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Is 500 baizas more really worth a life?

ELHAM POURMOHAMMADI elham@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: Passengers’ lives are being put at risk, sometimes for the sake of less than 500 baizas, by taxi van drivers who flout the law and install an extra seat in the front of their vehicles.

Oman Road Safety Association (ORSA) has joined calls by pas-sengers to put an end to the illegal practice, saying it increases the risk of accident and injury and should be strictly banned by the authorities.

Passengers in Muscat have been complaining that some taxi van drivers have added an extra seat next to the main front seat to ac-commodate more passengers.

The Royal Oman Police (ROP) is clear on the fact that this is il-legal, saying, “If they put an extra seat, they will be fined. They have to stick to the allocated num-ber (of seats) specified by the manufacturer.”

Extra moneyBut commuters report that some drivers even ask an individual sitting in the main seat to pay for two persons if they do not allow another passenger to be seated in the extra seat. “Some drivers even do not care when a female passen-ger is sitting in the front. Some-times they ask her to allow a male passenger to sit next to her in the extra seat, and if she does not, the driver would expect her to pay for two persons,” said Muna, a female expatriate who once faced this

problem while taking a taxi van from Ruwi to the airport.

It is dangerous for both the pas-sengers and the driver as the extra seat does not have any seat belt and also little room is left for the driver to change gear, she said.

Another expatriate, Irfan, says that he once almost hit his head when the driver applied the brake suddenly as he was sitting in the extra seat which is not safe at all.

Saeed, a taxi driver, said that he does not approve of his colleagues who endanger the lives of the pas-sengers for some extra money, at times even less than 500 baizas.

“If an accident happens, they will be in trouble,” he added.

Call for punishment Speaking to the Times of Oman, Shaima Murtadha Al Lawati, chief executive officer of Oman

Road Safety Association (ORSA), warned about the many con-sequences of this practice and called for a crackdown on both the drivers and those who assist them in installing these seats.

“Authorities must stop this by educating the taxi drivers and im-posing fines upon those who have installed these seats. Also, there should be follow-ups on remov-ing these additional seats from the vans. As an effective measure, vehicle garages providing such a service should be shut down and their owners educated on the matter,” she said, encouraging in-volvement of the Public Authority for Consumer Protection to stop car garages offering this service.

The CEO of ORSA says that offering additional passenger capacity is ‘very dangerous’ for many reasons. >A6

Campaigners,

passengers and even

taxi drivers have hit

out at colleagues

risking public safety

for a few baizas more

DANGEROUS PRACTICE: The extra seat is dangerous for both the

passenger and the driver. -Supplied picture

OMANVisa fee payment

1There is no law that mandates staff to pay any specific amount. >A2

OMANThe Netherlands visa

2More than 6,000 people applied for visas at the Dutch embassy. >A3

REGION45 killed in Yemen

3 Forty-five people were killed in Saudi-led air strikes in Yemen. >A7

T O P T H R E E I N S I D E S T O R I E S

A6Camel, the pride of the community

Arabian Sea low pressure may hit Oman

REJIMON K reji@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: A depression that formed in the Arabian Sea, 1,200km south east of Masirah Island, has strengthened into a tropical cyclone and may im-pact Oman and Pakistan coasts in the coming days, say global meteorological departments.

The Joint Typhoon Warning Centre has said tropical cyclone 01A (one) has been tracked northwards at 05 knots over the past six hours and the maxi-mum significant wave height will be eight feet.

Rain brings relief >A3

F O R E C A S T

OMR14,700 stolen from a car parked in CBD localityTimes News Service

MUSCAT: In a daring theft in broad daylight, criminals broke open the window of a car and took away OMR14,700 from the parked vehicle in CBD area of Ruwi last week.

The incident happened when the owner of the vehicle had parked his vehicle in front of a bank and gone inside to with-draw money. “After withdraw-ing OMR14,700 from one bank, I had kept the money in the boot of the car. Then I realised, I needed more money, so I went to another bank to withdraw the money,” the victim, K Ahmed, said.

He told the authorities that he was into construction, trading, earth works, hotel, and restau-rants businesses in Oman for the past 30 years. “Within 20 min-utes, I returned to the car after withdrawing OMR1,000, when I discovered that someone had bro-ken the rear window and opened

the boot of the car, and fled with the envelope containing the cash,” Ahmed said. He lodged a com-plaint with the ROP, who are now searching for the criminals. >A6

Safe banking tips >B1

D A R I N G T H E F T

The broken window pane of

the car. -Shabin E

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A2 M O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

OMAN

I am writing on behalf of the workers of a cleaning company. The company has 450 workers, mostly Bang-ladeshis. They are not happy with the company as they are getting salaries once in two months. They are also not getting proper food, housing and other facilities. They want to go back to their country, but the company insists they need to deposit OMR240, which they say was the cost of visa charges. The management says that since they have not completed two years in the company they have to pay the visa charges. Does the labour law in Oman require expatriates to bear the cost of visa charges if they leave before two years?

There is no law in Oman that mandates that the employees shall pay any specific amount to the employer as visa or labour card charges if he/she does not

complete two years service with the employer. Such demands by employers do not have the sanc-tion of law and are, therefore, il-legal. However, if the contracting

parties have agreed on a certain sum as training and familiarisa-tion fee borne by the employer to be reimbursed by the employee in case of non-completion of cer-

tain period, such amounts shall be paid by the employee as per his/her contractual obligations.It is the prerogative of any of the contracting parties to terminate the contract (whether employ-ment or any other contract) and any contract which does not provide for an exit route is defec-tive in law.

Expatriates are happy to hear that there is some relaxation in the labour law for three months, that is until the end of July. Can an employee, who has not completed two years in a job, exit the country and come back to Oman before July, without NOC or release? There are no relaxation in the rules and the government has only declared amnesty for illegal

immigrants (those who are with-out any valid documents and those who have overstayed in the country) for three months to leave the country without paying any fines. No legal action would be taken against the illegal immi-grants during this period. Those who are living in Oman without valid documents (for any reasons whatsoever) may leave the coun-try through this scheme.

No law mandates that expatriates need to pay visa feesL E G A L C O L U M N

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this column are for general guidance purposes only. They are based on facts presented to us and are not substitute for expert legal advice. Readers are ad-vised to seek legal assistance for specific legal issues. Times of Oman and Khalifa Al Hinai Advocates & Legal Consul-tancy do not assume any responsibility towards anyone on this matter.

Times of Oman, in association with Khalifa Al Hinai Legal Consultants, will answer the legal queries of readers every Monday. Questions can be sent to readersclub@timesofoman.com

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Oman Air to operate record number of flights to Salalah

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Oman Air is set to in-crease its flights between Mus-cat and Salalah during southern Oman’s monsoon season, known as the Khareef. The busier sched-ule will mean that Oman Air oper-ates more flights to Salalah than ever before. The Khareef season, which brings cooling rains and an outpouring of colourful plant and animal life between June and September, is a major attraction for tourists from all over the Gulf region. For many years, Oman Air has increased the number of flights it offers to Salalah during this period.

Between June and September, Oman Air will operate a record 284 return flights from Muscat to Salalah. This represents an 11 per

cent increase in flights compared with 2014, and also means that as many as 352,738 passengers will have the opportunity to fly with Oman Air to Salalah. Chief Oper-ating Officer for Oman Air, Abdul-rahman Al-Busaidy, said, “Salalah is one of the most important des-tinations within Oman Air’s net-work, and we are delighted to be offering more air travellers than ever before the opportunity to visit this wonderful city.

“Throughout the Khareef, visi-tors are drawn to Salalah and the surrounding Dhofar region to experience its cool temperatures and stunning scenery. Oman Air is proud to have supported, for many

years, the growing popularity of the area, by offering unrivalled ac-cess to Salalah.

New aircraft“Each year has seen us operate more flights to the city and, this season, we will not only utilise re-gional and narrow-body aircraft on the route, but also our award-winning Airbus A330 wide-body aircraft. We will be able to bring a record number of visitors to Sala-lah, and offer them the ultimate passenger experience en route.

This year, passengers can also check-in directly to Salalah, irre-spective of where they are starting their journey from, on the Oman

Air network. They no longer have to clear baggage and recheck-in at Muscat International Airport

“Tickets can be booked through local travel agents, or online at www.omanair.com. You will also find a range of outstanding pack-ages on our website, offered in partnership with some of Salalah’s finest hotels. Demand is expected to be high and we advise early booking to avoid disappointment.”

In 2014, 84 per cent of the addi-tional seats Oman Air offered dur-ing the Khareef were purchased. As a result, more than 11,000 more visitors arrived in the region than in the previous year. And many travelled not only from other ar-

eas of the Middle East, but also from as far away as Europe and South-East Asia.

Salalah is the principal city in Oman’s most southerly Governo-rate, Dhofar. Salalah and its sur-rounding area is rich in history and visitors can explore historic sites, such as Job’s Tomb; one of the lost palaces of the Queen of Sheba; the blow holes of Mugsail; the frankincense trail and others. Dhofar is also the centre of the ancient frankincense trade. Its tradition of commerce is today re-flected in the growth of the Port of Salalah and the increasing impor-tance of Salalah Airport as a hub for Oman Air’s cargo operations.

This year Oman

Air will operate a

record 284 return

flights from Muscat

to Salalah. This

represents an 11

per cent increase

compared to 2014

GREENER PASTURES: In 2014, 84 per cent of the additional seats that Oman Air offered during the

Khareef were purchased. As a result, 11,000 more visitors arrived in the region compared to the pre-

vious year.–ONA

This season, we will not only utilise narrow-body aircraft on the route, but also our award-winning Airbus A330 wide-body aircraft

Abdulrahman Al-BusaidyChief Operating Officer, Oman Air

Muscat, Salalah airport traffic increases

MUSCAT: Registering an increase in air traffic, the number of travel-lers through Muscat International and Salalah Airports recorded a growth of 9.1% and 12.1% respec-tively during last April.

Passengers who travelled through the two airports during the same period reached 3,516,627, ac-cording to the latest data issued by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).

The number of travellers pass-ing through Muscat International Airport, including the transferred and transit travellers, increased to reach 3,227,912 last April.

The number of international flights recorded through Muscat International Airport last April were 26,241; with an increase of 9.7% compared to the figures re-corded during the same period of 2014. The number of passengers amounted to 2,956,632, an increase rate of 9.6%. The incoming passen-gers totalled to 1,499,826; while the number of departing passengers reached 1,439,998. The number of transit passengers reached 16,808 persons, recording an increase of 28.5% since 2014.

The number of travellers at the Salalah Airport until the end of last April reached 288,715, who trav-elled on board of 2,981 flights. The number of international flights through Salalah Airport was 1,120, an increase of 3.1% compared to the same period last year. The in-coming travellers reached 45,387 passengers; with an increase rate of 18%; while the departing travellers reached 54,389 travellers with an increase rate of 24.8%.-ONA

C I V I L A V I A T I O N

Sultanate to host education meeting

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Education policies will be in focus as Oman, repre-sented by the Ministry of Educa-tion, will host a meeting of the council of Unesco International Institute for Educational Plan-ning in Muscat on Wednesday.

The meeting will be held in the presence of the Chairman of the Institute Directors’ Board, Direc-tor of the Institute, and a number of international figures, as well as Dr Madiha Al Shibaniyah, minis-ter of education, who is a member of the Institute Directors’ Board.

The institute, founded in 1963, is supervised by an independ-ent board of management that sets polices, programmes and budget for the institute and pro-vides periodic reports on the progress of the Institute to the General Conference of Unesco.

It is one of the world’s pioneering institutions, developing policies, planning and management fees in the field of education, and is dedicated to supporting govern-ments of the member states in the planning and management of educational systems.

A joint meeting will also be held under the auspices of Dr Rawia Al Busaidiyah, Minister of Higher Education, on Tuesday morning. The meeting will discuss ways of strengthening cooperation be-tween the International Institute for Educational Planning and various educational agencies in Oman. The meeting is to be held in the presence of the Chairman of the Institute Directors’ Board and the Director of the Insti-tute, along with members of the Board of Directors, including Dr. Madiha Al Shibaniyah, Minister of Education.

U N I N S T I T U T E

NEW ERA: The meeting will discuss ways of strengthening

cooperation between the International Institute for Educational

Planning and various educational agencies in Oman.–Supplied photo

The government has only declared amnesty

for illegal immigrants for three months to

leave the country without paying any fines

Legal column

A3

OMANM O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

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Rain brings much-needed respite in Mudhaibi and Sohar REJIMON K reji@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: Rain and thunder-showers brought much-needed re-lief from the searing heat for resi-dents in Sohar and Al Mudhaibi on Sunday afternoon.

“Wadis in Sohar are overflowing following the rain which started at around 1pm. Roads in Al Mudhai-bi are flooded,” said Bader Ali Al Baddaei, an administrator of www.rthmc.net, a local Web-based fo-rum that discusses weather trends in Oman.

According to Oman meteorolog-ical department’s latest advisory, thundershowers are expected in Buraimi, Fahud, Rustaq, Ibra, Madha, Saiq, Samail, Bahla, Ibri, Nizwa, Adam, Suwiaq, Mudhaibi,

Mhout, Sunaynah, Saiq, Al Amerat, Bidiya, Qurriyyat, Bidbid and Sa-ham. Last Friday, hailstorms and medium to heavy rainfall lashed the northern parts of Oman. Ibri, Yanqul, Dhank were hit by a heavy hailstorm which lasted for more than two hours.

According to Public Authority of Civil Defense and Ambulances (PACDA) services, two persons were saved by Coast Guard at Qu-rum beach from drowning. The rescued people had sustained me-dium injuries and are admitted to a hospital.

W E A T H E R C O N D I T I O N S

‘New visa centre to boost service’

SARAH MACDONALDsarah@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: More than 6,000 peo-ple applied for visas through the Embassy of the Kingdom of Neth-erlands last year but that number is expected to double thanks to the opening of the Netherlands Visa Application Centre at VSF Global in Muscat Grand Mall.

The new visa application cen-tre, located on the 1st floor of the Tilal Complex, opens to the public Sunday and will provide Schen-gen visas to travel to the Neth-erlands, the Caribbean parts of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Estonia, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Swe-den and Switzerland.

“Omanis are most welcome in my country, the Netherlands. Dutch people feel very much at home here in Oman, we feel welcome, and we want Omanis to have the same feeling when they visit our country,” said Bar-bara Joziasse, ambassador of the Netherlands.

In 2009 there 800 visa appli-cations submitted to the Dutch embassy. By 2014 this number had increased to 6,100, a sign of a growing demand for visas. To facilitate issuing more visas to Omanis and other applicants in

the Sultanate, the Dutch govern-ment has outsourced the services to VSF Global.

“We all realise that the consu-lar section is the face of the Neth-erlands so we feel that profes-sional, high quality and efficient service is needed. Therefore, I am assured...that in future high qual-ity, friendly services will be ren-dered to all people coming in for a visa,” Joziasse added.

Strong demandWith the new centre the Nether-lands embassy expects that the number of visa applications will double, Joziasse said.

There is a strong demand for vi-sas and the centre will reduce the waiting times.

The VSF Global Schengen Visa Application Centre has a dedicated website for easy ac-cess to information, including visa categories, requirements and check-list, applicable fees and application status, a call centre and email support, tracking of ap-plication status and SMS alerts for visa status update on mobile phones, prime time appointment service allows applicants to lodge their applications beyond the normal processing hours, a pre-mium lounge service for people

wishing for faster services for an extra fee, and door-step delivery of passports.

“VFS Global is honoured to be the trusted partner to the govern-ment of the Kingdom of the Neth-erlands and to be able to extend our services to Oman and Dubai. We are committed to offering a convenient and accessible service with modern facilities for travel-lers in Oman,” said Ajit Alexan-der, of VSF Global.

Christian Winter, ambassa-dor of Switzerland to Oman, said his government was also pleased with the opening of the new visa application centre, which will is-sue visas to people making Swit-zerland their country of arrival into the Schengen area.

“We are very grateful to have this cooperation. Switzerland is a well-known and popular country among Omani citizens and resi-dents alike in terms of business, tourism and international con-ferences. I’m confident that with the new arrangement with VSF Global will run smoothly,” he said.

The visa office will be open from Sunday to Thursday, from 8am to 4pm.

For more information visit http://vfsglobal.com /nether-lands/oman/.

To facilitate issuing

more visas to Omanis

and other applicants

in Oman, Netherlands

government has

outsourced the

services to

VSF Global GLOBAL PARTNERS: Barbara Joziasse, the Netherlands ambas-

sador, expects the number of visa applications to double with the

setting up of the new centre.–OK Mohammed Ali/TIMES OF OMAN

ISG students excel in exam

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Students of CBSE International at Indian School Al Ghubra (ISG) came up with an impressive performance at the CBSE Grade 10 and 12 Ex-aminations held in March.

Nadha Zainab Thope, Sury-adev Arunkumar, and Swayam-prava Satpathy scored CGPA 10. In the first group of Grade 12 students, Joy Joseph Mullapa-lly topped with 87.4 per cent.

C B S E I N T E R N A T I O N A L

Winners of Mars project honouredMUSCAT: Winners and super-visors of the “Supporting Life System in Mars Project” in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2015 competi-tion, were honoured by Sayyid Khalid bin Hilal Al Busaidi, Minister of the Diwan of Royal Court, Chairman of the Coun-cil of Education, in his office on Sunday.

The winners include students of Umm Al Khair School for Ba-sic Education in the Governorate of A’Dakhiliyah.

The honouring ceremony was held in the presence of Dr. Madi-ha bint Ahmed al-Shaibaniyah, Minister of Education.

The competition was organ-ised from May 5 to May 10 in Pennsylvania in the USA.

The Sultanate took part in the 66th edition of the competition with three projects.

The competition had the par-ticipation of 78 countries.-ONA

U S C O N T E S T

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WELCOME RAINS: Roads in Al Mudhaibi were flooded following the rains. Wadis in Sohar too were overflowing which started at around

1pm. According to meteorological department’s advisory, thundershowers are expected in some regions on Monday. - Photo courtesy www.rthmc.com

A4 M O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

OMAN 6,000 trees have been planted across Dhofar

as part of the Native Tree Planting

Campaign was initiated in 2012.

‘You can see all layers of history in Cyprus’

ELHAM POURMOHAMMADIelham@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: Every year, around two and a half million tourists visit Cy-prus, an island in the Mediterrane-an Sea which lies at the crossroads of three continents. The country has a lot to offer to Omani travel-lers, the ambassador of Cyprus to the Sultanate has said.

“In Cyprus, you can see all the layers of history. You can step back in time and enjoy the rich cul-ture,” said Costas A. Papademas, who spoke proudly of his country, which has one of the oldest histo-ries in the world.

The first signs of civilisation in Cyprus traced in archaeologi-cal excavations and research date back 11,000 years to 9th millenni-um BC. “At the same time, you can enjoy the Cypriot legendary hos-pitality, and you will be given the warmest of welcomes in Cyprus,” the ambassador said in an inter-view to the Times of Oman.

Tourists will be impressed by the stunning landscapes and an-cient historical and cultural sites as well as the peaceful coexistence among people of different reli-gions, he said, adding that Cyprus is keen to boost tourism coopera-tion with the Sultanate.

“Last year, Cyprus’ minister of energy, commerce, industry and tourism visited Oman and held meetings with a number of sen-ior officials to explore the oppor-tunities that exist in the tourism sector and other fields,” the am-bassador said.

Papademas said the visa pro-cess is very simple and most of the times, the visa is issued on the very day the application is submitted.

Cyprus, which became a mem-ber of the European Union (EU) in 2004, is one of the countries that have supported a decision to elimi-

nate visa requirements for Omanis travelling to the EU, he said.

“The decision is there. It will take maybe a year to complete, and hopefully Omanis can visit Cyprus and the EU without visa soon,” Pa-pademas added.

Expansive coastlineAccording to the Cyprus Tourism Organisation, the island state is famous for its expansive coastline with a wide variety of beaches ranging from lively resorts to se-cluded bays, sandy beaches and rocky coves.

There is also a myriad of fes-

tivals and activities that tourists can indulge in during their stay in Cyprus, which include snorkelling or diving in the warm crystal clear seas, windsurfing, sailing, coastal cruising, deep-water fishing and bungee jumping.

Tourists visiting Cyprus can also plan a visit to Choirokoitia, one of the best preserved sites of a prehistoric settlement found in the Eastern Mediterranean, which, according to Cyprus Tourism Or-ganisation, gives a vivid represen-tation of what life was like at the dawn of civilization. They can also see the ancient cities of Kourion

or Amathus, the Temple of Apollo and many other sites.

Cyprus’ painted churches, Ar-chaeological Museum, the ex-quisite floor mosaics of the Ro-man villas depicting scenes from mythology and the underground Tombs of the Kings nearby are other sites worth visiting.

The ambassador said tourism attractions are only part of what Cyprus has to offer.

Medical tourismThe country receives many medi-cal tourists from all over the world every year due to its excellent healthcare system that offers val-ue for money and quality medical treatment at affordable prices, said Papademas.

Available treatments in Cyprus include elective surgery, cardiolo-gy, orthopaedic surgery, dentistry, cosmetic and plastic surgery, eye surgery, advanced reproductive technology and climatotherapy treatments. Education is another field where Papademas would like to see further cooperation be-tween Cyprus and the Sultanate.

“In Cyprus, we have very high-standard, internationally accred-ited institutions. We offer an op-portunity to Omani people who are interested to study in Cyprus,” he said, adding that the island spends more than the EU average on edu-cation per capita.

Cyprus is keen

to boost tourism

cooperation with the

Sultanate. There are

a variety of festivals

and water activities

that tourists can

indulge in during

their stay in Cyprus

ANCIENT MEMORIES: Cyprus’ painted churches, archaeological museum, exquisite floor mosaics of

Roman villas depicting scenes from mythology, are a big attraction. – Photo courtesy Cyprus Tourism Organisation

You will be given the warmest of welcomes in Cyprus... and hopefully Omanis can visit Cyprus and the EU without visa soon

Costas A. PapademasAmbassador of Cyprus to the Sultanate

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PDO launches waste management driveTimes News Service MUSCAT: As part of its drive to be a more sustainable operator, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) marked the World Envi-ronment Day by rolling out a major recycling programme in its offices.

The company is installing 35 metallic waste segregation bins across its Mina Al Fahal head-quarters to collect papers, plastics,

cans and general waste. More bins will be set up in interior locations by the end of the year.

The waste management drive, “Reduce....Reuse....Recycle,” is part of PDO’s new “Bea’tona” (Our Environment) campaign that aims to target PDO staff, con-tractors, visitors and the wider Omani public.

Other recent ‘green’ initiatives of PDO include a clampdown on

water wastage in response to the recent shortages in Oman, with an increased focus on reporting wa-ter leaks and guide lines to reduce water usage in company office and residential areas.

In addition, the company is try-ing to cut back on its use of paper by discouraging staff from print-ing reports and presentations. In the interim, it has introduced black-and-white printing only,

which is five times cheaper than colour. Managing Director Raoul Restucci said, “The new measures to cut waste make both good envi-ronmental and financial sense.

“We are dedicated to great-er sustainability in the way we work – and this extends from the amount of energy, water and mate-rials we use to produce oil and gas right down to the number of paper cups and plates we throw away.”

The PDO is partnering with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs (MECA), the En-vironment Society of Oman and the Oman Environmental Ser-vices Holding Company, Be’ah, in the matter of the Bea’tona campaign, which will focus on different themes every year such as littering, energy conserva-tion, renewable energy, and water conservation.

E N V I R O N M E N T D A Y

Tree planting drive to boost Dhofar’s habitatTimes News Service

MUSCAT: Aiming to protect Dhofar’s natural habitat and raising awareness about envi-ronmental sustainability, the Environment Society of Oman (ESO) recently planted 900 in-digenous trees in Dhofar Gover-norate, as part of its Native Tree Planting Campaign.

ESO worked with partner Nama Group, that sponsored this phase of the project.

More than 80 volunteers par-ticipated in the drive, in a bid to revitalise Dhofar’s ecosystem and protect its biological diver-sity. Trees were planted at seven sites, including Salalah College of Applied Sciences, Salalah Col-lege of Technology, and Dhofar University.

“Indigenous trees face numer-ous threats, including overgraz-ing, desertification, and declin-ing water levels. This initiative is important, as it gives us the opportunity to safeguard the lo-cal environment, in addition to combatting climate change and producing more oxygen,” said Dr. Hamed Al Gheilani, Community Outreach Manager at ESO.

He added, “I would like to thank our partners, including the

Ministry of Agriculture and Fish-eries Wealth, Ministry of Envi-ronment and Climate Affairs, Royal Court Affairs, and Nama Group, as well for their commit-ment and volunteers.”

Ghada Al Yousef, Executive Manager, Communications and Sustainability at Nama Group said, “The tree planting activ-ity fits very well with our envi-ronmental objective under our sustainability programme. We believe in the importance of in-volving our staff in many sus-tainability activities in order to promote a culture of volunteer-ing throughout the organisa-tion, which will effectively cre-ate a positive ripple effect in the community.”

The Native Tree Planting Campaign was initiated in 2012 and has a joint focus of planting indigenous trees and spreading awareness about environmental conservation through workshops. Each year, the initiative has be-come more popular and has, so far, planted over 6,000 trees across Dhofar. The plantings have contributed significantly to con-servation efforts aimed at safe-guarding more than 800 indige-nous tree species found in Oman’s southernmost region.

E C O L O G Y

GREEN CAUSE: The Native Tree Planting Campaign is aimed at

planting indigenous trees and spreading awareness about envi-

ronmental conservation.– Supplied photo

Common statistical surveys planned for GCC countriesTimes News Service

MUSCAT: Common statistical surveys are being planned for the next five years in the Gulf Coop-eration Council (GCC) countries.

This was discussed in the board meeting of the GCC Sta-tistical Centre (GCC-STAT) held recently in Muscat. The meeting discussed the implementation of the road map for the statistical system in GCC countries for the period 2015 to 2020 and the ac-tion programme for 2015.

The meeting also reviewed the recommendations of the meet-ings of the technical committees and the working groups, and also discussed the most important

developments in the field of sta-tistics, the role of the GCC-STAT and the national statistical cen-tres in all GCC States in enhanc-ing statistical work in the region.

Census 2020The meeting also discussed the progress of the Harmonised Gulf Register-based Census 2020. In addition, the meeting ap-proved a number of policies for the Centre such as the policies of information technology, and statistical analysis along with the green policy.

The roadmap includes the implementation of a number of common statistical surveys in the GCC countries during the next

five years in order to supplement the users of statistics inside and outside GCC countries with co-ordinated statistics in various fields. The road map also includes the preparation phases for the GCC population census that will be carried out in 2020.

The GCC-STAT began its oper-ations in May 2013, in the devel-opment of statistical work in the region through co-operation and coordination with other GCC sta-tistical centres, and by working on improving the quality of statis-tical indicators and data, regulat-ing the mechanisms of data col-lection and dissemination using the best international practices in this area.

G C C - S T A T

The new measures to cut waste

make both good environmental

and financial sense.

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OMANM O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

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Focus on developing public organisations’ vision and missionMUSCAT: Means to develop pub-lic performance is the focus of a five-day seminar that opened on Sunday at the Institute of Public Administration.

The seminar was opened by Sheikh Khalid bin Omar Al Mar-hoon, Minister of Civil Service, and is being organised by the Ministry of Civil Service for the e-conversion teams at the public organisations.

The seminar covers the public de-partments’ vision and mission.

Public performanceThe seminar comes in implemen-tation of the recommendations on developing public performance in light of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said’s Royal Vision and the action work team’s rec-ommendations, which were ap-

proved by Council of Ministers.In a statement to reporters, the

Minister of Civil Service said the Royal Directives always highlight the importance of increasing the level of public performance and expediting the implementation of e-government to ensure speedy processing of transactions by the respective stakeholders.

He added that efforts are being

made now to implement the Royal Directives as the Council of Min-isters has recently approved the recommendations submitted by the action team which was formed of representatives from a number of organisations to discuss the recommendations of the semi-nar on ‘Mechanism for Develop-ing Governmental Performance,’ which was organised earlier by

the Ministry of Civil Service.

Vision and missionThe recommendations include de-veloping a vision and mission for each public agency. These visions and missions should be inspired by the government’s vision and mission which focus on providing public services efficiently.

Sayyid Salim bin Mussalam

Al Busaidi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Civil Service for Administrative Development Af-fairs, delivered a speech in which he said the meeting comes within the efforts made to develop public performance and follow up on the best practices that facilitate proce-dures at all ministries, as directed by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said. -ONA

S E M I N A R

‘I Wish’ plans party for children with cancer

Times News Service

MUSCAT: “I Wish,” a group formed to grant wishes of chil-dren suffering from cancer as well adults suffering from long term illnesses, is all set to host a pre-Ramadan party.

“This time we are having a get together for the kids with cancer, and their mothers and siblings, at the Royal Hospital on Thursday, 11th June, from 10am to 12.30pm. It will be held at the hospital rec-reation centre. We will have food and drinks for all, and there will be entertainment and gifts for

the children,” said Karen van de Ruit and Puja Khimji, founders of the group.

They explained that “I Wish” was formed to grant wishes to those that need it the most, whether it be children who suffer from cancer or adults suffering from long term illnesses. The aim is to help the needy and give them something to smile about.

“I Wish” currently helps chil-dren at the Royal Hospital, who suffer from cancer. The wishes range from iPads and mobile phones to basic strollers for par-ents who can no longer make the commute from the interior to the hospital by simply carrying their child in their hands.

“We aim to make trips to the hospital to visit the children every

two weeks, but since we have to look after our own jobs, this is not always possible. So we try to ful-fil wishes and meet the children when we have free time. Our goal is to expand to different wards and help people affected by all sorts of conditions, and give them a reason to smile when there are a thousand reasons for them to be sad,” Puja explained.

Donors buy the wishSaying that it’s always nice to be able to get the community in-volved, Karen said, “For this rea-son the wishes are put up on Face-book, giving our followers a chance to contribute to the well being of others. No funds are collected di-rectly by us. Instead, the donors buy the wish and we always try to get them to come to the hospital to hand over the wished for object di-rectly as we feel this is an integral part of the process.”

“We are two people acting as middle men between those who need help and those who can help. We hope to expand and bring smiles to many more people with the help of our community. You can be part of this initiative by logging onto our Facebook page facebook.com/iwishoman,” Ka-ren and Puja said.

The event will be

held at the Royal

Hospital on Thursday

and there will also

be entertainment

and gifts for

these children

ALL FOR THEIR SMILES: ‘I Wish’ was formed to grant wishes of

those who need it the most, including children suffering from

cancer or adults suffering from long term illnesses. – File photo

Progress made in orthopaedics services reviewedTimes News Service

MUSCAT: Progress made in pro-viding orthopaedics services in Oman was one of the main topics of discussion at a meeting here on Sunday.

The Directorate General of Khoula Hospital, represented by the Orthopaedics Department, held the meeting at the hospi-tal to discuss the topic “Journey of Orthopaedics in the Ministry of Health.”

The meeting was sponsored un-der the patronage of Dr. Moham-med bin Saif Al Hosni, Undersec-retary of the Ministry of Health for Health Affairs. Dr. Ali Al Mashani, Director General of Khoula Hos-pital, and some 60 doctors from regional hospitals were present at the meeting.

The meeting sought to review progress made in providing ortho-paedics services in Oman and re-viewing the Oman National Joint Registry, as well as the achieve-ments and vision of Khoula Hospi-tal and regional hospitals, such as those in Sohar, Rustaq, Nizwa, Sur, Buraimi, Ibri, Ibra and Salalah.

Dr. Mohammed Al Lami, Senior Consultant and head of the Or-

thopaedics Department at Khoula Hospital noted, “This meeting is a celebration of the fruitful coopera-tion between Khoula Hospital and the referral hospitals in the Sul-tanate, under the supervision of the Ministry of Health. The Ortho-paedic Department has witnessed remarkable development in all its services”.

K H O U L A H O S P I T A L E V E N T

TAKING STOCK: More than 60

doctors from regional hospitals

attended the meet. – Supplied photo

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OMANM O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

After they have created their pieces, I will then market

their creations and they will receive their share

of the profit as well as my share to buy materials

Muna Zayed, Jordanian expatriate

“I think someone may have tailed me and watched me place the cash in an envelope,” he added.

He suspects that his auto’s front window may have been smashed with a hammer or cut open with a glass cutter.

“But surprisingly, all this hap-pened in broad day light and that, too, in front of a reputed bank’s parking area,” he added.

Ahmed was withdrawing the money to pay the salaries of his employees.

“I have a large number of peo-

ple on my payroll, so I thought of paying them before the week-end,” he said.

He also claimed that this is the second such incident that hap-pened within a span of 20 days.

“On May 14, one of my employ-ees, with a hired driver, withdrew OMR6,500 from a bank in Al Ghubra to pay salaries. On the way to Al Amerat, he stopped at a coffee shop in Al Amerat for breakfast. Then the driver fled with the money, along with the car keys,” he said.

C B D A R E A

BROKEN GLASS: Daylight robbery form a car. – Shabin E

‘Money was kept

in an envelope’

At present, the system lies centred at 15.5N 68.5E in the Arabian Sea.

However, an official from the Oman meteorological department said at least 48 more hours are needed to say whether it would impact Oman or not.

“We cannot say anything now. Maps show the development of the Arabian Sea depression into a deep depression. At present it is located at 1,200 km far from Oman coast. The speed of the wind is 25 to 35 knots,” the official added.

The Indian meteorological de-partment has forecast that the depression would move north-northwestwards and intensify fur-ther into a deep depression during next 24 hrs.

The tropical storm risk centre has also projected that the depres-sion is moving towards Muscat coast, adding that the tropical storm may convert into a Category 1 storm on June 10.

The wind speed of Category 1 storm will be ranging between 119-153 kilometres per hour.

A meteorologist from Accu-

weather.com said the storm is expected to move northwards on Monday, but then numerical fore-cast models diverge on a solution.

“Some models take the storm into Oman, and others into south-ern Pakistan. What that means is still too early to predict, but there is a threat of impact from Oman to Pakistan,” Anthony Sagliani, the international meteorologist at Ac-cuweather.com, wrote in an email to the Times of Oman.

On Sunday, the Pakistan’s mete-orological department has updat-ed its cyclone warning statement and has advised the fishermen of Sindh and Balochistan not to ven-ture in open sea.

According to Skymet Meteorol-ogy Division in India, the system is intensifying rapidly and the cloud configuration is indicating all the features of a tropical storm.

“We now expect the weather system to strengthen into a tropi-cal storm shortly,” the statement from Skymet said. “If it forms into a cyclone, it will be named Asho-baa,” the Skymet said.

A R A B I A N S E A

Duqm

MuscatAbu Dhabi

Salalah

Masirah

Sur

ARABIANSEA

ARABIANGULF

SEA OFOMAN

60 - 90Tropicalstorm90 - 120Severecyclonicstorm

Wind speed (km/h)

Source: tropicalstormrisk.com

June 710:00pm

June 810:00am

June 910:00am

June 1010:00am

June 1110:00am

June 810:00pm

June 1210:00am

Tropicalstorm in the Arabian Sea(Oman time)

Graphics

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The pride of the communityWADI BANI KHALID: This is an animal that reminds us of the past, of the days of hardships, of tradition, as also of the resilience of Omani people. Camel, the ship of the desert, enjoys a special sta-tus in Oman.

The Sultanate accords spe-cial status to camels, the pride of the community.

Camel racing as a local sport is eagerly followed by the public and raising of camels is seen as a mat-ter of pride as the animal’s links with the Omani people go back to ancient times.

The relationship between the Omanis and camels is deep root-ed. Nicknamed the “Ship of the Desert,” the camel is an evidence of living and bearing with hard-ships, as reflected by its unique ability to withstand thirst, and trot long distances.

Special attentionThanks to the policies and at-tention of the government of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who takes a keen interest in the welfare of these animals through the establishment of veterinary clinics, camels enjoy great care in the Sultanate.

Also, there is the Royal Camels Corps which looks after camels in the Sultanate. Along with the Omani Camel Racing Federation, these two are the most important government institutions tasked with caring of camels in Oman.

Camels are classified as per their age. Haja’ej camels are those under the age of three; Laqaya are 3-4 years old; Yeada’ 4-5 years old; Thanaya 5-6 years old and Hool are more than 6 years old.

A six-month old camel is called Hawar; a one-year-old is called Makhlool; from one to two years Mafrood ; from two to three Hiq ; a four-year-old camel is called

Jitha; from five to six years old Thnai, while Al Fatir camel is a she-camel that has given birth more than five times and is considered old.

The Royal Camel Corps pays special attention to authentic Omani camels by offering care and following scientific methods of breeding that are available at “The Camel Breeding Centre.”

The Royal Camel Corps keeps records of camels in terms of type, ancestry and other details. It takes part in local and regional races, and keeps records of results of races and encourages camel racing as a sport in the Sultanate.

A camel race called -- His Maj-esty’s Cup is held annually.

The Omani Camel Racing Fed-eration was set up in 2006. As the OCRF activities began, His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said allocated OMR1,000,000 to the camel racing sector to be spent on establishing race tracks.

The Royal Camel Corps ex-panded the races in various gover-norates and regions of the Oman, a move that led to spreading the sport and enhancing the enthusi-asm of citizens to acquire the best camels and breed them. -ONA

C A M E L

Front seats don’t

have seat belts

“This seat does not have a seat belt since it was not installed from the beginning in the car. It was probably added later on by a local garage. Passengers who do not wear seat belts and have a frontal crash are most likely to suffer a head injury,” said Al Lawati.

Even if the seat had an in-stalled seat belt, it would not be effective as seat belts have to be installed by the manufacturing company to stay effective in case of crashes, she added.

“Such seat belts simply come undone in case of a crash due to high speed. When a crash oc-curs, occupant of a vehicle with-out a properly installed seat belt will continue to move at the same speed at which the ve-hicle was travelling before the collision. They can be ejected from the vehicle completely,” Al Lawati noted.

Being ejected from a vehicle drastically increases the prob-ability of sustaining severe inju-

ries or being killed, she added. In a typical seat belt system,

the belt webbing and the retrac-tor mechanism keep the passen-ger’s body in the seat during the crash, the official explained.

In addition, Al Lawati said in-creasing the load of the vehicle is likely to affect its performance.

Also, stopping distances be-come greater, which increases the possibility of a crash occur-ring, the road safety expert added.

Accessibility is another con-cern as Al Lawati says that adding a seat will reduce the space avail-able for riding and getting off the taxi van.

“This is very dangerous, es-pecially in emergency cases of crashes. It takes longer to evacu-ate the vehicle with increased possibilities of being injured,” she said.

There must be no auxiliary seating accommodations such as temporary or folding jump seats in any vehicle, the CEO of ORSA concluded.

D A N G E R O U S D R I V I N G

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Jordan expat in Oman wins creativity award

TARIQ AL HAREMItariqh@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: A Jordanian expatri-ate living in Oman has won Phila-delphia’s ‘Creativity for a Cause’ competition held in the UAE. She talked exclusively to the Times of Oman about her winning idea and future plans.

Muna Zayed, a science and biology teacher from Al Ibdaa International School, partici-pated in the competition for the second year and submitted her idea on creating well-wrapped gift baskets for anything and any occasion.

The competition is based on helping the community by coming up with creative ideas that could benefit the community.

“Many women don’t have a spouse, or the spouse cannot ful-ly support the family, or cannot leave her house for one reason or another; whether due to restric-

tions or kids. You also have people who are physically disabled and use a wheelchair; they can’t keep going out,” Muna said.

“So why can’t they produce and earn money like any other person in the community?” she added.

Her winning idea teaches wom-en to make handicrafts from their own home, by wrapping inexpen-sive gift baskets and selling them to make a profit.

“My idea is to help them. Nowa-days, people buy costly gifts and pay a lot for it to be perfectly pre-sentable. So I make these baskets for wrapping gifts in a decent manner and at the same time, the cost is much less for the custom-er,” Zayed said.

“So instead of paying a large

sum, you could pay half of what you would originally pay and, at the same time, have the satisfac-tion of having someone work, who isn’t working to start with,” she said.

Muna is ready to train any woman who is interested to learn the art of wrapping using any ma-terial creatively.

“After they have created their pieces, I will then market their creations and they will receive their share of the profit as well as my share to buy materials. They will make money for their crea-tions,” she said.

Muna is currently looking for sponsors and supporters for her idea such as banks, goodwill foun-dations, and societies to send

people who wish to learn the art, or supply materials for the handicrafts or provide market for her creations.

Women are encouraged to join her in learning the art of gift wrap-ping and they, too, will benefit from the project.

The Oman resident left the competition with over OMR5,000 in winnings and is looking to start helping women of the community to produce and profit from their production.

“I want to thank Philadelphia for their support and their efforts for making this competition pos-sible for us to actually help con-tribute to society,” Zayed said, thanking the organizers of the competition.

The competition is

based on helping

the community by

coming up with

creative ideas that

could benefit the

community

I make these baskets for wrapping gifts in a decent manner and at the same time, the cost is much less for the customer

Muna ZayedJordanian expatriate

The ‘Ship of the Desert’. – ONA

Depression is to intensify further

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REGIONM O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

Coalition raids kill 45 in Sanaa, 100 injured

SANAA: Twenty civilians were among at least 45 people killed in Saudi-led air strikes on the rebel-held armed forces headquarters in the Yemeni capital early on Sun-day, a medic said.

The raids on the army headquar-ters in central Sanaa came a day af-ter the kingdom’s air defences shot down a Scud missile fired from the war-torn country.

They also followed the UN con-firmation of June 14 as the start date for peace talks between war-ring Yemen factions in Geneva, which both the country’s Houthi rebels and its exiled government said they will attend.

“At least 20 civilians and 25 soldiers and officers were killed” in four raids that hit the head-quarters in the Tahrir residential neighbourhood in central Sanaa, the medic said.

Residential buildings hitThe raids hit residential buildings, including five houses that were completely destroyed, witnesses said.

The rebel-controlled Saba news agency said 44 people were killed and more than 100 wounded “in-cluding woman and children”.

