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THURSDAY, September 3, 2015 / 19 Dhul Qa’ada 1436 AH timesofoman.com wtimesofoman.com facebook.com/timesofoman twitter.com/timesofoman blog.timesofoman.com ISO 9001:2008 Certifi ed Company

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Runway work hitting early birds in Oman

RAHUL DASrahuldas@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: Passengers travel-ling on early morning fl ights in and out of the capital are coping with delays three times a week as maintenance work forces bosses to close the runway at Muscat In-ternational Airport.

Oman Airports Management Company (OAMC) is currently shutting the runway from 5.30am to 6.30am on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday, meaning pas-sengers and airlines are having to make alternative arrangements or face inevitable delays.

Yesterday, airlines moved to thank passengers for bearing with the ‘essential’ work by OAMC.

Speaking to the Times of Oman, Saeed K Al Zadjally, general man-ager, technical services, OAMC, said this was a normal shutdown

procedure to carry out mainte-nance on the runway.

“It is a normal practice con-ducted through a Notice to Air-men (NOTAM) notifi cation for the airline,” he said.

NOTAMA NOTAM is a notifi cation fi led with an aviation authority to alert pilots of potential hazards along a fl ight route that could aff ect the safety of the fl ight.

He, however, could not say when it would be withdrawn. “This NOTAM window is valid between 5:30am and 6:30am for a long time and there is no limit yet for it to be over as this is essential for maintenance,” he said.

The closure of the runway has forced a number of airlines to re-schedule their fl ights.

A spokesperson of Oman Air said, “Maintenance of the airport

from time to time is vital, as it is for every other airport around the world. As one of the key stake-holders of the Muscat Interna-tional Airport, Oman Air extends its full cooperation, while work-ing hard to minimise any result-ing disruption for passengers.”

Speaking on the runway clo-sure, the spokesperson of Oman Air, said: “We have worked with the Public Authority for Civil Avi-ation (PACA) and agreed on the best time for closure.

“The network and planning department of Oman Air, take the runway closure times into consideration when they plan the schedule, so that no Oman Air fl ights are aff ected.

“We would like to thank our customers for their patience and understanding during the air-port’s maintenance period and we look forward to the resumption of normal service.”

Qatar Airways fl ights, which are scheduled to depart at 5:20am on those days, are now taking off slightly earlier at 5am, so the runway closure has no impact in this case. “Beyond that there may be inevitable circumstances which may lead to fl ight delays,” said a Qatar Airways spokesper-son. >A6

Airlines have thanked passengers using

Muscat International Airport for patience as

work shuts the runway three times a week

OMANMore electricity use behind inflated bills

1 The hike in electricity bills during summer can be a result of excessive

consumption and service providers should not necessarily be held responsible for the increase, said Qais bin Saud Al Zakwani, head of the Authority for Electricity Regulation. The statement was in response to a story published in the Al Shabiba newspaper. >A5

INDIANationwide strike cripples normal life

2A day-long nationwide strike impacted normal life in various parts of the

country with coal production, banking operations and transport services being hit the most, while violent clashes erupted in West Bengal resulting in arrest of 200 persons. Union leaders claimed that over 150m workers went on strike. >A9

MARKETOman-Taiwan trade touches $3.8b

3Bilateral trade between Oman and Taiwan stood at $3.82 billion last year,

up from $3.7 billion in 2013, says a senior Taiwanese offi cial. “Taiwan is the second largest importer of Omani oil and, in addition to oil, we imported oil-related products, minerals and chemicals,” said Kenneth K. M. Liao, the offi cial. >B1

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

A2Chevening scholarship relaunched in Oman

Jewellery group’s boss ‘ready’ to mortgage propertyREJIMON K reji@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: “We will clear all dues even if we have to mortgage our properties,” an offi cial told the Times of Oman, quoting M M Ramachandran, chairman of the group, who is in the custody of Dubai police for allegedly issuing bad cheque.

“In talks with banks, our chair-man has assured that all dues will be cleared even if we have to mortgage our properties in the GCC countries. We have hired a consultant group to resolve the issue. They are looking for op-tions,” Shyam Mohan, head of communications, Atlas Jewel-lery, told the Times of Oman.

According to reports, Ra-machandran and his daughter were taken into custody by the Dubai Police in cases relating to suspected bounced cheques.

Following the arrests, the shocked NRI community in the region, especially the Keralites, have launched an online petition in support of Ramachandran.

Meanwhile, several Indian ex-patriates have committed to buy-ing gold from the Atlas Jewellery stores to boost their sales.

Keralites are also active on Twitter in support of Ramchan-dran #WeSupportAtlasRam-chandran.

Talking to the Times of Oman, Saraswathy Manoj, an Indian so-cial worker in Muscat, said she has bought a few grams of gold from an Atlas Jewellery outlet in Ruwi, adding that she was also

part of a WhatsApp group where members are contemplating the same. “Whenever our group has approached the Atlas Hospital seeking support for stranded pa-tients, they have helped us. They have never been reluctant,” add-ed Saraswathy.

Atlas Jewellery was founded by Ramachandran in Kuwait in 1981, but he was forced to relo-cate to Dubai after its trading was suspended during the fi rst Gulf war. The group also has interests in real estate and healthcare. It owns and manages two hospitals in Muscat.

I N D U B A I P O L I C E C U S T O D Y

Oman station records Salalah sea earthquake

REJIMON Kreji@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: An earthquake of mag-nitude 5 on the Richter scale was recorded by an earthquake moni-toring station at 11:20am in Oman, an offi cial from the centre said.

“The epicentre of the earth-quake was some 312km from Sala-lah in the sea. We have received reports of aftershocks,” the offi cial said. The earthquake was 10.0 km deep, according to the US Geologi-cal Survey.

In April, May and July, a series of earthquakes with magnitudes ranging between 4 and 5 on the Richter scale were recorded in the northern parts of Oman.

According to experts, northern parts of the Sultanate are prone to earthquakes.

Scientists who have studied the seismic zones of the Sultanate, say that based upon calculations on how the earth plates shake in a given geographic area (Peak Ground Acceleration), the highest probability has been found in the northernmost city of Khasab.

Recently, Oman earthquake monitoring centre offi cials had said that as part of implementa-tion of Phase I of the Strong Mo-tion Seismic Network, 62 stations would come up across Oman.

M A G N I T U D E F I V E

TARIQ AL HAREMIFAHAD AL GHADANI

MUSCAT: As the October elec-tions for the Majlis Al Shura ap-proach, candidates have been reminded against indulging in bribery and other such illegal ac-tivities to infl uence the elections.

As per the law for the Majlis Al Shura elections, Article 71 states that candidates who bribe a voter will have to face imprisonment

between six months and three years and pay a fi ne between OMR1,000 and OMR3,000.

“One of those two punish-ments will be awarded to those who bribe or profi t from bribery for a vote for himself or other candidates. Those who facili-tate, promote or mediate the bribery will also be punished,” according to the law pub-lished on the Majlis Al Shura website. >A6

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

NRI community in the

region, especially

the Keralites, have

launched an online

petition in support

of Ramachandran

This NOTAM window has been in force for a long time and there is no limit yet for it to be over

5.30am-6:30am

SAND ARTSand is not just for building castles. Pour them with precision on

canvases and have a wonderful piece of art. Nikos Zarras shares his sand secrets >C7

Shura candidates warned against bribing voters

A2 T H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

OMAN

Chevening scholarship programme relaunched for Sultanate students

TARIQ AL HAREMItariqh@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: Four years after dis-continuing the Chevening pro-gramme in the Sultanate, Brit-ish Aerospace (BAE) Systems re-launched it under its sponsor-ship in Muscat.

Mathew Foster, general man-ager of BAE Systems, Oman,

and Jonathan Wilks, British ambassador to Oman, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to sponsor the Chevening/BAE Systems Oman Scholarship programme.

The programme will give four Omani students a unique opportu-nity to study for a Master’s degree in the areas of science, engineer-ing and technology in a university in the United Kingdom (UK).

“The company (BAE Systems) has a long heritage in Oman and as you know it is a supporter and part-ner in the development of the Sul-tan’s Armed Forces,” said Foster.

Commitment“The signing here is the fi rst sign of our commitment to Oman and sup-port to the national agenda and the development of the nation,because we believe in strong education and strategy in all the markets we oper-ate in, and Oman is no exception,”

“By sponsoring the Cheven-ing Scholarships, we are building on our strategy of ensuring that Oman’s future leaders have the right skills and experience to take the country to the next level,” he added further.

Four years ago, Oman was one of over 160 countries operating the Chevening programme until

its stoppage. Commenting on the reasons behind the halt of opera-tions, Wilks explained, “We refo-cussed the Chevening programme on developing countries four years ago and Oman was considered a developed country, and that is it was stopped.”

“But we have developed a way now by private sector sponsorship to match it one to one with the gov-ernment sector,” he said.

In order to submit an eligi-ble application for a Chevening Sponsorship, candidates must be citizens of a Chevening-eligible country and intend on return-ing there for a minimum of two years after completing the pro-gramme. Furthermore, the candi-date must hold an undergraduate degree, have at least two years of work experience and must never have received funding from the

UK government to study there. “We will choose candidates on the basis of their abilities in their subject areas but also on their potential to take leadership roles in future in the private sectors,” said Wilks. Ahmed Al Mukhaini, a Chevening alumni and advisor in the Capital Market Author-ity, received his master’s degree in Economic Development from Durham University after going

through the programme. He said that youths today could greatly benefi t from the programme and that not many realise the opportu-nity that is before them. The pro-gramme helped him gain self-con-fi dence, knowledge and a sense of competitiveness.

“The youth today are not aware of its value and they always have to compete (with students) at the central admissions unit. In in-terviews, particularly, they have to convince employers that they are the ones that could make a change,” said Al Mukhaini.

“Many people here do not real-ise that a Master’s is a professional degree that really takes you to the next level of your career. There is also a certain element of prestige when your curriculum vitae(CV) says that you are a Chevening scholar,” he added.

The Chevening programme, funded by the Foreign and Com-monwealth Offi ce (FCO), current-ly operates in over 160 countries with 600 scholarships awarded in 2014/2015. Since its launch in 1983 over 44,000 alumni went on to become leaders in their country, society and community in a range of fi elds including politics, busi-ness, media, religion, science and academia.

The programme

will give four Omani

students a unique

opportunity to

study for a Master’s

degree in the areas of

science, engineering

and technology in

a university in the

United Kingdom

Two boatloads of alcoholic drinks, narcotics seized

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Royal Oman Police coast guards intercepted a boat off the coast of Musandam with two Asians aboard and arrested them for carrying alcoholic bev-erages. The offi cers seized 25 me-dium sized cartons of alcohol.

In another part of the Sultanate, coast guards affi liated with the Dhofar ROP intercepted a boat off the coast of Mirbat Wilayat car-rying a large amount of khat. The people on board were arrested. The suspects were referred to the Public Prosecution.

Smuggling attempts foiled at bordersA source from the Royal Oman Police (ROP) said that customs of-fi cers foiled an attempt to smuggle 104 kilogrammes of chewing to-bacco through Wadi Al Jazi border post in Buraimi Wilayat.

Similarly, the ROP Customs detected an attempt to smuggle tens of kilogrammes of chew-ing tobacco through the Al Wajajah border.

Offi cers also foiled an attempt to smuggle 300 psychotropic tablets at Muscat International Airport.

Citizens held on drug traffi cking chargesThe Directorate of Narcot-ics Control of the Dhofar Royal Oman Police arrested two Omani nationals in possession of khat with the intention of traffi cking.

The suspects were arrested af-ter they aroused the suspicion of a police patrol in Sahl Hamran. The police seized 49 bundles of Khat.

Arrested for impersonation and illegal entryThe Royal Oman Police foot patrol offi cers in Al Buraimi ar-rested an Asian on charges of impersonation and entering the Sultanate illegally.

After stopping him, offi cers in-spected the documents of the ac-cused and found that they do not

belong to him, and that he entered the country illegally, which led to his arrest.

19 Asians arrested for violating labour lawRoyal Oman Police offi cers in Al Buraimi arrested 19 Asians for vi-olating the labour law and foreign residency law, while four of them were also charged with entering the country illegally.

Elsewhere in the Sultanate, offi cers at the Wadi Al Jazi bor-der post arrested a driver for at-tempting to smuggle 137 cartons of cigarettes which he had con-cealed in diff erent parts of his vehicle. They were all referred to the Public Prosecution.

Three nationals arrested for robberyThree nationals were arrested in Liwa for robbing a commer-cial store. A Royal Oman Police source said that the suspects cut the chained lock and broke open the doors of the store before de-camping with OMR2,000. After investigations, the ROP appre-hended the suspects who con-fessed to their crime.

Man, two women arrested by policeA man and two women, all Asians, were arrested by the Al Buraimi Royal Oman Police for prostitu-tion. Reports indicate that the accused were performing illicit activities in a rented house in ex-change for money.

The ROP calls on real estate owners to identify the tenant and report any illegal activities.

Citizens held overpossession of narcoticsThe Directorate of Narcotics Control of the North Al Batinah Royal Oman Police were able to arrest four citizens in A’Zahiya area in Liwa for possession of heroin as well as its traffi cking and use.

C R I M E

NEW BEGINNING: Mathew Foster, general manager of BAE Systems, Oman, and Jonathan Wilks, British

ambassador to Oman, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to sponsor the Chevening/BAE

Systems Oman Scholarship programme. -Supplied photo

CONTRABAND: The Directorate of Narcotics Control of the Dhofar

Royal Oman Police arrested two Omani nationals in possession of

khat with the intention of traffi cking. – Supplied photo

The signing here is the fi rst sign of our commitment to Oman and support to the national agenda

Mathew Foster, general manager of BAE Systems

A4 T H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

OMAN 5thterm of the State Council involved many proposals;

some of them were implemented while others are

on the way to being implemented in the next stage

Oman youth set to welcome Taiwan student delegation

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Sixteen college stu-dents from leading universi-ties across Taiwan will be visit-ing Muscat in the coming days to introduce their culture and traditions to Omani youth and gain a better understanding of the Sultanate.

Since 2009, Taiwan has con-ducted the International Youth Ambassadors Exchange Pro-gramme, which allows talented Taiwanese youths to partici-pate in international aff airs and broaden their horizons.

Through a wide array of ex-changes and interactions, the Youth Ambassadors have dem-onstrated Taiwan’s important role on the international stage as a provider of humanitar-ian aid, promoter of cultural ex-changes, and torchbearer of Chinese culture.

To further enhance the out-come of the programme, ‘Youth from Taiwan, Compassion for All’ has been chosen as the theme for the 2015 delegation.

The goal is to not only high-light the vitality and kindness of Taiwanese youth, but also reiter-

ate their commitment to issues of global concern such as hu-manitarian aid and sustainable development.

The International Youth Am-bassadors from Taiwan will per-form on stage to demonstrate the authenticity, benevolence, and sophistication of their country, and present its natural environ-ment and cultural heritage.

This will allow international audiences to gain a better ap-preciation of the spirit con-veyed by the theme of the del-egation as well as the vitality of modern Taiwan.

They will meet local youths and give performances that combine dance and music. With a spirit of professionalism and teamwork, they aim to introduce Taiwan to friends from around the world, convey the essence of this year’s theme, and represent all that Taiwan has to off er.

The performance, entitled En-ergetic New Taiwan, is divided into 12 acts and focuses on six main aspects such as the natural environment, lifestyle of health and sustainability, cultural her-itage, and cuisine, in addition to cultural creativity, and warmth.

Y O U T H A M B A S S A D O R S

STUDENT BONDING: Taiwanese students will interact with

Omani youth and gain a better understanding of the

Sultanate. –File photo

SCOUTS TRAININGThe Scouts Directorate, in collaboration with the

Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Aff airs, held a camp

to train scouts on shrouding and washing of dead

bodies. -ONA

State Council’s output praised

MUSCAT: Fifth term of the State Council has seen signifi cant ac-tivity with regard to the terms of reference in the basic law of the State and many other laws pre-pared by the Council of Ministers and approved in co-ordination with Majlis Al Shura, Dr Khalid bin Salim Al Saeedi, secretary general of State Council, has said.

Al Saeedi said in a statement to the Oman News Agency (ONA), that the Council, at the end of the fi fth term, approved many proposals which won the praise of the Council of Ministers, and added that some of them were im-plemented and others are on the

way to being implemented in the next stage.

He emphasised that this would pass on more responsibilities to the State Council which will be enable it to interact with the soci-ety and meet its hopes.

On the co-ordination between the State Council and Majlis Al Shura, he said that it was improv-ing, and that the fi rst joint session to approve the draft budget of the Consumer Protection Law had been held.

He said the fi fth term had been busy with legislative aff airs and other aspects that fall within the terms of reference of the Council.

Al Saeedi said that parliamentary work is always developing, and so is the Shura march, and expressed the hope that the coming period will witness the emergence of persons who are able to take re-sponsibility.

However, it is primarily the responsibility of the citizen to choose the right candidate for membership of the Majlis, he added.

He confi rmed that the State Council and Majlis Al Shura will work together and complement each other, and wished that the next term will be full of action and will serve public interest.–ONA

The State Council, at

the end of the fi fth

term, approved many

proposals which

won the praise of the

Council of MinistersLEGISLATIVE FUNCTIONS: The fi fth term had been busy with leg-

islative aff airs that fall within the ambit of the State Council.–ONA

A5

OMANT H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

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‘High usage leads to power bill hike’

MEHDI AL LAWATI

MUSCAT: Increase in electricity bills during summer can be a re-sult of excessive consumption and service providers should not nec-essarily be held responsible for the increase, said Qais bin Saud Al Zakwani, head of the Authority for Electricity Regulation.

Al Zakwani’s statement was in response to a story published in Al Shabiba, the sister publication of Times of Oman, following a num-ber of complaints from citizens in Al Suwaiq, indicating an ‘unrea-sonable’ rise in electricity bills.

“It is not unusual to have two air conditioners (ACs) working dur-ing summer instead of one, and this means a doubled bill. Let us also not forget that a compressor uses more energy to cool the air due to the hot weather, especially when lowering AC’s temperature.”

No technical problems Ahmed Said Al Arafati, senior cus-tomer aff airs offi cer, did not ex-pect any technical problems with the meters.

He, however, explained that it is not uncommon for company

staff or a third-party they hire to not check the power usage on a monthly basis. In such cases, the estimated usage is considered. However, that usage can be much less than the real consumption in summer.

Therefore, customers get a shock when the real consumption is counted the month after.

Al Zakwani said, “We have fol-lowed up on the issue and set guidelines for estimating the bill-ing amounts. The guidelines will, to a great extent, off er a close es-timation to the real usage should

they have been followed accurate-ly.” Offi cials have urged customers to fi le their complaints against electricity companies through the authority, explaining that the courts are unlikely going to look into any electricity-related cases without them being checked by the authority.

“As a regulatory body, we are responsible for looking into the complaints and making a decision to resolve the dispute. Should any of the parties disagree with the rule, they can appeal against it in the court,” he added.

A top offi cial has

said that excessive

consumption

during summers

is the reason why

electricity bills

increase and service

providers should not

be held responsible

SUMMER LUXURY: It is not unusual to have two air conditioners

(ACs) working during summer instead of one, and this means a

doubled bill.

MUSCAT: Following a number of complaints from citizens in Al Suwaiq about infl ated power bills in summer, the concerned company has admitted that there was ‘something wrong’ with counting ‘some’ bills. A senior commercial aff airs manager at the company

explained that the main rea-son behind the hike was that June’s electricity consump-tion was ‘estimation’ and the actual usage had been added to the month after.

He assured that the com-pany will revise the bills and give consumers adequate time to pay back.

Suwaiq companyaccepts bill ‘mistakes’

Thales gets Oman’s airport security solution contractTimes News Service

MUSCAT: Thales, a major provid-er of security solutions for critical infrastructure, has been selected by the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Oman for the full deployment of an integrated security solution for the Muscat International Airport and Sala-lah’s new airport.

Thales is delivering state-of-the-art technologies to ensure the protection of both infrastructure as well as travellers.

Thales is taking charge as Mas-ter System Integrator (MSI) for both airports, and is providing a high technology integrated se-curity solution managed by an airport operation control centre, including perimeter intrusion de-tection system, video protection system, and access control, apart from screening equipment, secu-rity check points, access and back-bone network, and data centres to ensure high performance and quality of services, according to a press release.

In addition, Thales is responsi-ble for testing new technologies, training operators and developing new procedures for improving the airports’ multifaceted operations.

The development of the Muscat

International Airport is the largest infrastructure project in Oman. When its new terminal building opens, annual passenger capacity will reach 12 million, helping the Sultanate with the development of its tourism industry.

Salalah, Oman’s second largest city is already benefi tting from its new airport after it was offi cially opened on June 15, 2015, with an initial annual capacity of one mil-lion passengers.

Both airports are able to accom-modate the world’s largest aircraft, the Airbus A380.

Thales’s experience in provi-sion of security solutions is play-ing a crucial role in ensuring the

effi cient and on time delivery of all the systems and equipment to both airports. The state-of-the-art technologies are also helping the airports become interconnected through hub development with inter-operability and full service support for security stakeholders.

This selection is the latest in a long line of projects confi rming Thales’s position as a leader in global airport security solutions. Thales secures the latest and most state-of-the-art critical infra-structures: the airports in Dubai and Doha, the new commercial port in Doha and oil and gas sites in Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and Iraq, in addition to Eurasia.

A V I A T I O N S E C U R I T Y

RUSH HOUR TRAFFIC: When the new Muscat airport terminal building opens, annual passenger

capacity will reach 12 million. –File photo

Thales is taking charge as Master System Integrator

(MSI) for both airports, and is providing a high

technology integrated security solution managed

by an airport operation control centre. Thales is

delivering state-of-the-art technologies to ensure the

protection of both infrastructure as well as travellers

A6

OMANT H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

Pakistan School Sohar shifting to its own building is a milestone for everyone

Adnan Shehzad, Chairman, Pakistan schools

Plans to add 2 schools for Pakistan students

SHAHZAD RAZAshahzad@timsofoman.com

MUSCAT: As the number of Paki-stani students enrolling in schools continues to rise in Oman, the Pa-kistan School System is focussing on adding more branches to its network, which currently com-prises one school each in Muscat, Seeb, Mussanah, and Nizwa, in ad-dition to Sohar and Salalah.

The number is likely to rise

pretty soon with two new schools on the horizon in Buraimi and Ibri, respectively.

Currently, 5,426 students are enrolled in six Pakistani schools with a total staff strength of 307.

Determined to provide schools in every major town of Oman, Pa-kistan Schools System Board of Directors (BoD), headed by chair-man Adnan Shehzad, and school management committees are working overtime to complete the formalities required for permis-sion to start new branches.

Better infrastructure“Our aim is to ensure a Pakistani school in every major city of Oman with better infrastructure and all the modern tools to provide qual-ity education. We have achieved some of our targets and would like to accomplish a few more be-fore our term ends on June 12, 2016,” said Adnan, responding to a query from the Times of Oman. Pakistan School Sohar moved to

its own building recently, becom-ing the third one to have its own premises after PSM and Pakistan School Salalah.

A total of 552 students are stud-ying at the school in Sohar with 24 teachers and four other staff members. While the construction of the school building started in April 2013, it took a little over two years to complete and the school, built at a cost of OMR247,000, fi -nally started operating from its new premises on August 20. It is an HSSC school off ering classes from KG to Class 12 with two mod-ern science and computer labora-tories.

The BoD chairman thanked the school management committee, parents and well-wishers who contributed towards the realisa-tion of the Sohar school project.

“Pakistan School Sohar shifting to its own building is a milestone for everyone. We are now hoping for the inauguration of our school in Buraimi in September itself

which is likely to be suffi cient for about 400 students. The school in Buraimi will initially have classes from KG to Class 8 with a staff strength of about 16 people,” ex-plained Adnan.

Adnan said his team was trying its best to complete the formalities for a Pakistan school in Ibri as well and they hoped that the school would start functioning for the next academic session.

Development plansTalking about major developments at PSM, he said with a strength of over 2,600 students, the school needed more classes.

“We have decided to build a separate three-fl oor college block which will comprise the adminis-trative block on the ground fl oor with the second and third fl oors having classrooms. If we get the ministry’s approval this month, we will conduct its foundation ceremony by mid-October,” added the chairman.

Currently, 5,426

students are enrolled

in six Pakistani

schools with a total

staff strength of 307

NEW BRANCHES: School management committees are working

overtime to complete the formalities required for permission to

start new branches. – Supplied photo

Our aim is to ensure a

Pakistani school in every

major city of Oman with

better infrastructure

and all the modern

tools to provide

quality education

Adnan ShehzadChairman, Pakistan schools

Seminar focuses on civilisational roots, global ties of the SultanateSALALAH: A seminar on civili-sational communication between Oman and the rest of the world began at the theatre of the Direc-torate General of Heritage and Culture in the Governorate of Dhofar today under the auspices of Sayyid Mohammed bin Sultan Al Busaidi, minister of state and governor of Dhofar.

The two-day seminar has been organised by the main commit-tee for celebrating Nizwa the capital of Islamic culture, in col-laboration with the Directorate General of Heritage and Culture in Dhofar.

The seminar’s programme includes presenting three key themes comprising 11 working papers by a group of researchers and specialists from within and outside the Sultanate.

Working papersThe fi rst day of the seminar in-cluded the fi rst theme on Omani-Asian Civilisational Communica-tion as three working papers were presented.

Dr Farouq Omar Fouzi, profes-sor and academic in the Islamic history from the Republic of Iraq

presented the fi rst paper with reference to Iraq whereas Dr Mo-hammed bin Sa’ad Al Moqadam, academic and lecturer at the Col-lege of Arts and Social Sciences in the Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) presented the second pa-per with reference to Persia.

Ismail bin Ahmed Al Zedjali

from the Offi ce of the Special Ad-visor for External Liaison to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, presented the third working paper with reference to India.

The second theme on the Om-ani-Afro-European Civilisational Communication included four working papers. The fi rst paper

titled ‘Omani Civilisational Com-munication with North Africa’ was presented by Dr Mohammed Ahmed Jahlan, associate profes-sor at the College of Arts and Lan-guages in University of Ghardaia in Algeria. Dr Mohammed bin Nasser Al Manthri, consultant of religious programmes at the Public Authority for Radio and Television (PART) presented the second paper with reference to East Africa.

EuropeDr Ibrahim bin Yahya Al Busaidi, academic and lecturer at the SQU College of Arts and Social Sci-ences presented the third working paper with reference to Europe, comprising Portugal, Britain and France, whereas the fourth paper was presented by Ruth K. higher studies student from the United States of America (USA) in the SQU, with reference to North and South America.

Activities in the seminar also include panel discussions with participation of a group of aca-demics and professors, experts and specialists from within and outside the Sultanate. – ONA

D H O F A R

PANEL DISCUSSIONS: The two-day seminar has been organ-

ised by the main committee for celebrating Nizwa the capital

of Islamic culture. – ONA

Some fl ights getting delayed

A spokesperson of Ethiopian Airlines, said their fl ight is sched-uled to arrive at the Muscat In-ternational Airport at 3:55am and leave at 4:35am.

“But we are delayed sometimes as we avoid fl ying over Yemeni airspace. Then, if we are delayed, we can only fl y after 6:30am as the runway is closed,” he said.

The offi cial also said that they have been aff ected by the runway closure at Muscat on August 12, August 23 and August 30 recently and their fl ight was delayed for an hour each time. “However, we are making desperate eff orts to be on time,” he added.

Hundreds of fl ights using Yem-eni airspace to reach their desti-nations in Africa make a detour due to the ongoing unrest thus

increasing the fl ying time from Muscat. “Due to that problem fl y-ing time has increased by 90 min-utes to several destinations in Africa. To add to that we have air-port also closed,” said M Ghosh, who regularly travels to Africa on business trips.

Emirates, however, said that they are not aff ected by the closure.

“It has no impact on our fl ights,” said a spokesperson of Emirates.

“Morning fl ights on weekdays are very essential. So I would re-quest the concerned authorities to open the runway as early as possible,” said Abdullah Al Hash-mi, a passenger who regularly travels to Dubai on business trips in the morning.

M A I N T E N A N C E W O R K

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172 youth honoured for achievementsMUSCAT: Under the auspices of His Highness Sayyid Taimour bin As’ad Al Said, Assistant Secretary General for International Coop-eration at the Research Council, the National Youth Commission (NYC) honoured 172 youths in ‘Thank You Our Youth Initiative’, on Wednesday evening. The cer-emony was organised to honour the Omani youth for their domes-tic, regional and international achievements during 2014.

This ceremony embodies the Royal vision in taking care of the outstanding talents in the Sultan-ate, and stems from the keenness of NYC to increase constructive competition in all forums and nurture outstanding talents in various fi elds.

The ceremony, which was held at Barr Al Jissah Resort and Spa, honoured 172 young people, age-ing between 15 to 39 years, for

their individual and collective achievements.

The number of honoured young people who have accom-plished individual achievements was 99, including 40 members at the local level and 12 at the re-gional level while the number at the international level stood at 47 in the literary, artistic, sporting, scientifi c, technical, religious, le-gal and entrepreneurship fi elds.

In the collective achievements categories, 9 award-winning teams at the local level were hon-oured consisting of 38 youths, 5 projects at the regional level consisting of 21 youths, and 3 projects at the international lev-el consisting of 14 youths. This brings the total number to 17 pro-jects, represented by 73 youths who excelled in the art, scientifi c, technical, legal and entrepre-neurship areas. -ONA

S A Y Y I D T A I M O U R

Rules to ensure fairness of electionsTalib Al Amri, head of media, Ministry of Interior, said, “Last year and the year before that no complaints were fi led in this re-gard. However, those who want to complain about someone trying to bribe them, should approach the Public Prosecution. After the Public Prosecution alerts us we will take action. If people are bribed they should also complain to the Public Prosecution.”

Al Amri said that rules are meant to ensure fairness and pre-serve the integrity of the election. He said, candidates must main-tain the spirit of the campaign and respect the election process.

In other rules according to Ar-

ticle 69, imprisonment of 10 days to one year and a fi ne between OMR1000 and OMR4,000 or any of the two punishments is im-posed on those who force their way into election centres or vot-ing areas and either disrupt the voting process or cause harm to those monitoring the process.

The punishment also applies to anyone carrying a weapon to the election centres and voting areas, tampering with the bal-lot box, adding their own name or another name, and tampering with information on lists, apart from applications or statements to harm the election process, violating advertising regulations

during campaigns, and imper-sonating someone to vote or vote more than once.

Slander and defamation of a candidate which could aff ect his or her votes, harming those who process votes and anything else that would aff ect the voting pro-cess, is also punishable.

Additional punishments are in-cluded in Article 70 which states that imprisonment between 10 days and one year and a fi ne be-tween OMR1,500 and OMR3,000, or any of the two, will be given to those who write their name, the name of another person, remove or prevent a candidate from regis-tering his or her name.

Those who destroy or conceal any document which could aff ect the election, as well as those who prevent or delay any operation which could aff ect the election process, can also be punished.

The Supreme Committee for Majlis Al Shura elections held its sixth meeting yesterday under the chairmanship of Sheikh Khalid bin Rashid Al Monawari, Vice President of the Supreme Court and the Chairman of the Commit-tee in the presence of members of the Committee.

The meeting discussed the im-plementation of the decisions of the Committee and the prepara-tions of the sub committees.

S H U R A P O L L S

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A7

REGIONT H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

18 Turkish workers abducted in Baghdad

BAGHDAD: Gunmen kidnapped at least 18 Turkish employees of a company building a football stadi-um in Baghdad on Wednesday, of-fi cials said, but it was not immedi-ately clear who was holding them.

Dozens of Turks have been kid-napped in Iraq by the IS group over the past 18 months and later released, but the latest abductions took place in Sadr City.

“Eighteen Turkish citizens working for a construction com-pany in Baghdad have been kid-napped,” Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told reporters.

“We are in close contact with the Iraqi (interior) ministry and hope the incident will end positively.”

An Iraqi police colonel said the Turks were kidnapped by black-clad gunmen in pickup trucks, and that authorities had formed a committee to investigate their abduction.

Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic said those seized were three engineers, an accountant and 14 workers.

“We have learnt that the Turk-

ish workers had been separated from workers from other coun-tries during the kidnapping and were specifi cally chosen,” he was quoted as saying by the state-run Anatolia news agency.

Ransom demandNurol Insaat, a leading Turk-ish construction company, con-fi rmed in a statement to AFP that its workers had been abducted in Baghdad and said that it had not yet received any ransom demand.

Nurol’s website said it had been awarded a “design-build contract” for a 30,000-seat Sadr City Stadi-um, and that the project includes practice fi elds and a hotel.

Kidnappings for ransom are a persistent problem in Baghdad, and the identity of the kidnappers was not immediately clear.

A political motive is also pos-sible, as Sadr City is a strong-hold of pro-government Shiite

paramilitary groups battling IS, which overran large areas of Iraq last year.

Ankara has been accused of complacency towards IS and complicity in assisting the jihad-ist group, which also holds sub-stantial territory in Syria, just over Turkey’s southern border.

Turkey has carried out limited strikes against IS in Syria, but in an indication of its priorities, has directed far more fi repower against the rebel Kurdistan Work-ers’ Party (PKK).

The latest kidnappings were the third time a large group of Turks has been seized in Iraq over the past year and a half.

IS abducted 46 Turks from the country’s consulate when the militants seized the northern city of Mosul in June 2014, as well as more than 30 Turkish truck driv-ers. Both groups of captives were later freed.

Turkey is a major trade partner for Iraq, especially with the coun-try’s autonomous Kurdish region.

But the relationship between Ankara and Iraqi Kurdistan has been a source of tension with Baghdad, which considers the autonomous region’s independ-ent export of oil via Turkey to be illegal.

Relations between Baghdad and Ankara have been rocky for years, with the two sides also at odds over the Syrian civil war.

But ties have improved some-what since Prime Minister Haid-er Al Abadi took offi ce last year, replacing Nuri Al Maliki, who had repeatedly clashed with Ankara.

Baghdad turned to mostly ma-jority sect volunteer forces for support as IS advanced towards the capital in June last year, and they have played a key role in halting and then reversing the ex-tremists’ gains. — AFP

An Iraqi police

colonel said

the Turks were

kidnapped by black-

clad gunmen in

pickup trucks, and

that authorities had

formed a committee

to investigate

their kidnapping

CONFLICT: A boy rides his bicycle past a stadium being built by a Turkish company in Baghdad’s

Habibiya district on Wednesday. — Reuters

Russia holds up probe

UNITED NATIONS: Russia said on Wednesday it was still consid-ering the details of how to establish a UN team to investigate chemical weapons attacks in Syria, holding up fi nal Security Council approval to launch the probe.

Last month, Russia joined the 14 other council members in adopting a resolution setting up the team, in a rare display of unity

over how to address the deadly confl ict.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last week then informed the council of the specifi cs of his plan to set up the three-person panel.

The council was given fi ve days to respond to the proposal but that deadline passed on Tuesday with-out action after Russia refused to sign off on Ban’s blueprint. — AFP

C H E M I C A L W E A P O N U S E I N S Y R I A

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INDIAT H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

Deflation new challenge for economy’s growth

NEW DELHI: The Indian gov-ernment on Wednesday fl agged defl ation as a new challenge for the economy but expressed hope that the growth will be close to 8 per cent in the current fi scal year, notwithstanding lower fi rst quar-ter GDP number.

“Overall, economic growth is moving in the right direction, al-though its pace is still below what the economy needs...but at a pace that is expected to pick up in re-

sponse to the ongoing reforms.”“And one real challenge that

looms ahead appears not to be the price infl ation but the possible price defl ation,” Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian said.

Talking to the reporters on be-low-than-expected fi rst quarter growth, he said, the numbers sug-

gest that “economy is recovering” and is consistent with the other more high-frequency indicators such as revenue collection and real credit growth.

On growth forecast, he said, “the Economic Survey said 8-8.5 per cent. Certainly if GDP numbers are reaccessed, we are closer to 8

per cent than currently being fore-cast.” Several agencies including Fitch and other experts have low-ered the growth forecast for the current fi scal in light of the global fi nancial turmoil and the slow-down in pace of reforms.

The fi rst quarter GDP data re-leased by the government on Mon-day revealed that the economic growth, measured by GVA slowed to 7.1 per cent as against 7.4 per cent in the corresponding period last fi scal.

The GDP, though expanded at 7 per cent, up from 6.7 per cent.

Infl ationAs regards to infl ation, the whole-sale price index has been in the negative zone since November 2014, while the retail infl ation (CPI) too has fallen sharply.

Subramanian, however, evaded questions on the need to cut rates by RBI to bolster economy in wake of low infl ation.

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, who had cut rates by 0.75 per cent in three tranches since January, maintained status quo in the last monetary policy review in August despite pressure from the industry and the government.

The next policy is due on Sep-tember 29. - PTI

Chief Economic

Advisor Arvind

Subramanian said

one real challenge

that looms ahead

appears not to be

the price infl ation

but the possible

price defl ation

SPELLING OUT: Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian ad-

dresses the media in New Delhi on Wednesday. - PTI

Peter and wife Indrani brought face to face, quizzed extensivelyMUMBAI/KOLKATA: Former Star India CEO Peter Mukherjea’s statement was on Wednesday re-corded in the Sheena Bora murder case by police which is understood to have quizzed his wife Indrani and the other two accused in his presence.

Mukherjea reached the Khar police station in India’s fi nancial capital here at 10.30am to record his statement. Indrani, her ex-hus-band Sanjeev Khanna and driver Shyam Rai, who were allegedly involved in the murder were also brought there.

