Founded 1975 . Volume 40 No. | Pages . Baisas 200 . Subscription OMR63 | ISO 9001:2008 Certifi ed Company | Chairman/Editor-in-Chief: Mohamed Issa Al Zadjali | Printed & Published by Muscat Media Group

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All the activities of Muscat Fes-tival 2016 will end on Saturday.The festival began on January 15, amid a signifi cant turnout of visitors from inside and outside the Sultanate. >A3

February 13, 2016 4 Jumada Al Ula 1437 AH

SATURDAY

301 28

We aimed to establish an educational system as fast as we could, because we knew that Knowledge is Light and light is the opposite of darkness; we must all remember the words of Almighty God when He said: Are they the same - those that know and those that do not know?

To the students of Sultan Qaboos University, 2000

FROM THE WORDS OF HIS MAJESTYTHE SULTAN

‘His Majesty’s Wisdom’

CURTAINS ON MUSCAT FESTIVAL TODAY

US, Russia agree on Syria cease-fi re, Alawi takes partMUNICH: Russia and the US agreed on Friday during a six-hour long meeting on the cessa-tion of hostilities ‘within a week’ in Syria to revitalise the peace negotiations and to stop the exo-dus of civilians from the country.

In the meeting, the Omani delegation was led by Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Minister Re-sponsible for Foreign Aff airs.

The meeting was chaired by UN special envoy to Syria’s cri-sis, Steff an de Mistura, and Eu-ropean and Middle East foreign ministers were also present. US Secretary of State John Kerry

said the cease-fi re covers all parts of Syria and the results would be monitored with the actual condi-tion on the ground.

The agreement would not ap-ply to IS and Al Nusra Front, he added. Russian Foreign Minis-ter Sergei Lavrov said the Syrian government and the opposition have to take necessary steps as Russia and the US would super-vise on the arrangements made the for cessation of hostilities. This truce represents a fi rst step towards a more sustainable cease-fi re, Lavrov added. —ONA

See also >A4

C E S S A T I O N O F H O S T I L I T I E S

TARIQ AL HAREMItariqh@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: There is an urgent need to teach Arabic in a more creative way to arrest the wan-ing interest of younger Omanis in their native language.

The younger generation of Omani children can be seen and heard communicating in English, more often than in their mother tongue, and one of the reasons for this could be the Arabic teaching methods employed by teachers, said Basma Al Said, founder of Whispers Serenity. She is also a mental health counsellor and psychotherapist.

Interest of studentsArabic classes, she said, are sim-ply not creative enough to be able to sustain the interest of the students.

“English classes were always fun; they were more creative. Arabic classes are a bit ‘dry’ and some of the teachers are not crea-tive in that sense,” she noted.

On why the English has be-come a more popular language among Omani youth in recent years, she answered, “I would

honestly say (it is because of ) the way Arabic classes are taught, based on my experience as a stu-dent in both government and pri-vate schools.”

A college student, Ali Al Zadjali also believed a teacher’s approach is as important as the lesson itself saying, “It (teaching approach) is what got me interested in Eng-lish, especially when it comes to grammar. The main problem is that the examples portrayed (in Arabic) never feel related so we lose interest.”

Some Arabic teachers are known to make their students memorise their work, rather than understand the same and discuss it with classmates and teachers.

“The way it’s taught has sadly always been like that,” Al Said added.

Infl uence on childrenStory books have always had a great infl uence on children and the youth—from the quality of books to the way they are written. The story books infl uence chil-dren. But the quality of Arabic books need to be more attractive, said Al Said, adding, “You can see this yourself if you buy a book even as an adult.”

She explained that she herself did not consult Arabic books on the subject of her profession due to what she thinks is, “extreme amount of jargon and unattrac-tive approach to the topic.”

While she admitted that some authors have tried to bring about a marked improvement in qual-ity, she believes they still have a long way to go.

Ali Al Zadjali also felt that his preferred language, like many others, is English while justifying it by saying, “It’s the international language and despite the fact that I believe Arabic is an important language to maintain fl uency in, English will help me communi-cate better.” >A3

Young Omanis are

losing interest in

Arabic because

they fi nd it a bit

‘dry’ while English

appears to them

creative, interesting

and full of fun

Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah,

Minister Responsible for Foreign

Aff airs. -AFP

B5Care for an elderly person

Young entrepreneur shares his success story at forumMOBIN MATHEW BLESSONmobinmathew@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: Lack of trust and sup-port are the main problems faced by young creative minds said a young entrepreneur from Ireland.

Jordan Casey, the youngest app developer in Europe, was in Oman to attend the .Open Minds thought leadership forum. He said he wanted to encourage oth-er young people to get involved in technology.

Casey is a self-taught pro-grammer, and after convincing his grandmother to buy him an HTML handbook when he was aged nine, he created his own site and a few years later, sought a new challenge, deciding to develop an iPhone app.

With the help of a fi ctitious let-ter from an “Apple executive” that he sent to his own parents, after which they duly bought him an Apple Mac, his journey as a young entrepreneur began.

“I developed my fi rst app just for experimentation,” he told the audience at .Open Minds.

“I didn’t see any commercial

value in it. But then it went on to become the number one app in the App Store (UK games chart) and I realised it could be a huge business opportunity for me,” he added. Since then, Casey has built a number of apps.

After his teacher lost a log book, full of a year’s worth of exam re-sults and attendance records, he was inspired to create a cloud-based service for teachers to store

such records more securely.Casey’s latest project, Kid-

sCode, is an attempt to get young people involved in programming.

Despite his huge success, Casey admitted that it’s not always been easy for him.

“Being a young entrepreneur has its downsides. Sometimes people don’t take you seriously. But you also get a head start,” he said. >A3

. O P E N M I N D S

WHIZ-KID: Jordan Casey of Ireland is the youngest app developer

in Europe. Photo– Shabin E

A statement from Royal Oman Police

In response to a front-page news on Times of Oman issue of Sunday, February 7, 2016, attrib-uted to an offi cial Royal Oman police source that a plan was be-ing considered to hand the run-ning of all school buses in Oman to a public transport company, Royal Oman Police would like to deny any relation to such state-ment, as we are not the authori-ty that determines who runs the school students transport.

Royal Oman Police ensures its commitment to enforce the road safety rules on the trans-port of the school students.

Times of Oman welcomes this clarifi cation and regrets any con-fusion caused. It wishes to state it is confi dent of its facts that such a plan is under discussion by the appropriate authorities.

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

App ‘How to give Zakat’ wins awardTimes News Service

MUSCAT: Mobile app ‘How to give Zakat’, developed by Oman’s Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Aff airs, got the Best Government Mobile Service Award in the social aff airs category.

The award was announced on the last day of the World Govern-ment Summit, under the patron-age and in the presence of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Mak-toum, vice-president and prime minister of the UAE, and ruler of Dubai.

Zakat is a form of religious tax and is considered one of the Five Pillars of Islam. With this app, the user can learn about all forms of ‘Zakat’ through its application in-cluding Zakat of money, gold, silver, stocks, bonds, fruits, livestock, real estate and others. The application also off ers prompt service to see the price of gold, Zakat and opin-ions related to this Islamic ritual.

It’s an annual award which aims to motivate government agencies to provide creative and innova-tive solutions in the fi eld of smart phone applications.

B E S T G O V E R N M E N T M O B I L E S E R V I C E A W A R D

GHUBRA GLOWThis is not a clip of the Hollywood blockbuster but it

is a picture of Ghubra taken by Pradipta Chakraborty

during evening. The spic and span roads and build-

ings are sparkling with street lights on.

PAKISTANPakistan army arrests about 100 militants

2Pakistan army said it had arrested 97 militants involved in several major

terror attacks and who were now plotting to free a top Al Qaeda leader from jail. >A7

MARKET‘Gulf needs new financing options’

3Ratings agency S&P said that Gulf sovereigns, as well as the region’s banks

will have fewer resources at hand to support the region’s infrastructure rollout plan. >B1

OMANOman, India boost strategic relations

1Oman and India are working to intensify their relations in many fi elds, the Indian Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission said. “Oman and India have a good framework and strategic

partnership; we are looking to intensify what we are doing,” Gloria Gangte said on board the Indian Coast Guard Ship Sankalp. >A3

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

MUNICH: Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Minister Re-sponsible for Foreign Aff airs took part in the inaugural annual security meeting on Saturday.

Twenty presidents, 60 foreign and defence minis-ters and a number of offi cials

representing more than 50 countries took part in the conference. The conference will address a number of is-sues mainly ways to confront terrorism, the situation in the Middle East and the Syrian refugees’ crisis among other issues. —ONA

Meeting on security issues

Calls for overhaul of Arabic teaching

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OMAN

.Open Minds forum concludesSpeakers for

the fi nal day of

the .Open Minds

included Ghassan

Fadhil, caricaturist

Matt Ryder, Col

Abdulwahab Al

Balushi besides

Jordan Casey,

the youngest app

developer in Europe.

Here are some

images from the

leadership forum

taken by Shabin E

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Children need support to achieve goals: Casey

“Being young and knowing what you want to do, there’s nothing stopping you. If you know what you want to do, don’t let your age hold you back,” he added.

According to him, children are creative and fearless. A voice of support is enough to achieve his goal.

Speakers for the fi nal day of the .Open Minds were Ghassan Fadhil, caricaturist Matt Ryder, Col. Abdulwahab Al Balushi and a Stand-up comedian, along with Jordan Casey.

Fadhil taught the audience how

to deal with social emotional in-telligence while caricaturist Matt Ryder shared his technique for crafting a caricature.

Successful individualAccording to Al Balushi, to be-come a successful individual eve-rybody should believe in them-selves.

Every day is an opportunity to learn, he explained in his speech.

According to him when an in-dividual opens his mind, all pos-sibilities will open to you and he also gave advice to the audience to

be themselves and not to become a copy of others.

The central theme of this year’s .Open Minds forum was, “Open mind will open doors.”

The two-day event was pre-sented by Areej Vegetable Oils and Derivatives (AVOD).

Other event partners included the Ministry of Tourism and In-formation Technology Authority (ITA)/e-Oman.

Merge and Al Wisal were the radio partners and the Times of Oman and Al Shabiba were the media partners.

Y O U N G A C H I E V E R

< FROM

A1

‘Arab curriculum needs to improve’

Off ering a simple solution, Al Said stated, “The way Arabic is taught should be creative. It’s a big issue so it needs a lot of work. The entire syllabus needs to change; the quality of books needs to be better.”

Curriculum improvement

Adding to Al Said’s solution, Mohammad Mostafa, a retired teacher, who is well known for his teaching methods among the generations of students and has taught for 39 years in the Sultanate said, “The govern-ment has come a long way in education and has improved quite signifi cantly through the years, but the Arab curriculum is yet to reach the high stand-ard of quality as seen in other curriculums.”

‘Incite debate’“When I say the curriculum needs improvement, I mean the subjects that are taught need to interest students and incite de-bate among them.

“They will need subjects that they can relate to; not just about

the culture and tradition.”“I’m not saying studying cul-

ture and tradition should be eradicated from the curriculum, but we should not be afraid to teach modern subjects in which culture and tradition can be im-plemented within… the students will be more active and the infor-mation will stick to their minds,” he explained further.

He also said in order to strengthen the Arabic language, the student must know how to read and properly pronounce the Holy Quran, since it is “the basis of the Arabic language.”

Serious teachersAl Said also noted, “If you have a good teacher you will love the language and they can make it fun (to learn); but for some rea-son you have teachers that are too serious. Children become afraid of them.”

To preserve and promote the country’s native language, she said there is a need to improve teaching methods and enhance the quality of teaching materials so that the students stay inter-ested in the subject.

B E C R E A T I V E

< FROM

A1

Oman, India boost strategic relations

Staff Reporter

MUSCAT: Oman and India are in-tensifying their relations in a num-ber of fi elds, the Indian Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission said.

“Oman and India have a good framework and strategic partner-ship; we are looking to intensify

what we are doing,” Gloria Gangte told the Times of Oman on board the Indian Coast Guard ship Sankalp.

ICGS Sankalp, an advance off -shore patrol vessel, is on a visit to Oman as part of the fi nal leg of its visit to the region. It will remain here till February 16 for interac-tion with the Maritime Law En-forcement Agencies of Oman.

According to Gangte, the Joint Military Cooperation Committee between the Defence Ministries in the Sultanate and the Repub-lic of India, which convened here on February 8 and 9, discussed all aspects of bilateral defence and security cooperation.

Earlier, INS Tarangani and Shabab Oman had sailed from Muscat to Cochin, evoking memo-ries of the ancient India-Oman sea trade. Gangte said the two ships had sailed together to Cochin as part of the 60th anniversary of India-Oman diplomatic ties ce-menting the relationship between the two friendly countries.

According to the Deputy In-spector General of ICGS Sankalp, through this visit they are plan-ning to consolidate and enhance interactions between the Indian Coastguard and the Royal Oman Police Coastguard.

“We will identify areas of mutu-al interest while evolving a work-ing and professional relationship in the Maritime Search and res-cue, pollution response, anti-pira-cy, armed robbery and other Mari-time Law Enforcement activities to the ICG charter,” Mukul Garg, deputy inspector general, said.

“We also want to develop link-ages for sharing of information, expertise and training resources for mutual capacity building and enabling more safe and secure seas around us,” he added.

According to the Embassy of-fi cials, this is the third visit by an Indian Coastguard ship to Oman in the last three years.

The Sankalp has 16 offi cers and 97 personnel on board, and

it is based in Mumbai, under the administrative and operational command of Coast Guard Region-al Commander (West), Mumbai.

The 105 metre-long Sankalp, equipped with state-of-the-art navigational and communication sensors, is capable of deploying Advanced Light Helicopters and Chetak helicopters.

Operating at normal speeds, the ship has an endurance of 6,500 nautical miles and can remain at sea for 25 days without refuel-ling, thus sailing up to her motto—“Extending the Horizon.”

The Sankalp has been exten-sively deployed on the western seaboard from Gujarat to the Ker-ala coast, the International Mari-time Boundary Line patrol, and for surveillance off the Lakshad-weep and Minicoy group of Is-lands. The word ‘Sankalp,’ means determination, which is symbolic of the Indian Coastguard’s will and motivation to strive for excel-lence.

ICGS Sankalp’s visit

aims to consolidate

and enhance

interactions between

Indian Coastguard

and Royal Oman

Police Coastguard

MILITARY COOPERATION: Indian Coast Guard Ship Sankalp, an advance off shore patrol vessel, is on a visit to Oman as part of the fi nal

leg of its visit to the region. – AR Rajkumar

Waljat College fetes graduate achieversTimes News Service

MUSCAT: Eleventh convocation of the Waljat College of Applied Sciences (WCAS) was held on February 9 at A’ Noor Plaza, Madi-nat Al Sultan Qaboos in academic partnership with Birla Institute of Technology, India.

The function was held under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamdan Al Tobi, adviser to the ministry of education.,

Dr. Omar bin Abdul Muniem Al Zawawi, founder of WCAS, Dr. Manoj Kumar Mishra, vice chan-cellor, Birla Institute of Technol-ogy, India, Dr. Zuhoor Abdullah Salim Al Khanjari, chairperson and members of Trustee Council, and Dr. S L Gupta, dean of Waljat College graced the ceremony.

Students who graduated with the highest academic performance in the fi elds of Management, En-gineering and Computer Applica-tions for 2014-2015, were awarded gold medals.

The dean felicitated the toppers with gold medals and certifi cates.

The recipients of the gold med-als were: Awatif Malik Abdullah Al Harthi; Hilal Said Abdullah Al Manwari; Mary Jose Pattara – MBA; Nawar Salman Mohammed Al Rawahi-BBA; Greeshma Vinod Kumar – BBA; Marwa Mohamed Nasser Al Jabri – BCA, and Khush-bu Bharat Bhatt – BE.

A total of 371 students received degrees and diplomas in their re-spective disciplines, of whom 295 were degree holders, 41 were di-ploma holders and 35 were post graduates.

The Best Project awards were presented to students from Man-agement, Engineering and Com-puter Applications, to motivate and inculcate a culture of research and innovation among undergrad-uate students of the college.

The project titled “Mobile En-gagement, mobile addiction and FOMO: A Study on College Stu-dents in Oman”, guided by Mithun Srivastava, Department of Man-agement, was declared the best project for 2014 and 2015. Stu-dents who received this award were Adeeba Suman Siddiq, Sachin Dominic DSilva, Intisar Khalfan Massalam Al Habsi and Intisar Zayid Ali Al Siyabi.

Hajer Ali Juma Al Madaiwi and Ameera Jusab from Department of Engineering received the best pro-ject award for the topic ‘Extraction of Biodiesel from animal fat’ guid-ed by Atiya Tabassum.

Marwa Mohammed Nasser Al Jabri and Harpreet Kaur from Department of Computer Science received the best project award for the topic “Furniture Shopping” guided by Sinymol. The winners were awarded certifi cates of ap-preciation and a cash award.

G R A D U A T I O N C E R E M O N Y

CONVOCATION: The eleventh convocation of the Waljat College of

Applied Sciences(WCAS) was recently. Photo-Supplied

Curtains on Muscat Festival today

MUSCAT: All the activities of Muscat Festival 2016 will end on Saturday. The festival began on January 15, amid a signifi -cant turnout of visitors from in-side and outside the Sultanate, and an array of events and ac-tivities geared to diff erent seg-ments of the society throughout the month.

A number of Arab and for-eign countries participated in the festival, which presented programmes and performances at various locations of the fes-tival including Al Amerat Pub-lic Park and Al Naseem Public Park, Oman Automobile Club Al Madina Amphitheatre and the Cultural Club. -ONA

M O N T H - L O N G

A4 S AT U R DAY, F E B RUA RY 1 3, 2 0 1 6

REGION

Major powers agree to plan for ‘cessation of hostilities’ in Syria

MUNICH: Major powers agreed on Friday to a cessation of hostilities in Syria set to begin in a week and to provide rapid humanitarian access to besieged Syrian towns, but failed to secure a complete ceasefi re or an end to Russian bombing.

Following a marathon meeting in Munich aimed at resurrect-ing peace talks that collapsed last week, the powers, including the United States, Russia and more than a dozen other nations, reaf-fi rmed their commitment to a po-litical transition when conditions on the ground improved.

At a news conference, US Secre-tary of State John Kerry acknowl-edged the Munich meeting pro-duced commitments on paper only. “What we need to see in the next few days are actions on the ground, in the fi eld,” he said, adding that “without a political transition, it is not possible to achieve peace.”

Russian Foreign Minister Ser-gei Lavrov told the news confer-ence that Russia would not stop air attacks in Syria, saying the cessa-tion of hostilities did not apply to IS and Al Nusra, which is affi liated with Al Qaeda. IS militants con-trol large parts of Syria and Iraq. “Our airspace forces will continue working against these organisa-tions,” he said.

The United States and Euro-pean allies say few Russian strikes have targeted those groups, with the vast majority hitting Western-backed opposition groups seeking to topple the government of Presi-dent Bashar Al Assad government.

Lavrov said peace talks should resume in Geneva as soon as pos-

sible and that all Syrian opposition groups should participate. He add-ed that halting hostilities would be a diffi cult task.

But British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said ending fi ghting could only succeed if Rus-sia stopped air strikes supporting Syrian government forces’ ad-vance against the opposition.

Diplomats cautioned that Rus-sia had until now not demonstrat-ed any interest in seeing Assad

replaced and was pushing for a military victory.

Interminable confl ictRussian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday raised the spectre of an interminable confl ict or even a world war if powers failed to negotiate an end to fi ve years of fi ghting in Syria, which has killed 250,000 people, caused a refugee crisis and empowered IS militants.

Syria’s main opposition group

welcomed the plan by the world powers on Friday. It cautioned, however, that the agreement must prove to be eff ective before it joins political talks with government representatives in Geneva.

Russia’s intervention on the bat-tlefi eld on behalf of Assad since last October has swung the mo-mentum in the fi ght between the government and opposition forces. The latest advance over the past two weeks has seen government

forces and allies rout rebels and come close to encircling Aleppo, a divided city half held by rebels for years. The fi rst peace talks in two years between belligerents in Syr-ia fell apart last week before they began in the face of the advance by Assad’s forces.

A senior French diplomat said: “The Russians said they will con-tinue bombing the terrorists. They are taking a political risk because they are accepting a negotiation

in which they are committing to a cessation of hostilities. If in a week there is no change because of their bombing, then they will bear the responsibility.”

Washington is leading its own air campaign against IS militants in eastern Syria and northern Iraq, but has resisted calls to in-tervene in the main battlefi elds of Syria’s civil war in the west of the country, where the government is mostly fi ghting against other insurgent groups.

The communique of the plan reached in Munich said the pow-ers had established a ceasefi re task force, under the auspices of the United Nations, co-chaired by Russia and the United States, and including members having gov-ernment and opposition groups.

The communique added that sustained humanitarian aid would begin this week to various be-sieged areas of Syria.

“Humanitarian access to these most urgent areas will be a fi rst step toward full, sustained, and unimpeded access throughout the country,” the joint commu-nique added.

The Assad government for years has repeatedly promised hu-manitarian access but has rarely lived up to its promises. Western-backed rebels have also been ac-cused of that.

Meanwhile, Assad said he would keep “fi ghting terrorism” while peace talks took place and saw a risk of Saudi and Turkish inter-vention in the Syrian confl ict, ac-cording to an interview with news agency AFP published on Friday.

Assad said he would retake the whole country, but that this could take a long time, according to ex-cerpts of the interview published on AFP’s website.

The interview, which AFP said was Assad’s fi rst in about two months, took place in the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Thursday before the conclusion of talks in Munich where major powers agreed to a ceasefi re in Syria to begin in a week. In the interview, Assad also said that the purpose of the battle for Aleppo was to cut the route north to Turkey. Assad said that the country’s “problem” could be solved in less than a year if opposition supply routes from Turkey, Jordan and Iraq were cut, AFP reported. — Reuters

United States, Russia

and more than a

dozen other nations

reaffi rmed their

commitment to a

political transition

when conditions on

the ground improved

New app helps young Iranians avoid police patrolsDUBAI: A new smartphone appli-cation that helps Iranians dodge the country’s “police” is proving popular with the young tech-sav-vy population.

The Gershad app allows users who spot checkpoints set up by the morality police, who enforce dress and behaviour codes, to tag their location on a Google map with an icon of a bearded man, enabling others to steer clear of them. The app was blocked by the authorities soon after it was released for Android devices on Monday but many Iranians by-pass Internet restrictions by using a Virtual Private Network.

It is already trending on social media and has received almost 800 reviews on the Google Play app store, nearly all of them posi-tive, although Google Play does not show how many times Ger-shad had been downloaded.

‘Digital protest’Gershad is seen by some as setting a precedent for “digital protest” in Iran as elections loom and the country emerges from years if isolation following the lifting of international sanctions imposed over its nuclear programme. “Technology has created an amaz-ing opportunity to forge a coop-erative solution to common social problems,” Gershad’s secretive creators said in an email exchange with Reuters.

Gershad is a contraction of the full title of the Gashte Ershad (guidance patrol). “For years the morality police have been causing disturbances for Iranian women,” the Gershad team said. “Avoiding them in the streets, metro stations and in shopping malls is challeng-ing and tiresome.”

Iranian offi cials have not com-mented on Gershad but state broadcaster IRIB said the app had been written about on social me-dia and “networks opposed to the

revolution”. “This is an innova-tive idea and I believe it will lead to many other creative apps which will address the gap between soci-ety and government in Iran,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

Ghaemi said the app’s devel-opers were based outside Iran but had grown up in the country and experienced the problem fi rst hand.

“It’s really an indigenous prod-uct... these are the kind of people who have been stopped at check-points,” he said.

Turning to technologyGershad is an example of how young Iranians are turning to technology to circumvent checks on their everyday lives.

“It’s showing a trend in digital protest... I see it as a precedent for future apps of its kind,” said Amir-Esmaeil Bozorgzadeh, a Dubai-based consultant for app makers in the Iranian market.

Gershad does not describe itself as a form of protest, but its web-site describes it as a “social move-ment” and asks: “Why should we give up the most basic right of choosing what clothes to wear?”

An online video advert shows patrol members, rendered as dopey-looking cartoon fi gures, fi dgeting impatiently at a check-point as the app diverts the fl ow of pedestrians away from them.

“Wander freely!” says the tag-line. Smartphone messaging ap-plications are popular in Iran, where half of the population is aged under 25.

Tight controlYoung Iranians use apps to share news and jokes that would not be allowed in the tightly controlled traditional media.

A recent poll suggested that about 20 million Iranians, around

a quarter of Iran’s population, use Telegram, a messaging app with a focus on privacy and security.

Many young Iranians hope the lifting of the nuclear-related sanc-tions last month will be accom-panied by an easing of cultural restrictions, particularly if an election on February 26 ushers in a more moderate legislature.

But hardliners in the establish-ment have moved to block any re-laxation of the social rules, warn-ing of the “infi ltration” of Western culture. Thousands of moderate and reformist candidates have been barred from standing in the elections.

Gershad’s interactive map at times shows dozens of check-points in Tehran and other Iranian cities but also fl ags checkpoints in London and Los Angeles, showing the potential unreliability of data provided by an online community.

Some Iranians have expressed concern on social media about Gershad’s digital security in a country where the authorities frequently arrest social media users for sharing what they re-gard as “immoral” or “subver-sive” content.

The developers said they were working to better detect false re-ports. They said their servers were based outside Iran and that they do not collect user information when users report checkpoint locations.

Gershad’s website says it uses Psiphon, a Canadian-made app designed to circumvent censor-ship. Psiphon co-founder Michael Hull said his company’s technol-ogy allows users in Iran to open an encrypted connection to Ger-shad’s servers outside the country, making their activity harder to block or detect. “Once they have that tunnel, the traffi c that’s go-ing back and forth is just mixed in with the rest of the Psiphon net-work,” Hull said. — Reuters

T E C H O N O L O G Y

Three Iraqi presidential guards kidnapped

BAGHDAD: Three members of Iraq’s presidential guard were kid-napped on Friday near a check-point run by militiamen close to the northern district of Tuz Khurmatu, police and a local offi cial said.

Four other people, including a government employee, were killed in separate incidents, the police said, in and around the district - about 175km (110 miles) north of Baghdad - where violence has fl ared in recent months.

Kurdish and Turkmen paramili-tary forces have been uncomfort-able allies against IS since driving the ultra-hardline militants out of towns and villages in the area in 2014 with the support of US-led airstrikes.

The tensions risk further frag-menting Iraq as it struggles to con-tain IS, the biggest security threat since a US-led invasion toppled former leader Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Eff orts to push back the insur-gents have been complicated by sectarian and ethnic rivalries, including a contest for territory which the government in Baghdad claims, but the Kurds want as part of their autonomous region in the north of the country.

The presidential guards were travelling in a private vehicle to-wards Baghdad when they were taken by unknown gunmen around midday, said Mahdi Taqi, a mem-ber of the provincial council in Salahuddin where the district is located. Police from Tuz Khurma-tu confi rmed the details.

Separately, gunmen opened fi re on a car carrying guards from the electricity ministry, killing one and critically wounding four oth-ers, police said. — Reuters

N O R T H E M T O W N

BRUSSELS: US Defence Secretary Ash Carter said on Friday he expected both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to send special operations forces to Syria to help local opposition fi ghters in their drive to retake the city of Raqqa from IS.

Carter did not disclose how many commandos he expected them to deploy nor the timing of those deployments.

But he suggested they would play a major role taking back Raqqa, the IS’s defacto capital, from the militants.

“We’re going to try to give opportunities and power to... particularly Arabs in Syria who want to re-seize their territory back from IS, especially Raqqa,” Carter told reporters travelling with him in Brussels.

Carter made the remarks after talks with his UAE and Saudi counterparts on Friday and Thursday respectively.

Four months of Russian air strikes in Syria have helped Syrian President Bashar Al As-sad claw back territory from re-bels fi ghting government forces. Saudi Arabia had concentrated its military eff orts over the last year on the confl ict in Yemen, where it is leading a coalition battling Houthi fi ghters who control the capital, Sanaa.

