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Disaster warning system to give Oman early alerts

RAHUL [email protected]

MUSCAT: A high speed warning system, to be launched in March 2015, will connect seabed sensors to a multi-hazard early warning system to detect earthquakes, cy-clones, tsunamis and fl ash fl oods.

Dr Juma bin Said Al Maskari, assistant director general of me-teorology and air navigation for meteorological aff airs at Public Authority for Civil Aviation, said that the system is designed to de-tect water related hazards.

“This will increase (the) pre-paredness and give coastal resi-dents enough time to seek shel-ter from impending dangerous

waves,” he said. The multi-hazard warning system will connect a se-ries of seabed sensors that detect any changes on the seabed, and relay the information to buoys on the surface.

Detecting variationsDeep-sea pressure gauges will monitor any sudden variations indicating that a tsunami or cy-clone is in motion, with data that is enhanced by the motion of the surface buoys that carry global

positioning systems. All the infor-mation will be relayed via satellite to the Sultan Qaboos University’s seismological centre, which will be upgraded and linked to the multi-hazard early warning system.

Offi cials said the system could be launched at the regional con-ference in Muscat on March 22 and 23, 2015.

The conference, titled “Reduc-ing Tsunami Risk in the Western Indian Ocean”, is being organised by Intergovernmental Oceano-

graphic Commission of Unesco and Oman’s Directorate General of Meteorology, Public Author-ity for Civil Aviation (DGMET/PACA) and will focus on the West Indian Ocean tsunami hazard.

“Unesco is assisting DGMET/PACA to organise the conference and the early warning system,” a senior offi cial of Unesco told Times of Oman on Tuesday.

The national system aims to protect the citizens and residents and prevent a deadly repeat of the incidents like Gonu in 2007.

“Tropical cyclones in Oman caused more than 60 fatalities in 2007 (Gonu) and an estimated 727 deaths in 1890. Most years produce fl ash fl oods that pose hazards to life and property along wadis,” according to the organis-ers of the conference which will be held in Muscat.

Under a 2009 agreement with the Ministry of Transport and Communication, the Intergov-ernmental Oceanographic Com-

mission (IOC) of Unesco has been providing technical support to the National Multi Hazard Early Warning System (NMHEWS) of Oman under the Public Authority for Civil Aviation (PACA).

Beginning in 2010, the IOC and the Oman government have col-laborated in developing, as part of NMHEWS, a Tsunami Early Warning System (TEWS).

The system includes monitor-ing, data processing and standard operating procedures. The NM-HEWS project is expected to be fully operational by early 2015.

The conference will bring to-gether modellers, geologists, seismologists and related profes-sionals who are studying tsunami sources in the western Indian Ocean, as well as construction and infrastructure planning spe-cialists, and communication and social science experts.

The gathering will facilitate sci-entifi c and technical collaboration on diverse monitoring systems and multi-disciplinary research.

These expected outcomes are intended to yield better under-standing of tsunami generation in the western Indian Ocean and greater effi cacy of the region’s early warning systems.

Natural disasters

such as earthquakes,

cyclones, tsunamis

and fl ooding will be

covered by 2015

HM sends greetings

MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has sent a cable of congratulations to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of the Republic of Turkey on the occa-sion of the 91st Anniversary of the Declaration of the Republic.

In his cable, HM the Sultan ex-pressed his sincere congratula-tions along with his best wishes of good health and happiness to President Erdogan and the friendly people of Turkey further progress and prosperity. -ONA

MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has sent a cable of congratulations to President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil on the occasion of her being re-elected as President of Brazil.

In his cable, HM the Sultan expressed his sincere congratu-lations and best wishes of suc-cess to President Rousseff in leading the friendly Brazilian people to further progress and prosperity and the good rela-tions between the two countries further progress. -ONA

T U R K E Y

C A B L E

OMAN20,000 jobs in fisheries industry by 2020

1Up to 20,000 jobs for Omani nationals are set to be created in the fi shing sector by 2020, as the Sultanate implements a comprehensive investment and development programme to

boost the industry. >A3

OMANWind power unit all set to train Omanis

2Omani engineers will be trained to run Oman’s fi rst wind power plant which is

coming up in Dhofar. >A7

MARKET‘Low oil prices will not affect growth’

3Low oil prices will not aff ect Oman’s growth, if development project

investments continue. >B1

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

A4Uncovering the secrets of Mutrah souq

Source: Public Authority for Civil Aviation Graphics

Multi-hazard early detection systemThe system will connect a series of seabed sensors and buoys with the Sultan Qaboos University’s seismological centre

Sea bed detector

Sea surface buoy

Satellite

Seismologicalcentre

monitors any sudden variations indicating that a tsunami or cyclone is in motion

data is enhanced by buoys that carry GPS

All the information is relayed by satellite to the seismological centre, and then linked to the multi-hazard early warning system.

Cyclone

Earthquake1

2

3

4

Warning in place as Nilofar creeps closerREJIMON [email protected]

MUSCAT: Weather warnings remain in place today (Wednes-day) as tropical cyclone Nilofar crept closer to Oman’s coastline yesterday.

“As there will be high tide, beach goers and fi shermen are requested not to venture into the sea,” tweeted Public Authority of Civil Defence and Ambulances

(PACDA) repeatedly on its offi -cial Twitter account in diff erent languages.

According to Oman meteoro-logical department’s Tuesday evening update, Nilofar is 510 kilometres (kms) away from the Oman coast and its intensity is 95 knots or 175.94 km per hour.

Earlier in the day, the cy-clone was 550km away from the Oman coast and its intensity was 85 knots. >A7

C Y C L O N E

H AV E YOU R SAY AT T W I T T E R.CO M /T I M ES O F O M A N O R S CA N T H E CO D E TO I N STA N T LY P O ST YOU R T H O U G H TS .

His Majesty congratulates Dilma Rousseff

A3

OMANW E D N E S DAY, O CTO B E R 2 9, 2 0 14

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Ministry plans 20,000 fisheries jobs in 6 years

A E JAMES AND FAHAD AL [email protected]

MUSCAT: Up to 20,000 jobs for Omani nationals are set to be cre-ated in the fi shing sector by 2020, as the Sultanate implements a comprehensive investment and development programme to boost the industry.

The whole scheme, which is planned for a six year period end-ing in 2020, includes a massive fl eet development, 10 additional harbours, focus on fi sh marketing and exports, support to fi shermen, aquaculture development and to attract private investment.

The development plan is aimed at raising fi sh production to 500,000 tonnes by 2020 from 206,000 tonnes last year and to create additional jobs for local people. The direct contribution of fi sheries sector, which is called blue economy, will be OMR396.6 million, while indirect return on these investments will touch OMR739.2 million by 2020.

“We have an investment plan

of $259 million during the eighth fi ve year plan. Another $1.3 billion government budget allocation will be made (available) to imple-ment the strategy,” said Dr Hamed Al Oufi , undersecretary of Fisher-ies Wealth at the Ministry of Agri-culture and Fisheries.

Oman, with a long costal line of 3,000-km, has a great potential to develop fi sheries sector for global markets, which is witnessing an extra annual demand of 40 mil-lion tonnes of fi sh by 2025.

Dr Al Oufi , while presenting a paper on integrated fi sheries hub at the Oman Projects Forum here on Tuesday, also said that plans are afoot to develop fi shing har-bours. Currently three harbours are under construction, three more are in tendering process and six others are in design stage.

Presently, Oman has 21 ports and harbours. “All these harbours are designed with a long-term vi-sion and will be multi-purpose. It will have separate space for

tourism, ferry services and coast guard (in addition to fi shermen).”

Ministry supportAyoob Al Hasni, a fi sherman from Qantab village in Muscat, said that he got a fi shing boat at very aff ordable instalment as a fi nan-cial support from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. How-ever, he added that Qantab fi sher-men are looking forward to having at least a small harbour for their fi shing boats. He also pointed out that the quantity of their catch is small, just enough to feed their families due to the small boats they use for fi shing.

Echoing him, Mohammad Al Jabri, another fi sherman from Sidab village of Muscat, said that the government built a harbour and provided them with boats and advanced fi shing equipment. It resulted in a large quantity of fi sh they catch and later sell them in Muttrah fi shing market, he added.

“Fishing is my only profession

and am satisfi ed with the good in-come I get from,” he added.

Another major initiative to develop the fi sheries sector is to build an integrated fi shing har-bour and processing centre at Duqm, which is going to be the biggest fi sheries hub in the entire Middle East region.

Harbour in DuqmThe proposed harbour, which is coming up within the special economic zone in Duqm, is part of an integrated fi sheries hub for supporting a sustainable fi sheries sector in the Sultanate.

Oman government will invest around $250 million for develop-ing the fi shing zone and harbour in Duqm, which will have 60 pro-cessing plants. Dr Al Oufi said the government is trying to attract in-vestors from several countries to set up processing facilities at the fi sheries hub in Duqm.

The fi sheries harbour is consid-ered as the biggest fi sheries facil-ity taking shape in Oman and the integrated project will include a state-of-the-art fi sheries indus-trial estate.

The integrated fi sheries hub will have processing plants, cold storages, training centres, and quality testing laboratories.

Dr Al Oufi also noted that the government is trying to attract private investment in fi sheries sector. “By 2030, the entire sector will be privatised.”

He said the Sultanate’s fi sh pro-duction was 206,000 tonnes last year, which shows a 31 per cent growth compared to three years ago. The contribution of fi sheries sector to gross domestic prod-uct was $415 million and 40,000 Omani fi shermen are engaged in fi shing activity.

The Sultanate has around 20,087 fi shing vessels, which in-clude 19,245 small fi shing boats, 698 traditional fi shing vessel, 130 coastal fi shing vessels and 14 commercial fi shing vessels.