The police are understood to have questioned the three accused in the presence of Peter and their counsel in perhaps the fi rst such confrontation since Indrani was arrested on August 24 for allegedly murdering Sheena and hiding her

body in 2012. Indrani is accused of killing Sheena, her daughter from an earlier relationship, in 2012 over a fi nancial dispute, with the help of her ex-husband Sanjeev Khanna and driver Shyam Rai.

Mukherjea had gone to the police station last week, but the Mumbai police had refused to ac-cept a written statement from him and he was told that when the po-lice needed, they would call him for questioning.

A local court had earlier extend-ed the police custody of the three accused — Indrani, Sanjeev Khan-na and Shyam Rai — till September 5. Peter Mukherjea, who has been married to Indrani Mukherjea for 13 years and set up a media com-pany with her, had fi rst said that he was unaware that Sheena Bora was his wife’s daughter and that

Indrani had introduced her as her sister. A few days after Indrani’s arrest, Peter Mukherjea amended his version to say Sheena Bora did inform him that she was his step-

daughter, but he had no reasons not to believe his wife Indrani’s de-nial of that claim though he found it “diffi cult to digest”.

He claimed that the same thing

was communicated to him by his son Rahul Mukherjea, but he had not believed him as well.

Peter maintained that he vague-ly remembered the date when he was told about the fact and it was sometime in 2011.

Sheena Bora was engaged to Ra-hul, Peter Mukherjea’s son from an earlier marriage, when she was allegedly murdered on April 24, 2012. The 24-year-old was alleg-edly strangled in a car, then her body was burnt and dumped at a forest in Raigad, about 84 km from Mumbai. Her purported remains were found a month later and bur-ied by the police, which treated the body as unclaimed.

For three years, Indrani told her family and friends that Sheena had shifted to the US.

On Tuesday, a man claiming to

be Sheena’s biological father, Sid-hharth Das surfaced and said that he was not in touch with Indrani.

Meanwhile, Mumbai Police team on Wednesday seized a lap-top and papers related to bank accounts and investments of Ind-rani’s former husband and co-ac-cused Sanjeev Khanna in the Shee-na murder case from his residence in the southern part of the city.

According to a senior offi cer of Kolkata Police, the team from Mumbai Police, alongwith a team from the force of Kolkata, visited Khanna’s residence in Hastings area this morning and seized his laptop as a part of their probe into the murder mystery.

He said the Mumbai Police team also seized papers related to Khan-na’s bank accounts and invest-ments. - PTI

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

QUESTIONED: A fi le photo of Indrani Mukherjea and her husband

Peter Mukherjea. Peter’s statement was recorded in the Sheena

Bora murder case by police on Wednesday. - PTI

Assam fl ood situation

worsens, toll tops 24

GUWAHATI: The fl ood situa-tion in the north-eastern state Assam deteriorated as inces-sant rains pounded the state on Wednesday and four more per-sons lost their lives in it as the calamity aff ected nearly 10 lakh people in over 2,000 villages.

The Dibrugarh administra-tion has called in the Army to evacuate marooned people from diff erent parts of the district, As-sam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said in its fl ood report.

With today’s four death the toll in the current spell of fl oods has risen to 24. A total 29 has been killed in the two spells of fl oods this year.

ASDMA reports said two per-sons were killed under Naduar revenue circle in Sonitpur dis-trict, while one died in Mayong revenue circle of Morigaon.

Another person lost his life at Samaguri revenue circle in Na-gaon district since Tuesday.

It said nearly 1 million peo-ple are aff ected in 2,005 villages across Dhemaji, Kokrajhar, Bon-gaigaon, Sonitpur, Barpeta, Goal-para, Morigaon, Cachar, Lakhim-pur, Jorhat, Tinsukia, Darrang, Baksa, Nalbari, Kamrup, Dibru-garh, Sivasagar, Golaghat and Na-gaon districts.

Dhemaji is the worst-hit dis-trict where nearly 240,000 peo-ple are reeling due to the fl ood.

It is followed by Dibrugarh where more than 134,000 people have been aff ected.

ASDMA said nearly 170, 000 hectares of crop land are un-der water and authorities have opened 308 relief camps in Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, Bar-peta, Cachar, Dhemaji, Tin-sukia, Sonitpur, Nalbari, Di-brugarh, Morigaon and Nagaon providing shelter to more than 175,000 people.

Kamrup metropolitan district authority has indefi nitely sus-pended all types of ferry and boat services on Brahmaputra in Gu-wahati city as the river is fl owing above the danger mark. - PTI

I N C E S S A N T R A I N S

SUBMERGED: People wade

through fl oodwaters to shift to

safer areas in fl ood-aff ected

Lakhimpur district of Assam

on Tuesday. - PTI

A9

INDIAT H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

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Strike leads to $3.7 billion loss

NEW DELHI: Millions of work-ers across India went on strike Wednesday in protest at planned labour law reforms, the biggest show of strength by trade unions since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took offi ce.

They say labour reforms planned by Modi’s government will put jobs at risk, and are de-manding it scrap changes that would make it easier to lay off workers and shut down unpro-ductive factories.

All India Trade Union Congress secretary Gurudas Dasgupta said the response had been “magnifi -cent” and estimated over 150 mil-lion workers participated in the strike, although this could not be independently confi rmed.

The strike — the biggest in India for more than two years —included staff at state-run banks and mines as well as some factory, construc-tion and transport workers.

“This strike is a reminder to the government that it must consult the millions of employees (aff ect-ed) before changing the labour laws,” striking bank worker Amit Khanna said in New Delhi.

Most cities remained peaceful,

but clashes between police and activists broke out in the east-ern state of West Bengal, which has a long history of left-wing un-ion activism.

Television footage showed police baton-charge protesters in the state capital Kolkata and drag away women strikers who had staged a sit-in, while protest-ers threw stones and smashed vehicles. Nearly 200 people were arrested across the state, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. Banks, shops and other businesses remained closed in the city, stranding commuters and travellers at the main station, while dozens of fl ag-waving pro-testers halted suburban trains.

In Delhi, long queues formed at bus stops early Wednesday, while passengers were stuck at airports as many taxis and autorickshaws stayed off the streets.

Industry body Associated Chambers of Commerce of India (Assocham) estimated $3.7 bil-lion in economic losses from the

strike, singling out the country’s ports where exports were left ly-ing on the docks.

“Labour reforms are neces-sary and the government should intervene to come to an agreeable solution in the interest of the in-dustry and the nation as a whole,” Assocham general secretary D.S. Rawat said.

Later Wednesday, the govern-ment sought to downplay the strike, saying it was “not felt much” in most parts of the coun-try. However, it stressed its com-mitment to the welfare of the working classes.

The government has taken “positive steps.... on nine of their twelve demands which will be met as per their aspirations,” it said in a brief statement.

The government’s proposals would make it easier for fi rms with as many as 300 workers to fi re employees without needing government permission, up from the existing cap of 100, and make it more diffi cult to create new un-ions. Although trade unions agree reforms are overdue, they oppose the proposals, saying they would leave workers with less job secu-rity while the level of legal protec-tion on pay and other conditions would be reduced. - AFP

The strike — the

biggest in India

for more than two

years — included

staff at state-run

banks and mines as

well as some factory,

construction and

transport workers

DESERTED: The fl yover besides Howrah Station looks almost

deserted in Kolkata during the nationwide strike of Trade Union

workers to protest against alleged anti-labour policies of the Cen-

tral government, on Wednesday. - PTI

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A10

PAKISTAN T H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

Almost all Uighur militants eliminated, says Mamnoon

BEIJING/WANA (PAKI-STAN): Almost all members of the Uighur militant group the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) have been eliminated from Pakistan, the country’s pres-ident said on Wednesday during a visit to Beijing.

China blames violent unrest in its far western region of Xinjiang on extremist separatist groups like ETIM, which it says wants to set up an independent state called East Turkestan and have bases in countries like Pakistan and Af-ghanistan. Many foreign experts, however, have questioned wheth-er ETIM exists as the coherent group China claims it is.

Meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Great Hall of the People, Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain said a recent anti-terror operation codenamed Zarb-e-Azb “has been successful

in eradicating the terrorism from our country”.

“It has also been very helpful in eliminating the ETIM element from our country and I think al-most all the ETIM people in our country have been eliminated. Maybe, if they are there, there should be very few,” Hussain said.

China and Pakistan were “iron brothers” and always helped each other “with great zeal”, he added. Hussain is in China to attend a military parade marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Asia.

“China will unswervingly sup-port Pakistan’s eff orts in safe-guarding its national security,” Xi told Hussain, according to China’s offi cial Xinhua news agency.

Hundreds have died in vio-lence in Xinjiang in the past few years, blamed by Beijing on the militants.

China says ETIM recruits Ui-ghurs who have gone to Turkey and trains them with extremist groups in Syria and Iraq, with the intent of returning to Xinjiang to launch attacks.

Meanwhile, air strikes carried

out by warplanes bombarded the Shawal Valley on Wednesday, kill-ing at least 17 suspected militants, intelligence offi cials told Reuters. Four militant hideouts were de-stroyed, according to the offi cials, who spoke on condition of ano-nymity because they were not au-thorised to speak to the media.

BombardmentAbdul Rehman, a resident of the nearby village of Mana, told Reuters by telephone that he had heard the bombardment, but could not reach the targeted area

to see the extent of the damage.The air strikes took place in a

part of the border area between the North and South Waziristan tribal regions where some civil-ians are still present. Most were evacuated last year, when Paki-stan launched a full-scale off en-sive against the Pakistani Taliban and its allies in North Waziristan.

A renewed off ensive in the Sha-wal Valley, including ground forc-es, began last month, aiming to clear out the remaining districts the military says are still home to Taliban fi ghters. — Reuters

Meeting Chinese

President Xi Jinping

in the Great Hall of

the People, Pakistan

President Mamnoon

Hussain said a

recent anti-terror

operation codenamed

Zarb-e-Azb ‘has

been successful

in eradicating the

terrorism from

our country’

ALLIES: Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, meets with Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain, third right, at The Great Hall Of The People

in Beijing, China on Wednesday. — Reuters

3 suspects in church attacks killed in escape bid

LAHORE: Pakistan police said on Wednesday that three mili-tants suspected of involvement in suicide attacks on two churches had been killed during a failed escape attempt.

Police had taken the suspects to a village in the suburbs of the Punjab provincial capital Lahore to retrieve suicide vests and weap-ons, and came under attack as they returned.

“The attackers opened fi re on police to try to release the terror-ists. Police returned fi re and the three militants were killed dur-ing the exchange of fi re,” Haider Ashraf, a senior police offi cial in Lahore, told AFP.

The trio were arrested along with two others on August 4 over the twin Taliban suicide attacks on two churches in Lahore’s You-hanabad district in March that killed 17 people and wounded more than 70. Police said two of-fi cers were wounded in the clash with the attackers, who fl ed.

Punjab police spokeswoman Nabeela Ghazanfar confi rmed de-tails of the incident.

In late July the detained leader of a group behind some of Paki-stan’s worst sectarian atrocities was killed in a similar shootout.

Malik Ishaq was shot dead along with fellow Laskhar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) militants, including senior commanders, in Punjab as his cad-res tried to free him from custody, police said.

So-called “encounter” killings like Wednesday’s incident and Malik’s death have long aroused suspicion among rights activists in Pakistan. They say police use them to dispose of suspects without go-ing through the courts.

The bombings occurred in March during prayers at two churches located around half a kilometre apart in You-hanabad, which is home to more than 100,000 Christians, offi cials said. — AFP

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A11

ASIAT H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

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Thai police issue warrant of arrest against Turkish manBANGKOK: Police claimed sig-nifi cant progress on Wednesday towards fi nding the mastermind of Thailand’s deadliest attack after an arrested man admitted being near the August 17 shrine blast and fi ngerprints tied him to the room of a suspected bomber.

The unidentifi ed man, ar-rested less than a kilometre from the Cambodian border on Tues-day, had told police he was not the bomber, but was in same area when a massive explosion killed 20 people.

“It’s natural that the suspect will deny he did it, but we still have to continue to look into that,” deputy national police chief Chakthip Chaijinda told reporters. “Right now the case has progressed about 70 percent already.” The latest sus-pect had stayed in the same Nong Chok area of Bangkok as another man arrested in a raid on Saturday that found stacks of fake passports, TNT, C4 and fertiliser.

An arrest warrant was issued on Wednesday for a Turkish man who police believed was in his home country.

He is married to a Thai woman currently in Turkey who was in contact with Thai authorities. She had rented a room in a second Bangkok building raided by police, where bomb-making materials were found.

According to AFP, this is the fi rst time that the Thai police have identifi ed the nationality of a sus-pect in their probe. National police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri named the new suspect as Emrah Davutoglu, adding “he is Turkish”. The warrant accused him of pos-sessing “war materials.”

Police have received a torrent of criticism for leading a patchy probe and statements from top offi cials about possible perpetra-tors, motives and information ex-tracted from suspects have been contradictory, speculative and of-ten cryptic.

Police spokesman Prawut Thawornsiri said the latest sus-pect’s prints were found on explo-sives in the same room. “The man... may be the person who took the bomb out of the room or brought the bomb to the location of the in-

cident,” Prawut said on TV.Prawut also said biometric sys-

tems would now be used at im-migration checkpoints to catch any suspects. The investigation has gained momentum since the

weekend raids, before which the authorities had little more than a low-resolution surveillance camera video of a man in a yel-low shirt leaving a rucksack at the popular Erawan Hindu shrine

moments before the blast. With no claim of responsibility,

speculation has centred on sympa-thisers of Uighur Muslims, oppo-nents of the military government, southern ethnic Malay rebels

and foreign extremists.Thailand’s forced repatriation

of 109 Uighurs to China in July caused international outrage and saw protesters smash windows and ransack parts of the Thai con-sulate in Istanbul.

Many Uighurs transit through Southeast Asia to try to get to Tur-key, which has a large diaspora. Though many details remain un-known, a connection with Turkey has been established. It is unclear if the two detained men are Turk-ish but police have been inter-rogating them though a Turkish translator and fake Turkish pass-ports were seized in one raid.

Turkey’s concernTurkey’s embassy in Bangkok issued a statement expressing concern about “speculative new reports” on the nationalities of those arrested and said it had asked for clarifi cation. Thailand’s army chief and defence minister left for a three-day visit to China on Wednesday but said it was a scheduled trip unrelated to the in-vestigation. -Reuters

E R A W A N S H R I N E B L A S T

KEEPING VIGIL: Thai Army offi cers stand guard at a gate of the

military barracks believed to be holding two arrested bomb sus-

pects involved in the recent Bangkok blast in Bangkok, Thailand,

on Wednesday. - Reuters

National police

spokesman Prawut

Thavornsiri named

the new suspect as

Emrah Davutoglu,

adding “he is

Turkish”. The warrant

accused him

of possessing

“war materials”

Malaysia police plan to question Mahathir

KUALA LUMPUR/ZURICH: Malaysian police want to ques-tion former premier Mahathir Mohamad about anti-government comments, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday, in what appeared to be a bid to stifl e the veteran leader’s campaign to bring down the prime minister.

Mahathir, still a hugely respect-ed and infl uential fi gure, made surprise appearances at a protest in Kuala Lumpur on the week-end, calling for a “people’s power” movement to topple Prime Minis-ter Najib Razak over graft.

“Tun (Mahathir) made several allegations in his speeches ... that

warrants police action,” police spokeswoman Asmawati Ahmad said. Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar would take a statement from Mahathir, she said. It was not clear if Mahathir would face any charges.

“As far as I am aware, he has not been approached by the police yet. We will comply with the police on whatever is needed,” the aide, Sufi Yusoff , said. Najib has denied any wrongdoing and says he did not take any money for personal gain but, nevertheless, faces the biggest

crisis of his political career.

‘Repurcussions’The police questioning of the country’s longest-serving leader would appear to raise the political stakes for both sides.

“If the police called in Mahathir and treated him the wrong way then the political repercussions would be severe,” said Wan Saiful Wan Jan, chief executive of the Institute for Democracy and Eco-nomic Aff airs. “The calls for Najib to resign will only get stronger.”

Wan said, that it was very un-likely the police would fi le formal charges against Mahathir. Ma-laysia’s political upheaval follows a media report in July that said investigators looking into alleged mismanagement at debt-laden state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) had traced a pay-ment of more than $600 million to an account in Najib’s name.

Accounts frozenSwiss authorities said on Wednes-day they had frozen funds in Swiss banks amid a probe into people linked to Malaysia’s troubled state investment fund, 1malaysia Devel-opment Berhad (1MDB), on sus-picion of corruption and money laundering.

“The Offi ce of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) has frozen assets amounting to sev-eral tens of millions of US dollars on Swiss bank accounts,” an OAG spokeswoman said by email in re-sponse to an enquiry.

“At this early stage of the pro-cedure, the OAG is analysing and consolidating evidence. The OAG is already in contact with the ma-laysian authorities. “International cooperation with foreign coun-tries, in particular with malaysia, will probably be necessary to es-tablish the facts,” she added.-Reuters

Mahathir made

surprise appearances

at a protest in Kuala

Lumpur, calling for

a ‘people’s power’

movement to topple

Prime Minister Najib

PUBLIC OUTCRY: ‘Bersih’ (Clean) supporters during a rally held last

week in Malaysia’s capital city of Kuala Lumpur. - Reuters

Part of Sri Lanka’s vanity airport becomes rice warehouseCOLOMBO: Part of a vanity air-port built by toppled Sri Lankan strongman Mahinda Rajapakse will be used as a rice storage ware-house to reduce losses after fail-ing to take off , offi cials said on Wednesday.

Rajapakse International aiport, located in the remote farming outpost of Hambantota 250 kilo-metres (180 miles) from Colombo,

has been shunned by airlines after setting planes on a collision course with migrating birds.

The 550-employee airport in the ex-president’s constituency has become a highlight on a “Raja-pakse white elephant tour” run by local guides. It operates at a huge loss and is used only by one airline, low-cost carrier fl ydubai, with just a handful of passengers arriving

each week. The near-empty air-port has provided a surprise boon to rice farmers, however, after a bumper harvest left them short of shortage space.

“A cargo terminal was released to the (state-run rice buyer) Paddy Marketing Board to store the rice harvest from the Hambantota re-gion,” said an airport offi cial who asked not to be named. “The fi rst

truckload of rice arrived today and has already unloaded at the empty cargo terminal.”

Police said the inaugural deliv-ery was met with unrest as dozens of airport employees loyal to Ra-japakse protested against the rice storage plan. “They should be hap-py that at least trucks are landing there to make the airport viable,” a senior police offi cer told AFP.

Built on a migratory route for birds, the airport soon proved no-torious for plane-bird collisions after opening in 2013. The fi rst fl ight to land shattered its wind-shield after being struck. National carrier SriLankan Airlines was under orders from Rajapakse to land at the $210 million hub.

But it halted fl ights immediately after Rajapakse lost January’s

presidential election to Maithri-pala Sirisena. Rajapakse spent lav-ishly on infrastructure, with huge vanity projects including a deep sea port, six-lane highways, an international conference centre, a cricket stadium and a dry-zone botanical garden.

The projects were criticised for ignoring feasibility studies and en-vironmental warnings. -AFP

T O C U T L O S S E S

Pyongyang warns Seoul over latter’s claim on peace dealSEOUL: North Korea on Wednesday accused the South of misrepresenting their agreement to defuse tensions and warned the hard-won deal was being un-dermined by claims Pyongyang had made an apology for border landmine blasts.

The explosions maimed two South Korean soldiers on patrol last month and triggered a cri-sis that brought the rivals to the brink of armed confl ict.

A deal to de-escalate tensions was reached last week follow-ing marathon talks in the border truce village of Panmunjom that committed them to starting an offi cial dialogue.

But a spokesman from Pyong-yang’s powerful National De-fence Commission (NDC) said the South was misrepresent-ing the agreement and claiming North Korea apologised for the explosions. According to the six-point deal, the North “expressed regret” over the incident, but the NDC spokesman said Pyongyang was merely off ering condolences to the victims.

“To put it simply, it was no more than saying ‘I’m sorry about your suff ering’,” he was quoted as saying by the offi cial KCNA news agency.

The spokesman also attacked the South for conducting a mas-sive joint live-fi re drill with the United States after the agreement.

“Should the South leave the current situation as it is, the pre-cious sprout for national recon-ciliation would be nipped by se-vere frost and the North-South relations would be pushed back to confrontation,” he said.

“The South Korean authorities must stop interpreting the deal in a foolish way and refrain from words and acts that threaten hard-won peace”.

South Korea fi red back at the North’s criticism, saying the deal was predicated on Pyongyang’s apology. “This is not a time for back-and-forth over the wording.

The two sides should imple-ment the agreement in full faith and move forward”, Jeong Joon-Hee, spokesman for the unifi ca-tion ministry which oversees cross-border relations, later told journalists.

The two rivals came close to confl ict last month after South Korea, in retaliation over the blasts, switched on banks of gi-ant speakers, which had lain silent for more than a decade, blasting propaganda messages into North Korea. -AFP

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Francis Wilkinson

Lori Rodriguez wants her guns. The city of San Jose wants to keep its citizens safe. The confl ict between them, now in

federal court, is in many ways the crux of gun politics in the US.

In January 2013, police responded to a call from the Rodriguez home after Lori’s longtime husband, Edward Rodriguez, exhibited signs of distress and erratic behavior, according to the Rodriguez legal complaint fi led against the city and its police force in August. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital for evaluation.

Together, the Rodriguezes possessed 12 guns. Edward’s hospitalization resulted in a psychiatric hold, which prohibited him from possessing fi rearms for fi ve years. Police removed the guns from the residence over Lori’s objection. Lori, with support from gun-rights groups, is now suing to get the guns back. She says she will store them in a locked safe to which she alone will have access.

Her husband, however, will be right there in the house with her.

In a previous state trial in which the city’s right to withhold the guns was upheld, a judge summarized the police encounter with Edward:

“When Offi cer Valentine asked Edward if he wanted to hurt himself, Edward responded by attempting to break his own thumb. Based on his observations and Edward’s attempt to hurt himself, Offi cer Valentine determined that Edward, who weighed nearly 400 pounds, was a danger to himself and others.”

The city still won’t turn the guns over. “Are we acting with an abundance of caution? Yeah,” city attorney Rick Doyle told the local NBC affi liate.

“We’re concerned about somebody having access to fi rearms who shouldn’t.”

That pretty much sums up the view of blue-state America, where the priority is keeping guns out of the hands of people who might be dangerous -- even if that leads to inconvenience or an occasional bureaucratic mistake.

But if you’re the sort of person who thinks it’s perfectly normal to own 12 guns, the phrase “abundance of caution” can translate as “running roughshod over constitutional

rights.” The Ring of Fire blog on the website of a California attorney spells out the fear. “When the law imposes restrictions on the fundamental right to keep and bear arms due to ‘mental illness,’ does the government’s defi nition of the term mesh with the common understanding?” says a post on the blog. “California paints with a broad brush regarding its restrictions on fi rearm ownership by the ‘mentally ill.’”

There are many reasons why the nation bangs its collective head against the wall each time a lunatic opens fi re. But the punctuation in that post hints at one.

As soon as the context is guns -- buying them, selling them, storing them, bearing them, fi ring them -- the people who feel most passionately about gun rights fi nd cause to put quotation marks around words like “mental illness,” as if mental illness is itself a fi gment of some gun-control advocate’s imagination.

Yet the dangerous nexus of mental illness and guns is not in our heads. The ease of access to fi rearms extends both to criminals, who can buy at will in the vast unregulated marketplace, and to the mentally ill, who unless they have been committed and have had their names offi cially included on a list prohibiting purchases, will generally pass background checks -- no matter how violent the delusions of the night before.

When a Missouri gun shop sold a handgun in 2012 to a paranoid schizophrenic even after her mother had asked the store not to, the customer brought her new gun home and shot her father dead. The mother sued the shop, but in all likelihood it’s the shop that has the law on its side, not the grieving widow.

While Lori Rodriguez waits to get her old guns back, she is free to purchase new guns and store them at home.

That, her attorney Don Kilmer said in an e-mail, “is why keeping her property from her is irrational.” The demand for frictionless gun sales and unfettered possession is broadly accommodated by the law.

Even California is perpetually behind in trying to keep track of dangerous people with access to fi rearms. In the U.S., there simply is no contest between gun rights and public safety. — Bloomberg View

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration

From February to April 2015,not including oil or re-exports

(In million rials)

OMAN’S GLOBALTRADE EXCHANGE

February March

OMAN TOTAL EXPORTS

OMAN TOTAL IMPORTS

April

275.2 226.7 263.9

927.1 921.2 883.1

Infrastructure projects should not go to wasteThis refers to the online story, Sri Lanka ex-president’s vanity airport to be used to store rice (September 2). To me, the leader of the country, Maithripala Sirisena, seemed a visionary. However, the conversion of an airport to a rice silo seems simply ridiculous. Even if he is against former president Manhinda Rajapakse’s policies, it

should not mean that such infrastructure projects go to waste. It seems the current leadership believes in revenge politics instead of the development of the masses. I believe it should follow Pakistan’s example. Islamabad had earlier signed a deal with Singapore to run its Gwadar port, but, due to policy change, it is now operated by the Chinese. — Sundeep Widhartha, Muscat

Well played Team India!Congratulations to Team India and the new Test captain Virat Kohli for the long awaited Test series victory against Sri Lanka on their home ground. Great captaincy and a great team eff ort. Hope the same continues in upcoming tours. India’s performance in the series has been commendable, especially in the light of a loss in the fi rst Test. Such an unexpected loss usually guts the morale of team. However, the batting looked very vulnerable and the slip catching looked far from assured. For once, the bowling

on this tour turned out to be strongest. I think the tactic of selecting fi ve bowlers will work only if we get perfect fast bowling all-round-ers like Shane Watson. — Mohammad Osama Rawat, Ruwi

T I M E S O F O M A NT H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5A12

Gun rights kill gun safety in the US

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SQU welcomes new batch of studentsMUSCAT: Dr Saud bin Nassir Al Riyami, vice president of Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), yesterday presided over a ceremony organised to celebrate the 15th batch of SQU’s stu-dents. In an address, he said SQU was well-prepared to provide all that was required for the students to excel in their academic life. He outlined the teaching system, which he said, depended on both students’ sense of responsibility and academic super-vision.

1666: The Great Fire of London, which devastates the city, begins. 1945: Japan signs the document of surrender aboard the USS Mis-souri, ending World War II.

1963: Alabama Governor George Wallace calls state troopers to Tuskegee High School to prevent integration.

1970: NASA cancels two planned missions to the moon

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The strategically-located Gwadar port has the potential to emerge as the mother port of the region.

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medieval timesbit.ly/peaceinbalochistan

SYED FAZL-E-HAIDER

With the rise of Jeremy Corbyn, even BBC outlets feel compelled to invite on to their programmes individuals who

are a few millimetres to the left of that dreary consensus – the consensus that insists public

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STEVE RICHARDS

Katrina was a monster that didn’t care about the colour of your skin

or what block you lived on. She was a storm of equality — how

great or little your suff ering, she found a way to tear her teeth into your psyche. She left her mark on

me in a quiet way, dangerously under the surface

bit.ly/katrinavictimmemory

ELIZABETH DAVAS

F R O M O U R A R C H I V E S

T O D A Y I N H I S T O R Y

CNN’s Thom Patterson looks at some commercial “Verti-cal Takeoff and Landing” planes that are currently in development

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WORLDT H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

PROTESTS IN USBaltimore City police form a line to hold protesters back during a demonstration at the Inner Harbor on Wednesday in Balti-

more, US. Rose said he was injured when he was hit by a car when demonstrators tried to shut down traffi c during the pre-

trial hearing for six police offi cers charged in the death of Freddie Gray. Earlier this year Gray, 25, suff ered a severe spinal

cord injury while in police custody and later died. His funeral was followed by rioting, looting and arson. — Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Images/AFP

20 killed, dozens injured in IS bombings near mosque

SANAA: At least 20 people were killed and dozens wounded in two bombings near a mosque in a northern district of the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Wednesday, me-dia run by the city’s ruling Houthi militia said.

According AFP, the IS group claim responsibility for the attack.

Al Masirah television cited on its Twitter account the spokesman of the Houthi-controlled healthy ministry as saying that the casu-alty toll was a preliminary fi gure.

The Houthi-controlled Saba news agency said in a text mes-sage that the fi rst explosion was caused by a suicide bomber in the Al Mo’ayyad mosque, followed by a car bomb blast that targeted med-ics outside the building. It said there were 25 dead and wounded.

Earlier, a gunman killed two

Yemenis working for the In-ternational Committee of the Red Cross north of the capital Sanaa on Wednesday, a spokes-woman for the humanitarian or-ganisation said.

Red Cross staff ers“Sadly, two of our staff were bru-tally killed on their way back from Saada to Sanaa,” the ICRC’s Yemen spokeswoman Rima Ka-mal said, referring to the northern stronghold of Shiite rebels who have been battling loyalists of the exiled president.

The pair were travelling with two colleagues in two vehicles “clearly” marked with the Red Cross emblem when they were

stopped in Amran province by a gunman who opened fi re at the ve-hicles, Kamal told AFP.

“One of our colleagues passed away on the spot while another sustained critical injuries and was transferred to an MSF (Doc-tors Without Borders) hospital... where he passed away shortly af-ter,” she said. The other two were unharmed, she added.

The head of the ICRC delega-tion in Yemen, Antoine Grand, said the victims were a fi eld offi cer and a driver.

“The ICRC condemns in the strongest possible terms what ap-pears to have been the deliberate targeting of our staff ,” Grand said in a statement.

He added that “it is premature for us at this point to determine the impact of this appalling inci-dent on our operations in Yemen.”

But ICRC spokeswoman in Geneva Sitara Jabeen told AFP that “after this incident we have stopped all our movements in the country for the time being.”

Attackers unknownThe ICRC said it was not imme-diately clear who carried out the attack, noting that there had been a number of security incidents in-volving the organisation in recent months.

On August 25, the ICRC said it had suspended its operations in Yemen’s second city Aden

after gunmen robbed its main offi ce while holding staff at gunpoint.

The organisation has stepped up its relief activities in Yemen since the rebels entered Aden in March prompting President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to fl ee to neigh-bouring Saudi Arabia, which has led a military intervention to re-store him to power.

Aden recapturedHis loyalists have since recaptured Aden but security in the battered southern port city remains fragile.

The ICRC says it provides vital humanitarian support to hundreds of thousands of people in need across Yemen. — Agencies

The Houthi-

controlled Saba news

agency said in a text

message that the fi rst

explosion was caused

by a suicide bomber

in the Al Mo’ayyad

mosque, followed

by a car bomb blast

that targeted medics

outside the building

Uproar as Czech police tag refugees with numbersPRAGUE: Human rights activists and lawyers in the Czech Republic on Wednesday slammed local po-lice for marking the hands of refu-gees with numbers after detaining them on a train.

“There is no law allowing the police to mark people like this,” Zuzana Candigliota, a lawyer with the Czech Human Rights League, told AFP.

The measure has raised eye-brows as it recalls Nazi Germany’s practice of marking the arms of concentration camp prisoners with numbers.

Czech police used markers to write numbers on the hands of 214 refugees, mostly Syrians, detained Tuesday at a southeastern border crossing on trains from Austria and Hungary.

Interior ministry spokeswoman Lucie Novakova said the move was introduced because of the increas-ing number of children among the refugees.

“Our goal is to prevent the children from getting lost,” she told AFP.

The measure was used with large groups of refugees to keep record of family members, accord-ing to Katerina Rendlova, spokes-woman for a unit of the Czech po-lice dealing with foreigners.

“We also write the code of the train they have arrived on so that we know which country we should return them to within the readmis-sion system.”

Unlike some other EU member states, Czech authorities maintain that migrants who enter the coun-

try without fi rst having made an asylum request should be returned to the state from which they ar-rived, in line with the EU’s Dublin Provision.

The overwhelming majority of Czechs oppose hosting refugees, according to an August survey by local polling agency Focus in which 93 per cent of respondents said they should be returned to their country of origin.

Rendlova said the refugees “used to get the numbers on a piece of paper but they kept throwing them away”.

They have agreed with the marking -- they don’t have a prob-lem with this, they know it’s in their interest.” But rights activists and lawyers cite legal and ethical concerns. — AFP

M I G R A N T C R I S I S

French probe into Arafat death closes sans charges

NANTERRE (FRANCE): French judges investigating claims that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was murdered have closed the case without bringing any charges, a prosecu-tor said on Wednesday.

“At the end of the investiga-tion... it has not been demon-strated that Mr Yasser Arafat was murdered by polonium-210 poisoning,” the three judges ruled, according to a statement from the prosecutor from the court in Nanterre near Paris told AFP.

Arafat died in Percy military hospital near Paris aged 75 in November 2004 after develop-ing stomach pains while at his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Polonium poisoningHis widow Suha has maintained he was poisoned, possibly by highly radioactive polonium.

But the judges ruled there was “not suffi cient evidence of an intervention by a third party who could have attempted to take his life,” the prosecutor said. — AFP

M Y S T E R Y

Japanese invaders extremely cruel: Xi BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday that Japanese invaders of the country before and during World War II behaved with barbarity and tried to slaughter the people into sur-render, as China gears up for a mil-itary parade to mark the war’s end.

Using unusually strong language at a medal ceremony for veterans and their descendants, Xi said that the invaders were “fi endish”.

Unprecedented brutality“The Japanese militarist invaders were extremely bloody and cruel, who treated the Chinese people with unprecedented brutality, and tried to use massacres and death to get the Chinese people to yield,” Xi said, in remarks released by the of-fi cial Xinhua news agency.

“In the face of the butchers’ knives of the invaders, the Chi-nese people used their fl esh and blood to build a new Great Wall,” he added.

The government has repeatedly said that Thursday’s parade is not aimed at today’s Japan, but to re-member the past and cherish the present peace. China and Japan have long sparred over their his-tory. China consistently brings up events like the 1937 Nanjing Mas-sacre in which it says Japanese

troops killed 300,000 people in its then capital.

A postwar Allied tribunal put the death toll at 142,000, but some conservative Japanese politicians and scholars deny a massacre took place at all. Thursday’s parade, featuring some 12,000 troops, is the highlight of events in China this year marking 70 years since World War II ended in Asia. — Reuters

O N E V E O F W O R L D W A R I I P A R A D E

ATROCIOUS: Seventy-one people stand in a truck during a public re-enactment referring to the 71 dead

refugees found in the back of an abandoned truck, in Bochum, Germany on Wednesday. —Reuters

Yasser Arafat

Millions of Chinese

died in the war, and

China rarely misses an

opportunity to remind

its people and the world

of the horror visited

upon it, especially

as the government

thinks Japan has never

properly atoned

WAR: A man looks at smoke billowing from a military academy during a Saudi-led airstrike in Yemen’s Sanaa on Wednesday. — Reuters

A14

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Brooks returns as News Corp UK chiefLONDON: British ex-editor Re-bekah Brooks, the fi ery redhead who resigned over a tabloid phone-hacking scandal, will return to Ru-pert Murdoch’s News Corp as head of its UK division, the company said on Wednesday.

Brooks, who formerly edited The Sun and The News of the World and was behind some of their most famous scoops, stepped down as chief executive of the business in 2011 at the height of the scandal.

She was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the hacking of phone voice mails by journal-ists, but was cleared of all charges

last year. “Rebekah will lead a great team at News UK into the digi-tal future, while maximising the infl uence and reach of our news-papers,” Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corp, said in a statement.

Brooks said she was “delighted to return to News UK.”

“I am confi dent that we can meet the many challenges of this digital age with a combination of cutting-edge technologies and world class journalism,” she said.

Brooks was initially reluctant to take the role but was persuaded by the Australian-born business mag-

nate, with whom she has a close re-lationship, according to the Finan-cial Times.

Before the scandal broke, Mur-doch treated Brooks like a daugh-ter and she was close friends with Prime Minister David Cameron, who went to school with her race-horse trainer husband Charlie.

She once disguised herself as a cleaner and hid in the bathroom of a rival paper for two hours be-fore stealing an early edition so the News of the World could lift its scoop on Prince Charles, accord-ing to her former editor Piers Mor-gan. Such determination helped

her to rise to become editor of the News of the World between 2000-03 and The Sun between 2003 and 2009.

As she rose ever higher in the Murdoch empire, she became part of his inner circle. After Mur-doch announced the closure of the News of the World in 2011, he was asked by journalists what his fi rst priority was. Gesturing at Brooks, he said: “This one.”

Brooks and her husband so-cialised with Murdoch’s daughter Elisabeth as part of a rural elite known as the Chipping Norton set, which also included Cameron.- AFP

The British journalist

was arrested on

suspicion of being

involved in hacking

of phone voice mails,

but was cleared of all

charges last yearRebekah Brooks

MARKEWWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COMT H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5B

Muscat

5,750.88 - 53.93

- 0.93%

Dubai

3,513.95- 70.64

- 1.97%

Abu Dhabi

4,365.53 - 9.71

- 0.22%

Saudi Arabia

7,345.73- 92.70

- 1.25%

Kuwait

5,763.31- 34.46

- 0.59%

Bahrain

1,298.98 - 0.03

- 0.00%

Qatar

11,346.35- 68.74

- 0.60%

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

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

Euro ............................................ 2.27

Pound ...........................................1.68

Indian Rs ..............................171.20

Pak Rs ...................................266.03

Bangla Taka.......................199.52* Rates are as of September 2

Source: Bank Muscat

Indian Rs .................................... 171.75

Pakistan Rs ............................ 269.50

Sri Lanka Rs ........................... 347.25

Bangla Taka.............................201.70

Phil Peso ...................................120.90

* Rates as of September 2 Source: Oman UAE Exchange

Muscat 24ct per gm (OMR) .......14.60

Muscat 22ct per gm (OMR) ........14.10

Dubai 24ct per gm (Dh) ............ 137.50

Dubai 22ct per gm (Dh) ............. 130.75

* Rates as of September 2

Source: Malabar Gold & Diamonds

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

Oman Crude ............. (Spot) ........$46.84

Dubai Crude ............. (Spot) ........$46.84

Murban Crude ........ (Spot) .........$48.21

Arabian Light ......... (Spot) .........$47.24

N.Sea Brent ............... (Spot) ........$49.03

West Texas Int ....... (Spot) ........$44.64

CRUDE OIL PRICE

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Oman Development Bank to extend funding to more sectorsTimes News Service

MUSCAT: Oman Development Bank (ODB), the Sultanate’s state-owned specialised bank for fund-ing small and medium enterprises, plans to extend its funding to more sectors, including logistics.

