Times of Oman - June 3, 2015

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WEDNESDAY, June 3, 2015 / 15 Sha’aban 1436 AH

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SUDAN

Sheikh Al Harthy attends Bashir’s swearing-in event KHARTOUM: Assigned by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, Sheikh Mohammed bin Ahmed Al Harthy, State Advisor, took part in the swearing-in ceremony of Omar Hassan Ahmed Al Bashir as the president of Su-

dan for a new term in Khartoum on Tuesday.

Sheikh Al Harthy was accompanied at the swearing-in ceremony by Sheikh Dr Sulaiman bin Saud Al Jabri, Oman’s ambassador to Sudan. -ONA

T R A F F I C V I O L AT I O N

WATER WOES: Residents hire tankers to overcome water shortage in their locality. – Photograph by AR Rajkumar/TIMES OF OMAN

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Officials says the shortage gripping the

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capital could run until the end of August

REJIMON K

reji@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: A water shortage hitting thousands across Muscat will likely continue for the next three months, with residents forced to queue for supplies, or pay high rates for extra water, throughout summer, including the Holy Month of Ramadan and Eid. Since the first week of May, people across different parts of

the capital have faced an acute water shortage. Many have been forced to wake up early to travel to collect water from tankers, queuing for hours and then paying exorbitant prices for it, in addition to rationing their use of water, with some even taking supplies from office stores, and not inviting guests home.

An official of the Public Authority for Electricity and Water (PAEW) said the shortage had

been caused by a delay in a water plant in Al Ghubra which was supposed to be online back in October, but is now not likely to become operational before the end of August.

“The Al Ghubra plant, which can supply water to Muscat, is expected to be operational by the end of August, while the one at Barka, which can feed Barka and nearby areas, is also expected to be operational by then,” said an official of PAEW. “The [Al Ghubra] plant was supposed to be functional by October

PROPOSALS

Draft labour law plans 60-day private sector maternity leave Times News Service MUSCAT: Increasing maternity leave to 60 days for women working in the private sector is among proposals in the draft of the new labour law.

At present women working in the private sector are entitled to 50 days of maternity leave, while those in the government sector get 60.

Speaking to Al Shabiba, the sister publication of Times of Oman, an official from the General Federation for Oman Trade Unions said the new law would also allow working woman to take an hour off a day for breast-feeding.

Nursery at the workplace is also among the proposals.

The official said the new labour law would tackle various

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aspects of Omanisation at all administrative levels while bridging the gap between the private and public sectors.

The official added that the new law would ensure legal protection of trade union members by issuing health insurance to private sector employees.

The official hoped that the law would be promulgated according to the agreement signed by the parties involved, and seeks to adhere to the job market demands in the Sultanate.

“It will offer an attractive work

environment for job seekers in the private sector, as well as guaranteeing stability for the Omani worker,” the official said, adding that it is necessary that the amendments made to the new law comply with the international labour standards as well as grant basic rights to workers.

Regarding the delay in the law, he explained that the Committee of Social Dialogue in the union drafted the new law and signed it on May 1, 2014, after which it was sent to the authorities concerned for approval and issuance.

Commenting on Omanisation, the official said, “Omanisation is one of the most important issues we should focus on. We need to revise plans and strategies to reduce the difference between the expat and Omani labour.” >A2 TOP THREE INSIDE STORIES

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Water bottles to be provided to workers

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University and school students will join the I-Care initiative to distribute 6,000 bottles of chilled water. >A4

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Single-use shaving kits made mandatory

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Single-use shaving kits have been made mandatory at hairdressing salons for men from June 8. >A5

SPORTS

Sepp Blatter quits as FIFA president More than 400 missing in China ship capsize

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Sepp Blatter quit as FIFA president on Tuesday in the face of a US-led corruption investigation. >C1

last year, but it was delayed,” said the official, adding that the company which has been assigned to complete the project will be fined for the delay.

“When fully operational, the Al Ghubra plant will be able to supply 42m gallons of water and the one at Barka will supply 12 million gallons daily,” said the official.

“Life has become terrible. We have to go to the spot where the tanker reaches and jot down our names. Then we have to wait for our turn, which comes after two or three hours. When it does finally come, we accompany the tanker home and ensure that our water tanks are filled. I wonder how long this will continue as it is also upsetting our budget,” said a resident in Wadi Kabir. >A6

Police to contact expats soon over big fines, jail term FAHAD AL GHADANI

fahadnews@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: As expatriates have been asked to pay their traffic fines before leaving the Sultanate even briefly, many are clueless as to how they will come to know about the fines for jumping signals, which takes time before appearing in the Royal Oman Police (ROP) system.

“For such violations, offenders are sent to jail for 24 to 48 hours,” said a reliable source at the ROP. He, however, clarified that the police will try to contact those due for such punishment and ask them to clear their dues as soon as possible.

“We do not want to send expats to jail from the airport or the borders for something like this. So, the police team will contact offenders as soon as they commit violations that involve a jail term or steep fines,” said the source.

About the new law, according to which expats heading for sum-

816 deaths reported in accidents in 2014, including 535 Omanis

mer holidays or leaving the Sultanate for good, have to settle all traffic violations at the airports and borders, the ROP source said, “The rule came into force after many expats were found leaving Oman saying they would return soon and didn’t.” >A6

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W E D NE S DAY, JU N E 3, 2 015

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‘Need to train Omanis’

There is a need to strike a balance in the private sector to ensure an attractive work environment.”

He said, “We should not neglect the importance of Omanisation in high-ranking and leadership positions. We need to train and qualify Omani youth and develop their skills and talents so that they are capable of performing

their duties. Therefore, we should specify wages, benefits and operating conditions.

“We should also provide a system for evaluating performances, an effective system for promotions and develop strategies to ensure the stability of the Omani labour force.”

When asked how they intended to replace the expatriate labour

force with Omani workers, the trade union official said, “The specific parties will have to study the job market demands and the specialities required, and implement a training programme for Omani youth.

“Plus, they need to develop a work culture within the society in terms of accepting any job available.”

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L E G I S L AT U R E

State Council okays proposals on workforce in private sector MUSCAT: State Council has approved the proposal submitted by the Human Resources Development Committee on revising the legislations regularising national manpower in the private sector.

State Council on Tuesday held its sitting under the chairmanship of Dr. Yahya bin Mahfoudh EMERGING MARKETS

Oman ranked fifth in global retail growth CAIRO: The Sultanate came 5th in the Global Retail Development Index (GRDI) 2015 for the emerging markets.

The report was released and published by A.T. Kearney of U.S.A on its website.

Oman was 26th among emerging markets.

China topped the list followed by Uruguay, Chili, Qatar, Mongolia and Georgia.

The company pointed out in its report that the retail sector in the Middle East region has been affected by the decline in oil prices and the ongoing regional conflicts.

It expected the value of China retail market to hit about $8 trillion in 2020.

The GRDI ranks the top 30 developing countries for retail investment worldwide. The Index analyses 25 macro-economic and retail-specific variables to help retailers devise successful global strategies.

The index analyses economic and political risks, the market attractiveness, time constraints and growth in modern retail spaces.–ONA

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Al Manthri, Chairman of the State Council.

Education centre The Council also approved the proposal submitted by the Education Committee on establishing a national centre for open education resources in the Sultanate.

The approval came after discussing the proposals and forming a committee for re-drafting the draft proposals while taking into consideration the remarks cited by the members. The Council also reviewed the reports on the activities of the Council and its standing committees.–ONA

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6,000

bottles of chilled water will be distributed to workers by the I-Care initiative on June 13

Students’ bid to ease workers’ woes The I-Care initiative will try to ease the hardship of workers during the summer months. In their 15th water distribution event, volunteers

HELPING HAND: In 2014, I-Care organised three water distribution events during which nearly 40,000 bottles of water were provided to

construction workers, with 200 people volunteering for the initiative.– File photo

will distribute chilled water to workers in 17 areas of Muscat.

The main event will be held on June 13 at the Oman Automobile Association from 9a.m. to 1p.m

TARIQ AL HAREMI tariqh@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: University and school student volunteers will join the ICare initiative to distribute more than 6,000 bottles of chilled water to construction workers on June 13.

With the mercury soaring, one could expect the hottest summer in the Sultanate yet, and workers could face massive dehydration from the blistering heat.

The I-Care initiative will play a leading role in easing their hardship. The volunteers will distrib-

R E S E A R C H PA R T N E R S H I P

ute chilled water to workers in their 15th water distribution event in 17 areas of Muscat.

“Creating awareness for appreciating our local construction workers has always been our main aim, and we encourage all our volunteers to go with their teams and team leaders to show appreciation for the workers by distributing cold water,” said Shurooq Abu Nasser, I-Care founder.

On Tuesday last, wilayat Suwaiq recorded 47.5°Celsius, the second highest temperature recorded globally that day, according to an

of high temperature, particularly from 12.30 p.m. to 3.30 p.m. in the months of June, July, and August.

Yet, construction workers are still seen under the sun adjacent to the site without proper facilities.

“Based on my personal experiences in the past four years, I have been touched by every worker I have seen or distributed water to,” said Abu Shamsa.

“They are humble and can easily smile when they first see you with a cold bottle of water despite a long day under the sun,” she added.

In 2014, I-Care organised three

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official from the Directorate General of Meteorology.

Legal provision The Labour Law as per Ministerial Decision No. 286/2008, Article 16, prohibits the employment of workers at construction sites, or in open spaces, during periods

water distribution events during which 40,000 bottles of water were given to construction workers. Two hundred people volunteered for the initiative.

“The 15th water distribution event is the first event we are organising in 2015, and we expect to have two or three more events by the end of the year,” says Abu Shamsa.

“We hope that more volunteers of different ages and backgrounds participate in this life-changing experience. We also hope that they continue spreading the message of I-Care all over Oman and give back in every possible way,” she added.

Distribution areas Water will be distributed in Ruwi, Darsait, Hamriyah and Wadi Kabeer, in addition to Muttrah, Qurm, Madinat Al Ilam and Shatti Qurm.

Water will also be distributed in Madinat Sultan Qaboos, Boshar, Al Khuwair and Al Athaiba, apart from Al Ansab, Ghubra, Ghala and Seeb. The main event will take place on Saturday, June 13 at the Oman Automobile Association from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. To register volunteers can visit the website: www.icareoman.org

TOURISM SECTOR

Muscat registers 6% growth in hotel room revenues despite oil price slump Times News Service

TECH IMPETUS: The Research Council (TRC) signed the contracts for these pilot projects of the Institute of the Advanced Technology Integration (IATI) with the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres.–Supplied photo

Research contracts on hybrid cooling Times News Service MUSCAT: Three pilot projects on continuous hybrid cooling using geothermal solar heat sources, submarine groundwater discharge, and IATI Wastewater pilot project, will be developed over the next three years.

The Research Council (TRC), on Tuesday, signed the contracts for these pilot projects of the Institute of the Advanced Technology Integration (IATI) with the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres.

The contracts were signed

by Hilal bin Ali Al Hinai, secretary general of TRC, and Prof Peter Herzig, vice president of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (HAGRC).

According to Dr Al Hinai, the contracts will play a leading role in enhancing the establishment of scientific competence centres of the institute, as well as, supervising various research activities.

Dr Al Hinai stressed on the importance of this scientific cooperation, which is part of the strategic vision set for IATI. “TRC is working on creating and strengthening the partnership among the industry and business sectors, and the academic sector with the aim of targeting the development of research into marketable products and with the aim of finding applicable solutions built on research and innovation. The Institute will also work on creating a research environment that enables experts from various fields to find innovative techniques and solutions that address the Sultanate’s concerned issues and challenges,” he said.

Prof Herzig said that the role of the Helmholtz Association in the development of the pilot projects would involve technology development and capacity building, where they will be PhD and Masters degree students from Oman in Germany.

MUSCAT: Muscat has registered a six per cent growth in Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR) in 2014 driven by strong Average Daily Rate (ADR), according to PwC’s second hotel forecast for the Middle East report titled ‘Accommodating Growth,’ which focuses on six major cities in the region — Abu Dhabi, Doha, Dubai, Jeddah, Muscat and Riyadh.

The forecast uses a number of economic variables to forecast hotel occupancy, Average Daily Rate (ADR) and Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR) in each of the six cities and the region in 2015 and 2016.

Despite a number of challenges faced by the region in 2014, such as the fall in oil prices and devaluation of the euro against the dollar, Oman continued its strategy of slow and steady growth in its capital city.

All six cities mentioned in the report witnessed an increase in RevPAR in 2014. Muscat itself saw an increase of approximately 6 per cent. While occupancy was the principal growth driver in Doha, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, it fell in Muscat and Dubai. The ADR fell in Riyadh, Doha and Abu Dhabi, while the strongest gains were in Jeddah and Muscat.

Muscat’s occupancy and ADR levels were largely as predicted last year, at 66 per cent and $231 respectively.

Looking forward to 2015 and 2016, economic growth and continued infrastructure spend and increase in the number of tourists is likely to support future growth.

However, many of the challenges

Hotel market in the GCC region City

Abu Dhabi 73.5

77

81

Dubai 78.5

Doha 81

77

Occupancy and average daily rates in six major cities

78

Jeddah

Muscat

Riyadh

81 74

74

75

75

Occupancy (%)

66

66

69 59.5

60

60

2014

2015

2016

Forecast 2014

Average daily rates forecast (US dollars)

2015

2016

2014

2015

2016

147 152

182 184

2015 2016

2015 2016

2014

2015

2016

2014

2015

Muscat leads However, stronger RevPAR growth is expected in Muscat from 2016, with the city leading the field with a growth of 8.0 per cent along with Abu Dhabi at 8.3 per cent.

Despite a forecast decline in RevPAR in Muscat in 2015, it retains the third spot out of six cities, and strong growth for 2016 reinforces its solid position.

The positive outlook in 2016 is driven by growth in both ADR and occupancy, reflecting continued infrastructure spend, moderate supply increases, and increase in

2014

2015

2016

238 243

274 294

227 236

241 247

2015 2016

2015 2016

2015 2016

2015 2016

Source: PWC

experienced in the second half of 2014 will continue in 2015, resulting in a decline in RevPar in two of the cities, – 2.4 per cent in Dubai and – 1.2 per cent in Muscat.

The forecast decline in Muscat is in part due to the competition from neighbouring Fujairah and Ras Al Kaihmah, resulting in weaker ADR’s.

2016

Graphics

tourist numbers that will result from government promotional programmes.

The government is supporting the growth of tourism with new infrastructure, including expansion of the airport. The ferry terminal is also being upgraded, which may drive tourism.

Overall, room numbers are set to double over the next three years, with close to 350 rooms recently opened, and 990 due for construction, with a higher proportion in the four-star range than is typical elsewhere.

Commenting on Muscat’s forecast in the report, Kenneth Macfarlane, PwC’s senior partner, Oman Country said, “The outlook for Muscat is ‘more of the same’, in a positive sense. It is an undermarketed destination, with a lot of potential, and a well-considered plan for sustainable long-term growth. The diverse landscape across Oman, together with the

major development projects, is positioning the city well for sustained future growth. Oman’s vision includes delivering $1 billion of tourism revenues by 2020”.

The steady growth in Muscat is an approach that is being executed effectively, and working well.

The authorities are not interested in attracting mass tourism, but rather in promoting the city as a high-quality destination for the discerning.

There has also been a noticeable increase in the number of operators offering two-centre holidays, combining shopping in Dubai, with a more diverse experience in Muscat.

“The demographics of Muscat’s visitors is very different from the other five cities, and it also hosts the region’s first fully Shariahcompliant hotel, which is proving very popular in the region,” said Alison Grinnell, PwC Middle East Hotels Leader.

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ECOLOGY

Single-use shaving Agreement for management of green waste kits compulsory for all salons for men Times News Service

FAHAD AL GHADANI fahadnews@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: Single-use shaving kits have been mandatory for all hairdressing salons for men from June 8, according to a reliable source at Muscat Municipality.

Each kit should contain a razor, a plastic apron and alcohol swabs.

“The municipality had announced this three months ago to ensure that hairdressing salons implement the decision,” said the source, and added that the public should not expect a steep hike in charges.

“Since the single-use kit’s price ranges between 200 and 300 baiza, the hairdressing salons should ask for a reasonable hike in charges. Otherwise, the shop owner should give the reasons behind any unwarranted hike,” said the source.

He explained that materials in the kit can be used only once and should be discarded after use.

“You will protect yourself from infectious diseases,” said the municipality in a statement while urging hairdressers and customers to implement the new rule.

It also informed hairdressers that they must use an anti-microbial hand rub and wear a clean coat and mask while working.

The municipality issued an administrative circular numbered 38/2015 last March advising barber shops to use single-use shaving kit. The circular also pointed out that if found violating the rules, salons would be fined OMR250, with the fine being doubled in case the offence is repeated.

“All hairdressing salons must use the single-use shaving kit for each customer, or they should be prepared for inspections and fines,” said the source.

The municipality source also explained that their officials, in coordination with the Public Authority of Consumer Protection

GREEN CAUSE: The Wave, Muscat renewed its pledge to protect the environment.

Civic officials, in coordination with the Public Authority of Consumer Protection (PACP), will conduct the inspections and initiate legal action

(PACP), will conduct the inspections and initiate legal action if necessary.

Almost 1,000 inspections were carried out last year by raiding parties of the municipality in this regard.

Welcoming the move Dr Pradeep Maheshwari, specialist of internal medicine at the Atlas Hospital, Ruwi, said, “This is an important move by the municipality. Maintaining minimum hygiene standards is a must to keep both customers and hairdressers safe from infection.”

“This decision will help reduce the risk of infection,” he added.

MUSCAT: As part of its commitment to the green cause, The Wave, Muscat has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Oman Waste Water Services Company, Haya Water, for the management of green waste generated by the Integrated Tourism Complex’s (ITC) burgeoning community.

According to the three-year

agreement signed by Hawazen Esber, CEO of The Wave, Muscat, and Hussain bin Hassan bin Ali AbdulHussain, CEO of Haya Water, all grass, plants and tree cuttings collected at The Wave, Muscat will be treated at Haya Water’s pioneering Kala Composting Plant in Al Amarat. On-site it will be recycled and used to produce Kala Fertiliser, a compost product that can be used in agriculture, landscaping

and home gardening. Esber stated, “We are committed to transforming the social, environmental and economic development by applying international best practices to each part of the project.”

The initiative will be diverting organic materials from landfills, reducing the production of greenhouse gases, preventing soil erosion and reducing the need for pesticides and fertilisers.

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Our relations with Oman are on a solid foundation.

Oman and South Africa share a lot in outlook and on how we should deal with intricacies of our world Maj. Gen. Chris Pepani, South Africa envoy

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Freedom Day is an

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opportunity to pay tribute to those who fought so hard for democracy and to acknowledge the country’s development in the following 21 years

SARAH MACDONALD

sarah@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: With live music, dancing and traditional food, South Africans celebrated Freedom Day in Muscat, marking the transition from apartheid to democracy in 1994.

The celebrations were held a bit late as Freedom Day is actually on April 27, but for scheduling reasons the Embassy of South Africa

SPECIAL OCCASION: South Africans celebrated Freedom Day in Muscat, marking the country’s transition from apartheid to democracy in 1994. - Photo: O K Mohammed Ali

held them on Monday evening.

Guests of honour included Sheikh Mohammed Said Al Kalbani, Minister of Social Development, and HH Sayyid Mohammed Salim Al Said, Chief of Protocol at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ambassador Maj. Gen. Chris Pepani told the crowd that even though it was a bit late, it was an occasion well worth commemorating, describing the special day as “a triumph over institutionalized racism, repression,

state-sponsored violence and the enforced division of our people based on race or ethnicity.”

April 27, 1994 was the day the first democratic elections were held in South Africa, bringing Nelson Mandela to power. Pepani said Freedom Day is an opportunity to pay tribute to those who fought so hard for democracy and to acknowledge the country’s development in the following 21 years.

“We have made significant progress in building a democratic nation founded on the values of LAUNCHED

PACA logo MUSCAT: New logo of Public Authority for Civil Aviation (PACA) coincides with a number of achievements in the civil aviation sector. PACA launched on Tuesday its new logo, which reflects the PACA values, visions and strategies. Dr. Mohammed bin Nasser Al Za’abi, PACA chairman, said the launch of the new logo aims at enhancing the fields, goals and contributions of the Authority. -ONA

human dignity, non-racialism and non-sexism,” the ambassador commented.

South Africa has seen a lot of progress in reducing poverty and improving access to water, healthcare, education, housing and many other basic needs which many citizens did not have before 1994. The country’s economy has also become more inclusive and continues to grow, Pepani said.

The country has also become very engaged internationally.

Pepani said the values and principle represented by Freedom Day help South Africa work for a better life not just for South African but all of Africa and the world. His homeland shares many interests with Oman, ranging from their engagement in organisations like the UN and Indian Ocean Rim Association, and their approaches to diplomacy, he added.

“Our relations with Oman are on a solid foundation. Oman and South Africa share a lot in outlook and on how we should deal

with intricacies of our world,” said Pepani.

The ambassador also took a moment to convey warm greetings from Jacob Zuma, President of the Republic of South Africa, to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said on the joyous occasion of his return to the Sultanate, and to express the South African government’s wishes for his continued good health and a long life.

“I wish to pay tribute to His Majesty, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, for the extraordinary manner and unique way in which he handles some very tricky situations. South Africa, like Oman, is a strong believer of dialogue, mediation and non-interference in others’ affairs,” he said.

Finally the ambassador thanked the South African residents of Oman for their contributions to the Sultanate. Over 1,000 South Africans work in Oman, many of them in the education and health sectors.

“We are proud of the contribution they are making and we are very happy with the contribution the Omani South African Friendship Association is making towards ensuring that we strengthen business between Oman and South Africa,” Pepani concluded.

TRAFFIC FINES

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A1 at borders “This is a step forward. Earlier, only expatriates leaving the country for good had to clear their fines,” said the ROP source.

“However, this decision does not include GCC citizens living in Oman,” clarified the source.

He added that the ROP is now working on setting up counters at the borders and airports for expatriates to pay their fines. Considering the traffic congestion that could occur on the borders and at the airports, the source said they would try their level best to avoid long queues in such areas.

“We will find ways to deal with these problems,” said the source.

Traffic fines can be paid after logging on to the https://www.rop. gov.om/TOPayment/english/onlineservices_trafficfines.aspx “Expatriates can avoid paying the fine at the airport or the border by regularly checking the ROP website and clearing it before they plan their trip,” advised another official at the ROP. According to the 2014 figures, the number of vehicles in Oman stood at 1,179,841 and total licences issued stood at 1,242,721.

Out of 816 deaths caused by accidents, 281 were of expats and 535 were Omanis.

In 2014, speeding resulted in 3,510 accidents out of a total of 6,717 accidents, killing 428 people and leaving 1,743 injured.

NO END IN SIGHT

Shop owners, hoteliers A1 badly hit by water crisis < FROM

“We have lodged numerous complaints, but we do not know when this problem will be solved,” added residents.

The Times of Oman has reported previously of complaints that water tanker operators are hiking their prices, and as the temperature soar there seems to be little respite on the horizon for residents.

Wadi Kabir, Darsait, Ruwi and Muttrah, apart from Al Khuwair, Qurum and Ghala are the worst-hit.

“Every day, I bring home drinking water from the office and I do not know how long I can do it. The tankers are fleecing us as they raise their prices every day,” said a resident in Muttrah.

“In May, I had to spend more than OMR50 for water. Since my salary is only around OMR150, I do not know what I should do,” said another resident in Muttrah.

Many shop owners and hoteliers in Ruwi also complained that

their business was hit badly due to the water shortage.

“We are not able to cope with this anymore. We close early every day due to this crisis,” said an hotelier in Ruwi. A Majlis Al Shura member in Muscat also voiced the same opinion.

Budget “The crisis is upsetting everybody’s budget. I heard that tankers are demanding OMR30 for 650 gallons of water. How can those who depend on social security afford this,” asked Tawfiq Al Lawati, a Shura member in Muscat.

“Two years ago, we had made proposals to the PAEW to dig wells in Muscat to meet the growing demand for water, but the proposal was not considered, citing numerous reasons. Now, the people are suffering,” said Tawfiq, who had chaired a fact-finding committee then to meet the demands for water. The Shura mem-

ber also added that the authority has failed to see the growth in population and the increase in demand of essential services such as water.

Recently, Mohammed bin Abdulla Al Mahrouqi, chairman of the PAEW, had said that the water supply situation in Muscat region is ‘critical’ and an outage in any of the desalination plants will have an immediate effect on the overall supply.

Quoting a senior official at the PAEW, there were reports that the government had projected a capital expenditure of around OMR2.5 billion for the expansion and modernisation of the country’s water infrastructure over the next 25 years till 2040.

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WE DNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015 The final ruling will be on June 16 as the court has to complete its deliberations on the opinion of the mufti which was received only this morning Shabaan El Shamy, Judge, Egyptian court

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REGION

EGYPT

Final ruling on Morsi death sentence postponed to June 16

IN THE DOCK: Former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi gestures from the defendants cage as he attends his trial at the police academy on the outskirts of Cairo on Tuesday. – AFP

CAIRO: An Egyptian court on Tuesday postponed its final ruling on ousted president Mohamed Morsi, who was sentenced to death along with dozens more over a mass jailbreak during the 2011 protests.

The court said that on June 16 it would also announce its verdict against Morsi and 18 other defendants in a separate case of espionage. On May 16, Morsi and more than 100 others were sentenced to death after being convicted of plotting jailbreaks and attacks on police during the protests more than four years ago that overthrew president Hosni Mubarak.

The death sentence was referred to the mufti, the government’s in-

18 Houthi rebels killed in ambush Armed tribesmen attacked a convoy of militiamen and allied army troops in the town of Qaeda while they were en route to the city of Taiz

SANAA: Armed tribesmen killed 18 Houthi fighters in an ambush in Yemen’s central province of Ibb on Tuesday, residents said, in one of the deadliest ground attacks in over two months of war.

The attack hit a convoy of militiamen and allied army troops in the town of Qaeda while they were en route to the city of Taiz, a flashpoint of clashes between Yemen’s dominant Houthis and armed backers of exiled president Abdrabbo Mansour Hadi.

Clashes Farther south in Dhalea province, around 15 Houthi fighters were killed in heavy clashes with proHadi fighters on Monday night. A coalition of Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia, seeking to restore Hadi to power, has carried out over nine weeks of air strikes on Houthi fighters who have seized large parts of Yemen.

The Houthis seized the capital in September and fanned out

UP IN FLAMES: Smoke billows from a storage building belonging to the education ministry’s printing press corporation after it was hit by a Saudi-led air strike in Yemen’s northwestern city of Saada on Tuesday. – Reuters

southward, triggering the Arab military intervention.

Saudi-led air strikes hit Houthi positions along Yemen’s far northern border with the kingdom and struck military bases aligned with the group in the capital Sanaa on Tuesday.

Drone strike Residents of Yemen’s far northern province of Al Jawf said five suspected Al Qaeda members were killed in a suspected American drone strike on two cars in a frontline battle area between the Houthis and tribesmen.

The United States fears that the political chaos in Yemen could strengthen Al Qaeda in

the Arabian Peninsula, the deadliest branch of the global militant group.

Aerial bombings It has kept up its aerial bombings on the group’s operatives. As the Houthis and their army allies have spread into some areas in Yemen, local tribesmen have in some cases joined forces with Al Qaeda militants, bolstering the group’s influence in local affairs.

Yemeni politicians say the discussions are narrowing ground between Yemen’s exiled government and the Houthis and may soon pave the way for more formal United Nations-backed negotiations. — Reuters

terpreter of law who plays an advisory role, and a final ruling had been scheduled for Tuesday.

Judge Shabaan El Shamy said that the final ruling in the jailbreak case will now come in two weeks.

“The final ruling will be on June 16 as the court has to complete its deliberations on the opinion of the mufti which was received only this morning,” Shamy said on Tuesday.

Appeal The court’s final ruling can still be appealed. Morsi, in a caged dock and wearing the blue uniform of a convict after already being sentenced in another case to 20 years for inciting violence, raised his fists in defiance before be-

ing escorted from the courtroom, an AFP correspondent reported.

Elected president in 2012 as the Muslim Brotherhood’s compromise candidate after its key leader Khairat Al Shater was disqualified, Morsi ruled for just a year before mass protests spurred the military to overthrow him in July 2013.

He was among dozens of hardline leaders detained amid a crackdown in which hundreds of his supporters were killed.

Morsi,64, was in prison when the anti-Mubarak uprising erupted on January 25, 2011, having been rounded up along with other Brotherhood leaders a few days previously.

On January 28 that year, pro-

testers fuelled by police abuses torched police stations across Egypt, allowing thousands of prisoners to escape when the force all but collapsed.

Separate case Morsi and 34 others were also tried in a separate case of espionage. Sixteen have already been sentenced to death for colluding with foreign powers to destabilise Egypt. The court has yet to pronounce verdicts on Morsi and another 18 in this case.

In April, a court sentenced Morsi to 20 years in prison in another case over abuses against protesters involved in clashes in 2012 when he was in office. — AFP

A8

W E D NE S DAY, JU N E 3, 2 015 We have been working to ensure that the forecast is right. But this time let’s pray to God that the revised forecast does not come true Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Earth Sciences

INDIA EARNED APPLAUSE

Hi-tech kitchens to boost free school lunch quality VRINDAVAN: Churning out 1.2 tonnes of curry in under an hour, staff running the spotlessly clean, high-tech kitchen are hoping to turn around the shocking reputation of India’s free school lunch scheme.

As a large machine rolls out thousands of fluffy, hot rotis (flat breads), aproned men add spices to vegetables and broths cooking in giant steel pots in the three-storey kitchen in Vrindavan.

“We had the vision that no child should be deprived of education because of hunger,” said Bharatarshabha Dasa, spokesman for the Akshaya Patra Foundation which manages the kitchen.

Hampered by corruption and inefficiency, the government’s midday meal programme is the world’s largest, with 120 million children to feed daily.

Endeavour for change Students often fall sick after eating contaminated and poorly prepared food, and in 2013 about two dozen children died in an impoverished district of Bihar after they ate a meal laced with pesticide.

“Our endeavour is to change the perception of midday meals in the

country in the long run,” Dasa said.

Dasa’s operations started small in 2000, serving just 1,500 children in the southern state of Karnataka.

But it has since grown rapidly, with centralised kitchens in which meals are cooked and sent out to schools. “Now we are catering to over 1.4 million children in 10,770 schools across 10 states using precision logistics,” Dasa said.

Problems galore Other charities also provide lunches for students, but many schools themselves are responsible for running the scheme, especially in remote, rural areas.

A national government report in 2010 found many such schools lack proper kitchens and adequate storage space, along with qualified cooks. At the Vrindavan kitchen, food moves seamlessly on chutes and conveyor belts.

Rice stored in silos on the terrace flows to an industrial tub for washing before heading into the pots on the bottom floor.

Nearby a machine cuts up tonnes of vegetables. Once in steel containers, the meals are packed into vans which navigate pot-holed roads to reach 2,000

WORLD’S LARGEST SCHEME : A man serves lunch, organised by the Akshaya Patra Foundation, to schoolgirls at Chaumuha Primary School, in Vrindavan in this photo taken recently. - AFP

government-run schools in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura region. The charity receives subsidised produce and government grants for its operations as well as corporate donations, with each meal costing nine rupees to make.

For many children in India, where malnutrition remains a major problem, free lunches are their only substantial daily meal. The government scheme, which started nationally in 2001, is aimed at enticing particularly poor and vulnerable children to attend class in-

stead of languishing at home hungry or helping their parents labour.

It has earned applause in some states, but has also become the target of corruption scandals with local media often reporting incidents of dead lizards, cockroaches or worse found in meals.

Yamini Aiyar, director of Accountability Initiative, a research group that tracks government programmes, said the scheme was hampered by too many layers of administration, resulting in poor coordination and delivery.

Aiyar, based in New Delhi, said it was also unfair to burden alreadystretched schools with organising the meals.

“It’s important to allow schools to do what they are supposed to do.” Covering up her face in disgust, teacher Prem Lata Saini remembers the food that used to be served at her school in Mathura before the foundation stepped in.

“The food used to come from the village head’s house. Sometimes it would be just some boiled chickpeas,” she said.

Good start “But now the food is healthy and makes use of seasonal vegetables and soya products, something most parents are not able to afford around here.”

“What happened in Bihar was shocking but not surprising,” she added. Unicef estimates that 57 million children in India are malnourished, a miserable scenario for a country that counts itself as an economic power.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh described malnutrition during his decade in power as India’s “national shame”.

At the brick-and-mud Chau-

Fears of drought as monsoon expected to be ‘deficient’ Nino phenomena, is likely to trigger fears about drought situation in some parts of the country.

The Met Department revised its forecast from 93 per cent to 88 per cent Long Period Average, with north-west region of the country expected to be hit the most

FORECAST REVISED: Scattered clouds are seen over Mumbai’s skyline, on Tuesday. India cut this year’s forecast for monsoon rains to 88 per cent of the long-term average. - Reuters

NEW DELHI: Monsoon in the country this year is expected to be “deficient”, the Met department has projected while revising its forecast from “below normal” which is likely to trigger fears of a drought.

The Met Department revised its forecast from 93 per cent to 88 per cent Long Period Average (LPA), with north-west region of the country expected to be hit the most, Union Minister for Earth

Sciences Harsh Vardhan told reporters here on Tuesday.

“I have to say this with a heavy heart that as per our revised forecast, India will receive 88 per cent of rainfall of the LPA,” said Vardhan, who also holds the portfolio of Science and Technology.

In April, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had forecast that monsoon rains would be 93 per cent of the average, which

is categorised as “below normal”.

Now, with the revised projection of 88 per cent, the monsoon is categorised as “deficient”.

“We have been working to ensure that the forecast is right. But this time let’s pray to God that the revised forecast does not come true,” said the minister.

He said that in the last Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had already asked differ-

ent ministries and departments to gear up for such an exigency.

The North-West region which includes Delhi NCR, Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan will be affected as per the forecast with it receiving around 85 per cent of rainfall of the LPA. The region had experienced less rainfall last year.

The projection of low rainfall, which may be attributed to the El-

Disheartening With monsoon already delayed, the news could be disheartening for the farming community which depends heavily on the seasonal rains. The timely onset of the South-West monsoon is crucial for sowing of kharif (summer) crops such as paddy and a deficit in rainfall may hit the rice output.

Agriculture, which employs about 60 per cent of the country’s population, is heavily dependent on the monsoon as only 40 per cent of the cultivable area is under irrigation. Last year, the country had received 12 per cent less rains, which hit production of grains, cotton and oilseeds.

Due to poor monsoon, agriculture growth stood at 0.2 per cent in the 2014-15 fiscal.

According to the government’s estimate, total foodgrains production has declined to 251.12 million tonnes in the 2014-15 crop year (July-June) from a record production of 265.04 million tonnes in the last year. - PTI

muah school in Mathura, scores of girls in khaki uniforms sit crosslegged on floor mats once the gong sounds for lunch.

After saying a prayer, they eagerly wait with their steel plates.

“There is hardly enough food ever in the house for all six of us.

I like this food, it’s hot and tasty,” 12-year-old Anju Singh said, polishing off her meal.

Anju said she spent her days after school taking care of her five younger siblings because her ill mother was mostly bed-ridden and “can’t cook or clean”.

The menu at the school changes daily and includes roti with vegetable curry and different rice dishes, with dessert served on Saturdays as a treat. Uday Mani Patel, an Uttar Pradesh government education officer, said more non-profit organisations needed to take part in the scheme, taking over from officials and schools.

“This would change the entire image of the school midday meal in the country,” he said. Dasa said his foundation was training other charities to set up their own large kitchens to provide meals for the scheme. “(But) More people must come forward.” - AFP CONTROVERSY

Rahul slams Modi over IIT-M row MHOW (MP): Reaching out to the depressed sections from Dalit icon Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar’s birth place, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday opened another front against the Narendra Modi Government accusing it of trying to “silence” a student group of IIT-Madras for being critical of the Prime Minister.

Flagging off the 125th anniversary celebrations of Ambedkar by his party, a combative Rahul called upon on the people to come forward to pull down the walls that prevented from fulfilling the mission of Babasaheb, who stood and fought for the rights of the depressed classes and a society free of caste discrimination.

On the controversy over derecognition of the AmbedkarPeriyar Study Circle in IIT Madras, he said, “the voice of some people is simply being muzzled” as they are associated with the ideologies of reformers like Ambedkar and Periyar.

The student group has been critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Centre’s policies. - PTI

A C U T E P N E U M O N I A AT TA C K

Satyajit Ray’s widow Bijoya Ray dead KOLKATA: Film maestro Satyajit Ray’s widow Bijoya Ray, a lifelong inspiration for the master, died at a private nursing home here on Tuesday following an

acute pneumonia attack, a nursing home spokesman said.

“She was admitted to our nursing home on Saturday noon following an acute pneumonia

attack. She was under the treatment of physician Swapan Pal. She passed away at 6.06pm,” Belle Vue Clinic chief executive officer P. Tondon said. - IANS

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INDIA

Kejriwal-Jung tussle intensifies in Delhi Focus on governance, BJP’s advice to Kejriwal

Lt Governor Najeeb Jung questioned Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s decision to induct five police officers from Bihar

AT LOGGERHEADS: Arvind Kejriwal, Najeeb Jung

in its elite Anti Corruption Branch, triggering sharp reaction from the AAP government

NEW DELHI: In another round of bitter confrontation, Lt Governor Najeeb Jung on Tuesday questioned Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s decision to induct five police officers from Bihar in its elite Anti Corruption Branch, triggering sharp reaction from the AAP government.

Three inspectors and two subinspectors of Bihar Police have joined Delhi government’s ACB after a request in this regard by the AAP government to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s office.

Reacting strongly to the decision, Jung’s office virtually rejected the appointment of the five police officials from Bihar and reaffirmed that the ACB functions under his direct authority and control.

“ACB Delhi, being a police station, functions under the authority, control and supervision of the Lt Governor, a position that has also been clarified by the Ministry of Home Affairs, vide Notification No 1368 (E), dated 21st May 2015.

“The office of the Lt Governor has so far not received any proposal for the deputation of such personnel from outside Delhi Police. The matter will be duly examined as and when the Lt. Governor receives the formal proposal from the Vigilance department of Delhi government,” the LG’s office said in a statement.

On its part, the AAP government justified the move and made a stinging attack on the Lt Governor and the Centre while asserting that it has “full power” to hire officials for the ACB. “Delhi Government has full power to take police officers from anywhere in the country. Previously too it had been done. The Centre is making a joke of everything. Sometimes they make LG to say that officers will come under it, sometimes they make LG to say ACB will come under it.

“They will not obey the Constitution, Court order and the law.

They may say someday that they will run the White House through the LG,” Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said.

Addressing a press conference, AAP leader Ashutosh slammed the Centre and the Lt Governor accusing them of creating hurdles in ACB’s functioning.

“If ACB is strengthened who needs to be scared? Only those who are corrupt. LG’s opposition to the move is against the will

of the people,” he said.

