Times of Oman - July 22, 2015

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WEDNESDAY, July 22, 2015 / 5 Shawwal 1436 AH

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Extra patrols after death at Oman tourist hotspot Patrol team plan

To help prevent drowning incidents,

Site of incident

the Ministry of

Wadi Shab

Tourism is going to

Rescue teams to be stationed

MUSCAT MUSCA T

Qalhat

Wadi Bani Khalid Tiwi Harbour

Surr S Su 6 km

500 m

station extra patrol teams at tourist spots

A Duqm Ad

Rescue teams available Mughsayl

Salalah

Salalah

MUSCAT: Extra patrols by rescue personnel are being put in place at tourist hotspots after an expat drowned in the popular Wadi Shab.

The Ministry of Tourism made the decision to station patrols after the death at the well-known tourist attraction in Al Sharqiyah region on Saturday.

Rescue teams are now on-site at Mughsayl, in the Dhofar governorate and it is planned to post

personnel at Wadi Bani Khalid to help prevent drowning incidents during holidays.

“Rescue teams are now available in Mughsayl, Dhofar as well as Wadi Bani Khalid,” explained the ministry in a tweet.

The ministry responded to a suggestion from a Twitter user, @5alfan90, a resident of Tiwi, who requested the Public Author-

ity of Civil Defence and Ambulance (PACDA) and the ministry to place rescue teams due to rising number of drowning incidents.

“I suggested putting rescue teams in Wadi Shab, Wadi Bani Khalid and Mughsayl,” said @5alfan90 speaking to the Times of Oman. He made this suggestion after hearing of the death of the expatriate in Wadi Shab.

In October 2014, nine people had drowned in different incidents across the wilayats during the Eid Al Adha holidays. In those incidents, an Omani national drowned in Wadi Shab and another drowned in Wadi Bani Khalid.

Seven expatriates drowned at Yiti and Mughsayl beaches.

Having more rescue personnel is significant because of the ongoing

Khareef season in Salalah as well as Eid and Renaissance holidays.

Meanwhile, a PACDA official said that the leading cause of drowning in Oman is neglect.

He explained that those who do not follow safety guidelines and regulations at all tourism spots will face legal action. “This could range from fine to time in jail,” he said. >A2

HAIMA ACCIDENT

Repatriation of bodies delayed Staff Reporter

Into Lebanon caverns measureless to man

C7

MUSCAT: Repatriation of bodies of some of those killed in the Haima accident to India was delayed because of difficulty in identifying them, said a social worker.

The authorities are completing formalities to send the bodies at the earliest. Five occupants of a car, as well as two from a bus, died in the crash on Saturday.

An official of the Public Authority for Civil Defence and Ambulance confirmed that the bodies of five people in the car were charred beyond recognition.

“We were able to identify

only three, but it was not possible to identify two others,” said the official.

An Indian embassy official said, “We have completed the formalities. As far as airlifting is concerned, it is the responsibil-

HM issues Royal Decree MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said on Tuesday issued a Royal Decree No. 32/2015 promulgating the system (law) of the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (PEIE). Article (1) states that the PEIE shall be affiliated to come under the jurisdiction of - the Minister of Commerce and Industry and that the system attached to this Decree shall apply to the PEIE. Article (2) stipulates that the main premises of the PEIE shall be in Muscat Governorate and that this establishment may have branches or offices within the Sultanate or abroad. >A3 TOP THREE INSIDE STORIES

Graphics

POPULAR PLACE: Wadi Shab, one of the tourist hotspots.

PEIE

4 km

TARIQ AL HAREMI

tariqh@timesofoman.com

ISO 9001:2008 Certified Company

ity of the sponsors. Right now the government formalities are being done to repatriate the bodies,” she said.

Among the seven who died were Stephen Herald Joseph John, Dhivakar Manoharan, Suresh Arumugam, and Sivabharath Santosh Kumar, in addition to Basheer, Ahmed Alaudeen Jinshad Kalathiparambil Jabbar, and Shifa Fathima Firos.

Suresh was working as a laboratory technician in a government office since 2009, while Joseph and Divakar were working as X-ray technicians at a private hospital.

OMAN

Firms defaulting on Eid wage face action

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Despite the directive of the ministry to private companies to pay salaries for July before Eid, some failed to comply with the order and would face legal action. >A2

REGION

US upset over Iran leader’s comment

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The US said it was disturbed by anti-US hostility voiced by Iran’s top leader after a nuclear deal, as both countries sought to calm opposition to the accord. >A7

MARKET

Oman Cement’s profit goes down

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Net profit of Oman’s second biggest cement producer fell 40% to OMR5.44m for the first half of this year from OMR9.09m for the same period of 2014. >B1

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Eid shopping brings windfall for traders Shoppers brought a windfall to traders as they went on a spending spree to buy gifts for their families during the Eid holidays >A3

Firms defaulting on Eid wage to face action The ministry has called on private

The Ministry of Manpower received a number of complaints and has dealt with them directly

sector staff who didn’t receive their pay by the deadline to report it to them

FAHAD AL GHADANI

Salim Al Badi

fahadnews@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: Despite the directive of the Ministry of Manpower to private companies to pay salaries to employees for July before Eid Al Fitr, some failed to comply with the order and would now face legal action from the ministry.

“The Ministry of Manpower received a number of complaints and has dealt with them directly,” said Salim Al Badi, general manager for labourers’ welfare in the ministry.

The Times of Oman spoke to a reliable source at the ministry earlier who confirmed that private sector companies had to comply

GM for labourers’ welfare

with the decision regarding payment of salaries in July, and any company violating it would face legal action.

The ministry also called on private sector employees who had not received their salaries by the deadline to report it to them.

“We have followed up with the companies which violated the decision,” said Al Badi.

He said that some of the companies complied with the decision

only after they were questioned, but others still did not.

“These companies were fined and forced to pay salaries,” he said.

The owner of one of those companies which failed to comply, said that it could not afford to do so.

“How can all companies pay salaries in the middle of the month?” he asked. His company is involved in construction and gets revenues from individuals only after Eid, he explained.

“The ministry should not force all companies to follow the same rule,” said the owner.

Another company owner, who did not wish to be identified, said that only 20 per cent of private sector employees are Omanis.

“Why should companies pay salaries to expatriates, especially those who are not Muslims?” asked the owner, but added that paying Muslims early is justified as they had to shop for Eid.

SAFETY TIPS

‘Check depth, current A1 while entering water’ < FROM

“Some enter the water when there are strong currents, while others go to the deep end without knowing swimming,” he said.

PACDA also said that parents could face serious action if they failed to monitor their children at public beaches.

They could be tried under the “endangering a life in public” rule, he said.

Survival tips Experts have advised people against going to places having strong currents and asked them to check the depth first.

They have cautioned people against venturing out into oceans, wadis and any body of water for that matter.

Ashraf Al Harbi, co-founder of Dolphin Swimming Centre and a swimming expert for the past ten years said, “Swimming is supposed to be relaxing, and by relaxing your muscles you get some form of natural flotation from your body.”

“Most drowning incidents are due to negligence. The person goes into the water without knowing how to swim or does not know how to handle himself when he gets cramps.”

“People do not understand that muscle cramps make it harder for them to swim and during a stom-

ach cramp in water, a person’s body naturally tends to curl up forcing the head to be go down.

So people need to be knowledgeable,” he said.

Al Harbi offered tips to avoid drowning. “If you are tired, roll on your back and relax. Some find it easy but others cannot relax and are more tense,” said Al Harbi.

“Another way is to find the nearest platform, or anything you could put your hands on, such as a wall. You will create friction with your hands which will act as a support. You can relax momentarily before you continue swimming,” he said.

He also advised non-swimmers to wear flotation devices while in water and to avoid swimming under waterfalls.

Waterfall “Standing under waterfall is extremely dangerous due to the water flow in different directions creating a whirlpool effect trapping swimmers,” he said.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), drowning is the third leading cause of unintentional deaths worldwide.

It accounts for 7 per cent of all injury-related deaths. It is estimated that 372,000 people lose their lives annually from drowning alone.

RECRUITMENT PLAN

JOB OPTIONS: Citizens with no prior flying experience or qualifi-

cation will be enrolled in the cadet pilot training programme, the cost of which will be covered by Oman Air. - Supplied photo

Oman Air offers cadet pilot jobs to Omani graduates Times News Service MUSCAT: Following a huge response to its current recruitment drive, Oman Air is expanding opportunities for Omani nationals to become pilots with the airline.

The national carrier of the Sultanate is now accepting applications from graduates with no prior flight training, as well as those who already have experience.

Once accepted, Omani citizens with no prior flying experience or qualification will be enrolled in the cadet pilot training programme, the study cost of which will be covered 100 per cent by Oman Air. Flight training They will undergo their initial flight training in an approved training organisation selected by the airline, followed by a type-rated course on successful completion of their initial flight training.

Successful applicants who have funded their own flight training prior to approaching Oman Air are known as Ab Initio pilots or licenced pilots with no previous airline experience and/ or type rating.

They will be enrolled as second officers on a type rating course in one of the airline’s narrow body aircraft, depending on company requirements.

Pilot recruitment Captain Moosa Al Shidhani, acting chief officer of flight operations at Oman Air, said, “Oman Air is delighted to be expanding its pilot recruitment programme and giving more Omani men and women the opportunity to develop a career in civil aviation. This step builds on our continuing recruitment programme, which has resulted in a huge number of applications being received by Oman Air. It also reaffirms our commitment, as our country’s proud national carrier, to actively

supporting the government in its work to increase employment and career opportunities for the people of the Sultanate.

“As Oman Air continues its ambitious programme of fleet and network expansion, we look forward to welcoming many more Omani cadet pilots and Ab Initio pilots to the company. Together, we will help to ensure that every customer enjoys Oman Air’s award-winning products and services aboard one of the most comfortable, reliable and youngest fleets in the skies,” he added.

Applicants Applicants for cadet pilot positions should be Omani nationals between the ages of 17 and 26, as of December 31. Those who apply following school must have achieved a minimum average grade of 80 per cent in Secondary school diploma with a minimum of 80 per cent in English, Mathematics and Physics.

Those who apply after graduation from college or university must also have achieved a minimum of IELTS (Academic) 5.5 band and 3 GPA in the Science stream.

Ab Initio pilot candidates should be Omani citizens below the age of 36. Their academic qualifications must include a minimum average grade of 60 per cent in Secondary school diploma with a minimum of 60 per cent in English, Mathematics and Physics.

Furthermore, they should have achieved a minimum of Level 4 ICAO English language proficiency, and have at least 200 hours flight time, including 100 hours solo.

In addition, Ab Initio pilot candidates should note that Oman Air will only accept EASA CPL/IR with EASA Frozen ATPL for candidates who start their flight training on or after September 1, 2015.

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Eid shopping brings windfall for traders

R O YA L D E C R E E

PEIE provided A1 legal identity, more powers < FROM

Legal identity Article (3) states that the PEIE shall have a legal identity, enjoy financial and administrative autonomy and empowered to own fixed and moveable assets, expend them and perform all functions and tasks necessary for the accomplishment of its objectives and any actions deemed necessary for the achievement of those objectives or related to them or complementary of them.

Municipal services Article (4) stipulates that the PEIE shall undertake the collection of fees for municipal services that it offers to companies or establishments or commercial representing offices or their Omani or foreign branches that are licensed to practice authorised activities within the estates affiliated to the PEIE. Board of directors Article (5) states that the board of directors of the PEIE shall, after the approval of the Council of Ministers, designate sites within PEIE-affiliated estates so that the parties concerned can extend necessary services to licensed investment activities, including those related to the issuance of licenses or approvals or visas or registration of activities or other services provided one or more employees undertake the prescribed specialisations as per the laws, Royal Decrees or regulations regulating these services within the purviews of an industrial estate. The functioning of these parties shall be in line with a decision to be issued by the Minister of Commerce and Industry after liaising with them.

Exemptions Article (6) states that it is permissible—under a decision from the Council of Ministers and in accordance with the PEIE

board’s recommendation—that some PEIE-affiliated estates or some investments therein may be exempted from all or some provisions of the Foreign Capital Investment Law (promulgated

by Royal Decree No. 102/94) and the Commercial Companies Law (No. 4/74), as well as the prescribed Omanisation percentage in accordance with rules in force. These estates/investments may be granted other exemptions or incentives not stated in this Decree.

Article (7) exempts the PEIE and PEIE-owned companies that are established within (industrial) estates affiliated to the PEIE with the purpose of implementing or managing projects of services and public utilities or any other basic projects therein.

With most people getting early salaries on Eid, it was bonanza time for traders. But the rush also caused traffic jams, queues and parking problems

SALEH AL SHAIBANY saleh@timesofoman.com

HOLIDAY BONANZA: Shoppers spent their cash on jewellery and gold ornaments with earrings, pendu-

lums and bangles etc. ending up in their shopping bags.–File photo for illustrative purpose only

Bylaws and decisions Article (8) stipulates that the Chairman of Board of Directors of the PEIE shall issue the bylaws and decisions necessary for the implementation of provisions of this decree and the system attached to it after the approval of the Minister of Commerce and Industry. Until such bylaws and decisions are issued, the current regulations, bylaws, decisions and systems shall continue to be enforced without prejudice to the provisions of this decree or the system attached.

Null and void Article (9) states that the Articles of Association of the PEIE No. 4/93 shall be deemed null and void. All that contradicts or contravenes this decree or the system attached shall be cancelled.

Article (10) states that this Decree shall be published in the official gazette and enforced on the day following its date of publishing.

(Issued on July 21st, 2015) – ONA

MUSCAT: Shoppers brought a windfall to shops and traders as they went on a spending spree to buy gifts for their families during the Eid holidays.

Shops opened late to keep up with the last minute shopping frenzy. High on the list of shopping were clothes, watches, food, perfumes, furniture and electronics items. Shoppers also spent their cash on jewellery and gold ornaments such as earrings, pendulums and bangles ended up in their shopping bags. The fall in gold prices to a five-year low was also a cause for celebration for gold buffs as well as traders.

“The whole shopping street in Al Khodh was buzzing with shoppers until 2 am during the holidays. We had to hire temporary staff to work in three shifts to accommodate the high demand,” Anil Kumar, salesman at Abayat and Sheilat Trading Stores, told Times of Oman.

Travel agents were rubbing their hands with glee as people rushed to book for their Eid holidays. Air tickets to popular destinations such as Thailand, Malaysia, Tur-

HUMAN RESOURCES

Petro sector staff set to be trained by global experts Times News Service MUSCAT: With the objective of building Omani workforce in the oil and gas sector, OPITO International, a global oil and gas training standards body, is working on a phased plan that will provide the government with a sustainable solution to the employment needs of its people and to the demands of its growing oil and gas industry.

As part of the contract with the Ministry of Oil and Gas in Oman, OPITO is working with the government, the Oman Society for Petroleum Services (OPAL) and employers to improve the delivery of training that will ensure the country has a skilled and safe oil and gas workforce.

This will make a positive contribution to the economy by creating greater employment opportunities for Omanis.

The first phase of the plan involves an analysis of the current provision of vocational and nonvocational training throughout Oman. OPITO will be visiting training centres and colleges to identify the standard of training and then provide recommendations on how technical training provision can be improved to deliver a framework of qualifications which will meet current and future skills demands and improve competence in the operations and maintenance activities associated with the extraction of hydrocarbons.

David Doig, OPITO group chief executive, said, “By working with the government and employers, we will help the government develop a learning infrastructure in-country which will be able to deliver industry-designed and industry-recognised qualifications underpinned by technical training standards, occupational standards, a robust assessment process and accredited certification and qualifications.

“This will ensure that the training is delivered in the correct way, by the right people, using the right equipment in a safe and

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We will help the government develop a learning infrastructure in-country which will be able to deliver industry-designed and industryrecognised qualifications underpinned by technical training standards David Doig OPITO group chief executive

well-managed environment and competence can be effectively measured.”

As a result of OPITO’s groundbreaking work in the country, hundreds of Omanis will be trained to recognised industry qualifications in electrical and mechanical maintenance and instrumentation and controls, allowing them to work in the oil and gas industry. This will openup new economic opportunities for Omanis, impacting positively on the economy and giving the oil industry confidence in the competence of their technicians.

“Our aim is to increase the competency levels and productivity of the local workforce coming into the industry by aligning

existing vocational and technical training with industry requirements and accrediting it to international standards,” said Khalid Ghalib Al Hinai, HR advisor to the Minister of Oil and Gas and chairman of the In-Country Values HR Committee.

OPAL is working with OPITO by bringing employers together to ensure that the learning infrastructure recommended by OPITO delivers against their needs.

“The association with OPITO will ensure Oman’s training standards meet the technical training requirements of the industry and offer Omanis training to global standards,” added Musallam Al Mandhari, chief executive officer of OPAL.

We could not get any caterer for our Eid lunch this time.

Bookings were made three weeks in advance. My wife was not happy because she had to cook for twenty people Mustafa Kamal, Al Khuwair resident key, London, Paris, Greece, Iran and Lebanon were snapped up despite higher prices due to demand.

“It is a premier price because of the seasonal rush but holiday makers do not mind paying. They have a break and obviously they don’t care how much it costs,” Mohammed Al Kaabi, owner of Al Ainaat Travels, said.

Road travellers on Thursday, the beginning of the break, had to buy insurance when they drove to the

Oman-UAE border to spend their holiday in Dubai.

“We had an unprecedented, over 300 drivers who came over to buy car insurance for their UAE travel this Eid,” an insurance salesman who did want to be identified, said.

Food caterers refused orders due to pressing demands and tailors turned away customers and so was the case with slaughterhouses.

Many furniture deliveries could not be made as traders did not have

enough staff during the holidays.

“We could not get any caterer for our Eid lunch this time. Bookings were made three weeks in advance. My wife was not happy because she had to cook for twenty people that we invited,” Mustafa Kamal, a resident of Al Khuwair, told Times of Oman.

The Civil Service, including most of employers in private sector, paid their workers early for the month of June to help them with the Eid shopping, which probably fuelled the high spending.

Though Eid shopping was a windfall for traders, it caused traffic jams, long queues and parking problems. Many shoppers found parking tickets on their windshields, which put extra cash demand on their Eid spending.

“I parked illegally on top of a curb and saw a traffic offence ticket when I was going home. Obviously now I need to find extra cash to pay for it, which I have not planned for,” Khamis Al Saadi, a resident of Seeb, told Times of Oman.

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523,522

students are studying in 1,048 public schools with 56,211 teachers and 11,606 administrators.>A4

Education boosts human resources His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has said that education is one of the basic pillars of development of human resources, and the Sultanate’s development can only be achieved through the education of its children

Times News Service MUSCAT: At the dawn of the Renaissance on July 23, 1970, the Ministry of Education launched a campaign to spread education and improve its quality in various areas of the country.

His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said said that the education sector is one of the basic pillars of development of human resources, and the Sultanate’s development and Renaissance can only be achieved through the education of its children.

The number of public schools in Oman has reached 1048, while students studying in them numbered 523,522, with 56,211 teachers and 11,606 administrators. The ministry has recorded a series of achievements during the current academic year of 2014 and 2015.

Some of these are: During this academic year, the cognitive development programme witnessed wide participation from students with their projects in forums and scientific competitions at both levels, local and regional. The most prominent participation of student projects in the programme was in the exhibition of Omani innovations “Discovery and Achievement” organised by the National Committee for Youth, which was held at the Oman International Exhibition Centre between March 22 and 24, 2015. The projects also got the opportunity to participate in events outside such as the Intel competition for Science and Technology in Qatar from November 9 to 11, 2015, and came in third in all categories.

These projects were Basil Effect on Growth of Bacteria, Zeyad’s Ultrasonic Waves, and Consumed Paper Umbrella (Amazon).

The cognitive development programme also participated in the 15th contest of the Scientific Creation for girls held in Kuwait on April 24 and 25, 2015 with two projects. The Safe Driving System achieved first place at the level of the GCC countries, and Healthy Broom received the best oral presentation award. The Sultanate’s students also participated in the fourth Gulf Mathematics Olympiad in Kuwait from March 22 to 26, 2015, and received two silver medals and two bronze medals out of the six participant students.

The programme also took part in the 8th Arab Championship contest for the Robot in Jordan from March 20 to 22, 2015. Here, the project for a traffic system for the elderly and people with special needs was in second place in the free competition of the robot, and the project of the tracking line won the Promising Team Award as the best robot. The programme projects were also at the international Intel Competition for Science and Engineering in the United States from May 10 to 14, 2015, where the

YOUTH POWER: The number of public schools in Oman reached 1,048, while students numbered 523,522, with 56,211 teachers and 11,606 administrators.– Supplied photo

project of Life Support on Mars received a special award from the National Administration of Astronautics Award (NASA).

In the Arab competitions, the projects were displayed in the Arabic language contest in Egypt in March 2015 and won the first prize. The project was also in the competition of Jim TV Football Championship for Boys in Qatar, and students took part in the Saudi festival of science and innovation in Saudi Arabia in February 2015.

International Studies In the area of International Studies, the ministry took part in the fourth session of the International Study of Mathematics and Science (TIMSS) with only the eighth grade, and participated in the fifth session with the fourth and eighth grades, as well as at the sixth session TIMSS2015. It has been applied on April 28, 2015, in more than 500 public, private and international schools. The ministry also participated for the first time in the third session of the international study to measure reading skills 2011 (PIRLS2011) with the fourth grade, and is ready to participate in the fourth session in 2016.

The competition is supervised by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) with the participation of about 70 countries from different continents.

Exams management In the area of testing and management of examinations, the ministry is continuing the use of electronic marking and continues

to improve it in order to raise the efficiency and credibility of exams marking, and to reduce the human effort and financial waste, and provide statistical and analytical indicators and accurate reports on students results, and to provide data of the results that allow the follow-up performance levels based on subjects, and the level of students, the school. All this is to make it easier to develop treatment plans for students and training programmes for teachers, and to provide electronic archiving for all students exam books, as well as to provide educational assessment departments with computer programmes related to examination management.

In the area of certification and educational qualifications, the ministry updated rules and regulations relating to students affairs based on the changes in the educational process, to keep pace with the developments in the local and global community. The ministry also facilitated the possibility of submitting a request to extract a certificate instead of missing and translation by Oman Post Offices in the wilayat. In the framework of improving work in the evaluation of educational qualifications systems, the ministry devised an electronic subscription at the database of the National Recognition Centre (UK NARIC) in the United Kingdom, to take advantage of the services provided at the centre in the evaluation of educational qualifications, and the detection of forged certificates.

In educational planning, the ministry activated the school

map in data monitoring and future planning to serve the educational process. The school map has gained the trust and respect of the officials as it has increasingly contributed in taking relevant decisions, especially decisions of the establishment of new school buildings. Nearly 90 per cent of the second phase of the school map has been completed and represented in the evaluation of user needs and the study of geographic data and metadata and implementation of a central database.

In the field of quality, the ministry received ISO certification (9001) in Quality Management Project in the Directorate General of Planning and Quality Control and the Directorate General for Administrative Affairs and their counterparts in the governorates, as the development of the education system in accordance with quality standards that suits educational policies through improving the administrative work in the ministry comes in light of the international standards of the ISO. Documentation of key processes and sub-processes and implementation procedures to facilitate the measuring and follow-up and development, are the most important requirements that the ministry is seeking to achieve.

In the area of educational programmes, the ministry is continuing in the application of programmes and projects in the awareness of social, psychological and health and nutrition. The most important programmes are the fight against tobacco use among school students in grades 5 to 12,

and the fight against drugs and psychotropic substances among students in grades 10 to 12). Then there is programme of peer education about AIDS for grades 9 to 12, and the programme of health of girls, and booklets of positive character, and competition of the Facts of Life book.

There is also the Shell Traffic Safety Award, awareness programme of personal hygiene “Spend the germs” for grades 1 to 4, and the programme of “My Health is in the eyes”, in addition to health-promoting schools, and child-friendly schools. The number of specialist social workers in the schools of the Sultanate stood at 1,177, and the number of social counsellors numbered 61. They are distributed in the different educational governorates.

The robot The Sultanate is one of the first countries to adopt robotics into the curriculum for more than fourteen years, and particularly since the school year 2001 to 2002. Through its study and review, the General Directorate for Curriculum has worked to develop it through the construction of the Omani curriculum standards project. The adoption of robotics started through the information technology curriculum standards for students of the first cycle in the third and fourth grades, and continues in the grades of the second cycle.

The development of information technology curriculum started effectively for the second cycle on the basis of the Omani curriculum standards with the completion

of the development of systematic fifth and sixth grades. And during the school year 2015 to 2016, the developed Information Technology curriculum for the seventh grade will be implemented, which contains an integrated unit in the area of the robot. The ministry will work to provide robot bags for all schools with seventh grade this year, in addition to providing the necessary support for teachers and supervisors by providing quality programmes specialising in the field of robots.

The project (I love reading) stands to provide a descriptive library in all classrooms for grades 1 to 4 in the first cycle of basic education schools. It aims to urge the learner towards parallel reading of the written contributions, a standardised form of reading where they are directing the learner to choose a book commensurate with the inclinations and needs, and age and mental levels. They can make this choice under the supervision of a teacher and it is related to the objectives of the school curriculum. The project also aims to instil the love of reading in the hearts of young people, and to increase their linguistic and scientific outcome, while activating the role of participatory reading, free reading in achieving the objectives of the school curriculum, and the development of self-learning skills and the art of dealing with the classroom library.

German, French languages The introduction of the German and French language teaching project was experimentally started in several schools. The application of the German language material began in the year 2012 and 2013 in five schools in the Muscat governorate and the Al Batinah South, and Omani teachers were trained to carry out the teaching.

Books and devices have been provided to assist in the implementation of teaching the language as an elective subject for grade 11. In the academic year 2013 and 2014 teaching of the French language was initiated in post-primary education for grades 11 and 12 as an elective subject with 4 classes per week in four school, 2 in Muscat, 2 in Al Batinah North.

This is a global programme to teach reading and writing skills in the English language. The programme was chosen to be applied as it proved its worth and efficiency globally and locally in developing and raising the level of young students in reading and writing skills. The programme has been applied in a number of private and public schools in the Sultanate, partially tested in some of the first cycle schools in the provinces of Al Batinah North and Al Sharqiya North.

ASIAN MILSET EXPO-SCIENCES 2016

Oman to host education expo BRUSSELS: At its meeting on the sidelines of the Milset ExpoSciences International in the Belgian capital Brussels, Asia Milset approved that the Sultanate, will host the Asian Milset Expo-Sciences 2016.

The hosting agreement was signed by Adnan Al Meer, Asia Milset President on behalf of Asian Milset Expo-Sciences 2016 and Fatima bint Said Al Hina’eyah, Assistant Secretary of the Omani National Commission

for Education, Culture and Science for International Relations, Head of the Sultanate’s delegation to the forum.

Adnan Al Meer praised the efforts of the Sultanate in supporting education innovation, and its active participation in various activities organised at the regional and international level.

He pointed out that the Sultanate has earned the honour of hosting the Asian Milset ExpoSciences 2016, thanks to its ef-

forts in this area, in addition to the Sultanate’s other potentials and other elements of modern development in various fields.

Fatima bint Said Al Hina’eyah pointed out that Omani students will benefit through this hosting during which numerous scientific events will be held. She added that it is an opportunity to inform the participants of other countries of modern development, cultural and civilizational heritage of the Sultanate.– ONA

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Donate, but don’t show off: Experts

Y O U T H TA L E N T

C O N S U M E R A F FA I R S

PACP recalls 137,940 cars

Having the opportunity to donate

When you donate something to somebody, you are practically giving him something, but basically he is taking whatever Allah has decided for him

something is a blessing from Allah and the person who accepts the donation is actually doing a favour to the donor by accepting it, say experts on theology

Hilal Al Rashdi

Adviser at the Ministry of Awqaf

ELHAM POURMOHAMMADI elham@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: A person who engages in charity should be sincere in his intention towards Allah and ward off the desire to show off, say religious experts.

“Not all donations are accepted by God. It all depends on the sincerity of the person, which is called ‘Ikhlas’ in Arabic,” said Hilal Al Rashdi, adviser at the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs.

A sincere act of charity should not be mixed with a desire to show off, Al Rashdi told the Times of Oman.

Even in the story of Qabil and Habil (Cain and Abel), it is mentioned that each of them presented a sacrifice to God but it was accepted only from Habil, he said.

Al Rashdi added that having the opportunity to donate something is a blessing from Allah and the person who accepts the donation is actually doing a favour to the donor by accepting it.

“When you donate something to somebody, you are practically giv-

ing him something, but basically he is taking whatever Allah has decided for him that very day, that very moment, that very time and from that very person,” he said.

It is said that during the time of the companions of the Prophet (PBUH), they were putting the charity in a nice and perfumed cloth before presenting it to the poor, said Al Rashdi.

“So you should donate with sincere intentions and should do it from the heart. If you do it in order to show off and show that you are superior to the poor, Allah will not accept it,” he noted.

Farida Saif Al Jabri, a long-serving volunteer at the Islamic Information Centre of Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, also believes in the importance of sincere intentions.

In Islamic teachings, it is said that when you give with your right hand, your left hand should not know, she said.

However, there are certain

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things that you should do to promote good deeds and encourage others to do so, said Al Jabri.

“You cannot encourage others to do good things if you do everything in secrecy,” she said, adding that if you encourage somebody to do something good, you will also be rewarded for that.

For instance, that is what people at Fareeq Al Istiqama Al Khairi, which distributes food among the poor are doing, she said, adding, “people there gather and go to public places and encourage others to help the needy ones.”

“Some people are surprised when they realise that poor people exist in Oman. Of course, there are poor people in Oman,” she added.

Al Jabri said that Islam has highlighted the importance of Sadaqah (charity) which helps protect the person and cure patients.

However, it should be done sincerely and just for the sake of God, she noted.

ADVENTURE PLANS: Dr Ali bin Saud Al Bemani, vice chancellor

of SQU, Chris Breeze, Shell’s country chairman in Oman and Adil bin Ismail Al Raisi, Shell Oman Marketing Company’s managing director, signed the agreement at the SQU.–Supplied photo

Shell, SQU unite for eco-marathon Asia contest 2016 Times News Service MUSCAT: As part of their collaboration, a letter of agreement was signed between Shell and Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) in the field of research and the development of Omani talent, to enable students from SQU’s College of Engineering to participate in the Shell Eco-marathon Asia in 2016.

Dr Ali bin Saud Al Bemani, vice chancellor of SQU, Chris Breeze, Shell’s country chairman in Oman and Adil bin Ismail Al Raisi, Shell Oman Marketing Company’s managing director signed the agreement at the SQU. Students from the department of mechanical and industrial engineering of the College of Engineering participated in the 2015 competition that was held in Manila, the Philippines, for the first time with a prototype fuelefficient vehicle.

Based on the new agreement, the SQU’s team will participate in the competition scheduled to take place in the Philippines, in early 2016. Under the Shell Eco-marathon competition, stu-

dents can either design a prototype vehicle, which focuses on maximum efficiency, or an urban concept vehicle, which encourages more practical designs for everyday life. Throughout the history of the competition, the most fuel-efficient car ever designed by a Shell Eco-marathon student team capable of driving 3,771 kilometres on a litre of fuel, or the equivalent of driving from Muscat to Ankara, was in Europe in 2009.

Dr Al Bemani, said, “We are very pleased to sign the agreement with Shell. At SQU, we are very keen to offer students who are interested in technology and energy a unique and hands-on experience opportunity to stretch the boundaries of fuel efficiency in the real world, all in the spirit of teamwork, competition and innovation.”

Also speaking on the occasion, Al Raisi said, “Our commitment to corporate social responsibility and years of research and development has contributed to our ability to provide the customers in Oman with cutting edge fuel technology”.

MUSCAT: A total 137,940 cars were recalled during the first half of this year, a report shows.

The statistical report was issued by the Public Authority for Consumer Protection (PACP) represented by the Complaints Department at the Directorate General of Consumer Protection and Market Control.

The PACP, in cooperation with a number of car dealers, launched 70 campaigns as part of the efforts to conduct continued reviews of the products in the Sultanate’s markets.

