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SATURDAY, August 8, 2015 / 22 Shawwal 1436 AH timesofoman.com wtimesofoman.com facebook.com/timesofoman twitter.com/timesofoman blog.timesofoman.com ISO 9001:2008 Certifi ed Company

UN DECRIES STATE OF MIGRANTS IN GREECEThe United Nations warned that migrants landing in Greece were facing “shameful” conditions, with the crisis-hit country claiming it was unable to cope with the infl ux on its Aegean islands. >A10

Oman criticises

terror strike at

Saudi mosque

Shihab attends Suez Canal opening event

MUSCAT: Oman has con-demned the terror strike, tar-geting the mosque of the spe-cial emergency forces for Aseer Region in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which resulted in the death of many innocent people.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry renewed its solidarity with the Saudi Arabia in com-batting terrorism and expressed condolences to the families of the deceased. -ONA

SUEZ: As delegated by His Maj-esty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, His Highness Sayyid Shihab bin Tariq Al Said took part in the opening ceremony of new Suez Canal in Egypt.

The ceremony was held in the Governorate of Suez under the patronage of Egyptian Presi-dent Abdel Fattah El Sisi in the presence of leaders of a number of countries.

It is worth mentioning that Egypt has embarked on a major expansion of the Suez Canal, deepening the main waterway and providing ships with a 35km channel parallel to it.

The expansion aims to in-crease the traffi c handled by the canal. -ONA

See also >A3

C O N D O L E N C E S

D E L E G A T E D B Y H M

WORLDYet another blogger killed in Bangladesh

2 A gang armed with machetes hacked a secular blogger to death

at his home in Dhaka Friday, sparking protests in the capital over the fourth such murder in Bangladesh this year. Niloy Chakrabarti was killed after the gang forced its way into his apartment. >A9

MARKETGoogle, Samsung to issue security fixes

3Google and Samsung Electronics will release monthly security fi xes

for Android phones, a growing target for hackers, after the disclosure of a bug designed to attack popular mobile operating system. The change came after security researcher unveiled what he called Stagefright. >B3

OMAN‘Music can help in aesthetic growth’

1Not many schools in the Sultanate off er musical education in their

curriculum, but for the ones that do, some are limited to middle school whereas for high school students it is off ered as an elective course. Many parents do not regard music as a career choice. >A3

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

A2Perfect summer getaway

Oman secures release of French hostageMUSCAT: On the Royal direc-tives of His Majesty Sultan Qa-boos bin Said, French hostage Isabelle Prime, who was released in Yemen after nearly six months of captivity, arrived in Oman on Friday on her way to home, the offi cial ONA news agency said.

The move comes as a response to the request of the French gov-ernment to help in the matter.

The French presidency an-nounced late on Thursday that 30-year-old Isabelle, who worked as a consultant on a World Bank-funded project in Yemen, had been freed by her captors.

The Omani foreign ministry said eff orts by Oman “in coordi-nation with certain Yemeni par-ties” had helped track her down.

“The search (for Isabelle) was undertaken on the directives of

His Majesty the Sultan at the re-quest of French authorities,” a ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by ONA.

The French presidency thanked Oman for helping se-cure the release of Isabelle, in the statement announcing her release. France has made “every eff ort to achieve this happy out-come”, the statement said, adding that France “expresses its grati-tude to all those who worked on this solution, including His Maj-esty the Sultan. Prime arrived in Paris on Friday.

Oman has been repeatedly sought by Western nations to act as a mediator in resolving many issues - from the kidnapping of Americans and Europeans to the Iran nuclear deal. – AFP inputs from ONA

See also >A4

R O Y A L D I R E C T I V E S

Yemen crisis fails to stem tourist fl ow to Dhofar governorateMEHDI AL LAWATI

MUSCAT: Yemen crisis has not aff ected the fl ow of tourists to the Dhofar Governorate, said Maitha bint Saif Al Mahrouqi, undersec-retary in the Ministry of Tourism, on the sidelines of a recent event at the Muscat International Airport.

“We have not witnessed any impact on the tourist infl ux to the Dhofar Governorate as a result of the crisis in Yemen. In fact, Salalah had witnessed more than the ex-pected number of visitors last year and we are also expecting a large number of tourists in autumn this year,” she asserted.

Most recent statistics from the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) indicate than a quarter of million people have visited Salalah to enjoy the Kha-reef (monsoon) season between June 21 and August 1.

Of the 238,675 tourists visiting the Khareef festival, 160,219 were Omanis, constituting some 67 per cent of the total.

Tourist hotspotsWhen asked about the possibil-ity of turning Oman into a hub of desert activities, though a num-ber of hotspots are encountering growing security challenges, she

replied, “At this stage, we are not looking at this particular segment. Oman has many other areas which the ministry plans to develop, aside from the challenges linked with developing the country as a hub for desert activities.”

“Having said that, I can say that we are really ahead in the camping segment,” she added.

According to Al Mahrouqi, the key areas which the ministry hopes to develop include confer-ences and exhibitions, cruise ships and adventure tourism.

“We want to set the ground for developing adventure tourism in the country,” she said.

T O U R I S M

FAVOURITE DESTINATION: Of the 238,675 tourists visiting the Khareef festival, 160,219 were Omanis,

constituting some 67 per cent of the total. – Talib Al Wahibi

Five Emiratis killed in Bahla road accidentFAHAD AL GHADANIfahadnews@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: Five United Arab Emirates (UAE) nationals were killed in a road accident involving two cars and a truck in Bahla town of the Dakhliya Governorate on Friday morning.

According to sources, the driver of one car allegedly lost control of his vehicle on the road leading to Salalah in the Dhofar Governorate, and collided with a truck. Among the dead were three women and two men.

An Omani travelling in the sec-

ond car was injured and rushed to Nizwa Hospital. The bodies of the Emiratis are being transferred from Nizwa Hospital to Al Ain by a Royal Oman Police (ROP) helicopter.

Fire at a storeIn another incident, a fi re broke out at a store in Al Khaboura Wilayat. The Public Authority for Civil Defence and Ambulance (PACDA) said there were no cau-salities in the incident.

Last month near Haima, nine persons had lost their lives and 39 were injured in the road accidents.

T R A G E D Y

Drop in female Shura aspirants causes concern

SARAH MACDONALDsarah@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: Only 21 out of the 674 candidates for October’s Majlis Al Shura elections are women, a number that is raising concerns about the lack of female represen-tation in Oman’s political system.

In the 2011 elections 77 out of the 1,133 candidates were wom-en, a total of 6.7 per cent. This year women represent just 3.1 per cent. In the current Majlis Al Shu-ra, the lone woman, Naama Jamil Al Busaidi, makes up 1.2 per cent of the 84-member chamber.

Iman Al Ghafri, current presi-dent of the Omani Women’s Asso-ciation in Qurum, was one of the 77 women who ran for the Majlis Al Shura in 2011. She says Oman needs more women in the Majlis Al Shura because they off er a dif-ferent perspective and raise dif-ferent issues than men.

“We have a higher agenda. Our agenda is to ask for a better living condition for families, for equal job opportunities for female and male, for better quality of edu-cation so we can compete on an international standard. Those types of issues won’t be debated by men,” she explains.

Men tend to campaign as repre-sentatives for their tribes and re-

gions, whereas women campaign with an emphasis on social issues that aff ect the country as a whole, Al Ghafri says. The issues are im-portant but they don’t win votes, which has discouraged women from running.

“I am concerned about the presence of the women. There is a misunderstanding about the role of the Shura Council. If they expect their member of Shura Council to be [like] a municipality council member, unfortunately this might not be attractive for many women,” says Tawfi q Al Lawati, a current member of the Majlis Al Shura who wants to see more women elected.

Seat allocationHe has suggested that the govern-ment allocated one seat in each governorate for women, which would ensure that at least 11 women were in the Shura.

Ahmed Al Mukhaini, a lawyer and political analyst who is also concerned about the lack of wom-en in the Majlis Al Shura, says the female candidates need to work even harder and develop alliances with the tribes in order to win. He also says a quota might help.

“Without a quota we will have few women if any joining the

Majlis,” says Al Mukhaini.While some people say women

should win on their own mer-its, others, including Al Ghaf-ri, say other countries which have applied a quota have met with success.

“Within the quota there was a competition. It wasn’t just any women. It was the best of the best of the women. With a quota women will compete among themselves and men will compete among themselves,” she says.

In the last elections a number of educated women from Muscat, including lawyers and those who volunteered with civil society or-ganisations, aren’t running this time, which is a loss to the elec-tions, Al Ghafri says.

“We’re not looking for num-bers. We’re looking for quality, especially for women because she won’t represent herself as an in-dividual or the tribe, but she also represents the women as a 48 per cent of Omanis,” said Al Ghafri.

Al Mukhaini says it’s important to have more women in the Majlis Al Shura for many reasons.

“There are 202 reasons. The fi rst reason is that it’s her right, her human right, to have equal representation in the Majlis,” he says. >A3

Majlis Al Shura

needs more female

candidates as they

off er a diff erent

perspective and raise

diff erent issues than

men but for their

entry into august

house, they have

to work hard

HM receives thanks cable

MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has received a cable of thanks from the Custo-dian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in reply to His Majesty’s condolences cable on the death of Prince Saud bin Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

In his cable, King Salman expressed his thanks for His Majesty the Sultan’s generous feelings and sincere prayers, praying to Allah the Almighty to rest the deceased’s soul in peace and protect His Majesty against all harms. -ONA See also >A3

S A U D I A R A B I A

COLLISION: The accident occurred in Bahla of the Dakhliya Governorate on Friday. – @ONN-1/Twitter

Graphics

Female candidates in Majlis Al Shura2011Election

Total number of candidates

1,133

Female candidates

Percentage of females

of Omani nationalsare females

77

6.7%

48%of the world’s national

parliamentariansare females

( as of January 2015)

of the elected representatives are

females in Oman

22%<10%

2015

674

21

3.1%

A2 S AT U R DAY, AU G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5

OMAN

Escape summer in jebel heights

Jebel Shams and

Jebel Akhdhar are

the perfect summer

getaways for people

seeking fresh air

and scenic views

amidst natural

splendour. The

mountain weather is

a refreshing change,

this time of year,

about 20 degrees or

more cooler than the

plains and coastal

areas of northern

Oman, and often

accompanied by

showers. Times

of Oman special

correspondent Sarah MacDonald has made

a number of trips

to the mountains to

enjoy a change from

the city, always with

her camera in hand to

capture the jebels in

all their beauty

SCAN THIS QR CODE TO INSTANTLY VISIT

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

A3

OMANS AT U R DAY, AU G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5

Share your

world with us

on Instagram

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SAYYID SHIHAB REPRESENTS OMAN AT NEW SUEZ CANAL CEREMONYAs delegated by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, His Highness Sayyid Shihab bin Tariq Al Said took part in the opening

ceremony of the new Suez Canal in the Arab Republic of Egypt. —ONA

His Majesty congratulates Côte d’Ivoire’s president MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has sent a cable of congratulations to President Dr Alassane Ouattara of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire on the occasion of his coun-try’s National Day. In his cable, His Majesty expressed his sin-cere congratulations along with his best wishes to President Ouattara and his country’s friendly people. –ONA

Yusuf bin Alawi receives Syrian foreign ministerMUSCAT: Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Minister Respon-sible for Foreign Aff airs received at the General Diwan of the ministry on Thursday Walid Al Mollem, Syrian Minister of Foreign Aff airs and Expatriates. The meeting discussed aspects of bilateral cooperation between the two brotherly countries and exchanged viewpoints on a number of regional and international issues of common concern. The meeting was attended from the Omani side by Ahmed bin Yousef Al Harthy, undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry for Diplo-matic Aff airs and a number of offi cials at the Foreign Minis-try, while from the Syrian side by Dr Faisal Mekdad, Syrian Deputy Minister of Foreign Aff airs and Expatriates and the delegation accompanying the guest. –ONA

G L O B A L R E L A T I O N S

‘Music can help in aesthetic growth’TARIQ AL HAREMItariq@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: Not many schools in the Sultanate off er musical edu-cation in their curriculum, but for the ones that do, some are limited to middle school whereas for high school students it is off ered as an elective course.

Though music is not of great importance in Omani culture and many parents do not regard music as a career choice, the art is essen-tial for the development of the stu-dent’s cognitive, kinesthetic and aesthetic forms of thinking.

“Music and arts are very im-portant. It should be viewed as a comprehensive educational programme,” said Dr Michael Buck, band director at The Amer-ican International School of Muscat (TAISM).

“We focus on three theories for music which is cognitive, kines-thetic and aesthetic. It helps the students’ ability to be creative and develop motor skills as well helping them to think critically,” he added.

Fergus Walker, music teacher at Sultan’s School said, “When you play music in a group, it is a great

socialisation process and confi -dence builder. The students gain great individual experience.”

Of course, listening to or playing music aff ects our brain. The way we perceive music and identify it as being sad or happy is the brain’s reaction to the song. Emotions play a big part in musical creativity and composition where students

often play music depending on how they feel.

“It is very creative. I created a lot of music and you can see a lot of emotion coming from them. The listener will think about emotions when listening to music,” said John Awe, a TAISM student.

It can also uplift a person to feel happier.

“It is double-sided. When I pick up a guitar and start to play, it makes me feel happy. The fo-cus on playing provides a distrac-tion from whatever is bother-ing me,” said Rayan, a student of Sultan’s School.

The brain is the most active when playing music.

“When students are engaged in

the process, the brain activity is far more active than anything we do,” said Dr Michael.

The teaching methods include fi rst-hand experience on certain instruments as well as famil-iarisation with instruments of diff erent cultures.

“We do not have all the instru-ments, so I like to show students some clips about how diff erent instruments are played from other cultures and how their technique is. It helps them understand the diversity of music to build their in-terest in music,” said Fergus.

When asked about the diffi culty of learning music, Nizar, a student, said, “It will be diffi cult if it is an obligation. But when you have an instrument that you love, learning will be simple.”

Commenting on the social as-pect of music, Dr Michael said, “Music is internationally rec-ognised as a way to bring people together.”

Music is the only form of com-munication that people from dif-ferent cultures and backgrounds understand. It helps students to develop their social skills, crea-tive thinking and confi dence at a young age.

Though music is not

of great importance

in Omani culture and

many parents do not

regard music as a

career choice, the art

is essential for the

development of the

student’s cognitive,

kinesthetic and

aesthetic forms of

thinking. Music is

globally recognised

as a way to bring

people together

Women’s role on centrestage

Historically women have played an important role in Oman, and today they are well represented in other sectors of Oman, so it’s only logical that they are repre-sented in the highest decision-making positions of the country, too, says Al Mukhaini.

Women will also off er diff er-ent perspectives and methods of planning, he adds.

Shukoor Al Ghamri, former president of the Omani Wom-en’s Association, says she’s not surprised by the lack of female candidates.

“For the past few years politics means war, politics means cor-ruption, and all these things so women avoid it,” she says.

Al Ghamri says most women prefer to avoid getting involved with politics and focus on their careers or businesses instead. Women are more likely to worry about losing their positions and missing potential promotions at work if they take time out to be members of the Majlis Al Shura.

“A lot of women would be good members and good speakers, but

they say they’ll lose their posi-tions and might not get them back,” Al Ghamri says.

According to the United Na-tions, as of January 2015 only 22% of the world’s national par-liamentarians were women. Women have the highest rep-resentation in Rwanda, where they have 63.8% of the seats in the lower house. The Arab coun-try with the highest proportion of women elected to the lower house is Algeria with 31.6%.

The United Nations facts and fi gures also reveal that in 38 countries, including the Sultan-ate of Oman, women make up fewer than 10% of the elected political representatives. In four countries, including Qatar, Mi-cronesia, Vanuatu and Palau, there are no women at all.

Al Ghamri says that until there are more women candidates, it’s important to vote for men who will represent women’s concerns.

“You can choose a good per-son, a man who defends women’s rights, to be the representative,” she concludes.

M A J L I S A L S H U R A

< FROM

A1

Building collapse in BuraimiTimes News Service

BURAIMI: Two workers suf-fered injuries in a building col-lapse in Buraimi, according to Public Authority for Defence and Ambulance (PACDA).

According to PACDA the build-ing was under construction and

collapsed when the construction work was on at the fi rst fl oor.

Workers who were trapped in-side the rubble were all rescued.

Two workers have suff ered medium to severe injuries, ac-cording to PACDA.

There have been no other in-jury reports.

A C C I D E N T

CLOSE CALL: Aerial view of the building site which collapsed in

Buraimi.–Supplied photo

ISG students visit Boeing unit in USTimes News Service

MUSCAT: A team of 46 students and staff members from the Indian School Al Ghubra (ISG) visited the Boeing factory in Seattle (USA) and attended the Space School at NASA.

A visit to Boeing’s Future of Flight – Aviation Centre off ered students, the only publicly availa-ble opportunity to tour a commer-cial jet assembly plant in North

America. Students Febin and Da-vid said, “The largest building by volume, the Boeing factory intro-duced us to the world of aviation.”

This was followed by a visit to the Melinda and Bill Gates Foun-dation, Pacifi c Science Centre in Seattle.

The highlight of the trip was the Lunar Rover Workshop at the Na-tional Aeronautics and Space Ad-ministration’s (NASA) Kennedy Space Centre.

E D U C A T I O N A L T O U R

SPACE AWARENESS: The tour involved many educational and

inspirational modules related to space science. – Supplied photo

A4 S AT U R DAY, AU G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5

REGION

French aid worker held hostage in Yemen freed

PARIS/SANAA: A Frenchwom-an abducted in Yemen in February has been freed, French authori-ties said on Friday, adding that her captors had been about to kill her.

Development worker Isabelle Prime and her translator Sher-een Makawi were abducted by gunmen in the capital Sanaa on February 24 while on their way to work. Yemeni tribal sources said in March Prime would be re-leased, but only Makawi was freed at the time. “We have indications that her death was not far off ,” Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on iTele television on Friday. “If we had not got her out, she would be dead.”

Asked whether a ransom had been paid, a French offi cial said France never gave details on either the detention or release of hos-tages. “I spoke to her by telephone this morning, she is doing as well as can be expected,” Fabius said in a statement. “The release of Isabelle Prime shows yet again that France does not abandon its own.”

A statement from President Francois Hollande said: “The president wishes to thank all those who helped achieve this

outcome.” Kidnappings of West-erners occur sporadically in Yem-en, mostly carried out by Al Qaeda militants and tribesmen.

In recent years, tribesmen in Yemen have taken foreigners hos-tage to press the government to provide them with services or to free jailed relatives.

Yemen is also home to one of the most active branches of Al Qaeda, to which tribal kidnappers have often sold their victims, according to Yemeni security offi cials.

In June, France authenticated a video that appeared on YouTube in May showing Prime making an appeal in English to Hollande and Yemeni President Abdrabbo

Mansour Hadi. “Please bring me to France fast because I’m really, really tired,” she said in the video, in which she was seen crouching on sand and in distress. “I tried to kill myself several times because I know you will not cooperate and I totally understand.”

Since Prime’s abduction, the situation in Yemen has become more complex. Hadi fl ed into ex-ile in March after Iranian-allied Houthi fi ghters, who seized the capital Sanaa last September, advanced towards his southern stronghold in Aden.

Yemen’s Arab neighbours have intervened to halt the advance of the Houthis. The Houthis have

been pounded with air strikes for more than four months, and the raids and other warfare have killed more than 4,000 people. Disease, hunger and water short-ages have also contributed to a hu-manitarian crisis.

Saudi soldier killedMeanwhile, a Saudi soldier was killed by shelling from across the Yemeni border on Friday, becom-ing the third death this week, the offi cial SPA news agency reported.

The National Guard service-man was killed in the Najran re-gion, in the southwest, said the Saudi-led coalition carrying out air strikes against Houthi rebels

in Yemen. Another soldier died from shelling along the border on Wednesday, and a civilian was killed in Najran three days earlier.

The latest cross-border barrages coincide with advances since late July by pro-government fi ghters who recaptured the southern city of Aden from the Houthi rebels. On Tuesday. they also took back Al Anad airbase north of Aden, using heavy armour supplied by the coa-lition after hundreds of Gulf Arab troops landed in the port city to bolster the fi ghtback.

In Yemen, the United Nations says the war has killed nearly 4,000 people, half of them civil-ians. — Agencies

Development worker

Isabelle Prime

and her translator

Shereen Makawi

were abducted

by gunmen in the

capital Sanaa on

February 24 while on

their way to work

IS kidnaps 230 civilians in central SyriaBEIRUT: The IS militant group abducted 230 civilians, including at least 60 Christians, in a central Syrian town known as a symbol of religious coexistence, a monitor-ing group said on Friday.

The Syrian Observatory for Hu-man Rights said the civilians were taken on Thursday in the town of Al Qaryatain, which IS militants seized the previous day.

“IS kidnapped at least 230 peo-ple, including at least 60 Chris-tians, during a sweep through Al Qaryatain,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said, using another name for IS.

Amnesty International con-demned the abductions as high-lighting the suff ering of civilians in the more than four-year-old Syrian confl ict that has cost over 240,000 lives. “The abhorrent abduction in Syria of more than 200 people by IS highlights the dreadful plight of civilians caught up in the confl ict in the country,” said Neil Sammonds, Amnesty’s Syria researcher.

“The group must respect the rules of war and immediately re-lease these civilians unharmed.”

Bishop Matta Al Khoury, secre-tary at the Syriac Orthodox patri-archate in Damascus, told AFP he could not confi rm what had hap-pened in the town “because it’s very hard to reach residents now”.

“But we know that when IS en-tered the town, it forced some peo-ple into house arrest... to use them as human shields” against regime air strikes, Khoury said, urging IS to let the families leave the city.

The Assyrian Observatory for Human Rights said there were some 100 Syriac Christian fami-lies being detained in their homes by IS militant group.

At the crossroadsAl Qaryatain lies at the cross-roads between IS territory in the eastern countryside of Homs and areas further west in the Qalamun area. It had a pre-war population of 18,000.

A Syrian Christian who lives in Damascus but is originally from Al Qaryatain told AFP the town’s Christian population had dropped to only 300. And he stressed that people coexisted peacefully in the town. According to Al Khoury, only

180 Christians were left in Al Qar-yatain by Thursday night.

Abdel Rahman told AFP that those abducted were wanted by IS for “collaborating with the re-gime,” and their names were on a list used by the militants as they swept through the town.

Search of safetyThey included Christians who had fl ed Aleppo province to the north in search of safety in Al Qaryatain. Families who tried to fl ee or hide were tracked down and taken by the militants, he said.

As IS continued its advance on the nearby villages of Sadad, Wah-min, and Houranin, hundreds of Christians began fl eeing towards the provincial capital of Homs province, Abdel Rahman added.

In May, masked men abducted Syrian priest Jacques Mourad from the Syriac Catholic Mar Elian monastery in Al Qaryatain, near the IS-held ancient city of Palmyra. Mourad, who was known to help both Christians and Mus-lims, was preparing aid for an in-fl ux of refugees from Palmyra.

In late February, IS militants abducted 220 Assyrian Christians from villages in Syria’s northeast-ern province of Hasakeh. At least

19 were released when ransoms were paid.

Unanimous voteMeanwhile, in United Nations, the UN Security Council voted unani-mously on Friday to set up a panel to identify who is behind deadly chlorine gas attacks in Syria, which the West blames on the Da-mascus regime.

Russia, Syria’s veto-wielding ally, endorsed the measure as did the rest of the 15-member council -- a rare display of unity over how to address the confl ict.

Under discussion for months, the US-drafted resolution sets up a team of experts tasked with identi-fying the perpetrators of the chem-ical weapons attacks and paves the way for possible sanctions to pun-ish them.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, called the probe panel a “nec-essary step” toward “eventual accountability.”

The United States, Britain and France have repeatedly accused President Bashar al-Assad’s forces of carrying out chlorine gas attacks with barrel bombs dropped from helicopters.

The three countries argue that

only the Syrian regime has heli-copters. But Russia maintains there is no solid proof that Damas-cus is behind the attacks.

The investigative panel will be given “full access” to all locations in Syria and allowed to interview witnesses and collect materials, according to the resolution passed on Friday.

It mandates the panel to “identi-fy to the greatest extent feasible in-dividuals, entities, groups or gov-ernments who were perpetrators, organizers, sponsors or otherwise involved in the use of chemicals as weapons” in Syria.

The teamUN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is tasked with assembling the team within 20 days, work-ing with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which is based in The Hague.

The panel would present its fi rst fi ndings to the council 90 days af-ter it begins its work, which would be for a duration of one year.

Pressure has been mounting on the Security Council to take action in Syria, where the war, now in its fi fth year, has claimed more than 240,000 lives. It tops the UN’s list of humanitarian crises.— AFP

A B D U C T I O N S

Iran Quds chiefSoleimani ‘visited’ Moscow

LONDON: The head of Iran’s elite military Quds Force, who is sub-ject to a United Nations travel ban, has visited Russia, two US security sources said on Friday.

Qassem Soleimani, chief of the force which is an overseas arm of the Revolutionary Guards, has been subject to an international travel ban and asset freeze by the UN Security Council since 2007.

Fox News reported on Thurs-day that Soleimani had arrived in Moscow on July 24 and met Presi-dent Vladimir Putin and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu before de-parting three days later. A Kremlin spokesman denied any meeting between Soleimani and Putin had taken place, RIA news agency re-ported. The two US security sourc-es told Reuters the Fox report was true and the United States be-lieved the meeting between Putin and Soleimani took place. One of the sources said Soleimani also had numerous other meetings in Moscow and that the visit took place in July. It was not clear what exactly was discussed.

A senior administration offi cial in Washington said US sanctions on Soleimani would remain in place despite a deal between Teh-ran and world powers last month in which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear programme in exchange for easing sanctions.

“We will maintain sanctions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Quds Force, its leader-ship - including Qassem Soleimani - and its entire network,” the offi -cial said. Two offi cials at the Rus-sian Foreign Ministry said they could neither confi rm nor deny a Soleimani visit to Moscow. The Russian defence ministry was not available for comment.

A spokesman for the Iranian embassy in Moscow could not be reached on Friday and other em-bassy offi cials declined comment. Washington designated Soleima-ni’s Quds Force as a supporter of terrorism in 2007. The European Union did the same in 2011. — Reuters

T O U R

Fears over fate ofCroatian hostage held by IS in EgyptCAIRO: Fears mounted on Fri-day over the fate of a Croatian abducted near Cairo by IS group militants who have threatened to execute him unless women in Egyptian jails are freed.

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said she would talk to her Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah El Sisi by telephone as the 48-hour deadline set by the militants on Wednesday neared.

Egypt’s foreign ministry said it was making “intensive eff orts” to locate Tomislav Salopek, a 31-year-old working for French geoscience company CGG kid-napped last month.

The abduction -- unprecedent-ed for Egypt -- has rattled for-eigners working for multination-al companies and underscored the militants’ reach despite a massive military campaign against IS.

Although it has been battling an IS insurgency in the sparsely populated Sinai Peninsula, the North African country has been spared the hostage-taking of for-eigners and horrifi c executions carried out by militants in Syria and Libya.

