Times of Oman - January 18, 2015

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SUNDAY, January 18, 2015 / 27 Rabi Al Awal 1436 AH

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Employers must adapt to new work style

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Omani graduates do not want to be like their parents working hard in office all day for 12 months a year but want a flexible job. >A3

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Expect rain from today Weather forecast

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Capital Market Authority has asked listed firms to disclose salaries of all directors and top five officials separately, in an apparent move to upgrade standards of corporate governance principles. >B1

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New measures for listed firms issued

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Hamas welcomes war crimes probe

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Hamas said it welcomed a decision by the International Criminal Court to launch an inquiry into possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories. >A11

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Rains expected from tonight

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Source: Oman Meteorological Department | The Weather Channel

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reji@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: Oman may experience rain from Sunday evening until Tuesday, the Oman Meteorological Department has forecast.

The areas that are likely to experience rain are Muscat, Muttrah, Baushar, Quriyyat, Amerat, Rustaq, Madha and Khassab.

Sohar, Saiq, Qalhat and Dibba, Suwaiq and Mudhaibi are also expected to receive rains.

Buraimi, Fahud, Thumrait and Masirah along with Marmul, Mahout, Halaniyat and Manah will have reduced visibility and Yaaloni and Duqm will be covered with fog, said the Met department.

In its 48-hour forecast, the meteorological department said that skies over Musandam and North Batinah would be cloudy with chances of rain and occasional thundershowers with hail.

“The weather changes will be felt in South Batinah, Muscat and

Dhahira in addition to Buraimi, Dakhliah and Sharqiya governorates,” said the outlook.

“There are chances of isolated rain along the coastal areas of Dhofar and Wusta governorates too,” added the outlook.

The Public Authority of Civil Aviation has urged people to take all precautions while crossing wadis. It also asked fishermen and sea-goers to check weather forecast before venturing into the sea. >A6

fahad@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: To reduce the number of patients travelling outside the country for liver transplants, the Ministry of Health is planning to start a liver transplant centre in Muscat.

The centre will be the first of its kind in the Sultanate.

An official at the Ministry of Health told Times of Oman, that a comprehensive study was being conducted to start this project.

They are divided over amendments to Article 50 which deals with punishment for reckless driving

fahad@timesofoman.com

Liver transplant centre planned for Muscat It will be located near the Royal Hospital. The ministry recently introduced a fibroscan device to examine patients suffering from chronic liver diseases, said the official. The ministry sends patients for liver transplants abroad only after making sure they can be treated, added the official.

“The ministry takes samples from the patient, ascertains his or her age and the success rate of the surgery, as preconditions before sending any patient abroad,” said the official. >A6

Boney M show tickets on sale

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Council, Majlis to resolve split on traffic law

FAHAD AL MUKRASHI

M I N I S T R Y O F H E A LT H

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MUSCAT: Legal committees of Majlis Al Shura and State Council will meet soon to iron out their differences over amendments to Article 50 of the new Traffic Act, a source at the State Council told Times of Oman.

Majlis Al Shura and State Council are divided over the amendments to Article 50 which deals with punishment for reckless driving.

The source added that the legal committee of the State Council will meet on Tuesday to discuss the matter.

While amending Article 50, the State Council recommended that the offender “should be jailed for not more than a year and should pay a fine not exceeding OMR500”, in case of driving un-

der the influence of drugs or alcohol, overtaking from the wrong side at a dangerous spot, or committing an immoral act in the vehicle. It also recommended that if the accident leads to death, injury or disruption of work to the victim for more than 10 days, the offender should be jailed between one and three years.

Earlier, the Council of Ministers, while referring to the amendment, had proposed that the offender be given a jail term ranging from 10 days to three months and a fine between OMR300 and OMR500.

In case of death, it had said the offender should spend between six months and two years in jail and be fined OMR1,000 to OMR3,000.

However, the Majlis Al Shura believes that a traffic offender should spend between 10 days and two months in jail and be fined only OMR100 to OMR300.

In case the victim dies or suffers permanent disability, the offender should face a jail term ranging from three months to a year and be fined between OMR300 and OMR1,000, Saeed Al Muqbali, the head of the legal committee of the Majlis Al Shura, told Times of Oman.

He justified the reduction in penalty depending on the severity of the offence and said the quantum of punishment did not fit some of the clauses mentioned in the traffic law. >A5

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Some of the companies and ministries provide us with faulty training. The training provided also lacks updated practices Fawaz Al Farsi, higher education student

Government jobs in high demand FAHAD AL GHADANI fahadnews@timesofoman.com

Seventy-one per cent of higher education students said that higher education prepared them well for the work market.

However, the limited training had a negative effect on their careers

MUSCAT: A majority of nationals prefer working in the government sector, a study conducted by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) involving 7,000 nationals from different ages and categories has revealed.

Those surveyed felt that salaries, nature of work and work timings were better in the government sector.

The survey interviewed students currently engaged in higher education, those looking for jobs and others working in different sectors.

On whether higher education played a major role in preparing an

educated workforce for the market or not, the study encountered different responses. Seventy-one per cent of higher education students felt that higher education prepared them well for the work market.

However, the limited training had a negative effect on their careers.

Training issues On the issue of insufficient workrelated training, 85 per cent of those looking for jobs and 82 per cent of working nationals agreed with higher education students.

Fawaz Al Farsi, a higher education student, said that the training they received did not meet job requirements.

“Some of the companies and ministries provide us with faulty

training,” said Al Farsi. He explained that the training they attended was the only assignment they had in many cases.

“The training provided also lacked updated practices,” he said.

Once recruits finished school, the recruiting company should give more training which focused precisely on their work strategies and skills or may be on machinery.

This would help in preparing a skilled work force.

Apart from the training aspect, most of the 7,000 nationals felt that the salaries in the private sector were very low compared to the public sector.

The study showed that 49 per cent of the surveyed youths received less than OMR500 month.

“The number is good, but when considering that they have undergone higher education, the situation is risky,” said Hussien Ali, working in the private sector. The starting salary for higher education graduates in the government sector nowadays was more than OMR650, he said.

Monitoring companies “We know that it is impossible to control salaries in the private sector, but the government should try to monitor companies more,” he said. There should be a unified salary scale for private sector companies and the decision on salaries should not be solely left to employers, he explained.

The study also showed that 51

per cent of the surveyed youths were not happy with their salaries and the nature of work in the private sector.

The public reacted to the study on the social media by calling on the government to consider such studies and follow through with investigations and studies with the authorities concerned to find a solution. Such studies would help to create a better work environment for Omani youth in the private sector.

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No change in fees, photos for ePassport FAHAD AL MUKRASHI fahad@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: Requirements for new ePassport will be the same as the requirements of the previous one, an official at the Royal Oman Police (ROP), informed the Times of Oman.

The fees also will be the same for the ePassport and a photograph is needed for both males and females.

This clarification came after the social media was flooded with comments following the launching of the new ePassport.

The ePassport, aims to enhance security of the Omani nationals when they travel abroad. “Omani women have the right to choose whether to wear Hijab while taking personal photo for the new ePassport,” said the official.

ROP launched the ePassport last Thursday under the patronage of Sayyid Hamood bin Faisal Al Busaidi, Minister of Interior.

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C O M M E N TA RY

Employers must adapt to new work style

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mani graduates do not want to be like their parents working hard in office all day for 12 months a year but want a flexible job where they can take sabbatical leave every three months to strike a perfect balance between career and life.

They want it like they have it now in the university where they can choose the time of their classes, when to revise and the rest of the time driving off to a café to have a good time together. Most important, they want a life different from their parents. They see their parents slugging it on from six to six, crushing on the sofa half dead every evening for the rest of their working lives.

Graduates today want to go to job interviews dictating terms and will accept jobs that have a lot of flexibility. Ten years ago, Omani job seekers wanted a high financial package and they didn’t mind how they worked.

Now, job seekers are willing to accept lower salaries as long as they have longer time off.

This is a generation of Omanis who don’t lack ambitions but their motto is to work to live and not to live to work.

They don’t have to stay longer in office to achieve the same amount of work. For Omani

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students who are studying their degrees abroad, they see work ethics change in Europe and the United States. They want to bring these changes when they come back to Oman. They don’t want to take their work at home after normal working hours but take their work at home during the working hours.

When they get married, unlike their parents, they want to spend more time with their families and not with their work colleagues. They already have it worked out. To them, it is not about how long you spend

in the office but the accomplishment of the task during the week.

In big cities like Muscat, Salalah and Sohar, you see higher education students revise in coffee shops in a group. They argue that it is the good environment of their own choice that makes them pass their exams. They turn the accomplishment of a serious business into fun but get the job done. They want that to continue when they go to work.

It means working in their terms but achieving the results in the terms of the employers. They see it as a win-win situation for both employees and employers.

To get the right talent and skills, employers in Oman must be tuned to the demands of graduates. Having people who stay in the office for eight hours continuously, perhaps longer for some of them, does not necessarily mean achieving a better result. It certainly means having more sick leaves, less concentration, reduced motivation and the risk of ergophobia.

Employers must realise now the priorities of new graduates is not high perks and status but more time off than their parents had, so they can engage themselves in social responsibility work like charities rather than being glued on their seats

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

all day but achieving little.

Employers also have to realise that new graduates have never known suffering with Oman’s economic boom in the last 40 years. There was never a recession in the country, too.

Graduates don’t know anything about hardship. Their lives at home are completely sheltered by hard working parents. One would argue that with the current lower oil prices, if that would persist, the recession may hit Oman as early as next year. But again, these graduates do not care about a fat package but just a job that has a lot of free time.

They also know, like in their university days, if they put everything into their jobs they would lose the sense of living. Work is not anymore a dominant part of their lives like it was for their parents.

They have witnessed how mum and dad got stressed out, worked themselves to high blood pressure and obesity because they did not have the time to go to the gym. Employers in Oman get it wrong if they dismiss the new generation of workers as lazy just because they want to complete their tasks using less time in office so they can get life outside. saleh@timesofoman.com

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SU N DAY, JANUARY 18, 2015

NATURAL PRODUCTS: Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Fuad Bin Jaafar Al Sajwani, opens the Honey Souq, and right, an aquarium has been set up at the honey exhibition, where local honey farmers have set up their stalls.– Photos by Talib Al Wahaibi and Elham Pourmoammadi/TIMES OF OMAN

Honey Souq pitches for health food The government has been trying to encourage farmers to continue the honeymaking profession by promoting their products

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ELHAM POURMOAMMADI elham@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: Formed in the shape of a beehive, an exhibition organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries got under way at Muscat Festival, offering visitors a taste of best-quality natural Omani honey.

Around 50 local companies have stacked jars of honey one on top of the other at the souq-type exhibition, a new initiative aimed at promoting Omani products and companies. “Muscat Festival is an event which attracts many visitors, so this exhibition is an opportunity to link the consumers with producers and show the potential of the country,” Fuad Bin Jaafar Al Sajwani, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, told reporters after inaugurating the exhibition in Al Amerat Park.

The importance of supporting local products was also emphasised by Hamed Bin Said Al Oufi, undersecretary of fisheries wealth at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, who said that the exhibition is in line with the ministry’s efforts to promote local products.

“This is for the first time that a stand has been set up on such a large scale at the Muscat Festival.

It will help local companies access the market, not only in Oman but also outside. Omani honey is very famous for its quality,” he told Times of Oman.

Khalid Hamed Al Aghbari, another official from the ministry, said that the government has been trying to encourage farmers to continue the honey-making profession by promoting their products. The souq will be open until Wednesday, said the official, who was distributing educational material about the honey-making process, the health benefits of natural honey and different types of Omani honey.

Yahya, representing Atayeb Al Nahel, a 100 per cent Omani company selling honey and sweets, said that natural Omani honey is of ‘excellent’ quality, adding that setting up such souqs at events like Muscat Festival can help local companies market themselves.

An aquarium has also been set up at the honey exhibition, showcasing the diversity of fish species in Oman.

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P O P E X T R AVA G A N Z A

Countdown begins for Boney M show Times News Service

DISCO FEVER: For their chartbusters, Boney M is still fondly remembered by millions of fans worldwide. –Supplied photo

MUSCAT: Pop superheroes Boney M featuring Maizie Williams are coming to Oman to perform their greatest hits live and unleash the disco fever in concert with a full band at the Oman Automobile Association grounds on February 5.

Gates will open from 6.30pm onwards and the show will be-

C I V I L AV I AT I O N

AI enhances baggage limit Staff Reporter MUSCAT: Air India Express has announced enhanced Free Baggage Allowance (FBA) of 30 kilogrammes for all passengers travelling from Muscat and Salalah to its Indian destinations until March 11, a statement from the airline said.

In addition, passengers who have excess baggage of 10 kilograms, along with earlier FBA of 20 kilogrammes will now be entitled to carry 40 kilogrammes (30 + 10).

The airline has also introduced promotional fares from Muscat to Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram.

Air India Express currently operates weekly 19 flights from

Muscat to Kerala and Mangalore daily to Kozhikode, four flights (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday) to Kochi, four flights (Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday) to Thiruvananthapuram and four flights

(Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday) to Mangalore.

Apart from this Air India Express operates twice weekly flights from Salalah connecting Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode.

L E G I S L AT I O N

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More stringent traffic law

“For example, three months jail for a person who is speeding but does not cause an accident seems quite harsh,” said Al Muqbali.

“We will voice these concerns to the State Council and expect them to do the same,” he added.

Al Muqbali pointed out that the amendments will be presented before His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said for his approval in less than a month.

Asked whether the penalties in

the new traffic law were adequate, Al Muqbali explained that they were enough to be a deterrent. He, like many others, hoped that the new amendments would reduce road accidents in the country.

An official at the ROP, told the Times of Oman, that those new amendments in the traffic law are going to be more deterrent than the previous one. The official pointed out that when the new traffic law will be approved, it will

lead to a decline in the number of the road accidents.

Decline in mishaps Meanwhile, according to the figures available till October 2014 released by the ROP, in 4,789 road accidents 642 people died and 7,187 were injured. That was a decline of 22 per cent as compared to figures in 2013 when there were 6,175 road accidents that left 703 dead and 8,331 injured.

gin at 8pm. Tickets are currently sold at the Black & White office (24565697) in Hatat House; Lulu hypermarket in Darsait and Bausher; Oman Automobile Association and at the Hormuz Grand Hotel lobby in Seeb.

Boney M is still fondly remembered by millions of fans worldwide for their chartbusters such as Daddy Cool and Rivers of Baby-

lon. Their insanely catchy songs gave them an incredible run of chart success worldwide, reverberations of which were also felt in Oman in a big way.

In fact, fans of Boney M here still remember them as one of their most favourite bands of the 70’s and 80’s.

It has been more than 40 years since disco fever gripped the

world, but this legendary group continues to stir up passions in their live performances with one of its original members, Maizie Williams as lead singer. Williams, now 63, is bringing the legendary Boney M sound to town.

Boney M featuring Maizie Williams promises to deliver a crowd stopping show that will bring back the past.

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SU N DAY, JANUARY 18, 2015

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We hope to promote our Omani culture, which is the food and the hospitality. I present my food with pride because it’s my Omani culture Malik Al Jadhami, chef at Bait Al Luban

Bait Al Luban serves Omani pride SCAN THIS QR CODE TO INSTANTLY WATCH THE VIDEO

The carefully chosen

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traditional décor, soft oud music, and aroma of frankincense make you feel like you’ve entered an Omani home CLASSIC OMANI DISHES: The moment you walk into the restaurant,

SARAH MACDONALD

located at the corniche opposite the fish market, the warm sense of Omani hospitality envelops you. -Photo: Shabin E

MUSCAT: When Bait Al Luban, a new Omani restaurant in Muttrah, opened its doors last month, Chef Malik Al Jadhami didn’t just want to serve food; he wanted to serve Omani pride.

From the moment you walk through the doors of the restaurant, which is located along the

corniche on the second floor of a building opposite the fish market, the warm sense of Omani hospitality envelops you. The carefully chosen traditional décor, soft oud music playing in the background, and aroma of frankincense (luban in Arabic) make you feel like you’ve entered an Omani home, which is

sarah@timesofoman.com exactly what Al Jadhami and the restaurant’s owners intended.

“We hope to promote our Omani culture, which is the food and the hospitality. I present my food with pride because it’s my Omani culture,” Al Jadhami told Times of Oman. Al Jadhami says both the setting and the food should show-

case Oman’s rich heritage, but until now food hasn’t always been at the forefront when it comes to sharing local culture with others.

“Let’s talk about the Italians, how they celebrate their cuisine because it’s part of their culture.

This is what we’re trying to do now,” he explained.

The menu showcases dishes from around the country, such as mansheb (rice cooked with fish and a coconut broth) from Salalah, and gheleambe, a salad with watercress, shallots and tomatoes from Al Sharqiya. The bread basket features breads from Sur, Baluchi and Zanzibari traditions.

There are also classic Omani dishes that are found around the country, such as shuwa (tender meat cooked underground), qabouli (rice cooked in broth and spices), harees (a delicious slow-

cooked rice and chicken dish served with a sweet date and cardamom sauce), and awal (shark salad). Al Jadhami also created a number of “modern” Omani dishes, such as a chicken Caesar salad with Omani spices, seafood soup with a locally spiced broth, a shuwa sub sandwich, and shuwa lasagna, uniting elements of traditional dishes with international cuisine.

Al Jadhami plans on changing the menu every eight months to a year to offer more variety and introduce different Omani dishes.

He is also trying hard to source ingredients locally, so the honey, ghee, dates, and fish are all bought from Omanis. He hopes to find more local products to bring into his kitchen. So far the public has been responding very well to Bait Al Luban, with many drop-ins and now repeat customers, too. The restaurant is full at dinner and on weekends there are lineups out the door. “We did not expect a lot of people coming in…but it flooded with people,” said Al Jadhami.

To his surprise and delight,

about 90 percent of the diners have been Omani. There have been guests from as far away as Kabourah, on the Batinah coast, who have heard about Bait Al Luban and come to try his food.

“We’ve got all the classes of Omanis coming in. It’s amazing.

We targeted [tourists], but we’re getting something different, which is sustainability, which is the Omanis,” Al Jadhami said.

He says they are curious about the experience as well as the food, which is served in a fine-dining style with careful presentation.

Al Jadhami’s servings are smaller than a typical Omani meal which is served in bulk quantities on communal platters, but he says the high quality compensates for the portion size. “You should have art on your plate rather than having bulk food on it,” he explained.

Though the response to Bait Al Luban has been largely positive so far, Al Jadhami still has one special guest to impress: his mother.

He describes her as his biggest culinary influence and learned much of what he knows from her.

PA S S AG E T O I N D I A E F F O R T

Chef Sweety Singh returns to tickle the taste buds of food connoisseurs Staff Reporter MUSCAT: Short, humble, with a bushy beard and twinkling eyes, Delhi-based Harjinder Singh, fondly known as Sweety Singh, is back in Muscat after a break to tickle your palates with his homely delicacies.

After a two-year gap, Passage to India has again flown in Sweety Singh, who can create magic with five ingredients, to host a Punjabi Food Festival, which started last Tuesday and will run until January 27, at their restaurant near Hatat House.

Chef Sweety Singh, who has been cooking Punjabi food since he was 19-year-old and has delivered his delicacies all over the world, has this time come back with dozens of mouth-watering authentic recipes for the foodies in Muscat.

“Two years back when Sweety came to Muscat, we got a good response from our customers. So, we thought, ‘why not bring him back?’ That’s how Sweety has come back to Muscat. This time too, we are sure that Sweety will not disappoint us. Moreover, the authentic food is prepared in a purely traditional way, which is rare nowadays,” said Passage to India Director K.K. Mohandas .

Sweety’s association with culinary skills in fact goes back to a Rehri (food sold on a handcart) started by his father on the streets of Delhi in the 1950s.

“I learnt the culinary skills from my father. He never had any measurement cups or teaspoons to add spices and masalas. After he lost his eyesight due to diabetes, he would tell me what should be add-

GOURMET’S DELIGHT: Sweety Singh has come back this time with dozens of mouth-watering and authentic recipes for the foodies in Muscat. – A R Rajkumar

ed and how much just by sniffing the food,” said Sweety while adding that he also prepares food from his heart with love and passion.

Dismissing the general perception that Punjabi food is rich and heavy, Sweety noted that authentic, homemade Punjabi food is not heavy but wholesome.

He considers cashew, almond, saffron, and food colour to be nothing more than fancy frills that lend food a designer touch.

He measures his own spices and believes that Punjabi food is best served in a simple manner. “It gets a bad reputation when people impart populist touches to it,” he says.

He is forever inventing dishes in his head and thinking about what new dish to launch next.

Among the dishes prepared at Passage to India by Sweety, a must try is the Beetroot De Kabab, kababs made by mixing beetroot with potato and spices for the vegetarians, and the special Fish Kabab for non-vegetarians.

“Slow cooking makes the food tastier. Nowadays, many certified cooks make food in a hurry. Masala can be seen only on the top. The meat will be raw inside. But slow cooked meat will be tastier with masalas inside too,” added Sweety Singh, who has also ‘stumped’ Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar

and numerous film stars with his kababs.

Singh runs the popular Dhabba Punjabi Khanna, also known as ‘Kake Di Hatti,’ on Asaf Alli Road, Delite Cinema and the Delhi Stock Exchange.

His first food fest was at ITC Park Sheraton, Chennai, in 1998.

Since then, he has hosted Punjabi food fests for various hotel groups, including ITC Sheraton, The Oberoi, Radisson and the Fortune Group of Hotels in addition to BJN Group, Oris Group, Marriot, and Jaypee Continental.

A perfect balance of flavours is presented by the dedicated team of chefs at the Passage to India.

BY NEXT JUNE

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A1 Nuclear accelerator At times, it is too late for some patients to undergo liver transplant abroad, due to the advanced stage of the disease, he added.

Asked about the number of Omanis who undergo liver transplants abroad at their own expense, the official said he could not give exact figures. Most of the patients undergo treatment for cardiology, oncology, and blood, kidney and liver diseases.

The official said a nuclear accelerator will be built at the Bausher Health complex, which is expected to begin operations

by June next. It will help in determining diseases like cancer in-house, he added.

The annual health report for 2013 revealed that 1,372 patients had been sent abroad for treatment at the expense of the ministry as compared to 1174 in 2012.

Ahmed Al Matrooshi, an Omani, said that many nationals prefer to go abroad for treatment due to the lack of the medical facilities in the country. Many families take loans, sell their properties or get donations from Samaritans for this purpose.

Observers believe that with the ministry contributing a part of the expenses for treatment and the patient contributing the rest, it will reduce the burden on the former.

LIGHT DRIZZLES

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A1 Barka gets rain The maximum temperature predicted in Muscat on Monday is 22° Celsius and the minimum temperature will be 16° Celsius.

Global weather departments have also predicted rain in Oman on Monday and Tuesday.

Last week also, some parts of Oman experienced light drizzles.

Some residents in Barka even took to the social media to report the light drizzles, posting pictures of raindrops on their car windshields.

S U N DAY, JAN UARY 1 8, 2 0 1 5 This initial progress is a start and should be welcomed even if there’s still a long way to go. The participants have shown a constructive attitude Federica Mogherini, EU foreign policy chief

VIOLENCE

Blast outside Algeria embassy in Libya amid Geneva talks TRIPOLI: An explosion outside the Algerian embassy in Libya’s capital Tripoli on Saturday slightly wounded two guards and damaged nearby vehicles, officials and residents said.

Algeria and most other countries evacuated their diplomats in the summer during fighting between rival factions who are battling for control of the oil-producing North African state three years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. Two guards suffered minor wounds by the blast, officials in Tripoli and Algeria’s state news agency said.

Libya’s recognised government, DIPLOMACY

EU hails Libya peace move BRUSSELS: The European Union on Saturday hailed an accord between Libya’s warring factions on creating a roadmap toward a unity government, but said there was still a “long way to go” to bring peace to the country.

The factions fighting for control over Libya agreed on an “agenda” to form the unity government after two days of UNbrokered talks in Geneva, the UN said. “Some steps in the right direction have been taken,” Federica Mogherini, the EU foreign policy chief, said. “This initial progress is a start and should be welcomed even if there’s still a long way to go. The participants have shown a constructive attitude,” she said.

“I encourage all invited representatives, including those who did not attend this round, to participate in the second round of talks next week with the same spirit of respect and consensus.”

On Friday, the Fajr Libya also announced “a ceasefire on all fronts” as long as “the other parties respect the truce”. -AFP

which has been forced to work out of a rump state in the east, denounced the explosion in a statement as “cheap attempt” to undermine UN-sponsored peace talks which started this week in Geneva.

Unity government efforts Tripoli is now controlled by a faction called Libya Dawn, which has set up a rival government.

The eastern-based government is recognised by the United Nations and Western powers. The Tripoli administration is not, but still controls ministries, airports and some oil facilities.

The UN talks are aimed at

forming a unity government, ending hostilities and putting a transition to democracy on track.

But the Tripoli-based forces say the process had been rushed, and plan to vote on Sunday on whether to attend.

Fighting over the country’s oil infrastructure has closed two major oil ports in the east and slashed Libya’s oil output to around 300,000 barrels per day from the 1.6 million bpd produced before the civil war toppled Gaddafi in 2011.

Bombs exploded in November near the Egyptian and United Arab Emirates embassies. -Reuters

REGION

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SU N DAY, JANUARY 18, 2015

INDIA

One does not achieve everything over-night. However, by modifying our work culture and by adopting better technology and tools we can achieve the results better Manohar Parikkar, Defence Minister of India

E X PAT A F FA I R S

Kerala to consider NRK suggestions KOCHI: Kerala Government will actively consider the recommendations and suggestions evolved during various interactive sessions of the two-day global NRK Meet, state Non-Resident Keralites’ Affairs (NORKA) Minister K C Joseph said yesterday.

“NORKA department is interested to work in collaboration with overseas Malayalee organisations for the welfare of NRKs,” the Minister said at a session titled ‘Mobilising the Community for NRK welfare’ at the global NRK meet here which began yesterday.

T K Manoj Kumar, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, suggested that government has to seriously consider putting in place a system through which Malayalee organisations abroad can get affiliation to the NORKA Department and cooperate with the state’s developmental activities.

Representatives of various

HOLY DIP

Hindu devotees prepare to bathe at Sangam, the confluence of the holy rivers Ganges and Yamuna and mythical Saraswati, during the annual Magh Mela, in Allahabad, on Saturday. The Magh Mela, which is known as a mini-Kumbh Mela, runs from January 5 until February 17 this year. -AFP

NRK Malayalee associations have urged the state government to strengthen the overseas NORKA helpdesk to ensure effective communication and prompt settlement of issues faced by NRKs working abroad.

“There are a lot of Keralites in need of legal help in Gulf countries. By strengthening the helpdesk, legal aid can be extended to the victims in association with respective embassies and various Malayalee organisations,” P K Anvar Naha, President of KMCC, Dubai, said.

They also raised concerns over the decision by the Ministry of Civil Aviation for ‘not enlisting’ the Cochin International Airport as an international hub. Employment for skilled gulf-returnees in the corporate sector, setting up of an NRK University in Kerala and revising pravasi pension were some of the suggestions put forward by the representatives during the session. -PTI

Indigenous fighter jet handed over to IAF Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, Chief of Air Staff, received the aircraft documents from Parrikar with the handing over, signalling the

DREAM COME TRUE: The LCA programme was initiated in 1983 to replace the ageing MiG-21s in IAF’s combat fleet. – Courtesy HAL

start of a process of induction of the supersonic fighters

BENGALURU: More than three decades after the project was sanctioned, home-grown Light Combat Aircraft Tejas was handed over today to Indian Air Force by Defence Minister Manohar Parikkar marking a major milestone in the country’s military aviation.

Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, Chief of Air Staff, received the aircraft documents from Parrikar with the handing over, signalling the start of a process of induction of the supersonic fighters under a project that has cost Rs 8,000 crore to the exchequer.

The project that has missed several deadlines is Rs30,000 crore, which would see Tejas, a 4.5th

Generation Aircraft that is lighter in weight with greater agility and manoeuvrability, replace ageing MiG-21s in IAF’s combat fleet.

The entire project by DRDO and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), including the final induction in the Air Force and Navy, is estimated to cost Rs 30,000 crore.

Speaking at the ceremony with media kept at bay, Parrikar congratulated HAL and everyone involved in the project and asked them to think ‘out of the box’ to meet the time-line challenges by applying the right management tools. “Thrust should be given on research and technology by exploiting the existing knowledge base which companies like HAL have,” he said.

“One does not achieve everything over-night. However, by modifying our work culture and by adopting better technology and tools we can achieve the results better,” he added. Raha said

LCA is the need of the hour, given the operational needs of IAF and added “we are happy to receive the documents of the first series production of LCA.” He complimented HAL for handing over this aircraft, which would allow its induction and subsequent formation of first Tejas squadron. The aircraft that has been handed over has got Initial Operational Clearance-II, which signifies that Tejas is airworthy in different conditions, sources said.

The Final Operational Clearance (FOC) is expected by year-end.

HAL chairman R K Tyagi described the handover as one of the major milestones in the history of the Company. He said 60 per cent indigenisation in this LCA project has been achieved so far. Outlining the production plan, he said HAL will produce six aircraft next year (2015-16) and subsequently scale it up to eight and 16 aircraft

RADIO

BIG STEP

Austraila, India, UK broadcasters in cricket tie-up NEW DELHI: BBC World Service has joined hands with All India Radio (AIR) and Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) to launch a new programme ‘Stumped’ which seeks to connect radio and cricket ahead of the 2015 ICC World Cup. The new programme, to be launched Saturday and carried

by AIR’s FM Rainbow network in India, will bring together three cricket livewires--India, the UK and Australia on one platform, a release said here.

The idea behind the event is to explore the world of cricket and bring lively, informative and humorous debate. The team of ‘Stumped’ has presenters from all the three broadcasting giants including AIR English commentator Prakash Wakankar, first female commentator of BBC fema Alison Mitchelland the programme host--and Jim Maxwell from ABC, it said.

per year. It is estimated that 20 aircraft will be built by 2017-2018, to make the first squadron of the aircraft. Though the squadron is scheduled to be based in Tamil Nadu, sources said, initially, the planes would be in Bangalore only.

The LCA programme was initiated in 1983 to replace the ageing MiG-21s in IAF’s combat fleet but has missed several deadlines due to various reasons.

The lighter weight of aicraft is achieved by use of higher percentage of Carbon Fibre Composites.

Other significant features of this indigenous aircraft are the Digital Fly-By-Wire System, Flight Control Systems, Open Architecture Computer among others.