Hilal bin Salim Al Zefaiti, head of Complaints Department of Food Safety and Medications at the PACP, said that the recalling of cars came as a result of technical faults in the vehicles that could have led to defects in operating of the vehicles and hence exposing people to serious risks.

The technical faults included poor welding of the fuel injectors, defects in the programming of the control unit, insufficient insulation in the rear signals, defects in the safety belts and the car key, defects in the coating of the rear brakes and steering wheel, among others.–ONA MEDIA

New journal released MUSCAT: Marking the 45th anniversary of Oman’s Blessed Renaissance Day, the Special Economic Zone Authority at Duqm (SEZAD) on Tuesday published the first issue of its quarterly magazine The Duqm Economic. The magazine, which is published in Arabic and English, aims at highlighting projects that are being implemented in the Duqm Economic Zone, observing the progress of these projects. –ONA

W E D N E S DAY, JU LY 2 2 , 2 0 1 5

REGION

This is the first boat carrying the UN flag to dock in Aden since the war began” in late March Nayef Al Bakri, Provincial Governor

US ‘disturbed’

by Khamenei’s criticism: Kerry In a Tehran speech punctuated by chants against US and Israel, the Iran leader had said that US policies in the region were ‘180 degrees’

ALLAYING FEARS: Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad

opposed to Iran’s

Zarif, right, speaks in parliament in Tehran on Tuesday to defend last week’s Vienna accord on nuclear programme which will see the lifting of sanctions imposed on Iran. – AFP

DUBAI: The United States said on Tuesday it was very disturbed by anti-US hostility voiced by Iran’s top leader after a nuclear deal, as both countries’ top diplomats sought to calm opposition to the accord from political hardliners at home.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said a speech by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday vowing to defy American policies in the region despite a deal with world powers over Tehran’s nuclear programme was “very troubling”. “I don’t know how to interpret it at this point in time, except to take it at face value, that that’s his policy,” he said in the interview with Saudiowned Al Arabiya television. “But I do know that often comments are made publicly and things can evolve that are different. If it is the policy, it’s very disturbing, it’s very troubling,” he added.

Ayatollah Khamenei, the highest authority in Iran, told supporters on Saturday that US policies in the region were “180 degrees” opposed to Iran’s, in a Tehran speech punctuated by chants against America and Israel.

In the case of Iran, the deal must win final approval from the National Security Council and ultimately Khamenei, who has so far withheld final judgement while saying the text must still be scrutinised. In the United States, Republicans who control Congress have lined up against the deal, but Obama says he will veto any congressional objection.

Kerry also has the task of selling the agreement to sceptical US allies in the region.

Kerry said the deal would im-

prove regional security by preventing Iran from seeking atomic weapons. “The agreement gets rid of the nuclear weapon potential.

But if we do the right things... then I believe the Gulf states and the region can feel much more secure than they do today,” he said.

Defence Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister who developed a warm rapport with Kerry during weeks of unprecedented face-to-face talks, defended the deal in Iran’s hardliner-dominated parliament. He said most of Iran’s conditions had been met, including so-called “red lines” set

by Khamenei.

“We don’t say the deal is totally in favour of Iran. Any negotiation is a give and take. We have definitely shown some flexibility,” the foreign minister said. “I tell you as I told the Supreme Leader, we did our best to preserve most of the red lines, if not all.”

Nevertheless, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and other hardliners have started to attack the deal directly, criticising a UN Security Council resolution passed on Monday endorsing it.

They may be trying to persuade Khamenei to block the deal by presenting it as having violated “red lines” he set, particularly provisions that leave in place an arms embargo and restrictions on Iran’s missile programme.

Zarif told lawmakers the UN resolution restricted only development of missiles designed to carry nuclear warheads, and this would not affect Iran’s missile programme as Iran does not have nuclear weapons.

D E A D LY D I S E A S E

Cholera outbreak spreads, kills 39 in South Sudan JUBA: Cholera in war-torn South Sudan has spread to another state, with at least 39 dead since an outbreak was declared last month, the World Heath Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.

A total of 1,212 cholera cases including 39 deaths have been recorded, according to WHO figures, with the highly contagious infection spreading from the capital Juba in Central Equatoria to neighbouring Jonglei state, one of the worst-affected areas by the 19-month civil war.

South Sudan’s health ministry officially declared an outbreak of the diarrhoeal disease on June 23, although the first case was tracked back to a UN camp in the capital Juba on May 18.

Seeking shelter Over 166,000 people have sought shelter inside UN peacekeeper bases across the country and over 2.25 million people have been forced from their homes, with fighters on both sides are accused of atrocities including massacres and rape.

The vast majority of cases remain centred around Juba, with one death recorded in Jonglei’s capital Bor, a town left in ruins after swapping hands multiple times in the war, but is now in government control. Stamping

WARNING: A total of 1,212 chol-

era cases including 39 deaths have been recorded, according to WHO figures, with the highly contagious infection spreading from the capital Juba in Central Equatoria to neighbouring Jonglei state. – AFP Files

out the disease, which is transmitted through water or food containing contaminated fecal matter, poses an additional major challenge for the government and aid workers. Efforts to stem cholera are being hampered by rampant inflation and “an ailing economic situation”, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

“Many people can no longer afford to buy enough safe water,” OCHA said, adding that many people drank filthy water straight from the Nile river. “Those who still can afford it, now spend twice as much as they did just a few months ago.” — AFP

Revolutionary Guard chief Mohammad Ali Jafari said on Monday, according to Tasnim news agency: “Some parts of the (resolution) draft have clearly crossed the republic’s red lines, especially towards Iran’s military capabilities.” Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to Khamenei on foreign affairs, broke a long silence on Tuesday and said the deal was “not without flaws”, although he did not reject it outright.

“No one can tell us which weapons we can have.... Except nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction, Iran will continue making all the missiles, fighter jets, anti-missile defence systems, tanks and other armoured equipment it needs,” he was quoted as saying on the Supreme Leader’s website.

The prospect that sanctions will be lifted is spurring businesses to make plans to return to Iran.

In Paris, Laurent Fabius, who will make the first trip to Iran by a French foreign minister in 12 years, said France’s hard line towards Tehran at the nuclear negotiations would not hurt its businesses after sanctions are lifted.

Despite a long history of commercial, political and social links with Iran France took one of the hardest lines of the six powers negotiating the accord. “It’s true that France was very firm,” Fabius told France Inter radio. “Will French firms be penalised? My answer is no because in the past we had an important presence in Iran. Our (expertise) is excellent in a lot of fields and the Iranians are serious. You know in foreign policy, I think you lose nothing in being respected.” — Reuters

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RELIEF SUPPLIES

First in four months: UN aid ship docks at port of Aden ADEN: A UN aid ship docked in Yemen’s devastated port city of Aden on Tuesday, bringing in desperately needed relief supplies after four months of fierce fighting between Houthi rebels and loyalist fighters.

The humanitarian aid arrived as forces loyal to exiled President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi pressed on with operations to tighten their control over the southern city.

“This is the first boat carrying the UN flag to dock in Aden since the war began” in late March, provincial Governor Nayef Al Bakri told reporters at the port before a second vessel also docked.

Transport Minister Badr Basalmeh said the second ship was sent by the United Arab Emirates.

The UN’s World Food Programme ship carried 4,700 tonnes of food supplies and pharmaceutical aid, and the second carried 2,315 tonnes of medical aid, the minister said.

The WFP had tried repeatedly in past weeks to deliver aid to Aden but was unable to do so because of security concerns. Vessels sent by the UAE managed to reach the city in May, but not under the UN flag.

Failed truce A humanitarian ceasefire declared by the United Nations earlier this month failed to take hold. The WFP had described the truce as the “final hope” to deliver aid.

The WFP had sent aid ahead of the truce to the rebel-controlled port of Hodeida in western Yemen, but the insurgents did not allow an aid convoy to travel to Aden.

The United Nations had warned then that the impoverished country was just “one step away from famine”.

More than 21.1 million people -over 80 percent of Yemen’s population -- need aid, with 13 million facing food shortages. The United Nations says the conflict has killed

more than 3,640 people, around half of them civilians, since late March. Over the past week, forces loyal to Hadi have recaptured most of Aden from Houthi Shiite rebels and their allies. The loyalist advances were backed by warplanes from a Saudi-led Arab coalition that began a bombing campaign against the rebels in late March.

Basalmeh told journalists on Monday that a UAE technical team had arrived to repair the tower and passenger terminal at Aden international airport, heavily damaged in clashes before rebels were driven out.

On Tuesday, the UAE said without elaborating that an officer in its armed forces was killed in coalition operations, the third Emirati to die in the conflict. The coalition has never acknowledged putting boots on the ground in Yemen, but loyalists have been reinforced in Aden by forces trained by the coalition. — AFP

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W EDN ESDAY, JULY 22, 2015

INDIA

I have written the letter and I stand by every word of it. Our party has made glorious achievements. It won with glory, formed government and ran it for a year with glory. After that stains have started to appear in places. With achievement, your head is held high.

Shanta Kumar, veteran BJP leader

I N C O M E TA X D E PA R T M E N T

RIVER KSHIPRA IN SPATE

A temple submerged on the bank of the flooded Kshipra river due to heavy rains, in Ujjain city of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday. -PTI

E-filing link to declare illegal foreign assets NEW DELHI: The Income Tax Department has launched a efiling link on its official website for declaring illegal foreign assets and black money using the onetime compliance window notified recently by government.

“The link has been provided on the official e-filing portal of the department-https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in. The relevant ‘Form 6’ can be used to declare undisclosed assets under the compliance window of the new anti-black money law,” a senior official said. According to the scheme, such a declaration filed online by an individual or entity will have to mandatorily bear a “digital signature” for validation.

A digital signature authenticates electronic documents in a similar manner as a handwritten signature validates printed or hand-written documents. It cannot be forged and it asserts that a named person wrote or otherwise agreed to the document to which the signature is attached.

“The department has provided this facility as the compliance window is valid only till September 30 and the e-filing system provides the required secrecy and speed,” he said. The new two-page form brought out for this purpose has been categorised as ‘Form 6’ and has a three-page annexure for

DISCONTENT

BJP veteran calls for party ethics panel amid scams NEW DELHI: In the first sign of discontent in the Bharatiya Janata Party, senior leader Shanta Kumar has dropped a letter bomb demanding a ‘Lokpal’ in the party to tackle the cases of corruption like Vyapam which has “made all of us bow our heads in shame”.

The BJP veteran from northIndian state Himachal Pradesh in his letter to party President Amit Shah also referred to allegations in “some states”, hinting to the controversy in north-Indian state Rajasthan surrounding CM Vasundhara Raje over Lalit Modi and west-Indian state Maharashtra here there are allegations of corruption against BJP Minister Pankaja Munde.

The 80-year-old former state Chief Minister has pressed for setting up an “ethics committee” which should act like a Lokpal to “keep a check on leaders in the government”.

‘Stand by every word’ “I have written the letter and I stand by every word of it. Our party has made glorious achievements.

It won with glory, formed government and ran it for a year with glory. After that stains have started to appear in places. With achievement, your head is held high.

Stains cause pain in the heart,” he said on Tuesday.

Kumar said he has expressed his view and pain to the party president. His two-page letter, written in Hindi and dated July 10, was posted on the Kangra MP’s Facebook and Twitter accounts yesterday. Kumar’s letter stated that when the Jan Sangh was formed, the emphasis was on “value-based politics”.

“Gradually, we came to power, and became a ruling party...people started making compromises with

those values, and here began the politics of power,” he said in his letter. However, Kumar praised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Gujarat model of governance, which he said was an important factor for the overwhelming support the party received during the Lok Sabha polls. “This was a historic victory under Narendra Modi because of his image and work in Gujarat,” he wrote.

‘Carried away’ Reacting to Kumar’s concerns on charges facing the party’s state governments and demand for a ‘Lokpal’, the BJP said that the veteran has been carried away by the Congress propaganda, and completely disassociated itself with his views. Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy told reporters that what Kumar has said or written, the party completely disassociated itself with it.

“We generally consider Shanta Kumar a very mature leader. But it seems that he has been carried away by the propaganda of the Congress. Whatever he has said or written, we completely disassociate with Mr Shanta Kumar’s version,” Rudy said.

Kumar, former north-Indian state Himachal Pradesh’s chief minister and union minister, is among the veteran BJP leaders who have been marginalised under the reign of Modi and party chief Amit Shah. The 80-year-old leaders enjoys a clean image.

He also referred to allegations in some states, hinting to the controversy in Rajasthan surrounding CM Vasundhara Raje over Lalit Modi and Maharashtra where there are allegations of corruption against BJP Minister Pankaja Munde. -PTI

the “statement of undisclosed assets located outside India”.

Those who want to manually file such a declaration, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), apex policy making body of the tax department, has already notified a Commissioner of I-T in the national capital for the same.

The government had notified the three-month compliance window beginning July 1. The tax and penalty on declared assets or funds can be paid till December 31.

Those availing the one-time ‘compliance window’ would be required to pay a tax of 30 per cent and a penalty of a similar amount. The compliance window is part of the new anti-black money law that was passed by Parliament in May. Those holding illegal foreign assets abroad and not disclosing it by September 30 will have to face action under stringent anti-money laundering laws, the taxman has warned.

The department, in a public advertisement brought out on Monday in national dailies, had said people not disclosing illegal foreign assets will be “liable for tax and penalty totalling 120 per cent of the value of undisclosed asset, rigorous imprisonment up to 10 years and action under Prevention of Money Laundering Act.” -PTI

Parliament adjourned over corruption issue Members of the opposition Congress party on Tuesday stormed the well of the chamber in the upper house, shouting slogans and forcing the speaker to halt proceedings. The house was adjourned for the day after repeated protests

NEW DELHI: India’s parliament was adjourned on the first day of a new session after opposition lawmakers demanded the resignation of leaders tainted by corruption allegations, deepening an impasse that has stalled the government’s reform agenda.

Members of the opposition Congress party on Tuesday stormed the well of the chamber in the upper house, shouting slogans and forcing the speaker to halt proceedings.

The house was adjourned for the day after repeated protests.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed for the opposition to work with the government.

“We want to take the country forward,” Modi said on his way into parliament. “I hope parliament will respect the country’s aspirations.”

In the monsoon sitting of parliament, the government’s main goal is to ease the passage of the biggest overhaul of taxes since independence in 1947. All eyes are on the upper house, where the government and its allies are a minority.

Passing the measure would be a victory for Modi and go some way to reassuring investors who are

growing jittery that economic modernisation is happening too slowly.

Modi is under pressure from the opposition to fire his foreign minister and a state leader amid claims they gave favours to a sports tycoon living in London who faces allegations of tax evasion. Separately, the chief minister of a central Indian state governed by Modi’s party is on the defensive over the deaths of witnesses involved in a massive fraud in entrance exams for college and government jobs.

Modi has made tentative progress on economic transformation since he swept to office a year ago, and in his first year parliament was a third more productive than the first year of the last government, data by PRS Legislative Research shows.

IN LINE OF FIRE: Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj at Parliament House on the opening day of the monsoon session in New Delhi on Tuesday. -PTI

Sushma’s offer But the pace of change has been slower than many expected from the man some supporters cast in the mould of reformers such as Britain’s Margaret Thatcher or China’s Deng Xiaoping, and private companies are slow to invest in economic revival.

Meanwhile, a combative government accused the Congress-led opposition of running away from debate after they stalled Rajya Sabha demanding resignations of indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and two BJP chief ministers over Lalit Modi controversy

and Vyapam scam. Opposition parties rejected the government offer of a statement by Swaraj, who is accused of helping Lalit Modi in getting the UK travel documents, and a debate “in any format, at any time”, saying she must resign first. -Agencies

TRADE WINDS

Task force launched to help India join Asia Pacific trade body WASHINGTON: Making a strong case for India’s membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), a former Australian Prime Minister and a top US corporate leader have said the forum would help it achieve its economic potential and bolster its Act East policy.

Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd-led Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) on Monday launched a task force to develop a strategy for gaining India’s membership in the forum.

The ASPI initiative ‘India and APEC: Charting a Path to Mem-

bership’ will be supported in India by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

“To achieve its economic potential, India should become more fully integrated into global supply chains and international trade and investment flows,” Rudd said in a statement.

Including India in APEC will help open India’s economy to the region and the world, benefiting the country and its neighbours and trading partners, he said.

“Stronger trade and investment ties among India and other Asia-Pacific economies will not

Rudd, Saran and Banga are members of a task force which includes participants from APEC economies, such as Indonesia, Korea, the Philippines and the US

only generate economic benefits but also foster stability across the region.

“India’s entry into APEC would make it a more inclusive forum for

trade consultation and dialogue and thereby mitigate the divisive effects that new trade regimes in Asia could have,” Rudd said.

Shyam Saran, former Foreign

Secretary of India, said that joining APEC would bolster India’s Act East policy by helping it improve its economic engagement and cooperation with AsiaPacific countries.

Integration MasterCard President and CEO Ajay Banga said that APEC membership would be a step towards India becoming better integrated with Asia-Pacific economies, which will be welcomed by the US and Asian businesses that want to invest more in India.

Rudd, Saran and Banga are

members of the task force which include participants from various APEC economies, such as Indonesia, Korea, the Philippines and the US. During the first year of the initiative, the task force will examine the challenges and opportunities of India’s membership in APEC and develop a plan for its eventual accession to APEC, the statement said. The members will share the findings with their governments during 2016, in anticipation of the APEC Summit scheduled to be held in Lima, Peru in November next year. -PTI

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INDIA

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Poll-bound Bihar set for release of ‘Vision 2050’ The ICAR foundation day celebrations are being organised outside Delhi for

THE CRIME: File photograph (March 16, 1993) shows, a bus passing a crater created by a March 12 bomb blast, one of a series of bombs that rocked the western Indian port city of Mumbai. -AFP

Mumbai blasts plotter loses final appeal against death sentence NEW DELHI: India’s top court on Tuesday rejected a final appeal

by Yakub Memon, a key plotter of bomb attacks that killed hundreds in Mumbai in 1993, paving the way for his execution.

Media reports said Yakub Memon would hang on July 30 -more than two decades after the deadliest attacks ever to hit India -- after the Supreme Court rejected his final plea.

The Bombay Stock Exchange, the offices of Air India and a luxury hotel were among the targets of the March 1993 blasts, which killed 257 people in India’s commercial capital. The attacks were believed to have been staged by Mumbai’s Muslim-dominated underworld in retaliation for anti-Muslim violence that had killed more than 1,000 people. Memon was the only one of 11 people convicted for the 1993 attacks to have his death sentence upheld on appeal.

The sentences on the others were commuted to life imprisonment. Executions are only carried out for “the rarest of rare” cases in India. But President Pranab Mukherjee has rejected a number of mercy pleas in recent years, ending an unofficial eight-year moratorium. A Kashmiri separatist convicted of involvement in a deadly 2001 attack on the Indian parliament was executed in New Delhi in 2013, while the lone surviving gunman from the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks was hanged in 2012.

“Crimes such as these deserve maximum punishment,” Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director for Human Rights Watch, told AFP. “But we believe that the max-

imum punishment should not be the death penalty because it is inherently inhumane,” she said.

Amnesty disappointed While Amnesty India said it was disappointed by the Supreme Court’s decision in the case, others widely welcomed the decision calling it historic and one which would send a message that those who indulge in terror acts against India will be hanged...

“The judgement regrettably puts India in opposition to the global trend towards moving away from the death penalty,” the rights group said. “There exists no reliable evidence that the threat of execution is more of a deterrent to crime than a prison sentence,” Amnesty said on Twitter.

the first time

PATNA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release ‘Vision 2050’ prepared by the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) here on July 25, Indian Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said on Tuesday.

“The Prime Minister will be the chief guest at ICAR foundation day celebrations here and release ‘Vision 2050’ for agriculture prepared by it to tackle the challenges of future,” Singh told reporters.

The ICAR foundation day celebrations are being organised outside Delhi for the first time.

New projects He said Modi will also inaugurate three new projects - Farmers First, Arya and Mera Gaon Mera Gaurav (My village my pride) - to stress on the ‘lab to land’ concept of the Centre.

On that day, the PM will ask agriculture scientists from all over the country to speed up the ‘lab to land’ approach, intended to provide new technologies to farmers,

which will lead to a quantum jump in agriculture productivity.

The Agriculture Minister said Patna was chosen to host ICAR foundation day celebrations because Bihar has an important place in the history of agricultural research. The country’s first agriculture research and education institute - ‘Indian Agricultural Research Institute’, then known as Imperial Institute of Agricultural Research, was set up at Pusa in Samastipur district here in 1905.

Modi will also award 82 persons including agricultural scientists, farmers and journalists writing on agriculture issues on the occasion. The awards include the prestigious Norman Borlaug Award. He will also provide ‘soil testing kits’ to young agriculture entrepreneurs.

Package for Bihar Meanwhile senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushil Kumar Modi said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will announce a package and set an agenda for development of Bihar during his visit to the state on Saturday.

“The Prime Minister will announce a package for Bihar and set an agenda for development of the state in the coming years at a public meeting in Muzaffarpur on July 25,” Sushil Modi told reporters. He, however, did not give details of the package.

Modi’s rally in Bihar will kickstart BJP’s campaign for the state Assembly polls to be held later this year.

Sushil Modi, former deputy chief minister, said the party’s

state unit has requested the central leadership to schedule three more rallies by the PM in Bihar ahead of the announcement of the poll schedule.

On state Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s frequent charge that the Prime Minister visits Bihar after a gap of 15-16 months keeping in mind political considerations, Sushil Modi said the PM will be coming to Bihar for official and party- related engagements.

“We are glad that the Prime Minister is coming to Bihar in every 15-16 months. The previous Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) had never visited Bihar during his tenure.

“He had only carried out an aerial survey during 2008 Koshi floods and returned to Delhi,” Sushil Modi said. -PTI

Firemen douse a major fire that broke out at a footwear showroom in the busy Bandra locality of Mumbai on Tuesday. The fire began before shops opened for business and spread to a row of shops but nobody was reported trapped, said officials. Ambulances were rushed to the location along with fire engines.

At noon, sources said the fire was under control.-PTI

Decision welcomed Samajwadi Party legislator Abu Azmi said he welcomed the apex court verdict with “bowed head”.

Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, who had led the prosecution team during the Mumbai blast trial in TADA Court, said the dismissal of the Memom’s curative petition was “historic” and that it would send a “strong signal” to the people in the country and across the border that the guilty would not be spared.

Fugitive accused in this case, Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon (brother of Yakub), who are suspected to be hiding in Pakistan, would learn a lesson from this verdict that no one was above the law and would have to pay for his act, Nikam told PTI while welcoming the SC judgement. -Agencies

Mamata dares rival parties

SHOW OF MIGHT: An aerial view of a large gathering of Trinamool Congress activists during a rally

to observe Martyrs’ Day in Kolkata on Tuesday. - PTI

Throwing a challenge to opposition parties, Banerjee said “The more you challenge us, your seats will go down one by one. Let Congress, CPI-M and BJP come together, we will fight alone holding our head high standing beside the people. .

“Assembly election is coming in 2016. We will win. After that election we will organise an even bigger rally which will break all records,” she said. Claiming that CPI-M had done nothing for the state during its 34-year rule.

“Whatever was left of the party (CPI-M) is now over as it has sold itself to BJP. TMC will not bow down to BJP, neither to Congress nor CPI-M.” In a reference to BJP

Shankar Prasad, Upendra Kushwaha, Sushil Modi and others flags off 160 Parivartan Raths (vehicles of change) as part of NDA’s Bihar poll campaign, at Gandhi Maidan in Patna recently. PTI

MUMBAI BLAZE

2 0 1 6 P O L L P R E PA R AT I O N

KOLKATA: Virtually sounding the bugle for next year’s assembly election in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday challenged BJP, CPI-M and Congress to come together and said her party Trinamool Congress would go it alone and defeat them.

“I challenge them (opposition parties). If they can fight us let them fight,” a combative Banerjee told a huge rally here on the occasion of ‘Martyr’s Day’ observed annually by TMC. “BJP, CPI-M and Congress have no ideology and morality...

They only resort to spreading canards against us. They have no place in Bengal,” she said.

POLL TIME: BJP President Amit Shah with union ministers and NDA leaders Ram Vilas Paswan, Ravi

she said “Those who don’t have ideology and morality spread the poison of communalism.”

Flaying Modi government Attacking the Narendra Modi government for slashing funds for Central schemes in the state, Banerjee said her party will not bow its head before BJP and will launch movement against it.

“Our fight is on for every inch.

Earlier our fight was against CPI(M). Now we are fighting against the policies of the Centre.

We are fighting against Centre’s decision to slash funds for Central schemes. Our fight will continue and we will spread this movement from Bengal to Delhi,” she said. -PTI

A10

W EDN ESDAY, JULY 22, 2015

PAKISTAN Sharif directs urgent relief in areas hit by flash floods Corps, with the help of civil administrations, have already distributed 16 tons of ration, while troops have evacuated more than 73 stranded

Ismaili community As many as 45 members of the Ismaili minority community were killed in the attack on a passenger bus near Safora Chowk in Karachi on May 13, 2015.

Earlier in June, police seemed to have found the key culprits behind the recent unrest in Karachi in the form of the Safoora bus attackers, as they are being implicated in new cases with each passing day based on their ‘revelations’ during the ongoing investigation.

individuals from Garm Chashma, Koragh and Bomboreet

Stranded individuals In Chitral meanwhile, the army continued its rescue operation on the sixth day in some of the worsthit areas of the region. Army and Frontier Corps, with the help of civil administrations, have already distributed 16 tons of ration, while troops have evacuated more than 73 stranded individuals from Garm Chashma, Koragh and Bomboreet. The army has stationed two MI-17 helicopters

INUNDATED: Residents wade through floodwater in the Muzaffargarh district of Punjab province on September 17, 2014. — AFP file

According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department, widespread rain and thundershower are expected during the next 12 hours in Hazara, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Lahore divisions, Islamabad and Pakistan-administered Kashmir

in Chitral for relief and rescue operations. Frontier Corps have donated 100 tons of ration and food items for the flood affectees in Chitral, which is being despatched from Peshawar.

Further, Corps Commander Peshawar Lt-Gen Hidayatur Rehman visited Chitral to monitor the relief and rescue efforts being carried out by Pakistan Army and Frontier Corps.

At least 130 villages were inundated in Muzaffargarh, Rajanpor and Layyah, spokesperson of Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) said.

He added that 71 of these were inundated in Layyah, 50 in Rajanpur and 10 in Muzaffargarh, Radio Pakistan reported.

“Administration of these districts evacuated the residents to

PRESENCE OF FLIES

Highly lucrative Pakistan exported about 91,700 tons of mangoes during the fruit season in 2014 compared to 102,000 tons in 2013. The share of the EU market is about 5 per cent in total mango exports but it is highly lucrative.

Despite the decline in exports, exporters and growers earned more than double the amount they fetched in 2013 because of the stringent quality standards applied by the government for ex-

safer places while 32 relief camps were set up in Rajanpor,” he said and added that no loss of human lives had been reported. The spokesman furthered that several roads in Chitral were repaired and traffic temporarily restored.

Although other parts of the province and the tribal belt have also been affected by heavy downpour, Chitral has been in the thick of the calamity. Infrastructure has been the worst-hit and the upper areas of the district have virtually been cut off from the rest of Chitral, leaving as many as 200,000 people stranded.

The PDMA said the available machinery and manpower had already been deployed for temporary opening of routes to restore communication.

The district administration re-

quires heavy machinery and technical expertise from the National Highway Authority to repair the damage.

About 40 connecting bridges and more than 200 smaller bridges have been washed away. An estimated 175 houses were completely destroyed while over 200 others were partially damaged.

Three towns of Latkoh district – Garam Chashma, Arkari and Karimabad – have been inaccessible for the past six days.

Shortage of edible items Electricity and water supply systems have also been destroyed, while a shortage of edible items has also been reported.

According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department, widespread rain and thundershower are expected during the next 12 hours in Hazara, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Lahore divisions, Islamabad and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

At least 110 houses were inundated while hundreds of trees were swept away with flood waters on Tuesday.

Floodwaters also caused damaged to 16 mosques, nine hydropower houses, seven schools and roads.

Reports suggested authorities lost contact with at least 75 differ-

ent villages as water coming from a glacier lake in Shigarwazirpur entered in nearby villages.

Meanwhile, Gilgit-Baltistan MPA Imran Nadeem demanded the deployment of army in flood affected areas for relief activities.

“Administration does not have ample facilities to deal with the current situation,” the Nadeem said.

Flood warnings were issued in at least six districts of Sindh as water levels rose to 29,713 cusec feet at Kotri barrage.

PDMA Sindh issued flood warning to Sukkur, Shikarpur, Ghotki, Larkana and Khairpur districts.

Flood waters are likely to pass through Sukkur and Guddu barrages on July 24-25, and preparations have been done to evacuate villagers from adjoining areas.

Authorities will establish tent cities for flood affected people at four different areas in all six districts which have been issued flood warnings.

Assistant Commissioner Saifur Rehman said no embankment had been breached in Jhakar Imam, but that there was a medium level of flood in Jhakkar Imam due to discharge to 500,000 cusec water.

He said two relief camps had been established for the flood affected people in the area. — Express Tribune

Number of cases Since their arrest in May, they have been remanded in a number of cases, including the murder of The Second Floor director Sabeen Mahmud, the attack on Jinnah Dental College’s American professor Debra Lobo, the bombing on mosques and schools.

On July 15, the prosecution apparently gained ground in the investigation of the bus attack as two witnesses identified three of the suspects held in the case.

Tahir Hussain Minhas alias Saeen, Saad Aziz alias Tin Tin and Asadur Rehman alias Malik were presented before a Malir district judicial magistrate for an identification parade for the second time in a week.

Tight security Due to the high-profile nature of the case, the proceedings took place within the judge’s chambers amid tight security.

Earlier on May 13, Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inaam Memon said that our forces are adamant on eliminating the terrorists.

He added that some clues have been found from the crime scene but cannot be shared as it will help the terrorists. — Express Tribune

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PA S B A N - E - PA K I S TA N

EU ban on food exports possible KARACHI: For the second year in a row, Pakistan is struggling to avoid a possible ban on its fresh food exports to the European Union and looking for ways to find a permanent solution to the problem.

Last year, when the EU slapped a ban on the import of a few Indian fruits and vegetables because of the presence of flies, it also extended warnings to Pakistan on similar grounds.

Following the threat, the government of Pakistan did well in continuing exports to the EU and avoided a blanket ban by putting in place different quality checks.

However, during the ongoing mango season, Pakistan’s three consignments have been intercepted in Europe. Two more interceptions and the country may face a ban on exports to the EU.

Karachi bus attacker to testify under plea bargain KARACHI: Assadur Rehman alias Malik, after striking a plea bargain has revealed to a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) that before being involved in the Karachi’s bus massacre in Safora locality he was involved in the targeted killing of police officials.

His testimony will now be used as significant information during the court proceedings of the massacre.

The accused is said to have done his O-levels from Army Public School Karachi in 2004, before joining a proscribed organisation in 2006.

Army and Frontier

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday directed authorities to expedite relief efforts as flash floods continued to wreak havoc in various parts of the country.

“Nawaz has expressed grief and sorrow over the loss of life and property due to floods in Chitral and intends to visit the flood affected areas in Chitral today but is stuck in Lahore due to bad weather,” a PM House statement read.

The prime minister also directed the National Highway Authority to keep N-45 open such that Chitral remained linked with the national road network.

Army chief General Raheel Sharif directed the army to make an all-out effort to help and assist the people affected by the floods, an ISPR press statement read.

All Corps Headquarters in their respective areas of responsibility are monitoring the flood situation and preparations have been made to meet any eventuality, the statement added. Field Commanders have been instructed to carryout reconnaissance of area that could see flooding.

TESTIMONY

ports to the EU in the 2014 season.

Resultantly, the interceptions in Europe dropped sharply from 236 consignments in 2013 to just three in 2014.

However, there are growing fears among mango exporters that any leniency on the part of the government can create huge problems.

In case of a ban, Pakistan may lose millions of dollars every year and will have to wait for years to get it removed. Moreover, it will also cause harm to the export of other products to the EU – one of the largest trading partners of Pakistan.

Industry officials and government departments responsible to examine the quality of export consignments say the situation will not improve unless investment is made at the farm level – the first stage where fruits and vegetables are contaminated.