The mega scheme,

ending in 2020,

includes a massive

fl eet development,

10 additional

harbours, focus on

fi sh marketing and

exports, and support

to fi shermen among

other things

Focus on aviation synergy

MUSCAT: Arab cooperation in various fi elds of civil aviation, such as air transport, air security, air navigation, air safety, environ-ment, confi guration and training will be discussed at the 47th meet-ing of the Executive Board of the Arab Civil Aviation Commission (ACAC) to be held in the Moroc-can Capital, Rabat, on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Sultanate, represented by the Public Authority for Civil Avi-ation (PACA) Oman, will take part in the meeting. The Omani delega-tion will be led by Dr Mohammed bin Nasser Al Za’abi, PACA CEO, Vice-Chief of the ACAC Executive Board, accompanied by a number of PACA offi cials working at the Muscat International Airport as well as the Salalah Airport. -ONA

R A B A T M E E T T O D A Y

CASTING THE NET: Oman, with a long costal line of 3,000-km, has

a great potential to develop fi sheries sector for global markets. –

Times of Oman fi le photo

A4 W E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 2 9, 2 0 1 4

OMAN

Mutrah souq’s saga told with love

SARAH [email protected]

MUSCAT: History, memories, and unique characters of Mutrah Souq, one of the most fascinating places in Oman, have been chroni-cled in a new book.

Throw Down the Anchor: The Story of Mutrah Souq, written by Maxine Burden, an Australian ex-pat who lives in Oman, is a hard-cover, 338-page book fi lled with photographs, stories, and exten-sive research that reveal the his-tory, people and physical aspects of the souq. The proceeds from the book will go to funding the Centre for Omani Dress Museum.

There are stories from promi-nent people in Muscat, merchants from the souq, expatriates who fondly remember the old market-place, and local artisans. There are also sections that highlight Omani products found in Mutrah Souq such as jewellery, frankin-cense, dates, and rose water, some of the other souqs in Oman, Omani clothing, local festivals, and the Sultanate’s history.

“I love the old alleyways and the feel of the souq. It has a lovely ambiance. I just love being here,” Maxine said, looking fondly into the labyrinth that is Mutrah Souq.

For Maxine, who is a volunteer at the Centre for Omani Dress, writing the book was a labour of

love which began in November 2009, with Sunday after Sunday for more than a year spent in the souq interviewing merchants, gathering stories from locals and expats, and researching the his-tory. She had help from a couple of other volunteers, including Chris Bartlett who did much of the pho-tography and Joy Tang, with whom she did many of the interviews.

Maxine heard story upon story about the souq but there are some that are particularly memorable, such as the man who sold little cups of ‘kahwa’ every day for one baisa a cup. He earned enough money to travel to India, Salalah and even London. However, his most important journey was the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. This he did by camel with his old friend, Ibrahim’s grandfather in 1962, a trip that took six months.

“It took six months, I think, for them to get there. That was a really nice story,” she recalled.

Maxine heard a lot of really fun-ny stories, too. For example, during the bustling days leading up to the diff erent Eids, when people bought livestock sometimes a cow would get loose and run through the souq, causing chaos as it attempted a great escape.

She also remembers hearing

about widows who would make sweets and sell them from the win-dows of their homes, supporting themselves and their children af-ter their husbands had died.

She says many people, Omani and expat alike, don’t know a lot about the history of the souq, which is one of the oldest in the region, and she hopes her book will shed light on Mutrah.

“I think they will learn a lot they never knew. I was surprised when I fi rst learned that the back en-trance was actually the front en-trance for so many years. We don’t stop and think about that. Before the 1970s there wasn’t a corniche. I can visualise the old souq now, because I’ve become so involved in it,” she said.

Maxine knows she and the oth-ers who worked on the book have done well when she shows a copy of Throw Down the Anchor: The Story of Mutrah Souq to the many people she interviewed.

“I just love to see the look on their faces and for them to be so happy about it. They are very much

involved with their heritage and their culture,” she explained.

Amit Khimji Visoomal Al Gan-dhi, one of the merchants featured in the book, exuded excitement when he saw the book for the fi rst time yesterday. He says Maxine’s passion and dedication for the book were inspiring.

He says it’s an important initia-tive since it’s the fi rst book to docu-ment the souq, which is one of the oldest in the region.

“You feel connected to this his-tory. I’m lucky enough to have a store which is here, further down right in the middle of the souq,” Amit said, looking at the old build-ings that line the corniche.

Down one of the fi rst side al-leyways to the right of the main entrance is Jawad Mohsin Ali’s ‘kuma’ and ‘massar’ shop. His fam-ily has been trading in Mutrah Souq for nearly 70 years and he grew up in the neighbourhood.

“I am here for 40 years and I have good knowledge about the market. In 40 years I have so many customers I got, everyone is com-ing for Jawad, from Salalah, from the interior, from here,” Jawad said, while turning the pages of the book in search of his photo and memories.

Jamal Mohammad Ali Al Bal-

ushi runs a couple of shops sell-ing jewellery, ‘khanjars’, old coins and other old Omani trinkets. He also rents out space to other mer-chants. He says the book is impor-tant since it’s the fi rst one to docu-ment the souq and his face breaks into a grin when he sees the page with his photo on it.

Mutrah’s stories“In all time there was no book about Mutrah like this one. I’m very happy because also my fam-ily and my life is in Mutrah. I like it so much that someone has written Mutrah’s stories,” he said.

He spent many hours talking to Maxine, who would make multiple visits to the merchants, fi rst to in-terview them, then to show them what she had written a make sure their stories were correct.

“Many times when I came back Jamal was always one who was able to give more information and put me in touch with somebody else,” Maxine explained.

Ijjaz Ahmed, a merchant from Kashmir, has worked in the souq for eight years. He was more than happy to share his knowledge with Maxine. “It was something good to give information to her. Later on we got to know about the book. It’s really remarkable,” Ijjaz said.

He says this souq is special be-cause it doesn’t only cater to tour-ists with heritage items, but has everything Omanis need to buy for their daily lives, too. “There are lo-cal things like spices, vegetables, textiles, and everything. This is very impressive,” he explained.

When he fi rst saw the book he was very impressed by the design and all the photos, too. If he ever leaves Oman, it will be a good keepsake from his years here, es-pecially since a couple of pages are dedicated to him and his shop.

“They have done such a great job!” he exclaimed.

Maxine says merchants like Amit, Jawad, Jamal and Ijjaz, along with many other merchants and people with knowledge of the souq, were very helpful. They be-lieved in the book and wanted it to succeed. “They’ve given me extra time and information, and taken me through places and have been really good. It means so much to them,” she said.

The offi cial launch of Throw Down the Anchor: The Story of Mutrah Souq will take place De-cember 1 and it will be available for purchase then.

For more information about the book visit http://www.centreforo-manidress.com.

Maxine Burden, an

Australian expat who

lives in Oman, has

documented details

of the souq with

photographs, stories,

and its heritage

SCAN THIS QR CODE TO INSTANTLY VISIT

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

I love the old alleyways and the feel of the souq. It has a lovely ambiance. I just love being here

Maxine Burden, Author

SQU researchers win award at Korean tech conferenceTimes News Service

MUSCAT: A paper presented by three researchers of the Com-munication and Information Research Centre (CIRC) and the College of Engineering at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), bagged the best paper award at the 5th International Conference on ICT Convergence (ICTC) 2014 at Bu-san, South Korea.

ICTC is a premier global event for researchers, industry profes-sionals, and academics, organ-ised at Korea, with the technical co-sponsorship of IEEE Com-munications Society and IEICE Communications Society. It aims at interacting with and dissemi-nating information on the latest developments in the emerging in-dustrial convergence centred on information and communication technologies.

A total of 549 papers were sub-mitted at this conference out of which the paper from CIRC, SQU, titled ‘Improving Reachability of Multi-Hop Alert Messages Dis-semination in VANETs’ was se-lected as the best paper.

Osama Hussain Rehman the fi rst author, and Professors Hadj Bourdoucen and Mohamed Ould Khaoua, who co-authored the paper, said that they were hon-oured to get one of the fi ve Best Paper Awards.

Osama Hussain is a PhD stu-dent enrolled in the Department of Electrical and Computer En-gineering of the College of Engi-neering, SQU.

The conference included a number of speakers as well as various industrial and special talk sessions. The speakers represent-ed world renowned institutes and industries including ETRI, Qual-comm Inc., Intel Corporation and Samsung Electronics along with Microsoft Corporation, Cisco systems, Nokia and LG UPlus. The other industries represent-ed were Huawei Technologies, Ericsson-LG, Alcatel-Lucent, LG Hitachi Co. and LG Electronics. The research paper presented by SQU came from a research grant project funded by TRC to CIRC.

A C A D E M I C S

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT: Osama Hussain Rehman, the

fi rst author, and Professors Hadj Bourdoucen and Mohamed Ould

Khaoua, who co-authored the paper. –Supplied photo

Times News Service

MUSCAT: The offi cial launching of the World Trade Organisation Chair at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) was held took place recently under the patron-age of Ahmed bin Suliman Al Maimani, undersecretary at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry for Administra-tive, Financial and Regional Aff airs.

On behalf of Roberto Azevêdo, Director-General of World Trade Organisa-tion, David Shark , Deputy Director General, launched the WTO Chairs Programme at the university. At the same time, the fi rst Regional Trade Policy Course (RTPC) for the Arab and Middle East region organised jointly between the Sultan Qaboos University and the WTO secretariat, was also launched. The RTPC which began on October 26 will last upto December 18. This event has attracted 10

lecturers from Egypt, Tuni-sia, Jordan and Oman, and 17 experts from the World Trade Organisation, as well as a number of participants from 10 Arab countries.

David Shark said that the ceremony was testimony that WTO’s Trade-Related Technical Assistance (TRTA) programmes and capacity building eff orts are an important component of the WTO’s work and contrib-ute to the Aid for Trade work programme.

In 2010, the WTO launched the WTO Chairs Programme (WCP), which aims at supporting academic institutions from develop-ing countries in curriculum development, teaching, research and outreach activi-ties. The programme is part of the technical assistance activities of the WTO.

It is mainly targeted at aca-demic institutions because they help the WTO raise awareness on trade issues.

