saturday, january 12, 2013

happily a retired president,"he vowed, in response to aquestion about the 2014 voteat a joint White House pressconference with Obama.

Obama and Karzai met fortwo hours before sitting downtogether for lunch and holdingtheir joint press conference.

Karzai was elected in 2004and re-elected in 2009, in twovotes marred by allegations ofwidespread electoral fraudand held against the backdropof an ongoing war betweenNATO-backed governmentforces and Taliban guerrillas.

WASHINGTON (AFP) Af -gha nistan's President HamidKarzaisaid yesterday that hewould stand down at the endof his second term in 2014and allow a successor to befreely elected.

"The greatest of myachievements eventually, seenby the Afghan people, will bea proper, well-organized, in-terference-free election inwhich the Afghan people canelect their next president," hesaid.

"And certainly I will be aretired president, and very

nurses’ stations. Thus, emer-gency services and equipmentwill be much more easily ac-cessed. Waiting rooms will beenlarged.

Continued on page 3

Aruban florins ($1,714,285)nee ded to complete the projectis being underwritten by Stich -ting Onroerend Goed (SOGA-Foundation Real Estate) whichhas performed such a servicein the past. This is in keepingwith the current administra-tion’s policy of pursuing pub-lic/private partnerships for theimprovement and advance-ment of Aruba’s infrastructure.The government will be “ren -ting” the facility from SOGAover the next 29 years. Workon the hospital will commenceas soon as possible.

Minister Dr. Visser ex-plained the facility will haveexpanded capacity and ser -vices. The 320 beds will benearly doubled. There will bea number of new outbuildingsand patient floors will be reor-ganized to centralize the

Two days of turbulent parlia-mentary sessions took place inthe early part of this week, re-sulting in the final approval ofa financing plan to allow ex-tensive expansion and renova-tion of the Dr. Horacio E.Oduber Hospital, Aruba primemedical care facility.

Minister of Finance, Tele -communications, Utilities andEnergy, Mike de Meza, joinedMinister of Public Health andSport, Dr. Richard Visser inannouncing the laws have beenpassed and a financing agree-ment approved to allow theplan on Thursday morning,January 10. The vote in amongthe 21-seat parliament was 14for the measure, 4 against and3 abstentions.

Minister de Meza explainedthat the 300,000 million

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Parliament gives the green light

expansion and renovation of

Dr. Horacio E. Oduber Hospital

Afghan President Karzai

promises will step down

in 2014

Minister of Public Healthand Sport Dr. Richard

Visser

Minister of Finance, Tele -communications, Utiltiesand Energy, Mike de Meza

cutives of video game and soft-ware firms amid speculationover the role violent content ofso-called "first person shooter"games has on disturbed userswho later turn to real-life vio-lence.

The vice president ques-tioned whether there had beena "coarsening of our culture"over the years, but admitted hedid not know the answer to thequestion.

Biden has been meeting allthe "stakeholders" with inte -rests in the guns issue, inclu -ding victims of violence, lawenforcement organizations,hunting groups and membersof the gun lobby.

On Thursday, the NationalRifle Association said thatBiden cared more aboutstamping out gun rights thanprotecting school children afterits representative attended ameeting with Biden.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - USVice President Joe Biden saidyesterday there was "no silverbullet" available to beat thecomplex scourge of gun vio-lence as his policy task forcesat down with video game pro-ducers.

With another firearmsmetaphor, Biden said he was"shooting for Tuesday" to sendhis recommendations to Presi-dent Barack Obama, whopromised to use his power totry to prevent new outragesafter a school massacre in Con-necticut.

"We know that there is nosilver bullet," Biden said, in-sisting that the question of howto stop more deaths followinga spate of mass shootings wasa difficult one.

"I come to this meetingwith no judgment."

Biden sat down with exe -

auditorium. There will be se -veral speakers throughout theday covering a diversity ofto pics to assist businesses ofall size to expand their mar-kets and increase profitabil-ity.

Morning sessions will in-clude “Strategic Marketingand Social Media” by FritsIsrael of ID Aruba and“Sustai nable & EffectiveHRM for Entrepreneurs in aShifting Economy,” withRyan Maduro of IndependentOrganization DevelopmentConsultants. Notary HildeRodriguez-Taekema willopen the session with an ex-planation of expansion andchange of legal forms for

doing business on Aruba. Aruba’s Prime Minister

Mike Eman will visit theevent in the afternoon andopen the session on “EuropeMeets the Americas.” Preced-ing his visit will be a talk on“Financial Decision forSmart Investment” by RyanKock of Atlas Accountancy.Afternoon sessions will alsoinclude “Going Green Bene-fits for your Company,” withFreddy Vargas of Elmar NVand “Care for Employees,”by Enrita Werelmen of E-conSocial Consultancy Services.

Continued on page 5

The official opening willtake place at 10:00 AM in the

Director of Aruba Chamberof Commerce (Kamer vanKoophandel or KvK) LeoMaduro invites all interestedin advan cing the quality oftheir business to attend thefree “Busi - ness Plaza 2013:Step Forward!” which will beconducted on Saturday, Janu-ary 19 at their KvK buildingon Irausquin Boulevard. Theevent is being sponsored byDeloitte Financial Servicesand other accounting compa-nies. The day will end withan introduction to “EuropeMeets Americas” which willtake place from May 5 to 8on Aruba, with the possibili-ties it will present for localentrepreneurs.

Chamber of Commerce to host

Business Plaza 2013

bars weigh a total of approxi-mately 34.7 kilogrammes(76.3 pounds) and have a totalvalue of around US$1.7 mil-lion at the current gold price.

The gold bars were turnedover to the US Immigrationand Customs Enforcement,which is investigating the mat-ter.

Around 70 bars of goldwere believed to have beenseized from the boat with aGuyanese crew and six per-sons have been detained in Cu-racao over the matter. The goldis believed to have been smug-gled from Guyana but local au-thorities have not said whetherthere are pursuing any leadshere. They are awaiting docu-mentation from Curacao be-fore releasing the details of avisit to the island by two offi-cials of the Guyana Geologyand Mines Commission in thewake of the heist.

SAN JUAN -- Eleven goldbars were found by US borderpatrol authorities last month atan airport in Puerto Rico andthe precious metal is believedto have been part of the No-vember 30 heist aboard aGuyanese boat in the Dutch is-land of Curacao.

There had been earlier re-ports that gold from the mind-boggling US$11.5M heist hadmade its way to the US butthere had been no confirmedreports until a statement onTuesday by the US Customsand Border Protection. PuertoRico is an unincorporated USterritory.

The agency said that thegold bars were found lastmonth at the Rafael HernándezInternational Airport in thewestern city of Aguadilla.They had been shipped inboxes from Curacao.

Authorities said that the 11

2 Saturday, January 12, 2013

Gold bars found in PuertoRico point to Curacao heist

KvK Director Leo Maduro, Shariska Odor and SponsorMichael Leo van Romondt of Deloitte

Chamber of Commerce

Biden: no 'silver bullet' to

fix gun violence

ORANJESTAD – The Tax De-partment announces to all mo-torists that as of today, January12, 2013, they can pay theirmotor vehicle taxes on Satur-days. The main tax office atCamacuri will be open for thispurpose every Saturday untilFebruary 16, 2013, aside fromregular office hours during theweek.

Opening hours are from

8:00 a.m. until 2 p.m. non-stop. Motorists can claim theirnumber plate right after mak-ing their payments, until 2:00p.m.

Clients wishing to pay otherkind of taxes can also do soduring these Saturdays.

Please take notice that thisextra service is only at themain tax offices at Camacuriand not at any of the auxiliarygovernment offices on the is-land.

The Tax Department antici-pates providing assistance to asmany clients as possible duringthe coming days.

their Aruban social security,are not eligible for the addi-tional monthly stipend.

