australian to prioritise legal providers and line, which increased its aircraft keeping operational costs low. more aircraft to be delivered up lion paying subscribers compared Gotye with “Somebody That I discourage advertisers from fea- in Malaysia to more than 60. “The aviation landscape is to 2026. Last week it announced with three million at the end of Used to Know” and Psy of South turing commercials on illegal “It has been another good quar- constantly changing with high a new airline joint venture with 2011, and is the second largest Korea with “Gangnam Style”. sites. AGENCIES ter and overall a great year for fuel prices and new competition, India’s Tata conglomerate. AFP WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013 20 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com MARKET

QE Indices Summary WORLD STOCK INDICES GOLD & SILVER EXCHANGE QE Index 8,572.37 0.93 % QE Total Return Index 11,846.67 0.68 % RATE QE Al Rayan Islamic Index 2,553.38 0.38 % QE All Share Index 2,105.53 0.60 % INDEX Day’s Close Pt Chg % Chg Year High Year Low QE All Share Banks & Financial 2,012.03 0.85 % GOLD Buying Selling Services All Ordinaries 5021.797 -50.949 -1 5123 4664.6 QE All Share Consumer Goods & 4,987.67 0.05 % QR186.8401 US$ ...... QR 3.6305 QR 3.6500 Services Cac 40 Index/D 3635.21 -86.12 -2.31 3793.26 3601.05 UK ...... QR 5.4865 QR 5.5634 QE All Share Industrials 2,792.45 0.72 % SILVER QE All Share Insurance 1,919.67 0.99 % Dj Indu Average 13784.17 -216.4 -1.55 14081.6 12035.1 QR 3.3812 Euro ...... QR 4.8106 QR 4.8774 QE All Share Real Estate 1,604.5 0.28 % CA$ ...... QR 3.5165 QR 3.5857 Egypt Cma Gn Idx 1026.29 32.57 3.28 999.95 312.38 QE All Share Telecoms 1,170.29 0.84 % Swiss Fr ...... QR 3.8908 QR 3.9458 QE All Share Transportation 1,429.9 0.18 % Hang Seng Inde/D 22519.69 -300.39 -1.32 23944.74 22674.59 Yen ...... QR 0.0393 QR 0.0400 QE Market Summary Comparison Aus$ ...... QR 3.6992 QR 3.7727 Iseq Overall/D 3698.75 -10.02 -0.27 3733.41 3396.67 CRUDE OIL Today Previous day Ind Re ...... QR 0.0667 QR 0.0680 26-02-2013 25-02-2013 Karachi 100 In/D 17894.89 -125.61 -0.7 18175.65 16036.31 Index 8,572.37 8,653.07 BRENT Pak Re ...... QR 0.0368 QR 0.0375 Change 80.70 40.14 Nikkei 225 Index 11398.81 -263.71 -2.26 11662.52 10398.61 Peso ...... QR 0.0885 QR 0.0903 % 0.93 0.46 $112.68 SL Re ...... QR 0.0283 QR 0.0289 YTD% 2.55 3.52 S&P 500 Index/D 0 0 0 1530.94 1266.74 DUBAI Taka ...... QR 0.0457 QR 0.0466 Volume 8,084,358 5,988,882 Straits Times/D 3254.26 -34.5 -1.05 3319.19 3160.83 Nep Re ...... QR 0.0420 QR 0.0428 Value (QAR) 275,190,487.31 308,459,132.81 $111.15 Trades 4,059 3,703 SA Rand ...... QR 0.4088 QR 0.4170 Straits Times/D 2989.31 24.69 0.83 3035.78 2657.77 Up 11 | Down 23 | Unchanged 01

QATAR EXCHANGE | DAILY TRADING REPORT | 26-02-2013

INTERNATIONAL MARKETS A List of Shares from the world

COMPANY CLOSE NET VOLUME COMPANY CLOSE NET VOLUME COMPANY CLOSE NET VOLUME COMPANY CLOSE NET VOLUME COMPANY CLOSE NET VOLUME COMPANY CLOSE NET VOLUME NAME CHG TRADED NAME CHG TRADED NAME CHG TRADED NAME CHG TRADED NAME CHG TRADED NAME CHG TRADED

A C C-A/D 1295.35 -8.7 22507 Colgate-A/D 1294.35 -9.95 12124 Hous Dev Fin-A/D 772.15 -30 111601 Lloyd Steel-B/D 12 -0.4 56821 Tanfac Indust-/D 15 -0.05 6098 Land Secs Grou/D 815.5 -15.5 569026 Aban Offs-B/D 290.3 -9.9 60234 Container Cor-/D 1012.95 22.05 4953 I F C I-A/D 30.95 -2 3485429 Lok.Hous&Con-T/D 19.85 -0.4 5977 Tanfac Indust-/D 15 -0.05 6098 Legal & Genera/D 155.6 -3.9 4180216 Aegis Logis-B/D 133.2 -8.95 11955 Dai-Bichi Kar-/D 39.5 -0.55 1489 Idbi-A/D 93.75 -1.55 118200 Lupin-A/D 596.9 -13 46634 Thirumalai-B/D 103.7 -8.3 2482 Lloyds Bnk Grp/D 53.2813 -1.62 59707623 Ahmed.Forg-B/D 121.5 -4.8 2256 Dcm Financia-B/D 1.44 -0.06 1949 Ifb Agro-B/D 175.5 -2.6 4874 Lyka Labs-B/D 10.45 0.14 7425 Timexgroup-T/D 17.15 -0.45 15436 Marks & Sp./D 362.9 -5 2646719 Alembic-B/D 16.25 -0.2 30476 Dcm Shram Ind-/D 40.7 -1.45 2401 Ifb Ind.Ltd.-B/D 94.75 -1.45 25144 Mah.Seamless-B/D 203.6 -2.4 8707 Tinplate-B/D 44.75 -1.2 20064 Next/D 4144 -32 131186 Alkyl Amines-B/D 143.5 0.65 9192 Dhampur Sugar-/D 44.45 -2.6 7555 India Cement-B/D 85 0 83492 Maha Scooter-B/D 438.8 -11 2113 Ub Engineer-B/D 19.7 -1.3 12898 Pearson/D 1164 -7 1324450 Alok Indus-B/D 8.88 -0.4 1491088 Dr. Reddy-A/D 1765.9 -38.3 8521 India Glycol-B/D 133.1 0.15 6198 Mangalam Cem-B/D 140 -3 9736 Ub Engineer-B/D 19.7 -1.3 12898 Prudential/D 946.45 -18.5 1397235 Andhra Paper-B/D 206.95 -0.25 6528 E I H-B/D 65.1 -1 12311 Indian Hotel-A/D 56.9 -0.8 74582 Mastek-B/D 129 -7.65 2356 Ucal Fuel-B/D 60.6 -0.7 2068 Rank Group/D 164.5 -0.5 8605 Apollo Tyre-A/D 84.9 -3.85 139709 E.I.D Parry-B/D 147.95 -6.35 10181 Indusind-A/D 422.3 -4.7 54380 Max India L-A/D 238.6 -5.65 6016 Ucal Fuel-B/D 60.6 -0.7 2068 Rentokil Initi/D 91.58 -0.95 844096 Asahi I Glass-/D 50.8 -0.1 6714 Electrosteel-B/D 20.2 -0.3 87521 J.B.Chemical-B/D 81.45 0.05 12716 Mrpl-A/D 57.3 -0.8 39756 Ultramarine-B/D 54.95 0.35 11593 Rolls Royce Pl/D 1027 -2 1358693 Ashok Leyland-/D 22.65 -0.65 654936 Emco-B/D 23.1 -0.8 21270 Jagson Phar-B/D 10.52 -0.93 18932 Nahar Spg.-B/D 72.7 -1.2 17603 Unitech P -A/D 28.65 -0.65 2813625 Rsa Insrance G/D 118.85 -1.9 5926690 Ballarpur In-B/D 18.35 -0.25 36241 Escorts-B/D 61.5 -0.7 73189 Jamnaauto-B/D 79.5 1.45 1909 Nation Alum -A/D 44.95 -0.65 31511 Univcable-B/D 37.55 0.5 1878 Sainsbury(J)/D 342.8 -3.8 1381992 Banaras Bead-T/D 40.8 -0.95 3054 Essar Oil-A/D 83.2 -1.7 442487 Jbf Indu-B/D 105.55 -0.75 18958 Navneet Pub.-B/D 61.8 -0.6 14185 Uppergsugar-B/D 41.7 -0.35 2744 Schroders/D 1953 -91 234733 Bata India-A/D 759.1 -27.55 32875 Eveready Indu-/D 19.1 -0.7 100669 Jct Elect P -B/D 0.5 -0.03 145157 Nepc India-B/D 2.29 0.01 5419 Severn Trent/D 1593.8274 -18 150238 Beml Ltd-B/D 241.65 -6.95 77213 F D C-B/D 92.6 -0.2 23186 Jct Ltd-B/D 1.22 -0.03 47315 Nrb Bearings-B/D 32.8 -1.2 5444 LONDON Smith&Nephew/D 697.5 -8 498614 Bh Electronic-/D 1138.65 -44.95 2564 Federal Bank-A/D 493.65 -1.9 17793 Jenson&Nich.-B/D 3.3 0.05 9556 O N G C-A/D 306.3 -11.9 282372 Smiths Group/D 1224 -26 176696 Bhartiya Int-T/D 172.3 -4.2 19182 Ferro Alloys-B/D 6.06 0 80575 Jik Indust-B/D 1.69 0 5121 Ocl India-B/D 150.8 0.1 5196 3I Group/D 305.4 -8.1 1055254 Standrd Chart /D 1753.875 -16 1980256 Bhel-A/D 202.1 -5.45 537046 Finolex-B/D 89.6 -0.85 131510 Jindal Drill-B/D 214.6 -8.4 3695 Oil Country-B/D 42.05 -1.1 1728 Assoc.Br.Foods/D 1814 -1 357575 B Sky Tate & Lyle/D 794 -6.5 324051 Bom.Burmah-B/D 104.85 -9.25 62078 Gail-A/D 339.55 -3.75 49779 Jktyre&Ind-B/D 106.3 -2.2 2984 Onward Tech-T/D 41.9 -3.1 13830 B/D 823.125 -2.5 1270654 Tesco/D 365.25 -8.7 9058687 Bombay Dyeing-/D 94.3 -2.2 106797 Gammon India-B/D 27.4 -0.5 29102 Kabra Extr-B/D 28.3 -0.2 1591 Orchid Chem-B/D 65 -1.65 82745 Barclays/D 298.0532 -13.65 60371041 Tomkins/D 0 0 0 Cable Corp.-B/D 18.7 -0.15 2170 Gangotri Tex-T/D 2.25 -0.09 3505 Kajaria Cer-B/D 199.4 0.75 2395 Orient Hotel-B/D 19.4 -0.75 1674 Bg Group/D 1155 -14 1871250 Unilever/D 2593.4041 -34 1161941 Camph.& All-B/D 155.7 -3.55 2672 Goodricke-B/D 142.6 -3.7 14480 Kalpat Power-B/D 76.25 -4.1 14012 Orient.Carb.-B/D 98.55 2.05 3164 Bp/D 442.1 -9.05 7704247 United Util Gr/D 729 -6.5 599536 Castrol Ind-A/D 317.25 -0.6 21384 Goodyear I -B/D 286.95 0.7 3126 Kalyani Stel-B/D 46.15 -1.55 31569 Orient.Carb.-B/D 98.55 2.05 3164 Brit Am Tobacc/D 3421.5 -6 792594 Century Enka-B/D 111.3 0.65 9413 Hcl Infosys-B/D 33.3 -0.55 75145 Kg Denim-T/D 13.99 -0.03 11552 Oudh Sugar-B/D 22.7 -1.25 1563 Vodafone Group/D 162.75 -1.35 30446677 British Airway/D 276.4574 0 0 Century Text-A/D 338.55 -17.35 89568 Him.Fut.Comm-B/D 8.28 -0.02 219112 Kilburnengg-B/D 12.8 -0.75 7235 Patspin India-/D 6.68 -0.56 4164 Whitbread/D 2473 -90 809710 Bt Group/D 267.3 -4.4 14185150 Chambal Fert-B/D 61.7 -1.35 111535 Himat Seide-B/D 33.1 -1.45 8964 Kin.Motor-B/D 9.07 -0.28 3657 Radico Khait-B/D 138.05 -0.75 38948 Centrica/D 348.875 -0.4 2885051 Chola Invest-B/D 290 1.3 917266 Hind Motors-B/D 9.11 -0.28 197628 Kinetic Eng-T/D 102.55 -0.45 7021 Rallis India-B/D 119.65 -2.6 40536 Gkn/D 253.9 1.6 4647768 Chowgule St-B/D 14.05 -1.45 13140 Hind Org Chem-/D 13.8 -0.55 23627 Klg Systel-T/D 15.2 0.15 3502 Rallis India-B/D 119.65 -2.6 40536 Hsbc Holdings/D 713.1552 -16.7 9330913 Cipla-A/D 361.5 -8.85 284327 Hind Unilever-/D 452.5 0.5 134857 Kopran-B/D 15.4 -0.95 17570 Reliance Indus/D 378.65 -10.2 50890 Imperial Tobac/D 2351.6036 -2 850816 City Union Bk-/D 57 -1.2 32080 Hind.Petrol-A/D 300.35 -11.35 116842 Lakshmi Elec-B/D 158.25 -6.95 3399 Ruchi Soya-B/D 64.65 0.45 12072 Cmc Ltd-B/D 1377.7 65.65 10278 Hindalco-A/D 102 -4.8 1947732 Lloyd Metal-B/D 14.1 0 2825 S Bk Bikaner-B/D 432.65 -11.05 6093 Kingfisher/D 273.2 -7 3454488 WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013 BUSINESS www.thepeninsulaqatar.com 21 Europe falls behind in fixed, mobile services Debate over a single telecom regulator begins