Seven Sunday air raids targeted

the Jumaineh military base, east of the capital Sanaa, according to witnesses. The base belongs to the elite Republican Guard that has remained loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has allied himself with the Houthis.

Other raids hit an arms depot at Nahdain, south of Sanaa.

Several rebel positions in the north, mainly in the Houthi stronghold Saada province and the provinces of Hajja and Amran, were heavily bombarded overnight by the coalition, witnesses said.

In the south, coalition jets targeted rebel positions on the northern and western outskirts of second city Aden in support of southern fighters backing exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi. Fighters from the southern

Popular Resistance were attempt-ing to prevent rebels from advanc-ing towards the neighbourhoods of Al Masnoura, Dar Saad, Sheikh Othman and Al Buraiqa, according to a pro-Hadi military commander.

“Several Houthi rebels and allies were killed or wounded,” said Gen-eral Fadhl Baesh.

Riyadh said the Houthis fired a Scud missile at Saudi territory on Saturday, a day after their rebel allies killed four Saudi soldiers in cross-border attacks.

Yemen has been engulfed in turmoil since the Houthis seized the capital in September and ad-vanced on the southern city of Aden, forcing Hadi to flee into exile in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi-led coalition has car-ried out air strikes on Yemen since

March 26 to push back the Houthis and restore Hadi’s authority. More than 2,000 people have died since the air campaign began.

The United Nations urged Yem-eni parties to engage in talks in Ge-neva without preconditions.

The meeting would be the first significant effort to stop the fight-ing, which has led to what the UN says is a catastrophic humanitar-ian situation.

Houthi rebels said they will at-tend the talks, and Yemen’s gov-ernment exiled in Riyadh also said it would take part.

In line with UN Security Coun-cil Resolution 2216, Hadi’s govern-ment had refused to attend unless the rebels pulled back from at least some of the territory they have seized. — AFP

The raids on the

army headquarters

in central Sanaa

came a day after

the kingdom’s air

defences shot down

a Scud missile

fired from Yemen

US-led raids hit IS battling Syrian rebels, Al QaedaBEIRUT: US-led aircraft bombed IS militant group fight-ers as they battled rival Syrian rebels, including Al Qaeda loyal-ists, for the first time overnight, a monitoring group said on Sunday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor de-scribed the raids in northern Syr-ia’s Aleppo as an intervention on the side of the rival rebels, even though they include forces that have previously been targeted by US-led strikes. “The coalition carried out at least four strikes overnight targeting IS positions in the town of Suran,” the Britain-based group said.

“It’s the first time that the in-ternational coalition has sup-ported non-Kurdish opposition forces fighting the IS,” Observa-tory director Rami Abdel Rah-man told AFP.

He said at least eight IS fight-ers were killed in the strikes and another 20 were injured.

IS seized control of Suran a week ago, and has since been fighting an alliance of hardline rebels including Al Qaeda affili-ate Al Nusra Front and the Ahrar Al Sham movement in the sur-rounding area.

TargetedBoth Al Nusra and Ahrar Al Sham have been targeted in US-led raids, including as recently as May 20, when a strike in Aleppo province killed 15 Al Nusra fight-ers. Like IS, Al Nusra is blacklist-ed as a “terrorist organisation” by Washington. IS has been seeking to expand its territory by seizing the Aleppo province towns of Marea and Azaz, which lie on key supply routes for the rival rebels.

Online, IS supporters accused Al Nusra and Ahrar Al Sham of collaborating with the US-led coalition, denouncing them as “America’s spies” and collabora-tors with the “crusader coalition”.

Despite sharing a militant ide-ology, Al Nusra and IS are fierce rivals, with IS seeking to expand in territory it holds in Syria and Iraq. Al Nusra pledges alle-giance to Al Qaeda chief Ayman Al Zawahri, but has for now confined its ambitions to Syria and has allied with conservative hardline groups fighting the re-gime and IS.

Air campaignThe US-led coalition began its air campaign in Syria last Septem-ber but the majority of its strikes have been confined to areas where IS has undisputed control or is battling Kurdish forces.

Syria’s conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government dem-onstrations but descended into a war after a regime crackdown.

It has evolved into a complex battle with multiple fronts, and involving the regime, rebels, mili-tants and Kurdish forces.

On Sunday in northeastern Syria, the Observatory and Syr-ian state media said government troops had pushed IS fighters back from Hasakeh city after fierce fighting.

IS began an assault on city, which is capital of the province of the same name, on May 30, that has left 119 dead, among them 71 regime forces and 48 IS fighters, 11 of them suicide bombers.

By Thursday IS had advanced to the city’s southern entrance.

“IS, which has been at the southern entrance of the city since Thursday, was forced to pull back two kilometres after fierce combat with regime forces,” the Britain-based monitor said.

Syria’s official SANA news agency also reported the fight-ing, saying the army had retaken several positions captured by IS in recent days, including an elec-tricity station and a prison being used as a military base. — AFP

W A R - T O R N C O U N T R Y

It’s the first time that the international coalition has

supported non-Kurdish opposition forces fighting the IS

Rami Abdel Rahman, Director, The Syrian

Observatory for Human Rights

UP IN SMOKE: Smoke billows following an air-strike by the Saudi-led coalition on an army arms

depot, now under Houthi rebel control on Friday, east of the Yemeni capital Sanaa. – AFP

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INDIAM O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

HOT WEATHER PREVAILS IN NORTH INDIA People jog as the sun rises over the Ganges river in Allahabad, on Sunday. Heat wave conditions prevailed across north India

on Sunday with the mercury hovering above 40 degrees Celsius mark in many areas. It was a hot Sunday for Delhiites, with

the mercury settling over 42 degrees Celsius, two notches above the normal. According to the weather office in Jaipur, Churu

recorded the highest temperature at 45.1 degrees Celsius, followed by Barmer which sizzled at 44.8 degrees. - Reuters

Sahara group averts

Grosvenor House sale

LONDON/NEW DELHI: In a major deal for Sahara, billionaire brothers David and Simon Reu-ben are set to take over the crisis-hit Indian group’s Bank of China loan for its three hotel proper-ties — thus averting a ‘default-triggered’ sale of the iconic Gros-venor House hotel in London.

When contacted, a Sahara group spokesperson confirmed that a “last-minute deal” has been negotiated with the Reuben brothers and the talks are in final stages now, but did not comment on the deal size.

A report in the Sunday Times, however, pegged the debt refi-nance deal at $850 million.

The Grosvenor House hotel was put on sale by its lender Bank of China earlier this year after a ‘technical default’. Sahara Group has been trying to raise funds to secure release of its Chair-man Subrata Roy, who has been lodged in Tihar Jail for over a year, through monetisation of its various assets, including the three overseas hotels.

When contacted, a Sahara group spokesperson said in a statement that the group has “suc-cessfully managed to avert the enforced sale of the iconic Gros-venor House Hotel in London.

“A team led by Group Chair-man has successfully negotiated a last-minute deal with the Reu-ben Brothers, who are now in the final stage of taking over the loan portfolio from the Bank of China. The other properties owned by the group are the New York Plaza hotel and the New York Dream hotel.”

The group further said that the “deal restores Sahara’s ability to renegotiate the loan terms with the new lender, or with third parties. The negotiations that are already underway are expected to gener-ate new money for meeting the Group’s immediate requirements in the Supreme Court of India.

“It is a matter of great satis-faction to our Chairman, Sub-rata Roy Sahara, that the Indian flag will continue to fly on these three globally-renowned hotels,” it added. - PTI

R A I S E F U N D S T O S E C U R E R E L E A S E O F S U B R A T A R O Y

Modi accuses Pakistan of creating ‘nuisance’, promoting terrorism

DHAKA: In a blunt attack on Pa-kistan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday accused it of cre-ating “nuisance” and “constantly” troubling India by promoting terrorism.

The prime minister’s sharp criticism came during the course of his address at the Bangabandhu International Convention Cen-tre here when he vowed to jointly combat with Bangladesh terror-ism in the region.

“Pakistan aaye din (constantly) disturbs India, jo naako dum la deta hai (creates nuisance), ter-rorism ko badhawa (deta hai)...ki ghatnaayein ghatti rehti hain (pro-motes terrorism and such inci-dents keep recurring),” Modi said

in his address to Dhaka University.Recalling that 90,000 Pakistani

prisoners of war were in India’s captivity during the 1971 Bangla-desh Liberation War, Modi said, “if we had a diabolic mindset, we don’t know then what decision we would have taken.”

“Terrorism has no boundaries. India has been troubled by it for the last 40 years. So many inno-cent people have died and what did those associated with terrorism gain and what have they given to the world... terrorism has no values, no principles, no traditions and it has only one motive and that is en-mity against humanity,” he said.

A Joint Declaration issued on the last day of Modi’s maiden two-day visit to Bangladesh reaffirmed

the two countries’ “unequivocal and uncompromising position against extremism and terrorism in all forms and manifestations.”

CommittedThe two sides also committed to cooperate with each other by shar-ing information about groups and persons indulging in terrorism.

“They reiterated their commit-ment that their respective terri-tories would not be allowed to be used for any activity inimical to the other,” the declaration said.

In his address, the Prime Min-ister came out strongly against expansionism, saying there is no place for it in today’s world.

“The world has changed, there was a time when may be expan-

sionism was used to be the symbol of a country’s power as to which one is expanding how much and reaching which place...but times have changed.

Now in this era there is no place for expansionism and the world wants development not expan-sionism and this is the basic vision.

Making a strong pitch for re forms of the UN and its Secu-rity Council, Modi said India has still not got a permanent seat in the UNSC.

“India is a country which never fought to gain land. 75,000 Indian soldiers had sacrificed their lives for others in the First World War, and 90,000 in the Second World War,” he said.

The prime minister also referred

to India’s role in peacekeeping op-erations across the world, noting that Indian soldiers had fought alongside ‘Mukti Jodhas’ (freedom fighters) as well for Bangladesh.

“Yet India has still not got a per-manent seat on the UN Security Council,” Modi said.

SettlementOn the settlement of the 41-year-old land boundary dispute by swapping of documents regarding the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA), he said, “If people feel LBA is a pact of few kilometres of the land it is not true, it is a meeting of hearts rather than just an agree-ment in the world where all battles were fought for land.

“On the long-pending Teesta water-sharing deal, Modi said the issue has to be solved with a hu-manitarian perspective. Water issues need to be resolved from humanitarian perspective. I am confident we will be able to do so,” he said, adding that, “It is the re-sponsibility of both sides to ensure that a solution is found.”

The prime minister, who held bilateral talks with his Bangla-deshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina after which 22 pacts were signed on Saturday, said, “while people thought we were just near (paas-paas) to each other, now the world would have to acknowledge that we are not just paas-paas but also saath-saath (together).” -PTI

The Prime Minister’s

sharp criticism came

during the course

of his address at

the Bangabandhu

International

Convention Centre

here when he vowed

to combat terrorism

in the region jointly

with Bangladesh

India seeks damages from Nestle after noodle scareNEW DELHI: India’s govern-ment has filed for damages from food group Nestle after a food scare involving reports of excess lead in Maggi noodles forced a nationwide recall, government of-ficials said on Sunday.

“It’s a serious matter concern-ing public health and the law al-lows us to take suo moto legal steps, or legal actions, against err-ing entities,” said one official in the consumer affairs department of the food ministry.

The claim, made on behalf of Indian consumers, was not filed through the courts but with the National Consumer Disputes Re-dressal Commission (NCDRC), which has semi-judicial powers and will decide on the merits of the case and the size of any damages.

The officials said Nestle was being accused of unfair trade practices, adding this is the first case in which the Indian govern-ment has sought damages from a multinational.

A Nestle spokesman in India said the company had not re-ceived any official notification as of Sunday, and could not com-ment. The food ministry sources said NCDRC would notify the company when the case comes up, likely next week.

Nestle has been under fire in India since one regional regulator said in May that it had found evi-dence of excess lead and monoso-

dium glutamate (MSG) in some packets of Maggi instant noodles, a cheap and hugely popular snack.

Since then, several state regu-lators have followed, and Nes-tle said early on Friday that it would temporarily withdraw all Maggi noodles from the country’s shelves, though it reiterated the products were safe.

Total Maggi sales in India, in-cluding sauces and condiments, account for less than 1 per cent of Nestle’s group annual sales, but brand damage could be signifi-cant in a country where the noo-dles are ubiquitous, in homes and roadside eateries.

Nestle fielded its global chief executive on Friday to help quell one India’s most high profile food scares in a decade.

Indian newspapers reported separately on Sunday that the na-tional food safety agency planned to inspect all Nestle’s manufac-turing facilities across India as a result of the scare. - Reuters

E X C E S S L E A D

TOTAL RECALL: A shopkeeper

removes packets of Nestle’s

‘Maggi’ instant noodles from

the shelves in his shop in Silig-

uri on Friday. - AFP

COURTESY CALL: Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid, left, talks with visiting Indian Prime Minister

Narendra Modi at presidential residence Bangabhaban in Dhaka on Sunday. - AFP

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DHAKA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sun-day received on behalf of Atal Behari Vajpayee Bangladesh’s prestigious Liberation War Honour for his “active role” in the country’s freedom strug-gle, saying the Bharatiya Janata Party veteran was an “inspiration” to him and other political workers.

President Abdul Hamid handed over the Bangladesh Liberation War Honour to Modi at a glittering ceremony at Bangabhaban, the Presi-dent’s house, as 90-year-old Vajpayee is ailing and unable to travel.

The function was at-tended by Premier Sheikh Hasina, her Cabinet colleagues, eminent citi-zens, diplomats and top Bangladeshi officials.

Modi, while receiving the honour, hailed Vaj-payee’s leadership, saying the “great leader” was a source of inspiration for political workers includ-ing him. - PTI

Bangladesh honours Vajpayee

It is a matter of great satisfaction to our Chairman,

Subrata Roy Sahara, that the Indian flag will continue

to fly on these three globally-renowned hotels

Sahara group spokesperson

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INDIAM O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

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Modi more of an EM (events manager) than a PM: Aiyar

NEW DELHI: Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar sees Narendra Modi more as an EM, or events manager, than a PM and says the best thing about the one year of his govern-ment is that “there are only four years left” and the countdown to the end of his ‘achhe din’ has begun.

“Since the NDA government assumed power, there has been dissatisfaction among people, par-ticularly farmers,” he says.

He claims that every indicator of economic growth is either stagger-ing or falling.

“The only aspect of the Indian economy that has risen is the Sensex. Every indicator is either staggering or falling except where international conditions have been exceptionally helpful like de-clining trend in oil prices and re-vival in the global economy,” Aiyar, whose stint in the Rajya Sabha will end next year, said.

Aiyar’s new book, Achhe Din? Ha! Ha!!, a collection of his articles on various topics, including the government’s performance and the Congress, will be released this week by Palimpsest.

In the foreword, he writes, “I believe his (Modi’s) penchant for self-praise and self-publicity will redound on him.

“People will start asking wheth-er this is a PM or an EM — an events manager.

“As action trails far behind rhet-oric, his credibility has already

started its downward spiral. The momentum will get accelerated as the gap widens between his flair for clever lines and his inability to match words with delivery.”

Wrong predictionAiyar, however, accepts that he “went hopelessly wrong in think-ing he (Narendra Modi) could not possibly win.

“He did get the mandate to run the country. But as I have watched him from the sidelines, I persist with the view that he has not risen

to the occasion and that the coun-try would be well-advised to turn him down at the next opportunity.”

He also sees the prospects of a newly-minted Congress only improving.

“We are now consolidating our-selves before we start preparing for the 2019 elections. The best thing about the Modi government is that there are only four years left.We will start positioning ourselves in 2017 to take on Modi,” the former union panchayati raj minister says.

On Rahul Gandhi’s sabbatical,

he says it was argued that it was eccentric, at best, and thoroughly irresponsible, at worst, for the Congress vice president to vanish just as the Land Acquisition Ordi-nance was capturing national at-tention but it was “not as unusual as is being made out”.

Confidence“The confidence with which Rahul spoke at the April 19 kisan rally, and the attentiveness with which he was heard, demonstrated that his absence notwithstanding, the Congress, under the leadership of his mother, had built up the mo-mentum for Rahul’s homecom-ing to be a memorable occasion,” he writes.

Aiyar terms as the “worst of a coalition of opposites” the BJP-PDP government in Indian-ad-ministered-Kashmir where the partners are “indulging in what can only be described as competi-tive communalism”.

He is not too optimistic of an-other Rajya Sabha term, going by the numbers the Congress has.

“But, I will continue to make myself available to the party.

“I also have a number of writing assignments.

“I am doing a major book on panchayati raj and also an updated version of my book on Rajiv Gan-dhi on the occasion of his 25th death anniversary which falls next year.

“Besides I have been asked by a major publisher to pen my autobi-ography. I have a tentative title in my mind — Leaf in the Wind:The autobiography of an unsuccessful politician,” he says. - PTI

Since the NDA

government assumed

power, there has

been dissatisfaction

among people,

particularly farmers,

said the Congress

lawmaker

But as I have watched him from the sidelines, I persist with the view that he has not risen to the occasion and that the country would be well-advised to turn him down at the next opportunity

Mani Shankar AiyarCongress leader

Mars mission spacecraft to enter 15-day ‘blackout’ phaseBENGALURU: Starting Monday, the country’s low-cost Mars mis-sion that is in a rendezvous with the red planet for an extended period will enter the “blackout” phase snapping communication with the satellite.

From June 8 to 22, the sun will block Mars from the earth snap-ping communication with the sat-ellite. The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) during this period will go

into an “autonomous mode” and will take its decisions, a senior In-dian Space Research Organisation official said.

“This will be for the first time that there will be a communica-tion break for such a long period of about 15 days. During this period, there will not be any communica-tion with the satellite,” he said.

Expressing confidence about regaining control over the satellite

once the blackout phase is over, he said, “the scenario has been tested for earlier; line of communication will be established.”

ConfiguredThe spacecraft’s life was extended for another six months in March due to surplus fuel.

Stating that the spacecraft has been “configured” for the black-out, the Isro official said, “we are

not sending any commands to the spacecraft now, till 8th (June) few hours of signals will be sent by the spacecraft-that will be for about two to three hours per day.”

In May next year, the mission will have to go through a similar phase once again, if there is an-other extension of mission life when the Earth will come between the Sun and Mars. Scripting space history, India on September 24 last

successfully placed its low-cost Mars spacecraft in orbit around the red planet in its very first at-tempt, breaking into an elite club of three countries.

The Isro spacecraft was launched on its nine-month-long odyssey on a homegrown PSLV rocket from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on November 5, 2013 and had escaped the earth’s gravitational field on De-cember 1, 2013. - PTI

M A R S M I S S I O N

AUTONOMOUS MODE: The Mars

Orbiter Mission from June 8 to

22 will go into an ‘autonomous

mode’. - PTI file

‘Only court will decide Ayodhya issue’

NEW DELHI: Ayodhya issue cannot be resolved by bringing a legislation and would be decided only by court, All India Muslim Personal Law Board on Sunday said after Vishwa Hindu Pari-shad (VHP) and some BJP lead-ers demanded that the govern-ment step in to build Ram temple.

“It has been said that a legis-lation should be brought in Par-liament to build a Ram temple but it is not possible because the matter is before the apex court.The matter will not be resolved through legislative means but by the court,” Board’s spokes-man Abdul Rahim Qureshi said.

The apex Muslim body stressed that the matter was subjudice and it will accept the decision of the court.

“The matter is before the Su-preme Court and whatever ver-dict it gives will be acceptable to us,” he said.

Raking up the Ram temple issue, BJP MP Vinay Katiyar who was the face of the Ayo-dhya movement of 1990s, had recently said the Modi govern-ment should “move to resolve” the matter without waiting for the Supreme Court verdict.

He said the government should address the issue either through legislation or talks, ful-filling the BJP’s promise.

Katiyar, now a Rajya Sabha member, earlier represented Faizabad Lok Sabha constitu-ency, under which Ayodhya falls. Taking a dig at Katiyar, Qureshi said the BJP leader was making such statements to gain attention after he was sidelined in govern-ment formation at the Centre. - PTI

S U B J U D I C E

Nitish, Lalu forge alliance to contest Bihar assembly pollsNEW DELHI: Ending suspense over the issue of a tie-up, Bihar’s ruling Janata Dal (United) and Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Sunday decided to contest the state assembly elec-tions in alliance and constitute a six member committee to finalize seat-sharing.

“It has been decided in today’s meeting that a committee of three members each from RJD and JD-U will decide seat sharing and leaders of both parties will give a final shape to it. It has been decid-ed now that both parties will fight the election in Bihar in alliance,” Samajwadi Party general secre-tary Ram Gopal Yadav said.

He was talking to reporters after a two-hour long meeting between Chief Minister Nit-ish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad at the residence of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who was approached by the two par-ties to broker peace after days of sparring between leaders of the two parties.

Asked about the contentious issue of chief ministership, the SP general secretary said, “There is no dispute (Koi gahma gahmi nahin hai).These things will be taken care of later. The real thing is seat sharing...”

Seat-sharing arrangementEmerging from the meeting Ram Gopal expressed confidence that the leaders of the two parties will complete the task of devising an effective seat-sharing arrange-ment very soon.

The SP general secretary was reading from a resolution adopt-ed at the meeting which was also read out separately by JD-U gen-eral secretary K C Tyagi.

Leaders from the three par-ties refused to elaborate on the

matter further. These decisions were taken after back to back meetings here.

Nitish Kumar, who had arrived in the national capital on Saturday, drove down to the residence of Con-gress Vice President Rahul Gandhi where they held discussions for al-most an hour-and-a-half.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Prasad had landed in the national captial when Kumar was meeting Rahul.

After weeks of sparring by leaders of their parties, Kumar and Prasad, who had not met for quite some time, on Sunday sat across the table at Mulayam’s residence in order to remove the irritants in the path of forging an alliance to thwart BJP’s attempt to wrest power in the politically sensitive state.

Congress has lent its weight behind the Bihar chief minister, making it clear that while it would like a grand alliance with Lalu and Kumar, it would rally around the latter if an alliance between the two Bihar-centric parties fails to materialize.

While Kumar immediately left for Patna after the meeting, Lalu Prasad stayed on and was later

joined by Sharad Yadav for an-other round of talks at Mulayam’s residence.

Kumar, who came out of the meeting smiling, did not talk to reporters. After weeks of spar-ring by leaders of their parties, Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad sat across the table at Mulayam’s residence in order to remove the irritants in the path of forging an alliance to thwart BJP’s attempt to wrest power in the politically sensitive state.

JD(U) president Sharad Yadav was also present in the meeting.

The meeting, first between Lalu and Nitish in many weeks, apparently failed to resolve the differences between the two leaders on the issue of chief ministership.

While JD(U) has been insist-ing on Nitish to be declared as the chief ministerial candidate, Lalu has maintained that the issue can be addressed later.

The RJD leader had his way as the matter has been kept pending.

Sunday’s meeting came af-ter Sharad Yadav’s assertion on Thursday that RJD, JD(U) and Congress will contest the elec-tions together. - PTI

T I E - U P

JOINING HANDS: Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad Yadav. – PTI file photo

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PAKISTAN M O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

BRIDAL COUTURE WEEKModels present creations by Pakistani designer Shabnam Naz during Bridal Couture Week in Karachi, on Saturday. — Reuters

Five gunned down in Quetta attackQUETTA: At least five people belonging to the Hazara com-munity were gunned down in Quetta’s Circular Road area near Meezab Chowk on Sunday evening.

Unidentified armed men on two motorcycles opened indis-criminate fire on the victims, who were sitting outside a tea shop in the area.

Died on the spot Four of them died on the spot, while one person was shifted to Combine Military Hospital Quetta, where he succumbed to his injuries.

Bodies of the deceased were shifted to the civil hospital and the CMH. They have been identified as Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Idrees, Kazim, Zee-shan and Nematullah.

As news of the attack spread, the main bazaars of Quetta shut down.

Police and FC have cordoned the area, and have initiated an investigation.

Earlier on May 27, two Hazaras were shot dead near Meezan Chowk.

On Saturday, gunmen shot dead four policemen — in-cluding a sub-inspector — in a targeted attack in a trou-bled suburb of the provincial capital. — Express Tribune

B A L O C H I S T A N

Improper urban planning impacts Islamabad climate

ISLAMABAD: The urban ar-eas of the capital, compared to the surrounding rural areas, have be-come an island of heat because of increase in local atmospheric and surface temperatures.

This is said to have been caused by an increase in residential bulk from 60 per cent with floor area ratio (FAR) 1:0.5 to 170 per cent from FAR 1: 1.7. FAR is used to limit the intensity of land use to lessen environmental hazards.

Islamabad and its surround-ing territory is exposed to a host

of factors accelerating climate change impacts such as marked changes in the intensity, frequen-cy and variability of temperature, precipitation and floods.

Excessive amounts of atmos-pheric aerosols, ozone depleting substances emitted by industries, brick kilns, stone crushing units and automobiles exceed the per-missible limits prescribed under the national environmental qual-ity standards in the urban areas.

This was revealed in a study

titled Climate Change Vulner-ability Assessment of Islamabad launched by the United Nations Human Development Programme (UN Habitat) at the Ministry of Climate Change on Friday.

The report says that the ex-treme events recorded so far in Islamabad include a highest maxi-mum temperature of 46.6 degree centigrade on June 24, 2005 and the lowest at -4.3 degree centi-grade on December 1984. In 2001, the heaviest rainfall was recorded

at 621mm falling in just 10 hours. An analysis of climate change trends from 1961 and future pro-jected scenarios up to year 2100 revealed that temperature has be-come substantially warmer.

The mean annual temperature change in the capital from 1960 to 2010 was by one degree cen-tigrade whereas in the central area the temperature rise in the same period has been 3.5 degrees centigrade.

“This temperature rise is dou-

ble the global average,” the re-ports said.

The climate change impacts have been aggravated due to hu-man-induced actions which are the root cause of global warm-ing, said the report, adding that Islamabad presents an ideal case for triggering and intensifying climate change impacts due to a significant violation of the city’s original master plan. That plan provided provision to preserve and enhance ecological condi-tions, particularly in Zones III, IV and V, but several revisions in the master plan relaxation were allowed.

The report also states that in absence of proper planning and development of effective rainwa-ter drainage systems, urban flood-ing occurs roughly once every three years as a result of overflow of the Nullah Leh which causes loss of human lives and damages properties..

An estimated 45,000 vehicles are being registered annually in Islamabad while the CO2 emis-sion from consumption of diesel/petrol and CNG in the transport sector is estimated at 3 million tonnes per year.

It was also estimated that the emission of greenhouse gases from brick kilns, other indus-tries, transport and land use change in Islamabad and Rawal-pindi is about one billion tonnes per annum.

Health related climate change impacts in Islamabad and the ICT is evident from increasing num-ber of respiratory skin and eye diseases. — Express Tribune

Islamabad and

its surrounding

territory is exposed

to a host of factors

accelerating climate

change impacts

such as marked

changes in the

intensity, frequency

and variability

of temperature,

precipitation

and floodsISLAND OF HEAT: Women carry pots full of water as they walk on Margalla Hills in Islamabad on

January 13, 2014. A UN report said in absence of proper planning and development of effective rain-

water drainage systems, urban flooding occurs roughly once every three years as a result of overflow

of the Nullah Leh which causes loss of human lives and damages properties. — Reuters file photo

PTI rejects PPP’s claim about rigging in Khyber PakhtunkhwaISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e- Insaf (PTI) has rejected Pa-kistan People’s Party’s (PPP) claim that the May 2013 elections were rigged in Khyber Pakh-tunkhwa (K-P).

In its reply submitted before the inquiry commission probing alleged rigging in the last general elections, the PPP had claimed that the polls were rigged and the results were a shocking surprise, especially in Punjab and the K-P where returning officers (ROs) and presiding officers were used to subvert the result.

“The PPP will examine the wit-ness at the appropriate time, if so minded. The material and record it relies on is contained in the electoral bags of the constituen-cies in the Punjab and the K-P. In addition, it will submit an analysis

by experts drawn from statistics given in a DVD obtained from the ECP (Election Commission of Pa-kistan),” it had stated.

The PPP had also alleged that the elections were rigged in the K-P in both national as well as pro-vincial assemblies’ constituencies.

Generalised allegationSubmitting a rejoinder to the PPP’s reply before the inquiry commis-sion, the PTI’s counsel Abdul Ha-feez Pirzada said that other than an inchoate, generalised and un-substantiated [allegation] against the PTI, the PPP’s reply does not mention or provide any evidence or material to substantiate any such insinuation or interference in the conduct or organisation of general election 2013 by or on be-half of the PTI.

“The PTI has offered that if the PPP has any direct or admissible proof of any direct or indirect role or involvement of the PTI in the manipulation of last general elec-tions then it should bring on re-cord before the commission for the consideration at the earliest pos-sible opportunity and if it (PPP) does not bring such evidence then

in all propriety formally withdraw the insinuations and allegations against the PTI,” the reply said.

It also submitted that neither the PTI was in the K-P govern-ment prior to the general election and nor it had any direct involve-ment in the selection and appoint-ment of caretaker government. “Therefore, it did not have the

means or opportunity to unduly influence or manipulate the last general elections in the province of the K-P,” it said.

The reply also claimed that the percentage of extra ballot papers in constituencies’ situation in the K-P was the lowest as compared to the constituencies situated in other three provinces.

Duty of poll bodyThe PTI agreed with the PPP that it is the duty of the ECP to answer the questions related to the elec-tions rigging.

“If the PPP examines ay wit-ness or brings any documents or material on record then the PTI reserves the right to produce evi-dence and witness in rebuttal,” the reply further stated.

Meanwhile, the top court has

fixed the writ petition against the return of the PTI lawmakers to parliament after an absence of many months. Zafar Ali Shah, who recently retired from the upper house of the parliament, contend-ed in his petition that these MNAs were aliens to the National Assem-bly and have no right to attend the parliament’s session.

The Islamabad High Court has already rejected his plea, declar-ing it not maintainable. Later on, the PML-N leader filed an appeal in the apex court against the high court’s order. — Express Tribune

M A Y 2 0 1 3 E L E C T I O N S

17 perish on first day of Sufi saint festival

S U K K U R / H Y D E R A B A D : Sweltering heat and a road crash claimed the lives of 17 people in Sehwan town of Sindh, as the an-nual birthday celebrations of 13th century Sufi saint Lal Shahbaz Qa-landar began on Saturday.

At least 10 people fell prey to the temperatures, as the mercury surged to 44 degrees celsius in the small town located in the foothills of Khirthar mountains, some 146 kilometres off Hyderabad.

Another five died on the Indus Highway’s 136km stretch between Jamshoro and Sehwan when two cars crashed into each other. Two more bodies were brought to the Sehwan taluka hospital whose identities could not be ascertained.

Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah confirmed 11 deaths while talking to the media in Mirpur-khas district. He said an inquiry has been ordered into the deaths as well. “The inquiry committee will submit its report within three days and we will take action if of-ficial negligence is established,” he added. Mairaj, Edhi Founda-tion’s regional in-charge, con-firmed 10 deaths and identi-fied eight of the victims as Noor Khatoon, 50, Javed, 45, Amjad, 46, Sabir Hussain, 40, Muhammad Sharif, 80, Muhammad Anwar, 35, Fakeer Hussain, 70, and Muham-mad Nawaz Marri, 36.

A road accident between a high-roof van and a car left five pas-sengers, including two policemen, dead and six others injured.

The car also caught fire after the accident which was doused by the people nearby. — Express Tribune

B I R T H D A Y C E L E B R A T I O N S

The PPP had claimed that the polls were rigged and the results were a shocking surprise, especially in Punjab and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where returning officers and presiding officers were used to subvert the result

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WORLDM O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

Erdogan’s vision for nation at stake as Turkey votes

ISTANBUL: President Tayyip Erdogan sought a crushing vic-tory for his vision of a “new Tur-key” at parliamentary elections on Sunday, a vote that could fur-nish the country’s most divisive modern leader with sweeping ex-ecutive powers.

The mood was tense at some polling stations, particularly in the mainly Kurdish southeast, after a bombing on Friday killed two people and wounded at least 200 at a rally for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

The attack has sharpened at-tention on the HDP, which is look-ing to enter parliament for the first time as a party. Its success could put an end to 12 years of single-party rule by the AK Party Erdogan founded.

Erdogan hopes the AKP can win a resounding majority to change the constitution and create a U.S.-style executive presidency. Op-ponents say his vision would lack necessary checks and balances from other branches of state.

“They say ‘If Erdogan gets what he wants on Sunday he will be un-stoppable’,” Erdogan told a rally in the northeastern province of Ar-dahan on Saturday.

“They actually mean Turkey will be unstoppable.”

While the AKP is expected to again be by far the largest party, it may be unable to secure an out-right majority if the HDP crosses the 10 per cent threshold to enter parliament. The HDP has wid-ened its appeal beyond its Kurd-ish core vote to centre-left and secularist elements disillusioned with Erdogan.

“I am certain the HDP will ex-ceed the threshold. My only worry is the theft of votes,” said Bahar Haram, a 25-year-old social ser-vices worker voting in Diyarba-kir, the biggest city in the south-east, where the HDP draws most of its support.

Like many people in the re-

gion, Haram said her priority was ending conflict between Ankara and the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which took up arms in 1984 in an insurgency that has killed 40,000 people.

Ankara launched peace talks with the PKK more than two years ago. The HDP’s presence in parlia-ment could be crucial to pushing that process forward.

“God willing, our nation’s deci-sion this evening will confirm the

strength of our democracy,” Er-dogan told reporters after voting on the Asian side of Istanbul.

He also said he believed turn-out was strong, something that if borne out could favour AKP. Er-dogan wants the AKP to secure 400 of 550 seats, a supermajority which looks unlikely.

At the last parliamentary elec-tion in 2011, the party won 49.8 percent of the vote. Polling ended at 1400 GMT. First results were

due at 1800 GMT although au-thorities could lift a reporting ban before then.

While constitutionally required as president to stay above party politics, Erdogan has held ral-lies throughout a confrontational campaign, joining Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in attacking op-position parties.

‘New Turkey’ The two have portrayed the elec-tion as a choice between a “new Turkey” or a return to a history marked by short-lived coalition governments, economic instabil-ity and coups by a military whose influence Erdogan has now reined in. HDP leader Selahattin Demir-tas, voting in Istanbul, saw abuse of electoral process.

“The election campaign did not happen in the framework of a just and fair contest.” Erdogan has championed religious conserva-tives who he says were treated as second-class citizens over dec-ades of secularist rule.

He cultivates an image of Tur-key that draws more on its Otto-man history and culture, orienting it to the Middle East rather than the West. The message resonates with voters in Turkey’s Anatolian

heartland, including the city of Konya where Davutoglu voted.

Erdogan may lose votes of some Turks, especially the secularly minded.

Others impressed by democrat-ic reforms in his first two terms of government may now be disen-chanted by a clampdown on the media and apparent intolerance of criticism.

Some conservatives see him as too conciliatory towards the Kurds.

The PKK is designated a ter-rorist organisation by the United States and EU as well as Turkey. “I am worried. I don’t want the HDP to cross the threshold because of their links with terrorists,” said 45-year-old Tahsin Karaman, a night security guard, voting in Istanbul.

“I used to support the AK Party but this time I am voting for the MHP. It’s a warning vote,” he said, referring to the rightist National-ist Movement Party. — Reuters

They say ‘If Erdogan

gets what he wants

on Sunday he will

be unstoppable.

They actually mean

Turkey will be

unstoppable’, said the

Turkish president

CRUCIAL VOTE: A Turkish woman casts her ballot as she votes in Turkey’s general election at a polling station in a primary school in

capital city Ankara, on Sunday. — AFP

CONFIDENT: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan casts his ballot

at a polling station during the parliamentary election in Istanbul,

Turkey, on Sunday. — Reuters

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Manhunt on in US as two convicts escape prisonNEW YORK: Police backed by K-9 units and helicopters staged a manhunt Sunday for two convict-ed murderers who escaped from New York state’s biggest maxi-mum security prison by cutting through cell walls with power tools and escaping along tunnels.

Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 34, pulled off the unprec-edented breakout from the all-male Clinton Correctional Facility in the small town of Dannemora sometime between Friday night and early Saturday.

Police said the discovery was made during a pre-dawn bed check and warned the duo should not be approached. The inmates report-edly left a taunting note behind on a yellow Post-it saying: “Have A Nice Day.”

Adjoining cellsThe pair, who lived in adjoining cells, used power tools to drill through walls and pipes and left sweatshirts and other clothing in their beds as decoys to make it ap-pear they were still in their cells, officials said.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Twitter he had toured the route the pair took to freedom, posting images of the path the men were believed to have cut to escape.

Overnight on Saturday, police with bulletproof vests and rifles manned roadblocks on routes leading into and out of Dannemo-ra, a village of 1,700 people located 170 miles north of the state capital Albany, near the Canadian border.

No one has ever previously escaped from the maximum se-curity portion of the prison, which opened in 1865, according to Cuomo.

“These are two dangerous indi-viduals, one was incarcerated for killing a sheriff, so these are dan-gerous people,” said Cuomo, who cancelled a scheduled appearance at the Belmont Stakes horse race Saturday to travel to the prison.

“And they are nothing to be tri-fled with.” He added: “By defini-tion, it was an extraordinary act.”

Tactical supportMore than 200 law enforcement officers were deployed in the search, assisted by a variety of tac-tical support, including K-9 units, SWAT teams and helicopters. Matt and Sweat were found miss-ing during a 5:30 am bed check, ac-cording to state police.

“Both are considered to be a danger to the public. If located DO NOT approach them. Contact 911 or the New York State Police im-mediately,” authorities said in a statement. — AFP

N E W Y O R K

Luxembourg rules out full voting rights for foreignersLUXEMBOURG: Luxembourg overwhelmingly rejected in a ref-erendum on Sunday giving full voting rights to foreign nation-als, who make up nearly half the population.

Almost 78 per cent of voters in the tiny European country said “No” to allowing foreigners the vote, according to results from 91 polling stations.

Had the vote been carried, the tiny landlocked country of over half a million people would have been the first in the European Union to grant foreign-born resi-dents the right to vote in all the country’s elections.

Prime Minister Xavier Bettel had billed the referendum as a chance to boost the democratic credentials of the wealthy duchy, which is nestled between Bel-gium, France and Germany.

A “Yes” vote would be “a yes to more democracy, a yes for the youth, a yes for diversity,” Bet-tel told AFP during campaigning Saturday in the capital, also called Luxembourg.

“There is no other European country where only 40 per cent of the population elects its rep-resentatives,” Bettel told journal-ists ahead of the referendum, in which 244,382 people were eligi-ble to vote.

About 46 per cent of the total population of 565,000 people are foreigners. — AFP

W E A L T H Y D U C H Y

UNIQUE: A picture taken on Sunday in Luxembourg city shows

posters asking Luxembourg’s citizens to vote ‘yes’ in a referen-

dum on giving voting rights to expatriates. — AFP/ BELGA/ANTHONY DEHEZ

A man sits in front of the sea as dark clouds brought by Hurricane

Blanca hover in the sky, in Los Cabos, Mexico, on Sunday. Hurricane

Blanca weakened to a category 1 storm on Sunday morning as it

approached Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, according to the

latest update form the US National Hurricane Center. — Reuters/Stringer

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When a US Navy P8-A sur-veillance aircraft recently flew near Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, it was warned eight times by the Chinese Navy to leave

the area. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that, “China’s determination to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity is as firm as a rock.” US De-fense Secretary Ashton Carter replied that, “(T)here should be no mistake about this: the United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows us, as we do all around the world.” So, is a US-China conflict in the South China Sea imminent?

In 1995, when I was serving in the Pentagon, China began building structures on Mischief Reef, which is claimed by the Philippines and lies much closer to its shores than to China’s. The US issued a statement that we took no position on the competing claims by five states over the 750 or so rocks, atolls, islets, cays, and reefs that comprise the Spratlys, which cover a vast area — 425,000 square kilometers (164,000 square miles) — of the South China Sea. We urged that the parties involved settle the disputes peace-fully. But the US took a strong stand that the South China Sea, which includes important sea lanes for oil shipments from the Middle East and container ships from Europe, and over which military and commer-cial aircraft routinely fly, was subject to the United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty (UNCLOS).

To back up its territorial claim, China relies on a map inherited from the Nationalist period — the so-called “nine-dashed line,” which extends nearly a thousand miles south of mainland China and some-times as close as 40 or 50 miles from the coastline of states like Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philip-pines. All of these states claim the 200-mile exclusive economic zones granted under UNCLOS.

When the dispute over Mischief Reef erupted, Chinese officials failed to clarify the meaning of the nine-dashed line, but, when pressed, they agreed that the dashes demarcated areas where China had sov-ereign claims. At the same time, they agreed that the South China Sea was not a Chinese lake, and that it was governed by the UN treaty. On this basis, the US and China avoided conflict over the issue for nearly two decades. But China did not avoid conflicts with its maritime neighbors. Although it pledged to adhere to a code of conduct negotiated by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 2002, it used its superior military might in disputes with the Philippines and Vietnam. In 2012, Chinese patrol vessels chased Phil-ippine fishing boats away from Scarborough Shoal off the Philippine coast, and the Philippine government has taken the dispute to the International Tribunal

for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), which China claims has no jurisdiction. In 2014, after China stationed an oil rig in waters claimed by Vietnam, ships from the two countries engaged in ramming and water-cannon battles at sea; anti-Chinese riots in Vietnam followed.

The region’s smaller states sought American sup-port. But the US remained careful not to be drawn into the competing claims over sovereignty, some of which are tenuous, while on others China sometimes has a stronger legal position. Moreover, the US had to focus on larger issues in its relationship with China.

This began to change when China initiated an ac-tive policy of dredging sand to fill in reefs and build islands in at least five locations. Earlier this year, analysts released images of what is expected to be a 10,000-foot (3,000-meter) runway on Fiery Cross Reef. The US argues that UNCLOS grants foreign ships and planes free access beyond a 12-mile territo-rial limit, while China claims that military flights can-not cross its 200-mile economic zone without its per-mission. If China claimed such a zone for each of the sites it occupies, it could close off most of the South China Sea. As one US official put it, China seems to be trying to “create facts on the ground” — what Admiral Harry Harris, the US commander in the Pacific, calls a new “great wall of sand.”