WTO chair set up at SQU

HERITAGE AND HISTORY: Jamal Mohammad Ali Al Balushi and Maxine Burden at the Mutrah souq. Right, the cover of the book which will be offi cially launched on Decem-

ber 1. –Photos & Videos by AR Rajkumar

A6

OMANW E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 2 9, 2 0 1 4

The Al Raff d project targets students in schools, colleges and universities. Students with attractive business concepts can benefi t from the project

Ibrahim Al Alawi, Al Raff d Fund’s offi cial

OMAN CANCER ASSOCIATION WALKATHON EVOKES GOOD RESPONSEPeople turned out in large numbers to participate in the Oman Cancer Association (OCA)’s

11th annual walkathon, at Qurum Natural Park yesterday. The theme for this year’s walk

was ‘Walk for the Cure’. Yuthar Al Rawahy, founder and chairperson, OCA said, ‘We have

always advocated an early diagnosis of cancer through repeated examinations leading

to early prognosis and a higher probability of complete cure. Creating awareness

always helps’. OK Mohammed Ali and Shabin E/TIMES OF OMAN

OMR1,000 aid for students to set up business

FAHAD AL [email protected]

MUSCAT: The Al Raff d Fund is working on a plan to sanction loans to students wishing to start their own business, said Ibrahim Al Alawi of the Financial Pro-grammes and Loans section at the Fund. He explained that this is a new project and the Fund is cur-rently working on the procedures and conditions for issuing loans to students.

“The project targets students in schools, colleges and univer-sities,” said Al Alawi. He also said that the loans are limited to OMR1000 only.

“Students with special and at-tractive business concepts can benefi t from the new project,” said Al Alawi and added that they expected to launch the new pro-ject this year.

The project has been launched in cooperation with the Minis-try of Education and Ministry of Higher Education.

The Al Raff d Fund has also in-sisted that government employ-ees should resign and then apply for loans to run their own busi-ness, said Al Alawi.

Employees between 15 and 45 years of age who have completed three years in service only can ap-ply for the loan. The Ministry of Finance had earlier announced an implementation mechanism to allow government employees complete freedom to manage their own businesses.

The ministry announced in a circular No. 9/2014 that as per the decision of the Council of Minis-ters in November 2013, all minis-tries and government units must take the necessary steps for the resignations of government em-

ployees after ensuring it met the conditions set.

The circular also explained that the concerned government unit had to inform the Ministry of Civ-il Service to complete the proce-dures to terminate the employee’s service, which in turn would send the documents of the employee to the concerned government unit.

The circular allowed the em-ployee who had resigned to get a full year’s salary following the resignation. The decision to allow businessmen to get a year’s salary was one of the recommendations made at the small and medium enterprises development sympo-sium held in Saih Al Shamikhat in January 2013.

Public sector staff A number of public sector em-ployees had asked the govern-ment to give them back their old jobs after having failed to run their business for a year. How-ever, such employees could not get back their old jobs, but could apply for another government job, said Al Alawi. The Public Au-thority for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises (PADSME) has set some con-trols to ensure that government employees running private busi-nesses could get the benefi t of the Ministry of Finance decision.

The Al Raff d Fund’s plan targets students in

schools, colleges and universities. Students

with special and attractive business

concepts can benefi t from the new project

Nabhani holds talks with top UK general

MUSCAT: Lt Gen Ahmed bin Harith Al Nabhani, Chief of Staff of the Sultan’s Armed Forces (SAF), received in his offi ce yesterday Lt Gen Thomas Beckett, Defence Senior Advi-sor for Middle East at the Min-istry of Defence in the United Kingdom (UK).

During the meeting, the two offi cials exchanged viewpoints and discussed a number of is-sues of common concern.

Meanwhile, Air Vice-Mar-shal Mattar bin Ali Al-Obaida-ni, Commander of the Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO), also re-ceived in his offi ce at Muaskar Al Murtafa’ah Lt-Gen Beckett.

The meeting focused on a number of related topics and exchanged viewpoints on a number of issues of common concern.

The meeting was attended by Air Commodore Al Zubair bin Mohammed Al Zubair, Director General of Operations at RAFO Command and the Military At-taché at the UK Embassy in Muscat.– ONA

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

Wildlife off ender arrestedTimes News Service

MUSCAT: A citizen was arrested by the wildlife protection team at Qahwan Mountain Natural Re-serve for violating the wildlife within protected limits.

Legal action has been initiated against the accused and the case was referred to the competent authorities. According to Article 15 of the Royal Decree of Wildlife

Protection and Reserves, anyone who intentionally indulges in kill-ing, hunting or smuggling of any of the animals or birds set out in Annex No 1, will be liable to three months to fi ve year jail term and a fi ne of OMR1,000 to OMR5,000.

The Ministry of Environment and Climate Aff airs has called upon citizens and residents to maintain the richness of Oman’s biodiversity and environment. -ONA

Q A H W A N R E S E R V E


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

A7

OMANW E D N E S DAY, O CTO B E R 2 9, 2 0 14

$125mwould be invested in the

wind power plant which

is coming up in Dhofar

TANZANIAN PM HOLDS TALKS WITH SAYYID FAHDHis Highness Sayyid Fahd

bin Mahmoud Al Said,

Deputy Prime Minister for

the Council of Ministers,

and a number of ministers

and senior offi cials met on

Tuesday Mizengo Pinda,

Prime Minister of the Unit-

ed Republic of Tanzania,

who arrived in Oman on

Monday on a several-day

visit to the Sultanate. — ONA

Wind power unit to train Omanis

ELHAM [email protected]

MUSCAT: Omani engineers will be trained to run Oman’s fi rst wind power plant which is com-ing up in Dhofar.

The agreement for the con-struction of the fi rst-of-its-kind plant in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was signed re-cently between Oman’s Rural Areas Electricity Company (RAECO) and Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar).

The facility, which will be con-structed in Harweel, is expected to be completed in 24 months and become operational in early 2017.

“We plan to run the system our-

selves three years after delivery and are 100 per cent determined to achieve 100 per cent Omanisa-tion,” Hamed bin Salim Al Magd-heri, chief executive offi cer of RAECO, told Times of Oman.

“We now have a programme to train our engineers both during the construction and (also un-der) on-job training in countries which have similar projects,” said Al Magdheri, adding that the trainees will receive training from three to six months.

The offi cial said the plant would create a number of jobs both for locals and expatriates during the construction phase and once it is completed.

“During construction, tempo-

rary jobs will be created as there is a lot of civil work and a large foun-dation is required for these types of the projects,” he said.

Al Magdheri said they were targeting at least 30 per cent Om-anisation during the construc-tion phase, while explaining that all services and supplies that are available locally, such as building materials, cables and transform-ers, will be assigned to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) op-erating in Oman.

“It is part of our In-Country Value (ICV) initiative that only the technology and devices that are not available in the country will be imported,” he added.

He also said that usually these types of plants do not need a very large team to run them and 10 op-erators and a 10-member mainte-nance team would be enough.

The $125 million project, with a capacity of 50MW, will be built in a total area of 200,000 square me-tres. The daily production of the plant is estimated at 1,200 mega-watts per hour.

The wind farm will provide electricity to 16,000 homes.

The production of the plant is estimated at

1,200 megawatts per hour. The wind farm

will provide electricity to 16,000 homes

Rains to precede Nilofar“The sea will be ‘very rough’ along the Arabian coast and ‘rough’ along the Oman Sea coast.

Moderate to heavy rain is ex-pected over the governorates of Al Wusta and South Shariqyah accompanied by strong winds till Thursday,” said the met depart-ment in its latest forecast.

“However, the cyclone will move in a north-easterly di-rection away from the Oman coast heading towards Paki-stan and the Indian coast in the next 24 hours,” added the met department.

Meanwhile, residents in Ma-sirah Island witnessed interme-diate rain on Tuesday accompa-nied by strong winds as Nilofar neared its coast. “It was cloudy and since morning it has been raining frequently. There were strong winds in the area as well. People are cautious, fi shermen

have returned to shore and fer-ries have stopped services. We are all praying to the Almighty to keep us safe,” said Moham-med, a long time resident of Masirah Island.

However, an offi cial from Na-tional Ferries said that they were continuing with their services to Masirah with an eye on the weather advisories.

Meanwhile, PACDA offi cials in the region are all set to tackle the adverse conditions and sources in Sur and Masirah hospital have stocked all necessary items for any eventuality.

According to diff erent weather forecasts, the current trajectory of Nilofar is critical for Oman over the next 10 hours as the deep depression – upgraded to a ‘very severe cyclonic storm’ – moves northwest before it is expected to re-curve to the northeast and

make its way towards Pakistan and India. “Nilofar is located ap-proximately 317 nautical miles south-southeast of Masirah is-land and has tracked northward at 2 knots,” said the US Navy in an earlier statement.

Meanwhile, the Indian Me-teorological Department (IMD) said in its latest statement that the very severe cyclonic storm over west-central Arabian Sea had moved slowly north-west-wards in the past six hours, and at 10am on Tuesday it was centred near latitude 15.9 0 N and longi-tude 61.6 0 E, about 810km east-southeast of Salalah (Oman).

“It would move to the north-northwest in the next 12 hours, then gradually re-curve to the northeast and cross into north Gu-jarat and the adjoining Pakistan coast around Naliya by forenoon on November 1, the statement.

C Y C L O N I C S T O R M

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REGIONW E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 2 9, 2 0 1 4

The Tunisian people have reinforced their commitment to democracy with credible and transparent elections that gave Tunisians of all political tendencies a free voteAnnemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck, European parliament member and head of the Election Observation Mission to Tunisia

DEMOCRACY CELEBRATIONS: Tunisian Ennadha Party supporters celebrate before the party’s

leader gave a speech during the legislative election on Monday. – AFP

Tunisia elections offer a ray of hope

TUNIS: Foreign observers on Tuesday praised Tunisia’s land-mark “free” elections, after the Ennahda party conceded defeat in a vote that raised hopes of a peaceful transition.

The Ennahda, which had steered the North African na-tion through the aftermath of the

2011 protests, congratulated Nida Tounes which it said would be the largest party in parliament.

Ennahda called on its support-ers to celebrate “democracy” and hundreds rallied outside its Tunis headquarters despite the bitter-ness of defeat. Tunisia is the “only tree still standing in a devastated forest,” Ennahda president Ra-chid Ghannouchi told the crowd.

The European Union’s observ-er mission hailed the conduct of Sunday’s election, which took place against a backdrop of tight security because of fears of ex-tremist attacks.

“The Tunisian people have reinforced their commitment

to democracy with credible and transparent elections that gave Tunisians of all political tenden-cies a free vote,” European par-liament member and head of the Election Observation Mission to Tunisia Annemie Neyts-Uytte-broeck told a news conference. “Polling day passed off in a calm and orderly fashion. Everything was really very normal,” she said. “The campaign generally went smoothly. Freedom of expression and assembly were respected.”

