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MONDAY, October 20, 2014 / 26 Dhul Hijja 1435 AH timesofoman.com wtimesofoman.com facebook.com/timesofoman twitter.com/timesofoman blog.timesofoman.com ISO 9001:2008 Certified Company

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Visa ban reprieve for expats welcome, say firms

REJIMON [email protected]

MUSCAT: The Ministry of Man-power’s decision to lift the ban on hiring expat workers in Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) has been broadly welcomed by the business sector in Oman.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser Al Bakri, Minister of Manpower, is-sued the ministerial decision to start giving visas to non-Omani workers in the small and medium enterprises sector.

“Our construction company falls under small and medium enterprises. We were having a tough time during the last one year. It was quite difficult for us to complete the projects in time. Now, we hope things will change. We were lacking skilled employ-ees at mid and senior levels,” Ad-bul Gafoor, general manager of a construction company, told the Times of Oman.

The decision to lift the ban was based on recommendations of the Committee of Sectoral and Con-tractors Association and to meet

the needs of the labour market in accordance with the fourth item of Article 19 of the Labour Code.

The ministry had stopped issu-ing visas to non-Omani workers in construction and cleaning sec-tors which fell under certain cat-egories for a period of six months, effective from November 1, 2013, and had extended it by another six months in May, 2014.

“We were having ministry pro-jects and were not affected by the visa ban. But, we were worried about the scenario after the pro-ject’s completion. So, we were go-ing a little slow in bidding for new projects. Now, we feel that every-thing will be okay,” Sunil Kumar KK, an official at a construction company in Ruwi, said.

First grade consultancy es-tablishments, companies work-ing on government projects and those managed full time by their Omani owners registered with Public Authority for Develop-ment of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (PADSME) and insured with Public Author-ity for Social Insurance (PASI), were allowed to hire non-Omani workers. >A5

Construction firms

were facing shortage

of skilled personnel

and having difficulty

in completing

projects on time due

to the visa ban on

non-Omani workers

His Majesty receives thanks MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has received a cable of thanks from The Custo-dian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in response to His Maj-esty’s condolences cable on the death of Princess Lulwa bint Abdulaziz bin Mussaed bin Gal-loway Al Saud.

In his cable, King Abdullah expressed his thanks for His Majesty the Sultan’s generous feelings and sincere prayers, praying to Allah the Almighty to rest the deceased’s soul in peace and protect His Majesty against all harms.

His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has also received a ca-ble of thanks from President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China in reply to His Majes-ty’s greetings cable on the occa-sion of the annual anniversary of the foundation of the People’s Republic of China.

In his cable, President Xi Jin-ping expressed his thanks and appreciation for His Majesty the Sultan’s greetings, wishing His Majesty good health and success, affirming the exist-ing relations between the two countries, boosting cooperation and exerting more efforts for progress in ties. -ONA

MUSCAT: Sayyid Khalid bin Hilal bin Saud Al Busai-di, Minister of the Diwan of Royal Court, chairman of the Civil Service Council on Sun-day issued a decision on the holiday of the Holy Prophet’s Hijra Anniversary (PBUH) and the advent of the New Hi-jri year 1436 AH.

The decision said “On the occasion of the Holy Prophet’s (PBUH) Hijra Anniversary and the new Hijri year 1436 AH, it was decided that Sun-day, October 26, 2014 will be an official holiday for the employees of the ministries, public authorities and other departments of the State’s ad-ministrative apparatus”. >A5

S A U D I A R A B I A , C H I N A

A N N O U N C E M E N T

OMANExit option must

1Any pact that does not provide exit routes for parties cannot be

categorised as fair. >A2

OMAN‘Fake’ cigarettes

2Smuggling of counterfeit cigarettes leads to a revenue loss

of nearly OMR3.5m. >A5

REGIONFighting in Kobane

3The fiercest fighting in days shook Kobane on Saturday night. >A7

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

Council of Ministers discusses economyMUSCAT: A review of the Oman Budget 2015 in the wake of fluctu-ating oil prices, steps to stabilise manpower in the private sector and mechanisms to attract foreign investments were the focus of the Council of Ministers’ meetings held recently.

The ministers also approved the setting up of a Centre for Drug Af-fairs to tackle drug addiction.

Acting in accordance with the Royal directives of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said to proceed with the march of economic and social development, the Council of Ministers discussed various is-sues of concern to citizens’ wel-fare and the objectives set for the forthcoming stage of sustainable development.

The discussions, which took place during a series of meetings that the Council held till mid-Oc-tober 2014, covered a wide range of issues, including a review of the Budget 2015 in the backdrop of fluctuating international oil pric-es, ways to enhance the stability

of manpower in the private sector, programmes to develop the water sector, mechanisms to activate commercial activity at Sohar port and means of stepping up invest-ment in the fishery sector. It also approved the setting up of a centre for drug affairs to undertake all preventive and curative aspects of addiction.

DiversificationIn its discussion of the State’s General Budget 2015, the Council of Ministers laid emphasis on the importance of diversification of sources of income from non-oil resources like minerals, fisheries, agriculture and industry.

The Council instructed all gov-ernment departments to stick to allocated spending quotas and to maximise benefits from develop-ment programmes to maintain the State’s financial and economic sta-bility, bearing in mind that oil sec-tor is subject to fluctuations. The Council will forward the budget to the Council of Oman. >A2

S U S T A I N A B L E D E V E L O P M E N T

New Hijri Year holiday

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OMAN

I have been working with a company in Oman since January 2014. I gave my resignation letter to the op-erations manager by hand on September 16, 2014 and he asked me to wait for one day because he needed to discuss it with his superi-ors in Kuwait. On Septem-ber 17, 2014, he told me to send the resignation by mail and on September 18, 2014 the general manager called and informed me that our company policy is that no employee can resign before completing one year and that three month is the notice period. I signed only the appoint-ment letter and there was no agreement. Though any employer is free to decide on the extent of applicable notice period, it is absolute foolishness to insist that no employee can resign for a certain period of time. Any agreement that does not provide for exit routes for the parties cannot be catego-rised as fair and good. If your employer is not releasing you, please approach the Ministry of Manpower.

I would like to clarify an issue regarding my employ-ment with one of the well known restaurants here in Muscat. I have been a loyal female expatriate employ-ee for the past three years. I have slip ups of absences due to sickness but it falls in the category of less than 15 consecutive sick leaves. I have produced a sick leave certificate every time I came back. They have informed me that my sick leave was produced only by me and not from the hospital (even with the hospital stamp). They said the hospital returned the e-mail stating that my sick

leave was fake. I informed that if the hospital denied my sick leave I do not wish to fight over the issue but (agreed) to deduct my salary. The sick leave they have issued is valid for three days while I took only a day of absence. Recently I went for a holiday. During my holiday, I noticed that they have hired a female executive to take over my workload. Everything went smoothly until I received notifications that they have removed my e-mails from all social media accounts of the company and that they’re providing her with my mobile number which I’m currently using for work instead of replace-ment. I have no warning memos but with the recent changes of workload plus

the fact that we currently do not have female visas and that they have hired her still, I will come back to Oman from my holidays speculating that a termina-tion will be granted. I have provided you information regarding my sick leave which is the only reason of my fall out with the compa-ny. Can you please inform me what is the proper way to address the issue once termination is sent to me?The Labour Law states that it is illegal to terminate an em-ployee while he or she is on va-cation. So, if your employer will terminate you while you are away on vacation, such termi-nation will be null and void and it does not have the sanction of law. If you have committed a grave mistake by submitting fake medical certificates, your employer will no longer be able to use them to punish you due to lapse of time.

An employee can resign from job at any point of time

C O M M E N T A R Y

Times of Oman, in association with Khalifa Al Hinai Legal Consultants, will answer the legal queries of readers every Monday. Questions can be sent to [email protected]

SCAN HERE TO EMAIL YOUR QUERIES

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

AL ROWAS MEETS US OFFICIALAbdulaziz bin Mohammed Al Rowas, Adviser to His Majesty the Sultan for Cultural Af-

fairs, received in his office here on Sunday Evan Ryan, Assistant US Secretary of State

for Educational and Cultural Affairs. The exchanges involved cultural issues of the two

countries. The meeting was attended by Greta C. Holtz, US Ambassador to Oman. — ONA

Vital issues discussedTo ensure the stability and growth of manpower in the pri-vate sector, the Council of Min-isters approved ways to develop the criteria of application for jobs provided that the establish-ments concerned would jointly devise a public awareness plan to highlight the efforts being made to stabilise Omani manpower in the sector and to list them in the schedule of higher grades. The council also instructed the insti-tutions concerned to develop pro-fessional mechanisms of training in the Sultanate. This is besides preparing a separate bylaw to or-ganise training for state-financed projects so that the regulations could incorporate good perfor-mance and quality of training.

‘Officials must visit the wilayats’Further to its past decisions on administrative development in the governorates of the Sultan-ate, the Council of Ministers gave instructions to intensify government officials’ visits to the wilayats to follow up means of providing better services and hold meetings with local admin-istrators in accordance with a pe-riodic programme. The Council of Ministers also took note of on-going development projects in the Governorate of Al Buraimi.

Management of water resourcesIn pursuance of the Royal direc-tives of His Majesty the Sultan to develop the water sector, the Council studied means of unify-ing methods of planning and man-agement of water resources in the Sultanate, while at the same time maximising benefits from this

sector in a fair manner and with-out harming the natural water system. The council stressed that, while priority should be given to the water sector in general, pro-jects for the maintenance of aflaj (water streams) and construction of surface recharge dams should also be accorded importance.

In this context, the Council of Ministers settled on a number of mechanisms and programmes to carry out the following: to con-duct technical, hydrological and geological studies to look for new groundwater reservoirs and pro-vide water from non-conventional sources; to benefit from interna-tional artificial rains programmes to enhance Oman’s water re-sources, utilise modern irrigation techniques and apply water quo-tas to limit groundwater overuse, while at the same time finding solutions for the phenomenon of water waste; to implement princi-ples of total management of water resources and the development of these resources in a manner that achieves a balance between social and economic needs.

Attracting foreign investmentsIn its meetings, the Council of Ministers also underlined the need to encourage and develop the mechanisms of attracting foreign investments. The aim is to make a comprehensive assessment of the investment sector and define the obstacles, challenges and the rel-evant legal frameworks.

Activating commercial activity at Sohar portIn its persistent efforts to acti-vate business in the Sultanate, the Council of Ministers reviewed the

report of the Ministry of Trans-port and Communications on the impacts of transfer of commercial activities from Port Sultan Qaboos to the Port of Sohar and proposals made in this regard.

The Council of Ministers in-structed the parties concerned to facilitate and streamline the procedures and to intensify co-operation with the private sector to overcome problems that im-pede the smooth flow of business at the port.

To facilitate the finalisation of services, diminish administrative burdens for those dealing with commercial activity and reach a quick exchange of data among government units, the Council of Ministers studied the progress made in the e-government project and executive steps to carry out the one-stop-shop investment project. The Council of Ministers gave directives to speed up proce-dures and remove obstacles that might obstruct the project.

To encourage the flow of in-vestments in the fish farming sector and double the Sultan-ate’s fishery production – both from natural and fishery culture projects – and to achieve major revenue to supplement the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the council of Ministers underscored the significance of maximising benefits from this sector by offer-ing more incentives to attract in-vestors. The Council of Ministers approved the allocation of areas, both on land and water, for fish farming projects.

It is worth noting that the de-partments concerned, acting in cooperation with the World Bank, are currently drafting a strategy for the fishery sector.

C O U N C I L O F M I N I S T E R S

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Ministry to plug teacher shortage

FAHAD AL [email protected]

MUSCAT: In order to make up for the shortage of teachers in certain subjects, the Ministry of Education has called for recruit-ing part time teachers.

The media announcement urged those teachers who had retired or had otherwise re-signed from their jobs to take up the opportunity.

The ministry also mentioned in the announcement that it will contact applicants for the part time job in keeping with each governorate’s requirements. The ministry will decide when they will have to join work.

Welcoming the move, Sultan Al Abri, the Shura member rep-resenting the wilaiyat of Ibri, through a twitter post nominated himself to work in one of the Sul-tanate’s schools.

“I am ready to work without receiving any salary to help push the wheel of education,” Al Abri said through his account.

Some reservationsSome people expressed unhap-piness with the ministry’s an-nouncement.

“This (shortage of teachers) is a result of closing down the college of education in the Sultanate,” said Husein Al Rahbi, who works in the government sector.

He also said that the minis-try’s decision to close down sev-eral colleges of education was not the right decision .

Agreeing with Al Abri, a teach-er working in the private sector, Huzeim Al Mani said, “It was be-cause of the shutting down of col-leges that the ministry reduced the number of new intakes in each college.”

UrgedHe also said that the ministry of education still depended upon ex-patriate teachers, while the gov-ernment claimed that Omanisa-tion drive was being carried out in the private sector. “The ministry should bring back the institutions producing Omani cadres and try to carry out Omanisation drive to its maximum in the education sector,” said Al Mani.

An online newspaper had ear-lier carried out a story about shortage in some specialities in the Sultanate’s schools, citing claims made by teachers and su-pervisors. The news report had also mentioned that the ministry of education had called upon the teachers to postpone the antici-pated resignations lest the teach-er shortage scenario worsens, af-fecting the educational process.

The ministry also mentioned in the

announcement that it will contact applicants

for the part time job in keeping with each

governorate’s requirements. The ministry

will decide when they will have to join work

Two arrested on charges of human trafficking

STAFF REPORTER

MUSCAT: Two nationals were arrested in the Wilayat of Buraimi for attempting to smuggle two Asian women across the border.

An official at the ROP said the two nationals were arrested after a tip off that they intended to smuggle two women across the border inside the trunk of their vehicle.

The nationals were appre-hended along with the women by the ROP. The four accused were forwarded to the Public Prosecution for trial.

The ROP has arrested 772 Asians in a number of wilayats for violating Omani labour laws. The arrests followed raids by the ROP, in coordination with the Public Prosecution and Minis-try of Manpower.

B U R A I M I

A4 M O N DAY, O CTO B E R 2 0, 2 0 14

OMANCity Centre’s project to nurture Omani artists

SARAH [email protected]

MUSCAT: The City Centre malls in Oman will be brightened up by artists painting live on location until October 30 as part of a new initiative launched on Sunday called the ‘Art of C’.

The project, inaugurated by HH Sayyida Aliya Thuwainy Shihab Al Said, is a collaboration between Majid Al Futtaim’s City Centre Qurum and City Centre Muscat and the Omani Society for Fine Arts (OSFA).

Described as a “community-building” event, it will bring art into a public space and let emerg-ing artists learn from established Omani artists.

“Guests can witness the artists in action. Through the ‘Art of C’ we are hoping to strengthen Oman’s art and heritage,” said Watfa Hu-maid Al Harthy, Senior Mall Man-ager for City Centre Qurum.

Seven renowned Omani art-ists will mentor 35 aspiring art-ists who competed to participate in the project. The mentors are Anwar Sonia, Abdul Majeed Ka-rooh, Mohammed Shaml, Ali Khalfan Al Marshoodi, Iftikhar Al Badawi, Salim Sakhi and Maryam Al Zadjali. Each of the 42 artists

will decorate a giant letter C, and at the end of the working period, on October 30, the pieces will be judged and prizes awarded to the best work.

There will also be two more let-ters will messages for His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, bringing the total to 44, in honour of the 44th National Day of Oman.

Highlight local talentMaryam Al Zadjali, director of OSFA, said she was proud of the City Centre malls, which are from the private sector, for initiating an event with a government organi-sation to highlight local talent and showcase Oman’s creative wealth.

“This interactive art workshop is inspiring to young promising artists and providing them with a platform to showcase their tal-ent. We hope that the private sec-

tor will follow the example of City Centre,” Al Zadjali commented.

Ronnie Pascual, a Filipino resi-dent of Oman, was one of the lucky 35 chosen to be a part of the “Art of C.” He saw a poster advertising the event and entered a sketch of his proposed design, which features portraits of Omanis and expats who make up the local commu-nity, as well as geometric patterns found on local buildings.

“I took the chance and submit-ted my sketch and it was accept-ed. Being one of the 35 selected is already a privilege,” he said, add-ing that winning a prize would

just be a bonus. For the mentors the “Art of C” is an opportunity to inspire other artists and teach them the importance of practic-ing their work every day, said Ab-dul Majeed Karooh.

InspiringHe has often been involved in projects like this, which he says are very inspiring since he gets to work with other creative minds instead of painting alone in his studio.

Anwar Sonya, who is fondly referred to as the “Godfather of Omani Arts” by others in the arts community, said he is also happy to participate in the new initiative.

“It’s a very good idea so people will know about the arts in Oman. The artists will get to know each other, and I want to work with these people,” Sonya said.

The Art of C’ project

is a ‘community-

building’ event and

it will bring art into a

public space and let

emerging talent learn

from established

Omani artists

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Italian Business Ex-perience was officially opened on Sunday by Chief Guest Sheikh Muhanna bin Saif bin Hamad Al Ma’awali, the Wali of Bausher.

The Italian Ambassador, Paola Amadei, spoke to the participat-ing Italian companies, welcom-ing them to the Sultanate and the many opportunities in the coun-try. The event will continue for three days between October 19 and 21 at Al Noor Hall in Madinat al Sultan Qaboos.

The Business to Business (B2B) event is being held for the second year after a successful start last year. As many as 60 per cent of the companies participating last year have successfully found local partners by the help of Easy Busi-ness LLC. Easy Business LLC has their Italian office in Turin from where they find the most suitable Italian companies for Oman and the development in the country.

“Our way of working has prov-en to be effective and fruitful. We scan the market both in Italy and Oman to find matches at an early stage. After our first introduc-

tion, we invite these companies to come here. The very well estab-lished way of doing business here is not so well known outside the region. The first impression is al-ways positive as these companies quickly realise the many oppor-tunities in the country. The event this year consists of professional companies within many different areas,” says Giselda Abate, CEO of Easy Business LLC.

The other organising company, OMANEXPO is the pioneer event management company and the leading organiser of major trade shows, exhibitions and confer-ences in the Sultanate.

“We have invited both large and small investor companies to the Italian Business Experience 2014. Our network allows us to reach all government organisa-tions as well as the private sector. With our long experience we may say that we are confident many of these Italian companies will find both partners and investors,” said Nader Abbas, general manager of OMANEXPO.

Bank Sohar has teamed up with the organisers of the Italian Busi-ness Experience to give support

and information to the participat-ing companies during the event.

Most companies are small to medium sized enterprises (SME) and are looking for a local part-ner to build a business with in the Sultanate. Every company is in need of understanding and reli-able banking partner. It becomes even more important when you’re starting up a business in a foreign country.

Currently, about 25 per cent of Italian export in the country is constituted by specialised machinery, particularly in the processing of marble, transport equipment, metals and electrical appliances.

In 2013, Italy had exported products to Oman with a total value of over 435 million euro. “Considering that in 2009 Italian exports to the country amounted to approximately 320 million euro, we can say that in five years exports from Italy to the Sultan-ate rose by 36 per cent,” stated a press release.

“For 2014 figure, there are still no official estimates, but given the interest for the made in Italy, we expect a further increase.”

T H R E E - D A Y E V E N T

UNIQUE INITIATIVE: HH Sayyida Aliya Thuwainy Shihab Al Said inaugurated the ‘Art of C’ project to

strengthen Oman’s art and heritage. – O K Mohammed Ali/Times of Oman

BOOSTING TRADE: Italian Business Experience was officially opened by Chief Guest Sheikh Muhan-

na bin Saif bin Hamad Al Ma’awali, the Wali of Bausher, on Sunday. -Jun Estrada/Times of Oman

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

Seminar on date palm

Times News Service

NIZWA: Oman Chamber of Com-merce and Industry, Nizwa branch, on Sunday organised a seminar on the role of the 1 million date palm trees project in supporting SMEs in Oman. The opening ceremony was sponsored by Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Saadi, Governor of the Governorate of A’Dakhiliyah

who pointed out that the plantation of 1 million date palm trees came as a royal initiative by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said.

The seminar was organised by the Directorate General of One Million Date Palm Tree Project at the Diwan of Royal Court with participation of a number of public and private organisations as part of the 2nd Omani Dates Festival.

S U P P O R T I N G S M E S

Italian Business Experience to boost trade with Oman

Guests can witness the artists in action. Through the ‘Art of

C’ we are hoping to strengthen Oman’s art and heritage

Watfa Humaid Al Harthy, Senior Mall Manager for City Centre Qurum

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Fake cigarettes cause OMR3.5m loss to country

STAFF REPORTER

MUSCAT: Smuggling of counter-feit cigarettes leads to a revenue loss of nearly OMR3.5 million to the country and they constitute 21 per cent of illegal products be-ing brought into the Omani mar-ket by smugglers.

Further, the majority of con-sumers who buy smuggled goods are between the age group of 18 and 45, according to a study con-ducted by the Euromonitor Re-search Associate.

The study revealed that ille-gally smuggled goods are in high demand among low-income ex-patriates due to their crave for less expensive products.

The study pointed out that smuggled cigarettes constitute 30 per cent of the total tobacco prod-ucts in the Sultanate.

In spite of the decline in the prices of tobacco products in the black market, smugglers’ profits reaches up to 200 per cent. Tax-es and high prices are the most important factors contributing

to the high rate of trafficking, as indicated by the Euromonitor Research.

Additionally, raising the cus-toms duties on cigarettes may lead to an increase in the illicit trade due to the inability of con-sumers to buy cigarettes which are bought in the country after the payment of necessary duties, according to the study.

Meanwhile, an official at the Royal Oman Police, told Times of Oman that the ROP works hard to combat smuggling at borders and customs posts, which are primar-ily used by tobacco smugglers.

“The General Administration of Customs of the ROP pursues smugglers through a comput-erised and accurate system. It carries out investigation and risk assessment leading to clamping down on these smugglers and thwarting their plans to smug-gle prohibited goods and con-traband into the Sultanate”, says the official.

The official reiterated that

many smugglers use different methods to cross borders and il-legal goods are often hidden in trucks travelling between Oman and other GCC countries.

Some criminals use the moun-tain and sea routes to smuggle goods into the country and the ROP has foiled many such at-tempts in the past. An official said that there are plans to increase penalties for smuggling.

Observers have noted that il-licit trade leads to many negative impacts on the nation’s economy and the health of individuals, stressing the need for more ef-forts by authorities to crack down on smuggling.

Consignment seizedA consignment of 3,728 counter-feit cigarettes was seized by the Public Authority for Consumer Protection (PACP) in the wilay-ats of Sur and Jaalan Bani bu Ali. PACP calls upon all the suppli-ers to abide by the regulations to avoid legally accountability.

Illegally smuggled

goods are in high

demand among

the low-income

expatriates due to

their low purchasing

power, says the study

Counterfeit products in the market

GraphicsSource: Euromonitor Research Associate

Smuggled goods have a high demand among the low income group due to cheaper price as compared to the goods brought after tax payment.

Profit is reaped by smugglersby selling fake products

200%is the quantity of smuggled cigarettes when compared to total tobacco products in oman 30%

OMR 3.5 millionLoss of Customs Revenue due to smuggling

18 45

Major consumers of smuggled goods

Age group

Ministry keeps tab on Crimean Congo fever

MUSCAT: Dr Fuad bin Ja’afar Al Sajwani, Minister of Agricul-ture and Fisheries said that the department has been following the Crimean Congo Haemor-rhagic Fever.

The ministry has maintained coordination with the authori-ties concerned in the Sultanate, such as the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Regional Mu-nicipalities, Environment and Water Resources, Muscat Mu-nicipality, Dhofar Municipal-ity and Sohar Municipality to raise public awareness about the disease.

He added that the Joint Dis-ease Committee has published advertisements in local news-paper and media before Eid Al Adha about the measures to be taken to control the transmis-sion of disease from animals to the human beings.

He pointed out that the dis-ease had originated in a number of African, Asian, European and Middle Eastern countries. As per the available data, three cas-es were recorded in the Sultan-ate in 1995 and only one case in 1996. While three positive cases were recorded in 2012, the num-ber of positive cases increased to 10 in 2013. So far 14 cases have been recorded in 2014 in-cluding the six during Eid Al Adha, including a death case.

He added that for more than five years, the ministry has been implementing an epidemic map for the animal and joint dis-eases. The survey pointed out that the Crimean Congo Haem-orrhagic Fever is hosted by the animals in the governorates and that it affects man after the slaughtering of an animal.

The ministry continues its coordination with the respec-tive bodies to raise public awareness about the dangers of this disease and that they should remain cautious, especially dur-ing slaughtering or dealing with animals that may be affected by the disease. The ministry seeks to control this disease and limit its spread among animals by providing the pesticides that control the transmitters of these diseases, he concluded. -ONA

R A I S I N G A W A R E N E S S

‘Balanced approach needed’Meanwhile, a Shura member said that the Ministry of Manpower should study the issue in-depth and come out with a practical so-lution that can benefit both the economy and the Omani workers.

“We cannot have a single solu-tion for all issues related to hiring. It is not possible at all. Expansion of the economy is a must for the growth of the country. Accord-

ing to me, we should not close the doors in the face of expatri-ate workers, especially in some sectors, but at the same time, bal-ance should be maintained when it comes to hiring Omani workers also,” the Shura member said.

Rashid Khalfan, owner of a con-struction company, was reluctant to welcome the new move.

Rashid runs a company while

working in a government depart-ment and since all his employees are expatriates, under the law, he cannot register his company with PADSME and insured with PASI for this reason.

“What about people like me and our companies?” Rashid asked while saying that a practical solu-tion should be found to resolve these issues.

E A S I N G V I S A B A N

Hijra AnniversaryOn this great occasion, the Min-ister of the Diwan of Royal Court extended his congratulations to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, praying to Allah the Al-mighty to protect His Majesty, grant him good health, happi-ness and a long life and for the return of this and similar occa-sions on His Majesty for many years to come and the Omani people and dear country with further progress and welfare under His Majesty’s wise leader-

ship and all Muslims with bless-ings and welfare.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser Al Bakri, Minister of Manpower also issued a decision on the occasion of the new Hijri year 1436 AH de-claring that Sunday, October 26, 2014 will be an official holiday for employees at the private sector’s companies and establishments.

The decision allowed employ-ers and employees to agree on compensating this holiday if ne-cessity arises. -ONA

H O L I D A Y N O T I C E

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Laserblast has no side

effects and is totally safe

Abbas Khalil, project manager

With Laserblast, it’s a thrill to fire at rivalsELHAM [email protected]

MUSCAT: If you are looking for an exciting activity in your free time, you need not look very far. Laserblast, a recently launched game at Fun Zone centre in Qu-rum, will give you a heart-racing experience.

Launched for the first time in Oman, Laserblast is a live laser tag gun combat, somewhat similar to the popular game of Paintball. However, instead of being hit by pellets, players are required to un-leash laser fire at their opponents.

Speaking to the Times of Oman, Abbas Khalil, project manager, said that the aim of the game is to score points by tagging the sen-sors placed on shoulders, chest, waist and the back of your oppo-nents’ vest.

Set up in a 200 square metre area indoors, the setup featuring special light effects, fog and music,

resembles a battle zone and can ca-ter to any number of players rang-ing from 2 to 14 at any one time. Khalil said that it is a true fam-ily and group activity, which com-bines technology with live action.

“It has no side effects and is totally safe,” he said, adding that the thrilling battle is suitable for birthday parties and other fun occasions and can be tailored for each group. It is better that res-

ervations are made in advance, Khalil said.

According to him, every ac-tion and score is recorded by the system run by the operator, based on which the winning team is an-nounced. “The system will show whom you hit and who hit you and also which censors were tagged,” he said.

Asked about players’ feedback, Khalil said that they found it a fun and exciting battle and really ‘loved’ it as it helped reduce stress and gave them a chance to release their energy. Laserblast is open from 10am to 11pm every day, ex-cept Fridays when it is open from 1pm to 11pm. Reservations can be made at 95677480.

NEW EXPERIENCE: Launched for the first time in Oman, Laser-

blast is a live laser tag gun combat somewhat similar to the

popular game of Paintball. -Jun Estrada/Times of Oman

F U N Z O N E


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

Indian School Darsait lifts Jhankaar trophy

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Indian School Dar-sait lifted the Jhankaar Spectrum Champions Trophy organised by the Indian School Muscat.

Nearly 1,700 students from 17 Indian Schools matched their tal-ents in 24 events organised simul-taneously at 15 different venues during this mega event.

The Indian School Muscat,

which was the host school, and the Indian School Wadi Kabir, were declared the first and sec-ond runners-up, respectively, of Jhankaar Spectrum 2014.

The Indian School Muscat hosted the 8th Jhankaar Spec-trum, the magnificent art and cultural competition on October 18, on the school’s premises. The chief guest, J S Mukul, Ambas-sador of India to the Sultanate of

Oman, inaugurated this event. The presence of the guest

of honour, Dr. Avirat Vaishnav, president of the School Manag-ing Committee, members of the Board of Directors of the Indian Schools in Oman, members of ISM Managing Committee, prin-cipals of Indian Schools in Oman, invitees, parents, and a large num-ber of students, made it an exqui-site event.

The chief guest addressed the gathering, unfurled the Jhankaar flag and declared the panorama of cultural events open. Principal Srinivas K Naidu accorded a for-mal welcome to the guests.

The fascinating blend of vari-ous emotions delineated through the series of performances by the participants made the inaugural ceremony memorable.

‘Vikasti,’ showcasing the evolu-tion of talents and the evolution of Jhankaar, ‘Samarpan’, ‘Anekta Mein Ekta’ and the Jhankaar An-them, delighted the gathering.

The chief guest congratulated the ISM for playing a leading role. “Indian School Muscat has made great contribution towards student welfare, and created plat-forms for the children to come together and interact with one an-other,” he noted.

The Indian School

Muscat, which was

the host school, and

the Indian School

Wadi Kabir, were

declared the first and

second runners-upTHE WINNERS: The fascinating blend of various emotions deline-

ated through the series of performances by the participants made

the inaugural ceremony memorable. – Supplied photo



His Majesty sends

greetings to Bahrain

MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has sent a cable of congratulations to Prince Khal-ifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bah-rain on the success of the medical test that he underwent recently. In his cable, His Majesty the Sultan

has expressed his sincere congrat-ulations along with his best wishes of good health and wellbeing and the Bahrain brotherly people fur-ther progress and prosperity under the wise leadership of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of the Kingdom of Bahrain. -ONA

C A B L E

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REGIONM O N DAY, O C TO B E R 2 0, 2 0 1 4

RETURN FIRE: Iraqi fighters, loyal to Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, fire missiles from a launcher

during clashes with IS militant group fighters in Karbala on Sunday. – AFP

Iran and world powers to resume

expert-level nuclear negotiations

TEHRAN: Expert-level talks between Iran and world powers aimed at clearing the path toward a nuclear deal will be held on Wednesday and Thursday in Vi-enna, a top Iranian official said.

Iran and the P5+1 group of na-tions (Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States plus Germany) are seeking a compre-hensive agreement over Tehran’s nuclear programme by a Novem-ber 24 deadline.

However, the talks have been hit by disputes over what limits should be placed on Iran’s atomic activities, particularly its enrich-ment of uranium, and on the pro-

cess of lifting US, UN and Euro-pean sanctions.

“Negotiations between experts from Iran and the P5+1 will be held on Wednesday and Thursday in Vienna,” Iranian negotiator and Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi was quoted as saying by the official Irna news agency.

The date of the next meeting be-tween the Iranian delegation, the United States and European Un-ion foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who is shepherding the negotiations, will be announced later, according to Iranian nego-tiator and Deputy Foreign Minis-ter. — AFP

S T A N D O F F

Heavy losses to IS militants near besieged Kobane

MURSITPINAR (TURKEY): The IS group was taking heavy losses in the Syrian battle-ground of Kobane on Sunday as Iraqi forces fought the militants buoyed by US backing for top gov-ernment security appointments.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said the appointment of defence and interior ministers in Iraq after weeks of delay was a “very positive step forward” in the fightback against IS in Iraq, which Washington has made its priority.

11 air strikesBut US-led warplanes launched 11 air strikes near Kobane on Saturday and Sunday, US Cen-tral Command said, helping the town’s Kurdish defenders to re-pulse a new attempt to cut their supply lines into Turkey.

The Kurdish fighters, who have been under IS assault for more than a month, weathered fierce street fighting and at least two ex-

tremist suicide bombings but the front line remained unchanged on Sunday, a Kurdish official said.

“(IS) brought in reinforce-ments... and attacked hard,” Idris Nassen said by telephone.

“But thanks to air strikes and (the Kurdish fighters’) response, they did not make any progress.”

The IS fighters suffered heavy losses in Kobane, which has become a key prize as it is be-ing fought under the gaze of the world’s press massed just over the border in Turkey.

From Saturday into Sunday morning, a total of 31 militants died in the battle, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Coalition air strikes near Kob-ane hit 20 IS fighting positions, five IS vehicles and two IS-held

buildings, said Central Com-mand, with the Observatory add-ing that they killed 15 militants.

Clashes on groundClashes on the ground killed another 16 militants and seven Kurdish fighters, said the Brit-ain-based Observatory, which has a wide network of sources inside Syria.

A steady flow of bodies from the Kobane fighting have arrived at an IS-controlled hospital further east, the Observatory said.

The corpses of at least 70 mili-tants had been brought into the mortuary in the town of Tal Aby-ad in the past four days.

The US military has said it sees “encouraging” signs in the battle for Kobane, although it warns the town may still fall.

On Sunday the White House said President Barack Obama called his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan and that they pledged to “strengthen coop-eration” against IS in Syria. — AFP

US-led warplanes

launched 11 air

strikes helping

Kobane’s Kurdish

defenders to repulse

a new attempt to cut

their supply lines

into Turkey

KEEPING CLOSE WATCH: Kurdish people watch the Syrian town of

Ain Al Arab, called Kobane by the Kurds, from the Turkish border

in the southeastern village of Mursitpinar, Sanliurfa province, on

Sunday. – AFP


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

Negotiations between experts from

Iran and the P5+1 will be held on

Wednesday and Thursday in Vienna

Abbas Araqchi, Iranian negotiator

and Deputy Foreign Minister

HARD TALKS: Iranian negotia-

tor and Deputy Foreign Minister

Abbas Araqchi said the date of

the next meeting with the Unit-

ed States and EU foreign policy

chief Catherine Ashton will be

announced later. – AFP/Files

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INDIAM O N DAY, O CTO B E R 2 0, 2 0 14

My public life amounts to swimming in a sea of inferno. As

your dear sister, I have realised the perils of dedicating oneself

to the cause of public welfare from the day I entered politics

J. Jayalalithaa, Former Tamil Nadu chief minister

SIA plane hits turbulence, 22 hurtSINGAPORE: More than 400 people on board a Singapore Air-lines Airbus A380 superjumbo from Singapore to Mumbai had a narrow escape after it was hit by a sudden turbulence on descent, in-juring 22 passengers and crew.

“Singapore Airlines flight SQ424 from Singapore to Mumbai experienced sudden turbulence during descent on October 18.

There were 408 passengers and 25 crew on board,” the airlines said in a statement.

Hospitalisation“Eight passengers and 14 crew sus-tained injuries and were attended to by medical personnel on arrival at Mumbai Airport. Of the 14 crew, 10 required hospitalisation. They have been cleared and discharged

by the medical personnel. All eight passengers were hospitalised and six have been discharged by the medical personnel after examina-tion,” the statement said.

“Our immediate concern is for the well-being of our passengers and crew. Singapore Airlines will provide full assistance to the au-thorities in their investigations,” lo-cal media quoted SIA statement. - PTI

S I N G A P O R E - M U M B A I F L I G H T F I R S T S T A T E M E N T

SOLIDARITY: Policemen disperse supporters of former chief minister of Tamil Nadu Jayalalithaa as

their leader drives past in a car upon release from a prison in Bengaluru on Saturday. - PTI

‘193 dead due to my present situation’

CHENNAI: Putting up a brave front, AIADMK chief Jay-alalithaa on Sunday assured party workers that she will come out of the present case as she had suc-cessfully faced many challenges, saying her “public life amounted to swimming in a sea of inferno.”

In her first statement after walking out of the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison at Banga-lore on Saturday, the former Chief

Minister said she had been facing challenges in life for long.

“I have successfully come out of them. With your love and the grand support of the people of Tamil Nadu by my side, I am not going to be cowed down or lose heart,” said Jayalalithaa, who was sentenced to four years in prison in the Rs 66.65 crore dispropor-tionate assets case.

“My public life amounts to swimming in a sea of inferno. As your dear sister, I have realised the perils of dedicating oneself to the cause of public welfare from the day I entered politics,” the 66-year-old leader said.

Recalling that her mentor and party founder MG Ramachandran had secured an assurance from her that she will dedicate herself to leading AIADMK, she said she was living by that promise.

The welfare of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and its workers, par-ticularly the well-being of people of Tamil Nadu, were her prime goals and she continued to walk this path unmindful of the “chal-lenges, grief and pain” she could face in this process, as “God has

given me the maturity to take such pains in my stride.”

She assured the party workers she will meet their expectations besides continuing to work for the welfare of the people of the state. Jayalalithaa claimed 193 persons had died due to her “present situ-ation,” (following her sentencing in the case) and expressed con-cern over three other persons at-tempting suicide.

The party released the list of the 193 deceased persons, saying 139 of them died of heart attack while the rest ended their lives.

