Times of Oman - October 3, 2015

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GUNMAN KILLS NINEE IN US COLLEGE A heavily-armed man walked into a college classroom and opened fire after asking students’ religion, killing at least nine people and wounding 20 others. >A10

SATURDAY, October 3, 2015 / 19 Dhul Hijja 1436 AH

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OMAN

‘Pre-marital test to stop genetic disorders’

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Prospective couples have been advised by the Health Minister to take premarital tests to help prevent genetic disorders. >A3

INDIA

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Five Omanis killed as vehicles collide head-on in Ibri reji@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: Five Omani nationals were killed in a tragic road accident in Ibri on Thursday evening.

“It was a head-on collision between two vehicles in which five persons were killed,” said an official from the Royal Oman Police (ROP) .

Sources in Ibri said the accident had occurred at Mukhniya in Ibri at around 7pm.

“Four (of the victims) were burnt to death at the accident spot itself and the fifth person,

who was thrown away from the car under the impact of collision, died on the way to the hospital,” sources said.

Bodies in hospital While, the bodies of the four victims, who were burnt to death, are being kept at the Ibri hospital, the body of the fifth victim is at a hospital in Hajarmath.

“From the accident scene, we can say that overtaking caused the accident,” said sources in Ibri.

Royal Oman Police officials have also confirmed the cause of accident.

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India has promised to shave a third off the rate at which it emits greenhouse gases over the next 15 years. >A5

LIFESTYLE

How to create young scientists

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Health ministry has

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laid down rules for

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private hospitals 2008-2009

to treat drug abuse 2010-2011

cases. This will 2012

ease the burden of 2013

government hospitals

India pledges cut in carbon emissions

It’s never too early to introduce children to science. It’s up to parents to enhance their exposure to science, technology, engineering and math subjects outside the classroom. >B5

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Drug abuse cases BALL OF FIRE: The vehicles caught fire under the impact of colli-

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Private clinics get role in fight against drugs

TRAGIC ACCIDENT

HM sends greetings MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has sent a cable of greetings to President Joachim Gauck of Germany on his country’s National Day. In his cable, His Majesty the Sultan expressed his sincere greetings and wishes of good health and happiness to the president and his country’s people further progress and prosperity.

His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has sent also a cable of congratulations to President Alpha Conde of the Republic of Guinea on the occasion of his country’s Independence Anniversary.

In his cable, His Majesty expressed his sincere congratulations along with best wishes to President Conde and his country’s people. -ONA

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963 550 607 788 478 693 Total

4,079 cases until the end of 2013

RAHUL DAS/TARIQ AL HAREMI

rahuldas@timesofoman.com tariqh@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: Private hospitals in Oman can now treat drug abuse cases, according to the latest ministerial decision issued by the Ministry of Health (MOH) on September 22.

The ministerial decision listed operational regulations that have to be followed by private health establishments on how to treat and rehabilitate drug addicts and even laid down guidelines on how to obtain licences to operate a legal drug rehabilitation centre within their establishment.

According to official data, the total number of drug addicts in the Sultanate till the end of 2013 was 4,079.

Putting the number of cases in 2015 at around 5,000, Dr. Mahmoud Zaher Al Abri, Secretary of the National Commission on Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Affairs, said many private hospitals are treating such patients, but there are not licenced.

“That is one of the reasons the Ministry has come up with such a regulation,” he said.

Officials said the ministry is working on a national plan to tackle the growing number of drug addicts in Oman. “The plan is aimed at addressing a

Source: National Commission on Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Affairs

wide range of issues related to drug abuse in Oman, including prevention and rehabilitation,” they added.

Move welcomed Private hospitals have welcomed the move saying it will be great if they can share the burden.

“It will be a nice idea as they can share some load from the government hospital. Besides, the waiting time at government hospitals will come down,” the Medical Director at Atlas Hospital in Ruwi, Rajagopal T. Naganathan, said.

He, however, said the hospital hadn’t decided on whether it would open a drug rehabilitation centre. “We have to go through the circular and then we will decide whether we want to open such a centre or not,” he said.

According to a ministerial decision, a health establishment is prohibited from treating drug abuse cases unless it has a proper licence issued by the relevant authority.

The ministerial decision also laid down the foundation for three types of rehabilitation centres, namely the daytime rehabilitation centre, recovery hostels

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and addiction and rehabilitation hospitals.

“All these types of medical centres will serve the purpose of receiving and treating patients and rehabilitating them psychologically, socially and practically; while also determining the length of the service that must be provided,” it said.

According to the official directive, a patient’s stay at a daytime rehabilitation centre must not exceed a full day of treatment, while the recovery hostels and de-addiction and rehabilitation hospitals must help the patients to get back into the community.

Recovery hostels The decision also stated that recovery hostels could be considered one of best ways for addicts to recover as they provided patients with an opportunity to interact with other addicts and learn from each other’s experiences. “Patients will also undergo group therapy, much like NA (Narcotics Anonymous) meetings in two halls, as well as regular physical exercises, which help sweat out toxins and reduce the urge for taking drugs,” it added.

BOOSTING TIES

Michael Fallon praises Oman for promoting peace, security Times News Service MUSCAT: British Secretary of State for Defence Michael Fallon praised the Sultanate’s efforts in solving a number of issues and crises and its contributions to strengthening security and stability in the region.

Fallon described the Sultanate of Oman as the friend of all countries in the region.

In an interview, he hailed the prominent role played by the Sultanate towards settling the Yemeni Republic crisis by getting involved all the warring parties in a dialogue to end the crisis.

He asserted that his visit to the Sultanate was part of a move to develop bilateral ties between the two countries in several fields, especially in areas related to security and defence and searching for other fields that contribute to pushing those ties into wider horizons.

Duqm Port Fallon added that he had also visited the Duqm Port to view the progress made in infrastructure development at the port, stressing the importance of the port, not only for the Sultanate, but also for the United Kingdom and the rest of the world. >A3

Military ties reviewed

STRATEGIC TIES: Gen. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Nu’amani, Minister of the Royal Office received Michael Fallon, Secretary of State for Defence in the United Kingdom and his accompanying delegation, within the framework of his current visit to the Sultanate. -ONA

MUSCAT: Official talks between Oman’s Minister Responsible for Defence Affairs, Sayyid Badr bin Saud bin Harib Al Busaidi and Michael Fallon, the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Defence, were held at Oman’s Ministry of Defence.

The leaders reviewed cooperation in the military field between the two countries and the means for promoting them, in addition to discussing a number of matters of common concern. The session was attended by some top officials. >A3

M U S C AT M U N I C I PA L I T Y

PICTURESQUE PICNIC SPOT Bandar Khayran is a picturesque location close to Muscat, accessible only by boat. The tourists also visit Bandar Khayran for diving and snorkelling. O K Mohammed Ali >A2

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New street opening to ease traffic on Sultan Qaboos Highway Times News Service MUSCAT: A new street linking 18 November Street, Sultan Qaboos Highway and Muscat Expressway has been partially opened, Muscat Municipality announced on Thursday.

“This is an important project because it connects major streets to one another,” said the Muscat Municipality in a tweet.

Apart from connecting roads, this street will also lead to the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque.

“This connection will provide easy access to all streets as well as ease traffic in case of congestion,” added the tweet.

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Bandar Khayran is an idyllic picnic spot. Though close to Muscat, it is accessible only by boat. For those who make the effort, it offers diving and snorkelling opportunities.

Photographer OK Mohammed Ali captures the beauty of the place

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ALAWI TAKES PART IN A SERIES OF MEETINGS AT UN HEADQUARTERS Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs, took part in the GCC countries’ meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Alawi also participated in the meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held at the UN Headquarters. The Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs also participated in the talks between the GCC countries and India on the sidelines of the GCC countries’ meetings in New York. -ONA

‘Pre-marital test vital to prevent genetic disorders’ genetic disorders known in Oman in the future.

Speaking to the Times of Oman, the minister said training counsellors to support those affected by genetic disorders is very important.

“If we manage to prevent some of these diseases, that would be extremely worthwhile,” Al Saeedi said, adding that the people who received training during this course would be the focal point for the centre in other governorates to raise public awareness about these disorders.

The existing premarital tests are currently limited to inherited blood disorders, but there is a proposal to make screening available for all genetic

Health Minister Dr. Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Saeedi.

disorders known in Oman in the future

ELHAM POURMOHAMMADI

elham@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: Prospective couples have been advised by Oman’s Health Minister to take pre-marital tests to help prevent genetic disorders, which also exert a financial and emotional strain on families.

Pre-marital tests are ‘very important’ and the test is available not only in Muscat, but also in other regions, Health Minister Dr. Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Saeedi said after inaugurating a 16-month genetic counselling course at the National Genetic Centre on Wednesday.

According to the centre, the existing pre-marital tests are currently limited to inherited blood disorders, but there is a proposal to make screening available for all

First-of-its-kind According to him, this is the firstof-its-kind programme to be started in the region.

The minister added that the National Genetic Centre has been cooperating with international centres and would be happy to enhance its cooperation with centres in the region and other international centres.

In a speech at the inauguration event, Dr. Anna Rajab, director of the centre, explained the activities of the centre and highlighted the importance of genetic counselling, saying it will be beneficial for families and the community.

CHAIRED BY MINISTER

Supreme Council for Planning reviews growth prospects MUSCAT: In its meeting on Thursday, the Supreme Council for Planning reviewed economic performance indicators and expected growth for this year in light of global economic developments and stimulating measures for the private sector.

During the meeting, hosted by Chairman Dr. Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidy, who is also the Minister of Commerce and Industry, the amended estimates for the 9th five-year plan (2016 to 2020), the projects forwarded from the current five-year plan, prioritising them in implementation and

the necessary measures needed to implement them as per their respective timelines were also discussed.

The Council also reviewed the standards of some government institutions’ readiness to adapt to e-governance and the steps taken by the government institutions within the e-Oman strategy.

The Council also stressed on the importance of completing this project to enhance public performance and facilitate the provision of services to beneficiaries efficiently.

It also reviewed a proposal to

develop old markets and their surrounding areas to maintain the identity of these markets and enhance their social and economic roles in partnership with the private sector during the next five-year plan.

The Council also discussed requests to approve a number of projects. It also discussed precautionary procedures and measures to address the decline in oil prices in world markets and its effect on the state’s general budget.

It also discussed other topics and took appropriate decisions in that regard. -ONA

C L O S E C O O P E R AT I O N

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ties with Sultanate: Fallon

Commenting on defence cooperation between the two countries, Fallon said the two sides have had continuous discussions and consultations to develop cooperation in these fields, including by welcoming Omani students to British military colleges, in addition to holding joint training sessions between the armed forces of the two countries.

Typhoon aircraft He added that Britain has in the last few years supplied the Royal Air Force of Oman with Typhoon fighter aircraft and different training aircraft, in addition to recently supplying the Royal Navy of Oman with a number of vessels.

Fallon also confirmed the strength of British relations with Arab countries in general and the

Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in particular, explaining that Britain considers all GCC countries as strategic allies.

Syrian crisis On the Syrian crisis, he said Syria is witnessing one of the biggest crisis that needs collective effort to end the crisis, achieve a political solution, and put an end to all terrorist organisations.

He also touched upon the Syrian refugee crisis and the efforts of Britain and the European countries the thousands of refugees flowing into Europe.

The British diplomat also mentioned the Palestinian issue, stressing that it remained a priority for the country despite the emergence of other issues in the region. -ONA

Meeting The meeting was attended by Lt. Gen Ahmed bin Harith Al Nabhani, Chief of Staff of the Sultan’s Armed Forces (SAF), Air Vice Marshal Mattar bin Ali Al Obaidani, Commander of the Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO), the British Ambassador to the Sultanate and a delegation accompanying the Fallon. -ONA

W O R L D T O U R I S M D AY E V E N T

Oman tourism captains get updates on global trends Times News Service MUSCAT: Staycation, glamping, mancation or being a locavore are some of the travel trends that are becoming increasingly popular, according a tourism expert.

To mark World Tourism Day 2015, the Oman Tourism College (OTC), which offers programmes in the tourism and hospitality fields, organised a talk and panel discussion focusing on the World Tourism Organization’s (UNWTO’s) theme “One Billion Tourists: One Billion Opportunities,” at its campus.

OTC Dean, Dr. Abdulkarim bin Sultan Al Mughairi inaugurated the function, which was attended by industry captains in the travel, tourism and hospitality sectors, other invited guests and students.

Internationally renowned guest speakers shared the latest trends and challenges existing in the tourism and allied sectors.

Dipra Jha, Professor-in-residence at The Venetian-The Palazzo, Las Vegas, and Assistant Professor at University of Nebraska, US, spoke about “Experience Design: A New Paradigm in Hospitality and Tourism,” which was followed by a talk on “The Expectation Economy: Metrics and Methods for Marhaba,” delivered by Peter J. Starks, dean of the Hague Hotel School, and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Red Global Group.

FOCUSSED: Internationally renowned guest speakers shared the latest trends and challenges existing in the tourism and allied sectors. – Supplied picture

Jha spoke about the latest trends and developments in the tourism and hospitality sectors.

He focused on concepts, such as guest experience, economic distinction models, moments of truth and the experience ecosystem.

Experience-based The tourism and hospitality industry is moving away from being service-based to experiencebased, he said, citing global examples, and stressed on the importance of effectively engaging guests and creating a ‘WOW’ experience as a means of taking the business forward in a highly competitive industry.

He also spoke on latest tourism trends, including staycations, glamping, mancations, being lo-

cavore, bespoke experience and psychographics. “Oman has so many odds stacked in its favour, such as a rich and diverse nature, and an ancient and unique culture,” he noted.

Starks spoke about strategies to convert expectations into opportunities, online reputation management, ROTI (return on training investments) and other key topics in the tourism industry.

A panel discussion on “How to relate UNWTO’s Tourism Day theme of 1 billion tourists: 1 billion opportunities to Oman” ensued, where Jha, Starks, Gautam Broota, CEO of Zahara Tours and Nabil Al Zadjali, executive assistant manager at the Al Bustan Palace Hotel shared their insights on the topic.

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REGION

Battle with IS is destined for all Iraqis. But it’s not their battle alone but the whole world’s, because terrorists target with their dark ideology all humanity, its culture and morals.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, Iraq’s leading cleric

IRAQIS HOLD PROTEST AGAINST CORRUPTION Iraqis demonstrate against corruption in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square on Friday. Thousands of Iraqis demonstrated in the Iraqi capital and several other cities, urging the government to deliver on its promised reform package aimed at tackling corruption and improving services. — AFP

Russia asked to halt strikes in Syria outside IS areas that included a command post and a communications centre in the province of Aleppo, a militant field camp in Idlib and a command post in Hama.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict with a network of sources on the ground, said there was no IS presence at any of those areas.

The US-led coalition that is waging its own air war against IS called on the Russians to halt strikes on targets other than IS

BEIRUT/MOSCOW: Russia bombed Syria for a third day on Friday, mainly hitting areas held by rival insurgent groups rather than the IS militants it said it was targeting and drawing an increasingly angry response from the West.

The US-led coalition that is waging its own air war against IS called on the Russians to halt strikes on targets other than IS. “We call on the Russian Federation to immediately cease its attacks on the Syrian opposition and civilians and to focus its efforts on fighting ISIL,” said the coalition, which includes the United States, major European powers, Arab states and Turkey.

“We express our deep concern with regard to the Russian military build-up in Syria and especially the attacks by the Russian Air Force on Hama, Homs and Idlib since yesterday which led to civilian casualties and did not target IS,” it said.

IS group is one of many fight-

BADLY HIT: Residents inspect damage from what activists said was an airstrike by forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar Al Assad on the town of Douma, eastern Ghouta in Damascus on Friday. – Reuters

ing against President Bashar Al Assad. Washington and its Western and regional allies say Russia is using it as a pretext to bomb other groups that oppose Assad.

Some of these groups have received training and weapons from foreign countries, including the United States.

Frosty talks President Vladimir Putin held frosty talks with France’s Francois Hollande in Paris, Putin’s first meeting with a Western leader since launching the strikes two days after he gave an address to the United Nations making the

case to back Assad. Friday prayers were cancelled in insurgent-held areas of Homs province that were hit by Russian warplanes this week, with residents concerned that mosques could be targeted, said one person from the area.

“The streets are almost completely empty and there is an unannounced curfew,” said the resident, speaking from the town of Rastan which was hit in the first day of Russian air strikes. Warplanes were seen flying high above the area, which is held by anti-Assad rebels but has no significant presence of IS militants.

IS also cancelled prayers in

areas it controls, according to activists from its de facto capital Raqqa. A Russian air strike on Thursday destroyed a mosque in the town of Jisr Al Shughour, captured from government forces by an alliance of insurgents earlier this year, activists said.

Moscow said on Friday its latest strikes had hit 12 IS targets, but most of the areas it described were in western and northern parts of the country, while IS is mostly present in the east.

The Russian Defence Ministry said its Sukhoi-34, Sukhoi-24M and Sukhoi-25 warplanes had flown 18 sorties hitting targets

‘IS militants killed’ Russia has however also struck IS areas in a small number of other attacks further east. The Observatory said 12 IS militants were killed near Raqqa on Thursday, and planes believed to be Russian had also struck the IS-held city of Qarytayn. Russia has said it is using its most advanced plane, the Sukhoi-34, near Raqqa, the area where it is most likely to encounter US and coalition aircraft targeting IS. As Hollande hosted Putin in Paris, both men looked stern and frosty-faced in the yard of the Elysee palace, exchanging terse handshakes for the cameras.

An aide to Hollande said they “tried to narrow differences” over Syria during talks that lasted more than an hour.

Hollande laid out France’s conditions for supporting Russian intervention, which include a halt to strikes on groups other than IS and Al Qaeda, protections for civilians and a commitment to a political transition that would remove Assad. Putin’s decision to launch strikes on Syria marks a dramatic escalation of foreign involvement in a four-year-old civil war in which every major country in the region has a stake. — Reuters

APPEAL

Top cleric of Iraq calls for a global war against IS BAGHDAD: Iraq’s most powerful cleric called for a global war against IS on Friday, a day after the prime minister said he would welcome Russian air strikes against the group on Iraqi soil.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, who has a huge following and can often influence government thinking, was speaking through an aide after nationally televised Friday prayers.

“Battle with IS is destined for all Iraqis,” said Sistani.

“But it’s not their battle alone but the whole world’s, because terrorists target with their dark ideology all humanity, its culture and morals.”

He added: “It’s essential to join together all efforts and expand the parameters of countering this movement.”

The United States has led air strikes against IS in Iraq, as well as in Syria, for more than a year, but Baghdad has repeatedly called for engagement and air support for Iraqi forces trying to regain territory against the ultra-hardline group.

Russia began bombing raids in Syria on Wednesday against groups fighting the forces of President Bashar Al Assad, which include IS. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi said on Thursday his government would welcome Russian air strikes against IS in Iraq, and was receiving information from both Syria and Russia on the group.

Abadi, asked by France 24 television whether he had discussed air strikes with Russia in his country, said: “”Not yet”. — Reuters

NAT I O N AT WA R

Yemen’s government denies TV report on relations with Iran ADEN: A spokesman for Yemen’s Saudi-backed government denied a television report on Friday that it had decided to break off diplomatic relations with Iran.

“The cabinet has not discussed until now the matter of severing diplomatic relations with Iran and no decision was taken,” spokesman Rajeh Badi said, commenting on the unsourced report from state-owned Aden television.

Saudi-led coalition forces have been battling the Houthis for the

past six months to try to restore President Abdrabbo Mansour Hadi to power.

Bahrain, a member of the coalition, recalled its ambassador from Iran on Thursday.

Six months of civil war and hundreds of coalition air strikes have killed more than 5,400 people in Yemen, according to the United Nations, and exacerbated widespread hunger and suffering.

Rights groups have accused both sides in the war of carrying

out indiscriminate attacks on residential areas. The Saudi-led coalition denies abuses and says it will acknowledge mistakes if and when it makes them.

Global inquiry The United Nations backed a Saudi-led resolution on Friday to support Yemen in setting up a national inquiry into human rights violations, having ditched an attempt led by the Netherlands to mandate an independent UN in-

vestigation. Human Rights Watch, criticising the move, said Yemeni authorities had neither investigated nor prosecuted serious international crimes committed since 2011, “nor has the Saudi-led coalition investigated possible war crimes by its forces”.

The conflict has stirred a humanitarian crisis, with more than 5,000 people killed, including 500 children, and 21 million people in need of humanitarian aid.

The Netherlands gave up on a

draft resolution for a UN-backed investigation earlier this week after an unprecedented rival resolution was presented by Saudi Arabia, on behalf of a group of Arab States, and Yemen.

Backing Human Rights Watch said the United States and Britain, both allies of Saudi Arabia, had given only tentative backing to the Dutch resolution. “By failing to set up a serious UN inquiry on war-torn

Yemen, the Human Rights Council squandered an important chance to deter further abuses,” Philippe Dam, deputy director of Human Rights Watch in Geneva, said in a statement. But Yemen’s Human Rights Minister Ezzeldin Al Asbahi called the resolution for a national inquiry a “balanced text”.

He described it as “a very good starting point for an independent national institution that would seriously investigate all violations of human rights all over Yemen.” — Reuters

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FIGHTER PLANE

SU-30 pilots focusing on beyond visual range combat NEW DELHI: IAF’s Su-30 fighter plane pilots are focusing on beyond visual range combat and night flying capabilities even as they gear up for the installation of the ‘game changer’ BrahMos missiles, with a strike range of nearly 300km, in the aircraft.

They are also looking forward to the plane’s next generation ‘Super 30’ version which will have advanced avionics.

Explaining the concept of the beyond visual range (BVR) fights, senior IAF (Indian Air Force) officials at a forward base close to the border with Pakistan explained that future wars are unlikely to have close combat fights like in wars in 1965 or 1971.

“Nowadays, the fighter jets are very modernised with state-ofthe-art radar systems. What matters now is BVR which means that one can engage with the enemy in air without actually seeing him.

Once the enemy is locked in, a BVR missile is fired,” Wing Commander Sharad Sharma said.

The BVR missiles carried by Sukhoi currently have a range of about 50-70km.

But what will truly turn the tide is the integration of the supersonic missile BrahMos with the Sukhoi.

Fighter pilots at the base, one of the newest of the Sukhoi, say that the BrahMos will be game changer.

“Imagine, one can fire a missile nearly 300km away from the target. Installations across the border can be targeted by our fighter jets without even crossing the border,” a senior pilot explained.

Two Sukhois will be used for the tests which will be completed in the next one year. - PTI

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INDIA

India pledges 33-35% cut in carbon intensity by 2030 at a UN summit to agree a deal to slow man-made warming by keeping temperature rises below a ceiling of 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.

More than 140 countries have submitted plans, but experts say the pledges are not enough to keep the planet from warming beyond the threshold and avoiding the worst impacts of climate change.

New Delhi stressed in its submission that coal would continue to dominate future power generation. Environmentalists fear India’s emissions will jump as the use of cars, air travel and air conditioning grows among its 1.2 billion people.

“The scale of expansion of another 170 to 200 gigawatts of power from coal is baffling. This will set back India’s development prospects,” said Pujarini Sen of Greenpeace India.

Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said India’s plan balances the need for a low-carbon future with the need to lift millions out of poverty and industrialise quickly

NEW DELHI: India has promised to shave a third off the rate at which it emits greenhouse gases over the next 15 years, in a longawaited contribution towards reaching a deal to slow global warming at a UN climate summit in December.

The world’s third-largest emitter and last major economy to submit plans ahead of the Paris summit did not, however, commit to any absolute cuts in carbon emissions.

Of the top two polluters, China has promised its emissions will peak by around 2030, and the United States is already cutting, but India says its economy is too small and its people too poor to agree to absolute cuts in greenhouse gases now.

Instead, India said it aimed to

AMBITIOUS TARGET: In this photograph taken on March 20, 2015, smoke rises from the Badarpur Thermal Power Station in New Delhi. India, the world’s third biggest carbon-emitting country, said October 2 it was ‘confident’ it could cut its emissions intensity by 35 per cent by 2030 in the run-up to a key conference in Paris later this year. - AFP

cut carbon intensity by between 33 and 35 per cent by 2030 from 2005 levels and to grow to 40 per cent the share of power generated from non-fossil fuels.

India’s plan balances the need for a low-carbon future with the need to lift millions out of poverty and industrialise quickly, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said.

“Although the developed world has polluted the world and we are

suffering, India will be part of the solution,” he told journalists on Friday after submitting the pledges to the United Nations.”We want to walk on a cleaner energy path.”

Coal to dominate India said it needs $2.5 trillion by 2030 to achieve its plan, but Javadekar did not say if its pledges were contingent on greater funding from the richer world.

India, often acting as the voice

of the developing world, plays an important role in global climate talks and some environmental groups welcomed its plan.

“India now has positioned itself as a global leader in clean energy, and is poised to play an active and influential role in the international climate negotiations this December,” said Rhea Suh at the New York-based Natural Resources Defence Council.

Close to 200 nations will meet

Greater resources India’s target for carbon intensity falls well short of China, which pledged at the end of June to reduce its carbon intensity by 60 percent to 65 per cent by 2030.

At a previous UN summit in 2009, India had already committed to reduce its emissions intensity by 2020 by 20 per cent to 25 percent from 2005 levels.

Preliminary estimates indicate India would need to spend around $206 billion between 2015 and 2030 to adapt to the effects of climate change, the submission said.

