Times of Oman

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OMAN FACE POLAND IN SEMIFINALS Oman, Malaysia, Poland and Japan stormed into the semifinals of the Hockey World League Round 2 tournament, here on Thursday and kept their respective Olympic qualification dreams alive and kicking. >A12

SATURDAY, January 24, 2015 / 3 Rabia II 1436 AH

SAUDI ARABIA

HM sends condolences MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has sent a cable of condolences and sympathy to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia on the death of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

In his cable, His Majesty the Sultan expressed his heartfelt condolences and sympathy to King Salman, the bereaved family and the Saudi people, praying to Allah the Almighty to rest his soul in peace and grant his family patience to bear the loss. — ONA

HM’s message conveyed

by Fahd RIYADH: On behalf of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, His Highnes Sayyid Fahd bin Mahmoud Al Said, Deputy Prime Minister for the Council of Ministers attended the funeral of the late Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, which was held at the Mosque of Imam Turki bin Abdullah in Riyadh on Friday.

Sayyid Fahd conveyed His Majesty’s condolences and sympathy to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia. >A4 TWO OTHERS HURT

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HM mourns death of Saudi King, Fahd attends funeral HM has declared a three-day holiday to mourn the Saudi King’s death with national flag to be lowered at half-mast

Staff Reporter MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said led the nation in mourning following the death of the late Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), who passed away before dawn on Friday.

An Oman News Agency (ONA) statement said, “His Majesty expressed his sincere condolences to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince Maqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and to the family of each of the Saudi royal brothers and people, praying to Allah the Almighty to rest the deceased soul in peace and grant the family patience and fortitude.”

His Majesty the Sultan also

LAST RITES: His Highness Sayyid Fahd bin Mahmoud Al Said, Deputy Prime Minister for the Council of Ministers arrives in Riyadh to take part in the funeral of Saudi King on Friday, left, and participating in the ceremonies, centre. The Omani flag flies at half mast on the Central Bank of Oman building, in Muscat, on Friday.– Mohamed Al Rashdi, Salim Al Hashli, O K Mohammed Ali

ordered an official mourning, a three-day holiday with flags in the country to be lowered to half-mast.

The statement from the Diwan of the Royal Court to ONA said that work in both the public and the private sector will be suspended on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with workers returning to their duties on January 26.

On behalf of His Majesty, His Highness Sayyid Fahd bin Mahmoud Al Said, Deputy Prime Minister for the Council of Ministers, attended the funeral of the late King Abdullah which was held in Riyadh on Friday afternoon.

He was accompanied by Yousuf

bin Alawi bin Abdullah, minister responsible for foreign affairs, Sheikh Abdulmalik bin Abdullah bin Ali Al Khalili, minister of justice and Dr Ahmed bin Hilal Al Busaidi, the Sultanate’s ambassador to the KSA. Citizens and residents of the Sultanate expressed their grief on Twitter and Instagram. They shared the pictures of King Abdullah and the flag flying at half-mast at various government buildings in Oman. Many private and public events were cancelled as a mark of respect.

Sultan Al Abri, a Majlis Al Shura member, expressed his sincere

FIRST ANNIVERSARY

condolences to the Al Saud family and the citizens of the KSA. “The world has lost a great leader,” said Al Abri.

He added that King Abdullah has contributed positively to issues faced by the Arab and GCC countries.

“The development witnessed with regards to the Two Holy Mosques during his rule was really significant,” said Al Abri.

Salim Al Mashani, another Majlis Al Shura member, said that it was a sad day for the Arab world.

Al Mashani said he was “one of the great leaders of the region and devoted his life to the service of

his nation and people. There have been positive outcomes in bilateral relations under the leaderships of two leaders of Oman and Saudi,” he said.

Oman and Saudi Arabia have enjoyed deep-rooted and distinguished relations and there have been positive outcomes. During a recent Oman-Saudi Investment Forum meet organised by Ithraa it was revealed that Oman’s trade ties with Saudi Arabia have seen a sharp rise since 2011, increasing by an overall 73 per cent, while the Oman’s non-oil exports to Saudi Arabia surged by 90 per cent in 2013.

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SMALL SIZE

Members of Majlis support motorists on wider road shoulders

Indian couple killed in Seeb road accident REJIMON K

reji@timesofoman.com FAHAD AL GHADANI

MUSCAT: An Indian couple died in a road accident and two others, including their son, are battling for their life, social workers said on Friday.

The deceased have been identified as Mariama, 51, and Jose, 60, from Kerala.

“The accident happened at around 9am near Seeb. Mariama died on the spot while Jose succumbed to his injuries at around 8pm,” social workers said. “The couple’s son is battling for his life in government hospital,” social workers added.

TOP THREE INSIDE STORIES

OMAN

Haitham meets Lord Mayor Alan Yarrow

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His Highness Sayyid Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, Minister of Heritage and Culture received Alderman Alan Yarrow, Lord Mayor of the City of London and his accompanying delegation on Friday. >A3

fahadnews@timesofoman.com

SPECIAL PRAYER: A special assembly was organised on the Pakistan School Muscat premises on Thursday morning to mourn the death of students killed in the accident one year ago and for the early recovery of injured ones. Photo– A R Rajkumar/Times of Oman

Pakistan school honours victims, names three labs in memory of students RAHUL DAS

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Stocks from Russia to Taiwan rose, sending an emerging-market equity gauge to its best week since March, as European Central Bank stimulus boosted appetite for risk. >B1

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People who find it difficult to get out of bed at the weekends are more likely to suffer from health problems such as obesity and diabetes compared to people who are up with the lark.>B8

MUSCAT: Three computer laboratories at the Pakistan School Muscat (PSM) were named after the three students who were killed in the horrific road accident a year ago, said a senior official of the school on Thursday.

Two boys and a girl were killed when the bus on which they were travelling hit a vehicle belonging to the Muscat Municipality at Qurum Heights Road on January 22, 2014.

Laboratories named Speaking to Times of Oman, Principal of Pakistan School Muscat, Khalid Jatoon, said that the laboratories were named Fareeha Pervaiz Computer Laboratory, Syed Muhammad Fahad Computer Laboratory, and Muhammad Awais Nasir Computer Laboratory.

To keep their memories alive, students of the school got the names of their late friends’ inscribed on chairs and placed them

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where the three children used to sit. A special assembly was conducted on Thursday morning on the school premises to mourn the students and for the early recovery of the injured ones.

“The Pakistan School Muscat will always remember the Shuhada of the January 22, 2014 tragedy,” said one of the teachers.

Later, Adnan Shehzad, chairman of the board of directors, along with Ataullah Niazi, senior principal, Khalid Jadoon, principal, Humaira Nadeem Sarwar, senior headmistress, Samina Khan, principal of Pakistan School Seeb, teachers and numerous students of the Pakistan School visited the residences of Faizal Abdul Aziz (15) and Jawad Habib (9) in Seeb who are undergoing treatment in Pakistan and Muscat, respectively.

“We are with you. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to help,” they told the parents of the children.

Pakistan school students also spoke of their shock following the prayer.

Shocking reality “A year after it is still impossible for us to accept that these children are no more. I still feel depressed when I think of that shocking day,” said a student.

Some parents said that they were deeply saddened by the loss of innocent lives.

“My heart sinks whenever my daughter is a little late from school. I worry that something may have happened to her as well,” said Mohammad Nasir, father of a student of the school.

Community members also held Quran Khwani at the Pakistan School Muscat.

“Prayers and recitation of the Holy Quran were organised on the school premises,” said A. H. Raja, Pakistan Social Club, vice-chairman.

MUSCAT: Parking on road shoulders can lead to fatal accidents, but motorists have been complaining that in case of a breakdown they have no option but to park there.

Coming out in support of the motorists, Majlis Al Shura members have been urging authorities to widen road shoulders to enable motorists to park trucks and vehicles in case of an emergency.

In Oman, road shoulders are on the extreme right of the highways, separated from the slow lane by an uninterrupted line of white or reflective paint.

Road shoulders are generally kept clear of motor vehicle traffic.

In the event of an emergency or breakdown, motorists should pull over to the road shoulder and stay clear of traffic.

Ambulances and police vehicles are allowed to use the road shoulders to bypass traffic.

On many roads, the gap between the yellow lane is big enough to park a small vehicle, but impossible to park a heavy vehicle.

Traffic safety experts feel that more space is required in the yellow lane especially on congested roads.

Pointing out that the standard width of road shoulders on the Sultanate’s roads is 2 to 2.5 me-

tres, the Ministry of Transport and Communication has promised to consider the suggestion and enquire into the issues raised by the Majlis Al Shura.

It might be easy to consider such points while constructing a new road but those options are limited when it comes to the already existing roads in the Sultanate. On the other hand, installing a sign a little distance before to warn other drivers of a truck or car parked on the road shoulder is rare.

“Nobody cares about others on the road,” said Hussein Al Rahbi, working in the private sector.

“Most motorists and even truck drivers do not have signboards in their vehicles in case they park on the road shoulders. Such signboards can reduce fatal accidents that the Sultanate’s roads witness every day,” he added.

A reliable source at the Royal Oman Police (ROP) advised motorists to keep such signs to warn other vehicles when they park on the road shoulder.

“There are no fines for parking on road shoulders, but vehicles will be allowed to park for a limited time before being taken into custody,” said the ROP source.

He explained that in case of any damage the motorist should fix the problem immediately or call 9999 for the number of a tow truck to take his vehicle to the garage.

Yiti’s golden sands and scenic beauty

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S ATUR DAY, JAN UA RY 24, 2 015

OMAN

SCAN THIS FOR

MORE PHOTOS

Yiti’s easy-to-reach golden beaches

Yiti is one of the most picturesque spots situated close to Muscat. The quiet beach in Yiti is a favourite spot for those planning a weekend outing. The mountainous terrain and breathtaking scenery that leads you to Yiti is something not worth missing. Shabin E captures the beauty of the scenic spot

SAT URDAY, JANUARY 24, 2015 The aim of the concert, however, was not just to entertain the crowd, but to remind the audience of the importance of music and the need for more educational music events Ahmed Abouzahra., Arabesque International’s GM

OMAN CABLES

ECONOMIC DIPLOMACY

Sayyid Haitham holds talks with Mayor of London between the two sides, particularly in the financial, economic, trade and investment areas. The meeting also touched on the investment opportunities available in the real estate and medical areas in the UK in which the State General Reserve Fund (SGRF) can invest.

MUSCAT: His Highness Sayyid Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, Minister of Heritage and Culture received in his office on Thursday Alderman Alan Yarrow, Lord Mayor of the City of London and his accompanying delegation, currently visiting the Sultanate.

The two leaders exchanged viewpoints on the Sultanate’s vision 2040 in terms of the investment and economic opportunities to enhance cooperation and economic investment between the two countries in light of the current decline in oil price.

Trade exchange At the end of the meeting, Lord Alderman expressed his comfort over the warm welcome he received in the Sultanate, wishing that the visit will be crowned with success and contribute in increasing the economic cooperation and trade exchange for the two countries.

The meeting was attended by the delegation accompanying

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BOOSTING PARTNERSHIP : His Highness Sayyid Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, Minister of Heritage and Culture and Alderman Alan Yarrow, Lord Mayor of the City of London exchanged viewpoints on the Sultanate’s vision 2040 in terms of the investment and economic opportunities.–ONA

the guest, which includes senior representatives from investment banks, asset managers, insurers and law firms, in addition to a number of officials at the Ministry

of Heritage and Culture.

Meanwhile, Darwish bin Isma’eel Al Balushi, Minister Responsible for Financial Affairs also received in his office on

Thursday the visiting Lord Mayor.

The meeting reviewed the existing historic relations between the two countries and discussed aspects of the joint cooperation

Financial hub The British official explained that the UK, as a global financial hub, hosts a number of leading and experienced companies that can support the GCC countries as they look forward to diversify their economies and proceed on their ambitious infrastructure projects.

The Lord Mayor expressed his, and his accompanying delegation's happiness on their visit to the Sultanate.

The meeting was attended by Mohammed Jawad bin Hassan bin Sulaiman, Advisor at the Finance Ministry and Abdulsalam bin Mohammed Al Marshadi, CEO of SGRF. -ONA

Rehab Omar's concert pays tributes to Om Kolthoum

HM sends cable of condolences MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has sent a cable of condolences to President Beji Caid Essebsi of the Tunisian Republic on the death of his brother Kamal Caid Essebsi. In his cable, His Majesty the Sultan expressed his sincere condolences and sympathy to President Essebsi and members of his family, praying to Allah to rest the bereaved’s soul in peace and grant his family patience.-ONA

HM gets thanks cable from Abe MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said has received a cable of thanks from Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan in reply to His Majesty's congratulatory cable on the occasion of him being re-elected for the third time as a Prime Minister of Japan.

In his cable, the Japanese Prime Minister expressed his thanks for His Majesty the Sultan's congratulations, expressing his happiness and delight on the continuous progress being witnessed by the good relations between the two friendly countries, looking forward to achieve stability and welfare for the two friendly peoples. -ONA

RAIN CRISIS

Joint efforts to help patients at Al Nahda Hospital hailed

Om Kolthoum’s music has a very special place in the hearts of most Arabs, and the audience at Wednesday's concert was thrilled

SARAH MACDONALD sarah@timesofoman.com

MUSICAL FEAST: Like Om Kolthoum, Rehab Omar has a warm, rich voice with a very expressive tone. Her voice seemed to caress the lyrics and she sang from her heart.–AR Rajkumar/TIMES OF OMAN

MUSCAT: Arabesque International held its third event to draw attention and support for its Muscat Chamber Music Series, this time with a concert featuring the music of Egyptian diva Om Kolthoum.

The concert, held on Wednesday evening at Al Bustan Palace - A Ritz-Carlton Hotel, starred Egyptian singer Rehab Omar and the Maged Sorour Ensemble for Arabic Music.

Like Om Kolthoum, Rehab Omar has a warm, rich voice with a very expressive tone. Her voice seemed to caress the lyr-

ics and she sang from her heart.

The concert included a number of Om Kolthoum classics such as “Hayarti Qalbi Ma’ak (You Confused My Heart)”, “Inta Omri (You Are My Life)” and “Hajartak (I Left You).”

The audience was especially appreciative of Omar’s performance of “Inta Omri,” giving her loud cheers. A few people even rose to their feet applauded her, a sign of how moved they were by her voice. Though she has performed often, Omar seemed genuinely touched by the audience’s

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reaction, which was lovely to see.

The musicians were also very good. Maged Sorour, who organised the ensemble, is a very fine qanun player who has performed with a number of Arab stars, including Wadih El Safi, Mohammed Abdu and Kadim Al Sahir.

He plays with obvious joy and sensitivity.

Om Kolthoum’s music has a very special place in the hearts of most Arabs, and there was no doubt the audience was thrilled with the concert. Whether the concert-goers were old enough to remember her weekly radio performances, or simply grew up listening to her songs, the evening surely brought back fond memories for everyone.

The aim of the concert, however, was not just to entertain the crowd which packed the Oman Auditorium, but to remind the audience of the importance of music

MEDICAL EXHIBITION

'Scope for medical journal for public' ELHAM POURMOHAMMADI elham@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: There is untapped potential for the publication of a medical journal intended for the general public in Oman to raise their awareness about healthrelated issues, says a member of a medical journal.

“It is a very good idea to have a journal related to the public to keep them informed about improvements that are happening in Oman and spread awareness about different diseases,” said Bishara Al Mahruqi, editorial assistant at Oman Medical Journal.

Speaking on the sidelines of the 2015 international medical and healthcare exhibition and conference in Muscat, Al Mahruqi said that the Oman Medical Journal, which is devoted to the medical community, is a platform for knowledge and experience sharing and helps upgrade specialists in Oman in various specialties.

“The journal first started in 1984 and was under the Ministry of Health and has been published under the Oman Medical Specialty Board since its establishment in 2006,” she said, adding that the bi-monthly is distributed to health professionals in various institutions both locally and internationally.

Al Mahruqi said that the journal receives a large number of articles every year from specialists in Oman and abroad. “In 2014, we received 577 articles, but we publish the most relevant ones and

HEALTH ISSUES: The exhibition brought together representatives from different segments of the health sector to showcase the latest technologies.–TIMES OF OMAN

what we think would interest the doctors,” he said.

According to her, the journal publishes different types of articles from various medical disciplines, such as editorials, review articles, case reports, original articles, brief communications, clinical quiz, clinical notes and letters to the editor.

The journal provides helpful information about important health-related issues such as ‘psychological impact of breast cancer diagnosis among Omani women’ or ‘breast cancer symptoms’, and Al Mahruqi believes that this information can reach to the public if a special publication is created for them in which scientific terminology is not used.

Medical exhibition The three-day medical exhibition, which concluded on Wednes-

day, was held under the patronage of the Ministry of Health and the exhibition brought together representatives from different segments of the health sector to showcase the latest technologies, services and facilities and develop partnerships.

Free medical consultation was provided to visitors in various sections and their queries about seeking medical treatment abroad were answered.

Oman Medical Association, Oman Medical College and Oman Heart Association participated in the exhibition along with health institutes from Oman, Malaysia, Iran and Tunisia in addition to Germany, Turkey, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.

The United Kingdom, Pakistan, Ukraine, India, Australia and Switzerland are the others who participated.

It is a very good idea to have a journal related to the public to keep them informed about improvements th at are happening in Oman and spread awareness about different diseases Bishara Al Mahruqi Oman Medical Journal

and the need for more educational music events and programmes, explained Arabesque International’s GM, Ahmed Abouzahra.

The purpose of the Muscat Chamber Music Series is to bring high-quality chamber music ensembles to Muscat for one to three weeks to do education and outreach activities, followed by a concert that will be free to the public.

For more information about the Muscat Chamber Music Series or to lend support to the initiative, contact Arabesque International at info@arabesqueint.com.

MUSCAT: Coordinated efforts by the Public Authority of Civil Defence and Ambulance (PACDA) and the Royal Oman Police (ROP) during the recent rains resulted in the successful transfer of patients from Al Nahda Hospital to other hospitals nearby without any casualties.

These efforts received wide attention during a follow-up by officials in the Sultanate, led by the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Finance, and Sheikh Saif bin Mohammed Al Shabibi, minister of housing and chairman of the services sector, who also visited the hospital during the crisis.

Dr Mohammed bin Saif Al Hosni, undersecretary at the Ministry of Health for Health Affairs and chairman of the Medical Response Sector, visited the Al Nahda Hospital to inspect the resumption of work. The hospital staff, personnel of PACDA, ROP and other sectors made tremendous efforts to deal with the situation with a series of visits and meetings.

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REGION

With much sadness, we received the news of the death of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, a loss to the Arab and Islamic world Mahmud Abbas, Palestinian president

Salman named new Saudi King as Abdullah passes away at 90 A1 HM’s message < FROM

In his first public statement King

conveyed

Salman vowed to ‘remain, with Allah’s strength, attached to the straight path that this state has walked since its establishment’

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia buried late Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia on Friday as foreign leaders gathered in the capital for the funeral of the ruler of Saudi Arabia.

King Abdullah died early Friday aged about 90.

He was replaced by his brother Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, who joined Gulf rulers and leaders including Oman’s His Highness Deputy Prime Minister for the Council of Ministers Sayyid Fahd bin Mahmoud Al Said, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for a funeral service at Riyadh’s Imam Turki bin Abdullah mosque.

The body was quickly moved to nearby Al Od public cemetery where it was buried. Citizens were invited to pledge allegiance to King Salman at the royal palace. Another of the late monarch’s brothers, Maqrin, was named crown prince.

In his first public statement as the new ruler, 79-year-old King Salman vowed to “remain, with Allah’s strength, attached to the straight path that this state has walked since its establishment”.

He called in televised remarks for “unity and solidarity” among Muslims and vowed to work in “the defence of the causes of our nation”.

Mohammed bin Nayef Moving quickly to clear uncertainty over the transition to the next generation, King Salman named the interior minister, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, as second in line to the throne. He also appointed one of his own sons, Prince Mohammed, as defence minister.

President Barack Obama was quick to pay tribute to Abdullah

BIDDING ADIEU: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia (centre, in glasses) attends the funeral of the late Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, in Riyadh, on Friday. — Reuters/Saudi Press Agency

Sayyid Fahd aslo conveyed His Majesty’s message to Crown Prince Maqrin bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the deceased family and brotherly people of Saudi Arabia on the death of the Saudi King, praying to Allah the Almighty to rest his soul in peace and grant his family and the Saudi people patience to bear the loss.

Sayyid Fahd returned from Riyadh after paying condolences on Friday.

King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud expressed thanks and appreciation for His Majesty the Sultan’s condolences and sympathy along with the condolences of the Omani people on the death of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques praying to Allah the Almighty to grant his Majesty the Sultan good health, happiness and a long life. - ONA

Riyadh to take part in official ceremonies on Saturday.

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper praised the late king as “an ardent defender of peace”.

And the foreign ministry in Spain hailed Abdullah as “a respected figure throughout the Middle East for his willingness to help resolve conflicts”.

TRANSITION: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia gives a speech following the death of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, in Riyadh, on Friday. — Reuters/Saudi Press Agency

as a “valued” ally. “The closeness and strength of the partnership between our two countries is part of King Abdullah’s legacy,” Obama said in a statement shortly after the monarch’s death.

Vice President Joe Biden said on

S TA N D O F F

Twitter he would lead a delegation to Saudi Arabia “to pay respect and offer condolences”. Other tributes came in from foreign leaders, with French President Francois Hollande hailing Abdullah as “a statesman whose work profoundly

PRAYERS: Dignitaries attend the funeral of late Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, in Riyadh, on Friday. — ONA

marked the history of his country”.

British Prime Minister David Cameron said he was “deeply saddened” and that Abdullah would be remembered for “his commitment to peace and for strengthening understanding between faiths.”

Prince Charles of Wales is to travel to Riyadh as The Queen’s representative to pay his respects, the royal’s office said.

Tehran offered its condolences, saying Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif would travel to

Dialogue German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Abdullah’s rule had been “fair and moderate”, praising him for aiding “dialogue between the Muslim world and the West”.

In the Middle East, Lebanon, which has close ties with Riyadh, spoke of losing “a defender and a partner” who had stood by Beirut “in difficult times”. Tunisia’s President Beji Caid Essebsi said the king “ensured... support for causes of justice, peace and development in the Arab, Muslim and entire world”.

His country joined Algeria and Mauritania in announcing three days of mourning, while Cairo said its official grieving would run for a whole week. — AFP

GRAFT RETRIAL PENDING

Yemen crisis spirals Mubarak sons freed after end of term after Hadi resigns SANAA: Yemen faced a dangerous power vacuum on Friday after its president announced his resignation over a deadly standoff with Houthi militia controlling the capital and lawmakers called an emergency weekend session.

President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, a key US ally in the fight against Al Qaeda, said late Thursday that he could no longer stay in office as the country was in “total deadlock”.

Prime Minister Khalid Bahah also tendered his resignation, saying he did want to be part of the collapse of the country.

The fall of Hadi’s Westernbacked government would raise fears of complete chaos engulfing Yemen, strategically located on the key shipping route from the Suez Canal to the Gulf.

A senior State Department official said staffing at the US embassy in the capital Sanaa, already thin after most of the diplomatic personnel were ordered to leave in September, would be further reduced.

Al Qaeda base The country is an important power base for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which claimed responsibility for this month’s deadly attack on French weekly ‘Charlie Hebdo’.

Parliament is set to hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss Hadi’s resignation offer, which

President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, a key US ally in the fight against Al Qaeda, said late Thursday that he could no longer stay in office as the country was in ‘total deadlock’

needs to be approved by lawmakers to take effect. Hadi advisor Sultan Al Atwani told AFP that parliament would meet on Sunday “at the earliest” because it is in recess and lawmakers need time to return.

Witnesses and security forces said that Houthi militiamen had encircled the parliament building overnight, having already seized the presidential palace earlier this week. — AFP

CAIRO: Two sons of Egypt’s ousted leader Hosni Mubarak seen as symbols of his era’s corruption were freed from prison on Friday pending a graft retrial, state media reported. Alaa and Gamal Mubarak left jail early Friday after a court ordered their release because they had served the maximum pretrial detention, the state-owned Al Ahram newspaper reported on its website Mubarak, who was unseated in Egypt’s 2011 uprising, was convicted by a lower court on corruption charges with his two sons last year, with Alaa and Gamal receiving four-year sentences. Their charges included embezzling at least $16 million (14 million euros) earmarked for the maintenance of presidential palaces.

The retrial of the former leader and his two sons was ordered this month and their lawyer Farid Al Deeb said at the time that the elder Mubarak, who is in a military hospital, would also be a free man.

But state media reported there had been no orders yet for his release and there have been no signs of the 86-year-old leaving the hospital. Ahram reported that Alaa, 54, and Gamal, 51, were transported from jail to a police station in northern Cairo before being freed.

They are both facing a separate trial for stock market manipulation. In the last decade of Mubarak’s 30-year reign, Gamal in particular was seen as the likely successor of his father and headed the powerful policies committee of the now dissolved

FREEDOM: Alaa, right, and Gamal Mubarak left jail early on Friday after a court ordered their release because they had served the maximum pretrial detention, the state-owned ‘Al Ahram’ newspaper reported on its website. — AFP file photo

National Democratic Party.

The release of the Mubaraks presents a dilemma for President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, a former army chief whom opponents accuse of

reviving Mubarak-era practices.

His prime minister, Ibrahim Mahlab, was a senior member of the National Democratic Party.

Sisi took power after ousting

Egypt’s first post-revolution leader — extremist president Mohamed Morsi —in 2013 and won an election with massive support last year. — AFP

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REPUBLIC DAY REHEARSAL The Indian BrahMos supersonic cruise missile system rolls down Rajpath during the full Republic Day Dress rehearsal, in New Delhi, on Friday. India celebrates Republic Day on January 26. - AFP

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Explosion in Bihar court leaves 2 dead PATNA: Two people — a woman and a police constable — were killed and more than a dozen injured in a bomb blast in a Bihar court on Friday.

It was not a terror attack but was aimed at helping two undertrial prisoners escape, police said.

Earlier, it was said that three people were killed but police later clarified that one of four seriously injured was mistakenly identified as dead initially due to panic.

A district police officer said a crude bomb exploded within the premises of the Ara civil court in Bhojpur district, about 60km from the Bihar capital.

The injured were rushed to the local civil hospital for treatment.

Some of them were later referred to the Patna Medical College and Hospital when their condition deteriorated. Security in courts across the state was beefed up following the blast.

Additional Director General of Police Gupteshwar Pandey told the media that the bomb was carried by a woman, one of the victims. “Police have found a mobile

24X7 POWER

India seeks energy sector investment DAVOS: Having set a world record with fastest roll-out of its financial inclusion scheme ‘Jan Dhan’, the government expects its ambitious power sector programme to create more such records, including by making India the world’s largest destination for renewable energy.

“We are giving the message of India story as a whole and we are looking at getting back to excitement to investing in India across the sectors,” said Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal, who is here to attend the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting.

“Clearly energy is one sector where there is lot of excitement and interest that I am seeing from across the world,” Goyal said in an interview. He is also in charge of the New and Renewable Energy Ministry.

“The ambitious target that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set out for 24X7 power to every home and industry and commercial establishments and also adequate power to farmers to increase their farm output, this demonstrates the demand for power that is going to come out,” he said. Goyal, who is also holding a number of bilateral meetings with business and government leaders from across the world on the sidelines of WEF summit, said that India is at the cusp of getting into another orbit in terms of renewable energy.

Similar is the case for power transmission and distribution sector as well as the energy access that has been lacking all these years, he added.

“All of this put together is a $250 billion opportunity. This $250 billion opportunity is what would kick-start the investment cycle,” he said.

Asked how much the government expects from foreign investors, Goyal said, “Money is least of our concerns in terms of investment that India is looking at”.

“My take is that money would flow once people get the confidence that their money is safe in India and the government policies are stable. There is a decisive government and honest government”.

Focus on reforms Noting that all of these are attributes that Modi has demonstrated in Gujarat as chief minister, Goyal said the first eight months of the new government at Centre has shown the world that the prime minster means business, is focussed on reforms as well as on speed and scale of expanding the business.

“My feeling is that the money would come from both within India and from international investors. I would not like to put a figure, but the kind of interest that I am seeing when people are meeting me here with their plans, that suggests that we would not have any difficulty in getting $250 billion invested in the electricity and renewable sector within the target period of 2019,” Goyal said.

