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WEDNESDAY, October 1, 2014 / 7 Dhul Hijja 1435 AH timesofoman.com wtimesofoman.com facebook.com/timesofoman twitter.com/timesofoman blog.timesofoman.com ISO 9001:2008 Certifi ed Company

187

Jothor bags Sharikati’s

best company award

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Student company Jothor, which turned date palm leaves into a soil alternative, was presented with Sharikati’s ‘Best Company of the Year 2014’ award at Injaz Oman’s third Sharikati award ceremony on Monday.

The ceremony was held under the auspices of Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Salim Al Futaisi, Minister of Transport and Com-munications, at the Sultan Qa-boos University Cultural Centre in association with Oman Oil and Sultan Qaboos University.

Jothor, a student company from the Higher College of Tech-nology had 18 students from dif-ferent specialisations who pro-duced an environment-friendly

method of reusing old date palm leaves by shredding them into a material that can be used for soil-less cultivation or as a fertiliser. While farmers burn the old date palm leaves after they have been cut down from the trees, this will be a way to encourage sustainable agriculture and reduce pollution.

Jothor’s Executive Director Al Mutassim Said Al Harasi, after winning the award, said “We de-veloped a medium that works as an alternative to soil using farm residue by recycling it to start our business.” >A2

I N J A Z O M A N ’ S I N I T I A T I V E

THE WINNERS: Jothor bagged ‘Best Company of the Year 2014’

award at third Sharikati award ceremony on Monday. -Supplied picture

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HM sends greetings

MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has sent a ca-ble of greetings to President Dr Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria on the occasion of his country’s National Day.

In his cable, His Majesty ex-pressed his sincere greetings along with his best wishes of good health and happiness to President Jonathan and the people of Nigeria further pro-gress and prosperity. >A2

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Airport ‘phase one’ ready for take off

REJIMON [email protected]

MUSCAT: Phase 1 of the Mus-cat International Airport expan-sion will be completed in the next two months, said a top offi cial at Public Authority of Civil Avia-tion (PACA). “We will be able to complete Phase 1 in the next two months. It will have a new run-way, control tower, meteorological

and air traffi c management centre and the PACA headquarters,” Dr Mohammed bin Nasser Al Zaabi, PACA chief executive offi cer, told Times of Oman.

According to reports, further ex-pansions planned in three subse-quent phases will boost capacity to 24, 36 and 40 million passengers as and when the demand increases. In February this year, offi cials told the media that 72 per cent of the work

on the new Muscat International Airport had been completed.

“That part of the project which constituted the main contracts one and two (MC I and II), is nearly complete,” the offi cials had said then while adding that Salalah’s new airport is also progressing well — it is 85 per cent complete.

The Muscat International Air-port development project is the largest project to ever be undertak-en in Oman’s history. The design is based on an initial capacity of 12m annual passengers. >A6

Phase I of Muscat airport expansion project

will be ready in the next two months

LARGEST PROJECT: In the fi rst phase, the Muscat airport will have a new runway, control tower, and meteorological and air traffi c management centre. Photo-Times of Oman

OMANMuscat Chamber Music

2Arabesque International launched a music initiative called Muscat

Chamber Music Series. >A4

OMANChetan Bhagat coming

3India’s novelist Chetan Bhagat is coming to Muscat for a talk show on

November 10. >A7

OMANKindergarten student locked in school bus

1A kindergarten girl student from an Indian school was inadvertently locked inside a school bus for nearly three hours, parents claimed on Tuesday. >A3

T O P T H R E E I N S I D E S T O R I E S

A8

Kurds drive IS from Iraq-Syria border post

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Four tenders to build facilities at Mus-cat and Salalah interna-tional airports, as part of the massive expansion programmes, have been fl oated by the Ministry of Transport and Com-munications here on Tuesday. >A6

Tenders for facilities

REJIMON [email protected]

MUSCAT: To further improve the facilities and services at the Muscat airport, new business and fi rst class immigra-tion and bag screening counters were opened at Oman Air departure hall on Tuesday. >A6

New counters opened



A2 W E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 1 , 2 0 1 4

OMANA kindergarten girl student from an Indian school was inadvertently locked inside a school bus for nearly three hours, parents claimed on Tuesday

Pupil locked in school bus >A3

Jothor to take part in Kuwait contest

“We will use this prize money as capital for the next step in our business. Winning this competi-tion justifi ed all of our eff orts and hard work as a team during these past few months,” he said.

Jothor was also awarded the title of ‘Best Student Company’ and received OMR5,000 as prize money. It is now qualifi ed to rep-resent Oman and compete in the INJAZ Al-Arab Young Entrepre-neurs regional competition in Kuwait in December 2014.

In addition, the award for ‘Most Innovative Product’ went to the student company ‘Direc-tions’ which received prize mon-ey of OMR1,000. ‘Nexfute’ was named winner of the ‘Best Mar-keting Plan’ award with a prize of OMR1,000.

Khalid Mohammed Al Zubair, chairman of Injaz Oman, speak-ing at the ceremony, said, “The Sharikati programme provides an authentic experience that is based on the concepts and methods of real existing organi-sations and companies. What makes Sharikati truly special is that the participating students have the chance to be a part of a unique experience that is paral-lel to real life experiences of run-ning a business when they create their projects.

“In addition, the programme

integrates skilled and specialised Omani mentors from particular sectors to support the students. Sharikati is fulfi lling Oman’s na-tional message of cultivating an entrepreneurial culture among its youth.”

The student-led competition this year saw 327 participants from 22 diff erent teams engaging in an authentic entrepreneurial experience. The students were from the Sultan Qaboos Univer-sity (SQU), Higher College of Technology Muscat, Nizwa Col-lege of Technology and Nizwa University. They were asked to create a company under the guid-ance of volunteering business advisors, where students sold stock, elected offi cers, produced and marketed products or ser-vices, conducted stockholders’ meetings.

Shabib Al Maamari, execu-tive director of Injaz Oman, said, “We hope that the participating teams have learned from this ex-perience that they could use the skills they have gained in fi nding real jobs, or as a starting point for their dream project. The stu-dents should realise this is only the start. Injaz Oman’s Sharikati is not only testing the failure of a start-up business, but also learn-ing from institutions before start-ing a real business.”

A W A R D F O R E F F O R T S

HM’s greetingsHis Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has also sent a cable of greet-ings to President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China on the occasion of his country’s Na-tional Day.

In his cable, His Majesty the Sultan has expressed his sincere greetings along with his best wishes of good health and happi-ness to President Jinping and the Chinese people further progress.

His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has sent a cable of congratu-lations to President Nicos Ana-stasiades of Cyprus on his coun-try’s Independence Anniversary.

In his cable, His Majesty the Sultan has expressed his sincere congratulations along with his best wishes of good health and wellbeing to President Anasta-siades and his country’s friendly people further progress. -ONA

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Pupil locked in school busSTAFF REPORTER

MUSCAT: A kindergarten girl student from an Indian school was inadvertently locked inside a school bus for nearly three hours, parents claimed on Tuesday.

The KG-II student at Indian School Darsait (ISD), who board-ed the bus from Ghubra, remained seated in the bus when it reached

school even as other children dis-embarked. The driver parked the bus opposite the school, locked it, and left the spot.

Banging the bus window“It was one of the parents who came at around 10am, saw the child banging on the bus window and raised an alarm,” parents of the child alleged. “The school au-

thorities rushed to the spot and pulled out the child through the window. By that time, she was re-portedly looking distraught,” the parents said. “My wife got the call from the school detailing the inci-dent and we rushed to the school soon,” the parent added.

“The police have contacted the driver and we are going to the po-lice station,” the parents said.

T H R E E - H O U R T R A U M A

Firecrackers

seized at

Buraimi; drug

traffi ckers held

STAFF REPORTER

MUSCAT: Bid to smuggle fi re-crackers in a vehicle through the Sara border post of Buraimi wilayat was foiled by the Royal Oman Police (ROP).

A total of 126 fi recrackers were found hidden in the trunk of the vehicle. The accused driver has been referred to the Public Prosecution for further interrogation and trial.

Two drug traffi ckers heldThe Drug Enforcement Depart-ment arrested two persons, one an Omani national and the oth-er an Asian, in Haima wilayat.

The Drug Enforcement offi -cials seized 21 capsules of heroin from them. Another citizen was arrested for selling drugs also in Haima wilayat, and 39 capsules fi lled with narcotics were recov-ered form his possession.

Counterfeit cigarettesA consignment of counterfeit cigarettes and tobacco were seized by the ROP following raids at a number of places in South and North Batinah.

The accused were arrested and forwarded to the Public Prosecution for further investi-gation and trial.

R O P

SARAH [email protected]

MUSCAT: Boshudhara Mukher-jee’s exhibition “Soliloquy” opens tonight at Gallery Sarah, but in-stead of a monologue, as the name suggests, visitors should expect a conversation between the Indian artist and her canvases.

Her work is by no means typi-cal. Instead of paintings con-tained neatly in a frame, Boshud-hara’s canvases are painted, cut into thin slices, and loosely wo-ven back together, the material stretching and pulling, ends trail-ing, and holes and patches here and there. It creates an eff ect that is delicately chaotic.

“I think my nature tends to be more hands-on, so I thought of cutting the canvas, getting out of the rectangle. The white rectan-gle is intimidating. It’s challeng-ing. A white rectangle canvas is perfect, and it’s a battle between you and the canvas for control,” Boshudhara, 31, explains.

Though she has a BFA and Master of Visual Arts in Painting, traditional approaches to paint-ing didn’t inspire her. She says she always felt constricted by frames, which felt too static. Ini-tially she decided to work within crooked frames, rather than four-sided squares or rectangles, but even that didn’t give her the free-dom she sought, so she did away with frames altogether.

For the past six years she has been painting her canvases and then manipulating them and reworking them as she pleases, adding elements of collage here and there, never conforming to the expectations of a frame. There are sections where images of architecture, such as arches and elaborate stairwells, are vis-ible, as well as images from na-ture, such as trees.

“It never does what you want, actually. There’s always a point where you feel you’ve lost control and the canvas becomes the guide. It’s a battle between the canvas’s will and my will. Then we have to work together,” she says.

Boshudhara says canvases, many of which are over 2m long, have lives of their own and she is able to bring them out. The result of these debates and dialogues between the artist and her can-vases is a collection of work that appears very organic, and alive.

Some of the oddly shaped can-vases seem to be still growing, or unfi nished. She admits that this is often the case, as months after she completes a piece, she will revisit it and make changes to it.

“At every stage I am tempted to leave it, and I do leave it for a few days, but then I get tempted to cut it again. In the past I have even looked at fi nished work that was exhibited and realised it needed to be reworked and started again. It’s constantly changing,” she notes. Boshudhara splits her time between her hometown Mumbai and Muscat, where her parents live. She has had pieces of her work in group shows in Muscat, but this is her fi rst solo exhibition in Oman.

Farah Asqul, manager of Gal-lery Sarah, said this was the fi rst exhibition by a non-Omani art-ist, and she hoped Boshudhara’s work would infl uence or inspire local artists and arts afi cionados.

“I fell in love with her work. I like it when art is larger than me and I can walk around it, and in-teract with it. As well I like the rawness of it, and the attitude,” Farah said.

“Soliloquy” opens at Gallery Sarah tonight at 7:30pm under the auspices of JS Mukul, Am-bassador of India to Oman. The exhibition will continue until October 30th. The gallery is open from 9.30am till 6pm, Saturday till Thursday.

A4 W E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 1 , 2 0 1 4

OMAN

Music education initiative launched

SARAH [email protected]

MUSCAT: Arabesque Interna-tional, a performing arts promotion company based in Oman, launched a new music education initiative called the Muscat Chamber Music Series on Monday evening.

Ahmed Abouzahra, GM and founder of Arabesque, introduced the new programme at an event held under the patronage of Jaime Bowden, outgoing ambassador to the UK and Northern Ireland, and Hans-Christian Freiherr von Reibnitz, ambassador of Germany.

The aim of the Muscat Chamber Music Series is to provide music workshops and free concerts so that people in Oman can learn

more about the value of music.“It is very much needed if you

have an opera house with such an incredible programme. For the op-era house to have a greater impact on Omanis, they need to be aware of the value of music fi rst. They need to be in contact with music,” Abouzahra told Times of Oman in an interview before the launch.

Abouzahra said music isn’t just a luxury or entertainment. Mu-sic is about rhythm and harmony, which are linked to productivity, so music can help a society develop in many ways, including economi-cally and politically.

“In any kind of development, music is there. If you have gen-eration of people who know music, they will be more creative in their professions. You need creativity in all professions,” he said.

The Royal Opera House Muscat (ROHM) is great for big produc-tions, but there aren’t many con-certs for the public at a smaller, less formal level. The Muscat Chamber Music Series, which will focus on smaller musical ensem-bles in more intimate locations, will complement the events at the ROHM, Abouzahra noted.

While the term “chamber mu-sic” is often associated with small classical music ensembles, Abou-zahra plans on having a variety of musical genres in the series, from Gipsy music and jazz, to Arab and classical. He hopes the musicians will also collaborate with Omani musicians. He suggests people who have never seen an opera may not like it if they don’t have much

exposure to classical music fi rst. “The idea started from the gap I felt in Oman,” he said.

Education is a big part of this initiative, too. Each of the visiting artists or groups will spend a mini-mum of 10 days holding musical workshops before their concerts. These will educate children, youth and other segments of the commu-nity about diff erent types of music.

“We are going to choose the art-ists based on fi rst how they com-municate and share music with the young generation,” Abouzahra explained.

Arabesque International hopes to launch the series in January, and have monthly workshops fol-

lowed by the public concerts. They already have a list of artists ready and willing to participate from countries including Hungary, Eng-land, Slovakia, the Netherlands, China, Lebanon, Egypt, and Syria.

The concerts will complement the programming at the ROHM and help young Omanis especially learn more about music from the artists directly.

“I agree with Ahmed [Abou-zahra] because the musicians who come ought to spend more time to get to know Oman and we need to get to know the music at a deeper level,” said Nasser Al Taee, Advi-sor to the Board for Education and Outreach at the ROHM.

The workshops and concerts will take place in a variety of lo-cations, such as hotels, museums, schools, and even in outdoors, depending on the type of music. Bait Al Zubair has expressed some interest in the program and could possibly play host to a future event.

“I think it’s an incredibly worth-while initiative. Part of Bait Al Zubair’s vision is to actually en-gage with the community in the arts, whether it be visual arts, mu-sic or any kind of creativity so en-gaging in a project like that could fi t very well within the mission and vision and actually help things happen in the country,” said Paul Doubleday, GM and curator of Bait

Al Zubair. Arabesque is looking for fi nancial support for the Muscat Chamber Music Series, but even if they don’t get complete funding, they will foot the bill on their own. Abouzahra believes deeply in shar-ing music with society, regardless of the cost.

“When business is only hunting for money, it has no meaning. I be-lieve in music. I come from an art-ist family who raised me to under-stand the value of art and culture in any society,” he said.

The embassies of the UK and Northern Ireland and Germany have already said they will provide whatever support they can to the initiative. Hans-Christian Frei-herr von Reibnitz, ambassador of Germany to Oman, said his em-bassy will help by fi nding German artists to get involved, and helping fi nd locations and students. He added that it’s important to sup-port a program that helps children develop an appreciation for music.

“I am not a pianist but I used to play the piano for 16 years and I have taught all my children to have an instrument to play on their own. They fi nd serenity while us-ing their instruments and playing a bit of music. This will give them strength and calmness to live in this world and be good citizens,” said von Reibnitz.

The aim of the

Muscat Chamber

Music Series is

to provide music

workshops and free

concerts so that

people in Oman can

learn more about the

value of musicNEW START: Ahmed Abouzahra, GM and founder of Arabesque, introduced the new programme at an

event held under the patronage of Jaime Bowden, outgoing ambassador to the UK and Northern Ire-

land, and Hans-Christian Freiherr von Reibnitz, ambassador of Germany. – OK Mohammed Ali/Times of Oman

Pharmacies get fi ve days to fall in lineFAHAD AL [email protected]

MUSCAT: Pharmacies found fl outing the new rule on drug pric-es will face legal action, stated an offi cial at the Ministry of Health.

As part of a uniform GCC drug policy, Oman will witness substan-tial reduction in prices of more than 1,400 drugs.

“The ministry is giving 450 pharmacies in the Sultanate fi ve days to comply with the new pric-ing rule,” said Sawsan Ahmed Ja’far, general director of the D. G of Pharmaceutical Aff airs & Drug Control at the Ministry of Health (MoH).

She added that during the fi ve-day period the ministry will deal with those violating the rule “by questioning them”. After that, the violators will face legal action.

New drugs pricing “It is very diffi cult to cover all the pharmacies in the Sultanate in one day. The ministry has sent the new

drugs pricing to general managers of all the pharmacies and Public Authority of Consumer Protection (PACP),” she said.

In accordance with the execu-tion of the GCC Ministers’ Deci-sion on unifying CIF (cost, insur-ance, freight), drug pricing that was issued at the 72nd Conference

in 2012, the ministry had reduced the prices of 1,400 drugs.

“This will come into eff ect from October 1 in all the operational pri-vate pharmacies in the Sultanate,” said Sawsan. The unifi ed CIF pric-ing policy was to be implemented using US dollar as the uniform currency taking into consideration profi t margins of not more than 45 per cent.

She also said that the revision in prices of drugs in its fi rst phase covers 1,404 drugs out of 4,000 drugs imported from diff erent couriers. The 1,404 drugs are from fi ve out of the sixteen pharmaceu-tical groups.

The drugs whose price were slashed include 422 drugs for cardiovascular diseases, 320 for endocrine diseases, 194 for gas-

trointestinal diseases, 193 for skin diseases, and 275 for musculoskel-etal diseases.

From tomorrow (October 1), the MoH inspection teams will ensure the implementation of reduced prices in all pharmacies.

The reduced prices are avail-able at the MoH website and they are being continuously updated. Everyone can check the price list to ensure that the price of the to-be-purchased drug is consistent with the revised price.

If found not reduced, the pub-lic has been asked to notify the D. G of Pharmaceutical Aff airs & Drug Control of the matter or any other notes by calling the following numbers: 91789202, 24694744, 24602177, Extension: 1716 or 1690.

The GCC Committee has com-pleted studying the rest of the drug groups and notifi ed the manufacturers of the new prices, which means that the rest of the pharmacological groups would be published once it is completed.

D R U G P R I C E S

H AV E YOU R SAY AT T W I T T E R.CO M /T I M ES O F O M A N U S I N G # O M A N TAX I S , O R S CA N T H E CO D E TO I N STA N T LY P O ST YOU R T H O U G H TS .


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Source: Ministry of Health Graphics

Price revision

Cardiovascular

Endocrine

Musculoskeletal

Gatrointestinal

Skin

Type of disease

1,404Drugs covered

in the first phase

422

320

275

194193

Boshudhara’s conversations with canvases

A R T

Boshudhara says canvases,

many of which are over 2m

long, have lives of their own

and she is able to bring them

out. – Shabin E/Times of Oman

Ferry trips increased for Eid Al Adha holidays

MUSCAT: The National Fer-ries Company (NFC) has completed preparations for launching additional trips to accommodate the rush of passengers during the Eid Al Adha holidays.

NFC announced additional trips from October 4 to 11, 2014, to the governorates of Musan-dam, Al Batinah North, Muscat, and Masirah Island

NFC released a statement indicating that the company is availing 1,456 seats and 280 ve-hicles capacity on board the fast ferries, on the Muscat – Khasab – Muscat route, by launching seven direct trips from the sec-ond day of Eid Al Adha.

The schedule of trips indi-cates six direct trips between the Khasab wilayat in Musan-dam governorate and Shinas wilayat in North Al Batinah governorate.

These trips will avail about 636 seats and 132 vehicles, in addition to the regular trips be-tween Lima and Khasab.

Additionally, NFC will or-ganise eight daily trips between Shannah and Masirah Island, which will allow 1,323 passen-gers and 240 vehicles per day. Masirah Island is a popular des-tination for tourists during the Eid holiday. -ONA

T O U R I S M

The ministry is giving 450 pharmacies in the Sultanate fi ve days to comply with the new pricing rule

Sawsan Ahmed Ja’far, General Director of the D. G of Pharmaceutical Aff airs & Drug Control

A6

OMANW E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 1 , 2 0 1 4

We want to provide seamless travel for high profi le passengers

Paul Gregorowitsch, Oman Air CEO

Don’t litter a beautiful

country like OMAN.

Ensure proper disposalof garbage.

High-quality servicesThe opening of the new counters, under the auspices of Dr Mo-hammed Nasser Al Zaabi, chief executive offi cer of the Public Authority for Civil Aviation, is in line with the eff orts made by OAMC and Oman Air to provide high-quality and competitive services to fi rst class and busi-ness class passengers travelling via Muscat International Air-port and facilitate their travel procedures.

“We have witnessed an in-crease in the number of business class passengers and as part of providing extra convenience, the new check-in facilities were set

up. We want to provide seamless travel for high profi le passen-gers,” said Paul Gregorowitsch, Oman Air CEO.

According to Sheikh Ayman Al Hosni, DG of Muscat Interna-tional Airport, Oman Air is stud-ying all options and alternatives to facilitate travel procedures for all passengers travelling via Muscat airport and Salalah air-port through the provision of a variety of top level services to the fi rst and business class pas-sengers, as well as economy and transit passengers.

Meanwhile, Oman Air is work-ing hard to expand the scope of

the bilateral agreements in place with the Indian subcontinent to add new destinations.

“There are new policies now, but we are increasing the num-ber of aircraft and adding more destinations like Goa, Dhaka, Manila and Jakarta to the Indian subcontinent.

“In addition to this, we are try-ing to add more destinations by stretching the bilateral agree-ments with authorities con-cerned in the Indian subconti-nent,” Gregorowitsch told Times of Oman on the sidelines of the opening of the new check-in fa-cilities today.

O A M C

Tenders invited

The tenders inviting contract-ing fi rms are for building cabin appearance building, deportees building and main gate building. These facilities will be created as both airports are expected to start operation by next year.

The ministry has fl oated a tender for construction super-vision at Duqm airport.

Since the Muscat and Sala-lah international airports are expected to commence full-fl edged operation by early 2015, authorities are in negotiation with international airlines to in-crease routes and connectivity.

The passenger handling ca-pacity at Muscat airport will be raised to 12 million passenger a year, which will be further en-hanced in the second and third phases of development.

According to the plan, the Muscat international airport will have two parallel runways, 96 check-in counters, 29 pas-senger boarding bridges, 30 air-craft remote stands, a baggage processing capacity of 5,500 bags per hour.

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Flight cancelled over ‘fi nancial crunch’Times News Service

MUSCAT: A large number of pas-sengers were left stranded after United Airways of Bangladesh cancelled its fl ight from Muscat to Dhaka on September 25 citing a “fi nancial crunch.”

However, the next fl ight from Muscat, on Monday afternoon, operated as usual.

Three days a weekUnited Airways fl ies to Dhaka in Bangladesh three days a week

from Muscat on an Airbus 310 which has around 250 seats (all economy).

Mohammed Mustafi jur Reh-man, station in-charge of United Airways in Muscat, said that around 200 people were stranded when the fl ight got cancelled on September 25. “Immediately af-ter the fl ight was cancelled, we communicated to all the passen-gers and some of them opted for a refund, while others booked their tickets on the September 29, Oc-tober 2 and October 6 fl ights,” he

said. Some people had an open ticket

which gave them the option of fl y-ing whenever they wanted with United Airways. The fl ight on Monday left with 217 passengers including an infant.

Tickets refundMahamudur Rahman, a travel consultant at New Star Interna-tional Travel and Tour LLC, said they had given refunds to all those who approached them. “While some people bought tickets on

other airlines, others re-booked on some other dates,” he said. The airline announced its grounding plan on Wednesday last, two days after its chairman and managing director (CMD) resigned. The op-erations, however, resumed three days after a closed-door meeting between the board and the for-mer chairman, Tasbirul Ahmed Choudhury, at his residence in Dhaka. Choudhury had stepped down on Monday from his post fol-lowing an internal feud, but he was reinstated following the meeting.

U N I T E D A I R W A Y S

< FROM

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traffi c grows

According to PACA, the total pas-senger traffi c, including transit and transfer passengers, through Muscat International Airport has increased by 7 per cent to 5,106,159 until July 2014. During the same period of 2013 the airport regis-tered 4,773,856 passengers.

Speaking about the private in-vestment plans, the PACA offi cial said the authorities concerned are looking into options to implement it. “We have studied options to pro-vide licences to low cost carriers, air taxis and air ambulance servic-es apart from setting up of aviation training colleges,” said the offi cial.

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OMANW E D N E S DAY, O CTO B E R 1 , 2 0 14

Italian ship’s visit to boost bilateral tiesELHAM [email protected]

MUSCAT: An Italian ship has docked at Port Sultan Qaboos (PSQ) as part of the close mari-time cooperation between the two countries.

ITS Andrea DORIA, the fl agship of European Naval Forces, reached PSQ on September 28 and it will set sail on October 2.

“Italy and Oman enjoy a long-lasting cooperation in the fi eld of maritime activities, which is strengthened by regular port visits of Italian navy ships operating in the area,” the ship’s Public Infor-mation Offi cer Lieutenant Maria Arena, wrote in an email interview with Times of Oman.

Commenting on the purpose of the visit, she said, “Patrolling around Gulf of Aden, you can eas-ily fi nd how direct is the course from the Gulf of Aden, our ‘opera-tional area’, and Muscat.

“We have been patrolling mainly in the Gulf of Aden where the density of the international

merchant traffi c deserves some more attention by the involved navies. European Naval Forces, along with other multinational maritime forces, ensure the se-curity and safety of navigation in the Gulf of Aden and in the Somali basin.

“This is also a part of the coop-eration with navies of the coun-tries in the region, as in the case of Oman,” said Arena.

HandoverArena also noted that the visit provided a great opportunity to meet Omani authorities as well as Italian representatives, maintain-ing and strengthening bilateral relationship.

“We planned our second Omani port visit after Salalah here in Muscat to organise our Command-ing Offi cers’ Handover on October 1, an important and sensitive mo-

ment for all the crew and the staff personnel on board,” she said.

WorkshopArena also noted that during the ship’s docking in Muscat, a work-shop was organised, involving offi c-ers of the two navies, which aimed at enhancing knowledge on mari-time security and counter-piracy.

Moreover, when the ship sails back to her area of operation, there will be a chance for common train-ing activities with a Royal Navy of Oman ship, she added.

Arena expressed her satisfac-tion with the services they re-ceived at Port Sultan Qaboos, saying, “This pier gave us all the services we asked for and all the rest and relaxation we needed af-ter many days of operational ac-tivities on the open seas.”

“Muscat is a marvellous city and the crew members deserved a nice visit and some good recreation op-portunities, becoming closer to Omani culture and history as well as its beautiful sunny landscapes,” she said.

‘I write stories to make people happy’

NISHAD [email protected]

MUSCAT: India’s biggest-selling English-language novelist Chetan Bhagat is coming to Muscat for a motivational talk show on No-vember 10. Speaking to the Times of Oman in an exclusive interview over phone, ahead of the launch of his sixth novel Half Girlfriend, which is scheduled to take place in Mumbai on Wednesday, Bhagat said he is looking for a fun-fi lled evening with his fans in Oman.

“This is for the fi rst time I am coming to Oman. It will be a fun and motivational session. I assure you this will be an evening to remem-

ber,” said Bhagat. The 39-year-old author who is known for giving motivational speeches across In-dia and abroad, pointed out that the “young working-class” people do not recognise their own potential owing to their busy schedules.

Motivation issues“I have seen a lot of people who are in their 30s and 40s who get used to a regular job and they fail to understand their full potential. They do not know how to motivate themselves to reach the next level,” he said but did not give details.

An investment banker turned writer, Bhagat is greatly consid-ered to have brought readers back

to books in India from metro cit-ies to small towns. Four of his books have been made into mov-ies that were all blockbusters in Bollywood. However, Bhagat has no regrets about leaving his lucra-

tive career at Goldman Sachs and instead choosing a notoriously unpredictable job as a full-time writer. “When I wrote the fi rst three books I was still working but the continued response to all my

books and the rising fan base made me feel that I need to seriously look beyond my banking job so at one point the bank job seemed pointless,” he said.

Bhagat’s books are mainly relat-ed to the educated Indian middle-class; where he has seen success.

“I write about middle-class peo-ple because that is where I belong to and in a way it is easy for me to write books about them. I write in simple and straightforward Eng-lish without complicating the lan-guage and that makes easy for peo-ple to read them and due to which I have often received criticisms from a few section of people that my works are not literature. But that’s part and parcel of any game,” said Bhagat who was named as the ‘100 most infl uential people in the world’ by Time magazine.

Target audienceAccording to Bhagat, he is tar-geting people in India who aren’t really readers. “A majority of the people in India are not used to reading English books. The big-gest achievement for me as a writ-er is when I get calls from people who haven’t even read one book in their life.

“Some say they read only my books. But my aim is to make eve-ryone in India read and that is going to be a big challenge. The younger generation is surround-ed by the Internet and apps. But somehow, my books make them read that I think is my biggest suc-cess,” he noted. His new book ti-tled Half Girlfriend is about a boy named Madhav who speaks poor English and falls in love with a girl Riya. The book has already won rights to be made into a movie even before its release.

Story ideasBhagat, who also writes columns in leading Indian newspapers, has conducted more than 50 talk shows across the country. When asked as to how he fi nds time to write books in every two years, the unassuming writer had this to say: “You know the new generation is changing with time and in a way it allows for very interesting stories. I travel a lot for doing talk shows and I observe a lot. That gives me many ideas which I think is good for a book. I don’t claim to be the best writer in India. I write stories that make people happy and so far it has been good for me.”

Chetan Bhagat, the 39-year-old Indian author

who was on the list of ‘Time’ magazine’s ‘100

most infl uential people in the world’,

is coming to Muscat for a motivational

talk show on November 10

PEOPLE’S WRITER: The biggest achievement for me as a writer is

when I get calls from people who haven’t even read one book in

their life, says Chetan Bhagat. – Supplied photo

When I wrote the fi rst three books I was still working but the continued response to all my books and the rising fan base made me feel that I need to seriously look beyond my banking job so at one point the bank job seemed pointless

Chetan Bhagat, Writer

MARITIME COOPERATION: ITS Andrea DORIA, the fl agship of Eu-

ropean Naval Forces, reached PSQ on September 28 and it will set

sail on October. – Supplied photo

‘Minerals sector vital to economy’MUSCAT: There are huge in-vestment opportunities in the minerals sector, an offi cial said.

Eng. Ahmed bin Hassan Al Dheeb, undersecretary of the Ministry of Commerce and In-dustry for Commerce and Indus-try and chairman of the Public Authority for Mining (PAM), said the issuance of the Royal Decree No. 49/2014 establishing the Public Authority for Mining (PAM) stems from the govern-ment’s belief in the importance of the minerals sector to become a resource for the economy, and in line with the development of sources of income, as there are a lot of investment opportunities for this sector that can be estab-lished in the Sultanate.

Eng. Ahmed bin Hassan Al Dheeb said that Public Authority for Mining will develop a strategy that includes the plans and poli-cies to the Sultanate, the develop-ment of the mining sector within

the framework of the overall strategy and work to provide the encouraging organisational structure to the growth and de-velopment of the mining sector in coordination with the concerned authorities.

Mining studiesHe added that Public Authority for Mining will prepare the geo-logical and mining studies and research for the purposes of ex-ploration and mining of mineral resources, preserve the geological heritage, develop the necessary controls to protect and develop that heritage, develop relations of joint cooperation with national stakeholders and relevant organ-isations to Public Authority for Mining, promote the exploitation of mineral ores available in com-mercial quantities and to approve the designs and plans of mines and quarries and follow up their implementation. -ONA

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REGIONW E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 1 , 2 0 1 4

Twelve Islamic State fi ghters’ bodies lay on the border at the crossing after the battle

Hemin Hawrami, Head of the foreign relations department of the Kurdistan Democratic Party

Kurdish troops drive IS from key Iraq-Syria border crossing

A R B I L / M U R S I T P I N A R (IRAQ/TURKEY): Iraqi Kurd-ish troops drove Islamic State militants from a strategic border crossing with Syria on Tuesday and won the support of members of a major tribe, in one of the big-gest successes since US forces be-gan bombing the militants.

The victory, which could make it harder for militants to oper-ate on both sides of the frontier, was also achieved with help from Kurds from the Syrian side of the frontier, a new sign of cooperation across the border. Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fi ghters took control of the Rabia border crossing in a battle that began before dawn, an Iraqi Kurdish political source said.

“It’s the most important stra-tegic point for crossing. Once that’s taken it’s going to cut the supply route and make the op-eration to reach Sinjar easier,” the source said, referring to a mountain further south where members of the Yazidi minority sect have been trapped by Islam-ic State militants.

The participation of tribal fi ghters in battle against Islamic State could prove as important a development as the advance it-self. Members of the infl uential Shammar tribe, one of the larg-est in northwestern Iraq, joined the Kurds in the fi ghting, a tribal fi gure said.

Liberated“Rabia is completely liberated. All of the Shammar are with the Peshmerga and there is full coop-eration between us,” Abdullah Ya-war, a leading member of the tribe, said. He said the cooperation was the result of an agreement with the president of Iraq’s Kurdish region after three months of ne-gotiation to join forces against the “common enemy”.

Gaining support from tribes, many of which either supported or acquiesced in Islamic State’s June advance, would be a crucial objective for the Iraqi govern-ment and its regional and West-ern allies in the fi ght against the insurgents.

Winning over tribes was a central part of the strategy that helped the US military defeat a precursor of Islamic State during the “surge” campaign of 2006-2007. Washington has made clear it hopes the new Iraqi govern-ment of Prime Minister Haidar

Al Abadi, who took power last month, can repeat it. Rabia con-trols the main highway linking Syria to Mosul, the biggest city in northern Iraq, which Islamic State militants captured in June at the start of a lightning advance through Iraq’s north that jolted the Middle East. Twelve Islamic State fi ghters’ bodies lay on bor-der at the crossing after the battle, said Hemin Hawrami head of the foreign relations department of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of the main Iraqi Kurdish par-ties, on Twitter. — Reuters

Iraqi Kurdish

peshmerga fi ghters

took control of the

Rabia border post in

a battle that resulted

in major success

against IS militants

JEDDAH: As they gather in Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Makkah for the Haj, some pilgrims have denounced atrocities by Islamic State group miltants as “a virus” threatening the world.

But many also expressed concerns about the US-led air war against them.

“Islam is innocent from actions of the Islamic State,” Kurdish Iraqi pilgrim Alan Abdullah said, describing IS as “a virus threatening the whole world”.

Islamic State has seized large parts of Iraq and Syria, declaring a “caliphate” and imposing its own harsh interpretation of Islamic law. The militants have executed captured Iraqi soldiers, cruci-fi ed people, forced others to convert and beheaded West-ern hostages on camera. “Is-lamic State are carrying out terrorist acts, slaughtering people and causing trouble,” said another Kurdish pilgrim, Shawkat Ahmed Qader. “Islam is far from their acts and beliefs.”

UnrestDespite supporting military action against the militants, Qader also lamented the unrest. “The situation in Kurdistan is not good. We have Islamic State from one side and the US planes bombing them from the other,” said the pilgrim in his 50s. A pilgrim from Aleppo who arrived in Makkah from Turkey criticised the US-led coalition which began its air strikes three years after civil war erupted in Syria.

“We were hoping for such a coalition to end the oppres-sion against the Syrian peo-ple and not just to hit Islamic State or other groups,” said the pilgrim, giving his name only as Mohammed.

In Makkah, French pilgrim Petra, who renamed herself Nour, insisted that “the Islam as I live it is not an Islam of fanaticism”.

Calling the coalition raids “unacceptable”, she accused the United States of trying “to make us believe in things that do not necessarily cor-respond to reality”, such as previous US claims that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction.

“I think there is a desire right now (in the West) to scare people away from Is-lam,” said Nour, tucking her blond hair under a white veil.

“Islam as it was lived at the time of the Prophet (PBUH) has nothing to do with what they are making us believe today. This is really the Islam of love and companionship. It is the real Islam,” she said, inviting nods and smiles from fellow French pilgrims.

Next to her, Saffi yah, a Mexican who said she con-verted after the September 11, 2001 Al Qaeda attacks on the United States, affi rmed that “Islam makes us better people... (and) jihad for me means struggling with my-self” to improve. — AFP

Haj pilgrims term militants ‘virus’ threatening world

Iran off ers equipment to bolster Lebanese army against rebelsBEIRUT: Iran is to off er equip-ment to the Lebanese army to bol-ster its battle against extremists, a senior Iranian offi cial said on a visit to Beirut on Tuesday.

Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Secu-rity Council, made the announce-ment after meeting Lebanese of-fi cials, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.

“Iran has decided to off er a grant as a token of its appreciation for Lebanon and its brave army, in the form of equipment that will help the military in the heroic battle it is waging against terrorism,” NNA quoted him as saying.

Proportionate to threatsIran’s offi cial Irna news agency also reported the off er, saying Tehran was ready to “provide aid to Lebanon’s heroic army propor-tionate to the threats”.

Shamkhani did not give addi-tional details on what form the aid would take, but stressed that

it would be delivered quickly, Irna reported. Iran’s off er of sup-port follows aid packages for the Lebanese army from both its re-gional rival Saudi Arabia and the United States.

It comes after Lebanese troops fought deadly clashes in August

with militants of the Islamic State group and Al Qaeda affi liate Al Nusra Front in a town on the Syr-ian border.

The militants withdrew from the area after a truce deal, but took with them several dozen captive Lebanese soldiers and police, three of whom they have since executed. Saudi Arabia last year announced it would give the Lebanese army $3 billion (2.4 billion euros) to purchase weapons and equipment from France, but that deal has yet to be fully implemented.

In August, the kingdom off ered another $1 billion in funds to allow the army to purchase supplies im-mediately. Washington has also sought to bolster Lebanon’s mili-tary, and this month announced it had delivered a new shipment of Hellfi re missiles and would also supply light aircraft. Announcing the supplies, US ambassador Da-vid Hale said the aircraft would be paid for out of the additional Saudi funding. — AFP

B A T T L E A G A I N S T E X T R E M I S T S

ALAWI ADDRESSES UN GENERAL ASSEMBLYYousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, the Sultanate of Oman’s Minister of State for Foreign Aff airs,

addresses the 69th United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York,

on Tuesday. — Reuters

HELPING HAND: Admiral Ali

Shamkhani, Iran’s Supreme Na-

tional Security Council Director,

at Damascus airport. – Reuters


ARTICLE, PHOTOS

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INDIAW E D N E S DAY, O CTO B E R 1 , 2 0 14

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INDIA-US JOINT MILITARY EXERCISE ENDSIndian and US soldiers at

the closing ceremony of

India-US Combined Military

Training Exercise ‘Yudh

Abhyas 2014’ at Ranikhet in

Uttarakhand, yesterday. ‘A

magnifi cent joint parade by

contingents of both armies

marked the successful com-

pletion of the exercise,’ an of-

fi cial statement said. Major

General Lawrence Haskins

of the US Army expressed

satisfaction on the conduct

of training and praised the

eff orts of the Indian Army

contingent. - PTI

Jaya’s bail plea hearing adjourned till October 6

AFTAB H. KOLAOur Correspondent

BANGALORE: AIADMK supre-mo J. Jayalalithaa will have to wait until October 6 to know whether she will get bail as the Karnataka High Court, yesterday, adjourned her bail plea hearing to that date.

