MP warns on price hikes Cancers up

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1 golf Page 41 THE FIRST ENGLISH LANGUAGE DAILY IN FREE KUWAIT Established in 1977 / TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017 / JUMADA AL THANI 23, 1438 AH emergency number 112 NO PAGES 150 FILS Happier here than in Philippines, India HH Amir arrives in Turkey KUNA photo His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received in Ankara by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. ANKARA, March 20: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al- Sabah and his accompanying delegation arrived Monday in the Turkish capital Ankara on an official visit. His Highness the Amir was received at the airport by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as well as senior government officials and top brass. Ambassador the Republic of Turkey Ghassan Al-Zawawi and Consul General in Istanbul Mohammad Al-Mohammad, as well as embassy staff were also present at His Highness s reception. Earlier, His Highness the Amir was seen off at the airport by His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh NEW YORK, March 20, (Agencies): The World Happiness Report 2017 produced by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), a global initiative launched by the United Nations in 2012, said among the GCC states Kuwait (6.105) sits at 39th position, the UAE (6.648), at 21, Qatar (6.375) at 35, Saudi Arabia (6.344) at 37 and Bahrain (6.087) at 41, respectively among the 155 listed countries. The ranking for another GCC country, the Sultanate of Oman is not available. (The report is rated on a 1 to 10 scale). However, Norway displaced Denmark as the world s happiest country. The report called on nations to build social trust and equality to improve the well-being of their citizens. The Nordic nations are the most content, according to the report. In this Sept 7, 2016 file photo, a smiley face is seen on a sunflower in a sunflower field in Lawrence, Kansas. Over the past decade as income in the US has gone up, self-reported happiness levels have fallen fast, some of the biggest slides in the world. (AP) Countries in sub-saharan Africa, along with Syria and Yemen, are the least happy of the 155 countries ranked in the fifth annual report released at the United Nations. Happy countries are the ones that have a healthy balance of prosperity, as conventionally measured, and social capital, meaning a high degree of trust in a society, low inequality and confidence in government, Jeffrey Sachs, the director of the SDSN and a special advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General, said in an interview. The aim of the report, he added, is to provide another tool for governments, business and civil society to help their countries find a better way to well-being. Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, Netherlands, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Sweden rounded out the top ten countries. South Sudan, Liberia, Guinea, Togo, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Central African Republic were at the bottom. Germany was ranked 16, followed by the United Kingdom (19) and France (31). The United States dropped one spot to 14. Sachs said the United States is falling in the ranking due to inequality, distrust and corruption. Economic measures that the administration of President Donald Trump is trying to pursue, he added, will make things worse. They are all aimed at increasing inequality tax cuts at the top, throwing people off the healthcare rolls, cutting Meals on Wheels in order to raise military spending. I think everything that has been proposed goes in the wrong direction, he explained. The rankings are based on six factors per capita gross domestic product, healthy life expectancy, freedom, generosity, social support and absence of corruption in government or business. Continued on Page 37 Continued on Page 37 Opinion Ahwaz... O Arabs By Ahmed Al-Jarallah Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times THERE is a just Arab cause which cannot continue to be handled in an indifferent and forgetful manner under any circumstances. It is the cause related to the Arabian State of Ahwaz (Ahvaz), which was occupied in 1925 after enjoying complete independence since This cause was the first test for Arabs to determine the extent of their ability in defending their independence. Their relinquishment of this rich state had paved way for the Balfour Declaration for the establishment of a Jewish State on the Palestinian land. If not for the new balance of power after World War I, perhaps there would have been other Arab countries in the list of loss and occupation. Ahwaz was a just cause and continues to be in the popular Arab sentiments even though it is absent from the official mindset. Khalaf Al-Habtoor, a businessman from the United Arab Emirates, had reminded us about this few days ago in a televised statement by calling upon the Arab League to allocate a seat for this occupied state and strive for its recognition by the international community. The Emirati businessman Khalaf Al-Habtoor is a famous personality in the global arena. He possesses extensive political culture and understands the anatomy of strategic relations. This means, whenever he reminds us about a cause, he is totally aware of what that means. Arabs who neglected this historic cause had paid the price in stages in Palestine and other Arab countries which has been witnessing several ousting of regimes, revolutions, foreign interferences and civil wars since If Arabs, from the start, had not let go of the Ahwaz issue, things would have been different. If Arabs had allocated a seat for Ahwaz in the Arab League since its inception, they perhaps wouldn t have been described as the most failed defenders of their just cause, based on experiences and events. Despite all of this, it is still not too late. It is possible to render the Ahwaz cause to be the first line of defense in countering Iran s regional interference, given that the regime in Iran considers itself as bearer of the responsibility of protecting Shiite Arabs, by inciting sectarian seditions in Continued on Page 37 ahmed@aljarallah.com Follow me on: ahmedaljarallah@gmail.com Newswatch KUWAIT CITY: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah sent a cable of congratulation Monday to Chairperson of the Kuwaiti Voluntary Work Center Sheikha Amthal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al- Sabah, on the occasion of honoring her with an honorary order prize award. Bahrain s Corporate Social Responsibility Network honored Sheikha Amthal during a recent ceremony in the Kingdom, christening her the top female social reformer for the year The honorary award recognized Sheikha Amthal for her unbridled commitment to women s empowerment. His Highness the Amir wished her the best and called her to continue serving the country locally and in the international arena. His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al- Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al- Sabah sent similar cables marking the occasion. (KUNA) KUWAIT CITY: Unlike Saudi Arabia which is preparing to apply selective tax from April 2017, other GCC countries including Kuwait have not yet decided on the date for implementation of the tax, reports Al-Seyassah daily quoting informed sources. They revealed that the concerned GCC committee has been holding discussions concerning the situation of the countries in order to bring an end to smuggling operations by increasing human elements at the borders. The sources said discussions held in Riyadh indicate that selective tax will be applied on commodities such as cigarettes, energy drinks and products containing sugar. They revealed about Kuwait s intention to postpone Continued on Page 37 MP warns on price hikes Cancers up By Abubakar A. Ibrahim Arab Times Staff KUWAIT CITY, March 20: Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Essa Al- Kandari has submitted a parliamentary query to Minister of Commerce and Industry and acting Minister of State for Youth Affairs Khalid Al-Rawdan on price hikes of essential consumer goods and some services. In his query Al-Kandari said of late food items and a lot of essential consumer goods have seen artificial price hikes, especially after the State raised the petrol prices. He said many companies and traders took this as an excuse to hike the prices and as result the citizen had to bear the burden. He noted Ramadan is just around the corner and as citizens and residents rush to meet the needs and requirement during this holy month, many traders and companies take advantage to raise the prices of commodities and some even monopolize the market. One of the most prominent issues is the livestock. He wants to know what plans have been initiated by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to curb the phenomenon of price hikes of consumer goods and some services and what role the National Committee for Consumer Protection plays in this regard? He said the citizens feel abandoned by the government because they have become victims of some traders and companies who occasionally raise food prices. He wants to know if the Ministry is monitoring Photo by Mohamad Morsi Kuwait Trade Unions Federation members engage in fisticuffs at the 17th General Convention of the Federation. See Page 8 A woman carries her child as they flee through a destroyed train station during fighting between Iraqi security forces and Islamic State militants, on the western side of Mosul, Iraq on March 19. (AP) Iraqis stream out of Mosul Kuwait pledges $5mn to heritage protection fund PARIS, March 20, (Agencies): Representing His Highness the Amir, Kuwaiti Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs and Acting Information Minister Sheikh Mohammad Mubarak Al-Sabah announced Monday Kuwait s pledge of $5 million for a fresh fund for the protection of heritage in conflict zones. The Kuwaiti minister made the announcement during a conference held here Monday in the Louvre Museum, bringing together representatives and delegates from 40 countries, organizations Continued on Page 37 Continued on Page 37 US$/KD /95 Euro/KD Yen/KD British /KD KSE pts at closing March 20 See Page 35 Dow pts at 22:00 March 20 See Page 36 Nasdaq pts at 22:00 March 20 FTSE pts at closing March 20 Nikkei pts at closing March 20 Gold $1, per oz (London) NYMEX crude $48.90 pb Brent crude $51.64 pb 3-month $ LIBOR rate % MOSUL, Iraq, March 20, (Agencies): Mohammed Ali and his family, carrying all their worldly possessions in a few bags, had been on the road for 18 hours since fleeing their home in an Islamic State-held area of Mosul. They hoped to find shelter at a camp. So far, they have had no luck. We tried at Hammam al-alil camp, about 35 kms (22 miles) south of Mosul, the 50-year-old said, flanked by 20 relatives including sons and grand-nephews and nieces. It was full. A bus had brought them from there and unloaded them a few hundred metres (yards) from a Kurdish peshmerga checkpoint east of Mosul and on the way to the sprawling Khazer and Hasan Sham camps, which are also crowded. Hopefully we can get to Khazer. We just need to get through the checkpoint, Ali said. Ali s story is becoming a familiar one. Displaced Iraqis are streaming out of western Mosul at a quickening pace as fighting intensifies in the city. They are arriving at camps to find there is no room, forced to get back onto buses or hire taxis to reach other areas. Some head for new camps being built to try to cope with the exodus, but with poor living conditions, many western Mosul residents make instead for the east side of the city, which was recaptured from Islamic State in January, to stay with relatives or find shelter in half-finished buildings. The US-backed Iraqi offensive to drive Islamic State out of Mosul, their last major stronghold in the country, has confined the jihadists to about half of the western side. Iraq s immigration minister, Jassim Mohammed, said on Monday the number of displaced people from both sides of of the city since the start of the campaign had reached 355,000. The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) recently opened a new camp that filled up within a week and is building another in Hammam al-alil to received thousands more families. Hammam al-alil has become the main transit point for the Mosul displaced. At the current camp s main entrance, hundreds of Iraqis wait in the mud and cold, crouching by small fires, using porta-cabin toilets and asking which buses will take them onwards. Taxi drivers tout for business, many shouting Mosul, Mosul! to take people back to the eastern side of the city. Continued on Page 37

2 LOCAL 2 Saad Al-Faraj poses with the directors and the cast of the play Fantasia. Top artiste Saad Al-Faraj expresses joy for starring in Fantasia directed by Reda & Al-Ali Prominent artist Saad Al-Faraj says he s playing a part in the new production Fantasia, the first stage show to be performed at Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Center (Kuwait Opera House), reports Al-Seyassah daily. In a statement, Al-Faraj expressed joy for the honor of starring in the play directed by Ali Badr Reda and Ali Jassem Al-Ali, alongside the youthful cast and writer Bandar Talal Al-Saed. The writer and producers will discuss details of the play slated for March 31 to April 10 from 8:00 pm at a press conference scheduled for next Friday in the presence of the cast. Decision to cut expat teachers housing grant to save KD 21.9m Vital to prepare mindset of teachers to fulfill needs of students: Al-Athari By Rana Salem Al-Seyassah Staff and Agencies KUWAIT CITY, March 20: Ministry of Education will save KD 21, million per year through the decision enforced by Civil Service Commission (CSC) Above: Some photos from the honoring of outstanding students. to reduce the housing allowance of expatriate teachers, reports Al-Seyassah daily. Informed educational sources explained that the ministry has saved KD 10,970,640 since the decision was enforced in October 2016, amid recent rumors circulated among expatriate teachers alleging the ministry is saving the deducted sum to pay deserved female expatriate teachers housing allowance of KD 60 retroactively from April They pointed out that payment of housing allowances with retroactive effect from 2011 will cost the ministry KD 36,986,400, and the sector will be able to save the sum required for the project within 3 years through the pockets of expatriate teachers. Meanwhile, Ministry of Education Undersecretary Dr Haitham Al-Athari is of the view that diversified learning approach in the secondary education requires necessary infrastructure and it s important to prepare the mindset of teachers to fulfill the needs of students, keeping in mind the proposed approaches, reports Al-Nahar daily. Photos by Rizk Taufiq Khalid Mudaf Intermediate School for Boys honors outstanding students Khalid Mudaf Intermediate School for Boys recently organized an event to honor outstanding students under auspices of the school Principal Abdulhadi Al-Zayed. Dignitaries at the event included the Undersecretary of Ministry of Information Yousef Mustafa who was the Guest of Honor. Competent Dr Al-Athari added that competent teachers should be available to prepare students, besides the availability of teachers who specialize in fields the ministry lacks. He emphasized the need for coordination between colleges that produce teachers to ensure they train them adequately to teach new subjects. He declared approval of new methods for learning requires exhaustive study, and the right atmosphere must be made available for its application. He revealed the ministry has agreed with Palestinian Ministry of Education to interview applicants to be recruited for teaching jobs in Kuwait at the initial stage. This will be followed by an interview to be conducted by members of Foreign Contract Committee, which is likely to fall on the third week in April, if everything goes well. He specified the ministry will recruit male teachers for mathematics and various segments of science subjects. He also said female teachers will be recruited for mathematics and physics, and their certificates should be recognized by the Ministry of Higher Education. He declared the problem the ministry faces is not about retirement of staff in the supervisory cadres, because the ministry has enough competent hands to fill vacancies. He reiterated many people want to prove their competency too. Al-Menhali Nawal Al-Kuwaitiyya Al-Anba daily photos Nawal participates in Emirati Al-Youla Fazaa Popular singer Nawal Al- Kuwaitiyya also known as Guitar of the Gulf participated in the last season of Al-Maidan Program for 2017 on the traditional Emirati dance contest Al-Youla Fazaa televised on Dubai s Manufacturing sector being hit Majority of PAI s employees are lacking in required ideas KUWAIT CITY, March 20: Board Chairman of Kuwait Shareholding Industries Company Mohammad Al-Naqqi disclosed the majority of employees at Public Authority for Industry are generally lacking in required ideas, and scientific and cultural capabilities, reports Al-Shahed daily. He declared the authority lacks competent employees, and the trend has negative implications on the manufacturing sector. He stressed the Public Authority for Industry and Public Authority for Al-Jasmi Sama Channel, reports Al-Anba daily. Several Emirati singers participated in the program alongside Nawal Al-Kuwaitiyya, among them Hussein Al-Jasmi and Eidah Al-Menhali. Agricultural Affairs and Fish Resources normally allocate lands but retrieve the lands again after some time, and the action is enough to conclude the extent of rot in the sector. He explained the employees allocate lands to people who do not deserve it through the use of influential and powerful people. He also said under normal circumstances, lands should be allocated to people who will use them for new projects in the country to boost industrial activities rather than follow the status quo.

3 LOCAL 3 Top and above: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah being seen off at Kuwait International Airport. KUNA photos Cabinet instructs to establish national cybersecurity center HH the PM chairs weekly Cabinet meeting A photo from the event KIF honors media, sponsors of expo Kuwait International Fair Company recently organized a ceremony in honor of the mainstream media and sponsors of an exhibition of perfumes and cosmetics held at Hall 8 on the fair ground in Mishref. The ceremony was attended by the Kuwait Today Prayer Timings Fajr...04:32 Sunrise... 05:51 Zohr... 11:55 Asr...15:23 Maghrib...18:00 Isha... 19:17 Weather Expected weather for the next 24 hours: By Night: Partly cloudy with light to moderate north westerly to light variable wind, with speed of km/h with a chance for scattered light rain. By Day: Sunny with light to moderate freshening gradually at times north westerly wind, with speed of km/h and some scattered clouds will appear Station Max Min Exp Rec Kuwait City Kuwait Airport Abdaly Bubyan Jahra Failaka Island Salmiyah Ahmadi Nuwaisib Wafra Salmy days forecast - Weather Tuesday, March 21 Expected weather... Sunny + scattered clouds Max Temp...24C Min Temp...14C Wind Direction... VRB-SE Wind Speed km/h Wednesday, March 22 Expected weather... Clouds to increase Max Temp...27C Min Temp...12C Wind Direction... VRB-SE Wind Speed km/h Thursday, March 23 Expected weather... Partly cloudy + dust + rain Max Temp...23C Min Temp...16C Wind Direction...SE Wind Speed km/h Friday, March 24 Expected weather... Partly cloudy + dust + rain Max Temp...24C Min Temp...16C Wind Direction...SE Wind Speed km/h Marine Forecast Station Max Min Sea Today s Exp Rec Surf Waves Ht Direction South Dolphin ft SE Umm Mudayrah ft SE Beacon M Beacon N ft SE Qaruh Island ft SE Umm Al-Maradim ft SE Sea Island Buo Chief Executive Officer of the company Abdulrahman Mohammed Al-Nasser, the Finance and Administration Director Abdullah Hashem Al-Hamdan, and the Sales and Marketing Director Basma Yousef Al Duhaim among other leaders of the company. Salmiyah ft SE Umm Al-Maradim ft SE Sea Island Buo Salmiyah ft SE 4 days forecast - Marine Tuesday, March 21 Expected weather... Sunny + scattered clouds Sea state...slight to moderate Wave height ft Max Temp...24C Min Temp...14C Wind Direction... VRB-SE Wind Speed km/h Wednesday, March 22 Expected weather... Clouds to increase Sea state...slight to moderate Wave height ft Max Temp...27C Min Temp...12C Wind Direction... VRB-SE Wind Speed km/h Thursday, March 23 Expected weather... Partly cloudy + dust + rain Sea state... Moderate to rough Wave height ft Max Temp...23C Min Temp...16C Wind Direction...SE Wind Speed km/h Friday, March 24 Expected weather... Partly cloudy + dust + rain Sea state... Moderate to rough Wave height ft Max Temp...24C Min Temp...16C Wind Direction...SE Wind Speed km/h Tide times at Shuwaikh Port 1st high tide:... 16:30 2nd high tide:... 06:23 1st low tide:... 10:20 2nd low tide:... 23:31 Sunrise:... 05:53 Sunset:... 17:59 Recorded yesterday at Kuwait Airport Max temp...24c Min temp...15c Max Rh...97% Min Rh...24% Max Wind...SE 78 km/h Total Rainfall in 24 hrs mm Recorded yesterday at South Dolphin Min/Max/ Air Temp...16/23C Min/Max Rel Hum...36/92% Wind Direction/Wind Speed...S/74 km/h Prev Wave Dir/Max Wave Ht... N/3 ft Min/Max Sea Surface Temp...-/- C Sea Current...Downdraft Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Meteorological Dept. deaths Meitq Humoud Mohammad Al-Theghainah, 80 years old, buried on Monday. Condolences: Eshbeliya, Block 4, Street 447, House 1, Tel: / Mubarak Baraak Hajad Al-Watri, 83 years old, buried on Monday. Condolences: (Men) Rabiya, Block 4, Street 4, House 61, Tel: / (Women) Sabah Al-Nasser, Block 1, Street 28, House 58, Tel: Muhsen Mahdi Fathel Al-Musawi, 51 years old, to be buried on Tuesday. Condolences: (Men) Salwa, Huseiniyat Sayed Mohammad, Tel: (Women) Block 2, Jamaan Al-Huraiti Street, Avenue 20, House 4, Huseiniyat Umm Khaled begins from Wednesday morning. March 20, 2017 KUWAIT CITY, March 20, (KUNA): The Kuwaiti Cabinet has asked Public Authority for Communications and Information Technology to establish a national cybersecurity center. This came during a customary weekly Cabinet meeting held Monday under chairmanship of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al- Mubarak Al-Hamad Al- Sabah. The center is primarily meant to address the risks and challenges of information security in the country, and to protect different agencies and services from relevant hazards. The move reflects the government s keenness on promoting the information system under an environment that ensures the flow of information in a confidential and safe manner. The Cabinet also asked the Ministry of Public Works to coordinate with the Ministry of Finance to provide necessary funding for developing navigation in Khor Abdullah watercourse in line with relevant legal regulations. The Consumer Protection Authority was entrusted by the Cabinet to carry out investigations into reported attempts to monopolize meat prices, and to take necessary measures to provide strategic meat stock at competitive prices. Also during the Cabinet meeting, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Minister of State for Youth Affairs Khaled Al-Roudan elaborated on measures to solve the problem of high rentals of shops at Souq Al-Mubarakiya. At the onset of the meeting, First Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al- Sabah briefed the ministers on the outcomes of the recent visit by the Maltese foreign minister to Kuwait, which focused on ways of promoting and developing bilateral ties. Afterwards, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Anas Al- Saleh briefed the ministers on the outcomes of his recent tour of London, New York, Boston and Los Angeles in a step that aimed to attract international bond investors to Kuwait s planned subscription for public debt bonds. Finally, the Cabinet condemned recent terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia s Al-Qatif and Paris, reiterating Kuwait s relentless and principled stance based on rejecting all forms and violence and terrorism. Kuwaiti Minister of Commerce and Industry Khaled Nasser Al- Roudan said Monday the Cabinet has approved a draft decree extending Kuwait Direct Promotion Authority (KDIPA) Director General Sheikh Dr Meshaal Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah s term. The decree was approved during a customary weekly Cabinet meeting held today, said Al-Roudan, who doubles as Minister of State for Youth Affairs. Photo from PM s Diwan HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah chairs the weekly Cabinet meeting on Monday. Dr Musaed Al-Enzi during the press conference. College of Law to hold Legal Protection of Childhood confab College of Law at Kuwait University held a press conference on Sunday, March 19 to announce that a conference titled Legal Protection of Childhood the substantive and procedural rules will be held on March at 10 am in the Professor Othman Abdul Malik Auditorium. During the press conference, Assistant Professor of the Department of Private Law at College of Law Dr Musaed Al-Enzi said the conference will be held under the patronage of Minister of Education and Higher Education and the Supreme President of Kuwait University Dr Mohammad Al-Fares in the presence of the Dean of College of Law Prof Jamal Fakher Al-Nekas. Kuwait eager to cope with new media concept BEIRUT, March 20, (KUNA): A media conference on civilization and dialogue kick-started in the Lebanese capital on Monday, with Kuwait s Assistant Undersecretary of the Information Minister Faisal Al-Mutallaqem and KUNA Board Chairman and Director General and FANA Chairman Sheikh Mubarak Al-Duaij Al-Ibrahim Al-Sabah attending. Organized by Lebanon s National News Agency (NNA),the conference was held under the patronage of Lebanese Minister of Information Melhem Riachi and attracted a constellation of Arab and foreign politicians and diplomats as well as news agencies chiefs. Kuwait s Assistant Undersecretary of the Information Minister Faisal Al- Mutallaqem said Kuwait is eager to cope with the new media concept due to its due role in influencing public opinion and inter-cultural communication. Speaking to KUNA on the sidelines of the conference, he said new mass media is playing a significant part in communication among civilizations, noting that media has a message of amity, tolerance, fraternity and development. Addressing the conference entitled: Media Spreading Civilizations and Connecting Dialogues, the Lebanese minister stressed the significance of ensuring media objectivity and protection of truth. He pointed to the role of mass media in making events, while underlining the importance of dialogue as a natural result of solutions to problems and crises. The Lebanese minister called for turning Beirut into a venue of dialogue among disputing parties. On his part, Lebanon s National News Agency (NNA) Director Laure Sleiman said the title of the conference is suitable to the current situation in the world which is haunted by crises, wars, violence and terrorism. He said dialogue is the optimal way to find solutions to problems, while media plays a key role in the promotion of communication among different sectors.

4 LOCAL 4 Corporate governance essential for protecting institutions of state KAPP invites bidders for session to open financial envelopes KUWAIT CITY, March 20, (KUNA): Minister of Commerce and Industry and Acting Minister of State for Youth Affairs Khaled Al-Roudan has stressed the importance of protecting the institutions of state and private sectors from the negative impacts of slow economic growth through applying the modern standards of corporate governance. Protecting such institutions is also done through reviewing active economic legislations and issuing modern laws that are in line with the latest applied laws and regulations worldwide, Al-Roudan said in his opening speech at the 2nd Corporate Governance in GCC States Conference. Applying corporate governance in one only one sector would not attain the desired goals and results due to its close connection to the other sector, the minister noted, affirming corporate governance s credibility in attaining economic efficiency, investment development, transparency and justice values, in addition to transforming Kuwait into a global commercial and financial hub in KUNA photo Bahraini King Hamad Bin Issa Al-Khalifa receives Kuwaiti Ambassador Sheikh Azzam Al-Sabah. Bahraini King lauds Amir s support of Arab, Islamic causes King of Bahrain Hamad Bin Issa Al-Khalifa has commended His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al- Jaber Al-Sabah for his support to bilateral ties, Gulf joint action, as well as to Arab and Islamic Crown Prince sponsors KU graduation ceremony KUWAIT CITY, March 20, (KUNA): Under the patronage of His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah, the Kuwait University (KU) on Monday held its graduation ceremony, batch 46, for the academic year at Sheikh Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah Theater at Shuwaikh Campus. Representing His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince, His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al- Sabah, who conveyed greetings and best wishes to the graduates from His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al- Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. His Highness Sheikh Nawaf, in a causes. Receiving Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, Kuwaiti Ambassador to the Kingdom Sheikh Azzam Al- Sabah on Sunday, the Monarch emphasized the momentousness of continuous coordination and speech delivered by His Highness the Premier, urged graduates to let science be their beacon in life, saying that the dearest gain for the country is that they join the enter professional life armed with science and knowledge to play their due positive and effective role to serve the nation. His Highness the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince emphasized the capabilities of the Kuwaiti people to keep pace with the progress the world has achieved, saying Kuwait is proud of the scientific efficiencies and creative energies in the country, which have always manifested the bright image of the nation on all levels. On his part, Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education Dr. consultation to boost bilateral ties within the framework of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) march. Sheikh Azzam handed King Hamad a letter from His Highness the Amir on bilateral ties. (KUNA) Mohammad Al-Fares addressed the ceremony saying the occasion coincides with the 50th anniversary of the university. He added that science is essential for building nations, citing the example of Singapore, where education sector was a top priority given the largest portion of state budget allocated to it. This has to be taken into consideration to achieve development and growth for Kuwait, as well as boosting national income, he pointed out. Then KU Dean Dr Hussein Al-Ansari urged graduates to carry on with their pursuit of science, and to work hard and gain more experience and knowledge to be able to contribute to the development of the nation. accordance to His Highness the Amir s vision. Meanwhile, Al-Roudan indicated that the three-day conference is held under the auspices of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al- Hamad Al-Sabah, and will discuss a number of subjects related to economic reformations in GCC countries. Meanwhile, Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects (KAPP) has invited bidders who passed the technical assessment of Kabd Municipal Solid Waste Project to attend the public session for the opening of the financial envelopes on Sunday. The session was attended by the following shortlisted companies/consortia: Constructions Industrielles de La M diterran e (CNIM), Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC), Al Mulla Group; EVN Umweltholding und Betriebs GmbH, International Financial Advisors (IFA), KCC Engineering & Contracting Co (KCCEC), Steinmuller Babcock Environment GmbH (SBE); and Suez Environnment SAS, Itochu Corporation, Kharafi National, KAPP said in a press release. Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects, in collaboration with Kuwait Municipality, is procuring this Project under Law No. 116 of year 2014 in regards to Public Private Partnerships, it added. The project involves the design, engineering, procurement, construction, testing, commissioning, operation, maintenance and financing of waste to energy facility in Kabd area of Kuwait; approximately 35 kms from Kuwait City and occupies an area of 500,000 mç, according to the release. The objectives of the project will primarily divert waste from landfill, generate renewable energy; and minimize water usage due to high cost of water production in Kuwait, it added. It is worth mentioning that the Kabd MSW project is considered a principal infrastructure project that will significantly improve the municipal waste management in the State of Kuwait. The project investment period will be 25 years post construction as the specific approach of the project is based on using waste to energy technology to generate electricity. Faculty not ready for total execution of segregation law KUWAIT CITY, March 20: Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs at Faculty of Pharmacy in Kuwait University Dr Mohsen Hadaya revealed that the faculty is not ready for total implementation of the segregation law in its sections currently, reports Al- Qabas daily. He explained that the reason is that the number of female students is usually higher than the number of male students. In most cases, a department will have only one or two male students. In these cases, it is unreasonable to open a special section for just one or two students. Dr Hadaya said the faculty has applied the law as much as they could, and in cases where the law cannot be applied, separate places have been allocated for male and female students inside the same classrooms. Dr Hadaya HH the Crown Prince with Sheikh Thamer Al-Ali Al-Sabah. KUNA photos HH the Crown Prince with Sheikh Mishaal Abdullah Al-Sabah. Audiences of HH the Crown Prince His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received on Monday at Bayan Palace National Security Bureau Chief Sheikh Thamer Al-Ali Al- KRCS distributes 3,000 food parcels in Mosul Kuwait Red Crescent Society distributed on Monday 3,000 food parcels on disputed Iraqis from Mosul and Hamam Al-Alil refugee camps in southern Mosul. KRCS offered 3,000 food parcels to displaced Iraqis in Mosul and to Hamam Al-Alil refugee camp in southern Mosul in cooperation with local humanitarian organizations, Director of KRCS s Disasters and Emergency Department Yousef Fahad Al-Me raj told KUNA. The food aid covered newly displaced Iraqis from the right side of Mosul due to the military operations in their area. This is part of Kuwait is beside you campaign, being a humanitarian It will reflect positively on human beings MP proposes to set daylight saving time earlier by 2 hours Sabah. Sheikh Nawaf also received Kuwait Embassy Charge d Affaires in Switzerland Ambassador Sheikh Mishaal Abdullah Jaber Al-Sabah.(KUNA) KRCS distributing over 3,000 food parcels in Mosul. KUNA photos initiative from the Kuwait people to the Iraqi people facing such hard circumstances, he added. The humanitarian aid Kuwait provides to Iraqi people will continue and vary to cover many aspects of the displaces daily needs, he affirmed. KRCS delivered last week 6,000 food and sanitary parcels as well as 30,000 bread loaves and 60,000 fuel liters to the displaced Iraqis in the right side of Mosul as well as to Jamkur Camp close to Irbil. KRCS also offered medical treatment in Irbil s private hospitals to more than 100 patients of displaced Iraqis who were wounded in military operations. (KUNA) KUWAIT CITY, March 20: MP Safa Al-Hashim has presented a proposal to set the daylight saving time earlier by two hours from April 1 to Sept 30 every year, reports Al-Anba daily. In her proposal, MP Al-Hashim explained that she submitted the proposal due to the clear positive effects in setting the daylight saving time earlier by two hours starting from the first day of April until the last day of September. It will reflect positively on human beings their health, and religious, social and practical life in line with the nature described in Quran. She quoted Quran 78:10-11, which states: And made the night as clothing, and made the day for livelihood. She also quoted the tradition of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) where he said, O Allah, bless my people in their early mornings. She stressed that this means human beings were created to sleep at night and be active in the morning, adding that anything far from this setting of nature is unhealthy. MP Al-Hashim highlighted the economic scope of the proposal which will ensure positive returns for the country and the citizens. She stressed on several positive aspects related to the implementation of this proposal such as solving the traffic congestion problem, preserving the environment and improving students level of academic acquisition. She said this idea has been successful in several countries worldwide, as more than 80 countries have implemented this system such as the United States of America, majority of the European nations and many Arab countries. MP Al-Hashim explained that all concerned government bodies such as Kuwait University, Ministry of Electricity and Water, Kuwait Institute of Scientific Research, Environment Public Authority, Kuwait Foundation for Advancement of Sciences, Kuwait Meteorological Department, Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, Ministry of Oil, Ministry of Interior General Traffic Department, Ministry of Health, many economic and financial bodies, Ministry of Education and Higher Education as well as psychologists and sociologists among others have praised the bill. They also praised it for its economic effects on the country, its psychological, physiological and health impacts on human beings and its contribution to saving huge amount of energy in general. They said it will completely get rid of the trend of starting a day three hours after the sunrise during the summer season, and instead bring it closer towards the sunrise by two hours and distance it away from the peak of hot temperatures. In order for the proposal to be successful, the Cabinet should issue necessary decisions for the implementation of this bylaw after it is passed. Under the auspices of the Dean of College of Social Sciences at Kuwait University Prof Hamoud Fahad Al- Qashaan, the college organized a workshop titled Be strong ready, which was presented by Balsam Al-Ayoub. According to a press statement, the workshop was held to mark the World Social Work Day 2017 and was hosted by the department of social work in the college. In his speech, Head of the department Dr Yousef Ghaloum explained that the occasion is not only linked with the relevant department in the university. It is an international occasion that is marked by the whole world including Kuwait University. The World Social Work Day (WSWD) is celebrated in all countries on the third Tuesday of every March and is the high point of the global social work calendar. This year s theme is Promoting Community and Environmental Sustainability, which relates to the third pillar of the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development.

5 LOCAL 5 Equate bedoun, expats in jobs Grant rights on second contract basis KUNA photos Fruits hanging from the branches. Sidr tree in each house By Ali Al-Roumi Kuwaiti traditional houses in the old days used to have a Sidr tree (its Scientifi c name: Ziziphus spina-christi), placed close to the house yard or near the house, and its fruits (Kinar) used to fall inside where children or adults would enjoy eating them. Children in the neighbors use long sticks to hit the almost fallen and ready fruits Kinar and then, prepare them to eat. Sidr (associated with the Lote-trees of the Holy Quran) and was also common in the Jordan Valley and around Jerusalem. (KUNA) KUWAIT CITY, March 20: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Anas Al-Saleh has issued a decision to equate Bedoun employees employed on wages the same way expatriates are employed on second contract basis, reports Al-Qabas daily. According to the decision, Bedoun employees will be entitled to all perks that are granted to expatriates, including the right for all leaves specified in the rules and regulations of the Civil Service Commission (CSC). This includes annual leave, sick leave, maternity leave, Hajj leave and other paid leaves. They will also be entitled to monetization of annual leave balance. This is a new dimension to the former situation whereby Bedoun employees were appointed based on wages. This means they were not entitled to allowances and other benefits after retirement. Bedouns can now be employed based on content of this decision, while nobody should seal the employment until they obtain civil ID card. Ministry of Public Works has been accused of announcing false information related to the rate of completion of projects under its supervision, because of the suspicious arbitrary manner through which the ministry notifies citizens about various stages of projects, reports Al-Shahed daily quoting sources. They explained that the Road Affairs Department of the ministry announced on Nov 1, 2016 that Al-Subbiya Spur of Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Bridge was 67 complete. However, the same department announced on March 1, 2017 that the rate of Bid to tackle adverse effects of social media Family role confab set to begin March 21 KUWAIT CITY, March 20: The participating delegations in the First Regional Conference on Protecting Children from Social Media Hazards started arriving ahead of the conference slated for March 21-23, General Department of Public Relations and Security Media in the Ministry of Interior stated the conference is being organized in the framework of the social responsibility of the security agencies under the auspices of the HH the Prime Minister, Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak and attendance of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Interior Sheikh Khaled Al-Jarrah. Statement added that preparations are under way to ensure success of the conference and to render it a model for research in providing protection for children from the risks posed by social media. The conference will focus completion was 55 percent. This led to confusion among citizens over the inaccurate report concerning the rate of completion, and their lack of confidence in the performance of the ministry and its method of monitoring project execution. The sources pointed out the deplorable situation in the ministry concerning false rate of completion of projects or failure of some projects due to dereliction of duty on the part of supervisory authorities such as the National Assembly and State Audit Bureau. They indicated the need for on the pivotal role of the family in protecting children in such risks, in addition to morning and evening workshops to be conducted by local experts and others from Arabs and foreign countries to create public awareness on the dangers of social media and effective ways to tackle the issue. Generally, the three-day event aims to boost the community s role, cooperation and integration of all members of the authorities to be more serious about recording violations and holding violators accountable for their actions. The Auhah Island is one of the most important islands of Kuwait in terms of its strategically unique location. However, the island has been abandoned and not a single touristic project seems to be in the pipeline, which has left the island at the mercy of law violators to the extent it has become a trash dumping site, reports Al-Anba daily. the society to contribute in finding real solutions to issues that threaten the country s future, statement indicated. Many countries will participate in the event, including the GCC States, Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, Palestine, Morocco, Sudan, USA, and Mexico, noting the conference will also see the participations of elite academic experts and technicians, as well as Kuwaiti official state bodies and institutions. A volunteer group, with the cooperation of Kuwait Municipality and Coast Guard, took the initiative to launch a cleaning campaign in Auhah Island in order to restore its glorious state. Head of the Kuwait Green Oasis Campaign Abdulaziz Al- Shatti said the island has suffered from environmental waste which is increasing with time. He urged the concerned authorities to turn the island into a natural reserve or utilize it as a searching point for ships. He praised the tremendous efforts exerted by the volunteers. News in Brief pondered: Head of Supreme Judiciary Council, chairman of Constitutional Court and head of the Court of Cassation Yusuf Al-Muttawa has said the council is considering transfer of the criminal circuits at Appeals and First Instance Courts to the new Jahra Court at the beginning of the new legal year to ease burden on the Justice Palace, reports Al-Jarida daily. Al-Muttawa disclosed arrangements of the council to transfer commercial and labor circuits at the First Instance Court and Appeals Court either to the new Jahra Court or New Riggae Court. He noted a new Justice Palace will be opened by early June 2017 without delay, because it s connected to a specific timetable. He noted that construction work will disturb movement to and fro the location, which necessitates transfer of the abovementioned circuits to facilitate judicial activities. As regards the Ministry of Youth pleading with the court to issue the final judgment on the dispute between Kuwait Sports Club and Al-Arabi Sports Club on the outcome of a match, Al-Muttawa noted the council cannot accept the request until the issue has been studied from the legal point of view without contradicting sport laws. Civil defense course ends: The activities of the 14th Civil Defense Program for the teachers of Ministry of Education have concluded, reports Al-Seyassah daily. The closing ceremony was held under the patronage of Assistant Undersecretary for Operations at Ministry of Interior Major General Jamal Al-Sayegh, who was represented by Director General of Directorate General for Civil Defense Colonel Jamal Al-Foudri. Assistant Director of Volunteer Training Department Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Al-Sawagh was present during the ceremony. The program, which saw the participation of 45 trainees, was held on March 5-16 at the headquarters of Directorate General for Civil Defense. It included theoretical and practical training on different methods of civil defense during emergency situations. It was aimed at enhancing the skills of the teachers to deal with any emergency situations. Old notes used in fraud: A Greek court recently sentenced the fraudster Artemis Suras who is known in media as the Greek Antichrist to eight years in absentia, reports Al-Rai daily. He and his wife were found guilty of committing a number of crimes, including scam by using the earlier version of Kuwaiti dinars that are no more in circulation. Case papers indicate the man s partner gave him a luxury car to sell on his behalf. The swindler convinced the partner that he sold the car for a very high price to a rich Kuwaiti and the payment would be done in Kuwaiti dinars. When the duped partner went to change the dinars, he was shocked to find it was no more in circulation because the currency notes were withdrawn after Kuwait s liberation.

6 LOCAL 6 DIWANIYA A DIGEST OF PUBLIC OPINION KUNA photo Kuwait s Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Sulaiman Al-Jarallah meets the US Ambassador to Kuwait Lawrence Silverman. Various issues were discussed. Speaker seeks concerted act against Israeli crimes UNHRC must prevent violations RABAT, March 20, (KUNA): It is imperative that Arab parliaments act in unison against Israeli violations of United Nations (UN) resolutions, Kuwait s National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim said on Monday. Al-Ghanim made the remarks to open the 24th conference of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union (AIPU) KUNA photo Kuwaiti Parliament Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim (right), at the AIPU meeting. Other Voices Naivety exploited Religion... affairs of life By Ahmad Al-Sarraf them to his liking but the number of his followers is said to have reached In Egypt the preachers play a serious role in the community taking them ignorant people. more than 10 million a majority of advantage of the rampant ignorance A video clip posted on social media by Abdulaziz Al-Fawzan, a Pro- among the Egyptians. Moreover, elsewhere also, various governments fessor of Comparative Jurisprudence use the clergymen and religion to at the Higher Institute of the Judiciary, and administrator of the Mes- control the minds of their respective citizens according to their whims and sage of Islam network appeared during a ceremony for mixed genders this is largely evident in the Arabian Peninsula and several parts of the in Spain and received the Golden world. Even Jamal AbdulNasser, one of Wreath Award. Al-Fawzan resorted to religious the biggest adversaries texts and pretexts to of the Muslim Brotherhood, and closest to come out of the impasse he found himself in and secularism delivered with tears in his eyes announced in the video his famous speech from the Al-Azhar podium clip it was a systematic rather than the floor of and well studied plan to the Parliament during Westernize the Saudi the tripartite aggression society, especially the on Egypt by Britain, conservatives. France and Israel in He said he initially had accepted the invitation to attend the awards Another secular dictator Saddam Hussein during the first would contribute to build- Al-Sarraf ceremony in the belief it Gulf War, inscribed the ing bridges between the Muslim and word Allah-u-Akbar (God is greatest) on the Iraqi flag with the blood He explained it was necessary to Spanish cultures. of the innocent people in his awful receive the award. He also said he handwriting, and until today, no one accepted the invitation and award on has dared to remove what he did with condition he was given a seat in the the flag although it has nothing to do front row to help him prevent seeing with religion. This inscription has what he called forbidden atmosphere. not made Iraq more religious but the Iraqis will always remember Saddam Al-Fawzan added he also insisted as the villain as long as the inscription remains on the flag. ing his presence in the ceremony that music will not be played dur- During his trial, Saddam insisted and would be the first to receive the to carry a copy of the Holy Quran award and permission to leave the in his hand, despite the fact that he ceremony soon after. was never committed to the religious He also said he was surprised that principles throughout his life, but his a woman presented the award, so he villainous intelligence helped him to refused and asked one of his companions to receive it on his behalf toy on with the sentiments of the ignorant riffraff. and deliver it to him. The people not only turned a blind He concluded by saying: We do eye to the grave sins of the clergy, not attend their events, but we do not they created reasonable excuses to miss the major interests due to some justify their deeds when the clerics of the inevitable forbidden. Here, he chanted religious texts to justify their won the hearts of his followers and misdeeds making the ignorant people their numbers increased. believe it was a test from Allah. On the other hand, we see an intellectual-cultivated personality Islam The followers of a well-known Saudi cleric increased in big numbers after he sold hundreds of thou- who did not steal or get involved in Behery of Egypt and many others sands of copies of one of his books any scandals, serving time behind and earned millions although he was bars because they dare to criticize convicted of copying a text from a Imam Al-Bukhari. female Saudi author. He is still influencing the minds of his followers and brainwashes habibi.enta1@gmail.com in the Moroccan capital, where he underscored the need for AIPU to act in a coherent and organized manner. The former AIPU Chairman also noted that time for talk was over and that diplomacy should be utilized as a tool to pile up pressure on Israel, citing UN resolution 2334, which deals with Israeli settlements on Palestinian lands. We remain steadfast in our aim to use an event of such magnitude to take a clear political stance on Israel, Al- Ghanim said. He added that diplomatic action against Israel is needed, including the suspension of the Israeli Knesset s membership in the Inter-Parliamentary Union for its infraction of the very essence of the union. Moreover, the Kuwaiti National Assembly Speaker spoke of his sanguine expectations that Arab nations will ultimately succeed. Al- Ghanim is heading a Kuwait parliamentary delegation comprising Undersecretary of the Parliamentary Caucus Rakan Al- Nisf, Caucus Secretary Dr Odah Al-Ruwaiee, Treasurer Walid Al-Tabtabaei, members of the Caucus Executive Committee Omar Al-Tabtabaei and Yousef Al-Fadhalah, besides MPs Safaa Al-Hashem, Al-Humaidi Al- Subaiee and Ali Al-Deqbasi. Kuwait is pushing the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to keep addressing the issue of Israeli violations on Arab soil and that it should be part and parcel of UNHRC s agenda. The remarks were made by Kuwait s permanent delegate to the UN Ambassador Jamal Al-Ghunaim on Monday, during compelling discussions held with the UN s Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Michael Lynk. The Kuwaiti diplomat noted that his country s unwavering commitment to the Palestinian issue stems from the graveness of Israeli violations that are tantamount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Moreover, Al-Ghunaim said that turning a blind eye to Israeli violations will only embolden the country to continue violating international humanitarian laws, adding that Kuwait vehemently condemns Israeli aggressions against the Palestinian people. Meanwhile, Kuwait s permanent delegate to the UN voiced Kuwait s growing concerns over increasing Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, practices he slammed as unlawful and catastrophic. Al-Ghunaim also excoriated Israel for its blockade on Gaza, which induced a wide array of humanitarian crises, saying that Kuwait will remain steadfast in its support of the Palestinian people. Action taken after protest KUWAIT CITY, March 20: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Anas Al-Saleh affirmed that the government s intervention in the issue related to the Souk Mubarakiya strike with the aim of settling it came after a complaint in that regard was lodged with the State Properties Department, and that the government dealt with that complaint based on the law, reports Al-Nahar daily. Al-Saleh explained that a letter was sent by the State Properties Department to the investment company The Real Estate House, which holds the investment right to Souk Mubarakiya. In the letter, the company was asked to provide the Legal Department with the reasons behind the increased rents of the shops in Souk Mubarakiya. The department also stressed the need to cancel any increase in the rents. Powers must practice what they preach Palestinian cause will not die RACISM and non-recognition of others is a social disease which threatens humanity, more dangerous than cancer and plague, columnist, professor at Kuwait University s Political Science Department, an Advisor to Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Chairman of the Arab Human Rights Fund Dr Ghanim Al-Najjar wrote for Al-Jarida daily Monday. The world will not see stability irrespective of all attempts we make in this regard as long as racism has the upper hand irrespective we talk about ethnicity, sectarianism, religious fanaticism, provincial belonging, sex, color or on any other basis. It is needless to say the world has actually begun to liberate itself from traditional racism during the recent past of humanity history either in terms of containing slavery or amalgamation of the people from all communities who have been marginalized. In this connection, both the World War I and World War II were motivated, among other things, by racist grounds because the warring nations claimed the racist superiority compared to other peoples of the world. Speaking of Arabs and Muslims, although we are complaining about Western racism against us, we practice the same racism against the other peoples on the same Western lines. Speaking of the then apartheid system in South Africa, it is needless to say the Zionist regime of Israel follows the same pattern of rule or rather worse than the former South Africa s racist regime. The report that was prepared recently by the United Nations Economic and Social Committee of West Asia (ESCWA) over the Israeli racism is actually supported by evidences and documents. This report was aimed at enlightening the international community about Zionist racism against the Palestinians. When the Director-General of ESCWA Dr Rima Khalaf was under tremendous pressure to revoke her report on the Israeli apartheid, she turned down the request and preferred to step down from her international post. It is needless to say the associations of the report in question were beneficial and essential, particularly since we know this report somehow coincides with the hundredth anniversary of Arthur James Balfour s Promise, as if this report actually was a declaration which indicated the Palestinian cause shall remain alive forever. In this context, we say increasing the number of the Zionist migrants to Palestine post the World War I and the association Al-Najjar of the Palestinian revolution in 1936 and the United Nations resolution dividing Palestine in 1947 and the establishing of the Zionist entity the latter was supported by the great powers and the subsequent events, the Palestine still represents a permanent visitor to the United Nations where many resolutions were issued in favor of this cause, but unfortunately not implemented because of the notorious racist practices of Zionism and its supporter against the Palestinian cause. In spite of the above, the Palestinian cause shall remain the topic at many international forums irrespective of the weakness of its defenders. In other words, this just cause will not leave the forum unless a fair solution is found in accordance with the international humanitarian criteria to surmount racism and end the state of hypocrisy of the big powers on humanity which they preach but not practice. Also: Only a few people are still committed to the principles of humanity at the expense of the personal interests and benefits, irrespective whether the latter occupy an official post, financial benefits or social position or irrespective whether the relevant person occupies the post a state president, minister, parliamentarian or senior official, columnist and former Director of the Culture Department at the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters Waleed Al-Rujaib wrote for Al- Rai daily Monday. We say this because it is high time to turn your back on certain principles which brings honor and monetary gains. Hence we find people who are seeking personal benefits will not hesitate to tell lies, cheat and delve into unconvincing justifications. In spite of the above, the former Jordanian Minister of Planning and the former director of the United Nations Economic and Social Committee of West Asia (ESCWA) Dr Rima Khalaf is actually qualified to give a lecture in morals, because she resigned from her international position as the director-general of ESCWA to protect the principles she believes in. This happened, in the wake of pressure put on her by the UN Secretary-General to change her report on the Israeli racist practices against the Palestinians. In her report in question, Dr Khalaf said Israel was an apartheid regime and imposing its domination on the Palestinians. She hinted the Israeli practices in this connection were totally against international law. As a matter of fact, the report in question was based on the principles of the International Law and the Human Rights that rejects racism and the United Nations Charter that was set up in 1945 and International Declaration of Human Rights which was adopted in 1948 and other internal agreements that were concluded in 1965 to get rid of any type of racism. On the other hand, the report basically defined apartheid that is referred to in the Article II of the 1965 International Agreement. This article condemns all types of racism and its promoters. In her letter to the United Nations secretary-general in an apparent reference to the pressures she had been subject to from Israel because of her report, Dr Rima Khalaf said, It would not be surprising to see the criminals attacking those who defend the victims of his crimes. She went on to say, but for me, I will not bow to any pressure motivated by my belief as a human in values and the very foundation of the United Nations. As a matter of fact, we are indeed in an imperative need of people like Rima Khalaf at a time when the position has become more important than the principle. In the meantime, we suggest it is not enough to issue statements of solidarity by politicians, the press and in the social media, rather we have to follow her example and commit ourselves to be brave like her to protect ourselves, our honor and our principles. In a previous article, we had mentioned that the last speech of the US President Donald Trump which he delivered at the Congress was like a heartfelt message to everybody, Ali Al-Fayrouz wrote for Al-Rai daily. We shall today complete the remaining part of the message he delivered concerning his next action upon which he was trying to shed light. It was to ensure members of the Senate and House of Representatives are aware of the enormous burden on the nation. It is evident that over 49 million Americans are jobless, over 43 million are living under the poverty and hunger line, and almost 49.9 million do not have health insurance. Over one fifth of the Americans were unemployed during their youthful years. Trump is committed to breaking the chain of poverty and violence, considering the fact that the crime rate in 2015 rose to an unacceptable level. In Chicago alone, over 4,000 people were victims of violence. In such inhumane violent situations, how is it possible to create a safe and secure environment for the future of the American children? If there was a betting office in Kuwait, I would go there and bet on the nullification of the current National Assembly for it to be the third nullified parliament, Za ar Al-Rasheedi wrote for Al-Anba daily. I think many observers of the local arena agree with me in this regard. They also believe the current parliament will be nullified because of the unconstitutionality of the government. This is the main reason among several other reasons, based on which many lawyers are betting on the nullification of the parliament. In my viewpoint, I think this is the logical, constitutional and legal channel that can lead to the nullification of the National Assembly. However, the political alignment will be the magical separation point in any nullification or immunization. This depends on how matters will proceed from now until beginning of May when the verdict will be announced. It also depends on the nature of the path to be taken by the MPs in the next phase. The Parliament in general is now seeking political calmness but this does not mean sudden political changes will not emerge in the political arena and result in mixing of papers. In response to a question concerning the reasons behind the American support for Israel, the American philosopher Noam Chomsky revealed about a long history behind this endless support, Mohammad Hilal Al-Khaldi wrote for Al-Anba daily. Chomsky, who is Jewish, anti-zionist and anticapitalist, said, The story of the American support for Israel starts with the Christian Zionism, which is stronger and more severe than the Jewish one. It began with the British elite in the beginning of the 20th century. The Balfour Declaration was the first fruit of the Christian Zionism, which enabled Israel to establish a country on the Palestinian land in Chomsky highlighted the fact that several statements made by the British and American politicians included verses from the Holy Bible concerning the Promised Land. According to them, Israel from the Nile in the west to the Euphrates in the east has been specified for the Jews by God. Chomsky gave many examples of religious American politicians including a number of American Presidents. Chomsky said the former American president Roosevelt, in many occasions, said the return of the Jews to Palestine is the greatest action in history and is a direct enforcement of the regulations of the Holy Bible. However, he also pointed out another reason related to the colonial culture which is a major part of the American and European culture. He said Palestine was the last station of the Western colonization. He indicated that the Israeli occupation of Palestine differs from the French occupation of Algeria and the British occupation of India. He clarified that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian land involves rejecting the original people and replacing them with strange Jews. Chomsky revealed that the American military leaders were fascinated by the performance of the Israeli Army in 1948 after which they considered it as the military arm of America and Britain in the Middle East. He stressed that the Israeli Army offered major services to the West when it ended the Arabism project, adding that Israel supported extremist Muslims in order to destroy Islam and link terrorism to Islam. In the book titled The Anthropology of the Jews, the late Egyptian professor Jamal Hamdan affirmed that 95 percent of the current Jews are not the descendants of the Jews who left Palestine more than 2,000 years ago. He revealed that the hatred Adolf Hitler felt towards the Jews was not due to religious reasons but because he disliked their ways of deceiving people and taking advantage of the suffering of others. It did not come as a surprise when the Jews assassinated Hamdan in 1993 after he exposed their two major false claims. Deals among the political powers including the government is part of the political work to the extent that deals are sometimes made on urgent basis in order to reach a compromise or implement a solution concerning a crisis that can be accepted by all parties, Dr Bader Al-Daihani wrote for Aljarida daily. However, it is assumed that such deals are made freely within the space of ever-changing political situations based on information and circumstances. Political deals are supposed to take into consideration the fundamental principles and the Constitution. They are not supposed to contradict the Constitution or the common political concepts. Accordingly, the deal that was recently reached between the government and a number of MPs for the latter not to grill His Highness the Prime Minister and for the current parliamentary term to remain for four years was meaningless. From the political viewpoint as well as that of the Constitution, the deal is useless and will have no effect at all. This is because it clearly violates the Constitution and distracts the National Assembly from its main duty, which is to follow up the government performance. Such a deal has turned the Parliament into a toy in the hands of the government. Interestingly, most of the MPs who agreed to this deal criticized the former parliaments of the one-man one-vote decree, describing them as useless. In fact, they are right about that but it is strange that they have accepted to be put in the same position that they criticized about in the past. Those MPs declared that they give up their original duty as representatives of the people for achieving some temporary gains which will affect the rights of some citizens who were exposed to injustice when their citizenships were revoked over political reasons. The calls made by Islamist MPs for restoration of the revoked citizenships of only those who belong to their sect are also another violation of the Constitution. It even contradicts the human rights principles. Citizenship for them is controlled by the sect. Compiled by Zaki Taleb

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8 LOCAL 8 Court Cases Suspend expat driving licences Appeals acquits former MP Al-Duwailah in libel lawsuit The Asians with bottles of liquor seized. 1,310 bottles liquor seized Police have arrested four Asians for trading in locally manufactured alcohol, reports Al-Shahed daily. The bootleggers were seen near a car which was parked on an open ground in Farwaniya and when police approached them, they tried in vain to escape. Police have seized from the men 1,310 bottles of local alcohol from the vehicle. The suspects and the booze have been handed over to the General Department of Drugs and Alcohol Control. Meanwhile, the Farwaniya police News in Brief Asian expat waylaid: An unknown individual impersonating police waylaid an Asian expatriate in Subbiya area and robbed him of his wallet which contained his documents and cash of KD 240, says Al-Seyassah. According to security sources, the victim, who works as a mechanic filed a case at a police station, informing securitymen that he was walking in the area when the suspect stopped his vehicle next to him and asked him for his civil ID, claiming that he is a police officer. When he pulled out his wallet, the suspect grabbed it and drove off. Securitymen have launched investigations to find and arrest the suspect. Meanwhile, a Kuwaiti woman reported the theft of KD 600 from her vehicle by an unknown individual. According to sources, the woman went to a police station in Capital Governorate and informed securitymen that she had returned to her vehicle after shopping in Mubarakiya area to discover the back glass of her vehicle was broken and KD 600 was missing from her vehicle. Officers from the General Department for Criminal Evidences lifted fingerprints. Investigations have been launched to find and arrest the unknown thief. By Jaber Al-Hamoud Al-Seyassah Staff KUWAIT CITY, March 20: The Court of Appeals upheld the decision of the Court of First Instance and acquitted former MP Nasser Al-Duwailah and Scope TV crew of issuing malicious statements against the Egyptian leader and the country s military institute. The case file indicated the Public Prosecution Department charged Al-Duwailah based on Article 4 of Law No 30/1970 for violating the security of a foreign country during a live interview he granted on Scope TV and purportedly made statements capable of undermining official ties between Kuwait and Egypt. He was prosecuted upon a petition filed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs accusing him of threatening diplomatic relations between Kuwait and Egypt. The ministry demanded the MP should be punished according to Article 4 of law number 40/1970 for violating security of another country. The aforementioned article stipulates three years imprisonment against any person recruiting individuals illegitimately to fight against a friendly country or engages in any act that may incite cause war or carry out attacks against a friendly country in a manner that could jeopardizes Kuwait s diplomatic relations. Suspend licenses: Lawyer Mohammad Al-Ansari, representing a group of Kuwait citizens, has filed an administrative case in which he urged concerned authorities to temporarily suspend the validity of all driving licenses of expatriates until Ministry of Interior takes measures to fix the traffic issue in Kuwait. Lawyer Al-Ansari justified by saying the case highlights the slackness of Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Public Works in carrying out their role in solving the traffic crisis which the country is witnessing on a daily basis and has been negatively affecting citizens. In his statement, he said, The traffic crisis in the country has reached an unbearable level. It has become hard to bear the scenes of traffic congestion and traffic paralysis in such continuous manner, which is reflecting an uncivilized image. Lawyer Al-Ansari lamented that the constant traffic congestion exposes deep flaws and the absence of a clear strategy for solve this choking crisis. He affirmed that this matter needs judicial intervention to suspend the validity of expatriates driving licenses with the exception of some professions. Firms sued: A lawyer has filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor against a group of livestock companies that signed a document to suspend the import of sheep from Iran, Jordan, Oman, and Georgia. In his complaint, the lawyer said the aforementioned document signed on March 12, 2017 entailed suspending the import of sheep from the aforementioned countries until May 15, 2017, although the companies are licensed to import livestock from abroad to cover shortage in the local production. He added the step taken to suspend import of livestock will adversely affect the national economy, as it violates trade agreements signed between Kuwait and the countries in question, which will go a long way to affect prices of meat. He added the recent statement issued by the companies revealed they lied about their decision of suspending import of sheep on claims that it was due to the excessive number of sheep available in the local market. The lawyer considered the step taken by the livestock companies to be unlawful according to Law No. 10/2007 that concerns the protection of competition. have arrested two Indians for trafficking in locally-manufactured booze and referred them to the General Department for Drug and Alcohol Control, reports Al-Rai daily. The daily added, the suspects were picked up while driving in Abbasiya. Police have seized from them 10 bottles of local booze. The bootleggers then guided police to three cars which were parked in the area and were being used for storage facility. Police have seized from these cars 350 bottles of booze. Truck blocks road: A heavy vehicle toppled after colliding with a vehicle on a bridge in Rahal area at 80 Kilo mark on King Fahad Expressway, says Al-Seyassah. According to security sources, when the Operations Room of Ministry of Interior received information about the accident, securitymen and paramedics rushed to the location to find the toppled heavy vehicle on the bridge and the sand that the heavy vehicle was carrying had scattered on the road. Witnesses revealed that the driver was speeding and had lost control of the vehicle due to which it toppled. Securitymen took necessary action, removed the vehicles from the road and organized the traffic. Cell stolen from car: An Egyptian expatriate lodged a complaint with security operatives at Khaitan police station against an unknown person who stole a mobile phone from his vehicle while it was parked near a mosque in the area, says Al-Seyassah. He told the officers he was surprised when he finished praying in the mosque and discovered the glass of his vehicle had been broken with the mobile phone stolen. Fingerprints were lifted to trail the suspect. An abandoned water tanker is confiscated by the Municipality workers during crackdown. Municipality removes abandoned vehicles The General Cleanliness and Road Works Department affiliated to Ahmadi Municipality launched a widespread campaign in Fahaheel Industrial Area that lasted for three days, reports Al-Seyassah daily. The campaign resulted in the lifting of 112 abandoned vehicles that were then sent to the garage of the Municipality. A total of two forklifts, 16 cranes, five trailers and two boom cranes were used along with 13 cleaners for the campaign. A source revealed that the campaign will gather momentum in the coming days. Meanwhile, the Emergency Team and Violations Removal Team of Capital Municipality carried out intense inspections of restaurants and targeted transgressors on state properties Sponsors face law for leaving expatriates on streets to beg Dead getting paid? Discrepancies found in funds for disabled KUWAIT CITY, March 20: Director-General of the General Department of Public Relations and Security Media at the Interior Ministry Brigadier Adel Al-Hashash said stringent punitive measures shall be taken against people individuals, companies or institutions who sponsor people and leave them on the streets of Kuwait for begging for alms, reports Al-Rai daily. Al-Hashash was responding to what was published last Thursday about that residents of Al-Qurain were disturbed to see some children begging for alms pretending to be Syrian refugees. He said the Ministry of Interior will spare no efforts to address not only security issues but also social which fall within the ministry s priorities, particularly since the phenomenon of begging harms the civilized face of the country. He added those caught begging will be immediately deported in accordance with Article (16) of the Foreigners Act. He pointed out that Minister of Interior Sheikh Khaled Al-Jarrah has stressed on the need to address the phenomenon of begging. Discrepancies in funds: The Public Authority for the Disabled while running a check on 17,000 of the 42,000 files of disabled Kuwaitis has discovered several irregularities, including 3,194 domestic workers who are taking care of the disabled are not under the sponsorship of the person she is serving, reports Al-Jarida daily. Sources disclosed these irregularities include 54 cases of women caring for people with disabilities who are more than 80 years old. The authority also discovered money was being paid to dozens of people of who are dead and the total number of money paid is believed to be KD 400,000 until the end of The daily quoting sources from the authority said only KD 123,000 has been recovered. The source said a commission formed by the authority has contacted the people who have received money on behalf of the deceased and asked them to return the money amicably. In some cases the files have been referred to the Fatwa and Legislation Department to recover the money. Ex-cop in drug peddling: The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) personnel have arrested two Kuwaitis -- one a former policeman -- for trafficking in heroin, reports Al-Anba daily. According to a security source, one Kuwaiti was caught red-handed while selling three sachets of heroin to an undercover police agent. Armed with a warrant issued by the Public Prosecution, the CID men then raided the home of the expoliceman and seized from him also sachets of heroin. Initially the ex-policeman denied knowledge of the drugs in his house, but later admitted to the charges slapped against him. Top and above: Chaos seen at the KUTF meeting. Effort to mar polls: Al-Ajmi Municipality photo along with owners of real estates that violated construction regulations. The teams removed 44 violating advertisements from streets and arenas and gave six warnings for the violation of transgressing on state properties. Photos by Mohammad Morsi Verbal duel erupts into fisticuffs By Fares Al-Abdan Al-Seyassah Staff KUWAIT CITY, March 20: Verbal altercation among members of Kuwait Trade Unions Federation gradually escalated to fisticuffs at the 17th General Convention of the Federation held inside the Petroleum and Petrochemical Workers Union Hall in Ahmadi area Monday evening. The meeting initially scheduled for 4:00pm delayed for another one hour due to lack of quorum, and the union leaders gathered in front of the venue with serious agitation when one of the organizers requested them to show ID cards for identification and signature before entry. Some of them disregarded the request saying their signatures would be used against them whenever decisions they re opposed to were taken. Several unionists objected to the procedures claiming there was no clear list for entry and the organizers had no right to organize the convention. Immediately after those opposed to the meeting entered, they announced the convention had been postponed until April 4 amidst serious disagreement and discordant voices. The venue was not calm until the hall was evacuated for Maghrib prayer. The opposition suddenly withdrew from election of the executive committee. In his comment, chairman of the Public Sector Workers Union Amer Al-Bases said the convention violated rules and regulations. He complained about allowing some members into the hall while preventing others, lack of quorum, and many other violations. According to the Secretary General of Public Sector Workers Union Marzouq Abdullah, some people allowed into the hall were not members of the federation. He noted only four trade unions were allowed inside the hall, while ID cards were printed for some people, with incomplete names. Meanwhile, Chairman of the Ministry of Social Affairs Workers Union Salem Shebib Al-Ajmi said the incident was a mess, and an effort to frustrate the elections. He observed the police did not play the anticipated role, which led to the skirmishes among some members. He added the convention continued later to elect the council and approved membership. He reaffirmed results of the election would be announced afterward.