Carter said on Thursday Saudi Arabia committed to expand its role in the air campaign and the United Arab

Emirates said it would restart its participation. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries took part on Thursday in the largest gathering so far of defence min-isters from the US-led coalition against IS, which Carter hosted at NATO headquarters in Brus-sels. Carter said the group col-lectively approved a campaign plan that aims to recapture the two main IS strongholds of Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq, as well as grappling with

the group’s spread beyond its self-declared caliphate.

That plan, however, does not include deployment of large-scale foreign ground forces to Iraq and Syria and Carter stressed that coalition com-mandos were meant to bolster local forces, not replace them.

“We’re not looking to substi-tute for them, any more than we’re looking to substitute for the Iraqi forces. But we are looking to enable them strongly

and help them organise them-selves,” he said.

The US has already deployed a small group of special opera-tions forces to Syria and Carter said other allies, beyond Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, were considering commando deployments. “Some don’t even like to acknowledge the operations of special forces, but there are a number of them. And we are the organiser of them,” Carter said. — Reuters

US expects Saudi Arabia, UAE to send special operations forces

CRUCIAL MEETING: US Secretary of Defence Ash Carter, left, meets Saudi Arabia’s Defence

Minister Mohammed bin Salman on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO defence ministers at the

NATO headquarters in Brussels, on Thursday. – AFP

TRENDING: A handout photo shows a new Iranian app, Gershad,

that aims to help users circumvent the Iranian “morality police”

by having users upload the locations of their mobile checkpoints.

– Reuters/gershad.com/Handout

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INDIAS AT U R DAY, F E B R UA RY 1 3, 2 0 1 6

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India, UAE resolve to expand cooperation to fi ght terror

NEW DELHI: Resolving to ex-pand cooperation in combating terrorism, India and the United Arab Emirates(UAE) on Friday said states must control activities of ‘non-state actors’ and cut all support to terror outfi ts operating from their soil while strongly con-demning use of religion to justify, support and sponsor the menace.

The two countries came out strongly against use terrorism as an “instrument of state policy” and called for concerted global ef-forts to deal with the menace, in a joint statement issued a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan held extensive talks.

Bolster strategic tiesIt said the two sides agreed to bol-ster strategic ties by continuing to work closely together on a range of security issues, particularly on counter-terrorism, maritime se-curity, and cyber-security, while reaffi rming their respect for the “bedrock principles” of national sovereignty and non-interference.

The UAE, which has a sover-eign wealth fund of around $800 billion, has also expressed keen

interest in boosting trade ties with India, particularly in investing in sectors like oil, railways, roads, ports and shipping.

On dealing with terrorism, they deplored the “use of double stand-ards” in addressing the challenge and agreed to strengthen coopera-tion in combating terrorism both at the bilateral level and within the multilateral system.

Modi and Al Nahyan also dis-cussed the growing phenomenon of religious intolerance and radi-calisation and pitched for sincere eff orts to check these, besides agreeing to take steps to contain these bilaterally.

“They reiterated their condem-nation for eff orts, including by states, to use religion to justify, sup-port and sponsor terrorism against other countries, or to use terrorism as instrument of state policy.

“They further deplored eff orts by countries to give religious and

sectarian colour to political issues and pointed out the responsibility of all states to control the activi-ties of the so-called ‘non-state ac-tors’, and to cut all support to ter-rorists operating and perpetrating terrorism from their territories against other states,” the state-ment said.

The threat posed by IS also fi g-ured in talks on Thursday.

It said the two sides agreed to work together towards the adop-tion of India’s proposed Compre-hensive Convention on Interna-tional Terrorism in the United Nations. The joint statement said the Indian side expressed deep appreciation for the solidarity ex-pressed by the UAE on the issue of Pathankot terrorist attack.

“The two sides noted that the Indian and UAE models act as strong bulwarks against the forces of extremism and radical-ism,” it said, adding the leaders

also agreed to establish an annual Policy Dialogue to discuss issues related to peace and security in their region.

Both the countries had on Thursday signed seven MoUs pro-viding for cooperation in a range of areas such as cyber security, infrastructure investment and insurance.

In the area of defence coopera-tion, the two sides renewed their commitment to strengthening the existing cooperation in training, joint exercises, and participation in defence exhibitions, as well as in identifying opportunities to co-operate on production of defence equipment in India.

“The two leaders agreed to en-hance cooperation to strengthen maritime security in the Gulf and the Indian Ocean region, which is vital for the security and prosper-ity of both countries,” the state-ment said.

Modi also thanked the Crown Prince for the UAE’s support for India’s candidature for perma-nent membership of a reformed UN Security Council.

Assessing that their ties have never been stronger and express-ing satisfaction at the direction of engagement, the two leaders announced their decision to en-shrine the new strategic direction of the UAE-India ties in a Com-prehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement.

On the trade front, the two sides examined various tariff and non-tariff barriers, and agreed to enhance the trade of prior-ity commodities and expand the access of goods and services in both markets.

The joint statement said Modi invited the UAE to be a partner in India’s growth story, and to par-ticipate in projects creating mega industrial manufacturing corri-dors, including the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor as well as the Digital India and Startup India programmes.

InvestmentTalking about various initiatives, including signing of an MoU to fa-cilitate investment by UAE com-panies in India’s infrastructure sector, the two sides described them as important steps towards reaching the $75 billion target for UAE’s investments in India.

Modi and Al Nahyan also dis-cussed possible expansion of air routes in the civil aviation sec-tor and agreed to convene talks between their respective civil aviation authorities in the fi rst quarter of 2016.

Agreeing to expand ties in the oil sector, they welcomed the in-tention of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and the Indian Strategic Petroleum Re-serves Ltd (ISPRL) to sign an MoU on establishing a Strategic Petroleum Reserve in India, and resolved to conclude negotiations in the near future. - PTI

In a joint statement

the two countries

came out strongly

against use terrorism

as an ‘instrument

of state policy’ and

called for concerted

global eff orts to deal

with the menace

BELL RINGING CEREMONY: Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, left, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi

and UAE’s deputy commander-in-chief of the armed forces and Ashishkumar Chauhan, right, Chief

Executive Offi cer of BSE Ltd, pose after hitting the ceremonial gong at the Bombay Stock Exchange

in Mumbai, India, on Friday. - Reuters

Abducted executive of Snapdeal reaches home

GHAZIABAD: A female Snapdeal executive, who was abducted from a Metro station here, has managed to reach home from Haryana where she had been taken, police said, adding her friends circle is being investigated to ascertain if anyone known was involved in the crime.

Deepti Sarna, 23, was abducted on Wednesday night while re-turning home in from the Vaishali Metro station. On Friday morning, she called up her father Narendra Sarna and told him that she had managed to fl ee from her abduc-tors and had reached the New Del-hi Railway Station.

Her grandfather K.N. Sarna said that at 6am, she called up from an unknown mobile number and told him that she had managed to fl ee and asked him to pick her up from the station. The father, who immediately rushed to Delhi, also informed police.

“On family information, we also reached the railway station and escorted her to her residence. The SSP also met the girl at the border and inquired briefl y,” said Superintendent of Police, City, Salman Taj Patil.

The woman and her family were asked to come with them to Vaishali police post where the SSP questioned the victim and allowed them to go later.

Police are also screening the ex-ecutive’s personal life and friend circle. - IANS

P R O B E O N

Students union president Kanhaiya arrested, sparks outrageNEW DELHI: A university stu-dents union president was arrested on Friday in a sedition case over an event at the varsity’s campus against hanging of parliament at-tack convict Afzal Guru, sparking massive outrage among students and criticism from non-BJP parties which dubbed it as an “emergency-like” situation.

While Union Ministers Smriti Irani and Rajnath Singh advocated strong action against those who were involved in the alleged “anti-India” act, the students continued with their protests on the campus for the third day on Friday, saying they are being “witch-hunted”.

The students said their parents are asking them to quit the uni-

versity in view of the “vitiating atmosphere” at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

The arrest of JNU Students Un-ion president Kanhaiya, a day after police fi led a sedition and criminal conspiracy case on complaints from BJP MP Maheish Girri and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Pari-shad (ABVP) members, was later remanded in three-day police cus-tody by a court.

After the arrest, varsity students and teachers protested outside the Vice Chancellor’s offi ce see-ing intervention into the manner in which students are being com-pared to “terrorists” and picked up from campus by policemen in plain clothes. Equating the events with

an “emergency-like situation”, CPI-M Sitaram Yechury said, “The question is that do you know who raised the slogans? Take action ac-cording to law against them. When you don’t know then how are you arresting all the student leaders?

“...Male police are going and raiding girls’ hostels. Only dur-ing the emergency we saw this happen. That is the sort of Emer-gency State they are reducing our country to again. This time it is the BJP,” he said.

Questioning the fi ling of sedi-tion case, Congress leader Kapil Sibal asserted that it was a very se-rious charge and the government should think before taking action.

On its part, the JNU administra-

tion said the university holds the right to free debate but condemns its use as a platform for activities that violate the Constitution and the laws of the land.

“While the JNU community upholds the right to free debate on campus, the university strongly condemns its use as a platform for activities that violate the Con-stitution and the laws of the land.However, there could be aberra-tions where fringe sections misuse the freedom provided,” the newly appointed Vice Chancellor Jag-deesh Kumar said.

The Vice Chancellor also ap-pealed the students to go beyond this incident and help the campus return to “normalcy”. - PTI

S E D I T I O N C A S E

PROTEST: Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad activists protest

against an event at JNU supporting Parliament attack convict Afzal

Guru in New Delhi on Friday. - PTI

Deepti Sarna

A6

INDIAS AT U R DAY, F E B RUA RY 1 3, 2 0 1 6

It is a big blow (to Congress) and a slap on the face of those who had gone to the court with a plea that the case be quashed. The apex court has maintained that they will face trial as accused in the case

Shrikant Sharma, National secretary of BJP

Relief to Gandhis National Herald case trial to continueNEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday provided relief to Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul, giving them exemption from personal ap-pearance in the trial court in the National Herald case and expung-ing certain observations of the High Court but refused to interfere with criminal proceedings before the lower court.

Allowing their plea for exemp-tion from personal appearance before the trial court, which is scheduled to take up the matter on February 20, the apex court added a rider that it would be open to the magistrate at any stage to seek their personal appearance as and when required.

Though BJP leader Subrama-nian Swamy, who is the complain-ant in the case, contested the plea for exemption from appearance, a bench comprising justices J. S. Khehar and C. Nagappan said that “in the peculiar facts and circum-stances of this case and the posi-

tion occupied by the petitioners, we are of the view that the pres-ence of the petitioners before the trial court would cause more in-convenience than convenience.”

“Petitioners shall be exempted from personal appearance and it is needless to say that it will be open for the trial court to seek their presence at any stage if and when their presence is required,” the court said.

The bench, which passed the or-der after hearing senior advocates Kapil Sibal, A. M. Singhvi and R. S. Cheema, who were appearing for Gandhis and others, and Swamy, said, “So far as determination by the Delhi high court in rejecting the prayer for quashing the pro-ceedings against the petitioner, we do not fi nd justifi cation for inter-fering with it.”

Before dictating the order, the bench told Sibal that he will have ample opportunity to raise all these issues before the trial court.

Sibal had on Thursday sought

urgent hearing of the matter before a bench headed by Chief Justice T. S. Thakur which had assigned the matter for hearing before the pre-sent bench.

The High Court had on De-cember 7, 2015 not only refused to quash the summons issued to the Congress leaders, but had also

made observations on their “ques-tionable conduct” on how they took control of the publication.

Subsequently, the Gandhis and others had appeared before a Pa-tiala House court on December 19 last year when they were grant-ed bail.

The High Court, while refusing

the plea of Gandhis and others, had said, “Questionable conduct of pe-titioners needs to be properly ex-amined at the charge stage to fi nd out the truth and so these criminal proceedings cannot be thwarted at this initial stage.”

Along with the Gandhis, fi ve other accused — Suman Dubey, Moti Lal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Sam Pitroda and Young India Ltd--had challenged the summonses issued to them by a trial court on a complaint by Swamy against them for alleged cheating and misappro-priation of funds in taking control of the now-defunct daily.

Swamy had accused Sonia, Ra-hul and others of conspiring to cheat and misappropriate funds by just paying Rs 5 million by which Young India obtained the right to recover Rs 900.25 million which the AJL had owed to the Congress party.

Sonia, Rahul, Vora (AICC Treas-urer), Fernandes (AICC General Secretary), Dubey and Pitroda

were summoned under sections 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) read with section 120B (criminal con-spiracy) of the IPC.

According to Swamy’s com-plaint, all of them were directors of Young India Ltd (YI), a company that was incorporated in 2010 and which took over the “debt” of As-sociated Journals Ltd (AJL), the publisher of National Herald.

Meanwhile, BJP on Friday termed the Supreme Court order in the Herald case as “a slap on the face” of the Congress leadership after it refused to interfere with the criminal proceedings against them before the lower court.

The party also observed that the exemption given to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her deputy Ra-hul Gandhi from personal appear-ance in the trial court was condi-tional as the Supreme Court ruled that the trial court can summon them when required. -PTI

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

IN THE DOCK: Congress President Sonia Gandhi and party Vice

President Rahul Gandhi leave the Patiala House Courts after a hear-

ing in National Herald Case in New Delhi, recently. - PTI fi le

No need for panic, have faith in Indian economy: Jaitley

NEW DELHI: Amid continued nervousness in the stock and cur-rency markets, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday sought to calm the frayed nerves saying in-vestors must keep faith in the “in-herent strength” of Indian econo-my rather than getting swayed by the global headwinds.

He also stressed that the gov-ernment will soon announce more steps to empower public sector banks to recover bad loans that are hurting their profi tability.

Talking to reporters at the Fi-nance Ministry a day after the stock market benchmark Sensex saw a massive 807-point plunge and rupee hit its 29-month low, Jaitley said the government will continue to pursue policies to support growth amid global slowdown.

“...It would be a part of prudent

investment reaction that the in-herent strength of Indian econ-omy is kept in mind by investors, rather than react disproportion-ately to what the global develop-ments are,” Jaitley said.

The minister said that a major sell-off in global markets has cre-ated a chain reaction impacting the markets world over including in India.

After Thursday’s bloodbath, the Sensex lost further ground on Friday morning but managed to close with a gain of 34.29 points at 22,986.12 after domestic institu-tional investors pitched in to buy shares in afternoon trade.

Rupee ended on Thursday 45 paise lower at 68.30 against the US dollar, but saw some strength coming back on Friday.

“There could be several reasons, which are predominantly outside

the country — The uncertainty in the Fed rate or what’s happening in Europe or the slowdown antici-pated in China. Now, these global factors will remain and will have to be tackled globally by those economies.

“... there need not be any exag-gerated panic in India for the rea-son that India as an economy even in the midst of global slowdown has clearly stood out to maintain a 7.5 per cent plus growth rate,” Jaitley said.

On the mounting NPAs of public sector banks, he said the government is considering more steps to empower banks to recov-er bad loans and the problem will be contained soon.

“The bankruptcy law is under active consideration. The govern-ment is also considering some further steps to empower banks

to be in a position to recover these monies (non- performing assets).I think it is a problem which will soon come under control,” said Jaitley, who will present his sec-ond full budget on February 29.

Observing that there is a prob-lem of NPAs, Jaitley said, “These are the loans, which have earlier been given by these banks and as a part of prudent policy it has been considered the balance sheets should be transparent. The banks are going to take all steps possible to recover the loans from debtors.”

As on September, the gross NPAs of public sector banks have increased to Rs3.01 lakh crore, as against Rs2.67 lakh crore in March.

“I think it is (NPA) a problem which will soon come under con-trol. In any case, the volume and extent of the problem should not

be exaggerated so as to lead to any panic,” he said.

On fund requirement of the banks, he said the government will provide the required capital as they have an important role to play in supporting the Indian economy and their support is also required for further growth.

Last year, the government had announced a revamp plan ‘In-dradhanush’ to infuse Rs70,000 crore in state-owned banks over four years, while they will have to raise a further Rs1.1 lakh crore from the markets to meet their capital requirements in line with global risk norms Basel III.

As per the blueprint, PSU banks will get Rs 25,000 crore this fi scal and also in the next fi scal.

Besides, Rs10,000 crore each would be infused in 2017-18 and 2018-19. - PTI

Finance Minister

Arun Jaitley stressed

that the government

will soon announce

more steps to

empower public

sector banks to

recover bad loans

that are hurting

their profi tabilityCALMING NERVES: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley interacts

with the media on the volatility of the share market in New Delhi

on Friday. - PTI

NEW DELHI: Rising for the sixth straight month, retail infl ation touched a 16-month high of 5.69 per cent in Janu-ary, mainly due to costlier food prices.

Retail infl ation, as meas-ured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), stood at 5.61 per cent in December 2015 and 5.19 per cent in January 2015. The pace of retail price rise in January 2016 is the

highest since 6.46 per cent in September 2014.

Food infl ation, as meas-ured by Consumer Food Price Index(CFPI), quick-ened to 6.85 per cent in the fi rst month of 2016, govern-ment data showed on Friday.

Retail prices of ‘cereals and products’ inched up by 2.19 per cent in January, from 2.12 per cent in Decem-ber 2015. -PTI

Retail infl ation hits 16-month high in January at 5.69%

Jashodaben fasts for slum dwellers

MUMBAI: In a development that took many here by surprise, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s wife Jashodaben on Friday joined members of an NGO on a day-long token hunger strike in support of slum dwellers here.

Jashodaben — whose arrival was not known even to the local police — was fl anked by fi ve Na-tional Security Guard comman-dos as she joined ‘Good Samaritan Mission’ non-governmental or-ganisation’s volunteers to demand a halt to demolitions of slums in Mumbai during the monsoon.

“Every year, we witness the inhuman spectacle of hundreds of slums being demolished just before or during the monsoon and people being thrown out in the streets. We are demanding that the authorities concerned should put a stop to this practice,” Brother Peter Paul Raj, Good Sa-maritan Mission founder and ex-aide of Mother Teresa, said at the protest venue.

Jashodaben sat on the token hunger strike for a few hours be-fore departing without much fan-fare. - IANS

D E V E L O P M E N T

Bihar BJP vice president shot dead in Bhojpur, driver injuredARA (Bihar): Bihar BJP vice pres-ident Visheshwar Ojha was on Fri-day shot dead by unidentifi ed as-sailants in Bhojpur district while returning from a wedding.

Ojha, who had unsuccessfully contested Assembly election in 2015 from Shahpur constituency, was fi red at by gunmen when he was returning after attending the ‘baraat’ at Parsaura village in Bi-har. The incident took place be-

tween Sonvarsha and Parsaura vil-lage under Shahpur police station of Bhojpur. Ojha’s driver and an-other person accompanying him were seriously injured in the fi ring.

Ojha was taken to Shahpur re-ferral hospital where he died dur-ing treatment, the hospital’s in-charge Dr Ajay Kumar said, adding a medical board comprising three doctors had been formed to treat him. The injured are being treated

at Sadar hospital and doctors have declared them out of danger.

Angry supporters of the slain BJP leader heckled Bhojpur SP Navin Chand Jha when he visited the hospital where Ojha died.

State BJP president Mangal Pandey told reporters in Patna that the party is giving 72 hours to the state government for arrest-ing Ojha’s killers, failing which it would call for a state-wide agita-

tion on the slide in law and order in the state.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Ku-mar is “holding meeting for con-trolling crime but the fact is crimi-nals have gone out of control”, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said in a statement in Patna.

The three-day high level meet-ing held by Kumar to tone up law and order situation ended on Fri-day in Patna. Ojha’s murder has

come close on heels of killing of Vaishali district LJP leader Bri-jnathi Singh who was shot dead near Kachhi Dargah locality of Patna on February 5. Lok Janshati Party leader Chirag Paswan hit out at Secular Alliance government alleging that “in whichever gov-ernment RJD chief Lalu Prasad is a part, such incidents would take place as he is known for giving pa-tronage to criminals.” - PTI

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

SOLIDARITY: Prime Minister

Narendra Modi’s wife Jashoda-

ben joined Good Samaritan Mis-

sion’s token hunger strike for

slum dwellers at Azad Maidan,

in Mumbai on Friday. - IANS

Visheshwar Ojha

A7

PAKISTANS AT U R DAY, F E B R UA RY 1 3, 2 0 1 6

Six suicide bombers had been enlisted in the attack plan, in addition to 19 involved in facilitating it

Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa, Military spokesman

Military foils jailbreak plan, 97 Al Qaeda, other militants held

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has ar-rested 97 Al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militants, including three commanders, in the southern city of Karachi and foiled a planned at-tack to break US journalist Daniel Pearl’s killer out of jail, the army said on Friday.

The men are accused of involve-ment in major attacks on two Pakistani air bases, the Karachi airport, several regional intelli-gence headquarters and on police installations between 2009 and 2015, the military said. The LeJ’s Naeem Bokhari and Sabir Khan, as well as Farooq Bhatti, deputy chief of Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcon-tinent (AQIS), were captured by Pakistani forces in recent raids, military spokesman Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa said.

“Our conclusion is that all of the terrorist groups are trying to coop-erate with each other in order to carry out terrorist attacks,” he told a news conference.

The LeJ and AQIS had been working “in collusion” with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, also known as the Pakistani Taliban,

Bajwa added. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is a hardline group whose sectar-ian ideology is closely aligned with IS, as it wants to kill or expel Pa-kistan’s minority community and establish a theocracy.

Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcon-tinent was formed by global Al Qaeda chief Ayman Al Zawahiri in September 2014, and is one of dozens of militant groups, some aligned against Pakistan and oth-ers against its neighbours, that op-erate in the country.

Pakistan has been under do-mestic and international pressure to crack down on all such groups, and launched a renewed operation against some of them in June 2014.

Bajwa declined to give details of the raids, including their timing.

Several of those arrested, in-cluding Bokhari, were in the ad-vanced stages of planning a jail-break attempt on the Hyderabad Central Jail, Bajwa said.

Khalid Omar Sheikh, who kid-napped and killed the Wall Street Journal’s Daniel Pearl in 2002, is being held at that jail and was to be released during the raid, he said.

Six suicide bombers had been enlisted in the attack plan, in addi-tion to 19 involved in facilitating it, Bajwa said. More than 350kg (772 lb) of explosives had been recov-ered from a building believed to be a hideout, he said.

The attackers planned to raid the prison compound with two vans fi lled with explosives, and had a list of about 35 prisoners they planned to kill, Bajwa said, displaying pen-cil sketches of the prison allegedly made by the militants.

They had a separate list of about 100 prisoners, including Sheikh, whom they were supposed to re-lease, he added.

Video images of the militants’ hideout showed blue plastic bar-rels fi lled with explosives, washing machines that had been used to transport arms and ammunition, long lengths of detonating cord and dozens of ball bearings.

The footage also showed sev-eral rifl es that Bajwa said had been stolen from police in earlier targeted attacks.

“This plan was 90 per cent ready for execution,” he added. — Reuters

Terrorist groups

working in

collusion to carry

out attacks, says

military spokesman

Lieutenant General

Asim Bajwa as plan

to break US journalist

Daniel Pearl’s killer

out of jail foiled

Austerity takes back seat as 19 projects clearedISLAMABAD: Despite scarcity of resources, the federal govern-ment held two meetings within 72 hours to approve more than one and a half dozen new projects costing Rs54 billion, some of them cleared in violation of Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal’s own in-structions.

The Central Development Working Party (CDWP) – the body responsible for clearing the development schemes – met again on Thursday to take up seven development schemes costing Rs28.2 billion. In its Monday’s meeting, the CDWP cleared 12 schemes worth Rs26.4 billion.

The CDWP is holding meetings at a time when the federal govern-ment was already struggling to fi nance the earlier approved pro-jects due to limitations imposed by the International Monetary Fund. The approval comes at a time when there is a grave short-age of funds, raising questions over central planning.

TargetFor the current fi scal year 2015-16, the National Economic Coun-cil had approved Rs700 billion Public Sector Development Pro-gramme including Rs100 billion for security enhancement and Temporarily Displaced Persons (TDPs). Against the half-year target of Rs280 billion, actual de-velopment spending remained at Rs158 billion from July through

December, a reduction of Rs122 billion or 43 per cent.

According to standing instruc-tions of Planning and Develop-ment Minister Ahsan Iqbal, the CDWP will not approve any pro-ject that does not have allocation under the annual PSDP. However, Iqbal, in his capacity as Chairman of the CDWP, approved on Thurs-day three projects in violation of his own instructions.

He cleared Rs15.9 billion pro-ject for provision of coal convey-ing system from terminal to Rail-way Network at Port Qasim. The project was not part of the federal

PSDP 2015-16 approved by the NEC and the National Assembly in June last year. He also approved the Rs265.6 million worth project meant for enhancing informa-tion technology export through an industry support programme and Rs1.5 billion establishment of GSM network in Azad Jammu & Kashmir. Both projects, not part of the PSDP 2015-16, were cleared by the Minister in violation of his own instructions.

On Monday, the Minister had also cleared Rs72.3 million spe-cial project cell for Afghan pro-jects despite it being not part of

the PSDP. This project will be administered by the Ministry of Planning and Development. This also raises question over setting up a special desk when the minis-try can perform the task without incurring additional expenses.

During a press conference held on Monday after the meeting, Iqbal had defended the approval of the project, saying Rs72.3 mil-lion was a nominal amount.

However, he overran his own instructions and approved a roughly Rs16 billion project. The transport and communication section of the Planning Commis-

sion had some serious observa-tions against this project. It noted that in July last year, the Ministry of Ports and Shipping had gotten the Prime Minister’s approval at Rs4.2 billion at a total length of the system at 5 kilometre (Km).

However, just seven months down the line, the project cost in-creased by 278 per cent to Rs15.9 billion while the system length was reduced to 4.5 Km.

The project was aimed at trans-porting coal from the terminal to Railways and loading on the wag-ons for onwards transportation to Punjab.

The Minister’s instructions were not feasible, as these can only be implemented during the fi rst half of the fi scal year, said a senior ministry offi cial. His ar-gument was that if the Planning Ministry does not approve such projects during the January-June period of the fi scal year, next fi scal year’s PSDP will comprise of un-approved projects.

Former deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Dr Na-deemul Haque wrote in his blog that projects were often approved without due diligence, would sel-dom be completed on time, fre-quently had large cost overruns, focused on brick and mortar and their quality was poor.

He argued that consequently, the realised gains from projects were far less than what was origi-nally envisaged. — Express Tribune

S H O R T A G E O F F U N D S

Bacha Khan Universityto reopenon Monday

SHABQADAR: Bacha Khan Uni-versity will reopen on February 15, Monday after a closure of three weeks following a terrorist attack at the university which left at least 21 students dead.

The decision came during a meeting between the manage-ment and security heads at the campus on Friday. The university was closed after a terror attack on January 20 which left 21 students and a faculty member dead. It was opened on January 25 but was closed again for indefi nite period owing to inadequate security.

“The committee visited the campus prior to the meeting,” pub-lic relations offi cer Saeed Khalil Khan told The Express Tribune. The committee observed that walls and watch towers had been erected and CCTV cameras in-stalled with its centralised system improved, while local police was also on alert to provide security to the varsity.

The campus will also appoint more security guards in while training will be give to guards de-puted to strengthen security, Khan added. According to the vice chan-cellor, the university will also avail services of a psychiatric specialist to lessen the traumatic eff ects for the students. — Express Tribune

D E C I S I O N

THE SUSPECTS: Arrested suspected militants are seen in this still image taken from video on Friday. – Reuters/PTV via Reuters TV

TIGHT VIGIL: Policemen guard the central jail in Hyderabad, 160km (100 miles) from Karachi, in this

July 10, 2002 fi le photo. – Reuters Files

RAISING QUESTIONS: Realised gains from projects were far less than originally envisaged, said a

former offi cial. – Express Tribune

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Space race could lead to confl ictMichael Krepon

With China, Russia, and the United States fi ne-tuning anti-satellite (ASAT) war-fare capabilities, the third round of com-

petition to “seize the high ground” of space is well underway. This round is distinctive, because it has three contestants, whereas the fi rst and second rounds, which occurred during the Cold War, had only two. But, like its predecessors, today’s space race poses the risks of quick escalation and inten-sifi cation of confl ict among major powers.