“India’s climate actions have so far been largely financed from domestic resources. A substantial scaling up of the climate action plans would require greater resources,” it added. - Reuters

TECHNOLOGY

Smartphone apps becoming new nanny for Indian children NEW DELHI: With technology fast becoming an integral part of people’s lives, parenting has also undergone a sea change in the last few years.

In nuclear families, parenting apps are helping couples raise their offspring in a much more efficient and secure way.

Today there are a number of smartphone apps to make parents’ life simple and more organised as far as kids are concerned.

For example, the “mycity4kids Family Organiser” app helps parents search for right activities and content related to their kids.

Launched in October 2010, “mycity4kids” has become an indispensable mobile platform for

several mothers. “The idea for ‘mycity4kids’ struck me when my kids were six and two, respectively.

Like other parents, we also used to dwell on how difficult it is to find appropriate things to do or places to go to where our kids could acquire new skills or just have a fun time,” said Vishal Gupta, the cofounder of the app.

The USP lies in the app’s unique mother-focussed content around which it has built the largest community of parents.

“We would like to become the indispensable mobile platform for today’s multi-tasking mother by giving her access in one place to everything she needs and can learn from the shared experiences of

The USP lies in the app’s unique mother-focussed content around which it has built the largest community of parents

other parents,” explained 40-yearold Gupta who lives in Gurgaon.

The app offers highly utilitarian features like a “Family Calendar”, to-do lists, upcoming events, kids

resources and parenting blogs that parents can access on the go to share their parenting responsibilities actively with others.

“Being the first-movers in this

STEP IN RIGHT DIRECTION

Government to introduce panic button in cell phones for the safety of women NEW DELHI: For women’s safety, the government is considering introduction of a panic button in cell phones and has asked all mobile phone manufacturers to work out the feasibility of such a feature, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi said on Friday.

“When we asked for suggestions about what precautions can the girls take to keep themselves safe and escape out of emergency situations, we were flooded with ideas including wearing specialised necklaces, bracelets and rings which had certain SOS message sending features.

“Why should we do that? Are women prisoners so they always have to move with these devices?

How can we ensure availability, affordability and usage of these devices among rural women,” the minister said while addressing a ‘Student Parliament’ on issues faced by girl students.

She said considering the limitations of these devices, the government has come up with an idea of having inbuilt panic button in all cell phones.

“The phones will have a panic button which will be GPS connected. We are in conversation with phone manufacturers and the proposal is likely to be executed in few months,” Maneka said.

The administration is of the view that emergency response apps can take too long to access

The phones will have a panic button which will be GPS connected. We are in conversation with phone manufacturers and the proposal is likely to be executed in few months Maneka Gandhi Women and Child Development Minister

in a rush and configuring one of the existing buttons on a phone for the task would be much simpler and quicker, he said, noting that pressing the panic button will send an SMS to a set of numbers that will also provide location information.

Talking about the various schemes rolled out by the NDA government, Maneka said the focus is on initiatives such as ‘beti bachao’, ‘beti padhao’ and reservation for women posts in police stations to ensure an effective in-

terface between the complainants and the police.

“The problem is not with schemes, we have enough of them.

The task is implementation and we are focussing on the same,”she said. The three-day parliament, which kick-started on Thursday is being organised by the BJP’s student wing, Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and students representing universities across the country are taking part in the event to discuss issues faced by them and draw the gov-

ernment’s attention towards the need for safety and development plans for them.

While first day was dedicated to tribal students at a seminar entitled, ‘Tribal Student-Youth Parliament’, the remaining two days are for ‘Women Student Parliament’ and ‘North East Student-Youth Leaders Parliament’. The report on issues resulting from the discussions of the three student parliaments will be handed over to the ministries concerned in the form of a memorandum. -PTI

category, we had to face many challenges in its initial stages and to create a unique business model,” Gupta added.

This app is available for both Apple and Android users for downloading. The app currently caters to parents in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. Soon, it will expand its reach in other cities.

In the last one year, “mycity4kids” website has received 20 million page views by nearly 3.5 million parents. There are some other apps too for parents.

For instance, “Family Tracker” helps parents track the whereabouts of their children and keep a

tab on their activities inside home or while they play in the neighbourhood park.

Considering child safety as a main concern, another app “Northstar” provides a platform for parents and schools which can be used to track the location of school buses. This mobile app is used to keep track of the children’s location as they commute between school and home.

There are also apps like “Dr. Panda’s Hospital” that teach kids how to nurture pets at a young age and help them become sensitive to others. Another app named “10 Monkeys Multiplication” helps children master tables from two to 10 in a fun and engaging way. - IANS

A6

S ATUR DAY, OCTOBER 3, 2 015

INDIA

It is a blot on our culture and such incidents do not have a place in a civilised society. If somebody says it was pre-planned, I don’t agree with it. It is an accident and it should be probed by CBI or state and guilty should be punished. Innocents should not be victimised in the name of investigation Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State for Tourism and Culture

B LU D G E O N I N G T O D E AT H

AIMING FOR WORLD RECORD Students of Venkat International School attempt to make the world record for the largest gathering of people dressed as Mahatama Gandhi on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti at Kanteerava stadium in Bengaluru on Friday. 4,605 students together took part in the event. The nation on Friday remembered Mahatma Gandhi on his 146th birth anniversary with President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi and other leaders paying floral tributes to him at his memorial in New Delhi. -PTI

Political slugfest continues over Dadri killing DADRI/LUCKNOW: As tension simmered in Bishada where a man was lynched on Monday night over allegedly eating beef, Union Minister Mahesh Sharma on Friday sought punishment for those guilty without “victimising” the innocents, while AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi said the victim was killed because of his religious persuasion.

Four days after Bishada village on Delhi’s outskirts in Uttar Pradesh was rocked by the brutal killing of Mohammed Iqlakh, it witnessed an unending parade of politicians, who sympathised with the victim’s family and sought to cool frayed tempers as communal tension smouldered.

Sharma, also the local MP, persisted with his refrain that Iqlakh’s bludgeoning to death by the lynch mob was an “accident” which should not be given a communal colour and over which there should be no politics.

“It is a blot on our culture and such incidents do not have a place in a civilised society. If somebody says it was pre-planned, I don’t agree with it. It is an accident and it should be probed by CBI or state and guilty should be punished. Innocents should not

Modi seeks youth support for BJP-led NDA in Bihar Prime Minister Narendra Modi wooed the youth and the poor promising to address the issue of migration for employment and told them that the solution to all their problems lay in development

BANKA (Bihar): Attacking Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said he is “too arrogant” to be trusted with governance and asked people to back development agenda of BJP to change the state’s fortunes.

Addressing his first public rally after announcement of assembly polls, Modi wooed the youth and the poor promising to address the issue of migration for employment and told them that the solution to all their problems lie in development.

The prime minister also took a dig at his rivals for doubting the delivery of the financial package for Bihar announced by him.

“Some people are raising questions on the Rs1.65 lakh crore package announced by me. They

GARNERING SUPPORT: Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves along with HAM(S) chief Jitan Ram Manjhi, LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan and other NDA leaders during an election rally in Banka on Friday. - PTI

are asking whether it will come or not. Should a single rupee be given to the present government. Will it reach you?

“Even if I give it, his (Nitish’s) arrogance is so much that he may even return it. I am worried that even if I give the Rs1.65 lakh crore to the state, he will announce that he does not require this money as it has been given by Modi. I cannot trust him,” he said, recalling that an ‘angry’ Kumar had returned the Rs5 crore relief announced by Gujarat for the flood-affected in Kosi.

The prime minister also asked former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, who shared the dais with

him, whether he can trust Kumar after he ousted him from the top job in the state some months after having appointed him.

“Nobody can trust him after what he did to Jitan Ram Manjhi.

People of Bihar cannot trust him,” Modi said.

He also countered the attack of his rivals on his announcement of a huge package for Bihar, saying he was not doing any favour to Bihar as has been alleged.

“The government in Delhi is not doing any favour to anyone. This is the right of Bihar and its people, which I am trying to provide unlike in the past. I am fulfilling the

responsibility entrusted to me,” he said, adding, “This is not Modi’s money, it belongs to Bihar and its people”.

Holding that Bihar has seen all kinds of ‘isms’ like fuedalism, capitalism, separatism and dynastyism, he said, “it is time that people of the state should vote for ‘vikasvaad’ (development).”

Appealing to youth to turn up in large numbers to cast their vote for NDA in the ensuing Bihar assembly polls, he said stressing that Bihar’s development was linked to the country’s progress.

Citing a World Bank report on ease of doing business, he said

that Bihar continues to lag behind at 27th place among Indian states unlike Jharkhand which was ruled by BJP after bifurcation, progressed from 29th to 3rd place.

Modi also talked about meeting a delegation of people from Bihar in the US during his recent visit and said they were more worried about changing the fortunes of their home state.

Refraining from making any mention of the contentious reservation issue on which BJP is on the backfoot after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s remarks, the Prime Minister chose to keep the focus of his speech on development.

Modi also made no mention of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who has repeatedly targeted him on the reservation issue and castigated BJP chief Amit Shah on the issue of communalism.

“These days a lot of games are being played in the name of the poor,” Modi merely said.

He said that the country cannot move forward unless Bihar moves forward and promised that it was his government’s responsibility to do so.

“I have come to seek only one thing from people of Bihar. The nation cannot move forward as long as Bihar does not develop. It is our responsibility to develop Bihar to see the nation’s progress.

“You take the decision once, I will always stand by you. I promise I will be ready to serve Bihar all the time and will prove that that the change in the country will begin from Bihar. We have to take Bihar to new heights.That is why I have come here to seek your votes on development and law and order,” he said. - PTI

be victimised in the name of investigation,” Sharma, Minister of State for Tourism and Culture said at Bishada where he consoled the bereaved family.

Owaisi, who too paid a visit to the distraught family, could not disagree more when he described the killing as “a pre-planned murder”, actuated by the victim’s religious persuasion.

The sharp-tongued Hyderabad MP attacked both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the state’s Samajwadi Party government for the incident that has triggered a nation-wide outrage.

We had expected that the least the Prime Minister, who talks of ‘sabka saath-sabka vikas’ (inclusivity)’, would tweet to condole Iqlakh’s murder.

As political rivals locked horns over the incident, Bishada continued its uncomfortable tryst with media spotlight, while remaining under the protective shadow of the gun.

Contingents of Provincial Armed Constabulary and state police were strategically deployed across the village where prohibitory orders banning assembly of five or more people continued to be in force. - PTI BY 50 PER CENT

IIT-Khargpur pre-placement offers on the rise KOLKATA: Pre-placement offers have increased by more than 50 per cent this year at IIT Kharagpur, an institute official said on Friday.

Compared to 92 such offers last year, IIT students have so far got 142 pre-placement offers (PPOs) this season, said Prof S. K.Barai, Chairman of Career Development Centre at the IIT. The number of companies making PPOs has also crossed hundred this year, he said, adding that students went for internship in areas of core engineering, IT and finance.

The highest package offered till now is Rs25 lakh, according to him.

“The trend for opportunities at IIT Kharagpur is increasing every year. With the increasing number of PPOs we believe that companies really like the talent that IIT Kharagpur is offering,” Barai said.

Placement session will begin from December. - PTI ACCIDENT

Six die as two vehicles collide in Rajasthan BIKANER: Six persons including two women were killed when a jeep in which they were travelling collided head-on with a tanker here on Friday.

The incident occurred near Nokha on National Highway-89.

They were on their way to their village and the tanker was coming from Bikaner in Rajasthan, police said. The tanker driver escaped after the incident. Police further said that investigation is underway and efforts are on to nab the driver. - PTI

ECONOMY

Stronger dollar drains more than $2b from India’s forex reserves MUMBAI: A strengthening dollar, coupled with continued outflow of foreign funds and interventions by the country’s central bank to stabilise the rupee drained more than $2 billion from India’s foreign exchange (forex) reserves, official data showed on Friday.

Overall the forex declined by $2.04 billion to $349.97 billion in the week ended September 25.

“In the week under review, the dollar had strengthened against the major non-dollar currencies especially the Euro and the Pound by over 1 per cent.

“This has translated into the plunge in foreign reserves,” Anindya Banerjee, associate vice president for currency derivatives with Kotak Securities, said.

The Indian reserves consist of

nearly 20-25 per cent of non-dollar currencies.

The individual movements of these currencies against the dollar impacts the overall reserve value.

Intervention According to Banerjee, the intervention by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to stabilise the rupee also receded the foreign reserves.

“RBI is very active in defending the rupee and breaking any downward trend in rupee value. It is this defence that has kept the rupee, as one of the best performing currency so far in the year,” Banerjee said.

The RBI is known to enter the sport markets to either sell or buy dollars to keep the rupee in a stable orbit. Other major factor for the decline in reserves was the outflow

The data furnished by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its weekly statistical supplement showed that the foreign currency assets (FCAs) had plunged by $1.98 billion to $326.57 billion in the week under review

of foreign funds from the Indian equity and debt markets.

The data with the National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL), showed that the foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) off-loaded Rs.1,251.03 crore or $190.39 million in equity and debt markets from September 21-24.

The reserves had previously risen by $631.5 million to $352.02 billion in the week ended September 18. Before that the reserves had augmented by $2.35 billion to $351.38 billion in the week ended September 11.

However, the reserves had also declined by $2.88 billion in

the week ended September 4 to $349.03 billion.

The data furnished by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its weekly statistical supplement showed that the foreign currency assets (FCAs) had plunged by $1.98 billion to $326.57 billion in the week under review.

Largest component The FCA constitutes the largest component of India’s forex reserves. It consists of US dollars, major non-dollar currencies, securities and bonds bought abroad.

“The FCA expressed in US dollar terms includes the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies such as the pound sterling, euro and yen held in reserve,” the RBI said in its sta-

tistical supplement. During the week under review, the country’s gold reserves remained stagnant.

The country’s gold reserves had depleted by $214.8 million to $18.03 billion during the week ended September 4.

The special drawing rights (SDRs) in the week under review were lower by $48.3 million at $4.04 billion.

The country’s reserve position with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also edged down by $11.8 million to $1.31 billion. -IANS

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SAT URDAY, O CTO BER 3, 2015

A7

PAKISTAN Inflation dips to 1.3%; some experts see deflation signs The steady decline led some economists to argue that the government should abandon austere fiscal policies and undertake an economic stimulus to prevent the economy from spiralling

STEEP DECLINE: A vegetable vendor sells carrots at a market in Lahore. Some experts warn of defla-

tion risks, core inflation dips to 3.4 per cent. - AFP file photo

into deflation

ISLAMABAD: Inflation in Pakistan continued to drop, falling to a low of 1.3 per cent in September, sparking at least some economists to warn of the risk of deflation.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI), the indicator that captures prices of 481 commodities every month, rose by just 1.3 per cent

in September on a year on year basis, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) on Thursday. It was the lowest level since July 2003.

Although much of the reduction in inflation was attributed to steep decline in commodity prices, even core inflation, which strips out the effect of volatile food and energy prices, was lower.

Core inflation clocked in at 3.4

per cent on a year-on-year basis in September, a decline of 0.6 per cent over the previous month.

Negative trend The steady decline led some economists to argue that the government should abandon austere fiscal policies and undertake an economic stimulus to prevent the economy from spiralling into deflation.

“The government is not taking its own inflation figures serious, which suggest the country has entered a deflationary period,” said Ashfaque Hasan Khan, Dean of School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the National University of Science and Technology.

But while fiscal policy may remain austere, monetary policy has become far more accommodating.

The State Bank of Pakistan has

M Q M R E S I G NAT I O N S

Media blackout of MQM to continue ISLAMABAD: As the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) waits to hear the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) decision on the media ban on its chief Altaf Hussain, the federal government has decided in principle to continue a ‘blackout’ of the party on all forums for the foreseeable future.

It will also persist with its policy of not accepting the resignations of the party’s lawmakers, sources privy to the development said. The move comes as the incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) once again urged Senate chairman and speakers of legislative assemblies to not accept resignations of MQM lawmakers.

Separately, a senior PML-N official has also suggested that the government may soon restart the stalled negotiations with the Karachi-based party.

While the LHC will on Friday decide whether to lift a media ban on MQM chief’s speeches, the senior PML-N source added that they had decided on continuing the ‘blackout’ of the party regardless of the court’s decision, following consultations with all stakeholders of the ongoing Karachi operation.

Sources in PML-N said that the court-led media ban on MQM had proven beneficial for the ongoing security operation. They added that the MQM failed to achieve its target of collecting hides on Eid

On August 12, MQM lawmakers had submitted their resignations from assemblies citing reservations over the Ranger-led operation in Karachi Altaf Hussain

Al Adha and that the party’s sector and unit in-charges had by and large stopped their activities.

They added that the blackout will support efforts of law enforcement agencies to catch target killers in and outside Pakistan.

Meanwhile, senior PML-N leader MNA Talal Chaudhry said that if the LHC lifts the ban on Altaf’s speeches on television, it was up to the channels to decide what they should broadcast since media was independent and that the government cannot dictate terms.

The government had recently urged heads of Senate and legislative assemblies once again to not accept resignations of MQM’s law-

makers. MQM is the fourth largest party in the National Assembly

by Seats, and is the second largest party in the Sindh Assembly.

On August 12, MQM lawmakers had submitted their resignations from assemblies citing reservations over the Ranger-led operation in Karachi.

Former National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq followed government’s policy of not accepting MQM’s resignations while Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani followed directions from Pakistan Peoples Party’s CoChairperson Asif Ali Zardari to not accept MQM’s resignations.

Senate Chairman Raza Rabba-

ni had set a deadline of October 5 for ruling on MQM’s resignations.

But sources said that both, the government and the PPP leadership, have approached Rabbani and successfully urged him not to accept resignations of MQM’s eight senators.

Almost all parties in Parliament, except PTI, have asked Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl’s Fazlur Rehman to convince MQM to withdraw their resignations and return to the assemblies.

While the JUI-F leader held several rounds of talks with the MQM, talks have been stalled since the first week of September. - Express Tribune

PA R T N E R S H I P

‘Economic corridor to boost employment’ FAISALABAD: The ChinaPakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) will not only strengthen Pakistan economically but also address social issues such as poverty, food security and create employment opportunities, said University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) Vice Chancellor Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan.

He was addressing a ceremony held to celebrate the National Day

of People’s Republic of China.

Khan said that China has proven its mettle in technological advancement, adding that the CPEC would go a long way in guiding Pakistan to a new horizon of development. “China has become the hub of research activities and is surpassing the US,” said Khan, stressing on the need to learn from each other’s experiences.

He also told the audience that

500 students would be sent to China for education, adding that the UAF was working with 13 Chinese institutes in areas of researches and academia.

Parliamentary Secretary on Finance Rana Muhammad Afzal Khan said, “Under the CPEC, as many as $48 billion are being invested by China.

“The government inherited tremendous problems and tangibles

steps are being taken to combat challenges.

“For the purpose of CPEC, no loan is being taken as the investment would be made by the Chinese companies. The route issue has also been resolved. Two big dams are being constructed to address the issue of electricity shortfall. It is likely that after CPEC the GDP growth will be pushed to 6 per cent.” -Express Tribune

recently cut interest rates to a 42year low of 6 per cent in order to support growth and keep the outlook for future inflation consistent with the target.

However, the reduction in discount rate is not helping, as there is little credit left for the private sector to borrow.

While the CPI is in disinflation, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) is already depicting deflationary trends and was negative by almost half percentage points for ten consecutive months.

The negative trend in wholesale prices may spill over to retail prices. The WPI-based rate of inflation contracted by 3.1 per cent in July-September period of this year as compared to the previous year, according to the PBS. The CPI-based inflation rate for July-September period also remained at 1.7 per cent, suggesting that overall inflation rate for the current fiscal year 2016 will remain far below the official target of 6 per cent .According to the PBS, prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages dropped by over 1 per cent in September over a year ago. Perishable food prices decreased over 8 per cent on a year-on-year basis in September. - Express Tribune

BENAZIR MURDER CASE

‘Never called Benazir before her arrival in Pakistan’ KARACHI: Refuting American journalist Mark Siegel’s testimony in the Benazir Bhutto murder case, Pervez Musharraf said on Friday that he never spoke or made any menacing calls to Benazir Bhutto before her arrival in Pakistan, Express News reported.

The former president said that he could “clearly see the conspiracy” behind the accusations, adding that he started using a mobile phone in April 2009, almost two years after Benazir was killed.

Musharraf also questioned whether Farooq Naek, former president Asif Ali Zardari close confidante, was fit to represent Siegel in court, while demanding that Zardari also be summoned in the case.

Talking to Express News, Musharraf said he regretted the ‘false’ accusations made the American journalist.

On October 1, American journalist Mark Siegel said in his testimony that days before she travelled to Pakistan, slain prime minister Benazir Bhutto received threatening phone calls from the then president Pervez Musharraf, warning her of threats to her life should she choose to return before the 2007 elections. - Express Tribune

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US, China seek to set cyberweaponry rules

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W

hen President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed cyberweaponry rules of the road at their recent White House news conference, it represented a landmark for a new field. International cybersecurity has come of age. When intelligence officials testified before Congress about the major threats to the United States just a few years ago, cyberwar was barely mentioned; now, it’s at the top of the list.

Whenever countries confront a disruptive new technology that they cannot control, they eventually seek arms-control agreements. In the nuclear era, it was 18 years after Hiroshima before the first such agreement was reached.

Today, cybersecurity is at a similar point. Although the modern Internet was born in the 1970s, it was only during the past two decades that it became an indispensable enabler of economic and military activity that benefits us while also making us insecure.

With the advent of cloud computing and the “Internet of Things,” the area of vulnerability is rapidly expanding.

Is cyber arms control the answer? Not if it’s modelled on the treaties of the nuclear era.

Those agreements spelled out in great detail how to manage large, costly, observable weapons and included monitoring procedures that Ronald Reagan summarised with the adage “trust, but verify.” Cyberweapons, by contrast, can be as simple as a few inexpensively acquired lines of code. They are available to state and non-state actors and can be hard to distinguish from benign online activity. It can also be difficult and time-consuming to determine who is behind their use. The “verify” portion of any cyber-control agreement would be extremely problematic.

But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to reach agreements on rules limiting behaviour. States could agree not to attack certain aspects of the civilian infrastructure of another country in peacetime. In fact, such a recommendation was included in a July report of a UN group of governmental experts, which Obama and Xi agreed to have a bilateral group of senior experts examine. The UN group also recommended that

governments accept a responsibility to help any state seeking assistance with a malicious attack; pledge not to interfere with the operation of emergency response teams created by other states to deal with attacks; and seek to build confidence by increasing the transparency of their cyberpolicies. The two presidents also discussed establishing hotlines to facilitate high-level communication during a crisis.

Critics scoff at vows such as “no first use” of cyberweapons against certain civilian targets.

What is to prevent cheating?

The answer is self-interest. If states feel vulnerable, and worry about the unintended consequences of going on cyberoffence, they may find that peacetime pledges of self-restraint are in their mutual interest.

A norm of self-restraint could also help with dangerous “zero-days,” or undiscovered coding vulnerabilities that take their name from the amount of time that programmers have to act to stop a malicious outsider from exploiting the opening. Governments and non-state actors tend to hoard information on such flaws as deterrents or for possible use in future attacks, and they fetch high prices on black-market Web sites. But if the United States unilaterally adopted a norm of responsible disclosure of zero-days to companies and the public after a limited period, it would destroy their value as weapons - simultaneously disarming ourselves, other countries and criminals without ever having to negotiate a treaty or worry about verification. Other states might follow suit. In some aspects, cyber arms control could turn out to be easier than nuclear arms control.

Such steps are not panaceas that would produce cybersecurity. We would still have to contend with cybertheft of intellectual property; corruption of the supply chains that provide the chips that go into our computers and devices; the disruption of undersea cables; spies or disloyal insiders; and many other threats. But it is worth remembering that the first nuclear-arms control agreements - the Test Ban Treaty of 1963 and the Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968 - did not solve all of the problems of controlling nuclear weapons. Rather, they started a process.

Perhaps Obama and Xi’s modest beginning will do something similar. - Special to The Washington Post

READERS’ FORUM Speed limits on the roads need to be lowered This refers to the online story, Interconnected street opened (October 2). The construction of the road and the intersection is a right move. However, I cannot understand why the speed limits are so high in the Sultanate. With a high volume of traffic even on highways wouldn’t it be better to reduce speed limits by at least 20kph?

In my opinion, this is required as many drivers zigzag between vehicles at high speeds, which can cause accidents.

— Susan Walters, Ruwi

The current political will in Pakistan to undertake computerisation of land records is backed by prominent economic advisers, and by international financial agencies like the World Bank which has pointed to the inefficiency and unreliability of manual land records bit.ly/pakistanlandrecords

Lauren will help his brand not to lose its trademark style

Scan this QR code to send letters to the Readers’ Forum, 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).

This refers to the online story, Ralph Lauren to Step Down, (October 2). He is indeed one of the greatest names in the fashion industry. It is nice to know that he will continue to work as a mentor, which will greatly help evolve the style under the new boss. This is so, as in business if the founder is working, his methodologies and portrayal of the product never lose focus.

— Parvin Humayun, Muscat

State of affairs in US abysmal

This refers to the online story, Gunman kills nine in Oregon college in United States, (October 2). Yet another shooting in America shows that the state of affairs in the countryis abysmal. President Barack Obama has shown the world how not to resolve an existential problem.