When asked whether power sector can achieve records similar to the Guinness Record achieved for Jan Dhan scheme of the government, Goyal replied in the affirmative. - PTI

CRIMINAL ACT: Injured victims being treated in a government hospital after a crude bomb explosion in the civil court premises in Ara, Bihar on Friday. - PTI

phone near the mutilated body of the woman,” he said.

Pandey said it was neither an attack by terrorists nor by Maoists. “This incident was a criminal act to help two undertrial prisoners escape when they were being brought to the court from the district jail,” he said. Pandey, however, denied that the woman was a suicide bomber. “It was a coincidence that the bomb exploded in her bag when she was trying to adjust it,” he said. - IANS

Safe havens in Pakistan not acceptable: Obama US President Barack Obama said the US

When those of us at the leadership level agree on action, our governments have to actually implement our decisions. We have to make sure our words are matched by deeds

will keep working with India for a future that delivers greater security, prosperity and dignity for all people

NEW DELHI: In a stern message to Pakistan, US President Barack Obama has said the safe havens of terrorism within that country are “not acceptable” and that those behind the Mumbai attack must face justice.

Ahead of his visit here, Obama said the US will keep working with India for a future that delivers greater security, prosperity and dignity for all people.

Asserting that his country has been unrelenting in its fight against terrorist groups, he said, “I’ve made it clear that even as the United States works with Pakistan to meet the threat of terrorism, safe havens within Pakistan are not acceptable and that those behind the Mumbai terrorist attack must face justice.”

His comment assumes signifi-

Barack Obama US president cance as India has recently been having renewed questions over Pakistan’s sincerity in ensuring punishment to the perpetrators of Mumbai attack of November 2008.

Strong message The questions arose after the attack mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi was granted bail in the case. Obama noted that like Indians were tragically killed in the 9/11 attack in New York, Americans were also killed in the 26/11 attack in Mumbai.

To send a strong message to the Indian people that “we stand to-

gether in defence of our security and our way of life”, he had made Taj hotel in Mumbai his first stop during his first visit to India in 2010, he said in an e-mail interview to India Today.

Upbeat about his upcoming three-day visit to India which he described as a “natural partner”, Obama said he was proud to be the first US President to visit this country twice. He said he saw it as an opportunity to work with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make concrete progress and to “hopefully begin a new era” in the history between our countries.

Recalling his unveiling his vision during his last visit here, Obama said “While it’s true that progress has not always come as fast as we would have liked, we’ve succeeded in deepening the US-India relationship across the board.”

The US President said Modi’s election and his commitment to a new chapter in the relationship gives the two countries to further energise the partnership. “I’d like to think that the stars are aligned to finally realise the vision I outlined in Parliament (of India)”.

Noting that no two nations agree on everything, he said, “so of course, sometimes India and the US will disagree. But I believe that we can work through any differences in a spirit of mutual respect”.

He said, “When those of us at the leadership level agree on action, our governments have to actually implement our decisions. We have to make sure our words are matched by deeds.”

The two countries can work together to reduce barriers to trade, investment, and high-tech collaboration, he said, adding American companies are ready to help build the infrastructure that will be the catalyst for the next wave of Indian growth.

He had special praise for Modi, saying “his remarkable life story — from tea-seller to prime minister — is a reflection of the determination of the Indian people to succeed.” He added that Modi has a clear vision of big things that he wants India to achieve. -PTI

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S ATUR DAY, JAN UA RY 24, 2 015

INDIA

The life and sacrifices of Netaji serve as beacon light for future generations. Our true homage to Netaji would be to work with dedication to make our country for whose sake Netaji sacrificed his everything, so strong, prosperous and progressive that it may one day become a great power in the world Pranab Mukherjee, President

Reforms, tax stability in Jaitley’s sales pitch Hard selling India to global investors at

with unreasonable

Now that opportunity has come back to us. Slowly we (BJP) are moving in the direction of having a good figure in the Rajya Sabha.

The pro-reforms (groups) have won everywhere

demands and change

Arun Jaitley

the World Economic Forum, at Davos the Finance Minister promised a stable tax regime that will not come up

Finance Minister

taxes retrospectively

DAVOS: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday hinted at not raising tax rates and providing incentives for manufacturing in the coming general budget while asserting that “structural changes” will have to be made to get the economy to 8-9 per cent growth.

Hard selling India to global investors at the World Economic Forum here, he also promised a stable tax regime that will not come up with unreasonable demands and change taxes retrospectively.

“In terms of incentivising manufacturing, it is very much on our agenda. Even though we had few days during the last Budget we did give to Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), National Investment and Manufacturing zone(NIMZ) and so on because we wanted the sector to pick up and that priority is fairly high on our agenda,” he said speaking at a session on ‘India’s Next Decade’.

Counter-productive While referring to various revenue sources for the government including divestment, dividend and spectrum sale, the finance minister said as economic activity picks up, the government’s capacity to raise revenue will also increase.

“I am not in favour of raising the rates of taxation as that could become counter-productive,” he told

reporters late on Friday. Jaitley expressed confidence that India was close to the point when investment will pick up as there are a large number of investors who are waiting to come in.

“They only want to be doubly sure about the credibility of the decision making process and the stability of the policies,” he said.

Speaking at Friday’s session, Jaitley said there was need to take a series of reforms as the last 10 years got lost out because of unnecessary debates.

“Now that opportunity has come back to us. Slowly we (BJP) are moving in the direction of having a good figure in the Rajya Sabha. The pro-reforms (groups) have won everywhere,” he said.

The slumping oil prices was another factor that was going in India’s favour. Also many economies in the world, which were competing with India, were not doing well.

“It is really possible for us to go back to the original capacity of high growth rate. As far as taxation is concerned, the global community and Indian tax payers want to be convinced that there will be a stable tax regime.

“I cannot come up with unreasonable demand and change taxes retrospectively. Such tax demands as such do not earn us any revenue and give us only bad name,” he said.

“The message I am giving is that we will have a stable tax regime.”

To a question on whether it will be a ‘Big Bang’ Budget next month, he said he would not be swayed by such phrases used in television studios. If the sum total of all the steps the government has taken is taken into account, it would be much more than the big bang.

“The Budget will be a very important occasion for the government but then the next 364 days are equally important. I am not tempering down the expectations.

Look what happened in the last Budget that we presented. We announced a particular direction in the Budget and that was followed up with a lot of activity and action over the next six months,” he said.

Talking about subsidies, Jaitley said a scheme has now been started from January 1 under which leakages will be plugged in the first place.

In the last 10 years, the government added to the expenditure based on rights-based approach, which was not the most logical approach.

“To have an erroneous impression that increasing subsidised cylinders from 6 to 12 (per year) will win you elections...that just did not happen. Now consumers of gas cylinders are not the poorest in India,” he said.

The finance minister said if the money on additional gas cylinders went into India’s health and eduction sector, that would have had far more deserving priorities.

“Now we have to unravel this en-

tire process. That is a long journey.

The government is here for the full term and we have just about started,” he said.

Replying to questions on policy paralysis, he said one of the great set backs of the previous decades had been that the credibility of the government took a hit and therefore other structures became more powerful.

“CAG, CBI and courts all became more powerful. The general presumption was that government was doing things for collateral consideration. This was the biggest setback for the government,” he said.

Jaitley said several decisions got held up for environmental and other reasons. Added to this was the Prevention of Corruption Act which had a pre-1991 economic reform era provision under every decision including honest decision can be brought under the ambit of the law.

“I know for certain for three extremely honest secretaries of Government of India are being investigated, prosecuted by CBI for decisions taken during 10-12 years for purely commercial considerations. I believe time has come for us to review that law. Even section 31 needs a relook under which every honest decision can also go under the ambit of CBI. “We need to empower civil servants and public sector banks.” he said. - PTI

MURDER CASE

Journalist Nalini Singh questioned in Sunanda’s death NEW DELHI: Senior journalist Nalini Singh was questioned here in connection with the murder case of Sunanda Pushkar, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s wife, police said Friday.

Singh was called by the probe team led by Deputy Commissioner of Police Prem Nath at Sarojini Nagar police station, where she was questioned for over an hour.

Singh said: “I met them (police) for about 80 minutes. This was my first meeting with the police.”

“Police asked me the sequence of my talk with Sunanda, before her death. They also asked the IPL (Indian Premiere League) angle as well,” Singh said.

“I don’t know what she wanted to say. But she wanted to speak about the IPL,” the senior journalist added.

“To understand background of the case, the probing team is calling people who are connected to it,” said Police Commissioner B.S. Bassi.

On the question of possibility of roping the Economic Offense Wing into the case, Bassi said: “For understanding the background, if it is required, will do that.”

On Thursday, the investigation team questioned another journalist, television anchor Rahul Kanwal of Headlines Today, to whom Pushkar had wanted to give an interview on certain undisclosed issue.

Later, Kanwal posted the contents of his talk with police on social media, stating Sunanda was keen to give an interview.

“On January 16, when the spat between Shashi Tharoor and Sunanda splashed all over the news channels, I reached out to Sunanda asking her if she was keen on doing an interview to talk about the ‘IPL scam’ she had been referring to in her tweets,” Kanwal wrote in his Facebook account.

Both the journalists were questioned soon after Bassi told media on Thursday that they would take the help of those journalists who had talked to Sunanda before her death to corroborate the sequence of events. Sunanda was found dead in a luxury hotel’s room here on January 17, 2014. Police said she was poisoned. A murder case was registered by the police against unknown people on January 1 this year. - IANS

PROBE

CBI registers fresh case in coal scam NEW DELHI: The CBI on Friday registered a fresh case in its ongoing probe in the alleged coal allocation scam against Hindalco and conducted searches at four places in Mumbai and Odisha.

The agency registered the case against Indal, now Hindalco Industries, under sections of cheating, criminal conspiracy and Prevention of Corruption Act in its probe related to the allocation of Talabira I coal block to Hindalco in 1994.

Conducted searches The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) teams also conducted searches at the office premises of the company at four places, one in Mumbai and three in Odi-

sha, a CBI official said. “Some incriminating documents have been seized during the searches,” he said.

“Allegations are that the coal was used in unauthorised manner in the existing power plant whereas allocation was done for expanding the capacity of new power plant.

“Further mining was started without mine opening permission,” the official added.

“The public servants facilitated the allocation of coal block by not taking action against the unauthorised use despite their knowledge,” the official said.

Earlier, the CBI registered 37 First Information Reports (FIR) in coal allocation cases. - IANS

118TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY

‘Adopt Netaji’s slogans of unity, faith’ NEW DELHI: The country’s youth should adopt Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s slogans of ‘unity, faith and sacrifice’, President Pranab Mukherjee said on Friday.

In his message to the Netaji Research Bureau, Kolkata, Pranab said the life and sacrifices of Subhash Chandra Bose act as a beacon light for future generations and people should work towards making a strong, prosperous and progressive India.

The president asked the youths to once again adopt “the slogan of ‘Ittefaq, Itmad, Kurbani’ or Unity, Faith, Sacrifice as the clarion call of our nation.”

“The life and sacrifices of Netaji serve as beacon light for future generations. Our true homage to Netaji would be to work with dedication to make our country for whose sake Netaji sacrificed his everything, so strong, prosperous and progressive that it may one day become a great power in the world,” Pranab said in the message on Netaji’s 118th birth anniversary.

Netaji had believed that free India would become, by example, an alternative model for a post-

PAYING TRIBUTES: People pay tribute to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose on the occasion of his 118th birth anniversary at Subhash square, in Allahabad, on Friday. - PTI

colonial world through economic equity and a social revolution inspired by harmony between communities that had been misled into hostility, the President said.

Propelled by freedom of faith, gender equality and economic justice for all, India will become a modern nation, he said, remembering the freedom fighter.

The president said the place of Subhas Chandra Bose is “unique” in the history of India’s freedom struggle. Netaji was unanimously elected Rashtrapati of the 51st session of the Indian National

Congress held in Haripura in February 1938.

His Presidential address at the session was a masterpiece of vision and action. He talked not only of freedom but also of reconstruction and the need for planning by setting up a Planning Committee, Pranab said. Netaji had called for the gradual socialisation of the entire agricultural and industrial system and reminded delegates that “our chief national problems are eradication of poverty, illiteracy and disease”, the President said. -PTI

SAT URDAY, JANUARY 24, 2015

A7

PAKISTAN

The current petrol crisis has paralysed the country and you can imagine how we can face sanctions. Gas imports from Iran are subject to the lifting of sanctions, it’s in the national interest, said State Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Jam Kamal

M O N O P O LY AT T H R E AT

Government rejects industry demand to ban import of used cars ISLAMABAD: The government has turned down the demand of local carmakers who sought imposition of a ban on the import of used cars in a bid to facilitate the consumers.

“Local carmakers want a ban on the import of used cars to strengthen their monopoly but the government has rejected it,” an official said, adding the manufacturers had some reservations about the upcoming auto policy. The Privatisation Commission chairman has been tasked with addressing their concerns.

According to officials, the government will also introduce a tariff protection plan for the new entrants in the automobile manufacturing sector in the auto

policy to break the monopoly of existing players.

Stakeholders have proposed that the government should introduce a lower entry threshold for new investments, create an enabling tariff structure for development and rationalise the auto import policy.

The Economic Coordination Committee, in a meeting held on October 2, 2013, suggested that they may give tariff protection for five to seven years to the new entrants to break the existing monopoly of players who are selling obsolete technology at high prices.

Officials said the government wanted to create an environment of competition by bringing more players into the auto industry,

SHIFTING GEAR: Stakeholders have proposed that the government should introduce a lower entry threshold for new investments, create an enabling tariff structure for development and rationalise the auto import policy. — Bloomberg News file photo

which may result in a decline in vehicle prices.

However, some say local carmakers were operating at a low capacity due to lower demand for

cars in the country. But others argue that they were operating at such a capacity in order to keep prices high with the law of demand and supply.

Concern over teachers carrying guns mounts arms and ammunition. “This will have adverse effects on the minds of the children” Khan stressed.

Former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister and Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam (JUI) MPA Akram Khan Durrani said the provincial government should have consulted all political parties before taking the decision.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf led government had allowed teachers to carry licensed weapons to school in the aftermath of Peshawar’s Army Public School attack in which 150 people were killed

PESHAWAR: Political parties have raised serious concerns over the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government’s decision to allow teachers to carry guns while teaching at school.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) led government had allowed teachers to carry licensed weapons to school in the aftermath of the deadly Army Public School attack in which 150 people were killed.

Make matters worse Lawmakers stated that the province has suffered enough in the war against terror and allowing teachers to carry guns would

Look, the government is not capable of guarding every single citizen by deputing a police constable with him. Yes, if teachers approach us and ask us to issue them licence, we will not deny it, but it does not mean we ask them to carry guns Shaukat Yusufzai Former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Minister

just make matters worse.

“I don’t know how a child will be able to get educated under the shadow of an AK-47,” said Awami National Party (ANP) Senator

Baz Muhammad Khan.

Khan said the provincial government needed to devise a strategy to overcome militancy rather than equipping every citizen with

S TA L L E D P R O J E C T

Iran gas pipeline work after lifting of sanctions ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Iran have reached an understanding that they will start implementing the gas pipeline project soon after sanctions imposed by the United States are lifted.

“We have agreed with them (Iran) that we will execute the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project once the curbs are removed,” Petroleum Secretary Arshad Mirza told the Senate standing committee on petroleum and natural resources in a meeting chaired by Muhammad Yousaf on Thursday.

“The agreement is between two nations under the umbrella of the United Nations, which bars us from implementation because of the embargo,” he said.

State Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Jam Kamal told the panel that Pakistan could not afford sanctions while pushing ahead with the pipeline.

“The current petrol crisis has paralysed the country and you can imagine how we can face sanctions,” he said.

“Gas imports from Iran are subject to the lifting of sanctions, it’s in the national interest.”

The country has other choices as well to meet its growing energy needs. It is working on the Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (Tapi) gas pipeline, Gwadar liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline and is also under-

The agreement is between two nations under the umbrella of the United Nations, which bars us from implementation because of the embargo Arshad Mirza Petroleum Secretary taking measures to tap domestic oil and gas reserves.

Kamal said the Gwadar LNG pipeline would be connected to Iran after the restrictions on Tehran were removed. “We have not given up the project and talks are under way with Iran.”

The government was also increasingly focusing on exploiting the untapped domestic oil and gas deposits and gave targets to exploration companies to double the output in the next five years, he said.

A steering committee will also meet next month in Islamabad to pick a consortium leader for un-

dertaking the Tapi project.

Committee member and Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) leader Jehangir Badar called the IP pipeline the future of Pakistan, pointing out that the previous government had not abandoned the project despite the sanctions. He suggested the government hold dialogue on the project.

Committee Chairman Muhammad Yousaf pointed out that Saifur Rehman, former head of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), was reportedly a middleman between Pakistan and Qatar in striking an LNG supply deal.

Senator Abdul Nabi Bangash, member of the committee, agreed that Rehman was a middleman and the LNG agreement could not have gone ahead without his involvement.

Petroleum Secretary Mirza refused to comment on the matter, only saying talks with Qatar were going on in Doha and the petroleum minister had also left to join the negotiations.

“It will take some time to finalise the LNG price.”

Responding to a question, Mirza said the country was still facing shortage of petrol, but the situation had stabilised.

He stressed that there was enough stock of furnace oil for meeting the needs of power plants. — Express Tribune

Government is responsible “The government is responsible for the protection and security of its citizens, not the citizens themselves,” Durrani said.

Qaumi Watan Party’s (QWP) Anisa Zeb Tahirkhili said the provincial government should focus on the security of schools and should issue arms licenses to the security guards rather than allowing teachers to carry guns.

On the other hand, former Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Minister Shaukat Yusufzai clarified that the provincial government never allowed teachers to carry guns, adding that their decision was being looked at with a very negative approach.

“Look, the government is not capable of guarding every single citizen by deputing a police constable with him.

“Yes, if teachers approach us and ask us to issue them licence, we will not deny it, but it does not mean we ask them to carry guns,” Yousafzai said. — Express Tribune

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

Prices of sedans in Pakistan were lower compared to India but prices of hatchbacks were higher compared to other countries.

Auto sectors of other countries have many players that increase competition due to which prices are kept low.

However in Pakistan, where a few manufacturers are dominant, the cost to the consumer is generally high.

The decision to introduce a new auto policy was taken by the government when it noticed that the incentives had no effect on car prices, as assemblers took the entire advantage.

They also earn hefty profits on the advance deposited by consumers for car delivery.

Economic managers in the government have consistently criticised the car assemblers, saying that despite availability of abundant incentives, no commitment made to the government has been met.

The PML-N government wants that the new policy covers the facilities being offered to the auto industry, the need for new entrants, the existing duty structure for import of motor vehicles, standards set by the Engineering Development Board and requirements of a long-term policy framework.

Officials said the government is working on a plan to reduce the time of car delivery so that consumers are not exploited.

— Express Tribune

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Of a relationship that still remains lopsided

P

resident Barack Obama calls David Cameron “bro”, just as President George W Bush addressed Tony as “yo Blair”. We should not, though, assume that the transatlantic relationship is quite as buddy-buddy as it was in the Blair era. It is looser, more pragmatic and business like now. Good. Of course, even at the height of AngloAmerican co-operation, when our fighting forces were in the field together in Afghanistan and Iraq, it was a somewhat lopsided affair, as it was always bound to be. America is a superpower and Britain a medium-sized European one. The UK punched above its weight, thanks not least to the skill and professionalism of our servicemen and women. Sentiment was there, and is there still, in many quarters in Washington. Yet most Americans have never heard of this supposed “special relationship” with the UK. Recent administrations have regarded, variously, Mexico, Canada, China, Japan, Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia as “special”. Generally, there has a been a tilt towards the Pacific. The British “special relationship” was always, from an American point of view, an optional extra. If it didn’t work, it could be adjusted, as when they withdrew co-operation over nuclear secrets after a series of spy scandals in the 1950s, and let the British be hung out to dry over Suez in 1956.

Things were not so very different half a century on. In the run-up to the 2003 Iraq war, it was made clear by hawks such as then Vice-President Dick Cheney that the US was going to invade even if the British did not join, and whether or not we managed to persuade our EU partners the French to support a proper UN resolution. For Tony Blair, it was simply a matter of loyalty; he asked whether Britain should be on the side of the most powerful nation on earth, or against it – for him a rhetorical question. The decision for war in Iraq was probably made long before he consulted the Cabinet, still less Parliament, though we are still awaiting the report of the Chilcot Inquiry – scandalously delayed – to tell us more about that.

The result of the Blair-Bush “special relationship” was thus an illegal war, millions of innocent people dead and a toxic legacy that we know all too well today – a resurgent Taliban and the barbarities of Isis. So who wants a special relationship like the Bush-Blair one? Not Obama, and not Cameron, who always knew he would be unlikely to be able to replicate the closeness of Blair-Bush or Blair-Clinton, let alone Thatcher-Reagan, Churchill-Roosevelt or Macmillan-Kennedy.

Sometimes the chemistry is there even when the politics are divergent; sometimes a very similar political outlook can count for nothing, as with Lyndon Johnson’s relationship with Harold Wilson. Both were social democratic reformers, but Wilson refused to send even a token battalion of kilted Scots Guards to get sniped at by the Viet Cong. - The Independent

COMMENTARY

Well, this is our side of the terror story M ZIAUDDIN

Living in the Stone Age?

T

he government continued playing the blame game on January 19 over the petrol shortage in Punjab — which had its trickledown effect in Karachi as well — with the finance minister refusing to take responsibility, while the petroleum minister expressed a rare admission of guilt. The statements came after days of petroleum shortage gripped Punjab with panic trickling down to other cities as well, finally managing to engulf Karachi on January 19. This development strangely happens at a time when global crude oil prices have plunged more than 50 per cent over the past seven months, making it easier and cheaper for any oil-importing country to move towards building strategic reserves, and enabling businesses to target expansion as the cost of production goes down as well.

Instead, what Pakistanis got was an acute shortage of petrol, which could only be explained after taking all the factors into account — the government’s inept policies and traditional short-sightedness taking the top place. In recent times, the prime minister has been happy in announcing reduction in prices of petroleum products, looking to take credit for the relief. But, when it comes to building reserves or enforcing rules to get oil marketing companies to increase their stocks, the government seemed to have done nothing substantial. And now faced with this crisis, the authorities have labelled it a “conspiracy”. But a conspiracy hatched by whom? Even the PTI sit-ins have ended — the government’s go-to excuse for any shortcoming. On the one hand, the finance minister is looking to lure foreign investors in the power sector; and, on the other, there is not enough fuel in major cities to run even small sedans. It is true that demand rose after consumers, already facing CNG shortage, said enough is enough and moved towards petrol as their new fuel. The effect of the price cut also led consumers to buy more. These concepts are taught on the first day of any economics class. However, with oil getting cheaper, the quantity being imported remained conservative so as to avoid inventory losses, with no planning seemingly done to account for the increased demand. People got a taste of living in the Stone Age. - The Express Tribune

Tigers, despite rise in their number, still remain few I don’t know whether I should feel elated or laugh at our own follies. Tiger lovers across the world have gone ecstatic. The population of the big cat in India has gone up to 2,226 from 1,706 when the last global census of the animal was undertaken in 2010. In effect, the tiger population in the country has gone up by 30 per cent and this is indeed a reason to feel happy. But is the current population of the big cat a matter to rejoice? The animal, the most beautiful and majestic in the world, is still veering on the verge of extinction. It is true that their number has risen because of measures being taken to stem their poaching. But poaching is still going on and 2,226 is still a very vulnerable number. A lot

more needs to be done to increase the tiger population to at least 10,000 in next twenty years.

Minu Dutta Muttrah

Poor are now being eradicated, not poverty Sustainable development and eradication of poverty can be possible only when the inequality gap is reduced to minimum and benefits are widely shared. But alas! Still we have in our planet at least two fifth of our race living on less than $1.25 a day. Rising tide has neither lifted all the boats nor has it reduced the widening gap of inequality. Instead, they have found that an easier alternative is eradication of the poor rather than poverty. In sharp contrast to this dismal and grim scenario

At times, the murderous incidents have been presented by our media as if the terrorists are playing the role of the Jack who killed the giant in the famous fable. In our case, unfortunately, the state itself, as well as its agencies, is viewed by these misled youth as the giant

T

he main objective of the kind of terrorism that Pakistan has been facing over the last several years is to capture the hearts and minds of as many Pakistanis as possible, and not the territory. The thinking behind this approach is that territory would automatically fall into the hands of these ideologically driven terrorists once they have succeeded in achieving their key objective. And for achieving this key objective of theirs, the terrorists depend more on the media rather than on the far and few terror attacks that they execute.

That is why they try to make each one of their attacks as dramatically bloody as they can, knowing very well that it would be impossible for the media to ignore the ‘thrillers’. And they add to the drama by calling up media organisations to own up to the attacks. All this makes sensationally saleable copy for the ratings-driven media houses.

In the process, they help, without perhaps knowing it, the terrorists to win more recruits among the mentally feeble sections of our youth who have been raised on some mythical versions of so-called Islamic history and at the same time terrorise the whole nation into a state of pathetic pulp.

The media houses that have tried to cover these attacks as professionally as possible so as to defuse their impact on the hearts and minds of the gullible citizens are known to have been taught new lessons on what is professional and what is not.

The media, therefore, has remained under severe pressure from these terror outfits and in recent years, the country has won the dubious distinction of being one of world’s most dangerous countries for media practitioners.

Working under all kinds of pressures, mostly from terrorist organisations and not the least from even those who have been promoting and supporting the falsehood of the ‘good’ Taliban and the ‘bad’ Taliban, and those who have been looking the other way as the so-called non-state actors carried out their activities beyond the borders of the country, the Pakistani media seemed to have become an unwilling partner

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Posterity is as likely to be wrong as anyone else HEYWOOD BROUN

in the heinous game of the terrorists.

Most media narratives of these terror incidents, like the ones carried out against our security forces and their installations including the GHQ itself as well as air force and navy installations, ISI offices and police training camps, have remained slanted in ways as to inspire the religiously halfbaked young minds.

At times, the murderous incidents have been presented by our media as if the terrorists are playing the role of the Jack who killed the giant in the famous fable.

In our case, unfortunately, the state itself, as well as its agencies, is viewed by these misled youth as the giant.

Over the period in question, the media, under pressure from terror quarters, had started referring to the terrorists not as terrorists but as ‘militants’ or ‘extremists’.

And in order to be seen to be presenting both sides of the story, it went to the extent of offering space and time to the attackers of Malala Yousufzai to justify their heinous act which they did by quoting out-of-context religious injunctions.

Just imagine how this ‘balanced’ story must have seemed to the credulous sections of our populace in whose eyes the so-called ‘secular’ government enjoyed no moral ascendency compared with the reverential-looking bearded terrorists, justifying their act.

Recently, even after the 20-point National Action Plan was announced, and the distinction between the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Taliban was removed, some media houses showed scenes in which a hero-like welcome was being accorded to Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, a senior commander of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba, as he was being brought to the courts from his place of detention. Thus, the media, without perhaps knowing what it is doing, has been playing a significantly more lethal role than the automatic weapons in the hands of these terrorists or their suicide jackets, in winning the hearts and minds of our misguided youth.

It is now time to stop using this slant and treat each terror story on merit.

In this war on terror, there is no other side. There is only one side and that is our side. - The Express Tribune

of global poverty the market for luxury goods catering to the 0.01 per cent mega rich people witnessed a double-digit growth since past four years albeit the financial downturn.

J. S. Subramaniam Mumtaz

Deep down the facade India is undemocratic The other day I heard someone telling with perceptible pride that he was born free in a free country and has grown up in one of the finest democratic atmospheres in the world. Normally, I would never pay attention to such rants but I was drawn into the conversation seeing the proud gentleman was an Indian and is at least sixty years of age. I knew that the gentleman was in his youth when

former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi declared emergency on June 26, 1975. Rather than entering into any kind of argument with the gentleman I simply, by way of putting across a point of information, reminded him that even the leading among the founding fathers of Indian democracy B.R. Ambedkar said. “ Democracy in India is only a top dressing on Indian soil which is essentially undemocratic.”

Had it not been so, we would not have been seeing the shameless infringement of the Hindu chauvinists into the religious rights of Indians; assaults on media for telling the truth and attempts to gag the voices of dissents. Every single political party which have come to power have done these.

Sumit Chatterjee Qurum

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Criminal case and five-year political ban for Yingluck ed by Yingluck supporters, who see the courts and NLA as biased and aligned with an establishment intent on blocking the Shinawatra family from politics.

“Yingluck’s case was not dealt with fairly,” said Thanawut Wichaidit, a spokesman for the pro-Yingluck United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship.