9 LOCAL/GULF 9 Global Forum for Innovations and Agriculture opens in Abu Dhabi ICARDA calls for joining forces to improve food security BEIRUT, March 20: Speaking at the Global Forum for Innovations and Agriculture (GFIA) in Abu Dhabi today, Dr Andrew Noble, Deputy Director General of the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and representing the ICARDA Director General Aly Abousabaa, has called upon capitalizing on proven agricultural technologies and innovations to enhance food security in MENA region. Farmers across the Arab region face multiple production constraints: a degraded natural resource base, chronic water scarcity, variable weather patterns, and a range of pests and diseases, which severely affect the production of staple crops especially wheat. The result is a large and growing import burden that undermines food security and exposes countries to the vagaries of global commodity markets. Water and food security are the key challenges under climate change in MENA, he said. Investing into increasing food production enhances agricultural productivity under changing climate conditions in the region, Dr Noble emphasized. The ICARDA led Enhancing Food Security in Arab Countries initiative, supported by Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, the Islamic Development Bank, the OPEC Fund for International Development, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is demonstrating significant development outcomes, unlocking the potential with science and technology, Dr Noble highlighted. Initiated in 2011, Enhancing Food Security in Arab Countries promotes proven technologies and strategies including improved varieties that are high-yielding and tolerant to a range of biotic and abiotic stresses; sustainable agronomic practices such as conservation agriculture and raised-bed planting; and the more efficient use of scarce water resources, through improved irrigation and water management systems. During the initiative s first phase ( ), average yields across all large-scale demonstration sites increased by 28%, with a maximum yield increase of 75%. These gains held up during the first and second growing seasons of the initiative s second phase ( ) when the average yield increase was also 28%, and the maximum yield increase was 59%. In order to enhance the dissemination and uptake of the new technologies, ICARDA and its National Agricultural Research System partners work closely together to define and streamline innovative extension methodologies, taking into account the specific information needs, cultures and services available in each MENA region country. Returns on investment have been considerable: an initial investment of 5.3 million USD has generated an estimated additional in-pocket gain of 54.2 million USD for farmers in Egypt, Tunisia, and Jordan. Additional estimates suggest that achievable gains could reach 61.4 million USD across Sudan, Syria, and Morocco. 122 nominations in GCC Arcapita Mosque wins award for architecture in 2nd cycle MANAMA, March 20: Arcapita Mosque won Abdullatif Al Fozan Award for Mosque Architecture in its second cycle, which received nominations for 122 mosques from the GCC region. The award ceremony was held in Jeddah under the patronage of HRH Prince Khalid Al Faisal, Advisor to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, Governor of Mecca Region. The ceremony was also attended by HRH Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Award, and a number of high ranking dignitaries and guests. The award recognizes Arcapita Mosque s contemporary architecture and creative designs, embodying its Islamic uniqueness and aesthetic building characteristics. The Mosque is centrally located in Bahrain Bay, at the heart of Manama, the vibrant capital of the Kingdom of Bahrain. It is designed by Skidmore, Ownings & Merrill (SOM), one of the largest and most influential architecture and interior design firms in the world. The Mosque s unique design and innovative sculptural form were key to winning this prominent award. Arcapita Mosque s design is unprecedented in the building of mosques in Bahrain. Its exterior is not cluttered with traditional architectural components, such as the dome shaped building or the traditionally shaped minaret. This unmatched design allows natural lighting to flow into the Mosque through forty windows from three sides of the building. The lighting system for the interior and exterior façade of the Mosque is controlled by the use of an automatic astronomic solar time clock and manual override, allowing for the scenes to be chosen depending on prayer times. On this occasion, Abdulaziz bin Hamad Aljomaih, Chairman of the Board of Arcapita Group said, Arcapita Mosque s winning this prestigious regional award drives us to continue to expend utmost efforts to build house of worship and mosques throughout the region. This also underscores Arcapita Group s success in designing this architectural masterpiece, embodying Bahrain s aspirations for modernity, combined with the traditional urban character and Arab Islamic society heritage. Aljomaih praised the efforts the Board of Trustees and staff overseeing the Award, and lauded this award as the highest international recognition for mosque architecture, encouraging architects all over the world to creatively design mosques and provide innovative and outstanding structures for the houses of worship. Abdullatif Al Fozan Award for Mosque Architecture was founded in 2011, to recognize architectural excellence in mosque engineering and construction. It serves today as a platform for development of architectural knowledge in building contemporary mosques throughout the world. Along with Arcapita Mosque, two other mosques were also recognized this year, namely Msheireb Mosque in Qatar and Sheikha Salama Mosque in the United Arab Emirates. The Board of Trustees of the Award is chaired by Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, President of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage. Trustees include a number of Shari ah scholars and senior government officials, including Sheikh Abdullatif bin Ahmed Al Fozan, the Award s founder, HE Engineer Adel bin Mohammed Faqih, Saudi Arabia s Minister of Economy and Planning, Dr Khalid bin Salih Al Sultan, Rector and CEO of King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), HE Sheikh Dr. Abdulrahman bin Abdulaziz Al Sudais, General President of the Affairs of the Grand Mosque and the Prophet s Mosque, Imam of the Holy Mosque in Mecca, and a number of officers of the banking and architectural sectors from around the world. Boursa Kuwait partners with PACI to up security measures The new service offers the latest Electronic Signature feature KUWAIT CITY, March 20: Reinforcing the credibility of disclosed information, Boursa Kuwait announced today its partnership with the Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI), to offer the latest Electronic Signature feature, which acts as an authentication system for the information provided by listed companies on the Company Information Portal (CIP). The partnership was announced during a press conference held at the Boursa Kuwait premises, on March 20, where both parties signed the partnership agreement to make it official. Commenting on this new system, Boursa Kuwait Vice-Chairman and CEO, Khaled AbdulRazzaq Al-Khalid said: When we initially launched the CIP, our main objective was to capitalize on the importance of providing stakeholders with a credible, transparent and accessible information platform. Building on that, it was equally significant that we maintained a secure and authenticated gateway for that information, hence our partnership with PACI to offer the Electronic Authentication Khaled AbdulRazzaq Al Khaled, Boursa Kuwait Vice Chairman and CEO and Musaed Al Asousi Director General at PACI, signing the agreement at Boursa Kuwait headquarter. Gateway for Civil ID s verification. Al-Khalid added: We chose PACI as our partner to provide secured identity authentication as they are one of the few ISO certified organizations in Kuwait. The fact that PACI is the sole authority in Kuwait that issues the National Civil IDs for all legal residents, along with its secured authentication process, gives it the unique qualification that Boursa Kuwait needed to implement CIP authentication. Boursa Kuwait designed and launched CIP with the aim of providing a credible and up to date information platform for all listed companies, which can be used as a reference site by all stakeholders. The Portal requires listed companies to upload news regarding disclosure announcements, their profile page and their financial statements with full authority to make regular updates. Boursa Kuwait seeks partnerships that add value to its long terms vision and strategy, and supports its day to day operational objectives. We thank PACI for their cooperation and we look forward to a productive and longstanding partnership that is mutually beneficial ; Al-Khalid added. The Electronic Signature system, provided by PACI, requires the authorized representatives from listed companies in Boursa Kuwait to visit PACI s offices to activate the electronic signature. Therefore, it is crucial that the companies update their information at PACI. News in Brief CSC OKs risk allowance: Assistant Undersecretary for Administrative Affairs at the Ministry of Health Marzouq Al-Rashidi announced that Civil Service Commission (CSC) has endorsed the ministry s request to pay Bedoun nurses and ambulance drivers Risk and Infection allowance of KD 35 monthly retroactively from August 2016, reports Al-Anba daily. In a press statement, Al-Rashidi noted the Health Ministry will take necessary steps to disburse the allowance with their salary. MoH preparing promotion list: Ministry of Health is currently preparing the list of names of Kuwaiti personnel who fulfill the conditions of promotion as stipulated by Civil Service Commission and Civil Service Council, reports Al-Anba daily. In this context, acting Undersecretary of Health Dr Waleed Al-Falah has addressed all sectors of the ministry, including the health districts, central departments, hospitals, health centers and other utilities of the ministry to stick to the system of promotion by presenting the names of nominees to the concerned supervisor at the Department of Public Jobs. Al-Falah affirmed the promotion includes Kuwaiti employees only in their various specialties, except doctors, whose promotions are determined by special rules. He noted the deadline for presenting nominees is within two weeks.

10 INTERNATIONAL 10 World News Roundup Fire crews fi ght a wildfi re from the air in Sunshine Canyon on March 19 in Boulder, Colorado. Firefi ghters made progress Sunday in battling a small wildfi re that forced people to fl ee hundreds of homes in the mountains just outside downtown Boulder. (AP) Crews battle wildfire near Colorado college town Firefighters were able to contain about half of a small but potentially dangerous wildfi re just west of downtown Boulder, Colorado, that forced hundreds to fl ee and sent up thick plumes of black smoke. Boulder County Sheriff s Cmdr. Mike Wagner said the blaze may be humancaused and that hikers and transient campers frequent the area where it erupted a wooded, mountainous place a couple of miles from Pearl Street, the shopping and dining hub in the heart of the university city. Officials ruled out any lightning strikes or downed power lines, Wagner said. The fi re started in the Sunshine Canyon area, which is dotted with expensive homes and rustic mountain residences. Dead trees exploded and sent black smoke skyward. Residents of 426 homes under mandatory evacuation orders spent the night with friends and family or at the Red Cross shelter downtown. A decision on whether some might be able return wouldn t be made until later Monday, according to the Boulder Office of Emergency Management. No structures were damaged by the 62- acre fi re, though crews were spending the night focusing on protecting homes and monitoring the blaze s perimeter. Officials worried that stronger wind gusts could fan the fl ames overnight, and residents of 836 homes were told to be ready to leave if conditions worsened. (AP) Military Battered by scandal Marines issue a new social media policy WASHINGTON, March 20, (AP): Battered by a nude photo-sharing scandal, the Marine Corps has issued a longer and more detailed social media policy that lays out the professional and legal ramifications for service members culpable of online misconduct. Among the coming changes: a requirement that all Marines sign a statement acknowledging they have read and understand the new guidelines. The adjustments are designed to give leaders more leeway in prosecuting or punishing offenders. Former and current female Marines have reported their photographs and those of women in other services being posted on social media pages without their consent. Investigators are also looking into threatening and obscene comments Marines wrote accompanying the images. Neller The new policy makes it clear how existing rules and the Uniform Code of Military Justice can be used to prosecute offensive, indecent or disrespectful online activities. But it creates no new laws, underscoring the legal quagmire posed by the internet and the constraints on military leaders posed by privacy laws and the First Amendment right of free speech. Released in recent days by Gen Robert Neller, the Marine commandant, the Corps new guidance is one result of the ongoing criminal investigation. Engaging Marines should think twice before engaging in questionable online activities, and must avoid actions online that threaten the morale, operational readiness and security, or public standing of their units, or that compromise our core values, the policy states, addressing any content or comments that are deemed defamatory, threatening, harassing or discriminating on the basis of race, color, sex, gender, age, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or other criteria. It makes clear that bad behavior can be punished under the military code. The Marine Corps isn t the only service making changes. The Army is sending out a new message to its force, signed by senior leaders including Gen Mark Milley, the Army chief of staff, and warning soldiers that online misconduct is unacceptable and passive tolerance of bad behavior by others is also wrong. The Army has routinely updated its social media policy to emphasize treating soldiers with dignity and respect, including in February before the Marine scandal surfaced. The services are urging any victims of improper photo-sharing to come forward. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service said it is getting more tips every day, but investigators acknowledge the legal hurdles in finding and prosecuting offenders. Twenty women have reported that they re victims. The probe has expanded in the last two weeks, as services beyond the Marines examine if their members are involved. So far, they say no victims from the other services have come forward. No men have said they were victimized. In this March 11, 2017 photo, Stephanie Bushey reads to her daughter Katie Bushey, 32, at their home in West Chazy, New York. Katie lost her vocal and motor skills at birth and relies on assistance from home health aides during the day while Stephanie is at work. Advocates for the disabled, elderly and chronically ill in New York are concerned the state s move to a $15 minimum wage could deepen a shortage of home health aides. (AP) Gottschalck America Bearden Warm, wet spring seen: If you liked the balmy weather that dominated on the US East Coast and much of the South this winter, you will probably enjoy the spring of 2017, too. The new season, which officially begins on Monday, should bring more of the same in both regions, forecasters say, though for the East, a final twist of winter weirdness will have to play out before the region basks in the warmth again. Spring, which starts with the vernal equinox at 6:28 am EDT on Monday, will begin warmly but Wednesday s temperatures are predicted to plunge into the 20s (-1 to -6 Celsius) and teens in the US Northeast, with a snowstorm possible in the Midwest, according to Accuweather.com. After the warmest February on record in New York City and other parts of the Northeast, winter returned with a vengeance last week with a paralyzing snowstorm and sustained stretch of sub-freezing temperatures. That was our three days of winter, said Jon Gottschalck, chief forecaster at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In New York, where pedestrians are still navigating deep piles of snow and ice, the mercury was expected to dip below the freezing mark overnight and then climb to Social Media Media world rapidly changing Story sharers more important NEW YORK, March 20, (AP): The person who shares a news story on social media is more important than the story s actual source in determining whether readers believe it, a study by the Media Insight Project has found. In a previous study, consumers said they paid greater heed to where the story originated. But the Media Insight Project, a collaboration between The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the American Press Institute, set up an experiment that found something different. News organizations are keenly interested in research that tracks consumer habits in a rapidly changing media world. Facebook was the top non-television source for election news cited by both supporters of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in last fall s presidential campaign, according to the Pew Research Center. Businesses grew to churn out false stories that people would share online. The Media Insight Project survey showed a post on a Facebook-like social network with a health story about diabetes. The Associated Press was labeled as the story s author in the post shown to half of the participants while for the other half, the story was said to be from about 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) on the first day of spring. Hang tight, bear with it, because our forecast for spring is above-average temperatures, Gottschalck said. That may come as cold comfort for the nation s capital. Last week s cold snap a fictional source, DailyNewsReview. com. Half of the participants saw the story was shared by a public figure they had previously said they trusted, such as Oprah Winfrey or Dr Oz. For the other half, the story was shared by a famous person they said they didn t trust. Fifty percent of participants said the health story got the facts right when it was shared by the person they trusted, while only 35 percent said the same thing when they didn t trust the sharer, the study found. The pattern was nearly identical when people were asked if they thought the story was well-reported. Participants also said they were more likely to pass the article along to their own friends when it had been shared by a trusted source. By contrast, the original source AP or the fictional site made little difference to readers perceptions about the article. For example, 52 percent of people said they believed that the article attributed to the AP had the facts right if it had been passed on by a trusted figure. But only 32 percent of people said the same thing when the AP piece was shared by someone less trustworthy. If there s somebody I like and agree with, they can have a big influence not annihilated half of the pink-and-white cherry blossoms that typically draw 1.5 million tourists to Washington in early April. Lured to an early bloom by historic warmth, they were dangerously exposed, said National Park Service officials, who soldiered on with a festival celebrating Emergency personnel work at the scene early Sunday, March 19, of a fatal shooting last week in Baton Rouge, La. A sheriff s deputy died after being shot near a barber shop during the course of an investigation, authorities said Sunday. (AP) only in what I look at but in whether I believe it or not: I trust them and I convey that trust to the news that they share, said Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute. While about half the people who participated in the project s experiment could remember later who shared the diabetes article, about two in 10 were able to identify the AP or Daily- NewsReview.com as the author. The Media Insight Project poll on sharing news on social media was conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the American Press Institute Nov 9, Dec 6, It is based on online and telephone interviews of 1,489 adults who are members of NORC s nationally representative AmeriSpeak panel. The survey was funded by API. The original sample was drawn from respondents selected randomly from NORC s National Frame based on address-based sampling and recruited by mail, , telephone and face-to-face interviews. NORC interviews participants over the phone if they don t have internet access. survivors expected to reach peak bloom around March 25. While the East Coast luxuriated in the mild temperatures, and Texas and Louisiana had the warmest winter in more than a century, the West Coast enjoyed a welcome stretch of wet weather after years of drought. Nevada and Wyoming set records for precipitation, while California had the second wettest winter in the 123 years of record-keeping, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said. (RTRS) Restaurant waiter fired: A waiter was fired from a Southern California restaurant after asking customers to prove they had legal residency before serving them. The Los Angeles Times reports Sunday that 23-year-old Brenda Carrillo says she and a friend got the question at Saint Marc in Huntington Beach. Carrillo says the waiter later asked her sister and another friend to see their proof of residency. She says the women complained to the manager and left. One later posted an account of the incident online. The restaurant said in an online post that the waiter was fired. Kent Bearden, senior director of operations for Saint Marc, says the restaurant will donate 10 percent of the weekend s sales to a nonprofit chosen by the women. (AP)

11 INTERNATIONAL 11 Politics Dems to probe Gorsuch Trump s SC pick to face tough scrutiny Gorsuch WASHINGTON, March 20, (Agencies): US Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch will face tough scrutiny at his Senate confirmation hearing starting on Monday, with Democrats seeking to make the case that he is a pro-business, social conservative insufficiently independent of the president. In a bid to place hurdles in the way of Gorsuch s expected confirmation by the Republican-controlled Senate, Democrats on the judiciary committee considering the nomination have said they will probe him on several fronts based mainly on his record as a federal appeals court judge and a Justice Department appointee under former President George W. Bush. Nominated by President Donald Trump to fill a year-old vacancy on the court, Gorsuch is a conservative appeals court judge from Colorado. Cool-headed and amiable, he will likely try to engage senators without being pinned down on specifics. Among questions Gorsuch will face will be whether he is sufficiently independent from Trump, who has criticized judges for ruling against his bid to restrict travel from Muslim-majority countries. Another line of attack previewed by Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is to focus on rulings Gorsuch, 49, has authored in which corporate interests won out over individual workers. Democrats will also press Gorsuch on his role as a Justice Department lawyer under Bush from 2005 to 2006, when he helped defend controversial policies enacted after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, including the administration s expansive use of aggressive interrogation techniques. Gorsuch views on social issues, including a 2006 book he wrote in which he argued against the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia, will be discussed too. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, a plain-spoken Iowan, will chair the proceedings, which could go as long as four days, providing classic Washington political theater. Trump nominated Gorsuch, 49, to replace conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February If Gorsuch is approved by the Senate, as expected, he would restore a narrow 5-4 conservative majority on the court. For months last year, Republicans refused to consider former Democratic President Barack Obama s pick to fill the seat. The unusual Republican tactic blocked a leftward shift on the court. Since Scalia s death, the court has been divided equally 4-4 between conservatives and liberals. Uphill Democrats face an uphill battle to block Gorsuch, who like all Supreme Court justices would serve for life if confirmed. Republicans control 52 of the Senate s 100 seats. Under present rules, Gorsuch would need 60 votes for confirmation. If Democrats stay unified and Gorsuch cannot muster 60, Republicans could change the rules to allow confirmation by simple majority. Senators on the Judiciary Committee, which is holding the hearing, will give opening statements on Monday and then take turns asking questions of the nominee on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Senate has confirmed 124 Supreme Court justices since the United States was founded. Neil Gorsuch wants to be the newest member of the relatively small group of men and women who guide the nation s judicial branch. The modern-day confirmation process is arduous, with dozens of one-on-one meetings with senators in recent weeks giving way to days of testimony starting Monday. Gorsuch and the Judiciary Committee s 20 members will give opening statements. Gorsuch will answer questions Tuesday and Wednesday, and other witnesses will testify Thursday. A look at the confirmation process, its rules, terminology and politics: WHAT DOES THE CONSTITUTION SAY The Constitution lays out the process in just a few words, saying the president shall nominate Supreme Court justices by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. Senate rules and tradition dictate the rest. President Donald Trump nominated Gorsuch, a judge on the Denver-based 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals, on Jan 31 and set the process in motion. THE PREPARATION AND DAY ONE Gorsuch has met with 72 of the 100 senators in advance of his hearings. Like other nominees, he has participated in mock questioning facilitated by the Trump administration. These are sometimes dubbed murder boards because of their intensity. Gorsuch will have to sit through 10-minute statements from each of the 20 members of the committee, which will take several hours. After that, Gorsuch will finally speak, delivering his own 10-minute opening statement. THE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS In past hearings, the questions have centered around the nominee s legal qualifications, decisions as a judge, positions on political issues, interpretations of the Constitution, general legal philosophy and current legal controversies. The stakes are high with any court pick, and especially now as confirmation of Gorsuch would ensure a conservative advantage on the court. Gorsuch will face the same dilemma of many nominees before him how to answer the questions clearly and concisely without weighing in on issues that could come before the court or get himself in political trouble. Reluctant Democrats are likely to push him if he is reluctant. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York has already criticized him for deflecting questions when he asked him during their meeting whether Trump s immigration ban is constitutional. THE OTHER WITNESSES The fourth and final day of the hearings, Thursday, will feature outside witnesses, usually former colleagues and advocacy groups who will testify for or against Gorsuch. In the past, one of the first to testify has been the chair of the American Bar Association s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary. That group has given Gorsuch a unanimous well qualified rating. THE COMMITTEE VOTE By tradition, the committee will report the nomination to the Senate floor even if the majority of the panel opposes the nominee, so the full Senate can have the ultimate say. So instead of approving or rejecting the nominee, the committee will usually report the nomination favorably, unfavorably or without recommendation. Of the 15 most recent nominations, 13 were reported favorably. Robert Bork, whose nomination was ultimately rejected by the Senate, was reported unfavorably in 1987; Clarence Thomas, who won confirmation, was reported without recommendation in Gorsuch is expected to be reported favorably by the Republican-led committee. US President Donald Trump waves from Air Force One upon his arrival at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland on March 19, from a trip to Florida. (AP) The setting sun dips below the horizon as cars travel down a rural road on March 19, in Overland Park, Kansas. (AP) Trump North America Janzen Deportation favoured poll: Nearly half of Canadians want to deport people who are illegally crossing into Canada from the United States, and a similar number disapprove of how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is handling the influx, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Monday. A significant minority, four out of 10 respondents, said the border crossers could make Canada less safe, underlining the potential political risk for Trudeau s Liberal government. The increasing flow of hundreds of asylum-seekers of African and Middle Eastern origin from the United States in recent months has become a contentious issue in Canada. There has been broad bipartisan support for high levels of legal immigration for decades in Canada. But Trudeau has come under pressure over the flow of the illegal migrants. He is questioned about it every time he appears in parliament, from opponents on the left, who want more asylum-seekers to be allowed in, and critics on the right, who say the migrants pose a potential security risk. Canadians appeared to be just as concerned about illegal immigration as their American neighbors, according to the poll, which was conducted between March 8-9. Some 48 percent of Canadians said they supported increasing the deportation of people living in Canada illegally. When asked specifically about the recent border crossings from the United States, the same number 48 percent said Canada should send these migrants back to the US. Another 36 percent said Canada should accept these migrants and let them seek refugee status. In the United States, where President Donald Trump was elected partly on his promise to boost deportations, 50 percent of adults supported increasing the deportation of illegal immigrants, according to a separate Reuters/Ipsos poll that was conducted during the same week in the United States. Illegal migrants interviewed by Reuters in Canada said they had been living legally in the United States and had applied for asylum there. But they had fled to Canada for fear of being caught up in Trump s immigration crackdown. In the poll, support for deporting the border crossers was strongest among men, adults who do not have a college degree, people who are older and those with higher levels of income. There are so many people in the world who want to come in and go through the right channels, said Greg Janzen, elected leader of a Manitoba border municipality that has seen hundreds of border crossers. That s what s pissing most people off. These guys are jumping the border, he said. Forty-six percent of Canadians feel HealthCare More generous tax credits for older Americans eyed GOP revamps US health bill WASHINGTON, March 20, (Agencies): US House Republicans are working on changes to their healthcare overhaul bill to provide more generous tax credits for older Americans and add a work requirement for the Medicaid program for the poor, House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Sunday. Ryan said Republican leaders still planned to bring the healthcare bill to a vote on the House of Representatives floor on Thursday. Speaking on the Fox News Sunday television program, he said leaders were working to address concerns that had been raised by rank-and-file Republicans to the legislation. Republicans remain deeply divided over the healthcare overhaul, which is President Donald Trump s first major legislative initiative. It aims to fulfill his campaign pledge to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, the signature healthcare program of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama. Democrats say the Republican plan could throw millions off health insurance and hurt the elderly, poor and working families while giving tax cuts to the rich. We think we should be offering even more assistance than the bill currently does for lower-income people age 50 to 64, Ryan, the top Republican in Congress, said of the tax credits for health insurance that are proposed in the legislation. Ryan also said Republicans were working on changes that would allow federal block grants to states for Medicaid and permit states to impose a work requirement for able-bodied Medicaid recipients. Trump told reporters in a brief conversation aboard Air Force One that he had meetings about healthcare reform in Florida at the weekend and that the effort to sell the proposal was going well. He has been wooing lawmakers to vote for the bill and won the backing of a dozen conservative lawmakers on Friday after an Oval Office meeting in which the president endorsed a work requirement and block-grant option for Medicaid. Trump was set to meet Ezekiel Emanuel, a health policy special adviser under Obama who helped shape the Affordable Care Acton, at the White House on Monday, along with Ryan and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. Block grants would give states a set amount of money to cover people on the Medicaid program and provide flexibility in spending decisions. However, there is no guarantee funding the influx would have no effect on safety, while 41 percent said it would make Canada less safe, according to the poll. Refugees are much more welcomed would keep up with future demands. Bill While Ryan said he felt very good about the health bill s prospects in the House, a leading conservative lawmaker, Representative Mark Meadows, told the C-Span Newsmakers program that there were currently 40 Republican no votes in the House. Republicans hold a majority in the chamber but cannot afford to have more than 21 defections for the measure to pass. Meadows and two other Republican opponents of the bill, Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Ted Cruz of Texas, met at Trump s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Saturday negotiating with the president s team, trying to fix this bill, Cruz told CBS Face the Nation. Meanwhile, days before a pivotal vote, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Sunday he will seek changes to a GOP health care bill to provide more help to older people. The new willingness to compromise was a bid for more support from moderate Republicans, who expressed continuing unease about the plan to replace Barack Obama s health law unless significant changes were made. Leadership Ryan insisted that he felt very good about the bill s prospects but acknowledged that House leadership was making fine-tuning improvements to the bill to reflect people s concerns. We believe we should have even more assistance. And that s one of the things we re looking at for that person in their 50s and 60s because they experience higher health care costs, the Wisconsin Republican said. Under the GOP plan, older people who are not yet eligible for Medicare stand to be the biggest losers. It would shrink the tax credits they use to help buy insurance and it would increase their premiums because the bill allows insurers to charge more as people age and become more susceptible to health problems. A Congressional Budget Office analysis last week said a 64-year-old with income of $26,500 would pay $1,700 out of pocket for insurance under the Affordable Care Act, compared with $14,600 under the GOP plan. It estimated that 24 million people of all ages would lose coverage over 10 years. On Sunday, Ryan said he believed the CBO analysis was not accurate because Obamacare wouldn t be able to last 10 years. But he allowed the additional assistance was one of several House revisions to be discussed in advance of Thursday s vote, along with when we have gone and selected them ourselves as a country, as opposed to refugees who have chosen us, said Janet Dench, executive director of Canadian Council for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau poses with young participants during the annual St Patrick s Day parade in Montreal on March 19. (AP) possible changes to help low-income people more with tax credits and require able-bodied Medicaid recipients to meet work requirements. We think that we should be offering even more assistance than what the bill currently does, he said. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price also said legislative revisions were possible. If it needs more beefing up... for folks who are low income, between 50 and 64 years of age, that s something that we ve talked about, something that we ve entertained, and that may happen throughout the process, he said. Their comments came as President Donald Trump and House leaders seek to win support from GOP skeptics as prospects for the bill remain wobbly. Last week, Trump agreed to add fresh Medicaid curbs to appease some conservatives. But moderate Republicans are balking over the CBO s findings that millions more people would lack coverage even while premiums in many cases could rise. In a Facebook post Saturday night, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., said he couldn t vote for the bill, stressing a need to take our time and to get this right. He joins GOP Rep. John Katko, from a closely divided district in upstate New York, who cited inadequate insurance access and cost controls. In the Senate, where Republicans hold a narrow majority, prospects for the GOP bill also were uncertain as both moderates and conservatives criticized it. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she would not vote for the measure without additional changes to provide more aid to older Americans. She also wants an improved proposal that would cover more Americans and offer better Medicaid benefits than the current GOP plan. She joins at least four other GOP senators in opposing the bill after conservative Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said Sunday he wouldn t vote for it as is. Sens. Dean Heller of Nevada, Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky are also opposed. I cannot vote for any bill that keeps premiums rising, Cruz said. Rep. Steve Scalise, the Louisiana Republican who serves as majority whip, sent out a message late Sunday to encourage House Republicans to support the health care measure. These next few days could define us for years to come, he said. The American Health Care Act needs to pass the House of Representatives so the American people can be rescued from Obamacare. Refugees. Of those polled, 46 percent disagreed with how Trudeau was handling the situation, 37 percent agreed, while 17 percent did not know. In January, a separate Ipsos poll found that 59 percent of Canadians approved of Trudeau, while 41 percent disapproved. Trudeau faces no immediate threat, since the next elections are not until Trudeau s office declined to comment on the poll, as did the opposition Conservative Party. Brian Lee Crowley, head of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute public policy thinktank, said the number of illegal migrants could spike as the weather warms, and if people become convinced there s a large uncontrolled flow of illegal immigrants, I think that will be a very serious political issue for the government. Canadian authorities dismiss the idea they are being lax. Dan Brien, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, said trying to slip across the border in an irregular manner is not a free ticket to Canada, noting that all asylum-seekers were detained. If they are found to be inadmissible without a valid claim, deportation procedures are begun, he said by when asked about the poll. (RTRS)

12 INTERNATIONAL 12 World News Roundup Patriotic songstress Vera Lynn Skypes with pupils from her former east London school, Brampton Primary, on her 100th birthday on March 20. Lynn was known as the Forces Sweetheart for her optimistic wartime anthems, including We ll Meet Again. (AP) Brexit Tusk to issue guidelines UK to trigger Brexit process on March 29 LONDON/BRUSSELS, March 20, (RTRS): Prime Minister Theresa May will trigger Britain s divorce proceedings with the European Union on March 29, launching two years of negotiations that will reshape the future of the country and Europe. May s government said her permanent envoy to the EU had informed European Council President Donald Tusk of the date when Britain intends to invoke Article 50 of its Lisbon Treaty the mechanism for starting its exit after a referendum last June in which Britons voted by a percent margin to leave the bloc. The EU said it was ready to begin the negotiations and within 48 hours of the trigger on March 29, Tusk will send the other 27 member states his Tusk draft negotiating guidelines, which means that talks could start in May. Sterling fell half a cent against the dollar on what Brexit minister David Davis described as a move taking Britain to the threshold of the most important negotiation for this country for a generation. The government is clear in its aims: a deal that works for every nation and region of the UK and indeed for all of Europe a new, positive partnership between the UK and our friends and allies in the European Union. May, 60, hopes to negotiate terms that keep trade, financial and political relations with EU member states as close as possible after Brexit, but also satisfy eurosceptics in her Conservative Party who demand a complete break from an institution they say has stolen British sovereignty. Departing It will be a difficult and ambitious balancing act. Talks on departing the prosperous club Britain joined in 1973 are likely to be the most complex London has held since World War Two, with other EU leaders saying they will not give May an easy ride. With nationalism and anti-establishment, antiimmigrant sentiment spreading across Western Europe, the EU leadership in Brussels is anxious to avoid encouraging others in the 28-member bloc to bolt. At the same time, May faces threats by Scottish nationalists to call a new independence referendum that could break up the United Kingdom and fears in Northern Ireland that a hard border with EU member Ireland will return after Brexit. May has revealed little of her strategy for securing what she calls the best possible deal for the world s fifth largest economy and making Brexit as painless as possible. Although she succeeded David Cameron as prime minister soon after the Brexit referendum, she delayed triggering Article 50 to give herself time to work on her strategy for talks that are likely to determine her political legacy. Article 50 allows for two years of talks to decide an EU member state s divorce terms, taking account of the framework for its future relationship with the Union. May says that clause means the two sides can set out deals to cover future trade and other ties. The referendum exposed geographical and social divisions in Britain that have deepened over arguments about its future relationship with the EU. Nationalists in Scotland, which voted to remain in the bloc, have accused the May government of pressing for a hard Brexit by committing to departing the EU s lucrative single market of 500 million consumers. Scotland s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has called for a new independence referendum. Britain s Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during a meeting with First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea, Wales on March 20. The European Commission says it has been informed in advance of Britain s plans to trigger its exit from the EU on March 29 and stands ready to help launch the negotiations. (AP) Johnson Britain Hannigan Fleming to head GCHQ: Jeremy Fleming, the deputy director general of Britain s internal security service, will become the new head of intelligence eavesdropping service GCHQ, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Monday. Fleming will take over from Robert Hannigan, who announced in January he was stepping down for family reasons, and will take up his post around Easter. He has been deputy director of MI5 since I know that he will continue the excellent work of Robert Hannigan in leading this outstanding organisation, when the skill and ingenuity of the UK intelligence community are critical to defending Britain from cyber attacks, terror plots and other activities that threaten us and our allies, Johnson said in a statement. Last week, in a rare public statement, GCHQ dismissed claims made on a US television station that it helped former president Barack Obama eavesdrop on Donald Trump after last year s US presidential election. (RTRS) Extremist pleads guilty: A British court has disclosed that an Islamic Statelinked extremist has pleaded guilty to five offenses after being found with incriminating information stored in a cuff link. Samata Ullah had a USB-equipped cufflink with a Linux operating system loaded onto it that was used to store extremist data, including a blog. He pleaded guilty earlier this month at the Old Bailey courthouse to five offenses including possession of an article for terrorist purposes. The court withheld the information until Monday for legal reasons. The 34-year-old from Wales was arrested in September and admitted ties to the Brexit so-called Islamic State group. He was found to have provided instructional videos on how to protect sensitive data and remain anonymous online through encryption programs. UIlah has not been sentenced. (AP) Livelihood on the line Gibraltar faces Brexit chaos GIBRALTAR, March 20, (AP): All Antonio Molina has to do to cross the border into Gibraltar for work is wave an identity card, barely slowing his motorbike s pace. The Spanish delivery man s job depends on the border being open, a fact that s under threat as Britain leaves the European Union, dragging the overseas territory with it. Molina s livelihood, like that of some 300,000 people who work in the region, is on the line. There is much fear because we don t know what s going to happen, says the 46 year-old father of two, a Spanish citizen and resident who is applying for his first passport ever in case border controls become stricter. We live in limbo; you hear one thing today and a different thing tomorrow. Britain has controlled the rocky speck of land for three centuries against Spain s wishes. But being in the EU has meant the border has been open to the unlimited flow of workers, goods and money. That could end if Britain leaves the EU without retaining access to the bloc s single market. And Spain could use the situation to press for greater control of the territory. Gibraltar, which is barely twice the size of Central Park and home to 32,000 people, has thrived economically under Britain s rule and open trade with Spain. Its low corporate taxes, business-friendly regulation and links to the EU market since 1973 have attracted investment. Tourists can often be seen taking selfies with the Barbary macaques, the only free-roaming monkeys in Europe, that live on the promontory known as The Rock. They can pay with pounds or euros. With the prospect of losing easy access to Spain and the wider EU market, Gibraltar s government says the territory is rebranding itself as a gateway for the UK and new markets in northern Africa just across the strait. It s unfortunate. We don t want to turn our backs to Europe, but those are the cards that we have been dealt and we have to play this hand the best as possible, Fabian Picardo, the chief minister of Gibraltar, told The Associated Press. Voted It doesn t matter that 96 percent of Gibraltarians voted to remain in the EU in last year s referendum. Since then, pleas for a special deal that would allow Gibraltar to retain access to the EU single market and keep borders open have been blocked by Spain, which wants joint sovereignty of the territory. Madrid s proposal is to share foreign and defense matters with London, which keeps a strategic military presence in Gibraltar, in return for ample autonomy, investments and special tax conditions. Gibraltarians would be allowed to have a Spanish passport without having to renounce their British one. Acknowledging such an agreement with Britain is unlikely, Spain is taking a tough line. Gibraltar has been the setting for diplomatic tensions between the two countries, including over fishing quotas, the handling of drug smuggling from North Africa and security Painting slashed, man charged: A man has been charged with criminal damage after a painting in Britain s National Gallery was slashed in front of shocked visitors. Witnesses say a man lashed out with what looked like a screwdriver at Thomas Britain s Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and his wife Kate, Duchess of Cambridge applaud at the Stade de France stadium as they attend the Six Nations rugby match France against Wales on March 18, in Saint-Denis, outside Paris. (AP) matters, such as the killing of three IRA members by British forces in Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis recently said that Madrid s position remains that Britain s control of Gibraltar violates the territorial integrity of our country. In its divorce talks with the EU, Britain s focus on controlling borders and limiting migration means it is unlikely to retain access to the bloc s single market, as the EU has said the country cannot have it both ways. That has left many in Gibraltar wondering whether their fate will be considered in Britain s negotiations with the EU. Picardo argues it is possible to limit migration somewhat while keeping borders open to workers and tourists to Gibraltar. It s an arrangement he believes could also work for Britain s land border with Ireland, for example. Nobody expects Gibraltar s border to be fully closed. But disruptions and queues which already happen at times of diplomatic tensions between Britain and Spain are a nightmare for workers and employers. Molina s boss, Redwood International general manager Danny Gabay, says his logistics business is already affected by increased border checks at customs. Gibraltar is paying a price due to political situations, and obviously our businesses are in the front line, he says. Gabay s office is in an airport terminal building that stops abruptly over the frontier fence, a powerful symbol of the lack of cooperation at the official level. Gainsborough s 18th-century portrait of a wealthy young couple, Mr and Mrs William Hallett better known as The Morning Walk at the gallery on Saturday. The gallery on London s Trafalgar Square says the suspect was detained by staff and visitors, and later arrested. It says damage to the painting is limited to two long scratches which have penetrated the paint layers, but not the supporting canvas. The Metropolitan Police said Sunday that 54-year-old Keith Gregory, of no fixed address, was charged with criminal damage. He is due to appear in court on Monday. (AP) 5/1 odds for snap UK election: British bookmaker odds indicated a 17 percent probability that Prime Minister Theresa May would call a snap general election after media speculation she could go to the polls. As the rumour mill continues to head into overdrive, the firm have reacted by chalking up a snap election in early May at 5/1, whilst it s just 2/1 one is called before the end of the year, Ladbrokes said in a statement. May has made it clear to her colleagues that she does not favour an early election, because she thinks it would be self-serving and create added uncertainty at a time when the country needs stability, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported earlier this month. (RTRS)

13 INTERNATIONAL 13 Germany Test for SPD leader Alliance could take control of Saarland SAARBRUECKEN, Germany, March 20, (RTRS): When voters head to the polls in the German state of Saarland later this month, they are likely to deliver an upset to Chancellor Angela Merkel that could be a foretaste of September s national election. One of Germany s smallest states, Saarland is like federal Germany currently governed by a grand coalition of Merkel s conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD). But polls suggest a left-leaning red-red-green alliance of the SPD, the far-left Linke party and the Greens or even a red-red coalition if the Greens fail to win enough votes could emerge after the state votes on March 26. And while obstacles remain, the parties seem to be warming to the idea of cooperating. The vote in Saarland, the first of three regional elections this year, is seen as a test for the federal election on Sept 24 in which Merkel is standing for a fourth term. National polls suggest red-red-green could just Schulz about get a majority in the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament. Above all, Saarland is the first electoral test of the SPD under its new leader, former European Parliament President Martin Schulz, who has helped the party climb 10 points in opinion polls in the last eight weeks and hopes to oust Merkel. This is the first election since the so-called Schulz effect so it will show us whether that really translates into votes for the Social Democrats, and it s an election in which one of Mrs Merkel s close confidants is running, said Thomas Jaeger, politics professor at Cologne University. A three-way leftist alliance in Saarland would be the third at state level after Berlin and the eastern region of Thuringia. Relations between the SPD and Linke have been bad for years, with many in the SPD still angry that their former party chairman Oskar Lafontaine deserted them for the Linke. Candidate Now the Linke s candidate in Saarland, Lafontaine told Reuters the atmosphere between him and the SPD candidate was pleasant and his party had no problems working with the SPD at state and municipal level. It s different at the federal level. The SPD is sticking to policies that resulted in losses of income and pension cuts and we can t accept that, the 73-year-old said. Schulz has said he wants to revise labour reforms introduced by the last SPD-led government and detested by the Linke but Lafontaine said Schulz had not given the impression that he would be correcting key parts of those reforms. Lafontaine said cooperation in Saarland would improve the atmosphere. But he stressed there were big sticking points at national level over the welfare state, tax, the military and Europe and Schulz did not seem ready to make big changes there. The Linke rejects NATO and wants to raise the top income tax rate to 75 percent ideas at odds with the SPD. But issues that once looked like dealbreakers for the Linke no longer seem certain to prevent a red-red-green alliance from forming. His SPD counterpart, Anke Rehlinger, told Reuters that if the two parties found common ground and if the Linke wanted to push ahead with social justice which Schulz has made a major campaign issue then we won t rule it out, just as we won t rule out continuing the grand coalition. Some voters, like pensioner Susanne Schumacher, 81, struggle to accept the Linke as many of its members came from the successor party to the Communists in East Germany. Red-red-green But Fred Weber, a 62-year-old teacher, said he would be happy to see a switch to red-red-green: It s time Merkel goes... she s been in power since 2005 and that s quite enough. State premier Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer of the CDU, the conservative candidate who has been nicknamed the Merkel from the Saar, wants to stay in power with a grand coalition and is warning voters of the perils of an alliance involving the Linke. People need to be aware that the SPD wouldn t be forming a coalition with any old Linke here but rather with a very orthodox and leftist part of the Linke, with Lafontaine and (his wife Sahra) Wagenknecht, she told Reuters. Germans are gradually getting used to the idea of a red-red-green alliance but are still not convinced by a coalition that has no experience at the national level and may be at odds over policy, said Berlin-based political scientist Gero Neugebauer. A recent poll showed 49 percent of Germans would prefer Schulz to form a coalition with the conservatives, compared with 39 percent who want him to work with the Linke and Greens. Greens candidate Hubert Ulrich told Reuters he has concerns about working with the Linke locally as it rejects building wind turbines and the Greens are at odds with the SPD and conservatives on issues such as drinking water standards, education and transport. We re not appendages of the CDU or the SPD... we re running as the Greens, said Ulrich. Last autumn Dietmar Bartsch, leader of the Linke in the Bundestag, said the SPD could break up Germany s ruling coalition and oust Merkel immediately if the SPD, Linke and Greens found common ground given the majority they already have in the federal parliament. The SPD did not agree, but unlike in previous years, it has not ruled out working with the Linke after the federal election and the three left-leaning parties have already held meetings to discuss forming a coalition to replace Merkel. Supporters listen to socialist candidate for the presidential election Benoit Hamon, as he delivers a speech during a meeting in Paris on March 19. Hamon held a boisterous rally Sunday that packed out an indoor sports and concert arena in Paris with at least 20,000 people. Since he won the Socialist primary in January, the 49-year-old former minister has struggled to carve out a space for himself in the campaign and failed to unite the party behind him. (AP) Italian President Sergio Mattarella (right), hugs an unidentified woman at an event to honor victims of mafia crimes, in the Calabrian town of Locri, southern Italy on March 19. Mattarella on Sunday paid tribute to those slain for opposing organized crime, including judges, police offi cers, union leaders, entrepreneurs, and politicians, like his own brother, who were killed by the mob. (AP) Macron Europe Le Pen 5 to hold first debate: The five leading candidates for France s presidential election are holding their first debate Monday, with centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen leading polls, and jobs and security among voters top concerns. The televised evening debate comes after France was shaken by a weekend attack on soldiers at Paris Orly airport, a reminder of security challenges the new president will face. The list of 11 candidates was finalized Saturday. The first-round vote is set for April 23; the top two candidates go to a runoff May 7. Macron and Le Pen will be joined at the debate by conservative Francois Fillon, Socialist Benoit Hamon and far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon. The five are expected to be the largest votegetters in the first round. (AP) Police search prosecutor s HQ: Paris police searched the headquarters of the national financial prosecutor after a phone-in bomb threat but found no explosives. A Paris police official says employees are being allowed to return to the building after explosives experts combed the site following the threat Monday. The prosecutor s office is in central Paris, near the Garnier Paris opera house. The official, who wasn t authorized to be publicly named, says that empty bomb threats are a frequent occurrence in the French capital. France remains under a state of emergency after a string of deadly Islamic extremist attacks. (AP) Navalny doused in green liquid: Opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been doused in bright green liquid by an unknown assailant in the Siberian city of Barnaul. Navalny tweeted Monday: I will be opening a headquarters in Barnaul as if I am from the film The Mask! Cool. Even my teeth are green! He was referring to the Hollywood film that features a su- EU Thousands join pro-europe rallies Free movement could break up EU PRAGUE, March 20, (Agencies): Unchecked freedom of movement could push the European Union toward a break-up, Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek was quoted as saying on Monday, citing the example of Britain s pending divorce from the bloc. The Czech Republic has been a strong defender of the EU s fundamental freedoms, including the right of citizens to live and work in other member states, since joining the bloc in 2004 with a other eastern European countries. But speaking to newspaper Hospodarske Noviny, Zaoralek hinted that curbs on freedom of movement might be needed to shore up support for the EU. He also rejected demands from Brussels that all 28 EU states must accept some of the more than 1 million migrants who have arrived from outside the bloc in recent years, many fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond. We are saying that we have to respect freedom of movement and other things, for which we would let ourselves be crucified, figuratively speaking, but the outcome may be that due to these principles the union may break up. Immigration, including the arrival of large numbers of people from the EU s poorer east, was a major issue during the British referendum campaign that ended with a vote for Brexit. When you have 2 million people coming from the east who take your jobs, social support and a number of other things, you can (try to) persuade your own people a thousand times to get used to it. They won t take it, because you simply went too far and you did not tell them the truth, Zaoralek told the paper. His comments contrasted with Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka s insistence reiterated last month by him and leaders of other Czech political parties that Czechs want to retain freedom of movement. Policy Zaoralek later said in a separate statement that he did not attempt to alter the Czech foreign policy stance and that he meant movement of workers, not travelers in general. Free movement of people is the basis of the EU. However, we have to consider how to regulate the jobs market, how to combat social dumping, so that the united market will not work against EU citizens, Zaoralek said in an ed statement. I reject (the notion) that this would be in disagreement with the priorities of Czech foreign policy. The foreign minister, a member of Sobotka s Social Democrat party, also criticised the EU s functioning and the executive Commission s push for member states to accept quotas on migrants coming from outside the bloc s borders. The tragic thing about Brexit is the fact that we have not learned from it so far, Zaoralek said. For starters, it would suffice to realise what we did wrong and then not to repeat it. Meanwhile, Poland will fight against the idea of a multi-speed European Union at the bloc s upcoming anniversary summit, the powerful head of Poland s ruling conservative party said in remarks published Monday. perhero who wears a green mask. The green liquid, a common Russian antiseptic that remains on skin for days, was reportedly sprayed in Navalny s face as he went to shake a man s hand. Navalny is currently traveling around Russia opening headquarters and campaigning to stand in the 2018 presidential elections. A criminal conviction for fraud officially bars him from running, but supporters say the charges are politically motivated. (AP) Dutch coalition process starts: An initial round of match-making Belgium s King Philippe (right), and Belgium s Queen Mathilde (second left), greet India s Nidhi Chapekar (second right), and her husband Rupesh Chapekar (left), during a meeting at the Royal Palace in Brussels on March 20. Chapekar, 40, a Jet Airways attendant and mother of two from Mumbai is one of the victims of the attacks on Brussels airport on March 22, (AP) Earlier this month the leaders of France, Germany, Spain and Italy called for groups of member states to be allowed to advance at their own pace, as a way of cushioning the impact of Britain s exit. Jaroslaw Kaczynski said in an interview published Monday by the wsieci conservative weekly that Poland would oppose that idea with full strength. We cannot accept any announcements of a two-speed Europe, he was quoted as saying in the interview ahead of the weekend EU summit in Rome. That would either mean pushing us out of the Union or downgrading us to (being) a member of an inferior category. He did not cite any specific disadvantages for Poland. Kaczynski holds no government position, but is widely considered to be the nation s most powerful politician and the mastermind behind the policies of Prime Minister Beata Szydlo and her ministers. Rallies In another development, thousands of people have joined rallies across Germany and other European countries to show their support for the idea of a united Europe. The weekly protests began last year as an attempt to counter growing nationalist sentiment on the continent, often expressed in opposition to the European Union. Protesters in Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne and dozens of other locations danced, sang and waved the EU flag 12 stars on a blue background during the rallies Sunday. The protests are organized on social media by a group calling itself Pulse of Europe. The group says it isn t tied to any particular political party. Meanwhile, Europe is our common future, European Union leaders will declare in Rome on Saturday, in a grand statement of ambition that they hope can help hold the EU together following the shock loss of major power Britain. Below are highlights of the draft Rome Declaration, seen by Reuters, to mark the 60th anniversary of the bloc s founding treaty. At 836 words about two pages the document is 26 percent longer than a 50th birthday text issued in Berlin a decade ago. We, the representatives of 27 member states... take pride in the achievements of the European Union... That 27 in the first line has a poignant significance, the only, indirect, nod to Brexit. The Berlin text made no reference to the number of member states, which now stands at 28. Prime Minister Theresa May will not be in Rome and will trigger Britain s twoyear withdrawal process within days of the summit.... peace, democratic rights and the rule of law... The preamble offers a positive version of the Union s achievements which leaders think has been drowned out by new nationalisms sweeping the continent. Most Europeans are too young to remember the 20th century wars the founders aimed to consign to history, and many have grown up since the end of the Cold War. Mention of rule of law will remind some of Brussels fears of authoritarian tendencies in Hungary and Poland talks to investigate possibilities for a new Dutch ruling coalition began Monday in parliament following last week s elections. Don t expect negotiations to end any time soon. Thirteen parties won seats in the 150-seat lower house, and analysts say that the splintered New force to deter Russia in Poland BRUSSELS, March 20, (RTRS): A US-led battalion of more than 1,100 soldiers will be deployed in Poland from the start of April, a US commander said on Monday, as the alliance sets up a new force in response to Moscow s 2014 annexation of Crimea. More than 900 US soldiers, around 150 British personnel and some 120 Romanian troops will make up the battlegroup in northeastern Poland, one of four multinational formations across the Baltic region that Russia has condemned as an aggressive strategy on its frontiers. political landscape will likely lead to a long and complicated Cabinet formation. Edith Schippers, health minister in Prime Minister Mark Rutte s last coalition, began one-on-one discussions Monday with party leaders about their preferences for the next Cabinet. She will report on the possibilities later this week and newly elected lawmakers are expected to debate the election result Thursday. First into the talks was Rutte, whose party won the most seats 33 and is therefore most likely to lead the next government. Rutte told reporters that he wants a stable majority Cabinet. That means a coalition of at least four parties Rutte s plus three others. One party that looks very unlikely to be in the new coalition is the Party for Freedom of anti- Islam populist Geert Wilders. The party came second with 20 seats, but mainstream leaders have ruled out working with him. Wilders criticized that stance Monday as undemocratic. He told Dutch reporters at Parliament that he advised Schippers to take the 1.3 million voters I represent as the second party in the Netherlands seriously. And I hope and, to be honest, expect that parties will talk to us about the new Cabinet. (AP)

