28 PAGES . BAISAS 200 VOLUME 41 NO. 255FOUNDED 1975

SATURDAY, December 22, 2012 / 8 SAFAR 1434 AH timesofoman.com facebook.com/timesofoman twitter.com/timesofoman blog.timesofoman.com

The Royal Oman Police has called upon parents to realise the importance of having their toddlers tucked into appropriate child seats while driving. >A3

CHILD SEATS A SAFE OPTION IN VEHICLES

HM receives British PM

MUSCAT: His Majesty Sul-tan Qaboos bin Said gave audi-ence to British Prime Minister David Cameron at Bait Al Baraka, yesterday.

During the meeting, they re-viewed the existing coopera-tion between Oman and Britain in a number of spheres for the joint interest of the people of the two countries.

The meeting was attended by Dr Omar bin Abdulmuneim Al Zawawi, special adviser to His Majesty the Sultan for External Liaison, ambassador of the United Kingdom to the Sultanate and the delegation accompanying the British prime minister.

Based on the directives of His Majesty the Sultan, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Sayyid Badr bin Saud bin Hareb Al Busaidi, minister responsi-ble for defence aff airs, signed an agreement with the British com-pany BAE Systems for the pur-chase of a number of Typhoon jet fi ghters for the Royal Air Force

of Oman (Rafo). The agreement was signed on behalf of the BAE Systems by its Chief Executive Offi cer at Muaskar Al Murtafa’a, yesterday.

The agreement comes as part of the Royal care and attention ac-corded by His Majesty to enhance the capabilities of the Royal Air Force of Oman.

The Typhoon jet is the fourth generation fi ghter and is equipped with latest avionics. It has a

unique aerodynamic design that gives it greater manoeuvrability while taking off and landing.

The signing ceremony was at-tended by Lt-Gen. Ahmed bin Harith Al Nabhani, Chief-of-Staff of the Sultan’s Armed Forces (SAF), Air Vice-Marshal Matar bin Ali Al Obaidani, Commander of the Royal Air Force of Oman and Mohammed bin Nasser Al Rasbi, Undersecretary of the Min-istry of Defence. From the British

side, the meeting was attended by the UK ambassador to the Sultan-ate and a number of offi cials from the BAE Systems.

His Majesty hosted a luncheon in the honour of British prime minister at Bait Al Baraka. It was attended by a number of ministers and the delegation accompanying the guest.

His Majesty bade farewell to the guest after the conclusion of his visit to the Sultanate.

Cameron and his accompanying delegation was received at the air-port by His Highness Sayyid Fahd bin Mahmoud Al Said, Deputy Prime Minister for the Council of Ministers; Sayyid Badr bin Saud bin Hareb Al Busaidi, Minister responsible for Defence Aff airs; Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Minister Responsible for Foreign Aff airs, the British envoy to the Sultanate and members of the UK embassy. - ONA See also >A3

On the directives of

His Majesty, a deal

was signed with the

British company

BAE Systems for

the purchase of a

number of Typhoon

fi ghter jets for

the Rafo

MARKETMazoon Electricity invests RO200m

2 Engineer Zahir bin Abdullah Al Abri, General Manager

of Mazoon Electricity Company (MEC) said that the company is investing RO200 million to strengthen the basic infrastructure and the quality of services to meet all consumers’ demands till the year 2014 . >B1

EXTRAThe cycle pathto happiness

3 You need only look at the physique of Bradley Wiggins to appreciate

the potential eff ects of cycling on the body. But what about the mind? For as long as man has pushed a pedal, it’s a question that has challenged anyone who has wondered how, sometimes, riding a bike can induce a state of meditation. >B5

REGIONClashes ahead of Egypt referendum

1Supporters of President Mohammed Mursi and his opponents hurled rocks at

each other in Egypt’s second city on the eve of a fi nal vote the constitution that has divided the country. Police fi red tear gas to separate scores of opponents of the constitution and thousands others clashed in the rain. >A5

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

REVIEW RELATIONS: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said and British Prime Minister David Cameron review cooperation between the two countries in a number of spheres, yesterday. – Photograph by Mohammed Mustafa

Elaborate arrangements made for today’s municipal electionsMUSCAT: Preparations are complete in the various gover-norates of the Sultanate for the holding of Municipal Council elections today.

Over 546,000 voters will cast their votes for the election of 192 members in which 1,475 candi-dates, including 46 women, are in the fray.

The Ministry of Interior, the government body organising the elections, has made an elaborate arrangements for the conduct of polls in the various wilayats of the Sultanate.

It has also declared the names of 104 elections centres where voters will cast their votes.

The polling centres have been created by taking into considera-tion the density of population in each wilayat and other factors, including accessibility of the cen-tres in the cities and remote areas and villages.

Muscat wilayat has 12 centres, Dhofar 13 centres, Musandam seven centres (four in Khasab and one each in Dibba, Baha and Madha), Buraimi governorate four centres (two in Buraimi and one each in Mahda and Al Sinain-ah), Dakhiliya governorate 11 centres, North Al Batinah 16 cen-tres, South Al Batinah 13 centres, South Al Sharqiya 10 centres, North Al Sharqiya eight centres, Al Dhahirah six centres and Al Wusta four centres.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of In-

terior has introduced an electron-ic programme for the automated sorting of results on the Internet.

First of its kindThis system is being used for the fi rst time in the municipal elec-tions and it is also the fi rst of its kind in the Middle East, an offi cial from the Ministry of Interior told Times of Oman

The offi cial added that this sys-tem works on the principle of an electronic link between the main committee for municipal elec-tions at the Ministry of Interior

and the sub-headquarters in vari-ous regions of the Sultanate.

This process will enable citi-zens to access results through website and follow them up till the end. While making arrangements for the electoral process, the Ministry of Interior has spared no eff ort in keeping abreast with the latest technological advances, said the offi cial.

Observers feel this poll marks the Sultanate’s entry into a bigger global platform and an enhanced development process. -ONA & Times

News Service

C I V I C P O L L S

ALL SET: Over 546,000 voters will cast their votes for the election of 192 members in which 1,475 candidates, including 46 women, are in the fray. – ONA

B1CBO announces tight Islamic banking law

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SAFE CLES

A2 S AT U R DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 2

OMANC O M M E N T A R Y

The year 2012 is the fi rst year of my assignment as Ambassador of the Kingdom of Thai-

land to the Sultanate of Oman. During the year I have witnessed the progressively but solidly developing Oman-Thailand relationship, particularly in agriculture, energy and tourism sector, to name a few.

In the area of agriculture, Dr. Fuad bin Ja’afar bin Mohammed Al Sajwani, Minister of Agricul-ture and Fisheries of the Sultan-ate of Oman, paid an offi cial visit to Thailand in May 2012, followed by an Omani mission

comprising delegates from the Department of Fisheries, who visited Thailand as participants of a project organised by the Royal Thai Embassy, Muscat, in the following month.

To follow-up the visit of the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, which laid a solid ground for enhanced coop-eration, a Thai delegation from the Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives of the Kingdom of Thailand, came to the Sultanate in September 2012 to discuss further ways and means to strengthen bilateral cooperation. It seems to me that the potential

in the area of agriculture and fi sheries is enormous, which the two countries could to explore and utilise for mutual benefi t.

Apart from that, energy is another sector which has made high impact in terms of revenue earnings for Oman and is in the

interest of Thailand. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of PTTEP Oman Co. Ltd., a Thai oil com-pany that has been operating in the Sultanate since 2002. It also happens to be the fi rst year of the company’s exploration phase where oil production began to be commercially viable.

As further evidence of the close cooperation between Oman and Thailand in the area of energy, Arak Chonlatanon, Minister of Energy of the Kingdom of Thailand, visited the Sultanate to participate in the well head platform sail away ceremony at Sohar in October

2012. The Zawtika project well head was constructed by Larson and Toubro Co. Ltd., an Indian engineering fi rm, in the Sultan-ate of Oman for PTTEP Inter-national to be used at the Gulf of Martaban, Union of Myanmar. Thus making it a joint project among four countries for their mutual prosperity. I believe that this friendly atmosphere among both countries presents an opportunity for the Omani and Thai oil industry to exchange their expertise and technology.

Dr Pornchai Danvivathana is the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Thailand to the Sultanate

2012 was a landmark year in Oman-Thai relations

DR. PORNCHAI DANVIVATHANA

ENVOYSPEAK

Omani products to be showcased in Saudi Arabia

MUSCAT: The fi rst Omani Products Exhibition will open on Monday at the Confer-ence and Exhibition Centre in Riyadh.

The exhibition will be organ-ised by Oman Chamber of Com-merce and Industry (OCCI), the Public Authority for Invest-ment Promotion and Export Development (PAIPED), the Public Establishment for In-dustrial Estates (PEIE).

The opening ceremony will be held under the patronage of Dr Tawfi q Al Rabia, Saudi Minister of Commerce and In-dustry, in the presence of Dr. Salim bin Nasser Al Isma’eeli, PAIPED Chairman, Ahmed bin Hassan Al Theeb, undersecre-tary of the Commerce and In-dustry Ministry for Commerce and Industry, Hilal bin Hamad Al Hasani, CEO of PEIE, a num-ber of public and a group of Om-ani businessmen.

Ayman bin Abdullah Al Hasani, OCCI Deputy Chair-man and Head of the Organising Committee of the exhibition, said that the fi rst exhibition of Omani products at the GCC lev-el comes as part of the national campaign for the promotion and marketing of the Omani products. It would help in fi nd ing new markets for their prod-ucts, which are characterised by their quality and high speci-fi cation, to familiarise with the Saudi market and the most important areas of cooperation with that market.

He added that 56 companies will participate in the exhibition, organised by Riyadh exhibitions Company. These companies rep-resent various industrial sectors, such as food, construction, elec-tricity, furniture, pharmaceuti-cals, marble and tile, explaining that there would be bilateral meetings between businessmen and representatives of the Om-ani companies participating in the exhibition with their Saudi counterparts in order to strengthen trade relations and to have outlets for the distri-bution of their products in the Saudi market.

Ayman bin Abdullah Al Hasani said that the Sultanate has historical, economic and strategic relations with Saudi Arabia, as with other GCC countries, as the total trade vol-ume between Oman and GCC states by the end of the year 2011 reached RO3.4 billion, where the UAE ranked fi rst in trade with Oman with RO2.6 billion, followed by Saudi Arabia RO522 million, Kuwait RO147 million, Qatar RO99.6 million and Bahrain RO92.5 million.

He added that the most im-portant Omani exports to Saudi Arabia during the same period are food, dairy products, electri-cal equipment and appliances, iron and steel, marble, plastic products, ceramics, furniture and pharmaceuticals. – ONA

O V E R S E A S T R A D E

TRADE PLANS Fifty-six companies

will participate in the exhibition, organised by Riyadh Exhibitions Company. These companies represent diverse industrial sectors and would boost bilateral trade

A3

OMANS AT U R DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 2 A3

ROYAL WELCOME FOR CAMERONThe British Prime Minister, David Cameron, and his accompanying delegation, held talks with His Highness Sayyid Fahd bin Mahmoud Al Said, Deputy Prime Minister for the Council of Ministers. Also seen in the picture are Sayyid Badr bin Saud bin Hareb Al Busaidi, Minister Responsible for Defence Aff airs; Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Minister Responsible for Foreign Aff airs, and others yesterday. - ONA

Child seats a safe option in vehicles

THE Royal Oman Police has called upon parents to realise the importance of having their tod-dlers tucked into appropriate child seats while driving.

Around 45 children under the age of six years died last year and 345 others were injured in road accidents in Oman, with the ROP blaming these deaths on the ab-sence of child seats. According to offi cials, proper use of child seats can reduce child fatalities by 70 per cent.

Riding unrestrained is not a safe option for children as it could cause them to move with the same speed as the vehicle before they crash into a windshield or mirror. However, the usage of normal seat-belts provided in the vehicles by children is considered dangerous as these seatbelts which have been designed for adults, could cause severe head and spinal injuries in case of a crash.

Small children should also not sit on the lap of mothers in the front seat of the vehicle since in the event of a crash; the setting

off of the airbag can suff ocate the child. The best safety option for a child is the child seat which should be selected on the basis of what fi ts the child perfectly based on the child’s weight not age.

Now, parents even have the op-tion of owning vehicles which have inbuilt child seats. Drivers need to take all precautions as far as safety measures are concerned and ad-here to the rules of the road.

Safe driving courses The Traffi c Safety Institute car-ried out fi ve training courses to

rehabilitate some government em-ployees and taxi drivers last week.

Policemen from diff erent de-partments of Royal Oman Po-lice participated in the training courses as part of the development of skills in defensive driving for police vehicles. Public Prosecu-tion employees participated in the third course.

The course included training on avoiding and handling of dif-ferent types of road accidents, the causes and stages of investiga-tions, and how to conduct techni-cal preview of the scene; planning and study of the facts involving the accidents.

The course also included prac-tical application. Ministry of Oil and Gas employees participated in the fourth training course which included defensive driving on the road and traffi c safety application requirements, rules and priorities of the traffi c regulations.

The fi fth course was attended by taxi drivers who were ap-prised with the rules for dealing with passengers.

Riding unrestrained

is not a safe option

for children as it

could cause them to

move with the same

speed as the vehicle

before they crash into

a windshield or mirror

in the front of a car

SQU conference calls for more research into social changes Times News Service

MUSCAT: The Second Interna-tional Conference of the College of Arts and Social Sciences was held at Sultan Qaboos University under the patronage of Dr. Abdulla bin Mohammed Al Saidi, Minister of Legal Aff airs.

The three-day conference titled ‘The Role of Social Sciences in In-vestigating Contemporary Social Phenomena: Current Approaches and Future Vision’ was participat-ed by many researchers, both from Arab and foreign universities. The deliberations of the conference revolved around reinforcing the role of universities and scientifi c research centres in examining contemporary social phenomena, by monitoring, explicating and highlighting their implications and infl uences as well as present-ing diff erent approaches to dealing with them.

The conference discussed the cultural and social dimensions of contemporary social phenomena and its historical, geographical and demographic aspects. Paper pres-

entations and discussions were also held on scientifi c research and production of knowledge and con-temporary social phenomena, and the role of education, media and information practices in shaping social phenomena in addition to its economic dimensions.

The programme of the Confer-ence included two main sessions. The opening session was held un-der the patronage of Dr. Abdulla Mohammed Al Saidi, Minister of Legal Aff airs. It included the open-ing speech given by Dr. Abdullah bin Khamis Al Kindi, the Dean of the College of Arts and Social Sci-ences and the Head of the Organis-ing Committee of the Conference, and the presentation of the fi rst keynote speaker, Professor John Crowley, leader of the Global Envi-ronmental Change, Unesco.

The Conference hosted, in ad-dition to the presentations of the keynote speakers, 10 sessions. In the fi rst two days of the Confer-ence, each session was divided into three parallel sessions, in-cluding the discussion of fi ve re-search papers.

Meanwhile, the third and fi nal session included fi ve research papers as well as the conclud-ing speech. Fifty-one research papers were presented in the conference. Besides, a number of researchers from the Gulf and other Arab countries attended the

conference. There was also a no-ticeably high turn-out of the fac-ulty members and students from the diff erent colleges of Sultan Qaboos University.

The conference recommended the necessity of preserving the identity of the Arabic language

and spreading it globally through various means such as highlight-ing its unique identity, creating diff erent mechanisms for interac-tion within the Arab World and calling upon Arabic research cen-tres to engage in further stand-ardization that would protect the

Arabic language from the negative infl uences of cultural and linguis-tic globalization. It stressed on directing academic studies and scientifi c research towards con-temporary social issues in such a manner as to reinforce intercultural communication.

I N T E R N A T I O N A L M E E T

INTELLECTUAL DYNAMICS: The Second International Conference of the College of Arts and Social Sciences discussed the cultural and social dimensions of contemporary social phenomena and its historical, geographical and demographic aspects.

SAFETY FIRST: Now, parents even have the option of owning vehi-cles which have inbuilt child seats.– ROP

Twelve drug peddlers held in Seeb, Bausher, Muttrah

THE Royal Oman Police (ROP) arrested 12 persons in the wilay-tes of Seeb, Bausher and Muttrah in the Governorate of Muscat who were involved in drug traffi cking and abuse. After investiga-tions, the ROP arrested the accused who confessed to the crime and then were referred to the Public Prosecution for trial. The ROP has urged people to help them nab drug peddlers by dialling emergency phone No 9999 or through hotline 1444.

Asian arrested for robbery and assaulting womanTHE ROP has arrested an Asian man, Z.W.R. on charges of as-saulting a woman and committing robbery in North Batinah governorate. The man had entered the house and tried to molest the woman. The woman lodged a complaint against the accused. The accused was referred to the Public Prosecution for further investigation and trial.

19,823 resident cards issued by Directorate of Civil StatusTHE General Directorate of Civil Status of ROP issued and renewed more than 5,503 national identity cards, and more than 19,823 resident cards from December 8 to 12. It also is-sued more than 7,800 missing and damaged cards, said a statement issued by the ROP. The General Directorate of Civil Status maintains a database of citizens and residents, including the details of birth, marriage, divorce and deaths that have taken place in the Sultanate. It also issues identity documents to citizens and residents, including birth certifi -cates, death certifi cates and ID cards. The Directorate also manages mobile registration units, where there are devices to take digital photos, e-signatures and fi ngerprints of citizens and residents.

B R I E F S

Offi cers in top gear for serviceTHE Offi cers Training Insti-tute awarded certifi cates to a number of offi cers who par-ticipated in training courses this year under the patronage of Brigadier Jamal Al Ruqai-shi, chief of Offi cers Institute, last Wednesday.

The institute carried out more than 48 training cours-es during this year in which 914 offi cers were trained.

Civil defenceThe General Administration of Civil Defence provided 2,478 special services in-cluding fi eld visits, studies, licensing and follow-up visits to combat fi re accidents dur-ing the last week. The Civil Defence centres handled 90 complaints during the period and were engaged in 34 res-cue operations.

R O P S E R V I C E

ROAD TRAGEDIES Around 45 children

under the age of six years died last year and 345 others were injured in road accidents in Oman

IMMEDIATE ACTION : A Civil Defence fi re brigade in action.

A4 S AT U R DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 2

REGIONThree dead, 10 injured as Libya police post attacked

TRIPOLI: Armed men attacked police headquarters in the Liby-an city of Benghazi on Thurs-day, killing three people and wounding at least 10, security and medical offi cials said. “An

armed group attacked the police headquarters in Benghazi try-ing to free suspects who were arrested a few days ago,” a security offi cial said. “The army intervened to defend the building. Five policemen were wounded and a resident of the neighbourhood (was) killed,” he added. A medical offi cial at Al Hawari hospital, where some of the casualties were taken, gave the same toll. An offi cial at the Benghazi Medical Centre said without elaborating that it had received two dead and fi ve wounded.

EU tightens noose on Iran with new sanctions LONDON: The EU yesterday agreed new sanctions against Iran, adding 18 companies or institutions and one person to a blacklist aimed at forcing stalled talks on Tehran’s contested nu-clear drive to resume. A statement said a person and 18 entities “involved in nuclear activities or providing support to the Ira-nian government” had been added to an already long list of those targeted by a European Union asset freeze and travel ban. This brought the total of entities subject to sanctions to 490 and the total number of people to 105. The identities of those concerned will be released today in the EU’s Offi cial Journal. The statement also said the 27-nation bloc had approved implementing legisla-tion for a slew of tough new fi nancial and trade sanctions against Iran agreed by foreign ministers on October 15. These notably targeted dealings with Iran’s banks, shipping, and gas imports.

Britain pays out $22.7m to Iraqis abused by its troopsLONDON: Britain has paid out £14 million ($22.7 million, 17.2 million euros) to Iraqis who accuse British troops of illegally detaining and torturing them following the 2003 invasion, the Ministry of Defence said on Thursday. The ministry confi rmed a report in the Guardian newspaper which revealed that the gov-ernment had paid compensation to 205 complainants over the last fi ve years, with more than 700 claims expected to be lodged next year. Some £8.3 million was paid to 162 Iraqis this year with the average settlement being almost £70,000 plus costs. The claims stem back to the fi ve-year occupation of the south-east of the country and have mostly been brought by male civilians who claim they were beaten, threatened and deprived of sleep before being interrogated by British troops. The MoD confi rmed the payouts but defended Britain’s record in Iraq.