BARCELONA: Europe’s top as their ability to generate cash The EU has authorised 1200 technology regulator called for is hit by fierce competition and megahertz of spectrum for wire- more consistent telecom regu- harsh regulation. less broadband, but on average lations to help create a true Europe has about 100 mobile countries have only awarded 65 regional market for mobile operators to the United State’s percent of it, she said. and fixed services and boost 6 and China’s 3, leaving a frag- Kroes’ pro-investment message investment in much-needed mented market and wary inves- is likely to be welcomed by the infrastructure. tors. As a result, Europe’s telcos bosses of Europe’s big telcos such European Union commissioner are building 4G and fibre broad- as Vodafone and Telefonica. But Neelie Kroes said the bloc’s 27 band only slowly, leaving swathes they will also have big questions member states needed to align of the region poorly covered and when they meet with Kroes yes- their approach on mobile spec- making the EU’s target to reach terday over how to translate the trum and fibre broadband, among 50 percent of the population with rhetoric into reality. other issues, or risk further weak- superfast broadband by 2020 look Among the most politically sen- ening telecom operators’ ability out of reach. sitive questions will be whether to invest in infrastructure and The situation has led many creating a true European telecom keep Europe competitive with the European telco executives to market would require having a United States and Asia. lobby the European Union for single EU regulator instead of “We need a European telecoms a more benign approach to the current system of national market that is more coherent, mergers and acquisitions to authorities who implement guid- People visit a Samsung stand on the second day of the 2013 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, yesterday. more integrated, more efficient; reduce the number of opera- ance from Brussels. with lower investor risks and tors, as well as softer regula- Kroes has not publicly called if it means losing control of spec- Vodafone Chief Executive Britain’s biggest mobile operator higher investor rewards,” said tion of mobile call termination for the creation of a single regula- trum auctions that bring billions Vittorio Colao said the challenge EE , questioned whether a single Kroes, according to a copy of fees and broadband. tor. But conversations have begun into public coffers. would be finding consensus. regulator was the right way. the speech to be delivered at the Kroes said the Commission in recent weeks among EU policy In France and the Netherlands, “I am in favour of more “The theory to have one reg- Mobile World Congress trade would be more aggressive in using makers and telecom executives regulators used spectrum auc- European integration not less; I’m ulator might be OK but there’s show. the power given to it in the EU over the idea, according to two tions to introduce fourth mobile in favour of single regulations and still risk — because you would While US, Japanese, and South Treaty to pressure states to follow people familiar with the talks. operators to boost competition making it homogenous. But it’s a have decisions that are not really Korean telcos invest heavily in Brussels’ guidance for the sector, Countries like France, Germany and lower consumer prices, and big political topic, it’s not a busi- appropriate for the UK being networks, Europe’s players have especially on releasing more spec- and Britain could oppose ceding would be wary of losing the ability ness topic.” taken in Brussels,” he said. been struggling to pay off debts trum for mobile broadband. more power to Brussels, especially to shape markets. Olaf Swantee, the head of REUTERS EU wins trade row with China, wants immediate action GENEVA/BRUSSELS: The tariffs on Chinese cargo scanners the right to appeal. “I expect China balancing a need to protect local with Europe, ranging from tel- China’s anti-dumping duties have World Trade Organisation has in 2010, a response the European to remove the measures immedi- markets from competition while ecoms equipment to solar panels. been the target of several other backed the European Union’s Union said was purely retaliatory ately,” EU Trade Commissioner avoiding a trade war in which In the X-ray scanners case, the WTO disputes, including duties challenge to Chinese duties on and broke global trade rules. Karel De Gucht said in a state- both sides hit the other with dam- EU said Chinese imports tariffs on US cars and chickens, and X-ray scanners and Brussels A WTO panel sided with the ment following the WTO ruling in aging tariffs. effectively closed the Chinese Japanese stainless steel tubes. demanded they be removed EU, according to a report pub- Geneva. “I will not accept tit-for- The EU also needs China to buy market to European security The latest ruling follows immediately, saying it would not lished yesterday, saying China’s tat retaliation against European its products and help it emerge inspection equipment and were another defeat for China’s anti- accept tit-for-tat trade retalia- decision to impose duties was not companies through the misuse of from the aftermath of the euro unjustified. The EU brought its dumping policy. In October last tion from Beijing. based on an objective examination. trade defence instruments.” zone debt crisis, but is concerned case to the WTO in July 2011, the year it was found to have broken China imposed duties of the China’s Commerce Ministry The case highlights the ten- that Beijing is using state financ- first time Brussels has challenged the rules by slapping punitive security scanners from Europe said in a statement that it would sions between two of the world’s ing to allow Chinese companies to a Chinese trade defence measures dumping duties on a type of US. in 2011 after Brussels imposed assess the judgment and reserved largest trading partners, who are produce goods that will compete before a WTO panel. Since then speciality steel. REUTERS WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013 SPORT www.thepeninsulaqatar.com 23