Expressing her sympathies with the families of the de-ceased, she announced a relief of Rs300,000 to each of them even as she said the party will provide Rs50,000 each for the three per-sons towards medical treatment.

She urged supporters not to take any such extreme steps and also thanked all those who had prayed for her release. After the Supreme Court granted her bail in the case, Jayalalithaa was released on bail on Saturday, arriving to a grand homecoming with scores of supporters turning up to welcome her despite heavy rain. - PTI

Expressing her

sympathies with

the families of

the deceased,

Jayalalithaa

announced a relief

of Rs300,000

to each of them

A9

INDIAM O N DAY, O C TO B E R 2 0, 2 0 1 4

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BJP storms to power in Haryana, set to form government in Maharashtra

MUMBAI/CHANDIGARH: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sun-day stormed to power in Haryana for the first time and was all set to form government in Maharashtra where support came from unex-pected quarters, the NCP, as the ‘Modi wave’ destroyed the Con-gress citadels in both the states.

While in Haryana, the party won a majority on its own bagging 47 seats in the 90-member Assem-bly, it emerged as the single largest party in Maharashtra where it had broken alliance with its oldest ally Shiv Sena ahead of the elections.

It was leading in one more seat in Haryana. Reflecting the domi-nance the party had exhibited in

the Lok Sabha elections in May, the BJP dislodged Congress in Harya-na, which was in power for the last 10 years. It put up a splendid show, recording a jump from a mere four seats in the last elections.

In Maharashtra, where it con-tested in alliance with three small parties, secured 122 seats in the 288-member Assembly.

Unsolicited supportThough falling short of majority by 22 seats, the BJP was on the way to forming government in Maharash-tra with unsolicited support from rival NCP which was in power in coalition with Congress for the last 15 years.

BJP President Amit Shah hint-ed that the party was not averse to NCP’s support and virtually ig-nored Shiv Sena, its oldest saffron ally. Sena won 61 seats out of 282 it contested. He noted that the NCP has offered unconditional outside support and not talked of joining the government.

In the elections, seen as the first test of Modi’s popularity after his Lok Sabha victory, the BJP mas-cot proved that the party’s show in May was not a flash in the pan though a majority eluded it in Ma-harashtra. He had campaigned extensively in both the states, ad-dressing 27 rallies in Maharashtra and 11 in Haryana.

Even as last results tricked in, the BJP Parliamentary Board, the party’s highest decision-making body, met yesterday evening to de-cide its strategy in Maharashtra. Modi, Shah and others including Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Shivraj Singh Chouhan at-tended the meeting.

As speculation mounted as to whether the BJP will approach Sena, NCP leader Praful Patel an-nounced outside support to it in government formation in the “in-terest” of stability and develop-ment of the state.

“NCP has decided to extend support to the proposed govern-ment of the BJP in Maharashtra...

There is no option but to see that the largest party forms a stable government. Also the BJP is ruling in the Centre and it will benefit the state,” Patel told reporters.

Meanwhile, BJP veteran L. K. Advani on Sunday favoured a tie-up with its oldest ally Shiv Sena to form the government in Maha-rashtra while discounting the pos-sibility of any truck with NCP.

As the party fell short of an abso-lute majority in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, he said it would be better “if the old relation-ship is revived”. Advani said that he was a bit disappointed when the Shiv Sena and BJP decided to con-test polls separately.

Historic results Prime Minister Narendra Modi described as “historic results” the electoral victory in Haryana and Maharashtra and said it was a

matter of immense happiness and pride for BJP.

“Historic results! A matter of immense happiness & pride for BJP. I salute our Karyakartas for their tireless efforts,” he tweeted as the party got majority in Har-yana and emerged as the largest party in Maharashtra and was set to form government.

The BJP had contested 257 seats on its own and gave its symbol to 23 allied candidates. Its ally Rashtriya Samaj Paksha won a lone seat.

In the outgoing House, the BJP had 47 members and its then ally Shiv Sena 45. The Congress had 81 and the NCP 62. - PTI

In Haryana, the party

won a majority on its

own bagging 46 seats

in the 90-member

Assembly, it emerged

as the single largest

party in Maharashtra

where it had broken

alliance with its

oldest ally Shiv Sena

ahead of the elections

CELEBRATIONS: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers celebrating the party’s victory in the Assembly polls in Rohtak on Sunday. Right, BJP supporters of celebrate after learning of initial poll results outside their party office in Mumbai on Sunday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP made big gains in two Indian state elections, results showed on Sunday, in an endorsement that will encourage him to step up the pace of economic reforms. - PTI, Reuters

NEW DELHI: Buoyed by party’s victory in Maharashtra and Haryana, Delhi BJP on Sunday said it will push for fresh election in the national capital, banking on the ‘Modi wave’ to wrest power, and may turn down any offer by Lt Governor Najeeb Jung to take a shot at government formation.

General Secretary of Delhi BJP and South Delhi MP Ramesh Bidhuri said the result of the assembly polls in Maharashtra and Haryana have “proved” that support for BJP was not waning and the party will come out with clear man-

date if Delhi goes to polls again. “We are ready for fresh elec-

tion as soon as possible. We will push for early polls. The Modi wave continues to sweep the country and BJP will come to power with thumping majority if elections are held in Delhi again,” Bidhuri said.

Asserting that party has strengthened its support base significantly since the assembly polls in December last year, Bidhuri said majority of party workers in the city are fully pre-pared to face the election again.

Asked what will be BJP’s position if Lt Governor Najeeb

Jung invites it to form govern-ment, he said the party will not take the reins of power by adopting any unfair means.

The Lt Governor last month had sent a report to President Pranab Mukherjee seeking permission to invite the BJP to form a government in Delhi.

In the report, Jung gave a detailed analysis of the political situation and underlined the need to have an elected govern-ment in the city which is under President’s rule since February 17 following resignation of the AAP government which was in power for 49 days. -PTI

After twin wins, Delhi BJP ready for fresh polls MAHARASHTRA

Constituencies............288

BJP ......................................122

Cong. .....................................42

Shiv Sena ..........................63

NCP .........................................41

MNS ..........................................1

Ind. & others .....................19

HARYANA

Constituencies..............90

BJP ........................................47

Cong. ..................................... 15

INLD ...................................... 19

HJC .......................................... 2

Others .....................................7

ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS 2014



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PAKISTAN M O N DAY, O CTO B E R 2 0, 2 0 14

The blood of martyrs will bring a revolution

and those responsible will be hanged

Dr Tahirul Qadri, Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief

Bilawal asks Nawaz to embrace ‘Bhuttoism’

KARACHI: Kicking off his politi-cal career with a massive rally at the mausoleum of the Quaid-i-Azam on Saturday, the chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, hit out at all political rivals calling them to give up ‘Ziaism’ and em-brace ‘Bhuttoism’.

“The problem with the PML-N (Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz) government is that the spirit of (former military dictator) Ziaul Haq still dominates its policies,” the scion of the Bhutto family said, addressing the mammoth crowd of PPP activists who had poured into Karachi from across the country. “I urge Nawaz Sharif to embrace Bhuttoism and practice good gov-ernance in order to strengthen de-mocracy and save the country.”

Maintaining that his grandfa-

ther and PPP’s founder, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, laid down the foundations of true democracy in Pakistan

Political forcesBilawal said there were only two po-litical forces in the country: “On one side, you have Bhuttoism and on the other, you have the fans of dictator-ship who want to perpetuate the status quo… you will find the latter walking in the footsteps of General Zia and General Musharraf.”

Recalling the attack on his moth-er Benazir Bhutto’s homecoming caravan at Karsaz on October 18, 2007, the Oxford graduate said the forces working against ‘Bhutto-ism’ were afraid of a woman who had challenged dictatorship and sought to bring about democracy in Pakistan.

“I’m ready to face the conse-quences… I would prefer to die, but

I cannot give up my mother’s mis-sion,” Bilawal said.

He added that anti-democratic forces constantly worked again PPP’s mission, “either in the shape of Pakistan National Alliance (PNA) or Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI), or through actions such as the hanging of Z. A. Bhutto and the assassination of Benazir.”

Talking about protest sit-in of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) against rigging in the May 2013 general elections, the PPP chairperson said, “We, demo-cratic people, want to bring change through votes rather than by de-railing democracy the same way as the PNA had toppled my grandfa-ther’s elected government in 1977.”

Calling Imran a ‘puppet opposi-tion leader’ propped against Prime Minister Nawaz’s ‘puppet govern-ment’, Bilawal urged him to give up

‘politics of sit-ins’ and work for the betterment of internally displaced people (IDPs) and victims of the recent floods across the country.

“Where is Insaf (justice) in Tehreek-e-Insaf… Imran Khan promised to root out corruption in 90 days, but failed to do so… he promises to build Naya Pakistan, but he can’t even deliver a Naya K-P,” Bilawal said. “The PTI wants to establish its writ in Lahore the same way Muttahida Qaumi Move-ment (MQM) has established its writ in Karachi.”

StatementHis statement prompted some emphatic PPP supporters to chant ‘Go Imran, Go’ alongside ‘Go Nawaz, Go’.

The PPP leader also hit out at the MQM, saying that despite holding the health portfolio in the Sindh government for the last 20 years, the party had failed to deliver even basic health facilities. “If any dead-ly virus breaks out here now, the people of Sindh will make MQM’s life miserable… even I won’t be able to save the MQM,” he said.

Accusing MQM of leaving Ka-rachi in ruin, Bilawal said the city would gain ‘true independence’ in 2018.

Responding to chants by sup-porters, Bilawal said, “I am rebel, I am a Bhutto,” and announced that the party will be re-organised after Youm-e-Tasees (foundation day) on November 30. “We will hold a meeting of our party office bears and bring drastic changes in the party. We will do whatever you want,” he said.. - In exclusive arrangement

with The Express Tribune

Chairman of the

Pakistan People’s

Party Bilawal Bhutto

says the problem

with the PML-N

government is that

the spirit of General

Ziaul Haq still

dominates its policies

SHOW OF STRENGTH: Supporters of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, head of

main opposition Pakistan People’s Party gather for a rally in Kara-

chi on Saturday. - AFP

Preventive steps needed against EbolaISLAMABAD: After polio, mea-sles, dengue, Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), now it’s the Ebola virus that Pakistan has to contend with in the wake of a global warning by the World Health Organisation.

“Pakistan is not the only coun-try, which has been warned by the WHO, as the Ebola can spread an-ywhere in the world, where there is mass movement of people from Ebola-affected places, especially from western African countries,” said a senior official of the WHO, who wished anonymity as he is not authorised to talk to media.

Communicable diseaseEbola, according to WHO, is a communicable disease transmit-ted from wild infected animal such as chimpanzee, monkey, pig among others, to a human, who come in direct contact with their secretions like blood, urine, fae-ces, saliva, etc.

It also spreads from one af-fected person to other person, again through bodily secretions. According to the WHO, Ebola has claimed 4,447 lives across the

globe so far and it is feared that the toll will rise in the next two months, if timely measures are not taken. So far, no case of Ebola has been reported in Pakistan but as early preparedness measures, the WHO wants the health de-partment to be on its toes round the clock. This, however, has be-

come really challenging for the country, which has failed in show-ing satisfactory performance to the international community in controlling many of these infec-tious diseases.

Pakistan has chalked out a com-prehensive plan to deal with the disease and for its prevention but

it is not easy to stop its transmis-sion, said the official.

Lacks laboratory testing“Even developed nations – like the United States and European Un-ion states — which have far better technology for the early detection of the virus have failed to control its transmission; therefore, it is difficult to expect much from de-veloping countries like Pakistan to halt its transmission,” said the WHO official.

Like many other countries, Pa-kistan lacks a laboratory for test-ing a blood sample for Ebola and test kits for its early detection, said the official. For the entire Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR), there is only one labora-tory for testing the EVD which is in Cairo, he said.

“For developing countries, like Pakistan, the only possible way to detect this fatal disease is through proper screening at the airports of all the people coming from Ebola-affected countries, followed by strict monitoring and tracking of its patient,” said the World Health Organisation official. - Express Tribune

D E A D L Y V I R U S

Four militants suspects held in Karachi jailbreak plot casePESHAWAR: Following up with further action on the foiled Cen-tral Prison Karachi sabotage plan, law enforcing and spy agencies are hunting suspects in various district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and adjoining tribal regions.

Senior official sources told The Express Tribune four militants have reportedly been arrested so far. However, the identity of the suspects is not being revealed and they have been shifted to an undisclosed location for further interrogation. It is believed the suspects are likely to be shifted to Karachi with high-level teams of different law enforcement agen-cies carrying out the investigation.

Conducted raidsAccording to sources, joint teams of law enforcers and secret agen-cies have conducted raids in Peshawar, Kohat, Tank, Bannu, Khyber Agency and Bajaur Agen-cy. Further raids are under way. High-ranking civil and police officers are tight-lipped about developments to ensure the in-vestigation is not compromised.

The four arrested suspects, said to be affiliated with a proscribed militant outfit, are believed to be accomplices of the militants who were digging a tunnel to at-tack Central Prison Karachi. The brazen plot was unearthed when Rangers discovered a 40-metre

tunnel under a nearby house.The militants were only 10 me-

tres away from reaching the pris-on when they were apprehended. The detained militants later con-fessed they were planning a sui-cide attack on the prison during Muharram. - Express Tribune

I N S U R G E N C Y

CLOSE VIGIL: A policeman stands guard in front the main en-

trance of the Karachi Central Prison in Karachi. - AFP file photo

Dacoits loot Edhi centre in Mithadar area of KarachiKARACHI: Eight to ten dacoits looted an Edhi centre in Ka-rachi on Sunday, Express News reported. Five kilos of gold and foreign currency worth Rs20 million were also reportedly stolen from the Eidhi centre located in the Mithadar area. Philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi was present at the centre and held hostage during the robbery. While talking to Express News, Edhi said he was woken up from his sleep by the dacoits who walked straight to the cupboard where the money and gold was kept. “I thought they came to ask me about the Edhi centre but they started asking me about money. I don’t under-stand how they (dacoits) knew that everything was kept in the cupboard,” he said. “The money and gold stolen belonged to those who entrusted me with it,” Edhi said. His son, Faisal Edhi, confirmed that eight to ten men entered the centre and took his father and others present at the centre hostage. He said that the dacoits were at the centre for half an hour. “The police responded efficiently and has registered a case,” Faisal said.

Qadri vows to avenge Model Town killingsISLAMABAD: Pakistan Awami Tehreek chief Dr Tahirul Qadri clarified on Sunday that he will not strike a deal with the government but avenge the deaths of his supporters killed during the Model Town clashes on June 17. “Today is a day of triumph and we will hold a historic rally in Lahore,” he said while addressing his supporters in Islamabad on the 66th day of his ongoing sit-in against the incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government. “I am going to Lahore to ask for Qisas for those killed on June 17,” he said, referring to the Model Town clashes between his supporters and police which left at least 14 people dead.“The blood of martyrs will bring a revolution and those responsible will be hanged,” he claimed.

Gunmen kill nine labourersQUETTA: Suspected separatist insurgents in southwest Pa-kistan killed nine labourers on Sunday in what appeared to be an ethnically motivated attack, officials said. The gunmen stormed a poultry farm in the early hours of Sunday in the town of Hub, some 640km southwest of Balochistan prov-ince’s capital city Quetta. They kidnapped 11 labourers, senior local administration official Fawad Soomro said, and ques-tioned them over their ethnicities. “They blindfolded the nine workers belonging to Punjab province and shot them while setting the two Baluch workers free,” he said. - Agencies

B R I E F S

For developing countries like Pakistan, the only possible way to detect this fatal disease is through proper screening at the airports of all the people coming from Ebola-affected countries, followed by strict monitoring and tracking of its patient

World Health Organisation

A11

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‘Foreign forces fanning unrest in Hong Kong’

HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s embattled leader on Sunday said “foreign forces” were at work in the pro-democracy movement that has paralysed parts of the city, as demonstrators accused police of using excessive violence during ugly clashes.

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said “external forces” from other countries had been encour-aging the mass sit-ins that have blocked major thoroughfares for three weeks, but refused to identify them.

“I shan’t go into details, but this is not entirely a domestic move-ment,” he said in a television in-terview on Sunday night.

Chinese state media have re-peatedly alleged that “anti-China forces” such as the United States are manipulating the protesters, and Beijing has warned against foreign meddling in what it says is an internal affair.

The rallies come as one of the biggest challenges to Beijing’s au-thority since the Tiananmen pro-democracy protests of 1989.

Leung, described by demon-strators as a pro-Beijing stooge

and facing calls for his resigna-tion, said protests had got “out of hand”, and called for “a peace-ful and a meaningful end to this problem”.

He spoke as protest leaders blasted Hong Kong’s police force over violent clashes that broke out in the Mongkok district early Sunday, with 20 people injured as officers struck surging crowds with batons.

Fourth night of clashesIt was the fourth night of clashes between protesters demanding free elections for the semi-auton-omous Chinese city, and police trying to restore traffic to the ma-jor Mongkok thoroughfare, which they have brought to a standstill.

The spike in violence comes af-ter three weeks of largely peaceful pro-democracy rallies and road blockades across a financial hub usually known for its stability.

Protesters accused the police of using “deadly” force in Mong-kok overnight, with some demon-strators suffering head wounds, fractures and bruising, and others carried away on stretchers.

“If this goes on, one day there may be someone who loses his life or gets seriously injured—then the situation in Hong Kong will get out of control,” said activist Lam Cheuk-ting. Police insisted they had used appropriate force against protesters who attempted to charge their cordon lines. “Ac-tivists from radical organisations as well as troublemakers are min-gling with other protesters,” said police spokesman Steve Hui.

“From time to time they plan, organise and direct various ac-tions to provoke our officers and create chaos.” — AFP

Chief Executive

Leung Chun-ying

said ‘external

forces’ from other

countries had been

encouraging the

mass sit-ins

Algeria-Morocco tensions flareALGIERS: Tensions flared Sun-day between Algeria and Morocco after Rabat accused an Algerian soldier of firing on Moroccan civil-ians across their joint border and seriously wounding one of them.

Algeria charged on Sunday that Rabat was misrepresenting the facts a day after Morocco had summoned the Algerian ambas-sador to “vigorously protest” about

the shooting. The Moroccan gov-ernment said in a statement that an Algerian soldier on Saturday opened fire on a dozen civilians along the border near the north-eastern city of Oujda.

One of them, a 28-year-old, was hit in the face by three bullets and “seriously wounded”, said the statement.

It described the shooting as

“a grave incident” and “an irre-sponsible act that comes on top of other provocative acts... along the border.”

The foreign ministry sum-moned the Algerian ambassador to demand explanations while In-terior Minister Mohamed Hassad said the soldier should be “brought to justice”, said Morocco’s MAP news agency. — AFP

B O R D E R S H O O T I N G

SCUFFLE: A pro-democracy protester is taken away by police officers at an occupied section of a roadway in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong on Sunday. – AP/PTI



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It began like something from the opening of a Roald Dahl story, in which all sorts of

whizzpopping adventures will oc-cur. But rather than in the pages of a book, this story played out over Twitter. (Come to think of it,

Twitter sometimes sounds like a character in a Roald Dahl story — one of the really scary ones.)

On Thursday night, a Texan tourist was locked in a bookshop for two hours after getting dis-tracted just before closing time at 9pm. David from Dallas had just been hanging out in Waterstones in Trafalgar Square, when he got up from the chair he had been sit-ting in and walked downstairs to find that all the lights were off and the doors locked.

That’s what comes of putting chairs in bookshops...

Dave was reassured that help was on its way, but it was only when he tweeted a photo of the darkened shop with only a table full of copies of Kevin Pietersen’s autobiography for company that millions of bookworms sat up and took notice. Not with sympathy, but with envy.

According to booksellers I know, Dave from Dallas is by

no means the first customer (or bookseller) to wake up in a dark-ened bookshop.

It’s what they do next that is the real test of character. Water-stones immediately blogged a list of “what to read when you’re locked in a bookshop”, but if I had been him I would have had a lot more fun.

Rearranged all the books. Plundered the café and made a George’s Marvellous Medicine. Thrown sweets at Nelson’s Col-umn. Signed a stack of books. Looked for survival tips in Robin-son Crusoe ….

So, what did The Waterstones One do with his two hours of glo-rious alone time to run riot inside a bookshop?

“I had my own book but I mainly people-watched and stared out of the window,” he said, “and just waited to be rescued.”

What a waste!Granted, it’s a shame that Texan

Dave wasn’t stuck in the Water-stones just down the road in Pic-cadilly, where the top floor bar does one of the best Bloody Marys in London.

Or the new Foyles nearby, where he could have slid down the twisty bannisters all night. Or Shakespeare and Company in Paris, which is as much bedroom as bookshop, anyway.

Or the biggest outdoor book-shop in the world, Bart’s Books in California, where he could have just scaled the wall.

But staring out of the window and waiting to be rescued? What kind of rubbish bookworm is he?

The answer finally came when David was interviewed after his release from the shop. Why did he enter a bookshop at 8.55pm, any-way? “I walked in … and I needed to use the internet,” he explained. He’s not a bookworm at all! No wonder there is such a boring end to his story. - The Independent

TODAY IN HISTORY

OPINION POLL

1587 In France, Huguenot Henri de Navarre routs Duke de Joyeuse’s larger Catholic force at Coutras.

1714 George I of England crowned. 1805 Austrian general Karl Mac

surrenders to Napoleon’s army at the battle of Ulm.

1818 The United States and Britain establish the 49th Parallel as the boundary between Canada and the United States.

1944 The US troops land on Leyte in the Philippines, keeping General MacArthur’s pledge “I shall return.”

GSM SERVICE PACT SIGNED FOR DHOFAR WESTERN REGIONMUSCAT: Ahmed bin Suwaidan Al Balushi, minister of post, telegraphs and telephones and board chairman of the Oman Telecommunications Company (OTC), signed an agreement costing over RO2.2 million with Siemens Company on installing GSM service in the western region of the gover-norate of Dhofar. The project to be covered by the agreement will cost RO2.218 million and will be implemented in six months.

FROM OUR ARCHIVES

The Chinese never tire of tell-ing anyone willing to listen that they have been around for 5,000 years. It’s a gambit that has always thrown Westerners into confu-sion, ever since 1793 when Lord Macartney humiliatingly failed to

establish trade relations with Beijing, despite Brit-ain being the imperial superpower.

It’s a game of one-upmanship the Chinese can hardly lose. The Mother of Parliaments is a babe in arms compared with the Chinese state. But while there is no reason to doubt that China, as a huge and comparatively homogeneous nation, will continue to bestride Asia, is its ruling Communist Party equally sure of survival?

China’s self-confidence is the product of a politi-cal culture of extraordinary, shape-shifting flexibil-ity: time and again it has emerged from traumatic periods of civil war with its sense of national self-intact, reincarnated in a fresh dynasty. Its Com-munist Party, on the other hand, has the crippling rigidity of communist parties everywhere.

The genius of Deng Xiaoping gave it a new lease of life when its sister parties around the world were collapsing, but at the cost of its remaining coher-ence. Today it is a wondrous conundrum, the dic-tatorship of the kleptocrats masquerading as the dictatorship of the proletariat.

These thoughts are prompted by the emergence of President Xi Jinping, on the eve of next week’s important fourth plenary meeting of the Party, as China’s aspirant philosopher king. With 5,000 years of history staring down at you, this is a chal-lenge that a Chinese president can hardly avoid. Xi, the most formidable Chinese boss since Mao, is of-fering himself in this respect as an anti-Mao.

Mao Xedong was passionately anti-Confucian. The philosophy of Confucius emphasised hierar-chy, balance, moderation, virtue, compassion and the respect of youth for the old, with its goal the achievement of da tong, “Great Harmony”.

Mao espoused exactly the opposite, a continual revolution which set contradictory forces against each other in perpetual struggle. “After a victory,” he wrote, “we must at once put forward a new task. In this way, cadres and the masses will forever be filled with revolutionary fervour.” The goal was permanent disequilibrium. Mao’s role model was Emperor Qin Shihuang of the third century BC, whose achievements included a great bonfire of books and burying 460 Confucian scholars alive.

Xi Jinping, by contrast, has brought Confucius back in from the cold. Speaking on the philoso-pher’s birthday last month (he would have turned 2,564), he said that ancient tradition “can offer beneficial insights for governance and wise rule”.

On another occasion he said, quoting the old man: “He who rules by virtue is like the North Star. It maintains its place, and the multitude of stars pay homage.” That was a cunning way to recruit the authority of the sage to the task of reinforcing the Communist Party in its position of monopolistic power. For Mao, a true revolutionary, stirring up trouble was his main diversion; but for a party as rooted in power and privilege as that of China to-day, stability is the great imperative.

This, after all, is a country where local revolts against the authorities number more than 100,000 a year. Those revolts, like the Occupy protests of Hong Kong, must be fiercely put down, just as the corrupt must be ruthlessly pursued: that’s what Xi believes. “When those who uphold the law are strong, the state is strong,” he said recently, quot-ing Han Fei, the 2,293-year-old theorist of Chinese autocracy. “When they are weak, the state is weak.”

But with the Hong Kong protests refusing to go away, the paradox of a state that is weak and prone to rebellion and insurrection despite being unprec-edentedly wealthy must be much on Xi’s mind. Be-cause the awkward fact is that the autocratic rule on which communist power depends is finding it very difficult to survive the emergence — unheard of in all those 5,000 years — of an educated, enquir-ing and restless middle class.

That’s why the rule of Beijing is so abhorrent to Hongkongers. It represents a giant step into the past. British rule brought only a small dose of de-mocracy to Hong Kong, right at the end of the 100-year lease. But long before that it brought solid and independent legal, educational and bureaucratic systems, which in turn gave the increasingly afflu-ent residents dignity, self-esteem and a firm con-ception of public morality — concepts which would have been perfectly acceptable to Confucius.

Sooner or later, the Chinese will come to realise that communist autocracy has reached the end of the road, that Deng’s cunning rebranding of “So-cialism with Chinese characteristics” has outlived its usefulness, and that a different, Western model beckons. President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan spelled it out the other day.

“Now is the most appropriate time for mainland China to move towards constitutional democracy,” he said. “Now that the 1.3 billion people on the mainland have become moderately wealthy, they will of course wish to enjoy democracy and rule of law. Such a desire has never been the monopoly of the West, but is the right of all humankind.”

Ma is clearly correct: the right way for Hong Kong and the mainland to integrate would be for the latter to take on the healthy attributes of the former. Whether President Xi is sagacious enough for that task remains to be seen. - The Independent

China’s middle class is turning restless

Mao Xedong was passionately anti-Confucian. The philosophy of Confucius emphasised hierarchy, balance, moderation, virtue, compassion and the respect of youth for the old, with its goal the achievement of da tong, “Great Harmony”. Mao espoused exactly the opposite

The militarism dictating the US foreign policy did not begin as fallout of the World War I and II but has been the continuation of the same policy that had driven the white colonial nation to subjugate the ‘Injun Country’

Growing up in small town India, my earliest introduction to the English language and fic-tion were ‘cowboy’ novels of Oliver Strange.

For someone who grew up in crowded, downtown mohallas, adventures of gunslingers like James Green, the dark, brooding hero of ‘Sudden’ series, on the Texas planes and harsh landscape of the ‘Injun Country’ held strange fascination and offered mo-mentary escape from my humdrum existence.

Indeed, as Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz argues in her new book, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, those cheap novels, movies and televi-sion shows, classified as Westerns, and even classics like The Last of the Mohicans were imbibed by every American with mother’s milk and by the mid-twen-tieth century were popular in every part of the globe.

The wild West with its irreverence for death — and life belonged to a different magical world, spawning a hopelessly romantic fantasy and rose-tinted view of the land of the free. One endlessly dreamed of America, the ultimate land of opportunity and freedom.

Boy, how hopelessly naïve had one been and how wrong! Little did one realize or knew then the reality of the great American dream and how it was realised by painting the indigenous inhabitants of the land, methodically and mercilessly, out of the picture.

They were hunted and killed like wild animals in their thousands or simply starved to death by shut-ting off access to food and water. Today the native Americans or red Indians (or just ‘Injuns’ in settler speak), are to be found in small, isolated reserva-tions, like some endangered species, which they indeed are now. The same story was repeated in South America, wiping out indigenous populations and capturing their resources. In Africa, the colonial project was not limited to plundering and pillaging of the continent’s natural wealth but stealing of its most precious resource — its people. Millions of Af-ricans ended up as slaves in plantations — and worse.

Israel most successfully emulated the US example in dealing with Palestinians, stealing their country and locking them away in tiny enclaves.

Little wonder Dunbar-Ortiz argues that the entire “North America is a Crime Scene” because of the grave crimes against humanity committed on the continent by settler armies and conquistadors.

And the political and legal sanction for this un-precedented ethnic cleansing and extermination of an entire people came from the very top.

Justifying the military campaign against the “In-dians”, the US Supreme Court, in its 1873 Modoc In-dian Prisoners ruling, noted: “It cannot be pretended that a United States soldier is guilty of murder if he kills a public enemy in battle, which would be the case if the municipal law were in force and applica-ble to an act committed under such circumstances. All the laws and customs of civilized warfare may not be applicable to an armed conflict with the Indi-an tribes upon our western frontier and the Indians

concerned in it fully understood the baseness and treachery of their act.” The 1873 ruling was famously invoked in 2003 in the case of Guantanamo Bay de-tainees, declaring them ‘unlawful combatants’ and denying them all rights and basic dignity under the Geneva Conventions.

The militarism dictating the US foreign policy did not begin as fallout of the World War I and II but has been the continuation of the same policy that had driven the white colonial nation to subjugate the ‘Injun Country’.

The continuous US and allied military campaigns and wars that followed the two Great Wars, from Korea to Cambodia and from the Philippines to Viet-nam and more recently in the greater Middle East in the last century or in this century, are all part of the same worldview and conscious design.

Roxanne quotes neocon ideologue and military analyst Robert D Kaplan to debunk the notion that the 9/11 attacks brought the US into a new era of warfare and prompted it to establish military bases around the world. Long before the September 11 at-tacks, as early as 1980s, US military bases existed in more than 170 countries.

Yes, this had never been about ‘Islamic fundamen-talism’ or terrorism but about ‘taming the frontier’. And the frontiers of the white, Western civilization and empire project now extend to the entire planet.

Pax Americana rules the world through its proxies and satraps and more than 900 military bases across the globe and by waging perpetual wars, from Asia to Middle East to Africa, not merely for the sake of global hegemony but also as an expression of its ob-sessive militarism mind set.

Besides, without forever wars and military cam-paigns, how will the gargantuan, profiteering mili-tary industrial complex that fuels Western econo-mies survive? At no point in history has a single nation or a group of countries enjoyed such awe-some, unlimited and unquestioned power.

And the American way of war, in Kaplan-speak, is nothing but a legacy and continuum of the Western colonial project that Uncle Sam inherited from the cousins across the pond. In the words of John Gre-nier, this is a strategy that combines “unlimited war and irregular war to achieve their goals of conquest.”

No wonder there’s little change in the fundamen-tal US policies no matter who moves into the White House. No wonder the Middle East, the main battle-front since the end of the Cold War, remains per-petually crackling with wars raging everywhere. If it was Saddam Hussain, Al Qaeda and Taliban yester-day, today it is Isis. If the enemy did not exist, he will have to be invented.

The author is a Gulf based award winning journalist. All the views and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of Times of Oman.

Pax Americana and the forever war...

HISTORYNET.COMLetters, 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])

Japan making aerospace comeback with MRJ

GraphicsGraphic News /Source: Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation, Ascend Flightglobal Consultancy

The Mitsubishi Regional Jet, or MRJ – a compact, fuel-efficient aircraft with seatingfor around 90 passengers – is Japan’s first domestically- manufactured airliner forfour decades.

Engines

Seatwidth

0.47m

Passenger cabin

2.03m

2.76m

0.46m

Projected Deliveries (to 2033)MRJ expected to gain significant shareof regional jet sales

Wings Twin US-built turbofans. MRJ boasts20 percent less fuel consumption thancomparable jets

Thinner and moreaerodynamically

AirframeMostly aluminium. About 12 percentof jet’s weight consists of lightweight composite materials – mainly tail section, belly fairing and moveablesurfaces

Seats Designed to be wider andslimmer than rival aircraft, offering morecomfortand legroom

Mitsubishi22%

CommercialAircraftCorporationof China4%

Sukhoi(Russia)9%

Embraer(Brazil)61%

Others 4%

Total4,085

Number of passengers

Typical cruising speedMaximum range

MRJ Specifications

Engines Pratt & Whitney PW1200Gup to 78.2kN thrust

IntroductionUnit cost $42 million

Orders to date

76 (MRJ70)88 (MRJ90)

Mach 0.78(828km/h)

3,380km

Summer 2017407 (223 confirmed)

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Sharks have long been portrayed as man-eaters, a menace to any swim-

mer brave (or foolish) enough to share the water with them.

But this depiction could not be further from reality. In fact, sharks are extremely vul-nerable, and their dwindling populations — largely owing to human behaviour — urgently need global protection.

To be sure, there have been many laudable shark-protection efforts in the last few years. A campaign spear-headed by the United States-based organisation Wild Aid has contributed to a major de-cline in demand for shark fin across Asia.

China, for example, has banned shark-fin soup, a tra-ditional delicacy, at official government dinners and func-tions — a move that contrib-uted to a 30 per cent drop in shark-fin sales from last De-cember to April.

In the southern city of Guangzhou, the centre of Chi-na’s shark-fin trade, vendors have reported an 82 per cent decline in sales over the last two years.

It should not be difficult to spur countries to take action to protect their shark popula-tions, given that a shark’s eco-nomic value plummets when it is killed.

A study by the Australian Marine Institute found that Palau’s shark-diving indus-try is worth far more than its shark-fishing industry.

A single reef shark that frequents major dive sites in Palau is worth roughly $179,000 annually, or $1.9 mil-lion over its lifetime; the same shark would be worth about $108 dead.

Similarly, the shark-diving industry has brought in an es-timated $110 million annually to Thailand, $22 million to the Canary Islands, and a massive $800 million to the Bahamas over the last 20 years.

It is not difficult to see why allowing fisherman to deci-mate these countries’ shark populations would be counter-productive.

Developing protected areas and corridors for shark migra-tion is also important.

Last month, US President Barack Obama extended the maritime boundary of the Pa-cific Remote Islands Marine National Monument from 50

miles to the 200-mile limit, effectively merging the re-gion’s national parks into one massive protected area, in which commercial fishing is prohibited.

Similar protected areas have been created over the last couple of years in Palau, Micronesia, Indonesia, and the Maldives.

But the new sanctuary in the Pacific — with an area equivalent in size to Texas, California, Montana, and Ari-zona combined — could be the largest such zone in the world.

Though these measures are certainly positive steps, no country acting alone can en-sure adequate protection of shark populations.

After all, sharks are global wanderers; they have no re-gard for the boundaries of economic exclusion zones, protected areas, or countries’ territorial waters. Shark-pro-tection efforts cannot truly be effective without coordinated international action.

Such action must not only aim to protect shark popula-tions directly; it must also ad-dress major threats to sharks, such as illegal trade, bycatch, and overfishing.

Consider climate change. A recent study by the University of Lisbon’s Center for Ocean-ography reports that acidifi-cation from CO2 emissions could cause the global shark population to decline by as much as 40 per cent by 2100.

Add to that the more than 73 million individual sharks that are already lost annually, and the situation is clearly unsustainable.

As it stands, there is no glob-al treaty to protect sharks. But frameworks are in place for the development of interna-tional conservation measures.

The Convention on Migra-tory Species, for example, has a track record of working with countries — as well as interna-tional organisations, NGOs, media, and the private sec-tor — to spur coordinated ac-tion that meets international standards.

The Convention’s memo-randum of understanding on shark conservation, which lists seven endangered spe-cies, has attracted 35 signato-ries so far.

Next month, representa-tives from these countries will meet in Quito, Ecuador, to dis-cuss extending the list to in-clude the great and scalloped hammerheads, the silky shark, thresher sharks, sawfish, and mobula rays.

Given how many shark spe-cies have been proposed, some have begun referring to the Convention’s Conference of the Parties as the “shark COP.”

But proposals must give way to action. The threats facing sharks are well documented. It is time to launch concerted global efforts to protect some of the oldest, most vulnerable — and most valuable — species in our seas. - Project Syndicate

Now men are biting sharks

Trapped in a bookshop? My idea of heaven

DRAGON’S DILEMMA

Despite what has already been a long war on terror, Pakistan does not seem close to winning it comprehensively — at least not yet. Despite the on-going military operation in North Waziristan,

and significant military successes there, the terrorists remain able to strike, and take the lives of the entirely innocent. In the latest such at-tack, a suicide bomber detonated his vest at a check post in Tirah Val-ley of Khyber Agency, killing five, including two children. There have been no claims of responsibility, but the Lashkar-e-Islam, led by Man-gal Bagh, is believed to be behind the attack. The group has, for years, been locked in a violent struggle against its rival, the Ansarul Islam. The area was reported to have been cleared of militants earlier this year, but its proximity to Afghanistan makes it easy to infiltrate, pos-ing a strategic dilemma.