The application was fi led on

Monday in the Karnataka High Court by her advocates led by not-ed lawyer Ram Jethmalani with a plea seeking bail, suspension of sentence and challenging her conviction in the disproportionate assets(DA) case.

Earlier on Saturday, Jayalalithaa was sentenced to serve four years

in jail and asked to pay a fi ne of Rs 100 crores in connection with the case by a Bangalore Special Court.

As the vacation bench took up the matter, Jethmalani pleaded for suspension of the sentence pend-ing her appeal under Section 389 of the Criminal Procedure Code and for her release on bail.

Jayalalithaa has contended that the trial court has overlooked several judgements and has not considered the binding nature of various income tax orders and decisions of the Income Tax Ap-pellate Tribunal, which had ac-cepted the income and the level of expenditure pleaded by her.

The pleas of her aide Sasikala, her relatives V. N. Sudhakaran, her disowned son, and Ilavarasi, who have also sought bail and chal-lenged their conviction, were also posted for hearing on October 6.

Meanwhile, over 300 Tamil fi lm actors, directors, producers and about 2.500 fi lm workers gathered at the Marina beach yesterday to express solidarity with Jay-alalithaa. Film production work was called off till 5pm. Actor-pol-itician Sarath Kumar said that the Tamil fi lm fraternity is not observ-ing a fast here under any “threat” or “compulsion”. They are doing it to show solidarity with Jayalalithaa.

The application

was fi led in the

Karnataka High Court

with a plea seeking

suspension of the

sentence in DA case

Snoopgate scandal offi cer held in corruption caseMUMBAI: Suspended IAS offi cer Pradeep Sharma, who took on Narendra Modi over the snoopgate scandal when he was Gujarat chief minister, was yesterday arrested in a corruption case, a day after Enforcement Directorate attached his prop-erties for alleged money laundering. “Sharma has been arrest-ed by us today morning under the Prevention of Corruption Act. As per the complaint registered by us yesterday, Sharma allegedly received Rs2.9 million from private fi rm Welspun. The amount was fi rst deposited in the account of Sharma’s wife, and then transferred to his account,” ACB Director (in-charge) Ashish Bhatia said. “This is a case of allegedly taking bribe for extending benefi ts to a company when he was Col-lector of Kutch,” Bhatia said. Sharma, at loggerheads with the erstwhile Modi government, had sought a CBI probe into al-leged snooping on a woman architect after two news portals released CDs of purported telephonic conversations between the chief minister’s close aide Amit Shah, who was then Min-ister of State for Home, and two top state police offi cials.

Five Indian-Americans on ‘Forbes’ list of US richestNEW YORK: Five Indian-Americans have been named among the 400 richest people in the US by Forbes, a list topped by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates with a net worth of $81 billion. Founder of outsourcing fi rm Syntel Bharat Desai, en-trepreneur John Kapoor, Symphony Technology founder Ro-mesh Wadhwani, Silicon Valley angel investor Kavitark Ram Shriram and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla are among ‘The Richest People In America 2014’ list by Forbes. Desai and his family rank 255 on the list, followed by Kapoor who is ranked 261, Wadhwani (264), Shriram (350) and Khosla (381).

Controversy rages over Bihar temple purifi cationPATNA: The controversy over alleged purifi cation of a temple in Bihar’s Madhubani district after Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s visit, raged yesterday with former feputy chief min-ister Sushil Kumar Modi slamming Manjhi for keeping mum on the issue for two months. “It is surprising that Manjhi kept quiet on the alleged temple purifi cation incident for months... he should have taken action against whosoever responsible for it immediately after,” Modi told reporters on the sidelines of ‘Janata Durbar’ at his offi cial residence here.

Petrol price cut by 54 paiseNEW DELHI: Petrol price was yesterday cut by 54 paise a li-tre, but the fi rst reduction in diesel rates in over fi ve years was put off until the return of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the US. State-owned oil fi rms, which skipped raising rates on September 16 even though their cost had gone up, cut prices in view of the downward trend in international markets. - Agencies

B R I E F S

Shiv Sena will not pull out of NDA governmentSATRAJIT MOITRAOur Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Maharashtra’s regional Shiv Sena party yester-day made it clear that it would not withdraw its support from the country’s BJP-led NDA gov-ernment, despite the 25-year-old alliance between the two outfi ts recently ended over seat-sharing before the state assembly polls slated for October 15.

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thack-eray told the media that the party would not pull out of the NDA gov-ernment, keeping alive hopes of a post-poll alliance.

No decision to pull out“There is no decision to pull out of the NDA. If we leave the NDA, then all 42 MPs from Maharash-tra will have to resign because they all got elected as NDA candi-dates,” Thackeray said, a day after he announced that Indian Heavy Industries Minister Anant Geete would resign from the central government once Prime Minis-

ter Narendra Modi is back from his US trip.

Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena has been continuing its attack on the BJP because of the split, dubbing as “enemies of Maharashtra” those responsible for the split.

“Our other (Mahayuti) alli-ance parties wanted the Sena-BJP combine to continue. More than that, it was what the 11 crore people of Maharashtra wanted. Those who trampled these senti-ments are enemies of Maharash-tra,” an editorial in party mouth-piece Saamna said, adding: “This (breaking of alliance) is an insult to the 105 Marathi martyrs of the Samyukta Maharashtra move-ment. It is unfortunate that the Sena-BJP alliance which for the last 25 years was bound by the Hindutva ideology has ended.”

Maharashtra has been placed under President’s rule on Monday, after Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan resigned last week, fol-lowing a split between the Con-gress and the NCP after 15 years.

S E A T - S H A R I N G R O W

SOLIDARITY: Actors Vikram and Karthi at the Chepauk state guest

house where members of the fi lm industry are participating in a

fast to protest Jayalalithaa’s conviction, in Chennai, yesterday. - PTI

A10

INDIA W E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 1 , 2 0 1 4

12% RAIN SHORTFALLLightning is seen in

the sky above the CST

heritage site in Mum-

bai, yesterday. As India

marked the offi cial end

of Southwest Monsoon

yesterday, it is left

with a 12 per cent rain

shortfall after a third of

its territory witnessed

defi cient precipitation

during the wet season.

The offi cial period for

the Southwest Mon-

soon season in India

is between June 1 and

September. 30. - PTI

Smiles on faces kept me motivated, says KalamCHENNAI: Former president APJ Abdul Kalam’s dream to see smiles on billion fac-es kept him motivated throughout his life. “For the last one decade when I became President and after it, I had one dream and that was when can I in my lifetime see smile on a billion faces,” he told a boy who asked him what kept him motivated all the time. “Smile on faces drives me (to do things in life),” he said. Kalam, now 82, worked as an Aerospace engineer with De-fence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) before he be-came the President in 2002. Popularly known as the Missile Man, he had played a pivotal role in Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna, the country’s high-est civilian honour.

India, China end border standoff in eastern Ladakh NEW DELHI: India and China have “successfully terminat-ed” the over three-week long standoff of its troops in Chumar and Demchok areas in eastern Ladakh and will hold a meet-ing on border aff airs next month, the government said here yesterday. As per understanding reached between India and China, the two sides have carried out disengagement and re-deployment of border troops in Chumar and Demchok areas in eastern Ladakh on September 26-27, to restore the “status quo ante as on September 1”, the External Aff airs Ministry said in a statement here.

Government launches Rs1,000 minimum pension NEW DELHI: Subscribers to the retirement fund EPFO will get a minimum of Rs 1,000 a month from October 1 under Employees’ Pension Scheme 1995 (EPS-95) as the govern-ment formally launched the programme yesterday. The gov-ernment will shell out an estimated Rs120 billion to provide for this entitlement. According to EPFO estimates, around 32 lakh pensioners under the scheme, who get less than Rs1,000 every month as pension, will benefi t immediately. There are 4.9 million pensioners under the scheme and about 1.3 million get less than Rs500 a month.

Modi to administer pledge on cleanliness driveNEW DELHI: “I will remain committed towards cleanliness and devote time for this... I will neither litter nor let others litter.” This is the salient point of the pledge that Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi will administer to the countrymen on Thursday, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, while highlighting the Father of the Nation’s thrust on cleanliness. The ‘swachta (cleanliness)’ pledge is being administered amid Modi’s intent to create a national movement over the next fi ve years to realise the objective of ‘clean India’ by October 2, 2019, the 150th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi.

BJP cannot fool people all the time, says CongressCHENNAI: Accusing the BJP of “marketing” the achieve-ments of the previous UPA regime as its own, Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge yesterday said they cannot fool the people all the time. “One can fool all peo-ple some time, some people all time, but one cannot fool all the people all the time,” he said referring to what he called “re-packaging” of several UPA schemes by the BJP. The Jan Dhan Yojana, FDI in insurance and defence were all formulated by the UPA. “We did not believe in marketing and this has been unfairly used against us by the BJP,” he said. - Agencies

B R I E F S

Modi hopes for pact on trade facilitation soon

WASHINGTON: Prime Minister Narendra Modi told US President Barack Obama yesterday he hoped for a deal “soon” to allow a WTO trade facilitation deal blocked by India to go forward.

India has refused to endorse the landmark deal to reduce trade bar-riers, until it gets exemptions for its food stockpiles from possible punitive measures.

Modi said after his Oval Offi ce talks with Obama that the pair had had a “candid” discussion on the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). “India supports trade fa-cilitation. However, I also expect that we are able to fi nd a solution

that takes care of our concern on food security.

“I believe that it should be possi-ble to do that soon,” Modi said.

Stockpiling and subsidies for the poor are considered trade-dis-torting under existing WTO rules.

All 160 WTO members includ-ing India agreed to implement the TFA —which would mark the fi rst big global trade liberalization deal in two decades — at a 2013 meeting in Bali. India’s move to hold up the deal in July surprised fellow WTO members. This is the second meet-

ing between Modi and Obama, who hosted a private dinner for the Indian Prime Minister on his arrival from New York.

While Modi was accompanied by External Aff airs Minister Su-shma Swaraj, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Ambassador S Jaishankar and other senior of-fi cials of the MEA and PMO while Obama was assisted by Vice Presi-dent Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Assistant Secretary of State for South and

Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal. Obama and Modi were expected

to give statements to the press af-ter an hour-and-a-half of talks.

In an op-ed article in the Wash-ington Post, Modi and Obama lauded the partnership between the world’s oldest democracy and its largest one, but said there was much more to come.

“The true potential of our rela-tionship has yet to be fully real-ized,” they wrote. “The advent of a new government in India is a natu-ral opportunity to broaden and deepen our relationship.”

Modi warmed up for the White House visit by basking in a rock star welcome in New York, speak-ing to thousands of members of the Indian diaspora at the Madison Square Garden sports arena and addressing the United Nations.

Modi said yesterday he has in-vited US President Barack Obama and his family to visit India at an early date.

He said this during a joint press interaction with Obama here at the end of summit level talks be-tween the two sides. - Agencies

The premier said

after his Oval Offi ce

talks with Obama

that the two had a

‘candid’ discussion on

the Trade Facilitation

Agreement

CORDIAL MEETING: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President

Barack Obama shake hands after briefi ng the media in the Oval Of-

fi ce of the White House in Washington, yesterday. - PTI



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West Africa’s Ebola epi-demic, which has already claimed about 2,000 vic-tims, could get a lot worse before it gets better— par-ticularly in the (appar-ently unlikely) event that

the virus evolves to spread from person to person through the air. It could end up in major cities in Eu-rope or the US, in India or China.

Will it? The truth is that nobody knows.Back in 1976, the fi rst outbreak of Ebola in what

was then Zaire caused only 318 illnesses and 280 deaths. Since then, a lot has changed to make the virus more mobile.

West Africa is much more densely populated, and those people move around more. A global air network links Lagos, Monrovia and other aff ected cities to other major population centers in Africa and around the world. The latest outbreak, which originated in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, has now spread to Senegal and Nigeria.

The World Health Organisation projects roughly 12,000 infected by mid-October, if the epidemic keeps growing as it has so far. Other simulations suggest it could be worse, with more than one mil-lion infected by early next year. When something scary happens we want reassuring answers. We set experts to analysing what will likely happen. But if we’re realistic, we shouldn’t expect certainty.

Modeling of epidemicsModern modeling of epidemics combines comput-ers with lots of data on human movements, and takes into account the fi ne details of actual trans-portation networks. Scientists run simulations, starting an epidemic off in some location and fol-lowing its spread.

The resulting projections are more accurate than ever, but an epidemic, like the weather, is highly uncertain for good reasons.

Just one infected person arriving in a dense city far away can have huge repercussions.

The fate of an epidemic also depends on how people and health authorities react, requiring mod-elers to run diff erent scenarios of the speed and reach of the human response.

The result is a vast range of possible outcomes, refl ecting the truth that the future is uncertain and often depends crucially on what we do tomorrow and next week. An epidemic is far easier to slow in

its early stages, when the boundary between the in-fected and uninfected is relatively small, than it is after it breaks out more broadly.

In this regard, it’s good news that the epidemic has not yet reached other continents, and that Af-rican nations are carefully controlling traffi c fl ows from the hard-hit region. Models run by research-ers at Columbia University show hints that health measures are beginning to slow the epidemic, at least in Guinea and Liberia.

Another consortium of modelers is maintaining a live research paper with continuous updates.

Public health authorities in industrialized na-tions have considerable expertise in preventing diseases from crossing international borders. The challenge is that someone infected with Ebola can carry the virus for as long as three weeks without showing any symptoms.

It thus won’t be surprising if cases start showing up elsewhere around the world. The most impor-tant time for response is now, before the resourc-es required to contain the disease become many times greater. Eff ective response to an epidemic is as much about information as it is about medi-cine. When the SARS virus created a global panic back in 2002 and 2003, it underscored the need for greater international sharing of information. Since then, cooperation among Asian nations and the West has improved greatly, making rapid response possible. Africa hasn’t made as much progress, de-spite the continent’s role as a potential epicenter for a host of viruses that could spread from animals to humans.

Ebola isn’t solely a biological problem. The ulti-mate threat it presents depends to a great extent on how humans have shaped the global environment. In Africa, the loss of natural habitat for species such as the fruit bat has greatly increased interac-tions among people and the natural hosts of viruses such as Ebola. Globally, advances in transportation networks have made it easier for diseases to spread farther and more quickly than ever before.

Maybe the epidemic really is slowing. But every time it passes from one person to another it has another chance to mutate into something more infectious. One prominent scientist I met, who has been developing epidemic models for more than a decade and experienced the SARS and H1N1 epi-demics fi rsthand, told me that this is the fi rst time he has been really scared, “because we just don’t know what could happen.” — Bloomberg News

Nobody knows how far Ebola will spread

The World Health Organisation projects roughly 12,000 infected by mid-October, if the epidemic keeps growing as it has so far. Other simulations suggest it could be worse, with more than one million infected by early next year

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 ([email protected])

AN UNFOLDING CRISIS

For the United States and other democratic capitalist nations, trade with and investment in the People’s Republic of China always posed a dilemma: How to ensure that economic engage-

ment benefi ts the people of that nation without fortifying the repres-sive political regime under which they live. The response from sup-porters of Western economic engagement has been that the dilemma, essentially, will resolve itself, because the more interdependent China and the West become, the more the former will have to play by the rules of the latter. Growth and prosperity will gradually promote free-dom and the rule of law.

Recent events must give pause to even the most optimistic believ-ers in capitalism’s power to induce more transparent government in China. Beijing is in the midst of not only an intensifying crackdown on its own citizens but also in what appears to be systematic harassment of US, Japanese and European multinational companies in the form of stepped-up enforcement of a 2008 antitrust law.

In late July, investigators raided Microsoft offi ces in four Chinese cities. In August, China fi ned 12 Japanese auto-parts manufacturers roughly $200 million for alleged price-fi xing. In September, the price-fi xing police slapped Volkswagen and Chrysler with a combined $46 million in fi nes. Chip-maker Qualcomm, Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar Land Rover also are reportedly under investigation. All of this comes on top of China’s ongoing clampdown on the Internet, which has re-cently intensifi ed to the point of hindering routine document sharing via Google and other non-Chinese fi rms.

Both the American Chamber of Commerce in China and its Euro-pean Union counterpart have protested what they regard as arbitrary treatment. We sympathise — even though these businesses are to some extent reaping what they sowed. The rule-of-law risks of doing business in China have always been evident, as Western fi rms knew even as they forged ahead in pursuit of a vast market and in the belief that Beijing needed them as much, or more, than they needed Beijing.

As is now evident, however, in China there is nothing determinis-tic about the relationship between economics and politics. The com-munist authorities are bent on preventing political liberalisation from fl owing in with foreign capital, and, indeed, on ensuring that foreign involvement in the economy serves their policy goals, domestic and international, among which “security” is paramount. — The Washington Post

Dancing with China

There seems to be no end to the plight of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) from Fata. Despite their enforced migration from the tribal belt for their own betterment, their problems

have multiplied. The bomb that killed eight people, including three minors, on September 28 in Hangu’s Khwaja Muhammad IDP camp is a grim reminder of the vulnerabilities faced by these homeless tribes-men. It’s been four years since the people from Orkazai have been liv-ing in camps in Hangu district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. These IDPs have been protesting against the government for their repatriation for more than a year now. While the military has claimed to have cleared the Orakzai Agency of militants a long time ago, they have been told that their return is not possible to the agency because of the volatile law and order in their native areas. The inevitable question than is — how secure have they been in the camps?

The answer to which is not diffi cult to fi nd from the chain of events in the last few months. The very threat because of which these people escaped has followed them. This might be the fi rst major attack that has resulted in deaths but defi nitely not the fi rst time that the IDPs of Orakzai have been targeted. A similar attack was reported back in June, when rockets were fi red at the same camp, militants had threat-ened them to vacate or face the consequences.

Several families, who could aff ord, had to further migrate to Kohat and Peshawar. Those who could not, now live in a state of perpetual fear and ask: what is our fault? The numbers keep increasing, Pakistan now has more than two million IDPs from the confl ict in Fata alone. A strong feeling of deprivation has already engulfed the people of Fata, particularly those that have been displaced. The Uthmanzai Wazir, the largest tribe from North Waziristan, has called for a grand Jirga to march towards Islamabad on October 10. Similar protests have been held by the homeless from the Khyber Agency.

The bomb attack in Hangu will further exacerbate the feeling of vic-timisation. But does the government have any plan to relocate these people back to their homes? Or, is this another failure which will come back to haunt us in the near future? — Express Tribune

Attack on internally displaced persons

M A R K B U C H A N A N

US action in Syria similar to strike on Saddam’s IraqThis refers to the column, The world must wage an intellectual war to defeat Isis (September 30). It’s important to consider here if the US intervention has brought any good to the region? The US claims to be doing all this to bring and promote freedom, democracy and security. However, all that we see is more bloodshed and more destruction. That way the US history says a lot, not to mention its foreign policy! Why would 80 countries be needed to join the war against Isis? Didn’t they also claim that they wanted to get rid of weapons of mass destruction in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq? The ongoing crisis in Syria is part of the confl ict between resistance and imperialism. The US wants to destroy Syria for its key role

in supporting Lebanese and Pal-estinian resistance. The strikes are actually aimed at destroying Syria, not the extremist group Isis, and it’s just an excuse to intervene, just like with Iraq. Mehdi Murtadha Al LawatiMuscat

The police should fi rst act against reckless driversThis refers to the news item, No celebratory stickers or posters on vehicles, warns Royal Oman Police (September 30) First, the police should take steps against motorists driving recklessly in the streets at nights and those whose silencers make noise as these make the life of life abiding residents diffi cult and risky. Ravikiran SharmaMumtaz

Need to instal security cameras to tackle crimeThis refers to the news story, Masked men stab Omani on road (September 30). In my opinion, the crime rate is increasing in this country. This is really surprising. Is it high time we instal security cameras everywhere.Shabib Al KalbaniMuscat

Hijab ban action should’ve been taken before GamesThis refers to the story, Oman rejects hijab ban at Asian Games (September 30). I support Omani team management’s decision. Surely this was known to offi cials before hand; that’s when this mat-ter should have been dealt with.Adam CollinsMuscat

Why is Buraimi the venue for football matches?This refers to the news story, Tickets for Costa Rica, Uruguay matches against Oman go on sale (September 23). Oman fi nally is playing against a team that people want to see. But why are they hav-ing the matches in Buraimi?Pat O. ConnorMuscat

Venue for Costa Rica, Uruguay matches great This refers to the news story, Tickets for Costa Rica, Uruguay matches against Oman go on sale (September 30). Buraimi’s resi-dents are rejoicing at the decision to host these games as this has put the city on the global scene.Iqbal DanielsBuraimi

READERS’ FORUM

Honesty is the fi rst chapter in the book of wisdomTHOMAS JEFFERSON

website: www.newindiaoman.com

NEW INDIA ASSURANCEProtect your cash and valuables through New India’s MONEY INSURANCE POLICY.

PERSPEC IVET I M E S O F O M A N W E D N E S DAY, O CTO B E R 1 , 2 0 14T I M E S O F O M A N A13

In June, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio signed 11 bills re-lated to Vision Zero, the city’s

initiative to eliminate traffi c deaths and serious injuries over the next decade. One was Cooper’s Law, named for my 9-year-old son, Cooper Stock, who was struck and killed by a cab on January 10.Cooper was holding my husband’s hand as they crossed 97th Street

and West End Avenue. They were in the crosswalk, with the light. By law, they had the right of way. The taxi driver failed to yield while making a left turn.

According to the mayor’s offi ce, driver error is a factor in 70 per cent of pedestrian deaths in New York City, yet motorists are rarely held accountable. The Depart-ment of Motor Vehicles reports that motorists are cited for care-less driving in less than 1 per cent of crashes. Even fewer drivers are charged with a crime.

How can drivers who kill in-nocent pedestrians go free?There was videotape evidence that the man who killed Coo-per did not yield. Witnesses corroborated that the driv-er was not paying attention.I soon learned, however, that the Manhattan district attorney’s of-fi ce would most likely not charge the driver who killed my son with criminal negligence.

A New York State case law precedent known as the “rule of two” stipulates that there must be

two misdemeanors for a charge of criminal negligence to be brought against a driver who kills.

When running for Manhattan district attorney in 2009, Cyrus R. Vance Jr. stated on his website that “there is no reason why two traffi c violations are necessary in order to support a conviction of crimi-nally negligent homicide,” adding that many violations like “speed-ing, running a red light, or failing to stop at a stop sign are more than dangerous enough to take a life.”I pleaded with offi cials at the dis-trict attorney’s offi ce to use Coo-per’s case to challenge the rule of two in the courts, but they refused. Vance’s offi ce expects to charge the driver not with a felony or even a misdemeanor, but merely a traffi c infraction.

He will incur no more than a modest fi ne. Cooper’s Law au-thorizes the Taxi and Limousine Commission to immediately re-voke the licenses of drivers in-volved in serious crashes, pending an investigation.

It went into eff ect last week.

When the law was passed in June, it felt like an important accom-plishment. Now, I have doubts.We must have meaningful change at both the district attorney’s of-fi ce and the New York Police De-partment. Vance should start by acting on his campaign message and challenging the rule of two in the courts:

This artifi cial and arbi-trary threshold discourages law enforcement from prop-erly investigating, charging and prosecuting drivers who kill.If the police do not have the tools for the job, elected offi cials must get them the resources — includ-ing training to change attitudes. And our politicians need to get beyond the easy win of passing legislation, and use their clout to ensure enforcement and to educate the public that there will be consequences in court for drivers who kill pedestrians.Vision Zero is an admirable plan, but this is a city where every 48 hours, a pedestrian or cyclist is killed by traffi c. — The New York Times

TODAY IN HISTORY

OPINION POLL

1399 Richard II is deposed. 1703 The French, at Hochstadt in the War

of the Spanish Succession, suff er only 1,000 casualties to the 11,000 of their opponents, the Austrians of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I.

1938 Under German threats of war, Britain, France, Germany and Italy sign an accord permitting Germany to take control of Sudetenland–a region of Czechoslovakia inhabited by a German-speaking minority.

1949 The Berlin Airlift is offi cially halted after 277,264 fl ights.

2009 Earthquakes in Sumatra kill more

than 1,115 people.

MAJLIS OFFICE HOLDS MEETINGMUSCAT: The Majlis Al Shura offi ce yesterday held its 12th regular meeting of the year, under the chairmanship of Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali Al Qatabi, president of the Majlis. After approving minutes of the previous meeting, the offi ce reviewed implementation of decisions of its 10th and 11th meetings. The offi ce also reviewed a number of letters submitted to it by the ministers on certain topics it enquired about earlier. It also looked into the legal committee chairman’s letter on its study of the penal procedures law.

FROM OUR ARCHIVES

‘Today, I tell you again that the war in Afghanistan is not our war,’ pleaded Karzai, ‘but imposed on us and we are the victims. No peace will arrive unless the US or Pakistan want it’

Sharper than the serpent’s tooth, goes the say-ing, is a thankless child. As Hamid Karzai howled to the heavens one last time, tak-

ing names and seeking redemption, the world shrugged. They had heard it all before: for 13 years, Hamid Karzai had a sad song to sing — either at America’s feet, or at its throat. Now departing the scene, hat in hand, the president’s voice cracked.

A farewell address is a statesman’s swansong: To admit to past mistakes, to point to new hori-zons and, above all, exit the stage with grace and gratitude. But that would be unfaithful to Karzai and the themes that defi ne his presidency: A mob movie of bombs, drugs and dollars since 2001. In its own way, the speech was classic Hamid — the gentle accent, the petty tones, and the scrub-scrub of hands covered in blood.

But it was also a fi nal hurrah: one last swipe at the America that fed him; one last salvo at the Pakistan that sheltered him. ‘Today, I tell you again that the war in Afghanistan is not our war,’ pleaded Karzai, “but imposed on us and we are the victims. No peace will arrive unless the US or Pa-kistan want it.’

Worthy sentiment, one would think, coming from the average Afghan citizen; an 18-year-old with the world’s lowest life expectancy, who was born in war and may possibly die in it. But it sours coming from Karzai, who has lived on the charity of his countrymen’s killers. The latter seems hard to believe now that the president’s rebranded him-self an opposition leader of sorts — one hilariously against his own government. The sympathetic among us would make room for Karzai’s split personality disorder; after all, few would own an administration best-known for legalising marital rape, rigged elections and dead children.

And yet even for the president, this latest yelp-ing and yowling is unseemly. Karzai and his late brother — formerly Kandahar’s most eligible drug peddler — were largely sustained by piles of CIA ‘black cash’, a cute expression the Western press trotted out last year.

As for the Brother Neighbour, Karzai has much reason to fi nd fault with Pakistan (even as Mul-lah Fazlullah hangs out in Kunar). Though the president spent the ’80s in Quetta — terrifi ed of the Soviets next door — that means little today. From what we know, it was an idyllic time: while fellow resisters were tortured by Dr Najibullah, Karzai whiled away his exile roaming the hills and contracting for the CIA. Yet despite Karzai’s an-ger, history tells us America’s minions-in-war of-ten suff er separation anxiety — South Vietnam’s

Thieu comes to mind. With the Viet Cong closing in, Thieu memorably screamed, ‘You Americans with your 500,000 soldiers in Vietnam! You were not defeated! You ran away!’

But before they run away again, would we re-member how the Ballad of president Karzai began in the fi rst place? Even after the Taliban fell, the Afghans never wanted weedy old Karzai as presi-dent. That would have been Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan.

Having detected something of a spine in the ex-royal, the Americans ran interference. As the loya jirga prepared to elect Zahir Shah, Bush Co.’s Zal-may Khalilzad bullied the king into withdrawing his candidacy — via written statement prepared by Karzai’s staff .

One thousand of the 1,500 delegates left for their villages in disgust, with the rump voting whichever way the Americans pointed. And Mr Karzai would go on to be president until last week (around the same time we found out the Justice Department was investigating Zalmay Khalilzad for money laundering).

But it’s 1996, not 2001, that worries the West. As Karzai nears the end of his trials, references to another Afghan stooge — the late Dr Najibullah — are pouring in thick and fast. Karzai has long been compared to the good doctor, but it is a compari-son that’s wearing thin.

For one, Najib wasn’t afraid of commitment. Conservatives called him ‘the Bull’; a human giant that, egged on by his red-and-gold backers, liter-ally stamped on the heads of dissidents (Gregor ‘The Mountain’ Clegane could be a nickname more current). On some level, Karzai is aware of the dead bear in the room. ‘Why are you build-ing prisons in Afghanistan? Isn’t that what the Soviets did?’ he asked Senator Graham in 2008. Besides, Karzai has a natural advantage over Najib: He’s still breathing, and his most important parts are intact.

Of course, that may be down to logistics: as Fred Kaplan put it, the US military presence has been the sole barrier between Karzai’s neck and a rope tied to a lamp post.

Might the president save himself instead? Asked about his retirement plans, Karzai said, ‘I will be 56-and-a-half, and I will be no longer the president. So I will have plenty of time, and if God gives me a life, to go around, visit the coun-try and enjoy myself and go to cafes, visit London during Christmas, and see the lights, visit places, work on Afghan education and be with the Afghan people.’ — Express Tribune

Would someone please cry for Hamid Karzai?

HISTORYNET.COM

Plane search survey reveals difficult terrain

GraphicsGraphic News /Source: Australian Transport Safety Bureau, Geoscience Australia

The area where Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 may have gone down is full of previouslyunmapped trenches and extinct volcanoes, new data shows

Broken Ridge

BrokenRidge

Detail Perth

Depth-2,500m

-5,300m-5,000m

-4,000m

-3,000m

Three-dimensional modelof sea floor terrain

I N D I A NO C E A NI N D I A NO C E A N

KualaLumpurMALAYSIA

5km

Priority search areaMedium search areaWide search area

7th Arc

12

3

SimilaritiesMont Blanc (4,810m high)

Mount St Helens(2,550m high)

Grand Canyon(1,800m deep)

1

3

2

More than106,000km2

have beensurveyed

Flight MH370 vanishes en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 passengers on board

March 8

OctoberFirst of three vesselsset to begin scouringsea floor for MH370

LAST POLL RESULT

Do you think people in Oman will open up to organ donation if awareness is created?

Do you think the popular use of Facebook in Oman is a positive aspect?

Visit timesofoman.com to cast your vote

Yes59.3%

No37%

Can't say3.7%

The jailing of J. Jay-alalithaa, the AIADMK supremo, is bound to

convulse the Dravidian politics of Tamil Nadu unless, of course, she gets her conviction annulled by a higher court in short order, which is a long shot.

The question now is wheth-er the churning process will start right now or after the 2016 assembly poll which is likely to be off -bounds to Jayalalithaa.

It’s true that the Iron Lady of Tamil Nadu (TN), aff ec-tionately called ‘Amma’ by her supporters, can rule by proxy from outside the de jure framework, as Lalu Prasad did in Bihar through his wife, Rabri Devi. But for how long?

Remember the near total rout of Lalu’s RJD in subse-quent polls.

Nevertheless, one cannot assume that Amma’s time is over in TN politics. The ethos of Tamil people is quite diff er-ent from that of the Biharis. It’s a fact that emotions bulk large in Tamil life.

Perhaps it is part of an ethos derived from Tamil fi lm-dom where emotions play a dominant role.

M.G. Ramachandran, Ja-ya’s mentor both in fi lms and politics, had employed small tricks in the middle of, say, song sequences like giving a helping hand to old ladies, the blind or the deprived sections of society.

He knew full well such small gestures would tug at the heart strings of Tamil people.

He followed up such ges-tures as chief minister in the form of welfare or populist schemes that earned him brownie points in spades and mass support.

Jaya was heckled, ridiculed and bashed up by DMK legis-lators right inside Tamil Nadu assembly in 1989, a stripping-of-Panchali-like-episode straight out of a fi lm script. But like a phoenix she rose up and captured power with a stunning majority in the sub-sequent poll.

Jaya followed MGR’s pop-ulist policy in politics with perhaps a lot more tom-tom-ming. In fact, it had been a hugely successful policy but unfortunately it was one of those populist gestures that tripped her up.

It was during the next fi ve-year (1991-96) period, her fi rst stint as chief minister of

the state, that she got caught up in the disproportionate assets (DA) case. She had an-nounced that she would take only a symbolic Re.1 as salary as chief minister.

A lot of Tamils saw in her their ‘amma’ or mother who could only do good to their children.

Soon after her rival party, DMK, came to power, the vigi-lance department questioned the source of her Rs.66.65-crore asset. In fact, it was the Re.1 gesture that trapped her. The question arose how she could spend oodles of money, circa six crore, for the wed-ding feast of her foster son, V.N. Sudhakaran.

Besides, the judge must have asked her questions about the source of her in-come to buy some 10,500 sa-ris, 750 pairs of shoes, acres and acres of land, 28-30 kilos of gold, diamonds-studded waste belt and other valu-ables. Her conviction a few days ago after 18 years of court battle shows that she was not able to give the court cred-ible explanations regarding her assets.

Her supporters, however, refuse to believe that she had been in the wrong. The moot question is whether this be-lief will last long. It pivots on many variables which can-not be predicted with any certainty now.

It is possible that a sym-pathy wave overwhelms the Tamil society which could translate into votes in the as-sembly poll 18 months hence and keep AIADMK in power. Jaya is barred from contest-ing polls for the next ten years. Therefore what would be the fate of AIADMK if she is not let off by a higher court by then?

Can she continue to rule by proxy for long periods? Will her conviction spell the decline, if not fall, of her party? There are several such questions in the minds of the people now.

She may, in the coming days, warm up to BJP, a party she propped up once and brought down. Obviously, a party in power at the centre can be a useful ally for a wom-an in distress. BJP needs the support of 11 AIADMK mem-bers in Rajya Sabha should it want to pass any bill.

Even so, Jaya will certain-ly be cautious because she knows well that BJP would look for a space in Tamil Nadu like the proverbial camel’s nose under the tent.

Of course, DMK, her ri-val party, will try to reap the benefi ts but doubts remain whether a corruption-ridden and divided house will be able to dominate Dravidian poli-tics anytime soon. As for Con-gress, nobody would dare talk it up now.

The writer is a freelance con-tributor based in India. All the views and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not refl ect those of Times of Oman.

Jayalalithaa may warm up to BJP

Why drivers get away with murder

O O M M E N K U R U V I L L A

D A N A M . L E R N E R

A S A D R A H I M K H A N

A14

PAKISTANW E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 1 , 2 0 1 4

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EID PREPARATIONSA Pakistani customer checks the teeth of a camel at one of the main animal markets set up for the forthcoming Eid Al Adha

festival in Lahore, on Tuesday. — AFP

Man who fi lmed angry

passengers loses job

KARACHI: Arjumand Hussain, the man who fi lmed the video of angry airline passengers forcing two lawmakers off a Pakistan In-ternational Airlines fl ight, was terminated from his job, Express News reported.

On September 16, irate passen-gers protested against VIP culture aboard PK-370 and forced Sena-tor Rehman Malik and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz member of Provincial Assembly Ramesh Kumar off the aircraft for allegedly delaying the fl ight.

It was reported that Hussain, who was the general manager of multinational courier and logis-tics company Gerry’s Group, was sacked due to his involvement in PK-370 protest.

However, the company issued a statement early Tuesday where they confi rmed that Hussain had been sacked, but clarifi ed that he was terminated on merit and not for his involvement in the PK-370 incident. A message, posted on their offi cial Facebook page said the decision to dismiss Hussain was “purely based on merit” and that the company had been con-sidering the decision lately.

Narrating his side of the story to Express News, Hussain said he has no answer as to why he was sacked and that he has no regrets.

No grievances“I went to work yesterday and was told that the company doesn’t need my services anymore, I returned home quietly and I have no griev-ances,” he said.

“I only stood for our rights as Pa-kistanis and as plane passengers,” he said. — Express Tribune

L A W M A K E R S F O R C E D O F F P L A N E

‘Future of Pakistan, China ties is bright’

ISLAMABAD: Recapitulating the proverbial time-tested and all-weather friendship on the eve of 65th anniversary of the Peo-ple’s Republic of China, Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Sun Weidong stated on Monday that the future of their relations was bright.

“I am fi rmly convinced that with our joint eff orts, our com-mon dream of improving national prosperity and people’s well-be-ing will be realised,” said Weidong at a reception held round the 65th year of independence of China.

“We will keep the tradition of high-level exchanges between China and Pakistan. Chinese President Xi Jinping is willing to visit Pakistan at a mutually con-venient time of early date,” the ambassador said while adding “we also support and welcome Pa-

kistan to join the Shanghai Coop-eration Organisation (SCO).”

He underlined the Five Princi-ples of Peaceful Co-Existence to be a major reason of a very strong friendship, incorporating respect, trust, and support for each other; equality amongst countries irre-spective of its size and economic state; justice in international af-fairs; safeguarding interests of developing countries and working for peace and stability in the re-gion as well as the world.

“The priority of Pakistan in Chi-na’s diplomacy has not changed,”, said Weidong, adding that China has always supported Pakistan’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Furthermore, the ambassador unambiguously underscored that China respects and supports Pa-kistan’s national security strategy and appreciates its huge contribu-tion to the international counter-terrorism eff orts.

He added that the country re-

spects the path of development decided by people of Pakistan and never interferes into Pakistan’s domestic aff airs.

Speaking about economic co-operation, the ambassador men-tioned Pakistan-China Economic Corridor; construction of power plants in Nandipur, Sahiwal, Port Qasim, Bhawalpur and Karachi and the Ruyi-Masood Textile In-dustrial Park (which is under con-struction).

“We will continue to make co-operation in energy, infrastruc-ture and industrial parks. Besides, China is about to set up a new Consulate General in Lahore in the near future,” he added.

Seeds of friendshipSpeaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, chief guest, felicitated the people of China by saying that Pakistan was the fi rst country to recognise China and that the seeds of friendship between the two countries were

sworn on the very founding day of People’s Republic of China.

The speaker spoke about Chi-nese assistance to Pakistan on the conversion of Parliament House to solar energy and ensuring that it would be the fi rst go green.

Like Chinese ambassador, the speaker also recapitulated Chi-nese support for Pakistan during wars and natural calamities and added that Pakistan will never forget Chinese support.

Chinese president’s visitMoreover, the speaker regret-ted postponement of the Chinese president’s visit, saying “we are eagerly waiting for his arrival in Pakistan.”

The ceremony was also at-tended by Punjab Chief Minis-ter Shahbaz Sharif, Minister of Defence Khawaja Asif, PML-Q Chaudhry Shujat Hussain, Sena-tor Rehman Malik from PPP and former Governor Punjab Latif Khosa. — Express Tribune

China envoy cites

Pakistan-China

Economic Corridor;

construction of power

plants in Nandipur,

Sahiwal, Port Qasim,

Bhawalpur and

Karachi and the

Ruyi-Masood Textile

Industrial Park

We will keep the tradition of high-level exchanges

between China and Pakistan. Chinese President

Xi Jinping is willing to visit Pakistan at a mutually

convenient time of early date

Sun WeidongChinese Ambassador to Pakistan

Internet abuse of Pakistani women triggers real life violenceISLAMABAD: Internet abuse of women in Pakistan is triggering real world violence against them, but large social media companies, such as Facebook and Twitter, are moving too slowly to stop it, inter-net rights group Bytes for All said.

Women face online threats globally, but they run a unique risk in Pakistan, where there is a tradition of men killing women seen as having injured a family’s honour, besides punitive laws against blasphemy.

With law enforcement too weak to fi ght the violence sparked by online campaigns, activists want giant internet fi rms to roll out greater protection for us-ers, from streamlining how they tackle complaints to faster action against threats of violence.

“These technologies are help-ing to increase violence against women, not just mirroring it,” said Gul Bukhari of Bytes for All, and the author of a report released

this week as Pakistan experiences a surge in sectarian hatred, at-tacks on minorities and blasphe-my quarrels.