The Naval variant of LCA is also under development and had last month carried out its first flight from the shore based test facility (SBTF) at Goa. In the design and development programme, HAL has produced 15 aircraft including the seven in Limited Series Production(LSP), 2 Technology Demonstrators, 3 Fighter Prototype, 2 Trainer Prototype and 1 Naval Prototype.

HAL has carried out more than 2,800 sorties under various circumstances including hot and cold temperature armament and weapon deliveries, MultiMode Radar (MMR), Radar Warning Receiver (RWR) and missile firing flight trials. Tejas has also successfully demonstrated weapon delivery capability during trials at Jamnagar and Jaisalmer, HAL officials said. -PTI

“AIR is delighted to co-produce and broadcast Stumped, together with BBC and ABC, on cricket which undoubtedly is the favourite sport of millions of sports lovers in India,” AIR Director General F Sheheryar said.

AIR hopes that this programme will help ordinary listeners understand the sport better and also spark listeners’ interest in the game in which India is the reigning champion especially with the ICC World Cup round the corner, he said.

Keeping with the spirit of the mega cricket event, the first series will coincide with the start of the World Cup. The programme will be hosted from venues across the World Cup host countries Australia and New Zealand and will include weekly roundup and discussion of key talking points from the matches and other lighter stories in sport from around the world. - PTI

Nod to 32 FM channels for J&K, Northeast NEW DELHI: The government has approved 18 new FM radio channels for North Eastern states and 15 for Jammu and Kashmir.

In North-East, three channels each will be launched in six towns — Haflong and Dhubri in Assam, Jowai in Meghalaya, Lung-lei in Mizoram, Mokukchung in Nagaland, and Belonia in Tripura. This is in addition to the existing 12 FM channels which are already functional in the Northeast.

Of the 15 FM channels to be launched in Jammu & Kashmir, three each will be in Kathua and Bhaderwah. Of the remaining nine channels, three each will be in Kargil, Leh and Poonch.

Singh said the new channels are being launched with the special objective of extending the reach and impact of radio to the border areas where other means of telecast or broadcast are not available. Radio is still the most easily available and convenient medium of broadcast in peripheral areas. -PTI

S U N DAY, JAN UARY 1 8, 2 0 1 5

E D UC AT I O N

Foundation stone of IIM laid in Andhra VISAKHAPATNAM: Union Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani on Saturday said here that a task force would be constituted soon to expedite setting up of central education institutes in Andhra Pradesh.

Earlier, she laid the foundation stone of a new Indian Institute of Management (IIM) at Gambhiram village in Anandapuram mandal of Visakhapatnam district. Irani’s assurance came in response to a request by the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. The NDA government was committed to bring in best of the reforms in the education sector, she said.

Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu, who was also present on the occasion, said the economic reforms were“the need of the hour”.

Chief Minister Naidu earlier said education was a priority sector for his government. He reminded the Centre about provision in the Andhra Pradesh reorganisation act, and said it had assured that 11 Central educational institutions, including IIT, NIT, Petroleum University, etc., would be set in the residual Andhra. Development of Visakhapatnam IIM will be entrusted to the IIM -Bangalore, he said. -PTI

INDIA

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Japan, India look to upgrade maritime security relations Both India and Japan have signalled a keenness to beef up their defence ties in recent months to counter an increasingly assertive China

BOOSTING TIES: India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, right,

welcomes her Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida, before their meeting in New Delhi, on Saturday. Kishida is on a three-day visit to India. -Reuters

DIPLOMACY

NEW DELHI: Japan’s foreign minister used a visit to India Saturday to push for tighter maritime security ties between the two nations, as Tokyo seeks to shore up its relationships in Asia to counter an increasingly powerful China.

Fumio Kishida, who met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, is on his first overseas visit since Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe secured a landmark victory in national

elections last month. “Japan and India have been increasing cooperation in the field of maritime security... It is important to further strengthen our cooperation,” Kishida said in a speech to the Indian Council of World Affairs in New Delhi on Saturday. Both India and Japan have signalled a keenness to beef up their defence ties in recent months to counter an increasingly assertive China.

Later the two leaders held strategic dialogue during which they discussed key issues of trade and security as the visiting leader termed India as “the most promising destination” for investment.

During their marathon meeting, which lasted for nearly four hours, the two leaders agreed to further strengthen relations in accordance with the Special Strategic and Global Partnership and decided to pursue discussions on civil nuclear cooperation, official sources said. The civil nuclear negotiations are stuck due to reservations on the part of Japan.

The leaders also reviewed the progress on the US-2 Amphibian Aircraft, a joint production venture, during the meeting which was held for the first time with a

restricted session which lasted for 45 minutes, the sources said.

The ministers were later joined by a multi-Ministry delegation which included officials from commerce ministry.

Emphasising that Japan was a key partner in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ Initiative, Swaraj welcomed the spurt of about 15 per cent in Japanese companies coming to India during the course of last year.

“She highlighted the special arrangements for Japanese companies and banks under the Japan plus initiative started following Modi’s successful visit to Japan last year,” the sources said.

On his part, Kishida said India was considered to be an important partner by his government as was reflected by his early visit here after the recent elections in Japan. “He informed that India is now viewed as the most promising destination by Japanese companies and hoped that Abenomics & Modinomics would work together to achieve the goals of doubling Japanese investments assistance to India as announced during PM Modi’s visit to Tokyo,” the sources said. -AFP/PTI

CONTROVERSY

India to talk Iran curbs, LNG Nine Censor Board members imports during Obama visit resign after Leela steps down NEW DELHI: India will use an upcoming visit by Barack Obama to press the United States to remove Indian oil companies from a list naming firms doing business in Iran, and to seek priority access to US LNG exports, sources in the Oil Ministry said.

The US president will arrive in New Delhi on January 25 and hold discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who visited Washington in September. The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) listed three Indian companies as having commercial activity in Iran’s energy sector in a report this week, potentially making it difficult for them to do business with other countries, mainly the United States.

Oil and Natural Gas Corp, Oil India Ltd and Indian Oil Corp, which have been on the list since 2010, cited interests in Iran’s Farsi concession in their 2013-14 annual reports but told the GAO they had ceased activity in 2007, the GAO said. “This (mention in the list) could hit Indian companies’ plans to invest in other countries, particularly in America,” said one of the sources. The United States has imposed sanctions on Iran’s energy sector to put pressure on it to halt its nuclear programme.

Separately, Oil Ministry sources said India will seek preferential access to US exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), even though India does not have a free-trade agreement (FTA) with the United

Pact on Digital India initiative WASHINGTON: India and the US have agreed to collaborate on implementing the ambitious Digital India initiative ahead of American President Barack Obama’s Republic Day visit to New Delhi.

The two delegations held extensive discussions on ICT and telecommunication policy issues, focusing on accelerating broadband deployment, aligning spectrum policy for the mobile era and exchanging views on internet governance and best practices in ICT and telecommunications regulatory policy.

They also discussed is-

States. “We want them to give us the freedom to lift LNG from any of their projects on a priority basis, including the ones that are meant for FTA nations,” an official said.

State-owned gas firm GAIL (India) Ltd has an agreement to lift 6 million tonnes a year of LNG from two projects in the United States. US oil and gas produc-

sues relating to international mobility of Indian skilled professionals. The joint government-and-industry discussions included panels on promoting manufacturing and investment, IT and telecom policy developments, Internet governance, mobility of skilled professionals and other issues related to trade, investment and the ease of doing business.

A panel of non-government experts also shared insights on strategies that may help India achieve the goals outlined in the ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ initiatives. -PTI

tion has shot up in recent years as new technology has allowed the world’s largest oil consumer to exploit reserves in shale formations.

But exports are tightly restricted and LNG shipments must be approved by Washington. Exports of crude oil are banned outright, a legacy of the recent past when the United States consumed far more oil than it produced. -Reuters

UPSET AND ANGRY: Sikhs pro-

test against impending release of a controversial film, in New Delhi, on Saturday. The Punjab state government banned the film on Saturday-Reuters

NEW DELHI: Nine Censor Board members have put in their papers protesting what they claimed was the “cavalier and dismissive manner” in which the Board is treated by the government.

Board members said the events that led to the Chairperson Leela Samson resigning from her position were merely the “proverbial last straw”. Samson, who headed the statutory body under the Information and Broadcasting Ministry of the Indian government, resigned amid controversy surrounding the clearance of controversial film “Messenger of God” featuring Dera Saccha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

In a letter, the nine members —

Arundhati Nag, Ira Bhaskar, Lora Prabhu, Pankaj Sharma, Rajeev Masand, Sekharbabu Kancherla, Shaji Karun, Shubhra Gupta and T G Thyagarajan have submitted their resignation.

The members said that since the time that they first joined the Board, they had been seeking critical changes, which were imperative if the functioning of the CBFC has to be reformed.

“However, in spite of sending numerous recommendations and appeals, and having several meetings with the secretaries and senior officials of the ministry, and even one with an earlier Minister, not a single positive step has been taken by the Ministry,” they said. -PTI

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SU N DAY, JANUARY 18, 2015

PAKISTAN

More and more people are joining in because they agree with us. The narrative now resonates beyond the elites...

People are saying ‘When you attack children, that’s it’ Sundas Hoorain, Lawyer

Liberals launch movement in bid to ‘reclaim’ Pakistan rachi coordinating their protests and condemning local militant groups that operate in those areas.

Analysts believe some militant groups receive backing from the state because they can be used as assets by Pakistan to exert influence in India and Afghanistan -- a strategy which progressives are keen to see ended.

Jibran Nasir, a 27-year-old lawyer who has played a key role in organising demonstrations, said he and others felt they could no longer stand by following the brutal killings of schoolchildren in Peshawar on December 16 UP AGAINST RELIGIOUS FANATICISM: Pakistani protesters carry a placard featuring pictures of stu-

ISLAMABAD: One month on from a Taliban school massacre in Peshawar that left 150 dead a new movement is growing among marginalised urban liberals rallying to “Reclaim Pakistan” from violent extremism.

Carrying placards and candles, their stand against religious fanaticism is an unusual sight in a country more used to mass demonstrations by extremist groups filled with chants against the West or India.

Jibran Nasir, a 27-year-old lawyer who has played a key role in organising demonstrations, said he and others felt they could no longer stand by following the brutal killings of schoolchildren in the country’s northwest on December 16. “I never felt so overwhelmed. I felt pathetic as a human being, as a Muslim, as a Pakistani. I felt very, very small,” he said.

While Pakistan’s military has been engaged in heavy offensives

dents who died in the Peshawar attack, during a protest by civil society activists in Islamabad. — AFP

The movement has spread over social media, particularly Facebook, with like-minded groups in the major cities of Lahore and Karachi coordinating their protests condemning local militant groups

in the country’s northwestern tribal areas, progressive critics believe the state — including both the army and political parties — must do more to tackle those extremist groups that have traditionally received official backing.

In an effort to highlight the discrepancy, Nasir, who happened to be visiting Islamabad at the time of the Peshawar assault, led

like-minded activists to protest outside the radical Red Mosque, whose cleric is known for his pro-Taliban views and who has refused to condemn the attack on the school.

Maulana Abdul Aziz led an armed insurrection against the military in 2007, but was acquitted of all charges against him by 2013 in a case which analysts say

highlights weaknesses in Pakistan’s judicial system and sympathies for militants among parts of the security establishment.

The “Reclaim” movement’s first small victory was the re-opening of an investigation against Aziz, said Nasir.

“There’s an arrest warrant out, police say they are doing their own investigation,” he told AFP, adding he was hopeful that more pressure could result in firm action. He now says he has been threatened not just by Aziz but by the Jamaatul Ahrar splinter group of the Taliban over the phone. But, as someone who considers himself an observant Muslim, he felt he could no longer see his faith hijacked.

The movement has spread over social media, particularly Facebook, with like-minded groups in the major cities of Lahore and Ka-

Humanity “We are basically people who are concerned for our own humanity. If we do not take some kind of stance we may very well stay alive but we lose our own humanity by being lazy. It makes us complicit,” said 36-year-old Taimur Khan, an entrepreneur who is part of the Reclaim movement in Islamabad.

Progressives remain a relatively small minority, confined to the educated upper and middle-classes -- a fact bemoaned by Nasir.

He contrasted the crowds of hundreds at Reclaim rallies with the estimated 1.6 million Parisians who took to the streets to condemn the deadly attack on the offices of satirical magazine ‘Charlie Hebdo’. “Pakistan is desensitised.

But in Paris, millions came out.

That has made those 12 lives the centre of attention for the entire world,” he said.

“We have lost 55,000 people to terrorism but we struggle to justify our case to the world that we are doing enough to curb terrorism.”

But he also sees hope for a broader coalition involving the working class. On January 16, exactly one month after the attack, the Reclaim movement held its biggest events to date across Pakistan’s major cities.

The few thousand people who turned out included female polio workers who have come under attack by the Taliban, relatives of fallen soldiers, and the father and child of a female Christian bonded labourer who was burnt to death for allegedly committing blasphemy along with her mother. — AFP

P E S H AWA R S C H O O L

Kabul arrests five over school attack KABUL: Afghan security forces have arrested five men suspected of involvement in last month’s massacre at a school in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, an Afghan security source said Saturday.

Several Taliban gunmen stormed the school in the northwestern city of Peshawar last month, killing 150 people, mostly children, in the country’s deadliest ever militant attack.

On Saturday an Afghan security source, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to AFP that his force had recently made five arrests, after Pakistan supplied information to Kabul.

The official said the men, who were not Afghan nationals, were arrested in the troubled border areas between the two countries.

They were accused by Pakistan of aiding the Peshawar school attackers, he said, insisting that the investigation by the Afghan security agencies had not yet established the suspects’ direct association with the attack.

Pakistani officials declined to immediately comment.

Afghanistan has long accused Pakistan of supporting the Afghan Taliban to try to maintain its influence in the region. Pakistan says Afghanistan is doing the same with the Pakistani Taliban in return.

Meanwhile, Five members of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LeJ) militant outfit have been arrested in two separate incidents from Pakistan’s Punjab province.

Two members, including a woman, of Lashkar-i-Jhangvi (LeJ) group were arrested from Faisalabad district, some 130 kilometres from here, Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) senior officer Umer Virk said on Friday.

“The suspects — Rizwan and Marya Bibi — were wanted in a blast at an imambargah,” Virk said, adding the two were also planning to carry out attacks in Lahore before they were caught from a remote area of Faisalabad. — Agencies

K H U S H A B H E AV Y WAT E R R E A C T O R

Nuclear reactor goes online WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s fourth heavy water reactor at Khushab nuclear site which allows it to build a larger number of miniaturised plutonium-based nuclear weapons now appears to be operational, a US think-tank has said. The reactor is part of Pakistan’s programme to increase the production of weapons-grade plutonium.

“A recently purchased Digital Globe high resolution satellite image dated January 15, 2015 shows that Khushab’s fourth reactor’s external construction is complete and has become operational,” David Albright and Serena KelleherVergantini of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) said on Friday.

“This assessment is based on

the presence of a very specific signature: steam is venting from the reactor’s cooling system,” he said.

Plutonium production Albright and his co-author said Pakistan’s Khushab nuclear site, located 200 kilometres south of Islamabad, is dedicated to the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons. — PTI

S U N DAY, JAN UARY 1 8, 2 0 1 5 What is needed now is to quickly take practical steps in this direction and we are ready to provide (the court) with thousands of reports and documents that confirm the Zionist enemy has committed horrible crimes against Gaza and against our people Fawzi Barhoum, Hamas spokesman

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WORLD

KIDNAPPING

Houthi militiamen abduct Yemen’s top presidential aide SANAA: Houthi militiamen in control of Yemen’s capital said they seized President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi’s chief of staff on Saturday, a claim confirmed by a senior official.

Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak was abducted by gunmen at a checkpoint in Yemen’s southern Hada district.

A statement by the militia said the kidnapping was a measure to prevent a UN-brokered agreement between the presidency and them in September “from being broken.”

Special measures The militiamen warned Hadi of “a series of special measures” they are planning to take, adding that

he “must not cover up corruption”.

The chief of Yemen’s national security service, General Mohammed Al Ahmadi, told reporters “talks are ongoing to secure his release.”

Mubarak is secretary general of the national dialogue set up to oversee the political transition following the 2012 resignation of vet-

eran president Ali Abdullah Saleh after a bloody year-long uprising.

Yemen has been dogged by instability since Saleh’s ouster, with the Houthis and Al Qaeda seeking to fill the power vacuum.

Mubarak, a southerner, was one of the representatives in the dialogue of the Southern Movement, which seeks autonomy or

Hamas hails ICC probe of Israeli war crimes International Criminal Court said on Friday that preliminary examination would scrutinise ‘in full independence and impartiality’ crimes that may have

UNDER ATTACK: Palestinians leave Gaza City’s Al Shejaea neighbourhood to a safer location after Israel’s army started its ground offensive on the Gaza Strip on July 18, 2014. — AFP file photo

The June 13 date would allow the court to look at the war between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza in July-August 2014 during which more than 2,100 Palestinians and 73 Israelis were killed

occurred since June 13 last year

GAZA (PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES): The Palestinian resistance group Hamas said on Saturday it welcomed a decision by the International Criminal Court to launch an inquiry into possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories.

ICC prosecutors said on Friday the preliminary examina-

tion would scrutinise “in full independence and impartiality” crimes that may have occurred since June 13 last year, opening a path to possible charges against Israelis or Palestinians.

Strong opposition The court’s decision came after Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a rival to Hamas, requested ICC membership, against strong opposition from Israel and the US.

Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip, said on Saturday the group appreciated the move.

“What is needed now is to quickly take practical steps in this direction and we are ready to provide (the court) with thousands of reports and documents that confirm the Zionist enemy has committed horrible crimes against Gaza and against our people,” he said in a statement.

Israel rejected the court’s Fri-

INTELLIGENCE REPORT

3,000 linked to IS in Turkey ISTANBUL: Around 3,000 people in Turkey are believed to be linked to the IS group, a Turkish intelligence report said on Saturday, warning of possible attacks by extremists.

The report called for their enhanced surveillance, including identifying their rank within the extremist group or whether they were active within it, the Hurriyet newspaper reported on Saturday.

D E L AY S E X P E C T E D

Lorry fire closes Channel Tunnel PARIS/LONDON: The Channel Tunnel operator evacuated a shuttle train and closed the subsea crossing on Saturday due to a lorry fire, British police said, adding that there were no reported injuries.

Kent Police said there were no trains in the tunnels and French authorities were dealing with the incident that occurred at the Calais end.

“Rail passengers are advised to expect significant delays whilst the vehicle is being recovered and fumes are cleared from the tunnels,” the police said in an emailed statement.

Eurotunnel, the operator of the crossing, had earlier on Saturday suspended services because of smoke which it said was detected from an unknown source.

It evacuated a Calais-Dover shuttle train without incident due to the smoke.

Eurostar, which operates train services through the tunnel between Paris, London and Brussels, said on Twitter that no trains would be running on Saturday following the closure and that all trains en route would return to their original stations.

It advised passengers to postpone journeys and not come to stations. — Reuters

A “red alert” had also been sent to security units warning of possible attacks on the embassies of Western countries by IS extremists following last week’s deadly attacks in France, the report said.

Security at the diplomatic missions had been increased to the maximum level, the report said, adding that NATO facilities and Western nationals were also potential targets.

And it warned of possible bomb attacks “anywhere and anytime” in Turkey by “sleeping cells.”

Most of the vehicles stolen in Turkey ended up in the hands of IS extremists, it said, warning that they could be used in car bomb attacks in the country.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Thursday said up to 700 Turkish nationals had joined the IS. — AFP

day decision as hypocrisy and the US State Department said it was “a tragic irony that Israel, which has withstood thousands of terrorist rockets fired at its civilians and its neighborhoods, is now being scrutinised by the ICC”.

Prosecutors will assess evidence of alleged crimes and determine if they are of sufficient gravity and scale to warrant charges against individuals on either side.

Palestinians seek statehood in Gaza and the West Bank. — Reuters

secession for the formerly independent south.

Hadi named him as prime minister in October, but Mubarak turned down the job following strong opposition from the Houthis and from Saleh’s General People’s Congress party.

The Houthis are widely believed to be backed by Saleh. — AFP

Ahmed Awad bin Mubarak

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It is a wrong response to Charlie Hebdo

L

eaders in Europe are justifiably trying to figure out what they should be doing to prevent terrorist attacks like the recent massacre at the satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Regrettably, some politicians are proposing the kind of Internet censorship and surveillance that would do little to protect their citizens but do a lot to infringe on civil liberties. In Paris, a dozen interior ministers from European Union countries including France, Britain and Germany issued a statement earlier this week calling on Internet service providers to identify and take down online content “that aims to incite hatred and terror.” The ministers also want the European Union to start monitoring and storing information about the itineraries of air travellers. And in Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron suggested the country should ban Internet services that did not give the government the ability to monitor all encrypted chats and calls.

Even before the Charlie Hebdo attack, European leaders were proposing or enacting harsh measures. For example, the French Parliament passed a law in September that allows the authorities to temporarily seize the passports and identity cards of citizens who seem intent on joining foreign terrorist organisations. And this week, French officials said they had arrested 54 people for hate speech, including a controversial comedian.

Appealing as these measures may sound in the aftermath of a tragedy, they are deeply flawed. Countries like France and Germany have long had stricter controls on speech than the United States. For example, their governments have in the past forced Internet firms like Yahoo and Twitter to take down Nazi propaganda. But those decisions are generally made by government officials or judges, not technology companies. Internet service providers do not have the staff or the skill to determine what content is likely to lead to terrorist attacks. That is why a blanket mandate to censor terrorism-related information could force these businesses to err on the side of caution and take down information that might be offensive but would not lead to an imminent attack. In fact, an Internet service provider might well have taken down satirical cartoons of the kind Charlie Hebdo published.

Technology and privacy advocates say it is dangerous to require technology companies to build such surveillance mechanisms into communications services because hackers and criminals will inevitably find ways to use those back doors to steal information from individuals, corporations and governments. Of course, governments can and should take steps to identify threats and prevent terrorist attacks through targeted intelligence gathering. But there is good reason to believe that widespread censorship and intrusive surveillance will only undermine personal freedoms and could even make us less secure. - The New York Times News Service

MATTER OF FACT

Lone wolves will define the future of terrorism

A DEBASISH MITRA

One month later

O

n December 16, 2014, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan attacked the Army Public School in Peshawar. By the end of the day, they had killed more than 140 people, including 132 children and the school principal. At least 130 people were injured in the attack. All the terrorists were killed by security forces. It was arguably the deadliest terrorist attack to occur in Pakistan with the number of casualties surpassing that which occurred on Benazir Bhutto’s welcome when she returned to the country in 2007.

In its preparation and execution, there was a marked similarity between this atrocity and the Beslan school incident in North Ossettia in 2004. Such are the bald facts, and the effect of the attack promises to be both profound and long-lasting, having consequences that may play out to significant changes in the way the government of Pakistan identifies and combats terrorism and extremism. The attack is beginning to look like a true watershed moment, and perhaps, most importantly, has forced the recognition that there is to be no distinction between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban.

On December 17, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif completed the paperwork rescinding the moratorium on the death penalty that had been in place since 2008, and hangings commenced soon thereafter and continue. The 20-point National Action Plan (NAP) was formulated with remarkable speed and political unity — which is dissipating — and is now the framework upon which the agents of change are hung. What at first sight appeared to be little more than a wish list is being crafted across a number of fronts into a clear set of policies and actions that really do address core issues that are fundamental to the health of the state and one hopes that this time, there is a real resolve to go after terrorists of all hues. The pain and grief of those families who lost their children, the life of disability that lies ahead for many of the injured, and the bravery of those who went back to the APS on January 12 is deep and will endure. There is no quick fix for the multiple flaws contributing to why Pakistan arrived at a point where terrorists were able to commit a mass slaughter of children; and it must never happen again. This time, enough really is enough. - The Express Tribune

Islam doesn’t allow anyone to take law in their hands I sincerely appreciate the efforts of Times of Oman for carrying the new story, ‘Islam stands for peace, not for revenge’ ( January 15 ). It will certainly help and motivate the Muslims around the world to keep their calm under all circumstances. The teachings of the Holy Quran and the preaching of Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him) strongly disallow us to take law in our hands, but certainly teach all who have faith in our Creator and Prophets to condemn all kinds of evil and disgusting acts. The repeated ridicule of Islam by the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo shows there are some hidden forces working with a plan to ignite the sentiments of Muslims around

the world and provoke them into resorting to violence. We must not fall into this trap. However, it is very important that the Muslim states and all others who have faith in the Creator and His Prophets to take a serious note of such ridiculing act in the name of freedom of speech and discuss the issue at the UN and other appropriate forums in a strong way for the cause of global peace and harmony.

Mohammed Osama Rawat Ruwi

Attack on Charlie Hebdo aimed at maligning Islam This refers to the news story, ‘Islam stands for peace, not for revenge’ (January 15). The attack on Charlie Hebdo, a French satirical magazine based in Paris

In the changing global milieu terrorism will gradually become leaderless and non-organisational.

Solo terrorism is fast becoming the new trend where assistance, training or support from any outfit will not be necessary

n obscure Al Qaeda branch in Yemen has claimed responsibility for the attack on Charlie Hebdo office in Paris. Prima facie, Al Qaeda seems to be claiming credit for an operation which it did not partake in. Charlie Hebdo attack looks more like an operation carried out by lone wolves. By claiming responsibility, Al Qaeda is simply trying to position itself as a more effective terrorist group than Isis, capable of carrying out deadly attacks right into the heartland of Western world.

The Paris massacre, contrary to what an Al Qaeda branch in Yemen claimed, is a sequel to the Boston Marathon bombing, the Woolwich attack in which a British soldier Lee Rigby was murdered and the Sydney siege. Terrorism has been changing and the Charlie Hebdo attack only confirmed the process as much as they highlighted the extent to which the scourge has changed. To evolve or to change with time and environment is dynamism and terrorism, unfortunately, has perhaps been as dynamic as the security measures, if not more.

The murder of twelve employees of Charlie Hebdo appears like a page taken straight out of Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent. The aim was not to kill many but to strike a fear — a wanton act of violence perpetrated to reinforce awe and sensation. The killers inflicted a wound which is certainly way beyond just physical. For the families who lost their dear ones and to France the Charlie Hebdo massacre will ever remain more than personal catastrophes.

Since the spectacular 9/11 attacks evolution of terrorism has been fascinating. The tactics have changed, the objective has changed and so have the weapons of terror. Boston blasts demonstrated that though bombs still remain the most preferred weapons of terror they do not need to be sophisticated plastic explosives or large bombs to create a dramatic explosion killing 50 or 100 and injuring scores more.

They can as crude as pressure cooker bombs and yet the impact or result would be equally dramatic and devastating. Charlie Hebdo incident illustrated that guns are still as effective weapons of terror as they were fifty years ago.

But more than weapons, Paris massacre has reinforced the role of lone wolves or the concept of “individual terrorism”. This concept, says Ekaterina Stepanova in Lone Wolves and Network Agents in Leaderless Jihad (The Case of the Boston Marathon Bombing Cell), effectively blurs the boundary between a network agent and a stand-alone “lone wolf”.

For a pure “lone wolf” terrorist act the Boston bombing may not have been a very successful attack.

But the Paris massacre is. It is a classical act of terrorism which murdered our innocence — instilled in us a mortal fear of ghastly death or of getting maimed for life.

We have lost our faith in the assurance of safety

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Words, once they are printed, have a life of their own CAROL BURNETT

given so painstakingly by our authorities; we now know that albeit all exercises of our authorities we are not safe anywhere; we now know for sure that terrorists, can hit at will anywhere anytime; we now know how fragile are the security arrangements — be it in France, in the United States, in Pakistan, in Iraq or in Afghanistan.

Extravagant terror attacks are increasingly becoming passé and terrorist outfits too are not in favour of such operations. Tightening counter terrorism measures taken by countries, especially in the United States and Europe, have made carrying out major terror operations virtually impossible. Individual terror carried out by lone wolves has thus become the new destructive strategy.

Thomas Colley of King’s College London rightly says, ‘Lone wolf’ terror attacks, perpetrated by inspired and highly indoctrinated individuals, not directly affiliated with terrorist organisations, are now considered by many analysts the major terror threat facing the West. In fact, they are likely to take terrorism to level and height where it would be impossible for any security agency to prevent.

In the changing global milieu terrorism will gradually become leaderless and non-organisational. Solo terrorism is fast becoming the new trend where assistance, training or support from any outfit will not be necessary and will become absolutely redundant.

Solo terrorism or lone wolf attacks is the future of terrorism. And frankly speaking, these highly indoctrinated, radicalised individuals nursing a sense of injury will make terrorism practically unpreventable, undetectable, omnipresent and omnipotent.

Charlie Hebdo attack illustrated the extent to which terrorism of twenty first century has changed.

The focus evidently is no more on the number of persons killed or injured but on where an attack has been carried out; how much of disruption has been inflicted on a society. An otherwise innocuous act of vile murder turned into a dramatic terror attacks, no less than 9/11, despite just twelve killed.

And “This was terrorism’s great victory, its spectacular triumph, its abhorrently glorious day in the sun. Never, in the history of violence aimed at … civilians, have the lives of so many been disrupted so much by the relatively amateurish actions of so few.”

For three straight days the perpetrators of the attacks virtually paralysed life in Paris, captured the world’s mind and forced several nations to tighten their security measures. The attack on Charlie Hebdon is a landmark. It documents the changing face of terrorism. For the Unites States and Europe it sends an ominous portent.

The author is the Opinion Editor of Times of Oman.

All the views and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of Times of Oman. He can be reached at opinioneditor@ timesofoman.com

and killing of its staff members by a group of people in the name of faith is nothing but a criminal act meant to insult Islam. It is reported that the criminals responsible for this deadly attack claimed their act as a revenge attack against the magazine which publishes controversial cartoons.

Contrary to their claims, this act is not only going to damage and harm Muslims but also will benefit the adversaries of Islam.

Do not forget that Islam has been presented by God for peace, happiness and security of humanity.

No Muslim is entitled to declare an unjust war on humanity. Do not forget that ours is a Prophet (peace be upon him) who would always forgive and pardon even his deadliest enemies.

Mohamed Sakeer U Tirur

Did the world apologise for crimes against Muslims?

Muslims condemn the crime that was committed in Paris. We regret what happened and our condolences go to all the bereaved families. But we shall not apologise for something we have not done.

Thousands of Palestinian civilians and children were killed in the name of the “biblical right” of establishing a Jewish state and Palestinian civilians were killed in the name of ‘self-defence’, but we do not hold all Jews responsible for the crimes of the occupiers.