With neither party expected to win an outright majority, the po-litical horse-trading began ahead of the announcement of full re-sults from Sunday’s election, in which an array of smaller parties also fi elded candidates.

Nida Tounes leader Beji Caid Essebsi, an 87-year-old veteran of Tunisian politics, vowed to form a coalition with other parties to take the country forward. — AFP

Tunisia is the ‘only

tree still standing in

a devastated forest’,

said Ennahda party

president Rachid

Ghannouchi

Falling oil prices are hurting economy, says Kuwait’s emirKUWAIT CITY: Kuwait’s ruler warned on Tuesday that declines in the oil price were damaging the economy of the Gulf country, urging lawmakers to “stop squan-dering resources” and to diversify revenues.

“We are witnessing a new cycle of low oil prices as a result of eco-nomic and political factors that have hit the global economy and started to negatively impact our national economy,” His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah said in a speech to open the new parliamentary term.

The emir called on the govern-ment and parliament to “safeguard

our oil and fi scal wealth”. “You have the responsibility to

stop squandering resources, ra-tionalise spending and direct sub-sidies to reach those who need it...

without impacting the standard of living,” he said.

Productive activitiesHe also called for stepping up plans to reduce Kuwait’s dependence on oil revenues by diversifying the economy. “I have repeatedly called ... for establishing productive eco-nomic activities to create jobs for youth, diversify the resources of income of the country and reduce national economic dependence on oil,” he said. Oil prices have lost more than a quarter of their value since June, hitting the coff ers of energy-dependent countries like Kuwait. — AFP

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


ARTICLE, PHOTOS


FOR BETTER PLANNING: Sheikh

Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah. – AFP

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Iraqi Kurd fighters head for Kobane

ARBIL/WASHINGTON/AN-KARA: Dozens of Kurdish pesh-merga fi ghters left a base in north-ern Iraq on Tuesday headed for the battleground Syrian town of Kob-ane, a news reporter reported.

The town on the Turkish border has become a crucial front in the fi ght against the IS group, which overran large parts of Iraq in June and also holds signifi cant territory in Syria. The journalist saw doz-ens of military trucks leaving the base northeast of Kurdish regional capital Arbil from which offi cers said fi ghters bound for Kobane would depart.

Earlier, the fi ghters loaded ma-chineguns and mortars into the trucks and packed bags for the trip.

“Forty vehicles carrying machi-neguns and weapons and artillery with 80 of the peshmerga forces will head to Dohuk (province) and then cross the border today 9Tues-day),” a Kurdish offi cer said.

A further 72 will fl y to Turkey early on Wednesday, the offi cer said. Halgord Hekmat, the spokes-man of the Kurdish ministry

responsible for the peshmerga, has said the fi ghters are “support forces” and will be armed with automatic weapons, mortars and rocket launchers.

Open-endedThe deployment is open-ended, with peshmerga minister Musta-fa Qader saying that: “They will remain there until they are no longer needed.”

Last week, under heavy US pres-

sure, Turkey unexpectedly an-nounced it would allow the pesh-merga fi ghters to cross its territory to join the fi ght for Kobane.

The main Syrian Kurdish fi ght-ing force in the town, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), has close links with the out-lawed rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has fought a three-decade insurgency in south-east Turkey.

Ankara had previously resisted

calls to allow in reinforcements. The deployment, which comes

at a time when Kurdish forces are still engaged in heavy fi ght-ing against IS militants in Iraq, stretches the bounds of regional autonomy and has drawn fl ak from some federal lawmakers.

But the Iraqi premier and other senior federal offi cials have been publicly silent on the issue, indi-cating their at least tacit accept-ance of the deployment.

Lawmaker Samira Al Mus-sawi, a member of the national parliament’s foreign relations committee, said it is “illegal and unconstitutional”.

And Member of Parliament (MP) Alia Nsayif said in an email that the deployment violates sev-eral articles of Iraq’s constitution.

She cited articles naming the prime minister as commander-in-chief of the armed forces and outlining powers reserved for the

central government, including formulating foreign and national security policy.

But a Kurdish member of parlia-ment defended the deployment as justifi ed. “For us, it is a humani-tarian matter—there are people besieged by barbaric forces and it is up to all communities and peo-ple to defend,” MP Shirko Moham-med said.

And MP Hakim Al Zamili, a sen-ior leader of one of the country’s largest militias, said the deploy-ment is “natural” and “in the inter-est of the Iraqi people, because the Iraqi and Syrian arenas are one.”

Meanwhile, US forces staged four air strikes on IS militants in Syria on Tuesday and allies joined in nine strikes on the group in Iraq, the US Central Command said.

In Syria, US attack and fi ghter aircraft went after targets near the border city of Kobane, destroying a small IS unit and four fi ghting po-sitions. US and allied attack, fi ght-er and remotely controlled aircraft again targeted the Mosul Dam area with four strikes taking out a small fi ghting unit, a fi ghting position, vehicle and logistics base. Two strikes near Fallujah destroyed a small IS unit and tank.

Other strikes were staged west of Baghdad, near Sinjar and north-west of Haditha.

In Ankara, Turkish Prime Min-ister Ahmet Davutoglu said Tur-key cannot be expected to send troops to defend the besieged Syri-an border town of Kobane and only Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fi ghters and Syria’s own moderate opposi-tion can save it. — Agencies

Dozens of military

trucks left the base

northeast of Kurdish

regional capital

Arbil from which

offi cers said fi ghters

bound for Kobane

would depart

Bahrain’s Al Wefaq activities suspendedMANAMA: Bahrain has sus-pended the activities of the coun-try’s main opposition group, Al Wefaq, for three months, a court ruling showed on Tuesday, ahead of a November parliamentary election which the group has al-ready pledged to boycott.

The reported move appeared to be the result of a court case brought by the government in July against the organisation, argu-ing it had broken the law and its own statutes. Al Wefaq said two weeks ago it would not take part in the November 22 poll because the elected parliament would not have enough power and because voting districts favoured the mi-nority community. In a statement in English it said the government

appeared to be “moving to destroy political and social life by blocking the people out”. There was no im-mediate comment from Bahraini authorities.

Al Wefaq won 18 out of 40 par-liamentary seats in a 2010 elec-tion, but pulled out of parliament a year later during a crackdown against protesters.

A copy of the court ruling sent by Al Wefaq’s lawyer to a news agency said Al Wefaq was in vio-lation of the law concerning polit-ical societies, which also says that the Justice Minister can request the High Civil Court to stop the activities of a society “for a period not exceeding three months dur-ing which it removes the reasons for the violation”. — Agencies

C O U R T R U L I N G

Register with government, Egypt NGOs get ultimatumCAIRO: Egypt’s ultimatum to thousands of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to regis-ter with the government by No-vember 10 will deal a death blow to the country’s civil society, activists say.

Armed with a law from the era of former leader Hosni Mubarak, the new authorities in Egypt are aiming to keep tabs on the activi-ties and funding of NGOs by forc-ing them to register.

Rights activists say it is part of an ongoing crackdown against supporters of deposed president Mohamed Morsi, as well as the government’s secular opponents. “This is an attempt to silence the last voice speaking against the repressive measures of the po-lice state,” one of them, lawyer Gamal Eid, said.

Several Egyptian and interna-tional NGOs, which have been operating as law fi rms or pri-vate companies, have frequently denounced the crackdown. In August, the authorities barred Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth from enter-ing the country. Roth had been due to present a report that charged that the dispersals by police of protests at two Cairo squares in August 2013, in which hundreds of Morsi supporters died, were likely “crimes against humanity”. Some

rights groups have already shut their offi ces in Egypt, including a democracy watchdog founded by former US president Jimmy Carter. The Carter Center said it closed its Egypt fi eld offi ce this month because “the current envi-ronment in Egypt is not conducive to genuine democratic and civic participation”.

Experts say the registration of NGOs would allow the govern-ment to closely monitor their ac-tivities and sources of funding, es-pecially if they came from abroad.

The move would also give the

authorities means to quickly dis-solve NGOs if required.

The authorities could “inter-fere in all activities of these asso-ciations in detail,” said Mohamed Zaree of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies. Activists are also concerned about a new law that is still being drawn up.

According to a draft that the au-thorities circulated to NGOs, the government proposes setting up an inter-ministerial commission including security representa-tives to oversee nearly 47,000 NGOs in the country. — AFP

B L O W T O C I V I L S O C I E T Y

HEADING FOR BATTLEGROUND: Kurdish peshmerga fi ghters drive through Arbil after leaving a base in northern Iraq on their way to the

battleground Syrian town of Kobane, on Tuesday. – AFP

ATTACK ON FREEDOM: A view of Egypt’s river Nile as seen from

the Galaa bridge in Cairo on Monday. Some rights groups have

already shut their offi ces in Egypt, including a democracy watch-

dog founded by former US president Jimmy Carter. – AFP


ARTICLE, PHOTOS


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INDIA W E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 2 9, 2 0 1 4

Pranab sees potential in India-Oman trade

NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee yesterday said the bi-lateral trade between India and Oman has increased but still re-mains well below its potential and that both sides need to bring it to a higher level.

India’s relations with Oman are built on the strong foundation of historical and civilisational link-ages. India appreciates and values the strategic partnership refl ected in the remarkable growth in the two countries’ overall relationship in recent times, Pranab said in an offi cial release.

Commerce and Industry Min-ister of the Sultanate of Oman, Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidy, had called

on him Monday. Bilateral trade between India and Oman has in-creased from $4.6 billion in 2012-13 to $5.77 billion in 2013-14.

However, trade remains much below its potential and both sides need to bring it to a higher level commensurate with the depth of the bilateral relationship, the re-

lease quoted the president as say-ing. Pranab said India is happy that the India-Oman joint commission meeting is taking place after a gap of four years.

He said he was sure that the deliberations of the seventh joint commission meeting would be productive and would help in fur-

ther strengthening economic and trade relations between India and Oman.

