Times of Oman - August 8, 2015

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UN DECRIES STATE OF MIGRANTS IN GREECE The United Nations warned that migrants landing in Greece were facing “shameful” conditions, with the crisis-hit country claiming it was unable to cope with the influx on its Aegean islands. >A10 SATURDAY, August 8, 2015 / 22 Shawwal 1436 AH

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TRAGEDY

HM receives thanks cable

Five Emiratis killed in Bahla road accident FAHAD AL GHADANI

MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has received a cable of thanks from the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in reply to His Majesty’s condolences cable on the death of Prince Saud bin Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

In his cable, King Salman expressed his thanks for His Majesty the Sultan’s generous feelings and sincere prayers, praying to Allah the Almighty to rest the deceased’s soul in peace and protect His Majesty against all harms. -ONA See also >A3

fahadnews@timesofoman.com

COLLISION: The accident occurred in Bahla of the Dakhliya Governorate on Friday. – @ONN-1/Twitter

R O YA L D I R E C T I V E S D E L E G AT E D BY H M

Shihab attends Suez Canal opening event SUEZ: As delegated by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, His Highness Sayyid Shihab bin Tariq Al Said took part in the opening ceremony of new Suez Canal in Egypt.

The ceremony was held in the Governorate of Suez under the patronage of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in the presence of leaders of a number of countries.

It is worth mentioning that Egypt has embarked on a major expansion of the Suez Canal, deepening the main waterway and providing ships with a 35km channel parallel to it.

The expansion aims to increase the traffic handled by the canal. -ONA

Oman secures release of French hostage MUSCAT: On the Royal directives of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, French hostage Isabelle Prime, who was released in Yemen after nearly six months of captivity, arrived in Oman on Friday on her way to home, the official ONA news agency said.

The move comes as a response to the request of the French government to help in the matter.

The French presidency announced late on Thursday that 30-year-old Isabelle, who worked as a consultant on a World Bankfunded project in Yemen, had been freed by her captors.

The Omani foreign ministry said efforts by Oman “in coordination with certain Yemeni parties” had helped track her down.

“The search (for Isabelle) was undertaken on the directives of

His Majesty the Sultan at the request of French authorities,” a ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by ONA. The French presidency thanked Oman for helping secure the release of Isabelle, in the statement announcing her release. France has made “every effort to achieve this happy outcome”, the statement said, adding that France “expresses its gratitude to all those who worked on this solution, including His Majesty the Sultan. Prime arrived in Paris on Friday.

Oman has been repeatedly sought by Western nations to act as a mediator in resolving many issues - from the kidnapping of Americans and Europeans to the Iran nuclear deal. – AFP inputs from ONA See also >A4

Female candidates in Majlis Al Shura Majlis Al Shura

2011

2015

1,133

candidates as they

Total number of candidates

offer a different

Female candidates

674

77

21

perspective and raise different issues than

3.1%

6.7%

Percentage of females

men but for their house, they have to work hard

48%

of Omani nationals are females

<10%

of the elected representatives are females in Oman

22%

of the world’s national parliamentarians are females ( as of January 2015) Graphics

SARAH MACDONALD

sarah@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: Oman has condemned the terror strike, targeting the mosque of the special emergency forces for Aseer Region in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which resulted in the death of many innocent people.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry renewed its solidarity with the Saudi Arabia in combatting terrorism and expressed condolences to the families of the deceased. -ONA

Perfect summer getaway

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‘Music can help in aesthetic growth’

Yet another blogger killed in Bangladesh

Google, Samsung to issue security fixes

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Not many schools in the Sultanate offer musical education in their curriculum, but for the ones that do, some are limited to middle school whereas for high school students it is offered as an elective course. Many parents do not regard music as a career choice. >A3

Election

needs more female

CONDOLENCES

Oman criticises terror strike at Saudi mosque

Fire at a store In another incident, a fire broke out at a store in Al Khaboura Wilayat. The Public Authority for Civil Defence and Ambulance (PACDA) said there were no causalities in the incident.

Last month near Haima, nine persons had lost their lives and 39 were injured in the road accidents.

Drop in female Shura aspirants causes concern

entry into august

See also >A3

MUSCAT: Five United Arab Emirates (UAE) nationals were killed in a road accident involving two cars and a truck in Bahla town of the Dakhliya Governorate on Friday morning.

According to sources, the driver of one car allegedly lost control of his vehicle on the road leading to Salalah in the Dhofar Governorate, and collided with a truck. Among the dead were three women and two men.

An Omani travelling in the sec-

ond car was injured and rushed to Nizwa Hospital. The bodies of the Emiratis are being transferred from Nizwa Hospital to Al Ain by a Royal Oman Police (ROP) helicopter.

A gang armed with machetes hacked a secular blogger to death at his home in Dhaka Friday, sparking protests in the capital over the fourth such murder in Bangladesh this year. Niloy Chakrabarti was killed after the gang forced its way into his apartment. >A9

Google and Samsung Electronics will release monthly security fixes for Android phones, a growing target for hackers, after the disclosure of a bug designed to attack popular mobile operating system. The change came after security researcher unveiled what he called Stagefright. >B3

MUSCAT: Only 21 out of the 674 candidates for October’s Majlis Al Shura elections are women, a number that is raising concerns about the lack of female representation in Oman’s political system.

In the 2011 elections 77 out of the 1,133 candidates were women, a total of 6.7 per cent. This year women represent just 3.1 per cent. In the current Majlis Al Shura, the lone woman, Naama Jamil Al Busaidi, makes up 1.2 per cent of the 84-member chamber.

Iman Al Ghafri, current president of the Omani Women’s Association in Qurum, was one of the 77 women who ran for the Majlis Al Shura in 2011. She says Oman needs more women in the Majlis Al Shura because they offer a different perspective and raise different issues than men.

“We have a higher agenda. Our agenda is to ask for a better living condition for families, for equal job opportunities for female and male, for better quality of education so we can compete on an international standard. Those types of issues won’t be debated by men,” she explains.

Men tend to campaign as representatives for their tribes and re-

gions, whereas women campaign with an emphasis on social issues that affect the country as a whole, Al Ghafri says. The issues are important but they don’t win votes, which has discouraged women from running.

“I am concerned about the presence of the women. There is a misunderstanding about the role of the Shura Council. If they expect their member of Shura Council to be [like] a municipality council member, unfortunately this might not be attractive for many women,” says Tawfiq Al Lawati, a current member of the Majlis Al Shura who wants to see more women elected.

Seat allocation He has suggested that the government allocated one seat in each governorate for women, which would ensure that at least 11 women were in the Shura.

Ahmed Al Mukhaini, a lawyer and political analyst who is also concerned about the lack of women in the Majlis Al Shura, says the female candidates need to work even harder and develop alliances with the tribes in order to win. He also says a quota might help.

“Without a quota we will have few women if any joining the

Majlis,” says Al Mukhaini.

While some people say women should win on their own merits, others, including Al Ghafri, say other countries which have applied a quota have met with success.

“Within the quota there was a competition. It wasn’t just any women. It was the best of the best of the women. With a quota women will compete among themselves and men will compete among themselves,” she says.

In the last elections a number of educated women from Muscat, including lawyers and those who volunteered with civil society organisations, aren’t running this time, which is a loss to the elections, Al Ghafri says.

“We’re not looking for numbers. We’re looking for quality, especially for women because she won’t represent herself as an individual or the tribe, but she also represents the women as a 48 per cent of Omanis,” said Al Ghafri.

Al Mukhaini says it’s important to have more women in the Majlis Al Shura for many reasons.

“There are 202 reasons. The first reason is that it’s her right, her human right, to have equal representation in the Majlis,” he says. >A3

TOURISM

Yemen crisis fails to stem tourist flow to Dhofar governorate MEHDI AL LAWATI

FAVOURITE DESTINATION: Of the 238,675 tourists visiting the Khareef festival, 160,219 were Omanis, constituting some 67 per cent of the total. – Talib Al Wahibi

MUSCAT: Yemen crisis has not affected the flow of tourists to the Dhofar Governorate, said Maitha bint Saif Al Mahrouqi, undersecretary in the Ministry of Tourism, on the sidelines of a recent event at the Muscat International Airport.

“We have not witnessed any impact on the tourist influx to the Dhofar Governorate as a result of the crisis in Yemen. In fact, Salalah had witnessed more than the expected number of visitors last year and we are also expecting a large number of tourists in autumn this year,” she asserted.

Most recent statistics from the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) indicate than a quarter of million people have visited Salalah to enjoy the Khareef (monsoon) season between June 21 and August 1.

Of the 238,675 tourists visiting the Khareef festival, 160,219 were Omanis, constituting some 67 per cent of the total.

Tourist hotspots When asked about the possibility of turning Oman into a hub of desert activities, though a number of hotspots are encountering growing security challenges, she

replied, “At this stage, we are not looking at this particular segment.

Oman has many other areas which the ministry plans to develop, aside from the challenges linked with developing the country as a hub for desert activities.”

“Having said that, I can say that we are really ahead in the camping segment,” she added.

According to Al Mahrouqi, the key areas which the ministry hopes to develop include conferences and exhibitions, cruise ships and adventure tourism.

“We want to set the ground for developing adventure tourism in the country,” she said.

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SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2015

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His Majesty congratulates Côte d’Ivoire’s president

SAYYID SHIHAB REPRESENTS OMAN AT NEW SUEZ CANAL CEREMONY As delegated by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, His Highness Sayyid Shihab bin Tariq Al Said took part in the opening ceremony of the new Suez Canal in the Arab Republic of Egypt. —ONA

MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has sent a cable of congratulations to President Dr Alassane Ouattara of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire on the occasion of his country’s National Day. In his cable, His Majesty expressed his sincere congratulations along with his best wishes to President Ouattara and his country’s friendly people. –ONA

Yusuf bin Alawi receives Syrian foreign minister MUSCAT: Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs received at the General Diwan of the ministry on Thursday Walid Al Mollem, Syrian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates. The meeting discussed aspects of bilateral cooperation between the two brotherly countries and exchanged viewpoints on a number of regional and international issues of common concern. The meeting was attended from the Omani side by Ahmed bin Yousef Al Harthy, undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry for Diplomatic Affairs and a number of officials at the Foreign Ministry, while from the Syrian side by Dr Faisal Mekdad, Syrian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates and the delegation accompanying the guest. –ONA

‘Music can help in aesthetic growth’ TARIQ AL HAREMI tariq@timesofoman.com

Though music is not of great importance in Omani culture and many parents do not regard music as a career choice, the art is essential for the development of the student’s cognitive, kinesthetic and aesthetic forms of thinking. Music is globally recognised as a way to bring people together

MUSCAT: Not many schools in the Sultanate offer musical education in their curriculum, but for the ones that do, some are limited to middle school whereas for high school students it is offered as an elective course.

Though music is not of great importance in Omani culture and many parents do not regard music as a career choice, the art is essential for the development of the student’s cognitive, kinesthetic and aesthetic forms of thinking.

“Music and arts are very important. It should be viewed as a comprehensive educational programme,” said Dr Michael Buck, band director at The American International School of Muscat (TAISM).

“We focus on three theories for music which is cognitive, kinesthetic and aesthetic. It helps the students’ ability to be creative and develop motor skills as well helping them to think critically,” he added.

Fergus Walker, music teacher at Sultan’s School said, “When you play music in a group, it is a great

socialisation process and confidence builder. The students gain great individual experience.”

Of course, listening to or playing music affects our brain. The way we perceive music and identify it as being sad or happy is the brain’s reaction to the song. Emotions play a big part in musical creativity and composition where students

often play music depending on how they feel.

“It is very creative. I created a lot of music and you can see a lot of emotion coming from them. The listener will think about emotions when listening to music,” said John Awe, a TAISM student.

It can also uplift a person to feel happier.

ACCIDENT

MAJLIS AL SHURA

E D UC AT I O NA L T OU R

A1 Women’s role < FROM

ISG students visit Boeing unit in US

on centrestage

Historically women have played an important role in Oman, and today they are well represented in other sectors of Oman, so it’s only logical that they are represented in the highest decisionmaking positions of the country, too, says Al Mukhaini.

Women will also offer different perspectives and methods of planning, he adds.

Shukoor Al Ghamri, former president of the Omani Women’s Association, says she’s not surprised by the lack of female candidates.

“For the past few years politics means war, politics means corruption, and all these things so women avoid it,” she says.

Al Ghamri says most women prefer to avoid getting involved with politics and focus on their careers or businesses instead.

Women are more likely to worry about losing their positions and missing potential promotions at work if they take time out to be members of the Majlis Al Shura.

“A lot of women would be good members and good speakers, but

they say they’ll lose their positions and might not get them back,” Al Ghamri says.

According to the United Nations, as of January 2015 only 22% of the world’s national parliamentarians were women.

Women have the highest representation in Rwanda, where they have 63.8% of the seats in the lower house. The Arab country with the highest proportion of women elected to the lower house is Algeria with 31.6%.

The United Nations facts and figures also reveal that in 38 countries, including the Sultanate of Oman, women make up fewer than 10% of the elected political representatives. In four countries, including Qatar, Micronesia, Vanuatu and Palau, there are no women at all.

Al Ghamri says that until there are more women candidates, it’s important to vote for men who will represent women’s concerns.

“You can choose a good person, a man who defends women’s rights, to be the representative,” she concludes.

“It is double-sided. When I pick up a guitar and start to play, it makes me feel happy. The focus on playing provides a distraction from whatever is bothering me,” said Rayan, a student of Sultan’s School.

The brain is the most active when playing music.

“When students are engaged in

the process, the brain activity is far more active than anything we do,” said Dr Michael.

The teaching methods include first-hand experience on certain instruments as well as familiarisation with instruments of different cultures.

“We do not have all the instruments, so I like to show students some clips about how different instruments are played from other cultures and how their technique is. It helps them understand the diversity of music to build their interest in music,” said Fergus.

When asked about the difficulty of learning music, Nizar, a student, said, “It will be difficult if it is an obligation. But when you have an instrument that you love, learning will be simple.”

Commenting on the social aspect of music, Dr Michael said, “Music is internationally recognised as a way to bring people together.”

Music is the only form of communication that people from different cultures and backgrounds understand. It helps students to develop their social skills, creative thinking and confidence at a young age.

Times News Service MUSCAT: A team of 46 students and staff members from the Indian School Al Ghubra (ISG) visited the Boeing factory in Seattle (USA) and attended the Space School at NASA. A visit to Boeing’s Future of Flight – Aviation Centre offered students, the only publicly available opportunity to tour a commercial jet assembly plant in North

America. Students Febin and David said, “The largest building by volume, the Boeing factory introduced us to the world of aviation.”

This was followed by a visit to the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation, Pacific Science Centre in Seattle.

The highlight of the trip was the Lunar Rover Workshop at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Kennedy Space Centre.

CLOSE CALL: Aerial view of the building site which collapsed in Buraimi.–Supplied photo

Building collapse in Buraimi Times News Service BURAIMI: Two workers suffered injuries in a building collapse in Buraimi, according to Public Authority for Defence and Ambulance (PACDA).

According to PACDA the building was under construction and

collapsed when the construction work was on at the first floor.

Workers who were trapped inside the rubble were all rescued.

Two workers have suffered medium to severe injuries, according to PACDA. There have been no other injury reports.

SPACE AWARENESS: The tour involved many educational and inspirational modules related to space science. – Supplied photo

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SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2015

REGION

The two US security sources told Reuters the Fox report was true and the United States believed the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Qassem Soleimani, chief of Iran’s Quds Force, took place.

French aid worker held hostage in Yemen freed Development worker Isabelle Prime and her translator Shereen Makawi were abducted by gunmen in the capital Sanaa on February 24 while on their way to work

PARIS/SANAA: A Frenchwoman abducted in Yemen in February has been freed, French authorities said on Friday, adding that her captors had been about to kill her.

Development worker Isabelle Prime and her translator Shereen Makawi were abducted by gunmen in the capital Sanaa on February 24 while on their way to work. Yemeni tribal sources said in March Prime would be released, but only Makawi was freed at the time. “We have indications that her death was not far off,” Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on iTele television on Friday.

“If we had not got her out, she would be dead.”

Asked whether a ransom had been paid, a French official said France never gave details on either the detention or release of hostages. “I spoke to her by telephone this morning, she is doing as well as can be expected,” Fabius said in a statement. “The release of Isabelle Prime shows yet again that France does not abandon its own.”

A statement from President Francois Hollande said: “The president wishes to thank all those who helped achieve this

SAFE AND SOUND: Former French hostage Isabelle Prime, left, who was kidnapped in Yemen, is greeted by French President Francois Hollande upon her arrival at Villacoublay’s airbase, near Paris, on Friday. – AFP

outcome.” Kidnappings of Westerners occur sporadically in Yemen, mostly carried out by Al Qaeda militants and tribesmen.

In recent years, tribesmen in Yemen have taken foreigners hostage to press the government to provide them with services or to free jailed relatives.

Yemen is also home to one of the most active branches of Al Qaeda, to which tribal kidnappers have often sold their victims, according to Yemeni security officials.

In June, France authenticated a video that appeared on YouTube in May showing Prime making an appeal in English to Hollande and Yemeni President Abdrabbo

E X E C U T I O N T H R E AT

Mansour Hadi. “Please bring me to France fast because I’m really, really tired,” she said in the video, in which she was seen crouching on sand and in distress. “I tried to kill myself several times because I know you will not cooperate and I totally understand.”

Since Prime’s abduction, the situation in Yemen has become more complex. Hadi fled into exile in March after Iranian-allied Houthi fighters, who seized the capital Sanaa last September, advanced towards his southern stronghold in Aden.

Yemen’s Arab neighbours have intervened to halt the advance of the Houthis. The Houthis have

been pounded with air strikes for more than four months, and the raids and other warfare have killed more than 4,000 people.

Disease, hunger and water shortages have also contributed to a humanitarian crisis.

Saudi soldier killed Meanwhile, a Saudi soldier was killed by shelling from across the Yemeni border on Friday, becoming the third death this week, the official SPA news agency reported.

The National Guard serviceman was killed in the Najran region, in the southwest, said the Saudi-led coalition carrying out air strikes against Houthi rebels

in Yemen. Another soldier died from shelling along the border on Wednesday, and a civilian was killed in Najran three days earlier.

The latest cross-border barrages coincide with advances since late July by pro-government fighters who recaptured the southern city of Aden from the Houthi rebels.

On Tuesday. they also took back Al Anad airbase north of Aden, using heavy armour supplied by the coalition after hundreds of Gulf Arab troops landed in the port city to bolster the fightback.

In Yemen, the United Nations says the war has killed nearly 4,000 people, half of them civilians. — Agencies

TOUR

Iran Quds chief Soleimani ‘visited’ Moscow LONDON: The head of Iran’s elite military Quds Force, who is subject to a United Nations travel ban, has visited Russia, two US security sources said on Friday.

Qassem Soleimani, chief of the force which is an overseas arm of the Revolutionary Guards, has been subject to an international travel ban and asset freeze by the UN Security Council since 2007.

Fox News reported on Thursday that Soleimani had arrived in Moscow on July 24 and met President Vladimir Putin and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu before departing three days later. A Kremlin spokesman denied any meeting between Soleimani and Putin had taken place, RIA news agency reported. The two US security sources told Reuters the Fox report was true and the United States believed the meeting between Putin and Soleimani took place. One of the sources said Soleimani also had numerous other meetings in Moscow and that the visit took place in July. It was not clear what exactly was discussed.

A senior administration official in Washington said US sanctions on Soleimani would remain in place despite a deal between Tehran and world powers last month in which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for easing sanctions.

“We will maintain sanctions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Quds Force, its leadership - including Qassem Soleimani - and its entire network,” the official said. Two officials at the Russian Foreign Ministry said they could neither confirm nor deny a Soleimani visit to Moscow. The Russian defence ministry was not available for comment.

A spokesman for the Iranian embassy in Moscow could not be reached on Friday and other embassy officials declined comment.

Washington designated Soleimani’s Quds Force as a supporter of terrorism in 2007. The European Union did the same in 2011. — Reuters

ABDUCTIONS

Fears over fate of IS kidnaps 230 civilians in central Syria Croatian hostage held by IS in Egypt CAIRO: Fears mounted on Friday over the fate of a Croatian abducted near Cairo by IS group militants who have threatened to execute him unless women in Egyptian jails are freed.

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said she would talk to her Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah El Sisi by telephone as the 48-hour deadline set by the militants on Wednesday neared.

Egypt’s foreign ministry said it was making “intensive efforts” to locate Tomislav Salopek, a 31-year-old working for French geoscience company CGG kidnapped last month.

The abduction -- unprecedented for Egypt -- has rattled foreigners working for multinational companies and underscored the militants’ reach despite a massive military campaign against IS. Although it has been battling an IS insurgency in the sparsely populated Sinai Peninsula, the North African country has been spared the hostage-taking of foreigners and horrific executions carried out by militants in Syria and Libya.

Salopek’s father appealed to the kidnappers to release the father of two, as Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic travelled to Cairo for emergency talks.

Appeal “I am asking the people who hold my son to let him return to his family, because his motive to go to your homeland was exclusively to earn bread for his children.

Nothing else,” Zlatko Salopek told AFP at the family’s home in the eastern Croatian town of Vrpolje. After talks between Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and Pusic, Cairo said: “We will not spare any effort to find the hostage and guarantee his security”.

Salopek appeared in an IS video released on the Internet on Wednesday, kneeling next to a masked militant holding a knife.

HOSTAGE: This image made

from a militant video posted on a social media website on Wednesday, purports to show a militant,right, standing next to another man who identifies himself as 30-year-old Tomislav Salopek. – AP/PTI

He read out from a piece of paper that his captors would execute him within 48 hours if Cairo failed to release female prisoners, a key demand of militants over the past two years.

Thousands of people, mostly hardliners, have been jailed since the army overthrew president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 and unleashed a deadly crackdown on his supporters.

Salopek was abducted last month on a road running from the west of Cairo. His driver was left unharmed, and police say they have questioned him.

In his hometown, neighbours were braced waiting for news of Salopek, described as a friendly young man. “I think that every inhabitant of Vrpolje is very upset and sad, fearing the outcome.

We fear the worst, but we all have a hope that it will end well after all, although time is running out,” neighbour Miro Hrastovic said.

It was not clear where the militants were holding him in the vast and mostly desert country.

While the militants operate mostly in Sinai, northeast Egypt, they have also conducted attacks in the western desert over the past two years. — AFP

BEIRUT: The IS militant group abducted 230 civilians, including at least 60 Christians, in a central Syrian town known as a symbol of religious coexistence, a monitoring group said on Friday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the civilians were taken on Thursday in the town of Al Qaryatain, which IS militants seized the previous day.

“IS kidnapped at least 230 people, including at least 60 Christians, during a sweep through Al Qaryatain,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said, using another name for IS. Amnesty International condemned the abductions as highlighting the suffering of civilians in the more than four-year-old Syrian conflict that has cost over 240,000 lives. “The abhorrent abduction in Syria of more than 200 people by IS highlights the dreadful plight of civilians caught up in the conflict in the country,” said Neil Sammonds, Amnesty’s Syria researcher.

“The group must respect the rules of war and immediately release these civilians unharmed.”

Bishop Matta Al Khoury, secretary at the Syriac Orthodox patriarchate in Damascus, told AFP he could not confirm what had happened in the town “because it’s very hard to reach residents now”.

“But we know that when IS entered the town, it forced some people into house arrest... to use them as human shields” against regime air strikes, Khoury said, urging IS to let the families leave the city.

The Assyrian Observatory for Human Rights said there were some 100 Syriac Christian families being detained in their homes

by IS militant group.

At the crossroads Al Qaryatain lies at the crossroads between IS territory in the eastern countryside of Homs and areas further west in the Qalamun area. It had a pre-war population of 18,000.

A Syrian Christian who lives in Damascus but is originally from Al Qaryatain told AFP the town’s Christian population had dropped to only 300. And he stressed that people coexisted peacefully in the town. According to Al Khoury, only

WEIGHTY MATTERS: Members of the United Nations Security Council address a resolution to investigate the use of chemical weapons in Syria during a meeting at the UN headquarters in New York on Friday. The UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution asking UN chief Ban Ki-moon and the head of the global anti-chemical weapons watchdog to prepare a plan to set up an inquiry to identify those behind chemical weapons attacks in Syria’s civil war. – Reuters

180 Christians were left in Al Qaryatain by Thursday night.

Abdel Rahman told AFP that those abducted were wanted by IS for “collaborating with the regime,” and their names were on a list used by the militants as they swept through the town.