Salopek’s father appealed to the kidnappers to release the fa-ther of two, as Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic travelled to Cairo for emergency talks.

Appeal“I am asking the people who hold my son to let him return to his family, because his motive to go to your homeland was exclusive-ly to earn bread for his children. Nothing else,” Zlatko Salopek told AFP at the family’s home in the eastern Croatian town of Vr-polje. After talks between Egyp-tian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and Pusic, Cairo said: “We will not spare any eff ort to fi nd the hostage and guarantee his security”.

Salopek appeared in an IS video released on the Internet on Wednesday, kneeling next to a masked militant holding a knife.

He read out from a piece of paper that his captors would exe-cute him within 48 hours if Cairo failed to release female prisoners, a key demand of militants over the past two years.

Thousands of people, mostly hardliners, have been jailed since the army overthrew president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 and un-leashed a deadly crackdown on his supporters.

Salopek was abducted last month on a road running from the west of Cairo. His driver was left unharmed, and police say they have questioned him.

In his hometown, neighbours were braced waiting for news of Salopek, described as a friendly young man. “I think that every inhabitant of Vrpolje is very up-set and sad, fearing the outcome. We fear the worst, but we all have a hope that it will end well after all, although time is running out,” neighbour Miro Hrastovic said.

It was not clear where the mili-tants were holding him in the vast and mostly desert country.

While the militants operate mostly in Sinai, northeast Egypt, they have also conducted attacks in the western desert over the past two years. — AFP

E X E C U T I O N T H R E A T

The two US security sources told Reuters the Fox report was true and the United States believed the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Qassem Soleimani, chief of Iran’s Quds Force, took place.

SAFE AND SOUND: Former French hostage Isabelle Prime, left, who was kidnapped in Yemen, is greeted by French President Francois Hol-

lande upon her arrival at Villacoublay’s airbase, near Paris, on Friday. – AFP

WEIGHTY MATTERS: Members of the United Nations Security Council address a resolution to inves-

tigate the use of chemical weapons in Syria during a meeting at the UN headquarters in New York on

Friday. The UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution asking UN chief Ban Ki-moon and

the head of the global anti-chemical weapons watchdog to prepare a plan to set up an inquiry to iden-

tify those behind chemical weapons attacks in Syria’s civil war. – Reuters

HOSTAGE: This image made

from a militant video posted

on a social media website on

Wednesday, purports to show

a militant,right, standing next

to another man who identifi es

himself as 30-year-old Tomis-

lav Salopek. – AP/PTI

A5

INDIAS AT U R DAY, AU G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5

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ALAPPUZHA (KERALA): Ker-ala is getting ready for the 63rd edition of the fi ercely competitive Nehru Boat Race scheduled to be held on August 8, an event that serves as the curtain raiser of the tourism season in the state.

The event takes place at Pun-namada Lake and the chief guests for this year’s edition include Vice President Hamid Ansari and Chi-nese Ambassador Le Yucheng.

The snake boat race is main tourist attraction because the length of the vessels vary from 120 feet to 140 feet, with about

120 oarsmen going fl at out to lift the coveted trophy. This time, 16 teams will participate in the snake boat category, with the race be-ing held in the afternoon session. Around 60 boats will participate in the morning session of the event.

The history of the event dates to 1952, when then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru visited the state and a small fl otilla of decorated boats accompanied him from Kot-tayam to Alappuzha on the famed backwaters. An impromptu race was conducted in Nehru’s honour and, thrilled by the performance of

the oarsmen, Nehru jumped into a snake boat. On returning to Delhi, Nehru donated a silver trophy, a replica of a snake boat placed on a wooden abacus with an inscrip-tion and his signature. This trophy is awarded to the winner of the snake boat category.

Over the years, the costs, both for the organisers and also for the participants, have gone up con-siderably, said CPI-M legislator C.K.Sadasivan, a former coach and captain of the Kainankary Boat Club, which won a record 12 titles in the 1970s and 1980s.

“It was me in 1994 who sang in the assembly the traditional song of the rowers as they strike the wa-ter in unison with their oars. The house sat in rapt attention and the then chief minister, A.K.Antony, sanctioned $4,700 for this event for the fi rst time,” Sadasivan.

The state government has given Rs5.5 million for the current edi-tion. “This is an expensive aff air as every club or organisation which fi elds a team for the snake boat race has to shell out a minimum of Rs4 million. This is to pay every oarsman a minimum of Rs.1,000

per day for around four weeks of practice and for other expenses,” Sadasivan said.

“Today, most of the snake boats that are used by the various clubs and organisations are taken on hire and a very hefty rent has to be paid to its owner. Snake boats are built using anjali wood. They cost around Rs4 million and have a life of around 10 years if properly maintained,” Sadasivan added.

The organisers are hoping for good ticket sales.

“We expect the sale of tickets to fetch Rs3.6 million. Besides, we are

expecting money from sponsors too,” Tomy Pulikattil, one of the organisers, said. There are around 30,000 tickets on off er, ranging from Rs.100 to Rs.2,000.

Pulikattil also said that for the fi rst time, there has been a change in the schedule. “This change has been made because of the increase in the number of participating boats. It gets very late if it is held in the afternoon only. So this time, the morning session starts from 11 a.m. and the afternoon session at 3 p.m. We expect to wind up around 5 p.m.,” Pulikattil said. - IANS

T O U R I S T A T T R A C T I O N

SPECTACULAR: The snake boat race is main tourist attraction because the length of the vessels vary from 120 feet to 140 feet, with about 120 oarsmen going fl at out to lift the coveted trophy. – A R Rajkumar/TIMES OF OMAN

Kerala gears up for Nehru Boat Race at Punnamada Lake today

Jaya raises inter-state issues, GST with Modi

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Friday took up with Indian Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi a slew of issues concerning her state, ranging from inter-state river disputes to the GST rollout, besides the Sri Lan-kan Tamils issue. Jayalalithaa pre-sented a detailed memorandum to Modi during their 50-minute luncheon meeting at her Poes Gar-den residence here.

She called for retrieval of Kat-chatheevu islet from Sri Lanka, besides stressing on India’s role to ensure welfare of Lankan Tamils.

Jaya sought central intervention in matters like the Cauvery and Mullaperiyar disputes with Kar-nataka and Kerala respectively.

In the memorandum, which was released by the state government,

Jayalalithaa demanded that the Centre should immediately form the Cauvery Management Board and Cauvery Water Regulation Committee for implementing the fi nal award given by the disputes tribunal.

On Karnataka’s proposed dam across river Cauvery at Meke-datu, which Jayalalithaa said was “in violation” of the fi nal award, she urged Modi to advise that the state not to proceed with the project without Tamil Nadu’s concurrence. She also raised the Mullaperiyar issue in which her government had succeeded in a court case for raising the storage level to 142 feet.

Jayalalithaa said there could be a “security threat” to the dam structure and its appurtenant

structures “from unruly mobs against whom the Kerala Police, instead of taking action, are acting as mute spectators”.

“It is, therefore, imperative to deploy the Central Industrial Se-curity Force to guard the Mulla-periyar Dam and its appurtenant structures,” she said.

On the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Jayalalithaa expressed “concern” about the impact the rollout will have on state autono-my, besides the “huge permanent revenue loss”.

She recalled having suggested a “radical approach” where levy, col-lection and appropriation of the substitutes for VAT, Central Ex-cise Duty and Service Tax within a state could be delegated complete-ly to the state machinery, with the

central machinery focusing on inter-state taxation.

She said a manufacturing state like Tamil Nadu will “permanently lose substantial revenue” if GST is implemented, due to the shift of levy from the point of origin to the point of destination. Modi urged movie stars, youths and others to use handloom products to give a much needed boost to the sector.

“If movie actors decide to use only handloom and handicraft products in one out of their fi ve movies, then those movies will automatically attract good viewer-ship,” Modi said.

Modi was here to launch the National Handloom Day and the India Handloom brand for better market positioning of Indian han-dloom products. -PTI

SLEW OF ISSUES: Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a meeting with

the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalithaa in Chennai, Tamil

Nadu on Friday. -PTI

CHENNAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday called on long time friend and Editor-in-Chief of Tamil weekly news magazine ‘Thuglak’, Cho Ramaswamy, at his residence here.

The meeting between Modi and Ramaswamy lasted about 10 minutes and during this brief interaction Modi en-quired about Ramaswamy’s health. Ramaswamy (80) was recently hospitalised follow-ing a brief illness.

Modi after launching the National Handloom Day cele-brations here, had a luncheon meeting with Chief Minister Jayalalithaa at her Poes Gar-den residence and then drove straight to the residence of the veteran journalist and political commentator at M R

C Nagar, sources said.Modi has been a long time

friend of Ramaswamy and had also participated in the 42nd Anniversary of the magazine as Gujarat Chief Minister in Chennai on January 14, 2012.

Ramaswamy said it was only a meeting between friends and they did not dis-cuss anything political. -PTI

PM meets Cho Ramaswamy

Security beefed up at house of judgeNEW DELHI: A death threat has been made against Justice Dipak Misra, one of the three Supreme Court judges who turned down the fi nal plea against hanging of 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon, following which his security has been stepped up.

Delhi police has registered a case after a threat letter was found near the back entrance of the judge’s house at Tughlak Road on Wednesday. They said the threat to Misra is of a “very serious nature” and have so far ruled out that someone may have played a prank by sending the anonymous letter.

Justice Misra’s personal secu-rity offi cers were doing a security check, when they found the let-ter. Senior police offi cers were immediately informed. Special Commissioner (law and order) Deepak Mishra visited his resi-dence and did a security audit, police said.

It is believed that those behind threat letter did a recce of Misra’s residence. “Suspects knew that security personnel are posted outside Justice Misra’s residence and CCTV cameras are installed outside his offi ce. They knew that

back entrance of Misra’s resi-dence has thick cover of trees and CCTVs can’t capture someone throwing the letter in the com-pound,” a senior offi cer said.

Apart from Delhi Police, per-sonnel from central paramili-tary force have been posted at his residence.

Security drill“We have increased the security cover of Misra’s residence. Also anti-terror security drill has been carried out in entire New Delhi area,” the offi cer said.

Police said that soon after Me-mon’s hanging in the wee hours of July 30, security for Justice Misra and his two colleagues was increased.

The three judges rejected Me-mon’s eleventh hour appeal to stop his hanging in an unprec-edented hearing that took place in the apex court in the middle of the night.

Memon was convicted in 2007 as the driving spirit of the deadly attack in Mumbai in 1993 in which 257 people were killed as bombs exploded back to back at landmarks across the fi nancial capital. -PTI

D E A T H T H R E A T

INCREASED SECURITY: Security personnel deployed at the

residence of the Supreme Court judge Justice Dipak Mishra, who

handled Yakub Memon’s case, in New Delhi on Friday. -PTI

Jayalalithaa sought central intervention in

matters like the Cauvery and Mullaperiyar

disputes with Karnataka and Kerala

respectively

A6

INDIAS AT U R DAY, AU G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5

Sonia labels Sushma theatrics expert, draws retort from BJP

NEW DELHI: In an escalation of confrontation, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Friday dubbed External Aff airs Minister Sushma Swaraj as an “expert in theatrics” after her emotional defence on Lalit Modi issue, drawing a sharp retort from BJP which said it’s easy to give “a byte” than to speak in Parliament.

Marking a renewed aggression by the Congress which continued its protest against the suspension of 25 of its MPs from the Lok Sab-ha, its Vice President Rahul Gan-dhi went a step further, asking the External Aff airs Minister to ex-plain how much money her family got from Lalit Modi, the former IPL boss, to keep him out of jail.

BJP used the dynasty stick to hit back at Rahul over his charge that Swaraj’s family received

money from Modi, saying people from “common families” have to earn their living and the Gandhi family may be an “exception”. It also said Sonia’s “theatrics” jibe reduces Parliament’s dignity.

Sonia struck an uncharacter-istically personal and aggressive tone in her response to Swaraj’s’s poser as to whether she would have acted diff erently if faced with such a situation. The minister

posed the question while explain-ing her stand on the Lalit Modi is-sue in Lok Sabha on Thursday.

“Sushma Swaraj is doing drama, she is an expert in theat-rics.... I would have certainly done my best to help the lady (Lalit’s wife) but not by breaking the law,” she told reporters outside Parliament House.

In her impassioned defence, Swaraj said she had not helped

Lalit Modi but his cancer-strick-en wife and questioned if Sonia would have acted diff erently if faced with such a situation.

AggressionRahul also scaled up his aggres-sion against the minister, saying the whole matter relating to Lalit Modi and her was kept a secret as is done in a “theft”.

“When a theft occurs, two

things take place. Whatever hap-pens is in secrecy and there is a fi nancial transfer. What Sushmaji did was by maintaining secrecy and keeping her ministry in the dark?” he said.

“Sushmaji should tell the coun-try how much money her fam-ily, her daughter and husband got from Lalit Modi to keep him out of jail,” he told reporters.

Rahul also said that his mother would not have acted like the min-ister on the Lalit Modi issue.

BJP fi elded Union Minister Smriti Irani to defend Swaraj from the onslaught by the Con-gress top brass against her.

To a question on Sonia’s attack against Swaraj, Irani shot back asking if the Congress president wanted to say that Parliament had become a “theatre”.

“Such a statement is disre-spect to the people’s mandate.... Congress party especially Rahul Gandhi should not work to re-duce Parliament’s respect,” she told reporters.

Taking a dig at Sonia and her party’s decision to stall Parlia-ment, Irani said giving a byte for one and a half minute may be easy but speaking in Parliament for over one and a half hours without support of papers may be diffi cult.

After Rahul sought to know how much money Swaraj’s family received from Modi, a reference to the fact that her lawyer husband and daughter had worked for the former IPL chief, Irani sarcasti-cally said that people from “com-mon families” have to earn their living and Gandhi family may be an “exception”. — PTI

Sushma is doing

drama, she is an

expert in theatrics.... I

would have certainly

done my best to help

the lady (Lalit’s

wife) but not by

breaking the law,

said Congress chief

Pappu Yadav and Kirti demand president’s rule in BiharNEW DELHI: Demand for impo-sition of president’s rule in Bihar was made by a BJP member and expelled RJD MP in the Lok Sabha on Friday alleging that law and or-der was worsening day by day with incidents of murders and atroci-ties growing under JD-U leader Nitish Kumar’s regime.

Sharing the concern, Minister of state for Parliamentary Aff airs Rajiv Pratap Rudy said he would apprise Home Minister Rajnath Singh of the sentiments expressed by the members and if need be, there could be a meeting of the members with him to review the situation. At the outset, he said law and order is a state subject.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Pappu Yadav alias Rajesh

Ranjan, who has fl oated a pro-BJP outfi t in the poll-bound state, claimed that the “shocking mur-der” of a BJP leader Avinash Ku-mar in Patna on Wednesday was the latest of such incidents.

Expressing concern over the way the police was also behaving, he alleged that the Patna SSP had warned him of an encounter and he was raising a breach of privilege on the matter. Alleging that mur-der and atrocities have become the order of the day in Bihar, he said this was happening since Nitish Kumar has joined hands with RJD supremo Lalu Prasad.

He claimed that the state had witnessed 70 rapes in last one month, including seven gangrapes. He said that the people being tar-

geted were dalits, mahadalits and the backwards.

He demanded that the state should be brought under Presi-dent’s rule and the incidents should be investigated by the CBI. He claimed that no free and fair as-sembly poll would be possible if it was not held under central rule.

Seconding Pappu Yadav, BJP member Kirti Azad also under-lined the need for central rule. He complained of the growing illicit liquor trade in the Mithalanchal region. Bhola Singh, also of the BJP, however said he will not talk about imposition of President’s Rule in the state but a high-level delegation should be sent to Bihar to take a view of the law and order situation there. — PTI

W O R S E N I N G L A W A N D O R D E R

India to boycott Commonwealth meetingNEW DELHI: India will boycott a Commonwealth Parliamentary Union (CPU) meeting in Islama-bad next month in protest against Pakistan not inviting the Speaker of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, a decision that comes in the midst of tensions over two terror attacks in Punjab and J and K.

“A meeting of Speakers of all states here today unanimously decided that India will boycott the meeting of the CPU if the Speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir As-sembly is not invited,” Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan told re-porters after the meeting.

This follows Pakistan not send-ing an invitation to Jammu and Kashmir Speaker to the Inter Parliamentary Union meeting to be held from September 30 to October 8 in Islamabad while in-vitations have been sent to all the other Speakers in India.

DecisionThe decision of the Speakers comes against the backdrop of simmering tensions between the two countries over the recent ter-ror attacks in Gurdaspur in Pun-jab and near Udhampur in J and K by terrorists, perpetrated by ter-rorists who had infi ltrated from Pakistan. Mahajan said this was against a rule in the CPU in which all the Speakers, who are mem-bers of the Commonwealth Par-liamentary Association (CPA), have to be extended an invitation to the CPU meeting.

“It is wrong (on the part of Pa-kistan). They cited an old rule of

1951-57 regarding their having raised an issue in the UN Security Council for not inviting J and K Speaker,” she said adding it had lost relevance.

The Speaker said Pakistan gave this reply when India took up the matter strongly with the CPA Chairperson and Secretary General against leaving out J and K Speaker.

“We (31 Speakers) reviewed this issue and felt this was wrong. We reject this decision (of Paki-stan). We are writing to the CPA Chairperson that if I and K Speak-er is not invited then India will not attend the meeting or change the venue (for us to attend),” she said.

Welcoming the decision J and

K Speaker Ravindra Gupta, who attended the meeting, thanked the Speakers for the decision say-ing it was a question of unity and integrity of the country. He called Pakistan a terrorist state.

‘Deliberate’Gupta said Pakistan has done this (not inviting J and K Speaker) “deliberately” and added Fri-day’s decision is a strong message to that country.

Mahajan made it clear that to ensure participation of the Speaker of Lok Sabha and those of Indian Assemblies, J and K Speaker will have to be invited or the venue should be changed to some other country.

She said Pakistan had ex-pressed “constraint” in inviting Jammu and Kashmir Speaker citing an old rule which was “irrelevant” now as the state had participated in such a confer-ence in 2007.

WrongDescribing Pakistan’s decision as “wrong”, she said she had called Friday’s meeting to consult Speakers of the Assemblies before taking a decision.

The meeting noted that since Speakers of all the state Assem-blies are members of the ‘India Region of Commonwealth Par-liamentary Association (CPA)’, it was wrong to single out Jammu and Kashmir Assembly and not invite its Speaker.

After detailed discussions at the meeting attended by Speak-ers of 31 Assemblies, a resolu-tion was adopted “unanimously”, condemning the unilateral deci-sion of Pakistan for not inviting Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Speaker to the 61st Conference.

The resolution said Pakistani decisions violates the “provi-sions of the CPA Constitution, keeping the Executive Commit-tee and the General Assembly of CPA in the dark while acting against the century-old tradition of CPA which is a membership organisation that has constitu-tionally been bound to invite all its member branches to the CPA annual conference so long as a Branch is in good fi nancial stand-ing with the Association.” — IANS

P R O T E S T A G A I N S T P A K I S T A N A C T

BJP fi elded Union Minister Smriti Irani to defend Swaraj from the onslaught by the Congress top brass against her.

Apex Court issues notice to Dimple

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to actress Dimple Kapadia on a petition fi led by Anita Advani who sought resto-ration of her complaint of domestic violence against her subsequent to the death of former Bollywood su-perstar Rajesh Khanna.

An apex court bench headed by Chief Justice H.L. Dattu issued no-tice on Advani’s plea challenging a Bombay High Court order of April 9, 2015, quashing her complaint of domestic violence against Dimple Kapadia, her daughter Twinkle and son-in-law Akshay Kumar.

Appearing for Advani, senior counsel C.A. Sundaram told the court that his client lived with Rajesh Khanna for 25 years fol-lowing his estrangement from his wife Kapadia.

The case is rooted in the evic-tion of Anita Advani from Rajesh Khanna’s Carter Road bungalow ‘Aashirwad’ after his death. Ad-vani, who claimed to be the live-in partner of the former superstar, had sought monthly maintenance and a three-bedroom fl at in Ban-dra. As Sundaram questioned the high court order quashing Anita Advani’s complaint against Dim-ple, Twinkle and Akshay Kumar under the Domestic Violence Act, the apex court asked how could a married woman have a live-in re-lationship with another man.

The court was told that Anita Advani was not married and had a live-in relationship in the nature of marriage. The Bombay High Court had on April 9, 2015, quashed the complaint of domestic violence fi led by Advani in 2013 against Dimple, Twinkle, Rinkie and son-in-law Akshay Kumar. - IANS

D O M E S T I C V I O L E N C E

UP IN ARMS: Congress President Sonia Gandhi leading a protest against suspension of 25 party

members, during the Monsoon session at Parliament in New Delhi on Friday. -PTI

MAKING A POINT: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar addresses the media after e-launching an all-

women branch of HDFC in Patna on Friday. – PTI

RISING TENSIONS: Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan during

the Monsoon Session of parliament in New Delhi on Thursday. – PTI

A7

PAKISTANS AT U R DAY, AU G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5

INDEPENDENCE DAY PREPARATIONS Vendors in Islamabad sell the country’s national fl ag for the upcoming independence day celebrations at a roadside stall on Friday. Pakistan will celebrate on

August 14 the 69th anniversary of its independence from British rule. — AFP

Army copter crashes in Gilgit; 12 killed

ISLAMABAD: Twelve people were killed on Thursday when a helicopter belonging to the army crashed in northwest Pakistan, offi cials said.

“All the 12 people in the chop-per are presumed dead, they all belong to the army, they were go-ing to Gilgit to rescue an injured army man,” a senior military offi -cial told AFP.

“The dead include army doc-tors, paramedical staff , the pilots and crew,” he said, adding that all the victims had been identifi ed.

Eleven of the bodies were re-covered soon after the accident from the crash site near Manseh-ra town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, around 170 kilometres (110 miles) north of Islamabad, said senior police offi cial Najee-bur Rehman.

Charred corpsesThe corpses were burnt beyond recognition and the aircraft, which was carrying aid supplies, was still on fi re in the evening, he said.

“An army helicopter carrying relief items crashed around 35 kil-

ometres northwest of Mansehra this evening,” Rehman told AFP.

“The accident occurred in a hilly area that is not easily acces-sible -- the helicopter is still on fi re,” he said.

The accident came only hours

after a helicopter of the Pakistan air force crashed in the fl ood-hit district of Chitral, although no casualties were reported.

Both incidents involved Rus-sian-built Mi-17 helicopters, used by air forces across the world but

which have had a patchy safety re-cord in recent years.

In May, an Mi-17 army helicop-ter crashed at a holiday resort in the picturesque hills of Gilgit kill-ing seven people, including two foreign ambassadors.

Autonomous regionKnown for its spectacular moun-tain ranges, Gilgit-Baltistan is a strategically important autono-mous region that borders China, Afghanistan and Indian-adminis-tered Kashmir. — AFP

The dead include

army doctors,

paramedical staff ,

the pilots and crew,

a senior military

offi cial said, adding

that all the victims

had been identifi ed

TRAGEDY: Pakistani soldiers and ambulances near the site of an army helicopter crash near

Mansehra, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, around 170 kilometres from Islamabad, on Friday. — AFP

An army helicopter carrying relief items crashed

around 35 kilometres northwest of Mansehra this

evening. The accident occurred in a hilly area that is

not easily accessible -- the helicopter is still on fire,

said senior police official Najeebur Rehman

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‘Mullah Omar did not die in Pakistan’

ISLAMABAD: Defence Minister Khawaja Asif clarifi ed on Friday Afghan Taliban supremo Mullah Omar neither died nor was buried in Pakistan.

“I can confi rm that Mullah Omar neither died nor was buried in Pa-kistan and his sons’ statements are on record to support this,” the de-fence minister said, while address-ing the National Assembly.

“Whether he died now or two years ago is another controversy which we do not wish to be a part of,” Asif added.

The defence minister refuted Afghan spy agency’s claims that the Afghan Taliban supremo died in a hospital in Karachi, “He was neither in Karachi nor in Quetta,” he said.

Further, Asif said Pakistan is only playing the role of a mediator in talks between Afghan Taliban and the government in Kabul.

“We do not accept that we have a control on Taliban, we are only playing a role of mediator,” the de-fence minister said. Asif further said that US and Chinese offi cials are participating in the Pakistan-brokered peace talks as observers.

“We do not want to get involved in any rivalry in Taliban leader-ship,” he said, adding Pakistan only wants the group’s leadership to continue the reconciliation pro-cess.

The defence minister reiterated the government’s desire for peace talks to continue. — Express Tribune

A F G H A N T A L I B A N

Altaf’s anti-state remarks censured by Sindh AssemblyKARACHI: Sindh Assembly passed on Friday resolutions con-demning the anti-state remarks of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain.

The resolutions which were passed after similar resolutions were tabled in Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan assemblies in the past several days, were jointly moved by opposition parties.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s Samar Ali Khan, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)’s Shafi Jamot and Pakistan Mus-lim League-Functional (PML-F)’s Nand Kumar jointly moved resolu-tions in the Sindh Assembly which were passed with majority vote. The Pakistan Peoples’ Party sup-ported the resolutions.

Foreign helpThe resolution condemned the MQM leader’s statements seek-ing foreign help while it demanded the provincial government to take strict legal action against him. Further, the resolution also reject-ed the demand raised by Altaf Hus-

sain to divide the province.However, soon after, MQM

moved a resolution against former president Asif Ali Zardari for his remarks against the army.

MQM lawmakers protested and raised slogans in favour of their party head during the assembly proceedings.

However, after majority voted in favour of the resolutions, Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Dur-rani adjourned the assembly ses-sion till August 10.

Black dayAddressing the media outside Sindh Assembly, leaders of oppo-sition parties termed it a ‘historic day’, while MQM called it “a black day in the history of the Sindh as-sembly.” Further, opposition mem-bers also appreciated PPP law-makers’ support for the resolution.

Sindh Information Minister Ni-sar Ahmed Khuhro said, “We have asked the federal government to take legal action against Altaf Hus-sain and are waiting for a response that will determine our line of ac-tion.” — Express Tribune

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David McNeil

It is impossible to conjure up the agony visited upon Hiroshima’s 70 years ago as you walk around the rebuilt city, with

its airy shopping centres and tree-lined boulevards.

Once a year, elderly hibakusha (survivors of the bomb) must relive the most excruciating experiences of their lives. Their stories become numbing: people blown away like fl ecks of dust; children dying as they screamed for mothers who had been incinerated; the dangling eyeballs, burst intestines and mutilated skin of neighbours and friends; the stench of burning fl esh and death in the summer heat.

Sakue Shimohira, 80, has told the same story in thousands of speeches: Finding her mother turned to charcoal, and how when she touched the corpse it disintegrated; her brother dying in agony days later, his body wracked with vomiting and bloody diarrhoea, the symptoms of the then-unknown radiation poisoning. “He kept saying: ‘I don’t want to die.’”

A mother and her child in traditional dress in Hiroshima in September 1945.