Further, the bank is also mull-ing introduction of new products as well such as leasing, said the

bank’s corporate branch manager Eng. Ahmed Khalifa Al Hajri.

Presently, the bank covers sev-eral sectors including tourism, industries, education, healthcare, agriculture and livestock, fi sher-ies, information technology, con-sultancies and workshops.

Last year, ODB’s gross loans portfolio touched OMR116.61 million, and the industrial sector

made up the major share of the loans portfolio at 26 per cent.

With 18 branches and 250 com-mitted employees, the bank has been able to fulfi ll its duties as a crucial facilitator in the develop-ment sector, Eng Ahmed Khalifa said in his presentation.

ODB off ers working capital loan up to OMR1 million at attractive interest rate to SMEs that do not

have access to such facilities from commercial institutions due to lack of relevant information. The loan tenure is up to 180 days.

The Oman Development Bank has been nurturing the small and medium enterprises sector in the Sultanate with its expertise in in-dustrial fi nance, the bank offi cials said, while addressing a seminar.

Major products off ered by the

bank include term loan, fi xed de-posit, and working capital fi nance.

Term loansCustomers can avail term loan up to OMR1 million at a fi xed rate of 3 per cent per annum, and tenure of up to ten years. Also, there is a re-payment holiday of up to fi ve years. ODB loans cover up to 56 per cent of the project cost.

ODB term loans are processed in a very short time, and an ad-vanced software has been installed to speed up review process.

The Izdihar Fixed Deposit scheme is designed as a safe av-enue for parking surplus funds, and off ers attractive interest rates. The bank has been a strong part-ner in enhancing local production and in-country value. >B4

F U N D S F O R B U S I N E S S E S

Oman-Taiwan bilateral trade touches $3.8b

ELHAM POURMOHAMMADI elham@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: Bilateral trade be-tween Oman and Taiwan stood at $3.82 billion last year, up from $3.7 billion in 2013, says a senior Taiwanese offi cial.

“Taiwan is the second largest importer of Omani oil and, in addi-tion to oil, we imported oil-related products, minerals and chemi-cals,” said Kenneth K. M. Liao, rep-resentative of the Taipei Econom-ic and Cultural Offi ce in Oman.

Speaking to Times of Oman, Liao said that machinery, elec-tronics, auto parts, computers, ICT-related and high-tech prod-ucts topped the list of Taiwan’s exports to the Sultanate.

“The representative offi ce started its activities 38 years ago and has been making eff orts to enhance trade and cultural co-operation in various sectors with Oman. I am glad to see the growth of Oman-Taiwan relations in all aspects,” the offi cial said.

He added that there is huge po-tential for bilateral cooperation

in the fi eld of ICT, small and me-dium enterprises (SMEs) as well as fi sheries.

In June, Oman’s Capital Mar-ket Authority (CMA) signed a

contract to engage the Taipei Exchange as expert consultants, Liao noted.

Capital marketThe contract covers consultancy assistance to be provided by the Taipei Exchange to assist in the design and development of capi-tal market products and services in Oman aimed at supporting the growth of SMEs, according to Taiwan News.

The Taipei Exchange is a non-profi t stock exchange entity based in Taipei and was founded in 1994. It operates markets and trading of equity, bond and other securities, and licenses fi rms and other entities that trade the secu-rities it lists. >B4

Machinery,

electronics,

automobile parts,

computers, ICT-

related and hi-tech

products topped

the list of Taiwan’s

exports to Oman

ELHAM POURMOHAMMADI elham@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: Taiwan will be off ering its expertise in the fi eld of aquaculture to Oman as the country is diversifying its economy, said an offi cial. “Oman’s government has invited Taiwanese fi shery experts to share their knowl-edge on aquaculture sector and help breed grouper fi sh,” said Kenneth K. M. Liao, representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Of-fi ce in Oman.

Fisheries and agriculture are important sectors for the

Sultanate, especially now that the country is seeking to develop its non-oil sectors, Liao told Times of Oman. Solar energy

In addition, the offi cial said that solar energy is another area for cooperation as Taiwan is one of the larg-est producers of solar cells in the world.

Recently, two professors from Taiwan visited Sultan-ate of Oman’s Sultan Qaboos University and delivered lectures about solar energy in a week-long workshop that attracted extensive at-tention, Liao noted.

Taiwan to share aquaculture and solar energy expertise

Kenneth K. M. Liao – Times of Oman

B2

MARKETT H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

India’s real estate delegation on familiarisation tripTimes News Service

MUSCAT: A delegation from CBRE India, the international real estate services fi rm, visited the headquarters of the Public Establishment for Industrial Es-tates (PEIE) on Wednesday at the Knowledge Oasis Muscat, to get acquainted with the vision, mis-sion and main services of PEIE and the various industrial es-tates that fall under its umbrella throughout the Sultanate.

PEIE offi cials said that the vi-sion of PEIE is to enhance Oman’s position as a leading regional centre of manufacturing, ICT, in-novation and entrepreneurship excellence, and its mission in at-tracting industrial investments and providing continued support,

through regionally and globally competitive strategies, good infra-structure, value adding services, and easy governmental processes.

Foreign investmentThe delegation was also briefed on the objectives of PEIE. These objectives comprise attracting for-eign investments to the Sultanate and localising the national capital; contributing to stimulating the private sector to achieve sustain-able economic and social devel-opment; strengthening relations with the concerned authorities to ensure the overfl ow of investment process and overcome any obsta-cles faced by investors; reinforcing cooperation with related interna-tional and regional organisations to boost the exchange of experi-

ence, knowledge and techniques used; developing employees’ skills and performance through a set of training programmes; con-tributing to creating new job op-portunities; encouraging exports and the establishment of export industries, and increase the mar-ket share of locally manufactured products; stimulating the econom-ic sectors in the Sultanate includ-ing transport, tourism, banking, among others; and achieving envi-ronmental sustainability.

PEIE offi cials underscored the value-adding initiatives managed by PEIE, which include Origin Oman Campaign, National Busi-ness Centre, Industrial Innovation Centre, Human Resources Devel-opment Centre, and Communica-tion and Investor Services Centre.

V I S I T T O P E I E

EXCHANGE OF VIEWS: PEIE offi cials said their vision was to enhance Oman’s position as a leading

regional centre for manufacturing, ICT, innovation and entrepreneurship excellence, and attracting

industrial investments. – Supplied photo

Oil retreats below $45

MELBOURNE: Crude dropped below $45 a barrel before United States government data forecast to show stockpiles expanded in the world’s biggest oil consumer.

Futures slid as much as 3.4 percent in New York, extending Tuesday’s 7.7 per cent decline. In-ventories probably increased by 900,000 barrels last week, accord-ing to a survey before a report from the Energy Information Adminis-tration on Wednesday.

Oil has faltered after the big-gest three-day rally in 25 years amid speculation a global glut that drove prices into a bear market will be prolonged. Crude will trade between $40 a barrel and $60 a barrel into 2016 as rising supplies overwhelm demand, according to Ian Taylor, chief executive offi cer of Vitol, the biggest independent oil trader.

“The market needs to see a sig-nifi cant supply-side response to alleviate the current concerns about global demand,” Michael McCarthy, a chief strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney, said by phone. “Volatility in energy mar-kets continues.”

West Texas Intermediate for October delivery fell as much as $1.55 to $43.86 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $44.58.

The contract slipped $3.79 to $45.41 on Tuesday. - Bloomberg News

E N E R G Y M A R K E T Incentive package to attract small units to Duqm region

Times News Service

MUSCAT: A large number of investment opportunities are available for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Duqm and the special package of incentives make the port city more attractive.

“The projects, which are un-derway in the free zone such as the Duqm port, the dry dock, the refi nery, the airport, heavy pet-rochemicals industrial projects, warehouses, logistics services and tourism ventures, are all aiming to support the economic diver-sifi cation plan, and these project

will provide investment opportu-nities to the local private sector, small and medium enterprises, as well as, promising employment opportunities to young Omanis,” said Ismail bin Ahmed Al Balushi, deputy chief executive offi cer of Special Economic Zone Authority Duqm, while addressing a semi-nar in Salalah.

Duqm Special Economic Zone

Authority held a seminar at the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry branch in Dhofar as part of a series of seminars organised by the authority since the beginning of this year to create awareness among local business community about the investment opportuni-ties available at the free zone.

Al Balushi explained that the Duqm Special Economic Zone

Authority seeks to attract invest-ments in the Sultanate. The au-thority off ers several incentives and benefi ts package to investors to their expectations. “Royal De-cree No. 79/2013 promulgating Duqm Special Economic Zone Law stipulates a package of fa-cilities and benefi ts that meets investors’ expectations and am-bitions and boosts the zone’s

competitive edge,” he said.

Various licencesHe pointed out that Duqm Special Economic Zone Authority has created a one-stop-shop clear-ance facility to off er effi cient ser-vices for investors, which include the issue of commercial registra-tions, the zone’s lands usufructu-ary licences, the registration of usufruct contracts, the issuance of municipal licences and envi-ronment permits, and other per-mits including industrial, tourism and mining licences.

The fi rst presentation at the seminar was conducted by direc-tor of the labour licence and in-vestors visas department, Sultan Al Shraiqi.

He covered the investment op-portunities off ered by the free zone. The second presentation was conducted by Eng. Hussain Al Zadjali in his capacity as the Buildings Projects Offi cer, which covered the projects underway at the free zone.

Duqm Special

Economic Zone

Authority has created

a one-stop-shop

clearance facility

to off er effi cient

services to investors

Insurance retention rate rises in Oman

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Reinsurance pre-mium of Omani insurance com-panies was OMR170 million, out of the total premium of OMR400 million last year, which is against OMR165 million out of a total amount of OMR360 million in 2013, according to the Capital Market Authority (CMA).

Reinsurance retention ratios have improved in view of the fact that reinsurance premium as per cent of total premium declined to 43 per cent last year from 46 per cent in 2013, said Nasr Ahmed Abdullah Al Salhi, director of Valuation and Risk Surveillance at CMA.

Al Salhi said that reinsurance and retention ratios is very im-portance insurance related topic which aff ects the volume of the insurance company business and results. Risk management and in-creasing retention ratios and re-ducing reinsurance with external companies are very essential.

The Capital Market Author-ity’s Directorate General of In-surance Supervision organised a training programme on the re-insurance principles for 34 par-ticipants working for insurance companies.

The programme covered topics such as introduction to reinsur-ance, main issues of reinsurance including methods, terms of co

reinsurance, awarding reinsur-ance and risk transfer mecha-nisms. The second topic was im-plantation of the advantages and operations of facultative reinsur-ance, while application of advan-tages and operations of relative reinsurance was also discussed. The last topic covered account-ing methods used for various types of reinsurance.

CMA has concluded six train-ing programmes and eight pro-grammes are underway for the employees of insurance compa-nies sponsored by CMA this year.

R E I N S U R A N C E

SEMINAR: Duqm Special Economic Zone Authority held a seminar at the Oman Chamber of Commerce

and Industry branch in Dhofar as part of a series of seminars organised by the authority. – Supplied picture

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

Reinsurance premium

of Omani insurance

companies was

OMR170m, out of the

total premium of

OMR400m last year,

which is against

OMR165m out of a total

OMR360m in 2013

B3T H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

MARKET

Sohar Poultry’s annual profi t moves up

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Sohar Poultry profi t increased to OMR664,598 for the year ended June 2015, which is against OMR633,227 for the previous year.

The company’s board has ap-proved the fi nancial results and the annual general meeting will consider it in its meeting sched-uled to held on September 28.

The company’s sales income also moved up to OMR8.14 mil-lion for the year ended June 2015, against OMR8.07 million for the previous year. Gross profi t was OMR4.25 million, against OMR4.10 million during the pe-riod under review.

P E R F O R M A N C E

Agency okaysOMR6.2m export credit

MUSCAT: Export Credit Guar-antee Agency (ECGA) has ap-proved OMR6.2 million credits at its board meeting, which was held under the chairmanship of Said bin Saleh Al Kiyoumi, chairman of Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI) and chairman of ECGA board of directors.

The approved credit for do-mestic sales of insured exporters at ECGA reached OMR760,000, while the approved credits for ex-ports reached OMR5.4 million.

Al Kiyoumi held another meet-ing with ECGA employees where he spoke about ECGA and its im-portant role in encouraging small and medium-sized entrepreneurs to export their products. – ONA

C R E D I T

IMF praises economies in Asia; cautions on volatility

JAKARTA: International Mone-tary Fund (IMF) managing direc-tor Christine Lagarde on Wednes-day declared Asian economies were doing ‘pretty well’ despite the volatility caused by China’s slowdown and unease on global fi nancial markets.

Lagarde’s comments in Indo-nesia come as fi nancial markets gyrate over concerns about the health of China’s economy — the world’s second-largest — and its eff ect emerging economies and their currencies.

World stock markets plunged further this week as more evi-dence emerged of China’s eco-nomic slowdown, triggering heavy sell-off s from Tokyo to New York and spurring cuts to global growth forecasts.

Lagarde, in Jakarta for a two-day visit, said the recent turmoil highlighted the ‘extraordinary gains’ made by Asian economies but warned further volatility was on the horizon. “Now the situation

is changing yet again, and we are all feeling the impact of China’s rebalancing and moving to a re-vised business model,” she told a conference. “What has been dem-onstrated in the last few weeks is how much Asia is at the core of global economy, and how much disruptions occurring in one mar-ket in Asia can actually spill over to the rest of the world.”

Slower growth in major econo-mies like China and Japan, lower commodity prices and the pros-pect of higher interest rates in the United States would contin-ue to weigh on regional markets, Lagarde added.

Despite external pressures and the slower pace of expansion in Asia, the IMF chief said “this whole region, in the world, is doing pretty well”, and would continue to be a key source of global growth.

Asia stocks dropLagarde this week added her voice to private sector econo-mists that have already cut their world growth estimates, conced-ing growth would likely be weaker than the 3.3 per cent estimate the IMF made just two months ago.

Asian stocks fell, led by a retreat in energy and utilities companies, as weak US manufacturing data

added to concern about a slow-down in global economic growth.

China Oilfi eld Services and Kunlun Energy lost more than 4 per cent in Hong Kong as crude oil declined below $45 a barrel. Ten-day historical volatility on Japan’s Topix index surged to the highest level since March 2011. Fonterra Co-operative climbed 4.9 per cent in Sydney after milk prices surged.

The MSCI Asia Pacifi c Index dropped 0.7 per cent in Hong Kong, with two shares falling for each that rose. Anemic demand from emerging markets includ-ing China translated into leaner factory order books in the United

States, data showed on Tuesday.Japan’s Topix declined 0.8 per

cent. The Shanghai Composite Index slipped 0.2 per cent on the last trading day of this week as investors gauged the level of state support before a major military parade on Thursday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.2 per cent and the Hang Seng China Enter-prises of mainland fi rms listed in the city lost 1.6 per cent. Markets in the city are closed on Thursday.

South Korea’s Kospi index add-ed 0.1 per cent and New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index lost 1.2 per cent. India’s S&P BSE Sensex Index slipped 0.4 per cent. Singapore’s Straits Times Index was little changed and Taiwan’s Taiex index gained 0.2 per cent.

“You have worries about the global growth outlook led by Chi-nese concerns at a time when the Fed is thinking about raising in-terest rates, and that’s leaving in-vestors very twitchy,” said Shane Oliver, a Sydney-based global strategist at AMP Capital Inves-tors in Sydney, which oversees about $114 billion.

“I think we’ve seen the worst, but it’s an environment where vol-atility is likely to continue.”

Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index added 0.7 per cent after the underlying meas-ure fell 3 per cent on Tuesday, its third-biggest loss of 2015, as re-ports showed US manufacturing grew at the slowest pace in two years and China’s offi cial factory gauge slumped to the lowest in three years. - Agencies

Christine Lagarde’s

comments come as

fi nancial markets

gyrate over concerns

about the health of

China’s economy

and its eff ect on

emerging economies

and their currencies

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

CAUTIOUS: Christine Lagarde speaks at a conference in Jakarta on Wednesday. The IMF and the

World Bank said on September 1 that they would hold their 2018 annual meetings on the Indonesian

island of Bali. – AFP

Tender Board awards contracts worth OMR25mMUSCAT: Oman’s Tender Board on Wednesday awarded contracts worth OMR25.43 million for building various projects and ser-vices. The decision was taken by the board, which met under the chairmanship of Dr. Rasheed bin Al Safi Al Huraibi, chairman of the Tender Board.

The contracts that were award-ed include supply of medical equip-ment for labs and blood transfusion services for the Ministry of Health for OMR5,836,346, construction of the administration building for the Sultan Qaboos University Hos-pital for OMR5,439,431, landscap-ing works and irrigation services at the Sultan Qaboos University (January 2016 to December 2019) for OMR2,695,019, provision of mathematics curricula expert and science curricula expert for the Ministry of Education for OMR110,040 and additional works for upgrading effi ciency of

Sinaw-Mahout-A’Duqm road fi rst part for OMR7,582,637.

The board also opened bids con-struction of Oman Cultural Com-plex, operation and maintenance

of assets of the Public Authority for Electricity and Water (PAEW) in the Governorates of Al Dakhili-yah, Musandam, Al Wusta, North Al Batinah and South Al Sharqi-

yah, as well as water networks, wells, pumping plants, buildings and their annexes.

It also opened technical bids for construction of water transport

line from Bausher to A’Seeb in the Governorate of Muscat.

Other contracts for projects awarded on Wednesday include additional works for designing and rehabilitating Wadi Al Jahawer road in the Wilayat of A’Suwaiq at OMR1,479,601, additional works for construction of Titam-Qaftout road in the Governorate of Dhofar at OMR500,657, additional works for construction of a building for the General Diwan of the Min-istry of Tourism in Al Khuwair in the Governorate of Muscat at OMR465,848, additional works for construction of sport stadium at the sport complex in Khasab in the Governorate of Musandam at OMR413,210, additional works for additional injection works by sup-pressor materials and construc-tion of breaker wall at the side body of Wadi Dhaiqah Dam, between the two dams and in the founda-tions at OMR276,030, additional

works for provision of consultancy services and supervision on con-struction of tunnels at the existing Al Batinah road “third stage” fi rst part at OMR217,450 and addition-al works for extension of the leas-ing contract of the existing build-ing in the Wilayat of Al Amirat and used by female students of health institutes affi liated to the Minis-try of Health in the Governorate of Muscat at OMR156,000.

Also, contracts for additional works for supply and installation of medical equipment for the Royal Hospital at OMR99,706, works for provision of consultancy services for the design and supervision on paving Al Mazyounah-Sha’eit road in Dhofar at OMR54,883 and additional works for provision of maintenance services with spare part for medical devices available at various health institutions of the Ministry of Health at OMR14,143 were also awarded. – ONA

N E W P R O J E C T S

DEVELOPMENT: The board met under the chairmanship of Dr Rasheed bin Al Safi Al Huraibi, chairman

of the Tender Board. This picture is used only for illustrative purpose only. – Times fi le picture

B4

MARKETT H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

MUSCATSECURITIES MARKET

SHARE PRICE BULLETIN FOR WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2

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

OM0000004248 ...........SMN POWER HOLDING .......................................... 174,761 ...........132,818........................6 ............0.760 ........... 0.760 ...........0.760 ........... 0.760 ............. 0.748.............0.012 ............. 1.604 ................0.760 ..............0.760...................0.780 .................. 151,723,056 ........0.100

OM0000001517 ............HSBC BANK OMAN ..................................................... 50,000 ............... 5,750........................ 1 ............0.115 ........... 0.115 ............ 0.115 ............0.115 ............. 0.115 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................ 0.115 ...............0.113................... 0.115 ..................230,035,971 ........0.100

OM0000001533 ............OMINVEST .................................................................... 2,345,820 .. 1,083,769..................... 83 ........... 0.462 ........... 0.462 ...........0.462........... 0.462 .............0.462 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.462..............0.462...................0.466..................255,422,079 .......0.100

OM0000001749 ............OMAN CEMENT ............................................................ 12,357 ...............5,660........................ 1 ........... 0.458 ........... 0.458 ...........0.458 ........... 0.458 .............0.458 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.458 ..............0.458...................0.502 ................. 151,539,701 ........0.100

OM0000002028 ...........GULF INTERNATIONAL CHEMICALS ............. 25,000 ...............6,500........................2 ........... 0.260 ...........0.260 ...........0.260 .......... 0.260 .............0.260 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.260..............0.252...................0.258....................5,460,000 ..........0.100

OM0000002374............UNITED FINANCE ..................................................... 165,215 .............21,632........................2 ............0.130 ........... 0.131 ............0.130 ............0.131 ............. 0.131 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................ 0.131 .............. 0.127................... 0.131 ...................40,710,207 .........0.100

OM0000002549 ...........BANK DHOFAR ............................................................ 195,103 ............ 46,965........................7 ............0.241 ........... 0.241 ...........0.240 .......... 0.241 ............. 0.241 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.240 .............0.238...................0.240 .................372,279,580........0.100

OM0000003711 ............SOHAR POWER .................................................................3,160 ............... 1,079........................3 ........... 0.342 ...........0.342 ...........0.340 .......... 0.338 .............0.338 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.340............. 0.340...................0.348 .................. 74,701,380 .........0.100

OM0000003968 ...........OOREDOO....................................................................... 381,509 ......... 271,496..................... 49 ............0.712 ........... 0.716............0.708 ............0.712 ............. 0.712 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.712 ..............0.704................... 0.712 ................. 463,472,292 .......0.100

OM0000004669 ...........SHARQIYAH DESALINATION ......................................366 ............... 1,574........................2 ........... 4.300 ...........4.300 ...........4.300 .......... 4.280 .............4.280 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................4.300 ............ 4.200...................4.400 ..................41,859,324 .........1.000

OM0000004735 ...........SEMBCORP SALALAH ...................................................5,128 ............. 13,051........................3 ........... 2.545 ........... 2.545 ...........2.545........... 2.545 .............2.545 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................2.545 ..............2.545...................2.600 .................242,938,561........1.000

OM0000004933 ...........AL SUWADI POWER ....................................................61,920 .............13,289........................3 ............0.215 ........... 0.215 ...........0.213 ............0.215 ............. 0.215............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.213 .............. 0.213...................0.217 .................. 153,597,363 ........0.100

OM0000001707 ............OMAN CABLES INDUSTRY ......................................72,974 ...........141,574......................17 ............1.945 ........... 1.945 ...........1.935 ........... 1.940 ............. 1.945............-0.005 ........... -0.257 ...............1.935 ..............1.930...................1.935 ..................174,018,000 ........0.100

OM0000003026 ...........OMAN TELECOMMUNICATION ........................ 121,681 ...........199,555..................... 45 ............1.650 ........... 1.650 ...........1.630 ........... 1.640 ............. 1.650............-0.010 ........... -0.606 ...............1.630 .............. 1.630...................1.640 ................1,230,000,000 ......0.100

OM0000004925 ...........AL BATINAH POWER ................................................ 215,873 .............46,713........................4 ............0.218 ........... 0.218 ...........0.215 ........... 0.216 ............. 0.218............-0.002 ........... -0.917................0.215 ..............0.210...................0.215 .................. 145,775,685 ........0.100

OM0000005005 ...........ALMAHA CERAMICS ..................................................73,968 .............37,820......................15 ............0.512 ........... 0.512 ...........0.510 ............0.512 ............. 0.518 ............-0.006 ............-1.158 ................0.512 ..............0.506...................0.512 ...................26,880,000.........0.100

OM0000002796 ...........BANK MUSCAT ............................................................ 403,094 .........200,283..................... 24 ........... 0.502 ...........0.502 ...........0.494........... 0.496 .............0.502 ...........-0.006 ............-1.195 ................0.494..............0.490...................0.494 ............... 1,136,744,008 ......0.100

OM0000001483 ............NATIONAL BANK OF OMAN ................................. 522,166 ..........157,843......................14 ........... 0.306 ...........0.306 ...........0.296........... 0.302 .............0.306 ...........-0.004 ........... -1.307 ...............0.296.............. 0.291...................0.296 ................ 404,894,496 .......0.100

OM0000003398 ...........BANK SOHAR................................................................ 547,350 ........... 92,982..................... 30 ............0.172 ........... 0.172 ...........0.169 ........... 0.170 ............. 0.173 ............-0.003 ............-1.734 ................0.169 .............. 0.169...................0.173 ................. 245,044,800 .......0.100

OM0000001681 ............OMAN AND EMIRATES INV. HOLDING ........... 314,820 ............33,371......................15 ............0.106 ........... 0.106 ...........0.106 ........... 0.106 ............. 0.108 ...........-0.002 ........... -1.852................0.106 ..............0.106...................0.107 ................... 12,918,750 .........0.100

OM0000003224 ...........RENAISSANCE SERVICES ..................................... 332,532 ............55,137..................... 36 ............0.170 ........... 0.170 ...........0.165 ............0.166 ............. 0.170............-0.004 ........... -2.353 ...............0.168 .............. 0.165...................0.167 ...................48,248,069.........0.100

OM0000002820 ...........GULF INVESTMENT SERVICES ...........................48,100 ............... 5,105......................11 ............0.105 ........... 0.107 ...........0.105 ........... 0.106 ............. 0.109 ...........-0.003 ........... -2.752 ...............0.106 .............. 0.105...................0.107 .................... 6,237,381 ..........0.100

OM0000001087 ............OMAN UNITED INSURANCE ............................... 196,000 ........... 48,446......................13 ........... 0.250 ...........0.250 ...........0.245........... 0.247 .............0.254 ...........-0.007 ........... -2.756 ...............0.245............. 0.240...................0.246 ..................24,700,000.........0.100

OM0000001525 ............OMAN INVESTMENT AND FINANCE .............. 267,122 ............ 45,056..................... 22 ............0.170 ........... 0.170 ...........0.168 ............0.169 ............. 0.174 ............-0.005 ........... -2.874 ...............0.168 .............. 0.168...................0.170 ...................33,800,000.........0.100

OM0000001418 ............RAYSUT CEMENT ...................................................... 148,207 ......... 170,844......................12 ............1.190 ........... 1.190............1.140 ............1.155 ............. 1.190 ............-0.035 ........... -2.941 ...............1.140 .............. 1.140...................0.000 ................ 231,000,000 .......0.100

OM0000001962 ............AL MADINA INVESTMENT ................................... 387,254 ........... 22,083......................19 ........... 0.057 ........... 0.058 ...........0.057 ........... 0.057 .............0.059 ...........-0.002 ........... -3.390 ...............0.057 ..............0.057...................0.058................... 11,807,629 .........0.100

OM0000001772 ............AL ANWAR HOLDING............................................... 1,261,832 ......226,576..................... 99 ............0.180 ........... 0.182 ...........0.178 ........... 0.180 ............. 0.187............-0.007 ............-3.743................0.178 .............. 0.178...................0.180 ................... 27,013,500 .........0.100

OM0000002366 ...........AL BATINAH DEV. INV. HOLDING ........................75,620 ...............7,540......................13 ........... 0.100 ........... 0.100 ...........0.098........... 0.100 .............0.104 ...........-0.004 ........... -3.846 ...............0.100 ..............0.100................... 0.101 ....................3,000,000 ..........0.100

OM0000004768 ...........AL MADINA TAKAFUL ...............................................55,000 ...............4,685........................8 ........... 0.086 ........... 0.086 ...........0.085 ........... 0.085 .............0.089 ...........-0.004 ........... -4.494 ...............0.085 ..............0.083...................0.085...................14,875,000 .........0.100

OM0000002440 ...........AL SHARQIA INVESTMENT HOLDING ........... 173,637 .............18,482......................21 ............0.106 ........... 0.109 ...........0.105 ........... 0.106 ............. 0.111 ............-0.005 ........... -4.505 ...............0.107 .............. 0.107...................0.108 ....................9,540,000 ..........0.100

OM0000002168 ............AL ANWAR CERAMIC TILES .................................43,937 .............15,554........................2 ........... 0.354 ........... 0.354 ...........0.354........... 0.354 .............0.372 ...........-0.018 ........... -4.839 ...............0.354 ..............0.354...................0.368..................104,859,643 ........0.100

OM0000003521 ............GALFAR ENGINEERING AND CON. .................. 1,125,861 ....... 109,504..................... 85 ........... 0.099 ........... 0.099 ...........0.096........... 0.097 .............0.102 ...........-0.005 ........... -4.902 ...............0.096 ..............0.095...................0.096...................28,128,122 .........0.100

OM0000001822 ............UNITED POWER ............................................................. 2,305 ...............7,203........................5 ............3.125 ........... 3.125 ...........3.125 ............3.125 .............3.470 ...........-0.345 ........... -9.942 ...............3.125 ............. 0.000................... 3.125 ....................2,500,000 ..........1.000

.............................................SUM: .................................................................................. 9,809,672 .. 3,249,937...................672 .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

........................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ......33........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

PARALLEL MARKET ................................................................................................................................................................................. OM0000001053 ............OMAN TEXTILE HOLDING .................................... 32,000 .............10,368........................9 ........... 0.324 ...........0.324 ...........0.324........... 0.324 .............0.295 ........... 0.029 ............. 9.831 ................0.324..............0.324...................0.000 ...................1,944,000 ..........1.000

OM0000001301 ............DHOFAR CATTLE FEED .......................................... 109,500 ........... 21,900........................2 ........... 0.200 ...........0.200 ...........0.200 .......... 0.200 .............0.200 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.200 ............. 0.191...................0.203 ..................15,400,000 .........0.100

OM0000001566 ............OMAN FISHERIES ......................................................... 5,000 .................. 250........................ 1 ........... 0.050 ........... 0.050 ...........0.050........... 0.053 .............0.053 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.050..............0.048...................0.054 ...................6,625,000 ..........0.100

OM0000002564 ...........AL HASSAN ENGINEERING......................................4,000 .................. 356........................ 1 ........... 0.089 ........... 0.089 ...........0.089........... 0.087 .............0.087 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.089 ..............0.084...................0.089.................... 6,543,096 ..........0.100

OM0000004776 ...........TAKAFUL OMAN INSURANCE ................................... 500 .....................56........................ 1 ............0.112 ........... 0.112............ 0.112 ............0.112 ............. 0.112 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................ 0.112 .............. 0.105................... 0.112 ...................11,200,000 .........0.100

OM0000005963 ...........PHOENIX POWER ...................................................... 491,914 ............ 72,720......................41 ............0.148 ........... 0.148 ...........0.147 ........... 0.148 ............. 0.149............-0.001 ............-0.671................0.148 .............. 0.148...................0.149 ..................216,465,016 ........0.100

OM0000001368 ............CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS IND. .................... 13,644 .................. 478........................2 ........... 0.035 ........... 0.035 ...........0.035 ........... 0.035 .............0.036 ...........-0.001 ........... -2.778 ...............0.035 ..............0.035...................0.036....................2,975,000 ..........0.100

OM0000004511 ............ALIZZ ISLAMIC BANK................................................32,841 .............. 2,200........................2 ........... 0.067 ........... 0.067 ...........0.067 ........... 0.067 .............0.069 ...........-0.002 ........... -2.899 ...............0.067 ..............0.065...................0.067...................67,000,000 .........0.100

OM0000004420 ...........BANK NIZWA ................................................................ 1,883,900 .......116,972..................... 47 ........... 0.064 ...........0.064 ...........0.062........... 0.062 .............0.065 ...........-0.003 ........... -4.615................0.062.............. 0.061...................0.062 ..................93,000,000 ........0.100

.............................................SUM: .................................................................................. 2,573,299 ......225,300...................106 .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

........................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ........ 9........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

BONDS MARKET ................................................................................................................................................................................. OM0000004602 ...........BANK MUSCAT CONV. BONDS 4.5 .......................... 3,409 .................. 375........................2 ............0.110 ........... 0.110............0.110 ............0.112 ............. 0.112 ............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.110 .............. 0.110................... 0.115 ...................33,907,900 .........0.100

OM0000004628 ...........BANK SOHAR BONDS 4.5 ............................................ 2,546 .................. 255........................3 ........... 0.100 ........... 0.100 ...........0.100 ........... 0.100 .............0.100 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.100 ..............0.100................... 0.110 .................... 7,150,000 ..........0.100

OM0000004867 ...........BANK MUSCAT C C B 4.5 ............................................. 2,952 .................. 295........................ 1 ........... 0.100 ........... 0.100 ...........0.100 ........... 0.103 ............. 0.103............ 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.100 ..............0.100................... 0.110 ...................32,923,196 .........0.100

OM0000005971 ............B.MUSCAT COMPL. CONVR. B.B.3.5 .....................55,893 ...............5,254........................3 ........... 0.094 ...........0.094 ...........0.094........... 0.094 .............0.094 ........... 0.000 .............0.000 ................0.094..............0.094...................0.098................... 30,471,192 .........0.100

.............................................SUM: ................................................................................... 64,800 ............... 6,179........................9 .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

........................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ........ 4........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

ISIN ......................................SECURITY NAME .................................................................. VOLUME ..... TURNOVER ............TRADES ......OPEN PRICE ......HIGH ............. LOW ........ CLOSE PR. ...PREV. CLOSE...DIFF (RO).........DIFF % ............. LAST PR .....LAST BID .............LAST OFFER ........MARKET CAP .PAR VALUE

O M A N S T O C K S

INDICESIndex .................................................High .................Low ..................... Value ............... Prev . Value.......... Diff ...............Diff %MSM30 Index .......................................5,802.20 ...............5,750.88 ....................5,750.88 ................... 5,804.81 ................-53.93 .................. -0.93Financial Index .................................... 6,964.78 .............. 6,894.43 ...................6,894.43 ................... 6,985.81 ................ -91.38 ...................-1.31Industrial Index ....................................7,589.38 ...............7,505.83 ....................7,505.83 ................... 7,589.38 ................-83.55 ...................-1.10Services Index ...................................... 3,239.09 .............. 3,225.27 ................... 3,225.27 ...................3,239.09 ................ -13.82 .................. -0.43MSM SHARIAH INDEX....................... 917.08 .................. 908.51 .......................908.51 .......................916.99 .................. -8.48 .................. -0.92

Trading SummaryVolume ................ Turnover ..........Trades .............. Market Cap............. Up ............Down ............. Equal .........Sec. Traded12,447,771 ...................3,481,416 .....................787 .................14,511,117,970 .................. 2 ..................... 25 .................... 19 .........................46

MSM index closes in red

MUSCAT: Negative sentiments prevailing worldwide weighed heavily on the MSM 30 Index, which closed at 5,750.88 points, down by 0.93 per cent. The MSM Sharia Index also declined 0.92 per cent at 908.51 points.

Ominvest was the most active in terms of volume as well as turn-over. Oman Textile Holding, up by 9.83 per cent, was the top gainer while the top loser was United Power, down by 9.94 per cent.

As many as 787 trades were executed in the trading session generating a turnover of OMR3.4 million with more than 12.4 mil-lion shares changing hands. Out of 46 traded securities, two ad-vanced, 25 declined and 19 re-mained unchanged.

Foreign investors were net buyers to the tune of OMR245,000 followed by Omani investors at OMR40,000. Arab and GCC investors, who were net sellers, sold shares amounting to OMR286,000.

Financial Index saw continued selloff in large caps to close at

6,894.43 points, down by 1.31 per cent. Bank Nizwa, Al Sharqia In-vestments, Al Madina Takaful, Al Batinah Investment and Al An-war Holding declined by 4.62 per cent, 4.50 per cent, 4.49 per cent, 3.85 per cent and 3.74 per cent, respectively.

Industrial Index declined strongly by 1.10 per cent to close at 7,505.83 points. Oman Textile Holdings, up by 9.83 per cent, was the only sector gainer. Galfar Engineering, Al Anwar Ceramics, Raysut Cement, Construction Materials and Al Maha Ceram-ics fell by 4.90 per cent, 4.84 per cent, 2.94 per cent, 2.78 per cent and 1.16 per cent, respectively.

Services Index ended the ses-sion at 3,225.27 points, a loss of 0.43 per cent. SMN Power gained 1.60 per cent to close at OMR0.760. United Power, OIFC, Renaissance Services, Al Batinah Power and Phoe-nix Power declined by 9.94 per cent, 2.87 per cent, 2.35 per cent, 0.92 per cent and 0.67 per cent, respectively. – United Securities

Oman Textile Holding, up by 9.83 per cent,

was the top gainer, while the top loser was

United Power, down by 9.94 per cent

Taiwanese fi rms keen to invest in free trade zones

Liao said that Taiwanese com-panies are keen to invest in the Sultanate in various spheres, especially in the country’s free zones and refi nery sector. In ad-dition, Taiwan has expertise and experience in the railway sector, which it is interested in sharing with Oman that is developing its national railway, he added.