Those who are eligiblemust fill in the form, which ispresented in both Dutch andPapiamento, and file it byMarch 31, to obtain the addi-tional benefits. Each appli-cant will be investigated, andmisinforming the SVB re-garding additional incomewill be penalized with a1,500 Aruban florins fine.Applications can be filed atthe SVB office on the Von-dellaan in Oranjestad, or intheir branch office in SanNicolas.

Continued on page 5

Aruban florins monthly to bepaid to individuals who de-pend on their Aruban socialsecurity, with no other formof income.

Mr. Croes explained thatover the next month, all thoseinscribed with the SVB andreceiving Social Securitybenefits will receive notifica-tion via post and a form to fillin to apply for the additional50 Aruban florins. Individu-als who also receive socialsecurity from Holland, or areincluded in complementarypension plans from the gov-ernment, insurance compa-nies, the tourism pensionplan, or have any sort of sup-plemental income outside of

Gino Croes, Director of theSVB, which handles a num-ber of social services award-ing payments to citizens, andLuis Tromp, Head of the De-partment of Social Security(AOV), welcomed islandmedia to their office on theVondellaan to explain thenew increase in social secu-rity payments retroactivelyeffective January of this year.

It was announced on Tues-day, January 8 that new lawshave been passed which willincrease the social securitybenefit paid monthly by 50Aruban florins ($28), acrossthe board. However, a newregulation was passed thatwill allow an additional 50

Saturday, January 12, 2013 3

The number of single anddouble rooms will be greater.Labs will be enlarged andmodernized. Specialists willbe closer at hand, and theEmergency Room will alsoreceive a major makeover toimprove and speed treatment.

There will be two elevatorbanks; one exclusively forstaff and transporting patientsto special services, the otherfor visitors and out patients.This will smooth the flow oftraffic through the hospital.Along with new, modernequipment, the facility willreceive a de corative make -over, so patients will findtheir hospital stay, which isusually a difficult time, farmore cheerful, which encour-ages recovery. After close in-spection, it was found themain building is of sturdyconstruction and expansion isconsidered the best plan forAruba’s hospital.

Rosalie Klein

Parliamentgives green

light . . .Continued from page 1

New laws will augment social securitypayments, special requirements for additional benefits

Form to be filled for an addi-tional 50 florin monthly

SVB Director Gino Croes and Pension Fund DirectorLuis Tromp

Opportunity to pay motorvehicles tax on Saturdaysbegins today

that they have been coming toAruba for 17 straight years,and they are looking forwardto be honored as an Ambassa-dor of Goodwill in 2016.

Picture shows Mr. Croestogether with Susan andArthur and GM Mr. Griffithand Aivil from the DiviPhoenix Resort.

token of appreciation toguests who visit Aruba formore than 10 consecutiveyears.

Mr. Ricardo Croes, repre-senting Aruba TourismAutho rity, presented themwith a certificate at the DiviPhoenix Resort

Mr. Arthur commented

Recently, Mr. Arthur Pear -sall and Mrs. Susan Fried-man from Pleasantville, NY,were honored as Distin-guished Vi sitors, after re-turning to Aruba for their17th conse cutive visit. Thesymbolic honorary title ispresented in the name of theMinister of Tourism as a

dation would like to continuespreading awareness on breastcancer and is in search of vo -lunteers.

A volunteer meeting hasbeen programmed on January15th, and the location will bethe meeting room at FantasticGardens. Anyone who wishesto join the foundation as a vo -lunteer is welcome from 20:00to 21:00, where informationwill be given on the type ofvolunteers that are needed andwhere you could sign up.

For more informationplease call the Mary JoanFoundation office (SabanaBlanco #8) at 588–9999. Of-fice hours are from 7:30 –12:30 and from 13:30 – 16:30.

Mary Joan “Foundation”would like to say thank you tothe Aruban community, fortheir support over the past fiveyears. During 2012, the foun-dation has been very active andsuccessful. The organizationheld special support groupmee tings for their clients,spread the word on awareness,provided social and psycho-logical support, lectures andorganized several fundraisingactivities during the year.

The foundation would havenever accomplished all theirgoals if it was not for the activesupport of volunteers, who of-fered their time and experienceto the cause. After another suc-cessful year Mary Joan Foun-


“Mary Joan FoundationSupport Group” searchingfor people with interestin voluntarism

Susan Friedman and Arthur Pearsall

honored at the Divi Phoenix Resort

nesses who gave chilling ac-counts of the slaughter, andplayed 911 emergency calls inwhich the chaos and loudbooms of gunshots could beclearly heard.

Holmes's lawyers had beenexpected to present witnessesto bolster a case that he may bementally unfit to stand trial.

But in the end they an-nounced they would not, andthe judge ruled Thursday, in anorder posted online, that pros-ecutors had established therewas "probable cause" to be-lieve the defendant committedthe crimes.

mediate removal from theroom by guards.

Holmes is accused over theJuly 20 shooting at a midnightscreening of the Batmanmovie, "The Dark KnightRises." The massacre brieflyrevived America's perennialdebate about gun control.

Witnesses said Holmesthrew smoke bomb-type de-vices before opening fire ran-domly with weapons includingan AR-15 military-style rifle, a12-gauge shotgun and a .40-caliber pistol.

Over three days earlier thisweek, prosecutors called wit-

Thursday that Holmes willface trial over the late nightmassacre in Aurora, outsideDenver, last July.

But the suspect's defenselawyers objected to the ar-raignment -- the official layingof charges, when Holmes willenter a plea -- yesterday, whenit was meant to take place, andthe judge postponed the hea -ring until March 12.

After the announcementseveral people left the courtand shortly after Steve Hernan-dez, father of victim RebeccaWingo, shouted "Rot in hell,Holmes!" prompting his im-

CENTENNIAL (AFP) - Thefather of a victim of the Co -lorado cinema massacre yelled"rot in hell!" at the allegedgunman yesterday, when ajudge delayed officially char -ging him a day after ruling hestand trial.

Four or five people walkedout of court after judgeWilliam Sylvester postponedfor two months a hearing to ar-raign James Holmes, the 25-year-old who is accused ofshooting 12 moviegoers deadand injuring at least 58 others.

Following preliminary hea -rings this week it was ordered

Simultaneously taking placewith the morning lectures area series of workshops onbookkeeping and taxes aswell as business planning,where attendees can get morepersonalized advice. Aruba’sFree Zone, The Departmentof Economic Affairs & In-dustry, Customs Departmentand the Tax Office, SIAD,will have a market place inthe Multimedia Librarythroughout the day to answerquestions and discuss partic-ular issues.

The entire day of businessadvice, information and net-working will be from 10:00AM until 3:00 PM, and atten-dance is free. Snacks and re-freshments will be included.Pre-registration, as places arelimited, is essential. Inter-ested parties can register andobtain more information on-line by visiting the KvK web-site: www.arubachamber.comor [email protected]. To con-tact the KvK directly, call582-1866 extension 30 or 27.

Rosalie Klein


Chamber of

Commerce to

host Business

Plaza 2013Continued from page 2

The additional 50 florins pay-ment will begin in the monthof May and be retroactive forthe four months prior, so pay-ments of the 200 florins duefrom January 1 will takeplace in the May payment.Social Security payments arenot made at the end of themonth, but on the 3rd of themonth they are due. SocialSecurity recipients are ad-vised to inquire at one of theSVB offices if they have notreceived their notificationand forms by around the 15thof February.

For more information, in-quire at the SVB offices dur-ing working hours, telephonenum ber 527-2700 or visittheir website:http://www.svbaruba. org/pensioen/seguro-di-biehes/

Rosalie klein

New laws willaugment social securitypayments,... Continued from page 3

Court drama over US cinema massacre trial

The situation has evolvedrapidly in recent days.

The Islamists capturedKona earlier this week andmoved about 1,200 fighters towithin 20 kilometres (12miles) of Mopti, a strategicallyimportant town on the frontierbetween rebel-held and gov-ernment-held territories.