Terumi Tanaka tells me how as a 13-year-old boy he helped cremate much of his family before the end of August; of witnessing ponds and rivers fi lled with bloated corpses, the survivors sitting blank-eyed, their wounds fi lled with maggots. “Nobody wants to remember such things but we do because we want people to know the truth,” he says.

“These are people who lived through the worst hell imaginable yet they’re not bitter and they don’t want revenge,” explains Peter Kuznick, a history professor at American University who brings his students every year to Hiroshima. “They want to use their experience in a positive way to build world peace. It’s such a powerful message.”

Offi cial Hiroshima cultivates this message, with its museums, memorial parks, peace boulevards and the iconic, hollowed-out Dome. In August, schoolchildren stage “die-ins” beside the

dome, replaying the events of 70 years ago. As I watched, the sound of John Lennon’s “Imagine” wafted from a speaker across the river.

Survivors have made thousands of pilgrimages to the US to lecture on what happened beneath the twin mushroom clouds of August 1945. Many Americans still have little idea of the horrendous human cost of the bombings because they have been told that they saved lives and ended the war, says Tanaka.

But America is not alone in being accused of sanitising the past. For many Asians, Hiroshima is a talisman for selective pain. The Japanese paid into the bank of suff ering with the atomic bombing and they’ve been withdrawing ever since, whitewashing the suff ering they infl icted on others in their schools, history books and popular culture.

The bomb was dropped on Hiroshima at 8:15am on 6th August 1945

Writer Ian Buruma calls the city the centre of “Japanese victimhood”.

China is particularly sensitive to Hiroshima’s status: Earlier this year, it blocked Japan’s attempt at a UN disarmament conference to extend an invitation to world leaders to visit the A-bombed cities. Japan, said Chinese delegates in a familiar refrain, was again trying to portray itself as a victim and not the victimiser.

Most hibakusha reject this narrative of selective pain. They are among the fi ercest critics of attempts by Japan’s government to rewrite history or water down its commitment to pacifi sm. It is telling that in polls, the percentage of Japanese who describe the bombings as “unforgivable” is higher nationwide than in Hiroshima, where most appear to have forgiven – but not forgotten.

Forgetting the past puts Japan on the road to war again, says Shoji Sawada. He was forced to abandon his mother to the fi res that blazed after the bomb. “I was 13 years old,” he recalls, his face blank. The least he can do, he says, is remember her and speak up about what happened. “It’s what she would have wanted.” —The Independent

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Social media helping quirky news to become trendsThis refers to the news story, House of Cecil killer vandalised in Florida (August 6). It is amazing that the world is hooked on to how this lion in Zimbabwe was killed. All this media frenzy shows the state of the col-lective human soul. All humanity it seems has been so numbed by con-stant wars and other bad news that any quirky happening is consid-ered worth sharing. With use of social media a global trend is formed .

— Sandeep Mohanlal, Seeb

Why no action on climate change by global leaders?This refers to the news story, California fi refi ghters ramp up battle against dozen wildfi res (August 6). Why is it that this year throughout the world a lot of forest fi res are happening. In my view, the cause is global warming but just making noise that this is so shouldn’t be enough. Why are the global leaders not doing anything in this regard? With the present approach to the problem, I believe that by the turn of the century the global map would be very diff erent from the present one. — Musarrat Omar, Ruwi

Hard to accept attacker did not recognise Wasim Akram This refers to the news story, Akram escapes unhurt after being shot at (August 6). Reports have said the person who had

the weapon did not know it was the famous cricketer he had fi red at. It is hard to believe this. Not a single person in my country is not a fan of the sport and not recognising Akram might mean something very grave. I hope what I fear is not true and this incident is just a road rage incident. — Basit Ismail, Muscat

T I M E S O F O M A NS AT U R DAY, AU G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5A8

Hiroshima survivors spread peace message

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1906 In North Carolina, a mob defi es a court order and lynches three African Americans which becomes known as “The Lyerly Murders.” 1916: Persia forms an alliance with Britain and Russia.

1936: The United States declares non-intervention in the Span-ish Civil War.

1976: US Viking 2 spacecraft goes into orbit around Mars.

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LEONID BERSHIDSKY

Uber cars are comparatively cheap because there are more

drivers than fares and those fares are unregulated. When

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raise the pricebit.ly/uberjustascapitalistic

MARY DEJESKY

In 2012, Shanghai ranked fi rst in Maths, Reading and

Science, ahead of Singapore and Hong Kong, China. Since then policymakers have jumped at

the chance for two week package holidays, as China and Shanghai

became the hot spots for edu-voyeurism

bit.ly/chineseteachersinuk

MARK HEALY

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

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

The video takes an undis-guised jab at Unilever for its failure to clean up mercury contamination or compen-sate workers aff ected by its thermometer factory in Kodaikanal in India

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Corrigendum: With regard to the Instagram of the Day on #Trending page (A12) dated Thursday, August 6, 2015, the byline mentioned was incorrect and should be disregarded. The correct byline: Photo by award winning Omani photographer Ahmed Al Toqi. The inadvertent error is deeply regretted.

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Yet another blogger hacked to death at his Dhaka home

DHAKA: A gang armed with ma-chetes hacked a secular blogger to death at his home in Dhaka on Fri-day, sparking protests in the capi-tal over the fourth such murder in Bangladesh this year.

Niloy Chakrabarti, who used the pen-name Niloy Neel, was killed after the gang forced their way into his apartment, according to the Bangladesh Blogger and Ac-tivist Network, which was alerted to the attack by a witness.

“They entered his room in the fi fth fl oor and shoved his friend aside and then hacked him to death. He was a listed target of the militants,” the network’s head, Imran H. Sarker, told AFP.

Police confi rmed Chakrabarti, 40, had been murdered by a group of half a dozen people at his home in the capital’s Goran neighbour-hood who had pretended they were looking for somewhere to rent. “Two of them then took him to a room and then slaughtered him there,” Muntashirul Islam, a deputy police commissioner, told AFP. “His wife was in the fl at but she was confi ned to another room.”

Mahbubur Rahman, another deputy commissioner, told report-ers that Chakrabarti’s wife had been heard crying out “Save us! Save us!” but no one responded.

He is the fourth secular blog-

ger to be killed in the nation since February, when Bangladesh-born US citizen Avijit Roy was hacked to death in Dhaka. Roy’s wife was also badly wounded in the attack.

Other victimsThe other victims include 27-year-old Washiqur Rahman who was hacked to death in Dhaka in March and Ananta Bijoy Das who was attacked in May by a group wielding machetes in Syl-het. In a Facebook post on May 15, Chakrabarti said he had been followed by two young men after taking part in a protest over Das’s murder. He said he went to report the incident to police, but offi cers refused to register the complaint and instead told him to leave the country.

Most secular bloggers have

gone into hiding, often using pseu-donyms in their posts. And at least seven have fl ed abroad, according to a Canada-based atheist blogger Farid Ahmed, who helped several of them. Activist groups say they fear hardliners’ hit squads have lists with the bloggers’ real names and addresses.

Asif Mohiuddin, another blog-ger who himself survived an at-tack in Bangladesh in 2013, de-scribed Chakrabarti as an atheist “free thinker” whose posts ap-peared on several sites.

“He was critical against reli-gions and wrote against hardlin-ers, and fundamentalism,” Mohi-uddin, who is now based in Berlin, told AFP by phone.

Police meanwhile said Chakra-barti had been one of the organis-ers of the large-scale protests in

2013 against hardliners convicted of war crimes dating back to the 1971 confl ict.

Protest marchImmediately after the murder, hundreds of secular activists joined a protest march in the city’s Shahbagh Square, which was also the venue for the 2013 demonstra-tions. “We’re protesting a culture of impunity in Bangladesh. One after another blogger is being killed and yet there is no action to stop these murderers,” said Sarker of the Bangladesh Blogger and Ac-tivist Network, who was among the protestors. Amnesty Interna-tional said the government had to do more to stop what it called “this spate of savage killings”.

“There is little doubt that these especially brutal killings are de-

signed to sow fear and to have a chilling eff ect on free speech,” said David Griffi ths, the rights group’s South Asia research director.

“The price for holding opinions and expressing them freely must not be death. The Bangladesh au-thorities now have an urgent duty to make clear that no more attacks like this will be tolerated.”

Bangladesh banned the hard-line group Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) following Das’s mur-der after facing accusations that too little was being done to stop such attacks.

In a recent petition to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, authors including Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood called on her government “to do all in their power to ensure that the tragic events... are not repeated”. — AFP

The killing of blogger

Niloy Chakrabarti,

who used the

pen-name Niloy

Neel is the fourth

such murder in

Bangladesh this year

Five killed as Kurdish rebels clash with Turkish forces

SILOPI (TURKEY): Five people were killed in eastern Turkey on Friday in a series of clashes be-tween security forces and Kurd-ish militants, part of a surge in violence that has put further strain on a fragile peace process between Ankara and the rebels.

Three people were killed and seven wounded during clashes be-tween police and militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the town of Silopi in Sirnak province, close to Turkey’s bor-ders with Syria and Iraq, authori-ties said.

In two other separate incidents in Van and Agri provinces, the mil-itants killed two soldiers, bringing the death toll among Turkish secu-rity forces since July 20 to at least 21. Violence has swept eastern Turkey since last month when the outlawed PKK ramped up attacks on security forces and Ankara launched reciprocal air strikes against the militants in Turkey and northern Iraq.

The provincial governor’s of-fi ce in Silopi said PKK militants had dug trenches and erected bar-ricades across the town and that they had then attacked security forces with rockets, handmade explosives and rifl es at 5:30 am (0230 GMT). The statement said a 17-year-old youth and a 58-year-old man were among those killed and that operations were still continuing.

Sporadic gunfi re rang out and smoke billowed into the sky, Reu-ters TV footage showed. Armoured jeeps and water cannon vehicles patrolled the streets as masked youths looked on from street cor-ners. Two police offi cers were among the wounded, the gover-nor’s offi ce said. A lawmaker from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Demo-cratic Party, Faysal Sariyildiz, told reporters the casualties were civil-ians and that he had seen no sign of armed militants, contradicting offi cial accounts. — Reuters

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

Powerful truck bomb kills 15, injures 240 in KabulKABUL: A huge truck bomb tore through central Kabul on Friday, killing 15 civilians and wounding 240 others in the fi rst major attack in the Afghan capital since the announcement of Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s death.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which came as the Taliban steps up their summer off ensive despite a bitter power transition within the mili-tant movement.

A truck packed with explosives detonated just after midnight near an army base in the neighbour-hood of Shah Shaheed, rattling homes across the city, ripping off the facades of buildings and leav-ing scattered piles of rubble.

The force of the explosion creat-

ed an enormous crater in the road, around 10 metres (30 feet) deep, and destroyed the boundary wall of the base, although no military casualties were reported.

“The death toll from the early Friday attack... has risen to 15,” deputy presidential spokesman Sayed Zafar Hashemi told AFP, adding that “more than 240 people have been wounded”.

The health ministry said the number of wounded could run even higher, with most suff ering

injuries from fl ying glass. Kabul police chief General Abdul Rah-man Rahimi said offi cials were searching for anyone trapped un-der the mangled concrete debris. “The killed and wounded include women and children, and labour-ers of a nearby marble stone com-pany are among the victims. The attack was intended to cause mass murder,” he said.

Soldiers erected a security cor-don around the military base close to Shah Shaheed, a largely middle-class civilian residential area with no major foreign presence.

The wounded were overwhelm-ing city hospitals, offi cials said, with reports emerging of blood shortages and urgent appeals for donors circulating on social media.

The carnage comes a day after Taliban insurgents killed nine peo-ple in multiple attacks on police targets, including a truck bombing in the volatile eastern province of Logar. The attacks highlight grow-ing insecurity in the country amid a faltering peace process with the Taliban as Afghan forces face their fi rst summer fi ghting season with-out full NATO support.

The NATO mission in Afghani-stan condemned Friday’s bombing as a “contemptible act of violence”.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP he was “una-ware” of the Kabul bombing. The militants are known to distance themselves from attacks that re-sult in a large number of civilian casualties. — AFP

C A R N A G E

INCONSOLABLE: The wife, right, of murdered Bangladesh blogger Niloy Chakrabarti, who used the pen-name Niloy Neel, weeps at their

home in Dhaka on Friday. – AFP

DEVASTATED: Afghan shopkeepers remove prayer rugs after a

powerful truck bomb in Kabul on Friday. – AFP

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UN decries ‘shameful’ state of migrants as Greece seeks help

GENEVA/PALERMO: The United Nations warned Friday that migrants landing in Greece were facing “shameful” condi-tions, with the crisis-hit country claiming it was unable to cope with the massive infl ux on its Ae-gean islands.

Some 124,000 people, almost all of them fl eeing war and per-secution in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, have come ashore since the beginning of the year -- a 750-per cent increase from the same period last year, the UN refugee agency said.

But when they arrive on Greek islands facing Turkey there is usu-ally nothing for them and most are forced to sleep outdoors, relying on volunteers for food and water, said Vincent Cochetel, head of UNHCR’s Europe division.

“It’s total chaos on the islands,” he said, describing desperate, ex-hausted people, including women, children and unaccompanied mi-nors, searching for food, water, shelter and information about how to proceed.

After a few days they are trans-ferred to Athens, where again “there is nothing waiting for them,” he said. Greece only off ers reception places for 1,100 people, he revealed, “which is totally inad-equate for the needs.”

A round 50,000 people arrived in July alone -- 20,000 more than in June, the UN refugee agency said.

Austria blastedThe agency had earlier lambasted Austria for the “intolerable, dan-gerous and inhumane” conditions in its main refugee camp near Vi-

enna, which is holding twice as many people as it was meant for.

But Cochetel, who has worked with the UNHCR for three dec-ades across many African and Asian countries, said he had never seen anything like what is hap-pening in Greece.

“This is the European Union, and this is totally shameful,” he added.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said the huge infl ux of mi-grants was too much for his debt-ravaged country and pleaded for EU help. “This problem surpasses us. Greece is a country in econom-ic crisis, and it faces a major hu-manitarian crisis within a crisis,” he said.

He did, however, vow to speed up procedures to get migrants to the mainland as soon as possible,

and said a new housing complex would soon be completed in Ath-ens to relocate hundreds of refu-gees currently sleeping in one of the capital’s parks.

Migrant quotasBut he also criticised EU mem-ber states that have failed to meet migrant quotas suggested by Brussels or have rejected them altogether.

Cochetel too criticised the EU for not yet implementing the plan to transfer 16,000 asylum seekers from Greece over two years, and said the plan in any case needed to be beefed up.

“It is far too little and too late,” he said, insisting that helping fi x the problems in Greece would be in the interest of a number of Eu-ropean countries. Almost all of

the people who arrive in Greece choose to move on, up through eastern Europe towards the north, sparking a multitude of migration crises across the continent.

Meanwhile, Italy arrested fi ve North African men on Friday on suspicion of multiple homicide and human traffi cking in the pre-sumed drowning of more than 200 people, saying they used clubs and knives against migrants.

Most of the dead were locked in the hold of a boat that sank off the coast of Libya on Wednes-day. Police said many children were believed to be among those who perished.

Two Libyans, two Algerians and a Tunisian ranging in age from 21 to 24, were placed under for-mal arrest in Palermo after being questioned on Thursday.

Police had earlier mistakenly identifi ed the Tunisian as a Lib-yan. Police said the accused men charged the migrants between $1,200 and $1,800 for the voyage, depending on where they would be placed on the deck of the boat.

Those in the hold paid about half as much as those above, they added.

The boat was carrying some 650 people.

Italian and Irish ships rescued

more than 400 migrants and re-covered 26 bodies, including three children. Police arrested the men after speaking to survivors dur-ing the night after they arrived in Palermo.

Libyan ringA police reconstruction based on witnesses’ accounts said three of the men, part of a Libyan-based human traffi cking ring, alternated steering the boat while the other two kept watch over the migrants.

“The arrested are suspected of causing the confi rmed deaths of 26 migrants and the presumed deaths of about 200 people who, according to witnesses, were locked in the hold of the boat that capsized,” a police statement said.

Police said that about three hours into the journey from Libya the boat started taking on water in the hold, which was packed with mostly African migrants.

The traffi ckers ordered them to bail out the water but they were unable to do so and tried to break out of the hold.

They were beaten back with knives, clubs and belts. Migrants on the deck were ordered to sit on the hatch of the hold to pre-vent those below from getting out. — Agencies

Some 124,000

people, almost all of

them fl eeing war and

persecution in Syria,

Afghanistan and Iraq,

have come ashore

since the beginning

of the year -- a 750

per cent increase

from the same period

last year, the UN

refugee agency said

SORRY PLIGHT: Migrants clean their clothes in a park in central Athens on Friday, where they have found temporary shelter after arriv-

ing from Greek islands near Turkey. — AFP

Italy arrested five North African men on Friday on

suspicion of multiple homicide and human trafficking

in the presumed drowning of more than 200 people,

saying they used clubs and knives against migrants

Rajapaksa trails rival in Sri Lanka poll campaign

COLOMBO: Former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa is trailing his main rival in a prime ministerial elections later this month, the latest national opinion poll showed, as the once-power-ful leader struggles to mount a strong campaign.

Ousted by former ally Maithri-pala Sirisena in a presidential elec-tion in January, Rajapaksa is seek-ing to turn the tables at the August 17 parliamentary polls but is being dogged by allegations of abuse of power and sleaze.

His party said his campaign has also been hobbled by a lack of se-curity for a leader who crushed a 26-year insurgency by ethnic Ta-mil rebels in 2009, which won him a support among majority Sinha-lese but has made him unpopular among Tamils.

Ranil WickremesingheNearly 40 per cent of voters sur-veyed at the end of the last month said Prime Minister Ranil Wick-remesinghe was the best man for the job and only 27.5 per cent chose Rajapaksa, the Centre for Policy Analysis, which conducted the poll, said.

The survey across all 25 dis-tricts of the island nation showed Tamil and Muslim voters stood solidly behind Wickremesinghe, the leader of the United National Party-led coalition.

Rajapaksa held the edge among mostly Buddhist Sinhalese, winning the support of 36 per-cent against Wickremesinghe’s 31.9 percent.

Keerthi Tennakoon, the execu-tive director of Campaign for Free and Fair Election, said Rajapaksa and his party colleagues were fi ghting for survival.

State media supportUnlike in the past, they did not have government patronage or state media support, aff ecting the reach of Rajapaksa’s campaign, party members said.

“The government has not even provided vehicles to transport his security offi cials,” said his spokes-man, Rohan Welivita.

At one rally in Karunagala dis-trict, north of the capital Colombo, Rajapaksa was denied the use of a loudspeaker to address supporters because he arrived so late his per-mit had expired.

Rajapaksa remains a divisive fi gure in the multi-ethnic island nation of 21 million people that is still healing from extensive rights violations in the fi nal stages of the civil war. A UN human rights report on the war in the north is due for release soon after the election. — Reuters

O N C E - P O W E R F U L L E A D E R

2 die as thousands fl ee Taiwan typhoonTAIPEI: An eight-year-old girl and her mother died after being swept out to sea off Taiwan as Ty-phoon Soudelor bore down on the island, forcing thousands to fl ee, offi cials said on Friday.

Troops evacuated villagers from remote mountain regions in the east of the island and helped se-cure their homes as rains and surg-ing waves battered the coast.

More than 2,000 people, many of them tourists, had already been evacuated from Taiwan’s outlying islands.

The typhoon is set to make a di-rect hit on the east coast in early hours of Saturday before moving across central Taiwan to Fujian province in mainland China.

Billed as the biggest typhoon of the year earlier in the week, Soude-lor has since weakened but au-thorities warned it may strengthen again before making landfall.

The young girl and her mother became the fi rst casualties of the impending storm after they were swept out to sea in Taiwan’s east-ern Yilan county on Thursday.

The dead girl’s twin was also missing in the same incident, while another nine-year-old girl was injured but survived.

“The group went to the beach but were swept out to sea by strong waves,” a spokesman for the fi re bureau in Yilan County told AFP.

“It was a mother, her twins, and a friend’s daughter.

Brought to shore“The adult and her daughter had already lost their heartbeat when

brought to shore. The other child was conscious.

“The search for the missing girl stopped for today as it was getting dark but will continue.”

Troops helped move residents from aboriginal villages in the eastern counties Yilan and Hual-ien on Friday afternoon as well as reinforcing their houses, which will bear the brunt of the storm.

Riverside aboriginal commu-nities in New Taipei City were

also due to be evacuated Friday evening.

Much of the island will be lashed by torrential rain and by Friday af-ternoon 140 millimetres (5.5 inch-es) had already fallen near Taoyu-

an City in the northwest. Offi ces and schools were shut

down Friday, mainly in the north and east.

More than 40 international fl ights out of Taiwan were can-celled and ferry services to outly-ing islands were suspended.

Packing maximum wind speeds of 173 kilometres per hour near its centre, Soudelor was 280 kilome-tres southeast of Hualien county Friday evening. — AFP

B I G G E S T T Y P H O O N O F T H E Y E A R

SEVERE WEATHER: People hold umbrellas in heavy rain as Typhoon Soudelor approaches, in Hang-

zhou, Zhejiang province, on Friday. - Reuters

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Myanmar fl ood toll rises to 88NYAUNG DON (MYANMAR): The death toll from severe fl ood-ing across Myanmar has risen to 88, offi cials said on Friday, as rising waters swallowed more homes in low-lying regions in some of the poorest parts of the country.

More than 330,000 people have been aff ected by torrential monsoon rains that triggered fl ash fl oods and landslides, cut-ting off communications as the deluge engulfed roads and de-stroyed bridges.

Residents have raced to bolster sand-bag defences along the Ir-rawaddy river in the southwest

as fl oodwaters swell the mighty waterway, swamping dozens of villages as the waters drain from further north.

“Nothing like this has hap-pened before, but I am not the only one suff ering,” said Soe Min Paing, a fi sherman from Kyauk Taing village in Nyaung Don township, whose home has been inundated. — AFP

D I S A S T E R

INUNDATED: Residents commute in boats over fl oodwaters in

Kyouk Taing village near Nyaung Don township in Myanmar’s

Irrawaddy region on Friday. - AFP

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SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2015

Five-star Ben Stokes puts England on brink of victory

NOTTINGHAM: Ben Stokes took fi ve wickets to put England on the verge of a famous victory that would win back the Ashes as Australia fi n-ished on 241 for seven after a com-pelling second day of the fourth test at Trent Bridge on Friday.

The touring side, bowled out for 60 on the fi rst morning of the match, fought back to trail by 90 runs but England should fi nish them off on the third day to clinch the series. Adam Voges was 48 not out with Mitchell Starc on nought at the close.

Australia took fi ve wickets in the morning before England de-clared on 391 for nine and the touring side’s openers, Chris Rog-ers and David Warner, added 113 runs to give their side a foothold in the match.

The pair batted through most of the afternoon session before

Stokes inspired England to take four wickets and end the Aus-tralia fi ghtback. Stokes dismissed Rogers for 52, Warner for 64 and Shaun Marsh for two before taking

a brilliant catch off Broad’s bowl-ing to send back Steven Smith for fi ve and leave Australia reeling at 138 for four at tea.

England removed Michael Clarke (13), Peter Nevill (17) and Mitchell Johnson (fi ve) in a tense fi nal session.

Starc led the Australian fi ght-back in the morning, claiming test-best fi gures of 6-111.

The tall left-armer dismissed Joe Root for 130, Mark Wood for 28 and Jos Buttler for 12.

Josh Hazlewood snared Stokes for fi ve and Johnson removed Moeen Ali for 38 thanks to a su-perb catch by Smith, only a fi ne ninth-wicket partnership of 58 between Moeen and Broad saving England from complete collapse.

Warner, on 10, was badly dropped by Cook at fi rst slip off Broad and Ian Bell spilled a harder chance off Stokes.

Rogers, caught by Root off Wood on 47, was reprieved when tel-evision replays showed the bowler had over-stepped the crease but fi ve runs later he was brilliantly taken by Root.

Warner skied Stokes to Broad at wide mid-on, Marsh edged the right-armer to Root at third slip and Smith fl ayed Broad to cover point where Stokes held a fi ne low catch.

Clarke scratched around gamely for 13 runs in nearly an hour but he never looked comfortable and edged Wood into the slips where Cook juggled the ball before knock-ing it up for Ian Bell to pouch it.

Voges and Nevill added 50 for the sixth wicket, Nevill surviving after being caught by Cook off a Finn no ball.

But he fell in the fi nal session, trapped lbw by Stokes as he tried to leave a rapid inswinger and John-son edged Stokes to Cook before bad light ended the day’s play. - Reuters

The touring side,

bowled out for 60

on the fi rst morning

of the match, fought

back to trail by 90

runs but England

should fi nish them

off on the third day

to clinch the series

Williamson leads New Zealand to series triumphHARARE: Captain Kane Wil-liamson’s steady knock and an as-sured performance from the New Zealand bowlers saw the tourists secure a 38-run victory in Fri-day’s third one-day international against Zimbabwe and wrap up a 2-1 series win.

Williamson recorded his sixth straight score of 50 or more as his 90 guided New Zealand to 273 for six, and although Zimbabwe’s opening stand gave the World Cup fi nalists a scare, the bowlers held their nerve to restrict the hosts to 235 all out. New Zealand therefore completed a come-from-behind series victory, having lost the fi rst ODI by seven wickets.

“It certainly wasn’t easy today, so the way that the boys stuck in it and put up a competitive total was a really good eff ort,” said William-son, who was named man of the match and man of the series.

“We thought it was a very good total until Zimbabwe came out and played the way they did and put us under a lot of pressure, but full credit to our boys for learning from that fi rst game and pulling it back nicely.”

On a dry wicket, New Zea-land’s batsmen were tested by Zimbabwe’s spin duo of Graeme Cremer and John Nyumbu, who took fi ve wickets between them.

Off -spinner Nyumbu made the initial breakthrough when he dis-missed Tom Latham, and after New Zealand rebuilt to 100 for one, Cremer had Martin Gup-till caught at slip for 42 and then spun one through the defences of Colin Munro.

Williamson added 70 for the fourth wicket with Grant Elliott, but New Zealand were pegged back when Cremer dismissed El-liott for 36, and Williamson was brilliantly caught on the boundary for 90 off Nyumbu’s bowling.

Although James Neesham and Nathan McCullum boosted the New Zealand total with an un-broken stand of 50 from 25 balls, Zimbabwe were on track to chase

down the target when Hamilton Masakadza and Chamu Chibhab-ha put on 97 for the fi rst wicket.

It required a timely interven-tion from Mitchell McClenaghan to pull things back as he bowled Chibhabha for 32, before Ma-sakadza struck a short ball from Williamson straight to deep mid-wicket and departed for 57.

A budding partnership between Craig Ervine and Sean Williams was then snaffl ed out by Ben Wheeler’s sharp fi elding off his own bowling, and although Wil-liams went on to hit 63, McClena-ghan returned to grab two more wickets and fi nish with fi gures of 3 for 36 as New Zealand won com-fortably enough. “Our batting let

us down — I thought it was a rea-sonable score to chase,” Zimbabwe captain Elton Chigumbura said.