Israeli parliament passes bill bailing out Channel 10OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israel’s parliament passed a bill yesterday granting Channel 10 television fi nancial help, just 10 days before the commercial channel had been due to close, the station said on its website. Under terms of the bill, which passed its second and third readings early yesterday, the government will extend the beleaguered station’s licence by two years. It will also loan Channel 10, one of only two commercial television sta-tions in Israel, a sum of 65 million shekels ($17 million/13 mil-lion euros) to enable it to pay its debts. – Agencies

B R I E F S

REBELS SEIZE TANKS: Syrian Army tanks, which were seized by the Free Syrian Army, are seen at an infantry college in the country-side of Aleppo, yesterday. – Reuters

Syria opposition slams Iran ‘lifeline’ for Assad

BEIRUT: Syria’s main opposi-tion group denounced yesterday an Iranian peace initiative for the war-torn country as a last-ditch bid save the regime of President Bashar Al Assad.

“As the free forces of the Syrian people accomplish one decisive political and military victory after another, the regime and its allies keep on launching lacklustre and overdue political initiatives,” said the National Coalition.

“The Iranian initiative repre-sents one example of these des-perate attempts to throw a life-line to the inevitably sinking ship of the Assad regime,” it said in a statement.

Tehran, the most powerful re-gional ally of the embattled Assad regime, detailed a six-point peace initiative last Sunday, according to Iranian media reports.

The plan did not envisage the fall of the regime, but instead called for “an immediate halt to violence and armed actions under the supervision of the United Na-tions”. It also called for sanctions against Syria to be lifted, the start of national dialogue, the estab-lishment of a transitional govern-ment, and free elections.

The National Coalition said the initiative “claims to care about the lives, unity, and independence of the Syrian people”.

But it added that “if the intent of the Iranian regime was sincere in this regard, it would be able to contribute to the Syrian people to achieve their ultimate demands and interests.

“The Iranian regime can do this by ending its support to the Assad regime politically, militarily, and economically, and by pressuring the regime to leave as soon as pos-sibles,” said the opposition bloc.

“The Iranian regime must seri-ously consider the future of re-lations between the Syrian and Iranian people, as the regime it supports is falling.”

The National Coalition, which was formed in Qatar last month, has been recognised by dozens of states as the sole and legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

Doesn’t want chaosPresident Vladimir Putin said yesterday that Russia does not want “chaos” in Syria and that it looked forward to see-ing a democratic regime in the war-torn nation.

“We will try to pursue the pub-lic order in Syria and look forward to a democratic regime in Syria because this country is close to our borders,” he said at a news conference closing an EU-Russia summit, according to an English translation of his words.

“We wouldn’t like chaos in that country,” he added. “Everyone is interested in stopping the vio-lence and the bloodshed.”

Putin for the second time in two days denied propping up the regime of President Assad and appeared to acknowledge the pos-sibility of change, saying: “We do not advocate the government of Syria.” He insisted however that a solution must be found between all parties at the negotiating table to take into account the views “of all the citizens.”

Scuds fi redMeanwhile, Nato offi cials said in Brussels yesterday that President Bashar Assad’s military has fi red more Scud-type missiles inside Syria, more than a week after the Western alliance fi rst detected such arms being used on rebel targets.

“I can confi rm that we have de-tected the launch of Scud - type missiles. We strongly regret that act,” Nato chief Anders Fogh Ras-mussen said, calling the launches “acts of a desperate regime ap-proaching collapse”.

A Nato source said there had been multiple launches of Scud-type missiles inside Syria on Thursday morning.

Rasmussen used the Scud launches to justify Nato’s decision to dispatch Patriot anti missile systems to Nato ally Turkey — a

deployment criticised by Syria, Iran and Russia.

“The fact that such missiles are used in Syria emphasises the need for eff ective defence protection of our ally Turkey,” he told reporters after talks at Nato headquarters with Djibouti Prime Minister Dileita Mohammed Dileita.

“The recent launch of missiles has not hit Turkish territory but of course there is a potential threat and this is exactly the reason why Nato allies decided to deploy Pa-triot missiles in Turkey, for a de-fensive purpose only,” he said.

Refugees’ dilemmaSome 13,000 members of Syria’s Palestinian refugee community have gone back to square one in neighbouring Lebanon. Like their ancestors, they too have been forced to fl ee their birthplace into exile. “The Palestinians can en-dure anything. But the children cannot understand that I cannot bring them milk or change their nappies, that I have no choice but to let them live in misery,” said Umm Khalil, cradling one of her children.

Like other Palestinians, Umm Khalil’s ancestors fl ed their home in what was then northern Pales-tine to Syria when the state of Is-rael was created in 1948.

This week, she fl ed Yarmuk camp in south Damascus after a deadly air strike and clashes between pro- and anti-regime fi ghters. Umm Khalil has found shelter in a rented home in Shatila refugee camp, south of Beirut.

Since the weekend, some 3,000 Palestinians have arrived in Leba-non, fl eeing the escalating vio-lence. – Agencies

The (Iranian) plan did not envisage the

fall of the regime, but instead called for ‘an

immediate halt to violence and armed

actions’ under the UN supervision

‘No’ to Palestinian state in West BankOCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Two-thirds of Israelis are op-posed to the establishment of a demilitarised Palestin-ian state in the West Bank, a poll showed yesterday.

According to the results of a Maagar Mohot survey published in Maariv newspaper, when asked if they would support the estab-lishment of such a state, 66 per cent said they would not, while 11 per cent said they would. The poll, which questioned 511 people between December 19-20, has a margin of error of 4.5 per cent.

Just over half — or 51 per cent — said they would support building new settler homes in a highly sen-sitive area of the West Bank called E1, which lies between annexed east Jerusalem and the nearby Maaleh Adumim settlement. Only nine per cent said they were against such a move. The remain-ing 40 per cent were undecided.

More settler homesThree weeks ago, Israel said it was planning to build thousands of set-tler homes there, sparking a major diplomatic backlash, with experts

saying it could cause severe harm to the contiguity of a future Pales-tinian state. With less than fi ve weeks until general elections on January 22, the poll found steady support for the rightwing nation-alist Likud-Beitenu list headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netan-yahu, which was seen taking 37 of the 120 seats in parliament, down one from last week’s survey.

The centre-left Labour held steady at 20 seats, while the na-tionalist pro-settler Jewish Home rose one to 12 seats.

The ultra-Orthodox Shas lost

one seat to stand at 11, while the opposition Kadima — currently the largest party in parliament with 28 seats — was seen taking just one seat, refl ecting multi-ple surveys which have said the party would be all but wiped out. The centre-right HaTnuah party of former foreign minister Tzipi Livni was fl at at nine seats, while the centrist Yesh Atid was seen shedding one seat to hold at eight.

Overall, the poll saw the bloc of rightwing and ultra-Orthodox parties taking 69 seats, compared with 41 for the centre-left. – AFP

I S R A E L I S U R V E Y

A5

REGIONS AT U R DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 2

Clashes erupt ahead of last round of Egypt referendum

CAIRO: Running clashes between rival protestors erupted yesterday in Egypt’s second city Alexandria, on the eve of the fi nal round of a referendum on a new constitution backed by the ruling Islamists.

Black-clad riot police fi red tear gas to try to quell the street battles between dozens of men, as lines of offi cers kept thousands of Islam-ist demonstrators and hundreds of opposition protestors apart. Six people were hurt, according to an initial count by the health ministry. Alexandria, which voted last weekend in favour of the divi-sive new constitution in the fi rst round, has seen clashes break out on several occasions amid nation-wide rallies for and against Egypt’s Islamist president, Mohammed Mursi. Early this month in Cairo, the confrontations turned deadly outside of Mursi’s palace when eight people were killed and hun-dreds were wounded.

The army has since deployed 120,000 soldiers to bolster 130,000 police tasked with maintaining se-curity during the volatile voting.

The secular-leaning opposi-tion sees the proposed constitu-tion as weakening human rights and opening the way to creeping Sharia-style strict Islamic laws under Mursi. It is urging a “no”

vote in Saturday’s second round. Analysts, though, said it was al-

most certain the new constitution would be adopted — but that such an outcome would not end Egypt’s political crisis.

The ongoing instability has also knocked the legs out from under Egypt’s economy, which has been limping along since the early 2011 revolution that ousted the 30-year autocratic regime of Hosni Mubarak.

The International Monetary Fund has put on hold a $4.8 bil-lion loan Egypt needs to stave off a currency collapse, and Germany

has indefi nitely postponed a plan to forgive $316 million of Egypt’s debt. The head of the National Sal-vation Front opposition coalition, former UN atomic energy agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, warned in an online video that “cur-rently, the country is on the verge of bankruptcy”.

Solution still possibleHe said “a solution is still pos-sible,” as long as Mursi was pre-pared for “sincere dialogue” and allowed a whole new constitu-tion to be drafted through a more inclusive process.

Supporters of both sides have taken to the streets to sway voters to their side of the debate in the run-up to the second round of the referendum.

In Giza, a southwestern Cairo district that will vote on Saturday, an opposition campaign volunteer who give his fi rst name as Maher said he pointed out to passersby “who remains committed to the revolution and who betrayed it”—implying that Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood had let down the country. A pro-constitution cam-paigner in the same area, Abdullah Hassan, said his counter pitch was

to inform people of “the benefi ts that will come out of this consti-tution by voting ‘yes’,” principally stability after so many months of turmoil. Observers said that even if the draft charter was adopted, it would do nothing to resolve the festering political confrontation.

“Everything suggests the vote will go the way the Muslim Broth-erhood wants... But the mislead-ing conclusion it will take away is that there is an overwhelming victory allowing it to continue on its chosen path,” Hassan Nafaa, an analyst, said in the newspaper Al Masri Al Youm. – Reuters

Alexandria, which

voted last weekend in

favour of the divisive

new constitution

in the fi rst round,

has seen clashes

break out on several

occasions

BACK TO TROUBLED DAYS: Riot policemen try to prevent protestors supporting Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi from throwing rocks at anti-Mursi protestors during clashes in Alexandria, yesterday. – Reuters

Guards held on terror chargesBAGHDAD: Nine of the Iraqi fi nance minister’s guards are being held on terrorism charg-es, a judicial spokesman said yesterday, after the minister de-manded the premier’s resigna-tion following their arrest.

The arrests and Finance Minister Rafa Al Essawi’s re-sponse threaten to reignite a long-running feud between the secular, Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, of which he is a member, and Shiite Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki.

Higher Judicial Council spokesman Abdelsattar Bay-raqdar said that nine of Essawi’s guards were detained under Iraq’s anti-terrorism law, and that all necessary arrest war-rants had been obtained.

And he told Iraqiya state tel-evision that the commander of the guards had confessed to car-rying out “terrorist acts,” which he said meant “bombings and assassinations”.

The interior ministry said on its website that its forces car-ried out the arrests around Es-sawi’s house, put the number of detained guards at 10, and pub-lished what it said were copies of the arrest warrants.

Ministry raidedEssawi meanwhile said on Thursday that a “militia force” — an apparent reference to a security forces unit — raided the ministry and his home “in an illegal act, without a judicial order,” detaining 150 guards.

“I call on the prime minister to resign, because he did not be-have like a man of state,” Essawi told a news conference along-side parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi and Deputy Prime Minister Saleh Al Mutlak, also Iraqiya members.

Iraqiya and other members of Maliki’s unstable national unity government have accused him in the past year of concentrating power in his hands and moving towards dictatorship. – AFP

I R A Q

Palestinian leader calls for boycott of Israeli goodsRAMALLAH: Israel’s refusal this month to transfer tax rev-enue to the West Bank has under-mined the Palestinian Authority’s already dire fi nances, prompt-ing the prime minister, Salam Fayyad, to call for a boycott of Israeli goods.

Israel said it was using the withheld money to pay off part of a debt run up by the Palestin-ian Authority to the Israel Elec-tric Corp. and other Israeli pro-viders. But the Israeli sanctions were also part of the tit-for-tat response to the Palestinians’ successful bid last month to up-grade their status at the United Nations to that of a nonmember observer state.

The Israeli move adds to the severe fi nancial crisis in the Pal-estinian Authority.

Govt workers strikeOn Thursday, amid a two-day strike by about 50,000 govern-ment workers, the Palestinian Authority announced that em-ployees would receive at least half of their November salary early next week. The money is be-ing lent from Palestinian banks against promises of extra assis-tance from Arab states.

The Arab countries pledged to send $100 million per month after the UN move as a safety net, but that money has not yet material-ized, part of the reason the Pales-tinian Authority was already in such diffi cult circumstances.

Yet with Fayyad warning that the Palestinians are at a fi nancial precipice, “so close to the cliff ,” the boycott call seemed more symbolic than punitive.

The economy of the Palestin-ian Authority, an interim, self-rule body established nearly 20 years ago, remains intrinsically dependent on Israel.

In an interview at his offi ce here this week, Fayyad described Israel’s refusal to transfer the tax revenues as an “assault” on the Palestinians’ livelihood, im-mediately aff ecting 1 million Pal-estinians — more than 150,000

government employees and their dependents. He explained the boycott call as a logical re-sponse because the tax revenues are accrued on Palestinian trade with Israel.

“The reason Israel owes us money each month is because we import goods from Israel,” Fayyad said. “So it becomes a legitimate question for me to ask how to minimise the amount of our mon-ey that will be subject to Israel’s capricious behaviour.”

No major impactBut a boycott is unlikely to have any major eff ect on Israel’s fi -nances, statistics show. Accord-ing to a 2010 study by the re-search department of the Bank of Israel, a signifi cant share of Is-raeli sales to the Palestinian econ-omy in 2008, which amounted to around $3.2 billion, consisted of the transit trade of goods im-ported into Israel, including fuel, or goods with low added value to Israel’s economy.

Fayyad acknowledged that the boycott could, on the other hand, backfi re against the Palestinians if, for instance, Israel decided to retaliate by banning Palestin-ian exports, which mostly go to Israel. So he has been treading carefully, emphasising that the call is for a voluntary boycott,

not a ban on imports, and it ap-plies only to products that have a local alternative.

“This is a response in kind; it is meant to send a signal,” Fayyad said. “The right way to do things is to do them in a measured way.” He added, “As things stand right now, we could be exporting much more to Israel if it were not for the Israeli restrictions.”

Israel has withheld transfers of Palestinian tax revenues at least fi ve times before, sometimes for weeks and, after the outbreak of the intifada in 2000, for two years.

But this is the fi rst time that Israel has used the money, which constitutes about two-thirds of the authority’s income, to pay off Palestinian debts without the consent of the authority.

Delicate balancingIsrael is engaged in a delicate bal-ancing act since it does not have an interest in seeing the Palestin-ian Authority collapse, offi cials there have said. Decisions regard-ing the transfer of tax money in the coming months are pending, according to Israeli offi cials. In the weeks before the UN bid, they said, Israel advanced money to the Palestinian Authority in response to calls for help and to provide some relief ahead of a Muslim holiday.

Now Palestinian offi cials are pinning their hopes on the emir of Qatar, His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who is expected to make a rare visit to the West Bank in the coming weeks. When he visited Gaza in October, he pledged $400 million for projects in the coastal enclave, which is controlled by Hamas.

Asked about the latest boycott call, Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli government, said: “Boycotts are not going to solve anything. The reason for the cur-rent impasse in the peace talks is the Palestinian decision to boycott Israel and the negotiat-ing table. What we need is not more boycotts, but more engage-ment.” – New York Times News Service

T I T - F O R - T A T S T E P

The Israeli move of

blocking tax revenues

to West Bank added to

the severe financial

crisis in the Palestinian

Authority. Palestinian

PM says the boycott

call is a logical reply

A6 S AT U R DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 2

INDIAIndia-Asean relations at exciting stage: PM

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday said India-Asean relations were at an “exciting stage” and expressed confi dence that the free trade agreement in services and invest-ment would be transformational.

Flagging down 22-day, eight-nation India-Asean Car Rally, Singh said India and Asean na-tions should build a web of link-ages to unleash the vast economic potential of the region.

Future“...our future will be driven by the bonds of connectivity we build in the coming years,” Singh said welcoming the participants of the car rally in the presence of heads of state and governments of the Asean member nations.

“These physical bonds will be strengthened by digital links, which will help our younger gen-erations to network better. To-gether, this web of linkages will help unleash the vast economic potential of our region, accelerate development and deepen our stra-tegic partnership,” he said.

Observing that India-Asean ties were at an “exciting stage”, Singh said the two sides had framed a new paradigm by elevat-ing the relationship to a strategic partnership and by concluding negotiations on free trade agree-ment in services and investment.

“I am confi dent that this agree-

ment could be as transformation-al as our agreement on goods has been,” he said.

ConnectivityThe prime minister said the car rally, which traversed nearly 8,000 kms in 22 days, has reinforced the importance of strengthening con-nectivity in all its dimensions be-tween India and Asean.

“In the last three weeks, the car rally has rekindled these ancient bonds of friendship between In-dia and Asean. It has also served to highlight the natural strategic imperative for our relationship in contemporary times,” Singh said.

The car rally marks the 20th commemorative year of the Ase an-India relations and 10th year of their summit level engagement.

Along with the car rally, busi-ness marker events were organ-ised in countries en route to con-nect with the industry and the common man.

The events focused on sectors like manufacturing, mining, IT &ITeS, education, healthcare, agri and food processing, border trade, investment and fi nancing, infra-structure and development, air and sea connectivity and people-to-people contacts. -PTI

Singh said the two

sides had framed

a new paradigm

by elevating

the relationship

to a strategic

partnership

I am confi dent that this

agreement could be as

transformational as our

agreement on goods

has been

Manmohan SinghPrime Minister

ELATED: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur at the fl ag down ceremony of the India-Asean Car rally in New Delhi, yesterday. – PTI

Govt vows to press for life terms for Delhi bus rapists

NEW DELHI: The government, facing swelling protests over the gang-rape of a female student on a bus, vowed yesterday to press for life sentences for her six attackers and promised stricter policing.

Home Secretary R.K. Singh also said the government would pay the medical bills of the 23-year-old victim of the brutal Sunday night attack who is fi ghting for her life in hospital after suff ering serious injuries to her intestines.

“We will ask for the maximum punishment of life imprisonment and ask the court for the speedy trial of the accused,” Singh said as New Delhi and other cities con-tinued to be swept by an unprec-edented wave of demonstrations by women demanding better safety.

Scant fear of lawSix drunken man were joyriding on a bus when they picked up the physiotherapy student and her 28-year-old male companion and

took turns raping her. Afterwards, they threw the pair off the speed-ing vehicle. Police say the woman was attacked with an iron rod af-ter being raped.

Experts say a combination of abusive physical behaviour, a scant fear of law and India’s creaky judicial system encour-ages such attacks in the bustling city of 19 million people.

Five people, including the bus driver, have been arrested while a search is underway for the re-maining suspect, city police com-missioner Neeraj Kumar said.

Kumar said police have charged the detained suspects with rape and attempted murder.

Kumar promised a slew of meas-ures to “make Delhi safe,” promis-ing squads of offi cers would patrol the city, crack down on vehicles with darkened windows and zero in on drunken motorists.

“All hooliganism will be swiftly punished,” the home secretary

added. The number of rape cases in New Delhi has risen 17 per cent to 661 this year compared with 2011.

Kumar said police will de-ploy marshals on buses which are commonly used by women commuters.

Under pressure“The (policing) regime that we are going to put in place will be very, very strict,” Kumar said, adding public transport drivers will be forced to carry identity tags. If there is any wrongdoing “we will catch those people,” home secre-tary Singh added.