A set of common-sense rules could help defuse and prevent confl ict in space. Unfortunately, Rus-sia and China seem uninterested in negotiating a code of conduct for responsible space-faring coun-tries. The fi rst space race began in 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the fi rst artifi cial Earth satellite. US president Dwight Eisenhower’s administration opted to leave Sputnik and its suc-cessors alone, recognising that the US could out-pace Soviet space programs and had more to gain from not destroying them.

Eisenhower’s successor, John F. Kennedy, ar-rived at the same conclusion. But he went a step further, joining with the Soviet Union to champi-on a United Nations resolution on cooperation in space. Kennedy’s eyes had been opened by a July 1962 US atmospheric nuclear test that inadvert-ently destroyed at least six satellites, including some belonging to the USSR.

A few months later, the Cuban missile crisis spurred agreement on a ban on atmospheric test-ing. In 1967, US president Lyndon Johnson and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev turned UN resolu-tions into the Outer Space Treaty, which marked the end of the fi rst military space competition.

The second round of competition emerged in the mid-1970s. Brezhnev’s Soviet Union tested a new type of ASAT weapon, and President Gerald Ford’s administration decided to respond in kind. Under president Jimmy Carter, the US tried diplo-macy to limit ASAT programs, but the superpow-ers couldn’t begin to agree on how to defi ne a space weapon. Then, in 1983, President Ronald Reagan’s administration launched its Strategic Defence Ini-tiative, which ratcheted up the competition. The second wave of competition ebbed in 1987, when Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to a treaty eliminating intermediate-range missiles, and end-ed when the Soviet Union dissolved.

The latest round of military competition in space began in 2001, when the US, under president George W. Bush, withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and demonstrated advanced space-enabled military targeting in its war in Iraq. At that time, Russia was in no position to compete. But the Kremlin gradually boosted investment in “coun-ter-space” capabilities.

China did the same, demonstrating a new “hit-to-kill” ASAT weapon system in 2007. China’s test, like the US atmospheric nuclear test in 1962, was highly damaging to the space environment, creat-ing a vast, indiscriminate, and lethal debris fi eld. In 2008, the US used a specially adapted sea-based in-terceptor missile to shoot down a malfunctioning US intelligence satellite just before its reentry into the atmosphere. The US now uses an unmanned miniature version of the space shuttle to practice “proximity operations”: approaching other satel-lites without harming them. Russia has launched three satellites for proximity operations. Chinese ASAT tests have succeeded to the point that they are now designed to miss their targets.

The third round of military competition in space remains less intense than the fi rst two, but it is gathering momentum. The question is how to de-fuse it. Russia and China support an international treaty to prevent the weaponisation of space. But their proposal has signifi cant drawbacks, includ-ing the same old diffi culty of agreeing on what con-stitutes a space weapon. Most space-related capa-bilities, like lasers and proximity operations, have both peaceful and military applications. Monitor-ing and verifying compliance is another challenge. And even if provisions could be agreed, ratifying and implementing a treaty could take decades, as with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. A simpler – though by no means easy – ap-proach would be to agree on a code of conduct for space. The good news is that the framework for such an international code – conceptualized by the Stimson Centre (which I co-founded) in 2002 – already exists, drafted in detail by the European Union. The bad news is that China and Russia, along with many developing countries, have voiced strong objections. Developing countries disap-prove of the EU’s attempt to avoid a UN-based drafting process. And they have balked at the draft code’s affi rmation of a national and collective right to self-defence – a right enshrined in the UN Char-ter. - Project Syndicate

Lessons to take in Hanumanthappa’s death Lance Naik Hanumanthappa’s death is occasion for people of India to not only express their gratitude but also to do some thinking. While the braveheart has set an inspiring example of courage and perseverance

to youth of the country, India must also en-sure that equipment is rovided to those like him who perform their duty of safeguarding the country in hostile terrain and weather, especially in Siachen, the world’s highest battleground, to maximise their survivabili-ty in such accidents. Though life of defence personnel is diffi cult the world over and death an everyday possibility, it need not be unnecessarily so. — Ramachandran Nair, Ruwi

Signals perfect just one month before World T20 tournamentThis refers to the story Oman heads to In-dia with win (February 10). Cricket lovers in Oman are not bothered whether West Indies is in trouble or Pakistan is waiting for Government clearance. Oman debut-ing in World T20 are focussing on leaving

a long lasting impression on the world stage. New teams like Oman will be eager to perform to their best and their fi rst test comes in Bangladesh, where they take part in the Asia Cup later this month. If they do well and their World T20 campaign will be more interesting. Signals are perfect. — Miranda D’Souza, Ruwi

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Maqbool says global recession aff ected economyMUSCAT: Maqbool bin Ali Sultan, Minister of Commerce and Indus-try, said yesterday that the industrial growth in the recent past has not reached the targeted level because of the global economic stagnation. “The global economic stagnation aff ected our economy as well during the fi fth fi ve-year plan period (1996 – 2000).” “The launch of a num-ber of gas-based projects were postponed considering the low prices of gas-based products.” Maqbool, in a statement after the meeting of Omani industrialists at Al Bustan Palace Hotel yesterday, said the situation has now changed, the prices began to improve and the indus-tries are setting in motion.

1945: UK’s Royal Air Force Bomber Command devastates the German city of Dresden with night raids by 873 heavy bombers. The attacks are joined by 521 American heavy bombers fl ying daylight raids.

1968: The US sends 10,500 more combat troops to Vietnam.

1970: General Motors is reportedly redesigning automobiles to run on unleaded fuel.

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The US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit has struck down

Maryland’s law regulating assault weapons, creating a split with the 2nd Circuit, which upheld similar

laws in New York and Connecticut.That split could, and probably

should, lead the US Supreme Court to take up and decide the issue.

NOAH FELDMAN

There are approximately 90,000 people incarcerated in the prisons

of Pakistan including men, women, juveniles, minors with their mothers

and so on. All provinces are faced with the problem of overcrowded

prisons. In Punjab, for example, with a capacity to house 21,527 inmates, there were 51,133 prison inmates.

ARSHAD MAHMOOD

Most fi nancial institutions, and all of the sophisticated ones, now use

factor models to measure their risk. Many also use them to optimise

their returns. For example, so-called smart beta investing

strategies, one of the most popular investing fads of the past decade, are mostly just the application of

factor models.

NOAH SMITH

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

A spotted leopard was found wandering inside a school in India’s Karnataka state.

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Maynmar transition talks hit power sharing hurdle

NAYPYITAW: The mood of good-will evident in early talks between Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar’s military over the country’s tran-sition to democratic government has soured, as tensions rise over how to divide up power and deal with the legacy of junta rule.

The apparent stalemate has forced Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) to push back the election by parliament of a new president to March 17, cut-ting close to the April 1 deadline when the new government is sup-posed to start its term.

While negotiations have been conducted amid tight secrecy, lawmakers say divisions emerged after the military put forward its list of demands to the incoming government last month.

Mistrust stokedThe appointment of ex-general Shwe Mann, now a key Suu Kyi ally, to a powerful advisory panel has also stoked mistrust, some say, because his insider knowl-edge could enable Myanmar’s new rulers to delve into the actions of the outgoing government.

“It seems like all of the mem-bers of the previous government are now panicking, so they try to use the military’s weight to protect themselves,” said a for-

mer senior lawmaker from the army-linked Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). Suu Kyi’s NLD won a landslide in Myanmar’s fi rst democratic elec-tion in a quarter of a century in November, kicking off a lengthy transition from the semi-civilian government that in 2011 replaced a junta that had run the country for 49 years.

That transition began with mutual handshakes and speeches about “national reconciliation”, but as the talks drag on the tone of public debate - and that of leg-islators speaking privately - has changed. In recent days, the NLD and the military have bickered via

the media over whether Myan-mar’s junta-drafted constitution, which bars Suu Kyi from becom-ing president, should be amended to let her take the highest offi ce.

Ye Htut, the outgoing Minister of Information and presidential spokesman, said Suu Kyi should respect the military as, essen-tially, the country’s second biggest party, and urged her administra-tion not to dwell on the issue of the presidency, instead focusing on economic reform.

Last week the NLD appointed Shwe Mann, a former speaker of the lower house who was purged from the USDP last year, as the head of the Legal Aff airs and Ex-

amination of Special Matters Commission, a powerful panel that advises on legislation.

This choice, some MPs say, could be problematic for former members of outgoing President Thein Sein’s government if the NLD decided to use the commis-sion’s expertise to try to amend laws or revisit contracts approved by his administration.

The issue of not raking over the past has been crucial in eff orts to establish a working relationship between Suu Kyi and her former foes in the military, which under the constitution retains a bloc of seats in parliament and control of key parts of the state apparatus.

When Suu Kyi met former junta leader Than Shwe in December she gave him assurances that the NLD would not focus on the past. In return, Than Shwe endorsed her as the future “leader” of the country.

Days before disbanding at the end of January, the parliament dominated by Thein Sein’s USDP passed a bill granting life-long immunity from prosecution to the president for actions taken in offi ce, sparking protests from hu-man rights organisations.

“That law only protects the president, but not his ministers,” said the former USDP lawmaker, who is also a member of Shwe Mann’s panel. He said the com-mission would look into recent budgets.

The military is demanding the positions of chief minister in Ra-khine, Shan and Kachin states and, crucially, Yangon, where the bulk of foreign investment is like-ly to concentrate as Myanmar’s economy grows at a rapid pace, two people briefed on the details of the talks said.

Both Shan and Kachin states are home to powerful ethnic armed groups involved in illicit activities ranging from drug pro-duction and smuggling to illegal jade mining.

Control over these states, which also include Special Regions - semi-autonomous fi efdoms with their own administrations and armies - is key for Suu Kyi, who has made a ceasefi re with ethnic armed groups her top priority.

China, which has important economic and strategic interests in Myanmar, is also anxious to protect its infl uence, Win Htein, one of the top NLD leaders in-volved in transition talks said.

“Chinese government repre-sentatives and business asso-ciations are coming to us all the damn time to talk about the presi-dent and business deals,” said Win Htein. — Reuters

Myanmar Parliament

vote on president

pushed back because

of slow negotiations

as military demands

four key chief

minister posts

Turkish military kills 27 Kurdish militants

ISTANBUL: Turkish security forces have killed 27 militants in the mainly Kurdish southeast, the army said on Friday, a day after the interior minister said security op-erations had fi nished in the town of Cizre where the confl ict has been focused.

The army said 16 fi ghters of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) had been killed in Cizre, near the Syrian border. It said it had retrieved the bodies of anoth-er 24 militants killed earlier, along with rifl es, machines guns and rocket launchers.

Another fi ve PKK guerrillas were killed on Thursday in the Sur district of the region’s largest city, Diyarbakir, and six in Hakkari province near the Iraqi border, the army said.

Operations completedTurkish Interior Minister Efk an Ala said on Thursday that security forces had completed their opera-tions against militants in Cizre af-ter weeks of fi ghting, raising hopes that a lockdown could be lifted.

More than 800 militants have been killed in Cizre and Sur since they were placed under a round-the-clock curfew in December, the army said.

The pro-Kurdish HDP, the big-gest party in the region, says 128 civilians have been killed during the curfews.

Authorities imposed the cur-fews in a bid to root out armed PKK militants who had dug trenches and erected barricades. The violence has forced thousands of local residents to fl ee.

A ceasefi re with the PKK col-lapsed in July, wrecking a 2-1/2 year peace process that had been seen as Turkey’s best chance at ending three decades of strife in the restive southeast.

About 40,000 people, mainly Kurds, have died since the PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984. — Reuters

S O U T H E A S T

Ousted Thai premier invites foreign media in bid to boost family’s profi leBANGKOK: Former Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra opened her home to foreign media on Friday in what analysts said was a bid to boost her family’s profi le ahead of a possible election next year.

It was Yingluck’s fi rst press conference for foreign journalists since her government was over-thrown by the military in 2014 and took place in defi ance of the junta’s ban on political activity.

Yingluck strolled through the vegetable garden at her mansion in northern Bangkok, pausing to pick some lettuce for the cameras in what she said was a “simple get together” with no agenda.

But Kan Yuenyong, an analyst at the Siam Intelligence Unit think-tank, said the family was laying the groundwork for a 2017 election campaign.

Housewife“What is simpler than a Yingluck in her garden presenting herself as a housewife and one of the peo-ple?” he said.

Yingluck, Thailand’s fi rst fe-male prime minister and sister of fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, swept to power in 2011. Shinawatra-backed parties have won every general election since 2001. In a country where the military has banned political

activity, the event was nothing if not political, said analysts, and an extension of a publicity cam-paign Thaksin and Yingluck are ramping up to reconnect with supporters. The Shinawatra fam-ily and the Puea Thai Party it backs are despised by Thailand’s military-backed royalist elite but they remain hugely popular in their traditional powerbase in the country’s north and northeast.

The generals running the

country have promised a 2017 election but critics, including political parties, fear that a mil-itary-backed draft constitution will weaken their infl uence and consolidate the military’s wide-ranging powers.

“We need to keep quiet and give the junta a chance,” she said, add-ing that she hopes the government will “do as it promised” and hold a general election.

Yingluck said she spends her

days tending to her vegetables, visiting temples and meeting friends. She regularly speaks to her exiled brother, Thaksin, who fl ed abroad in 2008 to avoid a jail sentence for corruption. “We were taught to be close through good times and bad,” she said.

Neither Shinawatra can run for offi ce but they will likely boost any Puea Thai Party campaign.

“I think I can do more than wa-tering plants,” said Yingluck.

Rice subsidy schemeShe was banned from politics un-til 2020 after a military-appoint-ed assembly found her guilty of mismanaging a multi-billion-dol-lar rice subsidy scheme.

Yingluck faces criminal charg-es over the scheme that could re-sult in a 10 year jail term.

She maintains her innocence. “We’ll try to prove ourselves to the court and to the public,” she said.

Many analysts think Puea Thai Party will still win the next gener-al election. “Thaksin and Yingluck don’t have to do much,” said Kan.

“They just have to present themselves to the public and some might think that during the Shinawatra administration Thai-land was more modern, especially compared to the current military administration which harks back to the 70s or 80s.” — Reuters

P O S S I B L E E L E C T I O N S I N 2 0 1 7

SOURING POLITICAL MOOD: Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, second right, walks along

with other lawmakers of National League for Democracy party as she arrives to participate in the fi rst-

day regular session of the upper house of parliament on February 3, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. – AP/PTI

LETTUCE FOR CAMERAS: Deposed Thai prime minister Yingluck

Shinawatra holds lettuce as she gives a tour of her vegetable gar-

den to mainly foreign media who were invited at her compound in

Bangkok on Friday. – AFP

A10

WORLD S AT U R DAY, F E B RUA RY 1 3, 2 0 1 6

The 84-year-old executive chairman of News Corp and 21st Century Fox Inc Rupert Murdoch and former supermodel Jerry Hall, 59, announced their engagement last month in a classifi ed advert in the Times newspaper, one of the papers his group owns.

China urges UNSC action to make North Korea pay price

MUNICH: China will back a UN Security Council resolution to make North Korea “pay the nec-essary price” for recent rocket launches, its foreign minister told Reuters on Friday, adding the goal was to get Pyongyang back to the negotiating table.

Wang Yi also said he was con-cerned by a possible US deploy-ment of its sophisticated THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area De-fense) missile defence system to South Korea, saying it could also be used to target China.

North Korea has been under UN sanctions since its fi rst nu-clear test in 2006.

It has conducted three more atomic tests since then, including last month’s, and numerous ballis-tic missile launches.

Washington and Beijing have appeared divided over how to re-spond to North Korea, with Wash-ington urging tougher sanctions and Beijing stressing the need for dialogue.

However, Wang told Reuters at

an interview in Munich that it was time for a “strong” resolution cov-ering a wide range of areas.

“(We) support the United Na-tions Security Council to take fur-ther steps and in adopting a new resolution so that North Korea will pay the necessary price and show there are consequences for its behaviour,” the minister said, speaking through an interpreter.

Great eff ortChina has insisted it is already making great eff orts to achieve denuclearisation on the “Korean peninsula” and has previously rejected any “groundless specula-tion” on its North Korea stance, following remarks from US offi -cials that China could do more.

The UN Security Council is dis-

cussing a new resolution. Diplo-mats say the Americans have been pushing for tough measures that go beyond targeting North Korea’s atomic weapons and missile pro-grams, while China wanted any future steps to focus on the ques-tion of nonproliferation.

When asked whether Beijing was ready to support stronger economic sanctions, Wang said the resolution would be wide-ranging, but its objective should be to curb Pyongyang’s eff orts to develop nuclear and missile technologies. “Sanctions are not the end, the purpose should be to make sure that the nuclear issue in the Korean Pensinsula should be brought back to the channel of a negotiation-based resolution,” he said. Tensions have been mount-

ing in the region and on Thursday North Korea said it was evicting all South Koreans from the jointly run Kaesong industrial zone, call-ing the South’s move to suspend operations, in retaliation for Sun-day’s rocket launch by the North, a “declaration of war”.

Talks next weekIn response to the launch Seoul is set to begin talks with Wash-ington as early as next week on deploying an advanced US missile defence system.

The discussions would focus on placing one Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) unit with the US military in South Korea after the North’s launch last weekend, a South Ko-rean defence offi cial told Reuters

on condition of anonymity. Wang said he was worried by the move and urged the United States to re-think its strategy.

“The facts are clear. The de-ployment of the THAAD system by the United States... goes far be-yond the defence need of the Ko-rean Pensinsula and the coverage would mean it will reach deep into the Asian continent. “This direct-ly aff ects the strategic security interests of China and other Asian countries,” he said.

He said Washington needed to clarify its motives. “It doesn’t require experts. Ordinary people know that the deployment of the THAAD system is not just to defend South Korea, but a wider agenda and may even serve the possibility of targeting China.” — Reuters

We support the UNSC

to take further steps

and in adopting a

new resolution so

that North Korea will

pay the necessary

price and show there

are consequences

for its behaviour,

said Chinese Foreign

Minister Wang Yi

Murdoch, Jerry to celebrate marriage at St Bride’s church

LONDON: Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and former supermod-el Jerry Hall will hold a marriage service next month at St Bride’s church on London’s Fleet Street, the spiritual home of British journalism.

The 84-year-old executive chairman of News Corp and 21st Century Fox Inc and Hall, 59, an-nounced their engagement last month in a classifi ed advert in the Times newspaper, one of the pa-pers his group owns.

The couple’s nuptials will be cel-ebrated on March 5 at the historic church, famed for its wedding-cake spire and designed by Chris-topher Wren who was also re-sponsible for the nearby St Paul’s Cathedral.

“He will be having a service to celebrate the marriage,” Claire Seaton from St Bride’s told Reu-ters. She said the actual wedding ceremony would take place else-where. The three-times-married media tycoon and Hall, the former longtime partner of Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger, got engaged in Los Angeles, where they had been attending Hollywood’s Golden Globes awards ceremony.

DivorceMurdoch divorced his third wife, Wendi Deng, a former executive at Murdoch-owned Star TV in China, in 2013 after 14 years, say-ing their marriage had been irre-trievably broken. Hall was married to Jagger for more than 20 years but in divorce proceedings in 1999 the British musician claimed they were never legally married.

There was no immediate com-ment from Murdoch’s spokesman, but Britain’s Guardian newspaper said the couple’s former partners were not expected to attend. Among the 150 or so guests would be Rob-ert Thomson, News Corp’s chief ex-ecutive and Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of his British media arm, the paper said. — Reuters

S E R V I C E

Three killed in mortar attack on UN base

BAMAKO: Suspected militants attacked a UN base in the north-ern Mali town of Kidal with mor-tars and machine guns on Friday, killing three peacekeepers and wounding 30, United Nations and separatist sources said.

The attack is a fresh sign of in-stability in the desert region that is home to hardline groups including Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) who have staged increas-ingly bold raids in recent months and have targeted the UN base several times. “At about 7am the MINUSMA base in Kidal was the target of a complex attack which, according to provisional fi gures, caused the death of three blue helmets and around 30 wounded,” Mahamat Saleh Annadif, the Mali representative of the UN secretary general, said in a statement. Eight mortar shells were fi red at the base and there was also gunfi re, said Ol-ivier Salgado, a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission, whose acronym is MINUSMA. — Reuters

M A L I

Greek police fi re tear gas at protesting farmersATHENS: Greek riot police fi red tear gas at farmers protesting against pension reform plans on Friday who hurled stones at the agriculture ministry in central Athens ahead of a major dem-onstration outside parliament scheduled for later in the day.

Under the planned reform of the pension system demanded by Greece’s international lenders, farmers face a tripling of their social security contributions and higher income tax. They have been blockading motorways across Greece for over three weeks.

Greece’s left-leaning govern-ment says the step is necessary to ensure future pensions for the group, whose benefi ts have so far been almost completely subsidised by the state. About 800 farmers from the island of Crete arrived in Athens early on Friday and rallied outside the agriculture ministry waving Greek fl ags and chanting: “They won’t make us bend”.

Riot police guarding the en-trance to the ministry fi red tear-gas to disperse farmers who hurled tomatoes and stones at the

building smashing windows and used shepherd’s crooks to repel police during the tense but brief scuffl es. More farmers were head-ing to the capital to join the main rally, which was scheduled for the evening and was expected to test Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s resolve to push through unpopu-lar reforms. Some of the farmers started setting up tents on Syntag-ma Square, the scene of many vio-lent clashes during anti-austerity protests over the past few years.

Police said they would not al-low farmers with tractors to drive into Athens. The pension reform is a key term of Greece’s bailout review, but has triggered anger among professional groups in-cluding lawyers, teachers, doc-tors and actors. Tsipras, who was elected last year promising to end austerity but was then forced to accept a third bailout in July, is feeling the pressure as he strug-gles to conclude a bailout review with lenders and also convince angry Greeks that their sacrifi ces will pay off . He has a tiny parlia-mentary majority. — Reuters

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

Presses to fall silent as The Independent goes online onlyLONDON: Britain’s The Inde-pendent newspaper is to disap-pear from news stands next month after its Russian owner said the 29-year-old title would only pub-lish online, in the starkest sign yet of the pressures weighing on the newspaper industry.

The paper launched by a group of journalists in 1986 with the slogan “Independent, it is - are you?” has become Britain’s highest-profi le casualty of the change in news reading habits brought about by the internet. From a peak of around 400,000 copies a day, circulation has fallen to little more than one-tenth of that fi gure, despite innova-tions like moving to a tabloid from broadsheet format and a period of splashing on radically diff erent sto-ries from its rivals.

A move to sell profi table sister ti-

tle i to Johnston Press, announced on Thursday, put the future for the print editions of the loss-making The Independent and Independ-ent on Sunday in doubt. “This de-cision preserves the Independent brand and allows us to continue to invest in the high quality editorial content that is attracting more and more readers to our online plat-forms,” said owner Evgeny Lebe-dev in a statement on Friday. “The newspaper industry is changing, and that change is being driven by readers,” added Lebedev, who also owns the free London daily, the Evening Standard. “They’re show-ing us that the future is digital.”

ESI Media, the commercial di-vision of the Evening Standard, The Independent, i, London Live and their digital platforms, said it would create 25 new digital con-

tent roles, launch a new subscrip-tion mobile App and continue to invest in quality journalism.

New editorial bureaux would open in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, and the US operation would be expanded. The Independ-ent’s last paper edition is expected to be on Saturday March 26 with the last Independent on Sunday on the preceding Sunday, March 20, ESI said. “The move announced to-day has no bearing on the status of the Evening Standard, which con-tinues to grow as a profi table and successful newspaper brand in its own right,” it added. It confi rmed that it will sell i newspaper to John-ston Press, subject to Johnston Press shareholder approval. “A sig-nifi cant number of employees are expected to move across to John-ston Press...,” it said. — Reuters

C H A N G I N G T R E N D S

TOUGH TALK: China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi and US Secretary of State John Kerry in Munich, Germany, on Friday. – Reuters

CLASH: Farmers clash with police amid smoke from tear gas shells in front of the Agriculture minis-

try in Athens, during a demonstration against the pension reform on Friday. – AFP

GOING DIGITAL: Copies of the British newspaper “The Independent” are arranged for a photograph in

London on Friday. The newspaper will become digital only, and its last print edition will come out on

March 26, owners ESI Media said in a statement. – AFP

SPOR S

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2016

Smith, Khawaja drive home Australia’s advantageWELLINGTON: Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja hammered home the advantage their bowlers had established when they took Australia to 147-3, a defi cit of just 36 runs, at the close of the opening day’s play in the fi rst test against New Zealand on Friday.

Australia captain Smith, who won the toss and sent New Zealand in to bat on a green Basin Reserve pitch, shook off some recent poor form to reach 71 before he was caught and bowled by Mark Craig.

Khawaja scored his fourth Test half century with 57 not out, while Adam Voges (seven not out) was bowled by Doug Bracewell in the fi nal over of the day only to survive because of a contentious no ball.

Television replays showed the delivery was clearly legal.

The tourists had earlier dis-missed New Zealand for 183, Josh Hazlewood and Peter Siddle re-ducing them to 51-5 in the 12th over and Nathan Lyon polishing off the tail after lunch. Hazle-wood fi nished with 4-42, Siddle took 3-37, while off -spinner Lyon grabbed 3-32 and the tea break was taken 10 minutes early when Trent Boult was caught at long on for 24.

“I thought we bowled really well as a unit,” Hazlewood told report-ers. “We’re in a pretty good position. If we can get another big partner-ship ... then that will be pretty good.”

Craig top-scored with 41 not out but the pitch appeared to have lost much of its bite by the end of New Zealand’s innings, which lasted 48 overs. Tim Southee, however, managed to get rid of both Joe Burns (0) and David Warner (5) to leave the visitors 5-2 in the third

over and with the sell-out crowd in full voice. Southee and Boult kept up the pressure on Smith and Kha-waja but when they scored 37 runs, from nine fours and a single, in 16 deliveries, the shackles were bro-ken and crowd silenced.

Smith was eventually dismissed

about 20 minutes before stumps when he hit the ball back to Craig to end the 126-run partnership.

“We have lost wickets in clumps on these types of wickets and I think they batted brilliantly,” Hazlewood added. “That partnership was very important at that stage of the game.”

The crowd began the day cel-ebrating McCullum’s milestone as he became just the third New Zea-lander to earn 100 test caps and the fi rst man in world cricket to achieve them in succession from debut. Australia, however, seized control of the match shortly after Smith won the toss and simply

bowled straight and waited for the ball to do just enough to catch the outside edge.

New Zealand’s fi rst seven wick-ets all fell to catches behind the stumps, but the last three, all Ly-on’s victims, were caught in front from mis-timed attacking shots.

“We would have liked a few more runs but moving forward the game is very nicely advanced,” Craig said. “I think if we had man-aged to get one or two more wick-ets at the end it would have been a pretty even day.” - Reuters

T E S T C R I C K E T

New Zealand 1st innings:M. Guptill c Smith b Hazlewood 18T. Latham c Nevill b Hazlewood 6K. Williamson c Nevill b Siddle 16H. Nicholls c Nevill b Siddle 8B. McCullum c Warner b Hazlewood 0C. Anderson c Khawaja b Lyon 38B. Watling c Nevill b Hazlewood 17D. Bracewell c Voges b Siddle 5M. Craig not out 41T. Southee c Hazlewood b Lyon 0T. Boult c Khawaja b Lyon 24 Extras (b-4, lb-1, nb-5) 10 Total (all out, 48 overs) 183 Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-38, 3-44, 4-47, 5-51, 6-88, 7-97, 8-137, 9-137, 10-183 Bowling: J. Hazlewood 14-2-42-4; J. Bird 10-1-52-0 (nb-3); P. Siddle 12-5-37-3 (nb-2); M. Marsh 6-1-15-0; N. Lyon 6-0-32-3

Australia 1st innings:J. Burns c Watling b Southee 0D. Warner c Watling b Southee 5U. Khawaja not out 57S. Smith c & b Craig 71A. Voges not out 7Extras (b-4, nb-2, w-1) 7Total (for 3 wickets, 40 overs) 147Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-5, 3-131To bat: M. Marsh, P. Nevill, P. Siddle, J. Hazlewood, N. Lyon, J. Bird Bowling: T. Southee 8-1-22-2; T. Boult 10-2-36-0; D. Bracewell 11-1-45-0 (nb-2); C. Anderson 2-0-9-0 (w-1); M. Craig 9-1-31-1

Umpires: Richard Illingworth and Richard Kettleborough TV umpire: Ranmore Martinesz Match referee: Chris Broad

S C O R E B O A R D

AFTER A GOOD DAY: Adam Voges, left, and teammate Usman Khawaja of Australia walk from the fi eld

at the end of the fi rst day’s play of the fi rst cricket Test match against New Zealand in Wellington. – AFP

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

Putting the ball in right place was enough, says HazlewoodWELLINGTON: Australia’s ploy to put the ball in the right spot and let a green pitch do the work for them has helped them take a fi rm grip of the fi rst test against New Zealand, fast bowler Josh Hazle-wood said after the fi rst day’s play.