There is conjecture that the attack was retaliation for a drone strike that happened some days ago. This is perfectly likely. But it is also ir-relevant. Attempting to understand the motives of killers is an impos-sible task. The key challenge is to counter these killers. We need both, short and longer term strategies. Yes, military action is required. But on its own, it is clearly not sufficient. We have seen this demonstrated at Tirah Valley where five funerals have been held and families plunged into deep mourning. It is obvious that ending militant violence is a dif-ficult, demanding task. But it is one that is essential to Pakistan’s fu-ture. No country can survive under a cloud of constant fear. Pakistan needs to plan. Militant outfits need to be broken up and their top lead-ers held. This process should, in fact, have begun a long time ago. The delay has permitted the militants to gain strength and plan new ways to terrorise. It also needs to win over people in areas where they oper-ate. Development, the prospect of job opportunities and education are the best ways to go about doing this. Without such schemes, militancy will not be defeated and will continue to haunt the country, blighting its future and that of its posterity, too. - The Express Tribune

Attack in Khyber Agency

President Barack Obama met top defence officials from some 20 countries in the anti-Isis coalition. The session was formally led by General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs

of Staff, the President’s top uniformed military adviser, and, it was an-nounced, no immediate decisions were to be expected. Ostensibly the session was about reviewing and plotting strategy against the militant organisation. In fact, it is a test of President Obama’s mettle and his commitment to the fight. The world watches the struggle for Kobani, whose Kurdish defenders, aided by air strikes, appear to have — tem-porarily at least — halted the progress of besieging Isis forces.

However, top US officials say the battle on the Turkish-Syrian bor-der is in reality a sideshow: the priority is Iraq, they insist, and the overriding need to repel Isis there, and somehow keep that disinte-grating country together. By that measure alas, the campaign has thus far been an abject failure. Anbar province is effectively in Isis hands; the Iraqi army is no match for the enemy and hundreds of thousands of new refugees are fleeing the insurgents’ advance, which is now closing in on Baghdad itself.

Now the grim developments in the Middle East are compounding Obama’s domestic political problems. The comment by John McCain, the ever-hawkish Republican senator and former presidential candi-date, that “they’re winning and we’re not”, was predictable. Unfortu-nately, many Americans, Democrats among them, feel the same way. For once, foreign policy and national security are emerging as a key issue ahead of November’s mid-term elections, making them more than ever a referendum on Obama. Given the President’s low approval ratings, that only strengthens the likelihood that Republicans will cap-ture the Senate, giving them full control of Congress and transforming this President from lame duck to dead duck.

By ending the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and pulling out US troops, Obama sought to extricate the US from the morass of the Mid-dle East and focus on Asia and the Pacific. Instead, he is waist-deep anew in the morass, forced against his instincts to order air strikes, but vowing that there will be no return of ground troops. The Presi-dent sees his approach as logical. His enemies and, more alarmingly, some of his professed allies abroad, see it as weakness. Obama may maintain that no US combat troops will be deployed, but General Dempsey has left open the possibility, and has ordered low-flying at-tack helicopters to deny Isis a “straight shot” at Baghdad’s airport. US advisers are reportedly helping co-ordinate Iraqi army operations. However reluctantly the President entered this war, he cannot now get out. If the air campaign does not work, he will sooner or later have to choose whether to raise the stakes with ground troops. It will be the most painful decision yet for a badly faltering presidency. - The Independent

Predicaments that haunt President Obama

B R A D N E E C H A M B E R S

KAT Y G U E S T

P E T E R P O P H A M

A I J A Z Z A KA S Y E D

Taxi drivers in Oman are always on their phonesThis refers to the news story, Mul-tiple fines on drivers to help curb indiscipline (October 19). This is indeed a good move made by the authorities because drivers here in Oman, especially the taxi driv-ers, are always on their mobile phones while driving. They do not care the least bit about the safety of others.Janianne AbellaMuscat

Fear of paying hefty fines may discipline the driversThis refers to the news story, Mul-tiple fines on drivers to help curb indiscipline (October 19). I would really like to see the step taken by the authorities disciplining the motorists in Oman. And I feel that

the fear of shelling out hefty fines may infuse some rationality in the minds of the otherwise incorrigi-ble drivers. Mohsin Haider Sur

Modi government in India is trying to shield corruptThis refers to the letter, Indian government has gone back on its promise (October 19). The NDA government’s refusal to disclose information on black money is shameful and an act of betrayal of the people of India who voted for the BJP because the party, in the run up to the last Lok Sabha elec-tions promised to bring back the black money some Indians have stashed in tax havens abroad. The BJP had also promised the nations and the voters that it

will expose the names of these Indians who siphoned money from the country and have evaded paying taxes. The party had been vociferously critical of the cor-ruption which had wreaked India during the Congress-led UPA rule. But aren’t Modi and his govern-ment trying to protect those very corrupt and tax evaders? India is not only shocked but also feel-ing cheated by the BJP. Modi’s government has proved that when it comes to power there are actu-ally no differences between the Congress and BJP. Mohammed Osama RawatRuwi

The BJP’s Maharashtra dream has soured badlyIts splendid performance in Haryana notwithstanding, the

BJP fell perceptibly short of gain-ing a simple majority in Maha-rashtra. That means the party will be in need of a partner or an ally to form the government there. In Maharashtra, where the BJP was more than keen on securing a majority and forming govern-ment alone, its dreams have dashed. It has now been proved that breaking the alliance with Shiv Sena was a wrong decision the BJP leadership took. And for the BJP, if it has to go back to Shiv Sena seeking its support to form government, it will a loss of face of sorts. However, with Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party willing to support BJP’s bid to form government, Modi and his party may be spared a post-poll alliance with Shiv Sena. K. R. RavindranMuttrah

READERS’ FORUM

Biography lends to death a new terrorOSCAR WILDE

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It began like something from the opening of a Roald Dahl story, in which all sorts of

whizzpopping adventures will oc-cur. But rather than in the pages of a book, this story played out over Twitter. (Come to think of it,

Twitter sometimes sounds like a character in a Roald Dahl story — one of the really scary ones.)

On Thursday night, a Texan tourist was locked in a bookshop for two hours after getting dis-tracted just before closing time at 9pm. David from Dallas had just been hanging out in Waterstones in Trafalgar Square, when he got up from the chair he had been sit-ting in and walked downstairs to find that all the lights were off and the doors locked.

That’s what comes of putting chairs in bookshops...

Dave was reassured that help was on its way, but it was only when he tweeted a photo of the darkened shop with only a table full of copies of Kevin Pietersen’s autobiography for company that millions of bookworms sat up and took notice. Not with sympathy, but with envy.

According to booksellers I know, Dave from Dallas is by

no means the first customer (or bookseller) to wake up in a dark-ened bookshop.

It’s what they do next that is the real test of character. Water-stones immediately blogged a list of “what to read when you’re locked in a bookshop”, but if I had been him I would have had a lot more fun.

Rearranged all the books. Plundered the café and made a George’s Marvellous Medicine. Thrown sweets at Nelson’s Col-umn. Signed a stack of books. Looked for survival tips in Robin-son Crusoe ….

So, what did The Waterstones One do with his two hours of glo-rious alone time to run riot inside a bookshop?

“I had my own book but I mainly people-watched and stared out of the window,” he said, “and just waited to be rescued.”

What a waste!Granted, it’s a shame that Texan

Dave wasn’t stuck in the Water-stones just down the road in Pic-cadilly, where the top floor bar does one of the best Bloody Marys in London.

Or the new Foyles nearby, where he could have slid down the twisty bannisters all night. Or Shakespeare and Company in Paris, which is as much bedroom as bookshop, anyway.

Or the biggest outdoor book-shop in the world, Bart’s Books in California, where he could have just scaled the wall.

But staring out of the window and waiting to be rescued? What kind of rubbish bookworm is he?

The answer finally came when David was interviewed after his release from the shop. Why did he enter a bookshop at 8.55pm, any-way? “I walked in … and I needed to use the internet,” he explained. He’s not a bookworm at all! No wonder there is such a boring end to his story. - The Independent

TODAY IN HISTORY

OPINION POLL

1587 In France, Huguenot Henri de Navarre routs Duke de Joyeuse’s larger Catholic force at Coutras.

1714 George I of England crowned. 1805 Austrian general Karl Mac

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1818 The United States and Britain establish the 49th Parallel as the boundary between Canada and the United States.

1944 The US troops land on Leyte in the Philippines, keeping General MacArthur’s pledge “I shall return.”

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The Chinese never tire of tell-ing anyone willing to listen that they have been around for 5,000 years. It’s a gambit that has always thrown Westerners into confu-sion, ever since 1793 when Lord Macartney humiliatingly failed to

establish trade relations with Beijing, despite Brit-ain being the imperial superpower.

It’s a game of one-upmanship the Chinese can hardly lose. The Mother of Parliaments is a babe in arms compared with the Chinese state. But while there is no reason to doubt that China, as a huge and comparatively homogeneous nation, will continue to bestride Asia, is its ruling Communist Party equally sure of survival?

China’s self-confidence is the product of a politi-cal culture of extraordinary, shape-shifting flexibil-ity: time and again it has emerged from traumatic periods of civil war with its sense of national self-intact, reincarnated in a fresh dynasty. Its Com-munist Party, on the other hand, has the crippling rigidity of communist parties everywhere.

The genius of Deng Xiaoping gave it a new lease of life when its sister parties around the world were collapsing, but at the cost of its remaining coher-ence. Today it is a wondrous conundrum, the dic-tatorship of the kleptocrats masquerading as the dictatorship of the proletariat.

These thoughts are prompted by the emergence of President Xi Jinping, on the eve of next week’s important fourth plenary meeting of the Party, as China’s aspirant philosopher king. With 5,000 years of history staring down at you, this is a chal-lenge that a Chinese president can hardly avoid. Xi, the most formidable Chinese boss since Mao, is of-fering himself in this respect as an anti-Mao.

Mao Xedong was passionately anti-Confucian. The philosophy of Confucius emphasised hierar-chy, balance, moderation, virtue, compassion and the respect of youth for the old, with its goal the achievement of da tong, “Great Harmony”.

Mao espoused exactly the opposite, a continual revolution which set contradictory forces against each other in perpetual struggle. “After a victory,” he wrote, “we must at once put forward a new task. In this way, cadres and the masses will forever be filled with revolutionary fervour.” The goal was permanent disequilibrium. Mao’s role model was Emperor Qin Shihuang of the third century BC, whose achievements included a great bonfire of books and burying 460 Confucian scholars alive.

Xi Jinping, by contrast, has brought Confucius back in from the cold. Speaking on the philoso-pher’s birthday last month (he would have turned 2,564), he said that ancient tradition “can offer beneficial insights for governance and wise rule”.

On another occasion he said, quoting the old man: “He who rules by virtue is like the North Star. It maintains its place, and the multitude of stars pay homage.” That was a cunning way to recruit the authority of the sage to the task of reinforcing the Communist Party in its position of monopolistic power. For Mao, a true revolutionary, stirring up trouble was his main diversion; but for a party as rooted in power and privilege as that of China to-day, stability is the great imperative.

This, after all, is a country where local revolts against the authorities number more than 100,000 a year. Those revolts, like the Occupy protests of Hong Kong, must be fiercely put down, just as the corrupt must be ruthlessly pursued: that’s what Xi believes. “When those who uphold the law are strong, the state is strong,” he said recently, quot-ing Han Fei, the 2,293-year-old theorist of Chinese autocracy. “When they are weak, the state is weak.”

But with the Hong Kong protests refusing to go away, the paradox of a state that is weak and prone to rebellion and insurrection despite being unprec-edentedly wealthy must be much on Xi’s mind. Be-cause the awkward fact is that the autocratic rule on which communist power depends is finding it very difficult to survive the emergence — unheard of in all those 5,000 years — of an educated, enquir-ing and restless middle class.

That’s why the rule of Beijing is so abhorrent to Hongkongers. It represents a giant step into the past. British rule brought only a small dose of de-mocracy to Hong Kong, right at the end of the 100-year lease. But long before that it brought solid and independent legal, educational and bureaucratic systems, which in turn gave the increasingly afflu-ent residents dignity, self-esteem and a firm con-ception of public morality — concepts which would have been perfectly acceptable to Confucius.

Sooner or later, the Chinese will come to realise that communist autocracy has reached the end of the road, that Deng’s cunning rebranding of “So-cialism with Chinese characteristics” has outlived its usefulness, and that a different, Western model beckons. President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan spelled it out the other day.

“Now is the most appropriate time for mainland China to move towards constitutional democracy,” he said. “Now that the 1.3 billion people on the mainland have become moderately wealthy, they will of course wish to enjoy democracy and rule of law. Such a desire has never been the monopoly of the West, but is the right of all humankind.”

Ma is clearly correct: the right way for Hong Kong and the mainland to integrate would be for the latter to take on the healthy attributes of the former. Whether President Xi is sagacious enough for that task remains to be seen. - The Independent

China’s middle class is turning restless

Mao Xedong was passionately anti-Confucian. The philosophy of Confucius emphasised hierarchy, balance, moderation, virtue, compassion and the respect of youth for the old, with its goal the achievement of da tong, “Great Harmony”. Mao espoused exactly the opposite

The militarism dictating the US foreign policy did not begin as fallout of the World War I and II but has been the continuation of the same policy that had driven the white colonial nation to subjugate the ‘Injun Country’

Growing up in small town India, my earliest introduction to the English language and fic-tion were ‘cowboy’ novels of Oliver Strange.

For someone who grew up in crowded, downtown mohallas, adventures of gunslingers like James Green, the dark, brooding hero of ‘Sudden’ series, on the Texas planes and harsh landscape of the ‘Injun Country’ held strange fascination and offered mo-mentary escape from my humdrum existence.

Indeed, as Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz argues in her new book, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, those cheap novels, movies and televi-sion shows, classified as Westerns, and even classics like The Last of the Mohicans were imbibed by every American with mother’s milk and by the mid-twen-tieth century were popular in every part of the globe.

The wild West with its irreverence for death — and life belonged to a different magical world, spawning a hopelessly romantic fantasy and rose-tinted view of the land of the free. One endlessly dreamed of America, the ultimate land of opportunity and freedom.

Boy, how hopelessly naïve had one been and how wrong! Little did one realize or knew then the reality of the great American dream and how it was realised by painting the indigenous inhabitants of the land, methodically and mercilessly, out of the picture.

They were hunted and killed like wild animals in their thousands or simply starved to death by shut-ting off access to food and water. Today the native Americans or red Indians (or just ‘Injuns’ in settler speak), are to be found in small, isolated reserva-tions, like some endangered species, which they indeed are now. The same story was repeated in South America, wiping out indigenous populations and capturing their resources. In Africa, the colonial project was not limited to plundering and pillaging of the continent’s natural wealth but stealing of its most precious resource — its people. Millions of Af-ricans ended up as slaves in plantations — and worse.

Israel most successfully emulated the US example in dealing with Palestinians, stealing their country and locking them away in tiny enclaves.

Little wonder Dunbar-Ortiz argues that the entire “North America is a Crime Scene” because of the grave crimes against humanity committed on the continent by settler armies and conquistadors.

And the political and legal sanction for this un-precedented ethnic cleansing and extermination of an entire people came from the very top.

Justifying the military campaign against the “In-dians”, the US Supreme Court, in its 1873 Modoc In-dian Prisoners ruling, noted: “It cannot be pretended that a United States soldier is guilty of murder if he kills a public enemy in battle, which would be the case if the municipal law were in force and applica-ble to an act committed under such circumstances. All the laws and customs of civilized warfare may not be applicable to an armed conflict with the Indi-an tribes upon our western frontier and the Indians

concerned in it fully understood the baseness and treachery of their act.” The 1873 ruling was famously invoked in 2003 in the case of Guantanamo Bay de-tainees, declaring them ‘unlawful combatants’ and denying them all rights and basic dignity under the Geneva Conventions.

The militarism dictating the US foreign policy did not begin as fallout of the World War I and II but has been the continuation of the same policy that had driven the white colonial nation to subjugate the ‘Injun Country’.

The continuous US and allied military campaigns and wars that followed the two Great Wars, from Korea to Cambodia and from the Philippines to Viet-nam and more recently in the greater Middle East in the last century or in this century, are all part of the same worldview and conscious design.

Roxanne quotes neocon ideologue and military analyst Robert D Kaplan to debunk the notion that the 9/11 attacks brought the US into a new era of warfare and prompted it to establish military bases around the world. Long before the September 11 at-tacks, as early as 1980s, US military bases existed in more than 170 countries.

Yes, this had never been about ‘Islamic fundamen-talism’ or terrorism but about ‘taming the frontier’. And the frontiers of the white, Western civilization and empire project now extend to the entire planet.

Pax Americana rules the world through its proxies and satraps and more than 900 military bases across the globe and by waging perpetual wars, from Asia to Middle East to Africa, not merely for the sake of global hegemony but also as an expression of its ob-sessive militarism mind set.

Besides, without forever wars and military cam-paigns, how will the gargantuan, profiteering mili-tary industrial complex that fuels Western econo-mies survive? At no point in history has a single nation or a group of countries enjoyed such awe-some, unlimited and unquestioned power.

And the American way of war, in Kaplan-speak, is nothing but a legacy and continuum of the Western colonial project that Uncle Sam inherited from the cousins across the pond. In the words of John Gre-nier, this is a strategy that combines “unlimited war and irregular war to achieve their goals of conquest.”

No wonder there’s little change in the fundamen-tal US policies no matter who moves into the White House. No wonder the Middle East, the main battle-front since the end of the Cold War, remains per-petually crackling with wars raging everywhere. If it was Saddam Hussain, Al Qaeda and Taliban yester-day, today it is Isis. If the enemy did not exist, he will have to be invented.

The author is a Gulf based award winning journalist. All the views and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of Times of Oman.

Pax Americana and the forever war...

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Japan making aerospace comeback with MRJ

GraphicsGraphic News /Source: Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation, Ascend Flightglobal Consultancy

The Mitsubishi Regional Jet, or MRJ – a compact, fuel-efficient aircraft with seatingfor around 90 passengers – is Japan’s first domestically- manufactured airliner forfour decades.

Engines

Seatwidth

0.47m

Passenger cabin

2.03m

2.76m

0.46m

Projected Deliveries (to 2033)MRJ expected to gain significant shareof regional jet sales

Wings Twin US-built turbofans. MRJ boasts20 percent less fuel consumption thancomparable jets

Thinner and moreaerodynamically

AirframeMostly aluminium. About 12 percentof jet’s weight consists of lightweight composite materials – mainly tail section, belly fairing and moveablesurfaces

Seats Designed to be wider andslimmer than rival aircraft, offering morecomfortand legroom

Mitsubishi22%

CommercialAircraftCorporationof China4%

Sukhoi(Russia)9%

Embraer(Brazil)61%

Others 4%

Total4,085

Number of passengers

Typical cruising speedMaximum range

MRJ Specifications

Engines Pratt & Whitney PW1200Gup to 78.2kN thrust

IntroductionUnit cost $42 million

Orders to date

76 (MRJ70)88 (MRJ90)

Mach 0.78(828km/h)

3,380km

Summer 2017407 (223 confirmed)

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Sharks have long been portrayed as man-eaters, a menace to any swim-

mer brave (or foolish) enough to share the water with them.

But this depiction could not be further from reality. In fact, sharks are extremely vul-nerable, and their dwindling populations — largely owing to human behaviour — urgently need global protection.

To be sure, there have been many laudable shark-protection efforts in the last few years. A campaign spear-headed by the United States-based organisation Wild Aid has contributed to a major de-cline in demand for shark fin across Asia.

China, for example, has banned shark-fin soup, a tra-ditional delicacy, at official government dinners and func-tions — a move that contrib-uted to a 30 per cent drop in shark-fin sales from last De-cember to April.

In the southern city of Guangzhou, the centre of Chi-na’s shark-fin trade, vendors have reported an 82 per cent decline in sales over the last two years.

It should not be difficult to spur countries to take action to protect their shark popula-tions, given that a shark’s eco-nomic value plummets when it is killed.

A study by the Australian Marine Institute found that Palau’s shark-diving indus-try is worth far more than its shark-fishing industry.

A single reef shark that frequents major dive sites in Palau is worth roughly $179,000 annually, or $1.9 mil-lion over its lifetime; the same shark would be worth about $108 dead.

Similarly, the shark-diving industry has brought in an es-timated $110 million annually to Thailand, $22 million to the Canary Islands, and a massive $800 million to the Bahamas over the last 20 years.

It is not difficult to see why allowing fisherman to deci-mate these countries’ shark populations would be counter-productive.

Developing protected areas and corridors for shark migra-tion is also important.

Last month, US President Barack Obama extended the maritime boundary of the Pa-cific Remote Islands Marine National Monument from 50

miles to the 200-mile limit, effectively merging the re-gion’s national parks into one massive protected area, in which commercial fishing is prohibited.

Similar protected areas have been created over the last couple of years in Palau, Micronesia, Indonesia, and the Maldives.

But the new sanctuary in the Pacific — with an area equivalent in size to Texas, California, Montana, and Ari-zona combined — could be the largest such zone in the world.

Though these measures are certainly positive steps, no country acting alone can en-sure adequate protection of shark populations.

After all, sharks are global wanderers; they have no re-gard for the boundaries of economic exclusion zones, protected areas, or countries’ territorial waters. Shark-pro-tection efforts cannot truly be effective without coordinated international action.

Such action must not only aim to protect shark popula-tions directly; it must also ad-dress major threats to sharks, such as illegal trade, bycatch, and overfishing.

Consider climate change. A recent study by the University of Lisbon’s Center for Ocean-ography reports that acidifi-cation from CO2 emissions could cause the global shark population to decline by as much as 40 per cent by 2100.

Add to that the more than 73 million individual sharks that are already lost annually, and the situation is clearly unsustainable.

As it stands, there is no glob-al treaty to protect sharks. But frameworks are in place for the development of interna-tional conservation measures.

The Convention on Migra-tory Species, for example, has a track record of working with countries — as well as interna-tional organisations, NGOs, media, and the private sec-tor — to spur coordinated ac-tion that meets international standards.

The Convention’s memo-randum of understanding on shark conservation, which lists seven endangered spe-cies, has attracted 35 signato-ries so far.

Next month, representa-tives from these countries will meet in Quito, Ecuador, to dis-cuss extending the list to in-clude the great and scalloped hammerheads, the silky shark, thresher sharks, sawfish, and mobula rays.

Given how many shark spe-cies have been proposed, some have begun referring to the Convention’s Conference of the Parties as the “shark COP.”

But proposals must give way to action. The threats facing sharks are well documented. It is time to launch concerted global efforts to protect some of the oldest, most vulnerable — and most valuable — species in our seas. - Project Syndicate

Now men are biting sharks

Trapped in a bookshop? My idea of heaven

DRAGON’S DILEMMA

Despite what has already been a long war on terror, Pakistan does not seem close to winning it comprehensively — at least not yet. Despite the on-going military operation in North Waziristan,

and significant military successes there, the terrorists remain able to strike, and take the lives of the entirely innocent. In the latest such at-tack, a suicide bomber detonated his vest at a check post in Tirah Val-ley of Khyber Agency, killing five, including two children. There have been no claims of responsibility, but the Lashkar-e-Islam, led by Man-gal Bagh, is believed to be behind the attack. The group has, for years, been locked in a violent struggle against its rival, the Ansarul Islam. The area was reported to have been cleared of militants earlier this year, but its proximity to Afghanistan makes it easy to infiltrate, pos-ing a strategic dilemma.

There is conjecture that the attack was retaliation for a drone strike that happened some days ago. This is perfectly likely. But it is also ir-relevant. Attempting to understand the motives of killers is an impos-sible task. The key challenge is to counter these killers. We need both, short and longer term strategies. Yes, military action is required. But on its own, it is clearly not sufficient. We have seen this demonstrated at Tirah Valley where five funerals have been held and families plunged into deep mourning. It is obvious that ending militant violence is a dif-ficult, demanding task. But it is one that is essential to Pakistan’s fu-ture. No country can survive under a cloud of constant fear. Pakistan needs to plan. Militant outfits need to be broken up and their top lead-ers held. This process should, in fact, have begun a long time ago. The delay has permitted the militants to gain strength and plan new ways to terrorise. It also needs to win over people in areas where they oper-ate. Development, the prospect of job opportunities and education are the best ways to go about doing this. Without such schemes, militancy will not be defeated and will continue to haunt the country, blighting its future and that of its posterity, too. - The Express Tribune

Attack in Khyber Agency

President Barack Obama met top defence officials from some 20 countries in the anti-Isis coalition. The session was formally led by General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs

of Staff, the President’s top uniformed military adviser, and, it was an-nounced, no immediate decisions were to be expected. Ostensibly the session was about reviewing and plotting strategy against the militant organisation. In fact, it is a test of President Obama’s mettle and his commitment to the fight. The world watches the struggle for Kobani, whose Kurdish defenders, aided by air strikes, appear to have — tem-porarily at least — halted the progress of besieging Isis forces.

However, top US officials say the battle on the Turkish-Syrian bor-der is in reality a sideshow: the priority is Iraq, they insist, and the overriding need to repel Isis there, and somehow keep that disinte-grating country together. By that measure alas, the campaign has thus far been an abject failure. Anbar province is effectively in Isis hands; the Iraqi army is no match for the enemy and hundreds of thousands of new refugees are fleeing the insurgents’ advance, which is now closing in on Baghdad itself.

Now the grim developments in the Middle East are compounding Obama’s domestic political problems. The comment by John McCain, the ever-hawkish Republican senator and former presidential candi-date, that “they’re winning and we’re not”, was predictable. Unfortu-nately, many Americans, Democrats among them, feel the same way. For once, foreign policy and national security are emerging as a key issue ahead of November’s mid-term elections, making them more than ever a referendum on Obama. Given the President’s low approval ratings, that only strengthens the likelihood that Republicans will cap-ture the Senate, giving them full control of Congress and transforming this President from lame duck to dead duck.

By ending the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and pulling out US troops, Obama sought to extricate the US from the morass of the Mid-dle East and focus on Asia and the Pacific. Instead, he is waist-deep anew in the morass, forced against his instincts to order air strikes, but vowing that there will be no return of ground troops. The Presi-dent sees his approach as logical. His enemies and, more alarmingly, some of his professed allies abroad, see it as weakness. Obama may maintain that no US combat troops will be deployed, but General Dempsey has left open the possibility, and has ordered low-flying at-tack helicopters to deny Isis a “straight shot” at Baghdad’s airport. US advisers are reportedly helping co-ordinate Iraqi army operations. However reluctantly the President entered this war, he cannot now get out. If the air campaign does not work, he will sooner or later have to choose whether to raise the stakes with ground troops. It will be the most painful decision yet for a badly faltering presidency. - The Independent

Predicaments that haunt President Obama

B R A D N E E C H A M B E R S

K AT Y G U E S T

P E T E R P O P H A M

A I J A Z Z A KA S Y E D

Taxi drivers in Oman are always on their phonesThis refers to the news story, Mul-tiple fines on drivers to help curb indiscipline (October 19). This is indeed a good move made by the authorities because drivers here in Oman, especially the taxi driv-ers, are always on their mobile phones while driving. They do not care the least bit about the safety of others.Janianne AbellaMuscat

Fear of paying hefty fines may discipline the driversThis refers to the news story, Mul-tiple fines on drivers to help curb indiscipline (October 19). I would really like to see the step taken by the authorities disciplining the motorists in Oman. And I feel that

the fear of shelling out hefty fines may infuse some rationality in the minds of the otherwise incorrigi-ble drivers. Mohsin Haider Sur

Modi government in India is trying to shield corruptThis refers to the letter, Indian government has gone back on its promise (October 19). The NDA government’s refusal to disclose information on black money is shameful and an act of betrayal of the people of India who voted for the BJP because the party, in the run up to the last Lok Sabha elec-tions promised to bring back the black money some Indians have stashed in tax havens abroad. The BJP had also promised the nations and the voters that it

will expose the names of these Indians who siphoned money from the country and have evaded paying taxes. The party had been vociferously critical of the cor-ruption which had wreaked India during the Congress-led UPA rule. But aren’t Modi and his govern-ment trying to protect those very corrupt and tax evaders? India is not only shocked but also feel-ing cheated by the BJP. Modi’s government has proved that when it comes to power there are actu-ally no differences between the Congress and BJP. Mohammed Osama RawatRuwi

The BJP’s Maharashtra dream has soured badlyIts splendid performance in Haryana notwithstanding, the

BJP fell perceptibly short of gain-ing a simple majority in Maha-rashtra. That means the party will be in need of a partner or an ally to form the government there. In Maharashtra, where the BJP was more than keen on securing a majority and forming govern-ment alone, its dreams have dashed. It has now been proved that breaking the alliance with Shiv Sena was a wrong decision the BJP leadership took. And for the BJP, if it has to go back to Shiv Sena seeking its support to form government, it will a loss of face of sorts. However, with Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party willing to support BJP’s bid to form government, Modi and his party may be spared a post-poll alliance with Shiv Sena. K. R. RavindranMuttrah

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Biography lends to death a new terrorOSCAR WILDE

website: www.newindiaoman.com

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TURNING CART WHEELFreestyle rider Ronnie Renner performs during a qualifying round for the Dirt Shark Biggest Whip at the Monster Energy Cup at

Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Friday. — AFP

Ebola is more scary than war for scribes

PARIS: You can’t see shells fall-ing, guns pointed or identify the bad guys: for many journalists the invisible threat of Ebola is more unnerving than covering a war.

Along with health workers and aid workers, journalists have to get right up close to the epidemic to do their job, donning gloves, masks and rubber boots and washing hands with chlorine countless times a day.

“We have less difficulty finding journalists to go to Iraq or Central African Republic” than Ebola-hit countries, said Claire Hedon of Radio France Internationale (RFI) who just returned from Guinea. Guinea, Liberia and Si-erra Leone, have borne the brunt of the epidemic which has killed over 4,500 people out of a total of 9,216 cases registered in seven countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

At least five local journalists have succumbed to Ebola, ac-cording to media unions. Three were in Liberia and two in Sierra Leone, including the radio jour-nalist Victor Kassim who died along with his wife, two children and mother. Three media work-ers were also among an eight-member Ebola education team murdered last month by panicked villagers in a remote area near the epicentre of the outbreak in Guinea. So far only one of the dozens of Western journalists covering the epidemic in west Africa has caught Ebola—Ashoka Mukpo, an American freelancer for NBC who is recovering well.

Unseen enemyBut for those on the ground stalked by an unseen enemy, eve-ry interview poses a risk.

“Some journalists used to cov-ering war zones have not vol-unteered for family reasons,”

explains Sofia Bouderbala, dep-uty editor-in-chief for Agence France Presse’s Europe and Africa region. “It is an invisible threat. In war zones you can see the shells falling.”

Associated Press international editor-in-chief John Danisze-wski said that the subject was “very stressful” to cover, as you can’t see the enemy. On top of all the safety precautions, one of the main rules on the ground for re-porters is to keep your distance.

‘Don’t touch’“The basic rule is don’t touch anything or anyone. And two weeks without touching anyone is weird,” said AFP’s Marc Bas-tian who recently returned from Monrovia. “We left with litres of disinfectant. We sprayed our shoes with bleach, we washed our hands 40, 50 times a day,” he said.

“Photographers use telephoto lenses to photograph the sick and I once shouted out an in-terview with someone eight metres away.”

For radio reporters who need sound, the process is equally tricky. Yves Rocle, deputy direc-tor for the Africa region with RFI explains that their journalists use a boom to get sound. “We avoid contact,” he said. “I have inter-viewed the sick from two metres away, where it is considered you won’t be hit by spittle,” said the Hedon, who admits that some-times one’s attention can slip and possibly fatal errors be made.

“To be honest, you let your guard down. Yes in the end I shook a few hands.”

The assignment doesn’t end at the airport. For many coming home to face fearful colleagues and family members, while still anxiously counting down the in-cubation period themselves, it can be a scary and lonely time. — AFP

Three journalists

in Liberia and two

in Sierra Leone

succumbed to

Ebola, according

to media unions



Top Iranian lawyer barred from practisingTEHRAN: Award-winning Ira-nian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh told AFP on Sunday that she has been barred from practising for three years and will hold a pro-test against the decision this week.

Sotoudeh was released from jail last year when halfway through a six-year sentence for “actions against national security and committing propaganda against the regime”.

She said the ban was a threat to the legal profession but she would not appeal. Instead, she will con-duct a sit-down protest outside the Iran Bar Association’s headquar-ters in Tehran, starting Tuesday. “The tribunal made this illegal decision at the demand of a court based at Evin Prison,” the Tehran jail where she served her sentence, Sotoudeh said by telephone.

“This ruling opens the way for the disqualification of other law-yers in the future,” she added.

Sotoudeh was released in Sep-tember 2013 shortly before Iran’s then newly elected President Has-san Rouhani attended the UN Gen-eral Assembly in New York. A court last month authorised Sotoudeh—winner of European parliament’s Sakharov rights prize in 2012 — to resume her practice. — AFP

T H R E E Y E A R S B A N

DEADLY DISEASE: A man

wears a mask reading ‘Ebola’

in Milan. – AFP

A15

WORLDM O N DAY, O C TO B E R 2 0, 2 0 1 4

EXTREME FREE FLIGHTA member of the ‘Exit Point’ amateur rope-jumping group takes a rope jump from a 120-metre

(394 feet) high rock down to a man-made crater called ‘Tuimsky Proval’ (Tuimsky cavity),

with the air temperature at about minus 15 degrees Celsius (5 degrees Fahrenheit), outside

the town of Tuim in Khakassia region, on Friday. — Reuters



UK plans two year jail for Net ‘trolling’

LONDON: People found guilty of Internet “trolling” in Britain could be jailed for up to two years under government proposals outlined on Sunday, following a number of high-profile case of abuse on Twitter.

Justice Secretary Chris Gray-ling told the Mail on Sunday newspaper: “This is a law to combat cruelty—and marks our determination to take a stand against a baying cyber-mob.”

There has been increasing con-cern in Britain about the growing scourge of Internet “trolls” who post hate-filled messages on social media, often threatening their tar-gets. The parents of missing girl Madeleine McCann are among the most recent victims, and last month a man was jailed for 18 weeks for what prosecutors de-scribed as “a campaign of hatred” against a female lawmaker.

“These Internet trolls are cowards who are poisoning our national life. No-one would per-mit such venom in person, so there should be no place for it on social media,” Grayling said. “That is why we are determined to quadruple the current six-month sentence.”

Victims have welcomed moves to take online threats seriously, and lawyers had anticipated an

increase in sentences for those convicted of trolling. “There is a public interest in having people put away for a long time. It is put-ting someone in fear of their life and fear of physical harm,” Chris Holder, of London law firm Bris-tows, said earlier this month. “I think the law will develop and the sentences will go up and up.”

However, Barbora Bukovska, a senior director at campaign group ARTICLE 19, earlier this month said: “Do we want to crim-inalise every social conduct that we find problematic?”. — AFP

The proposal follows a number of

high-profile case of abuse on Twitter

Iranian women attacked with acid for ‘bad veils’

TEHRAN: A series of acid attacks on women in the historic Iranian city of Isfahan has raised fears and prompted rumours that the vic-tims were targeted for not being properly veiled.

Police have declined to com-ment on a motive but suspects have been arrested and an investi-gation is ongoing, General Hossein Ashtari was quoted as saying by the official Irna news agency.

He said four acid attacks had been reported in Isfahan, 450 kilo-metres (280 miles) south of Teh-

ran, but he gave no other details. The violence led to chatter on

social networks that there had been up to 13 acid attacks against women drivers who were “badly veiled” with accompanying warn-ings against leaving car windows open. Such incidents have risen in recent years in Pakistan, Afghani-stan and India, with the abusers claiming they punished women for “sullying” their family “honour” by committing “indecent” behaviour.

Under law, women must wear loose clothing that covers the head

and neck. Recent years, however, have seen many wear a thin veil that hardly covers the hair and tight clothing or coats reaching mid-thigh.

CondemnedA senior cleric of Isfahan, consid-ered Iran’s top tourist attraction for its carpets, ancient mosques and giant square—second only in size to Tiananmen Square in Bei-jing — condemned the attacks.

“Such an act under any pretext is reprehensible,” Hojatoleslam Mo-

hammad Taghi Rahbar, a Friday prayers leader, told the Isna news agency. “Even if a woman goes out into the street in the worst way, no one has the right to do such a thing,” he said.

A fearful resident of the city was quoted by Isna as saying: “I roll the windows closed and I panic every time I hear the sound of a motor-cycle approaching.” Iranian MPs have written to President Hassan Rouhani in recent months to de-mand that police better enforce wearing of the veil. — AFP

S E R I E S O F I N C I D E N T S

This is a law to combat cruelty — and marks our determination to take a stand against a baying cyber-mob

Chris GraylingBritains’ Justice Secretary

Even if a woman goes out into the street in the

worst way, no one has the right to do such a thing

Hojatoleslam Mohammad Taghi Rahbar, A senior cleric of Isfahan, Iran

A16

WORLDM O N DAY, O CTO B E R 2 0, 2 0 14

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DIFFICULT RACE: Runners wearing masks to protect themselves from pollutants jog past Chang’an

Avenue near Tiananmen Square shrouded in haze while taking part in the 2014 Beijing Internation-

al Marathon in Beijing, China on Sunday. – AP/PTI

Beijing runners don masks to beat thick smog

BEIJING: Thousands of runners battled thick smog at the Beijing Marathon on Sunday, with some athletes donning masks as air pol-lution soared to 16 times the max-imum recommended level.

Organisers rejected calls to postpone the race despite the soupy white haze over the Chi-nese capital, but said they had laid on extra medical staff to treat injuries among the more than 25,000 registered runners.

