Times of Oman January 14, 2015 by Muscat Media Group

44 274

6 085010 120010 SCAN THIS QR CODE TO INSTANTLY LAUNCH THE VIDEO

DIGEST VIDEO Top stories in one minute with our new daily Digest

WEDNESDAY, January 14, 2015 / 23 Rabi Al Awal 1436 AH timesofoman.com

TOP THREE INSIDE STORIES

OMAN

‘Difficult to forecast crude oil price’

It is difficult to forecast the oil prices trend during the coming years as they are controlled by many factors, said Eng. Salim bin Nasser Al Ouﬁ, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Oil and Gas. He said there is no consensus about the level of oil prices in the future as forecasts change every now and then. >A3

wtimesofoman.com

facebook.com/timesofoman

twitter.com/timesofoman

blog.timesofoman.com

Daily dash of death on Oman’s roads must end Road safety Pedestrians involved in accidents (2013) Killed

212 678

Injured

OMAN

Oman’s total subsidy projection for the current year substantially fell by 18.5 per cent to OMR1,310m, from OMR1,608m estimate for last year. This was partly due to a 50% plunge in crude prices in the global markets and a reduction in subsidy for natural gas supplied to industries within industrial estates. >B1

890

23% 72% 5% 0% Source: ROP

SCAN THIS QR CODE TO INSTANTLY WATCH

Even the chilling statistics of death of

THE VIDEO W W W.T I M E S O F O M A N .C O M

pedestrians do not deter jaywalkers from crossing roads during peak traffic hours

RAHUL DAS FAHAD AL GHADANI

rahul@timesofoman.com fahadnews@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: Every day, hundreds of jaywalkers are risking their lives on Muscat roads during the peak

France at war against terror, says its PM UN HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICIAL

hours and on weekends in places like Ruwi and Hamriya. In 2013, 212 pedestrians were killed while 678 others were injured, according to the Royal Oman Police (ROP) traffic department. A sizeable number of those victims were from the capital.

A11 M U S C AT M U N I C I PA L I T Y

‘Oman committed to international norms on rights’

Tender ﬂoated for multi-level car parks FAHAD AL GHADANI

fahadnews@timesofoman.com AHMED AL HINAI

MUSCAT: Oman’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is keen on implementing the international human rights norms, said Obaid bin Said Al Shaqsi, secretary general of the body. In an interview with Al Shabiba, the sister publication of Times of Oman, Al Shaqsi rebutted the views of Maina Kiai, United Nations special rapporteur who had said, “Omani Human Rights Commission suffers from a deﬁcit of credibility.” Kiai was on an official visit to Oman in September last year. During a press conference at the conclusion of his visit, the special rapporteur congratulated Oman for its remarkable economic development over the past 40 years, but said, “it was now time for Oman to build on these achievements by adopting a human rights and people-centred approach that can lead to the full enjoyment of fundamental rights and freedom, including rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association.” Kiai had also said, “Oman’s creation of a national human rights institution is commendable. However, for the National Human Rights Commission to be more

Total

Pedestrians Passengers and Others drivers of light cars and 4wd

With a capacity to park 104 cars, Oman recently got its ﬁrst ‘robotic car park.’ The car park is based on a sophisticated mechanical system that works via small robots which are placed on steel pallets. The robots pull, rotate and stack the cars in their parking bays. The entire process of parking the car and retrieving it does not take more than 120 seconds. >A5

Subsidy estimate declines by 18.5%

= 10 people

Victims of road accidents

Oman gets its first ‘robotic car park’

MARKET

ISO 9001:2008 Certiﬁed Company

MUSCAT: A tender for the design, construction and management of multi-storey parking spots has been invited by Muscat Municipality, according to an announcement published in the local media.

Obaid bin Said Al Shaqsi, NHRC, secretary general.

than a public relations gimmick, it must have credibility in the eyes of human rights activists. The Omani National Human Rights Commission suffers from a deﬁcit of credibility. It is incumbent upon it to do more for the protection of, and advocacy for, human rights activists who are peacefully engaging in their work.” Al Shaqsi said, “NHRC had studied the recommendations of the special rapporteur and forwarded them to the State Council.” The Special Rapporteur also had words of praise for Oman, he pointed out. >A6

Muttrah Al Kubra The announcement said that the project has been allocated to the business district of Muttrah Al Kubra. Giving the deadline of February 5 for companies to submit their proposals, the municipality has called for specialised companies to get the required documents and specifications of the tender from the municipality building in Darsait by paying OMR500. Daily struggle The everyday struggle of commuters to find parking slots in Muscat has led the municipality to focus more on the idea of constructing multi-storey car parks. As the city’s prosperity grows, so does its traffic, but an increasing number of drivers are finding it difficult to find places to park, and they often keep circling around till a parking space is found. >A6

The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Global Status Report on Road Safety, 2013, says 23 per cent of those dying in accidents in Oman are pedestrians. “Drivers of four-wheel and light vehicles account for 39 per cent of accident victims while passengers constitute 33 per cent of casualties. Two-wheel and three-wheel riders account for 3 per cent of deaths and cyclists 2 per cent of casualties,” said the report.

Yet, the chilling statistics seem to have little effect. In just 30 minutes on Ruwi High Street, Times of Oman photographed several people dodging high speed cars, and ignoring common sense while jaywalking. The entire video of those pictured can be viewed at www. timesofoman.com It is not as if the authorities are lenient towards offenders because hundreds of people are either ﬁned or jailed for crossing roads illegally. “In spite of the continuous messages from the ROP on awareness, road accidents keep happening, as a large number of residents continue to ﬂirt with death even

100% Graphics

when pedestrian over-bridges are within reach,” a senior ROP official told Times of Oman on Thursday. “This is simply because pedestrians are not getting their full rights on Oman’s roads. It is the long distance between the overbridges which are forcing people to cross the roads. Besides, there are no footpaths on some of the roads. So, where else will they walk?” countered Shaima Murtadha Al Lawati, chief executive officer of Oman Road Safety Association. She also said Oman’s roads need a foolproof plan for pedestrians. >A6

W E D NE S DAY, JA N UA RY 14, 2 015 GCC countries were keen to implement economic cooperation soon after the decision was taken to work together with a clear road map toward economic development Abdullah bin Juma Al Shibli, Assistant secretary general at GCC Secretariat General

OMAN

Oman keen to aid GCC trade march Since its inception in 2007, the Common

The exponential increase in the number of GCC citizens visiting Oman itself shows how much Oman is committed towards GCC’s plans

Market has achieved tangible results such as allowing GCC nationals to own and deal in shares, set up companies and open branches

Nasser bin Khamis Al Jashmi Undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance

Staff Reporter MUSCAT: Oman is working for the progress of all decisions agreed on between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries regarding the GCC Common Market, said a top official from the Sultanate’s ministry of ﬁnance. “The Sultanate continues to implement all decisions that would strengthen Gulf citizenship. While supporting the GCC’s joint march in various ﬁelds, Oman also hopes that the GCC member countries will achieve the aspirations of the GCC people,” said Nasser bin Khamis Al Jashmi, undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance, at the opening of a GCC workshop titled ‘Gulf Citizenship: Rights and Duties’. “Organising this workshop itself strengthens the deep fraternal relations binding the GCC countries under the wise directives of the GCC leaders to serve the common interests,” he added. The workshop, the second by the GCC Secretariat General to implement the decision of the 34th Supreme Council Summit in Kuwait in 2013, was organised to

address topics and decisions concerning GCC citizens. “The exponential increase in the number of GCC citizens visiting Oman itself shows how much Oman is committed towards GCC’s plans,” said Al Jashmi. While comparing 2007 and 2012, an increase of 191 per cent can be seen in the number of GCC nationals entering Oman. In 2007, if 167,000 GCC nationals entered Oman, in 2012 it was 487,000. “Similarly, the number of licences granted to GCC nationals has increased signiﬁcantly in the recent years,” he said. The official further said the Sultanate’s exports to GCC countries grew in 2012 to OMR2,223 million while imports from the GCC countries increased to OMR3,570 million. “The percentage of ownership of property by GCC nationals in the Sultanate in 2012 was approximately 21 per cent of the total cases of acquisitions in the GCC countries with 3,374 cases,” added the official. Meanwhile, Abdullah bin Juma Al Shibli, assistant secretary gen-

eral for economic and development affairs at the GCC Secretariat General, said that economic co-operation is one of the main pillars to strengthen and deepen relations between GCC countries. “GCC countries were keen to implement economic co-operation soon after the decision was taken to work together with a clear road map toward economic development. And now, the GCC Common Market has reached an advanced stage, achieving most of its objectives,” said Al Shibli. Since its inception in 2007, the Common Market has achieved tangible results such as allowing GCC nationals to own and deal in shares, set up companies and open branches in the member states, said Al Shibli, pointing to other privileges such as the application of the principle of full equality among GCC citizens to work in the government and private sector, social insurance and retirement coverage, real estate ownership, capital movement, access to education, health and other social services.

WE DNE SDAY, JANUARY 14, 2015

Share your world with us on Instagram

OMAN

SCAN THIS TO INSTANTLY SHARE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS

PHILIPPINES HOSTS ASIAN AMBASSADORS MEET The Philippines Ambassador to Oman, Narciso T. Castañeda, hosted the Asian Ambassadors’ Group (AAG) meeting. The AAG meets regularly every month, featuring the 16 Asian Heads of Mission in Muscat. Lee Chee Khian, Chief Executive Officer of the Special Economic Zone Authority of Duqm (SEZAD), was the guest speaker. He discussed the recent developments, new investments, and related news about the economic zone.—Supplied photo

‘Cannot predict oil prices trend’ The undersecretary of Oil and Gas Ministry said it was impossible to predict what would happen in the future

‘ B A R R A K AT B A R R A M U N D I ’

SQU conducts special fish feast to boost aquaculture Times News Service MUSCAT: A new fish tasting event was hosted by the Department of Marine Science and Fisheries, College of Agricultural & Marine Sciences (CAMS) at the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), recently. The event, ‘Barrakat Barramundi’, was the first phase of a research-extension project. Saad Al Amri, chairman of Marine Sciences & Fisheries (MSF) student society along with members of the group, organised the event with full support of Mohamed Al Rawahy, CAMS administrator. They prepared three different types of barramundi dishes — barbecue, deep fried and traditional Omani style dish (Sallonah). The participants were asked which dish they rated as the best form of ‘barramundi’ cooking. Bada Al Bawiqi, a leader of the aquaculture group at MSF, explained the history of ‘barramundi’ aquaculture at the SQU, and thanked the VC’s special funding in particular and his consideration and support to the aquaculture sector. Commenting on the ‘Barrakat Barramundi’ event, Prof. Anvar Kacimov, Dean of CAMS, lauded the efforts of the faculty, staff and students for organising such a unique event. W E AT H E R F O R E C A S T

Rainfall, wind to add to chill HAVE YOUR SAY AT TWITTER.COM/ TIMESOFOMAN OR SCAN THE CODE TO POST YOUR PHOTOS OF RAINS, WEATHER

Times News Service MUSCAT: Several beaches in Oman, including Sharqiyah North and Dhofar may receive rainfall on Wednesday, according to according to Directorate General of Meteorology and Air Navigation (DGMAN). Weather forecasters have also warned of poor visibility in some areas on Wednesday due to blowing dust. DGMAN said weather will be partly cloudy with a chance of rain in some parts of the country. Coupled with blowing dust in many parts of the country, visibility on the roads may be reduced. Wind will be moderate to fresh in some parts, and strong over the sea. The temperature is also likely to drop and will average between 15-22°C in coastal areas.

FISH FEAST: The participants were asked about the dish they rated as the best form of barramundi cooking.– File photo

“You should think big, act big and gain big. Students are on the frontline of the aquaculture revolution -- transition from scavenging the sea to cultivation of algae, fish and other species. The MSF students sweated in the field over days and nights in hot conditions, and the achievements are clearly visible today. It is a marvellous achievement of our students and proof of their capability to adapt their theoretical knowledge in a practical way,” the Dean observed. Asian seabass (lates calcarifer) is known as barramundi around the world. Barramundi is widely distributed in the Indo-West Pacific region from the Arabian Gulf to China, Taiwan Province

of China, Papua New Guinea, and northern Australia. Aquaculture of this species commenced in the 1970s in Thailand and rapidly spread throughout the world. Often, these farms will culture a mixture of species including barramundi, groupers, and snappers. In 2010, its global production reached 75,000 tonnes. Most ‘barramundi’ are marketed at 500–900g although a small number of larger fish (weighing 1-3kg) are also sold. There are two main farmed barramundi products: ‘plate size’ ranging from 350–500g, although larger (banquet) fish may be up to 800g, and fillet product generally in the range of 2-3kg.

MUSCAT: It was difficult to forecast the oil prices trend in the next few years as they are determined by a number of factors, Salim bin Nasser Al Ouﬁ, undersecretary at the Ministry of Oil and Gas, has said. It is impossible to predict what will happen in the future and how the market will react to these changes, he said. In a statement to ONA, he said that although numerous research centres have presented different scenarios for oil price ﬂuctuations in the next few years, there is no consensus among them about the level of oil prices in the future as they change their fore-

casts and views frequently. As for the Omani oil and gas pricing system, Al Oufi pointed out that oil prices are controlled by market forces, supply, demand, and requests from Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME) through trading of Oman crude oil future contract. He also pointed out that trading starts two months from the delivery date. The price of crude is announced about a week from that date. This mechanism depends on the trading price of the daily settlement price for Oman crude oil future contract at DME. As for the monthly daily price, Al Oufi said that the average daily settlement is calculated directly by DME at the end of each month with no intervention from the Ministry of Oil and Gas. As for the economic benefits that will accrue to the Sultanate after the ministry negotiated with a number of factories to increase in the price of gas supply, he pointed out that due to the slump in oil prices and its direct effect on state revenues, the Financial Affairs and Energy Resources Council instructed the ministry to initiate this negotiation. The increase in gas supply prices will not have any effect on

these companies and factories, so their production capacities will not be prejudiced. It should be noted that these companies and factories benefitted for a long period from the reduced gas price. They have a national duty to bear some of the consequences of the oil price slump. As for the economic benefits from the agreement between the Sultanate and British Petroleum (BP), Al Oufi said that early last year, BP had signed a major exploration and production sharing agreement with the government for the appraisal and development of Block 61 and the Khazzan and Makarem gas fields. He said that the project is expected to supply about 1 billion cubic feet of gas daily and 25,000 barrels of condensates daily with effect from the end of 2017. This will reduce the expected gap between supply and demand, maintain the growth of the Omani economy and meet the needs of different industries. He added that the study forecast that total investments in the oil and gas sector over the next ten years would be between $100 and 110 billion or about $10 billion per year.–ONA

W E D NE S DAY, JA N UA RY 14, 2 015

OMAN

Erwin Schrott is an incredibly gifted singer with a rich, powerful voice and the ensemble brings emotion and ﬂair to their music Umberto Fanni, ROHM’s Art Director

Women ‘trendsetters’ to share their stories

S O U N D S O F TA N G O

MUSICAL TREAT: Erwin Schrott and the Rojotango Ensemble will perform on Sunday. The band includes Alvaro Rovira Ruiz and Claudio Constantini.–Supplied photo

Rojotango Ensemble set to rock ROHM Times News Service MUSCAT: The exhilarating and passionate sounds of tango will be brought to the stage of the Royal Opera House Muscat (ROHM) on January 18 in a concert featuring Uruguayan opera singer Erwin Schrott with the Rojotango Ensemble. Erwin Schrott is a bass-baritone who has starred in many operas, but his Uruguayan roots mean he also has a deep love of tango and in 2011 he recorded an album called Rojotango featuring the genre. He will share this music in his Omani debut, accompanied by the Rojotango Ensemble. “Tango is branded into my soul. Tango has built up a space in my heart. Tango has the taste of life, and the ﬂavour of death,” Schrott has said of the music which his grew up listening to. The programme will include a number of pieces by the legendary tango composer Astor Piazzolla, as well as songs by a several other Latin American composers. Most of the songs will feature Schrott, including a couple of classics that the audience is sure to be familiar such as Besame Mucho and Quizas, Quizas, Quizas, and there will be a couple of instrumental pieces performed by the ensemble as well. “Erwin Schrott is an incredibly

gifted singer with a rich, powerful voice and the ensemble brings emotion and ﬂair to their music. We know how popular tango is in Oman, so we are sure our patrons will love this concert,” said ROHM’s Artistic Director Umberto Fanni. Schrott was born in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1972. He made his opera debut when he was 22 as Roucher in Andrea Chénier. In 1998 he won ﬁrst prize in the Plácido Domingo “Operalia” Singing Competition, after which his career took off and he has sung in major opera houses around the world. In addition to his Rojotango album, he has also recorded an album called Arias, which features songs from some of the villains of opera. The Rojotango Ensemble consists of Peruvian Claudio Constantini on bandoneon, Argentines Federico Lechner on piano, Alvaro Rovira Ruiz on guitar and Andrés Litwin on percussion, Finnish violinist Suvi Myöhänen, and Austrian Gina Schwarz on double bass. Erwin Schrott and the Rojotango Ensemble will perform for one night only on January 18 at 7:30pm. For more information about Royal Opera House Muscat, tickets, and frequently asked questions, please visit the website at www.rohmuscat.org.om.

Suzanne Talhouk

Asma Khader

Raha Moharrak

Dr Asma Siddiki

Saﬁya Al Bahlani

Alia Abdulla Al Mazrouei

Maria Mahdaly

Shabana Basij-Rasikh

Former minister Asma Khader, secretary general of the Jordanian National Commission for Women (JNCW), is a former minister of culture and government spokesperson for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and former president of the Jordanian Women’s Union. Asma, who will be speaking at the event, has written and spoken widely on the topics of women, children’s rights, and human rights and has received numerous awards and has been honoured for her work. She recently served on the UN International Commission of Inquiry investigating human rights violations in Libya. Another eminent speaker, Dr Asma Siddiki, is an education management consultant and CEO of Alpha1Education, and has been involved in the education and higher education sectors through working in the Middle East and Europe for the past twenty years. She most notably held leadership roles at universities in their early stages of development in the Middle East focusing extensively on student services, curriculum development, institutional effectiveness, organisational development, local and international accreditation, and global institutional partnerships. Also among the conﬁrmed speakers is Alia Abdulla Al Mazrouei, She has worked at several government organisations in the

Emirate of Abu Dhabi focusing on human capital. Currently, she is the CEO of Mazrui Holdings LLC and also a board member of Insurance House, International Horizon College and Just Falafel. Maria Jamal Mahdaly and Raha Moharrak are the other two speakers. Maria is a Jeddah-based social entrepreneur who focuses on ventures that support her community. She is the founding partner of Rumman Company, an innovative media and publishing house that serves as the umbrella company for Destination Jeddah and Destination Riyadh magazines and Lub Creative.

Under the theme ‘Inspiring Journeys’, the Extraordinary Women’s Conference will address the growth of women in both their personal and professional walks of life

Times News Service MUSCAT: Setting the stage for influential women, the third edition of the Extraordinary Women’s Conference (EWC), will be held on March 17 and 18, according to Intevents, the organisers of the event. Under the theme ‘Inspiring Journeys’, the conference will address the development of women in their personal and professional walks of life. Safiya Al Bahlani, one of the confirmed speakers at the event, is a self-taught artist and graphic designer. Besides the creative part of Safiya’s life, she also gives inspirational and motivational speeches. Her key message is that she would like to draw the attention of Omani society towards recognising that people with special needs, are unique, talented and able to contribute to the society. Another speaker, Shabana BasijRasikh, is the co-founder and president of non-profit school SOLA

(School of Leadership, Afghanistan) that provides college preparatory courses and helps graduates enter universities worldwide and return to substantive careers in Afghanistan, where students often become the first women to enter certain fields. SOLA has helped girls from dozens of provinces across the country access more than $7.7 million in scholarships. Among the speakers is Suzanne Talhouk, the president and founder of the Feil Amer NGO, is a seasoned executive/ producer/ communication expert/ writer with broad experience in managing all aspects of the social corporate responsibility function, PR, production, campaigning, Arabic copywriting and communication. She has successfully developed and implemented more than five cause oriented campaigns, including copywriting and the production of TVCs, one video clip and a documentary about an elderly care centre.

Mount Everest conquest Raha made history on May 18, 2013, by becoming the ﬁrst Saudi woman to scale Mount Everest, forever proving that one can attempt the impossible and maybe even achieve it, no matter where one is from. She is living proof that if children are raised conﬁdent, curious and unapologetic for who they are, then they are capable of anything. The two-day conference will highlight various themes related to women’s empowerment through enlightening sessions, panel discussions and workshops and will honour extraordinary women who have contributed to the social and economic development of the country.

LUXURY HOTEL

Hormuz Grand brings modern luxury to Airport Heights SCAN THIS QR CODE TO INSTANTLY VISIT

ARTICLE, VIDEO W W W.T I M E S O F O M A N .C O M

SARAH MACDONALD sarah@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: Since it opened last September the Hormuz Grand hotel has offered trendy and luxurious hospitality in Airport Heights, setting itself up for a wider foray into the Omani and GCC markets where tourism is on the rise. Speaking to Times of Oman the hotel’s Chief Operating Office, PJ Mammen, said the Grand Hormuz, which is owned by Azaiba Hotels, a joint venture between PMA International and ISS Pension Fund which have vast hospitality experience in India, marks the ﬁrst step of the company’s expansion into the Middle East. He said despite the current economic uncertainty due to the drop in oil prices, the company sees Oman as having strong potential. “Given the nascent stage of tourism, it made more commercial and ﬁnancial sense. We are on the growth path so things will only get better,” Mammen said. With a strong focus on tourism by the Omani government, as well as the new airport and exhibition and convention centre in the works, and an emerging business district in the Airport Heights neighbourhood, the Hormuz Grand is strategically located to take advantage of a growing de-

The opportunity here is they look at alternate revenue streams and here in Oman it’s going to be tourism, so that’s a good sign. Things will escalate faster. PJ Mammen

FACILITIES APLENTY: The hotel opened last year and is still in its soft opening stages. Its 231 rooms are open for business, as are its meeting rooms and ballrooms, its spa and ﬁtness centre, its lobby coffee bar and all-day dining restaurant.– Photos, videos: Shabin E/TIMES OF OMAN

mand for luxury accommodations, upscale restaurants and other services associated with hotels, he explained. Futuristic location “It’s a very futuristic location. In about three to four years we are going to be the hub,” he commented. The hotel opened on September 7 and is still in its soft opening stages. Its 231 rooms are open for business, as are its meeting rooms and ballrooms, its spa and ﬁtness

centre, its lobby coffee bar and allday dining restaurant. Next week its ﬁne dining Indian restaurant, Qureshi, will open, and a seafood restaurant, pool bar, and shisha lounge will soon follow. It is elegant and assuming from the outside, but inside features a modern blend of Asian and Middle Eastern décor, with an open-air oasis-like pool and water courtyard in the centre. So far the hotel has attracted many leisure tourists, but Mam-

men expects more business clientele to discover the Hormuz Grand soon. He said many local companies and organisations have already been using its meeting spaces, which have state of the art projectors and sound systems. The Hormuz Grand is the first Azaiba Hotel to open in Oman, and Mammen said it will likely be followed by others. The company hopes to work closely with the Ministry of Tourism to find other Shortlisted locations to find other

Chief Operating Officer

opportunities to expand. The future of tourism and hospitality in Oman is “immense” according to Mammen. The Sultanate is set apart by its natural beauty, unique people, and authenticity, which makes it a desirable country in which to open hotels, he said, regardless of the oil and gas industry and how changes there affect the economy. He described the latest Omani budget as “very progressive,” and one which would stimulate grown

and development within the country, the results of which would carry over into the hotel business. He also noted that the drop in oil prices would mean the government would have to work harder to develop tourism, another beneﬁt for the hotel. “The opportunity here is they look at alternate revenue streams and here in Oman it’s going to be tourism, so that’s a good sign. Things will escalate faster,” he concluded.

WE DNE SDAY, JANUARY 14, 2015

Tweet all about it

SCAN THIS TO INSTANTLY LAUNCH TWITTER PAGE

OMAN

Sultanate gets its ﬁrst robotic car parking

I N N O VAT I O N

Muscat mechanic develops car ﬁre prevention device REJIMON K

The robots pull,

reji@timesofoman.com

rotate and stack cars in parking bays. The entire process of parking the car and retrieving it does not take more than 120 seconds SCAN THIS QR CODE TO INSTANTLY VISIT

ARTICLE, VIDEO W W W.T I M E S O F O M A N .C O M

RAHUL DAS

rahuldas@timesofoman.com

NEW CONCEPT: Parking the car and retrieving it is a smooth and quick process. - AR Rajkumar/Times of Oman

MUSCAT: With a capacity to park 104 cars, Oman recently got its ﬁrst ‘robotic car park.’ The car park is based on a sophisticated mechanical system that works via small robots which are placed on steel pallets. The robots pull, rotate and stack the cars in their parking bays. The entire process of parking the car and retrieving it does not take more than 120 seconds, which makes parking cars a smooth and quick process. This new concept helps park the car even when one is not in the vehicle. “It is highly advanced technology,” said Thasleem Khan, CEO and managing director of IPARK, who has pioneered this project. He also explained the entire process in two easy steps – ﬁrst was the parking process and then the retrieval process. As the driver reaches the garage at Azaiba, there are traffic signals at the entry that tell him with the

help of a red or green signal if there is space inside. Read means the parking is full and green means it is ready to accept a car. Once the driver sees the green signal he has to swipe his access card at a system which will open the lift door. The driver just parks his vehicle in the lift and leaves. The car lift will then take the vehicle automatically to one of the two floors allocated for parking and the vehicle is transferred to the robotic system on the parking floor. Thereafter, the car lift goes back to first level for receiving the next car. Meanwhile, on the parking floor, the car along with the pallet will move on a robotic system to a different parking space. On the ground floor, the driver again flashes his access card which shows him, with the help of the automatic multiple sensors, exactly where his vehicle is parked.

The retrieval process is also as simple. “The driver enters the parking gates and swipes the access card. The car will be identified by the system and pallets will start moving in crisscross directions to give way to the pallet that has the car to reach the lift. “Once the car is placed on the car lift, it goes down to the first floor where the driver enters the lift and drives out with his car,” added Khan. A plot size of 50 metres by 25 metres with a basement depth of 5 metres is used for installing 104 car parking spaces with a fully automated system. Only option “This was the only option for achieving the required parking slots in a 1,250-square metre plot. Normal surface parking with ramps would have given us 35 to 36 cars per floor and we would have had to go 8 to 9 metres deep

MEETING

Oman, France discuss media ties MUSCAT: Omani and French ofﬁcials on Tuesday held talks covering issues of mutual interest in the world of media. The talks came as Dr. Abdullah bin Nasser Al Harrasi, Chairman of Public Authority for Radio and Television (PART), received at his office Marie-Christine Saragosse, Chairperson and CEO of France Medias Monde (FMM) in the presence of Roland Dubertrand,

French ambassador to Oman and officials of both sides. The PART Chairman expressed happiness at the launch of Radio Mont Carlo Doualiya (MCD) in the Sultanate and praised its high quality programmes, which will beneﬁt listeners in the Sultanate. He stressed the importance of continuing cooperation between the two organisations and activating the articles of the MoU signed

between the PART and France Medias Monde last September. On her part, Marie-Christine Saragosse, Chairperson and CEO of France Medias Monde expressed her happiness of launching the station from Muscat. She added that the move will enrich the issues raised and will add value in terms of increasing the number of Monte Carlo Doualiya listeners. -ONA

for achieving 100 plus cars in three parking ﬂoors. Being a seashore, with the water bed level at a depth of 6 metres, the site conditions made it impossible for such a plan,” said Shabbir Boriyawala, chairman of the company. “Customers have now realised that car parking is the need of the hour, and keeping that in mind, we are now designing many projects for more than 2,000 car parking spaces in Oman and United Arab Emirates,” said Anil Cherian, general manager of IPARK. Victor Henry, marketing manager of IPARK, said that these parking systems can be used in any new construction or renovation projects, building above or below ground. “Considering the growing trafﬁc in places like Ruwi, Qurum and other places, many buildings should think about this system,” said Khan.

MUSCAT: An Indian automobile mechanic in Muscat has developed a device that can stop a car from catching fire in a crash and also provide extra security against vehicle theft. “During accidents an electric power short circuit in the vehicle can lead to fire. My Electronic Control Unit (ECU) device can prevent this,” said Rajesh Madhavan who developed the device. “There is a control switch located inside the car which can be accessed by the driver or the passenger to switch off the circuit connection and avoid a fire during accidents,” he said. Rajesh, an Indian expatriate working with Ray International, spent more than two months developing the device and has submitted his invention for the award of patent in India. “My device can also provide an extra security feature. An extra switch will prevent car lifters from breaking into the car even if they have access to the key,” said Rajesh. The device can also protect the expensive integrated circuit (IC) from getting damaged even if the battery is connected inadvertently to the wrong pole, he added. “Even if the battery poles are switched by mistake, my device will detect the flaw and inform the user through an alarm. The device is even capable of giving verbal warning of a wrong connection. The user can then switch the connection to the correct poles thereby saving the IC from damage,” said Rajesh. “Many people go wrong while connecting the battery poles to jump start the car using another car battery. My device can help to avoid the risk,” added Rajesh. “Under normal circumstanc-

GOOD WORK: Rajesh Madhavan who has developed a car ﬁre prevention device. -Supplied photo

es, if a car has been parked near electric power stations or mobile towers for hours, there are chances for some car batteries discharging automatically, leading to situations where the car cannot be started. However, my device prevents this battery discharge,” said Rajesh. According to him, the device can easily be installed in cluster units of luxurious cars and stereo devices. “It can be installed in any machinery, heavy generators and heavy equipment which will protect the machinery from any sort of electrical hazards. It can also be used in inverters,” he said. Rajesh, who has done only a diploma in automobile mechanics back in his hometown in the south Indian state of Kerala, has been working in Oman for the last four years. In 2014, Rajesh had also developed an electronic cradle which can swing automatically according to the preset timings and sense the baby’s movements.

W E D NE S DAY, JA N UA RY 14, 2 015

OMAN N E W D R A F T L AW T O B E U N V E I L E D

SAYYID ASA’AD MEETS DJIBOUTI MAYOR

A1 NHRC continues to work effectively < FROM

His Highness Sayyid Asa’ad bin Tariq Al Said, the Representative of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, received Mo’men Ahmed Sheikh Sa’ad, Mayor of the capital Djibouti, in his office on Tuesday. During the meeting, Sayyid Asa’ad stressed the importance of enhancing relations between the Sultanate and Djibouti in various spheres. During the meeting, the leaders reviewed the bilateral relations between the two countries and the means of enhancing and promoting them.-ONA

He agreed that there were a number of laws which should be reconsidered to cope with international laws such as the law of peaceful assembly and establishment of associations. “The Ministry of Social Development may unveil a draft of the law in response to the new emerging demands and the human rights laws,” he said. Appeal Al Shaqsi urged all other departments to make efforts to improve the condition of human rights and to move forward to the concept of international citizenship within the limits of Islamic culture. Asserting that the NHRC has continued to work effectively since its inception in 2010, Al Shaqsi said, “The inception of the NHRC coincided with the issues witnessed in Sohar. The NHRC has resolved several cases of those arrested during the incident and made efforts to provide them with job opportunities.”

S T U D Y U N D E RWAY

A1 Plan to build parking lots in < FROM

Al Khuwair, Ruwi, Bausher

The National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCIS) revealed recently that the registration of new vehicles last September reached 109,100 compared to 99,800 during the same period last year, which is an increase of 9.3 per cent. The monthly bulletin showed that private vehicles registered were 85,600 compared to 73,300 during the same period in 2013,

which is in an increase of 16.8 per cent. The number of bicycles registered is 953 compared to 802 during the same period in 2013, an increase of 18.8 per cent. A reliable source at the municipality told Times of Oman that studies are under way to build parking spaces in certain parts of Muscat, including the ministry areas in Al Khuwair, Ruwi and Bausher. The source explained

that the municipality understands the problems of motorists, and officials are making every effort to provide better services. The study aims to identify places that can accommodate multi-storey and surface car parks, he said. The study focused mainly on the Muttrah Business District to formulate a plan to turn the parking spaces there into multi-level parking lots.

The right of assembly The right of assembly enables citizens to hold meetings anywhere and at any time in order to express their opinion by legitimate means, he said, adding that it is a right that is associated with other political rights. “The State Basic Law promulgated by Royal Decree No. 101/96 guarantees the right of assembly, the right to formation of associations and societies and the freedom to express one’s opinion among other rights and freedoms,” he said. Article 137 On Article 137 of the Oman Penal Law, he said, “NHRC stresses the signiﬁcance of reconsideration of

Article ( 137) of the Oman Penal Law in order to cope with the international agreements and treaties concerned with the right of peaceful assembly and formation of societies, as stated in article 32 of the State Basic Law.” Private gathering Article 137 of the Oman Penal Law states that anyone who participates in a private gathering of at least ten individuals with a view to committing a riot or breach of public order, shall be sentenced to imprisonment ranging from a month to a year and a ﬁne not exceeding OMR200, On the Universal Periodic Review (UPP), a periodic review of the human rights records of all UN member states, which happens every four years, and will fall this year on November 5, he said, “the NHRC has continually followed up on the recommendation and has agreed to comply with the 2011 UPP. There are 19 recommendations against which the Sultanate has either issued laws or formed committees to implement and follow up. “There are 15 recommendations still awaiting action. However, we are working on accelerating the pace of executing such recommendations.” 35-member delegation The 35-member delegation to the 2011 meetings of the UPP was headed by Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs. “The meetings of the 2011 UPP had released 166 recommendations and Oman had agreed on 104, in addition to 50 recommendations for our consideration and review. Oman had rejected

12 recommendations submitted by some Human Rights Council member states,” he said. During 2014, the NHRC has received 41 complaints on different issues of human rights, mostly on civil and political rights. “As per article (7) of the Law establishing the NHRC, promulgated by Royal Decree No. 124/2008, the authorities / powers of the NHRC could be summed up in identifying any violations and breaches in human rights, assisting in resolving the same and monitoring the conformity of local laws to the human rights international laws ratiﬁed by the Sultanate. Human rights culture This is in addition to our role in dissemination of the human rights culture among sectors of the society mainly among youngsters, the government and private sector establishments and the civil institutions through the conventional form of media and social media,” he said. “To this effect, in 2015, we will set up an annual awareness plan for human rights, by participating in events including Muscat International Festival, organising lectures at schools and workshops for government departments and the civil institutions besides co-operation with Oman TV and Radio,” he said. Al Shaqsi also demanded higher prerogatives/ powers for exercising the roles of the NHRC and immunity for its members.

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

WALKATHON FOR ROAD SAFETY Oman Road Safety Association (ORSA) in partnership with BP Oman, organised a walkathon at the Qurum Natural Park to spread awareness on the importance of seatbelts. The walkathon focussed on the ‘Buckle Up Campaign’ which is part of BP Oman’s Social Investment Educational programmes. — A R Rajkumar/Times of Oman

R E N O VAT I O N

The View Resort to open tomorrow AL HAMRA: The View Resort, located in the Wilayat of Al Hamra, will be opened after renovation on Thursday under the patronage of Maithaa bint Saif al Mahrouqiyah, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Tourism.

The project includes 30 deluxe rooms. Each room has a wonderful view on the Wilayat of Al Hamra and a number of villages in the Wilayat of Bahla. The project has a swimming pool, suspended restaurant and

many tourist facilities that serve the visitors. The project offers mountain biking and hiking as the location of the project close to Jabel Shams and the Eastern Mountain, in addition to its proximity to the

villages of Da’an Daqiqa, Al Dar Al Bidhaa, Misfat Al Abryeen, Hail Al Shibak, and a number of tourist and archaeological sites. The resort is about ten kilometres from the centre of the Wilayat of Al Hamra. -ONA

D E AT H O N R OA D S

A1 Driving in Ruwi, Hamriya a big problem < FROM

“The facilities for pedestrians should be of state-of-the-art to use and air-conditioned where required,” said Al Lawati, while adding that the bridges should not be placed randomly or too far away from each other. “This will help us in reducing accidents,” she said. A senior official of Muscat Municipality said they are planning around 10 over-bridges all over Muscat. “The Muscat Municipality is according priority in places where the maximum accidents are recorded. A case in point is North Mabela where a large num-

ber of accidents have taken place in recent years,” he said. With jaywalkers spotted frequently on Muscat’s roads, motorists said it was very difficult to drive especially in the peak hours and on weekends when it is teeming with people. “It is almost impossible to drive in Ruwi and Hamriya on the weekend. Maybe, the government should impose higher ﬁnes and station more police vehicles in these two areas,” said Mohinder Singh, a motorist who runs a shop at Ruwi High Street. Another motorist, Ahijit Seal

said that there have been times, when in spite of the presence of a footbridge and designated crossing areas, people refuse to use them. “I see people crossing Sultan Qaboos Road, which is dangerous,” he said. In September last year, an Asian expatriate worker was killed while jaywalking in Al Hail. “The victim was hit by a car. There was a pedestrian bridge and a subway near the spot, but he risked his life by trying to cross the road,” said social workers in Al Hail. Social workers said that one

solution could be to keep a watch over areas, especially those which are more prone to accidents. “However, there should be campaigns to educate pedestrians and drivers on the seriousness of the issue, which would help in reducing the number of fatalities in the long run,” they said. Another social worker said that if a jaywalker gets injured and hospitalised in an accident, the driver of the vehicle is generally detained till the victim is out of danger. “Jaywalkers are a motorist’s nightmare,” he said.

WE DNE SDAY, JANUARY 14, 2015

REGION

Partial payments of $1,200 each were made to 24,000 Hamas civil servants in late October. But the other 26,000, who work in security functions, have received nothing

Last conviction against Mubarak overturned

GAZA HEADQUARTERS

CHARGES AND VERDICTS AGAINST MUBARAK Egypt’s High court

Months after his ouster, Hosni Mubarak was put on trial along with seven of his security commanders on charges of inciting the murder of some of the 800 protesters killed during the revolt against his rule.

His two sons, Alaa and Gamal, were also defendants in the trial, facing corruption charges along with Mubarak.

orders retrial in embezzlement case, former president could walk free, say judicial sources

CAIRO: Egypt’s high court on Tuesday overturned the only remaining conviction against former president Hosni Mubarak, opening the way for his possible release four years after the revolution that toppled him. Mubarak, 86, was sentenced to three years in prison last May for diverting public funds earmarked to renovate presidential palaces and using the money to upgrade family properties. His two sons were given four-year jail terms in the same case. Suffering from ill health, he has been serving his sentence in a military hospital in the upscale Maadi district of Cairo. Mubarak remains detained for now, but judicial sources say he could soon walk free as no convictions remain against him after the high court ordered a retrial in the embezzlement case. His release, while thousands of his political opponents languish in jail, would be a further blow to activists who had hoped his downfall in the 2011 protests marked the dawn of a new era of political freedom in Egypt. Verdict Tuesday’s verdict follows a court decision in November to drop charges against Mubarak of conspiring to kill protesters in the uprising that ended his 30-year rule. That ruling led to protests in which at least two people were killed. “After the release of police officers charged with killing demonstrators and of Mubarak aides, and his acquittal over the killing of protesters, this is not shocking news,” said Khaled Dawoud, spokesman for the opposition Dostour Party, 10 of whose members are behind bars for taking

In 2012, a court sentenced Mubarak to life over the protesters’ killings, but an appeals court overturned that verdict on technical grounds and ordered a retrial.

HOPE FOR RELEASE: Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak, right, and his son Gamal sit behind bars during a court hearing in the capital Cairo in this picture taken on November 29, 2014. – AFP ﬁle photograph

were also acquitted of corruption charges.

In November 2014 a court dropped the murder charge against Mubarak and also acquitted seven of his former security commanders, including his feared interior minister Habib Al Adly. Mubarak and his sons

part in peaceful protests. “But I don’t think Mubarak is the issue any more. The Egyptian people gave their verdict against him four years ago.” Many Egyptians who lived through Mubarak’s rule view it as a period of autocracy and crony capitalism. His overthrow led to Egypt’s ﬁrst free election. But the victor, Mohamed Morsi, was ousted in 2013 by then-army chief Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, following protests against his rule. Sisi, who went on to win a presidential election last May, launched a crackdown on Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood. Security forces have rounded up thousands of Brotherhood supporters and courts have sentenced hundreds to death in mass trials that have

Mubarak, his sons and four other defendants were put on trial on separate charges of corruption for embezzling more than $14 million (100 million Egyptian pounds 12 million euros) earmarked for the maintenance of presidential palaces. In May 2014, a lower

drawn international criticism. Liberal activists have also found themselves on the wrong side of Egypt’s new rulers, facing jail for breaking a law that curtails the freedom to protest. By contrast, Mubarak-era ﬁgures are slowly being cleared of charges and a series of laws curbing political freedoms have raised fears among activists that the rights won during 18 days of protest in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the symbolic heart of the revolution, are being eroded. The Court of Cassation, which ordered the retrial, did not say if Mubarak should be freed on bail in the meantime. Mubarak also faces retrial for a third and ﬁnal time over charges of involvement in the death of demonstrators in 2011.

court convicted him and his sons, and sentenced Mubarak to three years in prison and his sons to four years in prison.

The four co-defendants were acquitted.

Mubarak’s defence team ﬁled an appeal against the verdict, and on Tuesday the Court of Cassation overturned that verdict and ordered a retrial.

The official MENA news agency quoted an interior ministry source as saying Mubarak and his sons would only be released on orders from the public prosecution or the court that retries them. A source in the public prosecutor’s office said it was up to the courts that retry Mubarak whether to release him on bail or to keep him in pretrial detention pending a verdict, suggesting he will remain incarcerated for the time being. But his lawyer, Fareed El Deeb, told reporters after Tuesday’s hearing that Mubarak had served the maximum permitted time in pretrial detention and should be freed. Before his conviction in the presidential palaces embezzlement cases in May, Mubarak had been freed on that basis. — Reuters

UP IN ARMS: Palestinian employees of the former Hamas government hold slogans after breaking past the gate of the Palestinian unity government cabinet headquarters to demand back pay, in Gaza City, on Tuesday. – AFP

Hamas employees begin sit-in against their salary arrears GAZA CITY (PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES): Hundreds of Hamas employees began a sit-in in front of the headquarters of the Palestinian unity government in Gaza on Tuesday, vowing to stay until their salaries were paid. “Our sit-in is peaceful and we do not want to destroy public property, but we will stay here until our members are recognised and their salaries paid,” union spokesman Khalil Al Zayan said. Zayan noted that staff recruited by the former Hamas administration had not received any wages for seven months. Unacceptable “They can no longer support their families, this is unacceptable,” he said of the crisis looming over a spring reconciliation agreement between the Islamist group and

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement. Since the striking the deal, Hamas been demanding the new government pay the salaries of the 50,000 civil servants it recruited after its takeover of Gaza in 2007, who took the jobs of 70,000 Fatah employees. Partial payments of $1,200 each were made to 24,000 Hamas civil servants in late October. But the other 26,000, who work in security functions, have received nothing. “We’ve had enough of the false promises. Either the government resigns or it takes all of Gaza’s responsibilities, like in the occupied West Bank,” Zayan said. At the end of December, hundreds of Hamas civil servants blocked the entrance to the unity government’s headquarters during a visit to Gaza by occupied West Bank-based ministers. — AFP

W E D NE S DAY, JA N UA RY 14, 2 015

INDIA

Reforms of the United Nations should be advanced at least in the 70th year of the UN. India hopes and counts upon the UN Secretary General’s leadership and persuasive skills to steer the discussions for urgent reform of the UN Pranab Mukherjee, President

GLOBAL AGREEMENT

Ban urges India to take lead in reaching Paris climate pact NEW DELHI: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday asked India to take a leadership role in reaching a “meaningful” climate change pact in Paris later this year. The UN climate conference to be held in Paris from November 30 to December 11 of this year, is tasked with ﬁnalising a global agreement designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions. “I count on the leadership of India in our ongoing efforts to address the climate change issues....I expect as one of the most critically important member state of the United Nations (UN) and as one of the fastest growing economy, India should be responsible to address climate change so that they will soon have universal and meaningful climate change agreement in Paris in December,” Ban told reporters here. Stating that this is a “novel and political responsibility”, he said, “Nature does not wait for us.Nature does not negotiate with us. It is us ‘human beings’ who

have to take the lead to ensure sustainable development....Climate change is a deﬁning issue of our time.” Lauding initiative Ban, who visited India’s highest green rated building ‘Indira Paryavaran Bhawan’, also said that he was “encouraged by the strong commitment of Indian government under the leadership of Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi”. Lauding India’s initiative taken to promote solar power and setting up of smart cities, he said, “I saw myself at ‘Vibrant Gujarat Summit’....I hope many countries in the world will emulate such initiatives of India.” While praising the top UN ofﬁcial for his passion to work in mission mode to mitigate the challenges posed by climate change, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar shared information about energy and water conservation at the green building. “From this building, we give green message. In this building,

Move to complete black money probe by March-end

Time barred They said the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the apex policy making body of the I-T department, decided to fasten these cases as the probe against these black money holders will not hold legal value after March 31, 2015 as that it is the upper limit stipulated under law to prosecute and initiate legal action in these cases which pertain to 2007-08 ﬁscal. Sources said the exclusive Exchange of Information (EOI) unit

PHOTO GALLERY W W W.T I M E S O F O M A N .C O M

C E N T R A L B O A R D O F D I R E C T TA X E S

NEW DELHI: Investigations against black money holders in Swiss bank accounts, known as the HSBC list, have been put on a fast-track as the CBDT has asked tax sleuths to quickly gather all foreign-based evidences in these cases and render final action by March-end. The latest development relates to the disclosure of names by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money in the HSBC’s bank branch in Geneva, provided by the French government to India few years back, in which names of 628 Indians had figured with a total amount of Rs 4,479 crore being held in them. “All I-T investigation units have been asked to process foreign requests for exchange of information on these cases by February 15. These cases are getting timebarred with the end of the current financial year on March 31. The CBDT has issued latest directives to speed up probe in these cases and quickly send them across to foreign shores,” sources privy to the development said.