Link with crime“A lot of the crime we are wit-nessing would not have been possible without the use of these technologies.”

There have been more than 170 complaints of cybercrime against women this year in Pa-

kistan’s most populous province of Punjab, the Federal Investiga-tion Agency says. No fi gures were available for the remaining three provinces.

None of the cases was success-fully prosecuted because women usually reached a compromise with the suspect, said Syed Sha-hid Hassan, an offi cial with the cybercrime offi ce in the provin-cial capital, Lahore, where 30 em-ployees work full-time.

Since police rarely act when women are harassed online, few cases are reported, activists say.

About 32 million of Pakistan’s 180 million people use the Inter-net, the group said in its report, mainly on mobile telephones. About 12 million are on Facebook and some 2 million use Twitter, domestic media say.

In one case documented by Bytes for All, an online hate cam-paign last year urging the rape and murder of a prominent hu-man rights defender culminated in shots being fi red at the woman and her husband.

Hundreds of threatsShe received hundreds of threats and the addresses of her family were posted online, along with pic-tures of her and her daughter.

“She suff ered nightmares of be-ing raped, of family members be-ing harmed because of her,” the group said.

Facebook took down the pages, but had to do so again when they were posted by a diff erent user, the group said, and Twitter took a month to deal with her complaint.

Twitter declined to comment on specifi c cases but says it took tough steps last year to protect privacy and tackle abuse.

Facebook passionateFacebook is “passionate” about protecting users, says its content policy director Monika Bickert, who formerly worked at the US Justice Department to target sex traffi ckers and crimes against children.

“My background has given me an appreciation of how serious this issue is,” Monika said.

But the woman is unlikely to get justice, as police have lost all the evidence, and the sole witness has died.

In another case that spotlights the limitations of Pakistan’s

police, a 14-year-old girl was blackmailed into submitting to repeated gang rapes after her boy-friend threatened to post online a video he had secretly shot of the two together.

The slight, shy girl told Reuters she was too ashamed to tell her family and gave into her abuser’s demands.

Gul’s investigation showed po-lice got the girl’s age wrong and did not charge her abusers with statutory rape.

“She’s 18,” one police offi cer told Reuters, but admitted he had not looked at school records to ascertain her age or searched for evidence of the abuse online.

Though the case is nearly two years old, authorities have not asked Facebook for evidence, the girl’s lawyer said.

The site said that it would investigate if the rape video proved to have been posted on its pages. — Reuters

U N I Q U E R I S K

These technologies are helping to increase violence

against women, not just mirroring it

Gul BukhariBytes for All official

Pakistani indicted in

US over spying on calls

NEW YORK: US prosecutors on Monday indicted a Pakistani man for marketing a StealthGenie ap-plication that could be used to se-cretly spy on calls, texts, and other activity on smartphones.

Charges levelled against 31-year-old Hammad Akbar, 31, of Lahore, Pakistan, were billed by the US Department of Justice as the fi rst-ever criminal case cen-tered on the advertisement and sale of an app tailored to spy on smartphones.

“Selling spyware is not just rep-rehensible, it’s a crime,” assistant attorney general Leslie Caldwell of the Justice Department criminal division said in a release.

Domestic abuse“Apps like StealthGenie are ex-pressly designed for use by stalk-ers and domestic abusers who want to know every detail of a vic-tim’s personal life — all without the victim’s knowledge.”

Caldwell added that the Justice Department is “cracking down” on those intent on using technology designed for “brazen invasions” of people’s privacy.

Akbar is chief executive of In-voCode, a company that advertises and sells StealthGenie online, ac-cording to the indictment.

The application can intercept calls, pictures, texts or other com-munications between smart-phones, and was marketed as be-ing untraceable, prosecutors said.

Interception deviceAkbar was arrested in Los Ange-les on Saturday and charged in the indictment with charges involving conspiracy and selling “a known interception device,” according to prosecutors.

A federal judge issued a restrain-ing order on Friday authorising

the FBI to disable the StealthGe-nie website hosted at a data centre in the state of Virginia.

The StealthGenie application has little use beyond spying on smartphone use, according to US attorney Dana Boente of the East-ern District of Virginia.

“This application allegedly equips potential stalkers and criminals with a means to invade an individual’s confi dential com-munications,” FBI assistant di-rector-in-charge Andrew McCabe said in a release.

“They do this not by breaking into their homes or offi ces, but by physically installing spyware on unwitting victim’s phones and il-legally tracking an individual’s every move.”

According to the indictment, StealthGenie capabilities include intercepting voice calls, monitor-ing conversations taking place near mobile phones, and monitor-ing email, text messages, photo-graphs, videos and calendars.

The product was reportedly marketed at people who suspected a spouse of cheating. — AFP

S T E A L T H G E N I E A P P L I C A T I O N

Charges levelled against

31-year-old Hammad Akbar,

31, of Lahore, Pakistan, were

billed by the US Department

of Justice as the first-ever

criminal case centered on

the advertisement and

sale of an app tailored

to spy on smartphones

On September 16, irate

passengers protested

against VIP culture aboard

PK-370 and forced Senator

Rehman Malik and PML-N

lawmaker Ramesh Kumar

off the aircraft for allegedly

delaying the flight

A15

WORLDW E D N E S DAY, O CTO B E R 1 , 2 0 14

UP IN ARMS: Hundreds of protesters block the main road at

Causeway Bay shopping district in Hong Kong on Tuesday. Tens

of thousands of pro-democracy protesters extended a blockade

of Hong Kong streets, stockpiling supplies and erecting make-

shift barricades ahead of what some fear may be a push by

police to clear the roads before Chinese National Day. – Reuters

Afghanistan, US sign security pact

KABUL: Afghanistan and the United States on Tuesday signed a deal to allow about 10,000 US troops to stay in the coun-try next year, as new President Ashraf Ghani took a major step towards mending frayed ties with Washington.

Hamid Karzai, who stood down as president on Monday, had re-fused to sign the deal—a disagree-ment that symbolised the break-down of Afghan-US relations after the optimism of 2001 when the Taliban were ousted from power.

Afghan national security ad-viser Hanif Atmar and US Ambas-sador James Cunningham inked

the bilateral security agreement (BSA) at a ceremony in the presi-dential palace in Kabul as Ghani looked on. “We have signed an agreement which is for the good

of our people, the stability of the region and the world,” Ghani said, adding it would allow continued US funding for the 350,000-strong Afghan security forces.

“Threats exist to our joint inter-ests, and this gives us a common goal,” Ghani said after fulfi lling his campaign vow to have the deal signed on his fi rst full day in offi ce.

President Barack Obama wel-comed the deal, saying it was an historic day in US-Afghan rela-tions. He said it provided “the nec-essary legal framework to carry out two critical missions after 2014: targeting the remnants of Al Qaeda and training, advising, and assisting Afghan National Secu-rity Forces.”

Taliban off ensiveUS-led Nato combat operations will fi nish at the end of this year, and the Taliban have launched a series of recent off ensives that have severely tested Afghan sol-diers and police.

Nato’s follow-up mission, which will take over on January 1, will be made up of 9,800 US troops and about 3,000 soldiers from Ger-many, Italy and other member na-tions. The new mission—named Resolute Support—will focus on supporting Afghan forces as they take on the Taliban, in parallel with US counter-terrorism op-erations. Many long-term inter-national aid pledges were also de-pendent on the BSA being signed to strengthen security.

Negotiations over the pact saw Karzai, who came to power in 2001,

at his most unpredictable as he added new demands and shifted positions, infuriating the US. He eventually refused to sign the agreement last year despite a “loya jirga” grand assembly which he had convened voting for him to do so. There was also widespread public support for US troops to stay.

On the election campaign trail, both Ghani and his poll rival Ab-dullah Abdullah vowed to reverse Karzai’s decision.

Without a deal, Washington had threatened to pull all US forces out by the end of the year, but it chose to wait through a long election deadlock until Afghanistan fi nally got a new president on Monday.

After month of disputes over fraud, Ghani agreed to a power-sharing deal with Abdullah, who has taken up the new role of chief executive.

Nato support next year is seen as essential for national stabil-ity—though the limited size of the mission and the fact that it will be scaled back during 2015 will re-strict its capabilities.

Obama has previously an-nounced that the US force will be halved by the end of next year, be-fore being reduced to a normal em-bassy protection presence by the end of 2016.

The failure to sign a similar deal with Iraq in 2011 led to a complete withdrawal of US troops from the country, which is now engulfed in Islamist violence. — AFP

Afghan national

security adviser

Hanif Atmar and US

Ambassador James

Cunningham inked

the agreement to

allow about 10,000

US troops to stay in

the country

UK deputy premier all set to summon Chinese envoy over Hong Kong protestsBIRMINGHAM (ENGLAND): British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said on Tuesday he will summon China’s ambassa-dor to London over the protests in Hong Kong to express his “dis-may and alarm” about the refusal to grant free elections.

“I’ll be summoning the Chinese ambassador to express to the am-bassador my dismay and alarm,” he said, according to a statement from his offi ce, with a spokesman saying only that the meeting had been requested for this week.

“The Chinese authorities in Beijing seem determined to re-fuse to give to the people of Hong Kong what they are perfectly entitled to expect, which is free, fair, open elections based on uni-versal suff rage, as guaranteed by the joint declaration signed by the Chinese and British govern-ments,” he said.

“Universal suff rage means what it says on the tin. It means everybody can vote, and every-body can vote for the candidates they want. Not for candidates that have been screened and pre-selected by the authorities in Bei-jing,” Clegg said.

Very important“I really do think it’s very impor-tant at this time... that we say very loud and clear that we are on their side,” he said.

Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the junior partner in Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative-led government, said speaking to the ambassador “should help” as part of interna-tional pressure on China. “It is not in China’s interests to have

increasingly large numbers of disenchanted people, citizens, in Hong Kong, who feel that they have been robbed of their right to exercise their democratic right,” he said. Clegg said he had been “hugely impressed” by the peace-ful protests, adding: “I think peo-ple power is one of the great pow-erful forces in society.”

Cameron earlier said he was “deeply concerned” about the es-calating protests.

He told Sky News television: “When we reached the agree-ment with China there were details of that agreement about the importance of giving the Hong Kong people a democratic future.”

The demonstrators have de-manded full universal suff rage after Beijing last month said it would allow elections for the semi-autonomous city’s next leader in 2017 but would vet the candidates—a decision branded a “fake democracy”.

Beijing on Tuesday called the street protests “illegal”.

Meanwhile, fi nance chief George Osborne urged China to seek peace and said the former colony’s prosperity depended on freedom. When asked what he would say to the Chinese authori-ties, fi nance minister Osborne, Britain’s second most powerful politician, said: “That they work to a peaceful resolution of the situation.” — Agencies

R E F U S A L T O G R A N T F R E E E L E C T I O N S


ARTICLE, PHOTOS



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


ARTICLE, PHOTOS


DEAL SEALED: Afghan national security adviser Hanif Atmar, front right, US Ambassador James

Cunningham, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai (back third right, and Chief Executive Abdul-

lah Abdullah, back third left), take part in the signing of the bilateral security agreement in Kabul, on

Tuesday. –Reuters

MARKEWWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COMW E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 1 , 2 0 14B

ITALIAN FIRM BAGS CONSULTANCY WORK FOR IBRI LOGISTICS AREA Leading Italian engineering consultancy fi rm, F&M Ingegneria Spa, has been awarded consultancy work for developing the Ibri logistics area in Dhahirah Governorate in the West of Oman. >B3

Muscat

7,484.17+ 20.19

+ 0.28%

Dubai

5,026.98+ 29.02

+ 0.58%

Abu Dhabi

5,107.79+ 5.47

+ 0.11%

Saudi Arabia

10,845.84+ 88.43

+ 0.82%

Kuwait

7,621.51+ 12.95

+ 0.17%

Bahrain

1,476.02- 0.60

- 0.04%

Qatar

13844.08+ 9.07

+ 0.07%

CURRENCY RATES* DRAFT RATES (OMR1)* GOLD PRICES*Forex rates vs OMR1*

US Dollar ................................. 2.58

Euro ............................................2.02

Pound ........................................... 1.58

Indian Rs ............................. 159.77

Pak Rs ....................................262.19

Bangla Taka....................... 197.98* Rates are as of Sept. 30

Source: BankMuscat

Indian Rs ..................................160.00

Pakistan Rs ............................ 265.50

Sri Lanka Rs ........................... 336.15

Bangla Taka...........................200.80

Phil Peso .................................... 116.05

* Rates as of Sept. 30 Source: Oman UAE Exchange

Muscat 24ct per gm (OMR) .......15.60

Muscat 22ct per gm (OMR) .......15.00

10 Tola Bar Muscat (OMR) ............. N/A

Dubai 24ct per gm (Dh) .............147.25

Dubai 22ct per gm (Dh) ............. 139.75

10 Tola Bar Dubai (Dh) ..................... N/A* Rates as of Sept. 30

Source: Malabar Gold & Diamonds

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

Oman Crude ............. (Spot) ........$95.30

Dubai Crude ............. (Spot) ........$95.87

Murban Crude ........ (Spot) .........$98.10

Arabian Light ......... (Spot) ........$98.20

Arabian Heavy ....... (Spot) ................N/A

N.Sea Brent ............... (Spot) .......... $97.11

West Texas Int ....... (Spot) ........$92.27

CRUDE OIL PRICE

B2

MARKETW E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 1 , 2 0 1 4

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Renaissance awards contracts for housing

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Renaissance Services has awarded the two main con-struction packages for the Duqm permanent accommodation for contractors (PAC) project to S&T and Al Hajiry.

With investment worth OMR100, Renaissance Services and its partners believe the ac-commodation project shows the world how well Oman takes care of blue collar workforce in remote locations, off ering high standards of facilities and services at un-beatable prices.

Duqm PAC is an ambitious project of national importance, which will be part-owned by local

community investors and Omani pension funds. The size of the design, for over 16,000 residents, gives more to customers for eve-ry dollar. The simple economies of scale mean eff ective revenue generation, while off ering world-class standards of comfort, safety and environmental effi ciency.

Stephen Thomas, Renaissance Services’ chief executive offi cer,

said, “Duqm is an important part of Oman’s long-term vision, and people know how excited Renais-sance Services is to get the private sector behind national ambition through the Duqm PAC.”

“Together, we have created a commercially exciting project, which meets the tough Renais-sance test: Safe, Effi cient, Green and Local. Our services business

is on track to double revenue and profi t over the next two to three years, and the Duqm PAC project has a part to play in that growth.”

Two construction

packages for the

Duqm permanent

accommodation for

contractors project

has been awarded to

S&T and Al Hajiry

KPMG throws lighton new standards Times News Service

MUSCAT: KPMG, one of the world’s most trusted accounting fi rms, briefed clients in the Sultan-ates about the latest developments and new standards at its annual International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) seminar, held on Sunday.

The seminar, which was held at Crown Plaza Hotel, brought to-gether a number of professionals across the business community and government sectors.

Ahmed Tufail, partner, KPMG in Oman, mentioned that the sem-inar demonstrated the keen desire of the fi nance community to be up-dated with the latest developments in the standards. It also refl ected the popularity of the speaker, Yu-suf Hassan, who has been hosting these seminars in the region for almost nine years, he added.

IFRS trainingYusuf Hassan, partner in KPMG’s Department of Professional Prac-tice covering Middle East and South Asia, has been actively in-volved in IFRS trainings in the region. The region spans 20 coun-tries in the Middle East and in-cludes Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.

Tufail established the theme of the seminar whilst addressing the gathering. He spoke about the new standards issued and Interna-tional Financial Reporting Stand-ards board’s latest developments, including active projects and new standard on revenue recognition (IFRS 15), which is one of the most signifi cant accounting develop-ments of the decade.

The seminar highlighted the subject of revenue from contracts with customers and a number of revenue-related interpretations.

The new standard provides a single, principles based fi ve-step model to be applied to all contracts with customers. Step 1 – identify the contract, step 2- identify per-formance obligations, step 3 - de-termine the transaction price, step

4 - allocate the transaction price and step 5 - recognise revenue. The impact of the new standard will vary by industry.

Tufail stated that the KPMG Business School has played an im-portant role in transferring knowl-edge to a wide range of businesses and helps them respond to oppor-tunities and challenges, improve their performance, and increase their value.

KPMG Business SchoolKPMG Business School has launched the Islamic Finance workshops, Basic Accounting and ACCA’s IFRS diploma training pro-gramme and will also be launching IAB training for graduates and fi -nance professionals in Oman.

The seminar was interactive. Several participants shared their own experiences and challenges in this area and welcomed the sug-gestions made by others and the KPMG team.

KPMG employs more than 155,000 people and operates in 156 countries worldwide. In the Lower Gulf, comprising Oman and UAE, KPMG employs more than 850 professionals and operates from seven offi ces in Muscat, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Jebel Ali.

I F R S S E M I N A R

FIVE-STEP MODEL

The new standard provides a single, principles based fi ve-step model to be applied to all contracts with customers. Step 1 – identify the contract, step 2- identify performance obligations, step 3 - determine the transaction price, step 4 - allocate the transaction price and step 5 - recognise revenue

RESIDENTIAL PROJECT: Duqm PAC is an ambitious project of national importance, which will be

part-owned by local community investors and Omani pension funds. The size of the design, for over

16,000 residents, gives more to customers for every dollar. – Supplied photo

HAVE YOUR SAY Send us your comments at facebook.com/timesofoman blog.timesofoman.com [email protected]

NBO sets fi nal guidance for bond issueDUBAI: National Bank of Oman (NBO) has set fi nal guidance for its fi ve-year United States dollar bench-mark bond which is expected to price later, a document from lead managers said. The Sultanate’s second-largest lender by assets is earmarked to price its deal at 140 basis points, plus or mi-nus 5 bps, over midswaps. It had set initial price thoughts at the mid-100s over mids-waps on Monday. Investor orders top $1.2 billion for the issue, the document showed. Benchmark size is tradition-ally understood to mean upwards of $500 million.

PepsiCo opens innovation centre in DubaiMUSCAT: PepsiCo, one of the leading food and bever-age companies, yesterday announced the opening of its fi rst innovation facility in the Middle East. The facility in Dubai will serve as a hub of new products and fl avours innovations for PepsiCo’s businesses across the region. The facility is equipped with an advanced culinary centre and test lab focused on devel-oping food and beverage brands. - Times News Service

B R I E F S

India holds interest rates to guard against infl ation rateHONG KONG: India’s cen-tral bank left interest rates un-changed for a fourth straight meeting, continuing a fi ght against Asia’s fastest infl ation as Prime Minister Narendra Modi takes steps to revive the manu-facturing sector.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan kept the benchmark repurchase rate at 8 per cent, RBI said in a state-ment in Mumbai yesterday, a move predicted by all 51 econo-mists in a survey. While the near-term consumer price infl ation outlook is balanced “with a slant to the downside,” risks to the January 2016 target of 6 per cent are “still to the upside, though somewhat lower than in the last policy statement.”

“As of now we are reasonably set and we will reach that tar-get, but a lot can happen in the world,” Rajan told reporters in Mumbai yesterday, referring to the January 2016 target. “Oil prices, which are low now, can go up or they can go even lower. Every other factor is subject to some uncertainty. The policy will be data contingent.”

Rajan joins counterparts from Russia and Brazil in hold-ing interest rates this month as

he seeks to reduce entrenched price pressures to lay the foun-dation for sustainable economic growth. Standard & Poor’s said it expects Narendra Modi to implement growth- enhancing policies in raising India’s outlook last week, and that better defi cit or infl ation metrics could trigger a rating boost.

“Policy will remain unchanged in the foreseeable future,” Rupa Rege-Nitsure, chief economist at Bank of Baroda in Mumbai, said by phone. “The pressure is on the Modi government more than ever to control infl ation.”

Infl ationIf global growth is weak, or fi nan-cial vulnerabilities materialize, consumer price infl ation will be about 7 per cent in the three months ending March 2016, the RBI said in a separate report yesterday, adding that the upside risks to the target of 6 per cent by January 2016 are ‘signifi cant’. Retail prices rose 7.8 per cent in August, government data show, compared to 2 per cent in China and 3.99 per cent in Indonesia.

The RBI cut liquidity provided under the export credit refi nance facility. - Bloomberg News

E C O N O M Y

FOURTH STRAIGHT TIMEIndia’s central bank governor Raghuram Rajan joins counterparts from Russia and Brazil in holding interest rates this month as he seeks to reduce entrenched price pressures to lay the foundation for sustainable economic growthRaghuram Rajan. – File photo

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: The seminar highlighted the subject of

revenue from contracts with customers. – Supplied picture

B3W E D N E S DAY, O CTO B E R 1 , 2 0 14

MARKET

DRIVE SLOWER LIVE LONGER

Italian firm bags Ibri logistics work

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Leading Italian engi-neering consultancy fi rm, F&M Ingegneria Spa, has been awarded consultancy work to develop the Ibri logistics area in Dhahirah gov-ernorate in the west of Oman.

The Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (PEIE) signed

consultancy agreements with the Italian company here yesterday at the headquarters of PEIE.

They was signed by Engineer Ahmed bin Hassan Al Dheeb, un-dersecretary of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry for Com-merce and Industry and chairman of PEIE, and Eng Hazem Abdul Karim, Oman general manager at

F&M Ingegneria Spa. The integrated logistics project

in the wilayat of Ibri will be devel-oped by PEIE on an estimated area of 3 million square metres, which shall be a site for logistics activi-ties comprising storage, shipping, exporting and supplying.

Strategically located between the United Arab Emirates and

Saudi Arabia, the project will take into account the activities sur-rounding the area including the international road to Saudi Arabia, the railway and future industrial estates. Al Dheeb stated that the Ibri logistics area will be one of the vital projects in the Sultanate due to its strategic location.

“This project will open new ho-

rizons for the private sector and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to invest in building ware-houses, supplying and importing, and exporting Omani products to foreign markets.

“There are also ongoing stud-ies to establish new estates in the various governorates in the coming phase,” Al Dheeb said.

National railway projectIn addition, Karim said, “On behalf of F&M Ingegneria, we are glad to be appointed for the exciting pro-ject of Ibri logistics area, which is a strategic project for Al Dhahi-rah Governorate in particular and Oman in general.”

The master plan of the Ibri logis-tics area comprises storage units,

light industries, administration building, and station for loading and unloading goods linked to the national railway project through Ibri station, among other services related to governmental entities involved in such projects; in addi-tion to the infrastructure, internal roads, irrigation and landscaping.

The project will be implemented in various phases upon completion of the fi nal design of the project which is expected to be completed in February 2015.

In addition, the project will act as a premier destination for the transit of goods from the Sultanate towards Saudi Arabia, as well as to its neighbouring countries like Jordan, Iraq, Syria and Mediterra-nean countries.

A consultancy work has been awarded to F&M

Ingegneria for developing the Ibri logistics

project on an area of 3 million square metres

B4

MARKETW E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 1 , 2 0 1 4

MSM index gains again

MUSCAT: The MSM 30 Index closed at 7,484.17 points, up by 0.28 per cent. The MSM Shariah index closed at 1,087.41 points, a gain of 0.14 per cent. The top gainer of the day was Dhofar University, up by 9.38% while Al Madina Takaful was the top loser, declining by 1.75 per cent.

As many as 1,197 trades were executed in yesterday’s ses-sion generating a turnover of OMR15.60 million with 26.71 million shares changing hands. Out of 53 traded stocks, 20 ad-vanced, 17 declined and 16 re-mained unchanged.

Foreign investors were net buyers to the tune of OMR999,000 worth of shares followed by GCC & Arab inves-tors at OMR328,000. Omani in-vestors sold stocks amounting to OMR1.32 million.

The Financial Index continued its uptrend to close at 9,305.60 points, up by 0.20 per cent. Oman United Insurance, Al Izz Islamic Bank, Ominvest, Bank Sohar and United Finance increased by 1.35 per cent, 0.97 per cent, 0.88 per cent, 0.83 per cent and 0.70 per cent respectively. Al Ma-dina Takaful, Global Finance & Investments, ONIC, Muscat Fi-nance and DBIH declined by 1.75 per cent, 1.56 per cent, 1.40 per cent, 1.30 per cent and 1.16 per cent respectively.

Industrial Index closed mar-ginally up at 10,231.45 points, up by 0.03 per cent. Majan Glass, Sweets of Oman, National Alu-minium, Al Hassan Engineer-ing and Al Anwar Ceramics in-creased by 3.64 per cent, 2.31 per cent, 1.40 per cent, 1.38 per cent and 0.70 per cent respectively. Dhofar Cattlefeed, Oman Fisher-ies, Voltamp Energy and Galfar Engineering declined by 1.19 per cent, 1.16 per cent, 0.47 per cent and 0.44 per cent respectively.

Services Sector Index closed strongly at 3,809.09, up by 0.30

per cent. Dhofar University, Re-naissance Services, National Gas, OIFC and Nawras increased by 4.64 per cent, 1.79 per cent, 1.08 per cent, 0.81 per cent and 0.60 per cent respectively. Port Services and Sembcorp Salalah declined by 0.85 per cent and 0.61 per cent respectively.

Emerging stocks fallEmerging-market stocks headed for the biggest monthly drop since 2012 as a Chinese manu-facturing gauge missed estimates and protests in Hong Kong con-tinued for a third day. Russia’s ruble pared its worst quarter in fi ve years.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index fell 0.3 per cent to 1,006 in London, extending the loss in September to 7.5 per cent. China Construction Bank led a gauge of Hong Kong-traded Chinese shares to the weakest level since June. Samsung ended a three-day gain in Seoul. Russia’s ruble rose from a record low versus the cen-tral bank’s target basket of dollars and euros as investors wagered the currency’s declines were overdone after it approached the level where policy makers step in to slow its slide.

The developing-nation gauge is set to halt its longest monthly winning streak since 2005 as a slowing Chinese economy and prospects for higher US rates curb risk appetite. A report showed a manufacturing gauge for the country fell from an initial reading a week ago. Student lead-ers of Hong Kong’s protests set an October 1 deadline for their demands to be met.

“The concern in the market is that political uncertainty in Hong Kong will spill over into main-land China,” Lars Christensen, the chief emerging-market econ-omist at Danske Bank in Copen-hagen, said by phone.

– United Securities/Bloomberg News

The top gainer was Dhofar University, up by

9.38 per cent. And Al Madina Takaful was the

top loser, declining by 1.75 per cent, yesterday

MUSCATSECURITIES MARKET

SHARE PRICE BULLETIN FOR TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30

REGULAR MARKET .........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Security Name .................................................... Volume .....Turnover ... Trades ......... High .........Low ..........Close ......... Prev. .......... Diff . ............ Diff .............Last ..........Last ............ Last ................ Market Cap .........Par........................................................................................................................................................................................ Pr. ............ Close ........... RO ............... % .................Pr ..............Bid ............ Off er ............................................value

SWEETS OF OMAN ............................................ 10,000 ............. 13,300................. 1 ............ 1.330.......... 1.330 ............ 1.330 .............1.300 ............ 0.030 .............2.308 ............. 1.330 ............ 1.330 ............. 0.000 ................. 9,310,000.000 ......0.100RENAISSANCE SERVICES ................................692,210 ............474,751.............. 39 ............0.692 ......... 0.676 ............0.684 .............0.672 ............ 0.012 ............. 1.786 .............. 0.688 ............ 0.684 ..............0.692 .............192,952,606.536 ......0.100NATIONAL ALUMINIUM PRODUCTS ...............122,000 ..............35,379...............15 ............0.292 ......... 0.288 ............0.290 ............ 0.286 ............ 0.004 ............. 1.399.............. 0.290 ............ 0.288 ............. 0.290 ..................9,735,720.500 ......0.100OMAN UNITED INSURANCE ...........................260,000 ............117,309.............. 25 ............0.460 ......... 0.446 ............0.452 ............ 0.446 ............ 0.006 ............. 1.345.............. 0.454 ............ 0.450 ..............0.454 ..............45,200,000.000 ......0.100NATIONAL GAS ................................................. 10,000 ................ 7,480.................6 ............ 0.748 .......... 0.748 ............ 0.748 .............0.740 ............ 0.008 ............. 1.081 ...............0.748 ............ 0.712 ..............0.736 ............... 34,079,937.672 ......0.100OMINVEST ........................................................ 17,050 ................ 7,769.................4 ............0.460 ......... 0.452 ............0.456 .............0.452 ............ 0.004 .............0.885 ............. 0.460 ............ 0.458 ............. 0.460 ............ 153,554,808.000 ......0.100BANK SOHAR ............................................... 1,465,301 ........... 354,174.............. 39 ............0.244 ......... 0.239 ............0.242 ............ 0.240............ 0.002 .............0.833 ............. 0.244 ............0.240 ............. 0.244 ............276,848,000.000 ......0.100OMAN INVESTMENT AND FINANCE .............. 198,380 ..............49,675.............. 20 ............0.252 ......... 0.249 ............0.250 ............ 0.248 ............ 0.002 .............0.806 ............. 0.252 ............ 0.250 ............. 0.252 .............. 50,000,000.000 ......0.100UNITED FINANCE ............................................. 25,000 ................ 3,575.................2 ............ 0.143.......... 0.143 ............ 0.143 .............0.142 ............ 0.001 .............0.704 ..............0.143 ............ 0.142 ..............0.145 ............... 39,326,890.746 ......0.100AL ANWAR CERAMIC TILES .............................130,000 ............. 74,880.................6 ............0.576.......... 0.576 ............ 0.576 .............0.572 ............ 0.004 .............0.699 ............. 0.576 ............ 0.570 ..............0.576 ............. 142,182,567.360 ......0.100NAWRAS ..........................................................757,196 ........... 510,687.............. 32 ............0.676.......... 0.672 ............ 0.676 .............0.672 ............ 0.004 .............0.595 ............. 0.676 ............ 0.676 ............. 0.680 ............440,038,299.480 ......0.100BANK MUSCAT ............................................ 1,269,701 ........... 986,726...............91 ............0.784.......... 0.768 ............ 0.776..............0.772 ............ 0.004 ............. 0.518.............. 0.780 ............ 0.780 ..............0.784 ..........1,693,766,033.888 ......0.100NATIONAL BANK OF OMAN ............................. 331,500 ............131,109...............13 ............0.396 ......... 0.394 ............0.396 ............ 0.394 ............ 0.002 .............0.508 ............. 0.396 ............ 0.394 ..............0.396 ............ 482,655,690.000 ......0.100ALMAHA PETROLEUM PRODUCTS MAR. .......... 10,000 ..............25,150.................2 ............ 2.515 .......... 2.515 ............ 2.515..............2.505 ............ 0.010 .............0.399 ..............2.515 ............ 2.505 ..............2.550 .............173,535,000.000 ......0.100OMAN TELECOMMUNICATION .....................558,408 ........... 926,148.............. 47 ............ 1.670 .......... 1.655 ............ 1.660 .............1.655 ............ 0.005 .............0.302 ..............1.655 ............ 1.655 ..............1.660 ........ 1,245,000,000.000 ......0.100AL ANWAR HOLDING ...................................3,341,900 ........1,073,627............ 182 ............0.326 ......... 0.320 ............0.322 ............ 0.322 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.324 ............ 0.322 ............. 0.324 .............. 42,021,000.000 ......0.100ASAFFA FOODS ........................................................ 598 ................... 567................. 1 ............0.948 ......... 0.948 ............0.940 ............ 0.940 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.948 ............ 0.952 ............. 0.000 ............ 112,800,000.000 ......0.100BANK DHOFAR ................................................425,000 ...........163,200.................8 ............0.384 ......... 0.384 ............0.384 ............ 0.384 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.384 ............ 0.384 ..............0.386 ..............515,805,010.176 ......0.100HSBC BANK OMAN ...................................................431 ......................78.................2 ............0.180.......... 0.180 ............ 0.180 .............0.180 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.180 ............ 0.178 ..............0.180 ............360,056,302.200 ......0.100OMAN CABLES INDUSTRY ........................................ 191 ................... 497................. 1 ............2.600 ......... 2.600 ............2.600 ............ 2.600 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 2.600 ............0.000 ..............2.595 ............233,220,000.000 ......0.100OMAN CEMENT ................................................52,812 ............. 40,286.............. 20 ............0.764.......... 0.760 ............ 0.764 .............0.764 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.760 ............ 0.760 ..............0.768 .............252,786,750.440 ......0.100RAYSUT CEMENT ............................................. 99,828 .......... 220,620.............. 22 ............2.210 ......... 2.210 ............ 2.210 .............2.210 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 2.210 ............ 2.100 ..............2.215 ........... 442,000,000.000 ......0.100SMN POWER HOLDING ................................... 203,031 ............ 135,113.................7 ............0.668 ......... 0.664 ............0.664 .............0.664 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.664 ............ 0.664 ..............0.668 ............ 132,558,038.400 ......0.100SOHAR POWER ................................................. 23,030 ................ 8,797.................8 ............0.382 ......... 0.382 ............0.382 .............0.382 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.382 ............ 0.382 ............. 0.400 .............. 84,425,820.000 ......0.100TAAGEER FINANCE ........................................ 142,603 ..............21,818.................8 ............ 0.153 .......... 0.153 ............ 0.153..............0.153 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ..............0.153 ............ 0.153 ..............0.155 ...............38,799,270.000 ......0.100AHLI BANK ...................................................... 175,000 ............. 43,050.................2 ............0.246 ......... 0.246 ............0.246 .............0.247 ............-0.001 ........... -0.405 ............ 0.246 ............0.242 ............. 0.246 .............318,689,901.384 ......0.100GALFAR ENGINEERING AND CON. ...................209,250 ..............47,521............... 11 ............0.228 ......... 0.226 ............0.227 ............ 0.228 ............-0.001 ........... -0.439............. 0.228 ............ 0.225 ............. 0.228 ................59,841,458.747 ......0.100VOLTAMP ENERGY ............................................80,917 ............. 34,522...............18 ............0.428 ......... 0.426 ............0.426 .............0.428 ........... -0.002 ........... -0.467............. 0.428 ............ 0.428 ............. 0.430 ...............25,773,000.000 ......0.100OMAN AND EMIRATES INV. HOLDING ...........1,356,338 ........... 275,591.............. 78 ............0.205 ......... 0.203 ............0.203 ............ 0.204............-0.001 ........... -0.490 ............ 0.203 ............0.202 ............. 0.205 ...............24,740,625.000 ......0.100GULF INVESTMENT SERVICES .................... 1,124,793 ...........273,596.............. 83 ............0.245 ......... 0.242 ............0.243 .............0.245 ........... -0.002 ........... -0.816 ............. 0.242 ............0.242 ............. 0.243 ................14,298,901.731 ......0.100PORT SERVICES CORPORATION ...................... 122,370 ..............57,269.................2 ............0.468 ......... 0.468 ............0.468 .............0.472 ........... -0.004 ........... -0.847 ............ 0.468 ............ 0.468 ..............0.478 ...............44,478,720.000 ......0.100AL SHARQIA INVESTMENT HOLDING .............479,442 ...........102,267.............. 60 ............ 0.216.......... 0.212 ............ 0.213 .............0.215 ........... -0.002 ........... -0.930 ............ 0.214 ............ 0.213 ..............0.215 ............... 18,428,760.000 ......0.100AL MADINA INVESTMENT ..............................320,680 ..............29,521...............17 ............0.093 ......... 0.092 ............0.092 .............0.093 ............-0.001 ........... -1.075 ............. 0.092 ............ 0.091 ............. 0.092 ................19,057,927.328 ......0.100DHOFAR CATTLE FEED ...................................235,000 ..............39,035...............14 ............ 0.167 .......... 0.165 ............ 0.166 .............0.168 ........... -0.002 ........... -1.190 ..............0.167 ............ 0.167 ..............0.178 ...............12,782,000.000 ......0.100ONIC. HOLDING ............................................... 265,783 ........... 112,640.............. 26 ............0.430 ......... 0.420 ............0.424 .............0.430 ........... -0.006 ........... -1.395 ............. 0.420 ............ 0.420 ............. 0.426 ............... 73,531,458.000 ......0.100GLOBAL FINANCIAL INVESTMENT ..............6,263,057 ...........873,090...............18 ............0.140 ......... 0.125 ............ 0.126 .............0.128 ........... -0.002 ........... -1.563 ............. 0.140 ............ 0.126 ..............0.130 .............. 25,200,000.000 ......0.100SUM: ............................................................................... 20,778,800 ........ 7,270,816............930 .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ......................36.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

PARALLEL MARKET .....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

DHOFAR UNIVERSITY ..........................................2,500 ................3,663................. 1 ............ 1.465 .......... 1.465 ............ 1.465..............1.400 ............ 0.065 .............4.643 ..............1.465 ............ 1.300 ............. 0.000 ...............20,510,000.000 ......1.000MAJAN GLASS ................................................... 59,800 .............. 17,014.................9 ............0.286 ......... 0.280 ............0.285 .............0.275 ............ 0.010 ............. 3.636 ............. 0.286 ............0.280 ............. 0.286 ............... 11,976,640.500 ......0.100AL HASSAN ENGINEERING ................................99,670 .............. 14,613...............15 ............ 0.149.......... 0.145 ............ 0.147..............0.145 ............ 0.002 ............. 1.379 .............. 0.146 ............ 0.146 ..............0.148 ................11,055,576.000 ......0.100ALIZZ ISLAMIC BANK ..........................................64,261 ................6,663............... 11 ............0.104 ......... 0.103 ............ 0.104 .............0.103 ............ 0.001 ............. 0.971.............. 0.103 ............ 0.102 ..............0.103 ............104,000,000.000 ......0.100AL SUWADI POWER .........................................540,056 ............. 99,392.............. 54 ............ 0.185 .......... 0.183 ............ 0.184 .............0.183 ............ 0.001 .............0.546 ..............0.183 ............ 0.183 ..............0.184 ............. 131,450,766.560 ......0.100AL BATINAH POWER ....................................... 544,417 ..............99,760.............. 48 ............0.184.......... 0.183 ............ 0.183..............0.183 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ..............0.183 ............ 0.183 ..............0.184 .............123,504,399.690 ......0.100BANK NIZWA ............................................... 1,479,625 ........... 140,605...............13 ............0.096 ......... 0.093 ............0.095 .............0.095 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.093 ............ 0.093 ..............0.095 ............142,500,000.000 ......0.100CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS IND. ...................190,300 ..............10,439...............13 ............0.055 ......... 0.054 ............ 0.055 .............0.055 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.054 ............ 0.054 ..............0.056 .................4,675,000.000 ......0.100FINANCIAL SERVICES ................................. 1,600,000 ...........256,000................. 1 ............0.160.......... 0.160 ............ 0.160 .............0.160 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.160 ............ 0.155 ..............0.160 .............. 10,400,000.000 ......0.100TAKAFUL OMAN INSURANCE .............................. 1,048 ................... 108................. 1 ............0.103.......... 0.103 ............ 0.103 .............0.103 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.103 ............ 0.103 ..............0.104 .............. 10,300,000.000 ......0.100SEMBCORP SALALAH ........................................17,300 ............. 41,984.................8 ............2.430 ......... 2.400 ............2.425 ............ 2.440............-0.015 ........... -0.615 ............. 2.400 ............ 2.405 ..............2.415 ............. 231,483,697.875 ......1.000AL BATINAH DEV. INV. HOLDING .......................... 25,520 ................4,368.................5 ............ 0.173 .......... 0.170 ............ 0.171 ..............0.173 ........... -0.002 ........... -1.156 ..............0.170 ............ 0.170 ..............0.173 ................. 5,130,000.000 ......0.100OMAN FISHERIES ........................................... 377,470 ..............32,195.............. 33 ............0.086 ......... 0.085 ............0.085 .............0.086 ............-0.001 ........... -1.163 ............. 0.085 ............ 0.084 ..............0.085 ...............10,625,000.000 ......0.100MUSCAT FINANCE ............................................ 30,000 ................4,560................. 1 ............ 0.152 .......... 0.152 ............ 0.152..............0.154 ........... -0.002 ........... -1.299 ..............0.152 ............ 0.152 ..............0.154 ............... 35,412,970.032 ......0.100AL MADINA TAKAFUL .....................................608,300 ............. 68,267.............. 48 ............ 0.113 ...........0.111 ............. 0.112 ..............0.114 ........... -0.002 ........... -1.754 ..............0.112 .............0.111 ...............0.112 ...............19,600,000.000 ......0.100SUM: ................................................................................. 5,640,267 ...........799,629............ 261 .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ...................... 15.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

BONDS MARKET .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. BANK MUSCAT C C B 4.5 ............................................. 594 ......................64................. 1 ............ 0.107.......... 0.107 ............ 0.107 .............0.107 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ............. 0.107 ............ 0.107 ............. 0.000 ............... 34,201,766.225 ......0.100BANK MUSCAT SUBORDINATED BONDS .........293,500 ........... 314,045.................5 ............ 1.070.......... 1.070 ............ 1.070 .............1.075 ........... -0.005 ........... -0.465..............1.070 ............ 1.070 ..............1.095 .............. 80,250,000.000 ......1.000SUM: .....................................................................................294,094 ........... 314,109.................6 .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ........................ 2.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

O M A N S T O C K S

INDICESIndex .................................................High .................Low ..................... Value ............... Prev . Value.......... Diff ...............Diff %MSM30 Index ........................................7,484.17 ...............7,460.14 ....................7,484.17 ................... 7,463.26 ..................20.91 ...................0.28Financial Index .....................................9,314.99 ...............9,281.33 ................... 9,305.60 ................... 9,287.00 ..................18.60 ...................0.20Industrial Index ..................................10,237.21 .............10,227.74 ................. 10,231.45 ................ 10,228.20 ....................3.25 ................... 0.03Services Index ...................................... 3,809.26 ............... 3,797.87 ................... 3,809.09 ....................3,797.87 ..................11.22 ...................0.30MSM SHARIAH INDEX.................... 1,088.61 ...............1,086.28 .................... 1,087.41 ................... 1,085.92 .................... 1.49 ................... 0.14

Trading SummaryVolume ................ Turnover ..........Trades .............. Market Cap............. Up ............Down ............. Equal .........Sec. Traded26,713,161 .................. 8,384,553 ..................1,197 ............... 15,606,170,872 ................20 ......................17 .................... 16 .........................53

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Sensex rises marginally; rupee depreciates againMUMBAI: The BSE benchmark Sensex yesterday lost most of its early gains to close just 33 points higher as profi t-booking emerged in power and metal shares ahead of long holidays for markets, even as RBI kept interest rates unchanged.