However, the BJP supported Jung and accused the AAP government of picking up “unnecessary fights” with the LG and not following the Constitution.

“The AAP government cannot run a government by bulldozing the Constitution and other laid down norms and procedures. The LG is right that his approval is necessary for hiring officials for ACB,” Delhi BJP President Satish Upadhyay said.

A request for the Bihar Police officers was recently sent by Delhi government, following which the five officers were dispatched.

The AAP government and the Lt Governor have been involved in a public spat over his powers vis-avis an elected government.

The Centre had on May 21 issued a notification siding with the Lt Governor.

Speaking at the assembly session recently, Kejriwal had said that the notification conferring more powers on Lt Governor Jung was part of an “experiment” to take the country towards “dictatorship.”

In the notification, the Centre had given absolute powers to the LG in appointment of bureaucrats while also clarifying that he need not “consult” the chief minister on subjects like police and public order. The matter has already reached the court. -PTI

ASSETS CASE

Jayalalithaa’s party calls Karnataka decision to appeal against acquittal ‘shameful’ CHENNAI: Dubbing the Karnataka government’s decision to appeal in the Supreme Court against the verdict acquitting Chief Minister of south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa in an assets case as “shameful,” the ruling AIADMK on Tuesday asserted that its supremo will again prove her innocence.

“That a State government is going to appeal in an 18-year old case after the High Court had given its judgement following the completion of final arguments is a shameful act,” All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) Tamil daily “Dr Namadhu MGR,” said on Tuesday in an front paged article.

After a Cabinet meeting, Karnataka government announced on Monday that it would appeal in the Supreme Court against the verdict exonerating Jayalalithaa.

“People of Tamil Nadu have no doubt that our Puratchi Thalaivi Amma will shine like gold refined in fire again by proving that she is innocent (in court of law) af-

Jayalalithaa

ter stamping out conspiracies,” it said. It termed the decision to appeal by Karnataka government as “a happening which has not occurred so far (in judicial history where cases were transferred to another State).”

Karnataka’s move “smacked of political vendetta after listening

to the voice of some (persons),” the daily said. The write up also took a swipe at the DMK and PMK for demanding appeal in the case that absolved Jayalalithaa.

Stating that “evil forces,” had repeatedly been urging Karnataka to go in for appeal, the AIADMK said such “lowlifes’” wishful thought was to try making a comeback as they were unable to take on their chief in a straight political contest.

AIADMK has often monikered Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) as “evil forces” during its criticism of that party.

Apparently hitting out at PMK without naming it, AIADMK said, “those who did not seek out Karnataka on Cauvery, the lifeline issue of Tamil Nadu people, strolled the streets of Bengaluru seeking an appeal in the case.”

A Paattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) delegation last month called on Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and gave a memorandum urging the state government to appeal in the case. - PTI

JHARKHAND

Three killed in Hazaribagh court premises HAZARIBAGH: A gangster and his two aides were shot dead allegedly after members of a rival gang opened fire on them outside the District court here on Tuesday, a senior police officer said.

Sushil Srivastav, already convicted in a murder case and lodged in Hazaribagh jail in the eastern state of Jharkhand, was brought to the court on Tuesday for trial in another case of criminal offence, when unidentified assailants fired indiscriminately, killing the gangster, a resident of Patratu town, and his two aides who had come for the hearing, Superintendent of Police Hazaribagh Akhilesh Kumar Jha said.

GANG WAR: Police standing near spot after a firing incident on the Hazaribagh court premises on Tuesday. - PTI

An old rivalry between the gangs of Srivastav and Kishore Pandey was blamed for the outrageous court shootout, the SP said adding in October last year two aides of Pandey were shot

dead and his nephew injured in a shootout between the two gangs at Kadma Market in Jamshedpur.

A massive hunt was on to apprehend the culprits who managed to escape, police said. - PTI

A9

NEW DELHI: Taking a jibe at Arvind Kejriwal for what it described as his knack of picking up fights with everyone, Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday had a word of “friendly” advice for him saying that as the Delhi chief minister, he should focus on governance instead as it is “serious business”.

“He (Kejriwal) has won a decisive victory. He should work and do governance. I regret to say repeatedly that governance is becoming a casualty.

“Arvind Kejriwal ji, let me give you an uncalledfor friendly advice.

Governance is serious business, please keep it in mind,” said Union Minister and senior BJP leader, Ravi Shankar Prasad.

The AAP chief fights with his own party and is also at loggerheads with the Delhi Lt Governor Najeeb Jung, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said Prasad.

Kejriwal also fights with officials and locks up their offices, the BJP leader further charges.

“He should work instead, I will hope,” he said. - PTI

S A F E T Y S TA N D A R D S

Kerala government stores stop Maggi noodles distribution NEW DELHI: The government of Kerala on Tuesday ordered pullout of Maggi noodles from its retail outlets while samples of the product in Haryana were lifted for testing even as a Bihar court ordered that an FIR (First Information Report) be filed against its brand ambassadors Amitabh Bachchan, Madhuri Dixit and Preity Zinta.

In more trouble for Nestle India, the makers of Maggi noodles, Kerala Food and Civil Supplies Minister Anoop Jacob’s office said that an order had been issued to temporarily stop the distribution from its retail outlets in the state forthwith till there is clarity on the safety issue.

Kerala State Civil Supplies corporation, also known as Supplyco, has around 1,400 outlets throughout the state. The probe into alleged lapses of food safety standards has already been expanded to test Maggi noodle samples from across the country following detection of monosodium glutamate and lead in excess of the prescribed limit in the noodles.

However, Nestle India claimed it has got samples tested in an external laboratory as well as inhouse and that the product was found “safe to eat”. In Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Ramchandra Prasad directed Kazi Mohammadpur Police Station to register an FIR against the two Nestle officials and the three stars and investigate the complaint.

The court also directed the police to effect an arrest if required during the course of investigation. The order came during the hearing of a case filed by lawyer Sudhir Kumar Ojha.

The petition had named Managing Director of Nestle Mohan Gupta, its Joint Director Sabab Alam and Bachchan, Dixit and Zinta, who have featured in Maggi ads at different times.

The probe into alleged lapses of food safety standards has already been expanded to test Maggi noodle samples from across the country following detection of monosodium glutamate and lead in excess of the prescribed limit in the noodles

The complainant claimed he purchased Maggi noodles from a shop at Lenin chowk of Muzaffarpur on May 30 and that he was taken ill after he ate it.

This prompted him to file a case against Nestle, the maker of the noodles and the film stars.

The case has been filed under IPC sections 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life), 273 (sale of noxious food or drink), 276 (sale of drug as a different drug or preparation) and 420 (cheating and dishonesty).

“We have taken cognizance of reports of alleged lapses of food safety standards in Maggi noodles. I have ordered my Department to lift samples of these noodles from across the State for laboratory testing,” Haryana’s Health Minister Anil Vij said. - PTI

A 10

W E D NE S DAY, JU N E 3, 2 015

PAKISTAN Digitised version of Lee’s ‘Jinnah’, set to be released

ELECTION VIOLENCE

After the producers Ali Amin Gandapur

of Jinnah declared bankruptcy and the

PTI leader handed over to police on remand

film ended up in the hands of a liquidator, the director of the film, Jamil Dehlavi, bought the rights for

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPA and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Minister Ali Amin Gandapur has been handed over to the police for a one-day remand.

Dera Ismail Khan police officials had laid siege to his residence, the Gandapur Cottage, in the Hethala area of Kulachi town of DI Khan earlier on Monday.

The siege lasted three hours, but Gandapur still managed to escape through the back door of his house.

its global release a few years ago

KARACHI: Pakistan founder Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah would have been a proud man if he was alive today. Not because of any respite in the ongoing socio-political crises but because his only feature length biopic is all set re-release in Pakistan.

After the producers of Jinnah declared bankruptcy and the film ended up in the hands of a liquidator, the director of the film, Jamil Dehlavi, bought the rights for its international release a few years ago. Now Dehlavi is all set to rerelease the Christopher Lee-starrer in theatres across the country.

TO RAISE AWARENESS: The film was originally released in Pakistan and the UK in 1998 and has now been digitised to suit the requirements of multiplexes. — Express Tribune

For the new generation “I think Jinnah’s message deserves to be seen by the younger generation that wasn’t around when the film was initially released,” Dehlavi told The Express Tribune. The film was originally released in Pakistan and the UK in 1998 and has now been digitised to suit the requirements of multiplexes. There were only 24, 35mm prints of the film available, which were lying in the then Nishat Cin-

ema and were destroyed when the cinema was torched during protests. “All the prints were destroyed in the fire and we had to start everything anew.

But, fortunately, I had the film in a format that may be obsolete these days but gave us room to start from somewhere. Adjusting the sound to digital requirements was a big challenge though,” said Dehlavi.

The idea of releasing Jinnah

struck Dehlavi when the film was screened in front of more than 4,500 children from underprivileged backgrounds at popular venues, such as Capri, Prince, Atrium and City cinema in the Karachi locality of Federal B Area.

“Our purpose is to raise awareness about the struggle for the creation of Pakistan and for the younger generation to participate in a discussion about the future

of Pakistan,” stated an invite for the film’s re-launch at Nueplex cinemas; an event which will serve like a precursor for the nationwide release.

Pre-release hype With Ramadan on its way and the producers starting the pre-release hype, it seems that the film may capitalise on the national fervour by releasing on August 14.

“We don’t have a particular date or time-frame in mind. All I can assure is that I own the film now and it will be released in cinemas across the country very soon,” said Dehlavi.

Apart from Lee, Jinnah’s cast includes Shashi Kapoor, James Fox, Maria Aitken, F Richard Lintern , Shireen Shah , Indira Verman, Shakeel and Talat Hussain.

— Express Tribune

Armed supporters According to police, vote count was under way in the Hemath Adda polling station on Sunday when Gandapur, his brother Umar (a candidate) and his armed supporters arrived on the scene, picked up the ballot boxes and took off with them in the minister’s car.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday attempted to distance itself from the ugly violence reported in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa local government polls, while holding the provincial authorities responsible for the law and order during the May 30 electoral exercise.

Poll body absolves itself The ECP in a statement absolved itself of criticism that it failed to stem violence on the day of the election. — Express Tribune

CONTROVERSY

Portuguese illustrator ‘disgusted’ by Pakistani copycat Nida ISLAMABAD: In Pakistan’s highly competitive and ever growing fashion industry, there is a fine line between inspiration and imitation.

Designer Nida Khurram on recently showcased her new summer collection at Fashion Pakistan Lounge in Karachi’s Dolmen Mall, in which her pieces incorporated contemporary illustrations and motifs on luxurious Swiss lawn.

Although many took a liking to the designer’s digital prints, freelance Portuguese illustrator António Soares took to his Facebook account to express his ‘disgust’ for the collection which he claimed made use of his illustrations without his permission.

The digital prints collection consisting of two-piece suits, according to the Nida, pay a ‘tribute’

to the work of illustrators from London, Paris and New York.

“I’ve been really inspired by fashion illustrations of London, Milan and NYC based artists.

Their work has motivated me to bring the collection forward through digital prints,” she said on the collection launched.

Soares, contrary to the idea of the designer paying a tribute to his illustrations revealed that she did not contact him for permission to use his illustrations.

Profitable venture On the launch of her collection on Monday, Nida was optimistic about her collection becoming a “profitable venture”, however, following the claims and remarks by Soares, it may seem that fashion is

Freelance Portuguese illustrator António Soares took to his Facebook account to express his ‘disgust’ for the collection which he claimed made use of his illustrations without his permission

after all not the designer’s forte.

Although the designer has been difficult to reach, she took to her official Facebook page to provide clients with a statement which she has now removed.

“The collection released is a tribute to fashion illustrators which has been quoted that its the

beauty of the illustrators of the world who are booming with work.

It doesn’t say inspired its a tribute, the illustrators should be proud that their work is shown to the world and liked and praised, we never owned the illustrations- We would like to make the illustrator himself understand this clearly, its

an honour for us to promote illustrators from around the world. It’s not copying its giving. A tribute.

And of course we wouldn’t hesitate in naming the most looked up illustrators.”

Ruthless copying Speaking to The Express Tribune prominent members of the fashion industry spoke about the designs and remarks by the Portuguese illustrator.

“We have to collectively stop this practice. If we continue to condone this ruthless copying, it gives a negative image and name to our fashion industry. In the commercial world inspiration is accepted but not a total copy. Using an artists’ work for commercial use without credit or royalty, is

just sad. It’s time to question what the fashion industry in Pakistan stands for?,” said Maheen Khan of Gulabo.

Huma Adnan of FnkAsia said, “Well, to be honest, every big and small designer is copying and this is a small promotion in the current fashion industry. Had it been a few big names that were doing it, it would have been different story.

There are Indian artists who have blatantly copied stuff from the designs of small Pakistani fashion houses. The sad thing is that big names are doing it too but this is not talked about openly.

If you go by Pinterest, a multitude of people in Pakistan are copying from all corners from what Western artists are originally bringing forward. — Express Tribune

TRANSPORT WOES

Metro buses set to roll in Islamabad ISLAMABAD: Amid much fanfare, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif on Monday announced that the prime minister will inaugurate the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus Project “in the coming days”.

Nearly 150 senior journalists from across the country were invited by the federal information ministry to visit the site and were later briefed on the project followed by a lavish lunch at the Punjab House.

Later, addressing a news conference, Shahbaz said the project was delayed by six months due to the sit-ins by Pakistan Tehreeki-Insaf and Pakistan Awami Tehreek in Islamabad.

National project “It’s a national project as people belonging to all four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistanadministered Kashmir are living in Islamabad and Rawalpindi and they will benefit from it,” Shahbaz said, adding though the project was delayed beyond its original deadline, it was still completed in ‘record time’.

He said the project was com-

IMPROVING LIVES: Nearly 150 senior journalists from across the country were invited by the federal information ministry to visit the site and were later briefed on the project followed by a lavish lunch at the Punjab House. — Express Tribune

pleted within the approved cost and all service and other contracts were awarded following competitive bidding.

To a question that the bus’ route does not cover thickly populated areas of the twin cities,

Sharif informed that the route was selected following feasibility study for a mass transit system for the twin cities conducted by Nespak. He said as per the study, nearly 130,000 people daily travel on that route.

He said those who were opposing the project live in ‘a fool’s paradise’ as the project would provide state-of-the-art and international standard transportation service to the public. The chief minister said despite opposition from various political parties, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government would continue to ‘serve masses as per the vision of Pakistan’s founders’.

He said to make the project a success, new routes would soon be introduced to support the metro bus.

To a question that buses stations made up of glass would be vulnerable to any protest gathering or mobs, the chief minister said the project itself would anguish the deep public anger as it would bring an end to travellingrelated miseries of poor people.

Shahbaz was asked if the project would benefit the government in the upcoming local bodies polls, he said it was not so as the people of Pakistan had already given PML-N the mandate to take decisions in their greater interest in the 2013 general elections. — Express Tribune

WE DNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015 State-run Almaz-Antey said its own analysis of the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines plane brought down on July 17 last year in rebelheld eastern Ukraine, killing 298 people, indicated it was hit by a BUK 9M38M1 surface-to-air missile armed with a 9H314M warhead

WORLD

Myanmar navy escorts 700 boat migrants to Rakhine

CONFLICT ZONE

‘Russia did not shoot down MH17 over Ukraine’ MOSCOW: The Russian company that makes the BUK air defence system that was used to shoot down a Malaysian airliner in east Ukraine said on Tuesday the plane was hit by a missile deployed by Ukraine and not widely used by Russia’s military.

State-run Almaz-Antey said its own analysis of the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines plane brought down on July 17 last year, killing 298 people, indicated it was hit by a BUK 9M38M1 surface-to-air missile armed with a 9H314M warhead.

Shrapnel holes in the plane were consistent with that kind of missile and warhead, it said.

Around 3,500 migrants, mainly Rohingya from Myanmar or economic migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh, have come ashore in Southeast Asia in recent weeks in an ongoing crisis

YANGON: Myanmar’s navy on Tuesday escorted a boatload of more than 700 migrants towards its western state of Rakhine, authorities said, five days after it was found adrift in the Bay of Bengal.

Around 3,500 migrants, mainly Rohingya from Myanmar or economic migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh, have come ashore in Southeast Asia in recent weeks in an ongoing migrant crisis.

Some 2,500 more are believed still trapped at sea, heaping pressure on both countries to take back the migrants and improve living conditions to stem the outflow.

Soon after the boat was found on Friday Myanmar authorities said the 727 passengers onboard were “Bengalis” and threatened to send them across the border.

Myanmar describes its persecuted Rohingya Muslim community living in the western state of Rakhine and numbering around 1.3 million as “Bengalis”. Most have no citizenship and are con-

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IN LIMBO: A boat packed with migrants is attached to a Myanmar navy vessel (not pictured) off Leik Island in the Andaman Sea on Tuesday. — Reuters

sidered to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

On Tuesday officials in both Myanmar and Bangladesh said the packed boat was on its way to Rakhine -- a frequent upstream departure point for many Rohingya journeys south.

“It’s heading to Rakhine. We heard they were being taken to Maungdaw by the navy but we can’t confirm that,” an unnamed official in Maungdaw, a town in the state, told AFP. Bangladesh’s Border Guard also said it had been told by its neigh-

bour that the passengers would be taken to Maungdaw.

It is unclear when the boat was due to arrive or what would happen to the passengers once they reached the town, which is separated from Bangladesh by a wide river.

Dhaka to block any push bid But in a warning to Myanmar, a coast guard official, Captain Shahidul Islam, said Bangladesh would block any attempt to push them across the frontier.

“This ship with migrants is be-

ing shifted to Maungdaw through Myanmar waters,” he said.

“We have intensified patrols in our territory so that they cannot push back their citizens to Bangladesh territory.”

The Rohingya flee Rakhine in droves each year to escape poverty and persecution in a region where their movements are controlled and they lack access to jobs or basic services. The exodus increased dramatically after 2012 when scores were killed in communal bloodletting involving Buddhist nationalists in the state.

Tens of thousands have languished in displacement camps in Rakhine since the violence.

An estimated 300,000 more scratch a living in the poor coastal area of neighbouring Bangladesh, but only around a tenth of them are officially recognised as refugees.

The status of the Rohingya is an incendiary issue in Myanmar as Buddhist nationalism surges.

But the country has faced intensifying pressure from the international community to extend citizenship rights to them. — AFP

Not produced since 1999 Such missiles have not been produced in Russia since 1999 and the last ones were delivered to foreign customers, it said, adding that the Russian armed forces now mainly use a 9M317M warhead with the BUK system.

“Neither the company nor its enterprises could have supplied these rockets in the 21st century,” Almaz-Antey’s chief executive, Yan Novikov, told a news conference run by the Kremlin press service at which the company used 3D visuals and computer animation.

Ukrainian forces After a company presentation translated simultaneously into three languages, he said Ukraine’s armed forces had still had nearly 1,000 such missiles in its arsenal in 2005, when it held talks with Almaz-Antey on prolonging their lifespan.

Criticising sanctions imposed on Almaz-Antey by the European Union, he said: “The corporation was not involved in the Malaysian Boeing catastrophe. Correspondingly, the economic sanctions applied to the corporation for that are... unjust.” — Reuters

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Who is willing to fight for Iraq anyway?

THE INDEPENDENT

T

he US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter’s recent assessment of Iraqi security forces was impolitic and true, and rarely voiced by senior officials. After the devastating loss of the Iraqi city of Ramadi to the IS in May, he told CNN that while Iraqi troops vastly outnumbered the extremists, they “just showed no will to fight.” Carter’s stark judgment once again raises the question of how long the United States should continue arming and training Iraqis and dropping bombs on IS targets. If the Iraqis don’t care enough to defend and sacrifice for their own country, then why should the United States?

The American strategy is based on building up local security forces that can back up American airstrikes by recapturing territory and then holding it. Presuming Isis is ever defeated, no peace can be sustained if Iraqis aren’t committed to preserving it. It was no surprise that Iraqi leaders reacted angrily to Carter’s remarks, prompting Vice President Joseph Biden to call Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi to reassure him of continued American support.

But diplomatic words could not paper over the contradictory messages after Ramadi fell. The White House acknowledged a serious setback there, but made a point of highlighting instances, like the April fight to reclaim Tikrit, when Iraqi forces “performed well on the battlefield.” A senior State Department official said that while the Ramadi defeat was “very serious” and a counteroffensive will “take some time,” Iraqi units did not completely collapse, as they did during last year’s battle over Mosul. That is not much of an endorsement.

On the Iraqi side, a spokesman admitted to mismanagement and poor planning by some senior military commanders, but other Iraqi officials pointed a finger at Washington, complaining of delayed American weapons deliveries, overcautious use of airstrikes and other failings. With Isis tightening its grip on the Anbar Province, the Americans have promised to rush 1,000 rockets to help counter the vehicles laden with massive bombs that Isis used in capturing Ramadi, including 10 that had the explosive power of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. The United States has 3,000 military trainers and advisers in Iraq, but there is no serious discussion of adding ground troops overtly designated for combat — nor should there be. Given the urgent threat, the Americans should consider working more directly with the tribes if Baghdad continues to refuse. After the Ramadi debacle exposed more weaknesses in the regular Iraqi security forces, American officials say they will have to rely more heavily on a combination of elite Iraqi units, Kurdish forces and some militias to fight Isis. The Iraqi state has been fragile since the Americans overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003. Now, under the new threat of Isis, the politically dysfunctional state is under more strain, and may be in greater danger than ever of splitting apart into numerous faction. That would make defeating Isis forces even harder. - The New York Times News Service

ECONOMIC CRISIS

That 1914 feeling is coming back again PAUL KRUGMAN

Justice delayed

T

here can be very little hope for a country where social activists, working for the poorest sections of society, are first murdered and then those seeking justice for them threatened. It is even worse when such threats and intimidatory tactics come from the police, apparently attempting to cover up the true sequence of events and force into silence those attempting to bring them to light. This is what has happened in the case of Perween Rahman, the director of the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) who was shot dead in March 2013 near her place of work. Since then, there has been very limited progress in identifying those responsible, with activists, including Rahman’s sister, Aquila Ismail, a noted activist, teacher and writer, citing increased harassment since a petition was filed by activists with the Supreme Court in July 2013.

Ismail also believes that a January 2014 attack on the OPP-Research & Training Institute (RTI) Joint Director, Salim Alimuddin, was directly linked to the apex Court’s decision to accept the petition for hearing. The incident forced the RTI to move out of Orangi, weakening its operations. Since then, there have been other attempts at intimidation, some coming from police officials. The OPP has been asked to ‘compromise’, something it will not do. The police have been reluctant to act on the possibility of land mafias being involved and the Court has rejected reports filed so far on this dimension to the case. Rahman’s murder was a tragedy. It is still worse that more than two years on, we have been unable to move effectively towards solving the sordid affair because our judicial system has been shackled by threats made and the tactics used to scare complainants away. The involvement of the police in this truly means that they stand on the side of criminals, rather than their victims, and in this situation it is virtually impossible to hope for justice which is the right of every citizen. Justice has not been delivered in this case and this sets a terrible precedent for the future. No one can be safe in such circumstances. - The Express Tribune

Building construction visa ban is a welcome decision This refers to the news story, Building site ban on expats extended (June 2). The extension of the ban may apparently affect construction work under way in Oman and could impair the future projects as well. However, the extension of the ban may also serve a greater purpose and I would certainly remain keen on seeing that. It could be that the authorities would like to see the nationals taking up the jobs of construction workers and many of them may become skilled masons. If this is the objective then I would really like to hail the decision as one which is indeed pragmatic. There are a large number of Omani young men who are not as educated as many others. They may not become officers but can find employment in the

construction sector. After all, the citizens must build the country as per their vision.

Sumit Chatterjee Qurum

Ban extension could affect construction projects This refers to the news story, Building site ban on expats extended (June 2). The ban and its extension could impact several ongoing projects in the construction sector in the country. Many projects in Muscat and elsewhere have already slowed down because of paucity of skilled masons. The extension of the ban will only encourage many sub-contractors to use illegal work force available in the country.

Abdul Aziz Ruwi

Greece running out of euros, and being forced to reintroduce its own currency amid a banking crisis — is something everyone should want to avoid.

Yet negotiations are by all accounts going badly, and there’s a very real possibility that the worst will, in fact, happen

T

he US officials are generally cautious about intervening in European policy debates. The European Union is, after all, an economic superpower in its own right — far too big and rich for America to have much direct influence — led by sophisticated people who should be able to manage their own affairs.

So it’s startling to learn that Jacob Lew, the Treasury secretary, recently warned Europeans that they had better settle the Greek situation soon, lest there be a destructive “accident.”

But I understand why Lew said what he did. A forced Greek exit from the euro would create huge economic and political risks, yet Europe seems to be sleepwalking toward that outcome. So Lew was doing his best to deliver a wake-up call.

And yes, the allusion to Christopher Clark’s recent magisterial book on the origins of World War I, “The Sleepwalkers,” is deliberate. There’s a definite 1914 feeling to what’s happening, a sense that pride, annoyance, and sheer miscalculation are leading Europe off a cliff it could and should have avoided. The thing is, it’s pretty clear what the substance of a deal between Greece and its creditors would involve. Greece simply isn’t going to get a net inflow of money.

At most, it will be able to borrow back part of the interest on its existing debt. On the other hand, Greece can’t and won’t pay all of the interest coming due, let alone pay back its debt, because that would require a crippling new round of austerity that would inflict severe economic damage and would be politically impossible in any case.

So we know what the outcome of a successful negotiation would be: Greece would be obliged to run a positive but small “primary surplus,” that is, an excess of revenue over spending not including interest. Everything else should be about framing and packaging.

What will be the mix between interest rate cuts, reductions in the face value of debt, and rescheduling of payments? To what extent will Greece lay out its spending plans now, as opposed to agreeing on overall targets and filling in the details later?

These aren’t trivial questions, but they’re secondorder, and shouldn’t get in the way of the big stuff.

Meanwhile, the alternative — basically Greece running out of euros, and being forced to reintroduce its own currency amid a banking crisis — is something everyone should want to avoid. Yet

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They sicken of the calm, who knew the storm DOROTHY PARKER

negotiations are by all accounts going badly, and there’s a very real possibility that the worst will, in fact, happen. Why can’t the players here reach a mutually beneficial deal? Part of the answer is mutual distrust. Greeks feel, with justification, that for years their nation has been treated like a conquered province, ruled by callous and incompetent proconsuls; if you want to see why, look both at the incredible severity of the austerity programme the country has been forced to impose and the utter failure of that programme to deliver the promised results.

Meanwhile, the institutions on the other side consider the Greeks unreliable and irresponsible; some of this, I think, reflects the inexperience of the coalition of outsiders that took power thanks to austerity’s failure, but it’s also easy to see why, given Greece’s track record, it’s hard to trust promises of reform.

Yet there seems to be more to it than lack of trust. Some major players seem strangely fatalistic, willing and even anxious to get on with the catastrophe — a sort of modern version of the “spirit of 1914,” in which many people were enthusiastic about the prospect of war. These players have convinced themselves that the rest of Europe can shrug off a Greek exit from the euro, and that such an exit might even have a salutary effect by showing the price of bad behaviour. But they are making a terrible mistake. Even in the short run, the financial safeguards that would supposedly contain the effects of a Greek exit have never been tested, and could well fail. Beyond that, Greece is, like it or not, part of the European Union, and its troubles would surely spill over to the rest of the union even if the financial bulwarks hold.

Finally, the Greeks aren’t the only Europeans to have been radicalized by policy failure. In Spain, for example, the anti-austerity party Podemos has just won big in local elections. In some ways, what defenders of the euro should fear most is not a crisis this year, but what happens once Greece starts to recover and becomes a role model for anti-establishment forces across the continent.

None of this needs to happen. All the players at the table, even those much too ready to accept failure, have good intentions.

There’s hardly even a conflict of interest between Greece and its creditors — as I said, we know pretty much what a mutually beneficial deal would involve. But will that deal be reached? We’ll find out very soon. – The New York Times News Service

When will India be put back on path of growth?

For the third time since the Modi government stormed to power in India a year ago, the country’s central bank reduced a key interest rate to boost growth. Contrary to what Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised during his campaign, growth is eluding India.

Frankly, Modi and his government have failed to put India back on the path of growth though they promised to do so while wooing the voters. It’s true that the government has four more years and Modi may achieve what he promised to the nation. But, in the past one year, his government has not been able to achieve anything which can differentiate the NDA government from the Congress-led UPA II. Hollow promises, it may be noted, will not do the government in the

long term as the same people who turned out to vote for Modi may do the opposite the next time.

Priya Kumar Azaiba

Is the US really keen on seeing end to extremism?

In Afghanistan and Pakistan, Al Qaeda is a foe because it is a threat to the US interests. In Syria, however, Al Qaeda is a collaborator to get Assad out of power, to keep Hezbollah in Lebanon disturbed and to keep Iran anxious at the same time. I am certain that Washington would look the other way as long as extremist outfits remain preoccupied with local agendas and do not pose a threat to the US interests.

Jaffar Ismail Muttrah

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)

T I M E S OF OMAN

WE DNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015

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PERSPEC IVE The perils of remaining unaffected by rule of law P

rotests in Pakistan, even those that are ostensibly peaceful, have a tendency to take a turn towards the violent. The cause is often an interplay of two factors: aggressive protesting (though not always) and an over-zealous police force eager to demonstrate its reach and power.

Last week’s incident at Daska was the outcome of such interplay. A lot of lawyers assembled outside a police station to ‘peacefully’ protest against certain administrative decisions taken by local authorities. In an attempt to temper the ‘scuffle’, which ‘somehow’ broke out between the protestors and stationed police, the latter intemperately fired rounds of bullets, some directly at the crowd.

Two men, one of whom was the president of the local bar association, fell to their death in this attempt by the Punjab police to keep peace. The lawyer community, quite expectedly, reacted in hurt and anger. They set on fire government offices and official residences, pelted police vehicles with stones and hindered traffic on thoroughfares. Their agitation, to no surprise, drew the attention of the provincial government, which ordered an investigation into the tragedy and promised quick dispensation of justice. Several questions abound. Was the protesting congregation of lawyers in Daska truly peaceful? What (who) sparked the violence? Was the use of force by the police, or the reaction (particularly of the violent variety) it engendered from the legal fraternity, justified? These are questions of blame and proportionality. The Joint Investigation Team constituted by the provincial government (following a rethink over the decision to ascribe the task to a judicial commission) will, it is hoped, provide answers in due course. The impartiality of the inquiry, or the value of its findings, are separate matters altogether. The questions, however, are not new. There is almost a rehearsed sequence to them: A protest. Some trigger. Police action. Resort to force. Violence. An inquiry.

The last year has witnessed this sequence play out on more than one occasion. Who can forget the grand fiasco at Model Town, considered now as the epitome of police brutality? Or the thrashing meted out to the blind, who had assembled at

SAHAR BANDIAL

A common thread of police excesses, often committed against innocent and unarmed civilians exercising (mostly within legal limits) their constitutional right of assembly, runs across these instances of protest and violence

the Lahore Press Club on World Disability Day to demand an increase in government job quotas for the disabled? Police assault on a congregation of female nurses demonstrating against government policy regarding regularisation of their services cannot, for its atrociousness, be forgotten.

The scenes of police-civilian altercation from DChowk remain etched in our memories on similar accounts. A common thread of police excesses, often committed against innocent and unarmed civilians exercising (mostly within legal limits) their constitutional right of assembly, runs across these instances of protest and violence. Police protocol now appears to be simply ‘shoot-at-sight’ without any regard to law or consequence. SHO Shehzad Warraich merely followed such protocol at Daska. To condemn the show of police brutality at Daska, without commenting on the reaction it has evoked from the legal community, would be unfair. Rage and anger at the ruthless murder of the two lawyers at the hands of the Punjab police is in order. Yet its manifestation through acts of arson, vandalism or assault cannot be justified.

This is not the first time we (lawyers) have resorted to violent agitation in support of (at least in this instance) the most worthy of causes.

We have on occasion ransacked the courtroom of the provincial chief justice to communicate our displeasure at the conduct of a civil judge; attacked the Supreme Court building to press, with fervour, our demand for the establishment of additional benches of the Lahore High Court; thrashed members of the police in angst for being made to go through security checks or the impounding of our vehicles.

There is an inherent paradox to our hooliganism: we earn our bread through talk of law enforcement, yet remain, to our convenience, unaffected by the rule of law. Daska then represents two wrongs; neither can be condoned.

One must vehemently condemn the sense of entitlement and impunity that has penetrated its way into the mind set of our trigger-happy police, but at the same time reflect on the culture of violence that is now considered by many as the trademark of our profession. – The Express Tribune

Tony Blair is a charismatic wealth creator

O

ver the weekend, it was reported that Tony Blair pulled out of addressing The World Hunger Forum in Stockholm because his £330k price tag for turning up and talking just couldn’t be met.

According to one source, the food company organising the event, Eat, dropped Blair because “his star power is fast diminishing”. But regardless of whether this is true or not, many agree that he was wrong to ask for such an astronomical payment in the first place.

It was apparently going to be given to The Cherie Blair Foundation. So if his claim that he didn’t turn up and speak due to “prior commitments” is true, that’s a real shame; it would have been a huge donation.

But either way, I think it’s time we give the man a break. His impeccable record as a selfless public servant aside, Blair’s approach to life after his Downing Street days display the exact same values that both the government and opposition want us to tattooed on our foreheads: “aspiration” and “wealth creation”.

The next Labour leadership favourite, Andy Burnham, last week suggested “wealth creators must be valued as highly as NHS staff ”.

Burnham reckons these wealthy people are “everyday heroes”, in which case Tony Blair is basically

MICHAEL SEGALOV

Superman, creating cash money left right and centre.

Since leaving Downing Street he’s had to deny reports that he has amassed a personal fortune of £100m, and has insisted that it’s closer to £20m — a far more modest amount. But regardless of how many millions he has, Tony’s real message to us all is that we shouldn’t be bothered by those bleeding-heart liberals who think we should be paying a fair level of tax — in fact, a company he set up managed to halve its tax bill to just £300,000 on an income of £14m.

For years we’ve been recoiling in disgust at people reliant on state hand-outs, shamelessly avoiding a hard day’s work. People like Lesley Roberts, who thinks being terminally ill should in some way entitle her to some taxpayer funded support.

Unlike the work shy Lesleys of the world, Tony has taken whatever jobs have come his way; from advising the Columbian government on how to spend £2bn earned on mining deals, to advising the Kazakh president on publicity after the killing of 15 civilian protestors.

His 20-minute speech in Stockholm would have cost £275 per second. So what if people aren’t happy? Tony isn’t part of the “jobshy generation”, he’ll take on work whether it’s popular or not. He knows that work pays, unlike the

lazy youth of today who are moaning about being expected to work for £1.91 an hour.

Just a couple of years back it was reported Blair continued to cost the country £400k a year, with much of that money going to his 24/7 taxpayer funded security team.

He’s also never been afraid to get his hands dirty in the process of finding us work — even if it meant telling a couple of little white lies about some weapons to make sure that 46,000 Brits were dutifully employed in Iraq.

And not everyone who works for Blair is an unpaid intern. Well, just about.

Without Tony, the Arrest Blair site would never have appeared, and those wishing to attempt “a peaceful citizen’s arrest of the former British prime minister, for crimes against peace” wouldn’t be able to claim the £7k that’s currently up for grabs. This is wealth creation at its best.

Tony is an aspirational wealth creator, and he personifies the traits that we as a society should most admire. Come on Tony!

Your aspiration should be an inspiration to us all — what about the next generation of evangelical warmongering millionaires-inwaiting? Be proud! You’ve already let down enough ordinary Brits and Iraqis; don’t go and let them poor guys down too. – The Independent

Why do we need ‘Game of Thrones’?

DOMINIQUE MOISI

T

oday’s popular television programmes have become the equivalent of the feuilletons that began appearing in newspapers in the nineteenth century. Series like “Game of Thrones” and “Downton Abbey,” like Balzac and Dickens before them, serve as a source of entertainment and fodder for debate. In this sense, our television screenplays have emerged as key tools of social and political analysis.

Of course, the availability of such comparisons is rooted in what often drives a TV series’ popularity: its ability to hold up a mirror to a society – to reflect its anxieties and longings – and create a window through which outsiders can peer in.

Consider “Downton Abbey,” a British period drama that follows the lives of the Crawley family and its servants in the family’s classic country house, from 1912 to the mid-1920s. Why are millions of people worldwide – from Europe to the United States to Asia – so attracted to these characters?

Are they nostalgic for a time long past, which the show reconstitutes with exacting verisimilitude? Or are they fascinated by the social dynamics that the show explores?

For Julian Fellowes, who created the series, the explanation lies elsewhere – in our search for order in a chaotic world. People feel so disoriented nowadays, he believes, that they are drawn to “Downton Abbey’s” tidy realm, in which the setting, clearly delineated in space and time, is governed by strict rules.

Just as the Crawley house serves as a kind of refuge for its characters, it may give its viewers a safe, predictable outlet by which to escape the tumultuous present – and avoid the unknown future.

Similarly, the American political drama “House of Cards” reflects a kind of disillusionment – this time, with US politics. Whereas “The West Wing,” a popular political drama that ran from 1999 to 2006, portrays the US presidency – held by a sophisticated, cultivated, and humanistic leader – with a kind of longing, “House of Cards” immerses the viewer in a murky milieu of humanity’s worst impulses.

In “House of Cards,” the world is not as viewers believe it should be, but as they fear it is.

This is the opposite of the approach taken by the Danish political drama “Borgen,” which presents an idealised prime minister, Birgitte Nyborg. But the effect is similar. One often hears people saying that the true problem facing Denmark – and, in

particular, its political class – is that Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt lacks Nyborg’s strengths.

By exposing the fundamental challenges and anxieties facing a society, a TV series can, at times, almost prefigure the future. In France, “Engrenages” – sold in English under the title “Spiral” – explores the deep malaise of French society.

In retrospect, the series seems to have foreshadowed the tragedies that beset the country in January. In particular, the fifth season, which aired in France in late 2014, offered a clinical description of how young people in the Paris suburbs went astray, while portraying the relationship between the police and their political superiors as cynical and even combative. The show’s dialogue could have come straight out of a real-life Parisian “power lunch.”

The TV show that has emerged as the most hotly debated of our time is, without a doubt, “Game of Thrones,” a medieval fantasy epic based on George R.R. Martin’s bestselling book series A Song of Ice and Fire.

The series has become known not just for its massive budget or intricate storytelling, but also for its sustained choreography of violence.

Students of international politics, especially in Canada and the US, wonder whether the show, by stressing the role of sheer brutality, encourages a “realist” vision of the world. Could the savagery featured on “Games of Thrones” – including abundant beheadings, rape, and torture – have helped to encourage the tactics of, say, Boko Haram and the Isis?

Or could the series – in which violence often begets more violence, but does not necessarily get the characters what they want – actually be highlighting the limits of force?

On a more philosophical level, the show’s universe – a combination of ancient mythology and the Middle Ages – seems to capture the mixture of fascination and fear that many people nowadays feel. It is a fantastic, unpredictable, and devastatingly painful world – one that is so complex that even the show’s most loyal viewers often are confused. In this sense, it is much like the world in which we live.