SCAN THIS QR CODE TO INSTANTLY VISIT

under the foreign tax wing of the CBDT has asked the I-T department to speciﬁcally focus on cases getting “time barred by March 31” so that legal requests could be sent abroad to countries like the US, UK, Switzerland and Gulf. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had earlier said that proceedings in these cases will be completed by March 31, 2015. The SIT headed by retired Supreme Court judge M B Shah along with Justice (retd) Arijit Pasayat had also stated in their last report submitted to the apex court in December last that these cases will be brought to their logical and legal conclusion by the said deadline. The SIT, in the said report, had stated that out of the total 628 entities, no balance has been found in cases of 289 accounts. “Out of the 628 persons, 201 are either non-residents or nontraceable, leaving 427 persons cases as actionable cases,” the report said which was released as part of the “relevant portion of the second report of SIT on black money” by the government. The report had said that the amount involved in these cases is about Rs 4,479 crore.”Of this, the I-T department has ﬁnalised assessment for 79 entities involving more than 300 cases,” it said. Under the larger ambit of the probe against black money,the tax department and other agencies including the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are probing cases involving unaccounted wealth totalling Rs 14,957.95 crore in the country. - PTI

dia as a “critically important global power” and said he was aware of its “aspirations” along with those of many other countries for reform of the UN and their desire to play a leadership role in the UN Security Council.

WARM GREETINGS: President Pranab Mukherjee with UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon during a meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday. -PTI

we consume half the requirement of water and energy of the normal building would have consumed,” he added. Meanwhile, amid India’s aspiration for a permanent seat in the Security Council, President Pranab

Mukherjee on Tuesday impressed upon UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to use his leadership to speed up the process of reforms in the world body in this year itself. During the meeting at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, Ban described In-

Reforms in UN Pranab said the reforms in the UN are essential to enhance its “credibility” and “legitimacy” so that it represents the geo-political realities of today. He conveyed to the visiting dignitary that “the UN is in urgent need of reform for its own credibility and legitimacy of its decisions,” the President’s Press Secretary Venu Rajamony said in a statement. “Reforms of the United Nations should be advanced at least in the 70th year of the UN. India hopes

and counts upon the UN Secretary General’s leadership and persuasive skills to steer the discussions for urgent reform of the UN,” the President said. The UN will turn 70 on October 24 this year. India is an aspirant for permanent membership of the expanded Security Council. Pranab underlined that “The UN should play an effective role in all situations. A reformed and effective UN will be able to respond to the crises afflicting the world in a more decisive manner.” While acknowledging “divergences” on the reforms, he said, however, that the UN was created to iron out these divergences and ﬁnd solutions acceptable to the large section of the international community. Ban appreciated India’s contribution to the UN and said he always wanted to forge stronger ties with this country. “The UN Security Council must become effective, representative, democratic and transparent,” he said. - PTI

‘Pakistan supporting proxy war in J&K’ Army Chief General Dalbir Singh said

attack on an Army

Threats and challenges have been growing, both in intensity as well as commitment, because of active borders that we have

school in Peshawar

General Dalbir Singh

that one would have to ‘wait and watch’ if Pakistan Army has had a change of heart since the gruesome

Army chief

last month

NEW DELHI: Accusing Pakistan of continuing to support “proxy war” in Indian-administeredKashmir despite suffering casualties due to terror on its soil, Army Chief General Dalbir Singh on Tuesday said threats and challenges have been growing because of the “active borders”. The army chief said one will have to “wait and watch” if Pakistan Army has had a change of heart since the gruesome attack on an Army school in Peshawar last month that drew condemnation in India. Challenges He also said that Indian security forces are carefully watching the situation in Afghanistan and its possible spillover into India. “Threats and challenges have

been growing, both in intensity as well as commitment, because of active borders that we have,” Singh said addressing his annual press conference. Talking about the security situation in militancy-hit Jammu and Kashmir, the Army chief said, “Pakistan is supporting proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir despite suffering casualties within their country”. He was referring to the recent casualties that the Pakistan Army had at the hands of Taliban militants. Singh lauded the Army and other security forces for ensuring a safe environment to voters in Jammu and Kashmir which saw a high turnout in the recent Assembly election. “People were conﬁdent of coming out to vote. Army and other se-

curity forces worked tirelessly not for weeks but months,” he said. The Army chief pointed out that 2014 saw the highest number of terrorists being neutralised in the state in recent years and put the figure at 110, out of which 104 were killed by the force. Last year, 65 terrorists were killed. Singh said the high figure showed the effectiveness of the counter insurgency grid that the Army has set up in the state. Singh said the recent attacks against the Army in Jammu and Kashmir showed the “desperation” of terrorists. “The recent strikes by the terrorists not only reflect their desperation but are also a grim reminder that the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan is intact,” he said. Talking about the rise in cease-

fire violations, he said that the action has slowly moved to the International Border and not the LoC. “That is probably, likely to be because of our counter infiltration grid is stronger on LoC,” he said, adding that measures like ‘obstacle systems’ are making it difficult for the terrorists to infiltrate. He admitted that there are areas, like open drains and streams, that are susceptible to infiltration attempts at the International Border. Asked about the perception that Army commanders are not being given a free hand in operations, Singh strongly denied it. “The commanders have a free hand to operate. I have given full freedom as far as operation is concerned. On the LoC, they have a free hand to retaliate to Pakistan firing in a manner that they feel is appropriate,” the Army chief said. However, he underlined that the Army has a “zero-tolerance” approach to human rights violations. Talking about the situation in Afghanistan, Singh said the “spillover effect is being watched carefully”. He said the situation in Afghanistan has definitely improved to the extent that the US feels that they can leave the country to the Afghan national army to take care of the security situation. “But definitely, the draw-down is likely to have its own effect. That cannot be ruled out. And we have to be prepared for it. Terrorist network can extend from Afghanistan to our side and J&K is one area where the effect could be felt. We are aware of this possibility and because of this we are keeping a careful watch,” he said. -PTI

S PA C E P I O N E E R AWA R D

US space society award for Isro’s Mars orbiter programme team CHENNAI: Indian Space Research Organisation has been conferred ‘Space Pioneer Award’ by the National Space Society (NSS) of the United States over the historic feat on successfully sending an orbit to Martian atmosphere in its very ﬁrst attempt. “The National Space Society takes great pleasure in announcing that its 2015 Space Pioneer Award in the Science and Engineering category has been won by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) Mars Orbiter Programme Team,” NSS said in a statement. The award would be presented to an Isro representative during the 34th Annual International Space Development Conference to be held at Toronto in Canada between May 20 and 24, it said. The ‘Space Pioneer Award’ consists of a silvery pewter Moon globe cast by the Baker Art Foundry in Placerville, California, from a sculpture originally created by well-known space and astronomical artist. “This mission has achieved two

SCRIPTING HISTORY: Scientists and engineers work on a Mars Orbiter vehicle at the Isro’s satellite centre in Bangalore in this ﬁle picture taken on September 11, 2013. - AFP ﬁle photo

significant mission firsts. An Indian spacecraft has gone into orbit around Mars on the very first try. No other country has ever done this. The spacecraft is in an elliptical orbit with a high apoapsis, and has a high resolution camera which is taking full-disk colour imagery of Mars,” it said. “Very few full disk images have ever been taken in the past, mostly on approach to the planet, as most imaging is done looking

straight down in mapping mode. These images will aid planetary scientists,” the NSS observed. Isro had on November 5, 2013, launched the Mars Orbiter mission from Sriharikota at a cost of Rs 450 crore, which successfully entered the Martian atmosphere on September 24 last year, scripting history of being the ﬁrst country in the world to have succeeded the mission in its very ﬁrst attempt. - PTI

WE DNE SDAY, JANUARY 14, 2015 SCAN THIS TO INSTANTLY LAUNCH FACEBOOK PAGE

Love us on Facebook

INDIA

JAMMU AND KASHMIR

Omar formally offers support to PDP in letter to Vohra SRINAGAR: In a new political twist in J&K, National Conference on Tuesday formally offered support to PDP in a letter to Governor N. N. Vohra for forming a government that could break the logjam of over three weeks. “@JKNC_has written to Governor Vohra Sahib reiterating our offer of support to @jkpdp and ask-

ing him to call us before deciding the assembly viability,” National Conference’s Working President Omar Abdullah tweeted. In a statement, the party said Omar urged Vohra to consult the party leadership before taking any ﬁnal decision regarding the future of the present assembly and its viability in the government formation.

The letter was delivered to Vohra by Provincial President Jammu Devender Singh Rana in Jammu on Tuesday as a consequence of the meeting of NC Core Group in Srinagar on Monday. In the letter, Abdullah said that National Conference has offered to support to PDP, which has emerged as the single largest party

Steps to protect Taj Mahal from air pollution The ban on Agra residents burning

Taj Mahal ’s walls,

There is an aesthetic aspect to it as well. We don’t want the city’s walls to be plastered with cow dung

spires and domes

Pradeep Bhatnagar

cow dung, a common fuel source, is aimed at reducing carbon deposits on the

Chairman of Taj Zone NEW DELHI: India has banned the burning of cow dung near the Taj Mahal amid fears the famed white-marbled mausoleum was turning yellow from air pollution, an official said on Tuesday. Authorities have long struggled to control the impact of pollution on the stunning 17th-century monument to love in the northern city of Agra, which attracts millions of tourists each year. Concerns The ban on Agra residents burning cow dung, a common fuel source, is aimed at reducing carbon deposits on the Taj’s walls, spires and domes, said Pradeep Bhatnagar, chairman of the area known as the Taj Zone.

“From time to time there are concerns that the colour of the Taj is changing,” Bhatnagar said. “So at a recent meeting it was decided that there should be a ban on burning cow dung fuel within the city limits. “There is an aesthetic aspect to it as well. We don’t want the city’s walls to be plastered with cow dung,” he said. Dried cow dung is commonly used in rural areas as a cheap source of fuel for heating and cooking. Women knead fresh dung into melon-size balls before ﬂattening them against walls to dry -- a common sight throughout India. A recent study into the discolouration of the monument by

M O V E T O A M E N D A N T I - S M O K I N G L AW

Proposal to ban sale of loose cigarettes NEW DELHI: Brushing aside opposition, the government on Tuesday moved to amend the anti-smoking law and proposed radical changes, including ban on sale of loose cigarettes and raising the minimum age of a person buying tobacco products to 21 years from existing 18. It has also proposed raising of ﬁne to Rs1,000 from Rs200 on smoking in public places as well as recommending removal of designated smoking zones in hotels and restaurants. These are some of the major recommendations in the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) (Amendment) Bill 2015,which were put out by the Health Ministry on Tuesday to seek suggestions from the public. The bill puts to rest speculation about the fate of a panel’s recommendations, which had covered most of these issues, as there were reports that the

Health Ministry had developed cold feet following outcry from lobbies representing farmers and tobacco industry. Health Minister J. P. Nadda had told Rajya Sabha during the Winter Session that his Ministry had accepted the recommendations of the committee formed to review the existing Act, and a draft note for the Cabinet was circulated for inter-ministerial consultation. Increase in ﬁne Seeking to make violation of the proposed law much more stringent than the existing Act, the draft bill increases the maximum ﬁne to Rs100,000 from the existing Rs10,000. “No person shall sell, offer for sale, or permit sale of, cigarettes or any other tobacco products loose or in single sticks...to any person who is under 21 years of age; employ, engage or use any person who is under 18 years of age in cultivation, processing, sale of tobacco or tobacco products,” according to the proposed bill. - PTI

ILLICIT LIQUOR

Uttar Pradesh hooch tragedy toll now 27 LUCKNOW: The toll in the hooch tragedy in Lucknow and Unnao districts on Tuesday climbed to 27 with 13 more people dying in various hospitals here. Over 100 persons were still undergoing treatment in different hospitals in the state capital. “Till now 12 deaths have been

reported from King George Medical University, two each from Balrampur hospital and Malihabad and one from Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital,” Chief Medical Officer said. The hooch tragedy occurred in Kharta and other villages of Lucknow and Unnao district on Monday. - PTI

experts from US and Indian universities and the Archaeological Survey of India, found that dust was to blame for the majority of the yellowing, with carbon deposits were responsible for the rest. “We couldn’t have done much about the dust but we decided to plug the source for the carbon particulate matter which was the burning of organic matter,” Bhatnagar said. The ban comes after an air quality monitoring system was set up near the Taj. In 1996 the Supreme Court banned use of coal by industries located within a 10,400-square kilometre (4,000-square-mile) zone around the monument. - AFP

in the just-concluded Assembly elections, a party release said. “However, the political impasse in the state, due to indecisiveness of the PDP has led to the imposition of the Governor’s rule and placing of the State Assembly in suspended animation despite an overwhelming participation of the people of Jammu and Kashmir in the elec-

toral process”, the letter said. A PDP spokesman said the party will take note of the latest development in an appropriate forum. “We will discuss this development in an appropriate party forum and respond after the deliberations,” PDP Chief spokesman Naeem Akhtar said. On the PDP’s talks with BJP on

government formation, Akhtar said back channel contacts were in progress. The Assembly polls, whose results were declared on December 23 last, threw up a fractured mandate. PDP emerged as the single largest party with 28 seats in the 87-member House. BJP bagged 25 seats, NC 15 and Congress 12. - PTI

A 10

W E D NE S DAY, JA N UA RY 14, 2 015 I emphasised that the US is committed to deepening our security relationship with Pakistan in order to eliminate threats in the border area and elsewhere John Kerry, US Secretary of State

PAKISTAN

D E AT H R O W

RAINY DAY

Seven more militants executed

A Pakistani man transports his children on motorcycle on their return from school during a rainy day in Islamabad on Tuesday. — AFP

ISLAMABAD: Seven terror convicts were hanged today in jails across Pakistan, including a junior technician at Pakistan Air Force who was involved in the attack on former military ruler Pervez Musharraf. PAF’s former junior technician Nawazish Ali and civilian Mushtaq Ahmed, who were involved in an assassination attempt on Musharraf in 2003 were executed at Central Jail Faisalabad, officials said. Three terror convicts — Muhammad Talha, Khalil Ahmed and Shahid Hanif — were hanged in Sukkur Central Jail. Death for killing official They were sentenced to death in 2001 for killing Syed Zaffar Ali Shah, the then director of defence ministry. Behram Khan was hanged in Karachi Central Prison for killing Advocate Mohammad Ashraf in a courtroom of the Sindh High Court in April 2003. He was convicted by an anti-terrorism court in June 2003. US consulate Zulﬁkar Ali was hanged at Adiala jail in Rawalpind. He was convicted of killing two policemen near the US Consulate General in Karachi. Extra ordinary security measures were taken around the jails, where death row prisoners were executed. — PTI BLAME GAME

India helping terrorists, asserts Asif ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has alleged that India was helping terror groups in his country after India rejected Pakistan’s claim that it was carrying out “attacks” from Afghanistan. “India has designs on Pakistan and is helping militants to carry out heinous acts inside Pakistan,” Asif told Dawn News. He said that India wants to keep Pakistan busy with “skirmishes on the eastern border so that the country remains distracted from the war on its western borders and the terrorism within.” “The Taliban have links with India. Also, India’s involvement in the insurgency in Balochistan cannot be ignored,” Asif said. When asked to provide evidence for his accusation, the minister dodged the question and proceeded to claim that “a low intensity war was underway”. He said that his allegations were based “as much on conviction as on experience.” Attacks from Afghanistan Pakistan’s Adviser on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz yesterday accusing India of using Afghanistan’s soil to carry out attacks in the country. “They are involved in the attacks on Pakistan from Afghanistan,” Aziz had said. India had rejected the charge and termed it as an effort to obscure the challenge posed to the region from Pakistan-based terrorist safe havens. — PTI

US, Pakistan to intensify crackdown on militants Islamabad began a full-scale offensive

It is profoundly in the interests of Pakistan and India to move their relationship forward. This is the hardest kind of work. It means you have to put a lot of time and effort into overcoming historical mistrust and past events, enmities

against Taliban and other militants in the North Waziristan tribal district in June, after ignoring US calls for

John Kerry

action for years

ISLAMABAD: The US and Pakistan vowed Tuesday to intensify a crackdown on militants hiding in lawless border areas, as top diplomat John Kerry urged renewed peace talks with India to strengthen regional stability. Last month’s shocking school massacre in Peshawar by the Pakistani Taliban triggered global outrage, and sharpened the focus on militant groups hiding in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region. Full-scale offensive Islamabad began a full-scale offensive against Taliban and other militants in the North Waziristan tribal district in June, after ignoring US calls for action for years. Speaking at a joint press conference with Pakistan’s national

US Secretary of State

security adviser Sartaj Aziz, Kerry said Pakistan deserved “enormous credit” for the operation. “I emphasised that the US is committed to deepening our security relationship with Pakistan in order to eliminate threats in the border area and elsewhere,” the US Secretary of State told reporters. Last month’s massacre killed 150 people, mostly schoolboys. In response the government announced plans for military courts to hear terror cases and ended a moratorium on the death penalty for convicted militants. Pakistan executed seven militants on Tuesday, bringing to 16 the number hanged since December. The attack was “a reminder of the serious risk of allowing ex-

tremists to ﬁnd space, and be able to command that space and operate within it”, Kerry said. Earlier in strategic talks with a top Pakistani official, he said the operation in North Waziristan had already led to “signiﬁcant results”. Intelligence sharing Kerry later met senior Pakistani military commanders at their headquarters in Rawalpindi to discuss joint military efforts and plans for greater intelligence-sharing. The US has carried out a series of drone strikes in the tribal regions since Islamabad resumed its own offensive there, raising speculation that the two nations’ militaries are working together on Pakistani soil.

Pakistani officials however denounce the drone attacks as a violation of sovereignty. Kerry had planned to visit Peshawar where the massacre took place, but the State Department later issued a statement saying weather concerns forced him to cancel the trip and he later departed for Geneva. Kerry warned that all terror groups — such as the Pakistani and Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani network and the Lashkar-e-Taiba — “continue to pose a threat not just to Pakistan and its neighbours but also to the United States and the world. Make no mistake the task is a difficult one and it is not done,” Kerry said. “We all have a responsibility to ensure that these extremists are

no longer able to secure a foothold in this country or elsewhere.” Some analysts believe Pakistan’s security services see the Haqqanis as an “asset” and maintain close links with them. But Aziz vowed on Tuesday that Pakistan would take action “without discrimination, against all groups” seen as spreading terror both in Pakistan and neighbouring countries, adding that the Haqqani network’s infrastructure had been “totally destroyed” by the North Waziristan operation. Uniform concern Kerry also stressed that Washington had what he called a “uniform concern about the region’s stability”, urging India and Pakistan to return to peace talks. “It is profoundly in the interests of Pakistan and India to move their relationship forward,” he told reporters. “This is the hardest kind of work. It means you have to put a lot of time and effort into overcoming historical mistrust and past events, enmities.” Washington would do whatever it could to help, the top US diplomat said, but he stressed it was ultimately up to the two sides to resolve their differences. India abruptly called off planned peace talks last August after Pakistan consulted Kashmiri separatists before the dialogue began. Pakistan and India have traded blame for an upsurge in ﬁring and shelling across the de facto border in Kashmir which started in October. — AFP

G L O O M Y S TAT E

Half of Balochistan’s population lacks access to schools QUETTA: Adviser to Chief Minister Balochistan on Education Sardar Raza Mohammed Badech on Monday painted a very gloomy state of education in the province when he revealed that almost of half of Balochistan’s population does not have access to schools. While addressing a seminar on Education Governance, Government and Media Partnership to Enhance Accountability organised by Mishl at the Quetta Press Club, Badech claimed that there are only 12,500 schools for over 22,000 human settlements across the province. “We need Rs25 billion to ﬁll this huge gap,” he said, adding that it would not be enough to ﬁll the gap even if the provincial government spends the entire development

budgets of ten years on education. He further said that “there are almost 7,000 schools with just a single room and single teacher in the province.” According to the adviser, about 1.8 million children, which makes more than 65 per cent of the children in the province, are out of schools. While 1.1 million children go to school, merely 50,000 make it to matriculation and only 30,000 receive higher education, he added. Terming the state of education in the province as sad, Badech laid the blame on lack of resources and poverty. “The prime reason for this grim situation is poverty because we do not have enough resources.” Debunking the myth that the literacy rate in Balochistan is around

While addressing a seminar on Education Governance, Government and Media Partnership to Enhance Accountability, Adviser to Chief Minister Balochistan on Education Sardar Raza Mohammed Badech claimed that there are only 12,500 schools for over 22,000 human settlements across the province 57 per cent, the adviser said, “The data which I have collected shows the rate is much lower than 57 per cent.” Badech said the rate of literacy among boys is 50 per cent, whereas girl’s literacy rate is mere 19 per cent in the province.

“The state of girls’ education in Balochistan is more terrible with 50 per cent lower enrolment than their male counterparts,” he added. He further revealed that the dropout rate of girls in high school is much higher than boys.

Talking about government’s effort to improve the state of education in the province, Badech claimed that government has increased the allocation for education sector in last two years to 23 per cent from eight or nine per cent of the total budget. The adviser on education said that although the provincial government has launched several projects to improve the state of education, it is still not enough. “There is still a huge gap and we all need to work hard for improvement,” he added. Commenting on the difficulties faced by the provincial government, Badech said that unlike any other province, population in Balochistan is more scattered so the government has to spend more

money on one student than any other province. “There was no data available when we came in power but now we have started gathering data from the very beginning to improve the state of education,” he said. Balochistan will not be able to achieve the Millennium Development Goals in 2015, he added. Teaching mother tongue The adviser to the chief minister said that within two years the provincial government would declare one’s mother tongue as a mandatory subject in schools. “Earlier we decided to impart education in mother tongues but we realised there is a lack of teachers and resources,” he added. — Express Tribune

WE DNE SDAY, JANUARY 14, 2015 What we need to do now is to use all the means at our disposal as a constitutional state to combat intolerance and violence Angela Merkel, German Chancellor

A11

WORLD

GERMANS UNITE FOR TOLERANCE People attend a Muslim community tolerance rally on Tuesday in front of Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Chancellor Angela Merkel and most of her cabinet attended the rally to promote tolerance, condemn the extremist attacks in Paris against the ‘Charlie Hebdo’ weekly and send a rebuke to the German anti-Islamic ‘Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident’ movement. — AFP

4 Jews killed in Paris attack buried in Israel The attack on the supermarket, which killed Yoav Hattab, 22, Philippe Braham, 45, Yohan Cohen, 23, and FrancoisMichel Saada, 64, has left the Jewish community in both France and Israel badly shaken

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israel held the funeral on Tuesday for four Jews killed by an extremist gunman in Paris, with thousands turning out to mourn the victims of an attack that shook the Jewish community. Shock and sorrow were palpable in the crowd as family members and top Israeli officials stood to pay tribute to the four men who were shot dead on Friday when an extremist stormed a kosher supermarket. They were among 17 people gunned down in Paris during three days of bloodshed that began with a grisly attack on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, in violence that convulsed France and sent shock waves through its Jewish community, the thirdlargest in the world. The four bodies were ﬂown to Israel early on Tuesday for a joint funeral, after which they were laid to rest in a more private ceremony at the sprawling Givat Shaul cemetery on the western outskirts of Jerusalem. “This is not how we wanted to welcome you to Israel,” said President Reuven Rivlin, addressing the victims by name as he fought back tears during the ceremony attended by more than 2,500 people including Israeli political leaders. “We wanted you alive.”

DEVASTATED: The mother, centre, sister and brother, right, of Yoav Hattab, killed in an attack on a Paris grocery on Friday, mourn during a procession in Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv before his funeral on Tuesday. — Reuters

SCAN THIS QR CODE TO INSTANTLY VISIT

PHOTO GALLERY W W W.T I M E S O F O M A N .C O M

Someone said: ‘Condolences’. I said: ‘Condolences to Tunisia!’ He (Yoav Hattab) wasn’t only my son and that of his father, he was a child of Tunisia Daniel Cohen Slain Yoav Hattab’s Hebrew teacher in Tunisia

Rivlin said that it was unacceptable that Jews were once again living in fear in Europe. “We cannot allow that in 2015, 70 years since the end of World War II, Jews are afraid to walk in the streets of Europe” wearing a skullcap and prayer shawl, he said. On a sunny but freezing winter morning, French ﬂags were ﬂying across the city alongside signs reading: “Occupied Jerusalem is with the French people, we are all Charlie”. The attack on the supermarket, which killed Yoav Hattab,

22, Philippe Braham, 45, Yohan Cohen, 23, and Francois-Michel Saada, 64, has left the Jewish community in both France and Israel badly shaken. Lighting a torch of remembrance, Yonatan Saada said his father had longed to move to Israel. Speaking in Hebrew, a shellshocked Valerie Braham paid tribute to her husband Philippe. “I am crying but I know that you’re all crying with me,” she said, clearly stuck for words. Gary Buchwald, a friend of the

Brahams who ﬂew in from Paris with the family, told AFP the impact of the attack was devastating. “His wife is in pieces. They had to literally carry her to the plane. I am in shock like all of the French community in France,” he said. “She won’t get over this. It is not three million people marching in the street who will change this reality: other attacks will happen,” he said. “We only have two choices: either we ﬁght back or we run.” For many Israelis, the killings were further evidence that France is becoming hostile territory for Jews and proof that the authorities there are unable to protect them. But French Ecology Minister Segolene Royal, who was representing Paris at the funeral, sought to reassure the Jewish community. “The grief is profound, the families are broken,” top French Jewish official Joel Merghi said. — AFP

EMOTIONAL TRIBUTE

France will never yield to terrorism, says Hollande PARIS: President Francois Hollande vowed on Tuesday that France would “never yield” to terror in an emotional tribute to three police officers shot dead in an extremist killing spree. Home to Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim communities, France was shaken to the core by its bloodiest attacks in decades, which began when gunmen opened ﬁre at the Charlie Hebdo editorial meeting in its Paris ofﬁces on Wednesday and ended in a bloody hostage drama at a Jewish supermarket two days later. Seventeen people, including journalists, policemen, a black policewoman, Muslims and Jews lost their lives. The supermarket killer, Amedy Coulibaly, and the Charlie Hebdo gunmen, Said and Cherif Kouachi, were killed in quick succession in two police blitzes on Friday. “Our great and beautiful France will never break, will never yield, never bend” in the face of the extremist threat that is “still there, inside and outside” the country, said Hollande, surrounded by weeping families and uniformed colleagues Two policemen, Franck Brinsolaro, 49 and Muslim officer Ahmed Merabet, 40, were killed during the attack on Charlie Hebdo. The third police officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe, 26, originally from the French Caribbean island of Martinique, was gunned down by Coulibaly the next day when she arrived at the scene of a car accident in which he was involved. Many believe he was on his way to a nearby Jewish school. “They died so that we could live in freedom,” Hollande said at a solemn ceremony at the Paris police headquarters. Prime Minister Manuel Valls was to address parliament on the country’s response to the terror threat, as attention turns to security failings that allowed men known to anti-terror police to slip through the cracks. Valls has admitted there were “clear failings” after it emerged that the Kouachi brothers had been known to French intelligence agents and been on a US terror watch list “for years”. The brothers carried out the

They died so that we could live in freedom Francois Hollande French President Charlie Hebdo attack before leading security forces on a massive manhunt that climaxed at a small printing business outside Paris where they took the manager hostage. Police gunned them down after they ran out of the building spraying bullets in a final act of defiance. Coulibaly, who on Friday took hostages at the kosher supermarket, killing four before being shot down in a dramatic police assault, claimed he had coordinated his acts with the brothers. The repeat criminal offender had also been convicted for extremist activity and swore allegiance to the IS group. As investigators hunted for those who may have assisted the killers, images of Coulibaly’s wanted partner Hayat Boumeddiene emerged at Istanbul airport accompanied by an unidentified man. She is believed to have entered Turkey before the attacks and went on to Syria. “We think there are in fact probably accomplices,” Valls told French radio. “The hunt will go on.” Frenchman arrested In Bulgaria it emerged a Frenchman arrested on January 1 trying to cross into Turkey was in contact with Cherif Kouachi. France has been on high alert for several months over its citizens who go to fight alongside IS extremists in Iraq and Syria, some of whom have been pictured in grisly execution videos. Valls also said 1,400 people were known to have left to fight in Syria and Iraq, or were planning to do so. Seventy French citizens have died there. — AFP

A12

TIMES O F O MAN

W E D NE S DAY, JA N UA RY 14, 2 015

COMMEN ARY ISO 9001:2008

Certified Company

Founder: Essa bin Mohammed Al Zedjali Chairman and Editor-in-Chief: Mohamed Issa Al Zadjali Deputy Editor-in-Chief: Anees bin Essa Al Zedjali Chief Executive Officer: Ahmed Essa Al Zedjali Editorial: 24726666, Fax: 24813153; E-mail: editor@timesofoman.com Advertising: 24726666, Fax: 24812624 Circulation: 24726600, Fax: 24818270; E-mail: circulation@timesofoman.com Printed and published by: Muscat Press & Publishing House P.O. Box 770, Ruwi, Postal Code: 112, Sultanate of Oman. Subscription: RO70 per year.

Choke ﬁrst and ask the questions later

he policy couldn’t be clearer: “Members of the New York City Police Department will not use chokeholds,” says section 20311 of the department’s Patrol Guide. But as last July’s fatal police assault on Eric Garner showed, reality is messier than the rule book — and more dangerous for civilians. A new report from the department’s inspector general, released on Monday, suggests that this muchreviled, supposedly disavowed tactic has never gone away; that officers sometimes use it as a first, not last, resort against those who verbally resist them; and that systems set up to investigate and punish those who abuse their power are unreliable and ineffective. For a citizenry that rightly demands professionalism and accountability from its armed officers, this is not reassuring. The report reviewed 10 cases between 2009 and June 2014 in which the Civilian Complaint Review Board substantiated accusations of officers’ using chokeholds. In nine of the cases, the review board recommended the most severe level of department discipline, called administrative charges, for the accused officers. But for all its efforts, the Civilian Complaint Review Board — a supposedly important layer of outsider oversight to protect the public from the police — might as well have been reporting to a brick wall. The report found that the Department Advocate’s Office, which until April 2013 was responsible for handling disciplinary cases involving the use of force, and the police commissioner at the time, Raymond Kelly, who had the ultimate authority over police punishment, had repeatedly rejected the board’s recommendations and decided to impose lesser penalties or none at all. The inspector general, Philip Eure, took pains to explain that the report was not comprehensive, just a beginning look at issues that may need improvement. But some problems seem obvious. The commissioner shouldn’t be able simply to brush away findings and recommendations from the Civilian Complaint Review Board — as Kelly did — without explanation. The public should see the reasons, in writing, when choke holders are let off the hook. The department also needs to improve and reinforce its training right now, so that officers never respond to verbal provocations by immediately lunging for the neck. When the City Council created the police inspector general’s office in 2013, critics deplored the move as another needless layer of meddling. But anything that adds clarity to the opaque and seemingly arbitrary process of police discipline is a welcome improvement. Eure promises to follow up with a deeper examination of concerns involving the use of force. He is also examining patterns of low-level arrests and summonses — an urgent topic this month with the cops’ undeclared walkout in their union’s battle with Mayor Bill de Blasio — as well as surveillance of religious and political groups and encounters involving people with mental illness. He should keep the reports coming, because transparency and accountability are the way to repair the public’s shaken confidence in its Police Department. - The New York Times News Service

WASHINGTON WATCH

Do away with all the illusions about Syria JAMES J. ZOGBY

Surging violence

he plight of women in Balochistan is particularly sorry in the wake of a decades-old insurgency, much underdevelopment and widespread crime. In 2014, 75 women were killed in the name of ‘honour’ in Balochistan, a figure significantly higher than the previous year when it was put at 45. Five fell victim to acid attacks, 21 committed suicide due to domestic circumstances and others were subjected to violence of other kinds. The growth in the rate of violence is, of course, disturbing, but we should remember this could also be due to the fact that across the country, more women and their families are stepping forward to report such cases rather than covering them up. Nevertheless, there is clearly a need to act to change the order of things. According to the Aurat Foundation, there has been a 24 per cent surge in violence against women in 2014 compared with the previous year. This is hardly a comforting statistic. There were 187 cases of violence against women recorded in Balochistan during the year, according to data compiled by monitoring input to police. Of course, many more cases could have gone unreported and almost certainly did. Protection mechanisms such as prompt action by police when they receive a complaint or warnings of a threat are one part in this. Another can be played by the government and the agencies working under it. They must find a way to empower women so that their status can be improved. The low status of women within households has repeatedly been found as a main cause of violence. This is linked to the capacity of women to earn and help support families. When they are put in a position where they can do so, their standing within families goes up as does the role allotted to them in decision-making. Education, then, is critical to this endeavour. We must focus on factors such as this, as well as the effort to move away from violence carried out in the name of tribal tradition. – The Express Tribune

Trams may look odd in a modern city like Muscat This refers to the news story, Council seeks tram service for Muscat (January 13). Start with something simple like really good bus service with nice modern buses, proper closed bus stops like those we have in the neighbouring countries that offer air condition comfort during summer and then think about laying down tracks for a tram system. In any case personally I think trams suit old historical cities better, we have too many fast moving roads and highways here. Trams would look odd in Muscat. Yolanda Elena Sevgen Muscat

Muscat is now in need of a good bus service This refers to the news story,

Council seeks tram service for Muscat (January 13). Public bus service is the need of the hour in Muscat. It will enable people to commute more easily and will offer a cheaper mode of transport. And later one can think of introducing Metro service. Muscat is an awesome city which lacks good public transport network. I hope soon the authorities will take necessary steps to resolve this problem and will introduce bus service sooner than later. Amita Nagpal Muscat

Even trams will not reduce the use of cars in Muscat This refers to the news story, Council seeks tram service for Muscat (January 13). Do we really think introduction of trams or any

It is imperative that we put aside fantasies about any side winning or, worse still, the notion that should they win peace and justice and democracy will reign over the land. The Syria of old is forever gone and a democracy will not easily emerge from the breakdown of the old order

t should be clear after four bloody years in Syria that if we are to make any progress moving forward, it is necessary to shed illusions and fantasies that have shaped too much of the discussion about the conflict. From the beginning, it was inevitable that this conflict, however it began, would morph into a proxy war. Calls for early US engagement ignored several realities. Those who assumed that the US merely had to supply more weapons to the opposition and that this, by itself, would have tipped the scales, are mistaken. The Russians, who had been burned by the USled effort in Libya, were unwilling to lose another strategic asset to the West. As a result, any increase in the capacity of the opposition to wage war against the regime, would only have accelerated Russian support for their ally in Damascus. Nor would more support for the Free Syrian Army have dissuaded others from taking the fight into an increasingly sectarian direction. Once this conflict began, it was preordained to become a sectarian, regional proxy war with a US-Russian overlay. Those who called for the US to become an active combatant, either through the use of US airpower to establish “no fly zones” or manpower to establish “humanitarian corridors”, also ignored political realities. Nearing the end of an eight year failed war in Iraq, the American public and military were war-weary and wary of any new engagements in the Middle East. In that setting, the President, Congress (despite the calls of a few “hawks”), and the public were loathe to commit to a new open-ended conflict. While advocates of US military action could propose tactics, they could not demonstrate how these added up to a winning strategy, or how engagement, at any level, would not end up dragging the US deeper into the conflict. Also ignored were the negative perceptions of the US in the Arab World. Our polling has consistently shown that US favourable ratings are extremely low in every country in the region. Syria’s opposition and US allies may have wanted us to militarily engage, but strong majorities, even among our closest Arab allies have expressed opposition to any US-led military intervention in Syria. As we have seen in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, whatever our intentions, the US operates on an extremely short leash in the region. Now it is true that Assad has lost legitimacy with many Syrians and that his behaviour has only sealed his fate with these constituencies. At the same time, there remains a substantial body of Syrians, including urban elites, Christians, Alawites, and other minority communities, who continue to see Assad as defending their security against an

READERS’ FORUM NEW INDIA ASSURANCE Protect your cash and valuables through New India’s MONEY INSURANCE POLICY. website: www.newindiaoman.com

If your head is wax, don’t walk in the sun BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

opposition whom they fear more than they fear the Ba’ath regime. Assad’s Ba’ath party is an ossified and corrupt clique and his regime operates more like a military junta than a government. For its part, the opposition is dispersed and dysfunctional and includes too many armed elements—and not just the groups who are listed as “terrorists” that are decidedly dangerous sectarians. It is important to recognise, what should have been clear from the beginning, that Syrians are a deeply divided polity. With both sides painting their situation in stark Armageddon-like terms, there could be no military solution that would have forced unity. As the Lebanese learned after a decade and a half of bloody civil war, the only solution was one that had “no victor and no vanquished”. In the end, hard compromises had to made as sworn enemies begrudgingly reconciled to accepting a new governing formula. Given this, it is imperative that we put aside fantasies about any side winning or, worse still, the notion that should they win peace and justice and democracy will reign over the land. The Syria of old is forever gone and a democracy will not easily emerge from the breakdown of the old order. The best we can hope for, four years into this conflict, is that efforts be made to tamp down the killing on all sides. The Syrian Observatory records that the regime and the opposition can take near even credit for the deaths of their countrymen. Defenders of the regime who point the finger of blame solely on the “terrorists”, ignored their use of lethal weapons, barrel bombs, and infliction of mass starvation. Since this conflict includes elements of a civil war, a struggle to end dictatorial rule, a regional proxy war, and now a campaign against terrorist groups who have seized control of parts of the country, the way forward must address all of these while recognising that in the end the solution must be political. While it is right for the US to lead a coalition effort against the IS, this bombing campaign cannot, by itself, defeat the terrorist’s “entity” and absent a political strategy could end up exacerbating the problem. For example, should the US be seen as allying itself with the regime in Damascus or the still unreformed government in Baghdad or, worse still, with Iran, US actions will not allay the fears of those Arabs who already fear that they may pay the price for US negotiations with powers they are not comfortable with. The author is the President of Arab American Institute. All the views and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of Times of Oman.

other mode of public transports will be able to break the strong connection existing between man and car here in Oman? Here cars are things to show, not to use. That is why we often see one person per car. In Oman the concept of “community” is still weak. At the ﬁrst occasion (that could be a simple “give the way”) the “me ﬁrst” spreads out suddenly. Gorigeo Parpuni Muscat

Trams may notbe able to solve Muscat’s traffic woes This refers to the news story, Council seeks tram service for Muscat (January 13). Introduction of trams, I am afraid, may not really come handy in easing Muscat’s traffic gridlocks. On the contrary, it will add to the problem.

Then, there will be an unnecessary expenditure in laying the tracks for trams. In many cities trams tracks are often accused for damaging roads and slowing down the speed of other vehicles. Many cities are now seriously considering to do away with trams. I personally think it will be better if the civic authorities will consider plying more public buses in Muscat. Eric Stromayer Qurum

Introduction of trams in Muscat is not a bad idea Introduction of trams in Muscat may offer us a kind of substitute of trains. Not a bad idea. I am looking forward to it. Sajeer Ali Azaiba

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

T I M E S OF OMAN

WE DNE SDAY, JANUARY 14, 2015

A13

PERSPEC IVE Bucket list for Obama-Modi Republic Day Summit T

he critical area of strategic partnership between India and the United States is to explore the possibility of broadening the defence engagement, especially engaging in coproduction and co-development defence projects. And this will certainly dominate the discussions during the US President Barack Obama’s forthcoming visit to India. This would transition the defence trade beyond the ‘buyer-seller’ arrangement to substantial coproduction and, eventually, joint research and development of cutting-edge technology. But as Russia continues to remain India’s biggest defence providers, the US would be increasingly cautious of committing any revolutionary defence ties with India. Raising the FDI cap in the defence sector has cleared the policy impediments, allowing greater participation of US private sector with resources and new-age technologies to partner with Indian counterpart to jointly develop defence equipment and system. The policy measure is anticipated to enhance the high-end manufacturing capability of Indian companies and modernize the defence industry in India. But there are some strenuous issue such as intellectual-property right, sensitive technology transfer and end-use monitoring to deal with. However some deﬁning and forward-looking announcement, in this direction, are on the offing. This visit would push the scope and content of Indo-US military ties beyond exchange visits and joint military exercise. India wants to see a reformed UN Security Council that includes India as a permanent member. Prime Minister Modi would once again reiterate India’s long-standing demand and look for an endorsement from the US again. This would be a genuine reﬂection of the Asian country’s growing global weight and its challenge to rival China. The UN seat is a pipe dream of India and face resistance from China. Russia also has refrained from being too vocal of India’s inclusion in the big boys’ club. Obama is expected to toe a mid-path and broadly endorse the proposal, without committing to a stringent timeline, as it may irk Pakistan, China and few others. There are sceptics within the US camp against India’s inclusion, as India has often stood against the US in key UN votes around critical issues concerning to Iran, Russia and Sri Lanka. Afghanistan imbroglio is sure to make the cut in the scheme of things lined up for Indo-US dia-

SUJEET SARKAR PART -2

The UN seat is a pipe dream of India and face resistance from China. Russia also has refrained from being too vocal of India’s inclusion in the big boys’ club. Obama is expected to toe a mid-path and broadly endorse the proposal

logue. The US is worried about Afghanistan with the withdrawal of Nato forces, post 2014. President Obama would like to excite India to explore a more aggressive role in rebuilding Afghanistan, after the departure of Nato forces. India has employed a development kitty of almost 2 billion USD in Afghan projects including roads and power infrastructure, a huge grant, even by international standards. India is the largest civilian donor in Afghanistan, after US and Japan. Besides civilian assistance, India has also extended soft military support to Afghanistan, in terms of training Afghan military forces in India. In addition to the long-standing historic and cultural ties, India’s development forays in Afghanistan have generated tremendous popular and political goodwill in the country beleaguered with terrorism and civil strife, spanning over decades. In order to tap the growing popularity of India, US would aim to influence India to broaden their scope of military engagement in Afghanistan. Similar request has been flowing from the incumbent Afghan government too. In all probability, India would expand their soft military roles, but refrain from sending any in-situ machine and military support. Other trendy topics like global warming, climate change and global trade arrangement will find their due place in the proposed dialogue. The two heads of the state would also focus on a wide range of regional issues, including, Syria, Iraq, and Ukraine, where India and the US can work together towards far-reaching positive outcomes. Last but not the least, they would be expediting the process and arrangement of sharing intelligence on terror network, for the mutual benefit of both the countries. And the dialogue would most probably end with a surreptitious nudge to kickstart the stalled India-Pakistan dialogue. An Indo-US relationship requires re-balancing and the long-standing ties are due for a make-over in a rapidly changing Asian strategic landscape. This may emerge as the defining partnership of the 21st century as envisioned by Obama during his India visit in 2010. Concluded... The writer is an author and works as an international advisor on governance and civil society. All the views and opinions expressed in the article are solely of the author and do not reflect those of Times of Oman.