There have been concernsin west Africa over the risksposed by the Islamists andcriminal gangs operating innorthern Mali. Those concernsinclude speculation overwhether northern Mali groupsand Islamist extremist groupBoko Haram in Nigeria havebegun to cooperate moreclosely.

US General Carter Ham,head of US Africa Command,has said he was concernedabout indications of growinglinks between African extrem-ist groups that could pose athreat across the continent aswell as to Europe and theUnited States.

tion Economic Community ofWest African States expressedits "deep concern following thedeterioration of the situation inMali".

It added that it was espe-cially concerned "over the cur-rent attempt by terrorist occu -pation forces to take the city ofKona and advance toward thesouth on positions held by theMalian armed forces."

The statement did not givefurther details on troop deploy-ments. An army spokesman inNigeria, which has the largestmilitary in the bloc, said hehad no information on the sit-uation.

Nigeria, where ECOWASheadquarters is located, hadearlier pledged 600 troops forthe force.

France has led calls for aninternational response but haduntil yesterday insisted that itsinvolvement would be limitedto providing logistical supportfor the force being prepared byECOWAS.

LAGOS (AFP) - The chairmanof west African bloc ECOWASyesterday authorised the im-mediate deployment of troopsto Mali, a statement said amidan offensive against Islamistswho control the country'sdesert north.

The statement came afterMali's army said troops fromNigeria, Senegal and Francewere deployed in support ofgovernment forces in their of-fensive against Islamists in thecountry's centre.

Mali yesterday declared astate of emergency and un-leashed the offensive againstthe Islamists amid growingfears of the country becomingan Afghanistan-style haven forextremists within easy reach ofwestern Europe.

The UN Security Councilhas given its blessing for a3,000-strong African force to besent to Mali but it was not ex-pected to be ready to deploy be-fore September at the earliest.

In its statement, the 15-na-

Leopoldo Lopez, an oppo-sition leader, said Chavez'sfailure to turn up to his ownceremony had created "an un-defined situation in which wecan be without a president, andwithout clear signs that thepresident is governing."

The Supreme Court hasruled the cancer-strickenChavez can postpone hisswearing-in indefinitely, andthe government has not givenan indication of when theleader might return.

It was the last legal hurdleto a government plan for re-solving the vacuum created byChavez's illness that met fierceresistance from the opposition,which had argued it was un-constitutional.

In a significant endorse-ment, the head of the Organi-zation of American States saidin Washington yesterday thatthe hemispheric body "fully re-spects" the decision to indefi-nitely postpone Chavez'sswearing in.

"The issue has been re-solved by the three branchesof government of Venezuela:it was presented by the exec-utive, considered by the legis-lature and decided by thejudiciary," OAS secretarygeneral Jose Miguel Insulzasaid.

CARACAS (AFP) - Vice Pre -sident Nicolas Maduro yester-day visited ailing VenezuelanPresident Hugo Chavez inCuba, a day after the leftistleader's inauguration in Cara-cas was replaced by a hugerally.

Maduro, 50, has deliveredsomber updates about the ab-sent leader's delicate conditionwhich has plunged Venezuelainto uncertainty in the pastmonth, with the oppositioncalling for a medical board toassess Chavez's condition.

That demand was rejectedby the Supreme Court, and inhis latest update Maduro --who previously visited Chavez-- said that on the the upcom-ing trip he would relay detailsof support received from re-gional leaders.

In power for 14 years andre-elected in October, Chavezwas supposed to be sworn in toa new six year term on Thurs-day, but the government inde -finitely postponed the eventafter the president suffered asevere lung infection.

The opposition meanwhilecalled for counter-demonstra-tions on January 23, the day in1958 that began Venezuela'smodern democratic era withthe ouster of its last militarydictatorship.

Venezuelan VP visits ailing

Chavez in Cuba againrity and protection."

The presence of US troopsin a training and support roleafter 2014 would depend on theUnited States negotiating a se-curity agreement with Afgha -nistan that would give themprotection from Afghan law.

"And if we have a follow-on force of any sort, past 2014,it has got to be at the invitationof the Afghan government andthey have to feel comfortablewith it," Obama told the WhiteHouse news conference.

"I will say and I've said toPresident Karzai that we havearrangements like this withcountries all around the world.And nowhere do we have anykind of security agreementwith a country without immu-nity for our troops."

would come a little quickerthan planned.

"Because of the progressthat has been made in terms ofAfghan security forces, theircapacity to take the lead, weare able to meet those goalsand accelerate them some-what," Obama said.

Karzai agreed, saying: "I'mvery happy to hear from thepresident as we also discussedearlier that in spring this year,the Afghan forces will be fullyresponsible for providing secu-rity and protection to theAfghan people.

"And that the internationalforces, the American forces,will be no longer present in thevillages, that it will be the taskof the Afghan forces to providefor the Afghan people in secu-

WASHINGTON (AFP) - USPresident Barack Obama andhis Afghan counterpart HamidKarzai said yesterday thatAmerican forces would handthe lead in the fight against theTaliban to Afghan forces in thenext few months.

"Starting this spring, ourtroops will have a differentmission -- training, advising,assisting Afghan forces. It willbe a historic moment and an-other step toward full Afghansovereignty," Obama told ajoint news conference.

Obama said US forceswould "still be in harm's way"in Afghanistan after the hand -over, at least until 2014, butwould take a backseat toAfghan forces in offensive op-erations and the drawdown


Obama: US moves to support role in

Afghanistan 'this spring'

West African bloc authorises troopdeployment in Mali

up trying to run classes in a tentin the Marassa camp, just out-side the capital, where 5,000people cling to life beside adangerous river.

"We have been abandonedby the authorities. January 12will be the anniversary of threeyears of suffering, misery andcontempt," he spat.

Global aid agency Oxfam,one of several foreign develop-ment bodies engaged in the re-construction effort, sayprogress has been made, but itis often seen as piecemeal anduncoordinated, lacking in cen-tral government direction.

And the dangers have beenunderlined by a series of fol-low-up tragedies, such as thecholera outbreak apparentlytriggered by sewage from a UNmilitary base and that claimed8,000 lives and sickened morethan 635,000 people.


RIYADH (AFP) - SaudiKing Abdullah has appointedwomen for the first time to atop advisory body, with de-crees published on Fridaymarking a breakthrough in akingdom that imposes strin-gent restrictions on females.

The historic decisionsmean that 30 women willnow be allowed to sit on thepreviously all-male 150-seatShura Council, although fe-males in Saudi Arabia arebanned from driving and de-nied the right to travel with-out male consent.

The decrees were wel-comed by female Saudi nov-elist Badriya al-Bishr as a"promise kept" by the king,who has been treading care-fully over the years to em-power women in his push forreforms.

The 30 chosen women in-clude university graduates,human rights activists andtwo princesses.

Also among them is Thu-raya Obaid, a veteran UN ad-ministrator who servednotably as executive directorof the UN Development Pro-gramme and undersecretarygeneral of the world body.

But the decrees stipulatedstrict guidelines for allowingwomen into the once all-maleenclave, saying men andwomen will be segregated in-side the council.

Women will be seated in aspecial area and enter thecouncil through a separatedoor so as not to mix withtheir male colleagues.

Abdullah had been care-fully treading towardschange, introducing munici-pal elections for the first timein 2005.

In 2011 he granted womenthe right to vote and run ascandidates in the next localelection, set for 2015, and

said he would also namethem to the Shura Councilbecause "we refuse marginal-ising women's role in theSaudi society in all fields."

Saudi Arabia has seenmany changes since Abdullahbecame king in 2005.

Norah al-Fayez becamethe first woman ever namedto a ministerial post in 2009when she was given nameddeputy education minister forwomen's education.

More recently, Saudiwomen broke ground whentwo of them took part in theLondon Olympics.

But in the oil-rich king-dom, women rights are stifleddaily and lag far behind inter-national standards.