Though the West has no monopoly on the production of TV series, it undoubtedly dominates the field – and thus the worldview that such shows reflect. Given this, one might wonder whether Chinese or Russian leaders are making time in their busy schedules to watch series such as “House of Cards” or “Games of Thrones,” in order to understand their rivals’ mentality. - Project Syndicate

Britain’s election system “archaic” A report by Britain’s Electoral Reform Society finds that the May general election was the most disproportionate in history. Under a list-based system of proportional representation, as used in elections to the European parliament, the outcome would have been very different Conservative

Labour

UKIP

Lib Dem

Actual seats won (May 7 election) First-past-the-post method 350 331 Across all parties, 331 300 of 650 MPs were elected on under 50% 250 of vote, and 232 191 with less 200 than 30% of vote

SNP

Green

Party list system Proportional representation

FROM OUR ARCHIVES

European parliament uses D’Hondt method, that allocates seats in proportion to parties’ share of vote

242 208

100 80 56

0

1

8

47 21

30

20

23

1

UK’s First-past-the-post method sees candidate with highest number of votes, but not necessarily majority of electorate, elected

Source: Electoral Reform Society

Graphic News /

1539

Hernando De Soto claims Florida for Spain.

1861

Union troops defeat Confederate forces at Philippi, in western Virginia.

1864

Some 7,000 Union troops are killed within 30 minutes during the Battle of Cold Harbor in Virginia.

1918

The Finnish Parliament ratifies a treaty with Germany.

1923

In Italy, dictator Benito Mussolini grants women the right to vote.

SUNAIDI HOLDS TALKS WITH YEMEN TRADE DELEGATION

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MUSCAT: Engineer Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidi, undersecretary for commerce and industry at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, held talks with the Yemeni trade delegation, headed by Ahmed Al Saqaf, chamber president, at the ministry yesterday.

Sunaidi welcomed the delegation stressing the importance of the visit in further enhancing bilateral and economic relations. He stressed the importance of Al Maziona Free Trade Zone in boosting trade exchange between the two countries. He also reviewed the possibility of utilizing the facilities offered by Salalah Port by the Yemeni side. The Yemeni delegation consists of more than 30 persons representing various economic sectors. Meanwhile, the delegation yesterday visited the Rusayl Industrial Estate.

1940 The German Luftwaffe hits Paris with 1,100 bombs.

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More than 400 missing after ship capsizes on China’s Yangtze River Divers pull out alive man and woman from upturned hull as angry family members of the passengers scuffled with officials

JIANLI COUNTRY/SHANGHA: Rescuers fought bad weather on Tuesday as they searched for more than 400 people, many of them elderly Chinese tourists, missing after a ship capsized on the Yangtze River in what was likely China’s worst shipping disaster in almost 70 years.

Divers and other rescue workers desperately tried to reach five people they found trapped in the upturned hull of the Eastern Star, a fraction of the 458 people state media reported were on board when the ship capsized in a storm late on Monday. Distraught relatives of some of the passengers scuffled with officials in the city of Shanghai, where many of those on board booked their trips, angry about what they said was a lack of information about their loved ones.

Calls for help The Xinhua news agency said rescuers could hear people calling for help from inside the ship’s hull and television showed rescuers trying to cut through it with an angle grinder. Divers pulled a man and a 65-year-old woman alive from the capsized four-decked tourist ship, Xinhua said. State media had earO V E R N I G H T AT TA C K

Gunmen kill nine Afghan employees of Czech NGO MAZAR-I-SHARIF: Gunmen killed nine Afghan employees of a Czech aid organisation in their beds during an overnight raid on Tuesday on their guesthouse in northern Afghanistan, the latest attack targeting humanitarian workers in the war-battered country.

The nine victims were employees of People in Need (PIN), a Czech organisation that has been active in Afghanistan since 2001, delivering humanitarian aid to remote communities in the east and north of the country. “Those killed in Zari district of Balkh province include two drivers, two guards and five project staff which included a woman,” PIN country director Ross Hollister told AFP. “They were killed in their beds while they were sleeping,” he added.

Hollister said the organisation has been active in that area since 2002 and had no forewarning about the attack. PIN condemned the attack, saying in a separate statement that it was “unprecedented in its brutality”. — AFP

RESCUE OPERATION: An aerial view shows rescue workers atop the sunken ship at Jianli section of Yangtze River, Hubei province, China, on Tuesday. Right: A survivor, centre green top, is rescued by divers from the Dongfangzhixing or “Eastern Star” vessel. – AFP/Reuters

lier said the woman was 85.

About another dozen people had been rescued and five bodies recovered, media reported, leaving more than 430 people unaccounted for. Dozens of rescue boats battled wind and rain to reach the ship, which lay upturned in water about 15 metres (50 feet) deep.

The disaster could bring a bigger 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.

The People’s Daily, which published a passenger manifest on its microblog, said those on board the Eastern Star ranged in age from three to more than 80.

Tour guide Zhang Hui, 43, told Xinhua the capsize happened very fast and he scrambled out a window in torrential rain clutching a life vest as he could not swim.

“Wave after wave crashed over me; I swallowed a lot of water,” Zhang said, adding that he was un-

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able to flag down passing ships and finally struggled ashore as dawn broke holding onto a branch.

President Xi Jinping had ordered that no efforts be spared in the rescue and Premier Li Keqiang went to the scene of the accident in central Hubei province, Xinhua said. About 60 family members gathered outside a travel agency in Shanghai and demanded information. “I only found out about this on the news while I was at work and I came here,” said 35-year-old Wang Sheng, whose said his mother and father were on board. “I cried all the way here and here I can’t find anyone, the door is locked.”

The ship’s captain and the chief engineer, who were among the

few to be rescued, had been detained by police for questioning, Xinhua said.

According to the Yangtze River navigation administration, the pair said the ship sank quickly after it was caught in what was described as a tornado.

Xinhua reported that initial investigations had found the ship was not overloaded and it had enough life vests on board for its passengers. Those rescued were wearing life vests, Xinhua said.

Among those on board were 406 tourists, aged from about 50 to 80, on a tour organised by a Shanghai tour group, along with 47 crew members and five tour guides, the People’s Daily said.

No distress call State radio said the ship went over in about two minutes and no distress call had been issued. Seven people swam to shore to raise the alarm, media said.

Fishing boats were among the dozens of vessels helping in the search and rescue, Xinhua said, and more than 1,000 police with 40 inflatable boats had also been sent. The Eastern Star, which has the capacity to carry more than 500 people, was heading to southwestern Chongqing city from Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province.

It sank at around 9:28pm in the Jianli section of the river.

Accidents of this magnitude are uncommon in China where major rivers are used for tours and cruises. A tug sank on the Yangtze while undergoing sea trials in January, killing 22 of 25 people on board.

In the worst previous incident of its kind in China, the steamship Kiangya blew up on the Huangpu river in 1948, killing more than 1,000 people. The Eastern Star is owned by the Chongqing Eastern Shipping Corporation, which runs tours along the Three Gorges section of the Yangtze. — Reuters

Chinese ship capsizes 300km Beijing

CHINA Yellow Sea

Yangtze River

Nanjing

Chongqing

Hubei Province

June 1, Jianli Eastern Star ship, carrying mainly Chinese tourists, capsizes en route from Nanjing to Chongqing.

Source: Wire agencies Graphic News /

Graphics

I S M I L I TA N T S A D VA N C E

Iraq plan to retake Ramadi wins allies’ support PARIS: Iraq’s allies on Tuesday pledged support for Baghdad’s plan to retake the city of Ramadi from IS militants, whose advance Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi described as a “failure” for the global community.

The US-led coalition, which has been carrying out air strikes against IS, also called for the “speedy launch” of efforts to resolve the Syrian crisis, saying this was crucial to tackle the group rampaging through Syria and Iraq.

But despite a series of battlefield wins by IS, the coalition maintained it had a “winning strategy” and gave its seal of approval to Iraqi plans to claw back territory at crunch strategy talks in Paris. US Deputy Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, standing in for the hospitalised John Kerry in Paris, hailed Baghdad’s strategy as “the right plan both politically and militarily for Iraq at this time.”

Real gains He insisted the coalition had made “real gains” and said the IS now had 25 per cent less territory than when the air strikes began in August. Experts say the militant group now controls an area the

CRUCIAL MEETING: From left: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi, French Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius and US Deputy Secretary of State Antony J Blinken during a joint press conference following a meeting with Foreign Affairs ministers of members of the anti-IS militant group coalition in Paris on Tuesday. – AFP

size of Italy across Syria and Iraq.

Baghdad has been fighting to wrest back Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largest province Anbar, since the shock loss to IS last month — the worst defeat for the coalition since it formed nearly a year ago. Under the emergency plan adopted by Abadi’s cabinet, the Iraqis hope to mobilise and arm the tribes of Anbar province — which they have previously been loath to do out of fears they could turn on the government.

Abadi also plans to ensure all militias are operating under Baghdad’s authority, to avoid stoking ancient sectarian tensions.

The loss of Ramadi as well as the historic Syrian city of Palmyra days later raised questions about the effectiveness of the coalition’s strategy. But Blinken insisted: “In Iraq right now we have the right strategy, a combination of air strikes, training and effective global partners.”

None of Iraq’s allies are willing to send troops into battle.

The rout of Iraqi security forces in Ramadi also led to a diplomatic spat as US Pentagon chief Ashton Carter said there was “an issue with the will of the Iraqis to fight”, in comments that deeply angered Baghdad and forced Washington

to apologise. Abadi himself urged more from his partners, saying most IS fighters were foreign and therefore an “international problem”. “There is a lot of talk of support for Iraq, there is very little on the ground,” he told reporters before the meeting.

He said that until recently, around six out of 10 fighters were Iraqi and the remainder foreign, whereas the proportion was now reversed. The international community has to explain “why so many terrorists are from Saudi Arabia, why so many from the Gulf, why so many from Egypt, why so many from Syria, and Turkey and

from European countries?”

His criticism came as IS claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on an Iraqi police base north of Baghdad on Monday that killed at least 37 people, mostly officers.

Abadi warned that the militant onslaught in his country was not just an issue for Iraq. “There is a lack of intelligence, we are trying very hard on our part but this is a transnational organisation... This is a failure on the part of the world.”

And while the focus of the Paris meeting was the crisis in Iraq, the ministers also talked about neighbouring Syria where IS is wreaking havoc. They said that with the “continued deterioration of the situation in Syria and the inability and unwillingness of (Bashar Al Assad’s) regime to fight IS” it was urgent to find a political solution in Damascus. In a joint statement, the 20 or so coalition representatives called for the “speedy launch of a UN-facilitated, genuine and inclusive political process” in Syria. Aside from diplomatic support, Abadi said Baghdad was in need of weapons and ammunition to battle IS. “We are not asking for arms, but please let us purchase arms easily,” he pleaded. — AFP

SUDAN

Bashir appeals for national unity, ‘wants’ dialogue with West

OATH-TAKING: Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir, centre, takes part in his swearing-in ceremony for another term of five years at the parliament in Khartoum, on Tuesday, a month and a half after his victory in elections. – AFP

KHARTOUM: Sudan is open to dialogue with Western nations, President Omar Hassan Al Bashir said on Tuesday, in an unusually conciliatory message.

Speaking at the start of a new presidential term that extends his quarter century in power, Bashir, 71, also appealed for national unity as he grapples with rebellions and dwindling oil revenues following South Sudan’s 2011 secession.

Sudan has long laboured under a raft of UN and bilateral sanctions, including from the United States. Bashir also faces charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) that he masterminded genocide and other atrocities in his campaign to crush a revolt in the Darfur region. He has denied all the charges. “Sudan will seek and with an open heart, to continue dialogue with Western countries in

order for relations to return to normal,” Bashir told parliament after a swearing-in ceremony attended by regional African and Arab leaders.

“I will be, a president for all. There is no difference between those who voted for us and those who didn’t, between those who participated and those who boycotted (the election),” Bashir said.

“This is a right guaranteed to all,” he told the lawmakers and foreign dignitaries, who included Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.

Political analysts responded sceptically to Bashir’s call for talks with the West. “(He will have to) give up his old vision that brought him Western enmity because Western countries have firm positions on issues on which there is disagreement (with Sudan),” said

Ahmed Hassan Al Jak, a professor at Khartoum University. Such issues include respect for human rights and bringing the Darfur war and other armed conflicts to an end, he added.

Bashir won 94 per cent of the vote in a national election in April, the first since Sudan saw its south secede in 2011, but it was boycotted by most of the opposition. His ruling National Congress Party won 323 of 426 parliamentary seats. Opposition figures have said the continued rule of Bashir has exacerbated Sudan’s isolation from global financial and political institutions.

US companies are banned from doing business with Africa’s biggest country, although China and other investors have been quick to make up the shortfall.

Bashir, who has kept a strong power base in the army and re-

mains popular among many segments of the population, urged opposition parties in his speech on Tuesday to join a “national dialogue” he said would begin in the coming days. He also renewed a general amnesty for armed groups who “truly desire to return and participate in dialogue”.

Sudan has faced a rebellion in its Darfur region since 2003 and a separate but linked insurgency in Blue Nile and South Kordofan since the secession of South Sudan in 2011. Bashir’s Western critics complain of a crackdown on media, civil society and political opposition groups.

The United States has said the outcome of the April election does not amount to “a credible expression of the will” of the Sudanese given restrictions on political rights and freedoms. — Reuters

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Solar Impulse awaits right weather Crew members had spent the day holding onto the high-tech flying machine to prevent it being picked up by the wind as it sat on the tarmac in the central city of Nagoya

NAGOYA (JAPAN): Sunshine powered Solar Impulse 2 was expected to get under cover overnight on Tuesday, finally allowing support staff to let go of the super lightweight plane almost 24 hours after it arrived in Japan.

Crew members had spent the day holding onto the high-tech flying machine to prevent it being picked up by the wind as it sat on the tarmac in the central city of Nagoya.

Managers of the team trying to circumnavigate the globe by solar power said they were expecting a mobile hangar to be erected overnight, protecting the

RECORD BID: Crew members remove a cover from the Solar Impulse 2, a solar powered plane, as it sits on the tarmac after an unscheduled landing at Nagoya airport, in Japan, on Tuesday. — Reuters

plane’s delicate technology and 72-metre (236-foot) wings from the elements.

“Our team of a dozen people has been holding the plane on the ground” since it arrived late Monday night, mission initiator Bertrand Piccard told AFP. “The plane has a huge surface area and is very light, with a take

off speed of just 45 kilometres (28 miles) an hour, so with gusts of wind like today you really need to hold on to it.”

Piccard said the end was in sight for crew members who had spent hours clinging to the aircraft.

“The hangar is on its way and should be inflated during the night, so the plane should be pro-

ness of the possibilities of green energy, was intended to be 8,500 kilometres (5,250 miles), and to take six days and six nights of nonstop flight, with rechargeable batteries taking the strain during the hours of darkness.

But a developing cold weather front in the Pacific forced mission controllers to order pilot Andre Borschberg to divert to Nagoya.

Now, with the support team arriving from China, all eyes were on the skies and when they would get their next chance to attempt the vast distance across the Pacific to Hawaii.

“We want to carry on as soon as possible, and leave Nagoya before the rainy season,” said Piccard.

“But we need a clear meteorological window. The plane can only fly in nice weather, except when it flies at high altitude, above the clouds.”

Curious locals gathered in a park near the airport on Tuesday, hoping to get a glimpse of the plane, which has 17,000 solar cells and weighs just 2,300

kilograms (5,000 pounds).

LEDs that festoon the huge wingspan gave the plane an ethereal look as it glided in to land on Monday night -- even sparking rumours of an extra-terrestrial invasion.“People were tweeting that a UFO was coming,” Shigeru Akoshima, 56, told AFP, while 67-year-old Mieko Murayama said she had been baffled by the lights.

“My husband even called the police,” she said.

The landing was live streamed on the project’s website, with viewers treated to scenes of jubilation and relief from the Monaco mission control room as the plane touched down.

Despite having been cut short by several days, the flight from China notched up at least one first -- Solar Impulse 2 managed to fly day and night powered only by sunshine for the first time.

The round-the-world attempt began in Abu Dhabi in March and was originally intended to be completed in 12 legs, with a total flight time of around 25 days. -AFP

tected tomorrow. When that’s done we’ll all be able to breathe a bit more easily.”

Japan was not originally part of the round-the-world itinerary for the Solar Impulse team, who had been hoping to get all the way to Hawaii from Nanjing in China.

The seventh leg of their epic mission, aimed at raising awareBRINKMANSHIP

FIGHTING FOR RIGHTS: Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon delivers an address at the European Policy Centre in Brussels, Belgium on Tuesday. — Reuters

Scotland leader warns against British EU exit BRUSSELS: Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday he could provoke another independence vote if he failed to secure Britain’s continued EU membership because Edinburgh sees its future in Europe.

In a speech setting out the stark differences between the Scottish and the British governments’ positions on the European Union, Nicola said a British exit from the bloc would lead to a backlash against London. “My message to David Cameron is: You don’t want to create the conditions for another independence referendum,” she told EU diplomats and officials at an event in Brussels.

“We must be part of the European Union. If Scotland were to be taken out of Europe despite voting as a nation to have remained, it would provoke a strong backlash,” she said.

Cameron has promised to renegotiate Britain’s ties with the EU before a membership referendum by the end of 2017 to meet criticism from some, particularly in his Conservative party, that the bloc’ institutions have become overbearing. But Scots, who polls show to be far more in favour of remaining in the EU than the English, would not accept being outside the bloc if a majority of British people vote to leave in a referendum, Nicola said.

Nicola’s Scottish National Party has enjoyed a surge in popularity since it led a failed bid for independence last year, winning all but three of Scotland’s 59 parliamentary seats in an election last month. She reiterated her call for a veto on the referendum to effectively make a British exit from the European Union impossi-

My message to David Cameron is: You don’t want to create the conditions for another independence referendum Nicola Sturgeon Scotland’s First Minister

ble, although Cameron has ruled out such an idea. Nicola believes Britain’s constituent nations of Scotland, England, Northern Ireland and Wales should be required individually to support a British withdrawal for it to go ahead, a so-called double majority that is a feature of federalism in Canada.

“If the UK, as we are told, is a family of nations...then nobody should be able to dictate to anybody else,” Nicola said. “No one member of that family should be forced out against its will.”

Most business leaders in Britain strongly oppose the prospect of the country leaving the EU, the biggest market for British goods, while international partners from the United States to Germany and Ireland have made it clear they oppose a British EU exit and think it would isolate Britain. — Reuters

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CRUDE OIL PRICE

CURRENCY RATES*

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GOLD PRICES*

Type ............................Delivery...........Price

Forex rates vs OMR1* US Dollar ................................. 2.58 Euro ............................................ 2.35 Pound ...........................................1.69 Indian Rs .............................164.99 Pak Rs ...................................260.28 Bangla Taka.......................199.52

Indian Rs ...................................165.70 Pakistan Rs ............................ 263.25 Sri Lanka Rs .......................... 348.00 Bangla Taka.............................201.70 Phil Peso .................................... 115.20

Muscat 24ct per gm (OMR) .......15.20

Oman Crude............. (Spot) ........$63.64 Dubai Crude ............. (Spot) ........$63.24 Murban Crude ........ (Spot) .........$65.51 Arabian Light ......... (Spot) ........$62.84 N.Sea Brent............... (Spot) ........$65.44 West Texas Int ....... (Spot) .........$61.03

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Circle Oil to exit Oman; drops plan to explore offshore block Times News Service

Onshore exploration well Shisr-1, in southwest area of Block 49, was plugged and abandoned due to drilling difficulties

MUSCAT: Circle Oil will be exiting Oman by relinquishing its blocks 49 and 52, as it is unwilling to undertake this programme on a sole-risk basis.

“The onshore exploration well, Shisr-1, drilled in the first quarter of 2015 in the south-west area of Block 49, was plugged and abandoned due to drilling difficulties.

In light of this and coupled with insufficient interest in the farm-in on Block 52 and Circle’s unwill-

ingness to sole-risk shallow water wells, the group will be exiting Oman, relinquishing both blocks and is no longer bidding for new acreage in the country,” said the company in its preliminary result.

Written-off As a result, the group’s investment in Oman has been written-off.

However, the group’s existing producing assets have continued to perform well.

The company said that the independent Competent Person’s

Report has revealed increased reserves and resources in both Morocco and Egypt, despite robust production in Egypt and record production levels in Morocco.

Given the stable gas price in Morocco, the company remains keen to continue to boost reserves, through an ongoing drilling programme thus increasing their capacity for higher gas sales both to their existing and potential new customers in the Atlantic Freeport, near Kenitra, the report noted.

“Two discoveries in the Sebou concession added considerably to our reserves and these wells will be put in production shortly,” said the company.

In Egypt, gross oil production through 2014 averaged 10,026 barrels per day, with gas and associated liquid adding a further 2,011 barrels per day totalling 12,037 barrels per day.

In terms of the group’s exploration assets, in Tunisia the successful well (EMD-1) was drilled on the offshore Mahdia Block encounter-

ing a 133 metre column of light oil in the Cretaceous, Ketatna carbonates. Disappointingly, the hole became unmanageable due to mud losses preventing logs from being run and costs were significantly higher than expected, and the well was subsequently suspended.

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W E D NE S DAY, JU N E 3, 2 015

MARKET India cuts rate for third time in 2015 The decision follows China’s cuts and comes just months before an expected increase in United States interest rates that risks triggering outflows from emerging markets. Room to ease policy may reduce if oil prices continue rising and monsoon rains are less than normal.

The central bank governor said that it would wait to assess monsoon rains before acting again Raghuram Rajan. – Bloomberg News

MUMBAI: India’s central bank lowered interest rates for a third time this year and said it would wait to assess monsoon before acting again, an outlook that disappointed investors looking for more cuts to spur weak economic growth.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan reduced the benchmark repurchase rate to 7.25 per cent from 7.5 per cent, the bank said in a statement in Mumbai on Tuesday.

The move, which takes the rate to the lowest since September 2013, was predicted by 33 of 41 economists in a survey. Seven saw no change and one expected a 50 basis-point cut.

While “a conservative strategy

7.25% Is the new benchmark repurchase rate after the central bank lowered it from 7.50% on Tuesday

would be to wait” for more certainty on how monsoon rains will affect inflation, weak investment means “a more appropriate stance is to front-load a rate cut today and then wait for data that clarify uncertainty,” Rajan said.

He also lowered the RBI’s growth forecast and said inflation risks are tilted on the upside.

Inflation “Today is the last cut before it pauses for some time,” said Suvodeep Rakshit, an economist at Kotak Securities in Mumbai. “At least for the next three months I don’t think they are looking at any kind of easing.”

The government on Tuesday said the monsoon will be even worse than it expected earlier.

That risks stoking inflation as rainfall waters more than half of India’s farmland. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked ministries to prepare for the situation, Science Minister Harsh Vardhan said in New Delhi. “While the tone is dovish on rate cut, the outlook going forward is hawkish,” Manish Singh, head of investments at Crossbridge Capital, told Bloomberg TV. “I would expect the market to not take it very kindly.” Consumer prices rose 4.87 per cent in April. - Bloomberg News

O I L E X P L O R AT I O N

O M A N O P E R AT I O N S

Iran mulls offering better terms to lure foreign oil groups TEHRAN: Iran, seeking billions of dollars to revitalise its ailing oil industry, plans to offer significantly better commercial terms to companies prepared to invest than offered during last market opening nearly two decades ago.

Foreign oil executives who have reviewed partial drafts of the new terms, called the Iranian Petroleum Contract, said they’re more generous than the types of deals used in the 1990s and 2000s. Unlike those contracts, which merely paid a set fee for the delivery of a project, the new agreements could give investors some share of a field’s production and allow companies to book more reserves on their balance sheet.

Such arrangements would probably make Iran commercially more attractive than regional competitors for international investment including Iraq and Algeria. The executives asked not to be named because Iran has yet to announce the new contract and terms could still change.

“In simple terms, the message from Iran is that if the sanctions are lifted, in return Iran will offer improved contractual terms to make it easier for international oil companies to tap into its lucrative

oil and gas reserves,” said Amir Kordvani, a Dubai-based lawyer at Clyde & Co., a firm specialising in the natural resources industry.

Iran sees the return of foreign firms as a key goal from a potential nuclear deal with the United States and the fact the government has started circulating drafts of the terms suggests Iran is expecting to seal an atomic deal. Iran needs $200 billion of investment in its oil industry, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said last month.

Opec meeting Iran is likely to test the appetite of foreign oil groups this week during a conference before the Opec meeting in Vienna attended by the bosses of the world’s largest publicly-listed oil companies, including Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, BP and Total. Iranian officials working on the contracts at government ministries weren’t available when contacted by phone or e-mail.

Tehran has yet to complete the new contract but oil executives said that Iran have shared several draft versions of the terms, probably to test the reaction of the foreign oil firms. - Bloomberg News

Yarub Mohamed Obaidalla

Etihad appoints general manager for the Sultanate Times News Service MUSCAT: Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has appointed Yarub Mohamed Obaidalla as its new general manager for Oman.

Yarub, an Emirati national, will lead the further development of the airline’s commercial strategy in Oman and be based in Muscat.

He will also be responsible for further nurturing Etihad Airways’ relationships with its travel trade and corporate customers.

Yarub joined the airline in 2009 as business development manager for Hala Abu Dhabi, later serving as government sales manager Abu Dhabi, where he successfully managed the Abu Dhabi Government Employee Travel Programme. He most recently served as Etihad Airways’ sales manager for Sharjah and Northern Emirates.

Don’t litter a beautiful country like OMAN. Ensure proper disposal of garbage.

WE DNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015

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MARKET NBO first bank in Oman to launch contactless payment The cutting-edge technology will allow customers to make payments for small ticket items at the checkout, without the need to enter a PIN or sign a receipt

‘Slump in oil prices not to affect banking sector’ BUSINESS REPORTER

MUSCAT: National Bank of Oman (NBO) has launched a pilot project for contactless payment, becoming the first bank in the Sultanate to introduce the cuttingedge technology.

The initiative is aimed at enhancing the experience of customers, Ahmed Al Musalmi, chief executive officer of NBO, said at a press conference held on Tuesday to announce the launch of the pilot project.

The new scheme, which is the result of joint efforts by NBO and MasterCard, will allow customers to make payments for small ticket items at the checkout, without the need to enter a PIN or sign a receipt. The cards using ‘TapNGo’ technology are identified as NBO Beam cards.

Secure transaction A chip and a radio frequency antenna are embedded into the contactless card, which is then simply touched against a contactless reader with the payment details transmitted wirelessly.

Al Musalmi said that the contactless system helps save time for both the customer and the mer-

ELHAM POURMOHAMMADI

elham@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: Decline in crude prices is not expected to have any major impact on the banking sector in Oman in the near future, but if low oil prices persist, the overall economy will be affected, said a senior banking official.

“If they remain low for a long period of time, obviously, there will be implications, not just in the banking sector, but

chant and is considered to be just as secure as using Chip and Pin. According to NBO, purchase data is protected and because the card never leaves the customer’s hand, the risk of cloning or theft is reduced. An SMS alert is also sent every time a transaction is made.

It was stated at the briefing that in the pilot phase, 1,000 select customers are provided with a contactless debit card to be used at special NBO point-of-sale (POS) machines installed with

the overall economy. But we do not that expect that at least for this year and next year,” said Ahmed Al Musalmi, chief executive officer of National Bank of Oman (NBO).

The good news is that Oman has a ‘very low level of debt,’ Al Musalmi told reporters on the sidelines of a press briefing held to announce NBO’s pilot project for contactless payment. Asked if NBO has any plan to open a new branch, the official said, “So far we have 65

participating merchants.

Al Musalmi said that around 500 POS devices have been provided in the pilot phase.

Limited amount During the pilot project, contactless card holders will be able to purchase items totaling less than OMR10 with a simple tap of their card, but the bank’s CEO said that a decision may be made to increase the designated amount in future after studying the results

branches across the country. We recently opened two branches for Islamic banking.

Now we are present across the country but if we find an opportunity in any location where we think we should extend our banking services, we will look into that.”

Al Musalmi says the bank has over 400,000 customers.

NBO, the first local bank in the Sultanate, was founded in 1973 and is today one of the leading banks in Oman.

of the pilot project. “We start with a small amount and then we will observe,” he said, adding that the bank will be seeking to gain the confidence of customers.

Nationwide roll-out Their experience of the new technology will then be captured and analysed ahead of the full nationwide roll-out of contactless payments, NBO officials said, noting that the pilot project is expected to take two to three months.

The contactless card can be used on any device supporting the technology outside Oman, and also can be used as a normal card.

NBO’s new POS devices for contactless payment can also be used us as a conventional machine.

If other banks in Oman also introduce this kind of cards, they will be accepted on POS machines of NBO and NBO’s cards will be accepted on other machines supporting the technology.

If the transaction is more than the designated level, PIN will be required. Also, the customer is allowed to do five transactions per day through the contactless system, without the need to enter a PIN or sign a receipt.

Other countries Raghav Prasad, general manager for Gulf countries, MasterCard, said, “As we continue to drive the latest payment solutions in the region, MasterCard has taken the initiative to promote the widespread adoption of contactless payments across the Middle East with countries such as the UAE, Qatar, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia already equipped with the technology.”

Earlier this month, NBO released its Augmented Reality app, which uses the latest technology to provide customers with added value services and easy access to information, enabling them to locate the latest offers and deals when they walk into a mall or a retail outlet, with easy navigation to NBO’s ATMs and branches, on the move, anywhere they go.

Customers can simply download the App on Google Play or App Store and scan their surroundings or an image to experience information in Augmented Reality.

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CONTROVERSY

US airlines want to stifle competition, says Etihad ATLANTA: Etihad Airways, one of three Gulf airlines accused by United States carriers of flooding the skies with unfairly subsidised flights, formally denied the allegation, saying the US rivals are trying to stifle competition that has greatly benefited consumers.

The effort by Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and United Continental to have the US government push for talks on the Gulf airlines’ finances should end immediately, Etihad said in a statement on Monday. The carriers’ “claims, allegations and requests for relief are not supported by fact, logic, law or treaty,” Etihad said.

The US administration is weighing whether government aid to Etihad, Emirates and Qatar Airways is being used to increase US flights and offer discounted connections through Middle Eastern hubs to win international traffic. The US carriers want the new talks because they say the governments of the UAE and Qatar have granted their airlines more than $42 billion in marketdistorting subsidies.

Etihad has received $14.3 billion from its state sponsor, the government of Abu Dhabi, since 2003, according to a 60-page document the airline sent to the US

departments of State, Commerce and Transportation.

Capital injections Etihad called the capital injections an allowable mix of shareholder’s equity and loans.

“The Big 3 Carriers’ claim that they are only seeking ’consultations’ to have a discussion is disingenuous — they cannot ignore that there is no basis whatsoever for such consultation and their true objective is to eviscerate the US-UAE Air Services Agreement to suit their current anticompetitive objectives,” Etihad wrote in the letter.- Bloomberg News

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BRIEFS

Panel discussion on Musandam Global Investment Company MUSCAT: A panel discussion on the establishment of Musandam Global Investment Company as a closed joint stock for the locals of Musandam was held on Tuesday at Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry branch in the governorate of Musandam. The company operates in the fields of oil and gas, commercial and economic, service, industrial and tourism. It was held under the patronage of Sayyid Khalifa bin Al Mardas bin Ahmed Al Busaidi, governor of Musandam.

Majan Glass estimates depreciation MUSCAT: Based on the assessment of a technical consultant, the impact of accelerated depreciation (in addition to the normal depreciation) of Majan Glass amounts to approximately OMR1.60 million during the current financial year 2015.

The estimated accelerated depreciation will have a major impact for the next three years — OMR0.700 million 2016, OMR0.500 million 2017 and OMR0.200 million for 2018, the company said in a disclosure statement posted on MSM website.

Majan Glass Company has decided to invite a technical consultant for evaluating the estimated balance lives of all the plant and machinery and equipment with a view to determining a common policy for depreciation in line with the depreciation rates followed in the glass industry. The currently existing depreciation policy was prevalent from the time of inception of the plant and even prior to the restructuring. However, this will not have any impact on the company’s cash flow position as it is merely a book entry.

National Mineral Water gets nod for asset sale MUSCAT: An extraordinary general meeting of National Mineral Water has approved a proposal to sell the company’s assets in Wadi Kabir to Al Hail Investment, according to a disclosure statement.

- Times News Service/ONA

B4

W E D NE S DAY, JU N E 3, 2 015

MARKET

Recovery continues on Muscat bourse

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OMAN STOCKS

MUSCAT SECURITIES MARKET

INDICES Index .................................................High .................Low..................... Value ............... Prev . Value.......... Diff ...............Diff % MSM30 Index ........................................6,459.46 ...............6,411.20 ....................6,457.53 ....................6,411.15................. 46.38 ................... 0.72 Financial Index ..................................... 7,819.40 ...............7,746.44 ....................7,819.40 ................... 7,746.44................. 72.96 ...................0.94 Industrial Index ................................... 8,334.36 ...............8,316.94 ....................8,317.02 ...................8,321.64..................-4.62 .................. -0.06 Services Index ...................................... 3,498.46 ...............3,485.49 ................... 3,495.85 ...................3,485.49..................10.36 ...................0.30 MSM SHARIAH INDEX.......................997.32 ..................992.77 .......................997.32 ...................... 992.57.................... 4.75 ...................0.48 Trading Summary Volume ................Turnover ..........Trades .............. Market Cap............. Up............Down ............. Equal .........Sec. Traded 16,985,877 ................. 5,706,237 .....................977 .............. 14,902,522,472 ................25 ........................5 .................... 19 .........................49

SHARE PRICE BULLETIN FOR TUESDAY, JUNE 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

REGULAR MARKET .........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

OM0000002028 ...........GULF INTERNATIONAL CHEMICALS ............. 42,050 ...............9,496......................12 ........... 0.225 ...........0.228 ...........0.225........... 0.226 ............. 0.217............ 0.009............. 4.147 ................0.228..............0.225...................0.228 ...................4,746,000 ..........0.100

Gulf International Chemicals was the highest gainer on Tuesday to close up by 4.15 per

OM0000002374............UNITED FINANCE ..................................................... 483,569 ............67,267..................... 27 ............0.137 ........... 0.140 ...........0.137 ............0.139 ............. 0.135............ 0.004............. 2.963 ................0.140..............0.140...................0.142...................43,196,327 .........0.100 OM0000001681 ............OMAN AND EMIRATES INV. HOLDING........... 2,096,741 ......238,054................... 112 ............0.114 ........... 0.114............0.113 ............0.114 ............. 0.111 ............ 0.003............. 2.703 ................0.113 .............. 0.112................... 0.113 ................... 13,893,750 .........0.100 OM0000001533 ............OMINVEST .................................................................... 118,945 .............56,749..................... 28 ........... 0.466 ...........0.480 ...........0.466........... 0.478 .............0.466 ............0.012 ............. 2.575 ................0.480..............0.480...................0.486..................177,059,469 ........0.100 OM0000001772 ............AL ANWAR HOLDING............................................... 394,924 ............95,721..................... 65 ........... 0.240...........0.245 ...........0.240 .......... 0.242 .............0.236 ........... 0.006.............2.542 ................0.244 ............ 0.244...................0.245 ..................31,581,000 .........0.100 OM0000004669 ...........SHARQIYAH DESALINATION ..................................2,440 ............... 8,613........................2 ........... 3.530 ........... 3.530 ...........3.530........... 3.530 .............3.450 ........... 0.080............. 2.319 ................3.530..............3.530...................0.000 ..................34,524,162.........1.000

cent, while National Aluminium, which lost

OM0000004768 ...........AL MADINA TAKAFUL............................................. 294,206...........26,290......................31 ........... 0.088 ...........0.090 ...........0.088........... 0.089 .............0.087 ........... 0.002.............2.299 ................0.088..............0.088...................0.089...................15,575,000 .........0.100 OM0000002440 ...........AL SHARQIA INVESTMENT HOLDING ..............19,315 ............... 2,631........................6 ............0.135 ........... 0.137 ...........0.135 ............0.136 ............. 0.133............ 0.003............. 2.256 ................0.137 .............. 0.136...................0.137 ...................12,240,000.........0.100

3.4 per cent, was the top loser of the day

OM0000003398 ...........BANK SOHAR................................................................ 1,024,543 ......194,470..................... 30 ............0.186 ........... 0.190 ...........0.186 ........... 0.190 ............. 0.186............ 0.004..............2.151.................0.189 ..............0.188...................0.189..................273,873,600........0.100 OM0000003026 ...........OMAN TELECOMMUNICATION ........................ 393,576 ......... 677,565..................... 55 ............1.695 ........... 1.740............1.695 ............1.720 ............. 1.685.............0.035 ............. 2.077 ................1.735 .............. 1.725................... 1.735 ................1,290,000,000......0.100 OM0000002366 ...........AL BATINAH DEV. INV. HOLDING ...................... 235,289 ........... 28,867..................... 39 ............0.123 ........... 0.124 ...........0.122............0.123 ............. 0.121............ 0.002............. 1.653 ................0.123 ..............0.122...................0.123....................3,690,000 ..........0.100

MUSCAT: Muscat bourse continued with its gaining momentum supported by telecom and financial sector stocks.

The benchmark MSM30 Index gained by 0.72 per cent before closing at 6457.53. MSM Sharia Index also gained by 0.48 per cent before closing at 997.32 points.

Foreign investors were the major buyers in the market today.

Oman & Emirates Investment Holding was the most active stock in terms of volume, while Ooredoo was the most active in terms of turnover. Gulf International Chemicals was the highest gainer on Tuesday and closed up by 4.15 per cent, while National Aluminium, which lost 3.4 per cent, was the top loser for the day.

Nearly 977 trades were executed during the session generating turnover of OMR5.7 million with 17 million shares changing hands. Out of 49 traded securities, 25 advanced, 5 declined and 19 remained unchanged. Domestic investors were net sellers for OMR1.50 million worth of shares, while foreign investors were net buyers for OMR1.5 million followed by GCC and Arab investors who bought OMR4,000 worth of stocks.

Financial Index closed at 7,819.40 points, up by 0.94 per cent. United Finance, Oman & Emirates, Ominvest, Al Anwar Holding, and Al Madina Takaful increased by 2.96 per cent, 2.70 per cent, 2.58 per cent, 2.54 per cent, and 2.30 per cent, respectively. Ahli Bank was the only

stock from the sector which closed in red, and was down by 0.47 per cent before closing at OMR0.211.

Industrial Index closed at 8321.64 points, down by 0.06 per cent. Gulf International Chemicals, Construction Materials, Oman Fisheries, Al Maha Ceramics, and Oman Cables were up by 4.15 per cent, 2.56 per cent, 1.85 per cent, 1.16 per cent, and 0.93 per cent, respectively. National Aluminium, Al Jazeera Steels, and National Mineral Water were down by 3.40 per cent, 3.14 per cent, and 2.86 per cent, respectively.