Search of safety They included Christians who had fled Aleppo province to the north in search of safety in Al Qaryatain.

Families who tried to flee or hide were tracked down and taken by the militants, he said.

As IS continued its advance on the nearby villages of Sadad, Wahmin, and Houranin, hundreds of Christians began fleeing towards the provincial capital of Homs province, Abdel Rahman added.

In May, masked men abducted Syrian priest Jacques Mourad from the Syriac Catholic Mar Elian monastery in Al Qaryatain, near the IS-held ancient city of Palmyra. Mourad, who was known to help both Christians and Muslims, was preparing aid for an influx of refugees from Palmyra.

In late February, IS militants abducted 220 Assyrian Christians from villages in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakeh. At least

19 were released when ransoms were paid.

Unanimous vote Meanwhile, in United Nations, the UN Security Council voted unanimously on Friday to set up a panel to identify who is behind deadly chlorine gas attacks in Syria, which the West blames on the Damascus regime.

Russia, Syria’s veto-wielding ally, endorsed the measure as did the rest of the 15-member council -- a rare display of unity over how to address the conflict.

Under discussion for months, the US-drafted resolution sets up a team of experts tasked with identifying the perpetrators of the chemical weapons attacks and paves the way for possible sanctions to punish them.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, called the probe panel a “necessary step” toward “eventual accountability.”

The United States, Britain and France have repeatedly accused President Bashar al-Assad’s forces of carrying out chlorine gas attacks with barrel bombs dropped from helicopters.

The three countries argue that

only the Syrian regime has helicopters. But Russia maintains there is no solid proof that Damascus is behind the attacks.

The investigative panel will be given “full access” to all locations in Syria and allowed to interview witnesses and collect materials, according to the resolution passed on Friday.

It mandates the panel to “identify to the greatest extent feasible individuals, entities, groups or governments who were perpetrators, organizers, sponsors or otherwise involved in the use of chemicals as weapons” in Syria.

The team UN Secretary-General Ban Kimoon is tasked with assembling the team within 20 days, working with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is based in The Hague.

The panel would present its first findings to the council 90 days after it begins its work, which would be for a duration of one year.

Pressure has been mounting on the Security Council to take action in Syria, where the war, now in its fifth year, has claimed more than 240,000 lives. It tops the UN’s list of humanitarian crises.— AFP

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INDIA

T OU R I S T ATT R AC T I O N

SPECTACULAR: The snake boat race is main tourist attraction because the length of the vessels vary from 120 feet to 140 feet, with about 120 oarsmen going flat out to lift the coveted trophy. – A R Rajkumar/TIMES OF OMAN

Kerala gears up for Nehru Boat Race at Punnamada Lake today ALAPPUZHA (KERALA): Kerala is getting ready for the 63rd edition of the fiercely competitive Nehru Boat Race scheduled to be held on August 8, an event that serves as the curtain raiser of the tourism season in the state.

The event takes place at Punnamada Lake and the chief guests for this year’s edition include Vice President Hamid Ansari and Chinese Ambassador Le Yucheng.

The snake boat race is main tourist attraction because the length of the vessels vary from 120 feet to 140 feet, with about

120 oarsmen going flat out to lift the coveted trophy. This time, 16 teams will participate in the snake boat category, with the race being held in the afternoon session.

Around 60 boats will participate in the morning session of the event.

The history of the event dates to 1952, when then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru visited the state and a small flotilla of decorated boats accompanied him from Kottayam to Alappuzha on the famed backwaters. An impromptu race was conducted in Nehru’s honour and, thrilled by the performance of

the oarsmen, Nehru jumped into a snake boat. On returning to Delhi, Nehru donated a silver trophy, a replica of a snake boat placed on a wooden abacus with an inscription and his signature. This trophy is awarded to the winner of the snake boat category.

Over the years, the costs, both for the organisers and also for the participants, have gone up considerably, said CPI-M legislator C.K.Sadasivan, a former coach and captain of the Kainankary Boat Club, which won a record 12 titles in the 1970s and 1980s.

“It was me in 1994 who sang in the assembly the traditional song of the rowers as they strike the water in unison with their oars. The house sat in rapt attention and the then chief minister, A.K.Antony, sanctioned $4,700 for this event for the first time,” Sadasivan.

The state government has given Rs5.5 million for the current edition. “This is an expensive affair as every club or organisation which fields a team for the snake boat race has to shell out a minimum of Rs4 million. This is to pay every oarsman a minimum of Rs.1,000

Jaya raises inter-state issues, GST with Modi

per day for around four weeks of practice and for other expenses,” Sadasivan said.

“Today, most of the snake boats that are used by the various clubs and organisations are taken on hire and a very hefty rent has to be paid to its owner. Snake boats are built using anjali wood. They cost around Rs4 million and have a life of around 10 years if properly maintained,” Sadasivan added.

The organisers are hoping for good ticket sales.

“We expect the sale of tickets to fetch Rs3.6 million. Besides, we are

expecting money from sponsors too,” Tomy Pulikattil, one of the organisers, said. There are around 30,000 tickets on offer, ranging from Rs.100 to Rs.2,000.

Pulikattil also said that for the first time, there has been a change in the schedule. “This change has been made because of the increase in the number of participating boats. It gets very late if it is held in the afternoon only. So this time, the morning session starts from 11 a.m. and the afternoon session at 3 p.m. We expect to wind up around 5 p.m.,” Pulikattil said. - IANS

D E AT H T H R E AT

PM meets Cho Ramaswamy

SLEW OF ISSUES: Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a meeting with the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalithaa in Chennai, Tamil Nadu on Friday. -PTI

Jayalalithaa sought central intervention in matters like the Cauvery and Mullaperiyar disputes with Karnataka and Kerala respectively

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Friday took up with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi a slew of issues concerning her state, ranging from inter-state river disputes to the GST rollout, besides the Sri Lankan Tamils issue. Jayalalithaa presented a detailed memorandum to Modi during their 50-minute luncheon meeting at her Poes Garden residence here.

She called for retrieval of Katchatheevu islet from Sri Lanka, besides stressing on India’s role to ensure welfare of Lankan Tamils.

Jaya sought central intervention in matters like the Cauvery and Mullaperiyar disputes with Karnataka and Kerala respectively.

In the memorandum, which was released by the state government,

Jayalalithaa demanded that the Centre should immediately form the Cauvery Management Board and Cauvery Water Regulation Committee for implementing the final award given by the disputes tribunal.

On Karnataka’s proposed dam across river Cauvery at Mekedatu, which Jayalalithaa said was “in violation” of the final award, she urged Modi to advise that the state not to proceed with the project without Tamil Nadu’s concurrence. She also raised the Mullaperiyar issue in which her government had succeeded in a court case for raising the storage level to 142 feet.

Jayalalithaa said there could be a “security threat” to the dam structure and its appurtenant

CHENNAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday called on long time friend and Editor-in-Chief of Tamil weekly news magazine ‘Thuglak’, Cho Ramaswamy, at his residence here.

The meeting between Modi and Ramaswamy lasted about 10 minutes and during this brief interaction Modi enquired about Ramaswamy’s health. Ramaswamy (80) was recently hospitalised following a brief illness.

Modi after launching the National Handloom Day celebrations here, had a luncheon meeting with Chief Minister Jayalalithaa at her Poes Garden residence and then drove straight to the residence of the veteran journalist and political commentator at M R

structures “from unruly mobs against whom the Kerala Police, instead of taking action, are acting as mute spectators”.

“It is, therefore, imperative to deploy the Central Industrial Security Force to guard the Mullaperiyar Dam and its appurtenant structures,” she said.

On the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Jayalalithaa expressed “concern” about the impact the rollout will have on state autonomy, besides the “huge permanent revenue loss”.

She recalled having suggested a “radical approach” where levy, collection and appropriation of the substitutes for VAT, Central Excise Duty and Service Tax within a state could be delegated completely to the state machinery, with the

INCREASED SECURITY: Security personnel deployed at the residence of the Supreme Court judge Justice Dipak Mishra, who handled Yakub Memon’s case, in New Delhi on Friday. -PTI

C Nagar, sources said.

Modi has been a long time friend of Ramaswamy and had also participated in the 42nd Anniversary of the magazine as Gujarat Chief Minister in Chennai on January 14, 2012.

Ramaswamy said it was only a meeting between friends and they did not discuss anything political. -PTI

central machinery focusing on inter-state taxation.

She said a manufacturing state like Tamil Nadu will “permanently lose substantial revenue” if GST is implemented, due to the shift of levy from the point of origin to the point of destination. Modi urged movie stars, youths and others to use handloom products to give a much needed boost to the sector.

“If movie actors decide to use only handloom and handicraft products in one out of their five movies, then those movies will automatically attract good viewership,” Modi said.

Modi was here to launch the National Handloom Day and the India Handloom brand for better market positioning of Indian handloom products. -PTI

Security beefed up at house of judge NEW DELHI: A death threat has been made against Justice Dipak Misra, one of the three Supreme Court judges who turned down the final plea against hanging of 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon, following which his security has been stepped up.

Delhi police has registered a case after a threat letter was found near the back entrance of the judge’s house at Tughlak Road on Wednesday. They said the threat to Misra is of a “very serious nature” and have so far ruled out that someone may have played a prank by sending the anonymous letter.

Justice Misra’s personal security officers were doing a security check, when they found the letter. Senior police officers were immediately informed. Special Commissioner (law and order) Deepak Mishra visited his residence and did a security audit, police said.

It is believed that those behind threat letter did a recce of Misra’s residence. “Suspects knew that security personnel are posted outside Justice Misra’s residence and CCTV cameras are installed outside his office. They knew that

back entrance of Misra’s residence has thick cover of trees and CCTVs can’t capture someone throwing the letter in the compound,” a senior officer said.

Apart from Delhi Police, personnel from central paramilitary force have been posted at his residence.

Security drill “We have increased the security cover of Misra’s residence. Also anti-terror security drill has been carried out in entire New Delhi area,” the officer said.

Police said that soon after Memon’s hanging in the wee hours of July 30, security for Justice Misra and his two colleagues was increased.

The three judges rejected Memon’s eleventh hour appeal to stop his hanging in an unprecedented hearing that took place in the apex court in the middle of the night.

Memon was convicted in 2007 as the driving spirit of the deadly attack in Mumbai in 1993 in which 257 people were killed as bombs exploded back to back at landmarks across the financial capital. -PTI

A6

SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2015

INDIA

BJP fielded Union Minister Smriti Irani to defend Swaraj from the onslaught by the Congress top brass against her.

Sonia labels Sushma theatrics expert, draws retort from BJP Sushma is doing drama, she is an expert in theatrics.... I would have certainly done my best to help the lady (Lalit’s wife) but not by breaking the law, said Congress chief

NEW DELHI: In an escalation of confrontation, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Friday dubbed External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj as an “expert in theatrics” after her emotional defence on Lalit Modi issue, drawing a sharp retort from BJP which said it’s easy to give “a byte” than to speak in Parliament.

Marking a renewed aggression by the Congress which continued its protest against the suspension of 25 of its MPs from the Lok Sabha, its Vice President Rahul Gandhi went a step further, asking the External Affairs Minister to explain how much money her family got from Lalit Modi, the former IPL boss, to keep him out of jail.

BJP used the dynasty stick to hit back at Rahul over his charge that Swaraj’s family received

UP IN ARMS: Congress President Sonia Gandhi leading a protest against suspension of 25 party members, during the Monsoon session at Parliament in New Delhi on Friday. -PTI

money from Modi, saying people from “common families” have to earn their living and the Gandhi family may be an “exception”. It also said Sonia’s “theatrics” jibe reduces Parliament’s dignity.

Sonia struck an uncharacteristically personal and aggressive tone in her response to Swaraj’s’s poser as to whether she would have acted differently if faced with such a situation. The minister

posed the question while explaining her stand on the Lalit Modi issue in Lok Sabha on Thursday.

“Sushma Swaraj is doing drama, she is an expert in theatrics.... I would have certainly done my best to help the lady (Lalit’s wife) but not by breaking the law,” she told reporters outside Parliament House.

In her impassioned defence, Swaraj said she had not helped

Lalit Modi but his cancer-stricken wife and questioned if Sonia would have acted differently if faced with such a situation.

Aggression Rahul also scaled up his aggression against the minister, saying the whole matter relating to Lalit Modi and her was kept a secret as is done in a “theft”.

“When a theft occurs, two

things take place. Whatever happens is in secrecy and there is a financial transfer. What Sushmaji did was by maintaining secrecy and keeping her ministry in the dark?” he said.

“Sushmaji should tell the country how much money her family, her daughter and husband got from Lalit Modi to keep him out of jail,” he told reporters.

Rahul also said that his mother would not have acted like the minister on the Lalit Modi issue.

BJP fielded Union Minister Smriti Irani to defend Swaraj from the onslaught by the Congress top brass against her.

To a question on Sonia’s attack against Swaraj, Irani shot back asking if the Congress president wanted to say that Parliament had become a “theatre”.

“Such a statement is disrespect to the people’s mandate....

Congress party especially Rahul Gandhi should not work to reduce Parliament’s respect,” she told reporters.

Taking a dig at Sonia and her party’s decision to stall Parliament, Irani said giving a byte for one and a half minute may be easy but speaking in Parliament for over one and a half hours without support of papers may be difficult.

After Rahul sought to know how much money Swaraj’s family received from Modi, a reference to the fact that her lawyer husband and daughter had worked for the former IPL chief, Irani sarcastically said that people from “common families” have to earn their living and Gandhi family may be an “exception”. — PTI

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Apex Court issues notice to Dimple NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to actress Dimple Kapadia on a petition filed

by Anita Advani who sought restoration of her complaint of domestic violence against her subsequent to the death of former Bollywood superstar Rajesh Khanna.

An apex court bench headed by Chief Justice H.L. Dattu issued notice on Advani’s plea challenging a Bombay High Court order of April 9, 2015, quashing her complaint of domestic violence against Dimple Kapadia, her daughter Twinkle and son-in-law Akshay Kumar.

Appearing for Advani, senior counsel C.A. Sundaram told the court that his client lived with Rajesh Khanna for 25 years following his estrangement from his wife Kapadia.

The case is rooted in the eviction of Anita Advani from Rajesh Khanna’s Carter Road bungalow ‘Aashirwad’ after his death. Advani, who claimed to be the live-in partner of the former superstar, had sought monthly maintenance and a three-bedroom flat in Bandra. As Sundaram questioned the high court order quashing Anita Advani’s complaint against Dimple, Twinkle and Akshay Kumar under the Domestic Violence Act, the apex court asked how could a married woman have a live-in relationship with another man.

The court was told that Anita Advani was not married and had a live-in relationship in the nature of marriage. The Bombay High Court had on April 9, 2015, quashed the complaint of domestic violence filed by Advani in 2013 against Dimple, Twinkle, Rinkie and sonin-law Akshay Kumar. - IANS

W O R S E N I N G L AW A N D O R D E R

Pappu Yadav and Kirti demand president’s rule in Bihar NEW DELHI: Demand for imposition of president’s rule in Bihar was made by a BJP member and expelled RJD MP in the Lok Sabha on Friday alleging that law and order was worsening day by day with incidents of murders and atrocities growing under JD-U leader Nitish Kumar’s regime.

Sharing the concern, Minister of state for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy said he would apprise Home Minister Rajnath Singh of the sentiments expressed by the members and if need be, there could be a meeting of the members with him to review the situation. At the outset, he said law and order is a state subject.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Pappu Yadav alias Rajesh

Ranjan, who has floated a proBJP outfit in the poll-bound state, claimed that the “shocking murder” of a BJP leader Avinash Kumar in Patna on Wednesday was the latest of such incidents.

Expressing concern over the way the police was also behaving, he alleged that the Patna SSP had warned him of an encounter and he was raising a breach of privilege on the matter. Alleging that murder and atrocities have become the order of the day in Bihar, he said this was happening since Nitish Kumar has joined hands with RJD supremo Lalu Prasad.

He claimed that the state had witnessed 70 rapes in last one month, including seven gangrapes.

He said that the people being tar-

geted were dalits, mahadalits and the backwards.

He demanded that the state should be brought under President’s rule and the incidents should be investigated by the CBI. He claimed that no free and fair assembly poll would be possible if it was not held under central rule.

Seconding Pappu Yadav, BJP member Kirti Azad also underlined the need for central rule. He complained of the growing illicit liquor trade in the Mithalanchal region. Bhola Singh, also of the BJP, however said he will not talk about imposition of President’s Rule in the state but a high-level delegation should be sent to Bihar to take a view of the law and order situation there. — PTI

MAKING A POINT: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar addresses the media after e-launching an allwomen branch of HDFC in Patna on Friday. – PTI

P R O T E S T A G A I N S T PA K I S TA N A C T

India to boycott Commonwealth meeting NEW DELHI: India will boycott a Commonwealth Parliamentary Union (CPU) meeting in Islamabad next month in protest against Pakistan not inviting the Speaker of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, a decision that comes in the midst of tensions over two terror attacks in Punjab and J and K. “A meeting of Speakers of all states here today unanimously decided that India will boycott the meeting of the CPU if the Speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly is not invited,” Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan told reporters after the meeting.

This follows Pakistan not sending an invitation to Jammu and Kashmir Speaker to the Inter Parliamentary Union meeting to be held from September 30 to October 8 in Islamabad while invitations have been sent to all the other Speakers in India.

Decision The decision of the Speakers comes against the backdrop of simmering tensions between the two countries over the recent terror attacks in Gurdaspur in Punjab and near Udhampur in J and K by terrorists, perpetrated by terrorists who had infiltrated from Pakistan. Mahajan said this was against a rule in the CPU in which all the Speakers, who are members of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), have to be extended an invitation to the CPU meeting.

“It is wrong (on the part of Pakistan). They cited an old rule of

She said Pakistan had expressed “constraint” in inviting Jammu and Kashmir Speaker citing an old rule which was “irrelevant” now as the state had participated in such a conference in 2007.

RISING TENSIONS: Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan during the Monsoon Session of parliament in New Delhi on Thursday. – PTI

1951-57 regarding their having raised an issue in the UN Security Council for not inviting J and K Speaker,” she said adding it had lost relevance.

The Speaker said Pakistan gave this reply when India took up the matter strongly with the CPA Chairperson and Secretary General against leaving out J and K Speaker.

“We (31 Speakers) reviewed this issue and felt this was wrong.

We reject this decision (of Pakistan). We are writing to the CPA Chairperson that if I and K Speaker is not invited then India will not attend the meeting or change the venue (for us to attend),” she said.

Welcoming the decision J and

K Speaker Ravindra Gupta, who attended the meeting, thanked the Speakers for the decision saying it was a question of unity and integrity of the country. He called Pakistan a terrorist state.

‘Deliberate’ Gupta said Pakistan has done this (not inviting J and K Speaker) “deliberately” and added Friday’s decision is a strong message to that country.

Mahajan made it clear that to ensure participation of the Speaker of Lok Sabha and those of Indian Assemblies, J and K Speaker will have to be invited or the venue should be changed to some other country.

Wrong Describing Pakistan’s decision as “wrong”, she said she had called Friday’s meeting to consult Speakers of the Assemblies before taking a decision.

The meeting noted that since Speakers of all the state Assemblies are members of the ‘India Region of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA)’, it was wrong to single out Jammu and Kashmir Assembly and not invite its Speaker.

After detailed discussions at the meeting attended by Speakers of 31 Assemblies, a resolution was adopted “unanimously”, condemning the unilateral decision of Pakistan for not inviting Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Speaker to the 61st Conference.

The resolution said Pakistani decisions violates the “provisions of the CPA Constitution, keeping the Executive Committee and the General Assembly of CPA in the dark while acting against the century-old tradition of CPA which is a membership organisation that has constitutionally been bound to invite all its member branches to the CPA annual conference so long as a Branch is in good financial standing with the Association.” — IANS

SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2015

A7

PAKISTAN A F G H A N TA L I B A N

INDEPENDENCE DAY PREPARATIONS Vendors in Islamabad sell the country’s national flag for the upcoming independence day celebrations at a roadside stall on Friday. Pakistan will celebrate on August 14 the 69th anniversary of its independence from British rule. — AFP

‘Mullah Omar did not die in Pakistan’ ISLAMABAD: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif clarified on Friday Afghan Taliban supremo Mullah Omar neither died nor was buried in Pakistan.

“I can confirm that Mullah Omar neither died nor was buried in Pakistan and his sons’ statements are on record to support this,” the defence minister said, while addressing the National Assembly.

“Whether he died now or two years ago is another controversy which we do not wish to be a part of,” Asif added.

The defence minister refuted Afghan spy agency’s claims that the Afghan Taliban supremo died in a hospital in Karachi, “He was neither in Karachi nor in Quetta,” he said.

Further, Asif said Pakistan is only playing the role of a mediator in talks between Afghan Taliban and the government in Kabul.

“We do not accept that we have a control on Taliban, we are only playing a role of mediator,” the defence minister said. Asif further said that US and Chinese officials are participating in the Pakistanbrokered peace talks as observers.

“We do not want to get involved in any rivalry in Taliban leadership,” he said, adding Pakistan only wants the group’s leadership to continue the reconciliation process.

The defence minister reiterated the government’s desire for peace talks to continue. — Express Tribune

Army copter crashes in Gilgit; 12 killed army doctors, paramedical staff, the pilots and crew, a senior military official said, adding that all the victims had been identified

Charred corpses The corpses were burnt beyond recognition and the aircraft, which was carrying aid supplies, was still on fire in the evening, he said.

“An army helicopter carrying relief items crashed around 35 kil-

Altaf’s anti-state remarks censured

by Sindh Assembly KARACHI: Sindh Assembly passed on Friday resolutions condemning the anti-state remarks of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain.

The resolutions which were passed after similar resolutions were tabled in Punjab, KhyberPakhtunkhwa and Balochistan assemblies in the past several days, were jointly moved by opposition parties.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s Samar Ali Khan, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)’s Shafi Jamot and Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F)’s Nand Kumar jointly moved resolutions in the Sindh Assembly which were passed with majority vote.

The Pakistan Peoples’ Party supported the resolutions.

The dead include

ISLAMABAD: Twelve people were killed on Thursday when a helicopter belonging to the army crashed in northwest Pakistan, officials said.

“All the 12 people in the chopper are presumed dead, they all belong to the army, they were going to Gilgit to rescue an injured army man,” a senior military official told AFP. “The dead include army doctors, paramedical staff, the pilots and crew,” he said, adding that all the victims had been identified.

Eleven of the bodies were recovered soon after the accident from the crash site near Mansehra town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, around 170 kilometres (110 miles) north of Islamabad, said senior police official Najeebur Rehman.

MQM MOVES RESOLUTION AGAINST ASIF ALI ZARDARI

TRAGEDY: Pakistani soldiers and ambulances near the site of an army helicopter crash near Mansehra, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, around 170 kilometres from Islamabad, on Friday. — AFP

An army helicopter carrying relief items crashed around 35 kilometres northwest of Mansehra this evening. The accident occurred in a hilly area that is not easily accessible -- the helicopter is still on fire, said senior police official Najeebur Rehman

ometres northwest of Mansehra this evening,” Rehman told AFP. “The accident occurred in a hilly area that is not easily accessible -- the helicopter is still on fire,” he said.

The accident came only hours

after a helicopter of the Pakistan air force crashed in the flood-hit district of Chitral, although no casualties were reported.

Both incidents involved Russian-built Mi-17 helicopters, used by air forces across the world but

which have had a patchy safety record in recent years.

In May, an Mi-17 army helicopter crashed at a holiday resort in the picturesque hills of Gilgit killing seven people, including two foreign ambassadors.

Autonomous region Known for its spectacular mountain ranges, Gilgit-Baltistan is a strategically important autonomous region that borders China, Afghanistan and Indian-administered Kashmir. — AFP

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Foreign help The resolution condemned the MQM leader’s statements seeking foreign help while it demanded the provincial government to take strict legal action against him.

Further, the resolution also rejected the demand raised by Altaf Hus-

sain to divide the province.

However, soon after, MQM moved a resolution against former president Asif Ali Zardari for his remarks against the army.

MQM lawmakers protested and raised slogans in favour of their party head during the assembly proceedings.