“We had the foundation, but my-self and a few other batters failed to put runs on the board. It’s some-

thing we can learn from.”The two teams will meet again at

Harare Sports Club on Sunday for a one-off Twenty20 international, when New Zealand will once again be without Ross Taylor. — AFP

O N E - D A Y S E R I E S

Sri Lanka pick rookie paceman for India series

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s selec-tors on Friday named uncapped fast bowler Vishwa Fernando in a 16-man squad for the three-Test series against India start-ing next week, the cricket board announced. Fernando, 23, who has taken 98 wickets in 34 fi rst-class matches, dismissed India’s Rohit Sharma and Wriddhiman Saha while playing for the Sri Lanka Board President’s XI.

Opening batsman Kusal Perera, a veteran of 48 one-day internationals and 20 Twenty20 matches, was the other player without Test experience to be picked in the squad. Sri Lanka’s batting great Kumar Sangak-kara is due to quit international cricket after the fi rst two Tests.

Test squad: Angelo Mathews (capt), Lahiru Thirimanne, Kaushal Silva, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kumar Sangakkara, Dinesh Chandimal, Upul Tharanga, Jehan Mubarak, Kusal Perera, Rangana Herath, Dilruwan Perera, Tharindu Kaushal, Nuwan Pradeep, Dhammika Prasad, Vishwa Fernando, Dushmantha Chameera (subject to fi tness). - AFP

C R I C K E T

NEW ZEALANDM. Guptill c Masakadza b Cremer 42T. Latham c Cremer b Nyumbu 16K. Williamson c Ervine b Nyumbu 90C. Munro b Cremer 9G. Elliott c Chigumbura b Cremer 36J. Neesham not out 37L. Ronchi c Madziva b Williams 7N. McCullum not out 25Extras (1-b, 8-w, 2-nb) 11Total (6 wkts, 50 overs) 273Fall of wickets: 1-44 (Latham), 2-100 (Gup-till), 3-128 (Munro), 4-198 (Elliott), 5-202 (Williamson), 6-223 (Ronchi).Did not bat: Mitchell McClenaghan, Ben Wheeler, Ish Sodhi.Bowling: Panyangara 9-1-53-0, Madziva 6-0-41-0, Nyumbu 10-0-52-2, Chibhabha 4-0-20-0, Cremer 10-0-44-3, Sikandar Raza 4-0-19-0, Williams 7-0-43-1.

ZIMBABWEH. Masakadza c Wheeler b Williamson 57C. Chibhabha b McClenaghan 32C. Ervine run out 32E. Chigumbura c Guptill b Sodhi 3

S. Williams c Guptill b Neesham 63Sikandar Raza c Neesham b Sodhi 5R. Chakabva c & b McCullum 3G. Cremer run out 14N. Madziva c Neesham b McClenaghan 2T. Panyangara b McClenaghan 7J. Nyumbu not out 1Extras (6-lb, 10-w) 16Total (all out, 47.4 overs) 235Fall of wickets: 1-97 (Chibhabha), 2-105 (Masakadza), 3-114 (Chigumbura), 4-159 (Ervine), 5-172 (Sikandar Raza), 6-177 (Chakabva), 7-212 (Cremer), 8-224 (Williams), 9-232 (Panyangara), 10-235 (Madziva).Bowling: Wheeler 9-1-34-0, McCullum 9-0-47-1, McClenaghan 8.4-0-36-3, Neesham 3-1-16-1, Elliott 5-0-26-0, Sodhi 10-0-47-2, Williamson 3-0-23-1.Toss: ZimbabweUmpires: Richard Illingworth (ENG) and Jeremiah Matibiri (ZIM)TV umpire: Russell Tiffi n (ZIM)Match referee: David Boon (AUS)Result: New Zealand won by 38 runsSeries: New Zealand won the series 2-1

S C O R E B O A R D

CASTLED: New Zealand bowler Mitchell McGlenaghan, left, runs

during the third and fi nal game in the three-match ODI series. – AFP

Australia 1st Innings 60 (S Broad 8-15)England 1st Innings (overnight: 274-4)A. Lyth c Nevill b Starc 14A. Cook lbw b Starc 43I. Bell lbw b Starc 1J. Root c Nevill b Starc 130J. Bairstow c Rogers b Hazlewood 74M. Wood b Starc 28B. Stokes c Nevill b Hazlewood 5J. Buttler b Starc 12M. Ali c Smith b Johnson 38S. Broad not out 24S. Finn not out 0Extras (b-14, lb-2, w-2, nb-4) 22Total (9 wkts dec, 85.2 overs) 391Fall of wickets: 1-32 (Lyth), 2-34 (Bell), 3-96 (Cook), 4-269 (Bairstow), 5-297 (Root), 6-306 (Wood), 7-320 (Buttler), 8-332 (Stokes), 9-390 (Ali)Bowling: Starc 27-2-111-6 (1nb); Hazlewood 24-4-97-2 (3nb, 1w); Johnson 21.2-2-102-1; Lyon 10-1-47-0; Warner 3-0-18-0 (1w)Australia 2nd InningsC. Rogers c Root b Stokes 52D. Warner c Broad b Stokes 64S. Smith c Stokes b Broad 5S. Marsh c Root b Stokes 2M. Clarke c Bell b Wood 13A. Voges not out 48P. Nevill lbw b Stokes 17M. Johnson c Cook b Stokes 5M. Starc not out 0Extras (b-16, lb-15, w-1, nb-3) 35Total (7 wkts, 62.2 overs) 241To bat: J Hazlewood, N LyonFall of wickets: 1-113 (Rogers), 2-130 (Warner), 3-136 (Marsh), 4-136 (Smith), 5-174 (Clarke), 6-224 (Nevill), 7-236 (Johnson)Bowling: Broad 16-5-36-1; Wood 12.2-0-63-1 (2nb, 1w); Finn 12-4-42-0 (1nb); Stokes 16-4-35-5; Ali 6-0-34-0Match position: Australia are 90 runs behind with three wickets standing.Toss: EnglandUmpires: Aleem Dar (PAK), S Ravi (IND)TV umpire: Marais Erasmus (RSA)Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SRI)

S C O R E B O A R D

CHIEF WRECKER: England’s Ben Stokes celebrates after claiming

one of his fi ve wickets. – Reuters

5wickets for 35

BEN STOKES

A12

SPORTSS AT U R DAY, AU G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5

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Ishant claims five as India extend lead in warm-up

COLOMBO: Pacer Ishant Sharma claimed an impressive fi ve-wicket haul to restrict Sri Lanka Board President’s XI to 121 in their fi rst innings as India extended their second innings lead to 342 at stumps on day two of their three-day practice game here on Friday.

Lokesh Rahul (47) and Cheteshwar Pujara (31) were the unbeaten batsmen at stumps on the second day as the visitors scored 112/3 in 40 overs at the R. Premadasa Stadium.

Resuming the day at 314 for 6, Indians added 37 more runs to be fi nally bowled out for 351 as right-arm medium pacer Kasun Rajitha fi nished with fi gures of 5/68.

In reply, the hosts were in disar-ray as Ishant (5/23) dismantled the hosts’ top order to leave them reel-ing at 10 for 5 inside eight overs. There was no chance for the hosts to stage a comeback as some tight bowling by the Indians made life even more diffi cult for the hosts.

Milinda Siriwardana (32), Niro-shan Dickwella (41) and Danushka Gunathilaka (28) somehow man-

aged to help their team cross the 100-run mark.

Spinner Ravichandran Ash-win (2/8) and pacer Varun Aaron (2/42) gave good support to Ishant.

Coming in to bat in the second innings, Indians faced early hic-cups as opener Rohit Sharma (8) and Wriddhiman Saha (1) failed to impress.

Skipper Virat Kohli (18) who came to open the innings yet again struggled to get runs under his belt.

In the fi rst innings, too, he failed, managing just eight.

Indians were reduced to 28/3 in 10.2 overs but from there on Pujara and Rahul held on to take the lead past the 300-run mark and kept the visitors in comfort-able position with a day to go in the warm-up match.

Brief scores: India 351 and 112/3 in 40 overs (Lokesh Rahul 47, Cheteshwar Pujara 31, Vishwa Fernando 2/17) vs Sri Lanka Board President’s XI 121 in 31 overs (Ni-roshan Dickwella 41; Ishant Shar-ma 5/23, R Ashwin 2/8, Varun Aaron 2/42). - IANS

Lokesh Rahul (47) and Cheteshwar Pujara

(31) were the unbeaten batsmen at stumps on

the second day as the visitors scored 112/3

in 40 overs at the R. Premadasa Stadium

IMPRESSIVE: Indian pacer Ishant Sharma scalped fi ve wickets

during the second day of the three-day warm-up match against Sri

Lanka Board President’s XI in Colombo. – AFP

Australia A ease past India ACHENNAI: Following their com-prehensive win against South Africa A in the opener, Australia A drubbed India A by 119 runs to take command and go on top of the standings in the 50-over trian-gular series at the M.A. Chidam-baram Stadium here on Friday.

Opting to bat was the perfect choice for the visitors who, based on a 239-run opening wicket partnership between captain Usman Khawaja (100) and Joe Burns (154), guided themselves to put up a formidable total of 334/4 in 50 overs. In reply, India A succumbed to the ever increas-ing required run rate and folded up for 215 in 42.3 overs.

Khawaja could not have asked for a better start for his side as he with Burns struck the monumen-tal partnership which gave the Australians a brilliant platform to put on a big score on the board, which they eventually did.

While the left-handed Kha-waja hammered three sixes and 10 boundaries, Burns smashed an incredible 14 sixes and fi ve boundaries in his 131-ball in-

nings. Both batsmen had scored half-centuries in their previous match against South Africa A. Towards the end of the innings, wicketkeeper-batsman Matthew Wade also chipped in with an un-beaten 21-ball 34 which included three fours and a six.

India A did not start their chase well, losing four top order bats-men even before reaching the 100-run mark.

Though the hosts maintained a run rate of fi ve runs or more, they kept losing wickets at regular in-tervals which led to their down-fall. Captain and opener Unmukt Chand scored 52 before being bowled while Kedar Jadhav (50) scored a half-century.

Indian-origin Australia A pac-er Gurinder Sandhu (4/28) and leg break bowler Adam Zampa (4/49) both picked up four scalps each to knock out the Indians.

Brief scores: Australia A 334/4 in 50 overs (Joe Burns 154, Usman Khawaja 100) beat India A 215 all out (Unmukt Chand 52, Kedar Jadhav; Gurinder Sandhu 4/28, Adam Zampa 4/49). - IANS

T R I - S E R I E S

JUBILANT: Australia A players celebrating. – PTI

Van Gaal drops ‘problem’ De Gea for Spurs match

MANCHESTER: Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea has been dropped for Saturday’s Premier League opener against Tottenham because he is not fo-cused enough, manager Louis van Gaal says. De Gea’s future at Old Traff ord looks increasingly uncertain amid interest from Real Madrid.

And the Spain international, who has a year to run on his con-tract, “cannot manage the situa-tion”, according to Van Gaal.

The manager refused to say who would play instead, but there is a possibility that Sam Johnstone may be called up for his club debut.

Johnstone, 22, played more minutes on United’s pre-season tour than any of the other four goalkeepers on the club’s books.

Victor Valdes is out of favour af-ter Van Gaal alleged that he refused to play in an Under-21 match, while Anders Lindegaard looks likely to leave on a free transfer.

New signing Sergio Romero, brought in this summer after being released by Sampdoria, is an expe-rienced alternative, having played in last year’s World Cup fi nal and at the recent Copa America for Argentina.

Van Gaal must decide whether he is ready to throw in Romero, who did not play for United at all in pre-season. The manager said: “We have problems with De Gea. I don’t know what the solution is. That’s in progress. But I cannot lead this process. I can only watch and observe. I am not participating in the process. It is not easy for him to manage his situation now.

“He shall not play, so I don’t have any concerns. I think a human be-ing is more than only a player, and he cannot manage that situation.”

Asked if that meant Romero

would start, the manager said: “You will have to wait and see.”

Van Gaal has held back from sending Johnstone, 22, out on loan to Preston as he considers his op-tions. The Championship side have instead brought in Jordan Pickford on loan from Sunderland.

Johnstone, a former England Under-20 international, has gained experience in the lower divisions during loan spells at Scunthorpe, Walsall, Yeovil, Don-caster and Preston. The dropping of De Gea has come after he dis-appointed Van Gaal with an error during United’s fi nal pre-season match, against Paris Saint-Ger-main in Chicago on July 29.

De Gea was involved in a mix-up with Phil Jones and Luke Shaw, which allowed Blaise Matuidi to score PSG’s second goal in a 2-0 win.

It was only the Spain interna-tional’s second appearance for United in pre-season, having re-covered from a hamstring injury sustained against Arsenal in May.

Van Gaal also indicated that his squad has been left light on at-tacking threat following Argentina winger Angel Di Maria’s £44.3 mil-

lion (63 million euros, $68.9 mil-lion) move to Paris Saint-Germain.

The manager said: “It is a big loss. When I say I want more at-tackers with speed and creativity,

Di maria is one of those players.“We have to look for that player.

They have to have the talent to cope with the English rhythm and this is diffi cult to fi nd.” - AFP

E N G L I S H P R E M I E R L E A G U E

FUTURE UNCERTAIN: Manches-

ter United goalkeeper De Gea.

LONDON: Chelsea kick off their Premier League title defence against Swansea on Saturday fretting that Diego Costa’s injury problems could hamper their bid to remain England’s pre-eminent force.

Costa’s 20 goals in 26 league appearances were crucial as Jose Mourinho’s side took an early grip on last season’s title race that they never relinquished.

But concerns about the Spain striker’s fi tness became a recurring theme throughout the campaign and it frequently took the brilliance of Eden Hazard to make up for the side’s diminished attacking threat whenever Costa was absent.

And the sight of Costa

limping out of a recent friend-ly with Barcelona followed by his enforced absence from last weekend’s Community Shield prompted fresh con-cerns that the former Atletico Madrid star’s problems have not yet gone away.

Chelsea manager Mour-inho has stuck by his policy of operating with a squad that includes just three strikers, with Radamel Falcao arriv-ing on loan from Monaco to join Loic Remy as back-up to Costa after Didier Drogba moved to Montreal Impact.

Mourinho has not ruled out the possibility of Costa facing Swansea when the champions return to action at Stamford Bridge. - AFP

Costa injury woes threaten to hamper Chelsea’s title defence

Arsenal must start well: Wenger

LONDON: Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has targeted a good start to the new Premier League campaign beginning this weekend, after dropped too many points early on last season.

Five draws and a defeat in the fi rst eight games left them 11 points behind the leaders Chel-sea, who they fi nished 12 points adrift of in third place.

An improved second half of the season also brought them the FA Cup for the second suc-cessive year and Wenger knows they must establish momentum from the start this time.

“We’re ready for the fi ght and motivated to start well,” he told a news conference ahead of Sun-day’s opening game against Lon-don rivals West Ham United.

“One of our targets is to start strongly. We had a good prepa-ration, which should give us more confi dence.”

“The Premier League (means) fi ghting every single game so we have to prepare ourselves men-tally for that and come pout of the blocks straightaway against West Ham,” Wenger added. — AFP

F O O T B A L L

Man United drawn to face Club Brugge play-off s

NYON: Manchester United were given a kind draw in the Champions League play-off s as they were paired with Belgians Club Brugge on Friday.

The three-time former winners, making their return to Europe’s premier club competition after a one-year hiatus, will play the fi rst leg at their Old Traff ord home.

In other pairings, Spaniards Valencia, fi nalists in 2000 and 2001, drew 2004 fi nalists Mo-naco of France while the clash of the round sees Italians Lazio up against Germany’s Bayer Lev-erkusen, beaten fi nalists in 2002.

United failed to qualify for Eu-ropean competition last season having fi nished seventh in the English Premier League in 2014 under former coach David Moyes.

But Louis Van Gaal led them to fourth in the table last season, giving them the chance to earn a place back in the Champions League, a competition they last won in 2008 during a run of three fi nals in four seasons (the last be-ing a defeat to Barcelona in 2011).

Draw: Astana (KAZ) v APOEL (CYP); Skenderbeu (ALB) v Dinamo Zagreb (CRO); Celtic (SCO) v Malmo (SWE); Basel (SUI) v Maccabi Tel-Aviv (ISR); BATE Borisov (BLR) v Partizan Belgrade (SRB); Lazio (ITA) v Bayer Leverkusen (GER); Manchester United (ENG) v Club Brugge (BEL); Sporting Lisbon (POR) v CSKA Moscow (RUS); Rapid Vienna (AUT) v Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR); Va-lencia (ESP) v Monaco (FRA).

First legs to be played August 18/19, second legs on August 25/26. - AFP

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

Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger.

BMARKE

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COMS AT U R DAY, AU G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5

BANK OF ENGLAND HINTS AT EARLY 2016 RATE HIKEBank of England (BoE) pointed to a possible rise in interest rates early next year as just one of its top policymakers backed an immediate move and it said the strength of sterling meant infl ation would only pick up slowly. >B2

Smile! Emoji is now taking over advertisingPARIS: Everyone speaks emoji, and now advertisers do too.

Catching on to the digital era’s cross-cultural language of choice, advertisers have learned to speak emoji in a world where promo-tional videos are ignored and ad banners are blocked.

Tiny digital pizza and French fries icons, and pictures of ani-mals and planes are being used to advertise fast food, airlines and even NGOs.

Emoji characters have become at least as pervasive as smart-phones, and users are moving away from communication plat-forms that allow advertising to-wards networks that don’t, said Marie Dolle, a digital media con-tent specialist at Kantar Media.

Online advertising campaignsIn their online advertising cam-paigns, the World Wildlife Fund charity and Domino’s Pizza have tapped into the bank of emoji icons universally approved by the Unicode Consortium, the non-profi t group that develops and maintains digital standards.

In May, McDonald’s— a pioneer in emoji advertising— launched its own digital stickers package that allows users to insert pic-tures of Big Macs, sundaes and chicken nuggets into their What-sapp, Facebook Messenger or text messages. Disney and Dura-

cell have commissioned Feeligo, a Paris-based start-up, to create their brand stickers. Last winter, Duracell’s iconic pink bunny was shared 20 million times.

Swedish low-cost homewares giant Ikea also launched an emoji range depicting its products ear-

lier this year, from furniture to the meatballs sold in its cafeterias.

‘Less aggressive’ than ads Emoji advertising is just as much about communication and having a sense of humour as it is about branding. “Stickers have to rep-resent emotions. A logo doesn’t work by itself,” said Feeligo co-founder Davide Bonapersona, whose campaigns have spread to several European countries and which often cost clients less than traditional formats.

“Depending on the target, we are looking at 20,000 to 100,000 euros ($22,000 to $110,000),” Bonapersona said. US-based Sw-yft Media and Asian messaging apps Line and WeChat share this growing niche market with Feeli-go. The latest advertising trend is mainly logo-free, giving emoji us-ers on both ends of the chat more freedom. “Users are saturated with publicity,” Dolle said, adding that many people use free soft-ware that blocks pop-up advertis-ing to keep their screens unclut-tered by ad banners and videos.

Emoji is “less aggressive, it’s not intrusive. We give them playful tools that they can choose wheth-er or not to use.

This contributes to making people love the brand and share it in their conversations,” she added.

France’s state-owned postal service La Poste has also launched its own stickers in the shape of personalised stamps to celebrate special days in users’ lives, such as the birth of a child or a wedding.

Major successThe campaign has proved a major success, with the digital stamps seen by users more than nine mil-lion times, said Rassem Belhouad-jeb, a member of La Poste’s digital marketing team.

“We exceeded our goal eight times over,” he said.

But emoji campaigns may do little to keep brands’ foes at bay, as a prank by a graffi ti artist in the British city of Bristol showed this summer. The artist had some fun with one of McDonald’s bill-boards, embellishing it with a vomiting emoji. — AFP

C O M M U N I C A T I O N P L A T F O R M S

US employment in July picks up, wages rebound

WASHINGTON: US employ-ment rose at a solid clip in July and wages rebounded after a surprise stall in the prior month, signs of an improving economy that could open the door wider to a Federal Reserve interest rate hike in September.

Nonfarm payrolls increased 215,000 last month as a pickup in construction and manufacturing

jobs off set further declines in the mining sector, the Labour Depart-ment said on Friday.

The unemployment rate held at a seven-year low of 5.3 per cent.

Payrolls data for May and June were revised to show 14,000 more jobs created than previously reported. In addition, the aver-age workweek increased to 34.6 hours, the highest since February, from 34.5 hours in June.

Eventual lift-off “If you thought that the Fed was going to go in September, this report would suit that thematic nicely. I don’t think anything has changed in that regard. I think it’s another step toward the eventual lift-off ,” said Tom Porcelli, chief US economist at RBC Capital Markets in New York.

US stock index futures and prices for shorter-dated US

Treasuries were trading lower after the data. The dollar rose to a two-month high against the yen and fi rmed versus the euro.

The swaps market was pricing in a 52 per cent chance of a Sep-tember rate hike, up from 47 per cent before the jobs data. Though hiring has slowed from last year’s robust pace, it remains at double the rate needed to keep up with population growth.

The Fed last month upgraded its assessment of the labor mar-ket, describing it as continuing to “improve, with solid job gains and declining unemployment.”

Average hourly earningsAverage hourly earnings in-creased fi ve cents, or 0.2 per cent, last month after being fl at in June.

That put them 2.1 per cent above the year-ago level, but well shy of the 3.5 per cent growth rate economists associate with full employment.

Still, the gain supports views that a sharp slowdown in com-pensation growth in the second quarter and consumer spending in June were temporary.

Economists had forecast non-farm payrolls increasing 223,000 last month and the unemploy-ment rate holding steady at 5.3 per cent. Wage growth has been disappointingly slow. In addition, a number of retailers, including Walmart, the nation’s largest pri-vate employer, Target and TJX Cos have increased pay for hourly workers. - Reuters

Nonfarm payrolls

increased 215,000

last month as

a pickup in

construction and

manufacturing

jobs off set further

declines in the

mining sector, the

Labour Department

said on Friday

Apple helps to push US watch sales to biggest drop in seven years

WASHINGTON: US watch sales fell the most in seven years in June, one of the fi rst signs Apple’s watch is eroding demand for tradi-tional timepieces.

Retailers sold $375 million of watches during the month, 11 per cent less than in June 2014, ac-cording to data from NPD Group.

The 14 per cent decline in unit sales was the largest since 2008, according to Fred Levin, head of the market researcher’s luxury division. “The Apple Watch is go-ing to gain a signifi cant amount of penetration,” he said on Thursday in a phone interview.” The fi rst couple of years will be diffi cult for watches in fashion categories.”

The market for watches that cost less than $1,000 is most at risk, as consumers in that price range have indicated they’re the most likely to buy an Apple Watch, Levin said. Sales of watches cost-ing between $50 and $999 regis-tered drops in June, the biggest being a 24 per cent decline in time-pieces from $100 to $149.99, ac-cording to NPD’s data.

Lower-priced fashion brands suff ered as retailers and depart-ment stores off ered more dis-counts due to those products’ “saturation” with consumers, Levin said. That category includes brands such as Timex, Guess, Burberry and Tissot. “In the short term, brands at accessible price points are going to have to think very seriously,” he said.

‘Ice age’Apple’s refusal to say how many smartwatches it has sold has in-vestors and analysts relying on guesswork to estimate sales.

Harder yet is gauging the impact on the $50 billion Swiss watch market.

Elmar Mock, one of the inven-tors of the Swatch, said in March that Apple may cause an “ice age” for the four- century-old industry.

The computer maker has al-ready shaken up the music market with its iTunes software, while its iPhone supplanted Nokia Oyj’s dominance. Apple had ear-lier introduced three models of its smartwatch in April, with prices ranging from $349 for the most basic version to $17,000 for an 18-karat gold model. - Bloomberg News

T E C H N O L O G Y

Iran helps India sidestep China in the race for Asian gas richesNEW DELHI: Anyone looking for the biggest immediate im-pact from Iran’s nuclear deal may want to turn away from the Mid-dle East and toward the Indian subcontinent.

With US sanctions easing, In-dia is racing to build a port in Iran that will get around the fact that its land access to energy-rich for-mer Soviet republics in Central Asia has been blocked by China and its ally Pakistan.

“We’re seeing the latest mani-festation of the Great Game in Central Asia, and India is the new player,” said Michael Kugel-man, a South Asia expert at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.”It’s had its eyes on Cen-tral Asia for a long time.”

While the world focuses on what Iran’s opening means for Israel and Arab nations, the rami-fi cations are also critical for Asia.

Closer Iran-India ties would al-low New Delhi’s leaders to secure cheaper energy imports to bolster

economic growth and reduce the infl uence of both China and Paki-stan in the region.

The six nations that make up Central Asia hold at least 11 per cent of the world’s proven natural gas reserves, as well as substan-tial deposits of oil and coal, ac-cording to data compiled by BP.

Afghanistan says its mineral wealth is valued at $1 trillion to $3 trillion. “Iran can off er us an alternative route to Central Asia,” Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jais-hankar said in Singapore on July 20.” The resolution of the nuclear dispute and lifting of sanctions will allow our agenda of energy and connectivity cooperation to unfold seriously.”

‘Alternative route’India can be the fi rst country to benefi t from the deal in Asia, an Iranian diplomat told reporters in New Delhi this week.

Iran was seeking billions of dollars in investment from India for ports, railways and airports,

the diplomat said, asking not to be identifi ed due to government rules. Even before the deal to end sanctions was clinched, India reached an agreement to upgrade the Iranian port of Chabahar on the Arabian Sea.

Two Indian state-run compa-nies — Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and Kandla Port Trust — have plans to invest $85 million to upgrade two berths.

On a fi ve-nation Central Asian tour last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi backed an ambi-tious transit route through Iran that would eff ectively connect Europe to India by a series of sea, rail and road links.

Currently, cargo from India has to go by air or take a detour through the Suez Canal.

In a dry run on the alternative routes last August, the results showed that transit time from In-dia’s fi nancial capital of Mumbai could be more than halved to as short as 16 days and would slash costs by 70 per cent. - Bloomberg News

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

DIGITAL STICKERS: In May, McDonald’s launched its own digital

stickers package that allows users to insert pictures of Big Macs,

sundaes and chicken nuggets into their Whatsapp, Facebook Mes-

senger or text messages. - Bloomberg fi le picture

RIGHT MIX: This July 2015 fi le photo shows a cook as he prepares an order for a customer at a

restaurant in New York. The US unemployment rate held steady at 5.3 per cent in July, a seven-year

low, while job growth slowed a bit, Labour Department data released on Friday. - AFP

– Bloomberg News

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B2

MARKETS AT U R DAY, AU G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5

Bank of England’s governor hints at early 2016 rate hike

LONDON: Bank of England (BoE) pointed to a possible rise in interest rates early next year as just one of its top policymak-ers backed an immediate move and it said the strength of sterling meant infl ation would only pick up slowly.

The pound fell sharply and in-vestors briefl y pushed back their bets on a fi rst rate hike until June next year, before BoE Governor Mark Carney said the Bank was getting closer to beginning to undo its stimulus for Britain’s economy.