14 INTERNATIONAL 14 World News Roundup Mideast Al-Qiyan killed in cold blood Jan shooting stokes Israeli Arabs anger UMM AL-HIRAN, Israel, March 20, (AP): On a wind-swept hilltop in this Bedouin village, a cracked solar panel lying atop a mattress and slabs of broken concrete provide an eerie reminder of a clash that has come to symbolize the strained relations between Israel s government and its Arab minority. On a frigid January morning, Yaakub Abu al- Qiyan was shot dead as his jeep swerved into Israeli police who had come to demolish his illegally built home. At the time, police called the 47-year-old schoolteacher a terrorist with ties to the Islamic State group. But officials now acknowledge he may have rammed into the forces unintentionally and that his fatal shooting could have been a mistake. For residents of Umm al-hiran, the prospect of clearing Abu al-qiyan s name provides little comfort. They say the court-ordered evacuation was just the latest instance of decades of mistreatment toward the formerly nomadic Bedouin, who are now Israeli citizens. The police came charged. They came scared, said Salim Abu al-qiyan, a 58-year-old Al-Qiyan cousin and member of the local council. I am against the word mishap. This is not a car that broke down. This is an intentional shooting. The Abu al-qiyan clan was resettled on stateowned land in the southern Negev desert 60 years ago, but is now being asked to relocate to a governmentdesignated township. It is part of a regional plan that Israel says will organize dozens of scattered Arab communities and provide them with much needed services and infrastructure currently unavailable in their unrecognized villages. But part of the village slated for demolition is zoned for a new development catering to religious Jewish families with ties to the West Bank settlement movement, raising suspicions among the Bedouin. Cleared This place has been cleared for building. Why for Jews and not for me? said Salim Abu al-qiyan, sitting inside his sparsely furnished trailer home. Arabs make up about 20 percent of Israel s 8.5 million residents. They are Israeli citizens but frequently face unfair treatment in areas like jobs and housing. Many Israeli Jews view them as disloyal because they largely identify with the Palestinians, and some have openly sided with Israel s enemies. Making up just a small part of Israel s diverse Arab minority, Bedouin tend to be at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, although they are among the few who are willing to serve in the army. Tensions have grown since the 2015 election, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu galvanized supporters by warning that Arab voters are going in droves to the polls. He was accused of racism and later apologized. His Minister of Internal Security, Gilad Erdan, has also been accused of stoking tensions by accusing Arabs of being behind a wave of forest fires last year, though only few have been charged with arson and none for politically-motivated crimes. The government vowed to crack down harder on illegal Arab construction after a court order forced it to evacuate Jewish settlers from an illegally built West Bank outpost angering a key constituency. Arabs say the equivalency is false. Israeli settlers are allowed to build on occupied territory, while Arab citizens face long-standing state-imposed barriers to acquiring permits to build inside Israel itself. In Umm al-hiran, their anger deepened when police arrived before dawn on Jan. 18 to demolish 14 structures. The police came heavily-armed and in riot gear in stark contrast to the non-confrontational approach used to evacuate the settlers, said Salim Abu al-qiyan. That morning, police reported that an Israeli Arab rammed his vehicle into a group of police officers, killing one of them before he was fatally shot. Subsequent statements referred to Abu al-qiyan as a terrorist who had incited schoolchildren and may have been influenced by the Islamic State group. As evidence, they provided a copy of a Hebrewlanguage newspaper found in his home that included an article about IS. But residents said Abu al-qiyan was just trying to get away and lost control of his vehicle after he was shot. His brother, Ahmad, said he was murdered in cold blood, and a number of rights groups accused police of using excessive force. Police refuse to comment until the official report is published. However, officials in the Ministry of Internal Security, which oversees the police, said officers had intelligence about a potential vehicular attack and incitement to violence by Arab leaders. Erdan s office said the minister had to back the police, but he would apologize if the inquiry proved they erred. Terrible Ayman Odeh, head of the Arab bloc in parliament, called the clash a terrible chapter in a much larger story, one of discrimination and segregation in the Negev. He said he arrived at the scene to demonstrate against the evacuation and after identifying himself as a member of parliament was attacked by overzealous police who pepper-sprayed him in the eyes and then shot him in the forehead and back with high-density, foam-covered bullets. The police claimed Odeh was struck by rocks thrown by fellow demonstrators, although foam bullets were found on the ground. Erdan accused him of inciting the violence and having the blood of the dead police officer on his hands. Just recently, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said there was no reason for people like Odeh to be Israeli citizens. All of this is part of Netanyahu s strategy to incite against Arab Palestinian citizens and to portray us not as citizens but as enemies of the state, Odeh said. Today, the village s 400 residents remain in limbo in dozens of shacks and makeshift concrete houses. Like some 100,000 others who live in the 35 southern Arab villages unrecognized by the state, they aren t connected to water, electrical grids, paved roads or school systems and have to rely on the services of the nearby township of Hura, a 10-minute drive away. A small mosque serves as the center of activity, with generators and solar panels providing most of their energy needs. Meanwhile, work is already underway on the future Jewish town of Hiran. Turkey s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan salutes as he speaks about the upcoming April 16 referendum during a meeting with his supporters in Istanbul, late Sunday, March 19. Opposition fi gures in Turkey say they have faced threats, violence, arbitrary detentions, a lack of TV airtime and even sabotage in the campaign for a referendum on expanding the president s powers. (AP) Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sits in a session to deliver his message for the Iranian New Year, or Nowruz, Iran. Nowruz, a festival to celebrate the new Persian year starts with the spring. Iranians follow the Persian solar year, and this year, they begin the year (AP) Abbas Mideast Bouteflika Bouteflika appears on video: Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika appeared in a video on Sunday for the first time in a month since his abrupt cancellation of a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Algiers triggered speculation over his health. Since a stroke in 2013, Bouteflika, 80, has appeared rarely in public and usually only in state news images with visiting dignitaries, leaving questions over whether the leader in power for nearly two decades will finish his term. In a video broadcast on Sunday on state television, Bouteflika was seen receiving his minister of Africa and Arab Affairs. It was his first such appearance since he postponed Merkel s visit to Algiers on Feb 20 citing acute bronchitis. Bouteflika was seen briefly seated at a table with Minister Abdelkader Messahel, who state media reported had briefed him on Sunday on the situation in Mali, Libya and the Sahel. Ruling FLN party chief and other government supporters have dismissed speculation over Bouteflika s health since the Merkel cancellation. They say he is carrying out his duties normally. (RTRS) El-Sisi and Abbas meet: Egyptian and Palestinian leaders held talks in Cairo on Monday in what Egyptian media reports have called a reconciliation meeting. Relations between Cairo and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have been tense over a range of issues, including Egypt s contacts with Gaza s Hamas rulers and other factions that are at odds with Abbas Palestinian Authority. Relations further soured in December when Egypt withdrew a draft resolution in the UN Security Council against Israeli settlements. The draft was later resubmitted by other council members and adopted. Cairo s relations with Mohammed Dahlan, an Abbas rival who is seen as one of the front-runners to eventually replace the 81-year-old Palestinian leader, has heightened tensions. Dahlan, a lawmaker and Gaza native, is a frequent visitor to Egypt, where he regularly meets with officials. Osama Qawasmeh, a spokesman for Abbas mainstream Fatah faction, told the Voice of Palestine radio on Monday that relations with Cairo have been a little bit cold recently, but the time was right to restore this very important and strategic relationship. Egypt, the most populous Arab nation, has for decades been closely involved in efforts to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. It fought Israel in four full-fledged wars Turkey Erdogan says jailed journalist a terrorist agent Over 2,000 coup suspects detained ANKARA, March 20, (Agencies): Turkish authorities detained more than 2,000 people over the last week for suspected links to militant groups or last year s failed coup attempt, the interior ministry said on Monday. Turkey, which faces multiple security threats, including the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Islamic State militant group, has also widened a crackdown on alleged supporters of the July coup attempt. In a statement, the interior ministry said 2,063 people had been detained for questioning in the past week. A total of 999 of those were suspected of links to the autonomy-seeking PKK, which has carried out a three-decade insurgency against the government and is considered a terrorist organisation by the United States, Turkey and Europe. Another 966 were detained for suspected ties to the US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for orchestrating an attempted coup in July. Gulen denies any involvement and has condemned the coup. Seventy people were detained over alleged links to Islamic State, while 28 more were held for suspected ties to leftist terrorist groups, the ministry said. Neutralised The ministry also said 24 militants had been neutralised in operations over the past week, and of those, 13 killed. It did not give further details. Following the July 15 coup, Turkey has arrested more than 40,000 people and sacked or suspended more than 100,000 in the military, civil service and private sector. Meanwhile, Turkish protesters on Monday demanded the death penalty, abolished in Turkey more than a decade ago, for 18 alleged coup plotters on trial for the killing of a military officer who resisted an effort to overthrow the government. The demonstrators jeered as security forces escorted the defendants into a courthouse in the Turkish capital, Ankara. The crowd also displayed an effigy of Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic cleric between 1948 and 1973 before it became the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel in (AP) US boycotts UN debate: The State Department says the United States is boycotting a session at the UN Human Rights Council that focuses on Palestine and other Arab occupied territories, saying it is biased against Israel. State Department spokesman Mark Toner in a statement took aim at a recurring agenda item at the council, which focuses on Israel and the Palestinian territories the only one of its kind to focus on a single country Bodyguards protect Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri (center), from a water bottle thrown by demonstrators in downtown Beirut, Lebanon on March 19. Demonstrators pelted the prime minister s car with water bottles on Sunday as protests against new taxes and a stagnant public wage scale gained force in the city. Hariri got out of his armored convoy behind the police line at the demonstration facing the government s capital building but could get no closer as protesters began throwing water bottles and shouting Thieves! (AP) based in Pennsylvania who is blamed by Turkey for the failed coup attempt on July 15. The effigy had a noose around its neck. Gulen has denied involvement in the uprising. Turkey abolished the death penalty as a campaign to join the European Union gained momentum, but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said since the coup attempt that Turkey could hold a referendum on reinstating it if parliament fails to pass such a measure. European leaders say any talks on Turkey s bid to join the EU, which faltered years ago, would end if Ankara restores the death penalty. Relations reached a new low this month because of Turkey s anger over the refusal of some European countries to let Turkish Cabinet ministers campaign for diaspora votes ahead of an April 16 constitutional referendum on increasing the powers of the Turkish president. Leadership Supporters of the measure say a more centralized leadership would help Turkey deal with security, economic and other challenges; critics say its approval would fit a pattern of increasingly authoritarian behavior by Erdogan. The suspects who appeared in court in Ankara are accused of involvement in the shooting of Omer Halisdemir, an officer who was killed after he shot dead Semih Terzi, a renegade military commander who allegedly tried to take over the special forces headquarters in the capital during last year s uprising by some military units. Suspect Ahmet Kara, who was Terzi s military aide, testified last month that he was duped into participating in the rogue operation without understanding that it was an attempt to overthrow the government. The defendants, whose trial began in February, face life imprisonment if convicted of murder and other crimes. The Turkish government has described Halisdemir as a martyr; staterun media have reported on people who paid tribute at his grave, and many children across the country wrote letters addressed to him in a school activity organized after his death. A documentary film was made about Halisdemir, and some families named newborn babies after him. More than 270 people were killed in the coup attempt. Over 150,000 people have been taken into custody, fired or forced to retire from Turkey s armed forces, judiciary, education system and other public institutions since the thwarted insurrection. Terrorist Meanwhile, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday accused a jailed Turkish-German journalist of being a terrorist agent in comments likely to cause further unease in Berlin over the incident. Erdogan, who was speaking at a meeting of an Islamic foundation in Istanbul, said the reporter, Deniz Yucel of Germany s Die Welt newspaper, would be tried by Turkey s independent judiciary. Authorities arrested Yucel, a dual Turkish and German national, last month on charges of propaganda in support of a terrorist organisation and inciting the public to violence. He was initially detained after he reported on s that a leftist hacker collective had purportedly obtained from the private account of Berat Albayrak, Turkey s energy minister and Erdogan s son-in-law. Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday that her demand that Turkey cease drawing Nazi comparisons with Germany and its allies applies without ifs or buts, and pointed to a government threat last week that it could prevent Turkish politicians entering the country. Merkel s comments came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused her personally of committing Nazi practices. Sunday s accusation was the latest escalation in a string of comments by Turkish officials drawing Nazi parallels with present-day Germany and the Netherlands in a dispute over restrictions on Turkish ministers campaigning there for an upcoming referendum. at every HRC session. It was taking place Monday. Toner also said the United States would vote against every resolution that might be put forward under the agenda item. Earlier, the UN s special rapporteur on rights in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel, Michael Lynk, decried how illegal settlement enterprise has moved at an alarming pace this year. (AP) Jumblatt affirms son as heir: Lebanon s main Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt, on Sunday publicly confirmed his son Taymour as his political heir, extending the tradition of dynastic politics that plays a big part in the country s sectarian government. Jumblatt, the leading politician of the minority Druze community, took off his Palestinian koufieh scarf and placed it on the shoulders of his son at a televised rally in the town of Moukhtara in the Chouf mountains. Walk forward with your head held high, and carry the legacy of your grandfather, Jumblatt told his son at the event to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Walid Jumblatt s father, Kamal Jumblatt. Speaking to Reuters, Jumblatt said the scarf symbolised the issues he wanted his son to fight for and defend: Palestine, Arab, progressive Lebanon and reconciliation with Christians, whom the Druze fought in the civil war. I am handing him the scarf with the symbols I fought for and defended, and my father. It is a continuation of the policy of the family, Jumblatt told Reuters by phone. (RTRS)

15 INTERNATIONAL 15 China China welcomes Netanyahu Preparatory work for Xi-Trump meet starts BEIJING, March 20, (Agencies): Preparatory work for a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump has begun, China s Foreign Ministry said on Monday, after a weekend visit to Beijing by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. With warm words from Xi, Tillerson on Sunday ended his first trip to Asia since taking office, with an agreement to work together with China on North Korea and putting aside trickier issues. The two sides appeared to have made some progress or put aside differences on difficult issues, at least in advance of a planned summit between Xi and Trump, which could happen next month in the United States. On this visit to China by Secretary of State Tillerson, both sides had a deep discussion on arranging a meeting soon between the two heads of state and began relevant preparatory work, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said. Both sides agreed to remain in close touch about this, to Xi ensure the smooth success and fruitfulness of exchanges between the heads of state and in other areas, she told a daily news briefing, without giving details or dates. The United States is looking forward to the first meeting between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, Tillerson said Sunday, on the final day of a swing through Asia dominated by concerns over North Korea s nuclear and missile programs. In talks with Xi in Beijing, Tillerson said Trump places a very high value on communications with the Chinese president. Trump looks forward to the opportunity of a visit in the future, Tillerson said, in an apparent reference to unconfirmed reports of plans for the two leaders to meet in Florida next month. While few details of his talks have been released, Tillerson appeared to strike a cordial tone during his meetings in Beijing, in contrast to Trump s tough talk on Chinese economic competition during his presidential campaign. Xi told Tillerson that China considered his meetings Saturday with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and top diplomat Yang Jiechi to have been productive and constructive. Both (Trump) and I believe that we need to make joint efforts to advance China-US cooperation and we believe that we can make sure the relationship will move ahead in a constructive fashion in the new era, Xi said. Tillerson s Beijing visit followed his remarks in South Korea on Friday that pre-emptive military action against North Korea might be necessary if the threat from its weapons program reaches a level that we believe requires action. China, the North s biggest source of diplomatic support and economic assistance, hasn t responded directly to those comments, although Beijing has called repeatedly for all sides to take steps to reduce tensions. China welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday just days after hosting Saudi Arabia s King Salman and the signing of deals worth as much as $65 billion with Riyadh, as China steps up its tentative engagement with the Middle East. China has traditionally played little role in Middle East conflicts or diplomacy, despite its reliance on the region for oil. But it has been trying to get more involved, for example in efforts to end Syria s civil war, trying to portray itself as an honest broker without the historical baggage the Americans and Europeans have in the region, Beijing-based diplomats say. Meeting in Beijing s cavernous Great Hall of the People, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang praised Israel s advances, saying it was a world leader in some technologies. The Chinese people and the Jewish people are both great peoples of the world, Li said. Netanyahu said there was much to talk about in tech cooperation. And at the same time there is a great deal of convulsion in the world, including in our part of the world, Netanyahu said, in comments made in front of reporters. And I would like to have the opportunity to exchange views with you and to see how we can cooperate together for the advancement of security, peace and stability, and prosperity. Israel wants to boost cooperation with China in technology, Netanyahu told China s premier Monday, as he led a large business delegation on a visit to Beijing to promote commercial ties with the Asian giant. Netanyahu said in opening remarks at a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang that Israel and China could explore many ways of technological cooperation. Earlier Monday, Netanyahu told a meeting of more than 600 Israeli and Chinese businesspeople that Israel is well-positioned to help China upgrade its products, services and utilities with better technology. China expressed anger on Monday after exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama attended a Buddhist conference supported by the Indian culture ministry, the latest spat with India over a man whom China brands a dangerous separatist. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, denies espousing violence and says he only wants genuine autonomy for his remote Himalayan homeland. The Dalai Lama opened the conference last Friday in eastern India. Recently, India ignored China s solemn representations and strong opposition and insisted on inviting the 14th Dalai Lama to attend an international Buddhist conference organised by the Indian government, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said. The Dalai Lama also shared the stage with Indian government officials and gave a speech, she told a daily news briefing. China is strongly dissatisfied and resolutely opposed to this, Hua added. We urge the India side to clearly recognise the anti-china separatist nature of the Dalai clique, abide by its promises on the Tibet issue, respect China s core interests and avoid further disturbances and harm to China-India relations. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (second left), Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (left), put hands together with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida (second right), and Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada during the two-plus-two meeting in Tokyo Monday on March 20. (AP) People watch a TV news program showing an image, published in North Korea s Rodong Sinumun newspaper, of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the country s Sohae launch site, at Seoul Railway station in Seoul, South Korea on March 19. North Korea has conducted a ground test of a new type of high-thrust rocket engine that leader Kim Jong Un is calling a revolutionary breakthrough for the country s space program. (AP) Joo Asia Shin Japan, Russia hold talks: The foreign and defense ministers from Japan and Russia met in Tokyo on Monday, with both sides expressing hope that discussions on joint development of islands claimed by both countries might help them move closer to resolving the territorial dispute preventing them from forging a peace treaty. The talks are the first two-plus-two meeting since Russia s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. The one-day meeting is largely focusing on regional security, especially how best to deal with North Korea s launches of missiles and its nuclear program. Russia s Foreign Ministry said before the talks that its envoys would raise the issue of a plan by the US and its ally South Korea to deploy a state-of-the-art missile defense system known as THAAD, which has antagonized China and Russia. Joint efforts in fighting terrorism and drug trafficking were also on the agenda. Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida was meeting with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, while Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada sat down for talks with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. The four ministers will also hold joint talks on international and bilateral issues. Japan and Russia last held two-plustwo talks in November Meetings were shelved after that due to the crisis in Ukraine, as Japan joined sanctions against Moscow. The Tokyo talks are not expected to lead to a breakthrough on conflicting claims to islands north of Hokkaido Etorofu, Kunashiri, Shikotan and the Habomai islets that came under Russian control after Japan s defeat in World War II. (AP) South Korea complains to WTO: South Korea has complained to the World Trade Organization about Chinese retaliation against South Korean companies over the deployment of a US anti-missile defence system in the South, the trade minister said on Monday. South Korea and the United States say the sole purpose of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system is to guard against missile launches from North Korea, but China says that its powerful radar could penetrate into its territory. We have notified the WTO that China may be in violation of some trade agreements, Trade Minister Joo Hyung-hwan told parliament in response to questions about China s reaction. It would be up to South Korea to follow up on its complaint to the WTO for any action to take place, analysts say, either by continuing to raise its concerns and spelling out what China is doing wrong, or by North Korea China says any chance of peace must be seized Test shows progress: S. Korea SEOUL, March 20, (RTRS): North Korea has likely mastered the technology to power the different stages of an intercontinental ballistic missile and may show it off soon, analysts say, but is likely still a long way from being able to hit the mainland United States. North Korean state media announced its latest rocket-engine test on Sunday, saying it would help North Korea achieve worldclass satellite-launch capability, indicating a new type of rocket engine for an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). The test showed meaningful progress, a spokesman for South Korea s Defence Ministry said on Monday, with the firing of a main engine and four auxiliary engines as part of the development of a new rocket booster. The announcement of the test came as US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in Beijing at the end of his first visit to Asia for talks dominated by concern about North Korea s nuclear and missile programmes. Through this test, it is found that engine function has made meaningful progress but further analysis is needed for exact thrust and possible uses, Lee Jin-woo, the spokesman for the South Korean defence ministry, told a briefing. North Korea s state media released pictures of the high-thrust engine test overseen by leader Kim Jong Un, and reported him hailing it as a new birth of its rocket industry. A South Korean expert on rocket engineering said the test was ominous. launching a trade dispute. The first step would be to formally request consultations with China. When asked what would happen next, Joo said the ministry would strengthen communications with Beijing and take action if needed. He did not give further details. China is South Korea s largest trading partner and the dispute over THAAD has resulted in a sharp decline in Chinese tourists in the South s shopping districts. Chinese authorities have also closed nearly two dozen retail stores of South Korea s Lotte Group amid the diplomatic standoff. Beijing has never explicitly linked the restrictions to the THAAD deployment, but the South Korean government has offered cheap loans and extended deadlines on existing debt to help businesses that have been affected and has pushed to diversify trade markets. (RTRS) Lotte founder denies charges: The 94-year-old founder of Lotte Group, South Korea s fifth-largest conglomerate, threw his cane to the floor of a court on Monday and demanded to know where he was on A Chinese military officer salutes near the remains of Chinese soldiers, who fought during the Korean War, during ceremonial rites to place the remains at a temporary military ossuary in Incheon, west of Seoul on March 20. The remains of 28 Chinese soldiers were killed in the war will return home from South Korea this week. (AP) This was a comprehensive test for the first-stage rocket for an ICBM, and that is why it was dangerous, Kim Dong-yub of the Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul told Reuters. It appears that North Korea has worked out much of its development of the first-stage rocket booster. But Kim said the North had still not mastered the atmospheric reentry technology needed for an ICBM, so it had work to do before being able to hit the United States. Nevertheless, it might soon demonstrate that it has perfected the system s booster rocket stage. What could be next is they would make a new type of ICBM with this new engine system and launch it, but not the entire stages, but to make only the first stage, fly about 400 kms and drop. They are not going to show it all at once. Develop North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests and a series of missile launches in defiance of UN resolutions, and is believed by experts and government officials to be working to develop nuclear-warhead missiles that could reach the United States. Leader Kim Jong Un said this year the country was close to testlaunching an ICBM. Kim s ambition is believed to be to develop a launch vehicle able to strike a part of the continental United States, most likely Alaska, just over 5,000 kms (3,000 miles) from the North s missile test site. Last week, Tillerson issued the Trump administration s starkest warning yet to North Korea, saying a military response would be on the table if it took action to threaten South Korean and US forces. Experts disagreed in their initial assessment of whether the North s test was for the engine for an ICBM, and for which stage of a rocket it was meant for. US aerospace expert John Schilling said the engine appeared too big for any ICBM North Korea was working on but would be a good fit for the second stage of a new space rocket it is planning to build. Joshua Pollack, of the Washington-based Nonproliferation Review, said the design with four verniers, or steering nozzles, was familiar in the North s older, longrange rockets launched to deliver objects previously but said it could be the second stage of a missile, not the first. Since the comparable display of 2016 was the first stage of an ICBM, we could speculate that this is the second stage, Pollack told Reuters in an . North Korea fired rockets in 2012 and in 2016 to put objects into space. Experts say space rockets and long-range missiles involve fundamentally identical technologies, but with different configurations for trajectory and velocity for the stages. China said on Monday the situation with North Korea was at a new crossroads with two scenarios a deterioration to war or a diplomatic solution. Any chance for dialogue must be seized, as long as there s hope, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in Beijing. the first day of a trial of him and family members. Shin Kyuk-ho appeared confused as he entered the court in a wheelchair, and tried to resist aides efforts to wheel him out, by dragging his feet. Lotte is a company that I made, I have 100 percent of the shares, who indicted me? the agitated Shin Kyuk-ho shouted upon his return to the court, throwing down his cane. His lawyer said he denied charges of embezzlement and breach of trust, as the first day of arguments got off to a dramatic start, with the judge asking the Lotte Group founder to be quiet and aides checking his blood pressure. The investigation behind the trial is separate from the one that led to the recent dismissal of President Park Geun-hye, over suspected corruption linked to dealings with other big conglomerates, including the Samsung Group and SK Group. In a courtroom packed with lawyers, reporters and members of the public, Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin, 62, his older brother Shin Dong-joo, and his father and Lotte founder, Shin Kyuk-ho, were in attendance as defendants on Monday. Prosecutors indicted 22 people at the end of an investigation over several months last year into suspected corruption at Lotte Group. The elderly group founder, Shin Kyukho, has been indicted for tax evasion, embezzlement and breach of trust, involving a total billion won ($200 million). His son, group chairman Shin Dong-bin, has been charged with embezzlement of about 50.8 billion won ($45 million) and breach of trust over about billion won, concerning suspected irregular payments to family members and unlawful support of group companies. (RTRS)

16 INTERNATIONAL 16 World News Roundup Asia NZ expels US diplomat Thai police search for more firearms BANGKOK, March 20, (Agencies): Thai police said Monday that they re looking for more weapons believed to be part of a plot to assassinate the prime minister, after police discovered guns and thousands of bullets allegedly belonging to an anti-establishment leader. Police found over a dozen guns, around 6,000 bullets, knives, drugs, grenades and other contraband over the weekend that they said belonged to Wuthipong Kochathamakun, who was part of the violent antigovernment protests in 2010 that paralyzed Bangkok for three months and killed around 90 civilians and six soldiers. Krisana Pattanacharoen, a deputy police spokesman, said police officers were halfway through searching over 2,000 shipping containers at noon Monday where they believe more weapons were kept. In the seizure Saturday, police also discovered red fabric banners with Wuthipong s nickname printed on them. Wuthipong, better known as Ko Tee, denied having any knowledge of the weapons Prayuth stash in a Sunday interview on the YouTube channel Jom Voice and charged that the seizures were a setup by Thai authorities. He is currently seeking political asylum in neighboring Laos since Thailand s military toppled the elected government he supports in a coup in Looking at this incident, I can tell you now it is a setup that is not well concealed, Wuthipong said. He also said that his friends and colleagues have been searched hundreds of times by authorities, making it impossible for any of them to hoard such a large amount of firearms. Police said the weapons were part of a plot to assassinate leaders of Thailand s military government, including Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwan. PH VP faces impeachment complaint: A lawyer for the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos on Monday filed an impeachment complaint against Philippine Vice President Leni Robredo for her strong criticism of the administration s bloody war on drugs. The complaint for violation of the constitution and betrayal of public trust was sent by Oliver Lozano to the office of House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, a staunch ally of President Rodrigo Duterte. Alvarez had for several days been studying whether to file a complaint himself. She is the termite of the government, Lozano said in a letter seeking endorsement for his six-page complaint. Robredo, who is not a member of Duterte s party and was elected in a separate contest, may have landed herself in trouble after issuing a strong rebuke of the popular president s war on drugs in a video sent to the United Nations. Indonesia continue to send maids: Indonesia said Monday it would continue to send domestic helpers overseas, in an about-turn welcomed by campaigners who said it would help prevent women falling prey to human trafficking. Thousands of Indonesian women travel to places like Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia every year to become maids, attracted by promises of higher salaries despite reports of widespread abuses and near slave-like living conditions. Jakarta had previously said it would stop sending maids overseas from this year, on the grounds of protecting the women, sparking concerns it would push more poor Indonesians desperate for jobs into illegal migration. NZ expels US diplomat: New Zealand has expelled an attache at the US Embassy after Washington declined to waive his right to diplomatic immunity after an incident which gave him a broken nose and a black eye, media and authorities said. New Zealand police said they responded to the incident near the capital Wellington on March 12 involving an employee of the US Embassy. They did not say what work the employee did or give any other details. The US government later declined a police request to waive the employee s diplomatic immunity, the New Zealand Foreign Ministry said on Monday. The New Zealand Herald at the weekend identified the man as an embassy attache and said he had left country with a broken nose and black eye. A spokeswoman for the US Embassy said it was in touch with New Zealand authorities. US begins fingerprinting refugees: US security officers have begun fingerprinting refugees held on Pacific islands in the final stage of assessing who will find new lives in the United States, asylum seekers said Monday. Department of Homeland Security officers are taking biometric details from refugees on Nauru, including fingerprints, heights and weights, according to a document circulated among asylum seekers and provided to AP by Mehdi, a refugee on the island nation who for security reasons did not want his family name published. US officials began scheduling appointments with asylum seeker families on Nauru from Monday, Mehdi said. Sydney airline grounds 5 planes: Five Regional Express Airlines passenger planes had been grounded as a precaution after a near disaster in which a propeller fell off an airliner as it approached Sydney Airport, the Australian airline said on Monday. A Saab 340 carrying 19 passengers and crew landed safely in Sydney on Friday after one its two propellers fell off over Sydney s southwest fringe. The Sydney-based airline, also known as Rex, said it had grounded another five of its fleet of 55 Saab 340s because their propeller gear boxes and shafts were from the same series as the defective propeller. East Timor votes for president: East Timor voted for a new president Monday in an election that will test Asia s newest and poorest nation. Francisco Lu Olo Guterres, a former guerrilla leader from the leftist Fretilin party, was up against seven other candidates. He and the Democratic Party s Antonio da Conceicao, the minister of education and social affairs, were the front-runners. While East Timor s president has a mostly ceremonial role, the prime minister heads the government. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (left), talks with Myanmar s State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi during their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Naypyitaw, Myanmar on March 20. Duterte arrived in Naypyitaw on Sunday at the invitation of Myanmar s President Htin Kyaw for an official visit to the Southeast Asian country. (AP) Hard-line Buddhists including monks walk by a mosque during a protest march, led by Rakhine state s dominant Arakan National Party, against the government s plan to give citizenship to some members of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority community in Sittwe, Rakhine state, Myanmar on March 19. Many Rohingya lived in Sittwe, the state capital, before an outbreak of inter-communal violence in 2012 forced them to flee their homes. (AP) An election worker holds up a ballot during the presidential election s vote counting at a polling station in Dili, East Timor on March 20. East Timor voted for a new president Monday in an election that will test Asia s newest and poorest nation. (AP) Lat/Am 3 guilty of plot: A court found a Mexican man and two Hondurans guilty of plotting to assassinate Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who has extradited more than a dozen drug lords since taking office, a judicial spokesman and security officials said on Sunday. The Mexican, Jesus Estrada, and the two Hondurans, Victor Flores and Jose Contreras, were convicted of planning to kill the Honduran leader in a September 2014 scheme, said supreme court spokesman Melvin Duarte. Flores and Contreras were also convicted of criminal conspiracy. Another three people, including a Mexican, were found not guilty, Duarte added. (RTRS) Guatemala jail riot kills 2: A riot erupted Sunday at a prison for juveniles and adults, and authorities said two jail monitors were killed and several other people suffered injuries. The incident came two weeks after unrest at a state-run shelter for children resulted in a fire that killed 40 girls. The National Civil Police confirmed that two monitors were dead at the Central Correctional Stage II prison in San Jose Pinula, about 12 miles (20 kms) east of the capital. (AP) Journalist slain in Mexico: An attacker shot a journalist to death Sunday in the Mexican state of Veracruz, adding to the toll in a region plagued by drug gang violence and allegations of government corruption. Journalist Ricardo Monlui was leaving a restaurant with his wife and a son in the town of Yanga, outside the larger city of Cordoba, when a man who appeared to have been waiting shot Monlui twice and fled, local police chief Carlos Samuel Hernandez said. The wife and son apparently were unhurt. Monlui is at least the 11th journalist to be slain in just over six years in Veracruz state, but the first since former Gov Javier Duarte quit last year and vanished in the face of corruption charges. New Gov Miguel Angel Yunes, who took office in December, expressed indignation at the killing. (AP) Subcontinent Pakistan, India discuss water How much life worth? Hernandez Monlui WASHINGTON, March 20, (Agencies): In March 2014, the US military paid an Afghan man just over $1,000 to compensate for killing his civilian son in an operation near the border with Iran, according to US military records released to Reuters. Six months later, another Afghan father was given $10,000 by the US military after his child, also a civilian, was killed in an American-led military operation in the same province. And 68-year-old Haji Allah Dad lost 20 relatives, including his brother and sister-in-law, in a US and Afghan special forces operation near the northern city of Kunduz last November. Allah Dad said he received no money from the US military, though he did get compensation from the Afghan government. Nearly 16 years since invading Afghanistan, the United States has no standardized process for making compensation payments to the families of thousands of Afghan civilians killed or injured in US-led military operations. It first started paying the families of Afghan victims as a way to counter Taleban militants who were doing the same. America s approach to compensation is arbitrary by design as it tries to negotiate Afghanistan s cultural and regional sensitivities as a foreign military force. But civil activists say the system is unfair and confusing for often poor and uneducated Afghans. A Pentagon spokesman said the military leaves the decision on how much to pay to commanders on the ground because they are best positioned to judge the incidents. Condolence payments in Afghanistan are based on cultural norms of the local area, advice from Afghan partners, and the circumstances of the event, said spokesman Adam Stump. US commanders in theater are therefore empowered to make decisions regarding payments as they have the greatest understanding of these factors, Stump said. It is unclear how the US military puts these factors in monetary terms. Washington started making condolence payments in Afghanistan in 2005 after realizing that the Taliban was gaining influence and goodwill by giving civilians money after fatal US strikes, according to the Center for Civilians in Conflict, a US-based advocacy and research group. The United States does not have to pay compensation to civilians killed in its military actions under international and national law. However, it has made such payments going back to the Korean War in the 1950s. In some cases, it paid compensation to the relatives of civilians it killed in the Iraq conflict. Critics warn the lack of standardization in compensation payments means Afghan civilian victims are not treated equally as the conflict there grinds on. Pakistani and Indian experts on Monday opened round-table talks in Islamabad over water disputes between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, even as tensions over competing claims to Kashmir remain high. Pakistan s minister for water and power, Khawaja Asif, welcomed the Indian delegation for the two-day talks, saying he hopes the discussions will move forward in anticipation of continued talks on April 12 in Washington. An Afghan official says the Taleban have attacked a military checkpoint in a southern province, killing three Afghan soldiers. Provincial spokesman Dost Muhammad Nayab says the attack took place in Uruzgan province on Monday morning and that four other soldiers were wounded in the attack. Nayab says 13 Taleban were also killed in the battle, which took place on the outskirt of Tirin Kot, the provincial capital. A provincial security official gave a different toll, saying 10 soldiers were killed in the attack. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. The discrepancy in the casualty toll could not immediately be resolved. Attackers kill 4 at Jamaica bar: Police in Jamaica say people riding motorcycles have fired at a bar, killing four. A police statement says the victims of Saturday night s shooting in the western coastal town of Savanna la Mar were aged 19 to 68. Authorities say the passengers aboard two motorcycles got off to fire at the victims and then fled. The attackers have not been caught and the motive for the killing is unclear. (AP) Africa Odebrecht admits pay Crooked business as usual in Angola NAIROBI/SAO PAULO, March 20, (Agencies): Angola s authorities have ignored the admission by a Brazilian firm that it paid $50 million in bribes to secure contracts in the country, activists say, despite demands from watchdogs that it join international investigations into the corruption. Brazilian engineering conglomerate Odebrecht admitted to the illegal payments in Angola as one part of a guilty plea in December in New York court, in which it confessed to paying $788 million in bribes, mostly across Latin America. The company has been at the Odebrecht centre of vast corruption investigations in its home country and eight other Latin American states where it has admitted making the illegal payments. CEO Marcelo Odebrecht was jailed for 19 years in 2016 for paying bribes. But in Angola, which along with Mozambique is the only country outside of Latin America on the list of places where it has admitted paying bribes, there has been absolute silence, said anti-corruption campaigner Rafael Marques de Morais. Marques de Morais demanded an investigation in Angola in January after the US court published the plea deal detailing the company s admissions, but said he was not surprised to receive no response from the authorities. The point is that there is no official interest in fighting corruption. Or even pretending that there is an interest in fighting corruption. The Angolan judicial system wants this to go away because of the involvement of senior officials. Over the past two decades Angola has experienced some of the fastest economic growth in the world thanks to an offshore oil boom. But most of its 21.5 million people remain in abject poverty, while a small elite have prospered. Ghana falling tree kills 18: At least 18 people were killed when a large tree fell into the pool they were bathing in at the base of a waterfall in Ghana, crushing people enjoying a day out at a popular beauty spot, police said. The waterfall, near the town of Kintampo, was busy with weekend daytrippers, many of them students, when the freak accident struck on Sunday. A further 20 people were being treated in hospital, Desmond Owusu Boampong, a local police commander, told Reuters. Freed ship at safe port: The captain of the crew of a Comoros-flagged oil tanker that was hijacked and then released by Somali pirates said he feels like he was dead and born, after the ship reached a port in northern Somalia. Nicholas Anthony said Sunday he is grateful for efforts by the semiautonomous Puntland state in northern Somalia to secure their release. He gave no details about their captivity or how their freedom was secured. The ship, which had a crew of eight Sri Lankans, docked at the port of Bossaso, the region s commercial hub, under heavy security by local naval forces who boarded the ship after pirates released it as a result of negotiations with local elders and regional authorities. Graves witness to violence: The increasingly brutal nature of fighting in central Congo between the army and local militia is on vivid display in the village of Tshienke, where the bodies of rebel fighters were dumped into a mass grave last month following intense clashes. A visit to this site this month was the first time that journalists including Reuters have been able to see the toll that the Congolese military has exacted on fighters of the Kamuina Nsapu militia, whose insurgency poses the most serious threat to the rule of President Joseph Kabila. Reuters was unable to determine the exact number of bodies in eight mass graves dug in January and February in Congo s Kasai-Central province. The graves were also confirmed by nine local witnesses. South Africa min to appeal: South Africa s police minister will fight a court order to remove the head of an elite police investigation unit, popularly known as the Hawks, after the court ruled his appointment unlawful, media said on Monday. Berning Ntlemeza was appointed in 2015 to lead the powerful Directorate of Priority Crime Investigation, but two domestic non-government bodies, Freedom Under Law and the Helen Suzman Foundation, applied to the High Court to have Ntlemeza removed on the grounds that he was unfit for the office. Sandile Ngidi, a spokesman for Police Minister Nathi Nhleko, said Nhleko was appealing against Friday s ruling, enca television reported. Ntlemeza will stay on while the appeal was processed, the report added. Reuters could not immediately reach Ngidi for comment.

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18 INTERNATIONAL 18 World News Roundup Science Chance for justice Science and passion help solve cold cases TAMPA, Florida, March 20, (AP): Dr Erin Kimmerle stands at the head of an open, watery grave and peers down. It s a sweltering fall day in Tampa, and here s what she knows about what s below: It s the grave of a murder victim. The woman s body was found in a patch of scrub brush used as an unauthorized trash dump in 1985 just outside downtown Tampa. Detectives never discovered her name. DNA wasn t analyzed at the time. They weren t sure how she was slain, when, or why. Back then, there was little hope of solving the case. Heavy caseloads, a lack of money and no relatives coming forward all meant that police moved on to the next corpse. Kimmerle The woman lay in this pauper s grave in a city cemetery for more than 30 years. Now, Kimmerle a former investigator for the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, an anthropology professor and a 44-year-old married mother of two might be the woman s only chance for justice. Kimmerle knows locating the killer is a long shot. But maybe, just maybe, if she is detailed enough and throws enough science at the case, she can identify the body and find relatives. Surely, someone, somewhere loved this young woman. Two dozen detectives, students and researchers gather around as Kimmerle stares into the void, then crouches down. Her hands double-wrapped in latex gloves brace her body as she eases into the hole. Stepping nearly all the way in, she leans over and peels away dirty white plastic. It s a grave liner, she says, squinting into the sun. She and her team remove it and hit a muddy brown body bag. The corpse had been buried in a cardboard casket. That s long since dissolved, but the bag stayed intact. Kimmerle s team hoists it out of the grave. She climbs out, kneels at the side of the bag and gingerly unzips it. There s a full skeleton inside, and the bones are small. Sweating, Kimmerle looks up and nods. It s her cold-case homicide victim, and the skeleton is in excellent shape. Still, Kimmerle doesn t make any predictions about finding answers. This is a long process, she says. Her plan: throwing science at the case. She ll use state-of-the-art DNA testing. Then, a chemical isotope test her lab at the University of South Florida is one of a handful in the country to use this advanced study of minerals and geography to narrow down where a person is from or has visited through tooth, hair and nail analysis. Unidenified She can spend the time on this case thanks to a $385,000 grant from the National Institute of Justice to review 50 unsolved and unidentified-person deaths. Most are in Florida, but some are from Pennsylvania and Wisconsin; because Kimmerle s considered one of the country s best forensic anthropologists, her lab often takes cases from states with fewer resources. A week after the skeleton s exhumation in Tampa, the bones are at the medical examiner s office on a steel gurney. Kimmerle walks in. She no longer notices the earthy smell of death. She pays no mind to a nearby body, its chest open for an autopsy. Instead, she slips on a white lab coat and beams at one of the coroners. Happy birthday! she says, smiling. When Kimmerle investigated dozens of graves at Florida s Dozier School for Boys a now-shuttered site where former students accused officials of abuse she received lots of media attention. She s positive and bubbly, with a high-pitched voice unexpected from someone who jumps in graves and scrubs bones with a toothbrush. And that s exactly what she does this day at the morgue: polishes bones. Most of the skeleton is still in the brown bag, mixed with mud, twigs and leaves. See, the bones are typically the color of the soil, she says, dipping a femur into a stainless steel bowl of sudsy water. The plan for case No is to clean and assemble the skeleton. Crucial parts can be missing, because of the rigors of time or something more nefarious. Kimmerle uses cooking strainers when scrubbing and washing the bones; she wants to inspect every fragment. Because the woman was autopsied at the time she was discovered, a few other items were tossed into the body bag vials that once contained blood and tissues and a zip-top bag holding a brownish liquid. Probably the organs, Kimmerle says. Ziplocs hold up pretty good, she says, reaching over a tray of scissors, scalpels and forceps. Already, Kimmerle sees promise. The skull and jaw have nicely preserved teeth, and those hold a wealth of DNA and isotope information. Some molars are missing. By the looks of the jaw and a missing tooth socket, the woman had untreated cavities. Perhaps she lacked money for dental care, Kimmerle muses. Teeth tell us a story about a person s station in life, Kimmerle says. Skull She cradles the skull in her hand. Now we re going to try to put together that story. Days later, at Kimmerle s USF lab, the bones are laid out neatly on a table. The skull has very feminine features, Kimmerle says. The clavicles are tiny, meaning the woman was small in stature. Her ribs are like two rainbows around the spine. Kimmerle will slide the bones into a machine to take X-rays, snap photos and get the skull laser scanned. She ll use a saw to take a femur sample, and she ll scrape a molar s surface. Those shards will be used for the isotope analysis, a detailed look at environment and diet. Kimmerle will send the samples to University of Florida geochemist George Kamenov, who analyzes chemical traces in the shavings for lead, carbon and other elements. It s not a typical test, but Kimmerle and Kamenov have become so well-known for the practice that law enforcement officials nationwide send them cases. While Kimmerle waits for the DNA and isotope tests to return it can take eight months or more she orders a 3-D printed cast of the skull. Actually, she orders skulls in about a dozen cases all at once, and assembles folders for each. When the 3-D skulls come in, the files are handed out to a group of forensic sculptors from around the world visiting USF for training. For a week, they work with blocks of clay, picks and rasps to make the dead come alive, using the skeletal anatomy of the face and details such as race and ethnicity to create the busts. These artists are modern Michelangelos, but instead of working on heads of gods in a palazzo, they re-create the faces of crime victims in a university basement with harsh fluorescent light. They started with the muscle structure, and they are moving into different features and characteristics of the face, then they ll add hair, and all the things that make a person look unique, said Kimmerle, who teaches part of the training. I help and guide in terms of anatomy and how that informs the soft tissue. Those are those subtle differences in how somebody looks. From the skull s bone structure and earlier autopsy reports, Kimmerle has determined the Tampa victim was African-American. Tatiana der Parthogh, a forensic-imaging consultant in London who s taking the training, is working on the case. She smooths her fingertips over the jaw and brushes the cheekbones. Soon she ll create hair out of clay. You can really see that it was someone who was alive at one point, der Parthogh says. Another detail makes the woman even more real: Isotope results based on diet and water have returned, and Kimmerle reaches a conclusion: The woman was local to the Tampa area. Kimmerle heads to a podium, TV news crews following her. She s not in her usual work clothes of a T-shirt and jeans; instead it s a smart black suit. She thanks the 100-person crowd for their work on the hardest mysteries of all: cold cases. It s October, and her stage is at the Tampa Bay History Center, an airy, open space along the water. Detectives, researchers and prosecutors are gathered for The Art of Forensics. Kimmerle helped organize the event and brought along the busts from the training session. The Tampa woman s sculpted face sits on a stand closest to the audience. In the event brochure, she s Case 5: The remains are believed to be those of a young black female, approximately 5 2 to 5 9 tall. She was found nude and her death was ruled a homicide. In this Sept 15, 2016 photo, Dr Erin Kimmerle (left), partially standing in the grave, examines the remains of an unidentifi ed 1985 female murder victim after her body was exhumed from a unmarked grave in Tampa, Fla. Kimmerle is working on the cold case in hopes of helping law enforcement offi cials to identify the victim. (Inset): In this Oct 21, In this fi le photo, a young protester holds a sign while joining a coalition of activist groups during a rally and march in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline in downtown Los Angeles on March 10. The group was calling on the city of Los Angeles to cut fi nancial ties with Wells Fargo. (AP) Discovery Life & death clues: In a cavernous warehouse where Israel stores its archaeological treasures, an ancient burial box is inscribed with the name of Jesus. Not That Jesus. Archaeologists in Israel say Jesus was a common name in the Holy Land 2,000 years ago, and that they have found about 30 ancient burial boxes inscribed with it. Ahead of Easter, Israel s antiquities authority opened up its vast storeroom to reporters on Sunday for a peek at unearthed artifacts from the time of Jesus. Experts say they have yet to find direct archaeological evidence of Jesus Christ, but in recent years have found a wealth of material that helps fill out historians understanding of how Jesus may have lived and died. There s good news, said Gideon Avni, head of the archaeological division of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Today we can reconstruct very accurately many, many aspects of the daily life of the time of Christ. Israel is one of the most excavated places on the planet. Some 300 digs take place each year, including about 50 foreign expeditions from as far away as the United States and Japan, the Antiquities Authority said. About 40,000 artifacts are dug up in Israel each year. A third of all the antiquities found attest to the ancient Christian presence in the Holy Land, Avni said. Historians now know how long it took to travel between cities and villages where Jesus preached, and what those places looked like at the time. Avni said knowledge of the period has advanced over the past 20 years. We can reconstruct precisely how the country looked, he said. In a brightly-lit, 5,000-square meter (54,000-sq feet) warehouse crammed with stacks of ancient jugs and pottery sherds what the Antiquities Authority calls its Ali Baba cave of ancient treasures officials set up a simple white table with finds from the time of Jesus. (AP) GPS on climbers eyed: Some climbers attempting to scale Mount Everest during the upcoming spring climbing season will be strapped with a GPS device to locate them in case they are in trouble and to prevent false claims of reaching the summit, officials said Monday. Hundreds of climbers are expected to attempt to climb the world s highest Climate peak in April and May, but only a few will be fitted with the devices as an experiment. The chief of Nepal s tourism department, Durga Dutta Dhakal, said the devices, costing about $300 apiece, would help locate climbers who are in trouble on the mountain so rescuers can be sent. The devices will also track the movement of the climbers while they are on Everest. The data will be Avni Dhakal 2016 photo, Sheila Williams holds up a faded, photocopied picture of a woman near a sculpture of an unidentifi ed 1985 female murder victim during a forensic conference Oct 21, 2016, in Tampa, Fla. Sheila believes the victim could be her missing sister, Brenda Joyce Williams. (AP) Science of climate change recognised Greens seek to temper Trump NEW YORK, March 20, (RTRS): US President Donald Trump s outspoken doubts about climate change and his administration s efforts to roll back regulation to combat it have stirred a sleepy faction in US politics: the Republican environmental movement. The various groups represent conservatives, Catholics and the younger generation of Republicans who, unlike Trump, not only recognize the science of climate change but want to see their party wrest the initiative from Democrats and lead efforts to combat global warming. Conservative green groups such as ConservAmerica and republicen, along with politically neutral religious groups such as Catholic Climate Covenant and bipartisan groups such as the Citizens Climate Lobby, have ramped up efforts to recruit more congressional Republicans to work on addressing climate change since Trump s election. Conservative environmental advocates promote what they call free enterprise solutions to climate change, like a carbon tax. That stands in contrast to the approach of liberal environmentalists under former president Barack Obama, who backed bans on certain kinds of oil drilling and regulations aimed at discouraging petroleum use. Differences But whatever their differences, the conservative groups say they have an important role to play. Conservatives now have a chance to earn back the trust of Americans on environmental issues, said Alex Bozmoski, director of strategy for republicen. They can lead in a completely different direction that actually grows the economy while cutting greenhouse gasses. The activists efforts have not swayed anywhere near a majority yet on Capitol Hill. Only 20 or so of the 237 Republicans in the US House of Representatives have spoken out on climate change this year. But they hope to build a big enough bloc in Congress, or enough influence at the White House, to temper Trump s agenda. Lobbying has yielded some early results: a pro-environment voting bloc in Congress, the Climate Solutions Caucus, for example, has signed on more Republicans in the last two months than in it had in the final year of Obama s administration its first year in existence. Urged on by a coalition of conservative and religious groups, including the Catholic Climate Covenant, a handful of additional Republicans have also signed a congressional resolution pledging to address climate change. 2 reports and 1 conclusion: energy shift must start soon BERLIN, March 20, (Agencies): The world must swiftly shift energy production away from fossil fuels if it is to prevent a dangerous increase in global temperatures, according to separate reports released Monday by two international agencies. Both reports concluded that fundamentally changing the way power is produced would require considerable investment though there were would also be savings due to improvements in energy effi ciency. The International Energy Agency and the International Renewable Energy Agency were asked to outline scenarios that would keep global average temperature increases below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), compared with preindustrial times. To ensure a two-thirds chance of that happening, the IEA said, would require an unparalleled ramp up of all low-carbon technologies in all countries. Ambitious measures would include the rapid phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies, CO2 prices rising to unprecedented levels, extensive energy market reforms, and stringent low-carbon and energy effi ciency mandates would be needed to achieve this transition, it said. Such policies would need to be introduced immediately and comprehensively across all countries, the IEA added. The IRENA report concludes that early action is critical and failure to act swiftly will only increase costs further down the line. The resolution was non-binding, but it represented a direct challenge to Trump s climate stance, a highprofile signal of dissent within his party. It s like Alcoholics Anonymous you ve got to first recognize you ve got a problem before you can deal with it, said Mark Sanford, a Republican Congressman from South Carolina who signed the resolution. Melinda Pierce, legislative director for the more than 100-year-old Sierra Club environmental group, said she was happy to see enlightened Republicans beginning to act on climate change. But Pierce added, Legislative action is a long time away based on, at least, the Republican leadership. Pierce also said she was skeptical of free enterprise solutions advocated by conservative environmental groups like republicen, which she said sounded to her like we have to The IRENA scenario also predicts that more jobs will be created than lost. The two reports also differ on the extent to which fossil fuels would continue to be used, especially cleaner options such as natural gas. The reports were released ahead of a meeting on energy and climate change in Berlin, expected to attract more than a thousand participants. The meeting, organized by Germany, comes at a time of uncertainty about the role the United States will play in international efforts to limit global warming. US President Donald Trump has pledged to roll back climate commitments made by the Obama administration. Also: LONDON: Global energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions could be reduced by 70 percent by 2050 and completely phased out by 2060, research by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) showed on Monday. To help achieve this, the share of renewable energy in primary energy supply would need to increase to 65 percent in 2050 from 15 percent in 2015, the report said. An additional $29 trillion of energy investment would be needed to 2050, equivalent to 0.4 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP). Such investment should provide stimulus that, with other policies supporting growth, would boost global GDP by 0.8 percent in pay them not to pollute. Jose Aguto, associate director of the Catholic Climate Covenant, said Republicans are the only major political party in the world not convinced by climate change. Once they accept the reality and science of climate change, we will have reached a tipping point in the political will for solutions. Trump has raised the hackles of many environmentalists since taking office. He has overturned several Obama-era environmental regulations, and last week he proposed slashing the Environmental Protection Agency budget by 31 percent. During his presidential campaign Trump called climate change a hoax and vowed to pull the United States out of the Paris accord, a global pact to fight it tapping into a well of Republican concern that the United States energy habits would be policed by the United Nations. checked after they get back from the mountain to determine whether they reached the summit and should be issued a climber s certificate. Last year, an Indian couple claimed they scaled the peak and received a certificate from mountaineering authorities, but it was later determined that they had altered their photo on the summit. It was a huge embarrassment for Nepalese mountaineering authorities. (AP)

19 Film Gritty low-budget drama Most Beautiful Island tackles immigrant experiences By Peter Debruge In Ana Asensio s Big Apple-set Most Beautiful Island, a cashstrapped but model-gorgeous undocumented immigrant agrees to attend a dangerous party for rich and ruthless New Yorkers. For thinkthe-worst Trump haters, this gritty low-budget drama could be seen as a dark spin on last year s Southside With You, dramatizing an alternate history of how the Donald first met Melania. In truth, the inspiration behind Asensio s high-suspense, dread-infused debut was a peculiar eye-candy assignment the Spanish-born Asensio endured herself, heightened to show the lengths to which outsiders will go to make it in America. Awarded the top prize at the 2017 SXSW Film Festival, Most Beautiful Island is a modest first feature, spanning less than a day in the life of a tough yet brittle-looking woman named Luciana (Asensio), but it makes quite an impact on very limited means enough to score its impressive writer-director-producer-star more film work, even if it s barely seen upon eventual release. Though it s set against a bright-lights, big-city backdrop, the movie offers an illicit cockroach seye view of New York, in which nearly all the characters scurry about wary of being crushed by anyone with the power to enforce their arrest or deportation. The story sprung from Asensio s own early immigrant experiences, specifically the period when she overstayed her visa and found herself taking degrading jobs for cash. In this case, we see the clearly-stressed Luciana juggling a thankless nanny job with one of those rump-shaking street-corner gigs where she advertises a local fast-food joint in a skinbaring chicken costume. Burnt out and barely able to pay her bills, Luciana turns to her venomously escort-esque Russian friend Olga (Natasha Romanova) for advice, never suggesting that the too-good-tobe-true job for which she s supposed to report to a shady basement wearing nothing but a sexy black cocktail dress Olga offers could have potentially fatal consequences. Orchestrates Of course, we don t know that either, although Asensio orchestrates it such that our Spidey senses start tingling long before Luciana s, and by the time she finds herself in said basement, surrounded by half a dozen other tall, nervous-looking foreign beauties, it s too late to change her mind. Shooting in the coarse handheld style on scrappy 16mm film (the sort that recalls classic John Cassavetes movies, or the more recent work of Daddy Longlegs directors Josh and Benny Safdie), DP Noah Greenberg never ventures far from Luciana s side, resulting in the distinctly anxious impression of being trapped in her skin which, as we ll soon see, is no place we d want to be, and all the more nerve-wracking given the director s stripped-down neorealist approach. The movie s payoff is every bit as delicious as its build-up, during which Asensio allows our imagination to do its worst as the other girls are called away one by one to do whatever their sadistic hosts have in mind. The first emerges from a back room, visibly shaking, while the second lets out a piercing scream that merely exacerbates Luciana s already tense state of mind. But what s a woman in her position to do? When the authorities don t even know she exists, what s to stop these creeps from snuffing her out and dumping her body where it will never be found? And just how much resistance can a spindly-limbed stunner like herself possibly put up? Plenty, as it turns out and that s where Most Beautiful Island earns whatever trust audiences have put in its unproven storyteller (assuming that you ve never seen one of Asensio s one-woman shows): The easy-to-underestimate star effectively conveys her character s exasperation, but not what her actual skills or potential might be. In addition to being unusually resistant to a pest problem in her squalid New York apartment (her lack of reaction to a stomach-churning roach infestation speaks volumes about her iron-willed character), Luciana is also slyly resourceful in several early scenes, as when she scams the little black dress from a high-end Manhattan shop. Still, there s not much to suggest what Luciana might contribute to society, which is just the sort of judgment Asensio intends to upend when the moment is right and that she does, demonstrating the same spirit of fearlessness in character that she did when translating this belief-straining, reality-based story into her big-screen debut. Stepping in to make Asensio s self-made statement possible, indie horror legend Larry Fessenden not only produces, but appears as the toughest of the basement bouncers, and the ironically titled Most Beautiful Island proves a worthy addition to his Glass Eye Pix catalog, especially where the work of insect and spider wrangler Brian Kleinman is concerned. In the end, as with the Black Widow and many other species, Asensio s female heroine is much deadlier than the male. (RTRS) Variety Features TUESDAY, MARCH 21, 2017 NEW YORK: Disney s live-action Beauty was a beast at the box office, opening with an estimated $170 million in North American ticket sales and setting a new high mark for family movies. Beauty and the Beast starring Emma Watson and Dan Stevens, blew past the previous recordholder for G- or PG-rated releases, according to studio estimates Sunday. Last year, Disney s Finding Dory debuted with a then-pgbest $135 million. Beauty and the Beast felled many other records, too. It s the year s top opening so far and a new best for March releases, and it ranks seventh all-time, not accounting for inflation. The film, made for about $160 million, is the latest effort by Disney to re-create one of its animated classics with live action and digital effects. The makeover of the 1991 Oscar-winning film follows previous live-action remakes such as Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, Maleficent and last year s The Jungle Book. Many more are on the way, too, including those for Dumbo, Mulan, Aladdin and The Lion King. (AP) LOS ANGELES: Beauty and the Beast easily dominated a polarized and quieter than average weekend at the Chinese box office. It earned a very solid $42.8 million in its opening three days, according to local box office service Ent Group. Disney reported the figure as $44.8 million. With an average of 100,000 screenings per day, Beauty was set up to win. And on all three days, it enjoyed a mid-60 percent market share. Disney reported that its score was the highest ever opening for a Disney Live Action meaning Lucasfilm or Marvel title. The gay moment controversy that dogged the film in some other territories was not an important factor in China. Chinese regulators boasted that they had admitted the film intact and without one of the age warnings permitted under the new Film Promotion Law. Far behind, in second place, was A Dog s Purpose. It scored $11.1 million in its third weekend on release, for a cumulative of $74.8 million. Further behind, Logan was third with a weekend score of $6.0 million. After 17 days it has accumulated $101 million. Resident Evil: The Final Chapter claimed fourth place with $5.11 million, for a 24-day cumulative of $160 million. (RTRS) LOS ANGELES: South Korea s In this image released by Lionsgate, Elizabeth Banks appears in a scene from Power Rangers. (AP) Film Elizabeth Banks plays a witch-princess High-flying action in Power Rangers By Owen Gleiberman After 90 minutes of hip and hollow teen banter, woefully generic origin story, and molehillposing-as-mountain-size triumph (our heroes spend half the film learning how to morph, when all that comes down to is getting their color-coordinated chintzy sci-fi armor suits to snap into place), Power Rangers finally uncorks one of those high-flying digital-blitzkrieg action finales that was mocked in Birdman as the essence of blockbuster decadence. It is, but to put it in movie-junk-food terms: Just because you know a sequence like this one is bad for you doesn t mean it s not fun to watch. In the battle royale that s the big payoff of Power Rangers, our heroes face off against Rita Repulsa, the alien supervillain from the TV show s first season this is no mere retread; it s Power Rangers classic! who is played, by the redoubtable Elizabeth Banks, as a leering and mottled punk dominatrix with a fixation on gold that marks her as a witch-princess for our time. She wanders into a jewelry store and literally eats the gold finery, melting it down into her crystalline gleaming-gold staff. She s got hunks of gold wedged into her face, as if it were part of her own personal biological ecosystem. She does everything but write an editorial for The Wall Street Journal arguing that America should go back on the gold standard though depending on how this franchise, and the Trump administration, works out, just give her time. Rita wants to lay her long-taloned fingers on the Zeo Crystal, an object that will allow her to destroy the world. It s hidden at a Krispy Kreme franchise in downtown Angel Grove, California, and to that end she summons her ultimate coup Watson de gold: a 100-foot-tall monster who looks like a cross between the Devil and the winged figure of Mercury, except that he s made entirely of molten gold that never stops smelting and flowing, like the world s most expensive lava. If the special-effects legend Ray Harryhausen were to look down from the clouds on this towering liquid-gilt demon, he d say it was fantastic. And he d be right. I d add a dollop of praise for Banks triumphant barbaric snarl. As for the Power Rangers, they re part of the sequence too they come to the rescue in metal ships shaped like lizards but they re the most innocuous of heroes in search of a real movie. Depressing Why reboot the Power Rangers now? The answer is as obvious as it is depressing. In 1993, when Mighty Morphin Power Rangers debuted on Fox Kids, the show ricocheted off the rise of superhero culture, yet at the time superhero culture wasn t something that we were drowning in. These gee-whiz junior one-note versions of Iron Man leaping, flying, butt-kicking high schoolers seemed as thin and derivative as the Japanese tokusatsu TV series from which MMPR was adapted, yet the show filled a niche. A lot of people in their late twenties and early thirties now look back on Mighty Morphin Power Rangers with an affection as primal as that reserved, by a previous generation, for the most hard-to-defend John Hughes movies. (Quick: If She s Having a Baby and season two of MMPR fought each other, who would win? Never mind.) There was even a big-screen version. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie was released in 1995 and made an underwhelming $38 million. It was 95 minutes of genial trash that, Stevens film and television industries are to be allowed access to a government tax break previously reserved for manufacturers. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said that the Restriction of Special Taxation Act had been amended. Changes will take effect this Friday. Cultural goods such as film, TV and K-pop music have become like the show, seemed designed to turn kids into throwaway action zombies. (It probably worked.) The new version tries to get all ironic and designer-techie and ambitious about rebooting the Power Rangers concept. Zordon, the Rangers mentor, is portrayed by Bryan Cranston, who appears almost entirely as a giant facial hologram who resembles a digital Wizard of Oz recast as a Toysmith Pin Art figure. The new kids who would be Power Rangers ne er-do-well Jason (Dacre Montgomery), the Captain Kirk of the group; the haughty feministic Kimberly (Naomi Scott); Trini (Becky G), with her sexually alternative pride; Billy (RJ Cyler), a geek as nervous as he is brilliant; and the kickass mama s boy Zack (Ludi Lin) are portrayed like characters out of X-Men: The High School Musical. But this is also a rock & roll car-chase Power Rangers meant, at times, to evoke the Fast and Furious films (best track: Social Distortion s punk Ring of Fire ). And Alpha 5, the Rangers trusty automaton assistant, is visualized (as a hubcap-headed droid) and voiced (by Bill Hader) as if he d gone missing from an upcoming Star Wars sequel. Yet it s all franchise window dressing. It can t disguise the reality that the characters in Power Rangers have all the depth and idiosyncrasy of walking talking robo-teen action figures. The irony is that 25 years ago, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was launched as superhero diversion for kids, and there was a place for it, but we re so awash in superhero culture that kids no longer need the safe, lame, pandering junior-league version of it. They can just watch Ant-Man or the PG-13 Suicide Squad. Safe, lame, and pandering have all grown up. (RTRS) major exports for Korea. But the sector is currently suffering from an import ban in China connected to the Korean government s decision to deploy the US-backed THAAD anti-missile system. Under the new tax-break scheme, production costs from January 2016 can be set against corporate tax bills, with small companies able to reduce their costs by 10 percent. Mid-sized companies can claim 7 percent and conglomerates 3 percent. Qualifying TV content can include drama series, animation and documentaries featuring cultural and natural heritage of the country. Feature films need to be screened in cinemas for at least seven consecutive days, or a single day in the case of KOFIC-acknowledged arthouse and indie titles. (RTRS)