Iraq was obliterated in the name of a “crusade,” and “democratisation”, while thousands of Afghan and Iraqi civilians were killed as “collateral damage”. Did anyone apologise?

Nassir Ghalib Muscat

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 OM AN

S U N DAY, JAN UARY 1 8, 2 0 1 5

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PERSPEC IVE Islam and free speech: What is so funny?

M

edia coverage of the Paris shootings is typical of previous incidents involving Islam and free speech in the West. Much of it has veered between the misleading, sensationalist and absurd — such as a “terrorism expert” on Fox News branding Birmingham a “Muslim-only city”.

Journalists have jumped on the “Je Suis Charlie” bandwagon. Many would never condone Charlie Hebdo’s content, so why self-identify with the magazine? One can condemn the murder of its staff without embracing what it stands for.

The media seems reluctant to investigate the causes of radicalism that lead to such attacks, as if doing so implies justification. Thus, there is little discussion about Muslim alienation in France and elsewhere in Europe. The result is a simplistic discourse of Islam versus free speech. The latter is naively portrayed as absolute and non-negotiable, emboldening racist elements of society when European far-right sentiment is increasing.

SHARIF NASHASHIBI

Islam versus free speech In fact, there are limits to any right. In France, freedom of expression “is limited by strict defamation and privacy laws”, and “some of the toughest hate speech laws in the EU”, according to Index on Censorship. In France — and other European states — it is a crime to deny the Holocaust, but not other genocides.

Muslims are disproportionately surveilled. Wearing religious signs or clothing in schools is forbidden, as is the face veil in public places, and Islamic prayers in the streets. The media has largely glossed over such limitations in France and other countries that claim unrestricted free expression.

Also largely absent, though crucial, is acknowledgement of the double standards in applying free speech. Charlie Hebdo fired one of its employees over anti-Semitic content. Similarly, Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten said soon after publishing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) in 2005 that it would not publish cartoons offending Christians and Jews. In my 10 years as head of a British media watchdog, it has become clear that Muslims are often described in derogatory ways that are unacceptable regarding other communities.

The effect that the right to offend has on minorities compared with wider society is not addressed. A minority facing discrimination and disenfranchisement will feel existentially threatened, and be potentially radicalised, when the majority exercises its right to offend. The status of society at large is not at risk when the situation is reversed.

This right is portrayed as a cornerstone of western values, while tolerance and respect - values that have attracted many immigrants, and are crucial in multicultural societies - are touted as appeasement.

To uphold the right to gratuitously offend, without any sense of responsibility that should accompany freedom of expression, is childish, even dangerous.

What point is proven by doing so? A foundation of

To uphold the right to gratuitously offend, without any sense of responsibility that should accompany freedom of expression, is childish, even dangerous. What point is proven by doing so?

journalism is awareness that with power comes responsibility, but many journalists in democracies forget how influential their profession is on public opinion and politicians.

Taking responsibility Consider the effect on Muslims of international media mogul Rupert Murdoch saying they “must be held responsible … until they recognise and destroy their growing jihadist cancer”.

This view is regurgitated by his numerous news outlets and by countless industry colleagues, many of whom have used the Charlie Hebdo attack to fan propaganda about the “Islamification” of Europe and the inherent violence and backwardness of Islam.

They demand that Muslims apologise for and condemn acts that they have neither committed nor condoned. “I want real Muslims to … make it crystal clear that these terrorists don’t act in their name,” wrote Piers Morgan in an article titled “If I can accept that the Paris murderers aren’t real Muslims why won’t the MUSLIM world say so too?”

Abundant condemnation from Muslims suggests that Morgan and others are either ignorant or refuse to listen. Similarly puzzling is the context in which Islam is mentioned in relation to the Paris shootings.

The attackers’ religion is integral to their descriptions. The same cannot be said of murdered policeman Ahmed Merabet or Lassana Bathily, who saved shoppers in a kosher supermarket. Is someone’s Muslim faith only relevant in a negative context? As in the past, there is more discussion of Muslims than with them. An example is the BBC’s flagship political debate programme, Question Time, which fielded a panel of five talking about the Paris attacks without a single Muslim.

Amid round-the-clock coverage of the shootings, reprisal attacks against Muslims have been remarkably under-reported, as have other deadly attacks against civilians and suppression of free speech worldwide. Violent incidents in Nigeria and Yemen in the last week led to far more civilian deaths than in Paris (up to 2,000 in Nigeria), but they were not deemed as newsworthy.

The solidarity rally in Paris was attended by a who’s who of enemies of free speech and independent journalism. Those hoping the mainstream media would highlight this hypocrisy were disappointed.

The irony was not lost on Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Bernard Holtrop, who said: “We vomit on all those people who are suddenly saying they are our friends…

I’ve got to laugh about that.” Yet, recurrent problematic coverage is no laughing matter.

The author is an award-winning journalist and analyst on Arab affairs. All the views and opinions expressed in the article are solely his and not of Times of Oman.

Note: This article was originally published by Al Jazeera English.

Be a white to win an Academy Award

A

s ever with the self-congratulatory tedium fest that is the announcement of the Oscar nominees, the only thing people are really interested in are the snubs. Which tortured performance has been overlooked? Which epic drama forgotten? Which hilarious script has fallen on deaf ears?

This year, there was a surefire way to make sure your name would not be read out: be a woman. Or, even better, be a non-white woman. For among the list of today’s nominees, there were no female directors, screenwriters or cinematographers. In fact, every single one of the eight films nominated for Best Picture - from Boyhood to Whiplash - is about a man.

And, for the first time since 1998, not a single person of colour was nominated in any acting category. That is, all of the 20 apparently ‘best’ performances that have graced our cinemas

LUCY HUNTER JOHNSTON

screens year have been from a white person.

And while Selma was nominated for Best Picture, and has widely been hailed as one of the best films of the past year, its director Ava DuVernay, a black woman, was overlooked. In fact, the film gained only one other nod, Best Original Song. No, really.

Perhaps it’s not quite so surprising when you look at the Academy’s makeup: 94 per cent of the voters are white, and 77 per cent are male. Seen in this light, their depressing track record makes a little more sense.

Past winners have included just one female director (Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker in 2010), and Halle Berry remains the only black woman to have won the Best Actress category, way back in 2002 for Monster’s Ball.

But maybe the Academy shouldn’t shoulder all the blame.

Aside from Selma, where should

they have looked for the alternatives in mainstream cinema this year? The problem is that blockbuster Hollywood just isn’t telling us the right stories.

Part of this is a self-perpetuating cycle — if only films about white men get nominated, then only films about white men can win. And if films about white men win, the yet more films about white men get financed and made.

At its best, our entertainment industry should hold a mirror to our shared experiences – and that means all our shared experiences.

If the only stories we see on screen are those of white men, then that is how we view our world.

Black actors shouldn’t only be cast in films about slavery; women shouldn’t only play wives and mothers to leading men. We are not all white men.

We deserve more than superhero remakes and coming of age biopics. - The Independent

Dropouts and politics in the United States GAIL COLLINS

L

et’s talk about governors. Or college dropouts. We’ve only been together for a few seconds and already I sense a strong preference for college dropouts.

Lucky I didn’t say, “Let’s talk about governors. Or cats.”

A number of governors in the United States are currently nursing presidential ambitions. Why not?

They have experience running things and dealing with cranky legislators.

Also, they look at the herd of presidential hopefuls and think, “Clearly, I could do better.”

This is true of every elected official down to and including members of the zoning board of appeals, but we tend to take governors more seriously.

The most brazen prospective candidate, Chris Christie, prepared for his State of the State speech with a special off-the-record press conference to which only national journalists were invited.

Honest — he barred the state reporters from his discussion of the state of the state.

Maybe the governor was afraid they’d distract him with small-bore questions about New Jersey’s eight credit downgrades.

Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin really wants to run for president.

His State of the State speech was about opposing terrorism and shrinking the government, plus 10 billion mentions of the Green Bay Packers.

He’s already hired a political consultant for his run.

If Walker was elected, he’d be the first president without a college degree since Harry Truman. Yes! This is the college dropout connection. How important do you think it is for a president to have a college degree?

If Walker gets traction, I am looking forward to digging into this a lot. Perhaps it will give me a chance to explain why William Henry Harrison quit medical school in 1791.

Walker went to Marquette University in Milwaukee. I went to Marquette, too. Had a great time. Unlike Walker, I got a degree.

Only one of us is a governor, so there’s a point for the dropouts right there.

His early departure may have had something to do with disappointment over an unsuccessful career in campus politics.

Apparently, Walker was a mediocre student. By the way, how much do we care about presidential prospects’ college grades?

Not much — these are middle-aged people, for heaven’s sake. Actually, we just need

If Walker was elected, he’d be the first president without a college degree since Harry Truman. Yes! This is the college dropout connection. How important do you think it is for a president to have a college degree?

Apparently, Walker was a mediocre student to be sure that if the grades were bad, the candidate has gotten over it.

John Kerry’s presidential campaign in 2004 was hobbled by outrageous attacks on his war record, which Kerry might have been able to bury by releasing all his Navy records.

He wouldn’t, until long after the race was over. Then reporters discovered that everything about his military career was exactly as Kerry had portrayed it.

The only news was in his college transcript, which was included in the file and pretty dismal.

I’ve always wondered if the entire course of modern American history would have turned out different if John Kerry had not wanted to conceal the fact that his academic performance at Yale was worse than George W. Bush’s.

As far as quitting school goes, Walker left during his senior year to take a marketing job with the local chapter of the American Red Cross.

This doesn’t seem totally unreasonable. He obviously wasn’t into school. And in many lines of work, it’s only the job history that matters.

However, we want to make sure that when students of the future are making decisions like this, they’re grounded in reality.

Walker claimed that he was about to get the rest of his credits while he was working, but then he got married. Then he was going to go, but he was county executive and too busy.

And it keeps going on.

“Maybe in the next few years,” he told reporters in 2013.

This is a bad sign. I think I speak for all of us when I say we do not want to hear any arguments that we should elect Walker president so he’ll have time to finish his senior year credits. - The New York Times News Service

Dispute over Guantanamo recidivism rate The Obama administration and Republican senators are waging a war of words over the number of terror suspects who have re-entered the fight after being released from the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay Status Of Guantanamo Bay Detainees: As Of July 15, 2014* Alleged by Republicans to have re-entered fight 30 % of freed detainees

Transferred out of facility Total 620

“Confirmed of re-engaging” in hostile activities

436 107

780 Total people detained since Jan 2002

184

*Current numbers (Jan 14, 2015): 649 detainees transferred, 122 remaining

48 77

Died in custody

9

151

Dead or in custody

16

1701

Frederick III, the elector of Brandenburg, becomes king of Prussia.

1778

Captain James Cook discovers the Hawaiian Islands, naming them the ‘Sandwich Islands’ after the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Sandwich.

“Suspected of re-engaging” in hostile activities Dead or in custody

Remaining detainees

1916

Obama Administration Accuses opponents of inflating recidivism rate by combining former detainees “confirmed” of re-engaging in hostile activities with those “suspected”

Proposed Senate Legislation Would bar transfer of detainees to Yemen for two years, suspend transfer of high or medium-risk terror suspects, and repeal law allowing transfer of inmates to foreign countries

Says more than 90 percent of detainees transferred during Obama administration have not been confirmed or suspected of committing hostile activities after their release

Bill would also prohibit transfer of terror suspects to foreign countries if individual transferred from Guantanamo was confirmed to have engaged in terrorist activity

1945

The Russians force the Turkish 3rd Army back to Erzurum.

The German Army launches its second attempt to relieve the besieged city of Budapest from the advancing Red Army.

1964 Plans are disclosed for the World Trade Center in New York.

HISTORYNET.COM

Source: wire agencies

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TONGA: This view taken on Saturday from a boat at sea shows steam and gas rising from the eruption of a volcano, 65 kilometres northwest of the South Pacific nation Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa. The Tongan volcano has created a substantial new island since it began erupting in December, spewing out huge volumes of rock and dense ash that has killed nearby vegetation, officials said on Friday. The Lands and Natural Resources Ministry said the volcano was erupting from two vents, one on the uninhabited island of Hunga Ha’apai and the other underwater about 100 metres offshore. — AFP/Matangi Tonga/Mary Lyn Fonua

ECUADOR: Ecuadorean dancers perform hanged from a crane

JAPAN: A boy lights candles during a candlelit memorial event to mark the 20th anniversary of the Great Hanshin Earthquake in Kobe,

during a rally to commemorate the eight years of Rafael Correa’s government, in Yachay on Thursday. — Reuters

western Japan, early morning January 17, 2015, in this photo taken by Kyodo. The earthquake on January 17, 1995, claimed more than 6,000 lives. — Reuters/Kyodo

BRAZIL: Students protest against the country’s latest round of transport fare hikes, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Friday. Amid a marked

economic downturn and high inflation, bus fares went up in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, from 3 to 3.50 reais, and in Rio, the former capital, from 3.0 to 3.40 reais. Rio’s 13 per cent hike is almost exactly double the current rate of inflation. — AFP

GERMANY: German police patrol the Hauptbahnhof, Berlin’s main train station, on Saturday. German authorities have received specific warnings of the risk of militant attacks on central railway stations in Berlin and Dresden, security sources told Reuters on Friday after pre-dawn police raids on 12 homes linked to extremists. — Reuters

S U N DAY, JAN UARY 1 8, 2 0 1 5 Up to 300 troops may be deployed in the biggest operation since the terrorist bombings carried out by he Communist Combatant Cells of the mid-1980s

TIGHTER SECURITY

Belgium begins deploying troops after foiled ‘terror’ plot BRUSSELS: Belgium on Saturday began deploying scores of troops to patrol the streets after security forces smashed a suspected extremist “terrorist” cell planning to kill police officers.

Some 150 soldiers took up positions in the northern town of Antwerp, notably to protect diamond jewellers and a large concentration of Orthodox Jews.

The NATO headquarters, various EU offices and the US and Israeli embassies are also in the area, as well as Brussels’ main synagogue, said Defence Minister Steven Vandeput.

Antwerp has a large Jewish population.

Survey sites “The mobilised troops will be armed and their primary responsibility will be to survey certain sites” and to reinforce police, Prime Minister Charles Michel’s office said in a statement.

Outside the Jewish Museum of

Brussels, where a extremist atttacker killed four people in May 2014, armed soldiers stood watch.

Up to 300 troops may be deployed in the biggest operation since the terrorist bombings carried out by he Communist Combatant Cells of the mid-1980s.

Soldiers have also been requested at the industrial eastern city of Verviers, where early on Friday security forces killed two suspected extremists in a huge raid on an alleged extremist cell allegedly planning to attack police in the country.

The Belgian raid came a week after extremist attacks in and around Paris killed 17 people, rekindling fears in Europe about the threat posed by young Europeans returning home after fighting alongside extremist groups in the Middle East.

Following the raid in Verviers, Belgian police arrested 13 people across Belgium, five of whom were later charged with “partici-

pating in the activities of a terrorist group.”

Weapons, bomb-making materials, police uniforms and fake documents were found during searches of their homes.

Belgian prosecutors said there were no immediate links with last week’s extremist attacks in Paris on the ‘Charlie Hebdo’ satirical magazine, a Jewish supermarket and a policewoman, the country’s worst attacks in half a century.

Two fugitives who left Belgium immediately after the attack have been arrested in the French Alps.

The suspected mastermind of the cell, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, is a notorious 27-year-old extremist who spent time in Syria and who may have prepared the foiled attack from bases in Greece and Turkey, according to local media.

French and Belgian authorities were grilling suspected accomplices both of the Paris gunmen and the alleged “terrorist” cell raided in eastern Belgium. — AFP

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Fierce storm cuts short Tacloban tour of Pope the entire day in Tacloban and nearby areas that were devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan 14 months ago were ruined by another storm, forcing him to fly back to Manila WARM RECEPTION: Pope Francis greets followers as he arrives at Tacloban’s airport on Saturday for

Another storm However, plans to spend the entire day in Tacloban and nearby areas that were devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan 14 months ago were ruined by another storm, forcing him to fly back to Manila at lunchtime.

“So I apologise to you all. I’m sad about this, truly saddened,” the 78-year-old pontiff told thousands of people who had gathered at one church shortly before he raced back to the airport.

The pope’s plane made the 90-minute flight back to the Phil-

WA R M I N G T I E S

US lawmakers to explore bilateral relations in Cuba WASHINGTON: A delegation of US lawmakers headed by Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy will travel to Cuba on Saturday to explore bilateral collaboration following last month’s historic detente between the long-term foes.

Diplomats in Cuba and Leahy’s office in Washington announced the visit, which features six Democratic lawmakers, including the party’s number-two Senator, Dick Durbin, and congressman Chris Van Hollen.

US President Barack Obama took the historic step to begin renewing ties with Havana and move to end the decades-old policy of isolation toward the communistruled island.

Plans to spend

TACLOBAN: Pope Francis was forced on Saturday to flee a fierce storm in the Philippines that killed a papal volunteer, cutting short a mercy mission to weeping survivors of a catastrophic super typhoon.

Wearing a yellow plastic poncho to protect him from intense rain, Francis delivered an emotional mass to about 200,000 people in the typhoonravaged central Philippine city of Tacloban.

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a mass. -Reuters

ippine capital of Manila safely.

But highlighting the dangers of the storm, a papal volunteer at the morning mass died as steel scaffolding collapsed on her, a church spokesman said.

A plane carrying three of President Benigno Aquino’s aides then overshot the runway on takeoff at Tacloban and nose-dived into mud, 30 minutes after Pope Francis’s plane flew back to Manila. No-one was badly injured.

Philippine aviation authorities confirmed that the storm’s strong crosswinds had blown the plane off the tarmac.

Emotional mass The trip to Tacloban and surrounding areas was one of the top reasons for the pope making a five-day visit to the Philippines, the Catholic Church’s Asian stronghold, where he is a highly revered figure.

Haiyan, the most powerful storm ever recorded on land, left

7,350 people dead or missing in November 2013 as it devastated fishing and farming towns that were already among the Philippines’ poorest. The pope celebrated a truncated but still deeply emotional mass for survivors at Tacloban’s airport, after receiving a joyous welcome from a crowd that police estimated at about 200,000 people.

“Long live the pope,” the crowd chanted as he walked off the plane to be immediately buffeted by strong winds and heavy rain.

His welcome echoed the rapturous reception that millions gave the pontiff during the first two days of his trip to the Philippines.

Most of the people in the crowd at Tacloban wore thin plastic ponchos handed out by organisers, and the pope also put one on before walking on to a nearby stage to celebrate mass in heavy rain. “I would like to tell you something close to my heart,” the

pope said as many in the crowd clutched crucifixes and cried.

“When I saw in Rome that catastrophe, I felt I had to be here.

And on those very days, I decided to come here. I’m here to be with you.” He acknowledged the enduring pain experienced by the survivors.

“Some of you have lost part of your families. All I can do is keep silent. And I walk with you all with my silent heart,” he said.

Deadly storms “I can’t explain how I feel. I am filled with gratitude. Never in my life did I think that I’d see a pope,” 68-year-old housewife Virginia Torres said, wiping tears and raindrops from her face after the pontiff left the mass venue.

Torres, whose house two hours’ drive from Tacloban was wiped out by tsunami-like storm surges, said the pope’s address had given her “renewed hope”. - Reuters

Praise from allies The move prompted praise from allies but heavy criticism from Republican opponents, who saw the policy shift as appeasing an oppressive dictatorship.

The Democratic delegation backs the new policy, and it was Leahy and Van Hollen who flew to Cuba in a cloak-and-dagger operation to escort American prisoner Alan Gross back to the US after five years in a Cuban jail.

“We have all been to Cuba before, and we strongly support the president’s new direction for our policy towards Cuba,” Leahy said.

“We are going this time to discuss our expectations, and the Cubans’ expectations, for the normalization of relations. We want to explore opportunities for greater cooperation, and to encourage Cuban officials to address issues of real concern to the American people and to their representatives in Congress.”

The agenda for the three-day trip calls for meetings with Cuban officials, civil society representatives -- including dissidents -- and officials from the US Interests Section in Havana.

They are also expected to meet with several diplomats, including from Mexico, Spain, Norway and Colombia.

Leahy played a key humanitarian role between the two nations last year.

He was involved in negotiations and elaborate plans that ultimately led to the wife of Gerardo Hernandez, one of three Cuban agents jailed in the US since 1998, becoming pregnant through artificial insemination while her husband was behind prison walls.

Hernandez and wife Adriana’s baby was born January 6, just 20 days after the three agents were released and returned to the island as part of the bilateral rapprochement. Three Cuban dissidents -Berta Soler, Jose Daniel Ferrer and Elizardo Sanchez -- confirmed to AFP that they were invited to meet with the US lawmakers Sunday.

63 per cent approval A total of 63 per cent of Americans approve of recent moves by the United States and Cuba to restore diplomatic ties and two-thirds favour lifting the economic embargo altogether, a survey released on Friday said.

Despite those assessments, only 32 per cent of Americans think that the warming of ties between the Cold War-era foes will lead to more democracy in Cuba, the Americas’ only communist state, according to the Pew Research Centre report.

A large majority of HispanicAmericans, 65 per cent, expressed support for the new policy, a change from the past when hostility towards Cuba was the norm.

Politically, 74 per cent of Democrats support Obama’s new Cuba policy, while 67 per cent of independents favour it. About 40 per cent of Republicans approve of the new diplomatic relations while 48 percent disapprove. -AFP

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New measures for listed firms issued Capital Market Authority circular said the companies are required to disclose salaries of all directors and five top-level officers A E JAMES

businesseditor@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: Oman’s market watchdog Capital Market Authority (CMA) has asked listed companies to disclose salaries of all directors and top five officials separately, in an apparent move to upgrade the standards of corporate governance principles to enhance investor confidence on the Muscat Securities Market (MSM).

These measures are also aimed at protecting the rights and interests of shareholders.

A CMA circular said that the companies are required to disclose salaries of all directors and five top-level officers, including salary, benefits, perquisites, bonuses, stock options, gratuity and pension. This is required by CMA to consider the organisation in compliance with the corporate governance code.

The MSM is considered one of the best bourses in the Gulf region for its stringent disclosure norms and transparency policies, which help to eliminate malpractices like related party transactions and in-

sider trading. In recent years, there has also been a substantial fall in delay or failure on the part of MSMlisted companies in disclosing information, thanks to the measures taken by the market regulator.

While penalty for a delay in submitting material information to the market is decided by the disciplinary committee of CMA, an insider trading case is referred to the commercial court. The court will decide on the penalty, depending on the severity of the offence and the punishment could include imprisonment.

MSM firms are required to disclose material information, immediately after the board takes a decision. In any case, the information has to be disseminated before the market opens for trading the following day.

In the case of quarterly or annual financial results, companies are required to submit a financial statement within the statutory period of 30 days from the last day

of each quarter. However, in the case of holding companies, this period is 45 days.

Market experts say in the absence of stringent disclosure and transparency norms, the stock market switches from an ‘avenue for investment to a gambling place.’ The introduction of disclosure norms are aimed at protecting small investors (who are not represented on the board) and bringing in efficiency in the market that in turn reduces systemic risks.

Information must be available for all investors simultaneously so they can take wise investment decisions. The investors should not be fooled or carried away by actions of others, and the stringent disclosure and transparency norms will eliminate rumours.

The penalty for companies violating disclosure of timely information ranges from OMR500 to OMR50,000, depending on the magnitude of the offence.

PERFORMANCE

Bank Muscat’s net profit rises by 7.3% Times News Service MUSCAT: Bank Muscat, the leading financial institution in the Sultanate, posted a net profit of OMR163.23 million for the year ended December 31, 2014, compared to OMR152.19 million during the same period in 2013, an increase of 7.3 per cent.

Net interest income from conventional banking and income from Islamic financing stood at OMR243.64 million for the year 2014 compared to OMR235.32 million for the same period of 2013, an increase of 3.5 per cent.

Non-interest income at OMR139.47 million was higher by 33 per cent compared to OMR104.83 million for the year ended December 31, 2013. This includes the one-off investment gain of OMR9.4 million arising from investment in Al Salam Bank accounted in the second quarter of 2014.

Operating expenses for the year ended December 31, 2014, were at OMR157.89 million, which were

higher by 9.9 per cent as compared to OMR143.68 million for the same period in 2013.

Impairment for credit losses for the year 2014 was OMR64.33 million as against OMR50.46 million for the same period in 2013. Recoveries from impairment for credit loss were OMR26.06 million for 2014 as against OMR32.53 million for the same period in 2013.

Share of income from associates for 2014 was OMR1.52 million as against OMR1.30 million for the same period in 2013.

Net loans and advances increased by 8.4 per cent to OMR6,353 million in 2014 as against OMR 5,864 million in 2013. Customer deposits,

including CDs, increased by 13.3 per cent to OMR6,345 million as against OMR5,600 million in 2013.

Islamic financing receivables amounted to OMR400 million in 2014 compared to OMR279 million in 2013. Islamic banking customer deposits amounted to OMR283 million in 2014 compared to OMR93 million in 2013.

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SU N DAY, JANUARY 18, 2015

MARKET WATER PURCHASE PACT SIGNED

Oman Power and Water Procurement Company and ACWA Power Barka recently signed a water purchase agreement and other project agreements for the phase II expansion of its existing water desalination capacity. The project agreements were signed in January this year by the deputy chairman of OPWP, Engineer Saleh bin Nasser Al Rumhi and Engineer Ahmed H. Al Subhi, the chief executive officer of ACWA Power Barka. The expansion project Phase-II is an independent water project to be developed on a build, own, operate basis and will be located in Barka, 65km north of Muscat. – Supplied photo

Railway link to bolster tourism, economy in Gulf Long-distance railway transport service planned by GCC nations could bolster tourism and

Humaid Saleh Al Muslmani

Isabel Parra

economies of all ness or experience their leisure time. “It is really a social project as well as an economic one,” he noted, adding that although the initial focus of the project is on the transport of freight, there are good prospects for the transfer of passengers which will benefit the people a lot.

states, say experts

ELHAM POURMOAMMADI

elham@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: A long-distance rail transport service planned by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries could have farreaching effects on the economies and tourism industry of all these states, say experts.

Isabel Parra, trade officer at the Embassy of Spain in Muscat, said that the upcoming railway route linking all the GCC states will definitely give a boost to trade between these countries as it will help accelerate the transport of freight. Parra, who also sees good prospects for the transport of passengers by rail, said that Spanish companies are always keen to contribute to the implementation of this project.

“The Spanish companies have wide experience because we have a huge railway network in Spain,” said the official at an exhibition held alongside the GCC Rail and Metro Conference 2015, which concluded last week. Speaking to Times of Oman, she said that

Ed James

more than 20 Spanish companies specialising in the railway industry had attended the conference.

According to the Embassy of Spain, the total length of the railway network in Spain is 16,026 kilometres, of which 10,182km is electrified). It also features 800km of tunnel, with the longest tunnel spanning 28.4km.

3TI Progetti Humaid Saleh Al Muslmani, local partner (Oman) at 3TI Progetti Group, said that the railway network will make Oman the logistic hub of the region. He also noted that that 3TI is a specialist in railway design and has a lot to offer to the project.

Ed James, director of analysis at MEED Projects, said that the proposed railway network will change the way people do busi-

Win-win situation James also said he does not agree with the statement that some countries will benefit more from the project while others will benefit less. “There will be no winners or losers. It is a win-win situation,” he said.

Each country participating in the project will benefit from enhanced and improved trade as well as better tourism access, he said, adding that the whole dynamics for the Middle East would change as a result of this project.

Commenting on the 2018 deadline set for the completion of the project, James said that it was a challenging deadline given the complexity and scale of the project and the topography of the Gulf countries.

Asked about the estimated total investment of $200 billion in railway projects across the GCC region, James said that it was a ‘reasonable’ estimate.

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SU N DAY, JANUARY 18, 2015

MARKET B I L AT E R A L TA L K S

ECONOMY

Ithraa to host Brunei trade team economy that is at the heart of one of the fastest growing regional economies in the world. Indeed, it provides an excellent regional base for Omani companies looking to expand beyond Brunei’s domestic market.”

Times News Service MUSCAT: Ithraa will host a Brunei trade delegation headed by DatoPaduka Haji Ali Haji Apong, deputy minister, Prime Minister’s Office and chairman of Brunei’s Economic Development Board (BEDB), on Monday.

Topics on the agenda include ways of increasing trade and investment links particularly in the oil and gas, and food and beverage sectors as well as opportunities open to Omani businesses looking to improve commercial ties with Brunei and further penetrate the growing Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) market.

Sheikh Ali Al Balushi, act-

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Sheikh Ali Al Balushi

ing deputy chairman of Ithraa said:“Following on from our visit to Brunei in April 2014, we are looking to strengthen trade and investment ties with Brunei, an

Brunei’s economy Brunei’s economy is dominated by the oil and gas sector, which provides over 60 per cent of GDP and over 90 per cent of foreign exports. While developing the downstream side of oil and gas, the Brunei government is also actively encouraging economic diversification, including the development of a knowledge economy.

“Ithraa’s fully committed to PERFORMANCE

BankDhofar posts net profit of OMR40m Times News Service MUSCAT: BankDhofar said the bank has achieved a net profit of OMR40.45 million for 2014.

The net profit for 2014 is 14.23 per cent higher than the previous year’s net profit (excluding OMR26.1 million written back from a legal case in 2013), but it shows a 30.74 per cent fall if compared to the previous year’s OMR58.41 million profit, which include the amount written back from the legal case.

Net loans and advances showed a marked 18.55 per cent growth to OMR2,254.70 million, while customer deposits moved up by 22.17 per cent to OMR2,482.18 million in 2014, according to the unaudited results posted by the bank on MSM website. Operating income of the bank also showed a 10.38 per cent growth at OMR98.85 million, while operating expenses was up 1.87 per cent to OMR46.16 million.

Profit before tax from conventional banking was down by 33.39 per cent to OMR45.52 million in 2014 from OMR68.34 million in the previous year. The bank has achieved a net profit of OMR230,000 from Islamic banking last year, against a net loss of OMR2.2 million in the previous year.

opening new markets for Omani businesses in Southeast Asia, which we know will sustain and create local jobs and prosperity.

During our trip to Brunei last year, we saw the potential that exists within this emerging market.

For instance, Brunei’s manufacturing sector has the potential to develop new industries both within and beyond the oil and gas industry not only through the utilisation of its rich biodiversity and natural resources but also its strategic location in the Asean region.

In this regard, there are certainly opportunities for Omani companies to explore,” commented Faris Al Farsi director-general of Investment, Ithraa.