Singh also said the under-pres-sure government would take a “view” on the demands by protest-ers in several cities for mandatory death sentences for rapists. A par-liamentary panel overseeing in-ternal security said it would meet next week to review existing laws to deal with sex off enders. - AFP

S W E L L I N G P R O T E S T S

DEMANDING JUSTICE: Activists of the All-India Democratic Women’s Association and YWCA stu-dents take part in a protest march from Rashtrapati Bhawan to India Gate against the gang-rape of a girl, in New Delhi, yesterday. – PTI

‘BJP may block Modi’s run for PM’NEW DELHI: Narendra Modi should be in a strong position to run for prime minister in 2014 after winning state polls but his own party may act to stop him, newspapers said yesterday.

Modi, a hardline leader of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Thursday recorded a thump-ing victory in Gujarat to remain as chief minister, triggering renewed speculation about his national ambitions.

“He seeks national role, but party leadership may balk,” read the front-page of The Hindu, while The Times of India asked: “Gujarat wants Modi, but does he want only Gujarat?”

The BJP — which is the main opposition party in parliament — is scouting around for a vote-winning candidate to take on the ruling Congress-led alli-ance that has been weakened by slowing economic growth and policy paralysis. Modi, whose image remains tarnished by deadly riots in Gujarat in 2002, inspires loyalty among young Gujaratis, but BJP leaders fear he is a polarising fi gure who does not have the broad appeal needed on the national stage.

He strikes a fi ercely independ-ent stance in Gujarat, promoting his own pro-business agenda, and has long had strained relations with the BJP hierarchy.

Turmoil“The BJP, already in unceas-ing turmoil over the leadership question, will now have to deal with the formidable claimant from Gujarat, who disdains not just the opponent... but also the opposition within,” the Indian Express said. His supporters had no doubt about his future, celebrating his victory with the chant “Gujarat is only a trailer, Delhi is the real battle”. - AFP

N E W S P A P E R S

Hundreds pay tribute to sitar legend Ravi Shankar

CALIFORNIA: Former Beatle George Har-rison’s widow Olivia joined hundreds of fans and family of Ravi Shankar on Thursday at an open-air memorial to the Indian sitar legend near his California home. Anoushka Shankar, daughter of the late musician who died last week near San Diego, and her half-sister Grammy-winning singer Norah Jones also

paid their last respects at the service in a palm tree-lined medi-tation centre. Tributes were read out from fellow musicians and artistes who had been inspired by Ravi Shankar.

Govt charges mobile fi rms over 2002 spectrum award NEW DELHI: Police yesterday fi led criminal charges against Bharti Airtel, India’s top mobile phone fi rm, and Vodafone’s Indian arm as part of a sprawling probe into alleged corruption in spectrum allocation. The accusations against Bharti Airtel, headed by billionaire tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal, and Vodafone stem from the granting of bandwidth under the previous BJP government in 2002. They follow separate allegations of the rig-ging of the 2008 sale of spectrum that have rocked the current Congress government and led to corruption charges against for-mer telecom minister A. Raja and 16 other people as well as sev-eral big fi rms including Reliance Telecom.

Zee editor fi les defamation suit against JindalNEW DELHI: Zee News editor Sudhir Chaudhary, arrested on an extortion complaint fi led by Congress MP and industrialist Naveen Jindal but now granted bail, yesterday fi led a defamation suit against Jindal for “falsely implicating” him in the FIR and making a false statement in a press conference. - Agencies

B R I E F S

A7

PAKISTANS AT U R DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 2

Christians in Rimsha’s neighbourhood facing a bleak XmasISLAMABAD: Christians liv-ing in the neighbourhood where a young girl was accused of blas-phemy say they are facing a bleak and joyless Christmas, crushed by poverty and harassed by their neighbours.

Rimsha Masih spent three weeks on remand after being ar-rested on August 16, accused of burning papers printed with vers-es from the Holy Quran, in a case that drew worldwide condemna-tion. She could have been jailed for life, but the Islamabad High Court threw out the case against her in September.

Festive seasonRimsha and her family will spend Christmas as they have spent the last four months – in hiding, fear-ing for their lives.

Her home stands empty and the festive season promises little cheer

in the run-down area of Mehrabad, a warren of fi lthy, unpaved streets winding between tiny single-sto-rey breezeblock houses on the edge of Islamabad.

Christmas traditionally means new clothes, music and celebra-tions, but locals say things have become much more diffi cult since the Rimsha case.

A patch of waste ground, where children play and goats nose through piles of rubbish, should be home to a Christmas tree by now. But not anymore.

“A day or two ago we were dis-cussing how to decorate a tree when some young Muslim men came and mocked us, saying ‘You are talking about it but you will not dare put it up,’” Amjad Shehzad, a housepainter, said.

“Normally at Christmas we put up stars on our houses, but this year we will not be able to

do this either,” he added.“We are scared. We are fright-

ened. We cannot sit together, we cannot speak loudly, we cannot celebrate openly. We have threats,”

said Ashraf Masih, a sweeper and a father of nine, in his unheated two-room house.

Drums and a lectern are piled up in a corner — rescued from a house

that had been used as a makeshift church until the neighbours com-plained about the noise and the landlord intervened.

He built a concrete wall across the inside of the building dividing it into two homes.

Upset“Christmas is coming and we are upset. What will we do on Christ-mas? Every year we used to cel-ebrate it here but now we have no church to celebrate in the area,” said Aslam Masih, a 37-year-old gardener and father of three.

His wife Kalsoom Aslam said money was also a worry.

“The atmosphere is not good and our church is closed,” she said.

“Either we pay the rent or we make preparations for Christmas.”

Many of Mehrabad’s 400 or so Christian families fl ed when

Rimsha was arrested, fearing for their safety.

But Aslam Masih says most have since returned to Mehrabad.

“We are back in our houses, though some Christians have been shifted to (the neighbourhood of ) H-9/2 in a graveyard, where they have some makeshift arrangement living in tents.”

Hammad Malik, the man who accused Rimsha, still believes he did the right thing, but claims he would guarantee the family’s safe-ty should they return.

“Their house is still waiting for them… I will give them written as-surance that if somebody raises a fi nger against them, I will protect them,” he said.

“I don’t know whether she did it on purpose or it was just an ac-cident, but it was my duty to save these Quranic pages, I did that and I am not ashamed of it.” - AFP

B L A S P H E M Y C A S E F A L L O U T

POVERTY-STRICKEN: In this photograph taken recently, Christian childrens play outside their homes in Mehrabad. – AFP

Don’t name collegeafter me, says Malala

PESHAWAR: Shot teenage Pa-kistani activist Malala Yousafzai has backed reversing a decision to rename a girls college in her hon-our after students said the move could endanger them, an offi cial said yesterday.

Around 150 students boycotted classes and tore up pictures of Malala in protest last week at the

renaming of their Government Girls Degree College Saidu Sharif after the 15-year-old, saying the move would make them a target for militants.

Malala was shot on her school bus in northwestern Swat in Oc-

tober by Taleban for the “crime” of promoting girls’ education, but survived the murder attempt and is now recovering in hospital in Britain.

The top local government of-fi cial in Swat, Kamran Rehman,

said he had spoken on Monday by phone to Malala, whose story made headlines around the world and prompted the UN to to observe a “global day of action” for her last month.

Concerned“Malala Yousafzai called me from Birmingham hospital and said the provincial government should revert to the old name if there are security fears among the girl stu-dents,” Rehman said.

“Malala expressed concern over the dangers faced by the students after the college was renamed, say-ing she would not like anyone’s life to be threatened.”

Rehman said Malala’s father Zi-auddin Yousafzai, a former teacher and headmaster who has been ap-pointed a UN adviser on educa-tion, backed her stance in the phone call.

The offi cial said he had writ-ten to the provincial government about the matter.

Malala fi rst rose to prominence aged just 11 with a blog for the BBC Urdu service in 2009 in which she described life in Swat during the bloody rule of the Taleban. - AFP

Malala expressed

concern over the

dangers faced by

the students after

the college was

renamed, saying

she would not like

anyone’s life to be

threatened

Malala called me from

Birmingham hospital and

said the provincial govt

should revert to the old

name if there are security

fears among the girl

students

Kamran RehmanTop local government official

UK judges block action over US drone attacksLONDON: Judges yesterday blocked a legal action brought by a Pakistani man against Britain over allegations that British intel-ligence has been used in US drone attacks on Pakistan.

Lawyers for Noor Khan, 27, who lives in Pakistan, launched the action at the High Court in London in March after the death of his father Malik Daud Khan last year in a drone strike in North Waziristan.

They sought to challenge the lawfulness of the help Britain’s intelligence gathering agency GCHQ reportedly provides to the CIA, such as information target-ing militants, which is then used in deadly drone strikes.

RelationsHowever, lawyers for British For-eign Secretary William Hague had urged the court to block the legal proceedings, saying the case was unarguable.

They said it raised issues re-

lating to sovereign foreign states that cannot be determined by English courts, adding that any ruling would have a “signifi cant” impact on British relations with the United States and Pakistan.

Lord Justice Alan Moses re-fused Khan premission to bring the legal challenge at the High Court yesterday.

“The real aim is to persuade

this court to make a public pro-nouncement designed to con-demn the activities of the United States in North Waziristan, as a step in persuading them to halt such activity,” he said.

The judge said lawyer Martin Chamberlain, who represented Khan in court, “knows he could not obtain permission overtly for such a purpose”. He added: “His stimulating arguments have been an attempt to shroud that purpose in a more acceptable veil.”

Technical faultMeanwhile, reconnaissance drone has crashed in northwest-ern tribal region after developing a technical fault, security offi cials said yesterday.

The unmanned military air-craft was on a surveillance mis-sion when it came down on Thursday night in Azam Warsak area, west of Wana, a senior se-curity offi cial said on condition of anonymity. - AFP

A L L E G A T I O N S

BONE OF CONTENTION: UK high court responds to Pakistani petitioner with regard to a case against drone strikes. – File photo

Malala Yousafzai

PIA criticised over ‘mismanagement’ ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has voiced dismay at the “mismanagement” of Pakistan International Airlines, which it said lost $230 million in 2012, and ordered bosses to come up with a rescue plan.

The beleaguered national fl ag-carrier is notorious among Pa-kistanis for delays and cancella-tions and its planes have suff ered a number of embarrassing tech-nical problems this year.

In an order published yester-day the country’s top court gave the chairman of PIA and the di-rector general of the Civil Avia-tion Authority two weeks to re-port back with a “comprehensive plan” to improve the airline and Pakistan’s airports.

Financial statementsThe three-judge panel headed by the Chief Justice Iftikhar Mu-hammad Chaudhary said fi nan-cial statements showed PIA lost Rs22.43 billion ($230 million) in 2012 and Rs19.29 billion in 2011.

The airline employs 18,000 workers including both perma-nent and contract staff but has only 38 aircraft, the court said, 10 of which — more than a quar-ter of the fl eet — are currently

out of action for repairs. PIA is planning to buy or lease

eight more aircraft but the court said it was surprised the carrier had not done so sooner, given that much of the fl eet is more than 25 years old.

“We are of the view, prima fa-cie, that on account of such mis-management a profi t-earning organization, being the only offi -cial airline, is making loss year to year,” the court order said.

The order also voiced frustra-tion at the performance of seven senior PIA offi cials who had fl own from Karachi to Islamabad specifi cally for the court hearing.

“No one amongst them was fully aware of the aff airs of the Corporation and whenever ques-tions were put to them, they stated that they had to get fi gures and they would inform the court...on the next date of hearing,” the court said.

“It clearly indicates misman-agement in the organisation otherwise effi cient staff mem-bers having been posted against lucrative packages should have ensured that an organisation which is making losses should be turned into profi t-making organisation.”- AFP

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Reasons to be cheerful about next year

A8 S AT U R DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 2

Since the British Supreme Court opened for business three years ago, with its premises outside the precincts of Parliament, there has been a widespread impression that the UK now had a sys-

tem with complete separation of powers, similar to that in the United States. In fact, though, the links between the legislature and the execu-tive, on the one hand, and the judiciary, on the other, were not entirely severed. As we have been reminded this week, the Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor – the job currently held by Chris Grayling – re-tains the power to appoint the court’s chief executive and other admin-istrative offi cers. And as we also learnt, this is not to the judges’ liking.

In a proposed amendment to the Crime and Courts Bill, which had its third reading in the House of Lords yesterday, the former president of the Supreme Court, Lord Phillips, is trying to change this. He wants responsibility for these appointments to be transferred to the court’s sitting president, a position that his successor, Lord Neuberger, sup-ports. The immediate practical argument is that the judges on the spot appreciate the court’s needs better than ministers, whose priori-ties might be diff erent. A further argument is that the chief executive would then owe his or her loyalty unambiguously to the court, rather than to the government of the day. And the conclusion must be that, so long as the current system operates, the appearance of Supreme Court independence does not fully match the reality. Having avoided the chief downside of the US system – the highly politicised nature of the Supreme Court justices, whose appointment is in the gift of the President – the UK’s highest court should be allowed to capitalise on its success so far and break this last government link. — The Independent

In the emerging world,

the great issue is

what the new Chinese

leaders will do. The

country seems to have

engineered the ‘soft

landing’, however the

longer-term challenge of

maintaining growth now

but eventually adjusting

it down remains

enormous

It is that time of year again.The string of economic forecasts;

predictions for the fi nancial markets; assessments of policy changes; and, most recently following the Queen’s devastating question about the fi nan-cial crash – “Why did no one see this

coming?” – some tail-covering about things that probably won’t happen, but just might.

My own feeling about all this is that the uncer-tainties are so massive that forecasts will inevita-bly be wrong. But it is still worthwhile to pause at the end of the year and think how the main infl u-ences on the world economy are likely to unfold. To put it at its lowest, the nasty surprises will be less devastating.

The world economy is still in the early stages of a recovery, and so setbacks are quite normal. This is always a fragile point in the cycle. In the past year, we have had several disappointments, in-cluding poor growth here and in Europe, tensions in the eurozone, and a still-sluggish US recovery.

But there have been encouraging signals, too, including strong growth in UK employment, some reduction of pressures on the weaker sov-ereign bond markets in Europe and, in the last couple of months, quite positive signs in the US economy. You could say that this year had a bad dip in the middle but things got better towards the end. If correct, then maybe this modest pro-gress will continue through 2013.

Start with the US, where the hot current issue is the “fi scal cliff ”. We will have an outcome to that, though maybe not a solution, in the next few days. That will at least be the end to uncertainty. At some stage, the US has to tighten fi scal policy and the issue will be how resilient the country is in the face of the inevitable squeeze.

We are assured by Ben Bernanke that the Fed-eral Reserve will not tighten policy for some time, perhaps two or three years. While some would welcome an ultra-easy monetary policy to off set a tighter fi scal one, this will carry its own risks.

Something to look for in 2013 will be signs of the unexpected and disagreeable consequences of too lax a monetary stance. The obvious indica-tors would be a rise in infl ation, a fall in the dollar and a sharp climb of long-term bond yields.

As far as Europe is concerned, the issues are glaringly obvious. Mario Draghi managed to impose order on bond markets by making the threat, still not carried out, that the European

Central Bank might buy unlimited quantities of distressed sovereign debt provided the countries were tackling their imbalances.

But the eurozone heads into the year in reces-sion, with even mighty Germany slowing. So the scope for something to go seriously wrong, be it political, fi nancial or economic, remains huge. The weaker economies are adjusting: costs are coming down and balance of payments gaps narrowing. But the human costs of austerity continue to mount and much of fringe Europe remains locked in recession. The best hope is an-other year of muddling through, but that itself is a dismal prospect.

In the emerging world, the great issue is what the new Chinese leaders will do. The country seems to have engineered the “soft landing”, however the longer-term challenge of maintain-ing growth now but eventually adjusting it down remains enormous.

Pessimists have been repeatedly proved wrong and so the working assumption for all of us should be another year of solid growth. India, less important to the world than China but very im-portant to the UK, will have slower growth than in the past couple of years.

Will the emerging world continue to supply the same boost to global demand as it has in recent years? This year, it contributed about two-thirds of the increase in fi nal demand. That put a fl oor under commodity prices and, coupled with ad-verse weather, put continuing pressure on food prices. The most sensitive indicator of global demand is energy: any shading back shows in an easing back of the oil price. Assuming energy prices are stable, or better still, come back a little, there is a reasonable prospect of infl ation in the developed world also shading back.

I have left the UK until last. The broad consen-sus is that we will pick up some pace next year. The slog of cutting the defi cit remains as daunt-ing as ever but a year of decent growth would help. Here is a totally unscientifi c reason for ex-pecting that: we have a new governor of the Bank of England, who as Henderson’s Simon Ward notes, may or may not be a good central banker, but has been very good at managing his career and has always been associated with success.

There are rational reasons for expecting us to have a much better year, but meanwhile let’s welcome Mark Carney – and hope he has made a good career choice again. - The Independent

HAMISH MCRAE

Delhi rape has come asa shock to the IndiansWhat happened with a young medical student in Delhi is a shame. The brutal attack on her came as a shock to all of us, espe-cially the Indians living across the world. The off enders of the girl’s morality must be given exemplary punishment. The authorities in India, especially in Delhi must ensure safety of women.Shifa NazeerSalalah

One-state solution is not the panaceaNotwithstanding all the rationale it off ers, the cliched one-state solution to the Palestinian pro-blem and aspiration does not off er any logical answer to a few vital questions. And foremost among them is how would the Israeli Jews prioritise people, especially the Arab Palestinians, over their lost land. Eric StromayerQurum

Al Qaeda has suff ereddefeats acorss the world At a mundane ground level, Al Qaeda today stands accused of bringing disrepute to Islam and wedging in an incompatibility between nationalism and Islamic political thoughts. It has capitu-lated and suff ered systematic de-feats across the world, especially in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. Sadiq Jahagir Seeb

Libya is fast turning into another Somalia Very soon we may be witness-ing Libya turning into another Somalia posing a serious security threat not only to its government and people but also to the entire Middle East. The new Libyan government has neither the expe-rience nor the expertise to negoti-ate challenges it is almost certain to face sooner than later when large or mid size militia groups split into smaller units and start striking virtually at will and with impunity. The biggest danger that looms today over Libya is the fact that its downward spiralling vola-tility will only encourage global terror network like Al Qaeda to seek entry and strike roots in af-fi liation with Ansar Al Sharia.Sharon Stone Al Khwair

READERS’ FORUM

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

I know of only one bird — the parrot — that talks; and it can’t fl y very high

WILBUR WRIGHT

“Insure with New India and be secure”

Pressures from unexpected quarters continued to build on Con-gress to strengthen the country’s porous gun laws. Pro-gun leg-islators expressed support for stronger rules. A prominent pri-

vate equity fi rm announced that it was divesting itself of the company that makes the Bushmaster rifl e, which was used in the mass shooting of 20 children and seven adults in Connecticut. Bit by bit, it began to seem possible, at long last, that lawmakers who say they do not want guns to wind up in the hands of criminals, the mentally ill and others who cannot be trusted with them will do the one thing that would be most eff ective at achieving that goal, and the one thing the gun lobby does not want: requiring background checks for all gun sales. The Brady gun control law, named for the White House offi cial who was shot during an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, requires licensed gun dealers to screen all prospective gun buyers through a federal database of convicted felons, drug abusers, people with a serious mental illness and others. In addition, the law requires licensed dealers to collect information about buyers that can be used later to trace guns that were used in crimes. From 1994 to 2009, those checks have prevented nearly two million gun sales, according to the Justice Department.

But the law does not cover private sales of guns, including transac-tions by “occasional sellers” at gun shows and fl ea markets, in what has become a gaping loophole that has allowed teenagers, ordinary crimi-nals, terrorists, Mexican drug cartels and arms traffi ckers to have easy access to weapons. For instance, fi rearms bought at gun shows were used in the Columbine school shooting; they have been found in a shipment of arms supplies to the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah; and they have made their way across the border to Mexico. But none of those examples have stopped the National Rifl e Association and its supporters in Congress from blocking legislation that would require private sellers to run buyers through background checks, which take just a few minutes to process on the telephone. The N.R.A., embold-ened by a Supreme Court ruling asserting an individual constitutional right to bear arms, has turned its attention to further broadening the market, lobbying state legislatures to allow concealed weapons in churches, schools and other public places and to restrict the discretion of local police in granting gun permits.