20 NEWS/FEATURES 20 People & Places Film Fairy tale remake 5 reasons the Disney fantasy broke records By Brent Lang Disney s Beauty and the Beast scored with audiences, racking up a massive $170 million domestically to become the biggest March debut ever and the seventh-best opening in history. The fairy tale remake added an additional $180 million to its haul from international territories, raking in big bucks in major markets like China and the United Kingdom. Once again, Disney has successfully updated a tale as old as time for a new generation of moviegoers while retaining the sense of wonder and magic that made the 1991 animated version of Beauty and the Beast a cultural touchstone for an older audience. It continues the studio s successful collection of liveaction remakes of cartoon favorites like The Jungle Book and Cinderella and helps propel star Emma Watson to the top of the A-list. Here are five reasons Beauty and the Beast smashed records. Emma Watson delivered Movie fans grew up with Watson, watching the precocious young girl become a woman onscreen as she played Hermione Granger in eight Evans Harry Potter films. Since leaving Hogwarts behind in 2011, Watson has been choosy with her projects. She s taken supporting or ensemble roles in Noah, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and The Bling Ring, but seemed to be biding her time, trying to find the right blockbuster-hopeful to headline. The wait was worth it, even if it meant that Watson was forced to cede the lead in La La Land to Emma Stone in order to waltz across the screen as Belle. The plucky heroine was the right match for the Brown University-educated Watson, a celebrity who has used her platform to speak out on women s issues and gender equality. Her candor and political drive has earned her a passionate following on Twitter, where her 24 million followers eclipse those of Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert Downey Jr, and on Facebook, on which 34 million people checked out trailers and photos from the Beauty and the Beast set. As a sign of her popularity, 28 percent of audiences in a ComScore survey said that Watson was the major reason for attending the film. That figure rarely tops 10 percent, according to the research firm. Everyone loved the original With the possible exception of The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast may be the most beloved film in the Disney canon. It s the only traditionally animated offering to nab an Oscar nomination for best picture and, along with The Little Mermaid, helped usher in a new renaissance at the Mouse House that lasted from the late 1980 s to the mid-1990 s. Its presence can be felt across the Disney landscape in its consumer products lines, cruises, and in Broadway shows. That ubiquity helped turn the remake into a multigenerational smash. A wide swath of moviegoers was weaned on the story of Belle, fed up with her provincial life, and the moody Beast whose heart she captures and, oh, those singing and dancing candlesticks and teapots! They, in turn, wanted to share the magic with their own children. Families accounted for half of the opening weekend audience, with the two largest demographics comprising of children under 12 and people between the ages of 26 and 34, the same group that were preadolescents when the animated film hit theaters. The filmmakers more or less left the plot from the animated film intact, padding it with a few new songs. That all translated into a nostalgia drive-smash, according to Disney distribution chief Dave Hollis. He noted that each time a new image for the film was unveiled or a trailer was released, it went viral. Girl power redux It s hard to believe that not that long ago many studios dismissed the female audience as less important than the male one. There was a belief that getting boys into cinemas was crucially important and that if you built a film that was geared at that set, the girls would follow suit. Thanks to smash hits like The Hunger Games, Maleficent, and Pitch Perfect, that shortsighted thinking is passe. The first Beauty and the Beast represented a turning point for Disney heroines. Unlike previous animated women and girls, Belle didn t just sitting around humming with the sparrows while waiting for her prince to come. The remake continues the first film s message of empowerment, digging deeper into Belle s backstory to reveal what happened to her late mother and making her even more fervently opposed to the advances of the boorish Gaston (Luke Evans). Beauty and the Beast s feminist DNA translated into ticket sales, with females comprising 60 percent of the weekend crowd. The Disney brand is king The studio has become synonymous with a kind of big-budget entertainment in recent years. After buying up colossuses such as Lucasfilm and Marvel, Disney is dominating the multiplexes releasing Star Wars adventures, Avengers sequels, and, now, elaborate liveaction fairy tales that are catnip to consumers. At a time when Netflix, the internet, and a glut of quality cable programming are making it harder for studios to figure out how to get consumers off their couches, Disney has figured out how to sell the kind of spectacle that can t be replicated on an iphone or even the most tricked-out of televisions. Its logo carries a promise that audiences will be able to venture off to sprawling cinematic universes that represent escapism in its most essential form. Disney just knows how to make these big blockbusters, said Jeff Bock, a box office analyst with Exhibitor Relations. Most studios have four or five big hits and then they suffer a big miss. But they can do no wrong. Its success isn t necessarily trickling over to the other players in Hollywood. Disney earned 60 percent of the film business profits in 2016, according to a recent report by Cowen & Company s Doug Cruetz, even as returns across the rest of the industry were down by a third. Timing is everything It s been over a month since The Lego Batman Movie debuted, a long stretch without a major family film release. Instead, the box office has been dominated by a slew of violent films, such as the hard R- rated Logan and Get Out, as well as the monster thriller Kong: Skull Islands. With schools on rolling spring breaks, there are a lot of parents out there looking to do something with their kids. That helped make Beauty and the Beast the de facto choice for moviegoers with families over the weekend, a position it should retain at least until The Boss Baby hits theaters in two weeks. (RTRS) Actress Felicity Jones poses for photographers with her Best Actress award at the Empire Film Awards in London on March 19. (AP) Redford Variety In this image released by Disney, Josh Gad (left), and Luke Evans appear in a scene from Beauty and the Beast. (AP) Trump LOS ANGELES: Robert Redford has added his voice to the chorus of those fighting back against US President Donald Trump s proposed cuts of federal funding to the arts. In an open letter, posted on the Sundance Institute s website on Sunday, Redford wrote, I believe the NEA must not only survive, but thrive. More than dollars, the NEA represents a civilization that values critical and creative thought, he wrote. Which is why I m asking you to please join me in adding your voice to the chorus of concerned citizens by contacting your congressional representative and voicing your opposition to these cuts. In 1981, the National Endowment for the Arts played a fundamental role in helping me create Sundance Institute, it goes on. The proposed defunding of the NEA s budget would gut our nation s long history of support for artists and arts programs and it would deprive all our citizens of the culture and diversity the humanities brings to our country. The National Endowment for the Arts, which would lose all of its federal funding under Trump s proposed budget, has made significant contributions to the Sundance Institute, including, as Redford noted in the letter, a $25,000 grant to help launch its first labs for independent filmmaking. (RTRS) LOS ANGELES: PaleyFest and the Dolby Center were taken over by superheroes on Saturday. Stars and producers of the four shows that make up the CW s Arrowverse Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, and Legends of Tomorrow hit the stage in front of fans in a panel moderated by uberfan Kevin Smith. Smith, who has directed episodes of both The Flash and Supergirl, took a moment to acknowledge that him being onstage at the panel would be the closest he d get to the Oscars, which are held at the Dolby Theatre, before explaining how comic books set his morality. It s appropriate that we gather to honor these shows on Saturday my morality was built on Saturdays, Smith said. Saturday morning cartoons taught me to be a better person and also Saturday mornings reading comic books taught me to be a better person. It was up to Saturdays to build my morality and they did that. I used to watch people in garish and colorful costumes that always strived to do the right thing. Once the massive panel started in full, Film Stay awake, stay aware: Kravitz Gemini a tale of real-life star LOS ANGELES, March 20, (RTRS): At 28, model and actress Zoe Kravitz has scaled TV series, studio tentpoles, and small indies. She stopped by SXSW this week with her drama Gemini, a film noir in which she portrays an A-list celebrity caught up in a whodunit that involves her assistant. On HBO s mini-series Big Little Lies, she plays a housewife in the outer circle of a group of suburban California women. In J.K. Rowling s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, she s Leta Lestrange, a witch who befriends our protagonist (played by Eddie Redmayne). Kravitz, the daughter of rock singer Lenny Kravitz and actress Lisa Bonet, has also been vocal on social media about the 2016 election. After backing Bernie Sanders and then Hillary Clinton, she s criticized President Donald Trump s policies and participated in women s marches. She spoke to Variety about her projects and politics. Question: How did you come across Gemini? Answer: I got involved in it through Lola Kirke, who is a friend of mine. She was really excited about Aaron and the story. I think she has great taste. I wanted to work with my friend; it all came together like that. Q: Did you base your character on a real-life movie star? A: Not a particular person. I ve been around a fair amount of celebrities in my life, and I ve seen celebrities in their own world. It s hard for them to go in public and they end up surrounding themselves with people who work for them. If everyone is on your payroll, no one is going to be honest with you. I drew on experiences and pieces of that. Q: Ricki Lake is also in the movie. A: She plays a reporter. She s really fun to work with. Q: Where do you think the best material is right now TV or the movies? A: I think the idea of doing things in an episodic way is exciting, because you can develop character slowly and talk eventually came to the show s annual crossover events and whether there would be a true four-episode crossover next year rather than the four-show-three-episode Invasion! story that happened this year. We re going to try to do a real, true, four-way crossover, The Flash and Supergirl executive producer Andrew Kreisberg said to cheers. (RTRS) with more details. I like the energy that s happening between TV and film. What does it mean to do a film, whether it s on Netflix or in theaters? Everything is folding in. Q: You were the voice of Catwoman in the Lego Batman Movie? A: It was really quick I did my voice in a day. I tried to channel my inner child, with a high-pitched enthusiastic voice. And I d throw a meow in every sentence. It was a challenge to figure out where to put it. Q: When will you shoot the sequel to Fantastic Beasts? A: We don t start until June or July. That s all I know at the moment. Q: You haven t read the script? A: Not at all. Q: What was it like meeting J.K. Rowling? A: I haven t met her yet. I ve only heard things about her through Eddie and David [Yates, the director]. I know she was involved in my casting. After my screen test, they were waiting for her to watch it and get her approval. It s cool to see how hands on she is on these projects. I can t wait to meet her. Q: Was it a long audition process? A: It wasn t too long. I sent in an audition tape, and went in again into a casting office in L.A. and worked with a dialect coach. I think they were shooting already; I went there and worked with Eddie. I was nervous, especially doing a British accent in front of these English people. They were very welcoming. I think that helped me feel confident enough. You ve been vocal about the election. What s your message for women who are feeling disempowered right now?i think they should be scared. It s a scary and confusing time. We just have to use our anger and our fear and all the emotions that are coming up right now. We have to use that to educate ourselves and educate each other. And stay angry and stay awake and stay aware. I think you need to allow yourself to feel whatever it is that you re feeling. LOS ANGELES: Weiying Technology, one of China s leading film ticketing agencies, has taken a minority financial stake in Paramount s Ghost in the Shell. The ticketing company will have an in association credit in the end titles, not a producer credit, the company told Variety. It is understood that in return it will enjoy 10 percent of global receipts. Ghost releases in China on April 7, a The Pink Star diamond, the most valuable cut diamond ever offered at auction is displayed by a model at Sotheby s auction rooms in London on March 20. (AP) Q: Do you think that more women will get involved in politics as a result of what s happening? A: I hope so. Politics is such a daunting thing. The wrong people are in the wrong places right now. Q: What scares you most about Trump s presidency? A: I think he wants power and he acts out of fear when there s something he doesn t understand or someone, a kind of people. He lets his fear navigate the way he handles things, and that s a really dangerous path to go down. Also: LOS ANGELES: It was hard to tell who was more excited in the Zach Theatre for SXSW s closing night world premiere of Life, Saturday night in Austin, Texas: the electrified audience or its colorful stars. Hundreds of people lined up to see Daniel Espinosa s new space thriller, and even stayed afterward for a hilarious Q&A with the cast, director, and writers of the film. Jake Gyllenhaal, Ryan Reynolds, Rebecca Ferguson, and the rest of the cast walked the carpet for fans before watching the tense flick in front of an audience for the first time. In the film, an international group of astronauts are overjoyed to find microcellular life in a dirt sample from Mars, but are horrified to find that the organism is more hostile than initially suspected. Gyllenhaal and Reynolds, who walked the carpet together and were cracking jokes all through the panel discussion afterward, expressed their excitement for the film and their admiration for their director and the rest of the crew. Opened his heart to each one of us individually and really loves his actors and wants to understand us as individuals, not just as a community, said Gyllenhaal. These guys really placed the most incredible department heads in every position in this film, so everywhere you looked you were working with a legend both on and off the camera, added Reynolds. week after its North American outing on March 31. It had its world premiere last week (March 16) in Tokyo, followed by another gala in Seoul, Korea, the next day. Weiying has expanded from its initial core of online and mobile ticketing, into movie marketing and latterly film production and investment. Both moves make use of its access to data and insight into audience tastes. Last summer Weiying announced a slate of movie productions under the Nextainment label. In December it set up a Hong Kong-based subsidiary Weiying Galaxy Entertainment for investment in overseas movies. (RTRS) LONDON: A carat, mixed cut diamond known as The Pink Star is returning to auction next month and could fetch a record $60 million, three years since it was sold for even more - only for the buyer to pull out of the deal. The diamond was presented by Sotheby s in London ahead of the auction in Hong Kong on April 4. In November 2013, a Geneva auction of the stone fetched a world record $83 million but the buyer, New York-based diamond cutter Isaac Wolf, could not pay up and defaulted. The pink diamond is the largest Internally Flawless Fancy Vivid Pink diamond ever graded by the Geological Institute of America (GIA), the auction house said, yet the sparkling stone is still small enough to fit onto a ring. (RTRS)

21 NEWS/FEATURES 21 Music His influence incalculable Berry s fi rst album in decades sensational LOS ANGELES, March 20, (AP): Chuck Berry s death came just weeks before the debut single off his first new studio album in nearly four decades was scheduled to go on sale, a friend of the rock n roll legend said. Joe Edwards, the owner of the Blueberry Hill club in St. Louis where Berry performed regularly, said the tracks he has heard off the upcoming album, titled CHUCK, are sensational. What a genius, Edwards said Saturday. I just miss him like crazy. I miss his laugh. While studios often release tribute albums of classics or unused material after an artist dies, Berry s upcoming album featuring mostly original songs was announced in October. His last new studio album, Rock It, was released in The 90-year-old Berry died Saturday at his home near St. Louis. Berry s classic songs Johnny B. Goode and Roll Over Beethoven echoed throughout The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on Sunday as it paid tribute to the musician. Anybody who s picked up Berry a guitar has been influenced by him, said rock hall CEO Greg Harris, who remembers playing the opening riff of Johnny B. Goode over and over again as budding teen guitarist. In addition to Berry s notes, Harris said his lyrics spoke about teenage life and social issues in the 1950s. It s why when we think of the greats and the forefathers, his name is right there, Harris said. Praise Berry drew praise all corners after his death including a tweet from former president Barack Obama. Chuck Berry rolled over everyone who came before him and turned up everyone who came after. We ll miss you, Chuck. Be good, Obama wrote. Berry was the first artist in the inaugural 1986 class to go into the rock hall, and he closed out its concert in 1995 to celebrate the building s opening in Cleveland. The Rolling Stones Keith Richards said at Berry s induction ceremony that Berry was the one who started it all. Funeral arrangements hadn t been announced Sunday. One of Berry s representatives, Matt Hanks, said he didn t have any new information about the release plans for the Chuck album. Rock n roll was more than a new kind of music, but a new story to tell, one for kids with transistor radios in their hands and money in their pockets, beginning to raise questions their parents never had the luxury to ask. Along with James Dean and J.D. Salinger and a handful of others in the 1950s, Chuck Berry who was 90 when he died Saturday at his suburban St. Louis home helped define the modern teenager. While Elvis Presley gave rock n roll its libidinous, hip-shaking image, Berry was the auteur, setting the narrative for a generation no longer weighed down by hardship or war. Well before the rise of Bob Dylan, Berry wedded social commentary to the beat and rush of popular music. He was singing good lyrics, and intelligent lyrics, in the 50s when other people were singing, Oh, baby, I love you so, John Lennon once observed. Classic rock begins with Chuck Berry, who had announced late last year that he would first new album since 1979, called Chuck, sometime this year. His core repertoire was some three dozen songs, but his influence was incalculable, from the Beatles and Rolling Stones to virtually every garage band or arena act that called itself rock n roll. In his late 20s before his first major hit, Berry crafted lyrics that spoke to young people of the day and remained fresh decades later. Sweet Little Sixteen captured rock n roll fandom, an early and innocent ode to the young girls later known as groupies. School Day told of the sing-song trials of the classroom ( American history and practical math; you re studying hard, hoping to pass... ) and the liberation of rock n roll once the day s final bell rang. Roll Over Beethoven was an anthem to rock s history-making power, while Rock and Roll Music was a guidebook for all bands that followed ( It s got a back beat, you can t lose it ). Back in the USA was a black man s straight-faced tribute to his country, at a time there was no guarantee Berry would be served at the drive-ins and corner cafes he was celebrating. Everything I wrote about wasn t about me, but about the people listening, he once said. Signature Johnny B. Goode, the tale of a guitar-playing country boy whose mother tells him he ll be a star, was Berry s signature song, the archetypal narrative for would-be rockers and among the most ecstatic recordings in the music s history. Berry can hardly contain himself as the words hurry out ( Deep down Louisiana close to New Orleans/Way back up in the woods among the evergreens ) and the downpour of guitar, drums and keyboards amplifies every call of Go, Johnny Go! The song was inspired in part by Johnnie Johnson, the boogie-woogie piano man who collaborated on many Berry hits, but the story could have easily been Berry s, Presley s or countless others. Commercial calculation made the song universal: Berry had meant to call Johnny a colored boy, but changed colored to country, enabling not only radio play, but musicians of any color to imagine themselves as stars. Chances are you have talent, Berry later wrote of the song. But will the name and the light come to you? No! You have to go! Johnny B. Goode could only have been a guitarist. The guitar was rock n roll s signature instrument and Berry the first guitar hero. His clarion sound, a melting pot of country flash and rhythm n blues drive, turned on at least a generation of musicians, among them the Stones Keith Richards, who once acknowledged he had lifted every lick from Berry; the Beatles George Harrison; Bruce Springsteen; and the Who s Pete Townshend. When NASA launched the unmanned Voyager I in 1977, an album was stored on the craft that would explain music on Earth to extraterrestrials. The one rock song included was Johnny B. Goode. Country, pop and rock artists have recorded Berry songs, including the Beatles ( Roll Over Beethoven ), Emmylou Harris ( You Never Can Tell ), Buck Owens ( Johnny B. Goode ) and AC/DC ( School Days ). The Rolling Stones first single was a cover of Berry s Come On and they went on to perform and record Around and Around, Let it Rock and others. In this Nov 2, 2004 fi le photo, author-columnist Jimmy Breslin poses for a photo in his New York apartment. Breslin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning chronicler of wise guys and underdogs who became the brash embodiment of the old-time, street smart New Yorker, died on March 19. (AP) Lead singer David Summers performs with Spanish pop rock band Hombres G at Vive Latino in Mexico City on March 19. The Vive Latino Festival has become Latin America s biggest Latin rock celebration. (AP) Stone Variety Sheen LOS ANGELES: Stars descended upon the Arizona desert on Saturday to pay special tribute to Muhammad Ali at Celebrity Fight Night, the first time in 20 years the event was held without the late boxing champion, who died in June. There s such a love in this room, his widow, Lonnie Ali, said. Tonight especially, that love is very evident. I know Muhammad s here. That outpour of love was evident from the words of Harrison Ford, who said that he and Ali were very close in age and described watching Ali through the years. Seeing what he went through, the way he conducted himself, the hard choices that he made was inspiring to me, and I m grateful for his wisdom, Ford said. The ballroom at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Phoenix was packed with glitterati from Hollywood to Nashville. Paul McCartney paid tribute via video with a little ditty he wrote in honor of Ali. The night s entertainment was directed by 16-time Grammy-winning producer David Foster and featured country stars like Brooks & Dunn and Reba McEntire to soul and R&B heavyweights Sam Moore and Brian McKnight. Dennis Quaid and the Sharks took the stage to play a set, while Beach Boys co-founder Mike Love closed out the night. A live auction yielded big-ticket prizes including a dinner at Sharon Stone s L.A. digs with friends John Travolta and Kelly Preston, and Quaid providing the musical entertainment. Guests also bid on dinner with the night s emcee, McEntire, at her Nashville home. (RTRS) HEBER CITY, Utah: A former wife of actor Charlie Sheen has taken a plea deal on charges she wouldn t stop her car for police. Citing court records, the Deseret News reports that Brooke Mueller pleaded guilty Wednesday to a misdemeanor charge of attempted failure to stop at police command, which was downgraded from a felony. In exchange, a misdemeanor reckless driving charge and a citation for failing to get her Utah driver s license were dropped. Heber City police said they tried to stop the 39-year-old from Park City on Jan. 13 as she was driving 20 miles per hour over the speed limit. She went on 6 miles before stopping, claiming she didn t see the officer. (AP) LOS ANGELES: Bernie Wrightson, the prolific horror comic book artist, died Obituary Chronicler of wise guys and underdogs Columnist-author Breslin dies NEW YORK, March 20, (AP): Jimmy Breslin scored one of his best-remembered interviews with President John F. Kennedy s grave-digger and once drove straight into a riot where he was beaten to his underwear. In a writing career that spanned six decades, the columnist and author became the brash embodiment of the street-smart New Yorker, chronicling wise guys and big-city power brokers but always coming back to the toils of ordinary working people. Breslin, who died Sunday at 88, was a fixture in New York journalism, notably with the New York Daily News, and he won a Pulitzer Prize for pieces that, among others, exposed police torture in Queens and took a sympathetic look at the life of an AIDS patient. His was the triumph of the local, and to get the local right, you have to get how people made a living, how they got paid, how they didn t get paid, and to be able to bring it to life, said Pete Hamill, another famed New York columnist who in the 1970s shared an office with Breslin at the Daily News. Jimmy really admired people whose favorite four-letter word was work, said Hamill, speaking from New Orleans. Breslin died at his Manhattan home of complications from pneumonia, according to his stepdaughter, Emily Eldridge. It was the rumpled Breslin who mounted a quixotic political campaign for citywide office in the 1960s; who became the Son of Sam s regular correspondent in the 1970s; who exposed the city s worst corruption scandal in decades in the 1980s; who was pulled from a car and nearly stripped naked by Brooklyn rioters in the 1990s. With his uncombed mop of hair and sneering Queens accent, Breslin was a confessor and town crier and sometimes seemed like a character right out of his own work. And he didn t mind telling you. I m the best person ever to have a column in this business, he once boasted. There s never been anybody in my league. He was an acclaimed author, too. The Gang that Couldn t Shoot Straight was his comic account of warring Brooklyn mobsters that was made into a 1971 movie. Damon on Sunday after a long battle with brain cancer, his wife announced on his official website. He was 68. Wrightson is best known for co-creating the DC Comics monster Swamp Thing with Len Wein in The character would go Runyon: A Life was an account of another famous New York newsman, and I Want to Thank My Brain for Remembering Me was a memoir. Breslin was an intellectual disguised as a barroom primitive, wrote Jack Newfield and Wayne Barrett in their book City for Sale. He acknowledged being prone to fits of bad temper. After spewing ethnic slurs at a Korean-American co-worker in 1990, Breslin apologized by writing, I am no good and once again I can prove it. Tough But under the tough, belligerent personality was someone else a son whose hard-drinking father left home when he was 6 to get a loaf of bread and never returned, Hamill said. Breslin s mother supported the family by working as a welfare system administrator, raising the boy along with her two sisters. The gruff personality was a mask a guy would don to get through the day, Hamill said. Under the mask, what you found at his core was being raised by women, so life is more complicated than a punch in the jaw. In the 1980s, he won both the Pulitzer for commentary and the George Polk Award for metropolitan reporting. The Pulitzer committee noted that Breslin s columns consistently championed ordinary citizens. A few days after the 2001 World Trade Center attacks, he wrote of the dwindling hopes for families. The streets have been covered with pictures and posters of missing people, he wrote. The messages on the posters begging for help. Their wife could be in a coma in a hospital. The husband could be wandering the street. Please look. My sister could have stumbled out of the wreckage and taken to a hospital that doesn t know her. Help. Call if you see her. But now it is the ninth day and the beautiful sad hope of the families seems more like denial. In other columns, Breslin presented an array of recurring characters Klein the Lawyer, Shelly the Bail Bondsman, Un Occhio the mob boss. They seemed to blur the line between fact and fiction, until the first pair became key figures in Breslin s 1986 Models display a creation designed by Takeshi Kitazawa and Emiko Sato during the 2017 Autumn/Winter collection at the Tokyo Fashion Week in Tokyo on March 20. (AP) exclusive on the multimillion-dollar Parking Violations Bureau scandal. Of course I would betray a friend for the biggest story of the year, he said after doing just that on the last manual typewriter in the News old 42nd Street newsroom. After such successes, he held court in Costello s bar in midtown Manhattan until he quit drinking in his post-pulitzer years. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo knew Breslin as a fellow Queens native and a close friend of the family. He was irascible, tough, but he was an authentic voice for New York, Cuomo said. He was the people s voice. Breslin demonstrated few early skills as a wordsmith, graduating from high school before a brief, undistinguished stay at Long Island University starting in 1948, while he was already working at the Long Island Press. As a sportswriter, he bounced between papers until he landed at the New York Herald Tribune. He became a news columnist in 1963 and quickly found a story when none seemed left to tell. As reporters from around the world arrived to cover President Kennedy s funeral, Breslin alone sought out the presidential grave-digger, Clifton Pollard, and began his report with Pollard having a breakfast of bacon and eggs at his apartment on the Sunday following JFK s assassination. Pollard was in the middle of eating them when he received the phone call he had been expecting. It was from Mazo Kawalchik, who is the foreman of the gravediggers at Arlington National Cemetery, which is where Pollard works for a living, Breslin wrote. Polly, could you please be here by eleven o clock this morning? Kawalchik asked. I guess you know what it s for. Pollard did. He hung up the phone, finished breakfast and left his apartment so he could spend Sunday digging a grave for John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Breslin later covered Robert Kennedy s assassination, in 1968, from a much closer angle. He was standing 5 feet away when Sirhan Sirhan struck at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. on to be the subject of Wes Craven s 1982 cult horror classic. The illustrator began his career as a freelance artist for the Baltimore Sun at the age of 18. He joined DC Comics two years later, going by Berni in his early professional work. (RTRS) ST LOUIS: The St Louis childhood home of late poet Maya Angelou is up for sale. With a listed price of $159,000, the 1,100-square-foot place at 3130 Hickory St. was Angelou s home for her first three years and, after her death in 2014 at the age of 86, was given local landmark status. The three-bedroom, three-bathroom dwelling is 129 years old. The home belonged to Angelou s maternal grandparents when she was born as Marguerite Johnson in As a child, Angelou and an older brother were sent to live with a paternal grandmother in Arkansas after their parents marriage collapsed. (AP) LOS ANGELES: Kim Kardashian West says she mentally prepped herself to be raped while being held at gunpoint during a Paris jewelry heist last year. Kardashian West discussed the incident on Sunday night s episode of the E! network s Keeping Up with the Kardashians. She says two robbers wearing police uniforms entered her hotel room last October. One of the robbers duct-taped her mouth while she was in bed, grabbed her legs and pulled her toward him. She says she wasn t raped, but had a gun held to her head. Kardashian West says the men picked her up and put her in a bathtub before making off with jewelry. (AP)

22 22 Other Lives Fear comes back Lamborghinis & icons: New, old mix of Moscow visitor By Brian Friedman MOSCOW, March 20, (AP): Leonid Brezhnev had a taste for fast, flashy Western cars. So perhaps it s fitting that Lamborghini, Porsche and Rolls-Royce dealerships have opened near the Moscow apartment building where the Soviet leader once lived. For a correspondent back in Moscow for the first extended time since 1993, these symbols of luxury are particularly jarring. Back then, I witnessed the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union amid the political and social reforms unleashed by Mikhail Gorbachev. Seven decades of fear and authoritarian control exerted by the Communist Party had vanished, and there was optimism that life would soon improve under Boris Yeltsin. Instead, more economic hardship ensued, along with chaos, the rise of organized crime and the plundering of the country s resources. Vladimir Putin followed Yeltsin, and brought a measure of stability despite the widespread corruption that persisted in his governments. Now Putin is preparing to campaign for yet another six-year presidential term and continues his quest to restore Russia s standing in a post-cold War world. That will include a new, as yet uncertain, relationship with the United States and President Donald Trump, amid an assessment by US intelligence agencies that Russian hackers interfered in the 2016 US election. How does Moscow compare to the city where I once lived? The answer, as with many things in Russia, is in shades of gray, like the skies over the capital in late winter. Wraith Skyscrapers have sprouted amid Moscow s grimy apartment blocks, and the sleek new buildings appear to be almost photo-shopped onto the landscape. The empty stores and punishing long lines of the 1980s and early 90s are gone, replaced by 24-hour coffee shops, supermarkets and pharmacies with helpful staff. Multistory In this Feb 13, 2017 photo, skyscrapers of the Moscow City development rise above the capital in Moscow, Russia. (AP) shopping malls are filled with Western retailers thanks to an economy once boosted by the surging price of oil. But due to a two-year recession in Russia, many of the consumer goods would put a big dent in an ordinary Muscovite s income. The outside of the Hotel Ukraine looks much as it did when it opened 60 years ago, one of the Stalinist skyscrapers that dot the capital. When I stayed there in 1990 it was a dark and dingy place, with battered furniture, threadbare carpets and stubborn key ladies, or dezhurnye, who monitored the halls. One of my early assignments that year was at Food Store No. 44, located in one of the hotel s long flanks. To stem panic buying, shoppers had to show their documents. I can still hear the clerks shouting at customers: Passports, citizens, passports! Moscow or Moscow region only! Today, that large food store has been replaced by restaurants and Italian and German designer clothing shops. Entering the hotel, I now see sweeping staircases, plush leather couches, gilded chandeliers and marble floors. Oh, and there s that Rolls-Royce dealership just off the lobby, where for just $450,000 or 26 million rubles you can buy a black 2016 Wraith, drive it onto Kutuzovsky Prospekt, turn right, and wheel past Brezhnev s old place. Freedom Vladimir Polyakov, a longtime aide to Gorbachev, initially balks at listing the many changes in Russia since the end of the Soviet Union. Finally, he laments the demise of his boss policy of glasnost or more openness. For me, it is media, the former journalist says in an interview. Freedom of the press has steadily shrunk under Putin, with all nationwide TV stations under state control and most print media full of adulation for him. Only a few independent media outlets remain from the freewheeling 90s. When Putin succeeded Yeltsin in 2000, Russia was a mess there was chaos, Polyakov says. Putin s initial steps to maintain stability were right, he adds, and high energy prices rained money on the country. Yet hundreds of thousands protested in Moscow in 2011 and 2012, as Putin became president once again. In response, the government restricted demonstrations and prominent opposition activists were prosecuted. Polyakov says the rollback of freedom of the press and freedom in general is the biggest change of the past 25 years. Fear comes back, he said. A makeshift memorial to several victims of Stalin s Great Terror era sits in the courtyard of the Russian Orthodox church known as St. Trinity in the Leaves. The church, in my old neighborhood in north-central Moscow, was built in Russia s imperial rulers lavished it with gold and icons, but the Communists shut it down, tore off its onion domes and turned it into an ice cream parlor and warehouse. They also shot its clergymen: Boris Ivanovsky, Ioan Tarasov and Yakov Zelenyak- Kudeiko, burying them in 1937 in Butovo, on the outskirts of Moscow, where some 20,000 enemies of the people were executed. During my time there, the church was slowly being restored to its former glory, like thousands of churches closed or destroyed across Russia. Today, it draws about 200 people to services each weekend. Crowd-control barriers are needed for a much bigger house of worship just a few blocks to the north: the 18-month-old Moscow Cathedral Mosque. Friday prayers draw thousands throughout the day, watched by police in camouflage. The mosque, embellished with grayish-green Canadian marble, can hold up to 10,000 people and replaced a much smaller one built in Asked if there is a call to prayer on Fridays, a security guard replied no, because it was a Christian neighborhood. There was no such restraint, however, on a nearby Orthodox church, where the chants of its choir blared onto the sidewalk via a sound system. Signs of Russian Orthodoxy are everywhere around Moscow. A woman sat beside escalators in a shopping mall collecting donations to build a church, and a mini-chapel has popped up inside Moscow s gloomy Kievsky rail station, where travelers can attend a morning service or light candles as they wait. In December 1990, the economy was so bad for holiday shoppers that one Moscow newspaper said not even the Russian equivalent of Santa Claus with his magic powers, can solve the shortages, and his sack may be empty. Barbie dolls and tabletop hockey games were the most sought-after toys, but there were none to be found, according to parents I interviewed in Detsky Mir, or Children s World, the huge-but-vacant department store in Moscow. Returning there this year, I found an entire Barbie section with scores of dolls for sale, along with a miniature catwalk where kids can pretend to be fashion models. In another store, a tabletop hockey game with Russian star Alex Ovechkin on the box cost 3,349 rubles over $55. In good stores, there is always something, said 37-year-old construction worker Ramzan Sultanov, when asked about the toy selection. Sometimes you can buy the one that you want, but sometimes they are just too expensive. The killing of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov on Feb 27, 2015, on a bridge near the Kremlin shocked many in Russia. Music Les Portaguex band (from left to right), Yanic Boudreau on violin, Julie Cossette, main vocalist and on bongo and Stephanie Doyon on guitar, perform traditional Quebec songs at JACC Concert Hall on Sunday evening. click Alcoholics Anonymous: If you know someone who can t stop drinking and would like to help them please check us out and we promise to try to help at There are no fees. This is a genuine public service. Drinking problem?: Friends of Bill W. are available to help. Totally confidential. rohsecretary@gmail.com Narcotics Anonymous: NA can help with addiction problems. Totally confidential: English/Arabic. Cancer online support group: If you are Cancer patient or family member fighting with this deadly disease, come join our online support group. Best way of dealing with this disease is providing support and share our experience with each other. There are lot of things which even doctors can t tell so be member of this website and start sharing your experiences which may help others. October is recognized as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM). The primary purpose is to promote self examination and screening mammography as the most effective way to save lives by detecting breast cancer at early stage. For more information visit: fightingwithcancer.webs.com/ Latest Chinese Embassy notice: Documents issued in Kuwait and to be used in China mainland shall first be notarized and legalised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kuwait, and then be legalised by Chinese Embassy in Kuwait. Specific requirements and information for document legalisation, please refer to the website of Chinese Embassy in Kuwait. For documents issued by member countries of the Apostille Convention*, after getting Apostilles from the competent authorities, they Les Portaguex performs as part of Int l Day of Francophonie celebration Canadian Embassy host La Francophonie festivities By Cinatra Fernandes Arab Times Staff KUWAIT CITY, March 20: Julie Cossette, Yanic Boudreau and Stephane Doyon of Les Portageux band presented traditional French songs from Quebec, Canada in concert at the Concert Hall of Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmad Cultural Center on Sunday evening, presented by the Canadian Embassy as part of La Francophonie festivities. Francophones and Francophiles around the world celebrate the International Day of La Francophonie, held on March 20, by taking part in various events highlighting the diversity and richness of the French language and Francophone culture. Canadian Ambassador to Kuwait, Martine Moreau, stated, Tonight s performance is part of a two-week long cultural programme aimed at celebrating La Francophonie. On the eve of the International Day of La Francophonie, the 20th of March, we are starting the second week can be used in Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR of China directly. *Refer to the Convention of Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents Invitation to Grand Mosque: The Visits Department is pleased to invite you to visit the Grand Mosque, which is one of Kuwait s most treasured religious and cultural landmarks to discover the beauty of Islamic arts and architecture. Free guided tours are available all year round on official working days between (9-11 am) and of this cultural agenda which comprises artistic performances, movie screenings, conferences, exhibits and contests, all offered with the common objective of celebrating our love of and commitment to the French language, the francophone culture and the common values that unite members of La Francophonie. She highlighted the contribution of all the Embassies that have taken part in this year s programme, including those of France, Belgium, Switzerland, Romania, Lebanon, Canada, as well as the French Institute and Kuwait Univeristy. She thanked the team from the Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmad Cultural Centre for hosting and supporting the event. This year s theme of the International Day of La Francophonie is J aime, je partage, which translates to I love, I share, and this is precisely what we aim to do tonight. We love Quebec s culture and music and are very happy to be able to share it with you this evening, she added. Les Portageux, hailing from the Maurice region of Quebec presented (5-7 pm), within a special tour program designed to cater to the needs of different age groups. The program is as follows: Reception; Auditorium show; (according to age group); Touring the Mosque; Q & A; Art workshops; (according to age group between 5 and 18 years old); Snack break; Distribution of the Grand Mosque publications and souvenirs; End of tour. According to these age groups: Age group: 5 to 9 years old: Morning: 60 visitors max; Evening: 20; 10 to 15 years: Morning: 100 visitors max; Evening: 45; 16 and above: Photos by Bassam Abu Shanab Canadian Ambassador Martine Moreau traditional fare that was either transmitted from one generation to another or uncovered from archives. The members describe themselves as passionate people for whom the songs of the past are a well to drink from and music, the current that carries them over. Julie Cossette provides main vocals for the band with Stephane Doyon accompanying on guitar, rhythm pad and vocals, and Yanic Boudreau supplementing the trio with vocals and an enthralling violin. Les Portageux s upbeat, foot-tapping music harkens back to the 19th century pioneer period in the French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec, a time before television and radio, when entertainment meant coming together for a night of song and dance. They presented a wide assortment of folk songs on local themes of the production of maple syrup, an ode to the caribou, French prisoners in the Tower of London, songs on hunting, among other universal themes of finding love, and dealing with relatives who borrow money. The International Organisation of Francophone brings together 84 member states and governments from five continents that represent approximately 1 billion inhabitants, including 274 million Francophones. La Francophonie is a community of solidarity and cooperation and plays a role in international politics whose objectives include the promotion of the French language, cultural and linguistic diversity, peace, democracy and human rights, education, training, higher education and research along with sustainable economic development and solidarity. Morning: 140 visitors max, Evening: 105: Tour language: Arabic- English- French; Arabic (English upon prior request); Arabic- English- French; Arabic (English upon prior request); Arabic- English- French: Arabic (English upon prior request) Rules and Regulations: Please arrive in time for your visit. All visitors are kindly required to abide by the mosque s dress code. Male visitors should wear long pants. Shorts and sleeveless shirts are not allowed. Female visitors: should wear head cover Continued on Page 26

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24 24 Tech Firm studying plans to build system in UAE Future of travel: Hyperloop One to begin testing this summer NEW YORK, March 20, (RTRS): Hyperloop One says it will begin formal testing in the coming months as it aims to revolutionise the way people and goods are moved. It comes a week after the US-based firm released footage of its full-scale test site (DevLoop) in the Nevada Desert. Hyperloop technology uses magnets to levitate pods inside an airless tube, that can then be shuttled at speeds of up to 1,200 kms per hour. Its developers claim it will offer travel at almost twice the speed of airlines yet for the price of taking a bus. Hyperloop One is currently studying plans to build the system in the United Arab Emirates, where it will provide a 12 minute link between Dubai and Abu Dhabi. At the moment, the main route between the two major cities is a highway, which takes roughly 90 minutes. Hyperloop One also estimates that traffic congestion in Dubai is currently costing the economy $800 million in lost working hours. Given its relatively new infrastructure, the company s CEO, Rob Lloyd, says the Gulf region offers great potential: If you think about it, the Gulf region doesn t have a built up international rail network... So it s really an amazing opportunity, we think it s the biggest opportunity for Hyperloop in the world. He adds, If you can move within 300 miles within 30 minutes, it redefines the meaning of a city. Hyperloop One s CEO also believes the system will provide huge opportunities for the future of manufacturing in the region, as the Gulf diversifies away from oil. Right now we don t have a transportation back bone that was constructed for today s on-demand economy; we have something that was constructed for a previous manufacturing model. So when I think of the desire across the GCC here, the U.A.E. and elsewhere, to decrease the reliance on oil and build a manufacturing base, a research base, a high-tech infrastructure, and manufacturing as the core of that, I really think that Hyperloop could really be a part of that infrastructure that enables that next generation of manufacturing to emerge here, says Lloyd. Hyperloop One will be among numerous technology pioneers taking part in the first-ever Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit, to be held in Abu Dhabi next week. At the event, autonomous transportation and other hotly debated technological advances of the Fourth Industrial Revolution will be discussed by manufacturing experts and industry leaders from across the world. Bangladesh Photos from the event Bangladesh Embassy celebrates 97th birth anniversary of Father of the Nation and National Children s Day The Embassy of Bangladesh in Kuwait celebrated the 97th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and National Children s Day 2017 in a befitting manner. A two days program was drawn up in this regard. An Art competition was arranged in different groups for children of Bangladesh expatriates in Kuwait on Friday, March 17 at Multipurpose Hall in the Embassy to mark the day. More than 60 children took part in the competition. The main program was arranged on March 19. The program of the day began with recitation from the Holy Quran. Special dua and Munajat were offered seeking divine blessings for the Father of the Nation, his family members and for continued peace and progress of the country. Messages given by the Hon ble President, Hon ble Prime Minister, Hon ble Foreign Ministry and Hon ble State Minister for Foreign Affairs on this occasion were read out by officers of the Mission. A documentary Film on the Father of the Nation was shown at the program. A discussion meeting was also organized to discuss the significance of the day with Md. Jahirul Islam Khan, First Secretary of the Embassy as the anchor. A good number of participants took part in discussion session and they highlighted the life and achievement of Bangabandhu. His Excellency S.M. Abul Kalam in his speech urged all to follow the ideals and teachings of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu in their real life and to work unitedly for achieving a Sonar Bangla dreamt by Bangabandhu under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. He also emphasized that Bangabandhu always thought about the well-being of the children of the country. He mentioned that to educate children, Bangabandhu expanded Primary Education throughout the nation. He also requested the Bangladesh community in Kuwait to increase the image of our beloved motherland, Bangladesh. He also thanked all the people who were present at the discussion meeting. After the discussion, prizes and certificates for Art competition were awarded by His Excellency the Ambassador. Celebrating 26 Years of Service to the Community. KNES Secondary Dept holds Sports Day On Wednesday, March 8 KNES held their sports day for all secondary students from year 7 through to year 12. The day saw the red team (Cambridge) take on the blue team (Oxford) in which students participated in a number of events including football, basketball, handball, swimming and athletics. There was also the opportunity to break the record on the KNES records board for individuals who wanted to beat the record in things such as squats, press ups, sit ups and long jump. The attitude and effort from everyone involved in the day was remarkable, it was a fun filled day which was full of smiles and enjoyment. Students and teachers gave it their all which lead to a closely fought contest between the two teams, seeing the lead change hands on several occasions throughout the day. In the end the red team secured a narrow victory winning by five points which saw them take the trophy and gold medals home. The KNES PE department would like to thank everyone involved for their tremendous efforts which made for a hugely successful sports day.

25 25 PET PALACE people & their pets Look out for the Arab Times series, the Pet Palace, and read about how people and their animals enrich each other s lives. The Palace welcomes submissions by our readers. If you d like to tell the world about your pet, send us a photograph and accompanying article for publication. Editor This undated photo released by Georgia Department of Public Safety, Tek a police dog working with state trooper Jordan Ennis and puppies are seen. Ennis found the puppies while patrolling a southwest Atlanta subdivision. (AP) JERSEY CITY, NJ, March 20, (AP): A New Jersey woman has been reunited with her beloved pet dog that skipped out of her apartment six months ago. Tanya Flowers told The Jersey Journal that she spent days handing out hundreds of fliers and contacting animal shelters after her year-old Maltese named Paris vanished last September. The Jersey City woman feared she wouldn t see the dog again. But just over a week ago, a New York City shelter called to tell her that Paris had been found. I wasn t sure if this was a joke or not, because I had received numerous prank phone calls from the fliers I had put up, Flowers said. Paris supposedly was found walking the streets in North Bergen four months ago, Flowers said. A man who spotted her took her in, but then decided he could no longer care for her and took her to his mother s home in Staten Island. The mother took the dog to a veterinarian, who discovered a microchip that linked Paris to Flowers. She said she couldn t be happier to have her baby back home. When I walked up to the door in Staten Island and saw my dog, I just started screaming, Flowers said. She said Paris immediately began barking and licking her face. CINCINNATI: The Cincinnati Zoo has called again on a canine to play the role of nanny for other animals babies. The latest assignment for Blakely the Australian shepherd is to be a companion for three Malayan tiger cubs. Their mother s maternal instincts didn t kick in after their Feb 3 birth, and zoo staffers have been caring for them. The 6-year-old male dog provides snuggling, warmth and a climbable body. Dawn Strasser, head of the Cincinnati Zoo s nursery staff, says Blakely serves as the adult in the room, teaching them behaviors such as checking them when they get too rough or aggressive. The cubs are expected to move into the zoo s Cat Canyon this summer. Blakely has helped raise baby cheetahs, wallabies, bat-eared foxes, and an ocelot, among other young animals. WASHINGTON: A pet food company is recalling several lots of dog food because it may be contaminated with a euthanasia drug. Evanger s Dog Food says it s voluntarily recalling five lots of its Hunk of Beef product that may include pentobarbital in an abundance of caution. The food was distributed to retail locations and sold online in 15 states. The company says pentobarbital was discovered in a single lot of the food, but it s recalling all lots manufactured the same week of June 6, Five dogs got sick and one died after consuming the recalled beef. Illinois-based Evanger s is blaming one of its suppliers for the pentobarbital and says it is no longer working with them. NEW YORK: A dog that was rescued from Asia has been rescued a second time after it ran away from its handler in New York City during the middle of this week s snowstorm. Tiffany Lacey, executive director of the Animal Haven in Manhattan s Soho neighborhood, says Pandy the 4-year-old mixedbreed was being walked Tuesday when she got spooked and bolted. Rescue shelter volunteers gave chase but Pandy got away. The dog ran about 40 blocks to the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel, where she was in danger of being hit by traffic. Kuwait A general view of a cloudy day in Kuwait City. (Mustafa Al-Bader KUNA) New Look Natural phenomena, wonders of heavens fascinated him Dr Saleh Al Aujairi, a pioneer of astronomy in Kuwait This is the first in a series of articles on Dr Saleh Mohammed Al Aujairi (1921), the first Kuwaiti astronomer. Editor By Lidia Qattan Special to the Arab Times Society advances on the realization of the dreams of others. Saleh s dream was to awaken an interest in astronomy in his country, he succeeded through constant labor, study and determination in fulfilling a dream that was born in his childhood and developed into a passion that completely dominated his life. In 1921, Saleh Mohammad Al Aujairi was born in the Kebla district of old Kuwait Town, a peaceful place at that time, with no electricity or cars polluting the air or the night sky. When it was too hot to sleep indoors, people slept on the terrace of their humble houses under the starry sky. Hence the first thing Saleh saw in opening his eyes was the wonder of creation itself the myriads of twinkling stars smiling down at him, filling him with the impulses that has given to the world the poetry, the romance and the philosophy of Arabia, imbuing him with the inquiry of the scientist, the afflatus of the poet and the imagination of the dreamer and the gift of analytical thought. Saleh fell in love with those stars ever since he could remember, from the terrace of his house he could stay endlessly gazing at the sky till he fell asleep. When he grew a little older and began to familiarize with his surroundings, the charm of the heaves sank deep into his soul, ruled his life and shaped his mental disposition forever. Saleh bathed in the glorious infinity of the heavens, speculating and drawing his conclusions, noting them down from his late school days when he became more knowledgeable in mathematics and astronomy. The knowledge as he could obtain from books, Saleh added a quick mind and stinging wits. Perhaps because of his strong fantasy in his early childhood he was terrified of natural phenomena. The blinding flash of lightning across the stormy sky, followed by the deafening crash of thunder; the ominous night with its strange, screeching sounds echoing from far and near; the wail of the wind sounding like a moaning, all that made a ghastly impression on his vivid mind. In spite of his parents were striving to convince him that they were all normal seasonal reoccurrences and there was nothing evil or terrible about them. Saleh had to be convinced in his own way to feel reassured. Saleh Mohammed Al Aujairi, as most children of his time, was born in frugal family surrounding. His father, Mohammed Saleh, was a government employee, a hard working and gentle soul, very fond of learning. In 1922 he opened a private school to teach children, but after ten years, when his wife died he had to close it down Saleh got his first education in the school of his father, and then he continued with a private teacher. He was 12 years old when his mother died (1933) and suddenly he found himself in charge of his four younger brothers, because his Lidia Qattan father was too busy in his job to look after them. The loss of his mother was a great shock to Saleh; grief combined to his new responsibility was driving him over the edge of his endurance, causing his attitude to change almost overnight. While his mother was alive, his life was a carefree experience; her demise turned his world into flat-sober reality he was compelled to cope with. Vexed by tormenting thoughts, his old fears of childhood returned to torment him. He became gloomy and increasingly restless. Dark, tumultuous thoughts were rumbling and bellowing in his mind, evoking depressing feelings from which he was trying to escape. When in 1936 the education department was founded and the school curriculum was completely revised, in 1937 Saleh entered the Mubarakia School where he was taught Arabic, math, jurisprudence, the principle of the English language, and accountancy. Of all the subjects, math was his favorite. From early school days he could solve problems and carry out calculations with a speed that amazed his teachers and fellow students; he also loved Arabic literature and was quite fond of poetry. Incidentally it was soon after he entered the Mubarakia that he regained his old cheerfulness and optimism and emerged from his crisis brighter than ever, through the liberating power of self expression that turned grief into humor. The metamorphosis from a diligent well disciplined young fellow into a hilarious practical joker was startling. Saleh became so notorious for his jokes and stinging wits, that many of them are still remembered by the students and teachers of his days. His popularity evoked the interest of an Art teacher, who offered him a part in a school play. In 1938 Saleh made his debut on stage; he was so natural in his acting that he was made a permanent member of the acting group, in which the female role was often assigned to him. For Saleh acting was a new experience that distracted him from his perturbing thoughts; it engaged his restless spirit in a more creative Dr Saleh Al Aujairi and rewarding activity that gave him satisfaction and a new purpose. Acting nurtured his intuitive power and kindled latent potentials for expressing his creative imagination. From school plays, Saleh graduated to the public stage, which at the time consisted of improvised light drama, quite suited to his quick mentality. On stage Saleh could be himself entirely, playing roles that embodied the basis of common human nature, molded into a true experience. Those were popular plays to which the people eagerly attended because they were full of candid humor and humanity. Though the setting was a crude affair- a simple platform with a naked bulb hanging overhead to light the place, and there was no script for actors to follow, each performance was a hit. Drama was a novelty in town, whose witty remarks on daily issues, not only made people roaring with laughter, it also prone them to think. The plot of the play was simple but it was brought forth in a fit of outstanding creativity, as each actor improvised his dialogue harmoniously correlated to his companion s dialogue to lend substance and meaning to the whole play. Art is born of enthusiasm and flourishes according to public reaction. There were very few entertainments in Kuwait in those frugal days; folklore music and dances were the only distraction for people to enjoy. When the first stage works appeared, people flocked to see them, not only because of the novelty, but mainly because they could relate to the plot, which was so well adapted to their natural perceptions that they could easily be moved and entertained. Actors in the frugal old days, when drama had not yet developed into an art, did not need to search far and wide for their material; they chose their subject-matter from all around them: in the life of the day soaring towards new objectives. As in all changing conditions of life, the more alert individuals were quick to take the lead, while those lagging behind were left to puzzle and wonder, or criticize and condemn what they could not understand. The concrete, tangible presentation of a reality is always more easily appreciated than the abstract one; the plays of those days were living example of a society on the verge of transition, whose humanity, when enacted in a play, became at once an inspiring and delightful experience. Actors then were not performing merely to amuse people. Their play was like a ship freighted with a spiritual cargo, it rested on the ability and ingenuity of each actor to enhance the value of the whole performance. The pioneers were so gifted and natural that their popularity testified to their success. To be continued