However, after majority voted in favour of the resolutions, Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani adjourned the assembly session till August 10.

Black day Addressing the media outside Sindh Assembly, leaders of opposition parties termed it a ‘historic day’, while MQM called it “a black day in the history of the Sindh assembly.” Further, opposition members also appreciated PPP lawmakers’ support for the resolution.

Sindh Information Minister Nisar Ahmed Khuhro said, “We have asked the federal government to take legal action against Altaf Hussain and are waiting for a response that will determine our line of action.” — Express Tribune

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Hiroshima survivors spread peace message

Location: Mirbat/Photo: Mujahid Karim

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MARK HEALY

I

t is impossible to conjure up the agony visited upon Hiroshima’s 70 years ago as you walk around the rebuilt city, with its airy shopping centres and tree-lined boulevards.

Once a year, elderly hibakusha (survivors of the bomb) must relive the most excruciating experiences of their lives.

Their stories become numbing: people blown away like flecks of dust; children dying as they screamed for mothers who had been incinerated; the dangling eyeballs, burst intestines and mutilated skin of neighbours and friends; the stench of burning flesh and death in the summer heat.

Sakue Shimohira, 80, has told the same story in thousands of speeches: Finding her mother turned to charcoal, and how when she touched the corpse it disintegrated; her brother dying in agony days later, his body wracked with vomiting and bloody diarrhoea, the symptoms of the thenunknown radiation poisoning. “He kept saying: ‘I don’t want to die.’”

A mother and her child in traditional dress in Hiroshima in September 1945.

Terumi Tanaka tells me how as a 13-year-old boy he helped cremate much of his family before the end of August; of witnessing ponds and rivers filled with bloated corpses, the survivors sitting blankeyed, their wounds filled with maggots.

“Nobody wants to remember such things but we do because we want people to know the truth,” he says.

“These are people who lived through the worst hell imaginable yet they’re not bitter and they don’t want revenge,” explains Peter Kuznick, a history professor at American University who brings his students every year to Hiroshima. “They want to use their experience in a positive way to build world peace. It’s such a powerful message.”

Official Hiroshima cultivates this message, with its museums, memorial parks, peace boulevards and the iconic, hollowed-out Dome. In August, schoolchildren stage “die-ins” beside the

dome, replaying the events of 70 years ago. As I watched, the sound of John Lennon’s “Imagine” wafted from a speaker across the river.

Survivors have made thousands of pilgrimages to the US to lecture on what happened beneath the twin mushroom clouds of August 1945. Many Americans still have little idea of the horrendous human cost of the bombings because they have been told that they saved lives and ended the war, says Tanaka.

But America is not alone in being accused of sanitising the past. For many Asians, Hiroshima is a talisman for selective pain.

The Japanese paid into the bank of suffering with the atomic bombing and they’ve been withdrawing ever since, whitewashing the suffering they inflicted on others in their schools, history books and popular culture.

The bomb was dropped on Hiroshima at 8:15am on 6th August 1945 Writer Ian Buruma calls the city the centre of “Japanese victimhood”.

China is particularly sensitive to Hiroshima’s status: Earlier this year, it blocked Japan’s attempt at a UN disarmament conference to extend an invitation to world leaders to visit the A-bombed cities. Japan, said Chinese delegates in a familiar refrain, was again trying to portray itself as a victim and not the victimiser.

Most hibakusha reject this narrative of selective pain. They are among the fiercest critics of attempts by Japan’s government to rewrite history or water down its commitment to pacifism. It is telling that in polls, the percentage of Japanese who describe the bombings as “unforgivable” is higher nationwide than in Hiroshima, where most appear to have forgiven – but not forgotten.

Forgetting the past puts Japan on the road to war again, says Shoji Sawada. He was forced to abandon his mother to the fires that blazed after the bomb. “I was 13 years old,” he recalls, his face blank. The least he can do, he says, is remember her and speak up about what happened. “It’s what she would have wanted.” —The Independent

READERS’ FORUM Social media helping quirky news to become trends This refers to the news story, House of Cecil killer vandalised in Florida (August 6). It is amazing that the world is hooked on to how this lion in Zimbabwe was killed. All this media frenzy shows the state of the collective human soul. All humanity it seems has been so numbed by constant wars and other bad news that any quirky happening is considered worth sharing. With use of social media a global trend is formed .

— Sandeep Mohanlal, Seeb

Why no action on climate change by global leaders?

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 news story, California firefighters ramp up battle against dozen wildfires (August 6). Why is it that this year throughout the world a lot of forest fires are happening. In my view, the cause is global warming but just making noise that this is so shouldn’t be enough. Why are the global leaders not doing anything in this regard? With the present approach to the problem, I believe that by the turn of the century the global map would be very different from the present one.

— Musarrat Omar, Ruwi

Hard to accept attacker did not recognise Wasim Akram

This refers to the news story, Akram escapes unhurt after being shot at (August 6). Reports have said the person who had the weapon did not know it was the famous cricketer he had fired at.

It is hard to believe this. Not a single person in my country is not a fan of the sport and not recognising Akram might mean something very grave. I hope what I fear is not true and this incident is just a road rage incident. — Basit Ismail, Muscat

In 2012, Shanghai ranked first in Maths, Reading and Science, ahead of Singapore and Hong Kong, China. Since then policymakers have jumped at the chance for two week package holidays, as China and Shanghai became the hot spots for eduvoyeurism bit.ly/chineseteachersinuk

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10203.5

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1379.3 Long residual

1906 In North Carolina, a mob defies a court order and lynches three African Americans which becomes known as “The Lyerly Murders.”

7787.7

Propylene

990.7

1916: Persia forms an alliance with Britain and Russia.

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8572.0

Others

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WORLD

Yet another blogger hacked to death at his Dhaka home The killing of blogger Niloy Chakrabarti, who used the pen-name Niloy Neel is the fourth such murder in Bangladesh this year

DHAKA: A gang armed with machetes hacked a secular blogger to death at his home in Dhaka on Friday, sparking protests in the capital over the fourth such murder in Bangladesh this year.

Niloy Chakrabarti, who used the pen-name Niloy Neel, was killed after the gang forced their way into his apartment, according to the Bangladesh Blogger and Activist Network, which was alerted to the attack by a witness.

“They entered his room in the fifth floor and shoved his friend aside and then hacked him to death. He was a listed target of the militants,” the network’s head, Imran H. Sarker, told AFP. Police confirmed Chakrabarti, 40, had been murdered by a group of half a dozen people at his home in the capital’s Goran neighbourhood who had pretended they were looking for somewhere to rent. “Two of them then took him to a room and then slaughtered him there,” Muntashirul Islam, a deputy police commissioner, told AFP. “His wife was in the flat but she was confined to another room.”

Mahbubur Rahman, another deputy commissioner, told reporters that Chakrabarti’s wife had been heard crying out “Save us!

Save us!” but no one responded.

He is the fourth secular blog-

INCONSOLABLE: The wife, right, of murdered Bangladesh blogger Niloy Chakrabarti, who used the pen-name Niloy Neel, weeps at their home in Dhaka on Friday. – AFP

ger to be killed in the nation since February, when Bangladesh-born US citizen Avijit Roy was hacked to death in Dhaka. Roy’s wife was also badly wounded in the attack.

Other victims The other victims include 27-year-old Washiqur Rahman who was hacked to death in Dhaka in March and Ananta Bijoy Das who was attacked in May by a group wielding machetes in Sylhet. In a Facebook post on May 15, Chakrabarti said he had been followed by two young men after taking part in a protest over Das’s murder. He said he went to report the incident to police, but officers refused to register the complaint and instead told him to leave the country.

Most secular bloggers have

gone into hiding, often using pseudonyms in their posts. And at least seven have fled abroad, according to a Canada-based atheist blogger Farid Ahmed, who helped several of them. Activist groups say they fear hardliners’ hit squads have lists with the bloggers’ real names and addresses.

Asif Mohiuddin, another blogger who himself survived an attack in Bangladesh in 2013, described Chakrabarti as an atheist “free thinker” whose posts appeared on several sites.

“He was critical against religions and wrote against hardliners, and fundamentalism,” Mohiuddin, who is now based in Berlin, told AFP by phone.

Police meanwhile said Chakrabarti had been one of the organisers of the large-scale protests in

A9

2013 against hardliners convicted of war crimes dating back to the 1971 conflict.

Protest march Immediately after the murder, hundreds of secular activists joined a protest march in the city’s Shahbagh Square, which was also the venue for the 2013 demonstrations. “We’re protesting a culture of impunity in Bangladesh. One after another blogger is being killed and yet there is no action to stop these murderers,” said Sarker of the Bangladesh Blogger and Activist Network, who was among the protestors. Amnesty International said the government had to do more to stop what it called “this spate of savage killings”.

“There is little doubt that these especially brutal killings are de-

signed to sow fear and to have a chilling effect on free speech,” said David Griffiths, the rights group’s South Asia research director.

“The price for holding opinions and expressing them freely must not be death. The Bangladesh authorities now have an urgent duty to make clear that no more attacks like this will be tolerated.”

Bangladesh banned the hardline group Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) following Das’s murder after facing accusations that too little was being done to stop such attacks.

In a recent petition to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, authors including Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood called on her government “to do all in their power to ensure that the tragic events... are not repeated”. — AFP

SURGE IN VIOLENCE

Five killed as Kurdish rebels clash with Turkish forces SILOPI (TURKEY): Five people were killed in eastern Turkey on Friday in a series of clashes between security forces and Kurdish militants, part of a surge in violence that has put further strain on a fragile peace process between Ankara and the rebels.

Three people were killed and seven wounded during clashes between police and militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the town of Silopi in Sirnak province, close to Turkey’s borders with Syria and Iraq, authorities said.

In two other separate incidents in Van and Agri provinces, the militants killed two soldiers, bringing the death toll among Turkish security forces since July 20 to at least 21. Violence has swept eastern Turkey since last month when the outlawed PKK ramped up attacks on security forces and Ankara launched reciprocal air strikes against the militants in Turkey and northern Iraq.

The provincial governor’s office in Silopi said PKK militants had dug trenches and erected barricades across the town and that they had then attacked security forces with rockets, handmade explosives and rifles at 5:30 am (0230 GMT). The statement said a 17-year-old youth and a 58-yearold man were among those killed and that operations were still continuing.

Sporadic gunfire rang out and smoke billowed into the sky, Reuters TV footage showed. Armoured jeeps and water cannon vehicles patrolled the streets as masked youths looked on from street corners. Two police officers were among the wounded, the governor’s office said. A lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, Faysal Sariyildiz, told reporters the casualties were civilians and that he had seen no sign of armed militants, contradicting official accounts. — Reuters

CARNAGE

Powerful truck bomb kills 15, injures 240 in Kabul

DEVASTATED: Afghan shopkeepers remove prayer rugs after a powerful truck bomb in Kabul on Friday. – AFP

KABUL: A huge truck bomb tore through central Kabul on Friday, killing 15 civilians and wounding 240 others in the first major attack in the Afghan capital since the announcement of Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s death.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which came as the Taliban steps up their summer offensive despite a bitter power transition within the militant movement.

A truck packed with explosives detonated just after midnight near an army base in the neighbourhood of Shah Shaheed, rattling homes across the city, ripping off the facades of buildings and leaving scattered piles of rubble.

The force of the explosion creat-

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ed an enormous crater in the road, around 10 metres (30 feet) deep, and destroyed the boundary wall of the base, although no military casualties were reported.

“The death toll from the early Friday attack... has risen to 15,” deputy presidential spokesman Sayed Zafar Hashemi told AFP, adding that “more than 240 people have been wounded”.

The health ministry said the number of wounded could run even higher, with most suffering

injuries from flying glass. Kabul police chief General Abdul Rahman Rahimi said officials were searching for anyone trapped under the mangled concrete debris.

“The killed and wounded include women and children, and labourers of a nearby marble stone company are among the victims. The attack was intended to cause mass murder,” he said.

Soldiers erected a security cordon around the military base close to Shah Shaheed, a largely middleclass civilian residential area with no major foreign presence.

The wounded were overwhelming city hospitals, officials said, with reports emerging of blood shortages and urgent appeals for donors circulating on social media.

The carnage comes a day after Taliban insurgents killed nine people in multiple attacks on police targets, including a truck bombing in the volatile eastern province of Logar. The attacks highlight growing insecurity in the country amid a faltering peace process with the Taliban as Afghan forces face their first summer fighting season without full NATO support.

The NATO mission in Afghanistan condemned Friday’s bombing as a “contemptible act of violence”.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP he was “unaware” of the Kabul bombing. The militants are known to distance themselves from attacks that result in a large number of civilian casualties. — AFP

A 10

SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2015

WORLD UN decries ‘shameful’ state of migrants as Greece seeks help people, almost all of them fleeing war and persecution in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, have come ashore since the beginning of the year -- a 750 per cent increase from the same period last year, the UN refugee agency said

Austria blasted The agency had earlier lambasted Austria for the “intolerable, dangerous and inhumane” conditions in its main refugee camp near Vi-

Rajapaksa trails rival in Sri Lanka poll campaign COLOMBO: Former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa is trailing his main rival in a prime ministerial elections later this month, the latest national opinion poll showed, as the once-powerful leader struggles to mount a strong campaign.

Ousted by former ally Maithripala Sirisena in a presidential election in January, Rajapaksa is seeking to turn the tables at the August 17 parliamentary polls but is being dogged by allegations of abuse of power and sleaze.

His party said his campaign has also been hobbled by a lack of security for a leader who crushed a 26-year insurgency by ethnic Tamil rebels in 2009, which won him a support among majority Sinhalese but has made him unpopular among Tamils.

Some 124,000

GENEVA/PALERMO: The United Nations warned Friday that migrants landing in Greece were facing “shameful” conditions, with the crisis-hit country claiming it was unable to cope with the massive influx on its Aegean islands.

Some 124,000 people, almost all of them fleeing war and persecution in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, have come ashore since the beginning of the year -- a 750per cent increase from the same period last year, the UN refugee agency said.

But when they arrive on Greek islands facing Turkey there is usually nothing for them and most are forced to sleep outdoors, relying on volunteers for food and water, said Vincent Cochetel, head of UNHCR’s Europe division.

“It’s total chaos on the islands,” he said, describing desperate, exhausted people, including women, children and unaccompanied minors, searching for food, water, shelter and information about how to proceed.

After a few days they are transferred to Athens, where again “there is nothing waiting for them,” he said. Greece only offers reception places for 1,100 people, he revealed, “which is totally inadequate for the needs.”

A round 50,000 people arrived in July alone -- 20,000 more than in June, the UN refugee agency said.

ONCE-POWERFUL LEADER

SORRY PLIGHT: Migrants clean their clothes in a park in central Athens on Friday, where they have found temporary shelter after arriving from Greek islands near Turkey. — AFP

Italy arrested five North African men on Friday on suspicion of multiple homicide and human trafficking in the presumed drowning of more than 200 people, saying they used clubs and knives against migrants

enna, which is holding twice as many people as it was meant for.

But Cochetel, who has worked with the UNHCR for three decades across many African and Asian countries, said he had never seen anything like what is happening in Greece.

“This is the European Union, and this is totally shameful,” he added.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said the huge influx of migrants was too much for his debtravaged country and pleaded for EU help. “This problem surpasses us. Greece is a country in economic crisis, and it faces a major humanitarian crisis within a crisis,” he said.

He did, however, vow to speed up procedures to get migrants to the mainland as soon as possible,

DISASTER

and said a new housing complex would soon be completed in Athens to relocate hundreds of refugees currently sleeping in one of the capital’s parks.

Migrant quotas But he also criticised EU member states that have failed to meet migrant quotas suggested by Brussels or have rejected them altogether.

Cochetel too criticised the EU for not yet implementing the plan to transfer 16,000 asylum seekers from Greece over two years, and said the plan in any case needed to be beefed up.

“It is far too little and too late,” he said, insisting that helping fix the problems in Greece would be in the interest of a number of European countries. Almost all of

the people who arrive in Greece choose to move on, up through eastern Europe towards the north, sparking a multitude of migration crises across the continent.

Meanwhile, Italy arrested five North African men on Friday on suspicion of multiple homicide and human trafficking in the presumed drowning of more than 200 people, saying they used clubs and knives against migrants.

Most of the dead were locked in the hold of a boat that sank off the coast of Libya on Wednesday. Police said many children were believed to be among those who perished.

Two Libyans, two Algerians and a Tunisian ranging in age from 21 to 24, were placed under formal arrest in Palermo after being questioned on Thursday.

Police had earlier mistakenly identified the Tunisian as a Libyan. Police said the accused men charged the migrants between $1,200 and $1,800 for the voyage, depending on where they would be placed on the deck of the boat.

Those in the hold paid about half as much as those above, they added.

The boat was carrying some 650 people.

Italian and Irish ships rescued

more than 400 migrants and recovered 26 bodies, including three children. Police arrested the men after speaking to survivors during the night after they arrived in Palermo.

Libyan ring A police reconstruction based on witnesses’ accounts said three of the men, part of a Libyan-based human trafficking ring, alternated steering the boat while the other two kept watch over the migrants.

“The arrested are suspected of causing the confirmed deaths of 26 migrants and the presumed deaths of about 200 people who, according to witnesses, were locked in the hold of the boat that capsized,” a police statement said.

Police said that about three hours into the journey from Libya the boat started taking on water in the hold, which was packed with mostly African migrants.

The traffickers ordered them to bail out the water but they were unable to do so and tried to break out of the hold.

They were beaten back with knives, clubs and belts. Migrants on the deck were ordered to sit on the hatch of the hold to prevent those below from getting out. — Agencies

Ranil Wickremesinghe Nearly 40 per cent of voters surveyed at the end of the last month said Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was the best man for the job and only 27.5 per cent chose Rajapaksa, the Centre for Policy Analysis, which conducted the poll, said.

The survey across all 25 districts of the island nation showed Tamil and Muslim voters stood solidly behind Wickremesinghe, the leader of the United National Party-led coalition.

Rajapaksa held the edge among mostly Buddhist Sinhalese, winning the support of 36 percent against Wickremesinghe’s 31.9 percent.

Keerthi Tennakoon, the executive director of Campaign for Free and Fair Election, said Rajapaksa and his party colleagues were fighting for survival.

State media support Unlike in the past, they did not have government patronage or state media support, affecting the reach of Rajapaksa’s campaign, party members said.

“The government has not even provided vehicles to transport his security officials,” said his spokesman, Rohan Welivita.

At one rally in Karunagala district, north of the capital Colombo, Rajapaksa was denied the use of a loudspeaker to address supporters because he arrived so late his permit had expired.

Rajapaksa remains a divisive figure in the multi-ethnic island nation of 21 million people that is still healing from extensive rights violations in the final stages of the civil war. A UN human rights report on the war in the north is due for release soon after the election. — Reuters

BIGGEST TYPHOON OF THE YEAR

2 die as thousands flee Taiwan typhoon

INUNDATED: Residents commute in boats over floodwaters in Kyouk Taing village near Nyaung Don township in Myanmar’s Irrawaddy region on Friday. - AFP

Myanmar flood toll rises to 88 NYAUNG DON (MYANMAR): The death toll from severe flooding across Myanmar has risen to 88, officials said on Friday, as rising waters swallowed more homes in low-lying regions in some of the poorest parts of the country.

More than 330,000 people have been affected by torrential monsoon rains that triggered flash floods and landslides, cutting off communications as the deluge engulfed roads and destroyed bridges.

Residents have raced to bolster sand-bag defences along the Irrawaddy river in the southwest

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as floodwaters swell the mighty waterway, swamping dozens of villages as the waters drain from further north.

“Nothing like this has happened before, but I am not the only one suffering,” said Soe Min Paing, a fisherman from Kyauk Taing village in Nyaung Don township, whose home has been inundated. — AFP

TAIPEI: An eight-year-old girl and her mother died after being swept out to sea off Taiwan as Typhoon Soudelor bore down on the island, forcing thousands to flee, officials said on Friday.

Troops evacuated villagers from remote mountain regions in the east of the island and helped secure their homes as rains and surging waves battered the coast.

More than 2,000 people, many of them tourists, had already been evacuated from Taiwan’s outlying islands.

The typhoon is set to make a direct hit on the east coast in early hours of Saturday before moving across central Taiwan to Fujian province in mainland China.

Billed as the biggest typhoon of the year earlier in the week, Soudelor has since weakened but authorities warned it may strengthen again before making landfall.

The young girl and her mother became the first casualties of the impending storm after they were swept out to sea in Taiwan’s eastern Yilan county on Thursday.

The dead girl’s twin was also missing in the same incident, while another nine-year-old girl was injured but survived.

“The group went to the beach but were swept out to sea by strong waves,” a spokesman for the fire bureau in Yilan County told AFP. “It was a mother, her twins, and a friend’s daughter.

Brought to shore “The adult and her daughter had already lost their heartbeat when

SEVERE WEATHER: People hold umbrellas in heavy rain as Typhoon Soudelor approaches, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on Friday. - Reuters

brought to shore. The other child was conscious.

“The search for the missing girl stopped for today as it was getting dark but will continue.”

Troops helped move residents from aboriginal villages in the eastern counties Yilan and Hualien on Friday afternoon as well as reinforcing their houses, which will bear the brunt of the storm.

Riverside aboriginal communities in New Taipei City were

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also due to be evacuated Friday evening.

Much of the island will be lashed by torrential rain and by Friday afternoon 140 millimetres (5.5 inches) had already fallen near Taoyu-

an City in the northwest.

Offices and schools were shut down Friday, mainly in the north and east.

More than 40 international flights out of Taiwan were cancelled and ferry services to outlying islands were suspended.

Packing maximum wind speeds of 173 kilometres per hour near its centre, Soudelor was 280 kilometres southeast of Hualien county Friday evening. — AFP

SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2015

S P O R S

Five-star Ben Stokes puts England on brink of victory The touring side, bowled out for 60 on the first morning of the match, fought back to trail by 90 runs but England should finish them off on the third day to clinch the series

NOTTINGHAM: Ben Stokes took five wickets to put England on the verge of a famous victory that would win back the Ashes as Australia finished on 241 for seven after a compelling second day of the fourth test at Trent Bridge on Friday.

The touring side, bowled out for 60 on the first morning of the match, fought back to trail by 90 runs but England should finish them off on the third day to clinch the series. Adam Voges was 48 not out with Mitchell Starc on nought at the close.

Australia took five wickets in the morning before England declared on 391 for nine and the touring side’s openers, Chris Rogers and David Warner, added 113 runs to give their side a foothold in the match.

The pair batted through most of the afternoon session before Stokes inspired England to take four wickets and end the Australia fightback. Stokes dismissed Rogers for 52, Warner for 64 and Shaun Marsh for two before taking

a brilliant catch off Broad’s bowling to send back Steven Smith for five and leave Australia reeling at 138 for four at tea.

England removed Michael Clarke (13), Peter Nevill (17) and Mitchell Johnson (five) in a tense final session.

Starc led the Australian fightback in the morning, claiming testbest figures of 6-111.

The tall left-armer dismissed Joe Root for 130, Mark Wood for 28 and Jos Buttler for 12.

Josh Hazlewood snared Stokes for five and Johnson removed Moeen Ali for 38 thanks to a superb catch by Smith, only a fine ninth-wicket partnership of 58 between Moeen and Broad saving England from complete collapse.

Warner, on 10, was badly dropped by Cook at first slip off Broad and Ian Bell spilled a harder chance off Stokes.

Rogers, caught by Root off Wood on 47, was reprieved when television replays showed the bowler had over-stepped the crease but five runs later he was brilliantly taken by Root.

Warner skied Stokes to Broad at wide mid-on, Marsh edged the right-armer to Root at third slip and Smith flayed Broad to cover point where Stokes held a fine low catch.

Clarke scratched around gamely for 13 runs in nearly an hour but he never looked comfortable and edged Wood into the slips where Cook juggled the ball before knocking it up for Ian Bell to pouch it.

Voges and Nevill added 50 for the sixth wicket, Nevill surviving after being caught by Cook off a Finn no ball.

But he fell in the final session, trapped lbw by Stokes as he tried to leave a rapid inswinger and Johnson edged Stokes to Cook before bad light ended the day’s play. - Reuters

SCOREBOARD

BEN STOKES

5 wickets for 35

CHIEF WRECKER: England’s Ben Stokes celebrates after claiming one of his five wickets. – Reuters

O N E - D AY S E R I E S

CRICKET

Williamson leads New Zealand to series triumph HARARE: Captain Kane Williamson’s steady knock and an assured performance from the New Zealand bowlers saw the tourists secure a 38-run victory in Friday’s third one-day international against Zimbabwe and wrap up a 2-1 series win.