— Jamshed Hidayaullah, Muscat

CLIPPINGS FROM OUR ARCHIVES SEPTEMBER 2000 Six new companies to be opened in November MUSCAT: Ahmed bin Hassan Al Dheeb, executive director of the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (PEIE), yesterday announced that six new companies with an investment of RO15 million will be launched in different regions of the Sultanate during the 30th National Day celebrations.

The companies, to be established on the industrial estates in Rusayl, Raysut, Sohar and Nizwa, will produce abrasives, medial equipment, foodstuff and fatty acids, he said.

PICTOGRAPH Number of students in government, private and community schools Period 2014/2015 Female

Male

Kindergarten

37,183 38,201

Basic education First episode

103,636 106,633

Basic education Second episode

128,493 135,338

General education 243 grades (1-4) 317

TODAY IN HISTORY

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1535: Having landed in Quebec a month ago, Jacques Cartier reaches a town, which he names Montreal.

Protect the welfare of your workforce through New India’s WORKMEN COMPENSATION POLICY.

1941: The German army launches Operation Typhoon, the drive towards Moscow.

www.newindiaoman.com

1950: The comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schultz, makes its first appearance in newspapers.

1959: The TV series The Twilight Zone premiers on CBS.

General education 8,169 grades (5-10) 8,006 After basic education grades (11-12) Grades (1-6)

41,142 43,090 15,018 16,013

Grades (7-9) 5,629 6,167 Grades (10-12) 3,473 4,330

342,986

Total

358,095

Source: National Centre for Statistics and Information

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Some Afghan Taliban holed up in Kunduz

A F G H A N I S TA N

Residents in Kunduz, said that while most Taliban fighters had fled, some were holed

CRASH SITE: A US drone aircraft lands at Afghanistan’s Jalalabad Airport. A US C-130 military transport plane crashed in Jalalabad on Friday. – AFP

up in civilian homes fighting the army

KABUL: Taliban fighters were holding out against Afghan troops in Kunduz on Friday, a day after government forces recaptured most of the northern city that had fallen to the militants in their biggest victory of a 14-year insurgency.

In Badakhsan province in Afghanistan’s northeast, the Taliban took control of Warduj district late on Thursday after heavy fighting, according to Nawid Forotan, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

Residents in Kunduz, a strategic city of 300,000 that fell to the Taliban in a stunning pre-dawn attack on Monday, said that while most Taliban fighters had fled, some were holed up in civilian homes fighting the army.

Atrocities The Taliban have been accused of extrajudicial killings, raping, torturing, looting and setting fire to government buildings during their three-day occupation of Kunduz, the Afghan president’s office said in a statement on Friday.

“Afghanistan is committed to legally prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes, and to that end, assigns a civilian commission to assess the losses sustained as a result of the Taliban presence,” the statement said.

At least 60 people have been killed in the fighting as of Friday,

US military plane crash at Jalalabad airfield kills 11 STRICT VIGIL: Afghan security forces sit on top of a vehicle as they patrol outside of Kunduz city, in this file photo on Thursday. – Reuters Files

according to a Health Ministry spokesman. He said hospitals in Kunduz had treated about 466 wounded.

Fear Ahmad Sahil, a producer for local Afghan television in the city, said many people were still too afraid to leave their houses.

“The Taliban who knew Kunduz left the city already, but many foreign fighters could not flee and are hiding in people’s homes in some parts of the city centre and are still resisting,” Sahil said on Friday.

Hamdullah Danishi, acting governor of Kunduz province, described the capital as calm, and said there was “no major fighting”.

He acknowledged, however, that the insurgents had not been completely driven from Kunduz.

“Taliban are still in civilian houses and buildings,” Danishi said. “They are using civilians as

INTENSIFYING CLASHES

Detained Among those detained on Friday were district officials of the Peoples Democratic Party (HDP), a left-wing grouping accused of having links with the hardline PKK, Hurriyet newspaper said.

An HDP spokesman had no immediate information on the arrests, and there was also no comment from Turkish police.

The HDP on Friday presented its election platform in which it renewed a promise to seek a settlement to the 31-year war with

Emergency supplies The ICRC said it has emergency medical supplies ready to be flown in as soon as security at Kunduz airport improves.

In a worrying sign for government forces struggling to contain a growing militant threat, the Taliban made territorial gains elsewhere in the country, although on a smaller scale than the brief seizure of Kunduz.

“Our forces did not get rein-

forcements on time,” Forotan said of the loss of Warduj district in Badakhshan.

“Taliban were in big numbers, therefore our forces retreated.”

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said militants killed 50 soldiers and gained control of 28 checkposts in a district of Badakhshan province that has been fought over for years.

It occupies a strategic position along a highway to the border with Tajikistan and also shares a border with China and Pakistan.

The attack started when Taliban militants raided checkpoints in several villages, overrunning reinforcements and seizing control late in the afternoon, according to a government report. The police headquarters in Warduj fell at around 6pm it said.

At least two police were killed in the battle, while three others were reported missing. — Reuters

Taliban claim A spokesman for the Taliban militant movement seeking to topple the government said its fighters had shot down the aircraft, but the US military said there were no reports of enemy fire at the time.

A statement from the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing at Bagram Airfield described it as “an accident,” without offering details.

The crash came hours after Afghan troops recaptured the centre of the strategic northern city of Kunduz on Thursday amid fierce clashes with Taliban militants, three days after losing the provincial capital.

The Taliban have been fighting to regain power since being toppled by a US-led intervention in 2001.

Sharp fall The number of US deaths in Afghanistan has fallen sharply after the United States wrapped up its formal combat mission last year, although US special forces and US airstrikes were involved in this week’s counter-offensive in Kunduz.

In 2011, Taliban militants shot down a US military Chinook helicopter, killing all 38 people on board. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter that its fighters shot down the plane, saying “15 invaders and a number of slave soldiers were killed”. The insurgents typically claim responsibility for any coalition air crash. — Reuters

WESTERN BALKANS

Turkish forces kill 10 Kurdish rebels DIYARBAKIR: Turkish security forces killed more than 10 suspected Kurdish militants amid intensifying clashes in the country’s southeast, while 44 people were arrested in Istanbul on suspicion of links with the rebels, officials and media reports said.

The exact death toll from clashes in Silvan, a town in southeastern Turkey’s Diyarbakir province, was not immediately clear. A security source said it exceeded 10 people - all members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).1 Turkey’s crackdown on the PKK began in July after a 2 1/2-year-old ceasefire collapsed and has escalated ahead of a snap national election on November 1. More than 120 security personnel and hundreds of militants have been killed.

human shields.” The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was increasingly concerned about the welfare of citizens inside the city and the lack of medical supplies and personnel.

“We are very short-staffed in the hospitals,” said Peter Esmith Ewoi, an ICRC doctor working in the city. “The medical staff in the city cannot get to the hospitals because of the on-going fighting.”

WASHINGTON: A US military transport plane crashed at an airfield in Afghanistan shortly after midnight on Friday (1930 GMT on Thursday), killing all 11 people on board, the US military said, describing the crash as an accident.

The cause of the crash at Jalalabad airfield was under investigation, a spokesman said, refusing to rule out the possibility that there may be dead or wounded on the ground.

First responders were on the scene, he said.

Six US military service members and five civilian contractors who were employed by the USled international force in Afghanistan were killed in the crash.

the PKK. “Despite everything, we say peace,” HDP Co-Chairwoman Figen Yuksekdag said. “We want a grand peace.”

HDP district officials have been detained in previous police raids in the predominantly Kurdish southeast. The HDP accuses the government of seeking to punish it for its success in the inconclusive June election that deprived the ruling harlinersrooted AKP of its single-party majority in parliament.

Opinion polls show the AKP may at the November 1 election regain some nationalist voters who abandoned the party over its efforts to end the strife with the PKK, including negotiating with the group’s jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan.

Among the 44 people arrested were union members and former district mayors, Turkish media reports said. Authorities imposed a 24-hour curfew on Silvan, where two soldiers were shot dead by suspected PKK militants on Thursday as they left for work.

The army has repeatedly clashed with the rebels in Silvan in the recent weeks.

Deemed a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and European Union, the PKK launched its armed campaign for a Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey in 1984. — Reuters

Refugees vulnerable to winter cold LONDON: Vulnerable migrants and refugees arriving in the Western Balkans are facing the onset of heavy rains and cold weather, with many unprepared for bitter winter conditions, the Red Cross has warned.

Sea crossings to Greece’s shores have fallen this week because cooler, windier weather is making the journey more dangerous, though numbers could pick up again if conditions improve, the United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Friday.

Average temperatures in winter months in the region frequently fall below freezing, posing health risks for people who have already travelled thousands of miles, often with limited access to food and basic necessities.

“The arrival of winter will push people’s coping skills to their limits,” Simon Missiri, acting director for Europe of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), said in a statement on Thursday.

The numbers In the last seven days, 25,000 people have arrived in Serbia, including families with small children, many sleeping outside despite heavy rain, the federation said.

More than half a million migrants and refugees have crossed the Mediterranean this year, almost 400,000 of them via Greece. Many arrivals in Greece have then pro-

HARSH CONDITIONS: Migrants and asylum seekers take rest after crossing the Greece-Macedonia border near Gevgelija, on Friday. – AFP

ceeded to travel through Macedonia and Serbia in an effort to reach western Europe.

Around 6,600 people arrived in Greece on September 25 alone according to the UNHCR. The following day there were 2,200 arrivals, and just 1,500 arrived on Thursday, because of windy, cold weather.

With heavy rains falling on Serbia in the past week there is a risk of the humanitarian situation deteriorating, said Vesna Milenovic, head of the Red Cross in the coun-

try. “We need more support to be prepared for winter. We are distributing raincoats and stocking winter relief supplies such as thermal foil blankets, thermoses, warm winter clothing and footwear,” she said.

The Red Cross has launched emergency appeals to help 675,000 vulnerable migrants in Serbia, Macedonia, Hungary, Italy and Greece.

Since Hungary tightened its borders to block off routes to migrants, tens of thousands of

people have also flowed into neighbouring Croatia.

The huge movement of people fleeing poverty and war in the Middle East and Africa to come to Europe via the Western Balkans is stirring memories of wars in the region during the 1990s, which also triggered a European refugee crisis.

UNHCR is planning for at least 1.4 million migrants and refugees to flee to Europe across the Mediterranean this year and next. — Thomson Reuters Foundation

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S ATUR DAY, OCTOBER 3, 2 015

WORLD

In a photo posted on what was believed to be his MySpace profile, a young man with a shaved head and dark-rimmed eyeglasses stares into the camera while holding a rifle.

Gunman kills nine in US college Authorities offered no motive for the shooting. Hanlin, the county sheriff, said an investigation was underway by homicide detectives and federal agents

ROSEBURG (OREGON): Residents of a quiet Oregon town struggled to comprehend the carnage left by the latest US mass shooting as investigators puzzled over what drove a young gunman to kill nine people in a college classroom before he died in an exchange of gunfire with police.

The Thursday late-morning shooting rampage at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, a former timber town of 20,000 on the western edge of the Cascade Mountains, ranked as the deadliest mass killing this year in the United States.

Stormed The gunman stormed into a classroom in Snyder Hall on campus, shot a professor at point-blank range, then ordered cowering students to stand up and state their religion before he shot them one by one, according to survivors’ accounts. Seven people were hospitalised, three of them listed as critical. The killer died after exchanging gunfire with two police officers who confronted him.

The gunman was not identified by local authorities, and Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin vowed never to utter his name. But a law enforcement source confirmed media reports naming the suspect as Chris Harper-Mercer, 26.

In a photo posted on what was believed to be his MySpace profile, a young man with a shaved head and dark-rimmed eyeglasses stares into the camera while holding a rifle.

At the White House, a visibly angry President Barack Obama challenged Americans across the political spectrum to press their VERDICT

UNSUSPECTING VICTIM: First responders transport an injured person following a shooting incident at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon on Thursday. The late-morning shooting rampage ranked as the deadliest mass killing this year in the United States. – Reuters/Michael Sullivan/The News-Review

elected leaders to enact tougher firearms-safety laws. He lashed out at the National Rifle Association gun lobby for blocking reforms and lamented how common mass shootings had become.

‘Numb’ “Somehow this has become routine. The reporting is routine. My response here, at this podium, ends up being routine,” he said.

“We’ve become numb to this.”

Residents at an apartment house a short distance from campus where the suspect lived recognised him from photos and described him as edgy.

A man identifying himself as Ian Mercer, the gunman’s father,

spoke briefly to a throng of reporters and camera crews outside his home in Los Angeles on Thursday night. “It’s been a devastating day, devastating for me and my family,” he said, according to a transcript provided by KNBC-TV. Authorities offered no motive for the shooting. Hanlin, the county sheriff, said an investigation was underway by homicide detectives and federal agents. Residents of Roseburg, about 260 miles (420 km) south of Portland, were left to ponder the how and why of the violence. Accounts from survivors were chilling.

Stacy Boylan, the father of an 18-year-old student who was wounded but survived by playing

dead, told CNN his daughter recalled seeing her professor being shot point blank as the assailant stormed into the classroom.

“He was able to stand there and start asking people one by one what their religion was,” Boylan said, relating the ordeal as described by his daughter. “’Are you a Christian?’ he would ask them.... ‘If you’re a Christian, stand up. Good. Because you’re a Christian, you’re going to see God in just about one second,’ and he shot and killed them. And he kept going down the line, doing this to people.” Scores of people huddled at a sombre candlelight vigil in a park on Thursday night. “We need to start loving each other as

people... or our nation is going to start falling apart,” said Michael Sprague, 35, a businessman who lives in the Roseburg area.

Flurry of killings The violence in Roseburg was the latest in a flurry of mass killings in recent years across the United States and the deadliest so far in 2015. It surpassed the nine killed in a gun battle between motorcycle gangs in Waco, Texas, in May, and the nine who died in the rampage at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in June.

Not counting Thursday’s incident, 293 mass shootings have been reported this year, according to the Mass Shooting Tracker

I N C L E M E N T W E AT H E R

website, a crowd-sourced database kept by anti-gun activists that logs events in which four or more people are shot.

The violence has fuelled demands for more gun control in the United States, where ownership of firearms is protected by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and for better care for the mentally ill. Those grieving at Thursday night’s vigil said they were still trying to understand the tragedy. “You know, there’s all this stuff in the news and with politics going on about the Second Amendment and gun control,” said Ken Shemel. “It’s like, ‘Come on, guys, just give us a second to breathe,’ you know?” — Reuters C O M M U N I C AT I O N S

British boy, 15, gets life sentence for inciting attack

Atlas rocket blasts off with Mexican satellite

LONDON: A 15-year-old boy, thought to be the youngest Briton to be convicted of a terrorism offence, was given a life sentence on Friday for inciting an attack on a World War I commemorative event in Australia from his bedroom in northern England.

The boy, who cannot be named due to his age, pleaded guilty in July to sending messages online encouraging an attack on police officers at an event in April to mark Anzac Day - a day of remembrance for military dead in Australia and New Zealand.

He was just 14 at the time.

The discovery of the boy’s actions sparked a massive police operation in Melbourne, which led to the arrest of five teenagers who were planning an IS-inspired attack on an event to mark the centenary of the Gallipoli landings, Australian authorities said.

British police said had the plot not been uncovered, it was likely someone would have been seriously injured or killed. “From the early communication we could read, it was obvious the Anzac Day memorial service was going to be a target,” said Detective Chief Superintendent Tony Mole of the North West Counter Terrorism Unit. “People will be understandably be shocked by the age of the boy. However, this should not detract from the horror of what he was planning.”

The boy from Blackburn, who had admitted a charge of inciting another person to commit an act of terrorism, was sentenced to life in a youth detention centre and will have to serve a minimum of five years. Manchester Crown Court heard he was initially arrested by police on suspicion of making threats to kill his teacher. When detectives examined his phone they found extreme images. — Reuters

CAPE CANAVERAL: An unmanned Atlas 5 rocket blasted off from a seaside launch pad in Florida on Friday to put a communications satellite into orbit for Mexico.

The 195-foot (59-meter) tall rocket, built and flown by United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, lifted off at 6:28 am EDT from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

Launch was delayed 20 minutes to allow time for a wayward boat to clear away from the rocket’s flight safety zone.

Perched on top of the rocket was the Boeing-built Morelos-3 communications satellite, a duplicate of a spacecraft lost during a Russian Proton rocket launch in May. It was the 100th launch for ULA since its formation in 2006, all of which have been successful.

Morelos-3 was due to be put into orbit 22,300 miles (35,888 km) above Earth about three hours after liftoff. The satellite is designed to provide cellular voice, data, Internet and video services for Mexican national security and civilian services over the next 15 years.

Mexico is paying Boeing about $1 billion for a three-satellite system, collectively known as MEXSAT. The contract, announced in 2010, includes two ground sites, network operations systems and user terminals. The launch marked a rare commercial mission for ULA, which typically flies US military and NASA science missions.

ULA is designing a new rocket, called Vulcan, that it says will be less expensive to build and fly. The company faces its first competition for the US military’s launch business, with privately owned SpaceX now certified to fly defense and national security satellites on its Falcon 9 rocket. — Reuters

DANGEROUS STORM: Fisherman Dominick Manfredini prepares to fish at daybreak at the pier at Myrtle Beach State Park as heavy rain falls in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on Friday. – Reuters

Hurricane Joaquin pounds Bahamas NASSAU: Hurricane Joaquin pounded the Bahamas for a second day with powerful winds and waves on Friday, but it was not expected to be a major threat to the US East Coast, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

An easterly shift in the forecast track of the slow-moving Joaquin spared the Carolinas, New York and New Jersey, where Superstorm Sandy killed more than 120 people and caused $70 billion of property damage in October 2012.

Forecast models “The forecast models continue to indicate a track farther away from the United States East Coast and the threat of direct impacts from Joaquin in the Carolinas and mid-Atlantic states ap-

pears to be decreasing,” the NHC said. Despite the more favourable outlook, the Miami-based US forecasters said Joaquin could still cause flooding from South Carolina to New England.

Catastrophic A potentially catastrophic Category 4 hurricane on a scale of 1 to 5, Joaquin was predicted to make a sharp northerly turn on Friday before gradually losing strength over cooler water.

The third hurricane of the 2015 Atlantic season, Joaquin was about 45 miles (70 km) south of San Salvador island in the Bahamas, with maximum sustained winds of 130 miles per hour (215 kph), the NHC said. The storm was moving northwest at only three miles (5 km) per hour.

The governors of New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Maryland all declared states of emergency and announced various measures, including the mobilization of National Guard troops, in preparation for the storm.

“I cannot stress enough that we are talking about the real possibility of deadly flooding in many areas around our state,” North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory told a news conference on Thursday.

There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries from the Bahamas, but photos posted on social media showed major flooding on Aklins and Long Island in the archipelago, with roads under water and waves crashing against the walls of

houses. Schools and business were closed on several islands in the path of the storm.

“People are all getting ready, shuttering up their houses, going to the store for plywood,” said Chris Gosling who runs a voluntary ambulance service in Eleuthera, population 8,000.

Joaquin’s hurricane-force winds, which extended 50 miles (80 km) from its centre, were forecast to miss the larger Bahamas islands and the main cities and cruise ship ports of Freeport and Nassau.

Storm surges may push water as high as 6 to 12 feet (1.8 to 3.6 meters) above normal tide levels in the central Bahamas, the NHC said, with up to 25 inches (63 cm) of rain possible in some areas. — Reuters

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2015

S P O R S

Duminy does it for S. Africa SCOREBOARD

balls, 1x4 7x6) and Farhaan Behardien (32 of 23 balls, 4x4 1x6) remained unbeaten as South Africa chased down Rohit Sharma inspired India’s challenging score of 199 for 5 in 20 overs to post 200 for 3 in 19.4 overs

DHARMSALA: Rohit Sharma’s 66-ball 106 went in vain, as JeanPaul Duminy and A.B. de Villiers played a blinder of an innings to steer South Africa to a comfortable seven-wicket win over India in the first Twenty20 International (T20I) at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) Stadium here on Friday.

Duminy (68 of 34 balls, 1x4 7x6) and Farhaan Behardien (32 of 23 balls, 4x4 1x6) remained unbeaten as South Africa chased down India’s challenging score of 199/5 in 20 overs to post 200/3 in 19.4 overs.

While de Villiers (51 of 32 balls) started the proceedings for the visitors in the run chase, Duminy and Behardien stitched an unbeaten 105-run stand for the fourth wicket to script a memorable victory for the visitors and thus help South Africa go 1-0 up in threematch series.

South Africa got off to a flying

ROHIT SHARMA

106 runs from 66 balls 12 fours, 5 sixes

MATCH WINNER: JP Duminy

celebrates . – AFP

start scoring over ten an over in the first seven overs.

But batsman Hashim Amla (36) who was looking set ran himself out in the eighth over, handing India their breakthrough.

But the wicket didn’t bother his partner, de Villiers who went on scoring freely and helping his side maintain a steady run rate.

But just after completing his half-century, he tried to step put off the bowling off Ravichandran Ashwin but the clever spinner bowled a lot slower and the ball brushed his back thigh and deflected on to the stumps.

Skipper Faf du Plessis (4) didn’t trouble the scoring too much as he went back cheaply putting the visitors in a bit of trouble in a chase of 200. The team was 95/3 in 11th over then. But Duminy and Behardien played sensibly, using all their experience to build on a match winning partnership to take the visitors home.

For India, Ravichandran Ashwin (1/26) was the pick of the bowlers.

Earlier after being sent into bat, India received a setback when opener Shikhar Dhawan (3) was run out while trying to steal a single after a misfield.

RUGBY

His valiant dive wasn’t enough to save his wicket as India were reduced to 22/1 in 3.1 overs.

The other opener Sharma (106, 12x4, 5x6) though tried to shake off the disappointment and hit some lusty blows to rev up India’s run rate, which reached 50 in 6.4 overs.

Kohli (43 of 27 balls, 1x4, 3x6) also joined the act, hitting a consecutive six and a four at the start of the eighth over off pacer Chris Morris.

Sharma reached the 50-run mark in the ninth over, guiding a wide delivery off pacer Kyle Abbott to the boundary.

The Sharma-Kohli 138-run sec-

ond wicket partnership enabled India to launch a no-holds-barred charge in the death overs.

Sharma began the charge scoring boundaries almost at will.

The 28-year-old right-hander brought up his century with a majestic six over long on off pacer Merchant de Lange in the 15th over.

Kohli also achieved a personal milestone in the process, becoming the first Indian to score 1,000 runs in T20 internationals.

Though first Kohli and then Sharma departed in the same over, dismissed by Abbott, India were firmly placed to post a strong total.

Abbot was South Africa’s most successful bowler picking up two wickets for 29 runs.

Abbott (2/29) was the pick of visitor’s bowlers. - IANS

CRICKET

England must beat Australia to avoid early exit CARDIFF: The Pool A maths are complicated and the permutations many, but hosts England go into Saturday’s showdown with Australia knowing defeat means an exit from the Rugby World Cup in the opening round for the first time.

A week after their shock 28-25 defeat to Wales stopped their campaign in its tracks, the hosts must rouse themselves for yet another high pressure encounter at Twickenham.

“It is a huge game,” England coach Stuart Lancaster said on Thursday. “We respect the quality of opposition but we know we can beat them.”

England have indeed won four of their last five matches against Australia but Lancaster, and his opposite number Michael Cheika, are aware that World Cups are markedly different from June and November tours. The match (kickoff 1900 GMT) renews a rivalry that has taken in two World Cup finals, resulting in one win apiece, and is traditionally presented as a clash between Australia’s backline Cavaliers and the muscle-bound Roundheads of England’s pack.

Both teams have moved to augment their traditional strengths and address their weaknesses in the run-up to this tournament, however, and it could be the success or otherwise of those efforts

INDIA R. Sharma c Morris b Abbott 106 S. Dhawan run out (de Lange/de Villiers) 3 V. Kohli c Duminy b Abbott 43 S. Raina lbw b Morris 14 MS Dhoni not out 20 A. Rayudu run out 0 A. Patel not out 2 Extras (lb-2, w-8, nb-1) 11 Total (5 wickets; 20 overs) 199 Fall of wickets: 1-22, 2-160, 3-162, 4-184, 5-184 Bowling: Kyle Abbott 4-0-29-2, Kagiso Rabada 4-0-32-0, Merchant de Lange 4-047-0, Chris Morris 4-0-46-1, Imran Tahir 3-0-35-0, Jean-Paul Duminy 1-0-8-0 SOUTH AFRICA H. Amla run out 36 AB de Villiers b Ashwin 51 F du Plessis b Aravind 4 JP Duminy not out 68 F. Behardien not out 32 Extras (lb-5, w-4) 9 Total (3 wickets; 19.4 overs) 200 Fall of wickets: 1-77, 2-93, 3-95 Bowling: Bhuvneshwar Kumar 4-0-40-0, Sreenath Aravind 3.4-0-44-1, Mohit Sharma 4-0-40-0, Axar Patel 4-0-45-0, Ravichandran Ashwin 4-0-26-1

Duminy (68 of 34

HARD WORKOUT: Australian players at a training session. – Reuters

that will decide Saturday’s match.

Lancaster has talent out wide and has brought more creativity into his backline with the recall from injury of Jonathan Joseph at outside centre and the relegation of rugby league convert Sam Burgess to the bench.

