T23 09 2013 by Sahir Vayappat

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MERKEL HAILS PARTY’S ELECTION VICTORY Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed her conservative bloc’s victory in Germany’s national election yesterday as an excellent result but said it was too early to discuss plans for the next government. >A14

MONDAY, September 23, 2013 / 17 DHUL QA’ADA 1434 AH

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Suicide bombing leaves over 70 dead in Pakistan The two attackers struck at the end of a service at All Saints Church in Peshawar, the main town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

PESHAWAR: A twin suicide bombing killed 78 people and injured over 100 at a church service in northwest Pakistan yesterday in what is believed to be the deadliest attack on Christians in the country. The two attackers struck at the end of a service at All Saints Church in Peshawar, the main town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

province which has borne the brunt of a bloody insurgency in recent years. Doctor Arshad Javed of Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital said that 78 people had been killed. Provincial Health Minister Shaukat Ali Yousufzai conﬁrmed the death toll and said the provincial government had announced a three-day mourning in the state. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the “cruel” attack, saying it violated the tenets of Islam. Sahibzada Anees, one of Peshawar’s most senior officials, said the bombers struck when the service had just ended. “Most of the wounded are in critical condition,” Anees said. “We are in an area which is a target of terrorism and within that area there was a special security arrangement for the church. We are in a rescue phase and once it is over we will investigate what went wrong.” -Agencies See also >A10

VICTIMS OF TERROR: A man mourns the death of his relatives at the site of the blast at the church

in Peshawar, yesterday. -Reuters

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N AT I O N A L D AY

HM sends greetings MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has sent a cable of greetings to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the occasion of the Kingdom’s National Day. In his cable, His Majesty the Sultan has expressed his sincere greetings along with his best wishes of good health, well-being and a long life to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, praying to Allah the Almighty for the return of this and similar occasions on him to achieve further aspirations of progress and prosperity for the Saudi people. His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has also sent a cable of greetings to President Ibrahim Boubacar of Mali on the occasion of his country’s National Day. In his cable, His Majesty has expressed his sincere greetings along with his best wishes to President Boubacar and the friendly people of Mali. -ONA HM receives thanks >A2 HM sends condolences >A2

TOP THREE INSIDE STORIES

App that keeps due dates from sneaking up on you

OMAN

MARKET

EXTRA

ROP forms team to nab abductors

Bank Muscat moves higher in rankings

‘Gone with the Wind’ on big screen again

The ROP has formed a special team to rescue the abducted Indian worker and is combing different areas in Sohar, informed a social worker. The gang that abducted Haneefa recently made phone calls to his family in Kerala demanding a huge amount of money for his release. >A2

Bank Muscat, the leading ﬁnancial institution in the Sultanate, has moved up notches to a creditable 338th ranking compared to its previous 380th ranking among the top 1,000 global banks. Bank Muscat was 338th in the world by tier 1 capital as well as ﬁrst in Oman by tier 1 capital. >B1

You can’t miss the masochism in Vivien Leigh’s screen characters. She excelled at suffering. “Rhett, Rhett, if you go, where shall I go, what shall I do?” her Scarlett O’Hara whimpers at Clark Gable’s Rhett Butler toward the end of Gone with the Wind (1939). >C7

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

OMAN CABLES

His Majesty receives thanks MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has received a cable of thanks from President Ueli Maurer of the Swiss Confederation in reply to His Majesty’s greetings cable on the occasion of his country’s National Day. In his cable, President Maurer expressed his sincere thanks and best wishes for His Majesty and the Omani people. His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has also received a cable of thanks from President Abdelaziz Bouteﬂika of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria in reply to His Majesty’s congratulatory cable on the occasion of its 51th Anniversary of Independence. In his cable, President Bouteﬂika expressed his utmost thanks and appreciation for His Majesty the Sultan’s sincere feelings and best wishes, praying to Allah the Almighty to grant His Majesty good health and further progress and prosperity to the Omani people. -ONA MEXICO

His Majesty sends condolences MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has sent a cable of condolences to President Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico on the victims of the ﬂoods and landslides which recently hit Mexico. In his cable, His Majesty the Sultan has expressed his sincere condolences and sympathy to the president, the bereaved families and the friendly Mexican people, wishing the injured speedy recovery. — ONA

SOHAR KIDNAPPING

LEGAL COLUMN

Salary certiﬁcate, copy of bank transfer advice are required for family visa I am an expatriate employee working with a construction company. Recently, I found some new rules formulated by the ROP that if an expatriate wants to bring his family to Oman, he must draw a salary of OMR600 per month, while earlier, the amount was only OMR250 to 350. As I also heard that if the employer provides a salary certiﬁcate to the employee stating that he is drawing OMR600 as a gross salary, then the employee is eligible to get the family visa. So there is a lot of confusion about this. Please clarify. Eligibility conditions for residency (including that of dependents of expatriate employees) is decided by the immigration wing of the Royal Oman Police from time to time. There was a time when no income levels were required to bring dependents of expatriate employees to Oman and only an undertaking by the employer used to serve the purpose. Later on, the ROP decided that the minimum salary to be eligible for a family visa should be OMR300 and quite recently, the threshold level has been increased to OMR600. This is purely an administrative decision of the ROP, the administrative apparatus of the state, and all such decisions have to be complied with. The employee who wishes to bring his family to the Sultanate has to prove that he is actually drawing the minimum stipulated salary through official documents like the labour card data form duly stamped by the Ministry of Manpower. Copies of bank transfer advices made by the employer shall also be produced to prove that the employee actually

Times of Oman, in association with Khalifa Al Hinai Legal Consultants, will answer the legal queries of readers every Monday. Questions can be sent to readersclub@ timesofoman.com

receives such amounts to his credit. Mere certiﬁcates issued by the employer will not be sufficient for the purpose. I am an expatriate employed with a company under the promise of high salary and beneﬁts. I received the offer through a friend when I was in my home country, but once I came here, to my disappointment, I was not given what was promised. When I expressed my desire to leave the concern, the employer is demanding reimbursement of the costs incurred by the employer towards my visa and labour clearance. Can you let me know what I must do, as I have been working for

more than a year now and feel that what is happening with me is unjust. Neither am I being paid as promised nor am I being let off. This is a typical case of an employer committing fraud on an employee which entitles the employee to terminate the contract between him/her and the employer. From your message, it is not clear whether you signed a written contract with your employer or not. Nevertheless, since a fraud has been obviously committed by the employer against you (by breaching the conditions set forth in your offer) you may serve a notice on the employer to terminate the contract of employment. Article (41) of Oman Labour Law reads: “Without prejudice to his right to claim all his entitlements, an employee may, after giving notice to the employer, abandon the work before the expiry of the contractual term, in any of the following instances: 1. If the employer or the employer’s representative uses fraud on him at the time of contracting in respect of the terms and conditions of work; 2. If the employer does not perform his substantial obligations towards the employee in accordance with the contract

of employment. In your case, there is a clear-cut breach of contract by the employer and you are entitled to terminate your contract with the employer. Even in the absence of any breach of contract, an employee is free to end his contractual relationship with the employer without assigning any reasons as Article (37) of Oman Labour Law stipulates that “... any party may choose to terminate it (the contract) by giving the other party a thirty-days’ written notice of termination... unless it is agreed in the contract for a longer period.” Article (37) further states that “If the contract is terminated without such period (notice period) being observed, the party who terminates the contract will be obliged to pay to the other party a compensation equal to the gross salary of the notice period or the remaining part thereof.” From the above, it is clear that your employer is not entitled to any other compensation as claimed by him and such claims of an employer will not stand the scrutiny of law and practice in Oman. You are advised to approach the Labour Department to settle your problems with your employer, if your employer is not agreeing to you resigning and leaving the country for good.

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this column are for general guidance purposes only. They are based on facts presented to us and are not substituted for expert legal advice. Readers are advised to seek legal assistance for speciﬁc legal issues. Times of Oman and Khalifa Al Hinai Advocates & Legal Consultancy do not assume any responsibility towards anyone on this matter.

ROP forms squad to nab abductors REJIMON K reji@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: The Royal Oman Police (ROP) has formed a special team to rescue the abducted Indian worker and is combing different areas in Sohar, informed a social worker in close touch with police officers. “The ROP has put in all its efforts to locate Mohammed Haneefa, the south Indian expatriate worker who was abducted recently by a gang of masked men from Sohar. They have formed a special team that is in touch with Haneefa’s family back in Kerala to rescue him. They are combing different areas in Sohar, especially those inhabited by expatriates and the farm houses,” Yousuf Salim, the social worker, told the Times of Oman late in the evening yesterday. The gang that has reportedly abducted Haneefa recently made phone calls to his family in Kerala demanding a huge ransom for his release. Meanwhile, Haneefa’s family transferred 50,000 Pakistani Rupees (OMR183) yesterday at around 9am from Saudi Arabia through Western Union to a phone number and the name given by the gang. “They are now demanding 500,000 Pakistani rupees (OMR1,830). We were not able to raise that amount all of a sudden. We are from a poor family. So, as a small instalment, we have paid 50,000 Pakistani rupees. Haneefa’s brother-in-law transferred the money through Western Union yesterday morning at around 9am,” Kamal, a relative of Haneefa, told Times of Oman over phone from Kerala. “We all are worried about him. They said that if we won’t meet the deadline, they will kill him. “They also claimed that they have cut off one of his ﬁngers. They allowed Haneefa to contact us. He was pleading to arrange the money somehow and save him,” Kamal added. Haneefa was working with a catering company in Sohar.

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

OMAN SECURITY ACTION

ROP deports 353 expats for entering country illegally MUSCAT: An official of the Royal Oman Police (ROP) has informed that government agents tasked with combating inﬁltration at the Public Administration of Operations have expelled 353 expatriates for having entered the country illegally. The illegals have often been blamed for the rising crime rate,

such as proliferation of drugs, violence, thefts and begging in the Sultanate. The senior police official added that all the necessary legal steps had been taken, including coordination with the concerned embassies, before the illegal residents were deported. He revealed that the concerned

authority deported 20 inﬁltrators. The ROP has hailed the cooperation from citizens and residents which led to their arrest. It also warned that those providing shelter to illegals would be punished. “Those providing shelter to inﬁltrators by giving them employment would be punished,” an official statement said.

Prostitution The Directorate General of Inquiries and Criminal Investigations raided two suspicious hideouts in Khaboura and Suwaiq. The raid resulted in the arrest of ﬁve Asians, including three women, on charges of indulging in prostitution. In Suwaiq, the directorate arrested three people accused of

New rules to protect Sri Lankan maids Sri Lankan maids would now need a noobjection certiﬁcate from their relatives which is to be endorsed by the local authority before they can take up a job in Oman

Times News Service MUSCAT: In an effort to ensure protection for its maids, the Sri Lankan Embassy in Muscat has said that they can now be hired only if they get a no-objection certiﬁcate from their husbands or relatives. The conduct of the husband, the number of infants and children, protection and education of children after their mother’s arrival in Oman besides the age and health of the woman would be considered when issuing permission to go abroad for employment. “We want to protect the rights of the workers’ families also as some of them face problems such as harassment and delayed wages while their families back home face socio-economic problems. DIPLOMACY

Royal Office Minister meets Indian official MUSCAT: Gen. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Numani, Minister of the Royal Office, received in his office yesterday Rear Admiral Anil Kumar Chawla, Commander of the Western Fleet of the Indian Navy and his accompanying delegation, within the framework of his current visit to the Sultanate. The Minister of the Royal Ofﬁce welcomed the Indian guest who, on his part, expressed his happiness for the visit, which comes as part of the two governments’ keenness to enhance defence cooperation between the Sultanate and India. During the meeting, cordial conversations were exchanged and the growth of bilateral relations between the two countries were reviewed. They discussed issues of common interest between the two countries and addressed a number of issues of vital sectors. — ONA

So we have decided not to hire them unless we get a no-objection certiﬁcate that they can maintain homes in their absence from the island,” said M. M. Deshapriya, the Counsellor of Labour at Sri Lankan Embassy in Muscat. This no-objection certiﬁcate has to be endorsed by the local authority or by a senior government official before they can take up jobs. There are currently 1.8 million migrant workers from Sri Lanka, mostly working in the Middle East, with around 30,000 employed in Oman. Of those in the Sultanate, 17,000 are working as housemaids. Deshapriya also said that the Sri Lankan government has started using quota restrictions by foreign employment authorities to control and limit the recruitment

of females by private manpower agencies. “In Sri Lanka, around 800 agencies will be given an annual quota and the allotment will depend on the grading they achieve during an annual assessment,” he said. He also said that the quota system will help minimise irregularities in recruitment and difficulties faced by workers while encouraging agencies to follow best practices. Agencies are currently graded on a pointsbased system. “Though no agency has a five star rating but soon some will have one,” he told the Times of Oman. Earlier this year, the Sri Lankan government introduced electronic fingerprinting and biometric scanning for all housemaids prior to their departure from Sri Lanka to crack down on rampant frauds. The new system helped to prevent fraudulent practices such as using forged passports and irregularities in the foreign employment sector. For this, the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Bureau (SLFEB) is using special software to store fingerprint data of the migrant workers going abroad for employment. The Sri Lanka government was forced to introduce this new system after several rackets came

to light where the Sri Lankan nationals had secured employment in the Middle East by submitting forged certificates. In December 2012, police officers of Colombo Fraud Bureau arrested four people, including a woman, from a house in Colombo, with 300 forged medical certificates. The raid revealed that these certificates were issued by various medical institutes. Housemaids and those working in the hospitality industry in particular are required to undergo strict medical tests before being issued a work visa for countries like Oman. “Now this fingerprinting system for migrant workers will help us in retaining their personal identification data for reference,” Deshapriya added. This system will also help job seekers who have to face huge difficulties in the event of losing their passports in those countries. “The electronic fingerprinting system will also help in the ongoing blacklisting of migrant workers who return to Sri Lanka after being convicted for various offences. Most of these workers had been found guilty for allegedly over-staying visas, robbery, engaging in prostitution and flouting the laws of Oman,” he added.

violating the telecommunications law as they were found selling telephone calls illegally. The accused were arrested and found in possession of communication devices in addition to large sums of money. The arrested people have been referred to the Public Prosecution for initiating further investigations and trial.

97 arrested for theft A trusted source at the ROP revealed that the Directorate-General of Inquiries and Criminal Investigations arrested 97 people on charges of theft and related crimes. The ROP officials have praised the efforts made by citizens and residents which led to the arrest of the criminals. — ONA

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

OMAN Archives to exhibit Oman’s history

PEEP INTO THE PAST: Arquivo Nacional do Brasil (National Archives of Brazil) uncovered an interesting collection of documents dating back to the Portuguese colonial era in Oman. The documents that have

been found include maps, an illustration of the fortress of Ormuz (Hormuz), letters, and a book with registration of some Omani ships that arrived in Brazil in the early 16th century. — Supplied photo

BY SOLEDAD REVELLO

The National Records and Archives Authority of Oman has collected at least 100,000 records related to the Sultanate after visiting a number of countries

MUSCAT: The National Records and Archive Authority of Oman is planning an annual exhibition to be held on the National Day at the Omani Society for Fine Arts in Qurum. The Senior Head of Private Records, Hamood Salim Al Hinai, told the Times of Oman in an exclusive interview that the exhibition would display reproductions of some documents the National Archive of Brazil presented to the Omani delegation during their visit to Brazil last month. Established in 2007, the National Records and Archives Authority of Oman has already collected at

least 100,000 records related to the Sultanate after visiting a number of countries like the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Tanzania, and Turkey. He added that archives received from other countries such as India, Holland, and France would also feature in the exhibition. Collection of documents During the Omani delegation’s visit, Arquivo Nacional do Brasil (National Archives of Brazil) uncovered an interesting collection of documents, which date back to the Portuguese colonial era in Oman. Speaking to the Times of Oman, Renata Willam Santos do Vale, lead researcher of National Ar-

chives of Brazil, said the documents revealing Portugal’s colonial era in Oman were a rare ﬁnd. “It took a team of eight people — ﬁve researchers and three trainees — who worked round-the-clock for three months looking for records related to Oman,” she told in an exclusive interview. The documents found include maps, an illustration of the fortress of Ormuz (Hormuz) at the time the Portuguese invaded the Strait of Hormuz, letters, and a book with registration of some Omani ships that arrived in Brazil in the early 16th century. Abdulmohsin Said Al Hinai, General Director of Records Organisation, said they were very

pleased with their visit to Brazil, during which their hosts extended warm hospitality. The Omani delegation invited the Director of the National Archives of Brazil, Jaime Antunes da Silva, and his colleagues to visit Oman and explore the historical archives in the Sultanate. Partnership The National Records and Archive Authority of Oman is planning to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Archives of Brazil, in which both countries will decide on the terms of cooperation that would facilitate sharing and copying of documents and information re-

lated to both the countries. When asked how long it would take to reach the agreement, DirectorGeneral of the Records Organisation, Abdulmohsin Said Al Hanai, said, “We hope to sign the MoU by the end of this year. However, it may take some more time as the matter is with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” It may be mentioned that the National Records and Archives Authority has already signed several MoUs with the national archives authorities of Portugal, the United Kingdom and France. Soledad Revello is an Uruguayan national currently doing her internship with the Times of Oman.

GENETIC RESOURCES

GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP: His Highness Sayyid Fahd bin Mahmoud Al Said, Deputy Prime Minister

for the Council of Ministers received in his office a number of heads of the delegations taking part at the ministerial conference for the Near East, North Africa Region and the Five Countries (Brazil, Indonesia, Norway, Italy and Spain), hosted by the Sultanate. — Mohamed Al Rashdi

Ministerial meeting calls for equitable food sharing MUSCAT: The recently concluded ministerial meeting of the Near East, North Africa, Brazil, Indonesia, Italy, Norway and Spain stressed upon the importance of achieving world food security of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. The meeting also focused on the central role played by the international treaty and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations. Recommendations The meeting, which concluded in Muscat on Saturday evening under the chairmanship of Dr Fuad bin Jaafar Al Sajwani, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, saluted the cooperation among all countries in preserving plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. It also hailed the crucial importance of the treaty in seeking to preserve, share and use, in addition to equitably sharing the beneﬁts arising out of the use of plant genetic resources. Further the Muscat Declaration stressed that the treaty is vital to achieving the millennium

The Muscat Declaration stressed that the treaty is vital to achieving the millennium development goals to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty and to ensure environmental sustainability. The recommendations also called for the implementation of equitable sharing of benefits as the main pillar of the treaty

development goals to eradicate hunger and extreme poverty and to ensure environmental sustainability. The participants also emphasised the importance of maintaining traditional knowledge of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, as well as contributions by local and indigenous communities and farmers from all regions of the world in maintaining plant genetic resources for food, agriculture and development.

The recommendations also called for the implementation of the equitable sharing of beneﬁts as the main pillar of the treaty through the equal distribution of beneﬁts, taking into account the needs and priorities of the Near East and North Africa. Additionally, the participants called upon governments that had not yet signed the treaty to accept it and urged all parties to continue to participate in the agreed upon activities. — ONA

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

OMAN NAT I O NA L B A L L E T

India top destination for non-oil exports During the ﬁve-year period from 200809 to 2012-13, the India-Oman bilateral trade increased by

DANCING MAESTRO: Julio Bocca, the artistic director of the

National Ballet of Uruguay, is one of the most famous choreographers in the world. — ROHM

129%. During the

Uruguay ballet to whirl into ROHM

India’s exports to the

Times News Service MUSCAT: The Royal Opera House Muscat (ROHM) will host Julio Bocca and the National Ballet of Uruguay for two nights — on Wednesday and Thursday. Founded in 1935, the National Ballet of Uruguay is one of the oldest in Latin America. Each of its ROHM performances will offer a slightly different programme

featuring both classical ballet and modern dance along with a touch of the evocative tango. Julio Bocca, the artistic director of the National Ballet of Uruguay, is one of the most famous choreographers in the world and among the most famous dancers of Argentina. In 2007, an estimated 300,000 people attended his open-air show in his hometown of Buenos Aires.

last ﬁnancial year, Sultanate also doubled J. S. Mukul

MRUDU NAIK mrudu@timesofoman.com MUSCAT: India has emerged as the number one destination for Omani non-oil exports during 2012. Non-oil Omani exports to India during the year 2012 registered a growth of 48.1 per cent to reach OMR611.6 million against the ﬁgure of OMR413.1 million during the previous year. This was revealed by J. S. Mukul,

MANAGEMENT MEET

Injaz explores opportunities for budding entrepreneurs Times News Service MUSCAT: Injaz Oman concluded the second exhibition of its ‘Sharikati’ programme that analyses and explores opportunities and responsibilities within the student-led company. The students showcased their experience in setting up and running a company — from setting up a board, raising capital, developing a business plan, producing, selling and competing against other student-led companies. The programme, mainly backed by the Oman Oil Company, was also supported by volunteers from the private sector who want to bridge the gap between academia and actual practices with their experience by providing participants with knowledge in management concepts, values and techniques and showing them how to initiate their own projects through an interactive educational system. Iman Al Habsi, deputy CEO of Green Kashkool, who produced the environment-friendly notebook, said the exhibition was a success as they had a chance to showcase their unique products. “The notebook is a multifunction one and designed with some Omani touches. For this book, we target college students because EMPLOYMENT

1,493 people provided with jobs last week MUSCAT: The index of national manpower employment at the private sector pointed out that 1,493 jobseekers were employed in different professions and provided employment contracts during the period from September 15 to 19. The construction sector provided 29 per cent of the jobs compared to 19.1 per cent provided by the wholesale and retail, auto repair, personal and family commodities and 17.7 per cent by the real estate, rent and commercial sector. On the other hand, the salaries of those employed from among job seekers ranged from OMR375 for the university degree holders and OMR280 for the diploma and higher degree holders. The Safety and Security Services Corporation registered the highest employment rate with 130 new appointments followed by Al Turki Ltd Projects Company with 62 and Catering Ltd with 45 citizens. — ONA

Sheikh Shabib bin Mohammed Al Maamari, CEO, Injaz Oman

we know they need this product,” she said. “Initially, we produced 100 copies for Injaz Oman competition but we see a great deal of potential and right now we are in the process of producing more books as many people have placed orders,” she added. Shaqah Al Alawi, responsible for marketing at the Green Kashkool, said, “We are determined to continue our marketing campaign even after the exhibition. We are now targeting institutions who want to customise their notebooks and a few orders have started pouring in.”

At the end of the programme, the participating teams will compete in three categories — best innovative product, best marketing campaign and best company of the year. The best company of the year will represent Oman in competing for the regional Injaz Al-Arab Award. Sheikh Shabib bin Mohammed al Maamari, CEO, Injaz Oman, said, “The exhibition has been a success and we are sure that such exhibitions boost the sales ahead of the ﬁnal assessment in October when the winners will be announced. This was a chance for the students to practice their marketing skills.” This year, 16 teams are participating. “We look forward to more support from public and private sector institutions without which the programme cannot serve our ambitious Omani youth,” Maamari said. During the exhibition, Omani entrepreneurs were invited to attend the event to hear about the ideas and products of participating teams and support them wherever possible. “There has been public interest and we invite everyone to support the ideas of the participating teams as these students are the future entrepreneurs,” the CEO said.

the Indian ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman, while interacting with the media onboard the Indian Naval Ship Mysore recently. INS Mysore Tarkash, Tabar and Aditya under the Command of the Flag Officer Commanding Western Fleet, are on a month-long overseas deployment to the Gulf to enhance bilateral ties and engage in naval exercises with friendly re-

gional navies. The ships will be in Oman till September 26. India is followed by the UAE, Japan, China and the United States in Omani non-oil exports. “This has happened for the first time. In addition to this, during the last financial year (2012-13), India’s exports to Oman also doubled,” the ambassador said referring to the thriving economic, commercial, trade and investment ties between the two countries. It may be recalled that during the five-year period from 200809 to 2012-13, the India-Oman bilateral trade increased by 129 per cent. Recalling the past, the ambassador said, “It is relevant to recall that the earliest links were navigational by way of trade contacts across the seas. In fact, India and Oman are neighbours joined by the waters of the Arabian Sea.” Mukul said, “The traditional historical relations have over the years developed into very strong ties and have today evolved into a strategic partnership.” He characterised the exceptionally close India-Oman partnership into four verticals. “The first one is an exceptionally close political relationship underpinned by high level exchange between the two countries. Second,

the economic and commercial, trade and investment contacts; third, the people to people contacts which lead to a close cultural connection, and fourth: defence cooperation,” Mukul said. Defence cooperation Talking of defence cooperation, he said the naval ties between the countries have progressed steadily with increased port visits by naval ships and training of RNO personnel by the Indian Navy in hydrography, diving, training management, logistics management and dockyard management. “The biennial naval exercise ‘Naseem Al-Bahr’ is the only one of this kind in this part of the world,“ he said. He added, “These visits help to showcase Indian capabilities and the potential that India has.” As per the Ministry of Manpower statistics, as of January 2012, the number of Indian expatriates in Oman was 718,252 and the number of Indian workers in Oman was 581,832. As per the statistics bulletin for the month of April 2013 issued by the National Centre for Statistics and Information, as of March 2013, the number of registered Indian workers in Oman rose to 608,635.

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

REGION BIG QUESTION

Will hugely popular General Sisi run for Egyptian presidency? CAIRO: One of the most engaging political questions in Egypt today is whether General Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, who ousted the country’s ﬁrst democratically elected president, will run for the job himself. But Egypt’s new strongman, hugely popular among the large segment of the population that called for president Mohamed Mursi to be removed, is keeping mum.

For now, Egypt is still undecided on the shape that its future governmental structure will take, be it presidential, parliamentary or semi-presidential. Interim president Adly Mansour has formed a panel to draft a new constitution, replacing one rammed through by Mursi that was criticised for being too radical in nature. In principle, the talk is of elec-

tions—both for a new parliament and the presidency—sometime in the middle of next year. Meanwhile, the local media is full of speculation about a possible Sisi candidacy. On July 3, Sisi appeared on state television and declared that Mursi had been pushed out. He said he acted after millions took to the streets demanding the removal of the leader.

Since then, calls for Sisi to run have proliferated on Facebook pages. Portraits of the strongman are ubiquitous in shop windows, on walls and in cars in the country. Experts and journalists who have recently met Sisi say he does not want the top job and has no intention of running for it. And the man himself has made only one public pronounce-

ment on the matter, and that was enigmatic. In a speech on July 24, three weeks after ousting Mursi, he said “the honour of achieving a popular demand is bigger than the honour of leading Egypt”. Regardless of what he decides, Egypt faces a dilemma, as the military has always played a prominent role in politics. — AFP

Iran’s 2,000km-range missiles can hit Israel Tehran to take control of Russian-built nuclear reactor at Bushehr today as Revolutionary Guard warns of dangers of dealing with the US SHOW OF STRENGTH: A military truck carries a Sejil medium-range missile during an annual mili-

TEHRAN/DUBAI: Iran paraded 30 missiles with a nominal range of 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles) yesterday, the ﬁrst time it had displayed so many with the theoretical capacity to hit Israeli targets even as Tehran will take control of a Russian-built nuclear power station at Bushehr today, Iranian Atomic Energy Agency chief Ali Akbar Salehi said. Also yesterday, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard has warned of the dangers of dealing with US officials, ahead of expected diplomatic contacts, underlining the internal challenges President Hassan Rowhani could face to improve ties with the West as Rowhani demanded that Western governments recognise Iran’s right to enrich uranium in any nuclear deal. Iran displayed 12 Sejil and 18 Ghadr missiles at the annual parade marking the anniversary of the outbreak of the 1980-88 IranIraq war. The stated range of both missiles would put not only Israel but also US bases in the Gulf within reach. But in his speech at the parade, Rowhani insisted the weaponry on show was for defensive purposes only. “In the past 200 years, Iran has never attacked another country,” he said. “Today too, the armed forces of the Islamic Republic and its leadership will never launch any ag-

tary parade which marks Iran’s eight-year war with Iraq, in Tehran, yesterday. Iran displayed 12 Sejil and 18 Ghadr missiles at the parade. The stated range of both missiles would put not only Israel but also US bases in the Gulf region within reach. – AFP

gressive action in the region. But they will always resist aggressors determinedly until victory.” The Sejil was ﬁrst tested in November 2008 and the Ghadr in September of the following year. Both are two-stage missiles that use solid fuel that allows them to be moved around and launched rapidly. The naval chief of the elite Revolutionary Guards was meanwhile quoted as saying that Iran has the capability to strike US warships in the Gulf. “We have the necessary equipment to destroy American aircraft carries and warplanes in the Gulf,” the Isna news agency quoted Admiral Ali Fadavi as saying. Meanwhile, in a statement to the official Irna news agency Salehi said, “Tomorrow (Monday) the 1,000 megawatt Bushehr nuclear power station will be handed over to Iran. But for another two years it will be under Russian guarantee and a number of Russian experts will remain in place to give advice and technical assistance,” he added. Salehi is to join Russian ofﬁcials at the plant for an official handover ceremony. He said he expected work to start soon on a

second nuclear power plant on completion of talks with Moscow. “Negotiations are continuing and are well-advanced,” he said. “Work will start soon,” he added, without giving a date. Ahead of expected meeting with US officials, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) statement said, “Historical experiences make it necessary for the diplomatic apparatus of our country to carefully and sceptically monitor the behaviour of White House officials so that the righteous demands of our nation are recognised and respected by those who favour interaction” It added the IRGC would support initiatives that were in line with national interests and strategies set forth by Iran’s theocratic leader and highest authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. No pre-conditions Rowhani is expected to pursue a charm offensive in the coming week while in New York for the UN General Assembly in order to set the right tone for further nuclear talks with world powers which he hopes will bring relief from sanctions, according

to diplomats and analysts. The new Iranian president said that Tehran was ready for negotiations with Western powers provided they set no pre-conditions. He also said the world needed to accept Iran’s right to enrich uranium. “In these talks all the rights of Iran, including nuclear and enrichment rights on our own territory should be accepted within the framework of international law,” Rowhani said, according to Irna. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is already in New York for talks with his British and French counterparts, and with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who represents the major powers in the nuclear talks. Rowhani has said he wants those talks to resume as quickly as possible but insisted that they do so “without precondition”. Rowhani has made several diplomatic overtures since his election in June, and there has been speculation that he could also meet US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the General Assembly, which opens tomorrow. —Agerncies

UN RESOLUTION ON SYRIA

Lavrov accuses US of ‘blackmailing’ MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday accused Washington of blackmailing Moscow over a tough UN resolution against Syria, and said the West is blinded by a desire for regime change in the war-torn country. “Our American partners are beginning to blackmail us,” threatening to stop work on implementing Syria’s chemical disarmament deal unless Russia supports a Security Council resolution allowing military intervention, Lavrov told state television. In the sharply worded interview that exposed a growing rift on Syria policy as Damascus begins disclosing its chemical inventory under the deal, Russia’s top dip-

TALKING TOUGH: Russian For-

eign Minister Sergei Lavrov

lomat accused the West of trying to strong arm a resolution in the Security Council that would make intervention possible. “Right now Western partners are trying to unceremoniously push through a resolution under Chapter VII,” a move he said would

“move the (chemical weapons) convention aside to advance individual, personal or geopolitical, state ambitions.” Washington, Paris and London want a strongly worded resolution to ensure compliance, possibly under the UN Charter’s Chapter VII authorising the use of force—a move Lavrov said contradicts his agreement with US Secretary of State John Kerry. “Our partners are now blinded by their ideological goal of regime change,” Lavrov added. “All they talk about is that Bashar Al Assad must leave.” “They are only interested in proving their own superiority, not in the goal that is guiding us, to solve the problem of chemical weapons in Syria,” Lavrov said.

Lavrov said that Russia would be willing to send troops to Syria as part of an international presence to secure the work of experts on chemical weapons sites. “We are ready to allocate our servicemen, military police, to participate in such efforts,” he said, while questioning whether “large contingents are necessary... military observers would be enough.” Lavrov said the OPCW is “about to make a decision” on Syria but the process is threatened by the “arrogant position of some Western partners”. “They need Chapter VII, which presumes applying pressure on violators of international law, including sanctions and the possibility of using force,” he said. — AFP

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

REGION In Algeria, manga comics make it big Published in French, colloquial Arabic and soon in north Africa’s Berber language, comics have put a distinctly local stamp on a major Japanese product

ALGIERS: It is a massively popular book form that originated in Japan where it became a cultural phenomenon. Now manga comics are flourishing in Algeria as well. “The Algerian manga is our trademark,” said Salim Brahimi proudly. “It’s what we call the DZ manga.” Brahimi is the founder of Z-Link, Algeria’s first publisher of manga comics. And Z-Link’s manga are 100 per cent Algerian, from the drawings to the text. Published in French, colloquial Arabic and soon in north Africa’s Berber language, DZ manga has put a distinctly local stamp on a major Japanese product. And the comics are flying off the shelves. “We are printing 3,000 copies per title,” said Kamal Bahloul, ZLink’s representative at a book festival in the city of Tizi Ouzou. “In 2008, 40 per cent of our print run was sold against 70 per cent today,” he added. Since its launch in 2007, ZLink has been increasing its catalogue—and its staff. “When we started this adventure there were just two of us,” said Bahloul. “Now we have nearly 30 employees. We are growing five

percent on average every year.” In 2008, a year after Brahimi co-founded Z-Link, he launched a key weapon in its marketing armoury: Laabstore magazine, a monthly review of Algeria’s burgeoning manga, cinema and video games scene. Laabstore runs extracts from the work of up-andcoming manga writers—and of course also serves as a successful shop window for Z-Link’s own titles, with its print run having risen from 2,000 to 10,000 copies in ﬁve years. Basic ingredients Japan’s manga, a sometimes lurid style of comic strip, cover a wide range of themes and are massively popular both at home and abroad. The Algerian version respects the basic ingredients of sharp humour, suspense and a hyperactive artistic style, but the scripts also add the crucial local ﬂavour. “The stories we deal with are typically Algerian scenes,” said 28-year-old Sid Ali Oudjiane, a manga writer whose “Victory Road” series—featuring a schoolboy’s quest for sporting glory—has already won him three national

CULTURAL REVOLUTION:

Algerian manga artist Fella Matougui, 18, poses with some of her comics in Algiers. – AFP

awards. DZ’s catalogue includes a variety of genres—and claims plenty of young talent, both male and female. “The Revolution”, published in 2012 to mark the 50th anniversary of Algeria’s independence from France, is one of a string of titles from 18-year-old Fella Matougui. And one of the ﬁrst major successes of the local manga scene was “Samy Kun” by Yacine Haddad, about a teenager who gets mixed up in the problems of the Algerian Sahara. But as well as the different subject matter explored by the writers, the artists have sought to break away from the purely Japanese style by bringing distinctive local touches to their work. Despite its success, however, Algeria’s DZ manga is often more of a passion to pursue than a way

of earning a living—even for the award-winning Oudjiane. “I work on manga on the side. I can only devote my free time to it, at the weekends and at night,” he said. Likewise for manga author Amir Cheriti, whose day job is as a graphic artist in an advertising agency. “For us, it is still for pleasure,” he said. Algeria’s DZ manga has had its own special billing at prestigious industry events, including two international book fairs in the French cities of Angouleme and Montpellier. But surely the greatest recognition so far has come from Japan itself. This year, Japan’s Kyoto International Manga Museum acquired several Algerian works, “not just to be exhibited, but also for research”, said Z-Link founder Brahimi. The inﬂuence of the Algerian brand is also attracting attention in the United States, where it is the subject of a doctoral thesis at Philadelphia University. And there is growing interest from companies seeking to harness its marketing potential. “Firms like Sonelgaz and Panasonic have called us about advertising illustrations,” said Bahloul. At the Tizi Ouzou book fair, Z-Link is busily raising manga’s “Made in Algeria” proﬁle, with Oudjiane displaying his skills to a group of inspired young festivalgoers at one workshop. “In 20 or 30 years, young Algerians will all have mangas and comics on their bookshelves,” said Bahloul, predicting the continuation of trend that few would bet against right now. — AFP

DRIVING BAN

Saudi women call new day of deﬁance RIYADH: Saudi women activists have called for a new day of deﬁance next month of the longstanding ban on women driving in the kingdom. An online petition entitled “Oct 26th, driving for women” had yesterday gathered more than 5,800 signatories. “I will drive on October 26,” activist Nasima Al Sada said, saying that some 20 women are going to take part in the campaign in the Eastern Province. “Many women are enthusiastic about learning to drive, or to teach other” women how to drive, she said. —AFP

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

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

INDIA T E R R O R AT TA C K

Two Indians among those killed in Kenya

LITERACY CAMPAIGN Bollywood actress Vidya Balan with government school students during a literacy campaign to support children at Thanapur village in Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh, yesterday. Vidya launched a mobile phone-based learning system that seeks to make the learning process interesting for children. According to the system, following a missed call on toll free No.18001208989, a recorded message would play on the return call that would take children through a learning module in an interesting manner. - PTI

BRIEFS

Government denies any role in Ramdev’s detention NEW DELHI: The External Affairs Ministry yesterday denied that it had any role in the detention of yoga guru Baba Ramdev at London’s Heathrow airport.“No truth whatsoever in such malicious rumours whatsoever,” External Affairs Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin tweeted in reply to a tweet asking whether the ministry had issued any Red Corner alert against Ramdev. Ramdev was detained at London’s Heathrow airport for eight hours by British immigration and customs ofﬁcials and then released Saturday. Ramdev’s spokesman S.K. Tejarawala said the yoga guru was neither asked any question nor was his luggage checked.“Swamiji felt harassment there,” Tejarawala said.

NAIROBI/NEW DELHI: Two Indian families came in the line of gunfire by militants in an upscale mall in Nairobi, with two Indians, including an eight yearold boy, among the 59 fatalities. Four Indians were among the 200 injured in the hail of bullets fired inside the popular Westgate shopping mall on Saturday, officials yesterday said. Those killed were Sridhar Natarajan, 40, from Tamil Nadu and an employee of a local pharmaceutical firm Harley’s Limited; and Paramshu Jain, eight, the son of Manoj Jain, the branch manager of Industrial Area Branch, Bank of Baroda (Kenya Limited), official sources said in New Delhi. Natarajan’s wife Manjula Sridhar was injured in the attack, while the mother and sister of Paramshu — Mukta Jain, 38, and her daughter Poorvi Jain, 12 — were also injured. The fourth injured is Natarajan Ramachandran, an employee of Flamingo Duty Free, Nairobi,

‘BJP misleading people, hatching conspiracies’ the country’s secular ethos require that all communities move

NEW DELHI: Environmental engineer and former IIT professor G.D. Agarwal, continuing for the 102nd day yesterday his fast unto death to save the Ganga river, has now given up water too, a close aide said.Agarwal, 81, has been on fast in the Matr Sadan Ashram of Haridwar in Uttar Pradesh. He has been demanding that the government take steps to save the Ganga river and its ecology, and ensure that the ﬂow of the river water is uninterrupted. “He is a noted scientist and has been fasting so many days for saving the Ganga. It is so shameful that the government has not even bothered to reply to his letters,” said Acharya Jitender, a close aide of the environmentalist. Jitender said Agarwal on September 19 wrote to President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chief Justice of India P. Sathasivam in this regard, but has not yet heard from any of them.

shoulder

LUCKNOW: The suspension of IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal has been revoked by the UP government, an official statement issued here yesterday said. The 2010 batch IAS officer was suspended for allegedly ordering the razing of the wall of a mosque in Gautam Budh Nagar. Durga was suspended as sub-divisional magistrate on July 27, attached with the state revenue board and served a charge sheet on August 4. The state government in the charge sheet had accused her of taking a hasty administrative decision that lacked foresight and imperilled communal harmony in the region. In her reply, Durga had said that the boundary wall of the under-construction mosque at Kadalpur village was being built on Gram Sabha land and not on private land. - Agencies

Modi seeks diaspora’s help to win 2014 polls

Sonia Gandhi says

On fast to save Ganga river, academician gives up water

Durga’s suspension revoked

according to official sources. Senior officers of the Indian high commission in Nairobi, including High Commissioner Sibabrata Tripathi, were present in the two major medical facilities that received casualties during the day — the Aga Khan University Hospital and M.P. Shah Hospital, the sources added. The high commission officials are proactively in touch with members of the families of those who died or have been injured to provide all necessary assistance. The Indian and Indian-origin community in Kenya totals 70,000. India has also condemned the heinous and cowardly assault and extended its solidarity to the government and people of Kenya as they bravely continue to deal with the situation, the official sources said. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wrote to Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, condemning the “heinous and senseless” terrorist attack. -IANS

forward shoulder-to-

RUPAHELI (Rajasthan): On a day opposition’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi attacked the ruling United Progressive Alliance for its “mis-governance”, Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi hit back accusing BJP of hatching conspiracies before elections and misleading people in its hunger for power. Modi, addressing an audience in the US through video conference, claimed that the UPA was “running away” from giving its performance report of nine years, but Sonia said her government had empowered people through various measures like RTI, food security and land acquisition while the BJP had nothing to show. “UPA government empowered people with Right to Information, Right to Education, MGNREGA, and recently gave food security to people and also introduced new land acquisition act in the interest of farmers,” she said. BJP, on the other hand, misleads people and points ﬁngers at the works of Congress govern-

HITTING BACK: Congress party president Sonia Gandhi waves to

supporters as she leaves after laying the foundation stone of a railway coach factory at Bhilwara in Rajasthan, yesterday. – PTI

ments. Why did they not do such work...who has stopped them from taking such decisions and empowering people?”, she asked. “They are just concerned about power and hatch conspiracies before elections. You all need to remain alert from them because they mislead people,” the UPA chairperson said at a public meeting in Rupaheli, a remote area of Bhilwara district. After unveiling plaques for foundation stone of a Mainline Electric Multiple Unit (MEMU) coach factory and drinking water project, Sonia heaped praise on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government, saying it has started a new era of empowering people. Earlier, after the stone laying ceremony of a Rs37,230-crore re-

ﬁnery and petrochemical complex at Pachpadara in Barmer district, the Congress chief stressed that communal peace and harmony has to be maintained for the country’s overall development. Secular ethos She said the country’s secular ethos require that all communities move forward shoulder-to-shoulder on the path of development. “When your own government ensures an environment of peace and harmony, there is development in every direction, then only there is prosperity. “Every section of society should move forward together... shoulderto-shoulder. This is India’s secular culture.... and foundation of governance,” Sonia said. -PTI

WASHINGTON: Comparing the upcoming 2014 parlimentary poll to the one in 1977 after the 18-month emergency rule, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi reached out to Indian diaspora seeking its help to win power. “Like 1977, 2014 will be the voice of the people,” said Modi addressing the annual national convention of the US chapter of Overseas Friends of BJP (OFBJP) at Tampa, Florida on Saturday through satellite video. Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi spoke in Hindi for over an hour. His speech was telecast live on TV Asia across USA, Canada, Europe, and India. The theme of the conference is “Mission 2014: BJP 272+”, a reference to the party’s ambition to secure absolute majority on its own in the 543 member Lok Sabha. -IANS

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

INDIA BJP demands president’s rule in UP UP police have arrested three legislators accused of inciting the violence that left more than 40 people dead and about 40,000 homeless in Muzaffarnagar earlier this month

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yesterday demanded president’s rule in Uttar Pradesh and a probe by a Supreme Court-appointed judge into the recent violence in Muzaffarnagar. “Lawlessness is prevailing in Uttar Pradesh. We apprised the

President about it. There is a emergency-like situation and no government exists in the state. So, we have demanded president’s rule in UP,” BJP president Rajnath Singh said after meeting President Pranab Mukherjee here. Rajnath, along with representatives of BJP leaders and MLAs from UP, including Uma Bharati, Hukum Singh, Laxmikant Bajpayee and Satyapal Malik, submitted a memorandum to the President drawing his attention to the situation in the state. Adequate compensation “A Supreme Court-appointed judge should probe the violence and adequate compensation should be given to the victims,” Rajnath added. UP police have arrested three legislators who are accused of inciting the violence that left more than 40 people dead and about 40,000 homeless in Muzaffarnagar earlier this month. Among those arrested are two BJP MLAs along with one from Bahujan Samaj Party.