The level of small pollutant particles known as PM2.5, which can embed themselves deep in the lungs, reached more than 400 mi-crograms per cubic metre in parts of Beijing as the racers lined up.

The World Health Organiza-tion’s (WHO) recommended dai-ly maximum average exposure is 25. The United States embassy in

Beijing described the air on Sun-day as “hazardous”.

“When I looked at the state of the mask after 10 kilometres, I decided enough was enough,” said British runner Chas Pope, 39, af-ter dropping out of the race.

“It felt pretty ridiculous given we’re meant to be running for health and fitness.”

Top athletes stay awayMany top long-distance athletes stayed away from the race, which was won by Ethiopia’s Girmay Birhanu Gebru in two hours, 10 minutes and 42 seconds. His compatriot Fatuma Sado Dergo was the fastest woman with a time of 2:30:03.

At the finish line, athletes tried not to let worries about air qual-ity take the shine off their pride in

their performance. “I’m used to the pollution,” said

local runner Liu Fan, who ran 32 kilometres of the 42-kilometre (26-mile) race. His wife handed him a bunch of flowers, describ-ing conditions as “terrible.”

One entrant sported a large green gas mask, while others opted for more modest white face coverings. Chinese actor Yuan Hong pulled out of the race, writ-ing on his verified microblog ac-count: “The air quality is too poor! Competitor A1659 has decided to quit.” Organisers said in a micro-blog post that it would have been “very difficult” to postpone the race “as nearly half of the athletes are from other countries and re-gions outside Beijing.”

China has for years been hit by heavy air pollution, caused by enormous use of coal to generate electricity to power a booming economy, and by more vehicles on the roads. Public discontent about the environment has grown, lead-ing the government to declare a “war on pollution” and vow to cut coal use in some areas. — AFP

Organisers rejected calls to postpone

the race despite the soupy white haze over

the Chinese capital and deployed extra

medical staff to treat injuries among the

more than 25,000 registered runners

Blast kills seven Egyptian soldiers

CAIRO: A roadside bomb killed seven Egyptian soldiers and wounded four in the restive Sinai Peninsula on Sunday, security of-ficials said.

The bomb exploded next to an armoured vehicle guarding a gas pipeline in north Sinai, the offi-cials said. A military official said first responders were still assess-ing the casualties.

The attack came three days after a similar bombing killed two po-licemen in the north Sinai provin-cial capital of El Arish.

Militants killed 17 policemen in Sinai in two bombings in Septem-ber and later released footage of the attacks.

Those attacks were claimed by Ansar Beit Al Maqdis, the most active militant group in Egypt. It

tried to assassinate the interior minister in Cairo last year with a car bomb.

The group has expressed sup-port for IS militants in Iraq and Syria, although it has not formally pledged its allegiance.

The military has said it killed at least 22 militants in October, including a local Ansar Beit Al Maqdis commander. - AFP

S I N A I P E N I N S U L A

German student falls to death at waterfallKUALA LUMPUR: A German student has died after falling into a steep ravine at a waterfall on a popular Malaysian resort island, police said on Sunday.

The 24-year-old died at the scene on Saturday after slipping while trying to take photos on Langkawi island in the coun-try’s north, said local police chief Harrith Kam Abdullah.

“It was raining and so it was slippery. He sustained injuries at the back of his head,” he said.

The man was studying at a university in the capital Kuala Lumpur and had travelled to the island with a group of other stu-dents, Harrith added.

Accidental deathsSeveral tourists have died this year in accidents in Malaysia, known for its pristine beaches and thick jungles.

In September the body of a French tourist was found on an-other resort island, Tioman, af-ter he went missing while snor-keling. Also on Tioman a Briton was found dead in June after going missing on a jungle hike. Malaysian police have yet to an-nounce what caused his death.

In February a German died in a fall on Mount Kinabalu, one of Southeast Asia’s highest peaks, on Borneo island. — AFP

M A L A Y S I A



MARKEWWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COMM O N DAY, O CTO B E R 2 0, 2 0 14B

ITHRAA CONDUCTS MOBILE EXHIBITIONThe Public Authority for Investment Promotion and Export Development (Ithraa) has launched its first mobile exhibition, as part of a programme to explain the authority’s services and activities to the public. >B2

Muscat

6,946.81+ 74.54

+ 1.08%

Dubai

4,419.36+ 148.93

+ 3.49%

Abu Dhabi

4,793.55+ 25.40

+ 0.53%

Saudi Arabia

9,751.66+ 204.12

+ 2.14%

Kuwait

7,387.85- 22.49

- 0.30%

Bahrain

1,446.86- 0.20

- 0.01%

Qatar

13,147.79+ 205.79

+ 1.59%

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

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

Euro .............................................2.01

Pound ...........................................1.60

Indian Rs ..............................159.16

Pak Rs ...................................262.40

Bangla Taka.......................198.26* Rates are as of Oct. 19

Source: BankMuscat

Indian Rs .................................. 159.00

Pakistan Rs ............................ 265.25

Sri Lanka Rs ...........................337.00

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

Phil Peso .................................... 115.60

* Rates as of Oct. 19 Source: Oman UAE Exchange

Muscat 24ct per gm (OMR) .......15.85

Muscat 22ct per gm (OMR) .......15.20

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

Dubai 24ct per gm (Dh) ........... 150.00

Dubai 22ct per gm (Dh) .............142.25

10 Tola Bar Dubai (Dh) ..................... N/A

* Rates as of Oct. 19Source: Malabar Gold & Diamonds

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

Oman Crude ............. (Spot) ........$85.65

Dubai Crude ............. (Spot) ........ $83.78

Murban Crude ........ (Spot) .........$86.10

Arabian Light ......... (Spot) ........$85.87

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

N.Sea Brent ............... (Spot) ........$83.34

West Texas Int ....... (Spot) ........$82.80

CRUDE OIL PRICE

New player for money exchangemarket in Oman

A. E. [email protected]

MUSCAT: Oman Investment and Finance Company (OIFC), which is specialised in third-party utility billing and collection business, yesterday said that the company has received commer-cial registration from the Minis-try of Commerce and Industry to form a new exchange company called Wasel Exchange

The new exchange company, which is yet to get a final licence from the Central Bank of Oman (CBO), is a wholly-owned sub-sidiary of OIFC and will have a capital base of OMR1.5 million, according to a disclosure state-ment posted on MSM website.

The plan to float an exchange firm is part of OIFC’s larger strat-egy to diversify revenue streams, in an apparent move to bring down its current over-depend-ence on third party utility billing

and collection business. OIFC is looking at business opportunities where the company has synergies and can take advantage on its na-tionwide branch network.

“Ours is a collection business and our strength can be leveraged to an extent CBO allows us to do so. This is a natural business for us,” said a company source.

“I expect the exchange company to start operation within three to four months. But we have to com-ply with certain standard CBO requirements, after getting com-mercial registration. I don’t fore-see any delay,” added the source, who does not want to be named.

Earlier plan scrappedMore than three years ago, OIFC tried to acquire a majority stake in an existing exchange house. But the plan was scrapped at a later stage.

And later on, the company decided to promote a separate money exchange as its own and received an ‘initial approval’ from the Central Bank of Oman in April 2012 and the company formation is progressing now.

Towards the end of 2013, the apex bank brought in a two-year moratorium on licences for new exchange houses to prevent overcrowding. The Sultanate’s banking regulator stipulates that the money exchanges with a re-mittance licence are required to have a minimum capital of OMR1 million, while the requirement is OMR100,000 for those exchange houses carrying out only money change business.

Sixteenth money exchangeIf everything goes well, OIFC’s Wasel Exchange will be the six-teenth money exchange in the country. The fifteen existing companies have strength of 250 branches across the country, handling approximately 10 mil-lion remittances in a year. Of late, there has been a major focus on branch expansion by few leading exchange houses to strengthen their market share.

However, the exchange house official also noted that the remit-tances by Indian expatriates, which constitute a major chunk of the business, are coming down in the last one to two months, mainly on account of a slowdown in Indian workers coming to take up new assignments in Oman.

Restrictions on employment visa (especially a two-year ban on existing foreign workers) and delay in getting family joining visa are cited as reasons for a slow down in Indian workers coming to the Sultanate of Oman.

Oman Investment

and Finance

Company said that

the company has

received commercial

registration from the

ministry for a new

exchange firm called

Wasel Exchange

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

DIVERSIFICATION

The plan to float an

exchange firm is

part of OIFC’s larger

strategy to diversify

revenue streams,

in an apparent

move to bring down

its current over-

dependence on third

party utility billing,

collection business

Kuwait union slams closure of oilfield by Saudi Arabia

KUWAIT CITY: A Kuwaiti oil trade union yesterday deplored the unilateral closure by Saudi Arabia of an offshore oilfield jointly operated by the Arab neighbours, calling on the gov-ernment to intervene.

Fadghoush Al Ajmi, head of the workers union at Kuwait Gulf Oil Comaony (KGOC), urged ministers to take action to ensure that production at the Khafji oilfield resumed.

The head of operations at Khafji, Abdullah Helal, who rep-resents Saudi national oil com-pany Aramco, cited environ-mental reasons for ordering the halt to the field’s 311,000 barrels per day output, media reported.

Media cited an internal memo issued by Helal saying that the level of harmful emis-sions from the operations far exceeded the allowed pollution percentage. Khafji is part of the neutral zone between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia which is jointly operated by the two nations and pumps around 700,000 bpd. The production is shared equally between them.

Al-Rai quoted unidentified Kuwaiti oil sources as saying they were surprised by the de-cision as the two countries had an understanding to address en-vironmental issues by 2017. - AFP

C R U D E O I L

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Mobile exhibition promotes Ithraa’sservices to public

BUSINESS REPORTER

MUSCAT: The Public Author-ity for Investment Promotion and Export Development (Ithraa) has launched its first mobile exhibi-tion, as part of a programme to ex-plain the authority’s services and activities to the public.

The launch of the exhibition was announced by His Highness Sayyid Faisal Al Said, Ithraa’s director general for marketing and media, at Muscat City Cen-tre yesterday. The exhibition, which started in Muscat, is part of Ithraa’s national public engage-ment plan and will later continue in Sohar and Salalah.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the event, Al Said noted, “For the first time, after so many years, we have decided that we need some sort of a mobile exhibition. It is like a corporate identity, whereby we roll out who we are and what we do.”

The exhibition will continue in Muscat for three days and then it will go to Sohar and Salalah, also

for some three days each, he said, expressing his hope that poten-tial exporters and investors who are not familiar with Ithraa will learn more about this authority through the exhibition.

Promotional filmsAccording to Ithraa officials, the exhibition will educate the public on Ithraa’s commitment in preparing Oman to become a leader in the innovation economy, while offering among the most business-friendly, productive and competitive economic develop-ment climates in the world.

In the exhibitions manned by Ithraa staff, visitors will be treat-ed to a tour of Ithraa’s accom-plishments and key initiatives. Also, a series of promotional films on the Sultanate of Oman’s vari-ous industries will also be shown during the exhibitions.

Ithraa offers a range of services to help international businesses become established in Oman, as well as assist current and poten-tial exporters in entering mature and emerging markets. Activi-ties carried out by Ithraa focus on networking, attending trade

shows, organising trade missions and arranging B-2-B meetings for local companies.

Its mission centres on encour-aging the rights of individuals to make their own choices during commercial transitions, the abil-ity to voluntarily exchange goods and services, assuring the free-dom to compete, the protection of personal, intellectual and prop-erty rights, and the ability to have access to secure currencies.

Competitiveness ForumAl Said added that the Oman Competitiveness Forum is sched-uled to take place at Bustan Pal-ace Hotel on October 29 and 30. The forum is the annual gathering of influential international and domestic thought leaders, policy experts and professionals. This year’s event will focus on ‘public sector innovation’ and ‘changing the business-as-usual culture.”

The exhibition,

which started in

Muscat, is part of

Ithraa’s national

public engagement

plan and will later

continue in Sohar

and Salalah


NEW INITIATIVE: The exhibition will educate the public on

Ithraa’s commitment in preparing Oman to become a leader

in the innovation economy. – TALIB AL WAHAIBI/Times of Oman

B3M O N DAY, O C TO B E R 2 0, 2 0 1 4

MARKETArabtec to launch massive housing project in Egypt by year-end

ABU DHABI: United Arab Emir-ates-based construction company Arabtec Holding Company plans to launch the first phase of a huge housing project in Egypt, compris-ing 120,000 housing units, before the end of this year, the company said yesterday.

In March this year, Arabtec an-nounced it would build one million homes in Egypt in a $40 billion

project backed by the Egyptian and UAE governments, as part of efforts to ease the country’s housing shortage.

Final agreementArabtec expects soon to conclude the final agreement with Egyptian authorities to begin construction, it said in yesterday’s statement.

It would set up a group of com-

panies to execute phase one and provide Egypt’s New Urban Com-munities Authority with “in-kind housing units and public services” in return for land and facilities needed in the project.

“The company will not sell va-cant land but affordable housing units. Then it will deliver public services’ buildings to the Urban Communities Authority, who will

in turn transfer their ownership to the concerned authorities,” Khaled Abbas, Egypt’s assistant minister of housing for technical affairs, was recently quoted as say-ing in the statement.

Arabtec Holding Company has previously said the first homes will be delivered in early 2017 with the whole project to be com-pleted before 2020. – Agencies

F I R S T P H A S E

Oman Fiber Optic receives final insurance claimMUSCAT: Oman Fiber Optic said that the com-pany has received the final instalment of insurance claim from an insurance company as claim for fire accident. But the company did not reveal the amount it received from the insur-ance company.

Suez Canal to revive Egypt’s loan dealsCAIRO: The biggest expansion of Egypt’s Suez Canal since it opened in 1869 will boost syndi-cated loan deals in North Africa’s biggest economy, according to the nation’s largest publicly traded bank. Syndicated lending in Egypt rose 61 per cent in the first nine months to $2.9 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomb-erg, after a $1.4 billion deal on September 30 boosted what was the lowest total since 2003. The market will grow 25 per cent next year, Commercial International Bank Egypt SAE said in an e- mailed response to questions.

Sprint to cut 452 jobs in the USNEW YORK: Sprint said its previously announced job cuts will include 452 positions in Overland Park, Kansas, in the United States, where the company is headquar-tered, according to a filing with the Kansas Depart-ment of Commerce. Sprint is eliminating an unspeci-fied number of jobs. - Times News Service/Agencies

B R I E F S

B4

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WhatsNews


SMARTEN UPDRIVE SAFE

A TIMES OF OMAN HANDS-FREE DRIVING INITIATIVE

Don’t litter a beautiful country like OMAN.

Ensure proper disposal of garbage.

MSM 30 Index snaps five-day losing streak

MUSCAT: Following in the foot-steps of the weekend rally in glob-al stock markets on Friday, stocks on the MSM also reversed the week-long declining trend yes-terday. The MSM 30 index closed with gains for the first time in the month of October. At close, the index was up by 1.07 per cent at 6946.80 points. The MSM Shari-ah index also closed up at 1,041.85 points, a gain of 0.57 per cent.

Continuing from the previous session, Al Anwar Holding re-mained as the most active in terms of volume and Omantel was the most active in terms of turnover. Dhofar Cattle Feed was the top gainer, closing up by 8.92 per cent,

while Takaful Oman, which fell by 3.06 per cent, lost the most.

Altogether 1,559 trades were executed during the session, gen-erating a turnover of OMR6.54 million with more than 20.7 million shares changing hands. Out of 53 traded stocks, 32 ad-vanced, 9 declined and 12 re-mained unchanged. At the close of the session, foreign investors remained net buyers to the tune of OMR271,000, while GCC & Arab Investors remained net sell-ers at OMR191,000 followed by Omani investors, who sold shares amounting to OMR80,000.

The financial Index surged by 2.02 per cent to close at 8290.79

points. Al Madina Takaful, Al Batinah Development Holding, Al Sharqiya Investment Holding, Al nawar Holding, and Bank Sohar increased by 6.74 per cent, 6.71 per cent, 6.49 per cent, 5.62 per cent, and 5.21 per cent respectively. Prices of Takaful Oman, Global Fi-nancial investments, DIDIC, and Taageer Finance fell by 3.06 per cent, 1.74 per cent, 1.09 per cent, and 0.67 per cent respectively.

Industrial Index rose by 0.34 per cent to close at 9,674.82 point. Dhofar Cattle feed, Construction Materials, Al Hassan Engineer-ing, Oman Fisheries, and Galfar Engineering increased by 8.92 per cent, 8.51 per cent, 4.35 per cent, 4

per cent, and 2.89 per cent respec-tively. Al jazeera Steels, Gulf In-ternational Chemicals, and Ray-sut Cement declined by 2.12 per cent and 1.41 per cent, and 0.48 per cent respectively.

Services Sector Index also went up by 0.35 per cent at 3,655.49 points. OIFC, Al Jazeira Services, Nawras, Al Suwadi Power, and Omantel increased by 6.34 per cent, 2.27 per cent, 1.23 per cent, 1.14 per cent, and 0.93 per cent respectively. National Gas and ACWA Power Barka were the only losers among services sector stocks and dropepd 1.29 per cent and 0.54 per cent respectively.

Dubai stocks rise Shares in Dubai climbed the most in more than three months after global equity markets rallied with oil and as some investors specu-lated the selloff last week was overdone. Saudi Arabia’s shares rose. The Dubai Financial Market General Index, gained 3.6 per cent. - United Securities/Bloomberg News

Dhofar Cattle Feed

was the top gainer,

closing up by 8.92% ,

while Takaful Oman,

which declined by

3.06%, lost the most

ODB takes part in dates festival at Souq Nizwa

Times News Service

MUSCAT: The Oman Devel-opment Bank (ODB) has taken part in the second Omani Dates Festival held at Souq Nizwa and sponsored by the Public Au-thority for Small and Medium Enterprises Development.

Inaugurated by Mohamed bin Salim Al Tobi, minister of environment and climate af-fairs, the festival seeks to create a permanent market for Omani dates and provide consumers with an opportunity to choose from the various types of Omani dates through supporting busi-nesses involved in the produc-tion, manufacture, promotion and marketing of dates.

At the festival, Oman De-velopment Bank held a semi-nar conducted by Eng Issa bin Saleh Al Naabni, food products sector head at ODB. Al Naabni reviewed the support, services, programmes, bank products and assistance delivered by Oman Development Bank to business owners and entrepre-neurs involved in date farming, production and marketing.

Al Naabni further pointed out that ODB provides special attention to small businesses in order to support their diver-sifying their income sources, as well as in the creation of jobs.

A W A R E N E S S


REVERSES TREND: At the close, the MSM Index was up by 1.07 per

cent at 6946.80 points. - Time file photo

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

E- IMESTECH STUFFTECH STUFF

BHOW TO HIDE HISTORY IN FIREFOXThe Firefox settings have an option to always start up the browser in the Private mode. In the Windows version, click the Menu icon on the right side of the toolbar and then click the Options icon. In the Options box, click the Privacy tab. In the History area of the box, click the drop-down menu next to “Firefox will:” and select “Use custom settings for history.”

M O N DAY, O CTO B E R 2 0, 2 0 14

In 2011, Samsung unveiled a smartphone so big it looked as if it must have been a joke, a mistake or a turn toward conceptual art. With a screen

measuring 5.3 inches diagonally, the device, the Galaxy Note, was met with instant and slightly unhinged criticism. The critics were wrong.

Samsung went on to sell millions of the huge Note; and its successors, the even larger Note 2 and Note 3, became some of the best-selling smartphones of the past few years.

The Galaxy Note also spawned dozens of copycats, making for an entire new category: phablets, or smartphones almost big enough to be considered tablets.

Today, just about every smart-phone manufacturer — including, at long last, Apple — makes a phone as big as the Note, and plus-size phones are threatening to overrun both the smartphone and tablet business.

So the Note has become a water-shed device; along with the original iPhone and iPad, Samsung’s phone is one of the most important and influential digital inventions of the past decade. Now there’s a new Note, and it is better than ever.

Note 4, which goes on sale this week, is superior to just about every other phablet on the market. Its only real competition is Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus, which has a more intuitive interface. But the Note 4 has at least a half-dozen clever features that should prompt even the most die-hard Apple fan to begin salivating.

Note 4 has stylusThe Note 4 has a sharper, larger dis-play; the ability to charge its battery to half-full in just 30 minutes; and a series of on-screen features that make it easier to use in one hand.

Also, like previous versions, the Note 4 has a stylus, which Apple fans have long argued was proof of its inferiority. They’re wrong; de-spite Steve Jobs’ objections, the sty-lus is a handy tool for manipulating such a big phone, and after using the Note, I often found myself missing it when I went back to the iPhone.

With the Note, Samsung is aiming for something transforma-tive, a device that is more than just a big phone:

The Note 4 feels like an ambi-tious effort to reach for the future of computing, in which our phones are more useful and powerful than PCs, and in which we barely bother with any other kinds of computers.

Granted, the Note 4 is far from per-fect; in true Samsung fashion, a lot of gimmickry can be found in it, and several features seem half-baked. The heart-rate monitor is pointless, and the fingerprint scanner isn’t nearly as good as Apple’s. But if you can over-look the rough edges, you’re left with a truly useful machine. Any assessment of the Note 4 must begin with its stun-ning display. Even though the Note 4 is just about the same size, overall, as the iPhone 6 Plus — it’s about 5 millimeters shorter than Apple’s device, but 1 millimetre wider and thicker — Samsung has packed a

slightly larger display into the Note than Apple does into its giant phone. Even though the screen is only about 6 per cent larger than the iP-hone’s, it’s a noticeable pleasure, like an extra inch of legroom in coach.

Colour accuracyAnd the Note’s display is not just bigger; it is also better. DisplayMate, a company that performs technical tests on digital displays, recently called the Note 4’s screen “the best performing smartphone display that we have ever tested.”

Although DisplayMate also found the iPhone 6 Plus’ display to be very impressive, it gave the Note 4 the edge because of a couple of technical ad-vances, including what Raymond So-neira, DisplayMate’s president, called

“significantly better colour accuracy.”To my eyes, the Note 4’s screen

did look better than Apple’s — sharper, more vivid and just gener-ally delicious, the kind of screen you don’t mind staring at. The Note 4 runs Android, Google’s mobile op-erating system, but like most Sam-sung phones, it has been dolled up by TouchWiz, the company’s hor-rendous homegrown user interface.

For the most part, TouchWiz isn’t pretty; it is a mess of garish colors and unintuitive gestures, and until you get accustomed to its quirks, it will seem to add unnecessary steps to just about every common task.

The surprise, then, is that for the Note 4 Samsung has built several useful features into TouchWiz that collectively recognize an important truth about phablets: We use them in different modes.

Sometimes, we use them as phones, or quick-hit devices to use on the go, when we need to scan email or look up directions. Other times, we use them in deeper ways, to go through morning mail, plan a day in a calendar, take notes while on a phone call or watch a show.

Side-key panelSamsung has smartly built its in-terface to facilitate either of these ways of using a phablet. Apple’s big iPhone, by contrast, does not appre-ciate these two modes; you use the iPhone 6 Plus pretty much as you would any other phone.— FARHAD MAN-

JOO/ The New York Times News Service

Note 4 gives a glimpse of computing’s future

Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4 has a sharper, larger display; the ability to charge its battery to half-full in just 30 minutes; and a series of on-screen features that make it easier to use in one hand

N E T W O R K I N G

THE BEACONS are here. And they might not be all bad. Bea-cons, tiny low-powered radio transmitters that send signals to phones just feet away, have quickly become a new front in the advertising industry’s chase to find you whenever, and exactly wherever, you are.

Although most consumers are just learning about these de-vices, tens or even hundreds of thousands of them have been in-stalled across the United States: outdoors on buildings, inside stores and even at National Foot-ball League and Major League Baseball stadiums.

The point of the devices is to send a specific signal, using low-energy Bluetooth, to phones that come into proximity, as long as those phones are running apps that can respond to the beacon. Those codes then set off an ac-tion on the phone, like a coupon, a reminder, a reward or just in-formation. A beacon at the gates of a baseball stadium could open

a map to the user’s seat and offer a beer or hot dog coupon.

Already, though, pitfalls have emerged. Last week, BuzzFeed reported that an advertising com-pany had installed hundreds of beacons in phone booths across New York, with the city’s permis-sion. The devices could communi-cate with a select few apps on peo-ple’s smartphones as they passed by, pushing advertising to those phones. Shortly after the beacons’ presence was reported, the city or-dered that they be removed.

The flap illustrates the un-fortunate ways that beacons are likely to be used in the short term: as a cheap, easy way to set up advertising networks that use the apps on our phones to send us spam with promotional mes-sages or collect personal infor-mation about us.

That’s too bad, because while it is easy to think only of coupons, advertising and data collection when we think of beacons, the re-ality is that these little transmit-

ters could also make the world around us richer, more useful and more interactive.

They could enrich museum experiences, deliver the right recipe in the grocery store aisle, take us on interactive tours of cities and towns, let us quickly and easily check in to hotels or even pay at the gas pump. And used properly, sure, they could also deliver the right coupon at the right time.

One important point to keep in mind about beacon technology is that the transmitters — which range in size from a tiny USB dongle to a silver dollar — don’t store or send any information. The devices use Bluetooth to send unique codes that cause an action from an app.

In order for any beacon-led ac-tion to happen on a phone, you must install an app that com-municates with beacons. And installing one kind of app doesn’t mean you are authorising all bea-cons to talk to your phone. An

NFL app, for example, can com-municate only with the beacons the NFL has installed. However, some apps might have broader reach, so be careful.

Most of those beacon-friendly apps are available on Apple’s iOS operating system, because Apple included the necessary technolo-

gy in iOS 7, and the OS communi-cates with a network of beacons built to Apple’s specifications, called iBeacons. Recent versions of Android have limited capabil-ity to recognise beacons but not to respond to them. The next version of the mobile operating system, code-named Android L, is expected to be able to respond to beacon codes.

Apple Store appThe apps that now work with beacons include the Apple Store app, which responds to the devic-es inside Apple’s physical stores.

The app then offers in-store notifications that let you pick up online orders, check in for a tech support reservation or buy ac-cessories from your phone. The technology has uses far beyond shopping, though.

Doug Thompson co-founded a marketing company called Dot3, which uses beacons to enhance real-world experiences like mu-seum visits. In Britain, Dot3 is

introducing a beacon experience at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, a World Heritage Site that includes a palace and sever-al greenhouses spread over about 300 acres just west of London.

“Kew Gardens said to me, we have all these really great data-bases,” Thompson said. “I was picturing servers and things and they said, ‘We have Charles Dar-win’s diaries.’”

Justin Brookman, director of consumer privacy at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said he would like restrictions on the data that could be collected and how it was sent.

The platforms, he said, needed to “find ways to put contractual limits in place to find out what installed apps can collect and whether they can phone home.”

But consumers can take their own steps to avoid beacon alerts. For one thing, you can simply un-install any app that starts show-ing unwanted messages. — MOLLY

WOOD/ The New York Times News Service

Beacons could make world around us interactive

Don’t litter a beautiful country like OMAN.

Ensure proper disposal of garbage.

Galaxy Note 4, which goes on sale this week,

is superior to every other phablet on the market.

Its only real competitior is Apple’s iPhone 6

Plus, which has a more intuitive interface

B6 M O N DAY, O CTO B E R 2 0, 2 0 14

ROUND-UP

RECRUIT

Bizz 2014 Awardgoes to Oman UAE Exchange

MUSCAT: Oman UAE Exchange (OUE) has been conferred with the coveted Bizz 2014 award in the cat-egory ‘Beyond Success Award’ by Worldcob. Oman UAE Exchange be-ing the only exchange company to be chosen for the Bizz award adds col-our to this feat, says a press release.

The award ceremony took place in Abu Dhabi in The Emirates Pal-ace Hotel recently in the midst of award winning companies from around the world. The Bizz trophy was handed over to Oman UAE

Exchange in the midst of ambas-sadors and delegates.

Also, certificates pertaining to World Business Leader, World Leader Business Person and Ex-cellence in Business Management were issued in the name of Tonny George Alexander, CEO, Oman UAE Exchange.

Worldcob was also celebrating their 10th anniversary on recog-nising companies of high repute in tandem with their consistent per-formance. The Bizz is considered the most important business award in the world, and is given out by Worldcob to the most outstanding companies and business people in each country. This award was cre-ated in order to recognise business

excellence and is aimed at small, medium and large enterprises.

Oman UAE Exchange has been a consistent recipient of Bizz Awards from the year 2012. Other accolades include the company being chosen as a Superbrand con-secutively for five years starting from the year 2009.

Oman UAE Exchange is the only exchange company in Oman and the whole of GCC to be IMS certi-fied which include ISO 9001:2008 for quality, ISO 14001:2004 for en-vironment and OHSAS 18001:2007 for Occupational Health and Safety respectively. The company has been adjudged 7th best brand and No. 1 brand among exchange companies in Oman by a survey conducted.

The Bizz is seen as

the most important

business award in the

world and is given

out by Worldcob to

the most outstanding

companies and

business people in

each country

Chopard showcased at ROHM fashion show

MUSCAT: Exquisite collections of Chopard — from the house of Khimji’s Watches — stole the fashion show organised by lead-ing Omani fashion designer Amal Jamali at the Royal Opera House. Amongst the glitterati from the world of fashion and glamour, international models walked the ramp wearing stunning Chopard range found only at Khimji’s Watches, says a press release.

Amal Jamali, country’s lead-ing fashion designer and a huge Chopard fan, commented: “I am extremely grateful to Khimji’s Watches. Chopard exquisites add-ed hugely to the beauty and the style statement of my show. Need-less to say, Chopard is the brand of choice for the who’s who of the country and my personal favorite too. Chopard designs are unique, exceptional and simply gorgeous.”

At the event, various Chopard collections such as Happy Dia-monds, Happy Sports, Happy Spirit, Imperiale and La Strada were showcased. Madhursinh Jesrani, general manager, Khim-

ji’s Watches, said: “The Chopard collection included Happy Dia-monds — a unique watch jewel-lery concept with diamonds mov-ing freely on and around the dial, which is a great classic and paved the way for the development of a whole range of ladies’ watches, such as the Happy Sport Watch and Happy Spirit. Chopard Impe-riale range was also highlighted, along with La Strada collection. While Imperiale is a contempo-rary classic; La Strada is a tribute to the feminine ideal of the 1950s, inspired by classic film of Italian maestro Federico Fellini. Both are stylish yet sophisticated and deserving of a rightful place on the fashion centre stage. It gave us immense pride and joy to show-case these stunning and choicest pieces at the show.”

The fashion connoisseurs present at this premier event were stunned and thrilled by the breathtaking Chopard designs. A fashion enthusiast shares her ex-perience: “Wonderful show, great models and beautiful designs.”

K H I M J I ’ S W A T C H E S

Omantel unveils young Ozone Football Challenge winnerMUSCAT: Omantel, the leading provider of integrated telecommu-nication service in the Sultanate, announced that Ahmed bin Ab-dullah Al Saqqaf, Ozone customer, was the lucky winner of the paid trip for two to attend El Clasico match between Real Madrid and Barcelona, scheduled to take place on October 25 in Madrid, Spain

Omantel had recently launched

during Salalah Festival a virtual football fans competition Ozone Football Challenge (OFC) espe-cially for Ozone customers where around 250 customers joined the competition, says a press release.

Al Saqqaf participated in Om-antel promotional campaign and qualified for the finals of Ozone Football Challenge – one of the biggest virtual sports events in

the Sultanate. At the same com-petition, Ammar Al Rawas came second and got a PlayStation 4; Ahmed Al Mosalami came third and won Mini iPad.

Shadli Thabt Al Abdul Salam, Senior Manager, Product Develop-ment at Omantel Consumer Unit, said, “We always seek to provide our customers with added value services that make their experi-

ence with us rewarding. Ozone Football Challenge has been the biggest of its kind virtual event in the Sultanate especially among those who like PlayStation 4. The turnout for the challenge by Ozone subscribers has been very great which helped in creating an ideal platform for exchanging views about the service and more under-standing of the needs of youth.”

E L C L A S I C O M A T C H

Tariq steps down

as president of

Knowledge Oman

MUSCAT: Tariq Hilal Al Bar-wani, who founded and trans-formed Knowledge Oman into the leading community knowl-edge sharing platform in the Sultanate, is stepping down as its president after seven years of continuous success.

Rym Aoudia, senior vice president, was named as the new president effective from November 1.

“With successful milestones over the six past years and a leading community brand that is home to over 15,000 members already, it is important as an or-ganisation made of people to the people to extend new leadership opportunities every three years to support the growth of working members,” said Tariq.

F O U N D E R

CorrigendumIn a report titled ‘Melody Mu-sic Centre to host yoga course’ published in Times of Oman on B6 on October 16, the com-pany’s name in the headline and the body should have read Harmony Music Centre. The error is regretted.

H A R M O N Y M U S I C C E N T R E

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All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them. — Walt Disney

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BankDhofar recognised as Most Advanced Brand

MUSCAT: After being awarded the Best Bank in the Sultanate, the achievements continue for BankDhofar as it has been recently named the Most Advanced Brand of 2014 by Global Finance Market Review. Recognised as a leading light in the financial world, awards granted by GFMR are well known at the level of global financing, says a press release.

“We are very glad and proud of this accomplishment as our efforts were fruitful. We have recently evolved and aligned our commer-cial identity to align with the new strategy envisioned by the bank,” stated Ahmed Said Al Ibrahim, DGM - Government Banking.

“Developing our brand has come as part of our strategy based on providing the best banking experi-ence for clients. We have focused mainly on developing our brand to go in line with up-to-date trends. The slogan of the brand, ‘The best

bank for you’, shows how keen we are to provide the best facili-ties, products and services to our customers. Regarded as one of the fastest growing banks in the Sultanate, BankDhofar employs young Omanis and deploys the lat-est technological resources that are essential to provide an out-standing banking experience for our clients. As we strive towards achieving the vision of best bank in the Gulf, our vision is clear and revolves around four significant elements: Customer focus, Trans-parency, Honesty and Innovation,”

said Sami Omar Al Zadjali, head of Marketing and Corporate Com-munications of BankDhofar.

This award is an addition to the bank’s local, regional and inter-national awards granted by well-reputed institutions, authorities and business publications. CPI Financial, an esteemed institution in Dubai, also received the bank with awards for the Best Bank in the Sultanate, the Best Manage-ment for Financial Consultative Services in Sultanate and the Best Mobile Phone Application for Banking Services.

‘As we strive

towards achieving

the vision of best

bank in the Gulf, our

vision is clear and

revolves around four

significant elements:

Customer focus,

transparency, honesty

and innovation,’ said

Sami Omar Al Zadjali,

head of Marketing

Engel & Volkers offers stress-free property serviceTimes News Service

MUSCAT: Thinking about selling or renting your property? List it with Engel & Völkers and live your life without stress, said an official of the major property company.

“Engel & Völkers is here to pro-fessionally rent or sell your prop-erty. Over the last 36 years, we have developed systems to match your property with the best buyer or with the best renter. By listing your property with us, you will enjoy our exemplary world-class service, and will also gain the ad-vantages of our extensive global network and our well-estab-lished databases. We are proven real estate professionals with very many years of experience, and very high standards. So don’t worry about your property. Call us, and gain the benefits of our ex-pertise and contacts,” he added.

For landlords and property owners, Engel & Völkers offers the best professional expertise, the best choices, and the best at-titude to smoothen the task of finding the best offer for property.

“Feel confident that our teams will conduct all property deal-ings on your behalf with integrity and capability and to the highest standards. We have a high quality database of exclusive properties. List your property with us and remove worry from your life. We will do all the work for you,” the official assured.

Now operating with 4,700 em-ployees and agents in over 500 offices in 40 countries, Engel & Völkers is one of the world’s fin-est residential and commercial real estate companies. Engel & Völkers provides individual and institutional clients with a range of professional services.

W O R L D - C L A S S S E R V I C E

Al Jenaibi launches exciting offers on BMW, MINI cars

MUSCAT: Al Jenaibi Interna-tional Automobiles, the official BMW Group importer in Oman, has launched an exclusive lim-ited time offer on the purchase of select BMW and MINI vehicles until October 31.

When purchasing a new vehi-cle BMW customers can avail a complimentary insurance plan for the first year and still enjoy zero percent interest when sign-ing up for a two-year finance program by paying a 50 percent down payment.

MINI customers however, will only be able to select either free insurance or the zero percent interest finance scheme. Cus-tomers will also receive a com-plimentary Apple iPad Air 4G Wi-Fi, 16GB with the purchase of new BMW and MINI vehicles,

says a press release. This offer is valid on a range

of models including the BMW 6 and 7 Series as well as the MINI Cooper, MINI Cabrio, MINI Countryman, MINI Paceman, MINI Coupe and MINI Roadster.

Commenting on the offer, Di-vyendu Kumar, Managing Direc-tor of Al Jenaibi International Automobiles, said: “With this limited time offer, customers will enjoy the most comprehensive worry-free experience for their premium vehicles.

“The Omani market demands the luxury, elegance and innova-tion of BMW vehicles as well as the unique, fun and strong char-acters of our MINI vehicles. We believe that this is the best way to celebrate the arrival of this festive season.”

L I M I T E D T I M E O F F E R

Meethaq plans to host high profile session on Islamic finance growth MUSCAT: Meethaq, the pio-neer of Islamic banking in Oman from Bank Muscat, in association with Thomson Reuters, Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI) and the Council of Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (CIBAFI), is hosting a high pro-file session on ‘Sustaining Islam-ic finance growth in established and newly emerging markets’ on October 29 at the 10th annual World Islamic Economic Forum in Dubai, says a press release.