French call up Vahaamahina, Lawson dazzles Medard for Ireland match

PARIS: France coach Philippe Saint-Andre yesterday called up in Nuggets’ win second row forward Sebastien Vahaamahina and fullback- cum-winger Maxime Medard into his 23-man squad for their Wizards register third consecutive victory March 9 Six Nations tussle with Ireland. Saint-Andre has to conjure a DENVER, Colorado: Ty the Wizards found themselves in recovery by the French, whose Lawson scored 22 points and NBA Results is no longer quite so deep. loss to England last week left had eight assists as the Denver Washington 90 Toronto 84 “We didn’t need a wake-up call, Les Bleus rooted to the foot of the Nuggets scored 78 points in Atlanta 114 Detroit 103 we’ve already agreed to the fact table after a third straight defeat the paint en route to a 119-108 that the second half of the sea- -- something they had not suf- Denver 119 LA Lakers 108 thrashing of the mistake-prone son is very important,” Wizards fered from the outset since 1982 Los Angeles Lakers yesterday. Boston 110 Utah 107 forward Martell Webster told in the old Five Nations. Wilson Chandler scored 23 that plays extremely well at home. reporters. Perpignan’s Vahaamahina, 21, points to lead Denver, who have They obviously have advantages “We’re not focusing on the has just one cap to date -- earned won three of their past four on us in terms of their athleticism playoffs, we’re focusing on one from the bench in November’s National Basketball Association and speed,” said Bryant. game at a time. Test win over Australia -- while games. Chandler was filling in for Howard finished with 15 points “We’ve been saying that all Toulouse star Medard, 26, can injured Danilo Gallinari. and 14 rebounds in the loss. year and the end result is the end call on the experience of 31 The Nuggets had a huge 78-50 Denver seized command in the result. Right now we’re living in appearances for his country. The point advantage in the paint and first half and never looked back. the moment and once the game’s pair replace Jocelino Suta and also dominated on the free-throw The Nuggets went on a 14-4 run over, onto the next.” Benjamin Fall for the meeting at line. The Lakers missed 17 of 31 late in the first quarter to take a The return of guard John Wall, Stade de France. free throws and turned the ball 35-29 lead. the number one overall pick in “We have made these two over 15 times. Kenneth Faried scored five of the 2010 draft and the emergence changes in order to prepare our Lakers forward Dwight seven points in one stretch in of rookie Bradley Beal, who the final two matches on the basis Howard went just three-of-14 the second as the Nuggets took a Wizards took with the number of our (much improved) match from the line. 52-37 lead and then led 67-54 at three selection in last year’s against the English,” Saint-Andre Lawson has been red-hot lately half-time. draft, have been the catalyst to said in a statement. and has scored 20 or more points After visiting Denver, the Washington’s second half surge. “Collectively, we functioned bet- in seven consecutive games. Lakers return to Staples Center The Wizards are now 13-9 ter at Twickenham and we have to Heading into Monday’s contest arena for back-to-back games since Wall’s comeback from a capitalise on that.” Medard, who he was averaging 26.2 points in versus Minnesota and Atlanta. knee injury that forced him to suffered knee trouble last year to his previous half dozen games. Meanwhile, the Washington sit out the opening 33 games hamper his recent progress, was Five-time NBA champion Kobe Wizards who started the season while Bradley, the NBA’s rookie a late call-up to the squad just Bryant scored a team-high 29 with just five wins from their first of the month for December and ahead of the tournament after points and had nine assists and 33 games notched their third January, made a team-high 20 Castre’s Brice Dulin dropped six rebounds for the Lakers, who straight win and seventh in nine points against the Raptors to out through injury but was not had their three-game win streak games with a 90-84 defeat of the help Washington to just their fifth retained. He only returned to snapped. Bryant has averaged Toronto Raptors yesterday. road win of the season. competition in November but over 28 points in his last five While it would still take a “I just kept shooting, I let the impressed for his club Saturday, games. miracle for Washington (18-37) game come to me I wasn’t forcing Wilson Chandler #21 of the Denver Nuggets lays up a shot against the scoring a try in a thumping win “We came in and played a team to claim a playoff spot, the hole anything,” said Beal. AGENCIES Los Angeles Lakers at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, yesterday. over Bayonne. AFP Snooker: O’Sullivan set to defend world title LONDON: Ronnie O’Sullivan is before the entry list closed. As He added: “I am used to being Sheffield to be back playing, back of my mind that I would exhibitions but I’ve played 10 days set to end his snooker exile and reigning champion, O’Sullivan written off. I know how good I am rather than going for lunch, din- come back to playing snooker, in nine months, he said. defend his world title in April will be the top seed at the and that I can do this.” ner and chilling out,” O’Sullivan, but I needed to come back with “I’ve not played matches in this year, the English cuemaster World Championship, which O’Sullivan has played just once from Chigwell, east of London, a clear head.” tense situations and it’s going announced at a news conference starts at the Crucible Theatre since winning his fourth world explained. O’Sullivan, installed at 7-1 for to be a tough course with no in London yesterday. in Sheffield, northern England, title in May -- an uninspiring “I got bored and had to get back the title by betting firm William practice.” Four-time world champion on April 20. loss to the previously little-known to playing, winning or losing, and Hill behind 5-1 favourite Judd Former world champion O’Sullivan, 37, has played only And he insisted a lack of match Simon Bedford at a minor tour- it shows how big a part of my life Trump, has played some exhibi- Dennis Taylor, speaking before one competitive match this sea- practice was no reason to disre- nament in Gloucester, southwest snooker is. tion matches with friend Jimmy the talented O’Sullivan made son after growing disenchanted gard his title chances, saying: “I England. “I feel refreshed, I was never White but accepts returning to his announcement said snooker with snooker and had until just thought it was time to come “Three or four months ago out of juice. I needed to take competitive action will be some- badly needed to see the return of the end of February to decide back. I have a different perspec- I was sitting thinking that I some time out, but not too thing else entirely. a player nicknamed “The Rocket” whether to defend his title tive now.” would rather be losing 10-0 in much time, and I had it in the “I’ve played three or four for his speed of play. AFP Kings clip high-flying Ducks’ wings in NHL NEW YORK: The Los “The crowd was going nuts. We Angeles Kings caught fire NHL Results just had all the momentum.” with four unanswered goals The victory was a fourth Toronto 4 Philadelphia 2 to snap Anaheim’s winning straight for Los Angeles (9-6- streak and extend their own Ottawa 2 Montreal 1 2) and moved them into second in a 5-2 victory yesterday. Nashville 5 Dallas 4 place behind the Pacific-leading In a marquee matchup Chicago 3 Edmonton 2 Ducks (13-3-1), who had a six- against their cross-town Los Angeles 5 Anaheim 2 game win stretch halted. rivals, Los Angeles trailed 2-1 Goaltender Viktor Fasth saw in the second period before his magical run of winning his Brady set to unleashing a scoring binge that decided the first eight starts come to an end. game. He made 20 saves but was no match for the sign lucrative Dustin Brown tied the contest with about defending NHL champions. two minutes left in the second, and the Kings “It had to come at some point,” Fasth said. flourished on their home ice in the third where “For every win you have, you get closer to a extension, Slava Voynov, Jake Muzzin and Jeff Carter all (loss). Just start over. We have to forget this netted to seal the win. and move on.” says report “For us to come out and win that third period, Andrew Cogliano and Saku Koivu had goals that was the first time I felt we were clicking for Anaheim in the second, to sandwich a score BOSTON, Massachusetts: like we had last year,” Los Angeles defenseman from Los Angeles’ Dustin Penner. Three-time Super Bowl cham- Drew Doughty told reporters. REUTERS pion Tom Brady (pictured) has agreed to a three-year contract extension with the New England Patriots, according to a report in Sports Illustrated yesterday. The 35-year-old American Marian Hossa (left) quarterback is set to sign an of the Chicago extension worth about $27m Blackhawks con- which would keep him with the team until he is 40 years of age, trols the puck the magazine said. Brady was under pressure signed through the 2014 season. from Ryan Jones Nothing is official, as the of the Edmonton Patriots have not announced any Oilers at the new deal. United Center in Brady, who is heading into Chicago, Illinois, his 14th season in the National yesterday. The Football League, currently has a Blackhawks four-year, $72m deal with $48m defeated the Oilers guaranteed. 