A Supreme Court-appointed judge should probe the violence and adequate compensation should be given to the victims HANDING MEMORANDUM: President Pranab Mukherjee with a del-

egation of MPs, MLAs from UP, led by BJP president Rajnath Singh, in a meeting at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, yesterday. – PTI

The BJP president was refused permission by the state government to visit the violence-affected areas. UP BJP legislative party leader Hukum Singh said, “We have given a memorandum to the President. There is anarchy in UP for the last six months. We have given that information to the gov-

CONTROVERSY OVER FORMER ARMY CHIEF

Government ‘troubling’ people who want to join BJP: Rajnath NEW DELHI: BJP president Rajnath Singh yesterday came out in support of former Army chief Gen V. K. Singh, who is under attack over the activities of a secret spy unit set up by him, saying the government was deliberately troubling all personalities who want to join the saffron party. “Whatever V. K. Singh has said is correct. Why was no inquiry held against him when he was in service. Why are they getting into holding investigations one year after his retirement and that too soon after he shared the dais with Narendra Modi. “Deliberately, the Congressled UPA government is troubling eminent personalities who want to join BJP,” he said when asked to comment on V. K. Singh’s stand that he was being troubled for sharing dais with Modi, BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate. The BJP president was talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function where former Chief Minister of the eastern state of

IN SOUP: V. K. Singh

Bihar Satish Prasad joined the party. However, he refused to comment when asked if the former Army chief was joining BJP in the near future. Under attack over the purported activities of the Technical Support Division set up by him, Gen Singh has termed as “motivated” the charges against him. Meanwhile, Former chief of army staff Gen. (retd.) V.K. Singh

BLOOD CANCER

New nano-medicine can bring hope to leukaemia patients KOCHI: For millions of Indians battling leukaemia (blood cancer), there is good news. The Kochi-based Amrita Centre for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine has developed a new nano-medicine that can dramatically improve the treatment of drug-resistant Chronic Myelogenous Leukaemia (CML), when used in combination with Imatinib, the standard drug for the crippling disease. In another signiﬁcant invention, the 2006-founded Amrita Centre has devised a mechanism that can effectively prevent recurrence of Glioma, or brain tumour — a deadly disease that affects about four out of every 100,000 people in India. The two projects will be formally unveiled on September 26 at the 60th birthday celebrations here of spiritual guru Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, her math said in a statement yesterday. As for CML, it affects approximately two out of every 100,000 people in India annually. Almost 40 per cent of these cases are resistant to Imatinib. For such patients, treatment options are extremely limited. “What we have done at Amrita is to take a particular ‘smallmolecule inhibitor’ class of anticancer drug that is currently available in the market and encapsulate it into a protein nanocapsule,” said Shantikumar Nair, the centre’s director. Efficacy “This allows the drug to be absorbed directly into the cancer cells circulating in the patient’s bloodstream. This has a marked

increase on its efficacy in killing the cancer cells,” he said. “Further, the circulation lifetime of the drug in the blood is increased, which also increases its efficacy.” The nano-encapsulated version of the drug has shown itself to be non-toxic in healthy mice in tests conducted by his department. It has similarly demonstrated itself to be effective in tests involving blood samples of people with Imatinib-resistant CML, said Nair, an alumnus of the IIT, Mumbai, and Columbia University, New York. Clinical trials Manzoor Koyakutty, professor at the centre, said the next step was to evaluate its efficacy in ﬁghting mice with CML. “If it continues to remain non-toxic and effective, we can move on to clinical trials,” adds the expert, who has co-invented the drug. In the case of Glioma, the standard treatment for people suffering from the disease is to excise the tumour, taking care to minimise loss of any healthy brain tissue, said Nair. Both the projects - nano-medicine for drug-resistant blood cancer and polymer wafer for brain tumour — were partly funded by the department of biotechnology of the Indian government. -IANS

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will ﬁle a Right to Information petition for a copy of the report which claims that funds were misused during his tenure to destabilise the Jammu and Kashmir government, his counsel said. “We have come to this conclusion that the only way to establish the truth regarding this report and regarding the activities which are being questioned now is to see the copy of the report. So we are planning to move an RTI application tomorrow (Monday) itself asking for a copy of that report submitted by Lt Gen Bhatia and also inspection of the records,” V.K. Singh’s counsel Vishwajeet Singh said yesterday. “If they deny our application, we will see what else we can do,” he told TV channel Times Now. Media reports have cited a report submitted after an army inquiry, alleging that during Gen Singh’s tenure as chief, funds were misused to destabilise the Jammu and Kashmir government. - Agencies

ernor and the chief minister. “But despite that, no action was taken and the result was the violence in Muzaffarnagar. It is now affecting the other areas of the state. People have lost faith in the government. So, there is no other alternative than imposing President’s Rule.”

Rajnath Singh BJP president

In Rampur, senior SP leader Azam Khan defended the state government’s decision not to permit BJP chief Rajnath Singh to visit riot-hit Muzaffarnagar yesterday, saying it was done for “peace and tranquillity” in the area. “Rajnath Singh’s entry was stopped on the basis of a report of

the administration which could not be overlooked or neglected in the best interest of peace and tranquillity of the sensitive area,” Khan, who is UP Parliamentary Affairs Minister, said. “Rajnathji has himself occupied the pivotal post (chief minister) in UP and he should realise what the government and administration must do on occasions when law and order is at stake,” Khan said. Meanwhile, agitated over arrest of its MLA for his alleged role in Muzaffarnagar riots, BSP yesterday lashed out at the ruling SP, accusing it of adopting a “pick and choose” approach by targeting political rivals and protecting its own leaders. In a related development, a case was registered in Muzaffarnagar against 85 persons, including a Khap council head, for their alleged involvement in the violence. “To hide its mistakes and failures, SP government is hell-bent on taking one-sided legal action by following a pick and choose policy,” BSP Legislature Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya told reporters in Lucknow. - PTI

A10

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

PAKISTAN

GRIEF AND PAIN: A woman mourns next to the coffin of her brother, who was killed in the suicide attack on the All Saints Church in Peshawar, yesterday. — Reuters

Terrorists have no religion and targeting innocent people is against the teachings of Islam and all religions Nawaz Sharif

‘Attack has shamed Pakistanis, Muslims’ Christians across Pakistan will fear for

Prime Minister, Pakistan

their lives after the attack, said provincial

Negotiating with terrorists: Blast in Peshawar at a church kills innocent families Sharmeen Obaid Filmmaker, Pakistan

These terrorists cannot be termed humans Imran Khan Chief, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf

Shameful act of attacking a place of worship! Aseefa Bhutto Zardari

lawmaker Ghauri

PESHAWAR: The twin attacks on the 130-year-old All Saints Church in Peshawar could complicate efforts by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to engage militants in peace negotiations at a time when roadside bombs, targeted killings and suicide attacks continue unabated. An assault of this scale is certain to give ammunition to Sharif’s critics who are against his campaign to negotiate a ceasefire deal with Taleban-linked militants fighting to topple his government in the capital Islamabad. Attacks on Christians have previously largely been confined to grenade attacks and occasional riots. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is a deeply conservative province bordering the tribal districts along the Afghan frontier which are home to Taleban and Al Qaeda militants. In 2009, 40 houses and a church were set ablaze by a mob of 1,000 in the town of Gojra in Punjab province. At least seven Christians were burnt to death. Seventeen Christians were killed in an attack on a church in Bahawalpur in 2001. Provincial lawmaker Ghauri said there were about 200,000 Christians in the province, of whom 70,000 lived in Peshawar. “Now after this attack Christians across Pakistan will fear for their lives,” he warned. Police said the death toll included including 34 women and seven children. A bomb disposal security source said there were two explosions carried out by a pair of attackers.

Leader, Pakistan People’s Party Ulema Council Pakistan’s Ulema Council, an association of leading Muslim scholars, strongly condemned the church attack and said killing innocent people breaches the tenets of Islam. “It is an extreme-

PRAYERS: Christians mourn the killings in Karachi, yesterday. — AFP

and I saw wounded people everywhere,” Khan said. A news reporter saw shreds of human flesh and bloodstains on the walls and floor of the church, whose windows had been ripped apart by the blast. Pages of books were scattered near the altar and rice meals mingled with dust on the floor amid shattered benches. Walls were gouged with ball bearings used in the explosives, he said.

FURY: Christians stage a protest in Islamabad, yesterday. — PTI

ly shameful attack which has shamed all Pakistanis and Muslims,” Allama Tahir Mehmood Ashraﬁ, chief of the council, said. “There is no room for such terrorist acts in Islam.” Human remains “I heard two explosions. People started to run. Human remains were strewn all over the church,” said one parishioner, who only gave her ﬁrst name, Margrette. Her voice breaking with emotion, she said she had not seen her sister since the explosions ripped through the gate area outside the church. Sahibzada Anees, one of Peshawar’s most senior officials, told reporters the bombers struck

when the service had just ended. “Most of the wounded are in critical condition,” Anees said. “We are in an area which is a target of terrorism and within that area there was a special security arrangement for the church. We are in a rescue phase and once it is over we will investigate what went wrong.” A huge blast Schoolteacher Nazir Khan, 50, said the service had just ended and at least 600 worshippers were greeting each other when there was a huge explosion. “A huge blast threw me on the ﬂoor and as soon as I regained my senses, a second blast took place

Protests held Grieving relatives blocked the main Grand Trunk Road highway with bodies of the victims to protest against the killings. Shops were closed in the Kohati Gate area where several other churches are located. “Terrorists have not spared mosques, temples and churches. Please have mercy on us,” one man outside the church, his face distorted by fear and anger, told Pakistan’s private Geo television channel. Christians in Karachi, Lahore, Multan and other cities also staged protest rallies to condemn the killings and demand state protection for their lives and properties. In the southern port city of Karachi angry protestors clashed with police when they tried to clear a road in Isa Nagri, a low-income Christian neighbourhood. — Agencies

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

A11

ASIA Bo Xilai sentenced to life in prison for graft A member of the Communist Party’s

A defiant attitude and refusing to admit one’s guilt is considered bad behaviour and attracts a heavier sentence

25-strong elite politburo before his dramatic downfall, Bo Xilai was convicted of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power FALLING FROM GRACE: Ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai, centre, is

handcuffed after the announcement of his verdict inside the court in Jinan, Shandong province, yesterday, in this photo released by Jinan Intermediate People’s Court. - Reuters

BEIJING: A Chinese court yesterday sentenced former leading politician Bo Xilai to life in prison after a sensational corruption trial that exposed intrigue and lavish lifestyles in the higher levels of the ruling party. Bo, a member of the Communist Party’s 25-strong elite politburo before his dramatic downfall, was convicted of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power. “The court sentences Bo Xilai to life imprisonment for taking bribes, deprives him of his political rights for life and conﬁscates all his property,” the Jinan Intermediate People’s Court said on its veriﬁed page on Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter. As a state servant Bo “abused his power (and) caused heavy losses to the interests of the country and the people”, it said, adding the cir-

cumstances of the case were “particularly serious”. Bo was ousted from office last year after a scandal which saw his wife convicted of the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood. The court sentenced Bo to life after ﬁnding him guilty of taking 20.4 million yuan ($3.3 million) in bribes. It also sentenced him to 15 years in prison for embezzlement and seven for abuse of power. The life sentence was more severe than many analysts had expected. Evidence of bribes Bo’s trial last month revealed a lifestyle in excess of what Communist Party officials on modest salaries should be able to afford, with evidence of bribes from rich businessmen, including a close

associate who bought his family a villa in France. In the proceedings, Bo described a love triangle between his wife and his top aide, while the court said he had acted to suppress an investigation into his wife’s murder of the British businessman who had helped Bo manage property abroad. Bo had also championed a leftist revival during his tenure as party chief of the southwestern mega-city of Chongqing, sending thousands of officials to the countryside to get closer to ordinary people, and holding mass concerts of “red songs” praising former leader Mao Zedong. The catalyst for Bo’s fall came when his top aide -- then-Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun -ﬂed in February 2012 to the US

TYPHOON DISRUPTS FLIGHT SCHEDULE Visitors take pictures of tidal waves under the inﬂuence of Typhoon Usagi in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, yesterday. Usagi made landfall in southern China yesterday evening, shutting down one of the world’s busiest sea ports in nearby Hong Kong and throwing ﬂight schedules into disarray from Europe to the United States. The storm, described by meteorologists as the most powerful anywhere on Earth this year, killed two people in the Philippines and unleashed landslides in Taiwan en route to southern China. - Reuters

HOPE FOR ETHNIC MINORITY

Lanka’s Tamil party secures landslide win in key polls COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s main Tamil party won a landslide victory yesterday in landmark elections in the battle-scarred north, raising hopes of some degree of self-rule for the ethnic minority after decades of war. The opposition Tamil National Alliance (TNA) won 30 out of 38 seats in the ﬁrst elections for a provincial council in the former war zone, amid international pressure for the majority Sinhalese to share power with Tamils four years after the end of the bloody separatist conﬂict. TNA leader C. V. Wigneswaran said the results were an overwhelming vote for self-rule for Tamils. He repeated his demand for the military to withdraw from the Tamil-dominated north, saying there was no reason for its presence since the end of the war in 2009. “That (army presence) is the primary problem the Tamils of the northern province are having today,” Wigneswaran told foreign media in the region’s capital Jaffna shortly after results were announced. “You have to get rid of the army. They must be put in barracks somewhere else,” said Wigneswaran, who is set to become the region’s chief minister. Saturday’s vote in the former rebel stronghold has been pro-

GLUED: People read newspaper in Jaffna, 400km north of the cap-

ital Colombo, yesterday. TNA leader C. V. Wigneswaran said the results were an overwhelming vote for self-rule for Tamils. – AFP

moted by the UN Human Rights Council as a step towards ethnic reconciliation following the 26-year war that claimed over 100,000 lives. The national government of President Mahinda Rajapakse has been under pressure to share power with Tamils who are a minority nationally but a majority in the north. The TNA swept all ﬁve districts in the election for the semi-autonomous Northern Provincial Council, results from the Department of Elections showed. The poll for the council was held amid claims the military tried to intimidate and harass voters and

a Tamil candidate. Rajapakse’s United People’s Freedom Alliance won just seven seats in a humiliating defeat for the president, who has won almost every major election since he led the campaign that crushed Tamil Tigers in 2009. A Muslim party won one seat on the council. In the district of Jaffna, 400 km north of Colombo and home to over a million Tamils, the TNA secured more than 84 per cent of the vote, exceeding its projections of 66 per cent. There were no public signs of celebrations yesterday in Jaffna where the military maintains a large presence. - AFP

Joseph Cheng China politics expert

consulate with evidence that the politician’s wife had murdered the Briton the previous November. Joseph Cheng, a China politics expert at City University of Hong Kong, said Bo’s active defence helped earn him a harsh sentence. Deﬁant attitude “A deﬁant attitude and refusing to admit one’s guilt is considered bad behaviour and attracts a heavier sentence,” Cheng said. “Bo Xilai would certainly like to retain a chance of a political comeback, and a heavier sentence from the state certainly indicates a rejection of any chance of giving him a political comeback.” “This deprivation of political rights for life is an implicit answer to that kind of demand.” - AFP

BRIEFS

Aquino vows criminal charges against rebel ZAMBOANGA: President Benigno Aquino vowed yesterday to bring criminal charges against rebel leader Nur Misuari for a deadly attack on a major southern Philippine city that lefthundreds dead or injured. “Our investigators are making sure that Misuari will be made to answer for all these,” Aquino told a news conference in Zamboanga city. “We now have witnesses who will directly link him to this conflict, and the charges are being prepared by the Department of Justice,” he added. About 200 rebels from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founded by Misuari entered Zamboanga, a major trading centre with one million residents, on September 9. They took over several coastal districts, burning thousands of homes and taking scores of civilians hostage, in protest at an impending peace deal with a rival rebel group. Aquino flew to the area on September 13 to take direct command of operations, with about 4,500 soldiers deployed to the city to push back the rebels. More than 10,000 houses were set on fire and 111,000 civilian residents fled the street battles.

Afghan Twitter users meet face-to-face as web booms KABUL: More than 200 of Afghanistan’s most active users of Twitter and Facebook gathered yesterday for the country’s ﬁrst-ever social media summit to explore how the Internet is transforming traditional society. Two days of panel discussions and workshops are being live-streamed, blogged and tweeted on subjects ranging from the impact of technology on next year’s elections to how women can avoid being harassed by mobile phone. “We have brought together social media users from all around Afghanistan, so that they share their experiences and expand social media use,” said Ahmad Shuja, one of the organisers of the Paiwand (“connection”) meeting.

North Korea fumes at reports on first lady’s past PYONGYANG: North Korea yesterday angrily denied reports that it had executed several state performers to cover up the past of its first lady, calling the media accounts an “unpardonable” crime. The denial came a day after the North indefinitely postponed reunions for families divided by the Korean War, citing South Korean hostility, slander and provocation. Yesterday’s denunciation focused on several recent reports carried by the South’s “reptile media” aimed at “hurting the dignity” of supreme leader Kim Jong-Un. - Agencies

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M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

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On Europe, Britain is in need of a clear decision

f the two parties that held their annual conferences recently, one has the better claim to reflect public opinion, and it is not the Liberal Democrats. Fun though it might have been to watch Godfrey Bloom, a Member of the European Parliament, hit Michael Crick, the Channel 4 News reporter, over the head with a brochure, the UK Independence Party cannot be dismissed as a joke. The ComRes poll suggests that Ukip would win 17 per cent of the vote in a general election, almost twice as much as the Lib Dems, on 9 per cent. In the European Parliament elections in May next year, the bookmakers say Ukip is more likely to win a larger share of the vote than any other party. Some of the success of Nigel Farage’s party reflects an anti-politics mood that can no longer find expression in the Liberal Democrats, but, again, it would be foolish to dismiss Ukip’s popularity as a mere protest vote. Nor is Ukip’s success solely to do with hostility to the EU: the party represents the feeling that Britain is not the country it once was. But Britain’s relation to the EU is at the core. For reasons of rather obvious self-interest, David Cameron has been the first leader of the established parties to take the threat from Ukip seriously. But he would be right to do so even if Ukip did not take more votes from the Tories than the other parties. Opinion polls suggest that the Prime Minister’s strategy of renegotiating the terms of British membership of the EU, and then holding a referendum, could well secure a “Yes” vote for keeping Britain in the EU. This is significant, because since 2010, there has been a majority in this country for withdrawal on a question about how people would vote in a referendum “tomorrow” — that is, without renegotiation. Britons are not yet convinced by the timetable for Cameron’s referendum — by the end of 2017 — but the democratic principle is right. The time is approaching when British and other Europeans should be asked to renew their consent for the shape of the EU, when the future of the euro and the political arrangements needed to sustain it are settled. The European Parliament has little democratic credibility: a direct mandate is needed instead. Cameron is likely to be assisted in his endeavours by the re-election of Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, in her country’s elections. If so, it will soon become necessary for Labour and the Liberal Democrats to set out how they would secure Britain’s European future. Ed Miliband, the stage is yours.- The Independent

PAKISTAN PANORAMA

What is next for Zardari and PPP?

SHAHZAD CHAUDHRY

The cauldron that is Karachi

t is too early to judge what the eventual outcome of the targeted operation underway in Karachi will be. But some clues are beginning to emerge as to quite what is cooking in the giant cauldron in the city and what ingredients form a part of this evil-tasting stew. Identifying them is important so that we can understand what is being brewed up and what factors are responsible for creating the mess that now exists. The Supreme Court has done us a favour by pin-pointing one of the issues involved and asking security agencies, including Rangers and Customs, to file returns before it of what was being done to stem the flow of arms into Karachi. The Court noted the city was awash with arms manufactured in India and Israel and suggested these could be brought in, presumably with some kind of official connivance (or negligence, perhaps), only through seaports. The possible involvement of powerful elements was discussed. The observation, made while hearing the Karachi law and order case is an important one, with intelligence officials agreeing that arms were indeed coming into the metropolis. It is obvious their presence plays a part in exacerbating the security situation, which remains grim in the city. The gunning down on September 18 of People’s Aman Committee leader Zafar Baloch is evidence of this — and has, of course, aggravated ethnic and political tensions. The need felt by the criminal and terrorist elements operating in Karachi for arms is underscored by the fact that 10 out of 12 men apprehended in a security crackdown on those who had attacked Nato containers in Hub and taken away a large stockpile of arms were allegedly linked to ongoing strife in Lyari. If they can be deprived of arms, restoring order in Karachi may become an easier affair. This must form a central part of official strategy, with the Interior Minister stating the Karachi operation had led to hundreds of terrorists fleeing the city, while a second, tougher phase of action in the city was now being prepared for in the bid to restore the peace it so desperately needs after months of violence. If the arms flow to the city is checked, there is every hope that the terrorists elements fleeing Karachi would not feel that they can once again return and flourish in the city, and this second phase will go a long way to drastically reduce the violence in the city. - The Express Tribune

Foo fighters had intrigued pilots during World War II I have often noticed people resorting to writers and philosophers to artifice their inability to explain certain phenomenon either logically or mathematically. And the most quoted lines are those of William Shakespeare from Hamlet. Well, good or bad, I found the line, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy,” most appropriate to describe a bizarre phenomenon — ‘foo fighters’ or “Feuerball,” which I stumbled upon in Encyclopaedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Volume 3. With great interest I followed up the matter for further details in Hitler’s Flying Saucers: A Guide to German Flying Discs of the Second World War by Henry Stevens and in Mysteries, Legends

& Unexplained Phenomena: UFO and Alien by Preston Dennett. The phenomenon originated during the peak of World War II in 1943 and 1944. During this time numerous fighter pilots from either side of the warring factions — the allied and the axis —witnessed foo fighters, small balls of light flying along with them, trailing them close on their heels and even circling their aircraft in weird motions and formation, often in groups and even single at a speed of over 500 miles per hour. Sumit Chatterjee Qurum

Discovery that rewrote history of our civilisation The history of our ancestors is more interesting that the thrillers of Frederick Forsythe. And that

Asif Zardari is perhaps the only man who can rescue the PPP from the abyss it currently finds itself in and resurrect it to its older glory. Since such a rise from the ashes is dependent on the support of an electorate which is still very archaic and primitively sensitive

sif Zardari has survived. Given his fear of being eliminated by one of the numerous enemies perceived by him he remained paralysed into inaction and gave him that fortress mentality that never let him truly venture beyond the safety of his four presidential walls. Being concurrently both the administrative and operational head of his party, the functioning of the PPP government suffered inexorably since the mind leading it seemed numbed into stagnation. Foreign policy under the PPP found traction later in the party’s tenure and much credit for that rests with the confidence that the young foreign minister in Hina Rabbani Khar seemed to exude. She proved to be a no-nonsense foreign minister and remains the hope for a resurrected PPP to fall back on. It is sad that given the moribund nature of our politics, Mian Nawaz Sharif cannot call on her to fill in when the PML-N is desperately short of talent in the area of foreign policy. A thought, worthy of consideration. The last five years established a consummate politician in Asif Zardari’s person. To his credit, not only did his government complete five years, he did too. There were challenges galore to his personal character and integrity, and barbs, but he bore them all with characteristic grace without ever flinching to react impulsively or by resorting to petty vendetta. He carried a great sense of proportion when dealing with the military, which the PPP presumes carries a pervasive disaffection of the party; though he could be held liable for incentivising a subtle media campaign to sully the military’s image. He was always mindful of not upsetting the applecart; if it also meant his own longevity, personal and as president, that was a useful windfall. His politics carried the day for him and for the political system of Pakistan, but he and his party failed miserably at the altar of what politics is meant to do — deliver services to people and prosperity to the nation. He and his party remained devoid of any creative sense of either recovering the economy or of instituting social cohesion and improvement. The leadership was largely absent and his two protégés in the prime ministerial slots were an apology of a choice. They could only add to the reams of tales on corruption as individuals and through their extended families, to mar the already sad image of their party. As president, the last five years were more likely a sobering experience for Asif Zardari. He is certain to have learnt about his limitations. Being suave and sophisticated in local political dynamics was no replacement for the required intellect in global politics. Asif Zardari sadly lacks that. Not well read, he can make do with some off-the-

READERS’ FORUM “Insure with New India and be secure”

You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus MARK TWAIN

cuff clever parrying on what is discussed with him by his far more informed and culturally imbibed international interlocutors, but to develop an extended line of argument that might deliver to his nation a position of advantage, in line with a clear vision of strategic national interests, in a very challenging global environment, is beyond his pale. Global economics and the trends therein may, too, have seemed beyond his reach. If at all, the sense is very native and primitive. Being street-smart can afford you only so much opportunity at the global level. Yet, Asif Zardari is perhaps the only man who can rescue the PPP from the abyss it currently finds itself in and resurrect it to its older glory. Since such a rise from the ashes is dependent on the support of an electorate which is still very archaic and primitively sensitive to emotional affiliation, he can make the right noises in such a societal environment. Introducing Aseefa to politics is a hugely potent move. She carries the emotional flexibility to connect easily with people; unlike Bilawal who appears rigid in his movement and unassuring to his watchers — failing to elicit confidence, the key elixir of popular politics. Asif Zardari is sensible enough to have declared that he seeks no further political office — remember his capacity constraints; he will thus need to first discover some intellectual skill in his party and then invest them with prominent responsibilities to reorganise, repopulate and redirect the party into a newer role relevant to 21st Century needs. The PPP’s major inadequacy is in the field of economy and its related aspects. Perhaps it can still do well in security and foreign affairs and in some sociopolitical domains of governance, but it desperately needs people with specialised qualifications in each of these disciplines. Politics as usual is not the politics that will go with today’s needs. For the moment, and as evinced in their last stint, other than a chance discovery of Hina Khar, the plate was mostly quite empty of any visible and exercised intellect. While the usual bevy of ministers will still be some old names, there is a need to cast the net wider and bring in expertise at various levels in the hierarchy to conceive and implement policies and strategies that will propel Pakistan forward. With its current team, save an odd exception, stasis alone is what this party can deliver in its current composition. Zardari’s expertise in basic political dynamics will need to change to incorporate a more global view and seek a greater inclusivity to populate the party with faces beyond his acquaintance. For that he will need to shed his inherent insecurities and inculcate in him and into his party a tradition of free thinking and innovative ideas. For that suitable human material is the first requirement. -The Express Tribune

was exactly how I felt when I ﬁnished reading about a startling discovery made by the National Geographic in the Ténéré desert in northern Niger in the beginning of the current millennium. So far, arguably one of the most signiﬁcant discoveries of the new millennium, the National Geographic’s revelation is potent enough to rewrite the history of human civilisation, especially that of the Stone Age, human settlements in North Africa and the vagary of nature that caused desert and lake playing tag with each other for aeons. Explorerin-Residence and a professor of Palaeontology of the University of Chicago, Paul Sereno, and his small group of dinosaur hunters, stumbled upon one of the largest known Stone-Age graveyards, which offered an unparalleled

record of human life and human settlements by two apparently believed-to-be lost tribes in the Ténéré desert of Sahara, when the region was green and wet. Minu Dutta Muttrah

Was Mona Lisa a self portrayal of da Vinci? Mona Lisa and her smile have raised questions through generations, ﬁring up imagination and inspiring numerous researches. Yet, the smile has always remained an enigma as much as Mona Lisa’s identity. The master has been equally enigmatic as his creation and maintained a stoic silence. Mona Lisa was perhaps the master’s self portrayal. Kewal Shah Ruwi

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

TIMES OF OMAN

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

A13

PERSPEC IVE The irresistible rise of the Muslim middle class T

he Muslim world’s current turmoil has one key cause that is rooted in neither religious ideology nor sectarian struggle. In Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, and Turkey, rapidly growing and increasingly assertive middle classes want a say in politics and greater economic opportunity. Modern communication — in particular the extensive use of social media — has enabled this rising middle class not only to find its voice, but also to have its voice heard. In asserting themselves, middle-class Muslims are guided by no particular political philosophy or religious preference. The street protests in Cairo over the past 30 months clearly reflect the political preferences of middle-class youth. The protests first forced out former President Hosni Mubarak, because his regime was failing to meet their demands; and their judgment of the Muslim Brotherhood’s subsequent administration was equally harsh, culminating in former President Mohamed Mursi’s removal from power. What this new middle-class “Muslim Street” wants is an inclusive political system — a demand heard not only in Egypt, but also in Iran, as Hassan Rouhani’s victory in the country’s presidential election in June attests. Likewise, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government has met with considerable resistance as it has sought to define public policy along ever-narrower religious lines. Protests in Istanbul’s Taksim Square this summer, triggered by plans to develop a city park, resonated countrywide, because Erdoğan has increasingly governed with too exclusive a public in mind. This conflict, like the one in Egypt, will be resolved only when political systems that institutionalise respect for pluralism and the sensitivities of minorities are established. It also highlights another important aspect of protest politics in the Muslim world. While members of the new middle-class appreciate economic progress, they no longer want it to come at the expense of political rights. Economic development must be accompanied by respect for ordinary citizens. Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson advance this line of thought in their recent book, Why Nations Fail. They emphasise the importance of inclusive political development as a prerequisite of sustained economic growth. Political systems in many emerging countries, they argue, become unstable because their composition is insufficiently

SHAHID JAVED BURKI

Pakistan may not be the country that springs to mind when people look for an example for the rest of the Muslim world. But Pakistan has been moving in this direction — uneasily, to be sure — since before the Arab Spring protests began

representative and their policy preferences are excessively narrow. Long-term stability requires both political inclusion and equal access to economic opportunities. One large Muslim country, at least, seems to be increasingly determined to reflect the aspirations of middle-class youth while maintaining its Islamic identity. Pakistan may not be the country that springs to mind when people look for an example for the rest of the Muslim world. But Pakistan has been moving in this direction — uneasily, to be sure — since before the Arab Spring protests began. Of course, Pakistan has endured periods of extreme political, economic, and social turmoil. But, as the May 2013 election and the conduct — thus far — of the new government demonstrate, the country may finally be set on a course to achieve political stability and thus prepare the ground for sustained economic growth. In the last few years, Pakistan and Turkey have managed to push the military away from the centre-stage of national politics. Throughout the post-colonial period in the Muslim world, it was the military, as the best-organised public institution, that filled the space occupied elsewhere by political parties, well-established government agencies, and professional civil services. The creation of these institutions is a slow process. Repeated military interventions in large Muslim nations — Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Turkey — have impeded orderly political development. But these countries’ rising middle classes have begun to move their political systems in another direction — a testament to the power that they now wield. That power has increased for several reasons, the most important of which is demographic. Most large Muslim countries have very young populations, with a median age in the midto upper twenties. With more than half of these countries’ populations below the age of 30, political development has been able to move forward despite the recalcitrance of entrenched elites. That progress is likely to be interrupted, but not halted. Given this, the military takeover in Egypt, no less than Erdoğan’s violent crackdown on protesters in Istanbul, will be regarded in the long term as a hiccup, not a reversal of the inexorable rise of the Muslim middle class. - Project Syndicate

The UK’s new drain of talent

WILLIAM GOULD

hahrukh Khan, the Bollywood legend, once remarked that whenever he needed to rein in his arrogance, he would travel to the US: ‘The immigration guys would kick the star out of my stardom’. But the everyday indignity of airport immigration pales in comparison to the deep humiliation the current UK government seeks to inﬂict on citizens of states who are part of its ‘non-white’ Commonwealth. Next year, we will be commemo-

rating the centenary of the Great War —a conflict in which around 1.3 million South Asians and West Africans were mobilised and around 65,000 lost their lives. But before that, we will be expecting the citizens of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Ghana to pay a £3,000 cash bond to enter the UK. Very quickly friends’ and colleagues’ Twitter and Facebook feeds were sharing the cartoon of an Indian immigration official fining a suitably attired UK immigrant in India for ‘overstaying by 250 years’. From the perspective of my profession the joke has a darker side. The rules threaten long-standing research collaborations with these countries for the UK’s Higher Education sector. Visitors from these states share the cultures and languages of the UK’s most demographically significant minorities, and have contributed greatly to its economic, cultural and scientific successes. My last two publicly funded research projects and the last dozen UK based conferences I have attended, would have been impossible without the relatively free

movement of colleagues from India. But there are more troubling implications. The move has added to the sense of unease among the most important ethnic minority (BME) communities and residents of these countries, already roused by the government’s ‘go home’ vans, and who inevitably see this as a draconian and arguably racist measure. Although Cameron’s visit to India in 2011 acknowledged the importance of the region for UK trade, retaliation is likely, making academic, cultural and business links difficult in both directions. My concerns are shared by a large number of academics in all ﬁelds, and it is for this reason that we have decided to start a petition and open letter to the Home Secretary. Already, leading researchers, teachers and academics across UK institutions have offered to sign. Theresa May stated that ‘In the long run, we are interested in a system of bonds that deters overstaying and recovers costs if a foreign national has used our public services.’ Yet there is very little evidence that stable levels of immigration and out-migration have a signiﬁ-

cant effect on the cost of public services or the public purse. Indeed, as a recent OECD study has shown, immigrants in the wealthy nations of Europe do not have a negative ﬁscal impact. If anything, overall, their contribution to the public purse is very mildly positive. Public debate on immigration is repeatedly used as a forum for political neurosis and national outrage, and is therefore rarely nuanced. But ignoring detailed research on its effects threatens our ability to adapt to a changing demography in which the working population is declining in relation to retirees. In the longer term, a growing and healthy economy should encourage successful working-age migrants, rather than deter them. One of the greatest historians of the Indian subcontinent, fellow of a Cambridge college, who held an Indian passport, once told me of the repeated enquiries he faced at Heathrow about his ‘intentions’ on entering the UK. Then, and still more today, I felt dismay at this blindness, and the thought of how poorly my country had come to terms with its imperial past. - The Independent

International voluntarism in Palestine

DAOUD KUTTAB Special to Times of Oman

he Palestinian cause continues to attract supporters from around the world. Volunteers wishing to give some of their time and expertise in solidarity with Palestinians have become a regular feature in Palestinian society. Many young people wanting to spend a year or so in a conflict area choose Palestine for many reasons. By volunteering in Palestine a person is clearly and publicly siding with the oppressed in their just struggle for freedom and independence. Some of the volunteers involve themselves in Palestinian nation building while others take on a more direct role in the resistance to the Israeli occupation. Even those who are involved in overt acts of solidarity with Palestinians and resistance to occupation can be divided into a number of groups. Some express their solidarity by joining Palestinian demonstrators protesting various symbols of occupation. Perhaps the most repeated act of international solidarity in recent years has been the participation of internationals in the weekly Friday demonstrations against the Israeli security wall built deep in Palestinian territories. Internationals expressing solidarity are seen weekly in protests at Bilin, Nabi Saleh and other Palestinian locations. The international and Israeli protests against the wall were featured in the Oscar-nominated documentary film, Five broken cameras. While these protests are largely non-violent, they tend to end with a round of stone throwing by Palestinian youth, to which Israeli troops respond with tear gas or rubber-coated metal bullets. Another group of international volunteers chose to participate in acts of solidarity with Palestinians, but on a slightly different track. They are totally committed to absolute non-violent acts. These pacifists are willing to put their lives on line protecting Palestinians as long as no violence is committed on the Palestinian side.

Among them is the Christian Peace Team, an international movement that works in many hot spots around the world. The Team has been working at the turbulent city Hebron for years. The most visible act of solidarity that the team members carry out on daily basis is touring the volatile old city of Hebron and helping Palestinian schoolchildren reach their schools. The presence of a small but boisterous group of settlers in the heart of Hebron has made the lives of these schoolchildren a hell. In order to get from their homes to school, the children have to cross areas where the settlers are regularly present and try to bully the Palestinian children in order to make them and their families quit getting to the area and thus “purify” the old city of Hebron of its indigenous population. International volunteers from the Christian Peace Team literally hold the hands of these children and help them get to school, providing a physical shield, relatively protecting them from the hooligan radical settlers. Other than their physical presence, these international volunteers at time carry video cameras that can help document abuses, but more than anything act as a deterrent. International volunteers, who usually come from the US and Europe, reach the Palestinian areas through Israeli border crossings. The Israeli government and the occupation forces refuse to recognise and accredit these organisations and so they are constantly having to deal with visa and residency issues. While many are able to slip into Israel gaining a 3-month tourist visa, the Israelis often spot these volunteers, especially after repeated crossings, and turn them back. The Palestinian government, which welcomes and supports the presence of these international volunteers, is unable to do anything about Israel’s attempts to keep out individuals who wish to live in the Palestinian areas. No country can be considered sovereign and independent without control over the movement of people and goods into its territories. Until this crucial issue is resolved, international volunteers will have little choice but to try and slip into Palestine posing as tourists, hoping that they are not singled out and denied entry in the occupied territories. The author is a veteran Palestinian journalist. All the views and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not reﬂect those of Times of Oman.

Russia to establish Arctic military base Russia is to increase its military presence in the resource-rich Arctic by rebuilding a Soviet-era base off the Siberian coast, as melting sea ice increasingly opens up the region to shipping PACIFIC OCEAN 200 nautical mile borders

ALASKA (U.S.)

Ar cti cC irc l

Agreed borders

New Siberian Islands Archipelago to be used as base for regular naval patrols along Northern Sea Route. Soviet-era airbase on Kotelny Island – inactive for over 20 years – to be operable in October

RUSSIA ARCTIC OCEAN Area of Russian territorial claim beyond 200 nautical miles

CANADA

TODAY IN HISTORY 1553

The Sadians defeat the last of their enemies and establish themselves as rulers of Morocco.

1577

William of Orange makes his triumphant entry into Brussels, Belgium.

1739

The Austrians sign the Treaty of Belgrade after having lost the city to the Turks.

North Pole

Northwest Passage

500km GREENLAND (Denmark)

North Pole

Northern Sea Route

1803

Svalbard (Norway)

1954

British Major General Sir Arthur Wellesley defeats the Marathas at Assaye, India. East German police arrest 400 citizens as US spies.

OPINION POLL FROM OUR ARCHIVES GLOBAL MEET ON DESERTIFICATION CONTROL BEGINS

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M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

WORLD BRIEFS

US Navy chopper crashes in Red Sea, five killed WASHINGTON: A US Navy helicopter crashed into the Red Sea yesterday and the fate of five crew members “is still being determined,” the military said. The MH-60S Knighthawk was AFP/US NAVY flying with the guided missile destroyer USS William P. Lawrence, part of a carrier group dispatched to the region to increase pressure on Syria. “The crash was not due to any hostile activity,” said a statement from US Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East and the Horn of Africa. “The USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group is providing aircraft and small boats for search and rescue assistance. The incident is under investigation.”.

WORLD CAR FREE DAY Skateboarders take part in a skate run held as part of World Car Free Day in Sao Paulo, Brazil, yesterday. World Car Free Day is an annual celebration held in many places across the globe to promote alternative ways of moving around as well as reducing the impact of motorists on the environment. — AFP

King Carlos to undergo a second operation MADRID: Spain’s ailing 75-year-old King Juan Carlos is to undergo a second operation on his left hip yesterday, the royal palace said. The head of the royal household, Rafael Spottorno, had announced on Friday that surgeons would replace the king’s artiﬁcial hip because an infection had developed in the area, less than a year after it was implanted to ease his arthritis. He also had his right hip replaced after breaking it in a fall during an elephant safari in Botswana last year at the height of Spain’s ﬁnancial crisis. Tomorrow’s operation will be the monarch’s eighth in three years and may require follow-up surgery, according to his US-based Spanish surgeon Miguel Cabanela, who predicted a convalescence of between two and six months.

Nigeria insurgent attack death toll rises to 142 ABUJA: The death toll from an attack in northeastern Nigeria that saw insurgents dressed as soldiers set up checkpoints and gun down travellers on a highway has risen to at least 142, an official said yesterday. “We recovered 55 bodies on Wednesday and 87 on Thursday,” Abdulaziz Kolomi, an official with the environmental protection agency in Borno state where the attack occurred, said. The previous toll from the attack in the Benisheik area was 87. The insurgents suspected to be from extremist group Boko Haram also burned scores of homes and buildings in the assault and left corpses littering the roadside. The motivation behind the assault was not immediately clear, but Boko Haram members have repeatedly carried out revenge attacks against residents over the emergence of vigilante groups that have formed to assist the military.