Last year, the Department of Plant Protection (DPP) – one of the 14 organisations working under the Ministry of National Food Security and Research responsible for providing all-encompassing quarantine facilities to fruit and vegetable growers – made hot water treatment compulsory for all exports to the EU. Such treatment can reduce the threat of fruit flies but it cannot guarantee complete elimination. — Express Tribune

Socio-political group leader held KARACHI: Usman Moazzam, the secretary-general of Pasbane-Pakistan — a socio-political group — was detained along with his young son, Muhammad, during a raid allegedly conducted by the paramilitary force at his residence late on Sunday night. However, the Rangers have denied any such arrests.

The raid was conducted late Sunday night at around 1:45am at Moazzam’s residence in Samanabad. The family claimed that around two dozen Rangers troopers barged into the house. “My husband is innocent,” said Moazzam’s wife. “Why was he arrested along with Muhammad? What wrong did they do? They should be released immediately.”

Misbehaving with women According to Pasban leaders, Rangers searched the entire house for at least an hour. They accused the Rangers of taking into custody all the mobile phones from the house while leaving.

“Electronic media was also there and they saw them [the Rangers],” Pasban’s media coordinator Mehmood Khan Tajik told The Express Tribune. “They even misbehaved with the women of the house during the raid.”

On the other hand, the Rangers officials denied the arrest when contacted for comments.

Moazzam was Pasban’s candidate in the recent by-election in the Azizabad-based National

CAPTION KICKER:

SEIZED WEAPONS: File photo shows seized weapons taken during operations against criminals

by Pakistan Rangers displayed to the media in Karachi on March 12, 2013. — AFP

Assembly constituency. His eldest son, Saad Usman, has also been missing since June 11 when he left home for some work. His complaint was also registered at the Samanabad police station.

Pasban leaders vowed to register a case against the Rangers if their leader and his son are not released. They also held a press conference following the arrests.

“We did not want to hold a press conference as we wanted not to escalate the issue and bring them back to home,” Pasban chief Al-

taf Shakoor told The Express Tribune. He added that they approached the Rangers but they did not respond.

According to him, Pasban has approached the prime minister, president, army chief and Rangers director gen and informed them about the incident.

“We are trying to sort out the issue without taking any serious step,” he said. “But we will register an FIR against the Rangers if they are not released. We suspect that Saad was also arrested by

the Rangers.” During the press conference, Shakoor said they respect the Rangers and law enforcement agencies.

“We welcomed the decision of operation in Karachi but instead of eliminating criminals from the city, the Rangers are harassing us for our politics,” he said.

He added that if the law enforcers had contacted the Pasban leadership, they would have fully cooperated and provided them assistance in inquiring about the party’s activities. — Express Tribune

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CONFLICT

Iraqi forces launch offensive against IS militants near Anbar army base

DEBT CRISIS: People line up outside a National Bank branch while a Greek Orthodox priest walks by in Athens, Greece, on Tuesday. The

Greek government submitted legislation to parliament on Tuesday required by its international lenders to start talks on a multi-billion euro rescue package. — Reuters

Greece seeks bailout deal by August 20 Lawmakers are due to vote on a second batch of reforms on Wednesday in a fresh test of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras

Alexis Tsipras’

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras managed to push the first series of unpopular reforms through parliament last Wednesday -- including sweeping changes to the country’s taxes, pensions and labour rules -- but only with the help of pro-European opposition parties

authority, after he suffered a rebellion in his radical-left party Syriza during a vote on a first tranche of bailout measures last week

ATHENS: The Greek government said Tuesday that it wants to see a final deal on its international bailout hammered out by August 20, as it presented parliament with more draft legislation on the cash-for-reforms agreement.

Lawmakers are due to vote on a second batch of reforms on Wednesday in a fresh test of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ authority, after he suffered a major rebellion in his radical-left party Syriza during a vote on a first tranche of bailout measures last week.

After parliament has voted on the second bill -- which must pass if Greece is to receive the bailout worth up to 86 billion euros ($93

billion) over three years -- the government “will immediately resume negotiations with the (lender) institutions, EU, ECB and IMF, which should take until August 20 at the latest,” said government spokeswoman Olga Gerovassili.

August 20 is the deadline for debt-crippled Greece to pay 3.2 billion euros owed to the European Central Bank, ahead of a payment of 1.5 billion euros owed to the International Monetary Fund in September.

Funding Athens was able to pay off billions in debt to the ECB and IMF on Monday with 7.16 billion of emergency “bridge” funding granted by the EU. Tsipras managed to push the first series of unpopular reforms through parliament last Wednesday -- including sweeping changes to Greece’s taxes, pensions and labour rules -- but only with the help of pro-European opposition parties.

Within Syriza, 32 of the party’s 149 MPs voted against the measures, including former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis among

them. A further six abstained.

The second bill includes an EU directive, adopted after the financial crisis in Cyprus in 2013, that guarantees bank deposits up to 100,000 euros, as well as civil justice reforms designed to speed up legal proceedings and reduce their costs.

Civil servants’ union ADEDY said it would stage a protest against the bill on Wednesday evening during the emergency debate in parliament.

Athens agreed last week to carry out tough reforms in exchange for a massive third bailout aimed at keeping Greece from crashing out of the eurozone.

Asked if the threat of a Greek exit from the euro, or “Grexit”, had passed, EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said on Tuesday: “I think we’ve made a big step in that direction.”

But he also told the French channel BFMTV: “We must not slacken our efforts” while striving “to find the right balance between... Greece’s responsibility to reform, and solidarity among Europeans.”

Analysts forecast that Tsipras’ coalition government, which

teams his party with the nationalist Independent Greeks, will be forced to call early elections if the revolt within Syriza continues.

But the administration, in power for only six months, hopes to see a smaller rebellion in Wednesday’s vote.

Cabinet reshuffled Tsipras reshuffled his cabinet on Friday to fill the vacancies left by three members who were sacked after voting against the first batch of reforms.

Gerovassili said on Monday that elections would not be “useful at the moment,” adding: “The government has no intention of organising any.”

Moscovici said Tsipras had not faced an “easy choice” in agreeing to the reforms.

“Along the way he has lost some of his own troops, but he has also won public opinion and other political support,” he said.

An opinion poll at the weekend published in the To Vima newspaper found 68 per cent of respondents named Tsipras as the politician most capable of leading the country, far ahead of any of his rivals. — AFP

BAGHDAD: Iraqi security forces and minority sect tribal fighters launched an offensive to dislodge IS militants near the western outpost of Haditha in a bid to secure a key supply route to an important military base, police and tribal sources said.

Haditha and its nearby dam are in one of the few parts of the province of Anbar still under the control of Iraq’s government forces, which were driven out of the provincial capital Ramadi in May. The offensive started with army and police forces backed by tribal fighters attacking the Albu Hayat area, 20 km (12 miles) southeast of Haditha. Militants have used the area to strike the supply route to the Ain Al Asad military base where US. Marines are training Iraqi troops.

No retreat “We are attacking Daesh from three directions and we will not retreat until retaking Albu Hayat to secure not only Haditha but the supply route to the army base”, said tribal leader Khalid Mijbil Al Nimrawi, using a pejorative term for IS. Clashes were ongoing, the sources said, with advancing troops facing heavy fire from the

The offensive started with army and police forces backed by tribal fighters attacking the Albu Hayat area, 20 km (12 miles) southeast of Haditha.

Militants have used the area to strike the supply route to the Ain Al Asad military base where US. Marines are training Iraqi troops radical militants who seized large swaths of the country’s north and west last year.

Separately, at least six soldiers and policemen were killed in a suicide attack at a checkpoint in the central town of Tarmiya, police and medical sources said.

Fourteen others were wounded in the blast about 25 km (15 miles) north of the capital Baghdad when the bomber detonated his vehicle packed with explosives. — Reuters

1 9 9 3 C O O P E R AT I O N D E A L

Kyrgyzstan quashes its accord with US BISHKEK: Ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday announced it was tearing up a long-running cooperation agreement with the United States after Washington awarded a rights prize to a jailed ethnic minority campaigner.

Kyrgyzstan and the United States inked a cooperation deal in 1993 and the strategically located nation hosted a key US military base supplying the war effort in Afghanistan until 2014.

Washington warned on Monday that any move to sever the agreement “could put assistance programmes that benefit the Kyrgyzstani people in jeopardy”.

Human rights award Kyrgyzstan’s foreign ministry last week slammed the US State Department’s decision to give its Human Rights Defender Award to Azimjon Askarov, an ethnic Uzbek. — AFP

ENJOYING HORSE RIDE

An Afghan woman enjoys a horse ride along Qargha Lake in Kabul, Afghanistan on Tuesday. — Reuters

VOTING AMID GUNFIRE

Violence mars Burundi presidential elections BUJUMBURA: Burundians voted Tuesday amid gunfire and grenade blasts, with President Pierre Nkurunziza widely expected to win a third term despite international condemnation and thousands of people fleeing feared violence.

The United States said the government’s dismissal of calls to delay the poll “risks its legitimacy” and risked “unravelling the fragile progress” made by the peace deal that ended more than a dozen years of civil war and ethnic massacres in 2006.

At least two people — a policeman and a civilian — were killed in a string of explosions and gunfire overnight. Blasts and shootings were also heard as polls opened shortly after dawn in the capital Bujumbura, the epicentre of three months of anti-government protests.

Willy Nyamitwe, Nkurunziza’s chief communications advisor, condemned the attacks as “terrorist

having been unable to campaign due to the unrest and the closure of most independent media.

In one polling station, the SaintEtienne school in the centre of the capital, voters were seen scrubbing off indelible ink from their fingers to avoid reprisals from opposition supporters boycotting the ballot.“I do not want to return home with ink on the finger,” said one voter.

acts” aimed at “intimidating voters”.

Around 3.8 million Burundians were eligible to vote in the polls, which closed at 4 pm (1400 GMT).

Opposition and civil society groups have denounced Nkurunziza’s candidacy as unconstitutional, with many boycotting the polls.

Centres visited by AFP reporters in Bujumbura appeared quiet with few queues, although voting was busier in pro-Nkurunziza areas.

Turned up on bicycle Nkurunziza himself turned up on a bicycle to vote in his home village of Buye, where turnout was high with long lines of voters.

UN Secretary General Ban Kimoon urged calm, calling on all sides to “refrain from any acts of violence that could compromise the stability of Burundi and the region”.

With the election denounced by the opposition as a sham, the

CONTROVERSIAL POLLS: Voting officials count ballot papers at

a polling station in the commune of Mubimbi, in the Bujumbura Rurale province, in Burundi on Tuesday. — AFP

51-year-old president -- a former rebel, born-again Christian and football fanatic -- is facing no serious competition. But critics say a win by the incumbent will be a hollow victory, leaving him ruling

over a deeply divided nation.

Although eight candidates are on the ballot paper, most have already withdrawn from the race and those remaining are not seen as having a chance against the incumbent,

Renewed civil war The International Crisis Group think-tank has warned that the situation has all the ingredients to kickstart renewed civil war.

“Despite a facade of pluralism, this is an election with only one candidate, where Burundians already know the outcome,” said the ICG’s Thierry Vircoulon.

Former colonial ruler and key donor Belgium said the polls “do not meet the minimal requirements of inclusiveness and trans-

parency”, and repeated warnings it would “review its cooperation” with Bujumbura.

Protests Anti-Nkurunziza protests have been violently repressed, leaving at least 100 people dead since late April. Many opponents have also fled -- joining an exodus of over 150,000 ordinary Burundians who fear their country may again be engulfed by widespread violence.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Monday around 1,000 people were fleeing each day into Tanzania, crossing the border “through the forest... many travelling in the dark on foot and without belongings.”

In mid-May, rebel generals attempted to overthrow Nkurunziza in a coup. After that failed they launched a rebellion in the north of the country. Last-ditch crisis talks mediated by Uganda broke down on Sunday. — AFP

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Ukrainians are worried over Obama-Putin tie-up

GRACE DENT

t’s rare that official representatives of the US visit foreign parliaments to persuade lawmakers to vote a certain way on some piece of legislation. Yet last week, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland traveled to Kiev and did just that, as the Ukrainian parliament prepared to vote on amendments to the country’s constitution.

Victoria was interested in just one line of the bill that President Petro Poroshenko submitted to the parliament, on Page 7: “18. The particulars of local government in certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions are determined by a special law.”

It may sound like a bland provision, but it was worth Victoria’s airfare, because the line was actually very controversial. Many legislators refused to vote for it. Mustafa Nayyem, a member of Poroshenko’s parliamentary faction, explained that the “special law” might enable a future legislature to grant the rebellious, pro-Russian regions in eastern Ukraine powers amounting to legal secession. “I am convinced such a norm doesn’t reflect the will of the Ukrainian people, which has already lost thousands of soldiers and continues to fight a bloody war to bring those regions back under Ukrainian jurisdiction,” Nayyem wrote.

Victoria’s job was to persuade Nayyem and like-minded legislators to change their minds. Before the vote, she invited the most recalcitrant of them for a meeting at the US Embassy. One of the invitees, Leonid Yemets, said afterward that the American diplomat “insisted that this had to be a demonstration of Ukraine’s compliance with the Minsk agreement,” a cease-fire deal reached last February, which did indeed call for a special status for the rebel-held eastern areas, including the right to form their own militias. “It followed from her words that here we’d make a sacrifice and then we’d fight corruption in the rest of the country,” another attendee of the meeting told Theinsider.ua.

But some of those who took part in the long conversation came away questioning Victoria’s motives. “Why does the world want to impose on us a ‘special status’ for the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics?” Deputy Speaker Oksana Syroyid wrote on Facebook. “The world just wants this to become an ‘internal conflict’ because it’s tired and it wants to get rid of this extremely uncomfortable topic.”

It’s true that Ukraine is off the front pages of global news media, and that’s not good for a coun-

try that’s dependent on Western aid and sympathy and, at the same time, coveted by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a satellite state or at least a buffer against further expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Some Ukrainian and anti-Putin Russian commentators saw Victoria’s Kiev visit and her attempt to persuade the legislators as a sign that the US is selling out Ukraine to Putin in exchange for his support for last week’s nuclear deal with Iran.

“What exactly has Russia bought with its signature under the deal to close down Iran’s nuclear programme?” said former Ukrainian legislator Taras Stetskiv. “At least a special status for the Donbass in the constitution, and that’s why Victoria came to control the vote.” Andrei Illarionov, Putin’s former advisor turned political foe, suggested that further Russian support on Syria and Iran was part of the deal “made without Ukraine’s participation at Ukraine’s expense.”

Despite these warnings, last Thursday, the Ukrainian parliament voted to send the amendments as proposed by Poroshenko to the Constitutional Court for its anticipated approval.

Poroshenko reacted angrily to his opponents’ rhetoric. “I know a lot of patriotic poems and songs,” the president said at one point, “and my wife says I’m a good singer.” Then he launched into the national anthem. Victoria was there, as was US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt, and she applauded when the vote went her way.

The Kremlin, for its part, has disparaged Poroshenko’s constitutional proposals. Moscow and its proxies in eastern Ukraine wanted Ukraine’s basic law to directly spell out a broad autonomy for the rebel-held regions. But that isn’t evidence enough to quell the conspiracy theories. After all, the Ukrainian parliament would never vote for anything that Putin and his people support, so disapproving noises from Moscow only helped the legislation’s passage. Most likely, there was no such blatant deal. Yet it’s not hard to believe that the US and Russia might have the beginnings of a tacit understanding on Ukraine. Obama last week praised Putin for “compartmentalising” helpfully on Iran.

Putin, however, never gives anything away for free.

At the same time, Ukraine has overplayed its hand in demanding more international aid and sympathy.

Russia’s aggression in the east has stalled, yet Ukraine remains unruly, corrupt, economically supine and rife with armed groups. — Bloomberg View

READERS’ FORUM Ghala North needs more parking space This refers to the mushrooming of residential and commercial buildings in Ghala North. As a result, there is set to be a big increase in demand for parking lots. Some of the buildings do not have the car parking facilities and the residents are forced to park their vehicles elsewhere — on the sides of the road. I am a resident of Ghala North and our building has no parking area. I would also suggest setting up municipal recreation system in residential areas. This will improve public health and also relieve the stress of urban life. I hope the concerned authorities would consider building a public park in this locality.

— Girija Mohan, Ruwi

It is surely to the chagrin of many in Scotland, as well as Aberdeenshire Council, that they find themselves linked to the deep-fried battered Mars bar. Or “national delicacy, the battered Mars bar” as it’s sweepingly referred to

Scan this QR code to send letters to the Readers’ Forum, containing not more than 200 words with full name, address and telephone number, may be sent by mail (Times of Oman, P.O. Box 770, P.C. 112, Ruwi).

China behind falling gold prices

This refers to the online story, Gold price sinks to more than 5-year low (July 20).

The lowering rates do not augur well for the global economy. As this news comes at a time when China has sold five tons of the precious metal, the country seems to be manipulating the markets. Earlier, Beijing had sent shock waves by interfering in its stock exchange. The US needs to corner it before something really bad happens. — Ronald Vermillon, Muscat

FROM OUR ARCHIVES JULY 2000 Discussion on awareness of depression held

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Anti-smoking campaign needed This refers to the online story, Sultan Qaboos University’s move to curb smoking on campus welcomed (July 20). There is a need to create awareness about the hazards of smoking. Before starting a lesson, teachers should give a lecture on the side effects of smoking. A public awareness campaign on educational campuses is needed.

— Mir Mohammed Ali Khan, Muscat

CLIPPINGS

A group discussion on medical awareness of depression in general practice has been held at Hotel Oman Sheraton. The discussion, sponsored as part of the health awareness initiative by Lundbeck and Ebin Rushed Pharmacy, brought about an exchange of views on depression and its prevalence in general practice. Doctors in general practice and specialists in psychiatry discussed at length the feelings of patients, the prevalence of depression, the symptoms and the treatment.

TODAY IN HISTORY

NEW INDIA ASSURANCE

1667: The Peace of Breda ends the Second Anglo-Dutch War and cedes Dutch New Amsterdam to the English.

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

1864: Russia and Turkey sign the Treaty of Pruth, ending the year-long Russo-Turkish War.

www.newindiaoman.com

1919: The British House of Lords ratifies the Versailles Treaty

1896: Mary Church Terrell founds the National Association of Coloured Women in Washington, DC.

PICTOGRAPH HOW TO HANDLE A DOG ATTACK

A dog starts to barks to a person to defend its territory. An aggressive dog wants you to be stressed out before it attack

1

STAY CALM and avoid the eye contact, fear and aggression will enhance the dog’s ferocity

2

DO NOT RUN FROM THE DOG, a quick motion of the person triggers their prey drive.

3

When the dog charges, use a stick or a stone as weapons, Aim for the eyes or throat especially

4

If bitting is unavoidable, offer a forearm to leave 3 limbs free to attack the dog and protect your face and stomach

If you are bitten, go to a doctor consulting about diseases carried by dogs Source: Wikihow

W E D N E S DAY, JU LY 2 2 , 2 0 1 5

A1 3

SPECIAL

Willem Boulanger’s African exploits began in 1959 when he took a job with the Mining Union of Upper Katanga (UMHK), a Belgian company exploiting the fabulous wealth of the copper belt. By September, he and his wife were setting up house in Kolwezi.

At 83, Belgian strives to realise wildlife reserve dream in Congo

PERFECT LOCATION: A picture shows a small artificial lake in a game reserve project in Kolwezi, on May 30, 2015. – AFP

Tall and tough, with a white moustache, the crew-cut settler is full of tales of the dramatic events that have taken place in Congo KOLWEZI (DR CONGO): “I was already saying I’d go live in the Congo when I was nine or 10,” says Willem Boulanger, who after satisfying that dream is embarking at age 83 on another — founding a game reserve near Kolwezi.

Tall and tough, with a white moustache but only the slightest stoop, the crew-cut settler is full of tales of the dramatic events that have taken place in the Democratic Republic of Congo since he made his home in southeast Katanga province 56 years ago.

Barely installed in his adoptive homeland, Boulanger was swept up in the unrest that followed independence. He fought alongside Katangese forces trying to secede from the Congo in the 1960s, and in the 1990s witnessed the ethnic troubles that shattered Katanga, in the last years of Mobutu Sese Seko’s long reign.

In Bermuda shorts and walking boots, Boulanger spices his tales with humour, recalling how as a boy in the Belgian city of Mons he was captivated as Roman Catholic missionaries recounted their adventures in Africa’s exotic heart.

His African exploits began in 1959 when he took a job with the Mining Union of Upper Katanga (UMHK), a Belgian company exploiting the fabulous wealth of the copper belt.

By September, he and his wife were setting up house in Kolwezi.

He learned Swahili fast. “You must take an interest (in local people), how to live with them, understand their customs, respect their beliefs,” he says.

He spent his weekends in the bush, sitting by the fire “chatting about everything under the sun” with friendly tribal elders. “I was in heaven!”

But when the Congo won independence from Belgium on June 30, 1960, riots erupted against the nation’s former masters, in the capital Kinshasa and elsewhere.

Evacuated Boulanger was briefly evacuated to Northern Rhodesia (today’s Zambia) but was barely back in Katanga when provincial leaders seceded from the newly born nation. Their State of Katanga was supported by some Belgian politicians and foreign firms keen to keep a hold over the UMHK. Brussels never officially recognised an

DANGEROUS STANCE: A Nile crocodile sits in the small zoo in the backyard of the house of Willem Boulanger, a Belgian living in Democratic Republic of Congo, on May 30, 2015, in Kolwezi. – AFP

DREAM PROJECT: Boulanger stands in front of the gate of his game reserve project about 10km

from Kolwezi, on May 30, 2015. – AFP

ONE FOR GROUP: A picture taken on May 30, 2015 in Kolwezi shows

an old picture of Boulanger, when he received the onorific charge of village chief. – AFP

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ARTICLE, PHOTOS ATTRACTION: A tame eagle in the garden of Boulanger. – AFP

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

independent Katanga, but provided assistance and sent troops.

The United Nations urged Belgium to withdraw and sent its own peacekeepers to help the Congolese army. A former paratroop officer, young Boulanger was tasked by the UMHK with “providing security” by blowing up bridges and fighting with Katanga’s army against the UN troops.

OLD MEMORIES: Boulanger, with his Land Rover in which he came with from Belgium, in Kolwezi, on May 30, 2015. – AFP

PLAYTIME: Boulanger plays

with a small monkey. – AFP

Conquerors Early in 1963, the rebel province’s leader Moise Tshombe conceded defeat. “The government soldiers came as conquerors,” setting up roadblocks and fleecing locals, Boulanger recalls.

Determined even then to relax at weekends, he founded a watersports centre near Kolwezi that helped boost the local economy when wealthy Congolese poured in to water-ski.

By way of thanks, Boulanger was made a “mwami”, acquiring the status of honorary tribal chief.

In May 1978, Katangese Tiger rebels opposed to Mobutu crossed from Angola to seize Kolwezi at the cost of several hundred civilian lives.

“They wanted to take my Peugeot 504, but I had disabled it,” Boulanger says. “They took the Gecamines car,” he adds, using the name given to the UMHK once it was nationalised in 1967.

Within days, the French For-

eign Legion counter-attacked and claimed the mining town back from the rebels.

Boulanger was evacuated to Belgium but quickly returned -- this time without his wife, who wanted nothing more to do with the Congo.

“Congo has been a blessed land for me,” says Boulanger, who in time had a daughter with a Congolese wife and considers himself “one of the last old dinosaurs” to have stayed.

Parked in front of his home is his old Land Rover, which sports a logo for the Manika wildlife reserve, a pet project for Boulanger’s latter years.

With a lease on 16,000 hectares (39,500 acres) of savanna, the white “mwami” plans to bring back a score of mammals that once roamed the region, including leopards, warthogs, giraffes, zebras, gnus and cheetahs.

A visitors’ centre was completed

in 2010 not far from Kolwezi airport, but much work remains. Boulanger is fencing off a 4,000-hectare part of the reserve with Guy Mukongi, a young businessman who should succeed him one day.

“We need 100,000 dollars” (91,700 euros) to finish the enclosure so the animals can be brought in,” says Boulanger.

A small lodge to accommodate tourists had been built beside an artificial pond, but this guesthouse was recently razed in a suspected arson attack. Undaunted, Boulanger plans to start over with fireproof materials.

“We can do anything here,” he says, imagining a terrace on stilts in the middle of the little lake where visitors might relax with beverages after a day in the bush.

Fired with enthusiasm, Boulanger even envisages offering guests hot-air balloon trips over the reserve.-AFP

ADOPTED: Boulanger feeds a gazelle in his small zoo, on May 30,

2015. – AFP

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W EDN ESDAY, JULY 22, 2015

GLOBAL EYE

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UNITED STATES: A new mile-long (1.61 km) programmable lightband is unveiled at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday. The polychromatic LED lightband, along with 91 new sculptural light poles (top), represent completion of Phase II of the airport’s $118 million facelift which began last year. The unveiling’s specially created light show was programmed with the multi colours of the Special Olympics World Summer Games which open on July 25 in Los Angeles. — AFP

POLAND: Cars damaged by fallen tree are pictured after storms

in Wroclaw, south western Poland on Monday. — Reuters/Tomasz Pietrzyk/ Agencja Gazeta

BOLIVIA: Riot policemen rest at the Murillo square in La Paz, Bolivia,

on Monday. Hundreds of demonstrators from Potosi demanded to have a meeting with President Evo Morales to discuss about the industrialization of their region on the eighth day of their protest in La Paz, according to local media. — Reuters

CHINA: An old residential building is seen surrounded by a newly-built ring viaduct, in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, China, on

Saturday. The building was planned to be demolished, but several units in the building refused to move out as they couldn’t reach a compensation agreement with the authority, local media reported. — Reuters/Ma Qiang/Southern Metropolis Daily

UNITED KINGDOM: A gallery assistant poses for photographers at

an exhibition titled ‘Memory Movement Memory Objects’ by artist Alice Anderson, at the Wellcome Collection in London on Tuesday.

Anderson’s sculptures are mummified in copper thread. — AFP

DENMARK: Participants of the 2015 World Congress of Santa Clauses CANADA: Felipe Miranda of Chile performs in the men’s waterski tricks preliminary round during the 2015 Pan Am Games at Ontario

Place West Channel, Canada, on Monday. — Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

are pictured at Bellevue beach north of Copenhagen, Denmark. on Tuesday. — AFP/SCANPIX DENMARK/ERIK REFNER

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WORLD

What is necessary will be done against whomever responsible for (the attack) Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkish Prime Minister

Turkey identifies suspect in suicide bombing as death toll climbs to 32 The attack in Suruc was one of the deadliest in Turkey in recent years

TURKEY: Turkey said yesterday it had identified a suspect over a devastating suicide bombing on the border with Syria blamed on IS militants, as the government rushed to bolster security on the porous frontier.

Thirty-two people were killed and more than 100 wounded on Monday when a bomb ripped through a crowd of young socialist activists in a mainly Kurdish region preparing to take aid over

the border into Syria. The attack in Suruc was one of the deadliest in Turkey in recent years and the first time the government has directly accused the IS group of carrying out an act of terror on Turkish soil.

Graphic images of the carnage in a cultural centre shocked the country, with the press publishing front page photos of the mutilated corpses of the activists lying on the ground covered in pages from broadsheet newspapers.

“One suspect has been identified. All the (suspect’s) links internationally and domestically are being investigated,” Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in televised comments.

He added there was a “high probability” the attack was caused by a suicide bomber with connections to IS militants.

“We expect this investigation to be concluded as soon as possible,”

ACCIDENT

Four members of Saudi family killed in camel-car crash RIYADH: Four members of a Saudi family were killed yesterday when their car hit a stray camel in the desert kingdom, the Red Crescent said.

The accident took place in the southwestern region of Jazan, Red Crescent spokesman Bishi al-Sarkhi said in a statement carried by SPA state news agency.

A father, mother and their two

daughters died on the spot, while their three sons suffered serious injuries, it said.

A picture published by SPA showed a dead camel lying in a pool of blood in the middle of a road blocked by police vehicles.

Legal experts have called for penalising owners of camels that cause road accidents, Arab News reported in March. — AFP

CLUELESS

French prosecutor calls for shelving Arafat death probe NANTERRE (FRANCE): A French prosecutor yesterday said there was no case to answer regarding the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, whose widow alleges he was poisoned.

“The prosecution gave the opinion that the case should be dismissed,” the prosecutor’s office told AFP. Arafat died in Percy military hospital near Paris aged 75 in November 2004 after developing stomach pains while at his headquarters in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

His widow Suha filed a case in 2012 at a court in Nanterre, north of Paris, saying he was murdered.

The same year, Arafat’s tomb in occupied Ramallah was opened for a few hours allowing three teams of French, Swiss and Russian investigators to collect around 60 samples.

Three French judges concluded their investigations in April and sent their findings to the Nanterre prosecutor.

A centre in the Swiss city of Lausanne had tested biological samples taken from Arafat’s belongings that were given to his widow after his death, and found “abnormal levels of polonium”.

It stopped short of saying that he had been poisoned by the extremely radioactive element.

However, French experts found that the isotopes polonium-210 and lead-210, found in Arafat’s grave and in the samples, were of “an environmental nature,” Nanterre prosecutor Catherine Denis said in April.

Lawyers for Arafat’s widow accused the judges of closing the investigation too quickly and called for more experts to be questioned. — AFP

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died in Percy military hospital near Paris aged 75 in November 2004 after developing stomach pains while at his headquarters in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. His widow Suha filed a case in 2012 at a court in Nanterre, north of Paris, saying he was murdered

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CONSOLING: Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (centre) accompanied by his wife Sare Davutoglu (left) visit in Sanliurfa hospital a wounded survivor of a devastating suicide bombing on its frontier with Syria blamed on IS militants. – AFP

he said. Davutoglu said the death toll had risen to 32 and that 29 injured victims were still in hospital.

“What is necessary will be done against whomever responsible for (the attack),” said Davutoglu.

“This is an attack that targeted Turkey.” With little precise information disclosed, some Turkish press reports suggested the suicide bomber was a woman while others said it was a man dressed

as a woman. The Hurriyet daily said Turkey’s intelligence agency had previously warned the government that seven IS members — three of them women — had crossed into the country in recent weeks with the aim of carrying out attacks.

The IS group, which has claimed swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq right up to the Turkish border, has so far not claimed the Suruc bombing.

But Davutoglu said Turkey was taking steps to improve border security, which has long been criticised by its Western partners.

He said the cabinet would discuss today an “action plan” on

border security and the government will then take the “necessary measures”.

“Conflicts abroad should not be allowed to spread to Turkey,” he said. Turkey has long been accused by its Western partners of not doing enough to halt the rise of IS and even colluding with the group, allegations it vehemently denies.

So far, Turkey has not played a full role in the US-led coalition against IS and been wary of backing the militants’ Kurdish opponents, saying the priority is the ousting of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad.

But Davutoglu said the government had “never had any direct or indirect connection with any terrorist organisation”.

Ankara has in the last weeks appeared to take a harder line against the IS group, rounding up dozens of suspected members in Istanbul and other cities. — AFP

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W EDN ESDAY, JULY 22, 2015

WORLD

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Aussie surfer vows return to waves after ‘miracle’ shark attack escape SCAN THIS QR CODE TO INSTANTLY VISIT

ARTICLE, VIDEO

Three-time world champion Mick Fanning

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

fought off a large shark during the final heat of a world tour event at Jeffreys Bay

SYDNEY: Australian surf champion Mick Fanning vowed yesterday to return to the waves after a “miracle” escape from a shark attack, as he paid tribute to courageous mate Julian Wilson for rushing to help. The 34-year-old threetime world champion fought off a large shark during the final heat of a world tour event at Jeffreys Bay in South Africa on Sunday, with the dramatic scenes beamed live around the world.

He survived unscathed, with rival and close friend Wilson, also

from Australia, furiously paddling towards him to help despite the danger posed by the shark, which experts suggested was either a bull or a great white.

“I guess someone was looking out for me. To walk away from a shark attack with not a scratch on you, it’s a miracle really,” Fanning said after arriving back in Sydney with Wilson, where they were met by a large media scrum.

“You just count your lucky stars and if there is someone up there looking after us — thanks.”