“The intention of these actions is for Yingluck and the entire Shinawatra family to be eradicated from Thai politics. I believe there is an invisible hand behind Yingluck’s impeachment.”

Around 150 members of the Shinawatra political movement have been banned from politics in the last decade, including four who had served as prime ministers.

The former Thai prime minister will face criminal charges in the Supreme Court and if found guilty faces up to 10 years in jail, the Attorney General’s Office said on Friday

BANGKOK: Thai authorities dealt a double blow to ousted prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her powerful family on Friday, banning her from politics for five years and proceeding with criminal charges for negligence that could put her in jail.

The moves could stoke tension in the politically divided country still living under martial law after the military seized power in May, toppling the remnants of Yingluck’s government to end months of street protests.

The ban and the legal case are the latest twist in 10 years of turbulent politics that have pitted Yingluck and her brother Thaksin, himself a former prime minister, against the royalist-military establishment which sees the Shinawatras as a threat and reviles their populist policies.

Yingluck will face criminal charges in the Supreme Court and if found guilty faces up to 10 years in jail, the Attorney General’s Office said on Friday.

The charges against the country’s first female premier, who was removed from office for abuse of power in May days before the D E AT H O F S TA R H I P P O

Taiwan toughens animal cruelty laws TAIPEI: Taiwanese authorities toughened animal cruelty laws on Friday in the wake of the death of a performing hippopotamus that once starred in a popular soap opera.

The new rules were drawn up after A Ho, a male hippo who regularly performed for spectators at a private zoo, died last month after breaking a leg and sustaining other injuries while being transported from the site.

The legislation, dubbed by the local media as the “A Ho clause”, doubles the maximum fine for intentionally causing serious injury or death to animals to $32,200 in addition to up to one year in prison, officials said.

The two-tonne beast was apparently panicked when he jumped from a moving truck, crushing its diaphragm and breaking a leg, only to sustain further injuries the following day when he was crushed inside a container while returning home from medical treatment.

Television footage at the time showed the enormous animal lying on the road — where it remained for hours — with white fluid oozing from its eyes after it leaped from the truck and bumped into a parked car. — AFP

DECISION TIME: National Legislative Assembly members vote on impeaching ousted former Prime

Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, at the Parliament, in Bangkok, on Saturday. — Reuters

Thai democracy has died along with the rule of law Yingluck Shinawatra Thailand’s former prime minister

coup, concern her role in a scheme that paid farmers above market prices for rice and cost Thailand billions of dollars. Yingluck vowed to fight the charges.

“Thai democracy has died along with the rule of law,” she said in a post on her Facebook page.

“I will fight until the end to prove my innocence, no matter what the outcome will be. And most impor-

tantly, I want to stand alongside the Thai people. Together we must bring Thailand prosperity, bring back democracy and truly build justice in Thai society.”

There was no sign of protests on the capital’s busy streets on Friday, as residents adhered to the junta’s ban on public gatherings.

Security was tightened around the parliament building where

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the military-stacked legislature voted Yingluck guilty in a separate impeachment case for failing to exercise sufficient oversight of the rice subsidy scheme.

The retroactive impeachment at the National Legislative Assembly (NLA) carries with it a five-year ban from politics.

Yingluck defended the rice scheme and disputed the charges in a hearing at the NLA on Thursday, but did not appear on Friday.

A vote to impeach required a three-fifths majority among NLA members, who were hand-picked by the junta of coup leader and Prime Minister Prayuth Chanocha. Around 100 of the 220 members are former or serving military officers.

Prayuth said he had not ordered the NLA to vote against Yingluck, who remains popular among the rural poor that handed her a landslide electoral victory in 2011 and benefited from the rice scheme.

The impeachment was expect-

Protests unlikely Prayuth’s government has urged Yingluck’s supporters to stay out of Bangkok this week over concerns of trouble, although a repeat of the protests that have dogged the country in recent years appears unlikely.

Authorities have been quick to stifle dissent, and political meetings are banned under martial law.

In a radio broadcast, Army Chief General Udomdej Sitabutr called on the population to respect the NLA vote, and a spokesman for the junta said it had seen no sign of unrest.

“Political gatherings cannot happen as we are still under martial law,” junta spokesman Winthai Suvaree said.

The government also asked Yingluck not to hold a press conference after the verdict on Friday, he said. Yingluck’s fortunes have been similar to those of her billionaire brother.

Both led populist governments toppled in coups, despite being elected in landslides, and both were subjected to legal action and street protests by pro-establishment activists. — Reuters

H E A LT H C R I S I S

Sierra Leone lifts Ebola quarantines FREETOWN: Sierra Leone on Friday lifted crippling nationwide restrictions on movement put in place at the height of the Ebola crisis, amid signs that the deadly epidemic was retreating.

The nation of six million had restricted travel for around half its population, sealing off six of its 14 districts and numerous tribal chiefdoms in response to an outbreak which has killed more than 3,000 Sierra Leoneans.

“Restrictions on movement will be eased to support economic activity. As such, there will no longer be any district or chiefdom level restrictions on movement,” President Ernest Bai Koroma said in an address to the nation late Thursday.

Victory in sight Koroma pointed to a “steady downward trend” in new cases in recent weeks, adding that “victory is in sight” but cautioning against complacency.

The president said the travel bans would be removed from Friday and restrictions will be eased on Saturday trading hours in the hard-hit Western Area, which includes the capital Freetown.

The move marks huge progress in a crisis which has seen commerce all but grind to a halt, with travel restrictions hitting the rural communities particularly hard and sparking warnings of a looming food crisis.

Reopening schools Sierra Leone is targeting zero new cases by March 31 of the deadly tropical fever that has killed around 9,000 West Africans over the past year, according to official data, although the real toll is thought to be significantly higher.

The country announced on Thursday that it would end “risk payments” to healthcare workers dealing with Ebola by that date and reopen schools, with teaching expected to resume in the third week of March. — AFP

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S ATUR DAY, JAN UA RY 24, 2 015 They will work on the programme of Nidaa Tounes with the help of the other parties.

It is a government for all Tunisians Habib Essid, Tunisian Prime Minister-designate

WORLD

C A B I N E T T O R AT I F Y

PROTEST AGAINST SETTLEMENTS A Palestinian protester uses a slingshot to return a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops during clashes following a demonstration against Jewish settlements in the West Bank village of Bilin, near Ramallah, on Friday. - Reuters

New Tunisia premier forms government TUNIS: Tunisian Prime Minister-designate Habib Essid said on Friday he had formed a government without any cabinet posts for moderates after negotiations among secular party Nidaa Tounes and other smaller partners in parliament.

The full assembly must now vote to ratify the new cabinet.

Nidaa Tounes won the most seats in the October election, one of the last steps in Tunisia’s path to full democracy after its 2011 popular uprising.

Essid named Farhat Hacheni as defence minister and handed the finance portfolio to Lassaad Zarrouk, an independent economist and director of an insurance company. Taieb Baccouche, a leading member of Nidaa Tounes, will be foreign minister.

Improve stability “They will work on the programme of Nidaa Tounes with the help of the other parties. It is a government for all Tunisians,” Essid said.

The Ennahda party, with the second largest number of seats in the assembly, had sought a unity government with Nidaa Tounes

Nepal PM blames Maoists for missed constitution deadline The constitution was intended to conclude a peace process begun in 2006 when Maoist guerrillas entered politics, ending a decade-long insurgency that left an estimated 16,000 people dead

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s Prime Minister Sushil Koirala on Friday accused opposition Maoists of turning parliament into a battleground and derailing efforts to secure agreement on a new constitution before a midnight deadline expired.

“The constituent assembly has become a showcase for agitation, vandalism and chaos,” said Koirala, at the end of a week which saw lawmakers come to blows in parliament as tensions rose over the delayed charter.

“Some political parties...have taken the route of strikes and protests, seriously obstructing efforts to write the constitution,” Koirala said in a televised address to the nation. Nepal’s parties have spent years locked in a stalemate over the charter while political power plays have confounded efforts to reach an agreement, analysts say.

Opposition lawmakers led by former Maoist rebels this week blocked parliamentary proceed-

MAKING A POINT: Nepalese Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, centre, delivers an address to the nation in Kathmandu. Protests by Nepal’s opposition lawmakers threw parliament into chaos after emergency talks failed to secure agreement on a new national constitution before the deadline expired. -AFP

ings, storming into the well of the main chamber and shouting slogans, in a bid to prevent ruling party politicians from proposing a vote on disputed issues in the charter. “Announce a constitution based on consensus,” lawmakers chanted.

Rifts widen Parliament Speaker Subhash Nembang on Friday urged lawmakers to end the disruption and instructed them to hammer out an agreement or be prepared for a vote, before adjourning the assembly until Sunday.

“People want answers from us, they are watching us and they are waiting,” Nembang said.

As political rifts have widened, the impoverished Himalayan nation has sunk deeper into paralysis and anger has spilled over on to

the streets, with opposition parties staging a nationwide strike since last Tuesday.

The constitution was intended to conclude a peace process begun in 2006 when Maoist guerrillas entered politics, ending a decadelong insurgency that left an estimated 16,000 people dead.

But six prime ministers and two elections later, political infighting has crippled efforts to resolve the deadlock, analysts say.

“Individual leaders are cynically holding the constitution hostage to their petty interests... they are basically jockeying for future positions as prime minister and president while negotiating our future,” said Kunda Dixit, editor of the Nepali Times weekly.

“Their ambitions have overwhelmed any push for an agreement...and they are unable to

compromise because of a ‘winner takes all’ attitude,” Dixit said.

A key sticking point concerns internal borders, with the opposition pushing for provinces to be created along lines that could favour historically marginalised communities.

Other parties have attacked this model, calling it too divisive and a threat to national unity.

The ruling parties and their allies have the two-thirds parliamentary majority they need to approve a constitution without Maoist support.

But the former insurgents have warned of further conflict if they fail to take opposition views into account.

Prime Minister Koirala said his party would make every effort “to forge consensus on the basis of team work and understanding”.

A key sticking point concerns internal borders, with the opposition pushing for provinces to be created along lines that could favour historically marginalised communities. Other parties have attacked this model, calling it too divisive and a threat to national unity

A missed deadline will prolong instability and deliver yet another blow to an economy which has seen annual GDP growth plummet from 6.1 percent in 2008 to 3.6 percent in 2013, according to World Bank data.

“How will the country progress like this?” said Pradeep Jung Pandey, president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

“If there is no new constitution and all we will have are protests and instability, how can anyone make new investments or expand existing ones?” Pandey said.- AFP

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to improve stability with the new government set to crack down on militants and tackle economic reforms. Nidaa Tounes leaders had not openly opposed a unity administration.

But Nidaa Tounes hardliners were against any alliance with Ennahda, who they blame for turmoil during the first government after the 2011 uprising.

Ennahda party leaders were consulting on Friday on whether to accept the new government.

Since the fall of leader Zine ElAbidine Ben Ali, Tunisian politics has often been dominated by compromises between secular and conservative leaders to helped keep democratisation on track. No party has an outright majority in the new parliament, meaning political bargains and deal-making are needed to form coalitions and decide on government posts.

One of the most secular countries in the Arab world, Tunisia has been held up as example of peaceful democratic evolution in an otherwise violence-ridden region, with free elections and a new constitution four years after Ben Ali’s overthrow. - AFP A L L E G AT I O N S

Sri Lanka questions top judge over coup claims COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s chief justice was questioned by criminal investigators on Friday following allegations that he tried to help the former president Mahinda Rajapakse retain power illegally, a minister said.

Chief Justice Mohan Peiris was interviewed over a complaint that he and the former president allegedly conspired to keep the strongman in power in a meeting at Rajapakse’s home, Public Security minister John Amaratunga said.

“The chief justice was questioned today about the (alleged) coup and a statement has been recorded,” the minister told reporters in Colombo. He added that investigations were proceeding.

The questioning came after the chief justice was banned from a meeting of Asian legal experts in Colombo on Monday when Sri Lanka’s bar association threatened a boycott if he was allowed to participate.

Accused Police have opened a criminal investigation into claims that the defeated strongman Rajapakse tried to use military force to stay in power as early results of the January 8 election showed he was headed for defeat.

There has been no public comment from the chief justice who had been seen in the company of Rajapakse and is accused of trying to legitimise a state of emergency after causing unrest at vote counting centres.

Rajapakse had appointed Peiris after impeaching the previous chief justice Shirani Bandaranayake in January 2013 when her rulings went against his administration. New President Maithripala Sirisena, who was sworn in on January 9, has vowed to restore Bandaranayake to the role. - AFP

INTERFERING IN LEGAL CASE

Widodo calls for calm after arrest of prominent graft fighter JAKARTA: Indonesian president Joko Widodo urged the national police and the country’s most powerful anti-graft agency to avoid “friction” after the arrest of a prominent corruption fighter sparked an outcry on Friday.

The shock arrest of Bambang Widjojanto, deputy chief at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), comes about a week after the agency accused a highranking police general of corruption, postponing his appointment as the country’s new police chief.

Hundreds of activists gathered for a noisy protest outside the KPK headquarters in Jakarta, claiming Widjojanto’s arrest for allegedly interfering in a legal case was police acting out of revenge.

Indonesia’s millions of social media users called on Widodo, who made combating corruption a cornerstone of his leadership, to speak out with #WhereAreYouJokowi just trailing #SaveKPK as the top mentions on Twitter.

The president, speaking after meeting with the KPK chairman and deputy police chief, urged both parties to act objectively.

“As head of state I also asked the national police and KPK not to let friction occur when performing their duties,” Widodo told reporters.

Earlier national police spokesman Ronny Sompie said Widjojanto could face seven years in prison if found guilty of the allegations. He was accused of ordering witnesses to give false evidence

during a 2010 constitutional court challenge to a local election result, Sompie added.

Strong evidence “We have enough strong evidence of his suspected involvement in the case,” he said.

Sompie insisted the investigation was focused on Widjojanto and unrelated to the KPK, an institution that has butted heads with police in the past.

The KPK this month launched a corruption investigation into three-star general Budi Gunawan, who just days earlier had been named the sole pick for national police chief by Widodo.

The president refused to revoke Gunawan’s nomination, but later

postponed his appointment until the KPK investigation was complete. At the protest outside KPK headquarters, demonstrators were adamant Widjojanto’s arrest was retaliation for the Gunawan case.

“The arrest was symbolic of what is happening. The police are trying to kill the KPK,” 26-year-old lawyer Veronica Koman said.

Widjojanto was widely seen as a clean figure in a nation that has seen more than its share of highprofile graft cases.

Anti-corruption group Transparency International ranked Indonesia 107th out of 175 countries in its annual corruption perceptions index last year.

A number one ranking means the least corrupt. -AFP

SOLIDARITY: Demonstrators gather outside the headquarters of the Corruption Eradication Commission, in Jakarta, on Friday to show support for Bambang Widjojanto, the deputy chief of Indonesia’s most powerful anti-corruption body. - AFP

SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 2015

S P O R S

Shock for Federer as Nadal and Sharapova blitz through The defeat was the 17-time Grand Slam winner Federer’s earliest exit in Melbourne in 14 years and aside from his second round Wimbledon flop in 2013

MELBOURNE: A stunned Roger Federer was dumped from the Australian Open Friday in his worst showing since 2001 as Rafael Nadal and Maria Sharapova bounced back to stay in the title hunt. In the tournament’s biggest upset, the Swiss world number two had no answer to Italian Andreas Seppi, who he had conquered in their past 10 meetings.

“Just a bad day. I wish I could have played better but clearly it was tough losing the first two sets,” Federer said after crashing out in the third round 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 7-6 (7/5). “I had chances to get back into it but let it slip. It’s a disappointing loss.”

The defeat was the 17-time Grand Slam winner’s earliest exit in Melbourne in 14 years and aside from his second round Wimbledon flop in 2013, was the Swiss legend’s worst performance at a major in more than a decade.

Federer was chasing his fifth Australian Open crown, but has now not won a Grand Slam title since Wimbledon in 2012.

SHOCK EXIT: Switzerland’s Roger Federer reacts after losing his men’s singles match against Italy’s Andreas Seppi. – AFP

He started sluggishly and when he was broken to love in the first set, giving Seppi a 5-4 lead, it was clear something was amiss with Federer’s game.

“To beat Roger first time, especially in a Grand Slam, best-of-five, is a special moment for me,” said the 46th ranked Seppi, who had only taken one set off him in their previous 10 matches. In contrast, Nadal was back to his best against Israel’s Dudi Sela, comfortably winning 6-1, 6-0, 7-5 after being pushed to the brink in a five-set epic in the second round when he suffered dizzy spells and cramps.

“The other night was one of the toughest times I have spent on the court and my body wasn’t very well and I felt very lucky to get through,” he said. “In general I think I was

TRI-SERIES

playing better than I did the other day, I was feeling better tonight.”

Sharapova was also on fire, blitzing past Zarina Diyaz of Kazakhstan 6-1, 6-1 to erase memories of her big scare in the second round when she had to save two match points. “I started really focused, I knew I had a tough, long match previously, so I wanted to start off strong and finish strong,” said the Russian second seed.

Murray was also in form, easily beating Portugal’s Joao Sousa 6-1, 6-1, 7-5 and is yet to be seriously tested at Melbourne Park.

He will next meet Bulgarian 10th seed Grigor Dimitrov, who struggled against 2006 Open runner-up Marcos Baghdatis with the fired-up Cypriot pushing him to five gruelling sets.

JUBILANT: Spain’s Rafael Nadal celebrates after victory in his men’s singles match against Israel’s Dudi Sela. – AFP

Win means a lot Murray has now reached the round of 16 for the seventh consecutive year as he bids to track down an elusive Australian title after losing to Federer in the 2010 final and Novak Djokovic in 2011 and 2013.

“Grigor has improved a lot over the last couple of years and it should be a fun match,” said the Scot. Dimitrov, Sharapova’s boyfriend, looked headed for defeat when Baghdatis won the third set before rallying to claim an exhausting 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory.

Rising star Bouchard also progressed, but made heavy work of downing France’s Caroline Garcia, taking 56 minutes to get through the first set before moving up a gear to win 7-5, 6-0.

“I don’t think it was the prettiest tennis out there today,” admitted the seventh seeded Canadian, who has a big fan base in Australia.

Bouchard is seen as one of the new generation tipped to take the reins from the old guard of Serena Williams and Sharapova, with Dimitrov regarded as a contender in the men’s game.

Third seed Simona Halep limped through against American world number 258 Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-4, 7-5 and will next meet Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer.

Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych was a more convincing winner, powering past Serb Viktor Troicki while women’s 10th seed Ekaterina Makarova also went through. - AFP

ODI SERIES

Ton-up Smith helps Aussies Ronchi, Elliott record stand defeat England once again sets up New Zealand win HOBART: Steve Smith’s incredible summer continued when he produced an unbeaten century to guide Australia to a three-wicket victory over England in a tri-series one-day international in Hobart on Friday.

Promoted to the captaincy with regular skipper George Bailey suspended for a second slow over rate breach in 12 months, Smith’s unbeaten 102 enabled Australia to chase down England’s imposing total of 303 for eight.

Australia, also missing the rested David Warner and Shane Watson, made 304 for seven to win with just one ball to spare and remain undefeated in the competition, guaranteeing themselves a berth in Sunday’s final.

Ian Bell’s brilliant 141 set up the England total, which appeared to be enough for much of the game.

England was still in pole position when Brad Haddin strode to the wicket for Australia with the home side at 216 for five.

Another 88 runs were needed from 76 balls, but Haddin’s 42 off 29 balls as part of a quickfire 71run stand turned the game.

Smith, who hit four centuries in

SCOREBOARD

ENGLAND M. Ali c sub (Doherty) b Faulkner 46 I. Bell c Starc b Sandhu 141 J. Taylor c Faulkner b Henriques 5 J. Root c Finch b Cummins 69 E. Morgan c Haddin b Sandhu 0 J. Buttler run out 25 R. Bopara b Starc 7 C. Woakes run out 0 S. Broad not out 0 Extras (b-1, lb-4, w-5) 10 Total (for eight wickets, 50 overs) 303 Fall of wickets: 1-113 (Ali), 2-132 (Taylor), 3-253 (Bell), 4-254 (Morgan), 5-275 (Root), 6-303 (Bopara), 7-303 (Buttler), 8-303 (Woakes) Bowling: Starc 10-0-60-1, Cummins 10-074-1, Sandhu 10-0-49-2, Maxwell 3-0-22-0, Faulkner 10-0-59-1, Henriques 7-0-34-1 AUSTRALIA A. Finch b Ali 32 S. Marsh c Bell b Finn 45

Australia’s four-Test series against India that finished earlier in the month, faced 95 balls, hitting six fours and one six.

When the two sides previously met earlier in the tournament, England was beaten by four

S. Smith not out 102 C. White lbw Finn 0 G. Maxwell c Root b Ali 37 J. Faulkner c Bell b Woakes 35 B. Haddin c Bell b Woakes 42 M. Henriques run out 4 M. Starc not out 1 Extras (lb-3, w-3) 6 Total (7 wickets, 49.5 overs) 304 Fall of wicket: 1-76 (Finch) 2-92 (Marsh), 3-92 (White), 4-161 (Maxwell), 5-216 (Faulkner), 6-297 (Haddin), 7-302 (Henriques) Bowling: Woakes 9.5-0-58-2, Anderson 100-56-0, Broad 9-0-61-0, Ali 10-0-50-2, Finn 10-0-65-2, Bopara 1-0-11-0 Man of the match: S. Smith (AUS) Toss: Australia, who chose to bowl Umpires: Marais Erasmus (RSA), Simon Fry (AUS) TV umpire: John Ward (AUS) Match referee: Andy Pycroft (ZIM)

wickets with more than 10 overs remaining.

However, England bounced back with an impressive ninewicket win over India in Brisbane on Tuesday and carried that form into Friday’s innings. — AFP

DUNEDIN: A record batting blitz by Luke Ronchi and Grant Elliott set New Zealand up for an overwhelming 108-run win over Sri Lanka in their fifth one-day international in Dunedin Friday.

In a stunning display of power hitting, Ronchi (170 not out) and Elliott (104 not out) bludgeoned an unbeaten 267 to lift New Zealand from 93-5 to 360-5 in their 50 overs in a world record sixthwicket stand. “It was an incredible batting performance by Luke and Grant,” said New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum. “After being 90-odd for five, getting us through to that total was something not witnessed too often.”

Sri Lanka skipper Lahiru Thirimanne said the partnership made a mockery of their game plan on a green wicket.

“We thought we could get them out for under 200 but things went wrong for us,” he admitted.

Sri Lanka had their own century-maker in Tillakaratne Dilshan and looked to be in with a chance as long as he was at the crease.

But when Dilshan fell for 116 it sparked a spectacular collapse in which Sri Lanka lost eight wick-

SCOREBOARD

NEW ZEALAND M. Guptill c Sangakkara b Kulasekara 0 B. McCullum lbw Kulasekara 25 K. Williamson c Sangakkara b Perera 26 R. Taylor c Karunaratne b Thirimanne20 G. Elliott not out 104 C. Anderson lbw Thirimanne 8 L Ronchi not out 170 Extras (lb 1, w 6) 7 Total (for 5 wickets, 50 overs) 360 Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Guptill), 2-51 (McCullum), 3-60 (Williamson), 4-82 (Taylor), 5-93 (Anderson) Bowling: Kulasekara 10-0-71-2 (1w), Lakmal 10-0-93-0, Perera 10-0-49-1 (2w), Thirimanne 7-0-36-2 (3w), Senanayake 7-0-58-0, Mendis 2-0-21-0, Dilshan 4-0-31-0 SRI LANKA L. Thirimanne c Taylor b Elliott 45 Dilshan c N. McCullum b McClenaghan116 K. Sangakkara c N. McCullum b Elliott 9 M. Jayawardene b Boult 30

ets for just 41 runs in eight overs.

The end came with more than six overs remaining as, for the second game in a row, Sri Lanka showed little fight in the lower order to let New Zealand go 3-1 up in the

N. Kulasekara c Ronchi b Boult 3 J. Mendis b Boult 18 D. Chandimal c Ronchi b McClenaghan 0 T. Perera c Williamson b Boult 0 D. Karunaratne c McCullum b Southee12 S. Senanayake not out 3 S. Lakmal b Southee 0 Extras (b-4, lb-2, wd-10) 16 Total (for 10 wickets, 43.4 overs) 252 Fall of wickets: 1-93 (Thirimanne), 2-141 (Sangakkara), 3-211 (Jayawardene), 4-215 (Dilshan), 5-224 (Kulasekara), 6-233 (Chandimal), 7-234 (Perera), 8-245 (Mendis), 9-252-Karunaratne), 10-252 (Lakmal).

Bowling: Southee 7.4-0-42-2 (1w), Boult 10-0-44-4 (2w), N. McCullum 4-0-21-0, McClenaghan 8-0-56-2 (1w), Elliott 9-042-2 (1w), Anderson 5-0-41-0 (1w) Toss: Sri Lanka Result: New Zealand won by 108 runs Series: New Zealand lead 3-1 Umpires: Chris Gaffaney, Nigel Llong TV umpire: Ian Gould (ENG)

series. Faced with a daunting target of 361 to win in Dunedin, Sri Lanka confidently progressed to 93 before losing their first wicket when stand-in captain Thirimanne was removed for 45. — AFP

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S ATUR DAY, JA N UA RY 24, 2 015

SPORTS ASIAN CUP 2015

UAE stun Japan on penalties

HAPPY MOMENT: Oman players celebrate a goal during one of the matches of the World Hockey League in Singapore. – FIH

Oman face Poland in semifinals Oman secured their place in the semifinals in remarkable fashion with a shootout triumph over Bangladesh

SINGAPORE: Oman, Malaysia, Poland and Japan stormed into the semifinals of the Hockey World League Round 2 tournament, here on Thursday and kept their respective Olympic qualification dreams alive and kicking.

Pool A runners-up Oman secured their place in the semifinals in remarkable fashion with a shootout triumph over Bangladesh.

Bangladesh were just three minutes away from victory when Muhanna Al Hasani levelled the score at 3-3 before confirming his hero status by scoring what proved to be the decisive goal in the shoot-out.

Oman face stiff opposition (Poland) in their semifinal, coming up

against a team that has recorded four wins from four matches and netted 22 goals in the process.

Pool A winners and top seeds Malaysia claimed victory over Pool B’s bottom side Mexico, with striker Tengku Ahmad scoring four goals in the contest.

Tournament top scorer Faizal Saari also got his name on the score-sheet, taking his event tally to ten in just four matches.

“This is my highest scoring margin in an international tournament,” said 24-year-old Faizal, “but I hope to do even better and help the team win gold in this tournament.”

Malaysia’s opponent in the semifinal will be Asian rivals and Pool B runners-up Japan, a side that sits just three places below them in the FIH World Rankings.

Pool B winners Poland booked their place in the semis with a win over host nation Singapore, with talismanic captain and penalty corner expert Pawel Bratkowski finding the net for the fourth successive game with a brace to take his tournament total to seven.

The three highest finishers in the eight-team men’s tournament, will each be guaranteed a place in the semifinal of this competition, where coveted berths at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games are up for grabs.

SYDNEY: Japan were sent crashing out of the Asian Cup on Friday as the United Arab Emirates shocked the defending champions 5-4 on penalties after a pulsating quarterfinal.

Substitute Ismail Ahmed delivered the knockout blow after Japanese superstars Keisuke Honda and Shinji Kagawa had both missed their spot-kicks, sending the UAE through to the last four after a war of attrition in Sydney that finished 1-1 following extra time.

The Gulf side, enjoying their best run at the Asian Cup since finishing runners-up in 1996, will face hosts Australia in the semifinals after a stunning victory over the Blue Samurai.

“Our opponents played the game of their lives,” Japan coach Javier Aguirre told reporters, accusing the UAE of parking the bus.

“Once they scored they defended for 110 minutes with 11 players behind the ball.

“I couldn’t have asked for anything more from my players,” added the Mexican, whose future is set to come under even closer scrutiny as he prepares for a court appearance in Valencia next month over match-fixing allegations dating back to his time in Spain. “Once it goes to penalties, anything can happen. It’s a lottery and in large part comes down to luck. We were the better team in all areas.”

The Emirates exploded from the blocks, striker Ali Mabkhout smashing home a fierce volley after just seven minutes for his fourth goal of the tournament, but refusing to celebrate out of respect for Saudi King Abdullah, who died earlier in the day.

With Japan teetering on the brink of a shock defeat, however, substitute Gaku Shibasaki rifled in the equaliser from the edge of the box after 81 minutes.