Indicator‘Sustaining Islamic finance growth in established and newly emerging markets’ session will present key findings of the Is-lamic Finance Development Indicator 2014 and the Oman Islamic Finance Country Re-port 2015. The discussions will focus on how emerging Islamic finance markets such as Oman can employ Islamic finance more effectively to build infra-structure and fund economic ac-tivities, as well as spotlight key priorities emerging markets can adopt to ensure sustainability of Islamic finance growth.

Islamic finance is one of the fastest growing segments of the global financial services indus-

try, with total assets in excess of $1.658 trillion and growing at twice the rate of conventional finance in most markets, accord-ing to the Islamic Finance Devel-opment Indicator 2014 report, which was recently released by Thomson Reuters and the ICD.

The significant growth in as-sets is largely attributed to estab-lished markets such as Malaysia, Bahrain, the UAE and Saudi Ara-bia. As these markets push for-ward plans for liberalisation and greater cross-border Islamic fi-nance transactions, new growth drivers for the global Islamic fi-nance industry have been identi-fied – one key driver is the emerg-ing and frontier Islamic finance markets such as Oman, Morocco and Kazakhstan.

Among Islamic finance emerg-ing markets, Oman has had a remarkable start, supported by a strong Islamic banking regu-latory framework, and govern-ment focus on takaful and sukuk as well. According to the Oman Islamic Finance Report 2015, the Sultanate’s Islamic banking assets reached $2.8 billion by June 2014, or 4.4 per cent of total banking assets, in less than two years since the launch of the first Islamic bank in the Sultanate.

E C O N O M I C F O R U M

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DHONI’S TEAM BETTER THAN US: GANGULYDefending Team India’s often-criticised character of crumbling under pressure, former captain Saurav Ganguly said that the current side is better adept in responding to difficult situations than before. >C3

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STAGE IS SET: Mena Golf Tour Chairman Mohamed Juma Buamaim, centre, speaks during a press conference at Hotel Majan Continental

yesterday. – TALIB AL WAHAIBI/Times of Oman

Ali to represent Oman at Mena Tour tourney

Times News Service

MUSCAT: With most of his na-tional teammates travelling to Australia to take part in next week’s Asia Pacific Champion-ship, Ali Hameed Al Saleh will be the lone representative of the Sul-tanate at the Ghala Valley Open, a Middle East and North Africa (Mena) Golf Tour event, which is scheduled to start at the Ghala Val-ley Golf Club here today.

The prestigious tournament, which is supported by the Oman Golf Committee (OGC), has at-tracted 85 players of the Mena re-gion, including 17 amateurs.

Mena Tour Chairman Mo-hamed Juma Buamaim, speaking at a press conference yesterday, thanked both the Ghala Valley Golf Club and the OGC for support-ing the event which he hoped will become a popular and permanent round of the Tour. “Oman, which is well known for its striking land-

scape, has made great strides in putting together solid infrastruc-ture for golf and hosting of a Tour event here strongly endorses the Sultanate’s commitment to broad-ening the base of golfers in the Arab world,” he said.

“We look forward to working with the Oman Golf Committee with the mutual goal of putting the region’s golf on the world’s sport-ing map,” he added.

Welcoming the Mena Golf Tour party, Ziyad Al Zubair, a board member of the Ghala Valley Golf Club, said: “The event at Ghala Val-ley will provide fresh impetus to its growing reputation as a major golf destination and help showcase our golfing facilities to the world.”

“We are delighted to be part of the Mena Golf Tour as we sup-port all initiatives which target the overall development of the game in the region,” he said.

“The tour has done a great job in creating a competitive envi-

ronment for the region’s players to grow and excel on the interna-tional stage.”

OGC Vice-Chairman Ahmed Al Jahadhamy said: “Golf is relatively a new sport in Oman, but it is grow-ing thanks to Ghala Valley Golf Club who have been a great sup-porter of the country’s junior golf programme. We believe in quality and not in quantity. The staging of the Mena Golf Tour event in Oman is a step in the right direction and we will do everything we can to support their initiative in Oman.”

Arabs eye more gloryMeanwhile, a statement from the organisers said that the region’s top talent will be all charged up to glean more glory thanks to the in-spiration provided the success of Ahmed Marjane, the first ever Arab winner on the Mena Golf Tour.

Showing a perceptible spring in his step that exuded confidence, the young Moroccan prodigy up-staged many big names to win the Ras Al Khaimah Classic two weeks ago, his achievement underscoring his resilience and continued resur-gence in the region’s golf.

In a buoyant mood ahead of the $50,000 Ghala Valley event, Mar-jane will join countrymen Faycal Serghini, Younes El Hassani and

Amine Joudar and UAE’s Ahmed Al Musharrekh in leading the Arab challenge against a quality field that includes England’s Luke Joy, the current Order of Merit leader.

With the likes of Zane Scot-land, Jake Shepherd, Lee Corfield and Joshua White, all former winners on the Mena Golf Tour from England, also in the fray, the seventh stop on the Tour prom-ises to produce all the ingredients of a thriller.

After three runner-up finishes, including one this season, Moroc-co’s Serghini will be hoping there is no near-miss this time around.

“I am up there, contending al-most every week and doing things which I need to do win a tourna-ment. But somehow I have not been able to close the deal,” he said.

“There’s always tomorrow and there is always hope. May be Ahmed (Marjane)’s victory will rub off on the Mena region play-ers. Who knows? One thing is sure, we won’t give up without a fight,” said Serghini, a runaway leader in the Professional Division of the Shaikh Maktoum Golf Foundation Award that recognises the per-formance of the region’s profes-sionals and amateurs from their respective divisions in each event.

Scotland’s Daniel Kay has opened up the Order of Merit race for amateurs with an emphatic victory in their division at Ras Al Khaimah when he moved into third place behind the English duo of James Allan and Craig Vance.

Amateur golfer Ali Hameed will be the lone

representative of Oman at the Ghala Valley

Open, a Mena Golf Tour event, as most the

national team players are away in Australia

for the Asia Pacific Championship


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

South Africa seek World Cup edge in New ZealandWELLINGTON: South Africa opens a One-day series against New Zealand tomorrow looking to strike a psychological blow against the Black Caps ahead of the Cricket World Cup early next year.

The three-match series, which begins in the North Island’s pic-turesque Mount Maunganui, will also give the Proteas a chance to familiarise themselves with lo-cal conditions in preparation for the World Cup pool matches they will play at New Zealand venues.

On paper, the series should be a mis-match, with South Africa ranked the world’s second best ODI team, just behind Australia, while New Zealand languish at seventh.

In addition, the Proteas have three batsmen in the ICC’s top 10 (AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock), and two of the world’s best-ranked bowlers (Dale Steyn and Ryan McLaren).

New Zealand, meanwhile, have just one player ranked among the ODI elite in batsman Ross Taylor, and he will miss the series with a calf strain.

No understimationBut the Blacks Caps frequently punch above their weight in the 50-over format, including elimi-nating the Proteas at the quarter-final stage of the last World Cup in 2011 and claiming a first-ever ODI series win on South African soil last year.

Captain de Villiers said the tourists would not underesti-mate New Zealand, either in the upcoming series or the World Cup, when he believes home ad-vantage means Brendon McCul-lum’s men will rank among the tournament favourites.

“I wouldn’t call them dark horses, I’d say one of the favour-ites,” he said. “They’re always a very competitive ODI team. Playing on their home grounds in their country, they’ll be even more competitive.”

The World Cup is a glaring omission from South Africa’s trophy cabinet and de Villiers said the New Zealand series, and an ODI series in Australia next month, provided the chance to sharpen his team’s skills for the tournament, particularly in the field.

“It’s turning games around, do-ing special stuff that I see other teams do,” he said. “I don’t believe we are in the top two fielding teams in the world and you need that in a World Cup.”

De Villiers said the New Zea-land and Australia series would also give selectors an opportu-nity to assess fringe players and allow the Proteas to send a mes-sage to two sides he sees as World Cup threats.

“Mentally and physically, it would be a really good way for us to get on top of them before the World Cup starts,” he said.

New Zealand fast bowler Adam Milne will join Taylor on the sick list for the series, while batsman Kane Williamson will miss the first match and then undergo a fitness test.

The Black Caps have called in Dean Brownlie and Tom Latham to bolster their depleted batting stocks.

They also welcome veteran spinner Dan Vettori back into the 14-man squad after a long stint on the sidelines injured, although it is not yet clear whether he will play. — AFP

O D I S E R I E S

Mentally and physically, it would be a really good way for us to get on top of New Zealand before the World Cup starts. They’re always a very competitive ODI team

AB de VilliersCaptain, South Africa

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WhatsNews


Pakistan’s Hafeez unconcerned over bowling actionDUBAI: Pakistan all rounder Mo-hammad Hafeez said yesterday he was confident about his bowl-ing action despite being reported during an Indian domestic league game last month.

The 34-year-old is likely to open the batting with Ahmed Shehzad in the first of two Tests against Australia starting in Dubai from Wednesday.

But in the absence of ace spinner Saeed Ajmal, who was suspended for an illegal bowling action last month, Hafeez will be required to serve as a fifth bowler.

Hafeez said his bowling action worries were behind him.

“Nothing is on my mind over my bowling action,” Hafeez told

reporters after his team’s practice. “When I was warned over my ac-

tion (in India) I bowled in the next game and there were no problems and I have also reviewed my action in the national academy in Lahore with Saqlain (Mushtaq) and as per the rules its cleared.”

Saqlain, a former Pakistan spin-ner, is currently working on im-proving Ajmal’s action.

Since July this year the Inter-national Cricket Council (ICC) as part of a wider drive against bowl-ers with suspect actions, has sus-pended Ajmal, Sri Lanka’s Sachi-tra Senanayake, New Zealand’s Kane Williamson, Bangladesh’s Soha Gazi and Zimbabwe’s Pros-per Utseya—all off-spinners like

Hafeez. Bangladesh’s paceman Al-Amin Hossain was also report-ed last month and is likely to be suspended.

The latest crackdown puts Ha-feez in danger of being reported in the first Test. His action was cleared after being reported in a one-day match against the West Indies in Brisbane back in 2005.

Hafeez said he has been bowling with the same action for 11 years.

“Look, I have not changed my ac-tion. It’s the same for 11 years now, so I am confident.”

Under the ICC rules any bowler flexing his elbow more than 15 de-grees is liable to be reported for a suspect bowling action.

The reported bowler then un-

dergoes a biomechanic assess-ment and if he is found to be going above 15 degrees he is suspended pending remedial work and reas-sessment.

Hafeez said he looked forward to the Australian challenge in the Tests after missing the 3-0 defeat in the one-day series.

“It didn’t look good, missing the one-days but it’s gone now and we, as a team, look forward to the Tests and know that we have the abil-ity to beat any team in the world,” he said.

Pakistan ‘A’ beat Australia by 153 runs in a four-day game in Sharjah on Saturday.

The second Test is in Abu Dhabi from October 30. — AFP

C R I C K E T

NO PROBLEM: Pakistan all-rounder Mohammed Hafeez expressed confidence in his bowling action.

Sri Lanka keen to host India in Test series next yearCOLOMBO: After having agreed to play a five-match ODI series in India on a short notice post the West Indies pull-out, the Sri Lankan board is looking for a re-turn in favour from the BCCI in August next year by playing three Test matches in the island nation.

“We have already confirmed our participation in the five ODI slated to held between Novem-ber 1 and 14. And yes, we are now looking to host India for a three-Test series in August next year,” a Sri Lankan official said.

“The talks of the series are still in the preliminary stages, so it’s too early to confirm it. But we are looking forward to host India,” he added.

Originally, Sri Lanka were to tour India in August 2015 for a three-match Test series accord-ing to the amended Future Tours Programme, but now SLC wants to reverse the hosting.

SLC is also expected to make around US$ 8 million by hosting the three Tests against India.

There has been no word from the Indian board, which will only take the next course of action in the emergency meeting of the working meeting slated to be held on Tuesday.

The meeting was scheduled af-ter the West Indies team aborted its tour midway and returned home post the fourth ODI in Dharamsala following a long-standing pay dispute with WICB and WIPA.

With the fifth and final ODI, one-off T20 and 3 Tests remain-ing to be played during the series, the venue officials of the respec-tive grounds have requested a match in the upcoming Sri Lanka series.

The BCCI will take a final call on the venues and the dates in the working committee meeting.

After West Indies’ dramatic pullout from the India tour due to pay dispute with WICB, Sri

Lanka Cricket’s decision to fill in with a five-match ODI series has come in for sharp criticism from Kumar Sangakkara.

“Our 6 weeks of pure fitness work ends abruptly. Have a week to do a months requirement of skills work before India. Plan-ning ahead anyone”, Kumar San-gakkara asked in a tweet.

Sri Lankans are currently un-der an intense fitness programme conducted by the former national rugby union skipper Chandris-han Perera. The programme was tasked at conditioning players for the busy schedule ahead leading up to next year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

The current fitness pro-gramme was a sequel to a report filed by the SLC’s chief opera-tions officer Carlton Bernadus, which had raised concerns about the fitness levels and the fielding standards.

Sri Lankans were to face Eng-land in a seven-match home ODI series before heading off to New Zealand for a Test and ODI series.

The sudden management de-cision to fill in the void due to West Indies’ pull-out from the remainder of India tour has up-set the work schedule of the Sri Lankans. — PTI

A F A V O U R I N R E T U R N

Sri Lanka Cricket’s decision to fill in with a five-match ODI series as per India’s request has come in for sharp criticism from Kumar Sangakkara

Twenty20 cricket good for the sport, says Mahmood

DUBAI: Former Pakistan all-rounder Azhar Mahmood on Sunday said he disagreed that Twenty20 cricket was spoiling younger generations of bats-men and is a threat to Test and One-day cricket.

The 39-year-old was speak-ing at the launch of the Interna-tional Cricket Council’s (ICC) nine-day camp in the United Arab Emirates for young play-ers to learn how to play the shortest format of the game.

Mahmood quoted the exam-ple of South African batsman AB de Villiers who he said ad-justs to all three formats with consummate ease.

“Look, you need basic tech-nique to bat and if your tech-nique is good, then you can easily switch the gears like de Villiers is doing so wonderful-ly,” said Mahmood, who played 21 Tests and 143 One-day Inter-nationals for Pakistan. “I don’t accept that Twenty20 is threat-ening for future generations in terms of batting techniques.”

Twenty20 cricket has been Mahmood’s speciality, having played a key role in Surrey’s county win in England when the shortest format was intro-duced in 2003.

He is one of only 13 players to have featured in more than 200 Twenty20 matches at all levels, with 213.

Mahmood said Twenty20 complimented the five-day game. “When one-day cricket started (in 1971) people used to say that it will hurt Tests, but it didn’t and now Twenty20 is an innovation and it compliments Tests,” said Mahmood.

“Look at the number of Tests ending in draws before Twen-ty20 came into being and now, Tests are bearing more results than before, so Twenty20 is helping.” — AFP

V E T E R A N S P E A K S

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SPORTSM O N DAY, O C TO B E R 2 0, 2 0 1 4

It’s too late to remove Misbah as Pakistan captain: InzamamNEW DELHI: With the word di-vided on Pakistan’s leadership in the 2015 World Cup between Mis-bah-ul-Haq and Shahid Aridi, for-mer skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq said that it’s too late to meddle with the national captaincy with just over a 100 days remaining for the show-piece event.

“I think Pakistan should now continue with Misbah as captain.

It’s too late to make any changes on the leadership front at this point of time. I know that Misbah has his limitations but he should carry on, at least till the World Cup,” said Inzamam at the at the Aaj Tak con-clave ‘Salaam Cricket’.

At a powerpacked gathering of World Cup-winning captains, it was a unanimous say that though Pakistan are a talented and unpre-

dictable team, they don’t stand a chance in the upcoming 50-over Cup. Inzamam though begged to dif-fer. “Look, every team goes through a lean patch. Pakistan have been de-void of international cricket at home for long, which has affected their confidence and morale. But I am an eternal optimist and still hope that the team could spring a surprise in Australia,” said Inzamam, who was

part of the 1992 World Cup team led by the great Imran Khan.

Inzamam fondly recounted his days with Imran at the helm and how the captain inspired the team.

“Imran never lost faith in us as players, individually and as a team and that gave us the confidence to win. He was a leader par excel-lence and Pakistan have seen none like him. I can’t even compare Mis-

bah or anybody to Imran, but I still hope that we can take a cue from his ways to move forward and do well as a team in the future,” said Inzamam, who fashioned Paki-stan’s 1992 semifinal win to be-come an overnight hero.

Having taken to propagation of, Inzamam, clad in a blue Pathan suit and a white skull cap, also spoke about the pressure of play-

ing against India and the camara-derie between the players.

“I urge the administrators of both the teams to make them play more often to reduce the pressure of these matches and increase harmony between the arch-rivals. Cricket is always a great way to bridge gaps and I hope to see the two teams locking horns frequent-ly,” said Inzamam. — PTI

O P I N I O N

Dhoni’s team better than us, says Ganguly

NEW DELHI: Defending Team India’s often-criticised charac-ter of crumbling under pressure, former captain Saurav Ganguly said that the current side is bet-ter adept in responding to difficult situations than before.

“In 2003, we lost to the best Australian side under Ricky Pon-ting. But today, the Indian team won’t buckle under pressure,” Ganguly said at a conclave.

Addressing a large gathering, Ganguly remembered the loss against Australia in a one-sided final in 2003, saying it was very

difficult to captain the Indian cricket team because of the ex-pectations surrounding the sport in the country.

“Stones were thrown at us after the Johannesburg loss. We Indi-ans react under pressure. But we are used to it (pressure). You have to deal with it,” he said.

Talking about pressure in the upcoming edition of the show-piece event, 1987 World Cup-win-ning Australian captain Allan Bor-der said there is a unique pressure attached to the 50-over event.

“It’s a once-in-a-four-year chance to show your skill, talent

and mettle in cricket’s showpiece event,” Border said.

Border added that defending champions India will be under pressure to repeat their 2011 suc-cess as the country is so passion-ate about cricket.

“Flavour of cricket fans here (in India) is second to none,” he said.

Clive Lloyd, the legendary West Indian and winner of 1975 and 1979 World Cup, said he felt the pressure when he represented the culture and dreams of thousands of Caribbean islanders.

“Pressure is always there. We are a side comprising players from

different islands, representing different cultures. England is one country. India is one country. It’s very difficult to get people togeth-er in the West Indies. You repre-sent different people.” Lloyd said.

And about the 1983 Wold Cup loss to India, Lloyd said that what happens on a particular day mat-ters. “Whoever plays better wins. India did play well. It gave them that lift.”

Asked if the West Indies had crumbled because of over- confi-dence, Lloyd said it could be one of the reasons.

Ganguly, meanwhile, pointed out that pressure can have both positive and negative effects.

“At times I felt that with so many talents we were a sleeping giant. A little bit of aggression in the field would perhaps wake them up.

“With the Indian team, a lit-tle bit of shake-up augurs well. Look at the England tour where we were beaten comprehensively in the Tests but then there was a complete turnaround in the ODIs,” Ganguly said.

He also regretted taking off his shirt on the Lord’s balcony after India’s win in the NatWest trian-gular series in 2002, calling it a mistake as well as a way of “reliev-ing the pressure”. — PTI

Speaking at a

conclave India’s

former cricket

captain Saurav

Ganguly said

pressure can have

both positive and

negative effects

We Indians react under pressure. But we are used to it (pressure). You have to deal with itSaurav GangulyFormer India captain

Rahane wants to be lot more consistentDHARAMSALA: Cricketer Ajinkya Rahane has said he is working towards attaining great-er consistency and is looking to convert starts into big scores to secure his place in the Indian squad.

Opener Rahane scored a stroke-filled half century and was looking good for a hundred until his dismissal for 68 in the fourth One-Day International (ODI) against the West Indies here on Friday, paving the way for India’s 59-run win.

“I have often got starts but haven’t been able to convert them into big ones. I realised that if I get a big score opening the innings, it will only help the team’s cause. I would want to get a lot more con-sistent,” Rahane was quoted as saying by bcci.tv.

“My focus is to keep up the mo-mentum attained after scoring 30 or 40 by playing risk-free cricket through orthodox shots. Opening the batting is an important slot in the order as it sets up the platform for the team in their innings.”

The 26-year-old mentioned about enjoying stiff competition for the opening slot, identifying it as a ‘challenge’.

He is currently in contention for the spot with the likes of Ro-hit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay.

“It is good to have healthy com-petition when you are playing for the country. You need to accept it as a challenge especially at this stage when the competition is in-tense,” the right handed batsman said, thanking skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni for backing him and providing necessary support to play his natural game.

“Dhoni asked me to play ac-cording to my strengths. I am con-centrating on performing to my potential. I would like to take it step-by-step and score runs con-sistently.”

The Mumbaikar also expressed his delight at India’s impressive form against the West Indies say-ing that the team showed a lot of character after losing the series

opener. India came back strongly to level the series at New Delhi Oct 11 before winning here Oct 17.

The five-match series ended 2-1 after the third ODI at Vi-sakhapatnam was abandoned due to cyclone Hudhud and the tour getting forfeited because of the West Indies’ sudden cancellation of the tour due to a payment dis-pute with their Board before the fifth and final ODI at Kolkata.

Rahane also gave a vote of con-fidence to teammate Virat Kohli, who was recently struggling with poor form.

“Virat is a hardworking crick-eter and has handled his approach really well. He was calm and sta-ble even when he wasn’t scoring in England and his return to form is a good sign for the team,” Ra-hane said of Kohli, who scored a match-winning 127 here. — IANS

A I M S T O W O R K H A R D

AIMING BIG: Ajinkya Rahane says his focus is to keep up the mo-mentum by playing risk-free cricket. – File photo

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Suror Muscat wins endurance raceMUSCAT: Suror Muscat, ridden by Amjad bin Juma and trained by Saeed Al Saidi, clocked four hours and 47 minutes to emerge the winner of the opening race of the endurance racing season or-ganised by the Oman Equestrian Federation (OEF) in Saih Al Ma-hamid in Barka.

Fifty horses from various gov-ernment and privately-owned stables took part in the event, which was organised under the auspices of Oman Equestrian Federation Chairman Munther bin Saif Al Busaidy and in the presence of other officials and dignitaries.

Royal Cavalry’s Kateg, with Hisham Al Farsi as rider and Nasser bin Hamad Al Qutaiti as trainer, took the second place in four hours and 54 minutes.

Hamad Al Balushi rode Simon, which is trained by Jamal Al Bal-ushi, to third place in a time of five hours and 25 minutes.

S E A S O N O P E N E R

Harmanpreet stars as India edge Great Britain to retain Johor CupJOHOR BAHRU: Harmanpreet Singh converted two penalty cor-ners to help India successfully defend their Sultan of Johor Cup Under-21 hockey title, beating Great Britain 2-1 in a keenly-con-tested final, in Malaysia yesterday.

Harmanpreet (45th and 90 minutes) slammed home two set pieces at the Taman Daya Hockey Stadium to take his goals tally to eight in the tournament. For Great Britain Samuel French (55th minute) was the lone goal scorer.

Great Britain, unbeaten in the preliminary round, came into the final with a psychological advan-tage over India having beaten them 2-0 in their round-robin clash.

But defending champions In-dia had a record to play for as they wanted to be the first team to win the title twice since the inception in 2011. Malaysia had won the in-augural title with Germany win-ning in 2012 and India last year.

And the young Indians deserv-edly achieved their goal with a late winner from Harmanpreet.

Harmanpreet scored his sec-ond and the all-important win-ner for India with just 45 seconds from time by converting his sec-ond penalty corner of the day.

It was a hard-fought encounter between India and Great Britain as both the teams did not give an inch to each other. But India final-ly took the lead in the 45th minute through a Harmanpreet’s penalty corner conversion.

Varun Kumar then got a chance to double India’s lead but his at-

tempt from a penalty corner in the 53rd flew inches wide.

Then French converted a pen-alty corner in the 55th minute to level scores at 1-1 to the relief of Great Britain.

A controversy then erupted in the 62nd minute when Indian cus-todian Abhnav Pandey was shown the green card and an outfield

player was taken off to bring on substitute keeper Subodh Tirkey.

India were awarded another penalty corner just 45 seconds from the hooter and Harman-preet duly convert the chance to help India retain the title.

In the bronze medal play-off earlier in the day, Australia de-feated New Zealand 6-2. - PTI

H O C K E Y

KEEN TUSSLE: India and Great Britain players vie for the ball dur-ing their final at the Sultan of Johor Cup hockey tournament in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, yesterday. – PTI

Dynamos, Atletico in 1-1 draw

KOLKATA: Pavel Elias unleashed a rasping volley to cancel out a penalty conversion by Atletico de Kolkata’s Jofre Mateu and enable Delhi Dynamos finish with a 1-1 draw in an Indian Super League (ISL) match here yesterday.

The Czech Republic player blasted the ball into the top corner of the net from about 25 yards in the 74th minute of the well-fought encounter at the sprawling Salt Lake Stadium to raise Dynamos’ points tally to two from as many games. The side had earlier drawn with FC Pune City.

It was also the first goal conced-ed by the hosts in the tournament.

Earlier, the hosts had gone into the lead four minutes into the second session. Wim Raymaekers brought down an advancing Atleti-

co striker Fikru Teferra by pulling his shirt inside the box, prompting referee Santosh Kumar to point to the dreaded spot.

Mateu made no mistake in put-

ting the ball into the right corner as Dynamos goalkeeper Kristof Van Hout dived at the wrong end.

Atletico de Kolkata, who now have seven points from three

matches, looked pale compared to their first two encounters, as they missed suspended midfielder Bor-ja Fernandez.

Also skipper Luis Garcia had

to be taken off in the second half with a pulled hamstring, and they played out the final minutes one man short after Raksh Masih was given marching orders on earning his second yellow booking.

Dynamos, with their iconic re-cruit Alessandro Del Piero taking the field from the outset, played a more attacking game - particularly in the second half.

Piero made the first goalbound move of the exchange, as he dis-played some silken skills inside the opponent box, but was tackled to submission.

At the other end, the Ethio-pian Fikru - despite being marked closely - proved a constant irritant for the Dynamo defenders with his enterprising runs.

However, he missed an easy chance in the 19th minute after launching into a solo by intercept-ing a back pass by the Delhi team’s Hans Mulder.

The striker surged into the box, but Van Hout rushed out and nar-rowed the angle. Fikru tried to score through the goalkeeper’s legs, but the ball went out off the Belgian’s heels.

Dynamos, on the other hand, were distinctly unlucky, as Shylo Malswamtluanga’s firm shot off a pass from Del Piero kissed the crosspiece and went out.

After putting his side ahead in the 49th minute, Mateu came near scoring again, but Van Hout saved the situation. - IANS

Pavel Elias blasted

the ball home from

25 yards in the

74th minute to help

Delhi Dynamos

hold Atletico de

Kolkata to a 1-1 draw

CLOSE ENCOUNTER: Delhi Dynamos FC’s Alessandro Del Piero, right, vies with Atletico de Kolkata’s Baljit Saini during their Indian Super League match at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata yesterday. – AFP

NE United hold FC GoaGUWAHATI: Hosts North-East United FC and FC Goa played out a 1-1 draw in an In-dian Super League (ISL) match at the Indira Gandhi Stadium here yesterday.

With the draw, NorthEast United FC rose to second spot in the standings with four points from three matches while FC Goa are sixth with one point from two matches.

FC Goa went ahead in the 17th minute through defender Gregory but the NorthEast side came back on level terms when their forward Koke converting a penalty in the 36th minute.

FC Goa took the lead when opponent goalkeeper Rehenesh spilled a regulation take. Andre dos Santos’ free-kick should have been easily grasped by the Kerala keeper but he spilled un-der pressure from striker Ranti Martins, only for Gregory to score in a resultant melee.

But the home team kept up the pressure on FC Goa and were rewarded when Debabrata Roy pushed Robin Gurung from behind inside the box to con-cede a penalty. Koke converted the resultant spot-kick to re-store parity. FC Goa next face Atletico de Kolkata at home on October 23 while NorthEast United FC play Mumbai City FC on October 24. - IANS

I S L

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SPORTSM O N DAY, O C TO B E R 2 0, 2 0 1 4

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Almouj Golf clinch second Chrysler CupMUSCAT: The two-day Chrysler Cup 2014 Golf Tournament, Oman’s biggest team golfing event was recently held at the Almouj Golf course in The Wave, where players could not have asked for more perfect playing days.

The event, organised annually by Dhofar Automotive — the offi-cial dealer for Chrysler in Oman, was in its third year and was con-ducted in association with the Oman Golf Committee (OGC).

This year’s event too, as always, witnessed an intense level of com-petition, combined with camara-derie, strategy and skill from all participants.

With Almouj Golf Club emerg-ing victorious, exhilarant captain

of Almouj team, Aaron O’Hara commented: “The competition was professional and exciting. Ex-pectations were high, as we had won the Cup last year, plus we were playing on home turf again.”

“Given the pressure, my en-tire team is ecstatic we won for a second year in a row. We are on a hat-trick, and are keeping our fin-gers crossed for next year’s tourna-ment,” he added.

“This year’s prize distribution ceremony was emotional, and entertaining, the food and atmos-phere were impeccable too. A special thanks to Dhofar Automo-tive for pulling off an event of this magnitude with such finesse.”

Piroshah Nowroji, Marketing

and Product Manager of Dho-far Automotive, said: “With the combined efforts of local golf clubs and the OGC, we are hop-ing to push the game of golf in the right direction with the Chrysler Cup each year.

“It was a great competition and successful event. We are pleased that we have been able to move the game of golf from being an individual-focused game into a team-based sport. I congratulate Almouj Golf team on their victory, and thank all the clubs for partici-pating with so much of enthusi-asm and gusto.”

As the curtains fell on a third year of a successful golf compe-tition, all teams and players, or-

ganisers and attendees, as well as golf fans and concerned authori-ties, agreed that the Chrysler Cup tournament has become the highlight of Oman’s amateur golfing calendar, as well as a high-profile event that is raising the level of the game in Oman and has helped place the Sultanate on the map as an emerging golfing destination.

To close out the two-day festivi-ties, players and guests attended a special prize-distribution cer-emony at Al Majlis at Almouj Golf where Gordon Sherry, a golf pro-fessional who has played with the greats of golf, served as the even-ing’s after-dinner speaker and kept everyone entertained.

T W O I N A R O W

SPARTAN’S CUP CRICKET TOURNAMENT FROM FRIDAYThe Darsait XI Cricket Team will organise the Spartan’s Cup, an eight overs-a-side tennis ball cricket tournament at Al Maha

Cricket Ground on October 24 and 31. The inaugural edition of the tournament will feature 16 teams and the winners will be

awarded with a trophy and cash prize. — Supplied photo

Kipyego wins in AmsterdamAMSTERDAM: Kenya’s Ber-nard Kipyego (2:06:22) won the 39th Amsterdam Mara-thon ahead of compatriots Lu-cas Rotich (2:07:18) and John Mwangangi (2:07:28) yesterday.

Ethiopia’s Betelhem Moges (2:28:35) won the women’s race.

Kenyan Ogla Kimaiyo came in second 40 seconds later, fol-lowed by Diane Nukuri Johnson of Burundi (2:29:35). - IANS

M A R A T H O N

Liverpool stun QPR in five-goal thriller

LONDON: Liverpool scored a stunning 3-2 win over Queens Park Rangers (QPR) with four of the five goals coming in the last seven min-utes capping an astonishing finale to their Premier League match at Loftus Road yesterday.

Liverpool needed the help of two own goals for the win that lifted them to fifth in the table and left QPR bottom after a mesmerising finish. Liverpool’s winning goal came in the fifth minute of added time after Steven Caulker scored Rangers’ second own goal with vir-tually the last kick of the game.

Richard Dunne scored the first own goal to put Liverpool 1-0 ahead in the 67th minute before Eduardo Vargas equalised for QPR after 87 minutes with a close-range shot.

But Liverpool, who will need to show a marked improvement when they play European champi-ons Real Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday, went 2-1 ahead with 15 seconds of normal time remaining when Philippe

Coutinho scored with a curling shot that took a deflection.

Rangers were still not finished as Vargas headed them level at 2-2 in the second minute of stoppage time. With time almost up, one final Liverpool counter-attack in the 95th minute ended with Caulk-er putting through his own goal to give Liverpool all three points.

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers told Sky Sports: “QPR certainly didn’t deserve to lose. I

thought we were very, very lucky to get the win. We showed tremen-dous character and were a little bit better in the second half but QPR definitely deserved something from the game.”

QPR, with only one league win all season, dominated the first half and had three good chances to score be-fore the break with Bobby Zamora causing endless problems among the nervy Liverpool defence.

Liverpool came more into the match in the second half and had a great chance of their own to take the lead after 61 minutes when an Adam Lallana shot was parried away by keeper Alex McCarthy. Mario Ba-lotelli also blasted high over the bar with the goal at his mercy.

The breakthrough came in the 67th minute when Liverpool took the lead through Dunne’s own goal — the 10th of his career — but QPR looked like they had saved a point when Vargas levelled with his first equaliser with time running out.

In the event though, it was just the start of an astonishing finale that left QPR bottom of the table.

Chelsea lead the standings with 22 points from eight games after their 2-1 victory at Crystal Palace on Saturday while Manchester City, who beat Tottenham Hotspur 4-1, are second with 17 points. Liv-erpool have 13. - Reuters

Liverpool’s winning

goal came in the fifth

minute of added time

after Steven Caulker

scored Rangers’

second own goal

with virtually the

last kick of the game

Atletico Madrid too strong for EspanyolMADRID: Atletico Madrid moved back to within five points of La Liga leaders Barcelona with a 2-0 win over Espanyol yester-day thanks to goals from Tiago and Mario Suarez.

Tiago opened the scoring with a wonderful looping header into the far corner from Gabi’s cross two minutes before half-time to settle the hosts’ nerves.

The Portuguese midfielder then limped off early in the second half, making him a doubt for Atletico’s Champions League game against Malmo in midweek.

However, his replacement Suarez had the easy task of tap-ping home the second from Jose Gimenez’s header 20 minutes from time. Victory takes Atletico back into the top four.

“The team played the way they had to,” said Atletico boss Diego Simeone.

“We played with a good tempo and with patience until the first goal arrived. Then, in the second half, we controlled the game,” Simeone added.

Simeone’s men had been beat-en by an early three-goal blitz at Valencia last time out and they set out to make amends early on as Kiko Casilla denied Arda Turan from point-blank range before the Turkish midfielder had a goal ruled out for offside.

Casilla also turned behind a fierce drive from Koke, but Atletico were thankful to their own ‘keeper Miguel Angel Moya moments later as he smothered Lucas Vazquez’s effort at the back post.

The home side continued to enjoy the majority of the play, though, and made the break-through just before half-time when Gabi’s cross to the far post was looped back across goal and over the helpless Kiko Casilla from Tiago.

Sergio Garcia could have pun-ished some slack defending by Atletico with the last kick of the half as he blasted over from a nar-row angle.

And the champions were dealt a blow at the start of the second period as Tiago hobbled off to be replaced by Suarez.

Espanyol had claims for a penalty waved away 25 minutes from time when Christian Stuani tumbled under pressure from Gimenez in the box, but within 60 seconds it was Casilla who was forced into action once more as he repelled Mario Mandzukic’s low drive.

Atletico made the game safe on 70 minutes as Espanyol struggled to defend a corner and Gimenez’s header across goal was tapped home by Suarez for his first goal in two years. - AFP

L A L I G A

ASTONISHING GAME: Liverpool’s Raheem Sterling and Steven Ger-

rard celebrates during their English Premier League match against

Queens Park Rangers in London yesterday. – AFP

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Anup, Jason power King Travels & Tours to victory over MCCC B

MUSCAT: An unfinished opening partnership of 213 runs between skipper Anup Rajan (103 not out of 67 balls) and Jason Delboy (92 not out off 53 balls) helped King Trav-els & Tours to a 139-run win against Muscat Cricket Coaching Centre B (MCCC ‘B’) in a G Division T20 match was played in the morning session at the Municipality Ground No. 3 at Al Amerat on Friday.

After winning the toss and electing to bat first, King Travels & Tours piled up 213 runs in their allotted 20 overs.

A young MCCC B team playing with 10 players set a daunting 214 for victory managed to bat out the 20 overs scoring 74 runs with a top score of 21from skipper Rohan Koshy. Shiyas K.I. with two for 10, Sachin K.P. two for 15 and Ajeesh P.A. two for 19 shared the bowling honours.

Brief scores: King Travels & Tours 213 for 20 overs (Anup Rajan 103 n.o., Ja-son Delboy 92 n.o) bt MCCC B 74 for 8 in 20 overs (Rohan Koshy 21; Shiyas K.I. 2/10, Sachin K.P.2/15, Ajeesh P.A. 2/19). Points: King Travels & Tours -2, MCCC B – Nil.

Easy for Bahihi HexaIn another G Division match played in the afternoon at the same venue, Bahihi Hexa recorded an easy seven-wicket win against OCT Mabella.

Deciding to bat first, OCT Ma-bella were bundled out for a paltry 51 in 13 overs with opening bats-man Salim Ismail scoring 14.

The bowlers to cause the dam-age were Ashwith Om Prakash and Kishor Krishnan, who bagged four wickets each.