It is, however, still on the forwards that England will pin their hopes of a victory that would keep alive their bid to win a second World Cup. Cheika was given a wake-up call when he first took charge of a Wallabies side at Twickenham last year and England showed him that the weak-

ness in the Australian pack was no mere perception but a potentially decisive fact.

He has since overhauled his front five but acknowledges that the success or otherwise of his work can only be properly judged after Saturday’s match.

“I know they think we’re weak in the forwards,” Cheika said.

“The only place things are going to be different is on the field on Saturday night and that’s where we’ve got to show our colours.

Talk’s cheap, you know.”

A key confrontation could be in the back row where Australia’s

world class openside flankers David Pocock and Michael Hooper will take on an England loose trio without a recognised “fetcher”.

England, for their part, will hope the combined muscle mass of Tom Wood, skipper Chris Robshaw and Ben Morgan will help overwhelm the Australians.

Wales and Australia meet at Twickenham in their final Pool A game on Oct. 10, while England take on Uruguay in Manchester later the same day in what the entire host nation, and the tournament organisers, will be hoping is not a dead rubber. - Reuters

Worst period in my career, says Chelsea manager LONDON: Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho says he is going through the worst period of his managerial career with his team winning just four of their 11 matches this season.

The Premier League champions currently sit 14th in the table after seven games, having just won twice in the league.

It is the kind of position they regularly occupied before the arrival of billionaire Roman Abramovitch in 2003, but one that younger Chelsea fans are unused to seeing them in.

Chelsea, who kept 17 league clean sheets last season, have kept just one so far against Arsenal, and have conceded 14 goals. Only Sunderland, who are bottom, have let in more in the league.

No team has allowed their opponents more shots on target than Chelsea, while Saturday’s opponents Southampton have allowed the fewest in the league this season.

“I define this as the worst period in my career. It’s a fantastic

experience, even though I don’t want to repeat it again,” Mourinho told reporters at the club’s training ground at Cobham, south of London.

“Players know when they make mistakes. I don’t know what it’s like in your offices, but nobody seems to care about your mistakes,” he said.

Mourinho refused to be drawn on the subject of Eva Carnero, the former first team doctor who quit after being criticised by the manager. Although he was cleared by the FA of discriminatory charges against the doctor, FA chairman Greg Dyke said on Thursday Mourinho was in the wrong and should have apologised.

“I’m not going to comment, one day I will but not today,” the 52-year-old said.

Branislav Ivanovic has been heavily criticised for his performances this season, but Mourinho continued to back the player, saying the Serbia international is the best right-back in the league, but conceding that his form must improve. — Reuters

A 12

S ATUR DAY, O CTOBER 3, 2 015

SPORTS Yahya claims gold for Oman The focus was indeed on the men’s -66kg category in the evening, with Yahya Al Kiyumi bringing cheers for the hosts with a golden lift of 190kg

Sports Reporter

CHAMPION LIFTER: Oman’s gold medal winner Yahya Al Kiyumi, centre, and bronze medal winner Khalifa Al Jamahi, left, during the medal ceremony. – Times of Oman / JUN ESTRADA

BADMINTON

SUCCESSFUL LIFT: Oman’s Yahya Al Kiyumi lifts 190kg to win Oman’s first gold. – Times of Oman / JUN ESTRADA

gold tried to lift 192kg, but failed in his attempt.

The championship was inaugurated by chief guest Khalfan bin Saleh Al Na’abi, Advisor at the Ministry of Sports Affairs.

The hosts are represented in the competition by 18 players at the three categories namely men, youth and juniors to get advanced positive and achieve positive results.

84 sportsmen and women from 12 countries are taking part in the event. Oman also clinched a silver medal on Friday, when Abdulmajeed Al Battashi lifted 120kg in the -59kg category.

In the morning, India’s Nidhi

Patil (57kg) lifted 82.5 kg to win the gold, while Pakistan’s Twinkle Suhaila too claimed a gold medal in the open women’s event.

Indian men too had their share of medal haul on the opening day.

Meanwhile, gold medal winner Yahya thanked all the supporters and Ministry of Sports Affairs for the success.

“I thank coach Ahmed Al Hassani for the achievement and I must say that it was a tough competition from the Iranian,” said a cheerful Yahya.

The competitions continue with the heavyweights entering fray on Saturday.

SAILING

Albert survives MUSCAT: Albert V.R., the top seed in the Open Men’s Singles event at the National Bank of Oman (NBO)-sponsored Annual Badminton Tournament organized by the Indian Social Club Muscat survived a scare before advancing to the third round.

Prasad Kulkarni made life difficult for Albert who was nursing a sore back before the seasoned campaigner got his act together and rallied from a game down to win with final scores of 14-21, 21-10, 21-17. Prasad maintained a marginal lead throughout the first game and with some brilliant all-round play, denied Albert any chance of a comeback. The experienced Alber bounced back to win the second game.

He could not repeat the heroics of the second game as Prasad kept him on his toes. Alber held a 12-6 lead but Prasad rallied to reduce the difference to 16-14.

It was vintage Albert thereafter as he gained game point with a brilliant placement and Prasad’s next forehand return went

MUSCAT: Oman made a golden start, thanks to lifter Yahya Al Kiyumi, to their campaign in the Asian Bench Press Championship, which got underway at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex.

After the grand opening ceremony on Thursday, the action proper started on Friday, with the women’s competition in the morning session and the men’s event in the evening.

The focus, however was indeed on the men’s -66kg category in the evening, with Yahya Al Kiyumi bringing cheers for the hosts with a golden lift of 190kg.

Adding to the cheers in the same category was Khalifa Al Jamahi, who lifted 100kg to pocket the bronze. The silver medal in the event was bagged by Iran’s Kinoh Rstbadi, who had to be content with a lift of 189kg. The Iranian, however, in his quest to clinch the

Albert V.R.

long to hand the game to the top seed. Third seed Percy Pereira marched into round three with a comfortable 21-7, 21-6 victory over Ramesh Ekambram.

The duo of Sujil Alwin and Babu Said to ghrough their first round veterans doubles match after a convincing 21-6, 21-11 victory over Shaji Thomas and Rajan Philips, Sunil Kumar and Shibu John rallied to defeat K. Sashindran and Haridas 14-21, 21-17, 21-18, the team of VA Francis and Yogesh Narula beat Ameenuddin and Rajeev Kumar 21-16, 21-9 and the duo of Vinod VT and VD Sajeev defeated Dr. Moiddin and Dr. Basheer 21-16, 21-11.

The Wave makes stunning start MUSCAT: Leigh McMillan let team grit do the talking when The Wave, Muscat opened their bid for the Extreme Sailing Series’ Istanbul crown with a clean sweep of seven podium places plus a further four from Stevie Morrison on Oman Air. Winners of the first Istanbul event in 2012 and now intent on making Extreme Sailing Series history by winning four consecutive Acts in a season, McMillan and his crew of Nasser Al Mashari, Sarah Ayton, Ed Smyth and Pete Greenhalgh quickly hit their straps, posting a resounding 188m victory in the first race.

This was followed immediately by two more bullets and then a fourth win in Race 5 and with three other podium places to count, The Wave, Muscat closed the day with a healthy nine point lead over SAP Extreme Sailing Team with three days racing remaining.

“We were very happy with the way we sailed today and it was great to get a few wins under our

GOOD BEGINNING: The Wave, Muscat, dominating opening day.

belt,” McMillan said. “The conditions were awesome and we were consistent but there is a long way to go yet and we have to focus on the next four days.”

As they raced down the Bosphorus Strait with Europe on one side and Asia on the other, the Extreme 40 crews experienced fresh but shifty winds which provided classic racing conditions.

“It was very enjoyable because although it was shifty, we had

flat water and because it is a big course, we were able to make sure our boat handling and team work were up to scratch. I would say our teamwork was exceptional,” said Al Mashari.

“We hope for more of the same tomorrow though it would be nice to have a little more sunshine.”

Racing on the open water race course close to the entrance to the Bosphorus felt like ‘normal sailing’ said Oman Air skipper Stevie

Morrison, who enjoyed one of his best days of the season with three second places and a third to lie in fourth place overnight.

“This bigger course gives us time to think which feels slightly more like normal sailing and that suited us nicely. It was a great days racing and we are looking forward to tomorrow because the conditions are forecast to be the same.”

Live coverage of the Extreme Sailing Series Istanbul starts on Friday at 14:30 local time (GMT+3) with live 3D graphics and frequent Twitter updates @ extremesailing @OmanSail.

Further west in the Mediterranean, Nathan Outteridge and his crew on Sultanate of Oman, who are standing in for McMillan for the final event in the Bullitt GC32 Racing Tour in Marseille, were lying in third place, 11 points behind leaders Alinghi, with everything to play for going in to the penultimate day tomorrow. The team needs a top three in Marseille to win the season title.

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GM SEES DOUBLE-DIGIT GROWTH FOR NEXT YEAR GM said it will increase its return to investors by stronger profit margins in China and North America, as well as operating efficiencies and share buybacks >B3

T R A N S - PAC I F I C PA R T N E R S H I P

Pacific countries extend talks in bid to clinch trade deal ATLANTA: Trade ministers from a dozen Pacific nations meeting in Atlanta extended talks on a sweeping trade deal until Saturday in a bid to get a final agreement on the most ambitious trade pact in a generation. Officials extended talks originally scheduled to wrap up on Thursday in a determined effort to produce a breakthrough on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would liberalise trade in 40 per cent of the world economy for a region stretching from Vietnam to Canada.

No one wants to leave “No one wants to leave without an agreement,” Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo told Reuters after a second plenary session of top officials from all 12 nations. “The good news is that we

CRUCIAL PACT: US Trade Representative Michael Froman (centre) takes a break from negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP) trade treaty in Atlanta. — AFP

ECONOMY

Unemployment rises in Spain MADRID: Pace of job creation in Spain continued to slow in September as the country heads into the final months before a general election pegged on employment.

The number of unemployed Spaniards rose by 26,087, the Labour Ministry said, adding to two consecutive months of rising joblessness. On a seasonally-adjusted basis, unemployment fell by 9,746 people. Adding to the mix data was social security sign-ups, a measure of staff, which rose for the month, albeit at a lower pace.

“On a seasonally-adjusted basis, it was a good month,” said Miguel Cardoso, chief Spain economist at Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA in Madrid, adding that most jobs came from the education sector, coinciding with the start of the school year. “The question is whether this helps reverse the trend from the previous months, or the pace of job creation slows as the economy decelerates going into the second-half.”

Unemployment typically rises in September as temporary summer workers are laid off when the tourist season comes to a close.

Even so, from a year earlier, jobless claims were 353,608 lower, the biggest September drop since official records began.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is entering the final months of his four-year term, with elections due Dec. 20. Rajoy has pegged his reelection campaign to faster growth and job creation, promising to have 20 million people at work by the end of his second term from the current 17 million.

Earlier this week, the Bank of Spain reined in the government’s growth forecast, pointing to an economic slowdown. — Bloomberg News

tries have protection periods ranging from 12 years in the United States to five years in countries including Australia and Chile.

A deal would be a legacy-defining achievement for US President Barack Obama. But the trade deal is seen as a threat by an array of interest groups from Mexican auto workers to Quebec dairy farmers to cancer patients who worry that it could push the cost of new therapies out of reach.

Congressional concerns In a reassertion of concern in Congress, a group of US lawmakers from both parties sent a letter to US Trade Representative Michael Froman and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Wednesday.

“We urge you to take the time necessary to get the best deal pos-

sible for the United States, working closely with us,” said the letter signed by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch as well as the senior Democrats on those two committees.

Several Republicans attacked a new US proposal to ensure governments would be free to enact antismoking measures without fear of legal action by tobacco companies.

That could prevent companies like Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco from using rules to protect foreign investors to challenge public health measures but falls short of the sweeping measure antismoking groups had hoped for.

Guajardo further said that talks on auto trade had progressed but were not over yet. — Reuters

US payrolls rise less than projected in September Addition of 142,000 jobs followed a revised 136,000 gain the prior month that was lower than previously estimated, a Labour Department report showed on Friday in Washington

LONG WAIT: Job seekers view information at a booth during a Job Fair Giant career fair in Sterling Heights, Michigan, US, on Wednesday. - Bloomberg file picture

WASHINGTON: Payrolls rose less than projected in September, wages stagnated and the jobless rate was unchanged as people left the workforce, signalling the global slowdown and financial-market turmoil are rippling through the world’s largest economy.

The addition of 142,000 jobs followed a revised 136,000 gain the prior month that was lower than previously estimated, a Labour Department report showed on Friday in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of 96 economists called for a 201,000 advance. The jobless rate held at 5.1 per cent, and wage growth was unchanged.

The weak report vindicates the Federal Reserve’s decision to de-

lay an interest-rate increase last month. Cooling overseas markets, a stronger dollar and lower oil prices that are hampering exports and manufacturing raise the risk that employers will hesitate before taking on more staff.

Weaker-than-expected A weaker-than-expected report “would chip away at confidence about the strength of the expansion,” Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania, said before the report. “It may be a signal that there was a knee-jerk reaction by businesses to the market volatility,” he further added.

Employers added workers in industries including retailing, edu-

POST SANCTION

BP executives visit Iran with an eye to new opportunities LONDON: BP officials met with Iranian oil executives late last month in Tehran as the British company seeks to return to the country once sanctions are lifted.

“BP has met with oil industry officials in Iran recently,” a company spokesman said in an e-mail. “The details of those discussions are confidential. We have said for some time that we would be interested in reviewing opportunities in Iran once sanctions permit it.”

Although BP wasn’t part of a business group that travelled to Tehran with UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond in August when he opened the British embassy, CEO Bob Dudley said in June the company would be “very much” interested in investing in Iran when sanctions are lifted.

The company is “fully in compliance” with sanctions until then, the spokesman said.

BP, which has worked in the Middle East since 1908, are interested in Iran because it holds the world’s fourth-largest oil re-

will not leave here without one.”

Observers pointed to progress on autos, Canada’s pledge to compensate farmers hurt by imports and signs of a possible compromise on patent protection for new drugs as evidence of advancement - although that remained a key sticking point. “We are starting to see the path to an agreement and have agreed to make final efforts,” Japanese Economy Minister Akira Amari told reporters.

Several officials said a final deal could come quickly depending on the outcome of bilateral talks on intellectual property protection for medicines and trade in dairy and autos.

Amari said the monopoly period for biologic drugs, which are made from living cells, was the most difficult issue remaining. TPP coun-

– Bloomberg file picture

serves and biggest gas deposits, according to the company’s data.

Iran earlier this year came to an agreement with the US and other world powers to curb its nuclear programme. Lukoil, Russia’s second-largest oil producer, plans to sign a deal on exploration and production with Iran following changes in the nation’s tax laws, the company’s billionaire CEO Vagit Alekperov said on Friday.

Eni, Italy’s largest oil producer, is interested in returning to Iran

once sanctions end as long as it can first recover investments made in the country, CEO Claudio Descalzi said July 30.

Iran plans to increase crude output by two million barrels a day and natural gas production by about seven billion standard cubic feet from about 50 energy projects that will be offered to investors at a conference in Tehran next month, National Iranian Oil Managing Director Roknoddin Javadi said. — Bloomberg News

cation, and leisure and hospitality.

Payroll estimates of 96 economists in the Bloomberg survey ranged from gains of 149,000 to 256,000 after a previously reported 173,000 advance for August.

The unemployment rate, which is derived from a separate Labor Department survey of households, was projected to hold at 5.1 percent, the lowest since 2008, according to the survey median.

Revisions to prior reports cut a total of 59,000 jobs from payrolls in the previous two months.

Private employment, which excludes government agencies, rose by 118,000 after a 100,000 gain the prior month. Government payrolls rose by 24,000. Employment at state and local agencies is often

influenced at this time of the year by swings in the education sector related to the timing of the school year. There may be some payback after the surge in local government education payrolls in recent months, Ted Wieseman, an economist at Morgan Stanley, said in a note before the report.

Factory payrolls fell by 9,000.

Manufacturing and mining have been hurt by cutbacks in drilling and exploration following the plunge in oil and commodities prices. Exports also are weakening amid a China-led slowdown in global growth.

Retailers increased payrolls by 23,700. Employment in leisure and hospitality rose 35,000.

The participation rate, which

indicates the share of the working-age people in the labour force, decreased to 62.4 per cent from 62.6 per cent. That was the lowest since October 1977.

The average work week for all workers fell to 34.5 hours from 34.6 hours.

Average hourly earnings were unchanged from the month before, the report showed.

They increased 2.2 per cent over the 12 months ended in September, the same year-over-year change as in August. They’ve posted a two per cent gain on average since the current expansion began in mid-2009.

Among the few positive signs in the report was a figure showing more full-time job opportunities.

Americans working part time who would prefer a full-time position decreased to 6.04 million, the fewest since August 2008, from 6.48 million.

Underemployment Underemployment rate — which includes part-time workers who’d prefer a full-time position and people who want to work but have given up looking — dropped to 10 per cent, the lowest since May 2008, from 10.3 per cent.

The gap between the unemployment rate and the underemployment rate is one reason Fed Chair Janet Yellen and other policy makers have said they’ll increase interest rates only gradually. In a speech last week Yellen said there are still people seeking full-time work who could be pulled back into the labour force if the jobless level fell further. — Bloomberg News

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S ATUR DAY, OCTOBER 3, 2 015

MARKET Major machinery makers smell opportunity in China is targeting $1 billion in sales from the overall region before 2020 and expects its China business to quadruple by then.

For manufacturers like US-based AGCO and Deere & Co and Italy’s CNH Industrial, Chinese demand for big machines could help to offset weakness in North America and Europe, where farm incomes are declining with global commodity prices

BEIJING: The world’s largest makers of tractors and combines are finding a rare opportunity for growth in China despite a sharp slowdown in the world’s No. 2 economy, with big farm machines in demand as the rural labour force shrinks and plot sizes grow.

For manufacturers like USbased AGCO and Deere & Co and Italy’s CNH Industrial, Chinese demand for big machines could help to offset weakness in North America and Europe, where farm incomes are declining with global commodity prices.

The trend also contrasts with stalling sales in construction equipment and passenger cars,

which have been hit by the slowing Chinese economy.

Powerful equipment Driving this binge on bigger, more powerful equipment to till larger farms is a combination of labour migration to the cities, land reforms and government subsidies that is spurring consolidation of the country’s vast small landholdings.

“People are just getting ready,” said Alexious Lee, head of China industrial research at investment bank CLSA, pointing to the widespread move towards larger farms.

“Whether from the dealers or

STRONG DEMAND: Thousands of state and co-op farms of 3,500 hectares need bigger tractors and combines to cultivate and harvest their agribusiness-size plots. - Bloomberg file picture

the financing side, everyone is skewing towards this angle.”

The average farm in China was smaller than a football field in 2012, but still nearly 900,000 “family farms” had an average size of 13.3 hectares (33 acres), according to data from China’s agriculture ministry.

While these family plots were still less than a tenth of the average US farm, further expansions in size are expected as Beijing urges more efficient agriculture and takes steps towards reforming land rights.

Several thousand state and coop farms of about 3,500 hectares each also need bigger tractors and

combines to cultivate and harvest their agribusiness-size plots.

Total sales of 100-129 horsepower (hp) tractors in China increased 38 per cent in the first half of 2015 compared with the same period last year, according to AGCO, owner of the Massey Ferguson brand.

And even though overall farm equipment sales for AGCO and others in China were flat through the first half of the year, long-term prospects look brighter.

Asia-Pacific accounted for only five per cent of AGCO’s $9.7 billion in revenues last year, but the company — which recently opened its fifth factory in China —

Co-ops and subsidies The slowdown in agricultural sales in the United States and other markets is probably too big for China to counter alone, although CNH International expects “significant acceleration” in the country overall, said Luca Mainardi, head of agriculture construction operations in China for CNH International.

“The main growth is from cooperatives, which have been growing rapidly in number the last five years thanks to Chinese government support,” Mainardi said.

CNH sells tractors of 140-230 hp in China, the high end of the market, and just started producing combines there. Mainardi reckons there could be about 5,000 co-op farms in China, with their number growing by 15-20 per cent each year.— Reuters

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CREDIT-TRACKING FIRM

15 T-Mobile consumers’ data hacked LONDON: T-Mobile US said about 15 million consumers who filled out credit applications with the wireless carrier may have had their personal information stolen by hackers.

The breach happened when attackers gained access to a database containing T-Mobile’s information that was run by Experian, the credit-tracking firm, the carrier said on Thursday. The hackers stole names, addresses and social security numbers. People who submitted credit applications from September 1, 2013, to September 16, 2015, were affected, TMobile said.

“Obviously I am incredibly angry about this data breach and we will institute a thorough review of our relationship with Experian, but right now my top concern and first focus is assisting any and all consumers affected,” John Legere, TMobile US’s chief executive officer, wrote in a letter to consumers.

Experian shares dropped 4.4 per cent to 1,028 pence at 8:50am in London after earlier falling as low as 1,018 pence, the lowest level since December 2014. Deutsche Telekom, the parent of T-Mobile US, added one per cent to 15.21 euros in Frankfurt. T-Mobile US rose 0.8 per cent to $40.13 in New York on Thursday. — Bloomberg News

M I S - S O L D R E PAY M E N T I N S U R A N C E

Britain regulator plans 2018 deadline for insurance compensation claims LONDON: Britain’s financial services industry regulator said on Friday it intended to set a 2018 deadline for retail borrowers to claim compensation for being missold repayment insurance, drawing a line under Britain’s costliest consumer finance scandal.

Over the last five years banks have already set aside more than 28 billion pounds ($42 billion) to meet compensation claims from customers sold payment protection insurance (PPI) policies.

PPI policies were supposed to protect borrowers in the event of sickness or unemployment but were often sold to people who would have been ineligible to claim.

But the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said on Friday it planned to introduce a deadline for further PPI claims, as more than 20 billion pounds has already been paid out to over 10 million consumers.

“We take the view that a deadline... would help bring finality and certainty in a way that advances the FCA’s operational objectives of securing an appropriate degree of protection for consumers and protecting and enhancing the integrity of the UK financial system,” the regulator said.

The British Bankers’ Association, which has been lobbying for

PPI CLAIMS: Financial Conduct Authority said on Friday it planned to introduce a deadline for further payment protection insurance claims, as more than 20 billion pounds has already been paid out to over 10m consumers. - Bloomberg file picture

a deadline, had no immediate comment.

Ending inertia The watchdog said it aimed to issue a consultation by the end of the year, and set the deadline two years from the rules coming into force. The new rules would not come in before spring 2016, so consumers will have until at least spring 2018 to complain, it said.

Normally there is an automatic

deadline of three years on complaints about financial products but none was set with PPI as many customers were unaware they had bought the product.

The watchdog said that it was an appropriate time to set a deadline as rules on PPI claims have been in place since 2010 and surveys showed most people were aware of possible compensation.

A deadline could help end some of the “inertia” being seen as some

consumers are not bothering to make a claim, the FCA said. It could give no figures on potential remaining claims.

A high and growing proportion of PPI claims now go back a decade or more, with the evidence to back them becoming increasingly “stale” or patchy, the FCA said.

The FCA said that sales of loan insurance fell dramatically after early 2009 and the current rules and guidance about making a complaint have been in place since December 2010.

The regulator said the time limit would also apply to complaints being contemplated following a landmark ruling last year by the Supreme Court, which suggested there might be an additional cause for complaint.

The court found that Paragon Personal Finance breached the Consumer Credit Act by failing to tell a customer the charge for their policy included a big commission paid to Paragon and a broker.

If the ruling was applied to all PPI claims, banks may need to pay out billions of pounds more in compensation.

The watchdog will consult on rules and guidance about how firms should handle PPI complaints in light of the so-called Plevin judgment by the Supreme Court. — Reuters

AU G U S T D ATA

Japan’s household spending picks up TOKYO: Japan’s household spending rose in August for the first time in three months and the availability of jobs improved to its best in more than two decades, which could temper concerns that the economy has fallen into a recession.

The 2.9 per cent annual increase in household spending in August was more than the median estimate for a 0.4 per cent year-

on-year increase and followed a 0.2 per cent annual decline in July as consumers bought more cars.

A separate survey from the Bank of Japan (BOJ) showed corporate inflation expectations weakened slightly last quarter, which could bolster the argument that the central bank will ease monetary policy at the end of this month when it updates its longterm economic forecasts.

“Household spending and the tight labour market are a positive sign that the economy is chugging along,” said Norio Miyagawa, senior economist at Mizuho Securities. “I don’t expect the BOJ ease when it meets next week.

The BOJ is likely to lower its consumer price forecasts at the end of the month, so it faces a test of credibility if it doesn’t ease policy then,” he added. — Reuters

SAT URDAY, O CTO BER 3, 2015

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MARKET LU X U RY WAT C H T R A D E S H O W

Six new luxury watches that wowed at ‘Watches & Wonders’ every surface. This special edition commemorates the wouldbe 200th birthday of the brand’s founder and is made in Lange’s proprietary “honey gold,” which has a warm hue similar to that of the German silver used in the movement. There are only 200 of these, each individually numbered, and I can’t imagine they’ll last very long in the boutiques. $33,500.

NEW YORK: While Baselworld and SIHH are the two biggest trade shows in the world of luxury wristwatches, they’re not the only ones.