IT’S MERKEL AGAIN Voters rewarded Merkel, often called the world’s most powerful woman, with another four years at the helm for steering

Philanthropist Soros marries for third time

them unscathed

NEW YORK: George Soros, the 83-year-old billionaire investor, philanthropist and supporter of liberal political causes, married for a third time on Saturday, tying the knot with education consultant Tamiko Bolton. Soros and Bolton, 42, exchanged vows in a small ceremony at his Bedford, New York, estate, which Soros bought in 2003 from Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton. Federal judge Kimba Wood officiated at the non-denominational wedding, which was attended by members of the couple’s families, including the groom’s ﬁve children, a source familiar with the wedding said.

debt turmoil

One tonne cocaine seized PARIS: French police have seized a record haul of 1.3 tonnes of pure cocaine found on board an Air France passenger plane, Interior Minister Manuel Valls announced on Saturday. The drugs, seized on September 11, had been packed into 30 suitcases, Valls told a news conference in Nanterre, adding that this was the biggest-ever haul in metropolitan France. — Agencies

cellor candidate this time around, Peer Steinbrueck, as her ﬁnance minister. Analysts say the coalition negotiations could drag on for weeks, with the SPD insisting on a national minimum wage and possibly naming the ﬁnance minister as the price for getting back in government with Merkel.

through the eurozone

THIRD TERM: German Chancellor Angela Merkel casts her ballot

BERLIN: Chancellor Angela Merkel clinched a third term in German elections yesterday but will be forced to form an awkward coalition with her chief rivals to govern Europe’s top economy, exit polls indicated. Voters rewarded Merkel, often called the world’s most powerful woman, with another four years at the helm for steering them unscathed through the eurozone debt turmoil that engulfed its southern ﬂank. Tightest race But in one of the tightest races in German history, they punished her pro-business partner, the Free

during the German general election at a polling station in Berlin, yesterday. — Reuters

Democrats, kicking them out of parliament for the ﬁrst time since 1949, according to the exit polls on public television. The upstart anti-euro party AfD appeared to fall just short of the ﬁve-percent hurdle to representation amid anger over German contributions to bailout packages for stricken eurozone partners. Under Germany’s complex electoral maths, the result means the most likely scenario will be a leftright “grand coalition” between

Merkel’s Christian Democrats and their traditional opponents, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), which scored around 26 per cent. Personal triumph Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats scored about 42 per cent, marking a personal triumph for the 59-year-old chancellor. She led a fractious “grand coalition” during her ﬁrst term in 2005-2009, with the SPD’s chan-

Making history A physicist by training, Merkel is only the third person to win a third term in Germany after the immediate post-war leader, Konrad Adenauer, and Helmut Kohl, the father of German re-uniﬁcation. If she serves at least until 2017, she will become Europe’s longest serving female leader besting Margaret Thatcher who was Britain’s prime minister for 11 years. While Merkel became Germany’s most popular post-war chancellor, the eurozone crisis laid waste to the careers of leaders in hard-hit countries such as Ireland, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain and France. In contrast to Merkel’s austerity-driven response to the eurozone crisis, the SPD has called for a bit more generosity and patience with stricken nations as they pay back their debts. In contrast to Merkel’s austerity-driven response to the eurozone crisis, the SPD has called for a bit more generosity and patience with stricken nations as they pay back their debts. — AFP

REPORT

Arctic ice melted less this summer, shows Nasa data NEW YORK: Arctic sea ice melted less this summer and continued to cover a greater expanse than last year’s record minimum, Nasa data shows. Following unusually cold summer temperatures in the northernmost latitudes, the US space agency said on Friday that the sea ice extent shrunk to 1.97 million square miles (5.10 million square kilometres). The analysis was based on September 13 data by Nasa and the Nasa-supported National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado in Boulder. On September 16, 2012, Arctic sea ice shrunk to its smallest surface ever recorded by satellite at 1.32 million square miles, about half the size of the average minimum in the previous two decades. Over the long term, Arctic sea ice surface has dropped 12 per cent per decade since the end of the 1970s, a decline that accelerated after 2007, according to the NSIDC. “I was expecting that this year would be higher than last year,” said Walt Meier, a glaciologist at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Greenbelt, Maryland. “There is always a tendency to have an uptick after an extreme low; in our satellite data, the Arctic sea ice has never set record low minimums in consecutive years.” But the remaining Arctic sea

GREATER EXPANSE: Arctic sea ice melted less this summer and

continued to cover a greater expanse than last year’s record minimum, Nasa data shows. — Reuters ﬁle photo

ice cover is much thinner overall compared to the previous decades by as much as 50 percent. Scientists say thinner seasonal ice is replacing older, thicker ice as it melts away. ‘Faster rate’ “Thinner ice melts completely at a faster rate than thicker ice does, so if the average thickness of Arctic sea ice goes down, it’s more likely that the extent of the summer ice will go down as well,”

said Goddard senior scientist Joey Comiso. “At the rate we’re observing this decline, it’s very likely that the Arctic’s summer sea ice will completely disappear within this century.” — AFP

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M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

A15

WORLD Final push to end Kenya siege managed to maroon the attackers on one of the ﬂoors,” said Kenyan military spokesman Colonel Cyrus Oguna. Mall worker Zipporah Wanjiru, who emerged from the ordeal alive but in a state of shock, said she hid under a table with ﬁve other colleagues.

Somalia’s Al Qaedainspired Shebab rebels said the carnage at the partly Israeliowned complex was in retaliation for Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia, where African Union troops are battling extremists

NAIROBI: Kenyan troops backed by Israeli agents yesterday cornered Somali militants holding hostages inside a Nairobi shopping mall in a terrifying siege that has left at least 59 people dead. Sporadic gunfire rang out as Kenyan security officials said they were trying to kill or capture the remaining attackers and end the bloodbath at the upmarket Westgate mall, with the standoff now well into a second day. “The criminals are now all located in one place within the building... we have as good a chance to successfully neutralise the terrorists as we can hope for,” President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a speech to the nation. Assistance offer Kenyatta, who called for patience, said he had received “numerous offers of assistance from friendly countries” but that for now it remained a Kenyan operation. However, a Kenyan security source confirmed that Israelis “are rescuing the hostages and the injured”. The Israeli foreign ministry refused to confirm or deny its forces were involved. Terrified witnesses recounted scenes of horror as the masked gunmen tossed grenades and

BLOODBATH IN MALL: Kenyan troops take position on Saturday inside the Westgate mall in Nairobi. Kenyan troops were locked in a ﬁerce

ﬁreﬁght with Somali militants inside an upmarket Nairobi shopping mall yesterday. The siege has left at least 59 dead and some 200 wounded with an unknown number of hostages still being held. — AFP

sprayed automatic gunfire in the packed centre in a brazen attack around midday on Saturday, sending panicked shoppers fleeing for their lives. Kenyatta said 59 people were confirmed dead, while the Red Cross has estimated the number of injured at around 200, with 49 others missing in the more than 30-hour-siege.

Somalia’s Al Qaeda-inspired Shebab rebels said the carnage at the partly Israeli-owned complex was in retaliation for Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia, where African Union troops are battling the extremists. “They shall not get away with their despicable and beastly acts,” Kenyatta said in an emotional speech. “We will punish the mas-

terminds swiftly, and indeed very painfully.” More than 1,000 people have been rescued, but between 10 to 15 attackers — reportedly both men and women — are holding out in the multi-storey complex “as well as many unarmed, badly shaken, innocent civilians”, Kenyatta said. Kenyatta said a nephew and his ﬁancee were among those killed. The dead also included three Britons, two French citizens, two Canadians including a diplomat, a Chinese women, two Indians, a South Korean, a South African and a Dutch woman , according to their governments. Also killed was Ghanaian poet and former UN envoy Koﬁ Awoonor, 78, while his son was injured. The attack, the worst in Nairobi

since an Al Qaeda bombing at the US embassy killed more than 200 people in 1998, was condemned by world powers. Reprehensible UN chief Ban Ki-moon called the attack “totally reprehensible”. Vice-President William Ruto has asked the International Criminal Court to delay his trial for crimes against humanity over deadly 2007-08 post-election violence because of the mall standoff, his lawyer said. After a day and night of sometimes ferocious gun battles, security sources said police and soldiers had ﬁnally “pinned down” the gunmen. “We are still battling with the attackers and our forces have

Indiscriminate shooting “They were shooting indiscriminately, it was like a movie seeing people sprayed with bullets like that,” she said, bursting into tears. “I have never witnessed this in my life. Only God can heal us and our country.” Cafe waiter Titus Alede, who risked his life and leapt from the ﬁrst ﬂoor of the mall, said it was a “miracle from God” that he managed to escape the approaching gunmen. “I was serving a client and these men came. They were not after money as they were shooting people without asking for anything. I remember them saying ‘you killed our people in Somalia, it is our time to pay you back’,” he said. One teenage survivor told how he played dead to avoid being killed. “I heard screams and gunshots all over the place. I got scared... (and) hid behind one of the cars,” 18-year-old Umar Ahmed said. In the hours after the attack began, shocked people of all ages and races could be seen running from the mall, some clutching babies, while others crawled along walls to avoid stray bullets. Kenyan police, troops and special forces then moved in and went shop-to-shop. Foreign security agents — from Israel as well as the United States and Britain — were also seen in the mall, which is popular with wealthy Kenyans and expatriates. An AFPTV reporter said she saw at least 20 people rescued from a toy shop, some of them children taken away on stretchers. Shebab said the attack was retaliation for Kenya’s nearly two-year-old military presence in war-torn Somalia in support of the internationally-backed government. — AFP

A16

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

WORLD Harvard seeks $6.5 billion aid you are ‘dropping out’ of Harvard. I ‘went on leave’ from Harvard,” he said. “If things hadn’t worked out for my company, Microsoft, I could have come back.”

Harvard unveiled its campaign at an event featuring Bill Gates, who spent three years at the institution in the 1970s before dropping out to co-found Microsoft Corp

BOSTON: Harvard, the richest university in the United States, said on Saturday it would seek to raise some $6.5 billion in donations to fund new academic initiatives and bolster its ﬁnancial aid programme. Biggest drive The fundraising drive by the Cambridge, Massachusetts, institution is the university’s biggest and believed to be the most ambitious ever undertaken by a university,

FUND-RAISING DRIVE: Campaign co-chair David M. Rubenstein, left, and William H. Gates speak dur-

ing ‘The Opportunity to Make a Difference’ discussion at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Saturday. Harvard University said it would seek to raise some $6.5 billion in donations to fund new academic initiative and bolster its ﬁnancial aid programme. -Reuters

ahead of one concluded last year by Stanford University in California that raised $6.2 billion. Harvard unveiled its campaign at an event featuring Bill Gates,

who spent three years at the school in the 1970s before dropping out to co-found Microsoft Corp. Gates, who was ranked by Forbes magazine this year as the

world’s second-richest person behind Mexico’s Carlos Slim, joked about his decision to leave the university during a talk before alumni and donors. “You never say that

O R I E N TA L M O V I E M E T R O P O L I S

Ambitious campaign Gates did not say whether he intended to donate to the ambitious campaign. A spokesman for the billionaire, whose foundation has made several grants to the university, said later on Saturday there was nothing to announce. The university has already raised $2.8 billion from more than 90,000 donors during the prelaunch phase of the campaign, its first major fundraising drive in more than a decade, it said in a press release. Harvard’s investment portfolio is worth about $30.7 billion, roughly the size of the annual gross domestic product of the Baltic nation of Latvia. Endowment That endowment shrank 0.05 percent in the fiscal year ended in 2012, after double-digit gains the previous year, according to the most recent figures from the university. “The endowment is meant to

last forever. ... It enables our faculty to do groundbreaking research and supports financial aid for our students,” Vice President for Alumni Affairs & Development Tamara Rogers said in a statement. “In order to undertake new activities, we are going to have to raise new funds.” Teaching and research Nearly half of the money raised in the new campaign will support teaching and research, while a quarter will go for financial aid and related programmes. The rest will go toward capital improvements and a flexible fund, according to Harvard, recently ranked America’s No. 2 university behind Princeton by US News & World Report. Campus expansion Four years ago, Harvard was forced to suspend its campus expansion and put the construction of a $1 billion science complex on hold after its endowment lost 27.3 per cent during the financial crisis. Funds from the campaign will help finance that project in Boston’s Allston neighbourhood. Construction resumed a year ago. -Reuters

REFERENDUM

China’s richest man plans $8.17b ‘movie city’ Swiss region set to QINGDAO: China’s richest man, property developer Wang Jianlin, raised the curtain on a planned $8.17 billion “motion-picture city” which he described as the biggestever single investment in the movie and television industry. Property developer Wang Jianlin, 58, founder of Dalian Wanda Group, was surrounded by Hollywood stars John Travolta, Nicole Kidman and Catherine Zeta-Jones yesterday as he launched his most ambitious project yet in the picturesque coastal city of Qingdao. When completed in 2017, the Oriental Movie Metropolis will boast 20 sound stages, includ-

ing the world’s ﬁrst underwater studio, a massive convention and exhibition complex, a sprawling shopping mall with an indoor amusement park and seven resort hotels. The project also will include a yacht club with 300 berths. “The Oriental Movie Metropolis is a major step in China’s strategy to become a global cultural powerhouse,” Wang said. It was not only crucial to the development of Wanda’s entertainment business, he added, but also an important step for building China’s cultural brand. For Wang, who was named by

Forbes as China’s richest man with personal wealth of $14 billion, the Qingdao project also represents the latest move by Wanda Group to parlay its real estate and shopping mall development into a leisure and entertainment empire. Wanda Group, which is privately held, has invested in 72 Wanda Plazas across China, along with 40 ﬁve-star hotels. The company also owns 6,000 movie screens, 62 department stores and 68 karaoke centres. More recently, the company has turned to offshore markets to expand its real estate and leisure investment. Last year, Wanda closed

its $2.6 billion buy-out of US cinema chain AMC Entertainment. Wang this year also announced a $1.57 billion British investment that included the purchase of Sunseeker, Britain’s largest luxury yacht maker by sales. The Wanda chairman said earlier this month that he could afford to spend as much as $5 billion every year to buy foreign ﬁrms or assets. In an interview on the sidelines of Sunday’s ceremony, Wang said that he expected Wanda Group revenue to increase to $30 billion this year, and to continue to increase by $10 billion every year. -Reuters

ban full-face veil BERNE: Switzerland’s Italianspeaking region was on course yesterday to ban the wearing of a full-face veil, projected results from a referendum showed. The Swiss Italian-language broadcaster RSI said a partial count of votes in the canton of Ticino showed that 65 per cent of the electorate backed the measure to ban the covering of faces in public areas by any group, including Muslims. Widely dubbed the “anti-burqa” initiative, the measure does

not single out Muslims directly. But it was the brainchild of activists known for their criticism of Islamists, and has been slammed by Switzerland’s Muslim community and Amnesty International. Referenda are the bedrock of Switzerland’s system of direct democracy, with citizencampaigners able to force votes if they collect enough signatures from voters. If the measure passes it will be the ﬁrst time that any of Switzerland’s 26 cantons has imposed such a ban. -AFP

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM MONDAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

MARKE

Bank Muscat moves higher in rankings The bank has moved up notches to a creditable 338th ranking compared to its previous 380th ranking among the top 1,000 global banks

Times News Service MUSCAT: Bank Muscat, the leading ﬁnancial institution in the Sultanate, has moved up notches to a creditable 338th ranking compared to its previous 380th ranking among the top 1,000 global banks. ‘The Banker - Top 1000 World Bank Rankings,’ reckoned a primary source of bank data by the world’s ﬁnancial community, noted that Bank Muscat was 338th in the world by tier 1 capital as well

as first in Oman by tier 1 capital and total assets with a healthy 15.08 per cent increase in profits year-on-year in 2012. “Bank Muscat is delighted to consistently improve on its performance as well as ranking among the top 1000 banks in the world. The ‘Banker - Top 1000 World Bank Rankings’ is a benchmark reflecting the strength and future potential of leading global banks as well as a summary measure of their financial strength. As

AbdulRazak Ali Issa. –Supplied photo

a forward looking ﬁnancial institution, Bank Muscat strives to establish its leadership role and remains committed to enhancing value for all stakeholders,” said AbdulRazak Ali Issa, chief executive of Bank Muscat. “A multiaward winning institution, Bank Muscat’s performance has been lauded by the international ﬁnan-

cial and banking community for several years,” he added. “The reputable global ranking speaks volumes on the unrivalled position enjoyed by Bank Muscat. The improved ranking places the bank in a league of its own. Year on year, Bank Muscat adopts strategic initiatives to stretch its operational excellence and achieve enviable records.” The banker ranking recognises and promotes industry wide excellence in the global banking community. Held in high esteem, the international banking title is testament to the strong management, sound business model and prudent risk approach of the winning institution. A keen perception of customer requirements has enabled Bank Muscat to develop products and services in line with the current and emerging needs.

PDO TO SAVE $6M ON POWER CONSUMPTION Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) is saving $6 million a year by switching its lighting system to one which is more environment-friendly. >B3

N E T W O R K E X PA N S I O N

Bank Nizwa to open 10 more branches Times News Service MUSCAT: Bank Nizwa, the Sultanate’s first dedicated Islamic bank, yesterday announced a significant expansion of its branch network across the Sultanate. It is set to open five more branches by the end of the year, thus bringing its total to eight fully serviced dedicated Islamic branches in the country, said a press release. This will be followed by another five by the end of 2014. This expansion is in response to the ever growing needs of the community across Oman for Islamic banking services. This announcement represents the significant investment Bank Nizwa is making to communities across the Sultanate. Plans are afoot to open fully serviced branches in Ghubra, Al Khoudh, Ibra, Salalah and Sur which will bring excellent banking facilities and five-star services to the people

of these areas. Bank Nizwa also has a dedicated phone banking service which is available to all customers 24 hours a day throughout the year. “We are delighted to announce our expansion across Oman. We are at the forefront of Islamic banking in the country since our launch we are consistently delivering innovative products and high-quality service across all areas from home ﬁnance to savings accounts. We are committed to expanding our branch network across the Sultanate to answer the needs of our customers for Sharia-compliant banking,” said Dr Jamil El Jaroudi, chief executive of Bank Nizwa. Bank Nizwa is also making a signiﬁcant investment in the technology, training and infrastructure which is necessary to support its expansion plan. It is committed to crafting a workplace that empowers its staff and encourages them to the best they can be.

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

MARKET BRIEFS

PEIE workshop discusses industrial relations MUSCAT: As part of Oman Manufacturing Group (OMG) series of seminars for 2013, Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (PEIE) yesterday organised a workshop on industrial relations. The workshop aspired to offer participants with an opportunity to exchange good practices and share views about the links between industrial relations, employee relations, and employee engagement. It was moderated by Sue Tappin, IiP International Specialist and CEO of International Quality Solutions.

Saraya Bandar Jissah to raise capital to OMR50m The company’s board of directors decided to

ICT registers growth in UAE

inject an additional OMR7 million, taking the

MUSCAT: The UAE presents the second largest ICT market in the GCC region after Saudi Arabia in terms of capital and volume of spending. In the UAE, ICT market has registered impressive growth driven majorly by investments made in communications sector, according to a Markaz study. During 2003–2010, the ICT spending has grown at a CAGR of almost 19 per cent to reach a value of $12 billion. - Times News Service

total capital base to OMR50m

Times News Service MUSCAT: The board of directors of Saraya Bandar Jissah has agreed to inject a further OMR7 million of capital into the company. The decision, taken at the board meeting at the beginning of September, takes the total company capital for the integrated tourism

complex to OMR50 million, according to a company release. The funds injection comes as the development moves on to its second phase of construction. The advanced stages of earthworks and drainage structures on site have been reached, signaling that the site is nearing completion for the start of the infrastructure works.

The full infrastructure package was ﬂoated a few months ago and has received many responses from international companies and local Omani contractors. The procurement process is nearing completion and the successful contractor is expected to be announced soon. “The OMR7 million capital injection shows the shareholders continued commitments to the project and will enable us to move forward at full pace to the second phase of construction,” Sheikh Hamood Sultan Al Hosni, chief executive of, Saraya Bandar Jissah, said, adding; “This will see all the fundamental communications, sewerage, power and water networks laid and the ground made ready for the foundations

of the hotels and residential units along with the resort road network and lighting.” Tender package for hotel “We are making good progress with work on site and are on schedule for the 2017 grand opening of the hotels.” The tender package for the construction of the ﬁrst hotel on site, the 206 key beachfront resort hotel, is also under evaluation and a contractor is expected to be announced soon.

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BANKING

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

Standard Chartered expands fund service capabilities Times News Service MUSCAT: Standard Chartered has announced the expansion of fund service capabilities from Oman. These services include fund accounting and administration, compliance reporting, performance measurement and analytics, and institutional transfer agency services. Standard Chartered’s comprehensive offering provides clients with a one stop solution for all their securities services and banking needs, incorporating cash management, order execution, foreign exchange, custody and fund services. With the expansion, Standard Chartered fund services coverage has reached to 17 markets. Standard Chartered has been providing

With the expansion, Standard Chartered fund service coverage has reached to 17 markets. Standard Chartered has been providing fund services to over 3,000 funds based in Asia and the Middle East

fund services to over 3,000 funds based in Asia and the Middle East ranging from traditional, alternative (including real estate investment trust, private equity, hedge funds) and pension funds. Shikkoh Malik, regional product head for investors and intermediaries, MENAP said: “Our fund services capabilities supple-

ment the growth of the industry and demonstrates our quest to be the catalyst for growth and innovation. Our expansion further reinforces Standard Chartered brand promise .” “Here for good – Here for long run”. We shall continue to work with fund industry participants and local regulators to help grow the industry”.

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

MARKET D E L E G AT I O N

Indian trade team visiting Oman today Times News Service

PDO to save $6m a year on power About 300,000 incandescent bulbs and lamps will be replaced with LED alternatives which consume up to 70% less energy. The new bulbs also have a longer average life

Times News Service MUSCAT: Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) is saving $6 million a year by switching its lighting system to the one which is more environment-friendly. The conversion from regular incandescent lights to Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs is the biggest of its type in Oman. It is taking place over the next two years and is being carried out by the company’s Power System Department. About 300,000 incandescent bulbs and lamps will be replaced with LED alternatives which consume up to 70 per cent less energy. The new bulbs also have a longer average life of 100,000 hours — 10 times that of a regular light — and don’t contain any unsafe substances, which can be found in conventional ones, such as mercury. Infrastructure Power System Department Manager Mohammed Al Aghbari said: “The use of traditional lighting products is always

associated with enormous maintenance costs and requires time and labour because they need to be replaced so frequently. However, LED lights, besides their efficient energy consumption, also have the benefit of lasting longer and being cost- effective. “This greener approach is all part of meeting the challenge of maintaining power stability and reliability with less consumption and cost.” The switchover has started at the company’s Mina Al Fahal estate and the field locations should be completed by 2015 with the aim of recovering the initial outlay on the LED replacements through power savings by then. Less gas consumption The energy saving means less gas is needed to produce electricity for PDO’s lighting requirements and so the annual gas production bill for this will fall more than 65 per cent. In the coming years, as more PDO facilities are built and significant projects are launched, the projected savings are targeted to rise from $6 million to $8 million a year. Power Systems Operations and Maintenance hed Humaid Al Amri said: “This move is in line with the company’s strategy to minimise operating costs and improve energy efficiency, thereby benefitting the environment, shareholders and the whole of Oman. PDO has launched a range of energy efficiency and sustainability initiatives including waste heat recovery and solar projects for steam generation and the use of solar power for street lights and hot water systems at the Ras Al Hamra Development Project which recently won the Green Innovation Award in this year’s Oman Green Awards.

MUSCAT: An 18-member delegation from the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) is visiting Oman from today to September 25, to showcase their products/equipment, explore business opportunities and investment options available in the Sultanate. The delegation comprises companies like Biometric Cables, Chennai; Consafe Life Sciences, Hyderabad; Datt Mediproducts, New Delhi; Global Healthcare Solution, Bangalore; Global Hospitals Group, Hyderabad; Lamar Natural Products, Mumbai, MGI (India), Delhi, Pradeep Surgical Dressings, Bangalore; Spansules Pharma Hyderabad; and Telecommunications Consultants India among others. The companies visiting Oman are dealing in a variety of sectors like pharmaceutical products, intermediates and formulations, hospital care, all types of medical and hospital equipment, physiotherapy equipment, operation theatre equipment, cotton crepe bandages, elastic adhesive, hospital furniture, bed head panels, nurse call systems, patient privacy cubicles, healthcare services of international standards, OTC products, surgical dressing bandages, wound care products, sterilisation packaging products, sterile and nonsterile gauze swabs, laparotomy sponges, surgical dressing pads, sterilisation packaging reels, to name a few.

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

MARKET Japan’s giants target Europe with small fuel-efficient cars eclipsed Nissan, the most European of the Japanese brands, to become the second best-selling Asian badge in Europe in the year to date after Toyota. Japan’s carmakers are now ﬁghting back, however, improving handling and rolling out more wagons, a bodystyle that is popular among company car owners in many parts of Europe. Toyota is currently launching its Auris Touring Sports estate, while Honda will bring early next year the Civic Tourer, a model developed for the ﬁrst time by a European and equipped with rear adaptive suspension to meet local demands for a sportier ride.

Carmakers are adapting to win back lost European customers by introducing a range of stylish, affordable cars soon

FRANKFURT: Japanese automakers are taking steps to win back business in the competitive European market, bringing out new cars with small fuel-efficient diesel engines and smart interiors. Having seen their sales dwindle while South Korean rivals Hyundai and Kia flourished, Japan’s carmakers have cut costs and invested the profits from a weaker yen to ensure strong European growth over the next few years. Handicapped by earthquakes, tsunamis and floods that disrupted their supply chains around the world two years ago, companies including Mazda and Toyota initially focused on their solid positions in North America, not wanting to adapt their United States-centric models. European sales suffered as a result, but their fortunes here are starting to improve now that Japanese carmakers are targeting Europe, the most demanding market in terms of fuel efficiency,

WORLD PREMIERE: Mazda’s new CX-5 automobile on display at the Frankfurt Motor Show, on Tues-

day. Having seen their sales dwindle while South Korean rivals Hyundai and Kia ﬂourished, Japan’s carmakers have cut costs and invested the proﬁts from a weaker yen to ensure strong European growth over the next few years. – Bloomberg News

design, handling and build quality. “Business has turned around. If you talk to most of the auto companies, it’s doom and gloom but our story is the exact opposite,” said Jeff Guyton, head of Mazda in Europe, in an interview at Frankfurt’s auto show, which ends this week. Vehicle sales for the brand rose 11 per cent in the eight months through August amid a European market that shrank by 5 per cent, and average revenue per car sold is on the rise. “We had the best ﬁscal ﬁrst quarter in at least 10 years,” Guyton said. Mazda debuted at the Frankfurt show its Mazda3, a compact fuel-efficient car that competes with Volkswagen’s Golf. Mazda has already enjoyed success with

LOCAL BOURSE

Financial Sector Index was down by 0.72 per cent at 8035.61 points. DBIH, Transgulf Holding, Global Financial Investment, Al Sharqiyah Investment and Al Anwar Holding declined by 3.19 per cent, 3.05 per cent, 2.58 per cent, 2.44 per cent and 2.40 per cent respectively. The Industrial Sector Index was down by 0.25% at 9539.35 points. Galfar Engineering, Construction Material Industries, Al Hassan Engineering and National Aluminium Products declined by 1.56 per cent, 1.41 per cent, 1.31 per cent and 0.94 per cent respectively. Services Sector Index closed at 3433.87 points, marginally up by 0.04 per cent. Salalah Beach Resort, Oman Telecom, Renaissance Services and Sharqiyah Desalination Co increased by 1.40 per cent, 0.64 per cent, 0.16 per cent and 0.14 per cent respectively. Oman Education & Training Investment, OIFC and Port Service Corporation declined by 5.26 per cent, 0.40 per cent and 0.38 per cent respectively. - United Securities

ONLINE PROTECTION

Cyber insurance on the anvil in Europe BERLIN: It’s already a booming market in the United States, but in Europe, companies are also waking up to the idea of cyber insurance to protect themselves against Internet attack. And insurance companies are projecting strong growth in the coming years. On the other side of the Atlantic, where companies are obliged to inform US authorities of online attacks, the cyber insurance market is already highly developed, totalling $1.3 billion (€960 million) per year, according to Christopher Lohmann, head of Germany and central Europe at Allianz Global Corporate and Speciality. Europe is still a long way off that. “But we project strong growth in the coming years. We see the market amounting to €700-€900 million by 2018,” Lohmann said. For companies and private individuals, the dangers from the web are very real, ranging from data and identity theft to espionage.

Korean ﬁrms This helped the two South Koreans claw European sales away from rivals such as Toyota. “They fundamentally missed the point about European design and interior quality,” said Mark Hall, who left the Japanese carmaker after 20 years to run Hyundai’s Europe-

an marketing operations in 2010. While the market share of Kia and Hyundai jumped to 6.1 per cent last year in Europe from 3 per cent in 2008, Japan’s seven traditional brands slipped to 11.8 from 13.7 per cent. It would have been worse had it not been for Nissan’s Qashqai, a compact SUV. The two sibling brands, whose models are both sculpted by a former chief designer for Audi, successfully shed their reputation for ugly cars and unreliable engineering with offerings like the Hyundai i30 hatchback and the Kia Sportage SUV, manufactured in two state-of-the-art European production plants that cost €2.6 billion ($3.5 billion) to build. In August, Hyundai even

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Recession-hit Italians return to vineyards ROME: Hard-up Italians have increasingly taken the place of immigrant seasonal labourers in the vineyards this harvest season — and a new pilot project plans to increase the number even further. In Oltrepo-Pavese, a region in northern Italy, the farmers’ union Coldiretti has launched an initiative called the ‘Harvest of Solidarity’. The plan is to match up supply and demand for vineyard workers in the surrounding area and to create a base of local seasonal labourers who can be hired by farmers when needed. Davide Stocco, 38, owner of a 10-hectare (25-acre) vineyard near Pavia, said he used the new Coldiretti system when three of the seven labourers he hired cancelled at the last minute. Unlike previous years, when Stocco hired mostly immigrants for the grape harvest, this year it is mostly Italians — many of them young and permanently unemployed. “The harvest is not difficult work. Anyone can do it. These are almost all young people who want to learn and apply themselves,” he said. “Let’s hope they want to continue.” On the second day of harvest, Stocco said his new labourers had been working well, as they were seen snipping off bunches of grapes into large buckets. “This is a helping hand we are giving to unemployed people here,” Stocco said. “Italians did not want to work in the fields before and we had a lot of trouble finding labour,” he said. “But these last two years, people have come back to do work like harvesting.” Daris, 25, who studied for a job in hotels but has not managed to find one yet, said he might stay in farmwork. - AFP

OMAN STOCKS

MSM index falls on dull trading MUSCAT: The MSM 30 Index ended on a negative note amid low trading activity to close at 6581.46 points, down by 0.33 per cent. MSM Shariah Index also declined by 0.23 per cent to 1041.50 points. Transgulf Investment Holding was the most active in terms of volume, while Oman Telecommunications Company was the most active in terms of turnover. Salalah Beach Resort was the top gainer and closed up by 1.40 per cent. Oman Education & Training Investment, which was the top loser, closed down by 5.26 per cent. Altogether 910 trades were executed in yesterday’s session generating a turnover of OMR5.30 million with over 16.76 million shares traded. Out of 51 traded stocks, 20 advanced, 16 declined and 15 were unchanged. Arab and GCC investors were net buyers to the tune of OMR115,000, while foreign investors were net sellers at OMR96,000 followed by Omani investors, who sold shares worth OMR19,000.

its popular CX-5 crossover, which help lift European turnover since it launched last April. Japanese carmakers have long proﬁted from their reputation for reliability, but were upstaged when Hyundai and Kia brought out a range of stylish, affordable cars tailored to European tastes with extra-long warranties of ﬁve or even seven years.

Savings The Japanese carmakers have funded these changes by slimming down their operations. Toyota, for example, shifted all Auris production to its UK plant and moved some production of the Corolla sedan to Turkey from Japan and South Africa. “At the same time that the weakness of the Japanese carmakers was being exploited heavily by the rapidly growing Koreans, the Japanese were busy putting their entire cost base to the test,” said Ernst & Young’s senior automotive advisory partner Peter Fuss. Toyota’s European operations returned to the black for the ﬁrst time in six years. - Bloomberg News

HARVEST

Companies can see their infrastructure paralysed, their computer systems infected with viruses and malware. But these are not the only risks: human error and internal hiccups can also jam systems and wipe data. Data theft Just last month, mobile phone operator Vodafone was the victim of massive data theft where personal information — including bank account details — of around two million people was stolen. And with the exponential growth of electronic messages, and the increasing transfer of companies’ commercial processing and data storage to cloud computing, the dangers are only going to multiply. In Germany, a total 64,000 acts of cyber crime were officially reported in 2012, representing around €42 million worth of damage, an increase of 7.5 per cent over the previous year. ‘Europe is still very much behind on this’. - AFP

MUSCAT SECURITIES MARKET

INDICES Index .................................................High .................Low..................... Value ............... Prev . Value.......... Diff ...............Diff % MSM30 Index ....................................... 6,603.28 ...............6,580.21 ................... 6,581.46 ...................6,603.28................-21.82 .................. -0.33 Financial Index .................................... 8,094.31 ...............8,035.57 ....................8,035.61 ...................8,094.31................-58.70 .................. -0.73 Industrial Index ....................................9,563.58 ...............9,532.35 ................... 9,539.35 ...................9,563.28................-23.93 .................. -0.25 Services Index .......................................3,433.91 .............. 3,429.84 ................... 3,433.87 ...................3,432.55.................... 1.32 ...................0.04 MSM SHARIAH INDEX.................... 1,041.74 ...............1,040.76 ....................1,041.50 ....................1,041.73.................. -0.23 .................. -0.02 Trading Summary Volume ................Turnover ..........Trades .............. Market Cap............. Up............Down ............. Equal .........Sec. Traded 11,662,534.................. 3,425,699 .....................910 ............... 13,386,231,268 .................. 5 ..................... 23 .................... 21 .........................49

SHARE PRICE BULLETIN FOR SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 Security Name ....................................................Volume .....Turnover ... Trades ......... High.........Low ..........Close ......... Prev. .......... Diff. ............ Diff .............Last ..........Last ............Last ................Market Cap.........Par ........................................................................................................................................................................................ Pr. ............ Close ........... RO ............... % .................Pr ..............Bid ............ Offer ............................................value

REGULAR MARKET .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... OMAN TELECOMMUNICATION ..................... 275,633 ........... 431,976.............. 39 ............ 1.570.......... 1.554 ............ 1.567..............1.557 ............ 0.010 .............0.642 ..............1.570 ............ 1.570 ..............1.575 ......... 1,175,250,000.000 ......0.100 RENAISSANCE SERVICES ................................ 167,000 ........... 107,032.................9 ............0.645 ......... 0.637 ............ 0.641 ............ 0.640............ 0.001 ............. 0.156.............. 0.645 ............ 0.645 ..............0.649.............180,822,545.014 ......0.100 AL ANWAR CERAMIC TILES .............................100,000 .............48,900.................2 ............0.489 ......... 0.489 ............0.489 .............0.489............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.489 ............ 0.476 ..............0.488 ..............114,959,119.536 ......0.100 AL JAZEERA SERVICES ...................................... 34,070 ..............15,843.................2 ............0.465 ......... 0.465 ............0.465 .............0.465 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.465 ............ 0.465 ..............0.472 ...............28,459,986.945 ......0.100 ALMAHA PETROLEUM PRODUCTS MAR. ............11,125 ...........243,638.................4 ...........21.900 .......21.900 ..........21.900 .......... 21.900 .......... 0.000 .............0.000 ............ 21.900..........21.900 ............ 0.000............. 151,110,000.000 ......1.000 ASAFFA FOODS .....................................................5,000 ................4,750.................2 ............0.950 ......... 0.950 ............0.949 ............ 0.949............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.950 ............0.949 ............. 0.000.............109,858,612.500 ......0.100 BANK SOHAR ...............................................1,698,030 ...........343,122.............. 37 ............0.204 .........0.202 ............0.202 ............ 0.202............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.203 ............0.202 ............. 0.204........... 222,200,000.000 ......0.100 NAWRAS ......................................................... 154,250 ............. 80,950.............. 29 ............0.525 ......... 0.520 ............0.525 .............0.525 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.520 ............0.520 ..............0.525 ............. 341,745,720.750 ......0.100 OMAN FISHERIES ...........................................253,000 ............. 25,694............... 11 ............0.103.......... 0.101 ............0.102 .............0.102 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.102 ............ 0.102 ..............0.103 ...............12,750,000.000 ......0.100 OMAN FLOUR MILLS ............................................1,000 ................... 641................. 1 ............0.641.......... 0.641 ............ 0.641 .............0.641 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ..............0.641 ............ 0.641 ............. 0.660.............100,957,500.000 ......0.100 OMAN UNITED INSURANCE ...........................100,000 ............. 27,300.................8 ............0.273 ......... 0.273 ............0.273 .............0.273 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.273 ............0.270 ..............0.272.............. 27,300,000.000 ......0.100 SOHAR POWER ....................................................... 412 ...................944.................4 ............2.292 ......... 2.291 ............2.284 ............ 2.284............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 2.292 ............2.292 ............. 2.450...............50,478,684.000 ......1.000 UNITED FINANCE ........................................... 126,925 ..............18,988...............10 ............0.150.......... 0.148 ............ 0.150 .............0.150 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.150 ............ 0.150 ..............0.156 ............... 41,251,983.300 ......0.100 VOLTAMP ENERGY ........................................... 95,206 ............. 40,525.................8 ............0.426 ......... 0.420 ............0.426 .............0.426............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.426 ............ 0.426 ..............0.435 ...............25,773,000.000 ......0.100 OMAN CABLES INDUSTRY ................................. 18,000 ............. 33,488...............16 ............ 1.863.......... 1.860 ............ 1.860 .............1.865 ........... -0.005 ...........-0.268 ............ 1.860 ............ 1.832 ..............1.859 ............166,842,000.000 ......0.100 PORT SERVICES CORPORATION ........................ 27,000 .............. 14,116.................6 ............0.525 ......... 0.520 ............0.523 .............0.525 ........... -0.002 ........... -0.381............. 0.520 ............ 0.515 ............. 0.520...............49,705,920.000 ......0.100 OMAN INVESTMENT AND FINANCE ..............275,864 ..............68,710.............. 26 ............0.250 ......... 0.247 ............0.249 ............ 0.250............-0.001 ...........-0.400 ............ 0.250 ............0.249 ............. 0.250.............. 49,800,000.000 ......0.100 HSBC BANK OMAN ..........................................124,980 ............. 22,621.................2 ............ 0.181 ...........0.181 ............ 0.181..............0.182 ............-0.001 ...........-0.549 .............0.181 ............ 0.180 ..............0.182 ............ 362,056,614.990 ......0.100 OMINVEST .................................................... 222,200 ............. 99,060.............. 37 ............0.447 ......... 0.445 ............0.446 ............ 0.449........... -0.003 ........... -0.668............. 0.446 ............ 0.445 ............. 0.446.............136,533,980.000 ......0.100 DHOFAR INT.DEV.AND INV. HOLD. ...................... 467,201 ...........280,321...............18 ............0.600 ......... 0.600 ............0.600 .............0.605 ........... -0.005 ...........-0.826 ............ 0.600 ............0.600 ..............0.605 ............120,000,000.000 ......0.100 NATIONAL ALUMINIUM PRODUCTS ................. 47,000 ..............14,805.................5 ............ 0.315.......... 0.315 ............ 0.315..............0.318 ........... -0.003 ...........-0.943 .............0.315 ............ 0.315 ..............0.316 ................10,575,006.750 ......0.100 AHLI BANK ........................................................ 30,500 ................ 6,158.................3 ............0.202 ......... 0.196 ............0.202 ............ 0.204........... -0.002 ...........-0.980 ............ 0.202 ............0.202 ............. 0.207............ 255,305,810.300 ......0.100 BANK MUSCAT ................................................327,271 .......... 200,030.............. 65 ............ 0.615.......... 0.610 ............ 0.611 ..............0.619 ........... -0.008 ........... -1.292..............0.610 ............ 0.610 ..............0.614 .......... 1,315,031,277.924 ......0.100 AL HASSAN ENGINEERING ..............................171,358 ............. 38,678...............19 ............0.230 .........0.224 ............0.226 ............ 0.229........... -0.003 ........... -1.310 ............. 0.225 ............0.224 ............. 0.226...............16,997,008.000 ......0.100 GALFAR ENGINEERING AND CON. ......................51,090 ..............16,087...............18 ............0.320 ......... 0.310 ............ 0.315............. 0.320........... -0.005 ........... -1.563 ..............0.315 ............ 0.315 ..............0.317 ............... 83,679,750.000 ......0.100 TAAGEER FINANCE ...........................................76,314 ..............11,452.................6 ............ 0.151 .......... 0.150 ............ 0.150 .............0.153 ........... -0.003 ........... -1.961 ............. 0.150 .............0.151...............0.153 .............. 35,550,000.000 ......0.100 ONIC. HOLDING ................................................. 29,000 ..............10,730.................5 ............0.370 ......... 0.370 ............0.370 .............0.378 ........... -0.008 ........... -2.116 ............. 0.370 ............ 0.372 ..............0.375 ...............64,166,602.500 ......0.100 OMAN AND EMIRATES INV. HOLDING ..............435,274 .............74,244.............. 43 ............0.172.......... 0.170 ............ 0.171..............0.175 ........... -0.004 ...........-2.286 .............0.171 ............ 0.170 ..............0.171 .............. 20,840,625.000 ......0.100 GULF INVESTMENT SERVICES ........................667,501 ............112,704...............41 ............ 0.171 .......... 0.168 ............ 0.169 .............0.173 ........... -0.004 ........... -2.312..............0.168 ............ 0.169 ..............0.170 ................. 9,944,503.673 ......0.100 AL ANWAR HOLDING ......................................952,690 ............271,471.............. 97 ............0.290 ......... 0.283 ............0.285 ............ 0.292........... -0.007 ...........-2.397 ............ 0.285 ............ 0.285 ............. 0.286..............34,200,000.000 ......0.100 AL SHARQIA INVESTMENT HOLDING ............... 91,000 ..............14,569.................6 ............0.162.......... 0.160 ............0.160 .............0.164 ........... -0.004 ...........-2.439 ............ 0.160 ............ 0.161...............0.162 ...............13,440,000.000 ......0.100 GLOBAL FINANCIAL INVESTMENT ..............1,303,952 ............197,259.............. 46 ............0.152.......... 0.150 ............ 0.151..............0.155 ........... -0.004 ........... -2.581..............0.151 .............0.151...............0.153 ..............30,200,000.000 ......0.100 TRANSGULF IND. INV. HOLDING ....................1,849,500 .......... 294,248.............118 ............ 0.161 .......... 0.158 ............ 0.159..............0.164 ........... -0.005 ...........-3.049 ............ 0.160 ............ 0.160 ..............0.161 ............... 10,633,125.000 ......0.100 SUM: ................................................................................10,189,346 ........ 3,171,054............743 ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. ...................................................................................TRADED SEC. ......................33.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

PARALLEL MARKET ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ SALALAH BEACH RESORT ................................. 10,000 ............. 13,800................. 1 ............1.380.......... 1.380 ............ 1.380 .............1.361 ............ 0.019 ............. 1.396.............. 1.380 ............0.000 ............. 0.000.................8,625,000.000 ......1.000 SHARQIYAH DESALINATION ..............................26,749 ............113,916.............. 26 ............4.270 .........4.250 ............4.259 .............4.253............ 0.006 ............. 0.141.............. 4.270 ............4.260 ............. 4.280............... 27,769,293.296 ......1.000 ALIZZ ISLAMIC BANK ...................................... 440,000 .............46,640.............. 22 ............0.106.......... 0.106 ............0.106 .............0.106 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.106 ............ 0.106 ..............0.107 ............106,000,000.000 ......0.100 BANK DHOFAR .....................................................3,050 ................1,099.................4 ............0.361.......... 0.360 ............ 0.361..............0.361 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.360 ............ 0.359 ............. 0.360............. 436,856,251.681 ......0.100 FINANCIAL SERVICES .......................................20,000 ............... 2,400.................2 ............0.120 ......... 0.120 ............0.120 .............0.120 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.120 .............0.115...............0.120 .................7,800,000.000 ......0.100 GULF MUSHROOM PRODUCTS ............................3,500 ................ 1,453.................2 ............ 0.415.......... 0.415 ............0.430 .............0.430............ 0.000 .............0.000 ..............0.415 ............ 0.415 ............. 0.440..................9,740,016.000 ......0.100 OMAN CHROMITE .................................................. 500 .................1,755.................4 ............ 3.510.......... 3.510 ............3.899 .............3.899 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ..............3.510 ............0.000 ..............3.510 ............... 11,697,000.000 ......1.000 OMAN NATIONAL ENGINE. INVT. ...........................1,777 ...................604.................3 ............0.340 ......... 0.338 ............0.345 .............0.345............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.338 ............ 0.338 ..............0.345 .............. 27,600,000.000 ......0.100 SHELL OMAN MARKETING .....................................180 ...................404.................2 ............2.250 .........2.240 ............2.250 ............ 2.250............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 2.250 ............2.250 ............. 0.000.............213,750,000.000 ......0.100 BANK NIZWA .................................................. 208,561 ............. 22,521.............. 24 ............0.108.......... 0.107 ............0.108 .............0.109 ............-0.001 ........... -0.917............. 0.107 ............ 0.107 ..............0.108 ............162,000,000.000 ......0.100 CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS IND. ...................364,400 ............. 25,522...............16 ............0.071.......... 0.070 ............0.070 .............0.071 ............-0.001 ........... -1.408..............0.071 ............ 0.070 ..............0.071 .................5,950,000.000 ......0.100 AL BATINAH DEV. INV. HOLDING ..........................28,000 ................2,548.................6 ............0.091.......... 0.090 ............ 0.091 ............ 0.094........... -0.003 ........... -3.191 ..............0.091 ............ 0.091 ..............0.093 .................2,730,000.000 ......0.100 OMAN EDUCATION TRAINING INV. .......................9,030 ................ 1,625.................2 ............0.180.......... 0.180 ............0.180 .............0.190 ............-0.010 ........... -5.263............. 0.180 ............ 0.180 ..............0.188 .............. 12,600,000.000 ......0.100 SUM: ................................................................................... 1,115,747 ...........234,287.............114 ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. ...................................................................................TRADED SEC. ......................13.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

BONDS MARKET ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ BANK MUSCAT CONV. BONDS 4.5 .......................... 11,601 ................1,230.................7 ............0.106.......... 0.106 ............0.106 .............0.106 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.106 ............ 0.106 ............. 0.000............... 32,091,405.766 ......0.100 BANK SOHAR BONDS 4.5 ...................................124,290 ..............12,925.................3 ............0.104 ......... 0.103 ............0.104 .............0.104 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.103 ............ 0.103 ..............0.107 ................. 7,436,000.000 ......0.100 SUM: ......................................................................................135,891 ..............14,155...............10 ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. ...................................................................................TRADED SEC. ........................2.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

W W W.T I M E S O F O M A N . C O M MONDAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

SECTION

REVISE AN INVITATION ON YOUR GOOGLE CALENDAR >B6

E-

IMES TECH STUFF

IN ARRIVAL OF TWO iPHONES, THERE ARE THREE LESSONS Year after year, Steve Jobs used to blow our minds with products we didn’t know we wanted. Now, two years after his death, we still expect every new iPhone to clean our gutters, cook our popcorn and levitate. >B6

App that keeps due dates from sneaking up on you The process of entering bill data doesn’t eat up much of your time, thanks to the app’s clean design. A version of the app with ads is free. A $2 version removes the ads and lets you sync your data among multiple devices.