According to him, Taiwan’s knowledge of this sector is re-fl ected in its bullet train, which runs at a speed of 300km/h (186 mph) on a rail line that runs along the west coast of Taiwan from Taipei to the southern city of Kaohsiung. “We hope that Oma-nis go to Taiwan to see our infra-structure. A better understanding

of our accomplishments would pave the way for cooperation in this fi eld,” said Liao.

Tourism Leisure and medical tourism are other potential areas for collabo-ration as Taiwan is very advanced in these sectors, he added. In May, Taiwan held a successful workshop and travel fair in Mus-cat for local tour agents.

“Tourists can enjoy Taiwan’s many attractions. Also, medical tourism in Taiwan is very ad-vanced but, unfortunately, people here are not very familiar with it. High quality treatment is provid-ed to patients at reasonable prices in Taiwan,” the offi cial noted.

Medical delegation He said that last year, a delega-tion from Taiwan’s prestigious Chang Gung Memorial Hospital planned to visit Oman to explore the opportunities for cooperation in the medical fi eld but it coincid-ed with the Sultanate’s National Day holidays.

They may visit Oman later this year or next year, said the repre-sentative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Offi ce.

Taiwan also has good quality universities which can cooperate with Omani universities and stu-dents, Liao said, expressing hope that relations between Taiwan and the Sultanate of Oman would prosper further.

B I L A T E R A L T R A D E

< FROM

B1

ODB helps small, medium fi rms

The bank helps SMEs by engag-ing local auditing consultancies to coach and develop such SMEs to prepare their own fi nancials. The entire consultancy costs are borne by ODB for the fi rst year. However, it’s mandatory for SMEs to submit fi nancial state-ments to avail working capital loans.

The range of working capital loans includes loan against trust receipt, bill discounting facility, export bill discounting, pre-ship-ment fi nance and seasonal loans. As much as 85 per cent of working capital loans issued by ODB went to the industrial sector.

ODB uses internal credit scor-ing model, and adopts uniform mode of risk assessment. Moreo-ver, empanelled consultants have been appointed to speed up docu-

mentation. The bank has helped several local brands to grow to their full potential and become major business fi rms, added Eng Ahmed Khalifa.

The bank as conducted a semi-nar introducing its range of prod-ucts and services designed to

fi nance development projects in the Sultanate joining hands with the Public Establishment for In-dustrial Estates at Knowledge Oasis, Muscat. Entrepreneurs, business leaders and offi cials from various industrial sectors attended the seminar.

L O A N

< FROM

B1

BOOST TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Oman Development Bank off ers

working capital loan up to OMR1 million at attractive interest rate

to SMEs that do not have access to such facilities from commer-

cial banks due to lack of relevant information. – Supplied picture

Sensex slumps again; rupee risesMUMBAI: Markets continue to decline for the third consecutive day due to persistent selling pres-sure, the S&P BSE benchmark Sensex hit more than a year by slip-ping 243 points to close at 25,453.56 and the CNX 50-share Nifty fell by 69 points to fi nish at 7,717.

Foreign capital outfl ows aff ect-ed the market sentiment.

Sensex resumed higher at 25,891.95 and fi rmed up further to a 25,939.37 on initial buying. However, it dropped to 25,395.09 before ending at more than one-year low at 25,453.56, showing a loss of 242.88 points or 0.95 per cent. It has dropped by 938.82 points 3.56 per cent in 3 days.

Rupee appreciatesRising for the second consecu-tive day, the rupee closed 3 paise higher at 66.19 against the US dollar on Wednesday on fag-end selling of the greenback by banks and exporters.

The rupee opened lower at 66.32 as against Tuesday's clos-ing level of 66.22 and eased fur-ther to 66.33 on initial demand for US dollar from banks and importers. However, it washed out initial losses and recovered to 66.11 on selling of dollars by ex-porters before fi nishing at 66.19, a gain of three paise. The rupee has gained 29 paise, or 0.44 per cent, in the two days. - PTI

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Nissan offers benefits on Maxima

MUSCAT: Nissan from the house of Suhail Bahwan Automobiles has been receiving rave reviews on its seasonal off ers on sedan models that will last till October 16.

Its exclusive vehicle promotions are enticing and one-of-a-kind promising unlimited benefi ts to valued patrons.

Nissan has a heritage of show-casing some of the most amaz-ing benefi ts for its customers by introducing unique off ers on its prestigious line-up of vehicles. In an eff ort to make Nissan vehicles aff ordable and accessible to all, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles has taken up this unique initiative, says a press release.

What’s on off er? Auto enthusiasts can now avail exciting benefi ts on the Nissan Maxima that include cash gift up to OMR1,000, free service for two

years or 20,000km (periodic main-tenance only), free registration, six years unlimited mileage warranty and easy and convenient fi nancing options. Flexible EMI’s can also be tailor made for any individual requirement from in-house Auto Finance team.

Interactive social media Customers can also get unlim-ited access to Nissan’s prestigious vehicle line up at the comfort of their homes or offi ces. Simply visit Nissan Oman’s Facebook page i.e http://www.facebook.com/Sban-issanoman or send an SMS to get updated information on any of the vehicles from the house of Nissan.

The Mighty Maxima The breakthrough exterior design of the Maxima imparts a feeling of powerful driving motion which combines an aggressive stance and the powerful 3.5L, V6 engine with 290 HP/64000 RPM Xtronic CVT transmission. The Nissan Maxima delivers quick accel-eration and lasting euphoria with Paddle shifter, Cruise control and Bluetooth technology for a better driving experience. Taking into consideration the driver’s com-fort, the vehicles comes with auto A/C with dual zone climate con-trol, stylish sunroof and 19” alloy wheels. The vehicle is enhanced by features like intelligent key push start button, ABS, EBD, BA, Vehi-cle dynamic control (VDC) with Traction control system (TCS) and xenon lights. Lastly, it comes with striking front and rear park-ing sensors and 6 SRS air bags.

Apart from its performance, Ni-

ssan Maxima also off ers maximum comfort and safety. Maxima pro-vides extremely nimble handling and leaves the driver feeling con-fi dent and in control. Braking is strong and the vehicle is relatively quiet as well, thanks to an im-proved engine-mounting system and more rigid body and six stand-ard airbag system is available to ensure safety of all the passengers.

Maxima’s unmatched comfort levels also features 8-way power driver seat (which is a stand-ard), 4-way power front passen-ger seat, a high end Bose sound system and for a premium look and feel it comes with leather ap-pointed seats and steering with characteristic stitch.

The Digital compass in rearview mirror makes reversing easy and convenient. The Tilt-down of out-side mirrors during reversing the vehicle comes with memory func-

tion and adds to the classic look of the new model.

The prestigious vehicle has re-ceived several accolades including the ALG’s Residual Value Award for best full-size car and the Best Resale Value in its class by Kelley Blue Book’s kbb.com.

Quality of power, performance and safety shows in the eye-catching exterior of the Maxima with rear combination lights, a new front grille design, large glass surfaces and 19-inch aluminium-alloy wheels. Key features include High Intensity Discharge (HID) Xenon headlights, smoked ap-pearance headlights, a compass in the rearview mirror, a rear spoiler, fog lights, dark satin chrome front grille, outside mirrors with inte-grated turn signals and metallic trim. And it’s the fi ne exterior ap-pointments that hint at luxury within the sedan.

Roomy interiorA luxury sedan should ease both the body and the mind and keep-ing this thought central, the Nis-san Maxima’s warm and roomy interior provides a quiet space to stretch out and discover the re-wards of ergonomic design. All the information which one needs while driving is easily accessible with the RearView Monitor and the interactive Nissan Hard Drive Navigation system.

Care has been taken to ensure that all the controls are comfort-ably within the reach of the auto-mobilist and the wide range of fun youthful features include 2-DIN audio system featuring an AM/FM radio and seven speakers. Ni-ssan Maxima is engineered, built, tuned and aimed at young drivers who prefer sporty handling and a fi rmer ride as opposed to the soft-er, more luxurious rides associated

with other cars in this class. To this end, four driver-selectable modes are available: D-mode or the auto-matic mode; DS mode which is the drive sport automatic; Shift lever and Paddle shifter which is the manual mode.

The Nissan Maxima’s main USP is undoubtedly its comfort quotient – it provides the comfort of perfor-mance, smoothness and power as only a Nissan vehicle can. It also off ers the comfort of design that is dedicated to quiet relaxation. And last but not the least, the comfort of knowing that one is safe with the advanced safety features that are available in the all latest Maxima’s.

Family sedanWhile at its core, the Nissan Max-ima is a family sedan that seats fi ve people, it off ers enough per-formance and handling to please young drivers who really value these two qualities. In addition, the Maxima has abundant amount of standard features and a mod-ernised, comfortable interior, together with the guarantee of customer-centric and outstand-ing services of the Suhail Bahwan Automobiles.

SBA is largely committed to supporting Nissan’s growth in the Sultanate through major emphasis on customer satisfaction and by providing world-class after-sales services in Oman. With a national network of more than 19 show-rooms, 22 Service centres and 35 spare parts outlets, SBA has fur-ther built upon its legacy of trust, excellent customer service and providing value for money to each of its customers.

In an eff ort to make

Nissan vehicles

aff ordable and

accessible to all,

Suhail Bahwan

Automobiles has

taken up this unique

initiative

Unique Bell & Ross BR03-92 'MT' now available at Khimji’s Watches

MUSCAT: Based on the principle that the essential should never give way to the superfl uous, Bell & Ross engineers have designed a practical watch that is perfectly adapted to professional use.

Paying tribute to the military who were the fi rst professionals to use the wristwatch as fundamental instruments for their missions, Bell & Ross has unveiled an authentic military version of the BR 03 Ce-ramic: the BR 03 Military Type.

To view this unique timepiece, visit the Khimji’s Watches show-room, says a press release.

Made entirely from ceramic, the BR 03 Military Type is light-weight, high-performance and virtually unscratchable. The anti-refl ective matte black of the case and the khaki of the dial, which is the colour of the military uniform, make a superbly camoufl aged watch. In line with the military technical specifi cations, the khaki

dial is perfectly readable both day and night, the sapphire crystal is scratch resistant and the move-ment is a high-precision.

Brandished with the symbolic red “MT” for Military Type, all of the indicators including the hands, indices and numerals are coated with the photoluminescent, Su-perluminova which makes for easy readability at night. As for the daytime, this timepiece is equipped with an antirefl ective sapphire assuring that this watch is able to handle some of the most extreme conditions.

Rounding out an already spec-tacular timepiece, the BR 03 Mili-tary Type is appropriately water resistant up to 100 metres.

Its 42mm dial simplistically de-picts the large type three, six, nine and 12 in their respective posi-tions giving the watch an easy-to-read feeling. The option for a black rubber strap or a khaki heavy-duty

canvas strap allows for a bit of customisation while each ensures top performance for a physically demanding occasion.

Besides the thematic colour schemes behind this military inspired timepiece, the BR 03 Military Type has a technical su-periority that sets it apart from previous versions. In true Bell & Ross fashion, this watch refl ects the four pillars that make Bell & Ross a noteworthy brand: legibil-ity, functionality, precision and water-resistance.

Khimji’s Watches is one of Mus-cat’s leading franchisee for luxury watches, jewellery, accessories and writing instruments. Khimji’s Watches off ers a range of global designs from world’s best brands such as Rolex, Cartier, Chopard, Piaget, Mikimoto, Girard Perre-gaux, Tudor, Oris, Frederique Con-stant, Bell & Ross, Caran d’Ache and Kieninger.

T I M E P I E C E

Audi A8 all set to introduce piloted driving initiative INGOLSTADT: At Audi piloted driving means safe, comfortable driving in partnership. Because of this, the company has been actively involved in the Ko-HAF research initiative, which devel-ops standards and solutions for cooperative highly-automated driving. Audi will introduce pilot-ed driving in the next generation of the Audi A8, say a press release.

Audi is participating in the ‘Cooperative Highly-Automated Driving’ initiative (Ko-HAF). The aim of Ko-HAF is to develop standards and technologies that enable cooperative driving be-tween highly-automated vehi-cles in everyday road traffi c – for example merging with traffi c on highways. The project work cov-ers various subject areas from computer simulations to test drives on closed sites and later on public roads. In addition to Audi, other German car manufactur-ers, suppliers and universities are involved in the project. The ini-tiative is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy.

Audi is actively involved in all subject areas within the research initiative. These include: The development of precise street models as the basis for digital maps the localisation of cars via digital maps and environmental features using the data from the environmental sensors concepts to allow the driver to safely take control of the driving highly au-tomated reaction to disruptions in traffi c anticipatory automated driving for optimised traffi c fl ow, more comfort and increased road safety.

For years, the brand with the four rings has been carrying out pioneering work in the area of pi-loted driving. As a result of this, a driverless Audi RS 7 completed a circuit of the Grand Prix track in Hockenheim at race speed in Oc-tober 2014. In July 2015, a further developed Audi RS 7 piloted driv-ing concept completed a series of faster laps on the Californian So-noma Raceway. Both cars showed how precisely and safely Audi has mastered piloted driving even at the outer limits of physics.

Audi has also recently con-ducted successful testing on public roads. At the beginning of 2015, an A7 piloted driving con-cept with a large number of series production and near-series pro-duction technologies on board drove from Stanford in Silicon Valley via Bakersfi eld to the Con-sumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

At CES Asia in May 2015, jour-nalists also had an opportunity to experience piloted driving – in the heavy traffi c of the Shang-hai city highway. On the basis of these fi ndings, Audi has prepared integrated strategies for piloted driving. Cooperative behaviour, e.g. at highway entrances, plays a central role here.

The technologies for piloted driving stand for safety, partner-ship, time-saving, effi ciency and comfort. Audi will introduce these to series production in the next generation of the A8 luxury-class sedan. In the fi rst phase, the new systems will be able to take over the driving when parking or in stop-and-go traffi c on the free-way up to 60 km/h.

K O - H A F R E S E A R C H

Jaguar F-Pace sets standard for ride, handling

MUSCAT: Featuring sports-car derived chassis systems and evalu-ated on the same demanding roads as all other Jaguar vehicles, the new F-Pace will off er an unrivalled breadth of dynamic ability. This is a performance crossover designed around people who love driving.

The new F-Pace will reward drivers and passengers alike with a blend of agility and comfort that is unlike anything else in the seg-ment. Whether on twisting moun-tain passes, fl owing country roads or high-speed motorway cruising, the new F-Pace delivers respon-siveness and precision with excep-tional refi nement and composure, says a press release.

“We haven’t made any compro-mises or exceptions: the new F-Pace had to be a true Jaguar and had to deliver the dynamics DNA. We’ve tested ride and handling to the limit in all environments and in all conditions, and the result is that the new F-Pace is as engag-ing and rewarding to drive as it is comfortable and quiet. As soon as you get into the vehicle you know immediately that it’s a good place to be,” said Mike Cross, Chief En-gineer of Vehicle Integrity, Jaguar.

Developed using Jaguar’s Light-weight Aluminium Architecture, the new F-Pace is designed to handle with precision and control without sacrifi cing ride comfort – it’s what makes a Jaguar stand apart from the competition. Tak-ing full advantage of the body

structure’s inherently high stiff -ness, the sophisticated double wishbone front suspension and in-tegral link rear suspension provide the best possible starting point: tuned to perfection, they make the new F-Pace incredibly responsive yet also ensure that the impacts,

undulations and extreme cambers of even the most challenging roads are handled with ease.

The electric power-assisted steering system maintains Jag-uar’s leadership in steering. Every-thing between the steering wheel rim and the tyre contact patch is

optimised to ensure that the new F-Pace responds immediately to the slightest input, giving a truly connected feel. Incorporating all of the learning from F-Type, the sys-tem gives even greater feedback. Combined with the torque vector-ing technology fi rst developed for F-Type and the torque on-demand all-wheel drive system, the new F-Pace delivers outstanding agility in all weathers and on all surfaces.

To make development and test-ing even more effi cient, the ve-hicle integrity team’s subjective assessments are fed back into the computer-aided engineering (CAE) tools used by the vehicle dy-namics CAE team. This improves the models and therefore delivers even better simulation results – and vice-versa. This iterative loop of continuous improvement en-sures that prototype vehicles are ever better, benefi ting the tuning and assessment process.

P E R F O R M A N C E C R O S S O V E R

The new F-Pace will reward drivers and passengers alike

with a blend of agility and comfort that is unlike anything

else in the segment. Whether on twisting mountain

passes, flowing country roads or high-speed motorway

cruising, the new F-Pace delivers responsiveness and

precision with exceptional refinement and composure

B6 T H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

ROUND-UP

Oman LNG supports SQU research students

MUSCAT: To encourage more Omani specialists and university students to venture into the fi eld of studies and research, Oman LNG supported a fi rst ever envi-ronmental and geographical im-

pact analysis research study at Ras Al Hadd area carried out by a research team from Sultan Qa-boos University (SQU).

The research investigates pos-sible implications of geographic,

economic and social impacts on upcoming developments and sus-tainability at the Ras Al Hadd area, says a press release.

The benefi cial role of research in the development of modern socie-ties requires no introduction. For centuries, fi ndings from scientifi c research have been pivotal in de-veloping cures for diseases and al-leviating the suff erings of mankind.

“We are happy to be able to play a part in promoting learning and development of research in Oman. Investing in Omani talents pays back constructively in serv-ing our community, in serving Oman and the wider world,” said Khalid Al Massan, chief executive

offi cer of Oman LNG Develop-ment Foundation.

Oman LNG has an ambitious Social Investment Programme addressing many areas of devel-opment in Oman but broadly di-vided into three main categories: A Community Fund that targets ini-tiatives related to the Sur Commu-nity where its world-class three-train liquefaction plant is located; a National Fund that covers a large swath of the company’s social de-velopment programme including donations, national projects and human resource development; and a Reserve Fund to address the sus-tainability of the company’s social investment programmes.

The research investigates possible

implications of geographic, economic and

social impacts on upcoming developments

and sustainability at the Ras Al Hadd area

Al Hayat welcomes

senior ENT consultant

MUSCAT: Al Hayat Internation-al Hospital, Al Ghubra welcomed Dr Ameet Kishore, MBBS, FRCS (Glas), FRCS (Edin), FRCS-ORL (UK), visiting senior consultant ear, nose, throat and neurotol-ogy in its ENT department. (He is visiting on September 5 and 6 Saturday and Sunday)

After obtaining his MBBS from Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, India, Dr Ameet Kishore completed his higher surgical training in ENT Sur-gery in the UK and attained Fel-lowships of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh as well as the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. He was then appointed consultant and senior lecturer at the Glas-gow Royal Infi rmary University Hospital. He has also travelled to various centres in the USA and Europe as part of his training, says a press release.

He is currently a Senior Con-sultant Surgeon in ear, nose, throat and Neurotology at In-draprastha Apollo Hospital, New Delhi. He is also the director and chief consultant of Adventis – A centre for Advanced ENT Ser-vice. He has over 20 years of ex-perience in all aspects of ENT and has trained and worked ex-tensively at leading international centres in UK, Europe and USA.

He has large experience in otol-ogy and neuro-otology and thus expertise in microscopic surgery for treating diseases of the ear, fa-cial nerve and hearing.

He has trained and worked at the National Centre for Cochlear Implantation (UK) since 1995 and has extensive experience in management of deafness with cochlear implantation, implant-able hearing aids, bone anchored hearing aids and auditory brain-stem implantation.

He is the lead cochlear implant surgeon at Apollo Hospital, Delhi and is responsible for one of the leading hearing implant pro-grammes in the country.

Experienced in endoscopic na-sal and sinus surgery, he is com-petent in minimally invasive sur-gery such as balloon sinuplasty and advanced endoscopic sinus surgery procedures for sinusitis and anterior skull base condi-tions (pituitary surgery and En-doscopic CSF leak closure).

Dr Kishore was trained at the Royal Hospital for sick children, Glasgow that has empowered him to manage paediatric ENT disor-ders safely and successfully. He is experienced in the use of lasers, radio frequency and coblation.

Awards and achievementsHas received multiple awards at undergraduate, postgraduate and also at consultant level for aca-demic excellence.

Has obtained fellowships at various international centres in UK, Germany, France, Italy, Aus-tria, Switzerland and USA for Otology, Neuro-otology, Coch-lear Implantation, Rhinology and Paediatric ENT. He has over 30 publications in various peer reviewed ENT journals, and has written chapters in a number of books too.

He was appointed as Hon. Sr Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, UK. Presented widely at a number of national and inter-national meetings and is invited as teaching faculty to various na-tional and international courses, conferences and symposia. Is a member of national and interna-tional ENT societies, and is cur-rently the Secretary of the Coch-lear implant Group of India.

Dr K. P. Raman, chairman, Al Hayat International Hospital said, “The demand for our ENT services and especially the plan to start Cochlear Implant pro-gramme has resulted in the ex-

pansion of our ENT department. It is our constant endeavour to make available the most modern facilities to our patients.”

Al Hayat International Hos-pital team of highly skilled and experienced ENT Surgeons per-form ENT Surgical procedures for conditions requiring surgery like tonsillectomy, septoplasty, tympanoplasty, stapedectomy, mastoidectomy Neurotology & Cochlear Implantation, Micro-scopic Ear Surgery, Endoscopic Nose - Sinus Surgery & Balloon Sinuplasty, Paediatric ENT, Mi-crolaryngeal & Laser Surgery, Management of salivary gland disorders including salivary gland endoscopy, submandibular and parotid gland surgery as well as thyroid gland surgery.

Well versed in microlaryn-geal surgery and phonosurgical techniques for hoarseness. Rou-tinely perform endoscopic nasal and sinus surgical procedures with large experience in Func-tional Endoscopic SinusSurgery (FESS). Well equipped with spe-cialised tools such as endoscopic camera systems, microdebrider, Balloon Sinuplasty, radiofre-quency and lasers. Also perform advanced endoscopic procedures such as orbital decompression, optic nerved compression, dacry-ocystorhinostomy (DCR), sphe-nopalatine artery ligation, endo-scopic closure of CSF leaks and endoscopic pituitary tumour sur-gery. Have experience in the use of surgical navigation systems for sinus and skull base surgery.

S P E C I A L I S T

After obtaining his

MBBS from Armed

Forces Medical

College, Pune, India,

Dr Ameet Kishore

completed his higher

surgical training in ENT

Surgery in the UK and

attained Fellowships

of the Royal College of

Surgeons of Edinburgh

as well as the Royal

College of Physicians

and Surgeons of

Glasgow

Al Mar’a to honour women excellenceMUSCAT: The Al Mar’a Excel-lence Awards is back! Bigger and better this time, it’s all set to ap-plaud extraordinary women in the Sultanate.

“Would you believe it if we told you that it’s already that time of the year when your favourite Ara-bic women’s magazine, Al Mar’a, is geared up to felicitate excep-tional women at the Al Mar’a Ex-cellence Awards? Yes, it’s time for the successful, the hardworking, the diligent and the conscien-tious to be given their well-de-served place in the spotlight,” said a magazine offi cial.

As the curtains go up at the In-terContinental Muscat Gardens on October 21, the dazzling even-ing will see Omani women being awarded for their commitment, perseverance, unfailing deter-

mination and tireless eff orts in climbing the ladder of success in their respective fi elds, says a press release.

The nomination process is un-derway and there is a lot of enthu-siasm among women in Oman to either nominate themselves or those who they think are deserv-ing of these prestigious awards. We hope to see many more Omani women achievers come to the forefront with the fi fth edition of the awards.

On board for the event are Nis-san as support partner, Times of Oman and Al Shabiba as media partners and Ruwi Modern Print-ers as print partner.

The awards once again cel-ebrates the ‘diff erent shades of a woman’. With accolades rang-ing across 15 categories, namely:

Corporate Leadership, Fashion Design, Performing Arts, Fine Arts, Educational Services, En-trepreneurship and Innovation, Health Services, Science and In-dustry, Technology, Sports, Petro-leum Services, SME Sector, So-cial Responsibility, Marketing & Sales and the World of Beauty, the awards wish to honour and in turn empower women to make their dreams come true; irrespective of which sphere their hearts lay in. Apart from these, two remarkable women will also be the recipients of the prestigious Woman of the Year and Most Promising Woman of the Year Awards.

In light of the awards, here’s what Ghada Al Yousef, the Al Mar’a Woman of the Year 2014, had to say: “I am greatly honoured to receive the Woman of the Year

Award from Al Mar’a and to be recognised amongst such an in-spirational group of women! I would like to thank Al Mar’a for supporting the professional devel-opment of Omani women by cel-ebrating success and identifying role models in all sectors in Oman. Though each one of us has our own spheres, what brings us together in this event is our drive and passion for what we do.”

Hurry! We want you to be in the running for an Al Mar’a Excellence Award! To join the host of women who are nominating themselves and other meritorious candidates, all you have to do is log on to www.almaraonline.com and fi ll up the nomination form. Yes, it’s as sim-ple as that! You, dear woman, are an Al Mar’a achiever and it’s time to let the world know!

E X C E L L E N C E A W A R D

Lexus amazes with hoverboard rideMUSCAT: Lexus’ latest attempt at amazing the world with its concept hoverboard made quite a mark. And months after that Lexus is planning to completely reveal the hoverboard following a suc-cessful testing phase in Cubelles, Barcelona, says a press release.

Mark Templin, executive vice president at Lexus International, said: “Embarking on this project, we set out to push the boundaries of technology, design and innova-tion to make the impossible, pos-sible. With this project we call ‘SLIDE’, we collaborated with partners who share our passion for creating enjoyment out of motion. Even through combining our tech-nology and expertise, we discov-ered making a hoverboard isn’t an easy process. We’ve experienced the highs and lows and have over-come a few challenges, but through mutual determination we have created a demonstration of our philosophy in design and technol-ogy to create ‘Amazing in Motion’.”

According to Takayuki Yoshit-sugu, chief representative, Middle East and North Africa Representa-tive Offi ce, Toyota Motor Corpora-

tion, “The Lexus Hoverboard rep-resents a signifi cant technological and creative breakthrough, open-ing the door to a future with unlim-ited possibilities. At Lexus, we con-stantly challenge ourselves and our partners to push the boundaries of what is possible, and our revolu-tionary new hoverboard epitomises our quest for technological leader-ship while carrying forward the brand’s uncompromising approach to design and innovation. We deep-ly appreciate the encouragement of our customers who have always supported our design-led initia-tives over the years.”

The Lexus Hoverboard project began 18 months ago through col-

laboration with a team of scien-tists from IFW Dresden and Evico GmbH, who specialise in magnetic levitation technology. Following extensive testing with pro skate-boarder and hoverboard test rider Ross McGouran, in Dresden, Ger-many, the team were determined to push the hoverboard to its limits and conduct further tests within dynamic surroundings.

“I’ve spent 20 years skateboard-ing, but without friction it feels like I’ve had to learn a whole new skill, particularly in the stance and balance in order to ride the hov-erboard. It’s a whole new experi-ence,” said Ross McGouran.

Since the Lexus Hoverboard was

unveiled in June, testing has been carried out in a specially construct-ed hoverboard park, combining elements from skate culture with technology within its architecture. Up to 200 meters of magnetic track was transported to Barcelona from the Dresden facility to lay beneath the hoverboard park surface in order to create the dynamic test, off ering Lexus the opportunity to demonstrate tricks no skateboard could ever perform, like travelling across water. Lexus has captured the fi nal ride footage and released it as a fi lm led by award winning di-rector Henry-Alex Rubin.

The Lexus Hoverboard technol-ogy features two “cryostats” — res-ervoirs in which superconducting material are kept at -197 degrees through immersion in liquid ni-trogen. The board is then placed above a track that contains perma-nent magnets.

In Oman every Lexus vehicle comes with special benefi ts and privileges such as six years unlim-ited extended mileage protection and Lexus Prestige Club Card that off ers 24 hours on-road assistance from AAA.

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BankDhofar marketing head wins ‘Most Influential Off icer’ award

SINGAPORE: In yet another achievement, BankDhofar head of marketing & corporate communi-cations received the title of Asia’s ‘Most Infl uential Chief Marketing Offi cer’ at the World Brand Con-gress Awards 2015.

The award was handed over to Sami Al Zadjali at a high profi le ceremony that was held recently in Singapore and was attended by elite branding and marketing pro-fessionals from around the world, says a press release.

Well-deserved recognitionAhmed Said Al Ibrahim, chief cor-porate services offi cer at BankD-hofar, noted: “We are very proud to see such a prestigious award from a highly esteemed institu-tion received by Sami. It is a well-deserved recognition that shows

time and again the determination and commitment of BankDhofar team members who strive to excel and stand out from the crowd. Be-ing a leading brand in the Sultan-ate, we at BankDhofar are proud to have achieved a lot in terms of staff development as well as unique customer experience and innovative banking solutions, and we aspire to always be the best in all our operations and business practices.”

Asia’s ‘Most Infl uential Chief Marketing Offi cer’ awards is an annual platform that celebrates the most infl uential achievements in the world of marketing, and it brings together elite professionals in marketing, branding and adver-tising from around the world to highlight the best creative indus-try practices and achievements

across Asia.On the side-line of the award

ceremony, Sami participated in a seminar that discussed ‘Building Brands in the Age of Transparency and Relevancy’. “I am very glad to be part of this high profi le event, and I would like to thank the or-ganisers and the management of BankDhofar for making this pos-sible,” he said.

Sami Al Zadjali is currently the head of marketing & corporate communications at BankDhofar, and he has over 20 years of work experience in branding, marketing strategies, advertising, corporate communications, digital market-ing, sales and events.

Sami continues to be the man behind the most successful brand-ing and communications cam-paigns across the Sultanate.

Asia’s ‘Most

Infl uential Chief

Marketing Offi cer’

awards is an

annual platform

that celebrates the

most infl uential

achievements in the

world of marketing

Indian embassy DCM set to inaugurate India Home FairMUSCAT: India Home Fair, pre-sented by HDFC, India’s largest home loan bank, will be inaugurat-ed by Gloria Gangte, Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM), Embassy of In-dia, at Al Falaj Hotel in Muscat on September 4 at 11.30am.

The two-day event will show-case properties and real estate developments from diff erent parts of India by more than 40 reputed builders. The pan-India presence of properties ensures that there is something in store for all Indians who are staying in the Sultanate. Entry to the exhibition is free and the public can view the stalls from 10.30am onwards on both the days, says a press release.

This is for the fi rst time a re-puted and a leading bank in India is bringing together all the major builders from India on a common platform for the benefi t of Indi-ans, working and staying in Oman. HDFC has selected those build-ers who are trustworthy and have proved their merit in the Indian market. Besides, HDFC has also ensured that those builders who comply with the norms of the gov-ernment of India and various state governments are showcasing their project at the two-day event.

“HDFC has been one of the drive forces behind the success story of the Indian real estate sec-tor. The largest home loan bank in India has been off ering support to builders and their customers at the same time. Indian Home

Fair 2015 is the right avenue for Indians in Oman to choose their dream properties as more than 40 reputed builders from diff erent parts of country are participating in the exhibition. Another attrac-tion of the exhibition is the Pan In-dia Presence even include builders from Tier III cities such as Nagpur, Lucknow Calicut, Kochi, Trichur, Coimbatore, Trivandrum and Panaji . This will help customers to buy projects in mega cities and lo-cal places, suiting to their style and taste,” observed Navneet Prasad, regional head of HDFC.

“On its part, HDFC has many novel schemes which are aimed at prospective real estate buyers. All the home loan schemes of the bank will be explained and will be made available at the exhibition venue,” he added.

“Buoyed by the success of the previous editions of India Home Fair we are expecting a huge turn-

out at this year also. For the ben-efi t of visitors, we have selected all the major builders from diff er-ent states in India. Thus, there is a pan-India presence at the exhibi-tion. These builders are showcas-ing a wide range of projects which have already completed or are in the process of completion,” said Abhimanyu Kukreja, Oman offi ce in charge of HDFC.

Special promo event“To help our visitors we will be starting a help desk at the venue. There will be special promotional events for visitors from interiors of Oman. Besides, the exhibition will have on the spot bank loan documentation facility. Prime and premium properties from all the major states and on the spot facility for bank loan set apart In-dian Home Fair from other exhi-bitions,” said Lijihas Hussain, di-rector of Molecules International, which is organising the property exhibition along with World Na-tional Exhibitions.

Some of the major builders who will take part in the annual exhibi-tion at Al Falaj Hotel include Ansal Housing & Construction, Godrej Properties, Hiranandani, Shapoor-jiPallonji, Lodha Group, H&S, Kalpataru, Casa Grande Private Limited, Crescent Builders, May-fair, Nahar Group, Omkar Realtors & Developers, Ozone Group, Phoe-nix Group, Queen’s Habitats, SFS Homes, Arthais, and ATS Homes.

R E A L E S T A T E E X H I B I T I O N

The two-day event will

showcase properties and

real estate developments

from different parts of India

by more than 40 reputed

builders

Muscat Pharmacy launches New Zealand Manuka honeyMUSCAT: Muscat Pharmacy & Stores launched new products from Manuka Health New Zea-land, world leader in New Zea-land natural health solutions, specially for hypermarkets in Oman during a launch meeting held in Woodlands Restaurant in CBD recently.

This was held in the presence of Mani Gopalakrishnan, national sales manager, commercial divi-sion, Muscat Pharmacy, Pradeep Despande (general manger, Gen-eral Food Supplies) Godwin Jo-seph (Manuka Health-Oman) and 24 marketing staff s, says a press release.

Manuka Health are producers of a range of products, the most prominent being pure MGO (me-thyl Glyoxal) brand Manuka Hon-ey, which has proven benefi ts for health problems and is now being sold in more than 55 countries around the world.

New products such as Manuka honey blend, clover honey, wild

fl ower honey, suckles and green tea products are now available in major hypermarkets like Car-refour, Lulu, Al Fair and Nesto hypermarkets in Oman. Muscat pharmacy commercial team will make available the products in other major outlets in Oman soon.

Manuka Health’s commitment from the very beginning has been to provide premium natural prod-ucts that combine the very best of nature and science. Utilising natural bio-active ingredients unique to New Zealand, they pro-duce a wide range of premium products including MGO Ma-nuka honey, royal jelly, green tea, suckles, blend and kids wellness products such as kids syrup and these all products are available in all major pharmacies in Oman.

“From beekeeping production MH use methods proven to pre-serve the bioactivity and potency of the natural ingredients, and ap-ply scientifi cally validated testing to guarantee the quality of MH

products. Manuka Heatlh scien-tifi c research partnerships aid on-going innovation as it continues to break new ground in providing trusted, eff ective natural health products to our customers.

“Manuka honey industry has shown remarkable growth over the past few years as the honey’s qualities attracted the interest of the multibillion dollar global nutraceutical market and health-conscious consumers alike.

“Taking this valuable product and adding more value through cutting-edge R&D is proving to be a winning recipe for Te Awamutu-based company, Manuka Health New Zealand. Manuka Health is about producing natural health products; sourcing, harvesting and processing and taking products to the world designed to help people improve their health. Key to our development has been developing the scientifi c evidence to support our products,” says Kerry Paul, chief executive, Manuka Honey.

P R O D U C T L A U N C H

L&T Oman felicitates Omani staff for long service

MUSCAT: In a fi rst of its kind ini-tiative, L&T Oman has felicitated 17 of its Omani employees for their long and meritorious service at a function held yesterday.

L&T Oman with Zubair Cor-poration, one of the leading and most respected business houses in the Sultanate, has participated in the emergence of the Sultanate of Oman by playing a vital role in the socio-economic and cultural development of the Sultanate as envisaged by the visionary leader His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, says a press release.

As it has grown, the company has paid special attention to de-veloping local human capital with almost 2,000 Omani nationals employed across various projects. Attracted both by the company’s

brand image and the opportu-nity to work on projects of scale and magnitude, these employees once on board, are given plenty of opportunities through various performance-driven initiatives and training programmes which lead to better, faster professional growth for them.

“Our employees have helped endow L&T Oman with a unique-

ness and I am delighted that with the help of the people of Oman, we have been successfully par-ticipating in the spectacular development of the Sultan-ate,” said S. N. Subrahmanyan, member of the Board and sen-ior executive vice-president – Infrastructure & Construction, Larsen & Toubro (L&T).

“We believe that performance

is only possible if we have the right people as our prime as-sets and today I am very pleased to see that the opportunities we have given our Omani colleagues have been well-accepted. My heartiest congratulations to all our employees, especially our Omani colleagues, who are being rewarded for their commitment, enthusiasm, zeal and hard work and I am absolutely certain that they will continue to perform with the same commitment and vigour in our journey ahead.”

Besides off ering the best-in-class work environment and growth opportunities to its own employees, L&T Oman also sup-ports SMEs to create more busi-ness and employment opportuni-ties for Omani nationals.

R E C O G N I T I O N

Bank Muscat to host ‘Oman at Work’ evenings by IthraaMUSCAT: Bank Muscat, the fl ag-ship fi nancial services provider in the Sultanate, as part of its com-mitment to support youth, who represent the future of Oman, is hosting ‘Oman at Work’ evenings organised by Ithraa.

‘Oman at Work’ is a series of four events comprising dialogue and panel discussions aimed at help-ing better understand the chal-lenges and opportunities of the future work environment and the fundamental impact this will have on how Oman attracts, nurtures, retains and motivates a talented workforce, says a press release.

The ‘Oman at Work’ series opens on Monday September 7 with a panel discussion on ‘The World of Work: A New Dynamic’, followed by ‘Millennials: A Diff er-ent Work Perspective’ on Tuesday September 8. The third event will be held on Monday September 14 on ‘Vocational Training: Changing Perceptions’ and the concluding

session on Wednesday September 16 on the theme ‘STEM: Jobs of the Future’. All the four events will be held at Bank Muscat head offi ce from 7:30pm to 9pm.