Bahihi-Hexa, in reply, raced to 52 for the loss of three wickets in 6.2 overs with Kishor Krishnan remaining unbeaten on 27. Sharif Pindook Al Balushi returned with two for 23 in three overs.

Brief scores: OCT Mabella 51 in 13overs (Ashwith Om Prakash 4/7, Kishor Krishnan 4/19) lost to Bahihi Hexa 52 for 3 in 6.2overs (Kishor Krishnan 27 n.o.; Sharif Pindook Al Balushi 2/23). Points: Bahihi Hexa - 2, OCT Mabella - Nil.

Blue Sky International winIn a Raha Poly Products-spon-sored D Division T20 match played during the afternoon ses-sion at the Ministry of Ground No.1 in Al Amerat, Blue Sky Inter-national defeated FAP UTSC by a margin of 74 runs.

Opting to bat first, Blue Sky In-

ternational scored 182 for the loss of five wickets in 20 overs thanks to an unbeaten 56 by Aadil Mo-hammed. Earlier skipper Moaaz Juned (42) and fellow opener Sharoz Sadiq (35) were associated in a 74-run opening partnership.

Skipper Faleel Thailakandy claimed two wickets.

With a required run rate of a fraction of over nine runs per over, FAP UTSC managed to reach 108 for the loss of nine wickets at the

end of the 20th over with opening batsman Faleel Thailakandy top scoring with 29.

Aadil Mohammed claimed three for 19 while Mughis Juned and Faisal Khatri took two each.

Brief scores: Blue Sky Internation-al 182 for 5 in 20 overs (Aadil Mohammed 56 n.o., Moaaz Juned 42, Sharoz Sadiq 35; Faleel Thailakandy 2/36) bt FAP UTSC 108 for 9 in 20overs (Faleel Thailakandy 29; Aadil Mohammed 3/19, Muhgis Juned 2/13, Faisal Khatri 2/14). Points: Blue Ski International - 2, FAP UTSC - Nil.

Mony stars for Bank MuscatMony Subramony with a blister-ing unbeaten 95 of 48 balls helped Bank Muscat register a 79-run win against Al Rehwan in a H Division T20 match at the Municipality ground No.4 at Al Amerat.

Electing to bat first, Bank Mus-cat scored 201 for the loss of four wickets in 20 overs. Opening bats-man Osman Al Zadjali scored 50 and together with Mony, he put on 83 runs for the second wicket.

Skipper Sanoj Abdu picked up two wickets in two overs.

In reply, Al Rehwan managed to reach 122 for the loss of eight wick-ets in 20 overs. Major contributors were Flertin Baby Paletti (26 not out), Mohammed Nazeer (26) and Aboo P.C. (24).

The bowlers to be amongst the wickets were Osman Al Zadjali (two for 11), Benny Mathew (two for 12), skipper Pratik Dalal (two for 12) and Varun Sirohi (two for 15).

Brief scores: Bank Muscat 201for 4 in 20 overs (Mony Subramony 95 n.o., Osman Al Zadjali 50; Sanoj Abdu 2/29) bt Al Rehwan 122 for 8 in 20 overs (Flertin Paletti 26 n.o., Mohammed Nazeer 26 and Aboo P.C. 24; Osman Al Zadjali 2/11, Ben-ny Mathew 2/12, Pratik Dalal 2/12 and Varun Sirohi 2/15). Points: Bank Muscat - 2, Al Rehwan - Nil.

Future Oilfield In another ‘H’ Division T20 match played in the afternoon session at the same venue, debutants Fu-ture Oilfield got the better of R.K. Group by 59 runs.

Batting first, Future Oilfield score a massive 211 for the loss of seven wickets in 20 overs thanks

to a 132-run second-wicket part-nership between opening batsman and skipper Nazim Mohammed (75) and No.3 batsman Muzaffer Nasir Hasan (39). Other useful contributions came from Faisal Abdul Hamid (28 not out) and Dawnak Faizan (20).

Mathew George was the pick of the bowlers returning with figures of three for 25 while Vishal Bhu-pendra picked up two wickets.

In reply, R.K. Group were re-stricted to 152 for eight wickets. Vishal Bhupendra top scored with an unbeaten 65. Opening batsman Nithin Ashok scored 29.

Mohammed Wasim bagged three for 23 and Wasim Abbas Shafi took two.

Brief scores: Future Oilfield 211 for 7 in 20 overs (Nazim Mohammed 75, Mu-zaffer Nasir Hasan 39, Faisal Abdul Ha-mid 28 n.o., Dawnak Faizan 20; Mathew George 3/25, Vishal Bhupendra 2/18) bt R.K. Group 152 for 8 in n20overs (Vishal Bhupendra 65 n.o., Nithin Ashok 29; Mo-hamed Wasim 3/23, Wasim Abbas Shafi 2/19). Points: Future Oilfield - 2, R.K. Group – Nil.

King Travels & Tours

piled up 213 runs

in 20 overs before

restricting MCCC B,

who were playing

with 10 men, to 74

for eight in 20 overs

EASY VICTORY: Bahihi players pose for a group photo after their victory over OCT Mabella. – Supplied photos BLISTERING KNOCK: Bank Muscat’s Mony Subramony.

ALL-ROUND SHOW: Aadil of Blue

Sky International

Peter Manuel to conduct Level 1 umpires courseMUSCAT: Peter Manuel, for-mer Sri Lankan player, umpire and currently the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Resource Person for Umpire’s Development and ICC Umpires Coach for Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh, will be coaching Oman Cricket umpires from October 21 to 25 at Al Falaj in the Level 1 course.

The course is for umpires who have completed the Level 0 course conducted recently by Oman Cricket and presented by A. R. Srinivasan.

Peter represented Sri Lanka in 11 Test matches and 45 One-day Internationals. He made his Test debut against India at Colombo and played the last Test against Zimbabwe at the same venue. His ODI debut was against New

Zealand at Colombo and the last match in the international arena was played against Australia at Dambulla in Sri Lanka.

Peter had been involved with the Asian Cricket Council for over a decade as a Resource Person for

Developing Umpires across the re-gions and is now the ICC Umpire Coach for Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

He was earlier appointed by ICC as one of the five regional umpires’ performance managers in the year

2008 aimed at working towards the development of umpiring in the region and to provide individu-al support programmes that assist international official in the various aspects of umpiring.

Peter has visited Oman several times since 2003 and has tutored and mentored the entire frater-nity of umpires of Oman Cricket. His main focus during the course would be to coach the participants so that they leave with a good working knowledge of the laws and the ability to conduct the game of cricket effectively.

A. R. Srinivasan, Oman Cricket’s Senior Umpire and an ACC accred-ited Level 0 and Level 1 Educator, will also be presenting along with Peter during the course. Srinivasan has been associated with cricket in

Oman for almost three decades and has conducted several refresher courses and Level 0 courses. He also presented along with Peter Manuel in previous Level 1 courses and in the Level 2 course for Um-pires in Gulf region conducted by ACC in Oman in 2013.

Srinivasan has also officiated in several ACC tournaments in dif-ferent limited over formats from 2007 and in the ICC World Cricket League tournament in 2011.

The course will be conducted from 6.30 p.m. to 10.00 p.m. from October 21 to 23 and during the day time on October 24 and 25. Over 25 participants are expected to attend this course and upon successful completion they will be eligible to officiate in the Oman Cricket tournaments.

C R I C K E T

Peter Manuel A. R. Srinivasan

Cilic clinchesKremlin CupMOSCOW: U.S. Open champi-on Marin Cilic of Croatia, seed-ed second, won the Kremlin Cup ATP title yesterday defeating fifth seeded Spaniard Roberto Bautista-Agut 6-4, 6-4 the final.

Sixth seed Anastasia Pavly-uchenkova of Russia won the WTA title beating Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu in the final.

The 23-year-old Pavlyuchen-kova won 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 to record her second win over Begu in as many meetings.

She also became the fourth Russian woman to win the Kremlin Cup after Anastasia Myskina (2003 and 2004), Anna Chakvetadze (2006) and Elena Dementieva (2007). - AFP

T E N N I S

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COMSECTIONC M O N DAY, O CTO B E R 2 0, 2 0 14LIFE & STYLE

Is trust based on a hand-shake, the way someone looks you in the eye or per-haps their body language?

We know that what someone wears has an effect on our trust in them. If you happen to be a doctor, 76 per cent of us will favour you if you wear the white coat, compared with only 10 per-cent if you happen to just pop out in your surgical scrubs. Labels matter, too. In one test, four times as many people were willing to stop and answer a survey on one day compared to another. The dif-ference? Whether the interviewer had a designer label on their sweat-shirt. But what if you had to decide whether to trust someone without knowing the gear they were togged up in? Without knowing anything about them at all?

When people fall victim to fraud, often it is because they have de-cided to trust a stranger. In mass-marketing fraud (known widely as the 419 scam or advance fee fraud), an unsolicited e-mail contact of-fers false promises or information designed to con you out of money. You may have already received an e-mail from, for example, a Nige-rian prince who desperately needs your bank details in order to move

some money out of the country fast. Phishing fraud, where links in carefully crafted, apparently le-gitimate e-mails redirect users to a different server, into which they are persuaded to enter usernames, passwords or bank account details, cost Britain about $648,000,000 in 2012, according to RSA Security.

But what makes some people laugh and delete, while others are curious to find out more?

Playing gamesA recent study led by Tim Hahn from Goethe University in Frank-furt examined people’s initial levels of trust when co-operating with an unknown partner.

Sixty participants were asked to play the trust game, an exten-sion of an experimental econom-ics game called the dictator game for which the participants were put into pairs. Player 1 was given an initial amount of hypothetical “money” that she could choose whether to gamble with.

The gamble was this: She could give her money to the stranger she was paired with, Player 2, and anything she gave would be tripled. Player 2 could then choose to give some of this money back to Player 1, and again, anything she returned

would be tripled — or Player 2 could choose to keep it all.

In theory then, the more gener-ous you are in the beginning, the richer you could become by the end. To make it more exciting, the players were told that at the end of the trust game, this notional mon-ey would be converted into real hard cash.

As Player 1, how much would you give away to a complete stran-ger? Well if you happen to have an electroencephalograph (EEG) handy, you can find out without ever needing to play. An EEG re-cords your brain activity by meas-uring the electrical pulses gener-ated by the brain’s cells through a series of electrodes placed on your scalp. In this study, the researchers found that they could predict the amount of money the initial player would trust to the stranger purely based on the activity recorded by the EEG.

A state of trustBut what makes this finding even more interesting is that the EEG recording was taken several min-utes before the trust game began. At this point, the staff running the experiment had not asked the par-ticipants to think about the game

of trust. What the EEG recorded was the resting state of the partici-pants’ brains when not involved in tasks — relatively calm — rather than the heightened activity asso-ciated with performing mental or physical tasks.

Resting state brain activity is thought to be relatively stable over time. So the fact that the experi-menters were able to predict the investment that Player 1 would make to the stranger, Player 2, was purely based on this resting state activity. And it shows that initial levels of trust may be de-termined by an underlying pattern of brain activity.

So, returning to those who have unfortunately answered our Nigerian prince, or foreign businessman,what this study per-haps indicates is that, regardless of the contents of the e-mail or how convincing the con is, we are already subject to an unconscious bias as to whether we will trust that stranger.

Not only are some of us physi-cally more inclined to trust stran-gers than others, but that suscep-tibility can be determined by any unscrupulous character who hap-pens to have an EEG scanner at hand.- Rebecca Slack/The Washington Post

When people fall victim to fraud, often it is because they have decided to trust a stranger

HOW DO YOU DECIDE IF YOU CAN TRUST SOMEONE?

C8

EXTRAM O N DAY, O CTO B E R 2 0, 2 0 14

inoji-ya, which opened in April in a gourmet building in Ueno Park, Tokyo, has an open atmosphere with glass-panelled exterior walls and doors. Shop workers wear

a flat cap, a white shirt and an apron when serving customers. The style is modelled on a Spanish-style bar, with the staff ’s uniforms coordinated by a stylist who has been active in fashion magazines.

“We wanted the shop to be a stylish stand-up soba shop, where both men and women of any age can come for casual dining,” said Shinsuke Tomita, an employee of Kumagai Corp., which operates the shop.

Among its menu items, morisoba (cold soba with dipping sauce) and kakesoba (hot soba in hot broth) are both regular items of a classic soba shop, and they sell for 400 yen (about $3.70), in-cluding tax. The soba served at the shop is made from buckwheat flour alone.

At night, however, the shop also serves bevar-aged and various dishes blending Japanese and Western-style cooking that goes well with bever-ages, such as foie gras terrine pickled in Kyoto-style sweet white miso for 700 yen and red kid-ney beans flavoured with Gorgonzola cheese for 480 yen, both with tax included.

A 64-year-old woman dined at the shop with her 38-year-old daughter after they toured some museums.

“I’d thought stand-up shops were only for male office workers, but this shop has an open atmosphere, so women don’t hesitate to come,” one of them said.

What attracts customers’ attention as soon as they enter Sobadokoro Minato-ya, another stand-up soba shop in the office district of To-kyo’s Nishi-Shimbashi, is its large, black mar-ble table. Natural light is brought into the store through long, narrow windowpanes. The atmos-phere reminds customers of a cafe bar.

Takashi Kikuchi, 40, the shop owner, opened it 12 years ago. When he opened the stand-up soba shop, he decided to give it a relaxing atmosphere.

“I wanted to make this shop completely differ-ent from ordinary stand-up soba shops, which have an image of eating quickly and leaving quickly,” Kikuchi said.

The shop’s menu is unusual. Tsumetai niku-soba (cold soba with meat), the most popular item, is firm, chewy soba dipped into a spicy sauce with chili oil for each bite. It sells for 870 yen, tax included.

The shop emits a strange vibe in that there are no chairs in such a sophisticated space, but Ki-kuchi said he has no plans of using chairs because he wants customers to concentrate on eating.

Megumi-ya in Tokyo’s Kyobashi district shows music videos featuring rock bands popular in the 1970s and 1980s, such as Deep Purple and Queen.

Kiyoshi Ishizaka, 49, the shop owner, said it was an ordinary stand-up soba shop when it first opened 13 years ago. He played his favourite rock music CDs, and people who liked the music be-gan eating there. After a while, he started show-ing music videos.

The shop’s soba is made only from buckwheat flour. “I want to serve items that you can eat eve-ry day and is good for your health,” Ishizaka said.

Yoshinori Sakazaki, author of Chotto Soba demo (Let’s Have Some Soba), a book on stand-up soba shops published by Kosaido Publishing Co., said: “These days, there are more and more fashionable stand-up dining facilities serving beverages. So women can come to these shops without hesitation. As more people, particularly young women, are feeling less and less hesitant to eat at stand-up soba shops, I think there will be more unique shops in the future.”— Yasuto Akaike/The Washington Post

Stand-up soba noodle shops in Japanare no longer just for male office workers. These soba stalls are getting a makeover in some areas with rock music videos running and the menus offering unique options

DAVID Letterman said, “Traffic signals in New York are just rough guidelines.”

There are other cities like that. In colourful Cairo, no one seemed to stop for a red light unless either other cars were crossing the junction or a police officer was standing there.

Bridge defence signals are often only suggestions to partner, but sometimes are strict guidelines. In this deal, how should East and West play to defeat four spades after West leads a low heart in answer to his partner’s lead-directing double?

North’s four-heart response was a Texas transfer. It guaranteed at least a six-card spade suit and either game-only or slam-going values. Yes, here North would have done better to respond three no-trump, but that might have backfired.

When playing third hand high, East is supposed to put up the bottom of touching honours first — but not when he has ace-king-doubleton. Then, he takes the first trick with the ace and cashes the king, high-low with a doubleton. And if he can get West back on lead, East can receive a heart ruff to defeat the contract. But which minor should East lead at trick three?

West must give East a suit-preference signal. If West’s entry is in the lower-ranking of the other two side suits, he plays his lowest heart at trick two. Here, though, because his entry is in the higher-ranking side suit, West drops his highest heart, the jack. Then East will know to shift to a diamond at trick three. West will take that trick and give his partner a heart ruff for down one.

Signal as clearly as possible.— By Phillip Alder

C9

ENTERTAINMENT

The signal signals a contract’s defeat

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 LOVE

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

M O N DAY, O C TO B E R 2 0, 2 0 1 4

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]

KRISHNAVENI SUDESHOctober 20, 2002

26 Rude, crude dude27 Burden28 9-digit ID30 — -Margret31 Urban trains32 Bureaucrat’s

delight (2 wds.)35 Musicians’ stints36 Per cent ending39 Kind of turf

40 “Hot Lips” series42 Remote43 Type of wolf44 Wine served warm45 Felt boot46 — -tzu (“Tao”

author)47 Codgers’ queries48 Remind too often50 Youngster

ACROSS

1 Asian employer of astronauts

5 Large green parrot 8 Scamper12 Particular13 PC button14 Lamb’s alias15 Missing16 Storyteller18 Au pair20 Big lug21 Cat, informally23 Tool handle wood26 NBA’er Chris29 Pasta dish31 Zillions of years32 Wharf denizen33 Astronaut —

Armstrong34 Took it easy36 Tech. school37 Prom goers, in

short38 Optimal40 Execs41 Makes airtight45 Fair and mild49 Mare’s offspring

51 Long sighs52 Golf term53 “Puppy Love”

composer54 Bludgeon55 It’s easily deflated56 Organ part

DOWN

1 Lively dance 2 Nile sun figure 3 TV warrior

princess 4 Famous last word 5 Mombasa’s land 6 Hockey’s

Tikkanen 7 Circus performer 8 Fell on — ears 9 Mi. above sea level10 Popular cruise

stop11 Pothole filler17 Moonbeams19 Highest degree22 Grass leaf23 Seasons24 Foul mood25 Sci-fi computer

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The Best of Me (Drama / Romance) Cast: James Marsden, Luke Bracey 2.00, 4.00 & 8.00 pmCP No: 2125 (12+)Enemies Closer ( Action / Thriller ) Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Orlando Jones4.00 & 11.55 pm; CP No : 2123 (PG 12 )The Judge (Drama) Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall1.30 & 5.30 pm, CP No: 2124 (12+)Dracula Untold (Act / Fantasy) Cast: Luke Evans, Dominic Cooper 11:55pm; CP No: 2012 (12+)Bang Bang (Act / Adv / Comedy) Cast: Katrina Kaif, Hrithik Roshan6.00 & 9.00 pmCP No: 2012 (PG)Annabelle (Horror) Cast: Ward Horton, Annabelle Wallis 10.00 pm, CP No: 2015 (18+)

Rajadhi Raja (2D/PG) (Act/Drama)Cast: Mammootty, Lakshmi Rai3:30, 6:15 & 9:30pm at Cinema MainSapthamashree Thaskaraha (Comedy, Crime, Thriller) (PG)Cast: Prithviraj Sukumaran3:30, 6:30 & 9:30pm at Cinema 2Bang Bang (Hindi)Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Katrina Kaif6:45pm Cinema 3, 9:45 Cinema 4Villali Viran (Mal) (Com)3:45pm & 9:45pm Cinema 3Madras (Tamil/Act)Cast: Karthi & Catherine Teresa6:45pm Cinema 4Govindudu (Telugu) (Dr/Com)Cast: Ram Charan & Kajal Agarwal3:45pm Cinema 4NEXT CHANGE: Kaththi (Tamil) Happy New Year (Hindi)

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Screen 1

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The Judge (2D/12+) (Drama)10:30am, 4:30pm, 7:00pmDracula Untold (2D/12+) (Act/Dra)1:00pmRibbit (3D/PG) (Animation)11:00am, 2:45pmEnemies Closer (2D/PG12) (Act)Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme 10:30am, 3:30, 7:15pmBang Bang (2D/PG) (Act/Rom)Cast: Katrina Kaif, Hrithik Roshan11:15pmGone Girl (2D/15+) (Dra/Mys)12:45pm, 9:00pm, 11:45pmLeft Behind (2D/PG12) (Act/Sci-Fi)Cast: Nicolas Cage, Lea Thompson12:15pm, 9:45pm, 11:45pmOpen Windows (2D/12+) (Act) 2:15pm, 5:15pmThe Best of Me (2D/12+) (Drama) 4:15pmHassalna Al Roab (2D/12+)(Comedy)6:30pm Rajadhi Raja (2D/PG) (Act/Drama)Cast: Mammootty, Lakshmi Rai8:30pm

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Screen 3Draculla Untold (Action ) (12+)Cast: Luke Evans, Dominic Cooper3:45, 9.45 pmKhoobsurat (Com| Rom| Dra) (PG )Cast: Sonam Kapoor, Fawad Khan6:45 pm

The Judge – 2D (12+) (Drama)Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga6.00, 11.45 pm

C10

FIND-IT-ALLM O N DAY, O CTO B E R 2 0, 2 0 14

MONDAYFLT NO ARRIVALS FROM ETA WY676 JEDDAH 0005WY682 RIYADH 0005WY636 ABU DHABI 0010WY924 SALALAH 0035WY632 ABU DHABI 0035BG021 DACCA-CHITTAGONG 01004H585 DACCA 0115TK776 ISTANBUL-BAHRAIN 0205GF560 BAHRAIN 0320EY384 ABU DHABI 0340QR1132 DOHA 0345EK866 DUBAI 0355MS930 CAIRO 0400WY674 JEDDAH 0640FZ041 DUBAI 06454H586 DOHA 0645WY638 ABU DHABI 0650WY658 BAHRAIN 0650WY902 SALALAH 0655WY668 DOHA 0700WY686 RIYADH 0705WY102 LONDON HEATHROW 0740WY602 DUBAI 0800FZ043 DUBAI 0800WY274 JAIPUR 0820WY202 BOMBAY 0825WY282 BANGALORE 0910WY346 ISLAM ABBAD 0915G9114 SHARJAH 0915WY236 HYDERABAD 0925WY242 DELHI 0925WY226 COCHIN 0930EK862 DUBAI 0930WY252 MADRAS 0930WY212 TRIVANDRUM 0935WY268 LUCKNOW 0935QR1128 DOHA 1000EY382 ABU DHABI 1010IX443 COCHIN 10309W530 TRIVANDRUM 1045WY604 DUBAI 1105G9841 RAS AL KHAIMA 1120WY342 LAHORE 1125WY372 COLOMBO 1130WY332 KATHMANDU 1130WY332 KATHMANDU 1130IX337 CALICUT 1155WY384 MALE 1200PA450 LAHORE 1215WY3912 SALALAH 1225WY904 SALALAH 1225WY3302 MUKHAIZNA 1230WY818 BANGKOK 1230WY826 KUALA LUMPUR 1245WY324 KARACHI 1300WY606 DUBAI 1330WY906 SALALAH 1425WY632 ABU DHABI 1435WY918 KHASAB 1440WY812 BANGKOK 1440FZ045 DUBAI 1545WY656 BAHRAIN 1600QR1126 DOHA 1605WY664 DOHA 1620WY204 BOMBAY 1645WY292 CALICUT 1710WY610 DUBAI 1715WY3304 MUKHAIZNA 1730WY3304 MUKHAIZNA 1730WY232 HYDERABAD 1740WY254 MADRAS 1740WY246 DELHI 1740GF564 BAHRAIN 1810G9116 SHARJAH 1915WY914 SALALAH 1930WY646 KUWAIT 2015WY614 DUBAI 2020WY434 TEHRAN 2040FZ047 DUBAI 2050AI977 BANGALORE-HYDERABAD 2105WY312 CHITTAGONG 21109W534 COCHIN 2115KL441 AMSTERDAM-DOHA 2115WY924 SALALAH 2125AI973 DELHI 21256.00E+81 BOMBAY 2130BA073 LONDON HEATHROW-ABU DHABI 2140WY624 DUBAI 2140QR1130 DOHA 2140UL205 COLOMBO 2155AI907 MADRAS 2200QR1134 DOHA 2225LH618 FRANKFURT-ABU DHABI 2235LX242 ZURICH-DUBAI 2235GF566 BAHRAIN 2240EY388 ABU DHABI 2245WY414 AMMAN 2300SG061 AHMEDABAD 2300WY908 SALALAH 2305AI985 AHMEDABAD-BOMBAY 23109W540 BOMBAY 2315WY662 DOHA 2340FZ049 DUBAI 2340WY662 DOHA 2340WY612 DUBAI 2345WY654 BAHRAIN 2345WY717 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM 2345WY696 DAMMAM 2350WY406 CAIRO 2355WY648 KUWAIT 2355

TUESDAYFLT NO ARRIVALS FROM ETA

WY676 JEDDAH 0005WY676 JEDDAH 0005WY682 RIYADH 0005WY636 ABU DHABI 0010WY3908 SALALAH 01004H585 DACCA 0115NL768 LAHORE 0130TK774 ISTANBUL 0135PK281 ISLAM ABBAD-SIALKOT 0155PK225 KARACHI 0200GF560 BAHRAIN 0320EY384 ABU DHABI 0340QR1132 DOHA 0345ET624 ADDIS ABABA 0350EK866 DUBAI 0355MS930 CAIRO 0410FZ041 DUBAI 0510WY324 KARACHI 0525WY658 BAHRAIN 0600WY412 AMMAN 0615WY122 MUNICH 0620WY674 JEDDAH 06404H586 DOHA 0645WY114 FRANKFURT 0650WY142 MALPENSA 0650WY154 ZURICH 0650WY902 SALALAH 0655WY668 DOHA 0700WY686 RIYADH 0705WY692 DAMMAM 0705WY644 KUWAIT 0720WY102 LONDON HEATHROW 0740WY132 PARIS 0745WY602 DUBAI 0800FZ043 DUBAI 0800WY422 BEIRUT 0820WY274 JAIPUR 0820WY202 BOMBAY 0825G9114 SHARJAH 0915WY242 DELHI 0925WY236 HYDERABAD 0925WY252 MADRAS 0930EK862 DUBAI 0930WY268 LUCKNOW 0935QR1128 DOHA 1000EY382 ABU DHABI 10109W530 TRIVANDRUM 1045WY3302 MUKHAIZNA 1045WY604 DUBAI 1100WY9304 MUKHAIZNA 1100G9841 RAS AL KHAIMA 1120IX337 CALICUT 1155WY312 CHITTAGONG 1155WY904 SALALAH 1225BG023 CHITTAGONG 1230PK191 GWADUR 1240WY632 ABU DHABI 1320IX817 MANGALORE-ABU DHABI 1325WY606 DUBAI 1330WY906 SALALAH 1425KU677 KUWAIT 1425WY3304 MUKHAIZNA 1445FZ045 DUBAI 1545WY656 BAHRAIN 1600WY328 LAHORE 1600QR1126 DOHA 1605WY204 BOMBAY 1645WY664 DOHA 1705WY292 CALICUT 1710WY610 DUBAI 1715WY224 COCHIN 1735WY216 TRIVANDRUM 1740WY232 HYDERABAD 1740WY246 DELHI 1740WY284 BANGALORE 1750GF564 BAHRAIN 1810WY338 KATHMANDU 1830WY6603 MUKHAIZNA 1845TG507 BANGKOK-KARACHI 1900SV534 RIYADH 1900WY3922 DUQUM OMAN 1900G9116 SHARJAH 1915WY346 ISLAM ABBAD 1925WY434 TEHRAN 1930WY614 DUBAI 2020FZ047 DUBAI 20509W534 COCHIN 2115WY254 MADRAS 2115AI973 DELHI 21256.00E+81 BOMBAY 2130BA073 LONDON HEATHROW-ABU DHABI 2140QR1130 DOHA 2140WY624 DUBAI 2140WY814 BANGKOK 2150UL205 COLOMBO 2155AI907 MADRAS 2200QR1134 DOHA 2225LX242 ZURICH-DUBAI 2235LH618 FRANKFURT-ABU DHABI 2235WY374 COLOMBO 2235GF566 BAHRAIN 2240WY916 SALALAH 2245EY388 ABU DHABI 2245WY908 SALALAH 2305AI985 AHMEDABAD-BOMBAY 23109W540 BOMBAY 2315WY654 BAHRAIN 2335FZ049 DUBAI 2340WY662 DOHA 2340WY816 BANGKOK 2340WY816 BANGKOK 2340WY612 DUBAI 2345WY717 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM 2345WY696 DAMMAM 2350WY648 KUWAIT 2355WY406 CAIRO 2355

FLT NO DEPARTURES TO ETD BA072 ABU DHABI-LONDON HEATHROW 0001AI986 BOMBAY 00059W539 BOMBAY 0020FZ050 DUBAI 0045WY811 BANGKOK 0100WY251 MADRAS 0110WY201 BOMBAY 0115WY225 COCHIN 0120WY281 BANGALORE 0120WY211 TRIVANDRUM 0120WY685 RIYADH 0120WY371 COLOMBO 0145WY273 JAIPUR 0145WY267 LUCKNOW 0150WY235 HYDERABAD 0155WY601 DUBAI 0155WY901 SALALAH 0200WY657 BAHRAIN 02004H585 DOHA 0215WY637 ABU DHABI 0220WY241 DELHI 0225BG022 DACCA 0230WY345 ISLAM ABBAD 0230WY383 MALE 0235WY667 DOHA 0235WY341 LAHORE 0240TK777 BAHRAIN-ISTANBUL 0255EK867 DUBAI 0500MS931 CAIRO 0500QR1133 DOHA 0515EY385 ABU DHABI 0525FZ042 DUBAI 0730GF561 BAHRAIN 07454H586 DACCA 0745WY3911 SALALAH 0750WY3301 MUKHAIZNA 0800WY603 DUBAI 0800WY903 SALALAH 0830WY323 KARACHI 0840FZ044 DUBAI 0840WY253 MADRAS 0920WY291 CALICUT 0930WY815 BANGKOK 0940G9115 SHARJAH 0955WY231 HYDERABAD 1010WY905 SALALAH 1020WY203 BOMBAY 1025WY605 DUBAI 1030WY311 CHITTAGONG 1040WY245 DELHI 1040WY717 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM 1045EK863 DUBAI 1045QR1129 DOHA 1100EY383 ABU DHABI 1110IX442 COCHIN 1125WY917 KHASAB 1140WY631 ABU DHABI 11409W533 COCHIN 1145WY655 BAHRAIN 1200G9842 RAS AL KHAIMA 1210WY663 DOHA 1230WY331 KATHMANDU 1235IX350 CALICUT 1255PA451 LAHORE 1315WY3303 MUKHAIZNA 1330WY413 AMMAN 1345WY153 ZURICH 1350WY131 PARIS 1350WY113 FRANKFURT 1355WY101 LONDON HEATHROW 1400WY609 DUBAI 1405WY121 MUNICH 1415WY405 CAIRO 1440WY433 TEHRAN 1440WY3921 DUQUM OMAN 1515WY645 KUWAIT 1520WY913 SALALAH 1525WY141 MALPENSA 1600FZ046 DUBAI 1630WY675 JEDDAH 1645WY613 DUBAI 1715WY923 SALALAH 1720QR1127 DOHA 1750WY623 DUBAI 1805WY915 SALALAH 1840WY681 RIYADH 1840WY647 KUWAIT 1850GF565 BAHRAIN 1855WY907 SALALAH 1900WY695 DAMMAM 1930WY653 BAHRAIN 1935WY661 DOHA 1950G9117 SHARJAH 1955WY611 DUBAI 2045WY3907 SALALAH 2100WY635 ABU DHABI 2120FZ048 DUBAI 2135AI978 HYDERABAD-BANGALORE 2200WY411 AMMAN 2210WY421 BEIRUT 22309W529 TRIVANDRUM 2230KL442 DOHA-AMSTERDAM 2230WY673 JEDDAH 2240QR1131 DOHA 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

FLT NO DEPARTURES TO ETD BA072 ABU DHABI-LONDON HEATHROW 0001AI986 BOMBAY 00059W539 BOMBAY 0020SG062 AHMEDABAD 0030FZ050 DUBAI 0045WY323 KARACHI 0105WY251 MADRAS 0110WY201 BOMBAY 0115WY685 RIYADH 0120WY311 CHITTAGONG 0125WY273 JAIPUR 0145WY267 LUCKNOW 0150WY235 HYDERABAD 0155WY601 DUBAI 0155WY657 BAHRAIN 0200WY901 SALALAH 0200WY643 KUWAIT 02104H585 DOHA 0215WY637 ABU DHABI 0220WY241 DELHI 0225NL769 LAHORE 0230TK775 ISTANBUL 0230WY667 DOHA 0235WY691 DAMMAM 0235PK230 LAHORE 0255PK282 SIALKOT 0255ET625 ADDIS ABABA 0450EK867 DUBAI 0500MS931 CAIRO 0510QR1133 DOHA 0515EY385 ABU DHABI 0525FZ042 DUBAI 0555WY3301 MUKHAIZNA 07154H586 DACCA 0745GF561 BAHRAIN 0745WY813 BANGKOK 0750WY603 DUBAI 0800WY903 SALALAH 0830FZ044 DUBAI 0840WY223 COCHIN 0900WY327 LAHORE 0920WY215 TRIVANDRUM 0920WY291 CALICUT 0930WY337 KATHMANDU 0930WY815 BANGKOK 0940WY823 KUALA LUMPUR 0950WY385 MALE 0955G9115 SHARJAH 0955WY283 BANGALORE 1000WY231 HYDERABAD 1010WY905 SALALAH 1020WY203 BOMBAY 1025WY631 ABU DHABI 1030WY605 DUBAI 1030WY245 DELHI 1040WY373 COLOMBO 1040WY717 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM 1045EK863 DUBAI 1045QR1129 DOHA 1100EY383 ABU DHABI 1110WY3303 MUKHAIZNA 11159W533 COCHIN 1145WY655 BAHRAIN 1200G9842 RAS AL KHAIMA 1210WY345 ISLAM ABBAD 1255WY253 MADRAS 1255IX350 CALICUT 1255WY663 DOHA 1315PK192 GWADUR-TURBAT 1325WY433 TEHRAN 1330WY101 LONDON HEATHROW 1400BG024 CHITTAGONG 1400WY609 DUBAI 1405IX818 MANGALORE 1415WY405 CAIRO 1440WY3305 MUKHAIZNA 1515KU678 ABU DHABI-KUWAIT 1525FZ046 DUBAI 1630WY675 JEDDAH 1645WY613 DUBAI 1715WY913 SALALAH 1745QR1127 DOHA 1750WY623 DUBAI 1805WY915 SALALAH 1840WY681 RIYADH 1840WY647 KUWAIT 1850GF565 BAHRAIN 1855WY907 SALALAH 1900WY695 DAMMAM 1930WY653 BAHRAIN 1935WY661 DOHA 1950G9117 SHARJAH 1955SV535 RIYADH 2000TG508 KARACHI-BANGKOK 2005WY923 SALALAH 2030WY611 DUBAI 2045WY825 KUALA LUMPUR 2050WY635 ABU DHABI 2120FZ048 DUBAI 21359W529 TRIVANDRUM 2230QR1131 DOHA 2240WY673 JEDDAH 22406.00E+82 BOMBAY 2245WY671 MEDINA 2250AI908 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

PHARMACIESRound the clockAl Hashar Pharmacy, Ruwi: 24783334; Appolo Medical Centre, Hamriya: 24782666; Muscat Pharmacy, Ruwi: 24702542, Salalah: 23291635; Atlas Pharmacy, Ghubra: 24503585; Ruwi 24811715Muscat Region Apollo, 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 Musafir Specialised Medical Clinic: 24706453Hatat Polyclinic LLC,Ruwi: 24563641, Azaiba: 24499269, Sohar: 2683006Al Raffah 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: 24521109Traffic 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: 24641234Haffa 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): 24519456/24519223Aeroflot: 24704455, Air Arabia: 24700828, Air France: 24562153, Air India: 24799801, Air New Zealand: 24700732, Biman Bangladesh Airlines: 24701128, British Airways: 24568777, Cathay Pacific: 24789818, Egypt Air: 24794113, Emirates Air: 24404400, Ethiopian Airlines: 24660313, Gulf Air: 80072424, Indian: 24791914, Iran Air: 24787423, Japan Airlines: 24704455, Jazeera Airways: 23294848, Jet Airways: 24787248, Kenya Airways: 24660300, KML Royal Dutch Airlines: 24566737, Kuwait Airways: 24701262, LOT Polish Airlines: 24796387, Lufthansa: 24796692, Malaysian Airlines: 24560796, Middle East Airlines: 24796680, Oman Air: 24531111, Pakistan International Airlines: 24792471, Qatar Airways: 24771900, Qantas: 24559941, Royal Jordanian: 24796693, Saudi Arabian Airlines: 24789485, Singapore Airlines: 24791233, Shaheen Air: 24816565, SriLankan Airlines:

24784545, Swiss International Airlines: 24796692, Thai Airways: 24705934, Turkish Airlines: 24703033

MUSEUMSBait Al Baranda: Corniche (seafront opp fish 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

PRAYER TIMINGS

W E A T H E R

Dhuhr 11.57am

Asr 3.15pm

Maghrib 5.42pm

Isha 6.53pm Fajr (Tomorrow) 4.51am

Sunset 5:38pm

Sunrise (Tomorrow) 6.06am

High tide 7:09pm 7:17am

Low tide 1:00am --

OMAN

Max 37Min 29

Max 33Min 25

Max 34Min 27

Max 38Min 26

Max 37Min 26Max 35

Min 18

Max 36Min 21

Max 31 Min 23

Mainly clear skies over most of the Sultanate with chance of early morning low level clouds or fog patches over Al-Sharqiya, , Al-Wusta and northern parts of Dhofar

governorates.