LUCKY ESCAPE: Australian surf champion Mick Fanning (front) and his friend Julian Wilson (left) arrive at a press conference held in Sydney after they flew in from South Africa yesterday. – AFP

Speculation has been rife that Fanning may call it quits after indicating, in the moments after his terrifying ordeal, that he might not compete again.

Mental trauma Fanning admitted yesterday he

was now dealing with “an emotional mental sort of trauma” that would probably take weeks, if not months, to get over. But he vowed to get back on his board again.

“Surfing has given myself and my family so much. It’s gotten me through the hardest times in

my life,” he said. “So to turn my back on surfing, it just wouldn’t feel right.” He is even prepared to get back in the waves at Jeffreys Bay. “For sure,” he said, when asked if he would compete there again next year.

Social media went into a frenzy over the dramatic close call, with a YouTube clip of the attack being viewed almost 13.5 million views.

Even Hollywood star Russell Crowe commented on Twitter.

“My heart was racing just watching,” Crowe posted.

Fanning used social media to pay tribute to Wilson, who paddled towards him in actions that have earned an Australian state gov-

ernment nomination for a bravery award. “This man came to my aid like a warrior!!,” Fanning said of Wilson in an Instagram post before arriving back in Australia.

Despite the attention, Wilson played down his heroics, calling Fanning “a great role model”.

“As soon as I realised the danger and what was going on, I couldn’t get there quick enough,” he said in Sydney, adding that Fanning confronting the shark spurred him on.

“It could be the thing that gave me the courage to just head for him. You know, to see that he just turned on something that was so much bigger than him.”

And while both men were clearly shaken, they found time for some humour during a packed press conference with Fanning replying: “Thanks for not eating me” when asked if he had a message for the shark. — AFP

GRAFT

China to prosecute former aide to retired president BEIJING: China will prosecute a former senior aide to retired president Hu Jintao after an investigation found that he took bribes and engaged in other corrupt behaviour, the government said on Monday, the latest top official to fall in a graft crackdown.

Ling Jihua has been expelled from the Communist Party and his case handed over to judicial authorities, the official Xinhua news agency said, meaning he will face prosecution.

The ruling Communist Party announced an investigation into Ling in December.

He had been demoted in September, 2012 from a ministeriallevel job months after his son was killed in a crash involving a luxury sports car.

A statement released after a meeting of the Politburo, one the party’s elite ruling bodies, said that the crimes Ling is accused of had done major damage to the party’s image and had a “terrible” effect on society.

“He or his family received enormous bribes; he obtained a large number of the party’s and state’s core secrets, breaking discipline and the law,” the government said in a short statement carried by Xinhua.

“He should bear major responsibility for his family members’

Ling Jihua – AFP file photo

acts of seeking profits with the influence of his position,” it said, adding that Ling is also suspected of “other criminal offences” it did not name.

Ling and his wife also received money and gifts from other, unnamed, people, and he had affairs with numerous women and traded power for physical relations, it added. Party members can be punished for adultery as they are supposed to be upstanding members of society. The charge is frequently levelled at high-ranking graft suspects as a way of showing they are morally degenerate and deserve punishment.

In a separate statement also carried by Xinhua, the state prosecutor said that it had approved Ling’s arrest and formally begun to build a legal case against him. — Reuters

TO CURB CARTELS

Aquino signs into law fair trade legislation MANILA: Philippine President Benigno Aquino signed into law landmark fair trade legislation yesterday aimed at curbing cartels, price fixing and other forms of anti-competitive practices, which have long stifled economic growth.

The Philippine Competition law, which took two decades for Congress to enact, will seek to prevent large companies monopolising business and setting up cartels, manipulating and distorting market prices and will promote free and fair trade.

It will also will create a competition commission, an independent body that will regulate and rule on cases involving practices such as anti-competitive acts, cartels and price manipulation.

“At last, small and big business can now compete to come up with quality products at the most reasonable price instead of under the table deals and politi-

cal connections,” Aquino said in a speech during the signing of the fair trade law.

“With this legislation, we are promoting market competition.

Everyone will benefit from this law and will end up as winners.”

The commission will be able to impose fines of up to 250 million pesos ($5.52 million) and courts could impose jail terms from two to seven years to company officers and directors found guilty of unfair practices. Trade officials have said the new law will usher in an era where micro, small and medium-sized enterprises can compete with large and multinational firms ahead of the ASEAN economic integration.

The economies of the 10-member Southeast Asian states will start integration at the end of 2015, bringing down duties and non-tariff barriers to create a single market to promote trade and investment. — Reuters

B

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2015

MARKE

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

Muscat 6,572.50 + 28.63 + 0.44%

Dubai 4,182.05 - 2.00 - 0.05%

Abu Dhabi 4,851.69 + 27.66 + 0.57%

Kuwait 6,304.39 + 28.00 + 0.45%

Saudi Arabia

9,337.86 + 62.65 + 0.68%

Bahrain 1,335.00 - 3.05 - 0.23%

Qatar 12,009.54 - 11.19 - 0.09%

CRUDE OIL PRICE

CURRENCY RATES*

DRAFT RATES (OMR1)*

GOLD PRICES*

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

Forex rates vs OMR1* US Dollar ................................. 2.58 Euro ............................................ 2.37 Pound ........................................... 1.65 Indian Rs .............................164.96 Pak Rs ...................................260.28 Bangla Taka.......................199.32

Indian Rs .................................. 165.00 Pakistan Rs ............................ 263.30 Sri Lanka Rs .......................... 346.60 Bangla Taka.............................201.70 Phil Peso .....................................117.00

Muscat 24ct per gm (OMR) .......14.20

Oman Crude............. (Spot) ........ $55.55 Dubai Crude ............. (Spot) ........$55.38 Murban Crude ........ (Spot) ........ $56.57 Arabian Light ......... (Spot) .........$56.91 N.Sea Brent............... (Spot) ........ $56.57 West Texas Int ....... (Spot) ........$50.07

* Rates are as of July 21 Source: Bank Muscat

* Rates as of July 21 Source: Oman UAE Exchange

Oman Cement’s profit hit by rise in natural gas price Net profit of Oman’s second biggest cement producer fell 40% to OMR5.44m for the first half of this year from OMR9.09m for the same period of 2014

RISING COSTS: Oman Cement said that the fall in profits was mainly due to the higher energy cost.

This picture is used for illustration purpose only. — Times file picture

Times News Service MUSCAT: Doubling of the natural gas price from January this year has substantially reduced the net profit of Oman Cement Company, the second biggest cement producer in the Sultanate, by 40 per cent to OMR5.44 million for the first half of this year, from OMR9.09 million for the same period of 2014.

The Oman government on January 1 doubled the natural gas

price for industries to 41 baisas per standard cubic metre from 20.5 baisas, with an inbuilt annual increase of 3 per cent thereafter.

The impact of the revision affected the net earnings of gasintensive local industries like cement, ceramic tiles, steel and glass manufacturers, since a sizeable portion of their manufacturing cost is for fuel.

Oman Cement said that the fall in profits was mainly due to the higher energy cost.

“We have, however, continued our efforts to minimise the impact by better cost and selling price management,” said Oman Cement in its first half results.

The profit before tax for the six-month period also dipped by 39.26 per cent to OMR6.02 million for the first half of 2015 from OMR9.92 million for the same period of last year, which also included an amount of OMR2.1 million being income on sale for available-for-sale investments.

The company’s sales revenue was slightly lower at OMR25.53 million for the first half of this year against OMR25.68 million for the same period last year, while total income stood at OMR25.71 million, against OMR26.04 million during the period under review.

New cement mill Referring to the progress on expansion programme, Oman Cement said its new cement mill of 150 tonnes per hour capacity

(with supporting infrastructure of cement silos and bulk dispatches) is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2015.

The company is also taking efforts to reduce emission levels and accordingly has awarded a contract for upgrading pollution control equipment for line -2 to FLSmidth with a total value of $11.3 million. The work has already been started and the project is expected to be ready by the second quarter of 2016.

Oman Cement’s production declined by 2.33 per cent at 1,008,779 tonnes of cement in the first half of 2015, from1,032,898 tonnes for the same period last year, mainly due to limited availability of clinker.

“We had targetted higher levels of clinker production during the period. However, due to technical constraints resulting in the prolonged shutdown of our kiln 3 which was under planned maintenance shutdown, our clinker production remained lower than planned. With the efforts of our technical teams, the kiln has now commenced production and we expect better operational performance in future,” the company’s first half results reveal.

Muscat 22ct per gm (OMR) ....... 13.70 Dubai 24ct per gm (Dh) ........... 134.00 Dubai 22ct per gm (Dh) ............. 127.50 * Rates as of July 21 Source: Malabar Gold & Diamonds

CENTRAL BANK OF OMAN

CBO to launch OMR300m bond issue MUSCAT: Central Bank of Oman (CBO) on Tuesday announced the new issue of government development bonds (GDB). The size of the new issue is fixed at OMR300 million with a maturity period of five years and will carry a coupon rate of three per cent per annum.

The issue will be open for subscription from July 26 to August 2, 2015 while the auction will be held on Tuesday, August 4, 2015.

The issue settlement date will be on Sunday, August 9, 2015. Interest on the new bonds will be paid on February 9 and August 9, every year until maturity date on August 9, 2020.

Investors may apply for these Bonds through the competitive bidding process only. Investors may submit bids through commercial licenced banks operating in the Sultanate. Investors with applications of OMR 1 million and above can, if they so wish submit their bids directly to CBO after getting them endorsed from their banks. Prospectus and application forms can be obtained from any commercial licenced bank operating in the Sultanate.

The Bonds are direct and unconditional obligations of the Government of Sultanate of Oman. - ONA

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W EDN ESDAY, JULY 22, 2015

MARKET Islamic insurance witnesses massive regulatory changes Times News Service

Improved supervision should encourage better capital management, liquidity and internal controls, S&P said in its latest report

MUSCAT: Gulf states have experienced massive regulatory change with respect to insurance over the past 12 months.

Recent measures include the doubling of the minimum capital requirements in Oman; enhanced liquid asset requirements in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE); and more stringent solvency measures in Bahrain.

In a report published on Tuesday, “Regulatory Changes Cause A Shakeout In Gulf Islamic In-

surance Markets,” Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) considers the long-term effect of these measures.

“We anticipate that improved supervision should encourage better capital management, liquidity, internal controls, and corporate governance, which we consider positive from a credit perspective. However, the moredemanding insurance regulation in the region will increase shortterm pressure on players in these typically overcrowded markets by increasing costs,” the report said.

Sharia-compliant (takaful) insurers, in particular, are already struggling to manage high expense ratios because of their lack of scale.

Despite year-on-year premium growth of over 10 per cent in most GCC markets, we have long considered the takaful sector in particular to be overpopulated. More than 70 Sharia-compliant insurers in the GCC region are competing for premium income of nearly $10 billion, about 80 per cent of which is based in Saudi Arabia, the report said.

In our opinion, takaful companies have not sufficiently differentiated their product offerings from the conventional insurers, and are therefore targeting the same customer base, particularly in the fiercely competitive motor insurance market, the report added.

Unless they successfully differentiate their products and attract new insurance buyers to their Sharia-compliant product, we anticipate that it will be difficult for them to achieve sustainable business positions, the report said.

F I R S T - H A L F R E S U LT

Ooredoo Oman net profit rises Times News Service MUSCAT: Omani Qatari Telecommunications Company (popularly known as Ooredoo Oman) said its net profit for the first half of 2015 surged ahead by 18.7 per cent to OMR22.2 million, from OMR18.7 million posted for the same period last year.

The company’s customer base also rose by 11.4 per cent to 2.75 million by end-June 2015, from 2.47 million for the same period last year. Ooredoo Oman said its revenue for the first half of this year increased by 12.6 per cent to OMR121.9 million from OMR108.3 million.

EMERGING COUNTRIES

Brics bank opens in China to challenge US-led lenders SHANGHAI: A new $100 billion international bank dedicated to the emerging countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (Brics) opened in China’s commercial hub Shanghai on Tuesday, officials said, as an alternative to other multilateral lenders.

The “New Development Bank”, backed by the so-called emerging Brics nations, has been viewed as a challenge to Washingtonbased institutions.

The NDB’s website explicitly describes it as an “alternative to the existing US-dominated World Bank and International Monetary Fund” which will address needs for infrastructure and sustainable development.

It comes as Beijing — which is seeking a greater role on the global political stage to mirror its rise to become the world’s secondlargest economy — is also setting up a separate Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei played down the competitive aspect. “The NDB will supplement the existing international financial system in a healthy way and explore innovations in governance models,” he told the NDB’s opening ceremony in Shanghai, as quoted by the official Xinhua news agency.

The bank says on its website that it will have authorised capital of $100 billion, with $50 billion paid in initially.

Xinhua quoted bank president K.V. Kamath, formerly a private banker in India, as saying the institution’s management was “working on initiation of operations”, including “making business policy” and “developing project preparations”.

Operations would begin late this year or early in 2016, he added. The opening comes two weeks after a Brics summit hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Moscow — which has suffered huge currency fluctuations and struggled to attract investors since the

KV Kamath, president, New Development Bank. - Bloomberg file picture

outbreak of the crisis in Ukraine — sees the bank and a Brics currency reserve pool as alternative global financial institutions.

At the time of the summit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in a statement that Brics “illustrates a new polycentric system of international relations” demonstrating the increasing influence of “new centres of power”.

Financial order The Brics nations, which represent 40 per cent of the world’s population, formally agreed to establish the bank at a meeting in Brazil in July last year.

The World Bank said it hopes to work with the newcomer.

“We are committed to working closely with the New Development Bank and other multilateral institutions, offering to share our knowledge and to co-finance infrastructure projects,” World Bank president Jim Yong Kim said in a statement.

The regionally-focused Asian Development Bank also said it would “look forward” to working with the NDB. Chinese analysts denied the Brics bank was aimed at chal-

lenging other multilateral agencies. “It’s a complement, instead of a challenge, to existing international institutions,” Li Daxiao, chief economist of Yingda Securities, told AFP. “It can help strengthen the currency markets and maintain a stable financial order through the internal stabilisation of the Brics countries,” he said.

The other new Chinese-based multilateral lender, the AIIB, will be headquartered in Beijing and China will be its biggest shareholder with about 30 per cent, according to the legal framework signed late last month by 50 founding member countries.

Major European and Asian economies including Germany, Britain, France and Australia have joined the AIIB, but the United States and Japan — the world’s largest and third-largest economies, respectively — have declined to do so. — AFP

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W E D N E S DAY, JU LY 2 2 , 2 0 1 5

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MARKET Iran will seek to regain its share of oil market regardless of price imports once Iran complies with obligations to scale back its nuclear programme.

Tehran wants to pump almost four million barrels a day within seven months once sanctions are removed and 4.7m as soon as possible after that, said Iran’s oil minister

TEHRAN: Iran will emphasise regaining oil sales it lost due to sanctions over helping to prop up prices once curbs that choked off the nation’s crude exports are lifted. It plans to restore output to the level it achieved before the economic curbs crippled production and exports, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on Monday in Tehran.

Iran wants to pump almost four million barrels a day within seven

months once sanctions are removed and 4.7 million as soon as possible after that, he said.

Such an increase may cause oil prices to fall, Zanganeh told reporters after meeting with Germany’s Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel.“But that doesn’t mean we won’t enter our oil into the market.” Iran had the second-biggest output in Opec before the European Union banned purchases of its crude in July 2012.

PERFORMANCE

The country is now fourth-largest in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec ), with output in June averaging 2.85 million barrels a day compared with 3.6 million at the end of 2011, according to estimates compiled BRIEFS

Infosys reports 5% rise in profits; shares surge 10% BANGALORE: Indian software giant Infosys Technologies reported a five per cent rise in quarterly net profits on Tuesday, aided by a weak rupee and strong demand from the United States.

The country’s second largest IT services exporter said profits for April to June notched Rs30.3 billion ($476 million), up from Rs28.86 billion in the same period last year and matching exactly a Bloomberg survey of 35 analysts. Shares in Infosys surged 10.95 per cent to Rs1,111.65 on the Bombay Stock Exchange shortly after the announcement.

United Finance discusses Al Omaniya’s offer MUSCAT: United Finance Company said that its board members last week discussed an offer from Al Omaniya Financial Services to acquire the company. “After due consideration, it has been decided by the Board of Directors of UFC to send a suitable response to AOFS,” said the company in a stock market filing.

NDC bids for acquiring Oman Chemical assets

Vishal Sikka. — Reuters

Large deals and clients Chief executive Vishal Sikka said in a statement that the company, based in the southern high-tech hub of Bangalore, had benefited from “large deal wins and in the growth of large clients”.

He said Infosys, which would like to knock Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) off the top spot in India’s profitable IT sector, had signed six major deals in the first financial quarter totalling $688 million.

Sikka added that the 79 new clients had also been secured over the three months.

Infosys’ revenue in April-June rose 12.4 per cent to Rs143.54 billion from Rs127.70 billion a year ago, the company statement said.

Revenues from its biggest market of North America amounted to 63.2 per cent of the total in June compared with 60.8 per cent last year as the company benefited from a nearly six per

Bijan Namdar Zangeneh. - Bloomberg file picture

cent fall in the value of the rupee against the dollar, the earnings release showed.

Infosys added that it was bullish about the future, saying that in the financial year’s three remaining quarters it hoped to increase its revenue by up to 13.5 per cent in rupee terms.

India has become a back office to the world as companies, especially in developed nations, have subcontracted work to firms such as Infosys, taking advantage of the country’s skilled English-speaking workforce.

Infosys, once known as the “bellwether” of India’s flagship outsourcing industry and billed as the country’s equivalent of Microsoft, is listed in Mumbai and New York.

It is engaged in a tough battle for market share with TCS and Wipro. - AFP

MUSCAT: National Detergent Company (NDC) has made a successful bid to acquire the buildings and machinery of Oman Chemical Industries Co, which is under liquidation, based on the public advertisement by their liquidators. “We are in the process of signing the new lease agreement with Sohar Industrial Estate authorities. This neighbouring plot adjacent to our existing powder manufacturing plant will meet our total building and space requirements, in line with our ongoing plans to relocate our powder manufacturing plant in Al Ghubra to Sohar,” National Detergent said.

OIFC awarded PAEW contract MUSCAT: A contract for meter reading, billion and payment collection in Muscat governorate was awarded to OIFC by the Public Authority for Electricity and Water (PAEW).

— Times News Service

by Bloomberg. Under the nuclear agreement Iran and six world powers reached in Vienna last week, the US agreed to end efforts to limit Iran’s oil sales.

The European Union said it would end the bloc’s embargo on

Adjustments needed Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell about 50 per cent last year amid surplus supply as the US, Russia and Saudi Arabia all boosted production.

Oil lost 3 cents to $56.62 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange at 12:51pm Singapore time on Tuesday.

Countries that sold more oil and took market share from sanctionsbound Iran will have to adjust as the country restores its output and exports to historical levels, Zanganeh said, without identifying such nations.

Production slid to 2.66 million a day by the end of 2012 after sanctions were tightened in July of that year, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

“Those who are responsible for protecting prices are those who have filled our share before and used it,” Zanganeh said.“Our only responsibility here is attaining our lost share of the market, not protecting prices.”

Iranian oil exports declined to 1.4 million barrels a day on average last year due to sanctions, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said June 24 on its website.

Sales averaged about 2.6 million barrels daily in 2011, before the US and European Union imposed restrictions, the EIA said.

Iran looks forward to doing more business with German oil and petrochemical companies, Zanganeh said.

Issues preventing banks and insurers from involvement with Iran must be resolved before deals between the two countries can go ahead, he said. - Bloomberg News

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W EDN ESDAY, JULY 22, 2015

MARKET

Robust financial earnings prop up market sentiment National Bank of Oman was the highest gainer of the day, while disappointing results from Galfar Engineering caused the shares to fall Muscat Securities Market. – Times file picture

MUSCAT: Encouraging second quarter numbers from Ooredoo Oman and positive performance of regional markets helped MSM30 Index to continue with the gaining momentum for the sixth straight session albeit low trading volumes.

The benchmark MSM30 Index closed at 6,572.50 points, up by 0.44 per cent and this was the highest level since March, 2015.

The MSM Sharia Index closed Tuesday's trading at 993.15 points, up by 0.19 per cent. Phoenix Pow-

er was the most active stock in terms of trading volume as well as turnover. National Bank of Oman was the highest gainer of the day while disappointing results from Galfar Engineering caused it to top the loser’s list.

701 trades As many as 701 trades were executed during the day’s trading session generating turnover of OMR2.4 million with over 10.7 million shares changing hands.

Out of 21 traded securities, 13 se-

curities advanced, eight declined and eight remained unchanged.

Omani Investors were net buyers for OMR125,000 followed by foreign investors for OMR6,000 while GCC and Arab investors were net sellers for OMR131,000 worth of shares.

Financial Index gained by 0.34 per cent before closing at 8,138.60 points. National Bank of Oman, Bank Sohar, Gulf Investment Services, and Bank Muscat increased by 2.37 per cent, 1.50 per cent, 1.46 per cent, and 0.69 per cent,

respectively. Prices of Takaful Oman, Oman United Insurance, Batinah Development, and Oman & Emirates Investment Holding declined by 2.63 per cent, 1.90 per cent, 1.57 per cent, and 0.83 per cent, respectively.

Industrial Sector Index declined by 0.57 per cent to end the session at 8,335.19 points. Oman Fisheries, and Oman Cement increased by 1.89 per cent and 1.17 per cent, respectively. Prices of Galfar Engineering, Oman Cables, and Gulf International Chemicals declined by 8.33 per cent, 1.30 per cent, and 0.36 per cent, respectively.

Services Sector Index closed at 3,517.34 points, up by 0.47 per cent. Ooredoo Oman, Al Suwadi Power, Al Jazeera Services, Port Services, and Phoenix Power increased by 2.07 per cent, 1.86 per cent, 1.65 per cent, 1.57 per cent, and 1.30 per cent, respectively.

OIFC was the only services sector stock that lost its value today and closed at OMR0.216 before losing 0.92 per cent.

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which advises clients on more than $1 trillion of investments, applied to own and trade Saudi Arabian

stocks directly after rules were changed last month, two people with knowledge of the plan said.

The New York-based bank is seeking a qualified institutional investor permit from the Capital Markets Authority in the biggest Gulf economy, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.

Institutions outside the sixnation Gulf Cooperation Council that manage at least $5 billion of assets and have five years of experience were allowed to own stocks directly in Saudi Arabia as from June 15, rather than only through equity swaps and exchange traded funds previously. HSBC Holdings Plc became one of the first qualified foreign investors to trade Saudi Arabian shares last month after the country relaxed trading restrictions on overseas money managers.

A spokesman for Goldman Sachs Group in London and the regulator declined to comment.

Saudi stocks, which have a market value of about $554 billion, are up 12 per cent this year. That compares with an increase of 6.1 per cent for the Bloomberg GCC 200 Index and a 1.8 per cent loss for the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. – United Securities/Bloomberg News

STOCK MARKET

Sensex drops on political logjam, results MUMBAI: Indian stocks tumbled the most in two weeks as earnings of some of the biggest companies disappointed investors and opposition protests in parliament renewed concern a political logjam will stall key economic bills.

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries plunged the most on record after saying revenue will remain flat or decline as it combines a rival it bought last year. Hindustan Unilever fell for a third day after its first-quarter profit and sales trailed estimates. HDFC Bank, the biggest lender by value, decreased the most in two weeks amid an increase in bad loans.

The S&P BSE Sensex lost 0.8 per cent to 28,182.14 at the close.

India’s parliament failed to transact any business on the first day of the monsoon session as opposition demanded resignations of three key members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party over graft allegations.

“The bills are critical for our growth and need to be passed,” Pankaj Murarka, head of equities at Mumbai-based Axis Asset Management Co., which has $4.5 billion, said on Tuesday. With concerns easing over Greece’s crisis and China’s market collapse, investor attention has shifted to corporate profitability. - Bloomberg News

$1.2B ACCOUNTING SCAM

Toshiba's president, senior executives quit over scandal TOKYO: President of Toshiba and seven other high-level executives and directors resigned on Tuesday over a $1.2 billion accounting scandal blamed on management’s overzealous pursuit of profit that has battered one of Japan’s best-known firms.

Hisao Tanaka and vice chairman Norio Sasaki — also a former president — stepped down after an independent report found senior management complicit in a years-long scheme to pad profits.

In a stinging indictment, the report by a company-hired panel said managers were involved in “systematically” inflating profits over several years, in one of the

most damaging accounting scandals to hit Japan in recent years.

“It has been revealed that there has been inappropriate accounting going on for a long time, and we deeply apologise for causing this serious trouble for shareholders and other stakeholders,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Because of this Hisao Tanaka, our company president, and Norio Sasaki, our company’s vice chairman...will resign today.”

Tanaka, 64, and Sasaki, 66, both joined Toshiba in the early Seventies. Sasaki served as Toshiba president between June 2009 and June 2013, covering most of the

period during which the company inflated the profits. Chairman Masashi Muromachi will take over as president in the interim, the company said.

The embarrassing findings come less than two months after the country adopted a long-awaited corporate governance code that backers hoped would usher in a new era of transparency for shareholders in Japanese firms.

They will also deal another blow to corporate Japan’s image after a huge scandal at Olympus.

In 2013, a trio of former executives at the firm were handed suspended jail for their roles in a $1.7 billion accounting fraud. — AFP

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WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM M WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2015 015

SECTION

SPOR YOUR GAME

S

MUSTAFIZUR STRIKES FOR OR BANGLADESH IN FIRST TEST EST Paceman Mustafizur Rahman had a dream Test debut on Tuesday, mowing ng through South Africa’s middle order as minnows Bangladesh made a strong start in the first Test against the topranked Proteas. >C2

Hong Kong and Dutch notch wins to book tickets to India

JUBILANT: Netherlands players celebrate win over Namibia to clinch a spot in ICC World Twenty20

2016 in India.

Namibia and Afghanistan, who lost their matches, have another shot at qualifying for the ICC World T20 2016 when they take on Oman and Papua New Guinea respectively on Thursday

MALAHIDE: Hong Kong beat Afghanistan in a last-ball thriller on Tuesday and Netherlands too had their moment against Namibia, with both securing berth at the ICC World Twenty20 2016 to be played in India.

The losers Afghanistan and Namibia, however, have one more chance as they take on Papua New Guinea and Oman respectively on Thursday.

In the first match, needing to defend 16 off the final over, Mohammed Nabi, the Afghanistan off-spinner, bowled a slew of full tosses that were duly put away as

Hong Kong crossed the line with five wickets in hand to trigger wild celebrations.

The wicket of the well-set Mark Chapman in the first ball of the final over had tilted the scales in Afghanistan’s favour, but Babar Hayat held his composure to hit a six and a four off the next two deliveries to bring the equation down to six off three.

It looked like there would be another twist to the tale when Nabi ran out Tanwir Afzal off the penultimate delivery, but his wayward bowling proved costly for Afghanistan.

Hong Kong eventually squeezed out the two runs it needed off the last ball to ensure a berth in cricket’s biggest T20 world event for the second time in a row.

Afghanistan did all the early running after opting to bat as it posted a competitive 161 for 7 on the back of a 36-ball 56 from Nawroz Mangal, who was ably assisted

by Mohammad Shahzad (20), Asghar Stanikzai (29) and Samiullah Shenwari (21).

At one stage, Afghanistan looked set to score close to 175, but crucial strikes from Haseeb Amjad, the medium pacer who took 3 for 28, restricted it towards the end.

Hong Kong set itself up nicely to get to 79 for 1 by the 13th over, with Jamie Atkinson helping it stay abreast with the asking rate with a run-a-ball 47. But Shapoor Zadran, the left-arm pacer, brought Afghanistan back into the contest with the scalps of Nizakat Khan (26) and Atkinson in successive

D-DAY ON THURSDAY: Team Oman will know their fate on Thursday when they take on Namibia.

overs to tilt the balance.

With 60 needed to win off the last five overs, Chapman unleashed his firepower, hitting five fours and a six in his 25-ball 40 to take his team to the doorstep of victory before Nabi’s last over became a constant swing of fortunes, eventually going Hong Kong’s way.

“It was a brilliant finish, especially the last 16 runs,” said Hayat, the star of the last over. “I was giving Chapman the strike because he was hitting the ball quite well. But when he got out first ball, I was a bit nervous. But then my team-mate (Afzal) came in and I told him that he (Nabi) is bowling yorkers so I’ll just go down the track and try to go over mid-off or mid-on.”

Afghanistan’s good deeds in the group stages mean it has another opportunity. Its clash against Papua New Guinea at the same venue on Thursday in Qualifier 2 will be a knockout with the winner booking its ticket to

ASHES

England bring in Bairstow for Balance for third Test LONDON: Jonny Bairstow has replaced Yorkshire team-mate Gary Ballance in a 13-man England squad announced Tuesday for the third Ashes Test at Edgbaston starting on July 29.

England suffered a 405-run thrashing by Australia in the second Test at Lord’s on Sunday as the tourists levelled the fivematch series 1-1.

At Lord’s, England were 29 for three in their first innings and 42 for three in a humiliating secondinnings collapse to 103 all out.

That meant they had now lost their first three wickets for 52 or fewer runs eight times in seven Tests. At least one change to the top order was all but inevitable in such circumstances and number three Ballance, out for 23 and 14 at Lord’s, has been omitted after making an impressive start to his international career a year ago.

He has struggled for runs throughout this season, managing just 134 runs in eight Test innings so far. Bairstow, by contrast, has scored five hundreds in the County Championship for reigning champions Yorkshire including 139 in their ongoing match against Worcestershire at Scarborough.

He now has a chance to improve on a Test record that has seen him average a modest 26.95 in 14 matches, the last against Australia in Sydney last year

DRAFTED IN: Jonny Bairstow

when an England defeat meant they suffered a 5-0 Ashes whitewash. Opener Adam Lyth, another Yorkshire batsman, and the experienced Ian Bell, were also under scrutiny following a run of low scores.

But they have been retained, with England announcing Tuesday that Bell would be promoted to number three on his Warwickshire home ground, with Joe Root also going up a place to four.

“For the third Test, Ian Bell will move up the order to bat at three followed by Joe Root, with Jonny Bairstow coming in at five,” said national selector James Whitaker in an England and Wales Cricket Board statement.

“Jonny has worked extremely hard at his game, and his record for Yorkshire speaks for itself. He fully deserves this opportunity.”

ECSTATIC: Hong Kong cricketers celebrate after stunning Afghanistan to book a flight to 2016 ICC World T20 in India.

Whitaker added: “Gary was naturally disappointed to miss out on this occasion however we feel that he will benefit from some time in county cricket to rediscover his form.

“He has already had plenty of success at international level and as selectors we are confident Gary will play a significant role for England in the future.”

Although he can keep wicket, it appears Bairstow will play at Edgbaston as a batsman only, with Jos Buttler retaining his place in the squad.

Bairstow’s previous stints in international cricket have led to questions about his ability to cope with short-pitched deliveries -something he is sure to face from Australia’s formidable fast-bowling trio of Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.

But Yorkshire coach Jason Gillespie, himself a former Australia fast bowler, insisted Bairstow was now a much-improved batsman.

Squad: Alastair Cook (Essex, capt), Adam Lyth (Yorkshire), Ian Bell (Warwickshire), Joe Root (Yorkshire), Jonny Bairstow (Yorkshire), Ben Stokes (Nottinghamshire), Jos Buttler (Somerset, wkt), Moeen Ali (Worcestershire), Stuart Broad (Nottinghamshire), Mark Wood (Durham), James Anderson (Lancashire), Adil Rashid (Yorkshire), Steven Finn (Middlesex). - AFP

India for the main event.

Dutch celebration In the second match, which Oman watched with keen interest, The Netherlands’ bowlers were clinical and its middle order chipped in to earn a fourwicket win over Namibia.

Opting to bat first, Namibia rode on Craig Williams’s 32-ball 43 to post 135 for 6 at The Village in Dublin. And although Bernard Scholtz, the offspinner, took three wickets to dent Netherlands’ charge, it reached 137 for 6 in 19.2 overs.