It is an act of outrageous cruelty A few months ago, I wrote about the sad phenomenon of the dolphinarium, the aquarium that houses performing dolphins — a zoological craze which swept the world at the end of the 1960s after the immense success of the US TV series Flipper. By 1972, in Britain alone there were 36 of them, delighting audiences at the expense of the misery of the animals themselves, which in the wild might swim 100 miles a day, but were now conﬁned for life to tanks a few metres across. I saw one myself in what was then Windsor Safari Park, huddled at the bottom of its narrow concrete pen, the most obviously depressed animal I had ever seen, and I was convinced from that moment that keeping dolphins in captivity was wholly wrong. Well, in the UK, dolphinariums faded away — the last British one closed its doors in 1993. But there are still more than 2,000 dolphins held in captive facilities around the world, and the main supplier of these animals is a small port in south-west Japan called Taiji, where for six months of each year, from September to February, a group of about 50 ﬁshermen organise hunting “drives”, which herd schools of wild dolphins towards

MICHAEL MCCARTHY

the coast, where they are netted. There, some animals are selected for sale to dolphinariums across the world; but what happens to the remainder, the vast majority, hundreds and hundreds of them, is much worse. Driven into a small, secluded cove, they are slaughtered for their meat by being stabbed repeatedly with spears as they struggle in the nets holding them, until the cove itself runs bright red with their blood. It is immensely, egregiously cruel, and the ﬁshermen who do it had carefully kept it secret for many years. But it was brilliantly — and heartbreakingly — exposed in 2009 by a team of American environmentalists who, in a cloakand-dagger operation of great ingenuity and daring, captured it all on hidden cameras. The resulting ﬁlm, entitled, The Cove, was so powerful and moving that it won the Oscar for Best Documentary in 2010, and the barbaric cruelty involved was broadcast around the world. You might think the Japanese government would be embarrassed, and might even act to outlaw these activities — but not a bit of it. The Taiji dolphin hunt and the Taiji dolphin slaughter continue vigorously to this day.

In recent years we have become ever more aware of how intelligent and special dolphins are, not just through some exceptional encounters with people, but by the proliferation of scientiﬁc research which has shown, for example, that they have “signature whistles” in their communications — in effect, personal names — raising the possibility that they may have consciousness. They clearly have close and intense social groups. The slaughter of dolphins at Taiji is as foul and heartless and revolting a spectacle as it is possible to imagine. So you might like to know that there is a mass protest against it planned for this coming Saturday — 17 January — in central London, organised by the green group Care for the Wild — a lunchtime march from Cavendish Square to Trafalgar Square. Care for the Wild’s Philip Mansbridge said that the ﬁshermen’s defence that the drives are “cultural” was not valid: “Turning the sea blood red and leaving dolphins to drown amongst their pod is not culture, it’s cruelty,” he said. “Plucking the cutest dolphins out of the pod and selling them for $150,000 is not culture, it’s capitalism.”. - The Independent

Sunanda’s death: Mystery deepens

OOMMEN KURUVILLA

ew twists and turns are emerging over Sunanda Pushkar’s death pretty much on a daily basis. Much as they are not jaw-dropping, they stack up to turn out into a riveting story of love, romance, spars and death (or who knows, murder). To say that Sunanda’s husband Congress MP and storied author Sashi Tharoor finds himself in a pretty pickle is a bit of an understatement. Of course, if he is innocent he has nothing to fear. Even so, the tidal wave of media debate and the crush of mediapersons wherever he goes should be exasperating for him. Hardly three months after the mystery death of his wife in a posh hotel in the capital, Tharoor found himself in the thick of the parliamentary poll campaign. Although it was a big ask for him to contest from the prestigious Thiruvananthapuram constituency, he got second wind and fought the poll and won. It is expected, therefore, that he would try his best to weather the storm triggered by the death of Sunanda, his third wife. It is often whispered in media circles that he has a way with women who he can charm in no time. He is said to have been romantically linked to quite a few fetching women. He is baby-faced, suave, articulate and corkingly goodlooking while Sunanda was drop-dead gorgeous but extremely sensitive. If reports are right, her moods used to swing like a pendulum. Tharoor’s controversial, romantic tweets with a Pakistani journalist, Mehre Tarar, had inflicted heavy damage on his relationship with Sunanda. The latter had taken a dim view of it and what followed was said to be an avalanche of outrage. Tharoor’s aide Narayan Singh’s mentioning, under police grilling, of a lady called ‘Kati’ is set to provide spice as well as a new twist to the whole story. To be sure, Tharoor will have to reveal her identity and the back-story, if any, involving this lady to the sleuths. The report that two unidentified persons with fake passports stayed around the

same time in the hotel where Sunanda was found dead has provided a whole new lead to crack the mystery. The question is whether their stay had had anything to do with the IPL (Indian Premier League) cricket controversy over which Tharoor had to step down as a union minister. According to Nalini Singh, her friend and scribe, Sunanda told her, the day before her death, that Tharoor would be “finished” as she was going to reveal the truth about the IPL controversy. She apparently told her that she had been covering up for him. The police say that there is nothing to link the IPL controversy to her death, as of now. Even so, we can expect investigations proceeding in this line as well, especially in the light of the two unidentified men’s stay in the hotel. In the two days prior to her death the couple sparred heavily apparently over his relationship with Tarar. Reports say that the couple fought even on the flight as they were travelling to Delhi from Kerala. She, it seemed, refused to go to Tharoor’s residence but checked into a luxury hotel, instead. The police say that the 15 injuries found on her body were not serious enough to cause her death. The latest medical report suggests that it was lethal poison like Polonium-210 which caused her death. Her viscera sample is being sent to a London lab as Indian labs do not have the facility to detect certain kinds of poison. So, was it a murder? The police now say so on the basis of the medical report, but not conclusively. If it was, who killed her? Did Tharoor have a role in it? If not, who are the culprits? Who pressured Dr Sudhir Gupta of AIIMS to make a tailor-made report, as he alleged, last year? Answers to these posers are not easy to come by. Some people are of the view that Tharoor’s praising, albeit oblique, of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was to get the government to soft-pedal the Sunanda issue if it spiralled out of control. He was promptly made an ambassador of Modi’s ‘Swachch Bharat’ agenda which he accepted without asking for his party’s permission. Congress considers the whole thing his personal issue. It is not perturbed at all. Even if it is proved that Tharoor has something to do with his wife’s death, it could then press the eject button saying enough is enough with a ‘pro-BJP guy’. The writer is a freelance contributor based in India. All the views and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of Times of Oman.

Dark side of China’s food and drug industry 1 Jun 2007, Jiangsu Province Toothpaste exported to Latin America found to contain diethylene glycol – chemical used in anti-freeze

9 Apr, Guangdong Officials seize 16 tonnes of meat tainted with sodium borate.

2 Sep 2008, Hebei Province Baby formula laced with melamine to make milk appear to have higher protein content – kills six babies and sickens 300,000 others Beijing 3 4 5 6

Feb 2011, Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, ZhejiangHebei Province Milk producers switch from using melamine to adding chemical waste from tanning industry. Waste includes leather proteins, chromium, sodium and potassium dichromate

2 3

10 Apr-Sep 2011, 11 Chongqing, 12 Shanghai, Zhejiang Officials seize so-called gutter oil – ﬁltered waste from restaurant drains sold as cooking oil

5 15 13 Mar 2013, Jinan 14 Shanghai, Zhejiang 1 7 More than 11,000 11 13 Shanghai 151617 dead animals found 10 6 1214 in Shanghai’s Huangpu river 400km Taiwan 9 15 Jan 2014, Shandong Hong Kong Walmart recalls its Five Spice donkey meat after tests ﬁnd product contains DNA of fox meat 4

TODAY IN HISTORY 1236 1526

Francis of France, held captive by Charles V for a year, signs the Treaty of Madrid, giving up most of his claims in France and Italy.

1797

Napoleon Bonaparte defeats Austrians at Rivoli in northern Italy.

1858

Emperor Napoleon and Empress Eugenie escape unhurt after an Italian assassin throws a bomb at their carriage as they travel to the Paris Opera.

CHINA

7 Mar 2011, Henan Hundreds of people hospitalized after animal farmers feed animals with steroid clenbuterol to speed up muscle growth and produce meat 8 Apr, Liaoning Forty tonnes of bean sprouts found to be treated with carcinogenic chemicals Source: Shanghai Securities News, China News Service

Graphic News /

1915

The French abandon ﬁve miles of trenches to the Germans near Soissons.

HISTORYNET.COM Graphics

FROM OUR ARCHIVES CELEBRATIONS TO MARK ROP DAY TODAY

16 Jul, Shanghai Husi Food found to be selling expired chicken & beef to McDonald’s and KFC 17 Jan 2015, Shanghai 110 people arrested,for selling $16 million of meat from diseased animals

Henry III marries Eleanor of Provence.

OPINION POLL

MUSCAT: The Royal Oman Police is celebrating ‘ROP Day’ today at all its commands, directorates, and units. It is a day for reviewing the achievements of the force, which strives to cope with the civilized leap forward by the Sultanate, thanks to the directives of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, supreme commander of the police, an ROP notiﬁcation said yesterday. The achievements of ROP are outstanding. It has succeeded in maintaining the security of the nation, which is steaming ahead towards modernisation in training and services.

Do you think introduction of trams in Muscat will reduce the city’s traffic load? Visit timesofoman.com to cast your vote

LAST POLL RESULT Yes

86.5%

13.5%

Do you think it is time now to leverage Oman’s natural beauty to boost tourism?

A 14

W E D NE S DAY, JA N UA RY 14, 2 015

GLOBAL EYE

SCAN THIS QR CODE TO INSTANTLY VISIT

PHOTO GALLERY W W W.T I M E S O F O M A N .C O M

DAKAR RALLY 2015: Riders compete during 2015 Dakar Rally stage 8 between Uyuni, Bolivia and Iquique, Chile, on Monday. – AFP

AFGHANISTAN: An internally displaced Afghan girl plays near their shelter at a refugee camp in Kabul, on Tuesday. – Reuters

CHINA: A woman views an exhibition called ‘Oh! Future Sensation’ as part of Saint-Gobain’s 350th anniversary celebrations in Shang-

hai, China, on Tuesday. – Reuters

SINGAPORE: Cast members perform during a media preview for the musical ‘Cats’ at Marina Bay

Sands theatre in Singapore on Tuesday. Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s musical ‘Cats’ makes a return to Singapore and is showing from last Friday to February 1 at the Marina Bay Sands theatre. – AFP

VIETNAM: A woman buys ornamental ﬁsh on the street in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Tuesday. – Reuters

THAILAND: Fish seen inside an abandoned department store in Bangkok, Thailand, on Tuesday. Thousands of fish such as catfish, fancy carps as well as black and red tilapias were released into the ground floor of the building, flooded with rainwater, as local vendors tried to control mosquitoes in the area, local media reported. BMA recently decided to remove the fish and release the water. – Reuters

GAZA STRIP: A camel runs across a street at the Erez crossing into Israel in Beit Hanun in the north of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. – AFP

CHINA: A waterbird swims in a canal bearing the reﬂection of trees in Beijing, China on Tuesday. – Reuters

WE DNE SDAY, JANUARY 14, 2015 My government is promoting peace and friendship among our people after overcoming a cruel terrorist conﬂict Maithripala Sirisena, President, Sri Lanka

A15

WORLD

Pope Francis urges Sri Lanka to uncover truth about its civil war Rajapaksa denies coup allegations

Pontiff echoes new president’s call for war inquiry, carries message of inter-faith dialogue

COLOMBO: Pope Francis called on Sri Lanka to uncover the truth about its long civil conﬂict and bring religious communities closer together, as he began a visit to the island nation whose wartime leaders were voted out of power only days ago. Francis, 78, looked tired at an evening meeting of Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Christian leaders, and earlier on Tuesday he cancelled a meeting with bishops after a long ﬂight from the Vatican and a sun-baked ride in a jeep along packed roads from the airport. Soon after landing in Sri Lanka, he appeared to make the case for a truth commission to investigate the 26-year civil war, an election pledge of the government voted into office on Thursday. “The process of healing also needs to include the pursuit of truth, not for the sake of opening old wounds, but rather as a necessary means of promoting justice, healing and unity,” he said, draped in a long garland of yellow and white roses. Chimed The Pope’s comments chimed with his readiness to address contemporary political and economic issues. The Vatican played a key role in the recent breakthrough in US-Cuban relations, and, in comments made before he began his trip to Asia, Francis also said he was keen for North and South Ko-

PLEA FOR UNITY: Pope Francis, centre, waves to the crowd from the popemobile in Colombo on Tuesday. – AFP/Osservatore Romano

rea to resume their dialogue. Francis spoke ﬁrst at Bandaranaike international airport, where he was met by President Maithripala Sirisena, troupes of dancers and a children’s choir. Sirisena said the visit was a blessing for his new government. The pontiff departed past a long line of costumed elephants, reaching their trunks towards his white jeep, which brieﬂy came to a halt surrounded by crowds lining the road. The motorcade’s slow progress through the tropical heat took its toll. “Due to the hot sun he could not go,” Sri Lankan Church spokesman Cyril Gamini said of the bishops’ meeting. The Pope later met

the president as scheduled. Francis is the ﬁrst pope to visit Sri Lanka in 20 years. Pope Francis had ﬁrst-hand experience of civil strife as a priest in his native Argentina during its ‘Dirty War’. A subsequent 50,000page truth report revealed shocking details of kidnappings, rape and torture by the military junta. On Thursday, Francis will head to the Philippines as part of a trip aimed at shoring up the Church’s presence in developing nations. The week-long tour is his second to Asia. The Pope carried a message of inter-faith dialogue, chiming with the new government’s push for religious harmony. “My government

is promoting peace and friendship among our people after overcoming a cruel terrorist conﬂict,” Sirisena said. However, Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of Human Rights Watch, was doubtful the new government would agree to a UN inquiry into the end of the war, preferring a domestic-led probe. Sirisena was acting defence minister as the war wound up. “Sirisena has also said he is not going to back an international investigation,” said Ganguly. About 70 per cent of Sri Lankans are Buddhists. Hindus make up about 13 per cent and Muslims 10 per cent. Catholics are about 7 per cent, split between ethnic Sinhalese

and Tamils. Francis will canonize Sri Lanka’s ﬁrst Catholic saint on Wednesday, and visit a pilgrimage site that was shelled in 1999. Francis called for a more inclusive society in Sri Lanka, in comments that seemed directed at former president and wartime leader Mahinda Rajapaksa, who lost office after a resurgence in religious tensions and anger at alleged corruption. “The great work of rebuilding must embrace improving infrastructures and meeting material needs, but also, and even more importantly, promoting human dignity, respect for human rights, and the full inclusion of each member of society,” he said. — Reuters

COLOMBO: Colombo: Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapaksa on Tuesday denied government allegations that he attempted a coup to remain in office after it became clear that he had lost last week’s election. In comments published on Twitter as Pope Francis landed on the island, Rajapaksa insisted he had readily accepted “the people’s verdict” in what was his first reaction to last Thursday’s polls. Top aides of new President Maithripala Sirisena have alleged the veteran strongman tried to cling to power in the early hours of Friday by urging the island’s army and police chiefs to deploy the security forces. Denial But Rajapaksa wrote: “I deny in all possible terms reports of attempts to use the military to influence election results.” “I accepted the outcome long before the final official results were released and congratulated the new president,” he said. The 69-year-old, who came to power in a 2005 presidential election, added that he had “always bowed down to the people’s verdict”. — AFP

A 16

W E D NE S DAY, JA N UA RY 14, 2 015

WORLD

Tablet lovers add dd us on Google +

Cockpit voice recorder of crashed jet retrieved

RISING TENSIONS

Khaleda adviser shot in Dhaka DHAKA: A former Bangladeshi minister and an adviser to opposition leader Khaleda Zia was on Tuesday shot by unidentiﬁed attackers who also set his car on ﬁre. Reaz Rahman, the former state minister for foreign affairs, was shot when he was on his way back home from Khaleda’s office at Gulshan area here, Shamsuddin Didar of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, said. The attackers shot at his car in front of the Westin Hotel, The Daily Star reported.

Divers lifted the second black box to the surface and took it to the navy warship Banda Aceh, said the head the National

Four bullets Reaz was rushed to the United Hospital in Gulshan where physicians said he received four bullets in the backside of his waist and left leg. Reaz had gone to meet Khaleda, who has been conﬁned to her office for the last 11 days. Lutful Kabir, deputy police commissioner of Gulshan division,

Transport Safety Committee, which will investigate the accident

PANGKALAN BUN (INDONESIA): Indonesian divers on Tuesday retrieved the cockpit voice recorder from the wreckage of an AirAsia plane that crashed into the Java Sea as the airline’s boss vowed to overcome the “toughest times” he has known. It came a day after the plane’s other black box, the flight data recorder, was recovered. The devices should give investigators vital information about what caused the accident. Flight QZ8501 went down on December 28 in stormy weather as it flew from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore with 162 people on board. Just 48 bodies have so far been recovered, with many believed to be in the main section of the fuselage, which has not yet been found. Indonesia’s meteorological agency has said bad weather likely caused the Airbus A320-200 to crash but a definitive answer is impossible without the data recorders. Rescuers have faced

SCAN THIS TO INSTANTLY ADD IN GOOGLE+

Reaz Rahman, the former state minister for foreign affairs, was shot when he was on his way back home from Khaleda’s office

said they were trying to arrest the attackers. Khaleda’s BNP has been unrelenting over the massive street protest launched to mark the ﬁrst anniversary of the controversial January 5 elections it had boycotted demanding a neutral caretaker government to oversee the polls. — PTI

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: Indonesian soldiers with the cockpit voice recorder of AirAsia QZ8501 at Iskandar airbase in Pangkalan Bun, Central Kalimantan, on Tuesday. — Reuters/Prasetyo Utomo/Antara Foto

a lengthy, difficult search often hampered by bad weather but a breakthrough came at the weekend when they finally detected “ping” signals from the black boxes. On Tuesday divers lifted the second black box to the surface and took it to the navy warship Banda Aceh, said Tatang Kurniadi, head the National Transport Safety Committee, which will investigate the accident. “100 per cent of the things we need are now in our hands,” he told reporters. The device had been about 32 metres (105 feet) under water, buried under wreckage. It was not far from the first black box but took longer to retrieve as it was trapped under the remains of the aircraft. The device was brought to Pangkalan Bun town, the search headquarters, before being transferred to a plane and flown to

Jakarta. Officials say both black boxes are in good condition. The flight data recorder holds a wealth of information on many of the plane’s instruments, while the cockpit voice recorder stores radio transmissions and sounds in the cockpit. Both are located near the rear of the plane and designed to survive underwater. Main body missing Authorities have said their priority is now to find the main body of the jet. Officials have said in recent days that a sonar scan has shown a large object that could be the fuselage but divers have not managed to reach the area to confirm what it is. “We will still look for the main body, hopefully we can find it,” Rear Admiral Widodo, the commander of the navy’s western fleet, told reporters. - AFP The accident is the first major

setback for Malaysia-based AirAsia, which has enjoyed a 13-year run of success. In a message to customers, flamboyant boss Tony Fernandes said that “the past few weeks have been the most difficult weeks of my life since starting AirAsia”. But he pledged to get through the crisis: “Even in our toughest times, we will continue to be the world’s best and be better for you.” In another positive development for the investigation, divers on Tuesday spotted one of the aircraft’s engines, which has a control unit that records data about performance, said Nurcahyo Utomo, from the transport committee. The flight data recorder was flown to Jakarta on Monday night. The transport committee said the black boxes would undergo a lengthy analysis in the capital after the data is downloaded, which would take about a week. — AFP

FIDEL WRITES TO MARADONA Former Argentinian football player Diego Maradona is seen holding a letter sent to him by former Cuban President Fidel Castro, on Monday, in Havana. Maradona is in the island to shoot a TV programme. Fidel Castro has written a letter to Argentine football great Diego Maradona that appears to show the 88-year-old Cuban leader is alive despite a year-long absence from public view, a television network reported on Monday. — AFP

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM W EDN ES DAY, JAN UARY 14 , 2015

MARKE

SCAN THIS QR CODE TO INSTANTLY LAUNCH THE VIDEO

DIGEST VIDEO Top stories in one minute with our new daily Digest

Muscat 6,369.64 - 69.27 - 1.08%

Dubai 3,814.54 + 65.17 + 1.74%

Abu Dhabi 4,510.06 + 60.63 + 1.36%

Saudi Arabia

8,491.68 + 54.97 + 0.65%

Kuwait 6,572.23 + 11.21 + 0.17%

Bahrain 1,422.23 - 8.01 - 0.56%

Qatar 11,936.58 + 24.89 + 0.21%

CRUDE OIL PRICE

CURRENCY RATES*

DRAFT RATES (OMR1)*

GOLD PRICES*

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

Forex rates vs OMR1* US Dollar ................................. 2.58 Euro .............................................2.16 Pound ........................................... 1.70 Indian Rs ............................. 161.00 Pak Rs .....................................257.14 Bangla Taka.......................199.40

Indian Rs .................................... 161.15 Pakistan Rs ............................ 260.40 Sri Lanka Rs ...........................342.45 Bangla Taka............................ 201.80 Phil Peso .................................... 115.85

Muscat 24ct per gm (OMR) .......15.80

Oman Crude............. (Spot) ........ $43.67 Dubai Crude ............. (Spot) .........$44.17 Murban Crude ........ (Spot) .........$45.91 Arabian Light ......... (Spot) ........$46.33 N.Sea Brent............... (Spot) ........$45.80 West Texas Int ....... (Spot) .........$44.61

* Rates are as of Jan. 13 Source: Bank Muscat

* Rates as of Jan. 13 Source: Oman UAE Exchange

Muscat 22ct per gm (OMR) .......15.20 Dubai 24ct per gm (Dh) ............ 149.75 Dubai 22ct per gm (Dh) ............ 142.00 * Rates as of Jan. 13 Source: Malabar Gold & Diamonds

Subsidy estimate declines by 18.5%, further drop expected This was partly due to a 50% plunge in crude prices in the international markets and a cut in subsidy for natural gas supplied to industries within industrial estates

A E JAMES

businesseditor@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: Oman’s total subsidy projection for the current year substantially fell by 18.5 per cent to OMR1,310 million, from OMR1,608 million estimate for last year. This was partly due to a 50 per cent plunge in crude oil prices in

the international markets and a reduction in subsidy for natural gas supplied to industries located within industrial estates. Among various sectors, subsidy estimate for petroleum products showed a OMR280 million fall at OMR580 million in 2015, against an estimate of as high as OMR860 million for last year. According to analysts, this is due to narrowing down of gap between international crude price and the price at which crude oil is sold within the country for domestic consumption. A government official last year said that the state gets only 30-35 per cent of international crude oil price, if the oil is used for domestic consumption. So, any decline in international oil price naturally narrows down the subsidy component for petroleum products. The subsidy for petroleum products may come down further since the oil prices declined further (by 30 per cent) from the time budget was prepared ($60 per barrel) and now (around $44 per barrel). Also, Oman government has doubled the price of natural gas supplied to industries, which will help the government to reduce subsidies for

Procurement Company (OPWP). Oman government’s total subsidy and other expenses grew by 8 per cent to OMR2,048 million in 2013, which was mainly driven by subsidy on petroleum products and electricity. Subsidy on petroleum products alone soared 11.1 per cent to OMR1,119.1 million in 2013.

MAJOR COMPONENT: Among various sectors, subsidy for petroleum products showed a OMR280 million fall at OMR580 million in 2015. — Bloomberg ﬁle picture

natural gas. However, according to an estimate, the total additional income from natural gas price revision will be to the tune of OMR15 million from listed companies. Considering the additional revenue from non-listed companies, it will not be substantial.

Another major component is electricity subsidy, which showed a marginal 2.9 per cent or OMR8 million growth — to OMR280 million from OMR272 million. This

PERFORMANCE

REVENUE DROP: Total revenue also showed a 9.2 per cent fall — from OMR58.50 million to OMR53.11 million during the period under review. — Times ﬁle picture

Salalah port net earnings decline 5% to OMR5.38m Times News Service MUSCAT: Salalah Port Services on Tuesday said its net proﬁt after tax declined by ﬁve per cent to OMR5.38 million for 2014, from OMR5.66 million for the previous year.

Total revenue also showed a 9.2 per cent fall — from OMR58.50 million to OMR53.11 million during the period under review, according to initial unaudited resulted posted by Salalah Port Services on Muscat Securities Market (MSM) website.

The port handled 3.03 million twenty equivalent units (TEUs) in 2014, against 3.34 million TEUs for the previous year. However, the port handled 10.31 million tonnes of general cargo against 7.94 million tonnes in the previous year.

OIL MARKET

Crude prices slide below $45 LONDON: Oil extended losses to trade below $45 a barrel amid speculation that US crude stockpiles will increase, exacerbating a global supply glut that’s driven prices to the lowest in more than 5 1/2 years. Futures fell as much as 4.1 per cent in New York, declining for a third day. Crude inventories probably gained by 1.75 million barrels last week, a Bloomberg News survey showed before government data on Wednesday. The United Arab Emirates, a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), will continue to expand output capacity, while shale drillers will probably be the ﬁrst to curb production as prices fall, according to Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei. Oil slumped almost 50 per cent last year, the most since the 2008 ﬁnancial crisis, as the US pumped at

the fastest rate in more than three decades and Opec resisted calls to cut production. Goldman Sachs Group said crude needs to drop to $40 a barrel to “re-balance” the market, while Societe Generale also reduced its price forecasts.

Free-fall “Prices continue to free-fall and there is little that can stop them,” Amrita Sen, chief analyst at consultants Energy Aspects in London, said in a report. “Opec remains the only factor that can stabilise markets in the short term. But with the group out of the picture, the market is looking elsewhere for a tangible reaction.” West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for February delivery decreased as much as $1.87 to $44.20 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest since April

2009. The contract was at $44.83 at 12:11pm London time. The volume of all futures traded was more than double the 100-day average for the time of day. Brent for February settlement slid as much as $2.24, or 4.7 per cent, to $45.19 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark crude’s premium to WTI shrank to as little as 79 cents, the narrowest since July 2013. US crude stockpiles probably rose to 384.1 million barrels in the week ended on January 9, according to the median estimate in the Bloomberg survey of six analysts before the Energy Information Administration’s report. Supplies have climbed to almost 8 percent above the ﬁve-year average level for this time of year, data from the Energy Department’s statistical arm show. - Bloomberg News

subsidy projection is made after taking into account the projected growth in demand for power. Oman’s average annual growth in power demand for the next seven years within the areas of main inter-connected system (MIS) is projected at 10 per cent, from 2,592 megawatt in 2013 to 5,023 megawatt in 2020, according to a sevenyear outlook for power demand released by Oman Power and Water

Other components As far as other components of subsidies in 2015 state budget are concerned, interest subsidy for housing loan and basic food items each remained intact at OMR35 million, participation in domestic, regional and international institutions fell by OMR11 million to OMR200 million and support for government companies came down by another OMR15 million at OMR180 million. Total government subsidy for the ﬁrst eleven months (ending November) of 2014 touched OMR1,436.8 million, which is against an initial estimate of OMR1608 million for the full year. Oman government has been contemplating to gradually reduce fuel subsidy in a phased manner. Earlier a special committee, formed with members from the

ministries of finance and oil and gas has conducted a study and submitted its report. The general perception among planners is that fuel subsidies could be better utilised for employment generation, training of Omanis, and improving the livelihoods of nationals. The present subsidy benefits are enjoyed by all sections of the society and the idea is to confine it to eligible groups. The government provides subsidies to flour mills, animal feed, power plants, cooking gas, petrol and diesel. Most of these are aimed at controlling inflationary pressure and helping the people in reducing cost of living. International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been calling on Oman, along with other GCC countries, to reduce subsidy in a move to prudently managing state resources. Countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa (Mena) region are spending $200 billion on general subsidies. According to IMF, these subsidies are not an efficient way of helping the poor, because the bulk of the spending is going to people who consume more energy, who are generally better off.

W E D NE S DAY, JA N UA RY 14, 2 015

MARKET A N A LY S I S

App reveals true personality based on Facebook ‘likes’ MIAMI: A computer programme that analyses your Facebook ‘likes’ may be a better judge of your personality than your closest friends and family, according to a research. The study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences was led by researchers at the University of Cambridge and Stanford University. Through data analysis, computers can be a better judge of people’s personalities and psychological traits, the authors said. “In the future, computers could be able to infer our psychological traits and react accordingly, leading to the emergence of emotionally-intelligent and socially skilled machines,” said lead author Wu Youyou, from Cambridge’s Psy-

chometrics Center. The ﬁndings also raise concerns about privacy, leading the study authors to call for policies that give users full control of their digital footprint. myPersonality app The study used a sample of 86,220 volunteers on Facebook who completed a 100-item personality questionnaire using an app called ‘myPersonality’. They also gave researchers access to their Facebook ‘likes’. The subjects’ self-reported personality scores showed where they stood in terms of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism — the ﬁve major personality traits.

VOLUNTEERS

Researchers found that a person’s psychological proﬁle could also be revealed by which pages they ‘liked’. For instance, liking ‘Salvador Dali’ or ‘meditation’ would suggest a high degree of

Study used a sample of 86,220 volunteers on Facebook, who completed a 100-item personality questionnaire using an app called ‘myPersonality’. They also gave researchers access to Facebook ‘likes’.

openness, the researchers said. The ‘myPersonality’ app also allowed these users to invite friends and family to judge the users’ psychological traits by taking a short, 10-item personality test.

Personality traits More than 17,000 of the original group were judged by one family member or friend for the analysis, and more than 14,000 were judged by two. The study showed that a computer could predict a user’s personality better than a co-worker based on just 10 Facebook “likes,” or those ‘thumbs-up’ indications that users click on when they see a page or a group with which they agree. The computer was better than a friend or roommate at predicting personality traits given just 70 Facebook likes; a parent or sibling with 150; and a spouse after 300.

The average Facebook user has ‘liked’ 227 pages, said the study. Co-author Michal Kosinski, a researcher at Stanford, said machines can sift though lots of data and not get bogged down in a few particularly memorable moments from a person’s life. “Big Data and machine-learning provide accuracy that the human mind has a hard time achieving, as humans tend to give too much weight to one or two examples, or lapse into non-rational ways of thinking,” he said. Previous research from the University of Cambridge has shown that Facebook ‘likes’ could predict a range of psychological and demographic characteristics. - AFP

Dubai sukuk gets $14.6 billion push towards a record Yields on the emirate’s dollar sukuk due in May 2022 fell eight basis points on Monday to 3.43%, within ﬁve points of a record low

DUBAI: Dubai bondholders are getting a $14.6 billion reason to drive the emirate’s securities to fresh records. Yields on the emirate’s dollar sukuk due in May 2022 fell eight basis points on Monday to 3.43 per cent, within five points of a record low, as Dubai World reached a deal with a majority of creditors to reorganise $14.6 billion of debt. As part of the agreement, the company will repay $2.92 billion due this year early, and extend obligations maturing in 2018 to 2022. The restructuring marks further progress for Dubai in putting the 2009 financial crisis behind it as the UAE’s emirate benefits from a recovery in real estate and tourism. At the same time, it still owes more than $135 billion to creditors, according to International Monetary Fund estimates. “This will only enhance Dubai’s ability to borrow,” Abdul Kadir Hussain, chief executive officer at Mashreq Capital DIFC, who oversees about $1.2 billion in assets, said by phone from Dubai. The deal “essentially removes uncertainty over the debt in the next few years,” he said. $110 billion “The fact they are paying part of the debt early even though it’s a small part is a positive.” Dubai World pledged additional collateral and increased pricing as part of the agreement, without giving further detail, according

$2.92b Is the amount Dubai World will repay as part of the agreement due this year, and extend obligations maturing from 2018 to 2022

to an e-mailed statement from the company. Dubai and its stateowned companies borrowed more than $110 billion developing its real-estate industry and transforming the emirate into a tourism and ﬁnancial-services hub, according to IMF estimates. Dubai World was at the centre of the emirate’s 2009 ﬁnancial crisis when it sought a debt delay as credit markets froze and asset prices slumped globally. Decree 57 The holding company plans to seek court approval for the agreement through a Decree 57 process, a special tribunal relating to Dubai World. The decree requires that at least 66.67 per cent of creditors by value approve the deal, with the company saying it has already exceeded that threshold. “The truth is that Dubai World would have made a much greater impact had the restructuring gone

through without the need to apply Decree 57,” Ahmed Shaheen, associate director of fixed income sales and trading at Exotix Partners in Dubai, said. “Resorting to Decree 57 is the nuclear button and it’s really a shame that after five years since emerging from the worst credit crisis in our lifetime we are seeing Dubai resort to such drastic measures to push through more debt restructurings,” he added. Drydocks World, part of Dubai World, used the tribunal in August 2012 to sanction a $2.2 billion debt restructuring after failing to win support from all lenders. The emirate of Dubai has since completed a series of debt negotiations, helping reduce its credit risk profile. Done deals Sharia-compliant mortgage provider Amlak Finance in August reached an accord to restructure $2.7 billion. Dubai Group, another state-owned holding company, rescheduled its liabilities earlier in 2014, while Limitless, a Dubaibased property developer, has asked for a three-month extension on a loan repayment due last month, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The cost of insuring Dubai’s debt against default were at 245 basis points yesterday compared to more than 900 basis points in February 2009, CMA prices show. Dubai World signed a deal with about 80 creditors in March 2011 to restructure about $14.7 billion of bank debt, agreeing to pay an average fixed interest rate of 2.4 per cent on the loans. - Bloomberg News

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

WE DNE SDAY, JANUARY 14, 2015

MARKET DOLPHIN PIPELINE

GCC rail link a huge advantage for Salalah port An official said that the Port of

This port is the main gate to access the Gulf countries and handles a wide variety of products. So the rail connection will help us reduce the time and also shipping tariffs

Salalah will help Oman’s plans for diversiﬁcation of the economy, which in turn creates jobs

ELHAM POURMOHAMMADI

elham@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: Port of Salalah, the largest port in the Sultanate, will benefit a lot from the upcoming railway network that will run through the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. “The rail connectivity will have huge benefits for the Port of Salalah given its strategic location and proximity to international maritime routes,” Eng. Hamid Al Kathiri, the port’s deputy general manager for project development and implementation, told Times of Oman. He was speaking on the sidelines of the GCC Rail and Metro Conference 2015, which was held on Sunday and Monday in Muscat to discuss the latest updates on the railway project. Shipping tariffs Port of Salalah was the only port which participated in the exhibition held alongside the conference and Al Kathiri attributed it to the importance of the project to the port. “This port is the main gate to access the Gulf countries and handles a wide variety of products. So the rail connection will help us reduce the time and also shipping tariffs,” Al Kathiri noted, adding that the whole country will benefit from the project. It will help the country’s plans for diversification of the economy, will lead to the creation of many job opportunities for Omanis and will also contribute to the development and establishment of local industries, especially in

Eng Hamid Al Kathiri Deputy general manager for project development and implementation, Port of Salalah

the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector, he said. The official also noted that the multi-model transport network is of high signiﬁcance for Oman and the government has already been making huge investments in the infrastructure development. New airports and roads are coming up and connecting the railway network to other countries beyond the GCC will also bring additional beneﬁts to the economies of the Gulf nations. Echoing a similar view, Mohammed Al Mashani, another official at Port of Salalah, said that the railway project will increase the efficiency of the transport and will help save great amount of time. International markets Port of Salalah is of strategic importance given its location and its access to international markets through various means of transportation, he said. “For example, a container can reach New York from Salalah in 14 days, Singapore in six days and Rotterdam in 11 days.” The port is currently linked through direct lines with 54 ports around the world, in addition to

ships engaged in short trips and re-shipping of container goods to markets in East Africa, India and the GCC countries. The container terminal handled 3.3 million containers in 2013 while the port terminal handled 7.9 million tonnes of goods. More than 3,000 ships of various types visit the port annually, including cruise liners. In 2013, 34 cruise ships visited the port, carrying 25,400 tourists. Al Mashani also said that the upcoming Oman-Saudi road will help further boost the position of the port, given the fact that Saudi Arabia is a huge market and lots of business activities are taking place there. The new road inside Oman is around 160km long while the stretch of the road in the Saudi side will be about 519km. The current distance between the two countries via the United Arab Emirates is around 2,000km.

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

TWO ROADS

Tenders ﬂoated for road projects Times News Service MUSCAT: Two tenders were ﬂoated for dualising Samail-Al Madrah road and building BisyaTawi Jiwar-Al Rais road. The last

date to submit bids for the two road projects is March 30, according to a tender announcement by the Tender Board. These road projects, which are part of a series of new roads and expressways in

different parts of the country to improve accessibility, are overseen by the Ministry of Transport and Communications. Tender documents for bidders will be distributed till February 12.

UAE seeks natural gas from Qatar DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates, which needs natural gas to meet surging domestic demand, wants to import more fuel from Qatar through the Dolphin pipeline, Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei said. The UAE also will boost imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and develop its own deposits of highsulphur, or sour gas, he said on Monday at an industry presentation in Abu Dhabi. The country’s energy subsidies will become unsustainable because these sources of fuel are more expensive than gas produced from conventional fields, Mazrouei said. “We expect to see a significant shift in the supply dynamics of gas” within the next 10 years, he ECONOMY

China’s trade surplus rises to record high BEIJING: China’s trade surplus soared by almost half last year to a record $382 billion, the government announced yesterday, but the world’s secondlargest economy again missed its trade growth target due to weakness overseas. Exports increased 6.1 per cent to $2.34 trillion in 2014, while imports rose 0.4 percent to $1.96 trillion, the General Administration of Customs said on its website. That translated into a trade surplus of $382.46 billion, the highest ever and a 47.2 per cent increase on 2013. US and China China’s huge trade surpluses were long a source of friction between Beijing and Washington, as the workshop of the world pumped out manufactured goods and United States debt mounted, but the issue receded in more recent years. Total trade in 2014 rose just 3.4 per cent from the year before, far below authorities’ aim of about 7.5 per cent and the third consecutive year the ofﬁcial target has been missed. “The world economy recovered slowly and couldn’t support China’s trade growing at a high speed,” said Customs spokesman Zheng Yuesheng.- AFP

said. The UAE needs gas to generate electricity for a growing population and expanding energyintensive industries such as aluminum and steel. The country is the ﬁfth-biggest producer in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, according to data, and Abu Dhabi holds most of the nation’s oil. Development of new ﬁelds in Qatar would make more gas available for the UAE to import, Mazrouei said. He didn’t say if the UAE has agreed to buy more Qatari gas. Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, a government-run producer, is ‘on course’ to maximise its use of gas and oil reserves in the country’s largest emirate, Adnoc’s general manager Abdullah Nasser Al

Suwaidi said at the same event. Sour gas Abu Dhabi’s Shah sour gas project was commissioned on January 10 and began producing about 100 million standard cubic feet a day, and Adnoc expects it to reach full capacity of 600 million by yearend, Al Suwaidi told reporters. The country is also developing sour gas at the Bab ﬁeld, Mazrouei said. Dolphin Energy supplies gas to the UAE from neighbouring Qatar through an undersea pipeline. The company, 51 per cent owned by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development, started bringing gas to the UAE in 2007 from Qatar’s North Field, the world’s largest known gas deposit. - Bloomberg News

W E D NE S DAY, JA N UA RY 14, 2 015

MARKET MSM index ends lower

Stay ahead of the curve with WhatsNews

SCAN THIS TO INSTANTLY INSTALL WHATSNEWS

M U S C AT B OU R S E

MUSCAT SECURITIES MARKET

INDICES Index .................................................High .................Low..................... Value ............... Prev . Value.......... Diff ...............Diff % MSM30 Index ........................................6,438.91 .............. 6,369.64 ................... 6,369.64 ................... 6,438.91................-69.27 .................. -1.08 Financial Index ..................................... 7,787.26 ...............7,684.26 ................... 7,684.26 ................... 7,805.38.............. -121.12 .................. -1.55 Industrial Index ................................... 8,536.98 ...............8,478.57 ................... 8,478.57 ...................8,538.53................-59.96 .................. -0.70 Services Index .......................................3,539.58 ............... 3,516.77 ....................3,521.63 ................... 3,539.95................-18.32 .................. -0.52 MSM SHARIAH INDEX.......................975.48 .................. 970.75 ....................... 971.21 ...................... 975.48..................-4.27 .................. -0.44 Trading Summary Volume ................Turnover ..........Trades .............. Market Cap............. Up............Down ............. Equal .........Sec. Traded 14,171,680 .................. 4,401,276 ..................1,365 ............... 14,567,125,888 .................. 3 ..................... 24 .................... 13 .........................40

Top gainer of the day was Sembcorp Salalah, up by 0.69 per cent, while Al Sharqia

SHARE PRICE BULLETIN FOR TUESDAY, JANUARY 13

Investments, down by 6.16 per cent, ISIN ..................................................SECURITY NAME ...............................................................................................VOLUME ..............TURNOVER...................TRADES ...........OPEN PRICE............. HIGH....................LOW...............CLOSE PR. ..........PREV. CLOSE..........DIFF (RO) .................DIFF %......................LAST PR...............LAST BID.....................LAST OFFER .................MARKET CAP ........PAR VALUE

was the top loser on Tuesday REGULAR MARKET ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... OM0000002226 ...........AL JAZEERA SERVICES .......................................... 549,430 ..........173,019..................... 55 ............0.310 ...........0.320 ...........0.308........... 0.314 .............0.312............ 0.002............. 0.641 ................0.320..............0.322...................0.334 .................. 19,218,142 .........0.100 OM0000001749 ............OMAN CEMENT ............................................................10,944 ................5,713........................2 ........... 0.522 ...........0.522 ...........0.522........... 0.522 .............0.520 ........... 0.002............. 0.385 ................0.522..............0.520...................0.522 ................. 172,715,555 ........0.100

MUSCAT: MSM30 Index ended its two day rally to close on a negative note at 6,369.64 points, down by 1.08 per cent. MSM Sharia index closed at 971.21 points, down by 0.44 per cent. Bank Muscat was the most active in terms of volume as well as turnover. The top gainer of the day was Sembcorp Salalah, up by 0.69 per cent, while Al Sharqia Investments, down by 6.16 per cent, was the top loser of the day. A total number of 1,365 trades were executed during the day’s trading session generating turnover of OMR4.4 million with more than 14.1 million shares changing hands. Out of 40 traded stocks, three advanced, 24 declined and 13 remained unchanged. Foreign investors were net buyers for OMR288,000 while Omani investors were net sellers for OMR211,000 followed by GCC & Arab Investors for OMR76,000 worth of shares. Financial Index Financial Index shed 1.55 per cent and ended the day at 7,684.26 points. Al Sharqia Investments, Oman & Emirates Holding, Al Anwar Holding, Al Batinah Development and Gulf Investment Services decreased by 6.16 per cent, 5.15 per cent, 4.29 per cent, 4.10 per cent and 3.95 per cent respectively. Industrial Index declined by 0.70 per cent and closed at 8,478.57 points. Oman Cement, up by 0.38 per cent, was the only sector gainer. Galfar Engineering, Al Maha Ceramics, Al Hassan Engineering, Gulf International Chemicals and Al Anwar Ceramics decreased by 5.35 per cent, 4.04 per cent, 2.88 per cent, 2.35 per cent and 1.65 per cent respectively. Services Sector Index closed at 3,521.63 points, down by 0.52 per cent. Sembcorp Salalah and Al Jazeera Services increased by 0.69

per cent and 0.64 per cent respectively. OIFC, Ooredoo, Renaissance Services, Al Batinah Power and Al Suwadi Power decreased by 3.49 per cent, 2.37 per cent, 1.64 per cent, 0.58 per cent and 0.58 per cent respectively.