China correctly declared that it was within its sov-ereign rights to dredge, and that it was merely follow-ing the lead of its neighbors, whose governments had also been creating structures to bolster their claims.

But American suspicions were heightened by the fact that in 2013, in a separate dispute between China and Japan over the Senkaku/Daiyou Islands in the East China Sea, the Chinese government unilaterally declared an Air Defense Identification Zone without prior warning. The US response was to fly two B-52 bombers through the unrecognised zone. This set a precedent for the recent naval reconnaissance flight (which had a team of CNN reporters on board).

The US response was designed to prevent China from creating a fait accompli that could close off large parts of the South China Sea. Nevertheless, the origi-nal policy of not becoming embroiled in the sover-eignty dispute continues to make sense. The irony is that the US Senate’s failure to ratify UNCLOS means that the US cannot take China to ITLOS over its ef-forts to convert reefs into islands and claim exclusion zones that could interfere with the right of free pas-sage — a major US interest.

But, because China has ratified UNCLOS and the US respects it as customary international law, there is a basis for serious direct negotiation over clarifica-tion of the ambiguous nine-dashed line and the pres-ervation of freedom of the seas. With properly man-aged diplomacy, a US-China conflict in the South China Sea can and should be avoided. - Project Syndicate

Avoiding conflict in the South China Sea

When the dispute over Mischief Reef erupted, Chinese officials failed to clarify the meaning of the nine-dashed line, but, when pressed, they agreed that the dashes demarcated areas where China had sovereign claims

Letters, containing not more than 200 words with full name, address and telephone number, may be sent by mail (Times of Oman, P.O. Box 770, P.C. 112, Ruwi), by fax (24813153) or by e-mail (times@omantel.net.om)

COMMENTARY

The European Commission’s proposal last week of a sys-tem of quotas to distribute migrants among the European Union’s 28 member states is a welcome step toward a per-

manent, more equitable process for dealing with the waves of mi-grants seeking safety and opportunity in Europe. EU regulations now stipulate that it is the responsibility of the country where mi-grants arrive to accommodate them and process asylum requests. That has left Italy and Greece overwhelmed by the recent tide of migration from Africa. The commission‘s proposal would provide emergency relief to Italy and Greece by relocating 40,000 Syrian and Eritrean asylum seekers (economic migrants would be repat-riated) who arrived there after April 15 to other European nations over the next two years, while working on a permanent plan. That is very little to ask of the countries that are not doing their share. Yet, several countries that are run by right-wing governments, or are facing rising anti-immigrant sentiment, are having none of even this modest proposal.

Hungary, Poland, Latvia and the Czech Republic have all pro-tested any use of mandated quotas. Voluntary quotas, as these countries know, are meaningless. Britain and Ireland have the op-tion under EU treaties of “opting in” — hardly likely in the case of Britain, given the anti-immigration stance of Prime Minister Da-vid Cameron’s government and Cameron’s pledge to hold a refer-endum on whether Britain should leave the European Union. The new proposal has strong backing from Germany, which took in 203,000 asylum seekers in 2014, the most of any European coun-try. Germany’s support is appropriate, given its relatively robust economy. But even Germany has expressed concern, together with France, that the plan should take into consideration how many asy-lum seekers countries have already taken in. This is a reasonable demand. - The New York Times News Service

Europe’s shared responsibility

The recent spate of incidents in the West, mainly in the US, does not augur well for the safety and security of millions of Ameri-can Muslims. One feels reassured by the responses to some of

these incidents at the institutional level, with the US Supreme Court giving a ruling in favour of a Muslim woman’s right to don the head-scarf at her workplace and an airline apologising to a Muslim pas-senger for the behaviour of a flight steward. But the conduct of insti-tutions strikes a rude contrast with that of the public in the US who, despite being the most democratic polities, seem to have become in-creasingly wary of Muslims. Moreover, the very democratic nature of these societies, in the wake of such unhealthy mind sets, may have the potential to adversely influence the behaviour of institutions as well. Which is worrying.

Recently, about 250 mostly-armed anti-Muslim demonstrators — many wearing T-shirts bearing a profanity-laced message — faced off against a crowd of roughly the same size defending Muslim sensi-bilities in front of a Phoenix mosque. It was deemed a patriotic sign of resistance by the organiser. The incident occurred after two Phoenix residents carrying assault rifles were killed by the police outside a car-toon-drawing contest in suburban Dallas. The organiser of the protest claimed that he had received threats from ‘terrorists’ on Twitter, and that he and his family no longer felt safe in their home. Although the event was marked by inflammatory messages and a tangible divide be-tween the two sides, it wasn’t without some reconciliation. However, one of the members of the group defending the mosque was quoted as saying: “A lot of them, they’ve never met a Muslim, or they haven’t had interactions with Muslims. So when you sit down and talk like rational people, without all these slogans, without being bigots, without bring-ing guns, they will find out that they’re talking to another human.”

The radical registers of liberal thought in the US continue to propagate a ‘freedom’ which fails in freeing anyone. It colonises the sensitivities of millions of Muslims and disowns their sentiments. It capitalises on one-off tragedies to trigger permanent misery. Poison-ing the lives of peaceful Muslims in the West is no way to battle the atrocities of terrorists. But the blame for this disconnect between American Muslims and mainstream Americans also rests on the shoulders of the former. It has been widely observed in the US that most American Muslims tend to live within their own tightly-knit, exclusive communities. Many make it a point to avoid social contacts with non-Muslim communities of the US. In such an arrangement, even the slightest misunderstanding between the two communities can turn into red-hot conflict within no time, threatening to break out into armed clashes. So, it is in the political, social and religious inter-est of the American Muslims and Muslims living in Western societies to closely interact and engage with their non-Muslim countrymen at all levels, so as to let them know that you are as humane as any civi-lised human being.- The Express Tribune

Rise of anti-Muslim incidents in the West

J O S E P H S . N Y E

It would be better if the ban is reduced to 6 monthsThis refers to the news story, Will two-year ban on NOC drop to one year? (June 7). Yes, the two-year ban should drop to one year or six months if possible. Employees who have completed the agree-ment with their existing compa-nies should be able to change jobs without an NOC.Suhail Ahmed Muscat

Ban and NOC rule have not augured well for SultanateThis refers to the news story, Will two-year ban on NOC drop to one year? (June 7). The NOC rule should not be made applicable for those who have already com-pleted two years with a particular company and have honoured the

contract. It is time to review the rule and make the job market as competitive as possible. Sameer ShahMuscat

Conflicting information is only adding to confusionThis refers to the news story, Will two-year ban on NOC drop to one year? (June 7). I wonder what benefits the ban and the NOC rule have brought to business in Oman. I have been hearing all sorts of conflicting things about the ban and NOC rule for the past several months. Some say the government isn’t really considering reviewing the rules while others are saying that the ban and the NOC rule may be withdrawn soon or, at least, reduced. I have also been hearing that the ban may not be appli-

cable to those who have already honoured their contracts and have stayed on with a company for at least two years. However, these are all unconfirmed reports as the government has not yet come out with any statement on this. As for rumours, they are only increasing.A.M. ShahWadi Kabir

When will the city have normal supply of water?This refers to the story, Who is to blame for water crisis in Oman? (June 7). The crisis, with each passing day, is intensifying and affecting normal life across the spectrum and all over Muscat. I am sure that the authorities are aware of how people are coping with the crisis and how they are paying through the nose to procure

water. But the common people affected by this crisis are yet to be told when this ordeal shall be over; when shall we receive normal sup-ply of water again? The holy month of Ramadan is approaching and we still do not know how we shall be coping without adequate water. Nadeem Al Ghubra

Juventus were no match to the champions BarcelonaThe manner in which Barcelona beat Juventus to claim the Europe-an championship for the fifth time showed the mettle the champions are made of. The attacking trio of Barcelona proved too strong for Juventus defence. They showed why they are so feared.Haitem Azaiba

READERS’ FORUM

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When neighbourhoods smarten up, long-standing residents can

sometimes find it difficult to keep up. For most it’s a gradual realisa-tion, but in the London borough of Hackney, where I was born and lived until getting priced out around five years ago, the coun-cil came up with a more efficient way of letting undesirables know they’re not wanted — and no fixed address was required to deliver the message.

It’s called a Public Space Pro-tection Order or PSPO and — un-til Hackney bowed to pressure from a residents’ petition on Fri-day — it included a provision to fine rough sleepers as much as £1,000 for the crime of not having a home to go to.

Hipster Hackney is ever ahead of the trend, so it should come as no surprise that criminalising homelessness has gone global. Last week, councillors for the Ha-waiian capital of Honolulu voted to widen a ban on sitting or lying down in public, designed to de-ter the homeless from areas fre-quented by tourists.

Why so hard-hearted? In a

statement on their website before the U-turn, Hackney defended its actions by insisting fines are a last resort for the most “en-trenched” and “anti-social” rough sleepers. “In some of these very difficult cases, the threat of legal action has been the push that has persuaded them to seek the help that they so desperately need.” So it’s all for their own good, see?

Yet even in the realms of quick-fix, cosmetic solutions to complex problems, there are better ways. Much has been written, for instance, about the US’s Housing First programme which has cut homelessness (by 72 per cent in Utah) and costs via simple means. They give the homeless permanent housing, no strings attached.

But that’s another story. In the UK, the sorry truth is that councils aren’t acting without impetus. Measures such as the PSPO reflect a hardened public mood that expects cities to pri-oritise the leisure of the wealthy over the basic needs of the poor. And, as in Hackney, it take public pressure to force a reconsidera-tion. It was British holidaymak-

ers, remember, who last month complained about the migrants ruining their Mediterranean sea view, and it was Sheffield shop-pers who insisted a Big Issue vendor be moved from his patch outside a branch of Waitrose, because his presence made them uncomfortable.

We should feel uncomfort-able when we see people sleeping rough, but we should also be able to direct our discomfort not at the individuals, but at the obscene inequality which their presence represents. If “urban regenera-tion” only means investing in property, not people, then the number of homeless will contin-ue to rise, even as our cities grow wealthier. Recorded instances of rough sleeping rose by 37 per cent in London in 2014.

Until we find the courage to confront this contradiction, it’s only right that Hackney’s “dif-ficult cases” remain in view, swigging from White Lightning bottles like the world is their al fresco cafe and bringing down the property prices — the smell-ier and more anti-social, the better. - The Independent

OMAN TO ATTEND INVESTMENT MEETMUSCAT: The Sultanate will participate in the sixth annual conference on invest-ment and Arab capital market due to be held in Lebanon between May 18 and 20, under the auspices of the Lebanese Premier Dr Saleem Al Huss. The Sultanate’s delegation to the conference will be headed by Mohammed bin Nassir Al Khusaibi, secretary general of the National Economy Ministry. The event is organised by Lebanon Bank, in coop-eration with the economy and business group, the Lebanese Bank’s Association, the international finance establishment of the World Bank and the International Chamber of Commerce. It will discuss the priorities of economic reform, privatization trends, foreign investment in Arab markets, deregulation of financial services markets and e-commerce. A number of finance ministers and central bank presidents will take part in the conference as well as heads of Arab and international financial and investment institutions, Arab and foreign experts.

FROM OUR ARCHIVES

Presently the US and Britain are developing an advanced stealth aircraft known as the F-35, manufactured by Lockheed Martin. Britain intended ordering 150 F-35 fighters, with deliveries starting in 2012, but to date has only ordered eight

America is anxious about Britain’s defence expenditure. Perhaps the problem is the escalating cost of overly complex equip-

ment. Prior to the 1992 British election, discussing the case for cancelling the increasingly expensive Anglo-European Eurofighter aircraft with Labour’s defence spokesman, I suggested the defence re-quirement for this aircraft to be out-dated with the fall of the Berlin Wall; and the shifting Russian po-litical and military landscape.

Labour’s defence spokesman — later Tony Blair’s Secretary of State for Defence — highlighted the lower front-line servicing costs of the Eurofighter, whilst I advocated that Britain could speedy pos-session of the lower cost American, General Dy-namics F-16 aircraft; significantly enhancing RAF strike capability. Had I debated with the former Conservative Secretary of State for Defence, Mi-chael Heseltine, a more a European instinct would have been demonstrated. He would have contended that Eurofighter was essential for the preservation and future development of Pan-European, techno-logically advanced, aviation industries to counter American dominance in this sector.

Presently the US and Britain are developing an advanced stealth aircraft known as the F-35, manu-factured by Lockheed Martin. Britain intended or-dering 150 F-35 fighters, with deliveries starting in 2012, but to date has only ordered eight.

The RAFs current Eurofighter Typhoon closely matches the F-35’s capabilities, but epitomises bet-ter value for money with a lower price tag, operating costs and superior reliability.

According to Admiral Lord West, former First Sea Lord, Britain requires a “minimum” of 48 F-35s, totalling £4.1bn, to equip its new aircraft carriers. These shall replace the Harrier jump-jet prema-turely withdrawn from service in 2011; leaving the Royal Navy devoid of seaborne fighter capability.

This Anglo-American ‘Joint Strike Fighter’ pro-gramme is plagued by technical difficulties, includ-ing engine malfunctions, weapon system software problems and escalating costs. Three years late, not one built so far is combat ready. The cost of a single F-35 has also risen from £33m to £87m.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Graydon CBE, former Chief of the Air Staff at the inception of the F-35 programme, believes these jets are now close to “unaffordable” and “it will be token numbers we will be able to afford unless there is a radical change in thinking by the Government.”

Moreover, a former Labour member of the Com-mons Defence Select Committee recently warned:

“Our skies and seas are vulnerable. It is time to reassess our priorities for the defence and secu-rity of the UK.” Government radical thinking, and reassessment of defence priorities, may endorse a back to the future freshly manufactured Harrier or Tornado, with redesigned modern sophisticated software and weapons systems, as more affordable, reliable and less expensive to operate over the life-time of the aircraft. The carrier-capable Dassault Rafale and cost-effective Saab Gripen equally pro-vide contemporary options.

Providing value for money these newly manu-factured and updated European aircraft would complement the RAFs Typhoons, of which greater numbers and variants could be ordered. The Ty-phoon in actual combat situations has surpassed the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor, which is Amer-ica’s most recent, advanced and expensive fighter to date. This is not a new phenomenon. Every decade has verified the superiority of simpler aircraft time and again. The 1960’s Vietnam War revealed that McDonnell Douglas F4s later equipped with a sim-ple canon delivered more MIG kills than when only fitted with complex, expensive air to air missiles. A 1970’s conflict demonstrated the humble British Gnat capable of outperforming the more expensive French Mirage in dogfights.

The later 1980’s Falklands conflict confirmed the unsophisticated McDonnell Douglas A-4’s ability to inflict significant missile damage on Royal Navy ships; sinking many. And in 2015 the less expensive Eurofighter Typhoon equals or outstrips certain F-35’s capabilities; but is not a stealth aircraft.

The US expects Britain to have a “projected procurement” of 138 F-35s, costing some £12bn at current prices. Present and impending levels of UK defence expenditure render this an extremely unlikely prospect.

As the Ministry of Defence prepare to embark on another ‘Strategic Defence Review’, political code for defence cuts, it is clearly appropriate for Britain’s defence chiefs to ponder purchasing and deploying a clever combination of sophisticated and simpler aircraft in tandem. On balance the US Pentagon’s strategic commanders might prefer their principal defence partner to deploy 200 — 250 aircraft of modest to outstanding capability; rather than 48 or fewer, complex and potentially unreli-able American combat aircraft.

The author is a freelance contributor based in Britain. All the views and opinions expressed in the article are solely his and not of Times of Oman.

Britain’s defence chiefs face tough choices ahead

TODAY IN HISTORY452 Attila the Hun invades Italy. 793 The Vikings raid the Northumbrian

coast of England. 1861 Tennessee votes to secede from the

Union and join the Confederacy.

1866 Prussia annexes the region of Holstein.

1908 King Edward VII of England visits

Czar Nicholas II of Russia in an effort to improve relations between the two countries.

1915 William Jennings Bryan quits as Secretary of State under President Wilson.

HISTORYNET.COM

US avian flu outbreak claims 45 million birdsHealth officials are scrambling to contain the worst-ever outbreak of bird flu in the United States, which has left 45 million chickens and turkeys dead in 16 states, mostly in Iowaand Minnesota

LABORATORY-CONFIRMED AVIAN INFLUENZA FINDINGSIn poultry and captive wild birds since December 2014 (data as of Jun 4)

$5.7 billion export market in poultry and poultry products hit hard as top consumers imposetrade restrictions

SouthDakota

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WisconsinC A N A D A *

U N I T E DS T A T E S

NorthDakota

Washington

Idaho

Kansas

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CaliforniaIndiana

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Iowa: Top egg-producing state.73 farms hit,affecting 29mbirds

Minnesota: Leading turkey producer.Total of 106 farms struck by avian flu,affecting nearly 9 million birds

H5N2 virus H5N8 virus Commercial flocks affected

*H5 virusdetectedin Ontarioand BritishColumbia

GraphicsGraphic News /Source: US Department of Agriculture

Before anything else is said, they deserve the thanks of a grateful na-

tion. Bernie Sanders, Mar-tin O’Malley, even Lincoln Chafee: They are stepping up where others quailed, laying their bodies on democracy’s altar, saving their party’s nominating contest from re-sembling a presidential re-election in Kazakhstan.

But if they aspire to more than just holding Hillary Clin-ton below the 97.7 per cent of the vote that Nursultan Naz-arbayev claimed in his last trip to the hustings, her primary ri-vals will need more than cour-age. They’ll need a plan.

A little while ago, the plan for a not-Hillary candidate looked obvious: While Clin-ton played it safe and hugged the political center, her chal-lenger would run hard to her left, channel the energy of the party’s grass-roots activists, campaign against the front-runner’s establishment in-stincts and her husband’s tri-angulating past.

This road map did not promise victory. (Only Hillary herself can stop Hillary from winning — and even then not without a lot of work.) But it promised, at least, a meaning-ful battle of ideas, and maybe even a chance to make things close in Iowa.

Since her official entrance into the race, however, Hill-ary has moved aggressively to shrink the space for that kind of battle.

Her big policy statements — on criminal justice reform, immigration, and now uni-versal voter registration — have all aligned her explicitly with the party’s activists, and to an extent many of them did not expect.

Her theory seems to be that the political centre has moved leftward, and that mobilising Democratic constituencies will matter as much in the gen-eral election as reaching out to swing voters; she may also be haunted, understandably, by memories of 2008.

(There’s no reason to think she isn’t sincere in her new stances, but with the Clintons it’s always fair to analyse strat-egy before belief.)

Whatever the motivation, this new positioning has made it even harder for the not-Hillarys to run against her. They can move further to her left (Sanders, in particular, won’t have trouble doing so), but then their campaigns will seem even more quixotic.

And if Hillary stays com-mitted to their major goals, the party’s activists will have clear incentives to just take her “yes” for an answer.

So what remains for our brave few, our band of broth-ers? Well, they can attack her as a latecomer, a flip-flopper, a fair-weather progressive.

But such charges are rarely politically effective; if they were, Mitt Romney would never have been the 2012 GOP nominee.

At some level, voters know that they’re voting for the platform more than for the candidate. And the left, in par-ticular, has philosophical rea-sons to be comfortable with flip-flops: If you think the Arc of History is bending toward your ideas, then it’s actually a kind of vindication when a politician bends your way.

Alternatively, our anti-Hillarys can focus on foreign policy, where her Iraq War vote helped doom her seven years ago. Here they’ll have a stronger case, since she prob-ably remains more hawkish (see her role in our Libyan war for evidence) than her party’s dovish base.

But Clinton can find shelter by associating herself with the current president: She’ll just say (as she’s already saying) that she’s exactly as hawkish as Obama, no less and no more.

If he escalates against ISIS, she’ll support it; if not, she won’t. Ditto Putin, Assad, you name it.

This won’t protect her left flank fully, but so long as she’s hugging the president she’ll lose more left-wing intellectuals than actual progressive voters.

So all that really remains for her would-be challengers is to attack her ethics.

There, at last, the anti-Hill-ary argument becomes an easy one: From the Nixonian style of her State Department op-eration to the way her family fattened itself on global trib-ute during her recent public service, her rivals can point to sins and misdemeanours that would have already disquali-fied a lesser candidate.

But will many Democrats really want to hear that argu-ment? The advantage of mak-ing an ideological case against Hillary is that progressives can accept it — yes, she’s not as liberal as we would like, we’re glad somebody’s pressing her, and maybe we’ll cast a protest vote for them — and still feel OK about her inevitability and about voting for her in the gen-eral election.

The ethical case, on the other hand, is more personal, discomfiting, and easily re-purposed by Republicans. So any time Hillary’s rivals offer those kinds of critiques, their audience will hear intimations of GOP attacks to come.

And since she’s almost cer-tainly going to be the nominee, Democratic voters may not be particularly grateful for the foretaste; they may, instead, dismiss the men offering it for giving aid and comfort to the enemy. In which case those men will still deserve our grat-itude. Because then, at least, whatever happens in a Clinton presidency, her supporters won’t be able to say that they weren’t warned. - The New York

Times News Service

Hillary’s rivals need courage

The homeless need help, not hounding

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China cruise ship disaster death toll reaches to 431

JIANLI (CHINA): Chinese of-ficials, rescuers and family mem-bers gathered in mourning on Sunday for those lost on a cruise ship which capsized during a storm in the Yangtze River, as the death toll from the disaster reached 431, with 11 still missing.

Only 14 survivors, one of them the captain, have been found after the ship carrying 456 overturned in a freak tornado on Monday night in Jianli in Hubei province. Most of the passengers were el-derly tourists.

The four-storey ship was right-ed and raised on Friday, allowing rescuers onto to it to clear away debris, break down cabin doors and look for bodies. The river is being swept to as far away as Shanghai looking for the missing.

DNA testsGovernment spokesman Hu Kaihong told reporters that DNA tests were being carried out to identify the bodies. Sunday marks seven days since the Eastern Star went down, and according to Chi-nese tradition this a key date on which to mourn the dead.

State television showed res-cue workers and government of-ficials standing on a barge facing the battered boat, removing their hats and bowing their heads, as

surrounding boats sounded their horns. At separate locations along the river, emotional family mem-bers also got together to burn joss sticks and make offerings of food to the spirits of the deceased.

More than 1,400 relatives have come to Jianli, with many ex-pressing frustration at the lack of information from the govern-ment. On Friday, one burst into a just-concluded news conference, publicly accusing the government of treating its people like enemies.

The government says that it is doing everything possible to help

the relatives, including providing free accommodation and medical services, and Vice Premier Ma Kai has been dispatched to meet fam-ily members personally.

Some relatives, speaking to foreign reporters in the presence of officials, praised the govern-ment’s efforts.

“It made me feel incredibly warm. When he shook my hand and said a few words to me, told us to keep on going. I felt that he didn’t seem like a political leader at all. He was so genial. He was like my own father,” Wang Hua, 42,

who lost both parents on the ship, told Reuters of her meeting with Ma. Major state newspapers on Sunday carried the same lengthy story by the official Xinhua news agency on their front pages, head-lined “Bearing great responsibil-ity to the people” and detailing the government’s efforts.

“In the midst of disaster, we are all of one heart, the whole na-tion helping each other, staunchly moving forward,” it wrote.

The company which operated the ship has apologised for the disaster and said it would “fully”

cooperate with the investigation. Beijing has pledged there would be “no cover-up”.

Police have detained the cap-tain and chief engineer for ques-tioning as part of the investiga-tion. An initial probe found the ship was not overloaded and had enough life vests on board.

The disaster has now caused a higher toll than the sinking of a ferry in South Korea in April 2014 that killed 304 people, most of them children on a school trip. It is China’s worst shipping catas-trophe in seven decades. — Reuters

Only 14 survivors,

one of them the

captain, have been

found after the

ship carrying 456

overturned in a freak

tornado on Monday

Iran to start Russia oil-for-goods exportsDUBAI/TEHRAN: Russia will begin importing Iranian oil un-der a long-heralded oil-for-goods barter arrangement in the coming week, Iran’s oil minister was quot-ed as saying, more than a year after negotiations began.

ImplementationThe Kremlin announced in April it had begun to implement the deal, in which Iran would export up to 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil to Russia in exchange for goods of an equivalent value, but traders said they saw no signs of it. “Russia will begin oil imports from Iran this week,” the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Bijan Zanganeh telling Bloomberg on Saturday evening, as he returned to Tehran from an OPEC meeting in Vienna.

Agreed“We agreed with (Russian Energy Minister) Alexander Novak in Vi-enna that Russia will buy less than 500,000 bpd from Iran in exchange for cash, and Iran will use this cash to buy Russian goods such as steel, wheat and oil products.”

Iran’s oil exports have fallen by more than half to around 1.1 mil-lion bpd since 2012, when Western powers imposed sanctions aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear pro-gramme. Iran and six countries, including Russia, reached an in-terim agreement in early April and are working towards a final deal by

the end of this month that could see sanctions lifted.

But the two sides still disagree on several issues, and Tehran has been working in parallel to devel-op what its leaders call a ‘resist-ance economy’ that can survive under sanctions.

Sources said more than a year

ago that Iran was working on the barter deal with Russia, which they said could be worth up to $20 billion. Russia also lifted a self-im-posed ban on selling the advanced S-300 surface-to-air missile sys-tem to Iran shortly after the inter-im nuclear agreement, a move crit-icised by Western powers. — Reuters

B A R T E R A R R A N G E M E N T

Six Singapore students among 16 killed in Malaysia peak quakeKUNDASANG (MALAYSIA): Six Singapore primary school stu-dents and one teacher were among 16 people so far confirmed killed by an earthquake that rocked Ma-laysia’s Mount Kinabalu, govern-ment authorities said on Sunday.

Malaysian officials said the death toll from the earthquake that struck on Friday morning had risen to 16, from an earlier 13, with two still missing.

The Singaporean students were part of a school excursion to the popular climbing destination, which was jolted by a 6.0-magni-tude quake just as the 4,095-me-tre-high (13,435-foot) mountain was crowded with hikers.

The tremor triggered thunder-ous landslides that obliterated sec-tions of trail on the peak, located in the state of Sabah on Borneo island. Singapore Foreign Minis-

ter K. Shanmugam confirmed the bodies of six students had been identified. Singapore’s govern-ment also has said a teacher and a Singaporean adventure guide per-ished, while another student and a teacher remained missing.

Malaysian officials have said the students were aged 12 and 13.

“Looking at the photos of these children -- such young lives, full of promise, snuffed out,” Shan-mugam said in a Facebook posting, calling the episode “Singapore’s tragedy in Sabah”.

Malaysian police say the dead or missing also include several Malaysians, and one each believed to be from China, Japan and the Philippines. But they were yet to provide a detailed breakdown, say-ing the poor state of some remains made identification difficult. Mo-hammad Farhan Lee Abdullah,

police chief of the town of Ranau near the mountain, said body parts had been found on sections of the mountain, suggesting the awesome power of the landslides. “They are in parts probably be-cause of rocks and boulders fall-ing on them but we need to do fo-rensics first,” Mohammad Farhan said. Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper said some of the Sin-gaporean students were taking a route to the summit known as the Via ferrata, Italian for “iron road”, that traverses a steeply sloping rock face. “Initial investigations show that the worst-hit area was at Via ferrata. There were many boulders that came down there,” Masidi Manjun, tourism minister for Sabah state, told reporters.

Rescuers Saturday had escorted down to safety 137 hikers who were stuck on the mountain for up

to 18 hours by the rockfalls.But an Australian climber ac-

cused Malaysian authorities of a slow and chaotic response.

“(Official rescue crews) were looking rather lost really, and it was the mountain guides who did most of the work attending to the injured, strapping people into stretchers, getting ready to take them down the mountain,” Vee Jin Dumlao told the Australian Broadcasting Cor-poration. “The whole government emergency response was a farce,” she said, asking why hikers were not reached by helicopter.

Officials have said poor visibility made a helicopter mission danger-ous. Sabah state tourism minister Masidi Manjun said on Twitter: “It’s easy to pick on weaknesses of S&R effort and I’m sure they are many. Now is not the time to blame.” — AFP

T R A G I C I N C I D E N T

Iraqi forces advance in key town of BaijiKIRKUK: Iraqi forces advanced against the IS militant group in Baiji on Sunday as they battled to retake the strategic town for a second time, officers said.

Also on Sunday in Baquba, a suicide car bomb ripped through roadside restaurants at the en-trance to the town of Baladruz in eastern Iraq, killing at least 15 people, police and provincial of-ficials said.

Baghdad regained control of Baiji — located on the road to IS hub Mosul and near the country’s largest oil refinery — last year, but subsequently lost it again.

“Our security forces arrived to the centre of the town of Baiji around 10:30 am (0700 GMT) and raised the Iraqi flag,” an army major general told AFP. The of-ficer said that Iraqi forces were shelling “terrorists hideouts” in the town with mortar rounds. A police colonel confirmed that Ira-qi forces were making progress, saying they were in control of the city centre and were “advancing

toward the northern neighbour-hoods of the town.” Security forces are also fighting to push IS out of the nearby Baiji refinery, a vast complex, which once pro-duced 300,000 barrels per day of refined products meeting half of the country’s needs.

Meanwhile, the attack took place late Saturday at the en-trance of Baladruz, which lies about 65 kilometres (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad, and was claimed by the IS group.

“It hit a string of restaurants on the eastern side of town... Most of the people there were truck driv-ers transporting goods between Baghdad and Kurdistan,” a police officer said. The officer said 37 people were also wounded in the explosion. Khidhr Muslim Abed, a member of Diyala provincial council, confirmed the toll. IS claimed the attack in a statement posted on its forums on Sunday and said that one of those killed was a member of the counterter-rorism unit in Iraq’s police. — AFP

I S I N S U R G E N C Y

Israeli jets hit Gaza after rocket attackGAZA CITY: Israeli warplanes struck Gaza early on Sunday for the second time in three days after cross-border rocket fire by a group which is locked in a power struggle with Hamas.

It was the third time Israel had staged retaliatory air strikes on the war torn Gaza Strip in the past fortnight after three instances of rocket fire, all of which were claimed by gunmen loosely allied with the IS militant group.

During the raids, the air force hit “infrastructure” in northern Gaza, the military said. The government also ordered the closure until fur-ther notice of the Erez crossing for people and the Kerem Shalom crossing for goods. Israel said it held Hamas responsible for all at-tacks emanating from the Pales-tinian enclave, where it is the de facto power, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warning that nobody would prevent Israel from defending itself. “I have not heard anyone in the international com-munity condemn this firing; nei-ther has UN said a word,” he told ministers at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.

“It will be interesting if this silence continues when we use our full strength to uphold our right to defend ourselves. Let it be clear: The spreading hypocrisy in the world will not tie our hands and prevent us from protecting Israel’s citizens.”

Palestinian security sources and witnesses said the raids targeted a training site belonging to Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezzedine Al Qas-sam Brigades, in the northern Beit Lahiya area. The rocket fire on Sat-urday evening struck open ground near the southern port of Ashkelon, causing no casualties. The same area was targeted by three rockets on Wednesday, which also prompt-ed retaliatory air strikes. After that attack, the military deployed bat-teries of its Iron Dome air defence system around Ashkelon as a pre-caution, Israeli media reported on Friday. — AFP

C R O S S I N G S C L O S E D

PAYING TRIBUTES: Rescue workers hold a moment of silence at a ceremony to mark seven days since the Eastern Star went down in the Jianli section of Yangtze River, in Hubei province of China, on Sunday. – Reuters

MAKING A POINT: Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh speaks to journalists before a meeting of OPEC oil ministers in Vienna, Austria, on Friday. – Reuters

CURIOUS ONLOOKERS: Local residents gather as they watch Malay-sia’s Mount Kinabalu in Kundasang, a town in the district of Ranau on Sunday, where a 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit on June 5. – AFP

ROME: The number of migrants arriving in Italy this year after being rescued at sea is set to top 50,000 by Monday after another frantic weekend for the multi-national flotilla of boats trying to prevent more drownings in the Mediterranean.

The imminent arrival of an ex-tra 4,000 people at southern ports sent the migration crisis back to the top of the political agenda as three big northern regions warned they will refuse to house any of the new arrivals.

Lombardy president Roberto

Maroni said he would be writing to local mayors and prefects in his region on Monday to warn them not to accept any more “illegal im-migrants” allocated by the govern-ment upon pain of having regional funding cut.

Giovanni Maroni, the newly-elected president of Liguria, backed that stance. “I have already said it: we will not receive any more migrants, and Lombardy, Veneto and Val d’Aosta will do the same thing.”

Luca Zaia, the right-wing presi-dent of Veneto, said the region that

includes Venice was: “Like a bomb ready to go off. The social tensions are absolutely crazy.”

British Royal Navy ship HMS Bulwark was on Sunday engaged in an operation to save at least 500

people from four boats in waters between Italy and Libya.

The Bulwark’s action followed the rescue on Saturday of just under 3,500 migrants from 15 packed boats in a stretch of water

45 miles (70 kilometres) off the coast of Libya. Italy’s coastguard said boats from the Italian, Ger-man and Irish navies took part in the rescue operation, which was coordinated in its initial stages by MOAS, a privately-funded mission operating out of Malta in partner-ship with the Doctors without Bor-ders (MSF) charity.

There were no reports of casu-alties but one Italian navy boat which was ferrying 475 migrants to Sicily reported that it had seven pregnant women on board who will be transferred to hospital on landing.

The latest operations will lift to just over 50,000 the number of ar-rivals in Italy since the turn of the year and the cost and other prob-lems involved in processing them is becoming a hot political issue. The figure represents an increase of around 10 percent on the same period last year, which, after a summer surge, ended with an un-precedented total of 170,000 mi-grants arriving on Italian soil.

The country’s reception fa-cilities are at breaking point with

nearly 80,000 asylum seekers or recently arrived migrants current-ly accommodated across the coun-try. Government attempts to get regions to open up new facilities are increasingly running into op-position; mainly from right-wing politicians but also at a grassroots levels from communities which don’t want refugees housed in their neighbourhoods.

The small region of Val d’Aosta in the Alps has refused to take any more, citing a lack of adequate fa-cilities. If Lombardy, Veneto and Liguria act on their threats to fol-low suit, the government will have a major problem on its hands at a time when it is also grappling with growing evidence that organised crime has been siphoning off pub-lic funds allocated for the accom-modation of migrants during their processing. — AFP

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Resistance to migrants up in ItalyThe imminent arrival of an extra 4,000

people at southern ports sent the migration

crisis back to the top of the political

agenda as three big northern regions

refused to house new arrivals CRISIS: Migrants board a boat of the Coast Guards during a rescue

operation off the coast of Sicily on Saturday. — AFP/GUARDIA COSTIERA

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Anti-migrant protests planned in RakhineMAUNGDAW (MYANMAR): Buddhist hardliners in Myan-mar’s troubled Rakhine state are planning a day of protests against moves to help desperate migrants found adrift on boats in the Bay of Bengal, organisers said on Sunday.

Rakhine, one of Myanmar’s poorest states, is a tinderbox of tension between its Buddhist majority and a heavily persecut-ed Rohinghya Muslim minority, many of whom live in displace-ment camps after deadly unrest erupted there in 2012.

Fragile equilibrium A regional migrant crisis is up-ending a fragile equilibrium that has since settled on the state. Tens of thousands of Ro-hingya have fled Myanmar in recent years, alongside Bang-ladeshi economic migrants, mainly headed for Malaysia and Indonesia.

The exodus was largely ig-nored until a crackdown on the people-smuggling trade in Thailand last month caused chaos as gangmasters aban-doned their human cargos on land and sea.

Trapped at seaSome 4,500 Rohingya and Bang-ladeshi migrants have since washed ashore in the region while the UN estimates around 2,000 others are still trapped at sea. After years of turning a blind eye to the exodus, Myan-mar’s navy in the last fortnight discovered two boats with more than 900 migrants who were brought to Rakhine. — AFP

M Y A N M A R

Bomb blast kills 16 in Nigerian city MAIDUGURI (NIGERIA): A bomb blast hit a cattle market in Nigeria’s northeastern state of Borno late on Saturday, with as many as 16 people dead, hos-pital and military sources said, in an attack that bore the hall-marks of extremist Boko Har-am militants.

Boko Haram has killed thou-sands of people and displaced some 1.5 million in an insur-gency to establish an extremist state in the northeast of Nigeria but appears to have lost most of the territory it seized to govern-ment counter-offensives this year. There was no immedi-ate claim of responsibility for the attack, which followed two weekend bombings that killed at least 30 people.

“At about 4:30pm on Saturday they brought casualties from the blast scene...16 bodies were deposited with 24 injured,” La-wal Kawu, a paramedic at the teaching hospital in Maiduguri said. — Reuters

B O K O H A R A M H A N D S E E N

BMARKE

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COMM O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

First sugar refinery to open in early 2018

A E JAMESbusinesseditor@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: Oman’s first sugar re-finery will start operation in the first quarter of 2018, even as the promoters have signed a $300 mil-lion engineering, procurement and

construction (EPC) agreement with China’s Sinolight Corpora-tion on Sunday to build the refin-ery at the Port of Sohar.

Construction work on the refin-ery will start in the third quarter of this year, said Ashwin D Rana, chief executive officer of Oman

Sugar Refinery Company (OSRC).

18 hectare plotThe new sugar refinery, which will have one million tonnes of refined sugar per annum and is coming up in an 18 hectare plot near Sohar Port, will have state-of-the-art,

modern facility and will use the latest production technology to produce the highest quality re-fined sugar. The contract will be managed on behalf of OSRC by Bosch Projects of South Africa.

EPC contractRana said that the capital expendi-ture of $300 million, which is also the value of EPC contract, will be met by way of both equity and debt. An institutional investor from China will also partly fund the project.

According to the plan, the com-pany will import raw sugar, refine it using different processes and the finished product of white sugar will be packed to sell it as a brand-ed product. OSRC, which is using a proven technology, has several advantages, including a strategic location and port facilities.

OSRC earlier signed agree-ments for natural gas and for the land for building the factory. > B4

State-of-the-art,

modern sugar

refinery will have

a capacity of one

million tonnes of

refined sugar

per annum

Bank Muscat urges customers to follow secure banking tipsTimes News Service

MUSCAT: Bank Muscat, the Sultanate’s biggest bank, as part of its commitment to ensure the highest levels of security for banking transactions, has urged customers to follow secure bank-ing tips frequently communicat-ed through various channels.

Personal identity numberBank Muscat reiterated that customers should always exer-cise caution and must never di-vulge their password or personal identity number (PIN) linked to cards, online banking or any other service. The bank under no circumstance asks customers to provide their password or PIN and also does not contact cus-

tomers by phone or e-mail asking them to change their account in-formation and log-in details, said a bank release.

Bancassurance purchaseBank Muscat also never asks customers to provide their full 16 digit account number and instead requests to only confirm the last 8 digits of their account number for certain transactions like pur-chase of bancassurance products through the bank’s telemarketing sales channel.

As part of the bank’s innovative marketing and sales initiative, a telemarketing campaign is under way to promote bespoke insur-ance products in association with a leading international insurance company. > B4

B A N K I N G T R A N S A C T I O N S

CRUCIAL PACT: Promoters have signed a $300 million engineering, procurement and construction contract with China’s Sinolight Corporation on Sunday. — Picture by A R Rajkumar/Times of Oman

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Africa’s free trade pact to have far-reaching benefitsCAPE TOWN: A free trade agree-ment by three African economic blocs in Egypt this week will be an important step towards a po-tentially game-changing common market spanning the continent, supporters say.

The deal between the East Afri-can Community, Southern African Development Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa will create a mar-ket of 26 countries with a popu-lation of 625 million and gross domestic product of more than $1 trillion. The Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) will be inaugurated at a summit of heads of state and government on Wednesday in Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt after four years of negotiations to establish a framework for tariff preferences and other commitments.

“The launch of the TFTA is a significant milestone for the Afri-can continent,” the South African government said.

“We believe that this sends a powerful message that Africa is committed to its economic inte-gration agenda and in creating a conducive environment for trade and investment.”

The move was welcomed by business leaders at the World Eco-nomic Summit for Africa in Cape Town last week, with participants

highlighting the fact that just 12 per cent of African countries’ total trade is with each other — com-pared to some 55 per cent in Asia and 70 per cent in Europe.

“The tripartite trade agreement is really important as a first step for Africa... which then can en-gage with the European Union and others on a global basis,” Michael

Rake, BT Group chairman and a co-chair of the forum, said. Afri-ca’s share of global trade stands at around three per cent.

Boosting trade has long been an ambition of the African Union (formerly the Organisation of Afri-can Unity), and backers of the lat-est move are aware of scepticism surrounding its prospects.

“I think Africa will surprise the world,” Fatima Haram Acyl, the African Union’s commissioner for trade and industry, said at the WEF. “We’re going to have our continental free trade area.”

British colonialist Cecil Rhodes originally dreamt of unifying Afri-ca from ‘Cape to Cairo’ in the 19th Century under imperial rule from London — a far cry for the diverse group of nations that will make up the Tripartite Free Trade Area.

Member states will range from relatively developed economies such as South Africa and Egypt to countries including Angola, Ethiopia and Mozambique, which are seen as having huge potential growth.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said in a 2013 report that one reason for weak intra-African trade is that the focus has been more on the elimi-nation of trade barriers than the development of capacity. - AFP

C O M M O N T R A D E P A C T Ruling leaves huge debt for Argentina

BUENOS AIRES: A new ruling by a United States judge has in-creased the total Argentina owes holdout bondholders to $5.2 bil-lion — a massive responsibility that if upheld likely will fall to the next government, experts said.

In a 26-page ruling, US District Court judge Thomas Griesa ruled that by refusing to make payment to some hedge fund and individ-ual bondholders of its defaulted debt, while making payment to other creditors, Buenos Aires was in violation of an equal treatment provision in its contracts.

Griesa in a 2012 ruling sided with a group of hedge funds, led by NML and Aurelius Capital Management, who for years have been trying to force Argentina to

pay off $1.3 billion in defaulted bonds they hold.

The judge said that his 2012 ruling should also apply to more than 500 ‘me-too’ bondholders who were not covered under the original decision.