Chasing the modest total, Netherlands lost Wesley Barresi off the first ball of the innings. But Stephan Myburgh hit six boundaries in the power play to get the side off to a flier. When Jason Davidson had him caught in the fifth over, Myburgh had already scored 31 off 18.

Peter Borren (16), Michael

Swart (28) and Ben Cooper (18) steadied the ship in the middle overs. Scholtz impressed with his accurate line and length, taking 3 for 15 in his four overs.

With 32 required from the last five overs, Max O’Dowd and Roelof van der Merwe steered Netherlands closer to victory with a 31run sixth-wicket stand.

It got tight, didn’t it?,” said Chris Adams, Netherlands’ assistant coach. “It’s purely down to the pressure and prize – the plane to India. It was a very close game, with both teams doing well. It means everything for Dutch cricket – not just survival, but way more than that. This can only help build the game at grass-root levels.”

But, in a reminder that Netherlands’ journey in this tournament wasn’t finished, he added: “Qualification is a big prize, but there is also a tournament here to be won.”

Earlier, Namibia got off to a disappointing start, losing its openers

inside two overs. While Stephen Baard fell to Timm van der Gugten in the first over, Gerrie Snyman, the other opener, was run out soon after.

Raymond van Schoor (16) and Williams then consolidated the innings with a 57-run third wicket stand. Borren and van der Merwe dismissed both the set batsmen to leave Namibia reeling at 69 for 4 in 11.4 overs.

That Namibia could get to 135 was due to handy contributions from the lower order comprising Sarel Burger (27 not out) and Nicolaas Scholtz (37). The duo added 52 runs for the sixth wicket before Scholtz, the captain, became van der Gugten’s second victim in the penultimate ball of the innings.

All is not lost for Namibia though, it has another chance to get to India. Its clash against Oman at the same venue on Thursday in Qualifier 4 will be a knockout with the winner booking its ticket for the ICC World Twenty20 2016.

Brief scores: Hong Kong 162 for 5 (Atkinson 47, Chapman 40, Shapoor 2-31) beat Afghanistan 161 for 7 (Mangal 53, Amjad 3-28) by five wickets.

Namibia 135/6 lost to Netherlands 137/6 (19.2/20 ov).

Next fixtures: July 23: Papua New Guinea v Afghanistan at Malahide; Oman v Namibia at Malahide July 25: Semifinal: Scotland v Hong Kong, Malahide; 5th-6th play-off: Winner Q3 v Winner Q4, Clontarf; Semifinal: Ireland v Netherlands, Malahide July 26: 3rd-4th play-off, Malahide; Final, Malahide.

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W EDN ESDAY, JULY 22, 2015

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CRICKET

Sri Lanka steps up security for Pakistan ODI

4-37, including three wickets in four balls, while leg spinner Jubair Hossain claimed 3-53 to help Bangladesh dismiss the visitors for just 248 in their first innings in Chittagong

CHITTAGONG: Paceman Mustafizur Rahman had a dream Test debut on Tuesday, mowing through South Africa’s middle order as minnows Bangladesh made a strong start in the first Test against the top-ranked Proteas.

Mustafizur took 4-37, including three wickets in four balls, while leg spinner Jubair Hossain claimed 3-53 to help Bangladesh dismiss the visitors for just 248 in their first innings in Chittagong.

Openers Tamim Iqbal (one) and Imrul Kayes (five) remained unbeaten to take the hosts to 7-0 at stumps on the opening day.

Temba Bavuma staged a lone fight to top-score with 54 runs, his maiden Test fifty, for the visitors, before becoming the last man out as Jubair took an easy catch off Mustafizur at deep midwicket.

Despite their recent success in one-day internationals, Bangladesh have a dismal Test record and face a daunting opponent in South Africa, the top-ranked team in Test cricket.

But Mustafizur, who earned his Test cap after impressive performances in his first six ODIs, produced a magical spell in his 14th over to dismiss Hashim Amla (13), JP Duminy and Quinton De Kock in the last session of the day.

PAT FOR THE HERO: Bangladesh cricketer Shakib Al Hasan, right, congratulates teammate Mustafizur Rahman, second right, for the dismissal of South African captain Hashim Amla during the first day of the first Test match in Chittagong. – AFP

He induced an edge from Amla to claim the South African captain for his first-ever Test wicket, caught behind by Litton Das. The next ball hit JP Duminy on his front foot but the umpire initially declared him not out, before Bangladesh successfully reviewed the decision.

De Kock managed to deny the hat-trick but was late on a defensive push for the next ball which uprooted his off-stump, leaving South Africa reeling on 173 for 6.

Openers Dean Elgar and Stiaan van Zyl earlier put on 58 to give the visitors a solid start after Amla won the toss and chose to bat at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.

Off-spinner Mahmudullah took the wicket of van Zyl, who edged a catch to wicketkeeper Das down

the leg side, handing Bangladesh their first success of the day.

Left-arm spinner Taijul Islam then broke the 78-run second wicket stand between Elgar and Faf du Plessis when he removed Elgar for 47.

Shakib Al Hasan struck in the next over, trapping du Plessis plumb in front for 48 to bring Bangladesh firmly back into the game.

The visitors managed to add only 61 in 29 overs in the postlunch session after resuming on 104-1. In the evening session Mustafizur turned the tide with his decisive over before leg-spinner Jubair Hossain claimed three wickets to finish with 3-53.

The second and final Test will be in Dhaka from July 30August 3. - AFP

SCOREBOARD

South Africa 1st innings D. Elgar c Das b Taijul 47 S. van Zyl c Das b Mahmudullah 34 F. du Plessis lbw b Shakib 48 H. Amla c Das b Mustafizur 13 T. Bavuma c Jubair b Mustafizur 54 J. Duminy lbw b Mustafizur 0 Q. de Kock b Mustafizur 0 V. Philander c Shakib b Jubair 24 S. Harmer c Mominul b Jubair 9 D Steyn c Tamim b Jubair 2 M. Morkel not out 3 Extras (b-8 lb-5, nb-1) 14 Total (all out; 83.3 overs) 248 Fall of wickets: 1-58 (van Zyl), 2-136 (Elgar), 3-136 (du Plessis), 4-173 (Amla), 5-173 (Duminy), 6-173 (de Kock), 7-208 (Philander), 8-237 ( Harmer), 9-239 (Steyn), 10-248 (Bavuma) Bowling: Shahid 17-9-34-0, Mustafizur

17.4-6-37-4, Shakib 14-2-45-1, Mahmudullah 3-0-9-1, Taijul 18-3-57-1, Jubair 14-1-53-3 (nb1) Bangladesh 1st innings: Tamim Iqbal not out 1 Imrul Kayes not out 5 Extras (nb-1) 1 Total (for no wicket; two overs) 7 To bat: Mominul Haque, Mahmudullah, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Litton Das, Jubair Hossain, Mohammad Shahid, Taijul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman Bowling: Steyn 1-0-6-0, Philander 1-0-1-0 (nb1) Toss: South Africa Umpires: Richard Kettleborough (ENG) and Joel Wilson (WI) Third umpire: Paul Reiffel (AUS) Match referee: Chris Broad (ENG)

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s cricket authorities announced a ban on alcohol during Wednesday’s fourth One-day International between Pakistan and the hosts following a drunken riot at the venue on Sunday.

Sri Lanka Cricket said unruly behaviour will be dealt with severely as a response to crowd unrest that held up play for 30 minutes at the Premadasa stadium, delaying Pakistan’s victory to lead the five-match series 2-1.

Items banned according to a cricket board statement include hooters, liquor, glass bottles, sharp objects, lighters and boxes of matches.

“Any unruly behaviour by any spectator will be severely dealt with and may even be subject to eviction from the grounds,” the statement added.

Police cleared two blocks of stands at the Premadasa stadium during a match played under lights after a drunken brawl led to pelting of stones into the outer field that threatened the safety of players.

However, the authorities decided to hold the fourth ODI at the same venue in Colombo after the authorities arrested four suspects and stepped up security in the area.

No players were hurt on Sunday but Sri Lanka’s sporting image suffered a blow with the local media blaming the authorities for not taking action to prevent the unprecedented clashes.

A dozen vehicles were damaged and several bystanders were also hurt.

However, Pakistan players and supporters declined to blame Sri Lankan authorities and fans at large for the disturbance, instead pointing the finger at a small group of spectators. - AFP

ASHES

Australia to review Rogers’ condition LONDON: Australia will seek further specialist medical advice regarding the condition of Chris Rogers but do not believe the veteran opener has suffered “serious damage” after succumbing to a sudden bout of dizziness on the fourth day of the second Ashes Test at Lord’s on Sunday.

Team doctor Peter Brukner indicated Monday it was possible that Rogers could take part in the third Test at Edgbaston starting on July 29.

After two overs’ play on Sunday, Rogers crouched down by the side of the pitch and then sat motionless before eventually going off on 49 not out.

The 37-year-old left-hander played no further part in Australia’s crushing 405-run win against England which levelled the series at 1-1, having helped establish their strong position in the match with a Test-best 173 in the first innings.

However, he was seen talking to team-mates on Australia’s dressing room balcony later Sunday.

Brukner said Rogers’s dizzy spell may well have come about as a result of a delayed reaction to being struck on the helmet by England paceman James Anderson while batting on Friday’s second day at Lord’s.

“Chris’s condition is certainly improving. He has had scans and seen a specialist since yesterday (Sunday) to help determine the cause of his dizzi-

STRUCK HARD: Australia’s Chris Rogers is hit on the helmet by the ball, which is said to have been the reason for the bout of dizziness. – Reuters

ness,” said Brukner in a Cricket Australia statement.

“The initial scans have cleared him of any serious damage and we await the results of further tests.

“It appears the most likely diagnosis is a delayed ear problem related to being struck on day two of the Test match.

“We are confident that this is something we can manage in the

lead up to the third Test at Edgbaston. “As a precaution he’ll be reviewed by the specialist in London again on Wednesday morning before re-joining the touring party.”

Brukner added that Rogers was scheduled to miss the three-day tour match against Derbyshire starting on Thursday in any event.

“Chris was not scheduled to

play in the tour match against Derbyshire, so he has time to continue resting ahead of the Test match,” Brukner said.

Rogers, who has said he plans to retire after the end of the fivematch Ashes series, missed Australia’s recent 2-0 series win in the Caribbean with concussion after being hit on the head while batting in the nets. - AFP

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SPORTS Eden to host World Twenty20 final Matches will take place across Bengaluru, Chennai, Dharamsala, Mohali, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi and Kolkata, which gets to host the summit clash at the iconic Eden Gardens

NEW DELHI: Kolkata’s Eden Gardens will host the final of the ICC World T20, to be held in India from March 11 to April 3, next year, across eight cities, the BCCI announced on Tuesday.

Matches will take place across Bengaluru, Chennai, Dharamsala, Mohali, Mumbai, Nagpur, New Delhi and Kolkata, which gets to host the summit clash at the iconic Eden Gardens.

It has been learnt that Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium is in line for one of the two semifinals while Delhi’s Feroz Shah Kotla in all likelihood will host the other semifinal.

“One of the semifinals will be held in Mumbai. The other might be held in Delhi. In case the semifinal is not held in Delhi then it will host a marquee match like India versus Pakistan. Dharamsala will host an India game against one of the qualifiers,” BCCI secretary

Anurag Thakur told reporters here on Tuesday.

The popular ground had missed out on hosting big ticket games during 50-over World Cup held in India four years ago.

The India versus England game was shifted to Chinnaswamy Sta-

dium in Bengaluru after ICC found that Eden Gardens’ renovation work was not complete.

However, Eden Gardens have organised marquee matches in the past, notably the 1987 Reliance Cup final and 1996 World Cup semifinal, which India for-

C O M M E N TA RY

Why Dhoni and Co could take their rest in peace

I

ndian selectors had left out most of the regular players from the team to tour Zimbabwe with the obvious intention of giving the battle-scarred top stars rest and relaxation, and while such end-of-season breaks could help them recharge for brave new wars ahead, it was but natural for some of the guys to feel a bit nervous about the shape of things destined to happen in the course of play in Harare.

With such fears and worries now being proved a figment of imagination of their silly minds, they could enjoy their life away from the 22 yards without negative thoughts about unborn tomorrows.

Ever since the humiliating series loss to Bangladesh and the infamous cutter ad rubbing salt on the wounds of the half-shaven heads of the famous seven (MS Dhoni, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Shikhar Dhawan and R. Ashiwn), we have got to hear very little about the stars taking their rest in peace.

Except perhaps that Dhoni had a meeting with Chief Minister of Jharkhand Raghubar Das, when the proud dad managed to find some time away from Ziva “who doesn’t care” whether

he plays for “the country or the franchise”, to possibly settle issues over a controversial land allotment over which the Jharkhand Housing Board has sent a notice asking him why the “illegal” allotment adjacent to his originally allotted plot should not be cancelled.

Except perhaps that Kohli and Anushka Sharma were chilling out with Sachin Tendulkar and Anjali in London, cheering for Sania Mirza at Wimbledon when they could.

Except perhaps that how Rohit is happy spreading “frombest-friends-to-soulmates” smiles and discovering the simple pleasures of life that he thinks “couldn’t get any better” in the company of Ritika Sajdeh.

Except perhaps that Suresh Raina is figuring out his legal rights to take the right steps ahead after former IPL boss Lalit Modi alleged that the CSK star had accepted bribe, in cash and kind, from a businessman.

Except perhaps that Shikhar Dhawan has joined Modi’s—no, not Lalit but this is Narendra— ‘Beti bachao, beti padhao yojna’, posting a selfie with his daughters Rhea and Aliyah.

Except perhaps that how the break has helped Ashwin fulfill a dear wish of his wife — who is now exchanging tweets with Sakshi Dhoni about “the smiles and the goosies” of the innocent kind—that the hubby darling should be by her side when she went into labour.

We know that Dhoni was ready to step down as captain if it meant the team would do well without him at the helm, but now that the team under a new captain did not do well enough for the selectors to seriously consider the Rahane code, Dhoni could now take his rest in peace. We know how Rohit had put up his hand and got himself into the opener’s slot, but now that the options tried in Harare, Murali Vijay and Rahane, failed to deliver the threat, he as well as Dhawan could take their rest in peace.

Kedar Jadhav has hit a century and Manish Pandey has given him company notching up in the process a match-winning 70-plus, but there was little that inspires anyone to die for these

guys—Raina is more entertaining than any of the middle order batsmen in action against Zimbabwe, so let him take his rest in peace.

Kohli could take his rest in absolute peace for quite a long time for the simple reason that at the moment, and for some time in the immediate future, BCCI has no one on its radar to pin its hopes on.

Harbhajan Singh was Ashwin’s role model when he had been in the process of transforming himself from a fast medium bowler to an offspinner, but at 35 the Turbanator has nothing much left in his armour to upset Ashwin’s apple-cart, never mind the “Ashwin-can’t-relax-now’ kind of wisdom dished out by some former, senior players in May when Harbhajan made his way back in. Ashwin can take his rest in peace. With heaps of peace all around and in the vicinity of the top stars, there’s room for doubt: is too much of such peace good for Indian cricket?

The writer is a freelance contributor based in India. All the views and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of Times of Oman

HOCKEY

Van Ass not a good coach: Batra NEW DELHI: A day after India’s hockey coach Paul van Ass claimed that he has been fired from the job, Hockey India (HI) president Narinder Batra on Tuesday hit back at the Dutchman, saying that he was not a “good coach” and his fate would be decided by a special committee on Friday.

Batra confirmed that he had an altercation with a “rude” van Ass after India’s match against Malaysia in the World Hockey League semifinals at Antwerp, Belgium, but he had never sacked him.

Van Ass had on Monday created a flutter by claiming that he has been fired by HI following his public altercation with Batra.

The HI president also said that a committee has been formed to decide on the fate of the coach and it will take a decision on Friday.

He said he had no ego problem and if the committee felt the coach should continue, he would himself go to The Netherlands to bring him back.

Batra said that Van Ass realised that it would have been difficult for him to deliver the goods in India as the system here is different.

“Paul is a good manager and a good motivator but not a good coach,” insisted Batra.

“I am the one who is upset, is

factually incorrect. I feel he has realised that unlike in Holland, where he would have a forward coach, a defender’s coach, a coach for the mid-field, a strategist, a video analyst, etc, here in India he would have to perform on his own.

That he has realised.”

Batra also stressed that if everyone felt “I am a dictator, I will go”.

Giving his version of the faceoff, Batra said he had first asked the coach whether he could speak to the players.

Recalling the incident, Batra said: “India’s match against Malaysia got over and the team had done the victory lap.

“The sponsors and organisers said ‘the team wants to meet you’ and I asked if I was suppose to go on the ground. They said yes and went down’.The first person I met was Paul and then I met the team. We had formed a circle and I asked the coach if I could speak to the players. Paul said yes and that was when I started speaking to them.

“I was talking to them in Hindi.

I spoke for about 45-50 seconds and told them that ‘your performance needs to be consistent. You had defeated Australia in Australia. You need to be more consistent as you guys are playing together for four years now. Nobody likes

If you think I have an ego, the committee would decide whether he would come back.

Then I would personally go to Holland and bring him back Narinder Batra

Hockey India President

losses, not even the sponsors.So you need to be winning more’,” Batra said.

“My next sentence would have been that forget about all the previous matches and concentrate on the upcoming games and try to be in the final. But before I could finish, Paul intervened and said ‘I am the

coach and you leave’. His tone was pretty rude. “Then I left, saying that ‘we will talk about this later, we need to talk about this, Paul’.

After that India played two more matches, even the women’s team was playing, I watched those matches but Paul never had the time to come to me or ask for any time,” clarified Batra.

Paul later said that he was sacked and cited that as a reason for not sending the report of the team’s performance.

“I also have the ticket that was sent to Paul on June 9 to come to India,” Batra claimed.

Van Ass’s future with the Indian team was in serious doubt after he failed to report on time for the national team’s camp that began at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in Shilaroo, Himachal Pradesh on Monday.

He also did not submit his report on India’s performance.

On what is the status now, Batra said: “Decision will be taken by the committee (during HI’s meeting on July 24), which consists of former Olympians and performance director.

“If you think I have an ego, the committee would decide whether he would come back. I assure you, I would personally go to Holland and bring him back.” - PTI

feited the match to eventual champions Sri Lanka due to a crowd disruption.

BCCI said the chosen venues will have to meet the prescribed requirements.

“These venues will host the matches subject to fulfilling the

prescribed requirements of the ICC and BCCI while adhering to the statutory obligations that are mandatory for hosting an International match,” said the BCCI in a statement.

The showpiece event of the shortest format will take place for the first time in the cricketcrazy nation.

India had won the inaugural World T20 in 2007.

Talking more about the muchawaited tournament, BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur said: “BCCI is extremely proud to host this prestigious event. All the venues identified have hosted many prestigious matches. With this announcement, we have begun our preparations in right earnest. We want this World Twenty20 to be a memorable experience for our participants and fans. I am confident that all the venues nominated will deliver a world class event.”

The Board has also constituted a managing committee for the biennial event, of which president Jagmohan Dalmiya will the be chairman and Thakur the convenor.

The other members of the committee are joint secretary Amitabh Choudhary, treasurer Anirudh Chaudhry, vice-president G Ganga Raju, IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla, Chairman, IPL, Ashish Shelar, vice-president of Mumbai Cricket Association and Ashirbad Behera, secretary at Orissa Cricket Association. - PTI

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W EDN ESDAY, JULY 22, 2015

SPORTS ‘Pujara a big score away’ Pujara, India’s usual No.3 Test batsman, has endured a prolonged batting slump that saw him lose his position in the team

CHENNAI: India A and U-19 teams coach Rahul Dravid has said it is just a matter of time before out-of-form Test batsman Cheteshwar Pujara gets back into his run scoring ways, insisting he is just a big innings away from regaining his confidence.

Pujara, India’s usual No.3 Test batsman, has endured a prolonged batting slump that saw him lose his position in the team.

Pujara is currently the captain of the India A team.

India A are scheduled to play two four-day matches, slated between July 22 and 25 and from July 29 to August 1 in Chennai against the visiting Australia A side.

“A player like Pujara will find the way, he has got the desire, the hunger, he is looking to get better,

he has got the technique, and he is keen to improve.

Matter of time It is just matter of time that he comes back and get a chance to play in the eleven and one or two scores will change things for him,” Dravid was quoted as saying by bcci.tv on Sunday.

Pujara has ben a sound run scorer since he began playing first class cricket in 2005.

However, during India’s England and Australia tours last year, Pujara went through a low scoring phase, failing to score a century in eight Tests.

During that period, he managed to cross the 50-run mark only twice. The Rajkot-born then went to England to play for county side Yorkshire to find his lost rhythm.

“Good to have county experience. I myself had a small stint with Kent. Pujara might not have played the entire season but the experience he gathered playing in different conditions, different dressing rooms, and different set of players will help,” Dravid said.

“Pujara is fine, he is a class, quality player. He had a good start to his international career.

There were a few series which didn’t go the way he wanted. And it is natural, to all cricketers at some stage it happens.

“I don’t think there is too much wrong in him technically. We had a few conversations with him even before coming here. We will try to look at his mind set where he is at,” the 42-year-old batting legend said.

Speaking on India A facing the visiting Australia A side, he said: “It’s about creating a good environment. It is about giving the boys the right opportunity to show their skills. “There are important matches coming up. Selectors are watching these boys as they have performed well in domestic cricket. And this is seen as a stepping stone to international cricket.” - IANS

TOUR DE FRANCE

Froome questions ‘strange’ doping scrutiny GAP: Tour de France leader Chris Froome branded the constant speculation surrounding him as “strange” after once again facing a barrage of doping questions.

Froome finished 28th on Monday’s 16th stage from Bourg-dePeage to Gap, more than 18 minutes behind winner Ruben Plaza, but still had to answer doping-related questions in the yellow jersey press conference.

But the 30-year-old Briton suggested the treatment he gets is inconsistent with those of others when they enjoy success.

Since he won the Tour in 2013, four different riders have won the five Grand Tours held between then and the 2015 Tour.

American Chris Horner was 41 — a record — when he won the 2013 Vuelta a Espana but despite that success his RadioShack team let him leave at the end of the season and just over a year later he had to drop down to Continental Tour level (from the World Tour) to find a team.

Nairo Quintana won the 2014 Giro d’Italia before Vincenzo Nibali, riding for the doping-tainted Astana team, won the Tour that same year. Alberto Contador, who has served a two-year doping ban after testing positive for clenbuterol, then triumphed at the 2014 Vuelta and 2015 Giro.

But none of them have suffered the kind of scrutiny subjected to Froome in either his 2013 success or this year. “I wouldn’t necessarily say they need more scrutiny,” said Kenyan-born Froome, the Team Sky leader.

“But I’ve got to admit it is frustrating to an extent that if you look at the last five Grand Tours that have been won by different teams and different riders, there hasn’t been the same outcry for power data numbers, unless I’m missing something.

“The last five Grand Tours didn’t

TEAM SKY RIDERS: Team Sky’s Chris Froome of Britain , left in front, the yellow jersey holder, rides with his team mates during a training session in the 102nd Tour de

France cycling race in Sisteron, France. Tuesday was the second rest day of Tour de France. – Reuters

see the same kind of level of questioning. Of course I don’t really understand why now it seems to be such a hot topic.

“OK, I won one mountain top finish by 59 seconds — it just seems strange to me.”

Froome has had urine thrown at him by a fan during the Tour, his Australian teammate Richie Porte was punched and others have been spat at, insulted and accused of doping.

Nibali comparison Last year, Nibali won four stages

at the Tour, including one by 1min 10sec to Thibaut Pinot.

The man who started second that day, Alejandro Valverde, finished almost two minutes back.

Italian Nibali rarely put huge time gaps into his rivals but consistently gained time on them throughout the three-week race, which he led almost from start to finish.

By the end of the race, Nibali’s gap to second-placed Jean-Christophe Peraud was 7min 52sec and only three riders finished inside 10 minutes back from the Sicilian.

Froome won the 2013 Tour by 4min 20sec to Quintana and four riders finished within the gap between Nibali and Peraud.

Froome’s current lead over Quintana is 3min 10sec with another eight riders, down to Dutchman Bauke Mollema in ninth, within 10 minutes, although there are still four Alpine stages and 18 categorised climbs to come after Tuesday’s rest day.

Froome has been particularly critical of certain TV commentators — notably French former riders Laurent Jalabert and Cedric

Vasseur — for comments linking him to doping and cheating, which he feels has influenced the common fan. Not to mention the seeming obsession with his power data, which was even allegedly stolen after Sky’s computers were hacked.

Froome’s been backed by some important figures in cycling, including Tour director Christian Prudhomme, a former journalist.

“The top racer has never been liked in the history of the Tour de France. It was true with Jacques Anquetil, it was true with Eddy Merckx, and it’s being repeated

now. But there must be a minimum of respect,” he said.

And the Professional Cyclists Association (CPA) president Gianni Bugno, a former cyclist, spoke up in defence of Froome.

“Gianni Bugno, President of the CPA, in reference to the recent incidents that involved Chris Froome at the Tour de France, condemns the behaviour of certain TV commentators who, accusing without any evidence the integrity of the riders, generate uncivilised and unbecoming behaviour of certain fans,” said a CPA statement. — AFP

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Sterling scores quick debut goal for City

SIGNING

Sterling, the most expensive English footballer in history, took just two minutes and 17 seconds to open his account for the big-spending English club

Newcastle sign Serbia striker Mitrovic LONDON: Serbia striker Aleksandar Mitrovic has joined Newcastle on a five-year contract the English Premier League club announced Tuesday.

The 20-year-old will arrive at St James’ Park from Belgian side Anderlecht, subject to visa clearance, for an undisclosed fee but in what Newcastle said was the fourth-biggest deal in their history, with the BBC reporting he had joined in a £13 million ($20 million, 19 million euros) move.

“There will be pressure here, for sure, but I like pressure,” Mitrovic said in a club statement.

“I also know about the famous players who have played for Newcastle United, like Alan Shearer who is a hero of mine. I hope I can play like him for this club. It will be an honour.”

Newcastle haven’t won a major trophy since the 1969 Fairs Cup and last season finished just four points above the relegation zone under caretaker manager John Carver.

But the north-east side retain a loyal following and Mitrovic said: “I am so happy to have signed for Newcastle. I visited the stadium yesterday (Monday) and it’s amazing.

“I have played in a lot of impresFOOTBALL

Le Guen announces probables MUSCAT: Ahead of Oman’s second and third World Cup qualifier games versus Turkmenistan on September 3 and Guam on September 8, national coach Paul Le Guen announced the probables for the upcoming training camp in Muscat starting on Friday.

Only Ali Al Habsi and Eid Al Farsi will miss this training camp as Ali has recently started training with Reading FC in United Kingdom and Al Farsi who has joined Al Raed Club in Saudi Arabia.

Probables: Faiz Al Rasheedi, Riyad Al Alawi, Mazin Al Kasbi, Saad Suhail, Abdulsalam Aamer, Mohamed Al Sheeba, Jaber Al Owaisi, Ali Al Busaidi, Ali Salem, Mohammed Al Musalmi, Mohammed Al Hasni, Ahmed Mubarak, Ali Al Jabri, Mohamed Al Masahari, Raed Ibrahim, Fahad Al Jalbobi, Mohsen Jowhar, Qasim Said, Yaseen Al Shiyadi, Mohammed Mubarak, Abdulaziz Al Moqbali, Emad Al Hosni, Soud Al Farsi, Mohammed Al Siyabi and Said Al Ruzaiqi

sive stadiums in my career but St. James’ Park is so big, I can’t wait to play my first game here.

“I know how passionate the fans are. This is a club with a very big history and the fans are a big part of that.”

Mitrovic’s two season with Anderlecht saw him score 36 goals in 60 games and win both the Belgian Pro League title and Belgian Super Cup in 2014.

He started his career with Serbian side Teleoptik and has scored one goal in 13 international appearances.

Newcastle manager Steve McClaren was delighted to see Mitrovic follow PSV Eindhoven midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum to St James’ Park and the former England boss said his new forward was a highly-prized player.

“I think this is a fantastic signing for us. We’ve fought off a lot of competition to secure a top young talent in Europe,” he said.

“Aleksandar is someone who can develop with the team and someone who will help us to get to where we want to go.

“As a board we have worked hard to make it happen. It’s another demonstration that we are wanting to push on.” - AFP

MELBOURNE: Record signing Raheem Sterling took just over two minutes to score his debut goal as Manchester City downed AS Roma on penalties in the International Champions Cup in Melbourne on Tuesday.

England goalkeeper Joe Hart made two late saves as Manchester City won 5-4 after the penalty shootout at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Sterling, the most expensive English footballer in history, took just two minutes and 17 seconds to open his account for the bigspending English club.

He showed his explosive pace to swoop on a defence-splitting pass from Kelechi Iheanacho to leave Roma goalkeeper Morgan De Sanctis flailing and slot the ball into the empty net.

While Sterling’s much-anticipated first appearance in the sky blue was the major talking point, the 2014 English Premier League champions showed plenty of attacking promise for the season ahead. The 20-year-old Jamaicanborn Londoner completed his move to Manchester City from Liverpool last week in a five-year deal worth an initial £44 million that could rise to £49 million ($76 million).

The Italians equalised just five minutes after Sterling’s strike in spectacular fashion. Bosnian midfielder Miralem Pjanic let fly with a 20-metre thunderbolt into the top right corner.

Sterling had a big shout for a penalty turned down when he was brought down by Alessandro Flor-

IMPRESSIVE START: Raheem Sterling of Manchester City eyes the ball during the International Champions Cup football match against Italian side AS Roma in Melbourne. – AFP

enzi midway through the opening half, but Australian referee Jared Gillett waved play on.

Roma had three quickfire scoring chances minutes before the break, with Vincent Kompany lunging to deny Francesco Totti, Eliaquim Mangala clearing another and unmarked Daniele De Rossi putting a header over the bar.

Manager Manuel Pellegrini as expected took Sterling off at halftime along with the influential David Silva in wholesale changes,

R O G E R S E L AT E D

‘Humbling’ time for Liverpool ADELAIDE: Manager Brendan Rogers says it has been a humbling experience for Liverpool to play before packed grounds on their pre-season tour and wants the team to make a quick return to Australia.

The Reds closed out their Australian tour with a 2-0 win over Adelaide United before 53,000 fans at Adelaide Oval on Monday evening. It followed a 50,000 crowd watching them beat Brisbane Roar 2-1 in Brisbane last week.

“To have over 100,000 supporters, over two games on the other side of the world, it tells you about the passion of the people here for the club, and the passion for football,” Rogers told reporters after Monday’s win.

“It has been a great honour and I would come back here for sure as soon as we possibly could.”

Rogers and his Liverpool squad depart Australia on Tuesday with the manager in no doubt about the worth of their pre-season tour Down Under.

“It has been an absolute pleasure to be in Australia,” he said.

AUSSIE SOJOURN: Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers waves to

fans after the match against Adelaide Oval. – Reuters

“For some of our people and some our staff it has been the first time. I was very lucky to come here for the first time when we were here two years ago and this trip has been equally as enjoyable.

“We leave with a heavy heart because when you play in front of supporters as we have done in the

two games, it means so much. It is very humbling, how we have been received, and hopefully in a couple of years time we can be back.”

When Liverpool last visited Australia in 2013, 95,000 fans watched them beat Melbourne Victory at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. - AFP

introducing Samir Nasri, Aleksandar Kolarov and Yaya Toure into the game. Nigerian teenager Iheanacho put Manchester City ahead again on 51 minutes when he zeroed in on an awful back pass by former England international Ashley Cole to coolly beat De Sanctis from close range.

But Serbian Adem Ljajic threw the Italians a lifeline when he beat Joe Hart with his free-kick over the wall in the 87th minute to send the match into penalties.

Hart proved Man City’s hero, with saves off Seydou Doumbia and Seydou Keita to get the English club home.