Reckoned the ‘best place to work in Oman’, Bank Muscat has achieved qualitative advance in the human resources sector as it attracts the best Omani cadres for employment at all levels. Bank Muscat is focused on developing its leadership pool from among the young Omanis and thereby contribute to Oman’s future by in-vesting in talent which is the real

wealth of the nation.Over the years, Bank Muscat

has adopted innovative strategies to equip Omani employees to take up leadership positions in tandem with future challenges. The bank has developed a comprehensive Learning & Development strategy for skill and knowledge enhance-ment vis-à-vis the requirement of various departments. The bank’s women empowerment strategy is also notable as 42 per cent of em-ployees are women holding vari-ous positions, including senior management positions.

S U P P O R T T O Y O U T H

MUSCAT: As part of its expan-sion plans for 2015, Ooredoo has opened its latest franchise store in Jalan Bani Bu Ali, under the auspices of Sheikh Mahmoud bin Sulaiman, Deputy Wali of Ja-lan Bani Bu Ali. Operated by the company’s long-term partner En-hance, a WJ Towell Group com-pany, the store has been designed to off er customers in Sharqiyah a full range of telecommunications solutions and value added servic-es, says a press release.

Feras Al Sheikh, director of Consumer Sales at Ooredoo, said: “Our franchise concept has been a great success and we will continue to actively pursue new partner-ships and identify new locations to reach more of our customers and meet their growing demands.”

He added, “Our partnership with Enhance goes back to 2005, and today we are proud to say that this successful decade-long partnership has entered a new stage, going beyond simply product distribution.

“The Jalan Bani Bu Ali store is no diff erent to our other 36, in that it off ers a full portfolio of our lead-ing products and services with the promise of an exceptional custom-er experience.”

Ooredoo has recently modern-ised the 2G and 3G networks in this area by building several new sites and enhancing the coverage and capacity of a large number of sites in the area, to provide 3G and 4G technology to customers. The

company has also rolled out their state-of-the-art fi bre network in the Al Sharqiyah region, which will not only ensure high speed data and bandwidth, but also pro-vide a signifi cantly enhanced cus-tomer experience.

Ahmad Abbas, general man-ager of Retail Solutions, Enhance Oman, Said: “We are delighted to crown the Enhance-Ooredoo partnership in opening our biggest state-of-the-art franchise store in an area that needed it the most. The Jalan Bani Bu Ali store is one of fi ve stores under Enhance man-agement and we look forward to-further contributions in reaching out to more regions of the Sultan-ate in the near future.”

Working in partnership with some of Oman’s leading retail companies, the Jalan Bani Bu Ali store is Ooredoo’s eighth franchise across the country, in-cluding Rustaq Samaiel, Amerat and Al Musannah which are also operated by Enhance.

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Ooredoo opens its eighth outletOperated by the

company’s long-term

partner Enhance,

a WJ Towell Group

company, the store

in Jalan Bani Bu Ali

has been designed

to off er customers

in Sharqiyah

a full range of

telecommunications

solutions and value

added services

Gujarati Wing celebrates 40 years of its journey in OmanMUSCAT: Muscat Gujarati Sa-maj (MGS), as it is fondly known, or offi cially the Gujarati Wing of Indian Social Club, arranged a very popular drama Pappa to Avaj Hoi Chhe (A Father would be like this only…) as part its celebration of 40 years’ glorious journey in Oman.

As the auditorium fi lled with MGS enthusiastic members, chief guest Brahmachari Koshal-prasad inaugurated the event by ‘Deep Pargatya Ceremony’ along with other dignitaries of Mus-cat Gujarati Samaj, Anil Khimji, Kiran Asher, Raju Ved, Anil Vad-her and Arvind Toprani, says a press release.

Pappa to Avaj Hoi Chhe is a popular Gujarati social-comedy family based drama, which shares the father-son relations along with an important message with pure entertainment. The artists executed their roles wonderfully and entertained the audience during complete course of drama.

They got repeated applause from the audience, who seemed to en-joy more as the story progressed.

The drama team has already staged 258 shows so far, and the team has travelled extensively across USA, UK and Middle East before the Muscat show. It got a lot of appreciation from one and all. MGS members were all de-lighted to witness such a mean-ingful drama.

Chandrakant Chothani, MGS convener, conveyed heartfelt

thanks to the sponsors and well-wishers for their continued sup-port. Kiran Asher in his motivat-ing speech admired activities carried out by MGS, and also wished success for its upcoming events on October 8, 9 and 10.

MGS has made ambitious plans to celebrate its journey of four decades with arrangement of many such programmes com-ing up very soon, and give the members many such evenings to cherish for long.

D R A M A S H O W

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AAMIR APOLOGISES TO FANS AND PLAYERSDisgraced Pakistan paceman Mohammed Amir issued a public apology to fans and players on Wednesday as his fi ve-year ban for spot-fi xing expired, vowing to make a fresh beginning. >C2

Oman eye full points against Turkmenistan

MUSCAT: Boosted by the return of key players, including captain and custodian Ali Al Habsi, Oman are eye full points as they take on Turkmenistan in the joint Group D qualifi er for 2018 World Cup and 2019 Asian Cup to be played at Seeb Sports Stadium on Thursday.

The match is scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. In the recent friendly match played against Yemen,

which the hosts won by a solitary goal, Oman missed the services of Ali Al Habsi, who was busy with English Championship side Read-ing, as well as Eid Al Farsi and Ahmed Mubarak ‘Kanu’.

However, the team are now strengthened by their return and are raring to go at Turkmenistan.

Oman, who began their cam-paign with a 2-1 away win against

India, are confi dent of winning full points against Turkmenistan.

Speaking at match-eve press conference, Oman’s French coach Paul Le Guen said: “There will be

no excuses nor complaints. Any match in the qualifi ers in very im-portant. We are keen not to lose any points at home or away.”

Referring to the friendly against

Yemen, he said: “We did not grab the opportunities that came our way. But the match against Turk-menistan will be diff erent.”

With the return of Ali Al Habsi,

Eid Al Farsi and Ahmed Mubarak ‘Kanu’, we will have a diff erent for-mation and tactics.

Le Guen, who expressed satis-faction with the current training camp, said the presence of veteran striker Imad Al Hosni will also strengthen the team.

Le Guen also said: “(Defenders) Mohammed Al She’eba and Jaber Al Awaisi as well as Mohammed Al Mashari not fully engaged dur-ing the last season due to several reasons.

“But we have discussed the issue with the OFA chief Sayyid Khalid (Al Busaidi) and requested for their return to the team.”

Meanwhile, Ali Al Habsi said the team is aware of the signifi cance of the match.

“We have to concentrate on the match in hand and try to win full points,” he said.

Oman coach Paul Le Guen said there will

be no excuses nor complaints as they

seek another victory in the joint qualifi ers

for the World Cup and Asian Cup

CONFIDENT: Oman captain Ali Al Habsi, right, speaks as coach Paul Le Guen, second left, looks during a

press conference on their eve of their match against Turkmenistan on Wednesday. – JUN ESTRADA/Times of Oman

Qatar team feels heat ahead of World Cup qualifi er with BhutanDOHA: Qatar coach Jose Daniel Carreno admitted Wednesday his team is under pressure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, the coun-try’s last chance to reach the fi -nals before hosting the event four years later.

Speaking ahead of the AFC Group C match against Bhutan in Doha on Thursday, Qatar’s fi rst home game of the qualifi ers, the aff able Uruguayan said he was confi dent his team would respond to the challenge.

“Yes, defi nitely there’s pres-sure but it’s a kind of pressure we enjoy,” he told reporters at a Doha press conference. “We think we have enough strong points to en-able us to play in the Russian World Cup in 2018.”

Qatar is aiming to avoid becom-ing the fi rst nation since Italy in 1934 to host the World Cup without ever having played in the fi nals. So far in qualifi cation they have a 100 percent record, having played and won one game, a 1-0 victory in the Maldives.

The three points though masked a poor performance and the fact that Qatar only won in Male due to a 99th minute goal.

Thursday’s match against Bhutan — who lost their fi rst two qualifi ers 7-0 and 6-0 — should provide Qatar with another three points. Tougher tests lie ahead however, with matches against

the top two sides in Group C at the start of this week’s games, Hong Kong and China, within the next six weeks.

Hong Kong play in China on Thursday. Carreno, who only took over as Qatar coach in June following the sacking of Algerian Djamel Belmadi after a dismal showing in the Asian Cup, said the key against Bhutan would be to score early.

“The Maldives was a good les-

son for us that we will benefi t from in the future,” said Carreno, the former coach of Qatar league side Al Arabi, now managed by Gianfranco Zola.

“Teams suff er when they play the smaller teams. Maybe we will suff er when we play Bhutan but we will try and score an early goal to open up the match.”

Confi dence among the 2022 hosts was boosted by a 4-0 friendly win against Singapore last week.

A convoluted qualifi cation sys-tem means Qatar is aiming to be one of the group winners or four best runners-up from the AFC’s eight groups of fi ve teams.

These 12 will then be placed into two groups of six, with the fi rst two in each group heading to Russia. At the beginning of 2015, Qatar may have been a strong out-side bet for Russia.

Confi dence was high after win-ning the Gulf Cup in 2014, Qatar’s fi rst trophy abroad, where they beat neighbours Saudi Arabia 2-1 in the fi nal.

But a poor Asian Cup — where they were thrashed 4-1 by UAE, beaten 2-1 by Bahrain and 1-0 by Iran — has dampened expectations.

However, if Qatar fails to qual-ify for Russia, one happier lesson from history is that 1934 was not only Italy’s fi rst fi nals but also the fi rst time the “Azzuri” won the World Cup. - AFP

U N D E R P R E S S U R E

Speaking ahead of the

AFC Group C match

against Bhutan in Doha

on Thursday, Qatar’s

first home game of the

qualifiers, the affable

Uruguayan said he was

confident his team

would respond to

the challenge

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SPORTST H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

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the curve with

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Pakistan trio restricted at home despite end of spot-fixing bans

LAHORE: The International Cricket Council’s fi ve-year bans on former Pakistan captain Salman Butt and pace bowler Mohammed Asif ends on Wednesday, but the long road back for the players will begin under heavy restrictions.

The pair will be under strict monitoring for months before be-ing allowed to play international cricket again, according to the Pa-kistan Cricket Board (PCB).

“The PCB has given me a target that includes improving fi tness, attending sessions with a psy-chiatrist and delivering lectures to young cricketers for awareness against misdeeds as a national player,” Asif, 32, said during a prac-

tice session at the Model Town Ground in Lahore.

“I will have to achieve the target in two months and only after that will I be allowed to play freely.”

Butt and Asif were banned for

spot-fi xing during Pakistan’s tour of England in 2010, particularly for bowling deliberate no-balls by pre-arrangement during the fourth Test at Lord’s. Both have served jail sentences in Britain and were

given minimum fi ve-year bans by an ICC tribunal. Butt was also giv-en a two-year suspended sentence.

Both players said they were ready to meet the board’s demands.

“I just want to play cricket,

which runs through my blood,” former captain Butt said.

A PCB offi cial said the trio would only be allowed to play “controlled cricket and start with club cricket for now.”

“They will be strictly monitored by professional cricketers and psychiatrists for a few months. If they prove their fi tness and mo-rality, they will be allowed to play domestic cricket at the fi rst-class level,” the offi cial said, declining to be named.

A third player, fast bowler Mo-hammed Aamir, was also banned until September but the chairman of ICC’s anti-corruption unit exer-cised his discretion to give him an early reprieve in January.

Left-arm paceman Aamir was marked as a great prospect for Pakistan in his early days. At the age of 18 he became the youngest bowler to capture 50 Test wick-ets during the controversial test match at Lord’s in 2010.

According to a revised anti-corruption code, a banned player can appeal the ICC to allow him to resume playing domestic cricket before the end of the ban.

The PCB had decided to help Aamir with his appeal but ruled out helping Butt and Asif with any relaxation.

Though the ban is lifted, seri-ous opposition from offi cials and hostility from Pakistan’s cricket-obsessed fans will mean the road to redemption will be a long one for the tainted trio. - Reuters

The pair will be under

strict monitoring

for months before

being allowed to

play international

cricket again

REHABILITATION: Pakistani paceman Mohammed Aamir meets with children suff ering from thalassemia at a treatment centre in Lahore.

Returning Aamir issues public apology to fans and playersKARACHI: Disgraced Pakistan paceman Mohammed Aamir is-sued a public apology to fans and players on Wednesday as his fi ve-year ban for spot-fi xing expired, vowing to make a fresh beginning.

The 23-year-old is eligible to return to all levels of cricket from Wednesday, along with Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif, who were also banned for their part in the notorious 2010 Lord’s spot-fi xing scandal.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) kicked them out of the game for fi ve years for or-chestrating deliberate no-balls in return for money during a Test against England. They were also jailed by a British court.

Aamir, who has repeatedly voiced contrition for the scandal, said sorry once again.

“I sincerely apologise to every-one I have hurt — my colleagues, my fans, family and my country,” he said in a statement.

“I will never be able to explain how much I regret the mistake I made at the promising start of my career. I disappointed my team-mates and seniors who expected much better from me.”

A precocious talent, Aamir graduated to play for Pakistan aged just 17 in 2009 and received

widespread sympathy from across the cricketing world at the time of his ban.

Partly because of his youth and naivety, the ICC earlier this year allowed him to return early to do-mestic cricket.

He featured in Grade-II cricket in April, taking an impressive 22 wickets in four matches before getting injured. Aamir said he wanted to win over doubting fans through his performances.

“I am not sure if I can ever be truly forgiven but I hope to win your trust and love with my up-coming performances. I believe this will be the best way to redeem the past,” he said.

“No matter how sorry I feel I can’t change the past. What I can do is start fresh and make a clean-er and brighter history, for myself and for Pakistan.”

Former players were divided on whether the three players should be allowed to play for Pakistan again.

While former captains Ramiz Raja and Rashid Latif vocifer-ously opposed the tainted trio’s return to the national side, pace legends Wasim Akram, Imran Khan and Shoaib Akhtar advo-cated a second chance.

Aamir said he has set small goals for himself and is not tar-geting an early return to interna-tional cricket.

Before banned, Aamir had tak-en 51 wickets in 14 Tests and 25 in 15 One-day Internationals. He also had 23 wickets in 18 Twen-ty20 matches. - AFP

D I S G R A C E D

I sincerely apologise to

everyone I have hurt — my

colleagues, my fans, family

and my country. I will never

be able to explain how

much I regret the mistake

I made at the promising

start of my career

Mohammed AamirPakistan fast bowler

Pakistan press India for cricket series

LAHORE: Pakistan’s cricket chief on Wednesday wrote a let-ter to the Indian cricket board secretary pressing him for an update on a proposed series be-tween the arch-rivals in Decem-ber this year.

A two Tests, fi ve one-day and one Twenty20 series in United Arab Emirates is shrouded in uncertainty with volatile rela-tions between the South Asian nuclear rivals at one of their lowest ebbs.

Pakistan accused India of kill-ing nine civilians on the border last week, barely a week after talks between the countries’ national security advisers were called off . The two countries have not played a full series against each other since 2007, though Pakistan toured India for a short series in December 2012.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shaharyar Khan said he had written to Anurag Thakur, secretary of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

“I have written a letter to Mr Thakur, in the main saying that cricket and politics should be kept apart,” Khan said.

“I am positive that the BCCI shall be able to convince the In-dian government that it ought to honour its MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with the PCB,” he added.

Last year PCB and BCCI had signed a MoU under which they were scheduled to play six series in the 2015-2023 Future Tours Programme, but all were subject to clearance from New Delhi.

Khan, a former foreign secre-tary and a career diplomat, said that strained relations should not aff ect cricket.

“While relations between Pa-kistan and India have seen its share of ups and downs, cricket should be kept out of it,” he said.

Thakur has previously said that the countries’ cricket teams should not meet while relations between the South Asian neighbours remain fraught, saying cricket cannot be played with bullets.

“On one hand there is a rise in terrorist activity, on the other you can’t expect to play a cricket series with Pakistan,” Thakur said in July.

But last week Thakur sof-tened his stance, telling a pri-vate television channel in Paki-stan that a series was possible.

“If situation improves I can-not rule out cricket series in De-cember,” Thakur said.

“I toured Pakistan in 2004 and was overwhelmed, and when Pakistan toured India the following year I distributed sweets on their captain’s (In-zamam-ul Haq) birthday.” - AFP

L E T T E R

Clarke takes indefi nite breakSYDNEY: Former Austral-ian captain Michael Clarke on Wednesday pulled out of his Big Bash League deal with the Mel-bourne Stars and said he will take an indefi nite break from the game.

The 34-year-old, one of the out-standing batsmen of his genera-tion, retired from international cricket last month after the fi fth and fi nal Ashes Test at The Oval.

Clarke was expected to honour a two-year contract signed in April with the Stars in Australia’s domes-tic Twenty20 league, but he said he needed time away from cricket.

“Right now for me, I just think my body and my mind need some time away from the game of cricket... and just see what that’s like to be with-out it,” he told Triple M radio.

Clarke, who has long battled back problems, said quitting in-ternational duties had prompted him to consider his wider playing future, as his pregnant wife Kyly prepares to give birth to the cou-ple’s fi rst baby in January.

“It’s been a big part of my life and I just think that with my retirement from international cricket now I just need to take my-self away from the game of cricket for a little while and just see what that’s like. To actually be without it,” he said.

“You push yourself to the max

when you’re playing sport at the highest level and now I’ve pressed stop on that part, in regards to international cricket, I just think my body... and my mind just needs that break.”

As well as his injury issues, Clarke also cited the continuing psychological impact of close friend and team-mate Phillip Hughes’ death as a factor in his decision

“I guess that’s part of it as well. How big a part? Right now I’m un-sure,” he said.

“I just need this time to allow myself to go through whatever I need to go through to be able to move forward.”

Hughes died last year after be-ing hit on the head by a bouncer at

the Sydney Cricket Ground, with a shattered Clarke giving a mov-ing eulogy at his funeral.

But Clarke did not rule out returning to the crease at some point, leaving open the possibility of playing the second year of his contract with the Stars.

“I’m really hopeful that love and passion that I’ve always had for the game will come back,” said the batsman, who scored 8,643 runs in 115 Tests.

“I’ve got a two-year deal at the moment, so hopefully it all turns out ok and I come back and play next year. “But even if they decide they don’t want me to play, I’m hopeful I’ll be able to help the club have success in another way.” - AFP

P L A Y I N G F U T U R E

TIME AWAY FROM CRICKET: Michael Clarke

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SPORTST H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

India’s magnifi cent comeback from be-hind series win over Sri

Lanka is an achievement to be very proud of. It is one of those rare series wins over-seas for the Indian team and even though the cynics may scoff and suggest that it was only against a depleted and inexperienced Sri Lankan team it was special because of the fact that India had lost the fi rst Test.

Losing and winning is part of the game but when one los-es from a position of strength then the mind starts to won-der what happened, what went wrong and the doubts begin to get stronger.

This team showed that its made of sterner stuff and picked itself up very quickly and turned the tables on its hosts. To the credit of the hosts they didn’t try to sit on their lead and prepare pitches that would have suited their strength but gave pitches that produced top class cricket.

India had injury problems with the prolifi c Murali Vi-jay missing the fi rst Test and then the century maker in the fi rst Test Shikhar Dhawan breaking his hand and thus going back home.

However, they found men for all the occasions as in the second Test young Ra-hul scored a fi ne century and then in the decider, Pujara making a comeback to the team and that too as an open-er carried his bat through with an unbeaten 145.

Skipper Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane also chipped in with centuries and Rohit Sharma got cou-ple of half centuries too.

The determination that India possessed could be seen from the eff orts of Amit Mishra and Ravichan-dran Ashwin with the bat as they hung around and didn’t give their wickets away.

It is not always the runs that you score that matter but when and with whom that can make the diff er-ence. Mishra’s stand with Pujara in the fi rst innings of the fi nal Test ensured India got over 300 runs on a diffi -cult pitch.

The bowling spoils were shared between the spinners and the seamers with Ash-win and Mishra picking most of the wickets and Ishant Sharma giving it the thrust at the start of the innings.

Ashwin seemed to toy with the Sri Lankan bats-men and his dismissal of the

retiring Sangakkara on all four occasions was brilliant.

He had the Sri Lankan legend mesmerised and hanging his bat out with Rahane completing the act with superlative catching. Mishra too got enough zip and turn to keep the pres-sure on and rolled over the tailenders which is often the hardest thing to do.

Ishant Sharma has sel-dom bowled better than he did in this series. He was fast, he was accurate, he was constantly at the batsmen asking questions to which they had few answers.

Although he had a bit of a problem with no balls in the fi nal Test the way he was running in smoothly was terrifi c to watch.

More importantly he bowled a fuller length and got the rewards as the batsmen did not know which ones to play and which to leave and ended up poking their bats outside the off -stump and getting caught. The fi eld-ing also was top quality and once India fi nalises it’s slips specialists then they will get wickets sooner too.

It was a memorable all-round performance by a young team under a young skipper and one that gives hopes for a bright future for Indian cricket. - PMG

Indian team showed they are made of sterner stuff

C O M M E N T A R Y

India had injury

problems with

Murali Vijay

missing the first

Test and then

Shikhar Dhawan

breaking his hand

and thus going

back home.

However, they

found men for all

the occasions

Ishant’s behaviour pathetic display of aggression: Bedi

NEW DELHI: Terming Ishant Sharma’s verbal duels with the Sri Lankans a “pathetic display of aggression”, former India captain Bishan Singh Bedi has said Test skipper Virat Kohli needs to con-trol his own belligerence and be a role model for his players.

Ishant played a vital role in In-dia’s series clinching win in Co-lombo, bagging eight wickets in the match to join the 200 wicket-tak-ers club. But his continuous verbal duels on the fi eld not only cost him 65 percent of his match fee in the second game but a second off ence at the SSC in the third and fi nal Test attracted an ICC ban for one Test match. Bedi called it an unfor-tunate series of events.

“See they talked about ag-gression and then an Ishant gets banned for a match. Is this what you want on a cricket fi eld? This is pathetic display of aggression. And remember this has nothing to do with Virat’s aggression, who is just giving statement after state-ment and trying to sell his aggres-sion through words,” Bedi said in an interview.

“He (Kohli) did a very good job

in the context of this series but he needs to control his aggro.

“There is always one camera which is focused on the captain, so he has to be an exceptionally good role model. You be aggressive with your bat, ball and fi elding not with your mouth.

“These are very early days as far as his captaincy is concerned. There is so much more to be done. And there are far too many lacunas in the Indian team. We would be absolutely blind if we don’t see the shortcomings now,” Bedi said.

In a come-from-behind series win, India registered two comfort-able Test victories after losing the opening game in Galle. But Bedi, who congratulated the young team for the win, opined that the visitors were up against a weak opposition and the celebrations that followed were uncalled for.

“If they would have won 3-0 then I would have understood. Ok, now you have won, but what’s the need for this craziness. You had gone there to win, right.

“So you did what you were expect-

ed to do, what’s the fuss all about. Let’s not go overboard for goodness sake. This Sri Lankan team was a very weak side. They should have destroyed them,” said Bedi.

“But a win is a win. I would like to congratulate the boys, but there is no point in the country going berserk over this victory.

“There has to be some stability in the mind. You lose, you go mad and then you win, you again go crazy. When are we going to mature and accept defeat and victory in a very balanced manner,” he added. - PTI

Bedi has also said

Test skipper Virat

Kohli needs to control

his own belligerence

and be a role model

for his players

PATHETIC: Referring to Ishant Sharma’s verbal duels with Sri Lankans, Bishan SIngh Bedi asked, ‘is

this what you want on a cricket fi eld?’

Kaushal reported for illegal actionCOLOMBO: Sri Lanka off -spin-ner Tharindu Kaushal has been reported for a suspect bowling ac-tion during the third test against India, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Wednesday.

The 22-year-old, with a distinc-tive high-knee run-up, has played six tests for Sri Lanka and has been earmarked as the island country’s spin spearhead when Rangana Herath, 37, eventually retires.

Kaushal has already taken two fi ve-wicket hauls in his career and picked up 13 scalps in the three tests against India, the third high-est tally behind Herath and pace-man Dhammika Prasad (both 15) for the Sri Lankans.

“The match offi cials’ report,

which was handed over to the Sri Lanka management, cited con-cerns about the legality of the 22-year-old’s bowling action,” the governing body said in a statement.

Kaushal will have to undergo a test on his bowling action within 14 days but will be allowed to con-tinue bowling in international cricket until the results are known.

Sri Lanka are not in action until October when they host West In-dies in a series featuring two test matches, three one-day interna-tionals and two Twenty20s.

Sri Lanka lost their fi rst series at home to India in 22 years when the Virat Kohli-led tourists fought back from an opening defeat to win 2-1 on Tuesday. - Reuters

S P I N N E R

REPORTED: Tharindu Kaushal

Now that Team India have recorded their fi rst series victory in

Sri Lanka in 22 years and the moment is being drummed up as historic, it’s fair to take a look back in time to take in the hysteria behind the celebration before wondering a bit about a seemingly simple puzzle: why did it take so long?

Is it purely an instance of history being made to hap-pen by a young and aggressive leader or is it just an inevitable turn of event waiting to happen anyway, no matter who led whom or who did what?

After Mohammed Azharud-din led India to a 2-1 win in 1993, India have had six stal-warts as leaders before Kohli took over the reins.

They were Sachin Ten-dulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag, Anil Kumble and MS Dhoni. Three of them—Tendulkar, Dravid and Sehwag— had never toured Lanka as captains.

Ganguly and Kumble had to live with a 1-2 loss and Dhoni had to settle for a 1-1 draw, with a win and a loss and a draw.

So, history brings us to the truth that in 22 years, and before the just-concluded visit, India have toured Lanka just three times to play Test matches.

The long duration of time doesn’t look that long and winding in view of the fact that the number of times Team

India had crossed the sea in these years were far fewer than the fi gure 22 suggests. Does that take any shine out of the moment Kohli and his boys are celebrating now?

That brings us to another interesting point: what did Kohli have that helped him do what he did, and what did the others before him didn’t have to do what Kohli did?

Kohli didn’t have under his command anyone who looked awesome: the boys were good, talented and committed. They showed their potential now and then, but there was noth-ing about them that sent out out-of-this-world hints. They

were ordinary guys going about the task they were required to perform as best as they could.

What was it that really made the diff erence? The football kick executed by the skipper after taking the catch of Kushal Perera in the fi rst innings when the Lankan was tearing the Indian attack apart?

The “dinner date” advance made by an unromantic Ishant Sharma as the batsman was walking back to the dressing room? Or the Lankan attempts at sledging, staring and bounc-ing Ishant out that we got to know now had rubbed the 6.3 feet man the wrong way?

Obviously, Kohli, despite having more than his fair and unfair share of say in moments of ugly drama unfolded onfi eld when the Indians were fi eld-ing, was not in his usual best or looked the sort of hot and spicy self he used to be.

The responsibility bestowed upon him may have diluted his antics. In that context, the transformation we have seen in Ishant Sharma was something Kohli had been hoping to hap-pen: an angry fast bowler nurs-ing a hurt in the heart. But is there more to it than meets the eye? Was that something made to happen or just happened?

The image of Ishant tap-ping his helmet possibility to taunt Dhammika Prasad who greeted the No.11 batsman with a series of bouncers into bowling more of the same stuff

as he ran down the pitch to take a single was not ugly, but the hysterical beating of the head after taking the wicket of Dinesh Chandimal in the sec-ond innings was disgusting.

An angry, 6.3 feet bowler is the right stuff for your cause, but Kohli need to learn how to instill the right amount of anger in the boys under his command. Excesses are unwelcome.

The other side of the story is that the current Lankan team is the weakest of them all in the last 22 years. Kumar Sangak-kara looked overwhelmed by the occasion. His body was there, but the mind seemed resigned to the inevitable that was about to happen.

The seniors in the team were too old for the task, and the youngsters were settling in their roles they had just inher-ited. Also, it was a team beaten fair and square by Pakistan a few weeks ago. There was no better time for India to tour Lanka, perhaps.

For now, time and luck seem to favour Kohli. At least until he and his boys get on a fl ight to England, Australia or South Africa, which is not going to happen anytime soon.

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

The bold, beautiful and ugly side of Kohli and his boysC O M M E N T A R Y

What did Kohli have that

helped him do what he

did, and what did the

others before him

didn’t have to do

what Kohli did?

C4

SPORTST H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

Oman swimmers win

fi ve more medals at

GCC championships

MUSCAT: Omani swimmers bagged fi ve more medals on Wednesday to add to the four they had won on of opening day of the the GCC Swimming Champ-inships in Doha.

According to information re-ceived from the Oman Swim-ming Assocaition, the Omanis won two gold, one silver and two bronze on the second day of the champinships.

Isa Al Adawi won the gold in 200m freestyle in time of 1:57.97 while Abdulrahman Al Kulaibi took top honours in 400m free-style in a time of 4:57.88.

In the under-10 4x50free-style, Oman team took silver. The team comprising Naser Al Kindi,

Ahmed Al Balushi, Kaab Al Riyami and Adam Al Raisi clocked 2:29.43 for their second place fi nish.

Khalid bin Mohammed Al Ku-laibi won his bronze medal in the 1,500m freestyle in open category in a time of 17:27.11 while Abdul-rahman bin Yahya Al Kulaibi won a bronze medal in the 200m back-stroke in a time of 2:20.42.

Meanwhile, Adam bin Salim Al Raisi and Naser bin Saif Al Kindi fi nished fi fth and seventh respectively in the 50m freestyle for juniors. Opening day, Oman swimmers had won two gold and two bronze. So far the Sultanate swimmers bagged a total of nine medals, including four gold, one silver and four bronze.

R I C H H A U LHamilton to pick up speed at Monza track

MONZA: New father Nico Ros-berg has plenty to be happy about right now but Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton intends to be smiling just as much after this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.

Sunday’s race, at a super-fast track that faces an uncertain future despite its historic status as a tem-ple to Ferrari, could see Hamilton accelerate ever closer to his third Formula One world championship.

“At the moment it doesn’t look like it is possible to beat Hamil-ton,” said retired triple champion Niki Lauda after the Briton won last month’s Belgian Grand Prix to go 28 points clear of Rosberg with eight races remaining.

“If Lewis does not make a mis-take in the next couple of races, it will be hard for Nico,” said the Mercedes team’s non-executive chairman.

A dramatic, high-speed blowout in practice at Spa, coupled with a similar one on race day for Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, did little for Ros-berg’s peace of mind ahead of the birth of his daughter last Sunday.

Any sleepless nights since then will have been more to do with his home life, however, with Pirelli’s post-Belgium enquiry expected

to exonerate their tyres from any structural failure.

Safety will still be a prime con-cern at the fastest track on the calendar, with the paddock com-munity mourning the death in America last week of British In-dyCar driver and former F1 racer Justin Wilson.

Vettel, furious after his scare at Spa, will be setting his sights on coming back with a diff erent kind of bang in his fi rst race at Monza in Ferrari’s red overalls.

A victory in front of the passion-ate home fans, at the circuit where he took his fi rst F1 victory with Toro Rosso in 2008, would make Vettel the fi rst since Stirling Moss in the 1950s to win the Italian Grand Prix

with three diff erent teams.The four times champion can-

not be ruled out, with Ferrari likely to be Mercedes’ closest rivals giv-en that Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat are expected to take engine penalties, but Hamil-ton remains the clear favourite.

Last year he won from pole po-sition and set the fastest lap at Monza before going on to win six of the last seven races and take his second title. This time, he arrives on the back of 10 poles in 11 races and six wins to Rosberg’s three.

If he wins at Monza on Sunday for the third time in his career, Hamilton will become the fi rst driver to take successive Ital-ian Grand Prix victories since his

compatriot Damon Hill with Wil-liams in 1994.

Monza’s own future will also be in the spotlight, with the circuit still to agree a new contract after 2016 and more talks with com-mercial supremo Bernie Eccle-stone sure to take place over the weekend.

For Hamilton, as much as any Formula One fan, a calendar with-out Monza would be unthinkable.

“It’s an awesome track -- so fast and with some of the most pas-sionate fans you’ll see anywhere in the world,” said the Mercedes driver. “Racing in Italy brings back a lot of good memories for me and I’d love to add to those this week-end.” - Reuters

Sunday’s race, at a

super-fast track that

faces an uncertain

future despite its

historic status as

a temple to Ferrari,

could see Hamilton

accelerate ever

closer to his third

Formula One world

championship

CLEAR FAVOURITE: Lewis Hamilton

Los Angeles enters 2024 Olympic raceLOS ANGELES: Los Angeles joined the race to win the 2024 Olympics here on Tuesday after city leaders gave unanimous back-ing for a bid to stage the sporting extravaganza for a third time.

The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) formally named Los Angeles as its candi-date soon after the city council members voted 15-0 in favour of supporting the bid.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Los Angeles as our US bid city for the 2024 Olympic and Para-lympic Games,” USOC chief Scott Blackmun said.

“LA has the proven experience in hosting the Games, and knows how to deliver world-class events for athletes and an extraordinary experience for fans.”

Los Angeles has hosted the Olympics twice before, in 1932 and in 1984, widely regarded as one of the most commercially success-ful Games of the modern era. “The Olympics loves LA & LA loves the Olympics,” said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. “We hope to return the Games back home.”

The United States has not host-ed a Summer Olympics since the Atlanta Games in 1996.

Los Angeles faces fi erce com-petition from other cities that have already entered the race for

the 2024 Games, including Paris, Rome, Hamburg and Budapest.

Although the high costs of stag-ing the biggest sporting event on the planet has dissuaded some cities from chasing the Olympics, Garcetti emphasised that the Los Angeles bid benefi tted from the fact that many venues were al-ready built.

“It is important to stress that we are not changing the face of our city to fi t the Olympic Games,” Garcetti said. “We have a vision of our city that the Olympics can ben-efi t from, not vice versa.”

Blackmun said Los Angeles’s bid was in keeping with the In-ternational Olympic Committee’s recent pledges to scale back the vast spending associated with the Games. The IOC was “looking to partner with cities to create a new hosting model, a model that sheds excessive spending, using exist-ing venues and builds as little as necessary.”

The decision to award the

Games will be taken in 2017. Lead-ing British bookmakers Ladbrokes have installed Paris as the early favourite, with Rome 4/1 and Los Angeles and Hamburg at 7/1.

Bullish projections Los Angeles re-entered the run-ning for 2024 after USOC’s origi-nal choice Boston withdrew amid fears of taxpayers being left on the hook for cost overruns.

LA24, the nonprofi t running the Los Angeles bid, last week issued a detailed 200-page draft bid book that bullishly projected the games could deliver a surplus, despite a $4.6 billion price tag.

Local businessman and philan-thropist Casey Wasserman, the chair of LA24, said an Olympics in Los Angeles “can be and will be the most responsible Games possible.”

LA24 said the Games could gen-erate $4.8 billion, resulting in a profi t of around $161 million.

Los Angeles city analysts how-ever sounded a note of caution

last week, stating it was “diffi cult to determine the fi scal impact and risk to the city of hosting the 2024 Games at this time.”

A review of the budget detailed in the bid book warned that costs for one of the key construction projects, the Olympic Village, may “signifi cantly exceed” the project-ed $1 billion it was expected to cost.

Tuesday’s city council vote backing the Olympic bid contains wording that allows Los Angeles City ongoing scrutiny of possible bid costs. “This is the engagement not the wedding — and now we’re in the prenup stages,” council lead-er Herb Wesson said.

The Los Angeles bid relies heav-ily on existing venues such as the downtown Staples Center, home of the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers and Clippers, which would host gym-nastics. A revamped Los Angeles Coliseum — the main Olympic stadium used in the 1932 and 1984 Games — will be at the heart of the Olympics.

The bid also outlines plans to in-corporate famous Los Angeles city landmarks and attractions, such as mountain biking in the shadow of the Hollywood sign, beach volley-ball on the golden sands of Santa Monica and Hollywood Boulevard hosting the marathon and road cy-cling. - AFP

U N A N I M O U S B A C K I N G

Los Angeles has hosted the Olympics

twice before, in 1932 and in 1984

India coach calls on

bosses to tackle TV

companies’ demands

NEW DELHI: India soccer coach Stephen Constantine has told his bosses to stand up to the dominating television companies if they ever want local football to fl ourish in the fl oundering South Asian nation.

Constantine, preparing for In-dia’s World Cup qualifi er against Iran in Bangalore on Tuesday, has seen friendly matches scrapped and domestic league matches moved to hotter afternoon times by the All India Football Federa-tion (AIFF) to accommodate de-mands from television companies.

The English coach, in his sec-ond spell in charge, called on the AIFF to synchronise its calendar with world governing body FIFA and the television companies to give the country, ranked 156th in the world, a chance of competing internationally.

“Is it that diffi cult to sync your calendar? It’s not when you’ve the development of the game (as target). It is when you’re thinking about TV ratings,” he was quoted as saying by The Indian Express on Wednesday.

“It’s not possible that a TV sta-tion can tell us when we can start our season. But that seems to be one of the problems.”

The much-travelled London-born coach returned to take charge of India in January, having ended his fi rst spell in 2005 and then going on to manage Malawi, Sudan and Rwanda among others.

He helped India advance through the fi rst round of World Cup qualifi ers thanks to a 2-0 suc-cess over another of his former sides, Nepal, but the second phase has started with 2-1 losses at home to Oman and away to Guam.

After the Guam defeat, Con-stantine hoped to be taking part in the South Asian Football Championships but his schedul-ing requests fell on deaf ears.