Prices in Oman rose by 3.7% in first half of 2014 MUSCAT: According to preliminary data of the Sultanate’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at current prices increased by 3.7 per cent during the first half from January to June of 2014 compared to 2 per cent growth registered over the same period in 2013, according to the bulletin issued by the Central Bank of Oman (CBO).

While nominal GDP emanating from the hydrocarbon sector registered a minor contraction of 0.4 per cent, that from non-hydrocarbon activities witnessed a growth of 7.3 per cent during JanuaryJune 2014. The balance of payments situation remained com-

fortable with both current account and overall position in surplus.

Annual inflation rate measured by movement in the average CPI for the Sultanate stood at 1.02 per cent during January-November 2014.

The CBO bulletin pointed out that the total assets of commercial banks increased by 11 per cent to OMR24.7 billion in November 2014 from OMR22.3 billion a year ago. Of the total assets, credit disbursement accounted for 68 percent and increased by 10.4 per cent as at end November 2014 to OMR16.8 billion.

Credit to the private sector increased by 9.9 per cent. - ONA

Oman’s budget all set to drive growth: KPMG TAXES AND FEES Against the backdrop of falling crude prices, KPMG views 2015 budget as signaling a firm Ashok Hariharan

Members of KPMG’s tax team at a seminar held on Thursday analysed how the government has budgeted the significant increase in taxes and fees, which were showing a 29% rise over last year’s budget

commitment by the government to continued investment and economic growth

Times News Service MUSCAT: Against the backdrop of falling oil prices, KPMG views Oman’s 2015 budget as signaling a firm commitment by the government to continued investment and economic growth.

This statement was made by Ashok Hariharan and Neil Allmark, members of KPMG’s tax team, at a seminar held on Thursday at the Chedi Hotel, Muscat.

The seminar gave participants an opportunity to delve more deeply into the budget report, and to understand the issues driving the budget. The presenters explained the basis on which the oil revenues appeared to have been calculated, and the challenges the government could face if the oil price does not improve from the current levels.

They also analysed how the government has budgeted the significant increase in taxes and

fees, which were showing a 29 per cent increase over last year’s budget. The expected increase in tax collections must include some expectation that businesses will deliver higher profits.

The Tax Department continue to pursue tax assessments for older tax years, and there must also be an expectation that additional tax revenues can be collected in this way.

New taxes There has been some debate around the introduction of new taxes and a possible increase of the income tax rate, but there have been no announcements, and any changes that are introduced during the year would only be reflected in later years’ tax collections.

Hariharan, a partner in KPMG’s Oman practice and the head of tax for the Middle East and South Asia region, noted, “There has also been a significant increase budgeted in the labour licence fee, which possibly suggests an increase in the level of the fee, rather than a mere increase in the number of labour licences being issued.”

A mention was also made of a 22 per cent increase in customs

duties, and this is consistent with the planned investment in major projects, and the increased imports that would be expected to deliver these projects.

The audience included chief executive officers and chief financial officers from many of the leading oil and gas, trading and finance groups, as well as trade and economics delegates from the foreign embassies located in Muscat.

Participants debated the outlook for the future oil price, and the likely sources of funding should the oil price remain low.

While it was highlighted that the 2014 actual deficit was expected to be significantly lower than the budgeted 2014 deficit, there was still caution amongst the delegates, given the levels to which the oil price has now dropped. It was also mentioned that 2015 will be an interesting year, as investment projects progress, and the country continues to look at other sources of revenue.

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S U N DAY, JAN UARY 1 8, 2 0 1 5

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ROUND-UP Dr Mohan’s Centre set to launch new rice variety to keep diabetes in check Dr Mohan’s High Fibre Rice contains 8 grams of fibre content whereas the normal rice has only 1 gram. These findings of the Diabetes Centre have earned the goodwill of the Government of India

Times News Service MUSCAT: White rice is one of the main contributors to diabetes epidemic, particularly in Asian and Middle Eastern countries, and a diabetes speciality centre in Oman is planning to introduce a breakthrough version of the food grain, produced by its research team, that is far less damaging than its more popular varieties.

This was stated by Padma Shri Dr. V. Mohan, Chairman and Chief of Diabetology of Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre, who visited Muscat recently and shared with Times of Oman his insights about diabetes and about the future prospects of the branch in Muscat.

Dr. Mohan is an eminent Indian diabetologist who has been working in the field of diabetes for over 30 years in Chennai in southern

India. Having recently opened a branch in Azaiba, Muscat, Dr. Mohan shared his excitement about the patient footfall at Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre.

“The response is very good and it has been extraordinary. We have Omanis and expatriate patients treated in our centre.

“We even get patients from Dubai and Abu Dhabi. In a short span we are registering very large number of patients and they are coming regularly for follow-up which is very encouraging,” he acknowledged. The centre is now likely to open a pharmacy on its premises. The diabetic centre is also planning to introduce Dr. Mohan’s High Fibre Rice.

“Through an epidemiology study conducted at our centre we understood that white rice is a contributor to diabetes epidemic.

“Hence for further research, we first advised our patients to consume brown rice which was used

DIABETOLOGIST: Dr V. Mohan — Jun Estrada/TIMES OF OMAN

in ancient times as unpolished rice. It had a very good effect, the sugar level started coming down but people did not like the taste of it. So we started research to find out the glycemix index of more than 200 varieties of rice. We

A C C R E D I TAT I O N

A’Saffa Foods wins major ISO, HACCP certifications MUSCAT: A’Saffa Foods, Oman’s largest producer of integrated poultry and value added products, has been accredited with internationally acclaimed processing and management systems and certifications to its credit, reinforcing its brand promise and assuring customers that they can buy their products with confidence and trust.

One of the keys to the taste and quality of A’Saffa Foods chicken products is the fact that all chickens are bred at the state-of-art facility in the south of Oman and are fed on 100 percent natural feed (Yello corn and Soya) that plays a major role in the supreme taste and tenderness of the chickens and ensures that consumers are buying a fresh, natural and tasty product, says a press release.

A’Saffa Foods processing plant is HACCP certified which is the highest international standards for food quality and hygiene, using the very best-in-class technology and equipment, and it today recognised as among the most advanced units of its kind in the GCC with a high operational capacity per hour.

In addition, the company has also secured the prestigious ISO 9001 Total Quality Management System and ISO 14001 Environmental Management System for its operations that are consistently identified as some of the best in the region. “We are proud of the world class quality and systems that we have in place to ensure that our food processing is of the highest quality and can ensure that consumers across Oman can buy our chicken and other products with full confidence. When it comes to buying food for the family, it is essential for our customers to know they can buy our products in the knowledge that it has been produced in conditions that can match

any in the world – with the added benefits of its 100 per cent pure halal production and great taste thanks to our systems and natural feed we give our chickens,” said Sidhartha Lenka, Head of Sales and Marketing, A’Saffa Foods.

One of the reasons for the remote desert location near Thumrait is to ensure the most stringent ‘bio-security’ measures are in place at the A’Saffa farms and processing facilities. The farms are also high-technology and each individual farm has a environmentally controlled broiler shed that has been developed in keeping with stringent European Community standards.

The company takes pride in its

first and one-of-a-kind technologically advanced sheds in Oman that have a capacity to house 32,500 chickens, where each farm is automatically controlled through advanced climate control systems.

Optimal temperatures and humidity levels are programmed into the system and it maintains the conditions round the clock. In addition, the entire feeding and watering systems are fully automated. It is noteworthy, that A’Saffa’s entire farm is operated and controlled from a single computer-based system. To ensure the well-being of the livestock, and to check on their condition and any potential hazards, A’Saffa also employs a full team of medical specialists on the site who have extensive international experience of working with farm animals.

“Being pioneers in fully integrated poultry production and farm management systems we have built our competence and expertise in food production, processed food technology and innovative food recipes helping us to deliver new, flavourful choices that consumers can enjoy anytime,” said Lenka.

SPORTS TEAM

Zubair Corporation supports Amjad Yatti team MUSCAT: As part of its strategic goal towards enhancing the skills of Omani youth, particularly in the fields of culture and sports, The Zubair Corporation has announced its support for the Amjad Yatti social sports team located in Muscat. The support provided by the corporation enables the team to enjoy an enhanced environment to practice sports activities and develop youth talents, says a press release.

This support comes within the framework of The Zubair Corporation’s ongoing commitment towards various local sports, cultural, and social initiatives by local teams and clubs which engage talented young Omanis. Through backing these initiatives, young Omanis enjoy greater opportunities to develop their talents, which in turn benefits the society within the Sultanate as a whole.

Commenting on the associa-

tion with the Amjad Yatti social sports team, Abdullah Al-Zubair from The Zubair Corporation noted, “We believe in the key role played by the local sports teams in adopting and enhancing the skills of talented young Omanis. Therefore, The Zubair Corporation is constantly joining hands with these teams around the Sultanate, as they are the breeding ground for growing and nurturing talent, and the ideal place where clubs can find players who, in the future, will go on to represent Oman

in different sporting endeavours.”

“We believe that local and national sporting events, competitions and activities held during throughout the year positively benefit Omani youth, and this is strongly reflected in the development of their talents.

“The corporation’s strategy is to support these teams and events to develop the skills of Omani youth,” he added.

Commenting on the support provided by the corporation, Talib Al-Hasni, a member in Amjad

Yatti team said, “I would like to thank The Zubair Corporation for their support which enables us to achieve our goal in organising sports, cultural and social competitions. Additionally, this assistance facilitates our participation in sports competitions at the wilayat level. Our latest participation was in the ‘Cheer for your Team’ competition and our team was the champion.”

“We will invest the support provided by The Zubair Corporation in equipping the team’s playground as well rewarding the members for their contribution in developing the team and scoring good results in the different competitions. We hope that the leadership demonstrated by the The Zubair Corporation will encourage other private sector organisations to support the Omani youth and enable them to achieve their goal as well as enhance their skills,” he added.

painstakingly went through the paddy seeds and we came across one variety which had very high fibre content. So we analysed it in our lab and found out it had 5 times higher fibre content than any other rice. To counter check this, we got the rice analysed in three other labs to confirm our findings,” explained Dr Mohan.

“The glycemic index of this rice is 51. It cooks and tastes like every other white rice. It is not genetically modified rice so it can be consumed by anybody,” he added.

“Then we started production of this rice in Tamil Nadu since this variety was not produced elsewhere. This brand of rice was first made available in our first diabetes centre and then to our branches.

Our production was limited that we could sell it only to our patients.

Gradually we started scaling up the production and today we have reached a stage that we are able to supply to all the supermarkets in

Chennai and other cities in India,” stated Dr Mohan.

Dr Mohan’s High Fibre Rice contains 8 grams of fibre content whereas the normal rice has only 1 gram. These findings of the Diabetes Centre have earned the goodwill of the Government of India which has sanctioned funds to conduct more research and to market it internationally.

Diabetes is a growing concern in Oman, where around 15 per cent of the population is diabetic. The main reason for diabetes is obesity and lack of physical activity.

“In this context, we have to be careful with the therapy we prescribe since some of the drugs we prescribe can directly increase the weight of the patient including insulin. Weight gain is the side effect of insulin.

“Luckily newer drugs are introduced which are weight neutral and some of which can actually reduce the weight,” he said.

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SU N DAY, JANUARY 18, 2015

ROUND-UP GOLD SPONSORS

Suhail Bahwan Automobiles supports Muscat Festival MUSCAT: Suhail Bahwan Automobiles, the exclusive distributor of Nissan vehicles in Oman has announced their participation in this year’s Muscat Festival which started on Thursday. Nissan Oman will be associated with this prestigious event as a gold sponsor, says a press release.

The Sultanate’s biggest cultural and entertainment extravaganza — Muscat Festival that attracts a huge number of visitors is a prominent highlight of the social calendar in the Sultanate.

As a part of this initiative, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles has put up a grand display of its latest range of vehicles at the Muscat Festival grounds in Amerat Park

and Naseem Garden. Capitalising on this month-long annual event that is designed to showcase the Sultanate’s rich cultural heritage as well as its modern facets, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles has also planned for exciting events to enthral the visitors.

The event which was originally trade-oriented has today taken the form of a cultural, social, entertainment and shopping festival that projects the rich heritage of the country and continues to draw Omani nationals as well as foreigners from various walks of life.

Adding a sporting dimension to the festival in the form of Tour de Oman is a greatly welcomed step.

This will reinforce the spirit of

adventure and youthfulness in the Omani society.

“Muscat Festival reflects Oman’s legendary history, culture and traditions attracting thousands of people from within and outside the Sultanate every year,” said a key spokesperson of Suhail Bahwan Automobiles (SBA). “We have been there to support Muscat Festival in different capacities over the last many years.

Enduring commitment “Our gold sponsorship of the Muscat Festival represents Suhail Bahwan Group’s enduring commitment to the strengthening of cultural and social foundation of the Omani society. As in previ-

ous years, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles will be at the forefront of the group’s participation this year too,” he further added.

Celebrating Oman’s traditional arts, culture and heritage while providing people of Oman fun, adventure, excitement and entertainment, the Muscat Festival will be a great platform for Suhail Bahwan Automobiles (SBA) to further deepen the emotional connect with the people in Oman. With around two million visitors at the last event, the festival is expected to again capture the imagination of the world through eye-catching events that showcase the true essence of Oman.

Muscat Festival offers all the

residents a chance to take peek at the cultural extravaganza that Muscat is known for. Various entertainment troupes from different parts of the world have been roped in to make this show a veritable feast for every visitor.

There are various games, fireworks and stage shows that generate interest among the residents and visitors alike.

Experienced team Suhail Bahwan Automobiles is showcasing a vast range of vehicles. SBA’s fully trained and experienced team of sales consultants will be providing festival visitors with the relevant information across all brands.

ahlibank marks 7 years of successful operation

Considering their staff to be the main contributors to their success, ahlibank accords top priority to them, taking pride in developing and honing their skills

MUSCAT: ahlibank recently celebrated seven years of successful operation in the Sultanate with its annual staff gathering, a day marked by festivities, food and fun activities for its employees and their families at the Millennium Resort in Musannah, says a press release.

Considering their staff to be the

main contributors to their success, ahlibank accords top priority to them, taking pride in developing and honing their skills. As part of its efforts to bring staff together on a common platform, with the aim to strike a healthy balance between work and leisure, the annual staff gathering included — distribution of T-shirts to the

staff, team building activities, stage shows (magician, dancers, free-style football) a live Omani halwa section, and water sports activities (jet-skiing, kayaking, water slides). The highlight of the day however, was the hourly raffle draws that had amazing gifts attached to them.

“The success of ahlibank has always been rooted in our service to society at large. As we celebrate and reflect on the past seven years, our success has a correlation to the success of our customers. Whether it’s purchasing a new home, sending kids to college or helping local businesses and community organisations, we are privileged to have played a part in them all,” commented Lloyd Maddock, CEO, ahlibank.

“Our staff at ahlibank too de-

serves special mention, as they have not only inspired team spirit, but also continuous progress and development.

Infact the festivities at Millennium Resort were a celebration of the men and women who have been a part of this organisation over these years. We look to the future of ahlibank with even greater optimism. The bank will continue to align its future plans with national goals and avail of all the opportunities that come its way during the year.” he added. ahlibank has always been an organisation which banks on its employees’ satisfaction and believes that events that bring ahlibankers together with their families outside the work environment go a long way in fostering team work and cooperation.

OFFICIAL SPONSOR

OSN extends partnership with Emirates Cricket Board DUBAI: Underlining its commitment to promoting cricket in the Middle East and defining its credentials as the home of cricket, OSN, the region’s leading pay-TV network, has further extended its partnership with Emirates Cricket Board as the official sponsor of the UAE National Cricket Teams for 2015.

Signing up in March 2014 as the first corporate sponsor of the UAE National Cricket Teams, OSN’s renewed support extends to the UAE Men’s National Cricket Team, UAE Women’s National Cricket Team, UAE Under 19 Men’s Cricket Team and UAE Under 16 Men’s Cricket Team, says a press release. “The extended partnership to the UAE National Cricket Teams underlines our commitment to nurturing and promoting national cricketing talent,” said, David Butorac, CEO of OSN.

S U N DAY, JAN UARY 1 8, 2 0 1 5

B7

ROUND-UP Shell holds seminar on cutting edge technology

DEVELOPING SKILLS

The seminar, part of Shell Oman Marketing’s on-going commitment to its customers, is

Bank Sohar conducts 15-day training course for 9 new employees

aimed at enlightening their clients from the construction sector about new techniques and technologies that contribute to quality infrastructure projects

MUSCAT: Shell Oman Marketing conducted a seminar on construction and maintenance of road asphalt pavements here recently.

The seminar, part of Shell Oman Marketing’s on-going commitment to its customers, is aimed at enlightening their clients from the construction sector about new techniques and technologies that contribute to quality infrastructure projects, says a press release.

E D UC AT I O NA L T R I P

Shell Products like Cariphalte polymer-modified binder (PMBs) and Mexphalte C are one of latest Shell bitumen solutions for infrastructure development projects such as roads, airports, railways, ports and others.

“We at Shell have a strong track record in innovation and we wanted to share some of our cuttingedge technological developments with consultants, contractors and

concerned stakeholders in Oman.

The main aim of the workshop was to showcase ways in which businesses can reduce the occurrence of maintenance through the proper application and testing of bitumen on new roads,” stated al Rawahi, Commercial Fuel manager.

The seminar was conducted by Prof John Read, global technology General Manager for Shell Bitumen, who has more than 20 years of experience in the bitumen and asphalt industry.

Shell is recognised for being one of the leaders in bitumen and asphalt technology research for more than 85 years.

A highlight of the seminar was Shell’s cariphalte polymer modified bitumen range that provides solution for all types of roads.

Shell’s technological know-how, supply capabilities, service standards and reputation make us a preferred partner for all infrastructure and construction related projects.

RELIABLE CHANNEL

Emax launches its toll free helpline number ISAS students tour North India MUSCAT: It was an unprecedented opportunity for the students of Indian School Al Seeb (ISAS) to be a part of a 10-day educational trip to North India during the winter break.

A group of 26 students undertook this tour accompanied by their teachers Binu Johny and Shashi Tandon.

The tour not only aimed at entertaining and educating the students on the cultural diversity and heritage of India but also focused on enlightening them with the latest aspects of science and technology. This unique venture, taken up for the first time by the school, was highly appreciated by the parents as they were informed about the whereabouts and well-being of their wards at every step of the tour, using the innovative communication techniques, says a press release.

The day of departure was met by warm greetings from the SMC members which were conveyed by the Principal, Nagesh Kelkar. The students began their tour with Uttar Pradesh and first visited Mathura. They were fortunate to see the Taj Mahal, which is truly one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage.

They were particularly impressed and emotionally moved to see the historical monument, Jallianwala Bagh. They were in awe when they saw the beautiful Golden Temple at Amritsar.

The students were also fortunate to see the lowering of the flag or beating the retreat ceremony at Wagha Border and later ‘Rangla Punjab Haveli’ (an artificial miniature of Punjab) in Jalandhar.

According to one of the trip members, this educational tour has helped them not only to become more responsible and disciplined, but also to visit places of immeasurable value and historical importance, thereby enhancing their knowledge and developing their personality.

MUSCAT: Emax, the largest electronics retailer in the Middle East and a member of the Landmark Group, has now started its own toll free helpline number ‘Hello Emax’.

An easy dial to 8000-3629 connects consumers to an expert team of Emax representatives dedicated to answer all their customer queries, says a press release.

“At Emax we place our customers as priority. They have been instrumental in contributing to our success. In turn, we have been able to win their loyalty and patronage, our team has always gone the extra mile to deliver that extended support, care and service. Hello Emax is just another avenue for us to be available for our customers from Saturday to Thursday 10am to 7pm,” said Neelesh Bhatnagar, CEO Emax.

Hello Emax is the latest endeavour to increase customer satisfac-

tion and service by providing an easy, quick and reliable channel for any support with Emax products and services.

All suggestions or feedbacks are duly recorded for future reference and any budding issues are immediately tended to. On the other hand, for all the electronics enthusiasts, Hello Emax serves as a directory of all product and service information one could possibly be looking for.

Simple to remember digits, Hello Emax is easily accessible from anywhere. It is almost like having the store at your telephonic disposal. Need specifications to a laptop, curious about the launch of a new phone or just want that little guidance with a new home theatre – Hello Emax is only a quick dial away.

Emax reps have the much needed comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the products and services. An expert team makes sure that the desired information is provided in a jiffy; without having to listen to unending jingles.

Emax has established its name in the electronics industry for being a leading store with a complete range and variety of electronic goods and has also kept up an untarnished track record boasting of a flawless service.

MUSCAT: Bank Sohar, one of the leading banks in Oman, strongly believes that investment in training and development is the key to operational excellence and the overall success of the bank.

Therefore, in its consistent endeavour to develop the skills of its valued staff, Bank Sohar recently organised a 15-day training course entitled ‘Foundation Programme - Branch Banking’ for nine new employees from various branches and units, says a press release.

“Since its inception, Bank Sohar has spared no expense in training and developing its employees. This is especially important to the staff in the retail sector in each of our branches. They are the ones that are in direct contact with the bank’s customers and their behaviour, skill, knowledge or any other interactions with a customer are a direct reflection of Bank Sohar’s commitment towards banking excellence,” commenting on the training course, Munira Abdulnabi Macki, DGM – Human Resources and Corporate Support of Bank Sohar, said, Targeting new hires, the 15day foundation programme was designed to cover the most important topics and skills required by new employees as they begin their career in the banking sector. Programme topics covered areas such as accountancy skills, modern behavioural trends and systems training to equip new employees with the required knowledge and skills to enable them to carry out their roles at the bank efficiently.

Another of the training programme’s primary goals was to fully acquaint staff with the bank’s unique products and services. In addition, the course also

Since its inception, Bank Sohar has spared no expense in training and developing its employees This is especially important to the staff in the retail sector in each of our branches Munira Macki

DGM, Bank Sohar

included training related to customer service and direct selling.

Such training courses facilitate and enhance the knowledge and comprehension of the bank’s products and the economy in the Sultanate, which in turn helps them better serve the bank’s customers. “The bank accords top priority towards staff care, developing and training. We consider our staff not only as a working force but also as the main contributors to our success. Their talents and innovation have ensured a continuous development of the bank and, together with our loyal customers, are the reason behind the bank’s strong financial results and achievements,” Munira said.

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SU N DAY, JANUARY 18, 2015

ROUND-UP OIFC acts to end customer woes The new Quality Centre, established recently by Oman Investment and Finance Company, aims precisely to enhance the quality aspects of OIFC billing operations and improve the overall customer experience

Times News Service MUSCAT: Thousands of electricity and water consumers in Oman can bid their billing woes a goodbye as Oman Investment and Finance Company (OIFC) has finally decided to enhance its efficiency by establishing a dedi-

cated Quality Centre to improve customer experience.

The centre, established recently

by OIFC, aims precisely to enhance the quality aspects of OIFC billing operations and improve the customer service for billing of electricity and water utilities.

“The continuous efforts of OIFC and its team to analyse, act and resolve are a part of our ongoing aim. Today, establishing our Quality Centre is indeed a reflection of belief and dedication towards our company statement ‘Your Satisfaction … Our Goal’,” commented Said Ahmed Safrar, CEO of OIFC. Accuracy and precision would be the main focus with which this centre would function.

The accomplishment of setting the Quality Centre is considered

to be an important step towards a higher quality of service, and is a result of company’s continuous focus on efficiency.

The newly established Quality Centre relies on a dedicated and professional team, who operates on a customised platform of data analysis and monitoring and operations management in order to meet the quality expectations. The role of the Quality Centre will focus on improving the customer experience as a short term objective and minimising the commercial loss at electricity and water generation as a long term objective.

The Quality Centre was established in coordination with Public Authority for Electricity & Water (PAEW) and Muscat Electricity Distribution Company (MEDCo).

EXCITING PROMO

Renault Oman announces new ‘Muscat Festival Offer’ MUSCAT: Muscat Festival calls for festive offers from leading brands and Renault Oman has launched a big one.

Apart from the displays and raffle, Renault introduces a unique ‘Muscat Festival Offer’ which will include free registration, free service or periodic maintenance for two years / 30,000km whichever is earlier on select models like Safrane, Fluence, the newly launched Captur, Koleos and Duster. The offer will also include free six years or unlimited mileage warranty, assured cash gift and AAA Roadside Assistance Card on select models only, says a press release.

Suhail Bahwan Automobiles (SBA), the exclusive diswtributor of Renault vehicles in Oman, has announced its participation as gold sponsors in the ongoing 2015 Muscat Festival which is scheduled to be held till February 14.

Renault Oman will have its models displayed at Al Amerat where its representatives will be managing customer queries on the brand’s services, mileage, vehicle range etc. SBA, like every other year, is actively part of Oman’s biggest cultural show.

Being a gold sponsor, SBA intends to showcase the very best of its customer service, product range, unique schemes and more. Cus-

tomers visiting the Renault exhibit during the Muscat Festival can take advantage of some of the most unique schemes, prices and surprises on each of their models.

Renault Oman strives on the strong customer feedback which resulted in providing its most valued and desired customers with unmatched services and customer relationships that match international standards.

Renault focuses on the aspects such as safety, style, performance, value and reliability. Moreover, Renault is also known to have the maximum number of Euro-NCAP Five Star rated models globally. Known to be a trusted name amongst niche clients in Oman, Renault strives to be different and unique by offering unmatched

services resulting in a happy and satisfied customer base.

Today, Renault offers a sophisticated range of vehicles of which the best sellers are the sleek Fluence, the strikingly good looking Safrane and the newly launched and most talked about - Renault Captur. The SUV range comprises the all new Duster and the Koleos. Renault also has some of the safest and fuel efficient light commercial vehicles in the Sultanate namely the Trafic, the Logan Van and the Logan Pick-up.

Suhail Bahwan Automobiles is largely committed to supporting Renault Oman’s growth in the Sultanate through major emphasis on customer satisfaction and by providing world-class aftersales services in Oman.

CONTRIBUTING TO LOCAL ECONOMY

GlassPoint recognised for corporate excellence MUSCAT: GlassPoint Solar, the leader in solar enhanced oil recovery (EOR), was recently selected as a finalist for the Secretary of State’s prestigious 2014 Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE). GlassPoint was among nine global US businesses recognised for their contribution to the overall growth and sustainable development of the local economies in which they operate, says a press release.

US Ambassador to Oman, Greta C. Holtz, praised GlassPoint’s contributions to the local economy, including its plans for hiring Omanis and manufacturing many of its materials in Oman, and GlassPoint’s demonstrated ability to liberate valuable gas resources currently used in the country’s oil fields by harnessing solar energy. In addition, Holtz said, “GlassPoint’s growth in Oman demonstrates the value of a Free Trade Agreement in boosting mutually-beneficial partnerships in science and technology, innovation, and business solutions between our two countries.”

There is a critical shortage of natural gas in Oman as power generation, oil recovery and industrial projects compete for its limited resources. Gas used for oil production already accounts for nearly a quarter of Oman’s total gas use and continues to rise.

“It is truly a privilege to be honoured by Ambassador Holtz and the State Department for making a positive contribution in Oman and we look forward to building on this success. It is now proven

that Oman can use its abundant sunshine to help produce its heavy oil, releasing gas for higher value applications. Wide-scale deployment of GlassPoint’s solar steam technology could reduce EOR gas use by up to 80 per cent. Having this gas to sustain the country’s LNG exports or to fuel new industries will have significant and lasting impacts on Oman’s economy,” said, Rod MacGregor, CEO and President of GlassPoint Solar.

GlassPoint partnered with Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) to build the Middle East’s first solar EOR project. The pilot system has been operating successfully since late 2012, exceeding all performance targets. The project was completed safely on time and on budget, and is serving as an operational baseline for large-scale projects.

Last year, the State General Reserve Fund (SGRF), Oman’s largest sovereign wealth fund, invested in GlassPoint alongside Royal Dutch Shell to accelerate deployment of solar EOR in the Sultanate and throughout the region.

The Secretary of State’s Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE), established in 1999, recognises US businesses for outstanding corporate citizenship, innovation and international business practices. Companies are selected through a senior-level interagency review of nominations from US ambassadors worldwide.

GlassPoint was the only finalist selected for its work in the Middle East region.

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WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM SUNDAY, JANUARY 18, 2015

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NADAL RULES OUT GLORY AT AUSTRALIAN OPEN

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YOUR GAME

Rafa Nadal has downplayed his chances of winning the Australian Open title, saying his back remains a concern and he lacks confidence from having little match practice in the lead-up. >C5

Oman bow out of Asian Cup with victory over Kuwait Oman ensured they did not finish bottom of Group A by pulling off a solitary goal victory thanks to a fine hearder from Abdulaziz Al Muqbali despite Kuwait having much the FINE HEADER: Oman’s Abdulaziz Al-Muqbali, right, heads the ball to score against Kuwait during their Asian Cup Group A match at the Newcastle Stadium in Newcastle on Saturday. – Reuters

better of the game

GOAL SCORER: Oman’s Abdulaziz Al Muqbali vies with a Kuwaiti player during their Asian Cup Group A match at the Newcastle Stadium in Newcastle on Saturday. – CIO DATAN/Times of Oman

NEWCASTLE: Oman beat Kuwait 1-0 at Newcastle Stadium on Saturday evening to finish in third place in Group A of the Asian Cup. With both teams having lost their first two games to effectively be eliminated from the competition, the meeting between the Gulf rivals had little riding on it.

Oman ensured they did not finish bottom of the group by pulling off a victory thanks to a solitary goal from Abdulaziz Al Muqbali despite Kuwait having much the better of the game.

The Kuwait side will feel hard done by as they outplayed their opponents for much of the match.

However, a goal in the 69th minute by Al Muqbali was all that mattered for Oman at the end of the day.

After a quiet start to the first half, Kuwait began to find their rhythm, and managed the first shot on goal in the 11th minute when captain Mesaed Al Enzi fired in a free-kick from just outside the box on the right which sailed over the bar.

Just before the half hour mark Khaled Al Qahtani received the ball in space in the box on the right following a fine pass from Abdullah Al Buraiki.

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He had time to pull the trigger, but sent in a poor effort that flew high and right of the goal.

Four minutes later on the other side of the box Kuwait had another great chance when Fahad Al Hajeri was unmarked and after being on the end of a fine ball he volleyed wide of the mark.

In the 42nd minute Fahad Al Ebrahim sent in a brilliant shot from the right and well outside the box. It was slightly too high but forced the keeper to make a dive at full stretch to make sure his goal was protected.

The second half saw Kuwait continue to exert pressure on Oman as they went in search of a breakthrough goal.