Since November, eachtime a Saudi woman travelsoutside the kingdom she isbeing monitored by an elec-tronic system that sends textmessages to the phones of hermale guardian, even if theyare traveling together.

The electronic trackingwas swiftly condemned onsocial network Twitter and bywomen rights activists, whileBishr criticised "the state ofslavery under which womenare held" in the ultra-conser-vative kingdom.

In an interview with AFPthis week, Prince Talal binAbdul Aziz, a half brother ofKing Abdullah, said theShura Council must be em-powerd to legislate and criti-cised clerics who reject callsfor women to be allowed todrive.

"How can it make sense toallow a driver (a malestranger) to stay in the houseday and night while prohibit-ing mixing between sexesand women from driving?

"Do we not have confi-dence in our women?"

Saudi king names womento Shura Council for firsttime

International News

PORT-AU-PRINCE (AFP) -Three years after Haiti wasdevastated by a massive earth-quake, hundreds of thousandsof homeless people are still atrisk from crime, disease and theelements in crowded makeshiftcamps.

The 2010 disaster triggereda global outpouring of sympa-thetic rhetoric and pledges ofaid for the already impover-ished Caribbean nation, but res-idents and aid agencies

complain that rebuilding andre-development has been tooslow.

Around 358,000 people arestill living rough in scores ofcamps scattered around thecapital Port-au-Prince and sur-rounding districts, exposed to acrime wave, a cholera outbreakand -- from time to time -- hur-ricanes.

"We are without support,"complained Wisly Decimus, aformer teacher who has given

Years after quake, Haitianhomeless feel abandoned

Russia adopted the law inreprisal for new US legislationthat targets Russian officialswho have allegedly committedrights abuses.

Kremlin children's rightsenvoy Pavel Astakhov said,citing a preliminary figure,that 52 children were at vari-ous stages of being adopted byAmericans and that he had re-quested firm data from the ed-ucation ministry.

"Currently no-one can tellfor sure -- these are childrenfrom Kamchatka to Kalin-ingrad," he told AFP, referringto Russia's western and easternborders.

"This is all very individual.Every child is in a different sit-uation, at a different stage.

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russianchildren whose adoptions havealready been approved bycourts will go to the UnitedStates despite a blanket ban onall American adoptions, aKremlin spokesman said onFriday.

"Those who have received acourt decision will go," Presi-

dent Vladimir Putin'sspokesman Dmitry Peskovtold AFP.

He declined further details,but Russian officials say 52children were in the process ofbeing adopted by US parentswhen the controversial ban onUS adoptions came into forceJanuary 1.

Russia to allow 'some orphans' to beadopted in US

tion travelled to Curacao lastNovember for a five dayvisit. The group received aspecial invitation from TheFundacion Sinta Ros of Cu-racao, which is also offeringsupport to those with breastcancer.

Preparations for the tripand the fundraising was ledby Rosa van der Biezen and afew other women who alsoparticipated in the trip.Thanks to several businessowners and friends who do-nated towards coffie morn-ings.

President of the FundacionSinta Ros, Mrs. Angeline deRon-Tromp opened her hometo receive the Aruba delega-tion of the Mary Joan Foun-dation. The groupparticipated in Curacao's an-nual walkaton and wereproud to lead the processioncarrying the Mary Joan Foun-dation banner ahead of thethousands of participants.Joana Dirksz won a prize forher outfit creativity duringthe walkaton.

The Aruba delegationshared in an interchane ofideas during an evening gath-ering, and were invited by theCuracao group to participatein future activities of theSinta Ros in Curacao.

Nutrition is very importantto the MJF clients. And, at theUmbuto Wellness Centerthey enjoyed a delicious veg-etarian dish, thanks toCheraldine Osepa. The groupvisited several touristic areassuch as Barber, Dolfine Habi-tat, Punda and Otrobanda andseveral other places.

Special thanks to Angelinede Ron, President of the Fun-dacion Sinta Ros and herspouse, as well as all theladies of the foundation fortheir warm welcome and theenjoyable stay in Curacao.

exchange of information.A group of clients of

Aruba's Mary Joan Founda-

-- Clients of Mary Joan Foun-dation visited FundacionSinta Ros in Curacao for an

Fundacion Sinta Ros visitedby Mary Joan Foundation


Health & Living

residue of cocaine-making,with a million users, says a re-cent study by the Federal Uni-versity of Sao Paulo.

A downtown Sao Paulocrack slum was cleaned out ina wave of police raids a yearago. But dealers and users arenow moving in back in by thehundreds.

De Sousa acknowledged thedelicate nature of forcing treat-ment on people. She insistedhowever the program is for ad-dicts so far gone they can nolonger look after themselves.

Brazil's congress plans tovote in February on a bill thattoughens penalties for drugtrafficking and calls for forcedtreatment for crack addicts allover the country.

SAO PAULO (AFP) - Brazil'srichest city Sao Paulo will startrounding up the most down-and-out crack addicts from itsstreets and make them gettreatment whether they like itor not, an official says.

Rio de Janeiro is alreadydoing this with minors, but thenew program in Sao Paulo,South America's largest city,will target adults, said the jus-tice secretary of Sao Paulostate, Eloisa de Sousa, in an in-terview with AFP.

For now 700 spots in themandatory rehab programhave been created. It will getstarted later this month.

Economic powerhouseBrazil is now considered theworld's top consumer of crack,a cheap and highly addictive

Sao Paulo to forcetreatment on crackaddicts

firmed cases of the flu, almost10 times the number from thistime last year.

Flu strikes every year, bring-ing chills, fever, coughing andachy misery to millions.

Health officials said the fluvaccine is a good match for thestrain of influenza circulatingaround , and confers about 60percent to 65 percent protec-tion against the illness.

In addition to being inocu-lated against flu, health offi-cials recommend such basicprophylactic procedures as fre-quent hand washing, andcoughing or sneezing into one'ssleeve to keep the illness atbay.

Some U.S. health facilitieseven are making flu shots acondition of employment, al-though one critical-care nursemade headlines recently for re-fusing the injection -- insistingshe would rather be fired thantake the vaccine.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - TheUnited States was in the gripThursday of a deadly influenzaoutbreak that has hit harder andearlier than in previous years,and has claimed the lives of atleast 18 children.

"The type of flu is one thatgenerally is more serious. It'sthe H3N2 variety, which is his-torically more serious than wesee with other types of virus,Anthony Fauci, director of theNational Institute of Allergyand Infectious Diseases." toldAFP.

The epidemic, which brokeout in early December, hascaused some 2,200 hospitaliza-tions across the United States,federal health officials said.

Particularly hard hit hasbeen the northeastern city ofBoston, where officials havedeclared a public health emer-gency.

City officials said there haveso far been about 700 con-

Massive US flu outbreakclaims at least 18 lives

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Asuspected thief appears to havemistakenly posted his own pic-ture on his victim's Facebookpage using a stolen tablet com-puter, South African media re-ported Friday.

James and Barbara McCall


SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) -Personal computer salesslipped at the end of last year,despite the holiday shoppingseason and the release of newWindows operating softwarefor machines.

Worldwide PC shipmentstotaled 89.8 million units in thefourth quarter of 2012, finish-ing 6.4 percent lower than thesame period the prior year, ac-cording to International DataCorporation.

It was said to be the firsttime in more than five yearsthat there was a year-on-yeardecline in PC shipments dur-ing the holiday season.

Microsoft released the newWindows 8 operating systemworldwide on October 26 as away to help the dominant PCsoftware maker get a biggershare of the market for mobile

devices such as tablets.Windows 8 was designed

with touch-screen capabilitiesin mind and to make it easierto synchronize computer con-tent across the array of Inter-net-linked gadgets used inmodern life.

"Consumers expected allsorts of cool PCs with tabletand touch capabilities," saidIDC research director DavidDaoud.

"Instead, they mostly sawtraditional PCs that feature anew OS (Windows 8) opti-mized for touch and tablet withapplications and hardware thatare not yet able to fully utilizethese capabilities."