“The likely timing of the fi rst Bank Rate increase is drawing

closer,” he told reporters. “How-ever the exact timing of the fi rst move cannot be predicted in ad-vance...in short, it will be data-dependent,” he said after the BoE for the fi rst time published its quarterly economic forecasts and details of its latest policy discus-sions on the same day.

Interest rates slashedThe BoE slashed interest rates to 0.5 per cent in the depths of the fi -nancial crisis in 2009 and has kept them there since.

With the economy now recov-ering strongly and wages fi nally

rising more quickly, speculation is growing about when it might start to wean Britain off low rates, mir-roring the debate at the US Fed-eral Reserve.

Carney warned investors that they might be too relaxed about the path, or ‘curve’, that they are predicting for rates. He pointed out that the Bank was forecast-ing that infl ation would start to overshoot its two per cent target in just over two years’ time, based on predictions in the market for a fi rst BoE rate hike in the second quarter of next year.

“The market curve does not

deliver a sustainable return of infl ation to target, because there is an overshoot,” he said. In an in-terview with the Mirror newspa-per, Carney declined to say there was now no chance of a rate hike in 2015.”I would be crazy to rule anything out or to rule anything in,” he said. Three weeks ago, Car-ney said the decision when to hike interest rates would likely come into “sharper relief” around the end of the year. He emphasised on Thursday that this was his own view and that it had not changed.

Several economists said they continued to predict a rise in the fi rst three months of 2016.

Vote surpriseInvestors were taken by sur-prise earlier on Thursday when the Bank said just one of its nine policymakers — Ian McCaff erty— had voted for a rate hike at their August meeting, which ended on Wednesday. Most economists in a Reuters poll had expected two or even three members of the Mon-etary Policy Committee to vote for a rate hike.

The 8-1 result prompted mar-kets to push out their bets on a fi rst rate hike into mid-2016.

McCaff erty, a non-staff mem-ber of the MPC, backed rate hikes

last year along with his colleague Martin Weale.

They both rejoined the fold in January as oil prices tumbled.

As Carney spoke on Thursday, the bets on a June 2016 rate hike were quickly reined back in. Jason Simpson, a Societe Generale rate strategist, said: “The message is clear: rates need to rise. Not yet, but they need to go up and every infl ation report is one step closer to that.” Few economists think the BoE is likely to move before the Federal Reserve, which is expect-ed to raise rates this year, in large part because it would further push up the value of sterling.

Focus on sterlingThe Bank stressed how a recent strengthening of the pound and a renewed fall in oil prices would push down infl ation until at least the middle of next year and said the impact of the rise in sterling could persist even longer.

Carney made it clear, however, that a strong currency was no re-placement for eventual rate hikes.

In a sign of how the debate on the MPC may develop, some of its members saw a risk that infl ation could pick up more strongly than the central forecast, the Bank of England said. — Reuters

Bank of England

Governor Mark

Carney said the bank

was getting closer to

beginning to undo its

stimulus for Britain’s

economy

Bank of Japan

chief opens door

to more stimulus

TOKYO: The head of the Bank of Japan (BoJ) said on Friday that he would consider pulling the trigger on more stimulus if weak oil prices keep holding back infl ation.

BoJ chief Haruhiko Kuroda said Japan’s economy was perking up, and the bank held off expanding its record 80 trillion yen ($640 bil-lion) annual asset-buying scheme following a two-day meeting.

But the country’s near-zero in-fl ation rate is far below the BoJ’s 2.0 per cent target, a cornerstone of eff orts to boost the world’s num-ber three economy and conquer years of defl ation. “We would con-sider adjusting policy if oil rates aff ect price trends and impact on underlying price movements,” Kuroda told reporters. “But that is not the situation right now.

We will continue to watch oil price trends and see how they in-fl uence underlying price move-ments.” A glut of crude oil supply is seen as the main driver for a sharp decline in oil prices that has seen crude fall about 50 per cent from mid-2014 levels.

Last month, Japan’s central bank, Bank of Japan, cut its eco-nomic growth and infl ation fore-casts, fuelling speculation that it would soon expand its easing scheme, aimed at boosting prices and kick-starting growth. — AFP

E C O N O M Y

US refi ners fi nd current oil market ideal to boost outputLONDON: Low crude prices and strong demand for gasoline are creating near-perfect conditions for oil refi neries across the Unit-ed States, especially those geared towards maximising gasoline production. Valero, the country’s largest independent refi ner, made a gross margin of more than $13 on every barrel of oil processed in the second quarter, and a net mar-gin of almost $8.50, both the high-est since 2007.

Enormous profi tabilityLittle wonder then that Valero’s share price has climbed to the highest level since December 2007. The enormous profi tability of turning crude into gasoline has incentivised refi ners to run fl at out since the start of the year. The volume of crude processed by US refi neries last week hit a record 17.1 million barrels per day (bpd), 680,000bpd above the prior-year

level and almost 1.5 million bpd above the 10-year seasonal aver-age. But strong consumption has absorbed all the extra gasoline production, and motor fuel stock-piles remain moderately tight.

Gasoline consumption has av-eraged more than 9.5 million bpd over the last four weeks, accord-ing to the US Energy Informa-tion Administration (EIA), which is almost half a million barrels above the 2014 level.

Stocks are just 217 million bar-rels, less than three million bar-rels, or 1.3 per cent, above last year’s level. But if stocks are ad-justed for the higher rate of con-sumption in 2015, they stand be-low both the prior-year level and 10-year average.

Gasoline stocks are currently equivalent to just 22.7 days worth of consumption, the lowest sea-sonal level since 2008.

Low stocks explain why the

gross margin for turning crude into gasoline remains at 50 cents per gallon or more, some of the fattest margins in the last decade.

Mid-distillate surplusThe side-eff ect of making so much gasoline has been a surge in production of middle distillates used as road diesel, home heating oil and jet fuel.

Refi ning margins for middle distillates have been sliding since February and are now well under 50 cents per barrel versus WTI and under 40 cents per barrel ver-sus Brent.

So far this year, stocks of distil-lates have remained only 10-20 million barrels higher than in 2014, as refi ners have turned to export markets. Distillates and jet fuel are plentiful, which will keep margins in the middle of the bar-rel under pressure unless there is a cold winter. - Reuters

C R U D E S U P P L I E S

Allianz profi t rises by 15%

MUNICH: Allianz, Europe’s biggest insurer, said second-quarter profi t rose 15 per cent, spurred by earnings from prop-erty and casualty.

Net income increased to 2.02 billion euros ($2.2 billion) from 1.76 billion euros a year earlier, the Munich-based company said Friday. That compared with an average estimate of 1.79 billion euros of 10 analysts sur-veyed by Bloomberg.

Natural catastrophesInsurers have benefi ted from a decline in natural catastrophes in the second quarter, as pres-sure on prices and low interest rates held back revenue.

Lower catastrophe claims helped second-quarter profi t at Allianz’s property and casualty division increase 39 per cent to 1.34 billion euros.

In property and casualty “all profi t components contributed to the strong growth, including investment and underwriting results as well as the net gain from the sale of the Fireman’s Fund personal insurance busi-ness,” Chief Financial Offi cer Dieter Wemmer said in the statement.

The fi rm confi rmed its out-look for 2015 operating profi t, saying it will now be at the up-per end of the range at 10.8 bil-lion euros. - Bloomberg News

S E C O N D - Q U A R T E R R E S U L T

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney . — Bloomberg News

PRODUCTION BOOST: Valero, the country’s largest independent refi ner, made a gross margin of more

than $13 on every barrel of oil processed in the second quarter, and a net margin of almost $8.50,

both the highest since 2007. — Bloomberg fi le picture

B3S AT U R DAY, AU G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5

MARKET

China eyes signalling business as a new frontier in rail technology push

BEIJING: Chinese aren’t resting on their laurels in their quest to dominate the global rail-technolo-gy industry: They’ve also set their eyes on the high-margin signalling business.

China Railway Signal & Com-munication Corp. made its listing debut on Friday in Hong Kong af-ter raising HK$11 billion ($1.4 bil-lion) in an initial public off ering that values the company at about HK$55.1 billion. Shares rose 0.3 per cent on Friday to HK$6.32.

The state-owned company said it will use about 20 per cent of the proceeds from its IPO on domestic and overseas acquisitions, while spending an unspecifi ed portion on “long- term” research and de-velopment.

“China’s ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative is bound to benefi t the company, helping them to start ex-panding their overseas business,” said Jay Huang, a Sanford Bern-stein analyst in Hong Kong.

He was referring to a develop-

ment framework the Chinese gov-ernment unveiled in October 2013 that aims to build new economic links retracing the ancient Silk Road trading route.

Fundraising eff ortThe Beijing-based fi rm’s fund-raising eff ort comes amid a major push to market Chinese railway technology overseas, especially in emerging markets.

Rail was listed in March as one of 10 focus industries in a blueprint

to make China into an advanced industrialized economy, with the government using railroad compa-nies to win lucrative contracts and project political infl uence abroad.

High Margins State-owned CSR Corp. and China CNR Corp. com-bined in May to form CRRC Corp., a train equipment maker that dwarfs rivals Siemens and Alstom.

The merger aimed to create economies of scale to help China compete more aggressively for overseas rail deals.

On Friday, CRCC High-Tech Equipment Corp., a Chinese mak-er of large railway track mainte-nance machines, also fi led pre-listing documents with the Hong Kong stock exchange.

China Railway Signal’s trans-portation control system enables automatic control of train speed and of the spacing between trains, improving safety and effi ciency, Bernstein’s Huang wrote in an Au-gust 5 note. The business uses ad-vanced technology, has high mar-

gins and off ers moderate growth potential over the next fi ve years, he said. Other rail-signal makers have been expanding market share recently. In February, Tokyo-based Hitachi agreed to buy Finmec-canica’s rail business and a signals affi liate, its largest overseas acqui-sition ever. The bulk of Hitachi’s deal was for Finmeccanica’s sign-aling business, Ansaldo STS. Sie-mens and Alstom also have been expanding in that market in the past three years, seeking to cap-ture lucrative service and replace-ment contracts.

Safety concernsOverseas business accounted for only 4.4 per cent of China Railway Signal’s gross profi t last year, but the company’s prospectus says profi t margins on overseas seg-ments are almost 32 per cent, bet-ter than on its domestic railway and urban transit businesses.

A July 2011 high-speed rail crash near the city of Wenzhou killed 40 people. The accident was blamed on mismanagement and design fl aws on the trains.

China Railway Signal said it was among the responsible par-ties, as it made the control-system equipment that malfunctioned and caused the accident. In its pro-spectus, the company said it had taken steps to rectify any failures and improved internal control mechanisms. — Bloomberg News

China Railway

Signal &

Communication

Corp. made its listing

debut on Friday in

Hong Kong after

raising $1.4 billion

in an initial public

off ering that values

the company at

about HK$55.1

billion. Shares rose

0.3 per cent on

Friday to HK$6.32.

Google, Samsung to issue monthly security fi xes for Android phonesLAS VEGAS: Google and Sam-sung Electronics will release monthly security fi xes for An-droid phones, a growing target for hackers, after the disclosure of a bug designed to attack the world’s most popular mobile op-erating system. The change came after security researcher Joshua Drake unveiled what he called Stagefright, hacking software that allows attackers to send a special multimedia message to an Android phone and access sensi-tive content even if the message is unopened.

Need to move faster“We’ve realised we need to move faster,” Android security chief Adrian Ludwig said at this week’s annual Black Hat security con-ference in Las Vegas.

Previously, Google would de-velop a patch and distribute it to its own Nexus phones after the discovery of security fl aws.

But other manufacturers would wait until they wanted to update the software for diff erent reasons before pushing out a fi x, exposing most of the more than one billion Android users to po-tential hacks and scams until the fi x. Ludwig also said Google has made other security changes.

In an interview, he told Reuters that earlier this year the team broke out incidence rates of mali-cious software by language.

The rate of Russian-language Androids with potentially harm-

ful programs had spiked sudden-ly to about 9 percent in late 2014, he said. Google made its roughly weekly security scans of Russian phones more frequent and was able to reduce the problems to close to the global norm.

Pressure on manufacturersLudwig said improvements to re-cent versions of Android would limit an attack’s eff ectiveness in more than nine out of 10 phones, but Drake said an attacker could keep trying until the gambit worked. Drake said he would release code for the attack by August 24, putting pressure on manufacturers to get their patch-es out before then. Nexus phones are updated with protection this week and the vast majority of ma-jor Android handset makers are following suit, Ludwig said.

Samsung Vice-President Rick Segal acknowledged that his company could not force the tel-ecommunications carriers that buy its devices in bulk to install the fi xes and that some might do so only for higher-end users.

“If it’s your business custom-ers, you’ll push it,” Segal said in an interview. Samsung is the largest maker of Android phones.

Ludwig said many Android se-curity scares were overblown.

He further added that only about one in 200 Android phones Google can peer into have any potentially harmful applications installed at any point. - Reuters

M O B I L E O P E R A T I N G S Y S T E M

HTC shares plunge to decade low on loss forecast of fi ve times estimateTAIPEI: HTC shares plunged by the daily limit after its forecast for a loss fi ve times the average of estimates spurred analysts to slash their valuations of the stock. Shares slumped 10 per cent to NT$63 in Taipei on Friday, clos-ing at their lowest in more than a decade.

The smartphone maker’s third-quarter loss will be NT$5.51 to NT$5.85 per share, compared with the NT$1.17 per share loss esti-mated by analysts. Its sales fore-cast given Thursday is as much as 48 per cent below estimates.

HTC plans to cut staff , reduce spending and slim down its prod-uct catalog as cheaper phones from Huawei Technologies Co. and competition from Samsung Electronics further erode its mar-ket share.

Founder, Chairwoman and Chief Executive Offi cer Cher Wang has stated she won’t con-sider mergers, even as the com-pany fell off the global list of top 10 phone makers.

Multiple model strategy“HTC’s multiple model strat-egy in the past year did not work as planned,” JPMorgan Chase analyst Narci Chang wrote in a note.“HTC’s current business model needs a signifi cant makeo-ver.” Chang cut his target on the stock by 55 per cent to NT$45, joining analysts from Credit Sui-sse Group, UBS and Daiwa Se-curities Group in reducing price estimates. None of the 29 analysts who actively cover HTC have a buy rating on the stock.

Sales this quarter will be NT$19 billion ($600 million) to NT$22

billion, the company said, com-pared with estimates for NT$36.8 billion.

Revenue at the bottom end of that range would be the lowest in a decade when fi gures were report-ed at the parent level.

HTC will change its product strategy to produce fewer models over longer time intervals while focusing on a greater share of industry profi ts instead of ship-

ments, Chief Financial Offi cer Chang Chialin said on Thursday.

Cost reductionsCost reductions will start this quarter, with the result of those cuts refl ecting in the three months through March, he said.

“It’s going to result, unfortu-nately, in a sort of, like a headcount reduction in some of the areas that we don’t think the resources are

appropriately matched,” Chang said Thursday at a media briefi ng.

There’ll be no one-time non-op-erating items this period, he said.

Thursday’s forecast came after the Taoyuan, Taiwan-based com-pany in June cut its sales guidance for that quarter by 35 per cent and wrote off NT$2.9 billion in idled assets, citing slowing demand for high-end smartphones and weaker China sales. - Bloomberg News

P E R F O R M A N C E

NEW TARGET: Zhiliang Zhou, chairman of China Railway Signal & Communication Corp. (front), speaks during the company’s listing cer-

emony at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in Hong Kong, — Bloomberg News

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PICTURE IMPERFECT: HTC plans to cut staff , reduce spending and slim down its product catalog as

cheaper phones from Huawei Technologies Co. — Bloomberg fi le picture

B4

FEATURES AT U R DAY, AU G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5

As fi erce competi-tion leads to rapid innovation in the smartphone mar-ket, hackers have pounced on cracks in defences of devel-opments on devices at the heart of mod-

ern lifestyles, experts say.Smartphones have become

increasingly targets for cyber criminals as people cram the gadgets with troves of personal information and go on to use them for work.

“Mobile devices are taking a bigger place in businesses and in our lives,” Avi Bashan of Tel Aviv based cyber defence fi rm Check Point Software Technol-ogies told AFP on Thursday at a Black Hat computer security conference in Las Vegas.

“As more people use them for more things, attackers gain interest.”

Check Point has seen attacks rise during the past three years on the world’s leading mobile operating systems - Apple iOS and Google-backed Android, according to Bashan.

Check Point researchers at Black Hat revealed a vulner-ability that allows hackers take over Android smartphones by taking advantage of a tool pre-installed that was intended to give tech support workers remote access to devices.

“It eff ects every version of Android,” Check Point mobile threat prevention director Ohad Bobrov said.

The hack can be triggered by tricking a smartphone user into installing an application rigged to reach out and connect with the pre-installed support tool, Bobrov explained.

In some cases the hack can be accomplished by sending a text message that a recipient doesn’t even have to open, he warned.

The text message tricks a smartphone into thinking it is connecting with a legitimate support technician remotely when it is actually linking to an online server commanded by a hacker.

“I need your phone number and that is it,” Bashan told AFP.

Bobrov said the fl aw in An-droid software architecture has been disclosed to Google and smartphone makers.

Dealing with Stagefright The Check Point revelation came a week after cyber secu-rity fi rm Zimperium warned of a “Stagefright” vulnerability in the world’s most popular smartphone operating system that also lets hackers take con-trol with a text message.

Zimperium research senior director Joshua Drake took a stage at Black Hat to discuss Android code at the heart of the problem.

Stagefright automatically pre-loads video snippets at-tached to text messages to spare recipients from the annoyance of waiting to view clips.

Hackers can hide malicious code in video fi les and it will be unleashed even if the smart-phone user never opens it or reads the message, according to Drake.

Stagefright imperils some 95 per cent, or an estimated 950 million, of Android phones, ac-cording to the security fi rm.

Zimperium reported the problem to Google and pro-vided the California Internet fi rm with patches to prevent breaches.

Updates have started hitting Android devices, according to Drake.

Computer security fi rm Secunia on Thursday said about 80 vulnerabilities were discovered in Apple mobile operating software so far this year and about 10 were found in Android.

“There has been a big boom in mobile,” Drake said.

“When there is a big boom, people take a lot of shortcuts, when you take shortcuts you build up a lot of technical debt.”

Mobile operating system makers who raced ahead now have to backtrack to squash bugs, some of which are ex-posed by good-guy hackers.

Check Point’s Bashan sees it as a case of smartphone rivals moving so fast to add features and improvements that innova-tion trumped security at times in the process.

“The operating systems developed so quickly,” Bashan said.

“And when you develop quickly, some things get devel-oped badly.” - AFP

MOBILEINNOVATIONS

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM

FamilySECTIONB L I F E STY L E S AT U R DAY, AU G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5

All ABOUT POOL

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FAMILIES, SOME

OF THE MOST

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BEFORE YOU DIVE

INTO THE FUN,

CHECK OUT THESE

TIPS ON HAVING

SAFE SPLASH-TIME

1

23 4

6SUN SAFETY

Sunburns can cause a lot more than just an embarrass-ing red appear-ance on the skin; they can be the source of severe pain, fever and even dehydration. In fact, just one sunburn during childhood can increase the risk of develop-ing skin cancer. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, multiple events of extreme sunburn for individuals age 18 and younger can contribute to the devel-opment of melanoma.

The sun’s harsh rays can also aff ect your appearance later in life, causing prema-ture ageing and wrinkling of the skin.

For babies 6 months of age or younger, keep their sensitive skin out of sunlight completely.

COVER UP YOUR BABYDoctors recom-mend that you avoid applying sunscreen on infants younger than 6 months, so always keep your baby’s arms and legs covered in airy, light-coloured garments. Dark colours absorb heat, while lighter hues re-fl ect it, keeping baby cooler.

Look for shirts and swim wear made from sun-protective fabrics. These garments are especially great if your kids spend a lot of time outdoors in the summer Add a wide-brimmed hat or ball cap and sunglasses toprotect your baby’s eyes.

SLATHER ON SUNSCREEN

Apply sunscreen at least every 2 hours and pay attention to the product’s expiration date as the active ingredients can lose their ef-fectiveness over time.

Individuals with sensitive skin should seek a hypoallergen-ic, chemical-free formula with zinc oxide or titanium oxide with an SPF of 15 or higher.

If you use a chemical-based sunscreen, always test on a patch of skin fi rst.

LEARNTHE RIGHT STROKES

Swimming is a lot of fun, but drowning is a real danger. In fact, drowning is the second most common cause of accidental deaths among kids around the world. To keep kids safe this summer enrol them in swim-ming lessons. Many people lack basic swim-ming skills, and enrolling chil-dren in swim-ming lessons at a young age will help reduce the risk of accidents and drowning.

USE THE “BUDDY” SYSTEM

Don’t allow children to swim alone. Drowning is si-lent, and it hap-pens quickly. Always have a responsible adult watching while children are either in or out of the pool.

Keep your pool areas tidy when not in use. Cleaning up pool toys after play can help lessen the temptation of children to enter the pool area unsuper-vised.ccidental

ths among s around the ld. To keep

s safe this mmer enrol

m in swim-g lessons.

ny people k basic swim-

g skills, and olling chil-n in swim-g lessons at ung age will

p reduce the of accidents drowning.

Chlorine is the main sanitizer of your pool (and drinking water), and the more people in your pool, the more chlorine you may need.

Don’t assume “salt water” pools are better or easier.

What people call “salt water” pools are still chlorine pools; the salt chlorine generator just makes chlorine on-site.

Both tradi-tional chlorine and “salt water” pools contain chlorine.

Some people believe pools with salt chlo-rine generators are maintenance free — but this is untrue, and ne-glecting things can lead to pool problems.

No matter what kind of pool you have, it needs to be tested every day.

TEST YOUR WATER

Whether your pool uses tradi-tional chlorine or is equipped with a salt chlo-rine generator, make testing it a top priority, especially when your pool is used frequently.

Make sure to read and follow the product label instructions closely when dealing with pool chemicals. Proper dosing of pool chemicals is important for swimmer comfort.

Always test the water and make sure the free chlorine level never falls below 1 parts per million (ppm).

3 FACTS

ABOUT “SALT

WATER” POOLS

While there are plenty of options available for pool owners, there are many opinions about pools equipped with salt chlorine generators and traditional chlo-rine pools. Check out these facts to learn more, and to decide which best fi ts your family’s needs:

In a “salt wa-ter” pool, chlo-rine is produced by a salt chlorine generator rather than adding chlorine to the pool directly. A “salt water” pool is still being sani-tised by chlorine. So, a “salt water” pool is a chlorine pool.

The same amount of chlo-rine is required to maintain a “salt water” pool as a traditional chlorine pool.

“Salt water” pools require the same mainte-nance functions and still must be checked and balanced regularly, just like a traditional chlorine pool.

—Family Features

5

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Atlas Pharmacy, Ghubra 24503585

Muscat Region

Apollo, Al Hamriya 24787766

Muscat, A Seeb Market 24421691

Muscat, Al Khuwair 24485740

Muscat, Al Hail South 24537080

Dhofar Region

Muscat, Al Nahdha Road,

Salalah 23291635

HOSPITALS

Al Amal Medical & Health Care

Centre 24485052

Atlas Hospital

Ruwi 24811743/

Ghubra 24504000

Al Musafir Specialised

Medical Clinic 24706453

Hatat Polyclinic LLC,

Ruwi 24563641

Azaiba 24499269

Sohar 2683006

Al Raffah Hospital 24618900/1/2

Al Massaraat Clinic &

Laboratory 24566435

Al Makook Medical

Coordinance Centre 24499434

Apollo Medical Centre,

Hamriya 24787766, 24787780

Capital Polyclinic 24707549

Badr Al Samaa Polyclinic,

Ruwi 24799760/1/2

Capital Clinic, Seeb 24420740

Ceregem National Raak 24485633

Dr Harub’s Clinic 24563217

Elixir Health Centre 24565802

Emirates Medical Centre 24604540

1st Chiropractic Centre 24472274

Hamdan Hospital 23212340

International Medical

Centre LLC 24794501/2/3/4/5

Kims Oman Hospital 24760100

24 Hrs Emergency 24760123

Lama Polyclinic, Sohar 26751128

MBD 24799077

Al Khuwair 24478818

Magrabi Eye and

Ear Hospital 24568870

Muscat Private Hospital 24583600

Welcare Diagnostic and Treatment

Centre, Al Khuwair 24477666

Al-Hayat Polyclinc LLC 22004000

AIRLINE OFFICES

Muscat Airport Flight information

(24 hours) 24519456/24519223

Aeroflot 24704455

Air Arabia 24700828

Air France 24562153

Air India 24799801

Air New Zealand 24700732

Biman Bangladesh Airlines 24701128

British Airways 24568777

Cathay Pacific 24789818

Egypt Air 24794113

Emirates Air 24404400

Ethiopian Airlines 24660313

Gulf Air 80072424

Indian 24791914

Iran Air 24787423

Japan Airlines 24704455

Jazeera Airways 23294848

Jet Airways 24787248

Kenya Airways 24660300

KML Royal Dutch Airlines 24566737

Kuwait Airways 24701262

LOT Polish Airlines 24796387

Lufthansa 24796692

Malaysian Airlines 24560796

Middle East Airlines 24796680

Oman Air 24531111

Pakistan International

Airlines 24792471

Qatar Airways 24771900

Qantas 24559941

Royal Jordanian 24796693

Saudi Arabian Airlines 24789485

Singapore Airlines 24791233

Shaheen Air 24816565

SriLankan Airlines 24784545

Swiss International

Airlines 24796692

Thai Airways 24705934

LISTINGS

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

CINEMA SCHEDULE

FROM MUSCAT (RUWI)

Dept Destination Arrival Operatingtime time days

QURIYAT - SUR - JAALAN (ROUTE 36)

15:00 Quriyat 16:30 Daily

15:00 Sur 18:00 Daily

15:00 Jaalan 19:30 Daily

TO AL BURAIMI (ROUTE 41)

06:30 Sohar 08:50 Daily

06:30 Buraimi 11:00 Daily

08:00 Buraimi 14:30 Daily via Ibri

13:00 Sohar 15:45 Daily

13:00 Buraimi 17:40 Daily

16.00 Sohar 18.35 Daily

16.00 Buraimi 20:20 Daily

TO SINAW (ROUTE 52)

17:30 Sinaw 20:50 Daily

TO YANQUL (ROUTE 54)

14:30 Nizwa 16:50 Daily

14:30 Yanqul 19:30 Daily

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (ROUTE 54)

08:00 Nizwa 10:20 Daily

08:00 Al Araqi 12:30 Daily

TO SUR (ROUTE 55)

07:30 Sur 12:00 Daily

14:30 Sur 18:45 Daily

TO FAHUD - YIBAL (ROUTE 62)

06:30 Fahud 10:30 Daily

06:30 Yibal 11:15 Daily

TO MARMUL-SALALAH (ROUTE 100)

07:00 Salalah 20:00 Daily

10:00 Marmul 20:30 Daily

10:00 Salalah 23:30 Daily

19:00 Salalah 07:40 Daily

TO MARMUL (ROUTE 101)