Five minutes into the second half, Oman’s Jaber Al Owaisi came so close to scoring a spectacular own goal when in trying to clear the ball he headed it just over his own cross bar.

In the 53rd minute, Al Ebrahim shot low and left of the right

hand post from just outside the box. Shortly after Al Buraiki broke down the right and as he closed in on goal quickly to fire off a shot that was well saved by Oman’s goalkeeper and captain Ali Al Habsi.

Completely against the run of play Oman broke the deadlock in the 69th minute when they scored a textbook goal.

Mohammed Al Siyabi fired in a pinpoint cross from the right to Al Muqbali, who was unmarked and produced a fine header from close range that easily beat the keeper.

Two minutes later Al Muqbali could have made it 2-0 when he was found in the middle of the box again, but he shot well wide.

Oman maintained the pressure and Qasim Said could have added another when he was found in space shortly after on the left but he blasted his shot straight at the keeper. At the other end Kuwait quickly retaliated and had two fine opportunities to draw level.

In the 79th minute, Al Buraiki had a clear header but failed to find the target and then one minute later from a similar position Yousef Naser also glanced the ball wide as Kuwait finished bottom of Group A. - AFC

I M P O R TA N T R E S U LT

E A S I E R PAT H T O F I NA L

South Korea upset Australia BRISBANE: South Korea upset Australia 1-0 at the Asian Cup on Saturday to top the Group A standings and secure a potentially easier path to the final while leaving the host nation facing a treacherous route.

Striker Lee Jeong-Hyeop scored a perfectly-executed goal in the first half to give his team a surprise lead then the Koreans held on against a wave of Australian attacks to clinch the victory.

The win meant South Korea finished at the top of the Group A standings with three wins and will play either Uzbekistan or Saudi Arabia in the quarterfinals.

As Group A runners-up, Australia will play the Group B winners China with the defending champions Japan lurking as a possible semifinalist.

The Australians dominated possession and territory but paid a high price for squandering their best chances and resting some of their key players, including star striker Tim Cahill, who only came on for the last 20 minutes when the Socceroos were desperate for an equaliser.

The Korean goalkeeper Kim JinHyeon pulled off a series of sharp saves to keep his team ahead and the visitors were unlucky not to grab a second on the counterattack as they raised hopes of winning their first Asian Cup since 1960.

Lee, who was recalled to the starting lineup after missing South Korea’s previous group win over Kuwait, broke the deadlock in the 32nd minute when he got his foot on to a perfectly angled cross from his team mate Lee Keun-Ho. The glance was just enough to divert the ball into the net at the far post, evading the diving Australian goalkeeper Mat Ryan.

With both teams already assured

S TA N D I N G S

Asian Cup standings after Saturday’s matches: P W D L F A GA Pts

PERFECTLY EXECUTED: South Korea’s Lee Jeong-Hyeop celebrates

after scoring a goal against Australia during their Asian Cup Group A match at the Brisbane Stadium on Saturday. – Reuters

of a place in the quarterfinals, the two regional powerhouses initially adopted a cautious approach, on a hot and humid evening at Brisbane’s Lang Park that was invaded by thousands of moths.

The match began in slightly bizarre circumstances when thousands of moths descended onto the stadium field and grandstands, forcing staff to vacuum some of the benches where players and officials were trying to sit.

But once the Koreans scored, the match opened up as both teams ran themselves to the point of exhaustion.

Tomi Juric forced the South Korean goalkeeper Kim Jin-Hyeon to make a sharp save at the near post after an attacking run while James Troisi just missed the target after he fooled the Korean defence in the box and turned quickly to shoot.

The Australians raised the tempo in the second half, starv-

Group A *South Korea *Australia Oman Kuwait

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Group B *China Saudi Arabia Uzbekistan North Korea

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TRY TO IMPROVE: Paul Le Guen +4 +3 -3 -4

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ing South Korea of possession and pressing for an equaliser.

Juric missed another chance shortly after the re-start when he shot over the bar from close range after combining with Ivan Franjic.

Nathan Burns almost scored when he weaved his way past two defenders and into the box only to see his shot saved.

Burns was immediately replaced in a double substitution which saw Cahill and Robbie Kruse introduced with 20 minutes remaining.

Kruse was given golden chance to equalise three minutes from the end when he found himself free in the box but couldn’t beat Kim JinHyeon one on one. - Reuters

Le Guen delighted with Oman’s win NEWCASTLE: Oman coach Paul Le Guen was delighted his side recorded their first win at the Asian Cup after surviving a tough match against Kuwait on Saturday.

“We had some difficulties during the game but we kept fighting.

I like that about this team,” said the Frenchman.

“Kuwait are a good team. It is good for us and the state of our mind in the future. It was important to get a result.”

Samsung man of the match Abdulaziz Al Muqbali scored against the run of play in the 69th minute to hand Oman a 1-0 win after a 4-0 loss to hosts Australia and a 1-0 reversal against Korea Republic in a tough Group A. “It is the only game Oman have won in the Asian Cup. It is not a

shame to finish third. I am happy with my players. They battled hard,” said the Oman coach.

“I tell the players never give up.

You need to work to cope at international level. Players have to cope with high level (pressure),” Le Guen added.

Oman have enjoyed good results recently against Kuwait beating them 5-0 at the Gulf Cup in November.

Le Guen said it was no surprise that Australia and Korea Republic topped Group A to make it through to the quarterfinals.

“We had maximum effort in two strong matches. Today we returned and played a good match,” he said.

“We tried but we could not play the same rhythm as Australia, we will try our best to improve.” - AFC

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SU N DAY, JANUARY 18, 2015

SPORTS

Olaroiu turns shrink to improve Saudi mindset

RESPONSIBILITY TO WIN: Saudi Arabian players pictured during a training sessions in Melbourne. – AFP

The Romanian said strengthening the mentality of the Saudi players was one of his biggest challenges as the three-time champions take on Uzbekistan in a crucial Group B clash

MELBOURNE: Saudi Arabia’s caretaker coach Cosmin Olaroiu on Saturday said he’s spending as much time acting as a psychiatrist to his players as imparting tactical wisdom at the Asian Cup. The Romanian said strengthening the mentality of the Saudi players was one of his biggest challenges as the three-time champions look to secure a spot in the quarterfinals.

“Improving the psychology of

the players is a very important part of my job,” he told reporters on the eve of their crunch Group B clash with Uzbekistan.

“You need to build the confidence of the players. Attitude if the most important thing in football.”

Saudi Arabia won the last of their three Asian Cup titles in 1996 and were runners-up for a third time in 2007 when they were stunned by Iraq in the final, but have slipped behind the re-

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gion’s powerhouses Japan, South Korea, Iran and Australia in recent years.

“There is more to football than what happens on the pitch,” added Olaroiu, manager of Dubai-based Al Ahli and coaching the Saudi national team part-time until the end of the Asian Cup. “To be a coach you have to be working in many directions.”

Saudi Arabia recovered from a shock 1-0 defeat by China in their opening game by overpowering North Korea 4-1 in midweek, effectively making Sunday’s Melbourne clash against the Uzbekis a knockout game with the Chinese already through.

Naif Hazazi and Nawaf Alabid have both fluffed penalties, raising questions as to the mental strength of the Saudis.

Such is the significance of their game against Uzbekistan that each Saudi player is reportedly set to pocket a bonus of around $12,000.

But Olaroiu insisted it was glo150 CAPS

Endo matches Matthaeus BRISBANE: Japan’s Yasuhito Endo reacted with mock horror after learning he had tied German superstar Lothar Matthaeus by winning his 150th cap in his country’s 1-0 Asian Cup victory over Iraq.

The 34-year-old midfielder, given his international debut

by Brazilian Zico in 2002, is expected to surpass Matthaeus, who skippered West Germany to World Cup glory in 1990, when the Blue Samurai play Jordan in their final Group D game on Tuesday.

“Me going level with Matthaeus is a bit of an insult to Matthaeus,” said Japan’s record caps holder, initially discarded

by Japan coach Javier Aguirre following their flop at last year’s World Cup before forcing his way back into the Mexican’s reckoning. But winning so many caps is obviously something I can be proud of, and matching Matthaeus is another thing I can look back on and boast about when I’m no longer playing.” - AFP

ry, and not cash, that motivated his team.

“Nobody is thinking about money,” he snapped. “We don’t play for a bonus. That’s not an incentive.

We play to simply bring happiness to the people of Saudi Arabia. That is the best bonus for us. We have a responsibility to win and that would be of more value.”

Big expectations Uzbekistan reached the semifinals in 2011 but need a drastic reversal in fortune following a stunning 2-1 defeat by China. “I don’t think we underestimated China,” said Uzbekistan coach Mirdjalal Kasimov.

“We just made silly mistakes and we paid for them.”

Asked if he would step down if Uzbekistan failed to advance, the former midfielder replied: “We came to this tournament in high spirits and with big expectations and carry them into tomorrow’s game. If we fail, there will be time to consider my future.” - AFP

QUALIFIED

China ‘not the best team’, says Perrin CANBERRA: China coach Alain Perrin on Saturday played down his side’s chances at the Asian Cup as he attempted to dampen rising expectations after two wins out of two games so far.

China are already assured of finishing top of Group B after their best start to the tournament in 27 years, but Perrin insisted his team remain outsiders.

“I think our team are not the best at this tournament,” the Frenchman said ahead of Sunday’s final group game against North Korea in Canberra.

“But even although we are not the best we will challenge and try to beat our opponents,” the Frenchman added.

The Chinese team will top of Group B irrespective of Sunday’s result, following their 1-0 victory against Saudi Arabia and 2-1 upset of Uzbekistan.

The fast start has been a surprise from a team known as a “sleeping giant” of football and which is yet to win the Asian Cup, despite qualifying 11 times in a row.

“Before we came here to play in the tournament somebody asked me what was my target and I told him my target was to win the first match,” Perrin said.

“So for me the most important thing is to focus on the next match. For the trophy, the final match is far away.”

He is expected to rest several key players in Sunday’s game, ahead of China’s quarterfinal in Brisbane — scene of both their wins so far — on Thursday.

“I’m very happy that we had 17 players involved in the first two matches. Football is not just about 11 players, we must have more players involved,” Perrin explained.

“I think the match against North Korea is a very good opportunity to have more players take part in this tournament.”

China have been runners-up twice in the Asian Cup and last reached the knock-out stages when they hosted the event in 2004, but Perrin is refusing to get carried away.

“As professional footballers we must always be ready to face the challenges, so tomorrow we will try to play our best game and get the three points,” he said.

North Korea will be playing for nothing but pride after their opening defeats to Uzbekistan

and Saudi Arabia consigned them to a group-stage exit.

Slight change Meanwhile, Coach Jo Tong-Sop vowed to change both personnel and strategies in search of already-eliminated North Korea’s first Asian Cup win in 35 years when they take on China.

Korea exited the Asian Cup after a 4-1 defeat by three-time winners Saudi Arabia following an opening 1-0 loss to Uzbekistan.

“For the next match there will be a slight change in formation and the selection list to get the best possible result in this tournament,” Jo, who was also in charge of the national team during the Asian Cup four years ago, said.

“The match against Uzbekistan I think we lost because we did not anticipate correctly their attack down the wings, our defence was not prepared for that.

“And against Saudi Arabia, the players were too excited once they conceded the second goal and did not defend properly. That is the main reason we were tactically defeated.

“I don’t want to blame the players; my leadership, my instructions, my plans and projects were not good enough. Training and playing tactics for the match was not perfect; I think that was the reason for the losses.”

And Jo knows that his side will be in for a tough challenge should they wish to gain a first continental championship win since the 1980 tournament.

“I watched the two games of China and the Chinese team is good in terms of physical fitness and they are technically and tactically prepared well,” Jo said The combination and leadership of the coach is very good, I think,” added Jo. “I don’t feel any difference between this (match) and previous matches.

“As we did in the last matches we do our best to show our full skill, there is no difference.

“Like the other teams, we also wanted to prove our skills when we prepared for the tournament and it did not work out very well.

“After this tournament when we get back to our homes we will analyse the matches and what was lacking and what has to be covered, everything, and we will find out the way to improve it.” - AFP/AFC

G I F T E D P L AY E R

A chance for Abdulrahman to enhance his reputation SYDNEY: United Arab Emirates (UAE) playmaker Omar Abdulrahman has blossomed from “child prodigy” into one of the region’s most exciting talents and the Asian Cup is proving the ideal stage for the 23-year-old to enhance his reputation.

The Al Ain wide man made his mark at the 2012 London Games, when the Emirati side qualified for the Olympics for first time.

The skilful, shaggy-haired Abdulrahman continued to improve and underlined his worth by bagging player of the tournament in his country’s triumph in the 2013 Gulf Cup. While several clubs in Europe’s top leagues were reportedly showing an interest in the leftfooter, a move failed to materialise but that does not seem to have hampered his progress.

The UAE were unbeaten in Asian Cup qualification, with five wins and a draw, and were joint top scorers with Iran, many of them created by Abdulrahman.

It was not surprising then that the UAE were left sweating on the player’s fitness after he injured his ankle in this year’s Gulf Cup semifinal defeat to Saudi Arabia in November. UAE coach Mahdi Ali included him in the Asian Cup squad despite the fitness concerns and was relieved when the player lasted the full 90 minutes of their opener against Qatar.

“Omar is a talented player and one of the main players in the team,” Ali told reporters. “I am very happy for him playing a full 90 minutes after one-and-a-half months of injury.”

Abdulrahman looked rusty in the first half in his first competitive match back but showed his class in the second as his team

INCREDIBLE ABILITY: Omar Abdulrahman, right, celebrates with his UAE teammates during their Asian Cup Group C match against Bahrain in Canberra on Thursday. – Reuters

came back from a goal down to thrash Qatar 4-1.

Gifted with the vision and ability to find strikers with defencesplitting passes, he set up Ali Ahmed Mabkhout with a neat lofted ball over the head of a defender for the team’s opening goal in their 2-1 win over Bahrain in the second match in Canberra.

Former Socceroo Alex Brosque, who played alongside Abdulrahman at Al Ain for two years, said the Asian Cup was the ideal environment for him to flourish.

“I’d heard about him before going to the league, that he was one of those child prodigies,” Brosque was quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald.

“I didn’t know what to expect,

but to be honest, in terms of pure technical ability and what he can do with a football, he’s probably the best player that I’ve played with.

“He’s incredible. He keeps the ball on a string, he’s always in control and like I said, technically...

I’ve never seen someone do with a football what he can do.

“Playing as a striker with him behind, you don’t even have to worry. As soon as the ball went to him you would just run into space and he would find you.”

With both sides already assured a place in the quarterfinals, the UAE will play Iran on Monday to determine top spot in Group C and Abdulrahman’s influence will be key to his side’s progress in Australia. - Reuters

S U N DAY, JAN UARY 1 8, 2 0 1 5

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SPORTS FORMULA ONE

OMAN EDGE SINGAPORE IN FIH HOCKEY WORLD LEAGUE ROUND 2

Oman recorded a hard-fought 3-2 win over hosts Singapore in their opening Pool A match in the FIH Hockey World League Round 2 event in Singapore on Saturday. Qasim Al Shibli gave Oman with a fine field goal in the 18th minute while Mohammed Bait Jandal scored a brace in the 24th and 46th minutes, both off short corners, in Oman’s victory. Ian Vanderput and Ashriq Ferdous reduced the margin for the hosts. In other matches played on Saturday, Japan beat Bangladesh 5-1, Poland routed Mexico 6-0 and Malaysia posted a 5-1 win over Uzbekistan. Oman play their next match against Malaysia on Monday.

New Zealand-Sri Lanka third ODI abandoned The players were forced from the field for the third and final time with New Zealand, batting first, 145 for three after 28.5 overs

AUCKLAND: The third One-day International (ODI) between New Zealand and Sri Lanka was abandoned on Saturday after frequent interruptions because of rain.

The players were forced from the field for the third and final time with New Zealand, batting first, 145 for three after 28.5 overs.

More than three hours later, the umpires ruled there was no likelihood of the weather clearing enough for play to resume and the match was abandoned.

For New Zealand Martin Guptill was not out 66, while for Sri Lanka Angelo Mathews had three for 21 runs.

New Zealand were rocked early when batting mainstay Brendon McCullum was removed by Mathews for 28, putting pressure on Guptill to repay the faith the selectors had in him after he failed in the first two games.

He overcame a shaky start, offering a caught and bowled chance that fell just short of Nuwan Kulasekara and twice sent an inside edge across the front of his stumps, before confidently accumulating runs.

RAINED OFF: Ground staff try to protect the field after rain puts a stop to play during the third Oneday International match between New Zealand and Sri Lanka in Auckland on Saturday. – AFP

McCullum again blazed away in trademark fashion at the head of the innings, racing to 28 off 22 deliveries.

McCullum innings came to an when he mistimed a pull shot off Mathews’s first delivery and edging the ball to Kulasekara at fine leg.

Tom Latham, another top order New Zealand batsman in need of confidence-boosting runs, proved an able lieutenant for Guptill.

Latham put on 42 in a 99-run

stand for the second wicket before being bowled by Mathews when trying to settle in after the second rain break.

Ross Taylor became Mathews’s third victim when trapped leg before wicket for three.

Taylor appealed the dismissal but replays supported the bowler.

Taylor left the field as the rain swept in for the final time.

The seven-match series is locked at 1-1 with the fourth game to be played in Nelson on Tuesday. -AFP

SCOREBOARD

NEW ZEALAND M. Guptill not out 66 B. McCullum c Kulasekara b Mathews 28 T. Latham b Mathews 42 R. Taylor lbw Mathews 3 Extras (lb-5, wd-1) 6 Total (3 wkts, 28.5 overs) 145 Fall of wickets: 1-40, 2-139, 3-145.

Bowling: Kulasekara 6-0-35-0, Prasad 6-0-30-0, Mathews 6.5-2-21-3, Senanayake 7-0-30-0 (w-1), Perera 3-0-24-0.

Boost for McLaren after Honda win engine argument LONDON: McLaren have been given a boost after Formula One’s governing body tweaked the rules to allow Honda, the team’s new partner, to develop their engine this season in line with rival manufacturers.

The Japanese company, who have replaced Mercedes at McLaren, are returning to Formula One as the sport’s fourth engine supplier.

Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari are allowed to introduce limited upgrades during the season but Honda, as a new entrant, had been told to present their engine for approval on Feb. 28 with no further development permitted.

Honda met International Automobile Federation officials last Monday to present their view that the situation was unfair.

A document issued to teams on Friday by Formula One race director Charlie Whiting, seen by Reuters and confirmed by the Fia, did not name Honda but clarified the situation with an amendment in their favour.

“As each of the four 2015 manufacturers will have an homologated power unit at the start of the season, we believe it would be fair to ensure that each of them enjoys

equal opportunities for upgrades during the season,” it said.

“We will therefore allow the new manufacturer to use the same number of tokens that the other three manufacturers have available to them, taken as an average of the three.

“For example, if the three 2014 manufacturers have eight, seven and five unused tokens respectively at the start of the season, then the new manufacturer will be allowed to use six during the season.”

The current manufacturers are allowed to improve their engine using a complicated system of ‘tokens’ within set limits.

The tokens are assigned to parts of the engine and divided into three categories, meaning that some parts require more than others and manufacturers must choose which areas to improve.

There are 66 tokens and the existing manufacturers can use 32 during the course of 2015, with the number reduced over time so that by 2018 there will be only 15 tokens available. Honda, who partnered McLaren from 1988 to 1992 when they won four constructors’ titles, quit F1 as a constructor at the end of 2008. - Reuters

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SU N DAY, JANUARY 18, 2015

SPORTS

India set for tri-series with one eye on WC While the triseries provides the

Not worried about slow tracks, says Faulkner

perfect setting for experimentation, the need of the hour is to get a settled combination going ahead to instill confidence in the side

MELBOURNE: All set to defend their cricket World Cup crown in less than a month, India will get their preparations underway with the aim of finding the right combination for the marquee event when they take on Australia in their opening match of the ongoing One-day International (ODI) tri-series here on Sunday.

While this tri-series provides the perfect setting for experimentation, the need of the hour is to get a settled combination going ahead to instill confidence in the side.

In the recently-concluded Test series, these same set of players did compete well despite a 0-2 score-line saying otherwise. However, the change in format cannot be negated and there will always be a few cobwebs to be cleared.

Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni will return to international cricket after a little over two weeks since his Test retirement at the same venue, and he will have some decisions to make. The first order of business will be to make a firm choice

MELBOURNE: Australia all-rounder James Faulkner says his team is not worried about the slow nature of the pitches and the Indians using it to their advantage as he feels the hosts are in equally good form.

The flat wickets in Melbourne and Sydney during the four-Test series between India and Australia had come under criticism with many saying that the visitors got all the advantage.

“It comes down to the conditions and what line up they go with, whether they want to play a spinner or not.

about the opening combination.

With less than a month to go before their opening World Cup encounter against Pakistan in Adelaide, it is worrisome that India’s openers are yet unknown.

Ahead of Sunday’s game, the team management has failed to specify whether it will be Ajinkya Rahane or Rohit Sharma pairing up with Shikhar Dhawan at the top of the order, or indeed whether a third possibly-surprising combination might be thrown up.

The choice of openers will have an effect on the rest of the batting order as well.

If Rahane opens with Dhawan, where will Rohit fit in? Indeed, if Rohit opens the innings, will Rahane return to number four, a position he has not been comfortable with.

Or, will Virat Kohli be moved

But we are not worried. Everyone seems to be in form.

It’s a good healthy environment for Australian cricket,” Faulkner said on the eve of India-Australia tri-series encounter.

Faulkner said the two teams would be starting off on equal footing tomorrow and it’s going to be a tough game.

“It looked like a very good Test series. The Indian batsmen are in pretty good touch as well, particularly Virat Kohli. They’re going to be tough tomorrow. They’re a very good one-day team and so are we,” he pointed out. - PTI

down a spot from his favoured number three, a move he experimented with while leading the side at home against Sri Lanka?

Unlike the team’s preparations ahead of any Test match, their net-sessions for an ODI do not throw up any suggestive patterns and it was the same on Saturday as well.

In no particular order then, all batsmen enjoyed a decent hit in the nets including Ambati Rayudu and Stuart Binny.

Both of them will be hoping to play a definitive role during this tournament and increase their chances for the World Cup. Among the bowlers, playing two spinners is definitely par for the course for India, with R Ashwin and Axar Patel slated to take up those spots.

Ravindra Jadeja is still some distance away from full fitness.

Meanwhile, Ishant Sharma too has been ruled out of this match with the management not willing to risk him at this stage in light of his left-knee niggle.

It remains to be seen whether Bhuvneshwar Kumar will make the cut given his not-so-impressive showing in the Sydney Test.

He bowled well below his regular pace in that match and appeared lacking in match-fitness. The onus will be on getting him in rhythm as soon as possible, but there are also other options available.

Mohit Sharma and Dhawal Kulkarni are in the tri-series 17man squad, and have been confirmed as back-up options for the World Cup, should one of the chosen bowlers break down. And so, the team management will be keen to rely on them and manage others’ workload.

While India are placed second in the latest ICC ODI rankings, they do not have an impressive showing in this format on their past three overseas tours.

They have only won three out of 12 matches played, all of them coming against an English ODI side in a state of free-fall at this moment.

In five out of six losses then, where conditions were pretty much equivalent to the upcoming World Cup, India conceded 359 and 281 in Africa, and 293, 293 and 304 against New Zealand.

India (from): Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina, Stuart Binny, Axar Patel, R Ashwi-n, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Mohit Sharma.

Australia (from): George Bailey (capt), Pat Cummins, Xavier Doherty, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Brad Haddin (wk), Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner, Shane Watson, Kane Richardson, Gurinder Sandhu. - PTI

C O M M E N TA RY

A perfect opportunity for to find the balance

T

he World Cup defending champions India begin their campaign with the first of their tri-series matches against the hosts Australia today.

The tri-series is a perfect opportunity for the team to find the balance that it needs going in to the World Cup. It allows the team to get their mind set back to the limited overs game. It gets them to know what two of their opponents will be like and what are their strengths and weaknesses.

It gets them used to the pitches and for their bowlers to know what is the kind of length they should be bowling on these kind of pitches, and it gives the batsmen the chance to check whether their big shots will clear the longer boundaries in Australia or not.

There are, of course, many other plusses but these are the vital ones for the team.

The main thing, of course, is that there has to be an open mind about the selection and make sure that everybody gets a fair chance to stake a claim for a place in the final eleven.

Luckily they have enough games to do so, unlike the Test series where there were only two two-day games before the first Test, so the batsmen certain to play in the first Test had to be given an outing.

What the tri-series will also help decide is whether India should go with its traditional bowling strength of spin or look at a seam oriented attack simply because the pitches here have a little more bounce and carry.

The seam attack was a major disappointment for its inability to contain the Australians in the Test series, and with the way they

have been hammered in the final overs in recent one-day matches overseas makes for a worrying aspect.

The Australians have begun well, chasing down a target that England had set them and getting a bonus point to boot, so they are high on confidence. It was not simply the batting, with David Warner hitting yet another century, but the way their new ball attack bowled that the Indians will have to watch out for.

Starc was getting the ball to curve in nicely to the right-handers and Cummins was getting to move it away and at high speed.

India’s batting was the highlight of the Test series, and that gives rise to the hopes that they are capable of chasing any total.

That may also make the think-tank decide to chase rather than set a target to the opposition. Here again, these four qualifying games give the team the chance to experiment with both aspects and also gives the bowlers the challenge to show they have learnt from the Test series.

The white ball will mean that the movement will not be extravagant, and that should suit the likes of Dhawan and Rohit Sharma who like to play through the line without worrying about late movement of the ball.

Australia will start the favourites despite India being the world champions, but that could change by the time the finals come along.

- PMG

FRACTURED FINGER

HAPPY

Pakistan not favourites for World Cup, says Waqar

Ballance injured, fit for World Cup

LAHORE: Pakistan head coach Waqar Younis on Saturday said he was happy his team were not among the favourites to win next month’s World Cup, saying the tag often put unnecessary pressure on players.

Pakistan will play two One-day Internationals (ODIs) against New Zealand on January 31 and February 3, before starting their World Cup campaign against arch-rivals India in Adelaide on February 15.

“I am happy that we are not the favourites, to be very honest because it is a big pressure, being the favourites,” Waqar told media.

“We were not the favourites last time either but we played excellent cricket and reached the semifinals,” said Waqar, who was head coach in Pakistan’s 2011 World Cup finish, losing to India in the semis.

Waqar said four-time champions Australia and South Africa would stand a better chance.

“Of course, teams which play on those bouncy wickets like Australia and South Africa are probably more the favourites than us. But... I have lots of hopes,” he said.

Waqar admitted Pakistan had suffered injury problems which had unsettled them.

SYDNEY: England batsman Gary Ballance has fractured the little finger on his right hand but will be fit for the World Cup, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) announced on Saturday.

The 25-year-old left-hander, recalled to England’s one-day squad after former captain Alastair Cook was dropped, sustained the injury during fielding practice in Canberra last week.

He will remain with the team for the ongoing tri-series against Australia and India and no extra players will be called up.

“Gary Ballance has a fractured right little finger, sustained during fielding practice in Canberra,” the England and Wales Cricket Board said in a statement.

“Ballance will be available for the ICC Cricket World Cup and therefore we will not be calling another player into the squad.”

Ballance has yet to play since England arrived in Australia and sat out his side’s three-wicket loss to the hosts in the opening match of the triangular series in Sydney on Friday.

England’s next match is against India on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the ECB has revealed that former England captain Andrew Flintoff will attend the team’s practice session at The Gabba on Sunday. - AFP

We were not the favourites last time either but we reached the semifinals Waqar Younis

Pakistan coach

Frontline paceman Junaid Khan injured his leg during practice on Thursday but an MRI revealed he will be fit within a week.

“We had problems with our fast bowlers for few months and, of course, the recent episode with Junaid — it’s a setback.

If you have injuries you can’t move forward.”

Waqar , ruled out of the World Cup which Pakistan won in Australia and New Zealand in 1992 due to injury, admitted the mega event was never good for him.

He was also captain of the team which crashed out in the

first round in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa.

“The World Cup has never been that kind to me, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.

Waqar said he has hopes for strong play from captain Misbah-ul Haq, an all-rounder who will retire after the World Cup. “Of course Afridi is number one, we have big hopes for him and Misbah, they are going out after the World Cup. “In the camp over the last four to five days I have seen both want to finish on a high, which is a very good sign,” he said. - AFP

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N O T A FAV O U R I T E

Doubtful Nadal rules out Australian Open glory MELBOURNE: Rafa Nadal has downplayed his chances of winning the Australian Open, saying his back remains a concern and he lacks confidence from having little match practice in the lead-up.

On the comeback trail after injury and illness wiped out the latter half of his 2014 season, the Spaniard had a poor start to his new year, dumped from the first round of the Qatar Open by German journeyman Michael Berrer.

“No, I don’t consider myself one of the favourites here,” the 28-year-old, seeded third for the tournament, told reporters at Melbourne Park.

“Last year, yes. This year is a different story. (I) would be lying if I say I feel that I am ready to win today. I don’t feel myself ready to win the tournament here today.

“If I am here in a press conference in one week, maybe I will say another thing because I will have the feeling that I will play a few matches, and if I’m able to win that couple of matches, then probably I will have little bit more rhythm, I will have more confidence.

“But in theory, playing four, five matches in seven months, you cannot be a favourite of a tournament that is not clay, it’s on hard (courts).”

Nadal made the final last year but was beaten by Stan Wawrinka in four sets, having carried a painful back injury into the match that affected his movement.

He recovered to win a record ninth French Open crown but was blighted by a wrist injury and then appendicitis late in the year.

“I cannot say (I am) completely recovered because that can happens when you compete, when you put your back under stress,” Nadal said. “It’s something that I (am) not 100 percent confident yet.“I am confident about my knees because (they) are working very well. But my back, I don’t

have enough time having good feelings to say I am 100 percent perfect, no?

“I need to take care about this for the moment. But hopefully it will be fine.”

Nadal’s fitness will be put to the test in a tough first round encounter against wily Russian veteran Mikhail Youzhny, a former top 10 player.“It’s true that having a Grand Slam that early in the season after injury like this is not the ideal thing.

“But here we are. I worked a lot since 10th of December.