Referring to the “Make in India” campaign, the president invited public and private sector compa-nies of Oman to come and invest in Indian infrastructure and other sec-tors which off er good returns. - IANS

Bilateral trade

between India and

Oman has increased

from $4.6 billion

in 2012-13 to $5.77

billion in 2013-14

ONE FOR THE ALBUM: Commerce and Industry Minister of the Sultanate of Oman, Ali bin Masoud Al

Sunaidy, had called on President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday. -PTI

India denies any incursion by PLA in Arunachal areaITANAGAR: Union Minister of State for Home Aff airs Kiren Ri-jiju on Tuesday denied any incur-sion by China’s People’s Liberation Army in Taksing area of Arunachal Pradesh in recent times.

“It is a natural phenomenon as troops from both the sides usu-ally trespass into each other’s territory by mistake as there is no defi nite demarcation of the border.

“Even Chinese Army some-time claim incursion by Indian Army,” Rijiju told media persons at Raj Bhawan helipad in the far-eastern state here before his departure to the national capital New Delhi.

When his attention was drawn to the alleged incursion at Tak-sing area in Upper Subansiri district about three months ago, Rijiju said that troops from both the countries accidentally tres-pass into each other’s territories during routine patrolling.

Confrontations“Patrolling teams from both the countries trespass into each other territories and sometime confrontations are reported... Incursion along the border takes place only where there is no per-

manent structure. Since there is no boundary demarcation, such type of ingress will continue.”

“Our troops are being instruct-ed to be more vigilant and not to allow Chinese to cross our pe-riphery,” he said.

Rijiju, however, conceded that Arunachal Pradesh had lost a portion of land to China earlier because of less patrolling but has-tened to claim “We have not con-ceded any inch of our territory to China after NDA came to power at the Centre.” He said ITBP had recently arrested three persons of Tibetan origin from Lemeking area of Upper Subansiri district.

Their interrogation was on to unearth the truth but lan-guage barrier had become an impediment.

“I had a meeting with the DG and IG of ITBP this morning and directed them to get the identity and motive of the three persons,” he added. Asked to comment Arunachal Pradesh Chief Min-ister Nabam Tuki told newsmen that the incursion by PLA was not offi cially reported to him.

“Since the issue is a subject of the External Aff airs ministry the state government has no say over it,” he quipped. -PTI

B O R D E R D I S P U T E

Novel protest planned in Kerala against India’s moral policeAFTAB H. KOLAOur Correspondent

KOCHI: ‘The Kiss of Love’, a novel protest against those vigi-lante groups which are trying to enforce a code of morality in In-dia, has grabbed the headlines in Kerala and is a topic of hot discus-sion among the youth here.

The protest planned on No-vember 2 stemmed from last week’s attack on a restaurant in Kozhikode which, the moral po-lice believed, facilitated immoral activities by students.

The promoters of the event, ‘Kiss of Love’ said it was calling couples to celebrate the expres-sion of love with placards carry-ing messages at Marine Drive in Kochi on November 2 and hug or kiss each other.

“Is this the right or decent way for a country like India?” counter supporters of the moral police.

There was an outcry, though not very vocal, against the attack on the restaurant in Kozikhode.

Siddharth Mohan Nair, a blog-ger, wrote, “The members of the Yuva Morcha who are involved in the attack need to be brought to book. Violence can never be justi-fi ed.” A Yuva Morcha activist was arrested in connection with the attack on the restaurant.

Shibu Verghese, a small-time businessman messaged, “Kerala youth savour moral policing. Cou-ples are interrogated by random strangers, even beaten up and police aid these so-called moral policemen.”

There are many others who feel that those engaged in such ‘inde-cent behaviour’ while displaying public aff ection need to be hu-miliated. Though they do not ap-prove of the methods adopted by the vigilante groups they say such behaviour by the ‘love-aff ected’ youth goes against any religion or Indian culture.

The event’s promoters said the idea was to mobilise a protest against all kinds of moral policing. Rahul Pasupalan, a short fi lm-

maker along with other members of a Facebook community called Free Thinkers, is the brain behind the event. He said the decision to kiss at the event will be left to the participants.

He added, “The main purpose is to stage a protest against crimi-nals who feel they can take law into their hands to enforce what they perceive is culture. If there are couples who would like to kiss and protest at the event, they are welcome to do that.”

The social media is also being roped in with debates happen-ing every now and then but many critics have voiced their concern at such “extreme” acts of dissent.

The organisers are expecting about 1,000 people to take part in the protest. The event has been aggressively marketed through its Facebook page which got more than 2,300 likes. Not a big num-ber considering the nature of the topic being highlighted.

The organisers are also plan-ning a similar drive in Calicut.

F A L L O U T O F R E S T A U R A N T A T T A C K

Our troops are being instructed to be more vigilant and not to allow Chinese to cross our periphery

Kiren Rijiju, Union minister of state for home aff airs

India uncovers

suspected plot

to assassinate

Bangladesh PM

NEW DELHI: India’s top counter-terrorism agency has uncovered a suspected plot by a banned rebel group to as-sassinate the prime minister of Bangladesh and carry out a coup, three senior Indian secu-rity offi cials said on Tuesday.

India will hand over a dos-sier to Bangladesh with details of the plan by members of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, which has carried out scores of attacks in India’s eastern neighbour, the government and police offi cials said. Bangladesh did not com-ment directly on the assertions that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had been the target of a plot, but said it had tightened se-curity on the border with India.

The alleged conspiracy was discovered after two members of the group were killed in an explosion while building home-made bombs at a house in West Bengal in eastern India earlier this month. Indian police say the militants were Bangladesh-is and were using India as a safe haven to plan the attacks.

“The strategy was to hit the political leaders of the country and demolish the democratic infrastructure of Bangladesh,” said a senior Indian Home (interior) Ministry offi cial, who spoke on condition of ano-nymity. - Reuters

C O N S P I R A C Y

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Government to submit names of all foreign bank account holders today

S. MOITRAOur Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Indian gov-ernment said on Tuesday, that it would submit to the Supreme Court today the names of all In-dians who have allegedly stashed away illegally accumulated wealth (black money) in banks abroad.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the names of all bank ac-count holders with black money which were with the government would be given to the Supreme Court in the wake of the latter’s or-ders on the same.

“The government has no inten-tion of protecting anyone in the probe. The government has no dif-fi culty in placing the entire list and the same will be placed before the court tomorrow,” Jaitley told the media. Earlier in the day, the apex court, which is monitoring the at-

tempts to recover black money stashed abroad, ordered the gov-ernment to share by Wednesday the names of all Indians with for-eign bank accounts.

“Why are you providing a pro-tective umbrella to foreign bank account holders? We can’t leave the issue of bringing back black

money to the government. It will never happen during our time,” said the court.

On Monday, the government re-leased eight names against whom it has started prosecution for al-legedly stashing away illegal funds.

Of the eight, three of them were said to have accounts in foreign

banks. The trio were identifi ed as Pradip Burman (former direc-tor, Dabur India Limited), Pan-kaj Chimanlal Lodhiya (Rajkot-based bullion trader) and Radha S Timblo (Timblo Private Lim-ited), in an affi davit fi led in the Supreme Court.

The court has been monitor-ing the investigations into black money transactions since 2009, based on a petition fi led by noted lawyer Ram Jethmalani. Indians are estimated to hold $500 billion in overseas tax havens.

On Monday, the

government released

eight names against

whom it has started

prosecution for

allegedly stashing

away illegal funds

Why are you providing

a protective umbrella

to foreign bank account

holders? We can’t leave

the issue of bringing

back black money to the

government. It will never

happen during our time

Supreme CourtENDING SPECULATION: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the

names of all bank account holders with black money which were

with the government would be given to the Supreme Court in the

wake of the court’s orders. – PTI fi le photo

NEW DELHI: After facing displeasure of the Supreme Court on black money issue, the government was on Tues-day questioned by ruling BJP leader Subramanian Swamy who termed as “wrong” its stand that names of foreign account holders could not be disclosed because of treaties.

Opposition parties also rejoiced over the apex court slamming the government over the issue. Swamy insist-ed that the government had from day one no “legal basis” for withholding the names of foreign account holders.

“Government was wrong in quoting DTAA (Double Taxa-tion Avoidance Treaty), both the UPA and our government. And what has now come from the Supreme Court is correct position in law,” he said.

“This is money out of cor-ruption, scam... and has no protection in law,” he told a TV channel.

Congress hailed the Su-preme Court slamming the government.

“It was obvious that the government was making

a case on behalf of foreign account holders, saying why their privacy needs to be maintained... The truth is none of the agreements of DTAA prohibits the government from naming account holders,” Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha told reporters.

Hailing the apex court’s order, CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta said it is a “counter blow” to the government from judiciary on its “deliber-ate inaction”.

“This is absolutely a clear case of judicial intervention to correct the position the country is facing today,” he said. Samajwadi Party spokes-person Gaurav Bhatia said the order is a big embarrassment for the Modi government and the SC was left with no choice because the Centre was “not cooperating”.

The apex court had some strong words for the govern-ment for seeking modifi ca-tion of its earlier order on disclosure of all names saying this was accepted by the then UPA government. -PTI

Opposition parties welcome court order on black money

Fadnavis to be Maharashtra’s new CMMUMBAI: Ending days of sus-pense, Devendra Fadnavis was on Tuesday elected BJP Legislature Party leader and will be sworn in as fi rst Maharashtra Chief Min-ister from the party on Friday, propped by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) from outside.

The 44-year-old fourth term MLA from Nagpur South West seat, with RSS roots and strong backing of Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi and BJP Chief Amit Shah, will be only the second Brah-min chief minister of the state after estranged ally Shiv Sena’s Manohar Joshi.

Surmounting competition from several members of the state BJP’s Core Committee, who were vying for the post but were neutralised by the party’s central leadership, Fadnavis was declared elected leader of the Legislature Party by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, ob-server for the election.

Stake claimAccompanied by BJP General Sec-retary Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar, state Core Committee members Eknath Khadse and Vinod Tawde, besides allies RPI leader Ramdas Athawale and RSP’s Mahadev Jankar, Fad-

navis later called on Governor C. Vidyasagar Rao to stake claim to form the government.

“We gave the Governor a letter seeking opportunity for BJP to form government. The Governor has asked us to prove majority in 15 days after the swearing in on October 31,” Fadnavis told report-ers after meeting Rao.

BJP General Secretary in-charge of Maharashtra J. P. Nadda said the swearing-in ceremony will be held at 4pm and that talks were still on with estranged for-mer ally Shiv Sena over forming a coalition government.