26 26 Most robust and reliable light commercial vehicle Renault Al Babtain launches attractive offer on Dokker Van KUWAIT CITY, March 20: Abdulmohsen Abdulaziz Al Babtain Company (AABC), the authorized dealer of Renault vehicles in the State of Kuwait is still offering its customers an attractive offer on the Renault Dokker Van, the most robust and reliable light commercial vehicle available in its segment. You can lease the Renault Dokker Van for 99 KD monthly without any down payment, or purchase it for 2,999 Kuwaiti Dinars only. The offer includes a 5 year warranty or 200,000 km, free registration and 3rd party insurance upon the purchase of the Renault Dokker Van. Aimed towards small business owners, the Renault Dokker Van is a modern and an efficient transportation solution with an innate sense of practicality and versatility. It offers a Sherazade to perform in Kuwait Held by the Institut Français and the French Embassy in Kuwait, Sherazade and five French musicians who have travelled around the world, will offer us new sound textures, sometimes urban-electric, sometimes tasty-mystical. Sherazade has experienced mixed cultures; her songs are vibrant and sensual. Based in Caen, Normandy, she belongs to the family of click A flyer of the event these unclassifiable and cosmopolitan artists who develop a unique musical style and woven new sound texture, sometimes savorymystical, between electronic music, oriental influences and blues. The texts, performed in French and Arabic, are much more than an invitation to travel. Audacious, sincere, they resonate in us by their universal aroma. Only at Millennium Hotel Lamar celebrates unforgettable Seafood Night every Thursday KUWAIT CITY, March 20: Millennium Hotel & Convention Center Kuwait is welcoming its guests at Lamar International Restaurant - one of most prestigious buffets in the city to celebrate its famous Sea Food Night every Thursday evening from 7:30 to 11:30 pm. The restaurant will be serving a wide range of oriental and international seafood dishes for visitors to have a great weekend break with Lamar s upscale ambiance and excellent cuisine. Area General Manager of Millennium and Copthorne Hotels Kuwait Dani Saleh, Said: As part of our commitment to maintaining the highest standards of hospitality, we now invite our guests to a spectacular seafood festival at Lamar International Restaurant, where they are sure to enjoy our extraordinary selection of mouthwatering lobsters, prawns, mussels and oysters of all kinds. Lamar s premium quality seafood buffet also includes an assortment of delicious appetizers, salads and sauces. Lamar s talented chefs will also be preparing the tastiest and most flavorsome seafood dishes in front of their guests at a fascinating live cooking station, where they can choose to add from the varied selection of spices and toppings to offer for a more unique dining experience. Millennium Hotel & Convention Centre is one of the grandest emerging 5-star quality business hotels in the country strategically located on the 4th Latest Continued from Page 22 and long loose clothing (available at the mosque). Foods and drinks are not allowed inside the prayer halls. For school visits, teachers are responsible for their students and are required to cooperate with the staff members of the Grand Mosque. Photography is allowed inside the Grand Mosque (please note that disrespectful poses are strictly prohibited). If you would like to book a tour, please contact us: Tel: / / gmvisits@gmail.com Fax: Chinese Embassy notice: Please be noted that effective starting today, the ring road in the heart of Al-Salmiya area, close to the main shopping malls, dining and entertainment spots around the block. It is also home to business conferences and trade exhibitions with varying capacities. The hotel is designed for business and leisure travelers, offering 295 rooms and suites equipped with state-of-the-art technology, complimentary high speed Wi-Fi and luxury amenities. Millennium Hotel facilities also include a health club with modern Techno-gym brand machines, an outdoor swimming pool, and sauna/steam rooms. The hotel s integrated business center offers secretarial services and comprehensive office facilities. With 3 different cuisines and a pool bar, guests are spoiled for choice when it comes to dining in the hotel s worldclass restaurants. photo used in a Chinese visa application must meet the requirements (For details, please visit the website of Chinese embassy eng/). Application with non-compliant photos will not be processed. Thank you for your attention and cooperation. IEI Kuwait Chapter membership: The Institution of Engineers (India), Kuwait chapter invites all its members to update their membership information for the year and actively participate in the chapter activities. Indian engineers residing in Kuwait are welcome to join the pool of more than 700,000 engineers by becoming corporate or noncorporate members of The Institution of Engineers (India). IEI, Kuwait Chapter conducts many technical events for the benefit of its members. Please watch for the upcoming events in your registered or announcement in the media. The chapter has science club activities for member s children, and ladies wing activities for the member s family. IEI, Kuwait chapter has facility to register student members for AMIE Continued on Page 27 Service provides end-to-end IT solutions FASTtelco unveils state-of-the-art data center KUWAIT CITY, March 20: FASTtelco, a company owned by Ooredoo Kuwait, launched a fully equipped state-of-the-art data center. The announcement comes to further reiterate FASTtelco s commitment to being one of the leading companies in information technology solutions, and the company of choice for prospective clients searching for ICT solutions, catering especially for the needs of corporates and businesses. FASTtelco will provide a suite of managed hosting services tailor-made to fit corporate and business needs. These services are ideal for corporates and businesses looking to better manage their data, platforms and applications. The new data center provides end-to-end IT solutions to customers in various sectors including financial, healthcare, media, e-commerce, educational and governmental. The center is fully equipped to deliver an exceptional experience in services and solutions like managed CPE, cloud services, NOC and operations, data center consultancy, and much more. This is especially important today, where businesses are faced with growing challenges to respond efficiently to new digital trends in IT, security and control. FASTtelco strives to be the trustworthy choice among its growing customers as it continually transforms its services to meet the needs of the digital world, ensuring peace of mind with end-to-end solutions and 24/7 NOC, in addition to opportunities for scalability and maximum return of investment. FASTtelco recently announced its new identity earlier this month, adopting a refreshed look with vibrant colors and a new design. The move comes to change the ISP s market by introducing innovative products and plans that fulfil customers growing needs through technology. FASTtelco was recently acquired by Ooredoo Kuwait, a member of the international Ooredoo Group, in a move to bolster the telecom service provider s presence in the Kuwaiti market. FASTtelco products can be purchased via FASTtelco s authorized resellers, or on FASTtelco s website For queries, FASTtelco s 24/7 call center can be reached on Exclusive privilege Burgan Bank offers concierge services KUWAIT CITY, March 20: Burgan Bank, the second largest conventional bank in terms of assets, recently announced its offering of free concierge services to its Premier customers. The services, in which the bank offers, are in collaboration with Qiblah Concierge ; a professional concierge service in Kuwait. Premier customers will be able to avail services from a selected list of more than 20 services. Concierge services offer Premier Customers the opportunity to gain first hand access to planning and assistance services. Through this service, Consumers are able to delegate some of their tasks to professional service providers, who will help with travel arrangements, airport transfers, visa applications, travel insurance, home maintenance, themed party planners, valet parkers, movers & packers, gift purchasing, courier service, tickets to major events, payment of school fees, car registrations, car service, traffic fine payment, car wash, limos for occasions, regular cleaners, restaurant reservations and flower deliveries. Burgan Bank has introduced the freeof-charge concierge services as part of its wide range of privileges and benefits designated especially for its Premier customers, with the aim of enhancing their banking experience and supporting their needs on every level. For more information about Premier Banking, customers are to visit their nearest Burgan Bank branch or contact the call center on , or visit the bank s website on www. burgan.com. Renault Dokker Van ABK s Taste of Q8 sponsorship a big success Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait (ABK) successfully concluded the sponsorship of the Taste of Q8 food festival for the third consecutive year, which was held at the Boulevard Salmiya Crescent from March 16-18, ABK gave away three ABK Emirates Visa Gold Prepaid Travel cards worth KD 100 each, during a raffle draw that was held at the event. The three-day food festival celebrated Kuwait s great culinary diversity and offered visitors the opportunity to experience many different cuisines from local restaurants, bakers and gourmet grocers, and enjoy live First route to Georgia Air Arabia Jordan announces route to Tbilisi AMMAN, Jordan, March 20: Air Arabia Jordan, the Kingdom s leading low-cost carrier (LCC), announced today the launch of a new route to Tbilisi from Amman, becoming the first regular flight to directly link Jordan with Georgia. Tbilisi caters to travellers who are eager to discover the crossroads between Europe and Asia. The launch of this service will amplify the number of tourists in Jordan, and contribute to strengthening the trade and bilateral relations between both nations. The bi-weekly flight is scheduled to start operation on April 6, 2017 every Monday and Thursday departing Amman International Airport at 03:35, and arriving at the Shota Rustaveli Tbilisi International Airport at 07:15 local time. The return flight will leave Tbilisi at 08:05, reaching Amman at Othman Tawfiqi and Adwan Al Adwani with guests during the food festival. A photo from the event KIB visits Al Ehssan as part of its CSR program Air Arabia plane 1.6L engine and the best load volume in its category with a carrying payload of 750 KG assisted with sliding doors and two asymmetrical rear doors, a loading capacity of 3.3m 3 and a loading length of 1.9m; swiftly meeting the challenges of transport and delivery. The Renault Dokker Van is known to evolve with time. Its economic engine, low C02 emissions and respect for both environment and customers budget make it a truly model employee. The body design and proportions reflect generous interior space and a range of accessories to match the different needs of drivers. The Renault Dokker proved its continuous support to its partners in the business environment. You can use this chance and buy the Dokker from Renault Al-Babtain store in Al Rai. cooking demonstrations presented by renowned celebrity chefs. The event also featured live entertainment and activities for kids. The Bank was pleased to take part in this exciting event that aims to keep Kuwait s culture alive and support local talents, while bringing together the Kuwaiti community in the midst of an upbeat and positive ambiance. For more information about Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait please visit eahli.com or contact a customer service agent via Ahlan Ahli at In line with the Bank s student-focused social responsibility program, a team from the Corporate Communications Unit at Kuwait International Bank (KIB) recently organized a visit to Al Ehssan School. The visit aimed to instill in students the values of savings and spread financial literacy within schools in Kuwait. Within this context, Fahad Al-Sarhan, Team Leader of Corporate Communications at KIB, stated: This visit is a great example of the Bank s significant role within the community and is one of the many visits KIB is planning throughout this year. We are very keen on engaging with the different segments in the community, particularly with students. For that reason, we consider these visits as opportunities to introduce students to savings skills from a young age, believing that they are the foundation on which we can build this country s future. KIB has always been dedicated to supporting the education sector. Through its leading social responsibility program, the Bank supports cultural initiatives and student-organized activities that aim to nurture youth and further their knowledge. KIB believes students to be the key for the development of the community. 10:00 local time. Tbilisi serves a wider, more culturally-enthusiastic market in the Levant region. This service will introduce a new market to Jordan, and will support the Kingdom s economic and tourism growth, said Adel Al Ali, Group Chief Executive Officer of Air Arabia. We are proud to announce this service for our Jordan-based passengers and confident that they will enjoy our value for money and awardwinning service. Filled with rich history, architecture and culture, Georgia s capital stretches in a narrow strip on both banks of the Kura. Through its cobblestoned pathways, old town Tbilisi hosts an array of ornate art in its original architecture and structures which reflect the city s past influenced by both Persian and Russian rule. The modern city harmoniously combines antique and contemporary features among the vast nature with its winding streets that run around the mountain ridges. Air Arabia Jordan started operations in 2015 and currently operates from Amman s Queen Alia International Airport serving various destinations across the Middle East and North Africa.

27 27 h o r o s c o p e By Jacqueline Bigar Happy birthday for Tuesday, March 21, 2017: This year you often feel tense and conflicted. Determining the source of such distress might be difficult at times. Tap into your inner strength more frequently. If you are single, you find that you tend to be conflicted about your feelings for someone before you date him or her. Live in the moment, and you will know what to do. If you are attached, the two of you often have different points of view. Understand and respect each other s differences. CAPRICORN is firm and as strong-willed as you are. The Stars Show the Kind of Day You ll Have: 5-Dynamic; 4-Positive; 3-Average; 2-So-so; 1-Difficult Capricorn - (Dec 22 - Jan 19) **** Your ability to create better situations and to wield power emerges. Though someone close to you might attempt to block you, ultimately it will not work. A matter involving your home could be much more charged than you realize. Tonight: Whatever makes you happy. Aquarius - (Jan 20 - Feb 18) *** Know when to pull back. A verbal disagreement won t serve you well. In fact, the less said the better. Claim your power, and don t allow others to interfere in your life. Schedule a mini retreat ASAP, even if just for a few hours. You ll need it. Tonight: Do little for now. Pisces - (Feb 19 - Mar 20) *** Zero in on what you want, and don t allow the uproar around you to determine your direction. There is a financial matter that needs to be dealt with, so make some time in the near future. Know that you will need some time to go over it. Tonight: At a favorite haunt.. Aries - (Mar 21 - Apr 19) **** You might be on top of your game, but the rules seem to be changing right in front of you. Listen to your instincts, especially with matters involving a public commitment. You might not be as clear-headed as you think. Confirm meetings. Tonight: Burn the candle at both ends. Taurus - (Apr 20 - May 20) ***** Reach out to someone you care about. Discussions between you are likely to open up several doors. A friend plays a big role in what is happening, as he or she helps you achieve your goals. Clear up a misunderstanding before it worsens. Tonight: Feed your mind some candy! Gemini - (May 21 - June 20) **** One-on-one relating will be instrumental in making your day successful. A partner might be controlling because he or she is determined to get his or her way. A friend pushes you hard and might incite some anger. Back off, if need be. Tonight: Be with a favorite person. Cancer - (June 21 - July 22) **** You will want to defer to a partner or strong friend. A boss or someone older could become irritated at the drop of a hat. Try to take in the long-term implications of what is going on. Curb a tendency to go overboard. Tonight: Go along someone else s suggestion. Leo - (July 23 - Aug 22) *** You are focused on getting the job done. You could find it difficult to remain caring, as you need to concentrate on other matters. News from a distance is likely to trigger a discussion. Understand that not everyone will agree, but that s OK. Tonight: Get some extra R and R. Virgo - (Aug 23 - Sept 22): **** Hassles are likely to appear, but you know you can manage them. Count on doing just that. You ll want to schedule some time for a creative project with a loved one. Honor others serious moods, but refuse to get involved in the story behind them. Tonight: Be naughty and nice. Libra - (Sept 23 - Oct 22) **** A friend could be quite stubborn about getting what he or she wants. You might want to resist this person s requests, but ultimately you understand that you ll need to work with him or her. A partner will get a lot done and quickly at that. Tonight: Your home is your castle. Scorpio - (Oct 23 - Nov 21) *** You need to say and do what you want. However, you might hit an obstacle along the way. Your imagination emerges just in time to help you solve problems. Your creativity peaks, and you ll have a strong drive to see a loved one. Tonight: Catch up on news over dinner. Sagittarius - (Nov 22 - Dec 21) *** Be aware of the ramifications of proceeding as you have been. You could be tired of getting a lot of pressure from others about money matters. Be creative in how you terminate a discussion. Remember, you do not want any hurt feelings. Tonight: Listen to a roommate. Born today: Comedian Rosie O Donnell (1962), architect Albert Kahn (1869), painter Hans Hofmann (1880) home decor indoor gardening beauty tips taste buds circular sensation cuban oregano get rid of neck wrinkles chocolate cocoa brownies Kick up your walls with curvy circles. Arrange circular pieces on a wall, starting with the object you want to be in the middle. From there, build out your arrangement, ensuring that each piece touches an adjacent piece. This wall-art installment features a mix of round mirrors and painted embroidery hoops, some of which have fabric stretched inside of them. A big-leafed plant with a distinct spicy aroma, Cuban oregano is an easy-to-grow relative of Swedish ivy. (Interestingly, neither plant is native to the locations from where they get their common names.) You can cook with the fleshy, fuzzy green leaves or just brush them to release their scent. What it needs: Cuban oregano does best in a medium to bright spot with protection from drafts. Water it enough to keep the soil evenly moist, but not saturated for extended periods. Test garden tip: Cuttings from this plant root easily in potting mix, so it s easy to propagate and share with friends. Take an apple boil in a pan of water. Once it is boiled, mash it and add 1 tsp of honey. Apply the paste on your face and neck. Keep it for about an hour and then rinse off with cold water. Make a pack of mashed ripe banana and olive oil. Apply this on the neck. Wait for about 15 minutes and wash off with plain water. Take 2 tsp of cucumber juice, mixed with one egg white, a few drops of lemon juice, and a few drops of Vitamin E oil. Apply this mixture on your face and neck. Leave it on for about minutes, then wash with warm water. Beat the yolk of an egg with a little olive oil and spread it evenly over the face and neck. Keep it on for 15 minutes and rinse off with lukewarm water. Ingredients: 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup cocoa, 1 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla, 2/3 cup flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 cup walnuts or 1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional) Directions: Preheat oven to 350. Melt butter in sauce pan. When melted remove from heat. Add cocoa and stir well. Add sugar, eggs and vanilla. Mix until shiny and smooth. Add flour, baking powder and salt. Mix well. Add choc chips or walnuts if desired. Pour into an 8 inch or 9 inch pan. Bake for minutes. Do not over bake. Look for edges slightly pulling away from pan. Cool and cut. Dear Abby Wedding can wait until man finds job By Abigail Van Buren Dear Abby: My fiance and I have been engaged for two years. Our wedding is set for a year from now. I m thinking about calling off our wedding, not because I don t love him, or because I don t want to spend the rest of my life with him. I know I want that. It s because I m the only one with a decent job. He has a job, but doesn t earn enough to support us. I can t be the only one earning an income. How are we supposed to move out of our parents houses and start a life together if I m the one doing everything? What will happen when things need to start getting paid for, and there s no guarantee he ll find something? I have talked to him about it, and he s angry. He knows Abigail Van Buren it s time to change his life around and get serious. Should I keep the date and keep my fingers crossed he ll find a job by then, or postpone our wedding, which has a venue but nothing else planned? I don t need to get married anytime soon, and I d prefer to wait until he can support himself and we are in a better place financially. Then I feel like we could move forward. Am I making the right decision? Cautious in New Jersey Dear cautious: Yes, you are. You are thinking with your head instead of being swept away by your emotions, and I applaud you for it. I have said for many years that before a woman marries she should be able to support herself, in case future circumstances require it. Well, the same is true for a man. Dear Abby: Recently, I rekindled a relationship I had with a guy I was close with many years ago. We have a lot of the same interests. When he asked what it would take for us to be permanent, I asked that he stop smoking pot. He responded that he does it only two or three times a year and that for me to make that request was controlling. I asked him for no other changes. I hate the smell of smoke, and pot is illegal in our state, so I broke it off because he wouldn t agree. Did I do the right thing? Tony in Florida Dear Tony: Yes, because his response to your simple request indicates that any accommodation you asked of him would likely be met with the same reaction. Dear Abby: My 63-year-old husband refuses to cut his hair. It is gray and thinning and is now longer than mine. Even when it s clean it looks dirty. I was raised to take pride in my appearance. If I say anything about it, he thinks it s funny, or the other extreme, that I am picking on him. He s not a rock star or a young lad. Please help. Neat and clean in California Dear neat and clean: I ll try. Your mistake is making his problem (poor grooming) your problem. Continue to take pride in your appearance, and if he prefers to look like an old hippie, let him. Neither you nor I can change him, and because his tresses are thinning, the problem may resolve itself. Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA (Source: Universal Uclick) what s on today emergency Site for checking travel ban click Latest Continued from Page 26 Examination for those interested in pursuing career enrichment. For more information and on chapter membership, kindly contact IEI, Kuwait chapter office on extn. 314 between 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm (Sunday through Thursday) or through to ieikwt@hotmail.com. You may also contact Engr Ashok Kumar ( ) or Engr Karthikeyan ( ) for any further clarification. Share your story with Amricani: Do you or any of your family members, acquaintances or friends happen to have a story with the American Missionary hospital in Kuwait (Mustashfa Lemraicani) during the years from , the official period of offering medical services in Kuwait? Please share with us your story or your memory during those old days by writing the event and sending it to the following address: Mystory@darmuseum.org.kw A flyer of the event. A flyer of the event. Happy birthday Sakeena Tabassum (left). May your birthday and every day be filled with the warmth of sunshine, the happiness of smiles, the sounds of laughter, the feeling of love and the sharing of good cheer. Wishes from Suhana Banu, parents, grandfather, grandmother, uncles and aunt. number 112 Civil ID info: Affordable art exhibition: Dar Al Funoon will showcase Affordable Art Exhibition starting on Monday, March 20, 2017 at 7 pm. The exhibition continues through Sunday, March 26, It is spring time, and it is time to allow the young artists to fl ourish and build their future in the art market. Dar Al Funoon is happy to announce the upcoming exhibition of affordable art. As always, we have selected a variety of works which feature a range of diverse works by young and established artists. We hope you will be able to discover the aspiring artists and enjoy the exhibition. TIES Center events: TIES Center announces following events Tajweed and Recitation: Learn and practice the art of reciting the Holy Quran (tajweed). The instructor will also answer questions related to the meaning of the Arabic words and verses. Every Sunday & 10 11:30am; every 5-6:30pm. The TIES Center is the social and educational hub for English Speaking expats in Kuwait. For more information, please call or info@tiescenter.net or visit IPC Islamic Courses: Say: O my Lord, let me grow in knowledge. IPC is offering Islamic courses in English (for ladies only). Muslims and non-muslims are welcome. 1. Tilawa Surah Ar-Rad and Surah Ibrahim Sundays at 5:30-7:00 pm; 2. Principles of Tafsir (part 2) - Sundays at 7:00-8:30 pm; 3. Tajweed 3 - Tuesday, at 5:30-7:00 pm; 4. Jesus in Surah Mariam (part 2) - Tuesdays at 7:00-8:30 pm. Instructor: Sr Zeinab Hassan Ashry Place: IPC - Women Section Al-Rawdah, Area 3, Street 30, House 12, opp 4th Ring Road. ipc_sch@yahoo.com, Telephone: Redeemed Christian Church: The Redeemed Christian Church of God (HOD Parish) worship in English. Celebration Service: Friday 9 am 11 am; Divine encounter: Sunday, 6:30 pm 8:30 pm; Digging Deep (Bible studies): Tuesday, 6:30 pm 8:30 pm; Night vigil every last Friday of the month from 10 pm. Venue: New Mishref. For more information and direction please call , rccghouseofdavidq8@gmail.com KTCC activities: Worship service every Wednesday 7:00-9:00 pm at North Tent, NECK. Children s Bible School every Wednesday 7 to 9 pm at Activity Building, NECK. Overnight prayer every 1st Thursday from 10 pm 4:00 am at Diwaniya, NECK. Communion Service every 3rd Wednesday. The Following meeting are held at our KTCC Prayer House: Children Bible School Teacher s Prayer 1st Saturday 7 to 9 pm. Bible Study every 2nd and 4th Sunday at 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm. ISOM Batch 1 Class Tuesdays 7 to 9 pm and Batch 2 Class Fridays 4 to 6 pm. Men s Fellowship 4th Friday 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. Women s Prayer (Abbasiya) 3rd Sunday 6:30 to 8:30 pm and (Salmiya) 4th Tuesday 6:30 to 8:30 pm. Welcome to all Tamil known people to participate in our regular activities to worship the Lord in our own mother tongue and be blessed! For details or for any prayer needs contact Tel No: / Notes: 1. Please send your story only to the above mentioned . Story shared in Instagram, Facebook or Twitter will not be considered. 2. Please write your story or memory and sign it with your full name, and your contact number. 3. It will be great if you send us your personal photos or those of the place related to the story (optional). Your story will be part of a new book to be published by DAI. I am confident that your contributions will be an essential part of the history of Amricani. Share with us! March 22 TIES Center lecture: Third Culture Kids: Growing Up Among Cultures. If you or someone you know has spent a significant part of his developmental years outside his parent s culture, or if his parents are from two different cultures, they are a Third Culture Kid (TCK). Join Dr Teresa Lesher to explore some of the advantages and disadvantages of being a TCK and strategies for coping with its challenges. Discussion follows a 30-minute presentation. Wednesday, March 7:00 pm, Villa No 67, Street 413, Block 4, Shuhada Area, Kuwait. Phone: +(965) info@tiescenter.net

28 28 Homeland delivers strongest episode Plot contrivances a strain credibility in Sock Puppets LOS ANGELES, March 20, (RTRS): Homeland delivered its strongest episode of season six to date last week with the paranoia-fueled romp Alt.Truth. This week s installment, Sock Puppets, falls on the other end of the quality spectrum thanks to plot developments that are too hokey to be believed. Claire Danes performance in the opening sequence is the best thing that Sock Puppets, written by Chip Johannessen and Evan Wright and directed by Dan Attias, has to offer. Danes Carrie Mathison is meeting with a psychiatrist-type, an evaluation that is necessary before she can schedule a supervised visit with her daughter, Franny, who was taken away by a New York City child welfare agency a few episodes back. The scene opens as if it s an interrogation room, with Carrie shot from the shoulders up against a dismal-gray background. Eventually the camera pulls back and we see her sitting in a classic shrink-office setting, talking to a man with a salt-and-pepper beard about her intense relationships with both Franny s father and Peter Quinn. It s a remarkably candid moment for Carrie, especially with a stranger. She s open about the fact that at first Franny s red hair was a painful reminder that her daughter s father, Nicholas Brody, is gone in part because Carrie pushed him into a doomed mission in Iran. It s impossible to watch that scene and not think of the shocking moment from season four when Carrie was bathing infant Franny. Downhill After this, sad to say the episode goes downhill. Fast. Dar Adal pulls a double-cross on the Iranian major-general Majid Javadi who pulled a double-cross on Carrie and Saul last week, making them look like fools in front of President-elect Keane. Javadi thinks Adal is going to help him get a wad of cash and safe passage out of the United States so he can get lost somewhere now that he s been outed in his native land as a double-agent. But Adal s real plan is to deliver Javadi to his friends in Mossad who are in league with Adal s effort to convince Keane that Iran is cheating on the nuclear agreement. We re expected to believe that as Javadi is being subdued by Mossad agents in his hotel suite, he has the time to take out his phone, ring up Carrie and shout about how he should have stuck with Carrie and Saul while the Mossad dudes stuff him in a laundry bin. Carrie quickly rings up Saul, who has the call tracked. Carrie and Saul high-tail it to Javadi s hotel suite, where they miraculously find Javadi s phone at the bottom of the laundry bin. The phone conveniently has more video evidence that Iran is not cheating on the deal and that Mossad and the CIA are in on the plot to make it look like Iran is violating the agreement. Somehow, the Mossad agents forgot to take Javadi s phone when they were Couch slouch scooping up their prey. Going from bad to worse, we suddenly cut to Carrie and Saul standing stern-faced in front of Keane, playing the video evidence for the President-elect. This is the same woman who declared last week that she never should have listened to Carrie after Javadi pulled a fast one and lied about Iran s nefarious parallel program in North Korea when Carrie and Saul thought he was going to tell her just the opposite. Invites Keane had just met with Adal to offer a fist-bump and a mea culpa for her doubts about the CIA and Iran s ambition. She tells Adal the whole story of the Carrie-Saul-Javadi farce and Adal acts like it s the first he s heard of it. Keane even invites him to suggest candidates for a tough-on-defense Secretary of State candidate. After all this, Keane barely blinks and now embraces Carrie and Saul s version of events. They also tell her about the Sekou bombing theory, that the delivery van bomb was planted to stir up renewed fears of terrorism to combat her agenda to toning down the post-9/11 police state. Reversing course again, Keane declares Adal to be an obsequious little s and vows to shut down his extracurricular adventures. Meanwhile, Quinn s mental state has deteriorated even further after last week s shootout at the upstate New York cabin where he was stashed by Adal. We find him sitting next to dead Astrid, her body propped up on the couch with a blanket over her as if she s taking a nap. He waits until the local cops are literally busting through the door to hobble his way out to the car to get away. But not before dabbing his finger in Astrid s bloody chest and wiping it on his lip. He heads back into the big city on a mission to confront Adal. When Quinn finds him, Adal sidesteps a bullet in his face by declaring his love for his protege. He gets pistol-whipped instead, and then thanks to an ill-conceived phone call to Burly Knit Cap guy who murdered Astrid Quinn lurches off to find him. Finally, Max the computer genius continues his support of Carrie and Saul s rogue mission by applying for a job at the black box data processing center where the dearly departed FBI Agent Ray Conlin visited before meeting his untimely death several episodes ago. Who comes out to grill Max on his resume and its gaps but the Diet Coke-swilling Brett O Keefe, the conservative firebrand who prepped a fake news assault on President-elect Keane s son that still has yet to surface. It turns out the vague menace at the center is a fake news farm a roomful of partisan Internet trolls clicking away at keyboards to maintain hundreds of fake online personas, aka sock puppets, to push a radical-right political agenda. Max has all the keystroke skills to help them move the goods. It s a creepy place full of stone-faced millennials and a Nurse Ratched-type overseer. tv highlights A flyer of the event. Show makes everyone feel accepted Muppet with autism to be welcomed on Sesame Street NEW YORK, March 20, (AP): Folks on Sesame Street have a way of making everyone feel accepted. That certainly goes for Julia, a Muppet youngster with blazing red hair, bright green eyes and autism. Rather than being treated like an outsider, which too often is the plight of kids on the spectrum, Julia is one of the gang. Look: On this friendliest of streets (actually Studio J at New York s Kaufman Astoria Studios, where Sesame Street lives) Julia is about to play a game with Oscar, Abby and Grover. In this scene being taped for airing next season, these Muppet chums have been challenged to spot objects shaped like squares or circles or triangles. You re lucky, says Abby to Grover. You have Julia on your team, and she is really good at finding shapes! With that, they skedaddle, an exit that calls for the six Muppeteers squatted out of sight below them to scramble accordingly. Joining her pals, Julia (performed by Stacey Gordon) takes off hunting. For more than a year, Julia has existed in print and digital illustrations as the centerpiece of a multifaceted initiative by Sesame Workshop called Sesame Street and Autism: See Amazing in All Children. She has been the subject of a storybook released along with videos, e-books, an app and website. The goal is to promote a better understanding of what the Autism Speaks advocacy group describes as a range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication, as well as by unique strengths and differences. But now Julia has been brought to life in fine Muppet fettle. She makes her TV debut on Sesame Street in the Meet Julia episode airing April 10 on both PBS and HBO. Additional videos featuring Julia will be available online. Developing Julia and all the other components of this campaign has required years of consultation with organizations, experts and families within the autism community, according to Jeanette Betancourt, Sesame Workshop s senior vice president of US Social Impact. Promote In the US, one in 68 children is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, she says. We wanted to promote a better understanding and reduce the stigma often found around these children. We re modeling the way both children and adults can look at autism from a strength-based perspective: finding things that all children share. Julia is at the heart of this effort. But while she represents the full range of children on the spectrum, she isn t meant to typify each one of them: Just as we look at all children as being unique, we should do the same thing when we re looking at children with autism, Betancourt says. It was with keen interest that Stacey Gordon first learned of Julia more than a year ago. I said, If she s ever a puppet, I want A flyer of the event. to BE Julia! No wonder. Gordon is a Phoenix-based puppeteer who performs, conducts classes and workshops, and creates whimsical puppets for sale to the public. She also has a son with autism, and, before she started her family, was a therapist to youngsters on the spectrum. Although she figured her chances of landing the dream role of Julia were nil, her contacts in the puppet world paid off: Two friends who worked as Muppeteers on Sesame Street dropped her name to the producers. After submitting tapes, then coming to New York for an audition, she was hired. In the introductory segment, Julia is having fun with Abby and Elmo when Big Bird walks up. He wants to be her new friend, but she doesn t speak to him. He thinks she doesn t like him. She does things just a little differently, in a Julia sort of way, Abby informs him. Julia, chuckling, then displays a differentbut-fun way of playing tag, and everyone joins in. But when a siren wails, she covers her ears and looks stricken. She needs to take a break, Big Bird s human friend Alan calmly explains. Soon, all is well and play resumes. The Meet Julia episode is something that I wish my son s friends had been able to see when they were small, says Gordon. I remember him having meltdowns and his classmates not understanding how to react. Cinema Cinema programme from Thursday 16/03/2017 to Wednesday 22/03/2017 Beauty And The Beast Sharqia 1 12:00 (No Fri) 14:30, 17:00 Sharqia 2 13:30, 16:00, 18:30, 21:00, 23:30 Muhalab 2 12:30 (No Fri) 15:00, 17:30 Muhalab 3 11:30 (No Fri) 14:00, 16:30, 19:00, 21:30, 00:05 Fanar 3 18:30, 21:00, 23:30 Fanar 4 12:00 (No Fri) 14:30, 17:00, 19:30, 22:00, 00:30 Marina 1 13:00 (No Fri) 15:30 Marina 3 11:30 (No Fri) 14:00, 16:30, 19:00, 21:30, 00:05 Avenues 2 14:00, 16:30, 19:00, 21:45 Avenues 5 13:00 (No Fri) 15:45 (No Fri, Sat, Sun) 16:00 (Fri) 18:30 (No Thu, Fri, Mon) 21:15, 00:05 Avenues 9 13:45, 16:30, 19:15, 22:00, 00:45 Avenues 11 12:30 (No Fri) 15:15, 18:00, 20:45, 23: :30, 16:15, 19:00, 21:45, 00: :45 (No Fri) 14:15, 17:00, 19:45, 22: :00 (No Fri) 14:45, 20:15, 23:00 17:30 (No Tue) :30 (No Fri) 15:15, 18:00, 20:45, 23: :00 (No Fri) 15:45, 18:30, 21:15 Al-Kout 1 11:30 (No Fri) 14:00, 16:30, 19:00, 21:30, 00:05 Al-Kout 2 12:00 (No Fri) 15:00, 17:30 Bairaq 1 13:00 (No Fri, Sat) 15:30, 18:00, 20:30, 23:00 Bairaq 3 12:00 (No Fri) 14:30, 17:00, 19:30 Laila 15:15, 17:45, 20:15 Ajial 3 17:00, 19:30, 22:00 (Thu) Ajial 4 16:30 (No Thu) Grand Hamra 5 14:45, 17:15 Grand Hamra 6 14:30, 17:30, 20:00, 22:30 01:00 (Thu, Fri) Grand Gate 1 14:30, 17:00, 19:30, 22:00 00:30 (Thu, Fri) Grand Gate GC 15:00, 17:30, 20:00, 22:30 01:00 (Thu, Fri) Kong: Skull Island Sharqia 1 19:30, 22:00, 00:30 Muhalab 1 13:45, 16:15, 18:45, 21:15, 23:45 Fanar 3 13:30, 16:00 Fanar 5 Marina 2 Avenues 2 Avenues 4 Avenues 6 12:15 (No Fri) 14:45, 17:15, 19:45, 22:15, 00:45 11:45 (No Fri) 14:15, 16:45, 19:15, 21:45, 00:05 11:30 (No Fri) 00:30 12:00 (No Fri) 14:30 17:00, 19:30 (No Thu) 11:30 (No Fri) 14:00, 16:30, 19:00, 21:30, 00: :30 (No Fri) 14:00, 16:30, 19:00, 21:30, 00: :30, 16:00, 18:30, 21: :15 (No Fri) 15:00, 17:30, 20:00, 22:30, 01: :05 Al-Kout 3 Bairaq 2 12:00 (No Fri) 14:30, 17:00, 19:30, 22:00 11:45 (No Fri) 14:15, 16:45, 21:00, 23:30 Laila 22:45 Grand Hamra 3 14:15, 17:00, 19:30, 22:00 Grand Hamra 5 19:45, 22:30 00:45 (Thu, Fri) Grand Gate 2 14:15, 16:45, 19:15, 21:45 00:15 (Thu, Fri) Vengeance: A Love Story Sharqia 2 11:30 (No Fri) Sharqia 3 14:45, 20:45, 00:45 Fanar 1 11:45 (No Fri) 13:45, 15:45, 17:45, 00:05 Avenues 1 11:45 (No Fri) 13:45, 15:45, 17:45, 19:45, 21;45, 23: :30 (No Fri) :45 (No Fri) 14:45, 16:45, 18:45, 20:45, 22:45, 00: :15 Al-Kout 3 00:30 Al-Kout 4 12:45 (No Fri) 14:45, 16:45, 23:00 Grand Hamra 4 14:15, 16:15, 18:15, 20:15, 22:15 Grand Gate 7 14:15, 16:15 Sleepless Sharqia 3 12:45 (No Fri) 16:45, 18:45, 22:45 Muhalab 1 11:45 (No Fri) Muhalab 2 20:00, 22:15, 00:15 Fanar 2 12:15 (No Fri) 14:15, 16:15, 18:15, 20:15, 22:15, 00:15 Marina 1 13:30 (Fri) 18:00, 20:00, 00:45 Avenues 3 12:45 (No Fri) 14:45, 16:45, 18:45, 20:45, 22:45, 00:45 Avenues 4 22:00, 00:15 Avenues 9 11:30 (No Fri) :30 (No Fri) 23: :45 (No Fri) 13:45, 15:45, 17:45, 19:45, 21:45, 23: :45 (Fri, Sat) 16:45, 19:00, 22:45, 00:45 Al-Kout 2 20:00, 22:00, 00:05 Al-Kout 4 01:00 Bairaq 3 22:00, 00:05 Grand Hamra 2 14:00, 16:00, 18:00, 20:00, 22:00 00:00 (Thu, Fri) Grand Hamra GC 15:00, 17:30, 20:00, 22:30 01:00 (Thu, Fri) Grand Gate 5 14:30, 16:30, 18:30, 20:30, 22:30 Hamah (Kuwaiti Film) Fanar 1 19:45 Avenues 7 12:30 (No Fri) 14:15, 16:00, 17:45, 19:30, 21:15, 22:45, 00: :15 (No Fri) 13:30 (Fri) 15:00, 16:45, 18:30, 20:15, 22:00, 23:45 Al-Kout 4 18:45 Bairaq 2 19:15 Grand Hamra 8 15:30, 17:45, 19:15, 21:00 23:00 (Thu, Fri) Don t Knock Twice Grand Hamra 7 14:30, 16:30, 18:45, 21:30 Grand Gate 3 14:45, 17:00, 19:00, 21:00, 23:00 Logan Fanar 1 21:15 Marina 1 22:00 Avenues 8 00:05 Avenues 10 How to find us 12:15 (No Fri) 15:00, 17:45, 20:30, 23: :15 (No Fri, Sat) 16:00, 18:45, 21:30, 00: :00 (No Fri) 14:45 Al-Kout 4 20:15 Grand Hamra 1 14:00, 16:45, 19:30, 22:15 Grand Gate 7 18:15, 21:00 23:45 (Thu, Fri) The Lego Batman Movie Grand Gate 6 14:00, 16:00, 18:00 A United Kingdom Avenues 8 12:00, 14:15, 16:30 (No Fri) 13:30 (Fri) 21: :30, 19:45, 22:15, 00:30 Rings Zahra a Area, South Surra, 6th Ring Road, corner of King Faisal Highway 2. Ajial Ajial Complex, Fahaheel 3. Al Bairaq Between Jaber Al Ali East & Al Agalia West 4. Al Fanar Al Fanar Complex, Salem Al Mubarak Street, near Sultan Center, Salmiya 5. Al Kout Al-Kout Complex, at the end of the Coastal Road, Fahaheel 6. Al Muhalab Al Muhalab Complex, Behind Hawally Clinic, Hawally 7. Al Sharqiya Arabian Gulf Street, Souq Sharq, near the Amiri Hospital 8. Laila Gallery Salem Al Mubarak Street, near Sultan Center, Salmiya 9. Marina Marina Mall, Between Salem Al Mubarak Street & Arabian Gulf Street, Salmiya 10. Metro Metro Complex, Farwaniya, near Crowne Plaza Hotel & Farwaniya Garden 11. Plaza Salem Al Mubarak Street, near Sultan Center, Salmiya 12. The Avenues The Avenues Mall, Al Reggai near Al Rai, 5th Ring Road & Ghazali Road Intersection NB: Friday no show before 1:30 pm Regular show KD3:000; 3D-Digital KD3.500; VIP show KD On Monday, price is KD1.500 except Digital movies. Cinescape cinema movies inquiries and Fax Back hotline The Scientific Center IMAX Opp Holiday Inn, Salmiya, Gulf Road 14. Grand Al-Hamra Grand Al-Hamra, tel: , cinemas.com 15. Grand Gate Grand Gate, tel: , Grand Gate 6 20:15, 22:15 Oru Mexican Aparatha (Malayalam Film) Avenues 8 15:45 (Fri) 18: :45 (Fri, Sat) 18:45 Plaza 15:30 (No Fri, Sat) 18:30, 21:30 Ajial 1 15:30, 18:30, 21:30 Kung-Fu Yoga Grand Gate 8 14:00, 16:15, 18:30, 20:45, 23:00 Kikoriki, Legend Of The Golden Dragon :00 (Sat) 14:00 (Fri, Sat) Bairaq 1 13:45 (Fri, Sat) John Wick: Chapter :30 (No Thu) 00:45 Badrinath Ki Dulhania (Hindi Film) :00, 21:45 (No Fri, Sat) Ajial 4 16:00 (Thu) 21:45 (No Thu) Alamara (Malayalam Film) :45 (Fri, Sat) Ajial 3 17:00, 19:30, 22:00 (No Thu) The Devil s Dolls :00 Angamaly Diaries (Malayalam Film) Plaza 15:30 (Fri, Sat) Ajial 4 19:00 21:45 (Thu) Machine (Hindi Film) Ajial 2 15:45, 21:00 Trapped (Hindi Film) Ajial 2 18:45 IMAX Imax film programme at The Scientific Center Sunday Showtime Available for Groups 09:30 am Flying Monsters 3D 10:30 am 07:30 pm A Beautiful Planet 3D 11:30 am 06:30 pm, 09:30 pm Journey to Space 3D 12:30 pm Humpback Whales 3D 05:30 pm Kenya: Animal Kingdom 3D 08:30 pm Monday Showtime Available for Groups 09:30 am A Beautiful Planet 3D 10:30 am 05:30 pm, 07:30 pm Humpback Whales 3D 11:30 am 09:30 pm Flying Monsters 3D 12:30 pm, 06:30 pm Journey to Space 3D 08:30 pm Tuesday Showtime Available for Groups 09:30 am Journey to Space 3D 10:30 am Flying Monsters 3D 11:30 am 09:30 pm A Beautiful Planet 3D 12:30 pm, 05:30 pm, 08:30 pm Humpback Whales 3D 06:30 pm Secret Ocean 3D 07:30 pm Wednesday Showtime Available for Groups 09:30 am Flying Monsters 3D 10:30 am 05:30 pm A Beautiful Planet 3D 11:30 am 06:30 pm, 09:30 pm Humpback Whales 3D 12:30 pm Kenya: Animal Kingdom 3D 07:30 pm Journey to Space 3D 08:30 pm Thursday Showtime Available for Groups 09:30 am A Beautiful Planet 3D 10:30 am 07:30 pm Flying Monsters 3D 11:30 am 06:30 pm, 09:30 pm Kenya: Animal Kingdom 3D 12:30 pm Journey to Space 3D 05:30 pm Humpback Whales 3D 08:30 pm Friday A Beautiful Planet 3D 02:30 pm, 06:30 pm, 09:30 pm Journey to Space 3D 03:30 pm Humpback Whales 3D 04:30 pm Secret Ocean 3D 05:30 pm Kenya: Animal Kingdom 3D 07:30 pm Flying Monsters 3D 08:30 pm Saturday Showtime Available for Groups 09:30 am Flying Monsters 3D 10:30 am 05:30 pm, 07:30 pm A Beautiful Planet 3D 11:30 am 03:30 pm, 08:30 pm Journey to Space 3D 12:30 pm, 06:30 pm, 09:30 pm Humpback Whales 3D 01:30 pm Kenya: Animal Kingdom 3D 02:30 pm Secret Ocean 3D 04:30 pm Notes: All films are in Arabic. For English, headsets are available upon request. Film schedule is subject to changes without notice. For information call or visit

29 HEALTH 29 J&J and Bayer s Xarelto cuts recurrence of dangerous blood clots New type 2 diabetes drugs show heart protective quality NEW YORK, March 20, (RTRS): A newer class of type 2 diabetes drugs significantly cut the risk of death and hospitalization for heart failure compared with other medicines for the disease, according to data released on Sunday from a so-called real world study sponsored by AstraZeneca. The drugs, known as SGLT-2 inhibitors, work by removing blood sugar via the urine and include Astra s Farxiga, Jardiance from Eli Lilly and Co and Boehringer Ingelheim, and Invokana from Johnson & Johnson. Jardiance caused a stir in 2015, when a clinical trial conducted to reassure it does not cause heart problems instead showed it reduced the combined risk of hospitalization for heart failure or death from heart failure by 39 percent in high risk patients. The heart benefit has since been incorporated into Jardiance s label. Trials AstraZeneca is conducting its own large clinical trials to determine the heart effect of Farxiga with results expected in But the latest data presented by Dr. Mikhail Kosiborod at the American College of Cardiology scientific meeting in Washington appears to indicate that heart protection is not limited to Jardiance. The fact that the results are remarkably consistent from country to country regardless of which compound predominates, that certainly seems to suggest that it s a class effect, said Kosiborod, a cardiologist from Saint Luke s Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City. He noted that most Americans in the data were taking Invokana, while Farxiga was dominant in Europe. The study, which analyzed data from more than 300,000 type 2 diabetes patients collected from six countries, found the SGLT-2 drugs slashed the combined risk of hospitalization for heart failure and death from any cause by 46 percent. The data was obtained from real-world sources, such as medical records, claims databases and national registers. World Allergy Week to focus on understanding chronic urticaria World Allergy Organisation says there s hope for agony of hives MILWAUKEE, WI, March 20: World Allergy Organization (WAO), together with its member societies around the world, will host World Allergy Week from April 2-8, The theme and educational focus will be: The Agony of Hives What to do when hives and swelling will not go away. Chronic urticaria is defined as episodic or daily hives lasting for at least six weeks and impairing quality of life. To date there is no cure for the disease and suffering can last several years. Too many people with chronic urticaria give up hope when the symptoms don t go away, said Paul Greenberger, MD, of Northwestern University in Chicago. But there is hope for controlling chronic urticaria with the aid of the allergist. During World Allergy Week 2017 experts will provide information to physicians and the general public about the importance of the Most patients were taking Farxiga or Invokana with less than 10 percent on Jardiance. The comparator medicines included a wide variety of diabetes treatments, including metformin, DPP-4 inhibitors, such as Merck & Co s Januvia, and insulin, among others. The vast majority of patients had no history of heart disease. But heart disease is the number one killer of people with diabetes, and mounting evidence of heart protective qualities of SGLT- 2 drugs could lead to greater use. This class has a real potential of improving patient outcomes, Kosiborod said. Given the observational nature of the study the possibility of unmeasured confounding factors exists, researchers noted. Longer-term use of the oral blood thinner role of the allergist in diagnosing and managing the disease. There are multiple options available for treating chronic urticaria, said Mario Sánchez Borges, MD, of Centro Médico Docente La Trinidad, in Caracas, Venezuela, and President of the World Allergy Organization. Allergists have the necessary expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of chronic urticaria including knowledge about medication options. They also are able to teach patients about the condition, which is important in improving quality of life. Up to 1.8% of the population currently has chronic urticaria. More research on the global prevalence of the disease is needed. World Allergy Week 2017 organizers plan to draw attention to this and other future needs regarding chronic urticaria. The World Allergy Organization has 97 member societies around the world and Xarelto significantly cut the risk of recurrence of potentially life-threatening blood clots with no additional major bleeding compared with low-dose aspirin in patients at elevated risk, according to data presented on Saturday. Researchers said the results could change treatment of patients who have suffered dangerous blood clots known as venous thromboembolisms (VTE). It could also give a modest boost to sales of Xarelto, sold by Johnson & Johnson and Bayer AG, if the longer-use strategy is widely adopted. VTE, which includes painful deep vein thrombosis and often deadly pulmonary embolism, affects more than 900,000 Americans each year. Due to a high risk of recurrence, guidelines many of them will participate along with us in World Allergy Week 2017, said Dr Sánchez Borges. They will hold workshops for physicians, patient education events and other activities that will help to increase awareness of the disease itself and share information about how to get relief from symptoms that can often seem unbearable. Recently, a highly effective biologic therapy (anti-ige therapy) has become available for chronic urticaria. Experts will discuss the disease and approaches to patient care during a webinar to be held on April 4. For more information about World Allergy Week 2017 and chronic urticaria, visit: To find a member society of the World Allergy Organization in your country or region, visit: currently call for anticoagulant therapy with a drug like Xarelto for three months or longer. Once anticoagulant therapy is stopped, many patients are given aspirin for long-term prevention. Anticoagulant The study, dubbed Einstein Choice, involved 3,396 patients who had completed 6 to 12 months of anticoagulant therapy for a VTE. They were then given either 10 or 20 milligrams of Xarelto, known chemically as rivaroxaban, or low-dose aspirin and followed for another year. Just 1.2 percent of patients who got 10 mg Xarelto and 1.5 percent in the 20 mg group suffered another VTE, compared with 4.4 percent on aspirin. The result was statistically significant. The incidence of major bleeding, the greatest health risk from drugs like Xarelto, was very low and no different from aspirin, ranging from 0.3 percent to 0.5 percent. Also: ROME: Countries trading in Chinese poultry should step up surveillance at farms, markets and border checkpoints to prevent the spread of H7N9 bird flu from China after a more severe strain of the virus was detected in chickens, a UN agency has said. H7N9 has killed almost 500 people in China since it was first reported in 2013 but until recently had shown little or no clinical symptoms in birds, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). But in February Beijing reported it detected an evolution in the virus that caused severe disease and death in poultry within 48 hours of infection. It now goes beyond being primarily a public health concern, said FAO s veterinary epidemiologist Sophie von Dobschuetz, adding the new strain heightened the risk for farmers to lose animals and livelihoods. The highly pathogenic variant has only been reported in China s southeastern Guangdong province and will become more apparent in some flocks if birds begin to die off, making detection and control easier, FAO said. The earlier you pick up the incursion of the virus the more chance you have to control it, von Dobschuetz told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. The new strain has raised concerns that the infection could pass from chickens to other birds, increasing the risk of it spreading across borders, the FAO said in joint statement with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). The FAO said the new H7N9 strain maintained its capacity to cause severe illness in people, but the World Health Organization said there was no evidence of changes in the virus ability to spread between humans.

30 NMC Health to pursue Gulf expansion, debut bond Arcelik working on deals to expand int l presence United Arab Emirates-based hospital operator NMC Health plans to expand in Gulf markets with a debut bond issue to fund acquisitions, its new chief executive said on Monday. NMC is among the beneficiaries from substantial growth in the Gulf s healthcare sector as an increasingly wealthy population becomes more susceptible to lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and obesity. The company s main focus since its London listing in 2012 has been its UAE home market, where it has both built and acquired hospitals, including last month s completion of the purchase of Al Zahra Hospital in Sharjah for $560 million. However, NMC is among the first healthcare providers to expand across Gulf markets, competing with the likes of John Hopkins in Saudi Arabia and largely local hospitals elsewhere. We want to continue to expand in the region organic as well as through acquisitions, Prasanth Manghat told Reuters. For acquisitions, we need funds; both loans and a bond. The bond will be attached to an acquisition. The size of the bond and arrangers have yet to be finalised. (RTRS) Turkish home appliances maker Arcelik is working on acquisitions to speed up its international expansion, particularly in Asia, its chief executive said on Monday. We think there will be significant demand growth coming from Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent, Hakan Bulgurlu told Reuters, citing Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, as well as Bangladesh, Pakistan and India. They re all focus areas for us. The company, which sells washing machines, dryers and refrigerators under brands such as Beko and Grundig, said international markets should account for 65 percent of its sales this year, up from 60 percent in Bulgurlu said that percentage should reach 80 percent in a few years as the company continues its strategy of overseas deals. Arcelik is a subsidiary of Koc Holding, Turkey s biggest industrial conglomerate. The company stood by its forecast for revenue to grow 20 percent this year from the billion Turkish lira ($4.43 billion) it reported in 2016, even though its home market could see greater sales growth than it originally expected due to a government plan to temporarily reduce a tax on white goods in order to spur demand. (RTRS) Market Movements Change Closing pts HONG KONG - Hang Seng , Change Closing pts INDIA - Sensex , AUSTRALIA - All Ordinaries , JAPAN - Nikkei , S. KOREA - KRX , PHILIPPINES - All Shares , GERMANY - DAX , FRANCE - CAC , Business Kuwait projects report National Bank of Kuwait Project activity in 2016 relatively healthy Project activity in 2016 remained relatively healthy, though it eased somewhat from exceptionally strong years in 2014 and Awards in 2016 continued to exceed levels seen before 2014, when the projects pipeline had witnessed significant delays due to administrative and technical challenges. Major awards during the year included the new airport terminal as well as the gas import terminal and regasification facility. Private Partnerships Despite the healthy level of activity, 2016 did face some delay in its pipeline of PPP projects which have not moved as quickly following the awarding of the first in Kuwait established a public-private partnership (PPP) law and a PPP governing body development of highway rest houses. associated gas production program alone. The largest contract value kets, and other facilities. The first contract for major infrastructure works gral to the expansion of power and coming year. These projects are inte- in Based on the experience and The PPP model is critical for the Meanwhile, the construction of two hospitals and parts of the new Kuwait sub-project within the Kuwait airport was awarded in June 2016 for KD 296 water capacity in Kuwait as well as the awarded in 2016 is a KD 1.3 billion difficulties faced in the award of the success of Kuwait s development first PPP project, the Al-Zour North plan, with these projects accounting University campus are underway. These expansion project. The new passenger million, and is expected to be completed in September In January 2016, Kuwait Oil move to cleaner fuel options. Phase 1, the law was amended in for around 20% of the KD 30 billion in projects will address the major development needs of the country, especially ever awarded in Kuwait since building is the second largest project As a result, the Kuwait Authority for projects under the plan. Proposed PPP Gas projects Company (KOC) awarded several Partnership Projects (KAPP) became projects help alleviate pressure on fiscal expenditure and encourage interna- housing capacities, and providing Welfare (PAHW) is committed to In the first quarter of 2016, there was those related to building energy and The Public Authority for Housing contracts related to oil and gas, worth the official PPP governing body. a total of KD 497 million, KD 372 million of which was for the Jurassic non- KAPP had expected to move ahead tional and domestic private investors healthcare and education services. building townships to address the a surge in awarded gas projects. The with several PPP projects in 2016 but to participate in viable opportunities growing need for housing in Kuwait second largest project awarded in 2016 Infrastructure picked up associated oil and gas reserves expansion project. Contractors Spetco delays kept the projects from being found in Kuwait. and the decongestion of Kuwait s was Kuwait National Petroleum awarded. According to KAPP authorities, there are four major PPP projects construction industries dominated 2016 than quadrupled in 2016 compared to areas. In 2016, a number of infrastruc- gas (LNG) import terminal and regasifi- Projects in the transport, gas, and Transport-related projects more main residential and metropolitan Company s (KNPC) liquefied natural International and Schlumberger will conduct engineering, procurement, worth a total of KD 1.9 billion awards. They included a new passenger 2015 in terms of the total value of ture contracts for these townships were cation facility, located in Al-Zour, with and construction (EPC) work on the under evaluation. The projects are the terminal at Kuwait International Airport, contracts awarded. Since 2006, awarded. PAHW awarded the first of a contract value of KD 908 million. The three stages that make up the second second phase of Al-Zour North independent water and power project new townships. A natural gas regasifi- (MPW) has awarded KD 7.5 billion City. This parent project will have a power plants during peak electricity and roadwork-related infrastructure for Kuwait s Ministry of Public Works four sub-projects for South Al-Mutlaa facility will supply the necessary fuel to phase. The project will produce gas from the northern fields and improve (IWPP), a school development program (the first PPP of its kind in the also approved during the year, as was billion are still underway, and more uted, as well as amenities like parks, this project with the same capacity, and cation plant and import terminal was worth of projects. Of those, KD 5.3 capacity of 30,000 plots to be distrib- demand. Another phase is planned for efficiency in oil and gas production. region), a solid waste project, and the the second phase of Kuwait s first non- than KD 2.7 billion were awarded in public service buildings, supermar- is expected to be up for bidding in the Continued on Page 31 Aramco eyes downstream Saudi King s tour of Asia points to fresh strategy SINGAPORE, March 20, (RTRS): Saudi King Salman s lavish tour of Asia, arriving in each country on a golden escalator with 400 tonnes of luggage, had a hardnosed marketing mission to cement the kingdom s place as leading oil supplier to the world s biggest consumer region. The string of deals inked on his three-week tour to Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan and China also point to a fresh strategy, one to increase Saudi leverage over refined product and petrochemical markets, known as the downstream sector. Our strategy is about growth in the downstream, said Amin Nasser, chief executive officer of state oil company Aramco, told Reuters on Sunday. The growth in that sector is very important, and anything integrated between refining, petrochemical, with marketing and distribution, is of interest to us. Saudi Arabia s main influence on oil markets has been via the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), of which it is the de-facto leader. But OPEC s ability to control prices by turning the oil pumping spigots on and off has waned as non-opec producers like Russia and, more recently, US shale drillers, have ramped up output and eroded its grip on market share. Deal One indication of a shift in Saudi strategy came on the first leg of the tour in Kuala Lumpur. Aramco signed a deal to take a $7 billion investment, in a joint venture with Malaysia s state oil company Petronas in a refinery and petrochemical project known as RAPID (Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development). Under construction in Malaysia s southern Johor state, RAPID is just across a narrow strait from Singapore, Asia s oil trading hub. Some 70 percent of the oil for the project, set to start in 2019, will come from Saudi Arabia, giving the kingdom a key outlet for its crude in Asia, the world s fastest growing market. It is Armaco s largest refinery project outside the kingdom. Aramco also recently made a deal with Indonesia s Pertamina over a $5 billion expansion of the country s largest oil refinery, for which Armaco will supply the crude. The investments are intended to enhance Aramco s competitive position in Southeast Asia, said Ihsan Buhulaiga, a Saudi economist. The Malaysian investment also allows the Saudis to join the hub of refineries in and around Singapore that help determine fuel prices in the region. Traders Price agency S&P Global Platts assesses dozens of fuel products during a set time every day, based on deliveries in and out of this region. Platts calls it Market-on- Close, but traders dub it the window, and it influences pricing of oil products worth billions of dollars each day. While crude and fuel products by many companies flow in and out of the pricing region, known as FOB Straits. But the only refineries now in this price region are operated by US Exxon, Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell, and Singapore Petroleum Corp (SPC), owned by PetroChina. When you control refining capacity with the capability to deliver petroleum products into the window, you have access to a physical outlet which also plays a key role in daily price discovery, said John Driscoll, director of consultancy JTD Energy in Singapore. The Saudi move deeper into refineries and petrochemical plants would likely help the potential valuation of Aramco in what could be the world s largest-ever initial public offering. Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who oversees the kingdom s economic policy, has said the sale is expected to value Aramco at $2 trillion or more. Analysts have estimated a valuation between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion. Singapore, along with Hong Kong and Tokyo have been mentioned as possible exchanges where Aramco s shares would be traded. The primary listing will be on Saudi Arabia s domestic exchange, and Riyadh is also looking at New York or London for the secondary listing. Aramco s joint ventures in Malaysia, Indonesia and elsewhere are not only aimed at increasing its refining capacity. OPEC leans towards oil cut extension to balance market Saudi crude exports fall in Jan to mln bpd: data DUBAI/LONDON, March 20, (RTRS): OPEC oil producers increasingly favour extending beyond June a pact on reducing crude supply to balance the market, sources within the group said, although Russia and other nonmembers need to remain part of the initiative. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is curbing its output by about 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) from Jan. 1 for six months, the first reduction in eight years. Russia and other non-opec producers agreed to cut half as much. Al Habtoor talks investment opportunities with Investcorp management Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor, Founding Chairman, Al Habtoor Group met with Mohammed Bin Mahfoodh Alardhi, Executive Chairman, Investcorp. The meeting took place at the Al Habtoor Group head office. Also present was Investcorp s Co-Chief Executive Officers, Mohammed Al-Shroogi and Rishi Kapoor. Present from the Al Habtoor Group was Mohammed Al Habtoor, Vice-Chairman and CEO; Ahmed Khalaf Al Habtoor seen with other officials during the meeting. Al Habtoor, CEO, Al Habtoor Motors; KP Rajan, Group Financial Advisor; Sanjeev Agarwala, Chief Operating Officer Hospitality and Investments; and Sunderesh Iyer, Chief Operating Officer Al Habtoor Investment. They discussed investments strategies and future investments opportunities with a particular focus on the UAE and Dubai specifically. Khalaf Al Habtoor said, Dubai The deal has lifted oil prices, but inventories in industrial nations are rising and higher returns have encouraged US companies to pump more. A growing number of OPEC officials believe it may take longer than six months to reduce stocks. An extension is needed to balance the market, an OPEC delegate said. Any extension of the cut agreement should be with non-opec. OPEC sources told Reuters in February that the group could extend the supplyreduction pact, or even apply deeper cuts from July, if inventories fail to drop to a targeted level. The group wants stocks in the industrialised world to fall to the average of the past five years. According to the most recent data, for January, inventories of crude and refined products stood 278 million barrels above this level. Five other OPEC sources said it was increasingly clear that the market needed more than six months to stabilise but added that all producers in OPEC plus non-members had to agree. The ministers will meet in May to decide, but everyone has to be on board, an OPEC source from a major producer said. OPEC next meets to decide output policy on May 25 in Vienna. There will also be a gathering in May of OPEC and non-opec producers, OPEC Secretary-General Mohammad Barkindo said last month. Hard negotiations are on the way, another one of the sources said. Russia, the largest of the 11 outside producers working with OPEC, has not publicly said whether it supports extending the supply cut, but is wary about the revival of US shale output due to higher oil prices. It s too early to know whether everyone will agree to this, a source from a non-opec participant in the deal said, referring to prolonging the output curb. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia s crude oil exports dropped by about 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) in January, official data showed on Monday, as the yields excellent returns for investors. It is the safe haven of the world. There are many benefits for local and foreign investors here. Investcorp is a global provider and manager of alternative investment products, serving high-networth individuals and institutions. It has more than $10 billion of assets under management. It was founded in 1982, and has offices in New York, London, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Riyadh. top OPEC producer played its part in a global supply-cut pact to support prices and ease a glut. Saudi Arabia s crude oil exports in January fell to million bpd from million bpd in December, according to data from the Joint Organizations Data Initiative (JODI). The world s largest oil exporter pumped million bpd in January, in line with its OPEC output target, down from million bpd in December. Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al- Falih has said the kingdom will adhere strictly to its commitment to cut output and that state oil giant Saudi Aramco was cutting exports.