Williamson recorded his sixth straight score of 50 or more as his 90 guided New Zealand to 273 for six, and although Zimbabwe’s opening stand gave the World Cup finalists a scare, the bowlers held their nerve to restrict the hosts to 235 all out. New Zealand therefore completed a come-from-behind series victory, having lost the first ODI by seven wickets.

“It certainly wasn’t easy today, so the way that the boys stuck in it and put up a competitive total was a really good effort,” said Williamson, who was named man of the match and man of the series.

“We thought it was a very good total until Zimbabwe came out and played the way they did and put us under a lot of pressure, but full credit to our boys for learning from that first game and pulling it back nicely.”

On a dry wicket, New Zealand’s batsmen were tested by Zimbabwe’s spin duo of Graeme Cremer and John Nyumbu, who took five wickets between them.

Australia 1st Innings 60 (S Broad 8-15) England 1st Innings (overnight: 274-4) A. Lyth c Nevill b Starc 14 A. Cook lbw b Starc 43 I. Bell lbw b Starc 1 J. Root c Nevill b Starc 130 J. Bairstow c Rogers b Hazlewood 74 M. Wood b Starc 28 B. Stokes c Nevill b Hazlewood 5 J. Buttler b Starc 12 M. Ali c Smith b Johnson 38 S. Broad not out 24 S. Finn not out 0 Extras (b-14, lb-2, w-2, nb-4) 22 Total (9 wkts dec, 85.2 overs) 391 Fall of wickets: 1-32 (Lyth), 2-34 (Bell), 3-96 (Cook), 4-269 (Bairstow), 5-297 (Root), 6-306 (Wood), 7-320 (Buttler), 8-332 (Stokes), 9-390 (Ali) Bowling: Starc 27-2-111-6 (1nb); Hazlewood 24-4-97-2 (3nb, 1w); Johnson 21.2-2-102-1; Lyon 10-1-47-0; Warner 3-0-18-0 (1w) Australia 2nd Innings C. Rogers c Root b Stokes 52 D. Warner c Broad b Stokes 64 S. Smith c Stokes b Broad 5 S. Marsh c Root b Stokes 2 M. Clarke c Bell b Wood 13 A. Voges not out 48 P. Nevill lbw b Stokes 17 M. Johnson c Cook b Stokes 5 M. Starc not out 0 Extras (b-16, lb-15, w-1, nb-3) 35 Total (7 wkts, 62.2 overs) 241 To bat: J Hazlewood, N Lyon Fall of wickets: 1-113 (Rogers), 2-130 (Warner), 3-136 (Marsh), 4-136 (Smith), 5-174 (Clarke), 6-224 (Nevill), 7-236 (Johnson) Bowling: Broad 16-5-36-1; Wood 12.20-63-1 (2nb, 1w); Finn 12-4-42-0 (1nb); Stokes 16-4-35-5; Ali 6-0-34-0 Match position: Australia are 90 runs behind with three wickets standing.

Toss: England Umpires: Aleem Dar (PAK), S Ravi (IND) TV umpire: Marais Erasmus (RSA) Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SRI)

SCOREBOARD

CASTLED: New Zealand bowler Mitchell McGlenaghan, left, runs during the third and final game in the three-match ODI series. – AFP

Off-spinner Nyumbu made the initial breakthrough when he dismissed Tom Latham, and after New Zealand rebuilt to 100 for one, Cremer had Martin Guptill caught at slip for 42 and then spun one through the defences of Colin Munro.

Williamson added 70 for the fourth wicket with Grant Elliott, but New Zealand were pegged back when Cremer dismissed Elliott for 36, and Williamson was brilliantly caught on the boundary for 90 off Nyumbu’s bowling.

Although James Neesham and Nathan McCullum boosted the New Zealand total with an unbroken stand of 50 from 25 balls, Zimbabwe were on track to chase

down the target when Hamilton Masakadza and Chamu Chibhabha put on 97 for the first wicket.

It required a timely intervention from Mitchell McClenaghan to pull things back as he bowled Chibhabha for 32, before Masakadza struck a short ball from Williamson straight to deep midwicket and departed for 57.

A budding partnership between Craig Ervine and Sean Williams was then snaffled out by Ben Wheeler’s sharp fielding off his own bowling, and although Williams went on to hit 63, McClenaghan returned to grab two more wickets and finish with figures of 3 for 36 as New Zealand won comfortably enough. “Our batting let

NEW ZEALAND M. Guptill c Masakadza b Cremer 42 T. Latham c Cremer b Nyumbu 16 K. Williamson c Ervine b Nyumbu 90 C. Munro b Cremer 9 G. Elliott c Chigumbura b Cremer 36 J. Neesham not out 37 L. Ronchi c Madziva b Williams 7 N. McCullum not out 25 Extras (1-b, 8-w, 2-nb) 11 Total (6 wkts, 50 overs) 273 Fall of wickets: 1-44 (Latham), 2-100 (Guptill), 3-128 (Munro), 4-198 (Elliott), 5-202 (Williamson), 6-223 (Ronchi).

Did not bat: Mitchell McClenaghan, Ben Wheeler, Ish Sodhi.

Bowling: Panyangara 9-1-53-0, Madziva 6-0-41-0, Nyumbu 10-0-52-2, Chibhabha 4-0-20-0, Cremer 10-0-44-3, Sikandar Raza 4-0-19-0, Williams 7-0-43-1.

ZIMBABWE H. Masakadza c Wheeler b Williamson C. Chibhabha b McClenaghan C. Ervine run out E. Chigumbura c Guptill b Sodhi

57 32 32 3

us down — I thought it was a reasonable score to chase,” Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura said.

“We had the foundation, but myself and a few other batters failed to put runs on the board. It’s some-

S. Williams c Guptill b Neesham 63 Sikandar Raza c Neesham b Sodhi 5 R. Chakabva c & b McCullum 3 G. Cremer run out 14 N. Madziva c Neesham b McClenaghan 2 T. Panyangara b McClenaghan 7 J. Nyumbu not out 1 Extras (6-lb, 10-w) 16 Total (all out, 47.4 overs) 235 Fall of wickets: 1-97 (Chibhabha), 2-105 (Masakadza), 3-114 (Chigumbura), 4-159 (Ervine), 5-172 (Sikandar Raza), 6-177 (Chakabva), 7-212 (Cremer), 8-224 (Williams), 9-232 (Panyangara), 10-235 (Madziva).

Bowling: Wheeler 9-1-34-0, McCullum 9-0-47-1, McClenaghan 8.4-0-36-3, Neesham 3-1-16-1, Elliott 5-0-26-0, Sodhi 10-0-47-2, Williamson 3-0-23-1.

Toss: Zimbabwe Umpires: Richard Illingworth (ENG) and Jeremiah Matibiri (ZIM) TV umpire: Russell Tiffin (ZIM) Match referee: David Boon (AUS) Result: New Zealand won by 38 runs Series: New Zealand won the series 2-1

thing we can learn from.”

The two teams will meet again at Harare Sports Club on Sunday for a one-off Twenty20 international, when New Zealand will once again be without Ross Taylor. — AFP

Sri Lanka pick rookie paceman for India series COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s selectors on Friday named uncapped fast bowler Vishwa Fernando in a 16-man squad for the threeTest series against India starting next week, the cricket board announced. Fernando, 23, who has taken 98 wickets in 34 firstclass matches, dismissed India’s Rohit Sharma and Wriddhiman Saha while playing for the Sri Lanka Board President’s XI. Opening batsman Kusal Perera, a veteran of 48 one-day internationals and 20 Twenty20 matches, was the other player without Test experience to be picked in the squad. Sri Lanka’s batting great Kumar Sangakkara is due to quit international cricket after the first two Tests.

Test squad: Angelo Mathews (capt), Lahiru Thirimanne, Kaushal Silva, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kumar Sangakkara, Dinesh Chandimal, Upul Tharanga, Jehan Mubarak, Kusal Perera, Rangana Herath, Dilruwan Perera, Tharindu Kaushal, Nuwan Pradeep, Dhammika Prasad, Vishwa Fernando, Dushmantha Chameera (subject to fitness). - AFP

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SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2015

SPORTS

JUBILANT: Australia A players celebrating. – PTI

Australia A ease past India A

FOOTBALL

Arsenal must start well: Wenger

Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger.

LONDON: Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has targeted a good start to the new Premier League campaign beginning this weekend, after dropped too many points early on last season.

Five draws and a defeat in the first eight games left them 11 points behind the leaders Chelsea, who they finished 12 points adrift of in third place.

An improved second half of the season also brought them the FA Cup for the second successive year and Wenger knows they must establish momentum from the start this time.

“We’re ready for the fight and motivated to start well,” he told a news conference ahead of Sunday’s opening game against London rivals West Ham United.

“One of our targets is to start strongly. We had a good preparation, which should give us more confidence.”

“The Premier League (means) fighting every single game so we have to prepare ourselves mentally for that and come pout of the blocks straightaway against West Ham,” Wenger added. — AFP

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Ishant claims five as India extend lead in warm-up

TRI-SERIES

CHENNAI: Following their comprehensive win against South Africa A in the opener, Australia A drubbed India A by 119 runs to take command and go on top of the standings in the 50-over triangular series at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here on Friday.

Opting to bat was the perfect choice for the visitors who, based on a 239-run opening wicket partnership between captain Usman Khawaja (100) and Joe Burns (154), guided themselves to put up a formidable total of 334/4 in 50 overs. In reply, India A succumbed to the ever increasing required run rate and folded up for 215 in 42.3 overs.

Khawaja could not have asked for a better start for his side as he with Burns struck the monumental partnership which gave the Australians a brilliant platform to put on a big score on the board, which they eventually did.

While the left-handed Khawaja hammered three sixes and 10 boundaries, Burns smashed an incredible 14 sixes and five boundaries in his 131-ball in-

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nings. Both batsmen had scored half-centuries in their previous match against South Africa A. Towards the end of the innings, wicketkeeper-batsman Matthew Wade also chipped in with an unbeaten 21-ball 34 which included three fours and a six.

India A did not start their chase well, losing four top order batsmen even before reaching the 100-run mark.

Though the hosts maintained a run rate of five runs or more, they kept losing wickets at regular intervals which led to their downfall. Captain and opener Unmukt Chand scored 52 before being bowled while Kedar Jadhav (50) scored a half-century.

Indian-origin Australia A pacer Gurinder Sandhu (4/28) and leg break bowler Adam Zampa (4/49) both picked up four scalps each to knock out the Indians.

Brief scores: Australia A 334/4 in 50 overs (Joe Burns 154, Usman Khawaja 100) beat India A 215 all out (Unmukt Chand 52, Kedar Jadhav; Gurinder Sandhu 4/28, Adam Zampa 4/49). - IANS

Lokesh Rahul (47) and Cheteshwar Pujara (31) were the unbeaten batsmen at stumps on the second day as the visitors scored 112/3 in 40 overs at the R. Premadasa Stadium

COLOMBO: Pacer Ishant Sharma claimed an impressive five-wicket haul to restrict Sri Lanka Board President’s XI to 121 in their first innings as India extended their second innings lead to 342 at stumps on day two of their threeday practice game here on Friday.

Lokesh Rahul (47) and Cheteshwar Pujara (31) were the unbeaten batsmen at stumps on the second day as the visitors scored 112/3 in 40 overs at the R. Premadasa Stadium.

Resuming the day at 314 for 6, Indians added 37 more runs to be finally bowled out for 351 as rightarm medium pacer Kasun Rajitha finished with figures of 5/68.

In reply, the hosts were in disarray as Ishant (5/23) dismantled the hosts’ top order to leave them reeling at 10 for 5 inside eight overs.

There was no chance for the hosts to stage a comeback as some tight bowling by the Indians made life even more difficult for the hosts.

Milinda Siriwardana (32), Niroshan Dickwella (41) and Danushka Gunathilaka (28) somehow man-

aged to help their team cross the 100-run mark.

Spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (2/8) and pacer Varun Aaron (2/42) gave good support to Ishant.

Coming in to bat in the second innings, Indians faced early hiccups as opener Rohit Sharma (8) and Wriddhiman Saha (1) failed to impress.

Skipper Virat Kohli (18) who came to open the innings yet again struggled to get runs under his belt.

In the first innings, too, he failed, managing just eight.

Indians were reduced to 28/3 in 10.2 overs but from there on Pujara and Rahul held on to take the lead past the 300-run mark and kept the visitors in comfortable position with a day to go in the warm-up match.

Brief scores: India 351 and 112/3 in 40 overs (Lokesh Rahul 47, Cheteshwar Pujara 31, Vishwa Fernando 2/17) vs Sri Lanka Board President’s XI 121 in 31 overs (Niroshan Dickwella 41; Ishant Sharma 5/23, R Ashwin 2/8, Varun Aaron 2/42). - IANS

IMPRESSIVE: Indian pacer Ishant Sharma scalped five wickets during the second day of the three-day warm-up match against Sri Lanka Board President’s XI in Colombo. – AFP

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Van Gaal drops ‘problem’ De Gea for Spurs match Man United MANCHESTER: Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea has been dropped for Saturday’s Premier League opener against Tottenham because he is not focused enough, manager Louis van Gaal says. De Gea’s future at Old Trafford looks increasingly uncertain amid interest from Real Madrid.

And the Spain international, who has a year to run on his contract, “cannot manage the situation”, according to Van Gaal.

The manager refused to say who would play instead, but there is a possibility that Sam Johnstone may be called up for his club debut.

Johnstone, 22, played more minutes on United’s pre-season tour than any of the other four goalkeepers on the club’s books.

Victor Valdes is out of favour after Van Gaal alleged that he refused to play in an Under-21 match, while Anders Lindegaard looks likely to leave on a free transfer.

New signing Sergio Romero, brought in this summer after being released by Sampdoria, is an experienced alternative, having played in last year’s World Cup final and at the recent Copa America for Argentina.

Van Gaal must decide whether he is ready to throw in Romero, who did not play for United at all in pre-season. The manager said: “We have problems with De Gea. I don’t know what the solution is.

That’s in progress. But I cannot lead this process. I can only watch and observe. I am not participating in the process. It is not easy for him to manage his situation now.

“He shall not play, so I don’t have any concerns. I think a human being is more than only a player, and he cannot manage that situation.”

Asked if that meant Romero

drawn to face Club Brugge play-offs

FUTURE UNCERTAIN: Manchester United goalkeeper De Gea.

would start, the manager said: “You will have to wait and see.”

Van Gaal has held back from sending Johnstone, 22, out on loan to Preston as he considers his options. The Championship side have instead brought in Jordan Pickford on loan from Sunderland.

Johnstone, a former England Under-20 international, has gained experience in the lower divisions during loan spells at Scunthorpe, Walsall, Yeovil, Doncaster and Preston. The dropping of De Gea has come after he disappointed Van Gaal with an error during United’s final pre-season match, against Paris Saint-Germain in Chicago on July 29.

De Gea was involved in a mix-up with Phil Jones and Luke Shaw, which allowed Blaise Matuidi to score PSG’s second goal in a 2-0 win.

It was only the Spain international’s second appearance for United in pre-season, having recovered from a hamstring injury sustained against Arsenal in May. Van Gaal also indicated that his squad has been left light on attacking threat following Argentina winger Angel Di Maria’s £44.3 mil-

Costa injury woes threaten to hamper Chelsea’s title defence LONDON: Chelsea kick off their Premier League title defence against Swansea on Saturday fretting that Diego Costa’s injury problems could hamper their bid to remain England’s pre-eminent force.

Costa’s 20 goals in 26 league appearances were crucial as Jose Mourinho’s side took an early grip on last season’s title race that they never relinquished.

But concerns about the Spain striker’s fitness became a recurring theme throughout the campaign and it frequently took the brilliance of Eden Hazard to make up for the side’s diminished attacking threat whenever Costa was absent.

And the sight of Costa

lion (63 million euros, $68.9 million) move to Paris Saint-Germain.

The manager said: “It is a big loss. When I say I want more attackers with speed and creativity,

limping out of a recent friendly with Barcelona followed by his enforced absence from last weekend’s Community Shield prompted fresh concerns that the former Atletico Madrid star’s problems have not yet gone away.

Chelsea manager Mourinho has stuck by his policy of operating with a squad that includes just three strikers, with Radamel Falcao arriving on loan from Monaco to join Loic Remy as back-up to Costa after Didier Drogba moved to Montreal Impact.

Mourinho has not ruled out the possibility of Costa facing Swansea when the champions return to action at Stamford Bridge. - AFP

Di maria is one of those players.

“We have to look for that player.

They have to have the talent to cope with the English rhythm and this is difficult to find.” - AFP

NYON: Manchester United were given a kind draw in the Champions League play-offs as they were paired with Belgians Club Brugge on Friday.

The three-time former winners, making their return to Europe’s premier club competition after a one-year hiatus, will play the first leg at their Old Trafford home.

In other pairings, Spaniards Valencia, finalists in 2000 and 2001, drew 2004 finalists Monaco of France while the clash of the round sees Italians Lazio up against Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen, beaten finalists in 2002.

United failed to qualify for European competition last season having finished seventh in the English Premier League in 2014 under former coach David Moyes.

But Louis Van Gaal led them to fourth in the table last season, giving them the chance to earn a place back in the Champions League, a competition they last won in 2008 during a run of three finals in four seasons (the last being a defeat to Barcelona in 2011).

Draw: Astana (KAZ) v APOEL (CYP); Skenderbeu (ALB) v Dinamo Zagreb (CRO); Celtic (SCO) v Malmo (SWE); Basel (SUI) v Maccabi Tel-Aviv (ISR); BATE Borisov (BLR) v Partizan Belgrade (SRB); Lazio (ITA) v Bayer Leverkusen (GER); Manchester United (ENG) v Club Brugge (BEL); Sporting Lisbon (POR) v CSKA Moscow (RUS); Rapid Vienna (AUT) v Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR); Valencia (ESP) v Monaco (FRA).

First legs to be played August 18/19, second legs on August 25/26. - AFP

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WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM S ATU RDAY, AUGUST 8, 2015

MARKE

BANK OF ENGLAND HINTS AT EARLY 2016 RATE HIKE Bank of England (BoE) pointed to a possible rise in interest rates early next year as just one of its top policymakers backed an immediate move and it said the strength of sterling meant inflation would only pick up slowly. >B2

C O M M U N I C AT I O N P L AT F O R M S

TECHNOLOGY

Smile! Emoji is now taking over advertising PARIS: Everyone speaks emoji, and now advertisers do too.

Catching on to the digital era’s cross-cultural language of choice, advertisers have learned to speak emoji in a world where promotional videos are ignored and ad banners are blocked.

Tiny digital pizza and French fries icons, and pictures of animals and planes are being used to advertise fast food, airlines and even NGOs. Emoji characters have become at least as pervasive as smartphones, and users are moving away from communication platforms that allow advertising towards networks that don’t, said Marie Dolle, a digital media content specialist at Kantar Media.

lier this year, from furniture to the meatballs sold in its cafeterias.

DIGITAL STICKERS: In May, McDonald’s launched its own digital stickers package that allows users to insert pictures of Big Macs, sundaes and chicken nuggets into their Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger or text messages. - Bloomberg file picture

Online advertising campaigns

In their online advertising campaigns, the World Wildlife Fund charity and Domino’s Pizza have tapped into the bank of emoji icons universally approved by the Unicode Consortium, the nonprofit group that develops and maintains digital standards.

In May, McDonald’s— a pioneer in emoji advertising— launched its own digital stickers package that allows users to insert pictures of Big Macs, sundaes and chicken nuggets into their Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger or text messages. Disney and Dura-

cell have commissioned Feeligo, a Paris-based start-up, to create their brand stickers. Last winter, Duracell’s iconic pink bunny was shared 20 million times.

Swedish low-cost homewares giant Ikea also launched an emoji range depicting its products ear-

‘Less aggressive’ than ads Emoji advertising is just as much about communication and having a sense of humour as it is about branding. “Stickers have to represent emotions. A logo doesn’t work by itself,” said Feeligo cofounder Davide Bonapersona, whose campaigns have spread to several European countries and which often cost clients less than traditional formats.

“Depending on the target, we are looking at 20,000 to 100,000 euros ($22,000 to $110,000),” Bonapersona said. US-based Swyft Media and Asian messaging apps Line and WeChat share this growing niche market with Feeligo. The latest advertising trend is mainly logo-free, giving emoji users on both ends of the chat more freedom. “Users are saturated with publicity,” Dolle said, adding that many people use free software that blocks pop-up advertising to keep their screens uncluttered by ad banners and videos.

Emoji is “less aggressive, it’s not intrusive. We give them playful tools that they can choose whether or not to use.

This contributes to making people love the brand and share it in their conversations,” she added.

France’s state-owned postal service La Poste has also launched its own stickers in the shape of personalised stamps to celebrate special days in users’ lives, such as the birth of a child or a wedding.

Major success The campaign has proved a major success, with the digital stamps seen by users more than nine million times, said Rassem Belhouadjeb, a member of La Poste’s digital marketing team.

“We exceeded our goal eight times over,” he said.

But emoji campaigns may do little to keep brands’ foes at bay, as a prank by a graffiti artist in the British city of Bristol showed this summer. The artist had some fun with one of McDonald’s billboards, embellishing it with a vomiting emoji. — AFP

US employment in July picks up, wages rebound The Fed last month upgraded its assessment of the labor market, describing it as continuing to “improve, with solid job gains and declining unemployment.”

Nonfarm payrolls increased 215,000 last month as a pickup in construction and manufacturing jobs offset further declines in the mining sector, the Labour Department said on Friday

WASHINGTON: US employment rose at a solid clip in July and wages rebounded after a surprise stall in the prior month, signs of an improving economy that could open the door wider to a Federal Reserve interest rate hike in September.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 215,000 last month as a pickup in construction and manufacturing

RIGHT MIX: This July 2015 file photo shows a cook as he prepares an order for a customer at a restaurant in New York. The US unemployment rate held steady at 5.3 per cent in July, a seven-year low, while job growth slowed a bit, Labour Department data released on Friday. - AFP

jobs offset further declines in the mining sector, the Labour Department said on Friday.

The unemployment rate held at a seven-year low of 5.3 per cent.

Payrolls data for May and June were revised to show 14,000 more jobs created than previously reported. In addition, the average workweek increased to 34.6 hours, the highest since February, from 34.5 hours in June.

Eventual lift-off “If you thought that the Fed was going to go in September, this report would suit that thematic nicely. I don’t think anything has changed in that regard. I think it’s another step toward the eventual lift-off,” said Tom Porcelli, chief US economist at RBC Capital Markets in New York.

US stock index futures and prices for shorter-dated US

B I L AT E R A L T R A D E

Iran helps India sidestep China in the race for Asian gas riches NEW DELHI: Anyone looking for the biggest immediate impact from Iran’s nuclear deal may want to turn away from the Middle East and toward the Indian subcontinent.

With US sanctions easing, India is racing to build a port in Iran that will get around the fact that its land access to energy-rich former Soviet republics in Central Asia has been blocked by China and its ally Pakistan.

“We’re seeing the latest manifestation of the Great Game in Central Asia, and India is the new player,” said Michael Kugelman, a South Asia expert at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.”It’s had its eyes on Central Asia for a long time.”

While the world focuses on what Iran’s opening means for Israel and Arab nations, the ramifications are also critical for Asia.

Closer Iran-India ties would allow New Delhi’s leaders to secure cheaper energy imports to bolster

economic growth and reduce the influence of both China and Pakistan in the region.

The six nations that make up Central Asia hold at least 11 per cent of the world’s proven natural gas reserves, as well as substantial deposits of oil and coal, according to data compiled by BP. Afghanistan says its mineral wealth is valued at $1 trillion to $3 trillion. “Iran can offer us an alternative route to Central Asia,” Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar said in Singapore on July 20.” The resolution of the nuclear dispute and lifting of sanctions will allow our agenda of energy and connectivity cooperation to unfold seriously.”

‘Alternative route’ India can be the first country to benefit from the deal in Asia, an Iranian diplomat told reporters in New Delhi this week.