Services Sector Index was up by 0.30 per cent before closing at 3,495.85 points. Sharqiya Desalination, Omantel, Al Jazeirah Services, Al Suwadi Power, and National Gas were up by 2.32 per cent, 2.08 per cent, 1.11 per cent, 1.03 per cent, and 0.52 per cent, respectively. Renaissance Services was the only stock from the sector which closed in red, and was down by 1.18 per cent to close at OMR0.334.

OM0000002796 ...........BANK MUSCAT ............................................................ 1,807,904 ...1,006,675..................... 89 ........... 0.554 ...........0.560 ...........0.554........... 0.556 .............0.548 ........... 0.008............. 1.460 ................0.558..............0.556...................0.560 ...............1,274,253,364 ......0.100 OM0000005005 ...........ALMAHA CERAMICS ..................................................48,272 .............25,150......................18 ............0.516 ...........0.524 ...........0.516 ........... 0.522 ............. 0.516............ 0.006..............1.163.................0.518 .............. 0.518...................0.520 ..................27,405,000.........0.100 OM0000002226 ...........AL JAZEERA SERVICES ............................................15,000 ...............5,460........................3 ........... 0.364 ...........0.364 ...........0.364........... 0.364 .............0.360 ........... 0.004..............1.111 .................0.364..............0.360...................0.366...................22,278,355.........0.100 OM0000004933 ...........AL SUWADI POWER .................................................. 413,660 ............81,427......................21 ............0.195 ........... 0.197 ...........0.195 ............0.197 ............. 0.195............ 0.002............. 1.026 ................0.197 .............. 0.197...................0.199..................140,738,049........0.100 OM0000001707 ............OMAN CABLES INDUSTRY......................................12,000 ............ 26,160........................3 ............2.180 ........... 2.180 ...........2.180........... 2.180 .............2.160 ........... 0.020.............0.926 ................2.180..............2.180...................2.250 .................195,546,000........0.100 OM0000002820 ...........GULF INVESTMENT SERVICES ......................... 190,000 ........... 26,030......................15 ............0.137 ........... 0.137 ...........0.137 ............0.137 ............. 0.136.............0.001 ............. 0.735 ................0.137 .............. 0.136...................0.137 .................... 8,061,521 ..........0.100 OM0000001483............NATIONAL BANK OF OMAN ................................. 986,451..........312,246..................... 59 ............0.314 ...........0.320 ...........0.314 ............0.316 ............. 0.314............ 0.002............. 0.637 ................0.320..............0.320...................0.322 ................ 423,664,439 .......0.100 OM0000001160 ............NATIONAL GAS .............................................................26,407 .............10,303........................4 ........... 0.390 ...........0.392 ...........0.390........... 0.390 .............0.388 ........... 0.002............. 0.515 ................0.392..............0.392...................0.400 ..................19,500,000 .........0.100 OM0000003968 ...........OOREDOO....................................................................... 1,583,102 ...1,248,217..................... 95 ............0.784 ........... 0.792 ...........0.784........... 0.788 .............0.784 ........... 0.004............. 0.510 ................0.788 ..............0.784...................0.788..................512,944,053........0.100 OM0000001525 ............OMAN INVESTMENT AND FINANCE.............. 1,106,497 ......269,306..................... 36 ........... 0.242...........0.244 ...........0.242 .......... 0.243 .............0.242 ............0.001 ............. 0.413 ................0.244 ............ 0.242...................0.244 ..................48,600,000 ........0.100 OM0000002549 ...........BANK DHOFAR ............................................................ 276,233 ........... 76,240..................... 26 ........... 0.276 ........... 0.276 ...........0.276........... 0.276 .............0.275 ............0.001 .............0.364 ................0.276..............0.276...................0.290 .................426,345,079 .......0.100 OM0000001087............OMAN UNITED INSURANCE ............................... 221,830 ........... 66,549......................14 ........... 0.300...........0.300 ...........0.300 .......... 0.300 .............0.300 ........... 0.000.............0.000 ................0.300 .............0.295...................0.300 ..................30,000,000 ........0.100 OM0000001145 ............PORT SERVICES CORPORATION ........................... 4,521 ..................904........................1 ........... 0.200...........0.200 ...........0.200 .......... 0.221 .............0.221 ........... 0.000.............0.000 ................0.200 .............0.203...................0.221...................21,003,840.........0.100 OM0000001418 ............RAYSUT CEMENT ...................................................... 109,648 ......... 170,503........................6 ............1.555 ........... 1.555............1.555 ............1.555 ............. 1.555............ 0.000.............0.000 ................1.555 .............. 1.550...................1.555 ..................311,000,000........0.100 OM0000001509............DHOFAR INT.DEV.AND INV. HOLD...................... 97,441 .............47,179........................4 ........... 0.484 ...........0.490 ...........0.484........... 0.484 .............0.484 ........... 0.000.............0.000 ................0.484..............0.484...................0.490 ................. 119,257,600 ........0.100 OM0000001517 ............HSBC BANK OMAN .................................................... 1,577,126 ....... 214,491.....................40 ............0.136 ........... 0.137 ...........0.136 ............0.136 ............. 0.136............ 0.000.............0.000 ................0.136 .............. 0.135...................0.136................. 272,042,539 .......0.100 OM0000001962............AL MADINA INVESTMENT ................................... 428,609 ........... 34,455..................... 25 ............0.081 ........... 0.081 ...........0.080........... 0.080 .............0.080 ........... 0.000.............0.000 ................0.080..............0.079...................0.080 ...................16,572,111..........0.100 OM0000002168............AL ANWAR CERAMIC TILES ............................... 250,000 ......... 107,500..................... 10 ........... 0.430 ...........0.430 ...........0.430........... 0.430 .............0.430 ........... 0.000.............0.000 ................0.430..............0.424...................0.430 ................. 127,371,883 ........0.100 OM0000002275 ...........SHELL OMAN MARKETING ...........................................20 .................... 40........................1 ........... 2.000...........2.000 ...........2.000 .......... 2.000 .............2.000 ........... 0.000.............0.000 ................2.000 ............ 0.000...................2.090 ................ 190,000,000 .......0.100 OM0000002614............ONIC. HOLDING .............................................................. 1,984 ...................917........................1 ........... 0.462 ...........0.462 ...........0.462........... 0.462 .............0.462 ........... 0.000.............0.000 ................0.462..............0.470...................0.508 ..................80,121,542 .........0.100 OM0000003661 ............VOLTAMP ENERGY ..................................................... 17,269 ...............6,910..................... 10 ........... 0.400...........0.402 ...........0.400 .......... 0.400 .............0.400 ........... 0.000.............0.000 ................0.402..............0.402...................0.410.................. 24,200,000 ........0.100 OM0000003711 ............SOHAR POWER..............................................................27,440 .............10,427........................9 ........... 0.380 ...........0.380 ...........0.380........... 0.380 .............0.380 ........... 0.000.............0.000 ................0.380..............0.380...................0.388...................83,983,800.........0.100 OM0000004925 ...........AL BATINAH POWER.................................................. 55,159 .............10,756......................11 ............0.195 ........... 0.195 ...........0.195 ............0.195 ............. 0.195............ 0.000.............0.000 ................0.195 .............. 0.195...................0.196..................131,603,049 ........0.100 OM0000002200 ...........AHLI BANK ......................................................................28,543 ...............6,020........................3 ............0.212 ........... 0.212 ...........0.210............0.211 .............0.212 ...........-0.001 ........... -0.472 ...............0.210..............0.210...................0.214................. 300,682,626 .......0.100 OM0000003224 ...........RENAISSANCE SERVICES .......................................21,000 ...............6,995..................... 10 ........... 0.330 ...........0.334 ...........0.330........... 0.334 .............0.338 ...........-0.004 ............-1.183................0.334..............0.332...................0.338...................94,219,548 .........0.100 OM0000002176 ............AL JAZEERA STEEL PRODUCTS ..........................10,000 ...............2,470........................2 ........... 0.247 ...........0.247 ...........0.247........... 0.247 .............0.255 ...........-0.008 ............-3.137................0.247..............0.247...................0.250 ..................30,849,796 .........0.100 OM0000001319 ............NATIONAL ALUMINIUM PRODUCTS ............. 400,000......... 113,600........................4 ........... 0.284 ...........0.284 ...........0.284 .......... 0.284 .............0.294 ...........-0.010 ........... -3.401................0.284..............0.268...................0.284 ...................9,534,292 ..........0.100 .............................................SUM: .................................................................................. 14,821,714....5,292,655 ................927 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. ........................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ......38........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

PARALLEL MARKET .................................................................................................................................................................................

OM0000001368 ............CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS IND. ................... 42,500 ................1,715........................3 ........... 0.040........... 0.041 ...........0.040 .......... 0.040 .............0.039 ............0.001 .............2.564 ................0.041 ............. 0.040...................0.041....................3,400,000 ..........0.100 OM0000001566 ............OMAN FISHERIES .......................................................33,070 ................1,813........................8 ........... 0.053 ........... 0.055 ...........0.053........... 0.055 .............0.054 ............0.001 ............. 1.852 ................0.055..............0.055...................0.056....................6,875,000 ..........0.100 OM0000004776 ...........TAKAFUL OMAN INSURANCE ............................. 20,000 .............. 2,300........................2 ............0.115 ........... 0.115............ 0.115 ............0.115 ............. 0.113 ............ 0.002............. 1.770 ................0.115 .............. 0.114................... 0.119 ...................11,500,000 .........0.100 OM0000002077 ...........AL OMANIYA FINANCIAL SER. ........................... 1,020,000......326,400........................1 ........... 0.320 ...........0.320 ...........0.320........... 0.324 .............0.324 ........... 0.000.............0.000 ................0.320............. 0.000...................0.324 ..................79,598,870 .........0.100 OM0000002564 ...........AL HASSAN ENGINEERING....................................99,000 ...............9,702........................9 ........... 0.098 ...........0.098 ...........0.098........... 0.098 .............0.098 ........... 0.000.............0.000 ................0.098..............0.097...................0.098.................... 7,370,384 ..........0.100

Amlak shares Amlak Finance swung between gains and losses on its first day of trading in Dubai following the longest suspension in the market’s history.

Shares in the Islamic mortgage provider climbed to Dh1.05 at 12:18pm local time, after earlier declining to as low as 75 fils and rising as high as Dh1.11.

OM0000004420 ...........BANK NIZWA ................................................................ 860,536 ........... 62,983.....................22 ............0.071 ........... 0.074 ...........0.071 ........... 0.073 .............0.073 ........... 0.000.............0.000 ................0.074..............0.073...................0.074..................109,500,000 .......0.100 OM0000001285 ............NATIONAL MINERAL WATER ................................. 7,400 .................. 503........................1 ........... 0.068 ...........0.068 ...........0.068........... 0.068 .............0.070 ...........-0.002 ........... -2.857 ...............0.068..............0.068...................0.000 ................... 1,836,207 ..........0.100 .............................................SUM: .................................................................................. 2,082,506 ..... 405,417..................... 46 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. ........................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ........ 7........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

BONDS MARKET .................................................................................................................................................................................

OM0000004602 ...........BANK MUSCAT CONV. BONDS 4.5 ..............................744 .....................77........................1 ............0.104 ........... 0.104 ...........0.104........... 0.104 .............0.104 ........... 0.000.............0.000 ................0.104..............0.104...................0.107...................31,485,908 .........0.100 OM0000004628 ...........BANK SOHAR BONDS 4.5 ................................................163 ..................... 11........................1 ........... 0.070 ...........0.070 ...........0.070........... 0.103 .............0.103............ 0.000.............0.000 ................0.070..............0.070...................0.103....................7,364,500 ..........0.100 OM0000004867 ...........BANK MUSCAT C C B 4.5 ................................................. 751 .....................76........................1 ............0.101 ........... 0.101............0.101 ........... 0.105 .............0.105............ 0.000.............0.000 ................0.101 .............. 0.101...................0.105...................33,562,481 .........0.100 OM0000005955............AL OMANIYA FIN. CONV. BONDS 6 ......................79,999 .............. 8,000........................1 ........... 0.100 ........... 0.100 ...........0.100........... 0.100 .............0.100 ........... 0.000.............0.000 ................0.100............. 0.000...................0.000 ................... 1,837,430 ..........0.100 .............................................SUM: .................................................................................... 81,657 ............... 8,165........................4 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. ........................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ........4........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

– United Securities/Bloomberg News

ECONOMY

INDIAN MARKETS

IMF raises outlook for Saudi economic Sensex tumbles; growth, expects bigger budget deficit rupee depreciates RIYADH: International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised its outlook for Saudi Arabia’s economic growth this year but also predicted a much bigger state budget deficit after talks with Saudi officials.

The Saudi economy will keep expanding strongly this year, showing little effect from the oil price drop, but growth will slow in 2016 as lower oil revenues hit state spending, the IMF said after annual consultations with Riyadh.

Gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to grow 3.5 per cent in 2015, unchanged from 2014, the IMF said in a statement late on Monday. That marked an upgrade from last month, when the IMF forecast three per cent growth for Saudi Arabia this year.

“Government spending in 2015 is expected to remain strong, partly due to a number of one-off factors, while oil revenues have declined,” IMF mission chief Tim Callen said. Among other things, the government announced hefty bonuses for state employees.

Callen added, however, that growth would slow to 2.7 per cent in 2016 as government spending began to adjust to the lower oil price environment. Over the medium term, growth is expected to be around three per cent, he added.

The IMF also projected that the government would run a fiscal deficit of around 20 per cent of GDP in 2015 — much larger than the 14.2 per cent gap that it had forecast in May, and the biggest deficit since at least 1999, IMF records show.

Government deposits with the Saudi central bank have been dropping in recent months to finance the deficit. The IMF said this was an appropriate policy for the moment but it predicted that ultimately, the government

‘Saudi oil strategy working’

ROBUST SPENDING: Government spending in 2015 is expected to remain strong, partly due to a number of one-off factors, while oil revenues have declined, said IMF. — Bloomberg file picture

would need to restrain spending and issue debt.

“A sizeable fiscal policy consolidation will be needed over the next few years to put the deficit on a gradual but firm downward path.

“Going forward, the decline in government deposits will slow as the government starts to issue debt to finance the deficit,” the IMF added without specifying when debt issues might begin.

Debt issue to finance deficit

Saudi Arabia will probably issue government debt as it posts a fiscal deficit of 20 per cent of economic output this year, according to the IMF. “Government debt issuance to finance part of the fiscal deficit would help in starting to build a benchmark yield curve, an important step in developing the debt market,” it said in an e-mailed

statement. “The decline in government deposits will slow as the government starts to issue debt to finance the deficit.”

Government deposits with the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency have declined to help plug the deficit as a 40 per cent drop in oil prices over the past year hurt revenue. The kingdom, where 90 per cent of income comes from oil, has been burning through its reserves at a record pace to finance government spending. Still, the IMF expects expenditure in 2015 to remain strong.

Saudi Arabia’s plunge into deficit comes as it fights wars in Yemen and Syria and pursues a stimulus plan to ward off political unrest.

While Saudi Arabia is the biggest Arab economy, its debt market is relatively undeveloped as companies have access to a bank-loan market flush with cash. — Agencies

VIENNA: Saudi Arabia, which led Opec to refrain from cutting oil output at a November meeting, said its market strategy is working days before the group decides policy once again.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al Naimi said he didn’t know whether the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) would agree to keep production quotas steady at a June 5 meeting.

While there’s a surplus in the global oil market, things are moving “in the right direction,” he said on Monday upon arriving in Vienna.

Saudi Arabia shaped Opec’s strategy last year to defend market share amid a global glut and a collapse in benchmark crude, arguing that cutting output to boost prices wouldn’t address the threat from a US shale boom.

The group may maintain its collective quota at 30 million barrels a day, according to a Bloomberg survey. — Bloomberg News

MUMBAI: Indian equities had the steepest decline in about four weeks and bonds fell on concern the central bank’s interest-rate cut on Tuesday won’t be enough to offset the impact of deficient rainfall on economic growth.

The S&P BSE Sensex tumbled 2.4 per cent to 27,188.38 at the close in Mumbai, the most since May 6.

The yield on the debt due in 2024 rose 11 basis points to a two-week high of 7.93 per cent, while the rupee lost 0.2 per cent to 63.8250 a dollar.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan cut the key rate by 25 basis points and said he will wait to assess monsoon rains before easing further, disappointing investors looking for more reductions to spur weak economic growth. The rainfall will be less than predicted in April, the government said less than two hours after the RBI’s decision. Below-normal showers may fan prices of everything from rice to vegetables in Asia’s thirdlargest economy, where food costs account for almost 50 per cent of the consumer price index.

“This is a time when the economy needs a boost and these little drops of 25 basis points won’t help,” Ajay Srivastava, managing director of Dimensions Consulting, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV India. “A perfect environment will never exist.”

While retail inflation eased to a four-month low of 4.87 per cent in April, staying below the RBI’s stated limit of 6 percent by January 2016, the prospect of inadequate rain and rising crude prices are risks, Rajan said. Consumer prices may drop until August and then start rising to about six per cent by January, he said.

Decline in rainfall The rainfall may be 88 per cent of a 50-year average of 35 inches between June and September, less than the 93 per cent forecast in April, Earth Sciences Minister Harsh Vardhan told reporters in New Delhi.

“The hawkish tone of the central bank has cast doubts on the possibility of any further rate cuts this year,” said Debendra Kumar Dash, a fixed-income trader at DCB Bank in Mumbai.

Rajan had earlier reduced the benchmark rate by 25 basis points each in unscheduled moves in January and March, before holding it steady at an April 7 review.

India’s economy grew 7.3 per cent in the year ended March 31, government data showed on Friday, below the 7.4 per cent median estimate in a Bloomberg survey. About 57 per cent of the 30 Sensex companies reported weaker-than-estimated profits for the March quarter. Results at 47 per cent of the companies beat or matched estimates for the December quarter.

“Even a 50-basis point cut wouldn’t have immediately changed the fundamentals, which remain weak as witnessed in the latest quarterly earnings,” Ashu Madan, the chief operating officer of Religare Securities, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV India on Tuesday. “There are no triggers to take the market up beyond a point.”

State Bank of India, the nation’s biggest lender, paced declines among its peers and was the worst performer on the Sensex. Hero MotoCorp tumbled the most in five weeks after motorcycle sales declined 5.4 per cent last month. — Bloomberg News

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ROUND-UP

BHC launches major breathing campaign

F O C U S O N C H E S T PA I N

The ‘BreatheEasy’ campaign aims at checking how well

Badr Al Samaa organises CME

a person breathes in and out and diagnosing various lung conditions through a simple

MUSCAT: Badr Al Samaa healthcare group organised a Continuing Medical Education (CME) at Crowne Plaza recently.

The topic of the lecture was ‘A Patient with Chest Pain: How to Approach Clinically’. The main speaker was Dr. Benny Panakkal, senior consultant interventional cardiologist and group medical director, Badr Al Samaa Hospital Ruwi, says a press release.

The presentation focused on chest pain as an alarming symptom both for the patient and for the treating doctor. Identifying the cause of chest pain requires skill and knowledge and exposes reasons ranging from serious life threatening situations to less serious causes. The CME was aimed at providing a systematic approach to this end.

Over 120 doctors from different regions of the country attended the CME. It covered various aspects of identifying the reasons of chest pain which were earlier overlooked during clinical prac-

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tice. The programme witnessed many interesting queries raised by the doctors and all of them were answered by the speaker in an open interactive session.

Following the presentation, the speaker was given memento

by Firasath, son of P. A. Mohammed, managing director, Badr Al Samaa Group of Hospitals.

Dr Gerry D’Costa, psychiatrist, Badr Al Samaa Hospital Ruwi, anchored the programme.

The services available include coronary angiography, coronary angioplasty and coronary stenting. Other facilities offered in Badr Al Samaa Heart Centre include Intra-aortic balloon pump, colour Doppler 3D real time echocardiography and trans oesophageal echocardiography, exercise stress test and stress echocardiography. Through its patient centric services and professional reputation, the centre has emerged as symbol of trust for patients suffering from various cardiac ailments.

Spirometry test

MUSCAT: In its continuous focus on employee engagement and welfare, Bahwan Healthcare Centre (BHC), a flag ship company under Suhail Bahwan Group, recently launched ‘BreathEasy’ campaign for its employees.

Launched at the Bahwan Medical Centre, Al Khuwair, in association with Cipla, a global pharmaceutical manufacturing company, the campaign aims at checking how well a person breathes in and out and diagnosing various lung conditions through a simple Spirometry test, says a press release.

Dr Ashok Kumar Jain, Chief Medical Officer, Bahwan Medical Centre said, “This test is particularly useful for chronic smokers,

persons having troublesome cough at night, wheezing or cough after exercise, chest tightness or cough after exposure to pollutants or persons with a family history of asthma. Once the results of the Spirom-

etry test are known, we will be able to advice proper preventive and curative measures to the person.”

The campaign will be conducted at periodic intervals to cover all employees over a period of time.

UNIQUE GESTURE

A’Saffa's drive for children gets positive response on Facebook MUSCAT: A one-of-its-kind social initiative launched by A’Saffa Foods - ‘Let Us Achieve Their Dreams - 2’ has been making waves all over Facebook.

The unique gesture from A’Saffa, that will help make dreams come true for 10 children with special care, living in special care homes has garnered an extremely positive response from Facebook enthusiasts throughout the Sultanate, with an overwhelming number of users lending their support to the cause

SOCIAL COMMITMENT

that will bring to life the dreams of 10 children, says a press release.

A’Saffa Foods 45 days campaign ‘Let Us Achieve Their Dreams -2’ works towards the milestone of positively impacting the lives of 10 children. The company began the initiative with helping five children achieve their dreams last year, and decided to extend the same to 10 children belonging to the age group of 7 years to 10 years this year.

“A’Saffa Foods has been com-

mitted to helping children within the Sultanate with hope and opportunity right from the time of its inception, as the company believes that children are an integral part of society and the future of tomorrow,” said Sidhartha Lenka, Head of Sales and Marketing, A’Saffa Foods.

“The organisation’s social outreach programme – ‘Let Us Achieve Their Dreams’ hence focuses its efforts on helping children live better lives by making their dreams come true.”

Facebook users are requested

to ‘Like’ the A’Saffa Foods Facebook post till June 25. Every ‘Like’ will generate 100 baisa that will be donated by A’Saffa Foods towards presents for 10 selected children; presents that the children choose and feel would help achieve their dreams. The lucky kids, to get closer to their dreams this year, are: Farida, Anjum, Hassan, Nasreen, Sameera, Shahid and Tabassum who will be getting an iPad each; and Sumair, Saleh and Ahmed who will be getting a Play Station each.

SPECIAL CEREMONY

Bank Sohar supports Al Noor Association in Al Dakhiliyah MUSCAT: Towards continued demonstration of Bank Sohar‘s commitment to the community, Bank Sohar has supported the Al Noor Association for the Blind in Al Dakhiliyah. The Al Noor Association for Blind in Dakhiliyah has been working towards serving the interest of the blind in the region towards social and economic welfare, education, health, training, placement and teaching of Braille.

The donation cheque, which will assist the association in purchasing 50 voice watches, 50 canes and two computers to support and facilitate the blind in their daily activities, was handed over to Mohamed bin Udeim Al Subaihi, chairman of Al Noor Association

by Mazin Mahmood Al Raisi, AGM & head of Marketing and Publicity at Bank Sohar at Bank Sohar Nizwa Branch in the presence of Juma Masaaod Al Dawudi, Senior Branch Manager Nizwa, says a press release.

Bank Sohar has been supporting the Al Noor Association since 2009 and have in the past also extended their support to the association’s branches in Sohar, Salalah and Nizwa. Speaking on the rationale behind this donation, Munira Abdulnabi Macki, DGM of Human Resources and Corporate Support at Bank Sohar said, “At Bank Sohar it has been our aim to contribute actively to the community we serve, within the mandate of our corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities.

We have provided support to the Al Noor Association for the Blind previously, across the Sultanate, given their exceptional work with the blind. This is our first donation to their Dakhiliyah centre and it gives us great pleasure to be able to back the association once more.

CSR initiatives such as these demonstrate our deep commitment to the community we operate in and we look forward to strengthening our relationship with Al Noor Association in the future.”

Commenting on the donation, Al Subaihi said, “With the support of partners such as Bank Sohar, it is our aim to prepare and implement programmes that support the blind in the Sultanate of Oman.

We are thankful to the bank for taking a yet another step forward in supporting our cause. We are confident that this sort of funding will help the blind in Oman, empowering them to lead a normal

life and making them a productive part of our society.”

Bank Sohar strives to ensure that its contributions are carefully planned and evaluated in order to diversify and reach out to the maximum number of people, especially those in most need of it, offering recipients positive support to make a meaningful change. As a result, the bank’s CSR initiatives have become central to its operational strategy. In recognition of its contributions, Bank Sohar has received numerous accolades for its CSR efforts locally, regionally, and internationally including the ‘Golden Order of Merit in the field of CSR’ Award from UAE based Excellence Awards Academy in 2014 and 2015, the ‘Green Campaign of the Year’ award at the ‘Oman Green Award 2014’, and ‘Most Socially Responsible Bank Oman 2014’ by UK based International Finance Magazine (IFM).

NEW ENTRANT

Startup Oman: A new online platform for SMEs MUSCAT: New entrant, Startup Oman, waded into the Omani SME ecosystem at Entrepreneur’s Conclave 2015’s final pitch event.

Startup Oman is the brainchild of Omani entrepreneur Ali Kamal Daud and Oman-based entrepreneur, Sherry Colbourne, says a press release.

With its tagline, ‘The Home of Entrepreneurship’, Startup Oman is an online platform for SMEs that connects them with one another and the many excellent programmes the Sultanate currently has to offer.

“We are not duplicating anything that exists in the ecosystem,” said partner and manager, Sherry Colbourne.

“Rather, we are creating a plat-

form for all players in the ecosystem to come together in order to serve the needs of SMEs better than ever before.”

Although the introduction provided a first peak under the covers of the initiative, the platform is earmarked to be formally launched in September 2015 and will provide a great deal of support to Oman’s growing sector of SMEs. A resource centre will allow visitors to search for services ie. funding, incubators, training, etc. while the My Mujtama Community will provide a forum for entrepreneurs to securely connect with fellow entrepreneurs, as well as mentors.

Early adopter stakeholders Sas for Entrepreneurship, National Business Center, Sharakah, Inspired

Solutions, Oman American Business Council and Zubair SEC are all on board with the initiative.

Over the next three months, the Startup Oman team will be reaching out to other stakeholders to fill out the platform and ensure that all programs are represented in the portal.

“The concept to create a vibrant, online platform that brings all stakeholders of the Oman SME ecosystem together is a shared passion of Sherry and I,” said Ali Daud. “Rather than replicate initiatives that already exist or compete with one another, Sherry and I decided putting our energy into creating something transformational for the Omani SME community, was the right way to go.”

PSM pays homage to survivors of Army Public School attack MUSCAT: Pakistan School Muscat (PSM) hosted a special ceremony at Dr. A. Q. Khan Hall to pay homage to the students of Army Public School (APS) in Peshawar who survived the brutal terrorist attack in December 2014. The delegation included 20 students accompanied by the principal, teachers and their parents, says a press release.

Ayaz Hussain, ambassador of Pakistan to Oman Ayaz Hussain attended the occasion as the chief guest. The Chairman BoD Adnan Shahzad, members BODs, Senior Principal PSS Attaullah Niazi, Principal PSM Khalid Jadoon, Principal Sohar, Principal Pakistan School Seeb Samina Khan, embassy officers, dignitaries and a large number of Pakistan community marked the occasion.

The ceremony started in the name of Allah with the recitation from the Holy Quran by Talal Hussain.

Attaullah Niazi led the felicitation which filled the hearts of the whole Pakistani community by the eagerly awaited visit of the heroic students of Army Public School.

In his address, he conveyed his best wishes for the students.

The programme proceeded with an enthralling speech by Laiba Ali of P-III, who highlighted the role of the students in making Pakistan a proud nation. A greatly applauded performance was presented by the budding star of Pakistan School Muscat. A great representation of unity was displayed in the performances on the provinces of Pakistan that included a special performance on Kailaash music which amused the audience. Atya Ghani, an Urdu

teacher, recited some marvellous pieces of poetry for the audience.

Qaari Raheem led a supplication for the martyrs of Army Public School.

Taking the next rung, Muneeb ullah Shah and Abdul Ghani from Army Public School, Peshawar, in their fervent note voiced their gratitude for such a warm welcome. On behalf of the students of the delegation, they passed on their fondest feelings to see such a substantial bond to support them in the hard times.

Both students conveyed their thankfulness to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said and Royal Oman Police for giving them the opportunity to enliven the cherishing memories. Col. Akbar, Principal of APS, expressed his gratitude to the Government of Oman and the Embassy of Pakistan Embassy for bringing to them a befitting, organised and well-coordinated trip making it an interactive and amazing experience for the students of APS. Ayaz Hussain presented the memento to the delegates of APS. To carve the connectivity, love and gratitude the students of APS were also presented with gifts by Pakistan School Muscat as well as by students on the personal basis.

Ayaz Hussain praised the distinguished hospitality of Oman government to the delegates. He also hailed PSM for putting together a warm welcome show for the visitors. He commended the visitors for their discipline, respect, dedication and motivation which would lead to making them exemplary heroes of Pakistan.

In the end, he enforced the dire need of a durable friendship and connectivity between the student body in Pakistan and abroad.

The Chairman BoDs Adnan Shahzad thanked His Majesty the Sultan, Royal Oman Police, Pakistan Embassy and the students of APS to give PSM this opportunity to be with the heroes of Pakistan.

He further ensured that each Pakistani, inside or outside Pakistan, was standing with Pakistan in all the times.

Ayaz Hussain, Adnan Shahzad, Attaullah Niazi and the students of APS conveyed their special thanks to Captain Essa of Royal Oman Police for accompanying the students everywhere, for his wonderful guidance and hospitality. The ceremony concluded with the photo session and the national anthems of Pakistan and Oman.

The students of APS spent the rest of the day in PSM its students.

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W E D NE S DAY, JU N E 3, 2 015

ROUND-UP Mercedes-Benz announces exclusive Ramadan package

LU C K Y D R AW

The very special package from the world leading innovative automotive brand with a passion for excellence and a fascination with perfection started on June 1 and will continue until the end of Ramadan

MUSCAT: In celebration of the holy month of Ramadan, Mercedes-Benz Oman has revealed an exclusive package available to customers looking to purchase any of its luxury range of vehicles at this special time.

The package includes a three year or 45,000km service package, three years unlimited mileage warranty, three years Mobilo on road assistance, free registration, V-Kool heat control film as well as a special gift for mind, body and soul with compliments from

Zawawi Trading Company, says a press release.

“The Mercedes-Benz range of vehicles offers something that can’t be found anywhere else this Ramadan: pure driving pleasure,” noted Clive Hammond, CEO of Zawawi Trading Company, authorised general distributor for Mercedes-Benz in Oman.

“Our Ramadan package has been designed to reassure customers by covering them for the next three years so they can focus on the pure pleasure of driving their

RECRUIT

brand new Mercedes-Benz.”

According to Hammond, achieving outstanding customer care and delivering a premium brand experience continues on beyond the holy month of Ramadan at Mercedes-Benz. “We constantly strive to set new benchmarks in delivering the Best Customer Experience, whatever the time of year, but we are particularly delighted to take inspiration from the holy month and be able to bring our customers this incredible package,” remarked the CEO. Hammond went on to explain that drivers could avail of the package across the full line-up of

Mercedes-Benz models — the exceptional driving experience and automotive excellence of the sedans and coupés, not to mention the World Car of the Year 2015 — the iconic C-Class; the thrilling and confident in any situation SUVs including the newest edition to the Mercedes-Benz family — the GLA Cross-Over. Of course, the Mercedes-Benz dream team SL and SLK convertibles are also included.

The very special package from the world leading innovative automotive brand with a passion for excellence and a fascination with perfection started on June 1 and will continue until the end of Ramadan.

Our Ramadan package has been designed to reassure customers by covering them for the next three years so they can focus on the pure pleasure of driving their brand new MercedesBenz Clive Hammond CEO of Zawawi Trading Company

Shell declares promo winners MUSCAT: When Victoria Gilchrist got a call from Shell Oman saying that her coupon was drawn for the trip to the Ferrari Factory in Italy, at first she was in a state of disbelief.

Only later when she was called to the Shell Oman head office at Mina Al Fahal to receive her documents, did she believe that she was indeed the winner from among more than 300,000 coupons which were returned for the lucky draw.

Thirty eight other winners of Ferrari Watches have also been notified after the draw which was held on May 25 at the Shell Oman office, says a press release.

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM W EDN ES DAY, JU N E 3, 2015

SECTION

RECRUI JOB POSTINGS

QUOTES One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth.

Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.

— Abraham Maslow Exert your talents and distinguish yourself, and don’t think of retiring from the world, until the world will be sorry that you retire.

— Samuel Johnson

Everyday do something that will take you closer to a better tomorrow.

— Doug Firebaugh

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W E D NE S DAY, JU N E 3, 2 015

ROUND-UP

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Kia offers customers chance to drive away with cash gift Those who buy a Kia now (scheme runs till July 16) will be in a position to take advantage of the fact that they can win in a grand raffle OMR5,000 cash, take part in four raffles of OMR1,000 each

MUSCAT: It is true that a Kia customer not only gets a wonderful new Kia but also drives away with a cash gift.

According to the spokesperson, “Those who buy a Kia now (scheme runs from May 18 to July 16) will be in a position to take advantage of the fact that they can win in a grand raffle

OMR5,000 cash, take part in four raffles of OMR1,000 each, says a press release.

“That’s not all…We have made it even more exciting for customers.” There is an assured Scratch ‘N Win amounts of up to OMR100. Customers will have a choice of availing cash gift upto OMR1,500 or they can avail upto 100,000km / 5 years service plus 1 year insurance plus cash gift. The cash gift amount can be used as part of down payment,” said a Kia spokesperson.

Kia is giving customer the choice of any one option: In the first option there is the cash gift, in which the amount varies from OMR300 to OMR1,500 depending on the model variant and model year.

As for the second option, customers can get a service benefit lasting for 5-year/100,000km, whichever is earlier, on 14 MY only. For 15-16MY 18 months/30,000km whichever is earlier (maximum of 6 service).

One year comprehensive insurance - (Oman only) on select models plus cash gift.

In option 2, cash gift amount varies from OMR150 to OMR500 depending on the model variant

and model year. The raffle dates for OMR1,000 raffle would be: June 21, July 1, July 12, August 4. The grand raffle will be held on August 4.

Vehicles specifications are subject to change without notice.

Vehicles may also include dealer installed accessories.

“This is the right moment for customers to get more from Kia by taking advantage of exciting deals-on-wheels. And there is a need to hurry since these are for a limited time only,” reminded the spokesperson.

A Kia customer who made the best of the offer smilingly remarked, “My family and I are

overjoyed to have got so many wonderful benefits from Kia. Free insurance, free service and a lovely cash gift, too… Now, we are holding our breath, who knows we might win the Grand Raffle, as well.”

This substantial package for Kia customers is available for a limited time only.

“This is the much-awaited chance for Kia customers to ‘make hay while the sun shines,” the spokesperson added.

“On the entire range of winners that includes the Picanto — a fresh and vibrant car to turn up the colour in your life; the Kia Rio — a smartly styled car that

makes absolutely no compromises; the Cerato — to help you step into the good life; the Cerato Koup — a car in tune with your emotions; the Optima — the car with sporty stance and style that conveys confident individuality; Cadenza — a car that attracts and reassures with its innovative attention to detail; Kia Soul — that gives you the freedom to express your personality and to connect with an urban lifestyle; Sportage — for appeal that’s ahead by many miles; Kia Carens — a car that lets you live life to the full; Sorento — an SUV built for urban living; Kia Mohave — a car that puts you at the peak of performance; Kia Carnival — an elegant all-in-one tool that makes your life a whole lot easier; K- 4000G — A highly polished work horse,” he summed up.

Reliable International Automotive (RIA), the distributor for Kia in Oman provides a rewarding ownership experience for customers. Excellent product attributes and unmatched facilities easily ensure their absolute satisfaction, every mile of the way.

No wonder then that Reliable International Automotive has been ranked amongst the top Kia distributors worldwide.

AIRLINE SERVICE

Faisalabad joins Air Arabia’s expanding Pak route network SHARJAH: Air Arabia has named Faisalabad as the latest city to join its rapidly growing Pakistan route network. When flights to the country’s third largest city start on October 25, Faisalabad will join Islamabad, Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Peshawar, Quetta and Sialkot as Pakistani cities served by regular direct Air Arabia flights from the UAE, says a press release.

“Air Arabia has a long-standing commitment to serve the Pakistan market and we are proud to operate an exceptionally comprehensive route network covering the length and breadth of the country,” said Adel A. Ali, group chief executive officer of Air Arabia.

“The addition of Faisalabad further strengthens the cultural and commercial ties between both nations and offers an even greater level of convenience and flexibility to our customers,” added Adel.

Flights will depart Sharjah International Airport at 11:05pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, arriving in Pakistan on the following morning at 3:00am.

Return flights will leave on the same days from Faisalabad International Airport at 3:40am before landing back in the UAE at 6:15 am.

ENHANCING CUSTOMER SERVICE

Bank Sohar’s relocated branch inaugurated in Salalah SALALAH: Bank Sohar recently celebrated the official opening of its newly relocated branch in Salalah under the auspices of Sheikh Salim bin Ufait Al Shanfari, head of Dhofar Municipality.

The new branch has been relocated to the prominent 23rd July Street, adjacent to the Sultan Qaboos Mosque, in order to provide greater visibility and easier accessibility to the bank’s customers in the region. The branch has been operating in a soft opening phase since the move was completed last month. The opening ceremony also witnessed hosting the weekly draw under Al Mumayaz Savings Scheme, says a press release.

The branch opening celebration witnessed the attendance of several of the bank’s VIP customers from the region. Representing the bank and welcoming the guests at the event were Rashad Ali Al Musafir, acting CEO, Munira Abdulnabi Macki, DGM of Human Resources and Corporate Support, R. Narasimhan, DGM and head of Retail Banking, Khamis Masoud Al Rahbi, AGM of Branches, Mazin Mahmood Al Raisi, AGM and head of Marketing and Publicity, and Amur Said Al Amri, Salalah chief branch manager.

“The shifting and official opening of Salalah branch is perfectly in line with our bank-wide focus this year on enhancing our customer service and improving the overall banking experience. With easier

accessibility and larger interior space, the new branch will better equip us to service the needs of our clients in the Dhofar region, and will no doubt offer a significant improvement to customer convenience in the area,” said Rashad Ali Al Musafir.

The opening ceremony began with Al Shanfari cutting a ribbon to signify the opening of the branch in the presence of senior officials from Banks Sohar together with a number of the bank’s valued customers from the region.