Argentina has been refusing to pay the two hedge funds, argu-ing that they relinquighed their claim when they refused to join a restructuring of nearly $100 bil-lion in debt the country default-ed on in 2001. “It really was just a matter of time for this to hap-pen,” said Argentine economist Nicolas Dujovne.

Ruling slammed“It makes sense for the ruling to be the same, since what was being sought was the same. And with the months having gone by, the bill has risen to eight billion dol-lars,” he added.

Under mounting pressure, the Argentine government was quick to slam the latest ruling and said it would appeal, branding Griesa’s ruling “illegal” and “unfortunate.”

Buenos Aires has consistently accused the judge of bias. Griesa has said he wants to deal with 100 per cent of the holdouts. But those benefitting from Friday’s ruling are about one-third of the hold-

outs, according to Dujovne.Some analysts predicted the

legal wrangling could drag on for years. But “in any event, this government is not going to do anything — except wave its ‘I am against the hedge funds’ flag,” said Dujovne.

“The next government will be the one to sit down and talk with the holdouts, will want to try to get Argentina on good terms with the world, and will want to de-crease the total of the amount be-ing sought,” he added.

Last month, Argentina’s econ-omy minister went to the United Nations to accuse so-called vul-ture funds of gaining “extortion-ate power” over countries seeking to restructure sovereign debt.

With the country still refusing to pay, last year US courts also gave the hedge funds the right to seek out and identify Argentine assets they might be able to seize.

NML took similar action in Belgium in 2012, but a local court ruled against the company. - AFP

A ruling by a US

judge has increased

the total Argentina

owes holdout

bondholders to $5.2b

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Deal between the East African Community, Southern African Development Community and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa will create a market of 26 countries with a population of 625m and GDP of $1tr

B3M O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

MARKETSohar Port industrial area attracts $21b investment

A. E. JAMESbusinesseditor@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: Sohar Port industrial area and its free zone have attract-ed $21 billion worth investment in the last one decade ever since industrial development started at the port, said a senior official of the port and free zone.

“So, you can imagine the rapid development and growth in this facility in Sohar. We took full ad-vantage of the (strategic) location of Sohar, which is just outside the Strait of Hormuz. It is excellent for big ships, which can reduce their logistics costs,” said Jamal Aziz, deputy chief executive offic-er of Sohar Industrial Port Com-

pany (SPIC), while addressing a function to sign an EPC contract for building Oman’s first sugar re-finery here on Sunday.

Connectivity to Saudi, UAEAziz, who is also the chief execu-tive officer of Sohar Freezone, said Sohar has road connectiv-ity to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and by the end of 2018, there will be a railway connectivity to the markets in the Gulf Cooperation Council region.

Iranian market“We focus on Saudi Arabia be-cause Saudi is the largest market in the Gulf region. We want to make sure that we have a quick connectivity to the market. We also look very closely at the Ira-nian market because it will open

up soon. And Oman can be the springboard for imports into Iran,” he explained.

Aziz also noted that Sohar in-dustrial area has grown into sev-eral industrial clusters, which include petrochemical, metal and food. The petrochemical cluster will be further developed with the implementation of expansion and new petrochemical projects by Oman Oil Refineries and Petro-leum Industries (Orpic). The food cluster, Jamal Aziz said, is strate-gic for the region since the region is a net importer of food items.

Deputy CEO of Sohar Industrial Port

Company said the industrial area has grown

into several industrial clusters, which

include petrochemical, metal and food

Apple likelyto turn up music dialSAN FRANCISCO: Apple on Monday is expected to unveil a ramped up music service that builds on the iPhone maker’s strengths in a challenge to Spo-tify, Pandora and other estab-lished players.

In the biggest overhaul of iTunes since it was launched in early 2003, the service was antici-pated to include an option of sub-scribing to streaming music for $10 monthly.

Analysts and industry insiders believe rebranded “Apple Music” will be introduced on Monday dur-ing a keynote presentation kicking off the company’s weeklong Word-wide Developers Conference.

“I absolutely think we will see a streaming music service,” Gartner analyst Van Baker said. “Apple is late to the game on this but it may not matter.” - AFP

T E C H N O L O G Y

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UPBEAT: Jamal Aziz. - A. R. RAJKUMAR/Times of Oman

Oman’s crude production grows 1.5 per cent in MayTimes News Service

MUSCAT: Oman’s total oil and condensates production grew 1.53 per cent to 30.22 million barrels in May compared to the previous month. The average daily production stood at around 974,990 barrels, according to the monthly report released by the Ministry of Oil and Gas.

The report said that Oman’s total crude oil exports in May increased by 3.73 per cent com-pared to the preceding month and reached 25.41 million, registering a daily growth of 819,587 barrels. Asian markets were the largest importers of Oman Crude.

For the second consecu-tive month, China’s oil imports from the Sultanate reduced and showed a fall of 4.99 per cent compared to April.

Imports of Oman’s oil by Thai-land and Japan continued to fall

by 0.95 per cent and 0.10 per cent, respectively, in May.

Taiwan’s importsTaiwan took the largest share in May as its import of Oman’s crude oil increased by 3.28 per cent.

As far as oil prices in May are concerned, the average WTI price on the New York Mercan-tile Exchange (NYMEX) settled at $59.96 per barrel in May, an in-crease of $4.31 compared to April.

On the Intercontinental Ex-

change (ICE) in London, Brent Crude settled at $65.91 a barrel, up by $4.14 against the month of April. The increase in crude oil prices in the trading month of May can be attributed to several factors, which positively affected the prices.

Perhaps, the most important factor has been the fall in crude oil inventories in the United States for the first time this year, with the decline in imports and US dollar currency exchange rate. Prices were volatile during this month due to fluctuation in US dollar currency exchange rate.

Further, the average price of Oman oil (July delivery 2015) has stabilised at $63.62 per barrel, $4.94 higher than June delivery.

Oman Crude Oil Futures Contract on Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME) showed an in-crease, being traded between $66.55 and $61.02 per barrel.

O I L

Was Oman’s total crude oil exports in May,

which increased by 3.73 per cent compared to the previous month

25.41m

Verint Systems betting on skills in helping corporates tackle hackersNEW YORK: A company that helps governments monitor their citizens is now peddling its exper-tise to corporate America.

Verint Systems, which makes software that sifts through com-munications such as text mes-sages, phone calls and e-mail to help combat terrorism and crime, is touting its intelligence expertise to help companies defend them-selves against hackers.

“Advanced cyberattacks are well-planned, targeted and stealth,” chief executive officer Dan Bodner said on a June 3 con-ference call with analysts. “The mitigation approach needs to be based on intelligence tactics.” Bod-ner said he plans to unveil the new cybersecurity products for corpo-rations at a conference in Las Ve-gas this week.

Verint’s sales push comes as the United States government is trying to balance the fight against terrorism with concerns over the privacy of its citizens.

With corporate America be-sieged by computer-systems in-truders from around the world bent on stealing confidential in-formation, bringing business to a halt or simply embarrassing ostensibly sophisticated enter-prises, Verint is betting its skill at helping governments will give it an edge in the competition for private-sector contracts.

Intelligence demand“This is a natural tangential mar-ket opportunity for Verint,” Daniel Ives, an analyst with FBR Capital Markets who has a buy rating on Verint, said in an e-mail.

“While clear challenges are ahead given the competition in the space, we believe Verint has the right product arsenal and strategy to be successful.” Congress voted last week to stop its top spy or-

ganisation, the National Security Agency, from collecting bulk data records on Americans’ phone calls.

Even so, privacy concerns haven’t curbed demand for cyber-security intelligence in either the public or private sectors, said Jeff Kessler, an analyst with Imperial Capital in New York.

“Despite the fact that privacy is a primary concern among West-ern states, the growth of analyt-ics to decipher abnormal events and abnormal communications has not stopped in any of these Western countries, and has not slowed either,” he said.

Verint, based in Melville, New York, went public in 2002 as the security unit of Comverse Tech-nology Inc., which sold recording software to help call centers moni-tor customer service.

Government customerVerint’s lawful interception business, which enables phone companies to tap lines for law enforcement, has evolved into a communications and cyber intel-ligence segment that made up 31

per cent of revenue in the previous fiscal year. About sixty percent of sales came from using data to help companies improve interactions with customers and make work flow more efficient.

The company surpassed $1 bil-lion in sales for the first time in the fiscal year ended on January 31, 2015, and plans to double its revenue from cybersecurity this year, Bodner told investors June 3. Even if it achieves that goal, reve-nue from cybersecurity will be less than $100 million and come mostly from government clients, he said.

$100 million contractVerint delighted analysts on a March 25 conference call when it announced a contract for a cy-bersecurity project with a govern-ment valued at more than $100 million. The stock shot up 6.2 per cent the next day.

One challenge for Verint may be bringing those types of projects to a smaller scale that individual companies can afford, said Jona-than Ho, an analyst with William Blair & Co. in Chicago.

Alan Roden, head of investor relations for Verint, declined to comment. on the company’s cyber-strategy. Verint’s chief competitor, Ra’Anana, Israel-based Nice Sys-tems, is taking an opposite tack. It sold its own communications intelligence business last month to Israeli defense company Elbit Sys-tems for as much as $158 million. By contrast, Verint’s communica-tions intelligence business had $359 million in revenue in fiscal year 2015.

“The business model of selling software to enterprises, versus col-lection and interception projects to governments, is very different,” Nice CEO Barak Eilam wrote in an e-mailed response to questions about the sale - Bloomberg News

I T S O L U T I O N S

Advanced cyberattacks are well-planned, targeted and stealth. The mitigation approach needs to be based on intelligence tactics

Dan Bodner Chief executive officer, Verint Systems

B4

MARKETM O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

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MUSCATSECURITIES MARKET

SHARE PRICE BULLETIN FOR SUNDAY, JUNE 7

REGULAR MARKET .........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................OM0000003224 ...........RENAISSANCE SERVICES .......................................31,600 ............ 10,292........................5 ........... 0.320 ........... 0.326 ...........0.320........... 0.326 .............0.322 ........... 0.004 ............. 1.242 ................0.326..............0.320...................0.324 .................. 91,962,792 .........0.100

OM0000004735 ...........SEMBCORP SALALAH ...................................................1,106 ............... 2,781........................2 ............2.515 ........... 2.515 ...........2.510 ............2.515 ............. 2.510............ 0.005 ............. 0.199 ................2.510 ..............2.510...................2.590 ................ 240,074,845 .......1.000

OM0000001160 ............NATIONAL GAS ................................................................1,152 ..................449........................ 1 ........... 0.390 ...........0.390 ...........0.390........... 0.390 .............0.390 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.390..............0.390...................0.400 ..................19,500,000 .........0.100

OM0000001319 ............NATIONAL ALUMINIUM PRODUCTS .............. 20,000 ...............5,600........................2 ........... 0.280 ...........0.280 ...........0.280 .......... 0.280 .............0.280 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.280..............0.268...................0.280 ...................9,400,006 ..........0.100

OM0000001517 ............HSBC BANK OMAN .............................................................. 25 ....................... 3........................ 1 ............0.133 ........... 0.133 ...........0.133 ........... 0.132 ............. 0.132............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.133 .............. 0.133...................0.136 ................. 264,041,288 .......0.100

OM0000001749 ............OMAN CEMENT ............................................................ 37,150 ............ 20,424........................5 ........... 0.550 ........... 0.550 ...........0.540........... 0.550 .............0.550 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.550 ..............0.542...................0.550.................. 181,979,991 ........0.100

OM0000002028 ...........GULF INTERNATIONAL CHEMICALS ................3,000 .................. 708........................ 1 ........... 0.236 ........... 0.236 ...........0.236........... 0.235 .............0.235 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.236 ..............0.236...................0.239....................4,935,000 ..........0.100

OM0000002168 ............AL ANWAR CERAMIC TILES ................................ 60,000 ............ 25,800........................6 ........... 0.430 ........... 0.430 ...........0.430........... 0.430 .............0.430 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.430..............0.424...................0.428 ................. 127,371,883 ........0.100

OM0000002374............UNITED FINANCE .......................................................15,800 ...............2,212........................3 ............0.140 ........... 0.140 ...........0.140 ........... 0.140 .............0.140 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.140 ..............0.140...................0.142 ...................43,507,092 .........0.100

OM0000002549 ...........BANK DHOFAR ............................................................. 20,000 ...............5,600........................ 1 ........... 0.280 ...........0.280 ...........0.280 .......... 0.280 .............0.280 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.280..............0.272...................0.308 .................432,523,993 .......0.100

OM0000002796 ...........BANK MUSCAT ............................................................ 495,062 ......... 274,133..................... 56 ........... 0.554 ........... 0.554 ...........0.552 ........... 0.554 .............0.554 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.554 ..............0.552...................0.554................ 1,269,669,719 ......0.100

OM0000002820 ...........GULF INVESTMENT SERVICES ......................... 161,830 .............21,798......................11 ............0.135 ........... 0.135 ...........0.133 ............0.135 ............. 0.135 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.133 .............. 0.133...................0.135 .................... 7,943,834 ..........0.100

OM0000003281 ............TAAGEER FINANCE ........................................................ 980 ...................139........................ 1 ............0.142 ........... 0.142 ...........0.142 ........... 0.142 ............. 0.142 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.142 ..............0.142...................0.000 ..................36,009,780 .........0.100

OM0000003661 ............VOLTAMP ENERGY ...........................................................865 .................. 348........................3 ........... 0.402 ...........0.402 ...........0.402........... 0.404 .............0.404 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.402..............0.402...................0.416 .................. 24,442,000 ........0.100

OM0000003711 ............SOHAR POWER ....................................................................530 ...................198........................ 1 ............0.374 ........... 0.374 ...........0.374 ........... 0.380 .............0.380 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.374 ..............0.374...................0.380 ..................83,983,800 .........0.100

OM0000003968 ...........OOREDOO....................................................................... 205,302 ..........161,626..................... 26 ............0.788 ........... 0.788 ...........0.784 ........... 0.788 ............. 0.788............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.788 ..............0.784...................0.788 ..................512,944,053........0.100

OM0000004669 ...........SHARQIYAH DESALINATION ...................................... 331 ................1,159........................ 1 ........... 3.500 ........... 3.500 ...........3.500............3.610 ............. 3.610 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................3.500..............3.500...................0.000 ..................35,306,580 .........1.000

OM0000004768 ...........AL MADINA TAKAFUL ...............................................49,349 ...............4,293........................4 ........... 0.087 ........... 0.087 ...........0.087 ........... 0.087 .............0.087 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.087 ..............0.087...................0.089...................15,225,000 .........0.100

OM0000004925 ...........AL BATINAH POWER ..................................................35,594 ............... 7,190........................6 ........... 0.202 ...........0.202 ...........0.202 .......... 0.202 .............0.202 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.202 ............ 0.202...................0.205 ................. 136,327,261 ........0.100

OM0000004933 ...........AL SUWADI POWER ....................................................29,704 ...............6,089........................5 ........... 0.205 ...........0.205 ...........0.205........... 0.205 .............0.205 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.205..............0.205...................0.210 ..................146,453,300 ........0.100

OM0000003026 ...........OMAN TELECOMMUNICATION ..........................69,025 ...........118,016..................... 28 ............1.710 ............1.710 ............ 1.705 ............1.710 ............. 1.715 ............-0.005 ........... -0.292 ............... 1.710 ...............1.710................... 1.715 ................1,282,500,000 ......0.100

OM0000001525 ............OMAN INVESTMENT AND FINANCE .............. 343,000 ............81,822..................... 23 ........... 0.237 ...........0.240 ...........0.237 ........... 0.239 .............0.240 ...........-0.001 ............-0.417................0.240 .............0.238...................0.240 ..................47,800,000 .........0.100

OM0000002200 ...........AHLI BANK ...................................................................... 50,192 ............ 10,540........................3 ............0.210 ........... 0.210 ...........0.210 ........... 0.210 ............. 0.211 ............-0.001 ........... -0.474 ...............0.210 ..............0.210...................0.214 ..................299,257,590 ........0.100

OM0000003398 ...........BANK SOHAR................................................................ 171,102 ............ 32,367......................12 ............0.190 ........... 0.190 ...........0.188 ........... 0.189 ............. 0.190 ...........-0.001 ........... -0.526 ...............0.188 .............. 0.188...................0.190 ..................272,432,160........0.100

OM0000005005 ...........ALMAHA CERAMICS .................................................... 7,808 ...............4,027......................13 ............0.516 ...........0.520 ...........0.514 ............0.516 .............0.520 ...........-0.004 ........... -0.769 ...............0.514 .............. 0.514...................0.520 ..................27,090,000 .........0.100

OM0000001772 ............AL ANWAR HOLDING............................................... 302,000............75,276..................... 26 ........... 0.250 ........... 0.251 ...........0.248........... 0.249 ............. 0.251............-0.002 ........... -0.797 ...............0.249..............0.247...................0.249 ..................32,494,500.........0.100

OM0000001681 ............OMAN AND EMIRATES INV. HOLDING ........... 804,623 ........... 88,363......................51 ............0.111 ............0.111 ............0.109 ............0.110 ............. 0.111 ............-0.001 ........... -0.901 ...............0.110 ..............0.109................... 0.110 ...................13,406,250 .........0.100

OM0000001962 ............AL MADINA INVESTMENT ................................... 342,782 ........... 26,367......................16 ........... 0.078 ........... 0.078 ...........0.076 ........... 0.077 .............0.078 ...........-0.001 ........... -1.282 ...............0.076 ..............0.077...................0.078................... 15,950,657 .........0.100

OM0000001145 ............PORT SERVICES CORPORATION .........................15,000 ...............3,225........................2 ............0.215 ........... 0.215 ...........0.215 ............0.215 .............0.222 ...........-0.007 ............-3.153 ................0.215 ..............0.207...................0.215 ...................20,433,600 .........0.100

OM0000002366 ...........AL BATINAH DEV. INV. HOLDING ....................... 22,000 ...............2,684........................2 ............0.122 ........... 0.122 ...........0.122 ........... 0.122 ............. 0.126............-0.004 ............-3.175 ................0.122 .............. 0.123...................0.129 ....................3,660,000 ..........0.100

.............................................SUM: .................................................................................. 3,296,912 ...... 993,531................... 317 .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

........................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ......30........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

PARALLEL MARKET ................................................................................................................................................................................. OM0000004776 ...........TAKAFUL OMAN INSURANCE ................................ 7,500 .................. 893........................3 ............0.119 ........... 0.119............ 0.119 ............0.119 ............. 0.118 .............0.001 ............. 0.847 ................ 0.119 ...............0.115................... 0.119 ...................11,900,000 .........0.100

OM0000001368 ............CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS IND. ....................10,900 .................. 436........................2 ........... 0.040 ...........0.040 ...........0.040 .......... 0.040 .............0.040 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.040 .............0.039...................0.040 ...................3,400,000 ..........0.100

OM0000004420 ...........BANK NIZWA ................................................................ 430,834 ........... 32,349......................15 ........... 0.076 ........... 0.076 ...........0.075 ........... 0.075 .............0.075 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.075 ..............0.074...................0.075 ..................112,500,000 ........0.100

OM0000002564 ...........AL HASSAN ENGINEERING................................... 68,000 ............... 6,734......................12 ........... 0.100 ........... 0.100 ...........0.098........... 0.099 .............0.100 ...........-0.001 ........... -1.000 ...............0.098 ..............0.098...................0.100.................... 7,445,592 ..........0.100

OM0000004511 ............ALIZZ ISLAMIC BANK.............................................. 120,000 ..............9,840........................3 ........... 0.082 ........... 0.082 ...........0.082........... 0.082 .............0.084 ...........-0.002 ........... -2.381 ...............0.082..............0.076...................0.084 ................. 82,000,000 ........0.100

OM0000001285 ............NATIONAL MINERAL WATER ................................. 7,600 .................. 502........................ 1 ........... 0.066 ........... 0.066 ...........0.066........... 0.066 .............0.068 ...........-0.002 ........... -2.941 ...............0.066 ..............0.066...................0.000 ................... 1,782,201 ..........0.100

OM0000001566 ............OMAN FISHERIES ....................................................... 31,700 ............... 1,750........................4 ........... 0.056 ........... 0.057 ...........0.054........... 0.055 .............0.057 ...........-0.002 ........... -3.509 ...............0.057 ..............0.054...................0.057....................6,875,000 ..........0.100

.............................................SUM: .................................................................................. 676,534 ........... 52,503.....................40 .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

........................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ........ 7........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

BONDS MARKET ........................................................................................................................................................................................ OM0000003810 ............BANK MUSCAT SUBORDINATED BONDS .......... 1,000 ............... 1,050........................ 1 ............1.050 ........... 1.050 ...........1.050 ........... 1.050 ............. 1.050............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................1.050 .............. 1.050...................1.060 ...................78,750,000 .........1.000

OM0000004602 ...........BANK MUSCAT CONV. BONDS 4.5 ..............................547 .....................56........................ 1 ............0.102 ........... 0.102 ...........0.102 ........... 0.104 .............0.104 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.102 ..............0.103...................0.109 ...................31,485,908 .........0.100

.............................................SUM: .......................................................................................1,547 ............... 1,106........................2 .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

........................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ........ 2........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

ISIN .................................................. SECURITY NAME ...............................................................................................VOLUME ..............TURNOVER ................... TRADES ...........OPEN PRICE ............. HIGH .................... LOW ............... CLOSE PR. ..........PREV. CLOSE.......... DIFF (RO) .................DIFF % ......................LAST PR............... LAST BID .....................LAST OFFER ................. MARKET CAP ........PAR VALUE

O M A N S T O C K S

INDICESIndex .................................................High .................Low ..................... Value ............... Prev . Value.......... Diff ...............Diff %MSM30 Index ....................................... 6,462.85 ...............6,452.91 ................... 6,454.35 ...................6,462.00 ...................-7.65 .................. -0.12Financial Index .....................................7,860.21 ............... 7,835.16 ....................7,835.19 ................... 7,853.46 ................ -18.27 .................. -0.23Industrial Index ................................... 8,330.33 .............. 8,322.57 ................... 8,323.38 ................... 8,330.41 ...................-7.03 .................. -0.08Services Index .......................................3,487.05 ...............3,481.20 ................... 3,485.28 ................... 3,487.05 ...................-1.77 .................. -0.05MSM SHARIAH INDEX....................... 997.86 ..................995.94 ...................... 996.03 ...................... 997.50 ...................-1.47 .................. -0.15

Trading SummaryVolume ................ Turnover ..........Trades .............. Market Cap............. Up ............Down ............. Equal .........Sec. Traded3,974,993 ....................1,047,140 .....................359 ................14,910,171,685 .................. 3 ......................14 ....................22 .........................39

MSM index edges lower

MUSCAT: Oman’s Muscat Se-curities Market Index (MSM30 Index) closed at 6,454.35 points, down by 0.12 per cent on thin trading volumes. The MSM Sha-ria Index closed at 996.03 points, down by 0.15 per cent . Oman & Emirates Investment Hold-ing was the most active stock in terms of volume while Bank Muscat was the most active in terms of turnover. Renaissance Services was the highest gainer on Sunday and closed up by 1.24 per cent while Oman Fisheries, which lost 3.51 per cent in value was the top loser for the day.

A total number of 359 trades were executed during the day’s trading session generating turn-over of OMR1.04 million with over 3.97 million shares changing hands. Out of 39 traded securi-ties, three advanced, 14 declined and 22 remained unchanged. GCC and Arab investors were net sellers for OMR153,000 fol-lowed by foreign investors for OMR43,000 worth of shares while domestic investors were net buyers for OMR196,000 worth of stocks.

Financial Index closed at 7,835.19 points, down by 0.23 per cent. Oman Takaful was the only loser in the sector and was up by 0.85 per cent to close at OMR0.119. Al Batinah Develop-ment, Al Izz Bank, Al Madina In-vestment and Al Anwar Holding declined by 3.17 per cent, 2.38 per cent, 1.28 per cent and 0.80 per cent respectively.

Industrial Index closed at 8,323.38 points, down by 0.08 per cent. Oman Fisheries, National Mineral Water, Al Hassan Engi-neering and Al Maha Ceramics declined by 3.51 per cent, 2.94 per cent, 1.00 per cent and 0.77 per cent respectively.

Services Sector Index was down by 0.05 per cent before closing at 3,487.05 points. Re-naissance Service and Sembcorp Salalah increased by 1.24 per cent and 0.20 per cent respec-tively. Port Services, OIFC and Omantel declined by 3.15 per cent, 0.42 per cent and 0.29 per cent respectively.

Qatar, Dubai stocks fallQatari stocks declined a third day as investors continued to fret over whether the Gulf nation will retain the right to host the soccer World Cup. Most Middle Eastern equity markets also retreated.

The QE Index dropped 0.9 per cent to 11,981.98, only the second time since April it has closed be-low the 12,000 level. The gauge earlier slumped as much as two per cent before a late rally pared losses. Industries Qatar led the slide since January.

Tadawul All Share Index in Saudi Arabia, which will begin al-lowing direct foreign investment starting next week, fell 0.8 per cent at 1:38pm in Riyadh. Bah-rain’s BB All Share Index fell less than 0.1 per cent and. Kuwait’s SE Price Index added 0.1 per cent.

— United Securities/Bloomberg News

Renaissance Services was the highest gainer

on Sunday and closed up by 1.24 per cent,

while Oman Fisheries, which lost 3.51 per

cent in value, was the top loser of the day

‘Bank Muscat committed to highest levels of security for transactions’

The telemarketing concept adopt-ed by Bank Muscat is an effec-tive marketing and sales method wherein all calls, both sales and non-sales, are performed on a re-corded line. Accurate and relevant product information is provided by trained telemarketing sales employees through calls.

When a customer responds

positively, the bank representa-tive confirms the sale, by request-ing the last eight digits of the ac-count number, the customer’s date of birth, the National Iden-tity (ID) number and beneficiary details only.

Under no circumstances does the bank ask for the customer’s personal identification number

(PIN) or password. The bank nev-er requests this information from customers and in turn customers should never provide their pass-word or PIN to anyone, irrespec-tive of who makes the request.

Through the telemarketing campaign, the bank offers a pre underwritten personal accident plan which provides a range of

protection benefits to be availed by the bank’s customers for them-selves and their family members.

The telemarketing concept is gaining momentum in view of convenience offered to customers and the bank’s credibility. Cus-tomers can contact the bank 24/7 on 24795555 to seek clarification on any bank related matter.

S A F E B A N K I N G

New project set to bridge the gap in demand and supply in the Gulf

Rana said the total annual con-sumption of sugar in the Gulf and larger Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region is estimated at 14 million tonnes per annum, but the refining capacity is approximately nine million tonnes. Therefore, there is a gap of 5 million tonnes every year, which is met by imports from other countries.

Export plan“We are looking at selling 35 per cent of the company’s produc-tion in the domestic market, 40 per cent in GCC and remaining

in Iran and Iraq,” he noted talking about its export strategy.

Employment opportunityOSRC will create employment opportunities for 500 people once it starts operation and the initial Omanisation level will be 25 per cent, which will eventu-ally be raised to 92 per cent. This will create employment for Om-ani citizens, diversify the econ-omy of the country, create many downstream opportunities and above all enhance food security in the country.

The company also plans to sell

its sugar as a branded product. “We are working with a branding company at the moment and will announce (the branding plan) in the future.” Also, the company has reached draft agreement on purchase of raw sugar and offtake agreement. The company has already found a partner for offtake arrangement.

The refinery will take advan-tage of the excellent facilities pro-vided by the strategically located port of Sohar, which include a deepwater port, adjacent contain-er terminal and agro-bulk termi-nal. The refinery will be wholly-

owned by Omani promoters and will produce an Omani branded product for the local, regional and international markets.

The agreement for building the sugar refinery was signed by Nasser Al Hosni, managing di-rector of OSRC with a senior of-ficial of Sinolight Corporation here on Sunday.

The signing ceremony was at-tended by China’s ambassador to Oman Yu Fulong, chief executive officer of Sohar Freezone Jamal Aziz, several senior officials from OSRC, Sohar port and freezone and Chinese embassy in Muscat.

S U G A R R E F I N E R Y

< FROM

B1

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B1

Deutsche Bank officials plan to quit

LONDON: Deutsche Bank co-CEOs Anshu Jain and Juergen Fitschen are planning to resign, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The bank’s supervisory board will meet to discuss who will suc-ceed the pair, according to the person, who asked not to be iden-tified before an official announce-ment is made. Jain is said to be leaving at the end of June, with Fitschen departing at the bank’s next annual general meeting.

“Anshu was always viewed with suspicion in Germany, where a lot of people thought the problems, like Libor and foreign exchange, were all down to the investment bank, which he ran for a very long time,” Christo-pher Wheeler, a London-based analyst at Atlantic Equities, said in a telephone interview.

The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the departures of Jain and Fitschen on its website, citing unidentified people familiar with

the matter. John Cryan, the for-mer chief financial officer at UBS, will succeed Jain, the Financial Times reported, without saying where it got the information.

The resignations come as Deutsche Bank has struggled to rein in costs and resolve litiga-tion issues.

At the bank’s last annual share-holder meeting in May, 61 per cent of investors voted to support management, the lowest level since 2002. — Bloomberg News

M A N A G M E N T C H A N G E

W W W.T I M E S O F O M A N . C O MSECTION

E- IMESTECH STUFFTECH STUFF

BSNAP YOUR SELF PORTRAIT USING ‘SELFIE STICKS’Those telescoping monopods typically connect to the phone wirelessly over Bluetooth, or by a cable that plugs into the phone’s headphone jack. Once the phone is linked electronically to the accessory, you press a button on the end of the stick to capture your self-portrait. Some models include a small Bluetooth remote control to use as a shutter button. Certain cheap selfie sticks are basically just long poles with clamps to hold the phone; you take a photo by setting the timer in the camera app.

M O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

S M A R T P H O N E A P P S

Upload the pictures, and let Google photos do the rest

SLOW DOWNENJOY THE RIDE

I DON’T take a lot of photo-graphs. I have a pretty decent camera with me at all times — my iPhone 5s — but organising hundreds or thousands of pho-tos has never seemed worth the effort.

My habits may change now that I’ve tried Google Photos, a free service introduced last week that may do for image storage what Gmail did for email.

The premise behind Google Photos is simple, and it works. Take all the photos you want, back them up automatically into the cloud and use Goog-le’s powerful image search abilities to find them later — no sorting necessary.

Photos has its roots in Google Plus, the company’s less-than-popular social networking service, which had photo backup and edit-ing tools, although not to this degree. But Katie Watson, a spokeswoman for Google, said Photos was “more than just a shift over from Google Plus Photos and rather an en-tirely new experience.”

My photo library wasn’t exactly bursting at the seams, so to give this software some-thing to work with, I uploaded about 8,000 of my wife’s pho-tos from my desktop com-puter using some additional software Google offers. The uploading ran overnight and was finished by the time I woke up in the morning.

The experience is simple and clean and will be familiar to Google users. The photos in-itially are displayed in a chron-ological stream. Scroll down and the years roll by. Pinch to zoom and the display can show just a few pictures or zoom out for smaller thumbnails and quicker scrolling.

Searches are impressive. I knew I had a lot of dog photos, but I didn’t realise I had so many photos of waterfalls and mountains. It automatically sorts the pictures into People, Places and Things, and the facial recognition is eerily ac-curate. It showed me dozens of people who recur in my photo-graphs and did a pretty good job of sorting them accurately.

The photos are easy to edit. Click a picture and tap the icons for editing and filters, or

post the picture on Twitter or send it as a Snapchat.

Google says there is free unlimited storage, and that is true with a couple of caveats: Photos can be no bigger than 16 megapixels and high-definition movies can top out at 1080p.

Since Photos seems aimed primarily at smartphone shut-terbugs, this should not be a major concern.

The iPhone 6 has an 8-meg-apixel camera and shoots up to 1080p video. The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, the latest model of this popular Android phone, has a 16-megapixel camera — right at Google’s ceiling for photo resolution. However, the S6 Edge shoots video in the ultrahigh-defi-nition format known as 4K, so those video clips stored free with Google will be downsized.

Even at the smaller file sizes, some of the photos and videos get compressed, losing some detail if you want to print them large. To store photos and vid-eos at their original size with-out compression, or above those size limits, they count against Google’s storage meter. The first 15 gigabytes are free, and after that, 100 gigabytes will run $2 a month; 1 terabyte costs $10 a month.

All that free storage is great. But the real magic of Google Photos lies in search and the service’s array of features known as the Assistant.

With the 8,000 images I up-loaded, the Assistant — part ed-itor and part wizard — had been hard at work. The feature auto-matically creates stylized pho-tos, making a pretty landscape into something more surreal, or a Las Vegas street scene grit-ty and black and white. (There are filters the user can apply as well, in a solid but simple suite of editing tools). The Assistant will also automati-cally stitch together photos it suspects are suitable for pano-ramas, put together collages and create animations from sequences of photos.

The animations aren’t al-ways perfect. I wish I’d taken more photos at the far turn dur-ing the Kentucky Derby a few years back. — E JUSTIN SWANSON/

The New York Times News Service

STREAMING MUSIC FOR A WIDE VARIETY

OF TASTES

Apple, which helped popularise digital mu-sic, has watched from the sidelines in recent years as consumers

have moved toward streaming mu-sic services and away from music downloads through its iTunes ser-vice. Next week, Apple is expected to begin a streaming effort of its own, based on Beats Music, which it acquired last year.

So it’s a good moment to take stock of the streaming music apps that are already available. There are many that you can try, and they are often free.

Spotify may be the best known of the bunch. Instead of having just a few music files stored on your phone, you can get access to the roughly 20 mil-lion songs in Spotify’s catalogue and listen to the tracks streamed over the airwaves to your device.

The app — free to download on iOS, Android and Windows Phone

— is similar on all three operating systems. You can search for a partic-ular track or artist, and stream free music. You can build a playlist of various tracks like a mix tape, or just play a single song or album. A social media feature lets you see what mu-sic your friends have been listening to, and share your music choices.

In addition, Spotify has a radio stationlike system that will play a sequence of tracks from a particu-lar artist, a genre like pop or even moods like “chill.” The downside is that you may find yourself frequent-ly pressing skip because of poor track choices.

On Spotify’s free service, you cannot play a single track at a time; you have to shuffle-play a particular artist or playlist, and you are allowed only six skips an hour. Ads embedded in the audio stream can become annoying and might encourage you to buy the

ad-free service for $10 a month.Rdio is similar to Spotify, with

more than 35 million tracks. It can be searched for songs, albums or art-ists, or users can take advantage of recommendations to find new mu-sic based on a chosen genre or mood.

Rdio has a “You FM” radiolike streaming service that is particu-larly good because it is tailored to your musical taste. It also has some social media features based on Twitter and Facebook, so you can see other users’ listening habits and share your own. Like Spotify, it has an offline mode so if you know you are going off the grid for a while, you can download tracks you want to lis-ten to then. And the interface is less complex than Spotify’s.

The app is free on iOS, Android and Windows Phone. It offers good audio quality as part of its free ad-supported subscription level, but if you pay for the premium levels, you can choose higher quality. Premium services start at $5 a month for an ad-free ex-perience that has limited offline downloads and rise to $10 a month for a level without restrictions.

Google streaming systemGoogle, too, has its own music streaming system, Google Play Mu-sic. The system has about the same number of tracks in its catalogue as Spotify, with similar audio qual-ity. The app works best on Android devices, as you might expect since Google helped develop Android. If you already buy music from Google Play, Google Play Music is a great

companion service. There is a lim-ited iOS version of the app.

While Google Play Music has a free listening subscription level, you still have to enter your credit card details. The app is also less visually attractive than its rivals.

Tidal, backed by Jay Z and other artists, is a newer streaming music app. The selling point for Tidal is its high-quality audio; it also pays art-ists more than other services. Tidal has more than 20 million songs in its catalogue, as well as thousands of music videos and interesting ar-ticles. Yet its interface is nothing special, and there is no free listen-ing tier. Subscriptions start at $13 a month, and very high-quality audio costs $25 a month. The app itself is free on iOS and Android.

Lastly, Noon Pacific is an unusual streaming service. This app delivers a playlist of 10 songs every Monday at noon, Pacific time. The tracks are curated by a team that scans top music blogs to discover the most in-teresting new music. Though Noon Pacific updates weekly, you can also listen to more than 100 previously curated playlists.

Quick callThe productivity app expert Read-dle has a new email offering for iOS called Spark. The intent is to take the strain out of managing your email accounts. Spark also has Ap-ple Watch integration, which allows you to respond to emails from your watch. Try it free. — KIT EATON/The New York Times News Service

Spotify may be the best known of the bunch.

Instead of having just a few music files

stored on your phone, you can get access

to the roughly 20 million songs in Spotify’s

catalogue and listen to the tracks streamed

over the airwaves to your device

B6 M O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

ROUND-UPNew India Co. welcomes new COO

MUSCAT: New India Assurance Company Ltd. Sultanate of Oman organised a grand welcome party for Dr K. P. Sebastian, the newly joined Chief Operating Officer (COO) clubbed with a farewell to the outgoing COO, K. V. Francis with its staff members and the sub agents at Banquet Hall, Mumtaz Mahal, Muscat.

Dr Sebastian in his introduc-tory speech briefed about his professional experience and ex-pertise in the field of general in-surance sector. With an excellent professional record in the fields of animal husbandry and insur-

ance sector, he has been with New India Assurance for more than 27 years in various capacities, says a press release.

Dr Sebastian completed A.I.I.I. with gold medal and completed fellowship also with gold medal. Prior to his foreign assignment Dr Sebastian was the senior divi-sional manager, Auto Hub, Cochin. He introduced ‘Automobile Tie Up’ arrangement with the largest auto-mobile dealer in India (Maruti), in Kerala and established a new di-visional office, exclusively for ser-vicing automobile Industry, which have become the No. 1 in India within a short span of time.

Dr Sebastian has introduced in-novative and need-based covers for various sections of the general public as well as for corporate sec-tor and was also instrumental in introducing a special insurance

scheme – ‘Pravasi Suraksha Poli-cy’, for the benefit of non-resident Indians, particularly for the Gulf NRIs, in association with NORKA. He has specially trained in health insurance management at Nation-al Insurance Academy (NIA) and he was also a member of special committee constituted by Govern-ment of Kerala for devising agri-cultural insurance schemes for the benefit of farmers.

His main agenda includes pro-viding customer satisfaction ‘be-yond industry standards’, ensuring issuance of ‘zero defect’ policies, as well as increasing the market share without compromising qual-ity underwriting.

In his speech Dr Sebastian as-sured that during his period, the New India-Oman operations will scale further heights in Oman’s general insurance market by in-

ducting constructive ideas and providing 100 per cent customer satisfaction with the support and cooperation of his excellent work force and sub agents/intermedi-aries. He stressed that New India health insurance policy, ‘Better Health’, a healthcare insurance programme for corporate clients, is one of several attractive poli-cies in its vast array of products and services. ‘Family Health’ is a medical insurance scheme with portability facility to existing cus-tomers by which customers can continue with health insurance schemes back in India, upon their return. ‘New India’ constantly promote value-added products and services as it is its tradition to achieve customer satisfaction and value addition. Dr Sebastian further emphasised that the New India-Oman has a very good com-

mitted customer base – large, medium and small corporate cli-ents as well as cash customers. The company builds up good and strong customer relationship and is able to maintain the reputation of being one of the most customer friendly insurance companies in Oman market. For about four dec-ades of operation in Oman, ‘New India’ has carved out a reputation of not only being customer friend-ly, but also for being trustworthy and stable in all aspects. He once again reiterated that New India Assurance is committed to ensur-ing social and economic/financial security to the citizens, expatri-ates, householders, trade, com-merce and industry of this great nation by offering quality products and services at most competitive rates. Further, New India shall also strive to ensure that the protection

of general insurance does not re-main restricted to trade and indus-try alone. It shall be taken to the doorstep of the ordinary citizen by spreading its network far and wide to unrepresented areas.

Francis thanked and conveyed his gratitude towards the support and cooperation received from each and every one of the staff members for discharging his du-ties and attaining various goals during his service period in the Sultanate of Oman. Francis re-called the wonderful association with sub agents and the staff mem-bers since 2010. He also acknowl-edged the support and cooperation extended by each and every person for attaining various milestones during his tenure in the Sultanate of Oman and urged the members present to extend the same to the incoming COO too.

Wison Raj, CFO, Majid Group, in his speech read out the message of chairman Majid Abdul Rahim Jaf-far, who missed the get-together due to preoccupied commitments and conveyed his thanks and re-gards to the excellent service ren-dered by the outgoing COO, Fran-cis and wished him all the very best for his future endeavours. Further Wilson expressed and conveyed best wishes to Sebastian for his new assignment and assured all support and cooperation.

I. M. Jacob, general manager, ex-pressed his gratitude towards the support and cooperation extended by Francis.

Dr K. P. Sebastian,

who holds an

excellent professional

record in the fields

of animal husbandry

and insurance sector,

has been with New

India Assurance for

more than 27 years in

various capacities

Sohar Islamic SME financing grows in popularityMUSCAT: In line with the gov-ernment’s initiatives to boost the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector in the Sultanate, So-har Islamic — Bank Sohar’s dedi-cated Islamic banking window — continues to provide a boost to entrepreneurs in Oman and sup-port the sector as a whole with its SME line of services, whilst ena-bling these companies to fully con-form to the precepts of Shari’ah law, says a press release.

Sohar Islamic’s SME services provide financing up to 90% at competitive profit rates for a maximum tenure reaching up to five years allowing SMEs to in-vest in construction equipment,

machinery and commercial vehi-cles, enabling them to realize their ambitions in line with Shari’ah principles. The product is under-pinned by simple application and approval process, thus ensuring quick turnaround time (TAT), tie ups with major dealers of equip-ment and commercial vehicles, collateral-free financing (financed asset constitutes the primary se-curity), and Less documentation.

“SMEs hold great potential to host the majority of employment opportunities in the country to-gether with making significant contributions to the Sultanate’s GDP. This is why we, at Sohar Is-lamic, encourage all entrepreneurs

and provide them with essential financial support through our network of branches and Shari’ah compliant SME Financing prod-ucts and services. In addition to availing the range of SME services, our customers can also look for-ward to meeting our experienced team of relationship managers who can assist them in managing their finances more effectively,” said Mohammad Haris, AGM of Sohar Islamic.