“I am with calm and happy the way I did the things.” - Reuters

SELFIE STARS: Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki, left, takes a selfie with

Spain’s Rafael Nadal as they participate in a tennis promotional event in Melbourne. – Reuters

Older Federer not sure if playing ‘best’ tennis The Swiss was virtually untouchable from 2004-10 when he won 15 of his record 17 Grand Slam titles, but those moments have tapered off

MELBOURNE: Roger Federer doubts he is playing his ‘best ever’ tennis but is convinced that at 33, he is playing smarter and taking better care of himself as he looks to win a fifth Australian Open title.

The Swiss was virtually untouchable from 2004-10 when he won 15 of his record 17 Grand Slam titles, but those moments have tapered off and he has been overtaken as the world’s most dominant player by first Rafa Nadal and now Novak Djokovic.

With many suggesting time was ticking down on his career, Federer confounded the notion that ‘Generation Next’ was set to usurp the triumvirate last year with a Wimbledon final appearance and semifinal defeats at Melbourne Park and Flushing Meadows.

He also won five titles and more singles matches than any other player on the ATP Tour and joined up with Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka to secure Switzerland’s first Davis Cup title.

MANY CHANGES: Switzerland’s Roger Federer, left, is watched by his coach Stefan Edberg of Sweden

during a practice session ahead of the Australian Open in Melbourne on Saturday. – AFP

Federer then began 2015 by winning his 1,000th ATP tour match on his way to the Brisbane title and the third seed was feeling more confident than last season when he entered the year’s first Grand Slam with doubts over a back injury.

“There were many changes that took place in the six months leading into the Australian Open (last year), whereas this time around I’ve played so well,” he said on Saturday.

“Was able to win Brisbane last week.

Makes me feel more secure this year coming into the Aussie Open.”

‘VERY CHALLENGING’

Murray confident despite tough draw MELBOURNE: Andy Murray faces a horror draw at the Australian Open, needing to overcome Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal to make the final, but the British No. 1 says he is feeling good about his game.

A three-time runner up at Melbourne Park, Murray has slipped to sixth in the world rankings and is on course to meet Federer in the quarterfinals in the bottom half of the draw with Nadal potentially awaiting him in the last four.

He could also face world number 11 Grigor Dimitrov in the fourth round.

“Obviously a very tough draw, very difficult draw,” said Murray,

who is coached by Amelie Mauresmo. “If you have to play all of those players, obviously it’s going to be extremely difficult to come through that. I’m aware of that.

That’s fine.

“But often in these events, you know, there are upsets. And then you just have to wait and see who you’re playing in each round because it doesn’t always work out as simply as that.

“It will be interesting to see how it goes. But definitely with the names mentioned, it’s very challenging.”

Murray gets his tournament underway against Indian qualifier Yuki Bhambri. - AFP

Federer added that he had continued to improve his game from year to year and was also more mentally secure.

“I would hope that over the years I’ve always improved,” he said. “I think I’m serving more consistent and stronger than I ever have. I think my backhand is working better than it has in the past as well.

“I had to adjust my game a little bit over the years. I feel I’m playing very well.

“If it’s the best ever, I’m not quite sure. But I’m definitely very

pleased how things have gone now the last six months.”

Federer acknowledged he was entering the twilight of his career and with two sets of twins running around the family home as well, he had tempered his training.

“Quality is more important than quantity. Whereas when you’re younger you got to put in the hours, you got to put in the work,” he said.

“Doesn’t matter if you’re tired, all these things, you just got to get through it, get match tough, go through the grind.” - Reuters

DESIRE TO WIN

Bullish Serena issues Aussie Open challenge MELBOURNE: World No. 1 Serena Williams on Saturday declared that none of her rivals could match her desire to win the Australian Open and if they wanted the title they would have to fight her for it.

The 18-time Grand Slam champion won the last of her five Australian crowns in 2010 and expressed frustration that a sixth had eluded her for so long.

With an ignominious round four exit at last year’s tournament clearly still rankling, Williams said her determination to claim a “special” win was stronger than any other player in the 128-strong field.

“I’ve been going for number six for a number of years now — it would be really special for me, I’d be really happy,” said Williams, who is the short-priced bookmakers’ favourite to win the tournament. I want it, I think, more than anyone else here. That doesn’t mean I’m going to get it so I’ll have to fight hard to get it.”

The American held on to the top ranking for the entire 2014 season, ending the year with a flourish to take the US Open and the WTA Tour Championship.

Another Australian title would take her to clear second on the all-time Grand Slam winners list behind Steffi Graf’s 22, having joined Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova on 18 with her win at Flushing Meadows.

Williams, 33, said it was exciting but also daunting to contemplate reaching the German great’s benchmark.

“Twenty two is so far away from 18 — when you’re 18 years old you look at someone that’s

21 and you think they’re old,” she said. “So it’s a really big distance to get to 22. I can’t think that far ahead. I just have to think about 2015 at the Australian Open in particular.”

Williams displayed some erratic form in the Hopman Cup this month and admitted feeling “a little off” heading into the opening Grand Slam of the season.

But she said that was not a bad thing considering she went into last year’s event convinced she was in amazing form, only to crash out early to Ana Ivanovic.

“Last year I felt really good, was playing well. I was feeling amazing on the court,” she said.

“This year I feel a little off. But I feel off in every Grand Slam, except for last year. That didn’t work out for me, so maybe this is different.

“I still want to improve some things. I feel like I should be doing some things better, but every day I can see something coming through, so there’s light at the end of the tunnel.”

Williams plays Alison Van Uytvanck of Belgium in the opening round and faces a potential rematch of her US Open final against Caroline Wozniacki in the quarters. - AFP

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SU N DAY, JANUARY 18, 2015

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N O T S I L LY

Five-goal Chelsea surge clear, United move into third spot

QPR mole trying to force me out: Redknapp

COOL FINISH: Chelsea’s Diego Costa, right, scores past Swansea City’s goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski during their Premier League match in Swansea on Saturday. – AFP

LONDON: Queens Park Rangers (QPR) manager Harry Redknapp has claimed that a club insider is trying to force him out of Loftus Road, in comments published by several British newspapers on Saturday.

QPR went into the weekend’s Premier League fixtures inside the relegation zone, sparking newspaper speculation that Redknapp’s days at the west London club will be numbered if their fortunes do not improve quickly.

But Redknapp, 67, believes that he has the full support of owner Tony Fernandes and has alleged that elements within the club are trying to destabilise him.

“Somebody is trying to cause me a problem here, by talking to the papers,” Redknapp said ahead of his side’s home game with fourth-place Manchester United.

“I know what the score is: I’m not silly, I’m very streetwise.

Someone’s trying to cause me a problem, I’m sure. I wasn’t born yesterday. Someone has said something, but it’s not a problem.

“I’ve never had it before. I’ve never been at a club before where someone has said I’m going to get the sack. And I don’t see why.

Who puts it in the paper? Someone’s put it in the paper.”

He added: “They should check everyone’s mobile phones and find out. That’s the best way.

It’s easy.” - AFP

Brazil midfielder Oscar and Spain striker Diego Costa scored two goals apiece inside the opening 36 minutes as Swansea were torn to shreds

LONDON: Chelsea ran riot at Swansea City, scoring four times before halftime on the way to a 5-0 win that sent Jose Mourinho’s side five points clear in the Premier League on Saturday.

Brazil midfielder Oscar and Spain striker Diego Costa scored two apiece inside the opening 36 minutes as Swansea were torn to

shreds. Substitute Andre Schuerrle got his name on the scoresheet late in a more even second half.

“It was very good, we hit the post twice and could have got even more,” Mourinho, who will be hoping Arsenal can take points off second-placed champions Manchester City on Sunday, told Sky Sports.

Manchester United climbed

above Southampton into third spot, 12 points behind Chelsea, with second-half substitutes Marouane Fellaini and James Wilson on target in a 2-0 win at secondbottom Queens Park Rangers.

Christian Eriksen struck a late winner to give Tottenham Hotspur a seventh 2-1 league victory of the season, at home to Sunderland, and lift them above Arsenal.

Seventh-placed Liverpool’s push for a top-four finish gathered momentum when Fabio Borini and Rickie Lambert scored in a 2-0 victory at Aston Villa who have now gone five league games without a goal.

Crystal Palace recovered from 2-0 down to snatch a vital 3-2 win at fellow strugglers Burnley, their second consecutive victory since Alan Pardew took charge taking them

up to 12th. Bottom club Leicester City’s recent burst of form which had earned them seven points from three games was halted by 1-0 home loss to Stoke City, Spaniard Bojan Krkic scoring the winner.

Swansea have proved tough opponents in south Wales since joining the Premier League in 2011 and had only suffered two home defeats this season, but they were no match for a rampant Chelsea side who oozed class.

Errant pass From the moment Oscar ruthlessly punished an errant pass by Gylfi Sigurdsson in the home defence to put Chelsea ahead in the first minute the writing was on the wall for the hosts. A slick one-touch passing move ended with Costa making it 2-0 after 20 minutes and

the Spaniard made it 3-0 following more dozy Swansea defending.

Oscar’s second, a cheeky dink over busy Swans keeper Lukasz Fabianski, was followed quickly

by Willian striking the crossbar as Chelsea threatened to run up a rugby score. The fizz went out of the visitors in the second half. And they had to be content with just one more goal when Schuerrle got the final touch to deny Oscar a hat-trick.

Jose Mourinho has been tetchy lately, but offered sympathy to his Swansea counterpart Gary Monk. “There are matches that go away from our control and as managers we can’t do much,” he said.

“I can understand that he was frustrated but the only thing I can say is that it’s better to lose one match 5-0 than to lose five games 1-0,” he added. - Reuters

F RU S T R AT E D

Suso leaves Liverpool LONDON: Spanish midfielder Suso ended a frustrating fouryear spell at English Premier League side Liverpool by signing for Serie A outfit AC Milan on Saturday.

The 21-year-old played just 21 times for Liverpool since he rejected an approach from Real Madrid to sign for them in 2010 from Cadiz. “Everybody at Liverpool thanks Suso for his contribution and wishes him the best for the future,” the English club said in a statement. - Agencies

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

Troicki crushes Kukushkin to win title SYDNEY: Serbian Viktor Troicki took a big step on his comeback trail after a doping ban by ruthlessly dismantling fellow qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin 6-2, 6-3 to win the Sydney International on Saturday. The 28-year-old righthander, who returned to action last July after serving a one-year ban for missing a dope test, took just over an hour to claim his second career ATP title.

A rampant Troicki won the last four games of the first set and was 4-1 up in the second when Kukushkin took a medical timeout to have treatment on his left thigh.

The Kazakh had made his way to the final without losing a set, including in his quarter-final victory over Juan Martin Del Potro, but his mobility had been key to his progress.

The world No. 66 rallied to win the next two games for his only break of serve in the contest and offered hope of an extended contest to the neutrals on Ken Rosewall Arena.

Troicki, however, was just too strong and, roared on by vocal support from Sydney’s ethnic

Serb community, broke back before serving out the match to love, sealing victory with his 13th ace.

“We both came through the qualis so it was a tough week and we’re heading to straight to Melbourne where we play on Monday,” Tro-

icki said after receiving the trophy from Australian tennis great Rosewall. “There’s no stopping.”

Troicki will take a big boost in confidence into his first round tie at the Australian Open against Czech Jiri Vesely, who also won

an ATP title as a qualifier on Sunday at the Auckland Open.

Once ranked 12th in the world, Troicki’s victory in his second Sydney International final will send him back towards the top 50 from his current ranking of 92.

He has made it clear this week that he believes his doping ban was unfair and paid tribute to his Australian coach Jack Reader and the rest of his team for sticking with him. “They were with me throughout the hardest time that is behind me,” he said.

“They stood by me and I really appreciate that.”

Kukushkin said his injury had been a hangover from hip surgery he underwent three years ago and was not certain he would be able to face Malek Jaziri at Melbourne Park on Monday.

“Tough to say,” he told reporters. “Of course I hope I will be able to recover. Of course when I play eight days in a row it’s tough.

“But I will have day off tomorrow and fly to Melbourne. I will have a match already on Monday.

I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t know.” - Reuters

C

SECTION

LIFE & STYLE

lthough researchers have found a correlation between dealing with email and adverse well-being (for example, feeling stressed or emotionally drained), this does not mean that email itself is necessarily the culprit. (Perhaps a busier work schedule is what causes stress — and spending lots of time on email is a mere artefact of a busier work schedule.) Furthermore, such research suggests that, even if email is the culprit, the sheer volume of email that people handle might not be the problem.

This points to another possibility: Could the frequency with which you check your email play a role in causing stress? After all, three-quarters of workers report replying to email within an hour or less of receiving it, according to a recent survey of 503 employees at workplaces in the United States.

This question motivated us to design an exploratory two-week field experiment, the results of which will appear in next month’s issue of the journal Computers in Human Behaviour.

We recruited a sample of 124 adults, ranging from students and professors to physicians and IT workers. In the first week of the study, we told half our participants — chosen at random — to check their email as often as they could each day, while keeping their mailboxes open and email alerts on. Meanwhile, we asked the other participants to check email only three times a day, while keeping their mailboxes closed and alerts off.

During the second week, we flipped the instructions, so the email-maximizers became the email-minimisers, and vice versa. This design allowed us to compare how stressed the same individuals felt when they checked their email more versus less often, while keeping everything else constant.

At the end of each weekday, the participants reported how the day had gone on a wide range of measures. To assess stress, we asked them, for example, how often they felt unable to control the important things in their life and how often they had trouble coping with all the things they had to do that day.

Although the only thing we changed about the participants’ lives was how often they checked their email, we observed a significant reduction in stress when they checked email less frequently. How much less stressed did people feel during their email-minimising week compared with their emailmaximising week? The reduction in stress was about as large as the benefit people get from learning relaxation techniques (e.g., taking deep breaths, visualising peaceful imagery). In other words, cutting back on email might reduce stress as much as picturing yourself swimming in the warm waters of a tropical island several times a day.

Checking email less often may reduce stress in part by cutting down on the need to switch between tasks. An unfortunate limitation of the human mind is that it cannot perform two demanding tasks simultaneously, so flipping back and forth between two different tasks saps cognitive resources. As a result, people can become less efficient in each of the tasks they need to accomplish. In addition to providing an unending source of new tasks for our to-do lists, email could also be making us less efficient at accomplishing those tasks.

Indeed, although the participants in our study sent and received roughly the same number of emails during both weeks, they reported doing so in approximately 20 per cent less time during the week when they checked their email less frequently. Constantly monitoring our inboxes promotes stress without promoting efficiency. When it comes to checking email, less might be more.

But habits are difficult to break. Even when we asked participants to check email only three times a day, they typically admitted to logging in almost five times a day. And while writing this article about the value of cutting back on email, we found our own eyes drawn toward our inboxes.

For some individuals, though, checking email less frequently is simply not an option. The stockbroker who misses a million-dollar deal by logging off email is likely to feel more, not less, stressed.

That said, most of us probably check our email more often than is truly necessary to get our job done. A recent survey found that 55 per cent of workers reported checking their email after 11 p.m. — and 6 per cent reported checking email while they or their spouse were in labour. (One of the authors of this article admits to falling into this 6 per cent.)

Far from offering a magic number that works for all, our findings simply suggest that making the effort to close the gap between necessity and compulsion is worthwhile. So if you’re still hunting for a New Year’s resolution, try to resist visiting your inbox as often as you feel compelled to do. — Kostadin Kushlev and Elizabeth W. Dunn/The New York Times News Service

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM S U N DAY, JAN UARY 1 8, 2 0 1 5

C8

SU N DAY, JANUARY 18, 2015

EXTRA HOW THE BRAIN’S SENSE OF DIRECTION WAS FOUND GYM

TAILOR

BANK

PARENTS IN LAW GROCERY STORE AROUND THE CORNER

HYPERMARKET

AIRPORT

OFFICE KIDS SCHOOL COFFEE SHOP HOME SWEET HOME

The strength of activity in this region of the brain is linked to a person’s navigational skills: less activity means a less accurate sense of direction

I

f you have taken a walk and would like to return home you need to have an idea of where you are in relation to your destination. To do this, you need to know which way you are facing and also in which direction home lies. This all seems fairly instinctive to humans and other animals, so how do we manage it?

Our understanding of this surprisingly difficult question has just taken a step forward in a new paper written by Michael Chadwick and colleagues and published in the journal Current Biology, which pinpoints where in the brain our instinctive sense of the direction towards our destination lies.

One way to successfully navigate from any point to a destination is to learn and remember information about your surroundings and use this information to orient yourself. But the process of learning this spatial information suggests there must be some sort of representation of that information stored somewhere in the brain. This could be thought of as a sort of neuronal map — a way of encoding space that maps information about your surroundings onto your brain cells.

Such a map would allow you to find your way around — a vital ability for any animal’s survival. Working out how the brain stores information about space and how this enables us to find our way around efficiently has been the focus of a concerted effort over the past few decades.

Looking for maps in the brain In the late 1970s, the so-called “seat of the cognitive map” was discovered in rats in an area of the brain called the hippocampus. Par-

ticular neurons were shown to fire when a rat travelled in a specific area of an experimental arena. Subsequent work showed that these neurons were tightly coupled to space — they were named place cells.

The question then turned to the nature of precisely what information is learned and remembered. Through a clever set of experiments the rats were found to encode and store information that related to both distance and direction. Information about distance is stored within part of the hippocampus called the entorhinal cortex, the so-called grid cells.

These grid cells fire in a tessellating pattern when an animal travels and seem to operate a bit like graph paper, providing an animal with a sense of the distance travelled. Information about direction is stored in head direction cells, which fire when an animal is facing a particular direction (north, for example).

All these pieces of information are fed into the place cells, which bring it all together — hence why we really can consider the hippocampus to contain our own internal, spatial map. This was so significant to our understanding of how the brain operates that the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology was awarded to John O’Keefe, who was the first to identify place cells, and Edvard and MayBritt Moser, who discovered grid cells.

So we have an idea of how animals encode a mental map, and how they know which direction they are facing. But, to make use of this and follow its sense of direction, an animal also needs to know in which direction home lies.

The paper’s authors have established where this information is stored in the brain, and how it might be used to orient a human or animal.

An internal compass In their experiment, human subjects were given a virtual reality environment to explore and learn, and then asked to make judgements about in which direction a destination lay working entirely from memory. At the same time the subjects’ brains were scanned using fMRI, which measures brain activity by monitoring changes in blood flow. By looking at the patterns of which neurons fired in response to the task of navigating their way around, the researchers found the activity was centred on the entorhinal cortex, indicating this was the brain’s “internal compass” and the source of this sense of direction.

Interestingly, the pattern of neuronal firing is remarkably similar when someone is facing in the goal direction to when they simply imagine the direction of the goal. The researchers suggest that the brain can use this property of the neurones to simulate the intended direction in the brain without actually moving. They assume that head direction cells switch from one role to another, so that they are initially involved in representing the current heading direction, before switching to simulating the goal direction.

In this way, the neurones can aid in planning the route home.

The strength of the activity in this region of the brain is linked to a person’s navigational skills — less activity means a less accurate sense of direction. It’s also the area of the brain that is one of the first damaged by diseases such as Alzheimer’s, which may explain why becoming lost and confused is a common early problem in sufferers.

-Theresa Burt de Perera, Tim Guilford/The Independent

S U N DAY, JAN UARY 1 8, 2 0 1 5

C9

ENTERTAINMENT CINEMA SCHEDULE

BAHJA CINEMA Taken 3 (2D) (Action | Crime) (12+) Cast: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker, Maggie Grace 3:00, 7:15, 9:30, 11:45 pm I (2D) (Action | Fantasy) (12+) Cast: Chiyaan Vikram, Amy Jackson, Upen Patel; 8:15 pm The Theory of Everything (2D) (Biography | Drama) (PG12) Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Tom Prior; 5:15, 7:30 pm 13 Sin (2D) (Horror | Thriller) (18+) Cast: Mark Webber, Devon Graye, Tom Bower; 9:45, 11:30 pm The Snow Queen: Magic of the Ice Mirror (2D) (Animation) (TBC) Voice Overs: Anna Shurochkina, Ivan okhlobystin, Anna Khilkevich 2:00 pm The Snow Queen: Magic of the Ice Mirror (3D) (Animation) (TBC) 3:30, 5:00 pm Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll Never have Paris (2D) (Com) Cast: Melanie Lynskey, Nancy Marlowe 6:30 pm Seventh Son (2D) (Adv) (PG12) Cast: Ben Barnes, Julianne Moore 5:15 pm Seventh Son (3D) (Adv) (PG12) 11:45 pm

Snow Queen-Magic Of The Ice Mirror (2D)(Animation) (PG) Voice Overs: Anna Shurochkina, Anna Khilkevich; 2:00pm Snow Queen-Magic Of The Ice Mirror (3D): (Animation) (PG) 03:30 PM & 05:00

SCREEN 3 Shankarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153; Iâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Tamil (Thriller) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Hindi (12 +) 12.30 pm Sharafat Gayi Tel Lene (Comedy) Cast: Zayed Khan, Rannvijay Singh, 3.45, 6.45 pm Tevar (Action) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; PG12 Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha 9.45 pm

The Imitation Game (2D): (Biography/Thriller) (12+) Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode Gold Class: 2:00 pm Taken-3 (2D) (Act/Thriller) (12+) Cast: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker 11:30am, 7:45, 9:45 & 11:45 pm Gold Class: 4:15, 9:00 & 11:15pm 13 Sins (2D): (Horror/Thriller) (18+) Cast: Mark Webber, Devon Graye 1:30 & 11:45 pm The Theory Of Everything (2D): (Biography/Drama) (PG 12) 3:15 & 5:30 pm Gold Class: 6:30 pm Feng Shui (Tagalog) (2D) (Hor) (15+) 6:30 pm I (Tamil) (2D) (Act/Thriller) (12+) 10:30 am I (Hindi) (2D) (Action/Thriller) (12+) Cast: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Chiyaanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Vikram, Amy Jackson 8:20 pm

Tevar â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2D (PG12) Action Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha 11:15 pm The Snow Queen: Magic of the Ice Mirror â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2D (PG) Animation Voice Overs: Anna Shurochkina 6:15 pm

Seventh Son â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2D (PG12) (Adv) Cast: Ben Barnes, Julianne Moore 5:30pm Seventh Son â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 3D (PG12) (Adv) 10:00pm Taken 3 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2D (12+) Crime | Thriller Cast: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker 3:30, 7:30, 9:30 & 11:30 pm The Snow Queen: Magic of the Ice Mirror â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 3D (PG) Animation Voice Overs: Anna Shurochkina, Ivan Okhlobystin, Anna Khilkevich 3:30, 5:00 pm I (Hindi) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2D (12+) (Action) Cast: Anna Shurochkina, Ivan Okhlobystin, Anna Khilkevich 6:30 & 11:00 pm I (Tamil) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2D (12+) (Action) 7:45 pm 13 Sins â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2D (18+) Horror | Thriller Cast: Mark Webber, Devon Graye 11:55 pm Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll Never Have Paris â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2D (PG12) (Comedy | Romance) Cast: Melanie Lynskey, Geoffrey Cantor, Nancy Marlowe 3:30, 7:15 pm The Theory of Everything â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2D (PG12)(Biography | Drama | Romance) Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Tom Prior 4:00, 5:00, 9:00 pm

SCREEN 1 Shankarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;? - Hindi - (Thriller)(12+) Cast: Vikram, Amy Jackson, Suresh 3:30 pm Shankarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Hindi (Thr) (12+) 7:00, 10:30 pm SCREEN 2 Shankarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153; Iâ&#x20AC;? - Hindi - (Thril) (12+ ) 12:30 pm Alone - Hindi - (Thriller | Horror) Cast: Bipasha Basu, Karan Singh 3.45, 9.45 pm P. K (Comedy | Drama | Social) (PG ) Cast: Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma 6:45pm

Snow Queen 2: Magic Of Ice Mirror (3D) (Animation | Adventure) (PG) Voice Overs: Anna Shurochkina, Ivan Okhlobystin, Anna Khilkevich 3:00, 5:00 pm Taken 3 (Crime | Thriller) (12+) Cast: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker, Maggie Grace 4:30, 6:30, 9:45 & 11:45pm I (Tamil) (Action | Fantasy ) (12+) Cast: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Chiyaanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Vikram, Amy Jackson, Upen Patel 8:30 pm Tevar (Action | Romance) (PG12) Cast: Arjun Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha and Manoj Bajpayee 3:30, 8:00 pm 13 Sins (Horror | Thriller) (18+) Cast: Mark Webber, Devon Graye 3:15, 6:15, 11:45 pm I (Hindi) (Action | Fantasy) (12+) Cast: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Chiyaanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Vikram, Amy Jackson 6:30 & 10:45pm

Seventh Son (3D) (Adv| Fan) (PG12) Cast: Ben Barnes, Julianne Moore 11:15pm Seventh Son (2D) (Adv | Fa) (PG12) Cast: Ben Barnes, Julianne Moore 5:30pm

I (Tamil) (Action | ) (12+) Cast: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Chiyaanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Vikram, Amy Jackson, Upen Patel; 12:15, 8:00 pm Taken-3 (Action | Crime) (12+) Cast: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker, Maggie Grace 1:30, 3:30, 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 pm The Snow Queen: Magic of the Ice Mirror (3D) (Anim/ Family) (PG) Voice Overs: Anna Shurochkina, Ivan 3:30, 5:00, 6:30 pm

Taken 3 (2D/12+) (Action) Cast: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker, Maggie Grace 3:45, 7:45, 9:45, 11:45pm Seventh Son (3D/PG12) (Adv) Cast: Ben Barnes, Julianne Moore 8:45pm Seventh Son (2D/PG12) (Adv) 5:45PM The Snow Queen: 2 (2D/PG) (Animation/Adventure/Family) 11:15am The Snow Queen: 2 (3D/PG) (Animation/Adventure/Family) 2:00, 3:30, 5:00pm The Theory of Everything (2D/ PG12) (Biography) Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones 2:45, 6:30pm 13 Sins (2D/18+) (Horror/Thriller) Cast: Mark Webber, Devon Graye, Tom Bower 12:45 & 11:30pm I â&#x20AC;&#x201C; (Tamil) (2D/12+) (Action) 5:00, 8:15pm I â&#x20AC;&#x201C; (Hindi) (2D/12+) (Action) Cast: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Chiyaanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Vikram, Amy Jackson 12:15, 10:45pm

Taken 3 (Action) Cast: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace Cast: 4.00, 8.00, 10.00 & 11.55 pm CP No: 2015 /153 (12+) Seventh Son (Adventure/Fantasy) Cast: Jeff Bridges, Ben Barnes, Alicia Vikander Kit Harington 8.15 pm; CP No: 2015/62 (PG 12 ) 13 SIN (Horror-/Thriller) Cast: Mark Webber, Devon Graye 4.15, 10.15 & 11.55pm CP No: 2015/154 (18+) The Theory of Everything (Drama) Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Tom Prior 2.00 & 6.00 pm; CP No: 2015/155 (15+) Snow Queen 2 The Snow King (Animation) Voice Overs: Anna Shurochkina, Ivan Okhlobystin, Anna Khilkevich 2.00 & 6.00 pm CP No: 2015/156 (U)

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

STARS CINEMA Film information 24791641 / 24786776 â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;? (Tamil) ( Action\Thriller) Cast: Vikram, Amy Jackson and Suresh Gopi 3:00, 6:30 & 10:00pm Cinema Main Mylanchi Monchulla Veedu (Mal) (Rom/Com) Cast: Jayram & Asif Ali 3:45, 6:45 & 9:45pm Cinema 4 Chinnadana Nee Kosam (Telugu) (Com) Cast: Nitin Reddy & Misnti 3:30, 6:30 & 9:30pm Cinema 2 P K (Hindi) (Comedy) Cast: Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma and Sanjay Dutt 3:45, 6:45 & 9:45 pm Cinema-3 NEXT CHANGE: Nagaravaridhi Naduvil Njaan

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

ACES ON BRIDGE

A unique defence on a unique way

SUDOKU

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. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Seven Galaxies

MARMADUKE

CROSSWORD

B I G NAT E

49 50 51 52 53 54 55

wds.)

Matinee â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Johnny â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Kind of model Verneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s skipper Coast Guard off.

Upstream spawner Shocked reaction

DOWN 1 Munch 2 Give a fresh look 3 Swift horse 4 Frolics 5 High dudgeon 6 Moccasin decoration 7 Goof it up 8 Kind of switch 9 Amt. 10 Search engine ďŹ nd 11 Peacock spot 17 Alley from Moo 19 22 23 24 25 26 27

Refrain syllables Dogâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bark Perched Where Havana is Matures Blow gently Kon-Tiki Museum

28 29 32 33 35 36 38 39 41

site Hunky-dory Pamplona shout Wheel buy (2 wds.)

Egging on Not these or those Ms. Lupino Add- â&#x20AC;&#x201D; (extras) Wined and dined Maui dance

42 I had no â&#x20AC;&#x201D;!

43 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; de plume 44 Mashed potato serving 45 Game or season opener 46 Farm ďŹ&#x201A;apper 47 Pecs neighbor 48 Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m impressed!

BORN LOSER

Answer to previous puzzle

ACROSS 1 Rocky ledge 5 Help go wrong 9 What, in Seville 12 Consort of Zeus 13 Successor to Claudius 14 Give it a go 15 Mild cheese 16 Grotesque water spout 18 Nearly fell 20 Attend 21 Dory mover 22 Andes ruminant 26 Merino and angora 29 Mine ďŹ nd 30 Carry with difficulty 31 Questions 32 Visitor from Melmac 33 Scoff at 34 Gator Bowl st.

35 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; for the books 36 Specks 37 Corolla, e.g.

39 Rx monitor 40 Vt. neighbour 41 Caption 45 Discontinue (2

SADHIYAMOL

January 18, 2011

ANTONIO FERNANDES January 18, 2009

GOVIND HARIKUMAR January 18, 2003

Previous puzzle Solution

EACH year the International Bridge Press Association gives awards for excellence in various categories. The personality of last year was Patrick Huang from Chinese Taipei.

He ďŹ rst represented his country internationally at the senior level at age 15, in the Far East Championships. That was a record until beaten by 14-year-old Agustin Madala, who played for Argentina in the 2001 South American Championships.

Huang also led Chinese Taipei to the ďŹ nal of the most prestigious event of all, the Bermuda Bowl World Team Championship, in 1969 and 1970.

Huang is one of the best and most-liked players of all time. The diagramed deal occurred during a world individual championship, and Huang was the only player to ďŹ nd the right defense.

South was in four spades. West led the diamond queen. What did Huang (East) do?

At all of the nine tables, South was in spades, ďŹ ve times in game and four times in a partscore. At eight tables, East took the ďŹ rst trick with his diamond ace and returned a diamond. The declarers won with their king and played three rounds of clubs. In a moment, South ruffed a club in the dummy and took 10 tricks: ďŹ ve spades, one heart, one diamond, two clubs and that club ruff.