The UAE players, wearing black armbands in honour of the late Saudi monarch, frustrated Japan with their intricate passing in the first half, playmaker Omar Abdulrahman pulling the strings in midfield.

Route one Mabkhout’s opener came via route one, however, as he raced onto a long ball from Amer Abdulrahman to lash a right-foot past Japan goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima.

The Japanese, in contrast, looked tired and bereft of ideas after Aguirre named an unchanged team for a fourth game in a row, and only the introduction of fresh legs after the interval swung the momentum.

Substitute Yoshinori Muto wasted a golden opportunity to restore parity when he headed wide from point-blank range, before Kagawa forced a smart save from UAE keeper Majed Naser.

Captain Makoto Hasebe and Honda came close as Japan threw everything at their obdurate opponents, Kagawa again firing wide as the referee blew to signal the end of normal time.

Japan, who captured a record fourth Asian Cup in 2011, almost snatched the winner when Shibasaki’s free kick flashed wide, but

THE WINNER: UAE’s Ismail Ahmed, left, celebrates his match winning penalty kick as Japan’s goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima reacts during the penalty shoot out in their Asian Cup quarterfinal soccer match at the Stadium Australia in Sydney. – Reuters

Iraq shock 10-man Iran in penalties thriller CANBERRA: Salam Shakir scored the winning spot-kick as Iraq stunned 10-man Iran 7-6 on penalties to reach the Asian Cup semis in a match of high drama between the archrivals on Friday.

In a sensational quarterfinal at Canberra Stadium, the sides were locked at 1-1 at full-time before Iran twice came from behind in extra-time to force penalties. Iran had been a man down since Mehrdad Pooladi was sent off for a second yellow card late in the first half, sparking a furious reaction from coach Carlos Queiroz.

But their heroics were in vain when Vahid Amiry struck the post with the 15th spotkick, and Shakir stepped up to coolly slot the winner for the 2007 champions.

Iraq now go into a semifinal against South Korea, while three-time winners Iran were left fuming at the abrupt end to their promising campaign.

“You can imagine how I feel but I cannot express it because if I say what I feel and tell the truth about what everyone saw in the game I will get punished,” coach Queiroz said.

“I am very proud of the way my players fought, they are in my heart and deserve every respect,” he added.

Iraqi coach Radhi Shenaishil said it would be difficult for his team to recover in

the UAE hung on to force a shootout where, of all people, Honda and Kagawa gifted Ahmed the chance to become a hero.

“We knew it would be very tough and I told the players that it’s not always pretty football that wins games,” said UAE coach Mahdi Ali. “I told them some-

OVER THE MOON: Iraq’s Salam Shakir (obsured) celebrates scoring the match winning penalty with teammates. – Reuters

time for Monday’s semi-final, but he backed his team to go all the way to a second title.

“We have (one) less day to prepare than South Korea and recovering in time is now our main focus,” said Shenaishil, on loan for the Asian Cup from Qatar Sports Club. “But in the semis, anything can happen, and all four teams have the same chance to lift the trophy.”

Iran started well and Sardar Azmoun powered a header past goalkeeper Jalal Hassan for a 1-0 lead on 24 minutes, before they were were controversially reduced to 10 men.

Pooladi was sent off after receiving a second yellow card for simulation from Australian referee Ben Williams — a target of Queiroz’s wrath earlier in the tournament.

Iraq goalkeeper Hassan

times to have to win with heart and spirit. My players were fantastic. They fought for 120 minutes. To beat the champions will give us a lot of confidence for the game with Australia.”

Honda, whose opening kick in the penalty shootout, ballooned embarrassingly high, made no se-

pushed Pooladi in the chest, sending the Iranian left-back falling to the ground — far too easily in the opinion of Williams, who gave him a caution.

But the referee appeared to have forgotten that he had already booked Pooladi earlier in the half, and having been reminded, reached for his red card a good while afterwards.

The furious Queiroz, fined $3,000 for criticising Williams after the group win over Bahrain, had to be restrained as he tried to talk to the referee going into half-time.

“The coaching staff instilled so much confidence in me to score two penalties,” said man-of-the-match Ismael.

“This win can have such a positive impact on our country because of all the difficulties back home,” he added. - AFP

cret of his annoyance at Japan’s failure to break down the UAE. “That was a game we had to win,” he fumed. “It was an extremely difficult game and it took us by surprise so mentally we fell short. We couldn’t handle the pressure on us to win the tournament.” - AFP

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WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM S ATU RDAY, JAN UARY 24 , 2015

MARKE

APPLE CHIEF GOT TWICE HIS 2013 PAY IN 2014 Apple CEO’s package includes salary of $1.75 million and $6.7 million in non-equity incentive compensation for the fiscal year that ended in September, the company said. >B3

CRUDE SUPPLIES

Saudi expected not to swerve from recent oil output policy DUBAI: Saudi Arabia, under its new leadership, is likey to stick to its recent oil policy of maintaining production levels to preserve market share even at the cost of depressing prices, say experts. With production of 9.5

million barrels a day and exports of seven million, Saudi Arabia accounts for more than a 10th of global supply and a fifth of crude sold internationally. The kingdom’s refusal to surrender market share to rising US output has contributed to the worst slump in prices since the global credit crisis of 2008.

“The Saudi leadership has already taken the tough decision to live with lower oil prices,” Florence Eid-Oakden, chief economist at Londonbased consultants Arabia Monitor, said by phone.

EUROPEAN UNION

Quantitative easing to be open-ended, says ECB DAVOS: The European Central Bank’s asset-purchase programme will continue past September 2016 if it hasn’t met its inflation objectives by then, Governing Council member Ignazio Visco said.

“We are open-ended,” Visco said on Friday in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Francine Lacqua and Guy Johnson at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “If we see that there difficulties in achieving this target that we have, then we have to continue.”

ECB President Mario Draghi pledged on Thursday to buy 60 billion euros ($68 billion) a month of assets including government bonds through September 2016, adding that buying will “in any case be conducted until we see a sustained adjustment in the path of inflation.” The quantitative-easing package is designed to stave off a deflationary spiral in the 19-nation currency bloc by flooding the region with liquidity and pushing investors into riskier assets.

The euro fell to the lowest in more than 11 years after the decision. The single currency was down 0.2 per cent at $1.1341 at 8:50am Frankfurt time.

“The exchange rate is not a target for the monetary policy but it is an important channel as the portfolio rebalancing will increase the supply of money,” Visco said in the interview.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann and Executive Board member Sabine Lautenschlaeger were against implementing QE now, according to euro-area central-bank officials. — Bloomberg News

Brent rally Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, rose as much as 2.6 per cent to $49.80 a barrel in London on Friday. West Texas Intermediate rallied as much as 3.1 per cent.

tain the policies of his predecessor.

Slow growth In his previous capacity as crown prince, he read a speech on behalf of the late monarch on January 6 that confirmed the continuity of the country’s oil policy in the face of market “tensions” caused by slow growth in the global economy.

“These tensions aren’t new to the oil market, and we’ve dealt with them in the past with a solid will, with wisdom and experience, and we will deal with the current developments in the oil markets in the same way,” he said.

Oil slumped 48 per cent in 2014 as Opec’s 12 members refused to cut output and yield market share in the face of rising US production.

The price gain following the announcement of the late Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud’s death is temporary because it won’t alter the nation’s policies and US oil output will continue rising, Fatih Birol, chief economist of the International Energy Agency, said in an television interview with BloombergHT in Davos on Friday.

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud’s said on Saudi national television on Friday that he will main-

Market share With oil revenue accounting for 46 per cent of Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product, “it is possible that this policy could be relaxed in 2015 because it is very costly financially and is taking its toll on many Arab countries that Riyadh doesn’t wish to destabilise,” said Francis Perrin, the director of Paris-based energy consultants Stratener, in a January 6 e-mail. Ali Al Naimi, the oil min-

ister of Saudi Arabia, led the Or-

ganisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) to its November 27 decision to keep production unchanged, ignoring pleas for a cut in the group’s output by Venezuela, Algeria and other members that depend on higher oil prices to balance their budgets.

“If I reduce, what happens to my market share? The price will go up, and the Russians, the Brazilians, US shale oil producers will take my share,” Al Naimi told the Middle East Economic Survey last month.

“Whether it goes down to $20 a barrel, $40 a barrel, $50 a barrel, $60 a barrel, it is irrelevant,” he further added.

Saudi crude production averaged about 9.7 million barrels last year, according to data compiled

by Bloomberg.

The kingdom, with a population of 29 million, has $736.23 billion in reserve assets, or six per cent of the world’s total, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The government forecast its budget deficit for this year will widen to 145 billion riyals ($39 billion) from 54 billion riyals in 2014.

The deficit The country will plug the deficit by borrowing and drawing on its financial reserves and will continue to spend on major projects including railroads, electricity, desalination and universities, the official Saudi Press Agency reported on December 25, citing Economy Minister Mohammad Al-Jasser. — Bloomberg News

Emerging markets rally on ECB’s stimulus move Opec’s decision to maintain its oil-production quota at a meeting in November, worsening a global glut. The gain in Brent crude on Friday trimmed its weekly decline to 1.8 per cent, supporting stocks and currencies in countries that rely heavily on oil and gas industries, including Russia.

The RTS advanced 1.3 per cent, bringing the weekly increase to 7.5 per cent. The rouble weakened 0.5 per cent, after gaining as much as 1.9 per cent against the dollar.

It trimmed increases after Interfax reported that rebels in Ukraine’s Donetsk region ruled out talks for a truce. German Chancellor Angela Merkel slammed Russia for undermining neighbouring Ukraine’s sovereignty and cited “many setbacks” in peace efforts as the death toll in the conflict jumped.

Dollar-denominated RTS Index rose to the highest level in four weeks. An index of Hong Kong-traded Chinese mainland shares increased.

While markets in the Gulf Cooperation Council were shut for the weekend, oil rose as much as 2.6 per ROBUST DEMAND: An ECB plan to buy as much as 60 billion euros ($68 billion) of bonds a month

cent in London

through September 2016 is supporting demand for developing-nation assets, boosting the MSCI Emerging Markets Index 0.8 per cent to 991.78 at 1:38pm in London. — Bloomberg file picture

LONDON: Stocks from Russia to Taiwan rose, sending an emerging-market equity gauge to its best week since March, as European Central Bank (ECB) stimulus boosted appetite for risk. Russian shares climbed with oil after Saudi King Abdullah died.

The dollar-denominated RTS Index rose to the highest level in four weeks as potash producer OAO Uralkali jumped 8.5 per cent in Moscow. An index of Hong Kong-traded Chinese mainland shares increased to a 3 1/2-year high. Taiwan Semiconductor

Manufacturing led gains among technology shares after Goldman Sachs Group raised its price estimate. The rouble trimmed its first weekly advance this month.

ECB plan An ECB plan to buy as much as 60 billion euros ($68 billion) of bonds a month through September 2016 is supporting demand for developing-nation assets, boosting the MSCI Emerging Markets Index 0.8 per cent to 991.78 at 1:38pm in London. The gauge, up 3.6 percent this week, is also climbing after

ECONOMY

Official pegs Egypt’s chance of reaching FDI target at 80% CAIRO: Egypt has an 80 percent chance of reaching its goal for foreign direct investments in 2015, said Ashraf Salman, the minister overseeing new business ventures in North Africa’s largest economy.

Salman is targeting $8 billion to $10 billion in outside investments during this fiscal year, up from $4.2 billion in 2014, as he tries to sell Egypt as an attractive destination for global money after the turmoil that followed the Arab Spring protests of 2011. While the benchmark EGX 30 stock index has jumped almost 40 per cent over the past 12 months on optimism President Abdel-Fattah ElSisi’s policies will spur growth, Egypt is struggling with high debt and political uncertainty which led to the army’s ousting of Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in July 2013.

“I am comfortable with a probability of 80 percent” that the country will achieve its target by the end of fiscal year 2015, Salman, who is minister for in-

West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the US benchmark, fell on January 5 to less than $50 a barrel for the first time since April 2009. It traded at $46.56 at 9:18am in London, a 0.5 per cent gain from Thursday’s closing price.

vestment, said in an interview at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York on January 22. We need “to make the investment climate more attractive,” he said.

“We need a serious legislation reform that was started by trying to scrutinize the laws that have relation with investment.”

Foreign direct investments (FDI) climbed to about $1.8 billion in the first quarter of the current fiscal year compared with $745 million a year earlier, and tourism revenue rose to $2.1 billion from $931 million, according to the central bank. The country has the second-largest debt burden relative to gross domestic product in the Middle East and Africa region, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Egypt’s economy has been stuck in its deepest slump for two decades since the uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak as persistent turmoil deterred investments and tourism, one of the country’s largest industries.

The Egyptian pound declined

to a record this week after the central bank cut interest rates.

The country’s foreign reserves dropped to $15.3 billion in December from $15.9 billion in the previous month. That’s less than half of their level before the revolt against Mubarak four years ago, even after billions of dollars of aid from Gulf Arab allies.

Gross domestic product will expand about four per cent this fiscal year, up from 2.2 per cent in 2014, the minister said. That still compares with growth of more than five per cent prior to the 2011 uprising. Economists are on average forecasting an expansion of 3.4 per cent, according to a Bloomberg survey. Egypt’s stock market was the world’s fourth-best performer in the past year among 93 indexes tracked by Bloomberg.

“The market was very receptive to the economic and social reform program that was undertaken by the government since the election of the president,” Salman further said. — Bloomberg News

better-than-expected Chinese manufacturing data underscored the success of stimulus measures.

“EM is reacting to the ECB’s QE announcement on Thursday and also the stabilisation in some commodity prices such as oil,” Michael Wang, a strategist at Amiya Capital in London, said by e-mail. “There an element of the Saudi succession risk pushing the oil price up today.”

While markets in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) were shut for the weekend, oil rose as much as 2.6 per cent in London

after the Saudi royal court announced King Abdullah’s death in a statement. Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz succeeds Abdullah on the throne.

The Saudi riyal, which is pegged to the US dollar, fell to the lowest level since October 2008, and forwards weakened. The depreciation may be temporary as the succession plans are expected to be smooth, Bloomberg strategist Mark Cudmore said.

The biggest oil producer in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) led

Bonds rally Prospects that the ECB will flood markets with euros helped lift stock indexes in India and the Czech Republic by at least 0.9 per cent. All but one of 24 developingnation currencies strengthened against the euro, while five-year government bonds in Russia, Hungary and Poland rallied, with the Polish yield falling to a record low. The rate on Hungarian 10year securities fell below three per cent for the first time.

The yuan weakened 0.3 per cent after China’s central bank lowered the currency’s reference rate by the most since March. Brazil’s real was headed for its third straight weekly gain as higher local interest rates made the currency more attractive. — Bloomberg News

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S ATUR DAY, JAN UA RY 24, 2 015

FEATURE

BUFFALO HORNS WORTH MILLIONS

M

r. Jacques Malan weaves his Toyota Land Cruiser through thorn trees in South Africa’s dusty bushveld, stops and points at an asset he says could be worth $5 million. It’s a buffalo calf named Manyara.

“This little guy has all the potential to become one of the biggest in the country,” the 52-year-old game farmer said as he pointed at the calf’s milky white horns. “The genetics are superb,” Malan said dressed in khaki shorts and a shirt with his name embossed on it.

Manyara is the half-brother of Horizon, South Africa’s biggest-horned diseasefree buffalo bull, who earned his name from his 55-inch wide horns. Malan sold Horizon for a then- record 26 million rand ($2.4 million) in 2012 and he’s betting that Manyara, named after a Tanzanian lake, is worth even more.

Record prices, which have risen fivefold in six years, are a product of South Africa’s booming game ranching business in which the country’s wealthiest, including Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and luxury-goods billionaire Johann Rupert, compete to breed the biggest and rarest animals to generate revenue from hunting. Some critics say the price surge is a bubble. Two hundred years ago African buffaloes regularly had horns spanning more than 60 inches, almost the length of two baseball bats, Malan said. Hunting has now eliminated the largest animals from the gene pool with a horn spread of 40 inches today considered big.

Lion Circle “We breed them to be able to breed back the top genetics,” Malan said in an interview at his farm called Lumarie, where he has bolstered his security by circling his house with a cage containing three lions. “We’re not here to create something that was never there before, we’re trying to replace.”

Horn size is king in an industry underpinned by hunters from the U.S. and Europe who are demanding -- and paying for -- ever larger and more diverse trophies. A prime western Zambian sable, a black-and-white antelope known for its grooved, arching horns, can cost 5 million rand, while a white kudu bull is worth 1 million rand.

Some of the color variants are from recessive genes and occur only rarely in the wild.

The buffalo trade and genetic enhancement are booming in South Af-

swinging his 4x4 toward the 9-year-old brother, who’s standing among a group of heifers who he’ll mate with. “He’s the boss, not for sale. He would be worth 30 million rand.” Buffalo breeding is part science, part experience, says Malan.

African buffaloes can stand 1.5 meters (5 foot) at the shoulder and weigh 750 kilograms (1,653 pounds).

rica because of its unique game-ownership laws, according to Peter Oberem, president of Wildlife Ranching South Africa. South Africa and Namibia are the only countries in Africa that allow grant individuals full property rights to wild animals.

Mystery Buffalo “The buffalo in this country are privately owned, therefore people wish to manage those assets in a way to preserve them and also to maintain or improve their value,” Oberem said. “In the rest of Africa that’s not the case.” Rupert, South Africa’s second-richest person, led a group of investors that paid a record 40 million rand for Mystery, a buffalo with a horn span of more than 53 inches, in 2013. Ramaphosa made an unsuccessful 19.5 million rand bid for a buffalo cow and calf at a 2012 auction.

At an auction near Bela-Bela in Limpopo Province in August, the biggestever buffalo sale, more than 70 of the animals were sold for 70 million rand.

The average buffalo price was 883,556 rand in 2013, up from 183,050 rand in 2008, according to Vleissentraal Game Auction data compiled by Richard York, a breeder of golden wildebeest.

These prices are being inflated by wealthy breeders trading between each other and aren’t underpinned by wider demand for hunting, according to Chris Niehaus, a former chief executive officer of the South African Hunters and Game Conservation Association.

Bubble Building?

“In my opinion it’s a bubble. I understand financial markets and I can see

The buffalo in this country are privately owned, therefore people wish to manage those assets in a way to preserve them and also to maintain or improve their value, in the rest of Africa that’s not the case.

Peter Oberem president of Wildlife Ranching South Africa

a bubble when one raises its head,” Niehaus, who is also a former CEO of HSBC Holdings Plc’s South Africa unit, said by phone. “These people who are playing a financial shell game between each other are putting one of the greatest conservation success stories in the world at risk.”

South Africa’s population of large mammals has ballooned to about 24 million the most since the 19th century, and up from 575,000 in the early 1960s, according to Wouter van Hoven, an emeritus professor at the University of Pretoria. The primary reason is due to the country’s ownership laws, enshrined in the Game Theft Act of 1991, that allow people to own, invest, breed and hunt, according to WRSA’s Oberem. Malan says that’s an unfair to describe game farming as a bubble because it isn’t driven by debt-fueled investments like U.S. real estate. While the price of assets such as property move up and down with the health of the economy breeding offers financial exits, he said.

Manhattan-Sized “You pay a million rand for a cow and the prices drop 50 percent, how do you recover your money? You breed it out,” he said. “Instead of taking you one year to get your money back, it might take you three years.”

Touring through Lumarie, a game farm that’s larger than Manhattan’s land mass, Malan spots another multimillion-dollar asset, the 50-inch horns of Manyara’s brother, who’s a perfect stud for breeding with heifers.

“There’s Serengeti,” Malan says,

Negligible Contribution Such approaches to breeding risks reducing the genetic variation of the animals and losing important traits for survival, according to Cindy Harper of the University of Pretoria’s Veterinary Genetics Laboratory.

“Captive-bred animals can lose their ability to adapt to natural vegetation, drought and lose their responses to predators,” Harper said by phone.

“They could be losing the ability to defend themselves, physiologically and immunologically, against diseases, they could be losing the ability to protect themselves from predators,” said Wildlife Trade and Ranching Project Manager Andrew Taylor. “If you end up domesticating them, the benefit for conservation is negligible.”

Unresponsive Old-Timer Serengeti’s and Horizon’s sought-after genes come from their 21-year-old father Brits, who was found resting under a thorny acacia tree and ignored Malan’s attempts to mimic the guttural grunts of a buffalo.

Diseases such as tuberculosis and foot-and-mouth, are among Malan’s greatest concerns, so new buffalo must be inspected by a vet before they are introduced to his property, while his staff regularly usher game into bomas, or animal enclosures, where they are dipped to kill ticks which can carry disease.

A major reason why Malan’s and other game farmers’ stock of animals is so valuable is because they are mostly healthy. Soon after leaving the highway to re-enter his farm, Malan spots a herd of 22 buffaloes who share about 80 hectares (198 acres) of his land.

In the cluster worth around 80 million rand, he spots his next superstar and marvels at his 45-inch horns and huge body of the four-year-old calf.

“What I like about him is not only his length but look at his body on the horn,” he said leaning from his window.

“His horn mass is great. He hasn’t got a name yet. He’s got to prove himself here before he gets the opportunity of breeding.” - Christopher Spillane and Kevin Crowley

SAT URDAY, JANUARY 24, 2015

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MARKET Apple chief got twice his 2013 pay in 2014

STIFFER COMPETITION

disclosed those type of costs for Cook.

Apple CEO’s

Compensation package Angela Ahrendts, hired last year to run Apple’s retail and online stores from Burberry Group Plc, where she was CEO, received a 2014 compensation package worth $73.4 million. That includes $70 million worth of stock.

Her salary was $411,538.

package includes salary of $1.75 million and $6.7 million in non-

Luca Maestri, who was promoted to chief financial officer last year, received pay worth $14 million, including a $717,211 salary and $11.3 million in stock. Eddy Cue, head of Internet software and services, and Jeff Williams, head of operations, both received packages worth about $24 million, including salaries of $947,596 and stock worth $20 million. — Bloomberg News

equity incentive compensation for the fiscal year that ended in September, the Cupertino, California-based

HAVE YOUR SAY

company said in a filing with the SEC Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook. — Bloomberg file picture

SAN FRANCISCO: Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook received compensation valued at $9.22 million last year, more than double his pay in 2013, as optimism for new products pushed the iPhone maker’s stock to a record.

The company also said Mickey Drexler, CEO and chairman of J. Crew Group Inc., will retire from Apple’s board, where he’s served as a director since 1999. A replacement wasn’t named.

Cook’s package includes salary of $1.75 million and $6.7 million in non-equity incentive compensation for the fiscal year that ended in September, the Cupertino, California-based company said Thursday in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Cook was granted a pay package valued at $4.25 million in 2013.

Major milestone Confidence in Apple has grown since Cook unveiled largerscreened iPhones in September and slimmer, faster iPad tablets in October. The company’s stock rose as high as $119.75 in November, sending its market

capitalisation to more than $700 billion, a milestone that no other U.S. company has reached. Cook also rolled out a mobile-payment system called Apple Pay, and this year will debut the company’s first smartwatch.

Holiday sales Apple in October forecast that revenue in the final three months of 2014 would be $63.5 billion to $66.5 billion. That would exceed Apple’s holiday sales of $57.6 billion for the end of 2013. The company will report first-quarter earnings on Jan. 27. Apple finished fiscal 2014 posting full-year net income of $39.5 billion, an increase from $37 billion in 2013.

Stock awards Cook, who joined Apple in 1998, was named CEO in August 2011 to succeed co-founder Steve Jobs, who died later that year. Cook received compensation in 2011 of $378 million, one of the biggest pay packages on record, boosted by $376.2 million in stock awards that he’ll get over a decade.

The CEO’s compensation last year included security expenses of $699,133, the first time Apple

Running Apple leaves Cook with $56,923 of unused vacation time SAN FRANCISCO: The cost of Tim Cook skipping vacation last year: $56,923.

That was the amount in holiday cash-out pay that the Apple CEO received last fiscal year, according to the company’s proxy filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Thursday. The number was included in Cook’s total $9.22 million compensation package for 2014.

Cook’s vacation cash-out pay — a statistic that only shows up in a handful of company filings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg — is higher than in 2013, when he received $35,000 for unused days off.

While Cook’s base salary rose 25 per cent last year to

Q U A R T E R LY R E S U LT

Sony to delay earnings report TOKYO: Sony is delaying the release of its final quarterly earnings, citing the disruption of accounting systems last year during a crippling cyber-attack on the company’s film studio.

The attack, which US officials have blamed on North Korean hackers angered over the Seth Rogen spy-caper comedy “The Interview,” left the company unable to produce a full third-quarter re-

port by the expected on February 16 deadline, Sony said.

The company instead sought permission to file its final earnings statement March 31, last day of the fiscal year.

Sony still plans to update investors, analysts and the media on earnings and outlook “to the extent reasonably possible” for other units — including smartphones and TVs — while completing the

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accounting for Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Critical financial and accounting applications at Sony Pictures Entertainment weren’t expected to be functional until early next month.

The February 4 report would include October data for Sony Pictures and forecasts for November and December, a company spokesman said. - Bloomberg News

$1.75 million, the amount he received for cashing in vacation time rose 63 per cent.

That suggests the CEO took even less days of rest and recreation in 2014 than in 2013.

Apple didn’t disclose how many vacation days Cook was eligible for in the proxy and a spokeswoman at the company declined to comment on the CEO’s holiday habits.

“It’s fairly rare to see that in proxy statements today,” Frank Glassner, CEO of Veritas Executive Compensation Consultants, said in a phone interview from Hawaii.

“Apple, along with other companies that are interested in being granular about best practices, doesn’t want to leave any stone unturned.”

- Bloomberg News

– Bloomberg file picture

Google planning to become wireless operator in the US SAN FRANCISCO: Google’s plan to become a wireless service provider means stiffer competition for Verizon Communications and AT&T at a time when price pressure is already shrinking margins in the US mobile-phone industry.

Google wants to offer service directly to consumers and will use Sprint’s wireless network, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Google also plans to use T-Mobile’s network, according to technology blog The Information and the Wall Street Journal.

Through the arrangements, Google would become what’s known as mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO. Google would pay for capacity on a carrier’s network and then sell the service to its own customers. The service could be up and running this year, according to another person. When it does start, here are the ripple effects for customers and the entire US mobile- phone industry: Sprint, T-Mobile For Sprint and T-Mobile, the arrangement provides extra revenue that can be used to upgrade networks and improve the quality of calls and data. That’s a boon not only for Google’s future customers, but also Sprint’s and T-Mobile’s existing user base. The deal could add up to as much as $1 billion in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation for Sprint and T-Mobile to split in 2018, according to Kevin Smithen, an analyst with Macquarie Securities USA Inc. Sprint may get the lion’s share of

that revenue because it has more excess capacity, Smithen wrote in a January 21 research note.

Sprint is especially keen to partner with Google. Masayoshi Son, the president of SoftBank, which bought Sprint in 2013, was integral in facilitating the talks between Sprint and Google, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Verizon, AT&T Anything that helps call quality at Sprint and T-Mobile gives those companies extra ammunition for wooing customers from AT&T and Verizon, their larger competitors.

Added profit would also give the companies more leeway to undercut AT&T and Verizon on price.

“Like everything else, you have to watch your friends more closely than your enemies, so we will be watching Google closely,” Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said of Google’s reported plans.

Asked whether Google might also partner with Verizon, Shammo said only that the companies have many discussions. He declined to confirm whether the pair had discussed Google reselling Verizon’s wireless service.

Google The company has been mum on its plans. Even so, Google could end up being the biggest winner. It could use MVNO arrangements to market and refine an array of tools, including search, maps and e-mail, delivered via Android, the most popular smartphone operating system globally. - Bloomberg News

B4

S ATUR DAY, JAN UA RY 24, 2 015

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ECONOMY

India’s foreign exchange reserves rise to record MUMBAI: India’s foreign-exchange reserves rose to a record as policy makers looked to protect the economy against outflows from a probable increase in US interest rates.

Holdings climbed $2.7 billion in the week ended on January 16 to $322.14 billion, a Reserve Bank of India statement showed today.

Foreign funds, buoyed by near-zero borrowing costs in Europe and the US, poured $42 billion into US COURT

HP, investors to revise autonomy claims accord NEW YORK: Hewlett-Packard (HP), having failed twice to win court approval for its settlement with shareholders over the botched Autonomy Corp. acquisition, is going for a third try with a new accord shielding executives from blame over the almost $9 billion debacle.

A revised settlement agreement filed in federal court in San Francisco on Thursday by attorneys for the company and investors would protect Hewlett-Packard and its management from any future shareholder lawsuits seeking to hold them accountable for the 2012 writedown. An earlier version of the settlement that would have insulated executives from what a judge called a “staggering” scope of potential lawsuits that have nothing to do with the Autonomy deal was rejected last month.