This week Watches & Wonders arrived in Hong Kong, bringing the first big burst of new watches since March.

Most of the headline-making watches are either gem-encrusted or high-complication items made mostly for marketing. But I’ve sifted through the more outlandish offerings and found six that are understated and highly-wearable. These are the new releases that matter.

IWC Portofino Rolex might have the best-known day-date watch out there, but it certainly doesn’t have the monopoly. The new Portofino Day & Date has an oversized date window at 12 o’clock, as well as a circular day-of-the-week indicator at 3 o’clock. A running seconds dial at 6 o’clock and a power reserve metre at 9 o’clock balance the dial out, so things don’t look lopsided.

The eight-day power reserve (that’s 192 hours) means you can put this into regular rotation with your other watches and not have to reset the day and date every time you strap it on.

The massive 45-millimeter diameter size and dressier dial don’t quite sync up for me, but if larger watches are your thing, this Portofino is a nice mid-level complication. From $13,300

ELEGANT MODELS: Most of the headline-making watches are either gem-encrusted or high-complication items made mostly for marketing. - Bloomberg file picture

Heritage Chronométrie This is another take on Montblanc’s popular Heritage Chronométrie Dual Time (like the one Robot star Rami Malek wore, here) adapted to the Vasco da Gama theme that has developed across the brand’s limited releases this year. With only 238 pieces made, Montblanc adds a red gold crown and bezel to the standard steel case, giving you the look of gold without the weight and price of a

LICENCING FEES

Nevada ‘patent troll’ fights Google, Samsung in court LONDON: Across the river from Reno’s district, above an Italian restaurant, you can find the littleknown company that says it “invented the mobile Internet.”

Unwired Planet has 16 employees and no products. What it does have is a portfolio of more than 2,000 patents, mostly acquired from Ericsson, which it says on its website are “considered foundational to mobile communications.”

The Nevada-based firm wants more than just recognition.

Starting next week it takes on three of the world’s biggest technology companies — Samsung Electronics, Huawei Technologies and Google — in a London courtroom for six sprawling patent trials that will last more than a year.

For the phone-makers, the cases are little more than a nuisance.

They say in court documents that Unwired Planet is seeking excessive licencing fees for patents that aren’t even valid. If approved, the intellectual property could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties to Unwired Planet, which is currently valued at about $85 million.

Proprietary gadgets As smartphones became ubiquitous, so did legal disputes about who invented the roughly quarter of a million proprietary gadgets in every handset. The emergence of firms that exist solely to acquire patents and wring money out of them by threatening lawsuits has led to calls in the US for legislation to combat so-called patent trolls.

“It’s become a hackneyed term that’s used in a derogatory way,” Unwired Planet general counsel Noah Mesel said. He prefers the description “patent-licencing company.”

“You can call us anything you like,” he said.

“We happen to be at the point in our business cycle where what’s left is a patent portfolio.”

solid gold watch. The dial has also been spruced up with a stars motif tucked into the 24-hour dial at 12 o’clock and a 3D globe illustration in the seconds register at 6 o’clock.

These elements are taken from the much more expensive models in the collection and make this watch look more complicated than it is. It’s a little more in-your-face than the all-steel version with the plain dial, but it’s still easy enough to wear day in and day out.

A. Lange & Söhne The basic time-only 1815 is one of the simplest watches in Lange’s line-up, as well as one of the best.

It has a handsome, easy-to-read dial, sharp hands, and a versatile 40mm case.

The movement inside exemplifies what German watchmaking is all about, with the large plate on top, the engraved balance cock holding the spring and wheel, and the high degree of decoration on

Panerai Radiomir 1940 Not every Panerai is big enough to use as a dinner plate. These models use the familiar Radiomir 1940 shape with angular edges and sturdy lugs, but it comes in a 42mm diameter instead of the more common 45mm and 47mm sizes. You can opt for either steel or red gold, and both are powered by Panerai’s in-house P.1000 movement, which is hand-wound and has a three-day power reserve. While these might be Panerai’s “entry level” watches, they punch far above their weight class and offer good value in both aesthetics and mechanics.

Piaget Limelight Stella Understatement isn’t very common in the world of women’s watches. The more diamonds and the brighter the colours, the more watchmakers seem to think women will want the watch.

With the Limelight Stella, Piaget takes a different approach.

This watch is all about admiring the large moon-phase complica-

Cartier Mysterious Hour Cartier invented the “mystery clock” in the late 19th century and recently resurrected it in wristwatch form. The signature style has hands anchored in the centre of a transparent dial, so it looks as if they’re floating in mid-air. (In reality, the mechanics are hidden around the edges.) Here, Cartier adapts an asymmetrical version to fit in a palladium Clé-style case.

The contrast between the exposed mechanisms on the right and the totally see-through dial on the left (it’s tough to see in this photo because of the white background, but your skin would show through the dial) is really stark and gives the watch an element of dynamism.

If you’ve got hairy wrists, it’s probably best to steer clear, but otherwise this is a watch that will baffle everyone you meet. $68,500. - Bloomberg News

GM sees double-digit growth for next year GM said it will increase its return to investors by stronger profit

– Bloomberg file picture

margins in China Patent troll is “a loaded term,” said Stephen Haber, a political science professor at Stanford University. “It might best be understood as ‘a patent licensing company that the speaker wants the listener to dislike.’”

Huawei said it would “vigorously defend its legitimate rights.”

Spokesmen for Samsung and Google, which isn’t involved in the first trial, didn’t respond to an email and phone call seeking comment. How did a company most people have never heard of come to lay claim to elements found in virtually every smartphone?

“Unwired Planet at one point had 2,200 employees,” Mesel said in a phone interview. “We were in the innovation business.”

The company was once known as Openwave Systems which developed mobile software before losing ground to rivals Nokia Oyj and Ericsson and selling its products business in 2012 to focus on intellectual property.

In 2013, Ericsson agreed to transfer 2,185 patents to Unwired Planet in return for a share of whatever the company could earn licensing them: 20 per cent of anything over $100 million and as much as 70 per cent for income above $500 million.

Unwired Planet says Samsung, Huawei and Google used Ericsson technology: esoteric but essential components that allow a mobile phone to connect to networks.

“Things that only engineers talk about,” Mesel said.— Bloomberg News

tion that takes up most of the top half of the dial. Little details such as the star on the back of the seconds hand and the subtle textures in the dial make this a watch you want to keep looking at in search of more, and it all sits in a curved, 36mm case.

The only glitz present is a fairly discrete wave of diamonds under the moon-phase disk that doesn’t overwhelm the rest of the watch.

This is Piaget we’re talking about though, so if you need more diamonds, you can opt for a diamond bezel as well.

and North America, as well as operating efficiencies and

MAKING A POINT: Mary Barra, chief executive officer of General Motors. - Bloomberg file picture

share buybacks

MILFORD, (Michigan): General Motors (GM) told Wall Street on Thursday that its recovery is gathering momentum with improving margins, strong brands, new markets for high-tech vehicles, and prospects for stronger profits in coming years.

The No. 1 US automaker said it is targeting an increase in earnings per share to between $5 and $5.50 per share before items, from the $4.50 per share that Wall Street analysts expect for this year. GM earned $3.05 per share in 2014 before items.

GM said it will increase its return to investors by stronger profit margins in China and North America, as well as operating efficiencies and share buybacks.

An improving US economy and rapid jobs growth have put 2015 US car sales on track for sales of more than 17 million. GM, the market leader, has shown a 4.2 per cent increase in the US market through September, which is expected to be in line with industry growth when that figure is known later on Thursday.

In an annual presentation to investors in the Detroit suburb

Company will develop its autonomous vehicle programme by having its employees at its primary technical centre in Warren, Michigan drive a fleet of plug-in hybrid 2017 Chevrolet Volts Mary Barra GM Chief Executive

of Milford, Michigan, GM said its pre-tax global margins target is 9 percent to 10 percent by “early next decade.”

The Detroit-based automaker, which reported a 12-per cent rise in US September sales, has had a difficult time convincing Wall Street of its value and its shares have fallen below $30 recently, well short of its 2010 initial public offering of $33 per share.

That IPO came a little over a year after GM emerged from a government-funded bankruptcy

in which the company pared four of its brands and much of its US dealership network.

GM said it will have revenue of $155 billion this year as well as global margins of 6.8 per cent and a 24 per cent return on invested capital. Shares rose 1.3 per cent to $30.42 on the New York Stock Exchange, while the broader market was down slightly. The company will save about $5.5 billion in the next three years in efficiencies in manufacturing, administration and purchasing, which will pay

for investments in technology and brand development.

The savings through 2018 will “more than offset” the technology and brand investments, GM said.

Some $2 billion of the savings will be on materials GM uses for its vehicles, said Mark Reuss, the company’s global product chief.

GM Chief Executive Mary Barra said the company will develop its autonomous vehicle programme by having its employees at its primary technical centre in Warren, Michigan drive a fleet of plug-in hybrid 2017 Chevrolet Volts.

“We will redefine customers and their personal mobility,” said Barra. Barra spoke with Reuters about this effort earlier this week.

She said this effort “starts with connectivity” that will be used to advance its autonomous vehicles.

It will also include an electric bicycle that the company expects to be sold in densely populated global cities. It plans to launch a citywide car sharing service in the US in early 2016, expanding efforts to compete for revenue from consumers who want to pay for using cars instead of owning them.

Barra said GM executives will update investors on its plans in China and India later on Thursday. GM plans for 39 per cent of its global sales to come from new or refreshed vehicles, up from 26 per cent this year. It said that the share of those new vehicles will be 40 per cent of its total sales in 2017, 31 per cent in 2018, and 40 per cent in both 2019 and 2020.

Barra said she has not had any further contact with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV . Several months ago, Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne sent Barra an email saying he wanted the two companies to merge, a notion Barra has consistently said she and the company’s board of directors are not interested in.

GM said it expects $9 billion to $10 billion of annual free cash flow by 2020. -Reuters

B4

S ATUR DAY, OCTOBER 3, 2 015

FEATURE

CHINA’S SURGING LOBSTER DEMAND US exports to China rose to 8,560 metric tonnes last year, up 22-fold from 2009, US Department of Agriculture data show.

E

very Sunday for the past seven months, about 60,000 live North American lobsters packed in wet newspapers and Styrofoam coolers make the 18-hour flight to Asia in a Korean Air Lines Co. cargo plane.

The 7,500-mile (12,000-kilometer) trip from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Shanghai via South Korea has become a weekly routine this year with a surge in demand from China, where lobsters caught in North Atlantic waters are at least one-third the cost of competing supplies. As a result, exports have skyrocketed from Canada and the US, the world’s top producers, and American prices are the highest ever. With no lobster industry of its own, China had relied mostly on Australian imports to satisfy growing demand as its middle class expanded. When the catch began shrinking off Western Australia, and a 2012 glut i n

the Gulf of Maine sent prices plunging in the US that year, it became more attractive for the world’s most-populous nation to buy from halfway around the world. “When the domestic market collapsed, we looked farther and farther” for buyers, said Stephanie Nadeau, who shipped 2.5 million pounds last year by air to China for The Lobster Co. in Arundel, Maine. “I never sold a lobster to China until 2010. It was the really low price and the dealer’s desperation here because we had high catches and a god-awful economy. We had to move the lobster.”

Exports jump US exports to China rose to 8,560 metric tonnes last year, up 22fold from 2009, US Department of Agriculture data show. Shipments already are up 12 percent in 2015.

It’s easy to see why. Chinese importers shopping on Alibaba. com can buy live Canadian lobsters prized for their tail meat and big claws for $6 to $10 a pound, according to the website, compared with $20 to $33 for Australia’s Southern rock lobsters - a different species that doesn’t have claws. Increased demand from Asia provided a new outlet for US producers who saw prices drop after their catches expanded by 66 per-

cent in the decade through 2013 to 68,000 tonnes.

Buyers in Asia want their lobsters live at markets and restaurants. To survive the long trip, the sea creatures should arrive within 48 hours of being removed from water tanks, exporters say.

“You don’t get paid for dead lobsters,” Nadeau said. She added more refrigerated trucks and a storehouse in Canada with a tank to ensure stable supplies all year

“I never sold a lobster to China until 2010. It was the really low price and the dealer’s desperation here because we had high catches and a godawful economy.

Stephanie Nadeau Lobster trader for The Lobster Co. in Arundel, Maine

round, including during the busy Chinese New Year.

More expensive Not everyone is cheering the export surge. US supply tightened this year as harsh winter weather slowed the catch in Canada and frigid ocean temperatures in Maine kept lobsters away from shallow waters where they’re trapped, delaying the summer harvest, according to Michael Gardner, president of Halifaxbased Gardner Pinfold Consulting. Wholesale Canadian claw and knuckle meat is up 32 percent from a year ago, touching an all-time high of $22.75 a pound on July 31, according to research company Urner Barry, which has been tracking food prices since 1858. Steve Kingston, owner of The Clam Shack in Kennebunkport, Maine, has had more difficulty securing the 1,000 to 1,500 pounds he needs every weekend.

With costs up as much as 60 percent, he raised prices, though he said sales of lobster rolls are up 10 percent this year from last.

Rising demand For now, there’s no sign of Chinese demand slowing, and North American supply is a preferred option after declining numbers of baby lobsters reduced Australian supplies by almost half in the decade

through 2013, according to government data. In the same period, exports to China fell 60 percent.

China’s middle class may surge to 1 billion people by 2030 from about 150 million last year, boosting incomes that will drive demand for all kinds of highervalue foods, including crustaceans, said Abhay Sinha, a senior food and retail analyst at Londonbased researcher Technavio.

The country already consumes 35 percent of the world’s seafood, and by 2019 will boost consumption of all crustaceans, including crab and shrimp, by 50 percent from last year.

Lobsters are viewed as a status symbol in China, and their red colour is considered lucky, Sinha said. “Cooked lobster does the trick,” said Richard Wahle, a marine sciences professor at the University of Maine.

– Bloomberg News

B

SECTION

LIFESTYLE

S AT U R DAY, O CTO B ER 3, 2 0 1 5

Family WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM

I

t’s never too early to introduce children to science. In fact, research from the University of Pennsylvania shows that an early childhood filled with mental stimulation from educational tools results in more highly developed cognitive skills by the child’s teen years. While young children receive science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in school, it’s up to parents to enhance their exposure to these subjects outside the classroom.

Whether they are creating bridges with plastic bendy straws or conducting messy science projects involving baking soda and a plastic bag, here are some resources parents can turn toward to help cultivate a new generation of scientific thinkers: LOOK TO YOUR COMMUNITY Find local after-school programmes or clubs that focus on STEM education. Many of these extracurricular programmes are led by qualified instructors and offer hands-on experience in several STEM fields, such as computer programming, biology or chemistry. Additionally, after-school programmes are excellent opportunities for children to socialise with others and make friends with similar interests.

TURN TO TECHNOLOGY Spark imaginative learning by integrating technology into your child’s education. Tablets and other smart devices offer thousands of gaming applications that repurpose information in a fun and engaging way, captivating children

How to Create the

Here are some resources parents can turn toward to help cultivate a new generation of scientific thinkers

with quizzes, puzzles, 3-D gaming and more – all in the name of science. Television shows, such as Bill Nye the Science Guy and others featured on educational children’s networks, can also open your child’s eyes to the many fascinating and remarkable areas of STEM subjects.

CREATE YOUR OWN SCIENCE LAB Get creative and browse Pinterest for crafty do-it-yourself STEM projects for children. Incorporate one of your child’s favourite activities into a project that you can work on together, like creating a scientific model of their favourite animal. Additionally, these moments spent together will allow you to learn alongside your children, ultimately creating a bonding experience as you help them expand their minds.

HOW TO CREATETHE NEXT GENERATION OF SCIENTISTS

ENTER INTO A SCIENCE COMPETITION Encourage your child to enter a local or national science fair, such as the Toshiba/National Science Teachers Association ExploraVision programme, the only STEM-related competition of its kind that allows children to create ideas for new technological innovations in response to current real-world issues.

Hands-on, creative learning experience helps students grow their problemsolving, creativity, critical thinking and collaboration skills. Family Features

S ATUR DAY, O CTOBER 3, 2 015

B6

FIND-IT-ALL

PRAYER TIMINGS

@SHATTI

@MGM

Cast: Mischa Barton, Ving Rhames, Luke Goss 2:45, 5:00, 7:15PM Sicario – 2D (Action, Drama, Crime) (12+) Cast: Emily Blunt, John Bernthal, Josh Brolin 4:45, 11:45PM Singh is Bling– 2D (Action/Comedy) (PG) Cast: Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson 2:30, 6:40, 9:15, 11:45PM Puli – 2D (Action/Adventure) (12+) 4:30, 9:00 PM

@SOHAR

@RUWI

CITY CINEMA Contact (10 am to 6PM) 24567664 | 68. www.citycinemaoman.net facebook.com/citycinemaoman SHATTI Black Mass (Crime, Drama)(12+)(2D) Cast: Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch 12:00, 2:00, 4:15, 9:15 & 11:45 pm Pinocchio (Animation) (PG) 12:00 pm /02:00 pm /05:30 pm Singh Is Bling (Action, Comedy) (2D) (TBC) Cast: Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson 8:45 pm The Walk (Adventure, Biography) (3D)PG Cast : Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ben Kingsley 6:45 pm /09:30 pm Pawn Sacrifice (Biography, Drama) (PG12) Cast : Tobey Maguire, Liev Schreiber 6:30 pm Sicario (Action, Crime)(12+)(2D) Cast: Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro 7:15 pm /11:30 pm Hotel Transylvania 2 (Animation)(3D)PG 12:15 pm /02:15 pm /03:45 pm Pay The Ghost (Horror,Thriller) (15+) Cast : Nicolas Cage, Sarah Wayne Callies 11:55 pm The Maze Runner: Scorch Trials (Action) Cast : Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario 4:00 pm (PG12)(3D) MUSCAT GRAND MALL Wicked Flying Monkeys : 3D (Animation)(U) 10:30AM, 2:30PM Gold Class : 12:00PM Black Mass : 2D (Biography, Crime) 12+ Cast: Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch, 12:15PM, 7:00PM & 11:55PM Gold Class : 1:45PM, 9:00PM & 11:15PM The Walk : 3D (Adventure | Biography ) (PG) Cast : Joseph Gordon-Levitt 4:30PM & 9:30PM Gold Class : 4:00PM Singh is Bling : 2D (| Action |Comedy ) ( ) Cast: Akshay Kumar, Kay Kay Menon, Amy

BLACK MASS (Crime, Drama) (12+) Cast : Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch, Joel Edgerton Timings : 12:00, 2:00, 4:15, 9:15 & 11:45 pm

9:15PM Gold Class : 6:15PM Etiquette for Mistresses : 2D (Tagalog) Cast : Kris Aquino, Claudine Barretto, Iza 4:15PM (TBC) Straight Outta Compton : 2D (Biography) Cast : Felix Gary Gray, Jason Mitchell 6:45PM Sicario (Action, Crime, Drama) (12+) Cast: Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin 2:30PM & 11:45PM Hotel Transylvania - 2 : 3D (Animation) (PG) 10:30AM The Intern: 2D (Comedy ) (PG12) Cast : Anne Hathaway, Robert De Niro 12:15PM

PINOCCHIO - 2D (PG) Animation Voice Overs: Vica Kerekes, Marie Ludvíková, Pavel Reznícek Timings : 3:35 PM

THE WALK (Adventure | Biography ) (PG) Cast :Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Charlotte Le Bon, Ben Kingsley Timings : 4:30 & 9:30PM Gold Class : 4:00PM

SINGH IS BLING (Action / Comedy) Cast: Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson, Lara Dutta, Kay Kay Menon Timings: 1.00, 3.45, 6.30, 9.30 PM

Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon – 2D (PG) 06:45 PM (Romantic) The Walk – 3D (PG) Adventure Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Charlotte Le Bon 12:15, 05:00, 07:25 PM Talvar 2D (PG12) Murder, Mystry, Thriller Cast: - Irrfan Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma 02:30, 09:15 PM Puli 2D (12+) Action Adventure Cast : Vijay, Sridevi, Shruti Haasan, 12:00, 05:00, 07:55, 10:45 PM Singh Is Bling - 2D (TBC) Action Cast – Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson 12:10, 03:45, 08:55, 11:30 PM

1.15, 4.00 PM Cast: Vijay, Sridevi, Shruti Haasan, Hansika Motwani Screen 3 Puli – Tamil (Action/Adventure) – 12+ 1.15 PM Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoo (Comedy ) – PG Cast: Kapil Sharma, Elli Avram, Simran Kaur 7.00 PM Jawani Phir Nahi Aani (Comedy) – 12+ Cast: Humayun Saeed, Javed Sheikh 4.00, 9.45 PM SOHAR Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials - 3D 11:45 PM (PG12) Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller 99 Homes - 2D (PG) Drama Cast : Andrew Garfield, Michael Shannon 7:45 PM Wicked Flying Monkeys - 3D (U) Animation 2:00, 5:20 PM Black Mass - 2D (12+)Crime |Drama 2:15, 7:25, 9:40, 11:55 PM The Walk - 3D (PG) Adventure|Biography Cast : Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Charlotte Le Bon 9:30 PM

RUWI Screen 1 Singh is Bling (Action / Comedy ) – TBC Cast: Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson, Lara Dutta, Kay Kay Menon 1.00, 3.45, 6.30, 9.30 PM Screen 2 Talvar (Mystery/Thriller) – PG12 Cast: Irrfan Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Tabu, Neeraj Kabi and Sohum Shah 7.00, 9.15 PM Puli – Tamil (Action/Adventure) – 12+

AZAIBA Sicario – 2D (12+) Action, Crime, Drama 02:45, 11:45 PM Black Mass – 2D (15+) Crime, Drama Cast: Johnny Depp, Benedict, Dakota Johnson 02:45, 09:40, 11:55 PM Hotel Transsylvania 2 – 3D (PG) Animation 12:15, 02:00, 05:00 PM

Pinocchio - 2D (PG) Animation Voice Overs : Vica Kerekes, Marie Ludvíková 3:35 PM Singh is Bling - 2D (TBC) Action |Comedy 11:45 AM , 07:00 , 10:00 PM Sicario - 2D (12+) Action|Crime| Drama Cast : Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin, Benicio 5:15, 11:30 PM Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon - 2D (PG) Romantic Cast : Kapil Sharma, Elli Avram, Simran Kaur 5:15 PM Talvar - 2D (PG12) Murder |Mystry Cast : Irrfan Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma 4:30 PM Man Up - 2D (18+) Comedy Cast : Lake Bell, Simon Pegg, Olivia Williams 7:00 PM Puli - 2D (T) (12+)Action |Adventure Cast : Vijay, Sridevi, Shruti Haasan 11:30 AM, 8:45 PM BURAIMI Black Mass – 2D (Crime) (12+) Cast: Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch 2:30, 7:00, 9:15, 11:30PM Operator - 2D (Action/Drama/Thriller) (12+) Cast: Mischa Barton, Ving Rhames, Luke Goss

TO MUSCAT (RUWI) Arrival Operating time days

Dept time

Destination

Arrival Operating time days

FROM JAALAN-SUR-QURIYAT (ROUTE 36)

TEMPERATURE

05:30 05:30 05:30

Maximum

Daily Daily Daily

Sur Quriyat Ruwi

06:45 08:30 10:00

TO AL BURAIMI (ROUTE 41)

TO AL BURAIMI (ROUTE 41)

06:30 06:30 08:00 13:00 13:00 16.00 16.00

07:00 07:00 13:30 13:00 13:00 13:00 17:00

Sohar Buraimi Buraimi Sohar Buraimi Sohar Buraimi

08:50 Daily 11:00 Daily 14:30 Daily via Ibri 15:45 Daily 17:40 Daily 18.35 Daily 20:20 Daily

TO SINAW (ROUTE 52) 17:30

Sinaw

SALALAH Pay the Ghost (2D) (15+) (Horror/Thriller) 12:30PM Black Mass (2D) (12+) (Biography) Cast: Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch 12:05, 7:20, 9:15, 11:30PM The Walk (3D) (PG) (Adventure) 10:15AM/07:00PM Hotel Transylvania 2 (3D)(PG) (Animation) 10:30AM, 2:20PM Sicario (2D) (12+) (Action/Crime/Drama) 2:10, 9:35 PM Straight Outta Compton (2D) (18+) (Drama) Cast: O’Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, 1:30, 4:25PM Operator (2D) (12+) (Action/Drama/Thriller) Cast: Mischa Barton, Ving Rhames, Luke Goss 10:15AM, 4:00, 11:50PM Singh Is Bling (2D) (TBC) (Action) 4:00, 9:15, 11:45PM Man Up (2D) (18+) (Comedy/Romance) 11:50AM, 5:45PM Puli (2D) (12+) (Tamil) (Action) Cast: Vijay, Sridevi, Shruti Haasan 6:30PM