Brokers said profi t-taking by in-vestors is likely to continue today. The 30-share barometer resumed slightly better and touched a high of 26,851.33 in the afternoon trade, a jump of 254.22 points from its previous close. But soon profi t-booking emerged, pulling down the key index index to 26,630.51, a small rise or 33.40 points or 0.13 per cent from its last close.

The broad-based 50-issue CNX Nifty also fi rmed up by 8.90 points to 7,964.80.

“Some more selling pressure may be seen in the coming ses-sions, particularly in rate sensi-tive sectors. Also, as long market holidays are coming, investors

prefer to book profi ts. In the com-ing sessions, global cues and sec-ond quarterly results shall be key triggers for market direction,” said Rakesh Goyal, senior vice-president, Bonanza Portfolio.

Brokers said local bourses were also impacted by weak trend on Asian bourses amid concern over tensions in Hong Kong and Chi-nese manufacturing gauge miss-ing estimates.

Overall, 14 of 30 Sensex scrips closed with gains. Major gainers were Sun Pharma at 2.77 per cent, HDFC 2.17 per cent, Bajaj Auto 2.00 per cent, Maruti 1.85 per cent, Cipla 1.59 per cent, RIL 1.35 per cent, ITC 1.19 per cent.

Bhel dropped by 2.85 per cent, Axis Bank 2.18 per cent, Hindalco 1.69 per cent, M&M 1.62 per cent, Tata Motors 1.57 per cent, Tata Steel 1.55 per cent, ICICI Bank 1.52 per cent and TCS 1.08 per cent. The short-term lending rate rate remained at 8 per cent.

Rupee fallsThe rupee today lost 22 paise to end at almost seven-month low of 61.75 against the dollar as month-end demand for the US currency from oil importers weighed on the local unit.

Sluggish local equities after the Reserve Bank today kept key rates unchanged in its monetary policy and slowdown in foreign fund in-fl ows put some pressure on the rupee, a forex dealer said.

The dollar index was sharply up by 0.60 per cent against a basket of six major global units. It was also up against other Asian units.

At the Interbank Foreign Ex-change (Forex) market here, the domestic currency commenced lower at 61.60 from last close of 61.53. It moved in a range of 61.82 and 61.55 before concluding at 61.75, a fall of 22 paise or 0.36 per cent from its last close. On Mon-day, it had plunged by 38 paise or 0.62 per cent. - PTI

I N D I A N M A R K E T S

MUSCAT: Al Hassan Electri-cals Co (Lighting Division), the fl agship company of Al Hassan Group, and Lighting Technolo-gies (LT) Russia recently organ-ised a technical seminar at Haff a House Hotel to introduce the new generation of LED products.

Various consultants and con-tractors attended the seminar, says a press release.

Lighting Technologies Inter-national Group of Companies is one of the largest manufacturers and suppliers of modern energy effi cient lighting equipment with over 15 years of experience.

Their core competence is in de-veloping and manufacturing gen-eral and special purpose light fi t-tings. More than 3,000 models of light fi xtures are in the company’s product range aimed at diff erent applications — for internal and external use in public offi ces and administrative buildings, sport facilities, shopping malls, indus-trial enterprises.

High energy levelsLighting Technologies Inter-national Group of Companies invests in research and develop-ment on a constant basis by intro-

ducing latest technologies aiming at high energy effi ciency levels. The products are in accordance with the international standards — BREEAM.

The event was a big success with many guests and invitees showing interest in the range of the products on display, high-lighting Al Hassan Electricals' (Lighting Division) capabilities as a leading lighting solutions provider in the Sultanate.

AL Hassan Lighting Division is the authorised exclusive dis-tributor of LT Russia products in the Sultanate.

B5W E D N E S DAY, O CTO B E R 1 , 2 0 14

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Stylish Fluence now comes with a cash gift of OMR500

MUSCAT: Renault Oman from Suhail Bahwan Group has an-nounced a unique off er on its sleek range of vehicles for its valued cus-tomers which will last till October 31, says a press release.

Renault’s exclusive scheme comprises a plethora of benefi ts on most of their top selling models. Renault’s sedan segment compris-es a prestigious line up of cars that include the sleek Renault Fluence and the strikingly good looking Renault Safrane. The SUV range comprises the Renault Duster and the Renault Koleos. The LCV range consists of the effi cient Re-nault Trafi c.

An array of benefi ts Customers purchasing the Re-nault Fluence will be entitled to receive free registration, free pe-riodic maintenance service up to two years/3,000km (whichever comes fi rst), free unlimited war-ranty period of up to six years and a cash gift of OMR500.

Upbeat and contemporary The design of the front bumper is bolder, with a large lower air intake that broadens towards the base: fog lights set against a gloss black

surround have the eff ect of visu-ally widening this lower intake, giving the front a sporty touch. Fi-nally, wheel arch openings that are two centimetres tighter than on the previous version provides the new Renault Fluence with an even more dynamic allure.

The insides of the headlamp units have been reworked in order to convey a more expressive and more upmarket eff ect. The head-light module is equipped with a lens, which concentrates the beam of light and ensures superb quality illumination at night. The metal-eff ect ‘eyelid’ and dark-coloured headlight mask add further depth to new Renault Fluence’s look. The higher-end equipment levels are distinguished by the addition of a series of gloss black trim features, as well as bright-eff ect chrome.

Technology to aid driving The Renault Fluence is packed with high-end technologies de-

signed to make driving simpler. The principal instrument inside the cabin incorporates a large round LCD screen, the main func-tions of which include a digital speed display and the visual com-ponent of the parking assistant function. White segments around the circumference of the LCD screen indicate the settings of the cruise control and the speed lim-iter systems.

The multimedia functions on the new Renault Fluence include hands free mobile phone connec-tivity and audio streaming music with bluetooth or with USB / Jack connection. In a fi rst for the model, the new Renault Fluence features a 4x20W audio system with a three-line display and an MP3-compatible CD player, Jack/ USB sockets, remote control on steer-ing wheel and bluetooth. 3D sound by Arkamys is fi tted at the LE equipment level. In addition, this system has a remote A3 screen and dual tuner. Bose premium radio is available as an option in the higher equipment at LE level.

The vehicle also off ers a range of driver-assistance technologies, including the hands-free key card

for no-touch locking and unlock-ing of doors, as well as push-button ignition. On the higher equipment level, the parking assist system of new Fluence features four rear-parking sensors neatly integrated into the rear bumper. Another in-telligent feature is the automatic parking brake, which applies itself as soon as the ignition is turned off and released once the engine is running again.

Comfortable cabinThe Renault Fluence off ers more generous passenger space than other vehicles in the same class. Interior measurements are highly impressive, with elbow room of 1,480mm in the front and 1,475mm at the rear. Rear passengers enjoy class-leading legroom, with 238mm of knee space, with access to more than 23 litres of in-cabin storage. The boot capacity of 530 litres is among the biggest in C-Sedan class, with a low loading sill (727mm) and wide aperture (1,020mm).

Notably, the Renault Fluence is equipped with climate control sys-tem that is specially designed to cope with the intense sunlight and high levels of humidity in the Oman market. In addition, an automatic dual-zone climate control system is off ered as standard equipment on the higher-end version LE.

Quality and safetyFrom its entry level model, the Renault Fluence off ers ABS with electronic brake force distribu-tion, emergency brake assist, three-point front safety belts with pretensioners and load limiters, driver and front passenger air-bags, three-point Isofi x child seat anchorage for the outer rear seats and projector headlights.

Renault’s exclusive

scheme comprises a

plethora of benefi ts

on most of their top

selling models

Crowne Plaza staff attends session on waste managementSOHAR: Sohar Battery Col-lection recently held an aware-ness session on waste manage-ment with department heads at Crowne Plaza, Sohar.

Participants were given an in-troduction to the status of waste management in Oman. At a daily average of 1.2 – 1.5kg, Oman’s per capita waste generation is among the highest in the world, says a press release.

There is currently no resource recovery from wastes, but the government is working towards moving up the waste hierarchy. The fi rst step towards this is waste segregation at source and this was stressed by Rashmi Go-pal, Project manager of Sohar Battery Collection.

The harmful impacts of im-proper battery disposal on the environment and public health were then discussed and the staff was urged to henceforth drop all old batteries in a special collec-tion bin that would be placed at the hotel.

The IT department of Crowne Plaza assured their support in this venture and even brought

some old batteries they had col-lected in the past few days.

Student volunteers from So-har University who also partici-pated in this awareness session requested that all employees be sensitised on this issue and be asked to bring old batteries from their homes.

Sohar Battery Collection is a volunteer driven project that collects old batteries from over 20 locations in Sohar and stores them in a special hazardous waste storage site. Even though there is currently no recycling of batteries, the project, in less than two years of operation, has helped protect the soil and wa-ter resources of Oman by divert-ing over 800kg of batteries from landfi lls and dumpsites to a safe storage site.

In addition, it has created awareness among a wide target audience on better waste man-agement and environmental pro-tection. In October 2014, Sohar Battery Collection will be con-ducting an awareness session in collaboration with the Omani Women’s Association.

S O H A R B A T T E R Y C O L L E C T I O N

ISM students shine in Quizdom 2014MUSCAT: Quizdom 2014, the 8th edition of the quiz competi-tion organised by Class Apart was held recently at Indian School Muscat (ISM). Quizdom saw a spirited participation from the six teams. Each of these teams was made up of children from Classes III, IV, V and VI.

Team Yellow comprising Ayush Kotian, Sreshta Balagopal, Pranav S. and Britiparni Biswas won the quiz with a confi dent per-formance. Aditya Harish, Ansh Dave, Sharanya Basu and Joshua Joseph of Team Blue were the 1st runners-up, while Team Green of Abhiram Sai Anilbabu, Diya Rao, Siddharth Shukla and Aviva Shibu were the 2nd runners-up. It was a close call with the 1st and 2nd runners-up being decided in a tie-breaker, says a press release.

"Every year we work harder to raise the bar of Quizdom, but without fail, the fi nalists make it look like child's play. This pleases us no end, giving us a feeling of a job well done," said Sushmita Gupta of Class Apart.

The running theme of the quiz was Continents. Overall, there were six rounds titled — Asia, Africa, Europe, South America, North America and Oceania — with each round having ques-tions pertaining to the respective continent. Another novelty was the fi rst time use of buzzers. The rounds on Africa, South America and Oceania were on the buzzer, generating excitement amongst participants and the audience.

"Our children did us proud with their outstanding perfor-mance. The buzzer round was a novel feature this year. It taught the children to take risks, 'for if you take no risks, you win no victories'. But what is more im-portant is that they took home a wealth of knowledge, which is sure to stand them in good stead in future," says Rohini Dinesh,

one of the Quizdom hosts. There was a round exclusively

for class three and class four chil-dren. These rounds had ques-tions on a variety of topics like entertainment, space, comics, geography, travel etc. Each of the answers had the name of a colour woven into them, which worked as a clue for the children to arrive at the answer.

Quizdom threw up a slew of questions challenging the grey matter of everyone present. Here are a few examples — the par-ticipants were asked to identify Robin Williams from the poster 'You are free, genie' from Aladdin; teams were given visual clues to recognise the Haka dance from New Zealand; Tea Ceremony of Japan; Migration of Wildebeest — Masai Mara and Serengeti; the logo of La Liga; and Moais of Easter Island.

In addition, yearly awards were given to various children. Zeeshan Mukhari, Shreya Singh and Rebecca D'Souza were felici-tated with the Sun Child award for year 2013-14. The award is a recognition for being the most responsible students. Eshnika Singh received a certifi cate for being with Class Apart for four years in a row.

The evening began with an auction of mosaic art created by students. Each mosaic art was created by following a meticulous process of team work and perse-verance. Students were given a piece cut from an A3 size copy of the painting.

The pieces were then enlarged on a bigger piece of paper. These enlarged pieces were glued to-gether to complete the picture. While every single portion exhib-its an individualistic character, not really blending with the next one all the time, yet, each of the paintings turned out to be close replicas of the original.

Q U I Z C O M P E T I T I O N

Colourful Open Day at Beaconhouse

MUSCAT: Beaconhouse School System held its ‘Open Day’ function recently, attended by all the parents and students of Early Years. The orientation was conducted for all the classes, says a press release.

During the orientation, parents were briefed about the curriculum

and strategies followed in the class and the rules and regulations of the school. It was an interactive ses-sion between the parents and the teachers. A small presentation was shown, highlighting the events of the last two years.

Various creative art activities

and fun games were conducted for the same including a go green game, self sketch, jigsaw puzzle, spinning wheel, hoopla/colourful turkey, mom’s the best, macroni frame, Shoot Mr Purple, face painting, art and craft activities, magic wands crowns, dart the balloon, paper

plate aquarium and fi sh in the cup. Children were excited to par-

ticipate in diff erent games and win prizes for the same.

Tea and refreshments were served for the parents. A small bamboo plant was given as a souve-nir to the children.

O R I E N T A T I O N

Oman Shipping sponsors Public Transport Conference

MUSCAT: In keeping with its active role in the maritime trans-port sector and its contribution to the transportation system in the Sultanate, Oman Shipping Company (OSC) will sponsor the two-day Oman Public Trans-port Conference 2014, organised by the Omani Society for Land Transport and supported by the Ministry of Transport and Com-munications on October 13 to 14 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, says a press release.

Oman Shipping’s participation is one of its annual contribution, which aims to develop the mari-time transport sector in particu-lar and the transport system and in general, including the devel-opment of national cadres and strengthen the partnership of local and in-country value-added.

P A R T I C I P A T I O N

The conference will be

held on October 13 and

14 at the Grand Hyatt

Al Hassan, LT Russia introduce new LED products at seminar

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Double your data with FRiENDi

MUSCAT: FRiENDi mobile, Oman’s third biggest mobile ser-vice provider, has decided to make the ‘Double Up Promotion’ on the 1GB monthly Internet plan a per-manent feature considering its growing popularity and the huge demand among customers, says a press release.

“As a company policy we strive hard to off er the best value for money and customer friendly products and packages. Making this Double Up off er permanent is our on-going attempt to satisfy our customers and provide them with more for less,” said Adnan Al Alawi, COO, FRiENDi mobile.

The new permanent plan which is priced at only OMR5 allows cus-tomers who activate or upgrade to the 1GB monthly Internet plan to receive an additional 1GB to use

from 11pm to 4am. Last but not the least, customers on this plan will also get 200MB for free as a bonus on the monthly auto renewal of the plan. FRiENDi customers can activate the 1GB plan by simply dialing *140*3# or login online to FRiENDi mobile web self-care on www.friendimobile.om.

“We understand that the Inter-net has become an integral part of everyday life. It brings the world to you and we make that world more aff ordable for our customers,” add-ed Adnan Al-Alawi.

FRiENDi mobile provides their customers with better choices at very competitive prices.

“We stay abreast with the cur-rent times. We’ve seen the growth of social media in Oman has been exponential and we are certain such off ers will be very benefi cial for FRiENDi users,” said Al Alawi.

The new permanent

plan which is priced

at only OMR5 allows

customers who

activate or upgrade

to the 1GB monthly

Internet plan to

receive an additional

1GB to use from

11pm to 4am

Bank Sohar hosts weekly draw at SinawMUSCAT: Bank Sohar recently hosted its 23rd OMR5,000 Al Mumayaz Savings Scheme 2014 Weekly Draw.

Continuing its country-wide coverage to encourage saving hab-its among the local population and to promote the Al Mumayaz Sav-ings Scheme, Bank Sohar has been conducting the prize draws at vari-ous branches and locations across the Sultanate; this time hosting the draw at the bank’s Sinaw branch, says a press release.

The OMR5,000 Weekly Draw at the Sinaw branch was presided over by Sheikh Musalam bin Mo-hammed bin Hamed Al Wahshi, the deputy wali of Al Mudhaibi of Niyabat Sinaw.

Salim Khamis Al Maskari, Sen-ior AGM of Branches, Saad Said Al Shidhani, Sinaw senior branch manager, Abdullah Al Mahmoodi, chief manager of Events and Pro-motions, Redha Al Lawati, head of Retail Liabilities, and Thuraya Al Hashmi from Retail Liabili-ties Unit, were present at the event to welcome the chief guest and customers.

Walk-in attendees and other senior staff members from the

bank were also present at the event to witness the draw.

The event commenced with a speech delivered by Redha Al Lawati who presented an over-view of the Al Mumayaz Savings Scheme 2014, touching upon the stellar success of the sav-ings scheme over the last three quarters of the year and the large number of prizes that the bank has given away since the scheme was launched.

On this occasion, R. Narasim-han, DGM and head of Retail Banking commented: “The Al Mumayaz Savings Scheme 2014 has been one of our most success-ful so far, with a record number of

winners thanks to the increased frequency of prizes. We have also observed an increase in our customer’s savings as they try to make the most of our daily, weekly and monthly draws as well as the highly anticipated upcoming year-end grand prize draw.”

Shortly after the introduction, the Al Mumayaz Savings Scheme Weekly Draw was conducted by Musalam Al Wahshi; which saw the bank’s Qurum branch cus-tomer, Haider Al Lawati win the weekly prize of OMR5,000.

The event concluded with a vote of thanks and a token of ap-preciation being presented to the guest of honour.

“Such public draws on a weekly basis throughout our branch net-work deliver transparency to our customers, as well as allow us to socialise with attendees and ac-tively encourage customers to continue saving.

“We would like to wish Haider Al Lawati our sincerest congratu-lations and also wish our custom-ers all the best for the upcoming draws,” Narasimhan added.

Bank Sohar is now gearing up for the fi nal leg and the grand fi -nale of 2014 Al Mumayaz Savings Scheme. In addition to the up-coming September monthly draw, for the last three months of the year, the bank will be continuing with its fi ve hourly prizes of OMR 1,000 every day from Sunday to Wednesday, OMR5,000 weekly prize draws and the October and November monthly draws with a prize pool of OMR50,000 each.

These will culminate with the highly anticipated year-end grand prize draw with a prize pool of over half a million rials, with one lucky saver winning OMR500,000; one exclusive winner receiving OMR50,000 and one lucky minor receiving OMR 5,000.

A L M U M A Y A Z S A V I N G S S C H E M E

Beary opens store for shoppers in OmanMUSCAT: Beary, a brand that aims to be synonymous with jew-ellery, Oud oils and fragrances, has formally opened its retail doors to shoppers in Oman. Situated at the Al Rowdha Boule-vard and located in Mawaleh, the brand houses a wide range of jew-ellery and an assortment of Oud oils and fragrances. Mohammed Arshad, general manager and in-vestor, Al Urooj Int, spoke of the brand Beary as one that will in-troduce designer sterling silver, antique and fashion jewellery that

has been carefully selected and handpicked; sourced from Italy, Thailand, India and Turkey. The assortment of which would fl at-ter anybody. “We welcome people to try us, know us and tell us what they like, to help us know their taste and preferences better.”

The brand is open to feedback and encourages negative and positive feedback, says Arshad. The brand Beary has outlined its vision of being a leader by off er-ing a range of products that are inspired by tradition, yet blended

and designed to be contemporary, thereby setting a standard that is unmatched in quality, value and sophistication, said Arshad.

“We are thrilled to be bringing Oud oils sourced from various locations such as India, Cambo-dia and Thailand which is a huge hit around the region. We see the market growing in the foreseeable future and consider Oman to be the gateway to other GCC coun-tries for our future expansion of our perfume and fragrance retail,” he said.

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moment before starting to improve the world.

Anne Frank

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we

take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

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The person who says it cannot be done should not

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BankDhofar attends major conference on eCommerce

MUSCAT: BankDhofar, one of the leading banks in the Sultanate of Oman and a pioneer in utilising the latest technological solutions, took part in a two-day interna-tional conference on eCommerce and eRatifi cation in Salalah re-cently. The event was organised in coordination with Oman Cham-ber of Commerce and Industry in Dhofar, says a press release.

The event was held on Septem-ber 21 and 22 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Salalah, and was attended by specialists and experts in the fi eld of electronic certifi cation from the GCC countries.

Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Futaisi, Minister of Transport and Communications, was the guest of honour at the conference which

was attended by Sheikh Abdullah bin Saif Al Mahrouqi, deputy gov-ernor of Dhofar, and a number of high-ranking offi cials in the gov-ernorate.

The event served as an initia-tive to draw attention to the ob-ligations and responsibilities to support eCommerce and elec-tronic certifi cation in Oman. The conference agenda also focused on specialised e-certifi cation techniques and its role in the fi ght against cybercrimes, with special focus on its application in the Omani law for combating cy-bercrimes. The event also aimed to ascertain international and regional experience in the fi eld of electronic certifi cation.

Given BankDhofar is the fi rst

bank in the Sultanate of Oman to use mobile Public Key Infrastruc-ture (PKI) services, the bank re-cently signed an agreement with the Information Technology Au-thority (ITA) to use the ITA’s mo-bile PKI technology and service.

Abdul Hakeem Al Ojaili, Act-ing CEO of BankDhofar, gave a presentation on the bank’s role in off ering services based on PKI infrastructure with ITA’s secu-rity support, for online banking services. The presentation fo-cused on traditional risks associ-ated with banking activities and

chalked outsteps to ensure legal protection of customers and users of electronic banking.

The introduction of mobile PKI aims to enhance the security of customers, particularly if they are frequent users of the Internet banking facility.

With a vision to become the best bank in the Gulf, BankDho-far aims at achieving greater suc-cesses by adopting innovative, state-of-the-art technologies and investing in digital services and security to keep pace with rapid global changes and trends. It also

focuses on maintaining its com-petitive edge by continuing to raise its banking standard and by off ering customers the best bank-ing experience suitable to their needs. BankDhofar also off ers special services to track the loca-tion of ATM machine using GPS technology and the internet via their mobile banking application. The GPS locator function helps customers to fi nd the nearest ATM in no time, no matter where they are.

As part of its commitment to-ward CSR, BankDhofar has or-ganised various initiatives to sup-port society and to be an integral part of the local community.

The bank is also keen to update marketing of its products and ser-vices to provide quality service to attain the highest level of custom-er satisfaction.

A market leader in providing the optimum banking services and recently awarded the ‘Best Evolved Brand in Oman 2014’, BankDhofar has also bagged sev-eral prestigious awards for its quality service and excellence. To add to its credit, the bank was also commended for having the ‘Best Mobile Banking App’ in Oman.

The event served as an initiative to

draw attention to the obligations and

responsibilities to support eCommerce

and electronic certifi cation in Oman

Kalabhavan’s Vidyarambam on October 3

MUSCAT: Kalabhavan School of Music and Arts has been conduct-ing Vidyarambam ceremony in a very traditional style during the last few years in Oman.

This year too, the institution is gearing up for the celebration of Vidyarambam on Friday, Octo-ber 3, from 7.30am to 11am, says a press release.

As a special gesture, the institu-tion will be waiving the registra-tion fee for those taking admission on the day.

Vijayadasami is a major festival celebrated in India under diff er-ent names and with regional vari-ations. It is also known as Dusse-rah. The fi rst nine days of the Dusserah Festival is called Nav-aratri and the 10th day is known as Vijayadasami.

Indians have been celebrating the Navaratri festival with great zest and fervour from ancient times as a mode of worship.

On Vijayadasami day, people make an auspicious beginning of art and learning. People who also want to pursue the learning of any art forms commence their studies on Vijayadasami.

Kalabhavan has three branch-es in Oman which are located at Ruwi, Ghubra and Al Hail.

N A V A R A T R I F E S T I V A L

The Wave, Muscat makes two senior appointments MUSCAT: The Wave, Muscat has announced two new strategic ap-pointments to its senior manage-ment team to further reinforce its position as Oman’s leisure and lifestyle destination.

Nasser Al Sheibani has been appointed as Chief Financial Of-fi cer (CFO) while Steve Russell-Rayner has joined The Wave, Muscat as Head of Projects Man-agement, says a press release.

A seasoned fi nance profession-al with extensive experience in real estate development, tourism, oil and gas and banking, Nasser fi rst joined The Wave, Muscat in 2007 as senior fi nance manager before being promoted to Vice President of Finance in 2008. His dedication and commitment were recognised and appreciated and as a result most recently, he assumed his new role as Chief Fi-nancial Offi cer (CFO).

Within his new capacity, he is leading the fi nance, information technology and human resources functions. Nasser is also a Board member of Oman Investment Fi-nance Co and OITPF Wave Fund.

Prior to joining The Wave, Muscat, he worked for Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) in var-

ious fi nance related roles includ-ing fi nance systems, insurance and project accounting.

Nasser began his career in the Treasury Department at National

Bank of Oman in 1998 after ob-taining a Bachelors of Finance from Sultan Qaboos University.

Steve Russell-Rayner joins The Wave, Muscat with over 30 years

of international experience in project development and manage-ment gained in various positions across the GCC, Europe, Africa and Asia.

A qualifi ed mechanical engi-neer; he previously held directori-al and vice presidential positions and has a proven track record of increasing the value and turnover of commercial and residential de-velopments.

Commenting on the new ap-pointments, Hawazen Esber, CEO of The Wave, Muscat, said: “I am delighted to welcome Nasser and Steve to their new roles and have full confi dence in their ability to continue taking The Wave, Mus-cat from strength to strength and provide expert guidance for future plans within the waterfront com-munity. Both appointments off er us an incredible knowledge base and unique experience to draw on that will help shape the future of The Wave, Muscat’s master plan.”

“Throughout his career, Nasser has shown exceptional talent, precision and focus when man-aging high value projects and we look forward to his input in the next stage of development at The Wave, Muscat.

N E W R O L E S

Both appointments offer us an incredible knowledge base

and unique experience to draw on that will help shape the

future of The Wave, Muscat’s master plan

Hawazen EsberCEO of The Wave, Muscat

Slimline Moonphase now available at Khimji’s Watches

MUSCAT: The wonders of the moon, lustrous yellow gold, gleam-ing mother of pearl and sparkling diamonds...the exceptional watch-makers and talented engineers at Swiss watchmaker, Frederique Constant, have combined all these elements — and more — into a sin-gle new collection that is sure to make any lady’s heart race.

The 2014 Slimline Moonphase Ladies Collection features no few-er than six brand new models, each more beautiful than the last and is now available at Khimji’s Watches — the one stop destination for lux-ury in Oman, says a press release.

Every model in this collection is powered by the FC-206 quartz calibre fi ve-jewel movement. The 30mm steel case will attract the eye with its ultra-feminine appearance. The dial itself is stunning mother of pearl, protected by diamond-hard sapphire crystal, and speaking of diamonds, the hour indexes include no fewer than eight hand applied diamonds (0.02ct). The delicate hands are hand polished to a rich sheen, and the moonphase display is located at the 6 o’clock position.

The technical wizards at Frede-

rique Constant have also designed the watch so that all functions (hours, minutes and moonphase) are adjustable through a single crown, and in spite of their petite appearance, every watch in the range is water resistant to three atmospheres.

Two of the models are presented with yellow gold plated steel cas-es, one comes with a shiny beige leather strap, while another fea-tures a yellow gold plated bracelet with seven rows of slim gold links. The remaining models have highly polished stainless steel cases, yet once again, each version is com-pletely unique. One model comes with a shiny, dark blue leather strap, while the another version is presented with a gleaming stain-less steel seven-row bracelet.

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WAQAR: CRACKDOWN ON CHUCKING ILL-TIMEDPakistan coach Waqar Younis questioned the timing of ICC’s crackdown against chucking just months away from the World Cup, and suggested that rules on bowling actions be relaxed for spinners. >C2

Perth deny Lahore berth in semis, Chennai go throughBANGALORE: Perth Scorchers’ Mitchell Marsh not just stopped Lahore Lions from making it to the semifi nals of the Champions League Twenty20 with a three-wicket win in their last group match here yesterday but also paved the way for Chennai Super Kings’ entry into the last-four stage.

Marsh scored an unbeaten 63 off just 38 balls with the help of seven boundaries and three sixes, besides putting up a crucial unbro-ken 68 runs with Brad Hogg (28 no; 19balls, 2 fours, 2 sixes) to over-haul a modest target of 125 with six balls to spare at the Chinnaswamy stadium here.

Earlier, the Scorchers had re-stricted the Pakistani side for a mere 124 for six in their allotted 20 overs and then reached 130 for seven in 19 overs.Had the Lahore Lions pulled off a victory by a mar-gin of 46 runs against the Scorch-ers, they would have progressed to the semifi nals by displacing Chen-nai Super Kings from second place in the Group A standings.

Hogg hit Adnan Rosool for a six in the 14th over to knock Lahore out of the tournament, while send-ing CSK into the last-four stage.

Kolkata Knight Riders were already through to the semifi -nals after topping Group A, hav-ing registered four victory in as

many matches. The Lions needed to bundle out the Scorchers for 78 to make the semis but failed to contain their opponents. It was Scorchers bowlers who wreaked havoc as paceman Joel Paris (3/22) and Mitchell Marsh (2/12) shared fi ve wickets between them.

Saad Nasim top-scored for the

Pakistani side with an unbeaten 69 off 55 balls, studded with fi ve fours and a six. Put into bat, Lions lost three early wickets with just two runs on the board.

Paris accounted for the wickets of the two openers in Nasir Jam-shed (1) and Umar Siddiq (1), while Marsh saw off skipper Mohammad

Hafeez (0) and Wahab Riaz (0) for a nought each to leave the Lions reeling at 11 for four. Nasim shared a 43-run fi fth wicket stand with Umar Akmal (26) and then put on a solid 48 with Mohammad Saeed for the sixth wicket to bring the Pakistani outfi t back on track and cross the 100-run mark.

Meanwhile, play was interrupt-ed for a brief while due to rain.

Chasing a modest target, the Scorchers also did not have an ide-al start as they lost seven wickets for just 62 runs on the board.

The Scorchers kept losing wick-ets at regular interval with the top and middle order, barring opener Cameron Bancroft (22), failing to reach the double digit mark.

At 62 for seven, the Lions had a realistic chance of bundling the Aus-sie unit out below 78 and advance to the next stage, but Marsh and Hogg combined to consolidate the innings and guide their team to a rather comfortable victory in the end.

In the 19th over, Scorchers hit three sixes off Wahab Riaz -- two by Hogg and one by Marsh -- to wrap up the match quickly.

For Pakistan, Mohammad Ha-feez was the pick of the bowlers with impressive fi gures of two for eight in his allotted four overs.

Brief scores: Lahore Lions 124 for 6 (Nasim 69*, Paris 3-22) lost to Perth Scorchers 130 for 7 (Marsh 63*, Hafeez 2-8, Iqbal 2-20) by three wickets. - PTI

C H A M P I O N S L E A G U E T 2 0

MATCH WINNER: Perth Scorchers’ Mitchell Marsh is full of aggression as he denied Lahore Lions a

crucial win, yesterday. – BCCI



Bangladesh name Mortaza as new ODI captain

DHAKA: Bangladesh cricket authorities yesterday sacked wicketkeeper-batsman Mush-fi qur Rahim as one-day inter-national captain and replaced him with injury-prone paceman Mashrafe Mortaza.

Mushfi qur, however, will con-tinue to lead the Test side, Bang-ladesh Cricket Board president Nazmul Hassan announced af-ter a BCB directors’ meeting.

“Mushfi q (Rahim) is our best batsman at the moment. At the same time he also needs to lead the team and do the wicketkeep-ing job. This is a tremendous pressure for him,” Nazmul told reporters. “So we relieved him of some of his duties. Mushfi q will continue as the Test captain.”

Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan were appointed vice-captain for the Test and ODI sides respectively.

The decision follows the team’s return from a disastrous tour of the West Indies where Bangla-desh lost all the completed con-tests against their hosts in both Test matches and ODIs. — AFP

C R I C K E T

Ugly spectre of drugs takes centre stage with two athletes kicked out

INCHEON: The ugly spectre of drugs in sport took centre stage at the Asian Games yesterday when two athletes, including a gold med-al winner, were kicked out of the region’s biggest multi-sports com-petition for doping off ences.

Malaysian martial arts gold medallist Tai Cheau Xuen was stripped of her medal in wushu after testing positive for sibutramine, a banned stimulant often found in weight-loss pills.

Malaysia’s sports minister Khairy Jamaluddin responded by saying the south-east Asian nation would appeal the suspension, say-ing there were “serious concerns” about the testing process.

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) announced a second posi-tive test yesterday, taking the total for the Games to four, involving Iraqi weightlifter Mohammed Jasim Abboo Al Aifuri.

The OCA said he had tested pos-itive for anabolic steroids in a pre-competition sample taken before the Games started. There was no immediate announcement from the Iraqi delegation over whether he would challenge the ban.

The pair’s expulsion took the gloss of a riveting day’s sport when the tiny islands of Singapore and Hong Kong collected fi ve gold medals between them and the gulf states of Iran and Saudi Arabia shared four. South Korea lost more ground to China, whose unstoppa-ble sporting machine continued to rumble on, but the hosts stayed in second place on the medals table and set up a dream date with North Korea in the men’s soccer fi nal.

Singapore won three gold med-

als—two in sailing and another in bowling. Jodie Lai, aged 13, became one of the youngest ever Asian Games champions when she won the optimist class for solo dinghy. Ryann Kwok, also of Singapore but not even a teenager yet, won a silver medal in his event, joining Lai among the few rare medallists born in the new millennium.

Hong Kong’s doubleHong Kong also won two gold med-

als in sailing as its competitors were able to focus their attention their races despite the ongoing civil unrest at home.

Cheng Kwok-fai won the men’s windsurfi ng title and Hayley Chan took out the women’s windsurfi ng event for the former British colony, where pro democracy supporters continue to clash with authorities.

Saudi Arabia — which was heavi-ly criticised by human rights groups for excluding women from its team

— claimed just its second gold in Incheon when Abdullah Waleed Al Sharbatly won the equestrian indi-vidual jumping event.

Al Sharbatly fi nished level with Japan’s Satoshi Hirao after both had successive clear rounds. In the jump-off , Al Sharbatly had another clear and got the gold when Hirao dropped a bar and incurred a penalty.

Iran won three gold medals, two in Greco-Roman wrestling and an-other in track and fi eld when Eh-

san Hadadi won his third straight Asian Games title in discus.

South Korea won 10 gold med-als yesterday to take its total to 54 with four days of competition left, still way behind China which has 126, and 268 in total.

As expected, China completed a sweep of the synchronised div-ing events by winning the men’s 3-metre springboard and women’s 10-metre platform fi nals.

China also won the women’s

team table tennis title and both cross-country mountain bike rac-es, Wang Zhen pedalling to victory in the men’s and Shi Qinglan in the women’s.

Qiang Wang of China won the women’s tennis singles title, beat-ing Luksika Kumkhum of Thai-land 6-3 7-6 (7-5) while Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka upset top seed Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan 6-2 6-2 in the men’s gold medal match.

But South Korea stayed on course for the chance to win the one medal that would mean the most — the men’s soccer fi -nal against reclusive neighbours North Korea.

The North booked its place in on Thursday’s fi nal with a 1-0 win over Iraq in the semifi nals then the South beat Thailand 2-0.

Hat-trick of goldsMeanwhile, China’s athletes de-livered a hat-trick of Asian Games golds on the eve of the country’s national day yesterday, with Xie Wenjun leading the way in the men’s 110m hurdles.

Xie broke home fans’ hearts as he took gold from South Korean Kim Byoung-Jun in 13.36 seconds, while Jamras Rittidet ran a per-sonal best 13.61 to claim an unex-pected bronze for Thailand, the country’s fi rst athletics medal of the Games. Men’s long jumper Li Jinzhe and women’s pole vaulter Li Ling helped Xie get the party started early with two more golds.

“I’m absolutely delighted to win the gold, especially as tomorrow (today) is National Day, I’m so proud to be here representing the Chinese team,” she said.

China now have nine athletics golds at the Incheon Asiad, four more than Qatar, whose army of African-born athletes has domi-nated the running events so far.

The win for 24-year-old Xie is China’s eighth consecutive Asiad victory in the men’s 110m hurdles and he will now target the 2016 Rio Olympics as he takes on the mantle of former champion Liu Xiang.

Long jumper Li was a class apart from his rivals — the only man on the night to clear eight metres and fi nishing a full 11 centimetres clear of South Korea’s Kim Deok-Hyeon.

Iran’s Olympic silver medallist Ehsan Hadadi confi rmed his sta-tus as number one Asian discus thrower with a third consecutive Asiad gold medal, beating India’s Vikas Gowda by nearly three me-tres with 65.11. — Agencies

South Korea lost

more ground to China,

whose unstoppable

sporting machine

continued to rumble

on, but the hosts

stayed in second

place on the medals

table and set up a

dream date with

North Korea in the

men’s soccer fi nal

I’m absolutely delighted to win the

gold, especially as tomorrow is

National Day, I’m so proud to be here

representing the Chinese team

Xie WenjunChina



INCHEON: Barakat Al Harthi qualifi ed for the 200m semifi nals on an otherwise disappointing day for Omani sprinters at the Asian Games yesterday. The Sultanate’s star sprinter clocked 21.26 seconds to fi nish second in the qualify-ing Heat 3 to book a berth in the semifi nals, which will take place today.