“I had asked it to be held after the Guam game in June when I had the players together for a couple of weeks. For reasons un-known to me, it’s December,” said Constantine, who was worried about player availability with the tournament coming on the back of the Indian Super League. - Reuters

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Al Amari excels as Omanis gain from Abu Dhabi Chess Festival

A SESHAGIRI RAOraoas@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: The Omani chess play-ers gained in experience as well valuable FIDE rating points at the recently concluded Abu Dhabi Chess Festival in the UAE capital.

But the highlight of Oman’s per-formance was a brilliant showing by Musallam Salim Al Amri who excelled both in the Open tourna-ment as well as the unrated cate-gory, taking the top honours in the latter section.

The player from Salalah, in fact, came close to winning the top place in the open category too but failed in his last game to fi nish in the 10th place in a highly rated fi eld.

Going into the fi nal round of the

nine-round event, Musallam was on 6.5 points, same as fi ve others with only two — Iranian Ebrahim Ghadiri and Turan Asgarova of Azerbaijan, both had seven points each.There were as many as nine players on six points.

A victory in the the fi nal game would have placed Musallam in the top bracket but he was pitted against eventual champion Turan Asgarova, the Azerbaijan girl prov-ing too strong for Musallam. The defeat meant he had to settle for 10th place in a fi eld of 150 players.

However, his remarkable show-ing assured Musallam of top place in the unrated category.

“It’s a good show by Musallam,” Ismael Karim, Oman national team coach, said.

“He showed good concentration and kept his composure through-out the tournament. That’s why he could play at such level,” Ismael Karim, who is also the in-charge of the International Chess Academy of Oman, said.

“Unfortunately in the last round he was paired against a tough op-ponent in Turan Asgarova,” the coach added.

“The competition was such that his loss to the Azerbaijan player saw him dropping down to 10th place, which I think is not bad for a player who has entered as an un-rated player,” he said.

“The positive for Musallam is he has topped the unrated player cat-egory, which will give him a lot of confi dence.”

Real benefi tsAccording to Ismael Karim, the real positives and the ‘benefi ts’ — not just for Musallam but also oth-er Omani players — to come out of their excellent showing Abu Dhabi will be realised in October.

“The benefi ts for Musallam and all other Omani players will be re-alised on October 1 when the FIDE Ratings will be out,” he said.

“As I said Musallam went to Abu Dhabi as an unrated player. Now he will gain 1974 FIDE Rating

points. And it will be the same with others,” he added.

At 49th place Ahmed Al Makhamari was the other Omani to fi nish in top 50 while Saif Al Harasi, Hassan Al Kathiri, Mo-hammed Salim Al Mamari and Mohammed Ahmed Al Amri have not been that successful.

However, most of them will be gaining FIDE Rating points.

Mohammed Al Amri, who start-ed as an unrated player, did well in both open and blitz events. Accord-ing to Karim, he even defeated an International Master in the blitz. As a reward he will be getting 2035 FIDE Rating points on October 1.

According to Karim, Hasan Al Kathiri will get 1512 points, Ahmed Al Kakhamari 1655 while Saif Al Harasi will gain 20 points to add to his current FIDE Rating points of 1662.

The next outing for the Omani players will be the World Youth Chess Championships to be organ-ised in Greece from October 24 to November 6.

“The preparations have to start now,” said Karim.

“First we need to go through the selection process and then organ-ise full-fl edged training camps for the players. We will soon be getting into that process,” he said.

Oman’s performance was a brilliant

showing by Musallam Salim Al Amri who

excelled both in the Open tournament as

well as the unrated category, taking

the top honours in the latter section

GOOD SHOW: A group photo of Oman players. TOP HONOURS: Musallam Salim Al Amri receives his award.

MUSCAT: While Omani chess players excelled in both open and blitz events at the Abu Dhabi Chess Festival, Jijo Joy, a Muscat-based Indian schoolboy clinched the third place in the junior category in the UAE capital recently.

Jijo, a student of Indian School Al Wadi Al Kabir, main-tained an unbeaten record to achieve the third place.

According to his coach Is-mael Karim, the junior tour-nament saw the participation of diff erent age group players right up to under-16s taking competing against each other and despite coming up

against bigger players, Jijo did well remain unbeaten.

“The junior tournament attracted some of the best talents from across the world. And it is commendable Jijo has not lost a single match,” Ismael Karim said.

In the seven-round event, Jijo won fi ve and drew two matches to fi nish with six points. “Those two draws meant he had to satisfy with the third place,” Karim added.

Interestingly, the top two places were won by Azerbai-janis with under-16 players Rafi li Saifl taking top honours ahead of under-10 player Manafov Vugar.

Schoolboy Jijo wins third place in junior tourney

JUNIOR CHAMPION: Jijo Joy with coach Ismael Karim

Sai Saran captures men’s A titleMUSCAT: Talented teenager P. Sai Saran captured the men’s A singles title at the Annual Table Tennis Tournament organised by the Indian Social Club Mus-cat and co-sponsored by Mus-cat Insurance Services (MIS) and Oman United Insurance Company (OUIC).

In the fi nal, Say Saran was in full fl ow and put the full repertoire of his talents on display as he downed seasoned campaigner R. Subrama-

nian with scores of 11-7, 11-8, 11-9, 8-11, 11-1 and captured his second title of the tournament having al-ready won the boys under-15 sin-gles crown.

Sai Saran showed brilliant re-fl exes and anticipation and faced paced rallies were a delight to watch. Subramanian was in the hunt most of the time but Sai Sa-ran proved more consistent of the two players.

Subramanian kept up the pres-

sure until nine-all in the third game before losing it but bounced back to win the fourth game and keep his hopes alive.

Subramanian ran out of favour as Sai Saran went all out to take a 9-0 lead before Subramanian opened his account but did not possess the armoury to stop the talented Sai Saran.

Teenagers Shounak Kelkar and MV Sai Prem, both thirteen, creat-ed a sensation in the men’s doubles

event when they scored two excit-ing back-to-back victories.

Shounak and Sai Prem rallied from two games down to defeat the team of R. Subramanian and Waheed Sattikar 7-11, 8-11, 11-4, 11-7, 11-7 and followed it up with a brilliant 11-8, 8-11, 7-11, 11-7, 11-7 victory over the fancied pair of Si-mon Joseph and Pranav Vinod to line themselves a semifi nal clash against the top seeds, Suhail Khan and Srinivas Iyer.

I S C T A B L E T E N N I S

FINALISTS: P. Sai Saran, right, and R. Subramanian. – Supplied photos GOOD TEAMWORK: Shounak Kelkar, left, and Sai Prem.

FIFA reform taskforce meets for fi rst time

BERN: A 12-member committee set up by FIFA to draw up far-reaching reforms to the organisa-tion in the wake of a corruption scandal met for the fi rst time in Bern on Wednesday.

Headed by Swiss lawyer Fran-cois Carrard, the committee will fi rst hear from Domenico Scala, who is chairman of FIFA’s Audit and Compliance Committee, ac-cording to an informed source.

No agenda details were re-leased. Carrard, 77, was appoint-ed by FIFA on August 11 to lead the Reform Committee after the corruption scandal erupted in May, when seven football offi cials were arrested at a Zurich hotel on the eve of a FIFA Congress.

The seven FIFA offi cials were among 14 people facing charges in the United States over more than $150 million of bribes for market-ing and broadcasting contracts.

In parallel, Swiss investigators are looking into the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter was re-elected for a fi fth term at the Zurich congress but, under pressure from the arrests, he suddenly announced he would stand down next February when

a new election for his post would be held. Subsequently he an-nounced that a reform commit-tee taskforce would be set up to draw up a list of changes.

Blatter denies any wrong-do-ing and Carrard has gone on re-cord as saying that there was not a shred of evidence against his fellow Swiss.

Carrard, who previously was in charge of implementing re-forms at the International Olym-pic Committee in the wake of the bribery scandal-hit Winter Olympics of 2002, is due to pre-sent his reform proposals to a FIFA congress meeting on Feb-ruary 26, when Blatter will offi -cially stand down.

The Reform Committee, which will sit for two days, comprises two offi cials from each of the six FIFA confederations. - AFP

F O O T B A L L

The committee

will first hear from

Domenico Scala

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‘Panenka’ kick tricks keepers for four decadesPRAGUE: For four decades, goal-keepers have been haunted by the “Panenka” penalty kick that leaves them diving to the side while the ball falls slowly into the middle of the net.

The western world fi rst became aware of the kick a year after it had been invented by then-Czecho-slovak midfi elder Antonin Panen-ka when, in the 1976 European Championship fi nal, he fooled West German ‘keeper Sepp Maier to hand his country a surprise win.

“If I had missed then, I would have been a turner with a forty-year record in the job today,” smiles the 66-year-old, still sport-ing his trademark moustache.

The Belgrade fi nal headed into penalties as Czechoslovakia and West Germany were tied 2-2 after extra-time. Four Czechoslovaks and three Germans scored while Uli Hoeness failed, the score being 4-3 before the last penalty.

Panenka took a quick run up, looking set for a fi erce blast and Maier dived to his left while Panenka checked his run and his gently-chipped shot took a slow

curve and landed safely in the net.“Defi nitely you must have some

courage, but in the fi rst place it is necessary to practise hard, oth-erwise it would be too risky to try this kick,” Panenka said.

“I myself perfected it during the months before Euro 1976.”

The idea of fooling goalkeepers in this way came to the Bohemians Prague playmaker almost by acci-dent, and some time ahead of its tel-evised grand premiere in Belgrade.

Beverage or chocolate “We regularly practised penalties and free-kicks with our ‘keeper Zdenek Hruska, betting a small amount of money, a beverage or a chocolate bar on each penalty,” Panenka explained.

“Since Zdenek quite often cleared my kicks, they became quite costly for me.

“He systematically dived to the right or left, so I tricked him be-fore kicking the ball gently into the middle -- he didn’t stand a chance.

“The only trouble was that I started to put on weight because of all that chocolate and beverages!”

The trick remained hidden from the western world, separated from the East by the so-called ‘Iron Cur-tain’. Panenka introduced the kick step by step, in friendlies and in the Czechoslovak league.

And then June 20, 1976 came and Panenka found his way into the football history books. Brazil-

ian legend Pele once said that “only a fool or a genius” could venture to take such an unexpected kick at a crucial moment like the last penal-ty kick of a European tournament.

A French journalist once dubbed Panenka “a football poet”.

“I certainly don’t think I’m a fool,” says Panenka.

Czechoslovakia shed its Com-munist rule in 1989 and split peacefully into the Czech Republic and Slovakia four years later.

Followers abound After the 1976 Europeans, Panen-ka went on to trick French ‘keeper Dominique Dropsy in April 1979,

in a qualifi er for the 1980 tourna-ment in Italy when Czechoslova-kia fi nished third..

In a shootout in the third-place play-off against Italy, as well as at the 1982 World Cup, Panenka changed his strategy, scoring with shots into the corner.

“The ‘keepers already knew me and they didn’t move any more,” said Panenka, who scored 17 goals in 59 games for the Czechoslovak national team.

Panenka, who left Bohemians Prague for Rapid Vienna in 1981, enjoys watching the growing list of his followers, including Zinedine Zidane, Andrea Pirlo, Francesco Totti, Helger Postiga, Sergio Ra-mos or Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

“I am very happy that my idea is not dead,” beams the man who is president of his beloved Bohemians.

He said his only regret was that he could never copyright his fa-mous invention.

“If I could have that, I wouldn’t be here with you but somewhere in Hawaii, sipping my cocktail in an armchair on a beach. I would be pretty rich.” - AFP

F O O T B A L L

Definitely you must

have some courage,

but in the first place

it is necessary

to practise hard

Antonin Panenka

Premier League spending will only increase: expertsLONDON: Foreign clubs are the main benefi ciaries of the Pre-mier League’s transfer dealings and will continue to be so with forthcoming increases in broad-cast revenue, fi nancial analysts predicted as the summer window fi nally closed this week.

Although many fees remain unoffi cial, it was generally agreed that of the 10 most expensive deals involving English clubs since the end of last season, seven of the players were bought from other leagues.

Germany’s Bundesliga benefi ted most, with VfL Wolfsburg, Hof-fenheim and Bayer Leverkusen receiving almost £100 million ($153.09 million) between them for Kevin de Bruyne (sold to Man-chester City), Roberto Firmino (Liverpool) and Son Heung-min (Tottenham Hotspur) respectively.

Gross transfer fees to overseas clubs of £585 million were 10 per cent up on the previous year, ac-cording to the annual analysis by the Deloitte business advisory fi rm. “Since the introduction of the new (Premier League) broad-cast deal for 2013-14, spending on overseas players has nearly doubled,” Deloitte’s Alex Thorpe told Reuters in an interview.

“In 2012 it was 300 million pounds. This summer it was 585 million. That shows how broad-cast revenues have driven the increase in clubs’ spending in the international market. And it’s not just the transfer fees. They can

also off er fi nancial packages that are very attractive to internation-al players.

“Not only is the Premier League a net importer of talent, way ahead of other leagues in gross and net spending, but Ger-many and France have actually been net exporters.”

Given that a lucrative new do-mestic broadcast deal, a 70 per-cent increase on the existing one, comes into eff ect next season, with overseas rights still to be ne-gotiated, Thorpe sees no reason why the current trends will not continue.

“Looking to the future, the biggest factor driving transfer spending has been broadcast revenue, so that has already been taken care of for the next three years,” he added.

“So spending is not only go-ing to continue, it is going to in-crease. Clubs will still have the ability to spend at these kind of levels if they so choose.”

According to Deloitte’s fi gures, Premier League clubs’ record gross spend of 870 million pounds was more than double that of Ita-ly’s Serie A, the second highest.

But there was an unexpected benefi t in the strength of the pound against the euro, which according to corporate broker Foenix saved them £85 million in buying play-ers from European clubs.

The next transfer window for all Europe’s major leagues opens on January 1. - Reuters

R E C O R DCosta wants to repay coach’s faith with goals

MADRID: Spain striker Diego Costa is determined to repay the faith shown in him after he chose La Roja over his native Brazil and knows he still has a lot to prove af-ter a stuttering start to his interna-tional career.

Costa made his Spain debut in a 1-0 friendly victory against Italy in March last year but did not open his account for the European champi-ons until his seventh, and most re-cent, appearance, a 4-0 Euro 2016 qualifying win against Group C minnows Luxembourg in October.

The 26-year-old Chelsea for-ward has returned to the squad after a series of niggling injuries and will have another chance to show his worth if coach Vicente del Bosque deploys him in Spain’s qualifi ers at home to pool leaders Slovakia on Saturday and away to

Macedonia three days later.“I never regretted choosing to

play for Spain and I want to re-pay the confi dence that has been shown in me,” Costa told a news conference at Spain’s training base outside Madrid on Wednesday.

“I am feeling better physically all the time,” he added. “I know I can give much more and hopefully that will start now.”

With six matches played, Slova-kia top Group C on a maximum 18 points after their surprise 2-1 over Spain in Zilina in October.

Chasing a third consecutive con-tinental triumph, Spain have 15 points at second, with Ukraine a further three points behind at third.

Costa agreed with a reporter who

suggested anxiety may be hinder-ing his progress with the national team but said he was feeling more at home in the side all the time.

“It’s very important to me person-ally to perform well and score goals as that will give me confi dence,” he said. “There are no excuses, I need to do better. I haven’t done anything yet and I think I can give a lot more.

“I am in a team with the current champions but I am feeling more comfortable all the time and closer to my teammates and that’s very important too.”

De Gea issueMeanwhile, Del Bosque has urged goalkeeper David De Gea to put his failed transfer to Real Madrid

from Manchester United behind him and focus on being a “good professional”. De Gea’s move to Real was wrecked in bizarre cir-cumstances on Monday when the paperwork was not delivered until after the midnight deadline.

Real and United blamed each other for the bureaucratic snafu, which means De Gea will remain in Manchester, while Real’s Costa Rica keeper Keylor Navas, who was meant to join United as part of the deal, stays in Madrid.

De Gea, whose United contract expires at the end of the season, could fi nd himself in limbo, at least until the end of the year when the market opens again.

While the transfer saga rumbled on, United coach Louis van Gaal left the 24-year-old former Atleti-co Madrid keeper out of the squad, with Argentina’s Sergio Romero playing instead.

“I don’t want to say anything drastic about what we will do,” Del Bosque, who has hinted De Gea will not be selected if he is not playing regularly, told Spanish radio.

“We have to wait and see what happens and the important thing is that David... looks to the fu-ture and is a good professional,” he added. “We have to hope that David can play for (United) and is active so we can count on him in future (Spain) squads and he can show what a good keeper he is.

“It’s a diffi cult situation for him but he has to be happy to be in the national team and at (United) and in the future he will be able to decide where he would like to go.” - Reuters

Costa made his Spain

debut in a 1-0 friendly

victory against Italy

in March last year

but did not open

his account for the

European champions

until his seventh

I CAN GIVE A LOT MORE: Diego Costa

My family more nervous than me about United move: MartialPARIS: The family of Manchester United’s latest signing Anthony Martial were more nervous than he was about him becoming the world’s most expensive teenager by moving from AS Monaco.

The fee for the 19-year-old, dubbed the new Thierry Henry despite barely 50 fi rst-team games for the Ligue 1 side, was put at £36 million ($55.11 million) by British media and as high as 80 million euros ($90.27 million) by French media. However, the forward told a news conference at France’s

training camp in Clairefon-taine on Wednesday that he was not concerned about the cost of the transfer.

“My family were defi nitely a bit nervous because of my high price but I’m going to stay focused on my work,” he said.

“I’m not sure I’m worth 80 mil-lion euros. I left for the football side. It’s quite crazy for a player of my age but that’s how the market works. This sum has been negoti-ated between the two clubs.”

Martial does not believe his

price tag will be a problem as he learns to adapt to the English Pre-mier League.

“I don’t see myself as being under any pressure. Since I was young, people have told me I have the right characteristics to play in England,” he added.

Martial said United manager Louis van Gaal had asked him his best position and been told it was in the centre.

“But he told me I can play in a number of positions,” the French Under-21 international added.

“It’s the coach who decides.”Nor did Martial appear over-

awed by the prospect of featuring alongside players like England captain Wayne Rooney.

“It’s normal Wayne Rooney doesn’t know me,” he said.

“Next to him I’ll improve my game a lot.”

Martial, who scored nine goals in 35 league matches last season, has been called up by Euro 2016 hosts France for friendlies against Portu-gal in Lisbon on Friday and Serbia in Bordeaux on Monday. - Reuters

N E W S I G N I N G

NEW THIERRY HENRY: Anthony Martial

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM

CultureSECTIONC L I F E STY L E T H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

Sand is not just for building castles. Pour them with precision on canvases

and have a wonderful piece of art. Nikos Zarras shares his sand secrets

B Y S WAT I D A S G U P TA

LIFESTYLEC8 T H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

For Nikolaos (Nikos), each painting  is an inspiration from everyday life and the spontaneous use of colourful sand adds on to the beauty. It has been just four years for him in Oman and Nikos Zarras

is already a known name in the art circle of Oman. The artist, who has been painting since 1991 as a professional, devel-oped love for this art at the age of seven and since then there was no looking back.

“Art is such a passion that it can-not be explained in words. Only an artist can understand the depths of it,” says Nikos.

Going back to his roots Nikos tells us that he was born in Johan-nesburg, where he lived until the age of seven. “Drawing was a nat-ural obsession for me at a young age,” remembers the artist.

After completing his high school at the age of 16, he attended the fi ne art department in the Polytechnic School of Trikala, Greece, where he later taught design, history of art, sculpture, traditional crafts, and puppet designing.

“I later moved to Athens and studied at the University ‘Conser-vation of Ancient Monuments and Works of Art’, he adds.

Nikos, who came to Oman four years back, has been working on various techniques since then and experimenting with diff erent ma-terials for his paintings.

His fi rst pure sand painting was made in the year 2000. “It was the beginning of my new series of art,” he adds.

Talking about sand painting the artist says that to make a per-fect piece many things should be kept in mind. “A lot depends on the design and it takes from one week to even 1-2 months to fi n-ish an art piece, depending on the size and design,” he explains.

Nikos tells that his sand paintings are created with pure sand collected from the beaches of different regions. “It is an ac-tual painting on a canvas and sand is glued with a special glue through many layers,” he informs further.

It starts with a canvas where he sketches an actual piece of art and then glue the pure sand grains in the specifi c individual sections to get the 3D eff ect.

“The painting starts with a sketch followed by pouring the pure colour sands by hand. The work is protected with a varnish to prevent it from damaging,” he explains. 

Reminiscing his initial days in Oman, Nikos tells that four years back when he was new to this country it took time for people to respond to his work but gradually his work started getting recogni-tion. Having done various interior design work for shops and houses as well as creating and decorating baby rooms, Nikos participated in his fi rst charity exhibition in Bait Muzna in regards to Duqm Project and also for the Bahrain Cancer Association.

“My fi rst exhibition was in Bait Muzna Gallery with various other artists at the Royal Mirage with Galatea Gallery in Dubai. I had several exhibitions in Greece, as well as Trikala before,” he says.

While his sand paintings are currently being exhibited at Art Hub, Abu Dhabi, he has broadened his horizon over the years.

“I also specialise in oil paintings, iconography, acrylic paintings, abstract paintings, realistic paint-ings, recycling clay, and sculptures. I am doing special sand paintings where I use ‘pure sand’ without colour,” tells the artist. Nikos’ tal-ent is gradually getting recognised and known in Muscat and he says that the response has been very positive so far.

While he is currently taking arts and crafts classes for children at galleries and schools in Muscat, simultaneously he is also work-ing on his sand paintings for his upcoming exhibition in Muscat besides working for various inte-rior design works. swati@timesofoman.com

Nikos Zarras can be contacted at +968- 95228206Visit http://www.nikoszarras.com/

Art is such a passion that it cannot

be explained in words. Only an artist

can understand the depths of it

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LIFESTYLEC9T H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

SO TO SPEAK

SALEHAL-SHAIBANY

Whose Decision Is It Anyway?I was browsing through

an old history volume the other day when I had nothing better to do. I came across a quote that

made me think long and hard. Albert Einstein, towards the end of his life, reviewed his achieve-ments and said, “if only I had known, I would have become a watch maker.”

His theories helped engineers build an atomic bomb. Was Ein-stein regretting his decision to tell the world about his discover-ies? In 1955, the man was dying but he was not sure whether he was leaving behind a world that would become a better place. To all of us, the past has a funny way of catching up with the present. Like a long, lost friend, it pops up unexpectedly to haunt your life. Einstein realised too late to rec-oncile with himself and perhaps the thought hastened his death. But for ordinary people like you and me, the best way to come to terms with the past is never to be too clever with the present.

All the yesterdays we lived were

never mistakes, only the decisions we made were. As we now live in a very fast lane, the past catches with us earlier because we tend to make quick decisions to keep pace with pressing demands. The tragedy is that we don’t always know when we are making the right move. Take the example of a businessman who took a wrong turn. I saw him shuffl ing in a shopping mall leaning heavily on a stick. Over a cup of coff ee, he poured all his troubles to me. He left his job selling insurance poli-cies to become a food distributor. As he was building a successful business, he ignored chest pains because a doctor’s appointment wouldn’t fi t into his busy sched-ule. He collapsed in his offi ce and his employees had to rush him to the hospital. He has not fully re-covered from his heart attack but now runs his business with the help of his pace-maker.

He told me that if he had known that he would end up with a crutch, then he would have been selling insurance all his work-ing life. Life seems to have a clear

message to all of us. Put one step wrong and your future will pay for it. If that is the case, then every decision you make today carries a price tag. Fear of doing the wrong thing is behind most of the bad decisions we make. We live in a pressure cooker where the tem-perature rises whenever we ap-

proach a crossroad. Do we turn left, right or stay where we are? It is very clear that indecisiveness is behind many missed opportuni-ties because we are afraid of mak-ing a bad decision. Fear of becom-ing stagnated drives us mad and it is a single factor that forces us to plunge into an unknown depth. When the heart races and you think you need to make changes then it might be a good idea to do nothing for a while. Most of the reckless evaluations are made on the spur of the moment. Some-times, you glorify your decisions because you are bored with the routine and not because it is im-portant to your life. Here is a simple test: If your mind can drift away to something else then there is no urgency. You can sleep it off and reconsider the whole thing another day. Next time you think you need to make that important decision, take a long walk fi rst before you dive into unknown waters. It is either that or end up walking in the shopping malls with a crutch wondering what it could have been.

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Let It All Go

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holder with a rustic touchScan for details

WEEK

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UPDATE

Drop in for a beginner Zumba dance class

at Zumba Fitness with Marissa at the

Al Munif Sports Centre in Al Khuwair

As we now live in a very fast

lane, the past catches with

us earlier because we tend

to make quick decisions to

keep pace with pressing

demands

Gerard Butler’s ‘Geostorm’ Release Date Shifted

PRODUCTION banner Warner Bros has pushed the release date of actor Gerard Butler’s drama fi lm Geostorm by three months. It will now release in 2017.The studio originally dated the fi lm for October 21, 2016, but it will now come to the screens on January 13, 2017. Geostorm marks the feature directorial debut of Dean Devlin, who teamed with Roland Em-merich to produce 1996s Independence Day, reports variety.com. Devlin’s Electric Entertainment is producing Geostorm with Skydance Productions.

‘Scream’ PaysTribute To Wes Craven

TV SERIES Scream paid tribute to late horror fi lm director Wes Craven with a memoriam title card: “Thanks for the screams”.Though Craven admitted prior to the show’s de-but that he had little — if anything — to do with the MTV series, Scream is based on the Nightmare on Elm Street director’s 1996 horror-thriller of the same name, which still stands as the defi nition of the genre, reports ew.com.

Scott Eastwood to star in ‘Overdrive’

ACTOR SCOTT Eastwood will star in Overdrive, an ac-tion project which centres on two car thieves, broth-ers, who travel to the south of France for new oppor-tunities and wind up in the crosshairs of the local crime boss. Scott, son of legend-ary actor-fi lmmaker Clint Eastwood, is emerging into his own as an actor. He ear-lier wrapped shooting for Suicide Squad, that centres around DC Comics’ villains.He can also be seen oppo-site Taylor Swift in the pop star’s latest video, Wildest Dreams. — IANS

HOLLYWOOD

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FIND-IT-ALLC10 T H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

ROYAL OMAN POLICE

Emergencies and inquiries: 9999

General Directorate of

Passport and Residence 24569603

Directorate General

of Customs 24521109

Traffic violations inquiries 24510228

Public Relations Admin 24560099

EMBASSIES IN OMAN

Afghanistan 24698 791/4

Algeria 24605 593

Bahrain 24 605 074/133

Bangladesh 24 698 660

Brazil 24640100

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China 24 696782

Cyprus 24 699815

Egypt 24 600 982/411

France 24681 800

Germany 24835000

India 24684500

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Iran 24 696 944/7

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Yemen 24600815

PHARMACIES

Round the clock

Al Hashar Pharmacy, Ruwi 24783334

Apollo Medical Centre,

Hamriya 24782666

Muscat Pharmacy, Ruwi 24702542

Salalah 23291635;

Atlas Pharmacy, Ghubra 24503585

Muscat Region

Apollo, Al Hamriya 24787766

Muscat, A Seeb Market 24421691

Muscat, Al Khuwair 24485740

Muscat, Al Hail South 24537080

Dhofar Region

Muscat, Al Nahdha Road,

Salalah 23291635

HOSPITALS

Al Amal Medical & Health Care

Centre 24485052

Atlas Hospital

Ruwi 24811743/

Ghubra 24504000

Al Musafir Specialised

Medical Clinic 24706453

Hatat Polyclinic LLC,

Ruwi 24563641

Azaiba 24499269

Sohar 2683006

Al Raffah Hospital 24618900/1/2

Al Massaraat Clinic &

Laboratory 24566435

Al Makook Medical

Coordinance Centre 24499434

Apollo Medical Centre,

Hamriya 24787766, 24787780

Capital Polyclinic 24707549

Badr Al Samaa Polyclinic,

Ruwi 24799760/1/2

Capital Clinic, Seeb 24420740

Ceregem National Raak 24485633

Dr Harub’s Clinic 24563217

Elixir Health Centre 24565802

Emirates Medical Centre 24604540

1st Chiropractic Centre 24472274

Hamdan Hospital 23212340

International Medical

Centre LLC 24794501/2/3/4/5

Kims Oman Hospital 24760100

24 Hrs Emergency 24760123

Lama Polyclinic, Sohar 26751128

MBD 24799077

Al Khuwair 24478818

Magrabi Eye and

Ear Hospital 24568870

Muscat Private Hospital 24583600

Welcare Diagnostic and Treatment

Centre, Al Khuwair 24477666

Al-Hayat Polyclinc LLC 22004000

AIRLINE OFFICES

Muscat Airport Flight information

(24 hours) 24519456/24519223

Aeroflot 24704455

Air Arabia 24700828

Air France 24562153

Air India 24799801

Air New Zealand 24700732

Biman Bangladesh Airlines 24701128

British Airways 24568777

Cathay Pacific 24789818

Egypt Air 24794113

Emirates Air 24404400

Ethiopian Airlines 24660313

Gulf Air 80072424

Indian 24791914

Iran Air 24787423

Japan Airlines 24704455

Jazeera Airways 23294848

Jet Airways 24787248

Kenya Airways 24660300

KML Royal Dutch Airlines 24566737

Kuwait Airways 24701262

LOT Polish Airlines 24796387

Lufthansa 24796692

Malaysian Airlines 24560796

Middle East Airlines 24796680

Oman Air 24531111

Pakistan International

Airlines 24792471

Qatar Airways 24771900

Qantas 24559941

Royal Jordanian 24796693

Saudi Arabian Airlines 24789485

Singapore Airlines 24791233

Shaheen Air 24816565

SriLankan Airlines 24784545

Swiss International

Airlines 24796692

Thai Airways 24705934

LISTINGS

LONG DISTANCE BUS TIMINGS (OMAN NATIONAL TRANSPORT COMPANY SAOC) *SUBJECT TO CHANGE

CINEMA SCHEDULE

FROM MUSCAT (RUWI)

Dept Destination Arrival Operatingtime time days

QURIYAT - SUR - JAALAN (ROUTE 36)

15:00 Quriyat 16:30 Daily

15:00 Sur 18:00 Daily

15:00 Jaalan 19:30 Daily

TO AL BURAIMI (ROUTE 41)

06:30 Sohar 08:50 Daily

06:30 Buraimi 11:00 Daily

08:00 Buraimi 14:30 Daily via Ibri

13:00 Sohar 15:45 Daily

13:00 Buraimi 17:40 Daily

16.00 Sohar 18.35 Daily

16.00 Buraimi 20:20 Daily

TO SINAW (ROUTE 52)

17:30 Sinaw 20:50 Daily

TO YANQUL (ROUTE 54)

14:30 Nizwa 16:50 Daily

14:30 Yanqul 19:30 Daily

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (ROUTE 54)

08:00 Nizwa 10:20 Daily

08:00 Al Araqi 12:30 Daily

TO SUR (ROUTE 55)

07:30 Sur 12:00 Daily

14:30 Sur 18:45 Daily

TO FAHUD - YIBAL (ROUTE 62)

06:30 Fahud 10:30 Daily

06:30 Yibal 11:15 Daily

TO MARMUL-SALALAH (ROUTE 100)

07:00 Salalah 20:00 Daily

10:00 Marmul 20:30 Daily

10:00 Salalah 23:30 Daily

19:00 Salalah 07:40 Daily

TO MARMUL (ROUTE 101)

06:00 Marmul 16:50 Daily

SALALAH TO DUBAI (ROUTE 102)

15:00 Dubai 07:00 Daily

TO DUBAI (ROUTE 201)

06:00 Sohar 08:30 Daily

06:00 Dubai 11:30 Daily

13:00 Sohar 15:30 Wed,Thur

13:00 Dubai 18:30 Wed,Thur

15:00 Sohar 17:35 Daily

15:00 Dubai 20:55 Daily

TO DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH & SHARJAH (ROUTE 204)

07:00 Fujairah 11.45 Daily

07:00 Sharjah 13.30 Daily

07:00 Dubai 14.00 Daily

TO MUSCAT (RUWI)

Dept Destination Arrival Operatingtime time days

FROM JAALAN-SUR-QURIYAT (ROUTE 36)

05:30 Sur 06:45 Daily

05:30 Quriyat 08:30 Daily

05:30 Ruwi 10:00 Daily

TO AL BURAIMI (ROUTE 41)

07:00 Sohar 08:55 Daily

07:00 Ruwi 11:40 Daily

13:30 Ruwi 20:20 Daily via Ibri

13:00 Sohar 14:55 Daily

13:00 Ruwi 17:40 Daily

13:00 Sohar 19:20 Daily

17:00 Ruwi 22:15 Daily

TO SINAW (ROUTE 52)

07:00 Ruwi 10:25 Daily

TO YANQUL (ROUTE 54)

06:00 Nizwa 08:40 Daily

06:00 Ruwi 11:00 Daily

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (ROUTE 54)

15:40 Nizwa 17:55 Daily

15:40 Ruwi 20:20 Daily

TO SUR (ROUTE 55)

06:00 Ruwi 10:45 Daily

14:30 Ruwi 19:00 Daily

TO YIBAL - FAHUD (ROUTE 62)

12:30 Fahud 13:15 Daily

12:30 Ruwi 17:30 Daily

TO SALALAH -MARMUL (ROUTE 100)

07:00 Ruwi 19:50 Daily

10:00 Marmul 13:15 Daily

10:00 Ruwi 22:30 Daily

19:00 Ruwi 07:30 Daily

TO MARMUL (ROUTE 101)

06:00 Marmul 16:30 Daily

DUBAI TO SALALAH (ROUTE 102)

15:00 Salalah 07:00 Daily

TO DUBAI (ROUTE 201)

07:30 Sohar 10:50 Daily

07:30 Ruwi 13:40 Daily

13:00 Sohar 16:15 Thur-Fri

13:00 Ruwi 19:10 Thur-Fri

15:30 Sohar 18:45 Daily

15:30 Ruwi 21:35 Daily

FROM DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH/SHARJAH (ROUTE 204)

16:00 Sharjah 16:30 Daily

16.00 Fujairah 18.15 Daily

16.00 Ruwi 23.00 Daily

CHILDREN BELOW THE AGE OF 3 YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED IN THE CINEMA | BOX-OFFICE COUNTER OPENS 30-MINUTES PRIOR TO THE SCREENING OF THE FIRST SHOW

CITY CINEMAContact (10 am to 6PM) 24567664 | 68. www.citycinemaoman.netfacebook.com/citycinemaoman

SHATTIThe Transporter Refueled (PG12) (Action, Crime)Cast : Ed Skrein, Loan Chabanol3:45, 7:45, 9:45, 11:45 pmWelcome Back (Comedy, Crime) (Hindi)Cast: Anil Kapoor, Nana Patekar, John Abraham, Dimple Kapadia2:15, 8:45 pmPurgatory (Horror, Mystery) (TBC)Cast: Emilio Rivera, Taylor Nichols2:00, 11:45 pmBarbie Rock N Royals (Animation)(PG)Voice Overs : Kelly Sheridan, Chiara Zanni2:00, 5:15 pmHitman – Agent 47 (Action, Crime)(PG12)Cast : Rupert Friend, Hannah Ware5:45, 9:30, 11:30 pmSouthpaw (Action, Drama)(15+)Cast : Jake Gyllenhaal, Rachel McAdams3:35, 7:00 pmPhantom (Action, Drama)(HINDI) PGCast : Saif Ali Khan, Katrina Kaif6:00 pm

MUSCAT GRAND MALLThe Transporter Refueled : 2D (Action, Crime, Thriller ) (PG12)Cast: Ed Skrein, Loan Chabanol3:00, 5:00, 10:00 & 11:55PMGold Class : 2:15, 9:15 & 11:15PMThe Games Maker: 3D (Family) (PG)Cast: Joseph Fiennes, Tom Cavanagh10:45AM & 3:00PMBarbie in Rock ‘N Royals : 2D (Animation) (PG)Cast : Kelly Sheridan, Chiara Zanni10:00AM, 11:40AM & 1:15PMGold Class : 12:30PMHitman: Agent 47 : 2D (Action, Crime) (PG12)Cast : Rupert Friend, Hannah Ware1:00PM, 7:00PM & 11:45PMGold Class : 4:15PMWelcome Back : 2D (Comedy, Crime, Drama) (TBC)

Cast : Anil Kapoor, Nana Patekar, John Abraham,Dimple Kapadia7:00PMGold Class : 6:15PMLila & Eve 2D (Drama, Thriller) (12+)Cast : Jennifer Lopez, Shea Whigham5:15PMSouthpaw 2D (Action, Drama, Sport ) (15+)Cast : Jake Gyllenhaal, Rachel McAdams12:30PM & 9:30PMGold Class (Only on Friday) 2:00PMPhantom 2D (Action, Drama, Thriller) (PG)Cast : Saif Ali Khan, Katrina Kaif9:00PM

AZAIBAThe Transporter Refueled - 2D (PG12) Action, Crime, Thriller Cast - Ed Skrein, Loan Chabanol3:30, 7:15, 9:15, 11:15 PMHitman: Agent 47 – 2D (PG12) Action, Crime, ThrillerCast – Rupert Friend, Hannah Ware5:15, 10:05, 11:55 PMPhantom - 2D (PG) Action, Drama, Thriller Cast - Saif Ali Khan, Katrina Kaif5:00, 7:40, 9:15, PMLoham – 2D (TBC) ActionCast - Mohanlal, Andrea Jeremiah, Siddique