Australia were 147 for three in reply to New Zealand’s fi rst innings of 183, with Hazlewood and Peter Siddle destroying the home side’s top order to set up their batsmen to capitalise on a Basin Reserve wick-et that got better to bat on.

Hazlewood fi nished with 4-42, while Siddle took 3-37 after they had exploited what seam assis-tance there was to reduce New Zea-land to 51-5 inside 12 overs, before Nathan Lyon mopped up the tail.

“It was just about putting the ball in the right areas and let-ting the wicket do the work,” Ha-zlewood told reporters. “There wasn’t a great deal of swing but there was a bit of seam movement throughout the whole day.

“I think while the ball is new it will still do a little bit, but once

that shine and hardness out of the ball has gone it’s quite a good wicket for batting.”

New Zealand had also started well when they bowled after tea, with Tim Southee reducing Aus-tralia to fi ve for two before a 126-run partnership between captain Steve Smith (71) and Usman Khawaja (57 not out) guided them into a strong position.

The visitors could have been in dire straits but Smith was dropped on 18 by Mark Craig at second slip and BJ Watling could not stump Khawaja, then on 34, from the off -spinner. “Looking back I probably owe the boys 50

runs, putting Smith down at sec-ond there,” Craig said. “No one likes dropping catches and that is pretty disappointing there personally. That’s the rub of the green,” he added of the poten-tial stumping. “Another day that could have gone to BJ.”

Craig, who top-scored for New Zealand with 41 not out, said while they would have liked to have scored more runs, they had learned a lot from the Australian bowlers and would need to emulate them when they return on Saturday. “Once they bowled that fuller length it was doing enough to go either way and take both edges,” he said. - Reuters

C R I C K E T

India bans Pakistani umpire Rauf

NEW DELHI: Pakistani um-pire Asad Rauf was handed a fi ve-year ban by the Indian cricket board (BCCI) on Friday over his involvement in an ille-gal betting scandal that blight-ed the 2013 Indian Premier League (IPL) season.

Controversy plagued the sixth edition of the lucrative Twenty20 league with former India paceman S. Sreesanth and two other Rajasthan crick-eters arrested on suspicion of accepting money to concede a fi xed number of runs.

All three were given life bans by the BCCI. The Chennai and Rajasthan franchises were subsequently suspended from the IPL for two years after key offi cials from both teams were found guilty of illegal betting.

The investigating Mumbai Police also named Rauf in the chargesheet but the umpire’s lawyer said his client had done nothing wrong.

“Mr Asad Rauf has been banned for a period of fi ve years from umpiring or playing or rep-resenting cricket in any form or anyway being associated with the activities of the Board and its Affi liates,” the BCCI said in a statement on Friday.

The 59-year-old, who last of-fi ciated an international match in the 2013, did not appear be-fore the BCCI disciplinary com-mittee and sent a written state-ment instead, the board added.

The panel found the umpire guilty of facilitating betting, disclosing inside information and receiving gift or payment that brought the game into disrepute. A Lahore-born fi rst class cricketer, Rauf has offi ci-ated in 49 Tests and 98 One-day Internationals. The BCCI ban does not extend beyond India. - Reuters

I P L S C A N D A LIndia level T20 series

RANCHI: India regained their winning touch with a spectacular all-round display as they thrashed Sri Lanka by 69 runs in the sec-ond T20 International to level the three match series here on Friday.

Shikhar Dhawan (51 off 25) smashed his maiden fi fty in T20 Internationals to fi re India to 196/6 and the home team’s strong batting eff ort came despite This-ara Perera’s hat-trick in the penul-timate over of the innings.

The other notable performances in the Indian innings came from Rohit Sharma (43 off 36), Hardik Pandya (27 off 12) and Suresh Raina (30 off 19). Sri Lanka could never recover from a poor start and ended at 127/9 in 20 overs.

The visitors made a mess of the steep chase by losing their fi rst three wickets for 16 runs.

Star spinner Ravichandran Ash-win struck in the fi rst legitimate ball of the innings with Dhoni pull-ing off a split second stumping to send back Tillakaratne Dilshan. Ashwin had started his spell with two wides. Old horse Ashish Nehra

had Seekkuge Prasanna on the very fi rst ball of his opening spell before inducing an edge from opener Danushka Gunathilaka to leave Sri Lanka tottering.

Chamara Kapugedera (32) and captain Dinesh Chandimal (31) shared a brisk 52-run stand for the fourth wicket before Ravin-dra Jadeja got rid of them in suc-cessive balls to dash all hopes of a Sri Lankan comeback. Dhoni dis-

played another quickfi re stump-ing to send Chandimal back in the dressing room.

Unlike the greenish deck for the fi rst T20 in Pune, the dry pitch here aided the strokeplay they are known for. Pacer Kasun Rajitha, who troubled the famed Indian batting on his international debut in Pune, proved to be expensive this time. The 22-year-old bowled short and wide on the very fi rst

ball of the match and Rohit com-fortably dispatched it to the point boundary.

Dhawan got going with a couple of delightful sixes. He fl icked pacer Perera over mid-wicket before sweeping spinner Sachithra Se-nanayake in the following over for another maximum. There was no stopping Dhawan after that as he got to his maiden fi fty in 22 balls.

Rohit did not mind watching Dhawan demolishing the opposi-tion bowlers from the other and by the end of six overs, India had to raced to 70 for no loss.

Sri Lanka badly needed a break-through to stop the onslaught of the dangerous opening duo and it was provided by pacer Dushmantha Chameera, who had Dhawan caught behind with a sharp and straight ris-ing ball.

The southpaw thoroughly enter-tained the Ranchi crowd with his cracking innings that comprised seven fours and two sixes.

Ajinkya Rahane joined Rohit in the middle but suddenly the boundaries were hard to come by with spinner coming into play on a dry surface. Rahane released the pressure by hitting con-secutive fours off medium pacer Dasun Shanaka.

The fi nal match of the three-match series will be played in Vi-sakhapatnam on Sunday. - PTI

Shikhar Dhawan (51

off 25) smashed his

maiden fi fty in T20

Internationals to

fi re India to 196/6

and the home team’s

strong batting eff ort

came despite Thisara

Perera’s hat-trick in

the penultimate

over of the innings

JUBILANT: Shikhar Dhawan celebrates his half century with Rohit

Sharma during the 2nd T20 match in Ranchi. – PTI

HAT-TRICK HERO: Sri Lanka

bowler Thisara Perera. – PTI

INDIAR. Sharma c & b Chameera 43S. Dhawan c Chandimal b Chameera 51A. Rahane c Dilshan b Senanayake 25S. Raina c Chameera b Perera 30H. Pandya c Gunathilaka b Perera 27M.S. Dhoni not out 9Y. Singh c Senanayake b Perera 0R. Jadeja not out 1Extras (lb-1, w-9) 10Total (6 wickets; 20 overs) 196Fall of wickets: 1-75, 2-122, 3-127, 4-186, 5-186, 6-186Bowling: Kasun Rajitha 4-0-45-0; Thisara Perera 3-0-33-3; Sachithra Senanayake 4-0-40-1; Dushmantha Chameera 4-0-38-2; Seekkuge Prasanna 3-0-21-0; Milinda Siri-wardana 1-0-6-0; Dasun Shanaka 1-0-12-0

SRI LANKAD. Gunathilaka c Dhoni b Nehra 2T. Dilshan st Dhoni b Ashwin 0

S. Prasanna c Yuvraj Singh b Nehra 1 D. Chandimal st Dhoni b Jadej 31 C. Kapugedera c Pandya b Jadeja 32M. Siriwardana not out 28D. Shanaka c Raina b Ashwin 27T. Perera c Rahane b Ashwin 0S. Senanayake lbw b Bumrah 0D. Chameera b Bumrah 0K. Rajitha not out 3Extras (w-3) 3Total (9 wickets; 20 overs) 127Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-3, 3-16, 4-68, 5-68, 6-116, 7-117, 8-119, 9-119Bowling: Ravichandran Ashwin 4-0-14-3; Ashish Nehra 3-0-26-2; Yuvraj Singh 3-0-19-0; Ravindra Jadeja 4-0-24-2; Suresh Raina 2-0-22-0; Jasprit Bumrah 3-0-17-2; Hardik Pandya 1-0-5-0Toss: Sri Lanka won the toss, chose to bowlUmpires: Vineet Kulkarni, Anil ChaudharyThird Umpire: C. NandanMatch Referee: Jeff Crowe

S C O R E B O A R D

A12

SPORTSS AT U R DAY, F E B RUA RY 1 3, 2 0 1 6

Nine international crews gear up for ‘the best ever’ EFG SATT 2016

MUSCAT: New teams, new route and a surprise or two are set to make 2016 EFG Sailing Arabia – The Tour (15-29 February) the best yet, according to crews who have arrived in Dubai in prepa-ration for the start of the 730nm sailing marathon around the Gulf on Monday.

With just a few days to set up their Farr 30 boats in readiness for the fi rst in port race at Palm

Jumeirah in Dubai on Monday, fol-lowed by the fi rst short leg to Abu Dhabi the next day, the talk is al-ready of which parts of the course will shake the fl eet up and which one of the nine contenders might take the coveted 2016 crown.

On past form, EFG Bank Mo-naco are the favourites having won in 2014 and last year but according to French skipper Sidney Gavi-gnet, his newly-assembled crew will have to work hard to maintain their ‘win’ record.

“I think this might be the best

EFG Sailing Arabia – The Tour yet because the standard is higher and there are some very good teams this year who are bound to give us a run for our money,” said Gavignet.

“I love this event because I like putting teams together and I like sailing in the sun but you have to remember I am quite out of prac-tice on the race course these days which gives the other teams a real chance.”

In particular, Al Mouj, one of the new Omani teams, skippered by Gilles Favennec, could spring a

surprise in the three in port races in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha since they are talented and experi-enced campaigners, Gavignet said, while the off shore legs will require concentration, patience and per-haps a bit of luck.

“You get a bad start on leg one and it is such a short leg that it will then be diffi cult to make up time. It is important to get a good start and to score early wins so you show the other teams who you are. But of course, our aim is to win overall!”

For Dee Caff ari and the girls

on Oman Airports-Al Thuraya, a forecast for light winds will off er a chance to settle in to roles and rou-tines during the fi rst 61nm leg.

“The forecast at the moment has some breeze forecast for Friday but at the weekend when racing starts for real, it looks light again.

“It is still too early to tell about the conditions for the fi rst leg to Abu Dhabi but at 61 miles that is just the warm up as Leg 2 and 3 are much longer. I welcome the warm up as it eases the girls into the rac-ing gently.

We have checked all the safety gear and set the rigs on our boats, collected the sails and cleaned the boat ready for action.

We checked all our sails and mast and instruments and have started to sail the boat as a race team.

“The weather so far has been glorious sunshine with a sea tem-perature of 21 degrees and the wind has been light between 6 and 9 knots, with a large swell left over from the windy conditions we have seen this week.”

Caff ari is resuming her role as the Oman Airports-Al Thuraya Women’s Team skipper after a four year break and is excited about the potential she sees among her crew.

“Every time I come back to see them, they are really nervous at fi rst and then they relax and sail as normal and so our training has been about them relaxing and us communicating as a team.

“They are excited and are look-ing forward to feeling more em-powered and taking more respon-sibility. That is what I am hoping to achieve with them. I am delighted to be back and am enjoying see-ing familiar faces again and I am looking forward to the racing as you can see from walking the dock, just how competitive this fl eet has become.

“Let the games begin!” she said.The action starts on Monday

with EFG Bank Monaco (MON), Oman Airports-Al Thuraya Wom-en’s Team (OMA), TU Delft Chal-lenge (NED), Team Averda (UK), Team Bienne Voile (SUI), Re-naissance Services (OMA), Team Mangold (GER), Al Mouj (OMA) and Team Zain (KWT) all chas-ing early points in the opening in port races.

With just a few days

to set up their Farr 30

boats in readiness for

the fi rst in port race

at Palm Jumeirah in

Dubai on Monday,

followed by the fi rst

short leg to Abu Dhabi

the next day, the talk

is already of which

parts of the course

will shake the fl eet

up and which one of

the nine contenders

might take the

coveted 2016 crown

PICTURE FROM THE PAST: Action from EFG Sailing Arabia The Tour 2015. – Supplied photo

FIFA election heats up as rivals slam InfantinoMIAMI: FIFA presidential can-didate Gianni Infantino’s plan for an expanded 40-team World Cup came under fi re from two of his ri-vals as the campaign to secure the top job at the corruption-hit or-ganisation heated up on Thursday.

Four of the fi ve candidates to re-place Sepp Blatter in the February 26 election in Zurich gave presen-tations to members of the CON-CACAF confederation, which governs the sport in North and Central America and the Carib-bean, at an airport hotel in Miami.

Normally such meetings take place behind closed doors but CON-CACAF offi cials allowed the media into the room for a rare taste of how the FIFA candidates make their pitch to the electorate -- the heads of national football federations.

The protocol in such occasions is usually for candidates to avoid public criticism of each other.

UEFA general secretary Infanti-no’s plan to create eight new spots in the World Cup was attacked by both Asian Football Confedera-

tion president Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa and former FIFA deputy general secretary Je-rome Champagne, however.

Salman gave a powerpoint presentation of his manifesto and when he discussed FIFA’s big-gest tournament, the words on the screen read “Promises of more World Cup spots during an elec-tion period are unprofessional”.

The Bahraini said any changes should be well explained and gain broad support. Champagne was sharper in his condemnation of In-fantino’s proposal.

“My programme is not smoke and mirrors,” the Frenchman said. “They are facts and not the kind of projects that are being thrown around like organising a World Cup with 40 teams when we know that is not the central issue for 150 federations around the world.

“We know that organising a World Cup with 32 teams is already so costly and so diffi cult. We know also that the international calendar is so complicated,” he added.

Infantino defended his plan. “Eight more countries would be in World Cup fever,” he said. “It would boost the competition and com-mercially it means more teams, more matches, more revenue”.

The Swiss’s proposal to mas-sively increase the money FIFA gives to individual federations for development and other projects was also criticised by Salman.

Infantino says he will ensure that half of FIFA’s entire revenue will be distributed to federations with fi ve million dollars over four years for each member associa-tion as well as $40 million over the same period for the regional confederations. “Whenever there is an election we hear a lot of prom-ises ... we have to be realistic in what we can achieve and what we can do,” said Salman, who said cash should be targeted at those who needed it most.

“Does Japan, China or Saudi Arabia need fi nancial support? I don’t think so. When we look at countries around the world, you can look at countries like Ger-

many, the U.K. or even the United States, I think they don’t need it as much as the smaller countries do.”

Infantino also hit back at those who suggested his plan to distrib-ute more resources was simply an election tactic. “I was criticised when I made these proposals, they said ‘Ah, you are trying to buy votes’,” he said.

While the candidates mostly stuck to explaining their mani-festo plans, they did engage in some more traditional politicking, tailoring their appeal to the CON-CACAF audience. Jordanian FA president Prince Ali Bin Al Hus-sein said scandal-plagued CON-CACAF, which has seen its last three presidents indicted as part of the U.S. Department of Justice in-vestigation, should not feel it was to blame for FIFA’s crisis.

“Your confederation is not the cause of FIFA’s problems it is a vic-tim of FIFA’s problems. The failure of leadership at the top of FIFA set the tone for the entire organisa-tion,” he said. — Reuters

F O O T B A L L

Upset victories for Siddhant, SuryaMUSCAT: J. Siddhant and M. Surya caused two major upsets in the boys under-12 singles at the ISC/Muscat Pharmacy Open Junior Tennis Tournament or-ganised by the Indian Social Club Muscat. The feat earned Sid-dhant and Surya a berth in the semifi nals of the boys under-12 singles. While J. Siddhant upset third seed Kapil Mansinghani in the quarterfi nals M. Surya sent fourth seed Amritya Singh crash-ing out of the event.

Siddhant opened his quarter fi nal encounter against Kapil on a positive note and broke Kapil twice for a 3-0 lead. Kapil seemed to have lost his way as Siddhant broke him again at love, held for a crucial 7-5 lead and broke Ka-pil again at love to send the third seed crashing.

In another quarterfi nal match, fourth seed Amritya Singh suf-fered the same fate when M.

Surya handed him a 8-4 defeat. Top seed Vivek Kolluru took his berth in the semifi nal after regis-tering a convincing 8-1 win over Abhinat Raghu in the quarterfi nal.

No. 1 seed in the boys under-18 singles, Abdullah Al Barwani sailed into the last eight stage with a comfortable 8-0 win over Ethan Maclure, second seed You-nis Al Rawahi also eased into the last eight after leading 7-0 over Sharon Raphel who retired with a twisted ankle, third seed Sub-ash Pillai defeated Muneer Al Rawahi 8-3.

Fourth seed Amaan Kazi was shown the exit by Zakariya Al Suleimani who scored a brilliant 8-1 victory.

Ayaan Malhotra edged to a 8-7 (7-5) win over Hassan Haider.Yash Tanna defeated Shlok Ail 8-4 to line-up a quarterfi nal clash against second seed Younis Al Rawahi.

I S C T E N N I S

BMARKE

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COMS AT U R DAY, F E B RUA RY 1 3, 2 0 1 6

CISCO SHARES JUMP AFTER SALES GROWTH FORECASTCisco said third-quarter sales may grow as much as four per cent from the preceding period, sending shares up 9.6 per cent to $24.68 at the close on Thursday in New York, the biggest single-day gain since May 2013. >B3

Thai Air to keep ‘uneconomical’ Airbus A340s groundedBANGKOK: Thai Airways Inter-national will continue to ground 10 Airbus A340s it hasn’t been able to sell because fl ying the four-engine planes isn’t worth it, even after fuel prices plunged more than 40 per cent in the past year.

“The fuel consumption is so uneconomical,” President Char-amporn Jotikasthira said in an interview in Bangkok on Thurs-day. “All new planes now have two engines that can fl y as long as the four engines, with much better fuel effi ciency.”

Besides trying to offl oad the planes, which were used previ-ously for long-haul destinations such as Frankfurt, the money-los-ing airline has cut routes and sold assets to bolster its balance sheet and operations. Thai Air also aims to increase the portion of revenue

from bookings on its own website to 30 per cent in the next few years, from 16 per cent now, Charamporn said. “We still have a lot of unfi lled seats, and need urgent action to spur demand for advance book-ings,” Charamporn said at his of-fi ce. “Promotions for bookings on our website are key to the com-pany’s future, because our current system is so inferior to other com-petitors.”

Online bookingsThe airline plans to introduce a new system in the second half of the year to make it easier and faster to book online, Charamporn said. It’s also in the process of sell-ing its holdings in three domestic hotels, including publicly traded Royal Orchid Hotel Thailand.

Shares of state-controlled Thai

Air have fallen 11 per cent this year through Thursday, compared with a 15 percent drop for the Bloomb-erg Asia Pacifi c Airlines Index. The stock, which declined 37 per cent last year, was down 1.2 per cent to 8.20 baht as of 12:23pm in Bangkok, poised for its lowest close since December 24.

“A swift sale of aircraft will of-fer much-needed funds for Thai Air to repay loans or make invest-ments,” Siam Tiyanont, an analyst at Phillip Securities (Thailand) in Bangkok, said by phone on Friday. “Its goal for increased online sales is probably too ambitious, because a previous attempt delivered very slow results.”

Thai Air relies heavily on agents and tour companies for ticket bookings, making it harder for the airline to expand sales on its own

website compared with budget carriers, Siam said.

Annual lossesThe airline has hedged 40 per cent of its 2016 fuel needs at a price that is “not bad,” with the remaining 60 per cent based on spot prices, Charamporn said.

Thai Air has reported losses since 2013 in the face of increased competition from budget and Mid-dle East carriers. An economic slowdown in China and Europe, the airline’s major markets, may renew concern about demand for full-service fl ights from business travelers, Charamporn said.

The carrier posted a loss of 18 billion baht in the fi rst nine months of 2015, compared to a def-icit of 9.2 billion baht in the same period a year earlier. — Bloomberg News

A V I A T I O N

Charamporn Jotikasthira. — Bloomberg News

‘Gulf needs new financing options for development’

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Ratings agency Stand-ard & Poor’s (S&P) said on Thurs-day that Gulf sovereigns, as well as the region’s banks will have fewer resources at hand to support the region’s infrastructure rollout plan over the next few years, espe-cially if oil prices decline further or remain low for longer.

“This is one reason why Gulf countries are starting to look at al-ternatives, such as public-private partnerships,” said S&P credit analyst Karim Nassif in the re-port entitled, “To Pay For its Big

Infrastructure Bill, the Gulf May Have to Look at Innovative Forms of Finance,” which was published today.

Capital spendingS&P also estimated that Gulf sovereigns’ overall capital spend-ing over the next four years will be $480 billion, which includes GCC countries: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. “We estimate that Gulf governments spending on pro-jects alone—including infrastruc-ture contracts awarded over the

2016 to 2019 period—could cost about $330 billion. Taking this and other research into account, we estimate that about $50 billion out of the $330 billion, we think, will be spent on projects that will be allocated specifi cally for infra-structure (including transport-related projects),” S&P said.

“This compares with our es-timates of about $604 billion in projects (including $100 billion of infrastructure projects) that will need funding through 2019. The diff erence between our estimates of capital spending on projects

and project contracts awarded is as large as $270 billion through 2019.”

Diversifi cation strategies“In our view, Gulf governments are protecting capital spending as a share of overall expenditure to support growth and further their diversifi cation strategies.

At the same time, Gulf sover-eigns are cutting in areas where they can aff ord to, or for what S&P considered nonessential infrastructure spending. Saudi Arabia, for example, reduced its

2016 transport and infrastructure budget by 63 per cent from the previous year. This illustrates the challenge Gulf countries will face to pay for infrastructure through traditional sources, including gov-ernment funding, S&P noted.

Based solely on the develop-ments described herein, no rating actions are currently warranted. Only a rating committee may determine a rating action and, as these developments were not viewed as material to the ratings, neither they nor this report were reviewed by a rating committee.

S&P also estimated

that Gulf sovereigns’

overall capital

spending over the

next four years will

be $480 billion. This

is one reason why

Gulf countries are

starting to look at

alternatives, such

as public-private

partnershipsINFRASTRUCTURE SPENDING: Gulf sovereigns are cutting in areas where they can aff ord to, or for what S&P considered nonessential

infrastructure spending. - Bloomberg fi le picture

Rethink on plan to curb multinationals’ tax avoidanceBRUSSELS: New rules to tackle multinationals’ tax avoidance should not go beyond the scope of international guidelines, Eu-ropean Union fi nance ministers said on Friday, raising concerns about some of the proposals made by the European Commission in January.

To reduce corporations’ tax avoidance, which is estimated by the European Parliament to cost EU states 70 billion euros a year in lost revenues, the EU Commis-sion proposed a package of meas-ures to curb some of the most common schemes used by mul-tinationals and to make their tax data more transparent .

Although criticised by some lawmakers and activists for not being ambitious enough, the pro-posals in some areas went be-yond guidelines, known as BEPS, agreed at international level by the G20 group of the world’s largest economies and by mem-bers of the Organisation for Eco-nomic Co-operation and Develop-ment (OECD).

“I am strongly in favour to im-plement what has been agreed in

BEPS in the fi rst regulation and nothing else, otherwise it will take a lot of time to take a deci-sion,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said during a public session of a meeting of EU fi nance ministers in Brussels. He did not rule out further measures, but only in a second stage.

His remarks were echoed by several ministers, who went even further and warned about the

risks for EU-based companies and the EU economy linked to the application of tax avoidance rules that are stricter than those applied by competing countries outside the EU.

Ministers voiced their doubts about proposals to prevent abuses of rules aimed at avoiding double taxation, which are exploited by some companies in a way that re-sults in no taxation at all. The so-

called switch over rule, proposed by the Commission, is however not included in BEPS guidelines.

The Commission proposals also diff er from international guide-lines on so-called exit taxation, aimed at preventing companies from re-locating assets purely to avoid taxation.

“More work needs to be done,” the chair of the meeting, Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijs-

selbloem, conceded at the end of the talks, partially reverting from his initial commitment to reach an agreement on the Com-mission’s proposals within the Dutch presidency of the EU which ends in July.

Data disclosureThe EU executive is also consid-ering new rules to oblige large companies to disclose their tax and fi nancial data to the gen-eral public, as it is already the case in the banking and mining sector. This proposal, that may come in April, is also beyond the scope of BEPS.

In contrast to the general criti-cism of going beyond BEPS, Brit-ish fi nance minister George Os-borne called for more disclosure of multinationals’ tax and fi nan-cial data, so that not only adminis-trations but also the general pub-lic can access this information.

“I think we should be moving to more public country-by- coun-try reporting. This is something which the UK will seek to pro-mote internationally,” he told the other ministers. — Reuters

E U R O P E A N U N I O N

US Fed rate hike forecasts pushed back

WASHINGTON: Economists are pushing back their calls for the next Federal Reserve inter-est-rate hike in droves. Trouble overseas and uncertain economic conditions at home have helped move the median forecast to June from March.

Nearly 68 per cent of economists say the Fed will next raise rates in June, according to a Bloomberg analysis of 53 fi rms that contrib-ute forecasts. That compares with 30 per cent in January, when a ma-jority estimated the next increase would come at the March meeting.

Economists at Deutsche Bank Securities had the biggest revision in the Bloomberg survey, moving their call for the nearest hike to December after previously seeing an increase next month.

“Forget about March, forget about June,” said Brett Ryan, a US economist at Deutsche Bank in New York. Delivering semi-annual testimony to Congress on Thurs-day, Chair Janet Yellen “made it clear that it’s going to take some time for the Fed to be comfortable that this most recent bout of vola-tility isn’t going to materially im-pact the economy,” he said.

Standard Chartered Bank-which previously called for one rate hike in March followed by a cut in December-has removed its rate rise forecast entirely.

While “a lot has happened” since the Fed in December raised its benchmark federal funds rate for the fi rst time in nearly a dec-ade, Yellen told the Senate Bank-ing Committee that she hasn’t yet seen enough of a downturn to prompt the central bank to cut in-terest rates. Fed offi cials have said that economic data will guide fu-ture decisions.

Growth in the US decelerated to a 0.7 per cent annualised rate last quarter, as companies strug-gle with a slower global economy, the negative eff ect on exports from a stronger dollar and plunging oil prices that are pushing some fi rms to cut investment.

The manufacturing sector has struggled for months, and data in-dicate the softness may be spread-ing to services industries, which make up about 90 per cent of the economy.

“Weakness in the manufactur-ing sector often spills over into the services sector,” Deutsche Bank’s Ryan said. — Bloomberg News

U S E C O N O M Y

Manufacturing sector has

struggled for months, and

data indicate softness may be

spreading to services, which

make up about 90 per cent of

the economy. - Bloomberg fi le picture

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble. — Reuters

VITAL FACTS EU fi nmins call for

reducing scope of tax avoidance proposals

EU Commission proposals go beyond international guidelines

Ministers warn of delays and risks for EU competitiveness

UK’s Osborne for public disclosure of tax data

2 0 1 6

TERSTs

st 3

B2

MARKETS AT U R DAY, F E B RUA RY 1 3, 2 0 1 6

‘Britain’s economy will be worse off if it leaves the EU’

LONDON: Britain’s economy would be worse off if voters de-cide the country should leave the European Union, according to an overwhelming majority of econo-mists polled by Reuters who also gave it a 40 per cent chance of happening.

All but one of 28 economists in the poll taken this week said the Britain would take a hit if the vote — which could take place by June — meant exiting the EU. The sole dissenter said the economy would be unmoved, not better off .