A 100m bronze medallist four years ago in China, Barakat fi n-ished a disappointing seventh in the glamour event in Incheon and the qualifi cation for the 200m semifi nals provides him

with an opportunity to over-come that disappointment.

However, to progress further, Barakat needs to pull up his socks and produce at least his personal best time of 20.77 sec-onds. The Omani ace’s season’s best is 20.96 seconds.

Shnoona’s personal bestWhile Barakat made it to the semifi nals, the Omani sprinters suff ered disappointing results both in the men’s and women’s categories. Yahya Salim Al Noufali, running in 200m quali-fying Heat 3, was disqualifi ed

for a false start. In the women’s 200m fi rst round races, Sh-noona Al Habsi achieved her personal best clocking 26.12 seconds while running in Heat 2. However, her sixth place fi nish in the heat was enough to take her to the next round. Her teammate, Mazoon Khalfan Al Alawi took fi nished sixth in Heat 3 in a time of 25.48 seconds.

Seventh in hockeyMeanwhile, Oman hockey team had the consolation of defeating arch-rivals Bangladesh 3-2 in

the seventh-place play-off .Qasim Al Shibli, Basim Kha-

tar and Ahmed Al Balushi were on target in Oman’s victory.

Omani marksman Yasir Salim Al Nasseri scored a total of 105 points (20, 22, 22, 21, 20) to fi nish at 31st place in the skeet men’s after two days of qualifi cation. While Barakat will be competing in the 200m semifi nals today, the Omani quartet of Salah Al Ajmi, Oth-man Al Busaidi, Mubarak Saleh and Ahmed Al Marjibi will be in action in the 4x400m fi nal tomorrow.

Oman’s Barakat Al Harthi advances into 200m semifi nals

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Johnson still remembers English taunts

MELBOURNE: Australia pace bowler Mitchell Johnson has Test series against Pakistan and India ahead but is already looking beyond them to next year’s Ashes tour and the prospect of renewing hostilities with England while si-lencing the Barmy Army.

Left-armer Johnson suff ered the most public of meltdowns during the Lord’s Test in 2009, when he was carted for 200 runs in a notoriously wayward spell and English fans never let him forget it. He hushed his crit-ics emphatically with a brilliant Ashes series in the last Australian summer, but memories of his spe-cial treatment in England have never faded.

“It’s something that I will look back at throughout the rest of my career, because it’s made me who I am today,” Johnson told News Ltd. “It’s made me the player that I am today, made me the person I am. As hard as it was at the time, I’ve learned a hell of a lot from it. It’s got me into a position where I have that belief and confi dence in myself now. I know why things are working.

“It’s always something that’ll be there but it’s in the back of the mind.”

Channelling former Australia paceman and mentor Denis Lil-lee with a moustache and staring down English batsmen, Johnson also enjoyed fi ring up the travel-ling Barmy Army supporters in Australia as his wicket tally grew.

Barmy banter “That little bit of banter that hap-pens with the Barmy Army, that’s all in good fun,” he said.

“They appreciate good cricket and they try and take you off your game. Something that I learned when I was copping it from them was how to deal with that stuff .

“I’ve been through it, expe-rienced it and I know what to expect now.”

Lillee was credited for bring-ing out a mean streak in Johnson and propelling him back to the best form of his career but the bowler said he had not had much

contact with his mentor, who quit his Cricket Australia coaching consultancy role earlier this year amid reports of a pay dispute.

“I’ve spoken to him briefl y, but at the moment when everything’s in order I’m pretty happy,” John-son said. “He sort of joked about it, (saying) ‘you’re now your own master, you don’t need me’, but I was like, ‘no, that’s ridiculous, you’ll always be there’ and I’ll al-ways need him at certain times.

“It’s just good to be able to ring up and have a chat, it doesn’t have to necessarily be about cricket. He’s always been a big supporter and always will be, and he’s al-ways going to be there.”

Australia play Pakistan in a two-Test series in the United Arab Emirates next month fol-lowing a one-off T20 internation-al and a one-day series against the same opponents. — Reuters

Left-arm seamer

Johnson suff ered

the most public of

meltdowns during

the Lord’s Test in

2009, when he was

carted for 200 runs

in a notoriously

wayward spell and

English fans never

let him forget it

EYEING ASHES SERIES: Australian seamer Mitchell Johnson.

Waqar questions timing of ICC crackdown on chuckingDUBAI: Pakistan coach Waqar Younis has questioned the timing of cricket authorities’ crackdown against chucking just months away from the World Cup, and suggested that rules on bowling actions be relaxed for spinners.

In an interview with AFP, the former pace great said key all rounder Mohammed Hafeez’s confi dence was left shattered af-ter he was reported for a suspect action in an Indian domestic tournament, a fresh blow to Pa-kistan following the loss of Saeed Ajmal to a chucking ban.

Ajmal, the world’s leading one-day bowler, faces a race against time to complete remedial work by the World Cup, to be held from February to March in Australia and New Zealand.

He was suspended earlier this month after he was found to straighten his elbow up to 43 de-grees — well beyond the 15 degree limit prescribed under the rules, the point where a kink becomes noticeable to the naked eye. Since then, Hafeez and Sunil Narine have been among four players reported during an Indian tournament.

Though the action has no direct bearing on international cricket, Waqar said the bowlers would now be under intense scrutiny.

“Is this the right time to enforce

the protocols and the technol-ogy?” he said.

“I am asking this because every team plans ahead of the World Cup, and the suspensions will badly hit the teams whose bowl-ers got suspended or questioned.

“I mean the protocols and the technology should have been en-forced after the World Cup,” he added. Ajmal’s suspension came as part of a wider drive by the Inter-national Cricket Council against bowlers with suspect actions, with Sri Lanka’s Sachitra Senanayake

and Kane Williamson being sus-pended in July this year.

Bangladesh’s Sohag Gazi and Al-Amin Hossain along with Zimba-bwe’s Prosper Utseya were all re-ported after Ajmal. The bans have thrown a spotlight on the contro-versial “doosra” delivery, which turns in the opposite direction to orthodox off spin but is delivered using the same wrist action.

Waqar suggested that the de-livery could not be bowled legally and the ICC should amend their laws to accommodate it. — AFP

C R I T I C A L O N I C C

Protocols and the

technology should

have been enforced

after the World Cup

Waqar YounisPakistan coach

Philander in ODI team

CAPE TOWN: Vernon Philan-der is the only addition to the one-day squad that won the re-cent triangular tournament in Zimbabwe as Cricket South Af-rica (CSA) announced their se-lection to tour New Zealand and Australia starting next month.

All-rounder Philander re-places seamer Mthokozisi She-zi in the 15-man touring party as selectors assess their options ahead of the 50-over World Cup to be co-hosted by those two countries early next year.

Fast bowler Kyle Abbott re-tains his place.

ODI squad: AB de Villiers (captain), Hashim Amla, Kyle Abbott, Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Im-ran Tahir, Ryan McLaren, David Miller, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Aaron Phangiso, Vernon Philander, Rilee Ros-souw, Dale Steyn.

T20 squad: JP Duminy (captain), Kyle Abbott, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock, Marchant de Lange, Reeza Hendricks, Imran Tahir, Ryan McLaren, David Miller, Wayne Parnell, Aaron Phangiso, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, D. Wiese. — Reuters

S . A F R I C A S Q U A D

C3

SPORTSW E D N E S DAY, O CTO B E R 1 , 2 0 14

Atletico Madrid may have a case to answer when it comes to the

histrionics of their combus-tible manager Diego Simeone but one thing you could never accuse them of is lacking fore-sight and not having a succes-sion plan in place.

Four times in the last 13 years they have harnessed a raw striking talent and then exported him, three times to the Premier League, for a whopping profi t. Lesser teams would crumble after losing their prized goalscoring asset but they just roll out a replace-ment off the conveyor belt, slip him seamless into the void and fairly soon an English team are casting covetous eyes in their direction.

In 2001 Atletico felt the time was to cash in on Fernando Torres, after he had banged in 82 goals in 214 games and forced Liverpool to break their record transfer fee to sign him. ‘Oh no,’ the Atletico fans must have feared. ‘How are we going to replace El Nino, our talisman who captained us from the age of 19?’. Fear not. Step forward Sergio Aguero who had been brought in and groomed as Torres’ successor 12 months earlier.

It was a case of ‘Fernando who?’ after Aguero fi red Rojiblancos into the Champi-ons League for the fi rst time and fi nished the season as the league’s third top scorer. The Argentine marksman contin-ued to rattle them in at a rate of a goal every 2.3 games and, in 2011, Manchester City felt compelled to break their own transfer record, parting with £38 million of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed’s wealth to convince Atletico to sell them their golden boy.

How on earth would the Col-choneros begin to replace the son in law of Diego Maradona? By shelling out €40 million on Radamel Falcao, that’s how. Eye brows were raised at the size of the fee to bring the largely unheralded Colombian from Porto but fans should have learned to trust their recruitment department by now when it comes to signing replacement strikers.

Falcao was nothing short of a sensation and waded through La Liga defences like a wrecking ball for two seasons, blasting in 52 goals in 68 ap-pearances to ensure Aguero was quickly forgotten.

In landing them the Europa League the Copa del Rey and the Super Cup, Falcao became the hottest prospect in world football and added €20 mil-lion to his valuation, a 50 per

cent mark up then cash-rich Monaco had no hesitation in paying in the summer of 2013.

The loyal, seasoned follow-ers of Atletico had, by now, become accustomed to being a

selling club but how on earth, they would have reasoned, do you begin to replace a player who, among other feats, had scored fi ve goals in one aston-ishing league game against De-portivo La Coruna and scored 36 goals in his debut season? He was staring them straight in the face. And this time, he didn’t cost them penny as he had already been signed for £1.5 million (yes, really) three years previously.

Diego Costa was his name. He had been waiting patiently in the wings, playing a support-ing role to Falcao yet was now given the huge responsibility of spearheading the attack and shouldering the goalscor-ing burden. And boy did he seize his chance. He scored 27 league goals, equalled a club record of eight Champions League goals in one season as Atletico not only broke the duopoly in Spain by winning La Liga, but also came within seconds of claiming a remark-able double by winning the Champions League. And what happened next? Yep, you’ve guessed it, a top English club raided them for their star striker, Chelsea paying the sec-ond highest fee in their history to land Costa.

He was very much on Liv-erpool’s radar, too, but sharing the same agent as Jose Mour-inho, he was always heading to west London and not the north west of England. And he’s been assimilated into the Chelsea set-up so smoothly, as you’d expect from someone who had no qualms about switching his allegiance from Brazil to Spain on the eve of a World Cup in the country of his birth.

The only question marks surround temperament (he is certain to be sent off at some point this season) and his troublesome hamstring. It limited his involvement in last season’s league decider with Barcelona and the Champi-ons League fi nal with Real Madrid. Chelsea masseur Billy McCulloch doubles up as the club jester but Jose Mourinho will not see the funny side if Costa misses too many games through injury.

Atletico, meanwhile, are laughing all the way to the bank having made a combined profi t of more than £80 million by selling four world-class strik-ers yet still competing for, and winning, the biggest honours in the game.

The writer is a freelance contribu-tor based in the UK. All the views expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not refl ect those of Times of Oman

Costa has hit the ground running at Chelsea as the latest EPL import from Atletico Madrid

C O M M E N T A R Y

KEVIN AFFLECK

PREMIER LEAGUEFOCUS WITH


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

ON A MISSION: Atletico Madrid’s Argentinian coach Diego Simeone takes part in a training session

at the Cerro del Espino stadium in Majadahonda, near Madrid. – AFP

Atletico out to prove they have teeth in attack

MADRID: Atletico Madrid’s Champions League game at home to Juventus yesterday will be a chance for the Spanish champi-ons to prove they have the fi re-power to challenge in Europe again this season.

Diego Costa, top scorer for Atletico last term when they reached the fi nal of the continent’s elite club competition, has depart-ed for Chelsea and a lack of recent goals had prompted murmurs that the side will struggle without the Brazil-born Spain striker.

Saturday’s thumping 4-0 La Liga win at home to Sevilla ap-peared to suggest otherwise, al-though the Juve defence, which has yet to concede a goal in fi ve Serie A games this season, will be a far tougher test than the Anda-lusians’ more porous back line.

Atletico coach Diego Simeone singled out his midfi elders as one reason why they were able to see off Sevilla so comfortably at the weekend and praised the team for their work rate, one of the keys to their surprise success in 2013-14.

A fi ve-man midfi eld of Saul, Gabi, Koke, Arda Turan and Tiago — who played for Juve from 2007-10 — had given the team the stabil-ity it had perhaps been lacking in previous games, Simeone added.

“That gave us solidity in our play, intensity and helped us win the ball back,” the Argentine told a news conference.

“It was positive that we man-aged 90 very good minutes, above all for the work done.

“Although it’s also true that in football if you are effi cient in front of goal everything is easier.”

The player Atletico bought to replace Costa, Croatia forward Mario Mandzukic, broke his nose in the 3-2 Group A defeat at Olympiakos Piraeus on Cham-pions League matchday one and needed surgery.

He will have to wear a strik-ing black protective mask for the foreseeable future and played just over 70 minutes of on Saturday’s game at the Calderon without scoring on his return to action.

Tough streak Simeone knows Juve well from his eight seasons playing in Serie A, when he had stints at Pisa, In-ter Milan and Lazio.

The former Argentina captain helped Juve win the title in 2002 when he scored for Lazio in a 4-2 win against Inter that handed the Bianconeri the title. Juve, who won their opening Group A game at home to Malmo 2-0, have sev-eral players familiar with playing at the Calderon, including former Real Madrid forward Alvaro Mor-ata and former Athletic Bilbao striker Fernando Llorente.

Morata spent two years in Atletico’s youth academy and was a ballboy at the Calderon before joining Real and moved on to Juve at the end of last season.

Recently back from a knee in-jury, he struck his fi rst goal for the club in on Saturday’s 3-0 win at Atalanta. — Reuters

Saturday’s thumping 4-0 La Liga win

at home to Sevilla appeared to suggest

otherwise, although the Juve defence, which

has yet to concede a goal in fi ve Serie A

games this season, will be a far tougher test

than the Andalusians’ more porous back line

Diego Costa had been

waiting patiently in

the wings, playing a

supporting role to Falcao

yet was now given the

huge responsibility of

spearheading the attack

and shouldering the

goalscoring burden.

And boy did he seize his

chance. He scored 27

league goals, equalled

a club record of eight

Champions League

goals in one season

‘Arsenal must now beat Galatasaray’LONDON: It is almost a given that Arsenal reach the Champi-ons League knockout stages but their path to the last 16 could be-come “problematic” if they fail to beat Galatasaray yesterday.

That was the stark warning from midfi elder Santi Cazorla ahead of the clash with the Turk-ish side at The Emirates where Arsenal will attempt to kickstart their European campaign after failing to turn up in Dortmund two weeks ago.

“It was a bad game (in Dort-mund),” Cazorla told Arsenal’s website. “Now we are fully aware that we are almost obliged to win the next Champions League game because there may be problematic times for us if we don’t so we’d better win.

“It’s true that Arsenal have a great record when it comes to the group stage. However, all that his-tory doesn’t count now.”

Arsenal got off lightly in their Group D opener, lucky to lose only 2-0 in Dortmund after being comprehensively outplayed for 90 minutes by the Bundesliga side who already look strong favour-ites to top the group.

Although a home match against Galatasaray — who have never beaten an English side away — would appear to off er the perfect chance for Arsene Wenger’s side to respond with a handsome victory, things may not be quite that simple.

Wenger’s squad is at full-stretch after a rash of injuries, the most recent of which came in on

Saturday’s 1-1 derby draw with Tottenham Hotspur when Michel Arteta and Aaron Ramsey were both ruled out of today’s match.

With Jack Wilshere also a doubt after taking a knock to the ankle, right back Mathieu De-buchy out for three months and Theo Walcott still not ready to return from a cruciate ligament injury, Arsenal will not be at full strength.

They still have the attacking threat of record signing Mesut Ozil, Danny Welbeck and Alexis Sanchez, who came off the bench against Tottenham having been rested, and Cazorla, however, not to mention Alex Oxlade-Cham-berlain who scored his side’s lev-eller against Spurs.

“The most important thing for Arsenal right now is to win the next game and that is going to change the scenario completely,” Cazorla said.

“Once we go through the group stage it becomes even more diffi -cult to win games.”

Arsenal are in their 17th con-secutive season in the Champions League and not since 1999-2000 have they failed to progress from their group, the same season they ended up losing to Galatasaray on penalties in the Uefa Cup fi nal.

Galatasaray, who began with a draw against Anderlecht, have not been anywhere near as reliable al-though they did reach the quarter-fi nals in 2012-13 after a fi ve-year absence from the competition.

They also reached the fi rst knockout round last season but have started the current cam-paign in mediocre fashion.

Noisy supportA 2-1 win over Sivasspor on Fri-day was only the second victory in six matches this season for Cesare Prandelli’s side.

They will enjoy noisy support in north London, home of a large Turkish population and former Italy coach Prandelli says his side must not arrive with an inferior-ity complex, despite Arsenal hav-ing never lost to a Turkish team over 90 minutes.

“We have to be mentally ready for the challenge, and aggressive on the pitch,” he told Turkish media. “We are representing Gal-atasaray and Turkey in the Cham-pions League.

“We know that wherever we play, our fans support us. We need to play our own game, always and regardless of where we play, with our heads held high.”

Camerooon defender Aure-lien Chedjou, who scored against Sivasspor, said all the pressure would be on Arsenal.

“We all know Dortmund and Arsenal are the favourites in the group, but there is always room for surprises and we are among the best teams in Turkey and Eu-rope,” he said.

“We are going there to do our best until the very end. Not being the favourites of the group eases the pressure we feel.” — Reuters

C H A M P I O N S L E A G U E

TRAINING HARD: Arsenal’s team players run during a training

session at their training facility in London Colney. – Reuters

C4


Mazda Oman geared up

to support upcoming

football friendly ties

MUSCAT: As the offi cial automo-tive partner of the Oman Football Association, Mazda Oman is all set to extend support to Oman’s upcoming international friendlies against Uruguay and Costa Rica. Apart from supporting them on the corporate level, Mazda will also be providing free tickets to Mazda customers in Sohar and Buraimi.

Last year, Mazda Oman had signed a four-year commercial partnership agreement with the Oman Football Association (OFA). A senior spokesperson of Towell Auto Centre (TAC), the sole dis-tributors of the Mazda range of vehicles in the country, comments: “Mazda does not merely support football in the Sultanate, they love

it. As the proud partner of the OFA, football is in Mazda’s DNA and the brand supports every bounce, kick and mark of this great game.

“We are excitedly looking for-ward to the upcoming friendlies and we hope to make it even more spirited and enjoyable for all those who are associated with it.”

“Mazda’s partnership with the OFA allows the brand to strength-en the relationship between foot-ball, its fans and Mazda drivers in the Sultanate.

“We know football is a national passion and by aligning our brand to the spirit of football in Oman, Mazda is reinforcing its commit-ment to the game at all levels,” the spokesperson added.

E X C I T E D

Nadal makes stunningreturn, easy for Serena

BEIJING: Rafael Nadal made an emphatic return to singles competition yesterday after be-ing sidelined for three months, sweeping aside Richard Gasquet of France in the $5.4 million Chi-na Open.

The 14-time Grand Slam win-ner won his fi rst round match in Beijing 6-4, 6-0, overcoming spo-radic resistance in the fi rst set before crushing his 22nd-ranked opponent in the second.

There were glimpses of vintage Nadal during the second set dem-olition, with the Spaniard appear-ing to be back to his athletic best after being sidelined since Wim-bledon with a wrist injury picked up in training.

The world No. 3 broke his 28-year-old opponent’s serve in the third game, and while Gasquet brought Nadal to break-point at the next two opportunities, he failed to claw his way back into the set.

Gasquet lost his serve at the opening game of the second set, and then brought Nadal to the brink of losing his own with some acrobatic netplay. But that turned out to be his last show of defi ance as the French Open champion powered his way to a “bagel” in his return to singles competition.

The left-handed Mallorcan played a rare doubles match in Beijing on Monday, which he lost. Nadal joins top seed Novak Djok-ovic in the second round after the reigning champion in Beijing won his game after a shaky start.

The Serb defeated Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-2, 6-1 in just 63 minutes, but took a while to get into his stride, trading a series of serves with his opponent early on.

Djokovic will face Canadian

Vasek Pospisil in the next round as he bids for his fi fth title in Bei-jing, a tournament he has won every year since 2009, apart from 2011 when he did not take part.

The winner that year, world number six Tomas Berdych, eased past Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 6-1, 6-2 in his fi rst round match.

The third seed Czech is chas-ing points as he pushes to qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals in November.

He is currently in eighth posi-tion in the race for the London tournament and must at least remain in that position if he is to make the season fi nale of the top eight players.

Only fi ve berths are available as the world’s top three players — Djokovic, Nadal and Roger Feder-er — have already confi rmed their place for London.

Meanwhile, eighth seed Ameri-can John Isner beat Santiago Gi-raldo of Colombia 6-1, 6-3.

Sharapova advancesIn the women’s competition, WTA Finals qualifi ers Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Simona Halep confi rmed their class with straight-sets victories as two contenders to join them

in the season-ending tournament suff ered surprise defeats.

World No. 1 and defending cham-pion Williams had struggled in her opening match on the blue hard-courts of Beijing but the American was back to her best in her 6-2, 6-3 second-round victory over Bulgar-ia’s Tsvetana Pironkova.

Like Williams, Sharapova and Halep are already assured of plac-es in the eight-woman fi eld at the WTA Finals, and they continued their good form yesterday.

Russian Sharapova produced some bruising groundstrokes as the world No. 4 crushed Ukrain-ian Elina Svitolina 6-2, 6-2 to set up a third-round meeting with Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro.

Romanian Halep had a slightly tougher time overcoming Chinese wildcard Zhu Lin 7-5, 6-4.

World No. 167 Zhu followed Sharapova’s aggressive tactics to move 5-4 ahead in the fi rst set against second-ranked Halep, only to lose her composure and the match.

Surprise defeatsThe Chinese produced 28 un-forced errors as Halep’s counter-punching approach helped her claim a win that sets up a third

round clash with 15th seed An-drea Petkovic, the German having little trouble in ousting American Madison Keys 6-2, 6-3.

The Beijing hard-courts were not so welcoming for Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard and Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska, however, with both continuing to struggle for late-season form as they look to add their names to the elite list in Singapore. Bouchard, who lost in the fi nal of last week’s Wuhan Open, was beaten by unseeded German Sabine Lisicki 6-2, 6-4, while Italian Roberta Vinci knocked out 2011 China Open winner Radwanska 6-4, 6-4.

The defeats left the Polish world No. 6 and seventh-ranked Bouchard still waiting to book a qualifying spot at next month’s season-ending championships.

Former world No. 1, Serb Ana Ivanovic, who currently holds the eighth and fi nal spot in the Race to Singapore standings, beat Swiss Romina Oprandi 6-4, 6-2 on the Moon Court.

Venus Williams, seeded 16, also made the third round with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over France’s Caroline Garcia, while 13th ranked Czech Lucie Safarova beat German Mona Barthel 6-3, 6-3. - Agencies

Nadal won his fi rst

round match 6-4,

6-0, overcoming

sporadic resistance

in the fi rst set before

crushing his 22nd-

ranked Gasquet

VINTAGE SHOW: Rafael Nadal of Spain hits a return against Richard Gasquet of France during the

men’s singles fi rst round match at the China Open in Beijing yesterday. – AFP

Wildcard knocks outWawrinka, qualifi er eliminates TsongaTOKYO: Tatsuma Ito and Michal Przysiezny claimed the biggest wins of their careers at the Japan Open yesterday when the local wildcard knocked out top seed Stan Wawrinka and the Polish qualifi er saved match points to beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

World No. 103 Ito sealed the stunning 7-5, 6-2 fi rst-round victo-ry on his second match point, cush-ioning a backhand volley into an open court after his wide serve had forced Wawrinka out of position.

“I played a very good match,” Ito said. “It is the fi rst time I have beat-en a top-fi ve player. “I tried my best every point and I was very focused. I was a little nervous, but I stuck to my game and I fi nished well.”

“It was not a good day at the offi ce. He started well and then I was trying to come back in the match,” Waw-rinka said. “First-round matches are never easy. He played well, particu-larly at the end of the fi rst set when he was very aggressive.”

The loss delays Wawrinka’s bid to qualify for the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in Lon-don, which the Swiss could have

achieved had he reached the fi nal in Tokyo. He is fourth in the race for one of the eight spots available at the November event.

Ito has no hope of making it to London but will instead look forward to a second-round clash against German Benjamin Becker, who advanced after Finn Jark-ko Nieminen retired from their match when trailing 7-5 4-1.

Sixth seed Roberto Bautista Agut also failed to go the distance in his match, the Spaniard pull-ing out with a thigh injury after blowing six match points against Gilles Simon of France. Simon led 4-6, 7-6(7), 2-1 when his opponent called it a day.

Tsonga also looked like retir-ing when he called for the trainer due to an issue with his right wrist when trailing 3-0 in the deciding set against his Polish opponent.

The break did the 2009 champi-on good as he clawed back the defi -cit and forced a tiebreak but the Frenchman wasted three match points as Przysiezny hung tough to record a 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(9) upset win at the Ariake Coliseum. — Reuters

B I G S C A L P S

Donaldson savours Ryder Cup triumph

LONDON: Jamie Donaldson was left refl ecting on a “dream” Ryder Cup debut after starring in Europe’s victory.

The 38-year-old Welshman rounded off an impressive three days at Scotland’s Gleneagles course when he clinched the singles point that sealed the team’s latest win over the US.

“It was pretty special, the fact it came down to me, you dream of these things,” he said. “But what is more important is that the team won.

“Everyone played pretty well and we had a fantastic captain who was inspirational and that was enough to win the cup back.

“It’s been more than I expect-ed, it’s been amazing,” Donald-son added. “You imagine what it is going to be like in the Ryder Cup but when it comes down to it it was bigger and better. There is nothing like it.” — AFP

G O L F

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Royal Cavalry Race Club all set for new season

SPORTS REPORTER

MUSCAT: The Royal Cavalry Race Club (RCRC) is all set for a new season with local races get-ting a facelift starting from Octo-ber 20 onwards.

Addressing the media yes-terday, Brigadier Abdulrazak Al Shahwarzi, commander of the Royal Cavalry, said the idea is to expand the numerous local cham-pionships in the next few years.

“If you have seen the races in the last few years, we have im-proved the standards and now we aim to reach greater heights by expanding our races locally,” he said.

As part of the initiative, RCRC will be hosting the Royal Rac-ing Festival in January next year. Top-ranked horses in the country with highest points taking part in various domestic races from Oc-tober 20 to December 31 will get direct entry to this championship.

The year-long races include National Day Cup on November 15, Oman Derby Cup on January 16 and Sheikha Fatma Interna-tional Cup. The races will con-

clude on April 4. When asked if Oman had any plans to host in-ternational tournaments, Abdul-razak said: “It’s too early to host international tournaments. We need to have a race course of our own for that. We are hoping to have one very soon.”

It may be noted that Oman was ranked seventh in the World Equestrian Games held in Nor-mandy, France recently. “It was a tough race with over 22 horses racing in the fi nal. To reach there is a big achievement,” he said.

Oman will take part in various international races in the coming weeks including Al Karama Mon-lau in France next week followed by the Arabian World Cup set to be held on October 5.

“We are participating in this event for the fi rst time with four teams,” said Al Shahwarzi.

Oman will also be taking part in the World Horse Beauty Champi-onship to be held in Rome from October 10 to 12.

Apart from that, RCRC offi cials will be taking part in the upcom-ing International Horse Racing Federation event in Paris and the International Arabian Horse Fed-eration (IFHAR) event.

Brigadier Abdulrazak

Al Shahwarzi,

Commander of Royal

Cavalry, said the

idea is to improve

the level of the local

championships in

the coming years

Brigadier Abdulrazak

Al Shahwarzi

All Blacks wait on duo ahead of Boks clash

CAPE TOWN: While South Af-rica sweat on the fi tness of Duane Vermeulen and Bryan Habana, New Zealand have injury worries of their own ahead of their fi nal Rugby Championship clash in Johannesburg on Saturday.

All Black lock Brodie Retal-lick, who brings physicality to their pack to match the Spring-boks, is a doubt after picking up a head injury in the series-clinching 34-13 victory in Ar-gentina last weekend.

“Brodie went off the fi eld after receiving a knock to the head. He appeared OK immediately after the game and he has trav-elled with us. But we will have to look at him after training and see how he is feeling,” assistant coach Ian Foster told reporters yesterday.

Also in a race to be fi t is prop Wyatt Crockett, who received a cut against the Pumas. “Neither of those players have been cleared offi cially as yet,” Foster said.

Meanwhile, New Zealand number eight Kieran Read said he hoped Vermeulen does re-cover from a rib cartilage injury sustained in the Boks 28-10 win over Australia on Saturday.

“I would be a bit disappointed if Duane didn’t play and always want to test yourself against the best,” he said. - Reuters

R U G B Y

‘Shirt saga’ Santos signs for GoaMUMBAI: Former Arsenal de-fender Andre Santos has signed up for the inaugural Indian Super League (ISL), two months after he was beaten up by disgruntled home fans in Brazil.

The 31-year-old former Brazil-ian left-back will turn out for the FC Goa franchise coached by his legendary countryman Zico for the inaugural season scheduled to start in mid-October.

“FC Goa is proud to announce the signing of another former Ar-senal and Brazil player,” a state-ment from the franchise said.

Andre Santos, who played for Arsenal from 2011 to 2013, has been without a club since leaving struggling Brazilian side Flamen-go in August.

Santos was beaten up in July by Flamengo fans who kicked and punched him after a loss which left his side bottom of the table.

Santos was famously embroiled in a half-time shirt-swap contro-versy with Manchester United’s Dutch player Robin Van Persie in November 2012.

The Brazilian was forced to apologise to his Arsenal team-mates and the club’s fans for seek-ing the shirt souvenir in a game that his side lost 2-1.

The league organisers con-fi rmed the deal with Santos in the statement late on Monday and said he would be joining the squad in Goa shortly.

FC Goa have already signed up former French international and

fellow ex-Arsenal player Robert Pires for the league.

Santos is the latest in a string of big name signings for the league, including former Italy star Ales-sandro del Piero, Spanish striker Luis Garcia, Frenchman Nicolas Anelka and ex-England goalkeeper David James.

Eight city-based teams are due to take part in the tournament, with several of the franchises link-ing up with European giants such as Atletico Madrid who are the co-owners of Atletico Kolkata.

The Indian Super League is be-ing backed by India’s Reliance Industries, which is controlled by the country’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, and by sports manage-ment giant IMG. —AFP

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The Wave, Oman Air relish Nice Act

MUSCAT: The 2014 Extreme Sailing Series (ESS) reaches a ‘critical’ point with Act 7 in French city of Nice later this week but Oman Sail’s crews on The Wave, Muscat and Oman Air are relish-ing the growing challenge and its intensity.

Lying just one point behind series leaders Alinghi after clos-ing the gap in Istanbul, The Wave, Muscat are gearing up for the last two events starting with Nice to-morrow and the fi nal double points fi nale in Sydney in December.

But according to skipper Leigh McMillan, who is defending his 2013 victory in Nice, this escalat-ing level of competition is proving both stimulating and motivating.

“We are quite enjoying the fact

that the series is reaching boiling point and we are excited by the challenge,” said the British skip-per who for the seventh time this season will race with a fi xed crew of Oman’s Nasser Al Mashari, Sa-rah Ayton (GBR), Pete Greenhalgh (GBR) and Kinley Fowler (NZL).

“It has become more competi-tive as the events have gone by but we are sailing really well and are still learning new things and im-proving all the time so it is a nice situation to be in.”

The drama in Act 6 in Istanbul three weeks ago, which saw Emir-ates Team New Zealand break The Wave, Muscat and Alinghi’s grip over the winning spots, highlight-ed the intense rivalry on the wa-ter between the leading teams but

with so much to play for, this was hardly surprising, McMillan said.

“Rivalries have always played a big part in this racing and teams are upping the ante towards the climax of the season so it gets pretty heated on the water but it doesn’t take long for things to set-

tle down afterwards and we start thinking about the next challenge and what lies ahead.

“It is hard fought but you would expect that and it never has any lasting impact. It was great to see Emirates Team New Zealand bounce back after a diffi cult time

in Cardiff and they are defi nitely adding to the mix as are Oman Air who are sailing really well and im-proving with every event.”

Oman Air’s fourth place in Is-tanbul, their best result of the se-ries was a real boost for the team and refl ected their focus on team-

work, said skipper Rob Greenhalgh (GBR). “We have got some really good guys on Oman Air who are beginning to gel and we are reaping the rewards,” he said of his crew Ted Hackney, Kyle Langford, Hashim Al Rashdi and Musab Al Hadi.

“The only way to improve is to practice but with just one day dedi-cated to training at the start of each Act, you see a lot of practice be-ing done on the race course which makes it all the more interesting.”

No one quite knows what to ex-pect from the conditions in Nice, added Oman Air bowman Hashim Al Rashdi.

“Based on what we have seen in previous years, it will be one of two extremes — no wind or lots of wind,” he said. “We have no idea at this stage but whatever the condi-tions we know there will be tight racing and there will be no let up over the four days. We are sailing well so we are really looking for-ward to it and to doing our best.”

Act 7 in Nice starts tomorrow and continues through to October 5 with up to 32 races scheduled. The action takes place close to the shore, off the Quai des États-Unis where the Extreme Race Village will be located.

Lying just one point behind leaders Alinghi,

The Wave, Muscat are gearing up for the last

two events while Oman Air’s fourth place in

Istanbul refl ected their focus on teamwork

FINAL STRETCH: The Wave, Muscat’s Nasser Al Mashari, left, and Oman Air’s Hashim Al Rashidi and Musab Al Hadi pictured during their participation in a previous Act of the Extreme Sailing Series. – Supplied photos

We are quite enjoying

the fact that the

series is reaching

boiling point and

we are excited

by the challenge

Leigh McMillanThe Wave, Muscat

ISC to host table tennis tourney

MUSCAT: The Indian Social Club (ISC) Muscat will organ-ise the much-awaited open table tennis tournament fromOctober 15.

The tournament is being presented by Villeroy & Boch + Hansgrohe in association with their local dealer Al Amana Building Materials.

The tournament will be of-fi cially inaugurated on October 15 at the Indian Social Club hall in Darsait.

The tournament is open to players of all nationalities, Omanis as well as expatri-ates, and will include Omani singles, open men’s singles, women’s singles, veterans’ sin-gles, junior singles for boys and girls under-13 and under-16 years of age, men’s doubles and mixed doubles.

Following the success of the tournament over the past years, Al Amana Building Materials together with Villeroy & Boch and Hansgrohe of Germany have decided to sponsor the tournament for the second con-secutive year.

The deadline for submission of entries is 8.00 p.m. on October 10. For further details contact the Indian Social Club in Dar-sait (Tel: 24797921/24701347) after 11.00 a.m.

O P E N E V E N T

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FROM GLENEAGLES IN SCOTLAND TO

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The Gleneagles Hotel Perthshire, ScotlandThis exclusive resort, set in 850 acres of stun-ning scenery in Perthshire, celebrated its 90th anniversary in June. There are three champi-onship golf courses, so it comes as no surprise that it was chosen to host the 2014 Ryder Cup this weekend. There are 232 rooms and suites, each individually designed, including several family rooms. Non-golfers can amuse themselves with various activities including shooting, fi shing, falconry, off -road driving and horse-riding, as well as swimming in the ex-pansive health club’s two indoor pools.

The Manor Inn, North CarolinaBuilt in 1923, The Manor Inn sits pretty within one of America’s most revered courses: Pine-hurst. The North Carolina resort dates back to 1895 and its world famous No 2 course hosted the US Open in June this year. The Inn has 42 guest rooms and suites, and visitors can enjoy access to the numerous restaurants, spa and fi t-ness centre, as well as its nine golf courses.

Bovey Castle, DevonBovey Castle’s championship golf course was recently named among the world’s top fi ve (top100golfcourses.co.uk). It was designed in 1926 by J F Abercromby and opened in 1930 to rival sister courses at Gleneagles and Turnber-ry. There is a fully-equipped clubhouse, driv-ing range, golf academy and bistro for pre- and post-match use. And guests can stay in one of the 64 individually-designed bedrooms in the original manor house.

Heritage Awali Golf & Spa, MauritiusCombine golf with glorious views at this Mau-ritian resort set within a former sugar planta-tion. The Heritage Golf Club has one of the region’s most beautiful courses; golfers can ad-mire panoramic views of crystal-clear lagoons and rugged mountains as they make their way around the 18 holes. There is also kite-surfi ng, mountain biking, swimming and archery on off er for those who like to get their adrenalin pumping in between rounds.

Royal Westmoreland, BarbadosGolfi ng doesn’t get much better than Royal Westmoreland’s world-class championship course — a 7,045-yard, par 72 with ocean views from every hole. Even the most skilled golfers will fi nd it a challenge to navigate the tropical landscape. And if you can’t bear to be parted from the course, the three-bedroom Royal Villa has landscaped gardens overlooking it. Other facilities include tennis courts, a pool and gym, and the Spa at Mullins Beach, which is a short drive away.

Clingendael, Sri LankaWith the dramatic Knuckles Mountain Range as a backdrop, Clingendael’s par-73 Victoria Golf Course has been named one of the world’s 100 most scenic courses by Golf Digest USA. The boutique-style hotel has been carefully furnished with reclaimed Dutch antiques, and it is surrounded by plush lawns and vibrant bougainvillea, all within a beautiful hillside setting that’s close to the colonial sights of Kandy, Sri Lanka’s elegant second city.—Chloe Hamilton/The Independent

WHYCAPTAINCOOKREFUSEDTO GIVE UP

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EXTRAW E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 1 , 2 0 1 4

I can’t remember an Eng-lish skipper who’s had to discuss his position and future as much as I have,” says 29-year-old Alastair

in a masterpiece of understate-ment. He’s been urged to step down by former England stars Michael Vaughan and Graeme Swann after a catastrophic last season in which England were humiliated by losing the Ashes 5-0 and suff ering a shock series defeat by Sri Lanka.

His own form was a major talking-point, too after he failed to rescue his side with the bat when his skill and drive were most needed. But in his darkest hour, Alastair Cook refused to give his critics victory. Against all the pundits’ predictions, England didn’t roll over against India but thrashed them 3-1 in the recent Test series as Alastair magically regained his old form.

“I’ve surprised myself with how resilient I’ve been at the things which have been thrown at me,” he says. “But I’ve always known I’m not a quitter. I hung in there because I still have the fi re and determination to try to lead England well.”

He’s not the only one to feel that way. Despite the avalanche of criticism which has poured on the England skipper in the past months, England’s cricket bosses have controversially chosen the man who lost fi ve one-day series in a row to lead his country in next year’s World Cup, in Australia and New Zealand in February and March.

“I don’t want people to think I’m sorry for myself,” he says of the unprecedented barrage of criti-cism. “I’m England captain and this comes as part of the territory.”

It was all so diff erent only two years ago when Alastair Cook was the golden boy of English cricket. In December 2012, play-ing for England against India, he completed his 23rd Test century, more than any other Englishman in history.

During the match he also be-came the fi rst man to score fi ve centuries in his fi rst fi ve matches as captain and the youngest to

make 7,000 runs in Test cricket. With these statistics he overtook many of the greatest names in cricket including Colin Cowdray, Graham Gooch, Geoff rey Boycott and even Walter Hammond — a feat he acknowledged with a mod-est wave of the bat.