Later, the chief guest along with the attendees, was taken on a short tour of the branch, which houses three spacious levels with clear demarcation of the areas covering a range of customer friendly facili-

ties. They were also briefed on the various products and services on offer by Bank Sohar to customers, whether through the newly relocated Salalah branch, or any of the other 25 branches spread across the Sultanate. This is made possible because the bank operates on a ‘real time and anywhere’ banking IT platform for the convenience of its customers.

The opening ceremony also played host to the Al Mumayaz Saving Scheme weekly draw, where Amur Said Al Amri inaugurated the proceedings for the weekly draw with a welcome speech. Abdullah Al Mahmoodi, chief manager of Events and Promotions, then provided the guests with an overview of the Al Mumayaz Sav-

BUNDLE OFFERS

Vachas Hypermarket opened its third outlet in Bidbid recently. The inaugural function was conducted by Dawood bin Salim Alhadabi, director general, Samayil Industries, and attended by Hussain Fadil chairman, Vachas Group; George Mathew, managing director; Dr Mathew George and Thomas George, general managers; and Mathew Ommen, country manager for retail division. Vachas, which has outlets in Ghala and Salalah (Taqa), plans to open four supermarkets in Suwaiq, Sumayil, Duqm and Salalah. — Supplied photo

CULINARY SKILL

SPONSOR

Renna launches exciting offers MUSCAT: Renna Mobile has announced the new and unmatched international calling bundle offers to give its customers more convenient options as they can now avail international calling offer.

Renna’s international calling promotion provide subscribers to call home at an unmatched affordable prices. Subscribers will enjoy calling Pakistan for 75 minutes for just OMR2 anytime of the day and any day of the week where subscribers will enjoy calling India

ings Scheme. Following the presentation, the chief guest drew the names of the two winners wherein A. H. Al Mamari, a customer from Nizwa Branch, and Abdullah Faraj Ba Hajjaj, from Salalah Branch, won OMR5,000 weekly draw and OMR1,000 branch-specific weekly draw respectively. The event concluded with a token of appreciation handed over to Al Shanfari on behalf of the bank.

Commenting on this occasion, R. Narasimhan, DGM and head of Retail Banking at Bank Sohar said, “As one of the prominent banks in the country, we consistently focus on offering our customers better valued product and service propositions with the utmost convenience and care when banking with us. This new location is a full service branch that will continue to provide the bank’s regular portfolio of retail and corporate banking products and services in addition to offering ample parking facilities, a larger interior space, and easier accessibility from the main road.

“Along with all our other branches, the new Salalah branch also offers our customers the convenience of a 24-hour ATM and CDM service. The newly relocated branch has an excellent design and interior furnishing backed by high end technological infrastructure to give a novelty banking experience to our existing and prospect customers of this region.”

VACHAS OPENS OUTLET IN BIDBID

and Bangladesh for 80 minutes for just OMR2.

Renna has another international offer for the rest of the countries with a competitive price starting from 39 baisa per minute, says a

press release.

“Renna has consistently been offering great value to customers on their bundle offers for international calling. Our market research shows that there is a huge demand by our Asian expats on international calling. We therefore make sure that our customer’s get the best international calling rates and we want to further reward them by giving them the ability to choose from our varied offers,” said Raed Haddadin, CEO, Renna.

Areej Vegetable Oils participates in Opex 2015 MUSCAT: Areej Vegetable Oils and Derivatives (AVOD) sponsored and participated at the 4th Omani Products Exhibition (Opex) held in Jeddah recently.

At this four-day event from May 18 to 21, over 120 Omani companies including small & medium enterprises exhibited their products and services.

AVOD extended huge support to this forum and showcased its high quality products such as Areej cooking oil, Minara sunflower oil, Khafeef frying oil and many of it’s export brands as well as distributors owned brands, says a press release.

Salem Al Bortmany, Executive Director, AVOD, says: “Opex is a huge platform that highlights the unique flavours and heritage of the Sultanate by means of products produced

by Omani manufacturers. For us, it is an opportunity to support national companies across different sectors and to exhibit our products at the regional and global level. It is a good learning experience as well as we become familiar with latest trends and business developments.”

Kachchhi Wing hosts ‘Junior Master Chefs’ MUSCAT: Kachchhi Wing of Indian Social Club Muscat organised a ‘Junior Master Chefs’. The event was held at Indian Social Club, Darsait.

The theme for this season was ‘Healthy Tiffin Snacks’. Kids aged 6 to 12 years participated and showcased their cooking skills.

During the event kids prepared delicious and mouth watering varieties that were not only tasty and nutritious but also well presented. Participants were given 60 minutes and were marked on their skill and creativity, says a press release.

Simultaneously, to keep the audiences dwelled in, interactive activities based on cooking were conducted and many spot prizes were given by Kent. In addition, a live demo on making delicious varieties like fruit punch, mango chocolate pudding and chocolate bowl dessert was conducted by Dwiker Tanna.

Judges for the evening were Hemlata Ashok, Rajdhani Restaurant and Somnath Sinha, Bollywood Chat. Somnath said, “It

was a tough job for us to select the winners as all the kids had given their best performance.”

The event was coordinated by Hetal Bhatia, Mona Mehta, Zuwaina Panjwani and well backed up by all the committee members.

The winners are: Category A: Vaidik Trivedi, Tej Bhatia & Keith Maniyar, Nihar Kachhy Category B : Diya Parekh, Manav Majithiya, Fathima Oliyath.

Sponsors for the event were Pran, R.B. Kothary, Pizza Hut, Pizza Muscat, KR-Bel Kiri and Kent Water Purifiers.

Hemlata Jesrani, Convener of Wing said, “Awareness among the school children can be created by educating them about the benefits of nutritious foods and the harmful effects of junk foods.”

She extended her heartfelt thanks to all the participants, judges, sponsors, committee members and audiences for their continuous support and also extended the special thanks to Jayesh Babla and Mahesh Bhatia for their contribution in making event the grand success.

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RAVI SHASTRI STAYS INDIAN TEAM DIRECTOR Former Indian captain Ravi Shastri was today retained as Director of the Indian cricket team for the tour of Bangladesh starting June 10 as the BCCI continued its search for a new permanent coach to succeed Duncan Fletcher. >C2

Blatter quits as Fifa chief FA C T B O X

BIRTH: Born on March 10, 1936 in the Swiss town of Visp.

EARLY CAREER: Graduated from the Sion and St Maurice colleges in Switzerland and then secured a Bachelor of Business Administration and Economics degree from the Faculty of Law at Lausanne University. Was an active footballer from 1948-1971, playing in Swiss amateur leagues.

He was a member of the board of Neuchatel Xamax soccer club from 1970-1975. Blatter began his professional career as Head of Public Relations of the Valaisan Tourist Board in Switzerland and in 1964 became General Secretary of the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation. As Director of Sports Timing and Public Relations at watch and timings firm Longines, he was involved in the organisation of the 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games, getting his first taste of the international sports scene.

AT FIFA: Became Fifa secretary general in 1981 and, after 17 years serving under Joao Havelange, replaced the Brazilian as president in 1998. Faced trouble in 2002 when Fifa’s then secretary general Michel Zen-Ruffinen said Blatter’s 1998 election victory was based on bribery and corruption and that Fifa was being financially mismanaged at the highest levels. Blatter denied the allegations. Beat Issa Hayatou of Cameroon, president of the Asian confederation, in the 2002 presidential election before being returned unopposed in 2007. In 2004 Blatter attracted scorn from the women’s game when he suggested women players should wear tighter shorts. Won a fourth term in 2011 when challenger Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar was barred from Fifa on bribery charges. Blatter has survived a series of scandals during his term in office including widespread accusations that Qatar bought the right to stage the 2022 World Cup. Qatar have always denied any wrongdoing. Faced Fifa’s ethics committee in 2011 in the wake of the bribery scandal that led to Bin Hammam’s life ban. Blatter was never accused of being involved in the bribery, but there were allegations he know of its existence and did not act. All charges against him were dismissed.

2015 ELECTION: In 2011 Blatter said he would retire four years later, but instead sought a fifth term of office and won the election on May 29, 2015 after his only rival Prince Ali bin Al Hussein withdrew following a first round of voting where the Swiss was clearly in the lead. Despite widespread calls for Blatter’s resignation after what was described as the worst day in Fifa’s history, when seven serving officials were arrested on bribery charges two days before the 2015 election, he told delegates: “Football needs a strong and experienced leader. One that knows all the ins and outs and can work with our partners”. Overcoming opposition from European soccer’s governing body Uefa, who threatened at one point to boycott the Congress, he was duly elected for another four years. Blatter said on Tuesday at a hastily-arranged news conference that he would resign as president, six days after the FBI raided a hotel in Zurich and arrested several Fifa officials. “Fifa has been my life ... what counts most for me is Fifa and football around the world,” he said. “An extraordinary Congress is to be called to elect my successor as soon as possible.”

Sepp Blatter, 79, announced the decision at a news conference in Zurich, six days after the FBI raided a hotel in Zurich and arrested several Fifa officials and just four days after he was reelected to a fifth term as president

ZURICH: Sepp Blatter resigned as Fifa president on Tuesday in the face of a U.S.-led corruption investigation that has plunged world soccer’s governing body into the worst crisis in its history.

Blatter, 79, announced the decision at a news conference in Zurich, six days after the FBI raided a hotel in Zurich and arrested several Fifa officials and just four days after he was re-elected to a fifth term as president.

Blatter said an election to choose a new Fifa president would be held as soon as possible. “Fifa needs profound restructuring,” he said.

Fifa, ruled over by Blatter since 1998, was rocked this week by the announcement of a U.S. investigation into alleged widespread financial wrongdoing stretching back for years. Swiss authorities

mounted their own criminal probe into the award of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar, respectively.

The U.S. Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Blatter initially attempted to bat away the furore, relying on his network of friends to hold onto power at Fifa, which he joined in 1975.

While Blatter was not mentioned

in either the U.S. or Swiss investigations, there were widespread calls for him to quit, mostly from Western nations. Some major sponsors also expressed misgivings about the impact of the scandal.

The investigation however closed in on Blatter on Tuesday, when Fifa was forced to deny that his right-hand man, SecretaryGeneral Jerome Valcke, was implicated in a $10 million payment that lies at the heart of the U.S. case.

But at the same time, a letter addressed to Valcke was published outlining the transaction.

Valcke, who has been secretarygeneral since 2007 and is seen as one of the most powerful men in world sport, had no role in the payments, which were authorised by the chairman of Fifa’s Finance Committee, Fifa said in an earlier statement. The chairman of the committee at the time of the payments was Argentina’s Julio Gron-

dona, who died last year.

A person familiar with the matter said on Monday that U.S. prosecutors believe Valcke made the $10 million bank transactions which are central to a U.S. bribery investigation against Fifa.

Meanwhile, Blatter’s shock resignation as Fifa president on Tuesday was hailed as ‘great for football’ by one of his chief critics, English FA chief Greg Dyke. Dyke, who told BBC World he lost faith

Sayyid Khalid urges Fifa family to back Prince Ali MUSCAT: Even as beleaguered Sepp Blatter announced his surprise resignation as the head of world soccer body Fifa, a news that has come as a shock to many, the chief of the Sultanate’s football said ‘resignation was expected’. Reacting to Blatter’s resignation, Oman Football Association (OFA) chief Sayyid Khalid Al Busaidi tweeted it was a ‘wise step’. “Blatter’s resignation was expected. It is a wise step in such circumstances,” he tweeted.

OFA chief also urged the international football fraternity to support Jordan’s Prince Ali bin Al Hussein, who challenged Blatter in Friday’s Fifa Presidential Elections and conceded defeat after the first round. “I call upon Fifa family to grant their support to Prince Ali,” Sayyid Khalid tweeted.

in Blatter last year, said he thought the 79-year-old Swiss realised the mounting corruption scandal that has engulfed world football’s governing body ‘was getting close to him’. - Reuters

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Captain Virat Kohli is confident of building world beating Indian side Virat Kohli was handed the Test

In Test matches we want to be the team to beat. It is just the mindset, sometimes we tend to go into that zone where the thinking is not right

captaincy after Mahendra Singh Dhoni retired following the third Test of the fourmatch series against Australia in January.

Virat Kohli India Test captain NEW DELHI: New Test captain Virat Kohli laid out his ambitious vision for the Indian team, saying he wants to create a side which can dominate world cricket for the next five years at least.

Kohli, who was handed the Test captaincy after Mahendra Singh Dhoni retired following the third Test of the four-match series against Australia in January, said he wants to create strong friendship in the team.

“I strongly want to see the Indian team dominate for at least five or six years,” Kohli told ESPNcricinfo’s digital magazine in an interview. “We certainly have the talent. We certainly have the ability. All that it will take is how you manage that and keep them together,” he added.

Laying down his vision for the side, Kohli said: “I want to create strong bonds. I want to create strong friendships in this unit.

We live 250-280 days a year together so I want to create such an atmosphere where in the next ten years watching it from outside you would get to know this team is a united team. This team is a strongly knit unit. They want to play for

each other. They don’t want to play for themselves. That is my vision.”

A firm believer in playing aggressive cricket, Kohli said he wants to free his team of doubts or insecurities. “We like playing the same brand of cricket,” Kohli said of the team he resumes taking charge of with the tour to Bangladesh later this month.”

“The thing that I want to do and I can do in Test matches is free them from any kind of doubt. Free them from any kind of insecurity... On the field if you see them (Australia) play you feel like, damn, that’s a unit, we really have to play our bloody best to beat these guys. I want that to happen to Indian cricket.

“In Test matches we want to be the team to beat. It is just the mindset, sometimes we tend to go into that zone where the thinking is not right,” he said.

Talking about self-belief, Kohli said: “Not many people understand the kind of things I have seen in life at a very young age. Maybe that is why I believe in myself a lot. I think if I did not have belief,

I would not be able to build my career all these years. Bad times will come but it makes you want to look forward to the good times that lie ahead, as well as appreciate the good times that you have had in your life and career. Respect the bad times when they come and not be broken by it,” Kohli added.

Kohli had scored 692 runs in the four Tests during India’s last tour of Australia and talking about the series, he said, “I remember about two months before that tour I started building the kind of mindset I wanted to have in Australia: it was all-out aggressive. I knew that I wanted to go out there and take on these bowlers because there is no way if I keep on struggling for runs I would be doing justice to what I wanted to do. Eventually I had visualised it so positively, so strongly, when I went out there my body just followed what my mind had stored two months back.”

The 26-year-old faced a lot of criticism after he failed in the World Cup semi-final against Australia with critics also question-

ing the presence of his girlfriend Anushka Sharma during the campaign. Hurt and disappointed, Kohli slammed the critics during an event for his IPL side Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League.

“I do not want to force anyone to respect our lives or force anyone to behave in a certain way. That is not in our control. I made that statement because it is very important for people to understand how we feel,” Kohli said.

“If people choose to behave in a manner where you are burning effigies, it is very important for people to understand that we have families, our families feel bad. We have people who are emotionally attached to us. We are not all alone in the world. We are human beings with emotions, feelings. I wanted to put out there how I feel,” he added.

In 33 Tests, Kohli has scored 2,547 runs at an average of 46.30, while in one-dayers, he has featured in 158 matches, amassing 6537 runs at 51.47 average. — PTI

Shastri to continue as team director for Bangladesh tour NEW DELHI: Former Indian captain Ravi Shastri was today retained as Director of the Indian cricket team for the tour of Bangladesh starting June 10 as the BCCI continued its search for a new permanent coach to succeed Duncan Fletcher.

Shastri, who served as Team Director during the tour of Australia and the subsequent World Cup earlier this year, is a stop-gap arrangement for the short trip.

Fletcher’s tenure had ended earlier this year after the World Cup. “The BCCI wishes to inform that Ravi Shastri, former India Captain has been appointed as Director of the Indian cricket team for the tour of Bangladesh starting on 10 June 2015,” Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Secretary Anurag Thakur said in a statement.

“Sanjay Bangar, Assistant Coach (Batting), B. Arun, Assistant Coach (Bowling) and R. Sridhar, Assistant Coach (Fielding) will assist Shastri during the tour. Biswarup Dey will be the Administrative Manager. Rishikesh Upadhayaya has been appointed as Logistics Manager for the tour,” he added.

Thakur said Shastri’s appointment was a stop-gap arrangement and the Board will name a permanent coach later. The full-time coach’s appointment will be done after consulting the newly-

Ravi Shastri

formed advisory committee of the BCCI, which comprises former greats Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and VVS Laxman. “This (the appointment of Shastri) is for the Bangladesh tour and future decisions will be taken after this,” Thakur said.

India will play one Test and three One-Day Internationals during the tour of Bangladesh. From June 10 in Fatullah, India will play the one off Test against Bangladesh, followed by three ODIs in Mirpur (June 18, 21, 24).

The team will leave for this assignment on June 7 from Kolkata.

On Monday, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman were inducted into the BCCI to guide the Board and the national team on various ‘progressive steps’ needed for future challenges. The BCCI said the three legends’ guidance will be sought in preparing the national team. - PTI

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Concussed Aussie opener Rogers out of Windies Test SYDNEY: Australian opening batsman Chris Rogers has been ruled out of this week’s first Test against the West Indies with concussion after being struck on the helmet in the nets.

Rogers took the hit during a practice session in the West Indies on Sunday and showed signs of mild concussion including headache and dizziness, Cricket Australia said on its website Tuesday.

In line with Cricket Australia’s guidelines, team doctor Peter Brukner made the call to rule the 37-year-old out of the Test, which starts in Dominica on Wednesday, and informed captain Michael Clarke and coach Darren Lehmann of his decision.

“I assured Michael if it was him or anyone else we would make exactly the same decision,” Brukner said.

“This is a black and white rule now. If someone is concussed, they don’t play. He was disappointed. Obviously nobody wants to miss a Test match.

“I’ve spoken to the players and explained the decision to them and said that’s the way we oper-

INJURED: Australian opener Chris Rogers.

ate, that’s our policy and it won’t be any different no matter who the player is,” he added.

Brukner said he expects Rogers to recover in time for the second Test in Jamaica next week.

It is the first time since Rogers was recalled to the Test team in 2013 that he has missed a match and opens the way for Shaun Marsh, who made a century as an opener in last week’s tour match in Antigua, to take his spot in the batting order. - AFP

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West Indies upbeat over Australia challenge

New Zealand leave England in a spin to win second Test SCOREBOARD

ROSEAU: West Indies and Australia commence a short Test series at Windsor Park Stadium in Dominica on Wednesday with the visitors favoured to extend their 20-year dominance over the Caribbean squad.

Yet while quality, form and international ranking suggest that Michael Clarke’s side should prevail here and in the second and final Test in Jamaica a week later, Denesh Ramdin’s men will be seeking to pick up from where they left off in the threematch series with England which ended a month earlier with victory inside three days in Barbados to leave the rubber square at 1-1.

Australia, who head to England immediately after the Kingston match for the defence of the Ashes, suffered a setback leading into the first Test with opening batsman Chris Rogers ruled out due to symptoms of concussion after being struck on the helmet by a local bowler in the nets on Sunday.

Shaun Marsh, who scored an impressive hundred in the tourists’ lone warm-up match against a West Indies Cricket Board President’s XI in Antigua, is virtually confirmed to open the batting with David Warner.

Rogers’ recovery from the injury will be monitored closely to determine whether he can be considered for the second Test at Sabina Park.

Much of the West Indies’ build-up to the series has focussed on the omission of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, a player built along similar lines to Rogers but with a much more impressive international record.

Just 87 runs away from surpassing Brian Lara as the most prolific West Indian batsman in the history of Test cricket, Chanderpaul apparently did not agree with the selectors’ decision to focus on developing the talented young players in the region at his expense, notwithstanding poor returns in the two previous series at home to England and in South Africa.

Rajindra Chandrika, like Chanderpaul a native of Guyana, looks likely to open the batting in his debut Test alongside Kraigg Brathwaite.

The 25-year-old is yet to score a hundred from 32 first-class matches and a modest batting average of 25.81 will hardly strike fear in the hearts of an Australian bowling line-up expected to be spearheaded by the two Mitchells, Johnson and Starc.

Fawad Ahmed, whose transformation from Pakistani asylum seeker four years ago to Australian international cricketer has been one of contemporary sport’s inspirational stories, is duelling with established off-spinner Nathan Lyon for the specialist slow bowler’s role on a pitch that offers very little assistance for the pacers. Three years earlier, Clarke snared five for 86 with his left-arm spinners to bowl his team to a 75-run victory and 2-0 series triumph.

Probable teams: West Indies: Kraigg Brathwaite, Rajindra Chandrika, Darren Bravo, Shai Hope, Marlon Samuels, Jermaine Blackwood, Denesh Ramdin (captain/ wicketkeeper), Jason Holder, Kemar Roach, Jerome Taylor, Veerasammy Permaul.

Australia: David Warner, Shaun Marsh, Shane Watson, Michael Clarke (captain), Steve Smith, Brad Haddin (wicketkeeper), Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Peter Siddle, Nathan Lyon. - AFP

New Zealand’s victory ensured the two-match series ended all square at 1-1 and was just New Zealand’s ninth win in 101 Tests against England

LEEDS: New Zealand off-spinners Kane Williamson and Mark Craig shared six wickets as the Black Caps thrashed England by 199 runs in the second Test at Headingley on Tuesday.

Victory ensured the two-match series ended all square at 1-1 and was just New Zealand’s ninth win in 101 Tests against England.

This success was also New Zealand’s first Test win against England since a 189-run victory at Hamilton in 2008.

It meant too they had won a Test in England for only the fifth time, with this victory their first Test success on English soil since an 83-run triumph at The Oval in 1999.

England, chasing what would have been a Test fourth innings record victory total of 455, were bowled out for 255.

Williamson, primarily a batsman and once suspended from bowling in international cricket because of a suspect action, took three wickets for 15 runs in seven overs, including the prize scalp of England captain Alastair Cook (56) Craig finished with three for 73 in 31.5 overs and ended the match when he had Jos Buttler lbw playing no stroke for 73.

LET’S SHARE IT: England captain Alastair Cook, left, and New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum pose with the trophy after the end of the fifth and final day of the second cricket Test match. – AFP

Cook and Buttler apart, England offered little in the way of resistance in their second innings.

England resumed Tuesday on 44 without loss and had an outside chance of surpassing the West Indies’ record fourth-innings winning total of 418 for seven against Australia at St John’s, Antigua, in 2002/03. However, those slim hopes disappeared during a first session where England lost five wickets for 58 runs in 32 overs as they slumped to 102 for five at lunch.

England, after a rain-marred fourth day, resumed with Adam Lyth 24 not out and Cook 18 not out.

But Lyth, who made a maiden Test century on his Yorkshire home ground in the first innings, fell for his overnight score when

he was caught behind fending at a Trent Boult away-swinger.

Left-arm paceman Boult then bowled Gary Ballance for six with a superb, near yorker-length, inswinger.

Craig then struck twice in three balls to reduce England to 62 for four. Ian Bell had made just one when he turned Craig straight to leg-slip Williamson.

Bell, one of England’s senior batsmen, has managed just 55 runs in eight Test innings since his 143 against the West Indies in Antgua in April.

Joe Root had promised England would “come out all guns blazing” but he lasted just two balls before exiting for a duck when he turned Craig off the face of the bat only

YOUR BIGGEST ROAD HAZARD IS IN YOUR HAND A TIMES OF OMAN HANDS-FREE DRIVING INITIATIVE

for Tom Latham to cling on to a sharp chance.

But Cook was still there and he went on to complete his second fifty of the match, having become England’s highest run scorer in Tests during his first innings 75.

His near four hours’ of resistance ended when Cook was given out lbw as he pushed forward to Williamson and a review couldn’t save the skipper.

Williamson, who had Ben Stokes caught behind on the stroke of lunch, had now taken two wickets for two runs in 11 balls.

Moeen Ali’s hundred in last year’s corresponding Headingley Test almost saw England to a draw before Sri Lanka won late on the final day.

New Zealand 1st Innings: 350 (L Ronchi 88, T Latham 84; S Broad 5-109) England 1st Innings: 350 (A Lyth 107, A Cook 75; T Southee 4-83) New Zealand 2nd Innings: 458-8 dec (BJ Watling 120, M Guptill 70, M Craig 58 no, B McCullum 55; M Wood 3-97) England 2nd Innings (target: 455, overnight 44-0) A. Lyth c Ronchi b Boult 24 A. Cook lbw b Williamson 56 G. Ballance b Boult 6 I. Bell c Williamson b Craig 1 J. Root c Latham b Craig 0 B. Stokes c Ronchi b Williamson 29 J. Buttler lbw b Craig 73 M. Ali b Henry 2 S. Broad b Williamson 23 M. Wood c Craig b Southee 17 J. Anderson not out 8 Extras (b-12, lb-2, w-2) 16 Total (all out, 91.5 overs, 347 mins) 255 Fall of wickets: 1-47 (Lyth), 2-61 (Ballance), 3-62 (Bell), 4-62 (Root), 5-102 (Stokes), 6-141 (Cook), 7-153 (Ali), 8-188 (Broad), 9-230 (Wood), 10-255 (Buttler) Bowling: Boult 23-4-61-2; Southee 18-7-43-1 (1w); Craig 31.5-12-73-3; Henry 12-2-49-1 (1w); Williamson 7-1-15-3 Result: New Zealand won by 199 runs Series: Two-match series ends level at 1-1 Man of the match: BJ Watling Man of the Series: Alaistair Cook Toss: England Umpires: S Ravi (IND), Rod Tucker (AUS) TV umpire: Marais Erasmus (RSA) Match referee: David Boon (AUS)

But on Tuesday he was bowled for two playing no stroke to fast bowler Matt Henry.

At tea, England were 206 for eight and needing to survive a minimum of 35 overs to hold out for a draw following their 124-run win in the first Test at Lord’s last week.

New Zealand had the advantage of the new ball four overs into the final session.

Wood’s 40-minute innings of 17 ended when he edged Tim Southee to Craig in the slips before Buttler’s error ended the match. - AFP

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Relaxed Bacsinszky grateful for motherly love PARIS: After beating Petra Kvitova to reach the French Open quarterfinals on Monday, Timea Bacsinszky marked the moment by scribbling a note of thanks to her mother on a TV camera by Court Suzanne Lenglen.

The 25-year-old, who was born in Switzerland to Hungarian parents, said later that without the financial support of her mother, she would never have been able to compete at the top level in tennis again following a series of foot operations.

Bacsinszky made her Grand Slam bow at Roland Garros as a teenager in 2007 but participated in just two majors in three years due to injury before returning to the French Open last year.

Now she is preparing for a first ever Grand Slam quarterfinal, against unseeded Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck, after beating Wim-

bledon champion and fourth seed Kvitova 2-6, 6-0, 6-3 in a match that finished well after 9.00 pm local time on Monday.

When asked if she thought she could ever make it this far when she started out on the road back to the top by appearing in qualifying at Roland Garros two years ago, she said: “No. Well, never. Never, ever.

“I remember my mum’s eyes when two years ago I just woke up, read the e-mail, went down for breakfast...I was jumping. I had butterflies in my stomach. I’m like, I’m going to Roland Garros.

“She was like, You got to be kidding me...You’re going to be ridiculous on court. I was like, I don’t care. I want to go. I don’t care if I get ‘bageled’ in my match. I don’t care. I’m going to keep on playing.

“She was like, Okay, well, there’s not much money left. I’m going to

try to help you as much as I can. We will see how far you go, I’m going to support you. She said that.

“Without her I wouldn’t have been here. I think no-one on Earth would have given me any financial support or something two years ago with a broken foot, with, I don’t know, the past I had and everything.

No-one would have thought that.”

‘Surprising myself every day’ Bacsinszky had gone from appearing in the top 40 in the WTA rankings in 2010 to outside the top 500 because of her injury problems.

Now, seeded 23 in Paris, she stands one win away from a potential Grand Slam semifinal against Serena Williams, who faces Sara Errani of Italy in Wednesday’s other last-eight tie.

“I think I’m surprising myself every day for a year now already.

Who’d have thought? Not me,” said Bacsinszky, who won her first singles title in Luxembourg in 2009 and added two more this year in Acapulco and Monterrey.

“I’m not only talking about tennis. It’s also out of tennis, the way I behave. I’m more relaxed with people, just more gentle also with my surroundings. Maybe it helps definitely for like how to play, as well, because I’m more calm with myself. If I miss an opportunity, it’ s okay. I will try to seek another one.

“If it doesn’t happen, then at the end it’s only a tennis match. I’m not going to heal the hunger in the world or something like that playing tennis. I’m just trying to enjoy what I’m doing.”

Her financial worries will also disappear as she is already assured of 250,000 euros for making the last-eight. - AFP

‘CALM WITH MYSELF’: Timea Bacsinszky

Remy stunner gives Chelsea 1-0 victory over Sydney FC Jose Mourinho had promised a committed performance in Chelsea’s first game in Australia for 41 years. And his team delivered, with plenty of attacking zest

SYDNEY: English Premier League champions Chelsea dazzled a capacity crowd at the Sydney Olympic Stadium Tuesday, with a spectacular Loic Remy strike delivering a 1-0 win over Sydney FC. Team boss Jose Mourinho had promised a committed performance in Chelsea’s first game in Australia for 41 years. And his team delivered, with plenty of attacking zest and star Belgian playmaker Eden Hazard at the heart of the action.

Frenchman Remy thundered home the winner in the 30th minute but was denied a second when his cracking effort was cleared off the line midway through the second half.

It was Chelsea’s final match of a draining season in which they finished eight points clear of 2014 Premier League champions Manchester City. “I’m happy with the performance of my senior players because it’s been a very long season,” Mourinho said.

“In one week they have to play important matches for their coun-

THUNDEROUS SHOT: Chelsea’s Loic Remy, third right, celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal during their friendly match against Sydney FC at Olympic Stadium in Sydney on Tuesday. – Reuters

tries and they come to Thailand and Australia and they respect the fans, they respect the opponents and you could see some tired performances. “People like (Branislav) Ivanovic, John Terry, (John Obi) Mikel, Eden (Hazard), all these senior players tried to play football — which they did, (otherwise) the result could have been completely different.”

The game was watched by 83,598 fans, the biggest football crowd at the Olympic stadium since it was reconfigured after the 2000 Olympics.

The Sydney win also completed a two-match end-of-season tour, with Chelsea defeating the Thai All Stars 1-0 in Bangkok on the

way to Australia. It was Sydney’s second 1-0 loss to an English Premier League side in four days after going down to fellow Londoners Tottenham Hotspur before 71,549 fans at the Olympic Stadium.

Hazard and Diego Garcia teased the Sydney defence with their splendid touch and movement in the opening stages, with the clever Spaniard almost finding the net in the sixth minute.

Costa wriggled free inside the area but goalkeeper Vedran Janjetovic saved with his feet.

Frenchman Remy fired just wide after a slick lead-up from the mesmerising Hazard, before lashing home with a spectacular leftfoot drive into the top left corner of

the net in the 30th minute.

Sydney responded immediately, with Chris Naumoff forcing an instinctive save from Petr Cech before Ivanovic cleared Alex Brosque’s rebound effort off the line in a double reprieve for Chelsea.

Costa prompted another save from Janjetovic before he was subbed by Ruben Loftus-Cheek in the 40th minute.

“Diego was tiring and we didn’t want to risk (it),” Mourinho said.

“I told him, ‘Let’s give to the fans at least half an hour of Diego Costa’.

“He went until minute 40 and in that time we all felt that was enough.”

Remy had another fierce volley headed off the goal-line by Syd-

ney defender Alexander Gersbach in the 66th minute. Sydney goalkeeper Janjetovic also beat away a stinging effort from Andreas Christensen late in the game.

The home side had a couple of late chances to claim a draw against the English champions, with defender Seb Ryall having a goal disallowed for hand ball.

Australia’s Chelsea fans lapped up the opportunity to see their heroes, who last played Down Under in 1974. “The people here were so nice and so enthusiastic. So it cannot be 40 years until the next time Chelsea comes (here),” Mourinho said. “So in spite of really how far, if Chelsea asks me for my opinion, I think we have to be back.” - AFP

‘ H A P P Y W I T H T H AT ’

Costa happy at Chelsea: Mourinho SYDNEY: Diego Costa is the happiest player in the Chelsea dressing room, manager Jose Mourinho said on Tuesday as he scoffed at reports the striker wanted to return to Spain after one season in London.

Spanish publication Marca reported on Tuesday that the Brazilian-born international, who joined Chelsea for £32 million ($48.94 million) last year, had spoken to Atletico Madrid about returning to the club.

“He’s the guy responsible for everything good we have in the dressing room. He’s so happy, he’s so funny, he’s enjoying every minute,” Mourinho said after the English champions beat Sydney FC 1-0 in the final match of their season.

“He’s the happiest guy in the dressing room so if this is unhappiness, I’m happy with that.

“I think he was not happy with the news and I think in his bad English he has to try and address that he’s not happy with the news.”

Costa was named man of the match despite being substituted before the end of the first half of the friendly that attracted more than 83,000 fans to Sydney’s Olympic stadium.

The Portuguese was less impressed with the younger players who came on later in the match and almost let the hosts back into the game.

Mourinho was scathing of home-grown midfielder Reuben Loftus-Cheek who replaced Costa but was substituted himself half an hour later.

“He has to learn that at 19 you have to run three times as much as the other guys and you have to play in your limits and you don’t have to play like a superstar with the ball at your feet because this is not the under-18s,” Mourinho said. - Reuters

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World Cup heartbreak drives glory run of Barcelona stars All 11 of the side

Xavi deserves fitting finale, says Iniesta

that will start against Juventus in Saturday’s Champions League final suffered their share of World Cup disappointment

MADRID: When Barcelona’s players returned for their first pre-season session under new boss Luis Enrique no one held the bragging rights of coming back from Brazil a newly crowned world champion.

Nine months on and the Catalans star-studded squad is on the brink of the compensation of becoming the first side to win the treble of league, Cup and Champions League twice.

All 11 of the side that will start against Juventus in Saturday’s Champions League final suffered their share of World Cup disappointment. The biggest humiliation was suffered by Barca’s six Spanish internationals, five of whom had won the World Cup four years previously in South Africa.

Jordi Alba, Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Pedro were sent packing after just two games in Brazil after heavy defeats by the Netherlands and Chile.

BARCELONA: Barcelona’s Andres Iniesta says midfield teammate Xavi deserves to go out on a high in Saturday’s Champions League final against Juventus in Berlin.

Xavi can win his fourth Champions League trophy in a fitting finale to his Barcelona career having announced that he would leave at the end of the season after 17 seasons in which he has picked up a Spanish record 24 trophies.

“He is the number one for me and it has been great to have him as a colleague and also a friend throughout my career,” Iniesta told a news conference, when asked to rate Xavi as a

Yet, that pain has been Barca’s gain as significantly Pique, Busquets and Iniesta’s return to form in 2015 has played a huge role in Enrique’s men’s run of 28 wins from 34 games since a shock 1-0 defeat to Real Sociedad in January.

All five had also been part of the Spanish squads at Euro 2012 and the Confederations Cup a year later and the rest enforced by early elimination combined with Enrique’s persistent rotation policy early in the season has paid dividends as Barca have arrived at the end of the campaign in prime physical shape.

midfield playmaker. “It has been a great season for a unique player like Xavi and hopefully it will be the perfect ending for him and the team if he lifts the Champions League.”

Xavi’s impact in the team has diminished this season due to his age and the realisation of coach Luis Enrique that he needed to freshen up the team with new blood and a different approach. He has still played an important role as a leader but the side has developed a more direct style of play that has been propelled by the attack of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez rather than an intricate midfield passing game.

However, the key to Barca’s brilliant campaign has been the remarkable 120 goals struck by the lethal front three of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez.

All three had to deal with heartbreak or, in Suarez’s case, shame in Brazil that left them hungry for vindication in the form of trophies.

Barca weren’t perturbed by the four-month ban slapped on Suarez for biting an opponent for the third time in his career as they splashed out a club record transfer fee to secure his services from Liverpool.

The Uruguayan has rewarded that faith with 24 goals and 24

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Similarly at Juventus, Andrea Pirlo, one of the most gifted and graceful midfielders of his generation, is coming towards the end of his career and Iniesta acknowledges that the Italian has also been one of the greats.

“The clubs where he has played as well as the role that he had at them and the style of his play show that he is world class and a reference for all people who watch football,” said Iniesta.

“He symbolises good play and we will have to be careful that he doesn’t have much of the ball because he can cause us a lot of problems.” - Reuters

assists despite a slow start to his first season at the Camp Nou after missing the opening two months of the campaign because of his ban.

More importantly, though, Suarez’s aggression and work-rate has combined perfectly with the playmaking ability and pace of Messi and Neymar respectively.

Neymar dealt with the immense pressure of bearing the burden of Brazil’s dreams for a sixth World Cup on home soil brilliantly last summer until a terrifying collision with Colombia’s Juan Camilo Zuniga ended his tournament at the quarterfinal stage with two broken

vertebrae in his back. That blow may have been a blessing for the 23-year-old as it meant he was not one of the culprits in Brazil’s historic 7-1 thrashing by Germany in the semifinal.

Neymar recovered remarkably quickly to start the season in top form as he has surpassed Barca legends like Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto’o, Thierry Henry and Rivaldo best ever goalscoring numbers in a single campaign with 38 goals.

Yet, even Neymar’s feats have been cast into the shadows by Messi’s return to his best form.

“The truth is I started the season in a different way after what happened last year,” the four-time World Player of the Year said recently. “I went through a difficult year for what happened off the field, the injuries and my performance.”

The frustration for Argentines watching their compatriot rip apart rivals week in, week out in recent months was that the World Cup came a year too early.

Messi scored twice, including a scarcely believable individual run past four Athletic Bilbao players to open the scoring in last weekend’s Copa del Rey final to take his record to 20 goals in 23 finals for Barcelona.

The one final goal that got away was a typical Messi left-footed effort that slipped inches past Manuel Neuer’s far post as Argentina were pipped 1-0 by Germany in the World Cup final.

Given the same chance again, current form suggests Messi is unlikely to misfire in Berlin as he looks to become the first man to score in three Champions League finals. - AFP

BEST IN THE HISTORY

Italian defences would not stop Messi wonder goal: Enrique BARCELONA: Barcelona coach Luis Enrique has rubbished suggestions that an Italian defence would not have allowed Lionel Messi to score the breathtaking goal that inspired his team’s King’s Cup triumph against Athletic Bilbao.

Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini, who will be up against Messi in this weekend’s Champions League final in Berlin, claimed this week that he would not have scored the goal against better opposition.

“I have no doubt that he could have scored that goal against any team in the world,” Luis Enrique told a news conference.

In a dazzling run, Messi beat four players before hitting the opener with a clinical finish.

Chiellini says tighter defending would have stopped the Argentine star.

“Of course it was a great goal but I don’t think he would have scored it in Italy where defending is much better than in Spain,” the told Marca on Tuesday. “In La Liga they play a lot better than in Italian football but they also defend a lot worse.”

Luis Enrique reaffirmed his belief that Messi is the best ever but added that he has benefited from coming through the Barca academy.