Requiring background checks for private sales will obviously not, on its own, keep people like Adam Lanza, the 20-year-old who perpe-trated the massacre in Newtown, Conn., away from deadly weapons. For starters, only buyers of guns, not members of the families who own them (as was true in his case), are screened against the database known as the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. Moreover, many state governments and federal agencies have provid-ed incomplete or no records to the system for various logistical, legal and fi nancial reasons. But those fl aws and limitations should not be a reason for lawmakers to exempt sales at gun shows, fl ea markets and at other venues from background checks, which are a simple and ef-fective way to prevent many violent individuals from getting access to guns. — The New York Times News Service

The yawning loophole in the US gun laws

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WORLDS AT U R DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 2

Uncertainty after US‘fiscal cliff’ plan fails

WASHINGTON: The task of picking up the pieces of the “fi scal cliff ” talks - and reassuring global fi nancial markets that were shaky early yesterday - is likely to fall largely to President Barack Obama after Republicans abandoned their own proposed fi x championed by House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner.

Boehner said yesterday that congressional leaders and Presi-dent Barack Obama must try to move on from House Republi-cans’ failed tax plan and work to-gether to resolve the looming US “fi scal cliff ”.

He said he was not concerned that Thursday’s withdrawn vote threatened his position as speaker, but did not outline a clear path for-ward. He said a divided Washing-ton must come together to revamp the massive US tax code in a way that helps spur economic growth.

Boehner, Obama’s chief nego-tiating partner, failed to muster enough support from his fellow Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, to pass his bill called “Plan B” on Thurs-

day. He had hoped to use it to pressure Obama in talks to avert the steep tax hikes and automatic government spending cuts slated to start taking eff ect in just 11 days.

Boehner late on Thursday abruptly pulled the legislation, which would have raised taxes only on people earning $1 million or more a year. House members, heading to their home states for the holidays, were instructed to be available on 48 hours notice if necessary. Democrats were urging him to go back to the bargaining ta-ble with Obama.

“They went from Plan B to plan see-you-later,” Obama adviser Da-vid Axelrod said on MSNBC.

Obama said he still plans to work with Congress and was hopeful for a bipartisan solution, his press secretary said in a statement.

The failure casts fresh uncer-tainty over talks to avoid across-the-board tax hikes and spending

cuts that could push the US econ-omy into recession in 2013.

Global stock markets weakened yesterday and both the euro and gold slipped as the new setback rattled investors’ nerves. Most major stock markets saw wide-spread selling as investors moved to traditional safe-haven assets.

The crumbling of Boehner’s plan highlights his struggle to lead some House Republicans who fl atly reject any deal that would in-crease taxes on anyone.

Republican Representative Tim Huelskamp criticised Boehner’s handling of the negotiations, say-ing the speaker had “caved” to Obama opening the door to tax hikes. Huelskamp, a dissident fi rst-term congressman, said he was not willing to compromise on taxes even if they are coupled with cuts to government spending.

Conservatives “are so frustrated that the leader in the House right

now, the speaker, has been talking about tax increases. That’s all he’s been talking about,” Huelskamp said on MSNBC.

“There’s been very little out-reach by this leadership team to conservatives. ... Do not ask for tax increases. We’re not going to give them,” Huelskamp said, added: “We can still get this done.”

Obama and his fellow Demo-crats in Congress are insisting that the wealthiest Americans pay more in taxes in order to help re-duce high federal budget defi cits.

Democrats, who are the minor-ity in the House but control the Senate, are now stepping up eff orts to gather some Republican votes for a Democratic bill passed by the Senate months ago that would ex-tend the expiring tax cuts to all but the wealthy.

“What we’ll have to do is fi gure out where that line is that gives us those 218 votes” needed to garner a majority of the House behind legislation, Republican Repre-sentative Michael Burgess said on CNBC.

“I believe we can and must take action before the end of the year to prevent the fi scal cliff ,” Steny Hoyer, the second ranking Demo-crat in the House, told MSNBC. “Democrats are ready to work with Republicans to do so.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who has expe-rience helping to forge deals when House Republicans are in disarray, is likely to play a larger role now in attempting to rescue the situation along with other Senate Republi-cans, who have been more recep-tive to compromising. - Reuters

Boehner’s leadership

criticised as

Democrats say they

are ready to work on

path forward

Russian lower house approves bill banning US adoptionMOSCOW: Russia’s lower house of parliament approved a law ban-ning Americans from adopting Russian children yesterday, in re-taliation for US human rights leg-islation which Vladimir Putin says is poisoning relations.

The State Duma overwhelming-ly backed a bill which also outlaws US-funded “non-profi t organisa-tions that engage in political activ-

ity”, extending what critics say is a clampdown on Putin’s opponents since he returned to the presi-dency in May. The law responds to US legislation known as the Mag-nitsky Act, passed by the US Con-gress to impose visa bans and asset freezes on Russian offi cials ac-cused of involvement in the death in custody of anti-corruption law-yer Sergei Magnitsky in 2009.

Meanwhile, US ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul criti-cising the bill said in a statement, “We are very concerned by meas-ures... that would link the fate of orphaned children to unrelated political issues.”

He said the bill would also “deprive Russian civil society activists engaged in ‘political ac-tivities’ of the ability to work

with Americans of their choice”.Putin hinted at a news confer-

ence on Thursday that he would sign it into law once the Senate votes on it next week, describing it as an emotional but appropriate response to an unfriendly move by the United States. “It is a myth that all children who land in Amer-ican families are happy and sur-rounded by love,” Olga Batalina, a

deputy with Putin’s ruling United Russia party, said in defence of the new measures.

Bargaining chip“Children should not be a bar-gaining chip in international af-fairs,” said Mikhail Fedotov, the head of the Kremlin’s human rights council.

In a debate peppered with pa-

triotic rhetoric reminiscent of the Cold War, deputies described foreign adoptions as an embar-rassment, implying Russia could not care for its own. The law was backed by 420 deputies and op-posed by only seven in the 450-seat chamber. Its easy passage re-fl ected a growing conservatism in society since Putin’s return of the presidency. - Reuters

R E T A L I A T I O N

Congress, President

Obama must keep

working on fiscal deal

John BoehnerHouse of Representatives Speaker

Obama picks Kerry as secretary of stateWASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama yesterday an-nounced the nomination of US Senator John Kerry to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, calling him the “perfect choice” to guide American diplomacy in the years ahead. Obama settled on Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Re-lations Committee and the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, after UN Ambassador Susan Rice withdrew from consideration last week. He said he expected quick Senate confi rmation of the Massachusetts lawmaker.

300,000 typhoon-hitFilipinos still homelessMANILA: Some 300,000 people remain homeless in the Philippines following a deadly typhoon earlier this month, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Soci-eties (IFRC) said yesterday. The IFRC said urgent humanitar-ian assistance was needed to help around 200,000 of those af-fected by Typhoon Bopha — the deadliest storm to have struck the Philippines this year, killing more than 1,000 across the archipelago. - Agencies

B R I E F S

FIRST TO HIT A BILLION VIEWS: A magnifying glass shows the number of times that viewers have watched South Korean rapper Psy’s video ‘Gangnam Style’ on YouTube, yesterday. Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ became the fi rst video to hit a billion views on YouTube, marking a fresh milestone in the global craze for the South Korean rapper and his horse-riding dance. The view counter at-tached to ‘Gangnam Style’, which was only posted on the video-sharing site on July 15, clicked over into 10 fi gures at around 1550GMT, confi rming its status as the most viewed video in the site’s history. – AFP

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WORLDS AT U R DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 2

Mayan era ends, prophecy for apocalypse turns hoax

BUGARACH: A global day of lighthearted doom-themed cel-ebration and superstitious scare-mongering culminated yesterday in the jungle temples built by the Mayan people of Central America, whose calendar sparks fears of apocalypse.

December 21 marks the end of an era that lasted more than 5,000 years, according to the Ma-yan “Long Count” calendar. Some believe the date, which coincides with the December solstice, marks the end of the world as foretold by Mayan hieroglyphs.

Scholars scoff at the idea — it just marks the end of the old Ma-yan calendar and the beginning of a new one, they say.

But that didn’t stop some 3,000 people from gathering at this an-cient Maya stone pyramid in the Guatemala jungle, where actors in costumes and head-dresses staged elaborate dances to a mournful pan-pipe tune. Native Maya priests then lit fi res as the fi rst rays of the new day’s sun appeared through the jungle canopy.

The ceremony was held to mark a new 5,200-year era of the Maya calendar. Critics however complained that the event was to benefi t tourists, and had little to do with the real Mayans, who reached their peak of power in modern-day Mexico and parts of Central America between the years 250 and 900AD. The cen-tral American region where the Mayans lived, which include parts of Mexico and Honduras, saw a tourism bonanza in the run-up to the fateful December 21 date, with tourists snapping up all-in-

clusive excursions to Mayan sites. Around the world, doomsayers

hunkered down to prepare for The End, but most took a lighthearted view of the Mayan “prophecy” of the world’s destruction.

“If you’re in an underground bunker with a lifetime’s supply of baked beans how stupid do you feel now?” asked one person on Twit-ter, which saw dozens of posts eve-ry minute joking about the failure of the world to end.

In the southern French village of Bugarach—rumoured to be one of the few places that will be spared

when the end comes—journalists from across the world were bitterly disappointed at the lack of New Age fanatics to interview.

Police however arrested two men who had gas masks and ma-chetes in their car as they ap-proached the Pic de Bugarach, a nearby mountain said to be one of the few places where people will survive when the world suppos-edly ends.

Reporters also wandered aim-lessly around the tiny village of Sirince in Turkey, hoping to grab a mystic taking refuge there.

Doomsayers identifi ed Sirince as a safe haven that will be spared destruction thanks to the positive energy fl owing through it.

In Serbia, a pyramid-shaped mountain believed by some to be a source of unusual electromagnet-ic waves that could shield it from catastrophe, attracted record numbers of visitors.

Australia was one of the fi rst countries to see the sun rise on December 21, and Tourism Aus-tralia’s Facebook page was bom-barded with posts asking if any-one had survived Down Under.

“Yes, we’re alive,” the organisa-tion responded to fretting users.

There was also a darker side: in China, authorities arrested some 1,000 people in a crack-down on a sect that spread doomsday rumours.

If the world does end, Chinese furniture maker Liu Qiyuan has his own safe haven, a fi ber-glass pod he designed that can carry up to 30 people and withstand tow-ering tsunamis and devastating earthquakes.

A Dutch has meanwhile pains-takingly prepared a lifeboat in his garden capable of saving 50 peo-ple ahead of the biblical fl oods he expected yesterday.

Thousands of worried people even contacted the US space agen-cy Nasa asking what to do. In a web page devoted to debunking the Ma-yan prophecies, it reassured them that the world will not end in 2012.

Some argued online that a mile-stone for the “Gangnam Style” video of South Korean rapper Psy was itself a harbinger of doom, en-listing a fake Nostradamus verse in their cause. - AFP

Around the world,

people took a

lighthearted view of

the Mayan ‘prophecy’

of the world’s

destruction

Steve Jobs’ superyacht impoundedTHE HAGUE: Steve Jobs’ Dutch-built superyacht has been im-pounded in Amsterdam because of a dispute between the late Ap-ple founder’s estate and designer Philippe Starck over an unpaid bill, a Starck lawyer said yesterday.

“The yacht has been impound-ed,” Rotterdam-based lawyer Roelant Klaassen, who represents French designer Starck’s Ubik company, said.

“There is some unfi nished busi-ness, namely two invoices which were issued by Ubik last summer after Mr Jobs died,” he said.

Amsterdam court bailiff s seized the 70-metre (230-foot) long yacht following a request from Starck’s lawyer.

The Venus reportedly cost over $130 million (100 million euros) to build and was only unveiled in October, just over a year after Jobs died.

Jobs’ estate says Starck should be paid a percentage of the over-all cost of the project, which took over fi ve years to complete, while Starck says he should be paid a fi xed nine million euros for his contribution, Klaassen said.

Klaassen said he was in contact with a Dutch lawyer representing the Jobs estate, Gerard Moussault.

“Hopefully we will come to an interim agreement with regard to security,” Klaassen said.

Jobs’ family, including widow Laurene Powell Jobs and their three children Reed, Erin and Eve, was supposed to take charge of the yacht in the United States.

Klaassen said he had seen docu-ments that show Jobs and Starck were “very close in the period that the design was made and the build-ing proceeded”. - AFP

U N P A I D B I L L

Cold snap claims nearly 200 livesMOSCOW: A vicious cold snap across Russia and eastern Europe has claimed nearly 200 lives, offi -cials fi gures showed yesterday, as forecasters warned it would last until Christmas Eve.

In Russia, the cold has killed two people in the past 24 hours, the Ria-Novosti agency reported, citing medical sources, bringing the total number of deaths over the past week to 56.

The freeze had also left 371 peo-ple in hospital. Thermometers have been stuck below minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahr-enheit) in Moscow — and below minus 50 degrees (minus 58 F) in some parts of Siberia — for a week.

Russian weather forecast-ers said temperature in the Khabarovsk region in eastern Russia had dropped to minus 43 Celsius, while Krasnoyarsk in Si-beria reported minus 47.

This “abnormal” frost would last till Monday because of a per-sistent anticyclone, they added.

In Russia’s European region, meanwhile, the mercury is ex-pected to fall to minus 31 degrees Celsius on Christmas Eve before rising rapidly afterwards.

Authorities in Ukraine, which has been battling heavy snow-fall for weeks, said 83 people had died of cold, with 57 of the victims found on the street.

Another 526 cold victims were reportedly receiving hospital treatment in Ukraine.

In eastern Europe, police in Poland said that 49 people had died of exposure this month, with most of the victims homeless, as temperatures plunged to minus 10 degrees Celsius.

At least six people have died of exposure in Lithuania in the past weeks, police and emergency ser-vices said there.

In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, temperatures hovered around zero. Czech police said several people had died of expo-sure in recent weeks. - AFP

R U S S I A , E A S T E R N E U R O P E

ALL FOR SAFETY: Tourists and journalists gathered on the place believed to broadcast strong elec-tromagnetic fi elds in the village of Rtanj, Serbia yesterday. A pyramid-shaped mountain, believed by some to be a source of unusual electromagnetic waves that could shield it from catastrophe, attract-ed record numbers of visitors. – AFP

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM

SPOR SY O U R G A M E

SECTIONA SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2012

NZ CRICKET BOARD TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATIONDURBAN: New Zealand Cricket (NZC) will meet with former skippers in a bid to improve communication within the national set-up in the wake of the controversy surrounding the handling of Ross Taylor’s demotion from the captaincy. Taylor was stripped of the One-day and Twenty20 captaincy this month at the recommendation of head coach Mike Hesson following their tour of Sri Lanka. — Reuters

India look for a clean sweep of T20 series

MUMBAI: After rebounding su-perbly from the Test loss to Eng-land with a convincing victory in the Twenty20 series opener, In-dia would be keen to complete a clean sweep of the shortest format by winning the second and fi nal game today.Having gained the win-ning momentum again, the hosts would be eager not to let it go out of grasp especially with the high-profi le series against Pakistan to follow immediately after the conclusion of the T20 stint at the Wankhede Stadium.

India will take on Pakistan in a two-match T20 series from December 25 to be followed by a three-game ODI series. England, who have suff ered their fi rst rever-sal to India in a bilateral T20 game

after having lost two others in the World T20 events, would also look forward to squaring the rubber and returning home for Christmas and New Year on a high note.

Solid battingThough India cantered home on Thursday, the home team has some issues to solve immedi-ately in both batting and bowl-ing to achieve their aim of a 2-0 whitewash.

In bowling, the beginning and end overs are still a worry with debutant Parvinder Awana, who had a poor game, and Ashok Dinda bowling too short on Thursday to be punished by the hard-hitting

Alex Hales who blitzed his way to 56 with seven fours and two sixes.

Though Dinda came back later to bowl well and take two wickets, Awana’s nervousness cost him 29 runs in two overs at either end of the innings and he is expected to give way to Bhuvneshwar Kumar or Abhimanyu Mithun today.

Even R. Ashwin, who started off well and bowled a maiden over to the left-handed Michael Lumb before taking his wicket too, was carted around later to concede 33 runs. Ravindra Jadeja gave away 22 runs in three and Piyush 24 in the same number of overs. In batting too, it was Yuvraj’s experi-ence and his ability to clear the

rope at will that helped the home country steady the innings and then surge to a comfortable victory with 13 balls to spare.

England too have their prob-lems, the prominent among them is to fi nd an eff ective spinner in the middle overs as Danny Briggs’ left-arm spin was taken to the clean-ers along with James Tredwell’s off spin.

In batting, Hales, who had fl opped in his previous three games against India, came good yesterday with his forthright batting. Eng-land would hope the others — that includes their hard-hitting captain Morgan — deliver in the last game of the fi rst half of their visit. — PTI

Having gained the

winning momentum

again, the hosts would

be eager not to let it go

out of grasp especially

with the high-profi le

series against

Pakistan to follow

immediately after the

conclusion of the T20

stint today

WILL HE OR WON’T HE? India will once again depend on Yuvraj Singh’s experience and his ability to clear the rope when they take on England in the second and fi nal T20 match today. - File Photo

Ferrari prefer Vettel to Hamilton

LONDON: Triple Formula One world champion Sebastian Vet-tel would be Ferrari’s fi rst choice should they ever need to replace Fernando Alonso, president Luca di Montezemolo has said.

The Red Bull driver has been repeatedly linked to Ferrari this season, with talk of a pre-contract for 2014, although the 25-year-old German and his team have tried to put the speculation to rest.

Speaking at Ferrari’s Maranel-lo factory, Montezemolo left no doubt about the Italian team’s ad-miration for Vettel.

“If for whatever reason Fernan-do Alonso were to leave one day, maybe because he wants to retire

in Hawaii with his girlfriend, then I want Vettel,” the Gazzetta dello Sport quoted him as telling Ger-man media. “Sebastian is a poten-tial Ferrari driver for the future.”

Whether Vettel and Alonso ever pair up at Ferrari remains to be seen, however, with Mon-tezemolo previously saying he did not want to have “two roosters in the same hen house” but rather two drivers “who race for Ferrari and not for themselves.”

Montezemolo said Alonso, Vettel and Lewis Hamilton were clearly a cut above the rest in Formula One and he preferred the Red Bull driver to the Briton “because he’s younger and hasn’t

been around so many teams”. Vettel was also strongly recom-mended by seven times world champion Michael Schumach-er, who won fi ve titles in a row with Ferrari.

Hamilton, the 2008 world champion, will be racing for Mer-cedes next year after six years with McLaren. He will be 28 in January. Double world cham-pion Alonso, 31, has a contract with Ferrari until at least the end of 2016. “I’m immensely pleased with Alonso. He’s more than a driver, he’s a key fi gure. He fi ts into the way the team work per-fectly,” said Montezemolo of the Spaniard. — Reuters

F O R M U L A O N E

IN GREAT DEMAND: The Red Bull driver has been repeatedly linked to Ferrari this season, with talk of a pre-contract for 2014, although the 25-year-old German and his team have tried to put the speculation to rest. – File Photo

Delhi Daredevils totake on KolkataNEW DELHI: Defending cham-pions Kolkata Knight Riders will open their campaign at home against last year’s semifi nalist Delhi Daredevils in the inaugu-ral match of the Pepsi Indian Premier League 6 at the historic Eden Gardens on April 3.

The 2013 season’s lung opener could not have got any better as two of the strongest teams in the tournament will set the tone for the high-octane Twen-ty20 tournament over the next eight weeks.

One of the many highlights of the sixth edition of the tourna-ment will be the debut of Sun-risers Hyderabad, who joined the IPL fraternity in October this year.

Same old formatThey will begin their IPL innings with a home game against Pune Warriors India on April 5.