Manchester City will attempt to go on and win the three-way ICC tournament when they take on ten-time European champions Real Madrid in the final match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday. Roma beat Real Madrid 7-6 on penalties after the opening ICC game finished scoreless at the MCG on Saturday. - AFP

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W EDN ESDAY, JULY 22, 2015

SPORTS

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New Open champion Johnson motivated to win more majors The American waited a long time to add to his one previous major win at the U.S. Masters but believes he is now a more rounded performer than the golfer who had the Green Jacket draped around his shoulders in 2007 SO SWEET: United States’ Zach Johnson kisses the trophy as he poses for photographers after winning a playoff after the final round at

the British Open Golf Championship at the Old Course, St. Andrews, Scotland. – AP/PTI

ST ANDREWS: No one should be surprised if Zach Johnson goes on to win several more majors because, even though he is approaching 40, the new British Open champion is working harder than ever and is performing at his peak.

The American waited a long

time to add to his one previous major win at the U.S. Masters but believes he is now a more rounded performer than the golfer who had the Green Jacket draped around his shoulders in 2007.

“I feel like I’m a better player than I was then,” Johnson told

reporters after beating South African Louis Oosthuizen and Marc Leishman of Australia in a four-hole playoff at St Andrews on Monday.

“I never really thought I’d win one major. Then you get one and certainly you feel like you can win CRICKET

Santner breaks thumb, out of tour of Africa WELLINGTON: Promising all-rounder Mitchell Santner has been ruled out of New Zealand’s tour of southern Africa after breaking his thumb in training, New Zealand Cricket said on Tuesday.

The 23-year-old, viewed by local pundits as a potential successor to the retired Daniel Vettori, will be replaced by George Worker in the squad for the limited overs series against Zimbabwe and South Africa.

“We feel for Mitch because he was really excited about this tour and we were looking forward to seeing him continue his development in international cricket,” New Zealand coach Mike Hesson saidt. “It is unfortunate but at the same time it presents George with his first opportunity ... and we are confident that he’ll fit in well.”

Santner impressed on New Zealand’s tour of England in June, and with his left-arm spin and competent batting has been considered capable of filling the role Vettori occupied in the side for 18 years before retiring after the World Cup final in March.

Kiwis will play three ODIs and a T20 match in Zimbabwe from August 2 before facing South Africa in two T20s and three ODIs. - Reuters

more and you want to win more.

“It drives you, motivates you to practice and get better,” said Johnson, 39, after climbing from 25th to 12th in the world rankings. “I really love golf and certainly as I’ve gotten older I’ve enjoyed practising more.

“I’ve enjoyed working out more, fortunately. I enjoy the gym and getting the opportunity to go out and work.”

Shared victory Johnson saluted the strong influence his backroom team, his wife

and three children, his family and friends had on his capture of the prized Claret Jug. “I’m very appreciative of that because this isn’t by happenstance or luck,” he said. “I think quality hard work creates luck.

“I’m not saying I’m lucky but, yeah, the support I have back home, the support I have had this week from friends and family was tremendous whether it was a text or a video from my kids or whatever.

“This is certainly a sharing moment and fortunately we get to have it for at least a year. I’m ecstatic to share it with them.”

Johnson now has 12 tour victories to his name but said none could compare to the moment he lifted the Claret Jug for the first time.

“I’m humbled right now because of what’s in my lap and the names that are etched on this piece of metal,” he added.

“That is very special.

“It’s the ‘who’s who’ in the game.

It’s the guys that paved the way.

“It’s the individuals that are historic in sports.

“I’m honoured and it’s still beyond surreal. I guess when you have a great team, great things can happen.” - Reuters

TRIBUTES

Formula One pays last respects to Jules Bianchi

LAST RESPECTS: Formula 1 drivers, friends and relatives, stand by late French Formula 1 driver Jules Bianchi’s coffin after his funeral ceremony outside Cathedrale Sainte Reparate in Nice. – AFP

NICE: Formula One turned out in force on Tuesday to pay its last respects to Jules Bianchi at the 25-year-old French driver’s funeral in his hometown of Nice.

World champion Lewis Hamilton and many of Bianchi’s pitlane colleagues joined family and friends of the talented young Marussia driver who died in Nice on Friday, nine months after his devastating accident at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Two giant portraits of Bianchi in full racing gear adorned the walls either side of the cathedral’s main entrance.

His coffin, with his No 17 helmet resting on it, was carried from the hearse into the cathedral by a group of young drivers, described by Father Sylvain Brison as Bianchi’s “racing brothers”.

With The Eagles’ haunting 1970s anthem “Hotel California” playing in the background, the coffin was carried up the cathedral’s central aisle.

Hamilton and his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg, who had made the short trip from their homes in Monaco, as well as Jean Todt, head of F1’s governing body, the FIA, and the French Sports Minister Thierry Braillard, were in attendance for what Bianchi’s parents had requested was to be an intimate farewell to their son.

“Jules’ death is deeply unjust,” Father Brison told the mourners in the Sainte-Reparate Cathedral situated in Nice’s historic old town.

“He was happy, because he had turned his dream into reality.”

With The Eagles’ haunting 1970s anthem ‘Hotel California’ playing in the background, the coffin was carried up the cathedral’s central isle

F1 “was his life, his vocation.

He was a champion blessed with a rare talent, as well as being a young man whose stature was as high as the depth of his humility”.

He concluded the service by saying: “Jules never managed to make it on to the Formula One podium, and so I ask you to applaud him now,” which the emotional gathering, both inside and outside the cathedral, duly did for several minutes.

The service ended with the playing of the tender 1980s classic hit “Mistral Gagnant” by French singer Renaud.

Ferrari beckoned Sebastian Vettel, the four-time former world champion, helped carry the coffin out of the cathedral in a poignant reminder that if fate had not cruelly intervened Bianchi would have joined the German as Kimi Raikkonen’s re-

placement at Ferrari next season.

Bianchi was the first Formula One driver to die as a result of a racing accident since triple world champion Ayrton Senna in San Marino in 1994.

And Senna’s arch-rival, Alain Prost, was among the mourners saying goodbye to Bianchi as were Romain Grosjean, Felipe Massa and Olivier Panis.

Bianchi suffered a traumatic brain injury when his car careered off the rain-drenched Suzuka circuit during the Japanese Grand Prix on October 5 and smashed into a recovery truck at around 200 kilometres (125 miles) an hour. He had been fighting for his life since under controlled medical conditions in a Nice hospital.

Born in Nice in 1989 to Italian parents, Bianchi had racing in his blood.

His father Philippe was a gokart specialist. His grandfather Mauro had been a well known Formula Three and endurance driver in the 1960s. His greatuncle Lucien competed in 17 Grands Prix before he was killed in a crash in 1969 at the age of 34.

After a spell at Ferrari’s drivers’ academy Bianchi joined Marussia in 2013 and competed in 34 Grands Prix, notching two world championship points — still the team’s best result.

Since the accident new measures have been introduced to force drivers to slow down for accidents, including a ‘virtual safety car’. The FIA has announced that in Bianchi’s honour it had retired his number 17 car. - AFP

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SECTION

LIFESTYLE

Leisure WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM

Into Caverns Measureless to Man

By Rejimon K The Jeita Grotto, a compound of crystallised caves 20 kilometres north of Beirut in the Valley of Nahr Al Kalb in Lebanon, is one of the great natural wonders of the world.

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LIFESTYLE PLAN YOUR TRIP FLIGHTS FROM MUSCAT

Oman Air currently operates 7 flights a week directly from Muscat to Beirut.

The 1,560 mile journey takes just under 5 hours. Fares start at OMR155. See omanair.com for flight schedules.

LUXURY HOTELS

InterContinental Phoenicia Beirut Glamorous, historic five-star property set on the seaside corniche in downtown Beirut (+961/136-9100; ihg.com).

Raouche Arjaan by Rotana Four star accommodations with sea views in the hip Rouche neighbourhood (+961/178-1111; aouche-arjaan-by-rotana.beirut-hotel.net).

BUDGET HOTELS

Talal Hotel Funky backpacker’s hostel minutes from the restaurants and nightlife of Al Hamra. (+961/156-2567; talalhotel.com).

Embassy Hotel Lebanon All the rooms in this modest 3-star apartment in the fashionable Al Hamra neighbourhood feature a balcony or garden (+961/1340814; embassyhotellebanon.com).

RESTAURANTS

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averns sculpted by water and time, the spectacular Jeita Grotto in Lebanon, was shortlisted to as one of the potential new Seven Wonders of the World. Despite the fact that the grotto didn’t make the final cut (loosing out to the likes of the Great Wall of China and the Taj Mahal), no trip to Lebanon would be complete without a visit to this cavern, and visiting this wonderous sight, whose beauty cannot be adequately captured by words nor cameras, is a reason to visit in and of itself.

Known to man since Paleolithic times, the Jeita Grotto is a compound of crystallised caves located 20 kilometres north of Beirut in the Valley of Nahr Al Kalb. The grotto is made up of two limestone caves, upper galleries and a lower cave through which a 6,230 metre-long river runs.

The total length of the cave is more than 9,000m and it accommodates a huge hall with 108m ceilings. The lower galleries, discovered in 1836 and opened to the public in 1958, are visited by boat, while the upper galleries, opened in January 1969, can be seen on foot.

In summer you can visit both the upper and lower galleries while enjoying the refreshingly cool temperature inside the caves. The lower section is sometimes closed in winter when the water level becomes too high, but the extensive upper galleries are open all year.

In these caves and galleries, the action of water cutting through the limestone created cathedral-like vaults, which are full of majestic curtains of rock in the form of various sizes, colours and shapes of stalactites and stalagmites, including the largest stalactite in the world, which hangs at 820m.

When you begin your journey in

the parking area where entry and parking tickets can be purchased, the fun begins with a short ride up the mountain in one of four Austrian cable cars. A Disney-like “train” pulled by a small replica of a steam engine makes regular runs up and down the hill. Upon reaching the entrances of both caves, you’ll see a board requesting that visitors talk softly inside the cave.

Upon entering, the first thing you will notice is the sound of rushing water, followed by a sensation of clean cold. But the roar of the waterfall at the entrance gives way to profound silence as you glide deeper into the cave.

A tasteful lighting system illuminates the columns and sculptures fashioned by those great architects — water and time. Both the upper gallery hike and the 600-metre lower gallery boat trip on a subterranean lake are only samplings of the system, which has been explored for almost 6,910 metres.

A reprieve from the world outside its ancient walls, this grotto is a perfect place to escape and meditate on life as you meander through its stunning halls. There is a saying that the serene beauty of nature has to be enjoyed in the sound of silence.

And Jeita Grotto delivers both stunning silence and spectacular beauty that make it a natural wonder by any count. - reji@timesofoman.com

Dar Bistro & Books This great little bookshop houses a great bistro serving classics like steak and chips and new twists on old favourites like quinoa tabouli. It also has a lovely garden, perfect for sipping coffee and flipping through a book (+961/137-3348; darbistroandbooks.com).

Tawlet Run by the founders of the Souk el Tayeb farmers market, this amazing little restaurant features the cooking of Lebanese women from villages around the country, offering a unique opportunity to try authentic, regional dishes (+961/1995995; soukeltayeb.com/tawlet).

The first thing you will notice is the sound of rushing water, followed by a sensation of clean cold.

But the roar of the waterfall soon gives way to profound silence

Mandaloun sur Mer Though expensive, it is hard to beat the ambiance and excellent seafood served overlooking the Mediterranean Sea (+961/357-0777; almandaloun.com).

WHAT NOT TO MISS

National Museum The principal museum of archaeology in Lebanon, the National Museum opened in 1942. Its collection of 100,000 antiques and medieval finds from excavations continues to grow, but only 1,300 artefacts are exhibited at a time, usually covering a range of periods from prehistoric to the medieval Mamluk period.

Location: Museum Street, Beirut, Lebanon Opening hours: 9. 00 am - 5.00 pm on Tuesday through Sunday. Closed on Mondays and holidays.

Baalbeck Situated in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon, east of the Litani River, Baalbeck was a safe haven for soldiers in the Roman empire and contains some of the best preserved Roman ruins in Lebanon. Local influences are seen in the planning and layout of the temples, which deviate from the classic Roman design.

Head to Baalbeck for a quick day trip from Beirut, as the town is a mere 85km northeast of the city, or plan a visit during the annual Baalbeck International Festival (More details: baalbeck.org.lb).

Details: Plan on about two hours for the tour, which includes a boat ride through the lower galleries, a visit to the upper galleries on foot, and a film presentation. There are several restaurants, snack bars, and restrooms on-site, as well as souvenir shops selling Lebanese handicrafts. The grotto remains open Tuesday through Thursday from 9am to 6pm and Friday through Sunday from 9am to 7pm and is closed on Mondays, unless it is a national holiday.

Souk el Tayeb Souk el Tayeb is an open air, weekly farmers market held at three different locations throughout the capital. Every Saturday Lebanese farmers come sell their organic produce and homemade goodies in downtown Beirut, at the Beirut Souks, and at Trablos Street from 9am to 2pm.

Created in 2004, it is the first farmers market to open in Lebanon and is now an organisation committed not only to locally produced food, but also to preserving local traditions and hospitality (for more information get in touch with them: +961 /1 44-2664; info@soukeltayeb.com).

T R AV E L T I P S

MEDITATION HELPS TRAVEL BUGS Just 20 minutes of meditation can lead to a more focused mind and increased productivity,

JET LAG?

Meditation helps you get over the jet lag so that you can spend the day holidaying or finishing business deals instead of catching up with sleep in your hotel room.

MOTION SICKNESS?

Meditation can help restore balance when coupled with a yoga postures that can be done inflight, like seated spinal twist, seated cat pose, seated shoulder shrugs, back-release, and neck release. (See 5 poses for the plane at artofliving.org)

BACK-TO-BACK TRAVEL TAKING A TOLL ON THE BODY?

A few minutes of meditation helps eliminate fatigue and travel-related stress in the mind and body.

POOR DIGESTION?

Meditation helps keep the digestive system working, even when your environment and food changes.

PHOTOGRAPHY: SHUTTERSTOCK/FLICKR

which can make or break a vacation. By Pritika Nair (www.artofliving.org)

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LIFESTYLE THE HOBBYIST Sanad Al Rawahi Oman’s karting champion

I think football is a much more dangerous sport than motorsports.

Go-karting is not dangerous, as long as you follow the rules. It only becomes dangerous when you violate the rules

Why do you love it?

Karting was my first love and became my favourite sport. I wanted to do it everyday. It’s all about being fast and it was quite fun. I felt very good while on the track. In fact it’s much more fun than any other sports including football.

How did you get into it?

I started when I was 10 years old. My father Suleiman Al Rawahi, took me and my brother Abdullah to the Oman Automobile Association facility and I got hooked to karting on the first day. A couple of months later, the karting track got closed for renovation. We were travelling abroad and I spent a lot of time on the tracks. Later on, my father, who was determined to nurture our talent, took us to the Al Ain Karting Track in the UAE for practice. We showed our skills, won a couple of competitions in Al Ain. That was just the beginning and later we won titles in Abu Dhabi and Dubai and our confidence began to grow.

Need for Speed

How can I get into it?

Anyone who wants to pick up karting as a hobby just needs to approach Oman Automobile Association (OAA) and begin with a 15 minutes driving session. You can buy your own kart and OAA will give you the space to keep your machine at its facility. But if you want to be a professional you really need to have the passion and love for the sport. You need to train and practice on a daily basis or regularly. But a lot of people keep it as a hobby for the fun of it.

What’s your pro-tip?

Initially you may be a little scared to hop into the machine. But the fear will give way to enjoyment and you will learn the tricks of the trade quickly. Motorsport including go-karting is not a dangerous sport if you follow the rules. It becomes dangerous when you violate the rules. I think football is a much more dangerous sport than motorsport.

Contact info/resources for go-karting Call Oman Automobile Association (24510630) or walk in at their facility in Seeb. OAA offers a fleet of leisure karts and it has both outdoor and indoor tracks.

For more details visit omanauto.org What’s your favourite hobby? Want to tell us about it? Contact salim@timesofoman.com

Photo: O.K. Mohammed Ali/Supplied

Y O U R FAV O U R I T E B O O K

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari A fable about fulfilling your dreams and reaching your destiny by Robin Sharma The Monk Who Sold his Ferrari is not a book, it is set of guidelines for personal growth. And a slow read of this bestselling novel by Indian-born Canadian author and motivational speaker, Robin Sharma, can be itself considered a course in personality development. I relished this book because of its simplistic yet effective narrative that provides the disillusioned soul with a path to success that’s not devoid of hurdles, but rather is infested with them.

The protagonist of the novel is Julian Mantle, a high-profile

attorney, who has bitten off more than he can chew and is weighed down by misguided spiritual priorities. A sudden heart attack brings about a total change in his attitude toward life. Mantle sells off all his possessions and sets out on a trek in India in search of what one can call ‘Nirvana’ (enlightenment) that is, however, tainted by his personal craving for a meaningful existence.

After visiting a monastery in India, Mantle is challenged by a monk who brings his quest full circle.

The unique parable that provides salvation for Mantle, relates to various aspects of life and provides a step-by-step guide for achieving greater courage, balance, fulfilment and joy.

Anyone (and for that matter, everyone) who might encounter a stage in life when things appear to exist out of balance will draw inspiration and determination to succeed against all odds after reading this book. I have read this book more than once and still enjoy it, sometimes reading through, other

times picking out odd chapters that relate to a particular situation to draw on the relevant instruction or inspiration.

Reviewed by Hubert Vaz

ARE YOU A PROLIFIC READER? Which is your favourite book? Pick one and send in your thoughts on it.

Contact salim@timesofoman.com

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FIND-IT-ALL CINEMA SCHEDULE

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

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Film information 24540856 / Advance Booking 24540855 Website: www.albahjacinemaoman.com CITY CINEMA Contact (10 am to 6pm) 24567664 | 68. www.citycinemaoman.net facebook.com/citycinemaoman SHATTI Bajrangi Bhaijaan (Drama)(PG) Cast: Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Harshaali Malthotra 2:00, 4:00, 8:30 & 11:30 pm Terminator: Genisys (Action, Adventure) (3D) PG12 Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke, Emilia Clarke 7:00, 9:30 & 11:55 pm Terminator: Genisys (Action) (2D) PG12 11:30 am Minions (Animation, Comedy)(3D) PG Voice Overs: Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm 2:00 & 6:45 pm Minions (Animation, Comedy)(2D) PG 12:15 pm Hayaty Mebahdela (Comedy)(PG) Cast: Mohamed Saad ,Nicole Saba and Hassan Hosny 9:30 & 11:45 pm Max (PG12) Cast: Thomas Haden Church, Josh Wiggins, Luke Kleintank 5:00 & 7:15 pm Pixies (PG) Cast: Alexa PenaVega, Bill Paxton, Christopher Plummer 12:00 & 5:00 pm All Creatures Big And Small (PG) Cast: Dermot Magennis, Callum Maloney 1:30 & 3:15 pm MUSCAT GRAND MALL Terminator Genisys (3D) (Action) (PG12) Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger-Jason Clarke 9:30 & 11:55 pm Gold Class: 8:15 & 11:15pm Terminator Genisys (2D) (Action) (PG12) 2:15 pm Minions (3D) (Animation, Comady) (PG) Voice Overs: Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm

Gold Class: 8:15 & 11:15 pm

2:00 & 6:45 pm

2:30, 5:30, 8:30, 11:30 pm

2:45 & 4:20pm

9:10 pm

Terminator: Genisys (3D) (Action, Adventure) (PG) Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke

MINIONS (Animation, Comedy) (3D)

BAJRANGI BHAIJAAN (Action/Drama )

ALL CREATURES BIG AND SMALL -OOOPS! (2D) (PG) (Animation)

NEENA (2D)

Cast: Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Harshaali Malthotra

Voice Overs: Dermot Magennis, Callum Maloney, Tara Flynn

Cast: Deepti Sati, Ann Augustine, Vijay Babu

Voice Overs: Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton

4:45 pm Gold Class: 11:00 & 1:00 pm Minions (2D) (Animation, Comady) (PG) 12:30 pm Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2D) ( Action) (PG) Cast: Salman Khan, Kereena Kapoor, Harshaali 6:30 & 8:45 pm Gold Class: 2:45 & 5:45 pm Pixies (2D) (Animation, Comady) (PG) Voice Overs: Alexa Penavega, Bill Paxton 10:45 am, 2:30 pm Hayaty Mebahdela (2D) (Comedy)(PG) Cast: Mohamed Saad, Nicole Saba, Hassan 11:45 pm Pin Roye (2D) (Drama, Romance) (PG) Cast: Mahira Khan, Humayun Sayeed 6:30 pm All Creatures Big And Small (Oops;) (2D) (Animation, Adventure) (PG) Voice Overs: Dermot Magennis, Callum 10:30 am Max (2D) (Adventure , Family ) (PG12) Cast: Thomas Haden Church , Josh Wiggins 12:15, 4:15 pm

2.30, 5.30, 8.30, 11.30 pm SCREEN 2 Baahubali: The Beginning (Action/Adventure/History ) – 12+ Cast: Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka 3.00, 5.45 pm Bajrangi Bhaijaan (Action/Drama ) – PG 8.45, 11.45 pm SCREEN 3 Bin Roye - Urdu - Pakistani (Romance/ Drama/Comedy) – PG12 Cast: Mahira Khan, Humayun Saeed, Armeena Rana Khan , Zeba Bakhtiar 3.00, 9.00 pm Terminator: Genisys (2D) (Action/Adventure) – PG12 Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney 6.00, 11.30 pm SOHAR Terminator Genisys - 3D (PG12) (Action) 6:45, 9:15, 11:55 pm Bajrangi Bhaijaan - 2D (PG) (Drama, Action) Cast : Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor 3:45, 6:00, 9:00, 11:30 pm

RUWI SCREEN 1 Bajrangi Bhaijaan (Action/Drama ) – PG Cast: Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Harshaali

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

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FROM DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH/SHARJAH (ROUTE 204)

07:00 07:00 07:00

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Fujairah Sharjah Dubai

SALALAH Terminator (3D)(PG12) (Action) 7:00/9:15/11:50pm Terminator (2D)(PG12); 12:00pm Minions (3D) (PG) (Animation) 12:15/2:15pm Minions (2D) (PG) (Animation); 10:15AM All Creatures Big and Small (2D)(PG) 10:45AM/12:30pm Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2D) (PG) (Drama/Action) 4:00/6:15/8:45/11:30pm Neena (2D) (PG)(Malayalam) (Drama) 9:10pm Maari (2D) (PG12)(Tamil) (Comedy/ Action) 4:15pm Max (2D) (PG12) (Adventure/Family) 2:15/6:45pm Pixies (2D) (PG) (Animation/Comedy) 10:45AM/2:00 pm Hayaty Mebahdela (2D) (PG)(Arabic) (Comedy) Cast: Mohamed Saad ,Nicole Saba and Hassan Hosny 11:45 pm

11.45 13.30 14.00

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

Maari (Tamil ) (Act ) 3-30 pm Cinema Main Cast: Dhanush & Kajal Agarwal Baahubali (Tamil) 6-30 & 9-30 pm at Cinema Main Cast: Prhabas, Rana Daggubatti, Anshka Shetty, Tamannaah & Satya Ra Bahubali (Tamil) 3-30 pm at Cinema -2 Maari (Tamil) 6-30 & 9-30 pm at Cinema – 2 Premam ( Mal) 3-45 & 9-45 pm at Cinema -3 Neena (Mal) 6-45 pm at Cinem- 3 Baahubali (Telugu) 3-45, 6-45 & 9-45 pm at Cinema-4 (Programmes are subject to change)

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07:00

TO SUR (ROUTE 55)

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

SUR Bajrangi Bhaijaan (Action / Drama) (PG) 8:10, 11:00 pm Terminator Genisys (3D) ( Action/ ) (PG12) 9:15, 11:30 pm Neena (Mal) (Drama) (PG) Cast: Deepti Sati, Ann Augustine, Vilay Babu 6:40pm All Creatures Big and Small -Ooops!

(Animation) (PG); 4:30 pm

Minions (3D) (Animation / Comedy / Family) 5:00 pm Hayaty Mabahdela (Arabic) (Comedy) (PG) 6:45 pm

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (ROUTE 54)

10:20 12:30

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12:00pm Terminator Genisys - 3D (Action) (PG12) 5:00, 7:00, 9:15, 11:30pm Bajrangi Bhaijaan – 2D (Drama, Action) (PG) 12:00, 4:00, 7:45, 10:45, 11:45pm Neena – 2D (Drama) (PG) Cast: Deepti Sati, Ann Augustine, Vijay Babu 2:15, 9:15pm Minions – 2D (Animation) (PG) 12:30pm Minions – 3D (Animation, Comedy) (PG) 2:15, 6:00pm All Creatures Big and Small – 2D (Animation) (PG); 2:45, 4:20pm Hayaty Mebahdela – 2D (Comedy ) (PG) Cast: Mohamed Saad,Nicole Saba, Hassan 7:15pm

TO YANQUL (ROUTE 54)

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

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BURAIMI Terminator Genisys - 2D (Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi) (PG12) Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke

(PG) (Comedy, Thriller)

TO SINAW (ROUTE 52) 20:50

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

Sohar Ruwi Ruwi Sohar Ruwi Sohar Ruwi

Max - 2D (PG12) (Adventure, Family) Cast: Thomas Haden Church, Josh Wiggins, 3:15, 7:15 pm Minions - 2D (PG) (Animation) 7:00 pm Minions - 3D (PG) (Animation) 2:00, 4:15 pm Neena - 2D (Malayalam)(PG) Drama Cast : Deepti Sati, Ann Augustine, Vijay Babu 8:45 pm Baahubali - 2D (Telegu)(12+) Action Cast : Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka 11:30 pm Pixies - 2D (PG) (Animation) Cast : Alexa PenaVega, Bill Paxton 2:45, 5:30 pm All Creatures Big and Small - 2D(PG) (Comedy); 1:30 pm Hayaty Mebahdela - 2D (Arabic)(PG) (Comedy) ; 5:15, 9:30 pm Maari - 2D (Tamil) (PG12) (Comedy, Action) Cast : Dhanush and Kajal Aggarwal 3:00, 11:45 pm

Terminator: Genisys (Action / Adventure) Cast: Arnold Schwarznegger, Emily Clarke, Jai Courtney 11.30 am, 3.30, 7.30, 9.45 & 11.55 pm CP NO: 1714 (PG 12) The Gallows ( Horror/ Thriller) Cast: Cassidy Gifford, Pfiefer Brown, Riyan Shoos 4.00, 8.00, 10.00 & 11.55 pm CP NO: 1730 (15+) Minions (Animation/ Comedy ) Voice Overs: Chris Renuad, Pierry Coffin, Sandra Bullock 1.45 & 5.45 pm CP NO: 1731 (PG) Max (Adventure/ Family) Cast: Thomas Harden Church, Josh Wiggin, Luke Klientak 2.00 & 6.00 pm CP NO: 1732 ( PG) Jurassic World ( Action/ Adventure ) Cast: Chriss Pratt, Judy Greer, Ty Simkins 11.45 am CP NO: 1495 (PG 12)

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24782666 24702542 23291635; 24503585 24787766 24421691 24485740 24537080

23291635

HOSPITALS Al Amal Medical & Health Care Centre 24485052 Atlas Hospital Ruwi 24811743/ Ghubra 24504000 Al Musafir Specialised Medical Clinic 24706453 Hatat Polyclinic LLC, Ruwi 24563641 Azaiba 24499269 Sohar 2683006 Al Raffah Hospital 24618900/1/2 Al Massaraat Clinic & Laboratory 24566435 Al Makook Medical Coordinance Centre 24499434 Apollo Medical Centre,

Hamriya 24787766, 24787780 Capital Polyclinic 24707549 Badr Al Samaa Polyclinic, Ruwi 24799760/1/2 Capital Clinic, Seeb 24420740 Ceregem National Raak 24485633 Dr Harub’s Clinic 24563217 Elixir Health Centre 24565802 Emirates Medical Centre 24604540 1st Chiropractic Centre 24472274 Hamdan Hospital 23212340 International Medical Centre LLC 24794501/2/3/4/5 Kims Oman Hospital 24760100 24 Hrs Emergency 24760123 Lama Polyclinic, Sohar 26751128 MBD 24799077 Al Khuwair 24478818 Magrabi Eye and Ear Hospital 24568870 Muscat Private Hospital 24583600 Welcare Diagnostic and Treatment Centre, Al Khuwair 24477666 Al-Hayat Polyclinc LLC 22004000 AIRLINE OFFICES Muscat Airport Flight information (24 hours) 24519456/24519223 Aeroflot 24704455 Air Arabia 24700828 Air France 24562153 Air India 24799801

Air New Zealand 24700732 Biman Bangladesh Airlines 24701128 British Airways 24568777 Cathay Pacific 24789818 Egypt Air 24794113 Emirates Air 24404400 Ethiopian Airlines 24660313 Gulf Air 80072424 Indian 24791914 Iran Air 24787423 Japan Airlines 24704455 Jazeera Airways 23294848 Jet Airways 24787248 Kenya Airways 24660300 KML Royal Dutch Airlines 24566737 Kuwait Airways 24701262 LOT Polish Airlines 24796387 Lufthansa 24796692 Malaysian Airlines 24560796 Middle East Airlines 24796680 Oman Air 24531111 Pakistan International Airlines 24792471 Qatar Airways 24771900 Qantas 24559941 Royal Jordanian 24796693 Saudi Arabian Airlines 24789485 Singapore Airlines 24791233 Shaheen Air 24816565 SriLankan Airlines 24784545 Swiss International Airlines 24796692 Thai Airways 24705934

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LIFESTYLE

Muttrah’s Dam

Location: Tuyaan, Muscat 23°36’28.19”N 58°34’51.10”E Have you been able to capture the beauty of an off-the-beaten -path destination in Oman? Send your pictures with a caption & geo-locator to: salim@timesofoman.com

M O D E R N T R AV E L L E R

Of homestays and collecting mushrooms in the wild NYINGCHI (TIBET): If you want to stay in a family inn or in a home in a rural area and want to pluck vegetables and eat buckwheat dishes, visit this southeastern prefecture-level city in the Tibet Autonomous Region, also known as Another Switzerland in Tibet.

Rural homestays have provided additional employment to locals, mainly Buddhists, and generated economic activity too, say officials.

Located some 500km from Lhasa on the Lhasa-Chengdu national highway through the majestic Mila Pass (5,013 metre), picturesque Nyingchi located at an altitude of 3,100 metres, with a population of 302, offers 42 homestay units.

“Each household in Nyingchi and nearby areas has a homestay unit. The government is encouraging the locals, who are mostly herdsmen and farmers, to opt for homestays to get additional income,” Ciyang, a local official, told a visiting IANS correspondent.

She said the government is providing subsidies to the locals to rebuild their houses and to make for homestay units. Family inn owner Paima said on an average 3,000 plus tourists visit his homestay every year, mainly from April to November. His facility has 13 rooms with 38 beds. The homestay also offers adventure activities such as jungle trekking, mountain biking, archery and horse riding.

“Collecting mushrooms from the nearby forests and cooking traditional local dishes are the most popular pastime for the tourists here,” Paima said.

ing 10 million yuan in developing hotels and creating tourism infrastructure, say officials.

A prefecture is a branch of the regional government, while the prefecture-level city is its own governmental entity to aid the development process. Nyingchi received 2.78 million tourists in 2014 and generated tourism revenue of 2.58 billion yuan , says government figures. Its GDP hit 9.28 billion yuan in 2014. Its rural per capita disposable income reached 9,582 yuan and urban per capita disposable income 19,526 yuan. —IANS He said book reading and drawing paintings are the favourite pastimes of the tourists. Each household serves local cuisine in traditional utensils.

“We are really enjoying authentic, delicious Tibetan meals made of barley and buckwheat. Homemade pancakes, boiled eggs and potatoes and tsampa snack balls made from roasted barley are the mouthwatering delicacies,” US tourist Paul Figueredo said.

He said it’s quite refreshing to have typical Tibetan butter-laced tea or a cup of yak milk for breakfast.

“Besides outdoor activities, we are also enjoying digging potatoes from the fields,” Figueredo added.

The idyllic, pastoral settings have been attracting a large number of backpackers, mainly from the US and Switzerland, for forest expeditions, high-altitude treks and mountain biking.

Nyingchi, located just one kilometre uphill from the national

highway, gets snowfall almost every day from October to February. Every household has a Wi-Fi system and solar panels for heating and lighting.