On Apple mobile devices, a simple and useful bill payment reminder app is Bill Tracker. The app’s main interface lists your bills in the order they are due, showing the date, amount owed and other data.

KIT EATON

ILLS, bills, bills. They always seem to be multiplying, and adding digital devices like smartphones and tablets to our lives only makes the pile bigger. Thankfully, those same smartphones and tablets can also help track and manage all of the bills in one place. On Apple mobile devices, a simple and useful bill payment reminder app is Bill Tracker. The app’s main interface lists your bills in the order they are due, showing the date, amount owed and other data. It is

great for telling you at a glance what you need to pay, and its interface is clean and unfussy. As easy as tapping Adding a new bill to the system is as easy as tapping on the “+” button, selecting an account description or creating a new one — like “utilities” — and tapping in the details, labelling it as “electricity” or “gas” and so on. Once you’ve entered this information, you can identify it as a recurring bill, add any notes that you may need to prompt your memory and then save the entry. The app has a calendar view, and you can also itemise bills and track

spending by category. Due date reminders are easy to set and can be programmed to go off several times before a payment is due. When you make a payment on time, you can update the relevant entry and include information like a conﬁrmation number. The process of entering bill data doesn’t eat up much of your time, thanks to the app’s clean design. A version of the app with ads is free. A $2 version removes the ads and lets you sync your data among multiple devices. A similar free app on Android is Bills Reminder from Handy Apps. It also has an unfussy design and sim-

ple controls so entering data isn’t too laborious. The app lists bills in the order they are due, annotated with the relevant payment details. Recurring bills have a blue icon, and bills with a special note have an orange icon. This feature makes it easy to spot important or one-off bills among more regular ones. BillMinder, a $2 iOS app, has many of the same features but its interface has more detailed graphics, including prettier lists and reports of paid bills. BillMinder works much as its rivals do, so it also requires a lot of typing from you, but you may prefer its snazzier look and the detailed way it reports on your

past payments. A popular and more full-featured bill payment reminder app is Manilla. It is available free on both iOS and Android. The app feels a little like Bill Tracker thanks to its straightforward interfaces and graphics, but it has more powerful options. Where Manilla stands out from the crowd is in its ability to connect with many popular American companies and download bill information automatically. And it is easy to use. To start the process with your Verizon cellphone bill, for example, you just enter your login information for Verizon’s website. The app will download your bill

With Bose, hear what you want and block the rest

works remarkably well. Two tiny microphones in each ear bud send signals to the control module, which responds instantly to counter unwanted sounds. Bose says the reaction time is less than a millisecond. The effect enriches your listening experience, making your music sound fuller and deeper. I tried the headphones on a variety of pop, rock and classical albums, and the music was consistently clean and free of distortion. Even with the noise-cancelling feature turned on, a small amount of sound still slips in, typically the voices of other people, but this is common with noise-cancelling headphones. The noise can be reduced by readjusting the ear buds to create more of a seal in the ear. Several soft, comfortable ear tips, which include stabilisers that help secure the tips, are included. The headphones come with a cloth carrying pouch and a miniUSB cable for charging. Bose says the battery in the control module lasts about 16 hours on a full charge. And, unlike some other noise-cancelling headphones, these still work when the control module is turned off or the battery runs out. Another nifty feature is

something Bose calls the “aware” mode, because it lets more outside sound in, allowing you to be more aware of your surroundings. This means you can chat with the barista at your favourite coffee shop without removing your headphones. It also helps when walking around the streets of New York; ignorance is bliss, but not if you get hit by a taxi. The in-line remote control in the yoke of the cord includes a microphone for phone calls; a clip allows you to fasten the cord to a collar or lapel. A second model, the Bose QC20i, has an in-line remote intended for Apple iOS devices.

data from the company — saving you the trouble of typing in a coming bill manually. To ease concerns about entering sensitive data into the app, which could be seen by someone who gets into your phone, the app is pass code protected. For such a nicely designed app, there are some curious weak points, like the limited options for customising alerts and reminders in the way that even some of the simpler apps allow. The popular Check app from Pageonce is similar to Manilla, but it includes additional features, like the ability to keep track of your credit cards. Although it still acts as a simple bill payment, reminder and organiser app, it can also let you pay bills through your bank account or credit cards. The app is well designed with a great-looking user interface, but it is very complex. The app does a great job of pulling all your bank and bill data into one place, but if you’re the type of person who likes to keep hands-on control over your ﬁnances and bills, it may not suit you. Check is free on iOS and Android. Quick Call Readdle has just overhauled its popular calendar app for iOS devices into a new version, Calendar 5. It now has iPad support and its graphics are in keeping with Apple’s new iOS 7 design. The app is powerful and an improvement over Apple’s stock Calendar app. It’s available for $7. — The New York Times News Service

GADGET GALLERY

Playing around with a toy camera

TOY CAMERAS aren’t just for children. There is a thriving art movement built on the out-offocus, distorted, inaccurately coloured photos that come from toy cameras. Nevertheless, your ﬁrst reaction to the Bonzart Lit digital camera, which measures less than three inches by two inches, and is only half an inch thick, will probably be along the lines of, “How cute!” But the tiny toy can take some very artistic photographs. For one thing, it has a fuller menu of options than you’d expect from a camera this size. Resolution can be set at up to 2,048 by 1,536 pixels — the same resolution

as an Apple iPad 3 Retina screen. You can also set light metering to measure the centre of the picture, the whole scene or a small spot in the middle, just as you would on serious digital single lens reflex cameras. And you can even set white balance for daylight, cloudy conditions, fluorescent or tungsten light. You can also adjust exposure, and the camera has a rudimentary filter menu, which can make your photos colour, black and white, sepia or negative — or even in tints of red, green or blue. That leaves a lot of room for creativity, but it would be a mistake to call the camera sophisticated. It essentially has a pinhole lens, fixed focus and a very slow shutter speed. That means that lots of your photos are going to be a little soft (although it does have a screw mount for a tripod, to help steady the camera). The colour is quite muted. And you get a natural vignette effect, a kind of darkening around the edges that draws your eye to the centre. Offered in red, black, blue, white and pink, the camera is available online for $40. But you will also need a microSD memory card, which is not included. A 2GB card can be found online for less than $10.

WHEN BOSE decided to build a pair of in-ear headphones with a noise-cancelling feature, it faced a quandary: How to stuff that technology into a tiny package. So Bose wisely decided to add an in-line control module at the base of the cord for its QuietComfort 20, the in-ear option in the company’s line of noise-cancelling headphones. With this design, the module does not weigh down the cord or tug at your ears; you can easily slip it into a pocket with your music player. The noise-cancelling feature

Justin case offers more than a play on words WHEN CONSIDERING backup power for mobile devices, consumers typically have two choices: a portable battery that can charge multiple devices or a charging case, which is more convenient but usually works with only a single device. Innovative Technology, a maker of gadget accessories, thinks

consumers should have both. The company’s Justin Power Case, which is designed for the iPad, has a built-in battery that can charge the iPad and other gadgets, including iOS, Android and BlackBerry devices, at the same time. The company says the rechargeable battery in the Justin case can charge an iPad twice or an iPhone seven times on a single charge. That high-capacity battery makes the case ideal for travellers and others who use their devices for long periods. Charging is a little slow, however. It took me a few hours to fully charge my iPad, a bit longer than the process takes with a wall charger. Four tiny LEDs inside the cover let you know how much charge the case has left.

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

E-TIMES

In arrival of two iPhones, there are three lessons

Now Netflix introduces user profiles Because several people in the same household often use the same Netflix account to watch their own favourite types of movies and television shows, the service’s suggestions feature can get unfocused. To make its suggestions more tailored, Netflix introduced user profiles last month. Now, up to five different people can use the same account and keep their viewing preferences, Recently Watched list and reviews within their own space.

Year after year, Steve Jobs used to blow our minds with products we didn’t know we wanted. Now, two years after his death, we still expect every new iPhone to clean

HELP FILE

Revise an invitation on your Google Calendar

our gutters, cook our popcorn and levitate

DAVID POGUE

e can draw three lessons from the arrival of Apple’s two new iPhone models, the 5C and 5S. LESSON 1 Apple may have set its own bar for innovation too high. Year after year, Steve Jobs used to blow our minds with products we didn’t know we wanted. Now, two years after his death, we still expect every new iPhone to clean our gutters, cook our popcorn and levitate. So when the hardware revisions are minor each year, we’re disappointed. And sure enough, after Apple showed off its two new iPhone models last week, its stock dropped. Analysts shrugged that they contain nothing “transformative.” The blogger-haters had a field day. The budget model, the new iPhone 5C, comes in five colours ($100 for the 16-gigabyte model with a two-year contract, $550 without). It’s essentially identical to last year’s iPhone 5, except that its back and sides are a single piece of plastic instead of metal and glass. Actually, “plastic” isn’t quite fair. The 5C’s case is polycarbonate, lacquered like a glossy piano. Better yet, its back edges are curved for the first time since the iPhones of 2008. You can tell by touch which way it’s facing in your pocket. It’s a terrific phone. The price is right. It will sell like hot cakes; the new iPhones went on sale on Friday. But just sheathing last year’s phone in shiny plastic isn’t a stunning advance. LESSON 2 The smartphone is mature. The App Store filled a huge hole. Siri voice command answered a desperate need. And high-resolution Retina displays helped compensate for the tiny screen. But today, every phone has that stuff; the big holes have been plugged. Maybe the age of annual mega-leaps is over. The new 5S ($200 with contract, $650 without) looks exactly like last year’s thin and gorgeous iPhone 5. You can now get it with its brushed aluminium body in dark gray (with black glass accents), silver (white accents) or a surprisingly classylooking gold (white accents). Apple says the 5S’ chip is twice as fast as before. Nobody was exactly complaining about the iPhone’s speed before, but, sure, it’s plenty quick. Since it’s a 64-bit chip, Apple says the graphics in 3-D video games look especially smooth and detailed. There’s also a second chip devoted to tracking motion data from the phone’s compass, gyroscope and tilt sensor. Apple says this coprocessor should save battery life when you use fitness tracking apps, because it can monitor your data all day long; the main chip, which requires six times as much power, can remain asleep. Those are both fairly invisible changes, though. The new camera will mean more to you. Its sensor is 15 per cent bigger, and the individual lightdetecting pixels are bigger. Take photos side-by-side with the iPhone 5S’ predecessor, and the difference is immediately obvious; lowlight pictures are far better on the new phone. Clearer, brighter, better colour. The 5S also has two LED flashes — one pure white, one amber — that fire simultaneously.

TECH TIP

When mixed in the right balance, their light can match the colour tone of your subject (moonlight, streetlights, fluorescents, whatever). Apple says this idea is a first in both phones and cameras. It really works. Flash photos look much, much better. No longer will your loved ones’ skin look either nuclear white or “Avatar” blue. The 5S’ camera also offers a burst mode (10 frames a second), 3X zooming during video capture, Instagram-style photo filters and truly wowing slow-motion video. (Weirdly, filtered photos and slomo videos don’t survive the transfer to your computer, although you can send them by email or text message.) Sample photos and videos accompany this column online. The most heavily promoted feature is the 5S’ fingerprint sensor, which, ingeniously, is built into the Home button. You push the Home button to wake the phone, leave your finger there another half second, and boom: You’ve unlocked a phone that nobody else can unlock, without the hassle of inputting the password. (And yes, a password is a hassle; half of smartphone users never bother setting one up.) The best part is that it actually works — every single time, in my tests. It’s nothing like the balky, infuriating fingerprint-reader efforts of earlier cellphones. It’s genuinely awesome; the haters can go jump off a pier. The 5S can also scan your fingerprint when you’re buying books, music, apps and videos from Apple, saving you the password entry (although this, too, is buggy; Apple says a fix is soon). You can teach

The new camera will mean more to you. Its sensor is 15 per cent bigger, and the individual light-detecting pixels are bigger. Take photos side-by-side with the iPhone 5S’ predecessor, and the difference is immediately obvious; lowlight pictures are far better on the new phone. Clearer, brighter, better colour

your iPhone 5S to recognise up to five fingerprints — all yours, yours and your spouse’s, or whatever. Apple says your fingerprint is stored only on your phone, encrypted and never transmitted or stored online. And using the fingerprint reader is optional; you can always use a regular password instead. The sound quality of both new iPhones is excellent, whether up to your ear or filling your office with music. Apple says battery life is about 25 percent better than before; I’ve been getting nearly two days of moderate use on a charge. So yes, Lesson 2 is that the speed of innovation seems to be slowing down, but don’t let that depress you. Focus instead on the silver lining: You can keep your current phone longer without feeling obsolete quite so soon. (Speaking of obsolescence: If you’ve held out upgrading since the iPhone 4 or 4S, remember that the new phones use Apple’s new charging connector. It doesn’t fit any existing charging cables, speaker

docks or alarm clocks without a $35 adapter. Grrr.) LESSON 3 If we’re reaching a point of diminishing returns in hardware breakthroughs, the software breakthroughs are only just getting underway. The new iPhones come with iOS 7, a redesigned operating system. You can also install it on recent iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch models. This software looks nothing like the old iOS. It’s all white and clean, almost barren. Its Home screen and dialogue boxes use thin fonts and a colour palette of bright, light hues. Above all, it completely abandons Apple’s formerly favourite design principle, skeuomorphism, in which on-screen things depict realworld materials (lined yellow paper for Notes, leather binding for Calendar, wooden shelves for iBooks). You might love this design, and you might loathe it. You also might get used to it. But in any case, iOS

7 is more efficient to navigate, because nothing on the screen is eye candy; everything is a button, so you spend less time hunting for things. Furthermore, Apple did an insane amount of work on features. Some are big-ticket items like Siri, which responds faster, has a more realistic voice and understands new kinds of commands (including “Make the screen brighter” and “Turn on Bluetooth”). A supremely useful Control Centre offers one-touch buttons to change important settings (thanks for the idea, Android!). AirDrop shoots pictures, maps, Web sites and other items to nearby iOS 7 gadgets, quickly and wirelessly. You can read a full review of iOS 7 on my blog at nytimes.com/pogue. (A note: I have written a how-to manual to the iPhone and to iOS 7 for an independent publisher; it was neither commissioned by nor written in cooperation with Apple.) Now, Apple’s competition in the Android world is ﬁerce and gaining; the competitors include phones that are equally beautiful (from HTC), phones that take spoken commands without your having to press a button (from Motorola) and phones in every conceivable screen size (Samsung). But that doesn’t mean that the iPhones have been overtaken. The iPhone’s ecosystem is a deal-sweetening perk — the best apps; the best-stocked online stores for music and movies; smooth synchronising of your calendars, addresses and even photos among Apple phones, tablets and Macs; and enough cases and accessories to reach from the landﬁll to the moon. — The New York Times News Service

Q: Can you change the time in a Google Calendar event after you’ve already sent it to people, or do you have to make a whole new invitation? A: If complications arise and you need to change the time, place or other details for an event you had scheduled with Google Calendar, you can edit the invitation even if it has been sent. Log into your Google account and go to your Calendar screen. Find the event you want to change, select it and click the “Edit event” link. On the page for that event, change the time, location and any other information that needs to be updated. You can also invite more guests, add a video call or request a timed reminder from Google so you remember the event yourself. When you click the Save button at the top of the page to seal in the changes, Google Calendar presents you with a pop-up box asking if you would like to send an updated invitation to your recipients. Click the Send button to notify your guests of the change. For those new to Gmail on the Web, you can send invitations for meetings and other events by ﬁrst creating and addressing a message to your potential attendees. (You can also create an invitation to accompany a reply or a forwarded message.) When you have the addresses added, move the mouse cursor over the plus (+) button in the bottom toolbar and click the Insert Invitation icon, which looks like a tiny calendar. When the Invitation box appears on screen, ﬁll in the details and click the Insert Invitation button to include it with your message.

Moving away from iPhoto to Aperture Q: I’d like to do more ﬁne-tuning on my digital pictures than the current version of iPhoto allows. I am interested in the Aperture software Apple also makes, but how hard would it be to import my existing collection into Aperture? A: If you are running the most recent version of Apple’s iPhoto ‘11, it should be easy to move images to Aperture, a more advanced programme. The two programmes use a uniﬁed picture-library format. With the latest version of Aperture, you can open your iPhoto library without having to export and then re-import pictures. Certain iPhoto tools also work between the two programmes, customised albums and pictures shared with social media sites. One thing you cannot do is have a photo library open in both programmes at the same time.

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

ROUND-UP Toyota Sequoia: Winning accolades

ACHIEVEMENT

With a one touch fold-ﬂat walk-in

MHD Gas Division receives letter of recognition MUSCAT: Mohsin Haider Darwish’s (MHD) Gases, Chemicals and Medical Equipment Division is the authorised distributor for genuine Victor Technologies products / brands within the Sultanate of Oman. Victor Industrial gas equipment consists of welding, cutting and heating products and safety accessories. Mohsin Haider Darwish recently received a letter of recognition from Victor Technologies for its long term commitment to business development and continued achievement of sales targets for Victor Technologies products. This has been achieved

through excellent sales and after sales support to customers across the Sultanate of Oman. The entire range of Victor Technologies products/brands retailed through Mohsin Haider Darwish is manufactured in Victor Technologies ISO 9001 certiﬁed manufacturing facilities and meets the required BSEN/ISO/UL/CGA and Victor Technologies quality assurance standards. The full range of Victor products is available from MHD’s Gas Division showrooms in Rusayl, Buraimi, Ruwi, Sohar, Salalah and Duqm.

mechanism, entry and egress to the third row of seats is made very easy

MUSCAT: What do you do when the big Sequoia gently shows itself on the rear view mirror of your car? As you well know, you will be left with no choice but to readily give it the way. That is the beauty of Toyota’s big and powerful Sequoia. Ranked highly in ‘Affordable Large SUV’ category by US News earlier this year, the Sequoia is equipped with a new generation 5.7 Litre, dual VVT-i, V8 engine iForce engine that churns out classtopping horsepower and torque. Available in options of seven or eight seats (with a third row versatile seater for three adults) the

Sequoia boasts of a 10-way adjustable driver power seat enabling diverse seat arrangements for the second and third row of seats. With a one touch fold-ﬂat walkin mechanism, entry and egress to the third row of seats is made very easy. These seats are power stowable — and can be folded easily. Sequoia offers ample seating space, knee room and leg room so that even 190cm tall passengers can sit comfortably in every seat. The second and third row seats have a long front-to-back couple distance to provide ample space. A 60-40 split bench seat for the third row ensures versatility of use. Comfort is further enhanced in the

APPOINTMENT

past responsibilities will become a valuable asset to the bank in preparation for launch and will contribute to the long-term success of operations and employee development, now and going forward as

we continue to grow.” Al Balushi has experienced the full scope of operations within the industry, beginning in retail banking before moving into audit and investment banking ﬁnally to human resources and talent development. Alongside his career in banking, Al Balushi also lectured at the College of Banking and Financial Studies. This experience, which complements his own professional development, will bring a new dimension to delivering learning and development opportunities for employees of the bank. In addition to his full time roles, Al Balushi has also served in positions on the HR Board Committee, HR Management Committee and Reward and Recognition Committee at BankDhofar, as well serving

on the BCP Steering Committee and member of the Academic Advisory Committee at the College of Banking and Financial Studies. Al Balushi holds a postgraduate certificate in Human Resource Development and Performance Management from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, as well as a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales, Cardiff, United Kingdom. He also holds a number of professional qualifications and accreditations in the field of HR and banking including Associate of Canadian Institute of Bankers (ACIB) and a holder of an Advanced Human Resource Executive Certificate — University of Michigan — Ross School of Business, USA.

BANKING SECTOR

SBI managing director visits Sultanate MUSCAT: The future belong to SME sector and State Bank of India (SBI), as a pioneer of SME financing, is willing to support all initiatives, by offering consultancy, product information and much more. During their two-day visit to Oman, SBI Managing Director and Group Executive, Hemant Contractor and Chief General Manager (International Banking) R. Karthikeyan had tried to link all necessary contributor/enablers for the growth of SME sector in Oman, in particular and growth of Oman India Trade/Commerce and Financial relations, in general. The first link was the corporate executives, who can become biggest enabler for the SMEs, due to their influence, requirements and understanding of the business. In

third row seats offering a recline. To further delight owners, a storage console is provided on all three rows of seating. The Sequoia has a three-zone automatic climate control allowing you to adjust the temperature levels in each of the three zones (driver, front passenger and the rear zone). The vehicle also offers a 14-speaker JBL Premium audio system, which features a six-disc changer with AM/FM radio. One can also play MP3 and WMA ﬁles and use a bluetooth compatible phone. The 14 speakers are optimally positioned for realistic, high quality sound. A seven-inch navigation display makes driv-

ing much more convenient. The Sequoia boasts of ABS with EBD and Brake Assist (a feature, which further enhances braking of the car, when the pedal is depressed), along with Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) system and Traction Control (TRC). A clearance sonar system detects obstructions ahead and behind the car, informing the driver with an indicator and buzzer to warn of collisions. High performance brakes, coupled with complete 12-airbag system and advanced collision safety make it one of the safest of vehicles. The top grade in Sequoia offers Active Height Control (AHC). AHC allows adjustment of height for the different requirements of cargo/people and the total weight of the vehicle, thanks to an electronically controlled rear air suspension that lets the user adjust vehicle’s height with a switch. This advanced suspension system helps ensure excellent cruising ability and riding comfort. Toyota Sequoia is equipped with some local accessories to enhance its looks, feel and functionality. Customers are welcome to get the full details of these local ﬁtments, by visiting a Toyota showroom.

WORKSHOP

Mohamed Al Balushi appointed head of Human Resources at alizz islamic bank MUSCAT: alizz islamic bank has appointed Mohamed Al Balushi as the bank’s head of Human Resources. A banking industry veteran, Al Balushi will oversee recruitment and manpower planning, training and career development, performance management and compensation and beneﬁts strategy at alizz islamic bank, ensuring the bank operates in line with national regulations and international standards. Jamal Darwiche, acting CEO of alizz islamic bank, said, “With this appointment, alizz islamic bank has added yet another key member to the senior management team with extensive banking experience as well as performance management, HR leadership, planning and recruitment. His skills and

fact, many of them, in their own way, have already begun their journey as a friend, philosopher and guide for their smaller cousins, SMEs. The dinner hosted by the Hemant, was well attended and Indian Ambassador J. S. Mukul’s presence was noteworthy. During the second day, SBI delegates had a meeting with Cen-

tral Bank of Oman’s vice-president, Hilal Ali Saud Al Barwani. On SME ﬁnancing, both CBO and SBI shared similar enthusiasm, former because it is related to national agenda of employment generation and the latter due to its expertise in SME ﬁnancing, in home country. CBO expected that SBI will provide valuable

inputs for creating an effective framework for SME ﬁnancing. Discussions with undersecretary Ahmed Sulaiman Saleh Al Maimani, ministry of Commerce and Industry were very fruitful and ended with lot of expectations. Though the talks started about the bank and its business and Hemant initiated the discussion on SME ﬁnancing opportunities and potential in Oman, Al Maimani asked about SBI experience in India and gradually the complete discussion became SME centric. Hemant described the options available in India and successful schemes like CGTMSE (Credit Guarantee Trust for Medium & Small Enterprises), Cluster Approach and Ancillary Unit concepts.

Al Osool Al Arabia to hold management development programme on Oct. 9 and 10 MUSCAT: Al Osool Al Arabia in association with IIM Calcutta (IIMC) announced a two-day management development programme on supply chain management and procurement, to be held in Muscat on October 9 and 10, 2013. Prof. Partha Priya Datta and Prof. Preetam Basu will lead the programme. Prof. Partha P. Datta is an associate professor in the Operations Management Group of IIMC and is a faculty member of the institute. He received BTech (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, MBA from Lancaster University and PhD in management from Cranﬁeld School of Management. He has published in International Journal of Operations and Production Management and International Journal of Production Research. He is the programme director of advanced programme in supply chain management at IIM Calcutta. His research interests include operations and supply chain management, operations strategy and modelling and analysis of production systems. Prof. Datta is awarded the prestigious James Cooper Memorial Cup by the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, UK for best PhD thesis in Logistics and Supply Chain Management. Prof. Preetam Basu is a professor in the Operations Management Group of IIM Calcutta. He has a doctorate degree in Operations Management from University of Connecticut, USA. Earlier, he did his MS in Applied Mathematics from University of Minnesota, USA. His research interests include supply chain management, start-up opera-

tions, services outsourcing, supply chain ﬁnance, working capital management and modelling of ﬁnancial services. Effective supply chain management is the foundation for companies as they become more global, customer service pressures are mounting, and the competitive forces are more intense, executives must be able to go beyond functional excellence. Rapid globalisation and changing consumer attitudes demand that you leverage your knowledge and adaptability. These have become keys to competitive advantage. Al Osool Al Arabia in association with IIMC Management Development Programmes caters to this new mind set. This programme will improve analytical insights and skills, provide a thorough knowledge base so that today’s practicing managers can emerge as leaders of tomorrow. Through interactive discussions and contemporary cases, the participants will be introduced to the basic philosophy, important concepts and best practices in Supply Chain Management (SCM). The pedagogy is designed to develop in the participant a critical thinking of integrating demand with supply chain management.

SPECIAL PRICING SCHEME

Experience luxurious drive with Renault Safrane MUSCAT: Suhail Bahwan Automobiles, the sole distributors of Renault vehicles in Oman has announced a unique scheme on one of their most luxurious models, the Renault Safrane which is an alltime favourite amongst car lovers within the Sultanate region. Now, the Renault Safrane is available across Oman with the new 2.0 CVT X-Tronic automatic gearbox and the 2.5 V6 (180 hp) with automatic six speed transmission and 3.5 V6 (240 hp) also ﬁtted with an automatic sixspeed transmission. With Safrane’s growing popularity amongst all segments of people in town, Renault Oman has introduced a special pricing scheme for their valued customers where

the Renault Safrane is available at OMR99 on CVI (Continuous Variable Instalment) basis with an initial 20 per cent down payment only. Customers also get to avail unlimited beneﬁts like free registration, free insurance, six years unlimited mileage warranty, free AAA road assistance and lastly free service for 20,000km/one year (whichever is earlier). Eligible customers can now avail this unique offer that will make their purchasing convenient and easy. The Renault Safrane 3.5 V6 ﬁtted with an automatic six-speed transmission comes equipped with the Carminat TomTom navigation system, a solution as efficient as it is easy to update and use, with the intuitive joystick. The

hands-free card allows you to open and close the doors as well as start the engine, without even leaving your pocket. Bluetooth technology allows you to make calls in perfect safety. For easy manoeuvring, the reverse parking camera displays ob-

stacles on the colour screen, while the parking brake is activated automatically when the engine is turned off. On board the Safrane, technology is also harnessed to provide onboard pleasure in the form of the Bose audio system giving you larger-than-life sound.

The Safrane name has become synonymous with quality, durability and performance. With the next generation Safrane, there is a growing buzz and excitement around the Renault range as the Safrane is a generously-dimensioned saloon car. Its nicely balanced proportions, ﬂuid and elegant lines sweeping over the broad shoulders denote a powerful presence. A carefully engineered blend of comfort and performance, and a choice of modern engines, the Safrane has an efficient new chassis including the Nissan multilink rear suspension arrangement for enhanced ride comfort and driving pleasure. Additionally, it also comes with an athermic windshield, electric

mirrors with memory function, auto-dimming rear-view mirror, tri-zone climate control, deadlocking with an anti-intruder device, electric rear windows with antipinch, Bose CD/MP3 stereo with 10 speakers, bluetooth, Renault keyless smart card, panoramic sunroof, cream leather seats, power front seats with massage, integrated rear sunblind, as well as front and rear parking sensors. Items such as HID headlights, 18inch alloy wheels and an electronic parking brake. Some engines will settle for ﬂattering performance, the V6 engine adds nobility, ﬂexibility and power; the engine has generous torque available from low engine revs and across a very broad range of uses.

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

ROUND-UP 2014 GMC Sierra makes Mideast debut The 2014 Sierra boasts the longest list of standard features ever for a full-size GMC pickup

Times News Service DUBAI: GMC introduced the allnew 2014 GMC Sierra Light Duty full-size pickup, the most powerful and advanced pickup in the brand’s 111-year history, at an exclusive launch event held on September 15 at Mall of the Emirates’ Ski Dubai. The launch saw strong attendance by members of the media and shed light on the 2014 model’s bold new exterior — which houses one of three all-new EcoTec3 engines, a fully updated cabin with available next-generation IntelliLink connectivity and other features designed for the most discerning pickup owners. “We are so pleased to introduce the all-new 2014 GMC Sierra Light Duty to the Middle East,” said John Stadwick, president and managing director of General Motors Middle East Operations. “The pioneering redesigned model — engineered and built to ‘Command Respect’ — further elevates GMC’s reputation as an industry leader in styling and quality. The 2014 Sierra offers best-in-class standards and sets an important benchmark for pickup safety and reﬁnement.” In addition to all-new design and technology, the 2014 Sierra boasts the longest list of standard features ever for a full-size GMC pickup. From connectivity solutions, to a standard tiedown system in the rear, to the segment’s only standard projector beam headlamps, many premium features are found on each all-new Sierra. The 2014 GMC Sierra Light Duty arrives in showrooms in late October and is offered in regular cab, double cab, crew cab and Denali models. Sierra Denali details The distinctive Sierra Denali returns for 2014, delivering GMC capability with unique design cues and exclusive features. On the exterior, the pickup has a signature Denali chrome grille, unique 20inch chrome wheels, unique interior decorative trim, a polished stainless steel exhaust outlet and

body-colour front and rear bumpers. Denali-specific interior details include script on the bright door sills and embossed into the front seats and real aluminium trim. Sierra Denali’s hi-tech interior also features an exclusive eightinch customisable driver display that can show relevant settings, audio and navigation information in the instrument panel. Sierra Denali’s standard eight-inch colour touch navigation radio with Intellilink, located above the centre console, serves as the main hub for bluetooth-connected phones and portable devices connected through five standard USB ports. Other features standard on Sierra Denali include projector-style headlamps with LED signature daytime running lights, a Bose audio system, heated and cooled leather front bucket seats, a heated steering wheel, and front and rear park assist. New EcoTec3 engines Sierra’s engine portfolio is updated for 2014 with increased power, torque and fuel efficiency across the board. New 4.3L V-6, 5.3L V-8 and 6.2L V-8 powertrains are offered, all from a shared EcoTec3 engine family. Each engine features standard direct injection, continuously variable valve timing and Active Fuel Management, which means they seamlessly switch to run on four cylinders during light-load driving to enhance fuel efficiency. The increased power and efficiency of the new engines are the result of more than 10 million hours of sophisticated computer

modelling, more than half of which were used to make the best of the combustion process. The new 4.3L V-6 EcoTec3 engine offers the most torque of any standard V-6 in the segment, with 413 Nm. Torque is the turning force that generates off-the-line acceleration and confident trailering performance. Sierras equipped with the 4.3L EcoTec3 V-6 will have trailering ratings up to 3,266 kg for a regular cab, standard bed, four-wheel-drive model. Sierra’s standard V-6 also produces an SAE-certified 285 horsepower and is matched with a proven, efficient six-speed automatic transmission. “Rather than adapting a V-6 intended for use in passenger cars, we built a new engine from the ground up based on the unique demands of a pickup,” said Jordan Lee, powertrain chief engineer. “Sierra’s 4.3L shares its basic design architecture with the latest iterations of the V-8 engines that GMC owners have trusted for generations.” The new 5.3L EcoTec3 is SAE-certified at 355 horsepower and 519 Nm of torque. With EPA-estimated fuel economy of 10.2L / 100km highway (2WD), it offers the best fuel economy of any V-8 pickup. The new 6.2L V-8 is available in Sierra SLT and standard on Denali models. It is SAE-certified at 420 horsepower and 624 Nm of torque — the most horsepower and torque of any light duty pickup in the industry. The new 6.2L also enables a 5,443 kg maximum towing capacity for the Sierra Light Duty, which is expected to have

BANK SOHAR

New standard in interiors Premium materials, attention to detail and purposeful technology deﬁne Sierra’s all-new cabin. New soft-touch materials and available aluminium trim line an interior that’s focused on usable and productive space. “Pickup owners want a wellcrafted cabin, but also one that still feels like a pickup,” said Helen Emsley, Sierra interior design director. “They want a purposeful

Cargo box innovations Sierra’s rear bumper features standard corner steps that make climbing into the bed easy, regardless of whether the tailgate is up or down. The steps are paired with grips formed into the top of each bed side. Four movable upper tie downs are also standard. They can be placed in nine different locations and can bear a 113kg load. Available LED cargo lights integrated beneath the bed rails will illuminate the bed when a tonneau cover is in place. The available EZ Lift and Lower tailgate uses an integrated torsion bar and damper to ease lifting and lowering. Driver alert technology Several active safety features are available for the 2014 Sierra, including Forward Collision Alert, which uses a forward-facing camera to notify the driver of an

imminent collision, and Lane Departure Warning, which uses the same camera to track the pickup’s position in relation to a road’s lane markers. Paired with Forward Collision Alert and Land Departure Warning is GMC’s first-ever Driver Alert Seat, which generates vibrating pulse patterns on the left and/or right side of the lower seat cushion bolster to alert the driver of potential dangers, such as an unsignalled lane change or approaching another vehicle too quickly. According to GM research, the seat’s vibrations may direct driver attention to the location of a potential collision more quickly and accurately than audible alerts. Drivers have the option of selecting either audible or vibrating alerts. Quietness doesn’t only come from factors within the cabin. The 2014 Sierra features new aerodynamic measures that benefit fuel efficiency and reduce wind noise. Updated mirrors that reduce wind turbulence, triplesealed inlaid doors, as well as roof and tailgate design features all help air flow smoothly and quietly over the Sierra. Updates to Sierra’s body and chassis are designed to improve ride and handling, comfort and capability. The fully boxed frame uses high-strength steel and hydroforming to provide more strength and rigidity with less weight. Sierra’s aluminium hood saves approximately 7.7kg versus a comparable steel hood. At the rear, a roll-formed box is stronger, lighter and more durable than a traditional stamped steel box. Sierra uses aluminium for some suspension components for additional rigidity and weight saving, and new lightweight wheels are paired with low-rolling-resistance tyres in most applications. The tyres, along with new shear-style and redesigned hydraulic cab mounts, are designed to help reduce noise and vibration in the cabin. GMC designers approached the exterior of the 2014 Sierra with respect for its predecessors, evolving its familiar shape while adding distinctive details like standard projector headlamps, available LED signature accent lighting and detailed new grilles. All Sierra models have chrome grille surrounds and premium black wheel arch mouldings. Different trim levels feature chrome belt mouldings, mirror caps and door handles, as well as unique wheel designs and grille details. Other new features include available front Park Assist, in addition to the rear Park Assist already available.

LU C K Y D R AW

Al Mumayaz Savings scheme third quarterly draw to be held in October MUSCAT: Following the success of the Al Mumayaz Savings Scheme 2013 in the ﬁrst half of the year, Bank Sohar is gearing up for the third quarter draw which is planned to be held in the beginning of October. Nine lucky customers will walk away with cash prizes worth OMR84,000 as follows: seven children will win OMR1,000 each, one winner will take home the regional draw prize of OMR7,000 and one lucky winner will walk away with the quarterly draw grand prize of OMR70,000. Customers need to save average minimum balance of OMR100 to be eligible to participate in the children’s and regional draws. While minimum average balance of OMR1,000 is required for quarterly prize draw. In addi-

the highest rating in the class. All three engines use lightweight aluminium blocks and heads and are mated with durable six-speed automatic transmissions. A ‘cruise grade braking’ feature down-shifts the transmission on downgrades, which is intended to reduce brake wear. V-8 models use new, larger 9.5- and 9.76-inch rear axles with the strength to accommodate the engines’ higher output. Strong brakes are important for stopping pickups, whether they’re full of people, payload or both. The 2014 Sierra features four-wheel disc brakes with Duralife brake rotors, which feature a hardened and strengthened surface to reduce corrosion. Duralife rotors — a GMexclusive technology — are expected to last twice as long as conventional rotors and provide quieter braking with less vibration. The 2014 Sierra also uses electric power steering. An electric motor in place of an engine-driven hydraulic pump saves fuel and allows for tuning that’s expected to result in a more consistent, crisp steering feel and plenty of assist for parking manoeuvres.

interior, not one that’s flowing like you’d find in a car or crossover.” Sierra has an upright instrument panel designed for visibility and accessibility. Knobs and buttons are large, legible and within reach. All knobs are coated using a rubber-over-mold technology, so they’re easy to grip. A new instrument cluster on all models features six gauges with an available centrally located, 4.2inch colour Driver Information Centre with vehicle status information, a trip computer and other information, such as radio and navigation. A second, high-mounted glove box with a flat floor joins the traditional box below. Each of Sierra’s doors has storage crafted to hold most beverage containers and other personal items. Along the centre stack and centre console are additional cupholders, discreet compartments large enough for most laptop computers, and connectivity options. Sierra is available with a 230-volt outlet, up to five USB ports, four 12-volt outlets and an SD card slot. Sierra’s seats use dual-density foam designed to stay comfortable over long hours and continue to look great after years of use. Leather and cloth are offered, and Sierra’s new high-wear cloth is designed to last longer and resist staining. For the first time on double cab models, the 2014 Sierra has new front-hinged rear doors with outside pull handles at the rear, providing improved access in tight parking spaces. Unlike pickups with rear-hinged doors, Sierra’s layout allows rear passengers to enter and exit the vehicle with the front doors remaining closed.

tion, accounts that are maintained in Emirati Dirham (AED) are also eligible to take part in the Al Mumayaz Savings Scheme. As part of the scheme, savings account holders have four chances

for every minimum average balance maintained in their accounts for any of the quarterly draws. Children savings accounts can earn twice the chances to win. Highlighting the success of the scheme, R. Narasimhan, DGM and Head of Retail Banking at Bank Sohar, said, “We have launched the Al Mumayaz Savings Scheme to reward Bank Sohar customers and to promote the culture of savings. We also, through this programme, aim to show our commitment to provide excellent services and best banking practices for our valuable customers. The ﬁrst two quarterly draws and the hourly draws have proved their success, and we are looking forward to announce the venue and names of the winners in the third quarterly draw.”