Arguments about the economy are central to the debate. Support-ers of Britain leaving the EU say companies would be less bound by red tape, the country would be able to strike its own free trade deals and its existing EU partners would not want to hurt bilateral trade. But analysts at some of the world’s biggest banks said an exit could shrink Britain’s economy

by as much as two per cent over the next couple of years and could take as much as 10 percentage points off GDP over the next dec-ade. Most of the mainly UK-based market and academic economists polled expected trade to worsen with Britain struggling to negoti-ate a favourable trade deal with its former EU partners after re-nouncing membership of the world’s largest trading bloc.

Against this backdrop, a slim majority of economists see Brit-ain’s hefty current account defi -cit widening, underscoring a risk highlighted by the Bank of Eng-land. Britain has been among the fastest-growing rich economies in recent years. But economists worry that an exit from the EU could hurt its prospects if export-ers face higher barriers, a weaker pound makes imports more ex-pensive and uncertainty over the shape of a post-EU Britain curbs investment. “A Brexit outcome will make me more pessimistic for our growth prospects in the sec-ond half of 2016 and the medium term,” Costas Milas, professor of fi nance at the University of Liver-pool, said. He said it would trigger

“huge” investor uncertainty and make it more expensive for the government to sell British debt.

“This higher yield will add to the cost of borrowing that com-panies face and will delay their investment decisions.”

As well as the risk of Britain losing its unfettered access to its biggest trading partner, its com-panies might fi nd it harder to tap into the pool of potential employ-ees in the rest of the EU to fi ll their vacancies. Britain could also end up outside an area that accounts for just under a third of the value of all cross-border investment.

Even though some analysts said an exit could prompt a fall in sterling and make British exports more attractive abroad, 23 out of 28 economists expected it to hurt British trade, while 15 said Brit-ain’s current account defi cit could widen. At 3.7 per cent of GDP, the defi cit is already large by inter-national standards. BoE Gover-nor Mark Carney highlighted the risk in January when he said that “relying on the kindness of stran-gers” in the current “febrile” glob-al economic environment was not optimal. — Reuters

All but one of 28

economists in the

poll taken this week

said the Britain

would take a hit if

the vote — which

could take place

by June — meant

exiting European

Union. Sole dissenter

said the economy

would be unmoved,

not better off

UNFETTERED ACCESS: As well as the risk of Britain losing its un-

fettered access to its biggest trading partner, its companies might

fi nd it harder to tap into the pool of potential employees in the rest

of the EU to fi ll their vacancies. - Bloomberg fi le picture

LONDON: Economists at some of the world’s biggest banks are unanimous that Britain’s economy and ster-ling will suff er if the country votes to leave the Euro-pean Union in a referendum widely expected to be held in June. But how bad would the damage be?

Below is a snapshot of estimates from eight non-UK banks on the potential impact of “Brexit” on UK growth and the value of the pound, and the three major credit ratings agencies on the impact on the Britain’s rating.

Societe GeneraleGross domestic product (GDP) growth could be 0.5-1.0 percentage points per year lower on average for a decade.

Morgan StanleyA “signifi cant” consump-tion and investment shock leading to a 1.3 percent-age points hit to growth in 2016-17. A 5 per cent decline in sterling/dollar, falling to $1.39 initially “with weak-ness persisting”. UK stocks could underperform global peers by up to 20 per cent.

Credit Suisse“In its most extreme that could mean a level drop in GDP of one per cent to two per cent in the short term due to the toxic blend of depressed business confi -dence, tightening fi nancial

conditions, higher infl ation and falling real income.”

The pound would fall to 83 pence per euro and $1.20 per dollar if euro/dollar pushes lower towards parity.

CitiGDP growth cut by 1-1.5 percentage points for 2017, 2018, and 2019, giving a total GDP loss of around four per cent relative to potential. Sterling could fall 15-20 per cent from current levels.

UnicreditBrexit would cost the UK economy “around six per cent of GDP” over the next decade or so, risk a balance of payments crisis.

Goldman SachsTrade-weighted sterling would fall 15-20 per cent, po-tentially dragging sterling/dollar down to around $1.15-$1.20 and lifting euro/ster-ling to around 90-95 pence.

Nomura“An unwillingness of exter-nal investors to fi nance the current account on current terms could cause a collapse in the currency of 10-15 per cent over several months.”

JP MorganIf the BoE is forced to cut rates, 2-year and 5-year gilt yields could fall 25 basis points and 35 bps, respec-tively. Sterling could fall to $1.33 and the euro rise to 0.78. — Reuters

Banks agree ‘Brexit’ will be bad for growth, sterling

Sensex posts biggest weekly fall in more than six years

MUMBAI: A day after bloodbath, the benchmark BSE Sensex on Friday managed to end 34 points higher at 22,986.12, but logged its biggest weekly fall in more than six years as fears of a global slowdown and disappointing quarterly num-bers of blue-chips, especially banks, hammered stocks during the week.

Investors are fl eeing risky assets and running to safe havens like gold and bonds. Both the indexes recorded their biggest weekly fall since July 2009 with Sensex fall-ing 1,631 points or 6.62 per cent and Nifty down 508.15 points or 6.78 per cent. Moreover, since the start of the year, the Sensex has lost around 3,131.42 points or 12 per cent and logged weekly fall in fi ve out of six weeks since then.

The Sensex has come off more than 23 per cent from its all-time peak of over 30,000, scaled nearly a year ago on March 4, 2015. A fall of 20 per cent from an all-time peak is considered as a ‘bear market’ — a term used for a sustained slide. Meanwhile, attributing the recent crash in stock market to global factors, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said there was no need for “exaggerated panic” and investors should keep the econ-omy’s inherent strength in mind while investing.

The Sensex resumed higher at 23,060.39 and hovered in a range of 23,161.15 TO 22,600.39 before ending at 22,986.12, showing a gain of 34.29 points or 0.15 per cent. The NSE Nifty moved up marginally by 4.60 points or 0.07 per cent to close at 6,980.95 still closing at 21-month low.

Shares of Tata Motors ended 8.34 per cent higher at Rs298.650, while Bharti Airtel rose 5.40 per cent to Rs 325.25.

Car sales in India fell for the fi rst time after 14 months of continued growth in January as discounts dried up during the month with automakers correcting inventory at dealer levels post year-end free-bies dole out. — PTI

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

Italy’s economy barely expandsROME: Italy’s economy ex-panded in the fourth quarter below economists’ expectations and at the slowest pace in a year, prompting concerns that the re-covery from the country’s long-est recession since World War II might falter in coming months.

Gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.1 per cent in the three months through December, Rome-based statistics agency

Istat said in a preliminary report on Friday. That was below the 0.3 percent estimate of 22 ana-lysts in a Bloomberg survey. GDP expanded one per cent from the same quarter of 2014 while its non-seasonally adjusted growth last year was 0.7 per cent, the re-port said.

Industrial output in the euro re-gion’s third-biggest economy fell for a second month in December

as companies grew pessimistic about the outlook for manufac-turing activity despite limited im-provements in both labour market and consumer demand. Weaker than expected GDP growth and price dynamic might jeopardise Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s goal of reducing the GDP ratio of Italy’s public debt which climbed in November to 2.21 trillion euro ($2.49 trillion). — Bloomberg News

F O U R T H Q U A R T E R

EU widens trade protection with tariff s on Russia, ChinaBRUSSELS: Russian and Chi-nese makers of non-stainless steels face European Union tariff s as high as 26.2 per cent after the EU found that imports from the two countries unfairly undercut producers in Europe such as Arce-lorMittal and ThyssenKrupp.

The duties punish Russian and Chinese exporters of certain cold-rolled fl at products of iron or non-alloy steel for allegedly selling the goods in the EU’s 4.5 billion-euro ($5.1 billion) market below cost, a practice known as dumping. The targeted producers of this kind of steel — used in everything from washing machines and air-con-ditioning equipment to cars and power lines — include Russia’s

Novolipetsk Steel, Severstal and Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works; and China’s Baoshan Iron & Steel, Hebei Iron & Steel and Angang Steel.

‘Material injury’EU-based manufacturers suff ered “material injury” as a result of dumped imports from Russia and China, the European Commission, the 28-nation bloc’s trade author-ity in Brussels, said on Friday in the Offi cial Journal. The anti-dumping duties will take eff ect on Saturday, are for six months and may be prolonged for fi ve years.

The EU is waging a campaign to ease import competition for a Eu-ropean steel industry struggling

with sluggish domestic demand and Chinese overcapacity. While China is the main target with Eu-ropean anti-dumping protection already in force on Chinese goods ranging from stainless steel and reinforcing steel to wire rod and steel wires, the bloc has also hit Russia and other nations with du-ties on electrical steel.

Expanded shareRussian and Chinese exporters expanded their combined share of the EU market for certain cold-rolled fl at products of iron or non-alloy steel, excluding stain-less steel, to 20.1 per cent in the 12 months through March 2015 from 14.3 per cent in 2011, the commis-

sion said on Friday. Russia’s share jumped to 9.8 per cent from 5.9 per cent over the period, according to the commission.

The anti-dumping duties are the preliminary outcome of an in-quiry that the commission opened in May 2015. The probe stemmed from a dumping complaint by Eu-ropean steel industry group Eu-rofer on behalf of producers that account for more than a quarter of the EU’s output of the non-stain-less steels targeted.

The provisional duties against Russia range from 19.8 per cent to 26.2 per cent and those against China range from 13.8 per cent to 16 per cent, depending on the com-pany. — Bloomberg News

N O N - S T A I N L E S S S T E E L S

IMPORT COMPETITION: The EU is waging a campaign to ease

import competition for a European steel industry struggling with

sluggish domestic demand and Chinese overcapacity. — Bloomberg News

B3S AT U R DAY, F E B R UA RY 1 3, 2 0 1 6

MARKET

Rolls-Royce shares soar as investors cheer revamp moveLONDON: Rolls-Royce Holdings shares surged the most in 14 years as investors shrugged off cutting the dividend in half and instead cheered restructuring eff orts that ended a run of profi t warnings.

The stock jumped as much as 16 per cent, the biggest intra-day gain since September 2002, as cost cutting that started last year pro-vided welcome consistency for the embattled engine maker. After fi ve profi t warnings in two years, Rolls-Royce stuck to its November fore-cast for a 650 million-pound ($943 million) hit to 2016 earnings from sluggish sales of marine turbines and slumping demand for older wide-body jets.

The stable forecast “should help stop the rot in sentiment,” Sandy Morris, an analyst with Jeff eries International said in a note.

Rolls-Royce plunged into crisis as the tumbling oil price under-mines sales of engines it makes for specialist off shore vessels just as demand for corporate and regional jets slumps and some of the bigger planes it powers reach retirement age. Those issues have given new

Chief Executive Offi cer Warren East a free hand to make sweeping changes.

‘Firmer ground’“I do feel that we’re on fi rmer ground than I did last year,” said East, who assumed the top post at Rolls-Royce in July. “Fixing the is-

sues is a long-term program. You get through most of it quite quick-ly, and yes, we’re feeling more con-fi dence in that, but no, the work is not complete by any means.”

The fi rst cut to Rolls-Royce’s annual dividend since 1992 helps Rolls-Royce preserve cash and protect its credit rating. Restruc-

turing charges this year may reach 100 million pounds, Chief Execu-tive Offi cer Warren East said, add-ing that “further reductions” will be necessary after already cutting about 50 of the top 200 managers.

He also said the company is focused on “execution and trans-formation” rather seeking out

partners, adding that the lowered dividend amounts to an eff ective “re-basing” and the payout prob-ably won’t rebound immediately to its former level.

The dividend cut and other steps to bolster Rolls-Royce’s cash position means a rights issue isn’t in the works at the moment, Chief

Financial Offi cer David Smith said. The fi nal payout for 2015 will be reduced to 7.1 pence per share from 14.1 pence and the interim payment for this year will also be cut by 50 per cent, the London-based manufacturer said on Fri-day. The reduced payout places the engineer alongside UK compa-nies including grocers Tesco and J Sainsbury and platinum-miner Anglo American in lowering divi-dends.

Underlying profi tUnderlying profi t for last year fell 12 per cent at constant exchange rates to 1.43 billion pounds, while sales fell one per cent to 13.4 bil-lion pounds. Rolls-Royce’s pretax profi t for 2015 was within a range of 1.325 billion pounds to 1.475 bil-lion pounds forecast in November.

The company’s shares climbed as high as 614 pence and were up 14 per cent to 602 pence at 9:23am in London.

Prior to Friday’s release, Rolls’s share price had fallen 7.8 per cent this year and 39 per cent since East took over in July. — Bloomberg News

P E R F O R M A N C E

Renault profi t soars by 44%

PARIS: Renault’s profi t jumped 44 per cent last year as the French carmaker gained market share in Europe on the back of new models including the Kadjar sport utility vehicle.

Operating profi t climbed to 2.32 billion euros ($2.62 billion) from 1.61 billion euros a year earlier, Europe’s third-biggest automaker said in a statement on Friday. That beat the 2.02 billion-euro average of eight analyst estimates com-piled by Bloomberg. Renault fore-cast higher sales and an improved operating margin this year, with European car demand projected to increase by two per cent.

Chief Executive Offi cer Carlos Ghosn is pushing the French man-ufacturer to lift margins to balance out its alliance with more profi t-able partner Nissan Motor.

To this end, Renault is rolling out more SUVs like the Kadjar and plans to revive the Alpine sports car. The profi tability push has been hampered by expansion into Russia and other emerging mar-kets such as Brazil, where slump-ing economies have sapped car demand.

Renault reached its operat-ing margin target of fi ve per cent “sooner than planned,” Ghosn said in a statement.

“We must now achieve our rev-enue target while maintaining a margin in excess” of that level.

Sales rose 10 per cent to 45.3 bil-lion euros last year. Renault’s 2015 profi t margin rose to 5.1 per cent from 3.9 per cent in 2014.

Nissan reported a 6.6 per cent return on sales in the nine months through December. Renault raised its dividend proposal to 2.40 euros per share from 1.90 euros the pre-vious year. — Bloomberg News

C O M P A N Y R E S U L T S Cisco shares jump by 9.6% after sales growth forecast

SAN FRANCISCO: Cisco Sys-tems, whose equipment is the backbone of the Internet, jumped the most in almost three years af-ter predicting sales that may beat some analysts’ estimates, coun-tering concern that corporate spending is falling off amid signs the global economy is weakening.

The company said third-quar-ter sales may grow as much as four per cent from the preceding peri-od, sending shares up 9.6 per cent to $24.68 at the close on Thursday in New York, the biggest single-day gain since May 2013. Cisco on Wednesday also reported rev-

enue and profi t in the fi scal sec-ond quarter that topped analysts’ estimates.

Cisco’s reach in computer net-working makes its earnings an indicator of whether government and corporate budgets are tight-ening. It’s the fi rst large technol-ogy company to report earnings following the global selloff in eq-uity markets in January.

“One of the messages that peo-ple get out of this is that the global economy didn’t slow quite as much as the stock market indi-cated,” said Michael Genovese, an analyst at MKM Partners. “It’s en-

couraging for tech in general. Now we have this better data point from Cisco.”

No panicWhile the company isn’t predict-ing a surge in growth, its forecasts may be a sign that demand isn’t slowing as quickly as some inves-tors thought. Chief Executive Of-fi cer Chuck Robbins said that Cis-co had suff ered weaker orders for networking switching equipment in January as some corporate cus-tomers decided to suspend their upgrade programs until they have more confi dence that the slide in

global stocks isn’t a harbinger of a deeper economic decline.

“I don’t think there’s any sort of a panic,” Robbins said. “I believe that customers are trying to di-gest what’s going on and trying to understand it. It’s completely con-nected to the uncertainty.”

Cisco forecast that profi t before certain costs in the current quar-ter will be 54 cents to 56 cents a share and revenue will rise one per cent to four per cent, indicat-ing sales of $12 billion to $12.4 bil-lion. That compares with average analyst projections for profi t of 55 cents a share on $12 billion in sales, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“There seems to be an emotion-al reaction that’s occurring right now,” Robbins said of the econom-ic climate. “You see the markets get rattled, which causes our cus-tomers to get concerned, which causes them to tap the brakes, which causes CEOs of public-traded companies to be cautious, which then rattles the markets more — which creates this vicious cycle. We have to be careful that we don’t create some self-infl icted dynamic here.”

Changing technologyOutside of choppy economic conditions, Robbins is trying to navigate his company through a change in networking technology that some analysts have argued will continue to hurt Cisco’s abil-ity to return to its historically high growth rates. As more computing and Internet traffi c is routed to remote data centers run by a few large providers such as Google

Inc. that write their own software and put together their own equip-ment, some analysts suggest de-mand for Cisco’s comprehensive solutions will wane.

The San Jose, California-based company has countered that not all computing needs can be met in the cloud. It has introduced new equipment that’s simpler and cheaper and opened up its soft-ware to other programs.

From 2000 to 2010, the net-working equipment pioneer av-eraged 13 per cent annual sales growth. Since then, gains have av-eraged 4.3 per cent.

Quarterly resultsIn the quarter ended on January 23, Cisco reported net income of $3.1 billion, or 62 cents a share, compared with $2.4 billion, or 46 cents, a year earlier. Sales were little changed at $11.9 billion. Ex-cluding some costs, profi t was 57 cents a share, compared with an average analyst prediction of 54 cents a share on revenue of $11.8 billion.

Switching sales, which account for 29 per cent of the company’s total revenue, decreased four per cent to $3.48 billion in the second quarter from a year earlier, the company said.

Gross margin, or the percentage of sales remaining after deducting the costs of production, was 63.8 per cent in the quarter, wider than the 61.7 per cent posted a year ago. Brian White, an analyst at Drexel Hamilton, cited Cisco’s profi tabil-ity as evidence that Cisco is per-forming well in a tough environ-ment. — Bloomberg News

Cisco said third-

quarter sales may

grow as much as

four per cent from

the preceding period,

sending shares

up 9.6 per cent to

$24.68 at the close

on Thursday in New

York, the biggest

single-day gain

since May 2013.

Google urged to come clean on taxLONDON: UK lawmakers ac-cused Google on Thursday of trying to fool Britons into be-lieving it was a proponent of tax reform while remaining a prime benefi ciary of loopholes in exist-ing rules, and said if it was sin-cere the company would be more transparent over its tax aff airs.

Google’s president for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Matt Brittin, told the parliamen-tary Public Accounts Committee that the company had paid all the tax that it should but wanted the international tax system reformed.

Antiquated tax rulesBut Stewart Jackson, a Conserv-ative member of the committee, questioned claims that the com-pany was trying to be open about its aff airs and supported a rewrit-ing of antiquated tax rules which allow it to shift its profi ts into Bermuda.

“You sort of pose as an enlight-ened helper to the public debate ... And that the wicked awful tax system across the world some-

how just happened to Google, whereas actually you’ve made a choice to avoid tax and set up structures specifi cally so to do,” he said.

Backtax dealBrittin was appearing before the committee for the third time in four years, just weeks after Goog-le had announced a controversial 130 million-pound ($187 million) backtax deal with the UK.

News of the deal met with a public outcry, with critics say-ing the payment of 130 million pounds to cover the last 10 years of earnings was too little, even though fi nance minister George Osborne described the settle-ment as a major success for the government’s work on tackling tax avoidance. The opposition Labour party and some members of Osborne’s own Conservative party criticised the settlement, which brought Google’s total tax bill for 2005 to 2015 to around 200 million pounds whereas its UK revenues amounted to 24 bil-lion pounds. — Reuters

U K L A W M A K E R S

INTERIM PAYMENTS: The fi nal payout for 2015 will be reduced to 7.1 pence per share from 14.1 pence and the interim payment for this

year will also be cut by 50 per cent, the London-based manufacturer said on Friday. — Bloomberg News

Cisco Chief Executive Offi cer Chuck Robbins. — Bloomberg fi le picture

Don’t litter a beautiful

country like OMAN.

Ensure proper disposalof garbage.

B4

FEATURES AT U R DAY, F E B RUA RY 1 3, 2 0 1 6

MCDONALD’S REVAMPS BUILD-YOUR-OWN BURGER

PROGRAMME TO DRAW DINERS

McDONALD's, seeking to snap a sales slump by letting diners customise meals, is renaming

its build- your-own burger programme and replacing two unpopular fl avours.

The programme's name was changed to Chef Crafted from TasteCrafted, Lisa McComb, a company spokeswoman, said in an email.

"The original name 'TasteCrafted' did not resonate with consumers," she said. "We decided to celebrate our chefs who have created these recipes and highlight the culinary expertise of our in-house and supplier chefs."

The world's biggest restaurant chain is struggling to compete with newer restaurants off ering healthier fare and custom meals. Chef Crafted is McDon-ald's third attempt to fi gure out a create-your-own sandwich program. The chain also is trying Create Your Taste, which allows customers to choose toppings via large touch-screen kiosks.

Chef Crafted is being tested in about 200 restaurants, with more to come lat-er this year. A few restaurants are still testing the TasteCrafted programme, McComb said, without giving a spe-cifi c fi gure. TasteCrafted sounded too

mechanical, said Joel Cohen, owner of Cohen Restaurant Marketing Group in Raleigh, North Carolina.

"There was no emotion to it, no feel-ings like it came from a human," he said.

McDonald's Chief Executive Offi cer Steve Easterbrook has tried advertising the chain's upgraded foods, like Quarter Pounders made with more than a quar-ter pound of meat and Artisan Grilled Chicken sandwiches seasoned with gar-lic, lemon and parsley.

Still, US same-store sales are fall-ing. They declined two per cent in the company's most recent quarter as new

items and promotions didn't attract more customers. The new Chef Crafted sandwiches are topped with grilled on-ions, honey dijon sauce, white cheddar and lettuce. The other variety includes blue cheese sauce and crumbles, buff alo sauce, tomato and lettuce.

The Chef Crafted name may not work, either, Cohen said. It's believable in cas-ual and fi ne-dining restaurants but not for fast food, he said. "It's just another attempt for McDonald's to upgrade it-self," he said. "They've gotten away from what's made them famous." — LESLIE PATTON/

Bloomberg News

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM

FamilySECTIONB L I F E STY L E S AT U R DAY, F E B RUA RY 1 3, 2 0 1 6

Care for an Elderly Person It is not always easy caring for the elderly. Their physical condition, health issues, and their emotion-al state can present challenges for you, the caregiver. There are no doubts that caring for an elderly

person is admirable, but it certainly comes with stress and at times can be overwhelming.

Far too many people feel guilty that they cannot care for an elderly per-son on their own. Life presents far too many

challenges and more often than not raising a family, paying into a mortgage and keeping food on the table can be challenging enough let alone adding to this caring for an elderly loved one. Although this can be challenging — it is not im-possible. Preparing yourself and your family members for the tran-sition is essential in order to make this work well.

Physical ConsiderationsGet informed about the physical needs of your loved one. Talk to the doctor and to anyone else who may have the wisdom and knowledge to help you care for the elderly mem-ber of your family. Know what to expect, what medications are re-quired. Using services provided by a certifi ed in-home caregiver from a professional agency can as-sist you in times that you need that extra help.

Keeping all important informa-tion in one fi le is important and this includes all medical informa-tion including test results, names and phone numbers of doctors, appointment dates, hospital cards, and insurance information. If your loved one is taking a lot of medica-tions, make a chart to help keep

track of what medication is to be taken and when. Always be sure the home is safe. If your loved one uses a walker be sure throw rugs are se-cure, and there are no obstacles for them to trip over. If your loved one can get confused at times, it’s also a good safety precaution to have a baby gate positioned high enough in the door frame at staircases so that they cannot fall down.

Emotional ConsiderationsSpending time caring for the el-derly does not have to be all about taking care of their personal needs. Spend time asking them about their life. Everyone has stories to share about their life and some seniors have great experiences to share. Teach an elderly person about the Internet. The brain likes to stay active and no better way to do this than to play word games, crossword puzzles.

Always remember to be under-standing because as we get older we tend to be very set in our ways and this means being stubborn at times. If the person you are caring for is being very stubborn and it is not a big issue, let it go. If the stub-bornness is over something that is not negotiable it’s much easier to handle and you’ll have much less stress when you know to expect it.

When you have all the tools you need, it will make caring for the el-derly much easier.— Article City

FIND-IT-ALLB6 S AT U R DAY, F E B RUA RY 1 3, 2 0 1 6

Dhuhr 12.26pm

Asr 3.41pm

Maghrib 6.06pm

Isha 7.17pm Fajr (Tomorrow) 5.25am

PRAYER TIMINGS

CITY CINEMAContact (10 am to 6PM) 24567664 | 68 www.citycinemaoman.netfacebook.com/citycinemaoman

SHATTI

Navy Seals: The Battle of New Orleans (Action| Horror) 15+Cast: Ed Quinn, Michael Dudikoff, Rick Fox5:00 & 7:15PMThe Choice (Drama | Romance) 15+Cast: Benjamin Walker, Teresa Palmer5:15PMThe Pack (Horror| Thriller) 12+Cast: Anna Lise Phillips, Jack Campbell11:45PMHow to Be Single (Comedy | Romance) 18+Cast: Dakota Johnson, Rebel Wilson3:00, 7:15 & 11:30PMPride & Prejudice & Zombies (Action) 18+Cast: Lily James, Sam Riley, Jack Huston2:45,9:15 & 11:45PMFitoor (Hindi | Romantic| Drama) 12+Cast: Aditya Roy Kapoor , Katrina Kaif 9:15PMThe Finest Hour - 3D (Action) PG123:30 & 9:30PMThe Finest Hour - 2D (Action) PG127:00PMAlvin & the Chipmunks: The Road Chip (Animation) PG5:30PM

MUSCAT GRAND MALL

How to Be Single – 2D (18+) Comedy Cast: Dakota Johnson, Rebel Wilson7:00 PMGold Class – 8:45, 11:00 PMFitoor – 2D (12+) Hindi | Romantic| Drama |Cast: Aditya Roy Kapoor / Katrina Kaif / Tabu9:15 PMGold Class – 6:15 PMPride & Prejudice & Zombies – 2D (18+) Action | Horror | Drama |Cast: Lily James, Sam Riley, Jack Huston1:45, 9:30, 11:45 PM

Gold Class – 3:30 PMKungu Fu Style – 2D (TBC) (Comedy,Animation)Voice over: Dakota Johnson, Rebel Wilson4:00 PMThe Finest Hour – 3D (PG12) Action | Drama 12:15,11:30 PMAlvin & the Chipmunks: The Road Chip - 2D (Animation) (PG) 12:00, 2:30, 7:30 PMEverything About Her - Taglog (PG) Comedy 4:30 PMCapture the Flag – 3D (PG) (Animation)5:45 PM

PANORAMA MALL

Pride & Prejudice & Zombies-2D (Horror)(18+)Cast: Lily James, Sam Riley, Jack Huston3:30, 7:45, 9:45, 11:45PMPride & Prejudice & Zombies- 2D (18+)-VIP LOUNGE3:30, 11:00PM Fitoor-2D (Romantic, Drama) (TBC)Cast: Aditya Roy Kapoor, Katrina Kaif , Tabu 3:45, 6:15, 8:45, 11:15 PM

Fitoor-2D (Romantic, Drama)(TBC)VIP LOUNGE- 8:30 PMThe Choice-2D (Drama, Romance) (15+)Cast: Benjamin Walker, Teresa Palmer4:45, 7:00 PM The Finest Hours (MX4D)(PG12) 3.30, 6.15, 8.30, 10.45 PMThe Finest Hours 3D (action, Drama) (PG12)-VIP LOUNGE6:15 PMThe Finest Hours 3D (action, Drama) (PG12)9:15, 11:30 PMAlvin & the Chipmunks – The Road Chip (Animation,) (2D) (PG)3:00, 6:00 PM

AZAIBA

Pride & Prejudice & Zombies (2D) (Action Horror) (18+) CP#Cast: Lily James, Sam Riley, Jack Huston2:30, 4:30, 6:30, 11:45 PMFitoor (Hindi) (2D) (Romance| Drama) (12+) CP#Cast: Aditya Roy Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Tabu2:45, 7:30, 9:15, 11:30 PMGhayal Once Again (2D) (Action) (PG12) CP#

Cast: Sunny Deol, Tisca Chopra, Om Puri3:45, 6:15, 11:30 PMSanam Re (2D) (Romance) (PG12) CP#Cast: Yami Gautam, Pulkit Samrat3:30, 5:15, 10:00 PMBangalore Naatkal (Tamil) (2D) (Comedy)(PG) CP#Cast: Arya, Sri Divya, Bobby6:15, 8:30 PMPavada (Mal) (2D) (Action | Comedy(PG) CP#Cast: Prithiviraj Sukumaran, Anoop Menon8:45 PM

RUWI

Screen 1Fitoor (Romance / Drama) –12 +Cast: Aditya Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif3:30, 6:30, 9:30PMScreen 2Sanam Re (Romance / Drama) –12 +Cast: Pulkit Samrat, Yami Gautam.1:00, 6:45PMGhayal Once Again (Action) –PG12Cast: Sunny Deol, Tisca Chopra, Om Puri3:45, 9:45PM

Screen 3Ghayal Once Again (Action) –PG121:00, 6:45PMSanam Re (Romance / Drama) –12 +3:45, 9:45PM

SUR

Navy Seal: The Battle of New Orleans (Action |Horror) (15+) CP#Cast: Ed Quinn, Michael Dudikoff3:00, 7:00, 11:45 PM.Fitoor (Hindi) (Romance) (TBC) CP#Cast: Aditya Roy Kapoor, Katrina Kaif.3:15, 8:45, 11:15 PMPavada (Mal) (Comedy) (PG) CP #Cast: Prithiviraj Sukumaran, Anoop Menon7:30 PM.Visions (Horror | Thriller) (15+) CP#Cast: Isla Fisher, Anson Mount5:45, 10:15 PM.