“There is no doubt that he is the best in the history of the game but since he arrived here he has adapted to a style of play that works perfectly for him and he is surrounded by great players that have a way of playing that makes being successful easier,” Luis Enrique said. - Reuters

CRICKET

EXCELLENT SERIES: Winners GCC Reds, left, and runners-up GCC Blues pose for group photos at the end of Al Yam Enterprises Summer Cup cricket tournament. – Supplied photos

GCC Reds clinch Al Yam Enterprises Summer Cup MUSCAT: GCC Reds defeated GCC Blues to clinch the series 2-1 and lift the title at the Al Yam Enterprises Summer Cup cricket tournament organised by Gulf Cricket Centre (GCC).

In final of the three-match se-

ries, GCC Blues elected to bat first and managed to score 153 runs for the loss of five wickets in 25 overs.

In reply, GCC Reds successfully chased the target in 19.3 overs loosing just three wickets.

Chief guest Maula Baksh Al Bal-

ushi, Director of Al Hail Cricket Academy, presided over the final day’s proceedings and handed over the trophies.

Kapil V, Administrative Manager of Trifoil, and founder coach of Maruti Cricket Club now known

as Gulf Cricket Centre, and Madhulika Gupta of Diva Group Muscat and ISC Bhojpuri wing lady coordinator, were guests of honour during the closing ceremony.

During the presentation ceremony, GCC head coach Moham-

mad Irshad A.S presented mementos to the the chief guest and the guests of honour.

The tournament was sponsored

by Al Yam Enterprises, Sunshine LLC and Cool Home Trading.

Individual awards: Man of

the match: Obaid Khan; Man of the series: Arjun; Best batsman: Shounak; Best bowler: Pratik; Best fielder: Ankith; Best allrounder: Siddharth; Best upcoming batsman: Glen; Best upcoming bowler: Jeren.

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W E D NE S DAY, JU N E 3, 2 015

SPORTS

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Wawrinka knocks out Federer Federer, the second

Tsonga storms into semis

seed and 2009 champion at Roland Garros, had only ever lost twice in 18 previous meetings with his compatriot but was well beaten on a windy Court Suzanne Lenglen

PARIS: Roger Federer was knocked out of the French Open at the quarterfinal stage on Tuesday, falling in three sets to fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka, the eighth seed, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4).

Federer, the second seed and 2009 champion at Roland Garros, had only ever lost twice in 18 previous meetings with his compatriot but was well beaten on a windy Court Suzanne Lenglen.

The 17-time Grand Slam champion proved incapable of breaking his opponent’s serve at all over the course of a match that lasted two hours and nine minutes.

Remarkably, it was just the third time in his career he had failed to break an opponent’s serve in a Grand Slam match — the last came against Max Mirnyi at the U.S. Open in 2002 when he was aged just 21 and had not yet won a major.

It is a further sign of the decline of the 33-year-old, who was also beaten in the third round of the Australian Open earlier this year

by Italy’s Andreas Seppi.

Federer’s last Grand Slam title was almost three years ago when he captured his seventh Wimbledon title in 2012.

In contrast, Wawrinka broke decisively in the first set and then twice more in the second. There were no breaks in a far tighter third set, but Wawrinka won it on his second match point in the tiebreak.

“Today was my best match on clay and it’s an incredible moment for me. The conditions were difficult with a lot of wind but I believed in my game and it was a really incredible match from me,” said Wawrinka, who was the junior champion

PARIS: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga kept alive home hopes at the French Open on Tuesday by beating Japan’s fifth seed Kei Nishikori in five sets to reach the semifinals.

Tsonga, seeded 14, won the match 6-1, 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6-3 in a contest that lasted three and three quarter hours on Court Philippe Chatrier.

The match was interrupted for more than half an hour late in the second set after a metal sheet from a gi-

at Roland Garros in 2003. The 2014 Australian Open champion’s run in Paris comes after he beat Rafael Nadal at the Rome Masters recently before losing to Federer in the semifinals.

“I’m playing good tennis and I’m really pleased to be in Paris semifinals for first time,” he added after defeating his more illustrious compatriot at a Grand Slam for the first time.

Ivanovic sails into semis Meanwhile, former champion Ana Ivanovic was at her brilliant, aggressive best as the seventh seed swept aside Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-2 to storm into the semifinals.

The Serb, who lifted the Suzanne Lenglen Cup in 2008, shrugged off the windy conditions to set up a meeting with Czech Lucie Safarova.

Ivanovic arrived at the tournament on the back of a mediocre claycourt season, losing in the first round in Stuttgart, the third round in Madrid and the second round in Rome.

“You have to just find it within yourself and trust in the work you have done. You have to trust in your team and execution on the court, because sometimes you would give your best out there and it won’t be enough,” the former world number one told a news conference.

“You have to accept that and not dwell on it and then lose more matches in that manner.”

She made sure she would not lose again on Tuesday, taking control early on and never allowing

ant video screen was blown off on a windy afternoon in Paris, crashing into spectators and leaving three with minor injuries.

Through to his second French Open semifinal in three years, Tsonga will meet Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland in the last four after the eighth seed beat Roger Federer earlier in the day. No Frenchman has won the title at Roland Garros since Yannick Noah in 1983. - AFP

her 19th-seeded opponent into the contest on Court Philippe Chatrier.

She put an end to a one-sided encounter on her third match point with a forehand passing shot to reach the last four of a grand slam for the first time since 2008.

“I don’t know if I should feel old or happy,” the 27-year-old told a courtside interviewer.

“The only thing I could do was stay calm. The ball was going all over the place.”

Her powerful forehand earned Ivanovic the first break as she went 2-0 up only for the Serb, under the watchful eye of her boyfriend, Germany midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger, to drop serve in the following game.

She then broke again for 3-1.

The sun crept through and the spectators came back from their late lunch to watch Ivanovic clinch the opener by holding serve to love.

Ball girls and boys wiped their teary eyes as strong winds sent the red dirt swirling at the change of ends before Ivanovic resumed her domination.

She stole Svitolina’s serve in the first game and saw off two break points en route to holding for 2-0.

She broke again for 5-2 and finished it off on her serve.

Looking back on her earlier triumphs, Ivanovic said she did not appreciate her successes like she does now.

“I just was so excited and I felt like I could achieve anything. At that point I had so many victories and so many good results,” she said “Maybe I didn’t appreciate it as much as I do now.” - Agencies

DECISIVE GAME: Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka celebrates during his French Open quarterfinal match against compatriot Roger Federer at the Roland Garros in Paris on Tuesday. – AFP

TEAM SPIRIT

Millennium Resort hosts Dragon Boat Festival MUSCAT: Millennium Resort Musannah recently held the first Oman International Dragon Boat Festival where 120 participants competed in a day full of adrenaline, sportsmanship, and team spirit.

Emirates Steel team from Abu Dhabi was the winning team among six teams from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Muscat. The first of its kind event in the Sultanate brought more than 450 guests to the Millennium Resort Musannah where they experienced its leisure facilities which included health and wellbeing treatments at the Zayna Spa and Health and Fitness Centre as well as fine dining at the Al Mydan restaurant.

Millennium Resort Musannah was built on the site of the 2nd Asian Beach Games and still retains many of the world-class leisure facilities. Over the last years, the resort hosted the Fifa Asian Beach Soccer World Cup Qualifications, the 2014 edition of EFG Sailing Arabia-The Tour in addition to the 2013 Laser World Championships sailing event which attracted 373 of the world’s best sailors, the Muscat Triath-

lon Club of this year’s Hotel Club Series triathlon and the Tour of Oman cycling event 2015 to name but a few.

The Millennium Resort Musannah outdoor sporting facilities include a 50 metre swimming

pool, two infinity pools and kids pool, and ladies only indoor pool, in addition to an 18-hole mini-golf course, tennis courts, sailing, and snorkeling. The resort’s Health & Fitness Club is equipped with the latest Technogym Kinesis Fitness

Stations for an all-round functional workout.

Millennium Resort Musannah also operates children’s programmes and a secure play facility on-site, making the resort an ideal getaway for the whole family.

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SECTION

LIFE & STYLE

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM W ED N ES DAY, J U N E 3, 2 0 1 5

THE HEELS ARE ALIVE The heel has come to be the icon of feminine allure and even female power. Privileged men, followed by women, eagerly wore heels for more than 130 years as expressions of power and prestige

Y

ou can’t even really see the shoes.

In many of the photos of women on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival, the elegant gowns fall all the way to the ground, obscuring a view of their special-occasion footwear.

So why on earth would it matter if women entering the prestigious celebration of cinema chose not to confine themselves in difficultto-walk-in heels, opting for something more manageable — or even fashion-forward, in a flat?

It did seem to matter to someone, though. It was reported that some women were turned away from the festival for the sartorial sin of wearing flats. High heels, it turns out, appeared to be part of the unwritten red-carpet dress code. Wearing heels changes how you stand, how you walk and how you are perceived.

Even if they are visible only in small flashes, when a hem moves to one side, they are, in essence, a foundation garment — shoes that keep women in their place.

The heel has come to be the icon of feminine allure and even female power. But what, exactly, is this power and why do only women have the privilege of us-

ing heels to convey it? Heeled footwear that gave the wearer a bit of a lift, or an advantage while on horseback, were not the original domain of women. They were first introduced into Western fashion around the turn of the 17th century from Western Asia. Privileged men, followed by women, eagerly wore them for more than 130 years as expressions of power and prestige.

This changed, however, in the 18th century when the distinctions between male and female dress began to reflect larger cultural shifts.

Regardless of class, men were deemed uniquely endowed with rational thought and thus worthy of political enfranchisement.

Heels were not required on this new equal playing field. Men began to wear the nascent three-piece suit in somber hues and were discouraged from standing out from one another. Alexander Pope, writing early in the century, composed a satirical list of men’s club rules that included the warning that if a member “shall wear the Heels of his shoes exceeding one inch and half— the Criminal shall instantly be expelled — Go from among us, and be tall if you can!”

Women, in contrast, were represented as being naturally deficient in reason and unfit for either education or citizenship. Fashion was redefined as frivolous and feminine, and the high heel became a potent accessory of ditsy desirability. The “lively” character Harriot “tottering on her French heels and with her head as unsteady as her feet” in a 1781 story The Delineator, represented the typical 18th-century feminine ideal. The high heel was then suspect for

other reasons, too; it had supposed connections to female vanity and deceitfulness. Added to this was the increasing fear that women would use heels and other modes of dress to woo men and usurp power. Marie Antoinette was the poster child for this, and this idea is the cornerstone of the contemporary conceit that high heels are accessories of female power.

By the 19th century, the invention of photography, and its immediate adoption by photographers, established the curious convention of depicting women clothing with the exception of their shoes.

The heel also retained its associations with female irrationality.

As one anti-suffrage agitator wrote in The New York Times in 1871, “Suffrage! Right to hold office!

Show us first the woman who has — sense and taste enough to dress attractively and yet to walk down Fifth-avenue wearing — a shoe which does not destroy both her comfort and her gait.”

With all this baggage weighing down high heels, it’s no wonder they couldn’t gain a foothold in men’s fashion — even when men’s stature became a cultural focus in the early decades of the 20th century. Pseudoscientific ideas promoted Darwinian concepts of survival of the fittest and linked male height directly to attractiveness.

Heels could have been pressed back into service in men’s fashion, yet they were rejected. Heels on men detracted from their masculinity by highlighting a natural lack of height, rather than conferring any advantage gained from artificially increased stature.

High heels on women, however, remained the cultural norm. Even when heels temporarily went out of fashion, they retained a prominent place. At the conclusion of World War II, this association led to the invention of the stiletto. The exceptionally thin heels depicted in wartime pinup art were made reality in the early 1950s and reallife women were encouraged to emulate those pinup ideals. Mari-

lyn Monroe — alluring, playful and invariably stiletto shod — became one of the principal feminine archetypes of the period.

By the 1960s, the high heel fell somewhat from favour; too “mature” for the Youthquake style revolution and too problematic for emerging feminists. It returned to fashion in the 1970s, perfectly in tune with the disco era (when some men did allow heels back into their wardrobe, too).

In the 1980s, as unprecedented numbers of women entered the white-collar workplace, climbing the corporate ladder was perceived as socially risky — it could deprive a woman of her desirability. High fashion offered an antidote — Toweringly high “killer heels” that insinuated that business acumen alone was not the reason for women’s success. By the early 2000s, designer heels were perceived as “power tools”— as one Times story called them — to be used by professional women to manipulate people through the “power” of appeal, an idea that continues to resonate to this day.

Linking appeal to power also clearly suggests that women have a very short window of opportunity for when they can be seen as powerful. The common comment about the Cannes debacle — that a handful of middle-aged women in flats were turned away — illustrates this issue. In an apologist manner, this observation seemed to suggest that perhaps if these women hadn’t been so aged they wouldn’t have worn sensible shoes. Never mind what accomplishments or connections brought them to the festival.

This is the ultimate problem with allure as a purported means to power — The power lies in the eye of the beholder, not the beheld. If the argument for heels is that they are part of traditional attire for women, that is not wrong.

The gowns and footwear worn by women on the red carpet have direct links to 18th-century ideas on gender, 19th-century images and midcentury concepts of a woman’s place in society.

Perhaps it is a tradition we can upend in the 21st century, when it should be clear that a woman’s power has nothing to do with the height of her heel. -Elizabeth Semmelhack/ The New York Times News Service

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W E D NE S DAY, JU N E 3, 2 015

EXTRA

Ryan Roche, a candidate for the CFDA Swarovski Award for Women’s Wear, is turning her knitwear line into a thriving brand n a return trip from Nepal, where she had gone last month to oversee production of her knitwear line, Ryan Roche found herself marooned. With the airport shut down and no flights until dawn, the designer, who was travelling with her husband and three children, got ready to settle in for the night.

“I had a trunk full of cashmeres,” she said with a laugh, “so I laid them out on a row of chairs. I said, ‘Kids, don’t cry, Mommy’s got us covered — in the most luxurious way.’”

The cheer and resourcefulness that pretty much define the 37-year-old designer are traits, as Roche acknowledged, that have served her well in converting her fledgling knitwear business into a thriving fashion career. “When I set myself up for something,” she said, pensively sipping a summery rosé, “I really follow through.”

That was no idle boast. Roche, a finalist last year for the CFDA/ Vogue Fashion Fund, and now a candidate for the CFDA Swarovski Award for Womenswear, to be announced next week, knows that she is something of an outlier.

After moving in 2008 from Manhattan to a 17th-century stone house set on 12 verdant acres near Rhinecliff, New York, she closed her 5-year-old children’s wear line to bring up her own brood, ages 7, 11 and 12.

In 2011, when she introduced a luxury women’s label, her first, she CFDA panel judge resolved to steer clear of Seventh

When she makes things, she asks the right questions. ‘How long will this last?’

‘Is it ethically minded?’

There is something heartfelt about what she does,and you feel it in the work Mark Holgate

Avenue, serene in the conviction that she could operate in the lightfilled converted barn that doubles as her studio and retreat.

Insiders were skeptical. “Some of them wondered, ‘Is Ryan really taking this seriously’?” she said, “because I’m outside the city, you know.” But others, not least Anna Wintour and Mark Holgate, the Vogue fashion news director and a judge this year on the CFDA panel, were impressed to find, as Roche recalled, “that I was doing fashion on my own terms.”

That gamble worth taking, Roche, with her husband, Garrett Roche, a builder, worked to parlay a lean startup into a steadily growing collection sold in 55 stores around the globe, including Barneys New York and Bird in Brooklyn, as well as Net-a-Porter and her own e-commerce site. “You see those cashmeres, and you want to touch them,” said Jen Mankins, the owner of Bird. “That’s what’s attracting my customers.”

The decision to nominate her for the Swarovski Award, an honour reserved for relative newcomers, was a natural, Holgate said.

“We were very conscious of looking beyond the runways,” he said, “and we found, in her case, a completely authentic vision. It sounds like such an old-fashioned word,” he added, “but there is really a kind of goodness in her approach.”

Insiders rush to point out that Roche, who confects her sumptuous hand-knits, mostly in cosmetically flattering tints of blush,

cream and pink, works with a women’s cooperative in Nepal; the remainder is consigned to the factory that 10 years ago began producing her children’s line. A selection of woven items is made in New York. Retail prices range from $300 or $400 for simple sweaters and blouses to as much as $2,000 for the hand-knits.

“When she makes things, she asks the right questions,” Holgate said.

“How long will this last? ‘Is it ethically minded?’ There is something heartfelt about what she does, and you feel it in the work.”

At the rear of Roche’s studio is a mood board covered in images, among them a snap of Ali MacGraw in a cream-coloured turtleneck and another of a ‘90s ribbed Calvin Klein tank dress. Stacked in a corner are the hats she designs. On a rack at the opposite end hang the handful of signature pieces that established Roche as a talent to watch.

She pointed to a cream-coloured fisherman’s sweater, elastic and plush to the touch. “This was a launching pad for me,” she explained. “It was the first of my designs to be photographed by Vogue.”

It was displayed alongside a sampling of fishnet cashmere stockings and shorts — “the things that I can’t keep in stock” she said — and a shaggy pink cashmere cardigan, its body a crocheted latticework latched with short cashmere filaments, “one strand at a time,” Roche said, “almost like making a rug.” -Ruth La Ferla/The New York Times News Service

WE DNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015

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3:15 & 9:20pm San Andreas (2D) (Act/Thriller) (PG) Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino 11:15 am San Andreas (3D) (Act/Thriller) (PG) Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino 5:45, 9:40 & 11:45 pm Gold Class: 2:15, 09:00, 11:15 pm Jungle Master (3D) (Animation) (PG) Cast: Victoria Justice, David Spade 11:30 am & 1:30 pm Always Watching (2D) (Horror) (PG12) Cast: Alexandra Breckenridge, Jake McDorman, Doug Jones 3:15 pm Zanket Al Sittat (2D) (Com) (PG12) Cast: Hassan El Raddad, Amy Samir 5:00 pm Two Faces of January (2D) (Thr) (PG12) Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst 1:15 pm Maggie (2D): (Horror) (PG12) Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Abigail Breslin 7:50 & 11:45pm, Gold Class: 4:30pm

SCREEN 1 Welcome to Karachi (Dra/Com) – PG12 Cast: Arshad Warsi, Nigel Barber 3:30, 6:30, 9:30pm SCREEN 2

Tanu Weds Manu Returns (2D) (Comedy/Romance) (PG) Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Madhavan, Eijaz Khan 6:55 pm, Gold Class: 06:30pm Tomorrowland (2D)(Sci-Fi) (PG) Cast: George Clooney, Britt Robertson, Hugh Laurie

Tanu Weds Manu Returns (Rom) – PG Cast: Kangana Ranaut, R. Madhavan 3.45, 6.45, 9.45 pm SCREEN 3 Piku (Drama / Comedy) – PG Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Irrfan Khan

3:45, 9:45 pm Masss - Tamil (Horror/Comedy/Drama ) – PG12 Cast: Suriya, Nayantara, Parthiban, Samuthirakani 6.45 pm

Mad Max: Fury Road - 3D (12+) Act, Cast : Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron 9:20, 11:45 pm Tanu Weds Manu Returns- 2D (PG) Comedy | Romance Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Madhavan, Eijaz Khan 9:00 pm San Andreas - 2D (PG) Act | Dr | Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino 3:00 pm San Andreas - 3D (PG) Act | Dr Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario 7:00, 9:15, 11:30 pm Jungle Master - 3D (PG) Animation Cast: Victoria Justice, David Spade 5:15 pm Jungle Master - 2D (PG) Animation 3:15 pm The Two Faces of January - 2D (PG12) Romance | Thriller Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst; 2:30, 5:00 pm Zanket Al Sitat - 2D (Arb) (PG12) Rom Cast: Hassan El Raddad, Amy Samir 5:10 pm Maggie - 2D (PG12) Drama | Horror Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Abigail Breslin; 7:10, 11:50 pm Masss - 2D (T) (PG12) Com |Horror Cast: Suriya, Nayanthara, Pranitha 6:00, 9:00 pm Unfriended - 2D (18+) (Horror | Thriller) Cast : Heather Sossaman, Courtney

4:15 pm Tomorrowland - 2D (PG) (Action) Cast: George Clooney, Britt Robertson 2:50, 6:50 pm Survivor - 2D (PG12) Action | Thriller Cast : Milla Jovovich, Pierce Brosnan 11: 30 pm

Survivor - 2D (PG12) Action | Thriller Cast : Milla Jovovich, Pierce Brosnan 10:00 pm San Andreas – 3D (PG) Act, Drama Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino 6:45, 9:45, 11:45 pm San Andreas – 2D (PG) Act, Thriller Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino 3:45 pm Masss - 2D (PG12) Comedy, Horror Cast: Suriya, Nayanthara, Pranitha 7:15, 08:45 pm Jungle Master - 3D (PG) Anim, Adv Cast: Victoria Justice, David Spade; 3:00, 3:00, 5:45 pm The Two Faces of January – 2D (PG12) Romance, Thriller Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst, 4:40, 06:20, 11:35 pm Green Street 3: Never Back Down – 2D (12+) Action, Drama Cast: Scott Adkins, Kacey Barnfield 3:15, 10:00, 11:50 pm The Dinosaur Project - 2D (PG12) (Adv) Cast: Richard Dillane, Peter Brooke 5:15, 8:05 pm

San Andreas (3D) (Act| Adv) (PG) Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino 07.30, 09:30, 11.30 pm San Andreas (2D) (Act | Adv ) (PG) 4:00 pm Jungle Master (3D) (Animation) (PG) Cast: Victoria Justice, David Spade

Mad Max: Fury Road (Action) Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult 7.45 pm; CP No: 1273 (12+) Unfriended ( Thriller ) Cast: Heather Sossaman, Mathew Bohrer, Courtney Halverson 2.00, 6.00 pm ; CP No: 383 (18+) Green Street 3: Never Back Down (Action/Drama ) Cast: Scott Adkins, Kacey Bamfield 12.00, 4.00 & 10.00 pm; CP No: 1382 (12+) Two Faces of January (Rom/Thr ) Cast: Vigo Mortensen, Kristen Dunst 2.00 & 6.00 pm CP No: 1380 (PG12) San Andreas (Action / Thriller) Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Alexandra Deddario, Carla Gugino 12.00, 4.00, 8.00, 10.00 & 11.55 pm CP No: 1381 (PG) Survivor (Action | Thriller) (PG12) Cast: Milla Jovovich, Pierce Brosnan 11:55 pm, CP No: ( PG 12 )

4:30, 6.00 pm Jungle Master (2D) (Animation ) (PG) 8:00 pm Zanket Al Sitat (Arabic)(Rom) (PG12) Cast: Hassan El Raddad, Amy Samir Ghanem; 6:05 pm Survivor (Action | Thriller) (PG12) Cast: Milla Jovovich, Pierce Brosnan 11:30 pm Spooks: The Greater Good (Action (12+) Cast: Kit Harington, Tuppence Middleton, Jennifer Ehle 9:35 pm

San Andreas (2D) (12+) (Act, Drama) 3:00pm San Andreas (3D) (12+) (Act, Thriller) 5:00, 9:15. 11:30pm Maggie (2D) (PG12) (Drama) Breslin; 1:15, 11:45pm Mad Max: Fury Road (3D) (12+) (Act) 5:00, 7:00pm The Two Faces of January (2D) (PG12) (Romance, Thriller) 12:15pm Unfriended (2D) (18+) (Horror) 2:00 pm Tomorrowland (2D) (PG) (Act, Mys) 12:00, 5:00pm Jungle Master (2D) (PG) (Animation) 11:45 am Jungle Master (3D) (PG) (Animation) 3:30pm Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story (2D) (PG12) (Horror) 7:15pm Zankat Al Sitat (2D) (PG12) (Rom) 7:20pm Welcome to Karachi (2D) (TBC) (Adventure, Comedy, Crime) 9:15 pm Masss (2D) (PG12) (Com, Horror) 2:15, 9:00 pm Survivor(2D) (PG12) (Action/Thriller) 11:45pm

Film Information - 24540856 / Advance Booking - 24540855 Website: www.albahjacinemaoman.com

STARS CINEMA Film information 24791641 / 24786776

Masss (Tamil) (Act/ Horror ) Cast: Surya and Nayanthara 3:30, 6:30 & 9:30 pm at Cinema Main Demonte Colony ( Tamil ) (Horror ) Cast: Arulinidhi and Rajesh Thilak 3:45, 6:45 & 9:45 pm at Cinema-3 Bhaskar The Rascal (Mal ) (Rom/Com) Cast: Mammootty, Nayanthara and Isha Talwar 3:30, 6:30 & 9:30pm at Cinema -2 Oru Vadakka Selfie (Mal) (Com) Cast: Navin Pauly, Manjima & Vineeth Sreenivasan 3:45, 6:45, 9:45 pm at Cinema -4 NEXT CHANGE : Chandrettan Evideya (Mal ) Pandaaga Chesko (Telugu)

For More Information 24789032, 24786776 Website: www.isurf.co.om

ACES ON BRIDGE

Discards send data to partner

G

eorge Meredith, an English novelist and poet during Queen Victoria’s reign, said, “Don’t just count your years, make your years count.”

Bridge players, don’t just count your cards, make your cards count. And sometimes a card can signal count — as in this deal.

South is in three no-trump.

West leads his fourth-highest spade five: two, queen, king.

What happens after that?

Remember, after partner opens one no-trump, responder should not show a five-card minor in a balanced hand unless strong enough to be considering a slam. There are few deals in which five

of a minor makes and three no-trump fails; there are far more where the converse is true.

South starts with seven top tricks — one spade (trick one), two hearts, two diamonds and two clubs. He hopes that clubs will run. But if declarer must lose a club trick to West, perhaps he will not know that South’s spade jack is now a singleton.

Declarer leads a low club to dummy’s ace and returns a club. What should East discard?

East should pitch the spade three. This is a remaining-count card, the lowest from an odd number.

Since East would never

throw his last spade, this must be from three, the 7-6-3, meaning that East began with four spades. And if so, South started with a doubleton.

West gets in with his club queen and cashes the spade ace to drop South’s jack.

Three more spade winners later, the contract is down one.

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.

- Phillip Alder MARMADUKE

CROSSWORD

B I G NAT E

Answer to previous puzzle

ACROSS 1 4 8 12 13 14 15 16 18 20 21 23 24 27 29 33

Swear solemnly Purplish brown Stonelike precipitation Peron or Gabor Molecule part Seaside raptor None Charming Best possible Unloads Library abbr.

It follows sigma Heard the alarm Sailor’s word Crowds — Wiedersehen

34 35 36 38 39 40 42 44 46 50 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

Endorser’s need Sundial numeral Opulent Wrap up Sci-fi menace Fish without scales Not forward Run out of energy Should Article of trade Not I Noted potters Like some bath rugs Thieve Prof.

Bronte heroine Jane — Type of poem

DOWN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 17 19 22 23 24 25

—, vidi, vici Roman poet Corduroy rib Cellist — Casals Western tribe Gear Ostrich kin Dirigible filler Very dry Lodging places Drumstick 401(k) cousin Gladiator’s hello Suit coat feature Keeps an eye on Tolstoy title word Garcon’s yes

26 28 30 31 32 37 39 41 43 44 fare 45 47 48 49 50 51 52 53

Fast-food chain Longing Artist’s paint Sci. class Close kin Recluse Provo sch.

Help-wanted abbr.

According to — Saturday morning Mischief-makers Pita sandwich Cascades peak Skimpy top T’ai — ch’uan Fawn parent Wall climber Roofer’s material

BORN LOSER

WITH LOVE ISHAN SOORAJ

BHOOMIKA GULANI

NIVEDA SUDHEESH

June 3, 2014

June 3, 2007

June 5, 2013

VRINDA S.V.

SHRUTHI SUJITH

BHAVYA KAPADIYA

June 4, 2009

June 4, 2004

June 4, 2004

A.V.A. SURIYA VISHNUKUMAR June 4

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

KIDSPOT

H E A LT H C A P S U L E

C10

W E D NE S DAY, JU N E 3, 2 015

FIND-IT-ALL Y O U R B I R T H D AY

BORN today, you are determined to get to the bottom of things, to understand them fully and to help others understand them as well. The world, to you, is one huge source of information — always evolving, changing and offering you ever more in the way of knowledge and experience, which you are eager to digest and put to use in your own unique and inimitable ways. This doesn’t mean, of course, that you can ever know it all, or that you will avoid making some big mistakes in your life. On the contrary — there will be at least one period during which you are driven to behave in ways that seem entirely counter to your experience and personality.

Though it is not something you freely share with the world at large, close friends and family members know that you have a rather wicked sense of humour, and that you can behave in ways that prove utterly baffling to the casual observer. You can be something of a clown!

Also born on this date are: Rafael Nadal, tennis player; Deniece Williams, singer; Anderson Cooper, journalist and television personality; Josephine Baker, actress and entertainer; Tony Curtis, actor; Jefferson Davis, Confederate president; Suzi Quatro, singer; Jill Biden, educator and philanthropist; Colleen Dewhurst, actress; Chuck Barris, game show host; Jose Molina, baseball player; Paulette Goddard, actress.

W E AT H E R

M

WORLD

Max 46 Min 31 Max 18 Min 14

Max 40 Min 22

Max 42 Min 33 Max 19 Min 10

Max 43 Min 32

Max 25 Min 17

Max 45 Min 31

Max 46 Min 29

Max 46 Min 26

Max 41 Min 28

Max 38 Min 28

[MAY 21-JUNE 20] Max 34 Min 28

Max 22 Min 15

Max 35 Min 27 Max 14 Min 9

—www.met.gov.om

GULF Abu Dhabi Doha Dubai Kuwait Manama Riyadh

43 44 46 44 40 44

28 26 27 32 29 27

WORLD Athens Baghdad Beijing Berlin Boston Cairo Colombo Frankfurt Hong Kong Istanbul Johannesburg Kuala Lumpur Lisbon Paris Perth Singapore Tokyo Toronto

29 42 32 20 17 34 30 23 30 21 14 31 32 20 23 30 25 16

19 26 20 11 11 15 26 12 26 16 2 24 15 14 14 26 18 11

FROM MUSCAT (RUWI)

TO MUSCAT (RUWI)

[JUNE 21-JULY 22]

LEO [JULY 23-AUG. 22] Someone may be telling you not to take things personally, but what is going on is deeply personal. You’ll find a way to navigate.

QURIYAT - SUR - JAALAN (Route 36) Dept Destination Arrival Time Time 15:00 Quriyat 16:30 15:00 Sur 18:00 15:00 Jaalan 19:30 TO AL BURAIMI (Route 41) 06:30 Sohar 06:30 Buraimi 08:00 Buraimi 13:00 Sohar 13:00 Buraimi 16.00 Sohar 16.00 Buraimi TO SINAW (Route 52) 17:30 Sinaw

Operating Days Daily Daily Daily

FROM JAALAN-SUR-QURIYAT (Route 36) Dept Destination Arrival Operating Time Time Days 05:30 Sur 06:45 Daily 05:30 Quriyat 08:30 Daily 05:30 Ruwi 10:00 Daily

08:50 11:00 14:30 15:45 17:40 18.35 20:20

Daily Daily Daily via Ibri Daily Daily Daily Daily

20:50

Daily

TO AL BURAIMI (Route 41) 07:00 Sohar 07:00 Ruwi 13:30 Ruwi 13:00 Sohar 13:00 Ruwi 13:00 Sohar 17:00 Ruwi TO SINAW (Route 52) 07:00 Ruwi

08:55 11:40 20:20 14:55 17:40 19:20 22:15

Daily Daily Daily via Ibri Daily Daily Daily Daily

10:25

Daily

08:40 11:00

Daily Daily

VIRGO [AUG. 23-SEPT. 22] You’re likely to get a very different response to something today than you did only yesterday or the day before.

What has changed?

LIBRA L [[SEPT. [S S 23-OCT. 22] You have many reasons to believe that everything will work out well, yet still you may doubt that you have what it takes.

SCORPIO S [[OCT. 23-NOV. 21] Others are likely to find what you do, and how you do it, rather curious.

This is because of more than mere personal style, of course.

SAGITTARIUS S [[NOV. 22-DEC. 21] You want everything to go according to plan, certainly, but you must also be willing to improvise when faced with the unexpected.

CAPRICORN [DEC. 22-JAN 19] Learning and experience will enable you to deal with whatever comes in a manner that demonstrates both confidence and ability.

AQUARIUS [JAN. 20-FEB. 18] Energy is on the rise, but you may not feel quite up to par until you have done something to alter your point of view slightly.

PISCES [Feb. 19-March 20] Energy is on the rise, but you may not feel quite up to par until you have done something to alter your point of view slightly.

ARIES [March 21-APRIL 19] Something spawned by your imagination can prove quite important to you creatively — and financially, too, when others get a look at it.

TAURUS [APRIL 20-MAY 20] You’re better off today than you were yesterday, but there are still a few hurdles to surmount. You know what your next step must be.

Sunset Sunrise (Tomorrow) High tide Low tide

To Yanqul (Route 54) 14:30 Nizwa 14:30 Yanqul

16:50 19:30

Daily Daily

To Yanqul (Route 54) 06:00 Nizwa 06:00 Ruwi

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (Route 54) 08:00 Nizwa 08:00 Al Araqi

10:20 12:30

Daily Daily

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (Route 54) 15:40 Nizwa 15:40 Ruwi

17:55 20:20

Daily Daily

TO SUR (Route 55) 07:30 Sur 14:30 Sur

12:00 18:45

Daily Daily

TO SUR (Route 55) 06:00 Ruwi 14:30 Ruwi

10:45 19:00

Daily Daily

TO FAHUD - YIBAL (Route 62) 06:30 Fahud 06:30 Yibal

10:30 11:15

Daily Daily

TO YIBAL - FAHUD (Route 62) 12:30 Fahud 12:30 Ruwi

13:15 17:30

Daily Daily

TO MARMUL-SALALAH (Route 100) 07:00 Salalah 20:00 10:00 Marmul 20:30 10:00 Salalah 23:30 19:00 Salalah 07:40

Daily Daily Daily Daily

TO SALALAH -MARMUL (Route 100) 07:00 Ruwi 19:50 10:00 Marmul 13:15 10:00 Ruwi 22:30 19:00 Ruwi 07:30

Daily Daily Daily Daily

TO MARMUL (Route 101) 06:00 Marmul

Daily

TO MARMUL (Route 101) 06:00 Marmul

16:30

Daily

Daily

DUBAI TO SALALAH (Route 102) 15:00 Salalah 07:00

Daily

16:50

SALALAH TO DUBAI (Route 102) 15:00 Dubai 07:00 TO DUBAI (Route 201) 06:00 Sohar 06:00 Dubai 13:00 Sohar 13:00 Dubai 15:00 Sohar 15:00 Dubai

08:30 11:30 15:30 18:30 17:35 20:55

Daily Daily Wed,Thur Wed,Thur Daily 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

TO DUBAI (Route 201) 07:30 Sohar 07:30 Ruwi 13:00 Sohar 13:00 Ruwi 15:30 Sohar 15:30 Ruwi

10:50 13:40 16:15 19:10 18:45 21:35

Daily Daily Thur-Fri Thur-Fri Daily 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 Daily 16.00 Ruwi 23.00 Daily

LISTINGS

PHARMACIES Round the clock Al Hashar Pharmacy, Ruwi: 24783334; Appolo Medical Centre, Hamriya: 24782666; Muscat Pharmacy, Ruwi: 24702542, Salalah: 23291635; Atlas Pharmacy, Ghubra: 24503585; Ruwi 24811715 Muscat Region Apollo, Al Hamriya. Tel: 24787766 Muscat, A Seeb Market. Tel: 24421691 Muscat, Al Khuwair. Tel: 24485740 Muscat, Al Hail South. Tel: 24537080 Dhofar Region Muscat, Al Nahdha Road, Salalah.

Tel: 23291635 HOSPITALS Al Amal Medical & Health Care Centre: 24485052 Atlas Hospital: Ruwi: 24811743/ Ghubra: 24504000 Al Musafir Specialised Medical Clinic: 24706453 Hatat Polyclinic LLC, Ruwi: 24563641, Azaiba: 24499269, Sohar: 2683006 Al Raffah Hospital: 24618900/1/2 Al Massaraat Clinic & Laboratory: 24566435 Al Makook Medical Coordinance Centre: 24499434 Apollo Medical Centre, Hamriya: 24787766, 24787780 Capital Polyclinic: 24707549 Badr Al Samaa Polyclinic, Ruwi: 24799760/1/2 Capital Clinic, Seeb: 24420740 Ceregem National Raak: 24485633 Dr Harub’s Clinic: 24563217 Elixir Health Centre: 24565802 Emirates Medical Centre: 24604540 1st Chiropractic Centre: 24472274 Hamdan Hospital: 23212340 International Medical Centre LLC: 24794501/2/3/4/5 Kims Oman Hospital: 24760100

24 Hrs Emergency: 24760123 Lama Polyclinic, Sohar: 26751128, MBD: 24799077, Al Khuwair: 24478818 Magrabi Eye and Ear Hospital: 24568870 Muscat Private Hospital: 24583600 Welcare Diagnostic and Treatment Centre, Al Khuwair: 24477666 Al-Hayat Polyclinc LLC: 22004000 ROYAL OMAN POLICE Emergencies and inquiries: 9999 General Directorate of Passport and Residence: 24569603 Directorate General of Customs: 24521109 Traffic violations inquiries: 24510228 Public Relations Admin: 24560099 ACCOMMODATION Al Bahjah Hotel: 24424400 Al Bustan Palace: 24764000 Al Khuwair Hotel Apartments: 24478171 Al Madina Holiday Inn: 24596400 Al Maha International Hotel: 24494949 Al Fanar Hotel: 24712385 Al Falaj Hotel: 24702311 Al Qurum Resort: 24605945 Azaiba Hotel Apartments: 24490979 Beach Hotel: 24696601 Bowshar Hotel: 24491105 Coral Hotel Muscat: 24692121 Crowne Plaza Muscat: 24660660 Crystal Suites: 24826100 Golden Tulip Seeb: 24510300 Grand Hyatt Muscat: 24641234 Haffa House Hotel: 24707207 Hotel Muscat Holiday: 24487123 InterContinental Muscat: 24680000 Majan Continental Hotel: 24592900 Marina Hotel: 24711711 Midan Hotel Suites: 24499565 Mina Hotel: 24711828 Muttrah Hotel: 24798401

Nuzha Hotel Apartments: 24789199 Oman Dive Centre: 24824240 Park Inn: 24507888 Qurum Beach House Hotel: 24564070 Radisson Blu Hotel: 24487777 Ramee Dream Resort Seeb: 24453399 Ramee Guestline Hotel: 24564443 Ruwi Hotel: 24704244 Safeer Hotel Suites: 24691200 Sheraton Oman Hotel: 24772772 Shangri-La’s Barr Al Jissah Resort and Spa: 24776666 The Chedi Muscat: 24524400 The Treasurebox Muscat Hotel: 24502570 AIRLINE OFFICES Muscat Airport Flight information (24 hours): 24519456/24519223 Aeroflot: 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:

WEDNESDAY

Min

L O N G D I S TA N C E B U S T I M I N G S ( O M A N N AT I O N A L T R A N S P O R T C O M PA N Y S A O C ) * S U B J E C T T O C H A N G E

You may find yourself attracted to a new project, or to the person heading it up — or both. If both, you have a decision to make.