OM0000001160 ............NATIONAL GAS ...............................................................2,000 ...............1,080........................2 ........... 0.540 ...........0.540 ...........0.540........... 0.570 .............0.570 ........... 0.000.............0.000 ................0.540............. 0.000...................0.558...................25,970,006.........0.100 OM0000001418 ............RAYSUT CEMENT ........................................................65,853 ...........111,950........................9 ............1.700 ........... 1.700 ...........1.700 ............1.700 ............. 1.700............ 0.000.............0.000 ................1.700 .............. 1.700...................1.740 ................. 340,000,000 .......0.100 OM0000001707 ............OMAN CABLES INDUSTRY.........................................7,436 .............14,870........................7 ........... 2.000...........2.000 ...........1.995 ........... 2.000 .............2.000 ........... 0.000.............0.000 ................2.000 .............1.970...................2.000 .................179,400,000........0.100 OM0000001822............UNITED POWER .................................................................401 ..................602........................1 ............1.500 ........... 1.500 ...........1.500............1.495 ............. 1.495............ 0.000.............0.000 ................1.500.............. 1.475...................0.000 ...................2,990,000..........1.000 OM0000001962............AL MADINA INVESTMENT ................................... 325,838 ........... 23,566..................... 30 ........... 0.072 ........... 0.073 ...........0.071 ........... 0.072 .............0.072 ........... 0.000.............0.000 ................0.071 ..............0.070...................0.072...................14,914,900 .........0.100 OM0000002176 ............AL JAZEERA STEEL PRODUCTS ............................... 200 .....................64........................1 ........... 0.322 ...........0.322 ...........0.322........... 0.328 .............0.328 ........... 0.000.............0.000 ................0.322..............0.322...................0.326 ..................40,966,531 .........0.100 OM0000003026 ...........OMAN TELECOMMUNICATION ........................ 201,009 .........349,897..................... 49 ............1.745 ........... 1.750............1.720 ............1.740 ............. 1.745 ............-0.005 ........... -0.287 ...............1.750 .............. 1.750................... 1.755 ................1,305,000,000......0.100

Emaar syndicated loan Emaar Properties, Dubai’s largest publicly-traded real estate developer, cut the borrowing costs on a $500 million syndicated loan by more than a third, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. Banks including HSBC Holdings and Emirates NBD agreed to reduce the rate to 1.75 per cent above the London interbank offered rate, from 2.75 per cent when the loan was signed in September 2013, the people said, asking not to be identiﬁed as the information is private. The facility is largely undrawn, they said. Companies across the Middle East have capitalised on abundant liquidity at regional banks to drive down borrowing costs over the past year. The three-month Emirates interbank offered rate, a benchmark used by banks to price loans, fell to 0.68 per cent last month, the lowest since at least 2006. Dubai Duty Free cut the pricing of a $1.75 billion loan for a second time last August, while Bank of Sharjah plans to reﬁnance a $200 million loan this year, General Manager Varouj Nerguizian told reporters in December. A spokeswoman for Emaar didn’t respond to calls and an e- mail requesting comment. — United Securities/Bloomberg News

OM0000001533 ............OMINVEST .................................................................... 352,000 ..........147,582......................15 ........... 0.422 ...........0.422 ...........0.416 ........... 0.420 .............0.422 ...........-0.002 ........... -0.474 ...............0.416 ..............0.412...................0.416..................141,432,060........0.100 OM0000003281............TAAGEER FINANCE ...................................................24,999 ............... 3,735........................3 ............0.150 ........... 0.150 ...........0.147 ........... 0.149 ............. 0.151 ............-0.002 ............-1.325................0.147 .............. 0.147...................0.150................... 37,784,910 .........0.100 OM0000003224 ...........RENAISSANCE SERVICES ..................................... 134,170............ 64,376..................... 30 ........... 0.470 ...........0.480 ...........0.470........... 0.480 .............0.488 ...........-0.008 ............-1.639................0.480..............0.472...................0.480 .................135,405,338 ........0.100 OM0000002168............AL ANWAR CERAMIC TILES .................................77,000 ............ 36,672........................9 ............0.478 ........... 0.478 ...........0.476........... 0.476 .............0.484 ...........-0.008 ............-1.653................0.476..............0.476...................0.478..................117,498,094 ........0.100 OM0000002614............ONIC. HOLDING ............................................................14,000 ...............4,954........................6 ........... 0.358 ........... 0.358 ...........0.350........... 0.354 .............0.360 ...........-0.006 ............-1.667................0.350..............0.350...................0.358................... 61,391,831 .........0.100 OM0000002796 ...........BANK MUSCAT ............................................................ 2,980,159 ...1,640,932...................357 ............0.558 ........... 0.558 ...........0.548........... 0.550 .............0.560 ...........-0.010 ............-1.786................0.550..............0.550...................0.560 ...............1,200,478,503 ......0.100 OM0000001483............NATIONAL BANK OF OMAN ................................. 458,841 ..........143,911..................... 22 ............0.318 ........... 0.318 ...........0.312 ........... 0.314 .............0.320 ...........-0.006 ............-1.875................0.312 ..............0.310...................0.312..................382,711,835 ........0.100 OM0000002200 ...........AHLI BANK .................................................................... 300,433 ............69,162........................9 ........... 0.235 ........... 0.235 ...........0.230........... 0.230 .............0.235 ...........-0.005 ........... -2.128 ...............0.230..............0.228...................0.230 .................297,962,103........0.100 OM0000002028 ...........GULF INTERNATIONAL CHEMICALS ............ 136,935............ 22,740..................... 10 ............0.170 ........... 0.170 ...........0.166 ............0.166 ............. 0.170............-0.004 ........... -2.353 ...............0.166 ..............0.166...................0.169....................3,486,000 ..........0.100 OM0000003968 ...........OOREDOO....................................................................... 175,758 .......... 116,000.....................24 ........... 0.660 ...........0.660 ...........0.660........... 0.660 .............0.676 ...........-0.016 ........... -2.367 ...............0.660..............0.652...................0.660 .................429,623,192........0.100 OM0000003398 ...........BANK SOHAR................................................................ 299,564 ............69,873......................17 ........... 0.235 ........... 0.235 ...........0.230........... 0.233 .............0.240 ...........-0.007 ........... -2.917................0.234..............0.230...................0.234 ................ 266,552,000 .......0.100 OM0000001087............OMAN UNITED INSURANCE ............................... 162,080 ............45,728..................... 29 ........... 0.280...........0.287 ...........0.279........... 0.282 .............0.291............-0.009 ........... -3.093 ...............0.285..............0.282...................0.285.................. 28,200,000 ........0.100 OM0000001525 ............OMAN INVESTMENT AND FINANCE.............. 737,700..........162,940..................... 77 ........... 0.222...........0.224 ...........0.218........... 0.221 .............0.229 ...........-0.008 ........... -3.493 ...............0.223..............0.223...................0.224 ................. 44,200,000 ........0.100 OM0000002820 ...........GULF INVESTMENT SERVICES ......................... 865,282 ......... 126,564......................81 ............0.147 ........... 0.148 ...........0.144........... 0.146 ............. 0.152............-0.006 ........... -3.947 ...............0.147 .............. 0.147...................0.148.....................8,591,110 ..........0.100 OM0000001772 ............AL ANWAR HOLDING............................................... 2,182,265 ...... 437,740....................181 ............0.201 ...........0.203 ...........0.197 ........... 0.201 .............0.210 ...........-0.009 ........... -4.286 ...............0.203............. 0.202...................0.204 ..................26,230,500.........0.100 OM0000001681 ............OMAN AND EMIRATES INV. HOLDING........... 1,039,636 ...... 134,253..................... 72 ............0.127 ........... 0.132 ...........0.126........... 0.129 ............. 0.136............-0.007 ............-5.147................0.131 ..............0.130................... 0.131 ................... 15,721,875 .........0.100 OM0000003521 ............GALFAR ENGINEERING AND CON. .................. 1,229,100 ...... 217,283..................... 78 ............0.180 ........... 0.182 ...........0.174 ............0.177 ............. 0.187............-0.010 ........... -5.348 ...............0.176 .............. 0.176...................0.177 ...................46,660,521 .........0.100 OM0000002440 ...........AL SHARQIA INVESTMENT HOLDING ........... 672,339 ........... 92,338..................... 75 ............0.140 ........... 0.140 ...........0.135 ............0.137 .............0.146............-0.009 ........... -6.164 ...............0.139 .............. 0.139...................0.140...................11,853,240 .........0.100 .............................................SUM: .................................................................................. 13,005,372.....4,217,542 ............1,251 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. ........................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ......27........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

PARALLEL MARKET ................................................................................................................................................................................. OM0000004735 ...........SEMBCORP SALALAH.................................................. 7,000 .............15,400........................2 ........... 2.200...........2.200 .......... 2.200 .......... 2.200 ............. 2.185.............0.015 ............. 0.686 ............... 2.200 .............2.150...................2.220 .................210,005,829........1.000 OM0000001566 ............OMAN FISHERIES .........................................................5,000 .................. 355........................1 ............0.071 ........... 0.071 ...........0.071 ............0.071 ............. 0.071............ 0.000.............0.000 ................0.071 .............. 0.071...................0.072....................8,875,000 ..........0.100 OM0000004420 ...........BANK NIZWA ................................................................ 135,644 ............ 10,851......................13 ........... 0.079 ...........0.080 ...........0.079........... 0.080 .............0.080 ........... 0.000.............0.000 ................0.080..............0.080...................0.081................. 120,000,000 .......0.100 OM0000004669 ...........SHARQIYAH DESALINATION ..................................... 444 ............... 1,421........................3 ........... 3.200...........3.200 ...........3.200 .......... 3.290 .............3.290 ........... 0.000.............0.000 ................3.200..............3.100...................3.200 .................. 32,176,911 .........1.000 OM0000004768 ...........AL MADINA TAKAFUL.............................................. 70,000 ...............6,140........................6 ........... 0.087 ...........0.089 ...........0.087........... 0.088 .............0.088 ........... 0.000.............0.000 ................0.088..............0.087...................0.088...................15,400,000.........0.100 OM0000004933 ...........AL SUWADI POWER .................................................. 273,856 ...........46,808........................9 ............0.170 ........... 0.171............0.170 ............0.171 ............. 0.172............-0.001 ........... -0.581................0.171 ...............0.171...................0.172..................122,163,484........0.100 OM0000004925 ...........AL BATINAH POWER................................................ 158,712 .............26,981......................14 ............0.170 ........... 0.170 ...........0.170 ........... 0.170 ............. 0.171 ............-0.001 ........... -0.585 ...............0.170 ...............0.171...................0.172..................114,730,863 ........0.100 OM0000002564 ...........AL HASSAN ENGINEERING.................................. 154,523 ............15,553.....................20 ............0.102 ........... 0.102 ...........0.100............0.101 .............0.104 ...........-0.003 ........... -2.885 ...............0.102.............. 0.101...................0.102.................... 7,596,008 ..........0.100 OM0000005005 ...........ALMAHA CERAMICS ..................................................45,647 .............23,816..................... 35 ........... 0.524 ...........0.526 ...........0.518 ........... 0.522 .............0.544 ...........-0.022 ........... -4.044 ...............0.522..............0.526...................0.528...................26,100,000.........0.100 OM0000002366 ...........AL BATINAH DEV. INV. HOLDING ........................65,500 ............... 7,664........................8 ............0.117 ........... 0.117............ 0.117 ............0.117 .............0.122 ...........-0.005 ........... -4.098 ...............0.117 .............. 0.116................... 0.117 .................... 3,510,000 ..........0.100 .............................................SUM: .................................................................................. 916,326 .........154,988....................111 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. ........................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ......10........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

BONDS MARKET ........................................................................................................................................................................................ OM0000004487 ...........RENAISSANCE SERVICES BONDS3.75 ............ 249,742 ........... 28,720........................1 ............0.115 ........... 0.115............ 0.115 ............0.115 ............. 0.115 ............ 0.000.............0.000 ................0.115 ...............0.115................... 0.118 ...................48,661,293 .........0.100

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

OM0000004602 ...........BANK MUSCAT CONV. BONDS 4.5 ..............................120 .....................13........................1 ............0.105 ........... 0.105 ...........0.105 ........... 0.106 .............0.106 ........... 0.000.............0.000 ................0.105 ..............0.105...................0.106...................32,091,406 .........0.100 OM0000004867 ...........BANK MUSCAT C C B 4.5 .................................................120 .....................13........................1 ............0.106 ........... 0.106 ...........0.106........... 0.107 .............0.107............ 0.000.............0.000 ................0.106..............0.106...................0.110 ...................34,201,766 .........0.100 .............................................SUM: .................................................................................. 249,982 ............28,746........................3 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. ........................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ........ 3........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

INDIAN MARKETS

Sensex drops, rupee gains MUMBAI: Indian stocks fell for the ﬁrst time in four days as a deepening slump in oil outweighed optimism the central bank would ease monetary policy after inﬂation stayed below its target for a third straight month. The S&P BSE Sensex lost 0.6 per cent to 27,425.73 at the close, erasing an intraday gain of 0.3 per cent. Foreigners are selling developing-

nations stocks to make up for declines in commodities sparked by oil’s rout, according to K.R. Choksey Shares & Securities Pvt.

Rupee appreciates The Indian rupee continued its upward march for the ﬁfth trading day against the American currency, gaining two paise to end at one-month high levels of

62.14 on Tuesday. The rupee resumed higher at 62.10 per dollar as against the Monday’s closing level of 62.16 per dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) Market and ﬁrmed up further to 62.0225 per dollar on selling of dollars by banks. The domestic currency last traded at 62.02 on December 10, 2014. — Agencies

WE DNE SDAY, JANUARY 14, 2015 SCAN THIS TO INSTANTLY LAUNCH FACEBOOK PAGE

Love us on Facebook

ROUND-UP

Semsom welcomes Oman diners to taste Lebanese cuisine with a twist Since its soft launch in December 2014, the casual-dining haven, with outlets in Lebanon, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, has been gladly serving curious diners in the capital

Times News Service MUSCAT: Lebanese speciality restaurant Semsom opened its doors to the food lovers in Oman with a grand opening at Muscat Grand Mall on January 12. Semsom is located on the ﬁrst ﬂoor of the country’s largest mall. The fastest growing food company in Lebanon, under the auspices of His Highness Sayyid Taimur bin

Asad Al Said, promises to offer delicious and healthy Lebanese dishes with a contemporary twist. Since its soft launch in December 2014, the casual-dining haven, with outlets in Lebanon, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, has been gladly serving curious diners in the capital. “The unveiling of Semsom was an important moment. We are glad to have made a good ﬁrst impression during the soft launch and look forward to welcoming food aﬁcionados and delivering a dining

experience beyond their expectations,” stated Costy Berberi, GM, Semsom Oman, commenting on the grand opening. Founded in 2008 by Christine Sfeir, one of Arabian Business’ ‘Top 100 Most Powerful Arab Women’ and managed by Ikhtiar Group in Oman, Semsom offers over 50 tantalising dishes designed after months of touring local villages in Lebanon. Traditional menu The sit-down restaurant with its

welcoming interiors boasts of a traditional menu offering Lebanese delicacies, mezze and grills. The food adventurists can experiment with the assortment of signature dishes that add a modern spin to the classics. “We are proud to welcome Semsom on board, an iconic food brand that has been spreading its ﬂavours across the GCC as it is a perfect ﬁt to our existing mix of restaurants at the mall. "The restaurant with its ‘Lebanese food with a twist’ concept, at-

NEW RECORD

tention to detail and incomparable service is already attracting food lovers in Oman,” stated Hassan Jaboub, general manager, Muscat Grand Mall. Semsom is committed to delivering high quality ingredients that reflect the authenticity of Lebanese cuisine and showcase a modern flare. Incomparable service, robust flavours and extraordinary experience form the pillars of this successful food brand. The restaurant is open from 12am to 12pm.

The unveiling of Semsom was an important moment. We are glad to have made a good first impression during the soft launch and look forward to welcoming food aficionados and delivering a dining experience beyond their expectations Costy Berberi GM, Semsom Oman

ELECTRONICS EXHIBITION

BMW Group sells more than two million vehicles in 2014 Audi comes to 2015 CES loaded with innovations MUNICH: The BMW Group delivered more than two million vehicles to customers in 2014, the company’s fourth record year in a row. A total of 2,117,965 BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce vehicles were sold, more than ever before in the group’s history. The company sold 1,963,798 in 2013, registering a 7.9 per cent increase in sales. All of the company’s brands finished the year strongly with sales in December up 15.2 per cent — a total of 215,217 vehicles were delivered in the last month of the year; the figures was 186,786 in 2013, says a press release. “I am delighted that we achieved our target of selling more than two million vehicles in 2014, a new record for the BMW Group. We have seen good growth throughout the year, well spread across all major sales regions. Our new models such as the BMW X4 and BMW 2 Series Active Tourer demonstrate our ability to develop new vehicles which attract new customers to the brand. "The popularity of the BMW i3 and BMW i8 shows our gamechanging ‘born electric’ strategy is on track. We are now looking forward to building on these successes in 2015,” said Ian Robertson, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG responsible for Sales and Marketing BMW. 2014 was the best year ever for the BMW brand. Deliveries of BMW vehicles totalled 1,811,719, an increase of 9.5% on the previous year (1,655,138). Sales in December also achieved a new high, up 14.2% on the same month last year (177,954 / prev. yr. 155,835). In its first full year on the market, the BMW 2 Series Coupé has been delivered to a total of 27,933 customers while 13,091 customers have taken delivery of the 2 Series Active Tourer during the three months it has been on sale. Sales of the segment-leading BMW 3 Series were up on last year, totalling 476,792 (prev. yr. 467,672 / +2.0%).

Deliveries of the BMW 4 Series models totalled 119,580 in 2014. The BMW 5 Series, which also leads it segment globally, saw sales increase 1.7% this year, with a total of 373,053 de-livered to customers worldwide (prev. yr. 366,992). The BMW X4, which went on sale in July, has been delivered to 21,688 customers while the new thirdgeneration of the BMW X5 has increased sales by 37.4% compared to last year — 147,381 compared to 107,231 in 2013. Around 17,800 customers have taken delivery of an innovative BMW i vehicle in 2014. Global deliveries of the BMW i3 total 16,052; nearly three-quarters of those sales occurred in the second half of the year, following the vehicle’s late-spring market launch in several major markets including the USA. The keys to a total of 1,741 BMW i8s have been handed over to customers since it went on sale in the summer. Due to the success of the BMW i vehicles, their production continues to ramp up. More production “Our production lines in Leipzig are highly flexible and we have switched more production to the i8 to reduce customer waiting times to a better level. Meanwhile, more than 100 BMW i3’s leave the plant each day. The BMW Group is the first automotive company to manufacture using significant quantities of carbon fibre in series production and the success of these cars speaks for itself,” stated Harald Krüger, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG responsible for Production. Despite the change in the core MINI model this year, annual sales remained around last year’s record level with a total of 302,183 vehicles delivered to customers; it was 305,030 in 2013, showing a 1.0 per cent increase. Peter Schwarzenbauer, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG responsible for MINI,

BMW Motorrad and Rolls-Royce was particularly pleased with how the year ended for the brand. “MINI saw its best ever fourth quarter with sales up 17.2% (94,624 units compared to 80,748 in 2013). It was also a record December with sales increasing 20.7% compared with the same month in 2013 (36,773 / previous year 30,455). Since coming fully onto the market, sales of the new third generation MINI 3-door and the brand new MINI 5-door have been very strong.” In December, sales of the 3-door were up 33.9% (16,418 / previous year 12,262) while a total of 6,954 customers took delivery of a 5-door MINI in the last month of 2014. The MINI Countryman saw sales grow 5.0% across the year (106,995 / previous year 101,897) while deliveries of the MINI Paceman totalled 15,567 in 2014, an increase of 6.0% (previous year 14,687). Rolls-Royce Motor Cars announced record sales results for a fifth consecutive year, with 4,063 units (previous year 3,630 / +11.9%) sold globally during 2014, more than ever be-fore in the brand’s 111-year history. Peter Schwarzenbauer said, “Rolls-Royce has seen strong sales worldwide, with double-digit increases in most regions. This exceptional growth means that deliveries have more than quadrupled since 2009.” Sales were driven by strong orders for Ghost Series II, launched in November, and Wraith, which enjoyed its first full year of sales, while the Phantom remains the company’s pinnacle product. BMW Motorrad has achieved a fourth successive sales record, selling over 120,000 maxi-scooters and motorcycles for the first time ever, an increase of around 7%. The exact figures will be released on Monday. Growth in all major sales regions In Europe, a total of 913,803 BMW

and MINI brand vehicles were delivered to customers (previous year 858,990 / +6.4%). All European markets have experienced growth in 2014. The BMW Group’s home market, Germany, saw sales increase 1.7% across the year with 273,433 new vehicles registered (previous year 268,838). Sales in the region’s second biggest market, Great Britain, grew 8.4% in 2014 (204,749 / previous year 188,837) while a total of 67,449 BMW and MINI vehicles were delivered in France, an increase of 5.3% (previous year 64,082). Sales of BMW and MINI vehicles in Asia grew by 13.8 per cent in 2014 with sales totalling 656,395 (previous year 576,616). This level of sales growth was reﬂected in the December ﬁgures – deliveries in the last month of the year totalled 61,295 (previous year 54,546 / +12.4 per cent). The year saw sales in Mainland China grow by 16.7%, with a total of 455,979 BMW and MINI vehicles delivered to customers (previous year 390,713). Strong sales growth was also experienced in South Korea, where 46,400 customer deliveries were made, an increase of 17.3% on the previous year (39,558). Sales growth of 3.9% was recorded at year-end in the Americas (481,056 / previous year 462,891). The USA was the region’s main growth driver in 2014, annual sales there were up 5.3% to total 395,850 (previous year 375,782). Canada also saw positive growth of 1.2% (38,188 / prev. yr. 7,723) while sales in Mexico increased by 6.5% compared with the previous year (14,902 / previous year 13,992). Double-digit growth was recorded in the Middle East region with a total of 30,148 BMW and MINI vehicles sold in 2014, an increase of 22.6% compared with the previous year (24,596). December sales in the region were up 30.4% with a total of 2,511 vehicles de-livered to customers in the last month of the year (previous year 1,926).

LAS VEGAS: A four core processor processing eight billion operations per second; a virtual tachometer with a needle that is rendered anew 60 times per second to ensure absolutely ﬂuid motion; 3D sound to match a concert hall and appearing to come from every direction and an Audi tablet as a multimedia control panel and simple wireless communication between your mobile devices and your car all demonstrate how diverse the future of the automobile is at Audi. All this and convenience, too: piloted parking and innovative Audi wireless charging (AWC) technology pave the way for electric mobility. A laser headlight shining ahead hundreds of feet and a car that can drive for 900km without a driver, Audi is a leading and driving force in all technology areas relating to electronics and electrics. At CES in Las Vegas, the world’s most important electronics exhibition, Audi makes a splash with a host of new technologies, says a press release. Even today, many customers view their car as more than just a vehicle — it is a ‘mobile device’. Audi drives forward networking of its models both inside and outside the car. At CES, Audi presents a wide range of innovations in the technology ﬁelds of controls and displays, infotainment, connectivity and lighting technology, in driver assistance systems and in piloted driving. To mark 2015 CES, an Audi A7 piloted driving concept will motor from Stanford in Silicon Valley to Las Vegas. The long-distance test drive of the Audi A7 piloted driving concept car will show that unprecedented performance can be achieved with series production technology. The drive will take place from Silicon Valley/California to Las Vegas/Nevada. “The test drive from the west coast of California to Las Vegas demonstrates our leadership role in piloted driving," said Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg, Audi Board Member and Head of Technical Development. The test drive in real world traffic and road conditions rep-

resents a joint effort by the Volkswagen Electronics Research Laboratory (ERL) and Volkswagen Group Research and Development, began on Sunday in Stanford, CA. The Audi A7 piloted driving concept will drive approximately 900 kilometres. The A7 piloted driving concept utilizes the latest technologically advanced systems developed by Audi. The concept relieves the driver of driving duties from 0 to just over 110 km/h. The car, that has been affectionately been named ‘Jack’ by the development team, can initiate lane changes and passing manoeuvres. In addition, the A7 piloted driving concept accelerates and brakes independently. The car’s zFAS driver assistance controller will upload data collected during the journey to the Cloud where it will be processed, then transmitted back to the car, enabling the car to permanently expand its data repository and making it an intelligent and adaptive vehicle. New hardware, software solutions Audi’s new hardware and software solutions are ﬂexible and intelligent, and they provide added operating comfort. Take the new Audi TT and the new Audi Q7: here, all the driver needs to do is to issue the voice command “take me to the nearest Italian restaurant” and the navigation system immediately will display the corresponding route. This big SUV’s new all in touch MMI will let the driver scroll and zoom as on a smartphone. Every entry will trigger a haptic feedback. Audi connect, a rich portfolio of networked applications, also offers new solutions. In the new Audi Q7, the driver can use a smartphone to link up with the software environment of Apple Car Play and Android Auto. The system also provides the driver with access to Napster’s and Aupeo!’s music worlds and to online updates of navigational maps. A virtual cockpit shows all of the car’s displays in the Audi TT and the Audi Q7.

W E D NE S DAY, JA N UA RY 14, 2 015

ROUND-UP Winning voting rights a victory for all NRIs, says Dr Shamsheer Acting on the plea ﬁled by Dr Shamsheer

It has been a somewhat long journey and to be honest it has not been easy. We took up the matter just like we approach a critical corporate project

Vayalil, the Indian Government told the Supreme Court that the Election

Dr Shamsheer Vayalil

Commission’s

Founder and managing director of VPS Healthcare

recommendation to extend voting rights

Times News Service

Acting on the plea ﬁled by Dr. Shamsheer Vayalil, the Central Indian Government on Monday told the Supreme Court that the Election Commission’s recommendation to extend voting rights to NRIs through postal ballots has been accepted in letter and spirit. In response, the Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu said that the NRIs must be allowed to e-vote within eight weeks.

MUSCAT: Dr Shamsheer Vayalil’s ﬁght for the voting rights for nonresident Indians (NRIs) ended on Monday, January 12 as the Supreme Court of India directed the Central Indian Government to enable the e-voting for the NRIs within eight weeks.

Historic day “Today is a historic day and words cannot describe my happiness. This is a victory for all NRIs,” said Dr Shamsheer, founder and managing director of VPS Healthcare. He is the youngest recipient of the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman

to NRIs through postal ballots has been accepted in letter and spirit

award in 2014. Any move to allow NRIs to use proxy voting on the lines of defence personnel and eballot facility will require changes in the law. Under the proposal, a blank postal ballot paper would be emailed to the voter, who has to then ﬁll it and mail it by post to their constituency. There is very little risk of manipulation, rigging or violation of secrecy in this system, the Election Commission has reportedly said. Dream come true “We had proposed a few methods and e-ballot was one amongst them. After looking at the EC’s report that too favoured the e-ballot, we got all the more conﬁdent that it will not be long before the dream

of over 100 million NRIs becomes a reality,” said Dr Shamsheer. “I recently met our Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussed the issue at the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas. I am glad that the government has lived up to Modi’s promise of more rights and opportunities for the NRIs,” he added. The NRI voting rights campaign had been going on for a number of years but the initiative gathered steam last year when Dr Shamsheer ﬁled the petition and brought together country’s top legal brains like Harish Salve, Dushyant Dave and Mukul Rohatgi to argue for his cause. The efforts have ﬁnally paid the desired rich dividends. “It has been a somewhat long journey and to be honest it has not been easy. We took up the mat-

ONE OF ITS KIND

ter just like we approach a critical corporate project. A special strategy team was set up and we got the best people on board including lawyers and all the continuous efforts have ﬁnally resulted in a victory for the entire Indian Overseas Community,” said Dr Shamsheer. According to the Representation of the People (RP) Act, a person who is a citizen of India and who has not acquired the citizenship of any other country and is otherwise eligible to be registered as a voter and who is absent from his place of ordinary residence in India owing to employment, education or otherwise, is eligible to be registered as a voter in the constituency in which his place of residence in India, as mentioned in his passport, is located.

Lifeline Hospital Oman is a unit of VPS Healthcare, Abu Dhabi. VPS Healthcare is an integrated healthcare service provider with primary, secondary and tertiary care clinics and hospitals in the Middle East and the Indian Sub-continent. By providing comprehensive patient management at International quality standards across all strata of the community, VPS Healthcare reﬂects a brand image of excellence in healthcare delivery system in the region. VPS Healthcare came into existence with the opening of its ﬁrst hospital, LLH Hospital, Electra Street, Abu Dhabi, in 2007. The group has since grown into one of Abu Dhabi’s premier integrated healthcare groups.

RECOGNITION

Oris Watches celebrates 110 years with a special Calibre MUSCAT: To commemorate its 110th Anniversary, Oris introduced a limited edition Calibre 110, the first mechanical movement developed from the ground up by Oris for 35 years. A hand-wound calibre, it features a 10-day power reserve and a patented non-linear power reserve indication. These two complications have never come together before and is one of its kind in the world, says a press release. Uniting them provided an exceptional challenge for Oris’s inhouse team of watchmakers and designers, who worked closely with Swiss technical specialists over a 10 year project. The result indeed is a milestone in mechanical watchmaking. Calibre 110 is a fine-watchmaking movement produced using honest, industrial principles, and fits with the Oris philosophy of making sensibly priced luxury Swiss watches. More than that, it demonstrates Oris’s exceptional know-how and horological ambition, both of which are the fruit of 110 years of mechanical watchmaking experience. The all-new Calibre boasts a 10-day power reserve with non-linear indicator at 3o’clock, indicating the amount

of power remaining in the barrel from 10 days down to zero. The non-linear relates to the speed at which the marker travels clockwise around the 220-degree dial, accelerating as it goes to give a truer indication of the rate of depletion of the single-barrel main spring (measuring a full 1.8m, and a technical achievement in itself ). The Oris 110 Limited Edition is available in two versions – stainless steel and rose gold version both limited to 110 pieces. Madhursinh Jesrani, general manager, Khimji’s Watches, the

sole distributors of Oris range in Oman, comments: “In its 110-year history Oris has proved time and again that it is one of the world’s most innovative watch brands. It was the founding partners’ dream to produce high-quality watches at an excellent value for the money, and that spirit continues to inspire and motivate the company today. Oris has always maintained a tradition of developing useful watches with functions that serve a practical beneﬁt for their owners.” The Oris story began in the quiet Swiss town of Hölstein in the Jura

Mountain, where the Oris factory is currently located. Two watchmakers, Paul Cattin and Georges Christian, arrived in the town looking to set up their own watch company. They purchased a recently closed watch factory and called it Oris, a name they took from a neighbouring stream. Their dream was to create reliable timepieces at the best possible price that would bring many years of pleasure. With this mission and vision, Oris continued to grow in last 110 years and saw many ups and downs, but never compromised with its commitment and reputation for producing watches that deliver exceptional quality and value. To view various Oris collections, visit Khimji’s Watches showroom located at Way No. 3036, Building No. 2825, Al Ufouq Building, Shatti Al Qurum, Muscat. Khimji’s Watches offers a range of global designs from Rolex, Cartier, Chopard, Piaget, Mikimoto, Girard Perregaux, Tudor, Oris, Frederique Constant, Bell&Ross, and Caran d’Ache. Khimji’s Watches also has an exclusive Rolex standard Service Centre that offers aftercare services for all its premium watch brands.

All-new Ford F-150 bags Truck of the Year award DUBAI: The 2015 Ford F-150 took home the North American Truck of the Year award recently. The all-new F-150 was picked over Chevrolet Colorado and Lincoln MKC to win the awards presented at the start of the 2015 North American International Auto Show, says a press release. “Ford is honoured to be named the best among such a strong ﬁeld of competitors,” said Joe Hinrichs, Ford president of The Americas. “Ford employees and customers have a lot to be proud of with the innovative and awardwinning F-150.” North American Car of the Year and Truck/Utility of the Year awards recognise vehicles based on factors that include

innovation, design, safety, handling, driver satisfaction and value. More than 50 veteran journalists vote for the vehicles, which must be all-new or substantially changed from the previous model to qualify for the awards. The win by F-150 is the eighth time a Ford vehicle has won Truck/Utility of the Year. This is the 22nd year for the awards. Most capable The all-new F-150 is the toughest, smartest and most capable F-150 ever – boasting a militarygrade, aluminium-alloy body and high-strength steel frame, and shedding up to 317.5 kilogram for a lighter, more efficient truck than any previous F-150.

4 4 T H N AT I O N A L D AY

Vale employees recreate historical expedition with Outward Bound Oman SOHAR: Six Vale employees embarked on a seven-day journey with Outward Bound Oman to recreate the historical 1954 oil expedition from Duqm to Fahud in commemoration of the 44th National Day, says a press release. One of three teams to participate in the organisation’s annual challenge, Vale employees travelled on foot across over 140km, hauling a four-wheeled cart carrying essential survival equipment. This marks the third consecutive year Vale partners with Outward Bound Oman and its employees once again put their management, negotiation and communications skills as well as team work and physical endurance to the test. “These journeys have proven that our employees are eager to step outside their comfort zone to transform themselves. Year-onyear, they rise to the challenge and return triumphant as a stronger, more united team. “Not only do they bring back with them a wealth of memories and learnings but an outlook that

Without a doubt, the six individuals nominated by Vale were challenged, but they worked, ate and lived together 24 hours a day for seven days, learning lessons that cannot be taught in a normal training workshop environment, long lasting lessons that can now be applied in the workplace Mark Evans General Manager of Outward Bound Oman inspires us all to take every opportunity to become better versions of ourselves and face difficult tasks head on with a positive attitude,” said Sergio Espeschit, Vale in Oman’s chief executive officer. “Our National Day journeys provide a unique opportunity for team and leadership development. Without a doubt, the six individu-

als nominated by Vale were challenged, but they worked, ate and lived together 24 hours a day for seven days, learning lessons that cannot be taught in a normal training workshop environment, long lasting lessons that can now be applied in the workplace,” said Mark Evans, general manager of Outward Bound Oman.

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM W EDN ES DAY, JAN UARY 14 , 2015

SECTION

RECRUI JOB POSTINGS

Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great. — John D. Rockefeller

How to handle a gap in your job history No matter how diligent, hardworking, and responsible you are, it is possible that you may ﬁnd yourself out of work for a signiﬁcant period of time at some point in your career. The key point to remember is not to let this gap in employment hurt you during your job search

WHEN you think of The Gap, we all think of the clothing store with the super skinny models and cute ads, right? Well, in the wonderful world of resume writing and job searches, a gap in employment is a totally different ball game. In fact, it’s one of the things that causes the most stress and fear in the hearts and minds of the job-seeker. Let me tell you why. Looking for a job in itself is a full-time job. You are at a point in your life when you are at your most vulnerable. Anything out of the ordinary on your resume will intensify that stress and fear. When you are stressed out, chances are you may not be thinking as clearly or logically as you ordinarily would when life is great and things are rolling along. But as they say, stuff happens. Life happens. So do layoffs, new babies, sick relatives, and a host of other occurrences that can result in a significant gap in your resume. No matter how diligent, hardworking, and responsible you are, it is possible that you may find yourself out of work for a signifi-

cant period of time at some point in your career. The key point to remember is not to let this gap in employment hurt you during your job search. Just because you are not working does not mean that you can’t keep busy. Keeping busy does not mean spending your days watching Dr. Phil, Oprah, and Montel (people do watch this guy)! Keep your skills sharp Keeping busy means staying involved in your profession. In fact, it’s a lot easier to re-enter the workforce if you keep your skills sharp and your job knowledge up-to-date. Here are some suggestions to help you stay connected to your career while conducting your job search: z Find a consulting assignment or project. Many times, employees who are “in-between” jobs supplement their knowledge (and income) by taking contract or consulting assignments. Sometimes these assignments can result in full-time, permanent positions. z Take a class in a subject relat-

ed to your profession. z Volunteer with an organisation or become a mentor. z Read trade journals and attend seminars in your ﬁeld of expertise. z Write an article for a publication in your area of expertise. Many freelance writing assignments pay well. Maintain contacts Also be sure to maintain your network of industry contacts. An example of this networking approach involves a friend of mine who was laid off from Lucent Technologies. When I met him for lunch the other day, he didn’t seem very upset, and I was curious as to why. He told me he had “his list.” When I inquired as to what exactly “his list” was, he told me that he kept track of all of his colleagues who got laid off from Lucent and where they went! Brilliant. Guess what? One of the people on his list went to a start-up telecommunications company. As a result of keeping track of his colleague, my friend has a third interview and a great shot at an excellent opportunity in his ﬁeld.

So, it makes a lot of sense to keep a current list of contacts. A gap on a resume glares out at a recruiter or hiring manager. If you’ve spent your employment gap doing freelance work, consulting, or mentoring, be sure to list that experience in the Professional Experience section of your resume. Include the name of the organization, job functions, dates, and city and state. In other words, treat it as you would a regular job! Let’s look at the worst-case scenario. Your resume has a large gap. You may want to consider a functional resume as opposed to a chronological resume. But be forewarned! A functional resume is a potential red ﬂag to employers because it suggests that the job-seeker may have something to hide, so use caution before using a functional resume. Chronological resume Recruiters and hiring managers prefer chronological resumes because they are easier to read and list skills and job functions as they apply to each position. A functional resume does not.

If you have an extensive gap in employment, you may want to address it in your cover letter to the prospective employer. Include a brief one- or two-sentence explanation, but do not go into detail about a long illness or a frustrating job search. Rather, state that you were out of the workforce for whatever reason, and explain that you are eager to return. If the gap in your employment happened a long time ago, don’t bother mentioning it at all. Employers are not interested in what happened in 1984! Should the subject of your employment gap come up during an interview, explain why simply and brieﬂy. In other words, use the exact same brief, simple explanation you used in your cover letter. Obviously, they were impressed enough with your background (despite any gaps) to invite you in for an interview! Regardless of the reasons for your employment gaps, always maintain a positive, optimistic attitude, and be sure to let the hiring manager know that you are excited and ready to return to work! — Cynthia Wright/ www.quintcareers.com

W E D NE S DAY, JA N UA RY 14, 2 015

ROUND-UP

Love us on Facebook

SCAN THIS TO INSTANTLY LAUNCH FACEBOOK PAGE

MB Petroleum takes steps to ensure a safer ride to school MBPS instals invehicle monitoring system in 18 school buses as part of the Drive Safe Campaign across Oman

Times News Service MUSCAT: Parents can heave a huge sigh of relief as their children’s ride to school may not be as risky as before after a national company installed a monitoring system in school buses to put a check on reckless drivers. As part of its ongoing efforts to further highlight the importance of safe driving practices within the communities in which it operates, MB Petroleum Services (MBPS)

has installed in-vehicle monitoring system (IVMS) instruments in 18 school buses being operated by Shatti Al Qurm School. The IVMS instruments offer some latest technological advanced systems such as Sensor MEMS 3D acceleration sensitivity which is used to measure on a real time basis the driving speed, the intensity of acceleration, brak-

ing, shocks due to the condition of the roads and the recording of the intensity of shocks suffered by vehicles. It also checks the engine status, duration of parking as well as the ‘engine on’ thereby saving fuel cost. Another added feature is the active seatbelt status detection — fastened or unfastened. “As part of the broad categories identiﬁed and ﬁnalised by the

F E AT U R E - PAC K E D

MB Holding Group, we at MBPS initiated the Drive Safe Campaign across various schools in the Sultanate last year. In taking it a step ahead, we have now installed IVMS systems in several buses operated by Shatti Al Qurm School,” said Khamis Al Hinai, general manager, MBPS Oman. “In the recent past we have all read several instances of school

buses being driven rashly and causing accidents. While it is extremely unfortunate, we as a corporate felt that it was imperative that we do something about it. The IVMS system not only monitors the speed and engine status but also enables to record and keep track of driving behaviour, thereby ensuring that speed limits and safe driving practices are adhered to at all times,” he added. Established in 1986, MB Petroleum Services group has grown to become one of the largest drilling and integrated oilfield services companies in the Middle East. The company has presence in more than 15 countries and employs more than 3,000 people with offices in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South East Asia and Asia Pacific. The major services offered include drilling services, workover services, drilling fluids, engineering and chemical services, mud logging geological services, well testing, wireline and completion services, coiled tubing, nitrogen and pumping services.

QUA L I T Y E D UC AT I O N

Meethaq conference on private education today MUSCAT: Meethaq, the pioneer of Islamic banking in Oman from Bank Muscat, as part of its commitment to the national objective of quality education for Omani children, is hosting today a conference titled ‘Private education with Meethaq ﬁnance solutions’ under the auspices of Dr Madiha bint Ahmed Al Shibaniya, Minister of Education, at the Bank Muscat head office, in the presence of more than 200 representatives from private schools. Key topics include the challenges and opportunities within the private education sector in the Sultanate of Oman and safe school transportation system, says a press release. Presentations cover a gamut of issues relevant for private educational institutions, including Shari’a-based ﬁnancing solutions for development of infrastructure and facilities. Representatives from the ROP and Oman National Transport Company will focus on issues related to safe school transport system.

RECOGNITION

Shell Oman awarded for Omanisation

Suzuki launches all-new mid-sized Ciaz in Oman MUSCAT: Moosa Abdul Rahman Hassan & Co (MARH) unveiled the much awaited Suzuki Ciaz in Oman recently, a starkly different and a new-generation premium car in the mid-size sedan segment, says a press release. “Ciaz has been designed keeping in mind the futuristic expectations of a mid-size premium sedan customers. It’s a complete package with class leading space and comfort, elegant aerodynamic designing with plush interiors and equipped with an array of safety, security and premium features, that will more than delight the customers, be it in retail or ﬂeet,” said Virendra Agarwal, CEO of MARH, speaking at the unveiling of the Ciaz. “Ciaz, which is a class apart sedan, has been built on a brand new platform, making it the longest and one of the widest sedans in its class, thus offering total comfort to all the passengers with sufficient leg, knee, hip, shoulder and head room, which is always a concern in a mid-sized car,” explained Anil Sethi, general manager-sales of Suzuki in Oman,

SCAN THIS QR CODE TO INSTANTLY VISIT

THE VIDEO W W W.T I M E S O F O M A N .C O M

while thanking customers for the overwhelming response. The Suzuki Ciaz is equipped with a 1.4L next generation K-Series VVT technology engine, delivering an output of 95 PS and 130 Nm of torque, with a class leading fuel efficiency. Though the Ciaz comes in two variants, i.e. the GL and GLX, most of the key features like the dual airbags, ABS+EBD+BA, full power options, keyless entry system, Bluetooth, audio controls on steering, chromed front grill, halogen projector headlamps, built-in turn signal lamps on door mirrors, multi information display, auto AC with rear vents, wood-print instrument panel & door trim ornaments, front & rear centre armrest, mp3/WMA compatible CD player with USB port and AUX input jack, immobiliser + security alarm,

etc, come as standard features in both variants. Making it sheer luxury, the Ciaz GLX variant furthermore comes with Leather appointed seat upholstery and steering wheel, cruise control, rear parking sensors, rear view camera, 16” alloy wheels, fog lamps, electrically foldable door mirrors, keyless push-start system, satin ﬁnish AC louver ornaments and a host of such premium features to make the customer feel on top of the world. “Priced attractively, the all-new Suzuki Ciaz will prove true value for money, offering an even more delightful and sense of pride experience for customers, leading into the next level of space, comfort, design and class deﬁning premium features,” said Sethi. Come and test drive the Ciaz and we are sure you will want to drive it straight home. The Ciaz comes in various irresistible exterior colours to choose from and is equipped with premium blackand-beige interior theme, with luxurious wooden garnish and chic chrome accents,” he added.

MUSCAT: Shell Oman Marketing Company, the leading fuel marketing company in the Sultanate, was recognised by the Ministry of Manpower for its outstanding contribution to the employment of national manpower and its compliance with the labour legislations during a ceremony held recently at Al Bustan Palace - A Ritz Carlton Hotel. Shell Oman, with an Omanisation rate of 88 per cent, leads the category in the retail and marketing sector, says a press release. The event was held under the auspices of His Highness Sayyid Kamil bin Fahd Al Said, assistant secretary general for Cabinet Affairs at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, and honoured the Sultanate’s leading organisations in the ﬁeld of national manpower employment and recognised enterprising Omanis, media personnel and organisations for the year 2014. “The award comes as a testament to the company’s commitment to sustainable development, corporate social responsibility and Omanisation initiatives. “We have set an industry benchmark for successful talent development by investing in a number of strategic human resources and skills development programmes. “The company endeavours to help the next generation of Omani professionals realise their full potential and contribute positively to the economy,” said Haitham Al Ismaily, Human Resources and Administration Manager at Shell Oman. Shell Oman is a publicly listed company on the Muscat Securities Market since 1997, delivering world-class quality of global fuel technology and operational excellence in retail, commercial, lubricants and aviation businesses in the Sultanate of Oman.