SOHAR

Alvin & the Chipmunks: The Road Chip - 2D (PG) AnimationVoice over: Jason Lee, Jesica Ahlberg5:45 PMThe Finest Hour - 3D (PG12) Action | Drama Cast: Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster5:00, 9:30, 11:45 PMGhayal Once Again - 2D (PG12) ActionCast: Sunny Deol, Tisca Chopra, Om Puri6:30 PMBangalore Naatkal - 2D (T) (PG) ComedyCast: Arya, Sri Divya, Bobby, 6:30 PMPride & Prejudice & Zombies - 2D (18+) Action | Horror | DramaCast: Lily James, Sam Riley, Jack Huston2:45, 9:15, 11:45 PMHow to Be Single - 2D (18+) Comedy Cast: Dakota Johnson, Rebel Wilson3:15, 7:15, 11:30 PMFitoor - 2D (TBC) Hindi | Romantic| DramaCast: Aditya Roy Kapoor, Katrina Kaif , Tabu3:30, 9:15 PMNavy Seals: The Battle of New Orleans - 2D (15+) Action| Horror Cast: Ed Quinn, Michael Dudikoff, Rick Fox3:00, 7:30 PMVisions - 2D (15+) Horror | ThrillerCast: Isla Fisher, Anson Mount, Gillian Jacobs4:45, 11:45 PM

Pavada - 2D (M) (PG) Action | ComedyCast: Prithiviraj Sukumaran , Anoop Menon 8:55 PM

BURAIMI

The Finest Hours – 3D (Action) (PG12)Cast: Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster5:15, 6:45, 9:15PMNavy Seals: The Battle of New Orleans– 2D (Action/Horror) (15+)Cast: Ed Quinn, Michael Dudikoff, Rick Fox3:30, 5:35, 9:35, 11:30PMThe Pack– 2D (Horror/Thriller) (12+)Cast: Anna Lise Phillips, Jack Campbell5:00, 11:45PMVisions – 2D (Horror/Thriller) (15+)Cast: Isla Fisher, Anson Mount, Gillian Jacobs3:30, 7:30PMFitoor – 2D (Romantic/Drama) (12+)Cast: Aditya Roy Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Tabu3:15, 7:15, 11:15PMPavada– 2D (Action/Comedy) (PG)Cast: Prithiviraj Sukumaran, Anoop Menon9:00PM

SALALAH

The Finest Hour (3D) (PG12) (Action) Cast: Chris Pine, Casey Affleck, Ben Foster2:55, 9:00PMNavy Seals: The Battle of New Orleans (2D) (15+) (Action| Horror)Cast: Ed Quinn, Michael Dudikoff, Rick Fox1:05, 5:10PMThe Choice (2D) (15+) (Drama | Romance)Cast: Benjamin Walker, Teresa Palmer 11:35AM, 6:45PMThe Pack (2D)(12+) (Horror|Thriller) Cast: Anna Lise Phillips, Jack Campbell12:00, 5:00, 11:55PMPride & Prejudice & Zombies (2D) (18+) Cast: Lily James, Sam Riley, Jack Huston11:00, 2:00, 4:00, 7:00, 11:35PMPavada (2D) (PG) (Mal) (Action/Comedy)Cast: Prithviraj Sukumaran , Anoop Menon9:05PMFitoor (2D) (12+) (Hindi|Romantic) Cast: Aditya Roy Kapoor , Katrina Kaif , Tabu2:15, 8:55, 11:15PM Bangalore Naatkal (2D) (PG) (Tamil) (Comedy / Drama)Cast Arya, Sri Divya, Bobby, 6:10PM

CINEMA SCHEDULE 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

ROYAL OMAN POLICE

Emergencies and inquiries: 9999

General Directorate of

Passport and Residence 24569603

Directorate General

of Customs 24521109

Traffic violations inquiries 24510228

Public Relations Admin 24560099

EMBASSIES IN OMAN

Afghanistan 24698 791/4

Algeria 24605 593

Bahrain 24 605 074/133

Bangladesh 24 698 660

Brazil 24640100

Brunei 24 603533

China 24 696782

Cyprus 24 699815

Egypt 24 600 982/411

France 24681 800

Germany 24835000

India 24684500

Indonesia 2469 1050

Iran 24 696 944/7

Iraq 24603642

Italy 24693727

Japan 24 601 028

Jordan 24692760/1/3

Kazakhstan 24 692418

Kenya 24 697664

South Korea 24 691490

Kuwait 24 699628

Lebanon 24 693208

Libya 24603466

Malaysia 24698329/643

Morocco 24696152/3

Nepal 24696177

Netherlands 24603706

Pakistan 24603439

Palestine 24601312

Philippines 24605335

Qatar 24 691 153/2/4

Russia 24602894

Saudi Arabia 24601705

Senegal 24694139

Somalia 24697977

South Africa 24647300

Spain 24691101

Sri Lanka 24697841/2

Sudan 24697875

Switzerland 24603267

Syria 24697904

Tanzania 24601 174

Thailand 24 602684/5

Tunisia 24603486

Turkey 24697050/1/2

UAE 24400000

United Kingdom 24609000

United States 24643400

Yemen 24600815

PHARMACIES

Round the clock

Al Hashar Pharmacy, Ruwi 24783334

Apollo Medical Centre,

Hamriya 24782666

Muscat Pharmacy, Ruwi 24702542

Salalah 23291635;

Atlas Pharmacy, Ghubra 24503585

Muscat Region

Apollo, Al Hamriya 24787766

Muscat, A Seeb Market 24421691

Muscat, Al Khuwair 24485740

Muscat, Al Hail South 24537080

Dhofar Region

Muscat, Al Nahdha Road,

Salalah 23291635

HOSPITALS

Al Amal Medical & Health Care

Centre 24485052

Atlas Hospital

Ruwi 24811743/

Ghubra 24504000

Al Musafir Specialised

Medical Clinic 24706453

Hatat Polyclinic LLC,

Ruwi 24563641

Azaiba 24499269

Sohar 2683006

Al Raffah Hospital 24618900/1/2

Al Massaraat Clinic &

Laboratory 24566435

Al Makook Medical

Coordinance Centre 24499434

Apollo Medical Centre,

Hamriya 24787766, 24787780

Capital Polyclinic 24707549

Badr Al Samaa Polyclinic,

Ruwi 24799760/1/2

Capital Clinic, Seeb 24420740

Ceregem National Raak 24485633

Dr Harub’s Clinic 24563217

Elixir Health Centre 24565802

Emirates Medical Centre 24604540

1st Chiropractic Centre 24472274

Lifeline Hospital Salalah 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

FROM MUSCAT (RUWI)

Dept Destination Arrival Operatingtime time days

QURIYAT - SUR - JAALAN (ROUTE 36)

15:00 Quriyat 16:30 Daily

15:00 Sur 18:00 Daily

15:00 Jaalan 19:30 Daily

TO AL BURAIMI (ROUTE 41)

06:30 Sohar 08:50 Daily

06:30 Buraimi 11:00 Daily

08:00 Buraimi 14:30 Daily via Ibri

13:00 Sohar 15:45 Daily

13:00 Buraimi 17:40 Daily

16.00 Sohar 18.35 Daily

16.00 Buraimi 20:20 Daily

TO SINAW (ROUTE 52)

17:30 Sinaw 20:50 Daily

TO YANQUL (ROUTE 54)

14:30 Nizwa 16:50 Daily

14:30 Yanqul 19:30 Daily

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (ROUTE 54)

08:00 Nizwa 10:20 Daily

08:00 Al Araqi 12:30 Daily

TO SUR (ROUTE 55)

07:30 Sur 12:00 Daily

14:30 Sur 18:45 Daily

TO FAHUD - YIBAL (ROUTE 62)

06:30 Fahud 10:30 Daily

06:30 Yibal 11:15 Daily

TO MARMUL-SALALAH (ROUTE 100)

07:00 Salalah 20:00 Daily

10:00 Marmul 20:30 Daily

10:00 Salalah 23:30 Daily

19:00 Salalah 07:40 Daily

TO MARMUL (ROUTE 101)

06:00 Marmul 16:50 Daily

SALALAH TO DUBAI (ROUTE 102)

15:00 Dubai 07:00 Daily

TO DUBAI (ROUTE 201)

06:00 Sohar 08:30 Daily

06:00 Dubai 11:30 Daily

13:00 Sohar 15:30 Wed,Thur

13:00 Dubai 18:30 Wed,Thur

15:00 Sohar 17:35 Daily

15:00 Dubai 20:55 Daily

TO DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH & SHARJAH (ROUTE 204)

07:00 Fujairah 11.45 Daily

07:00 Sharjah 13.30 Daily

07:00 Dubai 14.00 Daily

TO MUSCAT (RUWI)

Dept Destination Arrival Operatingtime time days

FROM JAALAN-SUR-QURIYAT (ROUTE 36)

05:30 Sur 06:45 Daily

05:30 Quriyat 08:30 Daily

05:30 Ruwi 10:00 Daily

TO AL BURAIMI (ROUTE 41)

07:00 Sohar 08:55 Daily

07:00 Ruwi 11:40 Daily

13:30 Ruwi 20:20 Daily via Ibri

13:00 Sohar 14:55 Daily

13:00 Ruwi 17:40 Daily

13:00 Sohar 19:20 Daily

17:00 Ruwi 22:15 Daily

TO SINAW (ROUTE 52)

07:00 Ruwi 10:25 Daily

TO YANQUL (ROUTE 54)

06:00 Nizwa 08:40 Daily

06:00 Ruwi 11:00 Daily

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (ROUTE 54)

15:40 Nizwa 17:55 Daily

15:40 Ruwi 20:20 Daily

TO SUR (ROUTE 55)

06:00 Ruwi 10:45 Daily

14:30 Ruwi 19:00 Daily

TO YIBAL - FAHUD (ROUTE 62)

12:30 Fahud 13:15 Daily

12:30 Ruwi 17:30 Daily

TO SALALAH -MARMUL (ROUTE 100)

07:00 Ruwi 19:50 Daily

10:00 Marmul 13:15 Daily

10:00 Ruwi 22:30 Daily

19:00 Ruwi 07:30 Daily

TO MARMUL (ROUTE 101)

06:00 Marmul 16:30 Daily

DUBAI TO SALALAH (ROUTE 102)

15:00 Salalah 07:00 Daily

TO DUBAI (ROUTE 201)

07:30 Sohar 10:50 Daily

07:30 Ruwi 13:40 Daily

13:00 Sohar 16:15 Thur-Fri

13:00 Ruwi 19:10 Thur-Fri

15:30 Sohar 18:45 Daily

15:30 Ruwi 21:35 Daily

FROM DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH/SHARJAH (ROUTE 204)

16:00 Sharjah 16:30 Daily

16.00 Fujairah 18.15 Daily

16.00 Ruwi 23.00 Daily

@MGM @AZAIBA

Kungu Fu Style – 2D (TBC) (Comedy,Animation)Voice over: Dakota Johnson, Rebel Wilson4:00 PM

Pride & Prejudice & Zombies (2D) (Action Horror) (18+) CP#Cast: Lily James, Sam Riley, Jack Huston2:30, 4:30, 6:30, 11:45 PM

BAHJA CINEMAFilm information 24540856 / Advance Booking 24540855Website: www.albahjacinemaoman.com

The Pack (Horror / Thriller)(12+)Cast: Anna Lise Phillips, Jack Campbell2.00, 6.00, 10.00, & 11.55 PM CP No: 321 Navy Seals: The Battle of New Orleans (Action / Horror) (15+)Cast: Ed Quinn, Michael Dudikoff, Rick Fox 2.00, 10.00 & 11.55 PM. CP No: 322 How to Be Single: (Comedy / Romance)(18+)Cast: Dakota Johnson, Rebel Wilson, Leslie Mann 4.00, 6.00 & 8.00 PM CP No: 323 The Choice: (Drama / Romance)(15+)Cast: Benjamin Walker, Teresa Palmer, Alexandra Daddario 4.00 & 8.00 PM CP No: 324 STAR CINEMAFilm information 24791641 / 24786776Website: www.isurf.co.om

Pavaada (Mal) (Drama\Comedy) Cast: Prithviraj Sukumaran & Miya George 3:00, 6:30 & 10:00 PM Cinema Main Banglore naatkal (Tamil) (Com) Cast: Arya , Sri Divya & Rana Doggadathi 3:30, 6:30 & 9:30 PM Cinema -2 Visaranai (Tamil) (Drama) Cast: Dinehs & Anandhi 3:45 & 9:45 PM Cinema -4 Airlift (Hindi) (Act\ Thriller) Cast: Akshay kumar & Nimrat Kaur 6:45 PM Cinema -42 Countries (Mal) (Com) Cast: Dileep & Mamta Mohandas 3:45, 6:45 & 9:45 PM Cinema -3Jil Jung Juk (Tamil) (Com) Cast : Siddharth & Sanath Reddy 3:45, 6:45 & 9:45 PM Cinema -3

Programmes are subject to change

@PANORAMA

The Choice-2D (Drama, Romance) (15+)Cast: Benjamin Walker, Teresa Palmer4:45, 7:00 PM

WEATHER

250

Maximum

170

Minimum

TEMPERATURE

35-70%RELATIVE HUMIDITY

Send us a colour photograph of the child (below 17 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 lifestyle@timesofoman.com

WITH LOVE

NABILA IRFAN HUSSAINFebruary 13, 2014

LIFESTYLEB7S AT U R DAY, F E B R UA RY 1 3, 2 0 1 6

ACROSS1 Garage contents 5 Pretend to be 9 Not masc. 12 Jog 13 Diner sign 14 Inventor — Whitney 15 Oodles (2 wds.) 16 Snowflakes 18 Durable wood 20 Buenos — 21 First P.M. of India23 “Orinoco Flow” singer 25 Newspaper VIP 26 Herr’s wife 28 Marathon or 10K 32 Bulrush 35 Mork’s planet 36 Out of town 37 Exclusively 38 Curb 40 Appliance brand 41 Sumptuous 43 Cornered 46 “Shogun” setting 49 Egg-shaped 50 Continuous 53 Lysol target 56 Boxing win (abbr.)57 Singer — Brickell 58 Old-fashioned expletive 59 Kyoto honorific 60 Pajama coverer 61 Batik needs

Crossword Puzzle

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

CDUR

It’s better not to argue with...

Me

If I had treasures I would

hide them... No idea

One thing that puts me off ...

When I’m bored

One movie/book I can watch/

read over and over again...

Three mistakes of my life

When I’m in doubt... I would try to clear it

The scariest thing that I have done...

Tried to call a ghost by switching of the

lights and by holding a candle

One person I would trade

places with (real or fi ctional)

My cousin sister Nidhila

I go crazy when...I’m over excited

If I met an alien I would...

Request him to frighten my friends

The best way to my heart is...

Smile

If I win a lottery... I would save it for

my career

If I have to describe myself

as a fl avour it would be...Strawberry

If I could go back in history, I would

like to meetMy ancestors

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

publish the contributions.

ATHIRA KRISHNA

DOWN1 — — disadvantage2 Web addr. 3 Incisor 4 Aquatic mammal 5 Hunt’s partner 6 Thole filler 7 Shoat’s home 8 Type of question 9 Misgivings 10 La femme 11 Fail to hit a target 17 Dainty ornament 19 — Wiedersehen

21 Successor to Claudius 22 Blissful spot 23 One-moon planet24 Microwave, slangily 27 Antarctic sea 29 “—, shucks!” 30 Hockey structure 31 Leered at 33 Subway cousin 34 Protest song singer39 V.J. employer 42 Less than 44 Came unglued

45 Melancholy poem46 Projects 47 “Diana” singer 48 Menial worker49 Pointed arch 51 Bachelor’s last words (2 wds.) 52 Pen point 54 Funny Charlotte — 55 Some ER staff

AN

SWER

TO

PR

EVIO

US

PUZ

ZLE

One skill I would like to learn...

Sky diving

B.read has been an important food since ancient times. Making bread is not diffi cult;

the earliest breads were made by grinding a grain into fl our, adding water or milk, and baking the dough on hot stones. A bread’s taste, tex-ture and nutritional value depend largely on what type of grain is used to make it. Grains are the seeds or fruits of grasses. Bread can be made from many kinds of grains. Histori-cally, the type of bread people made was determined by what type of grain was grown in their region.

Breads of the worldPretzels are thought to have origi-nated in German monasteries of the middle Ages. The traditional pretzel is a distinctive looped form though now it comes in diff erent shapes. Tortillas are a fl at, unleavened bread of Mexico. This bread has been made for thousands of years. According to legends they were invented by a peasant for his hun-gry king and were made of maize with dried kernel. They ground the maize, and used the cornmeal to make a dough.

Focaccia bread originated in Italy and the Mediterranean. It is a fl at oven-baked and similar to pizza doughs.Rye bread originated in Germany and is a hearty alternative to white bread. Farmer’s bread is often dark-er and more textured, being made from whole grains.Pita is one of the most ancient of breads. It originated in the Middle East, but is found worldwide today. Soda bread is traditionally a yeast-free bread made with sodium bicar-bonate (baking soda).

Native Americans used potash as the leavening agent to make this bread.Anpan is a Japanese sweet bun fi lled with red or white bean paste.Bagels are found worldwide. They are often topped with sesame or poppy seeds.Naan is an oven-baked fl atbread popular in India and the Far East.Bao, also known as baozi, is a steamed bun from China.Cuban bread has a toasty crust and soft middle, similar to white French and Italian breads.

-lifestyle@timesofoman.com

BreadFACT FILE

(Exploring History, Science, and Nature)

B8

LIFESTYLES AT U R DAY, F E B RUA RY 1 3, 2 0 1 6

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

P N O I P M A H C P O I N T S L T Y A W A K A E R B O S S S A S N I P E R L N L T E T E A Y T U E O N A G A N B R I T P E A I P R O U D O T O H E S N K N E E E B E M S P P O S A O C L E V E R D I E O T O N F N O E N P E E S R R S R K E S E H Y E A R S C T O S E E F D M S T E R A K O P A F H H E R O L E I T T A R U R R T O D O N A I C E A T E C T Y A N T C E S G N I K E R K N I F N A E H H A R E N A R S R E G N A R P J O N E S T I C K E S E U L B

TelewordSudoku

Arena, Assist, Best, Blade, Blues, Brantford, Breakaway, Brent, Champion, Clever, Create, Defense, Edmonton,

Fastest, Father, Hero, Hockey, Hook, Ices, Janet, Jones, Keith, Kings, Knee, Line, Nagano, Pass, Phenomenon,

Play, Points, Post, Proud, Pucks, Rangers, Records, Reports, Roar, Scorer, Shot, Skate, Slash, Sniper, Sore,

Stanley, Stick, Superstar, Talk, Trap, Trophies, Years. Answer: Ninety-Nine

CLUE: WAYNE GRETZKY SOLUTION: 10 LETTERS

Art for the Ages Children’s Poetry

Precious Time

By Alex RoyGrade 10,ISWK

Time runs fast with speeds we can’t compare,At times, it can be quite selfi sh and unfair.No feelings it has to wait for our progress,But we have to keep pace with it, nevertheless.

All are given an equal twenty-four into seven, right?No one can have a tussle with it or fi ght.It’s all on us how to utilise it,As time is unbiased, at the same time never cares a bit.

Don’t keep work aside for tomorrow,Ensure that today’s happiness, in future doesn’t change to sorrow.It’s not too far, for the wave of trouble to seize us,If there’s no systematic plan, we’llmiss the bus.

Lost money can somehow be recovered, But time once lost, will never be discovered.Can’t aff ord time slipping away, as it is so precious,Or else, will have to repent, it’s obvious.

So start now and take hold of the work you get,For now is the right time, at the end don’t regret.We have to complete life’s race by running,As time doesn’t wait, it just keeps on ticking.

Send your contributions for Children’s Poetry to lifestyle@timesofoman.com

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Karthik Jayaram, Grade 7, ISAS Kashyab Jayaram, Grade 4, ISAS Roshan Bilal, Grade 4, Indian School Al Maabela

Dharmik Maniyar, Grade 5, ISWKAnagha Prasad, Grade 2, ISWK Srinidhi Jaganath, Grade 2, Al Injaz School, Al Khuwair

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, F E B R UA R Y 1 3 , 2 0 1 6

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

*Tourist visa arranged

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com classifi eds@timesofoman.comTel.: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461

FOR RENT

C2 S AT U R D AY, F E B R UA R Y 1 3 , 2 0 1 6

DAILY GUIDE

FLATS FOR RENT

CONTACT : 93202733

1 BHK and 2BHK Flats with Split ACs - Opp. to MOD -

Near Lulu Darsait

Luxury flat for rent in Bareeq Al Shatti buildingSpacious 2 BHK with sea view, split A/Cs, fixed wardrobes,

kitchen appliance. Near Opera Gallery.

Rent RO.900/- negotiable. Contact - 94084335 / 96920789

High quality Warehouses

for rent at Mizfa 550 sqm to 3400 sqm.

Contact 96046951 / 99332291

Flat for rent in

CBD area - Ruwi

Two rooms and a large hall

•Office spaces for rent in Al Hail on

the main road On the same building

of Al Khamis Shoes at Al Hail

•2 bed room flats in Qurum 29 for

rent next to ABA New building

-split AC - Good location

Contact No: 96177505

Flat for rent south Al Mabela.

Contact: 95331177/95230355

Villa 2bedroom, 1 sitting room,

small hall, Kitchen & 2 bath-

room behind Sultan center south

Mawalah 300/- O.R. Contact:

92757673 /99388138

2bed rooms fl at with hall,

2 bathrooms in Darsait near

Muscat Municipality.

Contact: 92584715/ 24700120

1000sqmtrs industrial land for

rent in Ghala suitable for

warehouse workshop etc.

Contact 24700120 /92584715

5 B/R villa available in Mumtaz

area. Contact: 97296105

Warehouse at Wadikabir - total

area 3500 sqm - covered ware-

house (500sqm), offi ce,

accommodation (1000sqm), open

area (2000sqm) please contact:

99273774 - 99202278

Villa for rent in Al Hail South con-

sist of two fl oor, can rent each fl oor

separate or together. Each fl oor

consist of two bedrooms, Majlis

with dining room, living room and

kitchen for every fl oor 400/-R.O.

Contact: 99546777

Flats for rent at Mawaleh near

Omantel main offi ce opposite Lulu

bandar comprises 3 rooms,

2 toilets and one kitchen OMR 250/-

Per month. Contact: 93131497 or

99203435

Villa is composed of 5 bedrooms

and sitting toilets and 5 living

room, kitchen and Seeb (North

Al Hail). Contact: 91130875

Commercial offi ce at prime loca-

tion in Azaiba for rent. 171sq.mtr.

Contact:- 91398925

Restaurant for rent or sale in Al

Ghobrah with its equipments and

permitions for workers. For details

contact: 95094062

1B/R apartment executive fully

furnished at AL Khuwair 33 & 5

B/R villa unfurnished at Madinat

Al Ilam & 5 B/R villa furnished at

Madinat Al Ilam. Contact: Atlas

Real Estate & rent a car LLC 24834

888/99249069/92888376/94617

563 Email: info@alshahiintl.com

Flats for rent in Ruwi Mumtaz

area 2 bedroom. Contact:

91409667/24291500

Flat for rent in Al Hail

south 2 bedroom. Contact:

91409667/24291500

Commercial offi ce at prime

location in Azaiba for rent. 171sq.

mtr. Contact: - 91398925

Shop for rent near Al Nahdha

Hospital. Contact: 97380548 /

99680499

For rent 1 B/R Apartment Execu-

tive Fully Furnished @ Al Khuwair

33, 5 B/R Villa – Unfurnished @

Madinat Al Ilam 5 B/R Villa – }

Furnished @ Madinat Al Ilam

Please Contact:

Atlas Real Estate & Rent A Car LLC

24834888/ 99249069 /

92888376/94617563 /

Email: info@alshahiintl.com

Four bedrooms villa in Al Athaiba

300 m away from Shell Petrol

Station in an excellent condition.

Contact: 97755586

1 BHK Ghubra R.O 250/.

Contact: 97799175

2 BHK Flats for rent, Muttrah near

Oman house S/ AC.

Contact: 97007934 / 92629232

2 clean & spacious fl ats with A/C,

fi rst fl at is behind City center Al

Seeb consist of 2 bedroom and liv-

ing room second fl at is in Al Khoud

3 consist of 1 bedroom and living

room. Contact: 93366421

Flats shops & store for rent in

Ruwi, MBD area & Honda road.

Contact: 92589235/ 94579531

1 & 2 BHK Ruwi C.B.D.

Contact: 99024730

Two bedroom fl at in Al Ghubra

near Oman Oil of 18 Novem-

ber street. OMR 330 Monthly.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360 or

97509955.

New fl ats for rent at Darsait near

to ministry of sports, Mumtaz area

the fl ats include 1 living room, 2

Bedroom, kitchen, 3 toilets every

room with split A/C & high Quality

fi nishing, rent per fl at is R.O 340/-.

Interested candidates please

Contact: 00968- 92225523

3BHK fl at for rent in Ghubra.

Contac: 99328070

One bedroom fl at with big balcony

in al Ghubra near Oman Oil of 18

November street. OMR 280 Month-

ly. Tel: 99333479 or 95215360 or

97509955

Brand new deluxe fl ats located

near Seeb fl yover on the right

hand side the main road coming

from the Seeb palace round about,

2 bedrooms family, hall, kitchen,

3 toilets & split unit.

Contact: 97755586

Flats & offi ces for rent in CBD

Ruwi. Contact: 92820734 /

95345909

Flats shops & store for rent in

Ruwi MBD Honda road.

Contact: 92433127 / 97293708

1& 2 BHK fl ats for rent at Hamriya Wadi Adai, Al Khoud,

Mabela & shop at Al Khoud & land

line Contact: 24834644 GSM

93994401/02/03 3 lines

3 BHK fl at near Darsait ID medical.

RO 420/- Contact – 99358589 /

97079146 / 95570288

Villa for rent in Al Khuwair.

Contact: 96571151

1BHK fl at near Star Cinema 220/-

Contact 99358589 /95570288

Flats two bed room for rent in

Al Khuwair. Contact: 96571151

WAREHOUSE AVAILABLE FOR RENT

IN BALADIA SANAYAH AMIRAT

(Floor area 600sqmtrs and mezzanine of 500sqmtrs)

1100sqmts fully cover warehouse

& staff accommodati onsPlease contact: G.S.M

99417229/92621039

Commercial fl ats of 3 & 2 BHK

in Al Ghobra North 18 Nov street

RO.650/- & 450/-

Contact: 91776665

600 M2 showroom or offi ce in

Bousher in front of Dolphin com-

plex. RO.3.5 per m2.