Iran was seeking billions of dollars in investment from India for ports, railways and airports,

the diplomat said, asking not to be identified due to government rules. Even before the deal to end sanctions was clinched, India reached an agreement to upgrade the Iranian port of Chabahar on the Arabian Sea. Two Indian state-run companies — Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and Kandla Port Trust — have plans to invest $85 million to upgrade two berths.

On a five-nation Central Asian tour last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi backed an ambitious transit route through Iran that would effectively connect Europe to India by a series of sea, rail and road links.

Currently, cargo from India has to go by air or take a detour through the Suez Canal.

In a dry run on the alternative routes last August, the results showed that transit time from India’s financial capital of Mumbai could be more than halved to as short as 16 days and would slash costs by 70 per cent. - Bloomberg News

Treasuries were trading lower after the data. The dollar rose to a two-month high against the yen and firmed versus the euro.

The swaps market was pricing in a 52 per cent chance of a September rate hike, up from 47 per cent before the jobs data. Though hiring has slowed from last year’s robust pace, it remains at double the rate needed to keep up with population growth.

Average hourly earnings Average hourly earnings increased five cents, or 0.2 per cent, last month after being flat in June.

That put them 2.1 per cent above the year-ago level, but well shy of the 3.5 per cent growth rate economists associate with full employment.

Still, the gain supports views that a sharp slowdown in compensation growth in the second quarter and consumer spending in June were temporary.

Economists had forecast nonfarm payrolls increasing 223,000 last month and the unemployment rate holding steady at 5.3 per cent. Wage growth has been disappointingly slow. In addition, a number of retailers, including Walmart, the nation’s largest private employer, Target and TJX Cos have increased pay for hourly workers. - Reuters

HAVE YOUR SAY Send us your comments at facebook.com/timesofoman blog.timesofoman.com haveyoursay@timesofoman.com

– Bloomberg News

Apple helps to push US watch sales to biggest drop in seven years WASHINGTON: US watch sales fell the most in seven years in June, one of the first signs Apple’s watch is eroding demand for traditional timepieces.

Retailers sold $375 million of watches during the month, 11 per cent less than in June 2014, according to data from NPD Group.

The 14 per cent decline in unit sales was the largest since 2008, according to Fred Levin, head of the market researcher’s luxury division. “The Apple Watch is going to gain a significant amount of penetration,” he said on Thursday in a phone interview.” The first couple of years will be difficult for watches in fashion categories.”

The market for watches that cost less than $1,000 is most at risk, as consumers in that price range have indicated they’re the most likely to buy an Apple Watch, Levin said. Sales of watches costing between $50 and $999 registered drops in June, the biggest being a 24 per cent decline in timepieces from $100 to $149.99, according to NPD’s data.

Lower-priced fashion brands suffered as retailers and department stores offered more discounts due to those products’ “saturation” with consumers, Levin said. That category includes brands such as Timex, Guess, Burberry and Tissot. “In the short term, brands at accessible price points are going to have to think very seriously,” he said.

‘Ice age’ Apple’s refusal to say how many smartwatches it has sold has investors and analysts relying on guesswork to estimate sales.

Harder yet is gauging the impact on the $50 billion Swiss watch market.

Elmar Mock, one of the inventors of the Swatch, said in March that Apple may cause an “ice age” for the four- century-old industry.

The computer maker has already shaken up the music market with its iTunes software, while its iPhone supplanted Nokia Oyj’s dominance. Apple had earlier introduced three models of its smartwatch in April, with prices ranging from $349 for the most basic version to $17,000 for an 18-karat gold model. - Bloomberg News

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SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2015

MARKET Bank of England’s governor hints at early 2016 rate hike Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said the bank was getting closer to beginning to undo its stimulus for Britain’s economy Bank of England Governor Mark Carney . — Bloomberg News

LONDON: Bank of England (BoE) pointed to a possible rise in interest rates early next year as just one of its top policymakers backed an immediate move and it said the strength of sterling meant inflation would only pick up slowly.

The pound fell sharply and investors briefly pushed back their bets on a first rate hike until June next year, before BoE Governor Mark Carney said the Bank was getting closer to beginning to undo its stimulus for Britain’s economy.

“The likely timing of the first Bank Rate increase is drawing

closer,” he told reporters. “However the exact timing of the first move cannot be predicted in advance...in short, it will be datadependent,” he said after the BoE for the first time published its quarterly economic forecasts and details of its latest policy discussions on the same day.

Interest rates slashed The BoE slashed interest rates to 0.5 per cent in the depths of the financial crisis in 2009 and has kept them there since.

With the economy now recovering strongly and wages finally

rising more quickly, speculation is growing about when it might start to wean Britain off low rates, mirroring the debate at the US Federal Reserve.

Carney warned investors that they might be too relaxed about the path, or ‘curve’, that they are predicting for rates. He pointed out that the Bank was forecasting that inflation would start to overshoot its two per cent target in just over two years’ time, based on predictions in the market for a first BoE rate hike in the second quarter of next year.

“The market curve does not S E C O N D - Q U A R T E R R E S U LT

deliver a sustainable return of inflation to target, because there is an overshoot,” he said. In an interview with the Mirror newspaper, Carney declined to say there was now no chance of a rate hike in 2015.”I would be crazy to rule anything out or to rule anything in,” he said. Three weeks ago, Carney said the decision when to hike interest rates would likely come into “sharper relief” around the end of the year. He emphasised on Thursday that this was his own view and that it had not changed.

Several economists said they continued to predict a rise in the first three months of 2016.

last year along with his colleague Martin Weale.

They both rejoined the fold in January as oil prices tumbled.

As Carney spoke on Thursday, the bets on a June 2016 rate hike were quickly reined back in. Jason Simpson, a Societe Generale rate strategist, said: “The message is clear: rates need to rise. Not yet, but they need to go up and every inflation report is one step closer to that.” Few economists think the BoE is likely to move before the Federal Reserve, which is expected to raise rates this year, in large part because it would further push up the value of sterling.

Vote surprise Investors were taken by surprise earlier on Thursday when the Bank said just one of its nine policymakers — Ian McCafferty— had voted for a rate hike at their August meeting, which ended on Wednesday. Most economists in a Reuters poll had expected two or even three members of the Monetary Policy Committee to vote for a rate hike.

The 8-1 result prompted markets to push out their bets on a first rate hike into mid-2016.

McCafferty, a non-staff member of the MPC, backed rate hikes

Focus on sterling The Bank stressed how a recent strengthening of the pound and a renewed fall in oil prices would push down inflation until at least the middle of next year and said the impact of the rise in sterling could persist even longer.

Carney made it clear, however, that a strong currency was no replacement for eventual rate hikes.

In a sign of how the debate on the MPC may develop, some of its members saw a risk that inflation could pick up more strongly than the central forecast, the Bank of England said. — Reuters

ECONOMY

Bank of Japan chief opens door to more stimulus TOKYO: The head of the Bank of Japan (BoJ) said on Friday that he would consider pulling the trigger on more stimulus if weak oil prices keep holding back inflation.

BoJ chief Haruhiko Kuroda said Japan’s economy was perking up, and the bank held off expanding its record 80 trillion yen ($640 billion) annual asset-buying scheme following a two-day meeting.

But the country’s near-zero inflation rate is far below the BoJ’s 2.0 per cent target, a cornerstone of efforts to boost the world’s number three economy and conquer years of deflation. “We would consider adjusting policy if oil rates affect price trends and impact on underlying price movements,” Kuroda told reporters. “But that is not the situation right now.

We will continue to watch oil price trends and see how they influence underlying price movements.” A glut of crude oil supply is seen as the main driver for a sharp decline in oil prices that has seen crude fall about 50 per cent from mid-2014 levels.

Last month, Japan’s central bank, Bank of Japan, cut its economic growth and inflation forecasts, fuelling speculation that it would soon expand its easing scheme, aimed at boosting prices and kick-starting growth. — AFP

CRUDE SUPPLIES

Allianz profit rises by 15% MUNICH: Allianz, Europe’s biggest insurer, said secondquarter profit rose 15 per cent, spurred by earnings from property and casualty.

Net income increased to 2.02 billion euros ($2.2 billion) from 1.76 billion euros a year earlier, the Munich-based company said Friday. That compared with an average estimate of 1.79 billion euros of 10 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Natural catastrophes Insurers have benefited from a decline in natural catastrophes in the second quarter, as pressure on prices and low interest rates held back revenue.

Lower catastrophe claims helped second-quarter profit at Allianz’s property and casualty division increase 39 per cent to 1.34 billion euros.

In property and casualty “all profit components contributed to the strong growth, including investment and underwriting results as well as the net gain from the sale of the Fireman’s Fund personal insurance business,” Chief Financial Officer Dieter Wemmer said in the statement.

The firm confirmed its outlook for 2015 operating profit, saying it will now be at the upper end of the range at 10.8 billion euros. - Bloomberg News

PRODUCTION BOOST: Valero, the country’s largest independent refiner, made a gross margin of more than $13 on every barrel of oil processed in the second quarter, and a net margin of almost $8.50, both the highest since 2007. — Bloomberg file picture

US refiners find current oil market ideal to boost output LONDON: Low crude prices and strong demand for gasoline are creating near-perfect conditions for oil refineries across the United States, especially those geared towards maximising gasoline production. Valero, the country’s largest independent refiner, made a gross margin of more than $13 on every barrel of oil processed in the second quarter, and a net margin of almost $8.50, both the highest since 2007.

Enormous profitability Little wonder then that Valero’s share price has climbed to the highest level since December 2007. The enormous profitability of turning crude into gasoline has incentivised refiners to run flat out since the start of the year. The volume of crude processed by US refineries last week hit a record 17.1 million barrels per day (bpd), 680,000bpd above the prior-year

level and almost 1.5 million bpd above the 10-year seasonal average. But strong consumption has absorbed all the extra gasoline production, and motor fuel stockpiles remain moderately tight.

Gasoline consumption has averaged more than 9.5 million bpd over the last four weeks, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), which is almost half a million barrels above the 2014 level.

Stocks are just 217 million barrels, less than three million barrels, or 1.3 per cent, above last year’s level. But if stocks are adjusted for the higher rate of consumption in 2015, they stand below both the prior-year level and 10-year average.

Gasoline stocks are currently equivalent to just 22.7 days worth of consumption, the lowest seasonal level since 2008.

Low stocks explain why the

gross margin for turning crude into gasoline remains at 50 cents per gallon or more, some of the fattest margins in the last decade.

Mid-distillate surplus The side-effect of making so much gasoline has been a surge in production of middle distillates used as road diesel, home heating oil and jet fuel.

Refining margins for middle distillates have been sliding since February and are now well under 50 cents per barrel versus WTI and under 40 cents per barrel versus Brent.

So far this year, stocks of distillates have remained only 10-20 million barrels higher than in 2014, as refiners have turned to export markets. Distillates and jet fuel are plentiful, which will keep margins in the middle of the barrel under pressure unless there is a cold winter. - Reuters

SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2015

B3

MARKET China eyes signalling business as a new frontier in rail technology push gins and offers moderate growth potential over the next five years, he said. Other rail-signal makers have been expanding market share recently. In February, Tokyo-based Hitachi agreed to buy Finmeccanica’s rail business and a signals affiliate, its largest overseas acquisition ever. The bulk of Hitachi’s deal was for Finmeccanica’s signaling business, Ansaldo STS. Siemens and Alstom also have been expanding in that market in the past three years, seeking to capture lucrative service and replacement contracts.

China Railway Signal & Communication Corp. made its listing debut on Friday in Hong Kong after raising $1.4 billion in an initial public offering that values the company at about HK$55.1 billion. Shares rose 0.3 per cent on Friday to HK$6.32.

NEW TARGET: Zhiliang Zhou, chairman of China Railway Signal & Communication Corp. (front), speaks during the company’s listing ceremony at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in Hong Kong, — Bloomberg News

BEIJING: Chinese aren’t resting on their laurels in their quest to dominate the global rail-technology industry: They’ve also set their eyes on the high-margin signalling business.

China Railway Signal & Communication Corp. made its listing debut on Friday in Hong Kong after raising HK$11 billion ($1.4 billion) in an initial public offering that values the company at about HK$55.1 billion. Shares rose 0.3 per cent on Friday to HK$6.32.

The state-owned company said it will use about 20 per cent of the proceeds from its IPO on domestic and overseas acquisitions, while spending an unspecified portion on “long- term” research and development.

“China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative is bound to benefit the company, helping them to start expanding their overseas business,” said Jay Huang, a Sanford Bernstein analyst in Hong Kong.

He was referring to a develop-

M O B I L E O P E R AT I N G S Y S T E M

Need to move faster “We’ve realised we need to move faster,” Android security chief Adrian Ludwig said at this week’s annual Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.

Previously, Google would develop a patch and distribute it to its own Nexus phones after the discovery of security flaws.

But other manufacturers would wait until they wanted to update the software for different reasons before pushing out a fix, exposing most of the more than one billion Android users to potential hacks and scams until the fix. Ludwig also said Google has made other security changes.

In an interview, he told Reuters that earlier this year the team broke out incidence rates of malicious software by language.

The rate of Russian-language Androids with potentially harm-

Fundraising effort The Beijing-based firm’s fundraising effort comes amid a major push to market Chinese railway technology overseas, especially in emerging markets.

Rail was listed in March as one of 10 focus industries in a blueprint

to make China into an advanced industrialized economy, with the government using railroad companies to win lucrative contracts and project political influence abroad.

High Margins State-owned CSR Corp. and China CNR Corp. combined in May to form CRRC Corp., a train equipment maker that dwarfs rivals Siemens and Alstom.

The merger aimed to create economies of scale to help China compete more aggressively for overseas rail deals.

On Friday, CRCC High-Tech Equipment Corp., a Chinese maker of large railway track maintenance machines, also filed prelisting documents with the Hong Kong stock exchange.

China Railway Signal’s transportation control system enables automatic control of train speed and of the spacing between trains, improving safety and efficiency, Bernstein’s Huang wrote in an August 5 note. The business uses advanced technology, has high mar-

HAVE YOUR SAY Send us your comments at facebook.com/timesofoman blog.timesofoman.com haveyoursay@timesofoman.com

PERFORMANCE

Google, Samsung to issue monthly security fixes for Android phones LAS VEGAS: Google and Samsung Electronics will release monthly security fixes for Android phones, a growing target for hackers, after the disclosure of a bug designed to attack the world’s most popular mobile operating system. The change came after security researcher Joshua Drake unveiled what he called Stagefright, hacking software that allows attackers to send a special multimedia message to an Android phone and access sensitive content even if the message is unopened.

ment framework the Chinese government unveiled in October 2013 that aims to build new economic links retracing the ancient Silk Road trading route.

Safety concerns Overseas business accounted for only 4.4 per cent of China Railway Signal’s gross profit last year, but the company’s prospectus says profit margins on overseas segments are almost 32 per cent, better than on its domestic railway and urban transit businesses.

A July 2011 high-speed rail crash near the city of Wenzhou killed 40 people. The accident was blamed on mismanagement and design flaws on the trains.

China Railway Signal said it was among the responsible parties, as it made the control-system equipment that malfunctioned and caused the accident. In its prospectus, the company said it had taken steps to rectify any failures and improved internal control mechanisms. — Bloomberg News

ful programs had spiked suddenly to about 9 percent in late 2014, he said. Google made its roughly weekly security scans of Russian phones more frequent and was able to reduce the problems to close to the global norm.

Pressure on manufacturers Ludwig said improvements to recent versions of Android would limit an attack’s effectiveness in more than nine out of 10 phones, but Drake said an attacker could keep trying until the gambit worked. Drake said he would release code for the attack by August 24, putting pressure on manufacturers to get their patches out before then. Nexus phones are updated with protection this week and the vast majority of major Android handset makers are following suit, Ludwig said.

Samsung Vice-President Rick Segal acknowledged that his company could not force the telecommunications carriers that buy its devices in bulk to install the fixes and that some might do so only for higher-end users.

“If it’s your business customers, you’ll push it,” Segal said in an interview. Samsung is the largest maker of Android phones.

Ludwig said many Android security scares were overblown.

He further added that only about one in 200 Android phones Google can peer into have any potentially harmful applications installed at any point. - Reuters

HTC shares plunge to decade low on loss forecast of five times estimate TAIPEI: HTC shares plunged by the daily limit after its forecast for a loss five times the average of estimates spurred analysts to slash their valuations of the stock.

Shares slumped 10 per cent to NT$63 in Taipei on Friday, closing at their lowest in more than a decade.

The smartphone maker’s thirdquarter loss will be NT$5.51 to NT$5.85 per share, compared with the NT$1.17 per share loss estimated by analysts. Its sales forecast given Thursday is as much as 48 per cent below estimates.

HTC plans to cut staff, reduce spending and slim down its product catalog as cheaper phones from Huawei Technologies Co. and competition from Samsung Electronics further erode its market share.

Founder, Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer Cher Wang has stated she won’t consider mergers, even as the company fell off the global list of top 10 phone makers.

Multiple model strategy “HTC’s multiple model strategy in the past year did not work as planned,” JPMorgan Chase analyst Narci Chang wrote in a note.“HTC’s current business model needs a significant makeover.” Chang cut his target on the stock by 55 per cent to NT$45, joining analysts from Credit Suisse Group, UBS and Daiwa Securities Group in reducing price estimates. None of the 29 analysts who actively cover HTC have a buy rating on the stock.

Sales this quarter will be NT$19 billion ($600 million) to NT$22

PICTURE IMPERFECT: HTC plans to cut staff, reduce spending and slim down its product catalog as cheaper phones from Huawei Technologies Co. — Bloomberg file picture

billion, the company said, compared with estimates for NT$36.8 billion.

Revenue at the bottom end of that range would be the lowest in a decade when figures were reported at the parent level.

HTC will change its product strategy to produce fewer models over longer time intervals while focusing on a greater share of industry profits instead of ship-

ments, Chief Financial Officer Chang Chialin said on Thursday.

Cost reductions Cost reductions will start this quarter, with the result of those cuts reflecting in the three months through March, he said.

“It’s going to result, unfortunately, in a sort of, like a headcount reduction in some of the areas that we don’t think the resources are

appropriately matched,” Chang said Thursday at a media briefing.

There’ll be no one-time non-operating items this period, he said.

Thursday’s forecast came after the Taoyuan, Taiwan-based company in June cut its sales guidance for that quarter by 35 per cent and wrote off NT$2.9 billion in idled assets, citing slowing demand for high-end smartphones and weaker China sales. - Bloomberg News

B4

SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2015

FEATURE

A

s fierce competition leads to rapid innovation in the smartphone market, hackers have pounced on cracks in defences of developments on devices at the heart of modern lifestyles, experts say.

Smartphones have become increasingly targets for cyber criminals as people cram the gadgets with troves of personal information and go on to use them for work.

“Mobile devices are taking a bigger place in businesses and in our lives,” Avi Bashan of Tel Aviv based cyber defence firm Check Point Software Technologies told AFP on Thursday at a Black Hat computer security conference in Las Vegas.

“As more people use them for more things, attackers gain interest.”

Check Point has seen attacks rise during the past three years on the world’s leading mobile operating systems - Apple iOS and Google-backed Android, according to Bashan.

Check Point researchers at Black Hat revealed a vulnerability that allows hackers take over Android smartphones by taking advantage of a tool pre-installed that was intended to give tech support workers remote access to devices.

“It effects every version of Android,” Check Point mobile threat prevention director Ohad Bobrov said.

The hack can be triggered by tricking a smartphone user into installing an application rigged to reach out and connect with the pre-installed support tool, Bobrov explained.

In some cases the hack can be accomplished by sending a text message that a recipient doesn’t even have to open, he warned.

The text message tricks a smartphone into thinking it is connecting with a legitimate support technician remotely when it is actually linking to an online server commanded by a hacker.

“I need your phone number and that is it,” Bashan told AFP. Bobrov said the flaw in Android software architecture has been disclosed to Google and smartphone makers.

MOBILE INNOVATIONS

Dealing with Stagefright The Check Point revelation came a week after cyber security firm Zimperium warned of a “Stagefright” vulnerability in the world’s most popular smartphone operating system that also lets hackers take control with a text message.

Zimperium research senior director Joshua Drake took a stage at Black Hat to discuss Android code at the heart of the problem.

Stagefright automatically pre-loads video snippets attached to text messages to spare recipients from the annoyance of waiting to view clips.

Hackers can hide malicious code in video files and it will be unleashed even if the smartphone user never opens it or reads the message, according to Drake.

Stagefright imperils some 95 per cent, or an estimated 950 million, of Android phones, according to the security firm.

Zimperium reported the problem to Google and provided the California Internet firm with patches to prevent breaches.

Updates have started hitting Android devices, according to Drake.

Computer security firm Secunia on Thursday said about 80 vulnerabilities were discovered in Apple mobile operating software so far this year and about 10 were found in Android.

“There has been a big boom in mobile,” Drake said.

“When there is a big boom, people take a lot of shortcuts, when you take shortcuts you build up a lot of technical debt.”

Mobile operating system makers who raced ahead now have to backtrack to squash bugs, some of which are exposed by good-guy hackers.

Check Point’s Bashan sees it as a case of smartphone rivals moving so fast to add features and improvements that innovation trumped security at times in the process.

“The operating systems developed so quickly,” Bashan said.

“And when you develop quickly, some things get developed badly.” - AFP

B

LIFESTYLE

SECTION

SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2015

Family WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM

FOR MANY FAMILIES, SOME OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED SUMMERTIME ACTIVITIES HAPPEN

3 FACTS ABOUT “SALT WATER” POOLS

AROUND THE POOL. BEFORE YOU DIVE INTO THE FUN, CHECK OUT THESE TIPS ON HAVING

All ABOUT POOL SAFETY

SAFE SPLASH-TIME

1 SUN SAFETY Sunburns can cause a lot more than just an embarrassing red appearance on the skin; they can be the source of severe pain, fever and even dehydration.

In fact, just one sunburn during childhood can increase the risk of developing skin cancer.

According to the American Academy of Dermatology, multiple events of extreme sunburn for individuals age 18 and younger can contribute to the development of melanoma.

The sun’s harsh rays can also affect your appearance later in life, causing premature ageing and wrinkling of the skin.

For babies 6 months of age or younger, keep their sensitive skin out of sunlight completely.

2

6

COVER UP YOUR BABY Doctors recommend that you avoid applying sunscreen on infants younger than 6 months, so always keep your baby’s arms and legs covered in airy, light-coloured garments. Dark colours absorb heat, while lighter hues reflect it, keeping baby cooler.

Look for shirts and swim wear made from sun-protective fabrics. These garments are especially great if your kids spend a lot of time outdoors in the summer Add a widebrimmed hat or ball cap and sunglasses to protect your baby’s eyes.

3 SLATHER ON SUNSCREEN Apply sunscreen at least every 2 hours and pay attention to the product’s expiration date as the active ingredients can lose their effectiveness over time.

Individuals with sensitive skin should seek a hypoallergenic, chemical-free formula with zinc oxide or titanium oxide with an SPF of 15 or higher.

If you use a chemical-based sunscreen, always test on a patch of skin first.

USE THE “BUDDY” SYSTEM

4

LEARN THE RIGHT STROKES

Swimming is a lot of fun, but drowning is a real danger. In fact, drowning is the second most common cause of accidental ccidental deaths ths among kidss around the world. ld. To keep kidss safe this summer mmer enrol them m in swimmingg lessons.

Many ny people lack k basic swimmingg skills, and enrolling olling children n in swimmingg lessons at a young ung age will help p reduce the risk of accidents and drowning.

5 TEST YOUR WATER

Whether your pool uses traditional chlorine or is equipped with a salt chlorine generator, make testing it a top priority, especially when your pool is used frequently.

Make sure to read and follow the product label instructions closely when dealing with pool chemicals.

Proper dosing of pool chemicals is important for swimmer comfort.

Always test the water and make sure the free chlorine level never falls below 1 parts per million (ppm).

Chlorine is the main sanitizer of your pool (and drinking water), and the more people in your pool, the more chlorine you may need.

Don’t assume “salt water” pools are better or easier.

What people call “salt water” pools are still chlorine pools; the salt chlorine generator just makes chlorine on-site.

Both traditional chlorine and “salt water” pools contain chlorine.

Some people believe pools with salt chlorine generators are maintenance free — but this is untrue, and neglecting things can lead to pool problems.

No matter what kind of pool you have, it needs to be tested every day.

Don’t allow children to swim alone.