3-2 in overtime. Drew Brees is the NFL’s high- est-paid quarterback and would remain so, with an average salary of $20m a year. AFP WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013 24 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com SPORT Golf: Turf war hurting Asian interests SINGAPORE: The political but I don’t want to be involved in that has grown significantly. With the China event, the turf war between the Asian it, no,” Morgan said in Singapore Morgan described the snub as $2.7m Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Tour and rival OneAsia has yesterday ahead of the HSBC ‘disappointing’ and warned that Championship on the men’s created a messy environment Women’s Champions event which the bank’s involvement could European Tour, the British Open that has ruled out the involve- starts tomorrow. end, but he was confident that men’s major, an LPGA event in ment of global golf sponsor “In this part of the world it the new three-year contract Brazil and this week’s LPGA HSBC, the bank’s head of spon- hasn’t always been politically extension they had signed, which tournament, which has attracted sorship Giles Morgan said. plain sailing in golf. We sit above increased prize money and key the elite of the women’s game, The two golf circuits have been it, so that is not an issue for us.” ranking points, would help to Morgan believes their sponsor- at loggerheads since OneAsia’s The lofty perch comes through avoid a repeat scenario. ship portfolio is full, probably. inception in 2009 with tourna- their World Golf Championship “I know the European and “We never say never,” said ments swapping hands and the (WGC) HSBC Champions event PGA Tour of America are acutely Morgan, whose company also Asian Tour fining their members in Shanghai, China, with an eye- aware that if you are a big spon- heavily invest in junior golf, who competed in their rival’s catching $8.5m prize fund in sor of one of the 15 big events, including the China Junior Golf events. October. which are very expensive to put team which helped to bring Four members won a restraint As one of four WGC events, on, that sponsors are all requir- through 14-year-old Asia- of trade case against the Asian the tournament is run by the ing the top players to play. It is Pacific amateur champion Guan Tour in December over the pen- International Federation of PGA a very difficult balance and one Tianlang, alties and the rivalry of the duo Tours, whose members include I feel the game of golf needs to With a saturated market and is set to continue next month the US PGA Tour, the European police rather than sponsors. multiple professional events tak- when OneAsia’s season-opening Tour, the Japan Golf Tour, the FROM LEFT: Paula Creamer of the US and compatriot Angela Stanford, “If the World Golf ing place each week in all corners event, the Thailand Open, goes up Australasia Tour, the Sunshine Taiwan’s Yani Tseng and Norway’s Suzann Pettersen pose with the trophy Championship doesn’t offer us of the world, less is more. against the Asian Tour’s Avantha Tour and the Asian Tour. at the Marina Bay ahead of the HSBC women’s Champions in Singapore value for money at the end of the “All successful sports run the Masters in India on March 14. “That is why we were delighted yesterday. The $1.4m tournament will be hosted at Serapong Course in three years it is quite a simple risk of over-exposure,” he said. The criticism, court cases and to be a World Golf Championship Sentosa Golf Club from tomorrow to March 3 in Singapore. decision - we don’t do it. “There is a lot of golf for sure confusion were best avoided, said event, the reason we absolutely “I hope it does as there is noth- and a lot of events, that’s why I HSBC. mandated that,” Morgan said. position, Morgan and HSBC have Tiger Woods, who opted to com- ing more we can do. The way we think it is important, if you are a “We absolutely support that we “Certainly sitting at the top encountered problems. pete in a lucrative head-to-head sponsor golf tournaments is as sponsor, if you can find an event would want to see a clear hier- table of golf is a good place for a Last year’s tournament did duel elsewhere in China. The good a way as you can. The Tours that makes you stand out,” he archy for golf in Asia, there is so sponsor to be.” not feature the sport’s two top- players said they could not take are aware the last thing they said in an interview. much potential and growth here, Even with the elevated ranked players, Rory McIlroy and part in every event in a schedule want to do is lose the top brands.” REUTERS Nadal to miss Indian Wells, LEFT: Stephane Michel (left), Managing Miami Masters, says report Director of Total E&P Qatar shakes hands MADRID: Rafael Nadal will with Qatar Racing miss next month’s ATP World Equestrian Club Tour Masters Series events in (QREC) Chairman Miami and Indian Wells, the Sheikh Mohammed Madrid sports daily Marca bin Faleh Al Thani after reported yesterday. signing an agreement. The 11-time Grand Slam cham- BOTTOM: Sheikh pion has only recently returned to the court after a seven-month Mohammed (centre) injury lay-off with a persistent gives a memento knee problem but has decided to to Al Emadi’s CEO only play on clay courts as he pre- Mohammed Al pares his bid for an eighth French Emadi after signing Open title in May. a sponsorship deal Nadal, who began his campaign at the QREC yester- at the Mexico Open in Acapulco day. QREC General late yesterday against Argentine Manager Sami Jassim Diego Schwartzman, won the Al Boenain (right) is Brazil Open in just his second also seen. Al Emadi tournament since his return a Enterprises will spon- fortnight ago. sor the Thoroughbred But he admitted on arriving in Rafael Nadal of Spain signs autographs for fans after attending a practice session at the Mexican Open tennis tournament in Acapulco yesterday. Stakes race for Fillies Mexico that his knee was still was and Mares, to be not 100 percent. The tournament will last until March 2. held during the Emir’s “It’s better and I’ve been able Sword Race day on to compete but it’s still bothering me,” he said. world number four who arrives combined ATP and WTA event February 28. “It’s better on some days and in Mexico fresh from a successful also includes 2008 champion worse on others, which isn’t ideal title defence in Buenos Aires. Nicolas Almagro and Swiss PICTURES BY: JUHAIM for someone like me, because my Ferrer, 30, earned his 20th Stanislas Wawrinka, a semi-final- idea of competing is based on giv- career title and his second of 2013 ist last year who lost to Ferrer in ing it all at all times.” on Sunday and will be going for a the Buenos Aires final In Acapulco, Nadal is the fourth straight Acapulco crown. The women’s field is headed by second seed behind Ferrer, the The men’s field for this Sara Errani. AFP Querrey eases through Delray Beach Championship QSL launches new football FLORIDA: Sam Querrey bat- has never got beyond the semis tered fellow American Michael at the Delray, took just 44 min- Results Russell in the first round of utes to wrap up his match against the Delray Beach International Russell. Delray Beach, Florida: Results community programme yesterday, blasting seven aces Xavier Malisse, a Delray win- from the first day of the ATP to take the first set 6-2 before ner in 2005 and 2007, cruised Tour Delray Beach International DOHA: Qatar Nations Cup, an his opponent retired with a leg past Alejandro Falla 6-3 6-3 while Championships yesterday (x exicting football tournament, injury at 2-2 in the second. the upset of the day belonged to denotes seeding): and part of a community pro- “I thought that was the best Ivan Dodig, who beat fifth seed gramme has been been launched First Round: Xavier Malisse attitude I’ve had all year,” third Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-3 6-3. by Qatar Stars League (QSL) (BEL x8) bt Alejandro Falla seed Querrey told reporters. “I “First few games I was strug- in partnership with QSports, (COL) 6-3, 6-3; Evgeny Donskoy was hitting second serve returns gling,” Dodig said. “Coming from yesterday. (RUS) bt Steve Darcis (BEL) and taking cracks at them, and indoor to first tournament out- The new community football 7-6 (7/5), 6-3; Ivan Dodig (CRO) dominating with my forehand. It’s door, every player is struggling a programme is aimed at engaging bt Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR the most aggressive I’ve been all bit. It was a little strange.” all communities in Qatar. year.” In the day’s other match, x5) 6-3, 6-3; Sam Querrey (USA Supported by the Qatar 2022 Querrey, who lost in the second Evgeny Donskoy beat Steve x3) bt Michael Russell (USA) Supreme Committee, the QSL round in Memphis last week and Darcis 7-6 6-3. AFP 6-2, 2-2 ret. unveiled its new programme dur- ing a press conference at Al Bidda Tower to capture the imagination of both current and potential FROM LEFT: Saud Al Attiya, Legacy Director of Qatar 2022, Abdulrahman football fans throughout Qatar. Al Dosari, Chief Commercial Officer of Qatar Stars League (QSL), Hani The Qatar Nations Cup, will Taleb Balan, Deputy CEO of QSL and Ghanim Al Mohannadi, Chairman, Bolt to run the 200m in Paris encourage key communities to get QSports during a press conference at the QSL headquarters yesterday. involved in football. The 16-team PICTURE BY: SALIM MATRAMKOT PARIS: Olympic sprint cham- calibre, pointing out that before tournament represents a mixture pion Usain Bolt (pictured) has his Olympic triple feat last year, of nations from all over Qatar. been signed up to run the 200m he was available for $250,000 per The nations competing are Football Cup has been designed could transform the way people at the Diamond League meeting meeting. Qatar, Algeria, Egypt, France, to encourage the workforce of key feel about football in Qatar. in Paris in July, organisers said The Paris Diamond league India, Indonesia, Lebanon, corporations to play and follow He said: “This is an inspiring yesterday. meeting is the ninth on the main Mozambique, Northern Europe, football in Qatar. programme aimed at getting more “With Bolt, we know that athletics circuit. Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Sixteen teams representing communities in Qatar involved in we will easily fill the Stade de Jus recently, Bolt said he was Spain, Sudan, Syria and Tunisia. different companies will play football.” France.” said the head of the shocked by the news that fellow The format will be 11-a-side. 11-a-side matches in four groups “This is something we really meeting, Laurent Boquillet, add- Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius The tournament begins on of four. Matches begin on March believe can work. It is important ing that organisers had shelled had been charged with the shoot- March 1 with the group stages 15. we focus on people who are here out $300,000 (229,000 euros) to ing death of his model girlfriend. running until March 8. The final In the third programme, the in Qatar already and people who bring the Jamaican track king to Bolt was one of the stars at the will be held March 30. QSL has targeted the many resi- will arrive in the future. We must the French capital on July 6. Olympic Games in London, along The community programme dential compounds as the per- work hard to build relationships Bolt, 26, won 100m, 200m and with Britain’s Mo Farah. consists of four elements which fect environment to foster key all the time. 4x100m relay gold at last year’s Farah, who won the two gold ensure QSL clubs have the oppor- relationships. “It will take time but we have Olympics in London, repeating Olympic gold medals recently won tunity to engage with a diverse The fourth and final initiative the commitment to invest the the feat that he first achieved the New Orleans half marathon range of communities in Qatar. involves mall sports, where the time to make it work. We must in Beijing four years earlier and in a course record of one hour 59 As well as the Qatar Nations Cup, QSL can engage the different start now though. We have to cementing his reputation as the seconds. Workers Association Football social communities. work to show people what it is greatest sprinter of all time. Farah has said he will be run- Cup, Compound Sports and Mall Abdulrahman Al Dosari, chief like to fall in love with football,” Boquillet said the fee was ning half the London marathon Sports, will also be included. commercial officer for the QSL, he added during the press confer- standard for a runner of Bolt’s in April 2013. AGENCIES The Workers Association believes it is an initiative which ence. THE PENINSULA WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013 SPORT www.thepeninsulaqatar.com 25