06:00 Marmul 16:50 Daily

SALALAH TO DUBAI (ROUTE 102)

15:00 Dubai 07:00 Daily

TO DUBAI (ROUTE 201)

06:00 Sohar 08:30 Daily

06:00 Dubai 11:30 Daily

13:00 Sohar 15:30 Wed,Thur

13:00 Dubai 18:30 Wed,Thur

15:00 Sohar 17:35 Daily

15:00 Dubai 20:55 Daily

TO DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH & SHARJAH (ROUTE 204)

07:00 Fujairah 11.45 Daily

07:00 Sharjah 13.30 Daily

07:00 Dubai 14.00 Daily

CITY CINEMAContact (10 am to 6pm) 24567664 | 68. www.citycinemaoman.net facebook.com/citycinemaoman

SHATTI

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2D)(Action, Adventure) (PG12)Cast: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Jeremy Renner 11:30am, 1:45, 6:30, 9:00, 11:30 pmEXISTS (Horror)(15+)Cast: Samuel Davis, Dora Madison5:00, 11:45 pmTHE GIFT (Mystery, Thriller)(12+)Cast: Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, 3:00, 6:45 pmCOP CAR (Thriller)(12+)Cast: Kevin Bacon, Shea Whigham, Camryn11:15 am, 2:00, 7:45 pmINSIDE OUT (Animation)(2D) PGVoice Overs: Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Lewis1:00 pmINSIDE OUT (Animation)(3D)PG3:45, 5:45 pmAnt Man (3D)(Action, Adventure) (PG12)Cast: Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Corey Stoll4:15, 9:30, 11:45 pmAnt Man (2D)(Action, Adventure) (PG12)11:30 amBAJRANGI BHAIJAAN (Drama)(PG)Cast: Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, 8:45 pm

MUSCAT GRAND MALLInside Out 3D (Animation) (PG)Voice Overs: Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Lewis12:45PM, 5:00PMGold Class: 2:00PMInside Out 2D (Animation ) (PG)10:45AMCop Car 2D (Thriller) (12+)Cast: Kevin Bacon, Shea Whigham, Camryn2:15PMEldonia Ma2looba 2D (Comedy) (12+)Cast: Bassem Samra, Ola Ghanem, Ahmed7:00PM

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation 2D (Action, Adventure, Thriller ) (PG12)Cast : Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Jeremy11:45AM, 4:00, 9:30, 11:55PMGold Class: 11:30AM, 4:00, 8:45, 11:15PMAnt-Man 3D (Action) (PG12)Cast : Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Corey Stoll11:45PM; Gold Class: 6:30PMAnt-Man 2D (Action, Sci-Fi ) (PG12)2:45PMDrishyam 2D (Drama, Mystery) (PG12)Cast : Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Shriya Saran6:30PMMinions (3D) (Animation, Comady) (PG)10:00AMBajrangi Bhaijaan (2D) ( Action ) (PG)8:45PM

AZAIBAMission: Impossible - Rogue Nation – 2D (PG12) (Action, Adventure, Thriller)Cast: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Jeremy11:45 AM, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30, 11:55 PMBajrangi Bhaijaan - 2D (PG) (Drama, Action)3:45, 8:30 PMInside Out – 3D (PG) (Animation, Adventure) 2:00, 4:00 PMInside Out – 2D (PG) (Animation, Comedy)

12:00 PMThe Gift – 2D (12+) (Mystery, Thriller) Cast - Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, Joel12:45, 6:45 PMBangistan – 2D (Comedy)Cast: Jacqueline Fernandez, Rajesh Sharma, Riteish Deshmukh2:45, 8:45 AMIdhu Enna Maayam (Tam) – 2D (Romantic) Cast: Vikram Prabhu, Keerthy Suresh, Kavya6:00 PMExists – 2D (15+) Horror Cast: Samuel Davis, Dora Madison, Roger5:15, 11:45 PMCop Car – 2D (12+) Thriller Cast: Kevin Bacon, Shea Whigham, Camryn 2:00, 6:45 PMAnt-Man – 2D (PG12) Action, Sci-Fi 11:45 AMAnt-Man – 3D (PG12) ActionSci-Fi 2:45, 11:30 PMSrimanthudu (Telugu) - 2D (TBC) ActionCast - Shruti K. Haasan, Mahesh Babu, 8:45, 11:15 PM

RUWISCREEN 1Bangistan (Comedy) – TBC

Cast: Riteish Deshmukh, Pulkit Samrat3.30 PMBajrangi Bhaijaan (Action/Drama ) – PG6.30 PMDrishyam (Thriller/Drama ) – PG129.30 PM

SCREEN 2Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (Action, Adventure, Thriller) – PG 12Cast: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg1.00, 7.00, 10.00 PMDrishyam (Thriller/Drama ) – PG124.00 PM

SCREEN 3Baahubali: The Beginning (Action) 12+1.00, 4.00, 7.00 PMBajrangi Bhaijaan (Action/Drama ) – PG 10.00 PM

SOHARBajrangi Bhaijaan - 2D (PG) Drama, Action8:30 PMBaahubali - 2D (Hindi) (12+) Action4:00 PMAnt-Man- 2D (PG12) Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi 4:15 PMAnt-Man- 3D (PG12) Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

7:00, 11:30 PMDrishyam- 2D (Hindi) (PG12) Drama, Thriller9:00 PMMission: Impossible - Rogue Nation - 2D (PG12) Action, Adventure, Thriller11:30 AM, 2:00, 4:30, 6:00, 9:15, 11:45 PMInside Out - 3D (PG) Animation, Adventure, 12:30, 2:15, 4:00 PMCop Car - 2D (12+) Thriller Cast: Kevin Bacon, Shea Whigham, Camryn2:35, 11:55 PMThe Gift - 2D (12+) Mystery, ThrillerCast: Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, Joel2:00, 9:30 PMBangistan - 2D (TBC) ComedyCast: Jacqueline Fernandez, Riteish 11:30 AM, 6:30 PMIdhu Enna Maayam - 2D (TBC) Romantic, Cast : Vikram Prabhu, Keerthy Suresh, Kavya6:45 PM Srimanthudu - 2D (Telugu) (TBC) ActionCast : Shruti K. Haasan, Mahesh Babu11:30 AM, 11:30 PM

BURAIMIMission Impossible: Rogue Nation - 2D3:00, 4:45, 7:15, 9:20, 11:45PM (Action) (PG12)Ant Man - 3D (Horror, Thriller) (PG12)

5:00, 7:15, 11:30PMInside Out - 3D (Animation, Comedy) (PG)3:00, 5:20PMCop Car - 2D (Thriller) (12+)3:00, 9:45PMThe Gift- 2D (Mystery, Thriller) (12+)7:00, 11:45PMBajrangi Bhaijaan - 2D (Drama, Action) (PG)9:00PM

SURMission Impossible - Rogue Nation (Action / Adventure / Thriller) (PG12)12:15, 4:30, 9:15, 11:45 PMCop Car (Thriller) (12+) 2:45, 9:45 PMANT MAN (3D) (Action / Sci-Fi) (PG12) 7:00 PMInside Out (3D) (Animation) (PG) 1:00, 3:00, 5:00 PMBajrangi Bhaijaan (Hindi) (Action ) (PG) 11:30 PMDrishyam (Hindi) (Action) (PG12) 6:50 PM

SALALAH

Mission: Impossible- Rogue Nation (2D) 11:55AM, 2:00, 9:30, 11:30, 11:55PM (PG12) Ant-Man (2D)(PG12) (Action/ Sci-Fi ) 10:00AM Ant-Man (3D)(PG12) (Action/Sci-Fi ) 4:20/9:15PMInside Out (3D)(PG) (Animation/Comedy) 12:10/4:50PMInside Out (2D)(PG) (Animation/Comedy) 10:00AMCop Car (2D)(12+) (Thriller) 10:15AM/ 8:40 PMBajrangi Bhaijaan (2D) (PG) (Drama/Action) 6:30/11:45PMExists (2D) (15+) (Horror) Cast: Samuel Davis, Dora Madison, Roger2:45/ 10:15PMEldonia Ma2looba (2D)(12+)(Arabic) Cast: Bassem Samra, Ola Ghanem, Ahmed4:15PMBangistan (2D)(TBC) (Comedy) 6:45PMDrishyam (2D)(PG12)(Hindi) (Drama) 11:45AMWrong No. (2D)(PG)(Urdu) (Romantic) Cast Javed Sheikh, Danish Taimoor, Nadeem 2:15PMIdhu Enna Maayam (2D)(PG)(Tamil) (Romantic); 6:00PM

BAHJA CINEMAFilm information 24540856 / Advance

Booking 24540855

Website: www.albahjacinemaoman.com

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation 2D (Action, Adventure, Thriller) (PG12)Cast: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Jeremy11.30am, 2.00, 4.30, 7.00, 9.30 & 11.55 pm

CP No: 1894 (PG12)

COP CAR (Thriller)

Cast: Kevin Baccon, Shea Whigham, Camryn

11.30 am, 3.15 & 10.15 pm

CP No: 1895 ( 12+ )

THE GIFT ( Horror/Thriller)

Cast: Jason Bateman, Rebecca Hall, Joel

1.15 & 6.30 p.m.

CP No: 1896 (12+)

EXISTS ( Horror )

Cast: Samuel Davis, Dora Madison Burgue

5.00 & 11.55 p.m.

CP No: 1897 ( 15+ )

The Night Crew ( Action/Thriller)

Cast: Danny Trejo, Jason Mewes, Luke Goss

8.30 pm; CP No: 1886 (15+)

STAR CINEMAFilm information 24791641 / 24786776

Website: www.isurf.co.om

Baahubali (Tamil) (Action)

10-00 Pm Cinema Main, 3-45 & 6-45 Pm

Cinema-3

Idhu Enna Maayam (Tamil) (Drama)

3-30, 6-30 & 9-30 Pm Cinema -2

Drishyam (Hindi) (Drama)

6-45 Pm Cinema -4

Srimanthudu (Telugu ) ( Act )

Cast: Mahesh Babu & Shruthi Hassan

3-00 & 6-30 Pm Cinema Main;

9-45 Pm Cinema -3

Acha Din (Mal) (Drama/Act)

3-45 & 9-45 Pm Cinema -4 (From Friday)

(Programmes are subject to change)

TO MUSCAT (RUWI)

Dept Destination Arrival Operatingtime time days

FROM JAALAN-SUR-QURIYAT (ROUTE 36)

05:30 Sur 06:45 Daily

05:30 Quriyat 08:30 Daily

05:30 Ruwi 10:00 Daily

TO AL BURAIMI (ROUTE 41)

07:00 Sohar 08:55 Daily

07:00 Ruwi 11:40 Daily

13:30 Ruwi 20:20 Daily via Ibri

13:00 Sohar 14:55 Daily

13:00 Ruwi 17:40 Daily

13:00 Sohar 19:20 Daily

17:00 Ruwi 22:15 Daily

TO SINAW (ROUTE 52)

07:00 Ruwi 10:25 Daily

TO YANQUL (ROUTE 54)

06:00 Nizwa 08:40 Daily

06:00 Ruwi 11:00 Daily

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (ROUTE 54)

15:40 Nizwa 17:55 Daily

15:40 Ruwi 20:20 Daily

TO SUR (ROUTE 55)

06:00 Ruwi 10:45 Daily

14:30 Ruwi 19:00 Daily

TO YIBAL - FAHUD (ROUTE 62)

12:30 Fahud 13:15 Daily

12:30 Ruwi 17:30 Daily

TO SALALAH -MARMUL (ROUTE 100)

07:00 Ruwi 19:50 Daily

10:00 Marmul 13:15 Daily

10:00 Ruwi 22:30 Daily

19:00 Ruwi 07:30 Daily

TO MARMUL (ROUTE 101)

06:00 Marmul 16:30 Daily

DUBAI TO SALALAH (ROUTE 102)

15:00 Salalah 07:00 Daily

TO DUBAI (ROUTE 201)

07:30 Sohar 10:50 Daily

07:30 Ruwi 13:40 Daily

13:00 Sohar 16:15 Thur-Fri

13:00 Ruwi 19:10 Thur-Fri

15:30 Sohar 18:45 Daily

15:30 Ruwi 21:35 Daily

FROM DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH/SHARJAH (ROUTE 204)

16:00 Sharjah 16:30 Daily

16.00 Fujairah 18.15 Daily

16.00 Ruwi 23.00 Daily

11:15 am, 2:00, pm, 7:45 pm 6:45 pm 11:45am, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30, 11:55pm

@MGM @SHATTI @SOHAR @AZAIBA

COP CAR (Thriller)(12+)Cast: Kevin Bacon, Shea Whigham, Camryn Manheim

12:45 pm, 5:00 pmGold Class: 2:00 pm

INSIDE OUT (Animation)(3D) PGVoice Overs: Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Lewis

Idhu Enna Maayam - 2D (TBC) Romantic, Cast : Vikram Prabhu, Keerthy Suresh, Kavya

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation 2D (Action) (PG12)Cast: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson

CHILDREN BELOW THE AGE OF 3 YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED IN THE CINEMA | BOX-OFFICE COUNTER OPENS 30-MINUTES PRIOR TO THE SCREENING OF THE FIRST SHOW

WEATHER

350

Maximum

320

Minimum

TEMPERATURE

55-85%RELATIVE HUMIDITY

Send us a colour photograph of the child (below 16 years) whose birthday you are celebrating, along with his/her full name, date of birth, address, telephone number and parents’/your name to Times of Oman, With Love, PO Box 770, PC 112, Ruwi or through e-mail to extra@timesofoman.com

NARMIN KHAN August 8, 2011

SIDRA SALEEM August 7, 2013

WITH LOVE

LIFESTYLEB7S AT U R DAY, AU G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5

ACROSS

1 Climber’s challenge 4 Package sealer 8 Strike callers12 Regret13 Garfield pooch14 Orchid-loving Wolfe15 Seine vista16 Took back18 Bantu people20 Celts, to Romans21 — — step further23 Foul up24 Mascara target27 BMW, e.g.29 Hung on to33 Gigantic34 Tony-winner — Hagen35 Gleeful cry36 Mlle. in Barcelona38 HBO receivers39 Buffalo’s lake40 Social insect42 Large deer44 Reserve, as a table46 Auspices50 It can’t be beet? (2 wds.)54 High card55 Advantage56 Mr. Griffin of game shows57 Driver’s peg58 Take a break59 Diva — Gluck60 Clairvoyance

Crossword Puzzle

Q u e s t i o n s & A n s w e r s

It’s better not to argue with...

My friends

If I had treasures I would

hide them...It’s secret

One thing that puts me off ...

When I get shouting

One movie/book I can watch/

read over and over again...

Entertainment

When I’m in doubt...

I ask my friends

If I met an alien I would...

Talk to him as my best friend

One person I would trade

places with (real or fi ctional)

Mother Teresa

I go crazy when...I get a puppy

The scariest thing that I have done...

Watching horror movies at night

The best way to my heart is...

Smile

If I win a lottery...I would donate

If I have to describe myself

as a fl avour it would be...Chocolate

If I could go back in history,

I would like to meet...

Mahatma Gandhi

Send your contributions to lifestyle@timesofoman.com. A good quality photo is compulsory. Lifestyle reserves the right to publish

the contributions.

ATHIRA RAMACHANDRAN

DOWN

1 Phoenix loc. 2 Doozie 3 Potato skin 4 Upper body 5 Lemony drink 6 Cherry seed 7 Poet’s “always” 8 Serve the bubbly 9 Give out10 Co. honcho11 Pregrown lawn

17 It’s south of Eur.19 Yecch!22 Sharp, as hearing23 Get the lead out?24 Deli units25 Mammal’s need26 Noncom28 Off-road vehicle30 Flair for music31 — Beta Kappa32 — kwon do37 Most capable

39 Barely scrape by41 Publishing execs43 Cocoon dweller44 Strong and healthy45 Burden47 Fence opening48 Sherbets49 Leak slowly50 ER practice51 Ms. Thurman52 Toothpaste choice53 Chair option

AN

SWER

TO

PR

EVIO

US

PUZ

ZLE

Mrs Iyer was busy packing her suitcase.“Mummy, why are we going to In-

dia now when the holidays are over?” 12-year-old Subhasini enquired. Mrs Iyer looked at her daughter aff ectionately and went on to explain.

“I know this is not the right time for you to go as you will miss school, but I have to sign some im-portant documents back home. It’s just for 15 days. I have informed your class teacher. She has assured me she will help you to catch up with the missing lessons once you are back,” she said.

Subhasini, was a student in one of the Indian schools in Muscat. She didn’t feel like going back to India, but she knew she had no choice. She forced a smile and went on to help her mother fi nish packing.

The next day they boarded their fl ight from Seeb International Air-port to Kochi and later went to Man-nar, a small town in Kerala.

“Mannar is famous for its bronze, you get vessels, lamps, and bells made out of bronze,” Mrs Iyer said to her while they were waiting at the bus stop in Mannar.

Subhasini looked around the overcrowded bus when it came.

“Mom, how are we going to get in,” she asked in dismay. She didn’t like the way people crammed in. She made a big fuss about the noise, the crowd and the overall bus journey.

“Be patient. We will reach soon,”

Mrs Iyer assured her. With the clouds closing in fast it took anoth-er hour before they reached home where a host of relatives were anx-iously waiting for them.

Mrs Iyer was giggled with delight when she saw her cousin, Gayatri, whom she hadn’t met for long time standing among the crowd.

Gayatri hugged Subhasini and her mother, then ushered them to their room.

“Mom! I am feeling so hot. It’s extremely humid here. Where’s the AC? I can’t bear this anymore,” Sub-hasini whined.

Mrs Iyer worriedly looked at her daughter, aghast at her behaviour.

“They do not have an air condi-tioner here and moreover I don’t think it’s that hot. Go and freshen up. You will feel better,” she said sternly.

Subhasini wanted to retort but she stopped herself, sensing that her mother was annoyed.

The whole night she tossed and turned on the bed thinking about how she would be able to spend the next 15 days without an AC. The next morning she got up hearing the chirping of the birds.

“Oh mom, can you please close the window. I can’t sleep,” she mur-mured.

“Oh Subhasini, just see how beautiful it is outside. Birds chirp-ing in the early morning spark so much freshness,” she said excitedly. After an hour Subhasini got out of

bed and headed to the dining table for her breakfast. She was hungry. She hadn’t eaten properly the night before because she’d found the cur-ry too spicy. She hoped breakfast would be nice.

“I will eat toast and scrambled eggs,” she announced. Gayatri, was busy in the kitchen making dosa, but popped her head out when she heard her.

“Subhasini, there is no egg. No one eats egg here. I will arrange it for you, but not today. It has start-ed raining and I can’t send the servant as he would get drenched just trying to reach the bus stop,” she explained.

“What! I can’t have breakfast without eggs,” Subhasini said loudly. “Why can’t the servant go in the car?” she asked.

“We do not have a car here Sub-hasini. There used to be one but it was sold off ,” Gayatri said.

“You all don’t have a car?” Sub-hasini snorted rudely.

Gayatri’s eyes widened. She si-lently went back to the kitchen.

The whole day Subhasini contin-ued grumbling at small things: The weather, the dust, the food, the bed — she always found a reason to grum-ble. She looked at the calendar and wished the days would fl y past.

She continued pouting as the days crept by. Then one day she looked at the calendar and realised that there were just two days left be-fore they were to return.

Mrs Iyer wasn’t happy with the way her daughter had behaved, but instead of scolding her she de-cided to take her for a tour of the town in one last eff ort to make her feel better.

The hustle and bustle at the main market initially deterred Subhasini but once inside, she was delighted to see colourful bangles, clips, and hair bands. She shopped and shopped for herself and her friends.

On their way home Mrs Iyer took her through the backwaters and Subhasini found herself falling in love with the scenic beauty of the place. “I have never seen such a beautiful place. No wonder Kerala is called God’s own country,” she said to her mother.

Mrs Iyer smiled, pleased that her daughter was fi nally enjoying something.

As they got into the bus Sub-hasini spotted few children waving at her. It started drizzling and Sub-hasini suddenly felt tear drop form-ing in the corner of her eye.

“I’m sorry for making things so diffi cult, mum,” she said, turning to her mother. Mrs Iyer aff ectionately looked at her.

“My dear, there’s nothing wrong with complaining sometimes, but the thing about complaints is that they can distract you from all the small pleasures in life. But grati-tude can help you fi nd reasons to smile even in the toughest times.” — swati@timesofoman.com

STORYTIME

By Swati Dasgupta

Look on the Bright Side

One skill I would like to learn...

Volleyball

Omani Sunny Days

STORYTIME

By Swati Dasgupta

Mug shot by cdur

B8

LIFESTYLES AT U R DAY, AU G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5

LIFESIDRA MUSHEERClass VIIIIndian School Sohar Life is just a four letter word,Experienced by people all over the world.Life isn’t a game for some, While the rest say, ‘let’s have some fun!’Some say, it’s just a test taken by GodWhereas others wanna live it even by having energy, Enough only to nod.

As children, we love playing blindfold,But call it lame once we get a little old.As teens we love listening to music soaring,And call the most breaking news boring.Once we’re adults, all we do is chitter - chatterNot realising you’re wet in the rain’s pitter - patter.

Hearts thumping we point to our chests,Now as oldies, sick in our beds.Here I lie in the hospital, with relatives crying their eyes out.And a doctor telling them, I’m in a coma,Not ready to get out of.

Now do I realise,Life has its fall and rise.So I’m determined and unstoppable.Getting out of bad situations, Is most likely probable.Hence, I just embrace life, giving a friendly jabKnow what, life is fab.

All the words below appear in the puzzle - horizontally, vertically,

diagonally, even backward. Find them and circle their letters.

The leftover word spells the Teleword.

How to playFill empty cells with the numbers 1 to 9, so that each number appears once in each row, column and area.

Answer to previous puzzle

SOLUTION

O E O E Y D N I K K K M L I FH P T U T S W S C H O O L L ER O P A T O I O A Y O I U A RS L M O E D R X P T R B N U RE E A E R R O W T F B R C G IL N K M P T C O A E N E L H SI O T O P S U M R H E U E A EB L S B J O E N B S L N B R LO A A U T R O M I N G I U V DM J F L I C S N A T A O C A NO O K C O N N E S J I N K R AT H A M I E M E N A C E C D CU N E A D C H I C A G O S Y EA D R I L L B I T C L A S S RY T B E E T H O V E N P I N K

TelewordSudoku

Children’s PoetryArt for the Ages

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P. M . Jishnu, Grade 7, ISWK

Alone, American, Automobiles, Beethoven, Brat Pack, Breakfast, Candles, Chicago, Class, Club, Comedy,

Create, Dennis, Drillbit, Ferris, Film, Flubber, Glenbrook, Harvard, Hefty, Home, James, John, Jokes, Kind,

Lampoons, Laugh, Menace, Nancy, Opportunities, Outdoors, Pink, Planes, Pretty, Reunion, Rock, School,

Sixteen, Trains, Uncle Buck, Wrote. Answer: Writer

CLUE: JOHN HUGHES SOLUTION: 6 LETTERS

Advaith Rajesh, Grade 1, ISWK

Adithya Sainath, Grade 7, ISM

Amal Mariya Joji, Grade 7, ISS

Meera Prasanth, Grade 2, ISM

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

CONNECT H E D A I LY G U I D E

C

C4 VACANCY CARGO C7

S AT U R D AY, A U G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5

RENT C2

*Classifi ed Advertisement space booking with text, should be done till 12.00 noon

for next day’s publication. * Subject to space availability

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com classifi eds@timesofoman.comTel.: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461

FOR RENT

3BR villa, sitting, dining & hall,

Azaiba behind Al Meera H- Market.

Contact: 99259977 / 95033008

1BHK, Darsait, walking distance to

ISM , neat and clean building, ground

fl oor, OMR 260/- per month rent

Call IQRAR on 99076557

3 BHK Flat in Azaiba. Contact 99792181

1 BHK Flat in Honda Road (Ruwi).

Contact 99792181

1 & 2 BHK Flat in Al Khuwair.

Contact 99792181

4 & 5 BHK villa for rent in

Al Khuwair. Contact 99792181

840 sqr mtrs Store & Staff accom-

modation for Rent in Misfah.

Contact 99792181

Flat for rent near Al Nahdha Hospi-

tal in Hamriya. Contact: 97380548 /

99680499

Flats, shops & store for rent in rent

MBD Honda road. Contact: 97293708

/ 92433127

2BHK with Split AC. AL-KHUWAIR

Near MARS HYPERMARKET –

92880107

Villa 2 bedrooms + hall + sitting

room in Al Hail South R.O 300/-

Monthly. Contact: 93993354

C2 S AT U R D AY, A U G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5

1bedroom in Al Hail South RO 150/-

monthly. Contact: 93993354

1BHK R.O 190/- & 2BHK R.O 240/-

near Medical Darsait. Contact

98748925

3 BHK Flat in Al Khuwair 33.

Contact 99792181

Well maintained spacious 2 BHK at

Rex Road. Contact: 92227165

2BHK & 1BHK fl ats available

in Darsait. Contact : 99357586 /

97500025

DAILY GUIDE

For rent new apartment in Al

Mawaleh close to Al Bahja Center

consisting of 3 bedrooms, 1council,

kitchen, hall, 3 bathrooms, 1 com-

puter room, parking for car. Contact:

93214010 / 92602050

For rent in South Al Hail 1 bedroom,

sitting room, bathroom, kitchen, bal-

cony, car parking 175/- R.O Monthly.

Contact: 92602050 / 93214010

Room attached, bath room, kitchen in

Muscat O.R 65/-. Contact: 98049086

One & two bedroom apartment

available for rent, at South Ghubra

near Atlas hospital next to Diwan’s

Offi ce. Contact: 99833747

Flats for rent near Indian School in

Wadi Kabir. Contact 99777122

1BHK, 2BHK, 3BHK new fl at available

at Mabela in front of Modern English

School Contact: 96239126 Fully furnished 3 BHK accommo-

dation with all spacious rooms in a

villa at Darsait near ISD.

Contact: 9526 5289 / 9604 8422

Furnished room for rent at

Al Khuwair R.O 225/- for family only.

Contact: 99251975

3BHK , 3 bathrooms, 2 balconies,

nr. Al Hassan, W/ Kabir 330/- R.O.

Contact: 99384640

Villa for rent in Al Khuwair 33, 8

bedrooms, 5 bathrooms with parking

area near Taimur Mosque. Contact:

99366624

2 BHK Apartment for rent near MSQ

area. Contact 93193109.

2 & 3 BHK big Flats with Big hall,

Kitchen & new split ACs at Al

Khoudh 6, Close to express way,

from owner. Tel 97600322

alnehang@gmail.com

Readymade offi ce space for rent

(100sm) in Bank Melli Iran building,

MBA area Ruwi opposite Center

Point. Contact: 99011352

Flat for rent in Wadi Al Kabeer be-

hind Muscat club. # 92222922

2 BHK Flats for rent in Muttrah near

Oman house. Contact: 97009734 /

92629232

2BHK near Oman house behind

Khimji H.O. Contact: 95865686

Flats for rent at Darsait near to Min-

istry of Sports. Interested candidates

please Contact : 00968-92225523

Spacious 2BHK Flat with Split

A/c’s behind Sultan Center, Azaiba –

RO.425/- p.m. Contact: 99824803 /

99849325

2BHK fl at available behind Majan

College / Darsait. Contact 24705742

We have 2BHK fl at in Mabella 7

for family. Contact: 93782735 /

99208033

We have 2BHK, fl ats available in

Ghala for families, staff & Execution.