Fadnavis’ name for the leader of BJP Legislature Party was pro-posed by Leader of Opposition in

the outgoing Assembly Eknath Khadse and seconded by others who were in the race, including Khadse’s counterpart in the Leg-islative Council Vinod Tawde, former state BJP Chief Sudhir Mungantiwar and Core Commit-tee member Pankaja Munde Palve.

The resolution for his election was adopted unanimously, Ra-jnath Singh said after the meeting which lasted little over 20 min-utes, preceded by a meeting of the state BJP’s Core Committee.

Fadnavis and other leaders then drove down to Raj Bhavan to for-mally stake claim for form the gov-ernment. As decided by the party earlier, the Governor accepted the suggestion to swear in the new government on October 31.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, several of his Cabinet colleagues and Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states will attend the historic cer-emony at Wankhede Stadium.

“A small ministry will be sworn in on October 31,” Nadda told re-porters. Shiv Sena, which had on Monday openly voiced its desire to join a coalition government with BJP, on Tuesday said it will wait for the swearing-in of the new Chief Minister before taking a call on supporting the government. - PTI

S W E A R I N G I N O N O C T O B E R 3 1

NEW RESPONSIBILITY: Governor of Maharashtra C. Vidyasagar Rao

presents the letter of appointment to the chief minister-designate

Devendra Fadnavis in Mumbai, on Tuesday. - PTI

BJP appears undecided on taking shot at power in Delhi NEW DELHI: Even as the Su-preme Court put the issue on a fast forward mode, BJP on Tuesday appeared undecided on taking a shot at power in Delhi and may prefer fresh polls early next year.

However, its rivals Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress ac-cused Bharatiya Janata Party of “running away” from the elec-tions by not taking a decision on whether to end President’s Rule.

Sources said party President Amit Shah and senior leaders and Union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Rajnath Singh were in favour of the party forming a govern-ment though some other leaders were opposed to it.

Though Delhi BJP leaders maintained that a “fi nal decision” on whether to go for polls or form a government was yet to be tak-en, Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said the party was ready for elections.

“We are ready for elections. The Centre will take its decision once the Lt Governor sends his

recommendation after consult-ing everybody. There is no ques-tion of forming a government by horse-trading,” he said.

The sources said the Delhi unit of the party was earlier eager to form government but last week it had conveyed to the central leadership its readiness to face fresh polls either in January or February following BJP’s elec-toral victories in Haryana and Maharashtra.

“We will take a decision at an appropriate time once we are invited to form a government,” Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay told a press conference, refusing to comment further on the issue.

Another leader said the party was contemplating all three pos-sibilities — going to fresh polls, forming a government and tak-ing a decision after the bypolls on November 25 in three constituen-cies in Delhi. - PTI

G O V E R N M E N T F O R M A T I O N

BRIEFING: Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay shows notice papers

to be served to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, at a press conference at

the party offi ce in New Delhi, on Tuesday.- PTI

India, Vietnam to step up defence ties NEW DELHI: India and Vi-etnam on Tuesday decided to ramp up their defence and se-curity ties that will see supply of four naval patrol vessels to Hanoi and increased training of its military personnel, a month after India extended $100 million Line of Credit (LoC) for defence procurement.

The decision between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung, who held wide-rang-ing talks here, to boost defence and security ties.

“Our defence cooperation with Vietnam is among our most im-portant ones. India remains com-mitted to the modernisation of Vietnam’s defence and security forces,” Modi said following his talks with Tan.

This will include expansion of training programme, which is already very substantial, joint exercises and cooperation in defence equipment.

“We will quickly operational-ise the 100 million dollars LoC that will enable Vietnam acquire new naval vessels from India. We

have also agreed to enhance our security cooperation, including in counter-terrorism,” Modi said.

According to offi cial sources, Vietnam has agreed to buy four patrol vessels for its Navy un-der the LoC Scheme but is yet to formally identify the shipyard it wants them from.

SurveillanceVietnam wants the vessel for sur-veillance off its coast and around its military bases in the Spratly island chain in the South China Sea where it is building a credible naval deterrent to China with Ki-lo-class submarines from Russia.

Sources also said that talks are on to train Vietnam Air Force pilots in fl ying Sukhoi fi ghters as well. India is already train-ing the Vietnam Navy personnel in operating the Russian-origin Kilo-class submarine among other areas.

India and Vietnam have a long-standing defence relationship but it has been restricted to mili-tary exchanges, training, spares and maintenance of military hardware. - PTI

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

Watch out for a special page on black money accounts issue in tomorrow’s (October 30) edition


ARTICLE, UPDATES


COMMEN ARYT I M E S O F O M A NW E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 2 9, 2 0 1 4

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T I M E S O F O M A NA12

Historical eras are diffi cult to recognise before they end. The Renaissance became the Re-naissance only in retrospect; the same can be said for the Dark Ages that preceded it and any number of other eras. The

reason is simple: It is impossible to know if some promising or troubling development stands alone or represents the start of a lasting trend.

Nonetheless, I would argue that we are witness-ing the end of one era of world history and the dawn of another. It has been 25 years since the Berlin Wall was dismantled, bringing the 40-year Cold War to an end. What followed was an era of American pre-eminence, increased prosperity for many, the emergence of a large number of relatively open so-cieties and political systems, and widespread peace, including considerable cooperation among the ma-jor powers. Now that era, too, has ended, ushering in a far less orderly and peaceful epoch. The Middle East is in the early phases of a modern-day Thirty Years’ War, in which political and religious loyalties are destined to fuel prolonged and sometimes sav-age confl icts within and across national borders.

With its behaviour in Ukraine and elsewhere, Russia has challenged what had been a mostly sta-ble European order founded on the legal principle that territory may not be acquired by military force.

Asia, for its part, has remained mostly at peace. But it is a precarious peace, one that could come undone at any moment, owing to a large number of unresolved territorial claims, rising nationalism, and a paucity of bilateral or regional diplomatic ar-rangements robust enough to prevent or moderate confrontations. Meanwhile, global eff orts to slow climate change, promote trade, set new rules for the digital age, and prevent or contain outbreaks of in-fectious diseases are inadequate.

Some of the reasons why this is happening refl ect fundamental changes in the world, including the diff usion of power to an increasing number of states and non-state actors, ranging from terrorist organ-isations and militias to corporations and NGOs.

Managing greenhouse-gas emissions and global fl ows of drugs, arms, terrorists, and pathogens would be no easy task under the best of circum-stances; it is made more diffi cult by a lack of con-sensus on what to do and a lack of will to act even when agreement exists.

Other reasons for growing global disorder have to do with the United States. The 2003 Iraq War

exacerbated sectarian tensions within Muslims. More recently, the US called for regime change in Syria, but then did little to bring it about, even after government forces, ignoring American warnings, repeatedly used chemical weapons.

What emerged in the region was a vacuum fi lled by the Isis. In Asia, the US articulated a new policy of heightened involvement (the so-called strategic “pivot” to the region), but then did little to make it a reality. The consequence of these and other epi-sodes has been the emergence of widespread doubt about US credibility and reliability. As a result, a growing number of governments and others have begun to act independently. There are also local explanations for growing global instability. The Middle East suff ers from too much intolerance and too little accord about either the boundaries be-tween government and society or the role of religion within them. Meanwhile, countries in and near the region are doing little to prevent the rise of extrem-ism or contend with it when and where it emerges.

Russia under Vladimir Putin seems determined to use intimidation and force to restore lost parts of its empire. Europe increasingly lacks the means and the mind set to play a signifi cant global role.

Too many Asian governments are tolerating or encouraging nationalism rather than preparing their populations for diffi cult but necessary com-promises with neighbours.

This is not to argue that we are in for a new Dark Ages. Interdependence acts as a brake on what gov-ernments can do without hurting themselves. The world economy has recovered somewhat from its nadir six years ago. Europe is mostly stable, as is Latin America and an increasing share of Africa.

There is also the possibility of pushing back against the new disorder. International negotia-tions might produce an. Steps can be taken to weak-en the Isis militarily, reduce the fl ows of recruits and dollars to it, and shore up some of its potential targets. Sanctions and lower oil prices might lead Russia to accept compromise on Ukraine. Asian governments could still opt for regional arrange-ments that would buttress peace.

But what can be accomplished is likely to be lim-ited by countries’ domestic politics, the absence of international consensus, and the waning of US in-fl uence, which no other country is able to replace and few are willing even to support in promoting or-der. The result is a world less at peace, less prosper-ous, and less adept at meeting the challenges it faces than it was in the post-Cold War era. – Project Syndicate

The world is now in for a new Dark Age

There are also local explanations for growing global instability. The Middle East suffers from too much intolerance and too little accord about either the boundaries between government and society or the role of religion within them

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

ERA OF DISORDER

Pakistan has long claimed that support for militants from across the Afghanistan border is complicating its quest to defeat them. A security offi cial has now said that as Operation Zarb-e-Azb

continues, Pakistan has detected bunkers along the Afghan side of the border, lying adjacent to North Waziristan — and apparently intend-ed to give refuge to militants. This is quite obviously disturbing. The question that arises is how the militants can be defeated, when they have powerful friends near at hand. Pakistan and Afghanistan share a problem with militancy. It is necessary that they work together, and not at odds with each other, if they are to overcome it and make both countries safer places.

Pakistan has repeatedly alleged that Afghanistan is giving shelter to some of the terrorists it wants most, like Mullah Fazalullah, who heads the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. Kabul has denied this. The trust defi -cit does not help matters at all. Islamabad had hoped it would be able to establish better ties with the new, unifi ed Afghan government, led by President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah. Sadly, gauging by events in North Waziristan and the discovery of the bunkers, this does not seem to be the case.

Afghanistan needs to realise that only a joint front with Pakistan can enable it to overcome militancy. This monster has grown too huge to be defeated by any one country on its own. This is especially true given the long, highly porous border which separates Afghanistan and Pakistan. We need an equal eff ort on both sides to hold back a growth in militancy. Afghanistan must realise that with a US pull out planned within months, it must work with Pakistan in order to vanquish an evil that has already hugely damaged both nations. – The Express Tribune

The need is a joint front

That pro-Western forces would win most of the seats in the Ukrainian parliamentary elections was a foregone conclusion, given that Crimea and pro-Russian areas under the control of

rebels did not participate. What is important is that the country now has a legitimate new president and Parliament, both elected since the ouster of Viktor Yanukovych in February and committed to reform and closer ties with the West. That, alas, does not guarantee a unifi ed government, and whatever team emerges faces huge challenges: an empty treasury, agonising reforms that cannot be delayed, the need to fi nd fuel to survive the approaching winter, and all this while fi ghting continues in the southeast. The new Parliament simply cannot aff ord to sink back into the infi ghting and corruption that have been the hall-mark of Ukrainian governments past.