HSBC Bank Oman rewards 105 Mandoos customers MUSCAT: HSBC Bank Oman has rewarded ﬁve more customers as part of its monthly Mandoos Savings Scheme prize draw. The lucky winners for the month of August were Dharmedra K., Nasser Mohammed, Salimah Juma, Humaid Abdullah and Mohammed Nasser, who each won OMR20,000. In addition, a further 100 Mandoos customers received prizes totalling OMR100,000. Alan Jarman, general manager, Retail Banking and Wealth Management at HSBC Bank Oman said, “Our Mandoos Savings Scheme has been creatively designed to offer our customers more chances to walk away with lucrative cash prizes. With the reintroduction of Mandoos in May,

and continuous innovation and differentiation in our digital and traditional products and services portfolio, HSBC Bank Oman offers one of the most competitive retail banking propositions in the Sultanate, adding value and enriching our customers’ banking experience every day.” Next month, HSBC Bank Oman will hold its quarterly Mandoos draw which, in addition to the

usual monthly prizes, will see one customer win the OMR100,000 grand prize, and two salaried customers will also win back their annual salaries, up to OMR30,000. To enter the prize draws, customers only need to maintain a minimum average balance of OMR100 in their Mandoos accounts at the end of each month, and can increase their odds of winning by saving more.

FOOTWEAR BRAND

Landmark Group launches NOSE in Salalah MUSCAT: Landmark Group, the region’s largest and leading retail conglomerate, opened yet another iconic brand store at the Salalah Gardens Mall. Continuing in their commitment of bringing the best international brands at incredible prices, the group launched NOSE, the established ladies footwear and handbag brand from Malaysia. The new store was inaugurated by Neeraj Bhardwaj, GM, Landmark Group. Speaking at the opening, Bhardwaj said, “We are thrilled about the opening of one more store in Salalah and the warm reception our customers have given

us. The NOSE store brings fashion to life in a new and exciting way with the choicest assortment of trends, inspiring head-to toe looks and in-store associates to help our fashion-focused customers ﬁnd styles from the brands they love. We will continue to build a unique brand portfolio in Oman while giving our discerning customers the maximum value for their money.” Launched in 1999, the Malaysian brand NOSE features runway styles that are available at real way prices. The chic shape, luxurious materials and the vibrant kaleidoscope of colours

complimented by a plethora of designs will totally spoil you for choice when it comes to accessorising with bags or dressing your feet. Their collection pays homage to every woman’s indi-

viduality and sense of style. The store’s intuitive layout and top notch customer service staff will completely immerse the shopper in the product selection that consists of handbags, totes, hobos,

clutches, wallets, wristlets, shoes, sandals, ballerinas and platform career pumps. NOSE is targeted at the female customers between 17-35 years and starts at a price range of OMR9. If you want to give your look an accessory that makes a bold and fashionable statement and experience a whole new shopping experience, head to the newly opened NOSE outlet at the Salalah Gardens Mall. The concept store is an extension of the Landmark Group’s signature retail model that has been a huge hit across more than 1,500

outlets in 20 countries. Founded in 1973 in Bahrain, today the group has a turnover in excess of $4.7 billion and operates its signature brands over 21 million sq. ft of retail space. Over the years, their customer centric business model has helped millions of customers get access to a wide assortment of good-quality merchandise at the lowest possible prices while guaranteeing the highest levels of satisfaction. Their ﬂeet of concept stores is recognised as an authority of sorts on the latest in the fashion world and continues to grow in popularity.

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ROUND-UP ACCOLADE

Dar Al Atta’a participates in Bahrain volunteer work award ceremony

TWENTY-FIVE NEW DELICACIES: Senior officials of Khimji International introducing the 25 new non-pizza variety as part of their 25th

anniversary in Oman. — Jun Estrada/ TIMES OF OMAN

Pizza Hut Oman marks 25th anniversary MUSCAT: Dar Al Atta’a (DAA) Association recently participated in the 3rd annual awards for Sheikh Issa bin Ali Al Khalifa prize for volunteer work in the Kingdom of Bahrain which is organised yearly by Good Word Society held from September 13 until September 16, 2013. This event was attended by representatives of the Arab Federation for volunteer work from 17 Arab countries as well as representatives of the United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV) and DAA association delegation chaired by Mariam bint Essa Al Zadjali, chairperson and Rahma bint Nasser Al Amri, director of association and May Jameel Al Bayat (Marketing Director) as well as Hussain bin Jawad bin Abdulrasool winner of the best volunteer of the year 2013. Hussain bin Jawad bin Abdulrasool from the Sultanate of Oman was honoured at an official ceremony under the patronage of Sheikh Khalifa bin Ali bin

Khalifa Al Khalifa and the presence of several high officials in the Kingdom of Bahrain, diplomats and ambassadors as well as Sheikh Dr Suleiman bin Saud bin Ali Al Jabri, the ambassador of the Sultanate of Oman in Bahrain and many of the leading personalities in volunteerism from 17 Arab countries. Hussein Jawad was happy for this honour and winning this award, considered that this is one of the main events celebrating the Arab Volunteer Day on September 15. Hussein Jawad said that such awards and external participation seeks to advance volunteerism in the Arab world and the opportunity to enrich the Arab action through pilot experiences and successful organisations, and extended his deep gratitude to Sheikh Isa Bin Khalifa Al Khalifa and Good Word Society to adopt such initiatives and thanked them for their hospitality in Bahrain.

To mark its 25th anniversary celebrations, the restaurant chain has introduced a month long Pizza Carnival with 25 new delicacies through the newly introduced pizza and much more menu

MUSCAT: Pizza Hut Oman has been delighting customers of all ages with its mouth watering pizzas and scrumptious delicacies. To mark its 25th anniversary celebrations, the restaurant chain has introduced a month long Pizza Carnival with 25 new delicacies through the newly introduced pizza and much more menu. To live up to its brand promise of changing everyday moments into celebrations, Pizza Hut Oman has designed a customer centric activity titled “Dine. Play. Win” which

will focus on making all its dinein customers a sure winner. Customers who dine for multiples of OMR10 (all inclusive) get to play and win guaranteed gift coupons by spinning the ‘wheel-of-fortune’ from their newly introduced pizzas and much more menu that comprises never seen before starters, salads, pastas, ﬂatbreads and desserts to name a few of the 25 lip smacking delights. Commenting on this grand occasion, Anil Khimji, director, Khimji Ramdas, said, “Pizza Hut

P R O M O T I N G C U LT U R E

mented Vivek Pande, CEO, Khimji Ramdas, Lifestyle Group. “As we turn 25, I look back at the milestones that define us. We started with a very small outlet in Qurum in 1988, today with 32 outlets nationwide, we have grown and spread all over Oman to become one of the most popular hotspots for the complete family. We thank our principals YUM brands for their insights, our dedicated employees for their customer-first attitude, and of course, You, our valued customer, who defines our success story today and the years to come,” he added. Talking about the ‘Pizza and Much More’ promotion, Mihir Khimji, director of Khimji International commented, “The ‘much more’ brings a new dimension to our menu. It gives a holistic dining experience at Pizza Hut.” Share the good times at Pizza Hut outlets in Muscat as well as Salalah, Sur, Sohar, Wudam, Nizwa and Ibri.

P R E M I E R R E TA I L E R

Bait Al Zubair Museum signs agreement with TEDx Muscat to support Omani youth MUSCAT: As part of its dynamic plan to support the continued development of the Omani youth via artistic and cultural means, Bait Al Zubair Museum has signed a cooperation agreement with TEDx Muscat 2013 that will assist in deepening the sense of loyalty and belonging among young people in the Sultanate. The agreement centres around creating a platform for dialogue among the youth and reinforcing the most important basis of a successful constructive dialogue, which is characterised by accepting different points of view and respecting all opinions. Commenting on the signiﬁcance of the agreement, Abdullah Al Zubair from Bait Al Zubair Museum said, “This agreement aligns with the objectives of Bait Al Zubair Museum to enhance the human potential of young people by expanding their horizons of thought and creating platforms for stimulating discussion that contribute to their development culturally and intellectually.

Oman has been winning the hearts of pizza lovers across the Sultanate for over 25 years now. We wanted to make the most of this special moment by honouring our loyal customers. Show them our gratitude, through a theme that is both fun and rewarding. We present this month long Pizza Hut Carnival, that is aimed at maximum entertainment and value for the entire family.” Yogesh Shah, general manager of Khimji International, restaurant and café proudly announced, “We have 32 outlets in Oman and I am proud to say that we serve three million customers every year which is a great achievement.” The Pizza Hut Carnival will continue till October 10, 2013 but the ‘Pizzas and Much More’ menu is here to stay to add an extra sparkle to every customer dining experience. “At Pizza Hut, we always strive to exceed our customers’ expectations. We pride ourselves on delivering great service, com-

The museum has a rich history of focusing on the development of youth in the ﬁeld of culture and art, and through agreements such as these with respected institutions like TEDx, we will continue work together and enhance outcomes for youth in the Sultanate.” TEDxMuscat was organised for the ﬁrst time in Oman in 2011. Operating under the licence of TED, TEDxMuscat is an independently created event that connects people, fosters learning and inspiration and encourages conversations that could change attitudes, lives and eventually, the world.

The agreement of cooperation with TEDxMuscat was signed to continue Bait Al Zubair Museum’s role and mission in the community and more particularly within the youth culture; empowering young Omanis for their future roles in society, and to enable them contribute and participate fully in future achievements of the Sultanate. Maryam Al Siyabi, assistant director of Events and Marketing of Bait Al Zubair Museum, explained that she expected about 300 young Omanis to attend the event and that each individual would receive particular attention in terms of

M U LT I - F U N C T I O N A L

training on the correct methods to use in order to create constructive dialogues. She added: “This agreement will enhance the values of cooperation between the Museum and TEDx. Bait Al Zubair Museum will continue its mission to support Omani youth and meet their cultural and artistic needs. The event this year will be held at Bait al Zubair Museum on the October 2. The event is also an opportunity to learn more about the museum, its heritage and the cultural and civilisational heritage of the Sultanate.

Shopping at The Sultan Center is a ‘rewarding’ experience MUSCAT: The Sultan Center (TSC), Oman has made a name for itself as the premier retailer of choice for quality products and uniqueness in variety. With seven stores located in and around Oman, the supermarket chain covers the core principles of any successful retail venture — quality, freshness of produce and variety. Its ﬂagship store in Qurum sparked a slew of other outlets that are an extension of everything that TSC has to offer. At the outlets in Qurum and Azaiba customers are almost inundated by an eclectic variety of both local and international merchandise. These offer the best examples of the chain’s stock of exclusive merchandise that cater to very speciﬁc tastes. Al Khoud and Al Amerat wholesale centres rely more on a wholesale business model. Here, bulk buying is encouraged through heavily marked down prices with an emphasis on affordability and putting everyday essentials within reach of the average shopper.

Customers will encounter somewhat of a similar concept at TSC’s bargain or discount outlets in Mawaleh, Samail and Quriyat. These stores offer great bargains for everyday staples such as fresh fruit, meat and vegetables, apart from holding periodical ‘best buy’ offers for customers. The TSC’s loyalty programme which entitles members to a host of exciting in-store and external offers through the retail giant’s many business partners. TSC’s loyalty scheme has a whopping 75,000 customers as its members. It rewards customer patronage through discount shopping on select products, best-buys, bundle offers and more. That’s not all, as they rack up points by the rial, customers can redeem them against an array of smart offers from TSC’s partners. Members of the loyalty programme get fabulous discounts on products and services at places such as Al Raffah Hospital, VLCC, Jeans Grill, Talentz Centre, the Times of Oman news daily and Al Masa Bowling.

STUDENT COUNCIL

Eurostar introduces latest range of tablets in Oman MUSCAT: Eurostar lets the cat out of the bag with its latest range of ePad tablets and a new line up of devices with multi-functionality theme across the new quarter. The new line up of multifunction devices includes the ePad Genie range, the ePad 7+, ePad 10 and ePad Kids. The Genie line-up is a range of seven inch tablets with sim capability for phone calls, dual core processor for faster processing of various apps and also builtin GPS function. The line-up includes the Genie and the Genie-2 which are true phablets running on the latest Andorid software. The top end Genie model come with a dual sim which enables users to make phone calls on the tablet and manage two different sims at the same time; constant Internet connectivity through 3G , WiFi and bluetooth for social media, live streaming and chatting; a 1.5Ghz Dual Core processor with a 1GB DDR-III

Al Injaz holds investiture ceremony RAM; 8GB memory which can be expanded to a whopping 32GB; the Genie -1 is a mid end tablet with a single sim, a strong 1.2Ghz and a 6GB memory and a powerful 3000 mAH battery, which is priced as an affordable entry model for the consumer who want to stay connected online and through the phone. Eurostar’s new range is expected to create a wave, with special of-

fers, bundles and giveaways. “The new range of Eurostar multifunctional ePad tablets will be a true testimony to Eurostar’s presence in the Thematic devices leadership,” said Youssef Saidi, the COO for the group. “We also recently bagged the Asia Most Promising brand, which reinforces Eurostar brand and care for the end users experience,” said Saidi.

MUSCAT: Al Injaz Private School, Al Ansab, conducted its seventh investiture ceremony of the students council members for the academic year 2013-14 on September 19, 2013 at its custombuilt premises. The students’ council, comprising all the elected students, was sworn in by the honour-

able chief guest, Qais bin Saeed Al Azri, the head of the Supervision of General Directorate, Ministry of Education of the Sultanate of Oman, who encouraged the students to groom themselves as leaders by working sincerely and committing themselves to their leadership duties. The school conducts the stu-

dents’ council election, every academic year, wherein, the students participate actively in the electoral procedure. The school, having classes from kindergarten, Grade I to XI, follows the IGCSE curriculum and believes in excellence in education along with personality development.

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM MONDAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

SECTION

RECRUI JOB POSTINGS

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. — George B. Shaw

L AC K O F T R A N S PA R E N C Y

Do not keep information to yourself

o your employees have a sense of what is going on in your organisation? Recently, a manager told me that in her company, her boss never let her or the team know what he learned from his boss. He didn’t “cascade-down” the information coming from the top. The chief executive, however, thought that everything he shared with this leader was being also shared with his staff. So, he was surprised to ﬁnd out that lower-level employees were not aware of some of the company’s policies or news. This lack of transparency seems to be a common problem in organisations today. Yet, it is increasingly important for leaders to keep their staff informed. People can’t achieve the company’s goals if they don’t know what they are. They can’t get excited about the vision or mission if they haven’t been told what it is. They have difficulty planning for the future, an instead, they can seem confused, lost, and misguided when they don’t have accurate information. Further, they can feel resentful and angry when they are the last to know or worse — never

SLOW DOWN ENJOY THE RIDE

told what is going on. This makes them feel unimportant and not valued in the ﬁrm. In fact, when transparency is low, employees view the organisation and leaders with more scepticism and suspicion, leading to a breakdown of trust. So, what can companies do to achieve transparency of information? Do not assume that messages shared from the top leader to the next level down are being shared all the way down to the lowest level employee. Make sure to follow up with employees at all levels to see where there may be communication gaps. Senior-level leaders need to periodically meet or share information with their middle-level managers. Sometimes having face-to-face meetings in addition to news alerts or e-mails can be very helpful to communicate new initiatives or answer questions. Once middle-level managers know what is going on, they should have similar type meetings with their direct reports to keep them in the loop. Follow up with leaders to ensure they are sharing accurate information. Use trustworthy leaders

to verify what others say. Sometimes a manager might share information with peers or staff, yet it is biased by their own perspective and spin on things that may not be accurate. Verifying the message is important. Communicate often Put a system in place to ensure that employees learn what is going on. This could include changes in strategic directions, policies, procedures, among other things. Communicate clearly, concisely and often. While it may seem like you are over communicating, ask your employees what they think. Usually, they will tell you it is not enough. Share good news along with bad news. Nothing says you have to always share only bad news with employees. They can be inspired hearing positive news about awards, accomplishments, new business deals, etc. They also want to understand financials and how the firm is doing. They can do a better job of helping the firm succeed if they know the challenges the firm is facing. Use a variety of formats to keep people informed — newsletters,

communication boards, blogs, social media, employee town halls or forums, among other methods. Be sure to review these techniques with employees to make sure you are using methods they are actually following or participating in. The higher the level the leader, the more that employees will value face-to-face meetings by him/her. They want to see his or her facial reactions and other nonverbal when delivering messages or asking for input. Communication is critical for all levels of employees. Research shows that engagement goes up when employees feel they have the necessary information to do their jobs and if they have two-way communication with their managers. In addition, leaders who communicate what is going on to their employees are often seen in a more positive light — they can gain loyalty from their employees. Transparent organisations value open and candid information that enables employees to make more informed decisions. This can beneﬁt both the individual employees and the ﬁrm. — Joyce E. A. Russell/The Washington Post

QUOTES Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realise that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge. — Eckhart Tolle Be known for pleasing others, especially if you govern them... Ruling other has one advantage: you can do more good than anyone else. — Baltasar Gracián Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things ﬂow naturally forward in whatever way they like. — Lao Tzu

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

B11

RECRUIT YOUR BIGGEST ROAD HAZARD IS IN YOUR HAND A TIMES OF OMAN HANDS-FREE DRIVING INITIATIVE

B12

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

ROUND-UP Naseeruddin Shah, Ratna Pathak-Shah deliver a stunning performance

Times News Service

of seeing the best at their best. “To add to the remarkable histrionics was the impeccable production by NPA Events team who left nothing to chance. The minutest of the details was attended to. Congratulations to Ashok Survarna and the team.” An impressed Radha Mukherji, CEO, ADINC DDB, said, “Dear Liar was a total treat for the senses and the spirit. Only actors of an extraordinary calibre of Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak-Shah could so vividly bring to life the most celebrated playwright of all time GBS and the feisty Mrs Patrick Stella Campbell and the special bond they shared. It brought back wizardry of words, razor sharp wit, subtle nuances and reﬁned acting to stage.”

MUSCAT: It was once in a life time opportunity for theatre aficionados in Muscat to see two icons of Indian film and theatre industry take stage on September 20 for the NPA Events-organised play Dear Liar at the Oman Auditorium, Al Bustan Palace. Actors Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak-Shah delivered a powerpacked stunning performance that left the audience impressed. As Naseeruddin had earlier said, years of staging the drama had certainly added maturity to the actors’ understanding of the play and, of course, their performances. The duo, under the direction of Indian theatre guru Satyadev Dubey, had first staged the play in 1993, and their enthusiasm for the roles of great playwright George Bernard Shaw and actress Patrick Stella Campbell did not seem to have dipped one bit even 20 years later. Audiences who thoroughly enjoyed the play vouched for the same. Greta C. Holtz, US Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman, said, “It was absolutely outstanding performance of a wonderful play and a very special treat to see Naseeruddin Shah, one of the fin-

Special kudos She had words of appreciation for the event organisers too. “NPA Events deserves special kudos — everything from the postcard format of the invites complete with the specially designed stamp, the ads, the invites and the overall arrangements at the Oman auditorium were classy and in perfect sync with such a high quality show. Take a bow, Ashok Suvarna!” Khalid Ansari, partner, KPMG felt the evening was dedicated to English literature enthusiasts. “It was a delightful evening for the lovers of the English literature; Naseeruddin Shah is an actor par excellence; his body language; his diction and his use of the stage make the superb actor that he is,” he said. The correspondence between George Bernard Shaw and Mrs Patrick Stella, a celebrated actress who ﬁrst played Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion way back in 1914, has become a memorable part of literary history. Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah truly took the audience down a special lane and did not let anything come in the way of production from being an absolute charmer.

As Naseeruddin had earlier said, years of staging the drama had certainly added maturity to the actors’ understanding of the play and, of course, their performances

est actors of Indian cinema and theatre and Ratna Pathak Shah, Naseeruddin’s talented wife, live and on stage in Oman.” Expressing joy at having watched the play, Mohammed Mahfoodh Al Ardhi, deputy chairman, NBO, said, “On behalf of the National Bank of Oman, I would like to congratulate Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak-Shah on

this wonderful production. It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, showcasing a delightful story, brilliantly played by a talented cast. We are proud to be directly involved in bringing Dear Liar to Muscat and I can certainly endorse the positive reviews which it has enjoyed elsewhere in the world. The National Bank of Oman, as one of the leading banks in the country, is committed

to enriching the cultural life of our fellow citizens and this production continues this aim through our ongoing support for theatrical productions of this stature.” Quality creatives, perfect ambience and faultless production — the hallmark of NPA Events stood out like always at this event too. Whether it was the exclusive invites (airmail envelope with spe-

cially designed stamps), the lovely setting or the stage, the event had a mark of excellence. Lauding the show, Dr Sathish Nambiar, chairman, Indian Social Club, said, “The versatility of Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak-Shah once again came to the fore on the night of September 20. Muscat audience had the opportunity to enjoy the visual treat

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM MAN.COM MONDAY, S E P T E M MBER B E R 23, 2 2013 013

SECTION

SPOR YOUR GAME

DAVID JAMES HAPPY APPY TO KEEP HIS GLOVESS ON The 43-year-old David James, mes, 00th who has just played his 1,000th game, tells Archie Bland of The Independent why he’s happy py prolonging his career on a remote Icelandic island. >C5

Unity & harmony as Games open

TOKEN OF APPRECIATION: Oman Olympic Committee’s secretary NATIONAL PRIDE: Oman contingent taking part in the opening ceremony of the 3rd Islamic Solidarity Games yesterday. – Supplied photo

The inaugural ceremony of Islamic Solidarity Games was graced by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and was attended by representatives from the participating nations, including Oman

FAHAD AL MUKRASHI

fahad@timesofoman.com PALEMBANG: The Sultanate joined 45 other Islamic nations to celebrate the opening of 3rd Islamic Solidarity Games in South

Sumatra’s capital city of Palembang yesterday. The inaugural ceremony, organised at the Jaka Baring Stadium, was graced by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and was attended by

heads of states, ISSF officials and representatives from the participating nations. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in his speech spoke about Islamic countries unity. Paying special tribute to the Egyptian, Syrian and Palestinian delegations attending the Games, he said: “Let’s put aside our political burden. Through this event, let’s prove to the world that Islamic countries can live in unity and harmony.” The evening’s programme, which included a cultural show and ﬁreworks, depicted history and arts of Indonesia. During the simple but impressive ceremony, Oman Olympic Committee (OOC) Chairman Sheikh Khalid bin Mohammed Al Zubair presided the

Omani delegation along with other members who all participated in the teams parade. Flag-raising ceremeony Earlier in the day, the Omani delegation participated in the ceremonial ﬂag-raising at the Athletes Village in the presence of OOC General Secretary Taha Al Kishry, board member Jihad Al Sheikh and the other officials as well as Omani athletes. Taha lauded the efforts of the organising committee for making perfect arrangements, especially for the Omani mission. Meanwhile, most of the Oman teams reached here yesterday except the swimming team, who are expected to arrive in the coming days.

general Taha Al Kishry presenting a unique memento from Sultanate of Oman to an official of the host country. – Supplied photo

Sprint star Barkat Al Harthy and fellow athlete Mohammed Obaid Hindi arrived straight from their training camp in Malaysia and took part in the opening ceremony. The rest of the athletes and tennis teams also arrived yesterday. The Oman beach volleyball teams, meanwhile, started training yesterday morning in the Athletes Village. The Omani sand spikers have come here after a weeklong rigorous training camp in Thailand and are hoping to compete for podium ﬁnishes. Teams comprising Ahmed Al Hosni, Badr Al Subhi, Hassan Al Balushi, Haitham Al Shuraiki are training hard under the watchful eyes of coach Khalifa Al Jabri. The Omani weightlifters Sultan

Al Marhoobi and Muhanna Mohammed Al Abdali, who are being coached by Suhail Al Kulaibi, faced minor hassles due to change in schedule but managed to train for about two hours once the problem was sorted out. The Games were ﬁrst hosted by Saudi Arabia in 2005 when men and women had to compete on separate days and men were barred from watching women swim. The second edition, which was scheduled to be hosted by Iran, was called off at the last minute. According to reports, the organisers of this third Games have decided not to have any restrictions on athletes while also rejecting requests by some countries to stage men and women events on separate days.

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

SPORTS ST PETERSBERG OPEN

Gulbis tames Garcia-Lopez SAINT PETERSBURG: Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis battled back from a set down to win the fourth title of his career in beating Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the Saint Petersburg ATP ﬁnal yesterday. The 25-year-old Gulbis, who was seeded sixth, won 3-6, 6-4, 6-0 to record his second win over Garcia-Lopez in their third meeting. Spanish veteran Garcia-Lopez, 30, got the better of

a raft of breaks in the ﬁrst set and broke early in the second before racing into a 4-1 lead. But he failed to win another game as world number 36 Gulbis found another gear and reeled off 11 straight games to storm to victory as Garcia-Lopez ran out of steam. Gulbis pocketed a $78,000 (57,700 euros) winner’s purse, while GarciaLopez earned $41,000. — AFP

Venus rolls in pink but Azarenka awaits No longer the force of old and currently only 62nd in the world, the 33-year-old American still had too much ﬁrepower for Barthel in Tokyo

TOKYO: Former world number one Venus Williams, resplendent in a floral dress and pink dreadlocks, showed glimpses of her old power by blasting past German Mona Barthel 6-3, 6-1 to reach the second round of the Pan Pacific Open yesterday. No longer the force of old and currently only 62nd in the world, the 33-year-old American still had too much firepower for Barthel in Tokyo, taking just 63 minutes to sweep past her 34th-ranked opponent. The seven-time grand slam singles winner, whose career has been blighted since being diagnosed with

OBLIGING FANS: Venus Williams signs autographs for her Japanese fans after beating Mona Barthel.

in the opening round of the Pan Paciﬁc Open. – AFP

the autoimmune disorder Sjogren’s Syndrome in 2011, faces an uphill task to extend her stay, however, with top seed Victoria Azarenka — runner-up to Serena Williams at the US Open earlier this month — her next opponent. Carefully coiffed braids poking through the top of her sun visor, Williams took the ﬁrst set with a ﬁerce forehand which caught the back of the baseline and wrapped

up proceedings by bludgeoning a backhand past Barthel. Ninth seed Sloane Stephens, one of the new generation of American players, who once claimed the Williams sisters refused to sign an autograph for her at a tournament in Florida when she was 12, thrashed Switzerland’s Stefanie Voegele 6-3, 6-2 to advance to the second round. In other matches, twice major

winner Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia ﬂattened Argentine qualiﬁer Paula Ormaechea 6-1, 6-2 while 14th-seeded Belgian Kirsten Flipkens was tested in a 7-6 (7-4), 7-5 win over Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, who also came through the qualifying draw of the 30th edition of the tournament. Fifteenth seed Sorana Cirstea kicked off with a routine 6-4, 6-4 victory over Julia Goerges. — AFP

TENNIS

SO SWEET: Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland kisses the trophy after winning the women’s singles ﬁnal at the 2013 WTA Korea Open – AFP

Radwanska storms back to win Korea Open crown SEOUL: Polish top seed Agnieszka Radwanska rallied from a set down to win the Korea Open at her first attempt on Sunday, edging out Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-7 (6/8), 6-3, 6-4. An epic first set accounted for half of the two and three-quarter hours the players spent on court, with Pavlyuchenkova fighting back from 3-0 down and saving four set points before triumphing in the tie break. But Radwanska showed why she is ranked number four in the world, roaring back in the second set to take the first three games and then tie up the match 6-3.

The deciding set went with serve for the first nine games, before Radwanska sneaked a final break to close out the match and take the title. “Especially after a great match, almost three hours of great tennis at a really high level, of course I’m very happy,” Radwanska said. “It was a very close match — tight sets, all of them — but I was just a little bit better in the important moments today,” she added. The Russian third seed, who had little time to recover from her gruelling semifinal with Italy’s Francesca Schiavone on Satur-

day, still managed to push Radwanska all the way. “It’s tough losing this match after ﬁghting so long and coming so close,” Pavlyuchenkova said. “It’s difficult and frustrating, but in tennis you can be up, then down and you lose some and you win some. I’m actually proud of myself. I had a great week. I showed some good tennis and it was a great ﬁnal,” she added. It was Radwanska’s third WTA title of the year and the 13th of her career, improving her head-tohead record against Pavlyuchenkova to 3-1. — AFP

METZ OPEN

Simon trumps Tsonga METZ: Second-seeded Frenchman Gilles Simon won the 11th title of his career when he outplayed top seed and compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4, 6-3 in the ﬁnal of the ATP Metz Open. Simon, whose summer has been plagued by whooping cough

and its after-effects, only entered the tournament on a wildcard. Simon became the fourth player to win a title on a wildcard invite. Simon’s 11th title draws him level with Guy Forget for career wins by Frenchmen, still far off the 23 won by Yannick Noah. — AFP 11TH CROWN: Gilles Simon.

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

SPORTS Kings upstage Titans Chennai Super Kings made light work of the huge total and chased down the target with seven balls to spare with Raina and Hussey posting identical scores of 47

RANCHI: Southpaws Suresh Raina and Michael Hussey entertained M S Dhoni’s hometown crowd with some scintillating strokes as Chennai Super Kings recorded a fourwicket victory over South Africa’s Titans in a high scoring match of the Champions League Twenty20 here yesterday. The Titan’s total of 186, built on a swashbuckling 77 knock off 36 balls by A.B. de Villiers and a relatively patient half century by captain Henry Davids, seemed a difficult target to achieve. But the Super Kings made light work of the huge total and chased down the target with seven balls to spare with Raina and Hussey posting identical scores of 47 off 28 and 26 balls respectively, giving a ﬂying start and Dwayne Brave (38 off 26 balls) and S Barinath (20 not out) steering the team towards the victory.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Suresh Raina laid the foundation for Chen-

nai Super Kings with aggressive batting. – PTI

Earlier, de Villiers’s hurricane 77 and Davids’ responsible 52 paved the way for Titans’ challenging 185 for ﬁve. Sent in to bat, South African T20 runners-up

Titans built on the 39-ball 76-run partnership between Davids and de Villiers for the second wicket to post a competitive total at the Jharkhand State Cricket Associa-

tion Stadium. De Villiers played a whirlwind knock and treated the CSK bowlers with disdain. The right-hander was at his destructive best and blasted as many as seven sixes and three fours during his brutal display of strokeplay. Even after the departure of Davids in the 14th over, de Villiers remained the star of the show and seemed in no mood to relent. His innings saw Titans posting the highest total of the tournament till date. De Villiers was particularly harsh on left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja as the bowler leaked 49 runs from his three overs. Playing in front of CSK skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s home crowd, Titans started the proceedings on a conﬁdent note as Davids and Jacques Rudolph (21), who had scored a double hundred on his Test debut versus Bangladesh, put on 46 runs for the opening-wicket partnership. Next man-in, de Villiers initially ran hard for ones and twos but once he hot his eyes set, he was unstoppable. Davids carried on the good show as he smashed pacer Jason Holder for the game’s ﬁrst six over deep mid-wicket. Titans reached 50 for one in the eighth over when Davids unleashed another massive heave over mid-wicket off Ravichandran Ashwin for a six. Brief scores: Titans 185 for 5 in 20 overs (A.B de Villiers 77, Henry Davids 52, D Bravo 2/34) lost to Chennai Super Kings 187 for 5 in 18.5 overs (S Raina 47, M Hussey 47, D Bravo 38, S Badrinath 20; R Richards 3/29). — Agencies

C LT 2 0

Ramdin, Rampaul script T&T triumph RANCHI: Pacer Ravi Rampaul led a ﬁne bowling performance by scalping four wickets as Trinidad and Tobago defended a small total to beat Brisbane Heat by 25 runs in a low-scoring Champions League Twenty20 match here yesterday. Put into bat, Trinidad and Tobago could score a modest 135 for nine with captain Denesh Ramdin (48) being the only substantial contributor but their bowlers bowled Brisbane out for 110 in 18.4 overs at the JSCA Stadium here. Rampaul, who was coming back after recovering from an ankle injury, played the pivotal role, claiming four important wickets while conceding just 14 runs in his spell. Off-spinner Sunil Narine and pacer Rayad Emrit chipped in with two wickets apiece while Samuel Badree got one wicket to help the Caribbean champions begin their Group B campaign with a win. For Brisbane, who struggled for runs from the very beginning of their run chase, opener Joe Burns was the lone main contributor with a 43-ball 45. They were still in with a chance to chase sown the target of 136 when they reached 76 for three in the 14th over but suffered a batting collapse later on. They could add just 34 runs at the expense of seven wickets in 5.2 overs to be all out for 110 and lose the match. Brisbane captain James Hopes was the ﬁrst to be dismissed for just four in the third over off the bowling of Rampaul and from then on, the Australian champion side struggled throughout their run chase. The biggest partnership for Brisbane was the 45 for the third wicket between Burns and Daniel Christian (13). But with the T&T bowlers tightening the screws with a disciplined effort, the inexperienced Brisbane batting line-up crumbled with just four

EARLY CELEBRATIONS: Brisbane Heat players (in blue) celebrate taking wickets at regular intervals

though Trinidad & Tobago captain Denesh Ramdin (in red) held the innings together. – PTI

of them reaching double digit ﬁgures. Both the sides have come here with a depleted squad as some of their key players either pulled out or playing for other teams in the tournament. Earlier, pacer Alister McDermott grabbed four wickets as Brisbane restricted T&T for a modest 135 for nine. McDermott (4/37) removed both openers Lendl Simmons (14) and Evin Lewis (19) and then returned to scalp the last two wickets after Brisbane were put into bat. Off-spinner Nathan Hauritz also bowled a tidy spell of two for 22 from his four overs while Kemar Roach, Daniel Christian and Ben Cutting got a wicket apiece as Trinidad and Tobago batsmen, except for captain Denesh Ramdin (48), came a cropper.

Jason Mohammed (10) and Samuel Badree (15 not out) were the other Trinidad and Tobago batsmen who reached double digit ﬁgures. Hauritz dealt crucial blows immediately after McDermott claimed two wickets in as many overs as half of Brisbane batting line-up returned to the pavilion at 71 for ﬁve in the 11th over. T&T started off aggressively with Simmons (14, 3x4) smashing McDermott to the long on ropes and then pulling the bowler for another powerful hit to the boundary before being bowled while going for another big hit. New batsman Darren Bravo (0) lasted only two balls before being caught behind by Chris Hartley off Kemar Roach. The other opener, Evin Lewis

(19, 4x4), departed soon after as McDermott had him caught by Ben Cutting, leaving T&T at 38 for three in the ﬁfth over. Ramdin was left guarding one end and hardly got any support from his team-mates with Sherwin Ganga (0), N Pooran (8), Sunil Narine (8), Rayad Emrit (1) all getting out trying to force shots with the Brisbane side coming up with a couple of spectacular catches and splendid saves on the boundary line. Ramdin’s impressive knock, which was studded with four fours and two sixes, ended when Chris Lynn took a brilliant catch off Ben Cutting. Badree, who hit two successive sixes off McDermott, remained not out along with Ravi Rampaul (4). — PTI

CRICKET

England ponder Bresnan fitness as Rankin eyes Ashes LONDON: England know the bulk of a squad due to be announced on Monday for a tour of Australia that will see them try to win a fourth straight Ashes series for the first time since the 19th Century. The fact England, who beat arch-rivals Australia 3-0 in a Test series on home soil to retain the urn, rested regular captain Alastair Cook, batsman Ian Bell and bowlers James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann from the subsequent 2-1 one-day series loss was testament to the importance they place on the Ashes. But while the first-choice XI, with star batsman Kevin Pietersen set to play his 100th Test in November’s opener in Brisbane, largely picks itself, the choice of back-up squad members is likely to have led to some prolonged discussions for a selection panel led by ex-England off-spinner Geoff Miller. One question regards the fitness of bowling all-rounder Tim Bresnan, who missed the fifth Test at The Oval, as well as the One-dayers, with a stress fracture of his back. Twice an Ashes-winner, Bresnan when fit fills the tricky position of third seamer in a four-

man attack and the Yorkshireman played a key role during England’s 2010/11 3-1 series win in Australia. Someone else who starred in that series, after replacing Steven Finn in Perth, is Surrey fast bowler Chris Tremlett, whose career has been blighted by several injuries. Both Tremlett and Finn ﬁt the mould of tall fast bowlers favoured by England’s Australian bowling coach David Saker. But so too does former Ireland international Boyd Rankin who impressed for his adopted country during the one-day series as did all-rounder Ben Stokes, also uncapped at Test level. “They certainly won’t have done them any harm,” said England limited overs coach and Test selector Ashley Giles of Rankin and Stokes’s Ashes prospects. “Boyd is 6ft 10in or something, a huge man, and he bowls at a good rate of knots. We tend to like our tall fast bowlers. Going to Australia, playing on those wickets, those attributes are important. “Ben is someone who has been on the radar for a couple of years. I think he’s a really exciting cricketer,” former left-arm spinner Giles, an Ashes-winner as a player in 2005, added. — AFP

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

SPORTS NURBURGRING 1000

Ahmad to start from sixth on GTR Class grid

ON TARGET: Manchester City’s Argentinian forward Sergio Aguero, left, scores his team’s third goal past Manchester United’s Spanish

goalkeeper David de Gea. – AFP

City trounce United Before the demolition derby in Manchester, Arsenal went top with win over Stoke and remained there with better goal difference after Tottenham Hotspur joined them on 12 points

LONDON: Manchester City thrashed Manchester United 4-1 in an extraordinary derby match as Arsenal went top of the Premier League yesterday. In what was a first Manchester derby for both City manager Manuel Pellegrini and United counterpart David Moyes, Sergio Aguero scored twice at Eastlands with Yaya Toure and Samir Nasri also on target for the hosts. The first match between the two clubs since Alex Ferguson retired as manager of English champions United at the end of last season saw Aguero open the scoring in the 16th minute when he flicked in Aleksandar Kolarov’s

cross despite the ball being behind him. Toure made it 2-0 on the stroke of half-time when he turned in Alvaro Negredo’s header from a corner. Whatever Moyes said at the interval to a United team missing injured striker Robin van Persie had little effect as within ﬁve minutes of the re-start City were 4-0 up. Negredo saw his lofted cross to the far post volleyed in by the unmarked Aguero. And, in another example of poor United defending, Jesus Navas went unchallenged down the right before his cross was struck home by Nasri. Wayne Rooney pulled one back for United when

he beat fellow England international Joe Hart with a free-kick three minutes from time that gave the striker a record 11th goal in Manchester derbies. “Maybe the game meant a little bit more to us than for them. We were looking forward to this fixture. We need to win these kind of games. There was no reason why we should fear the opposition,” said City skipper Vincent Kompany. “It’s too early to say it’s a defining game. You make a statement over the course of the season.” On top Arsenal went top with a 3-1 win over Stoke at the Emirates Stadium and remained there goal difference after north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur joined them on 12 points following a 1-0 win away to Cardiff. Wales midfielder Aaron Ramsey made it seven goals in eight games when he gave Arsenal a fifth-minute lead after Stoke goalkeeper Asmir Begovic had palmed away a Mesut Ozil free-kick. Stoke equalised when United States international Geoff Cam-

eron scored his ﬁrst goal for the club in the 26th minute from the edge of the box after Marko Arnautovic’s volley came back off the post. Arsenal though were 2-1 up before half-time through centre-back Per Mertesacker’s looping header. Bacary Sagna then made Stoke pay once more for failing to defend a set-piece when he headed home in the 72nd minute from another free-kick by £42.4 million ($66 million, 50 million euros) club record signing Ozil, the Germany international producing a sparkling display on his Gunners’ home debut. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was understandably delighted by Ozil’s performance. “Like the team he (Ozil) gave a lot on Wednesday night (in the Champions League victory away to French side Marseille), but he showed his class today and he worked hard as well,” Wenger said. Other match saw Swansea win 2-0 away to Crystal Palace with Michu putting the Welsh club in front in just the second minute before Nathan Dyer added a second goal after half time. — AFP

MUSCAT: Blancpain Endurance Series racer Ahmad Al Harthy will begin the final round of the season, the eagerly anticipated Nurburgring 1000, from sixth on the GTR Class grid after a consistently strong performance in qualifying on Saturday, according to information received from the Omani ace’s team. Driving for the ARC Bratislava-NBO Racing Team, the 32-year-old Omani produced a best lap time of one minute and 58.625 seconds at the wheel of the squad’s Porsche 997 GT3R - an improvement of almost half a second on his quickest effort from the earlier ‘pre-qualifying’ period. Going into the last race of the Blancpain campaign, a hugely challenging six-hour encounter, Ahmad and his Slovakian teammate Miro Konôpka are in the top 10 of the GTR driver standings while in the entrants’ title race, the NBO Racing Team holds fifth position. Although having raced at the Nurburgring previously, this weekend marks Ahmad’s first ever on the full Grand Prix configuration of the famous German track. Despite his relative lack of experience compared to many of his rivals on the 50-strong grid

though, the racer, who is supported by the National Bank of Oman, Nawras, Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Sports Affairs, is feeling confident. “We’re reasonably happy with how qualifying went,” he commented. “This weekend is my first time around the entire GP circuit, so I’m pleased with how things have gone during the practice sessions and qualifying. To be sixth fastest in GTR, especially with a lot of traffic to contend with, isn’t a bad place to begin a race as long as a six-hour. “I was compromised slightly on my best lap but it’s all about the race, I just need to have a good opening stint, stay out of trouble and then take things from there. Anything can happen in these races, hopefully our car won’t have any problems though and we can end the season strongly.” After a couple of non-scoring events in the Blancpain Endurance Series due to issues out of the team’s control, at Paul Ricard in France and the Total 24 Hours of Spa, Ahmad and the NBO Racing Team are hungry to make a return to the GTR points for the first time since claiming class victory at Silverstone in the UK at the beginning of June.