Huang, anticipating this, took the ďŹ rst trick and shifted to a trump.

When declarer conceded a club trick, Huang led his second spade to kill the ruff. South was held to nine tricks, giving Huang and his partner a cold top.

Phillip Alder

WITH LOVE

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 parentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;/your name to Times of Oman, With Love, PO Box 770, PC 112, Ruwi or through e-mail to extra@timesofoman.com

KIDSPOT

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

C10

SUN DAY, JANUARY 18, 2015

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

BORN today, you don’t seem to be aware of the extent of your own talents. As a result, you will never be tempted to rest on your laurels.

Indeed, you are driven to work hard at all times — often harder than anyone else. When one job is done, you are usually already deeply immersed in the next. You have tremendous skill that, when combined with your natural charisma, can make it possible for you to climb to the pinnacle of success and stay there for a very long time. Once you make it, you’re not likely to find yourself slipping at all; only your own decision to call it quits can stop your upward momentum. Despite all this, you will never be completely certain that you are as good as people say you are!

When it comes to your personal life, you can be far more unconventional than you seem in public. You are often willing to try things that others would certainly pass up for fear that they would embarrass themselves through bad behavior or outright failure. You don’t let such fears hold you back — usually.

Also born on this date are: Karan Brar, actor; Oliver Hardy, actor and comedian; Cary Grant, actor; Danny Kaye, actor and comedian; Jason Segel, actor; Kevin Costner, actor and filmmaker; Becca Tobin, actress; A.A. Milne, author; Daniel Webster, politician; John Boorman, filmmaker.

W E AT H E R

The success of much that is going on depends on your own personal power as much as anything else — and it running high at this time.

You’re likely to receive positive feedback, but you may not be completely satisfied. You were looking for more.

PISCES

[Feb. 19-March 20] You’re ready to undertake something a little more serious than what you’ve engaged in before. You have what it takes.

ARIES

[March 21-APRIL 19] Your ability to see things the way they are will surely serve you well — and those around you, also. Many will show their gratitude.

TAURUS

[APRIL 20-MAY 20] You may be wondering where the sparks are, but you’ll also realise that much has changed in the past year.

Something new beckons.

GEMINI

[MAY 21-JUNE 20] What you do today will only be the beginning; look farther down the road, and you’ll see where you are going. You’ll lead others there, as well.

CANCER

[JUNE 21-JULY 22] You may not understand exactly what someone else is trying to tell you. Instead of turning away, work harder to maintain contact.

LEO

[JULY 23-AUG. 22] You only have to do things one at a time in order to stay on schedule, and you can surely do that. No one expects miracles.

VIRGO

[AUG. 23-SEPT. 22] You’ve given others a great deal to think about lately. It is now your turn to ponder a few big questions that have no easy answers.

LIBRA L

[[SEPT. [S S 23-OCT. 22] You’re in for something quite spectacular — if you are willing to sit patiently and wait for just the right moment to come.

SCORPIO S

[[OCT. 23-NOV. 21] You may not get the kind of support you had hoped for, but what you do get will prove meaningful in a way you hadn’t expected.

SAGITTARIUS S [[NOV. 22-DEC. 21]

Giving someone a hand shouldn’t be difficult, but getting from here to there may be more problematic than expected.

5:43pm 6:51am

High tide Low tide

6:39am 1:20am

WORLD

Max 26 Min 16 Max 6 Min 0

Max 17 Min 9

Max 25 Min 15 Max 4 Min -1

Max 24 Min 14

Max 2 Min -2

Max 28 Min 9

Max 25 Min 12

Max 26 Min 10

Max 25 Min 15

Max 27 Min 12

Max 29 Min 20

Max 22 Min 12

—www.met.gov.om

Max 27 Min 21 Max 28 Min 19

FROM MUSCAT (RUWI) 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

GULF Abu Dhabi Doha Dubai Kuwait Manama Riyadh

24 22 26 16 20 18

14 14 17 6 13 6

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

16 16 6 3 6 21 32 4 19 9 24 32 14 8 28 28 11 3

11 5 -5 -2 3 9 23 2 11 6 10 23 8 1 17 24 0 -3

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

TO MUSCAT (RUWI) 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

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

16:50 19:30

Daily Daily

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

10:20 12:30

TO SUR (Route 55) 07:30 Sur 14:30 Sur TO FAHUD - YIBAL (Route 62) 06:30 Fahud 06:30 Yibal

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

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

08:40 11:00

Daily Daily

Daily Daily

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

17:55 20:20

Daily Daily

12:00 18:45

Daily Daily

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

10:45 19:00

Daily Daily

10:30 11:15

Daily Daily

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

13:15 17:30

Daily Daily

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

Daily Daily Daily Daily

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

Daily Daily Daily Daily

TO MARMUL (Route 101) 06:00 Marmul

Daily

TO MARMUL (Route 101) 06:00 Marmul

16:30

Daily

Daily

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

Daily

16:50

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

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

Daily Daily Wed,Thur Wed,Thur Daily Daily

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

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

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

Daily Daily Thur-Fri Thur-Fri Daily Daily

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

LISTINGS

PHARMACIES Round the clock Al Hashar Pharmacy, Ruwi: 24783334; Appolo Medical Centre, Hamriya: 24782666; Muscat Pharmacy, Ruwi: 24702542, Salalah: 23291635; Atlas Pharmacy, Ghubra: 24503585 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:

SUNDAY

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

[JAN. 20-FEB. 18]

Sunset Sunrise (Tomorrow) 8:13pm 1.01pm

wave height of 2.0 metres and slight along Oman coasts and Musandam western coast with a maximum wave height of 1.25 metre.

HORIZONTAL VISIBILITY: Good over most of the Sultanate becoming poor during fog.

THE NEXT 48 HOURS OUTLOOK: Clear to partly cloudy skies over the governorates of Musandam, Al-Batinah, Al-Dhahira, Al-Buraimi, Al-Dakhliah, Muscat and north Al-Sharqiya may give some isolated rains.

Moderate to rough sea state along Musandam Western coats and Oman Sea coast with a maximum wave height of 2.75 metres.

Max

OMAN

AQUARIUS

12.22pm 3.27pm 5.48pm 7.02pm 5.32am

AIRLINES

Mainly clear skies over most of the Sultanate with chances of late night to early morning low level clouds or fog patches over governorates of Al-Dhahira, south Al-Sharqiya, Al-Wusta, Dhofar and most of the coastal areas of the Sultanate.

EXPECTED WIND: Along the coastal area of Oman Sea wind will be northeasterly light to moderate during day becoming variable light at night while, along the coastal area of Arabian Sea wind will be northeasterly light to moderate and over the rest of the Sultanate wind will be easterly to southeasterly light to moderate.

SEA STATE: Moderate along the southeastern coast with a maximum

CAPRICORN [DEC. 22-JAN 19]

PRAYER TIMINGS

Dhuhr Asr Maghrib Isha Fajr (Tomorrow)

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

FLT NO

ARRIVALS FROM

WY406 WY676 WY682 WY648 WY904 WY816 WY824 WY916 4H583 NL669 TK776 QR1132 ET624 EK866 GF560 EY384 FZ041 WY324 WY686 WY902 4H584 WY638 WY658 WY668 WY674 WY602 WY202 WY102 FZ043 WY274 NL768 G9114 WY236 WY242 WY226 EK862 WY252 WY212 WY346 QR1128 EY382 IX549 WY3302 WY282 WY3922 WY604 G9841 WY372 FZ037 WY424 IX337 PK223 WY606 WY918 WY906 WY812 WY656 WY632 FZ045 WY204 WY292 WY610 WY246 WY264 WY232 WY664 QR1126 GF564 WY3306 G9116 WY254 TG507 FZ047 WY434 WY614 WY914 WY386 WY152 WY312 WY116 WY124 KL441 WY144 AI973 WY624 6.00E+81 WY134 WY414 FZ049 AI907 QR1134 UL205 GF566 EY388 BA073 WY908 AI985 WY648 LX242 9W540 WY654 LH618 WY612 WY696 WY910 WY928 WY717

MONDAY ETA

FLT NO

ARRIVALS FROM

CAIRO 0005 JEDDAH 0005 RIYADH 0005 KUWAIT 0010 SALALAH 0015 BANGKOK 0015 KUALA LUMPUR 0055 SALALAH 0150 DACCA 0200 SIALKOT 0200 ISTANBUL-BAHRAIN 0300 DOHA 0345 ADDIS ABABA 0350 DUBAI 0355 BAHRAIN 0405 ABU DHABI 0405 DUBAI 0415 KARACHI 0540 RIYADH 0600 SALALAH 0630 DOHA 0640 ABU DHABI 0650 BAHRAIN 0700 DOHA 0710 JEDDAH 0730 DUBAI 0805 BOMBAY 0815 LONDON HEATHROW 0820 DUBAI 0850 JAIPUR 0855 LAHORE 0900 SHARJAH 0915 HYDERABAD 0920 DELHI 0920 COCHIN 0930 DUBAI 0940 MADRAS 0940 TRIVANDRUM 0940 ISLAM ABBAD 0955 DOHA 1010 ABU DHABI 1015 TRIVANDRUM 1020 MUKHAIZNA 1045 BANGALORE 1100 DUQUM OMAN 1105 DUBAI 1110 RAS AL KHAIMA 1120 COLOMBO 1130 DUBAI 1200 BEIRUT 1205 CALICUT 1210 PESHAWAR 1220 DUBAI 1330 KHASAB 1440 SALALAH 1445 BANGKOK 1525 BAHRAIN 1530 ABU DHABI 1535 DUBAI 1555 BOMBAY 1710 CALICUT 1720 DUBAI 1730 DELHI 1730 LUCKNOW 1735 HYDERABAD 1740 DOHA 1745 DOHA 1745 BAHRAIN 1810 MUKHAIZNA 1845 SHARJAH 1915 MADRAS 1920 BANGKOK-KARACHI 1935 DUBAI 1945 TEHRAN 2000 DUBAI 2030 SALALAH 2035 MALE 2110 ZURICH 2110 CHITTAGONG 2115 FRANKFURT 2115 MUNICH 2115 AMSTERDAM-DOHA 2120 MALPENSA 2120 DELHI 2125 DUBAI 2125 BOMBAY 2130 PARIS 2130 AMMAN 2135 DUBAI 2145 MADRAS 2200 DOHA 2210 COLOMBO 2225 BAHRAIN 2240 ABU DHABI 2250 LONDON HEATHROW-ABU DHABI 2255 SALALAH 2305 AHMEDABAD-BOMBAY 2310 KUWAIT 2315 ZURICH-DUBAI 2320 BOMBAY 2325 BAHRAIN 2330 FRANKFURT-ABU DHABI 2330 DUBAI 2335 DAMMAM 2350 SALALAH 2355 SALALAH 2355 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM 2355

WY676 WY406 WY682 BG021 WY916 4H583 TK776 QR1132 EK866 GF560 EY384 FZ041 WY902 WY638 WY638 WY324 WY686 WY658 WY674 WY672 WY602 WY202 WY102 FZ043 G9114 WY242 WY236 WY918 WY226 WY252 WY212 WY346 EK862 QR1128 EY382 9W530 WY342 WY272 WY282 WY604 WY372 FZ037 WY384 IX337 WY332 PA450 WY904 WY818 WY606 WY3302 WY906 WY656 WY632 FZ045 WY204 WY292 WY610 WY246 WY3304 WY264 WY232 WY664 QR1126 EK864 GF564 WY3922 WY646 G9116 WY254 FZ047 WY434 WY614 AI977 KL441 WY624 AI973 WY312 6.00E+81 WY414 9W534 FZ049 AI907 QR1134 WY338 GF566 EY388 BA073 SG061 WY908 AI985 WY662 LX242 9W540 WY654 LH618 WY612 WY914 WY696 WY636 WY717 WY910

JEDDAH 0005 CAIRO 0005 RIYADH 0005 DACCA-CHITTAGONG 0100 SALALAH 0150 DACCA 0200 ISTANBUL-BAHRAIN 0300 DOHA 0345 DUBAI 0355 BAHRAIN 0405 ABU DHABI 0405 DUBAI 0415 SALALAH 0630 ABU DHABI 0650 ABU DHABI 0650 KARACHI 0700 RIYADH 0700 BAHRAIN 0700 JEDDAH 0730 MEDINA 0745 DUBAI 0805 BOMBAY 0815 LONDON HEATHROW 0820 DUBAI 0850 SHARJAH 0915 DELHI 0920 HYDERABAD 0920 KHASAB 0930 COCHIN 0930 MADRAS 0940 TRIVANDRUM 0940 ISLAM ABBAD 0940 DUBAI 0940 DOHA 1010 ABU DHABI 1015 TRIVANDRUM 1035 LAHORE 1100 JAIPUR 1100 BANGALORE 1100 DUBAI 1110 COLOMBO 1140 DUBAI 1200 MALE 1205 CALICUT 1210 KATHMANDU 1210 LAHORE 1215 SALALAH 1215 BANGKOK 1235 DUBAI 1330 MUKHAIZNA 1330 SALALAH 1415 BAHRAIN 1530 ABU DHABI 1535 DUBAI 1555 BOMBAY 1710 CALICUT 1720 DUBAI 1730 DELHI 1730 MUKHAIZNA 1730 LUCKNOW 1735 HYDERABAD 1740 DOHA 1745 DOHA 1745 DUBAI 1800 BAHRAIN 1810 DUQUM OMAN 1900 KUWAIT 1900 SHARJAH 1915 MADRAS 1920 DUBAI 1945 TEHRAN 2000 DUBAI 2030 BANGALORE-HYDERABAD 2105 AMSTERDAM-DOHA 2120 DUBAI 2125 DELHI 2125 CHITTAGONG 2125 BOMBAY 2130 AMMAN 2135 COCHIN 2140 DUBAI 2145 MADRAS 2200 DOHA 2210 KATHMANDU 2235 BAHRAIN 2240 ABU DHABI 2250 LONDON HEATHROW-ABU DHABI 2250 AHMEDABAD 2300 SALALAH 2305 AHMEDABAD-BOMBAY 2310 DOHA 2315 ZURICH-DUBAI 2320 BOMBAY 2325 BAHRAIN 2330 FRANKFURT-ABU DHABI 2330 DUBAI 2335 SALALAH 2345 DAMMAM 2350 ABU DHABI 2350 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM 2355 SALALAH 2355

FLT NO

DEPARTURES TO

FLT NO

DEPARTURES TO

AI986 LX243 BA072 9W539 LH619 WY685 WY811 WY323 WY211 WY251 WY201 WY225 WY235 WY273 WY601 WY341 WY151 WY241 WY281 WY423 WY657 WY637 WY371 WY123 WY133 WY115 WY667 WY143 WY345 4H584 NL772 TK777 ET625 EK867 FZ042 QR1133 EY385 WY3301 WY3921 4H584 GF561 WY903 WY603 WY291 WY263 FZ044 WY245 WY231 G9115 WY905 WY203 NL769 WY605 WY253 WY311 WY717 EK863 EY383 IX554 WY655 QR1129 WY3303 WY917 WY331 G9842 WY631 IX350 FZ038 PK224 WY663 WY413 WY101 WY433 WY927 WY609 WY405 WY3305 WY675 WY913 FZ046 WY613 WY623 WY681 QR1127 WY907 GF565 WY647 WY661 WY695 WY653 WY909 G9117 WY611 WY635 FZ048 TG508 WY825 WY915 FZ050 KL442 WY817 6.00E+82 AI908 AI974 QR1135 GF567 UL206 EY381 WY673 WY901 WY671

BOMBAY 0005 DUBAI-ZURICH 0020 ABU DHABI-LONDON HEATHROW 0025 BOMBAY 0025 ABU DHABI-FRANKFURT 0050 RIYADH 0105 BANGKOK 0105 KARACHI 0105 TRIVANDRUM 0110 MADRAS 0110 BOMBAY 0120 COCHIN 0125 HYDERABAD 0135 JAIPUR 0140 DUBAI 0150 LAHORE 0150 ZURICH 0155 DELHI 0155 BANGALORE 0200 BEIRUT 0200 BAHRAIN 0205 ABU DHABI 0205 COLOMBO 0210 MUNICH 0210 PARIS 0215 FRANKFURT 0215 DOHA 0220 MALPENSA 0225 ISLAM ABBAD 0250 DUBAI-DACCA 0300 PESHAWAR 0330 BAHRAIN-ISTANBUL 0350 ADDIS ABABA 0450 DUBAI 0455 DUBAI 0510 DOHA 0520 ABU DHABI 0525 MUKHAIZNA 0715 DUQUM OMAN 0720 DACCA 0740 BAHRAIN 0745 SALALAH 0800 DUBAI 0800 CALICUT 0920 LUCKNOW 0920 DUBAI 0935 DELHI 0955 HYDERABAD 0955 SHARJAH 1005 SALALAH 1030 BOMBAY 1030 LAHORE 1030 DUBAI 1030 MADRAS 1040 CHITTAGONG 1040 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM 1045 DUBAI 1055 ABU DHABI 1105 TRIVANDRUM 1110 BAHRAIN 1110 DOHA 1115 MUKHAIZNA 1115 KHASAB 1140 KATHMANDU 1205 RAS AL KHAIMA 1210 ABU DHABI 1225 CALICUT 1310 DUBAI 1315 PESHAWAR 1320 DOHA 1330 AMMAN 1330 LONDON HEATHROW 1330 TEHRAN 1340 SALALAH 1415 DUBAI 1420 CAIRO 1430 MUKHAIZNA 1515 JEDDAH 1630 SALALAH 1630 DUBAI 1700 DUBAI 1700 DUBAI 1820 RIYADH 1845 DOHA 1845 SALALAH 1850 BAHRAIN 1855 KUWAIT 1900 DOHA 1900 DAMMAM 1910 BAHRAIN 1910 SALALAH 1940 SHARJAH 2005 DUBAI 2025 ABU DHABI 2030 DUBAI 2040 KARACHI-BANGKOK 2040 KUALA LUMPUR 2110 SALALAH 2135 DUBAI 2225 DOHA-AMSTERDAM 2230 BANGKOK 2235 BOMBAY 2245 MADRAS 2300 DELHI 2310 DOHA 2320 BAHRAIN 2325 COLOMBO 2335 ABU DHABI 2350 JEDDAH 2350 SALALAH 2350 MEDINA 2350

AI986 LX243 9W539 BA072 LH619 WY685 WY211 WY251 WY201 WY225 WY235 WY601 WY345 WY341 WY241 WY281 WY637 WY657 WY323 WY371 WY667 WY383 BG022 4H584 TK777 WY271 EK867 FZ042 QR1133 EY385 WY917 GF561 WY3931 WY903 WY603 WY291 WY263 FZ044 WY245 WY231 WY3301 G9115 WY815 WY905 WY203 WY605 WY311 WY253 WY717 EK863 EY383 WY655 QR1129 9W533 WY631 IX350 WY337 PA451 FZ038 WY413 WY101 WY663 WY433 WY645 WY113 WY3303 WY153 WY121 WY131 WY609 WY405 WY3921 WY675 WY613 FZ046 WY623 WY681 QR1127 WY907 GF565 WY647 WY661 WY653 WY695 EK865 WY909 WY913 G9117 WY611 WY635 FZ048 WY915 AI978 FZ050 WY421 KL442 9W529 WY411 6.00E+82 AI908 AI974 QR1135 GF567 WY434 WY673 EY381

BOMBAY 0005 DUBAI-ZURICH 0020 BOMBAY 0025 ABU DHABI-LONDON HEATHROW 0025 ABU DHABI-FRANKFURT 0050 RIYADH 0105 TRIVANDRUM 0110 MADRAS 0110 BOMBAY 0120 COCHIN 0125 HYDERABAD 0135 DUBAI 0150 ISLAM ABBAD 0150 LAHORE 0150 DELHI 0155 BANGALORE 0200 ABU DHABI 0205 BAHRAIN 0205 KARACHI 0210 COLOMBO 0210 DOHA 0220 MALE 0235 CHITTAGONG-DACCA 0250 DACCA 0300 BAHRAIN-ISTANBUL 0350 JAIPUR 0350 DUBAI 0455 DUBAI 0510 DOHA 0520 ABU DHABI 0525 KHASAB 0630 BAHRAIN 0745 SOHAR 0800 SALALAH 0800 DUBAI 0800 CALICUT 0920 LUCKNOW 0920 DUBAI 0935 DELHI 0955 HYDERABAD 0955 MUKHAIZNA 1000 SHARJAH 1005 BANGKOK 1010 SALALAH 1020 BOMBAY 1030 DUBAI 1030 CHITTAGONG 1040 MADRAS 1040 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM 1045 DUBAI 1055 ABU DHABI 1105 BAHRAIN 1110 DOHA 1115 COCHIN 1135 ABU DHABI 1225 CALICUT 1310 KATHMANDU 1310 LAHORE 1315 DUBAI 1315 AMMAN 1330 LAHORE 1330 DOHA 1330 TEHRAN 1340 KUWAIT 1340 FRANKFURT 1345 MUKHAIZNA 1400 MALPENSA-ZURICH 1405 MUNICH 1415 PARIS 1420 DUBAI 1420 CAIRO 1430 DUQUM OMAN 1515 JEDDAH 1630 DUBAI 1700 DUBAI 1700 DUBAI 1820 RIYADH 1845 DOHA 1845 SALALAH 1850 BAHRAIN 1855 KUWAIT 1900 DOHA 1900 BAHRAIN 1910 DAMMAM 1910 DUBAI 1915 SALALAH 1940 SALALAH 1950 SHARJAH 2005 DUBAI 2025 ABU DHABI 2030 DUBAI 2040 SALALAH 2135 HYDERABAD-BANGALORE 2200 DUBAI 2225 BEIRUT 2230 DOHA-AMSTERDAM 2230 TRIVANDRUM 2240 AMMAN 2240 BOMBAY 2245 MADRAS 2300 DELHI 2310 DOHA 2320 BAHRAIN 2325 SALALAH 2350 JEDDAH 2350 ABU DHABI 2350

ETD

ETA

ETD

S U N DAY, JAN UARY 1 8, 2 0 1 5

C11

EXTRA SCIENCE

Biosensor to help machines smell like humans

IN A FIRST, an Indianorigin researcher from the University of Manchester has created a biosensor that can help machines smell the way humans do.

The new generation of biosensors with an acute ability to sniff out problems can help machines smell when food has gone bad or how much pollution is in the atmosphere.

“It has been challenging to get machines to be able to differentiate between smells that are mirror images of each other, which was a real barrier to creating machines which are able to smell as well or better than humans,” explained professor Krishna Persaud, lead author of the paper. The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.

Irregular heart beat detected in marine mammals SCIENTISTS HAVE detected high frequency of heart arrhythmias or irregular heart beats in bottlenose dolphins and Weddell seals during their deepest dives. This shows that despite their remarkable adaptations to aquatic life, exercising while holding their breath remains a physiological challenge for marine mammals. “This study changes our understanding of bradycardia (a marked reduction in heart rate) in marine mammals,” said lead author Terrie Williams, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at University of CaliforniaSanta Cruz. “We are not seeing lethal arrhythmias but it is putting the heart in an unsteady state that could make it vulnerable to problems,” Williams added.

New mechanism to enhance drug delivery RESEARCHERS at the University of Warwick in Britain have developed a new “triggeredrelease” mechanism that could improve drug delivery in the treatment of various cancers and other diseases. The new method uses two “parent” nanoparticles that are designed to interact only when in proximity to each other and trigger the release of drug molecules contained within both.

The release of the drug molecules from the ‘parent’ nanoparticles could subsequently form a third ‘daughter’ particle, which comprises molecules from both ‘parent’ nanoparticles. “We conceive that in the blood stream, the particles would not be able to interact sufficiently to lead to release only when they are taken into cells would the release be able to happen”, said professor Andrew Dove. -IANS

‘Haiti may be down, but it will pick itself up again’ It’s a delight to visit the classic but quiet Caribbean beaches, the remains of the early 19th-century Sans Souci Palace and the World Heritage site of Citadelle Laferrièr

S

ome situations can be so bad it’s hard not to be optimistic. If you’re flat on the floor, surely the only way is up? Not in the case of Haiti. The country was doing a good imitation of a fighter — whacked by, bad hurricanes, bad luck — when an earthquake came along and delivered the knock-out blow.

The huge quake that flattened much of the teeming capital, Port-au-Prince, struck the halfan-island nation on 12 January 2010. It was another, bigger disaster to add to a string of them right back to the country’s heroic, troubled birth. There’s no other way to describe Haiti’s creation, a slave revolt against French colonists, led by the epically named Toussaint L’Ouverture.

Freedom didn’t come cheap: the perfidious French employed every dirty trick in the book to try to keep their hands on those sweet sugar profits. Defeated, they demanded reparations: “Pay up or we’ll make life economically impossible,” was the threat.

It took until 1947 for the Haitians finally to pay out their overlords.

So, when the earthquake delivered that crushing blow it was almost inevitable that the world’s media would rush in and kick poor Haiti while it was down. Five years later, things are still far from good. Even from Outer Space it’s easy to spot the division between the Dominican Republic on the east side of the island and comprehensively deforested Haiti to the west.

Despite all this, Haiti deserves attention. You can head north to

the Citadelle, absolutely the most awe-inspiring man-made creation in the Caribbean. It is hulking, darkly ominous, perched on a mountain and built by those uppity freed slaves, determined that their former French masters would not attempt a comeback. There’s the most gloriously Technicolor art in the Caribbean, you’ll find the Haitian naive school in galleries and streetside stalls, but also decorating every “tap tap”, the Haitian public buses. And no visit is complete without Thursday night voodoo jazz at the Oloffson Hotel, which just happens to be the Trianon Hotel from Graham Greene’s The Comedians. Yes, Haiti may be down, but there’s a spirit, a buzz to the place which almost guarantees it will get up again.

So, things started badly and never really got better. There was a civil war among black slaves, white settlers and mixed-race descendants. As with Zimbabwe 150 years later, the remaining whites were first welcomed, then unwelcomed.

Nor did sugar wealth come so easily when you didn’t have slaves to work the plantations. In the 20th century, there was Papa Doc Duvalier, followed by Baby Doc, followed

by Jean-Bertrand Aristide who was kicked out, then brought back.

No matter how bad things were, they could still get worse.

This is the Caribbean — there are beaches, there is warm water. Yet even tourism managed to stumble and fall, despite Bill and Hillary’s Haitian honeymoon, 18 years before he became president.

— Tony Wheeler/The Independent

C12

SU N DAY, JANUARY 18, 2015

EXTRA B O L LY W O O D

Richa Chadha opts for stage practice for ‘Cabaret’ ACTRESS Richa Chadha is happy doing some “homework” for her role in the film Cabaret, by trying to take up as many live dance performances as possible. In preparation for her character of a professional cabaret dancer, Richa is said to have asked her management to get her to do live dance performances. She has been insistent that she takes on as many stage performance acts simply to help her groom and be better with her dancing ‘on stage’ skills. A trained Kathak dancer, Richa said in a statement: “Since I am getting back to dancing after some gap of time, I thought some amount of stage practice would be of great help. It would be a great addition for the homework of my character by performing live.” Earlier this month itself, the Tamanchey actress was seen shaking a leg alongside Hrithik Roshan and Parineeti Chopra at the Saifai Mahaotsav.

No films with Khans yet, but so what: Bipasha

‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ goes to America Indian director Anurag Kashyap’s award-winning epic is India’s answer to ‘The Godfather’ and ‘Oldboy’ and India’s coming out party as a storytelling powerhouse

K

olkata born IndianAmerican filmmaker, Adi Shankar, who at just 29 has created his own counter-culture ‘brand’ with critically acclaimed R-rated violent feature films and superhero “bootleg” films like The Grey and A Walk Among the Tombstones, believes that Indian movies need to concentrate on storytelling.

“Outside of the Indian population in the US, there is a growing audience for ‘arthouse genre’ films,” Shankar, US presenter of the Indian crime saga, told IANS in an email interview.

“It’s unabashedly violent action and crime films for the ‘thinking person,’“ he said calling the Gangs India’ first entry on the list of films like Oldboy and I Saw the Devil from Korea and Drive and Nightcrawler from America.

Part 1 of the film charting 70 years in the lives — and spectacular deaths — of two mafia-like families fighting for control of the

coal-mining town of Wasseypur, India, will be released for an exclusive one-week-only run at several AMC theatres across the US. Part II will release in the same theatres the following week on January 23, also for one week only.

In New York City, the full film will play at the prestigious Lincoln Centre opening on January 16 for one week.

Shankar said he considered it his “civic duty” to help get Gangs a mainstream US release because the success of a movie like Ek Villain, “a clear unlicensed rip off of Kim Jee Woon’s I Saw the Devil is “shameful and not only hurts the creditability of the Indian film business, but also reflects badly on India as a whole.”

“We are better than that, we are a nation of smart, innovative and creative people who have interesting stories to tell,” he said. “We must defy the status quo of the vapid consumerist mosh pit India has become.”

“This is why Gangs of Wasseypur is great. It’s our answer to The Godfather’ and ‘Oldboy’, but it’s not a rip-off, and if I can help it find an audience internationally, I have a civic duty to do so,” Shankar said.

Describing Gangs as “India’s coming out party as an international storytelling powerhouse”, Shankar hoped to draw the NRI film audience to the theatres with a simple strategy he calls “guilt tripping”.

India had a “robust domestic film economy,” he said. But “unfortunately, when it comes to making a global cultural impact India’s films have either been lacklustre due to being reactionary to global cinematic trends instead of setting them or in the case of The Lunchbox, buried due to asinine politics.”

“With Gangs of Wasseypur we have something to be proud of,” Shankar said.

He does not think that at 319 minutes, Gangs is too long noting that True Detective, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones “were much

longer than 319 minutes and held audience’s attention just fine when binge watched.”

“We simply don’t like to be dictated the terms of when and where we have to consume the content we love,” he said suggesting “Gangs will find its greatest success on VOD (Video on demand). It’s the ideal film for the VOD generation.”

Turning to his own work, Shankar said he was inspired to make the kind of films he makes by films like Road Warrior, Robocop, The Warriors, Escape from New York, Judge Dredd and X-Men: The Animated Series.

But his films don’t have a USP as such. “I just make stuff that I want to see. This ‘brand’ I’ve built for myself wasn’t by design.”

Shankar said he would “love to” make films for the Indian audiences.