12.10pm 3.29pm 6.55pm 8.16pm 3.53am

8:49pm 3:32pm

6.50pm 5.20am 10:29am 3:38am

wind over governorates of Al-Dahirah and Al-Buraimi.

SEA STATE: Rough along the Arabian Sea coast with a maximum wave height of 3.0 metres and slight to moderate along the rest of Oman’s coast with a maximum wave height of 1.5 metres.

HORIZONTAL VISIBILITY: Good over most of the Sultanate becoming poor during dust rising.

THE NEXT 48 HOURS OUTLOOK: Chances of clouds developments over Al-Hajar mountains towards afternoon.

Chance of late night to early morning low level clouds along the coastal areas of Al-Wusta and south Sharqiya governorate.

Max

OMAN

CANCER

Dhuhr Asr Maghrib Isha Fajr (Tomorrow)

AIRLINES

ainly clear skies over most of the Sultanate with chances of dust rising over governorates of Al-Dahirah and AlBuraimi. Chances of late night to early morning low level clouds along the coastal areas of Al-Wusta and south-Sharqiya governorates.

EXPECTED WIND: Along the coastal areas of Oman Sea wind will be northeasterly light to moderate during day becoming southwesterly light to moderate at night and southwesterly light to moderate along the coastal areas of Arabian Sea, while easterly light to moderate over rest of the Sultanate with occasional fresh

GEMINI You’re about to discover something quite important about yourself, a loved one and your relationship. Be ready to make a few key changes.

PRAYER TIMINGS

24784545, Swiss International Airlines: 24796692, Thai Airways: 24705934, Turkish Airlines: 24703033 MUSEUMS Bait Al Baranda: Corniche (seafront opp fish market), Open from Saturday to Thursday 9am to 1pm and 4 to 6pm Natural History Museum: Al Khuwair, Tel: 24604957, Open from Saturday to Wednesday: 8am to 1:30pm; Thursday: 9am to 1pm Museum of Omani Heritage: (former Omani Museum), Madinat Al Alam, Sat-Wed 8am to 1:30pm, Thursday 9am to 1pm, Tel: 24600946 Armed 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 96550606/96550707 Children’s Science Museum: Shatti Al Qurum, Tel: 24605368, Open from Saturday to Wednesday: 8am to 1:30pm, Thursday: 9am to 1pm Oman-French Museum: near Muscat Police Station, Tel: 24736613, Open from Sat to Wed: 8am to 1:30pm, Thurs: 9am to 1pm Bait Al Zubair, Muscat: Tel: 24736688, Al Saidiya St., Muscat museum@baitalzubairmuseum.com Open from Sat to Thurs: 9:30am to 6pm.

National Museum Ruwi: Tel: 24701289, Open from Saturday to Wednesday: 8am to 1:30pm, Thursday: 9am to 1pm Sohar Fort Museum: Tel: 26844758, Open from Saturday to Wed: 8 to 1:30pm Thurs: 9am to 1pm Muscat Gate Museum: at Al Bahri Road, Muscat open from Sat to Wed 8am to 2pm

THURSDAY FLT NO

ARRIVALS FROM

KUWAIT 0005 CAIRO 0005 JEDDAH 0005 MEDINA 0005 RIYADH 0010 SALALAH 0020 SALALAH 0120 ISTANBUL 0135 DACCA 0200 LAHORE 0215 BAHRAIN 0325 DUBAI 0340 DOHA 0345 DUBAI 0350 ADDIS ABABA 0350 ABU DHABI 0400 FRANKFURT 0515 AMMAN 0635 BAHRAIN 0635 ABU DHABI 0640 SALALAH 0645 KUWAIT 0650 RIYADH 0655 RAS AL KHAIMA 0655 MALPENSA 0705 DOHA 0715 JEDDAH 0735 PARIS 0735 LONDON HEATHROW 0740 DUBAI 0800 TEHRAN 0805 BEIRUT 0805 DUBAI 0805 LAHORE 0825 LAHORE 0830 BOMBAY 0835 HYDERABAD 0900 SHARJAH 0905 BANGALORE 0910 COCHIN 0920 DUBAI 0930 DELHI 0935 TRIVANDRUM 0955 MADRAS 0955 DOHA 1000 ABU DHABI 1010 COCHIN 1020 DOHA 1035 DUQUM OMAN 1035 BAHRAIN 1040 TRIVANDRUM 1045 KHASAB 1115 DUBAI 1115 MUKHAIZNA 1120 BAHRAIN 1130 DUBAI 1140 COLOMBO 1140 CALICUT 1155 LAHORE 1215 KUALA LUMPUR-SINGAPORE 1215 BANGKOK 1220 ABU DHABI 1220 SALALAH 1230 DOHA 1250 KARACHI 1300 KATHMANDU 1305 DUBAI 1340 SALALAH 1440 KHASAB 1445 ISLAM ABBAD 1515 SHARJAH 1525 DUBAI 1535 MUKHAIZNA 1550 BAHRAIN 1610 DOHA 1650 BOMBAY 1655 CALICUT 1710 LUCKNOW 1740 DOHA 1745 DUBAI 1745 HYDERABAD 1750 DELHI 1750 MADRAS 1750 DUBAI 1800 BAHRAIN 1810 TRIVANDRUM 1820 SHARJAH 1905 JAIPUR 1910 KUWAIT 1920 DUBAI 1940 SALALAH 2000 ABU DHABI 2005 ABU DHABI 2005 MALE 2020 DUBAI 2025 JAKARTA 2035 KATHMANDU 2040 DUBAI 2100 BANGALORE-HYDERABAD 2105 AMSTERDAM-DOHA 2105 MUNICH 2105 COCHIN 2115 DELHI 2125 BOMBAY 2130 LONDON HEATHROW-ABU DHABI 2140 DUBAI 2150 MADRAS 2200 CHITTAGONG 2210 ZURICH-DUBAI 2225 DOHA 2225 BAHRAIN 2240 FRANKFURT-DOHA 2245 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM 2250 KARACHI 2250 ABU DHABI 2300 AMMAN 2300 SALALAH 2310 BOMBAY 2315 BOMBAY 2325 DOHA 2335 ABU DHABI 2340 BAHRAIN 2340 SALALAH 2345 BANGKOK 2350 DUBAI 2355 DAMMAM 2355

WY424 WY676 WY648 WY682 WY914 BG021 CV610 WY916 TK774 4H585 PK225 GF560 QR1132 EK866 ET624 EY384 PK291 MS930 FZ041 WY114 4H586 WY658 WY638 WY902 WY644 WY686 WY154 WY144 WY678 WY668 WY674 WY102 FZ043 WY602 WY346 NL768 WY272 WY202 WY236 G9114 WY226 EK862 WY210 WY242 WY212 WY252 QR1128 EY382 IX817 IX443 WY652 9W530 WY604 WY918 GF562 WY372 FZ037 IX337 WY822 WY818 WY634 WY904 BG023 WY670 WY332 PA950 CV611 WY606 WY3302 WY632 WY906 WY920 WY3922 FZ045 KU677 SV530 WY344 QR1126 WY204 WY292 WY264 WY664 EK864 WY254 WY232 WY246 WY284 WY3932 GF564 TG507 G9116 WY374 WY646 FZ047 WY908 RG125 WY614 WY848 WY338 WY434 FZ049 KL441 WY124 4H561 9W534 AI973 6.00E+81 BA073 WY624 UL205 AI907 WY312 LX242 QR1134 GF566 LH616 WY414 SG061 EY388 WY910 WY910 9W540 AI985 WY662 WY662 WY636 WY654 WY816 WY612 WY696 WY612

BEIRUT 0005 JEDDAH 0005 KUWAIT 0005 RIYADH 0010 SALALAH 0020 DACCA 0100 LUXORE 0115 SALALAH 0120 ISTANBUL 0135 DACCA 0200 KARACHI 0215 BAHRAIN 0325 DOHA 0345 DUBAI 0350 ADDIS ABABA 0350 ABU DHABI 0400 ISLAM ABBAD 0410 CAIRO 0410 DUBAI 0415 FRANKFURT 0515 DOHA 0600 BAHRAIN 0635 ABU DHABI 0640 SALALAH 0645 KUWAIT 0650 RIYADH 0655 ZURICH 0700 MALPENSA 0705 MEDINA 0710 DOHA 0715 JEDDAH 0735 LONDON HEATHROW 0740 DUBAI 0800 DUBAI 0805 ISLAM ABBAD 0815 LAHORE 0830 JAIPUR 0830 BOMBAY 0835 HYDERABAD 0900 SHARJAH 0905 COCHIN 0920 DUBAI 0930 GOA 0935 DELHI 0935 TRIVANDRUM 0950 MADRAS 0955 DOHA 1000 ABU DHABI 1010 MANGALORE 1010 COCHIN 1020 BAHRAIN 1040 TRIVANDRUM 1045 DUBAI 1115 KHASAB 1115 BAHRAIN 1130 COLOMBO 1140 DUBAI 1140 CALICUT 1155 KUALA LUMPUR-SINGAPORE 1215 BANGKOK 1220 ABU DHABI 1220 SALALAH 1230 DACCA-CHITTAGONG 1230 DOHA 1250 KATHMANDU 1305 SIALKOT 1310 MADRAS 1315 DUBAI 1340 MUKHAIZNA 1350 ABU DHABI 1355 SALALAH 1440 KHASAB 1445 DUQUM OMAN 1510 DUBAI 1535 KUWAIT-ABU DHABI 1540 JEDDAH 1550 LAHORE 1605 DOHA 1650 BOMBAY 1655 CALICUT 1710 LUCKNOW 1740 DOHA 1745 DUBAI 1745 MADRAS 1750 HYDERABAD 1750 DELHI 1750 BANGALORE 1750 SOHAR 1805 BAHRAIN 1810 BANGKOK-KARACHI 1900 SHARJAH 1905 COLOMBO 1915 KUWAIT 1920 DUBAI 1940 SALALAH 2000 ABU DHABI 2005 DUBAI 2025 JAKARTA 2035 KATHMANDU 2040 TEHRAN 2055 DUBAI 2100 AMSTERDAM-DOHA 2105 MUNICH 2105 DACCA 2115 COCHIN 2115 DELHI 2125 BOMBAY 2130 LONDON HEATHROW-ABU DHABI 2140 DUBAI 2150 COLOMBO 2155 MADRAS 2200 CHITTAGONG 2210 ZURICH-DUBAI 2225 DOHA 2225 BAHRAIN 2240 FRANKFURT-DOHA 2245 AMMAN 2300 AHMEDABAD 2300 ABU DHABI 2300 SALALAH 2310 SALALAH 2310 BOMBAY 2315 BOMBAY 2325 DOHA 2335 DOHA 2335 ABU DHABI 2340 BAHRAIN 2340 BANGKOK 2350 DUBAI 2355 DAMMAM 2355 DUBAI 2355

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9W539 AI986 WY657 WY637 WY235 WY281 WY201 WY685 WY643 WY251 WY341 WY601 WY431 WY371 WY123 WY847 WY241 WY901 WY667 TK775 4H584 PK230 WY331 EK867 ET625 EY385 FZ036 QR1133 WY651 GF561 WY3921 G9842 WY603 WY903 WY3301 WY917 WY347 WY669 WY323 FZ044 WY633 WY815 WY291 WY215 WY253 NL769 WY717 WY263 WY385 WY821 WY843 G9115 WY231 WY905 WY605 WY203 WY245 EK863 IX554 WY337 QR1129 EY383 IX442 WY311 9W533 WY919 QR8550 WY655 GF563 WY273 FZ038 WY3303 IX350 PA451 WY113 WY663 WY143 WY645 WY101 WY423 WY153 WY927 WY413 WY405 WY609 WY907 WY675 G9110 FZ046 WY631 WY613 QR1127 WY327 WY623 WY681 WY647 WY909 GF565 EK865 WY695 WY661 WY653 G9117 WY913 WY635 FZ048 WY611 RG126 WY915 FZ050 AI978 KL442 WY817 9W529 6.00E+82 AI908 AI974 WY677 GF567 LX243 BA072 QR1135 WY673 EY381 LH617

BOMBAY 0020 BOMBAY 0020 BAHRAIN 0055 ABU DHABI 0105 HYDERABAD 0110 BANGALORE 0110 BOMBAY 0115 RIYADH 0115 KUWAIT 0120 MADRAS 0120 LAHORE 0145 DUBAI 0145 TEHRAN 0155 COLOMBO 0155 MUNICH 0200 JAKARTA 0215 DELHI 0215 SALALAH 0215 DOHA 0225 ISTANBUL 0230 DACCA 0300 LAHORE 0315 KATHMANDU 0350 DUBAI 0450 ADDIS ABABA 0450 ABU DHABI 0500 DUBAI 0510 DOHA 0515 BAHRAIN 0645 BAHRAIN 0715 DUQUM OMAN 0740 RAS AL KHAIMA 0745 DUBAI 0750 SALALAH 0750 MUKHAIZNA 0800 KHASAB 0815 ISLAM ABBAD 0830 DOHA 0835 KARACHI 0835 DUBAI 0845 ABU DHABI 0900 BANGKOK 0905 CALICUT 0915 TRIVANDRUM 0915 MADRAS 0915 LAHORE 0930 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM 0940 LUCKNOW 0940 MALE 0945 SINGAPORE-KUALA LUMPUR 0945 MANILA 0955 SHARJAH 0955 HYDERABAD 1000 SALALAH 1020 DUBAI 1020 BOMBAY 1025 DELHI 1040 DUBAI 1045 TRIVANDRUM 1045 KATHMANDU 1050 DOHA 1100 ABU DHABI 1105 COCHIN 1120 CHITTAGONG 1140 COCHIN 1145 KHASAB 1145 DUBAI WORLD CENTRE-DOHA 1205 BAHRAIN 1215 BAHRAIN 1215 JAIPUR 1220 DUBAI 1225 MUKHAIZNA 1230 CALICUT 1255 LAHORE 1315 FRANKFURT 1320 DOHA 1330 MALPENSA 1350 KUWAIT 1350 LONDON HEATHROW 1400 BEIRUT 1415 ZURICH 1420 SALALAH 1430 AMMAN 1440 CAIRO 1440 DUBAI 1445 SALALAH 1540 JEDDAH 1615 SHARJAH 1615 DUBAI 1620 ABU DHABI 1640 DUBAI 1710 DOHA 1750 KARACHI 1810 DUBAI 1840 RIYADH 1840 KUWAIT 1845 SALALAH 1850 BAHRAIN 1855 DUBAI 1910 DAMMAM 1915 DOHA 1920 BAHRAIN 1920 SHARJAH 1955 SALALAH 2000 ABU DHABI 2015 DUBAI 2025 DUBAI 2035 ABU DHABI 2045 SALALAH 2100 DUBAI 2145 HYDERABAD-BANGALORE 2200 DOHA-AMSTERDAM 2220 BANGKOK 2225 TRIVANDRUM 2230 BOMBAY 2245 MADRAS 2300 DELHI 2310 MEDINA 2310 BAHRAIN 2325 DUBAI-ZURICH 2325 ABU DHABI-LONDON HEATHROW 2330 DOHA 2330 JEDDAH 2350 ABU DHABI 2355 DOHA-FRANKFURT 2355

9W539 AI986 WY657 WY637 WY225 WY235 WY211 WY685 WY201 WY643 WY251 WY345 WY601 WY371 WY123 WY901 WY241 WY847 WY667 BG022 TK775 WY209 4H585 PK226 WY331 CV610 EK867 ET625 EY385 FZ042 MS931 PK292 QR1133 WY651 4H586 GF561 WY903 WY603 WY917 WY669 FZ044 WY633 WY373 WY815 WY343 WY253 WY291 NL769 WY263 WY821 G9115 WY231 WY283 WY3301 WY905 WY605 WY203 WY631 WY245 EK863 WY337 QR1129 IX818 EY383 IX442 WY311 9W533 WY919 WY3921 WY655 GF563 FZ038 IX350 WY113 WY663 WY645 WY143 WY101 BG024 PA951 WY927 WY405 WY413 CV611 WY433 WY907 WY3931 WY675 FZ046 KU678 SV531 WY613 QR1127 WY623 WY681 WY647 WY909 GF565 EK865 WY695 WY661 WY653 G9117 WY913 TG508 WY635 FZ048 WY611 RG126 WY915 FZ050 WY411 4H561 KL442 WY817 9W529 6.00E+82 AI908 UL206 WY705 WY677 AI974 GF567 LX243 QR1135 BA072 WY673 EY381 LH617

BOMBAY 0020 BOMBAY 0020 BAHRAIN 0055 ABU DHABI 0105 COCHIN 0105 HYDERABAD 0110 TRIVANDRUM 0110 RIYADH 0115 BOMBAY 0115 KUWAIT 0120 MADRAS 0120 ISLAM ABBAD 0125 DUBAI 0145 COLOMBO 0155 MUNICH 0200 SALALAH 0215 DELHI 0215 JAKARTA 0215 DOHA 0225 CHITTAGONG-DACCA 0230 ISTANBUL 0230 GOA 0255 DOHA 0300 KARACHI 0315 KATHMANDU 0350 MADRAS 0355 DUBAI 0450 ADDIS ABABA 0450 ABU DHABI 0500 DUBAI 0510 CAIRO 0510 ISLAM ABBAD 0510 DOHA 0515 BAHRAIN 0645 DACCA 0700 BAHRAIN 0715 SALALAH 0750 DUBAI 0750 KHASAB 0815 DOHA 0835 DUBAI 0845 ABU DHABI 0900 COLOMBO 0900 BANGKOK 0905 LAHORE 0915 MADRAS 0915 CALICUT 0915 LAHORE 0930 LUCKNOW 0940 SINGAPORE-KUALA LUMPUR 0945 SHARJAH 0955 HYDERABAD 1000 BANGALORE 1000 MUKHAIZNA 1000 SALALAH 1020 DUBAI 1020 BOMBAY 1025 ABU DHABI 1030 DELHI 1040 DUBAI 1045 KATHMANDU 1050 DOHA 1100 MANGALORE 1100 ABU DHABI 1105 COCHIN 1120 CHITTAGONG 1140 COCHIN 1145 KHASAB 1145 DUQUM OMAN 1210 BAHRAIN 1215 BAHRAIN 1215 DUBAI 1225 CALICUT 1255 FRANKFURT 1320 DOHA 1330 KUWAIT 1350 MALPENSA 1350 LONDON HEATHROW 1400 CHITTAGONG-DACCA 1400 SIALKOT 1430 SALALAH 1430 CAIRO 1440 AMMAN 1440 LUXORE 1445 TEHRAN 1445 SALALAH 1540 SOHAR 1600 JEDDAH 1615 DUBAI 1620 KUWAIT 1640 MEDINA-JEDDAH 1650 DUBAI 1710 DOHA 1750 DUBAI 1840 RIYADH 1840 KUWAIT 1845 SALALAH 1850 BAHRAIN 1855 DUBAI 1910 DAMMAM 1915 DOHA 1920 BAHRAIN 1920 SHARJAH 1955 SALALAH 2000 KARACHI-BANGKOK 2005 ABU DHABI 2015 DUBAI 2025 DUBAI 2035 ABU DHABI 2045 SALALAH 2100 DUBAI 2145 AMMAN 2205 JEDDAH 2215 DOHA-AMSTERDAM 2220 BANGKOK 2225 TRIVANDRUM 2230 BOMBAY 2245 MADRAS 2300 COLOMBO 2305 DARESSLAM-ZANZIBAR 2310 MEDINA 2310 DELHI 2310 BAHRAIN 2325 DUBAI-ZURICH 2325 DOHA 2330 ABU DHABI-LONDON HEATHROW 2330 JEDDAH 2350 ABU DHABI 2355 DOHA-FRANKFURT 2355

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ARRIVALS FROM

WY648 WY406 WY676 WY672 WY682 WY914 WY916 TK774 4H583 PK229 GF560 FZ035 QR1132 EK866 ET624 EY384 WY114 WY412 WY658 WY638 WY902 WY644 WY686 G9841 WY144 WY668 WY674 WY132 WY102 FZ043 WY432 WY422 WY602 WY342 NL768 WY202 WY236 G9114 WY282 WY226 EK862 WY242 IX549 WY252 QR1128 EY382 IX443 QR8550 WY3922 WY652 9W530 WY918 WY604 WY3302 GF562 FZ037 WY372 IX337 PA450 WY822 WY818 WY634 WY904 WY670 WY324 WY332 WY606 WY906 WY920 WY348 G9119 FZ045 WY3304 WY656 QR1126 WY204 WY292 WY264 WY664 EK864 WY232 WY246 WY254 WY610 GF564 WY216 G9116 WY274 WY646 FZ047 WY908 RG125 WY632 WY386 WY614 WY848 WY338 FZ049 AI977 KL441 WY124 9W534 AI973 6.00E+81 BA073 WY624 AI907 WY312 LX242 QR1134 GF566 LH616 WY717 WY328 EY388 WY414 WY910 9W540 AI985 WY662 WY636 WY654 WY928 WY816 WY612 WY696

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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3, 2015

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EXTRA Cholesterol U-turn Doctors are now focusing on sugar as the biggest danger to public health. Research shows fatty food might not be bad for us after all

T

he US government has dropped fatty foods containing cholesterol — long thought to cause heart disease and strokes — from its list of ‘nutrients of concern’, following the publication of a new report.

For 40 years, people have been warned against eating fatty foods containing high cholesterol, such as butter, eggs, red meat, shellfish and liver, because of supposed links to the substance in our blood.

But now the US Department of Agriculture plans to revoke their longstanding dietary guidelines and to focus on the amount of sugar people are eating, instead. It also wants to “de-emphasise” saturated fat, given “the lack of evidence connecting it with cardiovascular disease”.

The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee report concludes: “Available evidence shows no appreciable relationship between consumption of dietary cholesterol and serum (blood) cholesterol.

Cholesterol is not a nutrient of concern for overconsumption.”

US cardiologist Dr Steven Nissen, of the Cleveland Clinic, told the Daily Mail that it was the “right decision”.

“We got the dietary guidelines wrong. They’ve been wrong for decades,” he said.

He estimated that about 20 per cent of cholesterol levels in your blood come from your diet, which means the rest is produced by your liver and is actually needed by the body.

Dr Aseem Malhotra, a cardiologist and science director of campaign group Action On Sugar, wrote in the British Medical Journal that it was time to “bust the myth of the role of saturated fat in heart disease”.

And science writer and Tory peer

BRIEFS

Twitter provides useful information on epidemics THE WORLD had come to know of the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa last year much before the official announcement thanks to Twitter, a new study says. Tweets regarding the Ebola outbreak had reached more than 60 million people in three days prior to official announcements. “It’s clear that Twitter is a useful resource for spreading breaking health news,” said the researchers from Columbia University in New York. The researchers analysed over 42,000 Ebola-related tweets posted in 2014.

Immunotherapy a new weapon against cancer A COMBINATION of immunotherapy — helping the body’s own defences to fight cancer cells — drugs has shown impressive results for terminally-ill melanoma patients in Britain.

According to a Guardian report, half of the terminally-ill patients in the British trial responded to ipilimumab, a drug licensed four years ago, combined with the new drug nivolumab. The combination of the two drugs shrank the tumours in 58 per cent of patients.

‘Recycled’ kidneys for transplant close to reality DONATED kidneys that are discarded due to abnormalities or other factors may soon be “recycled” to engineer tailormade replacement kidneys for patients, the US scientists have reported in two studies. “We believe these two studies provide critical information to the booming field of organ bioengineering as it applies to the kidney,” said Giuseppe Orlando, who is a part of the team at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine aiming to recycle human kidneys. -IANS

Mark Ridley told The Times that the U-turn was “long overdue”. “The evidence has been building for years that eating cholesterol does not cause high blood cholesterol,” he said. “Cholesterol is not some vile poison but an essential ingredient of life,” he added. “Lowering blood cholesterol by changing diet is all but impossible.” The US Department of Health and Human Services, along with the Department of Agriculture, issues its Dietary Guidelines for Americans every five years.

The guidelines influence everything from advertising, to school dinners — as well as the type of diet advice offered by medical professionals.

What is cholesterol?

A steroid lipid (fatty substance) found in the blood and the most common type of steroid in the body.

It makes cell membranes flexible (it maintains cell integrity allowing them to adapt and move) and is the raw material for making hormones, like testosterone and oestrogen.

Why is it important?

Cholesterol is essential for metabolism and is a major component of the blood. It is essential for the production of the hormones responsible for salt, sugar and gender. Cholesterol is also necessary for the normal permeability and function of the membranes that surround cells.

How is it made?

Your liver manufactures most of the cholesterol in your blood. It adjusts according to what you ingest and is transported through the bloodstream by different types of lipoproteins.

-Victoria Richards/The Independent

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W E D NE S DAY, JU N E 3, 2 015

EXTRA TECHNOLOGY

Software reads children’s expression to measure pain ASSESSING the exact pain levels of child patients could now be a lot easier with researchers having found a new method to better measure their pain levels by using a novel facial pattern recognition software. “The current methods by which we analyse pain in kids are suboptimal,” said senior author Jeannie Huang, professor at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine in the US. “In this study, we developed and tested a new instrument, which allowed us to automatically assess pain in children in a clinical setting. We believe this technology, which enables con-

tinuous pain monitoring, can lead to better and more timely pain management,” Huang said.

Huang said controlling pain is important, not only for the child’s comfort, but also for recovery.

However, several issues, particularly age-related communi-

cation difficulties, make existing paediatric pain assessment methods problematic.

Clinical pain assessments, aided by nurses or parents, are often used in lieu of patient self-report in children because of these limitations. -IANS

Woman sends Apple I computer worth $200,000 to recycling centre The machine was one of only about 200 first-generation Apple computers, individually assembled by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne in 1976

A

US recycling centre is looking for a woman who dropped off an old Apple computer that turned out to be worth $200,000.

The Apple I computer was in a box of electronics the woman had cleaned out of her garage after her husband died, according to Victor Gichun, a vice-president of Clean Bay Area, in California’s Silicon Valley. She did not leave her contact information and it was not until a few weeks later that workers opened the boxes to discover the highly collectible computer inside.

The machine was one of only about 200 first-generation Apple computers, individually assembled by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne in 1976, and is regarded by technology experts

In December, a fully functioning Apple I was sold by the auction house Christie’s for $365,000 as a collector’s item. In December, a fully functioning Apple I was sold by the auction house Christie’s for $365,000. “We really couldn’t believe our eyes. We thought it was fake,” Gichun told the television station KNTV-TV. The recycling company sold the Apple I for $200,000 to a private collector, and because the company gives 50 per cent of the revenue from items sold back to

the original owner, Gichun said he wanted to split the proceeds with the mystery donor, whom he said he will recognise.

“I remember her. To prove who she is, I just need to look at her,” he said. Clean Bay Area deals primarily with computers, lab equipment, testing kit and semiconductors.

Although most of the hardware that comes through its doors is from local businesses, individuals do occasionally make donations – and this is by far the most valuable one they have seen.

The Apple I computer originally sold for $666, without a case, keyboard or screen, and had just 4KB of RAM compared to the modern Macbook’s 8GB — two million times more.

-Nick Collins/The Independent

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W W W.T I M E S O F O M A N . C O M W E D N E S DAY, J U N E 3, 2 0 1 5

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CONNEC T H E D A I LY G U I D E

RENT

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W E D N E S D AY, J U N E 3, 2 0 1 5

DAILY GUIDE

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com classifieds@timesofoman.com Tel.: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461

FOR RENT

Flat at Darsait. Contact 99326879 Deluxe 1, 2 BHK flats in Darsait, AL Khuwair 1deal for office & residence. Contact 99369081 /99142314 1BHK, 2BHK, 3BHK new flat available at Mabela in front of Modern English School Contact: 96239126 Big flats in Darsait near Al Falaj hotel, 3BHK living room, dining room, 2 bathrooms, Kitchen AC FAMILY only 500/-R.O .Contact : 92479515 2BHK in Ghoubra South behind Extra (350/- R.O). Contact: 99342661

Villa for rent with 4 bedroom at Al Khodh, Rent 600/-RO.#92888115

We have 2 BHK Flat in Ghubra near sea, 2 rooms with sitting hall, kitchen & 3 bathrooms only 350/-R.O. Contact 93782735 / 99208033

1BHK in Darsait near ISM (220/R.O). Contact: 99342661

2 BHK (with split AC) residential flat at Honda road.

Contact 98087644 / 99795241

We have 5 BHK villas in Al Khuwair near Taymour Mosque commercial villa good for office, companies & families. Contact: 93782735 / 99208033

Two bedroom flat at Al Hamriya, Ruwi. Contact: 99767783

2 BHK near Oman House Khimji H.O. Contact: 95865686 Super Deluxe villas in MSQ and Al Khuwair, opp. American, British academy. Contact : 99142314/ 99369081 2 rooms, 1 bath room for Indian near Ruwi church. Contact: 99746379 Shop / office near Oman house Muttrah. Contact: 99233116 Office space in new building at MBD South. Contact : 94460790 / 24714625

1BHK in Ghoubra South behind Extra (280/- R.O). Contact : 99342661

We have, 2BHK flat in Mabela 7, 2 rooms, sitting hall, kitchen & 2 bathrooms only 200/- R.O. Contact 93782735/ 99208033 Furnished 2BHK Amerat 200 rent.

Contact 95113797

We have 2 BHK flat in Ghala, 2 rooms, large sitting hall, huge kitchen & 3 bathrooms only 350/- R.O our building no water problem.

Contact: 93782735 / 99208033 2 BR flat for rent in Wadi Kabir Mazoon Building, behind Wadi Kabir Garden, very close to Al Maha petrol pump. Rent RO 275 PM. Call 99440826

1 BHK flat in Honda Road (Ruwi).

Contact 99792181

Flat for rent with 2 bed rooms and hall, attach bath rooms, split A/C near bridge stone Ghalla top of Majan Hyper Market. Contact: 95928800

500 sq mtrs office space on mezzanine floor near Royal Hospital. OMR 6.500 per sq mtr. Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

1 BHK flat for Rent in Ghobra Near Indian School. Contact 99792181

3 bedroom at Al Khuwair 33. House No. 866, Way No. 4712. Contact Mohamed : 99580484, Ahmed : 99486805, Awadh 95525509

For rent in Darsait new flats.

Contact: 99777351 For rent in Darsait, new flats.

Contact: 99311525

Flat for rent South Ghubrah 3 bedrooms, 3 bath rooms & kitchen with A.C. Contact: 97896982 5000 sqm prime indusial land in Misfah, Bausher, with 550 sqm of covered warehouse and office space, for rent only. Contact: + 968 – 99264162 4 Ware house at Barka Falaij.

Contact: 99337857 Nice two bedrooms flat near Lulu Seeb split A/Cs R.O 300/- P.M .

Contact: 95278815 2BHK at Azaiba 2 rooms, 1 hall, dining, 3 bathrooms. Contact: 99224748 / 99425665 Flats for rent in Muttrah near Oman house 2 BHK. Contact: 97009734 / 92629232 Villa for rent at Al Ansab 3rd 4 bedrooms total 230 sqm, air conditioned 1 living room, 3 toilets, kitchen, store only RO 700/-. Contact 99299689 2000 sqm Commercial land for lease in Ghala. Please contact 98154444

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.

Villa for rent in Al Khuwair 33, 8 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms with parking area near Taimur Mosque.

Contact: 99366624 2 BHK near Medical Darsait R.O 250/-. Contact : 98748925 Room for rent family /ex bachelor/ sharing in Ruwi. Contact : 99777496 4 BHK Villa in Al khuwair. Contact 99792181 Flat in Darsait, Mumtaz behind Ministry of Sport 2 bedrooms, living room, 3 bathrooms & kitchen split 400/- R.O . Contact: 92479515 Flats in Al Ghubra near 18 Nov .St, 1 bedroom, living room, bathroom, and kitchen with AC 280/- R.O family only. Contact: 92479515 Labour Camp for Rent in Wadikabir.

Contact 99792181

3 rooms with attached bath room, hall Brand new in Mabelah near Sharahe Noor. Contact 99663905/ 99415119 2 BHK Apartment for rent near MSQ area. Please contact 92888063 2 BHK Flat in Al Khuwair. Contact 99792181 2 BHK Flat in Rex Road. Contact 99792181 3 BHK Flat in Al Khuwair 33.

Contact 99792181 2 BHK Flat in Azaiba.

Contact 99792181 1BHK flats at Muttrah near Oman House. Contact: 93231403 Executive 3 bedroom flat all attached with bathroom, air condition curtains, sitting room and big varanda R.O 400/- Athaiba round about behind bank Muscat Sohar Building way No 4216 HSE No 1067. Contact: Owner 99331413 / 99105169

W E D N E S DAY, J U N E 3, 2 0 1 5

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DAILY GUIDE

FOR RENT Furnished flats for rent in Al Buraimi, daily, weekly, monthly.

Contact 97819981 / 93593336

2BHK flat with store room, split A/cs in CBD, Ruwi near QNB. Rent 400/-.Contact 99603696

One BHK flat for rent in Ghobra with attach and common bathroom. For Indian family. Contact 92322096

Showroom for rent 200 m in Al Misfah, Bousher facing the main road. Contact 95202430

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

New building, residential apartments and offices, in Al Khoud Souq. Contact 95202340

Flat for rent in Ruwi, CBD. Contact: 92820734 1 BHK Flat in Wadi Kabir.

Contact 92275454 Flat or rent in Al Khuwair 33.

Contact: 92277419

2 bedroom flat for rent in Azaiba near Mitsubishi showroom .

Rent 300/-. Contact : 92447365 1 Villa & 4 big apartments of 2/3 BHK with hall, Kitchen & ACs Al Khoudh 6. Tel 97600322 alnehang@gmail.com Flat for rent in Al Hamriyah, 3 rooms & accessories.

Contact: 99341112 1,000 sq mtrs industrial land in Misfah Industrial area near to Khanco. OMR 1,500 Monthly. It has Electricity and boundary wall.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360 Apartments for rent Ghubra : near Indian School Ghubra & Al Maha International Hotel (2BHK with 5 split A/C units).Contact 99273774 / 99202278 /94652485 Three new Executive flats opposite grand mall 287, 273 & 219 m2 respectively, Elevator available.

Contact: 99207840 Three bedrooms flat, first floor Al Rawdha Street Al Hail North.

Contact: 99207840

FOR SALE

2 bedroom flat new building in Wadi Kabir. Contact 99313274 3 bedrooms flat for rent near NIT Institute Darsait. Contact 93494098

Brand new projectors and sun screens rear projection films for sale.

Contact: 99456456

506 sqm space with mezzanine available for rent in Al Wadi Al Kabir. Suitable for carpentry / auto workshop and /or electrical shop.

Interested parties may Contact 24703981

Ice Cream & Juices shop in Ruwi good location for sale 1.5 mt fish display machine unused for sale.

Contact: 92150455 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

Ghubra near Al Maha hotel & Indian school (2BHK with 5 split ac units). Contact 94652485/ 99273774 / 99202278

3 Ton forklift for sale 2003/04 Daewoo forklift for sale.

Contact: 97677133

Flat with 2 rooms, toilet & kitchen in second floor in Souk Al Khoud behind bank Al Ahli 200/- R.O .

Contact : 99738881 1& 2BHK for rent at Wadi Kabir, Hilal Al Sad and Al Khoud areas .

Contact Office: 24834644 Mobile: 93994401/02/03 If require flats for rent in Wadi Kabir please send me messages through whatsapp or call 99376454 Flats for rent in Wadi Kabeer.

Contact : 92800007 3 flats for rent 3 bedrooms include A/C, near the highway (Bowshar Amerat). Contact 97777911 / 95533777 1st floor flat in Amerat Phase 5, 4 rooms, bathrooms (3), kitchen with A/C for family.

Contact 95522405

Running restaurant going for sale in Ibri. Contact: 96774871

FOR RENT FOR RENT Spacious 2 BHK flats in Ruwi MBD area only on 350/- OMR. Contact – 95122188 / 96441499 2BHK at Al Azaiba, 2bedrooms, 1 hall & dinning , 3 bathrooms.

Contact : 99224748 / 99425665

Labour camp for Rent in Wadi Kabir. Contact 99797422 Room main road, Al Khuwair R.O 110/-. Contact 97799175 2 BHK & studio flat at Darsait 1SM. Contact 99024730

Bath attached room for rent Al Khuwair. Contact 99743569 1BHK flat near star cinema with split A/C 230/- O.R. Contact 99358589/ 97079146/95570288

Flats shops and store for rent in Ruwi, MBD Honda road.

Contact 97293708 / 92433127

For rent 3 industrial land.

Contact 92702891/ 95490842

Flat for rent 1 & 2 bedroom available behind Zaker Mall Al Khuwair.

Contact - 99530405

1/3 BHK Flat Ghubrah, close to ISG Way 4041, building 4390.

Contact 99319880

Industrial land for rent in Wadi Kabir 7000 Sq mtrs. # 99354340

Labor camp available with all facilities at Sohar Falaij (Near Sohar Sea port) - Contact – 92982172

Studio flat Wadi Kabeer 160/-O.R. Contact - 99358589 / 97079146/ 95570288

Flats/villas owned by ROP pension fund available for rent in Muscat. Contact 99349526

Villa in Al Khuwair and Seeb.

Contact 95250300/ 99119699 / 92125648

Curtain shop for immediate sale South Al Hail with 2 clearance.

Contact: 99041337 Best Investment opportunity in Muscat a brand new furnished show room for electronics building, material mobiles etc available for sale at prime location. Contact : 91710624 / 98873484 Shfandish & tables for sale.

Contact 99368907 Restaurant for sale well running with open area and good parking area. 3 new clearance also in Wadi Kabeer near Mars hyper market.

Contact 99656863 Contd on pg 6

D4

W E D N E S D AY, J U N E 3 , 2 0 1 5 Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com classifieds@timesofoman.com Tel.: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461

DAILY GUIDE SITUATION WANTSIT. WANTED ED

SITUATION SITUATION WANTED VACANT

MEDICAL Urgent required staff Nurse in Mabela. Contact- 95200180.

Urgently required Staff Nurse, Pharmacist and endodontist Female Staff nurse, Pharmacist and endodntist with MOH License/Prometric exam passed with 60% and above.

Contact 24780088, 97374459 Email : karamadental@gmail.com Immediate placement ( with or without MOH) A. Pharmacist 3 nos B. Asst.pharmacist - 2 nos Contact Tel.99338219 , 93240949 Wanted Lady Doctor GP or Gynecologist with MOH license.

Immediate opportunity. Contact 99310590

MISCELLANEOUS Mason, C.C.T.V, Technician, Electrician cum Plumber. Contact: 99383044

ADMIN 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 leading 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

ACCOUNTANT 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 A leading Company in Ruwi looking for Accounts Assistant, B Com with min 3 years of exp. Female candidate preferable. Please send your CV’s to hrruwi2015@gmail.com Assistant Accountant experience: 2 years. Contact: 24703484 / 96918100 Email: om.omanlights@gmail.com

BEAUTICIAN Urgently required Indian experience beautician, good salary + Accommodation + Food visa Available location Al Hail.