FEELING CONFIDENT: Ahmad Al Harthy in action. – Supplied photo

FORMULA ONE

Vettel completes Singapore treble SINGAPORE: Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel cruised to a third straight Singapore Grand Prix victory yesterday and moved 60 points clear of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso after a dominant drive under the floodlights at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. The German led from pole to flag and lapped on average almost two seconds quicker than his rivals to finish 32.6 seconds clear of Alonso and take another big step towards a fourth successive title with six races remaining. Kimi Raikkonen shrugged off back pain to climb from 13th on the grid to third for Lotus in a challenging race that was held up by one decisive safety car period when Daniel Ricciardo crashed his Toro Rosso into the barriers on lap 26. “Yes, yes, that’s what I call in control,” Vettel shouted over the team radio after chalking up his seventh win of the season and 33rd of his career in the heat of the Singapore night. “The car felt absolutely fantastic. This is absolutely a team effort.” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said Vettel, who was again booed on the podium from some in the crowd below, had been in a league of his own after “one of his best ever drives”. It was also one of his most dominant, even if the possibility of a safety car intervention was an ever-present concern.

POLE TO FLAG: Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel displays his trophy

after winning the Singapore F1 Grand Prix yesterday. – AFP

“This is a long race so there are a lot of things that can go wrong so you can’t afford to lean back,” Vettel said in a podium interview. “At the end, I was just controlling the gap. It was hard work out there but we like it because it is one of the most challenging tracks.” Vettel was challenged brieﬂy by fellow-German Nico Rosberg, who was second on the grid, on the run to the ﬁrst turn but once he held off the Mercedes, he controlled the race. “The start was quite hairy, Nico had a better start than me but thankfully he went a bit too deep and I was able to recover which

was very important,” Vettel added. “The car was incredible and it was a pleasure to drive it round this crazy track.” Charging start Alonso again used a charging start and brilliant strategy to climb from seventh on the grid and keep his title hopes alive. He gambled on pitting for a change of tyres during the safety car period and nursing his Ferrari all the way to the ﬂag on medium tyres. “We knew we didn’t have the pace today so we had to invent something with a different strategy from the other teams,” said the

Spaniard. “It paid off at the end. We are in a position in the championship where we have nothing to lose.” Raikkonen, who will join Alonso at Ferrari next season, duplicated the Spaniard’s strategy and was able to hold on for third place from the fast-charging Mercedes duo of Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, who opted to stay out behind the safety car. Alonso’s Brazilian teammate Felipe Massa ﬁnished in sixth place with McLaren’s Jenson Button and Sergio Perez claiming the next two spots ahead of Nico Hulkenburg’s Sauber and Adrian Sutil in a Force India. Vettel’s teammate Mark Webber brieﬂy climbed up to fourth place in the closing stages but his Red Bull lost power on the last lap and he slipped out of the top 10. The Australian was given a lift back to the pits by Alonso after he abandoned his stricken Red Bull halfway around the circuit. There was also disappointment for Romain Grosjean, who started third on the grid but retired on lap 33 after his Lotus suffered a pneumatic system failure and was called in by his team to retire in the pits. The next race is in South Korea on October 6 before the series heads to Japan, India, Abu Dhabi, the United States and concludes in Brazil. - Reuters

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

SPORTS

HAPPY TO KEEP THE GLOVES ON The 43-year-old David James, who has just played his 1,000th game, tells Archie Bland of ‘The Independent’ why he’s happy prolonging his career on a remote Icelandic island

N a lot of jobs, you can still be on an upward trajectory in your early 40s – but not in football, of course. A 40-something footballer is, by and large, an exfootballer. When you think of the names, they’re really players from another era altogether. There’s Alan Shearer, for example, at 43 long established as the country’s premier stater of the obvious on Match of the Day. There’s Gareth Southgate, the same age, now manager of the England Under21s, who managed to notch up an impressive 500 league appearances before he hung up his boots in 2006. There’s Lee Sharpe, 42, whose footballing career seems as synonymous with the 1990s as Britpop and the Tamagotchi. And then there’s David James, also 43. If you want to find David James, don’t head to the golf course, or the wine bar; head about 1,100 miles northwest of London to Heimaey, the largest island of the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago, off the southern coast of Iceland. If you had gone there a few weeks ago, you would have found James, as identifiable by his height and hair as ever, turning out for Íþróttabandalag Vestmannaeyja – more pronounceably known as IBV – in a 1-0 victory over midtable rivals Fylkir. A mere 500, Gareth? In this, his 1,000th career appearance, James was named man of the match. And he isn’t finished yet. James’s desire to keep on playing seems deeply romantic. It also seems bonkers. I thought it would be interesting to know why he was still at it, so I called IBV and asked to be put through to the press of-

fice. “Hold on a second,” the voice on the other end says, after a moment’s confusion. “Smari! Phone!” When Smari comes to the phone, he seems delighted to hear from me, and when I call back the next day, he says cheerfully that it had all been arranged. IBV is a long way from the Premier League in all senses; accordingly, after a three-hour flight, I hop on a bus at a time that would, in countries further from the North Pole, have been daybreak. Then I take a ferry in choppy water across to Hemaiey. As we roil toward the island’s harbour, I spot a guy in an IBV tracksuit and ask him if he could tell me the way to the ground. He tells me, and asks why I am headed there; to interview David James, I explain. At this point a significant figure in a blazer and plaid shorts looms into view. “Er,” David James says. “No you’re not.” I wilt a bit, thinking of the journey home, and explain that I have spoken to Smari, and he has said everything is in place. “Another of his bright ideas, is it?” James says drily. “Bloody Smari.” We get off the ferry, the slightlybuilt Icelanders also disembarking agog at this man mountain in their midst. James strides off around the corner, leaving me to make the short walk to the ground alone. Ramshackle though it is, it is also, without doubt, the most dramatic setting for a football match that I’ve ever seen. To one side of the pitch is a shabby 1,500-seater stand; to the other is a vertiginous cliff-face that appears to have been carved out of moon rock. Behind the far goal is a small golf course, and then nothing but the Atlantic Ocean.

I’ve fallen in love with the place. We’re all the same here. I don’t know everyone, but I’ve seen everyone David James Two hours later, after I have figured out that Smari’s duties are not limited to media relations and marvelled at the club’s indoor training hangar, James emerges from the gym. He’s eating something leathery-looking called hardfisk. “Dried fish,” he explains. “Do you want to try it? Pure protein. Tastes like MDF.” I demur. James, it is clear, is not treating his time in Iceland as a way of winding down. He remembers the build-up to the first game of the season, when Hermann Hreidarsson – his old Portsmouth team-mate, now IBV manager, who persuaded James to come over as player-coach– was getting increasingly excited. “I was cool as a cucumber,” says James. “But then the night before I thought, right, got a game tomorrow, got to play! We won 1-0, and I got this feeling that I hadn’t had in so long.

Got the buzz back. When we lost the next game 3-1 I was absolutely gutted. But, I thought, the fact that I’m still getting these emotional twists means that I’m doing the right thing.” Everyone on the island – population 4,100 – seems delighted to have him. “I’ve fallen in love with the place,” he says. “We’re all the same here. I don’t know everyone, but I’ve seen everyone.” He’s not sure if there are chants in his honour – “I can’t understand a word of it” – but it is perhaps a marker of the goalkeeper’s status that at a recent festival on the island the winners of the fancy dress competition were a group of girls dressed in his distinctive orange top wearing afro wigs. “They were carrying a goal around with them everywhere,” he notes. “It was madness.” James, who has never been a fan of city living, is particularly

enamoured of the landscape. You get the sense, too, that he likes to be a little bit remote – a typical goalkeeper, you might say. (“That’s unfortunately how I am,” he says. “I come out here and no one who knows me says, what are you doing that for? They expect this sort of thing.”) But if that’s one of the attractions of the island, it can also make life a little complicated. One visiting team was recently stuck on the island for three days. Last month, when James was supposed to head to Manchester for Rio Ferdinand’s testimonial, he became a little anxious as IBV endured training in gale force winds. With the ferry cancelled and no room on the only commercial flight, he accordingly chartered a small plane to take him to the mainland at 3am – only to get a call in the middle of the night saying it was still too windy. He missed the game. “I did think, yeah, this really is an island,” he says. “When weather doesn’t want you to leave, you just don’t leave.” Perhaps the first indication that James got of quite how different life would be from the existence of an English professional – even at lower league clubs like Bristol City and Bournemouth, where he spent the last couple of years – came when, early on in his time at IBV, he arrived at the club on another day of miserable weather expecting to train, only to be told by Hreidarsson that a different duty was in order. “The lads were out on the pitch, putting up the advertising hoardings,” he remembers with a laugh. “Herman told me to get on with it.” In the circumstances, he has had to make more allowances for some of his fellow players than he might be used to. Most of them have full-time jobs on the island – many on the fishing boats that are the community’s lifeblood – so training has to be after work. After one squad player turned in a particularly poor performance, James told Hreidarsson that he didn’t want to see him at practice again. “Then I saw him at the gym the next day,” he says. “He said he was sorry for the session, and I was saying, ‘all right, all right,

whatever’, and then he said that the thing was he’d just come off a 14-hour shift and so he was a bit knackered. And I thought, well, I suppose we’d better give him another chance.” Then there are the pitches. IBV’s surface isn’t too bad, in spite of the pronounced slope towards the clubhouse, but elsewhere the challenge of tending to grass that’s frozen for six months of the year has proven too much for the local groundsmen. “One away game, we ﬂew into this airport in a valley in the western fjords, it was unbelievably beautiful. But the pitch… a bit of grass, a lot of sand, a lot of gravel. It was literally the worst I’ve ever played on in my life. And I’ve been playing for decades.” And yet, despite all these difficulties, James appears to be having the time of his life. The team is comfortable in mid-table, signiﬁcantly better than the relegation spot the Reykjavik sporting cognoscenti had predicted, and the goalkeeper and his old Portsmouth team-mate are taking great satisfaction in coaching a group of raw amateurs to a higher level than they have ever reached before. But he has reached that 1,000game milestone. He has punditry commitments with BT Sport, which means that he must make a logistically tricky journey to the UK most weeks and then rush back to the island to play on the Sunday. This can’t be sustainable, surely. The season is coming to an end; he can’t have another one in him, can he? “Well, I don’t feel physically bad,” he says. “For as long as I’m not letting either side down, I’ll continue. I won’t retire until the game retires me. Yes, there are moments where I’ve thought, maybe now’s the time. But then something good happens, and you think, no, not yet. So until I can’t actually do it any more, I’ll never retire. Maybe I’ll fade away.” James doesn’t need to be at the top, doesn’t seem to really care what other people think. He just wants to play the game he loves. Perhaps that’s why he has always stood out from the Premier League crowd. — The Independent

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

SPORTS Oman Cricket annual gala today Sheikh Saad Al Saadi, Minister of Sports Affairs, will preside over the ceremony during which best teams and individuals of 2012-13 season will be honoured

MUSCAT: The Oman Cricket Club (OCC) is all set to organise the 34th annual prize distribution ceremony at the Le Grand Hall of Al Felaj Hotel at 7 pm today. Sheikh Saad Mohammed Said Al Mardhoof Al Saadi, Minister FOOTBALL

Barca 2nd best in possession for first time since 2008 MADRID: Possession kings Barcelona had less than 50 per cent of the ball for the first time in five years when they won 4-0 at Rayo Vallecano in La Liga on Saturday. The Spanish champions always take pride in their technical ability and the amount of possession they enjoy but Barca have been undergoing something of a change in strategy under new coach Gerardo Martino. Against lowly Rayo, who also value possession highly under coach Paco Jemez and who have the second highest percentage figures behind Barca in La Liga, the champions finally met their match. Rayo edged them 51 to 49 per cent on Saturday to end a run of 316 games where Barca have controlled possession, according to the sports and media company Infostrada. The last team to register higher possession against Barca were Real Madrid who won 4-1 at the Bernabeu in May 2008. — Reuters

of Sports Affairs, will preside over the annual gala. The other guests will include members of the diplomatic missions, dignitaries, head of corporate companies, wellwishers and cricketers. Prizes will be awarded to the winning teams, runners-up and other individual awards to players who have excelled in the 20122013 season. In the individual award category, Omani players Niyaz Ahmed Ghulam Al Balushi (OCT Hatat) is declared as Best Batsman while Mohammed Aslam Al Balushi from OCT Muscat ‘A’ will receive the Best Bowler award. Shuaib Ismail Al Balushi from OCT Muscat ‘A’ will receive a consolation award for his brilliant performance with the bat and Khalid Gulbik Ahardad from Al Bahihi will receive a consolation award for bowling. In the Omani players playing for more than one team, Shakil Mahmood Al Haj Saleh will re-

CHIEF GUEST: Sheikh Saad Al Saadi. – Supplied photo

ceive the award for Best Batsman. Shakil is playing for both OCT Muscat ‘A’ and Al Nahda. Al Akbar Mohammed Al Balushi who is playing for OCT Muscat ‘A’ and Al Turki NMC will receive the Best Bowler award. Sharif Pin-

OC LEAGUE

dook Noor Al Balushi from OCT Mabella and Al Hashmi Projects and Khalid Moosa Murad Al Balushi from OCT Hatat and MARH will receive award for consolation batting. List of awardees: A Division:

Champions: Muscat CT, Runners-up: Passage to India. B Division: Winners: OCT Muscat ‘A’, Runners-up: Sinha. C Division: Winners: Al Hail; Runners-up: Stars Light. D Division: Winners: Muscat Duty Free; Runners-up: Enhance Eagles. E Division: Winners: National Bank of Oman; Runners-up: Atkins. F Division: Winners: Assarain ‘B’; Runnersup: Times of Oman ‘B’. G Division: Winners: Al Hashim Projects; Runners-up: Attic Outdoors. Individual awards: A Division: Best batsman: Noorul Riaz (Enhance), Best bowler: Muhammed Nadeem Raﬁq (Assarain ‘A’), Consolation batting: Abdulahad Akhterhusain Malek (PTI), Consolation bowling: Ajay Lalcheta (Al Turki NMC); B Division: Best batsman: Saeed Muhammad Bashir (Al Saigh), Best bowler: Ali Akbar Mohammed Al Balushi (OCT Muscat ‘A’), Consolation bowling: Mohammed Aslam Al Balushi (OCT Muscat

‘A’); C Division: Best batsman: Hashif Sha (Galfar), Best bowler: Mohsin Raza (Stars Light), Consolation batting: Ghayoor Abbas (Al Hail); D Division: Best batsman: Pradeep Ayyappan Nair (Enhance Eagles), Best bowler: Neelganda Ramakrishnan (Powertech), Consolation batting: Mohammed Nayaz (Ernst & Young), Consolation bowling: Abdullah Baig Ali Asghar (PDORC); E Division: Best batsman: Amir Farooq Ali (Majees CT), Best Bowler: Rajesh Shetty (Atkins), Consolation batting: Abhishek Prafull (NBO), Consolation bowling: Muhammed Saeed Rashid (NBO); F Division: Best batsman: Ranjith Nair (Assarain ‘B’), Best bowler: Timbe Mayur Tambe (RK Group), Consolation batting: Muhammed Nasim (Assarain ‘B’); G Division: Best batsman: Sanoj Kuzhikadavil Abdu (Muscat Electronics), Best bowler: Wasim Ali (Solanki Trading & Contracting); Special award: Salim Shaikh (MDF).

CRICKET

Zeeshan’s effort in vain as Passage to India beat Raha WINNERS: Saih Al Suwaiq pose for a pose for a group picture after their victory. Right, Rizwan Butt

MUSCAT: Passage to India (PTI) recorded a 23-run win against Raha despite Zeeshan Ahmed Siddiqui’s bowling spell of 5 for 30 off 8 overs. The Muscat Pharmacy & Stores LLC sponsored A Division 50 over match was played on Saturday at MOS Turf ground at Al Amerat. Electing to bat after winning the toss PTI were bowled out for 175 off 43.3 overs with a top score of 60 (94b, 3x4) from opening batsman Asad Ali. The other batsmen to make useful contributions were skipper Syed Aamir Kaleem 38 (42b, 5x4) whilst Atique Ahmed remained unbeaten on 23 (25b, 1x6 and 1x4). Syed Tariq Hussain picked up 2 wickets conceding 20 runs off 7.3 overs. Raha in their turn lost wickets at regular intervals and were bowled out for 152 off 42.2 overs. Major contributions came from Awal Khan 31 (61b, 5x4), Zeeshan Ahmed Siddiqui 30 (64b, 3x4) and opening batsman Rana Muham-

and Wasim Jamadar of Abu Maather. – Supplied photos

Waman, Ramesh inspire RK Group to easy victory FINE BOWLING: Zeeshan

mad Naeem 28 (39b, 5x4). Brief scores: PTI 175 all out off 43.3 overs (Asad Ali 60, Aamir Kaleem 38 and Atique Ahmed 23; Zeeshan Ahmed Siddiqui 5/30 and Syed Tariq Hussain 2/20) beat Raha 152 all out off 42.2 overs (Awal Khan 31, Zeeshan Ahmed Siddiqui 30 and Rana Muhammad Naeem 28; David Sankala 3/41, Aamir Kaleem 2/16, Mohammed Idrees 2/19 and Bilal Khan 2/40). Points: Passage to India 4 points and Raha CT Nil.

MUSCAT: Aided by an 85-run unbroken ﬁrst wicket partnership between Waman Kauthankar (51 not out: 38b, 9 fours) and veteran cricketer Ramesh Khimji (22 not out; 27 balls, 1 four), R K Group registered an easy 10-wicket win against Muscat Cricket Coaching Centre C (MCCC ‘C’) in a H Division match at the OAC III ground in Seeb. Electing to bat MCCC ‘C’ were bundled out for measly 84 off 16 overs and RK Group reached their target in 11.3 overs thanks to the contribution by both openers. Brief scores: MCCC ‘C’ 84 all out off 16 overs (Satnam Singh 20; Dinesh Meghwal 2/4, Malay Hoshi 2/18 and John Concesso 2/25) lost to RK Group 85 for no loss in 11.3 overs (Waman Kauthankar 50 n.o., and Ramesh Khimji 22no). Points: RK Group 2 points and MCCC ‘C’ Nil.

Nadeem shines A brilliant all-round performance from Majgaonkar Nadeem who top scored with 51 (41b, 9x4) and bagged 3 for 15 off 3.3 overs helped Techno Elevators record a massive 65-run win against Bank Muscat in a G Division T20 match at the Municipality Ground No. IV. Deciding to take ﬁrst strike,Techno Elevators piled up 179 for the loss of 8 wickets at the end of the 20 stipulated overs. Bank Muscat in their turn were bowled out for 114 off 17.3 overs with a top score of 18 (17b, 3x4) from Syed Salman Azim. Brief scores: Techno Elevators 179 for the loss of 8 wickets off 20 overs (Majgaonkar Nadeem 51, Michael Winston 40 and Taheer Mohammed 20; Abbas Abdul Aziz 2/33) beat Bank Muscat 114 all out off 17.3 overs (Syed Salman Azim 18; Zaheer Mohamed 3/14, Majgaonkar Nadeem 3/15 and Tasleem Khan 2/34). Points: Techno Elevators 2 points and Bank Muscat Nil.

Caledonians win Caledonian College defeated debutants Dhofar Automotive by a margin of 57 runs in an I Division T20 match played at the Univer-

RK GROUP STARS: Waman Kauthankar, left, and Ramesh Khimji.

sity ground. Batting ﬁrst Caledonian College were restricted to 135 for the loss of 8 wickets off the 20 allotted overs. Requiring a fraction of under 7 runs per over Dhofar Automotive were bowled out for 78 off 11.1 overs. Brief scores: Caledonian College 135 for the loss of 8 wickets off 20 overs (Saud Sherzaman 23, Israr Akram 23 and Inam Ali 21; Lahiru Sampath 4/17 and Shobi Vincent 2/33) beat Dhofar Automotive 78 all out off 11.1 overs (Tharanga Perera 20; Imran Arif 3/11 and Saud Sherzaman 2/15). Points: Caledonian College 2 points and Dhofar Automotive Nil.

Abu Maather win In a T20 match J Division match played at the same venue Al Ittihad Car Showroom lost to Abu Maather by 3 wickets. Opting to bat after winning the toss Al Itihad managed to reach 111 for the loss of 8 wickets off the 20 allotted overs. Abu Maather replied with 112 for the loss of 7 wickets off 18.4 overs. Brief scores: Al Ittihad Car Showroom 111 for the loss of 8 wickets off 20 overs (Jestin Augustin 25no; Rizwan Ramzan 3/9 and Atiq Mohamed Khan 2/15) lost to Abu Maather 112 for the loss of 7 wickets off 18.4 overs (Wasim Janadar 27 and Ali Akbar Nisar 21no; Wasim Abbas Shaﬁ 3/13 and Libin Varghese 2/26 ). Points: Al Ittihad Car Showroom 2 points and Abu Maather – Nil points.

MCCC A trounced Indian Social Club (ISC) trounced Muscat Cricket Coaching Centre A (MCCC A) by a massive 149 runs in a Khimji Ramdas sponsored B Division match played at the Ministry Ground No.1 at Al Amerat. Electing to bat ISC made a massive 236 off 29.5 overs, while MCCC A in reply were bundled out for a paltry 87 off 20.3 overs. Brief scores: ISC 236 all out off 295 overs (Pranav Mehta76, Ansar Ansari 45, Saud Haroon 35 and Pratik Shettigar 28; Salman Tariq 3/42) beat MCCC A 87 all out off 20.3 overs (Nur A. Khan 18; Mohan Kannan 3/18, Abbas Naqvi 2/22 and Paramjeet Singh 2/27). Points: ISC 5 points and MCCC ‘A’ Nil.

Beatrice lose In a clash of the debutants Saih Al Suwaiq defeated Beatrice CT by 21 runs in Oman Cricket organized I Division T20 match. Opting to bat Saih Al Suwaiq score 149 for the loss of 5 wickets in 20 overs, while Beatrice CT could manage only 128 for the loss of 7 wickets in reply. Brief scores: Saih Al Suwaiq 149 for the loss of 5 wickets off 20 overs (Chaitanya Ravindran 56, Ajeesh P.A. 24 and Anup Rajan 23; Feroz O.V. 2/14) beat Beatrice CT 128 for the loss of 7 wickets off 20 overs (Feroz O.V. 52 and Muhammad Afnas 41; Sujash K.R. 3/28 and Ajeesh P.A. 2/25). Points: Saih Al Suwaiq 2 points and Beatrice CT Nil.

SECTION

ou can’t miss the masochism in Vivien Leigh’s screen characters. She excelled at suffering. “Rhett, Rhett, if you go, where shall I go, what shall I do?” her Scarlett O’Hara whimpers at Clark Gable’s Rhett Butler toward the end of Gone with the Wind (1939). He demolishes her with one of cinema’s most famous one-liners: “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” Leigh’s characters experienced equally cruel abandonments in many of her subsequent movies. “You’ve ruined yourself,” Warren’s Beatty’s Italian gigolo hisses before walking out on her in Tennessee Williams’s adaptation The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone (1961), one of her last films, in which she plays an ageing and desperate actress. Her fading Southern belle Blanche DuBois is tormented by Marlon Brando’s Stanley Kowalski in the film of A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). In Anna Karenina (1948), she is driven to suicide. In The Deep Blue Sea (1955), she plays a wife who tries to kill herself. In the year of the centenary of her birth, renewed attention is being paid to the double Oscar-winner. Leigh (1913-1967) is the subject of a major retrospective at the BFI. The Vivien Leigh Archive, which includes letters, diaries, photographs, clippings and scripts and reportedly stretches to 10,000 items, has recently been acquired by the V&A. Gone with the Wind will be seen on the big screen yet again. It’s not as if Leigh’s achievements have been ignored. She was, as Gavin Lambert (the screenwriter of The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone) pointed out, a consummate screen actress. “She glowed when she was in front of a camera, she was vital and confident. She knew how to grade her effects and, from long shot to close-up, how to communicate without words.” Her colleagues warmed to her work-ethic. Elia Kazan, who directed the film of Streetcar, recalled how suspicious the “New York gang” (Brando, Karl Malden, Kim Hunter) were of the “poor English girl”. They couldn’t understand why she had been cast instead of Jessica Tandy, who appeared alongside them in the first Broadway production. (Leigh had played Blanche on stage in London in a production directed by her husband Laurence Olivier). Kazan himself thought Leigh was wrong for the part but the producers wanted a star. Leigh won them over. “As I saw her courage and the way she worked, her candour,” I began to like her a lot,“ Kazan told interviewer Jeff Young. “Everyone was touched and moved by her will to be good. A will to be good is very infectious and evokes strong feelings of loyalty.“ The problem for Leigh was that her private life so closely resembled that of the characters she played. She was a manic depressive with frail health. Watching The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone is a disconcerting experience. Leigh made the film shortly after the break-up of her marriage to Olivier and when she was already long suffering from the tuberculosis that was to kill her. She had initially resisted taking the role because it was too “cruel” and “grotesque.” Nonetheless, for audiences, it couldn’t help seeming that she was playing herself. “My God, what’s happened to Karen Stone!”; “Isn’t it strange, she used to be so wonderful,” we hear some malicious spectators cackling about her age after watching her on stage in As You Like It. We see Stone utterly grief-stricken as her elderly husband dies beside her on a plane journey. Leigh’s alleged promiscuity is still grist for gossip columnists. In The Roman Spring of Mrs Stone, she plays a woman with such low esteem that, toward the end of the film, she throws her keys down to someone she has never even met. There was something heroic in the way Leigh hurled herself into her roles. She played tormented, emotionally scarred women with an intensity that few British actresses of her generation could match. One theory is that Leigh was a victim of her own beauty. She had won the most coveted role in the Hollywood of her era at the age of only 26 and trumping Gone with the Wind was always going to be impossible. Critics sneered at her, saying she was “heavenly to look at” but a mediocre actress. It didn’t help that she was married to Olivier and that her career wasn’t allowed to eclipse his. When Leigh died in 1967, aged only 53, the obituaries made it apparent how closely she remained identified in the public mind with Scarlett O’Hara. “You can ‘read’ Vivien Leigh’s screen performances chronologically as if she were a character in a time-spanning novel,” Gavin Lambert wrote of her. Leigh fiercely resisted the idea that she was playing variations on the same character. In a TV interview done late in her life, she acknowledged that both Scarlett O’Hara and Blanche DuBois were vulnerable Southern women, but that was as far as the similarity went. “They were entirely different people to me,” Leigh protested. “They were both knocked around quite a bit but one overcame the knocking around and the other succumbed. Therefore, they were innately different it seemed to me.“ Leigh spoke of her desire to play as many different roles as possible. “I think typecasting is one of the menaces, really, because you get used to what someone is going to do and then it holds no surprise for you.” The irony is that she only played Southern belles two or three times (in Gone with the Wind, Streetcar and in her final film, Ship of Fools) but did so with such searing conviction that no-one could imagine her as anything else. —Geoffrey Macnab/The Independent

LIFE & STYLE

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

Vivien Leigh was a fragile superstar who always struggled with her most famous role

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

EXTRA

Nutrition plays key role in skin health

We’ve heard of problem skin being treated with everything from salicylic acid to antibiotics. But yoghurt and blueberries, ﬂaxseed and salmon?

utrition plays a key role in skin health, says Meagen McCusker, associate professor of dermatology at the University of Connecticut Health Centre. “It’s really true that you are what you eat,” says McCusker, adding that the condition of your skin often tells a story about your overall health and well-being. No wonder, then, that sugar — a culprit in many health problems including diabetes and obesity — is also involved when it comes to skin health. “Foods that keep your blood sugar low are also good for the skin,” McCusker says. “The first thing I tell people is avoid sugar — which includes refined sugar and high-fructose corn syrup — and processed foods.” Not only can sugar cause inflammations in the body, but it also adversely affects cell membranes and by extension can break down collagen, she says. Collagen is a type of protein that helps make the skin elastic. Juliet Rodman, a dietitian and

co-founder of Corporate Wellness Solutions, agrees. “Stay away from anything that comes in a box,” she says, “both because of the added sugars and because of other additives.” Instead, she says, gobble up produce of all colours, plus nuts and seeds, to get minerals, fibre and vitamins A, C and E. For example, she says, nuts and dark green leafy vegetables are full of zinc. Kale is good for vitamins A and C. And sunflower seeds and almonds are packed with Vitamin E. Nuts also provide healthful fats and proteins — another important aspect of healthy skin, says Alan Dattner, a New York dermatologist and owner of www. holisticdermatology.com. “For example, omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in wild salmon, help support healthy cell membranes,” says Dattner, who has been treating skin conditions with holistic therapies, including nutrition counselling, for 30 years. McCusker also suggests grassfed beef, fish oil and flaxseed for healthful fats and proteins. Another smart move is the ad-

The skin is a little like a third kidney. If you don’t have enough water flushing through it, it doesn’t work well Alan Dattner

New York dermatologist

dition into the diet of probiotics, which can be found in yogurt and kefir as well as nutritional supplements. (She prefers supplements over yogurt because they contain much higher amounts of probiotics.) There is evidence, McCusker says, that probiotics not only help digestive tract health but also help make skin healthy and happy. Other than yoghurt and kefir, dairy is not recommended, she says. “From an evolutionary standpoint we don’t need dairy once we are weaned,” she says. “And for many people with acne, dairy can worsen the condition.” Instead, drink plenty of water. “The skin is a little like a third kidney. “If you don’t have enough water flushing through it, it doesn’t work well,” Dattner says. Rodman adds that hydration becomes even more important for the skin as we age and consequently dry out. “Dehydration tends to shrivel the skin,” she says. In the end, healthful food for you skin — the kale, flax, wild salmon, nuts and seeds as well as limited amounts of processed food and

dairy — is what’s healthful for the rest of you, too. “It’s about taking a logical approach to skin and nutrition,” Rodman says. “When you promote good skin, you promote overall good health.” In addition to healthful food and hydration, promoting good skin requires a holistic approach. Keep an eye on stress, physical activity levels and sleep, and protect your skin from too much sun and environmental hazards, Dattner says, adding that any therapy — whether it’s based on high-tech pharmaceuticals or holistic lifestyle change — takes time. Remember, he says, some people have spent a lifetime on antibiotics to prevent breakouts. So don’t expect glowing skin after a week of clean living, he says. “If you have had bad habits — including bad nutrition — for 15 years, it’s not realistic to expect changes in two to three weeks,” he says. “But start moving in a sensible direction — eating less sugar and more vegetables — and begin to identify what makes a difference for you.” — Gabriella Boston/The Washington Post

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

ENTERTAINMENT CINEMA SCHEDULE

BAHJA CINEMA Percy Jackson 2 : Sea of Monsters (3D) (Adventure/Fantasy) (PG) Cast: Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario, Brandon T. Jackson 2:30, 4:45 pm; CP No:802 Riddick (Action/Thriller) (15+) Cast: Vin Diesel, Karl Urban, Kate Sackhoff 3:00, 7:00pm; CP No:782 The Family (Action /Crime) (12+) Cast: Robert De Niro, Michelle Pﬁeffer 9:30, 11:45 pm; CP No: 822 Planes (3D) (Animation/ Adventure) (PG) Cast: Carlos Alazraqui, Dane Cook 2:00, 3:45pm; CP No:808 Battle of the Year (3D) (Dance/Music) (12+) Cast: Chris Brown, Josh Peck, Laz Alonso 5:30pm; CP No:839 The Colony (Action/Thriller) (15+) Cast: Laurence Fishburne, Bill Paxton 7:45 pm; CP No:792 Aftershock (Horror/Thriller) (18+) Cast: Eli Roth, Ariel Levy, Nicolas Martinez 9:45, 11:30pm; CP No:841 Getaway (Action/Crime) (12+) Cast: Ethan Hawke, Selena Gomez, Jon Voight 5:15pm; CP No:796 Prisoners (Drama) (12+) Cast: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal 7:15pm; CP No:828 In Their Skin (Horror/Thriller) (12+) Cast: Selma Blair, Joshua Close, James D’Arcy 10:00, 11:45pm; CP No:835

Getaway (Action / Crime) (12+) 2:00, 4:00pm; CP No: 797 The Family (Action/Crime) (12+) Cast: Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer 6:00, 11:00pm; CP No 823 Phata Poster Nikla Hero (Action/Comedy) (12+) Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Ileana D’cruz

8:15pm; CP No 845 Battle of the Year (3D) (Dance) (12+) Cast: Chris Brown, Josh Peck, Laz Alonso 12:30, 5:00pm; CP No 840 Percy Jackson 2 : Sea of Monsters (3D) (Adventure/Fantasy) (PG) Cast: Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario 2:45, 7:00pm; CP No 803 The Family (Action/Crime) (12+) Cast: Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Tommy Lee jones 9:00, 11:30pm; CP No:823 Planes (3D) (Animation/Comedy Adventure) (PG) Cast: Carlos Alazraqui, Dane Cook 11:30am, 1:30, 3:30pm; CP No:809 Mosawer Qateel (Thriller) (15+) Cast: Eyad Nassar, Dorra, Horreya Farghaly 5:15pm; CP No:832 Phata Poster Nikla Hero (Comedy) (12+) Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Ileana D’cruz 7:15pm; CP No:845 Aftershock (Horror/Thriller) (18+) Cast: Eli Roth, Ariel Levy, Nicolas Martinez 10:00, 11:45pm; CP No: 842

3:30, 5:30pm; CP No:794 Pullipullikalum Attinkuttiyum (Malyalam) (Comedy) (PG) Cast: Kunchako Bhoban, Namitha 7:30pm; CP No:817

PLAZA 3 Chennai Express (Action) (PG) Cast: Shahrukh Khan, Deepika Padukone 3:30, 9:30pm; CP No:692 Shuddh Desi Romance (Hindi) (Comedy/Romance) (PG) Cast: Parineeti Chopra, Sushant 6:30pm; CP No:790

Percy Jackson 2 : Sea of Monsters (3D) (Adventure/Fantasy) (PG) Cast: Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario 2:15, 4:15pm; CP No: 804 Prisoners (Drama) (12+) Cast: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal 6:15pm; CP No:829 The Family (Action/Crime) (12+) Cast: Robert De Niro, Michelle Pﬁeffer, Tommy Lee Jones 9:30, 11:45pm; CP No: 824 Planes (3D) (Animation/Comedy/Adventure) (PG) Cast: Carlos Alazraqui, Dane Cook 2:00, 4:00pm; CP No:810 Mosawer Qateel (Thriller) (15+) Cast: Eyad Nassar, Dorra, Horreya Farghaly 6:00pm; CP No:833 Getaway (Action/Crime) (12+) Cast: Ethan Hawke, Selena Gomez 8:00pm, 11:45pm; CP No:798 Aftershock (Horror/Thriller) (18+) Cast: Eli Roth, Ariel Levy, Nicolas Martinez 10:00, 11:45pm; CP No:843 Ya Ya (Tamil) (Romance/Comedy) (PG) Cast: Shiva, Santhanam, Sandhya 3:30, 10:30pm; CP No:850 Phata Poster Nikla Hero (Action/Comedy) (12+) Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Ileana D’cruz, Padmini Kolhapure 6:15, 9:00pm; CP No:846 The Colony (Action/Thriller) (15+) Cast: Laurence Fishburne, Bill Paxton, Kevin Zegers

PLAZA 1 Phata Poster Nikla Hero (Action/ Comedy) (12+) Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Ileana D’cruz 3:30, 6:30, 9:30pm ; CP No:849 PLAZA 2 Grand Masti (Comedy) (18+) 3:30, 6:30, 9:30pm ; CP No:815

The Family (Action/Crime) (12+) Cast: Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfieffer, Tommy Lee Jones 3:30, 5:30, 7:30, 11:30pm; CP No:825 Planes (3D) (Animation/Comedy/Adventure) (PG) Cast: Carlos Alazraqui, Dane Cook 3:30, 5:30pm; CP No:811 Percy Jackson 2 : Sea of Monsters (Adventure/Fantasy) (PG) Cast: Logan Lerman, Alexandra Daddario 7:30pm, 9:30 pm; CP No:805 Getaway (Action/Crime) (12+) Cast: Ethan Hawke, Selena Gomez, Jon Voight 4:00, 6:00, 9:30, 11:30pm; CP No:799 Phata Poster Nikla Hero (Action/Comedy) (12+) Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Ileana D’cruz, 8:00, 11:00pm; CP No:847

The Family (Action/Crime) (12+) Cast: Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfieffer, Tommy Lee Jones 5:15, 7:15pm; CP No: 826 Prisoners (Drama) (12+) Cast: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis

Prisoners (Crime / Thriller) Cast : Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis 4:00pm & 9:00pm; CP No : 1022 ( 12+ ) The Family (Action / Comedy / Crime) Cast: Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Dianna Agron Cast :2:00pm, 7:00pm & 11:55pm CP No : 994 ( 15+ ) In Their Skin (Horror / Thriller) Cast: Selma Blair, Joshua Close 10:00pm & 11:55pm; CP No : 1023 (15+ ) Getaway ( Action / Crime ) Cast: Ethan Hawke, Selena Gomez, Jon Voight 4:00pm & 8:00pm; CP No : 1022 ( 12+ ) The Colony (Action / Sci-Fi / Thriller) Cast: Kevin Zegers, Laurence Fishburne, Bill Paxton 6:00pm; CP No:1023 ( 15+ ) The Conjuring (Horror / Thriller) Cast: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga 2:00pm; CP No : 1023 ( 15+ )

9:15, 11:55pm; CP No:830 Planes (3D) (Animation/Adventure) (PG) Cast: Carlos Alazraqui, Dane Cook 4:30pm ; CP No:812 Getaway (Action/ Crime) (12+) Cast: Ethan Hawke, Selena Gomez, Jon Voight 6:30, 8:30pm; CP No:800 Pullipullikalum Attinkuttiyum (Malyalam) (Comedy) (PG) Cast: Kunchako Bhoban, Namitha Pramod 10:30pm; CP No:819

Percy Jackson 2 : Sea of Monsters (3D) (Adventure/Fantasy) (PG) 12:30, 3:00, 6:45pm; CP No:807 In Their Skin (Horror/Thriller) (12+) Cast: Selma Blair, Joshua Close, James D’Arcy 5:00, 9:00pm; CP No:838 Prisoners (Drama) (12+) 6:45, 11:00pm; CP No:831 The Family (Action/Crime) (12+) Cast: Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfieffer, Tommy Lee Jones 11:30am, 9:30, 11:45pm; CP No:827 Planes (3D) (Animation/Adventure) (PG) Cast: Carlos Alazraqui, Dane Cook 11:30am, 3:00 pm; CP No:813 Riddick (Action/Thriller) (15+) 1:00pm; CP No:782 Aftershock (Horror/Thriller) (18+) 4:45, 11:45pm; CP No:844 Getaway (Action/Crime) (12+) Cast: Ethan Hawke, Selena Gomez, Jon Voight 2:45pm; CP No:792 Mosawer Qateel (Thriller) (15+) 4:30pm; CP No:834 Phata Poster Nikla Hero (Action/Comedy) (12+) 6:15, 9:00pm; CP No:848

Film Information - 24540856 / Advance Booking - 24540855 Website: www.albahjacinema.net

STARS CINEMA Film information 24791641 / 24786776 Ya Ya (Tamil) Cast: Shiva, Shantanam, Sandhya 3:45, 6:45 & 9:45pm (Cinema 2) Pullipullikalum Attinkuttiyum(2D) (Mal) (Comedy/Romance) Cast: Kunchako Boban, Namitha Pramod, Suraj and Joju 3:30, 6:30 & 9:30pm (Cinema Main) Thoofan (2D)(Telugu) (Action/Romance) Cast: Ram Charan, Priyanka Chopra and Prakash Raj 3:45 & 6:45pm (Cinema 3) Neelaksham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi (Mal) (Comedy/Romance) Cast: Dulqar Salman, Sunny Wayne 9:45pm (Cinema 3) Varutha Padatha Valibar Sangam (2D) (Tamil) Cast: Karthikeyan, Sri Divya and Sathya Raj 3:45, 6:45 & 9:45 (Cinema 4)

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

ACES ON BRIDGE

Which of the roads should south select?