Drowning is silent, and it happens quickly.

Always have a responsible adult watching while children are either in or out of the pool.

Keep your pool areas tidy when not in use. Cleaning up pool toys after play can help lessen the temptation of children to enter the pool area unsupervised.

While there are plenty of options available for pool owners, there are many opinions about pools equipped with salt chlorine generators and traditional chlorine pools. Check out these facts to learn more, and to decide which best fits your family’s needs: In a “salt water” pool, chlorine is produced by a salt chlorine generator rather than adding chlorine to the pool directly. A “salt water” pool is still being sanitised by chlorine.

So, a “salt water” pool is a chlorine pool.

The same amount of chlorine is required to maintain a “salt water” pool as a traditional chlorine pool.

“Salt water” pools require the same maintenance functions and still must be checked and balanced regularly, just like a traditional chlorine pool.

—Family Features

SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2015

B6

FIND-IT-ALL CINEMA SCHEDULE

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

@MGM

@SHATTI

@SOHAR

5:00, 7:15, 11:30PM Inside Out - 3D (Animation, Comedy) (PG) 3:00, 5:20PM Cop Car - 2D (Thriller) (12+) 3:00, 9:45PM The Gift- 2D (Mystery, Thriller) (12+) 7:00, 11:45PM Bajrangi Bhaijaan - 2D (Drama, Action) (PG) 9:00PM

@AZAIBA

CITY CINEMA Contact (10 am to 6pm) 24567664 | 68. www.citycinemaoman.net facebook.com/citycinemaoman

MUSCAT GRAND MALL Inside Out 3D (Animation) (PG) Voice Overs: Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Lewis 12:45PM, 5:00PM Gold Class: 2:00PM Inside Out 2D (Animation ) (PG) 10:45AM Cop Car 2D (Thriller) (12+) Cast: Kevin Bacon, Shea Whigham, Camryn 2:15PM Eldonia Ma2looba 2D (Comedy) (12+) Cast: Bassem Samra, Ola Ghanem, Ahmed 7:00PM

12:45 pm, 5:00 pm Gold Class: 2:00 pm INSIDE OUT (Animation)(3D) PG Voice Overs: Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Lewis

11:15 am, 2:00, pm, 7:45 pm COP CAR (Thriller)(12+) Cast: Kevin Bacon, Shea Whigham, Camryn Manheim

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation 2D (Action, Adventure, Thriller ) (PG12) Cast : Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Jeremy 11:45AM, 4:00, 9:30, 11:55PM Gold Class: 11:30AM, 4:00, 8:45, 11:15PM Ant-Man 3D (Action) (PG12) Cast : Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Corey Stoll 11:45PM; Gold Class: 6:30PM Ant-Man 2D (Action, Sci-Fi ) (PG12) 2:45PM Drishyam 2D (Drama, Mystery) (PG12) Cast : Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Shriya Saran 6:30PM Minions (3D) (Animation, Comady) (PG) 10:00AM Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2D) ( Action ) (PG) 8:45PM

12:00 PM The Gift – 2D (12+) (Mystery, Thriller) Cast - Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, Joel 12:45, 6:45 PM Bangistan – 2D (Comedy) Cast: Jacqueline Fernandez, Rajesh Sharma, Riteish Deshmukh 2:45, 8:45 AM Idhu Enna Maayam (Tam) – 2D (Romantic) Cast: Vikram Prabhu, Keerthy Suresh, Kavya 6:00 PM Exists – 2D (15+) Horror Cast: Samuel Davis, Dora Madison, Roger 5:15, 11:45 PM Cop Car – 2D (12+) Thriller Cast: Kevin Bacon, Shea Whigham, Camryn 2:00, 6:45 PM Ant-Man – 2D (PG12) Action, Sci-Fi 11:45 AM Ant-Man – 3D (PG12) ActionSci-Fi 2:45, 11:30 PM Srimanthudu (Telugu) - 2D (TBC) Action Cast - Shruti K. Haasan, Mahesh Babu, 8:45, 11:15 PM

AZAIBA Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation – 2D (PG12) (Action, Adventure, Thriller) Cast: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Jeremy 11:45 AM, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30, 11:55 PM Bajrangi Bhaijaan - 2D (PG) (Drama, Action) 3:45, 8:30 PM Inside Out – 3D (PG) (Animation, Adventure) 2:00, 4:00 PM Inside Out – 2D (PG) (Animation, Comedy)

6:45 pm

11:45am, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30, 11:55pm

Idhu Enna Maayam - 2D (TBC) Romantic, Cast : Vikram Prabhu, Keerthy Suresh, Kavya

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation 2D (Action) (PG12) Cast: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson

Cast: Riteish Deshmukh, Pulkit Samrat 3.30 PM Bajrangi Bhaijaan (Action/Drama ) – PG 6.30 PM Drishyam (Thriller/Drama ) – PG12 9.30 PM SCREEN 2 Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (Action, Adventure, Thriller) – PG 12 Cast: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg 1.00, 7.00, 10.00 PM Drishyam (Thriller/Drama ) – PG12 4.00 PM SCREEN 3 Baahubali: The Beginning (Action) 12+ 1.00, 4.00, 7.00 PM Bajrangi Bhaijaan (Action/Drama ) – PG 10.00 PM SOHAR Bajrangi Bhaijaan - 2D (PG) Drama, Action 8:30 PM Baahubali - 2D (Hindi) (12+) Action 4:00 PM Ant-Man- 2D (PG12) Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi 4:15 PM Ant-Man- 3D (PG12) Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

RUWI SCREEN 1 Bangistan (Comedy) – TBC

7:00, 11:30 PM Drishyam- 2D (Hindi) (PG12) Drama, Thriller 9:00 PM Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation - 2D (PG12) Action, Adventure, Thriller 11:30 AM, 2:00, 4:30, 6:00, 9:15, 11:45 PM Inside Out - 3D (PG) Animation, Adventure, 12:30, 2:15, 4:00 PM Cop Car - 2D (12+) Thriller Cast: Kevin Bacon, Shea Whigham, Camryn 2:35, 11:55 PM The Gift - 2D (12+) Mystery, Thriller Cast: Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, Joel 2:00, 9:30 PM Bangistan - 2D (TBC) Comedy Cast: Jacqueline Fernandez, Riteish 11:30 AM, 6:30 PM Idhu Enna Maayam - 2D (TBC) Romantic, Cast : Vikram Prabhu, Keerthy Suresh, Kavya 6:45 PM Srimanthudu - 2D (Telugu) (TBC) Action Cast : Shruti K. Haasan, Mahesh Babu 11:30 AM, 11:30 PM

Dept time

Destination

TO MUSCAT (RUWI) Arrival Operating time days

Dept time

Destination

Arrival Operating time days

BURAIMI Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation - 2D 3:00, 4:45, 7:15, 9:20, 11:45PM (Action) (PG12) Ant Man - 3D (Horror, Thriller) (PG12)

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

Nizwa Yanqul

Daily

16:50 19:30

Daily Daily

Nizwa Al Araqi

35 32

NARMIN KHAN August 8, 2011

Minimum

0

RELATIVE HUMIDITY

55-85%

07:00

Ruwi

10:25

Daily

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

06:00 06:00

Nizwa Ruwi

08:40 11:00

Daily Daily

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (ROUTE 54)

10:20 12:30

Daily Daily

15:40 15:40

Nizwa Ruwi

17:55 20:20

Daily Daily

LISTINGS

ROYAL OMAN POLICE TO SUR (ROUTE 55) 07:30 14:30

Sur Sur

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

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

SIDRA SALEEM August 7, 2013

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

Baahubali (Tamil) (Action) 10-00 Pm Cinema Main, 3-45 & 6-45 Pm Cinema-3 Idhu Enna Maayam (Tamil) (Drama) 3-30, 6-30 & 9-30 Pm Cinema -2 Drishyam (Hindi) (Drama) 6-45 Pm Cinema -4 Srimanthudu (Telugu ) ( Act ) Cast: Mahesh Babu & Shruthi Hassan 3-00 & 6-30 Pm Cinema Main; 9-45 Pm Cinema -3 Acha Din (Mal) (Drama/Act) 3-45 & 9-45 Pm Cinema -4 (From Friday) (Programmes are subject to change)

0

TO SINAW (ROUTE 52) 20:50

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

Sohar Ruwi Ruwi Sohar Ruwi Sohar Ruwi

Daily Daily Daily

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

WEATHER

15:00 15:00 15:00

16:30 18:00 19:30

STAR CINEMA

WITH LOVE

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

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation 2D (Action, Adventure, Thriller) (PG12) Cast: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Jeremy 11.30am, 2.00, 4.30, 7.00, 9.30 & 11.55 pm CP No: 1894 (PG12) COP CAR (Thriller) Cast: Kevin Baccon, Shea Whigham, Camryn 11.30 am, 3.15 & 10.15 pm CP No: 1895 ( 12+ ) THE GIFT ( Horror/Thriller) Cast: Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, Joel 1.15 & 6.30 p.m.

CP No: 1896 (12+) EXISTS ( Horror ) Cast: Samuel Davis, Dora Madison Burgue 5.00 & 11.55 p.m.

CP No: 1897 ( 15+ ) The Night Crew ( Action/Thriller) Cast: Danny Trejo, Jason Mewes, Luke Goss 8.30 pm; CP No: 1886 (15+)

SALALAH Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation (2D) 11:55AM, 2:00, 9:30, 11:30, 11:55PM (PG12) Ant-Man (2D)(PG12) (Action/ Sci-Fi ) 10:00AM Ant-Man (3D)(PG12) (Action/Sci-Fi ) 4:20/9:15PM Inside Out (3D)(PG) (Animation/Comedy) 12:10/4:50PM Inside Out (2D)(PG) (Animation/Comedy) 10:00AM Cop Car (2D)(12+) (Thriller) 10:15AM/ 8:40 PM Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2D) (PG) (Drama/Action) 6:30/11:45PM Exists (2D) (15+) (Horror) Cast: Samuel Davis, Dora Madison, Roger 2:45/ 10:15PM Eldonia Ma2looba (2D)(12+)(Arabic) Cast: Bassem Samra, Ola Ghanem, Ahmed 4:15PM Bangistan (2D)(TBC) (Comedy) 6:45PM Drishyam (2D)(PG12)(Hindi) (Drama) 11:45AM Wrong No. (2D)(PG)(Urdu) (Romantic) Cast Javed Sheikh, Danish Taimoor, Nadeem 2:15PM Idhu Enna Maayam (2D)(PG)(Tamil) (Romantic); 6:00PM

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

FROM MUSCAT (RUWI)

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

SUR Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation (Action / Adventure / Thriller) (PG12) 12:15, 4:30, 9:15, 11:45 PM Cop Car (Thriller) (12+) 2:45, 9:45 PM ANT MAN (3D) (Action / Sci-Fi) (PG12) 7:00 PM Inside Out (3D) (Animation) (PG) 1:00, 3:00, 5:00 PM Bajrangi Bhaijaan (Hindi) (Action ) (PG) 11:30 PM Drishyam (Hindi) (Action) (PG12) 6:50 PM

SHATTI Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2D) (Action, Adventure) (PG12) Cast: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Jeremy Renner 11:30am, 1:45, 6:30, 9:00, 11:30 pm EXISTS (Horror)(15+) Cast: Samuel Davis, Dora Madison 5:00, 11:45 pm THE GIFT (Mystery, Thriller)(12+) Cast: Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, 3:00, 6:45 pm COP CAR (Thriller)(12+) Cast: Kevin Bacon, Shea Whigham, Camryn 11:15 am, 2:00, 7:45 pm INSIDE OUT (Animation)(2D) PG Voice Overs: Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Lewis 1:00 pm INSIDE OUT (Animation)(3D)PG 3:45, 5:45 pm Ant Man (3D)(Action, Adventure) (PG12) Cast: Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Corey Stoll 4:15, 9:30, 11:45 pm Ant Man (2D)(Action, Adventure) (PG12) 11:30 am BAJRANGI BHAIJAAN (Drama)(PG) Cast: Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, 8:45 pm

BAHJA CINEMA

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

Appolo 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

SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2015

B7

LIFESTYLE Look on the Bright Side M

STORY TIME

By Swati Dasgupta

rs Iyer was busy packing her suitcase.“Mummy, why are we going to India now when the holidays are over?” 12-year-old Subhasini enquired. Mrs Iyer looked at her daughter affectionately and went on to explain.

“I know this is not the right time for you to go as you will miss school, but I have to sign some important documents back home. It’s just for 15 days. I have informed your class teacher. She has assured me she will help you to catch up with the missing lessons once you are back,” she said.

Subhasini, was a student in one of the Indian schools in Muscat. She didn’t feel like going back to India, but she knew she had no choice. She forced a smile and went on to help her mother finish packing.

The next day they boarded their flight from Seeb International Airport to Kochi and later went to Mannar, a small town in Kerala.

“Mannar is famous for its bronze, you get vessels, lamps, and bells made out of bronze,” Mrs Iyer said to her while they were waiting at the bus stop in Mannar.

Subhasini looked around the overcrowded bus when it came.

“Mom, how are we going to get in,” she asked in dismay. She didn’t like the way people crammed in. She made a big fuss about the noise, the crowd and the overall bus journey.

“Be patient. We will reach soon,”

Mrs Iyer assured her. With the clouds closing in fast it took another hour before they reached home where a host of relatives were anxiously waiting for them.

Mrs Iyer was giggled with delight when she saw her cousin, Gayatri, whom she hadn’t met for long time standing among the crowd.

Gayatri hugged Subhasini and her mother, then ushered them to their room.

“Mom! I am feeling so hot. It’s extremely humid here. Where’s the AC? I can’t bear this anymore,” Subhasini whined.

Mrs Iyer worriedly looked at her daughter, aghast at her behaviour.

“They do not have an air conditioner here and moreover I don’t think it’s that hot. Go and freshen up. You will feel better,” she said sternly.

Subhasini wanted to retort but she stopped herself, sensing that her mother was annoyed.

The whole night she tossed and turned on the bed thinking about how she would be able to spend the next 15 days without an AC. The next morning she got up hearing the chirping of the birds.

“Oh mom, can you please close the window. I can’t sleep,” she murmured.

“Oh Subhasini, just see how beautiful it is outside. Birds chirping in the early morning spark so much freshness,” she said excitedly.

After an hour Subhasini got out of

bed and headed to the dining table for her breakfast. She was hungry.

She hadn’t eaten properly the night before because she’d found the curry too spicy. She hoped breakfast would be nice.

“I will eat toast and scrambled eggs,” she announced. Gayatri, was busy in the kitchen making dosa, but popped her head out when she heard her.

“Subhasini, there is no egg. No one eats egg here. I will arrange it for you, but not today. It has started raining and I can’t send the servant as he would get drenched just trying to reach the bus stop,” she explained.

“What! I can’t have breakfast without eggs,” Subhasini said loudly.

“Why can’t the servant go in the car?” she asked.

“We do not have a car here Subhasini. There used to be one but it was sold off,” Gayatri said.

“You all don’t have a car?” Subhasini snorted rudely.

Gayatri’s eyes widened. She silently went back to the kitchen.

The whole day Subhasini continued grumbling at small things: The weather, the dust, the food, the bed — she always found a reason to grumble. She looked at the calendar and wished the days would fly past.

She continued pouting as the days crept by. Then one day she looked at the calendar and realised that there were just two days left before they were to return.

Mrs Iyer wasn’t happy with the way her daughter had behaved, but instead of scolding her she decided to take her for a tour of the town in one last effort to make her feel better.

The hustle and bustle at the main market initially deterred Subhasini but once inside, she was delighted to see colourful bangles, clips, and hair bands. She shopped and shopped for herself and her friends.

On their way home Mrs Iyer took her through the backwaters and Subhasini found herself falling in love with the scenic beauty of the place. “I have never seen such a beautiful place. No wonder Kerala is called God’s own country,” she said to her mother.

Mrs Iyer smiled, pleased that her daughter was finally enjoying something.

As they got into the bus Subhasini spotted few children waving at her. It started drizzling and Subhasini suddenly felt tear drop forming in the corner of her eye.

“I’m sorry for making things so difficult, mum,” she said, turning to her mother. Mrs Iyer affectionately looked at her.

“My dear, there’s nothing wrong with complaining sometimes, but the thing about complaints is that they can distract you from all the small pleasures in life. But gratitude can help you find reasons to smile even in the toughest times.”

— swati@timesofoman.com

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by cdur

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Talk to him as my best friend

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Chocolate

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DOWN

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Phoenix loc.

Doozie Potato skin Upper body Lemony drink Cherry seed Poet’s “always” Serve the bubbly Give out Co. honcho Pregrown lawn

17 19 22 23 24 25 26 28 30 31 32 37

It’s south of Eur. Yecch!

Sharp, as hearing Get the lead out?

Deli units Mammal’s need Noncom Off-road vehicle Flair for music — Beta Kappa — kwon do Most capable

39 41 43 44 45 47 48 49 50 51 52 53

Barely scrape by Publishing execs Cocoon dweller Strong and healthy Burden Fence opening Sherbets Leak slowly ER practice Ms. Thurman Toothpaste choice Chair option

1 4 8 12 13 14 15 16 18 20 21 23 24 27 29 33 34 35 36 38 39 40 42 44 46 50 54 55 56 57 58 59 60

Climber’s challenge Package sealer Strike callers Regret Garfield pooch Orchid-loving Wolfe Seine vista Took back Bantu people Celts, to Romans — — step further Foul up Mascara target BMW, e.g.

Hung on to Gigantic Tony-winner — Hagen Gleeful cry Mlle. in Barcelona HBO receivers Buffalo’s lake Social insect Large deer Reserve, as a table Auspices It can’t be beet? (2 wds.)

High card Advantage Mr. Griffin of game shows Driver’s peg Take a break Diva — Gluck Clairvoyance

B8

SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2015

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

LIFE SIDRA MUSHEER

Class VIII Indian School Sohar

Life is just a four letter word, Experienced by people all over the world.

Life isn’t a game for some, While the rest say, ‘let’s have some fun!’

Some say, it’s just a test taken by God Whereas others wanna live it even by having energy, Enough only to nod.

Advaith Rajesh, Grade 1, ISWK

Amal Mariya Joji, Grade 7, ISS

As children, we love playing blindfold, But call it lame once we get a little old.

As teens we love listening to music soaring, And call the most breaking news boring.

Once we’re adults, all we do is chitter - chatter Not realising you’re wet in the rain’s pitter - patter.

Hearts thumping we point to our chests, Now as oldies, sick in our beds.

Here I lie in the hospital, with relatives crying their eyes out.

And a doctor telling them, I’m in a coma, Not ready to get out of.

P. M . Jishnu, Grade 7, ISWK

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

Adithya Sainath, Grade 7, ISM

Now do I realise, Life has its fall and rise.

So I’m determined and unstoppable.

Getting out of bad situations, Is most likely probable.

Hence, I just embrace life, giving a friendly jab Know what, life is fab.

Meera Prasanth, Grade 2, ISM

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.

O H R S E L I B O M O T U A Y

E P O L E N O L A J O H N D T

O T P M A K T S A F K A E R B

CLUE: JOHN HUGHES

E U A O E M O B U L C M A I E

Y T T E R P P J T I O I D L E

D S O D R T S O R C N E C L T

N I W S I O R X O W C O U M E N O M S N N E M E H I B I H O

K C A P T A R B I A S N C T V

K H Y T F E H S N T J A A C E

K O O R B N E L G A I C G L N

M O I B R E U N I O N E O A P

L L U N C L E B U C K C S S I

I L A U G H A R V A R D Y S N

F E R R I S E L D N A C E R K

SOLUTION: 6 LETTERS

Alone, American, Automobiles, Beethoven, Brat Pack, Breakfast, Candles, Chicago, Class, Club, Comedy, Create, Dennis, Drillbit, Ferris, Film, Flubber, Glenbrook, Harvard, Hefty, Home, James, John, Jokes, Kind, Lampoons, Laugh, Menace, Nancy, Opportunities, Outdoors, Pink, Planes, Pretty, Reunion, Rock, School, Sixteen, Trains, Uncle Buck, Wrote.

Answer: Writer

C

W W W.T I M E S O F O M A N . C O M S AT U R DAY, AU G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5

SECTION

CONNEC T H E D A I LY G U I D E

RENT

C2

VACANCY

C4

CARGO

C7

*Classified Advertisement space booking with text, should be done till 12.00 noon for next day’s publication. * Subject to space availability

C2

S AT U R D AY, AU G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5 Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com classifieds@timesofoman.com Tel.: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461

DAILY GUIDE FOR RENT

We have 2BHK flat in Mabella 7 for family. Contact: 93782735 / 99208033 We have 2BHK, flats available in Ghala for families, staff & Execution.

Contact: 93782735 / 99208033 We have 2 BHK flats in AL Khuwair near Rawasco, can use as office or for families. Contact: 93782735 / 99208033 We have offices in Ghala new building affordable price. Contact: 93782735 / 99208033 3BR villa, sitting, dining & hall, Azaiba behind Al Meera H- Market.

Contact: 99259977 / 95033008 1BHK, Darsait, walking distance to ISM , neat and clean building, ground floor, OMR 260/- per month rent Call IQRAR on 99076557 3 BHK Flat in Azaiba.

Contact 99792181 1 BHK Flat in Honda Road (Ruwi).

Contact 99792181 1 & 2 BHK Flat in Al Khuwair.

Contact 99792181 4 & 5 BHK villa for rent in Al Khuwair. Contact 99792181

We have 230 sqm showroom in Ghubra main road, prime location suitable for wholesale business or bank or insurance company.

Contact: 93782735 / 99208033 We have 5 BHK villa in Al Khuwair can use as commercial or residence villa with large sitting hall , 5 rooms, 6 toilets & kitchen with 2 cars parking. Contact: 93782735 / 99208033 We have 2 BHK flats in Ghubra 18th November near new Mars hypermarket, flat with 2 rooms, large sitting hall, kitchen & 3 bathrooms.

Contact: 93782735 / 99208033 840 sqr mtrs Store & Staff accommodation for Rent in Misfah.

Contact 99792181 Flat for rent near Al Nahdha Hospital in Hamriya. Contact: 97380548 / 99680499 Flats, shops & store for rent in rent MBD Honda road. Contact: 97293708 / 92433127

1BHK, 2BHK, 3BHK new flat available at Mabela in front of Modern English School Contact: 96239126 We have 1BHK flat in Wadi Kabir good price. Contact 93782735 / 99208033 We have shop for rent in Al Khuwair near Rawasco prime location.

Contact: 93782735 / 99208033 1bedroom in Al Hail South RO 150/monthly. Contact: 93993354 1BHK R.O 190/- & 2BHK R.O 240/near Medical Darsait. Contact 98748925 3 BHK Flat in Al Khuwair 33.

Contact 99792181

2BHK with Split AC. AL-KHUWAIR Near MARS HYPERMARKET – 92880107

Well maintained spacious 2 BHK at Rex Road. Contact: 92227165

Villa 2 bedrooms + hall + sitting room in Al Hail South R.O 300/Monthly. Contact: 93993354

2BHK & 1BHK flats available in Darsait. Contact : 99357586 / 97500025

We have small building for rent in Bowsher suitable for staff accommodation & store building have 4 flats & 1 shop commercial building.

Contact: 93782735 / 99208033 For rent new apartment in Al Mawaleh close to Al Bahja Center consisting of 3 bedrooms, 1council, kitchen, hall, 3 bathrooms, 1 computer room, parking for car. Contact: 93214010 / 92602050 For rent in South Al Hail 1 bedroom, sitting room, bathroom, kitchen, balcony, car parking 175/- R.O Monthly.

Contact: 92602050 / 93214010 Room attached, bath room, kitchen in Muscat O.R 65/-. Contact: 98049086 One & two bedroom apartment available for rent, at South Ghubra near Atlas hospital next to Diwan’s Office. Contact: 99833747 Flats for rent near Indian School in Wadi Kabir. Contact 99777122

Fully furnished 3 BHK accommodation with all spacious rooms in a villa at Darsait near ISD. Contact: 9526 5289 / 9604 8422

Readymade office space for rent (100sm) in Bank Melli Iran building, MBA area Ruwi opposite Center Point. Contact: 99011352

Furnished room for rent at Al Khuwair R.O 225/- for family only.