Nizwa Yanqul

Daily

16:50 19:30

Daily Daily

Nizwa Al Araqi

07:00

Ruwi

10:25

Daily

06:00 06:00

Nizwa Ruwi

08:40 11:00

Daily Daily

34 27

RELATIVE HUMIDITY

40-80%

Daily Daily

15:40 15:40

Nizwa Ruwi

17:55 20:20

Daily Daily

TO SUR (ROUTE 55) 12:00 18:45

Daily Daily

TO FAHUD - YIBAL (ROUTE 62) 06:30 06:30

Fahud Yibal

Salalah Marmul Salalah Salalah

20:00 20:30 23:30 07:40

Daily Daily

Marmul

Dubai

16:50

Daily

Sohar Dubai Sohar Dubai Sohar Dubai

Daily Daily

12:30 12:30

Fahud Ruwi

13:15 17:30

Daily Daily

07:00 10:00 10:00 19:00

Ruwi Marmul Ruwi Ruwi

19:50 13:15 22:30 07:30

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

LISTINGS

06:00

Marmul

16:30

Daily

08:30 11:30 15:30 18:30 17:35 20:55

Daily Daily Wed,Thur Wed,Thur Daily Daily

15:00

Salalah

Daily

07:00

Daily

10:50 13:40 16:15 19:10 18:45 21:35

Daily Daily Thur-Fri Thur-Fri Daily Daily

TO DUBAI (ROUTE 201) 07:30 07:30 13:00 13:00 15:30 15:30

Sohar Ruwi Sohar Ruwi Sohar Ruwi

TO DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH & SHARJAH (ROUTE 204)

FROM DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH/SHARJAH (ROUTE 204)

07:00 07:00 07:00

16:00 16.00 16.00

Fujairah Sharjah Dubai

11.45 13.30 14.00

Daily Daily Daily

Sharjah Fujairah Ruwi

16:30 18.15 23.00

Emergencies and inquiries: 9999 General Directorate of Passport and Residence 24569603 Directorate General of Customs 24521109 Traffic violations inquiries 24510228 Public Relations Admin 24560099 EMBASSIES IN OMAN

Daily Daily Daily Daily

DUBAI TO SALALAH (ROUTE 102)

07:00

TO DUBAI (ROUTE 201) 06:00 06:00 13:00 13:00 15:00 15:00

10:45 19:00

TO MARMUL (ROUTE 101)

SALALAH TO DUBAI (ROUTE 102) 15:00

Ruwi Ruwi

TO SALALAH -MARMUL (ROUTE 100) Daily Daily Daily Daily

TO MARMUL (ROUTE 101) 06:00

06:00 14:30

TO YIBAL - FAHUD (ROUTE 62)

10:30 11:15

TO MARMUL-SALALAH (ROUTE 100) 07:00 10:00 10:00 19:00

MOHAMED AFSHIN October 3, 2004

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (ROUTE 54)

10:20 12:30

TO SUR (ROUTE 55) Sur Sur

Pulli (Tamil) (Act) Cast: Vijay & Shruthi Hassan 3-00, 6-30 & 10-00 Pm At Cinema Main Singh Is Bling (Hindi) (Act/Com) Cast: Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson & Lara Dutta 3-45, 6-45 & 9-45 Pm Cinema-3 Kunji Ramayanam (Mal) (Dram/Com ) Cast: Vineet Srinivasan, Aju Vargees & Srinda 3-45 , 6-45 & 9-45 Pm Cinema-4 Shivam (Telugu) (Rom/Act) Cast: Ram, Rashi Khanna & Brahmanandam 3-30, 6-30 & 9-30 Pm At Cinema -2

Minimum

ROYAL OMAN POLICE 07:30 14:30

Film information 24791641 / 24786776 Website: www.isurf.co.om

DHYANA NIDHEESH October 3, 2014

TO YANQUL (ROUTE 54)

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (ROUTE 54) 08:00 08:00

08:55 Daily 11:40 Daily 20:20 Daily via Ibri 14:55 Daily 17:40 Daily 19:20 Daily 22:15 Daily

STAR CINEMA

Programmes are subject to change

TO SINAW (ROUTE 52) 20:50

TO YANQUL (ROUTE 54) 14:30 14:30

Sohar Ruwi Ruwi Sohar Ruwi Sohar Ruwi

Daily Daily Daily

Black Mass ( Biography,/ Crime/ Drama) Cast: Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson 5.00, 9.30 & 11.55 pm CP No: 2645 (12+) Straight Outta Compton (Biography/ Drama/ Music) Cast: O Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchel 5.00, 9.30 & 11.55 p.m.

CP No: 2643 (18+) Pawn Sacrifice (Biography/Drama) Cast: Liev Schreiber, Lily Rabe, Toby Maguire 1.00, 3.00 & 7.30 pm CP No: 2644 (PG 12) 99 Homes (Drama) Cast: Andrew Garfield, Michael Shannon, Laura Dem 1.00, 3.00 & 7.30 pm CP No: 2646 (PG)

WEATHER

15:00 15:00 15:00

16:30 18:00 19:30

Film information 24540856 / Advance Booking 24540855 Website: www.albahjacinemaoman.com

WITH LOVE

QURIYAT - SUR - JAALAN (ROUTE 36) Quriyat Sur Jaalan

BAHJA CINEMA

SUR Black Mass (Biography | Crime) (12+) Cast: Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota 12:00, 2:30, 4:45, 9:30, 11:45 PM Singh is Bling (Hindi) (Action) (TBC) Cast: Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson, Kay Kay Menon 12:00, 7:00, 9:25 PM Puli (Tamil) (Action | Adventure) (12+) Cast: Vijay, Sridevi, Shruti Haasan 6:40 PM Sicario (Action | Crime | Drama) (12+) Cast: Benicio Del Toro, Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin 4:30, 11:55 PM

LONG DISTANCE BUS TIMINGS (OMAN NATIONAL TRANSPORT COMPANY SAOC) *SUBJECT TO CHANGE

FROM MUSCAT (RUWI) Destination

12.01pm 3.25pm 5.58pm 7.08pm 4.44am

CHILDREN BELOW THE AGE OF 3 YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED IN THE CINEMA | BOX-OFFICE COUNTER OPENS 30-MINUTES PRIOR TO THE SCREENING OF THE FIRST SHOW

CINEMA SCHEDULE

Dept time

Dhuhr Asr Maghrib Isha Fajr (Tomorrow)

Daily Daily Daily

Afghanistan Algeria Bahrain Bangladesh Brazil Brunei China Cyprus Egypt France Germany India Indonesia Iran Iraq Italy Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya South Korea Kuwait

24698 791/4 24605 593 24 605 074/133 24 698 660 24640100 24 603533 24 696782 24 699815 24 600 982/411 24681 800 24835000 24684500 2469 1050 24 696 944/7 24603642 24693727 24 601 028 24692760/1/3 24 692418 24 697664 24 691490 24 699628

Lebanon Libya Malaysia Morocco Nepal Netherlands Pakistan Palestine Philippines Qatar Russia Saudi Arabia Senegal Somalia South Africa Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Switzerland Syria Tanzania Thailand Tunisia Turkey UAE United Kingdom United States Yemen

24 693208 24603466 24698329/643 24696152/3 24696177 24603706 24603439 24601312 24605335 24 691 153/2/4 24602894 24601705 24694139 24697977 24647300 24691101 24697841/2 24697875 24603267 24697904 24601 174 24 602684/5 24603486 24697050/1/2 24400000 24609000 24643400 24600815

PHARMACIES Round the clock Al Hashar Pharmacy, Ruwi 24783334

Apollo Medical Centre, Hamriya Muscat Pharmacy, Ruwi Salalah Atlas Pharmacy, Ghubra Muscat Region Apollo, Al Hamriya Muscat, A Seeb Market Muscat, Al Khuwair Muscat, Al Hail South Dhofar Region Muscat, Al Nahdha Road, Salalah

24782666 24702542 23291635; 24503585 24787766 24421691 24485740 24537080

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 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 24784545 Swiss International Airlines 24796692 Thai Airways 24705934

SAT URDAY, O CTO BER 3, 2015

B7

LIFESTYLE STORY TIME

By Swati Dasgupta

M

att was down with viral. He was feeling miserable since morning.

His father had already left for work and mother had gone to Muttrah vegetable market to pick up a few essentials. He couldn’t sleep well last night because of his body ache and was feeling tired and sleepy.

“Oh! This flu bug that’s going around has finally caught me,” he thought.

Matt wondered what his friends at school must have been doing.

“I am sure they are enjoying Jia’s birthday,” he pondered.

“It looks like I have to be in the confines of the home for the next few days,” he mumbled on his own and went on to get a glass of water.

Matt had hardly taken the bottle in his hand when he heard some noise.

It was 10 in the morning and at that time most of the people would be out of their homes. “What could be the noise all about?” The noise of the clamour stopped after a while and Matt went back to his bed. He was feeling cold. He switched off the air conditioner and pulled up the blanket. His eyes were burning. As soon as he closed his eyes he heard the noise again. This time the scream was louder and clearer.

Matt couldn’t resist his curios-

Be brave and selfless in time of need ity. He went to the balcony to check from where the noise was coming.

The balcony from his room faced the main road and except for the few cars that raced during the busy morning hours there was no sign of any commotion.

The noise was coming from the apartment premises.

Matt was in a fix. He really didn’t know what to do! He wanted to open the main door and see what the noise was all about but at the same time remembered his mother’s word of caution: “Matt do not open the door till I come in.”

“Mom would not like me doing this. I better listen to her,” with these thoughts Matt turned to go back to his room. But the cry got louder and now Matt couldn’t avoid it.

“What if someone is in need and wants help!”

Matt without thinking further opened the door. As soon as he opened it he saw smoke in the corridors. “What’s this? From where is the smoke coming from,” he shouted aloud.

Matt frantically tried to find out from where the smoke was coming from when he realised that it was just from the flat opposite theirs. He pressed the fire alarm bell on and again yelled for help.

“Oh God! Tulip must be inside with her caregiver,” Matt said.

Tulip was a cute little two-year-

old girl who would be at home with her caregiver at this time of the day.

Her parents were working.

Matt knocked the door hard and even tried to open it but in vain.

From inside he could hear the caregivers cry for help.

“Please help us! There is a fire in the house! The main door has got jammed and I am unable to come out with the baby.”

Hearing this Matt got hysterical.

He couldn’t think of anything. All he knew was that under all circumstances he had to rescue Tulip and

her caregiver. Neither could he unbolt the door, nor did anyone hear his plea for help.

What if something happens to Tulip and her caregiver!

Matt decided not to panic further and thought hard to find a way out.

He suddenly remembered that all the flats in their building had an adjoining passage that led towards the backside of the building. “I am sure I can get in from the window there and thus go inside the house,” he thought.

Luckily the window opened in

one push and Matt crawled inside the house. His head was throbbing in pain and he knew his temperature must have risen but it was not the time to think of personal problems.

One small mistake on his part could harm Tulip and her caregiver.

He landed on the floor with a loud thud. The house was full of smoke and Matt coughed hard. He frantically searched for Tulip and her caregiver and found them huddled in one corner of the room.

“Please help us,” cried her caregiver tugging Tulip in her lap. Matt

was unable to reach to the main door because of the smoke. So without wasting time any further he told the caregiver to follow him. Within minutes he jumped out of the small window and pulled Tulip out to. But how could her caregiver creep out from the narrow space.

Matt was panic-stricken but soon he saw many people rushing for help. Somebody had even informed the fire department and they broke open the main door to save Tulip’s caregiver.

Matt was feeling faint when he saw his mother rushing. She hugged her son and asked: “Hope you are fine dear and not scared.”

Matt gave a faint smile and said: “I am perfectly all right mum. I wasn’t scared I knew I had to save them at any cost.”

Most of the residents of the flats had arrived by then and each one thanked Matt for being so brave and for saving two precious lives. Tulip’s parents had tears in their eyes.

They said: “Matt you are more than a hero. You are an angel and by doing this great act you have proved that we can make a huge difference in life by being brave and selfless. God bless you!”

Matt’s mother smiled hearing this. She thanked God for all his mercies and most of all for blessing her with a son who made her so proud. – swati@timesofoman.com

Tea time Double-trouble

by Isidore

Questions & Answers

One thing that puts me off...

When I do not get TV remote

When I’m in doubt...

I browse Wikipedia If I win a lottery...

I will buy something for myself and balance I would give to poor.

I go crazy when...

I watch Ninjahatori

One movie/book I can watch/ read over and over again...

Watching Rush Hour movie

Crossword Puzzle ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE

It’s better not to argue with...

My mother

The scariest thing that I have done...

Watched Conjuring movie alone

If I met an alien I would...

Scream

ACROSS

If I could go back in history, I would like to meet...

Mahatma Gandhiji

One skill I would like to learn...

Gymnastics

If I have to describe myself as a flavour it would be...

Chocolate

MANIISH VIJAY

If I had treasures I would hide them...

Under my pillow cover.

One person I would trade places with (real or ficitional) My dear brother

DOWN

The best way to my heart is...

Never give up

Send your contributions to lifestyle@timesofoman.com. A good quality photo is compulsory. Lifestyle reserves the right to publish the contributions.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

“Cope Book” aunt Rounded handle Como — usted?

Moon, in poetry Secures a contract Pub pint Moved with an unsteady gait Brass band event Viking name Narrow point of land — cow!

16 20 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 31 34

Prickly sensation Rear-end Bottle edge Christina’s pop Mild brew Morse signal Prez after Jimmy Fleming of 007 fame Give it a go Cowl wearer Like some escapes 35 1040 agcy.

36 Dromedaries 37 Made mellow 39 Bad, bad Brown of song 40 Iffy attempt 41 Vote 42 Traffic stopper 44 Sticks up 45 Meditation guide 46 Thames school 49 Mont. neighbour

1 Just scrape by 4 — du jour 8 Extremely luxurious 12 Hosp. professionals 13 Lunar phenomenon 14 Dog-chow brand 15 Gestured 17 Means of shipping 18 Lessened 19 Cold, as an old house 21 Truckers’ radios 22 Aberdeen boy 23 Shop machine 26 Black mark 30 Intense anger 31 Come to the rescue 32 Dory mover 33 Ivories tickler 36 Shrewd 38 Fly ball’s path 39 Dawdle 40 Thin 43 Surface 47 Go sightseeing 48 Fatigued (2 wds.)

50 Low choir voice 51 Rock star, maybe 52 Sis’ sib 53 — hot and cold 54 Coral islets 55 Bask on the beach

B8

S ATUR DAY, O CTOBER 3, 2 015

LIFESTYLE

Art for the Ages

Children’s Poetry

Children up to the age of 15 who would like to have their art considered for inclusion in “Art for the Ages” can e-mail their drawings or paintings (in jpeg or tiff format) to lifestyle@timesofoman.com

My Sister Zainab Fatima Grade VII Pakistan School Mussanah

Alfred Benoy, Grade 2, ISM

Vedika Jigar Sheth, KG 1 Middle East Nursery

Anish Seth, Grade 4, ISG

I have a sister Who is like a blister.

She loves to fight with me But sleeps at night with me.

She always loves to play With dolls and cars and clay.

If I take anything She snatches it like lighting.

She always tells me That a queen she would be.

She loves to play in rain And does not use her brain.

She is always a trouble maker But I still love her.

She has many guts And loves to eat nuts.

She is always very naughty But thinks herself haughty.

All my love is for her As she is my little sister.

Stars Ritika Sunil Grade V Indian School Sur

Vandan Thacker, Grade 8, Indian School Al Seeb

Afan Khan, Grade 9, ISM

Sudoku How to play Fill empty cells with the numbers 1 to 9, so that each number appears once in each row, column and area.

SOLUTION Answer to previous puzzle

Tushrima Kelshikar, Grade 10, ISM

Srinidhi Rajesh, Grade 5, ISM

The stars so high with the world so high I twinkle in the sky In the dark night sky I love to see the children in the Earth They know my name They smile at me When I’m happy I twinkle in the sky.

I’m a small little star that twinkles in the sky.

My world is so high Up the sky So high so high.

Send your contributions for Children’s Poetry to lifestyle@timesofoman.com

Teleword All the words below appear in the puzzle - horizontally, vertically, diagonally, even backward. Find them and circle their letters.

The leftover word spells the Teleword.

A L A N O I S S E F O R P C C

N I C K L A U S R E O U L H R

N O G O B L E T S U T I A O E

CLUE: THE MASTERS

G E S R U O T A N T F M Y L N

N O Z T O S V D I F P A E E S

R O A A A E C N O I F R R I H

E G E T T V L R R B WA G D R N O A J A L O K F E S N O AW

T E A L O Y S C T I G R N N E

R I R V I H K S D E G E E E N

E D N I I S Y B B O B D A C E

V O R I O L P H E C RW D P A O Y J G R U O O B D N M I G O

R N B O D S I L F E A K L C D I OM I W O V L N L D Z E A T

SOLUTION: 9 LETTERS

Arnold, Birdie, Bobby, Byron, Championship, Clifford, Craig, Crenshaw, Crystal, Double, Doug, Faldo, Fred, Gene, Georgia, Goalby, Goblets, Gold, Golf, Hole-in-One, Horton, Jack, Mark, Mickelson, Mize, Nicklaus, Phil, Player, Private, Professional, Putting, Round, Salver, Sarazen, Silver, Snead, Tour, Trevor, Vase, Vijay, Watson, Weir, Woods.

Answer: Green Coat

C

W W W.T I M E S O F O M A N . C O M S AT U R DAY, O C T O B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

SECTION

CONNEC T H E D A I LY G U I D E

RENT

C2

VACANCY

C4

CARGO

C6

C2

S AT U R D AY, O C T O B E R 3, 2 0 1 5 Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com classifieds@timesofoman.com Tel.: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461

DAILY GUIDE FOR RENT

2BHK, 2 Baths, Split A/C, Wadi kabeer towards Al bustan, Near Indian Elementary School.

Contact 99441193, 93004802 New 1/2 B/R RES/ Comm. flats near Medical College Bausher directly from owner. #92158031 1 B.H.K Wadi Kabeer, RO 175/-.

Contact : 95094028 2 Flats single bedroom available in Wadi Kabir 100/- including electricity & water. Contact: 99441798 5 Flats single bedroom available including electricity & water 110/in Wadi Kabir. Contact: 99441798 Recently refurbished ground floor apartment near Indian school Wadi Kabir, 2 Bedrooms and sitting, 2 baths, kitchen. Contact: 98011224 For Indian executive bachelor or single lady – single room with attached bathroom in Mumtaz area.

Rent R.O 125/- incl . Water / electricity. Contact: 99839629 Villa at al Khuwair having six bedrooms, six bathrooms, sitting, dinning, hall, kitchen Etc. Contact24833972/24833974/99367448 Single BHK flat available in Honda Road Ruwi. Contact 24833972/24833974/99367448

Room Al Khuwair R.O 120/-.

Contact : 97799175

2 BHK residential flat opposite to AL Nadha Hospital. Contact : 99342733 / 99795241

1BHK Mumtaz R.O 250/-.

Contact: 97799175

2 bedroom villa in Sidab.

Contact: 95755953 / 95555162

1,2 BHK Darsait. Contact : 97799175

1BHK Ruwi & 3BHK Bosher.

Contact: 99024730

2BHK Ghubra RO 325/-.

Contact: 97799175

2BHK new Amerat with AC 230/R.O. Contact: 99024730

1BHK Ghubra R.O 275/-.

Contact : 97799175 2 BHK Wadi Kabeer R.O 300/-.

Contact : 97799175 Single room available for Executive bachelor near Zakhar mall behind Kamat Restaurant. Contact 94271085 Small office space for rent near Ruwi Mosque & Badr Hospital.

Contact : 99512270 Flat for rent in Wadi Kabir near Indian Primary School 2B and 1k.

Contact : 92222922 Deluxe 3 BHK Penthouse with Seaview, ideal for office / residence at Qurum near PDO.# 9772 1313 / 95070421

Villa for rent in south Mabela 3 bedrooms, sitting room, family lounge, kitchen & 3 toilets. Contact92212212 between 10 am to 5 pm

New Building in Mutrah, 2 B/D Room Flat + Setting Room,3 Baths+ Kitchen with split unit Ac’s. Behind Khimiji’s main office/opposite to Oman House Call 99419712

Fully furnished 2 BHK apartments available at Bareeq Al Shatti.

Contact 92888063

Flat for rent, 2 bedrooms, 1 sitting room, 3 toilets next to Al Hassan Company in W/K. Contact: 99210008

2BHK flats & shops available for rent at Honda road in a brand new building (dish & split A/C provided in flats). Contact: 91165807 / 92976611

For rent : showroom / storage space available (area 290 SQM, 6M height) facing Al Mina street, Jibroo.

Contact: 99360631 / 96760819

Shops for rent at City Seasons hotel Al Khuwair. Contact: 24394800 Flats for rent near Indian School in Wadi Kabir. Contact 99777122

02 BHK Commercial / residential (with Split A/C) flat at Honda road.

Contact : 99342733 / 99795241

Wadi Kabir, 2 Bed Room Flat with sitting Room, 2 Bath Rooms+ Kitchen. Opposite to Kuwaiti Mosque.

Close to Indian school.

Call 99419712/99261628

House for rent 4BR family hall, fitting room, dining room, kitchen, store with A/C & satellite reception at Mawaleh south , behind Sultan discount center rent R.O 550/-.

Contact: 93653311 600 SQT commercial flat for rent opposite Oman flourmill Darsait more details. Contact: 91214849/ 99364735 Shops for rent in Wadi Kabeer.

Contact: 99888390 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 / 99498448 2BHK with split AC near PDO Gate No.2 Qurum available for immediate renting. Contact : 94057023 2 BHK with split AC Al Khuwair -33 for residential & commercial use.

Contact : 94057023 New flats for rent in Darsait Al Sahal. Contact: 99777351 Flats, shops for rent in Ruwi, MBD & Mumtaz area. Contact 97293708 3BHK flat Darsait Near I.D card Medical 450/- R.O. Contact: 99358589 / 95570288 1, 2 BHK in Azaiba. Contact: 99385835 / 99428143

New deluxe villas at Madinat Qaboos. Contact: 99369081 1,2 BHK flats in Wadi Al Kabeer.

Contact: 99369081 1000 sq mtrs Industrial land in Ghala suitable for ware house workshop etc. Contact: 24700120 / 92584715 One Bed room flat with full furniture available at ruwi high street, Rent RO 200. Furniture cost RO 350.

Contact 99445675.

500/1000 sqm industrial land with compound wall at Misfah behind Oman Oil filling Station.

Contact : 99342733 / 99795241 1& 2 BHK flats for rent at Wadi Kabir, Wadi Adai, Hamriya, Al Khoud and Mabela and shop at Al Khoud land line. Contact : 24834644 GSM 93994401/ 02/ 03, 3 lines 1bedroom attached, toilet & kitchen in AL Khuwair R.O 140/-. #95154331 3BHK , 3bathrooms , 2balconys NRAL Hassan W/ Kabir R.O 320/-.

Contact: 99384640 2BHK close to Indian School Kindergarten Wadi Kabir R.O 300/-.

Contact: 99476728 / 98484415 1BHK R.O 225/- close to Indian Nursery, Darsait. Contact: 99476728 / 98484415 Flat for rent in Wadi Kabeer (2 bedrooms, 1 Majlis, 3 toilets, 1 Kitchen & hall. Contact: 95562646 Villa for rent in Wadi Kabeer.

Contact: 95562646 / 94059333 Fully furnished luxury 2 bedroom flat for rent at Ghala for short or long term basis. # 99886386/ 99881653

Villa for rent in Al Khuwair 33, 8 bedrooms & 5 bathrooms with parking area near Taimur Mosque.

Contact: 99366624 1BHK flats available for rent in CBD area. Contact: 98116480 Flat for rent in Hamriya.

Contact: 99341112 2 bed room flat at Al Khoudh Commercial Street Souq.

Contact: 99224748 / 99332297 3500 sqr mtrs open Industrial land for rent in Rusail. Contact 99792181

Furnished room for rent at Al Khuwair R.O 225/- for family only.

Contact: 99251975 Flat and show room for rent Al Khuwair 33, Al Ghubrah, Darsait and Jibroo. Contact: 24485240 / 24485241 / 93651633 / 92109563 1 & 2 bedroom flats available for rent in wadi-kabir (opp: pencil bldg), ideal for company staff / families bulk corporate deal possible.

Contact: 97677170

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. ww.tunesoman.com, E-mail: info@tunesoman.com

FOR HIRE

1000 sqr mtrs store in Mabela industrial area. Contact 99792181

Trailor with driver for hire.

Contact: 92303774

New 1 & @2 Bhk Flat in CBD opposit Al maya supermarket.

Contact: 99792181

Bobcat Grader and roller for rent.

Contact: 94584688

1 BHK flat in Ruwi ( Honda Road).

Contact 99792181 2 BHK Flat in Al Khuwair.

Contact 99792181 Commercial cum residential new building looking for one company, location Muttrah near Police Station.

For more details contact: 99364735 / 95729711

New flats for rent in Darsait, Al Sahal. Contact: 99311525

Twin villa 6BR hall, kitchen at Al Ansab-2. Contact: 99747560 / 99444786

Big room bathroom attached with kitchen near Riyam Park Muscat RO 100. Contact: 95094028

1BHK flat with A/C AL Khuwair 250/- R.O. Contact: 99358589 / 95570288

NRI Plot for sale 10 cent plot facing the lake for sale in Kollam town, 2 km away from Mulangadakam temple.

Please contact: 00968 91271516 Old Goan Portuguese house for sale location Parra Bardez North Goa build-up area 150 sq mtr Total area 400 sq mtr price 1.85 CR negotiable India. Contact: 919225903788 Oman.