Ironically, in his early years, Alastair Cook was a more gifted chorister than he was a cricketer — his parents in the Essex village of Wickham Bishops loved mu-sic more than they did sport, and encouraged their son to join the church choir.

Cook’s singing teacher spot-ted his talent and helped to ar-range an audition at London’s St Paul’s Cathedral school. He was

accepted and for the next fi ve years sang in the cathedral choir travelling around Europe and America. He sang on nearly 20 CD recordings, once as a soloist, and provided backing for opera diva Kiri Te Kanawa.

His talent as a musician won Alastair Cook a scholarship to Bedford public school when he was 13 but by then he had given up the idea of a musical career and set his heart on cricket.

Luckily, the sports master at Bedford was ex England cricketer Derek Randall who interested Es-sex in the youngster and Alastair made his debut for his county at 18 with an unbeaten 69.

Even more impressive was the century the young batsman made on his test debut for Eng-land against India. Says county cricket batsman Alex Wakely, a friend since schooldays: “Even then he was a young head on old shoulders. He had that natural aura about him which commands respect.

“He never said much as school cricket captain, just kept it short and sweet, did things by example and let people follow him.”

And former England coach, Andy Flower, who played in the Essex team, remembered: “Every time we asked Alastair to step up a gear he did so,” but not everyone regarded him, as the perfect player.

Former England captain Mike Atherton once described Alastair Cook as “a plodder with the bat and a donkey in the fi eld” but hap-pily retracted his words when Cook proved him wrong with Essex and later with England — when he became the national side’s most successful batsman in 135 years.

So what went wrong? Friends say that it was a combination of a dip in form, problems with team-selection and runs of bad luck which turned Alastair’s triumphant Ashes winners into the team everyone thought they could beat.

Added to that was the bitter de-parture of Kevin Pietersen and the abrupt end of Andy Flowers’ suc-cessful reign. — Tony James

He could turn out to be the best run-scorer England

has ever produced, but Alastair Cook knows he will

probably go down in cricket history as his country’s

most criticised and controversial captain

I hung in there because

I still have the fire

and determination to try

to lead England well

JOHN Wilson, a Scottish philosopher who died in 1854, said, “Would you repeat that again, sir, for it soun’s sae sonorous that the words droon the ideas?”

Today’s deal “souns” like yesterday’s, with one key change. How does that alter how South plays in three no-trump after West leads the heart queen and East signals encouragingly with his seven?

North’s two-diamond rebid was a reverse because when South wished to give preference to North’s fi rst-bid suit, he had to rebid at the three-level. The reverse promised a maximum opening bid— a good 17 to 20 high-card points. The simplest agreement is that a reverse is game-forcing. You will occasionally get too high, but maybe the defense will be imperfect. (The tournament world uses a responder’s rebid of fourth suit or two no-trump, whichever is the cheaper, as a signal that the responder’s hand is very weak. But that is complicated.) North’s three-heart continuation, a variation of fourth-suit forcing, asked South to bid three no-trump with a heart stopper.

South has seven top tricks: two spades, one heart, one diamond and three clubs. He gets that total up to at least nine if either clubs are 3-2 or the diamond fi nesse works.

Yesterday, with the spade king in the dummy, declarer had to choose between the two. But now he can try both. He wins with his heart ace and tries dummy’s top clubs. When they split badly, South crosses back to his hand with a spade and runs the diamond queen. The odds of success have risen to 83.9 per cent.

— By Phillip Alder

C9

ENTERTAINMENT

The extra chance that can be tried

B I G N A T E

B O R N L O S E R

M A R M A D U K E

A C E S O N B R I D G E

C I N E M A S C H E D U L E

K I D S P O T H E A L T H C A P S U L EC R O S S W O R D

Ans

wer

to p

revi

ous

puzz

le

WITH LOVE2 4 1 3 8 7 9 5 9 5 4 2

9 8 7 6 1 4 2 7 6 9 2 8

7 4 2 5 1 3 5 1 7 4 9

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

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

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

Previous puzzle Solution

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

S U D O K U

W E D N E S DAY, O CTO B E R 1 , 2 0 14

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 [email protected]

ZOYA AZAMOctober 1, 2012

NAGA SINDOORIOctober 1, 2008

SARVESH NIRMAL GHEEWALAOctober 1, 2009

RYAN GASOAR FERNANDESOctober 2, 2009

AARYAN KABRAOctober 1, 2010

BHARAT NANDAN BODALAOctober 1, 2006

ABHISHEK SURESHOctober 2, 2006

ADHYA SANTHOSH PILLAIOctober 1, 2010

23 Ex-soldier25 Jay successor26 Icy precip27 Karachi language28 Dessert choices30 Matrix31 Colo. neighbour34 Admires oneself35 Nay opposites37 Splinter groups

38 Rely on39 Grouchy person40 Kappa preceder41 Mon. follower42 Diagnostic image44 “Thrilla in

Manila” boxer45 Wrecker’s job46 Galena or bauxite47 Unruly crowd

ACROSS

1 Flour sack abbr. 4 Came up short 8 Ducklike bird12 Alley from Moo13 Orchard produce14 Bassoon sibling15 Kitchen

appliances17 Egyptian pyramid

site18 Roof angles19 Prepare to be

knighted20 Apes23 Travel word24 Bede or Sandler25 Restaurant freebie29 Grassy fi eld30 Tiny, pesky

insects32 “Exodus” name33 Underwater

bloodsucker35 Assistant36 Tease37 Wax-tablet pen39 Quoted from42 Withered

43 Rake44 Become familiar

with48 Nefertiti’s creator49 Back muscles50 El Dorado loot51 Game fi sh52 Tech. school53 Place to surf?

DOWN

1 MGM workplace 2 Scare word 3 Resort 4 Telescope lens 5 Shows distress 6 Headphones,

slangily 7 AMA members 8 Fine brandy 9 Theatre award10 Leak slowly11 Greenish-blue

color16 Thin wedge19 Little foxes20 Shoppers’ haven21 Think-tank output22 Lady’s honorifi c

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The Captive (Thriller) (PG)2:45, 7:15, 9:30 pmThe Equalizer (Act | Cri) (15+)Cast: Denzel Washington, Marton Csokas, Chloë Grace Moretz3:00, 4:45, 7:00, 9:15, 11:45 pmDelhi Safari (Animation) Cast: Cary Elwes, Vanessa Williams3:00, 5:15 pmSuper Hybrid (Hor | Sci-Fi ) (12+)Cast: Alden Adair, Shannon Beckner11:30pmThe Maze Runner (Sci-Fi )(PG12)Cast: Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario4:45, 11:45pmDaawat-e-Ishq (Com| Dra) (U)Cast: Aditya Roy Kapoor, Parineeti6:45 pmSapthamashree Thaskaraha (Comedy, Crime) Cast: Prithviraj Sukumaran9:00 pm

The Maze Runner (Sci-Fi) (PG12) Cast: Dylan O’Brian, Kaya Scodelario4:45 pmSapthamashree Thaskaraha (Mal) Cast: Prithviraj S, Reenu Mathews 12:15, 11:00 pmThe Captive (Thriller) (PG)

The Equalizer (2D/15+) (Act/Cr)Cast: Denzel Washington, Marton Csokas, Chloë Grace Moretz12:30, 4:00, 7:15, 11:45pmThe Maze Runner (2D/PG12) (Act)Cast: D O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario 3:00pmThe Captive (2D/PG) (Thriller)12:00, 5:15, 9:45, 11:30pmA Certain Justice (2D/18+) (Act)2:15, 5:15pmKristy (2D/15+) (Horror/Thriller)Cast: Haley Bennett, Ashley Greene 3:45, 3:45, 11:45pmDelhi Safari (2D/TBC) (Animation)Cast: Cary Elwes, Christopher Lloyd, 12:15, 2:00pmKan Refeeji (2D/TBC) (Drama)Cast: K. Albraiki – F.Alameeri – A. 7:00pm Daawat-e-Ishq (2D/U) (Com)Cast: Aditya R Kapoor, Parineeti 9:45pmSapthamashree Thaskaraha (2D/TBC) (Comedy/Crime/Thriller)Cast: Prithviraj Sukumaran, Sanusha 9:00pm

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Scott Speedman7:00, 9:00 pmDaawat-e-Ishq (Hindi) (Com| Dr) (U) Cast: Aditya R. Kapoor, Parineeti6:45 pmDelhi Safari (Animation) (TBC)5:00 pmThe Equalizer (Act |Crime ) (15+) Cast: Denzel Washington9:15, 11:45 pm

Mary Kom (Drama| Sports) (PG)Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Sunil Thapa, Darshan Kumar, Minakkshi Kalitaa3.45, 9.45 pmFinding Fanny (Dra | Comedy) (12+)Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Dimple Kapadia, Pankaj Kapur, Deepika Padukone, Arjun Kapoor6.45 pm

Madras – 2D (T) (TBC) (Act)Cast: Karthi, Catherine Tresa6.15 pmSapthamashree Thaskaraha – 2D (M) (TBC) (Comedy)Cast: Prithviraj Sukumaran9.00 pm

C10

FIND-IT-ALLW E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 1 , 2 0 1 4

PHARMACIESRound the clockAl Hashar Pharmacy, Ruwi: 24783334; Appolo Medical Centre, Hamriya: 24782666; Muscat Pharmacy, Ruwi: 24702542, Salalah: 23291635; Atlas Pharmacy, Ghubra: 24503585; Ruwi 24811715Muscat RegionApollo, Al Hamriya. Tel: 24787766Muscat, A Seeb Market. Tel: 24421691Muscat, Al Khuwair. Tel: 24485740Muscat, Al Hail South. Tel: 24537080Dhofar RegionMuscat, Al Nahdha Road, Salalah. Tel: 23291635

HOSPITALSAl Amal Medical & Health Care Centre: 24485052Atlas Hospital: Ruwi: 24811743/ Ghubra: 24504000Al Musafi r Specialised Medical Clinic: 24706453Hatat Polyclinic LLC,Ruwi: 24563641, Azaiba: 24499269, Sohar: 2683006Al Raff ah Hospital: 24618900/1/2Al Massaraat Clinic & Laboratory: 24566435Al Makook Medical Coordinance Centre: 24499434Apollo Medical Centre, Hamriya: 24787766, 24787780Capital Polyclinic: 24707549Badr Al Samaa Polyclinic, Ruwi: 24799760/1/2Capital Clinic, Seeb: 24420740Ceregem National Raak: 24485633Dr Harub’s Clinic: 24563217Elixir Health Centre: 24565802Emirates Medical Centre: 246045401st Chiropractic Centre: 24472274Hamdan Hospital: 23212340International Medical Centre LLC: 24794501/2/3/4/5Kims Oman Hospital: 24760100

24 Hrs Emergency: 24760123Lama Polyclinic, Sohar: 26751128, MBD: 24799077, Al Khuwair: 24478818Magrabi Eye and Ear Hospital: 24568870Muscat Private Hospital: 24583600Welcare Diagnostic and Treatment Centre, Al Khuwair: 24477666Al-Hayat Polyclinc LLC: 22004000

ROYAL OMAN POLICEEmergencies and inquiries: 9999General Directorate of Passport and Residence: 24569603Directorate General of Customs: 24521109Traffi c violations inquiries: 24510228Public Relations Admin: 24560099

ACCOMMODATIONAl Bahjah Hotel: 24424400Al Bustan Palace: 24764000 Al Khuwair Hotel Apartments: 24478171Al Madina Holiday Inn: 24596400Al Maha International Hotel: 24494949Al Fanar Hotel: 24712385Al Falaj Hotel: 24702311Al Qurum Resort: 24605945Azaiba Hotel Apartments: 24490979Beach Hotel: 24696601Bowshar Hotel: 24491105Coral Hotel Muscat: 24692121Crowne Plaza Muscat: 24660660Crystal Suites: 24826100Golden Tulip Seeb: 24510300Grand Hyatt Muscat: 24641234Haff a House Hotel: 24707207Hotel Muscat Holiday: 24487123InterContinental Muscat: 24680000Majan Continental Hotel: 24592900Marina Hotel: 24711711Midan Hotel Suites: 24499565Mina Hotel: 24711828Muttrah Hotel: 24798401

Nuzha Hotel Apartments: 24789199Oman Dive Centre: 24824240Park Inn: 24507888Qurum Beach House Hotel: 24564070Radisson Blu Hotel: 24487777Ramee Dream Resort Seeb: 24453399Ramee Guestline Hotel: 24564443Ruwi Hotel: 24704244Safeer Hotel Suites: 24691200Sheraton Oman Hotel: 24772772Shangri-La’s Barr Al Jissah Resort and Spa: 24776666The Chedi Muscat: 24524400The Treasurebox Muscat Hotel: 24502570

AIRLINE OFFICESMuscat Airport Flight information (24 hours): 24519456/24519223Aerofl ot: 24704455, Air Arabia: 24700828, Air France: 24562153, Air India: 24799801, Air New Zealand: 24700732, Biman Bangladesh Airlines: 24701128, British Airways: 24568777, Cathay Pacifi c: 24789818, Egypt Air: 24794113, Emirates Air: 24404400, Ethiopian Airlines: 24660313, Gulf Air: 80072424, Indian: 24791914, Iran Air: 24787423, Japan Airlines: 24704455, Jazeera Airways: 23294848, Jet Airways: 24787248, Kenya Airways: 24660300, KML Royal Dutch Airlines: 24566737, Kuwait Airways: 24701262, LOT Polish Airlines: 24796387, Lufthansa: 24796692, Malaysian Airlines: 24560796, Middle East Airlines: 24796680, Oman Air: 24531111, Pakistan International Airlines: 24792471, Qatar Airways: 24771900, Qantas: 24559941, Royal Jordanian: 24796693, Saudi Arabian Airlines: 24789485, Singapore Airlines: 24791233, Shaheen Air: 24816565, SriLankan Airlines:

24784545, Swiss International Airlines: 24796692, Thai Airways: 24705934, Turkish Airlines: 24703033

MUSEUMSBait Al Baranda: Corniche (seafront opp fi sh market), Open from Saturday to Thursday 9am to 1pm and 4 to 6pmNatural History Museum: Al Khuwair, Tel: 24604957, Open from Saturday to Wednesday: 8am to 1:30pm; Thursday: 9am to 1pmMuseum of Omani Heritage: (former Omani Museum), Madinat Al Alam, Sat-Wed 8am to 1:30pm, Thursday - 9am to 1pm, Tel: 24600946Armed 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 96550606/96550707Children’s Science Museum: Shatti Al Qurum, Tel: 24605368, Open from Saturday to Wednesday: 8am to 1:30pm, Thursday: 9am to 1pmOman-French Museum: near Muscat Police Station, Tel: 24736613, Open from Sat to Wed: 8am to 1:30pm, Thurs: 9am to 1pmBait Al Zubair, Muscat: Tel: 24736688, Al Saidiya St., [email protected] 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 1pmSohar Fort Museum: Tel: 26844758, Open from Saturday to Wed: 8 to 1:30pm Thurs: 9am to 1pmMuscat Gate Museum: at Al Bahri Road, Muscat open from Sat to Wed 8am to 2pm

W E A T H E R

OMAN

Max 36Min 30

Max 31Min 25

Max 34Min 28

Max 35Min 25

Max 36Min 26Max 32

Min 20

Max 33Min 22

Max 28 Min 26

Partly cloudy skies along the coastal areas of Dhofar governorate and adjoining mountains with chances of isolated rain. Mainly clear skies over rest of the Sultanate with chances of convective

clouds development and isolated rain over Al-Hajar mountains and adjoining areas during afternoon. Chances of late night to early morning low level clouds or fog patches a long the southeastern coast.EXPECTED WIND: Along the coastal areas of Oman Sea wind will be northeasterly light to moderate during day becoming variable light at night and southerly to southeasterly light to moderate over rest of the Sultanate.SEA STATE: Moderate along southern Al-Sharqiya governorate coast

with maximum wave height of 2.0 metres and slight to moderate along the rest coasts with maximum wave height of 1.5 metres.HORIZONTAL VISIBILITY: Good over most of the Sultanate becoming poor during fog and rain. THE NEXT 48 HOURS OUTLOOK: Partly cloudy skies along the coastal areas of Dhofar governorate and adjoining mountains and southeastern coast with chances of isolated rain. Chances of convective clouds development and isolated rains over Al-Hajar mountains and adjoining areas during afternoon. Chances of late night to early morning low level clouds or fog patches along the southeastern coast.

Max Min

GULFAbu Dhabi 37 29Doha 36 31Dubai 37 26Kuwait 40 24Manama 35 31Riyadh 35 22

WORLDAthens 29 19Baghdad 35 23Beijing 18 9Berlin 20 12Boston 17 12Cairo 30 27Colombo 31 26Frankfurt 23 12Hong Kong 29 26Istanbul 21 15Johannesburg 24 9Kuala Lumpur 31 24Lisbon 25 17Paris 21 15Perth 29 18Singapore 32 25Tokyo 29 18Toronto 17 13

WORLD

Max 20Min 15

Max 35Min 25

Max 23Min 12

Max 32Min 26

Max 26Min 16

Max 21Min 10

Max 10Min 2

Max 30Min 25

LISTINGS

LONG DISTANCE BUS TIMINGS (OMAN NATIONAL TRANSPORT COMPANY SAOC) *SUBJECT TO CHANGE

QURIYAT - SUR - JAALAN (Route 36)Dept Destination Arrival Operating Time Time Days 15:00 Quriyat 16:30 Daily15:00 Sur 18:00 Daily15:00 Jaalan 19:30 Daily

FROM JAALAN-SUR-QURIYAT (Route 36)Dept Destination Arrival Operating Time Time Days 05:30 Sur 06:45 Daily05:30 Quriyat 08:30 Daily05:30 Ruwi 10:00 Daily

TO AL BURAIMI (Route 41)06:30 Sohar 08:50 Daily06:30 Buraimi 11:00 Daily08:00 Buraimi 14:30 Daily via Ibri13:00 Sohar 15:45 Daily13:00 Buraimi 17:40 Daily16.00 Sohar 18.35 Daily16.00 Buraimi 20:20 Daily

TO AL BURAIMI (Route 41)07:00 Sohar 08:55 Daily07:00 Ruwi 11:40 Daily13:30 Ruwi 20:20 Daily via Ibri13:00 Sohar 14:55 Daily13:00 Ruwi 17:40 Daily13:00 Sohar 19:20 Daily17:00 Ruwi 22:15 Daily

TO SINAW (Route 52)17:30 Sinaw 20:50 Daily

TO SINAW (Route 52)07:00 Ruwi 10:25 Daily

To Yanqul (Route 54)14:30 Nizwa 16:50 Daily14:30 Yanqul 19:30 Daily

To Yanqul (Route 54)06:00 Nizwa 08:40 Daily06:00 Ruwi 11:00 Daily

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (Route 54)08:00 Nizwa 10:20 Daily08:00 Al Araqi 12:30 Daily

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (Route 54)15:40 Nizwa 17:55 Daily15:40 Ruwi 20:20 Daily

TO SUR (Route 55)07:30 Sur 12:00 Daily14:30 Sur 18:45 Daily

TO SUR (Route 55)06:00 Ruwi 10:45 Daily14:30 Ruwi 19:00 Daily

TO FAHUD - YIBAL (Route 62)06:30 Fahud 10:30 Daily06:30 Yibal 11:15 Daily

TO YIBAL - FAHUD (Route 62)12:30 Fahud 13:15 Daily12:30 Ruwi 17:30 Daily

TO DUBAI (Route 201)06:00 Sohar 08:30 Daily06:00 Dubai 11:30 Daily13:00 Sohar 15:30 Wed,Thur13:00 Dubai 18:30 Wed,Thur15:00 Sohar 17:35 Daily15:00 Dubai 20:55 Daily

TO DUBAI (Route 201)07:30 Sohar 10:50 Daily07:30 Ruwi 13:40 Daily13:00 Sohar 16:15 Thur-Fri13:00 Ruwi 19:10 Thur-Fri15:30 Sohar 18:45 Daily15:30 Ruwi 21:35 Daily

TO MARMUL-SALALAH (Route 100)07:00 Salalah 20:00 Daily10:00 Marmul 20:30 Daily10:00 Salalah 23:30 Daily19:00 Salalah 07:40 Daily

TO SALALAH -MARMUL (Route 100)07:00 Ruwi 19:50 Daily10:00 Marmul 13:15 Daily10:00 Ruwi 22:30 Daily19:00 Ruwi 07:30 Daily

TO MARMUL (Route 101)06:00 Marmul 16:50 Daily

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

TO MARMUL (Route 101)06:00 Marmul 16:30 Daily

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

TO DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH & SHARJAH (Route 204)Dept Destination Arrival Operating Time Time Days 07:00 Fujairah 11.45 Daily07:00 Sharjah 13.30 Daily07:00 Dubai 14.00 Daily

FROM DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH & SHARJAH (Route 204)Dept Destination Arrival Operating Time Time Days 16:00 Sharjah 16:30 Daily16.00 Fujairah 18.15 Daily16.00 Ruwi 23.00 Daily

FROM MUSCAT (RUWI) TO MUSCAT (RUWI)

WEDNESDAY

FLT NO ARRIVALS FROM ETA WY682 RIYADH 0005WY676 JEDDAH 0005WY636 ABU DHABI 0010WY924 SALALAH 0035WY824 KUALA LUMPUR 01054H583 DACCA 0130TK776 ISTANBUL-BAHRAIN 0205PK229 LAHORE 0215GF560 BAHRAIN 0320EY384 ABU DHABI 0340QR1132 DOHA 0345EK866 DUBAI 0355WY672 MEDINA 0635WY674 JEDDAH 0640FZ041 DUBAI 0645WY658 BAHRAIN 0650WY638 ABU DHABI 0650WY902 SALALAH 0655WY668 DOHA 0700WY686 RIYADH 0705WY692 DAMMAM 0705WY644 KUWAIT 0720WY102 LONDON HEATHROW 0740FZ043 DUBAI 0800WY602 DUBAI 0800WY274 JAIPUR 0820WY422 BEIRUT 0820WY202 BOMBAY 0825NL768 LAHORE 0830WY342 LAHORE 0900G9114 SHARJAH 0915WY242 DELHI 0925WY236 HYDERABAD 0925EK862 DUBAI 0930WY226 COCHIN 0930WY252 MADRAS 0930WY346 ISLAM ABBAD 0930WY268 LUCKNOW 0935WY212 TRIVANDRUM 0935QR1128 DOHA 1000EY382 ABU DHABI 1010IX549 TRIVANDRUM 10209W530 TRIVANDRUM 1045WY604 DUBAI 1100G9841 RAS AL KHAIMA 1120IX337 CALICUT 1155WY3922 DUQUM OMAN 1220WY904 SALALAH 1225WY3302 MUKHAIZNA 1230WY826 KUALA LUMPUR 1245WY324 KARACHI 1300WY632 ABU DHABI 1320WY606 DUBAI 1330WY906 SALALAH 1440WY918 KHASAB 1440FZ045 DUBAI 1545WY656 BAHRAIN 1600PA450 LAHORE 1630WY204 BOMBAY 1645QR1126 DOHA 1705WY610 DUBAI 1710WY292 CALICUT 1710WY3304 MUKHAIZNA 1730WY232 HYDERABAD 1740WY246 DELHI 1740WY254 MADRAS 1740WY664 DOHA 1750GF564 BAHRAIN 1810G9116 SHARJAH 1915WY914 SALALAH 1930WY434 TEHRAN 1930WY144 MALPENSA 1945WY614 DUBAI 2020WY152 ZURICH 2030FZ047 DUBAI 2050AI977 BANGALORE-HYDERABAD 2105WY312 CHITTAGONG 21109W534 COCHIN 2115KL441 AMSTERDAM-DOHA 2115AI973 DELHI 21256.00E+81 BOMBAY 2130QR1130 DOHA 2140WY624 DUBAI 2140BA073 LONDON HEATHROW-ABU DHABI 2140UL205 COLOMBO 2155AI907 MADRAS 2200QR1134 DOHA 2225LX242 ZURICH-DUBAI 2235LH618 FRANKFURT-ABU DHABI 2235GF566 BAHRAIN 2240WY916 SALALAH 2245EY388 ABU DHABI 2245WY124 MUNICH 2255WY414 AMMAN 2300WY116 FRANKFURT 2305AI985 AHMEDABAD-BOMBAY 2310WY134 PARIS 23159W540 BOMBAY 2315WY3908 SALALAH 2320WY654 BAHRAIN 2335WY816 BANGKOK 2340WY662 DOHA 2340WY406 CAIRO 2344WY717 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM 2345WY612 DUBAI 2345WY696 DAMMAM 2350WY696 DAMMAM 2350WY648 KUWAIT 2355

THURSDAY

FLT NO ARRIVALS FROM ETA

WY682 RIYADH 0005WY676 JEDDAH 0005WY636 ABU DHABI 0010WY924 SALALAH 0035BG021 DACCA-CHITTAGONG 0100WY928 SALALAH 01054H585 DACCA 0130TK774 ISTANBUL 0135PK225 KARACHI 0215GF560 BAHRAIN 0320EY384 ABU DHABI 0340QR1132 DOHA 0345ET624 ADDIS ABABA 0350EK866 DUBAI 0355MS930 CAIRO 0410FZ041 DUBAI 0510WY658 BAHRAIN 06004H586 DOHA 0605WY674 JEDDAH 0640WY638 ABU DHABI 0650WY902 SALALAH 0655WY668 DOHA 0700WY686 RIYADH 0705WY102 LONDON HEATHROW 0730FZ043 DUBAI 0800WY602 DUBAI 0800WY274 JAIPUR 0820WY202 BOMBAY 0825NL768 LAHORE 0830WY342 LAHORE 0900WY282 BANGALORE 0910G9114 SHARJAH 0915WY242 DELHI 0925WY236 HYDERABAD 0925WY346 ISLAM ABBAD 0930EK862 DUBAI 0930WY252 MADRAS 0930WY226 COCHIN 0930WY212 TRIVANDRUM 0935QR1128 DOHA 1000EY382 ABU DHABI 1010IX443 COCHIN 10309W530 TRIVANDRUM 1045WY604 DUBAI 1100G9841 RAS AL KHAIMA 1120WY372 COLOMBO 1130WY332 KATHMANDU 1130IX337 CALICUT 1155WY384 MALE 1200WY904 SALALAH 1225WY3302 MUKHAIZNA 1230WY324 KARACHI 1300WY918 KHASAB 1300BG023 DACCA 1305WY818 BANGKOK 1310WY632 ABU DHABI 1315IX817 MANGALORE-ABU DHABI 1325WY606 DUBAI 1330WY434 TEHRAN 1340PK291 LAHORE-ISLAM ABBAD 1430WY812 BANGKOK 1440WY906 SALALAH 1440FZ045 DUBAI 1545WY908 SALALAH 1545SV530 JEDDAH 1550WY822 KUALA LUMPUR 1645WY204 BOMBAY 1645QR1126 DOHA 1705WY292 CALICUT 1710WY264 LUCKNOW 1725WY3922 DUQUM OMAN 1730WY246 DELHI 1740WY254 MADRAS 1740WY232 HYDERABAD 1740GF564 BAHRAIN 1810TG507 BANGKOK-KARACHI 1900G9116 SHARJAH 1915WY664 DOHA-BAHRAIN 1930WY646 KUWAIT 1935WY914 SALALAH 1945WY3910 SALALAH 2030WY614 DUBAI 2050FZ047 DUBAI 2050WY312 CHITTAGONG 2110KL441 AMSTERDAM-DOHA 21159W534 COCHIN 2115WY254 MADRAS 2115AI973 DELHI 21256.00E+81 BOMBAY 2130QR1130 DOHA 2140BA073 LONDON HEATHROW-ABU DHABI 2140WY624 DUBAI 2140UL205 COLOMBO 2155AI907 MADRAS 2200QR1134 DOHA 2225LX242 ZURICH-DUBAI 2235LH618 FRANKFURT-ABU DHABI 2235GF566 BAHRAIN 2240EY388 ABU DHABI 2245WY916 SALALAH 2245WY3906 SALALAH 2300SG061 AHMEDABAD 2300WY414 AMMAN 2300AI985 AHMEDABAD-BOMBAY 23109W540 BOMBAY 2315WY654 BAHRAIN 2335WY816 BANGKOK 2340WY662 DOHA 2340WY717 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM 2345WY612 DUBAI 2345WY696 DAMMAM 2350WY406 CAIRO 2355WY648 KUWAIT 2355

FLT NO DEPARTURES TO ETD BA072 ABU DHABI-LONDON HEATHROW 0001AI986 BOMBAY 00059W539 BOMBAY 0020WY251 MADRAS 0110WY201 BOMBAY 0115WY211 TRIVANDRUM 0120WY225 COCHIN 0120WY685 RIYADH 0120WY273 JAIPUR 0145WY267 LUCKNOW 0150WY601 DUBAI 0155WY235 HYDERABAD 0155WY657 BAHRAIN 0200WY901 SALALAH 0200WY115 FRANKFURT 0205WY123 MUNICH 0205WY133 PARIS 0210WY151 ZURICH 0210WY643 KUWAIT 0210WY637 ABU DHABI 0220WY241 DELHI 02254H584 DACCA 0230WY143 MALPENSA 0235WY667 DOHA 0235WY691 DAMMAM 0235WY341 LAHORE 0240TK777 BAHRAIN-ISTANBUL 0255PK230 LAHORE 0315EK867 DUBAI 0500QR1133 DOHA 0515EY385 ABU DHABI 0525FZ042 DUBAI 0730GF561 BAHRAIN 0745WY3301 MUKHAIZNA 0800WY603 DUBAI 0800WY903 SALALAH 0820WY3921 DUQUM OMAN 0830WY323 KARACHI 0840FZ044 DUBAI 0840WY345 ISLAM ABBAD 0920WY253 MADRAS 0920WY291 CALICUT 0930NL769 LAHORE 0930WY815 BANGKOK 0940G9115 SHARJAH 0955WY283 BANGALORE 1000WY231 HYDERABAD 1010WY905 SALALAH 1020WY203 BOMBAY 1025WY631 ABU DHABI 1030WY605 DUBAI 1030WY311 CHITTAGONG 1040WY245 DELHI 1040WY717 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM 1045EK863 DUBAI 1045QR1129 DOHA 1100EY383 ABU DHABI 1110IX554 TRIVANDRUM 1110WY917 KHASAB 11409W533 COCHIN 1145WY655 BAHRAIN 1200G9842 RAS AL KHAIMA 1210WY331 KATHMANDU 1235WY927 SALALAH 1240IX350 CALICUT 1255WY3303 MUKHAIZNA 1300WY433 TEHRAN 1330WY413 AMMAN 1345WY101 LONDON HEATHROW 1400WY663 DOHA-BAHRAIN 1400WY609 DUBAI 1405WY405 CAIRO 1440WY913 SALALAH 1525FZ046 DUBAI 1630WY675 JEDDAH 1645WY613 DUBAI 1715PA451 LAHORE 1730WY623 DUBAI 1805QR1127 DOHA 1805WY681 RIYADH 1840WY915 SALALAH 1840WY647 KUWAIT 1850GF565 BAHRAIN 1855WY3907 SALALAH 1920WY695 DAMMAM 1930WY653 BAHRAIN 1935WY661 DOHA 1950G9117 SHARJAH 1955WY923 SALALAH 2030WY611 DUBAI 2045WY825 KUALA LUMPUR 2115WY635 ABU DHABI 2120FZ048 DUBAI 2135AI978 HYDERABAD-BANGALORE 22009W529 TRIVANDRUM 2230KL442 DOHA-AMSTERDAM 2230QR1131 DOHA 2240WY673 JEDDAH 22406.00E+82 BOMBAY 2245AI908 MADRAS 2300UL206 COLOMBO 2305AI974 DELHI 2310GF567 BAHRAIN 2325WY817 BANGKOK 2330QR1135 DOHA 2330LX243 DUBAI-ZURICH 2335EY381 ABU DHABI 2345LH619 ABU DHABI-FRANKFURT 2355

FLT NO DEPARTURES TO ETD BA072 ABU DHABI-LONDON HEATHROW 0001AI986 BOMBAY 00059W539 BOMBAY 0020WY811 BANGKOK 0100WY251 MADRAS 0110WY201 BOMBAY 0115WY685 RIYADH 0120WY281 BANGALORE 0120WY225 COCHIN 0120WY211 TRIVANDRUM 0120WY821 KUALA LUMPUR 0140WY371 COLOMBO 0145WY273 JAIPUR 0145WY235 HYDERABAD 0155WY601 DUBAI 0155WY657 BAHRAIN 0200WY901 SALALAH 0200WY637 ABU DHABI 0220WY241 DELHI 0225TK775 ISTANBUL 02304H585 DOHA 0230WY345 ISLAM ABBAD 0230BG022 CHITTAGONG-DACCA 0230WY383 MALE 0235WY667 DOHA 0235WY341 LAHORE 0240PK226 KARACHI 0315ET625 ADDIS ABABA 0450EK867 DUBAI 0500MS931 CAIRO 0510QR1133 DOHA 0515EY385 ABU DHABI 0525FZ042 DUBAI 05554H586 DACCA 0715WY433 TEHRAN 0740GF561 BAHRAIN 0745WY603 DUBAI 0800WY903 SALALAH 0830WY3301 MUKHAIZNA 0830WY323 KARACHI 0840FZ044 DUBAI 0840WY253 MADRAS 0920NL769 LAHORE 0930WY291 CALICUT 0930WY263 LUCKNOW 0935WY815 BANGKOK 0940G9115 SHARJAH 0955WY917 KHASAB 1000WY231 HYDERABAD 1010WY631 ABU DHABI 1020WY203 BOMBAY 1025WY605 DUBAI 1030WY905 SALALAH 1035WY311 CHITTAGONG 1040WY245 DELHI 1040WY717 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM 1045EK863 DUBAI 1045QR1129 DOHA 1100EY383 ABU DHABI 1110IX442 COCHIN 11259W533 COCHIN 1145WY907 SALALAH 1150G9842 RAS AL KHAIMA 1210WY331 KATHMANDU 1235IX350 CALICUT 1255WY925 SALALAH 1325WY3303 MUKHAIZNA 1330WY3921 DUQUM OMAN 1345WY113 FRANKFURT 1355WY101 LONDON HEATHROW 1400WY663 DOHA-BAHRAIN 1400WY423 BEIRUT 1415WY413 AMMAN 1415IX818 MANGALORE 1415BG024 CHITTAGONG 1420WY405 CAIRO 1440WY645 KUWAIT 1440WY927 SALALAH 1510PK292 ISLAM ABBAD 1530WY913 SALALAH 1540WY3909 SALALAH 1630FZ046 DUBAI 1630WY675 JEDDAH 1645SV531 MEDINA-JEDDAH 1650WY613 DUBAI 1715WY623 DUBAI 1805QR1127 DOHA 1805WY3905 SALALAH 1815WY915 SALALAH 1840WY681 RIYADH 1840WY647 KUWAIT 1850GF565 BAHRAIN 1855WY695 DAMMAM 1930WY653 BAHRAIN 1935WY661 DOHA 1950G9117 SHARJAH 1955TG508 KARACHI-BANGKOK 2005WY3913 SALALAH 2020WY923 SALALAH 2030WY611 DUBAI 2045WY825 KUALA LUMPUR 2050WY635 ABU DHABI 2120FZ048 DUBAI 21359W529 TRIVANDRUM 2230KL442 DOHA-AMSTERDAM 2230QR1131 DOHA 2240WY3911 SALALAH 2240WY673 JEDDAH 2240WY817 BANGKOK 22406.00E+82 BOMBAY 2245AI908 MADRAS 2300UL206 COLOMBO 2305AI974 DELHI 2310GF567 BAHRAIN 2325QR1135 DOHA 2330LX243 DUBAI-ZURICH 2335EY381 ABU DHABI 2345LH619 ABU DHABI-FRANKFURT 2355

A I R L I N E S

—www.met.gov.om

PRAYER TIMINGS

Dhuhr 12.02pm

Asr 3.26pm

Maghrib 6.00pm

Isha 7.10pm Fajr (Tomorrow) 4.43am

Sunset 5.55pm

Sunrise (Tomorrow) 5.58am

High tide 2:04am 12:56pm

Low tide 7:20pm 7:30am

BORN today, you are sometimes mistaken for a Gemini native — or, on rare occasions, even a Cancerian — for you seem to have two very distinct sides to your very complex personality. On the one hand, you are outgoing, vibrant and even aggressive in your dealings with others, especially when you are going after something you dearly want. On the other, you can be so protective of your own privacy that others never really get the chance to know you all that well — leaving them to guess what you might really be like. What is most tricky, of course, is that you may never know which “you” will prove dominant at any given time.

You are a deeply caring individual, and what happens to others aff ects you profoundly, even if it doesn’t impact you directly. You are not the kind, however, to wear your heart on your sleeve; despite the fact that you feel things deeply, you may at times seem objective and rather cold. Again, it’s that twin nature of yours!

Also born on this date are: Julie Andrews, actress and singer; Zach Galifi anakis, actor and comedian; Jimmy Carter, US president; Richard Harris, actor; Tom Bosley, actor; Walter Matthau, actor; Matt Cain, baseball player; Stella Stevens, actress; George Peppard, actor; Rod Carew, baseball player; Vladimir Horowitz, pianist.

That which was missing can be replaced today — at last — but you may still have to make up for lost time, and a missed opportunity.

VIRGO [AUG. 23-SEPT. 22]

LIBRA [SEPT. 23-OCT. 22] LLLLLLLLLLLLL[S[S[S[S[[S[S[[S[SSS[SSSSS[S[[[SSSSSSSS

SCORPIO [OCT. 23-NOV. 21] S[

SAGITTARIUS [NOV. 22-DEC. 21] S[[[[[[[[[[[[[[

AQUARIUS [JAN. 20-FEB. 18]

You may not be far from home today, but you are feeling the pangs of something from long ago that has you missing the familiar.

You don’t have to be so concerned with the way things look today that what you do is all style and no substance. Focus on the nitty-gritty!

You’re going to have to work harder than usual today to get everything lined up according to taste — and priority. Keep at it!

You’ll fi nally have that important piece of information available to you today — and yet you may not be able to put it to good use just yet.

Success or failure today is a matter of timing, and of using the right tool for the right job. There are certain rules to follow.

Someone who was important to you is likely to exert a surprising infl uence today, even though he or she is actually far away now.

You may have the sense that someone is looking over your shoulder — not to criticise in any way, but to protect you somehow.

PISCES [Feb. 19-March 20]

You may be warned about what is on its way, but you may not believe everything you hear — until you are faced with it directly.

GEMINI [MAY 21-JUNE 20]

CANCER [JUNE 21-JULY 22]

LEO [JULY 23-AUG. 22]

CAPRICORN [DEC. 22-JAN 19]

Y O U R B I R T H D A Y

ARIES [March 21-APRIL 19]

TAURUS [APRIL 20-MAY 20]

Not everything is likely to pan out as you had hoped or expected today — but you can certainly make the best of almost any situation.

Pick up the pace today and let others work to catch up with you if they so choose. You have your own agenda, and needn’t wait around!

You can take something that is only average at best and turn it into something extraordinary by day’s end. Others are impressed!

C11

EXTRAW E D N E S DAY, O CTO B E R 1 , 2 0 14

When scientists talk about carbon footprints and the greenhouse gases

behind climate change, they are referring mostly to carbon diox-ide, a gas that is one part carbon and two parts oxygen and is aw-fully effi cient at keeping the sun’s heat close at hand. Familiar as they are with the physics and chemistry of energy production and consumption, researchers re-main astonished by the speed and scale at which we are extracting carbon from the earth in the form of the long-buried, slow-cooked plant and plankton matter we call fossil fuels, then burning it and re-leasing it back into the air as car-bon dioxide.