Contact: 99251975

Flat for rent in Wadi Al Kabeer behind Muscat club. # 92222922

3BHK , 3 bathrooms, 2 balconies, nr. Al Hassan, W/ Kabir 330/- R.O. Contact: 99384640 Villa for rent in Al Khuwair 33, 8 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms with parking area near Taimur Mosque. Contact: 99366624 2 BHK Apartment for rent near MSQ area. Contact 93193109.

2 & 3 BHK big Flats with Big hall, Kitchen & new split ACs at Al Khoudh 6, Close to express way, from owner. Tel 97600322 alnehang@gmail.com

2 BHK Flats for rent in Muttrah near Oman house. Contact: 97009734 / 92629232 2BHK near Oman house behind Khimji H.O. Contact: 95865686 Flats for rent at Darsait near to Ministry of Sports. Interested candidates please Contact : 00968-92225523 Spacious 2BHK Flat with Split A/c’s behind Sultan Center, Azaiba – RO.425/- p.m. Contact: 99824803 / 99849325 2BHK flat available behind Majan College / Darsait. Contact 24705742

S AT U R DAY, AU G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5

C3

DAILY GUIDE

FOR RENT

FOR SALE

MOTOR VEHICLE FOR SALE

1 BR flat at Darsait, near ISM. Contact 99237971 / 99320633 Flat for rent in Darsait near Indian School 1 bedroom, living room, 2 bathrooms & kitchen. Contact: 95806611 / 94694662 Flat for rent in Ruwi, 1 bedroom (Walja) 1 bedroom, living room , 2 bath rooms, kitchen.

Contact: 95464607 / 95464608 Furnished offices for rent in prime location in Ruwi (Mumtaz) with free electricity, water and internet for lease long & short term. # 99331181 Shop for rent prime location in Ruwi Mumtaz near Al Burj hotel.

Contact: 99331181 Flats for rent in Al Khuwair, Al hail, Wadi Kabir, Al Falaj, MBD, and Muttrah. Contact: 99119699 / 95250300 / 24813002 1 &2 BHK flats for rent at Wadi Kabir, Wadi Adai, Hamriya and Al Khoud areas, shop for rent at Wadi Adai Round about. Contact: 24834644, GSM 93994401 /02/03 lines 2BHK ground flr in Darsait Near Muscat Municipality, walkable distance from Indian School Muscat, Rent: OMR.275/- Contact : 99451845

3bed room well maintained flat (villa type only 2 flats in one bldg) in Al Khuwair behind Al Akhtam Restaurant, Villa no 1839, Way No 3922, block No 239.

Contact: 99253125 2BHK available Mumtaz area Ruwi.

Contact: 99269751 550 sqm built up area Deluxe villa 7 BR with 3 sitting halls located at prime commercial location North Al Ghobrah. Contact: Owner 99411607 / 99892238 2BHK, 2 Baths, Split A/C, Wadi kabeer, near Indian Elementary School.

Contact 99441193, 93004801 Fabulous AC flat at Al Khoud 3 bedrooms, hall and kitchen RO 270/for rent. Contact: 99334699 3 Bedroom flat in Wadi Kabeer and 2 bedroom villa in Sidab- Muscat.

Contact: 95755953 Flat for rent in Wadi Kabir with 3 rooms. Contact : 98555580 / 92800007 BHK Flat in Azaiba.

Contact 99385835 / 99428143 600 sqr mtrs showroom in Wadi Kabir. Contact: 99792181

2BK Wadi Kabir near Kuwaiti Mosque. Contact: 97007934 / 92629232

250 sq mtrs restaurant for rent in Plaza Hotel, Walja Ruwi.

Contact 99326339

500 sq mtrs office space on mezzanine floor near Royal Hospital.

OMR 6.500 per sq mtr.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

Two bedrooms flats in Wadi Kabir near Indian School.

Contact 99313274

Godown for rent Approx: 4500 sqm area with building materials in Barka for rent with workers accommodation etc. Showrooms also for building materials available. Contact: 99808868 House for rent in Sidab at reasonable rent. Contact: 95555162 / 95755953 Flats shops for rent in Ruwi MBD area Mumtaz area.

Contact: 97293708 / 92433127 Flat for rent with AC in Wadi Kabir.

Contact: 95555162 /95755953 Flat for rent in Mabellah 8th.

Contact: 97147240

Commercial Space 68 SQM, Wadi kabeer, near Indian Elementary School. Contact 99441193, 93004802 For rent if require flats for rent in Wadi Kabir please send me messages through Whatsapp.

Contact: 99376454 1,000 sq mtrs industrial land in Misfah Industrial area near to Khanco. OMR 1,500 Monthly. It has Electricity and boundary wall.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360 House in Amerat near to Makah hypermarket with three room, 5toilets, kitchen and hall 430/-.

Contact: 92747078

Running Polyclinic, 20 yrs, with VISAMEDICAL, available for SALE/LEASE. Contact.94596677 / 99343280 Workshop sale / rent Full fledge workshop for / sale at prominent location at Misfa near Cement factory around 900 sq meter along with tools, equipments and manpower.

Also 5 Nos Volvo / Mercedes / Man /Putsmiester concrete pump 2004/2005 model for sale. Contact: 93681107 / 96051565 / 98541936 Ice Cream & Juices shop Ruwi good location for sale suitable for beauty parlor also. Contact: 92150455

Auto spare parts shop for sale in Mobella. Contact: 99765905 A fully equipped furnished and licensed private polyclinic for sale or rent in excellent location in Sohar - Falaj al Qabail opposite to life line hospital Departments are GP clinic, Dental, Medical lab, X-ray And Working Pharmacy. Contact 95603395 Running established for sale including industrial licenses for marble & granite, fully furnished kitchen showroom and fully equipped factory. Contact: 99337670 / 92623665

Brand new Panasonic 60” full HD LED, TV TH60A430M R.O 350/- .

Contact: 99628819

Ladies beauty Saloon for sale at Amerat on prime location with two clearances. Contact : 95867900

2560 sq mtrs industrial land in Wadi Kabir main road, First line on way to Al Bustan hotel. Possible to make petrol station or hotel. OMR 990 Thousand. Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

3 floor commercial building in Muttrah behind Police. Generating income of OMR 18 Thousand annually. Neat and well maintained. Built on 197 sq mtrs land. 2 tailor shops on ground floor and 6 flats. OMR 207 Thousand. Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

FOR RENT Bath attached room for rent Al Khuwair. Contact 99743569 At Al Hail 2BHK 260/- & 1BHK 180/- , shop or store space RO 240/-.

Contact: 96072686 4 BHK single villa in Al Khuwair.

Contact: 97616158 Villa with two floors in (Hay Al Arjan) in AL Khoud with 4 bedrooms, hall, Majles, kitchen & one room in ground floor. Contact: 93219597 Brand new villa Bosher 37, 4 BHK. Contact: 91936034 1 Villa & 3 big Flats of 2/3 BHK with hall, Kitchen & ACs Al Khoudh 6, Close to express way, from owner.

Tel 97600322 alnehang@gmail.com

Honda Accord 2010, 10,5000 kms, expat lady driven, dealer maintained, new tyres. Contact 99330509 Honda CRV 2008 model, expat driven, 2.4L, 78000 kms, OMR 5200/(Negotiable). Contact: 99867670

Hyundai Tuscon 2.4 Full option (including Moon roof) for sale in Muscat, Model 2013 , Single Owner (University Lecturer) driven, 39,600 kms, in excellent condition, for sale.

Contact 99653760.

Mazda 3, 2007 KM 1,43000, full automatic R.O 1900/-.

Contact 99781671 Prado ,2012. Contact : 99336093

House hold items. Contact: 97094797

Wall papers, grass carpets sale & fixing. Contact: 99834373 / 96642500

400 sq mtrs Commercial/Residential land in Maabela Phase 5 Block 2. OMR 140 Thousand.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

Mitsubishi 10 ton, truck 2006 model for sale. Registration valid.

Contact: 99366474

Touareg 2011 Oman cars, 114000 KM, silver, 8500/-R.O. Contact 92857111

SELL/BUY

Furnished room for Indian Bachelor in Al Falaj area (Ruwi) & Lady in Wadi Kabir (near Al Maya).

Contact 96761960 Sharing accommodation available with Kerala family, nr. Wadi Kabir Indian School. Contact 95882866 / 96575016

New villa at Qurum, 6 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, sitting, dining and open sitting on the terrace.

Contact: 99342733

5 Flats of 1 bedroom for Sale in Boushar: OMR 35 Thousand each.

Monthly income OMR 270 Tel: 99333479 or 95215360 23,886 Sq Mtrs Agriculture land with water well in Al Salwa, Barka.

OMR 260 Thousand. Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

AVAILABLE Party & Wedding equipment rentals.

Full line, from Tables, Linen & Skirting, Chairs & Chair covers, Cutlery, Crockery, Glassware, Chafing Dishes, Ice Sculptures, to Large Sound Systems and spectacular lighting. Call Andrea 9606 2222 for Catering and Croyden 9623 5555 for Sound & Light. www.tunesoman.com, E-mail: info@tunesoman.com

Sportage, 2013. Contact:99336093

ACC. AVAILABLE

Shop for sale in Ruwi High street, Contact 96078411

60,000 Sq Mtrs Agriculture Land in Misfah, can be changed to Industrial Land. OMR 29 Per Square Meter.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

Land Cruiser 2012. Contact 99336093

Furnished single /sharing room for EXE bachelor at Rex Road near Kamat with WIFI. Contact 92873832 Used furniture & Electronic items, office & house. Contact: 99834373 / 96642500

FOR HIRE Volvo 12 Ton Truck for monthly rent. Contact: 98713900

ACC. AVAILABLE Independent rooms in Qurum / Al Hail. Contact 95529970 Room for rent available in CBD near Papa John’s Restaurant. # 96568110 Fully furnished 1BHK with all household items in Darsait near Lulu on monthly Basis. Contact : 99378397 Large room with separate bathroom and sharing available in Al Khuwair.

Contact: 95250161

Room with A/C, independent toilet & sharing kitchen (4th floor) for Indian Ex. Bachelor near Majestic hotel, Wadi Kabir. Contact: 99242984 New rooms available in Seeb for couple / ladies only. # 96996938 Sharing accommodation available for a family near Ruwi Church.

Contact: 92308110 / 92837206 Furnished single room attached bath in Mumtaz area. #95212017 Acc available single room with attach bathroom, kitchen at Mabella near BP Petrol Pump rent R.O 100/- near Indian School. Contact: 91516775 Fully furnished room for a decent expatriate. independent kitchen, bathroom in Wadi Adai.

Contact 96243086 at 5p.m.

Contd on Pg 6

C4

S AT U R D AY, AU G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5 Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com classifieds@timesofoman.com Tel.: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461

DAILY GUIDE SITUATION SITUATION WANTED VACANT

SALES / MARKETING

ACCOUNTANT Urgently required Junior Accountant. Please send CV: hr.azatllc@gmail.com

Looking for Outdoor Salesman for heavy equipment spare parts.

Contact - 93292015, Email: mail.om@gulfcenter.co

Urgently required male Accountant & Office Admin. Contact: 96339339 Email CV on info@eigllcoman.com Urgently required Jr. Accountant/ Purchasing Manager (preferably Indian) 3-5 yrs Exp. to work with food stuff market. software/hardware knowledge would be an advantage, valid Omani D/L with NOC Contact 99417418 Urgently required cash investors for company’s profitable projects.

Contact: 92950082

BEAUTY Wanted experience Beautician for beauty parlor in Muscat. Contact: 94241385 Urgently required gulf experienced female professional Beauticians and storekeeper for a reputed high end beauty centre in the capital area.

Interested please ensure release letter and send your CV to email: linnujiya@gmail.com or contact 99500330 Urgently required beautician with min 3 years. Contact 93231403 Email: rainbowfurnishing156@ gmail.com

CATERING Chinese/ Arab/ continental cook & helper wanted.

Contact 95529970

DOMESTIC HELPER Urgently required housemaid.

Contact: 96339339 Email CV on info@eigllcoman.com Required part time Indian Housemaid. Contact: 95370653 Require qualify caregiver for an orderly mother. Contact 99425200

ENGINEER Civil Construction company in Muscat looking for SUB Contractors for 3 floor commercial building (4 Nos – 3000 m2 each) project at Mabellah ready to start. For enquiries mail to awahaibitrad@gmai.com

Service & Parts Manager with 3-5 years GCC experience in heavy Equipment / cranes, good communication skills, Mechanical Engineering background. Please send your CV to info@almisfat.com or call 96996938 AC Technician with minimum 5 years experience, should have experience in installation & commissioning of Ductable & split AC units, with knowledge of GI ducting & pre insulated ducting, experience in interior fit out industry is preferred Interested candidates can apply by mail: info@smartvisionoman.com Fax: 24818818 Heavy Equipment Mechanic (sports) & (classic) (bicycle) 2No. Contact : 99550084 Required Architectural Engineer for consulting company.

Contact: 99077856 Email: rgeorge@omantd.com MEP Engineer on urgent basis required for immediate placement.

Please contact tgi17@omantel.net.om

IT

Indian House Maid with experience required to work in Sohar, visa ready.

Contact 99417418

DRIVER

MISCELLANEOUS

Wanted driver. Contact: 95112461 Driver heavy duty required urgently for trailer. Oman / GCC experience must. Those ready for immediate joining. Contact: 99310859

EDUCATION Required English Teacher , Hindi teacher, Science Teacher.

Contact: 99705799 Arabic speaking Female Vice Principal/Arabic Teachers / Secretary / Computer Teacher / PRO s wanted for a Bilingual (Arabic – English) school in Azaiba. Knowledge of English preferred. Please apply to email : burj@alhakkim.com Kindergarten in Seeb looking for (female) English Teacher bachelor in English language.

Contact: 99319259 / 93972775 Email: saif123.s171@gmail.com

SKILLED / UNSKILLED Indian Family looking out for the following experienced candidates 1) House maid (Indian) 2) Driver (Indian) Contact : 92800073 / 99247040

A leading civil construction company in Muscat requires Project Manager (BE. Civil) with minimum 10 years experience (Gulf experience preferred). Please send C.V to hr.azatllc@gmail.com

Software developer with experience in asp.net, sql server and crystal reports required for a software development firm. Email CV to hr@ promisworld.com

Required heavy duty truck driver holding Omani driving license w/ 5 years experience please contact 92001111

Salesman required for a well established building materials company.

Oman D/L required.

Contact: 93698385 Email: united@omantel.net.om

SITUATION WANTSIT. WANTED ED ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

MEDICAL

SALES / MARKETING

Need urgently MBBS Doctor with or without MOH license. #95395070

Sales Executive with valid D/L & 5 year experience, in the field of demountable aluminum & glass partition systems. Interested candidates can apply by Fax: 24818818 mail: info@smartvisionoman.com

Required MBBS Doctor with or without MOH license. # 95395070 Wanted female Staff Nurse with MOH license for a dental clinic in sur. Email : dentoman2000@gmail. com Urgently required for MOH license Gynecologist specialist & Staff Nurse clinic at Sumail, Muscat.

Kindly sends C.V to saemomar@gmail.com or GSM: 95498105 Wanted Lab Technician, Staff Nurse, Pharmacist for a polyclinic in Sohar. Contact 99767605 Required Pharmacist for 2 months for a Pharmacy. Contact: 99705799 Staff Nurse for 2 months for a clinic in Muttrah.( LOCUM). # 99330385 Immediately required lady Doctor (DGO) or GP with Gynecology experience & lab technician. #99310590.

Email : tjmaluke@gmail.com

SALES / MARKETING

Urgently required house maid for Malayalam family in Rustaq.

Contact: 99810765

A leading trading group is looking for Sales Executives having experience in building materials / tools with driving license & release / NOC. Email CV to alhajoil@omantel.net.om or Fax: 24701683

Established real estate company looking for male or female property agents for leasing and sales of the property. Applicant must be Graduate, possess Omani or GCC driving license. Having oman market experience. Apply with NOC. Attractive salary +commission.

Send your CV: property@ labdmarkmuscat.com

A leading building materials Trading CO. Urgently required (1) Business Development Manager – (minimum 10 years experience in same field in Oman / GCC with driving license (2) Branch Incharges & Salesman, with minimum 3 years experience in building materials sales in Oman / GCC. Contact Fax: 24704921 Email: hilalbm@omantel.net.om

Required Indian or Pakistani calligrapher & Painter (staff accommodation) Contact# 24480487/24483493

Spare parts (Heavy Equipment) Salesman with 3 years experience.

Please send your CV to info@almisfat.com or call 96996938

MEDICAL Urgently required Pharmacist (B. Pharm) with MOH license for a reputed organization in Oman. Email Id: goodpharma2015@gmail.com Wanted laboratory Technician with MOH License to work in medical center in capital Area Contact 99340135

Outdoor Salesman (heavy Equipment) Sales man with 3 -5 years experience. GCC driving license required Please send your CV to info@almisfat.com or call 96996938 Sales Executive with valid D/L & 5 year experience in office furniture and interior fit out projects interested candidates can apply by mail: info@smartvisionoman.com Fax: 24818818

Required Chinese / Biryani cook / Sales person for restaurant.

Contact : 95395378 / 94053449 Sales Executive Industrial products : 2-3 yrs of exp. with good communication & computer skills. D/L is must. Send resume to salescvv@hotmail.com Urgently required : Counter Service Assistant (male) for a fast food outlet in a food court in Sohar.

Email: aliyanational@gmail.com Wanted Marketing Managers and Executives, candidates with minimum 2 years experience in Oman holding valid driving license May only Apply 94151791/ 22050729 or Email: sales@dewdropoman.com Wanted designer & Salesman for Advertising CO. With Oman D/L. Contact: 96440587 / 94055643 Urgently required out door Sales Executive for furnishing company with Oman D/L and min 3 years experience. Contact : 93231403 / rainbowfurnishing156@gmail.com Building Material Sales man required at Al Amerat shop.

Contact: 99467054 A leading Tissue paper & food stuffs company requires Sales & Marketing person with minimum 5 yrs exp. in Oman with good communication skills & valid Oman D/L. Candidate with interior market knowledge & experience preferable.

Send CV : allub@alhosnigroup.com, fax: 24451430 Wanted male written & spoken Malayalam & Bengali as freelancers to conduct corporate & individual markets surveys on temporary basis, Must be fluent in English with driving license. Contact: 24701242 A leading building materials shop required Marketing Executive (Omani National only) 1No with minimum 2 years experience and driving license. Contact: 99808868 Email: aalfarsi2020@gmail.com Experienced Marketing representative – interlock blocks with light Omani driving license is required.

Contact 99222086

Filipino Male 26 years old, Certified Public Accountant, Bachelor of Science in Accountancy with 5 yrs of experience now on visit visa, Looking for suitable opening. Contact: +968 91278583 Email: kennethalcedo07@gmail.com Accountant Indian male B.Com with 2 years of experience currently on visiting visa seeks suitable placement. Contact: 94649272 Email ID: sherin.am01@gmail.com Indian female Inter CA, strong in Tally ERP 9, MS Office, 7 years experience in accounts upto finalization looking for suitable position.

Contact 91759501 Indian male, 30 years, CMA (Inter),M.com.4 out of 7 years experience in Oman in Auditing/ Accounts/ Finance. Having NOC and valid Oman D/L. Contact: 96746420 , Email: sijuthampi@ymail.com Indian female, B.com with 2 years of work experience, currently on family visa in Oman and seeking suitable placement for immediate joining.

Contact 94647421 Looking for a job in UAE as a Senior Accountant Indian male, 31 yrs, CA Inter 8 yrs exp good in all aspects of accounts. Good command over English valid driving license (Oman) Contact: 94737231 Indian male M.Com holder with one year working experience as an Accountant in Kerala looking for suitable opening now on visiting visa. Contact: 96947500 Email: mohamaedshafikk5@gmail.com Indian female B.Tech (EEE) MBA finance with 1and half years experience as Bank Officer in India seeking suitable placement.

Contact: 91358676 / 98157895 Email: sujivu88@gmail.com MBA finance Indian male (Account & finance), seeking suitable placement. Contact: 97372624 Email: sivaraj.gurukripa@gmail.com Female (Filipina) Accountant / auditor /bookkeeper seeking for job Contact: 96944976 Indian male, 27 years, M. Com, having 2years experience in Accounts looking for suitable position. Presently on visit visa. Contact 93455055| gibingeorge88@gmail.com 23 yrs, Indian B.Com, Graduate male ‘Fresher’ well versed in English, Hindi, Arabic & Malayalam with D/L looking for a suitable job. Now on visit visa valid for 1 more month only. Contact 97660518

SITUATION WANTSIT. WANTED ED ACCOUNT. & FINANCE Part time accountant services available to handle all accounts related work up to finalization.

Contact: 96247295 Accountant Indian male 31 yrs Accounts up to finalization, 9 yrs experience (7 yrs in Oman) with D/L & NOC seeks suitable placement.

Contact: 99582979 An Indian Lady Chartered Accountant with five years experience (including articleship), on family visa in Oman looking for a suitable job.

Please Contact 9621 0347 / 9943 5346, shincycrajan@gmail.com CA , Inter, M.Com Indian 7 years experience in Audit / finance handled independent audit / finance assignments on visit looking for suitable placement. Contact: 91148139 Email: smurug@live.com Accountant having 4 yrs experience looking job. Contact: 99867456 Email: ashkar7673@gmail.com 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 Part time Accountant with 15 yrs exp in accounts, finance audit taxation. Contact: 95857199 Indian female Accountant with 5 yrs Gulf exp in accounts, audit, Admin payroll. Contact: 96263157 Indian male Accountant B.Com 8 yrs in Oman exp with N.O.C, valid driving license. Contact: 95052969 Email: chetansmma@yahoo.co.in / chetansmma@gmail.com Seeking for a job completed B.Tech in ECE under Anna University knowledge in hardware troubleshooting ready to work with accounting & software section holding one year experience in India.

Contact: 96142153 Indian National, male, 41 years, CA Inter, persuing CA final. Now on express visa. 7 years of Experience in OMAN as Finance and Accounts Manager in Trading, Construction and Firefighting industry. Total 21 Years of Experience seeking suitable Managerial positions. No visa issues. Immediate joining. Phone no: 98469311 Email:sebin30@yahoo.co.in MBA (Finance) with NOC, 6 years accounting and finance experience in Oman, knowledge of Tally ERP9 having Omani driving license seeks suitable placement.

Contact: 97205715 Email: ammar_uh@hotmail.com 13 years exp (7.5 years gulf exp) B.Com graduate, looking for Accountant job, GSM No:-92957064 with NOC. Energetic Finance & Audit Manager / Chief Accountant, C.A , MBA ,ACCA , CPA..15 yrs in GULF , Expert in Banking, Financing, Profit Maximizations, Admin, Biz Developments ,All ERPs Software’s, 15yrs Audit Exp. with Big 5 , NOC & Driving License Call 94403270 – 94504505 Indian 24 years MBA finance 2 years experience seeking suitable placement. Contact: 9822253 Indian female 25 yrs B.Com MBA / 3months experience looking for job in Accts /Mktg. Contact: 94657403 / 99355931

S AT U R DAY, AU G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5

C5

DAILY GUIDE SITUATION WANTED

ADMIN 5 years experience in store and admin department with Omni driving license looking for suitable job, release available and can join immediately. Contact : 95860170

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE Accountant, Indian male, 10 years experience in Oman, having knowledge of Tally ERP9 & able to do upto finalization and can be joined immediately with NOC. Contact: 94134085 Email: muscatoman95@yahoo.com Well experienced and hard working Restaurant Manager seek immediate placement. Release available.

Contact: 92953199 Jordanian Accountant (ACPA) with more than 15 yrs experience in Oman (Accounts, Purchase & finance). Contact: 92881223 Email: kamal_sarhan@yahoo.com MBA, B.Com CA (finalist) 7 years experience (2 years in Oman) looking for suitable placement in a reputable organization. Expertise in ERP, Tally Quickbooks, peachtree and Excel.

NOC available. Contact: 97736404 Email: adnantahir1990@gmail.com Motivated and energetic male 25 having 4 years of experience in finance with Master’s degree in Economics and CAT Certified seeking opportunity in Accounts/finance/audit in a reputable organization. Cell no: 00968-94626209 E-Mail: omerjawedshah@gmail.com

ADMIN HSE Admin experience for 10 years in GCC with valid D/L seeking to join a reputed firm. NOC available.

Contact: 99626821 Indian male MBA having 10 years experience as Document Controller and 2+ years experience as Project Assistant/ Executive Secretary in Oman seeks immediate placement.