The early results indicated that the parties aligned with Petro Po-roshenko, who was elected president in May, and Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the current prime minister, will emerge the strongest. While the two men have worked closely together in recent months and both have earned the respect of Western governments, the campaign brought out distinct diff erences. Yatsenyuk, who is likely to be reappointed prime minister, is more hawkish and anti-Russian, and Poroshenko is more moderate and more broadly accepted across Ukraine. Under the Ukrainian system, the prime minister wields considerable authority, so the balance of power in Parliament will be a critical factor in deter-mining which one of them has the bigger say.

Sorting out these diff erences and forming an eff ective governing coalition could take time, and time is what Ukraine does not have. To qualify for critically needed aid from the International Monetary Fund — and to satisfy one of the major demands of the demonstrators who forced out Yanukovych — the government must move quickly on re-forms and against corruption. But the most important reform, a sharp reduction in the size of the government bureaucracy, is bound to face fi erce resistance when the economy is in crisis and winter is setting in, and a serious anti-corruption campaign would clip many politically active and powerful oligarchs. Even more immediate is the threat of a cut off of Russian gas if Ukraine does not quickly come up with a debt payment of $1.5 billion. What is certain is that Russia will no longer subsidise Ukraine with low energy prices, as it did in the past. But, at least for now, Russia is not likely to do more damage.

Russia signalled soon after the election that it is prepared to rec-ognise the new Parliament, and its most likely tactic will be to push for negotiations between Kiev and the two breakaway regions in south-eastern Ukraine. The two “people’s republics” — Donetsk and Luhansk — have scheduled their own elections for early November, and Moscow will insist that these are the people the new Ukrainian government must talk to. It is anyone’s guess how much more turmoil the Ukrainian people can take after they have watched their country battered, dismembered and bankrupted. But those Ukrainians who could vote demonstrated that a large majority still support reform and a Westward course. At this critical juncture, it is imperative that the United States and European Union support them with immediate, tangible and generous support. - The New York Times News Service

Ukraine now needs hard work, generous support

R I C H A R D N . H A A S S

The new ‘braking’ fi ne may not be the greatest ideaThis refers to the news story, Brake at the last minute and face fi ne (October 28). By install-ing speed cameras every two kilometres along the Muscat Expressway and Sultan Qaboos Highway, isn’t the ROP looking to ‘cash in’? Speed cameras should be for incident hot-spots where repeated accidents occur and the cause is speed. For me, and I’ve said it many times, training and education are key. People have to be made aware of the hazards of speeding and using mobile phones while driving. I see hideous driv-ing here every day and I mean every day. Drivers are seen in the middle lane talking on phones. Speed cameras are the most ef-fective weapons to deter motor-ists from speeding but the new

‘braking’ fi ne, well, that’s not the greatest idea, isn’t it?Warren FothergillMuscat

Important to curb use of phones while drivingThis refers to the news story, Brake at the last minute and face fi ne (October 28). The authori-ties must put in place stringent practices and technologies to curb the use of mobile phones while driving. One can always see driv-ers texting while driving and even when entering highways from a minor road. The use of mobile phones while driving puts other drivers and pedestrians in peril. I have also seen some motorbike drivers talking over phone while driving. It is very important to convince these drivers that using

mobile phones while driving is dangerous for all — for them as well as for everyone else. Pradeep KumarMuscat

Speeding is the primary cause of most accidentsThis refers to the news story, Brake at the last minute and face fi ne (October 28). I feel the new system deserves to be lauded. It is normally said that speed thrills but it also kills — so true and all the more here in Oman! Major-ity of the accidents that happen in Oman can be attributed to reckless driving. I feel that if one drives well within the prescribed speed limit one would not need to brake while approaching a speed camera. And if a driver slams on the brake this means he was driv-

ing above the speed limit. I also feel that the authorities should take stringent stand against driv-ers seen talking on their mobile phones while driving.Anu ShaikhWadi Kabir

Be within limit and you will not have to brakeThis refers to the news story, Brake at the last minute and face fi ne (October 28). There is no need to brake if you are well withing the specifi ed speed limit. If you have to jam on the brake then you are obviously speeding and breaking the law. Therefore, you should be fi ned. People here in Oman need to wake up and stop speeding. It is simple. Anthony RoeMuscat

READERS’ FORUM

Silence is a text easy to misreadA. A. ATTANASIO

website: www.newindiaoman.com

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PERSPEC IVET I M E S O F O M A N W E D N E S DAY, O CTO B E R 2 9, 2 0 14T I M E S O F O M A N A13

We were discussing ter-rorism at a private seminar two weeks

ago when one of the attendees — an academic — wondered aloud whether militants had found their own way of expressing grave and growing male despair: “They go off to kill others, while in the UK an unprecedented number of men under the age of 40 are killing themselves.

“Do both these come from the same source?”

The question stunned us all. It was bold, astute, lateral and ex-posed the inadequacy of the na-tional discourse on terrorism.

Muhammad Mehdi Hassan, only 19, was killed in Syria this week. Like three other young men who have also died in those killing fi elds, he was from Portsmouth.

Then some got in with Isis, while others took up arms to fi ght the bad guys, whoever they are. A number British Muslims want to come back home, but can’t be-cause Isis makes them stay on pain of death. And, besides, they know they would be imprisoned upon return.

In most cases, the families are shocked and traumatised. Imag-ine how Hassan’s mother feels. They sent him to a private school hoping he would make them proud. Now they have to mourn, feel guilt and be accused by those around them.

They have no help groups and worse, are seen as pariahs.

Meanwhile a reader emailed me last week. She is alarmed at the way her leftie, liberal friends are now vehemently anti-Muslim and think that such parents are liars or should know what their children are up to.

Parents of young white men who commit suicide are similarly disbelieved or blamed.

The guilt, the silent accusa-tions, circulate around them: “How could they not have seen the

signs? Why didn’t they do some-thing to help him?”

Female suicides have gone down since 1981, while male sui-cides are up. Today, males under 40 are three times more likely to kill themselves than women in the same age group. Suicide is the biggest cause of death among men under 35. Though most are from the lower socio-economic groups, over the past decade sons of poli-ticians, judges, and other profes-sionals have killed themselves.

Janet Cosgrove, who now vol-unteers with Survivors of Be-reavement by Suicide, still can’t believe her son William stabbed himself to death 11 years ago. His note said: “I just don’t want to be here any more.”

That must be how many of the other men felt when they could not go on — when they didn’t want to wake up to another day. And that, I suggest, could be one factor pushing extremists, too.

Brian Jenkins, a counter-ter-rorism analyst at the American Rand Corporation’s National De-fence Research Institute, believes many of those young, impression-able men could be mentally ill, or are individuals “facing personal crises and having trouble coping”.

We must condemn what they do, but at the same time fi nd out

what is going on in their impen-etrable minds. A retired, respect-ed expert from the intelligence services told me that militants who wanted to come back should be allowed to do so — and then helped. They are disturbed, rest-less men who need to be brought back into society.

The problem, however, is way bigger than that. Britain has neglected the pain of young men for far too long. Why are so many giving up on society and their futures? The feminist in-stinct is to damn males, not to understand them.

That can’t be right. After all, we have sons too who could one day either destroy others or themselves because they fi nd life impossible. Feminism made great strides, but we have not thought about the unintended eff ects of this movement that I wholly support.

Old assumptions persist. Boys don’t cry. They must man up. And new assumptions are just as bad: you are what you have, and furious ambition makes you a man.

In this environment, men can fi nd it harder to talk about feelings or ask for help. Within too many Muslim families, authoritarian-ism rules and adds further pres-sures.. - The Independent

TODAY IN HISTORY

OPINION POLL

1618 Sir Walter Raleigh is executed. After the death of Queen Elizabeth, Raleigh’s enemies spread rumors that he was opposed the accession of King James.

1787 Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni opens

in Prague. 1901 Leon Czolgosz is electrocuted for

the assassination of US President William McKinley. Czolgosz, an anarchist, shot McKinley on September 6 during a public reception at the Temple of Music in Buff alo, N.Y.

1927 Russian archaeologist Peter Kozloff

apparently uncovers the tomb of Genghis Khan in the Gobi Desert, a claim still in dispute.

SAYYID SAUD TO HEAD DELEGATION TO UNESCO MEETINGMUSCAT: The Sultanate is due to participate in the 30th session of the Unesco general conference, which will be held in Paris from October 26 to November 17, with a high level delegation that will be headed by Sayy-id Saud bin Ibrahim Al Busaidi, minister of education. The 30th conference will witness the appointment of a new director general of the Unesco to succeed Fredrico Mayor, the current director general and the approval of the year 2000-2001 budget of the organization and its various committees.

FROM OUR ARCHIVES

If the power arrangement between Ghani and Abdullah proves a success, and there is an eventual reconciliation deal with the Taliban, the power and legitimacy of the new government would be consolidated

The last UK base in Afghanistan, Camp Bas-tion, was on Sunday handed over to the con-trol of Afghan security forces, ending British

combat operations in the country. The move ends a UK engagement that has lasted for some 13 years and resulted, tragically, in more than 450 deaths.

The departure of UK troops comes at a critical moment for the country on the political, security and economic fronts. In September, a potentially landmark power-sharing agreement was reached which created a ‘government of national unity’.

This represents the fi rst democratic transfer of power in the country’s history and also marks the end of the post-9/11 Hamid Karzai era. The agree-ment between Ashraf Ghani and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, who has been given a de facto prime minister role, follows a contested, controversial election in June.

Under the terms of the agreement (which re-sulted in part from heavy US pressure), a new Council of Ministers has been created, headed by the Abdullah, which implements the executive af-fairs of the government. He will report to the pres-ident on progress in implementing these policies.