EXPECTED WIND: Along the coastal areas of Oman Sea wind will be northeasterly to easterly light to moderate during day becoming variable light at night and northwesterly over Al-Buraimi and Al-Dhahira governorates while the wind over rest of the Sultanate will be southerly to southwesterly light to moderate.

SEA STATE: Slight to moderate along western coast of Musandam and coast of South Al-Sharqiya governorates with maximum wave height of 1.5 metres and slight along most of Oman coast with maximum wave height of 1.25 metres.HORIZONTAL VISIBILITY: Good over most of the Sultanate becoming poor during fog.THE NEXT 48 HOURS OUTLOOK: Chance of clouds development over Al-Hajar mountains towards afternoon. Chances of late night to early morning low level clouds or fog patches over coastal areas of Oman.

Max Min

GULFAbu Dhabi 37 26Doha 35 29Dubai 36 24Kuwait 38 22Manama 33 29Riyadh 35 23

WORLDAthens 24 15Baghdad 30 13Beijing 21 7Berlin 16 11Boston 13 7Cairo 27 19Colombo 29 26Frankfurt 18 9Hong Kong 28 24Istanbul 16 12Johannesburg 28 11Kuala Lumpur 32 25Lisbon 25 16Paris 16 11Perth 20 9Singapore 31 25Tokyo 25 18Toronto 12 8

WORLD

Max 15Min 10

Max 32Min 21

Max 16Min 12

Max 35Min 27

Max 24Min 16

Max 19Min 13

Max 2Min 2

Max 31Min 24

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 Daily 16.00 Sohar 18.35 Daily 16.00 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 Daily 13:00 Sohar 19:20 Daily 17:00 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 Daily 07:00 Sharjah 13.30 Daily 07:00 Dubai 14.00 Daily

FROM DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH & SHARJAH (Route 204)Dept Destination Arrival Operating Time Time Days 16:00 Sharjah 16:30 Daily 16.00 Fujairah 18.15 Daily16.00 Ruwi 23.00 Daily

FROM MUSCAT (RUWI) TO MUSCAT (RUWI)

LISTINGS

—www.met.gov.om

BORN today, you are endowed with a great many interests that you can, throughout your lifetime, develop into specific talents. These can, in turn, lead to some amazing accomplishments. What interests you most keenly is likely to be that which is quite unusual, rare or unconventional, and you will surely be drawn to those things like a moth to a flame. The metaphor is quite apt, for the very interests that give your life meaning can also be quite dangerous to you if you fail to use caution and chart your course with great care. You want to avoid self-immolation, surely!

You may not be as capable when it comes to love and other relationships as you are in your work — or even your hobbies. It may be that your communication skills are somewhat lacking, or that you can at times be too self-concerned. Whatever the reason, a lasting love may, for a time, be somewhat elusive.

Also born on this date are: Snoop Dogg, rapper; Viggo Mortensen, actor; Danny Boyle, filmmaker; Tom Petty, singer-songwriter and musician; Jerry Orbach, actor; Mickey Mantle, baseball player; Art Buchwald, humorist; Bela Lugosi, actor; Christopher Wren, architect.

You may have been waiting a bit too long to get something off the ground at home. Today, the opportunity to get it started is clear.

VIRGO [AUG. 23-SEPT. 22]

LIBRA [SEPT. 23-OCT. 22] LLLLLLLLLLLLLLL[S[S[S[S[S[[S[S[S[S[S[S[S[S[S[SSSS[SSSSSS

SCORPIO [OCT. 23-NOV. 21] S[

SAGITTARIUS [NOV. 22-DEC. 21] S[[[[[[[[[[[[[

AQUARIUS [JAN. 20-FEB. 18]

The situation you find yourself in is likely to require more in the way of daring and chutzpah than you are used to applying.

You know just what must be done, but figuring out how and when to do it may take more than idle thought. Consider all the details!

You may not be putting yourself out there as aggressively as you might, but you’ll have a chance to redouble your efforts.

If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem — even if you think you’re steering clear altogether.

Give yourself a break; there’s no reason for you to drive yourself into the ground when you can get things done in a reasonable manner.

A friend or loved one may be looking at you in a new light as a result of a decision you made only yesterday that changes everything.

You can take an old idea and turn it into something new — and far more valuable than it ever was before.

PISCES [Feb. 19-March 20]

You want to play with winners, not losers, and you have the chance to pick a team that will give you only the best every time.

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]

You’re no daredevil, but you may be required to throw caution to the wind and do something you would otherwise not do.

You can stay the course despite a setback. What is most important is that your intentions are intact and your spirits high.

Don’t let your fear of the unknown keep you from exploring a new option. The person who brought it to you wouldn’t put you in danger!

C11

EXTRAM O N DAY, O C TO B E R 2 0, 2 0 1 4

HANDBAGS

SC I ENCE

PHARRELL WILLIAMS has been involved in yet another fash-ion collaboration with a quirky handbag line for luxury luggage brand Moynat. The 41-year-old Happy singer has created a four-pieces collection of handbags with the Parisian luxury leather goods brand that includes a hand-tooled resin handbag, a hand-sculpted Ebony wood clutch and two leather po-chettes (available in seven different colours) — all of them carefully hand-crafted at an Italian atelier.

A locomotive-themed handbag might sound quirky, however, to get your hands in one of them you better start saving as prices start from $4,000 and go up to $10,000.

The multifaceted musician has delved into the fashion in-dustry already. As well as being well known for his unquestion-

ably trademark look of hat and bling sneakers, he has many brand collaborations.

He’s previously designed a collection of sneakers with Adi-das, a fragrance with Comme des Garcos, a line of sunglasses for Moncler and an affordable streetwear line with Uniqlo. The locomotive-themed collabora-tion with the LVMH-owned label is his next step in fashion. Aimed to appeal to our “inner child”, the line is inspired by vin-tage trunks and an old Moynat label featuring a train.

Williams told The Telegraph: “For about seven or eight years I had wanted to make these bags after seeing Harvey Girls with Judy Garland.”

Moynat x Pharrell Williams launches at Moynat boutiques worldwide today. - Linda Sharkey/The Independent

Pharrell Williams designs train-shaped handbags for French luxury brand

WOULD YOU WEAR A WEDDING DRESS

INSPIRED BY DISNEY’S ‘FROZEN’?There has always

been a princess ele-ment to wedding dresses, but a new collaboration is

taking this one step further with a dress inspired by the Disney film Frozen. If you are a bride-to-be who happens to harbour an obsession for all things Frozen, then stop right here because your search for ‘the one’ may be over.

The Elsa dress was unveiled yesterday in New York as part of spring 2015 bridal collection presentations.

American bridal house Alfred Angelo is the designer behind

the dress which is part of the Disney Fairy Tale Wedding col-lection which also includes oth-er princess inspired dresses in the range include Snow White, Beauty and the Beast’s Belle and Cinderella.

The dress is a strapless fish-tail gown with embellished se-quin detailing on the bodice. It’s loosely based on the dress worn by Elsa in the pinnacle ‘Let It Go’ scene. As any self-respect-ing Frozen fan knows the ‘Let It Go’ dress was actually aqua-marine blue, but for bridal pur-poses it has unsurprisingly been switched to white.

The inclusion of Frozen’s Elsa in the collection is not sur-prising given the commercial power behind the film which is the highest grossing animated movie of all time.

However Elsa is not an obvi-ous choice for bridal inspiration as she is not a fairytale romance icon as such, in fact she is one of the only Disney princesses whose story doesn’t feature a love interest — at least until the sequel that is. The dress will be available for Frozen fan brides to buy in January from Alfred Angelo stockists worldwide. - Emma Akbareian/The Independent

Have you tried the ‘Donut selfie’ yet? A NEW form of video selfie called the ‘Donut selfie’ could now help you pressent some cool shots. The technique, created by an ex-Micro-soft employee Karen Cheng from California, involves taking various panoramic video shots using the phone camera. This 360-degree video selfie can be taken by or-biting your smartphone camera around your head while captur-ing the background scenery.

App that enables deaf people to ‘hear’IN GOOD news for the hear-ing impaired, researchers have developed a new app called Transcense which transcribes speech into written words that consequently show up on the smartphone screen. It is the first app that makes group conversa-tions effortless.

Birth season can trigger mood disordersTHE RISK of developing mood disorders is impacted by the sea-son in which you are born in. People born at certain times of year may have a greater chance of developing types of affective tem-peraments, research showed. —IANS

C12

EXTRAM O N DAY, O CTO B E R 2 0, 2 0 14

For the overworked modern employee, the policies and perks offered by some of the most generous com-

panies sound like manna from the corporate heads. Onsite climbing walls. Free housekeeping. Chef-catered meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Yet however nice such benefits may be, they can also end up act-ing as subtle ways to get employ-ees to work more. It saves time and stress to have a company dry cleaner, free gourmet snacks and made-to-order mochas down the hall or access to a health clinic on the corporate campus. Still, there’s an implied message: “We’ll pro-vide you everything here onsite, so you never really have to leave.”

A few companies, however, have policies, perks and even of-fice designs that say the opposite: Get out of here. As the evidence piles up that people need time off to be more productive, some employers — particularly smaller ones — are finding clever ways to suggest employees stop work-ing. Here are a few of the boldest workplace moves:

Extra pay for vacationsIt’s one thing to get vacation days as part of your salary. It’s quite an-other to be paid extra to take them. That’s exactly what a few compa-nies — especially those trying to lure hard-working (and hard-to-recruit) tech employees — have been doing.

The software company Ever-note offers employees an extra $1,000 stipend if they take a full week away from work. The com-

pany, which also has an unlimited vacation policy, added the stipend as a way of signalling to employees that it really wants people to take that time off.

Meanwhile, the startup Full-Contact began offering what it calls “paid, paid vacation.” It gives employees $7,500 a year if they take time off from work. No sur-prise, use of vacation time report-edly went up after it introduced that policy. As CEO Brad Lorang wrote in a blog post, there’s often a hero syndrome in startups where employees think they’re the last line of defence. “That’s not heroic. That’s a single point of failure. It’s not good for the employee or the company,” he believes.

Making the desks disappearSomeone who wants to work late at the Amsterdam offices of Dutch design firm Heldergroen will have to do so without a desk. At 6 pm every day, the company’s desks are lifted via steel cables to the ceiling and the floor is cleared of other furniture. In the evening, the space is rented for free to the community to be used as a dance floor, reception space or yoga stu-dio. The transition is made using a cable system for theatrical pro-ductions that’s operated by the turn of a key.

The firm’s retractable office made the rounds online recently after the publication TrendHunt-er featured the innovative office space, and it’s easy to see why the idea of a forced quit time went viral. Heldergroen creative direc-tor Sander Veenendaal told Fast Company it’s helping the firm build its brand, establish its cul-

ture and improve workers’ lives.

Enforcing rest timeDuring past recessions, some companies shut their doors over the holidays or for part of the sum-mer to help save on cash, forcing employees to use vacation days or take unpaid time off. But enforced breaks can also be designed an-other way: as a perk, rather than a stopgap.

For instance, TED, the confer-ence and media company, shuts down for a two-week break in the summer and a one-week break during the holidays, then gives employees a fourth paid week of vacation to use as they wish. The coordinated vacation time makes the company more efficient, and also better rested. “Most of us would feel too guilty to even take two weeks off, if it weren’t pre-planned for us,” TED Media ex-ecutive producer June Cohen told Fast Company. “This creates an enforced rest period, which is so

important for both productivity and happiness.”

Crowd-sourced consumer products maker Quirky, mean-while, started shutting things down four weeks a year in early 2013. Because of its quarterly business cycle, which builds to-ward a stressful final few weeks, founder Ben Kaufman wrote in a blog post that the company would be closed the first week of every new quarter. “This is a full, man-datory shutdown of all internal activities,” he wrote. “Lights out. Deep breath. Time for us to ex-plore other creative interests. Re-lax without worrying what we’re missing.” The weeks off, Kaufman wrote, would be a supplement to Quirky’s existing vacation policy and the company reserved the right to “go back to our old ways” if the policy didn’t work.

Reducing off-hours emailFor years, companies have tried to make it easier for workers to send and receive emails at all hours. Now, a growing number are dis-couraging the practice. About 25 percent of companies, one study reports, have created some kind of formal or informal rule to dis-courage off-hours emails. Some companies set time limits, some offer pledges from management that nighttime email isn’t expect-ed, and some silence email servers once the workday ends.

It’s a tricky issue, as some peo-ple have reason to stay in contact after hours, and what works for one group of employees won’t work for another. — Jena McGregor/The Washington Post

As the evidence piles up that people need time off to be more productive, some employers

— particularly smaller ones — are finding clever ways to suggest employees stop working

Brain myths hampering teaching worldwide

MYTHS ABOUT the brain are com-mon among teachers worldwide and are hampering teaching, noted a study that called for better communication between neuroscientists and educators.Over 70 per cent of teachers in all coun-tries wrongly believe a student is either left-brained or right-brained, peaking at 91 per cent in Britain, the findings showed. A quarter or more of teachers

in Britain and Turkey believe a student’s brain would shrink if they drank less than six to eight glasses of water a day. Around half or more of those surveyed believe a student’s brain is only 10 per cent active and that children are less attentive after consuming sugary drinks and snacks. “These ideas are of-ten sold to teachers as based on neuroscience — but modern neuroscience cannot be used support them,” said Paul How-ard-Jones, author of the article from University of Bristol in Britain. “These ideas have no educational value and are often associated with poor practice in the classroom,” Howard-Jones added. The findings appeared in the journal Nature Re-views Neuroscience.

How a rare pathogen could infect the healthiest peopleA UNIQUE evolutionary trait in a rare pathogen called Cryp-tococcus gattii allows it to infect even the healthiest of hosts through a mechanism that neutralises the body’s immune re-sponse against it, a study showed. Scientists at the University of Birmingham have explained how this pathogen responds to the human immune response and triggers a ‘division of la-bour’ in its invading cells, which can lead to life-threatening infections. The pathogen, once inhaled, can spread through the body to cause pneumonia or meningitis. “By understand-ing how this particular lineage behaves once in the body, we have provided an insight into the key mystery of why it is viru-lent in immunocompetent people — that is those with a strong immune system,” said professor Robin May from the Uni-versity of Birmingham. When invaded by an outbreak strain, the host body creates reactive oxygen species which form an essential part of the antimicrobial defence in mammals. ROS works to prevent the spread of harmful pathogens by cleans-ing the body of invasive cells. A strong ROS reaction usually makes people less susceptible to infections, but in the case of Cryptococcus gattii just the opposite is true as the fungus. The pathogen uses the release of ROS as a signal to trigger a ‘division of labour’ in the intracellular fungal population. The study appeared in the journal Nature Communications.

Implantable eye devices that improve visionSCIENTISTS have developed implantable eye devices that improve vision and could soon become a viable alternative for ageing eyes. A corneal inlay device currently undergoing clinical review in the US improved near vision well enough for 80 percent of the participating patients to read a newspaper without disturbing far distance vision needed for daily activi-ties like driving. One of the devices is the KAMRA inlay — a thin, flexible doughnut-shaped ring that measures 3.8 mm in diameter, with a 1.6 mm hole in the middle. When dropped into a small pocket in the cornea, covering the front of the eye, the device acts like a camera aperture, adjusting the depth of field so that the viewer can see near and far. The procedure to insert the implant is relatively quick, lasting about 10 minutes, and requires only topical anaesthesia, researchers reported.

Warm climate restructuring bird population in regionsDRIVEN BY a warming climate, birds typically found in more southerly regions are gradually pushing north, restructuring the communities of birds that spend their winter in north-ern latitudes, research has found. Over the past two decades, the resident communities of birds that attend eastern North America’s backyard bird feeders in winter have quietly been remade, the findings showed. The readily familiar species in-clude cardinals, chipping sparrows and Carolina wrens. “Fifty years ago, cardinals were rare in the north-eastern United States. Carolina wrens even more so,” explained study co-au-thor Benjamin Zuckerberg from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US. —IANS

SC I ENCE

FOUR CLEVER WAYS COMPANIES ARE HELPING EMPLOYEES FIGHT BURNOUT

Nice benefits can end up acting as subtle ways to get employees to work more. A few companies, however, have policies, perks and even office designs that say the opposite: Get out of here

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

D

D4 VACANCY CARGO D7

M O N D AY, O C T O B E R 2 0 , 2 0 1 4

RENT D2

*Classified Advertisement space booking with text, should be done till 12.00 noon for next day’s publication.

* Subject to space availability

DAILY GUIDE Email: [email protected] [email protected].: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461

FOR RENT

FOR RENT, flat in new building near

wadi adai flyover. 1BHK flat , two toi-

lets, split unit a/c in both rooms. Rent

R.O. 180/= . Contact: 99360998.

Bachelor villa at Al Ansab.

Contact 98458542

For rent 1 BHK at Al Khodh

commercial area. Contact 99332297,

99224748

Flat for rent 2 BHK split A/C near

Oman House Muttrah. Contact

97007934 / 92629232

Studio Apartment Madinat Qaboos,

RO 235 including W+ E, 4 BHK apart-

ment in Wattayah, RO 450. Villas for

rent. Contact 95178930

4 Bedroom flat in Ruwi, 400 Riyals.

And shop for Rent in Ruwi,

300 Riyals. Contact 99009854

Showroom with Mezzanine Floor,

area approx. 310 SQM at Qurum

Prime location for immediate lease.

Ideal for exotic jewellery etc.

Contact 24714625 / 93231434

Brand new studio flat in Al Hail with

utilities. Contact 92817777

For rent flat single room near Indian

School, bathroom, living room in

Wadi Kabir. Contact 99446534

1,000 sq mtrs industrial land in Mis-

fah Industrial area near to Khanco.

OMR 1,500 Monthly. Electricity and

Boundary wall will be provided. Tel:

99333479 or 95215360

Flat in Bausher for rent. Well

maintained, 2 bedroom, 3 bathroom,

sitting room with split AC. Contact

99348493, 99337587, 93200424

2 BHK in Ghubrah & Al Azaiba

without A/C RO 325/-.

Contact 92144045

Villa for rent North Al Hail 3 rooms,

2 toilet, A/C 4 & kitchen. RO 350/-.

Contact 92116353 / 99037989

Flat for rent in Wadi Kabir.

Contact 99383569

Building with four flats near Pizza

Hut Mawaleh. Contact 99044164

D2 M O N D AY, O C T O B E R 2 0 , 2 0 1 4

Room for rent in Ruwi.

Contact 95372192

2 floor building, each floor has 4

apartment with 3 rooms, 2 bath-

rooms, 5 shops, 4 stores & 400 meter

underground space suitable for sport

halls. Location Al Mabella 8,

behind Gulf College.

Contact 99192999

1 & 2 bedroom flats available for rent

at Ghubrah near Grand Mall, close to

Atlas Hospital next to Diwan’s Office.

Contact 24562526 , 99833747

Land and Shops in Rusayl.

Contact 99323957, 95490842,

fax : 24452534

Office space available for rent near

MSQ. Contact 92888063

BHK Flat at Old Muscat.

Contact: 91393005

1 BHK Wadi Kabir. Contact

99024730

1&2 BHK Darsait. Contact 99024730

Flat for rent in Mumtaz. Contact

99331947, 98934500

Showroom & store at Honda Road.

Contact 98087644

I BHK flat in Wadi Kabir.

Contact 92275454

Flat for rent opposite Gharnata

Shoes, Ruwi. Contact 99358331,

99218484

Flat one bedroom in Wadi Kabir with

split AC. Contact 99313274

5 Bedrooms Villa with 2 Halls, 4

bathrooms in Darsait behind Kh-

imijis Market. Contact 24700120 /

92584715

1 BHK flat in Wadi Kabir. RO 215/-.

Contact 99358589

2 BHK flat - near Kuwaiti Mosque,

Wadi Kabir. Contact 24816774 /

97608564

Offices, spaces, flats 1,2,3 bedroom

available. Contact 99530405

Small house for rent at Ghubrah.

Contact 95032152

For rent one room with kitchen,

bath, small hall in Sidab.

Contact 93233440

1 BHK MBD for commercial.

RO 280/-. Contact 92144045

1 BHK near ISD Darsait.

RO 225/-. Contact 92144045

1 BHK near Primary School Wadi

Kabir. RO 250/-. Last.

Contact 92144045

3 BHK Villa, 2 hall, 3 toilets, AC

independent. RO 650/-.

Contact 92144045

Flat in Wadi Kabir, 2 bedrooms,

Majlis with AC. RO 260.

Contact 99333639

Flat for rent in Hamriya, 3 rooms,

2 bathrooms with AC. RO 240/-.

Contact 99256019

1 BHK flat near Star Cinema, Ruwi.

RO 240/-. Contact 97079146 /

95570288

Small office for rent in Azaiba

North. Contact 92294409

5 Bedroom Villas at Al Ansab

(Near express highway).

Contact 99199365

Flats in Darsait, 2 and 3 rooms,

price RO 250, RO 300.

Contact 99357586, 97500025,

97884787

Flat in Wadi Kabir near Indian

School. Contact 99663367

New villa & flat in Wadi Adai, with

4 bedrooms, 2 toilets, 1 kitchen and

2 big hall. Contact 99345137

New Building in Mutrah, 2 B/D

Room Flat + Sitting Room,3 Baths+

Kitchen with split unit Ac’s.

Behind Khimiji’s main office/oppo-

site to Oman House

Call 99419712

Flat (1 room, kitchen, toilet) in

Al Khuwair family / Bachelors

RO 160/-. Contact 95154331

Deluxe 3 BHK & Villa at Al Ansab.

Contact 98458542

Flats Shops Basement location Ruwi

MBD area, Honda road Mumtaz area.

Contact 97331431 / 92433127

3 BHK Flat Ghubra close to ISG Way

4041, Building 4390.

Contact 99319880

NEW WAREHOUSE FOR RENT at

Ghala Ind. Area. 578sqm Near. Hotel

Al-MadinahHoliday.Ghala.

Container can enter. Immediate ac-

cess to roads & highways.

Contact : 95362717

I BHK Flat Wadi Kabir. RO 180/-.

Contact 99376454

Flat for rent in Ruwi, Mumtaz Area

and Al-Hail South.

Contact 91409778

Villa for rent in Muscat 6 rooms.

Contact 96116767

AVAILABLE

Established Restaurant for rent

with sponsorship. Cell # 97628242

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]

New one BK at Bausher directly

from owner. Contact 92158031

2 Bedroom, 2 Bathroom & Kitchen

with Split A/C in a new building

available at Humriya, Rent-250/- Con-

tact-94474574 & Shop at Mawaleh

behind City Centre Seeb. 200 Only

We have 1 BHK Ghubrah, 2 BHK

Ruwi, Mumtaz, Rex Road and Darsait,

2 BHK in Ghala, 1 BHK in Ghala, 2

BHK full furnished flat in Ghala, 1

BHK & 2 BHK offices in Ghala and full

furnished offices in Ghala, 20 SQM,

25 SQM, 5 BHK villa in Ghubrah,

2 BHK flat in Qurum.

Contact 93782735 / 99208033

Furnished / unfurnished apart-

ments available for rent on long

term /short term basis, near Vacha’s

hypermarket in Ghala. Contact :

97677211

3BHK flat Ghubra close to ISG Way

4041, Building 4390.

Contact 99319880

2 Bedroom one sitting one kitchen

2 toilet Rex road near Jaffer Sad-

diq Mosque. Contact 99312674 /

96917934

2 Bedrooms surface house, 1 Fam-

ily Hall, 1 Bathroom, kitchen, full

furnished. For rent (Al Khuwair 33)

Contact: 99315515

2 BR, 2 toilets, kitchen at

Al Mawaleh. Contact 99444786 /

99747560

2 BHK with A/Cs Mutrah behind

Oman house. Contact 99896838

3 rooms, 3 bath & Kitchen Oman

House Muttrah. Contact 99319149

5 Rooms, main living room + Wom-

en living room+2 halls, 6 toilets,

kitchen in Azaiba near Al Fair

800 RO. Contact 99888873

For rent Flat 2 bedroom attach

bathroom opp Ruwi police station

Ruwi. Contact 99311209/ 99013580

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

8 Rooms villa in Al Khuwair for rent

opp. Rawasco, way 4104, villa 341.

Contact - 99361589

DAILY GUIDEM O N D AY, O C T O B E R 2 0 , 2 0 1 4 D3

Running Optical Shop for sale with-

out Opticals, good located in

Al Khoudh – 6. Contact 98545994

Lady Beauty saloon. Contact

97786792, 96644372

Shop for sale in Seeb near Bank

Muscat. Contact 99828343

Twin villa for sale at Khuwair 33.

Both for 185 thousand, negotiable.

Tel: 99414767

Autoclave (Class B), Examination

coaches (Medical Clinic),

Split A/Cs, Chairs etc. for sale.

Contact: 95293535

Vegetable shop for sale in Wadi

kabir, Cont : 92786449

Municipality approved restaurant

for sale or lease with few equip-

ment’s opposite to Sohar university

at main road. Pls call 99412020

Jotun Paint Shop Building Materials

for sale at honda Road.

Contact 99421228

A running supermarket for sale.

Ruwi Walja. Contact 95764290

Laundry for sale or lease in Barka.

Contact 98132389

Villa for sale, 7 bedrooms, 12 car

parking, 2 kitchen, 2 majlis etc.

Contact 99530405

Building for sale at excellent

location in Al Amerat no. 3, build-

ing consists of 8 flats, 10 shops, 1

basement of 400 sqm. Building is

currently fetching OMR 3,400/- po-

tential is upto 5,000/- OMR.

Contact - 99335013 / 95194007

EXPAT LEAVING, Cooking range/Air

Conditioning/Fridge/Washing Ma-

chine/Gas Cylinder/ Sofa/ Cupboard

/ Bed etc all NEW used only for one

year. Contact 92081796

Medical Clinic Laboratory with

dental unit for sale.

Contact 92724345

Restaurant for sale. Contact

95901870

Flats For Sale in Boushar: OMR

35 Thousand 1 bedroom. OMR 45

Thousand 2 bedroom. Monthly

income 1 bedroom OMR 270 and 2

bedroom OMR 350. Tel: 99333479 or

95215360

Building materials well running

showroom for sale in prime location

at Mabelah Sanayya with stock

& furniture. Contact 95125790 /

96473187

If you have any properties /

Inquiries. Contact us

[email protected] .

Tel 24505072/ 91155779

Fax 24507045

Ice cream shop for sale in Ghubra

(with 3 phase connection).

Contact 92754412

New Villas in (Al Ghobra/

Al Khoudh/ Al Mabella).

Contact 24505072/ 91155779

Fax 24507045

Logistic Company with new equip-

ments, contracts sale. Contact

99438523 / 94252527

FOR SALE

WANTEDBUYING/SELLING

Restaurant in a running and excellent

condition, ample parking space with a

capacity of 55 seating and a party hall

for sale. Contact - 99343735

Furnished flat with two rooms near

al meera hypermarket, Azaiba.

Gsm 99761216

ACC. AVAILABLE

ACC. AVAILABLE

MATRIMONIAL

CHANGE OF NAMESunni Muslim Boy (Indian), Age.35,

Working As Supervisor In Hotel

Looking For Working Girl In Muscat.

Kindly Contact.92867002

Suitable alliance invited from pro-

fessionally qualified boys for Chris-

tian Jacobite girl, B.Tech 25 years,

162 cm presently working in Kerala

hailing from Ernakulam. Contact

99808584, 0091 9447140806

Mangalore Sunni Muslim, seek-

ing suitable bride (preferably from

Dakshina Kannada) for their son

working as Logistics Manager.

Contact 92198085

Nair Boy, 32/165 cm (Divorced)

Accountant MBA, seeking alliance.

Contact 97058681

NRI

Flat for Sale - 1 No. 3 bedroom/

2 bedrooms flat for sale in a 3

storied building with lift facility,

800 meters from Lulu, Cochin, 300

meters from NH 47 at Edapally.

Contact 99322165

Great Investment opportunity

with guaranteed recurring returns.

Two prominently positioned

showrooms on Munnar Cochin

National Highway at Adimali North

1.5 Crore for 1.4 Crore for immedi-

ate sale. Serious buyers please

contact

[email protected]

A 3 BHK new flat, Price – 70

Lakhs, fetching 17,000 rent P.M. ,

available for sale in Indirapuram

(Ghaziabad). Contact: 99353384

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 offered. Please send CV to

[email protected]

For Astrological consultation, Jathakam. Contact# 99860435 /

97102599

Wanted to buy / invest in Travel

Agency and needed Office room for

rent. Contact 96967022

We are dealing with sale of all

beauty salon equipments, furnitures

& cosmetics. Contact 942 888 61 /

942 888 63

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

Fully furnished room with separate

toilet, equipped kitchen and big

terrace available for executive

bachelor from Nov.1s tin N. Gubrah.

Contact-- 95450250

Exec. room attached bath family or

bachelor at Mumtaz area.

Contact 96916398 / 93103337

Furnished single room with

bathroom, Al Khuwair area only for

ladies. Contact 96059431

Room for rent in Al Khuwair near

Ibis Hotel. RO 110.

Contact 95124975

Sharing accommodation in Wadi

Kabir, vegetarian family / bachelor.

Contact 99877845

Room for rent at Al Khuwair.

Contact 99743569 / 97004265

One bedroom, hall, toilet, kitchen

available for South Indian family in

Al Ghubrah (near Lake Park). Contact

99209160

Executive room attached bath,

Mumtaz Area. Contact 93103337

Single furnished room in Ruwi.

Contact 24833609

Rooms with separate toilets near

Sana, Pencil Building and Kuwaiti

Masjid at Wadi Kabir.

Contact 94012930

Big room, bathroom, kitchen near

Riyam Park, Muscat. RO 110.

Contact 95094028

Executive Bachelor Room RO

85 with A/C, main road, Mumtaz,

Ruwi Tower. Contact 92230581 /

95084850

Semi furnished room with bath-

room for single Ex. Bachelor, opp.al

reef hotel Ghubra prf. Muslim, wifi


Single room with separate toilet &

balcony for Indian executive bach-

elor- Contact 98928458

1 BR accommodation available

at Rex road, suitable for bachelors.

Contact 99889590

Looking for purchase of Used Portable Compressor (350 CFM,

7 Bar Pressure) powered with Diesel

run Generator. Kindly contact :

99014686 or

[email protected]

Expat leaving Oman has house

hold items and furniture for sale.

Contact 96964756.

I, Arun Ahamed Sagir (holder of

Indian Passport No. K7243919) son

of Ambalathveettil Moidunny Sagir

having permanent address in Am-

balath House, Kechery PO, Thrissur,

Pin : 680501, Kerala, India (complete

postal address in India) and present-

ly residing in Wadi Kabir, P.B.No.823,

P.C.112, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

(complete postal address in Oman)

intend to change my name from Arun Ahamed Sagir (old name) to Ahmed Sagir (new name) for all practical purposes. Any objec-

tion towards my name change may

please be communicated to Embassy

of India, Muscat, Diplomatic Quarters,

Al Khuwair, P.B. No 1727, Postal Code

112, Ruwi, Sultanate of Oman.

M.V. FOR SALE

2010 Model, APV Suzuki for sale.

Contact 93953237

Mitsubishi Canter 2006 (3 Ton),

double cabin with 1.5 Ton (Hiab),

Toyota Hilux pickup 2007, double

cabin with PDO roll bar.

Contact 92824289, 99229740

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

Mitsubishi Lancer model 2009 full

automatic. Contact 99045803

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 EX GT with spoiler 2009

66000 km dealer maintained.

Contact 92398644

For sale – Camry 2011, Mazda 6

2006, Lancer 2010, Civic 1996.

Contact 96408433/ 93806625

GOOD NEWS

Genuine Ayurvedic treatments

& massage, ayurvedic clinic at

Al Khuwair. Contact 24478618 /

97263637/ 93309131

Ayurvedic treatment for backache,

paralysis, arthritis etc & massage,

All Season (Vaidyaratnam).

Contact 24475280 / 95371554 /

92504980

Ayurvedic treatment for joint

pain, backache, paralysis massage,

steambath, obesity, spondylitis,

IDEAL CARE Ayuvedic Clinic,

18 November Street Azaiba.

Contact 99639695

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

DAILY GUIDED4 M O N D AY, O C T O B E R 2 0 , 2 0 1 4

DAILY GUIDE

DOMESTIC HELP

CATERING

DRAFTSMAN

DRIVER

EDUCATION

ARCHITECT

ADMIN

BEAUTY

SKILLED / UN SKILLED

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION VACANT

MEDICAL

MEDICAL

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED

SITUATION WANT-ED

SIT. WANTED

We need helper for spare parts

shop in Mabelah, salary RO 120/-,

accommodation, visa every two

years, air ticket to and back home.

Contact 99157377 /

Email : [email protected]

Indian Muslim Cook for Omani

family. Contact 95555426

ADMIN/HR

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

DRAUGHTSMAN

DRIVER

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

Email: [email protected] [email protected].: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461

Autocad d man experienced (arch /

str) revit, 3dmax, Photoshop.

Contact : 93837973

Architectural & Structural

Draughtsman in Oman,

4 years experience.

Contact 95725787

Draughtsman 10 years experience

in Oil/ Gas, looking for suitable job

immediate joining NOC available.

Contact 968 98628657

Email [email protected]

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.

AutoCAD Draughtsman looking for

suitable placement.

Contact 94196735

ENGINEERS/TECH..

Required Architect,min. 3 yrs expe-

rience in kitchen designing, Carpen-

ter (door) & foreman experience in

carpentry work. Contact 98827105,

Email: [email protected]

Required Indian light driver. Salary

RO 175 + Accommodation.

Contact 99454425

Wanted expat driver for very senior

executive. Should be willing to work

evening hours occasionally.

Call 22004545

A leading Business Group in Oman urgently require a driver (Light

Commercial Vehicle) to be based at

their Head Office in Muscat.

Contact 99428552

Wanted driver. Contact 97469823

Required Indian Cook. Apply to

[email protected]

Contact 94146486

A well reputed Fire Fighting Engi-

neering Company urgently requires Carpenters & Fire Door experi-enced carpenters. #92888361.


Required urgent for Qatar Op-erators, Dumper (Basic QR 1600), Roller (Basic QR 1600), Excavator (Basic QR 1800), Grader (QR 1800 ),

Dozer (QR 1800 -2000) + Free Food

+ Accommodation + Joining Ticket,

Send CV to - oa@skcmanagement.

com / [email protected] /

0091 9650112346

OR 00968 99592551

Required Tailor. Contact 96964767

Landscaping & cleaning Foreman : minimum of 10 years experience,

fluent 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:

[email protected]

Indian male, MBA Finance, 6 plus

years experience in Accounting and

Finance (specialized in Oil & Gas),

inclusive of 2 years in Oman. Now on

visit visa. Contact 94327063.


Fresh Graduate Accountant from

Majan College, B.Sc in BA and Ac-

counting looking for a suitable job.

Contact 96132149

Accountant 10 years Oman exp,

M.Com, upto finalization available for

part time works, timing 2 pm to 6 pm.

Contact 96247295

Indian male, MBA Finance, HR having

7 years experience in Insurance, Ac-

counts, Banking looking for a suitable

position. Contact 99070238.


32 years Pakistani MBA (Manage-

ment and Finance) from a reputed UK

University with 5+ years experience

in Accounts and Managerial positions

(in UK) seeks a suitable job.

Contact 95658916

UK qualified, MBA finance with

6 years experience in Accounts &

Finance up to finalization. D/L and

NOC available. Contact 91266101

Part Time Accounting, Accounts

Finalization, Internal Audit, Onsite

Tally Training, Onsite Training for

Accountants, Inventory Management,

MIS Reports, Feasibility Study and

Project Reports. Contact : 96975454,

email : [email protected]

Part time Accountant with 19 yrs

exp in Accounting Management.

Contact 95857199

MBA Finance, Indian female, 2 years

of Accounting experience. Seeking

suitable placement. GSM: 91586771

Email: [email protected] ,

Indian female, 22 years, B.Com

seeks suitable placement currently

on visit visa. Contact 94514154

Omani female, 3 yrs exp in Ac-

counts & 7 months exp in shipping,

3 yrs exp in Secretary job, knowl-

edge in Computer with Oman D/L.

Contact 94252699

Indian Male, 34, B.Com & CA inter-

mediate, over 14 years experience

(7 years in Oman). Expertise, Ac-

counts finalizations, MIS, Budgeting

and Audit functions with Oman D/L.

NOC available looking for suitable

Accounts Managerial Positions.

Contact 99169501

Over 15 years Oman experienced

Indian female Manager/Accounts

and Admn/Secretary.

Contact 96025193

Indian male, MBA Having experi-

ence in Accounts, looking for suit-

able job. Contact 92045306

Accountant 8 years experience in

Oman seeking prime job.

Contact 99867456

MBA Finance with experience of 6

years in Accounts and Finance. NOC


Indian female Senior Accountant

with 10 years experience in Ac-

counts, Finance, Audit & Tax Man-

agement. Contact 96263157

Indian female, 23, M.Com with 2.5

yrs experience in back office & ac-

counts seeks for suitable placement.

Contact 95995743 / 95995735

Email : deepthi.prasannan23@

rediffmail.com.

Maintenance services company

with operations across GCC require Accountant for Oman operations.

Muscat based. Graduate in Business

/ Accountancy Minimum 3 years ex-

perience preferably in engineering/

mechanical services environment.

Fluent in English. Please apply with

full CV to [email protected]

Leading construction company requires document controller with

4-6 yrs experience. Send your CV :

[email protected]

Wanted experienced Phillipino Seafood cook, age between

35 to 45 yrs. Salary RO 300/-.