PC shipments in the USmarket dropped 4.5 percent inthe quarter and ended with aseven percent decline for theyear, according to IDC.

Personal computersales slip during holiday season

Sci-Tech

returned from a weekendbreak to find thieves had bro-ken into their home and hadmade off with digital cameras,tablets and television sets.

On discovering the theft thefollowing morning, James setto change his login passwordsfor Facebook and other sites.

It was then that McCall no-ticed that a man's picture hadbeen uploaded on his wife'sFacebook page.

He suspects it must be thatof one the thieves.

"He probably did not re-alise he was doing it," McCalltold the Star daily.

"Usually you never log offfrom a tablet, so it could havehappened quite quickly."

Thief posts own pictureon victim's Facebookpage

BEIJING (AFP) - A landslide killed at least 42 people in-cluding seven from a single family when it smashed intoa remote village in southwestern China on Friday, statemedia said. Photos posted on Yunnan Web, run by theYunnan provincial government showed rescuers in or-ange uniforms digging in wide swathes of clumpy mudagainst a backdrop of snow-covered, terraced hills. Morethan 1,000 rescuers were sent to the site of the landslide,which was estimated to be 300 metres long, 80 metreswide and 30 metres deep, according to authorities. Snowwas visible in images of the rescue, in an area that hasexperienced unusually low temperatures in recentweeks, with China suffering what authorities have calledits coldest winter in 28 years.

SHANGHAI (AFP) - AppleChief Executive Tim Cook, onhis second visit to China in ayear, said he expects the coun-try to surpass the United Statesas the technology giant's largestmarket, state media reported.

Cook said Apple wouldlaunch new products in China,but declined to comment on re-ports the company is planninga cheaper iPhone for emergingmarkets like China, the officialXinhua News agency reported.Apple said it sold over two mil-lion iPhone 5 handsets in Chinawithin three days of its launchon December 14 last year.

Products of the California-based company, including theiPhone and iPad, are wildlypopular in China where theyare coveted by wealthy con-sumers.

Coming out with a more af-fordable iPhone in China andother markets could help Appleward off competition from bar-gain-priced smartphones pow-ered by Google-backedAndroid software.

A separate report carried bythe news portal of Internetgiant Sina quoted Cook as say-ing Apple planned to havemore than 25 retail stores inChina.

Apple did not immediatelyrespond to a request for com-ment on Cook's visit.

On Cook's previous visit toChina last March, the mantipped to be China's next pre-mier, Li Keqiang, told him thatforeign firms should protectworkers as Apple faced criti-cism over factory conditions inChina.

Apple sees China becoming biggestmarket: report

PARIS (AFP) - Astronomers

on Friday said they had ob-

served the largest structure

yet seen in the cosmos, a clus-

ter of galaxies from the early

Universe that spans an aston-

ishing four billion light years.

The sprawling structure is

known as a large quasar

group (LQG), in which

quasars -- the nuclei of an-

cient galaxies, powered by

supermassive black holes --

clump together.

The discovery in the deep

Universe was made by a team

led by Roger Clowes at the

Jeremiah Horrocks Institute at

Britain's University of Central

Lancashire.

It would take a spaceship

travelling at the speed of light

four thousand million years to

get from one end of the clus-

ter to the other.

To give a sense of scale, our

galaxy (the Milky Way) is

separated from its nearest

neighbour, the Andromeda

galaxy, by two and a half mil-

lion light years.

"While it is difficult to

fathom the scale of this LQG,

we can say quite definitely it

is the largest structure ever

seen in the entire Universe,"

Clowes said in a press state-

ment issued by Britain's

Royal Astronomical Society

(RAS).

"This is hugely exciting,

not least because it runs

counter to our current under-

standing of the scale of the

Universe."

The paper appears in a RAS

journal, Monthly Notices of

the Royal Astronomical Soci-

ety.

Astronomersspot biggeststructure inUniverse


JAN 12 - JAN 19

O’stad : ‘ ODUBER. ’ - S.N. ‘ SAN NUCOLAAS’

FREE Coverage on our website:

www.themorningnewsaruba.com

WASHINGTON (AFP) -The US trade deficitwidened sharply in Novem-ber and posting the highestlevel in seven months amida jump in consumer-goodsimports, according to De-partment of Commerce datareleased yesterday.

The US trade deficit ex-panded to $48.7 billion, upfrom a revised $42.1 billionin October. November USexports were $1.7 billionmore than October exports,while November importswere $8.4 billion above theOctober level.

LONDON (AFP) - Commo -dity markets were buoyed thisweek by upbeat Chinese eco-nomic data and the weak dol-lar, but trimmed gainsheading into the weekend asmany traders took the oppor-tunity to cash in their gains.

Sentiment was boosted bynews of a surge in China'strade surplus, which sparkedhopes that the world's second-largest economy and biggestenergy user was emergingfrom its slumber.

Official data showedThursday that the Chinesetrade surplus soared 48.1 per-cent to $231.1 billion (176.4billion euros) in 2012, thoughtotal trade volume grew at amuch slower pace in the faceof economic weakness athome and abroad.

The country's exports rose7.9 percent to $2.05 trillionfrom the year before, whileimports increased 4.3 percentto $1.82 trillion, the nationalcustoms bureau said.

continued to expand, attributedmostly to increases in visitorsfrom Venezuela of 20.3 per-cent (+1,680 visitors) andColombia of 26.0 percent(+364 visitors). Conversely, ar-rivals from the U.S.A. and Eu-rope declined, respectively, by4.3 percent (-1,672 visitors)and 4.9 percent (-358 visitors).

The number of cruise visi-tors went down by 4,170 or13.6 percent to 26,405 in themonth of October 2012 com-pared to the same month of theprevious year. The number ofship calls declined slightlyfrom 20 to 18 in October 2012compared to the correspondingmonth a year earlier.

In October 2012, registeredtax revenue totaled Afl. 81.3million, an increase of Afl. 8.8million or 12.1 percent, com-pared to the same month of theprevious year. This growth wasassociated mostly with surgesin revenue from profit, income,and transfer tax of, respec-tively, Afl. 5.1 million, Afl. 3.1million, and Afl. 1.1 million.Income from foreign exchangetax noted a slight decrease ofAfl. 0.3 million, while that ofturnover tax (BBO) went up byAfl. 0.4 million. Non-tax re -venue recorded a fall of Afl.5.9 million in October 2012compared to the same monthof last year.

an increase of Afl. 13.5 millionin commercial loans and de-creases in consumer credit andhousing mortgages of, respec-tively, Afl. 2.9 million and Afl.1.0 million.

The consumer price index(CPI) for October 2012 regis-tered a 1.6 percent decrease,compared to the same monthof 2011. The main contributorsto this drop were housing,clothing & footwear, andhousehold operation. Exclu -ding the effect of food and en-ergy (which partly affects thehousing and transport compo-nents), the core CPI showed a0.3 percent decrease comparedto October 2011, brought aboutby declines in the index cate-gories of clothing, householdoperation, and recreation andculture. The 12-month averageinflation rate reached 2.2 per-cent in October 2012, downfrom 2.9 percent in September2012.

In October 2012, the num-ber of stay-over visitors totaled65,684, which is just one per-cent (+672 visitors) higherthan in October 2011. Thisgrowth was caused mainly byincreases in the number of vi -sitors from Latin America andCanada of, respectively, 11.5percent (+1,647 visitors) and43.5 percent (+816 visitors).The Latin American market

ORANJESTAD -- The Cen-trale Bank van Aruba con-cludes in its Monthly Bulletinof October 2012 that broadmoney grew by Afl. 19.4 mil-lion to Afl. 3,283.7 million, re-sulting from a rise in netdomestic assets of Afl. 122.6million and an Afl. 103.2 mil-lion drop in net foreign assets(excluding revaluation differ-ences of gold and foreign ex-change holdings) bringingthese assets to, respectively,Afl. 1,943.9 million and Afl.1,339.9 million.