The tournament will be played in the same format as the 2012 edition. Each of the nine partici-pating teams will play the other eight twice, at home and away ba-sis. The top four teams, at the end of the round-robin stage on May 19 will qualify for the Playoff s.

The Qualifi er 1 and Eliminator games will be played at the M A Chidambaram Stadium, Chen-nai-the home ground of the IPL 2012 runners-up-on May 21 and May 22 respectively.

The Qualifi er 2 encounter and the Final, will be played at the Eden Gardens-the home ground of the 2012 edition winners - on May 24 and 26 respectively.

As many as eleven venues have been confi rmed to host the matches. The nine home venues apart, matches will be played at two arenas that will be mak-

ing their ODI debuts in January. The last two ‘home’ games of the Kings XI Punjab will be played at the HPCA Stadium, Dharam-sala, which has hosted seven IPL matches since 2010.

The Jharkhand State Cricket Association International Stadi-um Complex at Ranchi, will host the last two ‘home’ games of the Kolkata Knight Riders.

“The countdown to PEPSI IPL 2013 has begun. We are poised to witness a competition that will be as, if not more, spectacular, than its predecessors,” said IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla.

“The greatest cricketers on this planet will join forces with the stars of the future, to de-liver some exhilarating cricket for their respective teams. The most consistent of the lot will be crowned the champion on 26 May 2013,” he added. - PTI

I P L 6 O P E N E R

EXHILARATING CRICKET: Two of the strongest teams in the tournament will set the tone for IPL 6 on April 3, 2013. – AFP

LONDON: Manchester City man-ager Roberto Mancini will be hop-ing a new air of togetherness can help his team pile the pressure on Manchester United with a win over Reading today.

City are six points behind Pre-mier League leaders United after a 3-2 defeat against Sir Alex Fergu-son’s side earlier this month.

The champions responded to that setback with an impressive 3-1 win at Newcastle last weekend to keep pace with United, but even that success was quickly tempered by off -fi eld distractions.

“I think that we worked really well because when I arrived here three years ago I didn’t think that maybe in two years we would win the Premier League and FA Cup.

“I thought that maybe four or fi ve years to win the Premier League because it isn’t easy to change things in England and

Manchester in particular because for 20 or 30 years United won eve-rything and we changed this be-cause we did well.

Italy striker Mario Balotelli threatened to take City to a Pre-mier League tribunal as he at-tempted to avoid paying a fi ne of two weeks wages for his poor dis-ciplinary record last season. But hours before the hearing Balotelli, who was dropped for the Newcas-tle match, agreed to pay the fi ne.

Happy with BalotelliThe club are now hoping the epi-sode is behind them as they set their sights on a second successive league title and Mancini insists the controversial forward still has a future at the club.

“We need to have all the play-ers this month as we have a lot of games in two weeks. Mario needs to train,” Mancini said.

“I don’t think he was happy about it (being dropped for the Newcastle game), when he starts to show his quality, he will play again.” Since the Manchester derby defeat, Mancini has been adamant that there is still plenty of time to overhaul United. He is

sure that the return of the Champi-ons League, where Ferguson’s side face Real Madrid in the last 16, will have a positive eff ect on his own team’s Premier League prospects.

But City also acknowledge that there can be no more slips over the weeks ahead. United have

a reasonable run of matches, at Swansea, at home to Newcastle and West Brom before travelling to Wigan, over the festive period.

And City know that they cannot lose further ground over their four matches against the struggling Royals, at Sunderland and Nor-wich and at home to Stoke. City defender Gael Clichy admitted his side’s approach has been rightly criticised at times this season, but believes the performance at St James’ Park signalled a signifi cant improvement.

“People expect better from City but so do we, one game (against United) is not changing anything but what we have learned from last season is that six points, eight points, ten points is nothing at this stage.” Captain Vincent Kompany should return from a hamstring problem against Reading, but Samir Nasri, Aleksander Kolarov,

James Milner and Micah Richards will all miss out, while Jack Rod-well is out until the new year after suff ering a set back with his own hamstring injury.

SetbackBrian McDermott, meanwhile, has called on his Reading players to keep believing despite their miser-able run of form. The Royals sank even further into trouble after be-ing thrashed 5-2 at home by Arse-nal on Monday.

McDermott’s men are bottom of the table and fi nd themselves six points from safety with almost half of the season already gone. But after sealing promotion in May following a blistering second half of the campaign which saw them pick up an astonishing 34 points from 39, the Reading boss expects his team to turn their sea-son around in the New Year. — AFP

A12

SPORTSS AT U R DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 2

Mancini wants Manchester City to show united front in title raceCity are six points behind Premier League

leaders United after a 3-2 defeat against Sir

Alex Ferguson’s side earlier this month I think that we worked

really well because

when I arrived here

three years ago I didn’t

think that maybe in

two years we would

win the Premier League

and FA Cup

Roberto ManciniCoach

MUSCAT: Hockey veteran Sai-yed Ali Sibtain Naqvi has paid tribute to triple Olympic gold medal winner Leslie Walter Claudius who passed away on Thursday after a prolonged battle with cirrhosis of liver.

“The news of his death came as a shock to me. Leslie’s death leaves a huge void that is hard to fi ll,” Naqvi said.

It may be recalled that the Bho-jpuri Wing of Indian Social Club had invited Claudius to be the chief guest of the Dhyan Chand Day Celebrations in 2011. “When he came here, he paid a visit to my residence and I still cherish those wonderful memories of that vis-it,” said an emotional Naqvi.

Claudius was hospitalised four

times over the past 11 months as he battled with the liver ailment. He was a member of the three-time Olympic gold medal-winning Indian team - London (1948), Helsinki (1952) and Melbourne (1956). At Rome (1960), he led In-dia to a silver medal fi nish.

He represented the country during the golden age of Indian hockey, and etched his name in the Guinness Book of World Records alongside compatriot Udham Singh for being part of the hockey team to win the maximum number of medals at the Olympic Games.

“When I spoke to him last, he was quite upset about the current scenario of Indian hockey. Play-ers like him are born just once. He was a true legend of hockey.

We will surely miss him,” added Naqvi. Born on March 25, 1927 in Bilaspur, Claudius switched from football to hockey as a right half during the 1946 Beighton Cup hockey tournament as a “forced last-minute” replacement. He lat-er shifted to the right half position on his own.

He retired from international hockey after the 1960 Olympics but continued to compete in do-mestic games till the 1965 season.

In 1971, Claudius became the sixth Indian hockey player to be given the prestigious Padmashree award by the government and also served as the team manager for the 1974 and 1978 Asian Games. He was also a national selector for a few years.

H O C K E Y

GOLDEN MEMORIES: Hockey veteran SAS Naqvi, left, recollecting the golden moments with Late Leslie Claudius who passed away in Kolkata on Thursday. – Calvin Bearder/TIMES OF OMAN

Ansari, Ranpura help Muscat beat Times of OmanMUSCAT: Bowlers Munis An-sari with outstanding fi gures of 5 for 20 off 6 overs, one of which was a maiden, along with Rajesh Ranpura 4 for 21 off 6.5 overs, helped Muscat Cricket Team register a comfortable 10-wicket win over Times of Oman.

The Muscat Pharmacy & Stores LLC sponsored 50 overs a side ‘A’ Division match was played on the Main Ministry Turf Ground at Al Amerat on Thursday.

The decision of Muscat skip-per Hemal Mehta’s to fi eld fi rst after winning the toss was proven correct when his bowl-ers made use of the conditions to bundle out Times of Oman for a miserable 51 off 13.5 overs.

At the end of the ninth over, Times of Oman were 32 for the loss of eight wickets. They man-aged to make 51 thanks to the contributions from No.9 batsman Sultan Ahmed 14 (22b, 2x4) and Muhammed Nadeem batting at No.8 making 11 (14b). Rest of the

batsmen fell like nine pins and could not enter even the double digit. The Muscat openers put up together 54 for no loss off 15.1 overs with V. Vamshi Ram re-maining unbeaten on 28 (55b, 4x4) and his partner Moham-med Asad Ali scored 24 not out (36b, 4x4). Brief scores: Times

of Oman ‘A’ – 51 All Out off 13.5 overs (Sultan Ahmed 14; Munis Ansari 5/20 and Rajesh Ranpura 4/21); Muscat – 54 for no loss off 15.1 overs (V. Vamshi Ram 28 N.O. and Mohammed Asad Ali 24 N.O.); Points: Muscat: 5 points (7 games – 18 points) and Times of Oman – no points (7 games – 13 points).

O M A N C R I C K E T L E A G U E

JUBILANT: Munis Ansari and Rajesh Ranpura of Muscat CT after beating Times of Oman in the ‘A’ division League. – Supplied Picture

Claudius was a true legend of hockey, says S.A.S Naqvi

BMARKE

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COMSATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2012

IRAQ SEEKS TO MATCH SAUDI IN OIL EXPORTSIraq is sharpening a push to sell its swelling crude output and sit at oil’s top table with Saudi Arabia, sweetening terms for contract buyers next year, its customers say. >B4

OM22, 2012

TCH RTS

sell d di r

ts

CBO announces tight Islamic banking law

AE JAMESbusinesseditor@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: The Central Bank of Oman (CBO) has announced the fi nal regulation for Islamic banks and window operations of conven-tional banks, paving the way for local banks to launch their much-awaited Sharia-compliant prod-ucts.

There are only a couple of changes in the fi nal document when compared with the Islamic Banking Draft Framework (IBRF), which was circulated among banks in February this year, top-level of-fi cials of leading banks told Times of Oman.

The highlights of the Islamic banking regulation, which was given to banks this week, include AAOIFI (Accounting and Audit-ing Organisation for Islamic Fi-nancial Institutions) standard for accounting, a fi ve-member Sharia board, no permission for Commodity Murabaha or Tawar-ruq, separate branches for win-dow operation, 12 per cent capital adequacy with a minimum capital of RO10 million for window opera-tion and a clear-cut segregation of funds, accounting, information technology, compliance and mar-keting between Islamic and non-Islamic lines of business.

‘Strict and proper criteria’“There are strict and proper cri-teria for Sharia board members. Of the fi ve members, three should be Sharia scholars and two should be technical members who have expertise in accountancy or law or economics. The board members cannot have bad loans and they should have high educational qual-ifi cations,” Sulaiman al Harthy, Group General Manager, Islamic Banking, Bank Muscat, told Times of Oman.

The Sharia board will have a three-year term, and a member can be nominated to the board for the second time, after a break of one year. However, a Sharia schol-

ar cannot serve in two competing Islamic fi nancial institution with-in the country.

Al Harthy said the general stipu-lation for governance for banks include appointment of separate offi cials for risk and compliance purposes. Unlike other countries, Commodity Murabaha or Tawar-ruq is not allowed for Islamic banks in the Sultanate.

Commodity Murabaha is a product designed to facilitate cash advances to a customer who need cash to pay for various needs. In this transaction, banks sell the cus-tomer commodities on deferred payment basis. Subsequently the customer sells these commodities on spot basis to receive cash.

“In other countries, Commod-

ity Murabaha and Tawarruq are available. However, some Sharia scholars have questioned the Sha-ria validity of Tawarruq,” noted Khalid Yousaf, director, Islamic Finance Advisory Services at KPMG Oman.

It was reportedly said that the common inter-bank transactions like Mudaraba, Musharaka and Wakala placements are allowed in the new regulation for the Islamic institutions in the country.

Two major diff erencesReferring to two major diff er-ences between the draft and the fi nal regulation, Al Harthy said the treasury department of Islamic banking line of business has to be independent and has to report to

the Islamic window, contrary to the suggestion in the earlier draft regulation for reporting it to the parent bank.

Obligatory limitAlso, the single obligatory limit is based on the bank’s overall capital and not to the capital base of the window operation suggested in the draft regulation.

It is reliably learnt that Bank Muscat, National Bank of Oman, ahlibank, Bank Sohar, Bank Dho-far, Oman Arab Bank and National Bank of Abu Dhabi are planning to start window operations.

However, a couple of banks are yet to submit their formal applica-tion for window operation with the Central Bank of Oman.

There are only a

couple of changes in

the fi nal document

when compared with

the Islamic Banking

Draft Framework,

which was circulated

among banks in

February this year

Mazoon Electricity invests RO200m in basic infrastructureMUSCAT: Eng. Zahir bin Ab-dullah Al Abri, General Manager of Mazoon Electricity Company (MEC) said that the company is investing from the beginning of this year and up to the year 2014 RO200 million to strengthen the basic infrastructure and the qual-ity of services to meet all con-sumers’ demands.

He said, in an interview with Oman News Agency (ONA), that MEC serves almost 40 per cent of the Sultanate’s population and has invested more than RO50 million in 2011 and RO13 mil-lion in the fi rst quarter of 2012 to support and upgrade its network to better serve and reach new customers in its licenced areas, adding that the company’s total number of customers reached 270,000 in the beginning of 2012, with an average growth of 7.0 per cent, asserting that the company also reviewed its strategic objec-tives to enhance the quality of service taking into considera-tions effi ciency and operational performance.

Improving its networksEng. Al Abri said that MEC continues its eff orts to provide quality services by improving its networks in South Al Bati-nah, A’Dakhiliyah and South and North A’Sharqiyah Governorates and it has implemented several projects to expand the capaci-ties of its stations. The company currently owns and manages 216 Distribution Centres and around 11,000 substations, including 20 branches in a geographical area that spans approximately 74,630km2, adding that as part of MEC’s extensive village elec-trifi cation project, the company supplied electricity to 23 remote villages that met company crite-ria, and another 20 villages that did not fulfi l the required criteria in 2011.

Currently, works are under way to supply power to an additional 36 villages, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2012.

Regarding the Government’s contribution, Eng. Al Abri said that the government’s contribu-tion aims to provide additional support to supply the growing demand for electricity across the country. It will focus on extend-ing power to rural areas with challenging geographical terrains that require signifi cant amounts of investments, which can reach in the hundreds of thousands of Omani Riyals and at times even cross the one million Omani Ri-yal mark.

The second is to fund direct costs associated with the pur-chase and distribution since these cost are greater than the amount sold. In 2011, 45 per cent of the total cost of purchase and

distribution of electricity was funded by the government, add-ing that the automatic reading system will provide more ac-curate monitoring of electric-ity consumption. In fact, Mazoon has already installed a number of these meters in several locations, which are currently being tested.

The Authority for Electricity Regulation (AER) in coordina-tion with external parties as-sessed these reading systems and has found them to be effi cient es-pecially since they are equipped with an internal memory that regularly stores data on electric-ity usage and consumption.

Concerning customers’ com-plaints about high electricity bills, he said that the increase in electricity bills is a direct result of the change in energy consump-tion driven by customer behav-iour. For example, the use of air conditions surges during the hot summer months and this in-turn causes a rise in electricity bills.

Another attribute is the condi-tion of the electrical appliances being used, that is to say an un-serviced AC consumes more electricity than a serviced AC unit. At Mazoon, we are work-ing to ensure that our customers are well aware of these various factors in eff orts to increase cost effi ciency and customer satisfac-tion.

Elaborating about Omanisa-tion in MEC, Eng. Al Abri said that MEC employs a workforce comprised of 497 men and wom-en of which 484 are Omani. Many of the senior positions in the company are held by highly-qual-ifi ed Omanis and our strategy will continue to focus on developing a team of experienced national personnel.

Responding to a question about MEC’s role in the area of corpo-rate social responsibility, he said that MEC provides a service that directly touches the lives of our customers and therefore contin-uously seek new ways to estab-lish lines of communication with the community to inspire and create positive change. — ONA

E X P A N S I O N

MAJOR HIGHLIGHTS AAOIFI accounting standards for Islamic banks

No permission for Commodity Murabaha or Tawarruq

Single obligatory limit is linked to the parent bank’s capital

Treasury department of Islamic banking has to report to the Islamic window

Separate offi cials for risk and compliance

12% capital adequacy and RO10m capital for window operation

Five-member Sharia board

Clear-cut segregation of funds, teams of people and accounts for Islamic and non-Islamic lines of business

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Bank Nizwa, Oman’s fi rst Islamic bank, is all set to open its doors by the beginning of next year after receiving the fi nal banking license from the Central Bank of Oman (CBO). Bank Nizwa’s internal systems are con-nected to that of the CBO and the branches are in a state of complete readiness.

The bank will be undertak-ing a comprehensive internal test of its systems and process-es from December 23, 2012, as a precursor to the public launch, said a press release.

“The wait is now over and we at Bank Nizwa are ready to set a benchmark in the Islamic Banking industry of Oman with our successfully trained staff , state-of-the-art

infrastructure and world-class software,” said Dr Jamil El Jaroudi, Chief Executive Of-fi cer of Bank Nizwa.

Bank Nizwa has undertaken a detailed feasibility study for establishing the bank and has drawn a business plan that complies with international standards.

The study reveals that there is substantial unmet demand for Sharia compliant products in the country.

This together with the attractive economic funda-mentals of Oman and the growth in the Omani banking and fi nancial services market allows Bank Nizwa to tap into the potential and off er the customers a premium Islamic Banking experience.

“There is a defi nite need for an Islamic bank in every city

of Oman and the employees at Bank Nizwa, armed with the knowledge about the princi-ples, concepts and products of Islamic fi nance, are committed to extend incomparable service to the bank’s customers. Our aim is to expand our network aggressively and off er appro-priate products and services to the people living in Oman so as to make a meaningful contribution to the country’s economy and savings mobili-sation strategy,” added Dr. El Jaroudi.

Bank Nizwa off ers an entire portfolio of commercial bank-ing services and the bank’s operating model is designed to meet varied challenges that aim at anticipating and fulfi lling the expectations of the customers in all aspects of banking.

Bank Nizwa receives licence from central bank, plans to start operation by early January

Eng. Zahir bin Abdullah Al Abri. — ONA

B2

MARKETS AT U R DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 2

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Global economy is at crossroads, says Deloitte

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Every major region of the world seems to be at a poten-tial turning point, according to Deloitte’s newly-released Global Economic Outlook for the fourth quarter of 2012. The report focus-es on the world economy, indicat-ing that it is now at ‘a crossroads,’ with leaders around the globe faced with challenging decisions.

For the eurozone, contrary to more apocalyptic predictions made during the summer months, early autumn has been a compar-atively quiet time. However, this situation is not a reliable predic-tor of future events. Part of the diffi culty in solving the euro cri-sis, according to the report, is due to the fact that there is no clear

vision about where the eurozone is heading in terms of governance structures and architecture.

In Deloitte’s Global Economic Outlook, Dr Alexander Borsch, head of Economics & Research at Deloitte Germany, suggests that, other than collapse, the eurozone has four options to move forward. These range from modest eff orts to enforce existing constraints through an improved version of the Maastricht Treaty, to full scale integration in the form of a political union. However, he says, the most consistent options of the four are ambitious.

Dr Borsch comments, “The Maastricht 2.0 would need to address and overcome obvious weaknesses in the old institu-tional architecture, while the for-mation of a political union would imply a transfer of authority un-seen in the history of the nation-state with many foreseeable and unforeseeable challenges. The main issue, however, is what the preferred option for the future of the Eurozone actually is.”

Other key fi ndings include economies of diff erent countries. The US economy has benefi tted from a combination of luck and resilience, and ongoing anemic growth in the United States is his-torically unprecedented. A wide range of factors, including fi scal policy, headwinds from Europe, and risky monetary policy may loom over the US economic out-

look into 2013. In China, the current policy

regime may continue to boost economic output in the coming months, paving the way for a soft landing. The United Kingdom’s double dip recession is likely coming to an end, but myriad internal and external problems remain, which could result in a shaky and tepid recovery.

In Japan, external headwinds, a highly valued currency, contin-ued defl ation, stagnant consumer spending, and declining real wag-es are hindering Japan’s econom-ic recovery.

In India, uncomfortably high infl ation, external headwinds, and an uncertain policy environ-ment are adding downside risk to India’s economy, which is operat-ing below its potential.

In Russia, despite a global eco-nomic slowdown, Russia’s central bank decided to tighten monetary policy in an attempt to curtail in-fl ation. This may lead to a slow-down in growth.