31 BUSINESS 31 Vodafone s Indian telecom unit merges with local company British telecom company Vodafone s Indian unit on Monday announced a merger with Idea Cellular, a local company, creating India s largest telecom operator, with around 400 million customers. Vodafone will own 45.1 percent of the combined company and Idea will have a 26 percent stake, while the rest will be owned by public shareholders after the merger, which is expected to be completed next year, the companies said in a joint statement. At present, Bharti Airtel is India s biggest telecom player, with a market share of 23.6 percent and a customer base of million. The entry of Reliance Jio has led to a consolidation in the Indian telecom sector. The merger values Vodafone India at 828 billion rupees ($12.4 billion) and Idea at 722 billion rupees ($10.8 billion), the statement said. The merger will not include Vodafone s 42 percent stake in Indus Towers Ltd., another local company. Idea Cellular is owned by India s Aditya Birla Group. Vodafone s market share was percent, with million mobile customers, while Idea s was 16.9 percent, with million, according to data provided by the government-run Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Vodafone Group Plc. entered India in 2007 through a subsidiary based in the Netherlands. Vodafone is involved in a $2.5 billion tax dispute with Indian authorities over its purchase of Hutchison Essar Telecom services in April (AP) Vodafone Group CEO, Vittorio Colao (right), shakes hand with Aditya Birla Group Chairman, Kumar Mangalam Birla after a press conference in Mumbai, India on March 20. British telecom company Vodafone s Indian unit has announced a merger with Idea Cellular, a local company, creating the country s largest telecom operator with nearly 400 million customers. (AP) Britain says working with banks to open trade with Iran Iran struggles to coax BoE to open clearing accounts LONDON/ANKARA, March 20, (RTRS): Iran has asked the Bank of England (BoE) to set up special clearing accounts for its banks, but has so far been rebuffed in its effort to resolve an impasse that has left it excluded from banking in London more than a year after sanctions were lifted. Tehran has been hoping for swift reintegration into global trade after its deal in 2015 aimed at curbing Tehran s nuclear programme in return for the lifting of international sanctions. Its failure to persuade Western banks to accept its business has been one of the main choke points preventing its rehabilitation. Banking sources from both Iran and the West, and Iranian political sources close to the talks, said Tehran has approached the Bank of England to seek clearing accounts directly with the UK central bank. Such accounts, for Iran s own Central Bank or for the British subsidiaries of Iranian banks, would allow them to make and receive payments in sterling, business so far rejected by commercial banks. That would send a huge message to the market. What commercial bank is practically going to stop Bank of England payments? None, said one Western source. However, the sources said the BoE seems uninterested in resolving the problem for now. The Bank of England has proved resistant to intervening in any kind of positive way in order to assist trade between Iran and UK, said the Western source. A senior Iranian banking official in Tehran said: The Bank of England has suspended anything related to Iran, even the latest scheduled meeting was cancelled. Everything has been put on hold. A Bank of England spokesman declined to comment. Iran s Central Bank officials were not available to comment. The sources all spoke on condition of anonymity as talks between Iran and the bank have not officially been made public. Although EU and United Nations sanctions over Iran s nuclear programme were lifted a year ago, the United States still has separate measures in place over Iran s missile programme, and the new US administration has promised a hard line. The risk of falling afoul of US measures has been enough to persuade Western banks to steer clear, including in London, where Iran is particularly keen for a presence in the main global financial centre outside of the United States. Even Iran s embassy in London has so far been unable to open a British bank account. Three Iranian banks have subsidiaries with licenses to operate in Britain: Melli Bank Plc, Bank Sepah International Plc and Persia International Bank Plc. But none has been able to persuade a commercial bank to clear its payments in sterling, the British currency. Unacceptable It is totally unacceptable that a UK bank which has a banking licence, which is in good standing with its regulators, is unable to access the sterling system, said Sue Millar, partner with law firm Stephenson Harwood that represents those three UK-based arms of Iranian banks, as well as Bank Saderat Plc, which remains on the US blacklist. Iran considers the failure of Western countries to allow it back into the international financial system to violate the spirit of the 2015 nuclear deal. It says Britain in particular, given its large capital markets, should do more to ensure Iranian banks operating there legally are treated fairly. The issue is particularly sensitive within Iran for the future of the nuclear deal s architect, President Hasan Rouhani, a pragmatist elected in a landslide in 2013 on a promise to reduce Iran s economic isolation. He faces re-election in May against hardliners who say his deal has never yielded the promised economic benefits. The UK government, eager to boost trade with new markets like Iran after last year s vote to leave the European Union, has struggled to convince British banks to boost trade with Iran, sources have told Reuters. British trade minister Liam Fox told a parliamentary committee last week he had commissioned work from his department to look at how to normalise effective payment channels with Iran to try to open up trading opportunities. An official close to Rouhani said while the British government had promised to do more, so far there had been no progress. The senior Iranian banking official added that meetings between Iranian and British government officials had yielded no change in the commercial banks policies. They (banks) are worried about Trump s Iran approach and now that Iran has been put on notice, the process will be much more difficult, the official said, referring to remarks made in Washington last month by then US national security advisor Michael Flynn threatening an unspecified response after an Iranian ballistic missile test. In response to questions from Reuters, the British government said it was committed to working closely with all parties, including UK banks and industry groups, to help open opportunities for trade between Britain and Iran. This will be a vital part of Iran s re-integration into the international community and we will continue to work to strengthen and expand our trading relationship for mutual benefit, said a statement attributed to a government spokesperson. In April last year, Iran s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Washington of undermining the nuclear deal by scaring investors away from Iran. Call for free trade deal between Japan and EU Merkel, Abe urge free trade with jabs at US HANOVER, Germany, March 20, (RTRS): German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japan s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke up for free trade at a major technology fair on Sunday with jabs clearly pointed at an increasingly protectionist United States. Both called for a free trade deal to be reached quickly between Japan and the European Union, in comments made after G20 finance ministers and central bankers dropped a long-standing mention of open trade in their final communique after a two-day meeting in Germany. Neither leader named the U.S. government as they opened the CeBIT technology fair in Hanover, but both used the opportunity to distance themselves from protectionist tendencies coming from the Trump administration. In times when we have to argue with many about free trade, open borders and democratic values, it s a good sign that Japan and Germany no longer argue about this but rather are seeking to shape the future in a way that benefits people, Merkel said. As G20 president, Germany feels especially committed to these principles, she added. After meeting US President Donald Trump in Washington on Friday for the first time, Merkel German Chancellor Angela Merkel (left), greets Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe, at the opening of the CeBIT trade fair in Hanover, Germany on March 19. Japan is the partner country of the 2017 CeBIT fair, which is a multi national event aimed at digital business. (AP) said she hoped the United States and the European Union could resume discussions on a trade agreement. Trump said he did not believe in isolationism but that trade policy should be fairer. Merkel stressed that Germany was strongly in favour of free trade and open markets. We certainly don t want any barriers but at a time of an Internet of things we want to link our societies with one another and let them deal fairly with one another, and that is what free trade is all about, she said. Speaking at the same event, Abe said: Japan, having gone through reaping in abundance the benefits of free trade and investment, wants to be the champion upholding open systems alongside Germany. He added: Of course to do so it will be necessary to have rules that are fair and can stand up to democratic appraisal. He also said the European Union (EU) and Japan should soon reach an economic deal. Merkel welcomed his comments, saying: It s very, very good that Japan says we want a free trade agreement, we want it soon because that could be the right statement and Germany would love to be a driving force behind this. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told Bild am Sonntag newspaper he was pleased that he would be meeting Abe on Tuesday and said the bloc wanted to conclude a free trade deal with Japan this year. Iran s leader criticises govt s economic record Rouhani s New Year s message lauds achievements In this photo released by official website of the Iranian Presidency on March 20, behind the New Year s table items, President Hassan Rouhani poses for a portrait in a session to deliver a message for the Iranian New Year, Iran. (AP) DUBAI, March 20, (RTRS): Iran s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Monday the government s economic policies had fallen short and called for a new resistance economy to create jobs, piling pressure on the president before May elections. Hardliners led by Khamenei have repeatedly criticised President Hassan Rouhani, particularly for the terms of a nuclear deal he reached with world powers which lifted economic sanctions and was supposed to boost the economy. I feel the pain of the poor and lower class people with my soul, especially because of high prices, unemployment and inequalities, Khamenei said in his New Year s message. The government has taken positive steps but they do not meet people s expectations and mine, he added, setting out a clear battle line before the presidential vote. The New Year, or Nowruz, is the country s most important national event, which involves large family gatherings, gifts for children and vacations. Unemployment stood at 12.4 percent in this fiscal year, according to the Statistical Center of Iran, up 1.4 percent from the previous year. About 3.2 million Iranians are jobless, out of a total population of 80 million. I call the new year a year of resistance economy, production and employment, Khamenei said in the pre-recorded video broadcast on state television. Khamenei has coined the term resistance economy to describe measures to make Iran s economy more self-sufficient, in contrast to Rouhani s policy of seeking to open Iran to more international trade and investment. In his New Year s message, Rouhani touted the economic achievements of his government and called for citizens rights to be respected, points likely to resonate with his supporters in the approaching election. What we achieved in curbing inflation (and boosting) economic growth and jobs in the past year was unprecedented in the past 25 years, Rouhani said in a video message aired on state TV. Khamenei s latest criticism came as a number of prominent political figures, including Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the head of a body that selects Iran s supreme leader, also criticised Rouhani for his economic policies. But conservatives, who hope to stop Rouhani winning a second four-year term, have yet to identify their presidential candidate. Mr. Rouhani can t expect the Supreme Leader to take his side in the elections. The past has shown that the position of the Supreme Leader is more independent, said Saeed Leylaz, a Tehran-based political analyst who worked as an adviser to former president Mohammad Khatami. After this new year period Rouhani can expect to face a lot of pressure and criticism. Project activity Continued from Page 30 Kuwait University awarded two contracts worth a total of KD 341 million for the construction of administration and academic support buildings in its new Shdadiyah campus. Construction for the Sabah Al-Salem University parent project, as a whole, is expected to be completed in March In the planning phase are the medical campus and the College of Architecture and Computer Science. The Ministry of Public Works awarded a KD million contract for the new maternity hospital, part of the development plan goals of expanding healthcare facilities. The new hospital will provide 600 beds and will be locat- ed in the Sabah Medical Area. Separately, Kuwait Health Assurance Company (KHAC) signed two contracts, a combined value of KD 165 million with the China Metallurgical Group Corporation to build two hospitals that will be located in the Ahmadi and Jahra areas. KHAC is a PPP company established in 2014 responsible for providing healthcare services to the expatriate community in Kuwait. Power and transport projects The first half of 2017 is expected to be very active in project awards, especially PPP projects. According to MEED Projects, more than KD 6.2 billion worth of contracts will in the bidding phase for the first two quarters. With the aim of shifting the energy mix used in the power and water sectors, the government is looking to award gas-based power and water plants. Kuwait s second largest IWPP, Al Zour North 2 power and water desalination plant, is up for bidding in the first quarter at net project value of KD 806 million (two contracts). Al Zour North 3 and 4 will be gas-based as well and are expected to be awarded over the following two years. Also in the first quarter, KAPP expects to award wastewater and solid waste management projects at Umm al-hayman and Kabd, respectively; the projects are expected to be worth a combined KD 775 million (two contracts). The second quarter is expected to witness the awarding of a second major infrastructure works contract worth KD 992 million for South Al Mutlaa City.

32 BUSINESS 32 Agility expands contract logistics footprint in Singapore Agility, a leading global logistics provider, acquired a two-story warehouse close to Changi International Airport, giving it more than 600,000 square feet of warehouse space in total in Singapore. The newly acquired 177,000-square-foot warehouse is located in an area with access to an array of logistics services and two major expressways. Agility has operated in Singapore for more than 40 years and employs more than 400 people there. It owns four other warehouses in Singapore. With an expanded footprint, Agility will be offering more services: automated quality inspections; a container-management e-system; a large-scale recycling program for packing materials; and enhanced warehouse management systems with regional data back-up and business-continuity features. Mykell Lee, Agility CEO Singapore, said the company s decision to invest $25.5 million in the warehouse is a sign of its long-term commitment and belief in Singapore as one of the world s foremost transportation and shipping hubs. He said the acquisition gives Agility more capacity to add to its value-added service offering, which includes testing, assembly, configuring, labelling and packing. We aren t just storing goods within four walls. In an expensive market like Singapore, customers want service innovation, Lee said. We are offering them technology-driven solutions to optimize their supply chains across the region. We have strong infrastructure and well-trained people to help execute that vision. Lee said Agility customers want help managing vendors, spare parts and raw materials. In addition, Agility provides tracking and visibility systems that allow customers to keep up with increasingly rapid inventory turns and complex supply chains. For our fashion and retail customers, for example, we re also the ones tagging goods with price and security labels, managing reverse logistics, promotions, and warehouse and atrium sales, Lee said. Agility s acquisition comes as Singapore is expanding and upgrading port and airport infrastructure as part of its strategic plan to strengthen its position as a global logistics powerhouse and emerging leader in fastgrowing Asian e-commerce. While historically a B2B provider in Singapore, Agility has recently partnered with a number of customers to help expand their supply chains from brick-and-mortar stores to e-commerce home delivery. KFH holds its General Assembly Meeting Despite economic challenges, bank reports remarkable and well balanced performance during 2016: Chairman Following is the message by KFH Chairman, Hamad Abdulmohsen Al-Marzouq during the General Assembly Meeting for the financial year ended on Dec 31, Editor Praise be to Allah the Almighty, and Peace and Blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), his family and companions. Dear Esteemed Shareholders, Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatu Allah Wabarakatuh. On behalf of myself, my fellow colleagues and members of the Board of Directors of Kuwait Finance House ( KFH / the Bank ), I would like to present to you KFH Group Annual Report for the year Considering the unprecedented economic, oil and geopolitical developments which have prevailed worldwide, year 2016 may be considered as the year of challenges for the region in general and the banking sector in particular. These challenges were reflected clearly on capital market performances, subdued local and global economic growth drives, lack of confidence in the European Economy especially after Brexit and the sluggish growth in China. These factors have led to an increase in raw material prices and continued tightening of Federal monetary policy. Despite the economic challenges, with a clear commitment to our valued customers and stakeholders, KFH has attained a remarkable and well balanced performance during 2016, through its prudent and flexible business model and efficient risk management methods. KFH Group has maintained the distinguished leading position of its operations locally, regionally and internationally, thus enhancing shareholders profit to reach KD million ie an increase of 13.3 percent y-o-y in Also, we have achieved remarkable and tangible progress on the rate of return on shareholders equity. Group s main financial indicators continued their ascending trend including increase in profitability and enhancement of capital adequacy ratio to reach percent, well above the required 15 percent. We have also observed and adhered to Basel regulations on fixed liquidity ratios, which has enabled us to face market challenges, and future potential regulatory requirements. Our well balanced performance is attributed to the positive group synergy, professional and efficient execution of our integrated strategy, proper well bonded relations and coordination among all parties whether at head office or in various countries where the group operates including Turkey, Bahrain, Malaysia, Germany, Saudi Arabia and others. This remarkable performance is achieved through a set of successful strategic initiatives which were the cornerstone in reinforcing and supporting governance and banking services at the group level. We have implemented a set of policies and procedures during the year to improve efficiency of daily communications, ensure smooth inflow of information at the group level, provide new and innovative solutions to customers and offer several investment funds inside and outside Kuwait. Also, we have managed to offer a Sukuk Fund with variable US dollar returns as well as a real estate fund in USA. Financing Income increased in 2016 to reach KD 718 million. By the grace of Allah, we have achieved net shareholders profit of KD million while earnings per share reached fils Total assets approximated to KD 16.5 billion. KFH customers deposits reached KD 10.7 billion. Meanwhile, total operating expenses declined for the second consecutive year by KD 35.5 million ie 11 percent, (KD 31.5 million or 8 percent in 2015 compared to 2014). These figures reflect the robust financial position that KFH is occupying which led the group to achieve the results even during the hard times encountered by local and global economy. KFH Group endeavoured to preserve KFH assets and achieve best financial results. With regards to asset management by the Grace of Allah, KFH Group has managed to strengthen returns on investments following extensive 3-years efforts through KFH Capital Company, restructuring of investments and improvement of assets quality, thus improving capital adequacy ratios. All these activities are in line with our strategy to focus on and develop core banking business. While we are committed to achieve remarkable and rewarding long term returns for shareholders, the board proposes to the general assembly to iary. KFH group received, during the year, highly distinguished banking awards namely, the Best Islamic Financial Institution in the Gulf and Best Islamic Project Finance Provider from Global Finance Magazine. KFH has also won several other remarkable and significant awards from Islamic Finance News (IFN) both as the Best Islamic Bank in Kuwait as well as Best Global Islamic Bank for the distribute cash dividends by 17 percent, bonus shares by 10 percent and distribute profit on investment deposits and saving accounts as shown in table No. (1). We have successfully managed to lead the Islamic bank s market share by financing major projects in Kuwait including participation in the Kuwait Government Debt Program of KD 700 million. We have also financed the clean fuel project for Kuwait National Petroleum Company which is the largest banking syndication transaction in the history of Kuwait where KFH contributed KD 275 million of the total KD 490 million. Kuwait Finance House Turkey has successfully issued the largest Ijara Sukuk transaction to the private sector in Turkish market amounting TL 300 million. Other Sukuks were also issued to enhance and support its capital position amounting to a $350 million (Second Tier) for a 10-year term with 7.9 percent returns. KFH Bahrain has financed several projects, namely Bahrain Marasi project amounting $3 billion in addition to Deerat Al-Oyoun project, value of which exceeded $730 million which aimed to build more than 3 thousand residential units in Bahrain. We have also completed construction of Wadi Al-Sail Mall which is the first development project among 3 other projects initiated by a group subsidyear 2016, as part of Global Islamic Finance Awards (GIFA) and Best SME Customer Service Award by Banker Middle East in addition to several other awards received during the year in appreciation of its multiple activities and services. We have, during 2016, expanded our programs to participate in local society activities. In this respect, KFH has paid KD 7.5 million to Zakat House in recognition of the importance of projects that would serve society and accentuate the humane side of our business. Our focus covers other projects and activities aiming to achieve social growth and development at the educational and health sectors, provide environmental care and support youth initiatives and other vital sectors. In recognition of the importance of technology and innovation, we have developed and upgraded IT infrastructure, expanded banking solutions by using modern technology introduced new digital banking services to customers along with other direct services provided through our extensive branch network covering 480 branches, In addition to ATMs network spread worldwide. This comes as part of customer centric, service oriented innovative program. On the banking innovation and development aspects, KFH group has enhanced its accomplishments by Photo by Bassam Abu ShanabPhoto from KFH General Assembly Meeting. implementing several initiatives, such as, the launch of its website (kfh.com) which comprises several modifications and characteristics to appear as a new brand. KFH innovation centre has also participated in reinforcing innovation and development at the group level by launching employees competition which has resulted in adopting several new ideas and products. The best ten innovative ideas received from various staff members including our subsidiaries operating in Kuwait, Turkey, Malaysia and Bahrain were honoured. KFH enhanced its effective communication channels with society through its social media where followers exceeded 600 Thousand Followers. KFH s social media has efficiently promoted customer service and banking products awarness, round the clock, in a unique and modern touch to cope up with the new-gen life style requirements. We would like to avail this opportunity to convey our sincere gratitude and appreciation to our shareholders and customers for their continuous and valuable support. We are confident by the grace of Allah that we will continue to achieve rewarding returns for our shareholders and depositors. Also, I would like to avail this opportunity to convey sincere gratitude and appreciation to all our employees at the group levels, as well as, the members of the honourable Fatwa & Sharia Supervisory Board for their distinguished and outstanding efforts in accrediting our functions and activities. Finally, I would like to convey our sincere thanks, gratitude and appreciation to His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, may Allah safeguard, His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, may Allah safeguard, and His Highness The Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, may Allah safeguard. Our thanks and appreciation are also extended to His Excellency Dr Mohammed Al-Hashel, Central Bank of Kuwait Governor and all regulatory authorities for their ongoing support to the banking sector in the State of Kuwait. May Allah grant us Success. Consolidate Financial Performance 2016 KFH Group achieved net profit attributable to shareholders of the bank of KD million in 2016 compared to KD million in 2015 ie an increase by 13.3 percent. Meanwhile, earnings per share reached fils ie a growth by 13.2 percent compared to 2015 (fils 28.27) Financing income increased to approximate KD 718 million ie an increase by 3.3 percent compared to KD 695 million in 2015, thus reflecting KFH policy which targets the development and growth of sustainable profit by focusing on banking activities. In continuation of KFH cost optimization policy which aims to enhance profit and improve financial performance indicators, total operating expenses for the group declined for the second consecutive year to reach KD 295 million in 2016 compared to KD million in 2015 ie a decline by KD 35.5 million or 11 percent (decline by KD 31.5 million or 8 percent in 2015 compared to 2014). As a result, net operating income reached KD 365 million ie a growth ratio by 8.2 percent compared to last year, excluding investment income which are of a nonrecurring nature. Provisions and impairments charged to the consolidated statement of income declined to reach KD million during 2016 compared to KD million in 2015 ie a decline by 14 percent. Consolidated Financial Position 2016 Total consolidated assets approximated KD 16.5 billion as at the end of 2016 while financing receivables approximated KD 8.2 billion. The group maintained a robust liquidity position where cash and balances with banks and financial institutions, and short term murabaha reached KD 4.4 billion. KFH Kuwait non-performing financing ratio declined to 1.67 percent at the end of 2016 compared to 1.98 percent in Group non-performing financing ratio declined to 2.58 percent compared to 3.03 percent in Depositors accounts reached KD 10.7 billion while total due to banks and financial institutions reached KD 2.9 billion as at the end of Equity attributable to the shareholders of the Bank Shareholders equity increased to reach KD billion ie an increase by 1.8 percent compared to KD billion as at the end of Capital adequacy ratio calculated as per Basel lll regulations reached percent as at the end of the year, thus exceeding the 15 percent ratio determined by CBK. Proposed dividends The board proposed the distribution of cash dividends by 17 percent as at the year ended 31st December 2016 (17 percent in 2015) and the issuance of bonus shares by 10 percent (10 percent in 2015) of paid up capital subject to ordinary general assembly approval and finalization of legal procedures. Directors remuneration reached KD 772 Thousand (KD 610 Thousand in 2015) which is considered within the limit permissible as per local regulations and subject to ordinary general assembly approval. Chief Executive Officer s Statement and Management Discussion KFH-Group CEO, Mazin Saad Al-Nahedh said: In continuation of its remarkable success, KFH has maintained stability and achieved growth during 2016 despite the challenges encountered during the year. The bank achieved a growth rate of 13.3 percent amounting KD million in net profit attributable to shareholders of the bank during 2016 and a growth by 8.2 percent in net operating income compared to preceding year (less non-recurring investment income). These results have incarnated the success of the policies and plans adopted by KFH and applied by the executive management to establish certain pillars and foundations that would achieve growing ratios of sustainable revenues for KFH Group dependent on sustainable operational performance. Our achieved goal is an inseparable part of a chain of activities focused on banking business, quality service, technology, customer and employee satisfaction, enhancement and encouragement of innovation and creativity, optimized spending, sound management of risk and governance, expansion of market share. While observing flexibility of organizational structure, enhancement of cooperation and coordination among subsidiary banks, setting a permanent mechanism to ensure smooth inflow of information and unification of procedures, continued structuring of investments given best market fundamentals and build national human resources to lead and bear responsibility. We achieved set goals successfully despite the challenges prevailing in the general operational environment in the local market and the markets where KFH subsidiary banks operate abroad. KFH culture is currently focused on products diversification and customer service concurrently through crossselling which considers customer as an integrated entity and ensures an adequate management of the joint relationship. Professional values and principles are developed, without impacting performance trend, by simplifying service and product provision procedures. Similar activities are consolidated under a single hub to achieve simplicity of procedures and quality control in a parallel effort that would mitigate human involvement in certain cases and increase it in some other cases. Photos from the KFH Group General Assembly Meeting.

33 BUSINESS 33 Markaz selects Yardi Voyager Algerian firm Sonatrach replaces CEO Kuwait Financial Centre Markaz will utilise Yardi Voyager 7S, the browser-agnostic and mobileenabled Software as a Service platform along with Yardi s Orion Business Intelligence. Implementing the right solution was extremely important to our business, comments Hussein Ali Zeineddin, the Head of MIS & Operations at Markaz. The Voyager platform will not only help us streamline our entire operation; the business intelligence functionality means we can access realtime analytics, inform strategies and enhance decision making. Markaz has earned a credible name for itself amongst the top performing fund managers in Kuwait due to its strong and consistent performance spanning many years. The company offers full-fl edged services in asset management and investment banking. Asset management services offered by the company include Investment Advisory Services, GCC & International Investments and Private Equities. Markaz s Assets Under Management (AUM) as of Dec 31, 2016 is KD 935 million ($3.05 Billion). Yardi is pleased to provide Markaz with a platform to help manage such a highly regarded operation, comments Neal Gemassmer, vice president of international for Yardi. Algerian state energy firm Sonatrach has replaced Chief Executive Amine Mazouzi after less than two years in the job with Abdelmoumen Ould Kadour, the energy ministry said on Monday. The surprise decision comes at a sensitive time for Sonatrach and Algeria, which began to increase oil and gas production last year after a prolonged period of stagnation and a lack of major foreign investment. A statement from the ministry gave no reason for the change. Ould Kadour is an engineer who graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and headed US-Algerian fi rm Brown & Root Condor in the 1990s. Before Mazouzi s appointment in May 2015, the energy giant went through turbulent times with fi ve CEOs in fi ve years, shaken by a corruption scandal, weak foreign oil interest in energy bids GCC wealth insight report Emirates Investment Bank and pressure from the drop on crude prices. Just a day before the announcement, Mazouzi hosted the CEO of Eni at a southern oilfi eld where the two discussed the Italian company s commitment to Algerian investment. Algeria remains dependent on oil and gas earnings which provide 60 percent of the state budget and Sonatrach s performance is key to the health of the economy. (RTRS) year horizon, there is a greater sense of optimism, with HNWIs expecting of a more favourable oil price and for the region s economies to show strength and growth. The Report does suggest a bit more caution concerning the medium-term outlook compared to previous years but my view is that this is more realistic given the nature of the global economic and political climate. Emirates Investment Bank has helped its clients navigate through a number of business cycles. At the core of our advice to clients has always been the importance of investment diversification and focusing on longterm sustainable growth. If the world has learned anything from 2016, it is that nothing is certain and that an in- HNWIs optimistic for global, Gulf economy Emirates Investment Bank vestor must always consider all possible outcomes. the GCC. Views are most positive in own country vary significantly across ( EIBank ), an independent private bank based in the UAE, today published its 2017 GCC Wealth Insight Report (the Report ). The Report, now in its fourth year, outlines the views of High On a panel discussion at the launch of the 2017 GCC Wealth Insight Report, Ranya Afifi presented her views on how the Report reflects the economic the UAE (69% say economy is improving) and Qatar (42% say economy is improving), and least positive in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. HNWIs in Net-Worth Individuals ( HNWIs ) situation in the region. Oman are most likely to feel that the from across the Gulf Cooperation Council ( GCC ) on local and global economies as well as the main elements that drive their investment decisions. For the purposes of this study, HNWIs are defined as individuals with US$2 million or more in investable assets. Interviews with participating HNWIs were conducted face to face between September and December 2016, with the majority completed before the US election result and the fall of Eastern Aleppo in Syria. Khaled Sifri, CEO of Emirates Investment Bank, launched the Report today at The Palace Downtown Dubai at an event attended by the bank s clients and peers. Mr. Sifri and Ranya Afifi, Director of The Economist Corporate Network ME- NAT region, then discussed on stage the key findings of the Report and the implications for the region. Ranya Afifi, Director of The Economist Corporate Network MENAT region, said, There are a multitude of similarities between the perceptions of HNWIs and the multinational corporates operating in the region towards macro-driven challenges and operational risks affecting investment decisions. Both cohorts have been impacted the most by oil prices and ensuing tightening liquidity. Structural reforms are bound to impact investment decisions over the medium term. The Economist Intelligence Unit believes that in this transformational phase lies a plethora of opportunities for the private sector to lead the next phase of development in the GCC through PPPs, SMEs, transfer of knowledge, and developing home grown solutions for sustainable growth. economic situation in their country is worsening (75%). This pattern is consistent with Report overview For both the global and regional economies, most HNWIs feel the current situation is worse or unchanged (85%), with investors primary concerns being political instability, conflict and threat of terrorism, along with a possible oil price decline. However, over the next 3-5 years, there is a positive outlook, with a strong majority of HNWIs optimistic for the global economy (76%) and the Gulf economy (75%). In terms of asset allocation, the distribution of HNWIs wealth is broadly similar to previous years, with wealth most likely to be allocated to their own business (34%). However, there does appear to be a continued shift since 2015 towards HNWIs having a greater share of their wealth in cash/deposits (27%, up from 17% in 2015) and away from real estate as an investment (15%, down from 30% in 2015). As in previous years, HNWIs from the GCC are focused on growing their wealth (80%), rather than preserving it and there is a strong preference for regional HNWIs to keep their assets closer to home (72%). $2 bln sukuk issuance Commenting on the Report, Khaled Sifri, CEO of Emirates Investment Bank, said, From a global perspective, 2016 was marked by heightened volatility across a range of markets and asset classes. This was certainly felt here in the GCC and, despite governments implementing structural reform plans and steady gains in the price of oil, liquidity remained relatively tight. It is, therefore, no surprise that this year s GCC Wealth Insight Report shows that investors are expecting a flat or, possibly, declining economic performance in 2017 both at a regional and international level. It was particularly interesting to see 18% of respondents say they had discontinued projects due to local economic conditions. However, over a three to five- ASAR acts as legal counsel to managers of EQUATE s offering KUWAIT CITY, March 20: Shaheen KUWAIT CITY, March 20: ASAR Al Ruwayeh & Partners (ASAR), Kuwait s leading and most prominent corporate law firm, and one of the region s top tier law firms, is pleased to have acted as Kuwait law counsel to Citigroup Global Markets Limited, HSBC Bank plc, J.P. Morgan Securities plc, KFH Capital Investment Company K.S.C.C, MUFG Securities EMEA plc, Mizuho International plc, National Bank of Abu Dhabi P.J.S.C., SMBC Nikko Capital Markets Limited, Watani Investment Co. K.S.C.C. (NBK Capital) (collectively, the Managers) in relation to establishment of EQUATE Sukuk SPC Limited s (EQUATE SPC) $2 billion Trust Certificate (Sukuk) issuance programme and its inaugural $500 million Sukuk issuance thereunder. EQUATE SPC is a wholly owned subsidiary of EQUATE Petrochemical Co. K.S.C.C. (together with The Kuwait Olefins Company K.S.C.C.) (the EQUATE Group). This following the EQUATE Group s first rule ($2.25 billion) 144A/ Reg S dualseries bond international debt capital markets offering in November 2016 in respect to which ASAR also acted on behalf of the managers under that offering. The Trust Certificates (Sukuk) have an Ijarah and Murabahah structure. The 7 year senior unsecured Sukuk were priced competitively at 100 per cent of the issue price with a profit rate of 175 basis points over the 7 year mid-swap rate, returning a yield-tomaturity of per cent. The Sukuk issuance (which was over-subscribed by a factor of 7.4 and with a global Rob Little and John Cunha order book exceeding $3.7 billion) was well received by global investors (both Islamic and conventional) The issuance proceeds will be used to refinance EQUATE Group s existing debt. Rob Little Counsel at ASAR noted that: We are delighted to have been involved with both of the inaugural conventional and Sukuk issuances of the EQUATE Group. ASAR has a long and established history of acting as Kuwait law counsel in high quality debt capital market transactions, and both of the recent issuances of the EQUATE Group is no exception. We have previously noted that while global and GCC markets remain under some pressure, we believe that similar transactions are key to the overall stability of steady economic growth. We are particularly proud in having successfully represented the Managers in both issuances of the Equate Group. John Cunha Partner at ASAR noted that: We are delighted to have acted on behalf of the managers in both of the inaugural conventional and Sukuk issuances of the EQUATE Group. Both of these issuances are a testament to the strength and depth of local and regional financial capital markets in a challenging environment. The successful conclusion of both of these issuances is the result of the hard work of the EQUATE Group and the managers. With dedicated offices in Kuwait and Bahrain coupled with its associated offices and relationships, ASAR provides clients across an extensive range of industry sectors with comprehensive legal advice and support for their business activities in Kuwait, Bahrain, across the GCC and beyond. The firm has been consistently rated as the leading corporate and commercial law firm in Kuwait by reputable legal guides such as the International Financial Law Review (IFLR), Chambers Global Guide, and the Legal 500. In 2016, ASAR was awarded with the IFLR National Law Firm of the Year Award; an award which ASAR has been delighted to receive for the 8th consecutive year. ASAR lawyers have also received multiple awards under different categories in the Fourth Edition of Best Lawyers in Kuwait. Current economic sentiment This year s findings show that investors are braced for worsening conditions or more of the same in At a global level, HNWIs in the GCC remain pessimistic about the current condition of the economy. Almost half (47%) think that the situation is worsening and just 15% say the situation is improving. This is broadly in line with the results of our 2016 survey. Amongst the 47% of HNWIs who say the global economic situation is worsening, political instability, conflict and threat of terrorism (72%) is the most commonly cited reason for this, as it was in 2016 (53%). HNWI s have polarised views of the GCC s current economic situation, with a marginal increase in those thinking the economic situation is improving, from 17% last year to 20% this year, as well as an increase in negativity, with 44% say that it is worsening compared to 36% in One in three (36%) say it is staying the same (down from 47% in 2016). At a country level, the views of HN- WIs on the economic situation in their Economic outlook There is a strong sense of optimism about the regional and global economy over the next five years. 76% of respondents are at least somewhat optimistic about the economic prospects for the global economy over the next five years. Despite this optimism, the outlook appears to be more cautious than in 2016 and 2015, with a continued fall in those who say they are very optimistic, and an increase in those saying they are somewhat optimistic. Amongst the 76% of HNWIs who are optimistic about the economic prospects for the global economy for the next five years, positive economic signs and stability (26%) is most frequently cited as the reason for this view. A similarly high proportion (75%) say that they are optimistic about the economic prospects for the Gulf region over the next five years slightly down compared to previous years. The proportion of HNWIs who say that they are very optimistic about prospects for the Gulf region shows a notable decline from last year (20%, down from 40% in 2016). Over half say they are somewhat optimistic about future prospects (55%, up from 43% in 2016). Investment decisions Regional HNWIs continue to prefer investing in their own business and remain focused on growth over preservation. Half of HNWIs (50%) say the global economic situation has changed their approach to investing, with the most commonly cited impact being a more cautious approach and preference for lower risk (42%). A similar proportion (49%) said that local economic conditions have changed their approach to investing and investment decisions. Amongst this group, the most commonly cited impacts are increased investment in new/ growing sectors (20%), and more caution when making investment decisions due to losses (20%). Almost two in ten (18%) say they have discontinued projects due to local economic conditions. Over a third of HNWI respondents say their investment decisions have changed a great deal due to movements in the price of oil (37%) and regional structural reform (37%). More than two in five (45%) HNWIs say that the geopolitical situation in the Arab region has changed their approach to investing and the investment decisions they make. The distribution of HNWIs wealth is broadly similar to previous years, with wealth most likely to be allocated to their own business (34%). However, there does appear to be a continued shift since 2015 towards HNWIs having a greater share of their wealth in cash/deposits (27%, up from 17% in 2015) and away from real estate as an investment (15%, down from 30% in 2015). Looking ahead, half of HNWIs say that they plan to increase their investment in cash deposits (51%) and their own business (50%) in the near future. Approximately a quarter of HNWIs say they plan to increase the share of their wealth in direct investment/private equity (28%) and gold/precious metals (28%). Preference for local investment remains, with the majority of HNWIs keeping investments closer to home, rather than being global investors, due to confidence in the stability and security of the local economy. However, we have seen an increase year-on-year since 2015 in global investors, principally driven by a desire for diversification and risk management. Meanwhile, 80% of HNWIs say that they are focused on growing their wealth, rather than preserving it. Amongst the 80% of HNWIs who are focused on growing their wealth, the main reasons cited for this are to provide reassurance and security for themselves and their family (33%) and to fulfil personal ambitions (28%). Other reasons mentioned frequently include continuing to work on more/larger projects and the expansion of businesses/activities. Celebration highlights bank s strategy and commitment towards Islamic financing: CEO Warba Bank lists its sukuk on Nasdaq Dubai Al-Ghanem, Chief Executive of Warba Bank, the best investment bank in Kuwait as well as the best corporate advisory, rang the market-opening bell to celebrate the listing on Nasdaq Dubai of a 250 million US dollar Perpetual Tier 1 Basel III compliant Capital Sukuk. Warba Bank s 250 million US dollar sukuk comprises Perpetual Tier 1 Mudaraba Capital Certificates, non-callable before on March 14, 2022, with the initial coupon set at 6.50%. The sukuk listed on Nasdaq Dubai on March 15, The bell-ringing ceremony took place in the presence of Shaheen Hamad Al Ghanim/ Warba CEO, His Excellency Essa Kazim, Governor of Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), Secretary General of Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre (DIEDC), and Chairman of Dubai Financial Market (DFM) and senior representatives of Warba Bank, as well as Abdul Wahed Al Fahim, Chairman of Nasdaq Dubai and Hamed Ali, Chief Executive of Nasdaq Dubai. The Sukuk instrument will further strengthen Warba Bank s capital base and support the bank s continued growth and development as well as its commitment to Islamic finance. Established in 2010, Warba Bank is expanding its activities in the full range of banking and investment services in Kuwait in compliance with Sharia a principles. The bank s activities have long ago earned the investors trust in observance of the bank high-end performance and its keen commitment to WASHINGTON, March 20: The US-UAE Business Council and the Trade and Commercial Office of the UAE Embassy in Washington, DC, have released a groundbreaking report titled The Entrepreneurial Emirates: The UAE s Startup Ecosystem and Opportunities for US Investors. The first-of-its kind report details how the UAE has long served as a magnet for regional entrepreneurs who are seeking to start or scale businesses. This is particularly true for businesses in the e-commerce sector, where the provide its investors with top-notch investment s tools that would grant them a steady growing income. Moreover, Warba relies on its 5 years new strategy going through 2021 which focuses on transforming the bank to be an Islamic Corporate and Investment Banking Champion with a lean digitally enabled Retail business, through supporting the corporate sector with unparalleled investment s services paving the way for a new developed era in Islamic banking. Shaheen Al-Ghanem, Chief Executive of Warba Bank, said: The success of our sukuk in attracting investors from Kuwait, the MENA region country has given rise to blockbuster successes such as Souq.com. This trend shows no signs of abating. The UAE provides startups with a business-friendly environment with low taxes and relatively favorable regulations. The country also offers strong government backing of SMEs as well as numerous co-working spaces, incubators, accelerators, training programs, and networking opportunities to get new businesses off the ground. In addition, it presents avenues to raise capital from a large and growing number of Photo from the event and beyond reflects the confidence of the market in Warba Bank s strategy for growth and development across all our business areas including investment, treasury, corporate banking and retail banking. We anticipate a great success out of listing Warba sukuk on Nasdaq Dubai s a which is first class listing environment, including its close links with regional and global investors as well as its international regulatory standards, provides important support for this capital-raising initiative. Warba Bank has achieved a tremendous success in covering the underwriting of its sukuk. A one week marketing campaign succeeded in attracting venture capital firms, private equity firms, and angel investors. There has never been a better time for startups to establish operations and investors to access deal flow in the UAE, according to UAE Commercial Counselor Saud Al Nowais. According to Al Nowais, enterprising US investors looking to enter this space will find numerous startups that are set up to succeed by strong underlying economic currents and a supportive ecosystem. They will also find a demand for venture capital and attractive valuations for investor interest worth approximately $1.3 billion from Kuwait, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and London attaining an oversubscription of more than 5 times the sukuk issuance size. The matter that reflects the bank s solidarity, and the overall national economy stability in general considering that this issuance is considered to be one of the most successful issuances in the market. Warba sukuk underwriting has been achieved as the following: 27% in Kuwait, 43% in the markets of the Middle East and North Africa, 22% in the USA and Europe and 8% in Asia. The next step is to list the Sukuk in the Irish stock exchange. Trend highlights opportunities for US investors: report UAE emerging as hub for entrepreneurs and startups promising ventures. Finally, they will enjoy a business-friendly environment in which to establish operations, forge investment partnerships, and access intriguing opportunities in the wider Middle East Africa South Asia (MEASA) region. US-UAE Business Council President Danny Sebright notes, These opportunities are only increasing as attitudes and philosophies toward venture capital rapidly shift for the better and as legal and business reforms accelerate in the UAE and the wider Gulf region.

34 BUSINESS 34 DP World s profits up by 28% Dubai-based DP World, one of the world s largest international port operators, says its full-year profits in 2016 rose nearly 28 percent and revenue climbed almost five percent. The company said in its release Monday that its operations in Dubai s Jebel Ali Free Zone and Canada s Prince Rupert Terminal helped buoy its earnings to $1.13 billion, an increase of nearly $250 million from its 2015 profits. The government-backed port operator s revenues in 2016 reached $4.16 billion compared to $3.9 billion in DP World, which trades on the Nasdaq Dubai, operates more than 77 ports in 40 countries. (AP) Name: Kuwait Sharia Compatible Indices Providers: Al Madar Finance & Investment Co. Description: Index of Sharia compatible companies traded on the KSE Website: Bloomberg Today s Today s closing Prev closing % 1-week 3-month YTD 12-month 24-month Index name ticker value as of value value change change change change change change Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Composite AMIC March 20, % 0.30% 10.92% 10.63% 20.94% -5.93% Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Kuwait Only AMIC March 20, % 0.00% 9.62% 9.59% 17.88% -9.01% Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Active AMIC March 20, % 5.49% 28.96% 26.86% 52.01% 8.39% Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Banking Sector AMIC March 20, % 0.88% 12.73% 12.54% 18.01% % Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Investment Sector AMIC March 20, % 5.39% 29.54% 26.90% 39.79% % Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Insurance Sector AMIC March 20, % 2.67% 53.95% 52.74% 37.43% % Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Real Estate Sector AMIC March 20, % 2.21% 12.16% 11.63% 14.74% -6.90% Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Industrial Sector AMIC March 20, % -0.67% 23.65% 23.43% 26.42% 4.28% Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Services Sector AMIC March 20, % -0.84% 4.53% 4.75% 17.78% -5.95% Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Food Sector AMIC March 20, % -3.68% -3.78% -3.10% 7.60% % Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Islamic Sector AMIC March 20, % 1.69% 16.17% 15.73% 27.49% -5.45% Kuwait Sharia Compatible Index - Non Kuwaiti Sector AMIC March 20, % 5.35% 37.25% 30.46% % % Kuwait Stock Exchange Index - Price KWSEIDX March 20, , , % 1.71% 21.22% 19.30% 30.32% 6.56% S&P 500 SPX March 19, , , % 0.24% 5.32% 6.23% 16.04% 13.28% DJ Islamic Index. DJIM March 19, , , % 1.14% 7.39% 7.68% 12.01% 5.72% Delisting phenomenon hits bourse in 2016 & 17 Almowazi.com The leading specialist in unlisted companies issued its annual study for 2016, The study continues to shed light on the delisting phenomena in the Kuwaiti Bourse. The study shows that the delisting phenomenon is not only sequestered to low value add or no growth companies, high value operational companies are also opting out from the bourse. In 2016, 8 companies with a total value of KD mn delisted from the stock market the companies includes; Kuwait pillars (formerly known as Strategia), Kout Food Group, Al Nawadi holding, Kuwait Packing Materials Manufacturing, City Group, United Medical Services, United Food Stuff Industries Group and Future Telecom delisting Since the beginning of the year 6 companies with a combined value of KD 114 mn delisted from the stock exchange. The companies are: Flex resorts & Real Estate, United Poultry Company, Safwan Trading and Contracting, Ikarus Petroleum Industries, Refrigeration Industries and Taiba Kuwait Holding Company. The number of delisted companies stood at 46 companies, our earlier reports estimated that the number of delisted companies will be around 45 companies. 8 companies are scheduled to be delisted and they are; Gulf Glass Manufacturing Company, National Slaughter House, Securities Group, Jeeran Holding, Alshamel International Holding, Contracting & Marine Services, Eyas for Higher & Technical Education. Increase in compliance and governance cost coupled with low investment opportunities and difficulties in doing business has exacerbated the situation. The preceding reasons lead companies to migrate away from the stock exchange. That said we should note the activities done by the new bourse management and the Capital Market Authority in developing the capital markets in a way that could put a stop to the delisting going forward. In 2016, 23 delisted companies had a traded valued of KD 5.1 mn or about 1.46% of all traded value in the unlisted companies sphere, 3 delisted companies had the lion s shares in terms of value traded. Al- Nawadi Holding, Alqurain Holding and Alahlia holding acquired 67% of the total value traded (as a Kuwait delisted companies report percentage of delisted companies which traded KD 5.1 mn in 2016) in 2016 unlisted companies traded value reached KD mn. In terms of volumes delisted companies traded 402,941 shares or about 8.1% of the total volume traded over 390 deals. In 2016 unlisted companies traded 4.95 billion shares. almowazi.com investment funds Funds Fund Manager Valuation Valued date Currency Net Asset Prev NAV Prev NAV Dated Value (NAV) National Bank of Kuwait Money Market Funds Watani KD Money Market Fund II NBK Capital Weekly Jan 17, 2017 KD Nov 29, 2016 Watani USD Money Market Fund NBK Global Asset Management Co. Ltd. Weekly Jan 17, 2017 USD Nov 22, 2016 Watani KD Money Market Fund (Acc to Islamic Shariah principles) II NBK Global Asset Management Co. Ltd. Weekly Jan 17, 2017 KD Nov 22, 2016 Gulf Bank Al Basha er GCC Equity Fund Kwt. Fin. & Inv. Co. & Gulf Fin. House Monthly Feb 28, 2017 USD Jan 31, 2017 Coast Fund Coast Investment & Dev. Co. Monthly Jan 31, 2017 KD Dec 30, 2016 Sanaya Dow Jones Kuwait Index Fund Industrial & Financial Investment Co. Weekly Dec 29, 2016 KD Nov 24, 2016 Markaz Capital Preservation Program 1 Monthly Feb 28, 2017 KD Dec 31, 2016 Markaz Capital Preservation Program 2 Monthly Feb 28, 2017 KD Dec 31, 2016 Markaz Gulf Real Estate Fund Bi-annual Feb 28, 2017 KD Jan 31, 2017 Al Ahli Bank Al Ahli Gulf Fund Al Ahli Bank Monthly Feb 28, 2017 KD Jan 31, 2017 Al Ahli Kuwaiti Fund Al Ahli Bank Monthly Feb 28, 2017 KD Jan 31, 2017 Burgan Bank Burgan Equity Fund Burgan Bank Monthly Feb 26, 2017 KD Jan 31, 2017 Boubyan Bank Boubyan KD Money Market Fund Boubyan Bank Weekly Feb 28, 2017 KD Feb 21, 2017 Boubyan KD Money Market Fund II Boubyan Bank Weekly Feb 28, 2017 KD Feb 21, 2017 Boubyan Capital Investment Co. Boubyan USD Liquidity Fund Boubyan Capital Investment Co Feb 28, 2017 USD Feb 21, 2017 Boubyan Multi-Asset Holding Fund Boubyan Bank Feb 28, 2017 USD Jan 31, 2017 Kuwait Investment Co. Local Fund Al Raed Fund Kuwait Investment Co Weekly March 9, 2017 KD March 2, 2017 Kuwait Investment Fund Kuwait Investment Co Weekly Feb 28, 2017 KD Jan 31, 2017 Al Hilal Fund Kuwait Investment Co Monthly Feb 28, 2017 KD Feb 13, 2017 Al Atheer Fund Kuwait Investment Co Weekly Feb 28, 2017 KD Jan 31, 2017 International Global Bond Fund Kuwait Investment Co Weekly March 8, 2017 USD Feb 22, 2017 Diversified Fund Kuwait Investment Co Weekly March 8, 2017 USD March 1, 2017 European Fund Kuwait Investment Co Weekly Jan 31, 2017 Euro Dec 30, 2016 Pacific Equity Fund Kuwait Investment Co Weekly March 8, 2017 USD March 1, 2017 North American Equity Fund Kuwait Investment Co Tw. Monthly Feb 28, 2017 USD Jan 31, 2017 National Investment Co. (NIC) Al-Wataniya Fund NIC Monthly Feb 28, 2017 KD Jan 31, 2017 Al-Darij Fund NIC Monthly Feb 28, 2017 KD Jan 31, 2017 Mawarid Fund NIC Monthly Feb 28, 2017 KD Jan 31, 2017 Zajil Fund NIC Monthly Feb 28, 2017 KD Jan 31, 2017 Al Mada Investment Fund NIC Weekly Feb 28, 2017 USD Jan 31, 2017 Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) Mumtaz Fund Kuwait Financial Center Weekly March 9, 2017 KD Feb 23, 2017 MIDAF Kuwait Financial Center Weekly March 9, 2017 KD Feb 23, 2017 Islamic Fund Kuwait Financial Center Weekly March 9, 2017 KD Feb 23, 2017 Markaz Arabian Fund Kuwait Financial Center Weekly Nov 10, 2016 KD Nov 3, 2016 FORSA Financial Fund Kuwait Financial Center Monthly Feb 28, 2017 KD Jan 31, 2017 Real Estate Fund Kuwait Financial Center Monthly Feb 28, 2017 KD Jan 31, 2017 Markaz Fixed Income Fund Kuwait Financial Center Monthly March 9, 2017 USD Feb 23, 2017 Mawazeen International Fund Kuwait Financial Center Weekly March 12, 2017 USD Feb 27, 2017 Markaz MENA Islamic Fund Kuwait Financial Center Weekly Feb 28, 2017 USD Jan 31, 2017 Kuwait & Middle East Financial & Inv. Co. Al Rou yah Fund KMEFIC Monthly Feb 28, 2017 KD Jan 31, 2017 Gulf Gate Fund KMEFIC Monthly Oct 31, 2016 KD Sept 30, 2016 Global Investment House Index Funds GCC Large Cap Index Fund Global Weekly March 9, 2017 KD Feb 23, 2017 Funds Fund Manager Valuation Valued date Currency Net Asset Prev NAV Prev NAV Dated Value (NAV) Equity Funds Al-Mamoun Fund A Global Weekly March 9, 2017 KD Feb 23, 2017 Al-Mamoun Fund B Global Weekly March 9, 2017 KD Feb 23, 2017 GCC Large Cap Fund Global Bi-weekly March 7, 2017 USD Feb 21, 2017 Al-Noor Fund Global Bi-weekly Jan 31, 2017 SAR Jan 24, 2017 Global Saudi Equity Fund Global Bi-weekly March 7, 2017 SAR Feb 21, 2017 Money Market Funds Global Money Market Fund Global Weekly Nov 20, 2016 USD Sectoral Funds EPADI Fund Global Weekly March 7, 2017 USD Feb 21, 2017 Islamic Funds Global GCC Islamic Fund Global Weekly March 7, 2017 USD Feb 21, 2017 Al-Durra Islamic Fund Global Monthly March 9, 2017 KD Feb 23, 2017 Kuwait Finance & Investment Co (KFIC) Al Wasm Fund KFIC Weekly Feb 15, 2017 KD Jan 18, 2017 Al Basha er GCC Equity Fund KFIC Monthly Dec 31, 2016 USD Nov 30, 2016 KAMCO KAMCO Investment Fund KAMCO Monthly Jan 31, 2017 KD Nov 30, 2016 KAMCO GCC Opportunities Fund KAMCO Monthly July 31, 2016 USD Feb 29, 2016 KAMCO MENA Plus Fixed Income Fund KAMCO Jan 31, 2017 USD Dec 31, 2016 KAMCO Real Estate Yield Fund KAMCO Jan 31, 2017 USD Dec 30, 2016 Kuwait Education Fund KAMCO Quartely Sept 30, 2016 KD Wafra International Investment Co. Wafra Equity Fund Wafra Co. Monthly Feb 28, 2017 KD Jan 31, 2017 Wafra Bond Fund Wafra Co. Monthly Feb 28, 2017 KD Jan 31, 2017 Masaref Investment Fund ISKAN Weekly Feb 28, 2017 KD Jan 31, 2017 Fajir Islamic Fund Wafra Co. Monthly Feb 28, 2017 KD Jan 31, 2017 Shuaa Capital Co. Emirates Gateway Fund Shuaa Capital Weekly Feb 7, 2017 AED Jan 31, 2017 The Arab Gateway Fund Shuaa Capital Weekly Feb 7, 2017 USD Jan 31, 2017 Al Aman Investment Al Aman Islamic Fund Al Aman Investment Weekly Dec 31, 2016 KD Nov 1, 2016 Tharwa Investment Co. Tharwa Investment Fund Tharwa Investment Co Weekly March 13, 2017 KD Dec 31, 2016 Tharwa Arab Investment Fund Tharwa Investment Co Bi-weekly July 31, 2016 USD June 30, 2016 Tharwa World Fund Tharwa Investment Co Monthly March 31, 2016 USD March 15, 2016 Tharwa Islamic Fund Tharwa Investment Co Monthly March 13, 2017 KD Dec 31, 2016 Bank Al-Bilad Al Seef Fund Bank Al-Bilad Daily March 15, 2017 KD March 1, 2017 Commercial International Bank CIB Money Market Fund (Osoul) CI Asset Management Weekly March 20, 2017 EGP March 15, 2017 CIB II Equity (Isthethmar) CI Asset Management Weekly March 20, 2017 EGP March 15, 2017 CIB and Faisal Islamic Al Aman CI Asset Management Weekly March 20, 2017 EGP March 15, 2017 Hemaya CI Asset Management Weekly March 1, 2017 EGP Feb 1, 2017 Thabat CI Asset Management Weekly March 20, 2017 EGP March 15, 2017 Takamol CI Asset Management Weekly March 19, 2017 EGP March 12, 2017 Misr El Mostakbel CI Asset Management Weekly March 20, 2017 EGP March 15, 2017 Noor Financial Investment Co. Noor Islamic Fund Noor Financial Investment Co Monthly Feb 29, 2016 KD Dec 31, 2015 Al Zumorroda Investment Co. Zumorroda GCC Fund Al Zumorroda Investment Co Monthly Jan 31, 2016 KD Dec 31, 2015 KFH Capital Investment Co. Muthanna Islamic Index Fund (MUDX) KFH Capital Investment Company Daily Feb 28, 2017 KD Jan 31, 2017 Muthanna GCC Islamic Banks Fund KFH Capital Investment Company Daily Feb 28, 2017 KD Jan 31, 2017 Baitak GCC Fund KFH Capital Investment Company Weekly Feb 28, 2017 KD Jan 31, 2017 CapCorp Investment Co. CapCorp Local Fund CapCorp Investment Company Weekly Feb 28, 2017 KD Jan 31, 2017