Contact: 93277007 (call after 7 pm)

S AT U R DAY, O C T O B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

C3

DAILY GUIDE

AFFORDABLE QUALIFIED STAFF AVAILABLE: EŽ ƟŵĞ ƚŽ ƐĐƌƵƟŶŝnjĞ ƐƚĂī ĂŵŽŶŐ ƚŚŽƵƐĂŶĚƐ͍ EĞĞĚ ŝŶƚĞƌŶĂƟŽŶĂů ƐƚĂī Ăƚ ĂŶ ĂƌƌĂŶŐĞŵĞŶƚ͍ tĞ ĂƌĞ Ă ŵĂŶƉŽǁĞƌ ĂŐĞŶĐLJ ǁŚŽ ŚĞĂĚͲŚƵŶƚ ƚŚĞ ƐƚĂī ĨƌŽŵ ĂŶLJ ƉĂƌƚ ŽĨ ƚŚĞ ǁŽƌůĚ͊ tĞ ƐĐƌĞĞŶ ƚŚĞ ĂƉƉůŝĐĂŶƚƐ ƐĞǀĞƌĂůůLJ ƚŽ ĞŶƐƵƌĞ ƚŚĂƚ LJŽƵ ŐĞƚ ŽŶůLJ ƚŚĞ ďĞƐƚ ŝƐĐŽǀĞƌ ǁŚLJ ƚŽƉ ĞŵƉůŽLJĞƌƐ ƉƌĞĨĞƌ ƵƐ ĨŽƌ ƐƚĂĸŶŐ͊

Hurry and call this number now!

95967902 UNIVERSAL SCRAP BUYERS AT AMAZING PRICES Convert ANY type of Scrap into Money by selling us the scrap Great prices are guaranteed for our clients!

Call this number now for urgent response -

96059470 *Kindly note that the scrap should be 50 tons onwards

FOR SALE 5 Seater sofa with cushions Center table and 2 side tables in excellent condition for immediate sale.

Contact: 96027403 Shop for sale or rent at Ruwi City.

Contact: 99103077 Shop for sale in Sohar- Office purpose in the main centre of Sohar Contact – 99437086 Muscat hill luxury 4 bedroom apartment 209 sq. meters under construction for sale for RO 15000. only 10% paid. Balance in easy installment.

Expected completion in Jan 17. Contact: 98083217 Beauty Salon for sale in Azaiba prime location behind Al fardan building. With sponsor and 1 staff and 1 ready visa clearance.

Contact: 95318629 Used Fabrication machinery for sale : Fabrication machinery and tools in excellent condition for immediate sale. Contact 94652485/ 99273774/ 99202278 Shop for sale in CBD area prime location G. Floor + mezzanine low rent.

Contact: 90112434 Used air condition.

Contact : 97093793 Building material shop for sale at Misfah near Oman Cement factory.

Contact : 99617464 / 95961577 Ice Cream & juices shop in Ruwi good location for sale suitable for beauty parlor also.

Contact: 92150455 Computer training centre for sale. contact 94412557 Ladies parlor for sale at Ansab.

Contact: 98806430 For sale land in Amerat 3000 Sq.mt with petrol pump permission.

Contact 99323957 / 92702891

SITUATION WANTM.V. FOR SALE 40 Feet Atlas Trailor 2010.

Contact: 99454425

CLASSY, CREATIVE AND AFFORDABLE INTERIOR DESIGN 'Ğƚ ĐƵƐƚŽŵŝnjĞĚ͕ &ŝƫŶŐ͕ ĂŶĚ ƵŶŝƋƵĞ ŝŶƚĞƌŝŽƌ ĚĞƐŝŐŶƐ ŵĂĚĞ ĨƌŽŵ ƐĐƌĂƚĐŚ͘ Our professionals give YOU: ͻ ƵƚŽ ĂĚ >ĂLJŽƵƚ ͻ D W ƌĂǁŝŶŐƐ ͻ Ϯ ĂŶĚ ϯ ĚƌĂǁŝŶŐ ͻ /ŶŶŽǀĂƟǀĞ ŽŶĐĞƉƚ ĞƐŝŐŶ Hurry now and call this number

91494149 ĨŽƌ ĂŶ ĞdžĐůƵƐŝǀĞ ůŝŵŝƚĞĚͲƟŵĞ ŽīĞƌ ĚŝƐĐŽƵŶƚ͊​͊​͊

ACC. AVAILABLE Room for rent available in a flat for Executive bachelor at Azaiba behind AL Meera Market with attached bath with cot & A/c, rent RO 175/- per month including water & Electricity.

Contact 96404166 / 97433992 Two bed rooms with 2 toilets and sharing, Kitchen available near Al Falaj hotel. Contact: 90269652 Large room furnished sep / entrance Wadi Kabir. Contact: 99336206 Furnished room available in Ruwi for bachelor. Contact: 93086584 2BHK available for office Ghubra.

Contact: 99269751

GOOD NEWS

Single exclusive room available for Executive bachelor furnished separate toilet, kitchen sharing Wadi Kabir behind Golden Oasis hotel.

Contact: 99335145 Single room, bath Darsait R.O 140/-.

Contact: 93289652 Sharing accommodation for Indian family Ruwi high street.

Contact : 99895616 A big room in available near Hamriya R/A for Muslim couple / small family / Executive bachelor rent 150/- per month including W+ E. Contact: 99495131 Accommodation available for indian executive bachelor’s (no kitchen).RO:125 including water and electricity Contact no. .. 98145825, 98949724

SITUATION WANTM.V. FOR SALE Toyota YARIS. Model 2008. KM 69000. Expat driven, All services at Toyota. Very clean. Rate: 2900.

Contact 99445675.

Lexus GX 460, 2013.

Contact : 99336093

MANPOWER

For sale BMW 730 Li, 2008 model, 3000cc, maroon colour with beige interiors, 14500KMS, serviced at dealer, single Owner driven, R.O 5500. Contact: 95731861 /92265958

Mitsubishi 10 ton Truck 2006 model company body, registration valid till May 2016 for sale.

Contact: 95150329

RC, Keralite ( Kottayam) male, 27 yrs, Civil Engineer, working in Muscat from decent family looking for suitable alliance.

Contact : 95035953 NAIR GIRL, B.Tech (Civil) 23/163, Pooram from Alappuzha (district) working as a Civil Engineer with Kerala Govt: on adhoc basis looking suitable alliance from professionals.

Contact :95230285 RC Girl (Trissur) 28, 152 cm slim (middle class) MBA, working in Muscat seeking suitable alliance.

Contact: 93867447

SITUATION WANTM.V. FOR SALE

Nissan Altima 2005 automatic.

Contact: 99454425

MATRIMONIAL

Leading manpower agency to hire Recruiter from India housemaids.

Contact: 99226093, Email: fesalwardi48@gmail.com

A respectable Hindu kapu( Naidu) family from Vijayawada A- P- India invites alliances for their daughter 25 years old B.teh computer science father working in Oman.

Contact: 95097913, 99744870 Email: sarathbabureddi@gmail.com 31 years RC boy, M. Com MBA - working in Sohar - Seeks alliance from Christian families Contact 94219830

Genuine Ayurvedic treatments & massage, Ayurvedic clinic at Al Khuwair. Contact: 24478618 / 97263637 / 93309131 FREE INFORMATION ABOUT ISLAM. If you would like to know more about Islam, please call: 99425598, 99250777, 99353988, 99253818, 99341395, and 99379133. For ladies: 99415818, 99321360, 99730723 Orvisit:www.islamfact.com Ayurvedic Treatment for joint pain, backache, paralysis, massage, steam bath, obesity, spondylitis , IDEAL CARE Ayurvedic Clinic, 18 November Street, Azaiba Contact: 99639695 / 98342990 Ayurvedic massage backache, joint pain, neck pain etc.

Contact 98254909 Ayurvedic treatment for backache, paralysis, arthritis etc & massage, All Season (Vaidyaratnam). Contact 24475280 / 95371664 / 92504980 www.siddhayur.com

CHANGE OF NAME Announces company Muhannad bin Saleh bin Khalifa Al Mukhaini and partner trade solidarity and restricted the trade and industry department of the province of South East under No. 1213362 it is in the process of modifying its trade name to Saleh bin Khalifa AL Mukhaini company and partner trade solidarity and on each of his objection to that he has to submit reasons for his objection to manage trade and industry of the province of South East.

LOST Bilal Uddin Mohammed has lost Bangladeshi Passport No. E 0862186. Finder please handover to ROP Mohammad Abdullah has lost Bangladeshi Passport No. E 1690107.

Finder please handover to ROP

MATRIMONIAL Seeking alliance for our son from Muslim families. Interested families Contact: 99889590

*Classified Advertisement space booking with text, should be done till 12.00 noon for next day’s publication. * Subject to space availability

C4

S AT U R D AY, O C T O B E R 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

SITUATION SITUATION WANTED VACANT

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE Part Time Accounting, Accounts Finalization, Audit Preparation, Internal Audit, Accounting System for New Companies, #96975454, email :ibfc.gcc@gmail.com Indian female B.Com Graduate 2 years Oman experience in tally ERP 9 seeking suitable placement.

Contact: 95186652

ADMIN

ENGINEER/TECH/MECH

Omani Receptionist required receptionist, well presented with excellent communications skills and telephone manner, fluent in Arabic and English required for Ruwi office. Candidates should be familiar with MS English and Arabic office suite. Send CV and covering email to mj-co@omantel.net.om

Reputed metal fabrication company seeks fabrication supervisor, structural steel fabricator, Machine maintenance Technician and Electrician. Contact: 99102383 Email: hr@khancogroup.com

ACCOUNTANT Wanted Accountant for an insurance brokerage office. Interested please send CV on fax: 24601729

BEAUTICIAN Urgently required Gulf experienced Beautician for a well known parlor in Muscat. Send the details to 1974ambi@gmail.com or contact 0096896789862 Urgently required experienced Beautician. Contact 96616731 or send CV to pbm.ibra@gmail.com

CATERING Cooks & helpers for café.

Contact: 95529970 Restaurant Staff urgently required Tandoor roti maker, waiter/ helper required in restaurant in Saham.

Contact : 98029701 / 95821905 Required Catering Supervisor, Chef, Asst. Cook & Chapathi makers for a catering Company in interior area. Apply with NOC. SMS : 99242984

DESIGNER Required Graphic Designer (minimum 2 years experience) Client Service Executive with Omani license (minimum 2 years experience) visa available. Contact: 96727631 send CV to dollydhian@gmail.com

DOMESTIC HELP Need a full time maid for cooking, cleaning and all household works.

Food and accommodation shall be provided. In Mumtaz Residency area, Ruwi. Immediate requirement.

Contact 91473100 between 0800hrs – 2000 hrs.

Required one Waiter cum house boy for a Royal Omani family in Al Khoudh. 2 to 3 years experience candidates should send their CV on fax no 24811352 or contact Mr. Tauqir Ahmed on GMS no 92174983

DRAUGHTSMAN A leading Construction Company in Muscat urgently requires Draughtsman (Civil).

Send CV : hr.azatllc@gmail.com or call 99344279

DRIVER Required heavy duty truck driver holding Omani driving license w/ 5 years experience please Contact 92001111 Driver with Oman driving licence needed. Visa available.

Contact 94288863 Looking for an experienced house driver for an Omani family. Interested candidates may Contact: 96203333

ENGINEER/TECH/MECH Urgently Required: MEP EngineerDegree holder and with 7 years experience in building construction, MUST have NOC and immediately join. Apply, fax 00968–24605955, emails sbc@steelbuildingsllc.com, sbeoman@yahoo.com Biomedical Engineer is required, preferably with Oman exp.

Contact: 99337840

SENIOR ACCOUNTANT, WITH 13yrs experience, 6 yrs Oman in manufacturing, trading & contracting Cos, capable of handling all accounting, finance, banking, L/C, import, export & finalization seeks placement. NOC Available. Call+968-98932752, mail:jjohnmuscat@hotmail.com B.Com (Indian Male) with 5 years experience (2 years GCC) in Accounts & Audit field. # 95584531 razikthumbe@gmail.com

Urgently required a Indian Diploma Civil Engineer with 1-2 years of experience and should valid G.C.C driving license.

Email: smtcoman@gmail.com A Mechanical Engineer with salesmanship experience of 5 years & above preferable with Oman drivers license and NOC. Please forward your CV to almaadhi.trd@gmail.com

EDUCATION A leading institution in Muscat requires a Teacher for Indian Classical Dance. The candidate should be well qualified and experienced. Send your resume to dance.oman@gmail.com A private School looking for an English teacher, preferable (Philipino - Jordanian) Nationality for more information. Contact: 98982088 Post Graduate researcher required.

Contact 99229700 A well – known private School require English, Mathematics, Science, Computer and KG Teachers. Contact: 96910649 Email: staffing.oman@gmail.com

MANAGER/SUP An Omani Co. located at Muscat start a new workshop with three divisions: Steel, Carpentry and Aluminum and looking for experts Supervisor and Foremen. The candidate must have minimum 10 yrs. experience and GCC driving license. Send C.V to kwk585@gmail.com A 10 yrs successful steel workshop with 25 staff members, looking for an experienced Manager who has to lead successfully, control overall expenditures & deliver more opportunities to the Workshop. Successful candidate will be paid as percentage of monthly workshop revenue.

Contact: 97080700 General Foreman. Required Foreman (MEP) with 4 to 5 years experience for maintenance of building.

Having valid Omani driving license.

Contact: 94652485 E-mail: realconsco@gmail.com Required Sales Manager for a hotel supply company with minimum 5 years experience.

Contact 92035162

MEDICAL Urgently needed female Dermatologist with minimum 5 yrs experience. Send CV : elixirhealthcenter@yahoo.com P.S. details of salary and benefits will be sent after submitting the CV Looking for pharmacist with a valid MOH license to work in Bidbid. Send CV to abumustafaclinic@gmail.com Required urgently General Physician Gynecology, Pharmacist, LAB Technicians staff nurse.

Contact: 95133572 Email: kunoozghala@gmail.com Wanted a Lab Technician with valid M.O.H license and N.O.C to work in a polyclinic. Salary R.O 450/- per month (package).

Contact: 96493058 (2 pm to 4 pm).

Email: ap_sdsudhi@yahoo.com Wanted Nurse for dental centre in Mawaleh South & Qurum.

Contact 93431024, Email : drasyanaseem@gmail.com

MISCELLANEOUS Required Salesman, Store keeper, Private driver, preferably with good experience and communication skills. Contact: 91408759 Email: hanaa.alritaj@gmail.com A leading Construction Company in Muscat urgently requires the following candidates: - 1) Electromechanical Supervisors 2) Electrical Foreman 3) Plumbing foreman 4) Electricians 5) Plumbers.

Send CV : hr.azatllc@gmail.com or call 99344279 Building material Salesman, Electrician cum Plumber & C.C.T.V Technician. Contact: 99383044

SALES / MARKETING Wanted Sales man with valid Oman driving license for an electrical trading company.

Email: amuloman@omantel.net.om Required Graduate with Omani driving license preferably Indian willing to travel outside Muscat.

Contact: 99454425 Required Salesman, Tailor & Barber. Contact: 96964767 Required experienced Sales & Marketing Executive for sports club. Preference will be given who has experience in Oman and valid driving license. Please send your CV to dasanthas1@gmail.com or saud7kh7@gmail.com Sales Incharge 5 years experience (Oman) language English, Arabic.

Contact: 24566813 Email: hammadhassan5786@gmail.com Sales man (Dairy) 2 years exp as a Sales man with FMCG in GCC , Location Muscat, Barka, Khaboura , Ibri, Izki & Al Kamil, key skills Salesman (Dairy) & Sales (Dairy) / business development. Contact: Ahmed Al Salami 96929227 Telephone: 26940215 Fax: 24811565 Email: ahmed.alsalmiy@unikai.com Looking for a Staff has experience in Oman in real estate and real estate valuation. Interested Contact: mobile: 99109094 Email: aburashid94dd@gmail.com Marketing Manager with Oman experience & driving license.

Contact: 95766844 Looking for qualified, good communication and computer skills candidate with experience for position of : Sales Manager to work in high-end window tinting business. Minimum academic requirements: bachelor’s degree and own a driving license.

Kindly email your CV to abdullah.alhinai86@gmail.com Required experienced Sales / Marketing Executives having light license. Send your CV ocean@omantel.net.om

SEC/OFFICE Sir Lankan Secretary with experience in recruitment field.

Contact: 92809528

SITUATION WANTSIT. WANTED

Indian male, 34 years MBA finance, having 9 years experience, looking for suitable placement presently on visit visa. Contact: 92914869 Email: noblev1982@gmail.com Indian female 28 years M.Com, Accountant having 6 years experience in Accounts, finalization, Tally currently on visit visa.

Contact : 95595083 Email: merlinfernandes16@yahoo.in Part time accountant, senior accountant, doing all type of accounting works, up to finalization. contact.95254864 Indian male 23 yrs B.com having 3 yrs accounts exp in India looking for suitable placement presently on visit visa.#:94131842 / 93516968, Email: jithujithin05@gmail.com Part time Accountant, up to finalization, looking for job after 5 pm (location prefer – MSQ to AL Hail).

Contact: 95694737 ACCA finalist, Recent B.Com Graduate, Indian female, looking for full time employment in Accounting and Audit. +968 96964379, sangeethaumesh5@gmail.com Accounting B.Com male Diploma in computerized professional Accounting, professional & manual accounting, 25 yrs, Indian, 25 yrs, Keralite, India. Contact: 0091 9746838659 Email: jijesh567@gmail.com Finance Manager 26 years experience including 22 years Oman with NOC. # 91302906 / 91335205 Accountant Indian female on visit visa, degree B.Com exp Tally ERP-9 finalization of Accounts, Tax Accounting, Stock maintenance, pay roll, etc. # 91551164 / 91175456, mk.jothipriya@gmail.com Chief Accountant, 12 years Oman experience looking for suitable position. Contact: 99513082 Accountant with 8 years U.A.E experience, on visit visa, looking for a job. Contact : 96166512 Senior Accountant 10 years experience, looking for accounts parttime works and finalization works.

Contact: 96247295 Accountant 7 Years Experience with D/L and NOC. #97712084 Indian male, 27years, MCom, having 2years experience in Accounts looking for suitable position.

Presently on visit visa. #93455055 gibingeorge88@gmail.com 25 yrs female Indian with B.Com MBA looking out for a job in finance / marketing / HR field with a work experience of 1 year, 3 months at Bank Muscat & 7 months at India.

Contact: 94657403 / 95537261

ARCHITECT

SITUATION WANTED ADMIN Experienced Manager in HR, Administration and Finance. More than 10 years gulf experience including four years in Oman. Having Oman Driving License and NOC Contact 93264005

Housemaid (exp 20 years) looking for English, family.

Contact: 99564133 / 96534195

Indian female 24 years BE Electronics now in Oman visiting visa searching job for any Administrative Sectors telecommunicating, banking, teaching. Contact: 95935867 / 99536948 Email: anjujose011@gmail.com

Indian diploma Civil Eng, 2 yrs Infrastructure Projects (4G, Towers, substation) landscaping & Auto CAD. Contact: 94756183 Email: indianexpat1@gmail.com

Indian male BBA Graduate 12 years experience in Administration level 15 months exp in Oman having NOC available looking for suitable placement. Contact : 91458388 Indian Female MBA, 3 years experience in Admin MIS, family Visa.

Contact 98234427, jkjsmith01@gmail.com Indian male 25 years MBA (HR) Now in Oman visiting visa searching job for Administration, HR Customer relation. Contact: 90196322 / 91049868 Email: nithinvarghese19@gmail.com 14 years of gulf experience in HR / Admin & logistics fluent in Arabic / English with D/L looking for suitable position. Contact: 95824598 Indian 17 yrs experience in Admin and have knowledge in Accounting seeks job. Have driving license and release. Contact : 99573353

DRIVER Light driver looking for job.

Contact: 93985153 Pakistani light vehicle driver having 2 yrs exp. Contact: 96105925 Light driver looking for full time job.

Contact: 95154610 4 years exp driver need a job.

Contact: 94208089 Pakistani driver with car.

Contact: 91248202 Driver looking for job.

Contact 92303744 Light driver Pakistani age 24 years.

Contact: 97106232 Indian driver with experience in Oman. Contact: 96255558 Looking for driver job.Contact 93650209 Bangladesh 24 years, 2 years experience. Contact: 97806144 Light driver with car Hyundai Accent 2016. Contact : 94039796

Sr. Architect male 5 yrs exp having NOC looking for suitable position.

Contact: 91546108 Email: morshed_arch@yahoo.com

Bangladeshi light driver (AG) 48) expe, 14 years, need job & visa have release paper transpire.

Contact 99165961

Senior Architect, Indian male 15yrs exp. having DL& NOC, Looking for suitable position.

Contact: 97239313 Email: abdul_muq2000@yahoo.co.uk

Driver. Contact: 95084826 Pakistani male light vehicle driver looking for job.

Contact: 96474528 Driver with car. Contact :91452930

ADMIN

DOMESTIC HELP

Wanted driver. Contact 95112461

ENGG. / TECH./MECH.

Electrical Engineer (B.E) with 5 years experience (3 yrs in Gulf) NOC available. Contact: 92119851 Email: mayurdevadiga@gmail.com Resident Engineer B.E civil 25 years exp 12 yrs in Architecture consultancy having Oman Dubai D/L NOC available. Contact: 95732453 Email: milindj951@gmail.com Civil Engineer B.Sc -6 years experience with constructions companies - 1 years in Oman - qualified as Site Engineer & Planning Engineer.

Contact+968-94682217 B.E in Mechanical post Graduation Diploma in piping Engineering.

Contact : 94786570 Email: asim.hajwani6@gmail.com Automobile Engnr Indian with 7 yrs experience 2 yrs Toyota and 5 yrs Jaguar corporate experience looking for suitable job in Oman. Contact immediately: 93709706 currently on visit visa for 10 days only Civil Engineer Pakistani 12+2 years Oman experience D/L required placement. Contact: 94392616 Building site supervisor, since March 2010 in Oman with Omani D/L looking for suitable placement.

Contact: 93061107 Mechanical Engineer (UK ) 28 years, male looking for suitable placement with valid Oman driving license having 3.5 years experience in Oman NOC available. Contact 968 97612297 immediate availability.

Email: ymirza11@caledonian.ac.uk Mechatronics (Electrical, Mechanical) Engineer, 3 years of experience. Contact: 91234024 Email: ammar.r.elerris@gmail.com Indian male 29, having 7 years exp in construction field& Auto Cad in Oman. Having valid driving license.

Fluent in English & Arabic. Looking for suitable job in reputed firm.

Contact - 99650569 BE (Civil) Indian male with 20 years experience with reputed consultancy companies & working for one of the prestigious project of Muscat since 2008 seeks suitable position.

Contact: 92511428, Email: manoj_t2000@yahoo.com Mechanical Engineer, 24 having knowledge in HVAC looking for suitable placement. Contact: 95434381 Email: shuhaibusman313@gmail. com Agriculture Engineer Egyptian in Oman available till 10th Oct experience 5 years. Contact: 90155723 Electrical and Electronics Engineer with one year experience and GCC licence holder seeking a job mail – shyjalpk@gmail.com

ACCOUNTANT Required Pharmacies with license, needed for clinic in Al Khoudh , Contact :+968 97696502 , mail CV to towershr70@gmail.com

Jordanian Accountant (ACPA) with more than 15 yrs experience in Oman (Accounts, Purchase & finance.

Contact: 92881223 Email: kamal_sarhan@yahoo.com

Filipina, 10 yrs experience in Fashion Retail, Shipment, Logistics, Inventory, Warehouse Control and Store Management is seeking employment. Call +971565833126 or 97728418.

DRAUGHTSMAN Indian Civil Auto cad Draftsman looking suitable placement 5 years experience. Contact: 97465102

Indian BE (MECH) aviation BE degree diploma in material quality management 17 years Navy aviation 13 years construction purchase stores professional on visit.

Contact: 90205082 /98796982

S AT U R DAY, O C T O B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

C5

DAILY GUIDE SITUATION WANTED ENGG. / TECH./MECH.

MISCELLANEOUS

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 Mechanical Engineer having 1 year exp in Mechanical Supervising looking for suitable job. # 92835957 Sudanese Telecom Engineer 5 years experience in Oman.

Contact: 93391008 Young Electrical Engineer looking for suitable placement. Having specialization in electronics.

Contact 99227861 Project Manager (Interior fitouts décor & MEP) B.E. Arch having 8 years experience looking for a suitable position in a reputed company. Local release is available. Contact: 91528851 M.Tech BE civil 9 yrs experience Project Management Indian male (34 yrs) with NOC seeks suitable placement in construction industry.

Contact : 99156291 / 95281545/ 00919579666999 (Whatsapp) Email: kashidss@gmail.com HSE Engineer (Indian, 26 yrs), B.Tech Mechanical, Nebosh, 5 yrs experience in oil & gas construction.

Contact 94616721 B.E Arch with 8 years experience as 2 Project Manager in Interior fitouts décor & MEP works looking for suitable. Local release is available.

Contact: 91528851 Indian male diploma in Civil Engineering with 20 years experience in interior fitout with valid driving license NOC and local release available. Contact: 98048410 Professional Civil Engineer 25 yrs experience with N.O.C Management and Supervision with D/L. Contact: 97290338

HOSPITALITY Dynamic result oriented hospitality professional with 20 years of international exp. MBA in Hotel Management, specializing in Hotel/Restaurant start ups, concepts & Franchise development with proven records.