Olympics: Glitzy St Pedrosa tops timesheets Moritz, Davos The Repsol Honda rider is fastest in pre-season testing at Sepang fret over cost

SEPANG, MALAYSIA: of Olympic bid Repsol Honda Team’s Dani Pedrosa remained on top as LANDQUART, Switzerland: MotoGP pre-season testing con- St Moritz is famous as a play- tinued in Malaysia at the Sepang ground for the rich yet financial International Circuit yesterday concerns are undermining pub- as he and rookie team-mate lic support for the glitzy resort’s Marc Marquez sandwiched the Yamaha rider bid to host the 2022 Winter Yamaha Factory Racing bike of Jorge Lorenzo Olympics in tandem with nearby world champion Jorge Lorenzo. is seen on his Davos. The day started off dry at bike during Voters in the Swiss canton of Sepang but rain after 2:30pm pre-season Graubuenden, where both towns local time resulted in much of testing at are located, will decide in a refer- the pack waiting in their garages. Sepang endum on Sunday whether or not Pedrosa, who had aimed for Circuit, Kuala to support the bid. a long stint and is now target- Lumpur, It would be a first for Davos ing that goal today, topped the yesterday. The while St Moritz, home of the timesheets with his 2’01.580 lap 2012 world Cresta run and the annual polo time. World Cup on snow, would be champion Valentino Rossi had also hosting the games for the third will begin the intended for efficient race-dis- time after 1928 and 1948. tance runs but will also have to new season at Organisers want to bring the wait, having placed his Yamaha Qatar’s Losail winter Olympics “back to the fifth. International mountains” after the city-based This he set with the 2012 spec Circuit in April. Games in Turin, Vancouver and Yamaha, as engine problems on upcoming Sochi but are having the latest 2013 model stopped him a hard time convincing the local from getting a run on it. population. The conditions confirmed that “We want to bring the winter LCR Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Olympics back to the snow, it Bradl was fourth overall, con- would be great if you could sit in tinuing to analyse the two setup the hotel and watch it snowing options he first trialled at the outside,” Joerg Schild, president earlier test. Ducati Team also saw both of programmes, with Katsuyuki incident at Turn 1 when the ART out Came IodaRacing Project’s of the Swiss Olympic Committee, With his best dry time just 17 its runners finish inside the top Nakasuga and Waturu Yoshikawa had slid away from the Spaniard. Danilo Petrucci and Cardion AB told a news conference yesterday. thousandths of a second slower ten, as Andrea Dovizioso and 2006 pairing up for Yamaha while Team-mate Randy de Puniet Motoracing’s Karel Abraham, “Turin is a beautiful city, but it than the slowest factory Honda world champion Nicky Hayden Ducati ran Michele Pirro and was 18th, completing 22 laps in who this year has switched to a took two hours by car to get to the racer, less than a second cov- managed eighth and ninth Honda Takumi Takahashi. comparison with Espargaro’s 28. CRT from a prototype Ducati. Alpine sports venues. Vancouver ered the top seven; that partic- positions. At Ignite Pramac Racing Racking up most mileage was the The field was completed by was a fantastic games but it was ular group was rounded out by The Audi-owned squad grabbed Team, Ben Spies fought to 13th aforementioned Hayden’s factory Claudio Corti on the second 1-3/4 hours to the mountains.” Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Cal attention early on as it rolled out place as he continued to battle a Ducati, as the American com- Forward Racing machine, plus Graubuenden 2022 organising Crutchlow and GO&FUN Honda its machines with brand-new fuel shoulder injury, whereas team- pleted 46 tours. Gresini’s Bryan Staring and Ioda’s committee member Gian Gilli Gresini’s Álvaro Bautista, with tanks. mate Andrea Iannone evaluated 17th fastest Hiro shi Aoyama Lukas Pesek. added: “I was in Sochi recently British rookie Bradley Smith end- Dovizioso cited he was pleased two engines in order to assess was the leading Avintia Blusens Just ahead of this trio was and it was 18 Celsius in winter.” ing the day firmly inside the top with getting more time on the the weight distribution of his representative on their FTR- the Paul Bird Motorsport ART But even the organisers admit- ten despite a small crash as he bike, and said that the upgrade, Energy T I Pramac Racing Team Kawasaki bike, with teammate of Yonny Hernandez, although ted that the referendum, the first lost the front. despite being small, was a posi- machine. Héctor Barberá seven places fur- teammate Michael Laverty was hurdle the bid must pass on its Crutchlow and Smith are both tive step. Once again, the Power ther back. unable to run on the new in-house way to the International Olympic left with no parts to test, and are Further down the order, test Electronics Aspar of Aleix Colin Edwards’ day fin- PBM bike as the team continued Committee, was on a knife-edge. focussing solely on set-up and rid- riders from all three factory out- Espargaro set the pace in the ished in 20th position for NGM to install the Magneti Marelli “It will be very close,” said Schild. ing style. fits worked on an assortment of CRT class, escaping a minor Mobile Forward Racing, edging ECU. AGENCIES The bid organisers argue that the estimated investments of 4.3m Swiss francs ($4.62bn) will Senna’s gloves Suzuki test rider says team be repaid by the boost in tourism which will result from staging of Ducati MotoGP auctioned for the event. rider Nicky on track for 2014 return Of this, 1.5bn would be on £22,000 Hayden of the transport on sporting infrastruc- US sits in his SEPANG, MALAYSIA: Suzuki is ramping up testing as it seeks ture and 2.46bn would be on run- LONDON: A pair of regular pit during a to return to MotoGP next year, test rider Nobuatsu Aoki said yes- ning the game. racing gloves worn by the late pre-season terday, adding that the team’s new bike was performing better than They say that the bid is sustain- Ayrton Senna in the 1991 season test at Sepang expected. able and environmentally friendly when he won his third Formula Circuit outside The 41-year-old, who last raced a full season in 2004, said the and that much of the necessary One title sold for £22,000 Kuala Lumpur Japanese outfit had been testing at home on the Motegi track and infrastructure already exists. ($33,200) at a charity auction yesterday. plans to head to Barcelona in Spain after the Catalunya Grand Prix Opponents fear the environ- for Grand Prix mechanics on Hayden, the in mid-June. mental impact of new buildings, Monday. 2006 world “We are on schedule (for 2014). We just launched a new bike last ski lifts and other infrastructure The framed gloves, donated champion, week. It performed quite good, better than I expected,” the Japanese on the Alpine environment. They by former McLaren team co- this season rider said on the sidelines of pre-season tests at Malaysia’s Sepang are also are concerned that the ordinator Jo Ramirez who was a will be joined circuit. Suzuki has been planning a return to the premier-class grid initial budget will spiral out of friend and colleague, were bought since last year after pulling out at the end of 2011, when it ran just one control, as invariably happens by Andrea by Gerard Lopez - owner of the bike in the competition after going winless since 2007. with major sporting events. Dovizioso, who current Lotus team that traces its However Dorna, which runs MotoGP, has reportedly said the grid “This is an enormous chance lineage back to the Toleman out- moved from is already full and Suzuki must come to an agreement with another to give tourism a big boost in the fit that the Brazilian made his F1 the Tech 3 outfit if none of the teams pull out for next season. region,” Sigi Asprion, head of debut with in 1984. Yamaha squad Aoki said he was unaware of any arrangements being made by Suzuki, the St Moritz town council, said. Senna also raced for Lotus, to replace but noted that while it would be cheaper to join up with an existing “If we can we show ourselves as related only by name to the Valentino team, the manufacturer would want its own setup. He said a European a place for winter holidays, the present team, from 1985-87. Rossi, who rider would be joining the Japanese manufacturer soon but declined to whole of Switzerland will benefit.” The 11 lots in the auction at returned to the name him. “Maybe French, maybe Italian, I don’t know.” Tarzisius Caviezel, the head London’s Royal Opera House factory Yamaha This is the second test session at Sepang, continuing until Thursday, of the bid, rejected any sugges- raised more than £92,000 for the set-up. after the first pre-season tests three weeks ago. A third session will tion it would be environmentally Grand Prix Mechanics Charitable be held in Jerez from March 23 to 25 before the opening round of the destructive. Trust, chaired by triple champion MotoGP world championship in Qatar under floodlights on April 7. “This is an unfounded criti- Jackie Stewart. REUTERS Malaysia will host round 15 on October 13. REUTERS cism because, from the start, we have given great importance to this ecological aspect and we have ensured that not one piece of wood will have to be pulled up,” he said. But the locals are still worried. Heir Apparent Cup: Al Gharafa post win “Pressure to say yes to this has been enormous, including BY DANOTZKI SANTOS shirts farther away at 59-48 after from public officials, but I think 30 minutes of play. that pressure in recent days has DOHA: Al Gharafa, getting off Al Sadd, starring veterans Sadd shifted to the bid committee,” to a blazing start and taking Abdulrahman and Mousa Daoud, Juerg Grassl, an architect who command all-game long, fash- uncorked a 9-2 assault to cut the Action lives in Davos and works in Chur, ioned out a rousing 81-72 vic- deficit to four points, 57-61, barely from Al said. tory over Qatar Men’s League a minute and a half gone in the Ahli’s Karin Bravo, a 41-year-old opti- champions Al Sadd in the open- final quarter but Gharafa’s other match cians’ receptionist from Davos, ing game last night of this year’s addition to their line-up Robin against said the region was too small for Heir Apparent Cup at the Al Omondi Amoke took over and Eljaish on such a big event. Gharafa Indoor Arena. steered an 8-0 counter-offensive day one “I find it too risky. It’s much Coach Koussay Hatem’s wards to push his team to a 69-57 lead, of the Heir too large an event for Davos and had Al Sadd’s numbers from with 6:15 to go in the game. Apparent St. Moritz alone, but would be opening tip-off, as they raced to Coach Dejan Tomic’s charges Cup in all right if it was carried out in an early 18-10 advantage en route would then find their second wind Doha all of Switzerland,” she said. “I to a 39-30 cushion at halftime and closed in anew, 67-71, in the yesterday. was almost swayed by the good behind the prolific tandem of new next 3 minutes only to succumb concept the bid committee put Eljaish recruits Victor Hakim Thomas eventually to Al Gharafa who together, but the costs are opaque won 76-61. and Calvin Earl Cage. capped the match with a 10-5 fin- and it will incur a lot of debt.” Thomas continued to dominate ish to take control until the final She said another problem was both ends of the floor in the third buzzer. affordable housing in Davos, period, and with Awako Emanuel Thomas and Amoke each already suffering from event helping out would push the blue dished out a double-double, with fatigue from its annual hosting the former leading in scores and remainder of the match to reg- Teams in each group play a the 2nd placer in Group 2, and of the annual World Economic rebounds with 23 and 13, while ister a convincing 76-61 first win single round-robin with the first the other between the 1st placer Forum. “If the bid is accepted, Today’s fixtures the latter contributing 12 points and join Al Gharafa on top of and second placers in each group in Group 2 versus the 2nd placer it will mean a lot of construc- Al Gharafa Indoor Hall and 12 rebounds. Group 1 with a 1-0 win-loss slate. advancing to the cross-over semi- in Group 1. tion, which would jeopardise our Later in the evening, Eljaish Al Rayyan, Al Arabi, Al finals which will be a pair of best- The winners battle for the summer tourism season. The 5:00pm Al Arabi vs Al Wakrah overcame a lacklustre start Wakrah, Qatar Sports Club and of-five matches, the first between crown in a sudden-death show- Olympics won’t make up for that 7:00pm Qatar SC vs Al Shamal to overpower Al Ahli in the Al Shamal and in Group 2. the 1st placer in Group 1 versus down. THE PENINSULA shortfall.” REUTERS WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013 26 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com SPORT