US District Judge Charles Breyer, who must approve the new agreement, said the previous agreement had little benefit for shareholders and didn’t protect their interests.

“Only claims that have been or could have been asserted related to the Autonomy acquisition are being released, which is both ‘fair and reasonable,’” Mark Molumphy, an attorney for investors, said in a court filing on Thursday.

In the underlying suit, shareholders said Hewlett-Packard executives ignored warnings about accounting irregularities at Autonomy and failed to properly vet its finances.

The corporate governance reforms contained in the new settlement would apply to both entities to be formed when Hewlett-Packard splits into two companies, according to the filing. The reforms include the creation of a senior executive- led risk management committee, modifications to board-level oversight of mergers and acquisitions and a new due diligence policy for mergers. Bloomberg News

Indian stocks and bonds last year.

India’s larger currency stockpile and narrowing trade deficit reduces vulnerability to external shocks, providing Governor Raghuram Rajan room to cut interest rates this month for the first time since May 2013. The increase in reserves over the past year is the fastest among the largest emerging markets.

“It’s critical to augment reserves,” said Sujan Hajra, an econ-

omist at Anand Rathi Financial Services in Mumbai.

“They will provide a buffer against a selloff when the Federal Reserve hikes rates or if there is more global turmoil.”

The rupee has surged about 12 per cent from an all-time low in August 2013, when Morgan Stanley dubbed the currencies of India, South Africa, Brazil, Indonesia and Turkey as the “fragile five” because of their difficulties in

drawing capital to finance deficits.

Since then, Rajan has lured inflows by offering discounted dollar-swaps to banks and overseas investors bought a record $26 billion of Indian bonds last year on optimism the most stable government in 30 years will help improve finances in Asia’s thirdlargest economy.

India’s foreign-exchange reserves rose about 10 per cent in the past 12 months, while Brazil

saw holdings decline by 0.4 per cent to $374 billion and in Russia they fell by 28 percent to $339 billion, according to data compiled

by Bloomberg. China’s reserves rose 0.6 per cent to $3.8 trillion.

The primacy of US-based funds in Indian debt may cause adverse effects in case of unexpected changes in US monetary policy, the Reserve Bank of India said in its financial stability report on December 29. — Bloomberg News

Indian billionaires in battle for airwaves ance Jio didn’t reply to an e-mail seeking comment on whether it will bid for spectrum next month.

An auction starting on February 25 may raise as much as $15.6 billion from telecom service providers including those controlled by billionaires Kumar Mangalam Birla, Sunil Mittal and Anil Ambani, according to ICRA

NEW DELHI: A bidding war for mobile phone licences will pit some of the wealthiest Indians against each other, putting at risk their efforts to reduce debt.

An auction starting on February 25 may raise as much as Rs960 billion ($15.6 billion) from service providers including those controlled by billionaires Kumar Mangalam Birla, Sunil Mittal and Anil Ambani, according to ICRA. With Rs250 billion to be paid upfront, the local arm of Moody’s Investors Service says companies will need to borrow to renew permits.

“Each will look to protect its own turf,” Sabyasachi Majumdar, ICRA’s senior vice-president in New Delhi, said by e- mail on January 21 “This is a replacement cost, which only weighs down balance sheets without necessarily adding to cash flows.”

An aggressive auction would

Reliance Jio “Potential new entrants such as Reliance could inflate the premium over reserve prices,” Praveen Menon, a New Yorkbased sector analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence, said in a January 16 e- mail.

The reserve price is a government decided level at which the auction starts. While such costs in India are comparable to those in the US, according to a January 8 report by Menon, average revenue per user is less than six per cent of that of their American counterparts and price competition over the past decade has eroded profitability.

“Three of the major operaSPECTRUM SALE: The reserve price is a government decided level tors of telecom services whose second-generation licence in at which the auction starts. — Bloomberg file picture some circles are expiring are in a desperate situation and would have to bid aggressively to gain undo some of the debt-reduction cent of its permits in the most progress made by the companies in popular 900 megahertz frequency the spectrum or go out of busithe past year, ICRA said in a Janu- band, according to ICRA, while all ness,” the Associated Chambers ary 9 note. licenses held in this category by Re- of Commerce and Industry of InThe yield on Bharti Airtel’s 2023 liance Communications are due for dia said in a January 8 statement. dollar bonds has risen eight basis renewal compared with 57 per cent The industry lobby group said it has “cautioned the government points since touching a record low for Vodafone’s Indian unit.

Vodafone India spokesman against trying to maximise price of 3.81 per cent on January 15. Mittal’s phone company had success- Suresh Rangarajan, Bharti’s discovery.”

Prime Minister Narendra fully trimmed debt by 11 per cent in Ashutosh Sharma and Idea’s Rasix months ended September, after jat Mukarji declined to comment Modi’s government is targeting it surged sevenfold in the previous on how the companies plan to raising the equivalent of $10.2 fund spectrum payouts. Reliance billion from this year’s sale as it four years.

Communications’ media office seeks to narrow the budget deficit didn’t respond to an e-mail seek- to a seven-year low. Finance MinDebt reduction ister Arun Jaitley aims to cut the Birla’s Idea reduced debt by 20 ing comment.

Service providers may face shortfall to 4.1 per cent of gross per cent in the six months ended September, data compiled by competition from Mukesh Am- domestic product in the fiscal Bloomberg show, and Anil Am- bani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm, year ending March. - Bloomberg News bani’s Reliance Communications which plans to start offering cut borrowings by 24 per cent. fourth-generation mobile phone Idea’s debt almost tripled in the services this year. Bidding by the HAVE YOUR SAY four years ended March 2014, company helped the Indian exSend us your comments at while that of Reliance Communi- chequer raise the equivalent of facebook.com/timesofoman $9.8 billion at a similar auction a cations rose 41 per cent. blog.timesofoman.com Idea faces the expiry of 92 per year ago. A spokesman for Relihaveyoursay@timesofoman.com

US law allowing more oil export, a challenge of Opec members NEW YORK: Enterprise Product Partners is looking to sell a year’s supply of US ultra-light oil to the global market, signalling another challenge for Opec as it contends with the US shale boom.

The company in Texas is offering to export 600,000 barrels a month of condensate from March, according to a tender document obtained

by Bloomberg News. Enterprise received government approval in 2014 to ship the lightly processed oil from US shale formations. Rick Rainey, a Houston-based spokesman, didn’t respond to calls or an e-mail seeking comment.

The Obama administration last month signalled that companies can legally export stabilised condensate without government approval, a move that Citigroup said may encourage shale drilling and thwart Saudi Arabia’s strategy to curb US production. With American companies pumping at the fastest rate in more than three decades, members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) are maintaining output to defend market share.

“The supply situation for US condensate won’t change dramatically,” Ken Hasegawa, an energy trading manager at Newedge Group in Tokyo, said by phone.

“They will continue to bring more cargoes into Asia. There’s a comparatively bigger pool of buyers here,” he further added.

The US produced 9.19 million barrels a day through January 9, the most in weekly records dating back to January 1983, according to the Energy Information Administration. The nation’s oil boom has been driven by a combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which has unlocked shale formations from Texas to North Dakota.

Export guidelines Condensate can be exported if it is run through a distillation tower, which boils off volatile gases from the oil, US government guidelines published last month on the website of the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security showed. That may boost supplies ready to be sold overseas to as much as one million barrels a day by the end of 2015, according to Citigroup.

While the guidelines were the first public explanation of steps companies can take to avoid violating export laws, they didn’t end the ban on most crude exports, which Congress adopted in 1975 in response to the Arab oil embargo.

Lawmakers in Washington are trying to end a 40-year-old law that restricts overseas oil shipments to just a few markets. — Bloomberg News

INDIAN MARKETS

Sensex rallies to new record for fourth day on ECB stimulus MUMBAI: Indian stocks advanced to a record for a fourth day, with the benchmark index completing its biggest weekly rally in eight months, as the European Central Bank (ECB) expanded its stimulus programme.

Tata Power advanced the most on the S&P BSE Sensex, while Bharti Airtel, the largest mobilephone operator, climbed to a twomonth high. Tata Motors, owner of Jaguar Land Rover, climbed to an all-time high. Engineering company Larsen & Toubro increased to its highest level since July. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries advanced for a seventh day.

The Sensex rallied 0.9 per cent to 29,278.84 at the close, taking the week’s increase to 4.1 per cent,

the most since June. Asian and European equities climbed after ECB President Mario Draghi announced an expanded stimulus plan and kept interest rates at record lows, boosting speculation capital flows to emerging-market assets will increase.

“Much of what we are seeing is on expectation of what central banks would be doing going forward,” Atif Latif, a director of trading at Guardian Stockbrokers in London, told Bloomberg TV India on Friday. “Risk appetite is moving up and things are looking positive.”

Foreigners bought a net $346 million of local shares on January 21, the most since Dec. 8, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

That took this year’s purchases to

The Sensex rallied 0.9 per cent to 29,278.84 at the close, taking the week’s increase to 4.1 per cent, the most since June.

$782.5 million, the most among eight Asian markets tracked by Bloomberg.

Tata Power, the biggest generator outside state control, surged 6.7 per cent, the most since May 19. Bharti soared 3.8 per cent to its highest level since December 2.

Housing Development Finance Corp., the biggest mortgage lend-

er, added 0.8 per cent to a record.

Tata Motors jumped 3.9 per cent.

Larsen increased 2.9 per cent. Sun Pharmaceutical rose to a record.

The Sensex has climbed 6.5 per cent this month, the best performer in the world in dollar terms, after the central bank lowered its main interest rate for the first time in 20 months on January 15, and

the International Monetary Fund said this week that India will be the world’s fastest-growing major economy in the year ending March 2017. The gauge’s 50-day historical volatility index rose to the highest since July.

Its 14-day relative strength index, which tracks how rapidly prices rose or fell during the specified period, was at 72.5. Some investors see readings of more than 70 as a signal to sell.

Rupee ends higher The rupee ended higher by 28 paise at 61.42 against the US currency on fresh selling of dollars by banks and exporters on persistent foreign capital inflows into equity market.

Banks and exporters preferred to reduce their dollar position on hopes of further capital inflows as foreign portfolio investors infused $107.22 million on Thursday as per the SEBI’s record.

The rupee opened higher at 61.45 per dollar as against the last closing level of 61.70 per dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market and hovered in a range of 61.3650 and 61.6050 during the day.

It closed at 61.42 per dollar, showing a gain of 28 paise of 0.45 per cent. The dollar index was up by 0.82 per cent against a basket of six major global rivals. In the global market, the euro fell to the lowest in more than 11 years versus the dollar. — Agencies

B SECTION

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM

LIFE & STYLE

S AT U R DAY, JA N UA RY 24 , 2 0 1 5

REFERENCES MATTER A film’s popularity depends on how many references are made to it in future movies, according to new study

F

orget the critics, the box office receipts and the Oscars, what really makes a film into a masterpiece is how many passing references it generates in subsequent films made by other directors, scientists have discovered.

An analysis of nearly 15,500 films found that it was possible to predict which ones would be considered among the greatest ever made by looking at how often its themes, images or overall message are picked up by other directors many years later. The researchers said that the “automated method” of working out the cultural, artistic or historical significance of films could even be applied to other spheres of artistic and scientific creativity, from literature to physics.

“The reason we say it’s automated is because as long as you’ve got the information in digital form you don’t need to answer questions of anyone you just load the computer code to get the answer,” said Professor Luis Amaral of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Typical methods of assessing a film’s “impact”, such as sales, downloads or media attention, are not as good at predicting a film’s long-term success as its influence on other directors, who appear to be useful arbiters of long-term cinema quality, the study found.

“Directors keep coming back to movies that are significant. If you show a little bit of Psycho, such as referencing the shower scene, you are putting that whole movie in front of the viewer of the new movie,” Professor Amaral said. “There is something about a movie that is hidden to us, but there are measurable things, such as critic ratings, awards and referencing by other filmmakers, that hint at this hidden element – a movie’s significance,” he said.

“We find that ultimately it is the creators, the filmmakers themselves, who will determine which movies are important, not the expert critics… movie critics can be overconfident in spotting important works, and

they have bias. Our method is as objective as it gets,” he added. The scientists suggested that the longer the time lag between a film’s release and its subsequent reference in another film, the more significant it will be as a measure of long-term success.

They only included references made 25 years after a film’s release to ensure long-term influences. The films that produced some of the most long-lived influences are The Wizard of Oz, Star Wars, Psycho, Casablanca and Gone with the Wind.

The study analysed 42,794 citations in the film database that connect one film to another, such as the dialogue about not wanting to be with a man who runs a bar in Casablanca in the 1989 film When Harry Met Sally, which was a reference to the 1942 film Casablanca, starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, analysed the 15,425 American-produced films listed in the Internet Movie Database to see whether there were any useful markers for predicting whether a film makes it onto the prestigious US National Film Registry of the US Library of Congress.

The registry is like a cinema hall of fame and currently includes just 625 films “of enduring importance to American culture” as judged by experts on the US National Film Preservation Board. Their judgement is based on whether the films are “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant”.

The scientists, who usually work in the spheres of mathematics, engineering and physics, looked at a range of factors, such as box office receipts and critics’ reviews, to see if there was a significant correlation with a film’s inclusion in the National Film Registry and other factors relating to a film’s apparent success.

They found box office receipts was not a particularly good predictor, citing for instance the commercial failure of some otherwise classic films, such as Duck Soup, the 1933 film considered to be the greatest made by the Marx Brothers.

Other factors, such as critical reviews and Oscar successes, were equally inadequate when it came to predicting long-term success, the study found. Oscars, for instance, were often a reflection of a film’s immediate popularity and the amount of time and money spent on studio promotion, the scientists said. — Steve Connor/The Independent

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B6

S ATUR DAY, JAN UA RY 24, 2 015

ENTERTAINMENT CINEMA SCHEDULE

BAHJA CINEMA Grover; 6.00 pm SCREEN 3 Dolly Ki Dolly (Com | Drama ) (TBC) 1:00pm P. K (Comedy) (PG) Cast: Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma 3.45, 6.45 pm Alone - Hindi - (Thriller) (18+) 9.45 pm

Voice Overs: Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana 11:45 am & 3:30 pm Gold Class: 12pm The Book Of Life (2D) (Animation/Adventure) (PG) 10:00 am Taken-3 (2D) (Action/Thriller) (12+) Cast: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker 5:15 pm Mortdecai (2D) (Act/Comedy) (12+) Cast: Johnny Depp, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor 1:30 & 7:15 pm Gold Class: 1:45 & 6:15 pm American Sniper (2D) (Act) (15+) Cast: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller 6:15, 9:15 & 11:45pm Gold Class: 3:45 & 11:15 pm Baby (Hindi) (2D) (Action/Crime) Cast: Akshay Kumar, Tapsee Pannu 11:45 am & 8:45 pm Gold Class: 8:15 pm Wolf Creek (2D)(Horror) (18+) Cast: John Jarratt, Ryan Corr 4:15 & 11:45 pm

American Sniper (2D) (Act ) (15+) Cast: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller 12:15, 2:45, 7:00, 9:15, 11:45 pm Mortdecai (2D)(Act | Crime) (12+) Cast: Johnny Depp, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor 5:15, 9:30, 7:15 pm Baby (2D)(Action | Crime) (12+) Cast: Akshay Kumar, Anupam Kher, Tapsee Pannu 12:45, 9:00 pm Barbie in Princess Power (2D) (Animation) (PG) Voice Overs: Rebecca Husain, Britt Irvin 2:00, 3:45 pm The Book of Life (3D)(Animation) Voice Overs: Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana 3:30, 5:15 pm (TBC) The Book of Life (2D)(Animation) (TBC); 12:15, 2:00 pm Reach Me (2D)( Drama) (15+) Cast: Lauren Cohan, Kyra Sedgwick 5:15 pm Wolf Creek 2 (2D)(Horror) (18+) Cast: John Jarratt, Ryan Corr 7:00, 11:55pm Taken 3 (2D) (Action | Crime) (12+) Cast: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker 11:30 pm

Mortdecai– 2D (12+) (Act | Com) Cast: Johnny Depp, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor 2:45, 7:15, 9:00 pm American Sniper– 2D (15+) (Action ) Cast: Bradley Cooper, Kyle Gallner 12:15, 3:00, 4:45, 9:15, 11:45 pm The Book of Life– 2D (PG) (Animation | Adventure) Cast: Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana 1:30, 3:15 pm The Book of Life– 3D (PG) (Animation | Adventure) 5:00, 6:45pm Baby – 2D (12+) (Act | Crime) Cast: Akshay Kumar, Tapsee Pannu 12:00, 8:30, 11:00 pm Taken 3 – 2D (12+) (Act | Crime) Cast: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker, Maggie Grace; 11:30 pm Barbie in Princess Power– 2D (PG) (Animation) Voice Overs: Rebecca Husain, Britt 12:00, 3:15, 4:45 pm I (Tamil) – 2D (12+) (Action | Fantasy) Cast: Vikram, Amy Jackson 6:15pm Dolly Ki Doli– 2D (Com) Cast: Malaika Arora, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Sonam Kapoor 1:15, 9:30 pm Wolf Creek 2– 2D (18+) (Horror)

SCREEN 1 Baby - Hindi - (Thriller | Act) (12+ ) Cast: Akshay Kumar, Taapsee Pannu, Rana Daggubati, Anupam Kher 3.30, 6.45, 9.45 pm SCREEN 2 Baby - Hindi - (Thriller | Act) (12+ ) Cast: Akshay Kumar, Taapsee Pannu, 1.00 pm Dolly Ki Dolly (Com | Drama ) (TBC) Cast: Sonam Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao, Pulkit Samrat, Varun Sharma 4.00, 8.30, 10.30 pm Alone - Hindi - ( Horror) (18+ ) Cast: Bipasha Basu, Karan Singh

Barbie In Princess Power (2D) (Animation) (PG) Voice Overs: Rebecca Husain, Britt Irvin, Michael Kopsa 10:15 am & 2:45 pm The Book Of Life (3D) (Animation/Adventure) (PG)

Cast: John Jarratt, Ryan Corr 7:00, 11:30 pm [REC] 3: Genesis– 2D (15+)Horror Cast: Leticia Dolera, Diego Martín, Ismael Martínez 5:30 pm

The Book of Life (3D) (Anim ) (TBC) Cast: Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana 2:15, 4:30 pm Taken 3 (Act | Thriller) (12+) Cast: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace 2:15, 11:30 pm I (Tamil) (Act | Fantasy | Ro) (12+) Cast: ‘Chiyaan’ Vikram, Amy Jackson, Upen Patel; 05:30 pm [REC] 3: Genesis (Horror) (15+) Cast: Leticia Dolera, Diego Martín, Ismael Martínez; 4:00 pm Mortdecai (Action | Comedy) (12+) Cast: Johnny Depp, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ewan McGregor 2:30, 6:45, 9:15 pm American Sniper (Action | Biography | Drama) (15+) Cast: Bradley Cooper, Kyle Gallner 4:15, 9:00, 11:45pm Baby(Hindi) (Action | Crime | Mystery) (12+) Cast: Akshay Kumar, Tapsee Pannu 6:15, 8:45, 11:15 pm

American Sniper (2D) ( Act ) (12+) Cast: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Kyle Gallner.

3:30, 9:00, 11:30 pm The Book of Life (3D)(Adv ) Cast: Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana

12:15, 2:00 pm I (Tamil) (Act | Fantasy) (12+) Cast: ‘Chiyaan’ Vikram, Amy Jackson, Upen Patel; 3:45 pm Taken-3 (Action | Thriller) (12+) Cast: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace 6:00 pm Baby (Hindi) ( Act / Mystery ) (12+) 8:00, 11:00 pm Mortdecai ( English ) (Act ) (12+) Cast: Johnny Depp, Gwyneth Paltrow 7:00pm

Taken 3 (2D/12+) (Act/Crime) 9:15pm American Sniper (2D/15+) (Act/Bio) Cast: Sienna Miller, Kyle Gallner 11:30 am, 9:15, 11:45 pm Barbie in Princess Power (2D) (Animation) 2:00pm The Book of Life (2D/TBC) (Animation/Adventure) 11:15 am The Book of Life (3D/TBC) (Animation/Adventure) 3:30, 5:30pm Mortdecai (2D/12+) (Act/Com) 1:00, 5:15, 7:15 pm Wolf Creek 2 (2D/18+) (Horror) 7:15, 11:30 pm I – (Tamil) (2D/12+) (Act/Fantasy) 3:30pm Dolly Ki Doli (2D/TBC) (Com/Rom) Cast: Malaika Arora, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Sonam Kapoor 6:45 pm Baby (2D/12) (Action/Crime) 12:30, 8:40 pm

American Sniper (Action) Cast: Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Luke Grimes, Kyle Gallner 3.30, 7.30, 9.30 & 11.55 pm CP No: 2015 /181 (15+) Mortdecai (Action/comedy) Cast: Johny Depp, Gwyneth Paltrow, Evan Mc Gregore 4.00, 10.00 & 11.55 pm CP No: 2015/182 (12+) Reach Me (Drama) Cast: Lawren Chan, Sylvester Stallon, Kyra Sedgwick 2.00 & 5.45pm CP No: 2015/180 (15+) Taken 3: (Action) Cast: Liam Neeson, Forest Whitaker 7.30 pm; CP No: 2015/153 (12+) Barbie in Princess Power (PG) (Animation) Voice Overs: Britt Irvin, Michael Kopsa 2.00 & 6.00pm; CP No: 2015/179

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

STARS CINEMA Film information 24791641 / 24786776

“I” (Tamil) ( Action\Thriller) Cast: Vikram, Amy Jackson 3:00, 6:30 & 10:00 pm Cinema Main Baby - Hindi - (Thriller | Act) Cast: Akshay Kumar, Taapsee Pannu, Rana Daggubati, Anupam Kher, Kay Kay Menon 3:45, 6:45 & 9:45pm Cinema 3 Mylanchi Monchulla Veedu (Mal) (Rom/Com) Cast: Jayram & Asif Ali 3:30, 6:30 & 9:30pm Cinema 2 Chinnadana Nee Kosam (Tel)(Com) Cast: Nitin Reddy & Misnti 3:45 pm Cinema 4 P K (Hindi) (Comedy) Cast: Aamir Khan, Sanjay Dutt 6:45 & 9:45pm Cinema-4 NEXT CHANGE: Nagaravaridhi Naduvil Najaan

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

ACES ON BRIDGE

SUDOKU

Short suits are great with a fit

4

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

2 3

9

5

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

MARMADUKE

CROSSWORD

B I G NAT E

1 5 9 12 13 14 15 17 19 21 22 25 28 30 34 35 36 37 38 40 42 44 45 48 50 53

Cote dweller Get real! (2 wds.)

Channels 2-13 — forest or gauge Petruchio’s bride Water, on the Seine Craft Bellyaches Solar wind components Annoys — and means Seeps slowly Slackens off Prickled Sort Prince Harry’s mom Qt. fraction Hurler’s stat Wane Loud squawker Viewpoint Loosen, as a grip Orbital period Sheik, usually Inconvenient Band instruments

57 Reuben bread 58 Fish without scales 60 Reputation 61 Woolen cap 62 Popular muffin choice 63 — accompli DOWN 1 JAMA readers 2 Acorn bearer 3 IV plus III 4 Join the army 5 Nome’s st.

6 Right to decide (hyph.)

7 Give — — shot 8 Not masc.

9 Swerve 10 Pay attention 11 Minor argument 16 Behold!

18 File label, maybe 20 Pushing ahead 22 Go like a siren 23 Competent 24 Shaggy beasts 26 Parka feature 27 Sundance Kid’s girl

29 31 32 33 39 41 43

Blissful spot Zeus’ wife Mythical archer Go out with — Lee cakes Snub Eric Clapton classic 45 Tentlike dwelling 46 Popular one-

47 49 51 52 54 55 56 59

named singer Excuse me!

— a premium Kan. neighbour “The,” to Wolfgang Bleat Left Bank pal Mount a gemstone Tin, in formulas

Answer to previous puzzle

ACROSS

SUGEETH DHAMODARAN

RITHIK FELECIAN PERERA

January 24, 2004

January 24, 2003

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

6 1 4 4 2 7

8

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

Previous puzzle Solution

FRANCESCO Petrarch, a 14thcentury Italian poet, said, “A short cut to riches is to subtract from our desires.”

At the bridge table, a short cut — a short suit — will make you wealthier if — an important if — you have a fit with partner.

Look at today’s North hand. After partner opens one spade, what should North respond?

If you count shortage points, add three for a singleton when you have at least a nine-card fit. So, the North hand is worth 11 support points, which is ideal for a three-spade limit raise.

If you count losers, the North hand has eight: two spades, two hearts, one diamond and three clubs. (No suit has more than three losers.) Eight losers is also the number for a gameinvitational limit raise.

Then South, who knows that his excellent diamond suit will provide discards, immediately uses Roman Key-Card Blackwood. North replies five hearts, showing two key-cards (two aces, or one ace and the trump king) and denying the trump queen.

Now South knows that six spades is high enough.

West leads the club queen. What should declarer do?

The play ought to be straightforward. South should win with his club ace and draw two rounds of trumps. When they break 3-1, he turns to diamonds, discarding dummy’s last two clubs as quickly as possible. Declarer ruffs his fourth diamond in the dummy, cashes the heart ace, trumps a heart back to hand and ruffs his remaining club in the dummy. Then he can claim, his hand containing two trumps and a high diamond. West takes only one trump trick.

— By Phillip Alder

WITH LOVE

7 6 1

7 2 2 9 6

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

— Seven Galaxies

BORN LOSER

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

KIDSPOT

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

SAT URDAY, JANUARY 24, 2015

PRAYER TIMINGS

Dhuhr Asr Maghrib Isha Fajr (Tomorrow)

Y O U R B I R T H D AY

BORN today, you have a remarkably sensitive side that is not always on display. As a result, others may not be aware when they offend you or do that which you cannot abide. You’re not the kind to express your displeasure very often — at least not to individuals directly. Rather, you will slowly turn away from those who repeatedly do you wrong, leaving them to wonder what it is they may have done. You can, however, be won back by the repentant, those who understand that you have been hurt and who do what they can to ease the wound and rekindle your affection and favour. Once you accept an apology from someone, you consider the offence wiped away. You’re never one to hold grudges against those who have seen the error of their ways.

Despite this sensitivity that many consider a dominant personality trait, you can sometimes be something of a bull in a china shop, storming through life with bluster and bravado. This may actually be only a guise, carefully crafted to protect you from hurt feelings or too much emotional sensitivity.

Also born on this date are: Ernest Borgnine, actor; John Belushi, actor and comedian; Neil Diamond, singer-songwriter; Mary Lou Retton, Olympic gymnast; Matthew Lillard, actor; Sharon Tate, actress; Aaron Neville, singer; Warren Zevon, singer-songwriter; Maria Tallchief, ballerina; Brian Cushing, football player; Nastassja Kinski, model and actress; Oral Roberts, televangelist; Edith Wharton, novelist.

12.24pm 3.31pm 5.52pm 7.06pm 5.32am

Sunset Sunrise (Tomorrow) High tide Low tide

5:47pm 6.50am

11:10am 5.33pm

FIND-IT-ALL

6.18am 12.04pm

W E AT H E R

AIRLINES

C

lear to partly cloudy skies over Musandam and South Sharqiyah governorates and the coastal areas of Oman Sea and mainly clear over rest of the Sultanate.

EXPECTED WINDS: Along Oman Sea coasts winds will be northerly to northeasterly light to moderate while over rest of Sultanate it will be northerly to northwesterly light to moderate occasionally fresh along Arabian Sea coasts.

SEA STATE: Moderate along the southeastern coast with

maximum wave height of 2.0 metres. Light to moderate along Musandam and Oman Sea coasts with maximum wave height of 1.5 metres.

HORIZONTAL VISIBILITY: Good over most of the Sultanate becoming poor during fog formation.

THE NEXT 48 HOURS OUTLOOK: Clear to partly cloudy skies over Musandam and South Sharqiyah governorates and the coastal areas of Oman Sea with chance of isolated rains.

Max

OMAN

WORLD

Max 22 Min 13 Max 3 Min -3

Max 17 Min 10

Max 23 Min 16 Max 7 Min 0

Max 22 Min 15

Max 0 Min -6

Max 23 Min 10

Max 24 Min 8

Max 21 Min 7

Max 23 Min 17

AQUARIUS

Max 24 Min 12

[JAN. 20-FEB. 18] You’re eager to see things progress according to plan, but be prepared: You’re not likely to get your way with absolutely everything.