Contact: 93782735 / 99208033

We have 2 BHK fl ats in AL Khuwair

near Rawasco, can use as offi ce or

for families. Contact: 93782735 /

99208033

We have offi ces in Ghala new

building aff ordable price. Contact:

93782735 / 99208033

We have 230 sqm showroom in

Ghubra main road, prime location

suitable for wholesale business or

bank or insurance company.

Contact: 93782735 / 99208033

We have 5 BHK villa in Al Khuwair

can use as commercial or residence

villa with large sitting hall , 5 rooms,

6 toilets & kitchen with 2 cars park-

ing. Contact: 93782735 / 99208033

We have 2 BHK fl ats in Ghubra 18th

November near new Mars hypermar-

ket, fl at with 2 rooms, large sitting

hall, kitchen & 3 bathrooms.

Contact: 93782735 / 99208033

We have 1BHK fl at in Wadi Kabir

good price. Contact 93782735 /

99208033

We have shop for rent in Al Khuwair

near Rawasco prime location.

Contact: 93782735 / 99208033

We have small building for rent in

Bowsher suitable for staff accommo-

dation & store building have

4 fl ats & 1 shop commercial building.

Contact: 93782735 / 99208033

DAILY GUIDES AT U R D AY, A U G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5 C3

FOR SALE

MOTOR VEHICLE FOR SALE

Mitsubishi 10 ton, truck 2006 model

for sale. Registration valid.

Contact: 99366474

Honda Accord 2010, 10,5000 kms,

expat lady driven, dealer maintained,

new tyres. Contact 99330509

Honda CRV 2008 model, expat driv-

en, 2.4L, 78000 kms, OMR 5200/-

(Negotiable). Contact: 99867670

Touareg 2011 Oman cars, 114000

KM, silver, 8500/-R.O.

Contact 92857111

Hyundai Tuscon 2.4 Full option

(including Moon roof) for sale in

Muscat, Model 2013 , Single Owner

(University Lecturer) driven, 39,600

kms, in excellent condition, for sale.

Contact 99653760.

Mazda 3, 2007 KM 1,43000, full

automatic R.O 1900/-.

Contact 99781671

Prado ,2012. Contact : 99336093

Land Cruiser 2012. Contact

99336093

Sportage, 2013. Contact:99336093

ACC. AVAILABLE

ACC. AVAILABLE

FOR RENT

FOR RENT

Furnished room for Indian Bachelor

in Al Falaj area (Ruwi) & Lady in

Wadi Kabir (near Al Maya).

Contact 96761960

Sharing accommodation available

with Kerala family, nr. Wadi Kabir

Indian School. Contact 95882866 /

96575016

Furnished single /sharing room for

EXE bachelor at Rex Road near Ka-

mat with WIFI. Contact 92873832

Room with A/C, independent toilet &

sharing kitchen (4th fl oor) for Indian

Ex. Bachelor near Majestic hotel,

Wadi Kabir. Contact: 99242984

New rooms available in Seeb for

couple / ladies only. # 96996938

Sharing accommodation available

for a family near Ruwi Church.

Contact: 92308110 / 92837206

Furnished single room attached

bath in Mumtaz area. #95212017

Acc available single room with attach

bathroom, kitchen at Mabella near

BP Petrol Pump rent R.O 100/- near

Indian School. Contact: 91516775

Fully furnished room for a decent

expatriate. independent kitchen,

bathroom in Wadi Adai.

Contact 96243086 at 5p.m.

AVAILABLE

Party & Wedding equipment rentals.

Full line, from Tables, Linen & Skirting,

Chairs & Chair covers, Cutlery, Crock-

ery, Glassware, Chafi ng Dishes, Ice

Sculptures, to Large Sound Systems

and spectacular lighting. Call Andrea

9606 2222 for Catering and Croyden

9623 5555 for Sound & Light.

www.tunesoman.com,

E-mail: info@tunesoman.com

Running Polyclinic, 20 yrs, with

VISAMEDICAL, available for

SALE/LEASE. Contact.94596677 /

99343280

Workshop sale / rent Full fl edge

workshop for / sale at prominent

location at Misfa near Cement fac-

tory around 900 sq meter along with

tools, equipments and manpower.

Also 5 Nos Volvo / Mercedes /

Man /Putsmiester concrete pump

2004/2005 model for sale. Contact:

93681107 / 96051565 / 98541936

Ice Cream & Juices shop Ruwi good

location for sale suitable for beauty

parlor also. Contact: 92150455

Wall papers, grass carpets sale

& fi xing. Contact: 99834373 /

96642500

Ladies beauty Saloon for sale at

Amerat on prime location with two

clearances. Contact : 95867900

400 sq mtrs Commercial/Residen-

tial land in Maabela Phase 5 Block

2. OMR 140 Thousand.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

3 fl oor commercial building in

Muttrah behind Police. Generating

income of OMR 18 Thousand annu-

ally. Neat and well maintained. Built

on 197 sq mtrs land. 2 tailor shops

on ground fl oor and 6 fl ats. OMR

207 Thousand. Tel: 99333479 or

95215360

FOR HIRE

Volvo 12 Ton Truck for monthly

rent. Contact: 98713900

550 sqm built up area Deluxe villa

7 BR with 3 sitting halls located at

prime commercial location North Al

Ghobrah. Contact: Owner 99411607 /

99892238

2BHK, 2 Baths, Split A/C, Wadi ka-

beer, near Indian Elementary School.

Contact 99441193, 93004801

Flats for rent in Al Khuwair, Al hail,

Wadi Kabir, Al Falaj, MBD, and Mut-

trah. Contact: 99119699 / 95250300

/ 24813002

1 &2 BHK fl ats for rent at Wadi Kabir,

Wadi Adai, Hamriya and Al Khoud

areas, shop for rent at Wadi Adai

Round about. Contact: 24834644,

GSM 93994401 /02/03 lines

2BHK ground fl r in Darsait Near

Muscat Municipality, walkable

distance from Indian School Muscat,

Rent: OMR.275/- Contact : 99451845

2BK Wadi Kabir near Kuwaiti

Mosque. Contact: 97007934 /

92629232

500 sq mtrs offi ce space on mez-

zanine fl oor near Royal Hospital.

OMR 6.500 per sq mtr.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

Godown for rent Approx: 4500 sqm

area with building materials in Barka

for rent with workers accommodation

etc. Showrooms also for building ma-

terials available. Contact: 99808868

House for rent in Sidab at

reasonable rent. Contact: 95555162

/ 95755953

Flats shops for rent in Ruwi MBD

area Mumtaz area.

Contact: 97293708 / 92433127

Flat for rent with AC in Wadi Kabir.

Contact: 95555162 /95755953

Flat for rent in Mabellah 8th.

Contact: 97147240

Fabulous AC fl at at Al Khoud 3 bed-

rooms, hall and kitchen RO 270/-

for rent. Contact: 99334699

3 Bedroom fl at in Wadi Kabeer and

2 bedroom villa in Sidab- Muscat.

Contact: 95755953

Flat for rent in Wadi Kabir with

3 rooms. Contact : 98555580 /

92800007

BHK Flat in Azaiba. Contact 99385835 / 99428143

600 sqr mtrs showroom in Wadi

Kabir. Contact: 99792181

250 sq mtrs restaurant for rent in

Plaza Hotel, Walja Ruwi.

Contact 99326339

Two bedrooms fl ats in Wadi Kabir

near Indian School.

Contact 99313274

Commercial Space 68 SQM, Wadi kabeer, near Indian Elemen-

tary School. Contact 99441193,

93004802

For rent if require fl ats for rent in

Wadi Kabir please send me mes-

sages through Whatsapp.

Contact: 99376454

1,000 sq mtrs industrial land in

Misfah Industrial area near to

Khanco. OMR 1,500 Monthly. It has

Electricity and boundary wall.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

House in Amerat near to Makah

hypermarket with three room,

5toilets, kitchen and hall 430/-.

Contact: 92747078

1 BR fl at at Darsait, near ISM.

Contact 99237971 / 99320633

Flat for rent in Darsait near Indian

School 1 bedroom, living room,

2 bathrooms & kitchen. Contact:

95806611 / 94694662

Flat for rent in Ruwi, 1 bedroom

(Walja) 1 bedroom, living room ,

2 bath rooms, kitchen.

Contact: 95464607 / 95464608

Furnished offi ces for rent in prime

location in Ruwi (Mumtaz) with free

electricity, water and internet for

lease long & short term. # 99331181

Shop for rent prime location in Ruwi

Mumtaz near Al Burj hotel.

Contact: 99331181

Bath attached room for rent

Al Khuwair. Contact 99743569

At Al Hail 2BHK 260/- & 1BHK

180/- , shop or store space RO 240/-.

Contact: 96072686

4 BHK single villa in Al Khuwair.

Contact: 97616158

Villa with two fl oors in (Hay Al

Arjan) in AL Khoud with 4 bedrooms,

hall, Majles, kitchen & one room in

ground fl oor. Contact: 93219597

Brand new villa Bosher 37, 4 BHK.

Contact: 91936034

1 Villa & 3 big Flats of 2/3 BHK with

hall, Kitchen & ACs Al Khoudh 6,

Close to express way, from owner.

Tel 97600322 alnehang@gmail.com

3bed room well maintained fl at

(villa type only 2 fl ats in one bldg)

in Al Khuwair behind Al Akhtam

Restaurant, Villa no 1839,

Way No 3922, block No 239.

Contact: 99253125

2BHK available Mumtaz area Ruwi.

Contact: 99269751

SELL/BUY

Used furniture & Electronic items, offi ce & house. Contact: 99834373 /

96642500

Auto spare parts shop for sale in

Mobella. Contact: 99765905

A fully equipped furnished and

licensed private polyclinic for sale

or rent in excellent location in Sohar

- Falaj al Qabail opposite to life line

hospital Departments are GP clinic,

Dental, Medical lab, X-ray And Work-

ing Pharmacy. Contact 95603395

Running established for sale includ-

ing industrial licenses for marble

& granite, fully furnished kitchen

showroom and fully equipped fac-

tory. Contact: 99337670 / 92623665

House hold items. Contact: 97094797

Brand new Panasonic 60” full HD

LED, TV TH60A430M R.O 350/- .

Contact: 99628819

2560 sq mtrs industrial land in

Wadi Kabir main road, First line on

way to Al Bustan hotel. Possible to

make petrol station or hotel. OMR

990 Thousand. Tel: 99333479 or

95215360

Shop for sale in Ruwi High street,

Contact 96078411

New villa at Qurum, 6 bedrooms,

6 bathrooms, sitting, dining and

open sitting on the terrace.

Contact: 99342733

60,000 Sq Mtrs Agriculture Land in

Misfah, can be changed to Industrial

Land. OMR 29 Per Square Meter.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

5 Flats of 1 bedroom for Sale in

Boushar: OMR 35 Thousand each.

Monthly income OMR 270

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

23,886 Sq Mtrs Agriculture land

with water well in Al Salwa, Barka.

OMR 260 Thousand. Tel: 99333479

or 95215360

Contd on Pg 6

Independent rooms in Qurum /

Al Hail. Contact 95529970

Room for rent available in CBD near

Papa John’s Restaurant. # 96568110

Fully furnished 1BHK with all house-

hold items in Darsait near Lulu on

monthly Basis. Contact : 99378397

Large room with separate bathroom

and sharing available in Al Khuwair.

Contact: 95250161

DAILY GUIDEC4 S AT U R D AY, A U G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION VACANT

SITUATION WANT-

EDSIT. WANTED

SITUATION WANT-

EDSIT. WANTED

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com classifi eds@timesofoman.comTel.: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461

DOMESTIC HELPER

ENGINEER

EDUCATION

SKILLED / UNSKILLED

IT

SALES / MARKETING

SALES / MARKETING

SALES / MARKETINGACCOUNTANT

BEAUTY

Urgently required housemaid.

Contact: 96339339 Email CV on

info@eigllcoman.com

Required part time Indian House-maid. Contact: 95370653

Require qualify caregiver for an

orderly mother. Contact 99425200

Indian House Maid with experience

required to work in Sohar, visa ready.

Contact 99417418

Urgently required Junior Account-ant. Please send CV:

hr.azatllc@gmail.com

Urgently required male Account-ant & Offi ce Admin. Contact:

96339339 Email CV on

info@eigllcoman.com

Urgently required Jr. Accountant/Purchasing Manager (preferably In-

dian) 3-5 yrs Exp. to work with food

stuff market. software/hardware

knowledge would be an advantage,

valid Omani D/L with NOC

Contact 99417418

Urgently required cash investors for company’s profi table projects.

Contact: 92950082

DRIVER

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

Wanted experience Beautician for

beauty parlor in Muscat. Contact:

94241385

Urgently required gulf experienced female professional Beauticians and storekeeper for a reputed high

end beauty centre in the capital area.

Interested please ensure release

letter and send your CV to email:

linnujiya@gmail.com or contact

99500330

Urgently required beautician with min 3 years. Contact 93231403

Email: rainbowfurnishing156@

gmail.com

CATERING

Urgently required house maid for

Malayalam family in Rustaq.

Contact: 99810765

Established real estate company looking for male or female prop-erty agents for leasing and sales

of the property. Applicant must

be Graduate, possess Omani or

GCC driving license. Having oman

market experience. Apply with NOC.

Attractive salary +commission.

Send your CV:

property@ labdmarkmuscat.com

Required Indian or Pakistani calligrapher & Painter (staff accommodation)

Contact# 24480487/24483493

Required heavy duty truck driver holding Omani driving license w/

5 years experience please contact

92001111

Wanted driver. Contact: 95112461

Driver heavy duty required urgent-ly for trailer. Oman / GCC experience

must. Those ready for immediate

joining. Contact: 99310859

MEDICAL

MEDICAL

MISCELLANEOUS

Urgently required Pharmacist (B. Pharm) with MOH license for a

reputed organization in Oman. Email

Id: goodpharma2015@gmail.com

Wanted laboratory Technician with

MOH License to work in medical

center in capital Area

Contact 99340135

A leading trading group is looking for Sales Executives having experi-

ence in building materials / tools

with driving license & release / NOC.

Email CV to alhajoil@omantel.net.om

or Fax: 24701683

A leading building materials Trading

CO. Urgently required (1) Business Development Manager – (minimum 10 years experience in

same fi eld in Oman / GCC with driv-

ing license (2) Branch Incharges &

Salesman, with minimum 3 years

experience in building materials sales

in Oman / GCC. Contact Fax: 24704921

Email: hilalbm@omantel.net.om

Spare parts (Heavy Equipment) Salesman with 3 years experience.

Please send your CV to

info@almisfat.com or call 96996938

Outdoor Salesman (heavy Equip-

ment) Sales man with 3 -5 years

experience. GCC driving license

required Please send your CV to

info@almisfat.com or call 96996938

Sales Executive with valid D/L & 5

year experience in offi ce furniture

and interior fi t out projects inter-

ested candidates can apply by mail:

info@smartvisionoman.com

Fax: 24818818

Required English Teacher , Hindi

teacher, Science Teacher.

Contact: 99705799

Arabic speaking Female Vice Prin-cipal/Arabic Teachers / Secretary / Computer Teacher / PRO s wanted

for a Bilingual (Arabic – English)

school in Azaiba. Knowledge of Eng-

lish preferred. Please apply to email

: burj@alhakkim.com

Kindergarten in Seeb looking for

(female) English Teacher bachelor

in English language.

Contact: 99319259 / 93972775

Email: saif123.s171@gmail.com

Software developer with experience

in asp.net, sql server and crystal

reports required for a software

development fi rm. Email CV to

hr@ promisworld.com

Civil Construction company in Muscat looking for SUB Contractors for 3 fl oor commercial building

(4 Nos – 3000 m2 each) project at

Mabellah ready to start. For enquir-

ies mail to awahaibitrad@gmai.com

A leading civil construction com-

pany in Muscat requires Project Manager (BE. Civil) with minimum

10 years experience (Gulf experi-

ence preferred). Please send C.V to

hr.azatllc@gmail.com

Service & Parts Manager with 3-5

years GCC experience in heavy

Equipment / cranes, good communi-

cation skills, Mechanical Engineer-

ing background. Please send your CV

to info@almisfat.com or

call 96996938

AC Technician with minimum

5 years experience, should have

experience in installation & commis-

sioning of Ductable & split AC units,

with knowledge of GI ducting & pre

insulated ducting, experience in

interior fi t out industry is preferred

Interested candidates can apply by

mail: info@smartvisionoman.com

Fax: 24818818

Heavy Equipment Mechanic (sports) & (classic) (bicycle) 2No.

Contact : 99550084

Required Architectural Engineer for consulting company.

Contact: 99077856

Email: rgeorge@omantd.com

MEP Engineer on urgent basis

required for immediate placement.

Please contact tgi17@omantel.net.om

Chinese/ Arab/ continental cook & helper wanted. Contact 95529970

Filipino Male 26 years old, Certifi ed

Public Accountant, Bachelor of Sci-

ence in Accountancy with 5 yrs of

experience now on visit visa, Look-

ing for suitable opening. Contact:

+968 91278583

Email: kennethalcedo07@gmail.com

Accountant Indian male B.Com with

2 years of experience currently on

visiting visa seeks suitable place-

ment. Contact: 94649272 Email ID:

sherin.am01@gmail.com

Indian female Inter CA, strong in

Tally ERP 9, MS Offi ce, 7 years expe-

rience in accounts upto fi nalization

looking for suitable position.

Contact 91759501

Indian male, 30 years, CMA

(Inter),M.com.4 out of 7 years

experience in Oman in Auditing/

Accounts/ Finance. Having NOC and

valid Oman D/L. Contact: 96746420 ,

Email: sijuthampi@ymail.com

Indian female, B.com with 2 years of

work experience, currently on family

visa in Oman and seeking suitable

placement for immediate joining.

Contact 94647421

Looking for a job in UAE as a Senior

Accountant Indian male, 31 yrs, CA

Inter 8 yrs exp good in all aspects

of accounts. Good command over

English valid driving license (Oman)

Contact: 94737231

Indian male M.Com holder with

one year working experience as an

Accountant in Kerala looking for

suitable opening now on visiting

visa. Contact: 96947500 Email:

mohamaedshafi kk5@gmail.com

Indian female B.Tech (EEE) MBA

fi nance with 1and half years experi-

ence as Bank Offi cer in India seeking

suitable placement.

Contact: 91358676 / 98157895

Email: sujivu88@gmail.com

MBA fi nance Indian male (Account

& fi nance), seeking suitable place-

ment. Contact: 97372624 Email:

sivaraj.gurukripa@gmail.com

Female (Filipina) Accountant /

auditor /bookkeeper seeking for job

Contact: 96944976

Indian male, 27 years, M. Com, hav-

ing 2years experience in Accounts

looking for suitable position. Present-

ly on visit visa. Contact 93455055|

gibingeorge88@gmail.com

23 yrs, Indian B.Com, Graduate

male ‘Fresher’ well versed in English,

Hindi, Arabic & Malayalam with

D/L looking for a suitable job. Now

on visit visa valid for 1 more month

only. Contact 97660518

Part time accountant services avail-

able to handle all accounts related

work up to fi nalization.

Contact: 96247295

Accountant Indian male 31 yrs

Accounts up to fi nalization, 9 yrs

experience (7 yrs in Oman) with D/L

& NOC seeks suitable placement.

Contact: 99582979

An Indian Lady Chartered Account-ant with fi ve years experience (in-

cluding articleship), on family visa

in Oman looking for a suitable job.

Please Contact 9621 0347 / 9943

5346, shincycrajan@gmail.com

CA , Inter, M.Com Indian 7 years ex-

perience in Audit / fi nance handled

independent audit / fi nance assign-

ments on visit looking for suitable

placement. Contact: 91148139

Email: smurug@live.com

Accountant having 4 yrs experience

looking job. Contact: 99867456

Email: ashkar7673@gmail.com

Indian male, B.Com, MBA, having 5

years experience(3 years in U.A.E) is

currently seeking suitable oppor-

tunities within fi nance/accounts/

admin dept. Contact:93953613,

allen.mathew83@gmail.com

Part time Accountant with 15 yrs

exp in accounts, fi nance audit taxa-

tion. Contact: 95857199

Indian female Accountant with 5 yrs

Gulf exp in accounts, audit, Admin

payroll. Contact: 96263157

Indian male Accountant B.Com 8 yrs

in Oman exp with N.O.C, valid driving

license. Contact: 95052969

Email: chetansmma@yahoo.co.in /

chetansmma@gmail.com

Seeking for a job completed

B.Tech in ECE under Anna Uni-

versity knowledge in hardware

troubleshooting ready to work with

accounting & software section hold-

ing one year experience in India.

Contact: 96142153

Indian National, male, 41 years,

CA Inter, persuing CA fi nal. Now on

express visa. 7 years of Experience

in OMAN as Finance and Accounts

Manager in Trading, Construction and

Firefi ghting industry. Total 21 Years of

Experience seeking suitable Manage-

rial positions. No visa issues. Immedi-

ate joining. Phone no: 98469311

Email:sebin30@yahoo.co.in

MBA (Finance) with NOC, 6 years

accounting and fi nance experience

in Oman, knowledge of Tally ERP9

having Omani driving license seeks

suitable placement.

Contact: 97205715

Email: ammar_uh@hotmail.com

13 years exp (7.5 years gulf exp)

B.Com graduate, looking for Account-

ant job, GSM No:-92957064 with NOC.

Energetic Finance & Audit Manager

/ Chief Accountant, C.A , MBA ,ACCA ,

CPA..15 yrs in GULF , Expert in Bank-

ing, Financing, Profi t Maximizations,

Admin, Biz Developments ,All ERPs

Software’s, 15yrs Audit Exp. with Big

5 , NOC & Driving License

Call 94403270 – 94504505

Indian 24 years MBA fi nance 2

years experience seeking suitable

placement. Contact: 9822253

Indian female 25 yrs B.Com MBA /

3months experience looking for job

in Accts /Mktg. Contact: 94657403 /

99355931

Sales Executive with valid D/L & 5

year experience, in the fi eld of de-

mountable aluminum & glass parti-

tion systems. Interested candidates

can apply by Fax: 24818818 mail:

info@smartvisionoman.com

Required Chinese / Biryani cook / Sales person for restaurant.

Contact : 95395378 / 94053449

Sales Executive Industrial products

: 2-3 yrs of exp. with good commu-

nication & computer skills. D/L is

must. Send resume to

salescvv@hotmail.com

Urgently required : Counter Ser-vice Assistant (male) for a fast food

outlet in a food court in Sohar.

Email: aliyanational@gmail.com

Wanted Marketing Managers and Executives, candidates with mini-

mum 2 years experience in Oman

holding valid driving license May

only Apply 94151791/ 22050729 or

Email: sales@dewdropoman.com

Wanted designer & Salesman for

Advertising CO. With Oman D/L.

Contact: 96440587 / 94055643

Urgently required out door Sales Executive for furnishing company

with Oman D/L and min 3 years

experience. Contact : 93231403 /

rainbowfurnishing156@gmail.com

Building Material Sales man required at Al Amerat shop.

Contact: 99467054

A leading Tissue paper & food stuff s company requires Sales & Marketing person with minimum

5 yrs exp. in Oman with good com-

munication skills & valid Oman

D/L. Candidate with interior market

knowledge & experience preferable.

Send CV : allub@alhosnigroup.com,

fax: 24451430

Wanted male written & spoken Ma-layalam & Bengali as freelancers to conduct corporate & individual

markets surveys on temporary

basis, Must be fl uent in English with

driving license. Contact: 24701242

A leading building materials shop required Marketing Executive (Omani National only) 1No with

minimum 2 years experience and

driving license. Contact: 99808868

Email: aalfarsi2020@gmail.com

Experienced Marketing represent-ative – interlock blocks with light

Omani driving license is required.

Contact 99222086

Indian Family looking out for the

following experienced candidates

1) House maid (Indian) 2) Driver (Indian) Contact : 92800073 /

99247040

Need urgently MBBS Doctor with or

without MOH license. #95395070

Required MBBS Doctor with or

without MOH license. # 95395070

Wanted female Staff Nurse with

MOH license for a dental clinic in

sur. Email : dentoman2000@gmail.

com

Urgently required for MOH license Gynecologist specialist & Staff Nurse clinic at Sumail, Muscat.

Kindly sends C.V to

saemomar@gmail.com

or GSM: 95498105

Wanted Lab Technician, Staff Nurse, Pharmacist for a polyclinic

in Sohar. Contact 99767605

Required Pharmacist for 2 months

for a Pharmacy. Contact: 99705799

Staff Nurse for 2 months for a clinic

in Muttrah.( LOCUM). # 99330385

Immediately required lady Doctor (DGO) or GP with Gynecology experi-ence & lab technician. #99310590.

Email : tjmaluke@gmail.com

Looking for Outdoor Salesman for

heavy equipment spare parts.

Contact - 93292015,

Email: mail.om@gulfcenter.co

Salesman required for a well estab-

lished building materials company.

Oman D/L required.

Contact: 93698385

Email: united@omantel.net.om

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

DAILY GUIDES AT U R D AY, A U G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5 C5

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED

DOMESTIC HELPER

MEDICAL

MANAGER/ SUPERVISOR

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

MIB Post Graduate /male – more

than 9 years of experience in ship-

ping & Logistics in middle east (Liner

Section) looking for a suitable job in

Oman. .Mob :( India) 91-9400043894,

Email: jaise81@gmail.com,

Oman 99899627

Indian with license looking job

safety offi cer, camp boss. Supervisor

or marketing. Contact: 94003617

Facility / Project Mgmt, 4+ yrs of

exp holds B.E (ECE) Indian visit

visa looking for suitable opening.

Contact: 98580569

Email: arafacareer@gmail.com

DESIGNER

DRIVER

Medical - Staff Nurse (male) with

NOC and license, experience 6+ yrs.

Contact: 98680299

Email: georgevaikom@gmail.com

Female Nurse- Indian, Total 14 yrs.

experience,6 yrs. in KSA, Prometric

passed, ready to join immediately.

Contact 95525004 & 98146565

Looking for job as offi ce boy + driv-er going to visit within this month

Oman Muscat working experience 10

years. Contact: 968 97859837

Indian male MDS Doctor special-

ized in Endodontist with 7 years ex-

perience prometric passed, seeking

suitable placement. #98843139

Email: ppdr2020@gmail.com

Doctor seeking job an experienced

female Indian Doctor (DHMS NAET

USA), 49 yrs, specialist in Home-

opathy and Allergy Elimination

Technology seeks suitable place-

ment. Contact: 919447110003 Oman

96439091

Email: anithabaydr@gmail.com

Male Staff Nurse looking for job

passed Prometric 63% + 3 years

experience. Contact: 94035637 /

95068075

BA degree Nursing professional

having excellent looking for suitable

placement. Contact:: 92955453

/91213269

GP Doctor Yemeni national-male,

with 4 years of work experience.