35 BUSINESS 35 Egypt s CIB completes $40 mln sale of its unit Egypt s largest listed bank CIB said on Monday it had finalised the sale of a near 75 percent stake in its investment banking arm to a consortium of local and foreign investors in a deal worth million Egyptian pounds ($39.5 million). Commercial International Bank (CIB) signed an agreement in December to sell the majority of its shares in CI Capital to a group of Egyptian and Gulf investors. It did not give the value of the deal at the time. CIB said in a statement on Monday that CI Capital s market value totalled about 950 million pounds and that it had completed the transfer of percent of the shares, retaining a minority stake of about 25 percent. Shares in CIB were down 1.14 percent at 1143 GMT. Mahmoud Atallah, the chief executive of CI Capital, told Reuters a general assembly would be called in the next two weeks to appoint a new board. Market sources have said they expect CIB to eventually offer its remaining shares on the stock exchange. Atallah said the new board would decide what to do with the remaining shares. CIB had been seeking buyers for its investment unit since a planned sale to Beltone Financial, agreed in February last year, failed to win regulatory approval. (RTRS) Kuwait bourse closes higher in choppy trade NAPESCO soars 40 fils; Ooredoo dives By John Mathews Arab Times Staff KUWAIT CITY, March 20: Kuwait stocks eked modest gains on Monday extending the winning streak to fifth consecutive day. The main index rose pts in choppy trade to 6, points even as the board remained broadly mixed. The banks and real estate majors however were mostly muted. The KSX 15 benchmark climbed 3.49 points to pts taking the year s gains to 80 points while weighted index inched 0.52 pts into green. The volume turnover meanwhile rose slightly to hit month s second highest level million shares changed hands a 2.43 pct rise from the day before. The sectors diverged. Oil and gas outshone the rest with 2.78 pct gain whereas technology dipped 2.99 percent, the worst performer of the day. In terms of volume, real estate garnered the highest market share of 55.6 pct and financial services trailed far behind with 25 pct contribution In the individual shares, Ahli United Bank climbed 20 fils to 465 fils and investment conglomerate KIPCO gave up 5 fils to settle at 485 fils. NAPESCO soared 40 fils recouping Sunday s drop while Humansoft Holding gained 20 fils. Zain rose 10 fils to 460 fils extending the last session s gains and Wataniya Telecom (Ooredoo) tumbled 60 fils to KD Kuwait Telecommunications Co ( VIVA) was up 10 fils at 840 fils and Agility followed suit. National Bank of Kuwait was flat at 750 fils and Boubyan Bank too did not budge from its earlier close of 420 fils. The bank s fourth quarter profit rose 13.5 pct year-on-year to KD million and for the full year profit was up 16.6 pct to KD mln. The market opened on a firm note but slipped into red in early trade. The main index bounced to scale the day s highest mark of 6, points and retreated thereafter as sentiment weakened. It continued to drift lower and plumbed the day s lowest level of 6, points in final minutes before clawing back into the green zone at close. Top gainer of the day, Yiaco spiked 10 pct to 275 fils while Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) climbed 7.22 pct to stand next. Sanam Real Estate Co slid 8.47 percent, the steepest decliner of the day and Abyaar Real Estate Co topped the volume with million shares. Despite the day s uptick, the losers slightly outnumbered the winners. 43 stocks advanced whereas 47 closed lower. Of the 143 counters active on Monday, 53 closed lower deals worth KD 35.2 million were transacted a 15.6 pct drop in value from the day before. National Industries Group eased 2 fils to 134 fils with a volume of 1.8 million while Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Co and Shuaiba Paper Industries Co rose 10 fils each. Kuwait Portland Cement Co climbed 40 fils to KD Gained Kuwait Foundry Co gained 15 fils whereas ACICO Industries and Boubyan Petrochemical Co stood pat at 300 fils and 580 fils respectively. Metal and Recycling Co too was unchanged at 76 fils and NICBM took in 2 fils. Jazeera Airways rose 10 fils to 580 fils and ALAFCO gave up 2 fils. Gulf Cable was up 5 fils at 500 fils. KCPC dropped 10 fils while KPPC and OSOS clipped 2 fils each. Automated Systems Co dived 25 fils with razor thin trading whereas Combined Group Co and Burgan Well Drilling Co were unchanged at 495 fils and 93 fils respectively. UPAC slipped 10 fils and Al Rai Media Group fell 2 fils. Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Co dialed up 2 fils and KGL Logistics inched 1 fil higher. Zimah Holding edged 1 fil into red and Mezzan Holding gained 20 fils. Independent Petroleum Group jumped 25 fils to 425 fils. In the banking sector, Kuwait Finance House and Burgan Bank were flat at 620 fils and 325 fils respectively whereas Kuwait International Bank gave up 4 fils. Gulf Bank was unchanged at 246 fils off slight early highs and Warba Bank was up 5 fils at 265 fils. Commercial Bank and Al Ahli Bank were not traded during the session. International Financial Advisors ( IFA) inched 0.5 fil higher on back of 3.4 million shares whereas Kuwait Investment Co and National Investment Co paused at 96 fils and 118 fils respectively. Coast Investment Co eased 0.5 fil to 48.5 fils. Bayan Investment Co fell 1.5 fils while Arzan and Al Mal took in 0.5 fil each. KFIC added 2.5 fils and Noor Financial Investment Co clipped 2 fils. KMEFIC and Al Mal Investment Co took in 0.5 fil each while Osoul Investment dialed up 2 fils. KAMCO was up 1 fil at 88 fils whereas Securities Group and Securities House Co paused at 99 fils and 53 fils respectively. Sokouk Holding gave up 0.5 fil while Al Deera Holding and Tamdeen Investment Co stalled at 39 fils and 320 fils respectively. Kuwait Real Estate Co and United Real Estate Co were flat at 75 fils and 94 fils respectively while Salhiya Real Estate Co was down 5 fils at 370 fils. National Real Estate Co paused at 106 fils and Mazaya Holding too did not budge from its earlier close of 132 fils. The market has been trending higher so far during the week and has climbed 58 points in last two sessions. It has gained 85 points from start of the month and is trading 19.5 pct higher year-to-date. KSE, with 208 listed companies, is the second largest bourse in the region. In the bourse related news, Al Mazaya Holding net profits soared 31.7 pct to KD 2.59 million in last quarter of 2016 while profits rose 10 pct to KD million during the fiscal year of The board has recommended an annual cash dividend of 8% or 8 fils per share. Gulf Glass Manufacturing Co s fourth quarter net profit dipped o 64% in KD 14,000 from KD 39,000 in same period last year. During the fiscal year of 2016, profits was down 48 percent to KD 1.21 million from KD 2.34 mln in the previous year. Al Mowasat Health Care has posted KD 1.8 million profits during the fourth quarter of 2016 and for the fiscal year of 2016, earnings rose 35.3 pct to KD 4.52 million from the year before. The board of directors has recommended a dividend payout of 20% or 20 fils per share. Injazzat Real Estate Development has posted a net profit of KD 550,000 in the last quarter of 2016 and during the fiscal year of 2016, the bank earned KD 3.2 million. The board has recommended a cash dividend of 5% or 5 fils per share for FY Ajial Real Estate Entertainment Company (AREEC) net losses narrowed by 22.7 pct to KD 888,620 from KD 1.15 million in Q4 of The annual profits in 2016 clocked KD 1.5 million and the board has recommended the distribution of cash dividends at 5% of capital. Mideast stocks Qatar rises as it completes FTSE upgrade Insurance, petchems dampen Saudi index DUBAI, March 20, (RTRS): Stock markets in the Middle East were mixed on Monday with petrochemicals and the insurance sector weighing on Saudi Arabia while Qatar rose as it completed its upgrade by index compiler FTSE Russell to secondary emerging market status. The Saudi index fell 0.5 percent with the main drag coming from the petrochemical sector as Brent oil futures fell further towards $51 a barrel. Saudi Kayan Petrochemical lost 1.9 percent. Most insurance shares, which had risen strongly on Sunday, retreated. Solidarity Saudi Takaful slumped 5.6 percent after the company said the regulator had suspended its right to issue health insurance policies because of regulatory violations; the firm did not describe those violations. Solidarity said it would meet with regulators soon to resolve the issue, without specifying a date. On Sunday it had jumped 3.8 percent after it reduced its accumulated losses to below 50 percent of its capital. Chubb Arabia Cooperative Insurance fell 0.8 percent after it said it would not distribute a cash dividend for 2016 in order to improve its solvency. Egypt s index retreated 0.5 percent in the highest volume in a month as investors took profits; the index has closed higher in seven of the last 10 sessions as the Egyptian pound weakened against the US dollar. Arabian Cement dropped 3.0 percent and was the worst performer in the index despite reporting a near tripling in its fourth-quarter net profit to 87 million Egyptian pounds ($4.8 million). Revenue was also strong, up 30 percent. Other construction and materialsrelated shares also fell, with Ezz Steel closing 2.7 percent lower. Dubai s index lost 0.5 percent in very thin trade with declining shares outnumbering advancing ones 18 to three. Builder Drake & Scull fell 2.2 percent. Abu Dhabi s, however, added 0.9 percent on the back of gains in blue chips, which had been the main drag on the index in the prior session. Real estate developer Aldar Properties rebounded 3.0 percent and telecommunications firm Etisalat gained 1.1 percent. Some investors are rotating into shares which are due to make dividend payouts in coming weeks; Aldar will go ex-dividend on March 29 and Etisalat on April 18. In Qatar, the second and final phase of the FTSE upgrade took effect from the opening, with 20 of 22 companies selected in September 2016 seeing their investibility weights doubled. Those stocks saw selling pressure in recent days as investors who had tried to front-run the entry of passive funds into the stocks bailed out. But that selling appeared to ease on Monday with most of stocks in the group closing higher. Commercial Bank added 1.9 percent. Saudi Arabia The index fell 0.5 percent to 6,919 points. Dubai The index dropped 0.5 percent to 3,477 points. Abu Dhabi The index added 0.9 percent to 4,458 points. Qatar The index rose 0.7 percent to 10,407 points. Kuwait The index edged up 0.2 percent to 6,869 points. Egypt The index lost 0.5 percent to 13,023 points. Oman The index fell 0.2 percent to 5,671 points. Bahrain The index edged down 0.2 percent to 1,374 points.

36 BUSINESS 36 Google apologises to ad clients Venezuela taps small banks to handle dollar deals Google apologised on Monday for allowing ads to appear alongside offensive videos on You- Tube as more high-profile fi rms such as Marks & Spencer and HSBC pulled advertising for British markets from Google sites. The British government has suspended its advertising on YouTube after some public sector ads appeared next to videos carrying homophobic and anti-semitic messages, prompting a flood of major companies to follow suit. Britain is the largest market for Alphabet Inc s Google outside the United States, generating $7.8 billion mainly from advertising in 2016, or nearly 9 percent of the US giant s global revenue. I would like to apologise to our partners and advertisers who might have been affected by their ads appearing on controversial content, Google EMEA President Matt Brittin said at the annual Advertising Week Europe event in London. Besides well-known British brands pulling the plug, some of the world s biggest advertising companies responsible for placing vast amounts of marketing material for clients, said they were reviewing how they worked with Google. (RTRS) Venezuela s government is using little-known banks, including a small Puerto Rican lender, as intermediaries for some international trade operations after Citigroup last year stopped providing such services, according to the owner of one of the banks and government officials. The government has turned to relatively unknown institutions to provide a service known as correspondent banking, as international banks are increasingly concerned about the risks of doing business with socialist-ruled Venezuela amid investigations into corruption and drug traffi cking. It also coincides with complaints by President Nicolas Maduro that Venezuela is struggling to obtain fi nancial services amid a severe economic crisis characterized by triple-digit infl ation and chronic shortages. Government offi cials call the drug allegations a campaign against their administration by ideological adversaries in the United States, and insist Venezuela s problems are being caused by an economic war. The situation does not affect payment of state oil company PD- VSA s high-yielding bonds, which continue to be serviced by Citi due to contractual obligation, according to a 2016 letter from Citi to PDV- SA bondholders seen by Reuters. (RTRS) Premier Li urges talks China braces to counter any US trade penalties BEIJING, March 20, (RTRS): China s government has been seeking advice from its thinktanks and policy advisers on how to counter potential trade penalties from US President Donald Trump, getting ready for the worst, even as they hope for business-like negotiations. The policy advisers believe the Trump administration is most likely to impose higher tariffs on targeted sectors where China has a big surplus with the United States, such as steel and furniture, or on state-owned firms. China could respond with actions such as finding alternative suppliers of agriculture products or machinery and manufactured goods, while cutting its exports of consumer staples such as mobile phones or laptops, they said. Other options include imposing tax or other restrictions on big US firms operating in China, or limiting their access to China s fast-growing services sector, they added. Beijing was a particular target of Trump s rhetoric during last year s election campaign, and officials see some friction as inevitable due to China s large trade surplus, according to several sources involved in the internal discussions. China s State Council Information Office, the government public relations arm, and the Ministry of Commerce did not return requests for comment. Policy There is still room for both sides to resolve problems through co-operation and consultation, rather than just resorting to retaliation, said a policy adviser who spoke on condition of anonymity. But we should have plans in case things go wrong. Premier Li Keqiang said last week that Beijing did not want to see a trade war with the United States and urged talks between both sides to achieve common ground. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also said last week that the Trump administration did not want trade wars, but that certain trade relationships needed re-examining to make them fairer for US workers. No major US measures have been announced, and there were no public indications of Washington s intentions on trade at the weekend when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited China. Trump is expected to host President Xi Jinping next month. A glimpse of the uncertain future, however, came on Saturday in a communique after a meeting of finance ministers at the G20 in Germany, which dropped a pledge to keep global trade free and open, acquiescing to an increasingly protectionist United States after the two-day meeting failed to yield a compromise. The sources said China could step up some imports from the United States and boost its investment there to help create more jobs as a goodwill gesture, but would not meekly accept any unilateral US action. We will have contingency plans to cope with the worst policies from Trump, said a second policy adviser. Trump has previously threatened a 45 percent tariff on China s exports and frequently said on the campaign trail that he would label China a currency manipulator, even though Beijing has not been actively weakening the yuan in recent years. In an interview with Reuters on Feb 23, he declared China the grand champions of currency manipulation. It s hard to say his views have changed or he has become more pragmatic, said the first adviser. Mnuchin has pledged a more methodical approach to analysing Beijing s foreign exchange practices. Under the three criteria set by the US Treasury to determine whether a country is manipulating its currency for a trade advantage, China only meets one: running a trade surplus of more than $20 billion with the United States. The US Treasury s next report on the issue is due in April. China s surplus with the United States fell by $20.1 billion to $347 billion in 2016, the US Commerce Department said on Tuesday, while Chinese data put it somewhat lower. One of the sources said he thought it unlikely that Trump would label China a currency manipulator. If he does that, China will let the yuan go, and the yuan will fall sharply, the source said. Weakening the yuan or dumping some of China s massive holdings of U.S Treasuries could be considered only when trade relations deteriorate sharply, the sources said. Earlier this month, former commerce minister Gao Hucheng said during the annual meeting of parliament that China was not afraid of a trade war, though it hoped to avoid one. We are willing to deal with it properly, but we are not afraid. Once the US side take certain measures, we will evaluate and analyse such measures, and take actions when necessary, Gao said. Trade protectionism worry drags on stocks; dollar at 6-week low NEW YORK, March 20, (RTRS): US and European stock markets were little changed on Monday amid investor concerns as world financial leaders at a G20 meeting dropped a pledge to keep global trade free and open, while the dollar hit a six-week low on worries over a dovish Federal Reserve. Financial leaders of the world s biggest economies made only a token reference to trade on Saturday, acquiescing to an increasingly protectionist United States after a twoday G20 meeting failed to yield a compromise. Financial markets reacted cautiously after the meeting. Lower crude prices weighed on energy shares on both sides of the Atlantic, with European stocks little changed on the day. A two percent fall in Deutsche Bank shares hurt European banking stocks. Investors were awaiting a spate of Fed speakers this week, including Chair Janet Yellen on Thursday. Anxiety over the G20 decision further stalled the benchmark US S&P 500 index s gains after two straight sessions of declines last week. Still, the index was up more than 11 percent since the election of US President Donald Trump in November, spurred by optimism over his plans to reform the tax code and cut regulation. Given the slow progress in implementing tax cuts and infrastructure spending plans, markets will soon realize that they are ahead of themselves, said Hussein Sayed, chief market strategist at FXTM. I m still quite confident that US protectionist policies will do more harm than good. The tech-heavy US Nasdaq Composite index bucked the trend and ticked up to a record high of 5, MSCI s all-country world equity index was up 0.25 points, or 0.06 percent, at The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose points, or 0.12 percent, to 20,939.47, the S&P 500 lost 1.61 points, or 0.07 percent, to 2, and the Nasdaq Composite added 6.40 points, or 0.11 percent, to 5, Europe s broad FTSEurofirst 300 index dropped 0.14 percent at 1, The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was last roughly flat at after touching its lowest since Feb 7 of The index extended last week s weakness following recent interest-rate guidance from the US Fed that was less hawkish than many had expected. It s follow-through and a hangover from last week - the concept of a dovish Fed, said Brad Bechtel, managing director at Jefferies in New York. The dollar s weakness made dollarpriced gold cheaper for non-us investors and helped spot gold prices hit a two-week peak of $1, an ounce. Oil prices fall on concerns of growing US output Oil prices fell as investors continued to unwind bets on higher prices because of concerns that growing US oil output could hamper an OPEC-led deal on production reductions. Brent crude was last down 29 cents, or 0.56 percent, at $51.47 a barrel. US crude was down 62 cents, or 1.27 percent, at $48.16 per barrel. The cautious mood boosted safehaven Treasuries prices, helping push yields on safe-haven 10-year US Treasury notes to a two-week low of percent. US US stocks were little changed on Monday, with the Nasdaq Composite easing off its record intraday high, as investors looked for fresh catalysts after the Federal Reserve s interest rate hike last week. The US stock market has been on a record-setting spree since the election of Donald Trump as president, but the rally has faltered in recent weeks as investors fret over the lack of clarity on his proposals to reform taxes and cut regulation. Analysts have also said the Trump administration is spending too much of its political capital to pass a Republican-proposed healthcare bill, which may leave it wanting for support when it tries to reform the tax code. With tax reform and infrastructure spending getting pushed to the end of this year or even next year, it will eventually weigh on sentiment and business confidence, said Randy Frederick, vice-president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas. Eventually, the market will lose patience, Frederick said. At 12:42 pm ET (1642 GMT) the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up points, or 0.11 percent, at 20, The S&P 500 was down 1.45 points, or 0.06 percent, at 2, The Nasdaq Composite was up 5.64 points, or 0.1 percent, at 5,906.64, off its record high of Six of the 11 major S&P sectors were lower, with the utilities index s 0.65 percent fall leading the decliners. Oil fell as investors continued to unwind bets on higher prices. The US Federal Reserve s conservative rate guidance is also keeping the market in check. All eyes will be on Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans when he speaks later in the day. Last week, the central bank raised interest rates for the first time this year but stuck to its outlook for two more hikes this year, instead of three expected by the market. Apple rose nearly 1 percent, hitting a new record-high of $ The iphone-maker s stock could rise another 10 percent in six months, Barron s wrote in an article posted Saturday and Cowen & Co upgraded its price target on the stock. Caterpillar rose 2.4 percent to $95.15, providing the biggest boost to the Dow, after the company reported a smaller decline in sales for 3 months through February versus period ending in January. Walt Disney rose 0.9 percent to $ after the company s Beauty and the Beast topped box-office sales. The stock was among the biggest boosts on the Dow. Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 1,592 to 1,238. On the Nasdaq, 1,620 issues fell and 1,180 advanced. The S&P 500 index showed 25 new 52-week highs and 3 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 91 new highs and 29 new lows. Asia China stocks recouped earlier losses to end slightly higher on Monday, as strong gains in energy stocks offset weakness in developers following fresh measures to cool the property market. The blue-chip CSI300 index rose 0.1 percent, to 3, points, while the Shanghai Composite Index added 0.4 percent to 3, points. The impact of earlier property cooling steps by many cities may have been short-lived, data showed on Saturday. China s home prices picked up speed again in February after slowing in the previous four months, while sales surged. Over the past week, a number of local governments have stepped up restrictions on property investment, and the central government vowed to control bank lending to the property sector. An index tracking the property sector posted its worst day in three months, after more cities imposed fresh property restrictions over the weekend. Investors in China are being torn between recent data showing a resilient economy and fears that expected policy tightening, while gradual, will eventually lead to higher borrowing costs and stunt business activity. Sector performance was mixed. While property stocks dragged on the market, energy firms rallied strongly, led by heavyweight China Shenhua after the country s largest coal miner announced a spectacular dividend payment proposal. Shares in the coal miner surged by their 10 percent trade limit to close at a 19-month high, as the company proposed to pay total dividend of 59 billion yuan ($8.54 billion) in cash after recording a 40.7 percent increase in net profit for Hong Kong stocks powered to 19-month closing highs on Monday, as surges in energy and tech shares helped sustain optimism sparked last week by belief the Federal Reserve won t raise US interest rates too aggressively this year. But an index tracking mainland properties tumbled, after China stepped up real estate curbs in a number of cities, and vowed to restrict lending to the sector. The Hang Seng index rose 0.8 percent, to 24,501.99, while the China Enterprises Index gained 0.7 percent, to 10, points. China Shenhua Energy led gains in the energy sector and lifted market sentiment. Shenhua, one of China s top coal miners, surged 16 percent to an 18-month high after it said its 2016 net profit rose 40.7 percent and expected first-quarter net profit to climb at least 50 percent. Oil Oil fell on Monday as investors continued to unwind bets on higher prices after record cuts last week because of concerns that growing US oil output could hamper an OPEC-led deal on production reductions. Benchmark Brent crude futures were down 31 cents at $51.45 a barrel by 1409 GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures fell by 52 cents to $ Speculative investors have thrown in the towel, it seems. We ve got record selling in the week ending March 14 and the bleeding has not stopped yet, said Carsten Fritsch, senior commodities analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt. Oil futures have retreated in the past two weeks as a supply overhang driven by rising production from the United States overshadows a deal by OPEC and other producers to rein in crude output. Last week speculators cut more than 150,000 contracts betting on firmer US and Brent oil prices, a record high. Latest US drilling data supported estimates for higher production, with 14 oil rigs added in the week to March 17 to 631, the most since September 2015, energy services company Baker Hughes Inc said on Friday. Growing US production is playing into concerns about the effectiveness of the deal between members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other producers. Gold Gold prices scaled a two-week peak on Monday as the dollar slid to a sixweek low after a G20 weekend summit dominated by the US administration s protectionist stance on global trade. The precious metal has been rising since Wednesday, when the dollar dropped after the US Federal Reserve raised interest rates but stopped short of predicting a sharper acceleration in monetary tightening over the next two years. Gold is sensitive to falling interest rates, which reduces the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion. Overall the geopolitical outlook still points to several hotspots... and we re not going to see a focus on rate rises for the foreseeable future now, because that s out the way. Over the next few weeks one has to favour the upside, said Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank. Spot gold rose 0.3 percent to $1, an ounce by 1450 GMT, after touching $1,235.50, its highest since March 6. US gold futures gained 0.1 percent to $1, BEC Muzaini Dollarco Commercial Bank Gulf Bank NBK Burgan Bank ABK KFH KBE BEC Muzaini Dollarco Commercial Bank Gulf Bank NBK Burgan Bank ABK KFH KBE BEC Muzaini Dollarco Gulf Bank ABK KFH KBE exchange rates March 20 Buy Buy Buy Buy Buy Buy Buy Buy Buy Buy Buy Buy Buy Buy Buy Buy Buy Buy US dollar Danish krone Cyprus pound Sterling pound Indian rupee Yemeni riyal travellers cheques US dollar Sterling Euro local gold BEC Commercial Bank Gulf Bank Al-Ahli Bank BEC Muzaini Exchange Euro Pakistani rupee Thai baht Japanese yen Sri Lanka rupee South African rand Swiss franc Bangladesh taka Korean won Gold 999 kg 12, Canadian dollar Philippine peso Syrian pound Gold tola 1, Gold ounce Swedish krona Australian dollar Iranian Riyal Gold gm 22k Saudi riyal Gold gm 21k Hong Kong dollar Lebanese pound Gold gm 18k UAE dirham Singapore dollar Malaysian ringgit gm Bahraini dinar gm Jordanian dinar Indonesian rupiah Omani riyal Egyptian pound New Zealand dollar All rates in KD per unit of foreign currency

37 INTERNATIONAL 37 Risk-benefit analysis reflects new caution Counting Americans: A new Mideast box on census is sensitive DEARBORN, Mich, March 20, (AP): Zahraa Ballout isn t white, and she certainly isn t some other race. If the government gives her the choice of checking a new Middle East/North Africa box on a census form, would she? Yes, she says, despite some reservations about what it would mean to stand out after Americans elected a president who wants to ban travel from some countries in the region and has spoken favorably of registering Muslims in the US. I would feel some wariness because you don t know exactly the consequences or what s coming next after you check the box, says 21-year-old Ballout, a student in Dearborn, Michigan, who s been in the country three years. I don t want to fool myself to think that checking another box (other than the new one) is going to protect me in some way. Ballou s risk-benefit analysis reflects a new caution surrounding the way the US government counts Americans, an every-decade exercise mandated in the Constitution that influences the nation s day-to-day operations in ways big and small. That includes representation in Congress and how taxpayer money is doled out for education, public health, transportation and more. The Census Bureau on Feb 28 for the first time recommended including the new category, which would mostly affect Muslims. The Office of Management and Budget is expected to make the decision later this year. The move is the product of years of research and decades of advocacy for Arab and other groups from the region that predate Donald Trump s presidential campaign. The Census Bureau said that when it tested a new MENA category in 2015, people of Middle Eastern or North African descent tended to check off that box. When it wasn t there, they d select white or, increasingly, some other race. Including the separate category, the agency said, is optimal to get a more accurate count of Americans. There s nothing for me to hide, said Hussein Dabajeh, 30, a lifelong Dearborn resident who said his ancestors arrived from what s now Lebanon in Dabajeh says he d check the MENA box. I can be American of Arab descent without being un-american. The disparity can be seen in a basic statistic. The Arab American Institute estimates as many as 3.7 million people in the United States have Arab roots. The Census Bureau estimates there are 1.8 million Arab Americans in the US according to data it has collected. Among other things, that means there are no accurate national numbers to provide clues to whether certain medical ailments are as suspected unusually common in people of that background, experts say. Both tallies show explosive growth in that population since And both support the new box on the 2020 census that would represent people with backgrounds from 19 countries in the region. But singling oneself out in that way has become sensitive at a time when Trump has linked a crackdown on Muslims with better national security. As a candidate, he called for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States. As president, Trump has twice ordered travel bans on people from certain majority-muslim nations. Federal courts have blocked those orders, but on Friday, the Trump administration said it would appeal the latest ruling. HH Amir arrives MP warns Continued from Page 1 Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Sheikh Jaber Al-Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Sheikh Faisal Al-Saud Al- Mohammad Al-Sabah, Deputy Chairman of the National Guard Sheikh Meshaal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, His Highness Sheikh Nasser Al- Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, Deputy Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Ali Jarrah Al-Sabah, Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Sheikh Khaled Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah and senior officials of the army, police and National Guard. His Highness the Amir s accompanying delegation comprises First Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, Deputy Premier and Minister of Defense Sheikh Mohammad Al- Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, Deputy Premier and Finance Minister Anas Al-Saleh, His Highness the Amir s Office Chief Ahmad Al-Fahad, Advisor at the Amiri Diwan Mohammad Abul-Hassan, Amiri Protocol Chief Sheikh Khaled Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah, Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Al- Jarallah, KFAED Director-General Abdulwahab Al-Bader, Amiri Diwan s Media Chief Yousef Al-Roumi, Chief of Amiri Diwan s Political and Economic Affairs Sheikh Fawaz Al-Saud Al-Nasser Al-Sabah, Managing Director of Kuwait Investment Authority Bader Al-Saad, Assistant Foreign Minister for the First Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister s Affairs Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al- Sabah and senior officials of Amiri Diwan and Foreign Ministry. Continued from Page 1 Continued from Page 1 and entities. The gathering is mainly intended to give support to an emerging international effort to protest cultural heritage in areas of conflict worldwide. Addressing the conference, the Kuwaiti Minister stressed that the Gulf country was keen on helping with this cause that was noble and worthy and merited attention especially for preserving cultural heritage for future generations. He said he was honored to represent His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah at the conference, and voiced thanks to the organizers. The Kuwaiti minister stressed the State of Kuwait s keenness on providing all kinds of support and help to all efforts aiming at protecting heritage. He also lauded the joint efforts of France and United Arab Emirates (UAE) to create an international althese companies to see if they comply with the price structure. He also wants to know is anyone has until now been arrested for tampering and artificially raising the prices, and if so, how many people have been arrested and what action has been taken against them. Meanwhile, MP Saadoun Hamad Al-Otaibi has presented to proposals on cancer and infertility treatment. In the first proposal, Al-Otaibi said that to remarkable increase in the number of patients suffering from cancer, based on local statistics issued by World Health Organization cancer is the second biggest killer disease in Kuwait after heart attacks. He called for creating a specialized global medical centre to treat all types of cancer cases employing world renowned medics on contract basis or periodic visits system. The center should have modern state-of-the-art equipment to match the treatment available in the United States and Europe. Until the establishment of such a center, he said, the cancer patients should be able to travel abroad for medical treatment without the routine referral to the concerned committee. He also proposed the creation of a specialized research center to determine the causes of the significant spread of this disease in Kuwait and how to prevent and treat it. On the second proposal, Al-Otaibi said due to the remarkable increase in cases of infertility and lack of specialized center for treatment of such cases in government hospitals patients continue to suffer. He said such people either resort to private hospitals and clinics or travel abroad to receive treatment where they may spend long periods and this puts strain on their pockets if they travel on their own or it puts a burden on the state treasury if the treatment is done abroad at the expense of the State. Therefore, Al-Otaibi proposed the establishment of an integrated specialized center to treat infertility. Kuwait pledges Syrian army regains ground in Damascus as rebels retreat BEIRUT, March 20, (RTRS): Syria s army staged a counterattack in northeastern Damascus on Monday, but there were conflicting accounts of how much ground it regained after Sunday s rebel assault. A Syrian military source and a war monitor said the army had recaptured all the positions it had lost, but rebels said they were still holding on to some of their gains despite heavy aerial bombing that had forced them to retreat. The army s advance involved heavy fighting and intense air strikes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a military media unit run by the army s ally Hezbollah said. A Reuters witness saw war planes circling in the sky above northeast Damascus, mortar fire, and a street with a line of burned-out cars from the fighting in the Jobar and al-qaboun districts. The Observatory, a British-based war monitor that collects information from a network of sources across Syria, said heavy fighting continued and that the army had unleashed more than 500 air raids and artillery strikes. The Hezbollah-run military media unit said that air raids were aimed at rebel supply lines. Rebels had attacked in Jobar to relieve military pressure after their loss of ground in nearby Qaboun and Barza, a commander from the Failaq al-rahman group which is fighting there said on Sunday. The intensity of the Syrian army s counterattack forced the rebels to retreat on Sunday night from at least 60 percent of the areas they captured that liance to protect threatened cultural heritage. World donors pledged more than $75 million Monday to an historic UNESCO-backed alliance to protect cultural heritage sites threatened by war and the wave of ideological-driven destruction carried out by Islamic State group militants. French President Francois Hollande, speaking at a donors conference in Paris Louvre Museum, passionately called on more countries to contribute to the newly-created heritage alliance and help push it past its ambitious $100 million goal. IS militants have stolen or destroyed a host of cultural artifacts, including the ancient Syrian town of Palmyra, the Mosul museum in Iraq and the 13th century BC Assyrian capital of Nimrud, which is also in Iraq. At Bamiyan, Mosul, Palmyra, Timbuktu and elsewhere, fanatics have engaged in trafficking, looting and the destruction of cultural heritage, adding to the persecution of populations, Hollande said. In coordination with UNESCO, the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas (ALIPH) aims to prevent heritage site destruction, fight trafficking of stolen artifacts and pay for restoration. But it also seeks to create a global network of sites in which artifacts endangered by fighting or terrorism could be temporarily stored for safekeeping. The first emergency is Iraq. We will need to carry out a precise inventory of the damages to monuments, museums and libraries. But there are other critical situations. Mali, Afghanistan, Yemen and Syria, he added. Hollande suggested Monday that a Group of Seven culture ministers meeting in Florence next week could be used to get further donations. Seven countries and one philanthropist pledged a total of $75.5 million at Monday conference, which was held in an ancient Middle Eastern sculptureclad wing of the Louvre. France pledged the most at $30 million, with support forthcoming from Arab countries including Saudi Arabia ($20 million), the United Arab Emirates ($15 million) and Morocco ($1.5 million.) Luxembourg pledged $3 million, and private donor Thomas Kaplan promised $1 million. Switzerland pledged a further $8 million in operational and administrative costs to help set up the fund s first headquarters in Geneva. Italy, meanwhile, said it would provide an ALIPH task force that includes military personnel and conservation experts. US-allied Kurds strike deal with Russia day in an industrial area that separated Qaboun from Jobar, a rebel spokesman said. Today the clashes are difficult and there is no progress in the face of this ferocious bombardment that is not just limited to the frontline but all night the regime was shelling the cities and towns in Eastern Ghouta in retaliation, Wael Alwan, the spokesman for Failaq al Rahman, told Reuters. Syrian President Bashar al-assad and his army, along with allied Russian, Iranian and Shi ite militia forces, have put rebels on the back foot with a steady succession of military victories over the past 18 months, including around Damascus. Signalled For rebels, however, their first such large scale foray in over four years inside the capital signalled they were still able to wage offensive actions despite their string of defeats. This battle gave hope we can stand up to the regime s military machine... It was again us going back to a sort of balance of force and not just defending ourselves, Alwan said. Rebels still hold a large, heavily populated enclave in the Eastern Ghouta district of farms and towns to the east of the capital, as well as some Damascus districts in the south, east and northeast of the city. The most recent fighting has focused on the areas around Qaboun and Barza, which the army has isolated from the rest of the main rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta and the eastern districts of Damascus. Meanwhile, Russia is setting up a military base in northwestern Syria in agreement with the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia and will help train its fighters, the YPG said, a step likely to anger Turkey as it tries to block Kurdish gains in the north of the country. There was no immediate comment Happier here Continued from Page 1 The lowest countries are typically marked by low values in all six variables, said the report, produced with the support of the Ernesto Illy Foundation. Sachs would like nations to follow United Arab Emirates and other countries that have appointed Ministers of Happiness. I want governments to measure this, discuss it, analyze it and understand when they have been off on the wrong direction, he said. Ranking of Happiness Norway (7.537); 2. Denmark (7.522); 3. Iceland (7.504); 4. Switzerland (7.494); 5. Finland (7.469); 6. Netherlands (7.377); 7. Canada (7.316); 8. New Zealand (7.314); 9. Australia (7.284); 10. Sweden (7.284). 11. Israel (7.213); 12. Costa Rica (7.079); 13. Austria (7.006); 14. United States (6.993); 15. Ireland (6.977); 16. Germany (6.951); 17. Belgium (6.891); 18. Luxembourg (6.863); 19. United Kingdom (6.714); 20. Chile(6.652). 21. United Arab Emirates (6.648); 22. Brazil (6.635); 23. Czech Republic (6.609); 24. Argentina (6.599); 25. Mexico (6.578); 26. Singapore(6.572); 27. Malta (6.527); 28. Uruguay (6.454); 29. Guatemala(6.454); 30. Panama (6.452). 31. France (6.442); 32. Thailand (6.424); 33. Taiwan (6.422); 34. Spain (6.403); 35. Qatar (6.375); 36. Colombia (6.357); 37. Saudi Arabia (6.344); 38. Trinidad and Tobago (6.168); 39. Kuwait (6.105); 40. Slovakia(6.098). 41. Bahrain (6.087); 42. Malaysia (6.084); 43. Nicaragua (6.071); 44. Ecuador (6.008); 45. El Salvador (6.003); 46. Poland(5.973); 47. Uzbekistan (5.971); 48. Italy (5.964); 49. Russia(5.963); 50. Belize (5.956). 51. Japan (5.920); 52. Lithuania (5.902); 53. Algeria (5.872); 54. Latvia (5.850); 55. Moldova (5.838); 56. South Korea (5.838); 57. Romania (5.825); 58. Bolivia (5.823); 59. Turkmenistan (5.822); 60. Kazakhstan (5.819). 61. North Cyprus (5.810); 62. Slovenia (5.758); 63. Peru (5.715); 64. Mauritius (5.629); 65. Cyprus (5.621); 66. Estonia (5.611); 67. Belarus (5.569); 68. Libya (5.525); 69. Turkey (5.500); 70. Paraguay (5.493). 71. Hong Kong (5.472); 72. Philippines (5.430); 73. Serbia (5.395); 74. Jordan (5.336); 75. Hungary (5.324); 76. Jamaica (5.311); 77. Croatia from Russia or Turkey. One of the major forces in the Syrian conflict, the YPG is also a military ally of the United States and is playing a major part in US-backed operations against Islamic State in areas of Syria further to the east. YPG spokesman Redur Xelil told Reuters the agreement had been concluded on Sunday and that Russian troops had already arrived at the position in the northwestern region of Afrin with troop carriers and armoured vehicles. It is the first (agreement) of its kind, he said in a written message. The agreement shows how the Syrian Kurds have managed to bring both Washington and Moscow onto their side after showing themselves as an organised force able to confront jihadist groups and take back territory from Islamic State. The Russian deployment could help deter cross-border attacks against the Kurdish-dominated area of Afrin from Turkey, which is hostile to the YPG, seeing it as an arm of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that is pressing an insurrection in Turkey. Earlier this month, some 100 km (60 miles) further east, a deployment of US forces near Manbij deterred a Turkish attack against YPG-allied fighters who control that city, after Ankara and its Free Syrian Army rebel allies vowed to take it. YPG control over swathes of northeastern Syria and the Afrin region of its northwest is of great concern to Turkey. Helped by allied FSA groups, Turkey has been waging an offensive in northern Syria to stop the YPG creating a contiguous Kurdish territory along most of its border with Syria. Kafr Jina - the area where the Russian base is being set up - has previously been shelled by Turkish forces from across the nearby frontier, Xelil said. He declined to say how many Russian (5.293); 78. Kosovo (5.279); 79. China (5.273); 80. Pakistan (5.269). 81. Indonesia (5.262); 82. Venezuela (5.250); 83. Montenegro (5.237); 84. Morocco (5.235); 85. Azerbaijan (5.234); 86. Dominican Republic (5.230); 87. Greece (5.227); 88. Lebanon (5.225); 89. Portugal (5.195); 90. Bosnia and Herzegovina (5.182). 91. Honduras (5.181); 92. Macedonia (5.175); 93. Somalia (5.151); 94. Vietnam (5.074); 95. Nigeria (5.074); 96. Tajikistan (5.041); 97. Bhutan (5.011); 98. Kyrgyzstan (5.004); 99. Nepal (4.962); 100. Mongolia (4.955) South Africa (4.829); 102. Tunisia (4.805); 103. Palestinian Territories (4.775); 104. Egypt (4.735); 105. Bulgaria (4.714); 106. Sierra Leone (4.709); 107. Cameroon (4.695); 108. Iran (4.692); 109. Albania (4.644); 110. Bangladesh (4.608) Namibia (4.574); 112. Kenya (4.553); 113. Mozambique (4.550); 114. Myanmar (4.545); 115. Senegal (4.535); 116. Zambia (4.514); 117. Iraq (4.497); 118. Gabon (4.465); 119. Ethiopia (4.460); 120. Sri Lanka (4.440) Armenia (4.376); 122. India (4.315); 123. Mauritania (4.292); 124. Congo (Brazzaville) (4.291); 125. Georgia (4.286); 126. Congo (Kinshasa) (4.280); 127. Mali (4.190); 128. Ivory Coast (4.180); 129. Cambodia (4.168); 130. Sudan (4.139) Ghana (4.120); 132. Ukraine (4.096); 133. Uganda (4.081); 134. Burkina Faso (4.032); 135. Niger (4.028); 136. Malawi (3.970); 137. Chad (3.936); 138. Zimbabwe (3.875); 139. Lesotho (3.808); 140. Angola (3.795) Afghanistan (3.794); 142. Botswana (3.766); 143. Benin (3.657); 144. Madagascar (3.644); 145. Haiti (3.603); 146. Yemen (3.593); 147. South Sudan (3.591); 148. Liberia (3.533); 149. Guinea (3.507); 150. Togo (3.495) Rwanda (3.471); 152. Syria (3.462); 153. Tanzania (3.349); 154. Burundi (2.905); 155. Central African Republic (2.693). Iraqis stream Continued from Page 1 Eastern Mosul is a preferable destination for many who have relatives there. In the rubble there is nothing. If there is water maybe we will go back. We re heading to the east we have family. We can t stay in those camps, Bushra Mohammed Ali, who left the west with his sister and two daughters, said on Monday. troops had arrived in Kafr Jina. The agreement came into force today, he said. Xelil said the YPG had shown its effectiveness in fighting terrorism. This is what pushed many forces to cooperate and make alliances with the YPG, he said. Expand The YPG also said on Monday it planned to expand its force by about two thirds to more than 100,000 fighters this year with the aim of turning it into a more organised force that resembles a traditional army. Russia deployed its air force in Syria in 2015 in support of Syrian President Bashar al-assad in his war against insurgents battling to unseat him. Despite a long history of enmity between the Syrian Kurds and government, the YPG and Damascus have mostly avoided conflict in the six-year-old conflict. The Russian presence... comes in agreement between (the YPG) and the Russian forces operating in Syria in the framework of cooperation against terrorism and to help train our forces on modern warfare and to build a direct point of contact with Russian forces, Xelil said in a written statement. Turkey has been pressing Washington to abandon its alliance with the YPG and instead back its rebel allies in a final assault to capture Raqqa city, Islamic State s remaining redoubt. The head of the YPG told Reuters last week the assault would begin in early April, and that the YPG would take part alongside Arab fighters. The Pentagon said no decision had been taken. US support in the fight against Islamic State is funnelled to an alliance of militias called the Syrian Democratic Forces, which includes the YPG. Ankara views it as a front for the YPG. A woman named Um Tahseen, who had fled the Jidida district, said her family had gone 11 days without food. The militants, they beat people they don t like or kill them. Why would we go to the camps and face more hardships there. We will go to the east. Maybe there is no water there either but at least we have family. In the centre of eastern Mosul on Sunday, many young men wandering through a market said they were from western Mosul, crammed into homes with anywhere from seven to 15 relatives with whom they had fled. Iraqi officials say a car bomb in Baghdad has killed at least 23 people and wounded 45 others. The police and hospital officials say the attack Monday night targeted a commercial area in Baghdad s southwestern Amil neighborhood. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release information. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State group has been behind previous Baghdad bombings. Iraqi forces have been battling the extremists in Mosul, the country s second largest city, since October. Iraq declared eastern Mosul fully liberated in January and is now fighting for the more densely populated western half. The militants have suffered a string of defeats over the past two years, but have continued to regularly launch attacks in and around Baghdad. Meanwhile, Islamic State militants captured an Iraqi police colonel and eight other officers in western Mosul after they ran out of ammunication during fierce clashes early Monday morning, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official said. The officers were caught around 3:00 am on Monday in Bab Jadid district in Mosul, where Iraqi forces are battling to oust Islamic State after liberating the eastern half of the city. It was unclear where the officers were, the official said. Ahwaz... O Continued from Page 1 order to achieve its idea of expanding its scope of influence through the socalled export of revolution. Therefore, adopting the Ahwaz cause, in its capacity as an Arab area that consists of Shiites and Sunnis, would represent the death nail on Iran s expansionism scheme and the fall of its chiefs. Perhaps some people might assume that the response to Iran s regional interference should be on sectarian basis. In fact, this will be exactly what Iran s regime would want. However, the right way of responding should be based on a sheer pan-arabism notion because Iran s claims are based on the illusions of the so-called Shiites grievances, which did not exist even in history. Arab countries look at their citizens with a leveled eye. All Arab citizens have similar rights and are given equal opportunities in political, educational and economic aspects. Many terminologies used by some Sunni and Shiite sectarians did not exist before 1979 when Khomeini declared the terms export of revolution and lifting injustice faced by Shiite Arabs. Despite such claims by Khomeini, the Arab Shiites, when they visit Iran, face the worst type of discrimination due to their race and ethnicity. The suggestion presented by Al- Habtoor should be taken seriously by Arab countries, which lost many chances to counter the Persian expansionism scheme. It shouldn t be just a reaction, as the Khomeini Iran is not different from the Shah Iran in terms of the occupation of the three islands of the United Arab Emirates. Iran has also not changed in terms of its expansion towards Iraq and its devouring of some border areas, even marine borders and the neritic zones. Iran is still striving for its expansion and the usurpation of the rights of Kuwaitis and Saudis, taking advantage of the Arabs silence towards its practices. At the same time, it continues to send destructive gangs to our countries, and their leaders take pride over their occupation of four Arab capitals. Do the Arab people realize what such bragging means or are they going to wait until they see the artilleries of the Revolutionary Guards stroll down the streets of their capitals? Will it be then that they will realize the magnitude of the danger? Newswatch Continued from Page 1 the tax implementation for a short time in order to obtain the approval of legislative authority, like in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. KUWAIT CITY: Disney s new Beauty and the Beast has been pulled from cinemas in Kuwait after censors raised concerns over the film s content. The film, which has grossed more than $180 million overseas, has what has been called Disney s first gay moment for a character. Beauty and the Beast had been showing in the predominantly Muslim country of Kuwait since Thursday, but those who d purchased tickets to see the movie Monday received text messages from Kuwait s National Cinema Company informing them that screenings of the movie were cancelled due to unforeseen difficulties. Duaij Al-Khalifa Al-Sabah, a board member at the National Cinema Company, which operates 11 of Kuwait s 13 movie theaters, told The Associated Press a newly edited version of the movie may be back in theaters later this week. (AP) DUBAI: A human rights group says a prominent Bahraini political activist is facing new charges of inciting hatred against the government. The Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy said Monday that activist Ebrahim Sharif told the Britain-based group that he was charged following interrogation over Twitter posts covering several topics. (AP) RIYADH/GENEVA: The United Arab Emirates summoned the Swiss ambassador on Sunday to denounce a statement Switzerland made to the United Nations Human Rights Council the week prior criticizing fellow Gulf state Bahrain s human rights record. The UAE s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the Swiss ambassador it was better if such issues were resolved through established bilateral channels between Bahrain and Switzerland, according to a statement posted on state news agency WAM. (RTRS) NEW YORK: David Rockefeller, the billionaire businessman and philanthropist who was the last in his generation of one of the country s most famously philanthropic families, died Monday. He was 101. Rockefeller died in his sleep at his home in Pocantico Hills, New York, according to his spokesman, Fraser P. Seitel. (AP)

38 LEISURE Sherman s Lagoon By J.P. Toomey N E W Y O R K T I M E S CROSSWORD 38 Mutts By Patrick McDonnell Hagar The Horrible By Chris Browne Beetle Bailey By Mort Walker Garfield By Jim Davis Baby Blues By Rick Kirkman & Jerry Scott Conceptis Sudoku The grid must be so completed that every row, column and 3x3 box has every digit from 1 to 9 inclusive Answer to yesterday s puzzle Challenger DIRECTIONS: Fill each square with a number, one through nine. Horizontal squares should add to totals on right. Vertical squares should add to totals on bottom. Diagonal squares through center should add to total in upper and lower right. THERE MAY BE MORE THAN ONE SOLUTION. Today s Challenge Time 14 Minutes 16 Seconds Your Working Time Minutes Seconds Word by Word Yesterday s solution This Oct 1, 2014 fi le photo shows a black-footed ferret peeking out of a tube after being brought to a ranch near Williams, Arizona. To help black-footed ferrets, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and others plan to vaccinate prairie dogs against plague in several Western states later this year. (AP) contract bridge By Steve Becker Scratch pad odds n ends WELLINGTON: New Zealand s bees are being stolen and traded by organised crime syndicates seeking to profi t from skyrocketing honey prices, police and beekeepers have said proving that bees make money. It doesn t matter if it s beekeeping or meth, this is just the new gold rush, Laurence Burkin, apiarist manager at The True Honey Co in Dannevirke, north of Wellington, and himself a victim of hive thefts, told Reuters by phone. Hive heists were rising, with 400 bee or honey thefts reported in the six months to January, police said in an ed statement, without providing figures for previous periods. There is nothing to suggest at this stage that beehive/honey theft is directly linked with a particular gang, but we do believe this offending is organised and likely being carried out by groups, said Senior Sergeant Alasdair MacMillan, Coordinator of Community Policing at New Zealand Police. The crime spree comes while New Zealand s honey industry is booming. Exports jumped 35 percent to NZ$315 million ($219 million) in the year to June according to the Ministry of Primary Industry, with about a third of that sold to China and Hong Kong. Apiarists contacted by Reuters said soaring prices for native Manuka honey, which official fi gures show has tripled in value since 2012, is driving the rise in bee-related crime. It s rife. Honey is overpriced mate, it s ludicrous. There s easy money being made if you buy and sell hives, said Bruce Robertson, managing director of Haines Apiaries in Kaitaia. (RTRS) NICOSIA: Cyprus, and the British authorities that still administer parts of the island, must act to end the slaughter of thousands of birds each year, served up as restaurant delicacies, Europe s main bird conservation group has said. BirdLife says as many as 2.3 million songbirds were killed last year in Cyprus, a stopover on a key migratory route between Europe and Africa. Trapping is illegal, but it is estimated to be worth some 15 million euros ($16 million) annually. Birds caught are served fried, grilled, poached or pickled. The practice is thought to be particularly prevalent in the island s southeast, part of which is under administration by Britain, Cyprus s former colonial ruler. This wildlife crime is taking place both in the Republic of Cyprus and the (British) Sovereign Base Areas, making it very clear that a joint effort is necessary to address this persistent issue, BirdLife said. (RTRS) Handsome Jameel Handsome is that handsome does. Al jameel man yassnai al jameel. Numbers 7509 Seven thousand five hundred nine Sabat alaf wa khamso maah wa tesah

39 SPORTS 39 PAS Shooting Championship concludes Al Rashidi, Al-Hawal among winners crowned Winners of the men s competition together with the organisers pose for a group photo during the Public Authority for Sports Shooting Championship awarding ceremony. KUWAIT CITY, March 20: The Public Authority for Sports Shooting Championship held at Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Olympic Shooting Complex concluded yesterday with the crowning of winners of the tournament. The competition consisted of skeet, trap, double trap, pistol and rifle shooting categories for men and women as well as for beginners of both genders. The three-day tournament saw the National Guard sharpshooter Mansour Al-Rashidi win first place in the men s skeet category. Kuwait Shooting Club shooter Talal Al-Rashidi won first place in the trap category and the National Guard shooter Ahmed Al-Afasi came first in the double trap competition. In the women s competition, Sarah Al-Hawal came first in the trap shooting category and her colleague Sheikha Al-Rashidi won the skeet shooting category. In the beginners category for men, Abdulaziz Saghir won the 10-meter air pistol shooting competition. The National Guard shooter Eid Mulfi came first in 10m air rifle competition. Mohammed Salem, also from the National Guard, took first place in the 50-meter rifle prone competition. In the beginners category for women, Yasmine Al-Tamimi won the 10-meter air pistol shooting competition and Shuma Al-Rashidi won the 10m air rifle competition. President of Kuwait and Arab shooting associations Eng Duaij Al-Otaibi affirmed in a press statement that the shooters showed very good technical performance throughout the tournament. He praised the huge number of beginners, stressing that their participation has a positive impact on the improvement of their technical skills. Al-Otaibi expressed his appreciation for the support shown by the Public Authority for Sports by sponsoring the tournament. Myhrer upsets Hirscher Oregon rallies late to beat Rhode Island Brignone leads Italian sweep, Worley clinches WCup GS title ASPEN, Colo, March 20, (AP): Tessa Worley waved her ski pole at the finish and pumped her fist. Rarely has not winning felt this rewarding. The Frenchwoman clinched the season-long giant slalom title Sunday with a conservative run on a day Federica Brignone led an Italian sweep at the World Cup Finals. I just went for it, kept it simple, explained Worley, who finished fifth to edge American Mikaela Shiffrin by 85 points for her first crystal globe. I m really, really happy with the season. Now, I have it. Brignone glided through the course in a combined time of 1 minute, seconds to beat teammate Sofia Goggia by 1.44 seconds. Marta Bassino took third. Moments after her finish, Brignone, the first-run leader, tried to ski over to her Italian teammates, but struggled to gain any traction in the soft snow. Finally, they shared an embrace. It s the first time the Italian women have swept the podium since 1996, according to information provided by the International Ski Federation. On that SKIING March day, Italian great Deborah Compagnoni led a dominating giant slalom performance in Norway. This is one of the best days of my life, being on the podium with two Italians, Brignone said. It was really, really fun. I didn t even know they were in front. I didn t know anything. I went down and gave it my best. When I saw I was in front, I didn t see the girls in second and third. Then I heard over the speaker Goggia and Bassino. It was one of my biggest emotions. In the end, this was Worley s stage or so she was hoping. That s why she wasn t racing Sunday so much to win as not make any major mistakes. Worley entered the final race of the women s World Cup season with an 80-point lead over Shiffrin in the GS standings. Worley was cautious in the first run and turned it up just a notch in her final pass to sew up the discipline crown. Shiffrin struggled to uncover speed and wound up sixth. I m not very satisfied, Shiffrin said. I felt like I had some really good turns but didn t take enough aggression when I really needed it. It s a bit of a bummer, but it s good motivation for Action shot taken during the Abu Dhabi vs Wolves polo match. SHOOTING First place finisher Italy s Federica Brignone stands on the podium after a women s World Cup giant slalom ski race on March 19, in Aspen, Colo. (AP) next year. Shiffrin and Worley both won three giant slalom races this season. The 22-year-old Shiffrin already clinched the slalom and overall titles. Meanwhile, not to get all mushy, but that s exactly how Andre Myhrer of Sweden prefers his snow. The slushier, the better and possibly why Myhrer seems to save his best race for the last event of the year. Myhrer capped off a second straight season with a slalom win at the World Cup Finals, beating Marcel Hirscher of Austria once again, too. I m older, so I need a long start to get in shape, the 34-year-old Myhrer said after Sunday s slalom race concluded the finals. It s a little easier for me to handle this salty snow, compared to winter snow. Myhrer navigated the sun-splashed course in a combined time of 1 minute, seconds, holding off Felix Neureuther of Germany by 0.14 seconds. Austria s Michael Matt was third and Hirscher fourth. South Carolina stuns Duke to reach Sweet 16 GREENVILLE, South Carolina, March 20, (AP): Sindarius Thornwell had 24 points and Chris Silva scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half as seventhseeded South Carolina stunned No. 2 seed Duke on Sunday night to advance to its first Sweet 16 in the NCAA Tournament s expanded bracket. The Gamecocks (24-10) trailed by 10 points early in the second half after one of its coldest shooting stretches of the season to start. But behind Thornwell s outside shooting and Silva s dominance underneath, South Carolina rallied to win two NCAA games for the first time in 44 years. Next up is the East Regional at Madison Square Garden where the Gamecocks will face third-seeded Baylor, an winner over Southern Cal. Baylor 82, Southern California 78 In Tulsa, Oklahoma, Johnathan Motley had 19 points and 10 rebounds as No. 3 seed Baylor defeated No. 11 seed Southern California Terry Maston scored 19 points, King McClure added 17 and Manu Lecomte scored all 12 of his points in the final 5 minutes for the Bears (27-7), who advanced to play South Carolina in the BASKETBALL Sweet 16. Michigan 73, Louisville 69 In Indianapolis Moe Wagner scored a career-high 26 points and spurred a furious second-half rally to send Michigan past second-seeded Louisville and into the Sweet 16. The seventh-seeded Wolverines (26-11) have won seven straight six since a frightening plane accident before the Big Ten Tournament. They also earned a ticket to the Midwest Regional in Kansas City, Missouri, their first since Oregon 75, Rhode Island 72 In Sacramento, California, Tyler Dorsey hit a contested go-ahead 3-pointer from the top of the arc with 38.4 seconds to play before E.C. Matthews airballed a long 3 in the waning Wolves defeat Abu Dhabi in thrilling match DUBAI, UAE, March 20: The third day of action for the Dubai Challenge Cup, the fourth tournament of the Dubai Polo Gold Cup Series 2017, held under the patronage of HH Sheikh Maktoum Bin Mohammed showed an exciting match between Wolves Polo and Abu Dhabi. Wolves defeated Abu Dhabi by 11 goals to 10 in a thrilling game that was decided in the last second of the match with a great goal scored by Ezequiel Martínez Ferrario. Both teams played five even chukkers with the lead in the score changing constantly. Abu Dhabi achieved a two goal difference in the fourth chukker that seemed to give them a slight advantage for the final seven minutes. But Wolves made a great comeback in the last chukker to turn things over. First with a great individual action by Tariq Al Habtoor to score the best goal of the match, then with two more goals by Manuel Crespo and finally the last second shot by Ezequiel Martínez Ferrario for a celebrated victory by Manuel Crespo (Wolves) was the top scorer of the match with 6 goals and Joaquín Pittaluga the top scorer in Abu Dhabi with 4. Match progression: Wolves: 2-1/ 3-4/ 5-6/ 7-9/ The Dubai Challenge Cup continues next Wednesday at the Al Habtoor Polo Resort & Club with Zedan Polo playing against Bin Drai from 4.30 pm. Winners of the women s shooting competition celebrate with the organisers. Brady s missing Super Bowl jersey recovered BOSTON, March 20, (RTRS): The football jersey that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady wore in last month s Super Bowl victory in Houston, Texas, which disappeared hours after the stunning come-frombehind win, has been found in Mexico, the National Football League and police said Monday. Both the jersey worn in Brady s fifth league championship over the Atlanta Falcons, and the one he d worn two years earlier when the team topped the Seattle Seahawks, were recovered in the possession of a credentialed member of the international media, the NFL said in a statement. The jersey was found in Mexico, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said in a post on Twitter. The Federal Bureau of Investigation helped with the recovery, the NFL and local police said. Brady told reporters the morning after the Patriots overtime win that he had packed up the jersey bearing his number 12 after the game, but it had disappeared. moments trying to force overtime as third-seeded Oregon rallied in the second half to beat No. 11 Rhode Island on Sunday and reach the Midwest Regional. Dorsey also tied the game with a 3 with 1:45 remaining on the way to 27 points before teammate Dillon Brooks took a charge on the other end for Oregon (31-5). Kansas 90, Michigan State 70 In Tulsa, Oklahoma, Josh Jackson scored 14 of his 23 points in the second half to help Kansas pull away late and reach the Sweet 16 for a second straight year with a victory over Michigan State. Duke s Jayson Tatum (0) dunks against South Carolina during the first half in a second-round game of the NCAA men s college basketball tournament in Greenville, South Carolina, on March 19. (AP) It s unfortunate, because that s a nice piece of memorabilia. So if it shows up on ebay, someone let me know and I ll track that down, he told reporters at the time. Those are pretty special ones to keep. What can you do? I ll take the ring and that s good enough for me. While the 39-year-old quarterback still has all five of his Superbowl rings, the team s owner, Robert Kraft, is lacking one of the heavy, diamond-encrusted mementoes. That s because Russian President Vladimir Putin walked away with Kraft s ring commemorating the team s 2005 win over the Philadelphia Eagles when the two met later that year. Kraft has said that he intended only to show Putin the ring but the leader kept it. The team s owner subsequently released a statement saying he had given the ring to Putin as a gift, after the White House told him that doing so could improve diplomatic relations, according to local media accounts from the time. Frank Mason III added 20 points for the top-seeded Jayhawks (30-4), who have advanced to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament in nine of coach Bill Self s 14 seasons. North Carolina 72, Arkansas 65 In Greenville, South Carolina, Kennedy Meeks had 16 points and a huge tipin with 44.2 seconds left to help North Carolinay avoid a huge upset by rallying to beat Arkansas Justin Jackson added 15 points for the Tar Heels (29-7), including the dunk that capped a game-closing 12-0 run by the South Region s No. 1 seed to help it survive a wild game. Kentucky 65, Wichita State 62 In Indianapolis, Bam Adebayo had a double-double and swatted away the final shot as Kentucky sent Wichita State to yet another second-round heartbreak, in the South region. Adebayo had 13 points and 10 rebounds while De Aaron Fox had 14 points, including a late steal and dunk as Kentucky qualified for the Sweet 16 for the seventh time in nine years. UCLA 79, Cincinnati 67 In Sacramento, California, Lonzo Ball scored 19 points and ignited UCLA s rally from a poor start with nine assists to lift the third-seeded Bruins to a victory over Cincinnati in the South Regional. UCLA is headed to its third Sweet 16 appearance in four seasons under coach Steve Alford, erasing at least in part the letdown of a year ago. The Bruins will face No. 2 seed Kentucky in the South Regional semifinals Friday in Memphis.