A typical American car, Al-ley said, belches a pound of car-bon dioxide through its tailpipe for every mile driven. A typical American power plant that burns coal to generate the electric-ity that lights up your home, your computer and your vibrating toothbrush releases more than 20 million pounds of carbon di-oxide into the sky each day, said Donald J. Wuebbles, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois.

And too bad, when you pick up your luggage after your fl ight from Chicago to Salt Lake City, that you can’t also collect the 2,000 pounds that is your portion of the CO2 exhaust expelled en route by the burning of jet fuel. But it’s too late. The buoyant, odourless, colourless carbon dioxide mol-ecules have dispersed into their surroundings, where wind and currents will stir them more or less evenly through the nitrogen and oxygen gases of which our atmosphere is overwhelmingly composed, and where the bounc-ing triplets will remain, on aver-age, for 1,000 years.

Researchers emphasise the importance of understanding the basic character of carbon dioxide and related greenhouse gases.

The fourth most abundant ele-ment in the universe (after hydro-gen, helium and oxygen), carbon is a versatile workhorse of an atom, able to bend, pleat and bond with an array of other atoms. All living organisms contain carbon and run on some sort of carbon-based fuel, like sugars and carbohydrates.

Organic chemistry is the chem-istry of carbon. Take the water

from a human body, and half the remaining dry weight is carbon. Carbon is also the stuff of rocks, and much of the earth’s carbon quotient is inextricably locked up as limestone and other rocks.

And before life started putting carbon to structural and energetic use, carbon pitched in to make life possible. The atmosphere that blankets the earth to an altitude of 50 miles has a lot to recommend it, but it wouldn’t be much of a blan-ket without a sprinkling of carbon dioxide. Roughly 78 per cent of the dry atmosphere consists of nitrogen gas, or N2; the twinned oxygen molecules we breathe take up 21 percent; argon gas, the noble outcome of radioactive decay in earth’s crust, accounts for almost 1 per cent. In the remaining fraction of 1 per cent, we fi nd our green-house gases, most notably CO2.

Early in earth’s formation, volca-noes injected plumes of carbon di-oxide and methane into the atmos-phere, and a good thing, too. “If we didn’t have greenhouse gases, this would be a frozen planet, a snow-ball earth,” Wuebbles said.

With the advent of photosyn-thesis, algae and plants began snatching carbon dioxide from

the air and transforming it into sugar and other fuels — and so the food chain began. Even today, plants hold quite a bit of sway over ambient carbon dioxide concentrations. In the Northern Hemisphere, with its compara-tively greater share of landmass, concentrations of the gas fall during summer, as plants pho-tosynthesise wildly, and then rise again when the fallen green-ery decays, releasing CO2 back into circulation.

In general, the carbon cycle of life spins quickly. Plants absorb carbon dioxide to make sugars (and give us oxygen in the bar-gain). Animals eat the sugars and release carbon dioxide with every exhalation. But as David Archer of the University of Chicago has explained in a series of video lectures, “In special conditions, organic carbon can be protected by being buried in mud at the bot-tom of the ocean, or in a swamp.”

You may not want to eat such prehistoric candy, but the se-questered carbon chains still of-fer energy to burn. Coal is ancient tree and plant material — masses of roots, leaves, twigs, bark that sank into anoxic swamp beds and formed peat, which eventually cooked into coal, the most abun-dant type of fossil fuel. Oil was formed from plankton preserved in ocean sediments. Natural gas can arise from coal peat or plank-ton oil, so long as the temperature is high enough. Oils holds more energy per carbon atom than does coal, and natural gas carries more energy still, yet all three fossil fu-els give off CO2 when consumed, just as they would have if eaten by dinosaurs long ago.

What worries researchers is the vertiginous pace at which humans are digging up carbon caches that were tens of millions of years in the making and tossing the gaseous end products back to the atmosphere in just a handful of decades. Throughout history, whenever volcanoes or similar eruptions hurled up fresh bolus-es of greenhouse gases from the bowels of the earth, entire eco-systems were severely disrupted and extinction rates soared. And those natural spikes in carbon di-oxide were prolonged, compared with the rate of change scientists say is now underway. - Natalie Angier/

The New York Times News Service

Scientists are astonished by the speed and scale at which we are

extracting carbon from the earth and then burning it and releasing

it back into the air as carbon dioxide

A typical American

car belches a pound

of carbon dioxide

through its tailpipe

for every mile driven.

A typical American

power plant that burns

coal to generate the

electricity that lights

up your home releases

more than 20 million

pounds of carbon

dioxide into the

sky each day

An apple a day helps keeping obesity away WANT A healthy life? Eat an apple daily as certain compounds present in a specifi c variety of the fruit may help prevent disorders associated with obe-sity. Scientists from the Washington State University discovered that the Granny Smith apple variety is abundant in non-digestible compounds. “The non-digestible compounds in the Granny Smith apples actually changed the proportions of faecal bacteria from obese mice to be similar to that of lean mice,” said food scientist Giuliana Noratto, the study’s lead researcher. The study appeared in the journal Food Chemistry.

Healthy fat in olive oil may repair failing hearts

OLEATE, a common dietary fat found in olive oil, may help restore proper metabolism of fuel that gets disturbed in case of heart failure, a study sug-gests. “This gives more proof to the idea that consuming healthy fats like oleate can have a signifi cantly positive eff ect on cardiac health even after the disease has begun,” said senior study author E. Douglas Lewandowski from the University of Illinois - Chicago, US. Failing hearts are unable to properly process or store the fats they use for fuel, which are contained within tiny droplets called lipid bodies in heart muscle cells. The inability to use fats,

the heart’s primary fuel source, causes the muscle to become starved of energy. Fats, not metabo-lised by the heart, break down into toxic intermediary by-products that further contribute to heart disease. In addition to balancing fat metabolism and reducing toxic by-products in hyper-trophic hearts, oleate also restored the activation of several genes for enzymes that metabolise fat, the fi ndings of the study showed. “These genes are often suppressed in hyper-trophic hearts,” Lewan-dowski added. The fi ndings were reported in the journal Circulation.

Unique ‘signature’ found in ageing brainIN A DISCOVERY that may lead to treatments that can slow or reverse cognitive decline in the elderly, researchers have found evidence of a unique “signature” in the ageing brain. The immune system plays an important role, both in healing the brain after injury and in maintaining the brain’s normal functioning, the fi ndings showed. This “signature of ageing” exists solely in the choroid plexus, the interface where brain-immune interaction occurs. “The choroid plexus acts as a ‘re-mote control’ for the immune system to aff ect brain activity,” said Michal Schwartz, a professor at Weizmann Institute of Science. They discovered that one of the main elements of this signa-ture was interferon beta — a protein that the body normally produces to fi ght viral infection. This protein appears to have a negative eff ect on the brain: When the researchers injected an antibody that blocks interferon beta activity into the cerebrospinal fl uid of old mice, their cognitive abilities were restored, as was their ability to form new brain cells. —IANS

H E A L T H N O T E S

C12

EXTRAW E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 1 , 2 0 1 4

By reconstructing condi-tions in the disk of gas and dust in which the Solar System formed,

scientists have concluded that the Earth and other planets must have inherited much of their wa-ter from the cloud of gas from which the Sun was born 4.6 bil-lion years ago, instead of forming later. The authors say that such interstellar water would also be included in the formation of most other stellar systems, and per-haps of other Earth-like planets.

The dense interstellar clouds of gas and dust where stars form contain abundant water, in the form of ice. When a star fi rst lights up, it heats up the cloud around it and fl oods it with radiation, va-pourising the ice and breaking up some of the water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen.

Until now, researchers were unsure how much of the “old” water would be spared in this process.

If most of the original water molecules were broken up, wa-ter would have had to reform in the early Solar System. But the conditions that made this possi-ble could be specifi c to the Solar System, in which case many stel-lar systems could be left dry, says Ilsedore Cleeves, an astrochem-ist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, who led the new

study. But if some of the water could survive the star-forming pro-cess, and if the Solar System’s case is typical, it means that water “is available as a universal ingredient during planet formation,” she says.

To fi nd out, Cleeves and her col-leagues modelled the conditions soon after the Sun lit up. They calculated the amount of radia-tion that would have hit the Solar System, both from the young star and from outer space, and how far that radiation would have trav-elled through the cloud.

Those conditions determine how new water molecules form from hydrogen and oxygen, and in particular the odds that the mol-ecules include deuterium an iso-tope of hydrogen whose nucleus contains a neutron, in addition to the usual single proton. The model predicted an abundance of deuterium-containing water, also known as heavy water, that was lower than that in the Solar Sys-tem’s water today.

But the interstellar clouds where Sun-like stars are currently form-ing — and thus, presumably, the material from which the Sun formed — have a higher propor-tion of heavy water compared to the current Solar System. This is because these clouds are subject to the continuous bombardment of cosmic rays, which tend to fa-vour the inclusion of deuterium. Therefore, the authors conclud-ed, the young Sun’s radiation was insuffi cient to account for the amount of heavy water seen in the Solar System today, and some must have existed before. They es-

timate that somewhere between 30 per cent and 50 per cent of the wa-ter in Earth’s oceans must be old-er than the Sun. “If the disk can’t do it, that means we must have inherited some level of these very deuterium-enriched interstellar ices from the birth environment of the Sun,” says Cleeves.

Ewine van Dishoeck, an astro-chemist at the Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands, says that the study’s conclusions are based on good arguments but are still only theoretical. But confi rmation could come next year, she adds, when the Atacama Large Millimeter Array, a radio telescope in Chile’s Ata-cama Desert, begins to study the chemical processes underlying the proportion of heavy water in protoplanetary disks. Even if the formation of typical stellar systems does not destroy all of the preexisting water, it does not mean that water-drenched plan-ets need to be the norm through-out the Universe.

Venus and Mercury have no water, and Mars seems to have lost most of the water it once had — and it is still unclear what determines whether a planet gets to become wet and to stay that way, says Cecilia Ceccarelli, an astronomer at the Institute of Planetology and Astrophysics in Grenoble, France. - Elizabeth Gibney/

The New York Times News Service

The Sun did not wipe out all of the water contained in the interstellar cloud from which it

formed, scientists say

AS MUCH AS HALF OF THE WATER IN EARTH’S

OCEANS COULD BE OLDER THAN THE SUN

The dense interstellar

clouds of gas and

dust where stars form

contain abundant

water, in the form of

ice. When a star first

lights up, it heats

up the cloud around

it and floods it with

radiation, vapourising

the ice and breaking

up some of the water

molecules into oxygen

and hydrogen

KO NAKAMURA, 44, and Ei-ichi Nakata, 35, wondered if it was possible to design a com-puter software program that could help its users write fic-tion and expand the possibili-ties for their stories. Nakamura is known as the author of the novel Hyakkai Nakukoto (Cried Over It 100 Times), which sold 850,000 copies.

Using a narrative developed by “Monogatari Soft,” a story-writing assistance system that the two were involved in de-veloping, the two writers coau-thored a novel titled Boku wa Shosetsu ga Kakenai (I Can’t Write a Novel). It will be pub-

lished at the end of October by Kadokawa Corp.

In early 2012, Nakamura pro-posed a joint software develop-ment project to the Shibaura Institute of Technology, his alma mater, and Nakata later joined the project. Students at the in-stitute designed the software in accordance with Nakamura and Nakada’s ideas. The software can be used to create a specifi c plot and characters.

If users answer 11 questions such as “What event sets the story in motion?” or “What chal-lenge is created by that event?” the software will automatically draft a plot.

Answer 30 questions about the protagonist, and the software will create an appropriate character based on the answers.

The program also has a help function. If users click on the help button in the story-starting event section, for example, the software will display various phrases, such as “One day, all of a sudden,” “became involved in,” and so on to help users expand their ideas. Nakamura and Na-kata started developing the plot using the software at the begin-ning of 2013, and then began writing the novel in turns.

It took more than a year for them to complete the entire book,

which tells the story of a high school student who has a trou-bled relationship with his stepfa-ther and fi nds a place for himself by learning how to write a novel through a literature club.

The software is still undergo-ing development and is not yet scheduled to be released to the public.

“The program is still not at a stage where it can completely fa-cilitate the writing process,” Na-kamura said.

“But it meant a lot for me to realise that I can make a novel more interesting if I conscious-ly do what I used to do uncon-sciously before.”—The Washington Post

In Japan, two writers will jointly publish the fi rst ‘computer-assisted’ novel next month

Computer-assisted novel to hit bookstores

Never said I’ve moved out of Bhatt camp: Shagufta

WRITER Shagufta Rafi que says a lot of misunderstanding ensued ever since it was reported that she has moved out of the Bhatt camp. She claims she did not make any such comment. “This news has created a lot of misunderstanding in my life. I have never said that I have moved out of Bhatt camp, it’s just that at present I am concentrating on direc-

tion,” Shagufta said. Once a bar dancer, Shagufta started her career with Mahesh Bhatt by assisting him on movies such as Tadipar and Sir, but later she turned to scriptwriting and penned scripts for Bhatts’ hits like Raaz 2 and Murder 2. “It’s just that the script I had did not fi t the Vishesh Films and nei-ther have I approached Mahesh Bhatt or Mukesh Bhatt with this script. I am friendlier with Pooja Bhatt, so I went to her with the script,” Shagufta said. “I have just fi nished writing the dialogues of Humari Adhuri Kahaani. Then how can one say I have moved out of Bhatt camp? In fact, I will be writing one more script for Mohit Suri after I fi nish my fi lm,” she said. Tentatively titled Rose, Shagufta’s directorial debut will be produced by Pooja Bhatt.

Kriti Sanon being considered

for ‘Half Girlfriend’

EVER SINCE writer Chetan Bha-gat has started writing for his next novel Half Girlfriend, which will be made into a fi lm, a string of names has cropped up for the female lead in its big screen adaptation. Ekta Kapoor will produce the fi lm, while Mohit Suri will direct it. Alia Bhatt is one of the actresses who tops the list, but a source reveals Kriti Sanon too is be-

ing considered for the role. “Ever since Heropanti has been released, Kriti has been fl ooded with off ers. Kriti is strongly being considered for the lead role in Half Girlfriend,” said the source.

Manisha Koirala in Rajkumar

Santoshi’s next fi lm

ACTRESS Manisha Koirala, who has successfully battled cancer, may face the cameras again soon and if all goes well, she may be seen in Rajkumar Santoshi’s next project. Manisha’s manager says she’s “absolutely fi ne and doing well”. “She has been read-ing scripts and she has almost fi nal-ised Rajkumar Santoshi’s next fi lm. She has liked the script and if things

go well, she will start shooting from January 2015. She will be the lead and Pankaj Kapur will also be part of it,” her manager, Subroto Ghosh, told IANS.

Alia turns designer, says KJo

infl uences her fashion sense

THE YOUNG and versatile actress Alia Bhatt has turned de-signer for a line titled ‘Alia’ for an online shopping portal. She says her love for fashion is courtesy fi lmmaker Karan Johar. Alia says she was not much of a fashionista initially, but dur-ing the shooting for Student of The Year, she started loving the world of fashion. “I didn’t really understand clothes while I was overweight. When I was auditioning for Student..., I lost weight and because my character Shanaya was so into dress-ing up and fashion — because of that I kind of got into loving fashion,” the actress said. “Basically, Karan has a great in-fl uence on that and he has a great fashion sense. He tells me when I am wrongly dressed and when I am doing good,” added the actress. —IANS

BOLLYWOOD

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

CONNECT H E D A I LY G U I D E

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*Classifi ed Advertisement space booking with text, should be done till 12.00 noon for next day’s publication.

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House Muttrah. Contact 99319149

Luxury twins villa in Al Khoud near

Awlad Tariq Mosque prefer compa-

nies. Contact 95753538

Villa for rent in Muscat 6 rooms.

Contact 96116767

For rent shop offi ce in Mabelah.

Contact 99355330

Flats, shops basements, location,

Ruwi MBD area, Honda road, Qurum.

Contact 96942749 / 97293708

Big Villa at Bowshar 8 rooms,

8 bathrooms, kitchen, maid room &

Majlis. Contact 91183117

For rent: 5 bedroom villas at

Al Ansab (near Express Highway).

Contact 99199365

2 BHK with A/Cs Mutrah behind

Oman house. Contact 99896838

AVAILABLE

Party & Wedding equipment rent-

als. Full line, from Tables, Linen

& Skirting, Chairs & Chair covers,

Cutlery, Crockery, Glassware, Chaf-

ing 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: [email protected]

WANTED

Wanted 150 to 300 Sqm Warehouse

/ Commercial Villa for Cargo &

Logistics Offi ce & Storage in Azaiba/

Bowshar / Ghala / Airport area.

Please contact: 97753848

Wanted a lady driver to deliver a

student from Muttrah to Majan Col-

lege. Contact 99426100

Wanted Extra Help or notes for

learning VHDL BTech degree course.

Contact 98374180

High quality well running rope

making machinery, winders & pack-

ing machinery for sale.

For details please call 9239647 1/

99472634

Urgent sale of scrap for elec-

tronic item such as TV, Refrigerator,

Freezer, Cooking Range, Washing

Machines etc. Only serious buyers

kindly contact: +968 96725423 for

viewing the items.

Logistic Company with new equip-

ments, contracts sale. Contact

99438523 / 94252527

Coff ee Shop on lease or for sale in

Wadi Kabir near Lulu. 99172727,

99433540

Well running beauty parlor

for sale in Rustaq

Contact 99812891

FOR SALE

2 BHK in Khoudh near Bank Dhofar

RO 250/-. Contact 97661432

1 room with toilet in Hail RO 130/-.

Contact 97661432

DAILY GUIDEW E D N E S D AY, O C T O B E R 1 , 2 0 1 4 D3

ACC. WANTED

A well running Pharmacy at prime

location for sale. Contact 93240949

A running private school in Azaiba

for sale or lease. Call 9288 7809 /

9556 4746.

Brand new split unit A/C 1.5 ton

never used packed in Box with

warranty RO 120/- for sale, 3 pcs.

Contact 96789522

Well running coff ee shop for sale in

Bousher and Al Khuwair.

Contact 94514314

Used equipment available for sale

like JCB loadall, tower lights,Air

Compressors, Generators, Barbender,

Barcutter, compaction plates, Screed

pump, roller, Welding machine, tile

cutter, Mini mixer, etc, Sale is “ As

it is where is “ condition. Interested

party can submit quote in a sealed

envelope within a week.

Contact : 99241286, 24616162.

56 Sqm Shop/ Offi ce for sale in Al

Khuwair near Bader Al Sama hospi-

tal. Contact 98909091/ 93166933

Offi ce for sale/ rent in Al Khu-

wair/ Ghala. Contact 96787868

/96498585

56 Sqm shop/ offi ce for sale in Al

Khuwair near Badr Al Sama hospital.

Contact – 98909091 / 93166933

Offi ce for sale/ rent in Al Khuwair

/ Ghala. Contact - 96787868 /

96498585

Water Proofi ng Rolls Saudi Make

and primer. Contact 92888337

Fully Furnished Medical center with

MOH License in Muladha for sale.

Contact 98312997 / 93714004 /

95918538

Grab this Opportunity: 3 Porta Cab-

ins in very good condition available

for sale at lumpsum price of OMR

2000/-. No 1: Offi ce Cabin with Pan-

try and Toilet, No 2: Sr. Staff accom-

modation: 2 Cabins with attached

toilet, No 3: Large Hall type Cabin.

Contact : Siddique, M- 96090427 /

24815123 or Fax 24815383

Email: [email protected]

If you have any properties / Inquir-

ies. Contact us gk@goldenkey-

real-estate.com . Tel 24505072/

91155779 Fax 24507045

New Buildings in (Ghala/ Al Gho-

bra/ Al Mabella). Contact 24505072

/ 91155779 Fax 24507045

For Sale Babar Shop in Azaiba.

Contact 92936391

Supermarket for sale Walja Ruwi,

lots of parking space. Contact

95764290

Running Bakery with good income

for sale in Muscat. Contact 91144968

Indian restaurant for sale 2 shops

for rent at Ruwi.

Contact - 00968 95039506

A well running Indian restau-

rant in capital for sale. Contact –

98630593/ 99811170

Workshop space for sale mezzanine

offi ce and accommodation.

Contact 94107689 / 94107686

From Owner Al Khuwair

2 separate Villas plot area 1155 sqm,

RO 420000. Contact 99348943

Household item for sale portable

projector / Boss twin speakers/

Yamaha AMP Dish washer LG.

Contact 95395378

Commercial Lands in (Ghala/

Al Ghobra). Contact 24505072 /

91155779 Fax 24507045 / www.

goldenkeyreal-estate.com

Industrial / Commercial Lands in

(Al Mabella / Al Messfa).

Contact 24505072 / 91155779

Fax 24507045

Villas in 18th November street.

Contact 24505072/ 91155779

Fax 24507045 /

www.goldenkeyreal-estate.com

New Villas in (Al Ghobra/ Al

Khoudh/ Al Mabella). Contact

24505072/ 91155779 Fax 24507045

2 Floors / Flats in Al Ghubra main

road. Contact 24505072/ 91155779

Fax - 24507045

Check out properties on

(www.goldenkeyreal-estate.com).

Contact 24505072/ 91155779

Fax 24507045

Ladies beauty parlour for sale at

Darsait. Contact 93231403

Flats For Sale: OMR 35 Thousand 1

bedroom. OMR 45 Thousand 2 bed-

room. Monthly income 1 bedroom

OMR 270 and 2 bedroom OMR 350.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

Textile shop for sale in Al Khuwair.

Contact 92148699

Dental clinic for (investment) at

Ruwi (Rex Road). Contact 99879939

Semi furnished room with Separate

T&B Split AC Wifi pref Filipino

or non cooking bachelor lady in

Boushar near Rehab Hotel RO.145/

mo incl W&E. Contact 99058225

Furnished single room+ bath for

Executive bachelor at Darsait.

Contact 92116197

Fully Furnished ( A/C , Fridge,

T.V, Cooking Gas ) 2 BHK at Azaiba

near Al Meera Hyper market (Sa-

feer )Preferably for Company staff

/ Family . Contact -99424470

Times: 9 am to 7 pm.

Room with A/C in Al khuwair 33.

Owner 92953400

Bachelor Sharing Accommodation

available in villa, Rex Road Ruwi-

Contact- 94442157

Room for non cooking executive

near Salman Stores Ruwi.

Contact 99049743

Furnished room for non cooking

bachelor, near Softy Ice cream Ruwi.

Contact 98458979 / 91066224

1 BR accommodation available

at Rex road, suitable for bachelors.

Contact 99889590

Sharing accommodation near ISM

School Darsait. Contact 92926879

Room for rent in Ruwi. #91535642

1 room with toilet in Al Khuwair.

Contact 98294692

Sharing accommodation for a fam-

ily in W/K. Contact 97167857

Room for rent in Al Khuwair for

bachelor 120/ RO with AC- Elec

-water & Bed. Contact 95190627

Single room for rent at Al Khuwair

area with attach bathroom for

Executive bachelor single family.

Contact 93941622 / 93835869

Accommodation wanted in Ruwi for

a small family (two persons only),

preferably with a separate entrance.

Attached bathroom and separate

kitchen preferred.

Contact 92604901.

FOR SALE

Furnished fl at with two rooms near

al meera hypermarket, Azaiba.

Gsm 99761216

ACC. AVAILABLE

ACC. AVAILABLE

ACC. AVAILABLE

CHANGE OF NAME

Restaurant in a running and excel-

lent condition, ample parking space

with a capacity of 55 seating and a

party hall for sale. # - 99343735

We are dealing with sale of all beauty

salon equipments, furnitures & cos-

metics. # 942 888 61 / 942 888 63

Furnished room with sharing bath-

room and equipped kitchen.

Contact 95450250

Semi furnished room with sharing

kitchen and bathroom with big

terrace available for Executive

bachelors in MBD RUWI area.

Contact 95450250

Sharing villa with attached bath-

room, furnished South Mabelah.

Contact 94026210

Room with balcony, kitchen at

Al Khuwair. Contact 99743569 /

99689315

Independent rooms in Qurum / Hail.

Contact 95529970

2 rooms with 1 bathroom and

kitchen for Indian only Al Khuwair.

Contact 98178454

For Executive bachelor one room

with bath in Wattayah near Hatat

house.# 92446858 / 91627323

Executive bachelor room available

for sharing at Azaiba near

Al Meera. Contact 99586381

Furnished room available for

Executive bachelor in Ruwi area.

Contact 99054542 / 24781104

Furnished room with attached

bathroom for non cooking Exe-

bachelor in Ruwi RO 160.

Contact 92478852

Room with separate entrance at-

tached toilet for non-cooking bach-

elor near Al Nahdha hospital RO 80

including Elect. / water.#99366727

Room for rent at Al Khuwair area

with attach bathroom & kitchen.

Contact 93941622 / 93835869

Room for rent at Al Khuwair area

with attach bathroom & kitchen.

Contact 93941622/ 93835869

Accommodation available for

rent only 10 mts drive from

Rusyal Industrial area. Pleas call on

95200429

Al Khuwair room for rent attach

Bathroom for executive bachelors

for 3 months 200 RO.

Contact 98850182

Semi furnished (2 no.) rooms avail-

able with sharing b. room n kitchen

for E. bachlor in MBD Ruwi area.

Contact --95450250

I, Arumakadu Makkaree Basheer (Name exactly as in present pass-

port) son of Makkaree presently

residing at the following address in

Oman P.B. No. 3 , PC No. 326, Sultan-

ate of Oman and having permanent

address in India (as per present

passport) Arumakadu House, Old

Desom Ferry, Thottakkattukara PO,

Aluva, Ernakulam, Kerala, holder

of passport no. F 5478024 dated

24/11/2005 issue at Cochin hereby

solemnly affi rm and declare Amina

(name of wife appearing as per my

passport) and the name of my wife

Basheer Kunjumol appearing as per

her Indian passport no K 5071127

are the same individuals and not two

diff erent individuals

Sharing accommodation in Ruwi,

Mumtaz, main road RO 100/-,

RO 65/-. Contact 92230581

Rooms for rent Al Khoud Souq area

for family or bachelor. #95890625

Single room at Walja, opposite MBD

area available for executive bach-

elors for OMR 90 including Electric-

ity and water. Contact 93079877

2 BR sharing fully furnished Azaiba

RO 250/-. Contact 99321325

Room for rent near Qurum park

family or Bachelor. #99664703

Room with AC & separate entrance

for non cooking Indian executive

near Rawasco, Al Khuwair

OMR 130/-with E/W .

Contact 97201100 / 95397442

Fully furnished Single room for

bachelor, Near Muttrah Hotel. Rent

R.O.95/- (Include.E/W) #98450071

Fully furnished room, CBD area,

Free wifi , Advance deposit.

Contact 95934642

One Bedroom sharing kitchen

bathroom near Indian School Wadi

kabeer rent RO 130/-#92739154

MATRIMONIAL

Christian (Jacobite) Boy, 31/168cm,

Diploma Engg, working as Sales

Engineer in a reputed company, with

family status. Contact 99444734

Kerala RC Girl 27/y, 67/ cm Staff

Nurse Muscat, seeking suitable

alliance. Contact 92730750

Christian 29/M, M.Tech MBA well

settled boy from Kanyakumari, look-

ing for alliance with good academic

with family background. #96381205

Suitable alliance invited from pro-

fessional qualifi ed boys for Chris-

tian Jacobite Girl MOH Staff Nurse

28 years 162 cm Ibri Hailing from

Kothamangalam. Contact 94038689

Nair Boy, 32/165 cm (Divorced)

Accountant MBA, seeking alliance.

Contact 97058681

R.C Kerala 5.8, 29 yrs. Contact 98917545

Mangalore Sunni Muslim, seek-

ing suitable bride (preferably from

Dakshina Kannada) for their son

working as Logistics Manager.

Contact 92198085

Genuine Ayurvedic treatments

& massage, ayurvedic clinic at

Al Khuwair. Contact 24478618 /

97263637/ 93309131

Ayurvedic treatment for joint

pain, backache, paralysis massage,

steambath, obesity, spondylitis,

IDEAL CARE Ayuvedic Clinic, 18 No-

vember Street Azaiba. # 99639695

GOOD NEWS

GOOD NEWS

NRI

A 3 BHK new fl at, Price – 70

Lakhs, fetching 17,000 rent P.M. ,

available for sale in Indirapuram

(Ghaziabad). Contact: 99353384

12 cents of land for sale at

Ernakulam near Kadavanthra

main road, residential area.

Contact 0091 8157859792

2 BHK Flat for sale at Vytilla

Cochin 24189806

Looking for an experienced A/R

conditioner and deep freezer Tech-

nician to independently handle

a running refrigeration service

center in Kannur Kerala. Attractive

terms off ered. Please send CV to

vfi [email protected]

For Astrological consultation,

Jathakam. Contact 99860435 /

97102599

FREE INFORMATION ABOUT ISLAM. If you would like to know

more about Islam, please call:

99425598, 96050000, 99353988,

99253818, 99341395, and

99379133. For ladies: 99415818,

99321360, 99730723

Orvisit: www.islamfact.com

Ayurvedic treatment for backache,

paralysis, arthritis etc & massage,

All Season (Vaidyaratnam).

#24475280 / 95371554 / 92504980

GOODNEWS

Ayurvedic Massage, backache,

joint pain, neck pain etc.

Contact 96245877

DAILY GUIDED4 W E D N E S D AY, O C T O B E R 1 , 2 0 1 4

DAILY GUIDE

DOMESTIC HELP

INTERIOR DEC.

CATERING

PROJECTS

DRAFTSMAN

DRIVER

ARCHITECT

SKILLED / UN SKILLED

ARCHITECT

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION VACANT

MEDICAL

MEDICAL

SITUATION WANT-

EDSIT. WANTED

SITUATION WANT-

EDSIT. WANTED

SECRETARIAL & OFFICE

Required an Indian full time

Houseboy or Housemaid for an

Indian family, veg. food, small dog.

Interested pls Contact 95736558

ADMIN/HR

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

DRIVER

EDUCATION

Email: [email protected] classifi [email protected].: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461

Over 14 years of Gulf experience as

Administrator /HR specialist fl u-

ent in Arabic/English with driving

license, looking for suitable position.

Contact 95824598

Indian male MBA 32 yrs having 10

yrs of exp seeking suitable place-

ment in Admin/ HR/ Operations/

Coordination/ Logistics etc. Holding

valid Oman D/L Contact - 99054786

Indian male 24 yrs BE professional,

1n1/2yrs experienced in oman with

DL &NOC, seeking suitable posi-

tion in Mgmt/Admin/Accounts/PDO

jobs etc., ExpectedSal: 600 omr.

Mob:98347864

Young male 26, seeking HR or

Admin job. Have 10 months Oman

experience in related fi eld, and have

valid driving license . ready to join

immediately. phone: 92671033

email: [email protected]

Filipino, 30 years, male looking

for job vacancy in Muscat area for

document controller position with

6 years experience in Gulf country.

Contact#- 98283988 Email-

[email protected]

Male, 27 years with MBA in HR/

MKT having 2 years exp in respec-

tive fi eld looking for suitable

placement in leading organization.

Contact 91705051

ENGINEERS/TECH..

Indian male, 28 with 10 years expe-

rience in driving in Oman & Indian.

Contact 96769268

Indian Light Driver, seeking suit-

able placement. Contact 99066408

Light duty driver 1 year experience.

Contact 92602182

Indian L/D. Driver, 2 years exp.

Contact 98783139

Pakistani male light vehicle

Driver with one year exp, looking

for driving job. Contact 97083294 /

92571096

Light duty Driver Pakistani, seeks

suitable placement. Contact

94049812

Light Driver 4 yrs exp, seeks place-

ment. Contact 97106424

Driver 2 year experience in Oman,

seeking suitable placement.

Contact 93663493

Reputed civil construction com-pany looking for Subcontractors capable take big project measuring

10,000 Sqm.

Contact 98867530/ 92019524

Email [email protected]

Well reputed construction company

in Muscat, wanted a

Civil Engineer at site.

Tel: 24546800, Mob: 95643811

Urgently required for an Engi-neering Consultancy Company 2 Land Surveyors to be deployed in

Muscat & Sohar with a minimum

of 5 years experience. Interested

candidates may please send your

C.V. to [email protected]

Required Laser Printer Technician, with minimum one year experience

for an IT Consumable company in Mus-

cat. Send CV to [email protected]

Seeking a well-qualifi ed profes-sional Executive preferable with

Engineering background & practi-

cal experience in COPPER INDUS-

TRY, Manufacturing, trading &

related know-how. Reply to:

[email protected]

Civil Engineer not less than

5 years experience and with driv-

ing license, Fax no 24478522


Urgently required 1 no. - MEP Engineer in building construction

with minimum 5 years experience.

Apply, fax 00968 - 24605955,


Leading construction company

requires Quantity Surveyor (QS) preferably Srilankan Nationality

with minimum 8 to 10 years expe-

rience. Send your CV to

[email protected]

Required Architect,min. 3 yrs expe-

rience in kitchen designing, Carpen-

ter (door) & foreman experience in

carpentry work. Contact 98827105,


Indian female Senior Accountant

with 10 years experience in Ac-

counts, Finance, Audit & Tax man-

agement. Contact 96263157

Indian male MBA (HR& FIN) exp one

year as HR, EXP now we have visit

visa, looking opportunity in Admin

–HR/ hospitality / purchase, seeking

suitable placement as soon as pos-

sible. Contact 93662430


Leading Construction company requires MEP Draftsman

with minimum 8 to 10 yrs experi-

ence, and HSE Offi cer Omani Na-

tional. Send your CV :

[email protected]

Sudanese Architect 10 years expe-

rience conception design detail-

ing development site supervision

interior PM-4S AutoCAD Archicad,

Primavera 6 with archi cad prima-

vera Omani driving license.

Contact 96104571

Required light driver with local

release. Contact [email protected]

Require Omani Driver for 3 Ton

truck. Please contact Mr. Kazim on

95883596 or 24562221

Light Duty Driver preferably from

Kerala. Contact 92888337

Urgently required experienced Driver cum Delivery coordinator

(Omani Nationality) with Valid Driv-

ing license for medical company.

Contact Details: info@perfectgroup.

me Telephone no: +968 24184234

Driver Merchandiser. Contact 99325387

Required Indian Cook. Apply to

[email protected]

Contact 94146486

Required a medical practitioner with MOH License for a well estab-

lished Medical center in Mawaleh,

near City Center. Contact 93827286

Required Philpino lady to work in

offi ce of contracting company in

Sohar with exp in English & account-

ing. Contact: 98989232

Required: Person to do minor repairs

in electricity, plumbing, carpentry.

etc with driving licence. Contact

93387962

Landscaping & cleaning Foreman : minimum of 10 years experience,

fl uent English & capable of closing

deals. Contact +968 99242207


Indian Male: B.COM, 4 years experi-

ence in Accounts, in Manufactur-

ing Co Oman, Working Knowledge

With Tally ERP- With Oman valid

D/L,Presently working in Muscat

NOC Available Looking for Suitable

position in Reputed Company,

Contact; 95745287 and Email:

raiforeveryone@rediff mail.com

Senior Accountant 22 yrs experi-

ence 5 years UAE & 4 years Oman

D/L Oman release available visa

expires in one month B.com MBA

Pursuing CMA (US).


Contact 93744368

Accounts Manager, MBA (Finance),

P.G. Diploma in HRM, B. Com, 15 yrs

experience in Muscat, now working

for const co. NOC/ Release / driving

license available, can join immedi-

ately. Contact 99175042

Indian male, Accountant, 2 yrs

experience on visit visa. Contact

92664170

Indian female 22 years B.Com Grad-

uate presently on visit visa, seeks

quick placement. Contact 94514154

Indian female, 23, M.Com, with 25

yrs experience in Back offi ce & Ac-

counts, seeks for suitable placement.

Contact 95995943 Email deepthi.

prasannan23@rediff mail.com

Well experienced Indian, M. Com,

working knowledge with tally & ERP

presently working in Oman, NOC

available PH : 99035707. EMAIL :

[email protected]

Senior Accountant, Indian male, 34

yrs, MBA (Finance), CMA (doing),8

years in oman, with valid Oman D/L,

NOC available and can join immedi-

ately. Looking for a suitable position.

Contact# 95645945.

Indian male MBA, M.Com having 7+

yrs of experience in Accounts, with

valid Oman D/L, Looking for suitable

placement. Contact 91006272

CFA, MBA (Finance), 7 yrs in cor-

porate fi nance & accounting with

Thomson Reuters, Accenture & OPL.

Financial statement preparation,

forecasting, budgeting, SAP & US-

GAAP. Contact 96545382,

[email protected]

Accountant 4 years Exp (2 in UAE)

as a Business Developer & HR. CMA

holder, Fluent in English & Arabic.

Contact: 93447760

Sr Accountant: Sri Lankan 30yrs

Western Educated (UK) having

6 yrs experience Accounting &

Finance in Qatar, Oman, UK and Sri

Lanka Looking for suitable position

Tel:96908831

E-mail : [email protected]

Senior Accountant, 33 Years, 13

Years Experience (7 yrs in Oman) in

Finance & Accounts up to fi naliza-

tion, Excellent in Tally, Valid Oman

D/L, seeks suitable placement.

Contact 93410793

Indian female 22 M.Com Gradu-

ate with B Com degree, looking for

a suitable job. Contact 99363721


Indian Male 27, 5+ years experience

in Accounts & Admin looking for a

suitable placement.

Contact 96247318

20 Years experienced professional

Banking private corporate worked in

Oman, 5 yrs Oman driving license.

Contact 91752426

Email : [email protected]

Indian male age 30 having

10 yrs experience in Finance &

Accounts seeking suitable place-

ment. mob.93675399

Indian male, 24 yrs with 3 yrs

accounting exp. in Oman, 2 yrs in

construction & block factory in ac-

counts, with valid Oman D/L, seeks

suitable placement. Also interested

working in sales or purchase.

Contact: 96059201

Sudanese male, 27 yrs MBA

(fi nance) (HRM) diploma 4 yrs experi-

ence with bank, currently available on

visit visa. Contact 968 95906829,


Indian male 37 yrs, B. Com Graduate

15 yrs exp in accounts & administra-

tion with release seeking suitable

placement. Contact:96938820

MBA (Finance) 2 years experience

in Accounts & fi nance expert in Tally

& Offi ce admin. Contact 97473329

Indian male, 28 yrs B.Com 7 years

experience in Banking & Financial

sector, seeking any suitable job.

Contact 96181072


MISCELLANEOUS

Urgently required A reputed Gar-

ment and Electrical Wholesale

company 1) Accountant: who can do

upto fi nalization. 2) Junior account-ant: Who can do day to day account

posting well versed with accounting

softwares. Please mail

[email protected]

Leading construction company requires document controller with

4-6 yrs experience. Send your CV :

[email protected]

Wanted experienced Waiter for

reputed House in Qurum. Contact

99466062

Urgently required experienced

staff for a hotel / hotel apartments

in muscat and sohar : 1. reception-ist (male ) , 2. house-keeping su-pervisor, 3. marketing executive, 4. room attendants, e - mail : [email protected]

Required for Hotel Front Offi ce / Female, Front Offi ce Manager, Indian Tandoori Chef & Indian Chef,

House Keeping, Waiters & Waitress,

A/C Technicians, Painters, Electri-

cians & Plumbers. Send your CV to

[email protected]

International Consultancy Com-

pany looking 1) Senior Architects,2) Senior Project Manager (Civil Engineer. 3) Senior Interior De-signer 4) Senior Draftsman. Should

have minimum 10 years experience

and good communication skill.