Mobile:00966531598754

Email: alsyaniramzy@gmail.com

A Pakistani lady, having M.A

Islamiyat at B.ED Degree, 7 years

Teaching experience. All documents

are ready, looking for job in school

or private fi rm. Contact: 96534115

Email: alex_ali1@yahoo.com

TOURS & TRAVELS

Indian female 24 yrs, Bachelor in

Travel & Tourism and 1 year exp

in Oman as ticketing executive.

GDS-Sabre, Amdeus, Galilio seeking

suitable job. Contact- 95883404

B.Com IATA MCSE working for

Qatar Airways, Sales Reservation,

ticketing English, Hindi, and Malay-

alam, Marathi NOC is available.

Contact: 92954613

SALES / MARKETING

EDUCATION

ADMIN

ADMIN

B.C.A, 7 years Operations Manage-

ment procurement supply chain team

handling lean six sigma certifi ed on

visit visa. Contact: 99826634 Email:

nairsatheesh1984@gmail.com

Indian female MCA, 24 years

seeking suitable job.

Contact 93439467

Male, 28 years IT Engineer from

India having good hands on experi-

ence in networking, switches and

routers. Moreover having certifi ca-

tion Redhat, Linux (RHCE) and Ora-

cle DBA (OCP). Contact: 95406864

Email Id: saad.m.ali79@gmail.com

IT System Support: Indian Male

2 years exp in Oman & 3 years in

India. Contact 91937060

Communications networks, Technician specializing in the main

divider and ADSL VDSL system ex-

perience of STC. Contact 93398796

Indian visit visa, Network / System

Engineer switches, routers, servers,

load balancers 5 yrs of exp holds B.E

(ECE), CCNA looking for good op-

portunity. Contact: 91911792

Email: arafakdnl@gmail.com

IT

MISCELLANEOUS

DRAUGHTSMAN

Experienced Indian lady is looking

housemaid job looking full time job

for European family total experience

: 9 years, 2 years exp. with European

family 6 years worked with Indian

family language English & Hindi.

Contact: 93392788

Housemaid (full time / part time)

looking for job. Contact: 95799643

Filipina ESL Teacher for 13 years

BEED major in English knowledge

in IB, PYP and independent school

curriculum computer literate, IELTS

qualifi ed, looking for reputable

school. Contact: 98938272

Email: m.ann7875@gmail.com

Indian lady M.Com, B.Ed looking for

openings in teaching. #97668603

7 years Purchase experienced total

17 years Oman with driving license

looking for suitable position, Indian

with N.O.C. Contact: 96574390

Indian male with 14 years of experi-

ence in Business development /

sales & marketing seeks suitable

placement, 6.5 years of work experi-

ence in Oman. Contact: 93400177

Sales man, experience in Saudi,

Good in Arabic. Ph: 97103168

Indian male B.Com & MBA Gradu-

ate 11 years experience airline travel

& tourism, Sales & Marketing in

Dubai & Oman with driving license

NOC available.

Contact: 92552612

Email: mazmanu1@gmail.com

Indian male 27 years, B.Tech Grad-

uate having good work experience

with valid Oman D/L looking for a

suitable opening as Sales Engineer.

Contact: 91472953 Email:

harees.rasheed.2014@gmail.com

Procurement / Purchase Executive

1.6 yrs exp in Oman construction

industry Indian male 27 yrs, MBA

with valid Oman D/L, available for

immediate placement.

Contact: 96300958 / 24796010

Business intelligence / Global Mar-

keting management specialist with

9 years of experience developing

brand value & managing overall pro-

jects to achieve business objectives

seeking suitable position on family

visit. Contact: 91902154

Indian male 35 yrs, 10 yrs experi-

ence in FMCG Sales & Marketing in

UAE with valid GCC license looking

for suitable position on visit.

Contact: 93438747 / 93033252

Indian male MBA (Marketing) 26

on visit visa, with experience in

stores looking for suitable position

in warehouse stores logistics or in

sales. Contact: 96915871

Email: ajanadoor@yahoo.com

Indian female 35 years MCA, MBA

six sigma black belt, 14 years Gulf

experience in business analytics,

Marketing business development

qualities seeks placement. NOC

available, Omani driving license

available. Contact: 95783792

Indian 44 yrs, 16 yrs Indian Army

5 and Half years in Oman exp ware

house, seeks suitable placement in

store, ware house or sales having

Oman driving license.

Contact: 94050311

Sudanese Business development

Manager, long experience Interna-

tional trade in Oman (import /export

/ marketing) seeking suitable place-

ment full / part time in reputable

company. Contact: 91173146

Indian female (M. Tech – power

system) having Gulf experience,

currently on family visa seeking

suitable placement in Oman.

Contact: 94306164

Indian female 26 yrs, B.Tech in

Electrical and Electronics with two

years experience in Ministry of

Electricity Kerala govt , as Operat-

ing Assistant Engineer presently

on visit visa seeks placement. #

98657132 /

Email: pinks1819@gmail.com

Civil Project Engineer exp 10 yrs.

Contact: 92673432

Email: arifjamalkhan8@gmail.com

Telecommunication Maintenance Engineer Sudanese male 2 years ex-

perience in HUAWEI hardware fi eld

cabins good communication English

& Arabic. Contact :+ 968 96433495

/ +968 94756295 Email: muzamila-

wadalla@gmail.com

2 years experienced Electrical Engi-

neer looking for suitable placement.

Contact: 98480509

Engineer with 4 years Oman experi-

ence in telecom operations, having

valid Oman driving license looking

for a suitable opportunity, interested

in Marketing also. Contact 98513495

Looking for job as Electrician, Gulf

7 years exp. Contact: 93015630

Mechanical Engr, B. Tech, exp in

QA/QC, In Piping Design, Its soft-

wares Ph:96539085

Indian male 23, Mechanical Engi-

neer, 1 year experience, knowledge

in HVAC currently on visit visa look-

ing for suitable placement.

Contact: 95434381 Email:

shuhaibusman313@gmail.com

Male, BE (Mechanical holder) 1 yr

exp in Indian & 4 months in Oman

NOC available, embassy attested

certifi cate . Contact: 95721521 /

96625245 (Salalah)

Email: sajukoippallil@gmail.com

Indian male B.Tech (ECE) CCNA

1 yrs exp in broadcast Engg having

hands on exp in harris ADC,PPC,

Velocity & Invenio, avid inews,

vizrt,nexio farad, grass, valley kayak

HD 300. also having on practice in

PLC (AB,ABB, Siemens) DCS & scada

systems. Contact: 00919846990093

/ 99235291

Indian job in procurement &

contract, have “12” years purchase

& contract experience in infrastruc-

ture & energy sector. NOC is avail-

able. Contact-98009274

Engineer BE (Electrical, Electronics),

Indian male 24 years, having 2 plus

years of experience, seeking for suit-

able placement. Contact: 98201244

Indian male 24 years B.E mechani-

cal 2 years exp. or visit visa.

Contact: 99247326

Indian (M) B.Tech (civil) with 2 yrs

exp in Structural Designing using

Etabs, Staad, Safe, excel looking for

suitable position.

Contact: 96698342 / 98768045

Email: qadeertom@gmail.com

Civil Diploma Engineer 6 years ex-

perience in Oman Indian male with

valid Oman D/L. Contact: 93356736

Electrical Engineer, B.Sc. degree/

B.Tech, 4 years experience. Looking

for suitable placement. Available in

visit visa. Contact: 94739355,

Email: mahin.eee@gmail.com

Indian male B.E Electronic and

Communication Engineering & have

2 years experience in oil & gas sec-

tor (maintenance & construction).

Contact: 98848077

5+ years experience BE Electrical

Engineer having knowledge in exe-

cution & basic knowledge in electri-

cal design looking for suitable post.

Contact: 99704742 / 97469689

M Tech Computer Science Engineer,

female seeking suitable placement.

Contact : 93035521,96439645

Email : anzilav@yahoo.co.in

Indian male 27 years, Mechanical

Engineer (B.E) having experience

seeks suitable placement holds

valid Oman driving license, on visit

visa. Contact: 98847638

Indian male 23 B.E mechanical &

AutoCAD 1 year experience current-

ly on visit visa looking for suitable

job. Contact: 92835957 Email:

rafeekmohammed84@gmail.com

Indian male 25MBA having 4years

Gulf experience in Coordination with

contracting company .NOC Available.

Looking for(Store,Coordination,Admin

,Backoffi ce) Jobs Ph:95405885

Indian male 25, BTech (Mechani-

cal), CSWIP 3.1, Welding Inspector,

3 years experience in Oil & Gas (pip-

ing and Equipment as QC inspector)

now on visit visa seeking suitable

opportunities. Contact: 98228262

Email: megbinvetticattu@gmail.com

Electrical Engineer 2 years experi-

ence (Indian) construction (build-

ing) looking suitable placement.

Contact 00968 9259662 Email:

kundara.renjith@gmail.com

M. Tech, Applied Electronics

Indian female looking for full time

or part time job presently on family

visit visa. Contact: 92499312

Email: ann.ashhy@gmail.com

Indian male B.Tech Mechanical

Engineer 1 year experience seeking

suitable placement, available im-

mediately. Contact: 93907707

Email: jubinkasim@gmail.com

Computer Engineer Iraqi National-

ity 7 years experience seeking

suitable placement.

Contact 94694146

Indian male diploma Civil Eng with

2 yrs experience on site as QS &

AutoCAD seeking on site or - off site

position. Contact: 94756183

Email: indianexpat1@gmail.com

Sudanese male Telecommuni-cation Engineer looking for job.

Contact: 94537607

Electrical Engineer bachelor de-

gree having 6+ years experience of

Gulf and professional license avail-

able to join. Contact: 98063081

Email: imran.engr08@gmail.com

Indian 24 yrs male, 2 years experi-

ence in Site Engineer (Diploma in

Civil Engineering), Now on visit visa

in Oman. Contact: 94050311

Civil Engineer B.E, 5.5 years experi-

ence with Omani D/L.

Contact 96785311

Indian Male, Diploma in Civil Engi-

neer working as a Project engineer

with 7years of experience looking

for suitable job. Contact- 92636569

Electrical Engineer Indian male 29

years, having 5 years of experience

in industrial automation and utility

maintenance in India (MRF Tyres)

seeking suitable placement.

Contact: 92789995 Email:

akhilabrahamlktr@gmail.com

SAP – SCM.MM Consultant B.Tech.

(Chemical), from NIT, working with

oil industry, seeks employment.

Contact: 98049288

Btech computer science graduate

2015 passout.. Android application

marketing.. Having good communi-

cation skills and mindset to work in

a team. Contact 91024385

Engineer with 3 yrs experience in

Indian in MEP, HVAC& mechanical

maintained fi eld on visit visa

looking for suitable job.

Contact 99191535

Email: fareed029@gmail.com

Indian Male, IT Support Engineer,

2 yrs in Oman & 5 yrs Indian experi-

ence. Contact 97311847

Electrical Eng. Degree (MEP) need

suitable job of construction 12 yrs exp.

Email: mohd.ateeq.khan@gmail.com

HSE Admin experience for 10 years

in GCC with valid D/L seeking to

join a reputed fi rm. NOC available.

Contact: 99626821

Indian male MBA having 10 years

experience as Document Controller

and 2+ years experience as Project

Assistant/ Executive Secretary in

Oman seeks immediate placement.

NOC available. Contact: 95373198

Indian Male 18 years ( 7 years in

Oman ) experience in HR / Admin in

Oil & Gas , construction fi elds with

Oman D/L seeks suitable position.

Visa Transfer / NOC available.

Call 92854993.

Keralite 47 years, having 20 years

of rich experience in offi ce admin-

istration and 6 years of Warehouse

Management looking for a suitable

opening.

Email: rajeshkorathatt@gmail.com

MSW HR female professional with

3+ years work ex, UGC net qualifi ed,

looking for a suitable position in

Muscat. Contact- 99579874.

rubitah@gmail.com

Training coordinator Indian male, 17

yrs experience with Training & Con-

sultancy Company. Well knowledge in

admin works. Release available and

have D/L. Contact: 99573353

Indian male 36 years MBA experi-

ence as AS. Manager seeking suit-

able job in HR/ Marketing in Oman

on visit visa. Contact : 98200741,

Email: phmnsudheesh857@gmail.

com

Indian male having 15 years Gulf

experience in purchase Admin on

visit. Contact : 95435370

Indian male B.Com & Tally with

2.5 years Admin/HR Experience

in Oman with 2 years employment

Visa seeking placement. Release

Available 96796477

14 years of Gulf experience in HR /

Admin & logistics fl uent in Arabic /

English with D/L looking for suitable

position. Contact: 95824598

Indian male 2+yrs oman exp in HR.

joing immediatly. release available.

Contact :93671437

Indian female 24 years MBA (HR)

having 3 years experience in HR

Administration, payroll seeking suit-

able placement. Contact: 91104352 /

99012861

Indian male looking for company

job, 2 years visa light Oman D/

License experience in offi ce works

also & driving. Contact: 92233068

Light driver 5 years exp Education

B.A language English, Arabic & Hin-

di. Contact : 98522914 / 91615715

Driver available with car. Contact:

96652352

Sri Lankan driver. Contact

97387112

Light duty driver 9 years experi-

ence wanted visa. #97313562

Light duty driver seeks job.

Contact: 99748264

Indian light driver having 1 year

experience in Oman knowing

English, Hindi & Arabic, need job.

Contact: 95214332

Looking for light driving job, In-

dian, 4 years experience & language

knowing Arabic, English & Indian.

Contact: 94241385

Light duty driver, 8 yrs exp.

Contact: 96736744

Looking job for driver, experience 6

years. Contact: 96246794

Driver for job experience 1 year.

Contact: 94071286

Bangladeshi male looking for job

in any company or family, speak

English, Hindi & Arabic, exp 3 years

in Dubai taxi and 3 years in Oman in

company. Contact: 93822195

Light duty driver looking for job.

Contact: 96995762

Pakistani Light Duty Driver seeks

placement. Contact: 95746203

Looking for driving job light driver.

Contact : 96913836

Looking for driving job light driver.

Contact :92787245

Looking for driving job light driver.

Contact :94648986

Driver with Car. Contact:

99716938

Driver with 2 yrs exp looking for

job. Contact: 98487511

Light duty driver ,driving license,

Experienced. Ph: 92814816

Driver with car (Fortuner).

Contact: 95365938

Looking for driving for job.

Contact: 98219182

Light driver, 10 yrs experience look-

ing for job. Contact 93060050

3D Draughtsman 25 years Indian

male having 4 years experience.

Contact: 93746877

Land surveyor: Indian male having

two years experience, well handled

total station, auto level and Auto cad,

seeking suitable placement.

Contact: 95140761 /99208290

Email: binu.brijiv@gmail.com

Sr Designer, Civil & Structural (oil

& gas) / Site Supervisor Indian male,

21 years experience in design fi eld

with driving license seeks suitable

placement N.O.C available.

Contact: 92684051

Email: babyshibu@yahoo.co.in

Indian female, having 9 years

experience in Logistics and Sales

co ordinator. Experience in SAP, MS

offi ce, holding Oman driving license.

Currently on Visit Visa, looking for

suitable placement. Contact 95251911

Indian Female POST GRADUATE . One

Year experience seeking suitable Job

Contact :97792820

Email: pnjli.1991@gmail.com

Management Professional ac-

countable, responsible for profi table

management can handle the entire

operations, HR/Recruitment, Business

development & Sales & marketing &

etc, Great organizational skills with

over 23+yrs exp. in Bombay, Saudi

Arabia, Dubai-UAE & Oman(11yrs)

as General Manager - Publications,

Printing,Media. open to any industry,

can Join immediately w/NOC. Contact

: +968 98864706/99574638

Mail : akdas_uae@yahoo.com

Seeking for job fi re and safety com-

pleted 2.5 years experience language

known Hindi, English & Tamil seeking

suitable job. Contact: 98431032

Indian material controller / store

keeper with 9 years exp , seeking

job in Oman NOC/ Release available.

Contact: 91946174

Accountant, Indian male, 10 years

experience in Oman, having knowl-

edge of Tally ERP9 & able to do upto

fi nalization and can be joined imme-

diately with NOC. Contact: 94134085

Email: muscatoman95@yahoo.com

Well experienced and hard working

Restaurant Manager seek immedi-

ate placement. Release available.

Contact: 92953199

Jordanian Accountant (ACPA)

with more than 15 yrs experience

in Oman (Accounts, Purchase &

fi nance). Contact: 92881223

Email: kamal_sarhan@yahoo.com

MBA, B.Com CA (fi nalist) 7 years ex-

perience (2 years in Oman) looking

for suitable placement in a reputable

organization. Expertise in ERP, Tally

Quickbooks, peachtree and Excel.

NOC available. Contact: 97736404

Email: adnantahir1990@gmail.com

Motivated and energetic male 25

having 4 years of experience in

fi nance with Master’s degree in Eco-

nomics and CAT Certifi ed seeking

opportunity in Accounts/fi nance/au-

dit in a reputable organization. Cell

no: 00968-94626209

E-Mail: omerjawedshah@gmail.com

5 years experience in store and

admin department with Omni driv-

ing license looking for suitable job,

release available and can join im-

mediately. Contact : 95860170

Indian female, 29 yrs, MBA (HR) 4

yrs exp in HR & Admin seeking suit-

able placement. Contact: 95619537

Master degree HRM professional

having excellent experience in fi -

nance and management and having

8 yrs experience looking for suitable

placement. # 92955453 / 91213269

NETWORK/NETWORK SECURITY ENGG. Graduate in B.Tech CS. Have

5.3 years of experience in Network

and Security devices. Certifi ed on

CCNA, CCNP, MCITP and CCIE Sec.

Written passed. NOC available.

Can join immediately.

Contact +974-55297089, e

-mail: rejad.hashim@gmail.com

DAILY GUIDE Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461Fax: 24812624

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com

C6 S AT U R D AY, A U G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5

ACC. AVAILABLE

NRI

Please call 99341156 to buy plots

near Kims Hospital in Trivandrum,

Vytila hub in Cochin, Chertala and

Nagercoil.

Please call 99341156 to buy plots.

SITUATION WANT-MANPOWER

SITUATION WANTEDSERVICES

House shifting & transporting.

Contact 92490422

MARBLE CRYSTALLIZATION restore the original shine of

your marble. Contact 24793614/

99314807

House shifting. Contact 99708138

Split window cassette AC

unit servicing, maintenance.

Contact: 99540621

House shifting packing.

99657644 / 98518013

Carpet Shampoo, marble & tile

polishing, pest control & anti-ter-

mite treatment, general cleaning

painting, Plumbing, Electrical,

shifting. Contact Mundhir

Al-Rizaiqi trading. L.L.C.

# 24810137, 99450130

Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles

polishing, carpet shampooing,

maintenance.Contact ABU QABAS-

99320217 /24788722

WEBSITE

WEB, ERP and Business Intel-

ligence (BI) creation and man-

agement at rock bottom price.

Contact: http//webviewoman

COMPUTER

Split & window A.C servic-

ing & maintenance. Contact

93769089/95323517

GUARANTEED CLEANING: Carpet

& sofa shampooing, Contact

99314807/24792998

Air condition maintenance split

and window A/C split a/c ducted and

package type units. # 98667326

Pest control Treatments, Cockroaches, Ants ,Rodents &

Termites. Ocean Center LLC.

Contact: 99357908 / 99344723.

Water proofi ng ABUQABAS-

Contact 99320217/24788722

General cleaning & Shampooing.

Ocean Center LLC.

Contact: 99344723 / 99357908

Civil maintenance - plumbing, elec-

trical, painting, and tiling, interior

decorations, shop furnishing and all

other maintenance works.

Contact: 97897831 / 92112094

(Indian, Keralite)

Seeking fi nancial investor / part-

ner for short term Governmental

construction projects of 1.5 million

R.O. Contact: 99881303

The investor is required for suc-

cessful Educational project to pay

25,000/- Thousand.

Email: bussiness.om9@gmail.com

New company seek partnership.

Contact: 96996938

General Investors. Gsm-99674870

Serious investor needed for suc-

ceeded furniture company for

expansion purposes. #99041337

SITUATION WANT-

ED

BUSINESS

GOOD NEWS

LOST

CHANGE OF NAME

Rakhees Raksha Bandhan available

thousands Designs. Also special of-

fer at Haridas Nensey Ruwi.

Contact 24750784

Ayurvedic treatment for backache,

paralysis, arthritis etc & massage,

All Season (Vaidyaratnam). Contact

24475280 / 95371664 / 92504980

www.siddhayur.com

FREE INFORMATION ABOUT ISLAM. If you would like to know

more about Islam, please call:

99425598, 99250777, 99353988,

99253818, 99341395, and

99379133. For ladies: 99415818,

99321360, 99730723 Orvisit:

www.islamfact.com

Genuine Ayurvedic treatments

& massage, Ayurvedic clinic at

AL Khuwair. Contact: 24478618 /

97263637 / 93309131

CLASSES

Split & widow unit A.C servicing &

repairing. Contact: 99557080

Split & window unit A.C servicing

& maintenance. Contact: 96236476

Spoken English IELTS &

Computer classes. Contact:

92088325 / 24799938

Admission started in a private

school, Darsait (Mount Zion Group

of Institutions CBSE 1) for KG and

grade 1 to 4 please register soonest.

Contact: 92088325 / 24799938

MATRIMONIAL

Roman Catholic girl 31 yrs Indian

origin working in U.A.E seeking

alliances from Christian family well

settled in Oman or Middle East.

Contact: 97622011

24 years old, Sunni Muslim girl

Bombay origin, BSc, Hons (Accts)

with religious values seeking

alliance. Email:

morningstar9128@gmail.com

Keralite Roman Catholic girl,

27 yrs, M.Fam seeks suitable alli-

ance. Contact: 99253120

Kerala Hindu boy 28 (star – Chitra)

Engineer with MBA working in a

reputed co. in Oman looking for

alliance from good looking, well

educated , religious and veg. girl of

reputed family. Contact : 99426627

Christen boy 31-170. # 95131495

Sunni Muslim girl, Indian origin,

20 yrs BA graduate from Oman,

good looking homely with good

religious values, seeking alliances

from Muslim professionals,

well settled in Oman or Middle East.

Contact: 99644760 or

Email: ghulamuzma23@gmail.com

DRIVING

Driver for Automatic Transmis-

sion. Contact: 99040813

Room for rent with Electricity, water

& A/C kitchen RO 115/- RO, RO 130/-

Al Khuwair. Contact: 95423391

Sharing accommodation available

for working lady or couples near

Ruwi Church. Contact: 92837206

Room attached toilet and kitchen

near Indian School Wadi Kabir.

Contact: 95345537

Sabbir Hosan has lost Bangladeshi

passport no: AE0333234. Finder

please handover to ROP.

I Azeem Abdul Rawoob (holder of

Indian passport No. J 1341176) son

of Azeem having permanent resi-

dence in 55 Anai Katti Maidanam

Beema Nagar Trichy DT Tamil Nadu

(complete postal address in India)

and presently residing in P.O Box.

No 390 P.C 118 Sultanate of Oman

(complete postal address in Oman)

intend to change my name from

Azeem Abdul Rawoob (old name) to

Azim Abdul Rauf (new name) for all

practical purpose. Any objection to-

wards my name change may please

be communicated to Embassy of

India, Muscat, Diplomatic Quarters,

Al Khuwair, P.Box No. 1727, Postal

Code 112, Ruwi, Sultanate of Oman.

SITUATION WANT-

EDSIT. WANTED

Indian female, B.Sc, PGDCA, cur-

rently on family joining visa, 2 years

working experience in oman as cus-

tomer care / sales co-ordinator, im-

mediate joining seeks suitable place-

ments. Contact no. (968) 95573205

/ 95949230 / 95800792

ACCOUNTANT, Indian male,29

years.8 years experience .Presently

working in Oman as a Senior Ac-

countant with oman Driving license.

NOC available seek suitable opportu-

nity. GSM: 97705854

29 years Indian female (MBA-

Finance) with 4+yrs experience

(Oman) in Accounts, seeking suit-

able placement in Accounts/Admin.

Contact:96141283

B-tech Electrical engineer with more

than 2 years of experience in erection

and designing of HT and LT electri-

cal systems. Seeking for suitable

job in Muscat. Contact:98269366.

Email:sijincleetus@gmail.com

INDIAN MALE 23 YEARS, B. Tech

(Electrical & Electronic) having

4 years working experience as an

Electrical site Engineer. Looking for

suitable job in Oil Gas Sector or in

related industries. #98045482

Indian male , 14 yrs Experience in

maintenance & Supervisor in hotel

fi eld ( Electrical . Ac Mechanical &

Plumber ) N O C available

mob : 95 25 36 40 . email =

hareeshma24@yahoo.com

Indian male 28YRS, 7Years exp. in

Architectural & structural Draughts-

man & 3d visualization, looking for a

suitable Post GSM: +971551965944.

Email:aboosufi yan@gmail.com

Indian, male, 41 years, CA Inter,

Persuing CA fi nal. Now on express

visa. 7 years of Experience in OMAN

as Finance and Accounts Manager in

Trading , Construction and Firefi ght-

ing industry. 21 Years of exp. seeking

suitable Managerial positions. No

visa issues. Immediate joining.

#98469311

Email:sebin30@yahoo.co.in

Window & split unit A.C servicing

& maintenance. Contact: 93769089

/ 95323517

General cleaning, cleaning contract,

cleaner supply. Contact: 95764290

/95113037

A/C Maintenance & servicing,

fridge, washing machine & dish

washer repairing, painting & clean-

ing services, electrical & plumbing.

Contact: 99447257 / 97014234 /

24504281

Muhammad Arshad has lost Paki-

stani Passport no: DP 1919111. Finder

please handover to ROP.

DAILY GUIDES AT U R D AY, A U G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5 C7

Dolphin Watch, Dhow Cruise

with Buffet, & Land Tours Al- Ainain

Marine Tours Contact- 98029602,

92808636

RENT A CAR

TOURS

Car for rent. Contact: 92516090

Silver Car, car for rent. Contact:

96166155 / 98402662

Butter cup rent a car competitive

prices new car 2016.

Contact: 97249449

SITUATION WANTEDCARGO

SITUATION WANT-CARGO

TRANSPORTATION

Transport. Contact: 93637289

Transportation available.

Contact 95570429

Transport. Contact: 95190627

Transportation. Contact: 91310107

House shifting, transporting.

Contact : 94229277

Pick & drop anytime in Al Khuwair.

Contact 99764307

Transportation. Contact: 96538078

Transportation. Contact:98522914

Transportation. Contact 99508282

Transportation. Contact: 98244078

Pick & Drop any time. Contact:

97014786

DAILY GUIDE Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461Fax: 24812624

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com

C8 S AT U R D AY, A U G U S T 8 , 2 0 1 5