NOC available. Contact: 95373198 Indian Male 18 years ( 7 years in Oman ) experience in HR / Admin in Oil & Gas , construction fields with Oman D/L seeks suitable position.

Visa Transfer / NOC available.

Call 92854993.

Keralite 47 years, having 20 years of rich experience in office administration and 6 years of Warehouse Management looking for a suitable opening.

Email: rajeshkorathatt@gmail.com MSW HR female professional with 3+ years work ex, UGC net qualified, looking for a suitable position in Muscat. Contact- 99579874. rubitah@gmail.com Training coordinator Indian male, 17 yrs experience with Training & Consultancy Company. Well knowledge in admin works. Release available and have D/L. Contact: 99573353 Indian male 36 years MBA experience as AS. Manager seeking suitable job in HR/ Marketing in Oman on visit visa. Contact : 98200741, Email: phmnsudheesh857@gmail. com Indian male having 15 years Gulf experience in purchase Admin on visit. Contact : 95435370 Indian male B.Com & Tally with 2.5 years Admin/HR Experience in Oman with 2 years employment Visa seeking placement. Release Available 96796477 14 years of Gulf experience in HR / Admin & logistics fluent in Arabic / English with D/L looking for suitable position. Contact: 95824598 Indian male 2+yrs oman exp in HR. joing immediatly. release available.

Contact :93671437 Indian female 24 years MBA (HR) having 3 years experience in HR Administration, payroll seeking suitable placement. Contact: 91104352 / 99012861 Indian male looking for company job, 2 years visa light Oman D/ License experience in office works also & driving. Contact: 92233068

Indian female, 29 yrs, MBA (HR) 4 yrs exp in HR & Admin seeking suitable placement. Contact: 95619537 Master degree HRM professional having excellent experience in finance and management and having 8 yrs experience looking for suitable placement. # 92955453 / 91213269

DRIVER Light driver 5 years exp Education B.A language English, Arabic & Hindi. Contact : 98522914 / 91615715 Driver available with car. Contact: 96652352 Sri Lankan driver. Contact 97387112 Light duty driver 9 years experience wanted visa. #97313562 Light duty driver seeks job.

Contact: 99748264 Indian light driver having 1 year experience in Oman knowing English, Hindi & Arabic, need job.

Contact: 95214332 Looking for light driving job, Indian, 4 years experience & language knowing Arabic, English & Indian.

Contact: 94241385 Light duty driver, 8 yrs exp.

Contact: 96736744 Looking job for driver, experience 6 years. Contact: 96246794 Driver for job experience 1 year.

Contact: 94071286 Bangladeshi male looking for job in any company or family, speak English, Hindi & Arabic, exp 3 years in Dubai taxi and 3 years in Oman in company. Contact: 93822195 Light duty driver looking for job.

Contact: 96995762 Pakistani Light Duty Driver seeks placement. Contact: 95746203 Looking for driving job light driver.

Contact : 96913836 Looking for driving job light driver.

Contact :92787245 Looking for driving job light driver.

Contact :94648986 Driver with Car. Contact: 99716938 Driver with 2 yrs exp looking for job. Contact: 98487511 Light duty driver ,driving license, Experienced. Ph: 92814816 Driver with car (Fortuner).

Contact: 95365938 Looking for driving for job.

Contact: 98219182 Light driver, 10 yrs experience looking for job. Contact 93060050

DRAUGHTSMAN 3D Draughtsman 25 years Indian male having 4 years experience.

Contact: 93746877 Land surveyor: Indian male having two years experience, well handled total station, auto level and Auto cad, seeking suitable placement.

Contact: 95140761 /99208290 Email: binu.brijiv@gmail.com

DOMESTIC HELPER Experienced Indian lady is looking housemaid job looking full time job for European family total experience : 9 years, 2 years exp. with European family 6 years worked with Indian family language English & Hindi.

Contact: 93392788 Housemaid (full time / part time) looking for job. Contact: 95799643

Indian female 26 yrs, B.Tech in Electrical and Electronics with two years experience in Ministry of Electricity Kerala govt , as Operating Assistant Engineer presently on visit visa seeks placement. # 98657132 / Email: pinks1819@gmail.com Civil Project Engineer exp 10 yrs.

Contact: 92673432 Email: arifjamalkhan8@gmail.com Telecommunication Maintenance Engineer Sudanese male 2 years experience in HUAWEI hardware field cabins good communication English & Arabic. Contact :+ 968 96433495 / +968 94756295 Email: muzamilawadalla@gmail.com 2 years experienced Electrical Engineer looking for suitable placement.

Contact: 98480509 Engineer with 4 years Oman experience in telecom operations, having valid Oman driving license looking for a suitable opportunity, interested in Marketing also. Contact 98513495 Looking for job as Electrician, Gulf 7 years exp. Contact: 93015630 Mechanical Engr, B. Tech, exp in QA/QC, In Piping Design, Its softwares Ph:96539085 Indian male 23, Mechanical Engineer, 1 year experience, knowledge in HVAC currently on visit visa looking for suitable placement.

Contact: 95434381 Email: shuhaibusman313@gmail.com Male, BE (Mechanical holder) 1 yr exp in Indian & 4 months in Oman NOC available, embassy attested certificate . Contact: 95721521 / 96625245 (Salalah) Email: sajukoippallil@gmail.com Indian male B.Tech (ECE) CCNA 1 yrs exp in broadcast Engg having hands on exp in harris ADC,PPC, Velocity & Invenio, avid inews, vizrt,nexio farad, grass, valley kayak HD 300. also having on practice in PLC (AB,ABB, Siemens) DCS & scada systems. Contact: 00919846990093 / 99235291 Indian job in procurement & contract, have “12” years purchase & contract experience in infrastructure & energy sector. NOC is available. Contact-98009274 Engineer BE (Electrical, Electronics), Indian male 24 years, having 2 plus years of experience, seeking for suitable placement. Contact: 98201244 Indian male 24 years B.E mechanical 2 years exp. or visit visa.

Contact: 99247326 Indian (M) B.Tech (civil) with 2 yrs exp in Structural Designing using Etabs, Staad, Safe, excel looking for suitable position.

Contact: 96698342 / 98768045 Email: qadeertom@gmail.com Civil Diploma Engineer 6 years experience in Oman Indian male with valid Oman D/L. Contact: 93356736 Electrical Engineer, B.Sc. degree/ B.Tech, 4 years experience. Looking for suitable placement. Available in visit visa. Contact: 94739355, Email: mahin.eee@gmail.com Indian male B.E Electronic and Communication Engineering & have 2 years experience in oil & gas sector (maintenance & construction).

Contact: 98848077 5+ years experience BE Electrical Engineer having knowledge in execution & basic knowledge in electrical design looking for suitable post.

Contact: 99704742 / 97469689 M Tech Computer Science Engineer, female seeking suitable placement.

Contact : 93035521,96439645 Email : anzilav@yahoo.co.in Indian male 27 years, Mechanical Engineer (B.E) having experience seeks suitable placement holds valid Oman driving license, on visit visa. Contact: 98847638

MISCELLANEOUS

Filipina ESL Teacher for 13 years BEED major in English knowledge in IB, PYP and independent school curriculum computer literate, IELTS qualified, looking for reputable school. Contact: 98938272 Email: m.ann7875@gmail.com

Indian female, having 9 years experience in Logistics and Sales co ordinator. Experience in SAP, MS office, holding Oman driving license.

Currently on Visit Visa, looking for suitable placement. Contact 95251911

Indian lady M.Com, B.Ed looking for openings in teaching. #97668603

ENGG. / TECHNICAL Indian female (M. Tech – power system) having Gulf experience, currently on family visa seeking suitable placement in Oman.

Contact: 94306164

EDUCATION

IT DESIGNER Sr Designer, Civil & Structural (oil & gas) / Site Supervisor Indian male, 21 years experience in design field with driving license seeks suitable placement N.O.C available.

Contact: 92684051 Email: babyshibu@yahoo.co.in

ENGG. / TECHNICAL Indian male 23 B.E mechanical & AutoCAD 1 year experience currently on visit visa looking for suitable job. Contact: 92835957 Email: rafeekmohammed84@gmail.com Indian male 25MBA having 4years Gulf experience in Coordination with contracting company .NOC Available.

Looking for(Store,Coordination,Admin ,Backoffice) Jobs Ph:95405885 Indian male 25, BTech (Mechanical), CSWIP 3.1, Welding Inspector, 3 years experience in Oil & Gas (piping and Equipment as QC inspector) now on visit visa seeking suitable opportunities. Contact: 98228262 Email: megbinvetticattu@gmail.com Electrical Engineer 2 years experience (Indian) construction (building) looking suitable placement.

Contact 00968 9259662 Email: kundara.renjith@gmail.com M. Tech, Applied Electronics Indian female looking for full time or part time job presently on family visit visa. Contact: 92499312 Email: ann.ashhy@gmail.com Indian male B.Tech Mechanical Engineer 1 year experience seeking suitable placement, available immediately. Contact: 93907707 Email: jubinkasim@gmail.com Computer Engineer Iraqi Nationality 7 years experience seeking suitable placement.

Contact 94694146 Indian male diploma Civil Eng with 2 yrs experience on site as QS & AutoCAD seeking on site or - off site position. Contact: 94756183 Email: indianexpat1@gmail.com Sudanese male Telecommunication Engineer looking for job.

Contact: 94537607 Electrical Engineer bachelor degree having 6+ years experience of Gulf and professional license available to join. Contact: 98063081 Email: imran.engr08@gmail.com Indian 24 yrs male, 2 years experience in Site Engineer (Diploma in Civil Engineering), Now on visit visa in Oman. Contact: 94050311 Civil Engineer B.E, 5.5 years experience with Omani D/L. Contact 96785311 Indian Male, Diploma in Civil Engineer working as a Project engineer with 7years of experience looking for suitable job. Contact- 92636569 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 SAP – SCM.MM Consultant B.Tech.

(Chemical), from NIT, working with oil industry, seeks employment.

Contact: 98049288 Btech computer science graduate 2015 passout.. Android application marketing.. Having good communication skills and mindset to work in a team. Contact 91024385 Engineer with 3 yrs experience in Indian in MEP, HVAC& mechanical maintained field on visit visa looking for suitable job.

Contact 99191535 Email: fareed029@gmail.com Indian Male, IT Support Engineer, 2 yrs in Oman & 5 yrs Indian experience. Contact 97311847 Electrical Eng. Degree (MEP) need suitable job of construction 12 yrs exp.

Email: mohd.ateeq.khan@gmail.com

NETWORK/NETWORK SECURITY ENGG. Graduate in B.Tech CS. Have 5.3 years of experience in Network and Security devices. Certified on CCNA, CCNP, MCITP and CCIE Sec. Written passed. NOC available.

Can join immediately.

Contact +974-55297089, e -mail: rejad.hashim@gmail.com B.C.A, 7 years Operations Management procurement supply chain team handling lean six sigma certified on visit visa. Contact: 99826634 Email: nairsatheesh1984@gmail.com Indian female MCA, 24 years seeking suitable job.

Contact 93439467 Male, 28 years IT Engineer from India having good hands on experience in networking, switches and routers. Moreover having certification Redhat, Linux (RHCE) and Oracle DBA (OCP). Contact: 95406864 Email Id: saad.m.ali79@gmail.com IT System Support: Indian Male 2 years exp in Oman & 3 years in India. Contact 91937060 Communications networks, Technician specializing in the main divider and ADSL VDSL system experience of STC. Contact 93398796 Indian visit visa, Network / System Engineer switches, routers, servers, load balancers 5 yrs of exp holds B.E (ECE), CCNA looking for good opportunity. Contact: 91911792 Email: arafakdnl@gmail.com

MANAGER/ SUPERVISOR MIB Post Graduate /male – more than 9 years of experience in shipping & Logistics in middle east (Liner Section) looking for a suitable job in Oman. .Mob :( India) 91-9400043894, Email: jaise81@gmail.com, Oman 99899627 Indian with license looking job safety officer, camp boss. Supervisor or marketing. Contact: 94003617 Facility / Project Mgmt, 4+ yrs of exp holds B.E (ECE) Indian visit visa looking for suitable opening.

Contact: 98580569 Email: arafacareer@gmail.com

MEDICAL Medical - Staff Nurse (male) with NOC and license, experience 6+ yrs.

Contact: 98680299 Email: georgevaikom@gmail.com Female Nurse- Indian, Total 14 yrs. experience,6 yrs. in KSA, Prometric passed, ready to join immediately.

Contact 95525004 & 98146565 Looking for job as office boy + driver going to visit within this month Oman Muscat working experience 10 years. Contact: 968 97859837

Indian Female POST GRADUATE . One Year experience seeking suitable Job Contact :97792820 Email: pnjli.1991@gmail.com Management Professional accountable, responsible for profitable management can handle the entire operations, HR/Recruitment, Business development & Sales & marketing & etc, Great organizational skills with over 23+yrs exp. in Bombay, Saudi Arabia, Dubai-UAE & Oman(11yrs) as General Manager - Publications, Printing,Media. open to any industry, can Join immediately w/NOC. Contact : +968 98864706/99574638 Mail : akdas_uae@yahoo.com Seeking for job fire and safety completed 2.5 years experience language known Hindi, English & Tamil seeking suitable job. Contact: 98431032 Indian material controller / store keeper with 9 years exp , seeking job in Oman NOC/ Release available.

Contact: 91946174

SALES / MARKETING 7 years Purchase experienced total 17 years Oman with driving license looking for suitable position, Indian with N.O.C. Contact: 96574390 Indian male with 14 years of experience in Business development / sales & marketing seeks suitable placement, 6.5 years of work experience in Oman. Contact: 93400177 Sales man, experience in Saudi, Good in Arabic. Ph: 97103168 Indian male B.Com & MBA Graduate 11 years experience airline travel & tourism, Sales & Marketing in Dubai & Oman with driving license NOC available.

Contact: 92552612 Email: mazmanu1@gmail.com Indian male 27 years, B.Tech Graduate having good work experience with valid Oman D/L looking for a suitable opening as Sales Engineer.

Contact: 91472953 Email: harees.rasheed.2014@gmail.com Procurement / Purchase Executive 1.6 yrs exp in Oman construction industry Indian male 27 yrs, MBA with valid Oman D/L, available for immediate placement.

Contact: 96300958 / 24796010 Business intelligence / Global Marketing management specialist with 9 years of experience developing brand value & managing overall projects to achieve business objectives seeking suitable position on family visit. Contact: 91902154 Indian male 35 yrs, 10 yrs experience in FMCG Sales & Marketing in UAE with valid GCC license looking for suitable position on visit.

Contact: 93438747 / 93033252 Indian male MBA (Marketing) 26 on visit visa, with experience in stores looking for suitable position in warehouse stores logistics or in sales. Contact: 96915871 Email: ajanadoor@yahoo.com

Indian male MDS Doctor specialized in Endodontist with 7 years experience prometric passed, seeking suitable placement. #98843139 Email: ppdr2020@gmail.com

Indian female 35 years MCA, MBA six sigma black belt, 14 years Gulf experience in business analytics, Marketing business development qualities seeks placement. NOC available, Omani driving license available. Contact: 95783792

Doctor seeking job an experienced female Indian Doctor (DHMS NAET USA), 49 yrs, specialist in Homeopathy and Allergy Elimination Technology seeks suitable placement. Contact: 919447110003 Oman 96439091 Email: anithabaydr@gmail.com

Indian 44 yrs, 16 yrs Indian Army 5 and Half years in Oman exp ware house, seeks suitable placement in store, ware house or sales having Oman driving license.

Contact: 94050311

Male Staff Nurse looking for job passed Prometric 63% + 3 years experience. Contact: 94035637 / 95068075

Sudanese Business development Manager, long experience International trade in Oman (import /export / marketing) seeking suitable placement full / part time in reputable company. Contact: 91173146

BA degree Nursing professional having excellent looking for suitable placement. Contact:: 92955453 /91213269 GP Doctor Yemeni national-male, with 4 years of work experience.

Mobile:00966531598754 Email: alsyaniramzy@gmail.com A Pakistani lady, having M.A Islamiyat at B.ED Degree, 7 years Teaching experience. All documents are ready, looking for job in school or private firm. Contact: 96534115 Email: alex_ali1@yahoo.com

TOURS & TRAVELS Indian female 24 yrs, Bachelor in Travel & Tourism and 1 year exp in Oman as ticketing executive.

GDS-Sabre, Amdeus, Galilio seeking suitable job. Contact- 95883404 B.Com IATA MCSE working for Qatar Airways, Sales Reservation, ticketing English, Hindi, and Malayalam, Marathi NOC is available.

Contact: 92954613

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DAILY GUIDE

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461 Fax: 24812624

SITUATION WANTED SERVICES

COMPUTER

ACC. AVAILABLE

DRIVING

Room for rent with Electricity, water & A/C kitchen RO 115/- RO, RO 130/Al Khuwair. Contact: 95423391 Sharing accommodation available for working lady or couples near Ruwi Church. Contact: 92837206 Room attached toilet and kitchen near Indian School Wadi Kabir.

Contact: 95345537

Driver for Automatic Transmission. Contact: 99040813

SITUATION WANTMANPOWER WEBSITE

MATRIMONIAL Roman Catholic girl 31 yrs Indian origin working in U.A.E seeking alliances from Christian family well settled in Oman or Middle East.

Contact: 97622011

NRI

24 years old, Sunni Muslim girl Bombay origin, BSc, Hons (Accts) with religious values seeking alliance. Email: morningstar9128@gmail.com Keralite Roman Catholic girl, 27 yrs, M.Fam seeks suitable alliance. Contact: 99253120 Kerala Hindu boy 28 (star – Chitra) Engineer with MBA working in a reputed co. in Oman looking for alliance from good looking, well educated , religious and veg. girl of reputed family. Contact : 99426627

Please call 99341156 to buy plots near Kims Hospital in Trivandrum, Vytila hub in Cochin, Chertala and Nagercoil.

Please call 99341156 to buy plots.

SITUATION WANTSIT. WANTED ED

Indian female, B.Sc, PGDCA, currently on family joining visa, 2 years working experience in oman as customer care / sales co-ordinator, immediate joining seeks suitable placements. Contact no. (968) 95573205 / 95949230 / 95800792 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 29 years Indian female (MBAFinance) with 4+yrs experience (Oman) in Accounts, seeking suitable placement in Accounts/Admin.

Contact:96141283 B-tech Electrical engineer with more than 2 years of experience in erection and designing of HT and LT electrical systems. Seeking for suitable job in Muscat. Contact:98269366.

Email:sijincleetus@gmail.com INDIAN MALE 23 YEARS, B. Tech (Electrical & Electronic) having 4 years working experience as an Electrical site Engineer. Looking for suitable job in Oil Gas Sector or in related industries. #98045482 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 Indian male 28YRS, 7Years exp. in Architectural & structural Draughtsman & 3d visualization, looking for a suitable Post GSM: +971551965944.

Email:aboosufiyan@gmail.com Indian, male, 41 years, CA Inter, Persuing CA final. Now on express visa. 7 years of Experience in OMAN as Finance and Accounts Manager in Trading , Construction and Firefighting industry. 21 Years of exp. seeking suitable Managerial positions. No visa issues. Immediate joining. #98469311 Email:sebin30@yahoo.co.in

Christen boy 31-170. # 95131495 Sunni Muslim girl, Indian origin, 20 yrs BA graduate from Oman, good looking homely with good religious values, seeking alliances from Muslim professionals, well settled in Oman or Middle East.

Contact: 99644760 or Email: ghulamuzma23@gmail.com

GOOD NEWS Rakhees Raksha Bandhan available thousands Designs. Also special offer at Haridas Nensey Ruwi.

Contact 24750784 Ayurvedic treatment for backache, paralysis, arthritis etc & massage, All Season (Vaidyaratnam). Contact 24475280 / 95371664 / 92504980 www.siddhayur.com

Split & widow unit A.C servicing & repairing. Contact: 99557080 WEB, ERP and Business Intelligence (BI) creation and management at rock bottom price.

Contact: http//webviewoman

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

CLASSES

Split & window unit A.C servicing & maintenance. Contact: 96236476

SITUATION WANTBUSINESS ED Window & split unit A.C servicing & maintenance. Contact: 93769089 / 95323517

Split & window A.C servicing & maintenance. Contact 93769089/95323517

Genuine Ayurvedic treatments & massage, Ayurvedic clinic at AL Khuwair. Contact: 24478618 / 97263637 / 93309131

General cleaning, cleaning contract, cleaner supply. Contact: 95764290 /95113037

GUARANTEED CLEANING: Carpet & sofa shampooing, Contact 99314807/24792998

CHANGE OF NAME

House shifting & transporting.

Contact 92490422

Air condition maintenance split and window A/C split a/c ducted and package type units. # 98667326

I Azeem Abdul Rawoob (holder of Indian passport No. J 1341176) son of Azeem having permanent residence in 55 Anai Katti Maidanam Beema Nagar Trichy DT Tamil Nadu (complete postal address in India) and presently residing in P.O Box. No 390 P.C 118 Sultanate of Oman (complete postal address in Oman) intend to change my name from Azeem Abdul Rawoob (old name) to Azim Abdul Rauf (new name) for all practical purpose. Any objection towards my name change may please be communicated to Embassy of India, Muscat, Diplomatic Quarters, Al Khuwair, P.Box No. 1727, Postal Code 112, Ruwi, Sultanate of Oman.

MARBLE CRYSTALLIZATION restore the original shine of your marble. Contact 24793614/ 99314807 House shifting. Contact 99708138

Spoken English IELTS & Computer classes. Contact: 92088325 / 24799938 Admission started in a private school, Darsait (Mount Zion Group of Institutions CBSE 1) for KG and grade 1 to 4 please register soonest.

Contact: 92088325 / 24799938

Seeking financial investor / partner for short term Governmental construction projects of 1.5 million R.O. Contact: 99881303 The investor is required for successful Educational project to pay 25,000/- Thousand.

Email: bussiness.om9@gmail.com New company seek partnership.

Contact: 96996938

LOST Sabbir Hosan has lost Bangladeshi passport no: AE0333234. Finder please handover to ROP.

Pest control Treatments, Cockroaches, Ants ,Rodents & Termites. Ocean Center LLC. Contact: 99357908 / 99344723.

Muhammad Arshad has lost Pakistani Passport no: DP 1919111. Finder please handover to ROP.

Split window cassette AC unit servicing, maintenance.

Contact: 99540621 House shifting packing.

99657644 / 98518013 Carpet Shampoo, marble & tile polishing, pest control & anti-termite treatment, general cleaning painting, Plumbing, Electrical, shifting. Contact Mundhir Al-Rizaiqi trading. L.L.C. # 24810137, 99450130

General Investors. Gsm-99674870 Serious investor needed for succeeded furniture company for expansion purposes. #99041337

Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles polishing, carpet shampooing, maintenance.Contact ABU QABAS99320217 /24788722

Water proofing ABUQABASContact 99320217/24788722 General cleaning & Shampooing.

Ocean Center LLC. Contact: 99344723 / 99357908 Civil maintenance - plumbing, electrical, painting, and tiling, interior decorations, shop furnishing and all other maintenance works.

Contact: 97897831 / 92112094 (Indian, Keralite) A/C Maintenance & servicing, fridge, washing machine & dish washer repairing, painting & cleaning services, electrical & plumbing.

Contact: 99447257 / 97014234 / 24504281

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DAILY GUIDE TOURS

SITUATION WANTCARGO

SITUATION WANTED CARGO

RENT A CAR

Dolphin Watch, Dhow Cruise with Buffet, & Land Tours Al- Ainain Marine Tours Contact- 98029602, 92808636

TRANSPORTATION Transport. Contact: 93637289 Transportation available.

Contact 95570429 Transport. Contact: 95190627 Transportation. Contact: 91310107 House shifting, transporting.

Contact : 94229277 Pick & drop anytime in Al Khuwair.

Contact 99764307 Transportation. Contact: 96538078 Transportation. Contact:98522914 Transportation. Contact 99508282 Car for rent. Contact: 92516090 Silver Car, car for rent. Contact: 96166155 / 98402662

Butter cup rent a car competitive prices new car 2016.

Contact: 97249449

Transportation. Contact: 98244078 Pick & Drop any time. Contact: 97014786

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DAILY GUIDE

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461 Fax: 24812624