Seeking for Challenging positions in reputed groups as GM/COO/CEO/ Business Head. (NOC available) Contact : 96059470

IT Oracle ADF Developer, Msc (IT), 2 yrs of Experience in Software Development (Oracle ADF, sql, pl/sql), Oracle OCA & SQL Expert, Currently on visit visa. # +968 93755858 / 92141644 Email : shiralkarmuzammil@yahoo.com IT Engineer, MBA, PMP trained, having Omani driving license, 18+ years of experience in software industry, looking for a suitable position. Contact: 91244967 B.Tech IT, 2 years experience, seeking job as IT Support / Customer and Technical Support, any suitable jobs in Oman currently on visit visa.

Contact : 98960932 Email: jittojacob@hotmail.com Net working Technical with driving license NOC having 2 years experience in data and telephone structured cabling epabx and CCTV installing looking for suitable.

Contact: 96027516

MISCELLANEOUS

SALES / MARKETING Filipino (male) 37yrs. old having 8 years experience in operation(shiping&logistics) currently on visit visa looking for a suitable job GSM:97121525 Filipino lady looking for Receptionist Sales girl having good experience in Muscat. NOC will be available ready to join immediately. Contact: 92664896 / 91107941. After October 1st week. Contact: + 639759460269 Indian male more than 8 years experience in UAE in Office , Sales Marketing with good computer skills having driving license looking for suitable placement.

Contact : 99369081 Email: shazulashraf60@gmail.com Indian male, U.K Post Graduate M.A, MBA, 3 years Experience, looking position within Marketing, Branding, Business Development & PR. Contact: greetings111@hotmail.com BBA Graduate with 3 years experience in Sales & Marketing valid Omani D/L looking for job.

Contact: 97378073 Email: samaanmohammed@gmail.com

Bangladeshi Diploma Civil Engineer 3 years experience in Bangladesh 2 years in Oman.# 93796905 / 97319361

Indian male 25 years MCA, CCNA Certified MCSE2012 having 16 months experience in network and system administration looking for suitable placement. Contact 97703253 / 92365310 Email: albinmperakkattu@gmail.com

Civil Engineer, Indian M 29 5yrs exp. having DL & NOC Looking for suitable position. Contact: 94576233 Email: suhailmullah@gmail.com

Software Engineer, 6 yrs exp in software projects & development (Java,PL/SQL Unix) on visit visa.

Contact: 99487493

Looking for Driver & Salesman vacancy 10 years Oman experience Oman license holding.

Contact 98234893

Degree Engineer Civil, 6 years experience Oman D/L, N.O.C available for a suitable position.

Contact: 93523507 / 95961336

Indian male, 29 yrs, B. Eng in CS, CCNP, JNCIA, MCSA, MCITP, ISO/ IEC27002, 8 yrs exp in IT, Networking and Server support. #98285401 Email: maneshm3@gmail.com

Indian male 30 yrs, B. Sc food science and quality control 7 years experience in G.C.C 3 years experience in laboratory related jobs, valid Oman driving license.

Contact: 93405643

Indian male BE civil project Engineer 15 years Oman experience in building projects with valid D/L NOC available. Contact: 92178471 BE Electrical Engineer 8 years experience 4 years in Oman with Oman driving license. #96942032 Civil Engineer (Diploma) seeking for placement. Contact: 95200650 Electrician 3 years experience in Building lines in Oman and other related experience also. NOC available. Stay till 29.09.2015. Contact: 94057129 / 95964419 Email: raheemdadbaloch@hotmail.com Electrical Eng. Degree (MEP) need suitable job of construction 12 yrs exp.

Email: mohd.ateeq.khan@gmail.com C-SWIP 3.1 ASNT level 2 QC Mech.

Engr 5+ yrs exp Indian male 26 seeks placement. Contact : 91823331 Email: kannasekhar46@gmail.com SUPERVISOR: Indian male site supervisor (AIR CONDITIONING) 25 years of experience with valid Oman Driving lic Contact: 97498809, 93391910 Email: hilariankj@gmail.com Engineer with 3 yrs experience in Indian in MEP, HVAC& mechanical maintained field on visit visa looking for suitable job. Contact 99191535 Email: fareed029@gmail.com Btech computer science graduate 2015 passout.. Android application marketing.. Having good communication skills and mindset to work in a team. Contact 91024385 Indian male BE Mechanical currently on 2 yrs free visa with NOC & local release. Looking for suitable job in Muscat. Contact – 90296975 / ali.syedausaf@gmail.com

IT CCNA MCITP Network support/ Network technician with 2 yrs experience Indian male having bachelors degree on visit visa.

Contact 93080871, email :sean.f.peters@outlook.com

MEDICAL MSc Nurse specialized in OBG, 3 years experience-certified ACLS,BLS, on visit visa, seeking suitable opportunities Contact:90125347 An Indian female GNM Nurse having 10 yrs experience in Indian with Oman MOH license seeking suitable placement currently in Oman.

Contact: 97895004 Email: sandhyamol26@gmail.com Indian male Nurse, prometric passed seeks suitable placement.

Contact 97284508I 33 years, Indian male Dentist having 7 years of experience with MOH license is seeking suitable placement. Contact: 91559265 Email: praveengp_82@yahoo.com

MANAGER/ SUPERVISOR Procurement Manager: Indian male (B.Com) having 6 more years of purchasing experience in civil construction & MEP sector is looking for a suitable position(NOC available).

GSM:97700967 Project Manager (B.E. Arch) in Interior décor fit outs & MEP having 8 years experience looking for a suitable post in a reputed firm. NOC is available. Contact: 91528851 Sudanese procurement Manager three years experience in Oman.

Contact: 93391008 Senior Manager Indian, 30 years in FMCG Business in Oman looking for better opportunity at management level. Contact 99231513

MISCELLANEOUS Omani female Arabic and English speaking searching for job.

Contact 92387170

*Classified Advertisement space booking with text, should be done till 12.00 noon for next day’s publication. * Subject to space availability

Indian male MBA having 4 yrs Gulf experience in logistics and Counter Sales currently on visit visa and looking for suitable job.

Contact 96695541

HSE Officer (Indian) 26 years Nebosh, diploma in fire & safety council, 3 years experience (including 1 years GCC) in construction. # 97058358 Email: arun.insane@gamil.com Indian male, 29 years B.Tech (E.C.E) and M.B.A with 1.2 years of experience in Oman as Electronic Engineer seeking for a suitable job currently on visit visa.

Contact : 92085082 Email: suhailece.61@gmail.com 50 years Indian male 15yrs experience as Manager in Steel and paper Plant seeking suitable placement.

Kindly contact me on +91 9840943638 Chartered Accountant, Indian male, 25, two years experience, on visit visa. Staying with parents. Also has B.com+computer Application.

Contact: 24492638/98164467. shyamal008@gmail.com

Indian Male, 38 years, BE and MBA in Marketing from UK seeks suitable placement in the IT industry.

Call 91200413.

CCNP Network Professional with 6 years experience having Bachelors degree on visit visa looking for suitable job. GSM: 96760618 Email: varghese.manthara@gmail.com Indian male with 18 years of Indian and Overseas experience in hospitality industry, with excellent cooking, operational, managerial and communication skills seeking a suitable job from reputed groups and organizations. On a visit visa.

Contact: 95363751

MBA 15 years experience in Sales & Marketing in telecom, FMCG, presently in India C/O Saif Kazi.

Contact : 99625957 Email Id: a_kazi123@yahoo.co.in

22, Male, Indian, BBA (Marketing),1 year experience in India, Looking for suitable placement in Sales and Marketing. #91897046, azzamsiddique1@gmail.com

Indian male 25 yrs BBM Graduate 3 yrs of experience Sales / Marketing in Oman looking in suitable placement. Contact : 93185316 Email: karsh794@gmail.com

Indian Male,27,ACCA Part Qualified,B.COM with 7+ yrs exp in receivables and credit control in Oman looking for suitable placements. NOC available.

Contact 9657 4343.

Indian male Accountant with 10 years experience in Oman available for immediate joining with Oman driving license NOC available. Contact : 99881355 / 99720602 HSE Advisor (Indian) 30 years Nebosh, 10SH & Diploma in fire & Safety 9 years Gulf experience in construction, oil & gas.

Contact: 95568731 Email: sathishdream@gmail.com SR. Land Surveyor Indian 7 years GCC exp, 2 years IND. Exp, experienced in building construction (Oman driving license).

Contact: 97437307

Indian Male, 26 Yrs, Business Management, 6 years in Oman.

Knowledge of MS Office and Arabic Language. Seeks suitable position.

Contact 93931935 Indian Mechanical Engineer, 30, having 8yrs of UAE Sales/Business Development. experience in Electromechanical and Irrigation sectors. Contact no- +971558763220 email id-sangowri@outlook.com Indian male, with finance and Law degree, having more than 25 years of experience in Finance/ Accounts / Audit (5 years of Oman experience) seeks suitable placement. NOC available. Contact: 98421619.

E-mail: talemadhamu@yahoo.com.

Indian male Executive Secretary having vast experience in admin, logistics & procurement well versed with computer seeks suitable placement. Contact : 99514286

Indian female with MBA in finance seeking immediate placement.

Contact: 968-93316493

23, Male, ACCA Affiliate, OBU Bsc, 2.5 years of experience in audit and finance in Big 6 Firms, Looking for permanent placement in similar field. Release NOC available. Contact: #95140445, a.saran891@gmail.com

MISCELLANEOUS

Mechanical Draftsman, Indian male 27, Diploma in Mechanical Engineering having 7 years of experience in Auto CAD looking for a suitable placement. Contact : 97351786 / 96143708 E-mail : mohammednazeer07@gmail.com

8+ years experienced senior accountant looking for a better placement. Contact No. +968 92935684.

Email - shabeerkkm@gmail.com.

NOC available.

Indian male 35 years BBM, diploma in A/C, 5 years experience as Sales Executive in Oman with valid D/L and NOC seeking suitable placement in Muscat area. Contact : 92683606 Email: abhi.abrahm09@gmail.com

Indian male more than 10 years gulf experience in Office / Sales Coordinator, Admin, Secretarial and purchase with good computer skills.

Having Driving license and NOC available, looking for suitable placement. Contact 95149624

Indian female, MBA, 25yrs Having 4yrears of experience in MNC, hands of experiences in recruitment and administration, flexible for any suitable job placements currently in visting visa.

Contact Tel : 98864639 Email : neethuvijayan06@gmail.com

Pakistan Male: 24 years,M.Com Finance having 2.5 year experience as a accountant & marketing executive looking for suitable placement.

Contact: 97670816, E.mail: naeem.ahsan68@gmail.com

Well experienced management finance specialist having 18 years experience available for placement.

Contact.95602518

SECRETARIAL & OFIC.

Indian male 22yr BBA with LOGISTIC Diploma, exp in tally and data entry seeking in suitable placement.

Contact; 90151739 email shakeeb.mp280gmail.com

Diploma in Civil Engineer. I have 6 year experience in Oman seeking for suitable position Oman. #97415597, email: Nasir.muscat@gmail.com

Wanted salesman job, with driving license. Have exp. ins selling goods, experience in shops special experience in car parts seeking any job related to selling. Contact: 94162434

Egyptian very good marketing and sales skills experience 10 years in tourism. Contact : 90155723

Syrian male 3yrs. exp in IT support, Networking, Security systems, Server support, IT sales and marketing.

Valid Omani D/L seeking suitable placement. Contact 91033395

Indian Female, Science Graduate, 3 years Experience in Teaching back home. Looking for a suitable job opportunity as a teacher, in Schools in Muscat Region. Contact : 96431456 / 95704814 Indian Male, 25, Chartered Accountant, working with ICICI Bank India.

On a Visit Visa in Oman. Staying with parents at Azaiba.

Ph: 24492638.

Email: shyamal008@gmail.com Looking for a suitable job as Jr. Accountant/ Jr. Administration in a reputed company. NOC Available.

GSM # 93004738.

SENIOR ACCOUNTANT, 8 years experience ,Oman driving licence,Noc available. Seek Suitable opportunity.

GSM- 98184170 ACCOUNTANT, Male, 8 years experience, presently working in Oman as a Senior Accountant with oman Driving license. NOC available, seek suitable opportunity. GSM: 97705854 Chemical Engineer Indian 2 years of experience in production field Contact: 91247222 Email:sahadpoonchola@gmail.com

Civil Engineer B.Sc -6 years experience with constructions companies - 1 years in Oman - qualified as Site Engineer & Planning Engineer .

Contact+968-94682217 ACCOUNTANT: Indian male 25 having 4 years experience in accounting & having well knowledge in tally.

Contact:968094535881, 0091 9037622048, Email: vishnuraj889@gmail.com 31 year Indian male PG in HR ,with 5 yrs Professional experience in HR in Construction Oil & Gas Oman seeking for a suitable placement. Kindly contact me on 93488914, emailKaarthickshankar@gmail.com Sudanese/26/Bsc Computer Science /3 years exp/skills Excellent knowledge in operating systems and maintaining computers Java Programmer Web Developer Linux SMS solutions Android developer/ email khalid.omx@gmail.com/contact no 944958080 and 99758186.

Civil Autocad Draughtsman part time work for job mob :96023726 Indian male B.Eng. in IT,CCNA, MCSA,MCSE, 2.5 yrs + exp. in IT support, networking and server support valid Omani D/L seeking suitable placement in IT/Network/Server support. Contact 92607532 Indian B.E Computer Science graduate 2012 passout. 1 .5 yrs exp. in Accounting. Having good communication skills and mindset to work in a team. Having NIIT certificate in Diploma in Java Technology. # 97767894 Email: jinsonjacobjohn@gmail.com Indian male 24 YEARS, B.Tech (Electrical & Electronics), having 2 yrs. exp as Electrical Site Engineer. Done IOSH & NEBOSH- IGC certifications, seeking for suitable placement in any related industries.

Contact 98045482, Email: mastanshaik1008@gmail.com Indian male, 24 years, HSE Engineer having 2 years of Indian experience.

Done IOSH & NEBOSH- IGC certifications, seeking for suitable placement in any related industries.

Contact 98045482 27, male, ACCA finalist, have professional experience up to finalization of Accounts, Statutory and internal audit, expertise in using tally and focus & Oracle Software, have 3.5 years experience in accounts till finalization, seeking for permanent replacement ,GSM-97654769,email id-abdullah.nooralam@yahoo.com M. Tech VLSI design, B. tech Electronics and instrumentation, Indian female,3 years teaching experience for graduation level students, seeking suitable placements .

Ph:00968 92904155. email-achusooraj@gmail.com

ACCA Affiliate, OBU Degree, 2.5 years experience in audit and finance in Big6 firm, Looking for permanent placement. NOC release available. Contact: #95140445, a.saran891@gmail.com B.Tech EEE with 4+ years experience in the field of it, networking, ex-tonics etc. presently working in Amazon India development centre as a content quality associate seeking for suitable jobs in Oman. Contact : +91 9940514005, 93116402 email: mail2nbn@gmail.com MBA Finance with more than five years of experience in Finance & Accounts including GCC, looking for a suitable opening. Having UAE driving license. Contact no..91391802.

Senior Accountant. 8 Years experience. NOC available. Oman driving license. Seek suitable opportunity.

GSM- 98184170 B.E Mechanical Engineer with 2 years’ experience in HVAC field on visit visa looking for suitable job.

Contact: 93442296 Email Id: sal201091@gmail.com.

MBA (F) B.COM Indian female having knowledge of accounts with Tally looking for full or part time job. Presently on family visit visa.

Contact: - 96259171. Email: bhumicapandya@gmail.com Indian Male, MBA, Talented management expert having 6 year experience at U.A.E, India and Oman in luxury goods and Retail. Seeking suitable openings in related or same field. Contact:92700670 Email: jobcareer44@gmail.com MBA Finance with more than five years of experience in Finance & Accounts including GCC, looking for a suitable opening. Having UAE driving license. Contact no..91391802 Indian 26M, B. Tech Computer Science graduate, 3 years exp in India, looking for suitable job in Muscat.

Contact : 93125669, Email : amritrajGT18@gmail.com Indian Male Nurse with Moh licence & Noc seeking a job with Family Status gsm:95817579.

E.mail:vasudevanv2005@gmail.com Part- Time Accountant, well experience senior accountant ,doing all type of accounting works, Finalization, Budgeting available.

Contact 98803439 Sudanese/Bsc IT/26/2 years experience/excellent Eng-Arb speaking/ Omani driving license/96387227/ henrykarrar@gmail.com MBA - (F), M.Com, B.COM. Indian female having knowledge of accounts with Tally looking for part time or full time job. Presently on family visa.

Contact- 91892264. mail: yv.dixit@yahoo.com Indian male Accountant, 12 years experience, looking for a full time or part time job, experience in tally also. Contact 98983122 Pakistani, Male, Pak, Exp 14 Years in IT Trainer / Computer Teacher, looking for a better position in Oman, already working in Prestigious Construction Company. # 95983711.

Join.mtmali@gmail.com Indian Male (Diploma in electronics Engineering and CCNA.) having 9 years of experience in Networking, 5 years’ experience in Oman. Looking for a suitable Placement. NOC available. GSM- 93787098, Email –anishktr@gmail.com INDIAN MALE 24 YEARS,B. Tech (Electrical & Electronic).Having 2 years experience as Electrical Site Engineer in Constructions. Done IOSH & NEBOSH- IGC certifications.

Seeking for suitable placement in constructions or in any related industries. Contact no: 98045482, Email: shannu.hse@gmail.com Admin, having 10+ years experience in Admin/HR/Logistics/Time Keeper, in reputed companies. Presently working in Muscat.

Contact- 968 94369965 mail - satya1528@gmail.com

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DAILY GUIDE

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461 Fax: 24812624

TOURS

SITUATION WANTED CARGO

SITUATION WANTCARGO

SITUATION WANTED CARGO

Dolphin Watch, Dhow Cruise with Buffet, & Land Tours Al- Ainain Marine Tours Contact- 98029602, 92808636

RENT A CAR

RENT A CAR

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DAILY GUIDE SITUATION WANTED SERVICES

SIT.WANTED 31 year Indian male PG in HR , with 5 yrs Professional experience in HR in Construction Oil & Gas Oman seeking for a suitable placement.

Contact me on 93488914, emailKaarthickshankar@gmail.com INDIAN MALE , MBA. Having 10+ years experience as Automotives Sales Manager .Worked with M/s TALWAR AUTO GARAGES PVT LTD India’s Largest Selling Dealer for VOLVO EICHER commercial vehicles .Seeking for suitable Job in Oman.

Contact no: 98045482 Email: dmstalwar@gmail.com 26, Male, Indian, BBA (Finance), MBA(HR), Looking for suitable placement in Finance/HR/Marketing. Contact immediately. Contact 98176105, nruknaddin@outlook.com Indian Female, MBA-HR having 8+ experience in Administration/HR, Customer Support, Office Coordinator with good Computer skill, now on Visit Visa ,looking for suitable position. Contact: 90196235 29 years Indian female (MBAFinance) with 4 yrs experience in Accounts, seeking suitable placement in Accounts/Admin/HR. NOC available. Contact:96141283 ACCOUNTANT: Indian male 25 having 4years experience in accounting & having well knowledge in tally.

Contact:968 094535881, 0091 9037622048.

Email: vishnuraj889@gmail.com ACCA finalist, Recent B.Com Graduate, Indian Female, looking for full time employment in Accounting and Audit. Contact +96896964379, sangeethaumesh5@gmail.com Admin, having 10+ years experience in Admin/HR/Logistics/Time Keeper, in reputed companies. Presently working in Muscat. Contact- 94369965 ,mail satya1528@gmail.com

DRIVING

SITUATION WANTBUSINESS ED

WEBSITE

Indian male . 14 yrs experience in maintenance & Supervisor in hotel field ( Electrical . Ac Mechanical & Plumber ) N O C available mob : 95 25 36 40 . email = hareeshma24@yahoo.com

CLASSES

Indian male B.Eng. in IT,CCNA,MCSA,MCSE, 2.5 yrs + exp. in IT support, networking and server support valid Omani D/L seeking suitable placement in IT/Network/ Server support. Contact 92607532 ACCA Affiliate, Indian Male, Fresher, looking for full time employment in Tax and Audit.+968 91291520, shahidazeez5@gmail.com Indian Male, 24 years old recently completed M.Tech in Offshore Structures from NIT Calicut, looking for suitable position.

Contact : +91 9833 2485 68, Email: shihabpatel91@gmail.com Diploma in civil engineering having an experience 24years (20years in Oman) experience in Estimator / quantity surveyor looking for a suitable placement, willing to join immediately Contact : 96328687

We want regular finance on short term or long term basis from individuals of Omani nationals or expatriates for trading business.

Contact: 99462591 or 93525028 Want regular financing for profitable small projects. Contact : 92162623 Required investors for different projects. Contact: 99674870

Indian male B.Eng. in IT,CCNA, MCSA, MCSE, 2yrs + exp. in IT support, networking and server support valid Omani D/L seeking suitable placement in IT/Network/Server support. Contact 92607532

We will register LLC trade license for foreign investors and do all actions. Contact: 92833566

Indian male, 14 yrs Experience in Maintenance & Supervisor in hotel field ( Electrical. Ac Mechanical & Plumber ) N O C available #95253640 . email = hareeshma24@yahoo.com

Indian female with MBA on visit visa seeking immediate placement.

Contact - 968-93316493

ME Civil- structural Engineer, 8 Years Structural engineer experience, Looking for Structural Designer, supervisor or site engineer Position. Iranian male. #93696929, Email: mhsaz1359@gmail.com Indian Male 26 years MCA, MCSE 2012 certified, Microsoft Exchange Server Administration, having 1 year experience in IT/System Administration looking for suitable placement.

Contact Mob : 00968 92745708 Email: nabeelmmkty@gmail.com, Light duty driver, Young and honest.

Can speak Arabic, Hindi and understand English. Release available.

Ph.92854775 / 93487450 B.Com graduate, 11 years experience in Accounts, 9 years Oman experience , Oman valid driving license, looking for suitable post.

Mob:92758404 NOC Available.

COMPUTER

SIT.WANTED

Sudanese male, 31 years, have 3 year Diploma in electrical engineer , 6 year experience in construction and electrical production plant .

Mobile No ; +96894549609 Indian male, B.com, MBA, having 5 years experience (3 years in U.A.E) is currently seeking suitable opportunities within finance/accounts/ admin dept.Contact:93953613, allen.mathew83@gmail.com Indian male 27 years B.E & MS Mechanical Engineer working in Delhi for last 4 years inJcb India pvt. ltd., seeks placement in Oman.

Contact: 93393768 Driver looking for job exp 2 yrs.

Contact: 98522914 Female MBA gold medalist, with computer proficiency, Oman driving license looking for job opportunity in event management companies in Muscat. Ph : 99012949

SIT.WANTED

SENIOR ACCOUNTANT, Indian male,29 years.8 years experience .Presently working in Oman as a Senior Accountant with oman Driving license. NOC available.

Seek suitable opportunity.

GSM: 97705854

Split & widow unit A.C servicing & repairing. Contact: 99557080

MARBLE CRYSTALLIZATION restore the original shine of your marble. #24793614/ 99314807

Split & window unit A.C servicing & maintenance. Contact: 96236476

Air condition maintenance installation window AC, split a/c, ducted AC and package type units.

Contact: 98667326

WEB, ERP and Business Intelligence (BI) creation and management at rock bottom price.

Contact: http//webviewoman

27,male,ACCA finalist, have professional experience upto finalization of accounts, statutory and internal audit, expertise in using tally and focus & oracle software, have 3.5 years experience in accounts till finalization and statutory audit, seeking for permanent replacement ,GSM-97654769,email idabdullah.nooralam@yahoo.com

House shifting & transporting.

Contact 92490422

A/C Technician installation services. Contact : 92279370

Pest Control Gulfa Intl .LLC. Contact: 92326955

House shifting & packing.

Contact: 99657644 /98518013

Water proofing ABUQABASContact 99320217/24788722

General cleaning & Shampooing. Ocean Center LLC. Contact: 99344723/99357908

Transportation. Contact98505294 Transportation in Muscat.

Contact: 95530908

Supply fixing Wallpapers, all carpets. #99834373 / 6642500

Transportation for saloon car& delivery van. Contact : 95530908

One stop shop business services : Public Relation (PRO) formation new companies, LLC companies, Investor visa, business setup, prepare businesses & companies accounts, legal services, representing you and your company. Contact Saleh: 96723485

Transportation. Contact 99508282 Transportation available.

Contact -955 70 429

GUARANTEED CLEANING: Carpet & sofa shampooing, Contact 99314807/24792998

Window & split unit A.C servicing & maintenance. Contact 93769089 / 95323517

Pest Control Treatments, Cockroaches, Ants, Rodents & Termites, Ocean Center LLC. Contact: 99344723/ 99357908

TRANSPORTATION

Window & split unit A.C servicing & maintenance.# 93769089 / 95323517

Used house & office furniture & electronic items.# 99834373 / 96642500 Carpet Shampoo, marble & tile polishing, pest control & antitermite treatment, general cleaning painting, Plumbing, Electrical, shifting. Contact Mundhir Al-Rizaiqi trading. L.L.C. # 24810137, 99450130 Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles polishing, carpet shampooing, maintenance. Contact ABU QABAS99320217 /24788722

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DAILY GUIDE

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461 Fax: 24812624