Through SME Financing Ser-vices, Sohar Islamic is encourag-ing entrepreneurial Omanis to actively participate in the rapid growth of the SME sector, in line with the Royal directives of His

Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said and on the recommendations of the Central Bank of Oman, which has advised all banks in the Sul-tanate to support and ease the pro-cesses for SMEs.

In addition to the SME finance, Sohar Islamic has a comprehensive range of banking solutions that cov-er a wide array of retail and corpo-rate financing needs. These include auto finance, term deposits, savings accounts, current accounts and construction and housing finance for the bank’s retail customers. For its corporate clients, Sohar Islamic offers asset finance, working capi-tal finance, trade finance, treasury and investment products.

S I G N I F I C A N T C O N T R I B U T I O N

Allo launches new promotional offerMUSCAT: Allo, Oman’s first over-the-top (OTT) internation-al calling service and the flagship brand of Integrated Telecommu-nications Oman (TeO), unveiled a new promotional offer for inter-national calls to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Launched under the campaign ‘International calling has never been so affordable’, the promo-tion offers Allo customers up to 60 minutes of international talk-time to India, Pakistan and Bang-ladesh from their home and office fixed lines and up to 45 minutes of international talk-time from their mobiles for just OMR1, says a press release.

The unique service from TeO allows anyone in Oman to avail the very attractive international calling rates from their exist-ing landlines or mobiles without having to acquire a separate SIM card or connection.

Interested customers can sim-ply purchase an Allo card, avail-able for OMR1 and OMR5 from various recharge card outlets, supermarkets and convenience stores across the Sultanate and immediately be able to make in-ternational calls at the lowest

rates available from Oman.“Our team has been working

hard to take the Allo products all over the Sultanate and we are happy to announce that now we are available across all the re-gions of Oman from Buraimi to Dhofar. We have also recently extended our presence in super-market chains to include Mars Hypermarkets and Muscat Bak-ery Markets among others. We are very glad to see our product now being used all across the country and that we are able to add a little bit of joy to our cus-tomers’ lives by allowing people from all segments of society to regularly stay in touch with their loved ones back in their home countries,” commented Ali Al Mamari, sales manager at TeO.

S U M M E R P R O M O

ISD Alumni gears up to celebrate fifth anniversary on December 18Times News Service

MUSCAT: ISD Alumni is gearing up to celebrate its fifth anniver-sary on December 18 in Muscat with aplomb.

The ISD Alumni Meet titled ‘Yesterday Once More’ is being or-ganised by JK Films. ISD Alumni is an association of former stu-dents of Indian School Darsait and the organisers are now preparing to make the reunion memorable.

“Ever since we formed ISD Alumni in 2010, we have been or-ganising reunions and other events regularly. In 2013, we organised a mega event and had more than 800 former students, teachers and well-wishers attending this event. That turned out to be a grand suc-cess and it also carved a niche among other alumni associations in Oman,” said Betsy Watson, vice-president of ISD Alumni.

The highlight of the previous event was the performance of iconic Indian musician Stephen Devassy who enthralled the audi-ence. “The feedback we received about that event was so over-

whelming. It captured everyone’s imagination and people still talk about it. So we decided to host the fifth anniversary in a bigger way,” Betsy added.

As part of the fifth anniversary

this year, ISD Alumni is planning to sponsor a few deserving stu-dents who are finding it difficult to pay their school fees.

“There are so many students in the school whose parents are find-ing it difficult to fund their educa-tion. These students are very good in studies. This mega event will be organised for these students. In a way we are giving something back to the school,” she noted.

The organisers also have plans to felicitate the teachers, who have completed several years of service in school, and former management committee members. During the event, the ISD Alumni officials will also honour former student achievers who succeeded in the ar-eas related to their work.

“Even last year we honoured a few teachers and former students who made a mark in their own field,” Betsy added.

G R A N D E V E N T

MPS set for growth in ME

MUSCAT: MPS, a well-known, high quality brand of flexo and offset press solutions for label and flexible packaging print-ers from Netherlands, recently announced the appointment of Anoop Plastic Products Trading Establishment as its exclusive agent in the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, and Qatar. The part-nership ensures local technical support and positions MPS for growth in the Middle East, says a press release.

Anoop, based in Sharjah, UAE, is a well-established leading, printing materials supplier and the first specialised supplier of flexo printing solutions and pre-press equipment in this region. Its product portfolio includes printing presses, pre-press and post-press equipment, acces-sories and consumables from industry-leading suppliers such as Stork, Flint Group, Lohmann,

Cheshire Anilox Technology, Zeller+Gmelin and many more.

Anoop, with its team of elec-tronics and software engineers, provides prompt local technical service in addition to pre-sales and after-sales consultation. With a wide range of supplier representation, Anoop is closely associated with label printers throughout the Middle East.

Anoop represented MPS at the just concluded Gulf Print & Pack Show 2015 with a team of 11 staff members who received initial in-depth product training. Anoop was able to successfully promote MPS flexo and offset printing presses during the show in Dubai. The partnership between Anoop and MPS is completely custom-er aligned, with one a leading customer-centric supplier in the Middle East and other a world-class manufacturer of flexible packaging print solutions.

P A R T N E R S H I P

Hisense launches ULED TV in OmanTimes News Service

MUSCAT: Hisense, a world lead-ing manufacturer of flat panel TVs, household appliances, and mo-bile communications, ushered in a new era in home entertainment in the Sultanate with the launch of its revolutionary ULED TV, the ultimate name in unprecedented television viewing experience.

At a glittering launch event, Hisense also underlined its cutting edge competencies as the tech-pio-neer of innovative televisions with the unveiling of its latest curved TV and the 4K ultra-HD smart TV.

The Hisense ULED televisions,

featuring the 4K ultra-high defi-nition technology, was presented earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. They provide unmatched televi-sion quality at unbeatable prices, assuring the best-in-class innova-

tion and quality. “We are delighted to mark the

launch of our ULED TV and our latest range of state-of-the-art televisions in Oman, a country that is central to our operations in the Middle East region,” said

Terry Wang, managing director of Hisense Middle East FZE.

“Hisense has defined its unique niche in the television industry globally and we are honoured to partner with them to bring such an extensive range of hi-tech televi-sions to Oman. The new range of television being launched has ex-ceptional features that will guar-antee a spectacular viewing expe-rience. With demand for smart TV and curved TVs also on the rise, Hisense will meet the needs of all customers in the country,” said, Anil Sharma, VP of Sands Interna-tional, the authorised distributor of Hisense in Oman.

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Attractive summer offers for BankDhofar Visa cardholders

MUSCAT: Adding to the exten-sive benefits and unbeatable of-fers available for BankDhofar Visa cardholders, the bank recently re-vealed more attractive offers that customers can enjoy at Atlantis, The Palm Dubai Hotel & Resort.

BankDhofar’s credit card fa-cilities have accrued a number of benefits to further add to custom-ers’ lifestyle and to enrich their experience. This promotion gives all BankDhofar Visa cardholders access to exclusive offers, includ-ing discounts and other benefits. For a lump sum of AED 1,595 BankDhofar Visa cardholders can enjoy an unlimited array of privi-leges and family packages (up to four family members) at Atlantis, says a press release.

Khalid Al Amri, head of Retail Products, Business & Segments

Department at BankDhofar, stat-ed: “The promotion is valid till September 30, offering custom-ers AED 3,000 worth of benefits across a wide range of services and facilities. Package benefits include a one-night stay in a de-luxe room, full buffet breakfast at either Kaleidoscope or Saffron every day of guests’ stay, lunch per day at Kids Club for children between 3 and 12 years and at

Club Rush for teens between 13 and 18 years of age, in addition to unlimited access to Aquaventure Waterpark, dinner choices from a selection of 14 restaurants for each day of guests’ stay, access to The Lost Chambers Aquarium, two-for-one Spa massage (once per stay); and preferential rates at Dolphin Bay. The booking period is till September 30.”

Among the various benefits, in

addition to high security features and global interoperability of the BankDhofar debit cards, the bank offers a diverse range of services that include, but not limited to, cash withdrawal in OMR (AED & USD in some ATM’s), requests for mini statement, balance in-quiry, self-fund transfer, third party transfer, card-less cash withdrawal.

Additionally, BankDhofar has an extensive network of cash de-posit machines (CDM) to further ease transactions such as cash deposit in OMR, bill payment (water, electricity, internet and phone bills), mobile phone top-up, donation to registered charities that maintain an account with the bank, credit card payment, Ameri-can Express card payment and cheque deposit.

For a lump sum

of AED 1,595

BankDhofar Visa

cardholders can enjoy

an unlimited array of

privileges and family

packages (up to four

family members) at

Atlantis, The Palm

Dubai Hotel & Resort

Samsung customer service centre relocated to AzaibaMUSCAT: Al Seeb Technical Es-tablishment (Sarco) the distribu-tors of Samsung products in Oman have relocated their customer service plaza from their old loca-tion in Ghala Industrial Area to a brand new customer service plaza in Azaiba.

The new outlet located next to Al Meera Hypermarket and MHD Jaguar Land Rover showroom on the Sultan Qaboos Highway was strategically chosen keeping in mind customer’s convenience. The inauguration of this modern-istic customer plaza took place recently. The event saw a grand ribbon-cutting ceremony by Bas-sam Fahmi Masood, Regional CEO, alongside key members from the management team and other employees from the company, says a press release.

The new customer service plaza provides the same flawless ser-vice that Sarco has always been reputed to offer. The outlet comes well-equipped to service all the needs for the complete range of TVs, printers, laptops and mobile phones from Samsung. Custom-ers can also choose and buy from an extensive range of Samsung

phones and other related accesso-ries from the store.

All accessories are genuine Sam-sung products and customers can be assured of only the most authen-tic of electronics. A well-trained and knowledgeable team of service engineers makes sure customers receive the needed attention and are earnestly assisted when enquir-ing about the products.

“We have moved to this new lo-cation only to be of better service to our customers,” said Ajay Ganti, CEO. “The Azaiba branch is any easily accessible location. In addi-tion, the ample parking area, big-ger showroom space and its posi-tion very next to the main highway,

all contribute with more advantag-es than one. As a customer service plaza, our main focus will always be our customer’s best interest.”

Sarco has been responsible for marketing, distribution and retailing of Samsung products since its entry in the Oman mar-ket. Samsung, having risen as one of the most popular brands in the Sultanate and in the world, de-mands a strong, dedicated and expert customer service plaza to support their existing customers. Sarco diligently performs this role through their service outlets mak-ing sure that Samsung has nothing but satisfied customers with all their enquiries tended to.

C O N V E N I E N T L O C A T I O N

Oman Lights opens third outlet in Mabelah

MUSCAT: Oman Lights, a divi-sion of Al Zahra Group of Com-panies, recently opened its third showroom in Mabelah.

The first showroom was set up in Ruwi High Street while the other much spacious outlet with lighting solutions is lo-cated in Darsait. All the show-rooms are open from 8.30am to 1pm and 4.30pm to 8.30pm, says a press release.

Oman Lights is a trusted sup-plier of electrical and building material products to market sec-tors such as construction and infrastructure, power projects, ministries and hotel projects in the Middle East.

The accurate study and imple-mentation of light performance together with aesthetics and functional design contributes to the high added values in Oman Lights products.

Their execution pattern of any requirement of customers has earned them a reputation as most reliable supplier. Their trained and committed staff always co-ordinate quickly and efficiently with customers. Oman Lights’ network with worldwide suppli-ers ensures timely delivery of ma-terials and execution of jobs.

Oman Lights mission is to raise

the profile of their valued Oma-ni customers by opening more showrooms to offer comprehen-sive and competitive product range through sharing their com-bined experience and technical expertise with worldwide associ-ates and manufactures.

Oman Lights plans to open new showrooms in Amerat, Barka and Sohar.

E X P A N S I O N

ISC Kachchhi Wing to stage comedy drama on June 12MUSCAT: Kachchhi Wing of Indian Social Club, Muscat cel-ebrates its New Year ‘Aashadhi Beej’ in a traditional way every year and it has been decided to celebrate this New Year in a unique way at Le Grand Hall, Al Falaj Hotel on June 12 at 4.30pm.

The wing will honour the senior citizens of the community who have been serving society since long. J. S. Mukul, Indian ambassa-dor to the Sultanate of Oman, will be the chief guest and a felicitation will be held for the outgoing envoy, says a press release.

This year’s new year pro-gramme will stage a super hit Gujarati comedy drama Wah Mummy Wah.

Omkar Production under the banner of Manikant Patel pre-sents the play. It is a record break-ing comedy drama with more than 2,000 shows performed so far throughout the world.

The drama is written and di-rected by late Bimal Mangaliya. Actor Khelrangara will come to Muscat to perform and make the audience laugh. Comedy queen Amitabh Pratima T with Jitu Kotak, Archana Pathak, Mitul Gupte, Amar Trivedi and Chan-

dan Dasani, all renowned artists, are part of the play.

Hiten Dutia, co-convener of Kachchhi Wing, had an opportu-nity to chat with lead actress Pra-tima and Jitu. Pratima said that she was proud to have learned so much from her guru late Bi-mal Mangaliya, who passed away in the year 2010. Her acting ca-reer goes back to 35 years creat-ing a record of being in the same group ever since. She received the award of Lady Amitabh from the British government along with the group being awarded with ‘the most travelled drama troupe throughout the world’ at famous Bigben Tower.

Jitu, marketing manager cum actor, said that the drama group has made 63 trips throughout the world, wherever Gujaratis are settled. The first drama in which she acted was Parka Baira Sau Ne Game in the year 1977. The group travelled to UK for the first time in the year 1978 and then on-wards they visited the UK regu-larly almost every year. The group is aiming to gain Guinness record for the highest number of acts performed throughout the world. This year, they have already pre-sented 35 shows and are set to perform in another 20 shows.

“Do not miss this hillarious comedy play. Pratima and Jitu Kotak, the kings of comedy, will conquer the stage. It will be a huge loss for those who cannot make it for the show,” said Hiten.

On behalf of all committee members and convener of the wing Hemlata thanked the spon-sors for their overwhelming re-sponse and their generous sup-port. The entry for the drama is only by invitation for members and invitees. Members can col-lect their invitation on June 9 and 10 from ISC office between 7.30 and 9pm.

N E W Y E A R C E L E B R A T I O N

ISWK organises yoga eventMUSCAT: To mark the Interna-tional Yoga Day, Indian School Al Wadi Al Kabir (ISWK) organised a mega event of yoga in collabora-tion with The Art of Living Muscat Chapter at the primary wing play-ground of the school recently.

The invite was open to all aspir-ants to energise their mind, body, heart and soul through the austere postures of yoga. The event start-ed with a discourse on the signifi-cance of yoga and the purpose of marking the International Yoga Day, says a press release.

Proficient yoga teachersAt the outset students demon-strated different yogic postures to the accompaniment of mellifluous music. The august audience also got a flavour of benefits of yoga by categorically carrying out the pos-tures under the supervision of pro-ficient yoga teachers from Art of Living Foundation Muscat Chap-ter. As the final curtain fell every-one was found respiring deeper, and was revitalised and calmer than ever.

I N T E R N A T I O N A L Y O G A D A Y

Turkish Airlines claims ‘Your Favourite’ YouTube advertisement of past decadeDUBAI: Turkish Airlines an-nounced yesterday that it has been awarded the ‘Your Favour-ite’ YouTube ad of the past decade with its selfie shootout video, as part of YouTube’s 10 years of great branded videos. The ad was devel-oped by Crispin Porter + Bogusky, says a press release.

The ad, Kobe vs. Messi: The Selfie Shootout, has received more than 140 million views on YouTube. The spot was a follow up to the 2012 Legends on Board campaign. The video features two of the world’s biggest sports su-

perstars, Kobe Bryant and Lionel Messi,in a face-off game for selfie supremacy. The combination of the selfie trend along with well-known superstars who showcase just a few destinations where Turkish Airlines travels across the globe, resulted in the ad becoming an instant hit, receiving 25 million

views within the first three days.“This YouTube ad was about

increasing awareness that Turk-ish Airlines serves more countries than any other carrier. For US trav-ellers this means, one-stop con-nections from our seven US gate-ways through our hub in Istanbul to 260 global destinations. Kobe and Messi did a fantastic job of al-lowing us to highlight the fact that no other airline offers this type of access to destinations around the world for US travellers,” said Zeki Cukur, senior vice president, Cor-porate Communications.

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Jotun rated Oman’s No. 1 paint brandMUSCAT: Jotun Paints was hon-oured as the No. 1 paint brand in Oman at a ceremony held recently as part of the launch of the ‘Top Brands in Oman’, a comprehen-sive directory of the best brands in the country issued by Al Omaneya Advertising and Public Relations, says a press release.

Bjorn Skjelby, General Manager, Jotun Paints Oman received the top brand award from Dr Ibrahim Al Kindi, CEO, OEPPA. Jotun Paints Oman, among other brands in different categories, was chosen through a brand survey and ques-tionnaire model which encom-passed different strata of the soci-ety. Through advanced Research and Development (R&D), Jotun is working continuously to improve its existing technology, explore new technology and move towards a green future.

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SECTIONC M O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

LEARNT ENOUGH, NEED TO ACHIEVE NOW: KOHLINot quite convinced about the idea of counting the positives after a lost match, India’s new Test captain Virat Kohli on Sunday said the days of learning are long over and his cricket team would be solely focussed on delivering results. >C3

Spurs, West Ham eyeing free agent Ali Al HabsiTimes News Service

MUSCAT: Former Wigan Athlet-ic goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi is set to move on following their relegation to League One.

According to reports published by Daily Mail on Sunday, Totten-ham, West Ham United and Read-ing are interested in free agent Ali Al Habsi.

The 33-year-old is out of con-tract at Wigan Athletic and is a proven performer at Premier League and Championship level.

Tottenham and West Ham are weighing up replacements for Brad Friedel and Jussi Jaaskel-ainen, while Reading need to re-place Adam Federici who joined Bournemouth.

New challengesIn early May, Ali Al Habsi’s brother Ahmad Al Habsi told Times Sport the Omani captain is looking for another challenge in the new foot-ball season.

Speaking right after Ali con-firmed that he will be leaving rel-

egated English Championship side Wigan Athletic, Ahmad said his younger brother is now looking forward for a new challenge.

“He was thinking about this (leaving Wigan) for some time now. His contract is expiring this summer anyway. He is looking for a new challenge now,” Ahmad said without revealing any details.

Ahmad who is also an Oman Football Association board mem-ber, said Ali is “looking for options” to join a new club soon.

“As Ali said in social media, he

will be announcing the details in June. But frankly, there is nothing concrete yet. Options are still open and we are hoping to come out in detail in a month’s time,” Ahmad said.

When asked if Al Habsi in-formed him prior to announcing his decision via social media, Ah-mad had this to say: “Of course, he spoke to me before he did that and he told me he wanted a change and that he wants to look for another challenge. I said we are always with him and go for it!”

I N F O C U S

MOST FAVOURED: Oman goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi. – Times of Oman

Wow...Wawrinka

PARIS: Stan Wawrinka spectacu-larly shattered Novak Djokovic’s dream of a career Grand Slam on Sunday when he became the old-est winner of the French Open in 25 years.

The 30-year-old Swiss claimed a famous 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 victory to secure his second career major after the 2014 Australian Open.

It ended world number one Djokovic’s bid to become only the eighth man to secure a career Slam as he slumped to his third defeat in a Roland Garros final in four years.

Wawrinka became the oldest champion in Paris since Andres Gomez in 1990 after just his fourth win in 21 meetings against the Serb. “It’s really hard to believe but it has finally happened,” said Waw-rinka, who fired 60 winners past the Serb.

“It was the match of my life. But bravo to Novak, it’s a great chal-lenge, the biggest one to play him.”

“It’s a special moment for me.”Sunday’s shock defeat, mean-

while, was only Djokovic’s third in 44 outings in 2015 and ended his 28-match win streak.

It was also his eighth loss in 16 finals at the majors.

“It’s hard for me to speak right now,” said Djokovic who was in tears on the presentation podium.

“I’d like to say well done to Stan. He has a great heart and I have all respect for him. He is a deserving winner.” “But I’d like to say I will be back next year and I will try again.”

Under siegeDjokovic, playing in his 16th Grand Slam final to Wawrinka’s second, had the Swiss player under siege in the first set. Eighth-seeded Waw-rinka had to save break points in the opening game — which fea-tured a 39-shot rally — and the fifth.

But the world number one broke through for a 4-3 lead when Waw-rinka served up a double fault.

The battling 30-year-old Swiss saved two set points in the 10th game — one after a botched fore-hand put-away by Djokovic — and then carved out a first break oppor-tunity. That was swiftly saved and

the Serb gobbled up the opener af-ter 43 minutes, celebrating with a mighty, arena-shaking roar.

Wawrinka cranked up the fore-hand winners early in the second set but was unable to convert two break points in the fourth game as Djokovic’s renowned powers of re-covery made him an intimidating target to pass.

Wawrinka saw another break point disappear in the sixth game.

In the eighth, it was the same story as Djokovic saved another break point causing Wawrinka to violently smash his racquet into the net in frustration.

But he wasn’t to be denied as Djokovic surrendered the set in the 10th game with a wild backhand,

collecting a warning for destroying his racquet in the Paris clay.

Djokovic was playing for the third day in succession having needed five sets to beat Andy Mur-ray in the semi-finals.

He looked suddenly jaded and unplugged, fighting off three break opportunities in the second game of the third set.

He dropped serve again to trail 4-2 and when he carved out a break point in the next game it was his first such morsel since the sev-enth game of the opener.

It was no surprise when Waw-rinka wrapped up the set in the ninth game with Djokovic having no answer to his opponent’s lethal battery of down the line backhands

and pinpoint accurate forehand winners. Djokovic found a late lease of life for a break at 2-0 and held for 3-0 in the fourth set.

But back stormed Wawrinka, retrieving the break on the back of a 30-stroke rally before Djokovic saved two more break points to go to 4-3. In a rollercoaster fourth set, the Swiss saved three break points in the eighth game and on the back of three of probably his finest ever backhands broke for 5-4.

And it was another textbook backhand that won him the title on a second match point.

Compatriot Roger Federer, the 2009 champion who lost in the quarterfinals to Wawrinka this year, tweeted simply: “CHAMP.” - AFP

The 30-year-old

Swiss claimed a

famous 4-6, 6-4, 6-3,

6-4 victory to secure

his second career

major after the 2014

Australian Open.

It ended world

number one

Djokovic’s bid to

become only the

eighth man to secure

a career Slam as he

slumped to his third

defeat in a Roland

Garros final in

four years

PARIS: Lucie Safarova made sure she left Roland Garros with at least one winner’s trophy after the Czech left-hander and Bethanie Mattek-Sands won the women’s doubles title on Sunday.

Less than 24 hours after los-ing to Serena Williams in the singles final, Czech Safarova and American Mattek-Sands beat Casey Dellacqua and Yaroslava Shvedova 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in front of a sparse crowd on Philippe Chatrier Court.

It was their second successive major title following success at the Australian Open in January.

On Saturday, Croatia’s Ivan Dodig and Brazilian Marcelo Melo clinched their maiden grand slam title by defeating brothers Bob and Mike Bryan 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 7-5 in the French Open doubles final.

Cheered on by triple Roland Garros champion and compatri-ot Gustavo Kuerten, Melo ended a tight contest with a splendid half volley to deny the American Bryan brothers their 17th major.

Dodig becomes the first Croatian to win a title at the French Open while Melo is only the second Brazilian to triumph on the Paris clay after Kuerten’s success in 1997, 2000 and 2001.

Dodig and Melo lost the 2013 Wimbledon final against the Bryan brothers.

The top-seeded Ameri-cans got off to a solid start and claimed the first set on a tiebreak only for their third-seeded opponents to level in the same fashion. Dodig and Melo then broke decisively in the 11th game of the decider and closed the match out to claim the trophy. - Reuters

Safarova teams up with Mattek-Sands to win women’s doubles crown

SO SWEET: US Bethanie Mattek-Sands, right, and Czech Republic’s Lucie Safarova kiss the

trophy after winning against Australia’s Casey Dellacqua and Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova

during their women’s double final match. – AFP

CUP OF CHEERS: Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka celebrates with the trophy following his victory over Serbia’s Novak Djokovic after the men’s singles final of the 2015

French Tennis Open at the Roland Garros in Paris. – AFP

MISSES OUT AGAIN: Novak Djokovic acknowledges the crowd after

receiving his runners-up trophy. – Reuters

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SPORTSM O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

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Rahul Dravid to shape the next generation of Indian cricketersMUMBAI: Rahul Dravid has been entrusted with shaping the future of Indian cricket and agreed in principle to coach the country’s under-19 and A teams.

The Indian cricket board (BCCI) last week named a three-member advisory committee comprised of former cricketers Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Ten-dulkar and VVS Laxman but the absence of former captain and batting great Dravid had sur-prised many.

BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur laid the concerns to rest by con-firming that the modalities of Dravid’s contract will be finalised in the next few days.

“The good news is that Rahul Dravid has agreed to coach In-dia A and India under-19 in the future,” Thakur told reporters in Kolkata after a meeting with the advisory committee on Saturday.

The 42-year-old Dravid, who has over 13,000 runs in tests and close to 11,000 in the 50-over

format, will start by preparing the India A side for a home series against Australia A and South Af-rica A in July and August.

Dravid said the role suited his family life fine and he did not see it as a platform to groom himself for the national team’s head coaching job which remains vacant after the departure of Duncan Fletcher in March.

“I think it is really exciting be-cause it has been an area I have always been interested in,” Dravid told ESPNcricinfo of his new role.

“I feel it is a very important stage of development of a lot of cricketers, having been through myself, and I am just hoping that ... I will probably be able to help some of these young cricketers on their journey.

“I don’t see this as any stepping stone, I just see this as an oppor-tunity to work with young play-ers over the next few months, six weeks of an A tour and may be six or seven weeks, with the under-19

team.” With India widely known as poor travellers, Dravid’s role will be crucial.

The new advisory panel has recommended increasing the

overseas trips of junior teams and organising tours a year earlier in countries where the senior team would be scheduled to play a ma-jor tournament or series.

“One of the suggestions by the legends was to increase the num-ber of India A tours overseas so that we can give more and more exposure to our A players and they can play competitive cricket,” Thakur said.

“In the past few years, the per-formance of the Indian team was not up to the mark overseas, so our focus would be on India A tour overseas.

“For example, if we have to play Champions Trophy in England, then India A must tour England or nearby countries one year in advance.”

The panel has also suggested identifying a pool of 30 bowlers, comprising of 15 pacemen and the same number of spinners, to be groomed for international cricket over a four-year cycle. - Reuters

C R I C K E T

MAN FOR FUTURE: Indian

veteran Rahul Dravid.

Age no barrier for supreme Serena

PARIS: Serena Williams has won Wimbledon five times and will be a hot favourite to make it six when the grasscourt classic gets underway in three weeks time in London.

If she makes the punters happy by doing so she will, for the second time in her career, hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time — and will stand halfway to be-coming just the fourth woman to win all four in the same year.

It is a clear sign of how domi-nant the 33-year-old American has become in the women’s game, 17 years after making her debut in Grand Slam tennis.

To date she has won 20 Grand Slam titles, just two shy of the Open era record of 22 held by Steffi Graf, and most worringly for her opponents, she seems to be accelerating.

Seven of those have come since she hooked up with French coach (and boyfriend) Patrick Mouratoglou in June 2012 after a stunning first round upset at the hands of Virginie Razzano in the French Open — the first, and to date only time, she has gone out of a Grand Slam event at the first call.

InjuriesAt that time Williams had been beset with a succession of injuries and lack of motivation and she credits Mouratoglou with turning things around for her.

“Beforehand her career was full of ups and downs,” he said after her three sets win over Lucie Safarova in Saturday’s French Open final — her 20th Grand Slam title.

“I had the impression that she lacked motivation at times and also she was very often carrying an injury.”

Now, he says, she is perfectly ca-pable of winning five Grand Slams in a row at Wimbledon and New York, although he cautions that it is still a big ask.

Helping Williams’s cause — and worringly for women’s tennis in general — the opposition is not ex-actly of the highest quality.

Part of the problem stems from the early retirements of Belgian pair Justine Henin and Kim Cli-jsters, both of whom were capable, at their best, of going head to head with Williams

Nowadays long-time foes and prematurely annointed suc-cessors, Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic and Caroline Wozniacki

both seem incapable of beating her, mid-twenties challengers Petra Kvitova and Victoria Aza-renka both have problems with the pressure that comes at the top and young guns such as Eugenie Bouchard and Sloane Stephens have both taken backward steps this year.

That left a Paris tournament that had no player under the age of 25 in the semifinals.

The stage therefore looks set for Williams to continue her domina-tion of women’s tennis, at least for the next couple of years, as long as she stays healthy and motivated.

Then the debate can be engaged over who is the greatest female tennis player of all time -- Maureen Connolly, Margaret Court, Marti-na Navratilova, Graf and Williams being the likeliest choices.

Ideally placedNavratilova, who presented the French Open trophy to Wil-liams at Roland Garros on Sat-urday, believes the American is ideally placed.

“She has really dominated the sport in the last three years,” the 18-time Grand Slam winner said. “What is impressive to me is that she’s doing it at this age.

“It remains to be seen how deep she can go into the 20s (Grand Slams), depending on how her body holds up and on motivation. Even if she gets to 22, passing Margaret Court (24) is still a long way away.

“It definitely gets harder when you are in your 30s but at the same time, the new generation hasn’t quite caught up to Serena so she has a nice window there.” - AFP

It is a clear sign of how dominant Serena

Williams, the 33-year-old American, has

become in the women’s game, 17 years after

making her debut in Grand Slam tennis

PERFECT POSE: Serena Williams of the U.S. poses with her trophy near the Eiffel Tower in Paris, after

winning the French Open women’s singles final at the Roland Garros. – Reuters

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SPORTSM O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

Learnt enough, need to achieve now, says Indian skipper Kohli

KOLKATA: Not quite convinced about the idea of counting the positives after a lost match, India’s new Test captain Virat Kohli on Sunday said the days of learning are long over and his cricket team would be solely focussed on deliv-ering results.

Addressing a pre-departure press conference here on Sunday ahead of the tour of Bangladesh, which starts with a one-off Test from June 10, Kohli said his focus is on results.

“We have learnt a lot, I don’t think we need to play with a mind-set of playing to learn.

Obviously, we learn about the game all the time, even when we are watching it on TV.

But we have played long enough now, we know what we want to achieve as a unit.

So, we really want to achieve rather than go out of a match thinking what we have learnt from it,” Kohli said when asked about his expectations from the team.

Insisting that the team is in good shape for the Bangladesh tour, which will also have three ODIs, Kohli said fitness is a prime con-cern to ensure that his side keeps a steady look. “The team is looking in good shape. We conducted a fit-ness test yesterday because we feel that fitness is one area where we need to strengthen,” he said.

“Everyone is really excited for a fresh beginning.

I am certainly excited about leading the team,” he added.

On his own expectations from

the short tour, Kohli said he is looking forward to strategise for the gruelling Test format.

“I have captained teams be-fore. At a certain level, you learn while doing the job. Tests are a difficult ball game compared to ODIs or T20s because you have to strategise for a whole day in one go,” he said.

“I have learnt a lot while cap-taining in Australia. The team’s skills are good and I am looking to continue with the consistency. It’s all about how you improve on your mistakes,” he added referring to his stint Down Under when he took over captaincy after the shock retirement of Mahendra Singh Dhoni from the format. - PTI

Addressing a pre-

departure press

conference here on

Sunday ahead of the

tour of Bangladesh,

which starts with

a one-off Test from

June 10, Kohli said

his focus is on results

WARMING-UP: Cricketers warm up during their fitness Test at Eden Garden in Kolkata ahead of the Bangladesh tour. – PTI

CONFIDENT: Skipper Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan on eve of

departure to Bangladesh. – PTI

KOLKATA: Asserting that the Indian cricket team does not require “more coaches” than what it already has right now, Director Ravi Shastri on Sun-day said he might just be there “longer” than expected.

Shastri was retained as Di-rector of the team for the tour of Bangladesh, which starts with a one-off Test on June 10 and also features three ODIs after it. Addressing a pre-de-parture press conference here, Shastri said the team is not exactly hard-pressed for a chief coach right now.

“We have got three coaches, we don’t need another coach. I will double up as head coach if need be, so there is no issue whatsoever,” said Shastri when asked whether the side would miss having a national coach after Duncan Fletcher’s tenure came to an end earlier this year. “Speculation, perception, that is your problem, not my problem. As far as coach is con-cerned, we don’t need one.”

Quizzed further on how long he will continue with the team, Shastri said, “When we come back from Bangladesh, I will sit with them (the BCCI) and de-cide. I don’t rule out anything.

I might be there much longer than what you think.”

Asked whether the team is confident of a good show against the lower-ranked Bangladesh, Shastri said, “We respect every opponent and Bangladesh is another op-ponent.” A talking point ahead of the tour has been the Test comeback of veteran off-spin-ner Harbhajan Singh and asked whether he would be leading the Indian attack, Shastri said it would be a combined effort.

“We welcome Harbhajan back in the side, he is a good operator and will bring plenty

to the plate.(But) it’s going to be an India bowling outfit, not anyone in particular leading the pack,” he said.

On to other developments in Indian cricket, Shastri welcomed the appointment of batting great Rahul Dravid as the new India A and Under-19 coach. “I have already had a chat with Dravid. There is no better news for Indian cricket. There cannot be a better man for that job. He will be with the youngsters and that will help the senior team,” he said. - PTI

I might be there longer than expected: Shastri

We have got three coaches, we don’t need another. I will double up as head coach if need be

Ravi ShastriTeam India Director

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SPORTSM O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

KHIMJI RAMDAS FELICITATE MUSCAT CRICKET TEAMKhimji Ramdas Group felicitated the members of the Muscat Cricket Team who finished runners-up in the Muscat Pharmacy

& Stores-sponsored A Division 50 overs-a-side cricket tournament organised by Oman Cricket. Anil Khimji, Director of Kh-

imji Ramdas, Madhursinh Jesrani, Oman Cricket Secretary and General Manager of the Watches Division at Khimji Ramdas,

were present on the occasion. — Supplied photo

Enrique overcomes doubts and revolt to emerge on top

MADRID: When Luis Enrique was hired as Barcelona boss just over a year ago his challenge was a daunting one; to bring back the glory years of Pep Guardiola.

Fast-forward 12 months and Enrique has not for the first time in his career followed in Guardio-la’s footsteps by landing the treble: Saturday’s 3-1 defeat of Juventus added the Champions League to La Liga and Copa del Rey triumphs.

Enrique succeeded Guardiola as Barca captain in his playing days in the 1990s and as Barca B coach when the Bayern Munich boss took the top job at the Camp Nou in 2009.

Yet, they took different routes to delivering Barca’s two best sea-sons in a storied 115-year history.

Whereas the fiercely proud Cat-alan Guardiola was loved not only for winning, but imposing a style of play that saw many round the world hail his side as the best in the history of football, Enrique has had to overcome doubts and dress-ing room revolt before ending the season on top.

Even now he has doubts about his future. After leaving star duo Lionel Messi and Neymar on the bench for a 1-0 defeat to Real Sociedad and January, Enrique was rumoured to be on the verge of the sack.

Uncertain futureIn the week following the Sociedad defeat he saw a trusted ally in sport-

ing director Andoni Zubizarreta sacked and another former team-mate Carles Puyol walk out on the club in solidarity with Zubizarreta.

A stubborn character who once turned his back on Real Madrid to cross Spanish football’s great di-vide, the 45-year-old appears not to have forgotten that criticism as he has ruled out leaving the club.

“The truth is I don’t know if I will continue,” he said.

Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu called club elections for this summer when under pressure in January. And whether it is he

or a new face in charge of the club come July is likely to influence En-rique’s decision.

“It has been a difficult year and I’m very thankful to the people who have believed in me. I never thought we would win the treble, but one always tries to do their job to the best that they can.”

Enrique’s record of 50 wins in 60 games is far superior to the 42 in 62 matches Guardiola managed his treble-winning debut campaign.

Barca’s front three of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar outgunned the previous club re-

cord of 100 goals by a forward line that season by Messi, Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto’o with a sensational 122.

Meanwhile, Enrique’s men were even meaner at the back with 33 clean sheets in all competitions.

“I hate comparisons,” said Gerard Pique when quizzed on the differences between this Barca and Guardiola’s side.

“There are people that would prefer we played like a few years ago but it works.”

And Andres Iniesta is hoping Enrique is not quite done fol-

lowing Guardiola’s example just yet and stays on to mark an era at Barca.

“Both trebles are special. The first time you think you’ll never do it again, and yet we have,” said the Spaniard, who was named man-of-the-match against Juventus.

“For us he is our coach and we hope that next year he will be there with us. He hasn’t said anything to the contrary and next year we will have new challenges.

“It has been a spectacular sea-son in every aspect, it is a spectac-ular day for us.” -AFP

Enrique has not for

the first time in his

career followed in

Guardiola’s footsteps

by landing the treble:

Saturday’s 3-1 defeat

of Juventus added

the Champions

League to La Liga

and Copa del

Rey triumphs

SUPERIOR RECORD: Luis Enrique

BARCELONA: Winning goals from Luis Suarez and Neymar on the counter-attack to sink Juventus in the Champions League final encapsulated the new direct play from Barcelona that saw them become the first Euro-pean side to win the treble for the second time.

Suarez has provided an acute understanding and extra fire power following his comeback from a biting ban last October and is the final piece of the jigsaw in an at-tacking trident for Barca that is devastating to watch.

The Uruguayan perhaps did not have his best game for Barca but he was still heav-ily influential in defeating Juventus with his predatory instincts seeing him pounce and slot home the ball after Lionel Messi’s initial shot was saved by Gianluigi Buffon.

When Barca last won the treble in 2009 they ac-complished it through ball possession and short passing but now they are at their most dangerous on the breakaway.

It was after Alvaro Morata had equalised for Juventus and the Italians were bossing the game at 1-1 that Messi found the space in the lead up

to Suarez’s goal and similarly in injury time Neymar sealed the win on another counter.

“We knew about his quality and his record,” said Luis En-rique, referring to Suarez in a news conference, who joined Barca from Liverpool ahead of this campaign.

“The only doubt was whether he was going to be able to adapt here. You can now see it has worked out. He has an incredible hunger and desire to win trophies.”

The coach also praised the contribution of Messi and Neymar.

“Messi is our key player and the second goal was his. We are very happy with him and he gave us what he has been giving us all this season,” he said. “Last year (Neymar) had a very good season despite it being the first (at the club). Now he has developed and he has been spectacular. He demonstrated that he is one of the best players in the world.”

Barca have found solidity in defence and the impact of Luis Enrique’s work on strategy at set-plays has clearly worked as it is no longer such a weak point. But still it has been the three forwards that have made the difference. - Reuters

Barca’s new direct play does the trick in second treble

Leaving Barca tough for XaviBERLIN: Record-breaker Xavi Hernandez says it will be tough to leave Barcelona after lifting the Champions League trophy on his final appearance in the famous strip.

The 35-year-old came on in the 78th minute to set a new re-cord of 151 Champions League appearances in Barcelona’s 3-1 win over Juventus in the final in Berlin which was the fourth time he had won European club foot-ball’s most prestigious trophy.

Having started at the Catalan giants as an 11-year-old, Xavi will join Qatari side Al Sadd next season. He admitted that leaving Barcelona will hit him hard having won his 25th title with the club.

The final took a dramatic turn when an early goal by Barca’s Ivan Rakitic was cancelled out by Juventus’ ex-Real Madrid striker Alvaro Morata with the equaliser on 55 minutes.

But Xavi says Barcelona’s su-perstar Lionel Messi made the difference as his brilliant run led to Luis Suarez making it 2-1 to the Spaniards in the second-half before Neymar scored their third at the death.

“To leave this way is amaz-ing, but I have a bit of nostalgia thinking I’m never going to play for this side again and I really wanted to lift the cup,” said Xavi, who lost his place in the starting side to Rakitic this season.

“We suffered a lot, because Juve put pressure on us, but Leo (Messi) popped up again.

“The side is sensational and Messi is outrageous.”

Xavi said the best thing for Barcelona now is for Luis En-rique to stay on with the head coach having left his future open, despite winning the treble of European, cup and league ti-tles in his debut season.

“Luis Enrique deserves this because he’s had a lot of criti-cism, but he’s been a great lead-er for the side. The best thing for next year is for Luis Enrique to stay,” said Xavi.

Defender Gerard Pique said that Xavi was part of a “unique generation” at Barcelona. “Xavi deserves everything,” he said. “He is leaving us with an impor-tant legacy: how to play football and take on victory and defeat. He will always be with us.” - AFP

R E C O R D - B R E A K E R

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SPORTSM O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

YOUR BIGGEST ROAD HAZARD IS IN YOUR HAND A TIMES OF OMAN

HANDS-FREE DRIVING INITIATIVE

Barcelona eye more history after bagging second European treble

BERLIN: Luis Enrique says Bar-celona aim to become the first team to defend the Champions League title as the head coach con-siders his future despite steering them to an historic treble.

Luis Suarez and Neymar scored second-half goals to give Barcelona a 3-1 Champions League final victo-ry over Juventus on Saturday as the Spaniards became the first team to twice win the European treble.

Enrique capped his first sea-son as Barcelona’s head coach by matching Pep Guardiola’s feat from the 2008-09 season when the Catalans captured the European, Spanish league and cup titles.

An early goal by Barca’s Ivan Rakitic was cancelled out when Juventus’ former Real Madrid striker Alvaro Morata equalised on 55 minutes.

But Suarez put the game beyond the Italian champions with a 68th minute strike off a rebound at Ber-lin’s Olympic Stadium before Ney-mar added the third with the last kick of the game in the 97th minute.

Barcelona have now won five European titles, four of which came in the last decade after their 2006, 2009 and 2011 triumphs.

Enrique says their hunger for silverware is insatiable and they want to make more history by be-coming the first team to win back-to-back Champions League titles.

“This is our 60th match (this season) with six defeats and four draws,” said the 45-year-old.