The rise in the domesticcomponent of the money sup-ply was associated with in-creases in domestic credit andnon-credit related balancesheet items of, respectively,Afl. 77.2 million and Afl. 45.5million. The latter was due toclearing transactions. Domes-tic credit grew largely as a re-sult of a Afl. 67.6 milliondecrease in the net claim of thepublic sector on the bankingsector, attributed mainly to anAfl. 92.5 million drop in go -vernment’s deposits and anAfl. 16.7 million rise in deve -lopment funds. Claims on theprivate sector also went upnamely by Afl. 9.6 million(+0.4 percent), associated with

Summary of the monthly Bulletin of Aruba Central Bank shows:

October 2012 net foreign assetsdecreased

portation Secretary Ray La -Hood told a news conference.

Considered a milestone inaviation industry with its useof composite materials andelectronics instead of alu-minum and hydraulics, 50 ofthe US aerospace giant's 787sare in service worldwide.

But questions about itssafety, and now a governmentreview, have the potential toimpact Boeing sales.

Boeing insisted its aircraftare safe.

FAA chief Michael Huertasaid the review will cover thedesign, manufacture and as-sembly of the 787, with an em-phasis on the aircraft's elec -trical systems, including bat-teries and power display pan-els.

Experts also will review thecertification process and Boe-ing's implementation of thestandards in the certificationprocess, he said.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - USregulators announced yester-day an in-depth safety reviewof Boeing's 787 Dreamlinerafter a recent spate of incidentsinvolving the new high-techaircraft.

The Federal Aviation Ad-ministration said it was wor -king with Boeing to fullyreview the critical systems ofthe 787, which entered servicein October 2011 after earningFAA accreditation.

An unusually high numberof safety incidents this week isthe latest problem to dog Boe-ing's newest airplane, afterproduction glitches delayeddelivery of the first plane to AllNippon Airways by threeyears.

ANA and Japan Airlineshave reported five problemswith the Dreamliner sinceMonday, including a fire in anunoccupied stationary aircraft,a fuel leak from one taxiing inBoston, and a cracked cockpitwindshield that grounded oneflight in Japan.

"There are concerns aboutrecent events involving theBoeing 787. That's why todaywe are announcing that we areconducting a comprehensivereview of the design and pro-duction of the 787," US Trans-


Finance

YEStERDAY’S

Crossword Answer

U.S.A.

Dutch Antilles

Canada

Britiain

Switzerland

Netherlands

Sweden

Denmark

Norway

Japan

(per 10,000)

USD

ANG

CAD

GBP

CHF

EUR

SEK

DKK

NOK

JPY

1.77

98.00

1.79

2.81

194.33

234.28

26.43

30.73

31.21

198.24

1.78

100.00

1.81

2.86

195.05

236.42

27.15

31.45

31.93

200.05

1.80

100.20

1.83

2.92

195.85

238.79

27.95

32.25

32.73

202.06

Currency

Code

Buyingrate

banknotes

Buying

ChequesSelling

Rate

Current as

01//11/13

All rates for amounts up to AWG 100.00 per item.

FAA sets safety review of

Boeing 787 Dreamliner

Walmart is facing fresh scrutiny over corruption allega-tions in Mexico after US lawmakers released confidentialcompany documents that they said contradicted the re-tailer’s public statements. New emails released by U.S.lawmakers show that Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke learnedin 2005 that executives in the company’s México unithanded out bribes to local officials -- contradicting ear-lier statements that the company knew nothing about it.Allegations first surfaced in April that Wal-Mart failed tonotify law enforcement that company officials authorizedmillions of dollars in bribes in Mexico to speed up get-ting building permits and gain other favors. Wal-Mart hasbeen working with government officials in the U.S. andMexico on that investigation.

Wal-Mart CEO knew of briberyin Mexico since 2005, emailsshow

Commodity

markets win

support from

China data

US trade deficit

balloons in

November

“AIG Aruba has issued its

12th annual calendar with

Birds of Aruba for the year

2013. What makes this

milestone so very special is

that this year’s calendar is

the 5th edition that the

Company has produced in

collaboration with Aruba

Birdlife Conservation.

The company would like

to thank all those involved

in the production of this ex-

traordinary calendar which

support the Wildlife and

Environment of Aruba.

The Company kindly

asks the general public to

support this cause by pur-

chasing a calendar from

Aruba Birdlife Foundation.

AIG Customers can obtain

their free copy from the of-

fice as of next week.

Pictures show the ambi-

ence during of launch of the

calendar. ”

AIG Aruba with another marvelous calendar withBirds of Aruba

dining al fresco with a breath-taking view (or in their en-closed air-conditioned diningroom, if you prefer) and finefood makes La Trattoria ElFaro the single dining experi-ence that must not be missedbefore departing Aruba. Reser-vations can be made by calling586- 0786 or 586-0787, or viae-mail link at their website,www.aruba-latrattoria.com,where you can peruse their lat-est menu, as Chef Alberto is al-ways devising some tasty newspecialty to take advantage ofwhat is fresh for the season.

recommending reservationswell in advance if this is im-portant to you.

The restaurant is now openfrom early in the day for re-

freshments, and is theperfect lunch stop whiletouring, ser ving from11:00 AM to 3:00 PM,after which visitors canenjoy a light snack fromtheir Pizza Mini Menuuntil 6:00 PM when theyofficially open for dinner,until 11:00 PM.

All these aspects ofcharming surroundings,

verse menu and wine list al-lows those planning a specialfestivity will be able to devisea memorable event and man-agement is ready and willing tohelp you stay within yourbudget.

Many have taken note ofthis singular location as theplace to go for that memorableromantic meal, and their reser-vation staff reports a waitinglist for the rail tables that offerthe best unobstructed view,


one of the island’s most pop-ular dining spots ever since.

Savoring the sight of aspectacular Aruban sunsetand the tiered layout of theeatery also makes it the idealspot for marking a special oc-casion, such as an anniversaryor a marriage proposal, aswell as a perfect venue forweddings or a celebratoryparty. An extensive and di-

Over twenty years ago, a veryclever person had the idea ofplacing a cozy little restauranton the top of the cliff adjacentto the California Lighthouse,offering the most stunningview of Aruba imaginable. LaTrattoria el Faro Blanco tookover the location some yearsago, and the restaurant’s quainttrappings, superb selection andamenable staff has made it a

Excellent dining, charming ambiance and a breathtaking view foundonly at La Trattoria El Faro Blanco

Stunning sunset

Osso Buco with Risotto

First copy of calendar to Min Mr. Dowers

Mukesh, Raja & family

Roly, Alice & VNO Ccuple

Niti and friends

Chobby Croes, Jossy Lacle & wives

Saturday, January 12. 2013 13

an elegant pool deck,concierge services, loungearea, BBQ station, fitnessroom, assigned parking, ad-ditional outside storage forbicycles and personal items,and 24-hour security. A quiet,secluded section of Eaglebeach is only a few stepsfrom the front door.

O Condominiums offi-cially opened the doors oftheir sales office onsite atEagle Beach on December24. Interested parties can in-spect the project in a spaciousplot right next to the gourmetScreaming Eagle restaurant.The project is directed to-wards discerning clientsseeking a top quality propertyon Aruba in an ideal, tranquil,beachfront location. Prospec-tive property owners will findthe Cas Bon people enjoy anexceptional reputation onAruba for excellence and re-liability. Contact the sales of-fice at 732-0000.or visit theirwebsite:http://www.o-eagle-beacharuba. com

Aruba’s most successfuldeve lopers of secure, supe-rior communities for boththe per -manent and part time resi-

dent market, will soon breakground on what they con-sider their most exclusiveproject to date. Known for16 years of unmatched qual-ity and service, the Cas Bonpeople are proud to unveiltheir new pet project: O Con-dominiums. This is the samecompany which deve lopedthe innovative Gold CoastVillas community inMalmok.