The award comes as a testament to the company’s commitment to sustainable development, corporate social responsibility and Omanisation initiatives. We have set an industry benchmark for successful talent development by investing in a number of strategic human resources and skills development programmes. The company endeavours to help the next generation of Omani professionals realise their full potential and contribute positively to the economy Haitham Al Ismaily Human Resources and Administration Manager at Shell Oman

AWA R D C E R E M O N Y

150 ICEM graduates awarded bachelor’s degrees MUSCAT: A total of 150 graduates of International College of Engineering and Management (ICEM) were conferred bachelor’s degrees in various disciplines at the college’s 10th annual award ceremony held recently at the Shangri-la’s Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa. The graduates, nearly a third of them females, received their degrees in the presence of Dr. Mohammed Nasser Al Zaabi, Chief Executive Officer of the Public Authority for Civil Aviation; Dr. Martin Brown, Dean of ICEM; and Professor Gary Bond, Head of School at the University of Central Lancashire. Distinguished guests from across Omani business society attended the occasion, says a press release. “Our courses are designed to blend academic excellence with work-based experiences, which prepare our graduates to apply the knowledge real time often in

conjunction with external companies and organisations. We impart them all the practical skills necessary to enter the workforce and be productive in a very short time. This is testimony to ICEM’s unique status as a quality provider of highly applied and vocational undergraduate programmes in the GCC. In addition to obtaining a bachelor’s degree from an internationally recognised UK university, ICEM graduates get to enhance their CV with industry standard certiﬁcation,” said Martin Brown, commenting on ICEM’s academic programmes. The graduates have been offered lucrative job offers by leading companies in Oman, including Douglas OHI, a prominent construction company which held a campus recruitment drive at ICEM last week looking for talents across the board in the health and safety department.

Many of ICEM graduates are already working with Douglas OHI. According to a senior project manager at Douglas OHI, “We have a number of vacancies for safety ofﬁcers across the Sultanate and we ﬁnd that ICEM graduates demonstrate the passion, enthusiasm and

work ethic which is so lacking in other sources of recruitment.” All of ICEM undergraduate courses in Well Engineering, Facilities Management, Health, Safety and Environmental Management and Fire Safety Engineering are accredited by interna-

tionally recognised professional authorities. Not less than 2000 students have graduated from ICEM during the last 10 years with nearly 80% of these being Omani nationals including women. ICEM graduates are working

in national and international organisations across the economy including oil and gas, petrochemicals, aviation, construction, real estate, retail and the hospitality industries, thus proving to be valuable to the Omani economy. ICEM is the oldest specialist college of its kind in the GCC with internationally recognised higher education and vocational training, providing an unrivalled student experience using highly sophisticated and specialist resources. ICEM has recently expanded its curriculum to include ﬂexible part-time study options for students who prefer to combine work and study to suit their busy lifestyles or family commitments. These study options have been designed to meet the requirements of students who have completed part of a degree course but still possess the drive to pursue their education to advance their careers.

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM W EDN ES DAY, JAN UARY 14 , 2015

SECTION

SPOR YOUR GAME

OMAN UNDONE BY AUSTRALIA’S PACE Paul Le Guen conceded his Oman team were undone by a combination of power and pace against an Australia side that underlined their position among the favourites for the AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015. >C2

Four-star Australia in quarters Goals from Matt McKay and Robbie Kruse and a Mark Milligan penalty put Australia 3-0 up at the break and cruising before substitute Tomi Juric completed the 4-0 rout of Oman

SYDNEY: Ruthless Australia smashed four unanswered goals past Oman on Tuesday to reach the Asian Cup quarter-finals with room to spare and also ensure a berth for South Korea. Goals from Matt McKay and Robbie Kruse and a Mark Milligan penalty put Australia 3-0 up at the break and cruising before substitute Tomi Juric completed the 4-0 rout of Oman. The emphatic result, following Friday’s 4-1 win over Kuwait, leaves no doubt about Australia’s ability to win a first Asian Cup as they size up the knock-out stages. South Korea’s 1-0 win over Kuwait earlier means they are also six points clear in Group A. The Taeguk Warriors face Australia on Saturday to decide who finishes top. “I thought the players were fantastic tonight in terms of their commitment, but also they worked really, really hard,” said Australia coach Ange Postecoglou. “But also the quality of our football was outstanding I thought, right from the first minute against a tough opponent.” Australia changed three players from last week’s win in Melbourne but any concerns about the outcome in Sydney vanished in a firsthalf blitz. The Socceroos took time to settle at an expectant Stadium Australia and Raed Saleh nearly

OPENING GOAL: Trent Sainsbury, third from right, at the far post knocks down for Matt McKay, centre, to ﬁnd the net past Oman goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi. – Times of Oman / CIO DATAN

SCAN THIS TO VISIT

ARTICLE, VIDEO, PHOTO GALLERY W W W.T I M E S O F O M A N .C O M

gave Oman a shock lead when his powerful drive was tipped away by goalkeeper Mathew Ryan. But Australia were soon ﬁnding space down the left and after Tim Cahill’s header into the net was chalked off for a debatable foul, the opener looked only a matter of time. ‘They’re favourites’ The breakthrough came from a corner, when slack Omani defending allowed Trent Sainsbury at the far post to knock down for McKay, who gratefully swept in from close range. Just three minutes later, on the half-hour, Kruse controlled Massimo Luongo’s ball on his knee and steered his shot under the body of the diving Ali Al Habsi. Australia had the ball in the net for a ﬁfth time when Milligan buried Kruse’s cross, but Japanese referee Ryuji Sato instead pointed to the spot for a foul on Cahill. And Milligan put his frustra-

tion at the decision aside to coolly convert the spot-kick and put Australia 3-0 ahead and cruising at half-time. Cahill came off for Juric after the break and the Western Sydney Wanderers striker slid in on Mathew Leckie’s cross for Australia’s fourth on 70 minutes. The game was long over as a contest but it remained entertaining and Juric’s goal-bound header was brilliantly saved by Al Habsi, and substitute Tommy Oar also came close. “We weren’t able to cope with the rhythm, the pace they have. They were too good for us tonight,” said Oman’s French coach Paul Le Guen. “It’s because they have the power, they have the fitness... really they are the favourites of the competition. They have a good, balanced team.” Australia will now face South Korea in Brisbane on Saturday to decide who finishes top of Group A, a position which should earn a more kindly quarterfinal. “Obviously we could have scored seven or eight in that game,” said man of the match Kruse. “We created so many chances, that’s the best I can remember the national team playing for a long time.” - AFP

OOPS ONE MORE: Oman’s captain and goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi looks at the ball after conceding a fourth goal during their Asian Cup Group A soccer match against Australia in Sydney. – Reuters

W E D NE S DAY, JA N UA RY 14, 2 015

SPORTS

SCAN THIS TO INSTANTLY INSTALL WHATSNEWS

Stay ahead of the curve with WhatsNews

Oman was undone by Australia’s pace, concedes coach Le Guen The loss, coupled with a 1-0 defeat

They deserved obviously the win and I wish them the best for the competition

against South Korea on Saturday, means the Omanis have no chance to advance to the knockout rounds and will return home

Paul Le Guen

after their ﬁnal Group

Oman coach

A clash with Kuwait at the weekend

SYDNEY: Paul Le Guen conceded his Oman team were undone by a combination of power and pace against an Australia side that underlined their position among the favourites for the AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015 with a comprehensive 4-0 thrashing of the Gulf side at Stadium Australia on Tues-

day evening. Matt McKay, Robbie Kruse, Mark Milligan and Tomi Juric all found the back of the net in an impressive performance as the Socceroos secured their place in the quarter-ﬁnals of the AFC Asian Cup for a third tournament in a row. The loss, coupled with a 1-0 defeat against Korea Republic on Saturday, means the Omanis have no chance to advance to the knockout rounds and will return home after their ﬁnal Group A clash with

Kuwait at the weekend. “They deserved obviously the win and I wish them the best for the competition,” said the Frenchman. “They were far better than us in each part of the game. “We were not able to cope with such pace three days after our game against Korea. It’s too much for us. It’s too complicated and we have to recognise the superiority of the opponent. “Australia have more power at each set piece, it’s A S I A N C U P S TA N D I N G S

Country

A GD Pts

2 2 0 0 8

1 +7

South Korea 2 2 0 0 2

0 +2

Kuwait

2 0 0 2 1

5 -4

Oman

2 0 0 2 0

5 -5

Group A 6

Group B China

covery, but even with three days it could be the same because they have the power and the impact and that’s why they are the favourites. They have a good balanced team and power and we do not. Three days after the game against Korea, we are not capable to follow this rhythm to be able to compete.” Le Guen’s Oman had held Australia to a 2-2 draw on their last visit to Stadium Australia in qualifying for the Fifa World Cup in

SOCCEROOS COACH REACTS

P W D LF

Australia

an opportunity for them and they opened the scoring from a corner and it’s not a surprise and in the air they’re far better than us and when they are up it’s far easier for them. “We had chances, we created some situations but obviously this is not enough and we were not able to cope with the rhythm and the pace and they were too good for us. They have the power, the rhythm and the ﬁtness. “They have had four days’ re-

Brazil, but the former Lyons and Rangers manager conceded the Socceroos have improved since that meeting in 2013. “They have power, they have legs, they have dynamism, it’s a good, balanced team with some experienced players,” said Le Guen. “They have refreshed the team and I think it’s a good thing. “It was obvious during the World Cup, even if they didn’t get the results they expected, the games were quite good and they have kept the momentum and I think they are on the right way.” There will be little more than pride at stake when Oman take on Kuwait in their meeting on Saturday, but Le Guen will be pushing to secure all three points. “(We will play) with the pride we need to have,” he said. “Each international game is important. Of course we are out, but when you play against South Korea and Australia at home it is a disappointment but it is not a very huge surprise. You have to be objective. “I know football well enough and I knew this could happen. I hoped not, but I knew it could happen. I will keep my chin up and want my team to do so too. We have to be humble, but also proud because each game is important.” - AFC

1 0 0 1

0 +1

Uzbekistan 1

1 0 0 1

0 +1

North Korea 1 0 0 1 0

1 -1

Saudi Arabia 1 0 0 1 0

1 -1

Group C UAE

1 0 0 4

1 +3

Iran

1 0 0 2

0 +2

Bahrain

1 0 0 1 0

2 -2

Qatar

1 0 0 1 1

4 -3

Group D Japan

1 0 0 4

0 +4

Iraq

1 0 0 1

0 +1

Jordan

1 0 0 1 0

1 -1

Palestine

1 0 0 1 0

4 -4

Favourites? Oh, please! Ange ready for the hype SYDNEY: Ange Postecoglou couldn’t care less whether Australia’s impressive start to the Asian Cup might make them favourites as long as they continue to play the brand of attacking football he has fostered in the squad. The comprehensive 4-0 win over Oman at Stadium Australia on Tuesday, following their 4-1 victory over Kuwait in their opener last week, sent the hosts into the last eight of the tournament in some style. Man of the Match Robbie Kruse said the victory was the best performance he had been involved with as an Australian international, while Oman coach Paul Le Guen said the Socceroos were now tournament favourites. “They were too good for us,” said Le Guen, the former Lyon, Paris St Germain and Cameroon coach. “They have power, they have stamina, they have dynamism. It is a good balanced team with some experienced players, but also some players that have legs.” Postecoglou, though, has not yet forgotten the brickbats he received as his team went seven matches without a win last year as he negotiated a tough World Cup group and experimented with his playing group. “Favourites? Oh please” he half-laughed. “I think I’ll handle it okay, I handled it okay when people were writing us off. I’ve got a real belief about this group of players and the way we’re going about things. “I still think people underestimate us, which I think is great but from my perspective, nothing changes. “Whether people think we’re favourites now or they still think we’re a team ranked 300 in world, doesn’t make any difference to me.” His conﬁdence can hardly not have been boosted by an absolutely dominant display against an Oman team featuring many of the players who took a 2-0 lead over the Socceroos in Sydney two years ago before settling for

I handled it okay when people were writing us off. I’ve got a real belief about this group of players and the way we’re going about things Ange Postecoglou Australia coach

a draw. “I think the players were really fantastic tonight. They worked really, really hard and the quality of our football was really outstanding from the ﬁrst minute,” he said. “We probably went up another level tonight and we expect to improve throughout the tournament. We made some changes tonight and some early substitu-

tions but you saw that the team didn’t miss a beat. “I’m sure there’s some bloke at Fifa right now who does the rankings who’s trying to work out how a team ranked as low as we are can play such good football.” Australia are ranked 100th in the world rankings behind nine of their rivals at the Asian Cup, including Oman (93). - Reuters

WEDNE SDAY, JANUARY 14, 2015

SPORTS Nam nods unconvincing South Korea past Kuwait

C H I NA V U Z B E K I S TA N

China set sights on quarterfinal BRISBANE: China aim to return to the AFC Asian Cup quarterfinals for the first time in more than a decade with what they hope will be their first win over Uzbekistan at the continental championship, defender Zhang Linpeng said on Tuesday. China are in good position to qualify for the second round from Group B after edging Saudi Arabia 1-0 on Saturday. They face Uzbekistan at Brisbane Stadium on Wednesday in a topof-the-table clash for a potential place in the knockout phase. China, though, have never beaten Uzbekistan at the Asian Cup from three previous meetings with a pair of defeats and a draw. Alain Perrin’s men are fully aware their opponents will be a tough proposition but are focusing on their own game, not Uzbekistan’s. China’s last trip to the last eight dates back to 2004, when they hosted Asia’s flagship competition. “We also played Uzbekistan at the last Asian Cup and that was a strong team,” said Zhang. “They had very good players — experienced players. But we will worry about playing our game and be ourselves. “We haven’t qualified for the knockout stage for 10 years but now we have a very good chance after winning our first match. We’ll just try our best.” “In the last match, we had many good chances but we just didn’t take them,” said Zhang. Uzbekistan coach Mirdjalal Kasimov has set his sights on victory over China to secure his side’s passage to the AFC Asian Cup quarterfinals for the fourth successive competition. “We will have a very interesting game tomorrow (Wednesday) because both teams won their first match and it will be a very tough game for both of us,” Kasimov said on the eve of his team’s second Group B match at Brisbane Stadium. - AFC

Attacking midﬁelder Nam Tae-hee headed the only goal in the 36th minute as the Koreans held off a spirited charge from Kuwait at a wet Canberra Stadium

CANBERRA: It was a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same as South Korea recorded another unconvincing 1-0 win over Middle East opposition on Tuesday to qualify for the Asian Cup quarterfinals. Attacking midfielder Nam Taehee headed the only goal in the 36th minute as the Koreans held off a spirited charge from Kuwait at a wet Canberra Stadium to join Australia — 4-0 winners over Oman — in qualifying from Group A. Injury and illness had led to most of Uli Stielike’s seven changes from the 1-0 win over Oman but his replacements failed to sparkle against inferior opposition, with Kuwait causing several moments of concern and coming close to snatching a draw. “There was no objective behind the changes, it was circumstance,” Stielike said. “We had three injured players from the Oman match. One has finished the tournament and the other two couldn’t recover in time. In the last two days we’ve had a big, big problem with fever in the team. Today we had eight players on the bench but really just four players without problems.” Stielike said Son had trouble standing up and was even taken to

SAUDI ARABIA V NORTH KOREA

Saudi Arabia face must win game MELBOURNE: Coach Cosmin Olaroiu is well aware three-time winners Saudi Arabia have only one option at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium on Wednesday; to beat North Korea to keep their AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015 qualification hopes alive in Group B. With Naif Hazazi’s missed second-half penalty proving costly in Brisbane on Saturday as Olaroiu’s side went on to concede inside the final 10 minutes, Saudi Arabia find themselves at the foot of the Group B table alongside North Korea. And with defeat for either side potentially set to end their campaign as early pacesetters Uzbekistan and China meet in Brisbane, Olaroiu knows Saudi Arabia must at least avoid a fifth consecutive defeat in the competition having exited in the group stage in 2011 following a hattrick of losses in Qatar. “After the first game in the group we know what we need to do exactly, we have only one way and it is very important to win the game,” said Olaroiu, who admits he has only had just over ten training sessions with the side having replaced Juan Ramon Lopez Caro following November’s Gulf Cup final defeat. “We have tried to motivate the players that they still have

a chance. We have not lost anything now. We had the first game in our hands and had a chance to close the game and win and how we lost was unfortunate. Coach Jo Tong-sop is expecting significant improvements from North Korea. Making only their fourth appearance at the Asian Cup, the 2012 Cup winners pushed 2011 semi-finalists Uzbekistan all the way in Saturday’s opener and were unfortunate to lose 1-0 in Sydney. But with China also beating Saudi Arabia by the same score in Brisbane, DPR Korea are in need of claiming a first win at the AFC Asian Cup since finishing fourth in 1980 following winless campaigns in 1992 and 2011. “The first match was not very successful and now the last remaining two games have become more important. Saudi Arabia’s skill is also very good and we have to prepare to battle more than ever to make the best possible result. If we can show our skill enough maybe we can achieve what we want from the match,” said Jo, who took over as coach a month before the start of the tournament. “I am still optimistic and I believe in our players and we will definitely look to overcome the difficulties. — AFC

hospital to be checked out. “We don’t know if some of these guys who played today will be sick tomorrow,” said the German. A drab Korean-dominated first half burst into life on the half-hour mark when former AFC Player of the Year Lee Keun-ho finally found space to burst clear behind the Kuwait backline only to have his shot tipped over by goalkeeper Hameed Youssef. Six minutes later, though, the twice Asian champions were in front. Experienced fullback Cha Du-ri rampaged up the right and Nam met his cross at the near post to break the deadlock. Those were rare moments of enterprise in a turgid first half where the Koreans surprisingly opted for long, hopeful balls forward which provided little concern for the deep lying Kuwaiti backline. The second half began with far more vigour as the Kuwaitis, who were thumped 4-1 by hosts Australia in their Group A opener on Friday, showed some attacking endeavour with their campaign on the line. Forward Ali Al Maqseed rattled the far post with a rasping drive four minutes into the second period to serve warning, with the longhaired attacker brilliantly turning to fashion another opportunity on the hour mark which he wastefully curled high and wide. Kuwait coach Nabil Maaloul brought on talented striker Bader Al Mutawa with 25 minutes remaining as the game opened up into an entertaining contest with goalkeeper Hameed and opposite number Kim Seung-gyu both regularly called into action. Lee Keun-ho was left unmarked to head just wide in the 74th minute, while Park Joo-ho’s long range hit eight minutes later was parried away by Hameed as the Koreans failed to close out the contest. Al Mutawa also had a growing influence down the other end as Kuwait pressed for the goal but the Koreans held firm to reach the knockout stages. - Reuters

LOVEABLE MOMENT: South Korea’s Nam Tae-hee, left, celebrates his goal next to team mate Park Jooho, centre, as Kuwait’s Ali Al Maqseed reacts during Group A match at the Canberra stadium. – Reuters

‘Lucky’ South Korea no Asian Cup contenders CANBERRA: A “lucky” win over Kuwait failed to lift the spirits of South Korea coach Uli Stielike, who said his outof-form and injury-hit team should no longer be considered Asian Cup title contenders. Nam Tae-hee headed a 36th minute winner against Kuwait at a wet Canberra Stadium to book a quarterﬁnal berth after making it two wins from two in Group A but the German saw little to celebrate in another disjointed display. “I hate to admit it but Kuwait was the better team in many aspects,” Stielike told reporters after the match. “They battled hard for the ball and made better passes. We were quite lucky. Kuwait came out far more aggressive

and played an entirely different style of football. We talked plenty about our opponents and thought we were prepared, but Kuwait outplayed us.” Stielike, who took charge in late September, cut an increasingly irritated figure on the touchline as the West Asians grew in confidence against a shaky backline as the game wore on. Lee out of Asian Cup Midfielder Lee Chung-yong was diagnosed with a hairline fracture to his shin and could be sidelined for the remainder of the tournament, while fullback Kim Chang-soo has a thigh problem. “I took 18 players with me to the stadium and only 14

of them could take the field,” Stielike bemoaned of the injury issues. “I didn’t think we’d struggle so badly. It was quite a difficult match.” Goalkeeper Kim Jin-hyeon was another to pick up the bug, but Stielike was optimistic the flu victims would return soon with hosts Australia coming up on Saturday in their Group A finale. “After this match, we should no longer be considered a title contender,” Stielike said. “We’re going to have a lot of trouble if we played like we did today. “Expectations at home are quite high, and I hope the players can overcome that pressure. They will need to work on their ball control and passes.” -Reuters

W E D NE S DAY, JA N UA RY 14, 2 015

SPORTS Misbah vows to give all for World Cup win

ISM record facile win over SLSM MUSCAT: Indian School Muscat (ISM) recorded a 25-run win against the Sri Lankan School Muscat (SLSM) in an Al Turki Enterprises-sponsored 25 oversa-side Junior League Under-16 match during the weekend at Ministry Ground No.1 in Al Amerat. Opting to field first, SLSM did well to restrict ISM to 151 for in 25 overs. The only batsmen to get into double figures were openers Wasim Ali, who scored 58-ball 65, and Paritosh Bhatt who made a well-compiled 33. The duo were involved in a 113-run first-wicket partnership. Pathum Nawanjana picked up two wickets for SLSM. In reply, SLSM lost wickets at regular intervals and finally ended their innings at 126 for seven wickets in 25 overs. Janith De Silva scored 26 runs and Azeem made 24. Hemil Maheshkumar returned with two for 18 in five overs.

Retiring Pakistan captain Misbahul Haq vowed on Tuesday to roll back years and lead his team to World Cup

LAHORE: Retiring Pakistan captain Misbah-ul Haq vowed Tuesday to roll back the years and lead his team to victory in the World Cup starting in Australia and New Zealand next month. Misbah, 40, on Sunday announced he would quit the oneday game after the mega event in February and March. He is one year older than Imran Khan was in 1992 when Pakistan won its only World Cup in 1992, an event also held in Australia and New Zealand. “For me it will be a big motivation to give whatever I can, whether it’s physical, mental or skill-wise to ﬁnish on a high and do what the 1992 Pakistan team did -- win the World Cup,” Misbah told reporters. Pakistan start their campaign with a highly-charged opening game against arch-rivals and titleholders India. They also face the West Indies, Zimbabwe, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa and Ireland in

OMAN CRICKET

BIG MOTIVATION: Pakistani captain Misbah-ul Haq, left, speaks as Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shaharyar Khan looks on in Lahore on Tuesday. – AFP

Group B, with the top four teams from two groups progressing to the quarter-ﬁnals. Misbah added his players are were “focused and determined” and was conﬁdent they would adjust to the fast and bouncy Antipodean pitches. Misbah became Pakistan’s most successful Test captain with 15 wins last year, and has vowed to continue in the longer format. He has also led Pakistan in 78 one-day internationals with 41 wins, 34 losses and three ties or no results.

Ajmal reassessment Meanwhile, an official said suspended spinner Saeed Ajmal will have his bowling action reassessed in India this month as he tries to make a comeback to international cricket. Mohammad Akram, head coach of the PCB’s national academy, said Ajmal would travel to the Indian city of Chennai for a reassessment. “Ajmal will have his bowling action reassessed in Chennai on January 24 and he as well as we are conﬁdent that he will clear the test,” Akram said.

If Ajmal passes the January 24 test he will be available for international cricket. However he will be banned for 12 months should his action be reported again at international level within two years of the ﬁrst report. Akram said: “We feel Ajmal needs to play domestic cricket before being inducted at the higher level.” he said. Pakistan also face a race against time in the case of all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez, whose action was reported last November before he was suspended. - AFP

CRICKET

Morgan would love to have me in the team: says KP LONDON: Batsman Kevin Pietersen believes there is a way back into the England team now that Eoin Morgan has become one-day captain. Morgan replaced Alistair Cook in December and will lead the team at the World Cup in Australia. Pietersen’s colourful international career was ended by England last year but the former skipper has been in ﬁne form playing in Australia’s Big Bash competition for Melbourne Stars. “I know that the current captain would love to have me in the England team,” Pietersen said while co-commentating on the Twenty20 tournament on Tuesday. “I want to play for England.” Pietersen is fourth on England’s list of all-time run scorers in One-day Internationals with 4,422 at an average of 41.32 and says there could be more to come, given the chance. “I’m 34. Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara is 38 (sic) years old and has just scored a double hun-

Pietersen is fourth on England’s list of all-time run scorers in One-day Internationals with 4,422 at an average of 41.32 and says there could be more to come dred,” he was quoted on the BBC. “I honestly believe I am batting as well as I have ever batted at the moment.” Pietersen’s contract was terminated by England after last year’s Ashes defeat by Australia, with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) implying that Pietersen had become a divisive presence in the changing room. - Reuters

Brief scores: ISM 151 for 6 in 25 overs (Wasim Ali 65, Paritosh Bhatt 33; Pathum Nawanjana 2/30) lost to SLSM 126 for 7 in 25 overs (Janith De Silva 26, Azeem 24; Hemil Maheshkumar 2/18). Points: ISM - 2 (7 games, 12 pts), SLSM - Nil (6 games, 6 pts).

Nisar inspires PSM Opening batsman Nisar Tajamal scored a sterling unbeaten 130 off 91 balls to help Pakistan School Muscat (PSM) to a two-wicket win against Indian School Darsait (ISD) in an Al Turki Enterprisessponsored Junior League Under-16 Tournament. Electing to bat first in a match that was reduced to 24 overs due to late arrival of the PSM team, ISD aided by 26 wides scored 202 for the loss of five wickets in 24 overs. Krishnaraj scored an unbeaten 58 while Moin Qureshi opening the batting made 31 and Ajay Kumar scored 20. Usama Talib claimed two wickets in four overs. PSM reached the target scoring 203 runs losing eight wickets in 23.4 overs with opening batsman Sharjeel Abbas scoring 25 and who together with Nisar put on 91 runs for the first wicket in 10.1 overs. Naveen claimed three wickets for 26 runs while skipper Prathyakash bagged two wickets. Brief scores: ISD 202 for 5 in 24 overs (Krishnaraj 58 n.o; Min Qureshi 31, Ajay Kumar 20; Usama Talib 2/26) lost to PSM 203 for 8 in 23.4 overs (Nisar Tajamal 130 n.o., Sharjeel Abbas 25; Naveen 3/26 and Prathyakash 2/38). Points: PSM - 2 (8 games, 11 pts), ISD - Nil (8 games, 6 pts).

MCCC A down GCC Muscat Cricket Coaching Centre A (MCCC A) registered a 36-run win against Gulf Cricket Centre (GCC) in a Junior League T20 Under-13 match. Electing to bat first, MCCC A, thanks to an opening partnership of 83 runs in eight overs between Muzahir Raza (48) and Steve Manjila (32), scored 170 for five in 20 overs. Akash Santosh coming in at the fall of the first wicket scored 21. Ashwin S.M. returned with figures of three for 27 in four overs. In reply, GCC, docked an over for slow over rate, managed to get

to 134 for six at the end of the 19th over. Mohammed Mutayyab top scored with 34 runs while skipper Arjun Rajesh made 28. Skipper Siddh Mehta returned with two for 20 in four overs. Brief scores: MCCC A 170 for 5 in 20 overs (Muzahir Raza 48, Steve Manjila 32, Akash Santosh 21; Ashwin S.M. 3/27) bt GCC 134 for 6 in 19 overs (Mohammed Mutayyab 34, Arjun Rajesh 28; Siddh Mehta 2/20). Points: MCCC A – 2 (5 games, 7 pts), GCC – Nil (6 games, 1 pt).

Damani, Gandhi lift ISWK Raj Damani and Brijesh Gandhi claimed four and three wickets respectively to help Indian School Al Wadi Al Kabir (ISWK) register a 132-run win against Indian School Al Ghubra (ISG) in an Al Turki Enterprises-sponsored Junior League T20 Under-16 match. Batting first, ISWK scored 182 for six wickets in 25 overs thanks to valuable contributions from opener Karan Koshy (57), Rohan Koshy (34) and an unbeaten 20 from Mohit Badiyani. Ali Asger ended with figures of two for 30 in five overs. In reply, ISG, who were docked two overs for slow over rate, were bundled out for 50 in 13.2 overs. Brief scores: ISWK 182 for 6 in 25 overs (Kara Koshy 57, Rohan Koshy 34, Mohit Badiyani 20 n.o.; Ali Asger 2/30) bt ISG 50 all out in 13.2 overs (Raj Damani 4/14, Brijesh Gandhi 3/19). Points: ISWK - 2 (8 games, 15 pts); ISG - Nil (6 games, 3 pts).

PSM beat BOC In a Junior League T20 Under-13 match, Pakistan School Muscat (PSM) posted a nine-wicket win against Bosher Olympic Centre (BOC). Electing to bat ﬁrst, BOC scored 150 for ﬁve in 20 overs with major contributions coming from opener K.K. Rajan (60), Rushil Dadwal (23) and Piyush Udhao (20). In reply, PSM scampered to 151 for one in 14 overs with an opening stand of 88 runs in 8.2 overs from Nouman Safdar (53 not out) and Muhammad Basit (52). Skipper Adeel Abbas stayed unbeaten on 30. Brief scores: BOC 150 for 5 in 20 overs (K.K. Rajan 60, Rushil Dadwal 23, Piyush Udhao 20) lost to PSM 151 for 1 in 14 overs (Nouman Safdar 53 n.o.; Rushil Muhammad Basit 52, Adeel Abbas 30 n.o). Points: PSM - 2 (9 games, 9 pts), BOC - Nil (5 games, Nil).

ISWK rout ISM B In another Under-13 match, Indian School Al Wadi Al Kabir (ISWK) defeated Indian School Muscat B (ISM B) by 51 runs. Batting ﬁrst, ISWK scored 181 for ﬁve in 20 overs. Major contributors were Joel Biju (43), Yash Rajesh (36), Tushar (24 not out) and Vishnu Gopalakrishnan (22). Skipper Mohsin Ali picked up two wickets. ISM B, in reply, were restricted to 130 for six in 20 overs. Skipper Shah Nouman and Sanjay picked up two wickets each. Brief scores: ISWK 181 for 5 in 20 overs (Joel Biju 43, Yash Rajesh 36, Tushar 24 n.o., Vishnu Gopalakrishnan 22; Mohsin Ali 2/31) bt ISM B 130 for 6 in 20 overs (Bharat S. 53, Varun 25; Shah Nouman 2/13, Sanjay 2/24). Points: ISWK - 2 (5 games, 9 pts), ISM - Nil (5 games, 5 pts).

WEDNE SDAY, JANUARY 14, 2015 SCAN THIS TO INSTANTLY LAUNCH FACEBOOK PAGE

Love us on Facebook

CRICKET

Don’t read too much into India’s loss in Tests: Hussey SYDNEY: Former Australian batsman Michael Hussey warned teams against underestimating India after their 0-2 loss in the Tests series and said the visitors will be a confident side when they start their title defence in next month’s World Cup. “The big positive for India is that they have already been in Australia for the last two months. They are now well versed with the conditions here, the pace and bounce of pitches. They also have a tri-series coming up involving England. So they have a good run before the World Cup starts and nobody should underestimate them because of the Test results,” Hussey said. “Don’t read too much into the 2-0 scoreline because not only did India compete hard in the Test series but they are a completely different outfit in limited-overs. They are very confident in that mode,” he added. India lost the four-Test series against Australia after going down in the first two matches. Talking about India’s performance, Hussey said the visitors’ batting line did well but the bowling lacked disciplined. “Well the batting has completely changed and they have done well. Virat Kohli is a fantastic player and he has just scored runs by the heaps. I think this will continue for him going forward,” said Hussey, who was part of the Australian team during India’s 2011 tour. “But then there have been others too, like Murali Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane, giving support to Kohli. Something like that was missing in the 2011 tour. Not to mention they have been able to unearth a talent like KL Rahul. It is quite an achievement for a youngster to come to Australia and get a maiden Test ton. “I dare say that this Indian attack looks better than the one in 2011 and they are all good bowlers individually. But there is a difference between being a good bowler and bowling good,” he added. “However, I also do believe that this series will serve as great exposure for them and they can learn a lot from this tour for the future.” - PTI

SPORTS

Oman Sail set for new-look Al Musannah Race Week

PERFECT VENUE: A view of Al Musannah Sports City during Al Musannah Race Week in 2014. – Supplied photo

Around 120 young Optimist sailors, including the cream of Oman’s young sailing talent, will descend on Al Musannah Sports City on January 18 for a week of training and competition

MUSCAT: Oman Sail’s Al Musannah Race Week 2015 will have a brand new look to it when the focus shifts to Oman’s youth sailors by pitching them against champions from around the world in the ﬁrst ever Optimist Class Champions League. Up to 120 young Optimist sailors between the ages of 8 and 15, parents and coaches, including the cream of Oman’s young sailing talent, will descend on Al Musannah Sports City from January 18 to 24 for a week of training and competition.

A strong ﬁeld will include some of the best young sailors in the class with the team from Thailand set to feature Voravong Rachrattanaruk, regarded as the best Optimist sailor in the world, and Singapore’s golden girl Jodie Lai, who will be heading up the talented squad that landed six medals at the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea last September. Rising star Muhammad Fauzi Shah from Malaysia, one of the quickest sailors on the youth circuit, will line up against young

champions from Europe, Asia, South America and Africa to form an impressive international contingent of 68 representatives. Pitting their wits against this stellar talent will be around 45 of Oman’s finest young sailors, including members of Omani National Youth Squad and selected others from Oman Sail’s Omantel Youth Programme, co-sponsored by Oman Shipping Company, all benefitting from exposure to this high level of competition. The athletes’ efforts will not just be confined to the racetrack, with a daily schedule expected to feature Corporate and Personal Development activities aimed at instilling leadership, teamwork and communications skills within the children. Participants will also take part in outdoor challenges, educational and self-empowerment exercises that will provide a practical learning experience and build a close camaraderie between the young sailors, as well as fuelling their appetite to pursue international sailing careers. “We wanted a competition in

Oman where the champions from different continents raced against each other, so we had the idea for an unofficial Champions League which reﬂects our growing focus on developing Oman’s young sailing talent,” said Salma Al Hashmi, Director of Events and Marketing at Oman Sail, who has led the remodelling of Al Musanah Race Week this year. “The idea is to have the best sailors in the world coming here to Oman and bringing the best coaches and strong back-up teams to follow their progress. “We have been inundated with entry applications, so hopefully this demonstrates a level of interest that can be built on over the next few years.” Speaking on the new format of the event, Rashid Al Kindi, Oman Sail’s National Team Manager, said: “The beneﬁts of hosting an Optimist Champions League during Al Musannah Race Week are considerable for both Oman and Oman’s young sailors. Our homegrown youngsters and their coach-

es will see how the different nationalities operate as teams, how they are coached and how they are inspired. It is also an opportunity for the top sailors in the world see the state-of-the-art facilities and ideal sailing conditions that we have in Oman.” “By restructuring this event, we are marking Oman out as a high quality venue for international sailing events which will allow Al Musannah Race Week to grow further. Last year, we won acclaim for hosting the Laser World Championships and we need to work hard to build on that recognition.” Registration for 2015 Musannah Race Week is yet to close but so far competitors from 19 nations have entered, including those from Argentina, Bahrain, Brazil, Denmark, Spain, Finland, Great Britain, Germany, Malaysia, Mozambique, Norway, Oman, Poland, Qatar, Singapore and Switzerland. All teams will be based at the Millennium Resort Musannah and the Musannah Marina where Oman Sail has one of its four sailing schools.

W E D NE S DAY, JA N UA RY 14, 2 015

SPORTS

Ronaldo wants to match Messi in Ballon d’Or race After winning his second consecutive Ballon d’Or award and third overall, Ronaldo said ‘I’m not going to stop here. I want to catch Messi’

ZURICH: After winning his second consecutive Ballon d’Or award and third overall, Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo has set his sights on Argentine striker Lionel Messi’s achievement of winning the coveted prize a record four times. “This is an unforgettable moment. I’m not going to stop here. I want to catch Messi,” Ronaldo said after receiving the award at a gala ceremony on Monday. Messi has won the award in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. Ronaldo ﬁrst won the trophy in 2008. On winning the trophy twice in a row, he said: “I never thought I’d win such an important trophy, it’s such a unique experience. “It brings up so many different emotions and I’ll use this award as motivation to continue working hard to win more individual and team honours.” The 29-year-old also thanked his family and his football colleagues at Portugal club Real Madrid without whom, he said, he could never have made it this far. “Thanks to everyone who voted for me, to my teammates, my coach, the president and everyone associated with Real Madrid. This is a dream come true for me,” the former Manchester United player said. “I’d also like to thank everyone who has helped make me a better player, my national team and everyone in Portugal”. Ronaldo also said he wanted to

BITTER RIVALS: Real Madrid’s Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo hands a microhpone to Barcelona’s Argentina forward Lionel Messi during the Fifa Ballon d’Or award ceremony in Zurich on Monday. – AFP

become “one of the greatest players of all time.” The Real Madrid forward polled more than double the number of votes as his bitter rival Lionel Messi who only just edged Bayern Munich and Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer into third place. Joachim Loew won the Coach of the Year of the award after leading Germany to the World Cup title in Brazil, ﬁnishing ahead of Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti and Atletico Madrid’s Diego Simeone in the poll. Colombia’s James Rodriguez won the Puskas award for the best goal, a spectacular volley on the turn for Colombia in their World Cup match against Uruguay. Nadine Kessler of VfL Wolfsburg and Germany won the women’s Player of the Year award.

ORIGINAL BASE

SCAN THIS TO INSTANTLY LAUNCH TWITTER PAGE

Tweet all about it

Ronaldo was forgiven for a disappointing World Cup, with Portugal going out in the first round. Instead, the voters — the coaches and captains of the 209 national teams plus one journalist for each country — were swayed by his prolific goal-scoring and trophy-laden year with Real Madrid, where he has flourished under Ancelotti. “I want to win it again. I want to become one of the greatest players of all time,” Ronaldo told the audience after a ceremony which lasted nearly two hours. Ronaldo, who has made a point of displaying his rippling muscles in his goal celebrations, then bellowed “Sim” (yes) into the microphone, somewhat startling the ceremony presenter. The award has turned almost turned into a

personal duel between Ronaldo — who topped the voting in 2008, 2013 and 2014 — and Messi. Messi won four years in a row from 2009 to 2012, with ronaldo ﬁnishing second on three occasions. Only Andres Iniesta, runner-up in 2010, has managed to break the duopoly. This year, Ronaldo won 37.66 percent of the vote, compared to 15.76 for Messi and 15.72 for Neuer. Neither Ronaldo nor Messi, captains of their respective teams, voted for each other. Messi chose compatriot Angel di Maria and Barcelona teammates Andres Iniesta and Javier Mascherano while Ronaldo plumped for Sergio Ramos, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema, all teammates at Real Madrid. - Agencies

S P E C U L AT I O N

Leo Messi’s purple patch of confusion MADRID: Lionel Messi confused everyone at the Ballon d’Or awards with his purple tuxedo and his comments about his future at Barcelona. The Argentine superstar’s spangly suit was the latest of a long line of fashion statements at the annual football gala — where he was beaten to the top award by Cristiano Ronaldo. He made notable headlines two years ago with a striking polka dot outﬁt. “Ronaldo deserved to beat Messi in the Ballon d’Or on choice of suit for the event alone,” commented former English Football Association communications chief Adrian Bevington. But there is as much speculation about whether Messi will stay at Barcelona — his club of the past decade — as there is on his fashion sense. Messi’s reportedly rocky relationship with Barcelona coach Luis Enrique already has major European clubs on alert, according to media reports. The alarm bells rang louder after Messi said on Monday “I’ve always said I want to end my career at Barcelona”. He added: “But you never know what will happen in the world of football. I do not know where I’ll be next year.” Messi referred reporters to comments by his big rival Ronaldo that “lots of things change in football and anything can happen.” The statement by the fourtime Ballon d’Or winner further clouded his intentions after a reported showdown with Enrique last week and his statement on Sunday describing reports linking him to Chelsea and Manchester City as “all lies”. “I have never demanded anything to ensure that I stay because I never had any intention of leaving,” he told Barca TV after a brilliant performance in his side’s 3-1 win over Atletico Madrid. Barcelona’s tumultuous week also included the sacking of sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta.

‘Twisted’ words Messi, still a giant on the football pitch, appears uncertain in public. After the Zurich press conference, Messi spoke to some reporters who quoted him as saying that his comments are always “twisted” and “I’m in no way thinking about leaving”. If Messi is uncertain, it could be the result of a year without club titles as well as losing the World Cup ﬁnal to Germany and the world player of the year title to Ronaldo for the second year. The speculation could also be the result of the intense scrutiny given to every word and gesture he makes. His move to follow Chelsea’s Instagram social media account and to put Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho in third place in his votes for coach of the year all added to the turmoil at Barcelona. The Messi storm is a worry for Barcelona leaders, including Enrique and club president Josep Bartomeu as they confront other major problems. The club is banned from signing new players until January 2016. They could also face criminal proceedings over hidden fees in the 2013 transfer of Brazilian star Neymar. Messi’s future could take centre stage when Bartomeu seeks reelection as Barcelona president when the season ends, having brought forward the vote because of the multiple storms surrounding the club. Former president Joan Laporta, who oversaw two Champions League triumphs when in charge between 2003 and 2010, has been strongly linked with a return to the top job at the Camp Nou. But he has not yet declared himself a candidate. A Messi departure or even a public battle between Messi and Enrique would make a change at the top more likely. Barcelona need a purple patch from their star player. - AFP

S Y D N E Y I N T E R NAT I O NA L

Fifa find piece of Radwanska eliminated, Del Potro wins first World Cup ZURICH: Fifa have found a long lost piece of the original World Cup which will become one of the major exhibits at its new museum to open next year. The gemstone base of the trophy first awarded in 1930 was found last month, according to David Ausseil, creative director of the museum which is still being built in Zurich. “We found this base in storage at Fifa. It is the original base of the Jules Rimet trophy in lapis lazuli,” Ausseil said. The 10 centimetre (4-inch) tall base has the names of the first four World Cup winners between

1930 and 1950. Uruguay and Italy each won the tournament twice in that time. The base was replaced in 1954. Brazil was given the gold Jules Rimet trophy permanently after they won the World Cup for the third time in 1970. It was stolen in 1983 and has never been found. The new 3,500 square metre World Football Museum in the centre of Zurich is expected to open its doors in March, 2016. Fifa, which was established in 1904, is also based in the Swiss city. It is hoping to get up to 300,000 visitors a year at the museum. - AFP

SYDNEY: A tough playing schedule caught up with world number six Agnieszka Radwanska when she was dumped out in the first round of the Sydney International on Tuesday. Spain’s Garbine Muguruza, who won last year’s Hobart International as a qualifier and is currently ranked 24, fought back after dropping the opening set to beat the Polish third seed 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2. It is the first tournament that Radwanska, coming off Poland’s win in the mixed teams Hopman Cup in Perth, is playing under new coach and tennis great Martina Navratilova. “(Tired) a little bit, yes, especially that last couple matches was pretty long,” Radwanska said of her recent Hopman Cup campaign.

“Plus the mixed doubles and not much rest and I was playing here the ﬁrst round. So I think just everything in (a) row. “I think she (Muguruza) has really good potential, and I think every day she’s playing really good tennis, better tennis, and deﬁnitely the tennis that we going to see much more of in the future.” Two-time Wimbledon champion and Czech second seed Petra Kvitova was too strong for China’s Peng Shuai, winning 6-1, 7-5. Fellow Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova knocked out Australia’s top-ranked player Samantha Stosur 7-6 (7-1), 6-2 and will face defending champion Tsvetana Pironkova in the next round. Pironkova won her 13th straight match at the Sydney tournament,

progressing on an injury retirement into quarterfinals. Pironkova advanced when American youngster Madison Keys was forced to retire from their second-round encounter with a right shoulder injury. Keys had won the opening set 6-4 but trailed 4-1 in the second before calling it quits. The Bulgarian continued on her winning way and remained on track to win the trophy as a qualifier for the second successive year. Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro ousted Russian sixth seed Ekaterina Makarova 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 to progress to a quarterfinal against the Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova. Pliskova took full advantage of the withdrawal of Romanian top

seed Simona Halep to trounce American Nicole Gibbs 6-0, 6-0. Halep said she was forced out with gastroenteritis she picked up during her tournament win in Shenzhen in China last week. Meanwhile, Juan Martin del Potro savoured the thrill of being on court again by winning his ﬁrst match in 10 months since wrist surgery. The giant Argentine, who is defending his Sydney title on a wildcard after his ranking sank to 338 due to his inactivity, had a 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) win over Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky. The victory set up the 2009 U.S. Open champion and one-time world No. 4 with a second-round encounter with Italian top seed Fabio Fognini. - AFP

SECTION

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM

LIFE & STYLE

W ED N ES DAY, JA N UA RY 14 , 2 0 1 5

DIGITAL HOUSEHOLD Consumers are warming up to the idea of ‘smart homes’ — a futuristic vision of households constantly monitoring their own activity, alerting the owner’s smartphone when windows are opened, or when the clothes are done with drying

t the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, LG unveiled a series of household appliances that can receive, interpret and send texts: a washing machine that, when asked, reports how much time is left in a cycle; or a refrigerator that alerts the owner when food is about to expire. These are among several recent product announcements surrounding the “smart home” — a futuristic vision of households constantly monitoring their own activity, alerting the owner’s smartphone when windows are opened, electricity left on, or clothes are done drying. In the past year, start-ups, technology giants and telecommunications companies have made their own smart-home bids, according to Gartner analyst Fernando Elizalde. But compared with the rapid development of new products, consumer adoption has been slow as people gradually become more comfortable with the smart home, he added in an e-mail. That hasn’t stopped companies from jumping in. At CES, Lowe’s promoted Iris, a network that lets customers manage the data generated by disparate WiFi-enabled devices, such as thermostats or appliances.