Max 26 Min 16

Max 26 Min 13

Max 26 Min 22 Max 31 Min 29

Source: www.met.gov.om

[Feb. 19-March 20]

FROM MUSCAT (RUWI)

Are you sure that you know what is A expected of you? Take the time to read the fine print so that you’re not taken by surprise.

ARIES [March 21-APRIL 19] You can provide another with exactly what is needed, but at the same time, you will be giving yourself something of value, too.

TAURUS [APRIL 20-MAY 20] Are you following the script to the letter? Today, even a single improvisation on your part can have far-reaching ramifications.

GEMINI [MAY 21-JUNE 20] You don’t really believe that others will look the other way when you break with tradition and do something unconventional, do you?

CANCER [JUNE 21-JULY 22] You can shake things up a bit and really up the ante for those who have become complacent. There’s no need to be conservative.

QURIYAT - SUR - JAALAN (Route 36) Dept Destination Arrival Time Time 15:00 Quriyat 16:30 15:00 Sur 18:00 15:00 Jaalan 19:30

GULF Abu Dhabi Doha Dubai Kuwait Manama Riyadh

22 21 22 22 20 24

15 15 14 5 15 9

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

16 20 3 1 3 26 30 2 19 12 28 32 14 7 29 30 10 2

11 8 -7 -1 -2 14 23 0 16 7 15 23 6 0 17 24 1 -7

TO AL BURAIMI (Route 41) 06:30 Sohar 06:30 Buraimi 08:00 Buraimi 13:00 Sohar 13:00 Buraimi 16.00 Sohar 16.00 Buraimi TO SINAW (Route 52) 17:30 Sinaw

[JULY 23-AUG. 22] A routine event becomes much more enjoyable quite by accident. Those who choose to accompany you will be surprised by your attitude.

VIRGO [AUG. 23-SEPT. 22] You’ll feel good about what lies ahead, but toward midday, you may suspect that not everything is as it seems. Investigate closely.

LIBRA L [[SEPT. [S S 23-OCT. 22] You may be thinking a great deal about something that happened some time ago. Today you’ll come to an unsettling conclusion.

SCORPIO S [[OCT. 23-NOV. 21] Mind your manners. Do things in a way that attracts the right kind of attention. Don’t let anyone trick you in any way.

SAGITTARIUS S [[NOV. 22-DEC. 21] You may have to have eyes in the back of your head in order to keep track of all that is going on around you. Pay attention!

CAPRICORN [DEC. 22-JAN 19] You’re entering a phase in which you may be required to test certain assumptions and beliefs before you can proceed according to plan.

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

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

Daily Daily Daily via Ibri Daily Daily Daily Daily

20:50

Daily

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

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

16:50 19:30

Daily Daily

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

10:20 12:30

TO SUR (Route 55) 07:30 Sur 14:30 Sur TO FAHUD - YIBAL (Route 62) 06:30 Fahud 06:30 Yibal

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

Daily Daily Daily via Ibri Daily Daily Daily Daily

10:25

Daily

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

08:40 11:00

Daily Daily

Daily Daily

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

17:55 20:20

Daily Daily

12:00 18:45

Daily Daily

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

10:45 19:00

Daily Daily

10:30 11:15

Daily Daily

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

13:15 17:30

Daily Daily

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

Daily Daily Daily Daily

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

Daily Daily Daily Daily

TO MARMUL (Route 101) 06:00 Marmul

Daily

TO MARMUL (Route 101) 06:00 Marmul

16:30

Daily

Daily

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

Daily

16:50

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

LEO

TO MUSCAT (RUWI)

Operating Days Daily Daily Daily

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

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

Daily Daily Wed,Thur Wed,Thur Daily Daily

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

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

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

Daily Daily Thur-Fri Thur-Fri Daily Daily

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

LISTINGS

PHARMACIES Round the clock Al Hashar Pharmacy, Ruwi: 24783334; Appolo Medical Centre, Hamriya: 24782666; Muscat Pharmacy, Ruwi: 24702542, Salalah: 23291635; Atlas Pharmacy, Ghubra: 24503585; Ruwi 24811715 Muscat Region Apollo, Al Hamriya. Tel: 24787766 Muscat, A Seeb Market. Tel: 24421691 Muscat, Al Khuwair. Tel: 24485740 Muscat, Al Hail South. Tel: 4537080 Dhofar Region Muscat, Al Nahdha Road, Salalah.

Tel: 23291635 HOSPITALS Al Amal Medical & Health Care Centre: 24485052 Atlas Hospital: Ruwi: 24811743/ Ghubra: 24504000 Al Musafir Specialised Medical Clinic: 24706453 Hatat Polyclinic LLC, Ruwi: 24563641, Azaiba: 24499269, Sohar: 2683006 Al Raffah Hospital: 24618900/1/2 Al Massaraat Clinic & Laboratory: 24566435 Al Makook Medical Coordinance Centre: 24499434 Apollo Medical Centre, Hamriya: 24787766, 24787780 Capital Polyclinic: 24707549 Badr Al Samaa Polyclinic, Ruwi: 24799760/1/2 Capital Clinic, Seeb: 24420740 Ceregem National Raak: 24485633 Dr Harub’s Clinic: 24563217 Elixir Health Centre: 24565802 Emirates Medical Centre: 24604540 1st Chiropractic Centre: 24472274 Hamdan Hospital: 23212340 International Medical Centre LLC: 24794501/2/3/4/5 Kims Oman Hospital: 24760100

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

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

SATURDAY

Min

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

PISCES

B7

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

National Museum Ruwi: Tel: 24701289, Open from Saturday to Wednesday: 8am to 1:30pm, Thursday: 9am to 1pm Sohar Fort Museum: Tel: 26844758, Open from Saturday to Wed: 8 to 1:30pm Thurs: 9am to 1pm Muscat Gate Museum: at Al Bahri Road, Muscat open from Sat to Wed 8am to 2pm

FLT NO

ARRIVALS FROM

WY406 WY676 WY648 WY816 WY916 PK225 TK774 PK229 QR1132 ET624 EK866 GF560 EY384 FZ041 MS930 WY902 WY668 WY638 WY658 WY686 WY412 WY644 WY114 WY122 WY154 WY692 WY674 WY142 WY672 WY132 WY602 WY202 WY432 WY102 WY422 FZ043 WY274 G9114 WY242 WY236 PK191 WY346 EK862 WY252 IX443 QR1128 EY382 IX549 9W530 WY342 WY604 FZ037 IX337 WY268 PA450 WY904 WY3302 BG023 WY326 NL771 WY606 WY632 WY918 IX817 WY906 WY656 WY328 SV532 FZ045 MP95 WY204 WY292 WY246 WY610 WY3304 WY284 WY232 WY216 QR1126 EK864 GF564 G9116 FZ047 WY614 WY914 WY386 KL441 AI973 WY624 WY312 6.00E+81 9W534 FZ049 WY374 WY254 AI907 WY224 QR1134 UL205 WY338 GF566 EY388 WY814 BA073 WY908 AI985 WY662 LX242 9W540 WY654 LH618 WY116 WY612 WY928 WY636 WY696 WY696 WY717

SUNDAY ETA

FLT NO

ARRIVALS FROM

CAIRO 0005 JEDDAH 0005 KUWAIT 0010 BANGKOK 0015 SALALAH 0150 KARACHI 0210 ISTANBUL 0215 LAHORE 0215 DOHA 0345 ADDIS ABABA 0350 DUBAI 0355 BAHRAIN 0405 ABU DHABI 0405 DUBAI 0415 CAIRO 0430 SALALAH 0630 DOHA 0635 ABU DHABI 0650 BAHRAIN 0700 RIYADH 0700 AMMAN 0705 KUWAIT 0715 FRANKFURT 0715 MUNICH 0715 ZURICH 0720 DAMMAM 0725 JEDDAH 0730 MALPENSA 0745 MEDINA 0745 PARIS 0800 DUBAI 0805 BOMBAY 0815 TEHRAN 0815 LONDON HEATHROW 0820 BEIRUT 0830 DUBAI 0850 JAIPUR 0855 SHARJAH 0915 DELHI 0920 HYDERABAD 0920 TURBAT 0930 ISLAM ABBAD 0940 DUBAI 0940 MADRAS 0940 COCHIN 1010 DOHA 1010 ABU DHABI 1015 TRIVANDRUM 1020 TRIVANDRUM 1035 LAHORE 1100 DUBAI 1110 DUBAI 1200 CALICUT 1210 LUCKNOW 1210 LAHORE 1215 SALALAH 1215 MUKHAIZNA 1230 DACCA 1245 KARACHI 1255 PESHAWAR 1300 DUBAI 1330 ABU DHABI 1330 KHASAB 1400 MANGALORE-ABU DHABI 1440 SALALAH 1445 BAHRAIN 1530 LAHORE 1550 JEDDAH 1550 DUBAI 1555 AMSTERDAM 1645 BOMBAY 1710 CALICUT 1720 DELHI 1730 DUBAI 1730 MUKHAIZNA 1730 BANGALORE 1740 HYDERABAD 1740 TRIVANDRUM 1740 DOHA 1745 DUBAI 1800 BAHRAIN 1810 SHARJAH 1915 DUBAI 1945 DUBAI 2030 SALALAH 2035 MALE 2110 AMSTERDAM-DOHA 2120 DELHI 2125 DUBAI 2125 CHITTAGONG 2125 BOMBAY 2130 COCHIN 2140 DUBAI 2145 COLOMBO 2150 MADRAS 2155 MADRAS 2200 COCHIN 2205 DOHA 2210 COLOMBO 2225 KATHMANDU 2235 BAHRAIN 2240 ABU DHABI 2250 BANGKOK 2250 LONDON HEATHROW-ABU DHABI 2255 SALALAH 2305 AHMEDABAD-BOMBAY 2310 DOHA 2315 ZURICH-DUBAI 2320 BOMBAY 2325 BAHRAIN 2330 FRANKFURT-ABU DHABI 2330 FRANKFURT 2335 DUBAI 2335 SALALAH 2345 ABU DHABI 2350 DAMMAM 2350 DAMMAM 2350 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM 2355

WY406 WY676 WY682 WY648 WY904 WY816 WY824 WY916 4H583 NL669 TK776 QR1132 ET624 EK866 GF560 EY384 FZ041 WY324 WY686 WY902 4H584 WY638 WY658 WY668 WY674 WY602 WY202 WY102 FZ043 WY274 NL768 G9114 WY236 WY242 WY226 EK862 WY252 WY212 WY346 QR1128 EY382 IX549 WY3302 WY282 WY3922 WY604 G9841 WY372 FZ037 WY424 IX337 PK223 WY606 WY918 WY906 WY812 WY656 WY632 FZ045 WY204 WY292 WY610 WY246 WY264 WY232 WY664 QR1126 GF564 WY3306 G9116 WY254 TG507 FZ047 WY434 WY614 WY914 WY386 WY152 WY312 WY116 WY124 KL441 WY144 AI973 WY624 6.00E+81 WY134 WY414 FZ049 AI907 QR1134 UL205 GF566 EY388 BA073 WY908 AI985 WY648 LX242 9W540 WY654 LH618 WY612 WY696 WY910 WY928 WY717

CAIRO 0005 JEDDAH 0005 RIYADH 0005 KUWAIT 0010 SALALAH 0015 BANGKOK 0015 KUALA LUMPUR 0055 SALALAH 0150 DACCA 0200 SIALKOT 0200 ISTANBUL-BAHRAIN 0300 DOHA 0345 ADDIS ABABA 0350 DUBAI 0355 BAHRAIN 0405 ABU DHABI 0405 DUBAI 0415 KARACHI 0540 RIYADH 0600 SALALAH 0630 DOHA 0640 ABU DHABI 0650 BAHRAIN 0700 DOHA 0710 JEDDAH 0730 DUBAI 0805 BOMBAY 0815 LONDON HEATHROW 0820 DUBAI 0850 JAIPUR 0855 LAHORE 0900 SHARJAH 0915 HYDERABAD 0920 DELHI 0920 COCHIN 0930 DUBAI 0940 MADRAS 0940 TRIVANDRUM 0940 ISLAM ABBAD 0955 DOHA 1010 ABU DHABI 1015 TRIVANDRUM 1020 MUKHAIZNA 1045 BANGALORE 1100 DUQUM OMAN 1105 DUBAI 1110 RAS AL KHAIMA 1120 COLOMBO 1130 DUBAI 1200 BEIRUT 1205 CALICUT 1210 PESHAWAR 1220 DUBAI 1330 KHASAB 1440 SALALAH 1445 BANGKOK 1525 BAHRAIN 1530 ABU DHABI 1535 DUBAI 1555 BOMBAY 1710 CALICUT 1720 DUBAI 1730 DELHI 1730 LUCKNOW 1735 HYDERABAD 1740 DOHA 1745 DOHA 1745 BAHRAIN 1810 MUKHAIZNA 1845 SHARJAH 1915 MADRAS 1920 BANGKOK-KARACHI 1935 DUBAI 1945 TEHRAN 2000 DUBAI 2030 SALALAH 2035 MALE 2110 ZURICH 2110 CHITTAGONG 2115 FRANKFURT 2115 MUNICH 2115 AMSTERDAM-DOHA 2120 MALPENSA 2120 DELHI 2125 DUBAI 2125 BOMBAY 2130 PARIS 2130 AMMAN 2135 DUBAI 2145 MADRAS 2200 DOHA 2210 COLOMBO 2225 BAHRAIN 2240 ABU DHABI 2250 LONDON HEATHROW-ABU DHABI 2255 SALALAH 2305 AHMEDABAD-BOMBAY 2310 KUWAIT 2315 ZURICH-DUBAI 2320 BOMBAY 2325 BAHRAIN 2330 FRANKFURT-ABU DHABI 2330 DUBAI 2335 DAMMAM 2350 SALALAH 2355 SALALAH 2355 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM 2355

FLT NO

DEPARTURES TO

FLT NO

DEPARTURES TO

AI986 LX243 9W539 BA072 SG062 LH619 WY685 WY251 WY201 WY235 WY273 WY345 WY601 WY241 WY431 WY643 WY637 WY657 WY115 WY667 WY691 TK775 PK226 PK230 WY267 ET625 EK867 FZ042 QR1133 EY385 MS931 GF561 WY603 WY903 WY3301 WY325 WY813 WY215 WY291 WY327 WY823 FZ044 WY385 WY283 WY231 WY245 G9115 WY815 PK192 WY373 WY605 WY905 WY631 WY203 WY311 WY717 WY917 EK863 EY383 WY655 IX554 QR1129 IX442 9W533 WY337 IX350 WY253 PA451 FZ038 WY3303 WY101 WY223 WY927 BG024 WY609 NL668 WY405 IX818 WY675 WY913 SV533 WY613 FZ046 MP95

BOMBAY 0005 DUBAI-ZURICH 0020 BOMBAY 0025 ABU DHABI-LONDON HEATHROW 0025 AHMEDABAD 0030 ABU DHABI-FRANKFURT 0050 RIYADH 0105 MADRAS 0110 BOMBAY 0120 HYDERABAD 0135 JAIPUR 0140 ISLAM ABBAD 0150 DUBAI 0150 DELHI 0155 TEHRAN 0155 KUWAIT 0200 ABU DHABI 0205 BAHRAIN 0205 FRANKFURT 0215 DOHA 0220 DAMMAM 0235 ISTANBUL 0310 KARACHI 0310 LAHORE 0315 LUCKNOW 0355 ADDIS ABABA 0450 DUBAI 0455 DUBAI 0510 DOHA 0520 ABU DHABI 0525 CAIRO 0530 BAHRAIN 0745 DUBAI 0800 SALALAH 0800 MUKHAIZNA 0800 KARACHI 0820 BANGKOK 0855 TRIVANDRUM 0920 CALICUT 0920 LAHORE 0920 KUALA LUMPUR 0930 DUBAI 0935 MALE 0940 BANGALORE 0940 HYDERABAD 0955 DELHI 0955 SHARJAH 1005 BANGKOK 1010 TURBAT-GWADUR 1015 COLOMBO 1020 DUBAI 1030 SALALAH 1030 ABU DHABI 1030 BOMBAY 1030 CHITTAGONG 1040 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM 1045 KHASAB 1050 DUBAI 1055 ABU DHABI 1105 BAHRAIN 1110 TRIVANDRUM 1110 DOHA 1115 COCHIN 1115 COCHIN 1135 KATHMANDU 1310 CALICUT 1310 MADRAS 1315 LAHORE 1315 DUBAI 1315 MUKHAIZNA 1330 LONDON HEATHROW 1330 COCHIN 1355 SALALAH 1415 CHITTAGONG-DACCA 1415 DUBAI 1420 SIALKOT 1430 CAIRO 1430 MANGALORE 1530 JEDDAH 1630 SALALAH 1630 RIYADH-JEDDAH 1650 DUBAI 1700 DUBAI 1700 DUBAI WORLD CENTRESINGAPORE 1815 DUBAI 1820 DOHA 1845 RIYADH 1845 SALALAH 1850 BAHRAIN 1855 DOHA 1900 KUWAIT 1900 BAHRAIN 1910 DAMMAM 1910 DUBAI 1915 SHARJAH 2005 DUBAI 2025 ABU DHABI 2030 DUBAI 2040 SALALAH 2135 DUBAI 2225 DOHA-AMSTERDAM 2230 TRIVANDRUM 2240 BOMBAY 2245 MADRAS 2300 DELHI 2310 DOHA 2320 BAHRAIN 2325 COLOMBO 2335 ABU DHABI 2350 SALALAH 2350 JEDDAH 2350

AI986 LX243 BA072 9W539 LH619 WY685 WY811 WY323 WY211 WY251 WY201 WY225 WY235 WY273 WY601 WY341 WY151 WY241 WY281 WY423 WY657 WY637 WY371 WY123 WY133 WY115 WY667 WY143 WY345 4H584 NL772 TK777 ET625 EK867 FZ042 QR1133 EY385 WY3301 WY3921 4H584 GF561 WY903 WY603 WY291 WY263 FZ044 WY245 WY231 G9115 WY905 WY203 NL769 WY605 WY253 WY311 WY717 EK863 EY383 IX554 WY655 QR1129 WY3303 WY917 WY331 G9842 WY631 IX350 FZ038 PK224 WY663 WY413 WY101 WY433 WY927 WY609 WY405 WY3305 WY675 WY913 FZ046 WY613 WY623 WY681 QR1127 WY907 GF565 WY647 WY661 WY695 WY653 WY909 G9117 WY611 WY635 FZ048 TG508 WY825 WY915 FZ050 KL442 WY817 6.00E+82 AI908 AI974 QR1135 GF567 UL206 EY381 WY673 WY901 WY671

BOMBAY 0005 DUBAI-ZURICH 0020 ABU DHABI-LONDON HEATHROW 0025 BOMBAY 0025 ABU DHABI-FRANKFURT 0050 RIYADH 0105 BANGKOK 0105 KARACHI 0105 TRIVANDRUM 0110 MADRAS 0110 BOMBAY 0120 COCHIN 0125 HYDERABAD 0135 JAIPUR 0140 DUBAI 0150 LAHORE 0150 ZURICH 0155 DELHI 0155 BANGALORE 0200 BEIRUT 0200 BAHRAIN 0205 ABU DHABI 0205 COLOMBO 0210 MUNICH 0210 PARIS 0215 FRANKFURT 0215 DOHA 0220 MALPENSA 0225 ISLAM ABBAD 0250 DUBAI-DACCA 0300 PESHAWAR 0330 BAHRAIN-ISTANBUL 0350 ADDIS ABABA 0450 DUBAI 0455 DUBAI 0510 DOHA 0520 ABU DHABI 0525 MUKHAIZNA 0715 DUQUM OMAN 0720 DACCA 0740 BAHRAIN 0745 SALALAH 0800 DUBAI 0800 CALICUT 0920 LUCKNOW 0920 DUBAI 0935 DELHI 0955 HYDERABAD 0955 SHARJAH 1005 SALALAH 1030 BOMBAY 1030 LAHORE 1030 DUBAI 1030 MADRAS 1040 CHITTAGONG 1040 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM 1045 DUBAI 1055 ABU DHABI 1105 TRIVANDRUM 1110 BAHRAIN 1110 DOHA 1115 MUKHAIZNA 1115 KHASAB 1140 KATHMANDU 1205 RAS AL KHAIMA 1210 ABU DHABI 1225 CALICUT 1310 DUBAI 1315 PESHAWAR 1320 DOHA 1330 AMMAN 1330 LONDON HEATHROW 1330 TEHRAN 1340 SALALAH 1415 DUBAI 1420 CAIRO 1430 MUKHAIZNA 1515 JEDDAH 1630 SALALAH 1630 DUBAI 1700 DUBAI 1700 DUBAI 1820 RIYADH 1845 DOHA 1845 SALALAH 1850 BAHRAIN 1855 KUWAIT 1900 DOHA 1900 DAMMAM 1910 BAHRAIN 1910 SALALAH 1940 SHARJAH 2005 DUBAI 2025 ABU DHABI 2030 DUBAI 2040 KARACHI-BANGKOK 2040 KUALA LUMPUR 2110 SALALAH 2135 DUBAI 2225 DOHA-AMSTERDAM 2230 BANGKOK 2235 BOMBAY 2245 MADRAS 2300 DELHI 2310 DOHA 2320 BAHRAIN 2325 COLOMBO 2335 ABU DHABI 2350 JEDDAH 2350 SALALAH 2350 MEDINA 2350

WY623 QR1127 WY681 WY907 GF565 WY661 WY647 WY653 WY695 EK865 G9117 WY611 WY635 FZ048 WY915 FZ050 KL442 9W529 6.00E+82 AI908 AI974 QR1135 GF567 UL206 EY381 WY901 WY673

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EXTRA BRIEFS

I’m doing variety of films this year: Priyanka Chopra

DURING 2014, Priyanka Chopra was seen in two films — action crime thriller Gunday and Mary Kom. But this year, she’ll be seen in four different kinds of films and the National Award-winning actress is looking forward to it. “This year I’m doing very good films. I’m very very excited about it. This year Dil Dhadakne Do will release, which is a very contemporary story of a dysfunctional family. Then Bajirao Mastani will come... in which I play Indian Peshwa queen. Then I’m also doing Gangajal 2 and Madamji,” the actress said at the 60th Filmfare red carpet event. In Gangajal 2, I’m playing Ajay’s (Ajay Devgn) female counter-part.

So, in Gangajal 2 I’m playing cop and in Madamji, I’m playing an item dancer. There is very nice variations of films,” Priyanka added. Priyanka believes that she has always been a risk-taker in her career.

Working with Salman helped improve my Hindi: Jacqueline SRI LANKAN origin actress Jacqueline Fernandez, who dubbed her own dialogues in Hindi in Kick opposite Salman Khan, says that her command over the language improved a lot after working with the Bollywood superstar. The actress was present at an event when she was asked about the major difference that she noticed in her career after working with Salman in Kick and she said: “Actually my Hindi improved so much after working with Salman. He used to push me a lot in all the interviews that we did during the promotions. He wouldn’t allow me to speak in English. He is very inspiring...I felt like I was re-launched in the industry again. He had been such a great support, so encouraging...It was definitely a new beginning for me and I owe him a lot for that,” she added. On the film front, Jacqueline will next be seen opposite Ranbir Kapoor and Arjun Rampal in Roy. The film is set to release on February 13. - IANS

FANCY A LIE-IN ON WEEKENDS? People with sleeping patterns which differ significantly between work days and rest days may suffer from a chronic metabolic disturbance that causes them to gain weight and to develop diabetes and other health problems

P

eople who find it difficult to get out of bed at the weekends are more likely to suffer from chronic health problems such as obesity and diabetes compared to individuals who are up with the lark even when they do not have to go to work, a study has found.

Scientists said that people with “social jet-leg” – when sleeping patterns differ significantly between work days and rest days – may suffer from a chronic metabolic disturbance that causes them to pile on the pounds and to develop diabetes and other health problems.

The researchers found an association between social jet-leg and body fat when they analysed the sleeping patterns and weight of more than 800 people who have been followed for many years as part of the Dunedin Longitudinal Study in New Zealand.

Although they cannot say that social jet-leg causes obesity, the scientists believe that the link supports the idea that people whose body clocks are perpetually out of synch with their work patterns are putting their metabolism under strain, which manifests itself as obesity and other chronic disorders.

“Obesity, as with many complex health problems, is the result of a number of factors and our study suggests that social jet-lag is one of the factors that needs to be taken into account,” said Michael Parson of the Mammalian Genetics Unit at the Medical Research Council in Harwell.

“Social jet-lag is an under researched but potentially key contributor to why living against our internal body clock has an impact on our health,” said Dr Parson, who is the lead author of the study published in the International Journal of Obesity.

“Our research confirms find-

ings from a previous that connected people with more severe social jet-lag to increases in selfreported body mass index [body fat], but this is the first study to suggest this difference in sleeping times and also increase the risk for obesity-related disease,” he said. The body’s internal clock runs on a “circadian rhythm” of about 24 hours but some people are considered “owls”, being more alert and active in the evening, while others are “larks”, being at their best in the morning.

Although many people tend to sleep in at the weekends when they do not have to go to work, the tendency for social “jet lag” with their work-day routine can differ markedly between individuals.

It was this difference between week-day and weekend sleep patterns that the study analysed, Dr Parson said.

“We found that for every two hours of social jet-lag we saw an average increase of about 2.5kg

(5lbs) in fat mass among those individuals. We think this relates to the daily rhythm regulating the expression of about 10 per of the body’s genes, many of which are involved in fat metabolism,” he said.

“It’s compatible with the hypothesis. As little as two hours of social jet-lag can increase the risk of health biomarkers such as obesity and diabetes,” he explained.

The researchers suggest that policies on working hours, such as the introduction of flexi-time, could be introduced to reflect the possible health risk for people who have to work against their body clocks.

Terrie Moffitt, a co-author of the study, said: “Further research that determines this association could help to inform obesity prevention by influencing policies and practices that contribute to social jet-lag, such as work schedules and daylight savings.” — Steve Connor/The Independent

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

SECTION

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

RENT

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VACANCY

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CARGO

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S AT U R D AY, JA N UA RY 2 4 , 2 0 1 5

DAILY GUIDE

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

FOR RENT

OFFICES FOR RENT - Premium offices to let a very good location on the main road very close to Zakher Mall, Al Khawiar. Business Center has offices with sizes of 50m2, 110m2, 180m2, 207m2, 230m2, 437m2.

- Showroom also available at Business Center, Area 500m2 with central A/c.

- Offices with Central Air-conditions, Security System with CCTV cameras, and Security presence in the building.

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

We have 3 BHK apartment in Al Khuwair 28 Muna Complex with swimming pool, gym, covered car parking, prime location, good for European & Indian Families. Contact 93782735 / 99208033 3BHK, (3 bathroom and big hall) opp. Apollo Hospital, Hamariya R/A (OMR 300/-) Contact 91181761 2 BR flat for rent in Wadi Kabir next to Al Maha Petrol Pump.

Rent RO 300 pm. contact 99440826 Fully furnished rooms for rent for family. Contact 99251975, Al Khuwair 2 bedrooms flats available at Ghubrah, near Grand Mall, close to Atlas Hospital, next to Diwan’s office.

Contact 24562526, 99833747 For rent new flat in Wadi Adai.

Contact 99345137 1,000 sq mtrs industrial land in Misfah Industrial area near to Khanco. OMR 1,500 Monthly. It has Electricity and boundary wall.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360 3 bedroom residential villa in Al Khuwair near to Zakher Mall. Has shaded car park. Can be used for office or other commercial purposes.

OMR 690 Monthly. Tel: 99333479 or 95215360 Ghubrah, 2 BHK, 3 bath new building, rent RO 380/- per month.

Contact 98266157 Flat deluxe in Al Amerat Mahaj 4, 3 rooms with 3 toilets.

Contact 99672604

Showroom space available in Qurum. Road Facing prime location. commercially viable and affordable.

Contact- 98839950 Twin villa at Al-Kuwair 33. Six rooms with bathrooms. 670 OMR, contact: 99414767. Families only.

Office space with cassette type A/C’s with free internet at al Khuwair near KM Hypermarket. Contact 99460330 1, 2, 3, BHK in Al khuwair.

Contact 99792181 2 BHK in Bowsher, Ghobra.

Contact 99792181 1 & 2 BHK in Ruwi.