Renowned for reliableonstruction, developers of OCondominiums consider theboutique community will bethe “jewel in the crown” ofthe nine projects they havesuccessfully completed andmaintain. It is only three sto-ries and twenty luxuriousunits, of which 14 will beoceanfront, the remainder,ocean view. Sizes range fromone bedroom condominiums

with a bath and a half tothree-bedrooms, each bed-room with its own bath, andan additional guest half/bath.The designs include a familyentertainment room that willbe specially fitted with elec-tronic and Internet connec-tions and outlets enabling astate- of-the-art-home the-ater. An important aspect ofthis singular facility is own-ers have various options tocustomize kitchens and fix-tures to their particular tastesand standards.

Each apartment sports anextremely spacious 35square meter covered terraceoverlooking the sea. Win-dows will be double-panedand doors have weatherstripping to insure less coston air-conditioning, which isintegrated into construction.Homeowners will have inputinto the finishing they preferin the kitchen and otherrooms, to customize yourcondominium to your taste.Public amenities will include

O Condominiums

A small, exclusive boutique condo

resort tailored to your taste

WASHINGTON, DC (AFP)

- Commemorative glass

tumblers and stemware

is for sale at the Presi-

dential Inaugural Com-

mittee's store near the

intersection of 11th and F

Streets NW January 11,

2013 in Washington, DC.

A variety of merchan-

dise, from buttons and

water bottles to hand-

bags and limited edition

coin sets, will be for sale

until the January 21 inau-

guration of President

Barack Obama.

One of the distinctions ofAruban cuisine is incorporat-ing unique indigenous ingredi-ents such as in Wild CucumberStew and a particular light fishchowder accompanied by thelocal specialties pan bati (cornmeal pancake) and funchi (thelocal version of polenta.)

.Seafood main coursesrange from Catch of the DayAruban Style to shrimp and r amixed seafood platter withshrimp, fish, squid, scallopsand mussels. Meat dishes suchas BBQ Chicken and Ribs orGrilled Tenderloin each in-cluding a choice of 2 sidedishes; all quite yummy andbargain-priced to boot!

The Queen’s is located onthe second level of PalmBeach Plaza, tucked into acozy corner at the front of themall. If you have a mind to trythe real deal in Aruban food,without a doubt, this is theway to truly eat like a local.They are open from 11:00AM to 11:00 PM, daily, offer-ing indoor and outdoor dining.Aside from an extensive menuthey also have daily specialsmade from whatever is in sea-son and Mama Luisa is in themood to prepare, so don’t for-get to ask about what isn’t onthe menu!

An elegant décor with abreezy terrace overlookingPalm Beach welcomes gueststo Varella Innocencia’s verypopular restaurant showcasingauthentic local cuisine:

The Queen’s.They may have moved

from Oranjestad to hipper newdigs in Palm Beach Plaza, butthe food and prices are strictlynative, which is what first wonthis charming eatery theirloyal clientele. Varella’s mom,Luisa, is still in the kitchen,conjuring up the deliciousdishes that have been in herfamily for generations, ac-knowledged on the menu withitems such as “Carni Stoba diMamachi”-“Grandma’s BeefStew,” and their ArawakSteak, along with local delica-cies like Keshi Yena -“FullCheese.” This is a tasty, fillingstew of chicken, with other in-gredients that are handy thatday, all incased in a thick skinof melted Gouda. It was verysatisfying and particularlymemorable paired with TheQueen’s garlic bread and veryspecial Pica, a mix of choppedonions and the famous localhot pepper, Madame Janette.Not overly spicy, it lends thatperfect bit of tang to this deli-ciously picturesque meal.

Eat like a local at The Queen’s

restaurant at Palm Beach Plaza

Varella, Luisa and the next generation of chef

Keshi Yena with plaintains,vegetables and pica

Guerlain Chicherit, in anSMG, with AmericanNASCAR driver Robby Gor-

champion Ernie Els of SouthAfrica, Belgian Nicolas Col-saerts and Francesco Moli-nari of Italy are a strokefurther back in the 33-manfield.

Defending champion Bran-den Grace of South Africa,winner of five European Tourevents last season, atoned fora disappointing opening 75with a 67 that placed him on142, nine strokes behind theleader.

Oosthuizen finished theoutward nine strongly withthree consecutive birdies andhad two more on 17 and 18 ina round notable for good re-covery shots from the roughafter only seven of his 14 teeshots found the fairways.

Jamieson seems to enjoythe Indian Ocean city as hewon the Nelson MandelaChampionship -- shortened totwo rounds by torrential rain-- at another Durban courselast month..

Birdies at two, three andfour got his round off to a fly-ing start and two more en-abled the Scot to turn in 31before the only slip, a bogeyfive at 10, was followed byanother four birdies.

An eagle three at the eighthwas the highlight for ex-para-trooper Thongchai, who alsohad three birdies and a bogeyas he pursues a sixth Euro-pean Tour title.

Former victorious RyderCup captain Colin Mont-gomerie of Scotland had around to forget with his 78 in-cluding six bogeys and onedouble bogey and he lies sec-ond last, two shots ahead ofPortuguese Ricardo Santos.

The Volvo Golf Champi-ons is restricted to 2012 Eu-ropean Tour winners andthose with more than 10 ca-reer titles on the circuit, andthere is no halfway cut be-cause of the small field.

DURBAN, South Africa,(AFP) - South African LouisOosthuizen birdied the finalhole to take a one-shot leadafter two rounds of the VolvoGolf Champions tournamentat Durban Country Club Fri-day.

The former British Openchampion birdied eight holes-- five on the front nine andthree on the journey back --and did not drop a shot for a64 and a halfway 132 total.

Oosthuizen is one strokeahead of Scott Jamieson andfirst round leader ThongchaiJaidee. The Scot also re-turned a 64 over the 6,111-metre course while the Thaihad a 68, three shots morethan he took Thursday.

There is a six-shot gap be-tween the leader and thosetied for fourth place on 139 -- Dane Thomas Bjorn, JulienQuesne of France, Scot PaulLawrie, Danny Willett ofEngland, Indian Jeev MilkhaSingh and Shane Lowry ofIreland.

Reigning British Open

Golf: Oosthuizenbirdies final hole tosnatch lead


Sport

see whether any of these aimsturns out well and we canachieve something."

To help Valverde and fellowteam stalwarts such as PabloLastras, Juan Jose Cobo andJose Joaquin Rojas do so, theteam presented five new ridersincluding Eros Capecchi, a 26-year-old Italian who has riddenfive times in the Giro d'Italia.

Other stars retained in theteam are Andrey Amador, 26,who won a stage in the Girolast year and Portuguese riderRui Costa who finished 18thoverall in the Tour de France -- ahead of Valverde in 20th.

Polish mountain veteranSylvester Szmyd, 34, joinedfrom team Italian Liquigas andArgiro Ospina, 21, fromColombia, joined his country-man Nairo Quintana, Movis-tar's surprise discovery lastyear.

MADRID (AFP) - Spanishteam Movistar set their sightson Grand Tour glory in 2013under the leadership of resur-gent climber AlejandroValverde as they unveiled theirnew team line-up Friday.

"With a leader like Alejan-dro we can only think aboutpodium finishes in the GrandTours and that is what we arebetting on," said the team'smanager Eusebio Unzue.

Valverde, who won the Tourof Spain in 2009 and came sec-ond in 2012 after returningfrom a two-year ban for dop-ing, said the team would go allout in the Tour de France, inwhich he won the last moun-tain stage in 2012.

"We are going to giveeverything in that" in 2013, hesaid at Friday's presentation."Then there is the Vuelta andthe World Championship,which is very hard, but we will

Cycling: Movistar eyeGrand Tour glory in 2013

On Friday, Peterhansel fin-ished the 218km run with a39sec lead over compatriot

don, in a Hummer, 1min 08secoff the pace.