Contact: 92284899 / 92139922

CATERING A leading Company in Ruwi looking for Accounts Assistant, B Com with min 3 years of exp. Female candidate preferable. Please send your CV’s to hrruwi2015@gmail.com Looking for a Restaurant Manager for a well known restaurant in Muscat, with atleast 2 years of work experience in Oman. Candidate must have a valid Omani driving license, excellent marketing and communication skills and an eagerness to work. For enquiries and interview Contact: 92978956 or 94027151.

Shawarma /Arabic/Chinese/ cook & helper. Contact 95529970

DESIGNER 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

DOMESTIC HELPER Wanted full time Indian Housemaid for Indian Muslim family. Should be skilled in preparation of Non-Veg dishes. Preferably from Hyderabad, India.

Company visa, good salary + bonus, air –ticket for leave travel provided by company. Contact 99349924.

An Indian family in Al Ghubra requires a full time living housemaid.

Contact : 97084023 Required looking for full time Housemaid preface Indian / Sri Lanka for Omani family at Mabela, visa available. Contact: 92454170 Urgent required House maid in Mabela. Visa available.

Contact- 95200180.

EDUCATION 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

ENGINEER Indian male, B.E ( computer science engineer), MBA (finance), OCA certified, 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 Required a diploma holder in Mechanical Engineering. Fluently English speaking & computer, having valid Omani driving license & N.O.C. Send CV and contact information to arrange interview.

Email: info@alrabiyahrealestate.com A leading business group in Omanis looking for Civil Engineers (Diploma/Degree Holders) with 4-5 yrs experience for their Civil Engineering division. Please apply to kumar@muscatsteel.com MEP Contractor in Muscat looking for AC Foreman with minimum 5 years experience in Split AC installation. Contact: 92472326 Email:info@4dengineering.net Construction Company require Civil Engineer, minimum 2 year’s Gulf experience. Contact: 93806556 A reputed water treatment company is looking for 10 years experienced Civil Engineer with driving license.

Knowledge of civil works, QS. Apply : md.mohamed@gmail.com Electrical Engineer having 3 years gulf experience with driving license.

Contact: 24703484 / 96918100 Email: om.omanlights@gmail.com

IT Urgently required Omani IT Software professional fluent in Arabic and English with 2 years experience email: mhca@mhabibgroup.com, fax: 24564459 Website Graphic Designer, .Net/ Oracle Certified Developer, Systems Analyst, Software Business Developer/Marketer. hr@takweenit.net

Sales man Accountant, show room incharge, sports shop.

Email: j_msports@yahoo.com

SALES / MARKETING

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 Wanted Nurse for a dental centre in Mawaleh South. Interested may contact 93431024 Email: drasyanaseem@gmail.com 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

Male 24 years MBA in Accounts and Finance with 2 year experience looking for job in Oman. Knows about accounts and Business related reports. Contact me Name: Saqib Shakeel, GSM: 94374745 and E.mail:saqibshakeel5@gmail.com M.Com, CA (Article ship), 15 years Gulf experience working 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 ACA,ACMA & ACS qualified with rich experience in Finance & Accounts, more than 14 years in gulf, seeks suitable opening.

Contact: 00968-95591523 Email:anush123@hotmail.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

Urgently required Sales and Marketing Executive for Graphic designing company. Contact: 96727631 mail: smartgraphic518@gmail.com

Indian male, 27 M.Com, MBA, 4.5 years experience in finance & accounts, tally & SAP currently on visit visa. Contact: 93484048

Sales man for electrical and building material Items, experience: 2 years with driving license.

Contact: 24703484 / 96918100 Email: om.omanlights@gmail.com

Male 24, B.Com / PGD having 2 years experience in accounts and inventory field, looking for suitable job, on visit visa. Contact: 94129550

Required Indian Salesman for a Spare parts Company, Good salary package and visa will be offered for suitable candidates. Can send CV on alrabhe@omantel.net.om Furniture company urgently seeks outdoor sales team, attractive salaries for right candidates. Contact: batrading2014@gmail.com Required Sales Staff for a reputed insurance Broker male / Omani.

Contact at 97619595 or send CV to msaif@ace-ins.com website: ace-ins.com Marketing Representative – General items, Experience: Minimum 2 - 3 years, Should have knowledge about Oman market, Valid Oman Driving License must Forward CV to hr@barikgroup.com Urgently required out door Sales Executive for furniture company, minimum 5 years experience with Oman D/L. Contact: 93231403 Required Sales man - 1 Person Qualification. Gulf Experienced - Minimum 5 Years with Oman Driving Licence Language - English Education:- Any Degree Further Contact :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

SECRETARIAL & OFFICE Required Office Assistant 160+25+Acc, Contact 99454425

SKILLED LABOUR

Female dentist vacancy in a private clinic. Send CV to ‘dentalclinic1212@gmail.com

Indian CA with 15 yrs exp working as Finance Head for MNC looking for suitable job.

NOC available. 94047434

Urgently required Advertising & Media Sales Executives with Oman D/L. Trainee positions available for Freshers.

Email: jobs@interacoman.com

MEDICAL Wanted Female Nurse with or without MOH license for a Polyclinic. Salary negotiable.#97091664, 97327175.

Email: mmcmuscat@gmail.com

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

Wanted experienced female tailor from Philippines. Contact: 99466062

Indian male 26 years having 2 years of experience in financial accountant looking for accountant job.

Contact: 00968 97483234 Indian male M.Com 6 yrs experience in accounts up to finalization in Oman having Oman D/L available to join immediately with NOC. Contact : 98363897 Email: princ9496@hotmail.com Accountant having 8 yrs, experience looking for part time job.

Contact: 99867456 Jordanian, Senior accountant, 34 year old, 12 years experience in the GCC, 7 years in construction & 4 years in hospital having Oman D/L proficient in tally 9.0. Contact 96470036 MBA Indian male looking for suitable position having 2 years working experience as an accountant now in Oman a visiting visa.

Contact: 99424803 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 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 Part time Accounts job & finalization work Muscat. Contact: 92917448 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 Sr. Accountant M.com (finance) 15 years experience (2years in Oman with a reputed firm) NOC available.

Contact: 92404608 Email: jin_75@rediffmail.com

TOURISM

Tanzanian male, 25 yrs Accountant successful experience in Tanzania looking for suitable placement in any field. Contact : 96710154

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

Tunisian lady has Professorship in social and economical sciences and accounting, diploma in Experimental Sciences degree in English for media. Contact 95391050, aysser2013@gmail.com

*Classified Advertisement space booking with text,

MBA Graduate with 6 yrs exp in finance/accounts/ auditing. Specialized in accounts payable dept, Oracle app user, proficient in Sap (fico) end user & tally 9.0. lean &six sigma certified trainer on visit visa.

Contact – 91967213 / 99064780

should be done till 12.00 noon for next day’s publication. * Subject to space availability

India 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

SITUATION WANTED ACCOUNT. & FINANCE 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 experience (2 years experience in Accountant cum sales co ordinator in a FMCG Company in Oman) in accounts field and NOC available. Looking for suitable 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

ADMIN/HR Indian female MBA, 3 Years experience in Admin MIS, Family Visa.

Contact 98234427, jkjsmith01@gmail.com MBA (international business) from London, 4 years of UK experience in operations with D/L, looking for suitable position. Contact 91710075

DRIVER Heavy duty driver valid license Omani need job & visa.

Contact: 91139963 Driver looking for job with visa, release available, 5 yrs driving experience. Contact: 96261895 Faruqu.

Light vehicle driver looking for job.

Contact: 91452930 Driver looking for job, light vehicle.

Contact: 95446207 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 with car 10 years experience part and full time looking for job light driver. Contact: 95897233 Light duty driver seeks job.

Contact : 91122145 / 95992137 Light Driver needs Job. Contact: 93284327 Driver light. Contact: 91020999

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.# 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 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 recruitment looking for challenging and suitable position.

Contact: 96145933 Indian female with 10 yrs of experience in HR/Banking/Operations seeks a suitable placement.

Can be contacted on 98919015 or sherianne.coelho@gmail.com

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 Studio, Adobe in design, Google Sketch up, Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Office etc.. Currently on family dependent visa up to November 2015.

Contact: 95959494 , E-Mail: rasha.k973@gmail.com Autocad D man, Gulf exp in major projects, knows arch, structural, MEP, NOC available ph: 98225740 Female architect (27) 4 years experience seeking for suitable job in Oman experience in Oman, India & UK. Contact: 96146645 Email: anjuovil@gmail.com

DOMESTIC HELPER Looking for job for House maid.

Contact : 93599302 Laundry Housekeeping professional looking for a opening in Oman with 18 years experience. Contact : 91957861 Housemaid & houseboy, Indian with 4 yrs exp looking for job.

Contact 91299288

EDUCATION English Teacher female (M. A. B. Ed) having 14 years experience with 11 years experience in Oman with reputed Institute and School. Contact: 92289080 / 99318276 Email: babvjosev@yahoo.com

ENGG. / TECHNICAL Indian male 24 years, Mechanical Engineer,pdms.1 yr experience in pipeline,16years in oman seeking immediate placement # 95775742 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 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 / 96216397, Email : jeganscareer@gmail.com Indian female, B.Tech biotechnology with strong computer skills and 2 years experience as associate research analyst (Media Monitoring) in Nasdaq Oman seeking growth oriented jobs. Contact 92044603 /918056169148 or angeline.babithac@gmail.com.

W E D N E S DAY, J U N E 3, 2 0 1 5

D5

DAILY GUIDE SITUATION WANTED

ENGG. / TECHNICAL Keralite Comp: Engr experienced in BPO on visit seeking any type of job. Email: khais2001@gmail.com, contact 92094926 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- 0096891263952/ josececy25@gmail.com Toms Davis-Indian, Diploma in Mech Eng, 4+yrs exp in Projects & co-ordination, 1yr exp in HVAC Design & Draughting, Mob-92068508, tomsdavispullan@gmail.com 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 transmission 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 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 28 years Electronics & Instrumentation Engineer 4+ years experience in Industrial automation (SCADA) seeking suitable job.

Contact: 93154156 / 98416190 Network Engineer, Security Engineer 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 Indian male 23 years Gulf experience HVAC Foreman cum Technician in Oman looking a suitable job , require visa. NOC available.

Contact : 99617767 / 97023455 Email: shankar2244@yahoo.com Mechanical Engineer, Indian, 24 years with piping engineering, autocad & PDMS now on visiting visa seek suitable placement. Contact : 99168054 / 96684345 email: mbkishore@hotmail.com Indian male B.Tech Electronics Instrumentation, studied till 12th in Oman, presently on family visa seeking 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 Pakistani 25yrs male B.E (Electrical) 3Y-2M exp building maintenance installation construction looking for suitable job. NOC Ready.

Contact: 97240616 Email: fiazhanss@gmail.com Civil Foreman, maintenance, 15 years Oman, 2 yrs Kuwait with Oman driving license.

Contact 00968-96405865 / 91 9464255409 Email: sukhwinder9@yahoo.com 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 placementMobile: 92625379 ; Email: mekala.kashyap@gmail.com Sales Engineer (37), 15 yrs (12 yrs Oman) experience in structured cabling fiber optics, data centers, security & AV, Telecom, Network & datacom, OSP, Industrial Connectivity. Contact: 99771815, Noc.

SALES / MARKETING

Indian male 30 years Mechanical Engineering Diploma with 4+ years of Experience in Fabrication drawings 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

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 management, fluent in English, familiar with MS Office & good communication skill .Contact : 93556794 Email: faisal.khan2092@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 5 years gulf experience in Admin / vehicle insurance coordinator and sales having driving license looking for suitable placement. Contact : 95870476 Email: mubaris.abdul@gmail.com

Indian male, B.Tech Mechanical having 4 years experience with QA/ QC / CSWIP looking for a suitable position. Contact: 99447106 Email: dhanubhasi87@gmail.com 24 years Indian EEE Diploma with Auto CAD, B.Com completed required any suitable job.

Contact : 94015346 / 93276916

IT Software Engineer 6+ Exp.(MCA with Distinction) interested in IT/ Teaching Contact-92656246 27 years Pakistani male B.Com, IT Nebosh IGC experience in customer services 6 yrs admin, sales, health and safety having valid visa with NOC looking for position in HSE or Admin anywhere. Contact : 92064233

Civil Engineer male 13 years exp Indian seeking suitable job.

Contact: +919640973798 Email: firozbakhtiar2@gmail.com

MCA Indian male 24 yrs seeking suitable placement in software / Database support currently on visit visa. Contact 96785261 Email: sudheesh.edakkadan@gmail.com

Diploma in Civil Engineer with 10 yrs experience, valid Omani driving license, NOC available.

Contact: 94052815.

25 yrs, Omani male, 5 years exp seeking job in IT and AutoCad all info in website.

Contact: najeeb719.weebly.com

5 years experienced Q.S ENG with driving license looking for suitable position. Contact: 98142595

Indian female B.E 2 years of IT experience with IBM – Indian certified in oracle PL /SQL and forms developer seeking job in IT field in reputed company. Contact: 95094189 Email: bijigopu7@gmail.com

Indian male 25, Diploma Civil Engineer 2 years experience insite Engineer looking for suitable placement. Contact: 96750429 Indian female 28 yrs having 2 yrs experience as Estimation and Design Engineer (BMS) with valid Omani driving license seeks suitable placement. Contact: 99047570 Electrical Engineer, 2 years as Project 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 experience in underground cables extension 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 communication skills and mindset to work in a team. Contact 91024385 Engineer with 3 yrs experience in Indian in MEP, HVAC& mechanical maintained field on visit visa looking for suitable job. # 99191535 Email: fareed029@gmail.com Sudanese Electrical Engineer, 2 years experience.

Contact: 91211592 Email: aymanhamza1990@gmail.com Indian Male, IT Support Engineer, 2 yrs in Oman & 5 yrs Indian experience. Contact 97311847 Electrical Eng. Degree (MEP) need suitable job of construction 12 yrs exp.

Email: mohd.ateeq.khan@gmail.com

HOSPITALITY Indian male/30 years with hotel management degree, 02 years experience in F&B service at 5 star hotel in Dubai and 05 years in American 6 star cruseliner as butler.

Contact 91135371 4 yrs exp (Money Exch. Services & hospitality services in Oman& India) Indian male 27, Graduate in Hospitality Science, fluent in English, Hindi & Arabic seeks job.

Contact 91383167 Indian male fresher BCA young and energetic, seeking good opportunites.email: jlaxmimenon@gmail. com, Contact 00919567722270

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 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

MISCELLANEOUS Indian Female 30 Yrs (Master in Hospital Administration) Lead Auditor ISO 9001:2008 QMS; ISO 14001:2004 EMS Certified Having Total Exp. of 6+ years ( Last 3 Years In Oman ) In Healthcare Administration ,Quality , Training , HR & Healthcare Audit .Well versed In JCI (U.S.A.) Accreditation/NABH Accreditation .

Seeks Opening in Quality /Training / Auditing /HR&A Department.Currently on Family Visit Visa (Received NOC). GSM: 96683277 / 93747007 E-Mail: smsraza819@gmail.com Indian male, 23 years Graduate – B. Sc Electronics / 1 year experience as Cashier cum Asst. Accountant, Currently in Muscat on visit visa, seeking for a suitable placement in any field . Contact 94154199, Email: navingeorge007@gmail.com 13 Years UAE experienced in MNC & reputed firms logistics distribution looking for a suitable placement, on visit visa contact 99838743, gani.dawood@gmail.com

SECRETARIAL/OFFICE 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

MEDICAL SALES / MARKETING Indian female Dentist MOH Oman passed seeking a suitable placement in capital region. Contact– 91377681 hashimsarawat@gmail.com Well experienced MOH Licensed Indian GP Doctor looking for locum / permanent position in the Capital area. Contact 98140024 email:drgpoman@yahoo.com Lab Technician, Civil (8yrs Gulf experience) looking for a suitable job (NOC available) Contact-93344378

MANAGER/ SUPERVISOR B.Com Graduate with 12 years experience in overseas / local purchase, logistics, warehouse seeks suitable placement. NOC available.

Contact: 94657319 Sr Manager, MBA, 18 yrs professional 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

MISCELLANEOUS Indian Female with over 9 yrs experience with good communication skills seeks jobs in customer service or sales field. Contact : 96108289, shijipaul84@gmail.com Part- Time Accountant, well experience senior accountant ,doing all type of accounting works, Finalization, Budgeting available. #98803439

Indian male 10 years experience in Welding Supervisor NDT Technician, MIG Welding specialist seeking suitable 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 Sales man looking for a opening in Oman with 18 years Gulf experience.

Contact: 91957861 Indian male 22 years, B.Com graduate (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 immediate 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, looking 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, Education B.A. Contact: 98522914

Indian male 32 yrs, 6 years experience instore in charge with Indoor salesman looking for suitable job.

Contact: 97385874 An Indian male having rich experience in procurement, Sales marketing and office administration seeking suitable position.

Contact: 93689602 BE computer science 6 years experience software developer and support Engineering exp sales and management Oman D/L, NOC available.

Contact: 98097722 Indian 23 years B.Com Graduate, 2 years experience in Sales knowledge of TALLY, ERP & MS Office.

Contact: 93134643 Email : syedismailnoor@gmail.com 8 years store experience Indian male looking for placement. N.O.C available. Contact: 98456535 Indian Male, B.Com Graduate, 23, with experience in Sales looking for suitable placements.

Contact - 9837 1144 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 Indian male MBA (HR& marketing) 2 years experience in sales seeking suitable position now on visiting.

Contact: 96483964 Indian male Graduate in business management having work experience of 12 years looking for a suitable position. Contact : 93431567 Pakistani male 34 yrs Intermediate 2 yrs exp in sales & marketing in Oman. Looking for suitable job.

Contact - 92146864

TOURS & TRAVELS 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

MISCELLANEOUS Indian female, B.Com. knowledge of MS Office &Tally, 4yrs experience in Accounts &admin dept. looking for good placement in any field.

Contact: 98928220 Key Account Executive , currently working with a reputed FMCG company Oman is looking for a placement asap, NOC available, valid Omani driving license.

Total experience in Oman is 12yrs and particularly in Sales is 8 1/2 years. Contact 95589765 Email : agnelfrancis@yahoo.co.in Senior IT Professional, Indian Male, more than 17 yrs. of experience in software development(PB, Oracle, SAP ABAP) and IT Support with valid Oman DL and NOC available Contact : 92193867, Email : cp.prasad@gmail.com

MISCELLANEOUS Indian heavy duty driver with 8 years experience in oman available with NOC. GSM : 93601943 GSM : 94496457 INDIAN male, MBA GRADUATE as well as BBA specialized in Finance and Marketing, proficient in Tally.9, seeking suitable placement.

Contact: 0091 7025696085, Email : praseed.nandhu@gmail.com Indian Female seeking a job in Back Office and Accountancy, 8+ years proven experience as a dynamic candidate with excellent Excel & Communication skills.Quick learner and Team player. Currently on visit Contact 94093154, 95963281, joyjohn_hhh@yahoo.com Indian Male, Mechanical Engineer 35 years, with 3 years of experience and on visit visa is looking for a suitable Job, Contact: 91991435,93310821 Indian male Oman experience in electrical and plumbing looking for a suitable position.

Please contact 00919591340961, 00917795583924.

MCA IT Professional Indian Female seek placement in Teaching/ Non Teaching field. Presently on visit visa. 9588 7051, ashwininakod@gmail.com 6 years exp. including 4 years Oman exp. with Professional qualification Of CA strategic level I ACCA,B. com(Special). Experienced in financial Report preparation & Worked in ERP, ORACLE & SAP. seeking accountant position. #92008368 , Mujeeb75@ymail.com Young Indian Chartered Accountant, Female, Having 6 years experience in Oman and India. Accounts and Finance Manager, Auditor.

Urgently seeking suitable positions.

Contact-92530131, jobcareer44@gmail.com MCA IT Professional Indian Female seek placement in Teaching/ Non Teaching field. Presently on visit visa. Contact 9588 7051, Email: ashwininakod@gmail 25 Indian female, B.Sc fashion technologist, 5 years exp in merchandising, familiar with fashion marketing & designing. Currently available on visit visa, seeking for a visual merchandising job. Contact : 96990368, email jumshi@gmail.com Sudanese male BSC Telecommunications Engineer , 4 years experience in telecom field #97783092, Email: Alrsheed88@hotmail.com Indian male, 28 years, 7 years experience in transporting & heavy equipment renting company. Having Omani driving license seeks suitable positions. Contact 94410485 Civil autocad draughtsman part time work for job mob :96023726 Working as Senior Accountant, 4 yrs.exp.in oman, relevant computer skills, Audit, Accounting upto finalization, valid oman driving license, languages known Arabic, Hindi. NOC available can join immediately. Tel: (+968) 96339599, Email-(ahmedmohdkhan@gmail.com) Piping Design Engineer, Indian male 27, looking for suitable placement in Piping Design & Engineering. Having 7 years of experience in AutoCAD. Also familiar with PDMS (11.6 Version),CAESAR ll. Contact : 97351786 / 96143708, E-mail : mohammednazeer07@gmail.com Mechanical Engineer, Indian, (B.E.) on visit visa, seeking suitable post.

Contact :99534733 Email: rajesh92prince@gmail.com Indian female MBA Finance currently on visit visa.

Seeks immediate placement.

Phone: 968-98430089 Male, 19 years of experience in Finance and Administration currently on visit visa seeks suitable placement. Contact: 99720132/ abidrafi33@hotmail.com Sudanese male BSC Telecommunications Engineer, 4 years experience in telecom field.Contact : 97783092, Email: alrsheed88@hotmail.com

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W E D N E S D AY, J U N E 3, 2 0 1 5

DAILY GUIDE

SITUATION WANTSIT. WANTED

Indian male Executive Secretary having vast experience in admin, logistics & procurement well versed with computer .seek suitable placement. Contact : 99514286

5 Flats of 1 bedroom for Sale in Boushar: OMR 35 Thousand each.

Monthly income OMR 270 Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

SITUATION WANTED SIT. WANTED Indain Male MBA Marketing/HRM 3 year experience with Omani D/L, seeking suitable jobs. # 97424188 email: dharwesh@gmail.com

Electronics and instrumentation Engineer 28 year Indian male, electrical, electronic, industrial, building & automation exp of 4+ yrs in India.

Contact - 93154156

Indian Female, Commerce Graduate, Total 9 yrs of experience in India. worked as Accounts Assistant and Business executive seeking for suitable placement.

Tel : 96173533/24222457 Email : topranidivya@gmail.com

Male, 30 years Accountant, 1 year Oman experience in accountants, finance. Seeking suitable position in Muscat .Can join immediately, NOC available. Email: lalitbls1@gmail. com Call: 97903175

8 Years successful experience, SENIOR ACCOUNTANT, Indian male,29 years. Presently working in Oman as a Senior Accountant with oman Driving license seeks suitable opportunity. GSM: 97705854

CCNP Network Professional with 6 years experience having Bachelors degree on visit visa looking for suitable job.

Contact: 96760618 email: varghese.manthara@gmail.com

Sudanese male, 31 year old, have 3 year Diploma in electrical engineer, 5 years experience in different activities . Mobile No ; +96894549609

24 year Indian Chartered Accountant male with 3yrs of experience is seeking suitable placement in Muscat, currently on visit visa & ready to join immediately. Contact him on 98201476 or email at lokeshkaluri@gmail.com

Indian female, B.Com. knowledge of MS Office & Tally, 4yrs experience in Accounts &admin dept. looking for good placement in any field.

Contact.98928220

Admin Executive, 31, Indian Male, having 9+ years exp. in reputed companies. Seeking suitable placement in any gulf region. Contact +968 99276601 & 97693456. email : muralimahdav77@gmail.com

Female Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary with 27+ experience, worked with top management/Board in financial services with shorthand skills & Omani driving license, seeks suitable placement. call 95941515

8 yrs exp Site supervisor cum 2d, 3d Draughtsman (holding Omani driving license) seeking job.

Contact : 93790601

26 years Indian male with MBA & PGDFM, Total 3.8 years experience in Administration, seeking suitable placement in any gulf region.

Holding Oman valid driving license.

Contact :94501423

MEP Quantity Surveyor-EstimationProject, 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 looking for placement asap in oman now on visit visa of 1 month ph 9571 3441 Email. Khatrialeem@gmail.com

Indian Female, 24yrs, M.COM (Accounts) having 3yrs experience in Accounts, HR, Administration, Customer Service. Good Computer Proficiency. Seeking Suitable Position. Visa Transfer/NOC Available.

Contact: 99654913

Indian Male 24 years, Looking for a Suitable Job in Telecom / Networking. 1 year sales experience. MSc. Communications Engineering & Valid Driving license. Ph: 91280121.

Email: jackrprasad@yahoo.com

Indian Male, 29 years, CCNP, MCITP having Bachelor degree and 6 years of experience in Networking looking for job. 96760618 / varghese.manthara@gmail.com

Iraqi Pharmacist with 15 years experience as regulatory affairs and Marketing Manager seeking job in pharmaceutical co. Mobile 96720441

ACCA affiliate, with 2.5 years experience in Big6 audit firm and Oil industry, looking for permanent placement in Accounts/Audit. Release available Contact #95140445 a.saran891@gmail.com

Finance ACCA Affiliate, 2.5 years experience in audit/finance and oil company in reputed firms. Looking for suitable permanent placement. Release available. Contact 95140445, a.saran891@gmail.com

B.E Biomedical Engineer, having 5 years of experience in Diagnostics division seeking suitable position.

94151658

Sr. Manager, MBA, 18yrs professional exp in Building materials, interiors, tiles, sanitary wares, Gypsum in gulf, seeking job immediately/on visit/ Contact - 93364846 / mgrprofessional@hotmail.com

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

BUSINESS

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

Indian Female MCA, 4 plus Years of experience in Web designing, Admin, P.A, seeks suitable placement.

Contact 99486374

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

Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461 Fax: 24812624

FOR SALE

Indian male MBA (U.K), 10 Years of experience in Admin, Sales, HR, stores and logistics seeks suitable placement. Contact 99271903.

B.Com with more than 5 yrs exp. looking for an accounts part tome job work. know with tally.

Email-shilpa_62@yahoo.com

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com

Indian Male 34 years Mechanical Engineer 3 years of Experience seeking suitable placement immediately Contact: 91991435, 93310821 Civil Engineer, Diploma, Male 25, 3 years experience in site, CAD, 3d, MS Project, Seeking job in Oman.

Contact 92875345, jubincivileng@gmail.com Indian female BA graduate. My total experience is 4 and half year in Call Center looking for jobs in admin and HR. Contact : 96089143, Email: sharanjit_kaur2009@yahoo.com Indian female B.ED & BCA looking for a suitable placement in school or admin office, having 5 yrs exp in same field. Contact – 97384206 / rani_sweet786@live.com

Indian female with MBA (Finance) on visit visa, seeks immediate placement. Phone: 968-98430089 Indian female, IATA, Bsc, Looking for suitable placement.

Contact-95514305, email idraveendranmala@gmail.com Sudanese male, 31 year old, have 3 year Diploma in electrical engineer, 5 year experience in different activities. Contact; +96894549609 CCNP Network Professional with 6 years experience having Bachelors degree on visit visa looking for suitable job. Contact: 96 76 06 18 Indian male, total experience is 5 years in Retail industry. Currently supervisor in Sun and sand sports Muscat City centre. Contact : 96994345.

Email : jsp.jsr85@gmail.com Indian male, post graduate, currently in Oman on visit visa.

Seeks suitable placement.

Contact 92388346 Indian male 60 years old have 30 years Muscat experience in all office works with Omani driving license.

Contact: 99024055 More than Ten years of experience in Sales & Marketing, Advertisement and Credit Control and Logistics& Administration.

Contact 91076608 / 99322748 Indian male, Engineer, BE Mechanical, having with 21 years of experience in India and 13 years in Oman, In production, project management, quality control and assurance and MR for ISO and API Standards looking out for a suitable placement in Oman. GSM: 00968 97311616.

E-MAIL: fahazasa@yahoo.com Indian male, MBA marketing & finance with B com & diploma in IFRS seeks job.# 99469726 / 99469729 Key Account Executive, Indian male, currently working with a reputed FMCG company Oman is looking for a placement asap, NOC will be given. Valid Omani driving license. Total experience in Oman is 12yrs and particularly in Sales is 8 1/2 years. Contact 95589765 Email : agnelfrancis@yahoo.co.in

Coffee shop for sale in North Al Ghubra. Contact 95256009 Well equiped and running condition Restaurant for sale. Contact: 97710015 / 92934027 near Missfah Khanco Road Cement Factory 23,886 Sq Mtrs Agriculture land with water well in Al Salwa, Barka.

OMR 260 Thousand. Tel: 99333479 or 95215360 3 floor commercial building in Muttrah behind Police. Generating income of OMR 18 Thousand annually. 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 558 Sq mtrs residential land in Barka (Al Jenainah) near Lulu and near to school. OMR 32 Thousand.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360 Ladies beauty parlor for sale in Muttrah, above Ahla Sceps Market.

Contact : 93231403 60,000 Sq Mtrs Agriculture Land in Misfah, can be changed to Industrial Land. OMR 29 Per Square Meter.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360 Shopping center for sale at Bousher by good price 400 m2 with all equipment. Reason for selling part-time. Contact 92916490

Software development based on requirements such as: Web development & cloud computing, SAP implementation & services. Android App development networking.

Contact 97423932

ACC. AVAILABLE

MV. SALE

Furnished single room for Exe. bachelor or small family at Rex Road. Contact 92873832 One room separate bathroom for Indian Executive bachelor near Al Khuwair R/A. Contact: 99659513 Independent flat (1 Bed Room + Bath) is available at Mawaleh (Behind City Centre) for a Non Cooking Executive Bachelor.

Contact 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 Furnished room available for Executive bachelor in Ghala near Oman LNG building. Contact: 93980990 Excellent room, with A/C kitchen available from June/ July 1st, near ONTC Bus station (Ruwi).

Contact 95569740 Independent rooms in Qurum / Al Hail. Contact 95529970 Sharing for non-cooking Executive bachelor in CBD area wi fi free, advance deposit. Contact 95934642 Furnished room attached bath for Indian bachelor - Al Falaj area & for lady at Wadi kabir (Al Maya) 95941515.

Accommodation available for South Indian family, one bedroom with attached toilet, kitchen, hall in a villa, Al Ghubrah. Contact 99209160 Sharing family accommodation in Wadi Kabir. Contact 99335057

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

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.

Land Cruiser 2012. Contact 99336093

Hyundai Accent 2004, fully automatic. Contact: 99045803

Peugeot 206-2007 Model, expat driven. Contact 99209285

SITUATION WANTSIT. WANTED

AVAILABLE Party & Wedding equipment rentals.

Full line, from Tables, Linen & Skirting, Chairs & Chair covers, Cutlery, Crockery, Glassware, Chafing Dishes, Ice Sculptures, to Large Sound Systems and spectacular lighting. Call Andrea 9606 2222 for Catering and Croyden 9623 5555 for Sound & Light. www.tunesoman.com, E-mail: info@tunesoman.com

ACC. AVAILABLE Sharing accommodation available opposite Mars at Al Ghubra for Executive bachelor or small family sharing, kitchen.Contact 94474351 / 96237050 Sharing acc. Available in Muttrah behind Oman house.

Contact 99354340

23,Male, ACCA with 2.5 years experience in Big6 audit firm and Oil/Gas,looking for permanent placement in Accounts/Audit. Contact #95140445 a.saran891@gmail.com Civil supervisor-8 year’s experience in commercial and residential building, including portable cabin, natural and artificial play ground’s, and Oxy petroleum field, at sultanate of Oman. GSM :91249005. Mail :sandeep88joseph@gmail.com Indian Male 28yr age having 6year gulf+ Indian experience in HR field.

Looking for suitable placement.

Contact: 97914340, Email: rajkv3086@gmail.com Indian male 27, looking for suitable placement in Piping Design & Engineering. Having 7 years of experience in AutoCAD. Also familiar with PDMS (11.6 Version),CAESAR ll. Contact : 97351786 / 96143708, E-mail : mohammednazeer07@gmail.com

W E D N E S DAY, J U N E 3, 2 0 1 5

D7

DAILY GUIDE SITUATION WANTED CARGO

Dolphin Watch, Dhow Cruise with Buffet, & Land Tours Al- Ainain Marine Tours Contact- 98029602, 92808636

TOURS

RENT A CAR

TRANSPORTATION Transportation.

Contact: 91310107

Transportation available. Contact: 99867456

Driver with vehicle. Contact 99159277

Transportation. Contact 99077348

Pick & Drop any time. Contact 97014786

House shifting & transporting.

Contact 92490422 Transportation. Contact 99508282

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W E D N E S D AY, J U N E 3, 2 0 1 5

DAILY GUIDE

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461 Fax: 24812624

SITUATION WANTED SERVICES

WEBSITE

ACCOUNTANTS AND CONSULTANTS

WE ARE PROVIDING ACCOUNTING/ AUDITING TAX/ CONSULTING CONTACT: 24 567 251 / 95 498 033

NRI

GOOD NEWS Genuine Ayurvedic treatments & massage, Ayurvedic clinic at Al Khuwair. Contact 24478618 / 97263637 /93309131 Ayurvedic massage backache, joint pain & neck pain etc.

Contact: 98254909

Ready / under construction apartments / villas. Near guruvayur.

Contact: 00919846877773 Ready / under construction apartments / villas / row houses / shops, available for sale in North / South Goa (India). tel # 95867021 E- mail tonynoronha@rocketmail.com

LOST Abuk Hashem has lost Bangladeshi Passport No. B 1735750. Finder please handover to ROP.

CHANGE OF NAME We, Bino Mathew (name of father as per the passport holder of Indian passport No M 4816367 and Deepa Bino (name of mother, holder of Indian passport No. F 8982983) having permanent address in Ayorath , Temple Road, P.O Chengannur, Alappuzha - 689121 Kerala (complete postal address in India) and presently residing at the following address in Al Khoud, P.B. No. 1165 PC No. 121, Sultanate of Oman, hereby solemnly affirm and declare to change the name of our child Master Bino Mathew (name as per present passport) , holder of Indian passport No. J 5560700 date of issue 12/06/2011 issued at Muscat.

The name of our child will be henceforth known as Mathew Bino (new name) for all purposes. Any objection towards change of name of our minor child may please be communicated to Embassy of India, Muscat, Diplomatic Quarters, Al Khuwair, P. B No. 1727, PC 112, Ruwi, Sultanate of Oman.

SITUATION WANTSIT. WANTED Indian female MBA Finance currently on visit visa, seeks immediate placement.

Phone- 98430089 ACCA affiliate & Bsc (Oxford Brookes University), 2.5 years experience in oilfield & audit/finance in Big6 firm, seeking permanent placement. Release available. Contact 95140445, a.saran891@gmail.com Indian male 21 Diploma in Mechanical Eng with HVAC certified having 6 yrsexp and seeking job in HVAC field as a supervisor. Currently on visit visa. Contact 92835952/ 92734863 Indian female, B.Com. Knowledge of MS Office &Tally, 4yrs experience in accounting & admin dept. looking for good placement in any field.

Contact.98928220 Indian Male 27, Piping Design Engineer looking for suitable placement in Piping Design & Engineering. Also familiar with PDMS (11.6 Version),CAESAR ll, AutoCAD. Contact : 97351786 / 96143708, E-mail : mohammednazeer07@ gmail.com

Ayurvedic treatment for backache, paralysis, arthritis etc & massage, All Season (Vaidyaratnam).

Contact 24475280 / 95371554 / 92504980 www.siddhayur.com 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 ISLAM. 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

WEB, ERP and Business Intelligence (BI) creation and management at rock bottom price.

Contact: http//webviewoman

COMPUTER

Taimour Ayurvedic Clinic, Ruwi offers genuine & effective treatment for back pain, paralysis, cervical and lumbar spondylitis, osteoarthritis, joint pains, sinusitis, migraine, allergic problems, varicose vein and all other health related problems. Kerala massage and rejuvenation package available. For details please Contact 92197920/ 24799689

MATRIMONIAL Alliance invited for a nair boy 28 yrs 165cm working with a leading business group in Muscat.

Contact : 91717912 Alliance invited for a Hindu Ezhava girl 24 years, 5’ 2”, slim, B.Tech, MBA (Star Makayerium) joining shortly to an international firm for work , reputed family of Thrissur dt. currently settled in Muscat, from parents of well educated & employed Ezhava boys preferably from Thrissur, EKM, Palakkad. Contact : 98986547

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

We are Muslim family seeking alliance for our son interested families. Contact 97664009 Kerala Nair girl, B.Com, 22 yrs, 5.2” very fair, slim, (Star Uthrattathi) Presently working in infosis, Chennai. Financially sound, from parents of nair boys from Trissur, Palakkad and Eranakulam & Calicut dist. .

Contact :0091 8301865688 email: raveendrandr@yahoo.com

CLASSES

Split & window A.C servicing & maintenance. Contact 93769089 / 95323517 A/C maintenance split A/C servicing. RO. 10 only. Contact 94217681/ 99210141 Tailoring churidar, anarkali, salwar kameez dance co stumes shop 32 Dhofar bldg, Ruwi.

Contact: 99740196

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 Eranakulam dist. .

Contact :00919495924302 email: raveendrandr@yahoo.com

Churidar, Anarkali, Salwar Kameez, Dance costumes, shop 32, Dhofar building, Ruwi.

Contact 99740196 Carpet & sofa cleaning, house cleaning. Contact 99542979 / 98855815

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

GUARANTEED CLEANING: Carpet & sofa shampooing, Contact 99314807/24792998 MARBLE CRYSTALLIZATION restore the original shine of your marble. Contact 24793614/ 99314807 Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles polishing, carpet shampooing, maintenance.

Contact ABU QABAS- 99320217 /24788722 Carpet Shampoo, marble & tile polishing, pest control & anti-termite treatment, general cleaning painting, Plumbing, Electrical, shifting. Contact Mundhir Al-Rizaiqi trading. L.L.C. # 24810137, 99450130

Window & split unit A.C servicing & repairing. Contact 99557080 Split & window A.C servicing & maintenance. Contact 93769089/95323517 Air condition maintenance split and window services AC specialist ducted and package type unites.

Contact: 98667326 Water proofing ABUQABASContact 99320217/24788722 House shifting. Contact 99708138

DRIVING

A/C maintenance & servicing. Fridge, washing machine & dish washer repairing. Painting & cleaning services & electrical & plumbing. Contact 99447257/97014234/ 24504281

P.R.O services. Contact 99368907 Carpet & sofa shampooing. Ocean Centre LLC. Contact 99884591 / 92682970 Learn Cup cakes, exotic cakes, Icing decorations, handicrafts.

Contact 95941515

Split & window A.C servicing & maintenance. Contact: 96236476

Pest Control Treatments, Termites, Cockroaches, Bedbugs. Contact Ocean Centre LLC. Contact 99344723

Learn driving with professional only automatic. Contact 94022250