In Brazil’s central bank decided to focus on growth rather than infl ation, which will likely result in stronger growth next year. The US monetary policy could have a signifi cant impact on Brazil’s exchange rate. South Korea has achieved an enviable level of af-fl uence, but weakening export demand and excessive consumer debt may put the brakes on eco-nomic growth.

Deloitte’s Global

Economic Outlook

suggests that, other

than collapse, the

eurozone has four

options to move

forward

B3

FEATURES AT U R DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 2

WHAT IS QUANTITATIVE EASING?AND WILL IT HELP THE ECONOMY?

A: The Fed did two things to try to improve QE3. First,

the central bank will keep short-term inter-est rates low until mid-2015. Second, it will buy

up $85 billion worth of assets each month between now and the end of the year. But, unlike QE1 or QE2, this

new round of purchases will be more open-ended. That’s an important change. Here’s the key bit from the Fed statement: “If

the outlook for the labor market does not improve substantially, the Committee will continue its purchases of agency mortgage-backed

securities, undertake additional asset purchases, and employ its other policy tools as appropriate until such improvement is achieved”

The purchases will continue until morale improves. What’s more, the Fed noted that it will continue its policy of easy money “for a consider-

able time after the economic recovery strengthens.”In essence, Bernanke is now taking Woodford’s advice — or at

least part of it. (Note that the Fed didn’t set an explicit target for the economy, it left that vague.) The Fed’s not just buying up a

fi xed quantity of assets and hoping that the economy lurch-es forward. It’s saying that it will keep buying up assets

and won’t stop until things look better. Now we’ll see if that actually shifts expectations and

bolsters growth. — BRAD PLUMER / Wash-

ington Post-Bloomberg News

A: In his testimony to Congress

in June, Bernanke explained why QE3 might bolster the economy. It would

reduce the cost of borrowing money for cor-porations, bring down mortgage rates even further

and potentially boost the stock market, increasing wealth eff ects for consumers to spur more spending. (He

did say, however, that he’d much prefer to have additional help from Congress.)

Not everyone’s convinced, though. In early September, Mi-chael Woodford, a preeminent monetary theorist at Columbia University, released a long paper arguing that more quantita-tive easing was likely to be ineff ective — because Bernanke is acting too sporadically. The Fed will buy up $600 billion

worth of assets, hoping for a jolt, but people in the econ-omy have no clear sense of what Bernanke’s goals

are. Does he want a certain level of infl ationWill he start hiking interest rates if the economy starts growing? If so, when?

That level of uncertainty can be paralysing.

A: Short an-swer: It’s an unconven-

tional monetary tool used by central banks to stimulate the economy.

Answer that might make sense: Normally, when there’s a recession or the economy is limping

along, the Federal Reserve will reduce short-term in-terest rates in order to spur more lending and spending.

But right now, the Fed has cut interest rates as far as they can go and the economy is still struggling. This is known as

the “zero bound.” The Fed can’t go any lower.So, instead, the central bank can try quantitative easing.

Since the Fed can just create dollars out of thin air, it can buy up assets like long-term Treasuries or mortgage-backed

securities from commercial banks and other institu-tions. This pumps money into the US economy and

reduces long-term interest rates further. When long-term interest rates go down, investors

have more incentive to spend their money now. In theory.

A: Yes. Twice in fact. In late

November 2008, after the fi nan-cial crisis hit, the Fed started buying

up mortgage-backed securities and Treas-ury bills in order to boost the economy. By

June 2010, the bank had bought about $2.1 trillionworth of assets.

At this point, the Fed halted its actions, fi guring that it had done enough. But when the economy started weakening that summer, Bernanke resumed the pro-gramme in August 2010, buying up another $600 bil-lion in assets in order to maintain the Fed’s balance

sheet. (Remember, the bank is holding a bunch of debt that slowly matures, so if the Fed does

nothing, all that money it had injected into the economy will eventually get sucked

back out again.) This was known as “QE2.”

A: Aca-demics have been churn-

ing out plenty of research on this question. The fi rst round of quantitative

easing appeared to be eff ective in preventing the economy from sinking into a giant depression. Econ-

omists say this was because everyone realised the Fed would do whatever it takes to avoid defl ation. It was essen-

tially a giant confi dence boost. The economy stopped sliding and infl ation slowly rose. But the eff ects seemed to dwindle as

the years went by. Experts are much more divided on how much QE2 has helped.

In theory, quantitative easing should work in two ways. First, it injects more cash into banks, allowing them to lend more. And second, it lowers interest rates — if the Fed buys up a bunch of

mortgage-backed securities, for example, that should make it cheaper to borrow money to buy a house. In practice, inter-

est rates do drop. But it’s hard to fi gure out whether this translates into a boost in the actual economy. After

all, low mortgage rates can only do so much if banks are scarred by the housing bub-

ble and remain tightfi sted about lending.

QIs there a way to make QE3 work better?

QHow does quantitative easing help the economy?

QWhat isquantitative easing?

QHasn’t the Fed already tried quantitative easing? Q Did QE1 and QE2 actually

boost the US economy?

B4

MARKETS AT U R DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 2

MUMBAI: Indian equities had their biggest drop in almost two months, erasing a weekly ad-vance, as some investors judged recent gains excessive. Banks and industrials led the retreat.

The BSE India Sensitive In-dex, or Sensex, retreated 1.1 per cent, the most since October 30, to 19,242 at the close. The gauge had climbed to the highest level since April 2011 on December 19. State Bank of India, the biggest lender, declined 2 per cent. Copper pro-ducer Sterlite and aluminum mak-er Hindalco ended a fi ve-day, more than 10 per cent rally.

The Sensex has risen 25 per cent this year, headed for its biggest an-nual jump since 2009, as govern-ment steps to open the economy to off shore investment lured foreign-ers. The gauge’s valuation is near the highest level since April, data shows. Emerging-market stocks dropped the most in six weeks amid concern stalled US budget standoff threatens the outlook for exporters’ earnings.

“The market had run-up signifi -cantly, with some stocks rallying as much as 20-25 per cent; a cor-rection was waiting to happen,” Chokkalingam G., chief invest-ment offi cer at Centrum Broking in Mumbai, said by phone.

“Concerns on the US fi scal cliff gave some investors the excuse to book profi ts.”

US House Republican leaders cancelled a vote that would permit higher taxes amid stalled budget talks to avert more than $600 bil-lion in tax increases and spending cuts set to start on January 1. The Republicans are seeking to reduce the nation’s defi cit with spending

cuts, while US President Barack Obama wants to raise taxes for top earners.State Bank of India shed 2 per cent to Rs2,334.45. ICICI Bank declined 1.4 per cent to Rs1,123.9. HDFC Bank lost 1.1 per cent to Rs676. The BSE Bankex Index of 14 lenders lost 1.3 per cent, its steepest drop since November 16.

Sterlite tumbled 3.3 per cent to Rs116.95, ending a fi ve-day 11 per cent rally. Hindalco decreased 2.6 per cent to Rs129.3, paring this week’s advance to 7.8 per cent. Jin-dal Steel & Power tumbled 3.5 per cent to Rs454.55.

The BSE India Metal Index slid 1.8 per cent, paring this week’s surge to 4.4 per cent.

Prime Minister Manmohan Sin-gh began a campaign in September to revive economic growth from the weakest levels since 2009 and avoid a credit-rating downgrade by paring fuel subsidies, and open-ing up retailing and aviation to

foreign investment. The passing of a banking bill on December 18 was the latest in the series of such measures.The Sensex is valued at 15.2 times estimated earnings, compared with the MSCI Emerg-ing Markets Index’s 12 times, data shows. Volumes in the gauge ex-ceeded the 30-day average by 24 per cent. Sensex’s 30-day volatility was at 10.7, compared to the year’s lowest of 9.06 set on November 26.

The BSE Mid-Cap Index re-treated 1.5 per cent, the most since July 26, and the BSE Small-Cap Index had the steepest drop in more than two months, the data shows. “The market appears to be in a sort of uncertainty with some kind of year-end fatigue,” Amar Ambani, head of research at bro-kerage IIFL, said yesterday.

The S&P CNX Nifty Index on the National Stock Exchange of In-dia tumbled 1.1 per cent to 5,847.70. - Bloomberg News

SENSEX WATCHContainer Corp ..... 936.60....... 26.00Glenmark Pharma 499.20 .......12.00National Alum ......... 49.70.......... 1.05Pantaloon Retl ...... 238.35..........4.50Havells India ......... 634.60........ 10.10

Jet Air India......... 566.50......... -42.85ADANI POWER .... 61.05............-4.35HDIL .......................106.95............-6.40IFCI ...........................33.95........... -2.00Strides Arco .......1,112.25......... -56.70

Stocks in negative zone

Source: www.bseindia.com

Sensex

9 1612:00 14:0010:00

-211.92Current sensexPrevious close

19,242.00

19,700

19,600

19,400

19,500

19,200

19,300

19,394.55

19,221.12

I N D I A S T O C K S

MUMBAI: India’s rupee com-pleted its biggest weekly drop in more than a month on concern stalled US budget talks will damp demand for riskier assets.

The rupee declined 1.1 per cent this week to 55.07 per dollar in Mumbai, the biggest drop since the fi ve days through November 9, according to data. The currency fell 0.4 per cent yesterday and has lost 3.6 per cent this year after

plunging 16 per cent in 2011.One-month implied volatil-

ity, a gauge of expected moves in exchange rates used to price op-tions, rose fi ve basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, from De-cember 14 to 10.10 per cent. The rate, which fell 10 basis points yesterday, has dropped 190 basis points in 2012.

House Republican leaders can-celled a planned vote on Thursday

on Speaker John Boehner’s plan to allow higher tax rates on annual incomes of more than $1 million, as lawmakers seek to avert more than $600 billion in automatic spending cuts and tax increases that are set to start in January. India’s central bank refrained from lowering interest rates at a December 18 review. The rupee is aff ected by an uncertain US budg-etary deal. - Bloomberg News

C U R R E N C Y

Global investors stirred, not shaken by US crisis LONDON: Global investors are betting Washington will over-come its budget deadlock despite an apparently serious setback.

If they are wrong, there could be a sharp market reaction and the US dollar and Treasury bonds would be among the main ben-efi ciaries, making for a very dif-ferent dynamic to the eurozone crisis, where bond market pres-sure was instrumental in forcing policymakers to act.

Republican lawmakers re-jected a proposal on Thursday by their leader, House of Represent-atives Speaker John Boehner, designed to extract concessions from President Barack Obama.

It threw into disarray attempts to head off $600 billion worth of tax hikes and spending cuts that could push the US economy into recession.

The dollar climbed versus the euro, stocks slid from Tokyo to London and safe haven govern-ment bonds rose but in only mut-ed fashion, indicating a contin-ued belief that a deal will be done. Is this sensible or complacent?

Jeff rey Rosenberg, chief in-vestment strategist for fi xed in-come at BlackRock, said the only

approach was to ‘hope for the best, but plan for the worst’.

Given the much greater down-side from a fi scal cliff failure than upside from success, we continue to maintain our tactical defen-sive positioning,” Rosenberg said.

If diff erences between Repub-licans and Democrats cannot be bridged, the dollar – counter intuitively to the layman’s eye — would attract safe haven fl ows as the world’s reserve currency.

The yen could do even better despite the new Japanese gov-ernment’s intent on more force-ful monetary and fi scal easing. “The dollar goes up when people get more nervous because the refl ex in the market is to assume it’s a safe haven, there’s very little consideration given to the nature of the crisis,” said Daragh Maher, FX strategist at HSBC.

“If the US is heading towards recession it’s not good for any-one, therefore if I have to hold something I may as well hold the dollar. That’s how the sequence of logic goes.”

There is, however, good reason not to panic since the term ‘fi scal cliff ’ is somewhat misleading. -

Reuters

W O R L D S T O C K S

Indian rupee depreciates

Karachi index falls 45 pointsKARACHI: P Pakistan’s bench-mark stock index, the Karachi Stock Exchange 100 Index, fell 0.27 per cent at the close.

The index of 100 companies traded on the Karachi Stock Ex-change fell 44.90 to 16,863.12. Among the stocks in the index, 41 rose, 47 fell and 12 were un-changed.

Declines in the Karachi Stock Exchange 100 Index were led by Mcb Bank, Oil & Gas Develop-ment Company and Nestle Pa-kistan.

Fauji Fertilizer, which rose 1 rupee to 115.00 rupees, was the most active stock by value in Pakistan.

The next most-active issues were Pakistan State Oil, which fell 1.92 to 232.50 rupees, and Trg Pakistan, which rose 1rupee to 5.65 rupees. — Bloomberg News

P A K I S T A N B O U R S E

Quantity of oil used by Orpic in nine months rises MUSCAT: The quantity of oil used by Oman Oil Refi neries and Petroleum Industries Company (Orpic) during the fi rst nine months of 2012 amounted to 61,038,800 barrels compared to 54,964,100 barrels during the corresponding period in 2011, an increase by 11.1 per cent. The statistical bulletin published by the National Center for Statistics and Data (NCSD) pointed out that Orpic products grew by 2.7 per cent by the end of September 2012 to hit 61,038,800 barrels compared to 56,928,500 barrels in the same period last year. The products included regular and super vehicle fuel. The super auto fuel grew by 22.1 per cent. The quantity produced as of the end of September 2012 amounted to 13,951,200 barrels compared to 11,424,400 barrel in the same period in 2011. The regular fuel decreased by 30.2 per cent as the quantity produced during the fi rst nine months of 2012 amount-ed to 4,050,940 barrels compared to 5,807,200 barrels during the same period last year. The production of aviation fuel grew by 21.9 per cent as of the end of September 2012 as the quantity produced amounted to 4,472,200 barrels compared to 3,668,800 barrels during the same period last year. Production of diesel grew 9.4 per cent as of the end of September 2012 as the produc-tion hit 12,799,900 barrels compared to 11,700,000 barrels of the end of September 2011. The fuel oil production grew by 5.7 per cent to reach 2,734,500 barrels as of the end of September 2012 compared to 2,585,900 barrels as of the end of September 2011.

Cargo business at ports in the Sultanate grows 8.6%MUSCAT: The quantity of cargo unloaded and loaded at the Mina Sultan Qaboos and Salalah Ports stood at 10,126,100 tonnes in the fi rst 10 months of 2012 against 9,322,200 tonnes in the same period in 2011, constituting a 8.6 per cent rise. A bulletin released by the National Centre for Statistics and Data (NCSD) pointed out that such rise is attributed to the growth in unloaded and loaded cargo at Mina Sultan Qaboos by 5 per cent to 4,229,600 tonnes in the fi rst ten months of 2012 compared to 4,029,000 tonnes in the same period last year. The quantities of unloaded and loaded cargo at Salalah Port also grew by 11.4 per cent to 5,896,500 tonnes in the fi rst ten months of 2012 against 5,293,200 tonnes in the same period in 2011. The bulletin point-ed out that a total of 4,185 ship called at the two ports by the end of October 2012, constituting a 7.9 per cent decline against 4,544 ship during the same period in 2011. The number of ves-sels, which anchored at Mina Sultan Qaboos fell by 4.7 per cent to 3,429 ships by the end of October 2012 against 3,598 ship dur-ing the same period in 2011 while the number of ships anchored at Salalah Port declined by 20.1 per cent to 756 ships at the end of October 2012 against 946 ships during the same period in 2011.

Central Bank of Oman issues CDs worth RO337m MUCSAT: Certifi cates of deposit (CDs issue No.796) tender was held at the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) this week. The total amount allotted was RO337 million. The CBO stated that the av-erage interest rate of these certifi cates was 0.09 per cent, while the maximum accepted interest rate was 0.12 per cent. The tenor of these certifi cates is 28 days. The maturity date is January 16, 2013. The certifi cates of deposit issued to licensed banks by the CBO as a monetary policy instrument aimed at absorbing excess liquidity at the banking sector in particular and maintaining sta-bility of the interest rate and the money market in general. The repo rate from December 19 to 25 is 1 per cent. - ONA

B R I E F S Iraq seeks to match Saudi in oil exports

LONDON: Iraq is sharpening a push to sell its swelling crude out-put and sit at oil’s top table with Saudi Arabia, sweetening terms for contract buyers next year, its customers say.

Iraqi oil minister Abdul-Ka-reem Luaibi held court to oil ex-ecutives in Vienna’s Hotel Impe-rial last week on the sidelines of an Organisation of Petroleum Ex-porting Countries (Opec) meet-ing. Some buyers have said they were concerned by higher prices and variable quality.

“The Iraqis have become more active and serious in their mar-keting eff ort,” said a Western oil executive from a fi rm that buys from Baghdad.

“They’re willing to be very com-petitive on pricing and want to solve existing problems.”

The world’s fastest growing oil exporter is working to expand market share and is emerging as a rival to Saudi Arabia in the Opec, as Iran’s output is reduced by Western sanctions.

Baghdad is targeting crude ex-ports of 2.9 million barrels per day (bpd) next year, up from 2.62 mil-lion bpd in November, as invest-ment by foreign oil companies pushes production towards its highest level ever.

Some clients have complained of high offi cial selling prices (OSPs) and variable quality of the Basra Light and Kirkuk grades, raising the prospect Baghdad

could struggle to shift all the crude in 2013 term contracts.

Initially, BP and Total wanted to reduce their 2013 volumes of Basra. However, both are expected to take similar volumes to 2012, about 135,000 bpd each, trade sources said. BP will also receive unspecifi ed volumes as repay-ment for its investment in Iraq’s upstream industry.

Quality of Basra“The Iraqis say they will stabilise the quality of Basra and under-stand they will need to be com-petitive on price,” a second West-ern executive said. “They have to somehow place their additional production.”

The quality of Iraq’s Basra and Kirkuk crudes has been variable due to the erratic fl ow of Kurdis-tan oil into the Kirkuk stream and the start-up of new fi elds in the south. These concerns persist, de-terring some buyers.

“I don’t think Iraq has termed up all,” a third executive said. “They know the prices are out of line mostly because the qual-ity has been too variable for both Kirkuk and Basra. Until they re-solve it, I don’t think many will up their volume.”

Some companies have trimmed Kirkuk volumes for 2013. ENI and Total each plan to take 10,000 bpd less of Kirkuk in 2013, indus-try sources said. Less Basra will

be heading to the United States, where Chevron has cut its vol-umes, a source added.

“The issue is simply price. The OSP is too high, made worse by the variations in quality and unre-liability in Basra deliveries,” said a fourth executive. “Given there is some slack in the market, no one will pay over the odds.” Iraqi oil of-fi cial declined to comment for this story, and BP, Total, Eni and Chev-ron declined to comment on their plans to buy Iraq oil.

More to China Just two years into the oil expan-sion drive, which had been held back by decades of wars and sanc-tions, Iraq has vaulted past Iran to become Opec’s second-largest producer behind Saudi Arabia. That growth has not been lost on Riyadh, and a reinvigorated Iraq has led to a new rivalry at the top of Opec, according to offi cials at last week’s meeting of the pro-ducer group.

“This was bound to happen. Iraq has to sell more crude and get a bigger market share,” a Western oil company source said. “And they want to understand how to do it in a practical way.”

Opportunities for Iraq and Sau-di Arabia to sell more into Asia — particularly China — were cre-ated after Iran’s exports plunged by more than 50 per cent, or over 1 million bpd, due to international sanctions aimed at halting its nu-clear programme.

Chinese state refi ner Sinopec will nearly double the amount of term crude it buys from Iraq next year to 270,000 bpd as it looks to replace oil from Iran, sources said.

But cuts by other refi ners mean China’s total volume under one-year contracts with Iraq will rise by just 8.2 per cent to 568,000 bpd next year. That still leaves Iraq some distance behind Saudi Ara-bia in terms of market share.