SUDOKU

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

8 1 3

5 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

4 3 7 2 6 8

5 1 2 3 9 4

6 9 8 1 7 5

2 7 5 8 3 1

1 6 4 5 2 9

3 8 9 7 4 6

7 5 6 4 8 2

9 4 1 6 5 3

MARMADUKE

CROSSWORD

B I G NAT E

ACROSS 1 Irish dance 4 Lemon peel 8 Driver with a handle 12 Earlier 13 Noted lava spewer 14 “— Krishna” 15 Night light? 17 Viking name 18 Fire of the mind 19 Backpack contents 21 Bleat 23 Attack on all sides 27 Harden, as clay 30 Report-card woes 33 Box-score ﬁg. 34 Temporary slowdown 35 Zig’s opposite 36 11th president 37 Just scrape by 38 Preﬁx meaning “trillion” 39 Dolly and her clones 40 Internet fans 42 Width of a cir. 44 Sheik’s cartel 47 Arrange gracefully

51 — the bill 54 Oblong pastries 56 Palm reader’s opener (2 wds.) 57 Ocean ﬁsh 58 Nonsense! 59 Okla. neighbour 60 Had debts 61 Eggs DOWN 1 Dr.’s magazine 2 Horror-ﬁlm servant 3 Encouraging word 4 Veld grazer 5 Riviera summer 6 Disadvantage 7 Not wild 8 Unwanted work 9 Checkbook amt. 10 Pitcher’s stat 11 TKO official 16 Dynamite inventor 20 Cruncher’s pride 22 Carpentry tool 24 Display 25 Dashiell contemporary 26 Reproving clucks

27 28 29 31 32 36 38 41 43 45

Cordon — Razor-billed birds MOMA artist Flair for music Mild oath Diver’s ﬁnd Recipe qty. Expensive watch Did nothing Nymph who pined

46 48 49 50 51 52 53 55

away Gullet Space preceder Que. or Ont. Como — usted? Fish protrusion Suffix for hero Peggy or Brenda Luau instrument

BORN LOSER

Answer to previous puzzle

THERE is a Chinese proverb that says: “To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.” Wouldn’t it be nice at the bridge table to ask someone who has already played the deal where the missing cards are located? Sadly, the game doesn’t work that way. You must make your own decisions on which roads to take. In this deal, South is in six hearts. After West leads the diamond king, what should declarer do? North employed the Jacoby Forcing Raise. South’s threediamond rebid showed a singleton (or void) in that suit. The next three calls were control-bids (cue-bids), after which South bid what he thought he could make. Declarer has a potential loser in each black suit. He starts with 11 top tricks: two spades, six hearts, one diamond, one club and a diamond ruff in the South hand. So declarer needs either a third spade winner or a second club trick. However, which of those roads should he take? To get a third spade trick requires a 3-3 break, which the mathematicians will tell you happens about one-third of the time. To obtain a second club winner requires ﬁnding East with at least one club honor. Now the probability rises to approximately three-quarters. The right road is clear. South should win with dummy’s diamond ace, draw trumps staying on the board and run the club 10. It loses to West’s queen, but when declarer returns to the dummy with a spade and takes a second club ﬁnesse, that works and he can claim. — By Phillip Alder

SHAMSA’A ABDUL MALIK

8 2 3 9 1 7

1 6 3 4 7 2 9 8 5 9 8 2 6 3 5 1 7 4 5 7 4 9 8 1 3 2 6 Previous puzzle Solution

WITH LOVE

September 23

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

C10

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

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

BORN today, you are almost always compelled to do things that are more difficult, more complicated or more involved than what others willingly put themselves through — but “challenge” is your middle name! When you are young, you are likely to be drawn toward interests that require study and learning, or that afford you a broader, more comprehensive view of the world. When you are older, you are likely to pursue endeavors that require you to use the knowledge gained during your youth. You are never one to put your knowledge or your skills to waste. When it comes to personal interaction, you prefer to mix and mingle with those who display some marked difference from yourself — again, this derives from a compelling need to learn. The more you interact with people who are different from yourself, the more you learn about the world around you. Also born on this date are: Jason Alexander, actor; Bruce Springsteen, singer and musician; Mary Kay Place, actress; Julio Iglesias, singer; Ray Charles, singer and musician; John Coltrane, musician; Mickey Rooney, actor.

PRAYER TIMINGS

W E AT H E R

Max

OMAN WORLD Max 38 Min 33 Max 21 Min 10

Max 33 Min 28

Max 35 Min 28 Max 24 Min 10

Max 34 Min 29

Max 10 Min 7

Max 40 Min 24

Max 42 Min 29

Max 41 Min 26

Max 36 Min 29

Max 35 Min 27

Max 28 Min 25

Max 28 Min 16

Max 30 Min 15 Max 27 Min 17

Source: www.met.gov.om

SCORPIO S You may have to make a plan that differs from that suggested by someone in charge. Once you get moving, your progress is assured.

SAGITTARIUS S [[NOV. 22-DEC. 21] Your affections are shifting somewhat, as are your interests. Soon you’ll be eager to mix and mingle in new company.

CAPRICORN [DEC. 22-JAN 19] You can’t expect to impress everyone all at once; this will happen only over time as you deal with things in a certain order.

AQUARIUS [JAN. 20-FEB. 18] Adjustments you make will have a considerable impact, but you must take care that not everyone has to alter his or her behaviour.

PISCES [Feb. 19-March 20] You’ll get some support from another just in time. Take care that you don’t try to move so quickly that you lose your footing.

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

[March 21-APRIL 19] You may be feeling the consequences of one or two decisions that you had to make under duress recently.

TAURUS [APRIL 20-MAY 20] You want to give someone else a helping hand, but you’re not quite certain what his or her true motives really are.

GEMINI [MAY 21-JUNE 20] Even the smallest misstep is likely to be noticed, so you’ll want to keep your footing even over the roughest terrain.

CANCER [JUNE 21-JULY 22] You may be displaying a certain carelessness, and a friend or loved one is the only person you will listen to about this problem.

LEO [JULY 23-AUG. 22] You can deal with certain ﬁnancial issues in an expedient manner. Don’t let another’s worries affect your own positive attitude.

VIRGO [AUG. 23-SEPT. 22] What you are expected to do may not be entirely clear, so you can expect to miss the mark more than once as you experiment with various methods.

GULF Abu Dhabi Doha Dubai Kuwait Manama Riyadh

38 40 38 41 37 43

28 31 30 29 30 28

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

24 36 22 19 22 32 30 22 28 23 22 34 27 22 20 32 27 15

19 22 11 13 10 21 26 13 25 16 12 24 19 14 15 27 20 8

TO MUSCAT (RUWI)

Operating Days Daily Daily Daily

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

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

Daily Daily Daily via Ibri Daily Daily Daily Daily

20:50

Daily

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

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

Daily Daily Daily via Ibri Daily Daily Daily Daily

10:25

Daily

08:40 11:00

Daily Daily

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

16:50 19:30

Daily Daily

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

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

10:20 12:30

Daily Daily

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

17:55 20:20

Daily Daily

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

12:00 18:45

Daily Daily

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

10:45 19:00

Daily Daily

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

10:30 11:15

Daily Daily

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

13:15 17:30

Daily Daily

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

Daily Daily Daily Daily

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

Daily Daily Daily Daily

TO MARMUL (Route 101) 06:00 Marmul

Daily

TO MARMUL (Route 101) 06:00 Marmul

16:30

Daily

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

Daily

16:50

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

ARIES

6:03pm 5.56am

High tide Low tide

11:12am 5:34am

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

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

Daily Daily Wed,Thur Wed,Thur Daily Daily

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

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

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

Daily Daily Thur-Fri Thur-Fri Daily Daily

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

LISTINGS

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

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

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

MONDAY

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 NAT I O NA 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

[[OCT. 23-NOV. 21]

Sunset Sunrise (Tomorrow) 11:44pm 5:22pm

AIRLINES

[[SEPT. [S S 23-OCT. 22] You know how to deal with more than one issue at a time, despite another’s request that you set some things aside for a while.

12.04pm 3.30pm 6.08pm 7.18pm 4.41am

wind will be easterly to northeasterly light to moderate during day becoming variable light at night and over the rest of the Sultanate wind will be southeasterly light to moderate. SEA STATE: Slight to moderate along the southeastern coast with a maximum wave height of 1.5 metres and slight along the rest of Oman’s coasts with maximum wave height of 1.0 metre. HORIZONTAL VISIBILITY: Good over most of the Sultanate becoming poor during thundershowers or fog.

lear to Partly cloudy skies along the coastal areas of Dhofar governorate and adjoining mountains. Mainly clear skies over the rest of the Sultanate with chance of convective clouds development and thundershowers over Al-Hajar mountains and adjoining areas towards afternoon associated with fresh downdraft wind and chance of early morning low clouds or fog along the coastal areas. EXPECTED WIND: Along the coastal areas of Oman sea

LIBRA L

Dhuhr Asr Maghrib Isha Fajr (Tomorrow)

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

TUESDAY FLT NO

ARRIVALS FROM

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M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

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EXTRA B O L LY W O O D

Aditi Rao Hydari is single ADITI RAO HYDARI who is said to be dating actor Randeep Hooda, says she is fond of her Murder 3 co-star but she is not dating anyone at the moment. “Randeep is a great co-star. I am fond of Randeep, but I don’t meet him often. He is busy and I am also busy with my work,” Aditi told IANS. “All I can say is that he is somebody I am fond of. I don’t like to talk about my personal life, but I would say I am not seeing anybody and I am single,” she added. There has been a lot of speculation about her marital status and her relationship with Randeep, but Aditi seems to be unperturbed. “If I think about gossip, I can’t concentrate on work. Gossips don’t affect me, but actually it does. People cook up stories and they don’t cross check, the stories are not true. I have stopped reading news. I have a good relationship with journalists, but I would like to say we are also human beings and even we feel bad,” said the actress. Her next is Boss with Akshay Kumar and she says the film is a mix of everything. “I am playing a college girl, who is fun loving. This is a film which is a mix of everything - action, comedy and drama. I did the film to have fun and experience larger than life film,” said the actress who has been part of small budget movies like Yeh Saali Zindagi and London Paris New York as well as a biggie like Rockstar. Directed by Anthony D’Souza, Boss also features Ronit Roy and it is slated for an October 16 release.

Rewriting office rules

‘The Lunchbox’ is for sensitive people: Big B

Why would a ﬁrm want longer queues in its canteen? To foster creativity, it emerged this week

MEGASTAR Amitabh Bachchan has appreciated the recently released movie The Lunchbox and says it is for those viewers who are sensitive in nature. Directed by Ritesh Batra, the movie stars Irrfan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Nimrat Kaur in the lead roles. “(I) saw The Lunch Box and it is quite the ﬁlm to be seen by the connoisseurs of sensitivity,” Big B posted on Twitter. Presented by Karan Johar and produced by Anurag Kashyap, The Lunchbox is a simple understated love story about two strangers who exchange notes about life via a lunchbox.

o most people, a long queue for the lunch counter is a sign of their office canteen’s inefficiency. But to Google, counter-intuitive as ever, a healthy waiting time for its famous free lunch is a corporate strategy, designed to foster innovation among employees. Dan Cobley, the search giant’s UK managing director, told a conference of business leaders at the Albert Hall in London this week that Google’s meal-time lines are intentionally kept long, “because we know people will chat while they’re waiting. Chats become ideas, and ideas become projects.” Forward-thinking ﬁrms, Cobley told his audience, ought to nurture “serendipitous interaction” between their staff. Google has a history of apparently frivolous perks and workplace practices that seem “extravagant and juvenile”. Yet, Cobley, insisted, they inspire creativity. And businesses everywhere seem to agree: the modern office is more open, collaborative, ﬂexible and even fun, and it’s thanks to the pioneering practices of Silicon Valley.

‘Shaadi Ke Sides Effects’ to release in February 2014 VIDYA BALAN said her next release will be Shaadi Ke Side Effects and it will come out on Valentine’s Day. “My next movie is releasing next year on February 14. It’s with Farhan Akhtar. We are almost done with the shoot. Just two days’ work left,” Vidya told reporters on Sunday. Vidya visited Thanapur village as part of Nihar Naturals Shanti Amla’s Chotte Kadam Pragati Ki Aur, an initiative to empower women to support children’s education in India. Nihar Naturals Shanti Amla is carrying out the initiative in association with NGO CRY India. It was launched last year and at that time the actress, who is the brand ambassador of the hair care brand, had visited Lusa village in Mirzapur district of the state. Her last release was Ghanchakkar, which didn’t do well at the box office. Shaadi Ke Side Effects, a romantic comedy, is being helmed by Saket Chaudhary.

Shah Rukh Khan back on ‘Happy New Year’ sets SUPERSTAR Shah Rukh Khan, who flew down here on a short visit, has returned to the sets of upcoming movie Happy New Year in Dubai though he has completed his part of the shoot. Happy New Year is being directed by Farah Khan and this is her third film with SRK post the blockbusters — Main Hoon Naa and Om Shanti Om. “Back to Dubai — short visit to Mumbai — touch and go. Shoot coming to an end of another dream’s first schedule wrapping up soon,” Shah Rukh, 47, posted on Twitter. —IANS

Google’s innovation Google may be known best for its online innovations, but it is equally famous in the business sphere for its revolutionary reforms in the corporate workplace. The ﬁrm’s HR department — aka the Google People Analytics Team — uses data to decide which employees deserve promotion or require extra nurturing. It also conducts controlled experiments to optimise the creative environment.

Take those meals, for example: Google famously offers staff freshly prepared free lunches — and breakfasts, and dinners. Rookie Googlers are warned about the “Google 15”, the 15 pounds that many of them put on when presented with all that complimentary grub. Last year, the company decided its US employees were eating too many free M&Ms, thus threatening their own wellbeing and, consequently, their productivity. A team of behavioural scientists known as “Project M&M” was enlisted to help alter staff appetites, banishing the chocolate sweets to opaque containers while fruit and nuts were displayed in glass jars. In just seven weeks, the calorie consumption of the 2,000 employees at the ﬁrm’s New York office reportedly dropped by 3.1 million. Lunch queues are far from the only opportunity for “serendipitous interaction”. The office of almost any modern tech company is littered with “break-out spaces” and “brainstorming pods”. Google’s London base has a roof garden featuring allotments that staff can apply to maintain. Back at the Googleplex — the ﬁrm’s Silicon Valley HQ in Mountain View, California — workstations are clustered in threes and fours, and the clusters divided by glass walls, allowing sunlight to permeate the building while cutting down on distracting ambient noise. Clive Wilkinson, the architect who designed the building, was commissioned to create an open space to encourage collaboration, while allowing workers to con-

We wanted to find a way to force people to come together, to create a lot of arbitrary collisions of people Steve Jobs Apple Inc Founder centrate when necessary. At Facebook, meanwhile, staff are given a budget to personalise their workspaces, and often pool the money with their close colleagues to decorate entire desk clusters. The firm has christened this practice “space hacking”. Encourage collaboration Internet firms such as Google and Facebook were not the first to bring changes to the work environment, however. HewlettPackard introduced an open-plan office to drive interaction back in the 1970s. In 2000 Steve Jobs bought a former canning factory in Emeryville, California, to house his animation studio, Pixar. The office was arranged around a central atrium, where the cafe and a single set of loos was situated, forcing employees to engage with one another and — as in Cobley’s

lunch queues – to wait, to chat and to generate ideas. “We wanted to ﬁnd a way to force people to come together,” Jobs said of the design. “To create a lot of arbitrary collisions of people.” In 2007, Microsoft opened Building 99, a new office for its research division at its HQ in Redmond, Washington. Built to encourage collaboration, Building 99 has moving, modular internal walls to allow workers to reconﬁgure the space according to their needs on any given project. If the idea seems innovative, it was — in the 1940s. Building 99 is partly modelled on Building 20: a temporary wooden structure hastily erected during the Second World War at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Its internal walls were routinely torn down and relocated to accommodate, at different times in its history, Bose Acoustics, Noam Chomsky’s linguistics department, and the workplaces of at least nine Nobel Prize-winners. The “temporary” building survived until the late 1990s. At Stanford, the university that has incubated so many of Silicon Valley’s success stories — including Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin — the recently built, state-of-the-art science and engineering quad was designed to encourage interdisciplinary dialogue between members of different departments — at long tables, and in quiet open spaces. Another obligatory and seemingly frivolous feature of any successful tech start-up nowadays is the games room: pool tables, pingpong, a pinball machine. —Tim Walker/ The Independent

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M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 23, 2 0 1 3

EXTRA

No stories J to tell John Abraham believes Bollywood needs to make sensible ﬁlms

ohn Abraham, who has been propagating off-beat and “sensible” films in a space full of masala entertainment, believes that Bollywood currently lacks “sensible” stories to tell. “We We lack stories. storie We have no stories to tell. We with five comedy scenes and say it’s put five songs wit done,” John told IANS in an interview. int That’s one reason why the 40-year-old is loving and enjoying 40 every bit of his new role as a film producer. Thanks to it, he is being able to serve the audienc audience with eclectic movies — the entertaining Vicky Donorr and the engaging Madras Cafe. “I love the role of a producer because I make the kind of films which I want to make. I make sensible films. I think Vicky Donorr and Madras Cafe are exam examples enough about the cinema which I want to propagate,” he said. John, who has been in the fillm industry for a decade, is all for box office. a healthy mix of genres at the b formula films, as a producer and an “While we keep making form sensible films which the audience actor, I want to say let’s make se them for accepting a film like Mawill accept. I want to thank th movie, which focuses on the Sri Landras Cafe,” he said of his movie kan civil war. In fact, now John, a former supermodel, himself is open to the idea of producing a masala film. masala film, and I will make sure “I’d love to produce a big m entertained by it,” he said. that you are genuinely entertai As an actor, he admits it has been “important to be a part of entertain people”. commercial films and to entert “At the end of the day, people want to laugh and enjoy. But if I am doing a Race 2, Housefull 2, Dostana 2 or a Welcome Back, it that a Madras Cafe is also made. is important that I make sure th “John Abraham is known to do a mix of films. If I do a New York, I will do a Kabul Express aas well. It is important to balance it out,” John added. He says it’s been fun to be a part of true blue Bollywood entertainers. “I don’t regret it. They Th are fun. I am not condescending towards them, but it is good to have a balance of both. I love slapstick comedy. The best case cas in point is Chennai Express. I am sure I will enjoy it. But I feel fee it is interesting to make a Madras Cafe,” he said. Irrespective of the genre, the story line is prime. “I feel that only a good story line can get you respect. Commercial is a by-product, you will wil make money — but a good story John. —IANS line will get you respect,” said J

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Flat in Al Ghoubra 2 Bedroom near Indian School. Contact 98003444/ 99341138

2 BHK big ﬂat Wattaya without AC RO325/-. Contact 92144045 1 BHK with out AC Wadikabir, RO 250/-Last. Contact 92144045 Furnished 1BKT Darsait Indian bachelors RO.180/-. Contact 93289652

3 rooms ﬂat behind Burger King Qurum 370/-. # 99654530 / 99379310 Flats for rent in Wadi Kabir. Contact 96440598 Room+ kitchen & toilets, with A/c in Mawaleh opp Maqaleh Heath center. Contact 99738881 Room & ﬂat for rent at Ruwi Rex Rood 1 room, 3 rooms, 2 toilets residential & commercial. Contact 95490049 / 91290464

Coffee shop for rent in Adheiba and Business partner.# 96395822 4 Villa with sitting room & hall & 4 bad room & 6 toilets with AC 850 RO. Contact 99548999 Spacious 2 BHK Flat for rent, near ISG, N Ghubra. Contact 97624601 Store Ghala behind Kumatsu 100 mtrs. Contact 99414644 / 93666201 2 BHK Mumtaz area RO 400/-. Contact 92144045

Fully furnished apartments for Rent in Al-Khuwair and Ghubra. Contact 95113252 or 91138757 Plot Area: 400 Mtr Sq. Barka Near Mazoon Electricity Station (Qarhat Baloosh), Shops: 6 Nos, Store: 260 Mtr Sq, One Room with Kitchen and Toilet. Co-ordination - N:2621745, E:588876. Contact No: 92165165 Villa 4 rooms + 2 hall+ Majlis + 5 toilets & servant room, in Khuwair opp. Grand Mall RO 900. Contact 99738881 Store for rent 700m2 Barka Alharam. Contact 95643086 Different sizes of shops in Wadi Al Kabir on main way, near Al Hassan company 300 RO and 400 RO monthly. Contact 93191111

Villas for rent. Contact 95178930

3 bedroom ﬂat RO 280/- & studio ﬂat RO 130/- in Hail (North). Contact 97661432

2 BHK CBD. Contact 99024730

2 BHK ﬂat available for rent in Honda road, Ruwi. Lift, security system and dish antenna are available. Contact: 99367448 / 24833972

Deluxe Villa Al Khuwair 25, 6 Bedroom. Contact 98914157

1 BHK without AC Ghubra near to Indian School RO 250/-last. Contact 92144045

Profs for rent. GSM : 98087644

3 BHK Flat Darsait 450/RO. Contact 99358589 / 97079146

1BHK brand new Deluxe apartments available for rent in MSQ. Contact 99358724 / 99447002

1 BHK Flat Wadikabir 250/RO. Contact 99358589 / 95570288

Store for rent at Wadi kabir. Contact 99893363

1 and 2 BR Brand New Flats in Azaiba. Contact: 96793675

Shop for rent at Wadikabir Industrial area. Contact 99893363 2 BHK with AC for Commercial MBD area. Contact 91162431 1 BHK ﬂat Star cinema 240/RO. Contact 99358589/97079146 Commercial ﬂat of 2 and 3 bedrooms in 18 November street 475 and 675 RO monthly. # 93191111

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 2 3, 2 0 1 3

DAILY GUIDE

FOR SALE

WANTED Shawarma Kheema Grill Machine. Contact 93014324

NRI ONLY

FOR RENT

Oil paintings For sale. Contact 99737812 Well running block factory at Musanah for sale or looking partner. Contact 95322478 Shop for sale well furnished shop at Qurum Ice skating center ideal for computer shop, Perfume shop, mobile phone shop. Contact 99039650 Coffee shop for sale near Wadikabir roundabout. Contact 99461642 / 92112142 Expat Leaving Household items JBL speakers, JRX 125 AMPS Denon DJ Mixer. Contact 92134902 Food Stuff Shop for sale in Adhaiba. Contact 96680397 A spacious, ﬁne dining restaurant serving African and Omani cuisine at a prime location in Al Khuwair with lot of parking space. Contact 98849758 Industrial Land 5000 SQT. Contact 99323957 / 95490842

Electrical, building material shop, behind Bank Sohar Ruwi. Contact 99359698 / 92139418

Room for rent in Ruwi. Contact 95372192

Camp for sale Including Porta cabin, kitchen & Dining facilities with RO plant. For more information. Contact Nasser 99808067

2 BR, 2 toilet, kitchen at Al Mawaleh.#99444786 / 99747560 2 showrooms for rent Al Amerat behind Sultan Center. # 97886169

Looking for 1BHK in CBD/MBD/ Wadi Kabeer for around R.O 250/or below preferably spacious and well maintained building. Contact 97750870

ACC. AVAILABLE

Deluxe single bedroom ﬂat with 1 bathroom, hall and kitchen, at New Wattayah area, behind Al Manam apartment for rent. Contact 99310103

Household shop in Al Koud, Wadi Lwami, well running. Contact 98972021 / 95251676

ACC. WANTED

3 bedroom villa for sale kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu. Contact 92893243

Office for sale with furniture capital area, Al Khuwair good business locality RO 2000/-. Contact 95306030 / 92302242

Shop for sale in Ghubrah, good location. Contact 99055410

Shop in Mabailla phase 8 industrial area 36 sqm and cost is 350 RO. Contact 93191111

Cochin (Kerala) 2 BHK 822SQ.FT. 9th ﬂoor, South Star Aprt. Cochin Ernakulum South, close to RLY STN and State transport depot, OPP stadium. Price: IRS. 25 LACS. Contact 95816886

Rooms for rent in Mumtaz area. Contact 99189944

Restaurant with existing seating capacity of 50 people and potential for 90 people and lots of parking place in prime business location at Wattayah near Bank Muscat & Indian Passport Office (B.L.S) in running condition is available for partnership or sale. Contact 95213273

Fully equipped commercial kitchen with camp & storage facilities available at Ghala Industrial area. Interested Parties may Contact 99024519

4 BHK Twin Floor Villa (1800 Sq ft) in 1300 sq ft land at Chalikkavattom Vytlila, Cochin , Finance coordinated . Contact +919747816500

Heavy Equipment for sale- Shovel 380 Komatsu. Contact 97200500

Shop for sale in Wadikabir. Contact 94130140

New 2BHK / 1 BHK ﬂats with Ac spilt unit in Al Hail South 280, 250 RO. Contact 93121111 / 93191111

5 Cent House Plots at Changanacherry Kottayam (Dist), Kerala, Finance coordinated . Contact +919747816500

Furnished single room for executive bachelor near Safeer hypermarket, Azaiba. Gsm 99761216

Fully furnished shop for sale at Ruwi High Street. Contact 96144119

Two single rooms for rent in Al Khuwair with AC & Elct/ water RO 100/115 for bachelor. Contact 95190627 Sharing Acc available near Al Khuwair R/A for Executive bachelor. Contact 99659513

Nice clean room with bath room and sharing kitchen available for single lady in Seeb next to Bahja Center. Contact 99644760 rent 150/- R.O. Furnished room - attached bath in Wadi Kabir (Al Maya) for Indian Lady/ Bachelor. Contact 96761960 Furnished room for non cooking Indian single Executive bachelor in Ghubra, near shell gas station. ph. 95374695

Beauty Parlour for sale. Contact 94062285.

Single room in Muscat with A.C R.O 65/-. Contact: 95094028

Sale of all kind of Household items including medicated double mattresses, furniture’s and Electronic items. Contact 92370923 / 94205904

Single room with attach bathroom near Ruwi, Darsait for an Executive lady. Contact 98591132

2 bedroom ﬂat near Muscat private hospital, Bausher. Monthly income OMR 300, OMR 46,000. Tel: 99333479 or 95215360 Porta cabin and Container for sale. Contact 99373256 Door with frame for sale. Contact 99208798 / 95643086

Toyota Corolla XLI, 2012 model for immediate sale. Full auto, A/T, Silver color, lady driven and in perfect condition, impeccably clean. Done 33000 km. Contact: 92887915 Honda Civic 2004 Automatic expat driven. Contact 99045803 Mitsubishi Pajero 2002 fully automatic power option expat driven engine-3.8 cc. Contact 99045803 Mazda 6 2007 full automatic low mileage Expat driven 2,600/-. Contact 92782856 Toyota Yaris 1.3 saloon low mileage, automatic transmission, manual Windows 3000/- Neg. Contact 95277959 Sales Construction Equipment and Vehicles Liebherr & Zoomlion Tower Crane Generator Cummings 320 and 200 Kva Manitou Telescopic Forklift, Hyundai Forklift and Gehl Bobcat Gmc Yukon, Mitsubishi 3 Ton Hiab, Daihatsu Srion other So many tolls. Contact Baris 97607281

Toyota Reach Truck (Forklift) model 1997. Contact 94194876 Mercedes SLK 200 Model 2008, KM 93000 Convertible price 6900. Contact 96060438

TRANSPORTATION Transportation. Contact 99664703 Transportation available. Contact 95068976 Transportation available. Contact 95714934 Transportation. Contact 93400744

Used furniture dining table with chairs, cooking range, microwave oven, show case (big & small). Contact 96282677

Shop for sale at Sohar Falaj Al Qabail. Contact : 99103077

Toyota Corolla 1.6 Xli 2009 single owner. Contact 98180493

Camry 2011. Contact 94261000 Luxurious 2 bedroom ﬂats available for rent in Mumtaz area.Way no 3358, building no -3940. Contact 24564460 / 61.

2 rooms (1 with attached bath,1 without bath) in a ﬂat available near shell petrol station (behind Bank Beirut) at Al Ghubra from Indian Executive bachelor only from today. Contact 95116241

Crane, 30Tons for sale. Contact 99209427

M.V. FOR SALE

House with plot & compound wall covering 20 cents and plot 80 cents facing TC road at Nanniyode / Palode - Trivandrum for sale. Contact 98458542

Industrial Land 5000 SQT with an Empty space in front of (opposite to Mountain). Contact 99323957/ 95490842

Electronics shop for sale at Ruwi. Contact 24786370 GSM 96737199

AVAILABLE

350 SQ MTS and plot, clear title, on 120 ft road near IIIT, Kalindipuram Allahabad, UP, India Serious buyers Contact 99236945

Non Cooking Bachelor or VEG family at Wadi Kabir. Contact 91165580 / 99014325 Big two rooms for sharing opposite Al Nahda Hospital. #98725208 Reasonably furnished Room near Kuwaiti Masjid Wadikabir. Contact 93416854 Single room available for Executive bachelor, near Al Falaj Hotel. Contact 99643845 Room for rent near Hamriya roundabout for Executive bachelor. Contact 93590332

Transportation. Contact 98178135 Transportation. Contact 96954496

Nissan Maxima Model 2012, KM 25000 No 3 price 8,850/-. Contact 96060438 Lexus ES 350, No 1, 2007 banurama RO 7600. Contact 99788213 Lexus GS 300, Model 2006, KM 66000 price 6450/-. # 96060438 Subaru legacy, 2006 # 99328414 Inﬁniti M375 2011. # 92844996 Luxus ES 350, 2007 model good condition. Contact 94480418 For Sale Yaris 2006 full Automatic type 2. Contact 99845155/ 99588572 Jeep Cherokee 2008. # 99336093 Chevrolet Captiva 2008 GCC, 20,0000 KM, 4100/-RO. Contact 97646282 Toyota Fortuner model 2012, 2.7 LT, km 17000. Contact 99350092 Dodge Charger 2012. #92844996

MATRIMONIAL Hindu Ezhava 28, age Kottayam Officer Graduate in Hotel Management, Star Ashwathy working as Admin Officer in Oman. Contact 96920834 Kerala Hindu boy, 37 yrs, Divorced doing business in Oman, seeks suitable Girls from any Caste or Region. Contact 93053917 Email : sunilmanappally75@gmail.com Kerala boy 29 years, Ezhava Al Ansari Engineering Division working. Contact 95237483 Email satheesh25@gmail.com Nair Girl Beautiful post Graduate Thiruvonum 25 legally Divorced, seeks alliance from professionally qualiﬁed having good job in Oman/ Dubai preferably 32. Contact 96783213

Transportation. Contact98546606 For transport. Contact 92548219 Transport Pick & Drop. Contact 97581610 Transportation Contact 95570429

ACC. AVAILABLE 1 Bedroom sharing K & T, family bachelor RO 100 in Al Khuwair. Contact 95154331 Spacious room with A/C and attach bath for walking lady of executive bachelor in Wadi Kabir (Indian only). Contact 99720561

Christian RC boy, fair, 35yrs, Mechanical Engineer, working in Muscat. Contact 92718685 Kerala RC boy 31 yrs Draftsman, Muscat from Kottayam Dt seeking suitable alliance. Contact 98157825 or (91) 9946872295 Orthodox parents seeks alliance for daughter, 26/158, B. Tech working in MNC in Muscat from well placed professionals. Email : proposalindia1234@gmail.com Keralite Hindu 28 yrs Biomedical Technician working in Oman need suitable proposal. Contact 99433516 Email: vinojrkrishnan@gmail.com

Room for rent in Ruwi. 95372192 Furnished room in CBD area for Executive bachelors free wi-ﬁ, non-cooking, Advance deposit. Contact 95934642

Kerala boy 38 years Chartered Accountant in Sultanate of Oman Hindu Nair seeking suitable alliance. Contact 97133729, E mail : kunjumonaca@gmail.com

M O N D AY, S E P T E M B E R 2 3, 2 0 1 3

DAILY GUIDE

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

SITUATION VACANT

ADMIN Omani female Receptionist (Educated) required with Knowledge in English letter typing. Email hr.paramountbm@gmail.com

SALES / MARKETING

PRO required urgently for a school in Ghala /Azaiba. Apply immediately to schoolghala@yahoo.com Required for a leading international company in the ﬁeld of IT located in Ruwi, CBD Area, a female employee (Administrative Secretary) holding a diploma in IT and familiar with public relations and staying in Wilayat Muttrah. CVs to be sent to the email: anismaimani@gmail.com

ACCOUNTANCY Urgently required Qualiﬁed & experienced Accountant, IT & Administration, for a Muscat based well known construction company. Email: khalbeeliz@gmail.com Fax 24488057 Wanted Accountant, minimum 5 years experience with D/L. Contact 95098253 / 92191191 email: atif@ayoonwater.com Reputed Construction Company required Accountant experience in Construction Company with accountancy degree. Email: jvacancy05@gmail.com

BEAUTY Exclusive Ladies SPA & Saloon in Salalah has an opening for female Operation Executive exp. min. 3 yrs, energetic & independent to operate. Guest relationship & strong knowledge in ERP. Send CV info@ezrahlife.com Required Indian lady beautician, Al Amerat, visa & accommodations available. Contact 92059502 Required General Beautician, Indian Nationality with local release for beauty parlour at Al Ghubrah. Contact 95134495 / 95622129 Required urgently experienced Beautician. Contact 99467033

CATERING Required Catering Manager with 3 - 5 years catering experience (minimum), 3* - 5* hotel experience Good command - Microsoft Office. Please email CV’s: cv@sahtane.com, 97165014 Required Cook: Minimum 1-3 years cooking experience (minimum), 3* - 5* hotel experience English: Written and conversational. Please email CV’s: cv@sahtane.com, 97165014

DOMESTIC HELP Wanted housemaid to work in Indian family, from 9 AM – 9 PM. Contact 96226787 Babysitter required as part time/ full time in Ibra. call 95746144 /98916896

DRIVER Omani Heavy bus Driver required for a contracting company. Email: hr.paramountbm@gmail.com

Wanted Driver. Call - 24170076 / 98936716. Send resume: tthrteam@gmail.com. Car Driver personal. Contact 96694954

EDUCATION Wanted Mathematics lecturers with PhD and 5 years of college teaching exp for immediate Joining. Very good salary package offered. Interested candidates send you CV to trainingjobsoman@gmail.com Required Omani Teacher for teaching Arabic for School in Ghala /Azaiba. Apply immediately to schoolghala@yahoo.com Wanted Principal / Vice Principal and Arabic Teachers for a bilingual (Arabic-English) School in Ghala. Native Arabic speaking preferred. Knowledge of English is an advantage. Please apply to schoolghala@yahoo.com Wanted Computer Teachers for Eastern Pearl Private School, Darsait. Contact 92923349

ENGINEERS/TECH Only Indian Diploma Civil Engineer with 1-2 years experience and Should have valid G.CC Driving license. Email smtcoman@gmail.com Require Hydraulic Technician with 5 years experience in Gulf. Contact 99450633 Civil Site Supervisor / Coordinator, diploma holder with 2-3 years experience in site metal fabrication /erection projects. Valid Oman D/L preferable. Contact 99102383 Email: hr@khancogroup.com

MEDICAL Required G.Ps & specialist doctors with MOH license preferred. Email clinicalmaha@yahoo.com, 99372860 Required Pharmacist/Assist. Pharmacist with MOH license for a pharmacy in capital area. saif695@yahoo.com Shatti Al Qurum Medical Center is looking to employ qualiﬁed and registered nurses (Dentist hygienist and Gyno). If interested, please send your qualiﬁcations and experience to: hr71mb@hotmail.com Tel: 93655425 A licensed dentist is needed to rent a running dental clinic in Sohar (next to Sohar university). Contact 95603395

ENGINEERS/TECH Required Kitchen assistance/ Delivery Driver with 1-3 years of driving experience in oman Interested in developing career. Please email CV’s: cv@sahtane.com, 97165014 Urgently required North Indian part time cook in mutrah. Contact – 99100314

Urgently Required: Senior QA/QC Engineer minimum 7years experience in steel fabrication, welding etc. BS Civil Engineer minimum 5years experience. Civil Foreman 10years experience. Apply, fax 24605955/ email sbc@steelbuildingsllc.com

Sales and marketing is required with knowledge of printing and media advertisement and minimum 7 years experience. D/L is preferred. Send CV to: UCRECRUIT@GMAIL.COM.

Requires energetic Sales Executives. Fresher with no experience may also apply. Email jobvaciuc@gmail.com

Required Salesman cum Driver with Education certiﬁcate for trading company visa ready. Contact 99250248

Required Marketing Executive female (Indians & Philippines) in Muscat with Oman driving license. Email ectmp.cv@gmai.com

Leading construction company requires Quality Assurance (QA) & quality control (QC) Electric Engineer, Personnel. Send CV to : nikunj@uniqueom.com

Required Sr. Sales Executive : Candidate should have minimum 5 years experience in ready-mix concrete Industry or special building material with excellent contact with consultant & contractors. Candidate should have sound marketing & sales exposure with valid Oman driving license. Suitable candidates may send their C.V to: Email: sabrm@omantel.net.om

Required Housemaid Pilipino full time. Contact 98563312

A petroleum ﬁeld (SAOC) company seeking for light duty driver, holding Oman driving license with commercial and private vehicle with 2-3 years experience. Fax: 24485908 Email: said.maqsha@gmail.com

Required Salesman for building materials trading company in Muscat with good experience in Oman market. Please send CV to email: ceioman99@gmail.com

Required Asst. Pharmacist with MOH License for a pharmacy in capital area. GSM: 92820570 Wanted Ophthalmologist (DO), Staff Nurses (female) with MOH license for a polyclinic. Excellent Salary package. Contact 99006915 Email alhinaee.clinic@yahoo.com

MEDICAL Wanted Pilipino Dental Nurse or General Nurse for Dental Polyclinic in Muscat (Preferable with MOH License). Contact 94351050 Omani Staff Wanted : A reputed hospital in Muscat urgently needs Omani HR Manager, Reception Staff, Nursing Assistants, Technicians, Security, Drivers for immediate recruitment. Please send your CV to vacancyahh@gmail.com we will call you.