“Those figures show that this has been one of Barcelona’s best campaigns. In the last ten years, this has been the most successful club in Europe.

“These players have shown hun-ger for victories and they’ve shown they enjoy it so much, we have to nourish them with more titles.”

Enrique is yet to commit to a second season ahead of the club’s

presidential elections as he has had a tense relationship with current incumbent Josep Maria Bartomeu.

“I want to celebrate the win, but the time will come when decisions must be made,” said Enrique.

“It’s been a difficult year with lots of transition, but I have to thank all those who have trusted me to lead Barcelona.”

Juventus suffered the un-wanted fate of becoming the first team to lose six European Cup finals, 30 years after winning the trophy for the first time which was overshadowed by the Heysel Stadium disaster.

On the streets of Barcelona, where you could have heard a pin drop dur-ing the final, thousands of ecstatic fans dressed in their team colours of blue and red celebrated with cheers, chants and fire crackers.

“It’s a dream, I still can’t believe it!” said Eduard Ocana, a 23-year-old student, in the Catalan capital, as cries of “champions, champi-ons!” echoed around the famous party street of Las Ramblas.

Suarez triumph For Suarez it was a triumphant end to a first season with the Span-ish champions after his ignomini-ous biting ban at the World Cup.

“It’s incredible, it’s something unique,” he said. “The best thing about this side is the spirit and the fact we’ve been united since the start of the season.”

In 2009 Barcelona joined the elite club of treble winners that in-clude Celtic, Ajax, PSV Eindhoven, Manchester United, Inter Milan and Bayern Munich. Now, they are the first to have done that twice.

Despite brief moments of magic, Lionel Messi failed to become the first player to score in three Cham-pions League finals as he along with captain Andres Iniesta and Barca icon Xavi Hernandez — in his final match for the club — equalled Dutch star Clarence Seedorf’s tally of four winners’ medals.

Barcelona showed early nerves with two uncustomary mistakes in defence straight from kick-off before Rakitic gave the Catalan giants the lead with just four min-utes gone.

Neymar fed Iniesta from the left wing and the Spain international squared for Rakitic to drill home from close range, past Juventus captain Gianluigi Buffon.

Juve came back into the game midway through the first half, but Suarez forced Buffon, who failed to

claim a winners’ medal at the 12th attempt, into another save as it fin-ished 1-0 at the break.

Touch of Messi magic Juve got the equaliser they had threatened when defender Ste-phan Lichtsteiner’s cross found Carlos Tevez, whose shot was par-ried by Barca goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen, only for Morata to rifle home the loose ball on 55 minutes. It was his first goal against Barcelona despite four years at the Bernabeu having left Madrid last year.

The goal breathed life back into Juve’s ambitions, but it was a touch of Messi magic which led to the decisive goal.

The Argentina international attacked the Juve defence with a mazy run and although Buf-fon blocked his shot, Suarez fired home the rebound on 68 minutes.

“Unfortunately when you play against great players, you think you have things under control, then they can turn the game, as happened tonight,” said Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri.

“We’re sorry to have missed our chance, but I can’t criticise the team,” he said.

Xavi came on for his final game in the Barca shirt in the dying stag-es as he made history with a record 151st Champions League appear-ance before joining Qatari side Al Sadd next season.

“To leave this way is amazing,” said the Spain international, who lost his place in the starting side to Rakitic this season.

The scene was set for Neymar to cap his first Champions League final with Barcelona’s third just before the final whistle.

Juventus hailed the achieve-ment of Allegri in getting the team to the final during his first season in charge, and beating 2014 win-ners Real Madrid in the semis.

“You gave us a dream. Thanks, mister,” said Juventus’s official Twitter account. - AFP

Barcelona have now

won five European

titles, four of which

came in the last

decade. Enrique says

they want to make

more history by

becoming the first

team to win back-

to-back Champions

League titles

CHAMPS: Barcelona players celebrate with the trophy after winning the Champions League final against Juventus in Berlin on Saturday. – AFP

Juve lost to world’s best team: BuffonBERLIN: Gianluigi Buffon in-sists his Juventus side lost to the ‘world’s best team’ in their 3-1 Champions League defeat against Barcelona after the Ital-ian champions were outgunned.For the 37-year-old goalkeeper it was a second Champions League final disappointment as he also tasted defeat to AC Mi-lan in the 2003 final.

“There was a moment, a ten-minute spell, when we thought we had the match in our hands and that’s exactly when we lost it,” rued the Juventus captain as Barcelona claimed the treble with their fifth European title.

“It would have been an ex-traordinary result. We didn’t manage to win, but not because we didn’t’ try: we gave every-thing we had.

“Barcelona are the best team in the world in my opinion, but we have proved that we could compete.”

Buffon says the team has a bright future. “We conceded early on, but we were always in the game. This performance gives us hope and confidence.

“We can make sure we stay at this level next season and with-in the next two or three years — who knows? — maybe I’ll man-age to make some other dreams come true.” - AFP

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Bribery claims stack up against former Fifa official Jack Warner

PARIS: Disgraced former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner was accused Sunday of asking Egypt for a $7 million bribe for votes to host the 2010 World Cup, as alle-gations piled up against the man at the heart of the corruption scandal engulfing football’s world body.

The BBC also claimed that the 72-year-old Trinidadian pocketed a $10 million payment made by South Africa through Fifa which was intended to pay for football development for the African dias-pora in the Caribbean.

Warner, a former schoolteacher and Trinidadian justice minister who has been indicted by the U.S. authorities on corruption charg-es, has denied all the allegations against him.

But he has emerged as a key figure in the scandal that erupted last month as one of 14 current or former Fifa officials and sports marketing executives accused by U.S. prosecutors of taking part in a sweeping kickbacks scheme going back 20 years involving a total of $150 million in bribes.

The scandal, which also involves a Swiss probe into the awarding of

the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, has led to the resignation of veteran Fifa boss Sepp Blatter last week, just four days after his reelection for a fifth successive term.

In the latest allegation against Warner, Egyptian former sports minister Aley Eddine Helal said Warner asked Egypt in 2004 to pay a $7 million bribe in exchange for sev-en votes to host the 2010 World Cup.

“Warner was the one who ap-proached us from Fifa. He said he could guarantee us seven votes... He asked for one million dollars for each vote,” claimed Helal, who on Thursday told an Egyptian TV channel that Warner’s offer had been rebuffed.

Egypt, one of the countries dominating African football, was a candidate to host the 2010 World Cup, but it received no votes in the

2004 Fifa ballot and South Africa was eventually chosen to host the tournament — the first in Africa.

‘Laundered the payment’ The BBC, citing documents it has seen, also said on Sunday that Warner laundered the payment from South Africa through a su-permarket chain, made cash with-drawals, paid off his credit cards and took personal loans.

U.S. investigators suspect the $10 million was a bribe to help se-cure the 2010 World Cup for South Africa. But South Africa says the money, paid in 2008, was intended to pay for football development for the African diaspora in the Carib-bean, where Warner was the long-time football baron.

In three transactions in 2008 funds totalling $10 million were moved from Fifa’s bank into an ac-

count of Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf ) which was controlled by Warner, then its president.

The BBC said JTA Supermar-kets, a large chain in Trinidad, re-ceived $4.86 million paid in instal-ments, while nearly $1.6 million was used to pay Warner’s credit cards and personal loans.

Trinidad’s Sports Minister Brent Sancho, a former interna-tional footballer, said he was ap-palled by the revelations.

“He (Warner) must face justice, he must answer all of these ques-tions. Justice has to be served,” said Sancho, who played in all three of Trinidad’s matches at the 2006 World Cup finals.

‘A travesty’ “I’m devastated because a lot of

that money should have been back in football, back in the develop-ment of children playing the sport,” Sancho told the BBC, describing the revelations as a “travesty”.

Warner was arrested on May 29 at the request of U.S. authori-ties and is currently free on bail of $400,000 bail pending a decision in his extradition case.

Warner — still a powerful mem-ber of parliament in Trinidad and Tobago — has taken out paid ad-vertisements in the Trinidadian media, published articles in local newspapers and held rallies with his Independent Liberal Party to defend himself.

The South African federation issued a statement on Sunday de-nying the accusations levelled at them by another disgraced former Fifa executive Chuck Blazer.

In testimony released by the U.S.

justice department on Wednesday, the former North American foot-ball supremo claimed he and other Fifa executives agreed to accept bribes during bidding for the 1998 and 2010 events.

South Africa has strongly de-nied that it paid bribes to secure the football extravaganza — the first hosted in Africa and a key plank of Blatter’s pledges when he took over as Fifa president in 1998.

“We categorically deny that this was a bribe in return for a vote,” the South African federation said.

“It belittles the hard work done by Madiba (Nelson Mandela), Archbishop Tutu, the South Af-rican Government and numer-ous others who sacrificed their time and money and family lives to make our country proud! It tar-nishes their images in the most unscrupulous manner.” - AFP

In the latest

allegation against

Warner, Egyptian

former sports

minister Aley Eddine

Helal said Warner

asked Egypt in 2004

to pay a $7 million

bribe in exchange for

seven votes to host

the 2010 World Cup

ZURICH: Russia and Qatar could be stripped of their World Cup hosting rights if evidence emerges of bribery in the bidding process, Domenico Scala, the independent chair-man of Fifa’s audit and compli-ance committee, told a Swiss newspaper.

The FBI’s investigation of bribery and corruption at Fifa includes scrutiny of how soc-cer’s governing body awarded World Cup hosting rights to Russia and Qatar, a U.S. law enforcement official said this week. “If evidence should emerge that the awards to Qa-tar and Russia only came about thanks to bought votes, then the awards could be invalidated,” Scala told SonntagsZeitung in an interview on Sunday.

“This evidence has not yet been brought forth.”

Russia and Qatar have denied wrongdoing in the con-duct of their bids for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments, which were not the subject of charges announced by U.S. prosecutors last week against Fifa officials.

Scala made similar com-ments in 2013 but events over the last two weeks, which included a dawn police raid in Zurich and the arrests of several Fifa officials on U.S. charges, have added urgency to his remarks.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said he sup-ported Qatar hosting the 2022 tournament but said Britain would work with another country if Fifa re-opened the bidding process. “We would of-fer our support to any country that has been chosen to host the World Cup,” Hammond

told BBC World Service radio, saying the final decision would be for Fifa to make. He ruled out any British bid to host the 2022 competition if Qatar was stripped of hosting rights.

Sepp Blatter unexpectedly announced on Tuesday he was resigning, just four days after securing a fifth term as Fifa president and shortly before it emerged that he too was under investigation by U.S. law enforcement.

In a separate interview with Swiss paper Sonntags Blick, Scala floated the idea of term limits for the Fifa presidency.

“If a Fifa president does two or three cycles that is enough,” Scala was quoted as saying.

A representative for Scala confirmed his remarks. Fifa did not immediately respond to a request for comment. - Reuters

Russia, Qatar could lose World Cups: report

DISGRACED: Jack Warner

Panel on the documentation of Oman sports history meetsMUSCAT: The Supervising Com-mittee on the documentation of Oman sports history held their third meeting here on Sunday un-der the chairmanship of Sheikh Rashid bin Ahmed Al Hinai, Un-dersecretary at the Ministry of Sports Affairs and head of the committee.

The meeting included a follow up of the implementation of the recommendations of the first and second meetings.

It also reviewed and approved the distribution of work and all the requirements of the book to mem-

bers of the committee who were hired, in addition to the formation of working teams.

Sheikh Saad bin Mohammed Al Mardouf Al Saadi, Minister of Sports Affairs, had issued a minis-terial decision to form a commit-tee to oversee the documentation of sports history in the 45 years of the Sultanate’s blessed Renais-sance period.

The committee includes Sheikh Rashad Al Hinai (chairman), Rashid bin Said Al Ismaili, Ad-visor to the Minister for Sports Planning, Awad bin Mohammed

Al Sayari, Advisor to the Minister for Sports Planning, Mohammed bin Saed Al Manwari, Director General of Planning and Projects, Fahd bin Abdullah Al Raisi, Di-rector General of Sports Care and Development, Mohammed bin Elias Faqeer, Shanoona bint Mo-hammed Al Barwaniyah, from Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), and journalist Nasser bin Hamad Darwish as members, in addition to Hamza bin Ali Aidroos, Direc-tor of Public Relations and Me-dia member and coordinator to the committee. - ONA

S U P E R V I S I N G C O M M I T T E E

CRUCIAL MEETING: Sheikh Rashad Al Hinai, third left, presides over the meeting of the Supervising Committee on the Documentation of Oman Sports History. – ONA

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COMSECTIONC M O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5LIFE & STYLE

I met John Nash for the first time in 1995, a few months after he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Eco-nomic Sciences, and long before he became a renowned, worldwide ce-

lebrity. Although I had not met him before, it was easy to identify him from a distance in the enormous conference hall. He stood off to the side and alone, casually dressed in shorts and staring down, wide-eyed, at the floor, as if he was trying to calculate how many tiles had been used to cover the expanse beneath his feet.

Throughout the years, this encounter was followed by many subsequent meet-ings with John where we discussed game theory, politics and life. These discus-sions were consistently both fascinating and frustrating. They were fascinating because of the captivating stories he liked to tell about Princeton in the early 1950s, or about his one-time meeting with Albert Einstein, and also because of his unique perspective on the various topics we dis-cussed (including politics, one of his fa-vourite topics, on which he was always scrupulously neutral). The discussions were frustrating because no emotional expression on John’s part, either facial or verbal, ever accompanied our talks.

John Nash was one of the founders of game theory, a field of research that many

also refer to as the theory of interactive decision-making. Any marketing or po-litical campaign, a conflict between coun-tries, tension in the workplace, or a cou-ples quarrel can be described as a game for which game theory provides insights. Nash’s brief academic career, before his illness with schizophrenia, led to two re-search papers published in 1950. These two publications arguably remain the most important and most influential pub-lications in the field.

Game theory is divided between two branches; "non-cooperative" and "coop-erative." These two sub-fields represent not only two different research approach-es but also, to a certain extent, different social orientations. The first approach, the non-cooperative one, is descriptive. It seeks to predict how rational and self-interested individuals will behave in situ-ations of conflict. The second approach, the cooperative one, seeks to recommend reasonable and fair solutions for conflict situations between rational and self-in-terested individuals.

The first approach stresses prediction, the second one recommendation. The first focuses on an individual’s selfish be-haviour, the second on a fair solution. The first approach aims at revealing the real-ity of social conflicts; the second seeks to

change it. Finally, the non-cooperative ap-proach believes that conflicts are resolved by themselves, for better or for worse, through the sovereign decisions of the par-ties involved. The cooperative approach assumes the presence of a third party who can implement a fair and unbiased reso-lution for the conflict. If the US Congress could have determined the development of game theory, Republicans would have probably supported the first approach while the Democrats would have voted for the second. In the UK, the Conservatives would have voted in favour of non-coop-erative game theory, while Labour would undoubtedly have campaigned in favour of cooperative game theory.

But John Nash didn’t have to choose. He was the founder of both sub-fields. His seminal paper on equilibria in games, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize, laid the foundations of non-cooperative game theory and is considered one of the most important concepts in modern eco-nomics. His other paper, on the solution to the bargaining problem, is a fundamental building block in cooperative game theory and a vital contribution to economic theo-ry. While on the face of the matter it might appear that the gap between these two ap-proaches is wider than that between heav-en and earth, it turns out that, in many

environments, the two approaches often lead to the same conclusions.

This is one of the most important in-sights that modern research has contrib-uted to game theory. In many situations, self-centred behaviour leads to bridg-ing between opposing interests and the conflict is resolved with more or less the same outcome that a fair arbitrator would have imposed. In cases where the two ap-proaches provide different conclusions, none of the two is overwhelmingly better than the other. In some cases, the non-cooperative approach delivers a more rea-sonable conclusion, while in others it is the cooperative one that performs better. This is an important truth, which I believe can be carried beyond the boundaries of game theory, in particular into politics.

Game theory, in its two branches, can also be viewed as the theory of putting oneself in someone else’s shoes. To man-age a conflict or to resolve it you have to understand the motives of all the parties involved: you have to be able to assess the benefits that each party might gain and the costs that they will have to incur as a result of any possible action that they might choose to undertake. In many eco-nomic applications, when the parties to the conflict are corporations, these costs and benefits are concrete and measurable.

But real life presents us with very different types of conflicts – eg, between friends, family members or colleagues, or between political parties, countries, even terror or-ganisations. In these conflicts, costs and benefits become significantly more amor-phous. They are affected by emotions, moral sentiments and ideologies.

Three months ago, I received an e-mail message from John soon after my book was published. John wrote that finding ways to measure these types of costs and benefits poses a great challenge to us game theo-rists. Most people, in their intuitive use of game theory, manage to assess these costs and benefits quite well with the help of their emotional intelligence and empathy.

However, schizophrenia patients lack this ability. A deficiency in emotional in-telligence and empathy is one of the most prominent symptoms of the disease. John Nash understood his disease and the ram-ifications of its symptoms.

He understood that he would never be able to use empathy as a means with which to fathom the behaviour of other people. But he also refused to relinquish his desire to understand human behaviour, and he did this by using his own tools – his math-ematical ingenuity and the magical theory that he founded: game theory. -Eyal Winter/The Independent

Any marketing or political campaign, a conflict between countries, tension at workplace, or a couple’s quarrel can be described as a game.

This is an important insight that contributed to the game theory

C8

EXTRAM O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

Recognising our nearest and dearest comes natu-rally to most of us. But for an estimated one in 50 like Hazel Plastow, a

57-year-old charity executive from Caterham in Surrey, face blindness challenges her daily.

Hazel has a curious condi-tion that means she is unable to recognise her husband, parents, friends and colleagues. She can’t even identify her own face in a photograph. Face blindness, or prosopagnosia, is a spectrum condition that can affect some-one relatively mildly or, as in Hazel’s case, severely.

Yet despite its relatively high prevalence, the condition re-mains fairly unknown. A new support group, Face Blind UK – established by a group of peo-ple with the condition – hopes to raise awareness and highlight support and coping strategies for those in need.

Hazel first learned about face blindness four years ago after hearing a radio report on an American research project. Understanding completely what she heard, she contacted a researcher specialising in the condition at the University of London and was diagnosed.

It was a huge relief. “It shows people it isn’t just that you aren’t trying hard enough,” Hazel says. “Without knowing there is a reason, you end up doubting yourself.”

The frustration felt by herself and others towards their inabil-ity to recognise anyone has been lessened by the understanding that the condition is permanent and beyond their control. “It’s like being short. You wouldn’t criticise someone for that,” she says. Hazel is now also more able to control her own anxieties. But the feeling of disorientation re-mains a familiar one. “Your real-ity is shifting all the time,” Hazel says. “We were at a family meal recently and I thought the wait-ress had come over. Actually it was my sister but I hadn’t seen her get up from the table.”

In a few cases, face blindness develops after a brain injury such as a stroke (known as ac-quired prosopagnosia), but the vast majority of cases are life-long – due to a particular part of the brain not having developed in the normal way.

Hazel has had the condition as long as she can remember and as a child, she was always seen as very shy. “All my life I

have been fitting around the face blindness,” she says.

At school, she always sat at the back and was only able to form a few friendships: “I was very inse-cure in the social melee, even in a small school, and I relied heavily on the routine and context to try and work things out.”

Often, she explains, prosop-agnosics seek out the company of people with distinguishing features. One boyfriend was six foot four with a large beard. “That was easier. It gave me more con-fidence walking into the pub to meet him,” she laughs.

As she grew older, Hazel found her condition increasingly limit-ing. The developing relationships and social life of the late teen-

age and early adult years were stressful. “I worked very hard at covering up,” she says. “I thought everyone else was just better at social things.”

Hazel has developed many tactics to help herself: “Often I can tell from the way someone acts that I must know them. I have people walk up and hug me but I have no idea who they are. I ask general questions hoping for clues – some family names or something.” On many occasions, though, she says she walks away none the wiser.

At work – where she regularly has to attend meetings and con-ferences – she is particularly good at remembering names and uses notes and diagrams as triggers. But people can take offence when she is unable to recognise them. Certain settings are particularly challenging. “Funerals are the worst. It isn’t the place to start talking about your own issues and there are people you ought to know and people you’ve never met.”

At her mother-in-law’s funeral last year, Hazel found herself in conversation. “I asked the woman how she had known Muriel. She was my cousin.” Dr Sarah Bate, director of the Centre for Face Pro-cessing Disorders at Bournemouth

University, believes awareness of prosopagnosia is growing, slowly: “It is perhaps where ADHD was 20 years ago.” There is, she says, much work to be done.

“Without understanding and support, young people can experi-ence difficulty in making friends, social anxiety and depression,” says Dr Bate. “We work with teenagers who tell us they are unable to form relationships and fear they’ll make errors that ruin their chances. The adults who come to us say they want to make it easier for the next generation.”

There is currently no treat-ment, and patients approaching their GPs are referred to univer-sity researchers rather than med-ical specialists (assuming they are given any referral at all), but Dr Bate says departments such as hers can really help.

They can suggest compensa-tory strategies to ease social difficulties and create support networks among those with the condition. Schools and work-places can be asked to use seating plans, name tags, even coloured ribbons or badges for children, to help them identify others.

Dr Bate hopes the growing body of research will lead to better support. Developmental

prosopagnosia was thought to be rare until the start of the century, when the Internet led to a deluge of reported cases. “But a lot of people still don’t realise they are different. They assume everyone recognises people by their hair, their shoes, their voice,” she says.

Researchers are trying to iden-tify why the condition develops.

In some cases, there appears to be a genetic link, with the condition running in families. An early history of visual prob-lems is also common.

“In childhood, it appears criti-cal to have normal interactions with faces. If that is missed, they may miss a window for devel-oping normal face-recognition skills,” explains Dr Bate.

How severely an individual is affected varies widely: “We have parents who can’t recognise their children. One mother told us she went to the wrong child at the nursery. That is very hard emotionally.” It is, Hazel Plas-tow believes, easy to underesti-mate the impact of the condition. “Children, in particular, are very vulnerable,” she says. “They can feel lost and alone. That is why we need to talk about it – we can change that.”— Giulia Rhodes/The Daily Express

What is it like to live with face blindness? Hazel Plastow

tells the agonies of not recognising her own family

PROSOPAGNOSIAHazel Plastow

Henry Morgan, a 17th-century Welsh pirate who

along the Spanish Main became a multimillionaire in today’s dollars, said, “A kleptomaniac is a person who helps himself because he can’t help himself.”

In yesterday’s deal, East had to help West steal the contract from South. In today’s deal, West can return the favour — how?

South is in three no-trump. West leads a fourth-highest spade six, which is covered by the three, 10 and jack. South immediately attacks diamonds. What should happen after that?

North was a tad

aggressive in jumping to three no-trump, but he hoped his diamond suit would provide five winners.

East does not know the strength of West’s spade suit. If West has ace-queen- or ace-jack-fifth, the defenders can capture one diamond and four spades. Here, though, that does not happen.

If East returns a spade after taking the diamond ace, South makes his contract.

First, West should play high-low in diamonds to show his doubleton. Then East should hold up his diamond ace until the third round to give West a chance

to make an informative discard.

If West has strong spades, he pitches a low heart or club. Here, though, he must throw a spade to warn East that that suit is not a source of tricks. Then East should shift to the heart three, which gives the defenders four more tricks to defeat the contract.

Phillip Alder is combining in May 2016 with Kalos to run a bridge and golf river cruise starting from Bordeaux, France. Details are available on Phillip’s website: www.phillipalderbridge.com.

— By Phillip Alder

C9

ENTERTAINMENT

When leader knows, he tells partner

B I G N A T E

B O R N L O S E R

M A R M A D U K E

A C E S O N B R I D G E

K I D S P O T H E A L T H C A P S U L EC R O S S W O R D

Answer to previous puzzle

WITH LOVE

M O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

Send us a colour photograph of the child (below 16 years) whose birthday you are celebrating, along with his/her full name, date of birth, address, telephone number and parents’/your name to Times of Oman, With Love, PO Box 770, PC 112, Ruwi or through e-mail to extra@timesofoman.com

GHAITHJune 8, 2014

ACROSS 1 Heckle 5 Clump of dirt 9 Icy remark?12 Nautical position13 Surfing hub14 Debtor’s letters15 Triangular sails16 Won narrowly (2 wds.)18 AAA suggestions20 Hangs in21 Laughs loudly23 Price tag25 Hawkeye st.26 Fall softly28 Depot info32 Omelet base35 Festive night36 Splinter group

37 One of the noble gases38 Peddle40 Flint’s st.41 Skip over43 Aisle guide46 Pulpy fruit49 Run in neutral50 Cuspidor53 Blarney Stone site56 Dues payer, for short57 Herr’s abode58 Prevent errata59 Informal wear60 Mini-play61 Driftwood bringer

DOWN 1 Gandhi opposed it

2 Rope-a-dope boxer 3 Serengeti grazer 4 Piquant 5 Scams 6 Thai language 7 Sighs of distress 8 Occasions for seconds 9 “Who’s Who” entries10 Send packing11 Deep tracks17 Evenings out19 Clairvoyance21 Good, in Guatemala22 Latest fad23 Feel envious24 Unlocked27 Name in blue jeans

29 “Tao — Ching”30 Summit31 Follow the cookbook33 Take off34 Blow, as a horse39 Lead balloon42 Joseph Campbell forte44 Winter precip45 Alpine moppet46 Cellar, briefly47 Rapier48 “The — of the Ancient Mariner”49 Scholarly org.51 Furniture wood52 Yes, to Yvette54 Free of55 Dog days in Dijon

C I N E M A S C H E D U L EC I N E M A S C H E D U L E

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SCREEN 2

Tanu Weds Manu Returns (Romance/Drama/Comedy) – TBCCast: Kangana Ranaut, R. Madhavan3:45, 6:45 & 9:45PM

San Andreas (2D) (12+) (Action, Drama)                                                              Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario3:15pmSan Andreas (3D) (12+) (Action, Drama)                                                              Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario9:15 & 11:30PMJungle Master (2D) (PG) (Animation, Adventure, Comedy)                                                              Cast: Victoria Justice, David Spade4:00AMSurvivor (2D) (PG12) (Action/Thriller) Cast: Milla Jovovich, Pierce Brosnan, Dylan McDermott5:20, 9:45 & 11:45PMCut Bank - 2D (12+) ThrillerCast: Liam Hemsworth, Teresa Palmer02:30 PMEntourage - 2D (15+) ComedyCast: Adrian Grenier, Jeremy Piven05:20 & 07:15 PMWoman in Gold - 2D (PG) DramaCast: Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds, Daniel Brühl04:15 & 06:15 PMInsidious: Chapter 3 - 2D (15+) HorrorCast: Dermot Mulroney, Stefanie Scott, Angus Sampson02:10, 05:30 & 11:30 PMSpy - 2D (18+) Action | ComedyCast: Jude Law, Raad Rawi, Melissa McCarthy07:15, 09:30 & 11:30 PMDil Dhadakne Do - 2D (TBC) (Drama)

San Andreas – 3D (PG) Action, DramaCast: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino09:30 & 11:45 PMSpy - 2D (18+) Action, Comedy Cast: Jude Law, Melissa McCarthy 03:15, 07:15 & 11:30 PMSurvivor – 2D (PG12) Action, Thriller Cast: Milla Jovovich, Pierce Brosnan2:45, 5:30, 8:15 & 10:00PMBurying the Ex – 2D (12+) Comedy Cast: Anton Yelchin, Ashley Greene04:30 PMWoman in Gold – 2D (PG)  Drama Cast: Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds02:45, 06:15 PM Insidious: Chapter 3 - 2D (15+) Horror Cast: Dermot Mulroney, Stefanie Scott04:45, 11:45 PM Chandrettan Evideya – 2D (PG) Comedy Cast: Anusree, Dilip, Namitha Pramod 06:30 PM Dil Dhadakne Do – 2D (TBC)Drama Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shetty, Priyanka Chopra 08:45 PM

San Andreas (3D) (Action | Thriller) (PG) Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino07:30 PM Survivor (Action | Thriller) (PG12) Cast: Milla Jovovich, Pierce Brosnan4:45 & 9:45PM

San Andreas (2D) (12+) (Action, Drama)                                                              Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino2:45pmSan Andreas (3D) (12+) (Action, Drama)                                                              9:15 & 11:30PMSpy (2D) (18+) (Action, Comedy) Cast: Jude Law, Raad Rawi5:00 & 9:30PMCut Bank (3D) (12+) (Thriller) Cast: Liam Hemsworth, Teresa Palmer11:00AM & 3:15PMSurvivor (2D) (PG12) (Action, Thriller) Cast: Milla Jovovich, Pierce Brosnan12:45 & 7:15PMWoman in Gold (2D) (PG) (Drama) 12:30 & 06:30PMInsidious: Chapter 3 (2D) (15+) (Horror) 2:30 & 11:45PMJungle Master (2D) (PG) (Animation) Cast: Victoria Justice, David Spade11:00AMEntourage (2D) (15+) (Comedy) 4:20 & 7:20PMBurying the Ex (2D) (12+) (Comedy) 1:30PMChandrettan Evideya (2D) (PG) Cast: Anusree, Dilip, Namitha Pramod5:00PMDil Dhadakne Do (2D) (PG12) (Drama) Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Anil Kapoor8:30PM 

Insidious: Chapter 3 (Horror) (15+) Cast: Dermot Mulroney, Stefanie Scott06:30 PM Spy (Action | Comedy) (18+) Cast: Jason Statham, Jude Law05:15, 11:30 PM Dil Dhadakne Do (Hindi) (Drama) (TBC) Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shetty, Priyanka Chopra 08:15 PM Chandrettan Evideya (Mal) (Comedy) (PG) Cast: Anusree, Dilip, Namitha Pramod 11:15 PM

SCREEN 3

Gabbar - Hindi (Action/Drama ) – PGCast: Akshay Kumar, Shruti K. Haasan, Kareena Kapoor3:45, 6:45 & 9:45PM

Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shetty, Priyanka Chopra  02:15 & 08:15 PMChandrettan Evideya - 2D (M) (PG) ComedyCast: Anusree, Dilip, Namitha Pramod07:25 PM

C10

FIND-IT-ALLM O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

MONDAYFLT NO ARRIVALS FROM ETA WY672 MEDINA  0005WY648 KUWAIT  0005WY406 CAIRO  0005WY676 JEDDAH  0005WY682 RIYADH  0010WY914 SALALAH  0020WY916 SALALAH  0120TK774 ISTANBUL  01354H583 DACCA  0200PK229 LAHORE  0215GF560 BAHRAIN  0325QR1132 DOHA  0345ET624 ADDIS ABABA  0350EK866 DUBAI  0350EY384 ABU DHABI  0400FZ041 DUBAI  0415WY114 FRANKFURT  0515WY658 BAHRAIN  0635WY638 ABU DHABI  0640WY902 SALALAH  0645WY644 KUWAIT  0650WY154 ZURICH  0700WY144 MALPENSA  0705WY668 DOHA  0715WY674 JEDDAH  0735WY102 LONDON HEATHROW  0740FZ043 DUBAI  0800WY422 BEIRUT  0805WY602 DUBAI  0805WY346 ISLAM ABBAD  0815WY342 LAHORE  0825WY272 JAIPUR  0830WY202 BOMBAY  0835WY236 HYDERABAD  0900G9114 SHARJAH  0905WY226 COCHIN  0920EK862 DUBAI  0930WY210 GOA  0935WY242 DELHI  0935WY212 TRIVANDRUM  0950WY252 MADRAS  0955QR1128 DOHA  1000EY382 ABU DHABI  1010WY844 MANILA  10209W530 TRIVANDRUM  1045WY604 DUBAI  1115WY918 KHASAB  1115WY3302 MUKHAIZNA  1120GF562 BAHRAIN  1130FZ037 DUBAI  1140WY372 COLOMBO  1140IX337 CALICUT  1155PA450 LAHORE  1215WY705 DARESSLAM-ZANZIBAR  1215WY822 KUALA LUMPUR-SINGAPORE  1215WY634 ABU DHABI  1220WY818 BANGKOK  1220WY904 SALALAH  1230WY670 DOHA  1250WY324 KARACHI  1300WY332 KATHMANDU  1305WY632 ABU DHABI  1335WY606 DUBAI  1340WY920 KHASAB  1445FZ045 DUBAI  1535WY3304 MUKHAIZNA  1550WY656 BAHRAIN  1635QR1126 DOHA  1650WY204 BOMBAY  1655WY292 CALICUT  1710WY264 LUCKNOW  1740WY664 DOHA  1745EK864 DUBAI  1745WY232 HYDERABAD  1750WY246 DELHI  1750WY254 MADRAS  1750WY284 BANGALORE  1750WY3922 DUQUM OMAN  1755WY610 DUBAI  1800GF564 BAHRAIN  1810G9116 SHARJAH  1905WY684 RIYADH  1915WY646 KUWAIT  1920FZ047 DUBAI  1940WY614 DUBAI  2025WY848 JAKARTA  2035WY338 KATHMANDU  2040WY434 TEHRAN  2055FZ049 DUBAI  2100KL441 AMSTERDAM-DOHA  2105AI977 BANGALORE-HYDERABAD  2105WY124 MUNICH  21054H561 DACCA  21159W534 COCHIN  2115AI973 DELHI  21256.00E+81 BOMBAY  2130BA073 LONDON HEATHROW-ABU DHABI  2140WY624 DUBAI  2150WY906 SALALAH  2155AI907 MADRAS  2200WY312 CHITTAGONG  2210QR1134 DOHA  2225LX242 ZURICH-DUBAI  2225GF566 BAHRAIN  2240LH616 FRANKFURT-DOHA  2245WY717 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM  2250SG061 AHMEDABAD  2300EY388 ABU DHABI  2300WY910 SALALAH  23109W540 BOMBAY  2315WY908 SALALAH  2320AI985 BOMBAY  2325WY662 DOHA  2335WY654 BAHRAIN  2340WY636 ABU DHABI  2340WY928 SALALAH  2345WY816 BANGKOK  2350WY612 DUBAI  2355WY696 DAMMAM  2355

TUESDAYFLT NO ARRIVALS FROM ETA

WY406 CAIRO  0005WY648 KUWAIT  0005WY676 JEDDAH  0005WY682 RIYADH  0010WY914 SALALAH  0020BG021 DACCA  0100WY916 SALALAH  0120NL768 LAHORE  0130TK774 ISTANBUL  01354H583 DACCA  0200PK281 ISLAM ABBAD-SIALKOT  0300GF560 BAHRAIN  0325QR1132 DOHA  0345EK866 DUBAI  0350ET624 ADDIS ABABA  0350EY384 ABU DHABI  0400FZ041 DUBAI  0415WY114 FRANKFURT  0515WY412 AMMAN  0515WY658 BAHRAIN  0635WY638 ABU DHABI  06404H562 JEDDAH  0645WY902 SALALAH  0645WY644 KUWAIT  0650WY326 KARACHI  0650WY686 RIYADH  0655WY154 ZURICH  0700WY144 MALPENSA  0705WY678 MEDINA  0710WY668 DOHA  0715WY132 PARIS  0735WY674 JEDDAH  0735WY102 LONDON HEATHROW  0740FZ043 DUBAI  0800WY432 TEHRAN  0805WY602 DUBAI  0805WY346 ISLAM ABBAD  0815WY342 LAHORE  0825WY272 JAIPUR  0830WY202 BOMBAY  0835G9841 RAS AL KHAIMA  0855WY236 HYDERABAD  0900G9114 SHARJAH  0905WY282 BANGALORE  0910EK862 DUBAI  0930WY242 DELHI  0935WY252 MADRAS  0955QR1128 DOHA  1000IX817 MANGALORE  1010EY382 ABU DHABI  10109W530 TRIVANDRUM  1045WY3302 MUKHAIZNA  1050WY604 DUBAI  1115WY918 KHASAB  1115WY652 BAHRAIN  1125GF562 BAHRAIN  1130FZ037 DUBAI  1140WY372 COLOMBO  1140IX337 CALICUT  1155WY384 MALE  1210WY822 KUALA LUMPUR-SINGAPORE  1215WY705 DARESSLAM-ZANZIBAR  1215WY904 SALALAH  1220WY634 ABU DHABI  1220WY818 BANGKOK  1220BG023 DACCA-CHITTAGONG  1230WY670 DOHA  1250WY324 KARACHI  1300WY332 KATHMANDU  1305PA950 SIALKOT  1310PK191 GWADUR  1320WY606 DUBAI  1340WY906 SALALAH  1440WY920 KHASAB  1445FZ045 DUBAI  1535WY632 ABU DHABI  1605WY656 BAHRAIN  1610QR1126 DOHA  1650WY3304 MUKHAIZNA  1650WY204 BOMBAY  1655WY292 CALICUT  1710WY264 LUCKNOW  1740WY664 DOHA  1745WY216 TRIVANDRUM  1745EK864 DUBAI  1745WY232 HYDERABAD  1750WY246 DELHI  1750WY610 DUBAI  1800WY694 DAMMAM  1805GF564 BAHRAIN  1810TG507 BANGKOK-KARACHI  1900SV534 RIYADH  1900G9116 SHARJAH  1905WY374 COLOMBO  1915WY646 KUWAIT  1920FZ047 DUBAI  1940WY908 SALALAH  2000RG125 ABU DHABI  2005WY386 MALE  2020WY224 COCHIN  2025WY614 DUBAI  2025WY338 KATHMANDU  2040FZ049 DUBAI  2100WY124 MUNICH  21059W534 COCHIN  2115AI973 DELHI  21256.00E+81 BOMBAY  2130WY254 MADRAS  2135BA073 LONDON HEATHROW-ABU DHABI  2140WY624 DUBAI  2150UL205 COLOMBO  2155AI907 MADRAS  2200WY312 CHITTAGONG  2210LX242 ZURICH-DUBAI  2225QR1134 DOHA  2225GF566 BAHRAIN  2240LH616 FRANKFURT-DOHA  2245EY388 ABU DHABI  2300WY910 SALALAH  23109W540 BOMBAY  2315AI985 BOMBAY  2325WY662 DOHA  2335WY654 BAHRAIN  2340WY636 ABU DHABI  2340WY928 SALALAH  2345WY816 BANGKOK  2350WY696 DAMMAM  2355WY612 DUBAI  2355

FLT NO DEPARTURES TO ETD AI986 BOMBAY  00209W539 BOMBAY  0020WY657 BAHRAIN  0055WY225 COCHIN  0105WY637 ABU DHABI  0105WY211 TRIVANDRUM  0110WY235 HYDERABAD  0110WY201 BOMBAY  0115WY643 KUWAIT  0120WY345 ISLAM ABBAD  0125WY271 JAIPUR  0135WY341 LAHORE  0145WY601 DUBAI  0145WY371 COLOMBO  0155WY123 MUNICH  0200WY901 SALALAH  0215WY847 JAKARTA  0215WY241 DELHI  0215WY667 DOHA  0225TK775 ISTANBUL  0230WY209 GOA  02554H584 DACCA  0300PK226 KARACHI  0315WY331 KATHMANDU  0350EK867 DUBAI  0450ET625 ADDIS ABABA  0450EY385 ABU DHABI  0500FZ042 DUBAI  0510QR1133 DOHA  0515GF561 BAHRAIN  0715WY603 DUBAI  0750WY903 SALALAH  0750WY3301 MUKHAIZNA  0800WY917 KHASAB  0815WY323 KARACHI  0835WY669 DOHA  0835FZ044 DUBAI  0845WY633 ABU DHABI  0900WY815 BANGKOK  0905WY253 MADRAS  0915WY291 CALICUT  0915WY263 LUCKNOW  0940WY717 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM  0940WY821 SINGAPORE-KUALA LUMPUR  0945G9115 SHARJAH  0955WY231 HYDERABAD  1000WY283 BANGALORE  1000WY631 ABU DHABI  1015WY605 DUBAI  1020WY203 BOMBAY  1025WY245 DELHI  1040EK863 DUBAI  1045WY337 KATHMANDU  1050QR1129 DOHA  1100EY383 ABU DHABI  1105WY311 CHITTAGONG  11409W533 COCHIN  1145WY919 KHASAB  1145GF563 BAHRAIN  1215WY655 BAHRAIN  1215FZ038 DUBAI  1225WY3303 MUKHAIZNA  1230IX350 CALICUT  1255PA451 LAHORE  1315WY113 FRANKFURT  1320WY663 DOHA  1330WY683 RIYADH  1335WY131 PARIS  1345WY645 KUWAIT  1350WY143 MALPENSA  1350WY101 LONDON HEATHROW  1400WY153 ZURICH  1420WY927 SALALAH  1430WY405 CAIRO  1440WY609 DUBAI  1445WY433 TEHRAN  1445WY3921 DUQUM OMAN  1455WY675 JEDDAH  1615FZ046 DUBAI  1620WY613 DUBAI  1710WY905 SALALAH  1735QR1127 DOHA  1750WY681 RIYADH  1840WY623 DUBAI  1840WY647 KUWAIT  1845WY909 SALALAH  1850GF565 BAHRAIN  1855WY907 SALALAH  1900EK865 DUBAI  1910WY695 DAMMAM  1915WY661 DOHA  1920WY653 BAHRAIN  1920G9117 SHARJAH  1955WY913 SALALAH  2000WY635 ABU DHABI  2015FZ048 DUBAI  2025WY611 DUBAI  2035WY411 AMMAN  2100WY915 SALALAH  2100FZ050 DUBAI  2145AI978 HYDERABAD-BANGALORE  22004H561 JEDDAH  2215KL442 DOHA-AMSTERDAM  2220WY817 BANGKOK  22259W529 TRIVANDRUM  22306.00E+82 BOMBAY  2245AI908 MADRAS  2300WY677 MEDINA  2310WY705 DARESSLAM-ZANZIBAR  2310AI974 DELHI  2310GF567 BAHRAIN  2325LX243 DUBAI-ZURICH  2325BA072 ABU DHABI-LONDON HEATHROW  2330QR1135 DOHA  2330WY673 JEDDAH  2350LH617 DOHA-FRANKFURT  2355EY381 ABU DHABI  2355