Contact: 91776665

Brand new 4 BHK villa in Al Fai

compound Al Khoud. RO.475/-

Contact – 91776665

Luxury villa of 5 BHK in Al Khuwair

33 RO.650/- Contact – 91776665

Villa of 3 BHK and sitting area in

Al Ghobra North. RO.525/-

Contact – 91776665

INDUSTRIAL LAND FOR RENT (BARKA)

1100 SQ MTR free industrial land for

all purpose is available with compound and furnished

offi ce in BarkaContact:

24707088, 98283896

One / two B/R , RES / Comm fl at

near Bank Muscat Bausher directly

from owner. Contact: 92158031

1 BHK near medical Darsait Mut-

trah House. R.O 180/-.

Contact: 95076261

Showroom, readymade offi ce with

ACs & free internet 2 B/R fl ats with

split ACs & free internet available

at Al Khuwair near KM Hypermar-

ket. Contact: 99460330

Brand new Twin deluxe villas, ex-

cellent location in Madinat Qaboos

4 bedrooms, housemaid room, 2

kitchens, 2sitting rooms, study

room, full A/C, remote control car

parks. 1,600 RO each villa

Contact 00968 92503825

Spacious 5 bedroom villa

Al Khuwair, 1BHK fl ats Ruwi and

Darsait. Contact: 99369081

FULLY RENOVATED 5 BHK VILLA

For Rent in Azaiba, behind Al Sawa

Towers. WITH Majlis, Living room,

Dining, Kitchen, Laundry, Store.

CONTACT: 93332444, 95166141

Spacious 160 sq meter offi ce with

pantry and toilet built in eagle eye

view of Al Khuwair on 7th fl oor

Jasmine Building near Radisson Blu.

1,100 RO per month. Contact 00968

92503825

Flat in Wadi Al Kabir 2 bedrooms, 1

living room, 1 family hall, kitchen & 3

bathrooms. Contact: 99277787

2 BHK in MSQ opposite Al Fair with

split AC. Contact: 96708000

2 BHK in Bareeq Al Shatti with split

AC. Contact: 96708000

DAILY GUIDES AT U R D AY, F E B R UA R Y 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 C3

FOR RENT

FOR SALE

Running shop with paint machine for sale in kadra

- Prime locati on with good daily sales - 260 Square meters- Warehouse facility - Staff accommodati on

BUILDING MATERIAL SHOP FOR SALE

Interested parti es may call 9322 3382 or mail to cs@mpesllc.com

Carpentry workshop with all basic

equipments, tools, amenities and

a work force of 15. Total area 1600

SQ.M and a built up area of 800

SQ.M. Accommodation for workers

within the compound. Excellent

goodwill and reputation created in

the market since the last 14 years.

Contact 95219895 or

Email: mci.carpentry@yahoo.com

Cradle lift for external Building

painting, almost new height up to

100 Mts six mtr cradle. Contact :

99235701 / 90648313

Restaurant items for sale.

Contact: 96772479 /98428507

A well Established Indian restau-

rant with all necessary equipments

well qualifi ed staff furnished party

hall (capacity 150) is up for imme-

diate sale at MBD area. #92978956

Sale of shop with interiors and

basement go down in Wadi Kabir

near to Lulu Market, on the Juma

Masjid road. Contact: 99344106

Special Dental Center for sale.

2 Dentist room, dental lab, full

brand instruments with external

public pharmacy in Muscat.

Contact no. 99019144

HD Scaff oldings, Shuttering

Jacks, Wooden Planks, Shuttering

wood assorted, Tower hoist (lift),

Concrete Mixer, Bending Machine,

Steel Fabrication Machinery

(Searing/Cutting, lathe & Welding)

including tools for immediate sale:

Contact 99273774/ 99202278

Steel Scrap materials for im-

mediate sale: Contact 99273774/

99202278

Running company with construc-

tion fi re & safety license.

Contact: 99319670

Space for printing press available

at wadikabir with or without

machinery. Contact 99328430

Fire rated portacabins and steel

caravans. ContacT: 94058574

Ladies Beauty parlour for sale.

Contact: 96392978 / 96700192

ACC. AVAILABLE

NOTICE

Single room at Walja, opposite MBD

area SPAR available for executive

bachelors inclusive of electricity and

water for OMR 110/-. # 98958586

Excellent room, kitchen with A/C

couple / bachelor ONTC bus near

Ruwi. Contact: 91657455

Flats 3 bedroom available at

Ghobrah near Indian School.

Contact: 99236718

Sharing accommodation near

Hamriya fl ower shopping super-

market. Contact: 98985763

Single room attached bath at

Mumtaz area. Contact 95212017 /

90562744

Furnished room for an Indian in

Al-Khuwair33 - 95234062

Room with kitchen, bath avail-

able in Ruwi for a couple or single

working lady. Contact: 91450718 /

91429608

Accommodation available at

Al Hail Keralite family only.

Contact: 96234708

Room with attached bathroom and

sharing kitchen available for

Executive bachelor or small

family at wadikabir 9304 9849

Fully furnished room with attached

bath for Executive bachelor, behind

Al Meera hypermarket, Azaiba

150/-R.O. Contact: 99455735

Single room attached bath,

kitchen in Wadi Kabir.

Contact: 99336206

Accommodation for couple or

working lady, near Al Nahda

hospital. Contact 95871148

Room available in Mumtaz area 1

room, 1 Bathroom, Kitchen & 1 room,

common bathroom. Interested

please Contact: 92680041 Mr. Altaf

WANTED

IELTS Coaching (academic)

required nearby wadi Kabir area.

Please call on mobile or msg on

Whats up.

Mobile no: 92927880/99012165

BUYING

Bobcat available for rent.

Contact 97623299

Buying cars for cash.

Contact: 90202090

Luxury and brand new semi

furnished 2 BHK fl at in

Remalbowsher. RO.550/-

Contact – 91776665

Spacious 1 BHK fl at in Al Wattaya

with all split A/C’s and parking.

RO.300/-Contact – 91776665

Flats in Darsait. Contact - 94051789-97201688

Flats in WadiKabir. Contact - 94051789-97201688

Fully Furnished apartments in

Boucher (35)

Contact - 94051789-97201688

Offi ces in Qurum opposite City

Center. Contact: 94051789-

97201688

Brand new villas in Al Ansab.

Contact - 94051789-97201688

Offi ces & Showrooms in Muttrah.

Contact - 94051789-97201688

Duplex villa in Qurum 29.

Contact - 94051789-97201688

Mini Furnished Apartment in

Qurum. Contact: 94051789-

97201688

Offi ces & Showrooms in Al Khoud. Contact: 94051789-

97201688

I Kamat Sameer Suhas (holder of

Indian passport No. M 8970249)

S.O. Kamat Suhas Manohar having

permanent residence in At and

post 162 B. Mathewada Tal Sawant

Wadi Dist. Sindhudurga M.S.

416510 (Complete postal address

in India) and presently residing

in PO Box 405 PC 118 AL Harthy

complex Muscat ( Complete postal

address in Oman) intend to marry

Ms Tabana Nilza Maglinte holder

of Pilipinas passport bearing No.

EC 4523424 D/O Norma Maglinte

Tabana in EMBASSY OF INDIA,

MUSCAT. , I swear that I am mar-

rying her at my own free will and

not under any duress and intimida-

tion. Any objection towards change

change of name of our minor child

may please be communicated to

Embassy of India, Muscat, Dip-

lomatic Quarters, Al Khuwair, PB

No. 1727 , PC 112 , Ruwi , Sultanate

of Oman within 30(thirty) days

of publication of this news paper

advertisement.

AVAILABLE

Party & Wedding equipment rentals.

Full line, from Tables, Linen & Skirt-

ing, Chairs & Chair covers, Cutlery,

Crockery, 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. ww.tunesoman.com,

E-mail: info@tunesoman.com

SITUATION WANTEDEDUCATION/COMPUTER/WEBSITE

Karate and self defense classes

at Azaiba 18 Nov Street. RO 10 per

month twice a week Monday and

Tuesday 6. 30 TO 7. 30. PM.

CONTACT 98294551

Spoken Arabic class for Non Arabic Speakers & English

class for Malayalam Speakers in Azaiba and Ruwi

• Learn in two months• Satisfaction guaranteed

Tel: 95244310

WEB, ERP and Business Intelli-

gence (BI) creation and man-

agement at rock bottom price.

Contact: http//webviewoman

SITUATION WANT-

ED

BUSINESS

Partner wanted 10 to 30% share

handover for running Construction

Company. Contact: 97491117

SCRAP COMPANYFOR SALE OR RENT

(BARKA)An excellent Grade 1 Scrap Company, fully certi fi ed is available with compound

and furnished offi ce, in Barka Industrial Area.

Contact: 24707088, 98283896

1& 3 BHK Al Khuwair.

Contact: 99024730

2 BHK apartment in

Al Wadi Al Kabir.

Contact 93252324, 99364041.

*Classifi ed Advertisement space booking with text, should be done till 12.00 noon for next day’s publication.

* Subject to space availability

DAILY GUIDEC4 S AT U R D AY, F E B R UA R Y 1 3 , 2 0 1 6

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION VACANT SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED

SITUATION WANT-SIT. WANTED

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com classifi eds@timesofoman.comTel.: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461Fax: 24812624

SKILLED / UNSKILLED

BEAUTY

BEAUTY

DRIVER

DRIVER

MEDICAL

MEDICAL

ITDRIVER

ADMIN

ADMIN

CATERING

ADMIN

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

SALES / MARKETING

SALES / MARKETING

Indian Kerala male 39 well exp

commis chef /cook / supervising

in hotel / catering seeking suitable

placement. Contact: 98137476

Cooks (Arabic Indian) gulf exp

looking job. Contact: 99531802

Required urgently a Legal Consultant/ Lawyer for reputed

law fi rm in Sohar, Muscat. Can-

didates should have 5-7 years

experience as a Legal Consultant/

Lawyer with good knowledge of

Computer & should be fl uent in

English both written & spoken.

Email C V to shejaanil66@gmail.

com or Contact 99153620

between 8am to 1pm & 2pm to

5.30 pm on Sunday to Thursday

Indian male good experienced in

Accounts, ERP Tally 9 & Admin in

India & Oman, presently on visit

visa, looking for suitable placement.

Contact 94834687

Indian male 25 yrs, Graduate in

commerce, overall 5 yrs exp in ac-

counts/ fi nance fi eld. On visit visa.

Immediately available.

Contact – 92836216 /

muhammad.tausif623@gmail.com

Contact -91262604Email: chillapalli76@gmail.com

Wanted female GP, female Gynecologist, female Staff

Nurse, female X- Ray Technician With MOH license for Al Saadi

Specialized Medical Centre in Musanna.

DOMESTIC HELP

Indian male, 28, Post Graduate, 6

years exp. in Oman in Sales and

Credit Control , with valid Oman D/L

looking for suitable placements.

NOC available. Ph: 9206 6523

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

Indian male, 26 with MBA (Finance

/ Marketing) having 2 years experi-

ence in (Accounts / Finance) on visit

visa looking for suitable position

immediately joining available.

Contact: 92989197 Email:

abdulqhizer2004@gmail.com

CA with 16 years experience in

fi nance / audit, seeking suitable

senior position and available for im-

mediate joining. Contact: 96320588

Indian male 25 B.Com IATA

diploma 2 yrs exp in accounts,

good looking currently in Oman,

NOC available. Contact: 99323841

Email:rohitpanam@gmail.com

B.Com 32 yrs male Accountant

having 8 yrs Oman experience in

Construction Co. seeking immedi-

ate change (NOC available).

Contact: 98624850

Indian male (25) B.com 3 years

experience as Accountant seeking

placement accountant / Admin /

sales visit visa. Contact: 98437731

Email: falsalcpsy@gmail.com

Indian male Accountant having

B.Com, M.Com with 7 years

experience up to fi nalization look-

ing job, on tourist visa ready to

join immediately.

Contact: 91651695

Email: danishpa2005@gmail.com

Indian female 25 yrs, MBA HR &

Marketing, with one and half years

experience as accountant and

6 months experience in teaching,

now on a visit visa,

seeking suitable position.

Contact: 99624044,

mail: np.neethu1@gmail.com.

Indian female Accountant 8 yrs

exp in Oman. Contact: 93726921

Indian male, MBA in fi nance with

more than 6 years of experience,

profi ciency in accounting software

like tally, focus SAP (FICO) etc

seeking suitable placement.

Contact: 98665219 Email Id:

abdulhameed1527@gmail.com

Indian male 12 yrs exp in

accounts location Sohar .

NOC available. Contact :91212471,

Email: rennyj6@gmail.com

Bangladeshi male having MBA

(fi nance) & M.com (accounting)

with 2 yrs exp. looking for suitable

placement have valid D/L & NOC.

Contact :968 92491009,

Email: rasubiswas4@gmail.com

Indian female B.Com, ACCA affi li-

ate fresher seeking for job in

Auditing fi nance & accounting in

family visa holding Oman driv-

ing license. Contact: 92264638 /

99858867

Email: mira.somya@gmail.com

Pakistani male 11 yrs experience

in accounts, fi nance looking for

suitable job.

Contact: 91479315

Email: bilalnazir65@hotmail.com

Finance Manager 22 years Oman

experience available. Transfer

possible. Contact: 95631834 /

91302906

EDUCATION

Demi Chef needed urgently for

seafood and fi sh and chips 2 male

Filipino Waiter needed urgently with

experience. Contact 92382239 /

98260306

Part time up to fi nalization.

Contact: 91126314

Indian Accountant with experi-

ence in fi nancial/cost accounting,

Administration, HR and Mate-

rial Management in construction

(more than 30 years) seek suitable

placement. Contact 98598099

Indian male 7 yrs Oman exp, tally

ERP 9, Accounting, Inventory

controlling & IT Supports seeking

suitable job. NOC Available. B.Com,

PGDCA. location Sohar having

Oman D/L. Contact 98317698,

Email: sukuanilkumar@gmail.com

Young 24, ACCA affi liate,

Advanced diploma in Accounting

and Business, seeking suitable

placement in Accounts, Finance or

audit With valid driving license.

Contact - 92430152,

Email - rau_dey@yahoo.com

Indian male having good experience

in accounts and in accounting and in

accounting software’s ready to join

immediately

Contact +91 9444965126

28/male/MBA - fi nance/B.Com -

Accountant with 4 years of Dubai/

India experience looking for a

suitable placement.

Contact 90187483

shobinkarikkan1987@gmail.com

Indian male 35 years, BBM,

diploma in accounts manage-

ment & banking, 5 years experi-

ence in Oman as sales executive

& accountant, with valid Oman

D/L, seeking suitable placement

in Muscat. Contact: 98163037/

92683606 Email:

abhi.abrahan09@gmail.com

Chartered Accountant - Indian, 9

yrs + Exp (7 yr in Oman & UAE) in

Finance, Accounts & Auditing, seek-

ing suitable position in Muscat/

Dubai ASAP, Can Join Immediately,

NOC Available, Contact : 98707434

/casmart007@gmail.com

Chief Accountant looking for full /

part time job.

Contact: 95598477/98803439

Indian Male Accountant 10yrs

Exp. in OMAN Retail & Furni-

ture Co. (Release Available)

GSM.92564955

M.Com & MBA fi nance Indian 10

years of experience in fi nance & ac-

counts up to fi nalization currently

available in Oman. #90501642,

Email: bobykkj@gmail.com

Indian male, B.Com with 6 years

experience as an Accountant,

looking for suitable placement.

Mob: 93903458 ,

Email : Akkandyrijesh@gmail.com

SENIOR ACCOUNTANT, with

13yrs experience, 6 yrs Oman in

manufacturing, trading & con-

tracting Cos, capable of handling

all accounting, fi nance, banking,

L/C, import, export & fi nalization

seeks placement. NOC Available.

Call+968-98932752,

mail:jjohnmuscat@hotmail.com

Indian male 34 Yrs, Dual MBA

Finance and marketing with IT

skills, 7+ yrs of experience, Look-

ing for suitable placement.

Contact : 94879615,Email-

sajan_chacko1981@yahoo.com

SENIOR ACCOUNTANT-M. Com

Finance-Indian with 7 years expe-

rience in Finance & Accounts up to

fi nalization. Currently employed

in Oman. Having D/L & NOC.

Mob: 94122464,

Email: cammk13@gmail.com

Urgently required a Gulf experi-enced professional hair dresser cum beautician (lady) for a

reputed beauty salon, immediate

appointment. Contact: 99816262 /

98557585 Fax: 24796211

Email: skin.hair.makeup@gmail.

com

Wanted experienced beautician and hairdresser for the reputed

ladies beauty center at Qurum.

Contact: 97453246

Email: souzawilfred@gmail.com

Reputed organization is looking

for heavy duty drivers for trailers

Omani / expat (3 nos) and outdoor

Sales Executive for hardware and

general trading with valid D/L (1 no).

Send your CV on

ocm@theocmgroup.com

Urgently required one Omani driver for a reputed trading com-

pany in Ghala. Contact: 24502710

Fax: 24502609, GSM 99763251

Email: sharlu.entp@gmail.com

Building material company look-ing for a Marketer with experi-

ence. Contact: 95342240 &

send CV to Email:

venice.decoration@gmail.com

Urgently required Marketing Executive with driving license

for sales of furniture. Contact:

97164554 / 99452755

Email: aliasgar.tarwadi@yahoo.

com

Wanted experienced Sales Person for show room related

to safety products (PPE) having

knowledge of computer, driving

license is an added advantage.

Contact: 99344106/99893938

Required building material outdoor sales man with Omani

driving license

3 years experience in outdoor.

Contact: 24817708

Offi ce furniture Sales Executive with minimum 5 years experi-

ence & valid Omani driving

license, should have experience in

handling offi ce furniture projects,

Tenders & Retail. Candidates

should have NOC from the current

employer. Interested candidates

can apply by mail:

info@smartvisionoman.con

Fax: 24818818

Required Electrician ITI experi-

enced in L.T works or M.E.P with

MEDC license. Contact: 99364007

/ 99454425

Developers needed with experience in .net, C#, EF Code

First, WCF, MVC 4/5, WebAPI, SQL

and WF 4.5 must. Work from home

role for an Australian company.

Send resume to

Email: atif.saad@mis.technology

26/Pakistani Male/MBA-HR

having 2 years of experience in HR

with MN Insurance Company and

banking industry is currently in

OMAN on VISIT VISA & looking for

a suitable job in HR,

ADMIN or FINANCE.

Email ahmadraja010@gmail.com

GSM 91716268/93228785

Indian female Graduate over

6 years experience in Admin

operations support with excellent

communication skills looking for

suitable job. Contact: 94231020

Indian male MBA 33yrs having 10

yrs of exp seeking full time suit-

able placement in Administration/

HR/ Operations/ Coordination/

Logistics. Holding valid D/L.

Contact 99054786

Indian legal adviser drafting

cases / contract administrator job

experience computer knowledge

Oman experience / India suitable

job NOC. Contact: 91171650

Indian female 27 yrs Masters

in computer, 2 yrs exp in admin.

Looking for full-time or part-time

jobs Contact: 99417993

Pakistani male 7 yrs experience

in purchase & HR looking for suit-

able job with valid Oman driving

license. Contact: 91020279,

Email: afaiz7345@gmail.com

Indian male, Graduate having

more than 10 years experience in

logistics & freight forwarding with

GCC license, looking for a suitable

job. Contact: 91714980

Email: medileep@gmail.com

Looking for H.R Admin Assistant post or any related position, cur-

rently on visit visa, available for

immediate placement Qualifi ca-

tion MBA H.R. Contact: 94665450

Email:

paulwesleywilliaams@yahoo.com

Indian male MBA- UK 18 yrs Gulf

exp in Administration/ HR & Pub-

lic relationship. Fluent in Arabic/

English with D/L. Looking for suit-

able position. Contact - 99897280

Indian Female, MBA-HR having

8+ experience in Administration/

HR, Customer Support, Offi ce Coor-

dinator with good Computer skill,

Now on Visit Visa,looking for suit-

able position. Contact: 90196235

Indian female, Masters in HR,

having 4 + years Oman experience

in media management and HR,

looking for openings in HR, Educa-

tion, Admin, Corporate communi-

cations. Contact 98252030

Need master cutter, tailor for

tailor shop. Contact: 99825211

Wanted A/c Mechanic, Electrician / Plumber, Carpenters, Driver. Contact 94147874 / 97014234,

globalaccessunited@gmail.com

Required experienced Accountant for group of restaurant.

Visa available. Contact: 99190190

Audit Assistants. Email: aoabmuscat@gmail.com

Accountant with knowledge of

Tally. Driving license preferred.

Send C.V to info.rsttllc@gmail.com

QHSSE ADVISOR - Interna-

tional Oilfi eld Services Company

requires a NEBOSH qualifi ed

QHSSE Advisor (Omani National)

to ensure continual improvement

in our Muscat base. Main duties

to include Journey Management,

supporting implementation of

policies and procedures, mentor-

ing staff , training coordination,

reporting, audit & inspection and

risk assessment. Submit CV to

me-job@interwell.com

ARCHITECTURE

Architect / Site Architect 12 years experience in Supervision

the implementation of major

projects & design, looking for work

in construction or consulting.

Contact: 96049397

Indian female diploma in archi-

tecture having 5 years of working

experience in Oman (Engg Consul-

tancy having valid Oman driving

license. Contact: 96683293

Required Cleaners & offi ce boys. Contact 24707833

Urgently required House Maid Cum Cook for an Indian Business Family.

Call for Interview 99471085

Keralite house maid required for 3

hrs evening part time job at Ghubra.

Contact:92448315

Beautician, Indian exp. required

visa. Contact 95175192

Required Cook, Omani food &

continental experienced. Visa

available. Contact: 99190190

CATERING

A leading company in travels & tourism, accredited by IATA requires:

Sales Executive for Travels & Tourism:Experience not less than 3 years in one of the travels & Tourism, must have a driving license.Sales Executive for Car Rental:Experience not less than 4 years in one rent a car company, must have a driving license.

Ticketing consultant:Must have at least 4 years experience in the travels, professional in GDS (Sabre, Amadeus, Galelio).Tourism consultant:Experience not less than 5 years in tourism domain, very good knowledge in Tour-ism systems (DOTW,GTA…etc).Having relationships with suppliers in diff erent countries in the world.

Notes: -You must determine which position did you applied for it as email subject -Th e company will not see at any demand without subject.

Email : nrtvacancies@gmail.com

Required Yacht Captain for a marine tour company in Muscat,

English speaking and valid boat

driving license. Contact: 92014572

TOURS/TRAVELS

Required Female Teacher to teach

Physics and Maths for grade

11 girl, studying at Al Ibdaa PS.

Tel 99227839)

MISCELLANEOUS

Required gynecologist GEN: practitioner lady lab Technician and pharmacologist immediately

for a clinic in Suwaiq.

Contact: 95081010

Email: umchealthcare@gmail.com

Required gynecologist GEN: practitioner lady lab Technician and pharmacologist immediately

for a clinic in Suwaiq.

Contact: 95081010

Email: umchealthcare@gmail.com

Wanted female Ayurvedic

therapist with or without MOH.

Contact: 97263637/93309131

Required marketing Executives females in Muscat with Oman

driving license. Email:

excellentchoice1ccs@gmail.com

Required male / female Market-ing person for man power Supply

Company with minimum 3 years

experience with valid GCC / Oman

driving license.

Contact: 97158893 / 94148972.

Kindly send CV at

Email: rastllcmuscat@gmail.com

Urgently required Marketing Executives with driving license

for sales in artifi cial grass & steel

fabrication. Contact 99104577

Email: info@greencover.net

Urgently Required Steel Fabri-cated Products Salesman with

an experience in steel fabrication,

MUST have Oman driving license,

and immediately join. Apply,

fax 00968–24605955, emails

sbc@steelbuildingsllc.com,

sbeoman@yahoo.com

URGENTLY REQUIRED

LIGHT DRIVERAged between 25 to 35

years with a good command of English

Please send your CV to:

driveroman4@gmail.com

URGENTLY REQUIREDMobile

TechnicianContact:

91577519/99737812

Décor Company looking for an Engineer or Technician deco-

rated with experience. Contact:

95342240 & send CV to Email:

venice.decoration@gmail.com

Senior Factory Control Room Operator Required for a Manufac-

turing Company in Oman. Candi-

date should possess a Diploma in

Electrical and Electronics

Engineering with minimum

5 years of experience.

Candidates who have experience

in Oman are preferred. Kindly

forward relevant resumes to

info.companyoman@yahoo.com

Required candidates for following

posts: Accountant, Storekeeper, Foreman Building Maintenance, Van-salesman (water), Helpers. Candidates with Omani driving

license preferred.

Contact 99273774/99202278

An Indian light driver. Contact:

24705605, Ruwi

Wanted Driver. Contact 91025698

ENGINEER

young Omani male have experi-

ence 12 years as P.R.O , Clerk helper

supervisor Admin supervisor , H.R

Manager have diploma in H.S.E, IT

and P.D.O license looking for H.R

position or P.R.O license . Looking

for H.R position or P.R.O part time or

full time. Contact: 95933288

Light driver 10 years experience

looking for suitable job, can speak

English, Arabic & Hindi.

Contact: 92360040

Driver, 2 yrs exp looking for

suitable placement. Contact:

97133246

Light driver need job knows

Arabic & Hindi.

Contact: 95145988

Looking job L.T.V with car,

without car. Contact: 94436276

Driver, 5 years experience in

Oman looking for job.

Contact : +968 99139890

Job for driving. Contact:

98982410

URGENTLY REQUIRED HR Manager (Omani Nati onal)

Minimum 2 years experience good command over English & Arabic.

Should be capable of handling Administrati on, all type of

correspondence & routi ne offi ce works independently, and good skill

in MS-Offi ce is must.

Interested candidates may send in their CVs to Fax # 24600217 or

email on: zeeshan@starslightllc.com

LOOKING FOR SALES EXECUTIVES &

SALES ENGINEERS WITH AT LEAST TWO YEARS EXPERIENCE IN THE FIELD

OF EARTHMOVING EQUIPMENTS,

CRUCHERS, QUARRY & MINING INDUSTRY.

Email: applyinggchr@gmail.com

Vacancy dermatologist doctors & internal medicine for inquiry or

send CV. Contact: 24571094/

Fax: 24571097

Email: zmczahara@yahoo.com

DAILY GUIDES AT U R D AY, F E B R UA R Y 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 C5

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED

DRIVER

DESIGNER/DRAUGHTSMAN

ENGG. / TECH./MECH.

Finance / Project/Program Manager ProfessionalQualifi cati ons : MBA, PMP, Six Sigma

Country Exposure Canada & Middle East, Industry Any Nati onality

Canadian, In Person Interview on Sundays

Contact No: 97203531, +923352855176

Interior Designer 4 years experi-

ence design and supervision skills

(3D Max, AutoCAD Photoshop.

Contact: 95246737

Email: yassalnajjar@gmail.com

DOMESTIC HELP

ENGG. / TECH./MECH.

Electrical designer Indian male

25 yrs experience of oil & gas fi eld

in Oman seeking suitable place-

ment. Contact: 99605127 Email:

Gerard.baptist@gmail.com

Civil Engineer (B. Tech) Indian

male with 3 years experience

skilled in the area quantity survey-

or, primavera, MS Excel, AutoCAD.

Contact: 00968 94853061, E mail:

arunmohan.13990@gmail.com

Mechanical Engineer (4 years

exp) (3 years HVAC 10 months

Piping Engineer) job visa Indian

Muslim (27). Contact: 90486758

Email: afsalhyder@gmail.com

Indian Civil Eng., (BE) 16 years

exp in Oman const. having driving

license & NOC. Contact : 99446335

Email: sonymathew76@yahoo.com

Technical Analysis Trainer with

automated trading system (NSE)

looking for a job. Contact: 91285811

Diploma in Civil Engineering

having an experience 16 years (8

years in Oman) looking for a suita-

ble placement. Contact: 95900744

/ 98028329

Email: skalam744@gmail.com

B.E .Mechanical Engineer Indian

over 4 yrs of exp in HVAC design

auto cad drafting on visit visa.

Contact 90305596, Email:

shaikrizwan330@gmail.com

Mechanical Eng. Diploma 31

years experience (22 Oman) Steel

fabrication, steel furniture, Powder

coating, Production and Planning.