Hungarian Bale inspires Spurs’ win admits to match-fixing The Welshman scores brace in 3-2 win; the London club in third spot ahead of trial

LONDON: A stunning late nothing but watch in desperation BUDAPEST: Former strike from red-hot Tottenham as Bale let rip from around 30 defender Gabor Horvath has Hotspur winger Gareth Bale metres to break the hosts’ hearts. lifted the lid on the extent lifted the Londoners to a 3-2 Welshman Bale had signalled of match-fixing in Hungary, win over West Ham United on his intent early on when he took which has been a focus for Monday that took them up to the ball outside the box and investigators looking at global third in the Premier League skirted a few challenges before corruption in soccer. table. sending a fierce shot into the The 29-year-old, who played Bale, who has scored eight crowd. for Hungarian top-flight teams times in his last six games, also Bale opened the scoring when Siofok and Diosgyor, now works netted the game’s opener after he evaded the West Ham defend- in Dubai as a personal trainer 13 minutes but he left his best ers having picked up the ball on but will return to his home until the 90th minute when he the edge of the box before plac- country to go on trial with 45 unleashed a rocket of a shot past ing a low left-footed shot across other suspects. goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen. Jaaskelainen into the net. “I could not avoid the match- Spurs went two points clear of “He’s a super talent. He’s fixing. I did bet on our games Chelsea on 51 points while West making the difference every that were fixed, yes, I earned Ham dropped to 14th on a poign- single game,” Tottenham man- lots of money out of it but ant night for the east London ager Andre Villas-Boas told Sky also spent it easily,” he told club, who honoured former player Sports. Hungarian media on Tuesday. and England’s 1966 World Cup- Spurs goalkeeper Hugo Lloris Horvath rowed back from winning captain Bobby Moore on was less busy than his counter- previous comments that there the 20th anniversary of his death. part but made a crucial inter- were 500 players fixing matches A 25th-minute penalty from vention with his side 2-1 down in Hungary but still said the Andy Carroll and a Joe Cole when he stormed out of goal to practice had been widespread. strike in the second half brought deny Matt Taylor, who was clean “It is a pity that I was at the the home fans more cheer through on the right side of the peak of my career when this until Iceland midfielder Gylfi area. disease flourished in Hungary, Sigurdsson levelled for Spurs with Bale said is team had never Tottenham Hotspur Gareth Bale (left) celebrates after scoring a goal with his manager Andre Villas Boas against and I caught it too like so many 14 minutes remaining and Bale given up hope of a win to put West Ham United during the English Premier League match at Upton Park in London, Britain, on Monday. others,” he added. completed the visitors’ comeback. them in an even stronger posi- Last week Hungarian inves- Former Finland keeper tion to seal their highest Premier tigators finished a four-year Jaaskelainen had been in bril- League finish, having finished that,” Bale said when asked if the “We know what we’re capable played really well,” he said on probe into match-fixing in the liant form to deny Tottenham fourth twice. team had thought it was not their of and we’re confident. We keep Monday. Tottenham play Arsenal, country with the Nemzeti Sport on several occasions but could do “We haven’t been thinking like day. battling to the end. The team on Sunday. REUTERS newspaper saying 33 matches were involved in the trial. Horvath, who was released from custody pending the Beckham to start in Cup tie: Ancelotti trial, has already given written testimony. PARIS: Paris Saint-Germain’s -- he sent in a few balls during “After the police arrested new star recruit, English vet- the quarter hour he played. If me, I spent an awful night in eran David Beckham (pic- PSG retain the same strategy a jail where I thought over the tured), will start in the French as Sunday he will rapidly fit the whole story. I can only be angry Cup round of 16 encounter mould in terms of passing and with myself, only then I realised against rivals Marseille, coach dead ball situations. what I had done,” he said. Carlo Ancelotti said yesterday. “But we will be out to get the “I have no fear but I am not “Yes, Beckham will start best result possible. Paris are calm either. Not a day passes in the position of (suspended putting in place a future of the without thinking of the oth- midfielder) Marco Verratti,” highest quality but in a one-off ers who are still in jail. I have Ancelotti told reporters before match we can knock them out regrets, I lost almost all of my today’s game. of their stride and get a result,” friends, but I told the truth to “It’s an important position,” Baup insisted. the investigators.” added Ancelotti. “Beckham While PSG are targeting a No date has yet been fixed for must help make the play and domestic league and cup dou- the trial. defensively have a good tactical ble, something they have never European anti-crime agency position on the pitch -- he will achieved before, this match is Chelsea’s Spanish Interim manager Rafael Benitez gestures before the Europol caused consternation in have the same things to do as arguably more important for English Premier League football match against Manchester City at the football when it announced on Verratti,” said Ancelotti, who Marseille. Etihad Stadium in Manchester, northwest England, on Sunday. Feb. 4 that some 680 matches believes the 37-year-old still has win over Marseille which put the They are now eight points were suspected to have been plenty to offer. capital club three points clear. adrift of top spot in Ligue 1, fixed in a global betting scam “Can he still take corners and Marseille coach Elie Baup, meaning the Cup represents run from Singapore, although freekicks? He has the quality to having been on the receiving end their only realistic hope of win- critics said many of the games do so,” said the Italian. “Beckham of Beckham’s talents last Sunday, ning any silverware this season. Benitez denies row were already known about. can play a whole match, he has said yesterday his men were fore- The Marseille squad have Media reports say Hungarian the quality to play in the middle warned as they look to end their stayed in the Paris area to pre- clubs are central to the global of the park.” rivals’ cup hopes. pare for what will be the fourth probe and Debrecen goalkeeper The former Manchester Noting PSG’s speed in launch- meeting of the clubs this season, with Chelsea squad Vukasin Poleksic has been United and Real Madrid star, ing attacks, he suggested the with PSG having won one and forced to deny attempting to on a five-month contract, made former England star was a good drawn one of the two encounters. LONDON: Interim manager with a knee problem,” added the fix his side’s Champions League a cameo debut appearance from fit for his new club. They also won 2-0 when the Rafael Benitez has denied hav- Spaniard, the ninth Chelsea man- match with Liverpool in 2009. the bench at the weekend, setting “Beckham absolutely has his teams met in the last 16 of the ing a training-ground row with ager since Roman Abramovich REUTERS up the second goal in a 2-0 league place in the role of supplier League Cup. AFP the Chelsea squad although he bought the club in 2003. said captain John Terry had Former England captain Terry, shown his frustrations over the 32, has been a regular starter at 2-0 defeat at Manchester City centre half throughout his one- Germans back Barca waiting on Sunday. club career at Stamford Bridge According to media reports, but he has been left on the side- Turks for Euro for Neymar’s Benitez told the players yesterday lines by Benitez in several recent their attitude had cost a series of games. 2020 semis, final green light managers the sack and also criti- “He has missed some train- cised them for a lack of effort and ing sessions and has had special for failing to grasp tactics. treatment on his knee,” said the FRANKFURT: Germany MADRID: Barcelona vice- “It was a normal meeting Spaniard. “We are managing him. plans to be one of the hosts for a president Josep Maria Bartomeu between players and techni- Benitez denied there was a pan-European Euro 2020 and is has admitted that the Catalan cal staff that we have after problem in his relationship with ready to back Turkey as host of club will be in the running to every game...nothing else,” the Terry and also scotched the idea the semi-finals and final itself, sign Brazilian striker Neymar Spaniard told a news conference that he had talked to his players German Football Federation if and when he decides to leave ahead of holders Chelsea’s FA about previous Chelsea managers. chairman Wolfgang Niersbach Santos. Cup fifth-round tie at second tier “I have a fantastic relation- said yesterday. The Spanish league leaders Middlesbrough today. ship with the players,” said the “It’s still open who will be a have been following the 21-year- “To show your disappointment former Liverpool, Inter Milan and candidate,” said Niersbach, who old Brazilian international for after a defeat is normal. I can Valencia manager. “We are train- said the DFB would discuss its some time and could make a bid Football legend Argentinian Diego Maradona juggles with a ball during understand Terry’s frustration ing really well. plans in a March 15 meeting. to land him this summer despite a press conference yesterday in Naples. Maradona, who rarely stepped because he is an important player “I’ve said it before and I’ll say But in the meantime he the fact that his contract with foot in Italy since leaving under a cloud in the 1990s amid claims of for us. it again, the atmosphere is really revealed that he agreed with other Santos expires in 2014. collusion with mafia dons and a positive drugs test for cocaine, asked “He is trying to help because he good. I have a good group of play- observers who believe Turkey is “He is a player that all manag- for “justice” in his dispute with Italian tax authorities on an emotional is trying to win and I can under- ers, they’re working hard and are favourite to stage the semis and ers would want,” Bartomeu told stand his frustration because keen to learn. the trophy match if Istanbul fails trip to Naples Barcelona Televisio. he’s been injured for 16 weeks REUTERS in its bid to host the 2020 Olympic “When he says we want to leave Games, with that decision set to Santos, Barca will be there trying fall on September 8. to sign him.” Udinese stall Napoli as Lazio regain third place “If the Turks go for the final Indeed a 10 million euro pay- rounds then we will not go up ment in Barca’s annual accounts against them. They have our word attributed to ‘signed commit- MILAN: Udinese stalled Napoli’s Serie “Obviously the win would have been better Lazio broke the deadlock in the 29th minute on that,” Niersbach said. ments’ has been rumoured to have A title challenge with a scoreless draw on for us but we created opportunities and simply when Romanian defender Stefan Radu first- Bayern Munich’s 72,000-capac- been a down payment to Santos. Monday as Lazio reclaimed third place didn’t have the rub of the green.” timed Senad Lulic’s cut-back to smash the ball ity Allianz Arena last week was However, Bartomeu denied that from AC Milan with a 2-0 win over Pescara Opportunity knocked, and in Monday’s late past Ivan Pelizzoli and into the top corner off officially unveiled as a candidate any move for Neymar would inev- thanks to a pair of sublime long-range goals. match Lazio eased past struggling Pescara to a the crossbar. to stage Euro 2020 action with itably result in David Villa leaving Napoli had hoped to capitalise on the extra 14th league win which moved the Biancocelesti Barely six minutes later Pescara’s defence organisers UEFA having offered the club. day’s rest after their Europa League exit at one place up to fourth. gave Lulic time and space to advance and he would-be venues the choice of Villa has struggled to find a the hands of Czech side Viktoria Plzen last Milan, who drew 1-1 with Inter in the repaid them by sending another sublime strike staging three group matches regular place in the side since Thursday to close the gap on leaders Juventus ‘Derby della Madonnina’ on Sunday, went the inside the beaten Pelizzoli’s right hand post. and then a last 16 encounter or returning from a broken tibia at to four points. other way. Pescara had little to offer and Lazio should a quarter-final, or else the two the start of the season and Spain’s However Walter Mazzarri’s title challengers “We needed the three points we took tonight have made it three when Sergio Floccari semis and the final. all-time leading scorer has been were left lamenting several missed chances to get us up and running again, and we’re back wasted Radu’s delivery by shooting wide of Turkey had been hoping to be closely linked with a move to during a performance which left them six up to third ahead of our rivals,” said Lazio Pelizzoli just after the hour. the sole host nation for Euro 2020 Arsenal come the summer. points off the pace. coach Vladimir Petkovic, whose side next face Napoli, meanwhile, underlined their inten- until UEFA president Michel Bartomeu is hoping that is not Mazzarri, however, refused to point the Milan away on Saturday. tions by starting with Edinson Cavani, Lorenzo Platini revealed his plan for a the case, although he accepted finger. “It was important to go into our game to Insigne and Marek Hamsik. Europe-wide competition. Villa would not be kept against “If we played like that against Juventus we’d Milan with a positive frame of mind. We’ll be a But the visitors were left frustrated after a The championship will involve his will. AFP still have given them a game,” said the coach. bit more relaxed for our trip to the San Siro.” goalless 90 minutes. AFP 24 nations. AFP WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013 SPORT www.thepeninsulaqatar.com 27 Lekhwiya begin ACL campaign with a win Al Shabab of Saudi Arabia beat Qatar’s Eljaish 2-0