FLT NO DEPARTURES TO ETD AI986 BOMBAY  00209W539 BOMBAY  0020SG062 AHMEDABAD  0030WY657 BAHRAIN  0055WY637 ABU DHABI  0105WY235 HYDERABAD  0110WY281 BANGALORE  0110WY685 RIYADH  0115WY201 BOMBAY  0115WY643 KUWAIT  0120WY251 MADRAS  0120WY345 ISLAM ABBAD  0125WY271 JAIPUR  0135WY601 DUBAI  0145WY341 LAHORE  0145WY431 TEHRAN  0155WY371 COLOMBO  0155WY123 MUNICH  0200WY325 KARACHI  0210WY901 SALALAH  0215WY241 DELHI  0215WY667 DOHA  0225WY383 MALE  0230BG022 CHITTAGONG-DACCA  0230NL769 LAHORE  0230TK775 ISTANBUL  02304H584 DACCA  0300WY331 KATHMANDU  0350PK282 SIALKOT  0400EK867 DUBAI  0450ET625 ADDIS ABABA  0450EY385 ABU DHABI  0500FZ042 DUBAI  0510QR1133 DOHA  0515GF561 BAHRAIN  0715WY651 BAHRAIN  0730WY3301 MUKHAIZNA  0730WY903 SALALAH  07404H562 DACCA  0745WY603 DUBAI  0750WY917 KHASAB  0815WY323 KARACHI  0835WY669 DOHA  0835FZ044 DUBAI  0845WY633 ABU DHABI  0900WY373 COLOMBO  0900WY215 TRIVANDRUM  0900WY815 BANGKOK  0905WY291 CALICUT  0915WY263 LUCKNOW  0940WY385 MALE  0945G9842 RAS AL KHAIMA  0945WY821 SINGAPORE-KUALA LUMPUR  0945G9115 SHARJAH  0955WY231 HYDERABAD  1000WY905 SALALAH  1020WY605 DUBAI  1020WY203 BOMBAY  1025WY245 DELHI  1040EK863 DUBAI  1045WY337 KATHMANDU  1050IX818 MANGALORE  1100QR1129 DOHA  1100EY383 ABU DHABI  1105WY311 CHITTAGONG  1140WY919 KHASAB  11459W533 COCHIN  1145GF563 BAHRAIN  1215WY223 COCHIN  1215WY655 BAHRAIN  1215FZ038 DUBAI  1225WY631 ABU DHABI  1240IX350 CALICUT  1255WY253 MADRAS  1255WY113 FRANKFURT  1320WY693 DAMMAM  1330WY3303 MUKHAIZNA  1330WY663 DOHA  1330WY131 PARIS  1345WY143 MALPENSA  1350WY645 KUWAIT  1350WY101 LONDON HEATHROW  1400BG024 DACCA  1400PK192 GWADUR-TURBAT  1405PA951 SIALKOT  1430WY927 SALALAH  1430WY405 CAIRO  1440WY609 DUBAI  1445WY907 SALALAH  1540WY675 JEDDAH  1615FZ046 DUBAI  1620WY671 MEDINA  1705WY613 DUBAI  1710QR1127 DOHA  1750WY623 DUBAI  1840WY681 RIYADH  1840WY647 KUWAIT  1845WY909 SALALAH  1850GF565 BAHRAIN  1855EK865 DUBAI  1910WY695 DAMMAM  1915WY661 DOHA  1920WY653 BAHRAIN  1920G9117 SHARJAH  1955SV535 RIYADH  2000WY913 SALALAH  2000TG508 KARACHI-BANGKOK  2005WY635 ABU DHABI  2015FZ048 DUBAI  2025WY611 DUBAI  2035RG126 ABU DHABI  2045WY915 SALALAH  2100FZ050 DUBAI  2145WY411 AMMAN  2205WY421 BEIRUT  2215WY817 BANGKOK  22259W529 TRIVANDRUM  22306.00E+82 BOMBAY  2245AI908 MADRAS  2300UL206 COLOMBO  2305AI974 DELHI  2310GF567 BAHRAIN  2325LX243 DUBAI-ZURICH  2325BA072 ABU DHABI-LONDON HEATHROW  2330QR1135 DOHA  2330WY673 JEDDAH  2350LH617 DOHA-FRANKFURT  2355EY381 ABU DHABI  2355

A I R L I N E S

PHARMACIESRound the clockAl Hashar Pharmacy, Ruwi: 24783334; Appolo Medical Centre, Hamriya: 24782666; Muscat Pharmacy, Ruwi: 24702542, Salalah: 23291635; Atlas Pharmacy, Ghubra: 24503585; Ruwi 24811715Muscat RegionApollo, Al Hamriya. Tel: 24787766Muscat, A Seeb Market. Tel: 24421691Muscat, Al Khuwair. Tel: 24485740Muscat, Al Hail South. Tel: 4537080Dhofar RegionMuscat, Al Nahdha Road, Salalah. Tel: 23291635

HOSPITALSAl Amal Medical & Health Care Centre: 24485052Atlas Hospital: Ruwi: 24811743/ Ghubra: 24504000Al Musafir Specialised Medical Clinic: 24706453Hatat Polyclinic LLC,Ruwi: 24563641, Azaiba: 24499269, Sohar: 2683006Al Raffah Hospital: 24618900/1/2Al Massaraat Clinic & Laboratory: 24566435Al Makook Medical Coordinance Centre: 24499434Apollo Medical Centre, Hamriya: 24787766, 24787780Capital Polyclinic: 24707549Badr Al Samaa Polyclinic, Ruwi: 24799760/1/2Capital Clinic, Seeb: 24420740Ceregem National Raak: 24485633Dr Harub’s Clinic: 24563217Elixir Health Centre: 24565802Emirates Medical Centre: 246045401st Chiropractic Centre: 24472274Hamdan Hospital: 23212340International Medical Centre LLC: 24794501/2/3/4/5Kims Oman Hospital: 24760100

24 Hrs Emergency: 24760123Lama Polyclinic, Sohar: 26751128, MBD: 24799077, Al Khuwair: 24478818Magrabi Eye and Ear Hospital: 24568870Muscat Private Hospital: 24583600Welcare Diagnostic and Treatment Centre, Al Khuwair: 24477666Al-Hayat Polyclinc LLC: 22004000

ROYAL OMAN POLICEEmergencies and inquiries: 9999General Directorate of Passport and Residence: 24569603Directorate General of Customs: 24521109Traffic violations inquiries: 24510228Public Relations Admin: 24560099

ACCOMMODATIONAl Bahjah Hotel: 24424400Al Bustan Palace: 24764000 Al Khuwair Hotel Apartments: 24478171Al Madina Holiday Inn: 24596400Al Maha International Hotel: 24494949Al Fanar Hotel: 24712385Al Falaj Hotel: 24702311Al Qurum Resort: 24605945Azaiba Hotel Apartments: 24490979Beach Hotel: 24696601Bowshar Hotel: 24491105Coral Hotel Muscat: 24692121Crowne Plaza Muscat: 24660660Crystal Suites: 24826100Golden Tulip Seeb: 24510300Grand Hyatt Muscat: 24641234Haffa House Hotel: 24707207Hotel Muscat Holiday: 24487123InterContinental Muscat: 24680000Majan Continental Hotel: 24592900Marina Hotel: 24711711Midan Hotel Suites: 24499565Mina Hotel: 24711828Muttrah Hotel: 24798401

Nuzha Hotel Apartments: 24789199Oman Dive Centre: 24824240Park Inn: 24507888Qurum Beach House Hotel: 24564070Radisson Blu Hotel: 24487777Ramee Dream Resort Seeb: 24453399Ramee Guestline Hotel: 24564443Ruwi Hotel: 24704244Safeer Hotel Suites: 24691200Sheraton Oman Hotel: 24772772Shangri-La’s Barr Al Jissah Resort and Spa: 24776666The Chedi Muscat: 24524400The Treasurebox Muscat Hotel: 24502570Sifawy Hotel +968 24749111Juweira Hotel +968 23239600

AIRLINE OFFICESMuscat Airport Flight information (24 hours): 24519456/24519223Aeroflot: 24704455, Air Arabia: 24700828, Air France: 24562153, Air India: 24799801, Air New Zealand: 24700732, Biman Bangladesh Airlines: 24701128, British Airways: 24568777, Cathay Pacific: 24789818, Egypt Air: 24794113, Emirates Air: 24404400, Ethiopian Airlines: 24660313, Gulf Air: 80072424, Indian: 24791914, Iran Air: 24787423, Japan Airlines: 24704455, Jazeera Airways: 23294848, Jet Airways: 24787248, Kenya Airways: 24660300, KML Royal Dutch Airlines: 24566737, Kuwait Airways: 24701262, LOT Polish Airlines: 24796387, Lufthansa: 24796692, Malaysian Airlines: 24560796, Middle East Airlines: 24796680, Oman Air: 24531111, Pakistan International Airlines: 24792471, Qatar Airways: 24771900, Qantas: 24559941, Royal Jordanian: 24796693, Saudi Arabian Airlines: 24789485, Singapore

Airlines: 24791233, Shaheen Air: 24816565, SriLankan Airlines: 24784545, Swiss International Airlines: 24796692, Thai Airways: 24705934, Turkish Airlines: 24703033

MUSEUMSBait Al Baranda: Corniche (seafront opp fish market), Open from Saturday to Thursday 9am to 1pm and 4 to 6pmNatural History Museum: Al Khuwair, Tel: 24604957, Open from Saturday to Wednesday: 8am to 1:30pm; Thursday: 9am to 1pmMuseum of Omani Heritage: (former Omani Museum), Madinat Al Alam, Sat-Wed 8am to 1:30pm, Thursday - 9am to 1pm, Tel: 24600946Armed Forces Museum: Bait Al Falaj, Tel: 24312651, Open from Sat to Wed: 8am to 1:30pm; Thurs 9-12pm and 3-6pm; Fri 9-11am and 3-6pm. Al Hoota Caves 24498258; Turtle Beach 96550606/96550707Children’s Science Museum: Shatti Al Qurum, Tel: 24605368, Open from Saturday to Wednesday: 8am to 1:30pm, Thursday: 9am to 1pmOman-French Museum: near Muscat Police Station, Tel: 24736613, Open from Sat to Wed: 8am to 1:30pm, Thurs: 9am to 1pmBait Al Zubair, Muscat: Tel: 24736688, Al Saidiya St., Muscatmuseum@baitalzubairmuseum.comOpen from Sat to Thurs: 9:30am to 6pm.National Museum Ruwi: Tel: 24701289, Open from Sat to Wed: 8am to 1:30pm, Thurs: 9am to 1pmSohar Fort Museum: Tel: 26844758, Open from Saturday to Wed: 8 to 1:30pm Thurs: 9am to 1pmMuscat Gate Museum: at Al Bahri Road, Muscat open from Sat to Wed 8am to 2pm

PRAYER TIMINGS

W E A T H E R

Dhuhr 12.11pm

Asr 3.29pm

Maghrib 6.57pm

Isha 8.19pm Fajr (Tomorrow) 3.53am

Sunset 6:52pm

Sunrise (Tomorrow) 5.19am

High tide 1:08pm 12:37am

Low tide 7:23pm 7:09am

OMAN

Max 41Min 34

Max 35Min 28

Max 35Min 29

Max 41Min 29

Max 38Min 29Max 40

Min 24

Max 42Min 26

Max 33 Min 29

Clear to partly cloudy skies along coastal areas of Arabian Sea and mainly clear skies over the rest of the Sultanate with chance of convective clouds developments and thundershowers over al-Hajar

mountains and adjoining areas towards afternoon associated with hail and fresh winds.EXPECTED WINDS: Along the coastal areas of Oman Sea wind will be northeasterly light to moderate during day becoming variable light at night and along the rest of the Sultanate wind will be southerly to southeasterly light to moderate occasionally fresh.

SEA STATE: Moderate along southeastern coast with maximum wave height of 2.0 metres and slight along the rest of Oman’s coast with maximum wave height of 1.25 metres.HORIZONTAL VISIBILITY: Good over most of the Sultanate becoming poor during fog and thundershowers.THE NEXT 48 HOURS OUTLOOK: Chances of convective clouds developments and thundershowers over al-Hajar mountains and adjoining areas towards afternoon. Clear to partly cloudy skies along the coastal areas of Arabian Sea.

Max Min

GULFAbu Dhabi 37 27Doha 39 28Dubai 37 27Kuwait 42 31Manama 36 31Riyadh 42 26

WORLDAthens 25 18Baghdad 41 28Beijing 31 18Berlin 19 11Boston 20 15Cairo 40 19Colombo 30 26Frankfurt 22 10Hong Kong 30 26Istanbul 22 16Johannesburg 15 2Kuala Lumpur 30 25Lisbon 26 19Paris 21 11Perth 21 11Singapore 29 24Tokyo 25 19Toronto 24 16

WORLD

Max 24Min 20

Max 44Min 27

Max 24Min 14

Max 36Min 28

Max 31Min 18

Max 20Min 14

Max 22Min 12

Max 34Min 28

LONG DISTANCE BUS TIMINGS (OMAN NATIONAL TRANSPORT COMPANY SAOC) *SUBJECT TO CHANGE

QURIYAT - SUR - JAALAN (Route 36)Dept Destination Arrival Operating Time Time Days 15:00 Quriyat 16:30 Daily15:00 Sur 18:00 Daily15:00 Jaalan 19:30 Daily

FROM JAALAN-SUR-QURIYAT (Route 36)Dept Destination Arrival Operating Time Time Days 05:30 Sur 06:45 Daily05:30 Quriyat 08:30 Daily05:30 Ruwi 10:00 Daily

TO AL BURAIMI (Route 41)06:30 Sohar 08:50 Daily06:30 Buraimi 11:00 Daily08:00 Buraimi 14:30 Daily via Ibri13:00 Sohar 15:45 Daily13:00 Buraimi 17:40 Daily 16.00 Sohar 18.35 Daily 16.00 Buraimi 20:20 Daily

TO AL BURAIMI (Route 41)07:00 Sohar 08:55 Daily07:00 Ruwi 11:40 Daily13:30 Ruwi 20:20 Daily via Ibri13:00 Sohar 14:55 Daily13:00 Ruwi 17:40 Daily 13:00 Sohar 19:20 Daily 17:00 Ruwi 22:15 Daily

TO SINAW (Route 52)17:30 Sinaw 20:50 Daily

TO SINAW (Route 52)07:00 Ruwi 10:25 Daily

To Yanqul (Route 54)14:30 Nizwa 16:50 Daily14:30 Yanqul 19:30 Daily

To Yanqul (Route 54)06:00 Nizwa 08:40 Daily06:00 Ruwi 11:00 Daily

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (Route 54)08:00 Nizwa 10:20 Daily08:00 Al Araqi 12:30 Daily

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (Route 54)15:40 Nizwa 17:55 Daily15:40 Ruwi 20:20 Daily

TO SUR (Route 55)07:30 Sur 12:00 Daily14:30 Sur 18:45 Daily

TO SUR (Route 55)06:00 Ruwi 10:45 Daily14:30 Ruwi 19:00 Daily

TO FAHUD - YIBAL (Route 62)06:30 Fahud 10:30 Daily06:30 Yibal 11:15 Daily

TO YIBAL - FAHUD (Route 62)12:30 Fahud 13:15 Daily12:30 Ruwi 17:30 Daily

TO DUBAI (Route 201)06:00 Sohar 08:30 Daily06:00 Dubai 11:30 Daily13:00 Sohar 15:30 Wed,Thur13:00 Dubai 18:30 Wed,Thur15:00 Sohar 17:35 Daily15:00 Dubai 20:55 Daily

TO DUBAI (Route 201)07:30 Sohar 10:50 Daily07:30 Ruwi 13:40 Daily13:00 Sohar 16:15 Thur-Fri13:00 Ruwi 19:10 Thur-Fri15:30 Sohar 18:45 Daily15:30 Ruwi 21:35 Daily

TO MARMUL-SALALAH (Route 100)07:00 Salalah 20:00 Daily10:00 Marmul 20:30 Daily10:00 Salalah 23:30 Daily19:00 Salalah 07:40 Daily

TO SALALAH -MARMUL (Route 100)07:00 Ruwi 19:50 Daily10:00 Marmul 13:15 Daily10:00 Ruwi 22:30 Daily19:00 Ruwi 07:30 Daily

TO MARMUL (Route 101)06:00 Marmul 16:50 Daily

SALALAH TO DUBAI (Route 102)15:00 Dubai 07:00 Daily

TO MARMUL (Route 101)06:00 Marmul 16:30 Daily

DUBAI TO SALALAH (Route 102)15:00 Salalah 07:00 Daily

TO DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH & SHARJAH (Route 204)Dept Destination Arrival Operating Time Time Days 07:00 Fujairah 11.45 Daily 07:00 Sharjah 13.30 Daily 07:00 Dubai 14.00 Daily

FROM DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH & SHARJAH (Route 204)Dept Destination Arrival Operating Time Time Days 16:00 Sharjah 16:30 Daily 16.00 Fujairah 18.15 Daily16.00 Ruwi 23.00 Daily

FROM MUSCAT (RUWI) TO MUSCAT (RUWI)

LISTINGS

—www.met.gov.om

BORN today, you are in many ways a classic Gemini native in that, at different times, you present to the world two very distinct personalities that seem to conflict with each other but, in fact, actually support and complement each other quite nicely. Indeed, it is possible for two people to be talking about you, and for the listener to think that they are talking about two completely different people — that is how distinct the two sides of your character actually are! On one hand, you can come across as flighty, mercurial, irresponsible and unrealistic in your outlook; on the other, you are serious, consistent, reliable and utterly realistic in your views of yourself and the world. What reconciles these seemingly irreconcilable traits? You are, above all, an honest individual — and one who shoots from the hip.

It is likely that you will be no stranger to hardship in your lifetime, yet you may become quite an expert at coping with difficulty and adversity — both personal and professional. One of your most successful tactics in life is reinvention; you know how to remake yourself to suit changing circumstances.

Also born on this date are: Joan Rivers, comedian and television host; Keenen Ivory Wayans, actor and writer; Frank Lloyd Wright, architect; Bonnie Tyler, singer; Julianna Margulies, actress; Nancy Sinatra, singer; Jerry Stiller, actor; LeRoy Nieman, artist; Barbara Bush, US first lady; Sonia Braga, actress; Boz Scaggs, singer and musician; Robert Preston, actor; Byron White, US Supreme Court Justice; Griffin Dunne, actor.

You know one or two things that others don’t, and that’s likely to make all the difference. A family member applauds.

VIRGO [AUG. 23-SEPT. 22]

LIBRA [SEPT. 23-OCT. 22] LLLLLLLLLLLLLLL[S[S[S[S[[[S[[S[S[S[[S[S[SSS[SS[SSSS

SCORPIO [OCT. 23-NOV. 21] S[

SAGITTARIUS [NOV. 22-DEC. 21] S[[[[[[[[[[[[[[

AQUARIUS [JAN. 20-FEB. 18]

Your willingness to put yourself front and centre, making yourself a target for critics and others who would put you down, is admirable.

You may find yourself shooting ahead of the competition quite unexpectedly. Perhaps it’s the early start that does the trick.

Your ability to fix things quickly — especially where relationships are concerned — allows you to win the day. Timing is key.

You may find yourself doing something you don’t really want to do, simply because you’re following orders. Is that reason enough?

You are able to use every moment of the day to your advantage, particularly before others rise and after they retire for the night.

You may have to accompany someone on a trip that he or she is loath to take — but you both understand that it is necessary.

You may not have enough money to throw at a certain problem, so you’re going to have to come up with a creative solution.

PISCES [Feb. 19-March 20]

Your standing within your professional community is on the rise. Others are waiting for you to do something big. When can it happen?

GEMINI [MAY 21-JUNE 20]

CANCER [JUNE 21-JULY 22]

LEO [JULY 23-AUG. 22]

CAPRICORN [DEC. 22-JAN 19]

Y O U R B I R T H D A Y

ARIES [March 21-APRIL 19]

TAURUS [APRIL 20-MAY 20]

If you insist on taking everything literally, you’ll surely fail to understand the real meaning behind most things.

Some things were meant to be done in tandem with others, and some things were meant to be done alone. You must know which is which!

Avoid making judgement calls. Stick to the facts, and reward others based on achievement — and what they do for you.

ALTHOUGH the way diabetics test their glucose levels has gone through dramatic changes over the past 50 years, there is still a long way to go, say researchers.

Earlier, the only way to assess diabetes control was by testing for the presence of sugar in a person’s urine, today there are numerous, far more accurate ways to test blood glucose levels.

It including the non-invasive A1C method which measures average blood glucose levels over a three-month period.

“Despite the enormous growth in our understanding of diabetes and its complications, we are still only able to manage the disease,” noted Robert Rat-ner, chief scientific and medical

officer for the American Diabe-tes Association.

The reason diabetes is a seri-ous health problem is because of the complications.

“If there were no complica-tions, diabetes would be like hypothyroidism and other eas-ily managed diseases. You would take a tablet to replace the hor-mone and everything would be fine,” said Michael Brownlee from the Albert Einstein Col-lege of Medicine’s Diabetes Re-search Centre.

New treatments must provide optimal glucose and metabolic control without the risk of hypo-glycaemia and complications of diabetes should become histori-cal memories. -IANS

C11

EXTRAM O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

Alessandro Michele is the new man at Gucci, thrown headlong into fash-ion’s current break-

neck schedule. In less than six months he’s shot two advertis-ing campaigns and sent out two catwalk collections. By the end of the month, a third - purely menswear - will be added to the tally. They’re coming thick and fast - today marked his second, for Gucci’s latest pre-collection, the ranges that make up the ma-jority of every designer brand’s clothing sales. Michele chose to stage it in New York.

It’s an odd locale, you may think, for a label that made its mark as the ne plus ultra of Ital-ian razzmatazz. However, the phenomenon of the pre-collec-tion - like so many canny com-mercial fashion ideas - was born in America. And a multi-billion pound juggernaut like Gucci didn’t get where it is today by ig-noring commerce.

Besides which, there was interesting discussion post Michele’s uneven Gucci de-

but in March, of the fact many of his deliberately grannified clothes looked like stuff you’d see girls wearing on the streets of New York’s Williamsburg. I’d say London’s Dalston - I’m sure most cities have a local coterie of girls who wear oversized glasses for aesthetic affectation rather than astigmatic correction, and team them with fusty brocade coats, musty chiffon dresses and knitwear that generally looks like it should be binned before the moths get the rest. As if to emphasise that point, for Cruise Michele had those girls literally wandering into his show venue straight off a Chelsea street. They wore clothes in much the same ilk as that autumn/winter show three months hence: namely, a rag-bag parade of vintage. I get Michele’s point, which is to reit-erate his new direction for Gu-cci, but there’s a fine line between consistency and repetition. This collection occasionally crossed it. That’s understandable.

Michele’s predecessor, Frida Giannini, left Gucci suddenly in January, meaning he had

only a month to pull together his womenswear debut. Natu-rally, you’d now want regroup and refine your message - back-stage after the show you had the chance to inspect his lion-head frogging, piped linings, and pearl buttons set in a tiny golden double-G. Michele has a fetish for finicky detailing, for clothes made in the old-fashioned way. It’s endearing. As garments, these were often beautiful. But the message was muddier. What was Michele trying to say - moreover, what does Gucci want to represent in today’s luxury marketplace? You can rest assured it’s not the provocative, borderline Gucci of old. That’s the point. Rather than making a decisive singular message, Michele’s Gucci is an assemblage of clothes, from which it’s easy to pluck what you like and discard the rest - both ideologically, and physically if you’re on a shop floor. They’re trying to please most of the people, most of the time, with some of their stuff. They’re being realistic.-Alexander Fury/The Independent

Friendship hinges on individual personalityONE’S PERSONALITY decides whether one would strike a chord with a stranger, says an inter-esting study.

Those who score low on neuroticism — the personality dimension related to anxiety and self-consciousness — are more likely to open the chan-nel of interaction in re-sponse to eye contact, the findings showed.

On the other hand, those who are more anxious and self-conscious may find eye con-tacts discomforting and may even experience high levels of anxi-ety when they are the focus of someone’s gaze.

“Our findings indicate that people do not only feel different when they are the centre of attention but that their brain reac-tions also differ,” said corresponding author Jari Hietanen from the University of Tampere in Finland.

For some, eye contact tunes the brain into a mode that increases the likelihood of initiating an interaction with other people.

“For others, the effect of eye contact may decrease this likeli-hood,” Hietanen added.

Eye contact plays a crucial role when people initiate interaction with other people.

If people look each other in the eye, they automatically send a signal that their attention is focused on the other person.

However, in some individuals, eye contact may also trigger brain activity associated with avoidance motivation.

In this study, the researchers set out to study what lies under-neath these individual psychological differences.

Powerful people respond to injustice selectivelyPOWERFUL PEOPLE respond quickly to unfair treatment when they are the victims. However, they are less likely to notice injustice when others are victimised, says the study.

“The findings help explain the persistence of income inequal-ity and ‘white privilege’,” said lead researcher Takuya Sawaoka, a doctoral student in psychology at Stanford University.

In one online experiment with 227 participants, the high-pow-er group wrote about a time when they had power over someone else while the low-power group wrote about an experience when someone had power over them. Each participant then played a computer game where their reaction times were measured in de-ciding the fairness of the distribution of coins between the par-ticipant and two computer-generated players. The high-power group responded more quickly than the low-power group when they were the victims of unfairness but not when they benefited from an unfair distribution of the imaginary wealth. “Our findings also suggest that powerful people are slower to notice unfair situ-ations that victimise other people. -IANS

HEALTH

BR I E FS

Gucci cruise 2016 show

The Italian luxury label joins the phenomenon of the pre-collection

and presents a show with ‘realistic’ clothes in New York

More accurate ways to test blood glucose available now

C12

EXTRAM O N DAY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

It has been fourteen years since Jurassic Park III hit cin-emas – long enough for Steven

Spielberg’s $2b-grossing dinosaur franchise to seem extinct.

It was set on two islands off Costa Rica, where the tyran-nosaurus rex and others were reborn for the ultimate safari, and there have been numerous failed attempts to hatch a fourth instalment. And so scepticism precedes this summer’s Juras-sic World. Even from its charac-ters. As Bryce Dallas Howard’s corporate drone Claire Dearing notes: “No one’s impressed by dinosaurs anymore.”

After the BBC’s series Walking With Dinosaurs recreated these ancient beasts for television, it no longer seemed so special when a triceratops or brontosaurus mooched across the small screen. So it’s no surprise that Spielberg and an army of film-makers un-derneath him have struggled to bring a fourth outing of the fran-chise to fruition.

One script boasted ideas so lu-dicrous it made Harrison Ford hiding in a refrigerator to shelter from a nuclear blast in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull look sane. The es-teemed John Sayles (director of Lone Star) and William Monahan

(who won an Oscar for scripting The Departed) worked on a story that involved a top-secret genetics lab’s programme to cross-breed humans with dinosaurs.

Other efforts attempted to see pteranodons make it off the islands of Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna and head to the mainland. But it was only when screenwrit-ers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver took a crack that it began to take shape. Inevitably, the ideas came from Spielberg: that the dinosaur park would finally be open to the public, that a trainer would be able to tame those vicious ve-lociraptors and that a dinosaur would escape – “three key ideas” as incoming director/writer Col-in Trevorrow says.

Previously known only for the 2012 time-travel indie Safety Not Guaranteed, the 38-year-old Tre-vorrow doesn’t hold back when it comes to the earlier drafts. He calls events in the Sayles/Mona-han work “bananas” and com-ments about the Jaffa/Silver script, “I read that but I knew if I directed that movie, I’d make a bad movie”.

Trevorrow and co-writer Derek Connolly penned their own version – one that slyly com-ments on its own creation.

Aubrey Plaza with co-star Jake

Johnson in Safety Not Guaran-teed Aubrey Plaza with co-star Jake Johnson in Safety Not Guar-anteed. The plot of Jurassic World sees the park a decade into its existence. But with visitor num-bers dwindling, the owners face the same problem as Spielberg and co: interesting audiences in a spectacle that’s now old news. The solution? A genetically engi-neered dinosaur, the “indominus rex” – a hybrid creation, straight from the lab, that blends DNA strands of various creatures.

The way Trevorrow sees it, inherent in Jurassic World is a story about blockbuster culture. “We’re always waiting to be en-tertained by the next thing – what is bigger, better and faster? I felt like we ultimately made a movie about Jurassic Park IV. It is the indominus rex! Why would you make another sequel to one of these movies?

“It’s a horrible mistake. Well, because there’s a lot of money on the table. Why would you rebuild a park? We re-make our mistakes because somebody somewhere is going to make a lot of money.”

Needless to say, the indomi-nus rex escapes from its enclo-sure – a “containment issue” as the script wryly puts it. -James Mottram/

The Independent

Colin Trevorrow, director of ‘Jurassic World’, talks about bad scripts,

revealing trailers and Steven Speilberg

‘WHY WOULD YOU MAKE ANOTHER SEQUEL?’

SHE IS one of the most sought-after Bollywood actresses today, but Priyanka Chopra says her “con-servative Punjabi family” was not excited when she entered the film industry over a decade back.

The 32-year-old shared that her family initially resisted.

“I come from a conservative Punjabi family. There was a lot of resistance when I joined the in-dustry. But later my parents gave me wings and let me do what I wanted to,” Priyanka said after the screening of Dil Dhadakne Do at the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Weekend and Awards.

She also shared that her on-screen character Ayesha in Dil

Dhadakne Do represents most women in India. “Girls are put in a box ... no matter what you are or what you want,” she said about her character, who doesn’t vocally give her opinion much.

Her co-star Anushka Sharma is also happy to be a part of the Zoya Akhtar directorial.

“It feels good to be a part of good cinema. People are talking about gender equality shown in the film. My character wasn’t allowed to take up dancing as a profession as it isn’t considered to be ideal for girls from a good family, so she had to run away from her house to pursue her dream,” Anushka said.

“You just need to follow your dream and be happy,” she said.-IANS

BOLLYWOOD

Parents resisted when I joined

filmdom: Priyanka Chopra

W W W.T I M E S O F O M A N . C O MSECTION

CONNECT H E D A I LY G U I D E

D

D4 VACANCY CARGO D7

M O N D AY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

RENT D2

DAILY GUIDE Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com classifieds@timesofoman.comTel.: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461

FOR RENT

Deluxe 3 Room Penthouse with

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Villa of 5 BHK in Al Ansab with split

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1BHK in Darsait near ISM (220/-

R.O). Contact: 99342661

1BHK in Ghoubra South behind Ex-

tra (280/- R.O). Contact : 99342661

3000 sq mtrs Industrial landß,

in Barka Sanaiya, with electricity

400KW, shed, staff accommodation

and office. Ready to start any kind

of factory. Contact 99384255.

Flat at Darsait. Contact 99326879

DAILY GUIDEM O N D AY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5 D3

FOR SALE

ACC. WANTED

FOR RENT

Running computer shop for sale

Souq Sohar. Contact 99420543

Commercial land for sale 3000 m in

quriyat road main high way can use

as a petrol station license available

asking price 350,000

For more information please call on

99070701 with out name

Running business material shop for

sale good location & profitable busi-

ness. Contact : 92249983

23,886 Sq Mtrs Agriculture land

with water well in Al Salwa, Barka.

OMR 260 Thousand. Tel: 99333479

or 95215360

Super market in (Hairoon Hairithi)

Thamrith road. #98189810 / 99675190.

Shop for sale in Ibra and Bid Bid.

Contact: 95304693

2,560 sq mtrs industrial land

Wadi Kabir Main Road, First line on

way to Al Bustan hotel. Possible to

make petrol station or hotel. OMR

990 Thousand Tel: 99333479 or

95215360

Ice Cream & Juices shop in Ruwi

good location for sale 1.5 mt fish

display machine unused for sale.

Contact: 92150455

Furnished flats for rent in

Al Buraimi, daily, weekly, monthly.

Contact 97819981 / 93593336

Al Khuwair (17/1) a room & hall,

kitchen, toilet with ACs ground floor.

Contact Owner : 99385553

2BHK Darsait R.O 325/-, 300/-.

Contact: 92144045

1BHK Ghubra R.O 275/-.#92144045

3 BHK villa and 2 BHK flat with A/

Cs at Muttrah, near Oman house.

Contact : 95915154

Flat 1BHK for rent, Opp Omani

School near Al Tajaweed Furniture,

bldg No 1057, Way 5917, Hamriya.

Rent 150/- P.M. Contact: 99350946

Villa for rent - Al Seeb/Al Mawelah

- Block 5 - 4 bedrooms with attached

bathrooms, Majlis, 2 halls, kitchen

and storeroom. split Ac and carpark.

Contact 99564616

2BHK flat with store room,

split A/cs in CBD, Ruwi near QNB.

Rent 400/-.Contact 99603696

1 BHK Flat in Wadi Kabir.#92275454

Flat for rent in Al Khuwair 33.

Contact: 92277419

ACC. AVAILABLE

ACC. AVAILABLE

Furnished single rooms available

for Executive bachelors at Ruwi.

Contact: 98049288

Fully furnished 1 BHK Flat available

in Ruwi 2 moths only (July/August)

Contact: 99369081

Single bedroom available for veg.

family/bachelor at Wadi Kabir,

behind Mars. Contact 99877845.

Furnished room attached bath for

lady in Wadikabir

(Mars Hypermarket) – 95941515

3bedrooms Al Hail.

Contact 92817777

Semi furnished single room for

Executive bachelors behind Kamat

Restaurant Al Khuwair.

Contact: 94271085

Single room at Walja, opposite

MBD area available for Executive

bachelors inclusive of electricity and

water for OMR100/-. #93079877

Room for rent 130/-RO, A/C, E/W

kitchen Including bachelor only.

Contact: 95423391

Independent flat (1 Bed Room +

Bath) is available at Mawaleh (Be-

hind City Centre) for a Non Cooking

Executive Bachelor. #95931004

Family room available at Muttrah.

Contact: 24712088 / 99022790

Fully furnished room attached

bath for Executive bachelor behind

Al Meera hypermarket Azaiba R.O

150/-Contact : 99455735

AVAILABLE

Party & Wedding equipment rentals.

Full line, from Tables, Linen & Skirting,

Chairs & Chair covers, Cutlery, Crockery,

Glassware, Chafing Dishes, Ice Sculp-

tures, to Large Sound Systems and spec-

tacular lighting. Call Andrea 9606 2222

for Catering and Croyden 9623 5555 for

Sound & Light. www.tunesoman.com,

E-mail: info@tunesoman.com

Required villa for office in

Mawallah. Contact : 96996938

Shopping center for sale at Bousher

by good price 400 m2 with all

equipment. Reason for selling

part-time. Contact 92916490

Used Supermarket Gandolas RO

40/- per pc, Double tube light fitting

RO 2/- per pc. Contact: 97752395

Best Investment opportunity in

Muscat a brand new furnished show

room for electronics building, mate-

rial mobiles etc available for sale at

prime location. Contact 91710624 /

98873484

Shfandish & tables for sale.

Contact 99368907

5 Flats of 1 bedroom for Sale in

Boushar: OMR 35 Thousand each.

Monthly income OMR 270 Tel:

99333479 or 95215360

Coffee shop for sale in North

Al Ghubra. Contact 95256009

60,000 Sq Mtrs Agriculture Land in

Misfah, can be changed to Industrial

Land. OMR 29 Per Square Meter.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

3 floor commercial building in

Muttrah behind Police. Generating

income of OMR 18 Thousand annu-

ally. Neat and well maintained. Built

on 197 sq mtrs land. 2 tailor shops

on ground floor and 6 flats. OMR

207 Thousand. Tel: 99333479 or

95215360

We have planned industrial lands

in a prime location (Bowshar / Al

Misfah) the space 8575 SQ. M for

each plot, meter price 120/- OMR

only. Contact: 99883338

Independent house with 1 room,

kitchen and toilet in

Wadi Kabir. Rent: RO170.

Contact: 96639246

Semi furnished room with at-

tached bathroom for Executive

bachelors at CBD area behind

chamber of commerce. Contact:

96389375/93554942

2 Rooms with separate bathroom &

kitchen for executive bachelors.

Gsm 942-888-63

SITUATION WANT-MANPOWER

Available for longer period : Mig

Welder 5 nos, General worker with

PDO pass 10 nos, Helper 10 nos,

Mason 8 nos. Contact 99610703

*Classified Advertisement space

booking with text, should be done till 12.00 noon for next day’s publication. * Subject to space

availability

DAILY GUIDED4 M O N D AY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION VACANT

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com classifieds@timesofoman.comTel.: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461

IT

CATERING

DOMESTIC HELPER

DESIGNER

ENGINEER

ENGINEER

EDUCATION

SALES / MARKETING

SALES / MARKETING

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED

Required looking for full time Housemaid for Omani family

at Mabela, visa available. Contact:

92454170

Urgent required House maid in

Mabela. Visa available.

Contact 95200180.

Indian CA with 15 yrs exp working

as Finance Head for MNC looking for

suitable job. NOC available. 94047434

M.Com, CA (Article ship), 15 years

Gulf experience looking for suitable

position in finance & accounts on

visit visa valid up to 10/7/2015.

Contact: 97767828, knowledge of

quickbooks, Tally 9, Focus V.5 Email:

altabhossain2008@hotmail.com

Indian female 25 years married,

MBA Finance, Diploma in foreign

accounting 3 months experience in

a CA firm on family visa.

Contact: 95916769

Email: sikhapadoor@gmail.com

Indian male 25 yrs B.com having

experience in accounts for 3 yrs

currently on visit looking to job.

Contact: 97937868 Email:

rehman.naseer999@gmail.com

ACCA & B.Com with Noc more than

5 years of experience in accounts &

finance looking for a suitable job can

join immediately. Contact: 97012146

Indian male, 27 M.Com, MBA, 4.5

years experience in finance & ac-

counts, tally & SAP currently on visit

visa. Contact: 93484048

MBA Indian male looking for suit-

able position having 2 years working

experience as an accountant now

in Oman a visiting visa. Contact:

99424803

An Indian lady Chartered Accountant

with five years experience (including

article ship) on family visa in Oman

looking for a suitable job. Please

Contact 9621 0347 / 9943 5346,

shincycrajan@gmail.com

SECRETARIAL & OFFICE

Required Office Assistant

160+25+Acc, Contact 99454425

ACCOUNTANT

ADMIN

A leading tissue paper and food stuffs company requires Sales and Marketing person with minimum

5 years exp in Oman with good

communication skills & valid Oman

D/L. Candidate with Interior market

knowledge & experience preferable.

Send CV: allub@alhosnigroup.com

Fax: 24451430

Urgently required outdoor Sales Executive for furnishing company

with valid Oman D/L and minimum

3 years experience.

Contact 93231403 /

rainbowfurnishing156@gmail.com

Required urgently energetic Mar-keting Executive for acquiring new

customers. Should possess a Valid

Omani D/L. Contact 96545020.

Sales man required for printing

press preferable with car.

Contact : 97842797

Required Senior Sales Executive 2nos focused with successful track

record in this industry. 2-3 years

experience in similar capacity with

valid driving license. Attractive sal-

ary package for the right candidates.

Contact : 92673856 Email CV:

oman.ms.sharad@gmail.com

Required male candidates to

work full / part time in an interna-

tional Café “franchise”. They will be

trained for the job.

Contact 97673395

Sales Coordinator : Mechanical

Diploma holder with 3-4 yrs exp.

in sales department preferably in

Metal fabrication Company. Omani

D/L is must. Contact: 99102383

hr@khancogroup.com

Urgently required Advertising & Media Sales Executives with Oman

D/L. Trainee positions available

for Freshers.

Email: jobs@interacoman.com

Light vehicle driver looking for job.

Contact: 91452930

Driver looking for job, light vehicle.

Contact: 95446207

Pakistani driving available.

Contact : 96913836

Driver available with or without

car. Contact 96771598

L.T.V driver language, Hindi, Arabic

& English. Contact: 98802079

Light Driver having own visa

looking for job as driver.

Contact: 97073429

Heavy duty driver valid license

Omani need job & visa.

Contact: 91139936

Driver looking for job with visa,

release available, 5 yrs driving expe-

rience. Contact: 96261895 Faruqu.

Driver looking for job, with

driving license of Oman.

Contact : 98007513

Driver 6 yrs exp knowing English,

Arabic, Hindi Education B. A.

Contact: 99512270

DRIVER

MISCELLANEOUS

MISCELLANEOUS

A company from UAE require 2 merchandisers in retail food

supply, store keeper with English

and invoicing experience. Email:

yesterdaysun@hotmail.com

ADMIN/HR

ADMIN/HR

Filipino Female, 30 yrs, with 8yrs

experience in Payroll/Admin/HR and

2yrs experience as Technical Sup-

port/Cashier/Secretary. Currently in

Muscat on Family Visit Visa, Seeking

for suitable placement.

Contact: 96708114

Email: lucy08_tm@yahoo.com

Indian female MBA, 3 Years experi-

ence in Admin MIS, Family Visa.

Contact 98234427,

jkjsmith01@gmail.com

Indian, male, 26, Commerce gradu-

ate, three years experience as Ad-

ministrative Assistant in UAE, seeks

a suitable job in Oman.

Contact: tkjasbeer@gmail.com;

+971-558291437.

Indian female, Postgraduate in HR,

with 8 years working experience in

Oman(HR and administration), look-

ing for suitable placement.

Contact 97411008

Indian female 29 MBA (HR) BSc,

4 yrs exp in HR& Admin looking suit-

able placement. Contact : 95619537

Mechanical / Civil Site Supervi-sor; diploma / ITI fitter; 3-4 year’s

exp in supervision of Erection work

of sheds, customer coordination,

and project execution. Omani D/L is

must. Contact: hr@khancogroup.com

/ 99102383

Reputed consultancy office re-quired a Mechanical Engineer with

10 to 12 years experience in design

of HVAC Systems and plumbing

services. Please send your detailed

resume to: info@designunitoman.

com

Urgently Required: Civil Engineer with an experience minimum in 5

years in building construction and

MUST have NOC. Apply,

fax 00968–24605955,

emails sbc@steelbuildingsllc.com,

sbeoman@yahoo.com

Indian Manager is required to work

an administrative and real estate

valuer in properties office in Shatti

al Qurum. He has to be qualified and

speaks English with experience in

Oman. Contact : 99109094

Omani lady HR Manager for a lead-

ing metal fabrication company. Min.