3:50 PMBarbie in Rock ‘N Royals – 2D (PG) Cast – Kelly Sheridan, Chiara Zanni 12:00, 1:30, 2:15 PMThe Games Maker – 3D (PG) Adv, FamilyCast - Joseph Fiennes, Tom Cavanagh12:00, 3:00 PMDynamite – 2D (PG) Action, Romance Cast - Vishnu Manchu, Pranitha Subhash5:00 PMPurgatory – 2D (12+)Horror, MysteryCast - Emilio Rivera, Taylor Nichols 12:45, 6:15 PMSavaale Samaali – 2D (PG) Action, DramaCast - Ashok Selvan, Bindu Madhavi7:45 PMWelcome Back – 2D (TBC) Comedy, CrimeCast - Anil Kapoor, Nana Patekar, John Abraham,Dimple Kapadia 12:30, 2:00, 7:45, 10:30 PM

RUWIScreen 1Welcome Back (Comedy) - TBCCast: John Abraham, Shruti Hassan, Nana Patekar, Anil Kapoor, Paresh Rawal2.30, 5.30, 8.30, 11.30 PMScreen 2Phantom (Action) – PG

Cast: Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif3.00, 7.15, 11.45 PMThe Transporter Refueled (Action) - PG12Cast: Ed Skrein, Ray Stevenson5.30, 10.00 PMScreen 3Brothers (Drama/ Sports) – 12+Cast: Akshay Kumar, Jackie Shroff3.30, 6.15, 9.00, 11.45 PM

SOHARHitman: Agent 47 - 2D (PG12) Action, Crime, Cast : Rupert Friend, Hannah Ware6:45 , 10:00 , 11:45 PMPhantom - 2D (H) (PG) Action, DramaCast : Saif Ali Khan, Katrina Kaif7:35 PMLoham - 2D (M) (PG) ActionCast : Mohanlal, Andrea Jeremiah, Siddique5:15, 7:30 PMThe Transporter Refueled - 2D (PG12) Action, Crime, ThrillerCast : Ed Skrein, Loan Chabanol2:30, 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 PMWelcome Back - 2D (TBC) Comedy, CrimeCast : Anil Kapoor, Nana Patekar, John Abraham, Dimple Kapadia4:30 , 08:30 , 11:20 PMThe Games Maker - 3D (PG) Adventure

Cast : Joseph Fiennes, Tom Cavanagh2:45 , 04:45 PMBarbie in Rock ‘N Royals - 2D (PG) Cast : Kelly Sheridan, Chiara Zanni2:00, 3:40 PMPurgatory - 2D (12+) Horror, MysteryCast : Emilio Rivera, Taylor Nichols2:00, 10:20, 11:55 PMA Walk in the Woods - 2D (15+) Adventure Cast: Robert Redford, Nick Nolte3:30, 5:30 PM

BURAIMI

The Transporter Refueled– 2D (Action, Crime, Thriller) (PG12)Cast: Ed Skrein, Ray StevensonTimings: 4:45, 8:15, 10:00, 11:45PMHitman: agent 47 – 2D (Action, Crime) (12+)Cast: Rupert Friend, Zachary QuintoTimings: 3:00, 6:30, 9:45PMBarbie Rocks N Royals– 2D (Animation) Cast: Kelly Sheridan, Chiara ZanniTimings: 3:00, 5:45PMLet Us Pray – 2D (Action / Thriller) (18+)Cast: Lake Bell, Pierce Brosnan, Owen WilsonTimings: 4:30, 7:15, 11:30PMPhantom – 2D (Action / Thriller) (PG)Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Katrina KaifTimings: 6:10PM

Welcome Back – 2D (Action / Thriller) (TBC)Cast: John Abraham, Shruti Hassan3:00, 8:45, 11:30PM

SURThe Transporter Refueled (Action | Crime | Thriller) (PG12) Cast: Ed Skrein, Loan Chabanol3:45, 07:15, 11:45 PMHitman: Agent 47 (Action) (PG12)Cast: Rupert Friend, Hannah WareTiming: 05:30, 09:45 PMThe Game Maker (3D) (Adventure) (PG) Cast: Joseph Fiennes, Tom Cavanagh5:15 PMBarbie in Rock ‘N Royals (PG) Cast: Kelly Sheridan, Chiara Zanni2:15, 03:45 PMWelcome Back (Hindi) (Comedy) (TBC) Cast: Anil Kapoor, Nana Patekar1:00, 09:00, 11:30 PMPhantom (Hindi) (Action | Drama) (PG) Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Katrina Kaif, Rajesh Tailang7:15 PM

SALALAH

Hitman Agent 47 (2D) (PG12) (Action) 10:05AM/12:15/11:55PMThe Transporter Refueled (2D) (Action) Cast: Ed Skrein, Loan Chabanol10:45AM/1:15/7:15/9:30/11:45 PM (PG12)Barbie in Rock ‘N Royals (2D) (PG) (Animation) Cast: Kelly Sheridan, Chiara ZanniTimings: 10:15/11:45AM/04:00PMWelcome Back (2D) (TBC) (Comedy/Crime/) Cast: Anil Kapoor, Nana Patekar, John Abraham, Dimple Kapadia4:00/9:00/11:15PMNo Escape (2D) (12+) (Action/Thriller) Cast: Lake Bell, Pierce Brosnan, Owen Wilson12:30/3:00/7:40 PMPurgatory (2D) (12+) (Horror/Mystery) Cast: Emilio Rivera, Taylor NicholsTimings: 02:30/5:45PMPhantom (2D) (PG) (Hindi) (Action/Drama) 6:45PMThe Games Maker (3D) (PG) (Adventure/) Cast: Joseph Fiennes, Tom Cavanagh, Megan Charpentier10:15AM/2:00PMDynamite (2D) (PG) (Telugu) (Action) Cast: Vishnu Manchu, Pranitha Subhash, J. D. Chakravarthy,5:00PM

BAHJA CINEMAFilm information 24540856 / Advance Booking 24540855Website: www.albahjacinemaoman.com

No Escape (Action/ Thriller ) Cast: Lake Bell, Pierce Brosnan, Owen Wilson2.00 p.m. & 6.00 p.m.CP No: 2278 ( 12+ )Transporter Refueled (Action/Thriller/Crime) Cast: Ed skrein, Ray Stevenson, Gabriella Wright4.00 p.m., 8.00 p.m., 10.00 p.m. & 11.55 p.m.CP No: 2280 ( PG 12)Purgatory (Dramma/ Horror) Cast: Oona Chaplin, Sergi Mendes, Ana Fernades10.00 p.m. & 11.55 p.m.CP No: 2283 ( 12+ )Lila & Eve ( Dramma / Thriller ) Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Shea Whigham, Viola Davis4.00 p.m. & 8.00 p.m.CP No: 2284 ( 12+ )Barbie Rock N Royals: ( Animation)Voice Overs: Kelly Sheridan, Chiara Zanni, Bethani Brown2.00 p.m. & 6.00 p.m.CP No: 2277 ( PG )

STAR CINEMAFilm information 24791641 / 24786776Website: www.isurf.co.om

Loham (Mal) ( Act ) Cast: Mohanlal, Andrea & Renji panikkar3-30 & 10-00 Pm At Cinema Main; 6-30 Pm At Cinema-2 Thani Oruvan (Tamil) ( Act\Drama )Cast: Jayam Ravi, Nayanthara & Arvind Swami6-30 Pm Cinema Main; 3-30 & 9-30 Pm Cinema-2Savaale Samaali (Tamil) (Rom/Act)Cast Ashok Selvan & Bindu Madhvi 3-45, 6-45 & 9-45 Pm At Cinema-3 Madura Naranga ( Mal ) ( Drama\Com ) Cast: Kunchako Boban, Biju Menon 3-45, 6-45 & 9-45 Pm At Cinema - 4Paayam Puli (Tamil) (Rom/Drama) From Friday Cast: Vishal & Kajal Agarwal 3-30 & 9-30 Pm Cinema-2; 6-30Pm Cinema Main Dynamite (Telugu) (Act) From Friday Cast: Manchu Vishnu, pranitha & Achu 3-00Pm At Cinema Main; 6-30 Cinema-2 & 9-45 Pm At Cinema-4 Next Change: Double Barrel (Mal) Programmes are subject to change

2:00, 5:15 pm 3:30, 7:15, 9:15, 11:15 PM 2.30, 5.30, 8.30, 11.30 PM

@MGM @SHATTI @AZAIBA @RUWI

Barbie Rock N Royals (Animation)(PG)Voice Overs: Kelly Sheridan, Chiara Zanni

12:30 & 9:30 PM

Southpaw (Action) (12+)Cast : Jake Gyllenhaal, Rachel McAdams

The Transporter Refueled - 2D (Action/Crime/Thriller) (PG12)Cast : Ed Skrein, Loan Chabanol, Ray Stevenson

Welcome Back (Comedy) – TBC Cast: John Abraham, Shruti Hassan, Nana Patekar, Anil Kapoor, Paresh Rawal

PRAYER TIMINGS

Dhuhr 12.11pm

Asr 3.39pm

Maghrib 6.29pm

Isha 7.41pm Fajr (Tomorrow) 4.32am

WITH LOVE

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

WITH LOVE

AVANISHSeptember 3, 2010

AVINASHSeptember 3, 2010

RUHIKA C.K.September 4, 2008

MOHAMMAD AQSA ANJUMSeptember 4, 2008

K.R.NAKITHRASeptember 4, 2011

JESSICA SANTOSHSeptember 3, 2010

WEATHER

360

Maximum

300

Minimum

TEMPERATURE 40-90%RELATIVE HUMIDITY

LIFESTYLEC11T H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

GHAWIBAZAAR

BUY LOCAL: DISHDASHAThe predominantly white, full-length garment worn by Omani men is known as Dishdasha or Kandoura. The robe is a symbol of national identity and one’s own individuality. The garment can be made in other colours too. People opt to wear white during summer while darker colours are preferred in winter.

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)

WHATOmani dishdasha has a long slit opening at the centre of the chest. A long tassle known as Fareeka hangs down from the neckline, while a specifi c pattern of embroidery adorns the wrists, neckline, and the shoulder blades. Bisht is the most popu-lar accessory that complements the robe. Made of camel hair or wool, the cloak is often embroidered and quilted with golden threads. It is worn over the garment during weddings and reception parties. Misbah, which consists of 33 beads made of amber, rare jewels or other materials of diff erent colours, is another common accessory.

HOW MUCHThe average cost for tailoring a dishdasha is about OMR20. Though cotton is the preferred fabric, many innovations are happening in the dishda-sha manufacturing sector. For example, Al Obaid-ani Stores, the pioneers in dishdasha making in Oman, has introduced a unique product known as ‘wrinkle-free dishdasha’.

WHEREReadymade dishdashas are available in souqs and popular garments shops across the Sultanate. How-ever, many people prefer custom-tailored garments from seasoned tailors. Check out latest collections at Al Obaidani Stores at: dev.ingwebtech.com

Have a favourite Omani product or shop? Tell us about it: ameerudheen@timesofoman.com

Standing majestically in the middle of the town is the Khasab Castle

in the Governorate of Musandam. Having a strong presence for more than four

centuries, the present structure was built on the ruins of the old castle.

lifestyle@timesofoman.com

KHASAB CASTLEAn Edifi ce Not to Miss

A ccording to the bro-chure distributed at the castle, “The Por-tuguese constructed the present fortress

at the beginning of the 17th Cen-tury with an ambitious plan for dominion over the Strait of Hor-muz. However, their hopes were dashed when, in 1624, they failed to capture Hormuz. A quarter of a century later, the Portuguese were expelled from Oman and the castle was modifi ed to suit their own military needs.”

It goes on to add that the castle, which housed the wali and his family in recent centuries, and which once held prisoners, has been restored and transformed into a regional museum.

The castle’s gigantic middle tower has been renovated to be-come a museum for displaying various handicrafts and archaeo-logical collections in Musandam Governorate. Also renovated are the housing facilities in the castle, which were converted into a fur-nished home containing the entire furniture of the castle, including an exhibition of traditional clothes and ornaments.

A model of Bayt AlQefel (the lock house) is built in the castle’s courtyard, with exhibits of the boat types this governorate is fa-mous for, along with a model of the Al-Arish suspended house. A well has been dug that demonstrates the method of drawing water from it, in addition to a traditional oven and hand mill (a hand mill is a grinder made of rock or solid stone in the form of two circular grindstones, the top one of which revolves on the lower. A hole in the centre of the stones was where a metal peg was inserted for turning the mill by hand).

The castle’s courtyard sta-tions boats and houses repre-sentative of the distinctive he-ritage of Musandam.

The museum which is part of the central tower of the castle, exhibits in-depth information on rock art, geology, wildlife, ar-chitecture and other aspects of Musandam culture. Documenta-ry fi lm footage and a treasury of artefacts accompany the exhibits.

Of particular interest is a fan-tastic collection of antique jirz, the small, long-handled axe that has become a central symbol in the heritage of Musandam.

Timings: 9:00am to 4:00pm from Saturday to Thursday. On Friday it is 8:00am to 11:00am.

The castle’s gigantic

middle tower has been

renovated to become a

museum for displaying

various handicrafts and

archaeological collections

in Musandam Governorate

LIFESTYLEC12 T H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 5

THE MUMMY (AL-MUMMIA)SHADI ABDEL SALAM, 1969Touted as the most successful full-length feature fi lm by Shadi Abdel Salam, The Mummy is set in Egypt at the end of the 19th century. It tells the story of a peasant family living off the illegal trade in pharaonic treasures. The overall theme of the movie is the clash between ancient and modern Egypt and the importance of preserving Pharaonic culture. Abdel Salam, also a great costume and set designer, based everything on meticulous research and its aesthetic rigour was never rivalled in Egyptian cinema.

THE NIGHT (AL-LAIL)MOHAMMAD MALAS, 1993This Syrian fi lm is about the director’s home town of Quneitra, which re-mains in the ruins after Israelis devastated it in the 1967 war. The movie tells the story of three generations. It begins with the Syrian fi ght for in-dependence against the French in the 1930s, moves through the 1948 war with Israel, and into recent times. A highly acclaimed director, Mohammed Malas’ fi lm is infl uenced by Tarkovsky in the use of long, contemplative dream and memory sequences.

THE CALL OF THE NIGHTINGALE (DOA AL-KARAWAN)HENRY BARAKAT, 1960The fi lm, based on a novel by the great Taha Hussein, tells the story of the heroine, a peasant girl, who decides to take revenge on a handsome engineer who seduced her sister and caused her ‘honour’ killing by her uncle. Though she becomes his live-in maid to take the revenge, she fi nds herself falling in love with him. The role was played by young Faten Hamama who went on to become a super star in the Arab fi lm industry.

FERTILE MEMORY (AL DHAKIRA AL KHASBA)MICHEL KHLEIFI, 1980Considered as the fi nest Arab fi lm-maker of his generation, Palestinian Michel Khleifi tells the story of two women in Fertile Memory. One is a young Palestinian novelist, a divorcée, living with her daughters in the Occupied Territories, while the other is Khleifi ’s illiterate aunt, who lost her husband just after the 1948 war. This is the fi rst feminist Arab fi lm that won critical acclaim because of its political engagement.

POPULAR ARAB FILMS

12 ANGRY LEBANESEZEINA DACCACHE, 2009Zeina Daccache’s fi lm is an attempt to reform the country’s criminal and penal laws and improve prison living conditions. With the movie, Daccache also was able to extend her drama-therapy work to prisons across Lebanon. The deeply moving fi lm is full of humanity as it describes the process of lifting men from states of despair into a renewed desire to live and build a diff erent future.

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

T H U R S D AY, S E P T E M B E R 3 , 2 0 1 5

RENT D2

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com classifi eds@timesofoman.comTel.: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461

FOR RENT

Twin villa for rent in Bowshar, near

Muscat Private Hospital.

Contact 92760281

Brand new 2 bedroom fl at for rent

in Mabela. Contact 92460281

We have small building for rent in

Bowshar commercial building can

be used as staff accommodation or

store. # 93782735 / 99208033

We have 2BHK in Ghubra 18th

November Street near sea 2 rooms

sitting, hall, Kitchen & 3 bathrooms.

Contact : 93782735 / 99208033

We have fl ats, offi ces, shops, ware-

house, basement for rent in Ghubra,

Al Khuwair, Ghala, Azaiba, Maibela.

Contact : 93329476 / 99208033

We have offi ces for rent in Ghala

brand new building.

Contact: 93782735 / 99208033

Two shops in Muttrah Souq, for rent

more details pleas.

Contact: 91214849 / 95729711

600 SQT commercial fl at for rent,

opposite Oman fl our mill Darsait. For

more details please

Contact: 91214849 / 95729711

One bedroom apartment at Al Hail

South. Contact: 99336255

2 bedrooms at Darsait Behind Indian

School. Contact: 99336255

Shop / fl at 2 bedroom 1sitting room

for rent at Al Hamriya main road.

Contact: 97236696

Flat for rent at WK near Jabir

Bin Zeid mosque monthly rent

R.O 250/- , 12 chq payable on 1st.

of every month. Contact: Abdulla

99445880/98292846 Morgan

1 Bedroom attached, toilet & kitchen

in AL Khuwair R.O 140/-.

Contact: 95154331

2 bedroom fully furnished luxury

fl at for rent at Ghala for short or long

term basis. Contact: 91786526 /

99881653

Luxury fully furnished 2 bedrooms

fl at at Al Khuwair & luxury fully fur-

nished 5 bedroom villas at Madinat

Al Ilam. For short or long term lease

contract. Contact Atlas Real Estate &

Rent a Car LLC.

Contact : 93201688 / 92888376

Tel: 24833848 / 24834888

4bedrooms villa with 2 halls,

4 bathrooms in Darsait behind

Khimijis Mart. Contact: 92584715 /

24700120

For rent offi ce & fl at Ruwi- CBD.

Contact: 92820734/ 95345909

One BHK Wadi Kabeer near Sana

RO 190/-. Contact: 95094028

2bedrooms, 2 bathrooms,

1 kitchen opp. Star Cinema.

Contact: 92926199

Bobcat Grader and roller for rent.

Contact: 94584688

1BHK fl ats available for rent in CBD

area. Contact: 98116480

D2 T H U R S D AY, S E P T E M B E R 3 , 2 0 1 5

DAILY GUIDE

We have 3BHK fully furnished villa

in Ghubra 18th November near Auto-

matic Restaurant.

Contact: 93782735/ 99208033

2 BHK Flats for rent Muttrah near

Oman house. Contact: 97007934 /

92629232

2+3 BHK Qurum. Contact: 99024730

Studio fl at Al Khuwair.

Contact : 99024730

1+2 BHK Wadi Kabir. Contact: 99024730

Various rooms for rent in

Al Khuwair near Ibis Hotel.

Contact : 95124975

Spacious 2BHK in MBD.

Contact : 99713489

3 BHK, 3 bathrooms 2 balconies,

nr. Al Hassan , W/Kabir R.O 325/-.

Contact: 99384640

Basement in MBD. Contact: 99713489

1BHK Al Falaj. Contact: 97799175 /

92144045

Pent house for rent 1 sitting,

1 bedroom, 2 bathrooms, 1 kitchen

RO 225/-, location Al Khuwair, near

DHL Courier. Contact 95620900 /

92976722

1BHK, 2BHK, 3BHK new fl at available

at Mabela in front of Modern English

School Contact: 96239126

3Bedrooms Flat in Al Hail 92817777

Room with A.C Al Khuwair R.O 120/-

. Contact: 97799175

1000 sq mtrs industrial land for rent

in Ghala suitable for warehouse etc.

Contact: 24700120 / 92584715

We have 2BHK fully furnished

in Bareeq Al Shatti Qurum near

Opera House. Contact : 93782735 /

99208033

3BHK well maintained fl at (villa

type) G. fl oor split A/C separate en-

trance, parking, and compound

available in Al Khuwair behind Sagar

Polyclinic Way no. 3922, Block 239,

Villa No. 1839. Contact: 99253125

House for rent in Sidab 8 rooms,

6 toilets RO 550/-.

Contact: 96606679 / 99856551

Flat for rent near Al Nahdha Hospi-

tal in Hamriya. Contact: 97380548 /

99680499

2 rooms, 2 toilets, kitchen in

Al Ansab. Contact 94229023

Brand new fl at 2 bedrooms with

1 Majlis, 3 bathrooms, kitchen in

South Ghubra behind Oman oil

RO 350/-. Contact 95367767

Flats in Al Khuwair 33 &

Wadi Al Kabir. Contact: 92800007

4 bedroom villa with 3 maid room,

big compound & parking area. Ideal

for kindergarten or expat tenants

residency. Contact:24566217 /

24564686

Offi ce & retail space available -

Alasfoor Plaza, Qurum.

Contact: 24566217 / 24564686

For rent if require fl ats for rent in

Wadi Kabir please send me

messages through Whatsapp.

Contact: 99376454

1,000 sq mtrs industrial land in

Misfah Industrial area near to

Khanco. OMR 1,500 Monthly. It has

Electricity and boundary wall.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

1 & two bedroom fl ats available for

rent in wadi-kabir (opp: pencil bldg),

ideal for company staff / families -

bulk corporate deal possible.

Contact 97677170

Bath attached room for rent

Al Khuwair. Contact 99743569

3 Bedroom fl at with 3 attached

toilets, split A/C, brand new avail-

able, behind Kims Hospital.

Contact 95225662

4 bedrooms villa with 2 halls, 4

bathrooms in Darsait behind Khimjis

mart. Contact: 24700120 / 92584715

Available furnished meeting hall for

seminars on a hourly, daily,

monthly, yearly basis.

please contact 93203773 :

Email: mbdeast@gmail.com

Shop/ comm./ Resi building 1&2 bed

fl at available in Wadi Kabir (near

Lulu) one bedroom fl ats 200/- Wadi

Kabir & Misfa land for rent 1000

SQM Al Khuwair 6 bedroom villa

900/- . Contact: 99451168

3BHK Flats & 6BHK Villa in Azaibah.

Contact : 96775026

Furnished room for rent at

Al Khuwair R.O 225/- for family only.

Contact: 99251975

1BHK, Darsait, walking distance

to ISM , neat and clean building,

ground fl oor, OMR 260/- per month

rent Call IQRAR on 99076557

2BHK with split A/C in MSQ Opp.

Al Fair. Contact : 96708000

1 BHK with split A/C in Darsait,

opp. Muscat Municipality.

Contact : 96708000

3BR villa, sitting, dining & hall,

Azaiba behind Al Meera H- Market.

Contact: 99259977 / 95033008

2 & 3 BHK fl at in Al Khuwair.

Contact 99792181

1, 2, 3 BHK fl at in Qurum.

Contact 99792181

3 & 4 BHK Villa in Al khuwair.

Contact 99792181

3 BHK fl at in Azaiba.

Contact 99792181

New 1 & 2 BHK in Ruwi, total 15 fl ats.

Contact 99792181

New 1 & 2 BHK fl at in Ghubra.

Contact 99792181

Industrial shed / warehouse for

immediate lease in Rusayl industrial

estate. Contact : 24792173

Email: abcon@omantel.net.om

3 Bedroom fl at at Al Khuwair.

Contact: 99447257/97014234

2+ 6 BHR villa Al Khuwair.

Contact: 99024730

1+2 BHK Ruwi, Darsait. Contact : 99024730

1BHK Mumtaz R.O 250/-. Contact: 97799175

Fully furnished 3 BHK accommo-

dation with all spacious rooms in a

villa at Darsait near ISD.

Contact: 9526 5289 / 9604 8422

Brand new 2 BHK fl at for rentin Wadi Hatat, No7, Opp. Khalid bin

Waleed Mosque. Contact: 99353899

250 sq mtrs restaurant for rent in

Plaza Hotel, Walja Ruwi.

Contact 99326339

FOR RENT

DAILY GUIDET H U R S D AY, S E P T E M B E R 3 , 2 0 1 5 D3

2BHK & 1BHK fl ats available

in Darsait. Contact : 99357586 /

97500025

2 BHK pent-house having very spa-

cious balcony with sea & city view

RO 325 and 1BHK RO 240, adjacent

to Indian Nursery Darsait.

Contact : 99476728 / 98484415

4 BHK single villa in Al Khuwair.

Contact: 97616158

I BHK Flat -4 Nos at Hamriya – R.O.

200/- . 2 BHK - 2 Nos / 1 BHK- 2 Nos,

at Wattayya R/A near the mosque-

for Families. Contact 96457757 -

9 am to 7 Pm.

House for rent in Sidab at reason-

able rent. Contact:: 95555162 /

95755953

Flat for rent with AC in Wadi Kabir.

Contact: 95555162 /95755953

Fabulous AC fl at at Al Khoud 3 bed-

rooms, hall and kitchen RO 270/-

for rent. Contact: 99334699

Brand new villa Bosher 37, 4 BHK.

Contact: 91936034

SELL/BUY

Looking for purchase of a

residential building with minimum

25 unoccupied fl ats in Ghala,

Bousher, Azaiba, Ghubrah.

Contact: 99261522

Beauty salon in Ghubrah for sale

Contact: 94689448

Sales tyre shop. Contact 97964518

Small medium Business in Darsait

with furniture rent 260/- P/M for

sale. Contact: 91391353

Godrej diesel 3.0 ton forklift for sale,

model 2014 in immaculate condition.

Serious buyers – pl contact

+968 9321 8310 / 93223382.

Aluminium workshop at Wadi

Kabir with all machineries and 3

skilled workers. Contact: 99536206

/ 99605915

Restaurant For Sale: Excellent

Location at Al Rustaq on

Main Highway. Next to Qaboos

Mosque and High Court Complex.

Contact # 99227861.

Wall papers, grass carpets sale

& fi xing. Contact: 99834373 /

96642500

Shop for sale in Ruwi High street,

Contact 96078411

400 sq mtrs Commercial/Residen-

tial land in Maabela Phase 5 Block 2.

OMR 140 Thousand. Tel: 99333479

or 95215360

Used Fabrication machinery for sale

: Fabrication machinery and tools

in excellent condition for immediate

sale. Contact 94652485/ 99273774/

99202278

FOR SALE

We have complete offi ce furniture

for sale very nice & aff ordable price .

Contact : 93782735 / 99208033

Villa for rent in Al Khuwair 33,

8 bedrooms & 5 bathrooms with

parking area near Taimur Mosque.

Contact: 99366624

Room with toilet in Bowshar.

Contact: 96961306

Flat and show room for rent Al Khu-

wair 33, Al Ghubrah, Darsait and

Jibroo. Contact: 24485240 /

24485241 / 93651633 / 92109563

Room for rent. Contact Farahat

98020768, Hilal: 96541263

House in Muscat, near Muscat

temple. Contact : 97711551

Flat for rent penthouse Al Amerat

Al Mahaj. Contact: 92738298

GOOD NEWS

MATRIMONIAL

LOST

Indian Muslim male 40 years seek

suitable alliance. Contact: 93781101

A 28yrs Keralite Muslim good look-

ing boy working in Oman from a de-

cent family, looking for alliance from

similar background. # 99230928

Ezhava Lady, Divorcee,

37, 5.3”, Pharmacist in Muscat.

suryakv2010@gmail.com,

+91 9961176066

Indian male 40 yrs Christian,

working in Muscat, .looking for life

partner, divorced or single.

Contact: 96059801

Seeking alliance for our son from

Muslim families. Interested families

Contact: 99889590

Ayuredic massage backache,

joint pain, neck pain etc.

Contact 98254909

Ayurvedic treatment for backache,

paralysis, arthritis etc & massage,

All Season (Vaidyaratnam). Contact

24475280 / 95371664 / 92504980

www.siddhayur.com

FREE INFORMATION ABOUT ISLAM. If you would like to know

more about Islam, please call:

99425598, 99250777, 99353988,

99253818, 99341395, and

99379133. For ladies: 99415818,

99321360, 99730723

Orvisit:www.islamfact.com

Fully furnished room with attached

bath and sharing kitchen, living &

dining with all other facilities in

Ghala - RO-160/- Contact 99763306

Single bedroom fl at at Ruwi,

Al Falaj area. Contact: 95698714

Single room, bath Darsait R.O 140/-.

Contact: 93289652

Room with attached bath available

at Al Khuwair for working couples or

ladies. Contact: 96001490

Fully furnished sharing Executive

bachelor at Wadi Kabir. #99325387

Separate room with A/c, Small

Fridge and Bed, for non-cooking

Asian bachelor, behind Shell fi lling

station, Ghoubra round about.

Contact: 94263390

Furnished room for rent at

Al Khuwair RO 225/- for family only.

Contact 99251975

Fully furnished 1BHK with all house-

hold items in Darsait near Lulu on

monthly Basis. #99378397/99493500

Sharing accommodation in CBD

area for non cooking Executive

bachelors, wifi free, advance deposit.

Contact 91852710

Sharing accommodation available

for working lady or couples near

Ruwi Church. Contact: 92837206

Furnished room for Indian Bachelor

in Al Falaj area (Ruwi) & Lady in

Wadi Kabir (near Al Maya).

Contact 96761960

Room attached toilet and kitchen

near Indian School Wadi Kabir.

Contact: 95345537

ACC. AVAILABLE

ACC. AVAILABLE

AVAILABLE

FOR EXPATS

Party & Wedding equipment rentals.

Full line, from Tables, Linen & Skirting,

Chairs & Chair covers, Cutlery, Crockery,

Glassware, Chafi ng Dishes, Ice Sculp-

tures, to Large Sound Systems and spec-

tacular lighting. Call Andrea 9606 2222

for Catering and Croyden 9623 5555 for

Sound & Light. ww.tunesoman.com,

E-mail: info@tunesoman.com

From owner plot of land near

Zanzibar, airport price RO 15000.

Contact 99348943

MOTOR VEHICLE FOR SALE

HONDA CR-V 2008, purchased

2009, 4WD, Full option, No.1 model,

Cruise control, leather seats, Sun

roof, 1,23,000KMS, OMR 5000/-,

expat leaving, for sale at SOHAR,

Contact Samuel 99108311

Prado ,2012. Contact : 99336093

2000 model man prime mover

excellent condition.

Contact: 99316151

Sportage, 2013. Contact 99336093

Land Cruiser 2012.

Contact 99336093

Villa for rent in Walaja

Honda road. Contact: 91218273

Hossain Mustak has lost Bang-

ladeshi Passport No. AA 3741669.

Finder please handover to ROP.

Required investors for diff erent

projects. Contact: 99674870

New company seek partnership.

Contact: 96996938

General Investors. Gsm-99674870

SITUATION WANT-

ED

BUSINESS

Fully furnished room for a decent

expatriate. independent kitchen,

bathroom in Wadi Adai.

Contact 96243086 at 5p.m.

WANTED

Indian coca requirement with expe-

rience. Contact: 99209264

Shahnaz Shahen Shah Mirza has

lost Indian Passport No. G 2696868.

Finder please handover to ROP

UNIVERSAL SCRAP BUYERS AT

AMAZING PRICESConvert ANY type of Scrap into Money by selling us the scrapGreat prices are guaranteed

for our clients!Call this number now for

urgent response - 96059470

*Kindly note that the scrap should be 50 tons onwards

AFFORDABLE QUALIFIED STAFF AVAILABLE:

Hurry and call this number now! 95967902

Our professionals give YOU:

CLASSY, CREATIVE AND AFFORDABLE INTERIOR DESIGN

Hurry now and call this number 91494149

Used furniture & Electronic items, offi ce & house. Contact: 99834373

/96642500

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

DAILY GUIDED4 T H U R S D AY, S E P T E M B E R 3 , 2 0 1 5

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION VACANT

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com classifi eds@timesofoman.comTel.: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461

DOMESTIC HELPER

DOMESTIC HELPER

DRAFTSMAN

EDUCATION

ENGINEER

ENGINEERACCOUNTANT

BEAUTY

Required a House Maid preferably

Muslim for a very reputed Omani

Family in Muscat. Should be able to

speak in Hindi / Arabic.

Contact 95216563

Urgently required Accountant Gulf

experience to handle accounts up to

fi nalization. Contact : 99658756

Urgently required Junior Accountant. Please send CV:

hr.azatllc@gmail.com

DRIVER

MEDICAL

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

Required Beautician for a beauty

salon in Muscat (visa available).

Contact: 97605308

Required experienced Hairdressers / full beauticians with

exp in Ghubrah. Contact:97964519 /

94241385

DRIVER

ADMIN

MISCELLANEOUS

Egyptian language school Mus-cat requires 2 English Teachers (bachelor degree in education) + 5

years experience with IELTS or Toifel)

applications with supporting docu-

ments to be sent by mail to

egymuscat@yahoo.com

or fax 24697047

Urgently required experienced Teachers for Mathematics and Sci-ence (physics) for a reputed bilingual

School in Al Ansab. Send CV to

Email – aleithar@hotmail.com or

Contact - 24585343

Post Graduate researcher required. Contact 99229700

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED

SITUATION WANT-

EDSIT. WANTED

SITUATION WANT-

EDSIT. WANTED

K.Design LLC requires “2d & 3d Draftsman” with minimum 3 yrs

experience. Send CV to

k.designoman@gmail.com

DRAFTSMAN

IT

SALES / MARKETING

35 yrs male, MBA Finance with

5 years GCC Accounts & Admin

experience. VDL.NOC available,

looking for suitable placement.

Contact:96763275

Indian male having 5 years of

experience in Oman as accountant

cum offi ce administrator with Omani

driving license looking for a new

placement. Contact: 94173818, email:

nibinkjames@gmail.com

Fresher looking for a career

opportunity B.Com good physique,

quick learner English speaking.

Contact: 93368464

Indian CA 10yrs of Oman experi-

ence in treasury, fi nancial report-

ing, consolidation, ERP implemen-

tation in Trading, construction,

Oil & Gas sectors. NOC available.

Email: caramdas.s5@gmail.com

GSM: 91310237

Male 29 yrs, 5+ experience, 4 yrs in

HME (Offi ce Assistant) 1 yr experi-

ence in accounts & marketing seeking

for suitable position.

Contact: 00968 96505486

Pakistani Qualifi cation M.Com (fi -

nance) experience 2 years as Internal

Auditor, 3 years as Finance Manager.

Contact: 00968- 91490367

Part time Accountant, up to fi naliza-

tion, looking for job after 5pm (loca-

tion prefer - MSQ to Al Hail).

Contact: 95694737

House maid looking for job.

Contact: 99879576

Looking for project Managers, Site Engineers & Offi ce Secretary for a

construction company

Email Id: rgeorge@omantd.com

Established real estate company looking for male or female property agents for leasing and sales of the

property. Applicant must be Gradu-

ate, possess Omani or GCC driving

license. Having oman market experi-

ence. Apply with NOC. Attractive

salary +commission. Send your CV:

property@ labdmarkmuscat.com

Required Indian or Pakistani calligrapher & Painter (staff accommodation)

Contact# 24480487/24483493

Mechanical Engineer 22 yrs Indian

male currently on permanent visa

and valid Omani driving license

seeking for suitable job.

Contact : 91652927 / 99680181

Email: fawariz.09@gmail.com

HSE Engineer, NEBOSH IGC and

IOSH certifi ed with 2 years industry

and Oil & Gas experience looking for

urgent placement.

Contact 91476537.

Indian diploma Civil Eng, 2 yrs

exp. Infrastructures project (4G –

Towers, substation) landscaping &

Auto CAD. Contact: 94756183

Email: indianexpat1@gmail.com

B.Tech Electrical & Electronics with

1 year experience seeking for suit-

able job. Contact: 91 9497883413

Email: rakesh1.mohan@gmail.com

Business Development Manager/Business Manager for Software

Business. Gulf experience preferred.

hamoudj@yahoo.com

Required Marketing Manager

for educational programs.

Contact: 99674870

Vacancy for lady Doctor on morn-

ing shift for clinic at Ghala with OR

Without MOH. Contact: 97746296

Medical CARE Centre, Multi Specialty Clinic, Seeb, requires General Practioner, Medical Lab Technician & Pharmacist. Send CV

at Email : sarita_h23@yahoo.com or

call 97884856

ART DIRECTOR

DRIVER

Operation Manager with accounts

back ground, B.com, Indian, 20 years

experience, presently working in a

transport company, holding oman

license seeks suitable placement.

contact.95254864

Part Time Accounting, Accounts

Finalization, Audit Preparation,

Internal Audit, Monthly Profi tabil-

ity Reports, Onsite Tally Training,

Contact : 96975454,

Email :ibfc.gcc@gmail.com

Part time Accounting qualifi ed &

experienced Accountant.

Contact: 93858725

Jordanian Accountant (ACPA) with

more than 15 yrs experience in Oman

(Accounts, Purchase & fi nance.

Contact: 92881223

Email: kamal_sarhan@yahoo.com

Indian male MBA fi nance & pursu-

ing CMA having 2.6 years experi-

ence in Auditing & accounts fi eld

looking for a job in Muscat.

Contact 92640613,

Email: shabeersha797@gmail.com

13 years exp (7.5 years Gulf exp)

B.Com Graduate, looking for Account-

ant job, GSM No:-92957064 ,

NOC Available.

B.Com, CA Inter (Indian) with 5 years

experience (2 years GCC) in Accounts

& Audit fi eld. Contact: 95584531/

razikthumbe@gmail.com

MBA fi nance having 5+ years

experience in accountant with UAE

D/L & NOC available.

Contact : 96970930

Email: tahirabbas85@hotmail.com

Indian female M.A Economics with

diploma in Indian 8 foreign account-

ing having 1 year experience in

Oman seeking suitable placement.

Contact: 95714285

Accountant 4 yrs experience look-

ing for job. Contact 96182302 Email:

rishad.sainudheen@gmail.com

Accountant 36 yrs Indian male

10 yrs UAE experience in Accounts,

Insurance currently on visit visa

seeks suitable placement.