Send your CV to

[email protected]

Operators - grader, mobile crane,

shovel, excavator, forklift, heavy

duty drivers / mechanics. Contact:

00968-99412085. E-mail: mus-

[email protected], P.O. Box 271,

PC 112, Ruwi, Sultanate of Oman.

Required Tailor and Salesman. Contact 96964767

Building Material Salesman, Electrician & plumber, mason. Contact 968 99383044

Wanted Excavator Operator

Minimum experience: 3 years for

reputed Contraction Company.


Contact 97748192 / 96774297

Required urgently for a Nursery in Muscat- Nursery Trained Teachers (Omanis & Expats), Baby sitters/

Aayas. Please forward your CV to

[email protected] or

call 92887809

An Upcoming School in Seeb, Mus-

cat welcomes resumes from

innovative and qualifi ed teachers for the following subjects (IELTS

compulsory with the score 6)

English, computer, Arabic.

Contact 91256565/ 91257575

CATERING

HSE Offi cer required on full time /

part time basis for a steel fabrica-

tion co. based in Rusayl. Must have

the minimum 3 to 5 yrs experience.


SALES / MARKETING

SALES / MARKETING

Required a Sales and Marketing Executive for an International IT

Consumable Company in Muscat.

Candidate should be an University

Graduate with good speaking capac-

ity in English and Oman Driving

License. Send CV to

[email protected]

Wanted 2 salesmen in Sohar -fl uent

in English & Arabic with Oman D/L -

contact 97673900

Sales Representative for Decora-

tion Company + Driving License:

[email protected]

Urgently required an experienced Sales and offi ce Administration Executive for a building material

shop with Oman driving license.

Please Send CV to

[email protected]

A well-established Cargo & Logis-tics company seeks a Marketing Executive –with administration

knowledge & experience in Logis-

tics / transportation-/ cargo (GCC

Transport Co-ordination). Driving

license is a must. Send your CV to:

[email protected]

Urgently required Salesman: Who

knows Oman Market with driving

license must. Please mail

[email protected]

Required Sales man with Omani

driving license minimum 3 to 5 years

experience required in the sales fi eld.


Required part time Lady for Marketing in tourism co with Oman

D/L Salary RO 150/- + Car & petrol,

10% commission. Contact 91272676

Well established oilfi eld con-sumables suppliers require sales exec. knowledge of safety eqp, pipe

fi ttings, valves, fasteners, industrial

tools, building material, mech/ elect

eng or 3-4 yrs fi eld sales exp. Oman

D/L must, basic + performance

based incentives, expectations & CV

at fax : 2481 7496,


Sales man full & part time capa-

ble of closing deals for projects &

maintenance contracts in the fi eld of

Landscaping, gardening & cleaning.

Contact +968 99242207


Urgently required Sales Executive with Omani DL, good Communica-

tion skills. Contact : 96545020

Investment and Construction Com-

pany requires female executive assistant, with good computer and

communication skills,

advanced English, fl uent Arabic.

Please send your CV

[email protected]

Indian Cook, male 40 yrs, having 4

yrs of experience in Muscat and 14

yrs exp in India, looking for a Cook

job in Hotel / restaurant / catering.

Contact 93460201/ 97792103

Wanted an experienced person as part timer for making BOQ for an

Interior decoration company. SMS

your details to 92162623

OMANI FEMALE RECEPTIONIST for State of the Art Dental Clinic. Must

speak, read and write English and

have general computer skills. All

interested candidates please send C.V.

to: [email protected]

Lab Technician leave vacancy job

for 45 days in December 2014.

Contact 99374539

Required Receptionist, Dental Technician, Staff Nurse for

dental clinic. Contact 91290034,

[email protected]

Required paed doctor Gyn doctor, dentist -female G.P lab technician , X.ray technician staff nurse for

polyclinic for Saham.

Contact:92406024 , Email:

[email protected]

Required Dentist. Call: 91290034


Wanted urgently looking for smart

–energetic boys and girls with excellent Sales Acumen to products

in Oman. People with relevant

experience and valid Omani driving

license forward resume to

[email protected] /

[email protected]

A reputed tourism company required male marketing person. Salary R.O 200/- car and home free,

experience required.

Contact : 91272676

Looking for Sales Executive with

Oman driving license for a reputed

company. Contact – 99450677

DOMESTIC HELP


DAILY GUIDESITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED

DRAUGHTSMAN

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

DRIVER

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

Electrical draftsman total 13 yrs

exp (9 yrs in Saudi Arabia). Contact

00966537175789


Draughtsman 10 years experience

in Oil/ Gas, looking for suitable job

immediate joining NOC available.

Contact 968 98628657


Indian male, 26 Years. AutoCAD

M.E.P. Draftsman (Plumbing &

mechanical) having 4 years Oman

experience. Presently working in a

reputed company in Oman. Seeks

suitable placement.

Contact 97351786 / 96143708.

CAD Draftsman (DCSE) AutoCAD

2 D & 3 D with 2 years experience.

Contact 91781227

25, Male, ACCA fi nalist, have good

experience upto fi nalisation of

accounts and statutory audit, seek-

ing for part time or project based

job,GSM-97654769,email id-

[email protected]

Having Experience in Junior Sys-

tem Administrator Cybex Solutions,

Cochin , Assembling & Dissembling

PC, A+, Networking Essentials. PRES-

ENTLY WORKING IN INDIA

Please contact-97239854-Ashe

Mechatronics Engineer with

diploma in product design and

analysis looking for a job

Contact -98584349 @-

[email protected]

Civil Project Manager 19 years

exp 17 yrs Gulf having Oman

license. Contact 00919950673719 /

96570465. Email :

arshadjamalkhan@rediff mail.com

Graduate in electrical & electronic

engineering having 3 years experi-

ence in construction and procure-

ment fi elds. Also have knowledge of

Automation systems ( PLC SCADA ),

Autocad and professional electronic

design and automation. Valid oman

driving licence looking suitable

position. E mail. Sajeel2009@gmail.

com or call 93116402

Sudanese Civil Engineer has

15 years experience in contracting

and construction in Gulf, looking for

a job in Oman, on visit visa.

Contact 95963355

MISCELLANEOUS

INFORMATION TECH

INFORMATION TECH

Indian Male, B.E computer science

with MBA(fi nance) 26 age ,5 years

experience in Oracle DBA/ Oracle

Apps DBA, Linux seeking a suitable

position in the fi eld of IT.

Contact # +968 97739982,

[email protected]

EDUCATION

Indian MSc. B.Ed Maths, Science on

visit visa looking for teaching posi-

tion. Contact 91344706

MSc. Chemistry Teacher (5 y EXP.)

Pakistani female looking for a job in

School/college 96580101

Chemistry Teacher (Indian Male)

: 33Yrs, B.Ed. & M.Phil. (Chemis-

try), having 10 Yrs experience as

a Chemistry Teacher for Higher

Secondary, Seeking suitable job

in Oman.Contact: +919952849285

(India), +96898989716(Oman),


HOSPITALITY

Indian Male, 26 yrs, graduate in

hospitality science,

with New Zealand business diploma

and previous Oman experience in

Customer service seeks suitable

placement in hospitality/sales-

marketing/ logistics/ admin.

Contact 91383167

Female 21 yrs, Tally 1 year experi-

ence, looking for visa.

Contact 95330720

Male 22 Housekeeping front offi ce

Hotel management degree course.

Contact 96732520

B Tech Computer science, 3 years

experience in IT C#, ASP, NET, SQL

server, SharePoint on visit visa.

Contract 97004290

IT Networking Business Develop-

ment having 10 years experience

within Oman / GCC in Account

Management & Sales with driving

license and local release available

for immediate joining.

Contact 95110896


IT- Support: CCNA MCSE & RHCE

with 3 & half year experience includ-

ing Oman in hardware/ networking

and IT offi ce administration, seeks a

suitable placement.

Contact 99075692


Indian male, 32, BE Computers, PG

Dip in IT, 9.75 Yrs experience, MS

SQL server, report writing (SSRS,

Crystal Report) .Net, seeking suitable

position in fi eld of IT as team leader/

Asst. manager. Contact 92048861


Indian female (25) married, MSc

(Software Eng), 2+ years of experi-

ence in leading MNC, IT skill include

HTML, CSS with the design and de-

velopment of Web based application

using struts femme work, JZEE and

oracle with excellent communica-

tion skills, looking for a suitable job.

Contact 95892587, 96265726 Email

[email protected]

IT Infrastructure Engineer, 4 yrs ex-

perience, BE- CSE customer service

engineer, hardware, network, MCITP,

CCNA, CCNP, CCTV, local transfer

available. Contact 91264768

Indian female (26) married

MCA,2+years of experience in soft-

ware development in leading MNC

Accenture in Bangalore. IT skills in-

clude Dot Net, SQL server 2008, ASP.

Net, HTML, CSS, excellent communi-

cation skills looking for suitable job.

Contact: 94057790/

Email: geetika.pesit08@gmail.

Mechanical Engineer 2 years

experience in HVAC. Now in Oman

on visit. seeking suitable placement.

GSM:91744764

email:[email protected]

Indian male B.Tech Mechanical

Engineer with 2 years experience,

looking for suitable job, currently on

visit visa. Contact 94316364


Graduate CIVIL Engineer available

in Muscat on family visa is looking

for suitable positions in Muscat.

NOC available. Contact – 94453799

EEE Engineer male 29 yrs having

5 yrs experience, 3 yrs in Oman

looking for job transition interested

areas: Sales - Marketing Project- Co-

ordination / Management/ Procure-

ment and Construction holding

valid Oman D/L, with NOC available.

Contact 93011060 Email

[email protected]

Site plumbing foreman, Indian

male, Mechanical Engineering,

Diploma, 24 yrs, 2 yrs exp. on visit

seeks suitable placement.

Contact 97901559

Indian male, B.Tech (Mech), 18 yrs

experience, in Oman more than 3

yrs in the fi eld of Oil & Gas industry

with valid Oman D/L. Exposure in

Production, Quality Control, HSE and

Admin seeks suitable placement.

NOC available, can join immediately.

Contact 96517010.

Electrical Engineer 9 years Exp.

Excellent in (automatic control, PLC,

M.V, substations, L.V networks & In-

stallation of local panels, plc panels,

Photocell). Contact: 94003284

Network Engineer / Administration

having 12 years experience within

Oman. Driving license and local

release available for immediate

joining. Contact 99677429


Indian, Diploma Civil Engineer, 3

years experience in Oman, having

Omani driving license, looking for

a suitable placement in and around

Sohar. Contact 94227073

Electrical Mechanical Engineer, looking for a job in Muscat. Contact

98246222 / 97644542

Female B Tech Engineer, looking for suitable placement.

Contact 93505502

MEP / Electrical Engineer 10 years

exp 6 yrs in Oman IOSH, CEP, D/L

Arabic / English. Contact 95752101

Civil Engineer 8 years Exp (2 in

Angola with DAR AL HANDASAH, 4

months in Oman) as a Site Engineer.

Holding Diploma in project manage-

ment, fl uent in English & Arabic.

Contact: 99170315

MEDICAL

Indian female MSC Nursing ( child

health nursing) having 4 years exp

(3 yrs Academic and 1 year clinical)

looking for suitable placement,

currently on family visa.

Contact – 96019903 / 99623071 /

[email protected]

Indian Male GP with MOH License

and NOC, having 10 years of excellent

hands on experience in Oman with

corporate culture. Contact 98140024


Licensed Pharmacist with

4 years experience in Oman.

Contact 96535239

Dentist Indian male (MOH passed)

4 yrs experience, seeks suitable

placement. Contact 98328982 /

92969475


Egyptian GP with MOH license NOC

14 year’s experience, 2 years in

Oman & 5 years as Medical director.

Contact 968 93851109


Nursing caregiver, qualifi ed Nurse/

Asst. Nurse (male/ female) medical

staff seeks placement for Hospital/

clinic. Contact 92989109 (Oman),

0091 – 9555427742 (India),

[email protected]

SALES / MARKETING

SALES / MARKETING

Indian Male 26 yrs Store keeper

having experienced of 2 years in

Oman looking for a good placement

Note: Release/ NOC Available by cur-

rent Company contact 96671102

Indian female, B.Tech Computer

Science, 2 yrs exp in web design-

ing (html, CSS)-looking for suitable

placement in secretary, administra-

tion, web designer, computer teacher,

Currently on visit visa in Oman.

Contact no: 93442305;


Indian male Graduate with retail and

management experience, working as

store in charge and staff develop-

ment with 10 yrs Gulf and 4 yrs of

International experience with luxury

brands in Gold and diamond indus-

try, looking for a suitable position.

Contact 00971 558656978


Denter, painter, vehicle-10 years

experience need job seeks job

with visa. Contact; 96136615 /

91139936

Male MBA, 2 years experience

looking for suitable job. Email :

[email protected].

Contact 98083010

Seeking a driver post job in com-

pany or family in Oman. Please

Contact: 98982410

Indian female MCA (Computer

science) looking for placement in

Admin/ offi ce/ Sales co-ordinator,

currently on family visa.

Contact : 95462266


27 Years Pakistani male in (Crimi-

nology having 4 years experience in

security and management seek-

ing suitable placement as security

offi cer. Contact 99191701 Email :

[email protected]

Electrical Engineer with 7 years

experience.ph#91293519

Diploma in Civil Engineering with 3

yrs experience in Oman, looking suit-

able placement. Contact 93137486


Engineer with MTech in Energy

Engineering and BTech in Chemical

Engineering and Certifi ed Energy

Management System Auditor with

one year internship project experi-

ence in auditing. Contact 95094101


BE Civil Engineer 4 years experience

NOC available. Contact 98970233

Indian BE, Mechanical Engineer, 8 yrs experience in planning,

scheduling & project management of

structural steel fabrication, erection,

2 yrs in Oman looking for suitable

job. Contact 93086721,

[email protected]

B.Sc. in Civil Engineer, 6 years

experience as a QA/QC Engineer /

QC inspector in sub station, high rise

multistory building, Industrial build-

ing & Oil and gas fi elds (OMAN, UAE &

QATAR). Also as a materials inspector,

seeking suitable placement.

E-Mail-mmosharoff [email protected] ,

Mobile Number- +97433854588

Elect. Engr 9 yrs in Electrical projec-

tor having Oman D/L with NOC

ready to do local transfer.

Contact 92732744


Civil Engineer 8 years Exp (2 in

Angola with DAR AL HANDASAH, 4

months in Oman) as a site engineer.

He holds a Diploma in project man-

agement, fl uent in English & Arabic.

Contact: 99170315

Pakistani professional civil Engi-

neer seeks suitable placement.

Have 30 years experience with con-

sultants /contractors for executing

/managing large building projects.


B.Tech Mechanical. Indian male

with 1 year experience in Oman

looking for suitable job. NOC avail-

able. Contact: 96542340.


Indian male, Diploma in Civil Engi-

neering having 17 years experience

in India & 5 months experience in

UAE, now available in Oman in visit-

ing visa seeking suitable placement

GSM- 93097757,

e-mail :[email protected]

Experienced female Electrical

Engineer. Contact 93800906

Project Road Engineer with 5 years

exp, seeks job. Contact 97646908

Indian Male B.E & MBA, 20 yrs expe-

rience in Civil construction including

7 yrs in Oman, Looking for project

manager (Civil) readily available with

NOC. Contact 97906977,


Civil Engineer (Diploma), looking for

a suitable post, Now as position Site

Engineer total 10 years experience

(4 years in Oman). Contact

93477358/ 95648309 Email

[email protected]

Indian male, B.Tech (Mech), 15 yrs

experience, in Oman more than 3

yrs in Manufacturing Industry with

valid Oman D/L. Exposure in Op-

erations, Quality Management and

Admin seeks suitable placement.

NOC available, can join immediately.

Contact 91301625.

Indian male B.tech Mechanical

Engineer with 3years experiance

looking for suitable job.Currently on

visit visa. Mob:96268488

[email protected]

Mechanical Engineer,(BTech in

Mechanical) with Certifi ed quality

controller - NDT level 2 qualifi ed as

per ASNT - SNT-TC-I A, with

1 & half yr exp. as quality control

engineer, presnetly in India seeks

suitable placement Cont : 95405033

[email protected]

Electrical Eng. BSC with 8 years ex-

perience in Oil & Gas fi eld especially

in ESP. Contact 92657255

Bsc Civil Eng PMP, MBA, 15 years

experience with valid Omani driving

license. Contact 95702191

Indian male MBA 32 yrs having 10

yrs exp seeking suitable placement

in Admin/HR/ Operations/ Coordi-

nation/ logistics etc. Holding valid

Oman D/L. Contact - 99054786

Indian Male over 10 years experi-

ence in Offi ce / Sales Coordinator,

Admin, Secretarial and purchase

with driving license and NOC

available. Well versed in MS offi ce.

Looking for suitable placement.

Contact 99709336

SECRETARIAL / OFFICE

VIDEOGRAPHER

Professional videographer with 12

years experience in videography

and running a studio in India look-

ing for job. Now in Oman on a visit

Contact : 9507 2122

MISCELLANEOUS

A Mechanical Engineer having over

10 years experience in the Oil & Gas

Sales marketing and business devel-

opment. NOC available.

Contact 95864396 / 97608419

Indian male, MBA (Marketing) hav-

ing 2 years experience in Marketing

& Sales, Currently on visit, seeking

suitable placement. #96301626


Marketing Manager / Sr Marketing

Executive with Oman driving license

5 years in Oman. Contact 99530405

Senior Manager with 18 years expe-

rience (8 years in Oman) in Sales &

Marketing, General Administration,

responsible for profi t and loss, new

business, seeking suitable position

in a reputed progressive company.


Indian male having an experience

in Sales 2 years with valid Oman li-

cense, looking for a suitable position.

Contact 93826377

25 Years Indian male MBA Sales

& Marketing 2 years experience

vehicle sales. Contact 98664979 /

94107012 Email:

muzafi [email protected]

Male 30 years require suitable

position in Marketing having

8 years experience of marketing

business development & PR Gradu-

ate in business, fl uent English on

visit visa till October 8th.

Contact 96528508

Sales & Executive looking for job.

Contact 94003617.

Indian male having 7 yrs of experi-

ence in indoor sale (supervisor) in

furniture, NOC available.

Contact 96615479 / 98732726

Sales/ Marketing / customer

service release / NOC available UK

+ Oman experience valid Oman D/L,

excellent communication & organ-

izing skills, can join immediately,

Email : [email protected],

gsm 92342060 / 96761225

An MBA Graduate Management

professional, having an accumulated

experience of over 18+ years in vari-

ous industries, With an NOC from the

current employer looking for open-

ing anywhere in Oman.

Contact 97486733

Senior Sales & Marketing/ Opera-

tions Management (female) profes-

sional with more than 19 years of

proven experience in FMCG, Health

Care Industry, Wellness Industry. A

self-starter, quick-learner, high-

energy producer who has proven

record of successes exceeding quota

on both professional and personal

level and for motivating a team to

perform at their highest potential.

Contact - 91140866

MANAGER/ SUPER

Indian female M. Sc Chemistry

having 2 years industry & 2 yrs

teaching experience seeks suitable

placement. Contact 96358771

M. Pharm, Ph. D (Pharmaceutical

Chemistry, under completion), In-

dian female, currently under family

visa, seeks suitable academic/lec-

turing position. Contact 95509601;

email - hanaowi@ gmail.com

Indian female having ten years ex-

perience as cook. South Indian, Guja-

rathi special. Contact:: 94224512

A female with a B.Sc Business

Management Degree, specialized in

Human Resource Management cur-

rently living in Sri Lanka seeking for

a suitable position in Oman.

# 9801 1529

PDO Approved - Indian Male PMP,

CIPS, PGDBA, DME, Oil & Gas/Con-

struction with 18+ Yrs. in Contracts,

Procurement, Operations, Project

with valid Oman-PDO D/L seeking

job - Contact 92560287

INDIAN, B.E. MECHANICAL ENGI-

NEER, 2 yrs job experience in Oman

in pipeline fi eld, fl uent in English,

Gujarati, Hindi and Marathi, with

valid oman driving license (light),

searching for a new job.

Contact no-+968 92745691

MBA Finance, 5 Years’ experience in

Accounts, Finance & Administration

, with Valid UAE D/L #96970930

Indian, Female, Pharmacist avail-

able with MOH License, preferably in

Muscat. Contact 9439 1355.

Indian 34M with 14 years experi-

ence in Business development /

Sales / Marketing looking for chal-

lenging role. Contact 9367 8885

Mail: [email protected]

Indian male having 5 Years of Expe-

rience in Oman Having Valid Driving

License working as a purchase of-

fi cer ,Looking for a suitable Position,

Contact: 95132564/96456071

E-mail:[email protected]

Indian Male, 23, MBA in Marketing.

More than 1 years experienced in

the Axis Bank Presently in family

visit in Oman Looking for a suitable

vacancy Contact : 997 43 709

Printing professional, having 20

yrs experience in Gulf / Africa with

NOC seeks suitable placement.

Contact 95427923,


Indian Male looking for job in mar-

keting/sales/operations with 10yrs

experience as a dynamic candidate,

with excellent communication skills.

Please contact 93506291.

Indian Female, B.Sc Maths Resid-

ing in Al-Ghubra, having 2 years of

experience in teaching. Looking for

school. Ph. 94231633

Senior Accounts Professional, Indi-

an Male, 35 years, M.Com, MBA (Fin)

8 years in Oman, with valid Oman

DL and NOC available. Capable to

handle accounts up to fi nalization.

Contact 9602 3965.

Filipino Female photographer/ graphic designer / receptionist

looking for suitable job in Muscat.

Contact: +971 563749414

India Male 27 yrs (Degree) good

looking. Watch men /Offi ce Boy and

cleaning 1.5 years exp in Oman,

Seeking replacement with NOC

Contact 93764069

BSC computer information systems,

male Graduated & qualifi ed from UK

with 6 years experience in software

testing, WEB DEV, IT support &

marketing having license.

Contact +968 98399587


IT Help Desk Support (33), 8 years

experience troubleshooting network

confi guration, designing, hardware

maintenance, website design and

administration (Joomla).

Contact 94197650, 95072166.


Light Driver for job experience

2 years. Contact 93181200

Light Driver, seeking suitable place-

ment. Contact 96913836

Looking for driving job for

Pakistani. Contact 99197423

Light Driver. Contact 94087276

Driver with Car. Contact 91707140

Indian executive Driver.

Contact 94003617

Indian male 15 years experience

in sales & marketing dealing with

building materials, construction

equipments, Industrial tools,

cleaning & agriculture equipments

seeking suitable position with valid

Oman D/L. NOC available.

Contact 92406527

Indian Male, 28 yrs, having 5

years experience in FMCG Sales in

visit visa, Looking for any suitable

jobs in Oman. Contact 98531486/

98988824

Indian Male, MBA in Marketing and

Finance, 10 years’ Sales & Business

Development Experience with valid

D/L of Oman & UAE looking for a

suitable placement. NOC Available.

Contact: 93969961

e-mail [email protected]

DAILY GUIDE Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461Fax: 24812624





SIT.WANTED

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED

Indian Male having 10 years of

Experience in Oman having Valid

Omani Driving license working in

Purchase Dept looking for a suitable

position. salary is negotiable.

[email protected]

Mob: 94304324

Indian Male PMP, CIPS, PGDBA,

DME, Oil & Gas with 18+ Yrs. in

Contracts, Procurement, Operations,

Project, seeking job -

Contact 92560287

Microbiologist having 13 years

experience in Pharmaceutical/Food

Beverage Quality Assurance. on

FAMILY VISA. Currently search-

ing a suitable Job in Oman. e-mail:

[email protected] , Mobile in

Oman: +96892068377

Part- time accountant available.

Contact ; 98803439

Indian male, b.com with tally, having

11 years experience in accounting

,looking for a part time job. con-

tact.96423671

Bangladeshi Male, Seeking Offi ce

Boy position in Oman.

Contact: 97451456

Female staff nurse with Oman

Prometric passed, seeking suitable

placement, currently on visit visa.

Contact 97803046

GP Male doctor with Valid Oman

MOH license, looking for

suitable placement.

Contact Mob: 97063454

Telecommunication and Electron-

ics Engineer Seeking for suitable

Placement, with valid Omani Driving

License. professional and

experienced individual.

Call 99013323

Sudanese.male 31years.B.SC Me-

chanical Engineer.5years experi-

ence, working now in water pipeline

project, fl uent Arabic and English,

have Omani driving .looking license,

looking for good opportunity

TEl: 91117089

Indian Female 25 yrs, Bsc.(Physics)

Bed. 2 Yrs experience in teaching,

currently on visit seeking suitable

placement .Contact 98217776 Email:

[email protected]

Purchase Offi cer Professional, Indian male having 5 Years of Expe-

rience in Oman Having Valid Driving

License working as a purchase of-

fi cer , Looking for a suitable Position,

Contact: 95132564/96456071.

E-mail:[email protected]

Well experienced Senior Account-

ant seeks part time accounting job.

Contact :98803439

28 year Indian female (MBA) with

3+yrs experience (oman) in Accounts

is seeking suitable placement in Ac-

counts/Admin. Contact on 96141283

Indian, Female, Pharmacist avail-

able with MOH License, preferably in

Muscat. Contact 94391355.

Having 17 years experience HR

Management in Oil & Gas Industry

with M.A and an HR Diploma from

American University, I am looking

for an HR Role Where I can provide

strategic and tactical leadership

critical to retaining valued custom-

ers of an organisation.

Email: [email protected],

Mobile:00968-99898150.

Admin Executive, 31, Indian Male,

having 8+ years exp. in reputed

companies. Seeking suitable place-

ment in any gulf region. Contact

+968 99276601 & 97693456. email :

[email protected]

Indian male 11 years experience in

sales and marketing having D/L of

Oman looking for a suitable place-

ment. Contact: 98125746,


18 years of extensive experience in

Sales & Marketing in GCC. Holding

valid Omani driving license & NOC

is available. Fluent in Arabic and

English Language seeking for

a suitable placement.

Contact 96383958

Seeking a good replacement as

Accountant in a good organization

in Oman having 4 years experiences

in India and 6 years in Muscat in a

reputed group of companies as sen-

ior accountant. Contact: 9512 9352

/ 91350411.

MEP Project Manager Engineering

Degree holder with 16 years of expe-

rience in Engineering, Contracting

and Execution of Building, Infra-

structure and Industrial Construc-

tion seeks suitable job. Valid D/L,

NOC available Contact 95689623

B.Tech mechanical Degree Attested

from UAE, Dubai, seeks job as a

Mechanical Engineer or Trainee.

Call.+968 96728279

Masters in Information Systems

with 10.5 years of experience is

looking for a placement in teaching,

Technical support & System Admin-

istration. Contact: 98502793, email:

[email protected]

Pakistani male 46, welding/me-

chanical/pipeline engineer,25 years

experience,certifi ed welding inspec-

tor, omani driving license,

Contact: 93215186


an male, 35 years, M.Com, MBA (Fin)




Contact 9602 3965.

Indian Male 30yrs,having around

8yrs experience in Sales & Market-

ing & Customer relations, Looking

for immediate placement with NOC

available. Contact: 99369497 /

92080354.

Having Experience in Junior Sys-

tem Administrator Cybex Solutions,

Cochin, Assembling & Dissembling

PC, A+, Networking Essentials, pres-

ently working in India.

Contact 97239854-Asher

Electronics & communication

Engineer, having 3+years experience

(2 yrs GCC) in Security systems/low

current systems (FAS, CCTV, ACS,

PAVA etc) seeking suitable post in

construction/manufacturing/pro-

duction/maintenance depts. Contact:

[email protected], 98132746/

00966544912293

Male, Indian, 24, Graduate in

B.E (Hons) computer hardware &

networking with 1 year experience,

seeking a placement in IT Sector.

having oman driving license.

mobile: 92711506.

EMAIL: [email protected]

Indian Female 29 yrs, B-Com Gradu-

ate with Basic Computer Knowledge

and Tally having 6 yrs experience

in accounting, seeking for the place-

ments in Accounts/ HR/ Admin,

Presently on visit visa in Oman.

Contact: 95478149,


Indian female B.Com with 5years

experience in accounts/commercial

assistant, having Oman D/L seeks

for suitable placement in Ruwi

/w.kabir surrounding.

Contact: 99665096


Indian Female MA. B.Ed. with One

year Teaching experience, Sub-

ject: English, seeking for an urgent

suitable placement, Now in Oman.

Contact: -: 93961142, 92184408

Email:[email protected]

Indian male, Accountant ,

11 years experience in accounting,

tally, looking for a part time job.

#no.96423671

Indian Male Graduate with 10+

y-exp in IT H/w Business Dev, Retail

Management Import/Purchase

distribution looking for suitable

position.GSM: 96981051



companies seeking suitable place-


+968 99276601 & 97693456. email :

[email protected]

34 years Indian male, working as

QC Inspector in maintenance fi eld,

having 4 years experience in Oman

and valid Oman driving license.

Contact 95339870






Contact 91395515.

Pakistani male 35 years, looking

for suitable placement in accounts,

14 years experience with 2 years

in Oman. Contact 97646927 /

92531035.

57 Yrs. Old healthy person seeking

an opportunity in any area of works

(Painting, Store asst, Traffi c control-

ler, Foremen, Controller). Saudi expe-

rienced. Contact-97239854-Asher






[email protected]

Contact 94304324

26 years Indian male with MBA &

PGDFM,Total 3.1 years experience in

administration and accounts .seek-

ing suitable placement in muscat.

having oman valid driving license.

Contact :93359371,

Mechanical Engineer -B.E with 4yrs

exp in manufacturing/production

presently in Oman on visit visa seek-

ing suitable placement.

Contact : 93694953,


Indian Male, M.Com/MBA, 6 years

experience in Muscat in Administra-

tion, Accounts, Marketing and P.R.

with valid Omani D/L looking for a

suitable position in a reputed Co.


Indian male, 30 yrs, having 10 Years

experience in Accounting, seeking

for suitable opportunity.

GSM-93675399

Indian female, P.G. Diploma in

Journalism and Mass Communica-

tion, 4 yrs of exp as sub- editor/

content editor in India, seeking suit-

able placement.


Contact no: 95886447, 93063576






Contact 91395515.






[email protected]

Contact 94304324



companies. Seeking suitable place-


+968 99276601 & 97693456. email :

[email protected]

Mining Engineer and also did NE-

BOSH (IGC), Fire and Safety (HABC)

25 year old Pakistani male looking

for job and recently on visit visa.

Available to join respective fi rm.

Contact # 97412696,


28 year Indian female (MBA) with

3+yrs experience (Oman) in Ac-

counts is seeking suitable place-

ment in Muscat. Contact 96141283.

Seeking a good replacement as

accountant in a good organization

in oman having 4 years experiences

in India and 6 yrs in Muscat in a re-

puted group of companies as senior

accountant . please contact :

95 12 93 52 / 91 35 04 11.

Mining Engineer and also did NE-

BOSH (IGC), Fire and Safety (HABC)

25 year old Pakistani male looking

for job and recently on visit visa.

Available to join respective fi rm.

Contact number# 97412696, Email:

[email protected]

Young boy (B-Com) HAVING experi-

ence Marketing, Customer

Relationship, Store managing .

Seeking suitable opportunities &

presently in India. .

Mob:97239854.

Mail:[email protected]

MEP Project Manager with

engineering degree and 16 years

of experience in Engineering,

Contracting and Execution of Build-

ing, Infrastructure and Industrial

Construction seeks suitable job. NOC

available Contact 95689623

Male from India, 5 years experi-

ence in Business processing and

outsource, Masters in Business Ad-

ministration (MBA), Seeking for and

urgent placement in H.R -Reputed

Organization. Now in India. Contact

00968 98620260, +918898877843,

Email: - [email protected]

Seeking a replacement as IT sup-

port Engineer & graphic designer

in a good organization in Oman.

Young energetic boy having 4 years

worked experiences in same fi eld

in Dubai in hyper market chain of

group of company head offi ce and

customer support executive.

Contact: 91294353.

Indian male, 21 yrs, graduated

in B. Com with computer skills in

tally and Peachtree, seeking suit-

able placement as an accountant.

Contact : 99121506, 92040258,

email:[email protected]

AutoCAD draughtsman, 2 yrs ex-

perience of Oman seeks suitable job.

Contact 93741905 / 93169509. Email

: [email protected]

Indian, Female with 5 yrs Sales &

Admin experience in Oman looking

for a suitable placement.

Contact 98072970

Indian Female, Teacher M.A.Bed, 3

years experience in teaching seeks

suitable position, currently on visit

visa. Contact 91229330 /98489344

18 years of extensive experience in

gulf. Excellent communication

skills in English & Arabic, holding

valid Omani D/L. Looking for a

suitable opportunity. #96383958

Indian male, age 30,having 10 Years

Experience in Accounting ,seeking

for suitable opportunity.#93675399

SIT.WANTED


DAILY GUIDESITUATION WANTEDCARGO

Dolphin Watch, Dhow Cruise with Buffet, & Land Tours

Al- Ainain Marine Tours Contact- 98029602, 92808636

BUSINESS

Wanted Business Head to run travel

agency in Sohar on profi t sharing

basis - contact 97673900

Increase your income on commis-

sion basis with our landscaping &

gardening services provided for big,

small projects &

maintenance contracts.

Contact +968 99242207 Email:

[email protected]

TOURS

TOURS

RENT A CAR

M.V. FOR SALE

Hyundai Tucson 2007 Model, V6,

2.7, company serviced, Expat driven,

165000 kms For RO 3200. Contact

95882130.

2011 Toyota Yaris Automatic in

perfect condition white colour.

Contact 99737879

JCB4CX Model-08 RO 21,000.

Contact 99325827

Corolla 2012. Contact 99336093

Pajero 2008. Contact 99336093

Camry 2010. Contact 99336093

Mitsubishi Pajero 2004 model

white full option. Contact 96608725

Ford focus full options, 2010, 8100

kms, expat lady driven, excellent

condition and all tyres changed

recently for immediate sale. Fixed

price OMR 3000. Contact 99421138

Mercedes C180, 2005.

Contact 99755644

Mitsubishi Lancer model 2009 full

automatic. Contact 99045803

Chevrolet Optra 2011 fully auto-

matic. Contact 92588458

PROTON GEN 2 FOR SALE: Manual

Gear. Good condition. Single owner.

Silver colour. 1st registered August

2009. Full insurance till August

2015, Price OMR 1,680

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

Mitsubishi Lancer 2006 excellent

condition Mulkiya upto 2015-07.

Contact 99378397

A running condition, Mitsubishi

Pick-up, Model 2009, used only for

4 years, Double cabin 4X4 L200,

4CYL 2500CC, is ready for sale.

Contact: 93893906 / 99256757

Ford Focus 2010 fully automatic.

Contact 97385534

FOR HIRE

TRUCK FOR HIREIsuzu 10 ton cargo body truck

(2012 FVR) with UAE experienced driver

available for long term / short term rent.

Contact: 95346950

JCB4CX PDO Approved.

Contact 99325827

JCB4CX PDO Approved.

Contact 99325827

50 seater bus with PDO specifi cation

for rent or lease. Contact99839898

Running truck wash for rent in

Ouhi Sunia Sohar. Serious people

can. Contact on 97864747

TRANSPORTATION

TRANSPORTATION

Transportation. Contact 98178135



Within Seeb, Gubra, Rusayl Circle.

Contact 93198128

Executive driver. Contact 94003617

Transportation Available #97180655


Transportation. Contact: 97897833


Car with driver available.

Contact 99526610







MANPOWER

SERVICES

CLASSES

WEBSITE

WEB, ERP and Business Intelli-

gence (BI) creation and man-

agement at rock bottom price.

Contact: http//webviewoman

COMPUTER

House Shifting. Contact 99708138

GUARANTEED CLEANING: Carpet & sofa shampooing,

Contact 99314807/24792998

MARBLE CRYSTALLIZATION restore the original shine of your

marble. Contact 24793614/

99314807

Civil Maintenance, Painting Elec-

tric, Plumbing, Decor, Tile Fixing,

Lecithin Copra Board fl at stifl ing ,

Carpet Cleaning and A/C Servicing.

Contact 97897831 (Indian keralite)

YallahOman.com - Shop & gift on-

line. Cheapest prices. Pay by card or

cash on delivery.

Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles

polishing, carpet shampooing,

maintenance. Contact ABU QA-

BAS- 99320217 /24788722

A.M Trading Pest control.Contact 99067923

Electrical Plumbing Painting

Contract and Maintenance.

Contact 98456535

Painting Interlock plumbing

maintenance. Contact 92142319

For HT cable jointing and

termination works 33KV/11KV.

Contact 99056438 /


Water proofi ng ABUQABAS-

Contact 99320217/24788722

Door to Door Computers repair

specialist laptop software

Website cartridges.

Contact 99199376

SITUATION WANTEDSERVICES

SITUATION WANTEDSERVICES

Split & window A/C servicing &

repairing. Contact 99557080

Civil maintenance, Electrical &

Plumbing work. Contact 99557080 /

96236476

Window & split unit A/C servicing

& maintenance. Contact 96236476



MEP Design / MEP/ Arch. Shop

drawings. Contact 91467905 /

94373456

We translate documents from

English to Arabic and Arabic to

English. Contact 99242119


repairing. Contact 99557080

Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles

polishing, carpet shampooing,

maintenance. Contact ABU QA-

BAS- 99320217 /24788722

Carpet Shampoo, marble & tile

polishing, pest control & anti-ter-

mite treatment, general cleaning

painting, Plumbing, Electrical,

shifting. Contact Mundhir

Al-Rizaiqi trading. L.L.C. #

24810137, 99450130

Cleaning Services, Carpet Sham-

pooing, General Cleaning, Polish-

ing, Ocean Center LLC.

Contact 99884591

GULF INTERNATIONAL LLC

all kind of pest control.#92326955

We assist Buying / Selling / Renting

/ Empty Plots, Villa, Buildings, Open

Lands, Warehouses, Industrial Lands

on long and short term lease & Man-

agement of Properties. Kindly fax

us or email copy of your kurki with

contact details. Fax No . 24533348,


Window & split unit A/C servicing

& maintenance. Contact 96236476

Catering services We do industrial

catering service, Canteen/ mess, 3

times packed meals, and all types of

catering events. Contact 92188777/

99249899

Truck repairing and truck body

fabrication Misfa Ind. area. Contact

92326955 Bridge Gulfa LLC

Hardware, Networking full setup

and service for home and business

RO 15/- per visit. Call : 92054431,

97311847

Carpet & Sofa Shampooing services.

Ocean Center LLC 92682970

A/C, Fridge & Washing Machine servicing & Repairing,2. Painting,

Plumping, Electrical & carpen-

try works. Contact 97014234 /

24504281 / 99447257

House shifting, packing & Trans-

portation.Contact 99657644 /

98518013

P.R.O Service. Call me 99368907

Pest Control Treatments, termites,

Cockroaches & Rodents. Ocean

Center LLC 99344723

DRIVING

Learn Driving from professional

instructors. Contact 94022250

Learn driving automatic from

scratch. Contact 98599675

M.V. WANTED

Wanted Hatchback car model 2010

or after preferably Sirion/ Tiida/

Swift/ Picanto. Contact 96531723

House shifting & transporting.

Contact 92490422

Electrical Works, Maintenance,

Building Gas Pipelines, Fire Alarm

& Security systems. Contact Amjad

Majees Trading & Contracting:

99467936



times of oman

Documents

n s i n

n sta n t ly

t i v ethe winners

au n c h t h e v

student company jothor

a2i n j

sharikati award ceremony

e s o f o