Whirlpool showed off a washing machine hooked up to an app that lets people donate to a charity — such as Habitat for Humanity — every time they do laundry. This past February, Google acquired Nest — a start-up selling thermostats that can adjust to a user’s preferences — for $3.2 billion. In November, French telecommunications company Orange announced Homelive, a solution letting customers manage their appliances remotely. And in June, Apple announced HomeKit, an operating system framework on which software and hardware developers can build smarthome systems. It could be years before consumers have a real digital household, according to recent reports, and progress is likely to be incremental. A Gartner consumer survey from the summer found that 20 per cent of respondents have one or more smart-home devices. About 16 percent of these had only one device, while just about 4 per cent had two or more. A Nielsen survey conducted in the second quarter of 2014 found about 6 per cent of respondents used smarthome technology: Within these, about 61

per cent used wireless home security, 54 per cent used it for automating some function (such as adjusting heat or lights), 25 per cent used connected appliances and 27 per cent used wireless speaker systems. Still, home technology sales are increasing, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, the Arlington, Vancouverbased trade group that organizes CES. Home technologies generated an estimated $1.9 billion in sales in 2014, up from $1.7 billion in 2013, according to CEA. Once users become comfortable with smart-home technology, they start customizing their own solutions, said Alex Hawkinson, chief executive of SmartThings, a start-up selling kits of motion detectors and other sensors that homeowners can install throughout their homes, as well as “smart hubs” that aggregate the data collected by each of these sensors. (The start-up was acquired by Samsung in August for a sum that wasn’t disclosed.) Last year, for instance, the majority of SmartThings customers were buying the sensor kit. Today, a little more than 50 percent buy just the smart hub, so that they can connect smart-home devices sold by other manufacturers, Hawkinson said.

Most new customers still come to SmartThings looking for solutions to speciﬁc problems — cutting down on energy bills by automating their light switches or monitoring their home while they’re on vacation, among others, he said. “There’s very few that come in and say, ‘I want a smart home,’ “ he said. That will probably change over time. Belkin, which showcased a set of sensors at CES — including one that detects when doors and windows open, and one that can locate a keychain — has evolved its smart-home offerings in response to customer requests, said Ohad Zeira, director of product management for Belkin’s home automation line, called WeMo. As customers get more comfortable with home automation, they start asking for additional features, he said. About a year ago, customers reported that they were setting Belkin’s automated porchlight to turn on and off based on sunlight, Zeira said — so about a year ago, the company integrated sunlight detection into the light. “Our job is to reﬁne that message and bring that to consumers,” he said. Still, concerns about privacy could be holding consumers back, according to a re-

cent survey conducted by the International Data Corp. and the Internet of Things Consortium, a group dedicated to promoting awareness about connected devices. About two thirds of consumers surveyed said they were concerned about the privacy implications of smart-home devices, the survey showed — which data it was collecting and who was able to access it. During a speech at CES, Edith Ramirez, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, warned against some of those risks and encouraged businesses to take steps to prevent them. The agency last year hosted a summit about the privacy and security risks of an increasingly connected network of devices. “In the not too distant future, many, if not most, aspects of our everyday lives will leave a digital trail. That data trove will contain a wealth of revealing information that, when patched together, will present a deeply personal and startlingly complete picture of each of us — one that includes details about our ﬁnancial circumstances, our health, our religious preferences, and our family and friends,” she said in prepared remarks. -Mohana Ravindranath/The Washington Post

W E D NE S DAY, JA N UA RY 14, 2 015

EXTRA

THE RETURN OF THE AIRSHIP Once the stuff of history, airships are ﬂoating back into favour

ou would be forgiven for thinking that airships lived on only in steampunk fantasies or celluloid — in films such as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. But like other forms of transportation technology that we assumed was moribund only to return from the dead like a horrormovie villain — trams, maglevs, double-decker buses, propeller planes — airships are back. Only last month, Nasa floated plans for the so-called High Altitude Venus Operational Concept (Havoc). The project envisages a space station in the sky, hovering in the atmosphere above the planet Venus, re-supplied by airships that look like Zeppelins. Artists’ impressions of the idea scream 1915 more than 2015, but perhaps dreamers such as Jules Verne and the real-life airship pioneers were just way ahead of their time? At Cardington Airfield, on the outskirts of Bedford, the story has come full circle. It was here that Britain built the R101 airship nearly a century ago. The hangars

are being repainted bright green and restored to their former glory. They are so vast that they are almost beyond comprehension — some of the biggest buildings in Britain, they could fit whole cathedrals inside them. The airships constructed here were initially wildly successful — they became symbols of modernism, like the hangars which held them, and began a process of rapid globalisation — the Empire State Building’s mast was designed as an airship docking point in Midtown Manhattan. But the R101 crashed in France in 1930, killing 48, and, following the Hindenburg disaster seven years later, when the German airship caught fire and killed 36 people, airships were sidelined. Some returned in later years, mainly as “blimps” designed to hover above cricket or baseball stadiums and film the match. But now airships are floating back into favour, trying again to conquer the world of cargo — and even passenger — transport. “Twenty-fifteen will be the year of the Airlander,” says Stephen McGlennan, the chief executive

of Hybrid Air Vehicles, a British company which is at the forefront of this new, yet old, technology. “We’ve been preparing and paving the way for a rapid-fire series of tests and developments in the next few months and we’ll be flying later this year.” McGlennan hands me a hard hat and a fluorescent jacket and leads me out from the company’s small office in one corner of the Cardington hangar, over to where the Airlander is parked. The wind whistles through the hangar; its size is truly monumental. But the Airlander itself is almost as impressive: a huge off-white balloon, its cabin and flaps sit on the floor next to it like a huge Airfix kit ready to be glued together. It looks lo-tech — and its relative simplicity is one of the selling points of the idea. It can operate in the wilderness or in cities; no runway is needed. Yet it takes brains to work out how to inflate it and how to make it fly — and carry 50 tons of cargo or 48 passengers. “This month we’ll be running engine testing on a purpose-built rig, and working with Cranfield

University in detailed wind-tunnel tests,” McGlennan says. “We’ll also be getting our first helium supplies so that we can test our purification equipment. The Airlander is currently filled with air.” McGlennan deliberately doesn’t call this friendly giant an airship but, like all engineers, instead christens it with acronyms or abbreviations — it is a HAV (Hybrid Air Vehicle) which could also have a military use as an LEMV (Long Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle) — a surveillance platform that stays aloft for days. Later this year, the Airlander will be flying in the UK, if the Civil Aviation Authority approves the tests, and in Sweden, where it’s being trialled to lift heavy bits of wind turbines over remote forests. Airships hardly have an unblotted copybook, so I ask McGlennan if this one is safe. “The lifting gas used is inert helium — this is the least reactive element and therefore won’t burn, explode or do anything much.” The opposite of the hydrogen used in airships of old. “The hull has 12 separate compartments that can be iso-

lated from each other. In tests, even when an old airship hull has been pierced by hundreds of bullets, the low pressure of helium inside, and the smart material used, means it’s a few hours before enough helium is lost to cause it to start sinking. The Airlander has four engines and is designed to be flown on just one. It will float gently to the ground even if we had an engine failure.” Could a trip to the Continent one day involve a routine flight on an airship rather than on a Boeing 737? Back in the office, McGlennan points to a huge world map and describes how flying by airship between close cities on the water such as London and Amsterdam, or between hugely congested metropolises near the sea — such as the cities of the Philippines — could make sense. Architects at HawkinsBrown are big airship fans, and their drawings often invoke the floating beasts in the sky above proposed new buildings. The studio has mooted the idea for building Britain’s first airship airport at Heathrow. — Christopher Beanland/The Independent

WEDNE SDAY, JANUARY 14, 2015

ENTERTAINMENT CINEMA SCHEDULE

BAHJA CINEMA Seventh Son (2D) (Adv ) (PG12) Cast: Ben Barnes, Julianne Moore 5:15 PM Seventh Son (3D) (Adv) (PG12) 9:30, 11:30 PM Automata (2D) (Sci-Fi) (PG) Cast: Antonio Banderas; 3:00, 7:15PM Zulu (2D) (Crime | Drama) (15+) Cast: Orlando Bloom, Forest Whitaker 9:45 PM Tevar (2D) (Action |Romance) (TBC) Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha 8:50 PM Tom Little and Magic Mirror (2D) (Animation |Adventure) (PG); 4:00 PM The Imitation Game (2D) (Bio) (12+) 5:30, 6:45 PM Woman In Black Angel Of Death (2D) (Horror | Thriller) (15+) 11:45 PM Vice (2D) (Action | Adventure) (15+) Cast: Thomas Jane, Bruce Willis 2:00, 11:45 PM P.K (2D) (Comedy | Drama) (PG) Cast: Aamir Khan, Sanjay Dutt; 4:00 PM From A to B (2D) (Adv|Com) (12+) Cast: Fahad Albutairi, Shadi Alfons 2:00, 7:45 PM

Taken-3 (2D) (Act/Thriller) (12+) Cast: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker, Maggie Grace 09:45 PM I (2D): (Animation/Adventure) (12+) Cast: ‘Chiyaan’ Vikram, Amy Jackson 06:30 PM. Tom Little & Magic Mirror (2D):

(Animation/Adventure) (PG) 11:00 AM & 02:45 PM The Imitation Game (2D): (Biography/Thriller) (12+) Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley 12:30 PM & 04:30 PM Gold Class: 03:00 PM Seventh Son (3D) (Adv) (PG12) Cast: Ben Barnes, Julianne Moore, 11:45 PM. Gold Class: 11:15 PM Automata (2D) (Sci-Fi) (PG) Cast: Antonio Banderas 11:45 PM P K (2D): (Comedy/fantasy) (PG) Cast: Aamir Khan, Sanjay Dutt 08:045PM Gold Class: 05:15 PM Jack & The Cuckoo-Clock Heart (2D) (Animation/Adventure) (PG) 10:30 AM & 02:15 PM From A To B (2D) (Co/Adv) (12+) Cast: Fahad Albutairi, Shadi Alfons 12:15 PM & 06:45 PM. Gold Class: 01:00 PM Tevar (2D) (Action/Romance) () 04:00 PM Gold Class: 08:15 PM

(M) (PG) (Family | Drama) Cast: Asif Ali, Jayaram, Kanika 6:45PM Automata – 2D (PG) (Sci-Fi) Cast: Antonio Banderas 9:45 & 11:45 PM

Cast: Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma, Sanjay Dutt 3:45, 8:15 & 11:00pm Seventh Son (Fantasyn|Adventure) (English) -(PG12 ) Cast: Rajnikanth, Sonakshi Sinha 6:15pm

P.K. – 2D (PG) (Com | Drama) Cast: Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma 9:00pm Vice – 2D (15+) (Act | Adv | Sci-Fi) Cast: Thomas Jane, Bruce Willis 3:45, 11:45pm Seventh Son – 2D (PG12) (Adv) Cast: Ben Barnes, Julianne Moore 3:15pm Seventh Son – 3D (PG12) (Adv| Family | Fantasy) Cast: Jeff Bridges 5:15, 9:30, 11:30pm The Imitation Game – 2D (12+) (Biography | Drama | Thriller) Cast: Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode 4:00 & 7:15 PM Zulu – 2D (15+) (Crime | Thriller) Cast: Orlando Bloom, Forest Whitaker 6:15 PM Tevar – 2D (TBC) (Action | Romance) Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha and Manoj Bajpayee 8:15 & 11:15 PM Tom Little and Magic Mirror – 2D (PG) (Animation/Adv/Fantasy) Cast: Ada Cruz, Omar Proenza 3:15 & 5:30 PM From A to B – 2D (12+) (Adv | Com) Cast: Fahad Albutairi, Shadi Alfons, Fadi Rifaai 4:45 & 7:00PM Mylanchi Monchulla Veedu – 2D

SCREEN 1 Shankar’s “ I” - Hindi (Thriller | Action | Romance ) (12+ ) Cast: Vikram, Amy Jackson, Suresh Gop 3:30 pm Shankar’s “ I” – Tamil (Thriller | Action | Rom) – Hindi (12 +) Cast: Vikram, Amy Jackson, Suresh Gop 7:00, 10:30 pm SCREEN 2 Tevar (Action |Romance) (TBC) Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha 3:45, 6:45, 9:45pm SCREEN 3 P. K (Comedy | Drama | Social) (PG )

Taken 3 (Crime | Thriller) (12+) 09:45PM I (Hindi) (Act | Fantasy ) (12+) 08:25PM Seventh Son – 2D (Adv) (PG15) 3:15 PM Seventh Son – 3D (Adv) (PG15) 5:15, 9:15 PM Poker Night (Act | Thriller) (PG12) 7:15, 11:45 PM Zulu (Crime | Thriller) (15+) 3:00, 6:30PM Swelter (Act | Thriller) (15+) 4:45 PM From A to B (Adv| Com ) (12+) 5:00PM Tevar (Action | Romance) 7:00 & 11:15 PM Autómata (Sci-Fi | Thriller) (PG) Hjort 3:00 & 11:45PM

Seventh Son (3D/PG12) (Adv) Cast: Ben Barnes, Julianne Moore 9:45 & 11:45PM Seventh Son (2D/PG12) (Adv) Moore2:30PM The Imitation Game (2D/12+) (Biography/Drama/Thriller) Cast: Keira Knightley1:30, 7:30PM Poker Night (2D/PG12) (Thriller) 12:30PM I – (Tamil) (2D/12+) (Act/Fantasy) Cast: ‘Chiyaan’ Vikram, Amy Jackson 11:15PM Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart (2D/PG) (Animation/Adv)2:30PM Vice (2D/15+) (Act/Adv/Sc-Fi) 11:45am, 11:30pm Zulu (2D/15+) (Crime/Thriller) Cast: Orlando Bloom 9:30PM From A to B (2D/12+) (Adv/Co) Cast: Fahad Albutairi, Shadi Alfons 4:15, 6:15PM P.K. (2D/PG) (Com/Drama) Cast: Aamir Khan, Sanjay Dutt 6:45PM Tevar (2D/PG) (Action/Romance) 11:30am, 4:30, 8:15PM Mylanchi Monchulla Veedu (2D/PG) (Family/Drama) 3:45PM

Taken 3 (Action) Cast: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker Famke Janssen, 10.00 & 11.55 pm; CP No: (12+) Seventh Son (Adventure/Fantacy) Cast: Jeff Bridges, Ben Barnes, Alicia Vikander Kit Harington 4.00 , 8.00, 10.00 & 11.55 pm CP No: 2015/62 (PG 12 ) Autómata (Sci-Fi-/Thriller) Cast : Antonio Banderas, Melanie Griffith 2.00 & 6.00 pm, CP No: 2015/61 (PG) Zulu (Crime /Drama /Thriller) : Orlando Bloom, Forest Whitaker 4.00 & 8.00 pm; CP No: 2015/60 ( 15+ ) Iron Clad:Battle for Blood (Act) Cast: Michelle Fariley, Roxanne Mckee 2.00 pm, CP No: 2015/2 (18+) Swelter:(Action/Thriller) Cast: Jean Claude Van Damme, Mindy 6.00 pm, CP No: : 2015/3 (15+)

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

STARS CINEMA Film information 24791641 / 24786776

“I” (Tamil) ( Action\Thriller Cast: Vikram , Amy Jackson & Shuesh Gopi 2:30, 6:15 & 10:00pm Cinema Main (Thursday & Saturday: 11:00am at Cinema Main) 9:30pm Cinema-3/9:45pm Cinema-2 Mylanchi Monchulla Veedu (Mal)(Rom\Com) Cast: Jayaram & Asif Ali 3:45 & 6:45pm Cinema-3 Chinnadana Nee Kosam (Telugu) (Rom\Com) Cast: Nitin Reddy and Mishti 3:30 & 6:30pm at Cinema- 2 P K (Hindi) (Com) Cast: Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma & Sanjay Dutt 3:45, 6:45 & 9:45 pm Cinema-4

For More Information 24789032, 24786776 Website: www.isurf.co.om

ACES ON BRIDGE

If you bid six, count to 10

SUDOKU

2 8 9 3 4 5 1 9

3 4 4 9 6 2 2 1 3 5

4 2 9 7 1 5 7 1 6 4 9 2 3 2

HOW TO PLAY Fill the empty cells with the numbers 1 to 9, so that each number appears once in each row, column and area. — Seven Galaxies

2 7 1 3 5 4 8 6 9 6 5 9 1 7 8 2 4 3 8 4 3 6 2 9 7 1 5 9 3 8 5 1 2 4 7 6 7 2 6 8 4 3 5 9 1 5 1 4 9 6 7 3 2 8

MARMADUKE

CROSSWORD

B I G NAT E

54 55 56 57 58 59 60

Bother North 40 unit — gin ﬁzz Passports Measure of length Catchall grp. Strong soap

DOWN 1 Cotillion, for instance 2 Bogus butter 3 Unlock 4 Splits apart 5 Billboards 6 Model, to begin with 7 Fair-hiring letters 8 Natural 9 Smidgens 10 Touche provoker 11 In a snit 17 — Enterprise 19 Vega rocket org. 22 Brother’s daughter 23 Cigar type 24 Chitchat 25 Novelist — Levin 26 Quick turn

28 30 31 32 37 39 41 43

Kimono fastener Pat on Building wing Once called Having an awning Way back when Prehistoric Montezuma subject 44 Fierce whale

45 47 48 49 50 51 52 53

Motor sound Hammer’s target Dust devil Prescribed amount Coral islet Dogma Yalie Plea at sea

Answer to previous puzzle

ACROSS 1 Scare word 4 Carry off 8 Part of a list 12 Zurich peak 13 Singer — Adams 14 Winemaking valley 15 Gypsy Rose — 16 Dazzled 18 Non-social person 20 Letter encl. 21 Form 1040 info 23 Minnesota hrs. 24 Sphinx site 27 Unlucky gambler’s note 29 Perfect place 33 Jackie’s tycoon 34 Diminish 35 Brewery product 36 Sacks 38 Government org. 39 Fully qualiﬁed 40 Garden tool 42 Faultﬁnder 44 Outback mineral 46 Like city real estate 50 Most yucky

GOWTHAM K. JIJESH

BADRINATH S.

January 14, 2004

January 15, 2013

ADITHI MISHRA

A. PRAJEET STREEK

January 15, 2003

1 8 7 4 9 5 6 3 2 3 6 2 7 8 1 9 5 4 4 9 5 2 3 6 1 8 7

Previous puzzle Solution

RONNIE Shakes, a stand-up comedian who died in 1987, said, “After 12 years of therapy my psychiatrist said something that brought tears to my eyes. He said, ‘No hablo ingles.’” After declarer went down in this small slam, he might have said, “No contaba con doce” — I did not count to 12. What should declarer have done to try to make six spades after West led the diamond king? North was right to raise his partner’s one-spade response to two spades. Then, though, South should have temporised with a three-club rebid. North would probably have continued with three no-trump, denying four-card spade support and promising a diamond stopper. After that, South should have invited a slam with four no-trump. Note, however, that six spades is the only small slam that can be made — although it is very lucky. At the table, declarer was so bothered by the lack of a fourth trump in the dummy that he never gave the contract any thought and drifted down. If he had asked himself which 12 tricks he could have won, he would have seen four top spades (he needed trumps 3-3), two hearts, two diamonds, three clubs and a club ruff in the dummy. South takes the ﬁrst trick with his diamond ace, leads a spade to dummy’s queen, returns a club to his jack, ruffs his low club in the dummy, cashes the spade ace, plays a heart to his king, cashes the spade king (drawing trumps), and leads a diamond toward dummy’s jack. Whew! — By Phillip Alder

WITH LOVE

BORN LOSER

PRAJWAAL M.

MANN MANOHAR VERLEKAR

MOHD HISHAM MANSOOR

RONITH SINGH MAKHLOGA

January 15, 2001

January 15, 2000

January 16, 2003

January 16, 2005

Send us a colour photograph of the child (below 16 years) whose birthday you are celebrating, along with his/her full name, date of birth, address, telephone number and parents’/your name to Times of Oman, With Love, PO Box 770, PC 112, Ruwi or through e-mail to extra@timesofoman.com

KIDSPOT

H E A LT H C A P S U L E

C1 0

W E D NE S DAY, JA N UA RY 14, 2 015

FIND-IT-ALL Y O U R B I R T H D AY

BORN today, you are a highly creative individual, and you are always envisioning project after project of a kind that has not been attempted before — at least not in the way that you will attempt it! You have a kind of encyclopedic knowledge of the things that pique your interest: It’s not so much that you have learned through applied study, but rather you have absorbed information simply by exploring such topics freely, as your instincts direct. Like many Capricorn natives, you embrace on one hand traditional methods and motives, while on the other you love to experiment with the unusual, unexpected and untried. You’re likely to make a name for yourself in not one, not two, but perhaps three or more distinct lines of endeavor. This will surely make it difficult for others to pigeonhole you or label you with any accuracy. You cannot be summed up in a way that is easy to shorthand. Also born on this date are: LL Cool J, rapper and actor; Jason Bateman, actor; Faye Dunaway, actress; Carl Weathers, actor; Albert Schweitzer, physician; Andy Rooney, author and commentator; Emily Watson, actress; Jack Jones, singer; Richard Briers, actor; Benedict Arnold, military leader; Hal Roach, ﬁlmmaker; Steven Soderbergh, ﬁlmmaker.

W E AT H E R

WORLD

Max 27 Min 18 Max -1 Min -3

Max 18 Min 8

Max 27 Min 17 Max -10 Min -14

Max 27 Min 16

Max 2 Min -1

Max 28 Min 9

Max 27 Min 13

Max 26 Min 9

Max 27 Min 17

Max 26 Min 13

[DEC. 22-JAN 19] Max 28 Min 18

Max 21 Min 10

Max 30 Min 22 Max 32 Min 22

—www.met.gov.om

GULF Abu Dhabi Doha Dubai Kuwait Manama Riyadh

23 21 23 16 19 17

18 11 12 10 14 6

WORLD Athens Baghdad Beijing Berlin Boston Cairo Colombo Frankfurt Hong Kong Istanbul Johannesburg Kuala Lumpur Lisbon Paris Perth Singapore Tokyo Toronto

13 15 3 6 -3 16 30 7 17 7 26 30 13 9 31 29 10 -6

7 2 -4 2 -10 8 21 3 14 3 16 22 12 7 17 24 5 -10

FROM MUSCAT (RUWI)

TO MUSCAT (RUWI)

[JAN. 20-FEB. 18]

PISCES [Feb. 19-March 20] Your awareness of what has gone on before will help you as you try to make sense of the present and make a plan for the very near future.

ARIES [March 21-APRIL 19] You’ll want to pick up the pace and get things done ahead of schedule. Only in this way will you be able to indulge in a certain fantasy.

TAURUS [APRIL 20-MAY 20] Not everyone has your way of seeing things — a way that can certainly help you through a tricky few minutes toward day’s end.

GEMINI [MAY 21-JUNE 20] The fact that you’re unique will be highlighted throughout the day. Don’t let anyone tell you that what you have to offer can be replicated.

CANCER [JUNE 21-JULY 22] You may be waiting for the weather to turn before putting a certain plan into motion, but why? The truth is, you’re only making excuses.

LEO [JULY 23-AUG. 22] You may be quite conﬁdent that someone you don’t yet know will fall under your spell once you are brought together — but is today the day?

VIRGO [AUG. 23-SEPT. 22] Give someone else the time of day, and he or she will be sure to do you a favor when the time comes. All it takes is a little attention.

LIBRA L [[SEPT. [S S 23-OCT. 22] You may not be able to ﬁnish a project because of its complexity and your inability to work without taking a break.

SCORPIO S [[OCT. 23-NOV. 21] The process you are going through to discover as much as possible about yourself and someone else may actually turn out to be counterproductive.

SAGITTARIUS S [[NOV. 22-DEC. 21] One thing leads to another. Before you know it, you may be head over heels in love with something utterly new to you.

Sunset Sunrise (Tomorrow)

5.40pm 6.51am

High tide Low tide

2:46am 10:10am

QURIYAT - SUR - JAALAN (Route 36) Dept Destination Arrival Time Time 15:00 Quriyat 16:30 15:00 Sur 18:00 15:00 Jaalan 19:30 TO AL BURAIMI (Route 41) 06:30 Sohar 06:30 Buraimi 08:00 Buraimi 13:00 Sohar 13:00 Buraimi 16.00 Sohar 16.00 Buraimi TO SINAW (Route 52) 17:30 Sinaw

Operating Days Daily Daily Daily

FROM JAALAN-SUR-QURIYAT (Route 36) Dept Destination Arrival Operating Time Time Days 05:30 Sur 06:45 Daily 05:30 Quriyat 08:30 Daily 05:30 Ruwi 10:00 Daily

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

Daily Daily Daily via Ibri Daily Daily Daily Daily

20:50

Daily

TO AL BURAIMI (Route 41) 07:00 Sohar 07:00 Ruwi 13:30 Ruwi 13:00 Sohar 13:00 Ruwi 13:00 Sohar 17:00 Ruwi TO SINAW (Route 52) 07:00 Ruwi

08:55 11:40 20:20 14:55 17:40 19:20 22:15

Daily Daily Daily via Ibri Daily Daily Daily Daily

10:25

Daily

08:40 11:00

Daily Daily

To Yanqul (Route 54) 14:30 Nizwa 14:30 Yanqul

16:50 19:30

Daily Daily

To Yanqul (Route 54) 06:00 Nizwa 06:00 Ruwi

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (Route 54) 08:00 Nizwa 08:00 Al Araqi

10:20 12:30

Daily Daily

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (Route 54) 15:40 Nizwa 15:40 Ruwi

17:55 20:20

Daily Daily

TO SUR (Route 55) 07:30 Sur 14:30 Sur

12:00 18:45

Daily Daily

TO SUR (Route 55) 06:00 Ruwi 14:30 Ruwi

10:45 19:00

Daily Daily

TO FAHUD - YIBAL (Route 62) 06:30 Fahud 06:30 Yibal

10:30 11:15

Daily Daily

TO YIBAL - FAHUD (Route 62) 12:30 Fahud 12:30 Ruwi

13:15 17:30

Daily Daily

TO MARMUL-SALALAH (Route 100) 07:00 Salalah 20:00 10:00 Marmul 20:30 10:00 Salalah 23:30 19:00 Salalah 07:40

Daily Daily Daily Daily

TO SALALAH -MARMUL (Route 100) 07:00 Ruwi 19:50 10:00 Marmul 13:15 10:00 Ruwi 22:30 19:00 Ruwi 07:30

Daily Daily Daily Daily

TO MARMUL (Route 101) 06:00 Marmul

Daily

TO MARMUL (Route 101) 06:00 Marmul

16:30

Daily

DUBAI TO SALALAH (Route 102) 15:00 Salalah 07:00

Daily

16:50

SALALAH TO DUBAI (Route 102) 15:00 Dubai 07:00 TO DUBAI (Route 201) 06:00 Sohar 06:00 Dubai 13:00 Sohar 13:00 Dubai 15:00 Sohar 15:00 Dubai

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

Daily Daily Wed,Thur Wed,Thur Daily Daily

TO DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH & SHARJAH (Route 204) Dept Destination Arrival Operating Time Time Days 07:00 Fujairah 11.45 Daily 07:00 Sharjah 13.30 Daily 07:00 Dubai 14.00 Daily

TO DUBAI (Route 201) 07:30 Sohar 07:30 Ruwi 13:00 Sohar 13:00 Ruwi 15:30 Sohar 15:30 Ruwi

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

Daily Daily Thur-Fri Thur-Fri Daily Daily

FROM DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH & SHARJAH (Route 204) Dept Destination Arrival Operating Time Time Days 16:00 Sharjah 16:30 Daily 16.00 Fujairah 18.15 Daily 16.00 Ruwi 23.00 Daily

LISTINGS

PHARMACIES Round the clock Al Hashar Pharmacy, Ruwi: 24783334; Appolo Medical Centre, Hamriya: 24782666; Muscat Pharmacy, Ruwi: 24702542, Salalah: 23291635; Atlas Pharmacy, Ghubra: 24503585; Ruwi 24811715 Muscat Region Apollo, Al Hamriya. Tel: 24787766 Muscat, A Seeb Market. Tel: 24421691 Muscat, Al Khuwair. Tel: 24485740 Muscat, Al Hail South. Tel: 24537080 Dhofar Region Muscat, Al Nahdha Road, Salalah. Tel: 23291635 HOSPITALS Al Amal Medical & Health Care Centre: 24485052 Atlas Hospital: Ruwi: 24811743/ Ghubra: 24504000 Al Musaﬁr Specialised Medical Clinic: 24706453 Hatat Polyclinic LLC, Ruwi: 24563641, Azaiba: 24499269, Sohar: 2683006 Al Raffah Hospital: 24618900/1/2 Al Massaraat Clinic & Laboratory: 24566435 Al Makook Medical Coordinance Centre: 24499434 Apollo Medical Centre, Hamriya: 24787766, 24787780 Capital Polyclinic: 24707549 Badr Al Samaa Polyclinic, Ruwi: 24799760/1/2 Capital Clinic, Seeb: 24420740 Ceregem National Raak: 24485633 Dr Harub’s Clinic: 24563217 Elixir Health Centre: 24565802 Emirates Medical Centre: 24604540 1st Chiropractic Centre: 24472274 Hamdan Hospital: 23212340 International Medical Centre LLC: 24794501/2/3/4/5 Kims Oman Hospital: 24760100

24 Hrs Emergency: 24760123 Lama Polyclinic, Sohar: 26751128, MBD: 24799077, Al Khuwair: 24478818 Magrabi Eye and Ear Hospital: 24568870 Muscat Private Hospital: 24583600 Welcare Diagnostic and Treatment Centre, Al Khuwair: 24477666 Al-Hayat Polyclinc LLC: 22004000 ROYAL OMAN POLICE Emergencies and inquiries: 9999 General Directorate of Passport and Residence: 24569603 Directorate General of Customs: 24521109 Traffic violations inquiries: 24510228 Public Relations Admin: 24560099 ACCOMMODATION Al Bahjah Hotel: 24424400 Al Bustan Palace: 24764000 Al Khuwair Hotel Apartments: 24478171 Al Madina Holiday Inn: 24596400 Al Maha International Hotel: 24494949 Al Fanar Hotel: 24712385 Al Falaj Hotel: 24702311 Al Qurum Resort: 24605945 Azaiba Hotel Apartments: 24490979 Beach Hotel: 24696601 Bowshar Hotel: 24491105 Coral Hotel Muscat: 24692121 Crowne Plaza Muscat: 24660660 Crystal Suites: 24826100 Golden Tulip Seeb: 24510300 Grand Hyatt Muscat: 24641234 Haffa House Hotel: 24707207 Hotel Muscat Holiday: 24487123 InterContinental Muscat: 24680000 Majan Continental Hotel: 24592900 Marina Hotel: 24711711 Midan Hotel Suites: 24499565 Mina Hotel: 24711828 Muttrah Hotel: 24798401

Nuzha Hotel Apartments: 24789199 Oman Dive Centre: 24824240 Park Inn: 24507888 Qurum Beach House Hotel: 24564070 Radisson Blu Hotel: 24487777 Ramee Dream Resort Seeb: 24453399 Ramee Guestline Hotel: 24564443 Ruwi Hotel: 24704244 Safeer Hotel Suites: 24691200 Sheraton Oman Hotel: 24772772 Shangri-La’s Barr Al Jissah Resort and Spa: 24776666 The Chedi Muscat: 24524400 The Treasurebox Muscat Hotel: 24502570 AIRLINE OFFICES Muscat Airport Flight information (24 hours): 24519456/24519223 Aeroﬂot: 24704455, Air Arabia: 24700828, Air France: 24562153, Air India: 24799801, Air New Zealand: 24700732, Biman Bangladesh Airlines: 24701128, British Airways: 24568777, Cathay Paciﬁc: 24789818, Egypt Air: 24794113, Emirates Air: 24404400, Ethiopian Airlines: 24660313, Gulf Air: 80072424, Indian: 24791914, Iran Air: 24787423, Japan Airlines: 24704455, Jazeera Airways: 23294848, Jet Airways: 24787248, Kenya Airways: 24660300, KML Royal Dutch Airlines: 24566737, Kuwait Airways: 24701262, LOT Polish Airlines: 24796387, Lufthansa: 24796692, Malaysian Airlines: 24560796, Middle East Airlines: 24796680, Oman Air: 24531111, Pakistan International Airlines: 24792471, Qatar Airways: 24771900, Qantas: 24559941, Royal Jordanian: 24796693, Saudi Arabian Airlines: 24789485, Singapore Airlines: 24791233, Shaheen Air: 24816565, SriLankan Airlines:

WEDNESDAY

Min

L O N G D I S TA N C E B U S T I M I N G S ( O M A N N AT I O N A L T R A N S P O R T C O M PA N Y S A O C ) * S U B J E C T T O C H A N G E

You’ve been sharing a great deal of yourself lately, and now it may be time for you to sit back and let someone else do the giving.

12.21pm 3.24pm 5.45pm 7.00pm 5.32am

2:53pm 8:00pm

with maximum a wave height 2 metres and moderate to rough along the south Al-Sharqiya coast with a maximum wave height of 3.0 metres and moderate along the rest of the Arabian Sea coast. HORIZONTAL VISIBILITY: Good over most of the Sultanate becoming poor during dust rising wind and fog. THE NEXT 48 HOURS OUTLOOK: Mainly clear skies and relatively cold weather over most of the Sultanate. Chances of low level clouds during late night to early morning over governorates of Al-Buraimi, Al-Dhahira. Chance of high cloud advection.

Max

OMAN

AQUARIUS

Dhuhr Asr Maghrib Isha Fajr (Tomorrow)

AIRLINES

Clear to partly cloudy skies along the coastal areas of Oman Sea with chance of isolated rain. Chances of low level clouds or fog during late night to early morning over governorates of Al-Buraimi, Al-Dhahira. Chances of dust rising over desert and open areas. EXPECTED WIND: Wind will be northwesterly light to moderate occasionally fresh over most of the Sultanate while it will be northerly to northeasterly light to moderate along the Arabian Sea Coast. SEA STATE: Moderate over Musandam and Oman Sea coasts

CAPRICORN You’re in need of something that only a loved one can provide — or someone who knows you even better than that!

PRAYER TIMINGS

24784545, Swiss International Airlines: 24796692, Thai Airways: 24705934, Turkish Airlines: 24703033 MUSEUMS Bait Al Baranda: Corniche (seafront opp ﬁsh market), Open from Saturday to Thursday 9am to 1pm and 4 to 6pm Natural History Museum: Al Khuwair, Tel: 24604957, Open from Saturday to Wednesday: 8am to 1:30pm; Thursday: 9am to 1pm Museum of Omani Heritage: (former Omani Museum), Madinat Al Alam, Sat-Wed 8am to 1:30pm, Thursday 9am to 1pm, Tel: 24600946 Armed Forces Museum: Bait Al Falaj, Tel: 24312651, Open from Sat to Wed: 8am to 1:30pm; Thurs 9-12pm and 3-6pm; Fri 9-11am and 3-6pm. Al Hoota Caves 24498258; Turtle Beach 96550606/96550707 Children’s Science Museum: Shatti Al Qurum, Tel: 24605368, Open from Saturday to Wednesday: 8am to 1:30pm, Thursday: 9am to 1pm Oman-French Museum: near Muscat Police Station, Tel: 24736613, Open from Sat to Wed: 8am to 1:30pm, Thurs: 9am to 1pm Bait Al Zubair, Muscat: Tel: 24736688, Al Saidiya St., Muscat museum@baitalzubairmuseum.com Open from Sat to Thurs: 9:30am to 6pm. National Museum Ruwi: Tel: 24701289, Open from Saturday to Wednesday: 8am to 1:30pm, Thursday: 9am to 1pm Sohar Fort Museum: Tel: 26844758, Open from Saturday to Wed: 8 to 1:30pm Thurs: 9am to 1pm Muscat Gate Museum: at Al Bahri Road, Muscat open from Sat to Wed 8am to 2pm

THURSDAY

FLT NO

ARRIVALS FROM

ETA

FLT NO

ARRIVALS FROM

ETA

WY682 WY406 WY676 WY648 WY816 WY824 4H583 WY916 PK229 TK776 QR1132 EK866 GF560 EY384 FZ041 WY638 WY902 WY686 WY658 WY668 WY644 WY692 WY674 WY602 WY202 WY432 WY102 NL768 WY342 FZ043 G9114 WY236 WY918 WY226 WY242 EK862 WY346 WY252 IX443 QR1128 EY382 IX549 9W530 WY604 WY822 WY3922 G9841 FZ037 WY268 IX337 WY314 PA450 WY904 WY3302 WY606 WY326 WY918 WY918 WY906 WY274 WY656 WY632 FZ045 WY216 WY204 WY292 WY610 WY246 WY3304 WY284 WY232 QR1126 WY664 EK864 GF564 G9116 WY254 WY144 FZ047 WY614 WY914 AI977 KL441 WY624 AI973 6.00E+81 WY414 9W534 FZ049 AI907 QR1134 WY272 GF566 BA073 EY388 WY908 AI985 WY662 WY124 LX242 9W540 LH618 WY654 WY612 WY116 WY928 WY636 W696 WY717 WY910

RIYADH CAIRO JEDDAH KUWAIT BANGKOK KUALA LUMPUR DACCA-CHITTAGONG SALALAH LAHORE ISTANBUL-BAHRAIN DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN ABU DHABI DUBAI ABU DHABI SALALAH RIYADH BAHRAIN DOHA KUWAIT DAMMAM JEDDAH DUBAI BOMBAY TEHRAN LONDON HEATHROW LAHORE LAHORE DUBAI SHARJAH HYDERABAD KHASAB COCHIN DELHI DUBAI ISLAM ABBAD MADRAS COCHIN DOHA ABU DHABI TRIVANDRUM TRIVANDRUM DUBAI KUALA LUMPUR DUQUM OMAN RAS AL KHAIMA DUBAI LUCKNOW CALICUT CHITTAGONG LAHORE SALALAH MUKHAIZNA DUBAI KARACHI KHASAB KHASAB SALALAH JAIPUR BAHRAIN ABU DHABI DUBAI TRIVANDRUM BOMBAY CALICUT DUBAI DELHI MUKHAIZNA BANGALORE HYDERABAD DOHA DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN SHARJAH MADRAS MALPENSA DUBAI DUBAI SALALAH BANGALORE-HYDERABAD AMSTERDAM-DOHA DUBAI DELHI BOMBAY AMMAN COCHIN DUBAI MADRAS DOHA JAIPUR BAHRAIN LONDON HEATHROW-ABU DHABI ABU DHABI SALALAH AHMEDABAD-BOMBAY DOHA MUNICH ZURICH-DUBAI BOMBAY FRANKFURT-ABU DHABI BAHRAIN DUBAI FRANKFURT SALALAH ABU DHABI DAMMAM ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM SALALAH

0005 0005 0005 0010 0015 0055 0130 0150 0215 0300 0345 0355 0405 0405 0415 0520 0630 0700 0700 0710 0715 0725 0730 0805 0815 0815 0820 0830 0835 0850 0915 0920 0930 0930 0935 0940 0940 0940 1010 1010 1015 1020 1035 1110 1115 1115 1120 1200 1210 1210 1210 1215 1215 1330 1330 1355 1440 1440 1445 1515 1530 1535 1555 1705 1710 1720 1730 1730 1730 1740 1740 1745 1745 1800 1810 1915 1920 1930 1945 2030 2035 2105 2120 2125 2125 2130 2135 2140 2145 2200 2210 2235 2240 2240 2250 2305 2310 2315 2320 2320 2325 2330 2330 2335 2345 2345 2350 2350 2355 2355

WY682 WY676 WY406 WY648 WY816 BG021 WY916 PK225 TK774 QR1132 ET624 EK866 GF560 EY384 FZ041 MS930 WY324 4H584 WY638 WY658 WY668 WY674 WY602 WY902 WY202 WY102 NL768 WY342 FZ043 WY274 G9114 WY242 WY236 WY918 WY226 WY212 WY252 EK862 QR1128 IX443 EY382 9W530 WY282 WY604 WY372 FZ037 WY384 WY332 IX337 WY904 WY826 WY818 BG023 WY3302 WY606 PK291 IX817 WY906 WY812 WY656 SV530 FZ045 WY204 WY292 WY822 WY434 WY3922 WY246 WY3304 WY610 WY232 WY664 QR1126 WY268 EK864 GF564 WY646 G9116 WY254 TG507 FZ047 WY914 WY614 KL441 WY624 AI973 WY312 6.00E+81 WY414 9W534 FZ049 AI907 QR1134 UL205 BA073 GF566 EY388 SG061 WY908 AI985 WY662 LX242 9W540 WY654 LH618 WY612 WY654 WY928 WY696 WY636 WY910 WY717

RIYADH JEDDAH CAIRO KUWAIT BANGKOK DACCA-CHITTAGONG SALALAH KARACHI ISTANBUL DOHA ADDIS ABABA DUBAI BAHRAIN ABU DHABI DUBAI CAIRO KARACHI DOHA ABU DHABI BAHRAIN DOHA JEDDAH DUBAI BOMBAY BOMBAY LONDON HEATHROW LAHORE LAHORE DUBAI JAIPUR SHARJAH DELHI HYDERABAD KHASAB COCHIN TRIVANDRUM MADRAS DUBAI DOHA COCHIN ABU DHABI TRIVANDRUM BANGALORE DUBAI COLOMBO DUBAI MALE KATHMANDU CALICUT SALALAH KUALA LUMPUR BANGKOK CHITTAGONG MUKHAIZNA DUBAI LAHORE-ISLAM ABBAD MANGALORE-ABU DHABI SALALAH BANGKOK BAHRAIN JEDDAH DUBAI BOMBAY CALICUT KUALA LUMPUR TEHRAN DUQUM OMAN DELHI MUKHAIZNA DUBAI HYDERABAD DOHA DOHA LUCKNOW DUBAI BAHRAIN KUWAIT SHARJAH MADRAS BANGKOK-KARACHI DUBAI SALALAH DUBAI AMSTERDAM-DOHA DUBAI DELHI CHITTAGONG BOMBAY AMMAN COCHIN DUBAI MADRAS DOHA COLOMBO LONDON HEATHROW-ABU DHABI BAHRAIN ABU DHABI AHMEDABAD SALALAH AHMEDABAD-BOMBAY DOHA ZURICH-DUBAI BOMBAY BAHRAIN FRANKFURT-ABU DHABI DUBAI BAHRAIN SALALAH DAMMAM ABU DHABI SALALAH ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM

0005 0005 0005 0010 0015 0100 0150 0210 0215 0345 0350 0355 0405 0405 0415 0430 0550 0640 0650 0700 0710 0730 0805 0815 0815 0820 0830 0835 0850 0855 0915 0920 0920 0930 0930 0940 0940 0940 1010 1010 1015 1035 1100 1110 1140 1200 1205 1210 1210 1215 1230 1235 1245 1330 1330 1430 1440 1445 1525 1530 1550 1555 1710 1720 1720 1720 1730 1730 1730 1730 1740 1745 1745 1750 1800 1810 1900 1915 1920 1935 1945 1950 2030 2120 2125 2125 2125 2130 2135 2140 2145 2200 2210 2225 2240 2240 2250 2300 2305 2310 2315 2320 2325 2330 2330 2335 2335 2345 2350 2350 2355 2355

FLT NO

DEPARTURES TO

ETD

FLT NO

DEPARTURES TO

ETD

AI986 LX243 9W539 BA072 LH619 WY685 WY251 WY201 WY225 WY235 WY601 WY345 WY341 WY431 WY241 WY151 WY643 WY313 WY637 WY657 WY115 WY667 WY123 WY143 4H584 WY691 PK230 TK777 WY267 EK867 FZ042 QR1133 EY385 WY617 WY3921 GF561 WY903 WY603 WY273 WY215 WY325 WY291 NL769 FZ044 WY283 WY245 WY231 WY3301 G9115 WY815 WY203 WY905 WY605 WY253 WY717 EK863 EY383 WY655 IX554 IX442 QR1129 9W533 G9842 WY631 IX350 FZ038 PA451 WY101 WY663 WY413 WY3303 WY927 WY609 WY405 WY331 WY913 WY675 FZ046 WY613 WY623 QR1127 WY681 WY907 GF565 WY661 WY647 WY653 WY695 EK865 WY909 G9117 WY611 WY635 FZ048 WY825 WY915 AI978 FZ050 KL442 9W529 6.00E+82 AI908 AI974 QR1135 GF567 WY901 EY381 WY673