5 yrs exp, familiar with Oman labor

Laws. Responsibilities – Making HR

policies, Training of Omanis, liaising

with various Ministries. Contact:

operation@khancogroup.com

Qualified female Teacher required

for Maths & Science with 3 years

minimum experience and IELTS

school in Al Khuwair.

Contact: 99353961

Teachers required (B.A, BEd, BSc, and

B.ed) for Omani Pvt. School

Al Hail (North).Contact: 95141554/

96653118

AUTO CAD/ARCHITECT

Indian Female 23yrs, Autocad

draftsman with 3ds max & rivet

, 3yrs exp, Looking for suitable

vacancy in Muscat, now in visit visa

Contact:95601266

Email : reshmanb121@gmail.com

Indian Female Architect (Interior

Design), Knowledge in AutoCAD,

Revit, Adobe Photoshop, 3D Max Stu-

dio, Adobe in design, Google Sketch

up, Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft

Office etc.. Currently on family de-

pendent visa up to November 2015.

Contact: 95959494 ,

E-Mail: rasha.k973@gmail.com

Experienced up-to finalization accountant looking for part time job.

Contact : 99002390

Senior Accountant 10 years experi-

ence 4 years experience in GCC now

working with trading & project based

concern holding Oman driving li-

cense. Well experience all accounting

software’s. Contact: 94079432

Indian male B.Com MBA (HR), 2

yrs experience in HR & Accounts

department, on visiting visa seek-

ing for job in any field.

Contact: 96491347

Email: aswinsajeev@hotmail.com

Indian male Graduate 26 yrs 5 yrs

experience in Accounts and Adminis-

tration looking for suitable placement.

Contact: 91301983

Indian male 22 yrs B. Com Graduate

1 year exp in Accounts, currently on

visit visa. Looking for suitable job.

Contact 94341848 /

Email – mohdhaji7272@gmail.com

Accounts part time works up to

finalization on monthly basis. Profit

& loss A/C and financial statements,

MS Reports Etc. Contact: 96247295

ACCA affiliate , BSc Honors in applied

Accountancy advance diploma in Ac-

counting and Business, CAT Affiliate

1 year hand on working experience

of Oman, with Oman driving license

looking for a suitable placement in

Audit firm. Having NOC can join im-

mediately. Contact : 98989970

Indian male well experienced in

accounts & Admin looking for a

suitable vacancy. NOC available.

Contact: 98717938

Indian male 25 years BBM

(Finance) 2 years experience in ac-

counts & inventory controller now in

visit visa. Contact : 94176838

Email: shillukidavan@gmail.com

Finance Manager, CPA, with more

than 15 yrs. of experience in GCC.

Fully knowledgeable in Finance,

General & Management Accounting .

NOC available. Contact 96209331

Indian male with total 5 year experi-

ence (2 years experience in Account-

ant cum sales co ordinator in a FMCG

Company in Oman) in accounts field

and NOC available. Looking for suit-

able job Contact 92130188

Indian male, 32 years, M. Com.

7 out of 9 years experience in Oman

in Accounts/finance. Having NOC and

valid Oman D/L. Contact 98277143,

Email: anzarks@gmail.com

Tanzanian male, 25 yrs Accountant

successful experience in Tanzania

looking for suitable placement in any

field. Contact : 96710154

Tunisian lady has Professorship in

social and economical sciences and

accounting, diploma in Experimen-

tal Sciences degree in English for

media. Contact 95391050,

aysser2013@gmail.com

Family in Muscat seeking to hire an experienced butler. Hotel experi-

ence is preferred. Candidate must

hold a valid driver’s license. Please

send CV’s on

vacancyinmuscat@gmail.com

A reputed shipping and forwarding

company urgently require following

personals 1) Accountant 2) Opera-tions Executive valid Omani D/L is

must. Experienced hands in shipping

field are preferred. Send your CV to

applymd2015@gmail.com

Required an Accountant B.Com +

Tally. Fluently English speaking &

computer. Having valid N.O.C. Send

CV and contact information to

arrange interview.

Email: info@alrabiyahrealestate.com

Urgently required Omani IT Soft-ware professional fluent in Arabic

and English with 2 years experience

email: mhca@mhabibgroup.com,

fax: 24564459

Urgent required Offset printer / binder / designer. Good experience

in printing press industries. Please

send C.V to fax: 24453227 Contact:

92872940 Email: kkh104@hotmali.

com / mgayaz19@gmail.com

MEDICAL

Wanted Staff Nurse for a polyclinic

in Sohar. Contact :3457270

Wanted Nurse for MCT area for GP

Clinic Cont: 9670 9401

Required a MOH licensed female Nurse for a private clinic near

Al-Suwaiq. Call 93746086

Urgently required a Staff Nurse for

a clinic at Hamriya area who has

passed prometric exam with 60%

or more. Contact: 99031408 Email:

ranjitbarua63@yahoo.com

Urgent required staff Nurse

in Mabela. Contact- 95200180.

Email: amanammc@gmail.com

Required experience (minimum 3 years) holiday staff for an IATA

Approved Travel agency for the

holiday department. Preferably

Arabic speaking please forward the

CV : kttjobs@gmail.com

TOURISM

Required light driver, Excavator Operators & heavy drivers. Contact: 99454425

Required Light duty driver from

Kerala with construction experience.

Contact : 98294695

Heavy duty driver Oman experi-

ence. Contact: 99453617

DRIVER

Indian Beautician looking for job in

Oman, with 5 yrs Oman experience.

Contact: 98869716

BEAUTICIAN

MEP Contractor in Muscat looking

for AC Foreman with minimum 5

years experience in Split AC instal-

lation. Contact: 92472326 Email:info@4dengineering.net

Urgently required Marketing Executives male / female Acrylic

bender. Contact: 95453949

Urgently required Sales and Market-ing Executive for Graphic designing

company. Contact: 96727631

mail: smartgraphic518@gmail.com

Required Sales man - 1 Person

Qualification. Gulf Experienced

- Minimum 5 Years with Oman

Driving Licence Language - English

Education:- Any Degree Further Con-

tact :Mr. Abdul Hameed Nashabat

- Mobile No: 97414307

and -92807399

amn@yaqeeneng.com

Salesman experienced 5 yrs in

Oman, in the field of industrial &

oilfield service, garage equipment

tools & spares, safety wears & rescue

equipments. Please forward your CV

to almaadhi.trd@gmail.com

Mason, C.C.T.V, Technician, Electrician cum Plumber. Contact: 99383044

SITUATION WANT-ED

SIT. WANTED

MBA Graduate with 6 yrs exp in

finance/accounts/ auditing. Special-

ized in accounts payable dept, Ora-

cle app user, proficient in Sap (fico)

end user & tally 9.0. lean &six sigma

certified trainer on visit visa.

Contact – 91967213 / 99064780

Indian Accountant: Male, M com,

7 Yrs experience in Accounts up to

finalization, having knowledge of

ERP, Tally, seeks suitable placment.

contact 93950138 Email:

lijinrajan123@gmail.com

MBA (international business) from

London, 4 years of UK experience in

operations with D/L, looking for suit-

able position. Contact 91710075

Indian male 2+yrs oman exp in HR.

joing immediatly. release available.

Contact :93671437

Over 14 years of gulf experience

in Admin /HR /Logistics, fluent in

Arabic & English with D/L looking

for suitable position.

Contact 95824598

Indian female post Graduate with 5

years experience in HR and Admin

looking for good opportunity.

Contact: 94692244

Indian female MBA – HR 1 and half

years experience seeking suitable

job. Contact : 99257214

Indian female with 10 yrs of experi-

ence in HR/Banking/Operations

seeks a suitable placement.

Can be contacted on 98919015 or

sherianne.coelho@gmail.com

DAILY GUIDEM O N D AY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5 D5

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

Quantity Surveyor with 5 Years ex-

perience (one year in Oman) looking

for job. Contact 91090036

Mechanical Engineer, Indian, 24

years with Piping Engineering,

Autocad, Ansys NX- Cad, pro-e,

Catia & PDMS now on visiting visa

seek suitable placement. Contact:

99168054 / 96684345

Email: : mbkishore@hotmail.com

Indian male 25yrs, BE Electrical

and electronics engg, seeking for a

suitable position, with DL, NOC,

Contact :98347864

Iraqi female Communication Engi-

neer having 5 yrs of exp in teaching

computer program.

Contact : 99132159

Email: marwan.saad39@yahoo.com

Iraqi male Medical Equipment Engi-

neer one year of exp in Iraq looking

for suitable job in Oman.

Contact: 99132159

Email: marwan.saad39@yahoo.com

Electrical Engineer Pakistani male

4 years B. Tech & 3 years’ diploma

seeking a suitable placement. Con-

tact: 96752080

Email: ilyasoader97@gmail.com

Civil Engineer 7 years experience

valid Omani D/L looking for job

immediately, ready to join.

Contact : 96936406

B.E (Civil Engineer) with 5 yrs expe-

rience, valid Omani driving license.

Noc available. Contact: 91693008

Iraqi Civil Engineer 12 years experi-

ence, resident having Omani driving

license. Contact : 94695595

Land Surveyor, one and half year

experience in India, well handle total

station, auto level and AutoCAD.

Looking for suitable placement.

Contact: 95140761 / 99208290

Email: binu.brijiv@gmail.com

B. Tech Instrumentation Engineer more than 4 year experience SCADA,

PLC, DCS, ESD (Honeywell, Yoka-

gawa). Contact: 93670890

Email: mojin.a.kabeer@gmail.com

Indian, male, Civil Engineering

graduate with 8 years Dubai experi-

ence in Estimation, Project/Design

Co-ordination seeks suitable job in

Oman. Hold UAE driving license.

Contact: shibupnbr@ gmail.com;

+971-501426982

Indian male Electronics & Instru-

mentation Engineer having 5 yrs

exp with valid Omani D/L & NOC.

Contact: 96082604

Civil Engineer, Indian Female, 3 yrs

experience, on visit visa seeking

suitable placement.

Contact: 99195433

BE Mechanical Engineer 4/5 years

experience in Planning Engineer.

Interested companies kindly contact

95403146 / 99426840 candidate

available till 12.06.2015

B.Tech Civil Engineer, Indian female

2 yrs experience in Oman, looking

for suitable position.

Contact 91690345

Structural Engineer 4 years experi-

ence Indian, will handle projects

independently, able to get

Municipality approvals easily.

Contact: 91668044

Quantity Surveyor (Civil Diploma)

2 yrs experience in Oman, look-

ing for full/ part-time job.Contact

96936793

Indian male diploma in Computer

Engineering seeking suitable

placement immediately now on

visiting visa .Contact 97317844 /

92580948

BSC. Mechanical Engineering, 17 yrs exp in Oman, 30 yrs exp in

production management, erection

and maintenance of refineries, stock

piling equipments, belt convoying

systems structures, power trans-

mission equipments gear boxes -

contact 98214442;

Email: mohusak@gmail.com

Indian male 29 years Civil Engineer

diploma 4 years Oman experience,

2 years road construction looking

placement. Contact: 93298395

N.O.C available

MEDICAL

MEDICAL

BSc Staff Nurse with license.

Contact 92765457

Omani Mechanical Engineer, has

3 years experience ,has HSE, H2S,

Riggers/Banks men Permit, Drawing

/ cad, SCBA, Safety Leadership and

Initial Fire Response Courses. good

with computer and English language

looking for suitable job. Contact

99224319-98454500

Indian male 22 Mechanical Diploma

holder Engg with HVAC certified,

having 1 year exp. seeking suitable

position. Currently available on visit

visa. Contact - 92835952

SECRETARIAL/OFFICE

MISCELLANEOUS

DRIVER

DOMESTIC HELPER

Indian male fresher BCA young and

energetic, seeking good opportu-

nites.email: jlaxmimenon@gmail.

com, Contact 00919567722270

B.Com Graduate with 12 years expe-

rience in overseas / local purchase,

logistics, warehouse seeks suitable

placement. NOC available.

Contact: 94657319

Highly Qualified & Experienced

Finance Manager Pakistani with

USA , UK & Canadian Degrees, CPA ,

ACCA-UK . MBA-USA ,IFA- Financial

Consultants Canada , Corporate An-

alyst USA Professional of Banking ,

Audits ,ERPs & Profit Maximizations

(NOC available) call 94 504505 –

94403270

MSc qualified female on female

joining visa good experience in Ad-

ministration, Advertising media and

branding at managerial level with 13

years experience. Good knowledge

in the field of marketing looking for a

suitable position.

Contact : 91980400

Sr Manager, MBA, 18 yrs profes-

sional exp in building material,

tiles, sanitary wares, bath, turnkey

projects, interiors, modular kitchens,

hardwares & tools. Project sales in

Gulf countries with GCC license on

visit visa looking for job assignment.

Contact 93364846

Sr Manager, B.Tech, MBA, Prince -2

from UK. 24 yrs exp in EPC project

management of oil & gas pipelines,

refineries & power plants. Seeking

job immediately / on visit/

Contact: + 00968912639

Email: josececy25@gmail.com

MANAGER/ SUPERVISOR

In search of job. Qualification b.com,

key skills- MS office, Tally, Inter-

net with valid Oman light driving

license. *NOC available.

Contact:92239065

Ware house In charge or store

keeper 27 yrs Gulf experience 4 yrs

in Oman NOC available.

Contact: 97657823 Email:

rusaikmzm_2009@yahoo.com

MCA, BCA with 2 yrs relevant expe-

rience seeking suitable opportunity.

Contact: 96377039

Indian Female with over 9 yrs ex-

perience with good communication

skills seeks jobs in customer service

or sales field. Contact : 96108289,

shijipaul84@gmail.com

Part- Time Accountant, well experi-

ence senior accountant ,doing all type

of accounting works, Finalization,

Budgeting available.

Contact 98803439

13 Years UAE experienced in MNC &

reputed firms logistics distribution

looking for a suitable placement, on

visit visa contact 99838743,

gani.dawood@gmail.com

Indian male MBA having 10 years

experience in Oman as Document

controller and 2+ Years experience

as Project Assistant / Executive

Secretary seeks suitable placement.

NOC available Contact: 95373198,

email: sydnvrng@yahoo.com

Indian male more than 10 years

Gulf experience in Office / Sales

Coordinator, Admin (employees visa

processes), Secretarial and purchase

coordination with good computer

skills. Having Driving license and

NOC available. Looking for suitable

placement. Contact 99709336

SALES / MARKETING

Indian male 10 years experience in

Welding Supervisor NDT Technician,

MIG Welding specialist seeking suit-

able job. Contact 96771841

Indian male MBA 7 years experience

in Hospitality industry, operation,

sales & marketing looking for suitable

vacancy. Contact 92115860

Email vibin.py@gmail.com

Indian male MBA Marketing cur-

rently on visit visa seeking for Sales

& marketing job 2 years experience.

Contact: 94460405 Email:

arshidmohammed222@gmail.com

Indian female B.Com Graduate hav-

ing 8 yrs experience in India & 2 yrs

experience in Oman as Customer

Service, Office Asst, Sales Coordina-

tor, Secretary seeks suitable place-

ment. Contact: 95433987

Indian male MBA with versatile

dynamic target driven personality

having rich and In-depth experience

of 5 years in marketing, sales, office,

administration team handling and re-

cruitment looking for challenging and

suitable position. Contact: 96145933

Sales man looking for a opening in

Oman with 18 years Gulf experience.

Contact: 91957861

An Indian male having rich

experience in procurement, Sales

marketing and office administration

seeking suitable position.

Contact: 93689602

Indian male 22 years, B.Com gradu-

ate (fresher) Well versed in English,

Arabic & Hindi with Oman D/L ,

seeking a suitable job in Oman . Now

on visit visa. Contact:- 97660518

Indian male, 32 years having 3 yrs

exp in sales & marketing in Oman,

holding valid Oman driving license.

NOC available. Contact: 97615497 /

+919894436645

Email: faraj7@gmail.com

Result oriented male M. Com 25 yrs

experience sales marketing, admin

building material seeking immedi-

ate suitable placement having L /D.

Contact : 92882408/ 92715831

Indian female 28 years experience

Sales Coordination, Administration,

Secretarial and Accounting Software

knowledge with Oman D/L.

Contact : 96751993

8 years purchase experienced

Indian male looking for job. N.O.C.

available. Contact: 98161323

Graduate Indian male 25 yrs, look-

ing for a suitable placement for an

Executive or Sales support job in a

reputed organization.

Contact : 98558648

Email: risham54@gmail.com

Salesman cum Driver 6 yrs exp

Know English, Arabic, Hindi, Educa-

tion B.A. Contact: 98522914

33 years male looking for a suitable

position holding driving license,

sales man by nature, experience in

storekeeping, supervision skills, well

aware of health & safety manage-

ment, fluent in English, familiar with

MS Office & good communication

skill .Contact : 93556794

Email: faisal.khan2092@gmail.com

Indian male 5 years gulf experi-

ence in Admin / vehicle insurance

coordinator and sales having driving

license looking for suitable place-

ment. Contact : 95870476

Email: mubaris.abdul@gmail.com

8 years store experience Indian

male looking for placement. N.O.C

available. Contact: 98456535

Sr Manager, B.Tech, MBA, PRINCE-2,

British National. 24 yrs exp in EPC

Project Management of Oil & Gas,

Pipelines, Refineries & Power Plants.

Seeking job immediately/on visit/

Contact- 00968-91263952/ jose-

cecy25@gmail.com

Toms Davis-Indian, Diploma in

Mech Eng, 4+yrs exp in Projects &

co-ordination, 1yr exp in HVAC De-

sign & Draughting, Mob-92068508,

tomsdavispullan@gmail.com

Adarsh.B , B. Tech Mechanical N.D.T

ASNT level 2, 2 years 10 months

experience in New Delhi. Contact

adarsh320480@gmail.com

Indian male 30 years Mechanical

Engineering Diploma with 4+ years

of Experience in Fabrication draw-

ings using CAD Software’s in India,

now on a visit visa seeking for a

suitable placement in OMAN. Will be

available till 12/6/15 for interview.

Contact 99013952,

vineetf56@gmail.com

Instrumentation Engineer, Indian

male having 2 years experience in

process instruments and sales seeks

suitable placement on visit visa.

Contact: 95954385

Email: irfancisinn@gmail.com

Indian male 28 years Electronics &

Instrumentation Engineer 4+ years

experience in Industrial automa-

tion (SCADA) seeking suitable job.

Contact: 93154156 / 98416190

Network Engineer, Security Engi-

neer with a Bachelor degree seeking

a suitable job in a good company.

Contact: 98129846

Sudanese Industrial Engineering &

Management, experience 12 years

in QA/QC and production. Contact:

94041960 / 94044784,

Email: mekkimedani@hotmail.com /

mekkimedani78@gmail.com

72Indian male B.Tech Electronics

Instrumentation, studied till 12th in

Oman, presently on family visa seek-

ing suitable position.

Contact: 99639646 / 99067950

Email: prajeeshpp12@gmail.com

Electrical Engineer : Indian male 29

years , having 5 years of experience

in industrial automation and utility

maintenance in India (MRF Tyres)

seeking suitable placement.

Contact: 92789995 Email:

akhilabrahamlktr@gmail.com

Civil Foreman, maintenance,

15 years Oman, 2 yrs Kuwait with

Oman driving license.

Contact 00968-96405865 /

91 9464255409

Email: sukhwinder9@yahoo.com

Sales Engineer (37), 15 yrs (12 yrs

Oman) experience in structured

cabling fiber optics, data centers,

security & AV, Telecom, Network &

datacom, OSP, Industrial Connectiv-

ity. Contact: 99771815, Noc.

Electronics Engineer with 4 years

experience in product development

looking for in instrumentation and

industrial automation now in Oman

visit visa. Contact : 968 95218030

Email: ronymreji@gmail.com

Indian male B.Tech (ECE), currently

working in HCL Chennai India, as

Engineer Product Support Officer

with 2.5 yrs experience -

looking for a suitable placement-

Mobile: 92625379 ;

Email: mekala.kashyap@gmail.com

24 years Indian EEE Diploma with

Auto CAD, B.Com completed required

any suitable job.

Contact : 94015346 / 93276916

Indian Male, IT Support Engineer,

2 yrs in Oman & 5 yrs Indian experi-

ence. Contact 97311847

Looking for job for House maid.

Contact : 93599302

Laundry Housekeeping profession-

al looking for a opening in Oman

with 18 years experience.

Contact : 91957861

Housemaid & houseboy, Indian with

4 yrs exp looking for job.

Contact 91299288

Civil Engineer male 13 years exp

Indian seeking suitable job.

Contact: +919640973798

Email: firozbakhtiar2@gmail.com

Diploma in Civil Engineer with 10

yrs experience, valid Omani driving

license, NOC available.

Contact: 94052815.

5 years experienced Q.S ENG with

driving license looking for suitable

position. Contact: 98142595

Indian male 25, Diploma Civil

Engineer 2 years experience insite

Engineer looking for suitable place-

ment. Contact: 96750429

Indian male, B.Tech Mechanical

having 4 years experience with QA/

QC / CSWIP looking for a suitable

position. Contact: 99447106

Email: dhanubhasi87@gmail.com

Electrical Engineer, 2 years as Pro-

ject Engineer office works proposals

/ contracts site jobs installations/

maintenance. Contact: 96209298

English/ Arabic languages

Graduate Electrical Engineer

having 6 years experience of Gulf

and professional license available to

join. Contact: 98063081

Indian Civil Engineer (building)

available immediately as supply

contract. Contact : 95218004

Electrical Engineer 10 years experi-

ence in underground cables exten-

sion and distribution substation and

terrestrial station available in Oman,

on visit visa. Contact : 95471606

Btech computer science graduate

2015 passout.. Android application

marketing.. Having good communi-

cation skills and mindset to work in

a team. Contact 91024385

Indian female 28 yrs having 2

yrs experience as Estimation and

Design Engineer (BMS) with valid

Omani driving license seeks suitable

placement. Contact: 99047570

Engineer with 3 yrs experience in

Indian in MEP, HVAC& mechanical

maintained field on visit visa looking

for suitable job. Contact 99191535

Email: fareed029@gmail.com

Electrical Eng. Degree (MEP) need

suitable job of construction 12 yrs exp.

Email: mohd.ateeq.khan@gmail.com

Indian female, B.Tech biotechnology with strong computer

skills and 2 years experience as

associate research analyst (Media

Monitoring) in Nasdaq Oman seek-

ing growth oriented jobs. Contact

92044603 /918056169148 or

angeline.babithac@gmail.com.

4 yrs exp (Money Exch. Services &

hospitality services in Oman& India)

Indian male 27, Graduate in Hos-

pitality Science, fluent in English,

Hindi & Arabic seeks job.

Contact 91383167

Indian male/30 years with hotel

management degree, 02 years expe-

rience in F&B service at 5 star hotel

in Dubai and 05 years in American 6

star cruseliner as butler.

Contact 91135371

HOSPITALITY

IT

Omani Citizen searching a job in

the field of computer especially in

data base professional in operating

Oracle SQL, PL/ SQL, form6i, Report

6i. Contact 96977368

Email: talaloml@yahoo.com

Indian female MCA, experience in

C#.Net, SQL Server, ORACLE with

4.5 years experience seeking

suitable positions.

Contact: 96485923, 99886271.

prathibhakp07@gmail.com

Computer Networking/Facil-

ity Mgmt 5 Yrs of Exp Holds

B.E(ECE),CCNA Looking for Good

Opportunity, Indian - Visit Visa.

Contact 91911792/

arafakdnl@gmail.com

IT & Media Sales specialist looking

for job opportunities also decent

exposure to H.R & customer rela-

tions currently in Muscat on visit

visa kindly. Contact : 96238199 or

99874205

Email Id: m_cadri@rediffmail.com

27 years Pakistani male, having

bachelors B.Com IT and Nebosh IGC

– Level 3 looking for placement in

HSE in construction for experience

having valid visa with NOC.

Contact: 92064233

MCA Indian male 24 yrs seeking

suitable placement in software /

Database support currently on visit

visa. Contact 96785261 Email:

sudheesh.edakkadan@gmail.com

25 yrs, Omani male, 5 years exp

seeking job in IT and AutoCad all

info in website.

Contact: najeeb719.weebly.com

Indian female 27 yrs B.Tech (IT)

MBA one years of experience as a

software analyst. Contact 91234864

Email: ashwinirathnam2011@gmail.

com

Networking technician with

driving license, with Noc, having

2 experiences in data & telephone

structured cubing EPABX & CCTV

installation is looking for suitable

jobs. Contact: 96027516

Net work Technician CCTV, UTP,

OFC, Flooring work 6 yrs experience

(GCC). Contact: +91 9526888134

Network system Engineer B.E / ECE

+ CCNA & Ms certified with 4+ yrs

exp looking for a job. Currently in

Oman on visit visa.

Contact: 92589502

Email: careersjegan@gmail.com

Indian male, B.E ( computer science

engineer), MBA (finance), OCA certi-

fied, having 5 years of experience in

oracle Dba/ oracle apps Dba, seeks

a suitable position in the field of IT.

Contact: 96212062

email: zubairkhan11@gmail.com

Well experienced MOH Licensed

Indian GP Doctor looking for

locum / permanent position in the

Capital area. Contact 98140024

email:drgpoman@yahoo.com

Driver with car 10 years experience

part and full time looking for job light

driver. Contact: 95897233

Light Driver needs Job.

Contact: 93284327

Driver light. Contact: 91020999

Indian female Dentist MOH Oman

passed seeking a suitable place-

ment in capital region. Contact–

91377681

hashimsarawat@gmail.com

Dentist with MOH license looking

for locum post. Contact 93571021. Indian male Nurse, 31 years

Oman prometric passed 6 yrs ICU

experience. Contact : 94195150 /

92758895

Lab Technician, Civil (8yrs Gulf ex-

perience) looking for a suitable job

(NOC available) Contact-93344378

DAILY GUIDE Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461 Fax: 24812624

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com

D6 M O N D AY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

GOOD NEWS GOOD NEWS

Indian male, IATA qualified &

English graduate on family visit

looking for a suitable job. Contact no.

93449151, 99475217.

25 Indian female B.S.C. Fashion

Technology. 5 years experience in

textile industry as a merchandiser

and good in fashion marketing.

Currently available on visit visa,

seeking for a suitable job.

Contact 96990368.

Email: simmy.missy@gmail.com

TOURS & TRAVELS

SITUATION WANT-ED

SIT. WANTED

SITUATION WANTEDSIT. WANTED

SITUATION WANT-ED

SIT. WANTED

B.Tech Computer Engineer Wanted

job to work on(IT/Banking/Admin-

istrator/Technical/Office works)

having NOC with the limited time

from (04/06/2015 to 13/06/2015).

Mobile:98402389

email:naresh6672@gmail.com

MCA IT Professional Indian Female

seek placement in Teaching/ Non

Teaching field. Presently on visit

visa. 9588 7051,

ashwininakod@gmail.com

Highly Qualified & Experienced

Finance Manager Pakistani with

USA , UK & Canadian Degrees , CPA

,ACCA-UK . MBA-USA ,IFA- Financial

Consultants Canada , Corporate

Analyst USA Professional of Banking

, Audits ,ERPs & Profit Maximizations

( NOC available ) call 94 504505 –

94403270

27 year Indian female who has 4

years of experience with logistics

function in distribution of spares

for both heavy machinery & wind

turbine parts. Kindly contact me on

+91 9790769104

E-mail: joemohana@yahoo.co.in

Looking for managerial post (full

time ), More than Ten years of expe-

rience in Team Development ,Train-

ing, planning, Administration, Sales

& Marketing, Advertisement and

Credit Control and Logistics. Contact

91076608 / 99322748. RELEASE &

NOC AVAILABLE

Female 26 M.Tech bio medical

Engineer, 1plus years experience

in research and teaching seeking

opening. Contact : 91960160 Email:

amluprasannan@gmail.com

7 and half years experience working

accounts / inventory manager look-

ing suitable job. Contact: 96991782

Email: srinivasu.sp@gmail.com

Indian male, 28 yrs MBA (HR/M) 2

years experience in Indian Oman in

HR & admin seeks suitable place-

ments. NOC available.

Contact 97484159

Email: rameshkapa86@gmail.com

Indian female , MCA BCA, certifica-

tion PL SQL , 6months training PHP,

date warehouse looking for suitable

placement. Contact : 95694330

Email: mondkashyapodl@gmail.com

Part- time accountant, well experi-

ence senior accountant , doing all

type of accounting works, finaliza-

tion, budgeting available.

Contact : 98803439

HSE Advisor, NEBOSH IGC, Indian

male, 4 years experience in con-

struction and oil fields, seeking suit-

able jobs. Gsm: 97458900,

Mail: miroshbabu@gmail.com

Highly Experienced Finance

Manager, CPA ,ACCA-UK . MBA-USA

, Professional of Banking, Audits ,

ERPs Sap , Management as Team

Leader and Problem Solver call 94

504505 / 94403270

Indian male MBA Finance presently

OMAN IN visit visa, 26 years, look-

ing for an accountant job.

Contact 95240641, email Id

mohammadabdulazharuddin@

gmail.com

Indian male, looking for a part time

accounting job. Having additional

knowledge & experience in

HR admin & purchase.

Contact 99196621

Indian male MBA (U.K), 10 Years

of experience in Admin, Sales, HR,

stores and logistics seeks suitable

placement. Contact 99271903.

MISCELLANEOUS

Ayurvedic massage backache, joint

pain & neck pain etc.

Contact: 98254909

Ayurvedic treatment for joint pain,

backache, paralysis massage, steam

bath, obesity, spondylitis IDEAL ,

CARE Ayurvedic Clinic 18 November

street, Azaiba. Contact 99639695 /

99117987

FREE INFORMATION ABOUT IS-LAM. If you would like to know more

about Islam, please call: 99425598,

96050000, 99353988, 99253818,

99341395, and 99379133.

For ladies: 99415818, 99321360,

99730723

Orvisit: www.islamfact.com

Ayurvedic treatment for backache,

paralysis, arthritis etc & massage,

All Season (Vaidyaratnam).

Contact 24475280 / 95371554 /

92504980 www.siddhayur.com

Taimour Ayurvedic Clinic, Ruwi

offers genuine & effective treatment

for back pain, paralysis, cervical and

lumbar spondylitis, osteoarthritis,

joint pains, sinusitis, migraine, al-

lergic problems, varicose vein and

all other health related problems.

Kerala massage and rejuvenation

package available. For details please

Contact 92197920/ 24799689

Indian Female MCA, 4 plus Years of

experience in Web designing, Admin,

P.A, seeks suitable placement.

Contact 99486374

Admin Executive, 31, Indian Male,

having 9+ years exp. in reputed

companies. Seeking suitable place-

ment in any gulf region. Contact

+968 99276601 & 97693456. email :

muralimahdav77@gmail.com

B.Com with more than 5 yrs exp.

looking for an accounts part tome job

work. know with tally.

Email-shilpa_62@yahoo.com

Indian Male. 27, Post Graduate, 5+

yrs exp in Oman in Sales & Credit

Control, with valid Oman driving

License, NOC available, looking for

suitable placements. Ph: 9199 3376

Indian male Executive Secretary

having vast experience in admin,

logistics & procurement well versed

with computer .seek suitable place-

ment. Contact : 99514286

MEP Quantity Surveyor-Estimation-

Project, 10 Years Experience

(3 years in Oman). Having NOC &

Oman D/L, looking for suitable job,

Contact - 98291626

B.E. Civil Engineer age 27, total 3

years of experience in Mumbai look-

ing for placement asap in oman now

on visit visa of 1 month ph 9571 3441

Email. Khatrialeem@gmail.com

Indian male seeking suitable vacan-

cy in office works 30 years Muscat

experience. Contact: 99024055

Indain Male MBA Marketing/HRM

3 year experience with Omani D/L,

seeking suitable jobs. #97424188

email: dharwesh@gmail.com

SALES / MARKETING

Indian male 32 yrs, 6 years experi-

ence instore in charge with Indoor

salesman looking for suitable job.

Contact: 97385874

Indian 23 years B.Com Graduate,

2 years experience in Sales knowl-

edge of TALLY, ERP & MS Office.

Contact: 93134643

Email : syedismailnoor@gmail.com

Indian Male, B.Com Graduate, 23,

with experience in Sales looking for

suitable placements. #- 98371144

Indian male, B.Sc (Mathematics)

PGDBM (Marketing). 9 yrs of Oman

experience in sales in midlevel

management, NOC available.

Valid Oman D/L. Contact: 95278838

Email: anup2p4p@yahoo.com

Indian male 45+ yrs , 20 yrs exp as

sales supervisor in India looking for

indoor sales /stores /cashier or any

suitable placement can speak Hindi

, English, Malayalam, Tamil, kannada

can join immediately on visit visa.

Contact 93086105/33016546

Pakistani male 34 yrs Intermedi-

ate 2 yrs exp in sales & marketing

in Oman. Looking for suitable job.

Contact - 92146864

Genuine Ayurvedic treatments &

massage, Ayurvedic clinic at Al Khu-

wair. Contact 24478618 / 97263637

/93309131

MATRIMONIAL

Kerala Nair girl, B.Com, 22 yrs, 5.2”

very fair, slim, (Star Uthrattathi)

Presently working in infosis, Chen-

nai. Financially sound, from parents

of nair boys from Trissur, Palakkad

and Eranakulam & Calicut dist. .

Contact :0091 8301865688

email: raveendrandr@yahoo.com

Alliance invited for a Nair girl 24 yrs, 5ft, 1”, fair, slim, B.Tech

graduate reputed family of

Ernakulam dist. (Star Thiruvonam

Sudhajathakam) financially sound,

from parents of B.Tech nair boys

from Trissur, Palakkad and Er-

anakulam dist. .

Contact :00919495924302

email: raveendrandr@yahoo.com

Hindu Ezhava family, settled in

Muscat looking for suitable groom

working within Oman for their

daughter 25 yrs (MBA) working

with a reputed company in Muscat.

Contact : 98689663

Indian house maid looking full time

job. Contact : 98254909

Indian Female, 24yrs, M.COM (Ac-

counts) having 3yrs experience

in Accounts, HR, Administration,

Customer Service. Good Computer

Proficiency. Seeking Suitable Posi-

tion. Visa Transfer/NOC Available.

Contact: 99654913

Indian Male, 29 years, CCNP, MCITP

having Bachelor degree and 6 years

of experience in Networking looking

for job. 96760618 /

varghese.manthara@gmail.com

ACCA affiliate, with 2.5 years experi-

ence in Big6 audit firm and Oil indus-

try, looking for permanent placement

in Accounts/Audit. Release available

#95140445 a.saran891@gmail.com

Sudanese male, 31 year old, have 3

year Diploma in electrical engineer, 5

years experience in different activi-

ties . Mobile No ; +96894549609

8 yrs exp Site supervisor cum 2d,

3d Draughtsman (holding Omani

driving license) seeking job.

Contact : 93790601

B.E Biomedical Engineer, having 5

years of experience in Diagnostics

division seeking suitable position.

94151658

Indian Male, 29 years, CCNP, MCITP

having Bachelor degree and 6 years

of experience in Networking looking

for job. 96760618 /

varghese.manthara@gmail.com

B.E. Civil Engineer from India with

3 years of experience looking for

suitable vacancy in oman now on

visit visa. Contact 9571 3441,

Email . Khatrialeem@gmail.com

Indian male 21 IT Eng. networking &

computer hardware diploma, 1 year

experience, currently on visit visa

looking for a suitable job.# 96036273

email: faizanfarooqui23@gmail.com

Indian, 32 years, completed M.A.

English, M.Sc. Psychology and B.Ed

in English. Searching for suitable job

in the field of teaching. To

Contact: 00968 99869535

Email: sahadkeyi33@gmail.com

Iraqi Pharmacist with 15 years

experience as regulatory affairs and

Marketing Manager seeking job in

pharmaceutical co. Mobile 96720441

DAILY GUIDEM O N D AY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5 D7

SITUATION WANTEDCARGO

Dolphin Watch, Dhow Cruise

with Buffet, & Land Tours Al- Ainain

Marine Tours Contact- 98029602,

92808636

RENT A CAR

RENT A CAR

TOURS

MV. SALE

2 Prime Movers Man 2008 with 40

ton petrol tank each working at the

moment in Al Maha. Price OMR 35

Thousand each. Contact 97000155

or 92688692

Land Cruiser 2012. Contact

99336093

Peugeot 206-2007 Model, expat

driven. Contact 99209285

Toyota Yaris 2006, 1.3 cc Automatic,

Gray, 101000 k.m, accident free, well

maintained & sparingly used by

diplomat. All services done through

Toyota. Contact 96249208.

Hyundai Accent 2004, fully automatic.

Contact: 99045803

DAILY GUIDE Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461 Fax: 24812624

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com

D8 M O N D AY, J U N E 8 , 2 0 1 5

TRANSPORTATION

Pick & drop available. Contact

96913836.

Transportation. Contact: 95190627

Pick & Drop anytime Contact:

91653903

Transportation available. Contact: 99867456

Transportation. Contact: 91310107

Driver with vehicle. Contact:

99159277

Pick & Drop any time. Contact:

97014786

SITUATION WANTEDSERVICES

Specialist available for explosive

growth in term of restructuring

all modules of businesses with

over 30 years of experience across

continents with a decade in Oman.

Contact 96733578

Email : profitoman@gmail.com

Split & window A.C servicing &

maintenance. Contact 93769089 /

95323517

A/C maintenance split A/C servic-

ing. RO. 10 only. Contact 94217681/

99210141

Tailoring churidar, anarkali,

salwar kameez dance costumes

shop 32 Dhofar bldg, Ruwi.

Contact: 99740196

Churidar, Anarkali, Salwar Ka-

meez, Dance costumes, shop 32,

Dhofar building, Ruwi.

Contact 99740196

Carpet & sofa cleaning, house clean-

ing. Contact 99542979 / 98855815

P.R.O services. Contact 99368907

Carpet & sofa shampooing. Ocean

Centre LLC. Contact 99884591 /

92682970

Split & window A.C servicing &

maintenance. Contact: 96236476

House shifting packing.

99657644 / 98518013

Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles

polishing, carpet shampooing,

maintenance.

Contact ABU QABAS- 99320217

/24788722

Carpet Shampoo, marble & tile

polishing, pest control & anti-ter-

mite treatment, general cleaning

painting, Plumbing, Electrical,

shifting. Contact Mundhir

Al-Rizaiqi trading. L.L.C.

# 24810137, 99450130

A/C maintenance & servic-

ing. Fridge, washing machine

& dish washer repairing. Paint-

ing & cleaning services &

electrical & plumbing. Contact

99447257/97014234/ 24504281

Pest Control Treatments, Termites,

Cockroaches, Bedbugs. Contact

Ocean Centre LLC.

Contact 99344723

WEBSITE

WEB, ERP and Business Intelli-

gence (BI) creation and man-

agement at rock bottom price.

Contact: http//webviewoman

CLASSES

COMPUTER

ACCOUNTANTS AND CONSULTANTSWE ARE PROVIDING

ACCOUNTING/ AUDITINGTAX/ CONSULTING

CONTACT: 24 567 251 / 95 498 033

GUARANTEED CLEANING: Carpet

& sofa shampooing, Contact

99314807/24792998

MARBLE CRYSTALLIZATION restore the original shine of

your marble. Contact 24793614/

99314807

House shifting & transporting.

Contact 92490422

Window & split unit A.C servicing

& repairing. Contact 99557080

Split & window A.C servic-

ing & maintenance. Contact

93769089/95323517

House shifting. Contact 99708138

Learn Cup cakes, exotic cakes, Icing

decorations, handicrafts.

Contact 95941515

DRIVING

Learn driving with professional

only automatic. Contact 94022250

NRI

Ready / under construction apart-

ments / villas. Near guruvayur.

Contact: 00919846877773

Ready / under construction apart-

ments / villas / row houses / shops,

available for sale in North / South

Goa (India). tel # 95867021 E- mail -

tonynoronha@rocketmail.com

BUSINESS

Wanted Sub Contractors : Shut-

tering work, steel, concrete block

work, plastering, tile fixing for

Buraimi, School project.

Contact : 99427674/ 24700373/

Fax: 24701368

Scrap business running scrap busi-

ness sale with 60 Ton Weighing

Bridge in Mabellah. # 92295780

Water proofing ABUQABAS-

Contact 99320217/24788722

New Construction Company re-

quired investors for financial project.

Contact: 92959251

SITUATION WANT-ED

CHANGE OF NAME

SITUATION WANT-ED

LOST

We, Raju Kallarakkal Joseph (name

of father as per the passport, holder of

Indian passport No M 5715840 and

Laizy Raju (name of mother, holder

of Indian passport No. K 9306892)

having permanent address in India

Kallarakkal House, Kanimangalam,

Thrissur -21, Kerala (complete postal

address in India) and presently

residing at the following address in

Al Ghubrah, P.B No. 364 P.C No. Villa 5,

Sultanate of Oman, hereby solemnly

affirm and declare to change the

name of our child Master Jerin (name

as per present passport), holder of In-

dian passport No. K 9306874 date of

issue 2/3/2013 issued at Muscat. The

name of our child will be henceforth

known as Jerin Kallarakkal Raju (new

name for all purposes). Any objection

towards change of name of our minor

child may please be communicated to

Embassy of India, Muscat , Diplomat-

ic Quarters, Al Khuwair, PB No. 1727,

PC 112, Ruwi, Sultanate of Oman.

Arfan Yousaf has lost Pakistan

Passport No. BW 6912011. Finder

please handover to ROP.

Ashley D. Souza has lost Bang-

ladeshi Passport No. F 6583693.

Finder please handover to ROP.

MATRIMONIAL

Alliance invited for Ezhava girl,

Anizham star, 27 years, B.Tech (Civil),

employed with Kollam Engineering

College, Kollam, from parents of same

community. Contact: 99030647

Nair 36 yrs, Accountant in Muscat

(M.Com) need suitable brides BSc

Nurses preferred. Contact : 96146560

Alliance invited for a nair boy 28 yrs

165cm working with a leading busi-

ness group in Muscat.

Contact : 91717912

Muslim family seeking

alliance for our son interested

families. Contact 97664009