Jan 18, 2014 ... team as they play for the first time against a recognized team ... Federation of
American Football (IFAF) World Cup (Sweden. 2015). ORIGIN ...
IPT IO N SC R SU B
SATURDAY, JANUARY 18, 2014
RABI ALAWWAL 17, 1435 AH
No: 16050
Google contact lens an option for diabetics
150 Fils
30
Not soccer...... it is American football Kuwait Gridiron Football Team, Swiss club face off
Max 17º Min 12º
US ambassador to fill Yemen post WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama is looking to his ambassador to Kuwait to fill an open ambassadorship in Yemen. The White House says Obama is nominating Matthew Tueller for the post in Yemen’s capital of Sanaa. A veteran diplomat, Tueller has been the US ambassador to Kuwait since 2011. He’s also held high-ranking positions in US embassies in Egypt, Iraq, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. He worked previously in Yemen in 2000 and 2001. Tueller has already been confirmed by the Senate once before, in 2011, for the Kuwait post. Surveillance program In another development, Obama has called for end to government’s control of phone data from hundreds of millions of Americans. “We will not monitor the communications of heads of state and government of our close friends and allies,” he said. The president said yesterday he will end the program “as it currently exists.” He called for extending some privacy protections to foreign citizens whose communications are scooped up by the US. The moves are more sweeping than many US officials had been anticipating. Obama’s highly anticipated speech, after months of revelations about US spying by former National Security Agency analyst Edward Snowden, said intelligence officials have not intentionally abused the program to invade privacy. But Obama also said he believes critics of the program have been right to argue that without proper safeguards, the collection could be used to obtain more information about Americans’ private lives and open the door to more intrusive programs. — Agenices
UK, France issue India ‘rape alert’
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India minister’s wife found dead in hotel NEW DELHI: The wife of prominent Indian minister Shashi Tharoor was found dead yesterday in a five-star hotel room after she exposed his alleged adultery with a Pakistani journalist on Twitter, media reports said. The Press Trust of India, quoting unnamed police sources, said the minister reported his wife’s death to police. It was not immediately known how the minister’s wife, Sunanda Pushkar, had died. TV footage showed an ambulance with flashing blue lights outside the hotel. Pushkar’s death came a day after Tharoor issued what he called a joint statement from the couple saying they were “happily married and intend to remain that way”. The statement added that “Sunanda has been ill and hospitalized this week and is seeking to rest” and asked for the media to respect the couple’s privacy. — AFP
KUWAIT: The Kuwait Gridiron Football National team pose for a group photograph. By Chidi Emmanuel
the Middle East,” Sayyar added.
KUWAIT: The Kuwait Gridiron Football National team will be playing a friendly game against a Swiss club today (6:30 pm) at Kuwait University Stadium - Shuwaikh Campus. In an exclusive interview with Kuwait Times, one of the organizers, Khaled AlSayyar urged football fans to support and cheer the national team as they play for the first time against a recognized team from Switzerland. “We are working very hard to get tougher to compete with other teams all around the world. We hope to participate in the World Cup. Right now, there are six countries participating in Asia, namely, Kuwait, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, Thailand and India. We are trying to organize an Asia Cup tournament,” he said. According to the sports official, the new sporting game is gaining an overwhelming support from Kuwaitis, but the question is whether it would push over the popular soccer which is the favorite sport in Kuwait and globally. What started three years ago as a leisure game by six young Kuwaitis in the US has metamorphosed to a national team. The establishment of the Gridiron Football team in Kuwait has always been a dream of Sheikh Meshal Talal Al-Fahad Al-Sabah (Deputy Chairman of the Asian Federation of American Football (AFAF), member of the Rugby and American Football Committee in Kuwait) and his friends. Presently Kuwait has hired a renowned US coach to guide and manage the team. “We train four days a week at the Qadisiya Sports Center and Kuwait University Stadium. From six, we now have up to 100 players in the team in addition to the under-19 category. We consider the safety of the players providing all the paraphernalia needed to safeguard against injuries. So far, we have obtained international recognition as the first football team in the Arab world and the first official gridiron association approved by the Olympic Committee in
TOURNAMENTS As part of its preparation for international tournaments, the Kuwait team are playing and organizing international friendly matches as they gear up for the World Cup qualification. “Last year we played against a private football team from Saudi Arabia. The next friendly game will be against the Swiss club (today), followed by another game against South Korea in Seoul on April 12, 2014. This is part of the National Team’s preparations for the Asian qualifier ahead of the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) World Cup (Sweden 2015). ORIGIN AND THE GAME American football (also known as football in US and gridiron in some other countries) is a sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field (120 yards long by 53.33 yards wide) with goalposts at each end. Most points are scored by advancing the ball into the opposing team’s end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponent’s goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of a game wins the game. Gridiron football is a game mostly played in the United States and Canada. It evolved from English rugby and soccer although it differs from soccer chiefly in allowing players to touch, throw, and carry the ball with their hands, and it differs from rugby in allowing each side to control the ball in alternating possessions. Gridiron football has not been taken up in the rest of the world to the same degree as other American sports such as basketball and baseball. Since the 1980s, however, primarily through the marketing efforts of the NFL (National Football League), teams and leagues have been established in Europe, and the game has achieved a degree of international popularity through television and movies.