Contact: 96334958 / 95217432

Indian male, 30 years, CMA (Inter),

M.Com 8 years experience in

Accounting, Auditing with NOC&

valid Oman D/L. Contact: 96746420

Email: sijuthampi@ymail.com

Accountant with more than 6 years

experience in SAOG company look-

ing for middle management position.

Strong English/Arabic correspond-

ence. Valid DL. NOC available.

Contact 91116924

Indian female B.Tech (EEE) MBA

fi nance with 1and half years experi-

ence as Bank Offi cer in India seeking

suitable placement.

Contact: 91358676 / 98157895

Email: sujivu88@gmail.com

Indian male B.Com Graduate 24

years looking for suitable place-

ment. Contact: 97219505

25 years male BBA (Hons) CFAC

ACCA having 3 years experience

as top management operations,

Accounts seeking suitable place-

ment. Contact : 92829595

Email: saqib4u1@hotmail.com

Young, energetic 24 yrs, ACCA

fi nalist, Advanced diploma in

Accounting and business, seeking

suitable placement in accounts,

fi nance or audit.

Contact: 92430152

Email: rau_dey@yahoo.com

Indian CA with 15 yrs exp. working

as Head of Finance for US MNC. NOC

Available - 94047434

Urgent: Accountant Indian fe-

male 6+ years experience degree

B.com (AC) MBA middle level

carrier skill cum tally 9 balance

sheet auditing payroll profi t &

loosest visit visa.

Contact: 91551164/91175456

Email: mk.jothipriya@gmail.com

A Sri Lankan lady chartered

accountant with fi ve years experi-

ence (including article ship), on

family visa in Oman looking for a

suitable job. Contact: 91259845

Email: amashermila@gmail.com

Indian 23 years B.B.M diploma in

computer accounting tally 9 excel

3 years (India) 1 year Oman as

accountant, stores sales accounts,

local visa NOC available.

Contact: 92579311

Indian 24 years MBA fi nance

2 years experience seeking suitable

placement. Contact: 98222753

Email - shemeejup@gmail.com

Driver with car. Contact : 91452930

Wanted driver. Contact 95112461

Driver job wanted. Contact: 99343782

Car with driver or without cat

specially Companies.

Contact 97943750 / 97408900

Need Heavy Drivers with valid GCC

D/L.Contact.92252507

Email:- hamood@omankmtc.com

Heavy Duty Driver with license &

NOC. Contact: 95959494 or

E-mail: jobdsint@gmail.com

REQUIRED URGENTLY Heavy Driver & Light Driver, Omani National. Contact -99752720.

Email : cvoman5@gmail.com,

Fax : 24703313

Looking for an experienced house driver for an Omani family. Inter-

ested candidates may #96203333

Light vehicle driver. Contact: 99347515

Experienced Driver with car or

without car. Visa available.

GSM 942 888 63 / 9905 3844

Driver heavy duty required urgent-ly for trailer. Oman / GCC experience

must. Those ready for immediate

joining. Contact: 99310859

Indian female 24 years BE Elec-

tronics now in Oman visiting visa

searching job for any administrative

sectors telecommunicating

banking teaching.

Contact: 95935867 / 99536948

Email: anjujose011@gmial.com

Filipina, 10 yrs experience in

Fashion Retail, Shipment, Logistics,

Inventory, Warehouse Control and

Store Management is seeking

employment. Call +971565833126

or 97728418.

Indian male MBA 33 yrs having 10

yrs exp seeking suitable placement

in Administration / HR/ Operations/

Coordination/ Logistics etc. Holding

valid D/L. Contact - 99054786

Indian male 2+yrs oman exp in HR.

joing immediatly. release available.

Contact :93671437

Indian Female MBA, 3 Year Experi-

ence in Admin MIS ,

Family Visa. Contact 98234427,

jkjsmith01@gmail.com

INDIAN(Male) MBA with 5+ years

of experience in HR and ADMIN.

Looking for suitable position.

96395254, shm1691@gmail.com

14 years of gulf experience in HR /

Admin & logistics fl uent in Arabic /

English with D/L looking for suitable

position. Contact: 95824598

Indian, 16 yrs Oman experience in

Admin / Offi ce management and

have D/L. Also have accounting

knowledge. Contact: 99573353

32 years male, 11 years experience

in indoor sales graphic designing,

administration events looking for

job. Contact: 98392508

Purchase, Admin, Indian male,

15 yrs Gulf experience.

Contact95435370

Art director / creative director/ 8 years experience with Omani

license, NOC. Contact : 95136862

Email: aunmoeid@gmail.com`

Leading construction company requires two Civil Engineer with

minimum 5 years site experience in

gulf. require gulf license and NOC.

Send your CV to

degree.engineer2015@gmail.com

A Mechanical Engineer with sales-

manship experience of 5 years &

above preferable with Oman drivers

license and NOC. Please forward your

CV to almaadhi.trd@gmail.com

Sales man / interior designer want-

ed for prestigious interior design and

offi ce furniture Supply Company. Ex-

perience and drivers license needed.

Excellent remuneration package.

Email: tony@materials-plus.com

Required Salesman in Salalah very

good commission.

Contact 92760281

Looking for Outdoor Salesman for

heavy equipment spare parts.

Contact - 93292015,

Email: mail.om@gulfcenter.co

Sales Executive Industrial products

: 2-3 yrs of exp. with good commu-

nication & computer skills. D/L is

must. Send resume to

salescvv@hotmail.com

Looking for driving job driving

experience more than 3 years.

Contact: 97459022

Driving job. Contact: 99109458

Light duty driver 5 years exp in

Oman. Contact: 92602182

Looking for job driver with car.

Contact 96493236

L.T.D driver exp, 5 years know Hindi,

English, Arabic, and Education B.A.

Contact 98522914

Pakistani driver, 5 years ex seeks

placement. Contact: 97429442

Driver available 24, HRS, car with-

out car. Contact: 98522914

Pakistani diploma civil (Eng) 24 year

1.5 years experience in Pak)

2 years in (Oman). Contact: 97138320

Looking job LTV D with car.

Contact: 94436276 / 97433432

Driver looking for job, 20 years

experience. Contact: 94795033

Light driving with 6 years experi-

ence in Oman. Contact: 94001751

Light vehicle Driver 5 years of

experience, with Oman driving license

looking for a job. Contact 97319805 /

92171166

Indian light duty driver. Contact 94269229

Light Driver. Contact 95779594,

Ruwi

H.T. V Driver, Pakistani experience,

6 yrs, seeks work in company only.

Contact 93985087

Light duty driver, 8 yrs exp.

Contact: 96736744

Sri Lankan driver. Contact

97387112

Require experienced Electricians for immediate appointment in Dubai.

Applicants must be able to work inde-

pendently. Contact: 99869002,

Email: fwi2009@outlook.com

MEP Engineer on urgent basis

required for immediate placement.

Please contact tgi17@omantel.net.om

12 yrs of Oman experienced Chief

Accountant looking for immediate

placement. Contact 99513082

Email: devan801@gmail.com

Accounts fi nance Indian male

35 yrs B.Com, M.B.A tally exp

9.7 yrs exp 1.5 yr Oman family visa

N.O.C available. Contact : 93257426.

Email: sibigeorgep@gmail.com

Accountant with more than 30

years experience in both fi nancial

and cost accounting seek part time

assignment in Muscat or Sohar.

Contact 98598099

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

Indian Civil Draftsman looking

suitable placement 5 yrs experience

(Gulf). Contact: 98064097

*Classifi ed Advertisement space booking with text,

should be done till 12.00 noon for next day’s publication.

* Subject to space availability

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

DAILY GUIDET H U R S D AY, S E P T E M B E R 3 , 2 0 1 5 D5

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED

MANAGER/ SUPERVISOR

Lecturer in nursing(MSc) special-

ized in OBG, 3 years experience, on

visit visa, seeking teaching opportu-

nities Contact:90125347

Indian male, MSc, MPhil, BEd

Chemistry,2 Yrs Teaching experi-

ence and having experience in lab

analyst, currently on visit visa, seeks

suitable post. Contact 90208673

ENT surgeon board degree & pro-

metric exam looking for a job in pri-

vate hospitals & medical complexes.

Contact: 91347226

OB/ Gynecologist board degree &

prometric exam looking for a job in

private hospitals & medical com-

plexes. Contact: 91347226

Female doctor GP, 8 years experience

with prometric & viva, MOH passed

and NOC, seeking GP position within

Muscat area. Contact 95043021

SALES / MARKETING

SALES / MARKETING

IT

MEDICAL

MISCELLANEOUS

MISCELLANEOUS

MISCELLANEOUS

PROJECTS

Indian male B.Com, MBA having 2

years experience in Marketing and

Advertising on visit visa looking for

suitable openings.

Contact: 96559835

Email: rintomatam@gmail.com

10 yrs fi nancial products sales &

marketing experienced 5 years in

banking Indian male 32 yrs on visit

visa looking for suitable position.

Contact : 92882053

Indian 41 years, 2 years Dubai ex-

perience Sales of banking insurance

products looking for suitable job.

Contact: 96564721

Have the previous experience in

building material sales fi eld and

also experience as store keeper,

with release paper & visa valid

upto 19/09/15. Contact: 96451129 /

95563071

Indian male 32 years MBA (Mar-

keting) with 7 years experience in

Oman and having driving license

seeks suitable placement. NOC

available. Contact: 95902458

Sales and marketing - male 27 yrs,

2 years experience seeking suitable

placement with Oman D/L.

Contact: 95642740

Email: shaijichakkara@gmail.com

Senior Sales Engineer 4 years

experience in Oman with D/L, Sales

electrical products PDO OXY supply

liaison with MEP contractors and

consultants NOC available.

Contact: 0091 9895799737

Email: thomasjmuscat@gmail.com

Contact : 99447853

Nine years UAE experienced

Graduate Indian male with valid

UAE/ GCC, D/L on visit seeks sales /

admin position. Contact: 98826959

Indian male, 2 yrs exp. in Sales

with D/L seeks suitable placement.

Contact 92055093

Management Professional account-

able, responsible for profi table man-

agement can handle the entire op-

erations, HR/Recruitment, Business

development & Sales & marketing &

etc, Great organizational skills with

over 23+yrs exp. in Bombay, Saudi

Arabia, Dubai-UAE & Oman(11yrs)

as General Manager - Publications,

Printing,Media. open to any industry,

can Join immediately w/NOC. Con-

tact : +968 98864706/99574638

Mail : akdas_uae@yahoo.com

SKILLED/ UNSKILLED

Building construction supervisor looking for small Omani company

to handle independently or suitable

placement in good company with

Oman D/L. Contact 93061107

Indian male, with 8 yrs exp. in

Oman (BA- Graduate) working as

a project Sales Coordinator, with

Oman D/L, looking for suitable job,

ready to join immediately with NOC,

open for Sales & Marketing also.

Contact 95245057

Facility / Project Management 5 yrs of exp holds BE (ECE) MBA,

Indian on visit visa looking for suit-

able openings. Contact : 98580569

Email: arafacareer@gmail.com

Supervisor fabrication. 30 years

experienced in oil and gas industry

with thorough knowledge of PDO

procedures. contact 99365694,

92362946, 99208102 email:

tapasroy21@yahoo . com

Supervisor / Forman interior / elec-

trical with Oman driving license.

Contact: 98767559

Over 22 years of comprehensive

experience in overall construction

execution& management

qualifi cation. BE (Civil).

Contact : +968 91816590

Building Construction Supervisor looking for small Omani co. to handle

independently or suitable placement

with Omani D/L. Contact: 93061107

Civil Engineering Diploma, Site co-

ordinator now preset in Oman, seek-

ing job in Oman. Contact : 92887561

Email: jubincivileng@gmail.com

Mech. Engg Indian male having

1 year exp looking for suitable job.

Contact : 92835957

Indian 22 years male, Mechanical

Engineer, B.Tech has done

internships, born and brought up in

Oman with Omani driving license,

seeking suitable jobs.

Contact: 92791637 Email:

ashwinsureshkotturethu@gmail.com

Indian male, 23 years Electrical &

Electronics Engineer having 1 year

experience in Google company need

suitable placement.

Contact: 91118694,

Email: sharath2909@gmail.com

Indian mechanical Engineer 31

yrs, 8+ experience in sales & BD

including GCC, having Oman driving

license & NOC. Contact: 97116858

Email: menonamit1984@gmail.com

C-SWIP 3.1 ASNT level 2 QC Mech.

Engr 5+ yrs exp Indian male 26

seeks placement.

Contact : 91823331 Email: kan-

nasekhar46@gmail.com

Indian male 27 yrs BE mechanical

& W/diploma in automobiles 2 yrs

teaching experience in designing

(AutoCAD) seeking suitable position.

Contact: 94183625

Indian male 29 yrs old B.E elec-

tronic & Communication Engg (5 yrs

experience in Oman) with valid D/L.

Contact : 96652145

Electronics technician 20 years

experience India, Saudi Arabia.

Contact 91969726

MSC Electronics Female, 24 years,

1 year experience in MR Scan

Testing on visit visa looking for

suitable job. Contact 91111675

28 years male diploma in Civil Engi-

neer 6 years experience in Oman

valid Omani driving license seeking

suitable placement.

Contact: 98666735 /90289111

Email: engrjahedbd@yahoo.com

Civil Engineer Pakistani 12 +2 years

Oman experience D/L seeks place-

ment. Contact: 94392616

Indian male BE Mechanical currently on 2 yrs free visa with NOC

& local release. Looking for suitable

job in Muscat. Contact – 90296975 /

ali.syedausaf@gmail.com

25 years experience in Civil Engi-

neering looking for job at

consultancy from for suitable position.

Contact : 97803710

Young BA looking for a job as

Secretary / document controller,

typewriting 40 W.PM shorthand also

available. NOC from the present co.

available. Contact: 93085851

Indian male, Supervisor Electrician

Diploma 8 yrs in Oman. NOC avail-

able. Contact 95057068,

jratheesh@yahoo.com

Electrical Eng. Degree (MEP) need suit-

able job of construction 12 yrs exp.

Email: mohd.ateeq.khan@gmail.com

Mechanical Engineer 23 having

knowledge in HVAC looking for suit-

able vacancy. Contact: 95434381

Email: shuhaibuman313@gmail.com

Indian male Mechanical Engineer

having 2+ years experience in releni-

ery piping + equipment seeking suit-

able position. Contact: 94768977

Civil Engineer with 6 yrs experience

in can satiny fi rms structural design

and supervision also worked as mate-

rials engineer. Contact: 96086214

Indian male Civil Engineer with

Engineer with 2 years experience in

Building project is available currently

on visit visa. Contact: 92841583

Tunisian Civil Eng, Graduated fl am

the University of Tunisia past expe-

rience supervised several projected

in the Island of djerha in the capital

Tunis I have good experience with

consulting engineer and

contractor now in Muscat.

Contact: 94745527

Email: khereddianeb@gmail.com

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

Civil Engineer diploma holder having

a 4 years experience seeking a suit-

able replacement. Contact: 98782698

Email: engr.rabiul007@gmail.com

Mechanical and manufacturing Engi-

neer , age 26 yrs masters ( Singapore)

having 2 years Oman work experi-

ence with valid Oman driving license

on visit visa available immediately.

Contact: 95498953

B.Tech Mechanical Engineer with

2 years experience in HV AC and

plumbing - nikhilchandpm@gmail.

com ; GSM: 97654489

MEP foreman looking for a suitable

position. Contact: 99526958

Indian BE (MECH) aviation BE

degree diploma in material quality

management 17 years Navy aviation

13 years construction purchase stores

professional on visit.

Contact: 90205082 /98796982

Instrumentation Engineer, nearly

4 yrs experience in oil & gas industry,

seeks job in Oman. Contact 90198210,

Email : terinsam@gmail.com

Indian male 25MBA having 4years

Gulf experience in Coordination with

contracting company .NOC Available.

Looking for(Store,Coordination,Admin

Backoffi ce) Jobs Ph:95405885

Civil Engg, B.Tech fresher Indian male

currently on visit visa seeks suitable

placement. Contact 91702450

Email: tijoct2015@hotmail.com

Indian Male, IT Support Engineer,

2 yrs in Oman & 5 yrs Indian experi-

ence. Contact 97311847

Engineer with 3 yrs experience in

Indian in MEP, HVAC& mechanical

maintained fi eld on visit visa looking

for suitable job. Contact 99191535

Email: fareed029@gmail.com

SUPERVISOR: Indian male site

supervisor (AIR CONDITIONING)

25 years of experience with valid

Oman Driving license,

seeking suitable placement.

Contact: 97498809, 93391910

Email: hilariankj@gmail.com

Electrical Engineer, Indian male,

29 yrs having 5 yrs of experience in

industrial automation & utility

maintenance in India (MRF yres)

seeks suitable placement.

Contact 92789995, Email :

akhilabrahamlktr@gmail.com

Btech computer science graduate

2015 passout.. Android application

marketing.. Having good communi-

cation skills and mindset to work in

a team. Contact 91024385

Civil Engineer Indian male 10 yrs

exp having Omani D/L looking

for suitable placement. Contact:

94194399 (shiblyrock@gmail.com)

Electrical and Electronics Engineer with one year experience and GCC

licence holder seeking a job

mail – shyjalpk@gmail.com

Civil Engineer (diploma) 3.5 yrs

exp, seeking for placement.

Contact: 95200650

TOURS & TRAVELS

Indian Male, 29, 9 years exp in Sales

in Oman (Buraimi) with valid D/L

looking for suitable placements,

NOC available .Ph: 9360 1947

Female, BE(hons) Systems Admin-

istration, 2 years teaching experi-

ence. Seeking suitable placement in

Higher Education/Training industry.

Email: sadia_fatima@hotmail.com

Contact:96447091

Indian looking for a part time ac-

counting or Internal Auditing job,

contact 99196621.

Indian male B.Eng. in IT,CCNA,

MCSA,MCSE, 2yrs + exp. in IT sup-

port, networking and server support

valid Omani D/L seeking suitable

placement in IT/Network/Server

support. Contact 92607532

Store Supervisor or Site Supervisor,

Indian male 30 years, looking for

suitable placement in any reputed

company. Having 5 years of gulf ex-

perience with good communication

skills. Willing to work in any GCC

country. Contact: 00968 97756269,

Email: razzakbmt@gmail.com

Indian female, 25yrs Bsc nursing

with MHA (Master of Hospital Ad-

ministration) looking for a suitable

placement. Currently on visit visa

valid up to 25 November 2015.

Contact: 9951 3267, email:

alinaelshaddai@gmail.com

Chartered CIPD HR, MBA having 5+

years of experience in Oman and 7

years in GCC looking for job opportu-

nities. Call 97728418

Store Supervisor or Site Supervisor .

Indian male 30 years age.

Looking for suitable placement in

any reputed company. Having 5

years of gulf experience with good

communication skills.

Willing to work in any GCC country.

Contact: 00968 97756269 ,

Email: razzakbmt@gmail.com

32 years Indian Male MSC, MBA-

HR having 7+yr Exp(HR and SAP

operations) with Oman valid driving

license, seeking suitable opening in

Human Resource & Admin/backend

jobs.Contact: 00968-99322978

Iranian male. ME Civil- structural

Engineer, 8 Years Structural engineer

experience, Looking for Structural

Designer, supervisor or site engineer

Position. Contact: 93696929

Email: mhsaz1359@gmail.com

Land Surveyor experience 6 years

in landscape , construction and

roads for contact : 0096895244840,

0096899703488, e-mail:

eng.amr_salama@yahoo.com

Indian male 27, looking for suitable

placement in Piping Design & Engi-

neering.Having 7 years of experience

in AutoCAD. Also familiar with PDMS

(11.6 Version),CAESAR ll. Contact :

97351786 / 96143708/ 97357143

ACCA Affi liate, Oxford Brookes Bsc,

2.5 years experience in audit, fi nance

in Big 6 and oil industry, NOC release

available. a.saran891@gmail.com,

95140445

B.com .5 yrs exp. of oman Looking

for an Accounts job work, preferred

to do from home. Well versed with

TALLY Accounting software.

Contact 95482970

Pakistan Male: 24 years, M.Com

Finance having 2.5 year experience

as a accountant & marketing execu-

tive looking for suitable placement.

Contact: 97670816,

e.mail: naeem.ahsan68@gmail.com

Pakistani, Male, Pak, Exp 14 Years

in IT Trainer, looking for a better

position in Oman, already working in

Prestigious Construction Company.

Contact:- 95983711.

Join.mtmali@gmail.com

Civil Engineer Indian 20 years expe-

rience (1 year in Oman) in manage-

ment and construction seeks suitable

placement. Contact: 91718976 ,

email : mdnaveed71@gmail.com

Male, 32 years M.A. English M.Sc

Psychology and B.Ed in English

having 4 years experience in teach-

ing present company is ready to

issue release letter.

Contact : 99869535

Email: sahadkeyi33@gmail.com

Pakistani, Male, Pak, Exp 14 Years

in Computer Teacher, looking for

a better position in Oman, already

working in Prestigious Construction

Company. Contact:- 95983711,

join.mtmali@gmail.com

Light duty driver, 23yrs. Can speak

Arabic, Hindi, Bangla and under-

stand English. Release available.

Ph.92854775 / 93487450

Network System Engineer switch-

es, Routers, Servers, load balancers,

CCTV 5 years of exp holds B.E (ECE)

CCNA looking for good opportunity

Indian visit visa. Contact 91911792

Email: arafakdnl@gamil.com

Tunisian Master degree in Com-

puter Science, with experience in

creating websites in development

looking for a job in the Sultanate of

Oman currently in Muscat.

Contact: 94745546

Email: safouane.gouja@gmail.com

Indain male, 23 yrs, B.E in Mechanical post Graduation Diploma

in piping Engineering, seeking job in

relevant fi eld.Contact : 94786570

Email: asim.hajwani6@gmail.com

IT

BE, ECE Mumbai university skills

in C, C++, windows, linux, controller

and processor RTOS, Electronics,

Networking, 6 months experience in

embedded software seeks place-

ment. Contact : 917774864736

Email: sadatbtisekar@gmail.com

SAP BW Analyst : Indian male, 26

yrs, B.Tech (CS & E) from ASET, New

Delhi, worked as a Business

Analyst in Software Industry.

Contact 98008127 / 92878708,

vaisakh.bhaskar@gmail.com

IT Engineer, 6 yrs exp in software

projects & development (OCJA) on

visit visa. Contact: 99487493

28 M, Indian, have done master

degree in computer application, 2

years exp in Oman, looking suitable

placement. Contact: 93295112 Email:

syedsadathali.mca@gmail.com

Five years experience in Travel

fi eld ,BCom., IATA & pursuing MBA,

Presently working in the Travel

Desk of (ITC managed) Five Star

Hotel in India, looking for a suitable

position in the Middleeast.

pls contact 9470 5767

11 yrs experience in travel fi eld

B.Com, IATA, MCSE working for

Qatar Airways, Sales reservation

ticketing driving license & NOC

available. Contact 92954613

Business intelligence / Global Mar-

keting management specialist with 9

years of experience developing brand

value & managing overall projects to

achieve business objectives seeking

suitable position on family visit.

Contact: 91902154

PGDM in Marketing & fi nance and

specialization in SCM in Belgium

University, 14 months experience

in cooperative relations looking for

suitable job. Contact: 92050773

Indian male Graduate with 2 yrs

exp in sales advertising, presently

on visiting visa looking for suitable

opening. Contact: 95462921

ME Civil- structural Engineer, 8 Years Structural engineer experi-

ence, Looking for Structural Designer,

supervisor or site engineer Position.

Iranian male, Contact: 93696929

Email: mhsaz1359@gmail.com

ACCOUNTANT, Male, 8 years expe-

rience, presently working in Oman

as a Senior Accountant with Oman

Driving license. NOC available, seeks

suitable opportunity. GSM: 98184170

Civil Engineer Indian 20 years expe-

rience (1 year in Oman) in manage-

ment and construction seeks suitable

placement. Contact: 91718976

Male, 32 years M.A. English M.SC

psychology and B.Ed in English hav-

ing 4 years experiences in teaching

present company is ready to issue

release letter. Contact : 99869535

Email: sahadkeyi33@gmail.com

Filipino (Male), 33 yrs/old, 9 yrs.

experience in marine transporta-

tion (seaman/deck crew), & 3 yrs. in

sales (electronic devices) currently

on visit visa & looking for a suitable

employment. GSM: 94750459

Indian male, 14 yrs Experience in

Maintenance & Supervisor in hotel

fi eld ( Electrical . Ac Mechanical &

Plumber ) N O C available

Contact 95253640

email-hareeshma24@yahoo.com

Senior Accountant Indian male

Graduate CA Articleship completed

18 years of experience currently on

visit visa seeks suitable placement

contact.97498809,93391910

Email.hilariankj@gmail.com

Electrical Maintenance Engineer,

29, Indian Male, having 7+ years exp.

in reputed companies. Seeking suit-

able placement in Oman.

Contact - 98440637. Mail ID :

venkatbadri23@gmail.com

Indian male 22 years, Looking for

suitable placement in Hardware and

Networking fi eld, 1 year exp. in india

an have done training in al ameen

computers. With good communica-

tion skill, Qualifi cation is Diploma

in Electronics and Communication.

Contact : - 95632209,95068075,

Email- fairozhuded13@gmail.com

Sudanese 29 male (Bsc com-

puter science, diploma computer

engineering), 6 yrs. experience ,

dba oracle pl-sql , ms sql-server ,ms

visual studio vba, network, Omani

Driver licence language English,

Arabic. Email:chastity643@gmail.

com, Mob:91415886

Having 9+ years exp. in Admin &

HR in reputed companies. Presently

working in Muscat and seeking for

suitable placement.

Contact No.: 97693456. email :

muralimahdav77@gmail.com

Pakistani, Male, Pak, Exp 14 Years

in Accounts, IT & Administration,

looking for a better position in Oman,

already working in Prestigious

Construction Company. Contact:-

95983711.Join.mtmali@gmail.com

Indian male 24 years,B. Tech (Elec-

trical & Electronic) having 2 years

working experience as an Electrical

site Engineer, currently on visit visa.

Seeking suitable placement.

Contact no. 98045482, Email:

mastanshaik1008@gmail.com

Indian male 23 years, B. Tech (Elec-

trical & Electronic) having 4 years

working experience as an Electrical

site Engineer, currently on visit visa.

Seeking suitable placement.

Contact no. 98045482 Email:

mastanshaik1008@gmail.com

29 years femaile (MBA-Finance)

with 4 + years experience (India &

Oman) in administration & teaching

seeking suitable placement in an es-

tablished organization. #96371655.

Male, 32, having 7 years experience

in New Car sales and rental. Currently

working for one of the most reputed

Brand in India is seeking a suitable

change. Contact +91 9045232273

Looking for managerial post (full

time ) ,More than Ten years of

experience in Team Development

,Training ,Planing, Administration,

Sales & Marketing, Advertisement

and Credit Control and Logistics.

Contact 91076608 /+919048648108

NOC available

Sales Representative or Purchase

offi cer. Indian male 31 years, Looking

for suitable placement in CONSTRUC-

TION INDUSTRIES and OILFIELD

INDUSTRIES. Having 7 years of

gulf experience in FASTENERS and

BUILDING MATERIAL. Having a valid

D/L. Contact: 00968 92480985,

Email: fayubeig@gmail.com

CONTD ON PG 7

Indian male, B.com, MBA, having

5 years experience (3 years in U.A.E)

is currently seeking suitable

opportunities within fi nance/

accounts/admin dept.

Contact:93953613,

allen.mathew83@gmail.com

B.Com graduate, 11 years experi-

ence in Accounts, 9 years Oman

experience , Oman valid driving

license, looking for suitable post.

Mob:92758404 NOC Available.

SENIOR ACCOUNTANT, Indian

male,29 years.8 years experience

.Presently working in Oman as a

Senior Accountant with oman Driv-

ing license. NOC available. Seek

suitable opportunity.

GSM: 97705854

Two year experience in Oman,

experience in sales, purchase and

system admin, Having GCC license.

Contact number 97475860,

Yadhukrishnan08@gmail.com

Indian Male, 32 yrs, MBA-HR, Train-

er & Faculty worked on Omanisation

& nationals development activities

with 10 yrs of experience seeking

suitable job. Contact : 93891401

saiprasad_18@yahoo.com

Sudanese 29 male (Bsc computer

science,diploma computer engineer-

ing), 6 yrs. experience dba oracle pl-

sql , ms sql-server ,ms visual studio

vba,network Omani Driver licence

language English, Arabic

Tel: 91415886

DAILY GUIDE Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461Fax: 24812624

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com

D6 T H U R S D AY, S E P T E M B E R 3 , 2 0 1 5

Dolphin Watch, Dhow Cruise with Buffet, & Land Tours Al- Ainain Marine

Tours Contact- 98029602, 92808636

RENT A CAR

RENT A CAR

TOURS

Car for rent. Contact: 92516090

Butter cup rent a car competitive

prices new car 2016.

Contact: 97249449

SITUATION WANTEDCARGO

SITUATION WANTEDCARGO

FOR HIRE

Volvo 12 Ton Truck for monthly

rent. Contact: 98713900

TRANSPORTATION

Transportation available. Contact: 99867456

Ruwi, Muttrah, Muscat, Al Khuwair

& Qurum. Contact - 95415272

Driver with car. Contact: 94004667

Transport available in Ghala, Ruwi ,

Ghubra, Al Khuwair & Azaiba.

Contact: 91495819

Transportation. Contact

99664703

Transportation available.

Contact 95570429

Transportation. Contact: 96538078

Transportation. Contact:98522914

Transportation. Contact 99508282

Transportation. Contact:

98244078

Pick & Drop any time. Contact: 97014786

DAILY GUIDET H U R S D AY, S E P T E M B E R 3 , 2 0 1 5 D7

SITUATION WANTEDSERVICES

Split & widow unit A.C servicing &

repairing. Contact: 99557080

Split & window unit A.C servicing

& maintenance. Contact: 96236476

Window & split unit A.C ser-

vicing & maintenance. Contact

93769089 / 95323517

House shifting & transporting.

Contact 92490422

MARBLE CRYSTALLIZATION restore the original shine of

your marble. Contact 24793614/

99314807

One stop shop business services : Public Relation (PRO) formation new

companies, LLC companies, Investor

visa, business setup, prepare busi-

nesses & companies accounts, legal

services, representing you and your

company. Contact: Saleh : 96723485

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

Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles

polishing, carpet shampooing,

maintenance. Contact ABU QABAS-

99320217 /24788722

A/C Technician, all refrigerator

items, installation.

Contact: 92279370

Air condition maintenance split

and window A/C split a/c ducted

and package type units.

Contact: 98667326

Split & window A.C servic-

ing & maintenance. Contact

93769089/95323517

All maintenance & repairs. Contact Rizwan: 99429071,

RMPM Trading.

WEBSITE

WEB, ERP and Business Intel-

ligence (BI) creation and man-

agement at rock bottom price.

Contact: http//webviewoman

COMPUTER

CLASSES

General cleaning in buildings villas

all types interior, exterior, polishing

dry cleaning carpets, rugs, marble

etc. Contact 94134784 / 98598280

Water proofi ng ABUQABAS-

Contact 99320217/24788722

House shifting & packing. Contact: 99657644 /98518013

DRIVING

NRI

An NRI wants to sell his proper-

ties, in Ernakulam (6 cent villa near

Amrita hospital), Trivandrum (plot

near Kowdiar Palace), Trivandrum

(plot near Kumarapuram Jn.) and

Pandalam (opposite Ayyappa temple

by the side of MC road). Please call:

94052733 or 94070407

GUARANTEED CLEANING: Carpet

& sofa shampooing, Contact

99314807/24792998

SIT.WANTED

Spoken English IELTS & Computer classes.

Contact: 92088325 / 24799938

Housemaid looking for job.

Cont : 95587492

Indian Male, 28, B.Com, 6+ yrs exp in

Accounts, 2 yrs in Oman with Valid

Oman D/L, NOC available.

Contact 9719 4864

BRANCH-HEAD, MBA-BBA, Indian

Male having experience in UAE, India,

Oman total 5 years (including MNC),

looking for similar or same openings.

NOC available. mobile: 92700670,

email:catanalur131@gmail.com

Accounts Head/Manager looking

for job with Gulf Experience (NOC

available). Contact : 94164650.

email: msaleem.kr@gmail.com

Sales Representative or Purchase

offi cer. Indian male 31 years,

looking for suitable placement in

construction industries and oilfi eld

industries. Having 7 years of gulf

experience in fasteners and building

material. Having a valid driving

license. Contact: 00968 92480985,

Email: fayubeig@gmail.com

Pakistani, Male, Pak, Exp 14 Years

in Accounts, IT & Administration,

looking for a better position in Oman,

already working in Prestigious

Construction Company. # 95983711.

Join.mtmali@gmail.com

Indian Male, 28, B.Com, 6+ yrs exp

in Accounts, 2 yrs in Oman with

Valid Oman D/L, NOC available.

Contact: 9719 4864

Babar Ali Male, Pak, Exp 14 Years

in Accounts, IT & Administration,

looking for a better position in Oman,

No need of Visa, already working in

of the Omani Construction Company.

Contact:- 95983711.

Indian male MBA fi nance and mar-

keting. Having 2 year experienced in

accounting, looking for suitable job

opportunities. Available on visit can

join immediately. Cont: 94676974

Email: anfalruk@gmail.com

SALES MANAGER (MECHANICAL

ENGINEER)-Over 5 yrs in Oman, with

experience in Industrial Products &

Services with Noc & driving license

looking for the challenging oppor-

tunities. Notice period Ends on 27th

August -2015 . GSM - 95291830

ACCOUNTANT, Male, 8 years expe-

rience .Presently working in Oman

as a Senior Accountant with Oman

Driving license. NOC available seeks

suitable opportunity. GSM: 98184170

Indian Female Lawyer having 11

yrs experience presently working in

Oman seeks placement in Legal/HR/

Admin etc. NOC available

Contact-94436960

Email: famidakhan123@gmail.com

Mechanical Engineer : Indian , male

23 years, 2 years experience, on

visit visa . Seeking suitable place-

ment. Contact : +968 91409712 ,

Email : nibin.nani@gmail.com

INDIAN MALE 23 YEARS,B. Tech

(Electrical & Electronic) having

4 years working experience as an

Electrical site Engineer, currently on

visit visa. Seeking suitable place-

ment. Contact no. 98045482

21 years, B. Com, graduate male

‘fresher’ well versed in English,

Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam with

Driving license looking for a suitable

job. Contact: 96799287

Filipino (male), 37 yrs. old, having

8yrs. experience in Operation (Ship-

ping & Logistics) currently on visit visa

looking for suitable job.

Contact 97121525

24 years, ACCA affi liate, 2.5 years

of experience in audit, fi nance in

Big6 and oil industry, looking for

suitable placement, NOC release

available. Contact 95140445,

Email: a.saran891@gmail.com

INDIAN MALE 24 YEARS, B. Tech

(Electrical & Electronic).Having 2

years experience as Electrical Site

Engineer in Constructions. Done

IOSH & NEBOSH- IGC certifi cations.

Seeking for suitable placement in

constructions or in any related in-

dustries. Contact no: 98045482/

mastanshaik1008@gmail.com

Indian male, 29 yrs, B.Tech Electron-

ics & Communication Eng. + diploma

in SAP, 7 years professional experi-

ence, looking for a job in Oman /

other GCC countries.

Contact: 0091 973 928 5790,

Email: rahul.rn198@gmail.com

AutoCad Civil Draftsman – Having

3 years- experience, looking for a

placement.(Full- time or Part time)

99627427 / 96154564.

Indian male MBA fi nance and mar-

keting having 2 year experienced in

accounting. Having good knowledge

in Tally ERP and advanced excel.

Looking for suitable job opportuni-

ties. Available on visit visa can join

immediately. Contact:94676974,

Email : anfalruk@gmail.com

Indian Male, 37 Years , B Tech

Graduate Electrical. Having 12 Years

Experience of DCRP Works / Jobs in

Oman with Driving License, Looking

for an suitable opening, NOC Avail-

able. Contact – 92122338, Email -

saiviharvasanth@gmail.com

Male available for a part time

accounting & admin job,

Contact:99196621.

Part- Time Accountant, well experi-

ence senior accountant ,doing all type

of accounting works, Finalization,

Budgeting available. #98803439

Sales Representative or Purchase

offi cer. Indian male 30 years,

Looking for suitable placement in

CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRIES and

OILFIELD INDUSTRIES. Having 5

years of gulf experience in FASTEN-

ERS and BUILDING MATERIAL. with

good communication skills.

Contact: 00968 97756269,

Email: razzakbmt@gmail.com

Masters in Information Systems

and IT with more than 12 years expe-

rience seeks suitable placement.

Contact: 98502793,

email:jobsrs6@gmail.com

Advertising/media executive with

15 years gulf experience with oman

driving license. Seeks good opening.

Contact 93031168

Filipino (male), 37 yrs. old, hav-

ing 8yrs. experience in Operation

(Shipping&Logistics) currently on

visit visa looking for suitable job.

GSM: 97121525

Quantity Surveyor-MEP (Estima-

tion/Project) ,Total 10 Years Experi-

ence (3 years in Oman).

Having NOC & Oman D/L, Looking for

suitable job, Contact - 97906551

*Classifi ed Advertisement space booking with text, should be done till 12.00 noon for next day’s

publication. * Subject to space availability

DAILY GUIDE Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461Fax: 24812624

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com

D8 T H U R S D AY, S E P T E M B E R 3 , 2 0 1 5