There are signs Baghdad may become more aggressive on pric-ing to the Far East. - Reuters

Baghdad is targeting

crude exports of

2.9m bpd next year,

up from 2.62m bpd

in November, as

investment by foreign

oil fi rm pushes

production towards

its highest level ever

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

PRICES AND QUALITY OF CRUDE Some clients have complained of high offi cial selling

prices and variable quality of the Basra Light and Kirkuk grades, raising the prospect Baghdad could struggle to shift all the crude in 2013 term contracts. Initially, BP and Total wanted to reduce their 2013 volumes of Basra. However, both are expected to take similar volumes to 2012, about 135,000 bpd each

DETERMINED: Iraqi Oil Oinister Abdul-Kareem Luaibi held court to oil executives in Vienna’s Hotel Imperial last week on the side-lines of an Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries meet-ing. Some buyers have said they were concerned by higher prices and variable quality. – Bloomberg News

B SECTION

EX RAL I F E & S T Y L E

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COMSATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2012

HABITABLE PLANET FOUNDA planet with conditions that could support life orbits a twin neighbour of the sun visible to the naked eye, scientists have revealed. > B8

THE CYCLE PATHTO HAPPINESSScientists are confi rming what most cyclists in-stinctively know – that riding a bike has extraordi-nary eff ects on our brain chemistry

You need only look at the physique of Bradley Wig-gins to appreciate the po-tential eff ects of cycling on the body. But what about

the mind? For as long as man has pushed a pedal, it’s a question that has chal-

lenged psychologists, neurologists and anyone who has wondered how, some-

times, riding a bike can induce what feels close to a state of meditation.

I’m incapable of emptying my mind but there have been occa-

sions on my bike when I realise I have no recollection of the preceding miles. Whether dur-ing solo pursuits along coun-

try lanes in spring, or noisy, dirty commutes, time

can pass unnoticed in a blissful blur of rhythm and rolling.

It’s not a new sensation. In 1896

at the height of the fi rst cycling boom, a fea-

ture in the The New York Times said this about the ac-

tivity: “It has the unique virtue of yield-ing a rate of speed as great as that of the horse, nearly as great as that attained by steam power, and yet it imposes upon the consciousness the fact that it is en-tirely self-propulsion.”

Almost 120 years after these observa-tions, and in the middle of a new cycling boom, what have we learnt about the nature and eff ects of this stimulation? Cycling can of course be miserable, but beyond its ability to more often make me feel emotionally as well as physically en-riched, what could be happening inside my head?

Several studies have shown that exer-cises including cycling make us smarter. Danish scientists who set out to meas-ure the benefi ts of breakfast and lunch among children found diet helped but that the way pupils travelled to school was far more signifi cant. Those who cy-cled or walked performed better in tests than those who had travelled by car or public transport, the scientists reported last month.

Another study by the University of California in Los Angeles showed that old people who were most active had 5 per cent more grey matter than those who were least active, reducing their risk of developing Alzheimer’s.

But what is about cycling that leads me to believe it has a peculiar eff ect? John Ratey is a Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the au-thor of Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. He can’t point to a specifi c reason but says he has seen patients whose severe de-pression has all but disappeared after they started to cycle.

At the same time, the focus required to operate a bicycle, and for example, to negotiate a junction or jostle for space in a race, can be a powerful medicine. Dr Ratey cites a study his department is currently conducting. More than 20 pu-pils with attention defi cit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are expected to show

improved symptoms after a course of cycling. In a German study involving 115 students at a sports academy, half the group did activities such as cycling that involved complex coordinated move-ments. The rest performed simpler ex-ercises with the same aerobic demands. Both groups did better than they had in concentration tests, but the “complex” group did a lot better.

Cycling has even been shown to change the structure of the brain. In 2003, Dr Jay Alberts, a neuroscientist at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute in Ohio, rode a tandem bicycle across the state with a friend who has Parkinson’s to raise awareness of the disease. To the surprise of both riders, the patient showed signifi -cant improvements.

Dr Alberts conducted an experiment, the results of which were reported last month. He scanned the brains of 26 Par-kinson’s patients during and a month after an eight-week exercise programme using stationary bikes.

Half the patients were allowed to ride at their own pace, while the others were pushed incrementally harder, just as the scientist’s tandem companion had been. All patients improved and the “tandem” group showed signifi cant increases in connectivity between areas of grey mat-ter responsible for motor ability. Cy-cling, and cycling harder, was helping to heal their brains.

We don’t know how, exactly, this hap-pens, but there is more startling evi-dence of the link between Parkinson’s and cycling. A clip posted on YouTube by the New England Journal of Medicine features a 58-year-old Dutchman with severe Parkinson’s. In the fi rst half of the video, we watch the unnamed patient trying to walk along a hospital ward. He can barely stand. Helped by a physi-otherapist, he manages a slow shuffl e, before almost falling. His hands shake uncontrollably.

Cut to the car park, where we fi nd the man on a bicycle being supported by staff . With a push, he’s off , cycling past cars with perfect balance and co-ordina-tion. After a loop, he comes to a stop and hops to the ground, where he is immedi-ately immobile again. Doctors don’t fully understand this discrepancy, or kinesia paradoxica, either, but said the bicycles rotating pedals may act as some sort of visual cue that aided the patient’s brain.

The science of cycling is evidently in-complete, but perhaps the most remark-able thing about it for the everyday rider, its eff ects on hyperactive children not-withstanding, is that it can require no conscious focus at all.

The apparent mindlessness of ped-alling can not only make us happier (Melancholy,the writer James E. Starrs has said, “is incompatible with bicy-cling”) but also leave room for other thoughts, from the banal to the profound.

On the seat of my bike, I’ve made life decisions, written passages of articles, and refl ected usefully on emotional troubles. Of his theory of relativity, meanwhile, Albert Einstein is supposed to have said: “I thought of it while riding my bicycle.” - Simon Usborne/The Independent

A C E S O N B R I D G E

S U D O K U

AUGUSTA Jane Evans, a Southern author who died in 1909, said, “Life does not count by years. Some suff er a lifetime in a day, and so grow old between the rising and the setting of the sun.”

A bridge deal does not take a year, but misplaying one can remain in the memory for a lifetime.

The most important aspect of reducing errors is counting; the more counting you do, the better.

In today’s deal, it is winners that are important. How should South plan the play in four hearts after West leads a low spade?

North responded with the Jacoby Forcing Raise, guaranteeing at least four-card heart support and game-going values or more. South’s three-no-trump rebid showed some extra values: a good 14 to a so-so 16 high-card points and denial of a singleton or void.

If South played the contract without thought, he would probably take the spade fi nesse, win East’s diamond-king shift, draw trumps, and try the club fi nesse. But when that lost and East cashed two diamond tricks to defeat the contract, declarer would probably mutter that he was unlucky.

But now go back to trick one and force South to refrain from playing dummy’s card until after he has checked losers and winners.

He should see four potential losers: one spade, two diamonds and one club. But he also has 10 winners: one spade, six hearts, one diamond and two clubs. So, he should take the fi rst trick with dummy’s spade ace, draw trumps and try the club fi nesse. Yes, it loses, but declarer has 10 tricks.

— By Phillip Alder

ENTERTAINMENT

Don’t rely on odds; count your tricks

ACROSS 1 Vacuum part 4 Mailbox

attachment 8 Itemise12 Malt beverage13 Jot14 Como — usted?15 Family trees17 Swarm18 Wolfi sh looks19 Brother’s sons21 Broadway play

segment23 Mermaid’s

domain24 Defers to28 S’il vous —32 Oklahoma town33 Homer hitter

Mel —35 Prior to yr. 136 Flirtation39 Cooked in

butter42 Feminine

principle44 Versatile

vehicle45 Some beehives49 Borneo’s

archipelago53 — spumante54 Wood

preservative56 Elegant57 S&L

conveniences58 Part of GPA59 Follett and

Norton60 Persist61 Food additive

DOWN 1 Gala occasion 2 I cannot tell — — 3 Kind of pool 4 Huge fl op 5 Journal 6 Nefertiti’s deity 7 Ozone and

radon 8 Deadly 9 Psychic’s intro

(2 wds.)10 Brood11 Woolen caps16 QED part20 Energy22 Pair24 Chiang — -shek25 Not even26 Route27 Ave. crossers29 Honest prez30 Floe or berg31 Cable honcho —

Turner34 Frat letter37 Sheet-music

words38 Maximum40 Nth41 Crumpet

companions43 Better than lite

(hyph.)45 Cope with46 Queens stadium47 Pack — — (quit)48 Young lady of

Sp.50 Friable soil51 Off -road

transports52 Safecracker55 911 responder A

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WITH LOVE

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

C R O S S W O R D M A R M A D U K E

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FIND-IT-ALL

SATURDAY

FLT NO ARRIVALS FROM ETA WY676 JEDDAH  0005WY916 SALALAH  01254H581 DACCA  0130BG021 DACCA-CHITTAGONG  0130PK259 ISLAM ABBAD  0135QR172 DOHA  0145PK225 KARACHI  0200QR170 DOHA  0350EK866 DUBAI  0355GF560 BAHRAIN  0425FZ041 DUBAI  0430MS930 CAIRO  0450TK778 ISTANBUL-BAHRAIN  0605WY142 MALPENSA  0615WY684 RIYADH  0635WY154 ZURICH  0645WY644 KUWAIT  0655WY674 JEDDAH  0655WY692 DAMMAM  0700WY658 BAHRAIN  0700WY122 MUNICH  0700WY904 SALALAH  0700WY638 ABU DHABI  0700WY668 DOHA  0700WY132 PARIS  0720WY114 FRANKFURT  0720WY602 DUBAI  0800FZ043 DUBAI  0800WY202 BOMBAY  0805WY422 BEIRUT  0830WY102 LONDON HEATHROW  0830WY236 HYDERABAD  0845WY274 JAIPUR  0845G9113 SHARJAH  0915EK862 DUBAI  0940EY382 ABU DHABI  1000QR166 DOHA  10109W530 TRIVANDRUM  1025IX443 COCHIN  1050WY604 DUBAI  1105WY282 BANGALORE  1140PK191 TURBAT  1145WY902 SALALAH  1205WY918 KHASAB  1220WY268 LUCKNOW  1230WY3302 MUKHAIZNA  1230GF562 BAHRAIN  1230IX337 CALICUT  1305WY606 DUBAI  1320WY632 ABU DHABI  1335WY908 SALALAH  1430WY656 BAHRAIN  1440WY328 LAHORE  1510FZ045 DUBAI  1545WY434 TEHRAN  1550PA450 LAHORE  1645WY204 BOMBAY  1700WY3922 JAALUNI  1700WY664 DOHA  1720WY3304 MUKHAIZNA  1730WY616 DUBAI  1740MP95 AMSTERDAM  1745WY216 TRIVANDRUM  1745WY246 DELHI  1745GF564 BAHRAIN  1810WY906 SALALAH  1830WY312 CHITTAGONG  1845G9117 SHARJAH  1915WY338 KATHMANDU  1930FZ047 DUBAI  2020WY608 DUBAI  2025WY254 MADRAS  2045WY292 CALICUT  2115WY624 DUBAI  2120AI973 DELHI  2125WY814 BANGKOK  2130LH618 FRANKFURT-ABU DHABI  21309W543 COCHIN  2140AI907 MADRAS  2200WY386 MALE  2205WY374 COLOMBO  2210QR168 DOHA  2220NL771 PESHAWAR  2230BA073 LONDON HEATHROW-ABU DHABI  2240GF566 BAHRAIN  2240EY388 ABU DHABI  2240WY912 SALALAH  2245WY662 DOHA  2305WY406 CAIRO  2305AI985 AHMEDABAD-BOMBAY  2310LX242 ZURICH-DUBAI  2320WY116 FRANKFURT  2325WY612 DUBAI  2330WY224 COCHIN  2330WY654 BAHRAIN  23309W540 BOMBAY  2340WY717 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM  2340WY316 KARACHI  2350WY416 AMMAN  2350WY696 DAMMAM  2350WY648 KUWAIT  2355WY816 BANGKOK  2355WY682 RIYADH  2355

SUNDAY

FLT NO ARRIVALS FROM ETA

WY636 ABU DHABI  0005WY676 JEDDAH  0005WY824 KUALA LUMPUR  0040QR172 DOHA  0145WY717 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM  0145PK223 SIALKOT-PESHAWAR  0220WY3912 SALALAH  0235TK776 ISTANBUL-BAHRAIN  0300EY384 ABU DHABI  0330ET624 ADDIS ABABA  0350QR170 DOHA  0350EK866 DUBAI  0355GF560 BAHRAIN  0425FZ041 DUBAI  0430NL669 SIALKOT  0630WY668 DOHA  0700WY638 ABU DHABI  0700WY904 SALALAH  0700WY658 BAHRAIN  0700WY602 DUBAI  0800FZ043 DUBAI  0800WY202 BOMBAY  0805WY316 KARACHI  0825WY102 LONDON HEATHROW  0830WY236 HYDERABAD  0845NL768 LAHORE  0900WY432 TEHRAN  0910G9113 SHARJAH  0915WY212 TRIVANDRUM  0925WY226 COCHIN  0930WY252 MADRAS  0930EK862 DUBAI  0940EY382 ABU DHABI  1000QR166 DOHA  10109W530 TRIVANDRUM  1025WY3302 MUKHAIZNA  1045WY372 COLOMBO  1105WY604 DUBAI  1105WY826 KUALA LUMPUR  1125WY384 MALE  1150WY902 SALALAH  1205IX549 TRIVANDRUM  1215WY918 KHASAB  1220WY268 LUCKNOW  1230GF562 BAHRAIN  1230IX337 CALICUT  1305WY606 DUBAI  1320WY812 BANGKOK  1340IX817 MANGALORE-ABU DHABI  1415WY908 SALALAH  1430WY656 BAHRAIN  1440WY3304 MUKHAIZNA  1445WY312 CHITTAGONG  1520QR6162 DOHA  1530WY632 ABU DHABI  1605WY204 BOMBAY  1700WY292 CALICUT  1715WY664 DOHA  1720QR164 DOHA  1740WY616 DUBAI  1740WY246 DELHI  1745WY284 BANGALORE  1750GF564 BAHRAIN  1810WY684 RIYADH  1830WY3306 MUKHAIZNA  1845G9117 SHARJAH  1915WY906 SALALAH  1930TG507 BANGKOK-KARACHI  1935WY414 AMMAN  2020FZ047 DUBAI  2020WY608 DUBAI  2025WY624 DUBAI  2120WY152 ZURICH  2120AI973 DELHI  2125KL441 AMSTERDAM-DOHA  2125LH618 FRANKFURT-ABU DHABI  2130UL205 COLOMBO  21409W543 COCHIN  2140AI907 MADRAS  2200QR168 DOHA  2220BA073 LONDON HEATHROW-ABU DHABI  2240EY388 ABU DHABI  2240GF566 BAHRAIN  2240WY144 MALPENSA  2300WY662 DOHA  2305WY406 CAIRO  2310AI985 AHMEDABAD-BOMBAY  2310LX242 ZURICH-DUBAI  2320WY116 FRANKFURT  2325WY654 BAHRAIN  2330WY612 DUBAI  2330WY612 DUBAI  23309W540 BOMBAY  2340WY134 PARIS  2345WY618 DUBAI  2350WY696 DAMMAM  2350WY648 KUWAIT  2355WY636 ABU DHABI  2355

FLT NO DEPARTURES TO ETD AI986 BOMBAY  00056.00E+82 BOMBAY  0015LX243 DUBAI-ZURICH  0020BA072 ABU DHABI-LONDON HEATHROW  0025WY421 BEIRUT  00259W539 BOMBAY  0040WY683 RIYADH  0050WY235 HYDERABAD  0120WY201 BOMBAY  0130WY643 KUWAIT  0135WY601 DUBAI  0140WY115 FRANKFURT  0140WY691 DAMMAM  0150WY273 JAIPUR  0210WY667 DOHA  0230PK260 ISLAM ABBAD-LAHORE  0235WY637 ABU DHABI  0240WY903 SALALAH  0240WY657 BAHRAIN  02504H582 DUBAI-DACCA  0300BG022 CHITTAGONG-DACCA  0300PK226 KARACHI  0300WY281 BANGALORE  0405WY267 LUCKNOW  0435EK867 DUBAI  0455FZ042 DUBAI  0510QR171 DOHA  0515MS931 CAIRO  0545QR173 DOHA  0645TK779 BAHRAIN-ISTANBUL  0655GF561 BAHRAIN  0730WY813 BANGKOK  0745WY901 SALALAH  0800WY311 CHITTAGONG  0800WY3301 MUKHAIZNA  0800WY603 DUBAI  0805FZ044 DUBAI  0840WY327 LAHORE  0850WY215 TRIVANDRUM  0930WY823 KUALA LUMPUR  0930WY917 KHASAB  0940WY433 TEHRAN  0945G9114 SHARJAH  0955WY815 BANGKOK  1010WY385 MALE  1010WY337 KATHMANDU  1010WY373 COLOMBO  1020WY907 SALALAH  1025WY605 DUBAI  1030WY717 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM  1035WY245 DELHI  1035WY655 BAHRAIN  1040WY203 BOMBAY  1040WY631 ABU DHABI  1045EY383 ABU DHABI  1050EK863 DUBAI  1055QR167 DOHA  11109W533 COCHIN  1145IX442 COCHIN  1150WY253 MADRAS  1230PK192 TURBAT-GWADUR  1230WY3921 JAALUNI  1315GF563 BAHRAIN  1315WY291 CALICUT  1330WY3303 MUKHAIZNA  1330WY101 LONDON HEATHROW  1340WY405 CAIRO  1340WY663 DOHA  1340IX350 CALICUT  1405WY905 SALALAH  1430WY615 DUBAI  1445WY223 COCHIN  1530WY415 AMMAN  1540FZ046 DUBAI  1630WY675 JEDDAH  1640WY607 DUBAI  1705PA451 LAHORE  1730WY623 DUBAI  1810WY911 SALALAH  1840WY681 RIYADH  1845WY647 KUWAIT  1850GF565 BAHRAIN  1855WY653 BAHRAIN  1920WY661 DOHA  1920WY695 DAMMAM  1930WY315 KARACHI  1945MP95 SHARJAH-SINGAPORE  1945G9118 SHARJAH  1955WY611 DUBAI  2030FZ048 DUBAI  2105WY635 ABU DHABI  2125WY913 SALALAH  2145WY3911 SALALAH  22259W529 TRIVANDRUM  2240LH619 ABU DHABI-FRANKFURT  2250AI908 MADRAS  2300AI974 DELHI  2310GF567 BAHRAIN  2325QR169 DOHA  2330EY381 ABU DHABI  2330NL668 SIALKOT  23

FLT NO DEPARTURES TO ETD WY811 BANGKOK  0005AI986 BOMBAY  0005LX243 DUBAI-ZURICH  0020BA072 ABU DHABI-LONDON HEATHROW  00259W539 BOMBAY  0040WY211 TRIVANDRUM  0110WY251 MADRAS  0110WY235 HYDERABAD  0120WY371 COLOMBO  0130WY201 BOMBAY  0130WY225 COCHIN  0130WY601 DUBAI  0140WY115 FRANKFURT  0140WY143 MALPENSA  0145WY151 ZURICH  0200WY123 MUNICH  0210WY315 KARACHI  0225WY133 PARIS  0225WY667 DOHA  0230WY903 SALALAH  0240WY637 ABU DHABI  0240WY431 TEHRAN  0245WY657 BAHRAIN  0250PK224 PESHAWAR-SIALKOT  0320TK777 BAHRAIN-ISTANBUL  0350WY311 CHITTAGONG  0430WY267 LUCKNOW  0435ET625 ADDIS ABABA  0450EK867 DUBAI  0455FZ042 DUBAI  0510QR171 DOHA  0515EY385 ABU DHABI  0525QR173 DOHA  0645WY3301 MUKHAIZNA  0715NL772 PESHAWAR  0730GF561 BAHRAIN  0730WY901 SALALAH  0800WY603 DUBAI  0805FZ044 DUBAI  0840WY291 CALICUT  0930WY917 KHASAB  0940G9114 SHARJAH  0955WY907 SALALAH  1025WY283 BANGALORE  1030WY605 DUBAI  1030NL769 LAHORE  1030WY245 DELHI  1035WY717 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM  1035WY203 BOMBAY  1040WY655 BAHRAIN  1040EY383 ABU DHABI  1050EK863 DUBAI  1055QR167 DOHA  1110WY3303 MUKHAIZNA  11159W533 COCHIN  1145WY413 AMMAN  1225WY331 KATHMANDU  1245IX554 TRIVANDRUM  1305WY631 ABU DHABI  1315GF563 BAHRAIN  1315WY101 LONDON HEATHROW  1340WY663 DOHA  1340WY405 CAIRO  1340WY683 RIYADH  1340IX350 CALICUT  1405WY615 DUBAI  1445WY3305 MUKHAIZNA  1515IX818 MANGALORE  1515WY905 SALALAH  1530WY617 DUBAI  1540WY675 JEDDAH  1640QR6163 DOHA  1700WY607 DUBAI  1705WY623 DUBAI  1810QR165 DOHA  1840WY681 RIYADH  1845WY647 KUWAIT  1850GF565 BAHRAIN  1855WY661 DOHA  1920WY653 BAHRAIN  1920WY695 DAMMAM  1930WY635 ABU DHABI  1930G9118 SHARJAH  1955WY825 KUALA LUMPUR  2030WY611 DUBAI  2030TG508 KARACHI-BANGKOK  2040FZ048 DUBAI  2105WY915 SALALAH  2120WY3911 SALALAH  2225KL442 DOHA-AMSTERDAM  22309W529 TRIVANDRUM  2240LH619 ABU DHABI-FRANKFURT  2250WY817 BANGKOK  2250AI908 MADRAS  2300AI974 DELHI  2310GF567 BAHRAIN  2325EY381 ABU DHABI  2330QR169 DOHA  2330UL206 COLOMBO  2335