The nearby picnic spots include the Draksum-Tso lake, the Lulang forests and the Yigong National Geopark. The Nyingchi Peach Flower Festival in spring is a famous annual event when the hills bloom with flowers and abound with butterflies, including the dragon butterfly.

The yellowish caterpillar fungus, which is about two inches long and weighs less than one gram, is the costliest medical ingredient in the local market. Its price is as high as 300,000 yuan per kg. It is believed to help fight cancer and the ageing process.

In the vicinity of Nyingchi, which was elevated to a prefecture-level city this year like cities of Lhasa, Qamdo and Xigaze, the Chinese government is invest-

FAQ: How to travel: public or private transport.

Lhasa and Nyingchi are connected by road and air. Construction of a railway line is under way; The 500-km road journey on highway 318 takes roughly 10 hours. The 5,476-km road link between Lhasa and Shanghai passes through Nyingchi and then Chengdu, the booming capital of Sichuan province. The construction of an expressway is under way.

Linzhi, 75km from Nyingchi, is also connected with Chengdu.

There is a regular flight between Beijing and Chengdu.

Beijing and Lhasa are connected by the rail, road and air.

The 4,000-km rail journey, which takes roughly two days, reach altitudes of over 5,000 metres on the Tibetan plateau.

The tariff per night in a homestay unit is 50 to 60 yuan (or Rs550 to Rs650).

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W EDN ESDAY, JULY 22, 2015

LIFESTYLE FIVE THINGS I CAN’T TRAVEL WITHOUT

Krupa Khimji Krupa, the director and owner of Mosaic Events, organises social and corporate events and fashion shows in Oman. She believes that making a memorable event or trip comes down to the details.

02

TRIP ITINERARY

I am an event organiser and I like my itinerary to be well planned. No matter where I travel or go, I always call and check things in advance. It has saved me lots of trouble.

03

WORKOUT ATTIRE

I confess that I am a foodie and I pile on the calories when I travel. But I also make sure I work out to keep a balance.

01

IPHONE

I need my iPhone for communication with the rest of the world, and especially to keep in touch with family and friends as I like to keep them informed. And, of course, it is a perfect gadget for finding a place.

The iPhone is this girl’s best friend.

05

CASH AND CARDS

04

DUFFLE BAG

Being a shopaholic, I carry duffle bags that are spacious. They are very trendy and gives a good feel while shopping.

PHOTOGRAPHY: SHUTTERSTOCK; SUPPLIED

Well, I need cash to do things or buy things. There could be some emergencies and you need to be prepared for such situations.

A credit/debit card is always handy and safe to have on hand.

D

W W W.T I M E S O F O M A N . C O M W E D N E S DAY, J U LY 2 2 , 2 0 1 5

SECTION

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

RENT

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VACANCY

D4

CARGO

D7

*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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W E D N E S DAY, J U LY 2 2 , 2 0 1 5

DAILY GUIDE

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

FOR RENT

3000 sq mtrs Industrial landß, in Barka Sanaiya, with electricity 400KW, shed, staff accommodation and office. Ready to start any kind of factory. Contact 99384255.

FOR RENT

Building In Rusail Industrial ŶĞĂƌ ƚŽ ŵŝĂŶƟƚ KŵĂŶ comprising a store divisible area 266 sq. meters.

The building includes Studios ĂŶĚ ƌŽŽŵƐ ǁŝƚŚ ĚŝīĞƌĞŶƚ ƐŝnjĞ ƐƵŝƚĂďůĞ ĨŽƌ ŽĸĐĞƐ Žƌ residence.

Preferably to be leased to one company.

3BR villa, sitting, dining & hall, Azaiba behind Al Meera H- Market.

Contact: 99259977 / 95033008 1BHK, Darsait, walking distance to ISM , neat and clean building, ground floor, OMR 260/- per month rent Call IQRAR on 99076557 Fully furnished 3 BHK accommodation with all spacious rooms in a villa at Darsait near ISD. Contact: 9526 5289 / 9604 8422 Furnished room for rent at Al Khuwair R.O 225/- for family only.

Contact: 99251975 Villa AL Ghobrah, 6 bedroom 1200/R.O. Contact: 99340055/97557555 For rent in Qantab European style 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, Guest toilet, fully equipped modern kitchen, covered car park for two cars, approximately 150 meters from the beach. For enquiries, please Contact: Yasser at 92606005 Small old house for rent Al Ghobrah.

Contact 95112461 House for rent 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, hall, kitchen Muscat Sidab opposite the sea 250/-.

Contact: 99277377 1BHK without A.C Ghubra R.O 275/.

Contact: 97799175 / 92144045 2 BHK with A.C Mumtaz R.O 300/-.

Contact: 97799175 3BHK, 3 bathrooms, 2 balconies, nr. Al Hassan W/ Kabir R.O 350/-.

Contact: 99384640 Flats shops for rent in Ruwi MBD area Mumtaz area.

Contact: 97293708 / 92433127 2BHK at Al Khodh, 2BHK at Wadi Kabir 2 room, 1hall, dining, 2 bathrooms. Contact: 99224748 / 99332297 Store in Wadi Kabir 1900 SQM. Contact: 99473751 / 91471067 1BHK close to ISWKG Wadi Kabir Bldg # 1690 R.O 250/-.

Contact 99476728

Mob + 968 96177505 2 BHK Town house at Assarain complex Al Khuwair for rent.

Contact 96365824 Rent RO 750

1BHK, 2BHK, 3BHK new flat available at Mabela in front of Modern English School Contact: 96239126

2 BHK near Kuwaiti Masjid Wadi Kabir. Contact: 24816774 / 97608564

Deluxe 1, 2 BHK flats in Darsait, AL Khuwair 1deal for office & residence. Contact 99369081 /99142314

2 BHK, 2 bathrooms behind Abu Nabil, Honda Road R.O 240/-.

Contact: 99737562 / 93887852 2BHK, 2 bathroom behind Sana Wadi Kabir R.O 300/-.

Contact: 99737562 / 93887852 Luxurious room, fully furnished with free WIFI and gas at Ruwi.

Contact : 95586937 Shop for rent/ sale in Ruwi near Dish market good location, behind City Cinema. Contact: 91318111 Flat for rent in Wadi Kabir with 3 rooms. Contact : 98555580 / 92800007 Flat for rent 2 bedrooms, sitting room, store gym in ground floor in Mumtaz area-Ruwi.

Contact 95135445 1BHK flats at Muttrah near Oman house. Contact : 93231403 1BHK Darsait R.O 225/-.

Contact: 92144045

Flat at Darsait. Contact 99326879

2 bedrooms apartments for rent in Al Khuwair and Ghubra. Call Yellow Bird property on 24615375 / 97137989 or visit www.muscat-realty.com One & two bedroom apartments available for rent, near avenue mall, close to Atlas hospital next to Diwans office, South Ghobrah.

Contact 99833747 250 sq mtrs restaurant for rent in Plaza Hotel, Walja Ruwi.

Contact 99326339 3 Bedroom flat in Wadi Kabeer and 2 bedroom villa in Sidab- Muscat.

Contact: 95755953

1BHK Wadi Kabeer, RO 225/-.

Contact: 92144045

Villa with two floors in (Hay Al Arjan) in AL Khoud with 4 bedrooms, hall, Majles, kitchen & one room in ground floor. Contact: 93219597

2BHK Darsait R.O 300/-.

Contact: 92144045

For rent office CBD flat in Ruwi.

Contact: 92820734 / 95345909

2BHK Ghubra R.O 350/-.

Contact: 92144045 1,2,3 BHK. Contact: 97799175

House in Amerat near to Makah hypermarket with three room, 5toilets, kitchen and hall 430/-.

Contact: 92747078

Spacious 2- BR flat in MBD. Contact 99713489

Room with A.C AL Khuwair R.O 120/- Contact: 97799175

For rent if require flats for rent in Wadi Kabir please send me messages through Whatsapp.

Contact: 99376454 Bath attached room for rent Al Khuwair. Contact 99743569 Flat with A/C in the South Al Mabella close to the Mosque Al Tawab consists of 2 rooms, hall, 2 bathrooms and kitchen. Contact: 99388995 4 BHK single villa in Al Khuwair.

Contact: 97616158 1 Villa & 3 big Flats of 2/3 BHK with hall, Kitchen & ACs Al Khoudh 6, Close to express way, from owner. Tel 97600322 alnehang@gmail.com Fabulous AC flat at Al Khoud 3 bedrooms, hall and kitchen RO 270/for rent. Contact: 99334699 2 BHK flat in Al Ansab with split A/C. RO.250/- Contact – 93191111 2BHK near Oman house behind Khimji, H.O. Contact: 95865686 506sqm space with mezzanine available for rent in AL Wadi Al Kabir, Suitable for carpentry / Auto workshop and / or electrical shop interested parties may.

Contact: 24703981

Villa for rent in Al Khuwair 33, 8 bedrooms & 5 bathrooms with parking area near Taimur Mosque.

Contact: 99366624 2BHK with split AC at Al Khuwair 33. Contact: 94057023 Office space at Alasfoor Plaza Qurum. Contact : 24566217 /24564686 For rent if require flats for rent in Wadi Kabir please send me messages through Whatsapp.

Contact: 99376454 Luxury 3 BHK flat in Al Wattaya with split A/C & private parking.

RO.500/- Contact – 93191111 Flat for rent in Mabellah 8th.

Contact: 97147240

BUYING/SELLING All type of car scanner available easy car diagnostic for professional and self use Authorize LAUNCH and Autel dealer. GSM:92393972 www.omancartools.com Used furniture & Electronic items, office & house. Contact: 99834373

FOR SALE Equipped kitchen showroom company for sale at Ghubrah, Muscat.

6 visa available, Contact owner at 96303747 Computer set up for sale. Contact 94412557 A parlour well settled / well equipped in running position at Ghobrah for sale. Contact immediately on 97498898

Flat in South Al Hail, 2 bedrooms, Majlis, 2 bathrooms, kitchen RO 250/-. Contact 93221474

Darsait near labor card Medical business furnished office for sale, rent R.O 260/- p/m.

Contact: 91211117

Flat in Ruwi Mumtaz 2 BHK RO 300 or 1 BHK 250 RO. Contact 98588240

Ladies beauty parlor sale in Muttrah, above Ahla supermarket.

Contact: 93231403

2BHK with split AC near PDO Gate no -2 at Qurum. Contact: 94057023

Used Super market Gandola RO 40.000 PER meter, double tube light RO 2.000 per piece.

Contact: 96441670

2 bed rooms, kitchen, toilet & car park in Al Khuwair R.O 200/- .

Contact 95154331 Deluxe furnished / unfurnished flats Qurum. Contact: 24566217 / 24564686 Commercial 3 BHK flat in Al Ghobra 18 Nov Street. RO 700/Contact 93191111 2 BHK flat in Al Azaiba near sea, with split A/C. RO.340/- Contact 93191111 Villa of 5 BHK in Al Ansab with split A/C. RO.650/- Contact – 93191111 For rent in Qantab European style 4 bedrooms, 4 baths, Guest toilet, fully equipped modern kitchen, covered car park for two cars, approximately 150 meters from the beach. For enquiries, please Contact: Yasser at 92606005

Total Station Survey Instrument S3 2” / Servo/ Trimble access bundle - batch 9101025 – not used.

Contact: 94282782 / 95425747 6 bedroom, 6 bath rooms, sitting & dining villa at Qurum.

Contact: 99342733 Turkish MDF door with frame for sale, size 210 x 100 Price: RO 75/-.

Contact: 95899296 / 92141514 Sale & repair of Tyres 315/80 R 22.5 & 12.00 R 24.

Contact: 97477128 Brand new 4 BHK plus Maids room in Barka, 2 Kms from Lulu.

Contact: 99347089 Commercial land for sale 3000 m in quriyat road main high way can use as a petrol station license available asking price 350,000 For more information please call on 99070701 with out name

W E D N E S DAY, J U LY 2 2 , 2 0 1 5

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DAILY GUIDE

NRI

BUSINESS

3 cents plots-(12nos.) at walkable distance from Kovalm Jn.,Trivandrum,Lorry site near to main road-Bus route, for immediate sale. 3 cents- 15 lakhs only.

Call 00968-95036240, 0091-9961034763 or email- cfhd1@ yahoo.com

AVAILABLE Party & Wedding equipment rentals.

Full line, from Tables, Linen & Skirting, Chairs & Chair covers, Cutlery, Crockery, Glassware, Chafing Dishes, Ice Sculptures, to Large Sound Systems and spectacular lighting. Call Andrea 9606 2222 for Catering and Croyden 9623 5555 for Sound & Light. www.tunesoman.com, E-mail: info@tunesoman.com

ACC. AVAILABLE Fully furnished 1BHK with all household items in Darsait near Lulu on monthly Basis.

Contact : 99493500 Self contained furnished room for executive bachelor in a decent Ghubra North villa. Contact 92595830 1BHK sharing in Ruwi. Contact: 91214537 Sharing accommodation available for working lady or couples near Ruwi Church. Contact: 92837206

FOR SALE

Centre For Housing DevelopmentTrivandrum: Group of senior and retired Engineers and Architects provides service in the field of Design and Supervision of buildings in Kerala.For appointments, E-mail your site location and building requirements to cfhd@ymail.com. or call 00968-95036240, 0091-9961034763.

38 cents plot with 2BHK house by the river bank in Thrissur Dist. near Irinjalakuda (Karavanoor).

Contact: 99347089 500 acre agricultural land suitable for rubber plantation for sale in Ratnagiri Maharashtra. price 2 lakh per acre, rubber board approved land, minimum purchase 20 acre.

We provide care taking by experienced Malayalee team for your plantation. please call , prasad 95760790

ACC. AVAILABLE Accommodation available with Keralite family near W.K main school. Contact: 95882866 /96575016 Rooms for rent in Seeb for couple / single/ working ladies.

Contact: 96996938

New company seek partnership.

Contact: 96996938 General Investors.

Gsm-99674870

FOR HIRE

MOTOR VEHICLE FOR SALE

Silver Car, car for rent. Contact: 96166155 / 98402662 Volvo 12 Ton Truck for monthly rent. Contact: 98713900

ACC. WANTED Required a room in Darsait / WadiKabir /Ruwi area.

Contact: 95405033

ACC. AVAILABLE 2 Rooms & 2 bathrooms with kitchen near al meera hyper markets, azaiba for executive bachelors / family. Gsm : 942 888 63 Fully furnished room for a decent expatriate. independent kitchen, bathroom in Wadi Adai.

Contact 96243086 at 5p.m.

Urgent sell KIA CERATO 2012, 63200 KM Run Expat family used,1.6L, Price R.O. 3300/-. Excellent Condition. GSM 92286477 Volvo prime mover model 1998 for inspection Contact: Mr. Mohammed Al Harthy 99427071 Doctor driven, Toyota Corolla 2009, Honda CRV 2009, low mileage available at Bombay Medical, behind Ruwi Police Station.

Contact 99326339

Room attached toilet and kitchen near Indian School Wadi Kabir.

Contact: 95345537

Furnished room AL Khuwair for Indian Sri Lankan. Contact: 96536307

Furnished room with attached bathroom in W/K. Contact: 97167857

Toyota Corolla 1.8 ltr GLI excellent condition 28,000 kms.

Contact: 97717152

Single furnished room, attached bathroom in Wadi Kabir.

Contact: 92155261

Furnished room for Indian couples or family near Honda Road (Walja).

Contact 98952904

Sharing for non cooking executive bachelor in CBD area WIFI free, Advance deposit. Contact: 95094504

Touareg 2011 Oman cars, 114000 KM, silver, 8500/-R.O. Contact 92857111

Wall papers, grass carpets sale & fixing. Contact 99834373 / 97102699

Fully furnished room in Ruwi for non cooking ex- bachelor.

Contact 94412557

Furnished room attached bath for lady in Wadikabir (Mars Hypermarket) – 95941515

Coffee shop at Liwa main road.

Contact : 99515419

Room with bath, kitchen Al Khuwair.

Contact: 99743569/ 97004265

Independent rooms in Qurum / Al Hail. Contact 95529970

Well established medium size construction company for sale. Equipments, 30 employees & ongoing projects.

Serious buyers only 99412020

2013 NISSAN MAXIMA FOR SALE. Single Owner,10 Months full cover Insurance (UAE & Oman), 15,000 Km only. Intrested buyers can Call/ Whatsapp on 95692099 Prado ,2012. Contact : 99336093 Peugeot 206-2007 Model, expat driven. Contact 99209285 Sportage, 2013. Contact: 99336093 Land Cruiser 2012. Contact: 99336093 2 Prime Movers Man 2008 with 40 ton petrol tank each working at the moment in Al Maha. Price OMR 35 Thousand each. Contact 97000155 or 92688692

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

D4

W E D N E S DAY, J U LY 2 2 , 2 0 1 5

DAILY GUIDE SITUATION WANTSIT. WANTED ED

SITUATION SITUATION WANTED VACANT ADMIN

ADVERTISING

Looking For office support staff with driving license and having good knowledge of all official duty.

Contact .. 91624908, 93540898

Looking for JOB. I have done BS Hons in Mass communication and media, Specialised in Public Relations and Advertising. I have upto 1 year of experience. Immediate Available. Open for any JOB. Sultan Zafar #97034134

Urgently required Male with 2 years’ experience in Admin Works, fluent in Arabic and English, Computer knowledge, preferably with driving license.

Working hours 6am to 2pm or 2pm to 10 pm daily Email: jayan@ra.cc or 99661980 Vacancy for lady Receptionist at Sinaw Hala Medical Center - Fluency in English and Arabic Omani or non Omani. Contact: 25524180 / 91362141 Email: halamedicalgroup@gmail.com Urgently Required: Administration with an experience minimum in 3 years in building construction, required immediately join and MUST have NOC.Apply, fax 00968–24605955, emails sbc@steelbuildingsllc.com, sbeoman@yahoo.com.

ACCOUNTANT Urgently required Accountant B. Com with 4-6 years Gulf experience in construction field and good knowledge in FOCUS accounting software.

Send CV : pccllcoman@gmail.com Urgently required a part – time female Accountant fluent in English with 2-3 years experience in Tally.

Email: mhca@mhabibgroup.com Fax: 24564459 Urgently required female accountant with an experience minimum 3years Email CV on cv.hrcharity@gmail.com Urgently required Junior Accountant. Please send CV: hr.azatllc@gmail.com

BEAUTY Required Beautician for a parlor in Ghubra. Contact: 94241385 / 97244766 Wanted experienced Beautician for beauty parlor in Al Amerat 3.

Contact: 91107337

CATERING Chinese/ Arab/ continental cook & helper wanted. Contact 95529970 Required experience Waiter / Supervisor/ Juice maker, Shawarma maker. Contact: 95395378

DESIGNER Grade”A” company in interior Designing looking for: Operations manager Sales executive Qs Interior Designer CVs to be emailed to : alzahi.oman@gmail.com Designer required for wooden joinery company with excellent knowledge of 3D Max, 2D Autocad.

Contact: 94249047 Email: mfqazi@gmail.com

DRIVER Wanted driver. Contact: 95112461 Driver heavy duty required urgently for trailer. Oman / GCC experience must. Those ready for immediate joining. Contact: 99310859

ENGINEER Urgently Required: Civil Engineer with an experience minimum in 5 years in building construction, MUST have NOC and immediately join. Apply, fax 00968–24605955, emails sbc@steelbuildingsllc.com, sbeoman@yahoo.com Construction Company in Oman urgently requires following candidates: BE Civil Engineer, minimum 3-5 years gulf experience & Civil site foreman, minimum 5 years gulf experience, diploma not required.

Email: applyforoman@gmail.com Leading Construction Company requires Quantity Surveyor (QS) with 4-6 yrs Gulf experience. Send your CV : qsmuscat2015@gmail.com (NOC required).

Construction Company in Oman urgently requires the following: B.Sc Civil Engineer, minimum 3-5 yrs Gulf experience. Civil Site Foreman, minimum 5 yrs experience with operating knowledge of Tally.

Please Email CV ; applyforoman@gmail.com

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

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE Indian CA with 15 yrs exp working as Finance Head of MNC looking for Job. NOC Available. 94047434

ENGINEER

Indian male, 30 years, CMA(Inter),M.com, 4 out of 7 years experience in Oman in Auditing/ Accounts/ Finance. Having NOC and valid Oman D/L. Contact: 96746420 , Email: sijuthampi@ymail.com

Quantity Surveyor for Mechanical, Electrical BOQ preparation and verification required for part time assignment on immediate basis. Please Contact-tgi17@omantel.net.om MEP Engineer on urgent basis required for immediate placement.

Please contact tgi17@omantel.net.om Urgently required: HSE Engineer with an experience minimum in 5 years in building construction, MUST have NOC and immediately join. Apply, fax 00968–24605955, emails sbc@steelbuildingsllc.com, sbeoman@yahoo.com Urgently required Project Engineer for a reputed Construction Company in Muscat with Civil Engineering Degree/Diploma, 6 to 10 years experience, holding Oman/GCC Driving License.E.mail: assaud@omantel.net. om or FAX: 24953530 Fire and Safety Technician with NIFE or equivalent Diploma holder preference to those having D/L. Send CV to visionansara@gmail.com Required a part time steel Structural Design Engineer for a reputed steel fabrication company in Muscat. Interested person may Contact : 99451158 Required Civil Engineer (buildings) Oman experience 5+ years, BOQ+ Tendering + site supervision.

Contact: 95218004 Email: alhilalint@yahoo.com

IT IND male WEB developer 5 yrs exp B.Tech (comp science) PHP, HTML MYSQL Java script CSS. Contact: 95990529 Email: renjith341@gmail.com

MISCELLANEOUS Mason, C.C.T.V, Technician, Electrician cum Plumber.

Contact - 99383044 Required urgently experienced Gardener and building care taker.

Contact: 99231676 Well established company in selling chocolate, Arabian sweets and fresh flowers, opening ITS first branch in Muscat seeking: 1- sweets and chocolates Sales man 2- flower arranger (Asian/ Filipino Nationality) Contact: 94490011 Email: labelleoman@gmail.com A company from UAE require 2 merchandisers in retail food supply, store keeper with English and invoicing experience. Email: yesterdaysun@hotmail.com

MANAGER Urgently Required: Male – handles overall store operations of the Supermarket, Prior Experience a MUST, knowledgeable in MSOffice. Send CV to chanda@dolphin-oman.com or fax to 244-92718.

MEDICAL Require Quality Caregiver for an elderly Mother. Contact: 99425200 Required MOH licensed lady G.P Dentist Pharmacist, Asst Pharmacist for Salalah based pharmacy and clinic. Contact: 92732491 Email: clinicrecruitment2015@gmail.com Urgently wanted Lady Ayurveda Therapist. Contact: 91590083 / 92798678 Vacancy Lab Technician for inquiry or send CV zmczahara@yahoo.com Contact 24571094 Fax: 24571097 Required Prometric passed nurse to join clinic from end August.

Contact: 99352793

SKILLED Urgently required experienced sub-contractors for Marble Flooring / Marble Cladding / Grinding / Carving works. Contact 92884177 / 99485595 Urgently required a silk Screen printer with good knowledge and release letter or NOC. Contact: 93280288 or send CV to albayanstamps@gmail.com

SECRETARIAL & OFFICE Secretary (Female), Experience: Minimum 1 - 2 years. Forward CV to hr@barikgroup.com Required Office Assistant 160+25+Acc, Contact 99454425

SALES / MARKETING A vending Machine for sale of coffee products and Derivatives Company in Muscat having operations in Oman is on the lookout for quality staff for the below positions: Sales & Marketing Staff, Mechanical maintenance mechanic, General electric maintenance machines with D/L. Send CV to service@arabianvending.com Urgently required Sales Executive and interior designer for furnishing company with Valid Oman D/L and minimum 3 years experience.

Contact: 93231403/ rainbowfurnishing156@gmail.com Experience building material Salesman required in Amerat shop.

Contact : 99641900 Required Sales man - 1 Person Qualification. Gulf Experienced - Minimum 5 Years with Oman Driving Licence Language - English Education:- Any Degree Further Contact : Mr. Abdul Hameed Nashabat - Mobile No: 97414307 and -92807399 amn@yaqeeneng.com Urgently required female Sales Promoters individual with pleasant personality, excellent communications & presentation skills & experience in selling perfumes cosmetics and skincare products would be preferred. Send your CV & details with recent photograph to info@mawaridoman.com or fax no 24127484/ Tel: 24127485 Tyre / Spare parts outdoor Sales Executive with experience required driving license and NOC. Send CV to ptf_25@hotmail.com Wanted part time female Sales Executive with D/L for a reputed company. Contact 94688874 A leading marketing company is looking for outdoor Sales Executives on part time or full time basis in Salalah. Contact 92760281 / 96436719 Looking for Outdoor Salesman for heavy equipment spare parts.

Contact - 93292015, Email: mail.om@gulfcenter.co Urgently required Sales and Marketing Executive for Graphic designing company. Contact: 96727631 mail: smartgraphic518@gmail.com Minimum 2 years of experience with valid gulf light driving license interested candidates please Contact: 99222086 /98585851 Required male or female candidate with 5 years experience in renting of properties. Interested candidates may please mail to alqurumprop@gmail.com

Indian male 32 years MBA, 6 out of 14 years experience in Oman in accounts / finance having NOC and Valid Oman driving license last date in Oman 01/AUG/2015.

Contact: 94051463 Email: gkvenkatesh83@gmail.com Indian male, B. Com having experience in Accounts or Sales on visit visa. Contact - 98295101 Indian Male B.com, 11 Year (8 Years in Oman as a Senior Accountant) experience in accounts having 5+ year experience in construction industry.

Working knowledge with SAP, AS400 & Tally –with valid Oman D/L, presently working in Qatar, will be available in Oman form 17th July-21st July-2015 looking for a suitable position in reputed organization. Contact 00974 77181323 / 98065641, email: bennybaby1982@gmail.com Finance Manager, 10 years Oman experienced MBA-Finance graduate seeking suitable placement.

Contact 97745764 Assist Accountant Indian (m) 2 years experience in Oman looking for a job immediate joining, currently working in Oman. Contact Shaheed Shamsadin : 98427810 Accountant, Indian male, 10 years experience in Oman. Can do upto finalization and knowledge of Tally ERP9 can be joined immediately with NOC. Contact: 94134085 Email: muscatoman95@yahoo.com Married lady 25 years, Master Accounts having 5 years experience in Indian looking for full / part time job. Contact: 95140332 /93223050 family visa holder.

Contact 95140332 Indian male, well experienced in Accounts and Admin looking for a suitable vacancy. Contact : 98717938 Indian female, M.Com Finance, DCA, 3 years experience in Accounts / finance& knowledge in ERP & Tally seeking suitable position in corporate finance / banking / consulting.

Email: prapullasuvarna@gmail.com Contact: 96953705 now in family visa.

Indian male with total 5 year experience (2 years experience in Accountant cum sales co ordinator in a FMCG Company in Oman) in accounts field and NOC available.

Looking for suitable job Contact 92130188 Indian male, B.Com, Accountant, 10 yrs in Oman experience in Accounts, knowledge of Tally ERP 9, focus RT having NOC & D/L, looking for suitable job.

Contact 93086105 Male 26 yrs, MBA in Accounts and Finance, 2 years Experience in Management and Accounts Fields, and 1 year experience in Operations in Oman Looking for a suitable job.

Contact 94374745 Indian male 22 yrs B. Com Graduate 1 year exp in Accounts, currently on visit visa. Looking for suitable job.

Contact 94341848 / Email – mohdhaji7272@gmail.com MBA Graduate with 6 yrs exp in finance/accounts/ auditing. Specialized in accounts payable dept, Oracle app user, proficient in Sap (fico) end user & tally 9.0. lean &six sigma certified trainer on visit visa.

Contact – 91967213 / 99064780 Finance Manager, CPA, with more than 15 yrs. of experience in GCC. Fully knowledgeable in Finance, General & Management Accounting .

NOC available. Contact 96209331 Sudanese Accountant seeking job in Nizwa state experience 10 years 3 years in Saudi Arabia, 7 yrs in Sudan. # 97796394 / 94003247

SITUATION WANTED ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

DRIVER

Accountant 8 yrs experience looking part time job.

Contact 99867456

Driver with 8 years experience looking for job. Contact: 98130645 / 94342106

Indian Accountant: Male, M com, 7 Yrs experience in Accounts up to finalization, having knowledge of ERP, Tally, seeks suitable placment.Contact 93950138 Email: lijinrajan123@gmail.com

Indian (Kerala) light driver seeking for job, 12 years experience Oman.

Contact: 98175321

Motivated and energetic male 25 having 4 years of experience in finance with Master’s degree in Economics and CAT Certified seeking opportunity in Accounts/finance/ audit in a reputable organization.

Cell no: 00968-94626209 E-Mail: omerjawedshah@gmail.com

ADMIN Indian male 2+yrs oman exp in HR. joing immediatly. release available.

Contact :93671437 Indian Female MBA, 3 years experience in Admin MIS, Family Visa.

Contact 98234427, jkjsmith01@gmail.com A Lady with 5 years experience in HR/Admin is looking for suitable job and can join immediately.

Contact : 94465835 Indian (male) MBA (MHA) with 5+ years of experience in HR. Looking urgently for suitable position.

Ph-96395254, 24813065 Email-shm1691@gmail.com Indian female with 1 half years experience in MBA / HR seeks suitable placement. Contact 99257214 Indian female with 10 yrs of experience in HR/Banking/Operations seeks a suitable placement.

Can be contacted on 98919015 or sherianne.coelho@gmail.com

AUTO CAD/DRAUGHTSAutoCAD Draughts man seeks Employment. Contact: 91889873 Electrical draftsman AutoCAD switch gear & MEP control panel 7 years experience Qatar.

Contact: 92546203/96228100

CATERING Indian male 38 yrs Senior Chef de.

De. Party pastry exp 15 yrs in five star hotels, 10 yrs exp Oman get NOC looking for job in hotel & bakery.

Contact: 96460519

DESIGNER Indian female B.Sc- Fashion Designer 21 years, fresher, One month internship in a garment industry 2015 University best designer award holder. Now looking for a creative job, currently on residential visa.

Contact: 98297940 / 99741604.

Email : zintasabu@gmail.com Architect and Interior designer, 8 years exp capable of managing turn key projects, design, BOQ, Execution.

NOC available. Contact : 95273166

Pakistan male (27) light driver seeking job, 4 years experience in Oman. Contact 96346582 Light duty driver with 2 yrs experience looking for job. #96342684 Light driver. Contact: 96961993 Indian (Kerala) light driver seeking for job, 5 yrs experience in Oman. Contact: 98029273 Looking for driving job.

Contact: 98219182 Driver: 15 years Driving Experience in Saudi Arabia, Looking for suitable place, Contact.. 91624908, 93540898 Driver available with car and without car Education, B. A exp. 5 years, language Hindi, Arabic, English.

Contact: 98522914 Bangladeshi male light driver seeking suitable placement 1 yr experience. Contact: 94158238 Driver available with car driver & without car. #96771598 / 94039796 Driver, 42 yrs seeks for suitable job KSA, 12 years Oman 4 years,.

Contact: 95796030 Heavy duty driver with PDO license, 5 yrs Intl. exp. # 95546585 Light driver. Contact:95779594 Driver looking for job. #99507039 Pakistani driving available.

Contact : 96913836

EDUCATION Professional Teacher Qualified M.Com Post Graduate in finance for teaching Accounting subject.

Contact: 91251210 English Teachers wanted immediately locations Muscat, Salalah, Ibri, Nizwa, Buraimi, Khabourah and Khasab. Contact : 91979343 Email: eaglesmuscat@gmail.com

ENGG. / TECHNICAL Mechanical Engineer, Indian 24 with 2 yrs experience in HVAC- MEP Revit – MEP, AutoCAD – MEP Navis solid works Catia PRO-E primavera.

Contact: 96975382 Email: bonny491@gmail.com 2 years experienced Electrical Engineer looking for suitable placement.

Contact: 98480509 SAP – SCM.MM Consultant B.Tech.

(Chemical), from NIT, working with oil industry, seeks employment.

Contact: 98049288 Indian female 23, B.Tech (Electrical & Electronics) & Diploma in Electrical CAD on Visit Visa seeks suitable placement.