DOHA: First-half goals from minutes after the initial chested fashion with a 3-1 win over Al Seoul, who will have their own Sebastian Soria and Youssef effort had been saved by Lekhwiya Jazira of UAE. claims on the Asian title. Msakni secured Qatar Stars goalkeeper Baba Malick. Meanwhile, Marcello Lippi’s Buriram United, rocked last League champions Lekhwiya Lekhwiya, though, responded Guangzhou Evergrande swept week by claims that their Thai a 2-1 comeback victory over just nine minutes later with Soria aside Japan’s Urawa Red FA Cup final win against Army AFC Champions League play- on hand to turn home an inviting Diamonds 3-0 in an AFC United was targeted by match- off winners Shabab Al Arabi cross from Senegalese midfielder Champions League opener fixers, started positively when at Lekhwiya Sports Stadium Issiar Dia. crackling with political tensions they came back from a goal down yesterday. And the home side completed and played under heavy security to draw Japan’s Vegalta Sendai 1-1 Edgar’s early opener had put the comeback 12 minutes before yesterday. away. UAE Pro League side Shabab Al half-time when a free-kick from As the Asian competition got At Nonthaburi’s Thunderdome Arabi, who beat Iran’s Sabaye Tunisia international Msakni beat underway with goals and an out- Stadium, fellow Thai team Qom on penalties earlier this Shabab Al Arabi goalkeeper Salim landish “Panenka” penalty, the Muangthong United also earned month to earn a place in the Al Hammadi via the upright. Chinese double-holders began a priceless draw when they twice India’s Sachin Tendulkar smashes a delivery from Australian spinner group stage for a second consec- Al Shabab Al Arabi pressed for their campaign in ominous style came from behind to draw 2-2 Nathan Lyon for a six on the fifth and final day of the first Test match in utive season, on course to spoil an equaliser in the second half but as they dispatched the 2007 win- with Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, Chennai yesterday. India won the Test match by eight wickets. Lekhwiya’s night at their new Lekhwiya remained resolute in ners at home. the 2006 winners and 2011 home. defence. Chinese media said 11,000 runners-up. But after Qatar international Yesterday, another Qatar Stars police and security were deployed Muangthong went 1-0 down to Soria pulled Lekhwiya level, a League side Eljaish were not so to prevent any flare-up in nation- an early Lee Dong-Gook penalty free-kick from Tunisia forward lucky. alist violence. but they equalised on the stroke Msakni 12 minutes before the The Razvan Lucescu coached But Lucas Barrios’s 16th- of half-time courtesy of Mario Eight-wicket break ultimately proved the dif- side lost to Saudi Arabia’s Al minute opener helped calm the Djurovski’s sublime “Panenka”, ference in the Group B opener as Shabab 2-0 in the Group A match atmosphere and Muriqui weighed chipped-down-the-middle Lekhwiya followed up last year’s in Riyadh. in with a second goal after half- spot-kick. opening day success over eventual An own goal in the 33rd minute time. At the death, Keita Suzuki Belgian forward Kevin Oris finalists Al Ahli. from Anderson Martins and a put the ball into his own net to looked to have stolen the points Having won their play-off in second one six minutes later by make it an emphatic start for for the visitors on 77 minutes win for India Iran, Al Shabab Al Arabi enjoyed Omar Al Ghamdi sealed the fate Guangzhou. but Muangthong’s South Korean more success on their travels as of the Qatari club. Fellow Chinese team Jiangsu import Kim Yoo-Jin had the last CHENNAI: Sachin Tendulkar Ravichandran Ashwin bagged Brazilian striker Edgar (Edgar In another Group A match, Sainty had a rude introduction to word when his header found the smashed two sixes off succes- five for 95 to follow up his seven- Bruno da Silva) turned home Tractorsazi Tabriz began their the competition when they were net via a Jeonbuk defender with sive deliveries to hasten India’s wicket haul in Australia’s first Azizbek Haydarov’s cross at the maiden campaign in the AFC hammered 5-1 in their debut out- just two minutes to go. eight-wicket victory in the first innings. second attempt after just 11 Champions League in impressive ing by K-League champions FC AGENCIES cricket Test against Australia at Australia made it tough for the the MA Chidambaram Stadium Indians to get to the meagre tar- here yesterday. get. James Pattinson(1/13) struck AFC Champions India have gone one up in the to remove Vijay (6), Henriques four-Test series. pulling off a overhead stunner at League After removing the last mid-off. Australian wicket for the addition Nathan Lyon (1/29) struck GUANGZHOU, CHINA: of only nine more runs to their in the 10th over to get rid of Results from the opening day overnight score 232, India were Virender Sehwag (19), easily of the AFC Champions League left to score 50 to win. caught at slip by Michael Clarke. yesterday: They attained it for the loss The 39-year-old Tendulkar Group E of openers Murali Vijay and walked in at 36 for two and Virender Sehwag cheaply for a straightaway lofted Lyon for two At Sendai second time in the match. consecutive sixes over mid-on and Vegalta Sendai (JPN) 1 (Ryang Yong-Gi 52- Skipper Mahendra Singh that left India two more runs to pen) Buriram United (THA) 1 (Osmar 75) Dhoni was adjudged Man-of- win. At Seoul the-Match for his brilliant 224 Peter Siddle bowled a maiden that helped India put on a mam- next, and Pujara got the wining FC Seoul (KOR) 5 (Damjanovic 8, 61, Yun moth 572 in the first innings in runs. Il-Lok 33, 56, Molina 87) Jiangsu Sainty reply to Australia’s 380. The right-hand batsman got an (CHN) 1 (Salihi 80) Debutant Moises Henriques edge and Wade failed to gather Group F was left 19 short of a well- the ball that lobbed over a leaping deserved hundred when last man Clarke at slip. At Guangzhou Nathan Lyon was caught bat-pad Lyon was left kicking the Guangzhou Evergrande (CHN) 3 (Barrios 16, off left-arm spinner Ravindra ground as celebrations broke out Muriqui 64, Suzuki 90 OG) Jadeja, who finished with three in the Indian dressing room. Urawa Red Diamonds (JPN) 0 for 72. IANS At Nonthaburi Muangthong United (THA) 2 (Djurovski 45, Scoreboard Kim Yoo-Jin 88) Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors Australia (I innings): ...... 380 5-121, 6-131, 7-137, 8-161, 9-175. (KOR) 2 (Lee Dong-Gook 5-pen, Oris 77) India (I innings): ...... 572 Bowling: Ravichandran Ashwin 32-6-95-5; Group A Australia (II innings): Harbhajan Singh 27-6-55-2; Ravindra Jadeja At Tabriz Ed Cowan lbw Ashwin ...... 32 31-8-72-3; Ishant Sharma 3-1-2-0. Shane Watson c Sehwag b Ashwin ...... 17 India (II innings): Tractorsazi Tabriz (IRI) 3 (Mehdi Salehi 37, David Warner lbw b Harbhajan Singh ...... 23 M Vijay c Henriques b Pattinson ...... 6 Kazemian 60, Ebrahimzadeh 81) Al Jazira Phil Hughes c Sehwag b Jadeja ...... 0 V Sehwag c Clarke b Lyon ...... 19 (UAE) 1 (Ali Mabkhout 79) Michael Clarke lbw Ashwin ...... 31 C Pujara (not out) ...... 8 At Riyadh Matthew Wade b Harbhajan Singh ...... 8 S Tendulkar (not out) ...... 13 Al Shabab (KSA) 2 (Martins 33-own goal, Dame Traore (left) of Qatar’s Lekhwiya fights for the ball with Hassan Safar of UAE’s Al-Shabab during their AFC Moises Henriques (not out) ...... 81 Extras (B-4) ...... 4 Al Ghamdi 39) Eljaish (QAT) 0 Champions League match at the Abdulla Bin Khalifa Stadium in Doha, yesterday. Lekhwiya won 2-1. Peter Siddle b Jadeja ...... 2 Total (for 2 wkts) ...... 50 James Pattinson c Sehwag b Ashwin ...... 11 Fall of wickets: 1-16, 2-36. Group B Mitchell Starc c Tendulkar b Ashwin ...... 8 Bowling: James Pattinson 3-1-13-1; Nathan At Tashkent Nathan Lyon c Vijay b Jadeja ...... 11 Lyon 5.3-0-29-1; Peter Siddle 3-2-4-0. Pakhtakor (UZB) 1 (Abdukholikov 73) Al Extras (B-15, LB-2) ...... 17 Result: India won by eight wickets, lead Ettifaq (KSA) 0 Total (all out) ...... 241 4-match series 1-0 Thai, Bahraini FA chiefs Fall of wickets: 1-34, 2-64, 3-65, 4-101, Man-of-the-Match: M S Dhoni (India). At Doha Lekhwiya (QAT) 2 (Soria 20, Msakni 33) Al Shabab Al Arabi (UAE) 1 (Silva 10) Playing today seek AFC leadership Warne gives pep talk Group C KUALA LUMPUR: At Isfahan The con- Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa Lord Triesman of involvement in troversial head of Thai football had also confirmed he would a scandal concerning bribes for Foolad Sepahan (IRI) vs Al Nasr (UAE) has thrown his hat into the ring stand, World Football Insider said officials from world governing to Australian team At Sharayea for the leadership of turmoil- on its website. body FIFA in return for backing plagued Asian football, as a The 46-member AFC will elect England’s World Cup bid. CHENNAI: Australian team Warne, on the commentary Al Ahli (KSA) vs Al Gharafa (QAT) report said Bahrain’s boss would a new leader on May 2, hoping to Worawi, who has denied wrong- management received a pep talk panel for the first Test, walked Group D also stand in coming elections. move on from nearly two years doing, did not answer calls from from spin legend Shane Warne on to the middle and spoke to the Al Ain City Football Association of of turmoil over allegations of AFP. An AFC spokesman declined following their eight-wicket loss coaches and captain for about 20 Thailand chief Worawi Makudi wrongdoing including bribery by to comment on the Thai. to India in the first cricket Test minutes, reports Herald Sun. Al Ain (UAE) vs Al Hilal (KSA) said he would seek to heal the bin Hammam. The Qatari denies The AFC is currently headed by here yesterday. Spin strategy for the next Test At Doha Asian Football Confederation the allegations. caretaker Zhang Jilong of China, Talking to players is not new for beginning in Hyderbad Saturday Al Rayyan (QAT) vs Esteghlal (IRI) (AFC) if elected leader of the But Worawi, an ally of bin who is considered the front-run- Warne, who had earlier issued a was expectedly part of the agenda body, which is seeking a replace- Hammam and one of the most ner to secure the presidency in two-part manifesto to fix some of with Lyon and Doherty also in Group G ment for its scandal-hit former influential men in Asian football, the elections in Kuala Lumpur, the issues hampering Australian attendance. At Hiroshima boss Mohamed bin Hammam. brings his own baggage. where the organisation is based. cricket. Warne later gently refused Sanfrecce Hiroshima (JPN) vs Bunyodkor “My main target as the AFC In September he denied fraud Zhang has said the AFC Warne last month launched to divulge details of his meeting (UZB) president would be to bring eve- allegations made by a South must leave its controversial past a scathing attack on Cricket with players while Clarke spoke at rybody together and to unite the Korean firm in connection with behind and enter a new era of Australia, calling some of its length about bouncing back. On a At Pohang Asian Football Confederation,” the early cancellation of a multi- “transparency”. officials “muppets”, including lighter note, the skipper also said Pohang Steelers (KOR) vs Beijing Guoan Worawi, 61, said in a statement million-dollar broadcast rights The AFC is the largest of six high-performance manager Pat that the selectors might think of (CHN) late Monday. deal. federations that make up FIFA. Howard and selection chief John roping in Warne. Group H The statement was released Worawi was cleared in 2011 World Football Insider had Inverarity. “Bring them to India, more after a meeting in Kuala of accusations that funds meant previously reported that Yousuf Yesterday, Warne was seen at spinners? We’ll bring the whole At Gosford Lumpur of the ASEAN Football for the Thai FA to build facili- al-Serkal, the head of the United the Chepauk ground here, hav- country here soon,” Clarke Central Coast Mariners (AUS) vs Suwon Federation, a grouping of ties were instead spent on build- Arab Emirates FA, also planned ing a lengthy chat with captain quipped. Bluewings (KOR) Southeast Asian football associa- ing assets on land he owned in to stand. Michael Clarke, coach Mickey Joked about Warne’s presence tions that said it “unanimously” Bangkok. The deadline for AFC leader- Arthur, fielding coach Steve here: “Warnie is in town, I’ll see At Guiyang supported Worawi. He was previously accused by ship nominations is March 3. Rixon and spinners Nathan Lyon if he’s available.” IANS Guizhou Renhe (CHN) vs Kashiwa Reysol (JPN) Bahrain’s FA chief Sheikh former English FA chairman AFP and Xavier Doherty. Wednesday 27 February 2013 17 Rabial II Safar 1434 Volume 17 Sport Number 5623 Price: QR2