40 SPORTS Oly golf course votes to amend membership policy Olympic committee playing tricks on Turkey, says Erdogan ANKARA, March 20, (Agencies): Turkey s president, who has angered European allies with charges of fascism and anti-turkish skulduggery, took grievances to the sporting arena on Monday, accusing the International Olympic Committee of playing tricks to stop Istanbul hosting the event. Since the early years of his political career, Tayyip Erdogan has longed to bring the Olympics to Turkey, making it the first predominantly Muslim country to stage the event. Turkey has had five failed bids in the last six votes. We may not have been able to bring the Olympics to our country yet, but you also know about the tricks being played here... I ve experienced it myself, he told an International soccer summit in Istanbul, without specifying OLYMPICS what the tricks might be. They did not give us the Olympics even when we had the right. They gave the Olympics for the second time to those who hosted it before. Erdogan has sought to raise Turkey s international profile and influence, not shrinking from conflict with allies. This month, he has accused Germany of backing a network he blames for a failed coup and charged the Netherlands and Germany with fascism in banning Turkish politicians campaigning with Turkish expatriates for a referendum on new presidential powers. Europe, he says, is mired in racism. In 2013, Tokyo won the 2020 Games, beating rival bids from Istanbul and Madrid. Turkey s chances were seen as having been dented by mass anti-government protests in Malabar Gold & Diamonds launches its 172nd showroom in India H. G. Ramakrishnan, H.R.G & Companies along with O. Asher, Managing Director India Operations, Malabar Gold & Dimonds jointly inaugurated Gold & Diamonds 172nd showroom globally at Car Steet, Ballari, Karnataka, India on March 18, in the presence of Iflu Rahman, Regional Head, Malabar Gold & Diamonds, management members, dignitaries & well-wishers. Istanbul. Erdogan, who previously served as mayor of Istanbul, said Turkey had proven its ability to host major events, adding its sports infrastructure had grown dramatically in his 14 years in national government. Turkey hosted the European Youth Olympic Festival in its eastern province of Erzurum in February The event marked the first time Turkey hosted the event in 25 years. Meanwhile, the course that will host the 2020 Olympic golf tournament has avoided BALLARI, Karnataka, March 20: Malabar Gold & Diamonds the leading jewellery retailer extended its presence in Karnataka region by opening its 17th showroom in the Karnataka region. The grand opening was held on Saturday, 18th March, The latest showroom was jointly inaugurated by H.G. Ramakrishnan, H.R.G. & Companies along with O. Asher, Managing Director India Operations, Malabar Gold & Diamonds in the presence of Iflu Rahman, Regional Head, Malabar Gold & Diamonds, management members, dignitaries & well-wishers. This latest showroom of Malabar Gold & Diamonds located at Car Street, Ballari, Karnataka, India was its 172nd showroom globally. The showroom displays a significantly large collection of traditional as well as contemporary jewellery in gold, certified diamonds, platinum, silver and precious gem jewellery across the world that being stripped of the event by deciding to change its membership policy to include women. The Kasumigaseki Country Club said Monday its executive board decided on the change after discussions among its members. The membership policy came under scrutiny when Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike urged it to admit women as full members. Other critics said the club s policy was contrary to the spirit of the Olympics. The vote came three days after IOC President Thomas Bach warned the club of consequences for upholding a ban on female can hold you spell-bound with their awe-inspiring beauty. Commenting on this auspicious occasion, O. Asher, Managing Director-India Operations, Malabar Gold and Diamonds said, The Company s next big plan for India will be small retail format showrooms in India starting with Karnataka State. The company also would invest INR 620 crores to add 24 more outlets both in India and abroad over the next 3-6 months and hire over 1,000 professionals. Malabar Group offers exquisite and beautiful jewelry as a part of various brands presented at Malabar Gold & Diamonds namely Ethnix Handcrafted Designer Jewellery, Era Uncut Diamond Jewellery, Mine Diamonds Unlimited, Divine- Indian Heritage Jewellery, Precia Gem Jewellery and Starlet Kids Jewellery. members. Also: SYDNEY: International Olympic Committee Vice-President John Coates will have his leadership of Australia s Olympic movement challenged for the first time in decades after 1996 field hockey gold medalist Danni Roche got backing to run against him in May elections. Nobody has run against Coates, the head of the IOC s Coordination Commission for the Tokyo 2020 Games, since he was elected as president of the Australian Olympic Committee in Federer tops Wawrinka in all-swiss Indian Wells final INDIAN WELLS, California, March 20, (RTRS): A rejuvenated Roger Federer beat fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 7-5 in the BNP Paribas Open final on Sunday to earn a record-tying fifth Indian Wells title and the distinction of being the tournament s oldest winner. The 35-year-old Swiss, who made a stunning return from a six-month injury layoff to win the Australian Vesnina outlasts Kuznetsova Roger Federer, of Switzerland, celebrates his 6-4, 7-5 win over Stan Wawrinka, of Switzerland, in the men s final of the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament, on March 19. (AP) Kenyans Barno, Jepkurgat win titles at LA Marathon SANTA MONICA, California, March 20, (AP): Kenyans Elisha Barno and Hellen Jepkurgat won the men s and women s titles at the Los Angeles Marathon on Sunday. Barno pulled away from 2015 winner Daniel Limo of Kenya in the final mile of the race, crossing the finish line near the Santa Monica Pier in 2 hours, 11 minutes, 51 seconds. Limo was timed in 2: He finished third last year in the mile race that begins at Dodger Stadium and finishes at the Pacific Ocean. Willy Koitile of Kenya finished third in 2: Defending champion Weldon Kirui of Kenya was fourth in 2: Jepkurgat comfortably led the pack throughout the women s race before breaking away in the 13th mile to win in 2:34.24, nearly 2 minutes ahead of fellow Kenyan Jane Kibii, who finished in 2: The winners earned $23,000 each. Elisha Barno, of Kenya, crosses the finish line as he wins the men s Los Angeles Marathon, on March 19, in Santa Monica, California. (AP) Open in January, capped an impressive run in the California desert in which he did not lose a set. I have totally exceeded my expectations. My goal was to be top eight by Wimbledon. This is just a dream start, Federer, who will climb four spots to world number six on Monday, told Sky Sports courtside. I understand the talk about (me getting back to) world number one with Andy (Murray) and Novak (Djokovic) not playing well and I ll try to back it up. But this is my 90th (tour-level) title so I ll try to enjoy this first. The rematch of the Australian Open semi-final saw the close friends hold serve until the 10th game of the opening set when Federer, ahead 5-4, outlasted Wawrinka in a thrilling 21-shot rally for the service break. Wawrinka, making his first appearance in an Indian Wells final, came out firing in the second set as he became the first player to break Federer this fortnight and then saved a pair of break points in the next game to move ahead 2-0. But Federer never wavered as he coolly won the next three games and then broke Wawrinka in the 12th game to close out the match in 80 minutes. On championship point, Federer jumped right on Wawrinka s serve and quickly had his compatriot running back and forth along the baseline. Finally, when Wawrinka reached out desperately to send a forehand back, Federer charged to the net and slammed down a running forehand to clinch the title. While the defeat left Wawrinka an emotional wreck, with the teary-eyed US Open champion calling himself TENNIS Federer s biggest fan, the popular champion was left to soak up a standing ovation. Federer now joins Djokovic as a five-time winner at the event and becomes the oldest champion in the tournament s history, surpassing Jimmy Connors who was 31 when he triumphed in I was very sad when I couldn t come here last year so just being here is a beautiful feeling, Federer said during the trophy presentation. It s been just a fairytale week. I m still on the comeback. I hope my body is going to allow me to keep on playing. I came here for the first time 17 years ago so to be here again as the champion is an amazing feeling. And I can t tell you enough what it means to me. Meanwhile, Elena Vesnina survived a battle of attrition and nerves to beat fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-7(6), 7-5, 6-4 in the BNP Paribas Open final on Sunday and secure the biggest title of her career. After more than three hours in the scorching midday sun on the Indian Wells hard court, Vesnina finally clinched victory on her second championship point when eighth seed Kuznetsova sent a service return long. The win marked by far the biggest title of Vesnina s career and will boost the 30-year-old to 13th in the world rankings, surpassing her current career-high of 15th reached last month. Vesnina stared defeat in the face, down 4-1 in the second set before reeling off four consecutive games after starting to play more aggressive in an effort to keep the points short and conserve energy. I was playing a bit more free when I was down in the score and I think Svetlana got a bit tight on some moment and I saw that and I just took my chances, Vesnina, whose previous WTA titles came at Eastbourne and Hobart in 2013, said in a courtside interview. Rooney settles for 2nd, Perilli in 3rd Carroll claims 1st WCup gold ACAPULCO, March 20: There are many ways to collect the first World Cup Gold medal of your career, and doing it in front of your parents is surely among the most emotional ones. That s what United States Ashley Carroll did today in Acapulco (MEX), where she wrestled through a crowded shoot-off to enter the women s Trap final match, earning the one and only spot left and prevailing over multidecorated shooter Laetisha Scanlan of Australia. In the following final, Carroll didn t miss any of her first 19 targets, eventually going through a slump midway through the match, where she missed allowed New Zealand s Natalie Rooney to overtake her. Despite that, she managed to match her rival s pace, eventually catching the New Zealand s 28-year-old during the ten final targets. As both Carroll and Rooney concluded with 42 hits, it took an additional shoot-off round to determine the Gold medal winner. There, Rooney shot first and missed, allowing her 22-year-old opponent to claim the first World Cup Gold of her career and celebrate together with her mom and SHOOTING dad, both cheering for Ashely from the stands. It actually feels great to win my first World Cup Gold medal in front of them, we live in California, so it s quite easy to come here in Mexico. It s been great to feel their support and my teammates support all along the qualifications round and through the final match, Carroll said at the end of the award ceremony. By finishing with the same score at the end of the regular 50 targets, Carroll and Rooney also bested the scored nailed by Australia s Penny Smith in New Delhi (IND) last month, and they now co-own the World Record in the women s Trap event. Alessandra Perilli (28) of San Marino completed the podium by finishing 3rd with 30 target hits, collecting the sixth World Cup medal of her career. After missing 5 of her first 10 targets, Spain s Fatima Galvez (30) avoided elimination after target 25 and target 30, eventually landing in 4th place with 26 target hits. The seventime World Cup medalist left the final match because of a lower qualification ranking compared to Perilli s. Galvez was followed by Australia s 24-year-old Emma Elizabeth Cox, who concluded in 4th position with 23 hits, and Italy s 41-year-old Deborah Gelisio, a former ISSF World Champion in Lonato (ITA) in 2005 who finished in 6th place with 17 hits out of 25 targets.. The ISSF World Cup Stage 2 in Acapulco will continue tomorrow with the trap Men final, scheduled at 3:00 pm (UTC-6:00). In this March 19 photo, Palestinian coach, Mahmoud Tafesh, gives instructions before starting training for an all women s baseball game, on a soccer field in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. (AP) United States Ashley Carroll celebrates after winning first Women s World Cup gold. Keeping with local norms Palestinian women try to bring baseball to Gaza KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip, March 20, (AP): The young Palestinian women don baseball caps on top of their Islamic headscarves and field tennis balls with fabric gloves, giving a decidedly local feel to the great American pastime. They are trying to bring baseball to the Gaza Strip, an effort that is still in its early innings. The players, who work out on a small soccer pitch in a southern Gaza town, admit they are still trying to understand the rules of the complicated sport. With pitches lobbed underhand, the game they play is closer to softball. I only know it through TV, said Valentina Shaer, a 23-year-old English literature student. Mahmoud Tafesh, the team s coach, said he has dreamed of bringing baseball to Gaza since he was introduced to the game last year. Although baseball is a fringe sport throughout the soccer-crazy Middle East, the game has grown in popularity. Iraq has a national team, and one of the country s coaches introduced Tafesh to baseball last year while both were in Egypt, which now boasts a baseball and softball federation. Tafesh admits he still has much to learn. He is unfamiliar with any of the teams or players in Major League Baseball and gets most of his knowledge from YouTube videos. When he returned to Gaza, he was concerned about the lack of equipment and whether the conservative society, which is governed by the Islamic militant group Hamas, would accept the idea of girls playing the sport. He first approached girls at the only sports education college in Gaza. To his surprise, he found interest in baseball was stronger among girls than boys. We targeted this group because they had permission from their families to play sport as sports students. Through them, we started to spread, attracting girls from other fields such as journalism and accountants, he said after finishing a two-hour training session for the girls. The women say their families had no objection, and some parents even encouraged them. But the society overall has not been as receptive. Shaer said people on social media had a bad idea about us, noting abusive comments when their pictures first appeared. On Sunday, the team, which includes 20 to 30 members, had its BASEBALL weekly practice on a soccer pitch in the female section of Al-Aqsa University, built on lands that were part of Jewish settlements before Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in There were no males except for the coach, and some other students gathered to watch the women playing catch and taking batting practice. The batters took wild swings, often missing but occasionally making solid contact. The players wore headscarves as well as long-sleeve running tops and loose pants, in keeping with local norms. While we face difficulties, we would like a specialized softball field to learn it correctly and train freely without any obstacles, said Iman Shahin, an athlete who studies sports education. Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gaza after Hamas seized power in 2007, heavily restricting travel and trade, and making it difficult to acquire specialized sports equipment. Tafesh said he found just one baseball glove in all of Gaza, at the Sports Ministry building, and took it to local tailors who used it to make replicas out of black fabric. With no proper bats in the territory, the team took a piece of wood and shaped it to look like one. While seeking funding and real equipment, the women dream of eventually competing abroad. All of us share the same goal: participate and represent the name of Palestine outside and show that there are sports for the girls in Gaza, said 24-year-old Iman Mughaier.

41 SPORTS 41 Lehman rallies to beat Stricker in Tucson Late eagle carries Leishman to victory at Bay Hill ORLANDO, Fla, March 20, (AP): Marc Leishman kept shifting his eyes toward the glare coming from the silver Arnold Palmer Invitational trophy at his side. Beyond the shiny prize, between two images of Palmer, was a black banner with six words that defined how Palmer approached the game. He didn t flinch over three key par putts over the last four holes. And even after his most disappointing shot down the stretch, a 9-iron on the par-5 16th hole that settled 50 feet away from the flag, the 33-year-old Australian knocked it in for an eagle that allowed him to jump past Rory McIlroy, Kevin Kisner and Charley Hoffman into the lead alone. He never gave back, and no one could catch him. The timing couldn t have been better GOLF for Leishman, except at the end. It s sad not to have him up there walking off the 18th green, to be that first guy to walk off and not be greeted by Arnold Palmer, Leishman said. But he s left such a great legacy, and I m sure he will be proud of how everything has gone this week. The occasion was no less joyous. Leishman s final act was a 45-yard pitch from short of the 18th green that ran out to 3 feet, a putt that looked a lot closer when he saw the replay on television. He calmly knocked that in for a 3-under 69. Onto the green ran his two sons, ages 5 and 3, as wife Audrey waited for him. Just two years ago, Leishman worried he wouldn t have her. He was called away during practice at Augusta National upon learning his wife was suffering toxic shock syndrome. Doctors put her in a coma to help fight the infection. The oldest boy, Harvey, kept asking him when he was going to bring home the trophy. This was a big one. To honor Palmer, who died in September, the PGA Tour now awards a three-year exemption and raised the purse to $8.7 million, meaning Leishman won $1,566,000 just $295,857 less than what Palmer won in his PGA Tour career. Leishman finished at 11-under 277. Kisner and Hoffman, tied for the 54- hole lead, each closed with a 73 and had their chances. Kisner had a three-shot lead at the turn, but he didn t make a birdie over his last 11 holes. Hoffman shot 39 on the front nine, rallied to get back into a share of the lead when Kisner faltered with a pair of bogeys and then threeputted for par on the 16th and made bogey from the back bunker on the 17th. Rory McIlroy had as good a chance as anyone, storming into a share of the lead by hooking a wedge around a tree, over the water and over the green on the 16th, then nearly holing the eagle chip. He had a 30-foot birdie putt to tie for the lead on the 18th, and after seeing that Leishman had made eagle on the 16th, gave it a good run. The putt went 8 feet by and three-putt for a 69 to finish two shots back. Leishman was lurking all day, and a 6-foot putt to save par from a bunker on the 15th kept his hopes going. The turning point came on the par-5 16th, playing only 515 yards with the wind, and Leishman s tee shot left him only a 9-iron to the green that he tugged to the left. PHOENIX, March 20, (AP): Anna Nordqvist caught up with some college friends and left everyone else behind Sunday on another hot afternoon at the Bank of Hope Founders Cup. The 29-year-old former Arizona State player shot a 4-under 68 to hold off fellow major champions Ariya Jutanugarn, Stacy Lewis and In Gee Chun by two strokes in record 96-degree heat at Desert Ridge. I have so many friends and family here. They feel like family, my US family, the 6-foot Swede said. Couldn t think of a better place to be. I m just so happy to be back. I wasn t even going to play a couple weeks ago and just ended up adding it last minute. Maybe it was meant to be. Nordqvist won her seventh LPGA Tour title and first since successfully defending at the ShopRite LPGA Classic last June. In the US Women s Open in July, she lost a three-hole playoff to Brittany Lang after being penalized two strokes for touching the sand with her club in a fairway bunker on the second extra hole. She ended up back in the Valley Standing over the putt, he backed off and recalled the same putt from a practice round Tuesday. He missed it by 3 feet to the left. It poured into the heart of the cup for an eagle and the lead. Jutanugarn, Lewis, Chun in 2nd place Nordqvist wins Founders Cup in college homecoming GOLF of Sun after dropping the Women s Australian Open from her schedule because it didn t count in the European Solheim Cup standings. Of all the wins probably this is the one that s going to be more special, Nordqvist said. If it wasn t for me getting an opportunity to come to Arizona State University about 10 years ago, I wouldn t be here today. This truly still feels like home, even though I m based in Florida. Nordqvist had a tournament-record 61 on Saturday to take a twostroke lead into the final round. She finished at 25-under 263, two shots off the LPGA Tour record that Sei Young Kim matched last year in the event that honors the 13 women who started the tour in My phone was blowing up yesterday and I was just trying to play it chill, Nordqvist said. I knew it was one more round to play, so kept my head down. Lewis finished with a 68. I just couldn t quite get the putts In the group behind him, Hoffman s approach to the 16th was inches away from staying on top shelf. He rammed it 8 feet by and three-putted. Kisner s approach from a fairway bunker just ran off to the right, behind a bunker that to fall, Lewis said. Hit a lot of good shots and didn t quite get rewarded for them. But I played well and it is hard to get too upset. Anna Nordqvist, of Sweden, poses with the trophy after winning The Bank of Hope Founders Cup LPGA golf tournament on March 19, in Phoenix. (AP) left him a difficult flop shot. It came up short and into the bunker, and he had to scramble for par. Leishman was No. 62 in the world and only had two weeks left to secure a spot in the Masters. The victory takes Lewis is winless in 67 events since June The 32-year-old Texan finished second for the 25th time in her career and the 12th since her last victory. She won at Desert Ridge in 2013 to reach No. 1 in the world, was second in 2014 and 2015 and tied for fourth last year. Jutanugarn matched Nordqvist with a 68 in the final pairing, playing the back nine in 5 under. The second-ranked Thai star had a bogeyfree week. She won five LPGA Tour titles last year and topped the player of the year points race and money list. Nordqvist made a 4-foot birdie putt on the par-4 10th to take a onestroke lead, and doubled the margin with an 18-footer on the par-4 13th. She made a 25-footer on the par-3 17th and bogeyed the par-4 18th after hitting into the left greenside bunker. Saw the leaderboard on 15, but I just tried to keep my head down and do my thing, Nordqvist said. Felt like I played pretty solid on the front and made two good putts on 13 and 17. A little interesting at the end, but I m so happy and proud of myself this week. care of that. Meanwhile, Tom Lehman took advantage of senior newcomer Steve Stricker s late mistakes Sunday to win the Tucson Conquistadores Classic for his 10th PGA Tour Champions victory. Blackhawks beat Avs as Penguins blank Panthers Gaudreau, Monahan lead Flames over Kings 5-2 Marc Leishman, of Australia, poses with his family, while holding the championship trophy after winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational golf tournament in Orlando, Florida on March 19. (AP) Verlaar hits front in amateur division Flawless Corfield opens up two-shot lead in MENA Tour MOHAMMEDIA, Morocco, March 20: Lee Corfield shot a flawless fiveunder 66 to open up a healthy two-shot lead going into the second round of the MENA Tour s Royal Golf Mohammedia Open at Royal Golf D Anfa Club on Sunday. The Englishman picked up four shots in a stunning three-hole stretch from the seventh, including an eagle on the ninth, before birdieing the final hole to move ahead of a three-man group which included South Africa s Tyler Hogarty. The winner of the season-ending MENA Tour championship last year, Hogarty responded to an early double bogey on the first with seven birdies in nine holes in the middle of his round before dropping two further shots to finish the day tied for second along with the English duo of Adam Sagar and Jamie Elson. Rising Dutch amateur Pierre Junior Verlaar lit up the back nine with five birdies in his last six holes after making the turn at three over to lead the amateur division, a further shot adrift on two under. It was Corfield who took centrestage with a bogey-free round. Played really solid to-day. I got off to a steady start with six pars in a row and then two birdies and an eagle on the next three holes got my round going, said the he 35-year-old Englishman who racked up a solo third last week. Mohamed Belaroussia of Morocco carded a two-under 69 to lead the MENA Division, one ahead of his compatriots Ahmed Marjan and Mehdi Saissi as Younes El Hassani, the winner of the region s honours last week, NHL Results/Standings settled for level-par 71. Coming off the back of three European Tour starts this season, leading amateur Rayhan Thomas of India carded three-over 74 while defending champion Zane Scotland of England returned a 71. Elsewhere, Spain s Leo Lilja, who won the MENA Tour s season-opening Casablanca Open last week, signed for a 74 to join seasoned Andrew Marshall of England in a tie for 58th, one ahead of former England cricketer Craig Kieswetter and two clear of Luke Joy on a day when 20 players broke par. An initiative of the Shaikh Maktoum Golf Foundation, the MENA Golf Tour was created in 2011 with the aim of developing golf in the region. It is affiliated to R&A, the worldwide golf governing body based in the home of golf, St Andrews, and the Arab Golf Federation and enjoys the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) status. Lee Corfield CHICAGO, March 20, (AP): Jonathan Toews scored twice while Richard Panik and Artemi Panarin each had one in the third period to erase Colorado s two-goal lead and rally the Chicago Blackhawks past the Avalanche 6-3 on Sunday night for their fifth straight win. Patrick Kane scored his teamleading 32nd goal and Marcus Kruger added an empty-netter for Chicago, which won for the 17th time in its last 20 games to pull seven points ahead of second-place Minnesota in the Central Division. The ICE HOCKEY Wild dropped their fifth straight, 5-4 to Winnipeg on Sunday. With Chicago trailing 3-1, Toews tipped in Kane s bouncing shot at 10:17 of the third period to cut it to 3-2. The goal withstood a video review that showed Toews may have been offside. Panik rifled in a loose puck from the slot 17 seconds later to tie it at 3. Panarin put Chicago ahead 4-3 just 17 seconds after that. Penguins 4, Panthers 0 In Pittsburgh, Sidney Crosby again picked up the slack with Evgeni Malkin out, getting his 10th career hat trick and leading the Pittsburgh Penguins past the Florida Panthers. Crosby s natural hat trick came in a span of 11 minutes between the second and the third period, pushing his goal total to an NHL-high 40 and moving him into a tie with Edmonton s Conner McDavid for the league scoring lead with 80 points. Linemates Conor Sheary and Jake Guentzel assisted on all three of Crosby s goals. Patric Hornqvist added his 18th of the season for Pittsburgh. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 21 shots for his 44th career shutout. The Penguins remained one point behind Columbus for second place in the Metropolitan Division behind Washington. WASHINGTON, March 20, (RTRS): Results and standings from the NHL games on Sunday. Calgary 5 Los Angeles 2 Winnipeg 5 Minnesota 4 Philadelphia 4 Carolina (OT) 3 Columbus 4 New Jersey 1 Montreal 4 Ottawa 1 Pittsburgh 4 Florida 0 Chicago 6 Colorado 3 Western Conference Eastern Conference Central Division Atlantic Division W L OTL GF GA Pts W L OTL GF GA Pts Montreal Chicago Ottawa Minnesota Boston St. Louis Toronto Nashville Tampa Bay Winnipeg Florida Dallas Buffalo Colorado Detroit Pacific Division Metropolitan Division W L OTL GF GA Pts W L OTL GF GA Pts San Jose Washington Columbus Anaheim Pittsburgh Calgary NY Rangers Edmonton NY Islanders Los Angeles Philadelphia Vancouver Carolina Arizona New Jersey Note: Overtime losses (OTL) are worth one point in the standings and are not included in the loss column (L) Ottawa Senators Chris Kelly moves in on Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price during the fi rst period of an NHL hockey game in Montreal, March 19. (AP) Flames 5, Kings 2 In Calgary, Alberta, linemates Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan had a goal and two assists each to lead Calgary over Los Angeles. Michael Stone, Mark Giordano and Kris Versteeg also scored for the Flames, and Brian Elliott made 19 saves for his 11th straight win to tie a club record set by Mike Vernon in the season. The Flames moved into third in the Pacific Division past the Edmonton Oilers, who will host Los Angeles on Monday. Calgary got its second straight win and 12th in its past 13 games. Blue Jackets 4, Devils 1 In Newark, New Jersey, Lukas Sedlak and Brandon Dubinsky scored on penalty shots and the Columbus Blue Jackets clinched their third playoff berth in franchise history with a victory over the New Jersey Devils. This was only the third time in NHL history that a team scored twice in a game on penalty shots. Thomas Gradin and Ivan Hlinka of Vancouver did it against Detroit in 1982, and Ryane Clowe and Joe Thornton of San Jose converted against Washington in The win was the fourth straight for the Blue Jackets, gave them their first 100-point season and moved them into a tie with Washington for the NHL s best record with 11 games left. Columbus, which joined the league in 2000, last made the playoffs in Jets 5, Wild 4 In Winnipeg, Manitoba, Josh Morrissey one-timed in a goal with 7:17 left to end Minnesota s rally from four goals down and give the Winnipeg Jets a chaotic victory over the Wild. It was Minnesota s fifth straight loss and they only have two wins in their last 10 games. Winnipeg led 4-0 early in the second period after scoring on four of its first eight shots but the Wild rallied with four straight goals in the second period. Flyers 4, Hurricanes 3, OT IBAK to hold 3rd Inter Club Badminton Championship KUWAIT CITY, March 20: The Indian Badminton Association Kuwait (IBAK) announces the third Inter Club Badminton Championship which will be held on March 23 and 24, 2017 at the IBAK Gym, Salwa. Vying for the crown are eight titan teams the IBAK Chargers, IBCK, IBAK Gladiators, Kerala Badminton Association Kuwait, IBAK Vikings, Abbasiya, Tuskers, Crossfire Mangaf and the Bhavans Badminton Club. The tournament will be played in round robin cum knockout format. Each tie team event format will comprise of 5 matches two Open Men s doubles, one Men s Advanced doubles, one Mixed doubles, one Men s above 40 doubles. The matches will begin at 7:00 pm. IBAK Charges will be represented by Ilayaraja, Aneef, Elbin, Dr Mani, Bader, Subin, Sanil, Subin Joy, Niyathi and Adnan. Abassiya Tuskers comprise of Sanju Mathew, Anish Philip, Binoy Cheruvathur, Jithesh Jith, Jino Joy, Antony Jacob, Saji Papachan, Aju Thomas and Nivedhita. In Philadelphia, Travis Konecny tied it with 42.9 seconds left in the third period and Brayden Schenn scored 38 seconds into overtime to lift the Philadelphia Flyers over the Carolina Hurricanes. Jordan Staal scored a power-play goal with 8:11 left in the third to put Carolina ahead 3-2 but Konecny scored with Flyers goalie Steve Mason on the bench for an extra attacker, then Schenn ended it by finishing a rebound from close range. Ivan Provorov had a goal and two assists and Dale Weise also scored The IBAK will have Mohammed Nurrohim, Mohammed Naser, Mohammed Elkhayat, Dadang Rudiano, Suresh Ramachandran, Anto Santiko, Lyang Sumara, Karjan and Nikka. The IBAK Gladiators comprise of Sarin, Jerosh, Yashin, Bibin, Chandra, Faheem, Vikas, Arif, Shaina and Sayooj; Bhavans Badminton club will have Don Francis, Sanoj Kumar, Manas Manoj, Sajeev Punnakkal, Anai Kumar, Ajoy Felix, George John, Sajith Ramachandran and Sirisha. The KBA will field Friedy, Anto, Shahoor, James, Prakash, Sunil, Abin, Philip, Abin, Juvy; IBAK Vikings will have Sanal, Alen, Stephen, Mohan, Relin, Kishore, Rafeeq, Prasanth, Valli and Sam Jonathan; the Crossfire Mangaf Badminton Club will have Bastain James, Jiju John, Pradeepan, Jithin, Jayaraj, Sayju, Liju, Satheesh, Jabbar Farooqi and Gwen. For more enquiries, please contact Chandrahas K.T. ( ) and Tournament Director Saravanan ( ) and Rajan Prabhakar ( ). for Philadelphia, which pulled within five points of idle Toronto for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Canadiens 4, Senators 1 In Montreal, Carey Price made 30 saves for his 33rd win of the season as the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Ottawa Senators to sweep the homeand-home series. Tomas Plekanec, Jordie Benn, Paul Byron and Nathan Beaulieu scored for the Canadiens, who lead the Atlantic Division by four points over the Senators, who still have one game in hand.

42 SPORTS 42 Pique blasts supporters for booing Gomes Barca see off Valencia to stay on heels of Real FC Barcelona s Lionel Messi (left), duels for the ball with Valencia s Ezequiel Garay during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between FC Barcelona and Valencia at the Camp Nou Stadium in Barcelona, Spain on March 19. (AP) Trail Blazers NBA Results/Standings WASHINGTON, March 20, (RTRS): Results and standings from the NBA games on Sunday. Cleveland 125 LA Lakers 120 San Antonio 118 Sacramento 102 New Orleans 123 Minnesota 109 Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L PCT GB Boston Toronto NY Knicks /2 Philadelphia /2 Brooklyn /2 Central Division W L PCT GB Cleveland Indiana Milwaukee Detroit /2 Chicago /2 Southeast Division W L PCT GB Washington Atlanta Miami /2 Charlotte Orlando /2 Continued from Page 44 The Sixers, who thumped Dallas on Friday night, improved to a respectable at home. They won 10 games total last season. Al Horford led the Celtics with a season-high 27 points. Boston guard Isaiah Thomas sat out a second straight game with a bone bruise on his right knee and is questionable for Monday at Washington. Raptors 116, Pacers 91 In Toronto, DeMar DeRozan scored 22 points in three quarters as all five Toronto starters were in double figures against Indiana. DeRozan added four assists and three rebounds and was able to rest the entire fourth quarter as the Raptors cruised to their second straight victory. Serge Ibaka had 16 points, while Jonas Valanciunas finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds as the Raptors improved to Paul George had 18 points for the Pacers, who lost to Toronto for the eighth time in the last nine regularseason meetings. It was the first meeting between the teams since Game 7 of last year s firstround playoff series, which was won by Toronto. They face each other twice more over the next two weeks. Mavericks 111, Nets 104 In New York, Dirk Nowitzki had 23 points and nine rebounds as Dallas beat Brooklyn. J.J. Barea scored 20 points and Harrison Barnes added 19 for the Mavericks. Brook Lopez had 27 points and Spencer Dinwiddie scored 18 for the Nets. The Mavericks led with more than five minutes left before Barea scored nine straight Dallas points. Barnes followed with two layups that made it with 26.5 seconds remaining. Pistons 112, Suns 95 In Auburn Hills, Michigan, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 23 points as Detroit overcame a sluggish performance for the much of the game, finally pulling away from short-handed Phoenix. The Suns were without several top players but they still led the playoffchasing Pistons in the third quarter. Detroit finished strong in that period and then built a double-digit lead of its own in the fourth. Andre Drummond had 18 points and 18 rebounds for the Pistons, and Aron Baynes had 13 points and 17 rebounds. Tyler Ulis had 17 points and 11 assists for the Suns. Phoenix was without guard Devin Booker (right ankle), guard Ronnie Price (left leg), guard Leandro Barbosa (illness) and forward Dragan Bender (right ankle). The Suns have also been playing without Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight and Tyson Chandler, choosing to give young players more time. Pelicans 123, Timberwolves 109 In New Orleans, Anthony Davis had 28 points and 12 rebounds to lead New Orleans past struggling Minnesota. DeMarcus Cousins added 15 points and 11 rebounds in his return from a one-game absence because of left knee and rib soreness. Reserve guard Jordan Crawford scored a season-high 22 points in 21 minutes for the Pelicans, who have won four of five. Jrue Holiday had 21 points and shot 4 of 5 from 3-point range. Karl-Anthony Towns scored 33 for the Timberwolves, who lost their third straight. Andrew Wiggins added 25 points and reserve Shabazz Muhammad had 20 for Minnesota. Ricky Rubio chipped in with 10 points and 14 assists for the Wolves, who built a 13-point lead in the second quarter only to fade late as New Orleans closed the game on a run. Toronto 116 Indiana 91 Portland 115 Miami 104 Detroit 112 Phoenix 95 Philadelphia 105 Boston 99 Dallas 111 Brooklyn 104 Western Conference Northwest Division W L PCT GB Utah Oklahoma City /2 Denver /2 Portland /2 Minnesota /2 Pacific Division W L PCT GB Golden State LA Clippers /2 Sacramento /2 Phoenix /2 LA Lakers /2 Southwest Division W L PCT GB San Antonio Houston /2 Memphis /2 Dallas New Orleans /2 BARCELONA, March 20, (RTRS): Lionel Messi scored twice as La Liga champions Barcelona saw off a persistent Valencia side, who had Eliaquim Mangala sent off in the first half, to win 4-2 on Sunday and stay on the heels of leaders Real Madrid. Manchester City loanee Mangala stunned the Nou Camp by heading Valencia in front in the 29th minute but Luis Suarez soon cancelled out the opener following a quick throwin by Neymar and the Uruguayan then won a penalty as he was hauled down by Mangala, who was sent off for a second booking. Messi beat penalty-saving expert Diego Alves from the spot for the second time this season to pull Barca level in the 45th minute but Munir El Haddadi, who is on loan from the Catalans, equalised immediately in injury time of the first half. Barca dominated the second half and took the lead for the second time when Messi smashed the ball past Alves s near post but the visiting side created an opening to level again but Munir squandered the chance. Former Valencia midfielder Andre Gomes then scored his first goal for Barcelona to make sure of the points. Barca are second in the standings on 63 points, two behind Real who have a game in hand. We controlled the game but they made the most of a set piece and a counter attack. Overall we played well, we played at a high tempo and in general we can be happy with the game, Barca captain Andres Iniesta told reporters. The title race is still alive and we re obliged to stay up there and take advantage of any opportunity we get if Real Madrid slip up. Barcelona defender Gerard Pique has urged supporters to stop booing midfielder Gomes. The Portuguese player bore the brunt of the criticism for the team s 4-0 thrashing by Paris St Germain in the Champions League last-16 first leg and was loudly booed in the team s next game against Leganes when he was substituted off. He was dropped from the starting line-up for the second Soccer Roundup FC Barcelona s Luis Suarez (center), reacts as he falls in front of Valencia s goalkeeper Diego Alves (right), during the Spanish La Liga soccer match between FC Barcelona and Valencia at the Camp Nou Stadium in Barcelona, Spain on March 19. (AP) leg against PSG but came on as a substitute in the historic 6-1 turnaround which saw Barca reach the quarter-finals. Gomes was greeted with more whistles when he came on in the 74th minute against Valencia on Sunday but 15 minutes later sealed victory by turning Neymar s cross in from close range, although he chose not to celebrate the strike against his former club. I m in total disagreement with the people who boo players, they d be better off staying at home, Pique told reporters after the game on Sunday. It s intolerable and I think treating any player like that before they come on the pitch doesn t help anyone. People need to take a good look at themselves. It s one thing if someone plays badly and then the people whistle to show their discontent but quite another to whistle before they come on because it kills their confidence. Neuer withdraws from Germany squad with calf injury Iraq considering new approach to US-born Meram BAGHDAD, March 20, (Agencies): Iraq may ask United Statesborn striker Justin Meram to rethink his decision not to join up with the squad for their World Cup qualifier against Saudi Arabia next week. With the Iraqis qualifier against Australia on Thursday being played in Tehran due to long-standing security concerns in Iraq, Meram decided not to accept last week s call-up. Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order temporarily banning the entry of travellers from six Muslim-majority countries, including Iran. Saudi Arabia is not on the list, and with several Iraqi players at risk of picking up suspensions against Australia, officials at the Iraq FA hope Meram will change his mind and travel to Jeddah for the game on March 28. We talked to the team s head coach in this regard two days ago, a team spokesman told Reuters. He has not made a final decision, but he may recall him because 11 players currently with the team have been cautioned in previous matches and the coach fears maybe one or more of them will receive another yellow card that will suspend them for the match against Saudi Arabia. Meram, who was born in Michigan to Iraqi parents, had said in an earlier statement on his Instagram page that he would not participate in the qualifiers due to reasons beyond his control. I have spoken with our manager, Radhi Shenaishil, and I appreciate his, and the IFA s, understanding of my difficult situation, he wrote. This is certainly not a permanent break from the national team and I look forward to representing my country again in the future. Iraq are trying to qualify for the World Cup finals for the first time since 1986 but have picked up just one win in their opening five games and are in fourth place in their group. They trail joint-leaders Saudi Arabia and Japan by seven points with five games remaining. Only two teams qualify automatically for Russia 2018, with the third-placed team entering into playoffs. Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer has pulled out of Germany s national soccer squad for their upcoming friendly against England and World Cup qualifier against Azerbaijan because of a calf injury. Uncapped Paris St Germain keeper Kevin Trapp has been called up to replace Neuer, who will stay with his club Bayern Munich for Neuer treatment, the German football association said on Monday. Neuer, 30, has kept 13 clean sheets in 25 games for Bayern this season and played in the German champions 1-0 win over Borussia Moenchengladbach on Sunday. Trapp has made 11 appearances at the under-21 level for Germany and kept 10 clean sheets in his last 16 games for PSG. Germany play England in Dortmund on Wednesday before travelling to Baku to face Azerbaijan four days later. Brazil visit Uruguay on World Cup duty this week, with midfielder Casemiro suggesting the absence of Luis Suarez will give the fivetimes champions an advantage in the top-of-the-table clash in Montevideo. The Barcelona striker has scored 31 goals in 41 appearances for his club this season but will miss the Brazil game after picking up a yellow card in Uruguay s last World Cup qualifier, a 3-1 defeat by Chile. It was only his second yellow in eight games but came at an opportune time for Brazil, Casemiro said. We can t deny it, of course it s better playing Uruguay without Suarez, the Real Madrid player said on Brazilian radio on Monday morning. Suarez is a great player. Manchester City defender Bacary Sagna has been ruled out of France s World Cup qualifier against Luxembourg because of left thigh injury. The French soccer federation says Sagna, who had joined his teammates at France s training camp outside Paris, will be replaced by Lyon right back Christophe Jallet. France will also be without Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba for its trip to Luxembourg on March 25 in Group A, which the French lead by three points. France hosts Spain in a friendly international at the Stade de France three days later. Jallet has made 11 appearances with France but has not played with the national since a friendly against the Netherlands in March Makoto Hasebe has risked straining his relationship with Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt by joining up with the Japan squad ahead of Thursday s World Cup qualifying match against the United Arab Emirates. The 33-year-old, who has been Japan captain since 2010, arrived in Al Ain late on Sunday despite his club saying he needed an operation on a knee injury sustained in a 3-0 defeat to Bayern Munich on March 11.

43 SPORTS 43 FENCING ates for alleged spot-fixing during the PSL s opening match. The PCB s anti-corruption unit questioned Irfan and Hasan during the PSL, but they were allowed to compete in the tournament. Both were provisionally suspended after they gave statements to the anti-corruption officials in Lahore last week. A newspaper has published an obituary for Sri Lankan cricket following a loss to Bangladesh, the youngest testplaying country. Irfan RIP Sri Lanka, read the sports headline in The Island newspaper. The paper carried a notice saying: In affectionate remembrance of Sri Lankan cricket which died at the Oval on 19, March Bangladesh won the second Test by four wickets Sunday to secure its first ever win over Sri Lanka in 18 attempts. It was also special with the match being the country s 100th test and helped the team even a two-match series. New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor has failed to recover from a calf injury and been ruled out of the third Test against South Africa, though frontline Balsam Ayoub (right), with some of the officials after the closing ceremony. Event a memorable one for children Balsam International celebrates National Day with fencing competition KUWAIT CITY, March 20: In a way of celebrating Kuwait s 25th of February 2017 National Day, Balsam International (BI) organised a special wonderful event for Children and Youth, Fencing Competition Sports Stars and social developer under the banner of Champion Among Us. Every year, in association with Sport Committee Society, Balsam International organizes yearly tournaments and initiatives at the Kuwait Sport Club under the umbrage of Champion Among Us to empower children and draw attention to the Champion s role in society and in the international sporting arena. The aim was to highlight the important role that athletes play as ambassadors, great role models and national icons. The Kuwait Sports Club Board, children, Youths and the organisers rejoiced in the spirit of BI project Champion Among us with fellow members and their families at Kuwait Sports Club Fencing Centre. The event, which is aimed at promoting sports, health, character, team spirit and building positive value offering all the participants from schools and clubs a special opportunity to raise the awareness of sport gender equality matters, social and cultural connections through Fencing inter competitions, community development and other ways of knowledge transfer. Children under the age of 17 years from both EPEE and FOIL participated in a variety of activities that have been passed down throughout the previous editions of Champion Among Us. The Kuwait Fencing legend Mr. Mohamed Herz sponsored the participants 1st Prizes. Thanks to the Fencing legend for supporting this initiative as a true reflection of a good citizen s loyalty towards his country. Special Thanks to the Balsam International, General Mrs Shaima Action shot from the event Binhussain for coming onboard sponsoring the event. Commenting on the event, Mrs Balsam M. Al-Ayoub, said, This year we are glad to host this annual event with the support of our Strategic Partners. This initiative comes as part of BI s efforts to train, groom and nurture younger generation. The event was a memorable one for children. Mrs Al-Ayoub also said: This Some of the fencers in action Two fencers pose for the camera. year, the event was a great success and BI enjoyed bringing children together in a festive atmosphere to celebrate Kuwait National day. We are passionate about helping the children bringing them together to create positive image by inviting champions and legends to attend the event since they are role models in our community and that will motivate the participating children to aim higher in their sporting career. Sri Lankan media react angrily after defeat Pak bars cricketers from leaving country ISLAMABAD, March 20, (Agencies): The Pakistan government has barred the five cricketers involved in alleged spotfixing from leaving the country. The Pakistan Cricket Board has provisionally suspended Sharjeel Khan, Khalid Latif, Mohammad Irfan, Shahzaib Hasan and Nasir Jamshed from playing any form of cricket for violating anti-corruption code during the recent Pakistan Super League. Jamshed is still in Britain, where he was first arrested as part of investigation into alleged corruption in the PSL. The interior ministry said in a statement that Irfan and Latif gave statements to officials of the Federal Investigation Authority in Lahore on Monday. Hasan and Sharjeel are scheduled to give statements on Tuesday. Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan directed FIA officials to carry out a thorough investigation against the five players. Khan said there should be a zero tolerance policy and anybody who is involved in spot-fixing should not be spared. The PCB has formed a separate threemember tribunal which includes a retired judge and a retired general to conduct its own inquiry against Sharjeel and Latif. Last week, the cricket board provisionally suspended Irfan and Shahzaib and gave them two weeks to respond to the charges. Last month, Sharjeel and Latif were sent home from the United Arab Emirpace bowler Trent Boult is looking likely to play, selector Gavin Larsen said on Monday. Boult (upper leg) and Taylor (calf) were injured in the drawn first test in Dunedin and missed the eight-wicket second Test defeat to the Proteas at the Basin Reserve, which ended inside three days on Saturday. Despite the humiliating defeat, Larsen CRICKET said the squad would remain unchanged for the final game of the three-match series at Seddon Park in Hamilton, which starts on Saturday. We ve decided to go with the same unit, Larsen told reporters in Wellington on Monday. We ve got 100 percent faith in the fact we think we ve got the best group of Test cricketers in the country and we ve got a Test match to win in Hamilton. The Seddon Park wicket is expected to take turn, with left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner likely to replace either of the all-rounders Jimmy Neesham or Colin de Grandhomme in the side. New Zealand squad: Kane Williamson (captain), Tom Latham, Jeet Raval, Neil Broom, Henry Nicholls, Jimmy Neesham, BJ Watling, Mitchell Santner, Colin de Grandhomme, Tim Southee, Jeetan Patel, Neil Wagner, Trent Boult, Matt Henry. Aussies deny India, series remains level Handscomb, Marsh defy hosts with century stand RANCHI, India, March 20, (RTRS): Resolute rearguard action by Peter Handscomb and Shaun Marsh helped Australia escape with a remarkable draw against India on the final day of the third Test on Monday. Having conceded a 152-run first innings lead, the tourists were reeling when skipper Steve Smith departed, leaving his team at 63-4 with more than two sessions to go and the hosts confident of a win. But Handscomb and Marsh battled on through the entire second session to first erase the deficit and then ensure Australia were safe by the time they were separated. Handscomb made 72 not out, his third Test fifty, to help Australia finish on 204 for six before the players shook hands. Marsh made 53, the duo frustrating India for nearly four hours with a dour 124-run stand to shatter the hosts chances of going 2-1 up in the four-test series. I m very proud. They had magnificent plans, they backed CRICKET their defence for a long time. To see the game out for as long as they did, it was an outstanding performance, Smith told reporters. That s one of the things we ve been talking about being resilient and being able to stick out at tough times. The way Peter and Shaun did that was absolutely magnificent. India, buoyant after making 603 in their first innings and with Ravindra Jadeja having taken a couple of late wickets the previous evening, came out hard at the Australians in the morning. Overnight batsmen Smith and Matt Renshaw resumed with Australia on 23 for two and denied the hosts for about 21 overs before falling in quick succession. Left-arm spinner Jadeja relentlessly attacked the rough outside Renshaw s off-stump, while Ishant Sharma bowled to Smith with a seven-two off-side field. Pumped up after an altercation with Renshaw, Sharma earned the breakthrough for India when he trapped the opener leg-before for 15 with a fuller delivery. A bigger blow awaited Australia in the next over when Jadeja, who claimed nine wickets in the match to go with an unbeaten fifty with the bat, spun one past Smith s advancing pad and uprooted the off-stump. Smith managed 21. Australia coach Darren Lehmann had asked his team on Sunday to learn from the focus and application shown by India s Cheteshwar Pujara and Wriddhiman Saha whose 199- run partnership gave the hosts their commanding position. Handscomb and Marsh certainly did, thwarting the Indian bowlers for 62 overs on a fifth day wicket at the Jharkhand State Cricket Association Stadium. Jadeja eventually dismissed Marsh and Ashwin sent back Glenn Maxwell but Australia were safe by then. They batted really well, India captain Virat Kohli said of Australia s fifth wicket partnership that denied his team a victory. They were four down at lunch, credit to them that they did not lose another wicket in the following session. The teams now move to Dharamsala for the final match from Saturday. Kohli said his spinners could have been more effective India s Ishant Sharma celebrates the dismissal of Australia s Matt Renshaw during the fi fth day of their third Test cricket match in Ranchi, India on March 20. (AP) Australia s Peter Handscomb plays a shot during the fi fth day of their third Test cricket match against India in Ranchi, India on March 20. (AP) India vs Australia Scoreboard RANCHI, March 20, (RTRS): Scoreboard at close of play on the fi fth and fi nal day in the third Test between India and Australia on Monday in Ranchi, India. AUSTRALIA 1st innings 451 (S. Smith 178no, G. Maxwell 104; R. Jadeja 5-124) INDIA 1st innings 603 for 9 decl (C. Pujara 202, W. Saha 117, M. Vijay 82, L. Rahul 67, R. Jadeja 54no; P. Cummins 4-106) AUSTRALIA 2nd innings (Overnight: 23-2) D. Warner b Jadeja...14 M. Renshaw lbw b I. Sharma...15 N. Lyon b Jadeja...2 S. Smith b Jadeja...21 S. Marsh c Vijay b Jadeja...53 P. Handscomb not out...72 G. Maxwell c Vijay b R. Ashwin...2 M. Wade not out...9 Extras (b-9 lb-4 nb-3)...16 Total (for 6 wickets, 100 overs) Fall of wickets: 1-17 D. Warner,2-23 N. Lyon,3-59 M. Renshaw,4-63 S. Smith,5-187 S. Marsh,6-190 G. Maxwell To bat: S. O Keefe, P. Cummins, J. Hazlewood Bowling: R. Ashwin , R. Jadeja , U. Yadav , I. Sharma (nb-3). Umpire: Chris Gaffaney, Umpire: Ian Gould TV umpire: Nigel Llong, Match referee: Richie Richardson, Result: Draw in the drawn third Test against Australia but for the softness of the ball used in the contest. I think the hardness of the ball was a big factor, the 28-year-old told reporters at the Jharkhand State Cricket Association Stadium. When the ball was new last night, it spun well off the rough. Even this morning, it was spinning well. But in the middle session, the ball was not hard, so could not generate that kind of pace from the wicket. After Kohli took the new ball, Ravindra Jadeja dismissed Marsh for 53, while spin partner Ravichandran Ashwin sent back Glenn Maxwell but Australia had reached safety by then. On day five, wicket slows down anyway. We took the new ball and got a couple of wickets. But the hardness of the ball in the middle session was a factor, added Kohli. His counterpart Steve Smith was rather amused when asked about his opinion. I haven t really thought about it. We both use the same ball, you just got to do what you can with it, he said. Kohli dismissed suggestion that he underbowled off-spinner Ashwin, currently the top ranked Test bowler, while persisting with Jadeja, who claimed nine wickets in the match. The fast bowlers were more effective from the far end the spinners from the commentary end, Kohli explained. Whenever Jadeja came to bowl, he picked up a wicket or two every three-four overs. It was very difficult to change him at that stage because he was bowling in good momentum. That was one of the factors. Kohli said Jadeja s second innings figures of was the most economical he had seen and the left-arm spinner outperformed everyone on a pitch which did not offer much assistance to them. You can leave aside Jadeja, because he really stood apart among the bowlers. But I think generally bowlers found it difficult to make things happen from the centre of the wicket, he said.

44 44 PRIME TIME tuesday (all times are kuwait local) 07:30 athletic vs madrid/soccer... bein sports 3 hd 09:00 lille vs marseille/soccer... bein sports 6 hd 10:30 nancy vs lorient/soccer... bein sports 6 hd 12:00 warriors vs thunder/basketball..bein sports 8 hd 13:15 bologna vs chievo/soccer... bein sports 4 hd 15:00 barcelona vs valencia/soccer bein sports 3 hd 18:15 metz vs bastia/soccer... bein sports 6 hd 20:00 psg vs lyon/soccer... bein sports 6 hd Sports Latest sports scores at Trail Blazers continue playoff push Spurs halt skid MIAMI, March 20, (AP): Damian Lillard scored a season-high 49 points, including 28 after halftime, as the Portland Trail Blazers continued their playoff push by beating the Miami Heat on Sunday night. Lillard tied a career high with nine 3-pointers, giving him 1,002 for his career. He shot 14 for 21 from the field, 9 for 12 from 3-point range and made all 12 of his free throws. Lillard Jusef Nurkic added 21 points and 12 rebounds for Portland (32-37), which moved within a game of idle Denver for the No. 8 spot in the Western Conference. C.J. Mc- Collum scored 18 points and Noah Vonleh added 11 for the Trail Blazers. James Johnson scored 24 points for Miami, which lost for just the second time in its last 17 home games. The Heat (34-36) missed a chance to reach.500 for the first time this season. Cavaliers 125, Lakers 120 In Los Angeles, Kyrie Irving scored 46 points and LeBron James added 34 as Cleveland had to rally from an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter to edge Los Angeles. Kevin Love had 21 points and 15 rebounds for the Cavaliers, who needed every bit of their full lineup to withstand a surprising challenge from the Western Conference s last-placed team and BASKETBALL clinch a playoff spot. James, Love and Irving all sat out the defending champions blowout loss to the Clippers on Saturday, angering fans and the national television audience. That night off left them with the energy to lead a 43-point fourth quarter. D Angelo Russell scored a careerhigh 40 points in a spectacular return to the starting lineup for the Lakers, who have lost five straight and 13 of 14. Russell hit seven 3-pointers and had six assists while committing just one turnover in 41 minutes. Spurs 118, Kings 102 In San Antonio, Pau Gasol scored 22 points and LaMarcus Aldridge added 18 as San Antonio rolled past Sacramento to end a two-game losing streak. Kawhi Leonard had 12 points in 27 MoD handball team win Cup The Handball Team of Ministry of Defense won the cup of the Ministries and State Bodies 2016/2017 League, which has concluded in the Shahid Fahad Al-Ahmed Hall in Da iya area. Five teams representing National Guard, Ministry of Defense, Kuwait Fire Service Directorate, Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Education took part in the handball competition. The team of Ministry of Defense managed to win all the matches they played. The team of National Guard came second followed by the minutes, sitting out the fourth quarter after the Spurs led by as many as 28. San Antonio (53-16) moved within Miami Heat s Tyler Johnson (right), drives to the basket as Portland Trail Blazers C.J. McCollum (3) defends during the first half of an NBA basketball game on March 19, in Miami. (AP) The victorious Ministry of Defense handball players celebrate with the championship trophy. team of Ministry of Education in third place, the team of Ministry in fourth place and the team of Kuwait Fire Service Directorate in fifth place. This is the second time the Ministry of Defense Team are winning the league. A member of the Supreme Committee of Ministries Sport and Head of the Grounds Department at Public authority for Sports Ahmed Al-Sayegh, and the Head of the Technical Committee for Ministries Handball Abdullah Al- Zayab honored the top three winning teams. two games of idle Golden State (55-14) for the NBA s best record. Buddy Hield had 18 points, matching his high with the Kings since being acquired Feb 20 in the trade that sent All- Star big man DeMarcus Cousins to New Orleans. The Spurs had to overcome an abysmal start to win their 10th straight over the Kings. San Antonio missed its first eight shots and 12 of 13 in falling behind ers 105, Celtics 99 In Philadelphia, Robert Covington made the go-ahead 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter to lift Philadelphia over Boston. Dario Saric scored key baskets to extend the lead and bolster his bid for NBA Rookie of the Year. Saric had 23 points and helped rally the 76ers from a 13-point hole in the third. Covington buried a 3 with 3:37 left that put the Sixers up and Nik Stauskas hit his own with 38 seconds left for a lead that sent fans inside a packed Wells Fargo Center into a frenzy. Continued on Page 42 Ghanaian ref banned for life ZURICH, March 20, (RTRS): Ghanaian referee Joseph Lamptey has been banned for life for match manipulation in a World Cup qualifier, soccer s governing body FIFA said Monday. FIFA said Lamptey was found guilty of unlawfully influencing a match result following South Africa s 2-1 win over Senegal in November in African Group D. FIFA did not give further details but African soccer s governing body (CAF) said at the time that Lamptey had wrongly awarded a penalty to the South Africans and suspended him for three months. CAF said that Lamptey was guilty of poor performance in the match and awarded a wrong penalty for handball despite the fact that the ball never touched the hand of the player. THE FIRST ENGLISH LANGUAGE DAILY IN FREE KUWAIT Published by: Arab Times Publishing House Editor-in-Chief AHMED AL JARALLAH Editorial Office: Airport Road, Shuwaikh P.O. 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