BOMBAY DUBAI-ZURICH BOMBAY ABU DHABI-LONDON HEATHROW ABU DHABI-FRANKFURT RIYADH MADRAS BOMBAY COCHIN HYDERABAD DUBAI ISLAM ABBAD LAHORE TEHRAN DELHI ZURICH KUWAIT CHITTAGONG ABU DHABI BAHRAIN FRANKFURT DOHA MUNICH-PARIS MALPENSA DACCA DAMMAM LAHORE BAHRAIN-ISTANBUL LUCKNOW DUBAI DUBAI DOHA ABU DHABI KHASAB DUQUM OMAN BAHRAIN SALALAH DUBAI JAIPUR TRIVANDRUM KARACHI CALICUT LAHORE DUBAI BANGALORE DELHI HYDERABAD MUKHAIZNA SHARJAH BANGKOK BOMBAY SALALAH DUBAI MADRAS ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM DUBAI ABU DHABI BAHRAIN TRIVANDRUM COCHIN DOHA COCHIN RAS AL KHAIMA ABU DHABI CALICUT DUBAI LAHORE LONDON HEATHROW DOHA AMMAN MUKHAIZNA SALALAH DUBAI CAIRO KATHMANDU SALALAH JEDDAH DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI DOHA RIYADH SALALAH BAHRAIN DOHA KUWAIT BAHRAIN DAMMAM DUBAI SALALAH SHARJAH DUBAI ABU DHABI DUBAI KUALA LUMPUR SALALAH HYDERABAD-BANGALORE DUBAI DOHA-AMSTERDAM TRIVANDRUM BOMBAY MADRAS DELHI DOHA BAHRAIN SALALAH ABU DHABI JEDDAH

0005 0020 0025 0025 0050 0105 0110 0120 0125 0135 0150 0150 0150 0155 0155 0155 0200 0205 0205 0205 0215 0220 0220 0225 0230 0235 0315 0350 0355 0455 0510 0520 0525 0630 0715 0745 0800 0800 0815 0845 0920 0920 0930 0935 0940 0955 0955 1000 1005 1010 1030 1030 1030 1040 1045 1055 1105 1110 1110 1115 1115 1135 1210 1225 1310 1315 1315 1330 1330 1330 1400 1415 1420 1430 1455 1630 1630 1700 1700 1820 1845 1845 1850 1855 1900 1900 1910 1910 1915 1940 2005 2025 2030 2040 2110 2135 2200 2225 2230 2240 2245 2300 2310 2320 2325 2350 2350 2350

AI986 LX243 9W539 BA072 LH619 WY323 WY211 WY251 WY201 WY811 WY225 WY235 WY601 WY273 WY821 WY341 WY241 WY281 WY657 WY637 WY371 WY667 WY383 BG022 TK775 PK226 ET625 EK867 FZ042 QR1133 EY385 MS931 WY917 WY3931 4H584 GF561 WY903 WY603 WY291 NL769 FZ044 WY267 WY231 WY245 WY3301 G9115 WY815 WY905 WY605 WY203 WY311 WY253 WY717 EK863 WY433 EY383 WY655 IX442 QR1129 9W533 WY331 IX350 FZ038 WY101 WY413 WY663 WY645 WY113 WY3921 WY3303 WY927 BG024 WY609 WY121 WY405 IX818 PK292 WY675 SV531 WY613 FZ046 WY913 WY623 WY681 QR1127 WY907 GF565 WY647 WY661 WY653 WY695 EK865 WY909 G9117 WY611 WY635 TG508 FZ048 WY825 WY915 FZ050 KL442 WY817 9W529 6.00E+82 AI908 AI974 QR1135 GF567 UL206 WY673 WY901 EY381

BOMBAY DUBAI-ZURICH BOMBAY ABU DHABI-LONDON HEATHROW ABU DHABI-FRANKFURT KARACHI TRIVANDRUM MADRAS BOMBAY BANGKOK COCHIN HYDERABAD DUBAI JAIPUR KUALA LUMPUR LAHORE DELHI BANGALORE BAHRAIN ABU DHABI COLOMBO DOHA MALE CHITTAGONG-DACCA ISTANBUL KARACHI ADDIS ABABA DUBAI DUBAI DOHA ABU DHABI CAIRO KHASAB SOHAR DACCA BAHRAIN SALALAH DUBAI CALICUT LAHORE DUBAI LUCKNOW HYDERABAD DELHI MUKHAIZNA SHARJAH BANGKOK SALALAH DUBAI BOMBAY CHITTAGONG MADRAS ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM DUBAI TEHRAN ABU DHABI BAHRAIN COCHIN DOHA COCHIN KATHMANDU CALICUT DUBAI LONDON HEATHROW AMMAN DOHA KUWAIT FRANKFURT DUQUM OMAN MUKHAIZNA SALALAH CHITTAGONG DUBAI MUNICH CAIRO MANGALORE ISLAM ABBAD JEDDAH MEDINA-JEDDAH DUBAI DUBAI SALALAH DUBAI RIYADH DOHA SALALAH BAHRAIN KUWAIT DOHA BAHRAIN DAMMAM DUBAI SALALAH SHARJAH DUBAI ABU DHABI KARACHI-BANGKOK DUBAI KUALA LUMPUR SALALAH DUBAI DOHA-AMSTERDAM BANGKOK TRIVANDRUM BOMBAY MADRAS DELHI DOHA BAHRAIN COLOMBO JEDDAH SALALAH ABU DHABI

0005 0020 0025 0025 0050 0105 0110 0110 0120 0120 0125 0135 0135 0140 0140 0150 0155 0200 0205 0205 0210 0220 0235 0250 0310 0310 0450 0455 0510 0520 0525 0530 0630 0715 0740 0745 0800 0800 0920 0930 0935 0935 0955 0955 1000 1005 1010 1030 1030 1030 1040 1040 1045 1055 1105 1105 1110 1115 1115 1135 1205 1310 1315 1330 1330 1330 1340 1345 1345 1400 1415 1415 1420 1425 1430 1530 1530 1630 1650 1700 1700 1810 1820 1845 1845 1850 1855 1900 1900 1910 1910 1915 1940 2005 2025 2030 2040 2040 2110 2135 2225 2230 2235 2240 2245 2300 2310 2320 2325 2335 2350 2350 2350

WEDNE SDAY, JANUARY 14, 2015

C11

EXTRA STUDY

Health beverages are no good for consumers CONTRARY TO the claims made on their packages, some novel beverages such as vitamin waters and energy drinks marketed in Canada provide little nutritional benefits to the consumers, says a study. “While our findings suggest that consumers stand to reap little or no benefit from the nutrient additions in novel beverages, most products were being marketed as if they provided a unique benefit to the consumer through the nutrient additions,” Naomi Dachner from University of Toronto. The novel beverages expose the consumers to unnecessarily high nutrient loads with no potential benefit, the study pointed out. On-package marketing highlighted nutritional attributes such as immune support and antioxidant properties, and some made claims related to specific nutrients. In addition, nutrients were often juxtaposed with messages related to performance and emotional well-being, benefits that go beyond conventional nutritional science. -IANS

The size of grief B

All sorrows can be borne if you put them in a story or speak about it to the right person y the time Mary came to see me, six months after losing her daughter to sudden infant death syndrome, she had hired and ﬁred two other therapists. She was trying to get her grief right. Mary was a successful accountant, a driven person who was unaccustomed to being weighed down by sorrow. She was also well versed in the stages of grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. To her and so many others in our culture, that meant grief would be temporary and somewhat predictable, even with the enormity of her loss. She expected to be able to put it behind her and get on with her life. To look at her, she already had done so. The mask she wore for the world was carefully constructed and effective. She seemed to epitomise what many people would call “doing really well,” meaning someone who had experienced a loss but looked as if she was ﬁnished grieving. Within a few days of the death of her daughter she was back at work and seemed to function largely as before. The truth of her life was something else. Six months after her baby’s death she remained in deep despair. She was exhausted from acting better than she felt around co-workers, friends and family. As is so often the case, she had diagnosed her condition as being “stuck” in grief, believing that a stubborn depression was preventing her from achieving acceptance and closure. Was she in denial? she wondered. She also wondered if she was appropriately angry. The bottom line was that she knew she was depressed — a psychiatrist had prescribed an antidepressant

— and that is what she wanted me to treat. Earlier in my practice, I would have zeroed in on that depression. Was there a family history? Had she been depressed before? Was the medicine helping? What were her specific symptoms? Knowing the answers might suggest why she was stuck. Or I would have reviewed the stages of grief, as she had, looking for one in which the work remained incomplete. But I had begun to operate differently by the time Mary showed up, which was 10 years after my own loss. My firstborn child had also died before he was a year old. It was why Mary had chosen me. In our first session I put Mary’s depression aside. I asked her to tell me the story of her baby rather than describe the symptoms of her grief. Though she was resistant, she eventually started to talk. Like most other things in Mary’s life, the baby, whom she named Stephanie, was planned. Mary was delighted with her pregnancy and had wonderful dreams for her daughter. After a routine delivery, Mary stayed home with Stephanie for the first three months. Returning to work had been difficult, but Mary was comfortable with the child-care arrangement, and managed to balance motherhood with her busy professional schedule. Then Mary told me about the Saturday when she went to check on her napping daughter and found that Stephanie wasn’t breathing. She began CPR as her husband called 911. There were moments of surreal focus as she and her husband tried to save their baby. Then this woman, so accustomed to being in control, had to surrender her daughter to an emergency crew. Her husband

drove as they followed the ambulance to the hospital. She described the waiting room in great detail, down to the colour of the furniture. When the hospital chaplain walked in with the doctor she knew her baby was gone. She and her husband were taken into a room where they held the baby for the last time. At this point in her story Mary finally began to weep, intensely so. She seemed surprised by the waves of emotion that washed over her. It was the first time since the death that the sadness had poured forth in that way. She said she had never told the story of her daughter from conception to death in one sitting. “What is wrong with me?” she asked as she cried. “It has been almost seven months.” Very gently, using simple, nonclinical words, I suggested to Mary that there was nothing wrong with her. She was not depressed or stuck or wrong. She was just very sad, consumed by sorrow, but not because she was grieving incorrectly. The depth of her sadness was simply a measure of the love she had for her daughter. A transformation occurred when she heard this. She continued to weep but the muscles in her face relaxed. I watched as months of pent-up emotions were released. She had spent most of her energy trying to figure out why she was behind in her grieving. She had buried her feelings and vowed to be strong because that’s how a person was supposed to be. Now, in my office, stages, selfdiagnoses and societal expectations didn’t matter. She was free to surrender to her sorrow. As she did, the deep bond with her little girl was rekindled. Her loss was

now part of her story, one to claim and cherish, not a painful event to try to put in the past. I had gone through the same process after the loss of my son. I was in my second year of practice when he died, and I subsequently had many grieving patients referred to me. The problem in those early days was that my grief training was not helping either my patients or me. When I was trained, in the late 1970s, the stages of grief were the standard by which a grieving person’s progress was assessed. That model is still deeply and rigidly embedded in our cultural consciousness and psychological language. It inspires much self-diagnosis and self-criticism among the aggrieved. This is compounded by the often subtle and well-meaning judgment of the surrounding community. A person is to grieve for only so long and with so much intensity. To be sure, some people who come to see me exhibit serious, diagnosable symptoms that require treatment. Many, however, seek help only because they and the people around them believe that time is up on their grief. The truth is that grief is as unique as a ﬁngerprint, conforms to no timetable or societal expectation. Based on my own and my patients’ experiences, I now like to say that the story of loss has three “chapters.” Chapter 1 has to do with attachment: the strength of the bond with the person who has been lost. Understanding the relationship between degree of attachment and intensity of grief brings great relief for most patients. I often tell them that the size of their grief corresponds to the depth of their love. -Patrick O’malley/The New York Times News Service

C1 2

W E D NE S DAY, JA N UA RY 14, 2 015

EXTRA B O L LY W O O D

Stepped out of my comfort zone: Huma Qureshi ACTRESS Huma Qureshi, who will soon be seen in dark, intense and revenge drama Badlapur, says it’s a special film for her as she got a chance to work with her favourite director Sriram Raghavan, who made sure she was out of her comfort zone. At the launch of a magazine’s cover here Monday, Huma opened up about her role in the movie, which also stars Varun Dhawan. “In Badlapur, my character’s name is Jhumli. It’s a special film for me because I got a chance to work with my favourite director, Sriram Raghavan. I’m a huge fan of him. And from the time I saw his films, Ek Hasina Thi, Johnny Gaddaar, I really wanted to work with him,” she said. Badlapur also stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Divya Dutta in key roles, is set to release on Feb ruary 20 worldwide.

Nimrat Kaur lands a role in ‘Homeland’ tele-series NIMRAT KAUR’S understated performance in Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox left viewers gasping for more. Now that the ﬁlm has been nominated for the prestigious British Academy Of Films and Television Arts (BAFTA), she says the project has been like a Pandora’s Box which keeps throwing up surprises. The Lunchbox, which also stars Irrfan Khan, is nominated in the ‘Best Film Not In The English Language’ category of BAFTA awards. Post the 2013 ﬁlm, Nimrat has landed herself a role in the American series Homeland.

Actress Raveena Tandon shoots for ‘Shab’ in Delhi ACTRESS Raveena Tandon is beating the winter chill in the capital to shoot Onir’s intense love story Shab. “Shooting in Delhi for Onir’s Shab,” she tweeted on Monday along with her photograph, in which she is looking glamorous. The actress also shared a selﬁe. Shab is about people and fashion industry and multiple relations, is widely shot in Delhi. The movie also features Ashish Bisht, who is being styled by fashion designer Wendell Rodricks, a Padma Shri awardee. Shab will also introduce Bengali superstar Prosenjit’s wife Arpita Pal, who is considered one of the ﬁnest contemporary actresses in Bengal.

John Abraham is Abhishek Bachchan’s favourite star THEIR ‘chemistry’ in Dostana was there for all to see. Now, Abhishek Bachchan, who is set to reunite on screen with John Abraham for Hera Pheri 3, is looking forward to working again with his “favourite co-star”. Before Dostana, in which the duo played friends, they had come together portraying foes in Dhoom. Abhishek was present at the announcement of the 60th Filmfare Awards in Mumbai Monday, when he was asked about his thoughts on working with John in Hera Pheri 3. “I’m very excited. I call him John baba. He is one of my favourite co-stars. We were both in search of a good script because we wanted to work together after Dhoom and Dostana,” he said. To be directed by Neeraj Vora, Hera Pheri 3, also stars Paresh Rawal and Suniel Shetty in key roles. The ﬁlm’ shooting is slated to begin in March this year. -IANS

SCIENTISTS CREATE FIRST NEW ANTIBIOTIC IN 30 YEARS Teixobactin has been discovered by scientists who claim it appears to be as good, or even better, than many existing drugs

aboratory tests have shown the new antibiotic, called teixobactin, can kill some bacteria as quickly as established antibiotics and can cure laboratory mice suffering from bacterial infections with no toxic side-effects. Studies have also revealed the prototype drug works against harmful bacteria in a unique way that is highly unlikely to lead to drug-resistance — one of the biggest stumbling blocks in developing new antibiotics. Such a development would represent a huge boost for medicine because of growing fears that the world is running out of effective antibiotics given the rapid rise of drug-resistant strains of superbugs and the spread of these diseases around the globe. Last year British prime minister David Cameron warned that medicine could be cast back to the “dark ages” when people died of relatively trivial infections, especially following routine hospital operations, because of the lack of effective antibiotics. Professor Kim Lewis of Northeastern University in Boston — who led the research and is working with NovoBiotic Pharmaceuticals, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which owns the patents on teixobactin — said that the ﬁrst clinical trials on humans could begin in two years and, if successful, the drug could be in widespread use in 10 years. “The problem is that pathogens are acquiring resistance faster than we can develop new antibiotics and this is causing a human health crisis. We now have some

strains of tuberculosis that are resistant to all available antibiotics,” Professor Lewis said. “Teixobactin is highly effective against tuberculosis and there is an opportunity to develop a single-drug treatment against tuberculosis based on teixobactin rather than a treatment regime based on administering three different antibiotics.” Test-tube studies, published in the journal Nature, showed that teixobactin was able to kill bacteria as quickly as the antibiotics vancomycin and oxacillin. Scientists at the University of Bonn in Germany have shown that teixobactin works in a unique way by binding to the fatty lipids that form the building blocks used by bacteria to manufacture their cell walls. “This binding site represents a particular Achilles heel for antibiotic attack and this may also explain why resistance to teixobactin was not detected,” said Tanya Schneider of Bonn University. Professor Lewis said that the failure to detect any signs of resistance to teixobactin establishes a new paradigm in the development of antibiotics, which had assumed resistance will eventually occur. “Bacteria develop resistance by mutations in their proteins. The targets of teixobactin are not proteins, they are polymer precursors of cell wall building blocks so there is really nothing to mutate,” Professor Lewis said. “We’ve been operating under the dogma that the development of resistance is inevitable and we need to focus on introducing antibiotics faster than pathogens can acquire resistance,” he said. “Teixobactin gives us an ex-

ample of how we can develop an alternative strategy on developing compounds where resistance is not going to rapidly develop,” he added. About 25,000 people a year in Europe alone already die from infections that are resistant to antibiotics and the World Health Organisation has described the rise of antibiotic-resistance as one of the most signiﬁcant global risks facing modern medicine. Professor Mark Woolhouse, Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, said: “Any report of a new antibiotic is auspicious, but what most excites me about [this research] is the tantalising prospect that this discovery is just the tip of the iceberg. It may be that we will ﬁnd more, perhaps many more, antibiotics using these latest techniques. We should certainly be trying — the antibiotic pipeline has been drying up for many years now; we

Test-tube studies, published in the journal ‘Nature’, showed that teixobactin was able to kill bacteria as quickly as the antibiotics vancomycin and oxacillin

need to open it up again, if we are to avert a public health disaster.” But Dr Angelika Gründling, Reader in Molecular Microbiology at Imperial College London, said: “It’s important to bear in mind that the new antibiotic only works against certain types of bacteria — such as MRSA and streptococcus, and not on other multi-drug resistant pathogens such as E. coli. And of course the new antibiotic described in the paper has yet to be tested in humans. It is possible that it might not be as effective as hoped and there could be unforeseen side-effects.”

New antibiotics The first antibiotic was discovered by Alexander Fleming who identified penicillin microbes living in a discarded Petri dish left in his lab. The “golden age” of discovery came in the period between 1940 and 1960 when scientists searched for microbes living in soil and sediments that could produce chemical toxins which killed other microbes. More recently, the search focused on the “targeted” approach of designing specific chemicals to interfere with the vital molecules used by microbes to grow. Although this was successful for the discovery of new drugs, it has led to few new antibiotics. The latest discovery has gone back to looking in the soil. But instead of trying to grow these soil microbes in the lab, the scientists have used an iChip device which can screen for microbes in their own environment when placed in the ground. — Steve Connor/The Independent

W W W.T I M E S O F O M A N . C O M W E D N E S DAY, JA N UA RY 1 4 , 2 0 1 5

SECTION

CONNEC T H E D A I LY G U I D E

RENT

VACANCY

CARGO

*Classiﬁed Advertisement space booking with text, should be done till 12.00 noon for next day’s publication. * Subject to space availability

W E D N E S D AY, JA N UA RY 1 4 , 2 0 1 5

DAILY GUIDE

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com classiﬁeds@timesofoman.com Tel.: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461

FOR RENT

OFFICES FOR RENT - Premium offices to let a very good location on the main road very close to Zakher Mall, Al Khawiar. Business Center has offices with sizes of 50m2, 110m2, 180m2, 207m2, 230m2, 437m2. - Showroom also available at Business Center, Area 500m2 with central A/c. - Offices with Central Air-conditions, Security System with CCTV cameras, and Security presence in the building.

Contact: 97377355 / 95530121, Email id: aaleem@ggcoman.com

2 BR ﬂat for rent in Wadi Kabir next to Al Maha Petrol Pump. Rent RO 300 pm. contact 99440826 Fully furnished rooms for rent for family. Contact 99251975, Al Khuwair Office space for rent in Ruwi, OMR 500. Contact 91120552 Flats in Muttrah near Oman House per ﬂat RO 230. Contact 92815855 / 95181077 Furnished room with attached bathroom for Executive bachelor behind Al Meera Hypermarket, Azaibah RO 150. Contact 99455735

Office space with cassette type A/C’s with free internet at al Khuwair near KM Hypermarket. Contact 99460330 2 BHK with split A/C in Wadi Kabir, Sana Building furnished. Contact 96635026

Villa in Al Khuwair 33 close to Technical College with 3 bedrooms, 1 sitting room and shaded balcony. Directly from owner not for brokers. Contact 92814242

3 BHK with AC, Al Falaj, RO 425/-. Contact 92144045

Flat for rent in Al Hail, North near The Wave, Muscat. Contact 99353433, 99271017

2 BHK Commercial, Al Khuwair, RO 375/-. Contact 92144045

For rent at Al Khuwair, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, sitting, dining, kitchen split A/C near Rawasco, 1st floor. Rent 480 PDC. Contact 99879939 For rent at Al Khuwair, 1 room with bathroom (Independent), near Rawasco with split A/C, 2nd floor, rent RO 125 PDC. Contact 99879939 For rent at Ruwi, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, sitting, dining, kitchen with A/C near Al Falaj Hotel, Ruwi, Way 2116 building 577, rent RO 275, PDC. Contact 99879939 Family villa & flats at Al Ansab and Awabi. Contact 98458542

2 BHK Pent House with split A/C in all rooms, very spacious balcony with sea & city view RO 350, 2 BHK RO 340, Bldg #1619, Way #1322 adjacent to Indian Nursery Darsait. Contact 99476728 / 99831047

Fully Equipped Restaurant / Industrial Kitchen for Sale with existing catering orders, CR & Labour Clearance, Restaurant space and Outdoor sitting area on Sale at Mawaleh Call: 9906 4589

1 BHK with A/C, Mumtaz Area, RO 250/-. Contact 92144045

1 BHK, commercial, Darsait. Contact 92144045 3 rooms, 3 bath ﬂat. Darsait coast near Indian School like new. Contact 99715042 Flat, shops, basement, Ruwi-MBD Area, Honda Road. Contact 96942749, 92433127 Office space (3 BHK ﬂat – Ample space) located in prime area at 18th November street, Al Azaiba (nr. To Sultan Center). Contact 99261522 2 BHK available in Mumtaz area, Ruwi & Ghubra, nr Indian School. Contact 99269751

1 BHK bedroom ﬂat in Wadi Kabir neat Kuwaiti Mosque RO 200/-. Contact 95094028

1 BHK ﬂat Qurum RO.270/- with split A/C. Contact – 99358589 / 95570288 /97079146

2 BR deluxe ﬂats at Ghubrah and Ruwi. 2 BR furnished ﬂat at Ghubrah. Contact 99885391 / 99354010

2 BHK ﬂat at Al Khuwair RO.370/with split A/C. Contact – 99358589 / 95570288 /97079146

Shop & ﬂats available. Contact-24813822

2 BHK in Seeb RO.200/Contact – 99455334

Rent, new ﬂat Wadi Adai, 2 big bedrooms, 1 big toilet, 1 big hall, 1 big kitchen. Contact 99345137

If require ﬂats for rent in Wadi Kabir please send messages through Whatsapp or call – 99376454

1 / 3 BHK Flat Ghobrah, close to ISG Way 4041, building 4390. Contact 99319880

Luxury 2 bed room villa at BausherAL Ansab Phase 3.Call. 99324456

2 Bedroom Spacious ﬂat for rent at Al Khuwair 25 for OMR 400/- per month . Contact: 99379988.

2 BHK available in Darsait, 1 B/R and hall, 2 B/R and hall. Contact 99357586, 97500025, 97884787

6 shops in Mabela Industrial Area. Each Front Shop OMR 400 and Side Shop OMR 300Monthly. Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

2 BHK, CBD. Contact 99024730

1,000 sq mtrs industrial land in Misfah Industrial area near to Khan co. OMR 1,500 Monthly. Electricity and boundary wall will be provided. Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

1 & 2 BHK & villa 3 BR-Darsait near ISM & ISD. Contact 99024730 1 BHK, 2 BHK, Ghala, new bldg. Contact 99024730

Fully furnished one bedroom penthouse Wadi Kabir behind Sana Hassan, weekly RO.140/- Monthly RO 350/- Contact – 99349990

Family room available for rent at Muttrah Souq. Contact 24712088 / 99022790

1 BHK, Wadi Kabir. Contact 99024730

6 bedroom villas at Al Ansab (nr Express highway).# 99199365

Office space & store, CBD 20059. Contact 99024730

Flat for Rent in Ruwi, Bareeq Shatti, Mawalah. Contact 92521080, 98899916

2 BHK ﬂat for rent RO.350/- at Al Khuwair near Sultan Taimur Mosque. Contact – 98893294

2 BHK, Al Khuwair. Contact 99024730

Spacious 2 BR ﬂat in MBD. Contact 99713489

1 BHK residential ﬂat at Honda road. 2 BHK residential ﬂat opposite to Al Nahdha hospital. Contact93219590

Abu Adnan Tower - ﬂat for rent available at Al Mabelah, 2 B/R, 1 hall, 2 toilets, 1 kitchen. Contact 95566475 / 99654252

Spacious well maintained 2 BHK at Rex Road from 1st February. Contact 92227165

Flat for rent Ghubrah South, ground ﬂoor ﬂat, 3 bedrooms, majlis, family hall, RO 425/-. Contact 94669711

Villas & ﬂats & stores. Contact 99776071 / 99057348

BHK ﬂats Muttrah near Oman House. Contact 97007934 / 92629232

2 BHK, Darsait near Kims Hospital. Contact 99024730

Fabulous A/C flat Al Khoud, 3 rooms, 280 rials. Contact 99334699 2 single room flats available @ RO 160/- per month, including Electricity & Water. Contact 99441798 New bldg 3 BR flats located at Darsait, Muscat close to Kims Pvt Hospital. Contact 92020004 / 99800838

W E D N E S DAY, JA N UA RY 1 4 , 2 0 1 5

DAILY GUIDE

FOR RENT

2 BR, 2 toilets, kitchen at Al Mawaleh. #99444786, 99747560 We have 1 BHK, 2 BHK, 3 BHK ﬂats, 4, 5 bedrooms villa, open space offices & shops available in Ghala, Ghobrah, Qurum, Mabela, Ruwi, Darsait, Mumtaz, Wadi Kabir. All brand new buildings & very affordable prices. Contact 93782735 / 99208033 Flat for rent 2 bedrooms one hall in South Al Hail. RO 270. #93221474 House in North Al Hail with 3 rooms, Majlis & 3 toilets. Contact 99439568 2 BHK with A/C near ISM RO.325/1BHK Al Falaj without A/C RO.200/2 BHK with A/C near Kims hospital RO.300/- Darsait commercial or residential with A/C RO.230/- Studio at Al Falaj RO.170/-. 2 BHK without A/C at Wadi Kabir RO.300/Contact - 92144045

3 bedroom furnished Executive Apartment @Al Khuwair 25, 2 BR fully furnished Executive Apartment @Azaiba near Zubair Showroom, 2 BR fully furnished executive Apartment @Al Khuwair 33 near Zakher Mall. Please contact : Atlas Real Estate & Rent A Car LLC, 99249069 / 92888376 / 93201688, email : info@alshahiintl.com 2 BHK flat Muttrah / Mabelah. Contact 95915154 Studio flat Darsait. RO 150/-. Contact 92144045 For rent (flats), 2 bedrooms +hall+kitchen, location: South Al Mawaleh. Contact 99870020 1 / 3 BHK Flat Ghobrah, close to ISG Way 4041, building 4390. Contact 99319880

For rent apartments: An apartment in old Muscat at Oman Arab Bank’s building. 3 bedrooms + 3 bathrooms, dining room, living room and a kitchen. Air conditioned apartments. 2 bedrooms + 2 bathrooms, living room, dining room area and kitchen in an excellent location in Al Khuwair opposite the court of ﬁrst instance. For further information call 97072976

Show room on the main road Saham center total area 450 m sq. Contact: 99366558 / 99334226

Flats and shops. Contact 93009999

New Villa for Rent Two floors newly built villa in Maabillah, 8 Fullfledged Residential Area 6 Rooms, 8 Toilets, excellent finishing spacious Kitchen, Big Dining Rooms in Both Floors, Easy Access to Muscat and Sohar using Maabillah Bridge. Contact 92828303

Villa, ground ﬂoor in Al Khuwair. Contact 99743569, 97004265 2 BHK ﬂats for rent behind Kims Hospital. #93161573 / 97769759

FOR SALE

Flats/villas owned by ROP pension fund available for rent in Muscat. Contact 99349526 Industrial Land in Misfah. Contact 93009999

FOR RENT

FOR SALE

2 B/ R Fully Furnished Executive Apartment @ Al Khuwair 33 Near Zaker Mall. 3 Bedroom Furnished executive apartment @ Al Khuwair 25 5 B/R Luxury Fully Furnished villas at Azaiba with servants, 3 Bedroom Unfurnished Villa @ Mawalah South Area 6 with Servant Quarter, 5 Bedroom Unfurnished Villa @ An Apartment that resembles a penthouse has 2 rooms with 2 toilets, living room & an elegant balcony. Fully furnished, suited for families. Final price RO.300/- Mabela 8 near German University. Contact 99888400

Readymade Garments Shop Furniture. Contact 99386170 A running supermarket for sale in Wadi Kabir. Contact 95113037

1 BHK with attached toilet & bathroom behind Bank Muscat at Wadi Kabir.# 99373290, 24815012 1 BHK at Ghobrah - Near Indian School. Contact: 99014885 Al Qurum heights Sea view. # 99249069 / 92888376/ 93201688 2 BHK at Al Azaiba, Building No.5145 Way 4470. # 99224748, 99425665

Apartments in Al Khuwair new area each apartment contains (2 bedrooms + living room) for RO 365. Contact 93181111

Flats ground ﬂoor, 3 Rooms & AC, kitchen, hall, in Al Mabaila South. Contact 99377290

2 BHK with A/C, commercial Al Khuwair. Contact 92144045

Penthouse near Sultan Centre Al Amerat with 2 A/Cs. #99612270

For rent shops and offices in Al Mabela. Contact 99355330

Flat one bedroom at Al Khuwair 33, owner. Contact 92800007

Restaurant about 250 SQM @ 5/- SQM, heart of Ruwi Market in Plaza Hotel for sale / rent. Contact 99326339 / 24833314 Shop for sale near ONTC bus stand Ruwi near Sun City Hotel on main road.Contact 99326339 / 24789801 Mobile shop & store for sale with stocks in Dhofar building Ruwi. Contact 92239696 / 98001233

Flats for Sale in Bowshar: OMR 35 Thousand 1 bedroom. OMR 45 Thousand 2 bedroom. Monthly income 1 bedroom OMR 270 and 2 bedroom OMR 350. 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 Used furniture bedroom sofa dining A/Cs Majlis washing machine, table keyboard, Expat leaving. Contact 99353978

Dental clinic for sale in Sohar. Contact immediately 99705760,92625962

Building material shop for sale, near Mars Hypermarket, Al Ghoubra. Contact 93797343 / 99881647

23,886 Sq Mtrs Agriculture land with water well in Al Salwa, Barka. OMR 260 Thousand. Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

Running establishment for sale, industrial license, marble & granite, aluminum workshop, fully equipped showroom. Serious buyers please Contact 99334540

Well running pharmacy. Contact no . 93240949

CONTD on pg 6

W E D N E S D AY, JA N UA RY 1 4 , 2 0 1 5 Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com classiﬁeds@timesofoman.com Tel.: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461

DAILY GUIDE

SITUATION WANTED

SITUATION SITUATION WANTED VACANT

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

ARCHI./ DRAUGHTSMAN

Chartered Accountant, 10+ yrs experience, B.Com, CA, CIA. Immediate availability. Audit, Finance. Contact 94641805

ARCHITECT/DRAFTSMAN/SITE ENGINEER: Indian, Male.5 Years’ Experience; In Edu Trust, and Commercial Complexes. Currently in Oman In Visit Visa Cont. No.93957502 / 97899661

Indian male, 25 yrs, 3 yrs experience, Diploma in foreign & Indian accounting, Diploma in ﬁre & safety eng, looking for suitable position in Oman. Contact 96582370

DRIVER

URGENTLY REQUIRED

a leading construction Company requires

Light duty driver for office work. Contact 92341826

B.Tech Electrical Engineers

Wanted driver. Contact 95112461

with 5-10 yrs Gulf experience.

An excellent company seeking for experienced male Light Duty Driver to work in Salalah. Contact 92322588 / 99653350, email : sadiq.fm@omantel.net.om

ADMIN Urgently required: Receptionist (Omani) - 01 no with 2-4 years experience Marketing Executive - 01 no; with 5 years experience (Location - Mawelah, Muscat) . PRO -02 no with min 10-15 years experience (Location - Muscat & Sohar). Interested candidates may send CV to infoduqumoil@gmail.com A leading foodstuff company requires the following : Office Coordinator – with experience in related ﬁelds, female. Interested candidates may send their resumes at jobs.om@outlook.com

Good growing Company in Muscat is looking for 2 Heavy duty drivers. English language needed. Email : yesterdaysun1@hotmail.com Needed 2 drivers, offering good salary. Contact 99441798

DOMESTIC HELP Need cutter for Tailoring shop. Contact 99825211

EDUCATION Required Teacher for ISWK student studying in VII & III at Honda Road Ruwi. Contact 99471699

ENGINEERS

Construction Company requires female executive assistant, with good computer and communication skills, advanced English, ﬂuent Arabic. Please send your CV harun.koyyar@adaliholding.com

Construction Company requires Civil Engineer with degree only with 10 yrs of local or GCC Experience. Email : omaniantrad@gmail.com

One of the leading Business Groups in Oman is looking for the following person : Secretary (Male-Indian) – 1 No., min 5 yrs of experience preferably in spare parts & bearings. Please send your CV to kumar@muscatsteel.com

Urgently required Biomedical Engineer with 5 yrs experience with Laboratory Diagnostic instruments for a Medical Diagnostic Company. Candidate with Omani Driving License preferred. Contact imsllc@imsoman.net

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

We are looking for :- 1) Fireﬁghting equipment Engineer / Technician, 2) Marketing Executive, 3) Crane Maintenance Technician. Email : alsarooj@omantel.net.om

Required experienced Accountant Tally, excellent English & driving license. Contact – omanlaw.om@gmail.com / 24497762 / 92192510 Male Accouuntant required in Ghala. Candidates present in Oman only. # 99454425, Email: qamest@omantel.net.om Indian male having 14 years of experience in Various dept. (stockbroking Dealing, Back Office Accounts, Dmat, Settlement, Risk management, Maintaining Books of accounts ETC). Having Good Computer Knowledge seeking suitable placement Email Id: vora_bharat@yahoo.com, +91 9820240094 Accountant with 5 yrs experience for Oman / UAE. The candidate should be able to manage the Company’s A/C’s department independently and capable to handle / coordinate independently with internal and external auditors. Email : realconsco@gmail.com or fax 24210016 or #t 99273774 / 99202278 Urgently required Senior Accountant (exp. required minimum 5 yrs having driving license), Assistant Accountant (exp. req minimum 3 yrs). Contact 99322373 , omanlightsmarketing@gmail.com, alzahraexports@gmail.com. An Accountant with minimum 3 yrs experience in managing ﬁnancial records & administration functions is required for an IT company in Muscat. Send your CV with updates photo to itmuscat2014@yahoo.com

ARCHITE. / INTERIOR Architect ( Autocad 3D / 3D Max / photoshop / presentation ) in a reputed office. Tel 24794481 fax 24794482 kamalismailconsultant@hotmail.com

DRIVER Heavy duty drivers with GCC HD Driving License. Send CV to jobs@prestigeprojectsoman.com. Call +968 92341826 Light duty driver with Marketing knowledge. Send CV to jobs@prestigeprojectsoman.com or call +968 92341826

Urgently required Mechanic Supervisor (B.Tech in Mechanical / Automobile Engg) for a reputed company in Muscat with min of 5 yrs experience in Grader, Dozer etc with GCC/Oman License. Those interested may email CV along with certiﬁcates to p.m@watcooman.com, g.m@watcooman.com or contact 99288717

Interested candidates who are willing to join immediately may send their CV to

hrdarabianmktg@gmail.com

MEDICAL

SALES / MARKETING

Dentist required to work urgently in dreams clinic at Al Khoud and must be resident in Sultanate of Oman. Please send your CV to the following email – towershr70@gmail.com / balushi70@gmail.com / info@towersinternationalgroups.com Mobile – 99882340 / 24545914

Highly reputed Perfume Company requires Omani Sales girl promoters. # 95663682, 92956876

SALES / MARKETING Required (fast food restaurant), a part time marketing / Sales professional on commission basis – 5 Nos. in Muscat. Forward CV to fastfoodoman2014@gmail.com UPVC Doors and Windows Company urgently require Sales and Marketing Person, experience 3-5 yrs in same industry with Oman Driving License. Contact 99475701, email : siju.greentech@gmail.com Required Salesman, Tailor, Barber. Contact 91114884 A leading Company in Oman looking for – (1) Customer Care Service – male (1 no.), (2)Customer Care Service – female(1 no.), (3) Driver – (2 no.) Contact 97461515 / 99101733 Salesman for Sales of Printing Press supplies urgently required in Dubai. Must be knowledgeable about Printing Presses and have a valid GCC Driving License. Email CV to sales@ies-oman.com

Pentagon Oman a leading worldwide logistics company with over 40 offices worldwide offers a CAREER OPPORTUNITY for a Business Development Manager. A good standard of written and Oral English is a must. Candidates, preferably Omani – and with experience, are requested to email their CV to sukumara@pfsoman.com and pentagonoman@gmail.com Urgently required Sales Managers & Sales Executives for the following ﬁelds: 1) Information technology, 2) Gifts & promotion 3) Readymade Garments & textile. Experience required minimum 3 yrs & having valid Oman Driving license. Contact 99322373 , omanlightsmarketing@gmail.com, alzahraexports@gmail.com Leading Construction company requires young purchase assistant with Oman driving license. Contact 99108425 Looking for outdoor salesman for heavy equipments. Contact- 93292015, 99656542 Required an experienced person who has ideas to start a new business in electrical ﬁeld or supply with minimum cost. Contact 99426421

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER (full time) Responsibilities: To work with architect, To provide of construction issue documentation for a projects. Desired candidate Proﬁle: min of 3-5 years experience in Structural Design, Should be AutoCAD competent. Please send your CV to Email: info@pak2pak.com Tel. 99196733, 99419766

MANAGER 2-3 years experienced electrical panel technician. Contact Mobile No:93838449/98987386

MEDICAL We are looking for an Optometrist for an Optical with minimum 3 yrs experience. Please contact 99340769 or email : aeooman@gmail.com Wanted MBBS Doctor, Staff Nurse and Lab Technician for a Clinic in Capital Area. Please contact 93431024, send CV to drasyanaseem@gmail.com Required Physiotherapist. Contact: 91453024 General practitioner Doctor is required to work urgently in Dreams Clinic at Al Khoudh and must be resident in the Sultanate of Oman. Please send your CV to the following email: towershr70@gmail.com, balushi70@gmail.com & info@towersinternationalgroups. com, Mobile 99882340, Tel: 24545914

Part time Accountant, up to finalization, looking for job after 5 pm (Location prefer – Qurum to Al Khoudh). Contact 92917574 Accountant B.Com & CIMA Part qualified, 8 yrs experience currently in Sri Lanka. Contact +94777222392 or 91126314 Female Accountant with 4 years experience in Oman seeking suitable placement. Contact 98721909 ACCA, 24 yrs, female, looking for a suitable position, Accounting/ Finance in a reputed firm. Contact 91710657 Indian female, 29 yrs, MBA, HR, finance, international Business having 2 yrs experience, Oman expert Tally Peach tree looking for part time/ full time, well experience accounting. Contact 95319660 Indian female, having 9 yrs experience in Administration & 4 yrs in Accounts seeks suitable placement, preference for the straight shift. Release available. Contact 92239617 Chartered Accountant & company Secretary : currently in Oman, Indian male, 34 yrs, 10 yrs experience in Finance, accounting, consulting, MIS looking for position in finance. Release available. Contact 96731642 Indian Accountant: male, B.Com, 6 out of 10 yrs experience in Oman. Having NOC & valid Oman D/L. Can join immediately. Contact 95740191, email : lashks@gmail.com B.Com Graduate, 3 yrs experience in Accounts, Indian male, looking for accounts or suitable job. Contact afsarsabith@yahoo.com, 93975526

Urgently required Ticketing Agent for travel Agency in Muscat minimum one year experience. Contact 95417255

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE Indian female, 25 yrs, bachelors of businesses management, having experience of 5 years as a fund/ financial administration, on visit visa,looking for suitable placement. Contact 94662416 Apurwaverma@gmail.com Indian Male 25 years B.Com having 3 years of exp of Oman in Accounts/Administration.Well versed with computer knowledge looking for suitable position. Immidiately available. Contact:93207867 email: tambeazhar@gmail.com Indian female, 25 yrs, B.Com with computer Application, 1 yr experience as Accountant, looking for suitable job. Contact 98847165 Accountant / Auditor, Srilankan male 27, having 3+ yrs experience looking for suitable placement. Contact 93556320 Indian male, 32 years, M. Com.7 out of 9 years experience in Oman in Accounts/finance. Having NOC and valid Oman D/L. Contact 98277143, Email: anzarks@gmail.com Accountant, 2 yrs experience (purchasing, coordinator) with D/L and NOC. Contact 94174403 Indian Male, MBA 2 yrs experience in Accounts, Admin & HR on visit visa. Contact 92045306 India Accountant: Male, M com, 7 Yrs experience in Accounts up to finalization, having knowledge of ERP, Tally, seeks suitable placement. Contact:93950138 Email: lijinrajan123@gmail.com

Indian Male, qualified ICWA, M.com with 2years experience in accounts, costing, auditing & SAP in reputed listed companies, seeks suitable placements. Mob: 94619453 Email: cmashahidkt@gmail.com. Finance Manager, CPA, with more than 15 yrs. of experience in GCC. Fully knowledgeable in Finance, General & Management Accounting . NOC available. Contact 96209331 Finance Manager, MBA (Finance) with more than 20 yrs of experience in GCC/India, involved in Construction Contracting, Manufacturing, fully knowledgeable in Finance General and Management Accounting, NOC available. Contact 93245973 Accounts part time works upto finalization & finalization works. Contact 96247295 M.Com with MS Dynamics and Tally, 8 yrs experienced Accountant requires Accountant (Senior Accountant) position (NOC available). Contact 93687011 Indian, MBA, Graduate specialized in Finance, Marketing with GCC, D/L looking for good job opportunity. Contact 93197431 Pakistani Male, 26 yrs, MS-Supply Chain & Project Management, BSFinance & Business Administration, +2 yrs experience in Trading Firm responsible for Supply Chain & Accounts. Skills including strong operation managerial Communication & interpersonal, fluent in English, SAP and EPM. Contact 94663827, email : musadiqfayyaz@gmail.com

CATERING Indian male, working Bakery Pastry as Sr. Chef De Party, 15 yrs experience in Oman, 10 yrs exp in one of the 5 star Hotels, still working, get release. Contact 96460519, 99063817

DESIGNER AutoCAD Designer D/man 2D/3D/ Revit/Photoshop, experienced. Contact : 97103168 Interior Designer, Gulf Exp, AutoCAD 2D/3D/ Corel draw. Contact : 97103168 Indian male, 8 yrs GCC experience in 3D & Architectural Designing with D/L. Contact 97263199

DRIVER

Light Driver having own visa looking for job as driver Contact 92303692 Bangladeshi Driver seeking job, 3 yrs exp. Contact 99063175 Light Driver looking for job. Contact 92787245 Driver with vehicle, Keralite. Contact 94251067 Driver seeking job. Contact 99805236 Bangladeshi male driver, exp 12 yrs looking for job in any company & office. Contact 99165961 Pakistani male light vehicle driver with 1.5 yrs experience. Contact 98219599 6 Years experience light duty driver. Contact – 96736744

Part time Accountant with 15 yrs exp in Accounting, Auditing, Taxation Management. Contact 95857199

Indian driver need job with car. Contact 91254539

ADMIN/HR

Light vehicle driver available. Contact 96756014 / 97938893

TOUR / TRAVELS

SITUATION WANTED Required urgently Civil Engineer with minimum 5 years experience driving license must. If you interesting send your CV on email: Towershr70@gmail.com

Indian accountant with more than 30 years of experience in construction (ﬁnancial / cost accounting) with experience in material management ,HR and general administration seek part time/full time assignment. Ready to work any where in Oman. Contact 98598099

Civil Draughtsman, Indian Male, 23 yrs with 3yrs experience in AutoCAD 2D & 3D, MEP, HVAC, 3Ds Max and Photoshop looking for suitable position, presently in Muscat, Oman on visit visa. Contact 91764358, mohdsiraj02@yahoo.com

Indian male MBA 32 yrs having 10 yrs of exp seeking suitable placement in Admin/ HR/ Operations/ Coordination/ Logistics etc. Holding valid Oman D/L .Contact - 99054786

Light driver looking for job. Contact 92791678

Graduate Indian female having 5+ Years Oman experience in Admin/Procurement/Logistics with excellent computer skills(PGDCA). Seeking suitable Placement. NOC available.Contact:95382966

Indian female MSc costume design & fashion having 3 yrs exp in teaching seeking suitable job. Contact: 97614456 / 95918968

Indian male 32 years, B.A Tourism & Travel Management. 2 and Half years Dubai experience in Front office & reservation in a 3 star hotel with good command over English & Hindi, seeking placement in HR or Admin. Contact - 9454 1041. Indian male having NOC with 7 yrs Oman experience in recruitment / on boarding general admin. Immediate joining. Contact 96684424 Indian female with 10 yrs of experience in HR/Banking/Operations seeks a suitable placement. Can be contacted on 98919015 or sherianne.coelho@gmail.com Indian female with excellent communication skills, conﬁdent, dedicated to work and enthusiastic. Knowledge about ms office. Has 6 years of experience in customer service, telecommunication, HR.Looking for immediate placement. Contact # 97348819 Indian male, Graduate expert in admin and purchase for 9 yrs holding Omani D/L looking for suitable job. Contact 99626821, NOC available. Omani with 6 yrs experience as PRO, 3 years Admin / Procurement Officer, excellent English can travel out of Oman, PDO D/L seeks job. Contact 96996938 Indian female, MBA, HR 1 yr experience in India seeking suitable opportunity. Contact 99257214

EDUCATION

ENGG. / TECHNICAL Mechanical Engineer, Gold Medalist, B.Tech with 3.5 yrs experience in Thermal Gas Power Plant in LDO, HFO Pipeline Fabrication erection boiler banker turbine. GSM: 97025338 Email : warisheyat329@gmail.com Presently in Oman on visit visa. M. Tech Electrical Eng. Female, now in visit visa. Contact +968-94654481. B. Tech Civil Eng. 3 yrs exp in Oman with driving license. Contact 93733627. Mail id : joinvisam@gmail.com, neethusprakash@gmail.com Indian Male, IT Support Engineer, 2 yrs in Oman & 5 yrs Indian experience. Contact 97311847 Jordanian Engineer Electrical 7 yrs exp. Consulting, site & shop drawing works. Ready to join immediately. Worked in UAE & Saudi Arabia. Contact - 00971555594733 Civil Engineer B Tech, Site Engineer Experienced, Drafting on Visit Visa Ph : 91642050 Sudanese Mechanical Engineer, 3 yrs experience as Sit Engineer, HVAC System, and driving license, easy to transfer immediately. Contact 91135140 Looking Part time Job in HVAC93198128 Experienced female Electrical Engineer.Contact 93800906

W E D N E S DAY, JA N UA RY 1 4 , 2 0 1 5

DAILY GUIDE SITUATION WANTED ENGG. / TECHNICAL

INFORMATION TECH

Seeking job, BTech Instrumentation, 12 years experience Design, FEED, Detailed engineering, Oil & Gas, Instrumentation systems, Oman Driving license. Email :- wilfridsjacob@gmail.com Mobile:- 00968 99048130

B.E Mechanical Engineer, Indian Male, 29, 5 years experience in steel fabrication ﬁeld (piping and structural) as site engineer. Looking for suitable placement. Contact 96115463. Jijoraju085@yahoo.com.