Contact 99792181

We have 2 BHK flats in Ghala, 2 BHK offices in Ghala, 100 SQM open space office in Ghala. Full furnished office in Ghala, 4 BHK villa in Al Khuwair 33. # 93782735 / 99208033 1&2 BHK flat & Shop for rent at MBD, Hamriya, Hallat sad, Al Khoudh area.

Contact: 24834644, 93994401, 02, 03 150 Sqm Store, Darsait, RO 300/-.

Contact 95076261 1 BHK near Medical, Darsait, RO 175/-. Contact 98748925 Studio, Al Athaibah, ground floor, 1 BHK, hall, 2 bathrooms, family only.

RO 250/-. Contact 92479515 Flat, Al Ghubrah near Indian School, 2 BHK , RO 325, family only, 3 bathroom, living room. Contact 92479515

180 Sqr mtrs Showroom in CBD. Contact 99792181 100 &190 Sqr Mtrs office space in Alkhuwair. Contact 99792181

Office space for rent in Ruwi, OMR 500. Contact 91120552

New 4 Bhk Villa in Madhinat Ilham.

Contact 99792181

Flat for rent in Al Khuwair 33.

Contact 99003626

For store, workshop in Wadi Kabir Industrial Area 5/5 m.

Contact 99374977

One bedroom flat, Muttrah, Corniche. Contact 99414644

Luxurious flat with AC’s, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen with store & family hall. # 93366421 2 bedroom fully furnished luxurious flat for rent at Ghala for long term or short term basis. Contact 97762321

2 shops, store accommodation, Barka Sanayya opposite Al Khalili.

Contact 92423401

We have 3 BHK flat in Ghubah North close to sea with balcony, very nice location. #93782735 / 99208033 1 BHK at Ghobrah - Near Indian School. Contact: 99014885 Al Qurum heights Sea view. # 99249069 / 92888376/ 93201688 3 flats in Mabellah for rent.

Contact 99445177 500 Sq Mtrs industrial land, leveled, ready to use with boundary wall, in Misfah industrial Area, block 2 near Baladiyah Camp, RO 600/-, monthly. Contact 94030814 1000 Sq Mtrs, Industrial Land for rent in Ghala suitable for warehouse workshop etc. Contact 24700120, 92584715 Flat in Darsait. Contact 99326879

Villa Al Athaibah near Oman post, 3 BHK hall, living room, maids room, split A/c, family only, RO 600/-.

Contact 92479515

2 bedrooms flat with hall, 2 bathrooms in Darsait near Muscat Municipality.

Contact 24700120, 92584715

We have 2 BHK luxury flats with 3 toilets in Ghala for rent, very spacious, building on main road, huge parking, good for families, 20 flats available. # 93782735 / 99208033

1 BHK with A/C, Al Ghubrah, RO 275/-. Contact 92144045 Family villa & flats at Al Ansab and Awabi. Contact 98458542 2 BHK flats Muttrah near Oman House. Contact 97007934 / 92629232

New bldg 3 BR flats located at Darsait, Muscat close to Kims Pvt Hospital. Contact 92020004 / 99800838 Office space & store, CBD 20059.

Contact 99024730 New warehouse for rent at Ghala ind. area. 578 & 1200 sqms near. hotel al-madinah holiday, Ghala.

Container can enter, immediate access to roads & highways.

Contact : 92078090 For rent at Al Khuwair, 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, sitting, dining, kitchen split A/C near Rawasco, 1st floor.

Rent 480 PDC. Contact 99879939 2 BHK, Darsait near Kims Hospital.

Contact 99024730

For rent at Ruwi, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, sitting, dining, kitchen with A/C near Al Falaj Hotel, Ruwi, Way 2116 building 577, rent RO 275, PDC. Contact 99879939

1 & 2 BHK & villa 3 BR-Darsait near ISM & ISD. Contact 99024730

For rent at Al Khuwair, 1 room with bathroom (Independent), near Rawasco with split A/C, 2nd floor, rent RO 125 PDC. Contact 99879939

1 BHK, Wadi Kabir. # 99024730

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

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

Contact 99199365

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

Villas & flats & stores. Contact 99776071 / 99057348

6 shops in Mabela Industrial Area.

Each Front Shop OMR 400 and Side Shop OMR 300Monthly.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

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

Contact 99476728 / 99831047

Fully furnished one bedroom penthouse Wadi Kabir behind Sana Hassan, weekly RO.140/- Monthly RO 350/- Contact – 99349990 1,000 sq mtrs industrial land in Misfah Industrial area near to Khan co. OMR 1,500 Monthly. Electricity and boundary wall will be provided.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360 Family room available for rent at Muttrah Souq. Contact 24712088 / 99022790 Flat, shops, basement, Ruwi-MBD Area, Honda Road.

Contact 96942749, 92433127 2 BHK, Al Khuwair. #99024730 Spacious well maintained 2 BHK at Rex Road from 1st February.

Contact 92227165 2 BHK, CBD. Contact 99024730

1 BHK, 2 BHK, Ghala, new bldg.

Contact 99024730

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

Villa, ground floor in Al Khuwair.

Contact 99743569, 97004265 1 BHK bedroom flat in Wadi Kabir neat Kuwaiti Mosque RO 200/-.

Contact 95094028 Abu Adnan Tower - flat for rent available at Al Mabelah, 2 B/R, 1 hall, 2 toilets, 1 kitchen.

Contact 95566475 / 99654252 1 / 3 BHK Flat Ghobrah, close to ISG Way 4041, building 4390.

Contact 99319880 2 BHK flat for rent RO.350/- at Al Khuwair near Sultan Taimur Mosque. Contact – 98893294 1 BHK with attached toilet & bathroom behind Bank Muscat at Wadi Kabir. Contact 99373290, 24815012

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DAILY GUIDE

FOR RENT

ACC. AVAILABLE Sharing room with A/c and attached toilet available for non cooking bachelors for male/ Female. opp. of Al nada hospital service road, Street name- Hellat Al Saad, bldg.no. 1670.

Contact no. 96913801 Ghubrah furnished room with attached bath, dish, wi-fi available for executive person. Contact 98266157 I room with attached toilet in Al Hail for bachelor, rent RO 100 to RO 130/-.

Contact 97661432

Furnished room with AC for expat, Al Khuwair. Contact 99689315 / 97004265

Industrial empty plots 1000 – 15000 sqm are available in Misfah / Jiffnain rent for long lease, RO 1.200 per sq mt. Contact 96789522

Room available in Ruwi near Badr Al Samaa for Executive bachelor or couple, RO 125/- including W/E. Contact 92196783

A newly opened Barber Shop for sale at upcoming industrial zone in Misfah. Expat leaving Oman.

Genuine buyers call 93833107 (Sale Price Negotiable)

1 BHK residential flat at Honda road.

2 BHK residential flat opposite to Al Nahdha hospital. Contact93219590 Flat for rent 2 bedrooms one hall in South Al Hail. RO 270. #93221474

2 BHK with window A/C in Al Khoudh rent RO 250/-. Contact 97661432

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

Constructed warehouse 3000 sq mt with boundary wall & gate in Misfah ready for lease or rent for long term.

Rent RO 3.500 per sq. mt. #96789522

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

Industrial Land in Misfah.

Contact 93009999

FOR SALE If require flats for rent in Wadi Kabir please send messages through Whatsapp or call – 99376454 Luxury 2 bed room villa at BausherAL Ansab Phase 3.Call. 99324456 2 BHK at Al Azaiba, Building No.5145 Way 4470. Contact 99224748, 99425665 We have 1 BHK, 2 BHK, 3 BHK flats, 4, 5 bedrooms villa, open space offices & shops available in Ghala, Ghobrah, Qurum, Mabela, Ruwi, Darsait, Mumtaz, Wadi Kabir. All brand new buildings & very affordable prices.

Contact 93782735 / 99208033 For rent apartments: An apartment in old Muscat at Oman Arab Bank’s building. 3 bedrooms + 3 bathrooms, dining room, living room and a kitchen. Air conditioned apartments.

2 bedrooms + 2 bathrooms, living room, dining room area and kitchen in an excellent location in Al Khuwair opposite the court of first instance. For further information call 97072976 Apartments in Al Khuwair new area each apartment contains (2 bedrooms + living room) for RO 365. # 93181111 3 bedroom furnished Executive Apartment @Al Khuwair 25, 2 BR fully furnished Executive Apartment @Azaiba near Zubair Showroom, 2 BR fully furnished executive Apartment @Al Khuwair 33 near Zakher Mall. Please contact : Atlas Real Estate & Rent A Car LLC, 99249069 / 92888376 / 93201688, email : info@alshahiintl.com

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

Contact 99105492

1 room balcony toilet for Indian lady / small family near Khimji Institute (NIIT) near Ruwi Church.

Contact # 99746379

Household items on sale.

Contact 93833107

Independent room, kitchen and bathroom available near Ruwi roundabout. Contact 99016562

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

Contact 96723468

Flats and shops. Contact 93009999 For rent (flats), 2 bedrooms + hall +kitchen, location: South Al Mawaleh.

Contact 99870020

For sale carpentry workshop with labor clearance in Wadi Al Kabir.

Contact 99345137

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

Contact 99319880

2 Prime Movers Man 2008 with 40 ton petrol tank each working at the moment in Al Maha. Price OMR 35 Thousand each. Tel: 97000155 or 92688692

Show room on the main road Saham center total area 450 m sq.

Contact: 99366558 / 99334226 Flats/villas owned by ROP pension fund available for rent in Muscat.

Contact 99349526 Flats ground floor, 3 Rooms & AC, kitchen, hall, in Al Mabaila South.

Contact 99377290 2 B/ R Fully Furnished Executive Apartment @ Al Khuwair 33 Near Zaker Mall.

3 Bedroom Furnished executive apartment @ Al Khuwair 25. 5 B/R Luxury Fully Furnished villas at Azaiba with servants, 3 Bedroom Unfurnished Villa @ Mawalah South Area 6 with Servant Quarter, 5 Bedroom Unfurnished Villa @ An Apartment that resembles a penthouse has 2 rooms with 2 toilets, living room & an elegant balcony.

Fully furnished, suited for families.

Final price RO.300/- Mabela 8 near German University. #99888400 New Villa for Rent Two floors newly built villa in Maabillah, 8 Fullfledged Residential Area 6 Rooms, 8 Toilets, excellent finishing spacious Kitchen, Big Dining Rooms in Both Floors, Easy Access to Muscat and Sohar using Maabillah Bridge.

Contact 92828303

Used first class office furniture for immediate sale. 3 Office Tables + Side Tables, Steel cabinets, Conference Table + Chairs etc. Excellent condition. Ideal for small start ups.

Contact: 92193885 Sales of Indian Schools girls uniform readymade, stitching facility, contact our showroom : Fashion park, opp. Happy Centre, Ruwi.

Contact 95717201 / 95331600, Email : muscatfiroz@gmail.com Dental clinic for sale in Sohar. Contact immediately 99705760,92625962

Good running boutique and ladies tailoring shop in MBD Area for immediate sale. Contact 95123679, 99885298 Toshiba Laptop I 3, 3 GB ram, 500 GB hard disk with graphics card, in very good condition. Contact 94412557

Flats for Sale in Bowshar: OMR 35 Thousand 1 bedroom. OMR 45 Thousand 2 bedroom. Monthly income 1 bedroom OMR 270 and 2 bedroom OMR 350. Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

Running Medical Centre with full equipments is available for sale. Those interested can contact 98994208.

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

If you have any empty land, plot, building, villa to sell. Contact with all information : info@goldenllc.com

New fully equipped 2 chair dental clinic in Seeb area for immediate sale. MOH approved. #94514045

Restaurant for leasing/sale in Al Hail. Contact 94148970, 94148972, 97820877

3 floor commercial building in Muttrah behind Police. Generating income of OMR 18 Thousand annually. Neat and well maintained. Built on 197 sq mtrs land. 2 tailor shops on ground floor and 6 flats. OMR 207 Thousand.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

Beauty Salon, Wadi Kabir, Al Hassan Co. Contact 95241147, 96700192 Darsait Business Office furniture, Isuzu 4 ton brand new.

Contact 91391363

Well running fast food and coffee shop for sale or rent in Al Khuwair.

Contact 97646492

A/C spares shop for sale in Seeb.

Contact 92693304 / 91445876

Sale of used commercial kitchen equipment in Ghala. #99024519

Villa for sale in new Al Khoudh.

Contact 99778773

600 sq mtrs residential land in Misfah Phase 2. OMR 25 Thousand. Tel : 99333479 or 95215360

Clinic for sale. Contact 99824232, email : modern.medicalclinic@gmail. com

Sinaw Gift House & Shopping Center for sale at Sinaw in good condition, with very good business opportunities. # 99738014, 95652642

23,886 Sq Mtrs Agriculture land with water well in Al Salwa, Barka.

OMR 260 Thousand. Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

Furnished sharing one room with bath at Darsait near ISM. Contact 95257213

AVAILABLE Established Restaurant for rent with sponsorship.Contact 97628242 Party & Wedding equipment rentals. Full line, from Tables, Linen & Skirting, Chairs & Chair covers, Cutlery, Crockery, Glassware, Chafing Dishes, Ice Sculptures, to Large Sound Systems and spectacular lighting. Call Andrea 9606 2222 for Catering and Croyden 9623 5555 for Sound & Light. www.tunesoman. com, E-mail: info@tunesoman.com

4 bedrooms house and one bedroom attached bathroom sharing kitchen in Wadi Kabir.

Contact 96639246 Spacious semi-furnished room with separate entrance, attached washroom for non-cooking Indian Bachelor near ISG. Contact 95146361, 92657598 Single room attached bathroom, kitchen, split A/C, Al Ghubrah near Mars Hypermarket, OR 180/-.

Contact 95094028 Single room available for exec bachelor, Muttrah opp Oman House.

Contact 93340125 Independent rooms in Qurum/ Al Hail. Contact 95529970 Furnished single room with attached bathroom near Mars Hypermarket, Al Ghubrah.

Contact 97312111, RO 150/per month Independent room furnished Executive at Wadi Kabir.

Contact 99336206 Rooms for rent in Al Hail, front of the Wave. Contact 95192927 Room with separate toilet and WiFi, Wadi Kabir near pencil building.

Contact 93416854 2 Bedroom flat for offices with furniture near Al Manaf Hotel, Ghala.

Contact 99525743, 99439705 Excellent 3 bedrooms , 2 sitting rooms, 3 bathrooms, kitchen & store with A/C. 92817777

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

DAILY GUIDE

SITUATION WANTED

SITUATION SITUATION WANTED VACANT ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

SALES / MARKETING

We are looking for a part time accountant for our office . Must have knowledge of Tally soft ware . Working hour is flexible , but not after 5 pm .Please contact by email : sales@petromaroman.com / mobile + 968 99338105

A reputed Electrical Material Company is looking for dynamic & hardworking salesman with minimum 2 yrs experience in same field of GCC with valid GCC Driving License for its Mussanah office for Al-Batina Region. Send CV to al.senair@gmail.com, contact : 98534685, 26868984

Required experienced Accountant Tally, excellent English & driving license. Contact – omanlaw.om@gmail.com / 24497762 / 92192510

MEDICAL Wanted Accountant part time job in Company, email : anas@kenzostone.com, nabil@kenzostone.com Male Accouuntant required in Ghala. Candidates present in Oman only. # 99454425, Email: qamest@omantel.net.om

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

BEAUTY Urgently required Beautician visa available. Contact 97172334

DESIGNER Urgently required Interior Designer qualified with minimum 5 yrs experience, capable to execute internal / external decorations to work for a leading construction company.

Email : alfayafy@outlook.com or fax : 24479675 Required part time web designer with experience in CMS background. Send your CV & sample work to hrmedia123@gmail.com

DRIVER A reputed Catering Company in Muscat urgently requires Omani heavy truck (Freezer) drivers – 4 yrs experience with PDO license will mostly be preferred. Interested candidates send CV to : email : info@rcsoman.com or fax : 24478123, GSM : 99869949 / 95892831 Wanted driver. Contact 95112461

DOMESTIC HELPER House driver for Salalah. Contact 95600011, 99081190 European woman looking for someone to look after baby.

Contact 99797290 European Family looking for maid and or cook.

Email: cv.lo.oman@gmail.com

ENGINEERS Omani Trainers & OJT’s for Mechanical / Electrical / Instrumentation & Business with suitable qualification and min 5 yrs experience in Oil & Gas. Very attractive salary offered. Suitable candidates send your CV to trainingjobsoman@gmail.com

MECHANICAL A well reputed fabrication & machining workshop Company in Oman requires experienced (5 yrs) Machinist in Milling, turning & surface grinding.

Contact 99228046, email : oman518@gmail.com Urgently required AC Mechanic.

Contact 97075347 / 99747684

MEDICAL Dentist required to work urgently in dreams clinic at Al Khoud and must be resident in Sultanate of Oman.

Please send your CV to the following email – towershr70@gmail.com / balushi70@gmail.com / info@towersinternationalgroups.com Mobile – 99882340 / 24545914 Wanted Pharmacist (B.Pharm), Staff Nurses (female), Dental Technician (Acrylic, Ceramic & veneer experience), with or without MOH license for a polyclinic near Sohar.

Excellent Salary package.

Contact 99006915, dxbclinic@yahoo.com

Required laboratory technician & 4 nurse Filipina (female) for health center in Sohar. Contact: 92369417, Email: shafii_17@hotmail.com Wanted Female Staff Nurse with MOH Licence/Prometric passed candidates (immediate placement)for a Medical Clinic in Muscat area Contact :+ 968 98185250 e mail:fizashafir@gmail.com Wanted Physiotherapist and Lab Technician to work in medical center in AlSeeb. Contact 99023006 Required the following staffs for a medical complex in Salalah urgently 1) Female Gynecologist, Arab Nationality, 2) Male Pharmacist, Indian, 3) Lab Technician, Indian.

Those interested kindly contact 97413418, 92732491.

Please send your resume to careclinicsalalah@gmail.com Wanted female physiotherapist with MOH License. Send CV at Email : info@sagarpolyclinic.com General practitioner Doctor is required to work urgently in Dreams Clinic at Al Khoudh and must be resident in the Sultanate of Oman.

Please send your CV to the following email: towershr70@gmail.com, balushi70@gmail.com & info@towersinternationalgroups. com, Mobile 99882340, Tel: 24545914 Urgently required a GP Doctor with MOH license for a leading Medical Clinic. # 92008272 / 96602188, email : dearnaif@hotmail.com Urgently required an experienced Pharmacist with MOH License for a reputed Pharmacy in Muscat.

Please send CV to newcareesr2015@gmail.com

MANAGER Brand new restaurant requires: Restaurant Managers – Degree / Diploma in Hotel Management with minimum 5/6 yrs Gulf experience. Omani / Yamani cook minimum 5 yrs experience.

Interested candidates send CV to : Email : info@rcsoman.com or fax : 24478123, GSM : 95892831

SKILLED / UNSKILLED Required driver with car, looking for a person with experience in making gift boxes and special packing. Send CV to abba201541@yahoo.com

SALES / MARKETING Urgently required a dynamic Marketing Executive for a furniture company. Should posses a valid Omani Driving License. #97164554 / aliasgar@ultimate-furniture.com Urgently needed, Projects Sales Executives (3), Store Helpers (2), kitchen carpenters (2), Office Assistants/Secretary (2) (All male only) for a leading building material trading company. Candidates with right education, experience and D/L (Sales), please email CV to trend1993@yahoo.com Urgently required Sales Personnel (full time / part time) - 5 to 10 yrs experience in Building Materials, knowledge of Arabic is an advantage, should have car. Email : alnajjardevelopmentco@gmail.com Reputed Building Materials Company looking for Outdoor Sales Executive having valid Omani D/L with more than 2 yrs Local Sales Experience in Tiles/Sanitaryware.

Please fax your CV to 24798709 / email : united@omantel.net.om Looking for outdoor salesman for heavy equipments.

Contact- 93292015, 99656542 Highly reputed Perfume Company requires Omani Sales girl promoters. Contact 95663682, 92956876

Required an experienced person who has ideas to start a new business in electrical field or supply with minimum cost.

Contact 99426421

SIT.WANTED Indian Female, B.com, 2year Indian Exp. in Accounts, strong in Tally ERP 9,MS Office, looking for suitable position. Part time/Full time.

Contact-95939129, 99104579, mail:sreekulaparambil@gmail.com Indian Female, B. Com, 2year Indian Exp. in Accounts, strong in Tally ERP 9,MS Office, looking for suitable position.

Part time/Full time. Contact no: 95939129, 99104579, Email-sreekulaparambil@gmail.com Indian Male, 31 years of Rich Oman experience in Multifunctional Management, Administration, Business Development, Purchase & Operations, seeking suitable Manager/Supervisory Position.Visa transfer/NOC Available.

Contact : 95036410 26 years male, MBA Finance & Marketing, 1 year experience in marketing. Looking for sales job.

Contact: 95437921 31 years, male with Gulf Experienced Microsoft Certified Solution Associate, Have GCC driving license, looking for a suitable job as Network/System Administrator.

Phone: +968 93927126, 99853614, Email: khalil837@hotmail.com Mechanical Engineer with 10+ years experience currently on visit visa looking for a Operation Manager/Branch Manager position in reputed organizations. #95757845 Indian female, Accountant. having +5 years experience in Oman till Nov 2014. seeking suitable placement. NOC available. currently in family visa. Contact :98447045, email:anilavandika@gmail.com IT supports 6 yrs experience, male, Filipino Desktop Support, Backup administrator, Wireless Networking, server admin. #- +96896126502 Indian male, 26 yrs - MBA Graduate with 3 yrs of Experience in Banking ( Standard Chartered Bank Scope International - Operations) &Coffee Vending Machine (Fresh & Honest Cafe ltd - Operations) on Visit Visa seeking placement.

Contact 91267867 Indian male 23 yrs, 4 yrs experienced in Architectural Draughtsman looking for a suitable Post GSM:96023726, Email jayan.mathew009@gmail.com INDIAN, B.E Mechanical Engineer, 2 years job experience in Oman in pipeline field, fluent in English, Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi, with valid Omani driving license (light) searching for job. Contact 99871470 Male 28, seven & half an year experience. Worked as maintenance division co-ordinator, purchaser’s assistant, and office administration works. Valid driving license.

Contact 94454847 Indian male, 25yrs, MBA in marketing from Delhi with 1 year experience in operation department, currently on visit visa seeking suitable placements. Ph 97334359 email: mshahinp1@gmail.com Civil Engineer, B.E in civil , Approx. two year experience in Oman, Pakistani age 29 years.

Contact : 94389853 Email : faheemdeeer1986@gmail.com Male 28, seven & half an year experience. Worked as maintenance division co-ordinator, purchaser’s assistant, and office administration works. Valid driving license.

94454847

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE Indian female, 25 yrs, bachelors of businesses management, having experience of 5 years as a fund/ financial administration, on visit visa,looking for suitable placement.

Contact 94662416 Apurwaverma@gmail.com Indian male having 14 years of experience in Various dept. (stockbroking Dealing, Back Office Accounts, Dmat, Settlement, Risk management, Maintaining Books of accounts ETC).Having Good Computer Knowledge seeking suitable placement. # +91 9820240094 Email Id: vora_bharat@yahoo.com, Indian Male 25 years B.Com having 3 years of exp of Oman in Accounts/Administration.Well versed with computer knowledge looking for suitable position. Immidiately available. Contact:93207867 email: tambeazhar@gmail.com Accountant, Indian Male, B.Com, MBA presently working in Oman since 9 yrs having suitable change, NOC/Release available. #94134085, email : muscatoman95@yahoo.com Indian Male, MBA, B.com Having 7 yrs of experience in finance Department (Trading & Logistics) with knowledge of ERP & Tally, and Oman valid D/L. NOC is available looking for suitable Position contact No.99279626 Email ID: magdum28@gmail.com Indian male, BE MBA PMP having 20 yrs exp in Civil Residential Commercial Infra Construction and contract management looking for role in Project / Program Management. NOC available. Contact 94634053 Accounts Manager, 8 yrs experience in trade, construction and real estate looking for suitable placement. Contact 94669596 Indian male, B.Com with 2 yrs Oman exp & 4.5 yrs Accounts exp looking for suitable placement in Accounts with NOC letter. Email : parasunadkat12@gmail.com Part time Accounts & Finalization job. Contact 96536955 Pakistani Male MBA having 4 years experience in Accounting looking for job.NOC Available. # 95610772 Accountant, B.Com, MBA, Indian male, having 4 yrs GCC exp in similar field, valid Omani D/L & NOC available. shinuyesodharan@gmail. com, contact : 91719385 Indian male, 24 yrs MBA, having 2 yrs of experience in financial accounting finalization, knowledge of Tally, ERP, focus, wings, PEACHTREE, MS Excel, Payroll, currently on visit visa seeking suitable placement available immediately.

Contact 91058205, email : aslammohammed10@gmail.com Indian male, 29 yrs, Accounts / Administrator, 1.8 yrs exp in Gulf seeking employment for suitable position. NOC available.

Contact 93581182 Pakistani male, 25 yrs, MBA Finance, 1.6 yrs exp in Accounts seeking placement in Accounts, Administration or Business Management. Contact 92651927 / 94250149

Indian male, 32 years, M. Com. 7 out of 9 years experience in Oman in Accounts/finance. Having NOC and valid Oman D/L. Contact 98277143, Email: anzarks@gmail.com

ADMIN/HR Indian male MBA 32 yrs having 10 yrs of exp seeking suitable placement in Admin/ HR/ Operations/ Coordination/ Logistics etc. Holding valid Oman D/L .Contact - 99054786 Indian female Graduation in computer Science having 2 yrs experience in Oman seeking for suitable job in Admin/HR, email : maluvijayan40@gmail.com or contact 92014628 Post Graduate Indian male, MBA (Hospital Administration) having 4 Years experience in hospital administration looking for suitable placement. Currently on visit.

Contact: 96701543, 92945632 HR & Admin Assistant, 26 yrs Indian male having 6+Yrs of experience looking for suitable position.

Contact 93264616 Indian female with excellent communication skills, confident, dedicated to work and enthusiastic.

Knowledge about ms office. Has 6 years of experience in customer service, telecommunication, HR.Looking for immediate placement. Contact # 97348819

ARCHI./ DRAUGHTSMAN 28 yrs Indian male, M.Arch, 3.5 yrs exp in Green Building Architecture seeking placement. #91540113, Email: abdulmomin.h@gmail.com AutoCAD jobs, Preparing Working/ Shop Drawings & Civil Quantity Surveying jobs. Contact : 92758095

CATERING Bangladeshi male, Arabic cook, 10 yrs experience UAE, 2 yrs Oman.

Contact 94360784

DESIGNER AutoCAD Interior Designer / detailer, 9 yrs GCC experience seeking for a suitable opening in a reputed company, NOC available from current employer. Contact 92110589 Indian female, 25yrs BscFASHION DESIGNING, 3yers experience in designing field and teaching. looking for a sutable placement. Contact: 98785310.

Email: vinaya.m.nair@gmail.com

DRIVER Light Driver having own visa looking for job as driver Contact 92303692 Light driver & delivery boy available. Experience & Graduate.

Contact 98987475 Office Executive light driver, 2 yrs exp. Contact 93408758 Light driver looking for job.

Contact 94077119

ENGG. / TECHNICAL Indian male on Visit Visa. Expert in ELV systems, Instrumentation, PID controllers, Embedded systems, Electronics CAD. 20years experience. Contact 98915066 Indian Civil Engineer, M.Tech in Construction Management, Primavera Expert looking for suitable placement. Contact 92550987 Indian female, Electrical Engineer (family visa) M-Tech in Power System having 1 yr experience seeking suitable placement.#94306164 Project Engineer (B.E Civil) having 10 yrs experience in Interior fit out industry looking for suitable opening from reputed companies (NOC available) from current employer.

Contact 91403433 Chemical Engr with experience in analytical instrumentation, bulk drugs and herbal production.

Contact apssasif@gmail.com Aircraft Maintenance Technician with one year experience seeks suitable placement. Contact amaljohn2002@gmail.com Generator maintenance in charge with 4 yrs experience with Cummins, caterpillar, kirloskar and voltas. Contact - email: shibinmundakkal@gmail.com Mechanical Engineer,(BE in Mechanical) with Certified quality controller - NDT level 2 qualified as per ASNT - SNT-TC-I A, having experience as quality control engineer in India, presently on visit visa, seeks suitable placement .

Cont : suhylehameed@gmail.com / 95405033 Indian male, (MCA, B.Sc Maths) locally available with 4 yrs experience in Software Engineering (IOS Development) also experienced IT & Maths Teacher.