MISC Looking for men (2) with “full experience” to run the laundry shop in Mawaleh South. Priority applicants and who wish to run the shop on contract basis; not salary basis. Knowledge of English and Arabic languages + Computer Use skill required. Contact 9722 1304 Required an Arabic spoken office boy from Kerala. Contact 92345861

SIT. WANTED ADMIN/HR Indian female, MBA( HR & Marketing) B.Tech ( Electronics & Communication) with experience. Contact 96963961 Indian female MA, MBA (HR) with 5 yrs GCC exp, presently working as HR Coordinator in groups of company, seeks suitable placement. Contact 93498876 Indian female 10 years experience in admin and customer care seeking for a suitable job. Contact 97132322 Email ID: chaisonline@gmail.com

Required Sales Coordinator : Candidate should have 3-4 years experience in concrete industry should have a good flair in sales & marketing. Suitable candidates may send their C.V to: Email: sabrm@omantel.net.om Required Storekeeper: Candidate should have minimum 3-4 years experience to handle spare parts of heavy vehicle with computer knowledge. Suitable candidates may send their C.V to: Email: sabrm@omantel. net.om Required for a reputed trading company based in Dubai, UAE for its Oman operations, having minimum 3 years experience in carpets, carper tiles, raised access flooring and parquet flooring, should have valid Omani license. Contact anseem@manappat.com or fax 24799943

Urgently required a Leading Insurance Brokers is looking for experienced “Marketing Executive’’. Send your CV to hr.fpis@gmail.com Required Sr. Sales Executive : Candidate should have minimum 5 years experience in ready-mix concrete Industry or special building material with excellent contact with consultant & contractors. Candidate should have sound marketing & sales exposure with valid Oman driving license. Suitable candidates may send their C.V to: Email: sabrm@omantel.net.om Required Storekeeper: Candidate should have minimum 3-4 years experience to handle spare parts of heavy vehicle with computer knowledge. Suitable candidates may send their C.V to: Email: sabrm@omantel.nrt.om Required a Sales Executive for building materials trading company. In Oman experience minimum 1 year. Preferred only with Driving license. Send CV to dubairus123@gmail.com Marketing company requires Sales Executive salary + incentive, visa available send CV at bdmrightway@gmail.com Contact 95748080

SIT. WANTED ADMIN/HR Indian male 26 yrs, seeking job in HR/Admin ﬁeld 3 yrs working experience in UAE as HR/ Admin including logistic, transportation etc. Contact 95287474 Indian male BBM (Finance) with 4 years experience as a lead operations at IBM, seeking job in Finance/ Accounts/ Admin. Available for immediate joining. Contact 93080380 Email vijay.05reva@gmail.com Indian female B.Com 8 years experience in Admin HR/ Customer services, having valid Driving license. Contact 96253400 / 96998242 Indian, Male,28 yrs, MBA HR with 8 years experience in core HR/ Specialized in Recruitment in Tier 1 comp, Currently employed in Muscat with Valid Oman DL. Looking for growth opportunity - 95951127

Indian male 35 yrs MBA 12+ Years experience in Admin HR/ Operations, with valid Driving license. Contact 96727030 / 96253400 Qualiﬁed Female HR Professional with MBA(HR),BE,PGDBM 5 years of experience seeking suitable role in HR Proﬁle.Valid Oman D/L Contact 94129462 Sri Lankan female 27 years having 7 years experience in administration, customer service with excellent English and computer knowledge seeking suitable placement. Contact 96144390 Indian male 46 years, seeking suitable position in Admin or as Storekeeper. Contact 91385251 Indian male 4 years of HR experience, looking for Admin, Recruitment job. Contact 99489496

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 2 3, 2 0 1 3

DAILY GUIDE SITUATION WANTED ACCOUNT. & FINANCE Muslim Chartered Accountant and M.Com, 12 Years of Experience, At present in UAE, seeking good Job in Accounts, Finance, Audit etc. # 00971 50 9607654, 00968 9985 7838, E mail : chishtiaca@yahoo.com

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

ADMIN/HR

Accounts Admin Banking 09 years of experience including Gulf valid Oman driving license. Contact Mazhar GSM 92149202 Email msk92149202@gmail.com

29 Indian female MBA 2 years experience in Accounts and Administration skilled with MS Office, seeking for suitable position. # 96962240

Indian female, Accountant, 7 years Oman experience, well versed in accounts and administration, seeks employment. Contact 95607661

HR & Administration officer 15 years experience, looking for a suitable opening. Contact 95893806

Manager Accounts & HR MBA ﬁnance PGDHRM 10 yrs experience in India 14 yrs experience in Muscat Presently working in Construction/ Earth works co. in Muscat available to join immediately. # 91103856 Email newjobs13@yahoo.com

Indian Male, 27 years, 5 years’ experience as a Customer/Client relation Manager in MNCs. Seeking suitable posts in Customer relations/ Administration/HR. GSM: 93088407

ARCH/ INTERIOR Indian female B.Arch 1.7 years of work experience in India, seeking a suitable placement in Oman Muscat. Contact 94373984 Email shrutishetty115@gmail.com Artist Masters of ﬁne Arts having 20 years experience of all kinds of Arts and decoration works in Oman, looking for suitable placement. Contact 92635029 Iraqi Architect 22 years experience. Contact 97608513

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE Indian male, 27 yrs Sales Executive 4 years experience in Oman, with valid Oman driving license, seeks similar position. Contact 91161698 Email badarkkb@gmail.com Accounts Manager, MBA Finance & PG Diploma in HR, total 24 yrs experience, working in Oman since 14 yrs now working in Oman forconstruction co. in Muscat, can join immediately. Contact 91387354, accounts242013@yahoo.com ACCA finance professional 5 years experience including 1 yr in Oman experience, looking for suitable placement. Contact 95174220 Chartered Accountant, Indian female 25 years, with good Knowledge and experience in Finance, Accounts, Audits, immediate joining. Contact 92530131 / 24785757 Email : muflihak@gmail.com B.Com 21 yrs with 1 yrs exp Indian male valid D/L. Contact: 95186796 Accountant M.Com, MBA, with 7 years experience looking for suitable placement. Contact 93029334 Email heams.merlin@gmail.com Indian male Accountant with 7 years experience (Expert in Tally ERP-9) seeks suitable placement. Contact 94251297 Email : milan.muscat@gmail.com Jordanian Senior Accountant 11 Years Experience, Worked In Constructions, Tourism Company and Poly Clinic, Experience in Tally Erp9.Contact 96470036 14 Years exp Accountant Indian male. Contact 971506742791 UAE, 99337624 Oman Indian female MBA (finance) working with reputed company in Muscat with valid Oman D/L seeking for suitable placement in finance / accounts. Contact 97197683 Accounts works up to finalization on part-time / fulltime. Contact 96247295 Accountant, Indian, with Qatar experience in Accounts, seeks suitable position in Muscat as an accounts Executive. Contact 94460349, E mail : jithutourism@gmail.com Indian male 28 Chartered Accountant, looking for suitable placement in Finance and Audit department. Email ubaiskeeran@gmail.com Contact 96357827 M.COM, ACMA (ICWA) 35yrs, 12 yrs exp (2 yrs in Oman with valid D/L) in finance, costing, budgeting & business plan, accounts finalization, advanced excel presently at US MNC Chennai, India interested to relocate to Oman. # 91-9789900628 Email: costmanagement2012@yahoo.com

Indian, B. Com graduate with 9+ years experience, great exposure in Accounting/Administration job(TallyErp9), seeks suitable placement. Omani Driving License, Contact: 96001864 Male, 26, ACCA qualified, 2 years experience, looking for suitable placement, contact 97213304 Indian Male B Com Accountant, over 8 yrs experience in accounting upto finalization. Experience in tally9 and focus v6 softwares. GSM:93513783 Indian male B.Com with 4 years experience in accounts and admin in U.A.E seeks suitable placement (currently at express visa) Contact 95521463 Email: rpj503080@gmail.com Accountant, Indian male having valid Omani driving license, 31 yrs, B.Com Graduate with 10 years of computerized accounting experience in India, U.A.E & Oman recently working as Accountant in Oman seeking suitable jobs. Contact +968 94058639/ +968 95704584 Indian female 29, B.SC M.BA 6 yrs exp in Garment export & buying house in India seeking for suitable placement. Contact 98228674 Part time accountant up to finalization Wadi kabir and Ruwi. Contact 95819432 Indian male 24 MBA finance with SAP diploma March 2012 to Aug 2012 on a visit, seeking a suitable job in Accounts/ Audit. # 99828934 Indian female, Accountant B.Com 3+ years experience 1 year and 6 months in Oman computers Diploma in Tally and Busy. # 96498424 Indian male, 34, B.Com & CA intermediate, over 10 years experience (5 years in Oman). Expertise in Accounts, Statutory Audit & Internal Audit, looking for suitable Accounts Managerial positions. # 99169501 Sr. Accountant, Indian male, M.Com, 11 years experience in Accounts, Banking, Insurance, treasury, MIS, Costing and budgeting, having valid Omani D/L, seeks suitable placement. Contact 95236775 Email anil1579@yahoo.com Accountant Indian male B.Com 8 years Oman experience with Omani Driving license, ready to join immediately. Contact 91101645 Indian male Accountant 10 yrs exp in Oman with Driving license, seeks placement. Contact 91169487 Indian male Looking for suitable job vacancy in Marketing Accounts, Business development B.Com Tally Peachtree experienced. Contact 98910513 Accountant : Indian male B. Com, M.Com, Inter C.A. Passed, having 2 years experience in accounts & audit dept. seeks suitable placement. Immediate joining - GSM – 94473812 Chief Accountant, Indian, Well experienced, B.Com. ICWA (Inter) in Finance & Accounts seeks change. Contact: 96545021 Chartered Accountants and M.Com having 6 experience in Finance & Accounts, Audit & Risk, Cost Control, Budgeting, MIS. 97132081 Sr. Accountant Indian male 37 yrs, B.Com, 15 yrs experience in accounts and audit (12 yrs in Oman) seeks suitable placement. Contact 98901997 email: sbpunnakat@gmail.com

Part time accounts / audit services. Gsm 99761216 Male Accountant MBA, ICMAP (finalist) 6.5 years experience in finance, accounting, payroll, audit, administration, ERP,SAP,TALLY, seeking for good opportunity E-mail: faisalsaeedrana@hotmail. com Faisal Saeed : 97268088 Part time Accountant / Internal Auditor computerized and Manual Accounts, Driving own car. Accounts up to finalization. Contact Kumar 96414305 Indian Male, experience in Accounts. Contact 95139075 Young male B.Com Graduate with Accounting Software Tally requires job. Contact 98668738 Sri Lankan male 36 yrs, Chartered Accountant and Graduate of B.Sc Business Administration ( Major Finance), excellent skills and experience in Finance Management and Auditing over 13 yrs, dedicated and result oriented, looking for a suitable placement.# 96747660 Email kcruwan@gmail.com Chartered Accountant, Indian male 37 years 4 years experience in Oman, total experience 11 years. Contact 93795838 Indian male, 23 years B.Com Graduate Pursuing ICWAI (CMA)- INTER, seeking for suitable placement. Contact 97736123 / 99427946

Indian male 25 yrs B Com Accountant having experienced of 3 years looking for a good placement Contact 97803996 Indian male Accountant B.Com 4 years exp in India prof in Tally ERP9 seeks suitable placement currently on visit visa. # 91377681 house Manager and Accountant, NOC available & can join immediately seeks suitable placement. Contact 92203972 Indian female 35 B.Com with 5 years experience & driving license, seeks suitable placement. Contact 95871492 Indian Male, MBA ( Finance) with 5 years experience as Senior Analyst at reputed company in India, Seeks job in Finance or Accounts. Contact 91378950 Email ms.sharief@gmail.com Chartered Accountant Young Indian female 25 years with Good knowledge and experience in Finance, Accounts and Audit of large corporate, available for immediate joining. Contact 92530131/ 24785757 Email muflihak@gmail.com Male, Indian 26 yrs Accountant 4 yrs in Oman. Contact 95960600 Mumbai Born, male-24, PGPM + MBA (Finance) with one year experience as a financial analyst in India. seeks job in finance. Tel: 98711999 email: sharancherian@gmail.co

CATERING

DRAUGHTSMAN

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

Electrical D/man, experienced, on visit visa. Contact :96516924

25 years Indian male, B.E Aeronautical, 2 Years experience on Maintenance repair and overhaul. Hands on experience on Gas turbine engine and Autocad 2007. Contact 00919739656833 Email: midhu4u@gmail.com

AutoCAD Draughtsman Gulf Experienced Ph: 98310977 Autocad d/man, gulf exp, exp in Arch, interior, structural, 3D, PH : 96722150

DESIGNER Indian male 30 yrs, B.Com Graphic designer 5 years experience in Dubai on visit visa. Contact 97166820 Interior Designer Indian male, looking for suitable job 5 year experience (3D Designing, Auto CAD designing Photoshop) Finish Interior designing diploma & civil diploma. Contact 93098456 / 92787854 Email sijithpattath@gmail.com 3D Visualizers / designer having 2 D & 3 D experience in Oman, knowledge of interior & exterior, seeking for good place part time or fulltime, having Omani D/License. Contact 95268877 AutoCAD 2D, 3D Technician 3 years exp with Oman driving license, NOC available. Contact 95962384

Accountant, B.Com male 10 yrs experience knows Tally, MS Office, looking for part/ full time job. Contact 96171646

Indian male BSc Hotel Management with 10 yrs experience and Oman D/L, seeking suitable replacement. Contact 95066454

Indian female, 25yrs Bsc-FASHION DESIGNING, 3yers experience in designing ﬁeld and teaching. looking for a sutable placement. Contact: 98785310. Email: vinaya.m.nair@gmail.com

MBA ﬁnance and marketing Indian male 24 years 1 year experience in Accounts seeking suitable placement. # 94223199 / 98293616 Email: jahafeer@gmail.com

DOMESTIC HELP

EDUCATION

Indian male, 24 years, B.Com MBA Finance, H.R) 1 years experience in accounts, now on visit visa, seeking suitable placement. Contact 93439561 / 98251197 Experience Accountant looking for part time job in Accounts. Contact 96558699 13 yr experience in ﬁnalization of Accounting seeks part time job. Contact 95380650 Chief Accountant, 22 yrs. experienced, seeks immediate placement. Contact 95598477 / 99013963 Senior Accountant seeks part time job. Contact 99013963 / 98803439 Male 27, looking for Suitable Position of Finance Officer. 8.5 years of Experience, 3 years in Oman. Contact 99841436 Chartered Accountant with ICWA Inter having 5 years experience in accounts, costing, budgeting, Insurance, treasury & Banking operations - Available for Immediate Joining. Contact : 96596380 Email-ﬁnancecost2@gmail.com Part time Accounts /Audit service. Contact 97104365 / 92418779 (call after 5P.M). Indian male, 25 years, MBAFinance Graduate, 1 year experience with computer knowledge, on the lookout for suitable openings in Oman. Contact 93870465 and email : fahadhv@yahoo.com . ACCA Member, Graduate (UK), 24 yrs male, 3 yrs experience, tally ERP -9, quick book & MS Office looking for suitable placement. #97268263 Part time Accountant with 15 yrs experience in Accounts Finance Audit & tax management. #95857199 Finance Accounts Indian male B.Com MBA 31 years, Exp 6 years. Contact 93257426 / 92365310, Email : sibigeorgep@gmail.com Finance Controller 15+ years versatile experience in Oman, seeks immediate openings#92439941 Indian male, 27 yrs Accounts 4 years experience in Oman, seeks similar position. Contact 93770862 Email badarkkb@gmail.com

Cooking and delivery looking for work in Kerala /Tamil family. Contact 99556852

DRIVERS Indian male heavy license Saudi Arabia working experienced, looking for suitable job vacancies in Sales, Heavy driver, Merchandising Etc. Contact 98910513 Driving looking for job. Contact 92617293 Driver English & Arabic speaking. Contact 97146169 7 months Driving experience in Oman having D/L, seeking for suitable placement also, have 3 years 7 months driving license in Kuwait. Contact 94256123 Male 29, looking job for light driving having good driving experience in company in Oman, like Nawras mobile etc. Contact 96914164 / 97304221

26 Years Indian female BA. B.Ed & MSW degree holder applying for Teaching & office administration post. Contact 94162888 Email sreelakshmi.kuttysree@gmail.com Indian female, BSc B.ED, fresher looking for a teacher’s job for secondary section from 5th to 8th for all subjects. # 97645135 / 93023379

ENGG. / TECHNICAL Mechanical Engineer with 5+ years experience in project management and estimation of oil and gas projects. Looking for suitable change. Contact: 95974435 A BE Civil, 26 yrs male, with 4+ yrs of exp and having an ongoing exp in oil & gas with all HSE trainings, inductions and having defensive driving license is looking for urgent placement# 93525766 Telecom Engineer 4 years experience in all Huawei equipment MW& BTS of site survey maintenance. Contact 94462554

Indian male L/D Driver. #93078481 Driver 6 years exp with car, have valid Oman driving license with AutoCAD knowledge. NOC available. Contact 95962384 47 years Indian Heavy Driver 16 years experience in Oman, looking for suitable placement. Contact 93842371 / 99389268 Light Driver. Contact 97020205 Light driver. Contact 95387829 20 Yrs Exp Light Duty Driver. Contact 91210747 4 yrs Experienced Indian Driver looking for job as driver. #93079087

DRAUGHTSMAN

Indian Female 23 years old, Aeronautical Engineering graduate with 1 year 6 months experience, expert in MS Office tools, Technical documentation, reports and excellent communication skill. mail: sandhyamenon057@gmail.com B.Tech Mechanical, 26yr Indian male having 4 yr experience in plant construction,structural fabrication & erection in India. # 0091 9546418417 E-mailmail2umesh89@gmail.com Planning Engineer having M Tech in Construction Management with 2 years experience. Currently employed for a reputed company construction company in Oman. Proﬁcient in Primavera P3 and P6. Mob; 98278801 / 99461643 e-mail id; asifkutiady@gmail.com

M.E. Construction Management, Exp. 6 years in Project Management & Control. Fine hands on Primavera P6 R 8.2, seeks suitable Job in Oil & Gas / Construction. Contact 99840791, Email p.planning21@gmail.com B.E Civil Engineer 7 years experience in Oman with valid Oman D/L job, looking for a Consultancy. Contact 99612163 Indian male Electronics and Communication Diploma MCITP, having experience in Oman, seeks suitable placement in IT, Electronics or Similar field. Contact 99170783 Email rajeev00t@gmail.com BE Civil Engineer 20 years in Oman senior positions with D/L, looking suitable position. Contact 99663090 Indian male 24, B.Tech Mechanical Engg. Completed seeking suitable placement. Contact 99052921/ 99434987 Indian male: BTech, Electrical and Electronics having 3 years experience in operation and maintainance of EHV substation, projects, technical coordination,electrical designing and drafting,handled E autocad, Contact :95669828 Email: johncml007@gmail.com Mechanical Engineer with 3 years experience in Sales & Marketing in India and having valid Omani driving license looking for suitable opening. Contact 96596482. Indian male Biotechnology Engineer recently passed looking for a suitable opening and ready to join any time. Contact 95130163 Bio-medical Engineer (B-Tech), 3 years experience in India, on visit visa seeks suitable placement. Contact : 92163918, saviojose111@gmail.com Indian male 27 years, 3 years experience in Refrigeration field with valid Driving license, seeking for suitable job. Contact 91273654 Degree Civil Engineer, 7 years experience in UAE, having valid UAE driving licence,currently available in visit visa. Phone: 93321785 Indian female,25yrs,B.tech Electronics & Communication Engineering Graduate with one year experience as Specialist Operations in an MNC BPO and with Optical Fiber Communication Engineering Certification from BSNL seeks suitable placement. Contact:98637434 Email:sasasha88@gmail.com B.Sc in Civil Engineer, 6 years experience in Construction field in UAE Dubai, having UAE driving license, seeking suitable placement. Contact 97125780 Mechanical Technician 36 yrs Indian male 9 yrs Gulf experience 3 yrs in Oman with D/L, seeking suitable placement. Contact 96287511 Email maheshlazer@gmail.com Sudanese B.Sc Mechanical Engineer MBA holder 4 years experience, Thermal Electricity power plants combined cycle. Contact 95816951 MD. Hasan Habib Diploma in Electrical having 8 years experience (3 years in Oman MEP). # 95881358 Email habib.eng98@gmail.com

Male Philipino, 23 yrs . Draftsman. knowledge on 2D and 3D Auto cad , 3D max, 3yrs. Experience in oman, contact : 96095641

B. Tech in Electrical & Electronics Indian male 27 years single 4.5 years experience as Electrical quality inspector in reputed heavy industry abroad currently in Muscat, On visit looking for suitable and immediate placement. Contact 92521239 Email: electricalengineer.sk@gmail.com

Indian male Draughting and co-ordination 8 years experience in Civil and MEP, working in Reputed ﬁrm Muscat, looking suitable placement. Contact 96395748

Mechanical Engineer western educated 25 year old Male looking for suitable placement with valid Omani driving license. Email aziz.qaiser@gmail.com

Male Computer Technician Diploma in applied 4 years exp Electronics & computer maintenance, language English, Arabic seeking suitable placement. # 92501456

BSc Interior designer with 6 years in Mumbai and 2 years in Oman, seeking a suitable job for Site Co ordination. Contact +968 95796137

Indian Female Electrical Engr, 4years experience in application engineering/ projects/ technical coordination -93770649

M O N D AY, S E P T E M B E R 2 3, 2 0 1 3

DAILY GUIDE

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

SITUATION WANTED ENGG. / TECHNICAL

INFORMATION TECH

INFORMATION TECH.

27 Years, male presently working as a Site Engineer (BE Mechanical) having 4 years experience in Erection & Fabrication of steel structures, seeking a suitable placement in Oman. Contact 93370241 Email: binuprofessional@gmail.com

ITIL, OCP, CRISC certiﬁed IT Professional with 20 yrs. exposure to Dubai & Oman markets having expertise in ERP, Cloud Computing, Virtualization, security, IT/Project Management, Citrix, Oracle etc. is looking for immediate placement. Contact: 95602424

Indian male 27 years old, Masters in Computer Applications with 4+ years experience, Key skills: Oracle Pl/sql and .net Seeking Suitable placement. Contact: +919538345624 sujithchennat@gmail.com

Mobile Software Technician 2 years exp in Gulf, well known languages Hindi, Arabic & English. #95330129 Q.C. Inspector 25 yrs experience in Chemical and food. #92106143 Computer Engineer (Indian), 21 yrs seeking a suitable job opportunities in Oman, Fresher on visit upto to 5th October. Contact 96306993 Civil Engineer 1 year Exp as (Design Engineer & Shop Drawing) professional @ AutoCAD ,ETABS, Revit, Robote structural analysis. Contact no : 91381068 Civil Engineer 6 years Exp as (Site Technical office Engineer, QS, Planning engineer & Site Engineer) Professional @ AutoCAD, Sap, P3 & office. Contact no: 91148708 Project Engineer Micro tunneling sewerage Network with 18 years experience infrastructure with good skill also having valid Omani D/L, seeking suitable placement. Contact +968 94220778 / Email abidhusaindesai@yahoo.com Indian Keralite 33 years male ITI Electrician, 13 years exp, 5 years Gulf experience able to handle fire alarm AVS PS system and Plumbing with valid Oman D/L looking for suitable placement in Muscat area. Contact 93367545 Experienced 12 yrs Gulf 1yr Oman exp. as land surveyor in building / road construction seeks immediate placement. Contact 97850467 Diploma-in- Civil Engineer, 4 years experience in Sultanate of Oman also having Omani driving license. GSM : +968 98899738, E-mail: hfiroz301009@yahoo.com Electrical Engineer, Indian, Female, with 10 years experience, 4 years in consultancy firms in UAE seeks suitable job in Muscat. Mob: 91279796 Indian male B Tech Chemical Engineer, looking for suitable placement in Oman urgently. Email sarellayeshwanth@gmail.com/ vanabalaji@gmail.com Indian Civil Project Engineer with 10+years Gulf exp, suitable for Project works/ QS works, Omani D/L, seeking a suitable position. # 93476959 B.Sc Engineer (Civil Engg Degree), 5 Yrs experience with good construction skill, looking for suitable placement. Mobile: 93247929, Email: maislam03@hotmail.com Indian Male 35 yrs, Instrumentation Engineer, DEI, NTC, NAC, ATI-EPI. 14 yrs of Instrumentation Exp. in the field of Sales, Construction, Commissioning & Maintenance with Reputed Co’s in Oman, UAE, Qatar & India. Have Indian D/L, and Oman L/L. Seeking suitable Job, Contact: 93376354, Email: samuel.ndia@gmail.com M.Sc Agriculture / Horticulture Sudanese Female looking for suitable job. Contact: 95498223 Indian Male, B.E. in Electrical & Electronics Engg with valid CCNA certificate and 6 yrs experience in BMS, project management & maintenance seeks suitable placement. Currently in India. Pls call Muscat contact No. 99639375 Mechanical Engineer Indian male having 10 years GCC experience in HVAC & MEP with valid Omani D/L, seeks suitable job in a reputed company. Contact 96093552 MEP Supervisor exp 15 years, HT, LT (exper.) with D/L, dp maintenance. Contact 96297274 Indian female, B-Tech Civil Engg, 3 years (6 months in Oman) experience in QS, Estimation, Cost control & planning, seeks suitable job. Contact 92047375 Email vinujosephcm@gmail.com

HOSPITALITY Indian male MBA in Hospital Mgmt bachelors in Hotel Mgmt training experience in Food & Beverage, Sales & Marketing. # 93038671 Indian Male 28years B.sc Hotel Management 3years experience in house keeping and front office. Contact 98438450 email: rchichur@gmail.com

Over 6 years Enterprise level exp. system and Network support professional, looking for suitable Opportunities. Contact 97132723 10 Years of Technical presales experience, Graduate from University of Huddersfield UK, previous experience of working with ZTE, looking for job. Contact 91379396 Male, Gradate looking a job in IT –field experience in hardware, networking MCSE, CCNA. Contact 95850691 Diploma in Computer Technology Indian male 25 yrs, 1 year experience in Accounts / Office Admin and knowledge hardware/Network , Now on Visit Visa looking for the suitable post # 93453027 email Id akbalachandar@yahoo.com IT AND NETWORK TECHNICAN from kerala, with experience. Configuration and Instllation Windows 98,xp.Vista,Windows 7,8;Installation & Configuration Windows server2003, 2007Computer Networking With MCITP and Laptop/Desktop repairs and software installation With COMPTIA Certification is looking for suitable job. Contact:95431324 Email:libin1990@gmail.com Indian male 33 years B. Com, MCSE with 4 years Oman experience in HR and 6 years experience in Software development(ASP.NET/VB/ VB.net) seeking placement project link : http://sunnyk76-001-site1. smarterasp.net/ Contact 92808995 Male 35 years, MCA having 15 years experience in Sale / service of electronics and software products like Vehicle tracking system tracking system (IVKS), speed limiter sophisticated IT related products seeks suitable change.#93214096 Mail ID: balajimr2010@gmail.com Indian female IT Engineer with 7 years experience, looking for Right placement in ERP application and database management. Contact 93630405 / 99229095 Email anuja.mekde@rediffmail.com Indian male having experience 5 years +, Looking for opportunity in Computer Hardware and Network support field. Contact 97268796 Indian male 25 Years BE Computer Science and Engineering CCNA MCP certified 2 years experience valid Oman license Now in Oman, seeking for suitable job. #98688414 Email ajeebcse@gmail.com CCNA , CCNP & Juniper firewall certified IT professional with 7 years experience, expertise in network & security design, configuration, implementation & troubleshooting looking for suitable placement. Contact 97656607 Email: m.pan3110@gmail.com 33 yrs, male NEBOSH, IGC1,2,3, BCS computer science CCNA, net working experience, IELTS, Banquet hall management, High School Administration, 15 years relevant experience. Contact 92046361Email murtazahameed@yahoo.com CCNA male 28 years with 4 years experience in system and network support, looking for job. Contact 98479807 IT professional, Indian male Gradate, CCNA, CCNP, MCITP Exchange server 2010 with 1year experience now on visit visa seeking for suitable placement. # 99392339 Email: fayiskottikollath@hotmail.com B.Tech Information Technology male with 1 year of Oman experience currently working on SAP ERP, SQL server with one of the reputed company, looking for a suitable job. Contact 91057689, Email dennis.dave89@gmail.com IT professional Indian Male ME in CSE, 12 years IT experience (6 months in Oman, 3 years in Dubai, Emirates Airlines/Project management, Software development in Dot Net, Training , Technical & Customer Support, Marketing) looking for suitable post, for immediate placement. #92664161 or 98261787. Email: sh8301@gmail.com Indian male 29 BSc. IT CCNA with 3 yrs experience, looking for a suitable placement in Networking or IT service. Contact 98871199

Indian male, MBA (HR & IT), having 1.5 yrs. working experience as Asst: Mgr (HR & Admin), seeking for a suitable post. Contact 98031852 Email : sarathmalayil4u@gmail.com Indian male, MCA, MBA-HR, B.Com with 9.5 yrs. Exp. looking for a suitable opportunity as IT Project Head & SAP HR Consultant (Multi tasking) presently come on visit visa in Oman, Contact GSM : +968 92801761 E-mail : rishhi@msn.com Indian male 26 years MSC telecom (UK) B.Tech (EC) having 3 years experience in IT/Telecom seeks suitable placement.Contact 95285710 Email : prajith5678@gmail.com

MEDICAL Indian male Nurse with MOH License having 6+ years experience, seeks placement. Contact 93435399 Email : jithu.das02@gmail.com An Indian male Nurse with MOH License is looking for a suitable placement. Contact 93028571 / 99764484 Experienced midwife from Sri Lanka (experienced in Maternity care and clinical service) is looking for suitable placement in a hospital or local clinic. Contact 93397026 Pharmacist with MOH license need job. Contact 98217100 Staff Nurse with MOH license, available immediately. Contact 98278741 / 99433415 Arabic Dentist with MOH License looking for suitable Placement, contact 91138009

MANAGER/ SUPER MISCELLANEOUS General Manager, Having 29 yrs experience in Oman for Transport & Logistic, seeking suitable replacement. Contact 99830440 Operations Manager Indian male, Hotel Management Graduate (B.H.M) 8 years experience in F & B production and Hotel operations, having good communication skills, seeking suitable placement. Contact 94420046 Email shownkfrans@gmail.com Indian Qualiﬁed Farm Manager 20 yrs experience in Commercial cultivation of vegetable fodder fruits, looking for immediate placement release is available. # 94142846 Sr. Project Manager Indian National With 18 yr Experience In managing Civil Construction Business Seek Opening in reputed Civil Company ready to join immediately contact-92685422 or pmsindia2007@gmail.com Commercial Manager (Contracts Specialist ) in Construction in Muscat till 30th September seeks placement 92829562 email: forwork283@gmail.com Indian male 42 Years, Ex Army 5 years exp in Muscat worked as Warehouse supervisor, looking for a suitable post, having Omani license, on visit visa#94050311 / 94050378 Store Keeper/ Asst Store keeper Indian Male Graduate with Tally 1 year experience in Store, Looking for suitable placement. # 94028814 Indian total exp18 years with 10 years Gulf exp as a services center in charge in electronics & Gulf driving License, seeks suitable placement in Oman. Contact 96527926 Business Development Manager with 6 yrs experience in Oil & Gas, Business development, Sales & Marketing with Oman D/L, seeks a suitable placement. Contact 92961826 Email waseemprod@gmail.com

Chemical Manufacturer all type of Detergent and car care. Contact 98651593 22 yrs old Pakistani female looking out for a job. Contact 97019570 sadaf.j.khattak@gmail.com 27 Years Male, MBA Supply Chain Management requires position in Warehouse, procurement, distribution, logistics, import/ export, production department. #93619846 LAND SERVEY, having 1 year exp. in Total Station, auto level, theodalite, on visit visa, 97249473 Indian Male, experience in Store/Operation//Logistic/Coordinator having good communication skills, seeking suitable change. #94355675

SECRETARIAL & OFFICE

Indian female, having work Experience as Customer Service, Front Office Exec, Office Admin in India & Oman, looking for a suitable position. Contact: 98405390

PROJECTS Looking for HSE Advisor job. Qualiﬁcation NEBOSH IGC and OSHA education masters in Geosciences age 28 years. Contact 93835938

SALES / MARKETING Indian male MBA Sales & Marketing, 7 years of experience holding Oman D/L, looking for a suitable position in the same. #95475833 Indian male BSC (PCM) working as BDM with Oman DL exp in Decorative paints Tiles waterprooﬁng and Chemical, seeks employment. # 96613487 Email vsd472@yahoo.com

Manager/Super 12+ yrs experienced Purchase Manager with D/L & release , seeks placement.#97073942.

A dynamic Sales & Mkt professional with 9 years of experience currently situated in Muscat, looking for suitable position.#95304232

Indian Male 42, B.Com Graduate, 19 years experience in AC,LCD, LED installation Manager seeking sales, service or Supervisor post, on visit visa. #98044075 Mail markarmstrong20068@gmail.com

Indian male 31 yrs diploma Civil experience 3 yrs Oman, 2 yrs UAE currently working as Purchase Executive for a reputed organization seeking better opportunity in purchase. Contact 93415550

Sales Manager having 15 years of experience in Retail management in Oman & Currently handling Electronics & home appliances, seeking suitable placement, Release available. Contact 93826379 id- marvelgeet@yahoo.com

Indian male with 2 years of experience in sales and marketing both in India and Oman currently working as Sales coordinator and manager in Oman looking for suitable placement. Contact 988663738

MEDICAL Female MBBS doctor with 3 years experience seeks suitable position in Muscat region. Contact 91218141 Indian female 23, M.SC Bio Chemistry with experience in teaching and clinical lab work looking suitable placement in teaching/ laboratory technologist/ chemist. Email: ktkarthika22@gmail.com, contact 97200435 M.Sc Biotechnology Clinical Research Clinical Data management IPR 4 Years experience. # 92136290 Email ebinabraham@gmail.com Indian male Nurse with MOH License, 1 year experience from Oman as company Nurse is Looking for a job, now on visit visa. Contact 93645954

Experience procurement and logistics person with D/L is looking for suitable placement. Contact 95028750 Indian (M) with 11yrs exp. (7 India & 4 Dubai) in Sales & Back Office support with Omani D/L for a job in Oman.Call 98267793 Indian male 26 yrs 5 yrs experience in Sales & Marketing 2 yrs experience in Tele Marketing & customer services, Fluent in English, seeking suitable placement. Contact 91034271 Indian, age 24, having valid driving license, with more than 3 years experience in sales, looking for suitable vacancy. Contact 95920731 Email musthafamuhammed753@ gmail.com Marketing Manager 25 years experience in Building materials in GCC/ Oman. Contact 94381598

SALES / MARKETING Indian male 32 yrs, holding Oman D/L 11 yrs experience in Building material, Electronic Electrical items Sales, seeking suitable position Familiar with all places in Oman. Contact 92153176

MBA, Indian male (30 yrs), 6.5 years experience in Sales / Marketing / Admin with Omani D/L, seeking for suitable placement. Contact 95480402 Email dgjdp1982@gmail.com

A dynamic Sales & mkt professional with valid license & 4 years experience in Oman, looking for a suitable position. #96054760

Indian male 2 years exp in Sales, Have a valid Oman driving license, seeks suitable placement. Contact 98613038

B.Com + Tally 26 yrs, with 3 yrs exp in building materials sales, Indian male valid D/L. Contact 98462052

Indian male MBA Sales & Marketing, 7 years of experience holding Oman D/L, looking for a suitable position in the same.#95475833

Indian male 26 years, 4 years experience in Oman sale and marketing with D/L, seeking suitable placement. Contact 9209244 Email shukkoorsubaida@gmail.com 6 years experience in Ware house cum store keeper, interested in sales seeks suitable placement. Language known English, Arabic, Hindi, Malayalam & Tamil. Contact 96357001 Indian male 2 years exp in Oman, looking for job as Marketing Executive in Van or mini truck.#96148903 An Indian having rich Gulf experience in Sales Marketing ( in House) Procurement Admin, seeking suitable placement at Senior level. Contact parthinath123@ gmail.com / Contact 93689602 Indian male MBA 6 years experience in IT Sales business development and training staff in telemarketing and customer service in Oman on visit. Contact 91380575 Indian male MBA Sales & Marketing, 7 years of experience holding Oman D/L, looking for a suitable position in the same.#95475833 Indian male 24 MBA 2 yrs exp in Marketing on visiting visa. Contact 97138676 Email haris.hameedali@gmail.com Pakistani 28 yrs male Business Development Executive MBA (Marketing) ACCA (process) having 4 yrs experience in Oman and good Contacts throughout the market. Contact 97899811 Indian male B.A 7 years experience in Financial product Marketing Sales, looking for job. #96194656 Indian male 6 years experience in Sales & Marketing, Looking for job. Contact 96108700 Female European 31 yrs, Bachelor of Accounts, 13 yrs of Exp. as Showroom/Front Office Manager (Fashion Accessories/Jewellery)/ Office Secretary (Educational Consultancy). Can speak, write, and read English, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Hindi and Telugu. Seeking suitable Job, Contact: 93376354, Email: samuel.ndia@gmail.com India female, 26, MBA, experience in media marketing and market research, looking for suitable opportunities in Communication/PR/ Branding, Valid D/L. Contact details: greycentral86@gmail.com MBA (Marketing and HR) & B.Tech (Electronics and Biomedical Engineering) with 1.5 years experience in marketing and media field. Contact 96175799 Email: aadil.azis@gmail.com Indian male 25 yrs, Valid Oman driving license, 2 years experience, looking for suitable job. #98562921 27 years Indian male 8 years’ Indian market experience in the field of Event Management, Sales & Customer Service, looking for a challenging opportunity in Muscat in relevant field. Contact 96167803 Indian male 27 yrs having 6 years experience in Sales & Marketing including FMCG Products in Kerala, Fluent in English and Hindi, looking for immediate placement, currently in visiting visa. Contact 94041305 Email : jibinrm@gmail.com Worked as Sales Supervisor for 3 years having valid Omani driving license 5 years Sales experience in Oman. Contact 94009447 Young Male Graduate BA Hons (Marketing)- United Kingdom with 2 years experience & driving licence seeks suitable placement in Business development/Brand management/Logistics. call – 96402727 Male 36 Years 6 years experience in Oman as Sales Executive, Home appliances field with Driving License. Good Command in Arabic. Contact 94378787

MBA in Marketing & Finance with 2 years work experience in Oman, with valid driving license and good communication skills, Seeks suitable placement. Contact 91181288 / Email george15386@gmail.com Indian Counter Salesman experience, Omani D/L. Contact 97438780 Outdoor Salesman with 10 years Oman experience with valid driving license. Contact 93600795 Indian male MBA marketing / finance with 4 yrs of exp in sale & marketing looking suitable placement in sales/ marketing/ sales coordination/ customer care/ retail/ admin jobs.#98443722 / 92409198 Sudanese B.Sc Computer Engineer with 6 years experience, looking for Marketing, Sales, IT Jobs. Contact 97099676 B.Tech E & I, 8+ yrs experience Sales, Marketing Procurement, etc, currently working in Oman valid D/L, looking for suitable placement. Contact 97233074 / 95140207 Indian male B.Com 33 years having 7 years experience in Sales Coordination, Office Administration and warehousing in Oman in the field of Furniture, EHA, IT Products. Contact 92786255 Indian male 6 yrs experience in Oman Sales field, having valid Omani Driving license, seeking suitable placement. Contact 92868522 15 yrs exp Purchase, Sales, Store & Admin, fluent English, Arabic, know computers, Omani D/L. #99717061 MBA( MKTG)6 yrs exp Sales & Mktg valid OM D/L, Ind Male 30yrs currently working as an AQT manager. Contact 97757866 Indian male 37 yrs, having 6 yrs exp. in purchasing with D/L seeking suitable placement. #99345732

TOURS & TRAVEL IATA Foundation & Consultant Diploma holder BA female looking for suitable Travel / Office jobs. Contact 98644880 B.Sc Indian male 5.5 yrs exp Airline /Travels, Diploma in Travels. Contact 97099386 Indian Male, PG in tourism, 23 years, seek suitable job in travel & tourism. Available for immediate joining .ph 92409102 , akhilantony0303@yahoo.com

MISCELLANEOUS Mechanical Engineer with 3 years experience in Sales & Marketing in India and having valid Omani driving license looking for suitable opening. Contact 96596482 Indian female, BE Chemical engineer with 3.5 yrs exp in chemical industry in R@D,QA @QC, production, seeking suitable placement, available to join immediately. Contact 98490086, e-mail - k.shyni@gmail.com 24 yrs female with driving license, BBA plus I.A.T.A, 3 years experience seeking suitable position in secretarial, admin, HR, Procurement, travel. Contact 95337828 or e-mail at hibhak@gmail.com. Administration & Purchase Ofﬁcer with over 25 years of working experience in office management & procurement in Oman is looking for a suitable vacancy. Has valid Omani driving license. Contact 92048765 Indian, female, 38 yrs, administration& accountant, exp. in India & GCC seeks suitable post # 93048539 Email.shamalamagesh@gmail.com Indian male, 27 Yrs, B.Com, having 7 Yrs experience in Finance & Accounts seeking suitable position. Contact : 98205735

M O N DAY, S E P T E M B E R 2 3, 2 0 1 3

DAILY GUIDE SITUATION WANTED CARGO

TOURS

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

WEBSITE

We arrange Tours to Jabel Alakhdar / Shames wahiba Sands. Contact 99839898

CLASSES

RENT A CAR

COMPUTER

BUSINESS

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

MANPOWER Manpower supply maintenance & civil work contracting. Contact 98425389

Learn Drawing & painting for children. (MBD area Ruwi) Contact 99737812

Housemaid, male / female cleaner, driver, light and heavy gulf valid D/L, house boy, & skilled and unskilled categories, form Srilanka, India. Contact Mr jerry 95175192 Email: oman.manpower@yahoo.com

BUSINESS

FOR LADIES

BUSINESS

Tailoring, stitching. Contact 93694035 Active Corner Computer specialist in repairing: Laptops, Printers, Tablets & Smart Phones, Al Ghubra North. Contact 92866876

Looking for Omani partner for business development services. Contact 93194825 Email: edumass4@gmail.com

Omani Consultant Engineer established new building contract and interior design looking for: Working partner for building contracting, Working partner for interior designing Email : - mfunima@gmail.com, contact : - 93223140

CANADIAN company .for immigration & manpower is looking for a partner in Oman with license !For contact evro21@gmail.com 0097333054453

M O N D AY, S E P T E M B E R 2 3, 2 0 1 3

DAILY GUIDE

SERVICES

Water prooﬁng ABUQABASContact 99320217/24788722 Carpet, sofa- cleaning, glue removing, shampooing, house cleaning, polishing & painting etc. Contact – 99542979 / 98855815 A/ C maintenance, servicing & installation. Split A/C Servicing RO 10.000 Only. #94217681 / 99210141

SIT. WANTED

FOR HIRE

Accounts Assistant Post : B. Com having 4 years Accounting experience having knowledge of day today entries and assist to main Accountant . Also knows MS office and excellent with Tally package. Contact no : 93214484/98485871

23 yrs female, MBA, 2 yrs exp in marketing, holds valid Omani license, seeking suitable placement. Contact 96349423 Male Graduate, 13+ years Oman experience in HR – recruitment, C&B, Competency Mapping, Performance Appraisals, etc. Contact: 92798389 31 years Indian male with 5 years experience in Bahrain and saudi,b. com with computer application(tally, oracle, al ameen) seeks suitable position as accountant, store manager or senior business development executive. Contact 95032157.

BUYING/SELLING We Buy all types of Wooden Scraps. Contact ahastco123@yahoo. com , Ph: 24458759/ 98539316/ 99318152 Good Quality Wooden Kicking blocks available 1.2 mtr & 2.6 mtr length. Contact ahastco123@yahoo. com , Ph: 99318152

Carpet, sofa- cleaning, glue removing, shampooing, house cleaning, polishing & painting etc. Contact – 99542979 / 98855815

Split & Window A/C, Servicing. Contact 99380307 Electrical Plumbing Painting Contract and Maintenance. Contact #98456535

Building maintenance, electrical, plumbing, painting cleaning, false ceiling, compound wall, interlock. Etc. Contact: 9408676

Indian male 25- holding valid driving license having 2 years of experience in sales, looking for suitable position. Contact 98562921 Bangladeshi male ( Graduate) looking a job in Banking, Money exchange sector.Having 15 years experiences in related ﬁeld. Contact:92260580.

Subcontractor solutions. Contact 96754569

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 Crane Trailor Hiab. Contact 99354909 25/ 50 seater Buses for rent/ leasing with drivers in PDO Speciﬁcation. Contact 99839898

CHANGE OF NAME Abdullah Saif Al Sheidi & his Partener Trad & Cont company ASSO which is recorded under the commercial register in directorate general for trade industry covrnates Batinah number 1157037 is going to change its name to Murooj Sheedah Trad & Cont company ASSO . This is to inform anybody who concerns about that.

Carpet Shampoo, marble & tile polishing, pest control & antitermite treatment, general cleaning painting, Plumbing, Electrical, shifting. Contact Mundhir Al-Rizaiqi trading. L.L.C. Contact 24810137, 99450130

GOOD NEWS

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

Electrical Works, Maintenance, Building Gas Pipelines, Fire Alarm & Security systems. Contact Amjad Majees Trading & Contracting: 99467936

Split & Window AC Servicing & repairing. Contact 99557080

Dish Antenna Sales & Service, Dish TV, Tata Sky showtime & all other kind of satellite installation renewals. Contact 95779616

A/C service repairing, Installation, piping AMC maintenance for low prices. # 92963132 / 92620740

Split & Window A.C Servicing & repairing. Contact 99380307

Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles polishing, carpet shampooing, maintenance. Contact ABU QABAS99320217 /24788722

Marble polishing & crystallization building cleaning ﬂoor, ﬂoor polishing, carpet, sofa shampooing, pest control, anti termite, shifting, maintenance. Contact 99504275

Painting / building construction & maintenance. Contact 99057348

Civil Maintenance, painting, Electrical land scaping. # 96465032

House shifting and transporting. Contact 92490422

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

A/C service RO7/- , repairing & installation, painting, building all maintenance. Contact 95563858 / 99326786

Door to Door Computers repair specialist laptop software Website cartridges.Contact 99199376

Cleaning Service, Carpet & Sofa Shampooing Marble grinding & Tile polishing, pest control. Contact 99448057 / 95401996

Split A/C window cassette type standing unit installation, maintenance servicing. Contact 97145652 / 99540621

Accounting and audit services project feasibility study. Contact97133729 Email: omanaudits@gmail.com GULF INTERNATIONAL LLC all kind of pest control. Contact 92326955 SPLIT / WINDOW A/C servicing 5/10 RO. Contact 95084850 House shifting, packing and Transportation. Contact 99657644 / 98518013 Building maintenance, electrical, plumbing, painting, cleaning, false ceiling, compound wall, interlock, lift maintenance etc. Contact 95885106 / 95829331 Electrical plumbing, Tiles interlock water prooﬁng maintenance & contract RIZWAN 99429071 / 91162345 Pest control water proof. Contact 99067923 1. A/C, Fridge & Washing Machine servicing & Repairing, 2. Painting , Plumbing, Electrical & Carpentry Works. Contact 97014234 / 24504281

Promotional offer at Conventional halls in CBD area hall space at great value. Contact 99238074 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 Genuine Ayurvedic treatments &massage, ayuredic clinic AL Khuwair. Contact 24478618/ 97263637/ 97109295 Ayurvedic treatment for backache paralysis arthritis etc. & massage All Season (Vaidyaratnam). Contact 24475280 / 95371664 / 92504980