Contact 91206530

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]

SALES / MARKETING

SALES / MARKETING

Required Salesman for household

and Industrial Chemical Manufactur-

ing & Trading Company with mini-

mum 5 years experience and valid

Omani Driving License. Apply with

full details to fax : 24597945

[email protected] or

The following vacancies are urgent-

ly required for Printing Press in Wadi

Kabir : 1-Sales Manager, 2-Sales Representative with well knowledge

and experience in Printing Press,

holding valid Omani Driving License.

Please send your CV to :

[email protected]

Work on very good commission basis in Sales in Muscat & Salalah

only for expats. Contact 92760281

Salesman cum Merchandiser urgently required for a reputed FMCG

Company engaged in manufacturing

and trading in Oman. Candidate must

have minimum 4-5 years experi-

ence in the similar field and valid

Omani Driving license. Interested

candidates may send in their CV to

[email protected]

Exciting openings in Advertising/Media Sales, Graphic and Web De-sign. Email : [email protected]

Looking for Sales Executive with Oman driving license for a re-

puted company. Contact – 99450677

Required energetic business de-velopment executives with 2-3 yrs

experience in consumer adhesive or

related segment. Eligible candidates

with valid D/L please mail resume to

[email protected]

Required exp male Marketing Executive for a Tourism Co, car free

+ petrol + accommodation. Should

have Oman D/L. Salary RO 200/-.

Contact 91272676

A leading Oil & Gas Company is looking for Sales Engineer with 2

yrs exp, excellent in Marketing, Sales

and Technical Background. Valid

Omani Driving License.

Contact 99061232.


Omani required for PRO, Sales & debt collector. Please call

99855604 / 99855784

Maintenance services company

with operations across GCC require

Admin/Document Control assistant

for Oman office Muscat based. Fluent

in English. Graduate in Business

3 years experience preferably in

engineering/mechanical services

environment and Familiar with ISO

9001 protocols. Please apply with

full CV to [email protected]

Required PRO for a well reputed

Company in Muscat. Email send to

[email protected].

Contact 97050832

Indian male age 30 having

10 yrs experience in Finance &

Accounts seeking suitable place-

ment. mob.93675399

M. Com/PGDCA having 15 years

of experience in Oman, looking

for a new placement in the field of

Accounts and administration. NOC

available. Contact : 92425421 /

Email: [email protected].

Sr. Accountant M.Com (Finance) 14

years experience (1 year in Oman) in

finance & Accounts. NOC available.

Contact 92404608.


CFA, MBA (Finance), 7 yrs in cor-

porate finance & 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

AutoCAD Draftsman with knowl-

edge of electromechanical

MEP & BHS drawings. #94412557

Experienced Indian or Nepali beau-tician, over 30 yrs.

Contact 99467033 / 91162480

Required experienced part time Quantity Surveyors (Civil & MEP)

who can work from their home for

Consultancy Office. Send CV to

[email protected].

Contact : 93457995

Mechanical Engineer with 2 yrs

experience & female office secretary

required urgently. #24799971 /

Email:[email protected]

Civil Engineer with 3 yrs Gulf expe-

rience with Driving License. Send CV

by mail to : [email protected].

Contact 98015925, 95049910

Grade 1 Construction Company

requires Civil Quantity Surveyor- 1 No & MEP Engineer-1 No with

10 years of local experience.


Urgently required 1 no. - MEP Engineer in building construction

with minimum 5 years experience.

Apply, fax 00968 - 24605955,


Required mobile technician for Samsung, Iphone and other

Smartphones. Contact 97613774

Looking for a well experienced

and competent executive prefer-

ably an Engineer with Finance

Background on part-time basis to

work on our Industrial and Ser-

vices Projects i.e feasibility study

& project profiles. Please respond

to [email protected]

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 Pharmacist and female G.P for a new clinic in Salalah.

Contact 97413418, 93129219. Email :

[email protected]

Wanted Gynecologist & Dentist (male or female) with MOH license

of 3 years experience for reputed

medical centre in Seeb.

Email : [email protected],

[email protected].

Contact 99062817/ 91274373

Sales man full & part time capa-

ble of closing deals for projects &

maintenance contracts in the field of

Landscaping, gardening & cleaning.

Contact +968 99242207


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, MBA 23 years having

1 year of exp seeking suitable place-

ment in Admin/ HR/ Marketing/ Co-

ordinator/ Logistic etc. #97014369.


MBA with 9 years of experience

in HR, Training, Admin & Business

Development able to speak Arabic

and English looking for placement.

Contact 96730659

Indian male 39 yrs 3+yrs overseas

experience as technical admin in main-

tenance & service field, currently under

visit visa till 06 Nov, seeks suitable

placement in Admin/HR/Operations/

Coordination. #97094564

email: [email protected]

Omani female with 9 yrs exp look-

ing for PRO job with Oman D/L.

Contact 97917333

Indian male, 22 yrs, MBA(HR) BCA

looking for suitable position. Pre-

ferred Admin, Accounts, HR, Sales,

Purchase Co-ordinator. #94512430

Male, 27 years with MBA in HR/

MKT having 2 years exp in respec-

tive field looking for suitable

placement in leading organization.

Contact 91705051

MBA, 30 yrs male, Indian fresher

seeks suitable post in HR, Supervi-

sor, Admin. Contact 96329315

Required experienced Montessori Teacher, qualification : B.A; B.Ed or

Montessori. Call 24705605

from 8 am to 1 pm

2 yrs experience. Release available

& seeking job in any company for

light driver. Contact 93966254 /

95151738

Crane Operator, 1 yr exp in

India. Now on visit visa. Contact

91484580, 95091177.

Email – [email protected]

7 Yrs exp Driver Keralite.

Contact 93412587

Light Driver, looking for job.

Contact 96930922

Light driver with car.

Contact 96771598

Light driver seeking job.

Contact 96771598

Pakistani driver looking for a job.

Contact 99805236

Gyecology specialist or junior

specialist wanted to work at private

clinic with good payment.

Contact 94220240

Required Receptionist, Dental Technician, Staff Nurse for

dental clinic. Contact 91290034,

[email protected]

MOH Licensed Staff Nurse required

urgently for Al Isaaf Medical Com-

plex, Salalah. #92728472, 99692465.


Wanted a Doctor for Polyclinic in

Muscat. Interested Candidates may

fax at 24810772 or Email at

[email protected]

Required Dentist. Call: 91290034



DAILY GUIDESITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED

DRIVER

Indian driver, 2 years experience

seeking placement.

Contact 92594539

Experienced light driver available.

Contact 99775728

Indian L/D. Driver, 2 years exp.

Contact 98783139

Experienced Light Driver available.

Contact 95076476

Indian male (Keralite), 30 years

having 5 years Gulf experience look-

ing for driving suitable job.

Contact 96501773, 93220619

Light driver urgently looking for

driver with office boy job, family,

personal driver. NOC ready. Visa

required. Contact 91291108

Bangladeshi male having 2 yrs exp

in Light Vehicle Driving.

Contact 98487511

Light driver with 1 yr experience

seeks suitable placement.

Contact 96342684

MISCELLANEOUS

MISCELLANEOUS

INFORMATION TECH

INFORMATION TECH

Indian Male, 26 years Computer

Programmer with 4 years expe-

rience in C#.net, Asp.net, SQL

server, Oracle and has knowledge in

networking. Looking for a suitable

placement. Contact 91790750

Indian Male, B.E computer science

with MBA(finance) 26 age ,5 years

experience in Oracle DBA/ Oracle

Apps DBA, Linux seeking a suitable

position in the field 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

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

MEDICAL

Pharmacist, D. Pharm, 3 yrs expe-

rienced, prometric exam passed, on

family visa. Contact: 94523106

Indian female Dentist, MOH license

holder, with an experience of 6 yrs,

looking for a suitable opportunity.

Contact 94046651 or

[email protected]

Indian Male GP with MOH License

and NOC, having 10 years of excel-

lent hands on experience in Oman

with corporate culture. #98140024


Nursing caregiver, qualified Nurse/

Asst. Nurse (male/ female) medical

staff seeks placement for Hospital/

clinic. Contact 92989109 (Oman),

0091 – 9555427742 (India),

[email protected]

Indian Female MSc Biotechnology,

4 years experience in Confectionary

and Medical Diagnostic Field seek-

ing suitable placements.

Email : [email protected].

Contact 99842240 / 99174286

Indian female post graduate look-

ing for suitable job in commercial/

admin/hr/customer relation (1 year

exp). Contact :97792820,

[email protected]

36 years, Indian male, MBA, 15

years experience in Life, Health, Mo-

tor Insurance seeking opportunity

in Bank assurance ERP Consulting.

Presently in Muscat. Interested only

in full time work. Contact 96269494.


An Indian national having 20 years

of experience in various office ac-

tivities at Middle Managerial Level

seeking suitable placement. Contact

93689602 / 95584606

Denter, painter, vehicle-10 years

experience need job seeks job

with visa. #96136615 / 91139936

Seeking a driver post job in com-

pany or family in Oman. Please

Contact: 98982410

27 Years Pakistani male in (Crimi-

nology having 4 years experience in

security and management seeking

suitable placement as security of-

ficer. Contact 99191701


Chemical/ Petrochemical Engineer,

Omani, 26, having bachelor of engi-

neering from UON, seeking opening.

Contact :- 95608345

MEP Engineer (HVAC) with 2 years

experience. Now in Oman on visit.

Seeking suitable placement.

GSM: 91744764

email:[email protected]

Indian, Mechanical Engineer, 15

years’ experience in oil and gas field,

seeks suitable placement.noc availa-

ble and can join immediately. kindly

contact - 94460269,94091173,

[email protected]

Sudanese Electrical Engineer, Bsc.

Degree with more than 8 Years Ex-

perience in Projects Field available

on Visit Visa 96160749`,


Indian male, Civil Engineer (BE),

2 yrs experience in India, having

knowledge in Primavera, AutoCAD

etc. Contact 98639039

Civil Engineer, Indian female, 2 yrs

experience as Quantity Surveyor,

also in Primavera, AutoCAD.

Contact 91690343

Fresh Graduate in Mechanical En-

gineering looking for a suitable job.

Graduated in July 2014 with Valid

D/L. Contact 97839918

Indian male (23), Diploma in Com-

puter Engineering, 1.5 years experi-

ence in leading IT Company in India.

IT skills including Web Design and

Development, computer Hardware

Maintenance and BPO. Looking for a

suitable placement,

currently on visit visa.


Contact 92689778, 92150123

Indian male, 27 years, B.E (Electron-

ics and Communication Engineer-

ing) having 5 years experience in

Security systems (CCTV, ACS, Fire

Alarm System and Networking) suit-

able post in construction/ manu-

facturing/ production/maintenance

departments. Currently on visit visa.

Contact 97784627, 93728674. Email

: [email protected]

Sudanese Mechanical Engineer, 5 years experience looking for a job

in Oman, male. Contact 91762602

Mechanical Engineer Diploma, 26

male with 2.5 years experience in

India having experience in Quality

Control and Auto Mobile Industries

on visit seeking for a suitable oppor-

tunities in Mechanical field.

Contact 98215077

Indian female, 22 year old, Msc

Microbiology, One year experience,

seek suitable vacancies. Contact no.

95466271

Indian Female,B.Sc Chemistry,

experience as Chemist 2years.

GSM: 92007276,


Indian male, MSc Bed. Looking

for teaching job in Science. Email

: [email protected].

Contact 91344706. Now in Muscat

on visit visa.

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/

lecturing position. Contact 95509601;

email - hanaowi@ gmail.com

MANAGER/ SUPER

Purchase & Logistics Manager - (12 + yrs Exp. in Oman) With

D/L, looking for suitable position.

Contact: [email protected] ,

Gsm: 93826090

Bangladeshi Male, Plumbing Su-

pervisor, 32 yrs exp looking for job.

Contact 97357960 / 91306037

Libyan Male having 7 years of

Experience in Oman having Valid

Omani Driving license working in

Purchase, Marketing and Finance

Dept looking for a suitable position.

salary is negotiable. Mob: 94211919

[email protected]

Mechanical Supervisor or Mechan-

ical Technician in General Industrial

Machineries, 14 years experience in

Mechanical Maintenance errection.

Preference is near Ghala or Muscat

area. Contact 91327881

Indian female BE Electrical & Elec-

tronics with 2.8 years of Experience

in Software Company. Presently in

Muscat on Residence Visa, seeking

suitable Placement.

Ready to join immediately.

Contact : 93422434,

[email protected]

Indian male, Engineer (BE in E&C,

MBA in HR) with 5 years profes-

sional/admin experience, highly

talented, looking for a suitable place-

ment in a reputed company.

Contact 91387463.


Diploma in Electronics Engineering

with 5 years experience in Oman

as Customer Service Coordinator,

Inventory Control and Indoor Sales

Executive seeks suitable job. Speaks

Arabic, English & Hindi.

Contact 95681406.

Email [email protected]

BE EEE (B.TECH).24 Years male.

2 Yrs exp. In supervisory role in elec-

trical maintenance.Looking for suit-

able placement. Contact 93415537

or 00919597016055

Sudanese Mechanical Engineer, male, 5 yrs experience looking for

job in Oman. Contact 91762602

Civil Engineer 12 years experience

GCC with valid D/L in Oman.

NOC available.

Contact 91531213

BE Civil Engineer, fresh graduate,

male 24 yrs, Indian looking for a

suitable placement.

Contact 95117509

Indian male, 23, Mechanical

Engineer looking for suitable job

vacancies. Contact 91623313 Email :

[email protected]

Indian Male, Civil Engineering

Degree with 0.5 years of experience

as Site Engineer is looking for job.

Contact 98247618, 99775118

BE Electronics and Instrumenta-

tion Engineer having experience

in Commissioning Installation and

Maintenance in different kinds of

equipments and instruments and

also in Petro-Chemical plants.

About 2 years experience.

Contact 91792114

M.Tech Computer Science and

Engineering having 3+ years of

experience in Software Development

in JAVA J2SE, J2EE. Technologies

like JDBC Serlets JSP Struts Spring

& JSF Hibernate web services.


Electrical Mechanical Engineer searching for a job.

Contact 98246222 / 97644542

B. Tech Civil Engineer having

9 years of experience in Construc-

tion of buildings & roads in Oman

looking for suitable job in Engineer-

ing Consultancy. Contact 91078499

Architect Engineer (28) male, B.Sc

Degree, 6 years experience in Con-

struction work, AutoCAD, ArchiCAD,

3D Max, Art Lantis.

Contact 94370767, 94103445

Mechanical Engineer (CSWIP3.1

Level II), Indian male, 28 yrs with

5 yrs experience in Steel Structural

Construction seeks suitable jobs.


Contact 91078780

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]

Mechanical Engineer with min

(2 yrs) experience in HVAC & female

Office Secretary with Computer

Knowledge, may apply with details

to [email protected],

Fax : 24799442

Srilankan B.Tech Quantity Surveyor

with 6 years exp (3 yrs GCC) looking

for a suitable placement with NOC.

Contact 98357512.


Mechatronics Industrial Engineer,

Indian 29 yrs with MBA in Industrial

Mgmt. 10 yrs experience in Mainte-

nance & Automation PLC Pneu-

matics seeks suitable placement.

Contact 99228658.


Civil Engineer with 5 years experi-

ence in various fields supervision,

design and geotechnical with Oman

License. Contact 97261086

Mechanical Engineer (B.E) -

4yrs exp in manufacturing / produc-

tion seeking placement.

Contact : 93694953 ;


Indian female having around 6

years exp, Masters in Quality Man-

agement & B.E. (Info Science) look-

ing for any office based jobs around

Seeb, Ghala & Rusayl.

Contact 96503224

Indian Female, Computer Engineer

with 14 Years of IT Experience. Dual

Expertise both in Business / System

Analyst and Project Management

role. Looking for any IT opportunity

pertaining to Business Analyst /

Project Manager / Software Quality

Assurance role. GSM : 968 92661857


Bsc computer-science gradu-

ate, MCSE certified & diploma in

.netframework, Java, SQL, UML,

ASP.NET with good experience as

computer technician, seeking for

suitable position in IT & sales.

Mob: 95853895


Indian male, Graduate, CCTV, CCNA,

Networking, MS Office, 2 yrs experi-

ence. Contact 98129846

Indian female, Software tester with

5 years experience in Oracle and

Wipro Technologies Indian having

knowledge in SQL and Dataware

House looking for suitable job.

Contact 98605362.


HSE Professional, 12 years experi-

ence in GCC with valid GCC Driving

license with NEBOSH DIP, NEBOSH

IGC, OPAL competence card, IOSH

Graduation in Industrial Safety.

Contact 96230916

IT support Engineer: Indian male,

5 years experience Hardware & Net-

working in suitable Job. #97311847

Indian male Diploma in Mechanical

Fitter (Marine) having 3 years expe-

rience seeking suitable placement.

Contact 93435399, 97858235.


[email protected]

Indian female (25), M.Tech

(Electronics/VLSI) seeking place-

ment in Electronics/ Education

(Teaching)/ Admin.

Contact 91712140 / 93937141.


Mechanical Engineer,(BTech in

Mechanical) with Certified quality

controller - NDT level 2 qualified 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]

Control and System Engineer

searching for a job.

Contact 97644542

Indian male B. Tech in Mechanical

Engineering and Graduate in MBA,

NOC available in Oman on visit visa

seeking suitable placement.

Contact 92551673,


HSE Advisor, NEBOSH IGC on work-

ing visa, having 3 year experience

of Power Plants and Mega Projects

in Oman. Contact 91756025.


Electrical Engineer, 3 years ex-

perience Omani Driving License,

English reading, speaking & writing,

work as Project Engineer for Pri-

mary Substation Overhead lines.

Contact 94372096

Electrical Engineer with 7 years

experience. Looking immediate

placementPh# 91293519

Biomedical Engineer with driving

license, 1 year experience willing to

work out in the field, perfect English

language speaking, writing.

Contact 95902585

Indian male B.tech Mechanical

Engineer with 3years experiance

looking for suitable job. Currently

on visit visa. Mob:96268488

[email protected]

Electrical Engineer, Indian, 2.5

years experience at Thermal Plant,

(erection and commissioning). Now

in Oman on visit seeking suitable

job. Contact 95836714.

Email – [email protected]

B.Tech Mechanical. Indian male

with 1 year experience in Oman

looking for suitable job. NOC avail-

able. Contact: 96542340.


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,


Pakistani male, Civil DAE Engineer,

full experience 5 years with Omani

Driving License. Contact 99708484

/ 93424044

B.Tech holder with 4 years experi-

ence having good knowledge in

AutoCad 2D & 3D (Civil/Mechanical/

Electrical), PDMS and CATIA VS.

Currently on visit visa.

Contact 91475672.


25, Male, ACCA finalist, have good

experience upto finalisation 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

Sudanese Civil Engineer has

15 years experience in contracting

and construction in Gulf, looking for

a job in Oman, on visit visa.

Contact 95963355

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, fluent in English & Arabic.

Contact: 99170315

Indian Male, 26 yrs, graduate

in hospitality science, with New

Zealand business diploma and previ-

ous Oman experience in Customer

service seeks suitable placement in

hospitality/salesmarketing/ logis-

tics/ admin. Contact 91383167

Female 21 yrs, Tally 1 year experi-

ence, looking for visa.

Contact 95330720

Male 22 Housekeeping front office

Hotel management degree course.

Contact 96732520

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, fluent in English & Arabic.

Contact: 99170315

SALES / MARKETING

Indian Male 25, Office Administra-

tor/Assistant, 2 years experience in

Oman, Well versed with Computer

operation and basic knowledge

in Computer Software and Hard-

ware, seeks immediate change.

NOC available. Contact: 94024096

Eamil:[email protected]

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 Office / Sales Coordinator,

Admin, Secretarial and purchase

with driving license and NOC

available. Well versed in MS office.

Looking for suitable placement.

Contact 99709336

SECRETARIAL / OFFICE

SKILLED/UN SKILLED

Indian male, 28 yrs, BBA completed,

8 yrs experience in retail & market-

ing, now available in Oman till 28th

October seeks suitable post.

Contact 97146962 / 96440219

Indian male, MSc, 4 years experi-

ence in India in Sales and Admin,

now in Muscat on visit visa. Email

[email protected].

Contact 91344706

Indian female, 32 yrs, MBA (Mar-

keting), holding Omani D/L seeks

suitable placement.

Contact 95041134.


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

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.

Having 3 years experience in Saudi

Arabian Networking and Procure-

ment (Supply Chain), male 26, look-

ing for suitable placement, visiting

visa. Having Saudi and Indian D/L.

Contact 97869669 / 91525679

IT Technical Support, 33 years

male, Bachelors Degree in IT and

Computer Science, 8 years expe-

rience in troubleshooting PC’s,

network configuration, maintenance

[hardware, software], website de-

signing and administration. Contact

94197650 / 95072166.


IT Help Desk Support (33), 8 years

experience troubleshooting network

configuration, designing, hardware

maintenance, website design and

administration (Joomla).

Contact 94197650, 95072166.


Indian Male 23yrs, BBM With 2.5 yrs

of exp. in Sales & Marketing. Looking

for a suitable placement in sales

& Marketing/Counter sales, Store

keeper or Supervisor.# 92092248

Welder cum fabricator tig, 3g 6g ,

gulf experienced, PH : 93837973

3 years experience in Administra-

tion, Sales/Marketing Manager

having Omani Driving License.

Contact 96041816

DAILY GUIDE Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461 Fax: 24812624


D6 M O N D AY, O C T O B E R 2 0 , 2 0 1 4



MISCELLANEOUS

Indian male, 24 yrs, MBA in HR/

Marketing. More than 1 years experi-

enced in retail Banking (Axis Bank)

Presently in family visit in Oman

seeking for a suitable placement

Contact : 99892082 / 997 43 709

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 field, fluent in English,

Gujarati, Hindi and Marathi, with

valid oman driving license (light),

searching for a new job.

Contact no-+968 92745691

Indian, Female, Pharmacist avail-

able with MOH License, preferably in

Muscat. Contact 9439 1355.

Bangladeshi Male, Seeking Office

Boy position in Oman. #97451456

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-

ficer ,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,


Part- time accountant available.

Contact ; 98803439

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,

Indian Male, 35 years, M.Com, MBA

(Fin) 8 years in Oman, with valid

Oman DL and NOC available. Capable

to handle accounts up to finalization.

Contact 9602 3965.

Sudanese.male 31years.B.SC Me-

chanical Engineer.5years experi-

ence, working now in water pipeline

project, fluent Arabic and English,

have Omani driving .looking license,

looking for good opportunity

TEl: 91117089

Filipino Female photographer/ graphic designer / receptionist

looking for suitable job in Muscat.

Contact: +971 563749414

Indian Male having 10 years of



Purchase Dept looking for a suitable

position. salary is negotiable.

[email protected]

Mob: 94304324

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

Indian Male PMP, CIPS, PGDBA,

DME, Oil & Gas with 18+ Yrs. in

Contracts, Procurement, Operations,

Project, seeking job -

Contact 92560287

28 year Indian female (MBA) with

3+yrs experience (oman) in Ac-

counts is seeking suitable placement

in Accounts/Admin.

Contact on 96141283

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

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


29 yr old indian male graduate 5yrs

oman exp in sales and marketing

with valid oman driving license

looking for suitable job.Noc available

ready to join immediately

Contact 95136784

Indian male with over 19 years of

qualitative experience in Automo-

bile field, expert in providing techni-

cal advice on repairs and servicing

seeks jobs in sales/ service in ma-

negerial capacity. #91-7736048460.

[email protected]

SITUATION WANTED

SITUATION WANTED

SALES / MARKETING

23,male, ACCA finalist-last paper

left, 2 years of accounts, external &

internal audit and feasibility study

experience in Audit Firm, looking for

permanent replacement,

Contact: 95140445

email address:[email protected]

Indian male, age 27, having 6 years

experience in finance & accounts,

seeking suitable jobs.

Ph: 92902651

Indian Male, Purchase/Procurement

Officer with 16 years experience,

presently working in UAE,

seeking suitable placement.

Contact: 00 971 55 3390 467

Mail: [email protected]

Post graduate in hospitality and

tourism, Indian ,male 26 , looking

suitable placement ,in Muscat on

visiting visa contact 98861272

CIVIL ENGINEER (Diploma) Male

25, 3 years experience in site, CAD,

3d, MS Project, seeking job in

Oman.#92887561,

[email protected]

Diploma in Civil Engineering, site

engineer with Auto Cad (Civil &

MEP), Total Station, Theodolite,

Dumpy level, etc., having 4 years ex-

perience in Oman with Omani LMV

Driving License, Seeking suitable

chances. Contact:-

0091 9744851943(India),

00968 99416057(Oman)

Female Dentist with MOH li-

cense, 4 years experience look-

ing for work as dentist in Muscat.

Contact 91268110/99884299 or

+639274302729

Indian Female Lawyer 36 yrs hav-

ing 10 yrs experience presently in

Oman seeks suitable placement in

Legal field/HR/Admin

Contact-94436960


B.E(Civil), Indian male with 1 year

of experience, on visit visa seeking

for a suitable job. Contact 91231972,


Indian Male 25, Office Administra-

tor/Assistant, 2 years experience in

Oman, Well versed with Computer

operation and basic knowledge

in Computer Software and Hard-

ware, seeks immediate change.

NOC available. Contact: 94024096

Eamil:[email protected]

Female Candidate: Having

experience (ISRO) in Administration

(seeking suitable opportunities &

presently in Oman

Mob:97239854,

Mail:[email protected]

Indian Female 23, BE Electronics

and Communication, First Class with

distinction, C,C++,VHDL. Currently

on family visa, looking for suitable

placement in electronics division or

associated areas. Contact : 98952340

Indian Male, 39, graduate 17 years

experience in FMCG sales and mar-

keting Managerial and supervisor

level. With driving license also know

all over Oman include Mazira Island

and Casabu, looking for better Op-

portunities -Mob-92090949

Indian Male seeking a job in Sales

& Marketing, 11 years experience

proven experience as a dynamic

candidate with excellent Manage-

rial & Communication skills. Cur-

rently on visit Contact 99363159,

94093154 [email protected]

Young male, 22 years, B. Arch. gradu-

ate with 7 months training experience,

seeks suitable entry-level position

in an architecture firm or architec-

ture and engineering consultancy.

Currently on visit visa, ready to join

immediately. Phone no. 91265929


8 yrs exp 2d, 3d draughtsman cum

site supervisor (HOLDING OMANI

DRIVING LICENSE) seeking job.

Contact : 93790601

Finance Manager/Administrator,

Male 40, MBA-Finance & Marketing,

with over 20 years’ experience in

large multinational organizations.

Excellent project management skills.

Seeking to continue career at Senior

level. Contact: 97436065. Email:

[email protected]

Electronic Engineer, 23, looking for

suitable placement.

Contact: 96271586

Female staff nurse with Oman

Prometric passed, seeking suitable

placement, currently on visit visa.

Contact 97803046

Electronics Engineer, experience in

Siemens Scada PLC. On visit.

Looking for suitable job.

Contact: 96271586

Indian Female 30yrs, MCA, working

as Computer Teacher in India & Mal-

dives looking for Job in Oman now

on Visit Visa, CTC No.

Mob 95083454,

[email protected].

Female/29 yrs old/MSC Biotechnol-

ogy& pursuing Phd /4 yrs total exp/

Seeking for a suitable placement/

Contact No :- 95925881

Indian male Commerce Graduate

with 8 years experience in stores

and logistic, fluent English currently

in Muscat on visit visa till Novem-

ber 17th 2014.seeking for suitable

placement. Contact 99849247. E

mail - [email protected],

[email protected]

Indian male graduate 17 years ex-

perience in fmcg sales distribution

with valid driving license seeking

suitable placement

Contact.92090949

8 yrs exp 2d, 3d draughtsman

(HOLDING OMANI DRIVING LICENSE)

seeking job. Contact : 97449630

Young male, 22 years, B. Arch.

graduate with 7 months training ex-

perience, seeks suitable entry-level

position in an architecture firm or

architecture and engineering consul-

tancy. Currently on visit visa, ready

to join immediately. # 91265929


Indian male Commerce graduate

with 8 years experience in stores

and logistic, working knowledge in

SAP & ERP, fluent English, currently

in Muscat on visit visa till 17th No-

vember 2014, seeking for Suitable

placement Contact no 99849247

email - [email protected],

[email protected]

Diploma in civil engineering having

an experience 23 years (19 years

in Oman) experience in Estimator /

quantity surveyor looking for a

suitable placement, willing to join

immediately Contact : 96328687.

26 years Indian male with MBA &

PGDFM, Total 3.2 years experience in

administration and accounts .seek-

ing suitable placement in Muscat,

having Oman valid driving license.

Contact :93359371.

MBA Finance, 5 Years’ experience in

Accounts, Finance & Administration ,

with Valid UAE D/L

Contact 96970930

Indian male, 15 years experience

in Sales & Marketing dealing with

Building Materials, construction

equipments, industrial tools auto-

mobile, cleaning and agricultural

equipments seeking suitable posi-

tion with Oman D/L. NOC available.

Contact 92406527

24 years Pakistani male having 3

years experience in Pre Sales and

Distribution / Marketing of FMCG

products is looking for a job.

Contact 96955096

Indian male, MBA, 6 years of experi-

ence looking for suitable placement

in Marketing and Sales.

Contact 91780948

Indian male, MBA (Marketing) hav-

ing more than 3 years experience in

Marketing & Sales, currently on visit

visa seeking suitable placement.

Contact 96301626.


MBA with 15+ years of experience

in Senior/Middle Level Mgt in India

and GCC with various MNC’s is on

family visit looking for a suitable

opening. Contact 97330734

Indian male Graduate looking for job

in Sales/Admin, having experience

of 15 years. Currently on visit visa in

Oman upto 30th November.

Contact 97287485

Indian male 32 Years 6 years expe-

rience in Building material outdoor

Sales with valid Oman D/L.

Contact 97462080

MBA Post Graduate, male seek-

ing immediate placement having 3

years experience in Product based

Technical Support / Sales and Mar-

keting. Contact 95874315

Pakistani male, 30 years looking

for a suitable position in Market-

ing/ Sales having 8 years relevant

experience, Graduate in Business

Administration with fluent English

in Muscat on visit visa.

Contact 96528508

Indian Commerce Graduate from

Symbiosis Pune 23 years with

Omani Driving License and 2 years

Marketing experience brought up

and studied in Muscat seeks suit-

able employment. Contact 97431634

or 92803060

I have release and want job in any

company. Contact 95151738

Sales/ Marketing / customer

service release / NOC available UK

+ Oman experience valid Oman D/L,

excellent communication & organ-

izing skills, can join immediately,


gsm 92342060 / 96761225

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]

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 experi-

enced individual. Call 99013323

Indian Female 25 yrs, Bsc.(Physics)

Bed. 2 Yrs experience in teaching,

currently on visit

seeking suitable placement .Contact

98217776 Email:

[email protected]

Purchase Officer Professional, Indian male having 5 Years of Expe-

rience in Oman Having Valid Driving

License working as a purchase of-

ficer , Looking for a suitable Position,

Contact: 95132564/96456071.

E-mail:[email protected]

Indian male, b.com with tally,

having 11 years experience in ac-

counting ,looking for a part time job.

contact.96423671

Well experienced Senior Account-

ant seeks part time accounting job.

Contact :98803439

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]

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 senior

accountant. Contact: 9512 9352 /

91350411.

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


DAILY GUIDESITUATION WANTEDCARGO

Dolphin Watch, Dhow Cruise with

Buffet, & Land Tours

Al- Ainain Marine Tours Contact-

98029602, 92808636

TOURS

TOURS

RENT A CAR

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

Cuplock System Scaffolding. Contact 99828343

We provide all heavy duty equip-

ment, tractor & trailers & all type

of trucks. Contact 97722507

Running truck wash for rent in

Ouhi Sunia Sohar. Serious people

can. Contact on 97864747

50 seater bus with PDO specifica-

tion for rent or lease. #99839898

SITUATION WANTED

TRANSPORTATION

Transportation available from Mut-

trah to Rusay1 and back.

Contact 93502627

Transportation. Contact 99508282

Transportation for women only

from Muscat area only. Contact

97007934 / 92629232





Transportation. Contact:

97897833

Transportation. Contact

96785989

Transportation Available Contact

97180655

Indian male 11 years experience in

sales and marketing having D/L of

Oman looking for a suitable place-

ment. Contact: 98125746,


Indian, Female, Pharmacist avail-

able with MOH License, preferably in

Muscat. Contact 94391355.

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 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,


Pakistani male 35 years, looking

for suitable placement in accounts,

14 years experience with 2 years

in Oman. Contact 97646927 /

92531035.

Masters in Information Systems

with 10.5 years of experience is

looking for a placement in teaching,

Technical support & System

Administration.

Contact: 98502793,


Pakistani male 46, welding/me-

chanical/pipeline engineer,25 years

experience,certified welding inspec-

tor, omani driving license,

Contact: 93215186

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 finalization.

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.

Indian male, Accountant , 11 years

experience in accounting, tally, look-

ing for a part time job. #96423671

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]

34 years Indian male, working as

QC Inspector in maintenance field,

having 4 years experience in Oman

and valid Oman driving license.

Contact 95339870

B.Tech mechanical Degree Attested

from UAE, Dubai, seeks job as a

Mechanical Engineer or Trainee.

Call.+968 96728279

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 finalization.

Contact 91395515.

MANPOWER

Housemaid , driver/operator (heavy & light Gulf D/L), house boy, cleaner, all skilled and unskilled categories process, (embassy agreement and immigra-

tion). Contact 95175192, EMAIL. [email protected]

Indian male, 30 yrs, having 10 Years

experience in Accounting, seeking

for suitable opportunity. #93675399

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 Graduate with 10+

y-exp in IT H/w Business Dev, Retail

Management Import/Purchase

distribution looking for suitable

position.GSM: 96981051

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]

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 firm.

Contact number# 97412696, Email:

[email protected]

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 having 10 years of



Purchase Dept looking for a suitable

position. salary is negotiable.

[email protected]

Contact 94304324



D8 M O N D AY, O C T O B E R 2 0 , 2 0 1 4



CLASSES

WEBSITE

WEB, ERP and Business Intelli-

gence (BI) creation and man-

agement at rock bottom price.

Contact: http//webviewoman

COMPUTER

SITUATION WANTEDSERVICES

SITUATION WANT-SERVICES

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,


Civil maintenance, Electrical &

Plumbing work. Contact 99557080 /

96236476

Waterproofing, light weight Screed,

Antitermite and MS Fabrication.

Contact 92888337

Truck body making, Misfah

Industrial Area. Contact 92326955.

BRIDGE GULFA LLC

Civil maintenance, Electrical &

Plumbing work. Contact 99557080 /

96236476

Electrical Plumbing Painting

Contract and Maintenance.

Contact 98456535

Waterproofing, light weight Screed,

Antitermite and MS Fabrication.

Contact 92888337

House Shifting. Contact 99708138

GUARANTEED CLEANING: Carpet & sofa shampooing,

Contact 99314807/24792998

MARBLE CRYSTALLIZATION restore the original shine of your

marble. Contact 24793614/

99314807

Building, Contract, Maintenance,

Cleaning, Loading, Décor, Electri-

cal, Import. Contact 93978720

Civil Maintenance, Painting Elec-

tric, Plumbing, Decor, Tile Fixing,

Lecithin Copra Board flat stifling ,

Carpet Cleaning and A/C Servicing.

Contact 97897831 (Indian keralite)

House shifting & transporting.

Contact 92490422

Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles

polishing, carpet shampooing,

maintenance. Contact ABU QA-

BAS- 99320217 /24788722

A.M Trading Pest control. Contact 99067923

Painting Interlock plumbing

maintenance. Contact 92142319

For HT cable jointing and

termination works 33KV/11KV.

Contact 99056438 /


Water proofing ABUQABAS-

Contact 99320217/24788722

Door to Door Computers repair

specialist laptop software

Website cartridges.

Contact 99199376

Split & window A/C servicing &

repairing. Contact 99557080

Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles

polishing, carpet shampooing,

maintenance. Contact ABU QA-

BAS- 99320217 /24788722

Pest Control Treatments, termites,

Cockroaches & Rodents. Ocean

Center LLC 99344723

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 service, carpet and sofa

shampooing, marble restoration and

polishing, pest control, fogging ser-

vice. Contact 99448057 / 95401996

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

Carpet & Sofa Shampooing services.

Ocean Center LLC 92682970

Split & window A/C servicing &

maintenance.Contact 93769089

Learn Driving from professional

instructors. Contact

94022250

Learn driving automatic from

scratch. Contact 98599675

DRIVING

BUSINESS

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]

Financial Investor / Partner required - running business-spare

parts & General Trading -

supplying to biggest companies &

Port - long term contract in hand

with LPO system- Complete transfer

of ownership possible within a

week- good margin & regular income

- contact 26942354 / 98698914 ;


For all your maintenance needs in-

cluding, Painting, Plumbing, Electric-

ity, Laying of Interlock Tiles, Marbles

etc. Tel: 99383574 Mr Chandran

*Classified Advertisement space booking with text, should be done till 12.00 noon for next day’s publication. *

Subject to space availability

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cable of thanks

nonomani workershis

majesty sultan qaboos

construction company

medium enterprises sector

small medium enterprises

thanks muscat

omani owners