Contact 93396053, 93927437, email: vishnursk@gmail.com Indian male, 28 yrs, Electrical Engineer, 5 yrs Gulf Oman experience in HV and LV Installation work seeking placement. NOC available.

Contact 91391587 Diploma Civil Engineer, Indian male, 29, 4 yrs experience in building construction field, 2 yrs experience with consulting company in Oman driving license and release available from current company. Contact 93282447, cv.shihabedappal@gmail.com Diploma in Civil Engineer, 6 yrs experience in Oman with D/L. Contact 94052815 Mechanical Engineer, Indian male, 6 yrs experience, 3 yrs in GCC, seeking suitable opening in Oil & Gas Sector, have valid GCC D/L. email : msfebco@gmail.com, Contact 91228398 B. Tech Civil Eng. 3 yrs exp in Oman with driving license.

Contact 93733627.

Mail id : joinvisam@gmail.com, neethusprakash@gmail.com Building Construction Sr. Site Supervisor looking for better opportunity since March 2010 in Oman with Omani D/L. Contact 93061107

Driver with car. Contact 91452930 Male, 4 yrs of experience as Financial Analyst looking for suitable position. Contact 94140728

Indian Driver need job with car.

Contact 91254539

B.Com Graduate, 3 yrs experience in Accounts, Indian male, looking for accounts or suitable job.

Contact- afsarsabith@yahoo.com, 93975526

Light vehicle driver looking for job, experience 2 yrs. Contact 94195818

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

Light vehicle driver looking for job.

Contact 95141473

Finance Manager, CPA, with more than 15 yrs. of experience in GCC. Fully knowledgeable in Finance, General & Management Accounting .

NOC available. Contact 96209331 Accounts part time works upto finalization & finalization works.

Contact 96247295 Accountant / Auditor, Srilankan male 27, having 3+ yrs experience looking for suitable placement.

Contact 93556320

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

Indian Male, MBA 2 yrs experience in Accounts, Admin & HR on visit visa. Contact 92045306

Senior Accounts Professional, Indian Male, 35 years, M.Com, MBA (Fin) 8 years in Oman, with valid Oman DL and NOC available.

Capable to handle accounts up to finalization. Contact 9602 3965.

India Accountant: Male, M com, 7 Yrs experience in Accounts up to finalization, having knowledge of ERP, Tally, seeks suitable placement. Contact:93950138 Email: lijinrajan123@gmail.com

LV Driver- 2 yrs Exp-know English- Contact 95292064

Light Driver looking for job.

Contact 92787245

Diploma in Civil Engineer, 20 yrs in Oman with D/L. Contact 94677220 39, Indian Male, Diploma in Mechanical Engineering, 6 yrs experience steel fabrication, maintenance of heavy equipments in Oman, 10 yrs in India, having Omani Driving License, NOC available. Contact 96728805, email : jansanjosep@yahoo.co.in Diploma in Civil Engineer, 15 yrs Oman experience (total 28 yrs) looking for senior position with valid D/L, NOC available. Contact 99013465

Driver seeking job. #99805236 6 Years experience light duty driver.

Contact – 96736744 Light driver looking for job.

Contact 92791678

EDUCATION English Teacher (M.A, B.Ed) Indian female with 2yrs of experience looking for suitable position # - 91507099.

ENGG. / TECHNICAL Jordanian Engineer Electrical 7 yrs exp. Consulting, site & shop drawing works. Ready to join immediately.

Worked in UAE & Saudi Arabia.

Contact - 00971555594733

Pakistani male, 41 yrs Electrical Foreman, 9 yrs exp in Gulf seeking employment for suitable position.

NOC release. Contact 99562454, 92896190 HSE Officer, 8 yrs experience NEBOSH OSHA having NOC, seeking good opportunity.

Contact 98640063 Indian Female, 24, UK Graduate - MSc Digital Communication Network Engineering with B.Tech Electronics and Communication with Omani Driving License, seeks suitable placement. #95408113 Sudanese Mechanical Engineer, 3 yrs experience in HVAC fire fighting, NOC and driving license available. Contact 91135140

S AT U R DAY, JA N UA RY 2 4 , 2 0 1 5

C5

DAILY GUIDE SITUATION WANTED ENGG. / TECHNICAL Seeking job, BTech Instrumentation, 12 years experience Design, FEED, Detailed engineering, Oil & Gas, Instrumentation systems, Oman Driving license.

Email :- wilfridsjacob@gmail.com Mobile:- 00968 99048130 B.E Mechanical Engineer, Indian Male, 29, 5 years experience in steel fabrication field (piping and structural) as site engineer. Looking for suitable placement. #96115463.

Jijoraju085@yahoo.com.

Diploma of Associate Civil Engineering, Diploma of AutoCad, having 3.5 yrs experience, 2 yrs experience of Oman in Building Construction, valid transferrable ID Card.

Contact 94378581 Indian B.Tech Mechanical Engineer, 26 yrs, 4 yrs experience in HVAC/MEP. Contact 94669629, rajeevhpd15@yahoo.com 26, female, B.Tech in Electronics & biomedical engineering with 1 And Half yrs experience in medical field is seeking suitable job openings.

Email : aswathiravirak@gmail.com, ph : 94652908 Telecommunication Engineer with 5 yrs experience in the Gulf.

Contact 95219822 Electrical Project Engineer, 4 yrs experience OHL, Substations, Oil & Gas field, AutoCAD. D/L available.

Contact 95120225 Civil Engineer with 12 years Experience Looking For Job. Contact 98162295 Indian male, 26 yrs B-Tech (ECE) with MBA in Marketing / HR looking for a suitable placement. Currently on visit visa valid up to 30 January 2015. Contact 93754428, email : shijosirius709@gmail.com DAE (Civil) having 3.5 years Experience 2 years from Oman with driving licences, seeking for suitable position in Construction field NOC and release available . Contact 96968554 Email: mehranahmad26@yahoo.com M. Tech Electrical Eng. Female, now in visit visa.

Contact +968-94654481.

Quantity Surveyor (Civil Building) looking for Part time job Contact no:-94391712 E-mail addressinayathhussain@yahoo.com Indian Male, IT Support Engineer, 2 yrs in Oman & 5 yrs Indian experience. Contact 97311847 Civil Engineer B Tech, Site Engineer Experienced, Drafting on Visit Visa Ph : 91642050 Looking Part time Job in HVAC93198128 Experienced female Electrical Engineer.Contact 93800906

HOSPITALITY M.Sc International Tourism & hotel management UK Graduated with Omani D/L seeking job as CRE, tour operations & marketing in hospitality & tourism industry.

Contact 91640428

INFORMATION TECH BCA Graduate, Indian male with 1yr of exp in System Admin, IT Support, Network Admin and 1yr exp as sales Executive.CCNA,MCSE .looking for suitable job. # 95938303 email- hafsalhs@gmail.com IT Professional, 7 yrs exp in System Administration, IT Support, Networking etc. currently on visit visa. Contact 94064579, email : preejes01@gmail.com B.Tech IT Professional, Indian Male with 3 yrs of Exp. In System Admin, IT Support, Networking, Installing Active Directory, DHCP, DNS,RAS, configuring maintaining and managing servers, configuring cisco routers, Exp in handling SQL database, With Valid Driving Licence.

Contact - 968 98863507 IT Prof, MCA having 6+ yrs exp, seeks suitable position.

Contact 94543668 IT Professional, Indian male, B.Sc Graduate with 4+ yrs Gulf (UAE) good exp in System Administration, IT Support, Server Desktop, laptop, smartboard, datashow biometric, CCTV, currently on visit visa.

Contact 98936548, Email: vaseemj@yahoo.com

INFORMATION TECH

MEDICAL

MBA (Systems) with MCSA Certified having more than 10 years of experience in Computer Hardware & Networking , Specialization in Server Configuration, Windows Server 2012, Redhat Linux Enterprise 6.0, VPN Firewall, Router, & CCTV Installation and Maintenance seeks suitable placement. Now in visit visa & back to India on 26/01/15.

E-mail : pkram1977@outlook.com & Mob#+968 95642554

Indian Female, 28 yrs Staff Nurse, 7 yrs of experience (4 yrs in Gulf) presently working in India, Oman Prometric passed 63%, valid BLS & ACLS certificates, looking for suitable job in Muscat area.

Email : anishaabrahamc@gmail.com or call 93137898

ERP Specialist, 14 yrs exp, Indian male, (VB.NET & SQL Server) able to handle in-house development single handedly. Release/NOC available, valid D/L. Contact 93047636

Female dentist with MOH license and with Noc looking for suitable placement in Muscat region Contact no. 99147426

M.Tech-IT professional, Indian Male specialist in Networking, Configuring maintaining and managing servers, Exp in configuring cisco products, Knowledge in SQL database. Contact:+968 98536430, +968 98743886 Indian Male 23 yrs – IT / Prepost Sales Consultant / Business Analyst / Web Designing. 2 yrs. exp.

Languages-HTML5, WebRTC, Java, CSS, C++, .Net, SQL, Oracle, ERP-Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Looking for suitable job. Contact: 98802504, email:shrihari26@gmail.com

MANAGER/ SUPERVISOR Indian male Graduate with 20+ years of Administration, Operations & Management experience in IT, Oil & Gas & Hospitality Industry. 12 years in Oman with vast contacts, very strong management, operational, communication and interpersonal skills, can handle any size of business and projects whether it’s in initial stage or established. Can join immediately. Local release available on request. Contact: 9906 4589 Indian male, having 18 yrs experience in “Automatic door opening and closing system.” From Riyadh as Manager and Department Head.

Contact +97466912692 Techno Commercial Manager, Indian, well experienced in Oman.

Vast knowledge in Operations, Business development, Logistic / Purchase, General administration.

Looking for suitable opening.

NOC Possible, Contact - 96599704 Project Manager more than 20 yrs experience, 15 yrs in Sultanate of Oman in construction field.

Contact 93385789 Qualified Manager: (12+ yrs. Oman Exp.) Vast knowledge in A/c & Admin, Costing, Banking, Credit Control, Insurance, International Purchase/Logistics & Finance, With D/L looking for suitable position.

Gsm: 93826090 Email: jskanchan01@gmail.com Indian female with nine years of experience in 5 Star hotels as Assistant Food & Beverage Manager looking for a suitable placement in a reputed Star hotel.

Contact 91219787

MECHANICAL/TECH. Electrical Technician with 7 yrs experience in the field of oil & gas. Contact 96946044 / 94682982 Indian Electronics & Communication with transmission project, embedded designing, telecommunication experience (3 yrs) having visit visa looking for suitable placement in Oman.

Contact Mohammed Arshad Khan – 93398772, email : eng.mohdarshadkhan@gmail.com Indian male, 27 yrs, B.Tech Mechanical, 1 yr pipeline experience seeking job in any mechanical field, NOC available, available in Oman till 31st Jan. Contact 95982207, rahman.taus@gmail.com

MEDICAL Male Nurse -prometric exam passed and valid till feb21-5year experience.

Allwyn Davidallwyndavid123@gmail.com Contact 94686268, 92800101 Indian female, 26, Pharmacist with MOH license, 3.5 yrs of experience in India, seeking suitable placement.

Contact 94474924, Email: suryacprasad88@gmail.com Indian male Pharmacist (B.Pharma) 5 1/2 years experience in Oman seeking suitable placement in Muscat. NOC from the present employer available.

Contact +968 98525100

NRI

Land for sale, 36 cents in Kakkanad near Athani. 5 lacs/cent and 6 acre land near Veliyam, Kottarakkara. 30 lacs/acre. Serious buyers only call – 99886386 / +919645888877

SALES / MARKETING Female Pharmacist with MOH license seeking suitable job Contact 93215380

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

Lab Technician, Civil (8yrs Gulf experience) looking for a suitable job (NOC available) Contact-93344378

Indian male, 32 yrs, total 8+ yrs experience with 4+ yrs experience of Sales and Marketing in Oman, seeking job.

NOC available. #95731981

Indian male, B.Sc nurse with critical care specialization, 16 yrs experience including GCC Oman Prometric passed, seeking for good posting.

Contact 91124083, 96132494

US / AUS IT educated, 16 yrs experience in Business Development, Sales, Marketing, HR/Admin looking for suitable position. Contact 93649932 in Muscat

Indian female Nurse, 4 yrs experience Prometric passed, seeking for good posting.#92917448, 97362119

MBA, 26 years male, 4 Year Experience (1year Banking experience in UAE) seeking suitable placement.

Contact: 94600128 Email: hassan_imran_ch@hotmail.com

Medical- Indian female, 27 yrs, masters in hospital administration, fellowship in HTA studied in a super specialty medical sciences and research center in India and done project in an established hospital in sultanate of Oman.

Contact 93200827, 91026506

MISCELLANEOUS MBA Finance, 7 yrs exp in Financial & Banking Sector seeks suitable position with Driving License.

Contact 98371903 Quality Assurance Officer, ISO Quality System Internal Auditor, BSc Graduate, female 27, with 4 years experience seeks suitable placement.

Contact nipuni.d.silva@gmail.com Microbiologist & Quality Assurance Executive, BSc Graduate, female, 27 with 4 yrs experience in food industry looking for a suitable placement.

Email : nipuni.d.silva@gmail.com Logistics Officer, Experience in Store keeping. Contact : 99505934

SECRETARIAL/OFFICE Indian female, well experienced in secretarial, administration, customer care & supervisory jobs.

5 years experience in Muscat.

Immediately available for joining.

Contact: 92139298

SKILLED / UNSKILLED Civil foreman maintenance D/L, 12 yrs in Oman, 2 yrs in Kuwait.

Contact 96405865, 99534138, India - +91 7589248550, +91 9464255409, email: sukhwinder9@yahoo.com

SALES / MARKETING Indian Male, MBA in Marketing and Finance, 10 years’ Sales & Business Development Experience with valid D/L of Oman & UAE looking for a suitable placement. NOC Available.

Contact: 93969961 e-mail abhilash.pvrk@gmail.com Indian male, 30 yrs, 8 yrs + experience in Sales & Marketing, looking for suitable placement.

Contact 95601197 Indian Male having 7 yrs in experience in Oman Sales & Marketing Office Automation Printer, Copier, MFP, IT products & Stationery. Looking for Suitable Placement NOC Available Contact :97384748 Oracle certified BE (CS) Indian male with skills in OCA (DBA, SQL10g, looking for suitable placement.

Contact 98436022/99848874 Email: rineel2005@yahoo.com Young Energetic Male, with Oman work experience in the field of Sales/ Marketing and Administration.

Currently on a visit visa seeking suitable position. Contact 97832289. wakakhan.1@gmail.com 15 years experience in Business Development , marketing, purchase – UAE & Oman-staff coordination, documentation, civil & technical maintenance, -valid GCC license-looking for working partnership or management post. Contact:91568362 / Email vpj555pem@gmail.com Indian Male, 7 yrs experience in building materials trading having Oman D/L, immediate release available. Contact 98676713

Filipino Male, 26 yrs old looking for any job in restaurant or hotel or Sales or finance and having exp total of 8 yrs in all these fields. #92156753 MBA Graduate with valid Omani D/L looking for suitable job. # 94143683 MBA with 6 yrs experience in Sales & Marketing with Omani Driving License seeks suitable placement.

Contact 94685706 Croatan Woman, 12 yrs experience in Sales. Contact 99797290 18 yrs Oman experience in Building Materials seeking suitable placement, NOC available. # 93105775 Indian male having 6 yrs experience of working in Oman with Advertising, Interiors, Events, Purchase & Accounts valid Oman D/L looking for suitable job. Contact 98851980 Indian male, MBA 9+ yrs Oman exp in Sales & Marketing in FMCG (F & B) sector on a Supervisor / managerial role with D/L & Local NOC available. Contact 97912789 Young female, having experience of working in Oman with expertise in the field of Event Management, Advertising, Marketing and Hotel Management. Currently on a visit visa. Seeking for a suitable Job. Contact 96153578 Indian male, 25yrs, MBA in HR/ Marketing.6yrs exp with MNC and pharma. Presently in family visit visa looking for suitable placements.

Contact no-94657379/ 96645182 Indian male, B.Com, 20 yrs experience in Sales & Marketing having UAE light D/L looking for suitable post. Contact +91 9946699062, email : sajim40@gmail.com Indian male, 26, MBA Marketing, 1 yr GCC experience Oman, license.

Contact +91 9946308583, haris.hameedali@gmail.com Indian MBA-Marketing & Systems Manager having 6 yrs experience in Solar System & Inverters seeking suitable placements. Contact 97892269 / 99046313 Pakistani male, 34, College 2 yrs, 2 yrs experience as Sales Representative, 3 yrs experience as Clerk / Office Assistant, 3 yrs experience as Salesman in Oman, Computer Skills : Excel, BUSY, ERP, languages known – English, Arabic, Hindi and Urdu. Contact 96763346 Pakistani Graduate have a two years experience in sales/marketing in Muscat. Have a valid driving license.

Fluent in English and Arabic.

Need a suitable position.

Contact 95919265

TOUR / TRAVELS IATA Certified experienced Indian Lady looking for job.

Currently on visit.

Contact 94613747, 91339846

MISCELLANEOUS Indian female, 25 yrs, B.Com with computer Application, 1 yr experience as Accountant, looking for suitable job.

Contact 98847165 Graduate, Indian, having 6 yrs experience in Sales with D/L, NOC available. Contact 93410723

MATRIMONIAL Villa for sale 2200 sq ft in 8 cent.

Kottayam. Contact: 92652534 For Astrological consultation, Jathakam.Contact 99860435 / 97102599

GOOD NEWS Genuine Ayurvedic treatments & massage, Ayurvedic clinic at Al Khuwair. Contact 24478618 / 97263637 /93309131

WANTED Urgently Required 5000 used shuttering Jacks for Construction Company. Contact: 92867677

BUYING/SELLING We are looking for construction company at any level to buy. #97413496 Looking for purchase of Used Portable Compressor (350 CFM, 7 Bar Pressure) powered with Diesel run Generator.

Kindly Contact 99014686 or operation@khancogroup.com Looking for commercial lands for sale in Al Ghobrah North (urgent serious buyers, commercial lands in al Ghobrah North (corners prime location). Contact 91155779

SIT.WANTED 30 year Indian male MSW- HR ,with 5 yrs Professional experience in HR in Construction Oil & Gas Oman seeking suitable placement.

Contact me in 93488914 Diploma Holder, Now working as logistic coordinator/ salesman with one year experience, seeking for Suitable Jobs in Oman, NOC available, Trying for License.

Contact 94440370 Indian male, 4 Years experienced in Architectural & Structural Draughtsman, looking for a suitable Post GSM:96023726, Email :jayan.mathew009@gmail.com Accountant ,Indian male,24 years.

Presently working in Oman as Accountant.2 years experience in Accounts with oman Driving license. NOC available..Seek suitable opportunity. GSM: 93409315 Indian male 25 B.Tech (IT) Engineer 2.5 years experience in hardware networking. Currently on visit visa, looking for suitable job.

Contact - 94359564 Indian male, B.com with tally, having 11 years experience in accounting, looking for a part time job. contact.96423671 Post Graduate Indian male, MBA (Hospital Administration) having 4 yrs. experience in hospital administration looking for suitable placement. Currently on visit.

Contact: 96701543, 92945632 PROCUREMENT OFFICER-Indian 33yrs, 7yrs Exp. in Oman in (ROAD,CIV,MEP & Others) Contg & Trdg Co. Visa will Exp in Feb-15.

M: 94064650, Email:nagauae@gmail.com Indian Male, 31 years of Rich Oman experience in Multifunctional Management, Administration, Business Development, Purchase & Operations seeking suitable Manager/ Supervisory Position. Visa transfer/ NOC Available. GSM: 95036410 Seeking for immediate placement as a manager- projects, sales, marketing, product, business development job for BE- MBA, 12 years Oman experience with D/L. #96040977, kvmssn@gmail.com AutoCAD draughtsman (Architect ural+Structural+Plumbing & HVAC) having more than 12 years Oman experience seeking work as a FREELANCER. Contact - 91620107

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

(KM ID.2844689)

LOST Omer Asmat Khan has lost Pakistani Passport No. LQ4127211.

Finder please handover to ROP

CHANGE OF NAME I, Sahul Hameed Mohamed Hussain (holder of Indian Passport No.F 3699238) son of Sahul Hameed having permanent address in Thiruneela Gudi post main road Tanfore, Tamil Nadu (complete postal address in India) and presently residing in Wadi Kabir, P.O. Box 693, P.C 114, Sultanate of Oman (complete postal address in Oman) intend to change my name from Sahul Hameed Mohamed Hussain (old name) to Sahul Hameed Jahir Hussain (new name) for all practical purposes. Any objection towards my name change may please be communicated to Embassy of India, Muscat, Diplomatic Quarters, Al Khuwair, P.B. No 1727, Postal Code 112, Ruwi, Sultanate of Oman.

I, Jagdish Ghante (holder of Indian Passport No.G7852416) son of Devidasrao Ghante having permanent address in R/O Khanapur (K) TQ Basvakaltan Dist – Bidar, Karnataka 585347 (complete postal address in India) and presently residing in Ruwi, CCC-TAV JV, P.O. Box 614, P.C 100, Ruwi (complete postal address in Oman) intend to change my name from Jagdish Ghante (old name) to Abdulrahman Shaikh (new name) for all practical purposes. I have changed my religion from Hindu to Muslim.

Any objection towards my name change may please be communicated to Embassy of India, Muscat, Diplomatic Quarters, Al Khuwair, P.B. No 1727, Postal Code 112, Ruwi, Sultanate of Oman.

I, Shaik Nasima Bi (holder of Indian Passport No.H-6844173) son of Shaik Abdul Karim having permanent address in H/N 373 Baina, Vasco-Dagama, Mormugao, Goa (complete postal address in India) and presently residing in Al Khuwair, H.No 480, W No.-5125 (complete postal address in Oman) intend to change my name from Shaik Nasima Bi (old name) to Shaik Nassima Bi (new name) for all practical purposes. Any objection towards my name change may please be communicated to Embassy of India, Muscat, Diplomatic Quarters, Al Khuwair, P.B. No 1727, Postal Code 112, Ruwi, Sultanate of Oman.

I, Nasima Bi Shaik holder of passport No H 6844173 issued at Panaji on 21/1/2010, permanent resident of H/N 373 Baina, Vasco Da Gama, Mormugao, Goa and currently residing in Muscat Oman, hereby declare that name of father and mother in my ppt no H 6844173 has been mentioned as Shaik Adbul Karim and Nazira Bi. I hereby declare that correct name of my father is Abdul Karim vide his ppt No. K 845788 issued at Muscat on 06/02/2013 and correct name of my mother is Nagirambi as per her passport No. K 8458789 issued at Muscat on 06/02/2013. I declare that Shaik Abdul Karim and Abdul Karim as well as Nazira Bi and Nagirambi are one and the same person. Any objection towards this may please be communicated to Embassy of India, Muscat, Diplomatic Quarters, Al Khuwair, P.B. No 172, Postal Code 112, Ruwi, Sultanate of Oman.

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DAILY GUIDE

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

SITUATION WANTED SERVICES

SITUATION WANTSERVICES

WEBSITE

CLASSES

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

BUSINESS

WEB, ERP and Business Intelligence (BI) creation and management at rock bottom price.

Contact: http//webviewoman

COMPUTER

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

A/C service, repair and maintenance works. Contact 95356877, 93937368. Al Sahib Modern Projects

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

House shifting. #99557080, 96236476

Cleaning services, carpet & sofa shampooing, marble restoration (grinding) and polishing, pest control, fogging service. Contact 99448057, 95401996

My client needs to buy Residential land or villa in Al Ghubra Bahar Factory area. Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

BUSINESS Wanted dentist or investor to buy a well-running dental clinic in Sohar immediately. Contact 92625962, 95904234

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

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

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

Computer service/ AMC/ Networking. Contact 93552434

Water proofing ABUQABASContact 99320217/24788722

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

Civil Maintenance, Painting Electric, Plumbing, Decor, Tile Fixing, Lecithin Copra Board flat stifling , Carpet Cleaning and A/C Servicing.# 97897831 (Indian keralite)

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

Waterproofing, light weight Screed, Antitermite and MS Fabrication.

Contact 92888337

Door to Door Computers repair specialist laptop software Website cartridges. Contact 99199376

Electrical Plumbing Painting Contract and Maintenance.

Contact 98456535

A.M Trading Pest control.

Contact 99067923

Carpet Shampoo, marble & tile polishing, pest control & anti-termite treatment, general cleaning painting, Plumbing, Electrical, shifting. Contact Mundhir AlRizaiqi trading. L.L.C. # 24810137, 99450130

GULF INTERNATIONAL LLC all kind of pest control. #92326955 We assist in new business set up local sponsorship, real estate services, assist in company formation services. Contact - 93166088

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

Painting Interlock plumbing maintenance. Contact 92142319 Carpet & sofa cleaning, house cleaning. # 99542979 / 98855815 Split & window A/C servicing & maintenance. Contact 93769089

Maintenance – 1) A/C Maintenance, 2)fridge, washing machine & dish washer repairing, 3)painting & cleaning services, 4)electrical & plumbing carpentry work. #99447257 / 97014234 / 24504281

Split & window unit A/C servicing & repairing. Contact 99557080

Window & split unit A/C servicing & maintenance. Contact 96236476

Fast & Right Way - For all PR related works – permanent Visa stamping, family visiting visa holders, clients contacts – with NOC letter with signed & sealed photocopy documents . Contact 91568362

Catering services We do industrial catering service, Canteen/ mess, 3 times packed meals, and all types of catering events.

Contact 92188777/99249899 PRO services. Contact 99368907

For HT cable jointing and termination works 33KV/11KV. #99056438 / Email: npgoman@gmail.com

GOOD NEWS

GOOD NEWS FREE INFORMATION ABOUT ISLAM. If you would like to know more about Islam, please call: 99425598, 96050000, 99353988, 99253818, 99341395, and 99379133. For ladies: 99415818, 99321360, 99730723 Orvisit: www.islamfact.com Ayurvedic treatment for backache, paralysis, arthritis etc & massage, All Season (Vaidyaratnam).

Contact 24475280 / 95371554 / 92504980 , www.siddhayur.com

Ayurvedic treatment for joint pain, backache, paralysis, massage, steam bath, obesity, spondylitis, ideal care Ayurvedic Clinic, 18 November Street, Azaiba. Contact 99639695 / 99117987

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DAILY GUIDE TOURS

SITUATION WANTED CARGO

SITUATION WANTED CARGO

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

RENT A CAR

DRIVING

M.V. FOR SALE

MANPOWER

Renault Safrane 2011, Excellent condition OMR3400. Contact 94015245 Pajero 3.8 v6 full option, 2008 model expat driven single owner, excellent condition, accident free, 217k.

Contact - 92590781 Lexus GS300, 2006. Contact 93218349 Tucson V-6, 2007, automatic RO 2500/-. Contact 99384640 L/R Discovery, 2003, KM 1,60,000. Contact 99238877

FOR HIRE

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

Contact: 95346950

Toyota Yaris 1.5, 2010 single owner 84,000 kms, fully automatic, 100%.

Service history with dealer.

Contact 93876159 30 seater Toyota Bus, 2014, white color for sale. Contact 98888999 / 96341946 Chevrolet van model 2000 for sale, RO 1400/-. Contact 96789522 Prado 2012. Contact 99336093

TRANSPORTATION Transportation. Contact 93405941 We can give best price for transportation to shift the material from DUBAI to OMAN and local OMAN areas. (Less 25 ton wait Dubai To OMAN Only 170/OMR). GSM 91006589,97754600 ASIF ALI Transportation. Contact 94087276 Transportation. Contact 95190627

TRANSPORTATION

Labor Pick & drop. #92218001

TRANSPORTATION Transportation. Contact 91379976 Pick & Drop any time. #97014786 Transportation. Contact 99664703

PDO approval truck for hire. Contact 99350915 50 seater bus with PDO speciďŹ cation for rent or lease. # 99839898 Running truck wash for rent in Ouhi Sunia Sohar. Serious people can. Contact on 97864747

Transportation. Contact 99542393 Transportation. Contact 92306582 Transportation. Contact 98178135

Transportation available 99159277

Transportation available. # 95570429

Transportation. Contact 96538078

Pick & drop anytime in al Khuwair.

Contact 99764307

Transportation Available Contact 97180655

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DAILY GUIDE

Indian, Arabic, Chinese dishes, BuďŹ&#x20AC;et Lunch (On Friday) Indoor & Outdoor, Catering, Party hall available Take Away & Home Delivery

Party booking & sugges ons 99320065, 99341643

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