Al-Attiyah, who had won

his third stage of this year's

race on Thursday to slash Pe-

terhansel's overall lead down

to 1min 18sec, was sixth on

Friday in his Buggy, 1min

56sec behind.

He remains second overall,

but it is now 3min 14sec be-

hind defending champion Pe-

terhansel.

In the motorcycling stage,

America's Kurt Caselli, on a

KTM, took the honours, win-

ning in 1hr 51min 31sec, an

advantage of 1min 23sec over

Chile's Francisco Lopez and

Olivier Pain of France.

Pain still leads the overall

standings by 6min 06sec ahead

of Lopez.

Defending champion Cyril

Despres, who had been second

overall, dropped to more than

14 minutes off the pace after

mechanical problems left him

without fifth gear for half the

distance.

"Cyril's problems have

given me a significant gap for

the lead, and that's a good

thing for me," said Pain.

"That's just part of racing,

but I'm not forgetting that it

could happen to me too, so I'm

not getting cocky about it, es-

pecially since Cyril has the ca-

pacity to claw back the time

he's lost."

Saturday's eighth stage is a

247km timed run between

Salta and Tucuman.

Rallying: Peterhansel stage win ......continued from page 16

The Seahawks rallied froma 14-0 deficit to beat the Wash-ington Redskins in the firstround.

The victory was a confi-dence-builder for rookie quar-terback Russell Wilson, butalso saw Seattle lose defensivestandout Chris Clemons to atorn knee ligament.

In San Francisco, the 49erswill be seeking a secondstraight NFC ChampionshipGame berth when they hostthe Packers.

San Francisco opened thisseason with a week-one vic-tory over the Pack at LambeauField that ended Green Bay's13-game regular-season homewinning streak.

Since then, Colin Kaeper-nick has taken over from AlexSmith as San Francisco's start-ing quarterback.

Packers quarterback AaronRodgers said both teams haveevolved since their season-opener.

"We're a different footballteam," said Rodgers, who ledthe Packers to a 24-10 first-round victory over Minnesota.

insists he has every chance ofhalting.

"I'm confident in the guysaround us," Ryan said. "We'veproven we can go out thereand be successful. You have tobuy into that. You have to be-lieve that."

move a step closer to a SuperBowl berth.

Sunday's AFC game pitsHouston against the Patriots atNew England, while in the Na-tional Conference San Fran-cisco host Green Bay onSaturday and the top-seededAtlanta Falcons host Seattle onSunday.

The Patriots, led by super-star quarterback Tom Brady,will be well-rested after a first-round bye and seeking to re-peat their 42-14 rout of theTexans late in the regular sea-son.

That defeat was part of alate-campaign collapse byHouston that saw the Texansdrop out of first place in theconference. They beat Cincin-nati in the first round lastweekend to advance.

The Falcons earned theirfirst-round bye thanks to somespectacular play from quarter-back Matt Ryan, who threwfor a team-record 4,719 yardsand 32 touchdowns in the reg-ular season.

But Ryan is 0-3 in previousplayoff starts over the pastfour years, a run of futility he

ZAKOPANE (AFP)-: Thomas Morgenstern of Austria

jumps during the 15th World Cup Ski Jumping team

competition, in Zakopane, Poland, on January 11, 2013.

Slovenia won the first place, Poland the second and Aus-

tria the third.


LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Pey-ton Manning's comeback trailmeets Ray Lewis's farewelltour on Saturday when Man-ning's Denver Broncos hostthe Baltimore Ravens in thesecond round of the NFL play-offs.

Manning, a four-time NFLMost Valuable Player whomissed all of the 2011 seasonafter multiple neck surgeries,rewarded the faith of his newteam in Denver with a stellarcampaign that included 4,659passing yards and 37 touch-down passes.

With the 36-year-old vet-eran quarterback at the helmthe Broncos won their last 11regular-season games to grab

the top seed and home fieldadvantage in the AmericanConference.

After enjoying a bye they'lltry to fend off a Ravens sideenergized in the first round bythe return from injury of de-fensive star Lewis, who saysthis playoff push will be hislast before he departs the NFLwhenever Baltimore's seasonends.

The Ravens booked theirsecond-round ticket with a 24-9 victory over Indianapolislast weekend.

Quarterback Joe Flaccothrew for 282 yards and twotouchdowns in that contest,but it was the return of 17-yearveteran Lewis, for his firstgame since he suffered a torntriceps in mid-October, thatadded a real spark for theRavens, especially after hisannouncement days before thegame that this would be hislast NFL season.

The Broncos beat theRavens 34-17 in a regular-sea-son contest in December, andRavens wide receiver AnquanBoldin said the team are keento avenge that defeat and

NFL: Ravens relish another shot at Manning, Broncos -Preview

Ray Lewis of the Baltimore Ravens and Peyton Manning of Denver Broncos

high 25 points and TysonChandler added 12 points and15 rebounds for the Knicks,who are first in the AtlanticDivision.

Anthony was suspendedfor trying to confront Garnettin the arena tunnel, near theplayers' locker rooms, and inthe parking garage.

Anthony and Garnett bat-tled all game long on Mon-day and things almostescalated following the gameas Anthony dressed quicklythen tried unsuccessfully tolocate Garnett.

The Knicks won this sea-son's first meeting betweenthe two teams, an 88-76 winon November 18 at MadisonSquare Garden. New Yorkhas lost four of its last six inIndianapolis.

George said. "I really tried todefend and was able to getsome easy baskets."

The Central Division lead-ing Pacers limited the Knicksto 26 points below their aver-age two days after holdingthe reigning NBA-championMiami Heat to 77 points. ThePacers improved to 22-14while the Knicks fell to 23-12.

The Knicks were withoutCarmelo Anthony, serving aone-game ban for trying toconfront Boston's Kevin Gar-nett following Monday's lossagainst the Celtics.

Without the league's sec-ond leading scorer, New Yorkshot 35 percent from the fieldto drop back-to-back gamesfor the third time this season.

J.R. Smith scored a game-

ers, who won their thirdconsecutive NationalBasketball Associationgame.

"We are improvingevery game," Georgesaid. "Our defence isholding up. We may notscore a lot of points butour offence is going tocome around. Rightnow we are just grind-ing it out."

While George did alittle bit of everything,Ian Mahinmi came offthe bench to help outwith the scoring. CentreMahinmi finished with

13 points as he became theonly other Pacer player toreach double figures.

"In the first half I struggledso I knew I had to get going,"

hind a superb defence and 24points and 11 rebounds fromforward Paul George.

George also had six stealsand five assists for the Pac-

INDIANAPOLIS (AFP) -The Indiana Pacers won thebattle of the first-placedteams Thursday, beating theNew York Knicks 81-76 be-

NBA: George lifts Pacers over Knicks


three minutes over 2011champion Nasser al-Attiyah,the event was reeling from athird death in two days.

Competitor Thomas Bour-gin, 25, was involved in a col-lision with a police car whichwas coming in the oppositedirection on the link road tothe start of Friday's stage inCalama.

"The rally's medical teamsdeployed on the ground wereonly able to certify the rider'sdeath, probably instant," astatement on the race's officialwebsite reported.

Bourgin was in 68th placein the overall motorcyclingrankings of his first Dakar.

On Thursday, two peoplewere killed in a head-on colli-sion between a rally supportvehicle and a taxi near Peru'sborder with Chile.

Going into the 2013 event,some 59 people, including 20spectators, had lost their livesin the race.

continues on page 14

ALTA, Argentina (AFP) -Ten-time champion StephanePeterhansel extended hisDakar Rally lead on Friday,but the world's most gruellingendurance event was onceagain hit by tragedy when aFrench motorcyclist waskilled.

As Peterhansel claimed theseventh stage which crossedthe Andes between Calama inChile and Salta in Argentinato build a lead of more than

Rallying: Peterhansel stagewin overshadowed by thirddeath

Thomas Bourgin

saturday, january 12, 2013

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