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com [email protected] | [email protected] Editorial: 44557741 | Advertising: 44557837 / 44557780 Djokovic, Del Potro advance in Dubai Davydenko breezes past Tipsarevic

DUBAI: World number one Open champion, although the Novak Djokovic did not let Dubai Open Argentinian nearly did not sur- friendship prevent him from Results from the second day of the Dubai vive beyond the first round. carrying on where he left off Open yesterday (x denotes seeding): Del Potro had to save four last month when he made a suc- match points to beat Marcos First Round cessful defence of his Australian Baghdatis, the former Australian Open title at the Dubai Open Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG x4) bt Marcos Open finalist from Cyprus, by 4-6, here yesterday. Baghdatis (CYP) 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) 6-4, 7-6 (7/4). Djokovic’s attempt to win back Tobias Kamke (GER) bt Baghdatis, ranked 36, got his the Dubai Open title began with Mikhail Kukushkin (KAZ) 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 chances as Del Potro was serv- a 6-1, 6-4 win over Viktor Troicki, Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) bt ing at 4-5 in the final set, when the fellow Davis Cup player with Janko Tipsarevic (SRB x6) 6-0, 7-5 the seeded player went 15-40 and whom he grew up and shared ten- Victor Hanescu (ROM) bt then advantage point down. nis courts many times in the city Bernard Tomic (AUS) 3-2 - rtd On the first two match points of Belgrade. Marcel Granollers (ESP) bt Baghdatis was a little passive, The top-seeded Serbian moved Albert Montanes (ESP) 6-3, 6-1 allowing Del Potro to work his so swiftly and turned defence into Dmitry Tursunov (RUS) bt way out of difficulty, and on the attack so suddenly that it was Jan Hajek (CZE) 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 third Del Potro launched a good hard to believe four weeks had first serve and a fine follow up Tomas Berdych (CZE x3) bt passed since he last played singles forehand. Nikolay Davydenko, Rajeev Ram (USA) 6-1, 6-3 on the ATP tour. who hopes to return to the top The only blemish in Djokovic’s Novak Djokovic (SRB x1) bt 20 this year as part of his fare- performance was letting slip an Viktor Troicki (SRB) 6-1, 6-4 well to the tour, reached the sec- early break of serve in the second Michael Llodra (FRA) bt ond round too, the former world set, when he delivered a moderate Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA x5) 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 number three from Russia beat- second serve and missed with a ing Janko Tipsarevic, the sixth- backhand drive to allow Troicki really well in the first set. I read seeded Serbian, 6-0, 7-5. back to 4-4. his serve well, and I was aggres- But Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the But he intensified his focus sive in the court. fifth-seeded Frenchman, was and broke again immediately, “So altogether I am satisfied beaten by his Davis Cup team with some resilient containing with my performance and I hope mate, Michael Llodra. and counter-attacking, and then I can continue,” he concluded. Tsonga was back on court less closed out the match without fuss. That will be against Roberto than 48 hours after winning in “Because I have not played for Bautista Agut, the world number Marseille, and more than 3,000 a while I was extremely focussed 55 from Spain. Djokovic should miles away, with depleted energy, and committed to starting well,” have a semi-final against Juan and, as the match wore on, declin- Djokovic said. “I played really, Martin Del Potro, the former US ing motivation too. AFP