Machine shop, looking for

Managerial position in Sohar.

Contact 99314899

Seeking for Job: Male Bachelor of

Science In Industrial Technology

Graduate Job Exp.6yrs water safe-

ty rescue/lifeguard/scuba diving

Contact: 96094260 / 96023570

Electrical Engineer B.Tech with

4 yrs experience in India available

on visit visa looking for suitable

placement. Contact: 94741401 /

97239852 Email:

sobinthomask05@gmail.com

SPECIALIST AVAILABLE FOR EXPLOSIVE GROWTH IN TERM

OF RESTRUCTURING ALL MODULES OF BUSINESS WITH 30 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE, BUSINESS SOLUTIONS, MANUFACTURING,

TRADING, APPLICATIONS, PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT. CONTACT – 93343251 /

profi toman@ gmail.com

EXPERIENCED TEAM TO PROVIDE TECHNO- COMMERCIAL BUSINESS SOLUTIONS, FEASIBILITY, ERP WITH BI TOOLS, ADVISE ON FINANCIAL, HR,

RISK GENERAL MANAGEMENT, GUIDE STARTUPS RESTRUCTURING,

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT. Contact – 96500729

Email: k.profi toman@ gmail.com

EDUCATION

Indian Lecturer Lady, MTECH

with 5+ years teaching experience

in Electrical engineering - RUWI-

95073922 /

chithrarakeshkumar@gmail.com

Looking for part time tutoring on

Mathematical & Statistics.

Contact: 99229700

Mechanical Engineer (B.Tech) with

2 and half years experience Indian

male 24 years in visit visa. Contact:

96620482 / + 919605423272

Email: bijumonps@gmail.com

Civil Engineer 6 years experience, 4

years in Oman, driving license avail-

able. Contact number 92553263

Off shore Structural Engineer

(M. Tech) Indian 27 yrs 1 year expe-

rience looking opportunity in Oman.

Contact: 93653629

Telecom Engineer, Indian, M.Tech

(Communication System) 2 years

exp O& M of Ericsson BSC, RNC

equipments seeking suitable job,

presently on visit visa.

Contact: 968 93615443

Email: shabnaspk@gmail.com

Diploma Engineer looking for job

(Civil) 7 years experience in Oman.

Contact: 92076339

Process Engineer Chemical Engi-

neer, MBA certifi ed in supply chain

(MGT) 6 years experiences in opera-

tion. Contact: +968 94690325 Email:

phahad.hashim@gmail.com

HSE Engineer (B.E Mech+ Diploma

Safety + NEBOSH+ OSHA) over

10yrs. Exp, (Visa Release Letter

(NOC) available), seeking suitable

placement. Contact :97061817,

Email:jayanammu1977@gmail.com

Indian male Electrical Engineer with MBA (Mktg) having 4 and half

years experience in technical com-

mercial and marketing fi elds with

valid GCC D/L, NOC available

seeking placement.

Contact: + 968 96547828

Email: deva0234@gmail.com

Indian male, Electronics Engineer

with 16+ yrs experience in ELV sys-

tems looking for suitable position

in Sales, Business Development or

operations, having valid license &

local release. Contact 98143907 or

mazher2005@yahoo.com

Indian male 26 yrs have 6 yrs

exp in technical assistant in tyre

production, visit visa at Ruwi.

Contact: 92600859

Indian female (22) BE Computer

Science & pursuing MBA in sym-

biosis, looking for a job in HR & IT

with 2 years experience in IT fi eld.

Contact: 92649477 / 96043223

Male 38 yrs Graduate 07 years

experience indoor / outdoor

electronic fi eld with D/License &

NOC available (as per new rule).

Contact: 92453375

Chemical Engineer Sudanese

male 29 yrs. Master degree in

chemical engineering , Experience

1 yrs and 2 months OSHA Course

,HACCP Course , look for suitable

job in Oman. Contact 96533430

Indian male, Age 22, B.Tech,

Mechanical Engineer, seeking for

job on any position presently on

family visa. Contact 94597785

Highly experienced Indian

Civil Engineer looking for suitable

placement. NOC available.

Contact 95715278

Iraqi Architect with 10 years of

experience in Engineering designs

and Construction Supervising

professional in 3Ds Max, AutoCAD

Photoshop. Contact: 96011716

Civil Engineer 4 years experience

(Site Engineer). Contact: 94703391

Soft ware Engineer available,

1 year experienced in Oracle –DB,

VB. Net, SQL. Interested contact:

97440378

Electrical Engineer Indian male

30 years, having 5 years of experi-

ence in industrial automation and

utility maintenance in India (MRF

Tyres) holding valid Oman D/L.

Contact: 92789995 Email:

akhilabrahamlktr@gmail.com

Mechanical Engineer, Experience

in the power plant and any types of

the Mechanical work, looking for

mechanical jobs.

Contact: 92827254 /94641669

MEP Engineer 5 years exp in Gulf

driving license NOC.

Contact: 97838220

HOSPITALITY

Hotel Management Degree holder,

Indian Male, with 4 years work ex-

perience (Kuwait & India) looking

for “Supervisor” position in F&B

Department. Contact 96278739 or

email anand786x@yahoo.com

Hospitality/Hotel/ Restaurants

Dynamic result oriented hospital-

ity professional with 20 years of

international exp. MBA in Hotel

Management, specializing in

Hotel/Restaurant start ups, con-

cepts & Franchise development

with proven records. Seeking for

Challenging positions in reputed

groups as GM/COO/CEO/Business

Head. (NOC available)

Contact: 96059470

Civil Engineer diploma, 4 yrsexp

seeks suitable position ina reputed

company. NOC available.

Contact – 96789711

HSE Engineer B.Tech (safety & fi re)

M. Sc 8 years experience

Indian 31 years presently occupied

on notice period available with clean

NOC, holds Oman driving license &

owns car. Contact: 94616721

Email: aibelg19@gmail.com

B.Sc Civil Engineer, 27 yrs Oman

experience as Project Manager,

Structure Engineer looking for

suitable placement. NOC / LOCAL

transfer available.

Contact: 99349578

Email: farooqatm@hotmail.com

Civil Engineer 8 years experience

in Oman as a project engineer for

governmental & private projects.

Contact – 90164912

Civil Engineer (B.Tech), Indian

male 24 years with 1+years Indian

experience,(Certifi ed in Staad

Pro/ Quantity Survey/ Auto Cad).

Looking for a Suitable position.

Available In Sultanate of Oman

(Muscat) on Visit Visa.

Contact: 92835952. E-mail:

mohammedamair.bin@gmail.com

Indian male Electrical Engineer, having 6 years gulf experience in

designing, assembling, commis-

sioning execution etc having valid

GCC license too looking for a suit-

able. Contact: 00968-98052942

Email: azamjeelani78@gmail.com

IT MEDICAL

Male GP Doctor with NOC 6 yrs ex-

perience in Oman for perm/locum

job. Contact : 97746074

Indian male Nurse Prometric 70%

with MOH license. Smart & fl uent

in English. Ready for immediate

joining. Contact – 92194649

Female Nurse Indian, total 15 yrs

experience, 6 yrs in KSA, promet-

ric passed with 66% ready to join

immediately. Contact: 95525004 /

98146565

MANAGER

MEDICAL

IT Service Desk Management

with 3 years experience now on

visit visa looking for suitable

placement. Contact: 95917613

Email:shithin.kanakadas@gamil.com

Indian female 28 years, MCA,

B.com, 3 years experience in the

fi eld of computer hardware, ERP

software and windows network-

ing where planning, implementing

and troubleshooting with multiple

platform of OS Microsoft XP /7/8

on visit visa. Contact: 95089170

Email: anjuretnakar@gmail.com

Indian male 25 years BSC (C.S)

with basic hardware and software

knowledge seeks suitable place-

ment now on visit visa.

Contact: 92319677

Email: ismabsc@gmail.com

Indian male having B. Tech

C.C.NA M.C.SA 3years Saudi expe-

rience in IT System Administrator,

2 years experience in Networking

(routing & switching) & server

administrator presently on visit

visa looking suitable placement.

Contact: 92339064 Email :

anshadsainullabdeen@gmail.com

Indian female, B.Tech graduate,

with one and half years experience

as ‘web developer’ interested in

web development and has experi-

ence working in HTML, CSS, Boot-

strap, JavaScript and Photoshop.

Contact : 9592 7075, e-mail id:

mariarosejacob90@gmail.com

LOGISTICS

IT

Indian heavy duty driver having

15 years experience in Oman NOC

available. Contact: 91395329

/94730087

Driver with car 2015 model,

speak British English.

Contact: 94039796

Embassy experienced driver with

17 years experience seeks suitable

placement. Contact: 92191698

Driver with release Oman

4 years, K.S.A 12 years exp.

Contact: 93885404

Pakistani light driver looking

for job with 5 years experience.

Contact: 92617293

Looking job for driving with car.

Contact: 90436094

Looking for job car driver.

Contact: 98388947

Light driver looking for job

experience 8 years.

Contact: 94297563

Light driver. Contact: 99141481

Light driver looking for job.

Contact : 95494310

Housemaid & Driver, valid GCC

D/L (couple) overseas looking for

job. Contact 95175192

Housemaid (overseas) Indian

family looking for job.

Contact 99531802

Indian Male, 36 years, over 16

years’ Stores, Logistics and Import

Export experience with US based

MNC, seeks suitable placement.

Mob: 9822 6568

Electrical Testing Engineer (B.Tech)

having 7 yrs Gulf experience exper-

tise in testing pre-commissioning

commissioning of electrical

systems, currently on visit visa

seeks suitable job in Muscat.

Contact: 90188231

Mechanical Engineer male 26 yrs,

with 4 yrs of experience in manu-

facturing oil & gas retail, brand pro-

moting, marketing, logistics having

valid Omani D/L seeking for a suit-

able placement. Contact: 97098676

Email: ja237le@gmail.com

Indian male, Mechanical

Engineer having 1year experi-

ence, on visit visa looking for

suitable job. Contact:97416564,

Email:jovinmathias@gmail.com

Procurement Engineer (27 years

single male with Oman Driving Li-

cense) having 7 years experience

(UAE 2, Oman 3) with expertise in

MEP, Water, Electromechanical,

Instrumentation seeking suitable

placements. Contact 95852033,

mail: hemal1988@gmail.com

Civil Engineer 8 years experience

Structural buildings marine. Availa-

ble NOC release. Contact: 92451323.

Email: zubairali134@yahoo.com

Civil Engineer (Diploma) having

11 years experience in building

construction, looking for a suitable

placement , having Oman driving

license. Noc available. # 95075365

Email: azharraaz@gmail.com

Indian female civil engineer B.Tech

having 3 years experience sound

knowledge of software, REVIT STAD

PRO structural detailing currently

on family visa seeks suitable place-

ment. Contact: 95345591

Mechanical Engineer with 3 Yrs

experience in international Oil

& Gas company looking for job

Contacts: Tel: 90164236 Email:

mustafaoshi-62@hotmail.com

Sudanese Architectural Engineer

2 years experience in Oman, Revit,

AutoCAD 3Ds max Archicad looking

for suitable job. Contact: 94722356

Email: maya40999@hotmail.com

Indian Electrical Engineer Btech,

female 24 seeking job, presently

in oman having 2 year experience

in design and estimation of Ht &Lt

projects. Contact 968 97436557,

Mail id : sibinanoop1@gmail.com

Civil Engineer 6 yrs Exp in Oman

with license. Contact: 98975518

Diploma in Mechanical Eng piping system in AutoCAD work,

21+ years experience with Driving

license. Contact: 95267113

Email: rkakkaryil@gmail.com

Sri Lankan Engineer (27 Years

old) – B.Sc Engineering (Hon)

Mining / Geotechnical Presently

in Muscat, 1.5 years experience.

Contact 91295802 /

acmfaslan123@gmail.com

Road and Construction Engineer with 5 years exp in Oman.

Contact: 97667113

7 Yrs Exp. PM in Mech. Engg in

the fi eld of Building Const. Oil &

Gas Seeking Job.94625598

Indian Male 23 years B.Tech

Civil having 2 years experience in

quantity survey and site manage-

ment looking for suitable place-

ment. Contact:- 95042656

Electrical Engineer with 18 years

exp in UAE. Contact: 98148034

Email: shassalih66@gmail.com

Civil Engineer (BE) having total

5 years experience in building

construction looking for a suitable

placement. D/L available

Contact# 94450270

Mechanical Engineer M.Tech

2 years experience HVAC design

& site Engg revit MEP Auto CAD.

Contact: 90150913 Email:

mahmanmechengg@yahoo.im

Procurement Manager / Commer-

cial Manager / G.M Indian male

having 26 years of experience in

Import, procurement, logistics,

Commercial activities, Warehous-

ing, TRD & Sales. # 90502724

Email: tk.sasi@gmail.com

Offi ce Manager / personal As-

sistant with extensive experience

in overall admin, commercial activi-

ties, purchase, accounts with driv-

ing license seeks suitable change.

Local release available. #99168054

Showroom & Offi ce &Purchase

manager with legal background

and operation management-6

years experience inside Oman

-An ongoing relationship with a

number of customers & supplier

in Oman-with valid Omani driving

license. Contact: 97792871 –

email : m.hossam1986@gmail.com

Store Incharge / Store keeper

8 years experience in Oman,

NOC & release is available looking

for good job. Contact: 98178804 /

96703816

The Business Development Man-

ager, Iraqi, Experience 15 Years

Inside and outside Oman follow-

ing activities: construction(Very

strong and qualifi ed to bringing

business for civil work Or any

type of the construction work for

many million per year with a good

experience in pricing and collect

payment and cash management of

the company & marketing projects

& investments& tenders & real

estate. Contact 92385033

MBA (marketing) with 17 years

experience in freight forwarding/

logistics industry in GCC & Oman.

Presently working as branch

manager in Muscat. Looking for a

suitable position. Release and NOC

available. Contact: 99856331

Indian male, with experience in

operations management, informa-

tion security, purchase & stores

mgmt, hold UAE driving license,

on visit visa, seeks suitable job.

Contact 91904541

Email: naushers@yahoo.com

The Business Development Manager, Iraqi, Experience 15

Years Inside and outside Oman

following activities: tenders& real

estate& construction & marketing

projects& investments & trans-

portation & Marine services&

companies management& develop

business. Contact: :- 92385033

MISCELLANEOUS

Filipina lady very urgently look-

ing job only in boutique, release

available ready to join immediately.

Contact: 97122152 / 91240759

Offi ce boy, exp, knows English/

Hindi, can work on current visa

94263603

Sudanese male 43 PHD Busi-

ness Management DiPCii, CITIP,

ARM54, 12 years experience in

insurance fi eld, seeking insurance

post or risk management or teach-

ing in University.

Contact: 96796630 Email:

brhomalkhoozamy@yahoo.com

Bachelor of Science in Agricul-

ture, Major in Animal Science,

Male, 5yrs experience in poultry

farm, seeking for job.

Contact 96093752.

A Filipina lady having experience

in call center, airline booking and

reservations, secretarial and real

estate is now looking for a job in

any fi elds. Contact: 93839304

Sh. Carpenter, steel fi tter, helper,

seeks visa.

Contact 95175192, email :

oman.manpower@yahoo.com

Indian female on visit MBA

(International Business- Market-

ing & Logistics), BE (Computers &

Science Engg.) Trained in SAP-BI/

BW with 1 year experience

seeking for job

Contact: 90228586

Email:fathimasha16@gmail.com

Graduate, computer literate,

experienced in sales, credit

control, accounts, Omani D/L ,

seeks suitable placement.

Gsm 98805474

SALES / MARKETING

Experienced Indian male with

Oman driving license and NOC

looking for sales & marketing or

purchase jobs. Contact: 97360689

Indian male 27 yrs, B.Com, tally

4 years sales exp in electrical &

building materials with valid D/L.

Contact: 98462052

Indian male, experienced Sales

Executive with D/ L seeks suitable

placement. Contact: 97853426

SECRETARIAL & OFFICE

SKILLED / UNSKILLED

Mason, SH / carpenter, steel fi tter

gulf & Indian exp looking job.

Contact: 95175192

A dynamic professional, female,MBA,8 yrs MNC exp in

Purchase, Secretary, Sales Coordi-

nation, Offi ce Assistant, Logistics,

Petty Cash, Stock, Dispatch, Project

management, Documentation,

residing in oman with valid NOC

from current company, looking for

suitable job, ready to join

immediately. Contact:-

phone:-94157662

Email: shiji4123@gmail.com

Lady Secretary / Sales Co-co-

ordinator 12 years experience in

Oman in reputed companies, seek

immediate Employment.

Call: 95244761

Indian female B.C.A having exp in

Offi ce Assistance cum

Secretary looking for job.

Contact: 97384206

Email: rani_sweet786@live.com

Indian male experienced Offi ce

Asst with D/L looking for suitable

job. Contact: 97718658

Indian female, 31 yrs, 7 yrs expe-

rienced as AutoCAD civil drafts-

man (2 yrs experience in Oman)

currently in Oman seeks suitable.

Contact 96789441

Email: simi5304@gmail.com

Bachelor Civil Engineer 6 Years

in Oman experience Valid Driving

License seeks suitable placement

Phone 97619722

Email – golamrob@yahoo.com

Sudanese Telecom Engineer, 5 years experience, 3 years in

Oman PMP certifi cate.

Contact: 93391008 Email:

momen.awadallam@gmail.com

Indian Male, IT System Engineer

having 4 yrs of experience in sys-

tem administration.CCNA,MCSE,

Linux. Looking for suitable job.

Contact :91272867

Indian male, MCA, 15 years

experience in Oracle, developer,

Orion Sage ERP, 5 years in Oman

working as IT In charge, with NOC

release and transferable visa.

Contact: 95398567,

Email: anasa4@gmail.com

SAP / ABAP certifi ed Indian

female (30), BCA, MCA, ASP. Net

certifi cation having 2 yrs of

experience family visa,

seeking placement.

Contact: 99109121

Email: ashamaryphilip@gmail.com

Indian Bsc Female Nurse with

6.5 years exp, 4 years in KSA.

Passed Oman Pro Metric with 69%,

completed data fl ow. Presently in

Muscat in visit visa looking for a

suitable placement.

Contact 94744900, 94742834,

jincyalphonese@gmail.com

An experienced Sudanese female Dentist with MOH license look-

ing for job. Contact 96436517

/97396088

DAILY GUIDEC6 S AT U R D AY, F E B R UA R Y 1 3 , 2 0 1 6

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com classifi eds@timesofoman.comTel.: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461Fax: 24812624

SITUATION WANTED

Indian female, B.Tech graduate,

with one and half years experience

as ‘web developer’ interested in

web development and has experi-

ence working in HTML, CSS, Boot-

strap, JavaScript and Photoshop.

Contact 9592 7075, e-mail id:

mariarosejacob90@gmail.com

SITUATION WANTEDSERVICES

SERVICESWe Provide Cleaners,

Offi ce boys, Cleaning Contracts, General cleaning etc.

Al Mudakhir Nati onal Est. LLC Contact : 94277020

Split & window A/c servicing &

maintenance. Contact 93769089 /

95323517

Building maintenance. Contact: 96173326

Cleaning services sofa, carpet,

shampoo old house or new house.

Contact: 92179395

House shifting & transporting.

Contact 92490422

LEGAL SERVICEAn Indian lawyer Provides all legal

services in company matt ers. Labour issues, contracts, agreements, LLC formati on, legal help for starti ng new business in Oman, Civil, criminal

cases,.service issues.Ibrahim Al Massalhi.legal consultancy

Sarafudheen, LLB, MBA,Legal Advisor

Muscat. GSM: 97351649

FURNITURE SHIFTINGMaintenance,

Dismantling, Packing, Shifting & Fixing furniture with expert technicians.Contact: 99041337

GUARANTEED CLEANING: Carpet & sofa shampooing,

Contact 99314807/24792998

A/C maintenance & servicing,

fridge, washing machine & dish

washer repairing, painting & clean-

ing services, electrical & plumbing.

Contact 99447257 / 97014234 /

24504281

MARBLE CRYSTALLIZATION restore the original shine of your

marble.# 24793614/ 99314807

Marble, Grinding, Crystallization.Ocean Center L.L.C.

Contact: 99344723

Water proofi ng ABUQABAS-

Contact 99320217/24788722

Al farzdaq Al Fedi Trad and Cont

Maintenance services electric,

plumbing and A/C.

Contact: 96524904 / 94285064

Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles

polishing, carpet shampooing,

maintenance.

Contact ABU QABAS- 99320217

/24788722

Pest Control Treatments Ocean Center L.L.C.

Contact: 99344723

Cleaning & Carpet Shampooing Ocean Center L.L.C.

Contact: 99344723

Split A/C servicing

R.O 10 only. Contact: 94217681 /

99210141

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.

Contact: 24810137, 99450130

Marble ti les grinding & polishing, Mosaic ti les grinding & polishing,

carpet shampooing, sofa shampooing, pest control treatment & general cleaning

of villa & building.Express Building Cleaning Services.Contact 98480070 / 94134784

MATRIMONIAL

Keralite Hindu EzhavaParents invites suitable alliance for their son

26 yrs, Nakshtaram Rohini employed in Muscat.

Girl, resident of Oman is preferred.

Please write to: satishkumar@altesoman.com

House shifting. Contact: 99708138

Muscat Driving School. Contact: 97026581

House shifting packing.

Contact: 99657644 / 98518013

TECHNICIAN /MECH.

TOURS/TRAVELS

Instrumentation & controls Technician with 2-3 years

experience preferably in water

sector and having valid driving

license call Ph:+968 99450811

Send CV to shiju@spec-link.com

Indian male 26 yrs, 7 yrs experi-

ence in airfare, audit, air ticketing

well verse with Microsoft Offi ce

Windows application seeking for

suitable position.

Contact: 94894170 / 95618311

SALES / MARKETING

Marketing exceutive BBA, MCOM,

Tally, exp in accouting (can

continue in current visa)

ph : 98269281

Indian sales marketing profession-

al highly experienced in business

development in ME India and Africa

seeks suitable placement.

Contact: 97897611

Indian female, MBA in Garment

Manufacturing Technology, having

over 8years exp in Merchandising &

Marketing, worked for brands Zara,

H&M, DKNY, Even & Odd, Soya Con-

cept & many more, now on family

visa looking for a suitable position.

Pls contact: 95604511.

email: richagandhi25@gmail.com

MBA gradate (Indian male 25

yrs) having two years experience

in sales and marketing looking

for suitable position. Contact:

92129799

Email: nabu096@gmail.com

Indian male 23 Graduate with 1

year experience with valid Oman

driving license looking for a

placement. Contact: 93379169

Indian male 4 years sales experi-

ence & Business development

look forward for suitable position.

NOC & Oman D/L available.

Contact: 97198976

Email: qubaisakhan@gmail.com

Indian male, Graduate, experi-

enced Sales person (FMCG) with

valid UAE driving license, on visit

seeks suitable position.

Contact 92419491 / 94881950,

Email : pranilpp76@gmail.com

Indian male 26, with more than 3

years experience in Counter Sales

& Marketing with valid N.O.C Cont:

94704522, 97826454 & Email-

md.noman.mansoori@gmail.com

26 years male MBA in Market-

ing & Finance Graduate having 2

years exp in sales & marketing in

Mitsubishi Motor seeks suitable

placement. Contact: 94676974

Email: dabdulmuqsit@gmail.com

Male 38 yrs Graduate 07 years

experience indoor / outdoor

electronic fi eld with D/License &

NOC available (as per new rule).

Contact: 92453375

MBA with 18 years of experience

in Procurement, 2 years in Sohar,

Oman driving license, looking for

suitable position.M:94047501,

ahmed16071974@gmail.com

MBA graduate having 6 years exp

in Sales & Marketing, 4 years with

PEPSI, India, having international

driving license permit seeks

suitable placement.

Contact : 95308167,

Email : samir.pag@gmail.com

Indian male plumbing sanitary

ware & building materials experi-

ence in outdoor sales (9 years)

with valid D/L UAE.

Contact: 98723456

Indian male B. Pharm 15 years

sales experience MOH Pharmacist

license driving license looking

for opportunities in Pharmacy or

Sales and marketing can get NOC.

Contact: 99694865

Indian male, MBA Marketing

having 2.5 years Sales experience

immediately looking for a suitable

position. Contact: 91415145,

Email: shariqs88@gmail.com

B.Com male 2 yrs experience in

sales Computer knowledge,

seeking suitable placement.

Contact: 98371144

email: nabilnazar22@gmail.com

Indian male, BBM, MBA, having

3 years experience in Sales look-

ing for suitable job.

Contact: 92796046

Indian Male, 27 Years, MBA

Finance pursuing, BCA, 6 years

working in Airline Cargo Op-

erations, Airline Passenger Ticket

Auditing domain, looking for a

suitable placement, currently on

visit. email: jeevamal89@gmail.

com, Phone:- 91713489

DAILY GUIDES AT U R D AY, F E B R UA R Y 1 3 , 2 0 1 6 C7

TOURS

TOURS

RENT A CAR

25 - 50 seater bus with PDO & BP

specifi cation for monthly rent &

small car with driver.

Contact: 99839898

SITUATION WANT-

ED

TOURS

SITUATION WANTEDCARGO

TRANSPORTATION

TRANSPORTATIONMV SALE

From Mabela to Mawaleh for school

student. Contact: 92757673

Transportation. Contact: 96248040

Transportation in Muscat.

Contact: 96004045

Transportation. Contact :98505294

Transportation.Contact: 99099714

Dolphin Watch, Dhow Cruise with

Buffet, & Land Tours Al- Ainain

Marine Tours contact 98029602,

92808636

We arrange tours & accommoda-

tion at all the beautiful places in

Oman. Contact 99839898

MV SALE

2007 Nissan Tiida in good condition

for sale. Contact 98241569

Hyundai Santafe 2010 model, 2.7

litres, Black Colour, Expat driven,

well maintained, 86000 kms.

Contact - 93304439.

GOOD NEWS

Transportation available Ruwi to

Al Khuwair, Ghubra & Azaiba.

Contact: 91103909

Ayurvedic treatment for joint

pain, backache, paralysis, mas-

sage, steambath, obesity, spondy-

litis. Ideal Care Ayurvedic Clinic,

18 November Street, Azaiba.

Contact: 99639695 / 97397320

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

Ayurvedic treatment for back-

ache, paralysis, arthritis etc &

massage, All Season (Vaidyarat-

nam).Contact: 24475280 /

95371664 / 92504980

www.siddhayur.com

Genuine Ayurvedic treatments

& massage, Ayurvedic clinic at

AL Khuwair. Contact: 24478618 /

97263637 / 93309131

Toyota Haice delivery van 2015

model, high roof in condition.

Contact: 99471699 / 95339183 /

94082616

MANPOWER

SIT.WANTED

Experienced 10 Shuttering

carpenters, 10 Steel Fixers and

10 mason to ready to joined with

our organization with release

& NOC. Salary will be fair, food

and accommodation is available.

Contact 90234289 / 91496549 /

24494900

Transportation Al Khuwair.

Contact: 92711421

Transportation. Contact 92015894

Indian male 26, on vist visa, 2+

yrs of experience with UAE D/L,

IATA-FIATA,BBA looking for any

suitable job. Contact 91324567

Bangladeshi Male, University MA,

Working as Sales coordinator cum

Store In-charge in Muscat; search-

ing better job. Phone: 91997605

email: mohamednazrulislam2@

gmail.com

33 year old Filipina with experi-

ence in Teleperformance, Manila

call centre ,now working as Wait-

ress in Qatar seeking suitable post.

Contact 99022484

9 yrs exp Site Engineer in Civil &

Shade Structure. 2d, 3d draughts-

man (HOLDING OMANI DRIVING

LICENSE) seeking job.

Contact 90139903

Bangladeshi Male, University MA,

Working as Sales coordinator cum

Store keeper in Muscat; search-

ing better job. Phone:91997605.

E mail: mohamednazrulislam2@

gmail.com

DRIVING

C8 S AT U R D AY, F E B R UA R Y 1 3 , 2 0 1 6

DAILY GUIDEEmail: dailyguide@timesofoman.com classifi eds@timesofoman.comTel.: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461Fax: 24812624

SITUATION WANTEDDINING DELIGHTS