BCA Gratuate, Indian male with 1yr of exp in System Admin, IT Support, Network Admin and 1yr exp as sales Executive.CCNA,MCSE .looking for suitable job. contact no +968-95938303 email- hafsalhs@gmail.com

Jordanian Civil Engineer with 4 yrs experience in Construction Field (release available). Contact 95157199 / 92866288, email : best66_pl@hotmail.com

Mechanical Engineer, Indian male, 6 yrs exp (3 yrs in GCC) seeks suitable openings. Have valid GCC driving license. Email : msfebco@gmail. com. Contact 91228398

IT Professional, 7 yrs exp in System Administration, IT Support, Networking etc. currently on visit visa. Contact 94064579, email : preejes01@gmail.com

B.Sc, Civil Engineer, over 19 yrs experience in construction ﬁeld with project management skills, seeks suitable placement. NOC available & can join immediately. Contact 92198264, Email : mdrana1970@gmail.com

Telecommunication Engineer with 5 yrs experience in the Gulf. Contact 95219822

IT Engineer, Indian male, 25 yrs having 3 yrs experience in Technical Support (IT) Networking, Sales Marketing, looking for a job. Email ID : abumohd3@gmail.com, 91687294

Sudanese Female, Mechanical Engineer with 5 yrs experience in Oil and Gas Engineering, looking for a job. Fluent in French, English and Arabic available now. Contact 98814569 / 96058018 Civil Engineer, 14 yrs exp, 5 yrs in Oman, driving license, NOC release available. Contact 91101892 Telecom Engineer with Bachelor Degree, CCNA female, 1 yr experience in Sales & Marketing seeking suitable job. Contact 97269189 IT Network Engineer with Bachelor Degree, CCNA, RHCSA, RHCE seeking suitable job in good Company. Contact 99818601 B.E (Civil) Engineer looking for a suitable placement, driving license available. Contact 91253392 Civil Engineer (Diploma) looking for an urgent placement. Contact 95200650 Mechanical Engineer, B.Tech 4 yrs MNC experience, installation commissioning & on-site repairs / maintenance of heavy mechanical equipment. Contact 93387867, mamgain9806@rediffmail.com B.E Production / Diploma Fabrication, 2 yrs experience valid PDO permit holder visa expiry on 26/01/2015. Contact 94270360, +91 9925140499, pankajrathod1985@gmail.com

Electrical Project Engineer, 4 yrs experience OHL, Substations, Oil & Gas ﬁeld, AutoCAD. D/L available. Contact 95120225 Fabrication Engineering / Diploma in Mechanical Engg. 17 yrs experience in Oman looking for suitable placement, NOC available. Contact 95426225, 93206605 Indian male, B.Tech (Electronics & Electrical) working in Saudi Arabia as Plant Manager for more than 2 yrs, seeks suitable opening in Oman. Contact +966593599187, Email: noushadpm149@gmail.com. Oman : 98875103, 99480523 Indian B.Tech Mechanical Engineer, 26 yrs, 4 yrs experience in HVAC/MEP. Contact 94669629, rajeevhpd15@yahoo.com BSc Architectural Engineer, 7 yrs experience (6 yrs in Oman) site work. Contact 99178218, 92579358, email: ah.elnakash@yahoo.com BE (Elec and Tele Engg), Experienced as Application Engg, Certiﬁed in BMS SCADA Ph: 94037935/ 97103168 Land Surveyor 10 yrs experience on visit visa. Contact – 93522354 / sibivarun89@gmail.com Civil Engineer with 12 years Experience Looking For Job. Contact 98162295 Sr. Site Supervisor (civil) since March 2010 in Oman, looking for better opportunity (rel. available). Contact 93061107

Mechanical Engineer, Indian male, seeking suitable job on visit visa. Contact 99796730, 92031312, email : pudsalamilup123@gmail.com

Nebosh Qualiﬁed HSE 15 yrs exp safety Engineer Military (Indian Navy) background, valid Oman driving license. Contact – 97352324

Indian male, B.E. Electrical Engineer having 15 months experience in a leading Indian Company, seeking suitable placement. Now in Oman on visit visa. Contact 92453891, email : jestinjose007@gmail.com

Quantity Surveyor (Civil Building) looking for Part time job Contact no:-94391712 E-mail addressinayathhussain@yahoo.com

Civil Engineer (Pakistani) holding light and private light license of Oman. Contact 95980506 Mechanical Engineer, 3+ yrs exp. (2 yrs. in Oman) experience looking for better prospects. NOC available. Email : myopportunities2015@ gmail.com, 968 94403484 Civil Engineer, male, 25 yrs, 3 yrs experience in site, CAD,3D, MS Project, now in India, seeks job in Oman. Contact 92887561, jubincivileng@gmail.com B.Tech Civil Engineer since 9 yrs in Oman experienced in Project coordination / Quantity surveying, looking forward to work with contractor/ consultants/client. Email: mmali_03@yahoo.com, Contact 93457995 26, female, B.Tech in Electronics & biomedical engineering with 1 And Half yrs experience in medical ﬁeld is seeking suitable job openings. Email : aswathiravirak@gmail.com, ph : 94652908 B.E, Civil Engineer, 7 yrs experience (3 in UAE & 4 in Pak), skilled – MS word. Excel, AutoCAD. # 98499008 Email : saadichan1331@gmail.com, Civil Engineer, BE, 5 yrs experience, minimum 2 yrs in Oman. Contact : ansari_eruv@yahoo.co.in Indian male, 25 yrs, Electrical & electronics Engineer, 7.8 CGPA, history of no backlogs, Zonal topper in English Communication, with Cambridge certiﬁcation, looking for suitable position, 2 yrs experience. Contact 93918271, abhilileeeian89@gmail.com MSc. UK Graduated Indian Male 26yrs Looking for Research Assistant Post. MSc. Agriculture For Sustainable Development (UK) B.tech. Biotechnology. Currently on Visit Visa Email: nithinalex@gmail. com Contact: +968 91709479

Industrial Electrician with Oman Driving license. Contact 96348016 Indian male, 26 yrs B-Tech (ECE) with MBA in Marketing / HR looking for a suitable placement. Currently on visit visa valid up to 30 January 2015. Contact 93754428, email : shijosirius709@gmail.com Diploma of Associate Civil Engineering, Diploma of AutoCad, having 3.5 yrs experience, 2 yrs experience of Oman in Building Construction, valid transferrable ID Card. Contact 94378581 BE Civil Engineer, 5 yrs experience. NOC available. Contact 98970233 Diploma in Civil Engineer, 15 yrs Oman experience (total 28 yrs) looking for senior position with valid D/L, NOC available. Contact 99013465 DAE (Civil) having 3.5 years Experience 2 years from Oman with driving licences, seeking for suitable position in Construction ﬁeld NOC and release available Contact 96968554 mehranahmad26@yahoo.com

INFORMATION TECH B.Tech IT Professional, Indian Male with 3 yrs of Exp. In System Admin, IT Support, Networking, Installing Active Directory, DHCP, DNS,RAS, conﬁguring maintaining and managing servers, conﬁguring cisco routers, Exp in handling SQL database, With Valid Driving Licence. Contact - 968 98863507 IT Prof, MCA having 6+ yrs exp, seeks suitable position. Contact 94543668 IT Professional, Indian male, B.Sc Graduate with 4+ yrs Gulf (UAE) good exp in System Administration, IT Support, Server Desktop, laptop, smartboard, datashow biometric, CCTV, currently on visit visa. Contact 98936548, vaseemj@yahoo.com

B.Tech IT, 1 yr experience programming with asp.net visual basic network certiﬁed. Contact 96748154 Indian Male 23 yrs – IT / Prepost Sales Consultant / Business Analyst / Web Designing. 2 yrs. exp. Languages-HTML5, WebRTC, Java, CSS, C++, .Net, SQL, Oracle, ERP-Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Looking for suitable job. Contact: 98802504, email:shrihari26@gmail.com Indian male, 23 yrs, having 1 yr experience in IT hardware & networking & 3 months in Oman, currently on visit visa, qualiﬁcation B.Sc Electronics CCNA, MCITP, RHCE. ph : 92089719 Email : sujithvijayan119@gmail.com, IT support Technician, B.Sc computer science, 1 yr experience in Desktop support & 3 months experience as System administrator, Indian male, 25 yrs. Email : rameezkk@outlook.com, Contact 94525218 MCA Graduate, Office mgmt typing speed 45-50 wpm, 5+ yrs of experience in UAE & India. Contact 98762816 Indian Male M.Sc electronics, having 7.5 years of experience in IT Hardware and Networking, seeking placement. Contact: 97202522 email: connectjinomjohn@yahoo. com

MANAGER/ SUPERVISOR MBA Graduate 10+ exp FMCG food serv. Sales channel/ Branch Manager. Contact - 99185205 Indian male Graduate with 20+ years of Administration, Operations & Management experience in IT, Oil & Gas & Hospitality Industry. 12 years in Oman with vast contacts, very strong management, operational, communication and interpersonal skills, can handle any size of business and projects whether it’s in initial stage or established. Can join immediately. Local release available on request. Contact: 9906 4589 Indian who has experience in independently managing business is the ﬁeld of maintenance, carpentry and interior works looking for suitable openings has been in Oman since 6 yrs valid Omani D/L. Contact 93284862 MBA, male, 31 yrs, 5 yrs Production management exp, 1 yr sales experience, 4 yrs admin & accounts exp. strong IT team management skills, immediately available for joining. Contact 94670691, ibrjhung@gmail.com Indian male Graduate with 20+ years of Administration, Operations & Management experience in IT, Oil & Gas & Hospitality Industry. 12 years in Oman with vast contacts, very strong management, operational, communication and interpersonal skills, can handle any size of business and projects whether it’s in initial stage or established. Can join immediately. Local release available on request. Contact: 9906 4589 Qualiﬁed Manager: (12+ yrs. Oman Exp.) Vast knowledge in A/c & Admin, Costing, Banking, Credit Control, Insurance, International Purchase/ Logistics & Finance, With D/L looking for suitable position. Gsm: 93826090 Email: jskanchan01@gmail.com Indian female with nine years of experience in 5 Star hotels as Assistant Food & Beverage Manager looking for a suitable placement in a reputed Star hotel. Contact: 91219787 General Manager / working partner 20 years in Dubai adverting agency experience. Contact 93031168

MISCELLANEOUS Omani Man looking for a job with experience in HR/ Admin/ accounting. # 99767666 Graduate, Indian, having 6 yrs experience in Sales with D/L, NOC available. Contact 93410723 3 Years experienced Administrative Executive seeking for Virtual Admin Opportunities. Can work for 6 hours/day from a virtual location for 100 RO/month. Call: 95811820

MEDICAL Female dentist with MOH license and with Noc looking for suitable placement in Muscat region Contact no. 99147426 Indian female Pharmacist, 28 yrs MOH license holder with 3 yrs experience seeking suitable placement. Contact 94037178

SALES / MARKETING Sales & Marketing Indian male MBA (marketing & sales) business development experience at all levels of management. Currently on visit visa. Contact – 91272819

Home nurse. Contact 99156191 Veterinary Doctor 4 years experience in Military Cattle farm, Pet Animals & butchery, looking for a suitable placement. Contact: 97892349 Indian male Pharmacist (B.Pharma) 5 1/2 years experience in Oman seeking suitable placement in Muscat. NOC from the present employer available. CONTACT +968 98525100 Indian Female, Dentist fresher looking for suitable placement. Contact 98857686, email : drsumbulahmad@gmail.com Lab Technician, Civil (8yrs Gulf experience) looking for a suitable job (NOC available) Contact-93344378

MISCELLANEOUS Skipper, fishing vessels, 33 yrs experience as Captain in Indian and International waters, oceanography and fishery related research activities and management. Contact 95775380 / 99616823 Indian male, 27 yrs, B.A. Economics, Diploma in Fire & Safety, NEBOSH, IOSH Certification, 4 yrs experience as Safety Officer in India, on visit visa. Contact 97209656 Quality Assurance Officer, ISO Quality System Internal Auditor, BSc Graduate, female 27, with 4 years experience seeks suitable placement. Contact nipuni.d.silva@gmail.com Microbiologist & Quality Assurance Executive, BSc Graduate, female, 27 with 4 yrs experience in food industry looking for a suitable placement. Email : nipuni.d.silva@gmail.com Logistics Officer, Experience in Store keeping. Contact : 99505934

SALES / MARKETING Indian male, Diploma in Automobile & BBA, 8 yrs experience in Sales looking for a job in Sales. Contact 94480382 MBA Professional with Omani Driving License seeking Sales or Marketing job. Contact 94143154, rinojnathen008@gmail.com Indian male, 25yrs, MBA in HR/ Marketing.6yrs exp with MNC and pharma. Presently in family visit visa looking for suitable placements. Contact no-94657379/ 96645182

Graduate, Indian, having 6 yrs experience in Sales with D/L, NOC available. Contact 93410723 MBA Finance, 6 yrs exp in Sales & Marketing with Omani Driving License seeks suitable placement. Contact 94685706 Indian male, MBA 9+ yrs Oman exp in Sales & Marketing in FMCG (F & B) sector on a Supervisor / managerial role with D/L & Local NOC available. Contact 97912789 Young female, having experience of working in Oman with expertise in the ﬁeld of Event Management, Advertising, Marketing and Hotel Management. Currently on a visit visa. Seeking for a suitable Job. Contact 96153578 Sri Lankan Salesman cum driver with NOC. Contact 97265733

SECRETARIAL/OFFICE Female 24 yrs Indian MBA and IATA,1yr experience Ticketing &1.6yr experience in Front office looking suitable jobs Travels, Admin& Front office .Oman on Family visa . Contact 94614318 Indian female, well experienced in secretarial, administration, customer care & supervisory jobs. 5 years experience in Muscat. Immediately available for joining. Contact: 92139298

SKILLED / UNSKILLED Civil foreman maintenance D/L, 12 yrs in Oman, 2 yrs in Kuwait. Contact 96405865, 99534138, India - +91 7589248550, +91 9464255409, email: sukhwinder9@yahoo.com

TECHNICIAN

Indian female, Accountant. having +5 years experience in Oman till Nov 2014. seeking suitable placement. NOC available. currently in family visa. Contact :98447045, email:anilavandika@gmail.com Indian male, 26 yrs - MBA Graduate with 3 yrs of Experience in Banking ( Standard Chartered Bank Scope International - Operations) &Coffee Vending Machine (Fresh & Honest Cafe ltd - Operations) on Visit Visa seeking placement. Contact 91267867 Indian male 23 yrs, 4 yrs experienced in Architectural Draughtsman looking for a suitable Post GSM:96023726, Email :jayan. mathew009@gmail.com INDIAN, B.E Mechanical Engineer, 2 years job experience in Oman in pipeline ﬁeld, ﬂuent in English, Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi, with valid Omani driving license (light) searching for job. Contact : +968 99871470 Male 28, seven & half an year experience. Worked as maintenance division co-ordinator, purchaser’s assistant, and office administration works. Valid driving license. Contact 94454847 Indian male, 25yrs, MBA in marketing from Delhi with 1 year experience in operation department, currently on visit visa seeking suitable placements. Ph 97334359 email: mshahinp1@gmail.com Civil Engineer, B.E in civil , Approx. two year experience in Oman, Pakistani age 29 years. Contact : 94389853 Email : faheemdeeer1986@gmail.com Male 28, seven & half an year experience. Worked as maintenance division co-ordinator, purchaser’s assistant, and office administration works. Valid driving license. 94454847

Instrument Technician (M.Sc Instrumentation) with 2 yrs experience (1 yr Indian + 1 yr in SABIC Petro Chemical Plant, Saudi Arabia), currently available in Muscat on visit visa looking for a suitable position in Oman. Contact 97165988, email : shabeer812@gmail.com

Mechanical Engineer with 10+ years experience currently on visit visa looking for a Operation Manager/Branch Manager position in reputed organizations. Contact : 95757845

TOUR / TRAVELS IATA Certiﬁed experienced Indian Lady looking for job. Currently on visit. Contact 94613747, 91339846

MISCELLANEOUS

15 years experience in Business Development , marketing, purchase – UAE & Oman-staff coordination, documentation, civil & technical maintenance, -valid GCC license-looking for working partnership or management post. Contact:91568362 / Email vpj555pem@gmail.com

Indian Female 23 years M.Com Graduate on visit visa having four month experience as an Accountant in a company at Muscat. Looking for a suitable job. Immediately available for joining. Contact: 95846642, Email:shreedhanya916@gmail.com

Indian Male, MBA in Marketing and Finance, 10 years’ Sales & Business Development Experience with valid D/L of Oman & UAE looking for a suitable placement. NOC Available. Contact: 93969961 e-mail abhilash.pvrk@gmail.com

Indian female 24 yrs, MBA (ﬁnance) (1 year experience as administrator cum junior level accountant looking for suitable job & holding visiting visa. Contact 97481488, Email: ayeshaowasi12345@gmail.com

Indian Male, 7 yrs experience in building materials trading having Oman D/L, immediate release available. Contact 98676713

Hotel Manager, Indian male, 25 years exp. in Budget & 3 Star Hotel, with Omani Driving License , Seeks Placement. NOC/Release Available. Contact: 99799774, Email: smoin_moinsb@yahoo.co.in

Indian male, 22 yrs, BBM Graduate looking for suitable job in sales/ marketing, currently on visit visa. Contact 91757222, email : danishdani460@gmail.com

28 year Indian male with 7yrs of experience in Accounts & Finance up to ﬁnalisation in Construction Oil & Gas and also in Manufacturing industries with Oman D/L seeking suitable placement. Contact me on 97104364 .email:moorthy_cbe@hotmail.com.

Indian male, Instrumentation Technician with 3 yrs Diploma & 1 yr exp in Maintenance Dept, seeks job. Call +971554275155

Indian male, 7 yrs Gulf exp in Sales (Indoor – Outdoor), looking for job. Contact 99433816 / 93159202

18 yrs Oman experience in Building Materials seeking suitable placement, NOC available. Contact 93105775

Indian, female, Pharmacist available with NOC and MOH License, preferably in Muscat. #9439 1355.

M. Sc. Medical lab technician (Prometric passed) having 6 years experience in India. Currently on visit, looking for a suitable placement. Please contact 97248144, samiullah_ar@yahoo.co.in.

Senior Accounts Professional, Indian Male, 35 years, M.Com, MBA (Fin) 8 years in Oman, with valid Oman DL and NOC available. Capable to handle accounts up to ﬁnalization. Contact 9602 3965. Looking out for the post of Travel coordinator/Senior travel Consultant, 14 years (10 years in GCC Countries) of experience in the travel industry looking for a suitable placement. Contact : 96328687. An Indian driver with car looking for part time job. #91103909 Indian, Female, Pharmacist available with NOC and MOH License, preferably in Muscat. #9439 1355. Indian, 24 years, B.Tech with Diploma in Sound Engineering & Sound Recording seeking suitable placement. Currently on Visit Visa. Contact: 95615436. Email: siddharthsadasiv@gmail.com Indian Female-Tech Electrical, from third best college, Government Engineering College Trissur. Fluent in English. Excellent presentation skill.Engineering, IT, teaching or account sector job wanted. Contact -97724630 / email: vyshnaparthan@gmail.com IT supports 6 yrs experience, male, Filipino Desktop Support, Backup administrator, Wireless Networking, server admin. Contact - +96896126502

W E D N E S D AY, JA N UA RY 1 4 , 2 0 1 5

DAILY GUIDE

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461 Fax: 24812624

EVERY FRIDAY 2.00PM ON INDIA’S KAIRALI PEOPLE TV

● Worldwide ● Air Ticket ● Car Rental ● Holiday Packages ● Hotel Reservations ● Travel Insurance

Call: +96824790400, +96898569830 Email: info@omanorienttravels.com

SITUATION WANTED 26,male, ACCA finalist, exp. upto finalisation of accounts, statutory and internal audit, expertise in using tally and focus & oracle software, have 2 years exp. in accounts till finalisation and statutory audit, seeking fill time / part time job,GSM-97654769,email idabdullah.nooralam@yahoo.com MBA & chemical Engineer having 20 yrs Purchase & Logistic experience in Petrochemicals & oil field seeking jobs in Oman/ Abudhabi/ Qatar/ SA .#97813849 Indian male 22 Yrs, diploma in fire & safety, special Trainings completed from Cochin Port Trust Fire Service & The Travancore-Cochin Chemicals Ltd searching for a suitable placement, now on visit visa, Contact No. 96722632 Indian Male 26 years B.Com having 5years rich experience in Accounts and Admin looking for suitable placement. Contact: 96897914340, 00919902200486, E mail: sudhakaranchan06@gmail.com Indian Male, 24 yrs, MBA in HR/ Marketing. More than 1 years experienced in retail Banking (Axis Bank) Presently in family visit in Oman seeking for a suitable placement.#99892082 / 997 43 709 26,male, ACCA finalist, have professional experience up to finalization of accounts, statutory and internal audit, expertise in using tally and focus & oracle software, 2 years experience in accounts till finalization, seeking job, GSM-97654769,email idabdullah.nooralam@yahoo.com Indian Male 26 years BCOM having 5years rich experience in Accounts and Admin looking for suitable placement. Contact: 96897914340, 00919902200486, E mail: sudhakaranchan06@gmail.com Operation Manager, Indian male, 30 yrs exp. In Front Office Hotel Industry with Omani driving license seeks placement.NOC / Release Available. #99799774 Indian Male, B.COM, ICWA, CMA Australia, 24 years experience in finance, costing, accounts, internal audit. Valid Oman driving license. NOC available. Can join immediately. Contact 97917136 Indian female M.A B.Ed. with One year three months teaching experience. Subject: English seeking for a better placement. Now working in Oman #93961142, 92184408 Email:anoopkesavan78@gmail.com. B.Sc. Computer science graduate with CCNA certification and also with a working 2 years experience, looking for a suitable position in IT sector. #96892595819 Diploma in Civil engineering, male, 5 yrs experience in Oman, worked as Site Engineer at Hyundai Engineering & Construction Company. Beximco Engg Const Company, PHP Steel Mills Ltd seeking job urgently. Contact 97140857 Indian male 27year B.Com graduate 2year experience in marketing. Looking for good placement in any field, since from 4year in Oman. Contact 98765838 Indian Male 23years B.E Electrical and Electronics Engineering having 1 year experience in Admin, Electrical Engineer, Electrical supervisor and Project Engineer looking for suitable placement. Contact : +96899682689, +91 8136994996. Email: thalus09@gmail.com

Indian male, 31 years of Rich Oman experience in Multifunctional Management, Admistration, Business Development, Purchase & Operations seeking suitable Manager/Supervisory Position. Visa transfer/ NOC Available. GSM: 95036410 Filipino Accountant with 13 years working experience in the field of accounting looking for a suitable job in Muscat. Contact: 94547323 Well experienced MOH Licensed Indian female staff nurse looking for placement under contract with Schools, Medical Centres, other Institutions. Contact 98140024. Phd – Management, specialization in management, e-marketing and online consumer behavior, 6 years of academic and research experience. Indian lady GSM 97240687 & 93463439 Indian Male having 14 years of experience in HR, Purchase Dept having Oman Driving License looking for a suitable position NOC available. Email – madhuvtk@gmail.com. Contact: 99252635, 99239498 28 years Indian male with 7yrs of experience in Accounts & Finance up to finalisation in Construction Oil & Gas and also in Manufacturing industries with Oman D/L seeking suitable placement. Contact me on 97104364 .email: moorthy_cbe@hotmail.com Indian female MA. B.Ed. with One year three months Teaching experience. Subject: English ,seeking for a Better placement. Now working in Oman .# 93961142, 92184408 Email:anoopkesavan78@gmail.com. MBA with 1 yr experience, Indian looking for job, salary 40000 INR. Contact 96271935 Admin Executive, 31, Indian Male, having 8+ years exp. in reputed companies, seeking suitable placement in any gulf region. #+968 99276601 & 97693456. muralimahdav77@gmail.com Indian male, 26 yrs - MBA Graduate with 3 yrs of Experience in Banking (Standard Chartered Bank Scope International - Operations) & Coffee Vending Machine (Fresh & Honest Cafe ltd - , Operations) on Visit Visa seeks placement. # 91267867, Email: jai.ks1988@gmail.com Tunisian women looking for job, khnows english, frensh, Italian and arabic. Contact: 91171838 28 year Indian male with 7yrs(5yrs in Oman) of experience in Accounts & Finance up to finalisation in Construction Oil & Gas and also in Manufacturing industries with Oman D/L seeking suitable placement. Contact me on 97104364 email: Moorthy_cbe@hotmail.com Looking out for the post of Travel coordinator/Senior travel Consultant, 14 years (10 years in GCC Countries) of experience in the travel industry looking for a suitable placement. #96328687 Female dentist with MOH license and release looking for a suitable placement in Muscat, presently residing in Muscat. ##99147426 Indian Female. B-Tech Electrical, from third best college, Government Engineering College Thrissur. Fluent in English. Excellent presentation skill. Engineering, IT, teaching or account sector job wanted. GSM-97724630, email: vyshnaparthan@gmail.com

FOR SALE

Structural Engineer with 14 years experience in structural design and supervision ﬁelds with full knowledge of structure design programs, Omani D/L, seeking a reputed engineering consultancy office vacancy Tel. 96248598.

Household items on sale. Contact 93833107

Indian female dentist with 4 year experience. Call Nazia 96488737

A newly opened Barber Shop for sale at upcoming industrial zone in Misfah. Expat leaving Oman. Genuine buyers call 93833107 (Sale Price Negotiable)

Manager Maintenance/Engineering/Purchase, 31 yrs. exp. in mechanical, electrical, electronics, parts fabrication, purchase deptt, oman exp. 5yrs, have NOC, looking for job. Contact pkv2k3@yahoo.com, 99331289 Indian Male, 31 years of Rich Oman experience in Multifunctional Management, Administration, Business Development, Purchase & Operations seeking suitable Manager/Supervisory Position. Visa transfer/NOC Available. GSM: 95036410 Indian Male, B.COM, ICWA, CMA Australia, 24 years experience in finance, costing, accounts, internal audit. Valid Oman driving license. NOC available. Can join immediately. Contact 97917136 Post Graduate Engineer with 5+ years experience in Project Planning & Management currently on visit visa looking for a Project Co-ordinator/Planning Engineer position in reputed organizations. Please contact (968) 96105079 Indian Female, IATA, BSc looking for suitable placement. Contact 95514305. Email-jitureshmi@gmail.com MECHANICAL ENGINEER (B Tech), Indian Mail, with NDT Level 2(ASNT), Autocad, Solidworks, 2 year above experience (as Mechanical Site Engineer and Design Engineer), Seeking suitable placement(on visit visa). Contact: 91591548, 00919447300022, Email: vishnu300022@gmail.com Indian Female, Graduate having good experience looking for suitable job. NOC available. Contact 91774397 22 Indian Female, BCA (MCA), 4 Years’ Experience in Teaching, Training & Management of Office and Computer Applications, looking for suitable vacancy in the field of Teaching/IT/Office Management Contact – 94540768, Email – paipreethi01@gmail.com 3 Years experienced Administrative Executive seeking for Virtual Admin Opportunities. Can work for 6 hours/day from a virtual location for 100 RO/month. Call: 95811820 Indian male, 28 yrs in Civil Engineer (Diploma), 3 yrs experience in Gulf seeking suitable chances. Contact 92063150 Indian Male Graduate 20 yrs in Oman, Accountant / Business Property Management seeking suitable position in Accounts / Administration working knowledge with TALLY. Valid Omani Driving License. Contact 99817183 28 years male, MBA in Marketing, 5 years experience in Marketing and Brand Promotion. On visit, looking for job. Contact: 96104833 Indian male 2 years experience in Light & Heavy motor vehicle Mechanic. Diesel & Petrol. Seek suitable placement Contact 99421537.

NRI

Running Workshop for Tiles / Marble & Granite cutting & skirting in Wadi Kabir for immediate sale. Contact 99105492

Land for sale, 13.2 cents prime residential land near Perourkada Junction on Vattiyoorkavu Road, Trivandrum at 12L per cent. Contact 92973928

Beauty parlour for sale Ghala Al Ansab near Al Maha petrol pump. Contact – 92540355 / 97748706

Furnished house for sale near Vattiyoorkavu, Thiruvananthapuram, 5 cents, 220 SQ Ft. Contact 96099215 / 99016230

Office for sale at Al Khuwair with furniture, more than 700 sqm good condition. Contact – 99055571 Workshop for sale near Misfah behind Kanco with good fabrication shed electricity 1150 sqm area. Contact – 98951026

MANPOWER

Villa for sale 2200 sq ft in 8 cent. Kottayam. Contact: 92652534

Port cabins – New & refurnished Porta cabin for sale and rent. Contact 96723468

MATRIMONIAL

Sale!, all household items, like fridge, freezer, cooking range, washing machine, window/split A/Cs, LCD TV, Laptop, tab and many more for attractive prices. Location : near Toyota service Center, Honda Road. Contact - 97048983, 95293643

Keralite girl, 26 (160), BSC Nurse at South America seeks suitable alliance. Contact 94413100, 98335340 Proposals are invited from parents of professionally qualiﬁed Nair Boys for 24 year old Upper Middle Class Nair girl hail from Trivandrum, (171 cm, Star-Bharani) employed in a reputed Company in Oman. Contact: 0968-9950 2593 /99798041. (KM ID.2844689)

Restaurant for leasing/sale in Al Hail. Contact 94148970, 94148972, 97820877 Darsait Business Office furniture, Isuzu 4 ton brand new. # 91391363 Running Electrical Building Material Shop for sale in Muscat. Contact 95330905

ACC.WANTED Single room or studio ﬂat required in Ruwi area. Contact : 95405033

ACC. AVAILABLE Furnished single room with separate bathroom near al meera hypermarket, azaiba. Gsm 94288863 Single room at Walja, opposite MBD area available for executive bachelors or single working woman for OMR 100 including Electricity and Water. Contact 93079877 Single furnished room in Ruwi. Contact 24833609 Single room available for a working lady with separate bathroom & sharing kitchen with a family @ Rex Road. Contact 95423572 Flat sharing, big two rooms, independent bath near Al Falaj, semi furnished quiet area, small family, OMR 150, call 93218110 Single room for Executive bachelor near ISWK, Wadi Kabir. Contact 92739154 Sharing accommodation for family in Wadi Kabir. Contact 97167857

SITUATION WANTSIT. WANTED ED Indian female, 34 yrs, B.A, B.Ed (S.S), DCA, Doing M.A by distance, having 6 yrs experience in School (5 yrs in Indian School, Oman). Contact 98728700, 92458872 B.Tech. (Civil), 2 years experience in designing, and training corporate professionals in Dubai in software, presently working in India, seeks suitable job opening. madhunambiarm@hotmail.com

For Astrological consultation, Jathakam. Contact: 99860435 / 97102599

GOOD NEWS ACC. AVAILABLE Sharing accommodation available at Mumtaz area, Ruwi. Contact 97612335 Independent room furnished Executive at Wadi Kabir. Contact 99336206 Furnished room in Wadi Kabir. Contact 94012930 Accommodation available for rent in SEEH AHMER FANJA near Oman Oil, only 10 mtrs drive from Rusayl industrial area, Please Call on 95200429 or 99224352 Room with A/C, furniture for expats at Al Khuwair. # 97004265 / 99689315 Room for Sri Lankan executive at AL Khuwair. Contact – 96536307 Executive room at Mumtaz area. Contact – 93103337 / 95212017 Room with separate toilet and WiFi, Wadi Kabir near pencil building. Contact 93416854 Room with separate entrance & A/C in Al Khuwair near Rawasco for noncooking Indian Bachelor, rent RO 125/-. Contact 97201100, 95397442 Office space near KFC, Al Khuwair, office basement near Mars, Al Ghubrah, double & single bedroom ﬂat Al Ghubrah near Mars and Wadi Kabir near Lulu. Contact 95755551 / 92222045 Furnished single room with attached bathroom near Mars Hypermarket, Al Ghubrah. Contact 97312111, RO 150/- per month 2 Bedroom ﬂat for offices with furniture near Al Manaf Hotel, Ghala. Contact 99525743, 99439705 Excellent 3 bedrooms , 2 sitting rooms, 3 bathrooms, kitchen & store with A/C. 92817777

Genuine Ayurvedic treatments & massage, Ayurvedic clinic at Al Khuwair. Contact 24478618 / 97263637 /93309131 FREE INFORMATION ABOUT ISLAM. If you would like to know more about Islam, please call: 99425598, 96050000, 99353988, 99253818, 99341395, and 99379133. For ladies: 99415818, 99321360, 99730723 Orvisit: www.islamfact.com Ayurvedic treatment for backache, paralysis, arthritis etc & massage, All Season (Vaidyaratnam). Contact 24475280 / 95371554 / 92504980 , www.siddhayur.com Ayurvedic treatment for joint pain, backache, paralysis, massage, steam bath, obesity, spondylitis, ideal care Ayurvedic Clinic, 18 November Street, Azaiba. Contact 99639695 / 99117987

BUYING/SELLING Looking for purchase of Used Portable Compressor (350 CFM, 7 Bar Pressure) powered with Diesel run Generator. Kindly Contact 99014686 or operation@khancogroup.com Used household & office furniture and electronic items. Contact 99834373, 97102699 Looking for commercial lands for sale in Al Ghobrah North (urgent serious buyers, commercial lands in al Ghobrah North (corners prime location). Contact 91155779

W E D N E S DAY, JA N UA RY 1 4 , 2 0 1 5

DAILY GUIDE TOURS

SITUATION WANTED CARGO

TOURS

RENT A CAR

Dolphin Watch, Dhow Cruise with Buffet, & Land Tours Al- Ainain Marine Tours # 98029602, 92808636

DRIVING

M.V. FOR SALE

TRANSPORTATION Transportation. Contact 99542393 Transportation. Contact 93405941 Transportation. Contact 98178135 Transportation available. Contact 95570429 Pick & drop anytime in al Khuwair. Contact 99764307

FOR HIRE

TRUCK FOR HIRE Isuzu 10 ton cargo body truck (2012 FVR) with UAE experienced driver available for long term / short term rent.

Contact: 95346950 Five tower cranes with operators. (50 m height, 55m boom length and 2.5 tons lifting capacity at Jib). Please contact : ravin0225@gmail. com or call 96529679

Tucson V-6, 2007, automatic RO 2500/-. Contact 99384640 Expat Prado VX6, model 2008, excellent condition, 2 fuel tanks, 180 ltrs, cool box, leather seats, 122500 kms, last Toyota Service in Jan 2015. Contact 99435226

FOR HIRE

Prado 2012. Contact 99336093 Transportation. Contact 98505294 UM Aisha Trading Ladies Beauty Saloon, Al Wadi Kabir main road, Al Hassan Complex near top up supermarket. Contact 95241147/ 96700192 Hyundai Elantra white 2010 model full auto. Contact - 95212017

Transportation. Contact 91379976 Transportation with car & driver. (VIP’s only). Contact 95040768 Transportation. Contact 93425167 Pick & Drop any time. # 97014786

Running truck wash for rent in Ouhi Sunia Sohar. Serious people can. Contact on 97864747

Pajero 3.8 v6 full option, 2008 model expat driven single owner, excellent condition, accident free, 217k. Contact - 92590781

50 seater bus with PDO speciﬁcation for rent or lease. # 99839898

Lexus GS300, 2006. Contact 93218349

Transportation. Contact 99664703 Transportation available 99159277 Transportation. Contact 96538078 Transportation Available Contact 97180655

W E D N E S D AY, JA N UA RY 1 4 , 2 0 1 5

DAILY GUIDE

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461 Fax: 24812624

SITUATION WANTED SERVICES

SITUATION WANTSERVICES

WEBSITE

CLASSES

Al Manar Vocational pleased to announce at vocational short and long term courses in tailoring, cooking and internal design. Contact us now : 24698070 or 91144335

BUSINESS

WEB, ERP and Business Intelligence (BI) creation and management at rock bottom price. Contact: http//webviewoman

COMPUTER

GUARANTEED CLEANING: Carpet & sofa shampooing, Contact 99314807/24792998

GULF INTERNATIONAL LLC all kind of pest control. Contact 92326955

MARBLE CRYSTALLIZATION restore the original shine of your marble. # 24793614/ 99314807

Window & split unit AC servicing & maintenance. Contact 96236476

Cheapest Prices, all types window, curtains and blind. Contact 99539521

For All Your Maintenance Solutions, A/c Servicing & Fixing, Painting, Cleaning, Electric. Contact 99002390

Computer service/ AMC/ Networking. Contact 93552434

Carpet & sofa cleaning, house cleaning. Contact 99542979 / 98855815

Pest Control Treatments!!! Termites! Cockroaches! Bedbugs! Ocean Centre LLC. #99344723

For All Your Maintenance Solutions, A/c Servicing & Fixing, Painting, Cleaning, Electric. # 99002390

Split & window AC servicing and repairing. Contact 99557080 Civil maintenance, electrical & plumbing work. # 99557080, 96236476 Building Caretaker, Gulf Experienced, knows Arabic, Hindi English Ph : 94304348

M.V.WANTED Required Nissan Tida / Toyota yaris / Suzuki swift / hyundai/Kia hatchback car in good condition. Contact 95405033

LOST

PRO services. Contact 99368907 Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles polishing, carpet shampooing, maintenance. Contact ABU QABAS- 99320217 /24788722 Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles polishing, carpet shampooing, maintenance. Contact ABU QABAS- 99320217 /24788722

Excellent investment, business and earning opportunity in Sultanate of Oman and other GCC countries. Looking for investors and sponsors (Omani Nationals only). For meeting and discussions please call on 91285860 Wanted dentist or investor to buy a well-running dental clinic in Sohar immediately. Contact 92625962, 95904234 We assist in new business set up local sponsorship, real estate services, assist in company formation services. Contact - 93166088

AVAILABLE

Door to Door Computers repair specialist laptop software Website cartridges. Contact 99199376 A.M Trading Pest control. Contact 99067923

Established Restaurant for rent with sponsorship. # 97628242 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

Split & window A/C servicing & maintenance. Contact 93769089 Carpet & Sofa Shampooing. Ocean Centre LLC. # 99884591 Maintenance – 1) A/C Maintenance, 2)fridge, washing machine & dish washer repairing, 3)painting & cleaning services, 4)electrical & plumbing carpentry work. # 99447257 / 97014234 / 24504281

Water proofing ABUQABASContact 99320217/24788722 Window & split unit A/C servicing & maintenance. Contact 96236476 Civil Maintenance, Painting Electric, Plumbing, Decor, Tile Fixing, Lecithin Copra Board flat stifling , Carpet Cleaning and A/C Servicing. Contact 97897831 (Indian keralite) For all your maintenance needs including, Painting, Plumbing, Electricity, Laying of Interlock Tiles, Marbles etc. Tel: 99383574 Mr. Chandran Waterproofing, light weight Screed, Antitermite and MS Fabrication. Contact 92888337

Fast & Right Way - For all PR related works – permanent Visa stamping, family visiting visa holders, clients contacts – with NOC letter with signed & sealed photocopy documents . # 91568362 Catering services We do industrial catering service, Canteen/ mess, 3 times packed meals, and all types of catering events. Contact 92188777/99249899 Carpet Shampoo, marble & tile polishing, pest control & anti-termite treatment, general cleaning painting, Plumbing, Electrical, shifting. Contact Mundhir AlRizaiqi trading. L.L.C. # 24810137, 99450130

Electrical Plumbing Painting Contract and Maintenance. Contact 98456535

For HT cable jointing and termination works 33KV/11KV. Contact 99056438 / Email: npgoman@gmail.com

House shifting transport. Contact 99657644, 98518013

Painting Interlock plumbing maintenance. Contact 92142319

Sajith Kumar has lost Indian Passport No. G0515174. Finder please handover to ROP Sanjeev Kumar has lost Indian Passport No. M1269796. Finder please handover to ROP I, Prabitha Prasanth, P O Box 3104, Ruwi 112, Sultanate Of Oman hereby invite to the notice of the public that my mark list of B. Sc. Degree (Chemistry) examination 1996 March with Register No 34373 of University of Calicut, have/ has been irrecoverably lost during travel and as such I intend to apply for the duplicate mark list. If anybody happens to get the original, kindly send the same or intimate the undersigned or the University. Certiﬁed that the aforesaid facts are absolutely true.

*Classiﬁed Advertisement space booking with text, should be done till 12.00 noon for next day’s publication. * Subject to space availability