Contact: 99278410 / 94027398, Email: renju.raghavan7@gmail.com

W E D N E S DAY, J U LY 2 2 , 2 0 1 5

D5

DAILY GUIDE SITUATION WANTED

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

HOSPITALITY

Indian Male, Diploma in Civil Engineer working as a Project engineer with 7years of experience looking for suitable job. Contact- 92636569

4 Years experienced (Money exchange services & Hospitality services in Oman & India) - Indian male 27 years, graduate in Hospitality science, fluent in English, Hindi & Arabic seeks suitable placement.

Contacts: 91383167

BE civil Engineer with a vast experience of 18 years in Oman seeks immediate placement as General Manger /Partner. contact @ joboman2015@gmail.com.

Iraqi Civil Engineer, 12 years experience with Omani driving license.

Contact: 94695595 Degree holder Civil Engineer having 10 years experience with driving license looking for better position.

Contact 98451844 Email: zahid_ruet@hotmail.com Indian male, 38 years old, DME – Mechanical Maintenance Technician 11 years Oman experience. Ready for NOC, VISA transfer, ready to join immediately, Mob +968 95612870, Email: seeniselvan@gmail.com Indian male, 34 years old, DEE – Electrical Supervisor 10 years Oman experience. Ready for NOC , VISA transfer and valid Oman driving license light, ready to join immediately. Contact +91 9740679094, kulasekar1980@gmail.com MBA having 4years Gulf experience in Coordination with contracting company .NOC Available. Ph: 95405885 Indian female, BE, Civil engineer with 1 year experience looking for suitable vacancy, on visit.

Contact 95139583, Email : aisushetty09@gmail.com Indian male Safety Officer, 4+ years experience diploma in fire & safety Eng seeks suitable post.

Contact: 98843139

IT Indian male, B.E ( computer science engineer), MBA (finance), OCA certified, having 5 years of experience in oracle Dba/ oracle apps Dba, seeks a suitable position in the field of IT. Contact: 96212062 email: zubairkhan11@gmail.com Indian female MCA, 24 years seeking suitable job. Contact 93439467 IT professional MCA Oracle certified 6 months training of PLSQL data warehousing, PHP, 3 months trained seeking job at good company. Contact: 95694330 Email: monakashyap001@gmail.com B.E Computer Science, Indian male looking for suitable job in the field of software or information technology having good knowledge in Java, ASP. Net, MS Sql, MS Word.

Contact: 91986919 Email: dileep2468.a@gmail.com Indian male 25 yrs exp in Administration, Telecom, Optical Fiber Communication, Networking, MS Office.

Seeks any job. On visit visa.

Contact 91385373 / sridharbsnlma1455@gmail.com Network system Engineer B.E / ECE + CCNA & Ms certified with 4+ yrs exp looking for a job. Currently in Oman on visit visa. Contact: 92589502

MISCELLANEOUS Electrical Engineer, B. Sc degree, Filipino, 15 years experience in oil & gas, power plant, substation, EPC projects, testing & commissioning, O & M with Oman D/L light.

Contact: 97090934 Electrical Engineer Indian male 29 years, having 5 years of experience in industrial automation and utility maintenance in India (MRF Tyres) seeking suitable placement.#92789995 Email: akhilabrahamlktr@gmail.com Structural Engineer of 2 years & 7 months experience, specialized in Structural Design and Site Supervision looking for a job. Contact: 94634906 / 94370767 Email: muazomer45@gmail.com Indian Civil Engineer (buildings) available immediately as supply contract. Contact: 93263834 Indian Male, IT Support Engineer, 2 yrs in Oman & 5 yrs Indian experience. Contact 97311847 Btech computer science graduate 2015 passout.. Android application marketing.. Having good communication skills and mindset to work in a team. Contact 91024385 Engineer with 3 yrs experience in Indian in MEP, HVAC& mechanical maintained field on visit visa looking for suitable job. Contact 99191535 Email: fareed029@gmail.com

Female Postgraduate searching suitable job. Contact 97792820 Filipino Male looking for a job & have experience in sales, waiter, barista, technical support / customer service with good communication skills. Contact 91789465 Indian Female with over 9 yrs experience with good communication skills seeks jobs in customer service or sales field.

Contact : 96108289, Email - shijipaul84@gmail.com Part- Time Accountant, well experience senior accountant ,doing all type of accounting works, Finalization, Budgeting available.

Contact: :98803439 13 Years UAE experienced in MNC & reputed firms logistics distribution looking for a suitable placement, on visit visa contact 99838743, gani.dawood@gmail.com Male Indian BBM Graduate 8 years experience in logistics and ware housing in a reputed company valid driving license NOC available looking for suitable position.

Contact : 96311786 Email: ubinfs@gmail.com

MANAGER/ SUPERVISOR

B.E in ECE worked as Junior Scientist Trainee in Chennai worked as System Admin in Berik Honda Nagger coil worked at Technical Support in Samsung Service, presently in Bangalore.

Contact : 0091 7026267513

Indian male, B.com, diploma in material management, 12+ years exp in international / local purchase, ware housing 4 logistics seeks suitable placement NOC available.

Contact: 96477638 / 96477638

Indian female, B.Tech biotechnology with strong computer skills and 2 years experience as associate research analyst (Media Monitoring) in Nasdaq Oman seeking growth oriented jobs. Contact 92044603 /918056169148 or angeline.babithac@gmail.com.

Production Manager 13 years experience in cast Aluminium fab. field and good track record seeking for a suitable job. NOC ready in Hand.

Contact: 96392319

Electrical Eng. Degree (MEP) need suitable job of construction 12 yrs exp.

Email: mohd.ateeq.khan@gmail.com

Indian male, with 8 yrs exp. in Oman (BA- Graduate) working as a project Sales Coordinator, with Oman D/L, looking for suitable job, ready to join immediately with NOC. Contact 95245057

MEDICAL

Well experienced MOH Licensed Indian GP Doctor looking for locum / permanent position in the Capital area. Contact 98140024 email:drgpoman@yahoo.com Female Dentist Indian, Prometric passed 63%,4 years of work experience, immediately available to join.

Contact 97469553, nazianbaig@gmail.com Indian male GP doctor, 12 years experience parametric passed with 74% seeks suitable post.

Email: ppdr2020@gmail.com.

Contact 97985325 Indian female Dentist MOH Oman passed seeking a suitable placement in capital region.

Contact– 91377681 hashimsarawat@gmail.com Lab Technician, Civil (8yrs Gulf experience) looking for a suitable job (NOC available) Contact-93344378

SALES / MARKETING SALES / MARKETING Indian male MBA 7 years experience in Hospitality industry, operation, sales & marketing looking for suitable vacancy. Contact 92115860 Email vibin.py@gmail.com MBA from UK with 9 yrs experience in London, Dubai & Mumbai. Specialized GCC experience in top real estate co & bank with driving license. NOC available. #968 95168205, dubaihomes1@gmail.com B. Com & MBA Graduate on visit visa seeks suitable placement.

Contact : 97372624 ,email : sivaraj.gurukripa@gmail.com Indian male 27yrs , diploma,3yrs exp in oman in sales & supervisor , oman driving license holder, looking for suitable placements.

GSM -96489211 B.Tech (MECH) MBA (Marketing) having 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, projects presently working in Oman seek suitable placement N.O.C available and ready to join immediately. Contact: 91257781 email: rajrathsing@yahoo.com Indian male 45+ yrs , 20 yrs exp as sales supervisor in India looking for indoor sales /stores /cashier or any suitable placement can speak Hindi , English, Malayalam, Tamil, kannada can join immediately on visit visa. Contact 93086105/33016546

Looking for Sales Assistant job (having Oman driving license).

Contact: 95872634 Pakistani male 34 yrs Intermediate 2 yrs exp in sales & marketing in Oman. Looking for suitable job.

Contact - 92146864 Indian male seeking job, 8 years experience in Qatar in clerical/administration/documents controlling fields. Willing to work in customer care or sale also. Qatar driving license available. Job preferred in Sohar and surrounding cities.

Contact 93285117 Indian male. 27, Post Graduate, 5+ yrs exp in Oman in Sales & Credit Control, with valid Oman driving License, NOC available, looking for suitable placements.

Ph: 9199 3376 Indian Male, B.Com Graduate, 23, with experience in Sales looking for suitable placements. .

Contact 98371144 Market research / Hospitality Indian male Graduate with nearly 30 yrs experience in Market research & hospitality industry. NOC available.

Contact: 99347089

SKILLED / UNSKILLED Young Bangladeshi male 26 knowing coffee shop work as watering sandwich making juice marking etc presently in Bangladesh if any employer need please Contact behalf of candidate with his brother.

Contact: 92278538 Indian male 31 visionary business strategist having over 8+ years of global experience seeking a challenging position that utilizes my years of experience currently on visit. Contact: 91902154 Management professional experienced in profitable management with organization skills with over 21+yrs exp. in Bombay, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, UAE & in Oman11 yrs as GM Publications, Printing, Media & Advertising in entire operations, Sales marketing & etc. Looking for a reputed organization for a challenging position any industry, can Join immediately with NOC. Contact : +968 98864706/99574638 Mail : akdas_uae@yahoo.com

Looking for job as Mason, pipe fitter, Electrician and Aluminum fixer available. Contact: 93015630

TOURS & TRAVELS 25 Indian female B.S.C. Fashion Technology. 5 years experience in textile industry as a merchandiser and good in fashion marketing.

Currently available on visit visa, seeking for a suitable job.

Contact : 96990368.

Email: simmy.missy@gmail.com

MISCELLANEOUS Indian male Diploma, Civil engineer 4.3 year experience at building construction and consulting company with Oman driving licence and N.O.C available seeking suitable placement Contact 95989500 email cv.shihabedappal@gmail.com

MISCELLANEOUS Civil Engineer, Diploma, Male 25, 3 years experience in site, CAD, 3d, MS Project, Seeking job in Oman. # 92875345, jubincivileng@gmail.com

12 yrs exp FREELANCE 2d, 3d Draughtsman (holding Omani driving license). Contact : 93790601

Indian male accountants, 12 years experience, tally also. Looking for a part time/ full time job in accounts or purchase. Contact- 98983122

Sudanese male, 31 year, have 3 year Diploma in Electrical Engineer, 6 years experience in construction and electrical plant.

Mobile No ; +96894549609

Indian Female 2yrs exp. in Accountant 5 yrs exp. in Electronics, seeking suitable Job. Contact: 97162705,93705090

Freelance Graphic Designer available to assist in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Corel Draw Projects.

Contact : 95811820

Indian male, 14 years Experience in maintenance & Supervisor in hotel field (Electrical, Ac Mechanical & Plumber). NOC available #95253640 email = hareeshma24@yahoo.com

Indian Female Lawyer 36 Yrs having 11 yrs experience presently working in Oman as Legal Advisor seeks placement in Legal/HR/Admin NOC available Contact-94436960 Email: famidakhan123@gmail.com

Female Candidate: Having experience (ISRO India) in Administration (seeking suitable opportunities &presently in Oman Mob:97239854, Mail:asherlalitha@yahoo.com Diploma civil Engineer seeking jobs(positions suits me: civil engineer ,site engineer,qa/qc engineer,land surveyor ,total station, auto level,draftsman (autocad, microstation) mob:97239854, Mail:asherlalitha@yahoo.com MOH Indian Dentist 10 years experience in Oman. Can speak Arabic, has driving license. Contact 98995321 or ventureoman007@gmail.com BRANCH-HEAD, MBA-BBA, Indian Male having experience in UAE, India, Oman total 5 years (including MNC), looking for similar or same openings.NOC available.

Mobile :92700670, E mail:catanalur131@gmail.com Qualified Native speaking male English Teacher with 18 years experience seeks position. Salary Negotiable. Whatsapp on +968 9334 1047 / +968 93952732 or e-mail me on nadgov@gmail.com

23, Male, ACCA Affiliate, 2 years+ experience in Audit and Finance in audit firm, Looking for suitable permanent placement, NOC release Available. Contact: #95140445 a.saran891@gmail.com MBA - (F), M.Com, B.COM. Indian female having knowledge of accounts with Tally looking for part time or full time job. Presently on family visa. Contact :- 91892264.

Email:- yashicapandya@gmail.com Indian Female 10 years exp as cook in Oman. South Indian & Gujarati special looking for part-time job Contact 96733187.

Indian male-28 Years, Diploma in Electrical Egg, having gulf experience. Specialization on Electrical Installation and Maintenance, Operation. 7 years experience seeks for suitable placement.

Mob – 968-95334580. E-mail -sunilkumar257.sk23@gmail.com

Indian female, IATA, B. Sc, looking for suitable placement.Contact-95514305, E mail idraveendranmala@gmail.com

Seeking Teaching Position. Qualified and experienced Native English speaking teacher seeking position in Muscat, I have a Teaching Diploma , two Honours Degrees and a CELTA Certificate. Position at Language school will be suitable. Will e-mail CV. Whatsapp only +96893952732

ACCOUNTANT, Indian male, 29 years, 8 years experience. Presently working in Oman as a Senior Accountant with Oman Driving license.

NOC available seek suitable opportunity. GSM: 98184170

MBA (F), B.COM. Indian female having knowledge of accounts with Tally looking for full or part time job. presently on family visit visa.

Contact :- 96259171.

Email:- bhumicapandya@gmail.com

D6

W E D N E S DAY, J U LY 2 2 , 2 0 1 5

DAILY GUIDE

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

SITUATION WANTED MISCELLANEOUS Indian male auto cad draughtsman (civil) 8 years experience seeking for part time job Mobile 99070584, E mail: remluvp@gmail.com SENIOR ACCOUNTANT, Indian male,29 years.8 years experience .Presently working in Oman as a Senior Accountant with oman Driving license. NOC available, seek suitable opportunity. GSM: 97705854 Sudanese male (B.Sc Computer Science) (Diploma Computer Engineering) 6 yrs. experience DBA Oracle PLSQL , MS SQL-server, MS visual studio VBA, network. Contact :91415886 Syrian male 3yrs. exp in IT support, Networking, Security systems, Server support, IT sales and marketing.

Valid Omani D/L seeking suitable placement. Contact 91033395 Indian Male, 34 years old, DEE – Electrical Supervisor 10 years Oman experience. Ready for NOC , VISA transfer and valid Oman driving licence light, ready to join immediately, Mob +91 9740679094, kulasekar1980@gmail.com 24 years, Indian Chartered Accountant male with 3 yrs of experience is seeking suitable placement in Muscat, currently on visit visa & ready to join immediately. Kindly contact him on 98201476 or email at lokeshkaluri@gmail.com Indian Male, 38 years old, DME – Mechanical Maintenance Technician 11 years Oman experience. Ready for NOC , VISA transfer, ready to join immediately, Mob +968 95612870, seeniselvan@gmail.com BSc Graduate, INDIAN male , seeking suitable jobs.

GSM: +91-8589820233.

MAIL ID: prajinap45@gmail.com Young Indian Chartered Accountant, female, Having 6 years experience in Oman and India. Accounts and Finance Manager, Auditor.

Urgently seeking suitable positions.

Contact 92530131, jobcareer44@gmail.com Tunisian women looking for a job, khnows english,frensh, italian and arabic. Contact: 91171838 Indian male 25 years B.tech computers (Having 3 years of experience in customer service/Admin/IT Support) looking for suitable position. Visa Transfer/NOC Available immediate to join. Contact: 98402389, Mail: naresh6672@gmail.com Manager, Young Indian Male, MBA, BBA. Having excellent managerial experience (around 5 years) in leading Multi-National-Company.

Looking for suitable positions.

Contact: 92700670, fardhaan@gmail.com Available for part time accounting job, contact 99196621 Indian Female MA. B.Ed. with One year three months Teaching experience. Subject: EnglishSeeking for a Better placement.

Now working in Oman.

Contact 93961142, 92184408, Email:-anoopkesavan78@gmail.com Indian Female M.Com with Computer Skills and Four Month Experience as Accountant ,Currently On Family Visa Looking for a Suitable Placement, Available Immediately.

Contact : 95846642, Email : dhanyashree91@yahoo.com ACCA Affiliate, Experience in audit/ finance of 2.5 years in Big 6 Firm and Oil industry, looking for suitable permanent placement, Release NOC available. Contact: #95140445 a.saran891@gmail.com

PART TIME ACCOUNTANT, Indian male, M. Com, 35 years, 12 Years exp. in Accounts, 8 years in Oman.

Knowledge upto finalization. Having valid D/L, seeks suitable Placement.

GSM: 96249124 Egyptian Civil Engineer, total experience 7 years - 2 years experience in Oman. I am looking for Project Engineer, I have good experience in site & office works.

Contact number:91148708 Indian Male 24 years, Looking for a Suitable Job in Telecom / Networking. 1 year sales experience. MSc. Communications Engineering & Valid Driving license. Ph: 91280121.

Email: jackrprasad@yahoo.com.

Filipino Male looking for a job & have experience in sales, waiter, barista, technical support / customer service with good communication skills. # 91789465 ACCOUNTING – Indian male seeking accounting job with 2 years experience in accounting.

Contact: 94263445, E mail – contactantonyxavieranand@gmail. com Sudanese male: 27 yrs, 2 years experience in accounting, other experience (purchasing – HR - Coordinating and Office Management), looking for a job Omani Driving License, NOC. Contact: 94174403 24 year Indian Chartered Accountant male with 3yrs of experience is seeking suitable placement in Muscat, currently on visit visa & ready to join immediately. Contact him on 98201476 or email at lokeshkaluri@gmail.com Sudanese male (B.Sc, computer science) (diploma computer engineering), 6 yrs. experience DBA oracle PL-SQL, MS SQL - Server, MS visual studio vba, network.

Contact 91415886 Syrian male 3yrs. exp in IT support, Networking, Security systems, Server support, IT sales and marketing.

Valid Omani D/L seeking suitable placement. Contact 91055584 Over 15 years experience in Gulf.

Interior Architect, Lebanese Nationality, on visit visa seeking a suitable Placement. 96268005.

PRODUCTION OPERATOR – Indian male seeking production operator or related jobs with 4 years of experience in oil & gas field.

Contact 94263445.

Email: tonyxavier4u@gmail.com Indian Keralite Male 35 looking for Scaffolding supervisor post having 5 years of Supervisor and HSE experience in GCC Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Fluent in English Arabic and Hindi .

Contact 96155921, or mail fysal.nellaya@gmail.com Indian Male 28 yrs, having 7 years Gulf + Indian experience in HR and Admin field, looking for suitable placement. Contact: 97914340, Email: rajkv3086@gmail.com Indian Male 28 years MSM, B. Com having 6years experience in Gulf and India as a HR and Admin looking for suitable placement.#97914340.

Email: rajkv30@gmail.com B.Sc. Mechanical Engineer Sudanese 3 yrs of exp. In industrial field available in muscat on vist visa seeking suitable job .

Contact: 95868922, Email: almouthanaosman@yahoo.com IT system and Printer engineer ME, 5Years bank IT Management exp in India looking for full time job visit visa contact 94462150

Indian male with 8 yrs experience in FMCG in Oman as Sales Supervisor looking for suitable placement.

NOC available. Gsm: 96495206 24 year Indian Chartered Accountant male with 3yrs of experience is seeking suitable placement in Muscat, currently on visit visa & ready to join immediately. Contact him on 98201476 or email at lokeshkaluri@gmail.com MCA IT Professional Indian Female seek placement in Teaching/ Non Teaching field. Presently on visit visa. 9588 7051, ashwininakod@gmail.com ACCA Affiliate, Indian, 2.5Years experience in Audit/ Finance in Big 6 Audit Firm and Oil Accounting in PDO, For Permanent Placement for Finance or Accounts or Audit. Release NOC Available on hand.

Contact #95140445, a.saran891@gmail.com Finance ACCA Affiliate, Worked as an Auditor with 2.5 Years Experience in reputed firm, Handled independent audit/finance assignments, Looking for permanent placement, NOC available. Contact 95140445. a.saran891@gmail.com Piping Design Engineer, Indian male 27, looking for suitable placement in Piping Design & Engineering. Having 7 years of experience in AutoCAD. Also familiar with PDMS (11.6 Version),CAESAR ll. Contact : 97351786 / 96143708, E-mail : mohammednazeer07@gmail.com Sudanese male (B.Sc Computer science) (diploma computer engineering) 6 yrs. experience DBA Oracle plsql, MS sql-server ,ms visual studio vba, network. Contact :91415886 Indian Male, Graduate, 11 years Sales experience in Lighting / Industrial products, ready to join immediately. GSM: 9710 5356 Indian heavy duty driver with 8 years experience in oman available with NOC. GSM : 93601943 GSM : 94496457 Indian male, 28 yrs MBA (HR/M) 2 years experience in Indian Oman in HR & admin seeks suitable placements. NOC available.

Contact 97484159 Email: rameshkapa86@gmail.com M.Sc 3+ years exp from France & India in IT Support Engineer / Hardware & Networking / Server support / scientific system support looking for suitable positions. Indian, male on visit visa, contact 98898781/ anoopys@gmail.com Looking for managerial post (full time ), More than Ten years of experience in Team Development ,Training, planning, Administration, Sales & Marketing, Advertisement and Credit Control and Logistics. Contact 91076608 / 99322748. Release & noc available Indian male, 34years having 10 years of experience in Sales, Sales Coordination and Administration.

Experienced in SAP and MS Office. NOC available.

Contact # 94686594 Indian Male MBA Marketing/HRM 3 year experience with Omani D/L, seeking suitable jobs.

Contact: 97424188 email: dharwesh@gmail.com Indian, Male, 23 years, BE Electrical, having 2 years experience in Electrical Works-H.T. cabling etc, & Construction, looking for a suitable placement. Contact +968 96927880 (Oman), +91 9765376109 (India), Email: rahulrevi6@gmail.com

SITUATION WANTED B.Tech Computer Engineer Wanted job to work on(IT/Banking/Administrator/Technical/Office works) having NOC with the limited time from (04/06/2015 to 13/06/2015).

Mobile:98402389 email:naresh6672@gmail.com British Beauty Therapist looking for suitable position. #:97175240 Highly Qualified & Experienced Finance Manager Pakistani with USA , UK & Canadian Degrees , CPA ,ACCA-UK . MBA-USA ,IFA- Financial Consultants Canada , Corporate Analyst USA Professional of Banking , Audits ,ERPs & Profit Maximizations ( NOC available ) call 94 504505 – 94403270 27 year Indian female who has 4 years of experience with logistics function in distribution of spares for both heavy machinery & wind turbine parts. Kindly contact me on +91 9790769104 E-mail: joemohana@yahoo.co.in Indian male Executive Secretary having vast experience in admin, logistics & procurement well versed with computer .seek suitable placement. Contact : 99514286 Indian male MBA (U.K), 10 Years of experience in Admin, Sales, HR, stores and logistics seeks suitable placement. Contact 99271903.

Indian Female MCA, 4 plus Years of experience in Web designing, Admin, P.A, seeks suitable placement.

Contact 99486374 8 Years successful experience, SENIOR ACCOUNTANT, Indian male,29 years. Presently working in Oman as a Senior Accountant with oman Driving license seeks suitable opportunity. GSM: 97705854 7 and half years experience working accounts / inventory manager looking suitable job. Contact: 96991782 Email: srinivasu.sp@gmail.com Indian female , MCA BCA, certification PL SQL , 6months training PHP, date warehouse looking for suitable placement. #95694330 Email: mondkashyapodl@gmail.com B.Com with more than 5 yrs exp. looking for an accounts part tome job work. know with tally.

Email-shilpa_62@yahoo.com

Part- time accountant, well experience senior accountant , doing all type of accounting works, finalization, budgeting available.

Contact : 98803439

Sudanese male, 31 year old, have 3 year Diploma in electrical engineer, 5 years experience in different activities . Mobile No ; +96894549609

Indian male, looking for a part time accounting job. Having additional knowledge & experience in HR admin & purchase.

Contact 99196621

ACCA affiliate, with 2.5 years experience in Big6 audit firm and Oil industry, looking for permanent placement in Accounts/Audit.

Release available Contact :95140445 a.saran891@gmail.com

Indian Female, 24yrs, M.COM (Accounts) having 3yrs experience in Accounts, HR, Administration, Customer Service. Good Computer Proficiency. Seeking Suitable Position. Visa Transfer/NOC Available.

Contact: 99654913

Indian Female, Commerce Graduate, Total 9 yrs of experience in India. worked as Accounts Assistant and Business executive seeking for suitable placement.

Tel : 96173533/24222457 Email : topranidivya@gmail.com

HSE Advisor, NEBOSH IGC, Indian male, 4 years experience in construction and oil fields, seeking suitable jobs. Gsm: 97458900, Mail: miroshbabu@gmail.com

Indian Male, 29 years, CCNP, MCITP having Bachelor degree and 6 years of experience in Networking looking for job. 96760618 / varghese.manthara@gmail.com

Highly Experienced Finance Manager, CPA ,ACCA-UK . MBA-USA , Professional of Banking, Audits , ERPs Sap , Management as Team Leader and Problem Solver call 94 504505 / 94403270

Female Executive Assistant/Executive Secretary with 27+ experience, worked with top management/Board in financial services with shorthand skills & Omani driving license, seeks suitable placement. call 95941515

Indian male MBA Finance presently OMAN IN visit visa, 26 years, looking for an accountant job.

Contact 95240641, email Id mohammadabdulazharuddin@ gmail.com

B.E. Civil Engineer from India with 3 years of experience looking for suitable vacancy in oman now on visit visa. Contact 9571 3441, Email . Khatrialeem@gmail.com

Admin Executive, 31, Indian Male, having 9+ years exp. in reputed companies. Seeking suitable placement in any gulf region. Contact +968 99276601 & 97693456. email : muralimahdav77@gmail.com

Indian male 21 IT Eng. networking & computer hardware diploma, 1 year experience, currently on visit visa looking for a suitable job.

Contact 96036273 email: faizanfarooqui23@gmail.com

MEP Quantity Surveyor-EstimationProject, 10 Years Experience (3 years in Oman). Having NOC & Oman D/L, looking for suitable job, Contact - 98291626

Indian, 32 years, completed M.A. English, M.Sc. Psychology and B.Ed in English. Searching for suitable job in the field of teaching. To Contact: 00968 99869535 Email: sahadkeyi33@gmail.com

Indian house maid looking full time job. Contact : 98254909 B.E. Civil Engineer age 27, total 3 years of experience in Mumbai looking for placement asap in oman now on visit visa of 1 month ph 9571 3441 Email. Khatrialeem@gmail.com Indian Male, 29 years, CCNP, MCITP having Bachelor degree and 6 years of experience in Networking looking for job. 96760618 / varghese.manthara@gmail.com

Indian Male 24 years, Looking for a Suitable Job in Telecom / Networking. 1 year sales experience. MSc. Communications Engineering & Valid Driving license. Ph: 91280121.

Email: jackrprasad@yahoo.com 26 years Indian male with MBA & PGDFM, Total 3.8 years experience in Administration, seeking suitable placement in any gulf region.

Holding Oman valid driving license.

Contact :94501423

W E D N E S DAY, J U LY 2 2 , 2 0 1 5

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DAILY GUIDE SITUATION WANTED CARGO

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

TOURS

DRIVING

RENT A CAR Learn driving with professional only automatic. Contact 94022250

TRANSPORTATION Taxi in Muscat for any where and any time just send whatssapp before one hour and we will conďŹ rm to you your appointment ,We have also travel in Muscat. what you wait for call: 99887282 Email: Awraqmuscat@yahoo.com Pick & drop anytime in Al Khuwair.

Contact 99764307 Transportation. Contact: 96538078 Transportation. Contact:98522914 Transportation. Contact 99508282 Transportation. Contact: 98244078 Pick & Drop any time. Contact: 97014786

D8

W E D N E S DAY, J U LY 2 2 , 2 0 1 5

DAILY GUIDE

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

SITUATION WANTED SERVICES

COMPUTER

WEBSITE

WANTSITUATION WANT- SITUATION MANPOWER SIT. WANTED ED 8 yrs exp Site supervisor cum 2d, 3d Draughtsman (holding Omani driving license) seeking job.

Contact : 93790601 24 year Indian Chartered Accountant male with 3yrs of experience is seeking suitable placement in Muscat, currently on visit visa & ready to join immediately. Contact him on 98201476 or email at lokeshkaluri@gmail.com

SITUATION WANTMATRIMONIAL

Finance ACCA Affiliate, 2.5 years experience in audit/finance and oil company in reputed firms. Looking for suitable permanent placement. Release available. Contact 95140445, a.saran891@gmail.com

Syrian CSI boy 30/184, working in a Automobile dealership at Muscat, inviting proposals.m4marry ID: 3951195 Ph: 0091- 9656439949 / 94946429292

B.E Biomedical Engineer, having 5 years of experience in Diagnostics division seeking suitable position.

94151658

Indian male Roman Catholic Divorcee 40 yrs working in Muscat seeks suitable alliance from widow/ divorcee/single. Contact: 96059801

ACCOUNTANT: Indian male 25 having 4years experience in accounting & having well knowledge in tally.

Contact:968094535881, 0091 9037622048 Email: vishnuraj889@gmail.com

Muslim boy, 32 years MBA, studied and working in Oman as Sales manager in a reputed organisation, Tableeg Jamath invites proposals from educated girls in Gulf preferably Malayalees. Contact 99357458 and 92656899

ACCA Affiliate, 2.5years experience in Audit/Finance in Global Big6 Firms and Oil company in Oman, Looking for suitable permanent placement. Release NOC Available.

Contact: #95140445, a.saran891@gmail.com Electrical Engineer, 29, Indian Male, having 7+ years exp. in reputed companies. Seeking suitable placement in any Oman.

Contact - 97693456.

Mail ID : venkatbadri23@gmail.com BE. Biomedical Engineer, 5 years experience in the same field (Hospital/company)looking for suitable placement.

Contact:92084807 Email:bonnygeorge1005@gmail.com

Split & widow unit A.C servicing & repairing. Contact: 99557080 WEB, ERP and Business Intelligence (BI) creation and management at rock bottom price.

Contact: http//webviewoman

CLASSES

Window & split unit A.C servicing & maintenance. Contact : 93769089 / 95323517 House shifting & transporting.

Contact 92490422 MARBLE CRYSTALLIZATION restore the original shine of your marble. Contact 24793614/ 99314807

RC SC girl (Kerala) 28 yrs, 154cm BSC Nurse working in Oman (SQUH) seeks alliances from professionaly qualified employers.

Contact: 96228192

Air condition maintenance split and window services AC specialist ducted and package type unites.

Contact: 98667326 GUARANTEED CLEANING: Carpet & sofa shampooing, Contact 99314807/24792998 A/C Maintenance & servicing, fridge, washing machine & dish washer repairing, painting & cleaning services, electrical & plumbing.

Contact: 99447257 / 97014234 / 24504281

House shifting. Contact 99708138

Kerala Christian Orthodox boy 29/185 Staff Nurse MOH Muscat seeks suitable alliances.

Contact: 99461264

House shifting packing.

99657644 / 98518013

CLASSES Admission Open: CAMBRIDGE / BILINGUAL CURRICULUM admission started in Al Burj Private School, Azaiba for KG and Grade I to IV. Please register soonest.

Contact: 93211417 / 92887809.

Split & window unit A.C servicing & maintenance.

Contact: 96236476

Split & window A.C servicing & maintenance. Contact 93769089/95323517

IELTS preparation course, unlock your educational and career opportunities with eagles to; achieve your required band. Contact 91979343.

Pest control Treatments, termites, cockroaches, bedbugs Ocean Center LLC. Contact: 99344723

Carpet Shampoo, marble & tile polishing, pest control & anti-termite treatment, general cleaning painting, Plumbing, Electrical, shifting. Contact Mundhir Al-Rizaiqi trading. L.L.C. # 24810137, 99450130

Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles polishing, carpet shampooing, maintenance.Contact ABU QABAS99320217 /24788722

Water proofing ABUQABASContact 99320217/24788722

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

AC servicing maintenance fixing.

Contact: 99540621

Carpet, Sofa Shampooing. Ocean Center LLC. Contact: 99884591

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

Contact 24475280 / 95371554 / 92504980 www.siddhayur.com

FOR LADIES Hair dressing, facial massage & other beauty treatment for women.

Contact: 94689448