A I R L I N E S

PHARMACIESRound the clockAl Hashar Pharmacy, Ruwi: 24783334; Appolo Medical Centre, Hamriya: 24782666; Muscat Pharmacy, Ruwi: 24702542, Salalah: 23291635; Atlas Pharmacy, Ghubra: 24503585; Ruwi 24811715Muscat RegionApollo, Al Hamriya. Tel: 24787766Muscat, A Seeb Market. Tel: 24421691Muscat, Al Khuwair. Tel: 24485740Muscat, Al Hail South. Tel: 24537080Dhofar RegionMuscat, Al Nahdha Road, Salalah. Tel: 23291635

HOSPITALSAl Amal Medical & Health Care Centre: 24485052Atlas Hospital: Ruwi: 24811743/ Ghubra: 24504000Al Musafi r Specialised Medical Clinic: 24706453Hatat Polyclinic LLC,Ruwi: 24563641, Azaiba: 24499269, Sohar: 2683006Al Raff ah Hospital: 24618900/1/2Al Massaraat Clinic & Laboratory: 24566435Al Makook Medical Coordinance Centre: 24499434Apollo Medical Centre, Hamriya: 24787766, 24787780Capital Polyclinic: 24707549Badr Al Samaa Polyclinic, Ruwi: 24799760/1/2Capital Clinic, Seeb: 24420740Ceregem National Raak: 24485633Dr Harub’s Clinic: 24563217Elixir Health Centre: 24565802Emirates Medical Centre: 246045401st Chiropractic Centre: 24472274Hamdan Hospital: 23212340International Medical Centre LLC: 24794501/2/3/4/5

Kims Oman Hospital: 2476010024 Hrs Emergency: 24760123Lama Polyclinic, Sohar: 26751128, MBD: 24799077, Al Khuwair: 24478818Magrabi Eye and Ear Hospital: 24568870Muscat Private Hospital: 24583600Welcare Diagnostic and Treatment Centre, Al Khuwair: 24477666Al-Hayat Polyclinc LLC: 22004000ROYAL OMAN POLICEEmergencies and inquiries: 9999General Directorate of Passport and Residence: 24569603Directorate General of Customs: 24521109Traffi c violations inquiries: 24510228Public Relations Admin: 24560099

ACCOMMODATIONAl Bahjah Hotel: 24424400Al Bustan Palace: 24764000 Al Khuwair Hotel Apartments: 24478171Al Madina Holiday Inn: 24596400Al Maha International Hotel: 24494949Al Fanar Hotel: 24712385Al Falaj Hotel: 24702311Al Qurum Resort: 24605945Azaiba Hotel Apartments: 24490979Beach Hotel: 24696601Bowshar Hotel: 24491105Coral Hotel Muscat: 24692121Crowne Plaza Muscat: 24660660Crystal Suites: 24826100Golden Tulip Seeb: 24510300Grand Hyatt Muscat: 24641234Haff a House Hotel: 24707207Hotel Muscat Holiday: 24487123InterContinental Muscat: 24680000Majan Continental Hotel: 24592900Marina Hotel: 24711711Midan Hotel Suites: 24499565Mina Hotel: 24711828Muttrah Hotel: 24798401

Nuzha Hotel Apartments: 24789199Oman Dive Centre: 24824240Park Inn: 24507888Qurum Beach House Hotel: 24564070Radisson Blu Hotel: 24487777Ramee Dream Resort Seeb: 24453399Ramee Guestline Hotel: 24564443Ruwi Hotel: 24704244Safeer Hotel Suites: 24691200Sheraton Oman Hotel: 24772772Shangri-La’s Barr Al Jissah Resort and Spa: 24776666The Chedi Muscat: 24524400The Treasurebox Muscat Hotel: 24502570

AIRLINE OFFICESMuscat Airport Flight information (24 hours): 24519456/24519223Aerofl ot: 24704455, Air Arabia: 24700828, Air France: 24562153, Air India: 24799801, Air New Zealand: 24700732, Biman Bangladesh Airlines: 24701128, British Airways: 24568777, Cathay Pacifi c: 24789818, Egypt Air: 24794113, Emirates Air: 24404400, Ethiopian Airlines: 24660313, Gulf Air: 80072424, Indian: 24791914, Iran Air: 24787423, Japan Airlines: 24704455, Jazeera Airways: 23294848, Jet Airways: 24787248, Kenya Airways: 24660300, KML Royal Dutch Airlines: 24566737, Kuwait Airways: 24701262, LOT Polish Airlines: 24796387, Lufthansa: 24796692, Malaysian Airlines: 24560796, Middle East Airlines: 24796680, Oman Air: 24531111, Pakistan International Airlines: 24792471, Qatar Airways: 24771900, Qantas: 24559941, Royal Jordanian: 24796693, Saudi Arabian Airlines: 24789485, Singapore Airlines: 24791233, Shaheen Air: 24816565, SriLankan Airlines:

24784545, Swiss International Airlines: 24796692, Thai Airways: 24705934, Turkish Airlines: 24703033

MUSEUMSBait Al Baranda: Corniche (seafront opp fi sh market), Open from Saturday to Thursday 9am to 1pm and 4 to 6pmNatural History Museum: Al Khuwair, Tel: 24604957, Open from Saturday to Wednesday: 8am to 1:30pm; Thursday: 9am to 1pmMuseum of Omani Heritage: (former Omani Museum), Madinat Al Alam, Sat-Wed 8am to 1:30pm, Thursday - 9am to 1pm, Tel: 24600946Armed Forces Museum: Bait Al Falaj, Tel: 24312651, Open from Sat to Wed: 8am to 1:30pm; Thurs 9-12pm and 3-6pm; Fri 9-11am and 3-6pm. Al Hoota Caves 24498258; Turtle Beach 96550606/96550707Children’s Science Museum: Shatti Al Qurum, Tel: 24605368, Open from Saturday to Wednesday: 8am to 1:30pm, Thursday: 9am to 1pmOman-French Museum: near Muscat Police Station, Tel: 24736613, Open from Sat to Wed: 8am to 1:30pm, Thurs: 9am to 1pmBait Al Zubair, Muscat: Tel: 24736688, Al Saidiya St., Muscatmuseum@baitalzubairmuseum.comOpen from Sat to Thurs: 9:30am to 6pm.National Museum Ruwi: Tel: 24701289, Open from Saturday to Wednesday: 8am to 1:30pm, Thursday: 9am to 1pmSohar Fort Museum: Tel: 26844758, Open from Saturday to Wed: 8 to 1:30pm Thurs: 9am to 1pmMuscat Gate Museum: at Al Bahri Road, Muscat open from Sat to Wed 8am to 2pm

Dhuhr 12.10pmAsr 3.11pmMaghrib 5.31pmIsha 6.46pm Fajr (Tomorrow) 5.24am

Sunset 5.26pmSunrise (Tomorrow) 6.45am

High tide 3.57am 6.52pmLow tide 9.59pm 11.39am

PRAYER TIMINGS

B7S AT U R DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 2

W E A T H E R

OMAN

Max 28Min 18

Max 25Min 18

Max 25Min 18

Max 27Min 14

Max 26Min 19Max 28

Min 18

Max 28Min 15

Max 28 Min 22

Mainly clear skies over most of the Sultanate with existence of scattered clouds and chances of late night to

early morning low clouds and fog patches over governorate of Al Wusta and northern of Dhofar. EXPECTED WIND: Over most of the Sultanate wind will be northeasterly to easterly light to

moderate. SEA STATE: Moderate along the southeastern coast with maximum wave height of 1.5 metres and slight over the rest of Oman’s coast with a maximum wave height of 1.0 metre. SURFACE VISIBILITY: Good over most of the Sultanate becoming poor during fog.

Max Min

GULFAbu Dhabi 28 18Doha 24 20Dubai 27 19Kuwait 21 14Manama 24 19Riyadh 23 13

WORLDAthens 12 10Baghdad 18 7Beijing -2 -17Berlin 0 -2Boston 6 -2Cairo 18 11Colombo 29 22Frankfurt 9 7Hong Kong 20 11Istanbul 7 2Johannesburg 26 15Kuala Lumpur 32 24Lisbon 16 12Paris 14 14Perth 27 16Singapore 31 25Tokyo 9 3Toronto 2 0

WORLD

Max 7Min 0

Max 21Min 7

Max 15Min 14

Max 28Min 12

Max 15Min 10

Max 24Min 20

Max -15Min -25

Max 33Min 24

LISTINGS

LONG DISTANCE BUS TIMINGS (OMAN NATIONAL TRANSPORT COMPANY SAOC) *SUBJECT TO CHANGE

QURIYAT - SUR - JAALAN (Route 36)Dept Destination Arrival Operating Time Time Days 15:00 Quriyat 16:30 Daily15:00 Sur 18:00 Daily15:00 Jaalan 19:30 Daily

FROM JAALAN-SUR-QURIYAT (Route 36)Dept Destination Arrival Operating Time Time Days 05:30 Sur 06:45 Daily05:30 Quriyat 08:30 Daily05:30 Ruwi 10:00 Daily

TO AL BURAIMI (Route 41)06:30 Sohar 08:50 Daily06:30 Buraimi 11:00 Daily08:00 Buraimi 14:30 Daily via Ibri13:00 Sohar 15:45 Daily13:00 Buraimi 17:40 Daily16.00 Sohar 18.35 Daily16.00 Buraimi 20:20 Daily

TO AL BURAIMI (Route 41)07:00 Sohar 08:55 Daily07:00 Ruwi 11:40 Daily13:30 Ruwi 20:20 Daily via Ibri13:00 Sohar 14:55 Daily13:00 Ruwi 17:40 Daily13:00 Sohar 19:20 Daily17:00 Ruwi 22:15 Daily

TO SINAW (Route 52)17:30 Sinaw 20:50 Daily

TO SINAW (Route 52)07:00 Ruwi 10:25 Daily

To Yanqul (Route 54)14:30 Nizwa 16:50 Daily14:30 Yanqul 19:30 Daily

To Yanqul (Route 54)06:00 Nizwa 08:40 Daily06:00 Ruwi 11:00 Daily

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (Route 54)08:00 Nizwa 10:20 Daily08:00 Al Araqi 12:30 Daily

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (Route 54)15:40 Nizwa 17:55 Daily15:40 Ruwi 20:20 Daily

TO SUR (Route 55)07:30 Sur 12:00 Daily14:30 Sur 18:45 Daily

TO SUR (Route 55)06:00 Ruwi 10:45 Daily14:30 Ruwi 19:00 Daily

TO FAHUD - YIBAL (Route 62)06:30 Fahud 10:30 Daily06:30 Yibal 11:15 Daily

TO YIBAL - FAHUD (Route 62)12:30 Fahud 13:15 Daily12:30 Ruwi 17:30 Daily

TO DUBAI (Route 201)06:00 Sohar 08:30 Daily06:00 Dubai 11:30 Daily13:00 Sohar 15:30 Wed,Thur13:00 Dubai 18:30 Wed,Thur15:00 Sohar 17:35 Daily15:00 Dubai 20:55 Daily

TO DUBAI (Route 201)07:30 Sohar 10:50 Daily07:30 Ruwi 13:40 Daily13:00 Sohar 16:15 Thur-Fri13:00 Ruwi 19:10 Thur-Fri15:30 Sohar 18:45 Daily15:30 Ruwi 21:35 Daily

TO MARMUL-SALALAH (Route 100)07:00 Salalah 20:00 Daily10:00 Marmul 20:30 Daily10:00 Salalah 23:30 Daily19:00 Salalah 07:40 Daily

TO SALALAH -MARMUL (Route 100)07:00 Ruwi 19:50 Daily10:00 Marmul 13:15 Daily10:00 Ruwi 22:30 Daily19:00 Ruwi 07:30 Daily

TO MARMUL (Route 101)06:00 Marmul 16:50 Daily

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

TO MARMUL (Route 101)06:00 Marmul 16:30 Daily

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

TO DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH & SHARJAH (Route 204)Dept Destination Arrival Operating Time Time Days 07:00 Fujairah 11.45 Daily07:00 Sharjah 13.30 Daily07:00 Dubai 14.00 Daily

FROM DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH & SHARJAH (Route 204)Dept Destination Arrival Operating Time Time Days 16:00 Sharjah 16:30 Daily16.00 Fujairah 18.15 Daily16.00 Ruwi 23.00 Daily

FROM MUSCAT (RUWI) TO MUSCAT (RUWI)

BORN today, you enjoy taking risks, but you are never foolhardy in your approach; indeed, you strive to be as prepared as possible before undergoing any kind of personal trial, and you want to know that there is the potential for reward at the end of the line. It’s not that you are only after personal gain — though there is certainly a place for such prizes in your life — but that you respond well to motivation of any kind, and personal gain can prove a powerful motivator! There are others, of course, that work for you — including doing good for those around you, and providing for friends and family.You have a great many skills, and yet you may be most interested in developing those that are rarer than others. Like a great many born under your sign, you are not the kind to let a single triumph or failure steer your course, for you know that both are in the cards for you at some point. Also born on this date are: Jordin Sparks, singer; Maurice Gibb, musician and singer; Steve Garvey, baseball player; Diane Sawyer, TV anchor.

Fun and games can quickly turn sour if you are not careful; everyone must follow the rules — but some may not know there are any!

VIRGO [AUG. 23-SEPT. 22]

LIBRA [SEPT. 23-OCT. 22] LLLLLLLLLLLLLL[S[S[S[S[S[S[S[S[SS[SSSS[[S[SSSSS

SCORPIO [OCT. 23-NOV. 21] S[

SAGITTARIUS [NOV. 22-DEC. 21] S[[[[[[[[[[[[[[

AQUARIUS [JAN. 20-FEB. 18]

You may fi nally need assistance with a domestic issue that threatens to get out of hand. There’s no shame in asking for help!

That which begins behind the scenes and out of view of the public, can develop very quickly — but you must exert a controlling infl uence.

Now is the time for you to accept responsibility for something done quite a while ago. Today, the stars favour honesty — and forgiveness.

Someone you serve may be unclear as to the reasons for his or her latest requests or instructions. Still, you must stay the course.

You can come up with an idea or two that has even your rivals thinking that you know better than they do how to achieve success.

The clock is ticking, and you cannot aff ord to fi nd yourself bringing up the rear at this time. You may want to get an early start.

It’s a good day for refl ection — though there are some issues that may be more stubborn than others and require further investigation.

Someone is waiting for you to fi nish your assigned tasks before he or she can put the fi nishing touches on a group eff ort. Get them done!

PISCES [Feb. 19-March 20]

You’ll want to be sure that no one has to wait for you. Tend to your duties according to the schedule that has been laid out.

GEMINI [MAY 21-JUNE 20]

CANCER [JUNE 21-JULY 22]

LEO [JULY 23-AUG. 22]

CAPRICORN [DEC. 22-JAN 19]

Y O U R B I R T H D A Y

ARIES [March 21-APRIL 19]

TAURUS [APRIL 20-MAY 20]

Yes, it’s up to you to say where things must go at this time; without your careful guidance, a sense of direction may be lost entirely.

There’s no need for you to rely on another who, in turn, is relying on someone else. You know how to get things done on your own today.

EXTRAB8 S AT U R DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 2 , 2 0 1 2

The world is one of fi ve thought to be circling Tau Ceti, a star just 12 light years away which is almost iden-

tical to the sun.Astronomers estimate the Tau

Ceti planets to be two to six times bigger than Earth.

One of them, with fi ve times the Earth’s mass, lies in the star’s ‘hab-itable zone’.

Also known as the ‘Goldilocks zone’, this is the orbital region that is neither too hot nor too cold to allow liquid surface water and, po-tentially, life.

Details of the discovery are to appear in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Because of the diffi culties in-volved in detecting extra-solar planets, most found so far have had high masses.

The Tau Ceti planetary family is thought to be the lowest mass solar system yet detected.

Scientists found the planets us-ing a highly sensitive technique that combined data from more than 6,000 observations from three diff erent telescopes.

They used the radial velocity method which looks for “wobble” in a star’s movement caused by the gravitational tug of planets.

Dr James Jenkins, a member of the international team from the University of Hertfordshire, said: “Tau Ceti is one of our nearest cos-mic neighbours and so bright that we may be able to study the atmos-

pheres of these planets in the not-too-distant future.

“Planetary systems found around nearby stars close to our sun indicate that these systems are common in our Milky Way galaxy.”

More than 800 planets have been discovered orbiting stars be-yond the sun since the 1990s.

Those found around the nearest sun-like stars are the most inter-esting to astronomers.

Professor Steve Vogt, another team member from the Univer-sity of California at Santa Cruz, said: “This discovery is in keeping with our emerging view that virtu-

ally every star has planets, and that the galaxy must have many such potentially habitable Earth-sized planets. They are everywhere, even right next door.”

Professor Chris Tinney, an Aus-tralian member from the Univer-sity of New South Wales, said: “As we stare at the night sky, it is worth contemplating that there may well be more planets out there than there are stars, some fraction of which may well be habitable.”

Dr Jenkins is a visiting fellow at the University of Hertfordshire who is based at the University of Chile. – Jon Von Radowitz/The Independent

A planet with conditions that could support life, orbits a twin neighbour of the sun, is visible to the naked eye, revealed scientistsHABITABLE PLANET FOUND

This discovery is in keeping with our emerging

view that virtually every star has planets, and that

the galaxy must have many such potentially

habitable Earth-sized planets. They are everywhere,

even right next door.

Steve VogtProfessor, University of California at Santa Cruz

Shilpa Shetty takesfan homeWHEN MEERUT-BASED girl Maahi Hussain set out to live a day in her favourite star Shilpa Shetty’s shoes, little did she know she would be visiting the actress’ house!

Shilpa welcomed the 18-year-old to her house here, and chatted with her in her lounge as part of UTV Stars’ show Live My Life 2.

Maahi has several pictures of Shilpa, and knows a lot about the actress.

From sipping on hot water to hitting the gym, Maahi did everything that Shilpa does.

She even met Shilpa’s close friends, designer Nandita Mahtani and business associate, Kiran Bawa.

Both Nandita and Kiran were more than happy to meet the girl, and they shared insights about Shilpa. Nandita even gift-ed the girl a designer dress in Shilpa’s favourite pattern and Kiran ensured that she got a hair spa treatment and styled her hair exactly like Shilpa.

However, the highlight of Maahi’s day was a meeting with Shilpa’s husband, businessman Raj Kundra. He sent her to their house, where Shilpa surprised her.

BR I E F