“I have a project in mind, it’s effectively Die Hard on the Mumbai bridge. It’s a hard hitting action thriller that much like The Grey becomes philosophical. -IANS

ACTRESS Bipasha Basu has spent close to 15 years in the Hindi film industry, without working with any of the top Khans — be it Shah Rukh, Aamir or Salman. But she has no regrets whatsoever.

Bipasha, whose latest movie Alone released on Friday, told IANS, “There are so many actresses who have done films with Khans and then disappeared. So what’s the point of such big films? The year I debuted (with Ajnabee in 2001), Lagaan released with Gracy Singh in lead. It was one of the iconic films — but I am still here,” she said. The Bengali beauty has featured in Bollywood movies like Raaz, Jism, No Entry, Dhoom 2, Apharan, Corporate, Race, Bachna Ae Haseeno, Raaz 3 and Creature.

Having starred in multiple horror films, now she is looking at a comedy. “I want to do a good comedy, not a slapstick comedy. People have not seen my funny side yet. I would like to do that,” she said.

‘Prem Ratan...’ will be monumental: Anupam ANUPAM KHER is confident that Sooraj Barjatya’s Prem Ratan Dhan Payo will turn out to be as big as the filmmaker’s past projects Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! and Hum Saath Saath Hain.

“Working with Sooraj-ji is like creating history without feeling self-important about it. He is so humble and gracious, an actor feels he must deliver his best to a director who demands nothing. -IANS

THRILLER

Vikram takes ‘Beauty and The Beast’ to another level in ‘I’ LET ME tell you about an actor called Vikram. In I, which is actually the most exceptional film of high maintenance director Shankar’s extravagant oeuvre, this exceptional actor, known to transform into whatever he plays, stands in a room filled with multi-reflective mirrors, looking at his horribly deformed body and disfigured face.

It is a heart-shattering, glassshattering moment. It is a moment that would be quoted as an example of what magic a capable actor can create out of melodrama.

Melodrama is certainly Shankar’s forte. His films are not only many sizes larger than life, they are also suffused in excessive exuberance and free-flowing rhetoric that do not render themselves to a proper Hindi translation. In

I, one doesn’t mind the blizzard of bombast and drama. This is Shankar’s most dramatic film to date. Drama has never been a rationed component in his cinema.

Here the director, known for his visual flair and vital connect with the masses, pulls out all stops as he takes us on a colloquial and spectacular visual discourse on the subject of physical beauty and its impact on love.

In I, Shankar, with his extraordinary command over the grammar and the narrative’s rapid run, goes for the jugular.

There is nothing subtle about the way the film’s hero, a statelevel wrestler filled with a boorish pride about his looks and physique, loses it all and becomes hunchbacked and grotesque.

There is a lot of embarrass-

ing humbug in the lengthy narration. With that penchant for over-elaborate plotting whereby every component in the characterisations must be hammered in repeatedly, the film’s moral map gets tediously fine-printed in the narrative.

But here is the thing I is nonetheless an exceptional film.

The main love story between the disfigured hero and the stunning model (Amy ably cast) gets its core compulsion from The Beauty and The Beast fable.

The manner in which the relationship grows and then takes a twisted turn, is skillfully manoeuvred by the director.

There is no doubt that Shankar is a remarkable raconteur. His cinema is almost always blessed Vikram. -IANS

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RENT

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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

3BHK, (3 bathroom and big hall) opp. Apollo Hospital, Hamariya R/A (OMR 300/-) Contact 91181761 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 1 BHK at Ghobrah - Near Indian School. Contact: 99014885 Al Qurum heights Sea view.

Contact 99249069 / 92888376/ 93201688 Flat in Darsait. Contact 99326879 Office space for rent in Ruwi, OMR 500. Contact 91120552 500 Sq Mtrs industrial land, leveled, ready to use with boundary wall, in Misfah industrial Area, block 2 near Baladiyah Camp, RO 600/-, monthly. Contact 94030814 1000 Sq Mtrs, Industrial Land for rent in Ghala suitable for warehouse workshop etc. Contact 24700120, 92584715 2 BHK Flat in Mumtaz.

Contact 99792181 1, 2, 3, BHK in Al khuwair.

Contact 99792181

Flat, shops, basement, Ruwi-MBD Area, Honda Road.

Contact 96942749, 92433127

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

6 shops in Mabela Industrial Area.

Each Front Shop OMR 400 and Side Shop OMR 300Monthly.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

Office space with cassette type A/C’s with free internet at al Khuwair near KM Hypermarket. Contact 99460330

Spacious 2 BR flat in MBD. Contact 99713489 Family room available for rent at Muttrah Souq. Contact 24712088 / 99022790

1 & 2 BHK in Ruwi.

Contact 99792181 200 Sqr mtrs Showroom in CBD. Contact 99792181 1 & 2 BHK in Wattaya. Contact 99792181 New warehouse for rent at Ghala ind. area. 578 & 1200 sqms near. hotel al-madinah holiday, Ghala.

Container can enter, immediate access to roads & highways.

Contact : 92078090 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

2 BHK in Bowsher, Ghobra.

Contact 99792181

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

Furnished room with attached bathroom for Executive bachelor behind Al Meera Hypermarket, Azaibah RO 150. Contact 99455735

For rent at Al Khuwair, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, sitting, dining, kitchen split A/C near Rawasco, 1st floor.

Rent 480 PDC. Contact 99879939

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

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

Office space (3 BHK flat – Ample space) located in prime area at 18th November street, Al Azaiba (nr. To Sultan Center). Contact 99261522

For rent at Al Khuwair, 1 room with bathroom (Independent), near Rawasco with split A/C, 2nd floor, rent RO 125 PDC. Contact 99879939

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

Office space & store, CBD 20059.

Contact 99024730 2 BHK, Al Khuwair. Contact 99024730 Spacious well maintained 2 BHK at Rex Road from 1st February.

Contact 92227165 2 BHK, CBD. Contact 99024730

Flat for rent in Al Hail, North near The Wave, Muscat. Contact 99353433, 99271017 Family villa & flats at Al Ansab and Awabi. Contact 98458542 2 BHK with split A/C in Wadi Kabir, Sana Building furnished.

Contact 96635026 3 BHK with AC, Al Falaj, RO 425/-.

Contact 92144045 2 BHK available in Mumtaz area, Ruwi & Ghubra, nr Indian School.

Contact 99269751

1 BHK, commercial, Darsait.

Contact 92144045 3 rooms, 3 bath flat. Darsait coast near Indian School like new.

Contact 99715042

2 BHK, Darsait near Kims Hospital.

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

Contact 99024730

New bldg 3 BR flats located at Darsait, Muscat close to Kims Pvt Hospital. Contact 92020004 / 99800838

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

1 BHK, Wadi Kabir. Contact 99024730

Flat for Rent in Ruwi, Bareeq Shatti, Mawalah. Contact 92521080, 98899916 Flat for rent Ghubrah South, ground floor flat, 3 bedrooms, majlis, family hall, RO 425/-. Contact 94669711 6 bedroom villas at Al Ansab (nr Express highway).# 99199365 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 1 BHK bedroom flat in Wadi Kabir neat Kuwaiti Mosque RO 200/-.

Contact 95094028 Abu Adnan Tower - flat for rent available at Al Mabelah, 2 B/R, 1 hall, 2 toilets, 1 kitchen.

Contact 95566475 / 99654252 1 / 3 BHK Flat Ghobrah, close to ISG Way 4041, building 4390.

Contact 99319880 2 BHK flat for rent RO.350/- at Al Khuwair near Sultan Taimur Mosque. Contact – 98893294 2 BHK flats for rent behind Kims Hospital. #93161573 / 97769759

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DAILY GUIDE

FOR RENT

I room with attached toilet in Al Hail for bachelor, rent RO 100 to RO 130/-.

Contact 97661432

2 BHK with window A/C in Al Khoudh rent RO 250/-.

Contact 97661432

Industrial empty plots 1000 – 15000 sqm are available in Misfah / Jiffnain rent for long lease, RO 1.200 per sq mt. Contact 96789522

Constructed warehouse 3000 sq mt with boundary wall & gate in Misfah ready for lease or rent for long term.

Rent RO 3.500 per sq. mt.

Contact 96789522

1 BHK residential flat at Honda road.

2 BHK residential flat opposite to Al Nahdha hospital. Contact93219590 Villas & flats & stores. Contact 99776071 / 99057348 1 BHK flat Qurum RO.270/- with split A/C. Contact – 99358589 / 95570288 /97079146 2 BHK flat at Al Khuwair RO.370/with split A/C. Contact – 99358589 / 95570288 /97079146 If require flats for rent in Wadi Kabir please send messages through Whatsapp or call – 99376454 Luxury 2 bed room villa at BausherAL Ansab Phase 3.Call. 99324456 Fabulous A/C flat Al Khoud, 3 rooms, 280 rials. Contact 99334699 BHK flats Muttrah near Oman House.

Contact 97007934 / 92629232 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 Apartments in Al Khuwair new area each apartment contains (2 bedrooms + living room) for RO 365. # 93181111

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

FOR SALE

2 BHK with A/C, commercial Al Khuwair. Contact 92144045 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 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 Flats and shops. Contact 93009999 Villa, ground floor in Al Khuwair.

Contact 99743569, 97004265 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

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

Show room on the main road Saham center total area 450 m sq.

Contact: 99366558 / 99334226

1 BHK with attached toilet & bathroom behind Bank Muscat at Wadi Kabir.# 99373290, 24815012

Flats/villas owned by ROP pension fund available for rent in Muscat.

Contact 99349526

FOR SALE

FOR RENT Flats ground floor, 3 Rooms & AC, kitchen, hall, in Al Mabaila South.

Contact 99377290 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 Contd on Pg 6

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 Villa for sale in new Al Khoudh.

Contact 99778773

FOR SALE

30 seater Toyota Bus, 2014, white color for sale. Contact 98888999 / 96341946

Clinic for sale. Contact 99824232, email : modern.medicalclinic@gmail. com

A running supermarket for sale in Wadi Kabir. Contact 95113037 Running Medical Centre with full equipments is available for sale. Those interested can contact 98994208.

We are dealing with sale of all beauty salon equipments, furnitures & cosmetics.#942 888 61 / 942 888 63

Industrial shed / warehouse for immediate lease in Rusayl Industrial Estate. Contact 99263196 / abcon@omantel.net.om Contd on Pg 6

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DAILY GUIDE

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

SITUATION WANTSIT. WANTED ED

SITUATION SITUATION WANTED VACANT

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

ADMIN

ENGINEERS

SALES / MARKETING

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

Construction Company requires Civil Engineer with degree only with 10 yrs of local or GCC Experience.

Email : omaniantrad@gmail.com

Salesman for Printing Press materials like Printing Press Plates, inks, rollers etc. Must have worked in a printing press and know the products well. Job is in Dubai with visa and good salary. Apply to sales@ies-oman.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 Construction Company requires female executive assistant, with good computer and communication skills, advanced English, fluent Arabic. Please send your CV harun.koyyar@adaliholding.com

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE 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 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 Wanted driver.

Contact 95112461 An excellent company seeking for experienced male Light Duty Driver to work in Salalah. Contact 92322588 / 99653350, email : sadiq.fm@omantel.net.om Good growing Company in Muscat is looking for 2 Heavy duty drivers.

English language needed. Email : yesterdaysun1@hotmail.com

DOMESTIC HELP Need cutter for Tailoring shop.

Contact 99825211

DESIGNER Required part time web designer with experience in CMS background. Send your CV & sample work to hrmedia123@gmail.com

EDUCATION Required English teacher for KG 1 / KG II. Contact 97163777, 99429352 Required Teacher for ISWK student studying in VII & III at Honda Road Ruwi. Contact 99471699

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

LAWYER Required urgently a Legal consultant /Lawyer for reputed law firm for SOHAR office. Candidates should have 5-7 yrs exp. as a Legal Consultant/ Lawyer with good knowledge of Computer & should be fluent in English. Contact 99153620 Email C V to shejaanil66@gmail.com or between 8am to 5.30 pm.

MEDICAL Urgently required a GP Doctor with MOH license for a leading Medical Clinic.

Contact 92008272 / 96602188, email : dearnaif@hotmail.com Urgently required an experienced Pharmacist with MOH License for a reputed Pharmacy in Muscat.

Please send CV to newcareesr2015@gmail.com Doctor needed for a rehabilitation centre in Muscat. Kindly call 92130498 Reqd 1 Lady Doctor (Internist) with 3 yrs experience in Oman. One female Nurse with atleast 3 yrs experience in Oman. For newly established clinic in Ruwi. Send your detailed CV to mohamedsfarah@ hotmail.com, Tel : 91283188 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 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 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

MECHANICAL A well reputed steel fabrication & machining Workshop company in Oman requires experienced petrol & diesel mechanic for trucks.

Contact email : oman518@gmail. com, 99228046

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

SIT.WANTED Admin Executive, 31, Indian Male, having 8+ years exp. in reputed companies, seeking suitable placement in any gulf region.

Contact: +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.

Contact: 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. Contact:96328687 Female dentist with MOH license and release looking for a suitable placement in Muscat, presently residing in Muscat.

Contact: 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 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.

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

Contact 94641805 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 Pakistani male, 25 yrs, MBA Finance, 1.6 yrs exp in Accounts seeking placement in Accounts, Administration or Business Management. Contact 92651927 / 94250149 Indian Male, looking for job in Accounts & Administration previously, experience 1 yr in Oman, now on visit visa. Contact 97424337 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 Male, 4 yrs of experience as Financial Analyst looking for suitable position. Contact 94140728 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, having 9 yrs experience in Administration & 4 yrs in Accounts seeks suitable placement, preference for the straight shift. Release available. Contact 92239617 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 Part time Accountant with 15 yrs exp in Accounting, Auditing, Taxation Management. Contact 95857199 Finance Manager, CPA, with more than 15 yrs. of experience in GCC. Fully knowledgeable in Finance, General & Management Accounting .

NOC available. Contact 96209331 Accounts part time works upto finalization & finalization works.

Contact 96247295 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 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 Indian Male, MBA 2 yrs experience in Accounts, Admin & HR on visit visa. Contact 92045306

SITUATION WANTED ACCOUNT. & FINANCE 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

DESIGNER Interior Designer, Indian male, have 5 yrs experience with Oman License looking for a suitable job.

Email : sijithpattath@gmail.com, 93779308

DRIVER ADMIN/HR 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 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 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 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 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

ARCHI./ DRAUGHTSMAN 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 30Male, 3D Designer, 5 yrs exp, software command in autocad, 3dmax, , illustrator & Photoshop seeks immediate placement GSM 93481811 AutoCAD jobs, Preparing Working/ Shop Drawings & Civil Quantity Surveying jobs. Contact : 92758095 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

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

Light Driver having own visa looking for job as driver Contact 92303692 LV Driver- 2 yrs Exp-know English- Contact 95292064 Light vehicle driver looking for job.

Contact 95141473 Light driver looking for job in any Company Office, experience 2 yrs.

Contact 95341768 Pakistani male, having one year exp as light vehicle driver looking for job.

Contact 96342684 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 6 Years experience light duty driver.

Contact – 96736744 Light driver looking for job.

Contact 92791678

EDUCATION Indian Female, M.Tech (A.E), B.Tech (ECE) with 1.5 yrs experience in teaching (Asst Professor) in Engineering College, seeking suitable teaching / non teaching jobs in Muscat. Contact 91532690 Email: rin2mary@gmail.com, Indian female MSc costume design & fashion having 3 yrs exp in teaching seeking suitable job.

Contact: 97614456 / 95918968

ENGG. / TECHNICAL Indian Male, IT Support Engineer, 2 yrs in Oman & 5 yrs Indian experience. Contact 97311847 BE (Elec and Tele Engg), Experienced as Application Engg, Certified in BMS SCADA Ph: 94037935/ 97103168 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

S U N DAY, JA N UA RY 1 8 , 2 0 1 5

D5

DAILY GUIDE SITUATION WANTED ENGG. / TECHNICAL Indian Female, 24, UK Graduate - MSc Digital Communication Network Engineering with B.Tech Electronics and Communication with Omani Driving License, seeks suitable placement.

Contact No. : 95408113

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

Sudanese Mechanical Engineer, 3 yrs experience in HVAC fire fighting, NOC and driving license available. Contact 91135140

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.

Jordanian Civil Engineer with 4 yrs experience in Construction Field (release available). Contact 95157199 / 92866288, email : best66_pl@hotmail.com B.Sc, Civil Engineer, over 19 yrs experience in construction field with project management skills, seeks suitable placement. NOC available & can join immediately. #92198264, Email : mdrana1970@gmail.com Indian male Mechanical Engineer (M.Tech), Manufacturing Engineering, having 2 yrs Exp with Oman D/L - seeking suitable placement . NOC available. Contact: 98681278; Email : alexyvellara@gmail.com Civil Engineer, Diploma, Sudanese, 5 yrs experience in Oman, have driving license. Contact 96618918 Electrical Engineer, Sudanese male, 8 yrs experience in Construction, operation, maintenance, electrical plants, responsible for electrical installation coordination.

Contact 94549609 Civil Diploma Engineer, Indian male, 5 yrs experience in Oman with valid Omani D/L. Contact 98518370 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 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 Mechanical Engineer, Indian male, seeking suitable job on visit visa.

Contact 99796730, 92031312, email : pudsalamilup123@gmail.com 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 Mechanical Engineer, B.Tech, 3+ yrs exp. (2 yrs. in Oman) 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. Contact 98499008 Email : saadichan1331@gmail.com, 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

SALES / MARKETING Sri Lankan Salesman cum driver with NOC. Contact 97265733 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

Telecommunication Engineer with 5 yrs experience in the Gulf.

Contact 95219822 Electrical Project Engineer, 4 yrs experience OHL, Substations, Oil & Gas field, AutoCAD. D/L available.

Contact 95120225 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 Civil Engineer with 12 years Experience Looking For Job. Contact 98162295 Quantity Surveyor (Civil Building) looking for Part time job Contact no:-94391712 E-mail addressinayathhussain@yahoo.com 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 Email: mehranahmad26@yahoo.com 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

INFORMATION TECH 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. # 95938303 email- hafsalhs@gmail.com IT Professional, 7 yrs exp in System Administration, IT Support, Networking etc. currently on visit visa. Contact 94064579, email : preejes01@gmail.com IT Network Engineer with Bachelor Degree, CCNA, RHCSA, RHCE seeking suitable job in good Company.

Contact 99818601 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 B.Tech IT, 1 yr experience programming with asp.net visual basic network certified.

Contact 96748154

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 97104364 . email:moorthy_cbe@hotmail.com.

MEDICAL

INFORMATION TECH

Indian female Pharmacist, 28 yrs MOH license holder with 3 yrs experience seeking suitable placement.

Contact 94037178 Home nurse. Contact 99156191

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

MISCELLANEOUS

Indian Male 23 yrs – IT / Prepost Sales Consultant / Business Analyst / Web Designing. 2 yrs. exp.

Languages-HTML5, WebRTC, Java, CSS, C++, .Net, SQL, Oracle, ERPMicrosoft Dynamics CRM. Looking for suitable job. Contact: 98802504, email:shrihari26@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 mail: connectjinomjohn@yahoo.com 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, Email: vaseemj@yahoo.com

MANAGER/ SUPERVISOR MBA Graduate 10+ exp FMCG food serv. Sales channel/ Branch Manager. Contact - 99185205 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

MEDICAL Female dentist with MOH license and with Noc looking for suitable placement in Muscat region Contact no. 99147426 Lab Technician, Civil (8yrs Gulf experience) looking for a suitable job (NOC available) Contact-93344378 Indian female, 26, Pharmacist with MOH license, 3.5 yrs of experience in India, seeking suitable placement.

Contact 94474924, Email: suryacprasad88@gmail.com

Veterinary Doctor 4 years experience in Military Cattle farm, Pet Animals & butchery, looking for a suitable placement.

Contact: 97892349

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

Contact 99433816 / 93159202 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 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 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, Dentist fresher looking for suitable placement.

Contact 98857686, email : drsumbulahmad@gmail.com

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

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

SECRETARIAL/OFFICE Indian female, well experienced in secretarial, administration, customer care & supervisory jobs.

5 years experience in Muscat.

Immediately available for joining.

Contact: 92139298

SALES / MARKETING Sales & Marketing Indian male MBA (marketing & sales) business development experience at all levels of management. Currently on visit visa. Contact – 91272819 Graduate, Indian, having 6 yrs experience in Sales with D/L, NOC available. Contact 93410723 Indian Male having 7 yrs in experience in Oman Sales & Marketing Office Automation Printer, Copier, MFP, IT products & Stationery. Looking for Suitable Placement NOC Available Contact :97384748 Oracle certified BE (CS) Indian male with skills in OCA (DBA, SQL10g, looking for suitable placement.

Contact 98436022/99848874 Email: rineel2005@yahoo.com Young Energetic Male, with Oman work experience in the field of Sales/ Marketing and Administration.

Currently on a visit visa seeking suitable position. Contact 97832289. wakakhan.1@gmail.com 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 Indian male, Diploma in Automobile & BBA, 8 yrs experience in Sales looking for a job in Sales.

Contact 94480382

Indian male, 22 yrs, BBM Graduate looking for suitable job in sales/ marketing, currently on visit visa.

Contact 91757222, email : danishdani460@gmail.com

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 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

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

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 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.

Contact : 95036410 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 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 Indian, female, Pharmacist available with NOC and MOH License, preferably in Muscat. #9439 1355.

Mechanical Engineer with 10+ years experience currently on visit visa looking for a Operation Manager/Branch Manager position in reputed organizations. #95757845 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. #- +96896126502 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. # 95036410 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 Filipino Accountant with 13 years working experience in the field of accounting looking for a suitable job in Muscat. Contact: 94547323 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

D6

S U N DAY, JA N UA RY 1 8 , 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

FOR SALE

SITUATION WANTED Indian female dentist with 4 year experience. Call Nazia 96488737 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 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 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 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 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 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.

Project Manager civil, Indian, seeking suitable placement, having 18 yrs exp (13 yrs in Oman) in tendering, contracting and managing projects, available with release.

Contact: 99244245, 95321251 Indian Male 26years BCOM having 5years rich experience in Accounts and Admin looking for suitable placement. Contact : 96897914340, 00919902200486 Email: sudhakaranchan06@gmail.com

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

Contact 96723468

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

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

New fully equipped 2 chair dental clinic in Seeb area for immediate sale. MOH approved.

Contact 94514045

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 Restaurant for leasing/sale in Al Hail. Contact 94148970, 94148972, 97820877

FOR RENT 2 BHK flat Muttrah / Mabelah.

Contact 95915154 Studio flat Darsait. RO 150/-.

Contact 92144045 Industrial Land in Misfah.

Contact 93009999 2 BHK at Al Azaiba, Building No.5145 Way 4470. Contact 99224748, 99425665 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

BUYING/SELLING Used household & office furniture and electronic items. Contact 99834373, 97102699 Looking for purchase of Used Portable Compressor (350 CFM, 7 Bar Pressure) powered with Diesel run Generator.

Kindly Contact 99014686 or operation@khancogroup.com Looking for commercial lands for sale in Al Ghobrah North (urgent serious buyers, commercial lands in al Ghobrah North (corners prime location). Contact 91155779

SIT.WANTED Mechanical Engineering Post Graduate with 10+ years work experience looking for a suitable immediate opening in construction, oil& gas, and other related companies, currently on visit visa.

Contact: 92975815

NRI

Well running pharmacy.

Contact no . 93240949

35.6 cents residential land (plus 4.5 cents area) high profile gated community, 7.2 kms from sims park, Coonoor kothagiri highway Tamil Nad, granite wall built facing main road, premium property breathtaking view of valley, for sale price rs.750/per sq.ft.

Contact Sukumar Menon +968-94080269

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 Darsait Business Office furniture, Isuzu 4 ton brand new.

Contact 91391363 23,886 Sq Mtrs Agriculture land with water well in Al Salwa, Barka.

OMR 260 Thousand. Tel: 99333479 or 95215360 3 floor commercial building in Muttrah behind Police. Generating income of OMR 18 Thousand annually. Neat and well maintained. Built on 197 sq mtrs land. 2 tailor shops on ground floor and 6 flats. OMR 207 Thousand.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

Furnished house for sale near Vattiyoorkavu, Thiruvananthapuram, 5 cents, 220 SQ Ft. Contact 96099215 / 99016230 For Astrological consultation, Jathakam. Contact 99860435 / 97102599

MANPOWER

Villa for sale 2200 sq ft in 8 cent.

Kottayam. Contact: 92652534 Land for sale, 13.2 cents prime residential land near Perourkada Junction on Vattiyoorkavu Road, Trivandrum at 12L per cent.

Contact 92973928

MATRIMONIAL Indian male 39 Christian divorced seeks suitable alliance. Contact: 96059801

Used furniture bedroom sofa dining A/Cs Majlis washing machine, table keyboard, Expat leaving.

Contact 99353978

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)

A newly opened Barber Shop for sale at upcoming industrial zone in Misfah. Expat leaving Oman.

Genuine buyers call 93833107 (Sale Price Negotiable) Running Workshop for Tiles / Marble & Granite cutting & skirting in Wadi Kabir for immediate sale.

Contact 99105492

GOOD NEWS

Household items on sale.

Contact 93833107 Building material shop for sale, near Mars Hypermarket, Al Ghoubra.

Contact 93797343 / 99881647

ACC. AVAILABLE Single room available for a working lady with separate bathroom & sharing kitchen with a family @ Rex Road. Contact 95423572 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. Contact 97004265 / 99689315 Room with separate entrance & A/C in Al Khuwair near Rawasco for non-cooking Indian Bachelor, rent RO 125/-. Contact 97201100, 95397442 Room with separate toilet and WiFi, Wadi Kabir near pencil building.

Contact 93416854 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. # 95755551 / 92222045 Furnished single room with attached bathroom near Mars Hypermarket, Al Ghubrah. Contact 97312111, RO 150/- per month

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 Independent rooms in Qurum/ Al Hail. Contact 95529970 Room with separate entrance, bathroom, A/C, furniture near Al Nahdha Hospital. Contact 93201710 Bath attached room with separate sharing kitchen for rent in Wadi Kabir. Contact 99378661 Rooms for rent in Al Hail, front of the Wave. Contact 95192927 2 rooms with 2 bathrooms and sharing kitchen for couple or executive bachelors at hamriya r/abt. ( on the main road side, opp.

Apollo hospital ) RO 150.

Contact 98232567 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

2 Bedroom flat for offices with furniture near Al Manaf Hotel, Ghala.

Contact 99525743, 99439705

Sharing accommodation available at Mumtaz area, Ruwi.

Contact 97612335

Excellent 3 bedrooms , 2 sitting rooms, 3 bathrooms, kitchen & store with A/C. 92817777

Independent room furnished Executive at Wadi Kabir.

Contact 99336206

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.# 99639695 / 99117987

AVAILABLE Established Restaurant for rent with sponsorship.

Contact 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

S U N DAY, JA N UA RY 1 8 , 2 0 1 5

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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 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

Renault Safrane 2011, Excellent condition OMR3400. Contact 94015245

L/R Discovery, 2003, KM 1,60,000. Contact 99238877

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

Contact - 92590781

Prado 2012. Contact 99336093

FOR HIRE

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

Transportation. Contact 91379976 Transportation with car & driver.

(VIP’s only). Contact 95040768 Pick & Drop any time. Contact 97014786 Transportation. Contact 99664703 Transportation available 99159277

PDO approval truck for hire. Contact 99350915

Lexus GS300, 2006. Contact 93218349

Transportation. Contact 96538078

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

Tucson V-6, 2007, automatic RO 2500/-. Contact 99384640

Transportation Available Contact 97180655

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

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

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S U N DAY, JA N UA RY 1 8 , 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

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

Cheapest Prices, all types window, curtains and blind.

Contact 99539521 Computer service/ AMC/ Networking. Contact 93552434 Pest Control Treatments!!!

Termites! Cockroaches! Bedbugs!

Ocean Centre LLC. #99344723

First Grade Building Construction Company registered in Tender Board, MOD, and all Ministries with 120 manpower have current projects of RO 2 million seeking for investor partner to be the Managing Director.

Send CV to constructionjop@gmail.com My client needs to buy Residential land or villa in Al Ghubra Bahar Factory area. Tel: 99333479 or 95215360 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

Building Caretaker, Gulf Experienced, knows Arabic, Hindi English Ph : 94304348 For All Your Maintenance Solutions, A/c Servicing & Fixing, Painting, Cleaning, Electric. # 99002390

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

Water proofing ABUQABASContact 99320217/24788722

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

Civil Maintenance, Painting Electric, Plumbing, Decor, Tile Fixing, Lecithin Copra Board flat stifling , Carpet Cleaning and A/C Servicing. Contact 97897831 (Indian keralite)

Door to Door Computers repair specialist laptop software Website cartridges. Contact 99199376

BUSINESS

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

A.M Trading Pest control.

Contact 99067923 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

Waterproofing, light weight Screed, Antitermite and MS Fabrication.

Contact 92888337 Electrical Plumbing Painting Contract and Maintenance.

Contact 98456535 House shifting transport. Contact 99657644, 98518013 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

PRO services. Contact 99368907 Painting Interlock plumbing maintenance. Contact 92142319 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 .

Contact 91568362

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

Contact 95405033

NOTICE Salim Bin Nasser Bin Mohammed and his partner Company for Trade and Contracting that registered under the registration trade number 1120159 will change the name of the registration trade to Abdu Al Rahman Bin Ahmed Bin Hamdan Al Hosni and his parented Company for Trade and Contracting.

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

Catering services We do industrial catering service, Canteen/ mess, 3 times packed meals, and all types of catering events.

Contact 92188777/99249899 For HT cable jointing and termination works 33KV/11KV. Contact 99056438 / Email: npgoman@gmail.com

CHANGE OF NAME We, Parameshwaran Ravi (name of father as per the passport, holder of Indian Passport No. L3320623) and Sangeeta Parameshwaran (name of mother as per the passport, holder of Indian Passport No. L3320622) having permanent address in H.No.2, Gayatri Niwas, Ajabpurkala, Saket Colony, Dharampur, Dehradun, 248001 (complete postal address in India) and presently residing at the following address in P.B.No 792, P.C.No 133, Sultanate of Oman, hereby solemnly affirm and declare to change the name of our child Miss Sara (name as per present passport), holder of Indian Passport No. L9527861, date of issue 22/05/14 issued at Muscat. The name of our child will be henceforth known as Yanti Ravi (new name) for all purposes. Any objection towards change of name of our minor child may please be communicated to Embassy of India, Muscat, Diplomatic Quarters, Al Khuwair, P.B. No 1727, Postal Code 112, Ruwi, Sultanate of Oman.