If the power arrangement between Ghani and Abdullah proves a success, and there is an even-tual reconciliation deal with the Taliban, the power and legitimacy of the new government would be consolidated. And, in turn, this would help preserve some of the fragile gains secured in Afghanistan since 2001.

However, if the government of national unity breaks down, there could be increased division, potentially along ethnic and/or geographic lines, in the country. For instance, Mohammad Atta Noor, a former warlord, Abdullah ally, and current governor of Balkh Province in northern Afghani-stan, had previously threatened violence unless Abdullah was declared the winner of the election.

A key issue here is that Ghani and Abdullah have diff erent regional and ethnic powerbases. Ghani is from the south and part of the country’s majority Pashtun community, whereas Abdullah is from the north and his support base is concentrated in the ethnic Tajik community.

Now that a new government is in place, the country must seek to address the daunting array of political, economic and security risks on the hori-

zon. The number one item in the new president’s inbox is security with the Taliban increasing its activity in recent weeks.

Here, Afghanistan has signed a landmark new security deal which would see in 2015 a remain-ing (albeit signifi cantly smaller) international force — US and Nato combined — of some 12,500 troops (9,800 of them US service personnel). This will also help ensure extensive funding and train-ing for the approximately 350,000 strong Afghan police and military forces, which may otherwise disintegrate. While a continuing foreign force will provide a stabilising presence, Afghanistan is fac-ing fresh assaults from the Taliban. Hence, the reason why another key priority will be advancing reconciliation here.

Pakistan’s infl uence could be key in facilitating any eventual peace deal. While doubts remain about that country’s ability and willingness to facilitate such an agreement, a potentially sig-nifi cant move was made earlier this year when Pakistani government representatives en-tered into formal peace talks with the Taliban in North Waziristan.

Turning to the economic front, the new presi-dent comes into offi ce at a very diffi cult moment. Since 2001, the fast-growing economy has become steadily more dependent on foreign aid.

However, as international troops are drawn down, foreign aid could be cut back markedly. In part, this is because US and Nato forces have pro-vided a security umbrella under which some of the aid agencies have operated in recent years.

Another key problem is that there has been only very limited success in economic diversifi cation since 2001. The danger is that, as aid is reduced, the economy becomes increasingly dependent upon drug exports such as opium and heroin.

Taken overall, there is a limited window of op-portunity for the government of national unity to consolidate its power and legitimacy and preserve gains in the country since 2001. However, espe-cially if the administration does not function ef-fectively, and reconciliation cannot be advanced with the Taliban, there is also a prospect of sig-nifi cantly greater political, security and economic instability in the country, despite the signing of the new US-Nato security deal. – The Independent

Can the new government bring peace, stability in Afghanistan?

HISTORYNET.COM

Mozambique's potential gas bonanza

GraphicsGraphic News /Source: US Energy Information Administration, Standard Bank Group Ltd.

Mozambique, one of Africa’s poorest countries, could emerge as one of the world’s topliquefied natural gas exporters and see its economy grow 10-fold over the next two decades

MOZAMBIQUE

Maputo

Beira

Palma

Exploration blocksbids accepted untilJanuary 20, 2015

Zimbabwe

SouthAfrica

ZambiaM

alawi

TanzaniaRovuma

Basin

Rovuma Basin

Palma

200km

Proven natural gas reserves(trillion cu ft, % of world total)RussiaIranQatarUnited StatesSaudi ArabiaUAEVenezuela

24.2%17.0%12.7%

4.4%4.1%3.1%2.8%

1,6881,187

890308288215195

INDIANOCEAN

Plans for $30 billion “City of Gas” to house 250,000 people and giant LNG plant. Initial exports of 5 million tonnes from 2018. Total capacity of 20m tonnes

Texas- based Anadarko and Italy’s Eni have found around 200 trillion cubic feet of gas

Mozambique could hold 3% of world’stotal

LAST POLL RESULT

Do you think a steep tobacco tax will curb smoking habits among people in Oman?

Are the drivers in Oman just too obsessed with speeding?

Visit timesofoman.com to cast your vote

Yes53.8%

No43.6%

Can't say2.6%

It is futile to grudge the saf-fron party its current win-ning spree. We have seen

how Congress and its allies had defenestrated themselves from the Centre.

Now they are being tossed out from state after state. They lost Maharashtra, where the country’s fi nancial hub is situated, and Haryana in the recent elections.

Two more states, Jammu & Kashmir and Jharkhand, are in for polls shortly and Con-gress seems to have lost hope even before the campaigns have taken off .

BJP has been battle-ready ever since the parliamentary polls unlike Congress which is still in political stasis. Con-sidering that coming years will witness elections to vari-ous states, BJP’s Amit Shah and his team continue to be on election mode. As far as they are concerned it’s a continu-um and there’s no downtime or chill time.

As for Congress it doesn’t know whether it should start a reinvention process taut de suite or focus on elections in several states and latterly in other rather big states like Bi-har and Uttar Pradesh.

The Congress camp knows full well that there is an urgent need for reinvention. What it doesn’t know is to how to go about it. And the blame game is a sine-qua-non in any rein-vention process.

It’s only natural that the leadership of the party takes the blame for any setback, leave alone serial reverses.

The moot question is whether there has been any clear leadership at all for the Congress party. Congressper-sons would readily say that the party is being guided by its president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi. But were they at the forefront of the party in the whirligig of crises? Or were they able to stem corruption in govern-ment? Or were they or their families involved in corrup-tion themselves?

These are some key ques-tions the Congress followers have to ask themselves and the party leadership.

Technically speaking, they have a strong leadership but when it comes to connecting with the people and leading from the front they have only second or third rung leaders who can only act robotically as

they are programmed for it. The so-called high-com-

mand of the Congress party has traditionally seen to it that no strong leaders have emerged in states. Even if it had allowed any regional leader to grow in stature he/she had to prove their loyalty without a shred of doubt.

The best example is for-mer Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda who had been in a swamp of al-legations. The land deal be-tween Robert Vadra and DLF, midwifed by Hooda, took the biscuit. Sure, Hooda is still in denial. That’s understandable as everybody is innocent un-til they are proved otherwise. And the law will have to take its own course. This is our re-lief which is, more often than not, a mirage.

Fortunately, there’s some-thing called perception which brings with it proper comeup-pance at the appropriate time. Which is why Hooda’s govern-ment has been knocked out by the people.

Sometimes the power of perception is mightier than the law which may or may not be able to book the culprit.

Sensing that Rahul doesn’t have enough fi re in his belly to face up to saff ron demagogues like Narendra Modi buttressed as they are by a heavy phalanx of RSS foot-soldiers, some Congressmen are clamouring for Priyanka Gandhi’s entry into frontline politics.

Priyanka may be a natural leader like her grandmother Indira Gandhi, more dynamic, more colourful and more jin-goistic than Rahul. But her husband’s dubious deals are guaranteed to overshadow anything she might want to do in the party.

Again it’s perception. The people do think that there’s something fi shy about her husband’s land deals.

Unless and until he proves that his hands are clean the perception sticks as a slur on the escutcheon of the Nehru-Gandhi family.

The focus should turn to leaders other than those from the Congress’s revered dy-nasty. Ex-fi nance minister P. Chidambaram talks up young leaders like Sachin Pilot. Such a line of thinking is a good be-ginning. Clean young leaders need to be given a leg-up by the party if at all it wishes to remain a national party. Real leaders wouldn’t cut and run when defeat stares at them.

The churning may take some time before the party reinvents itself. It is, how-ever, dangerous to subscribe to the saff ron view of ‘India sans Congress’. We yearn for a strong government as well as a strident opposition.

The writer is a freelance con-tributor based in India. All the views and opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not refl ect those of Times of Oman.

Is Congress ready for reinvention?

About the silent suffering of men

O O M M E N K U R U V I L L A

YA S M I N A L I B H A I B R O W N

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PAKISTANW E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 2 9, 2 0 1 4

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Government seeks $20b for upgrade of ailing power sectorISLAMABAD: Pakistan has sought $20 billion in an attempt to add 17,000 megawatts (MW) to the national grid amid inves-tors’ apprehension over payment structure and lack of infrastruc-tural support that they say would undermine any future invest-ment in the power sector.

In a bid to meet the burgeon-ing electricity demand, Pakistan made its case in a two-day inter-national conference “Invest Paki-stan” inaugurated by Prime Min-ister Nawaz Sharif on Monday. The government has projected that by 2020 total electricity de-mand will be 34,000 megawatts.

“The challenge is to add an-other 17,000MW to the national grid that requires $20 billion in investment”, said Younus Dagha, Secretary In-charge Ministry of Water and Power while address-ing the gathering of investors. He said the country was currently facing a shortfall of 5,000MW.

The government is seeking new investment in coal and hydro power plants, as it opens hydel generation and transmission lines for the private sector for the fi rst time. Board of Investment (BoI) Chairman Miftah Ismail gave a presentation, highlighting investment opportunities in coal and mines sector.

The fi gure of 34,000MW has been worked on the basis of an 8 per cent annual increase in de-mand, said Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif.

Annual growthHowever, the government’s mod-el seems faulty as electricity de-mand is worked out on the basis of annual economic growth.

The minister admitted that the government has so far failed to address sector-specifi c is-sues, particularly the high ratio of line losses due to theft. He said wastage of electricity remained another unaddressed issue due

to weak governance. Asif said in order to address the security challenge, the armed forces have destroyed the terrorist hideouts and infrastructure during the ongoing operation Zarb-e-Azab, which would greatly address in-vestors’ concerns.

Despite the short- and medi-um-term challenges, the country off ers best investment opportu-nities, said Dr Musadaq Malik, special assistant to the prime minister. He said no country in the world off ers a guaranteed 17 to 20 per cent rate of return on investment, legal protection of investment and full repatria-tion of profi ts.

PrivatisationMeanwhile, Orient and Saba power plants Chief Executive Offi cer Nadeem Baber said pri-vatisation was the only solution to problems plaguing the power sector. “Addition of electricity without controlling the leaking bucket of distribution companies will not help.”

In his presentation, Baber said fuel-supply constraints were hampering future investment as gas was provided to Independ-ent Power Plants for only 24 per cent of the time last year. He said imported coal logistics were also uncertain. Renewable sources like solar and wind help but do not serve base-load. Baber added that transmission lines need ma-jor additions, ports and railways need large investments to sup-port new-coal fi red power plants being planned and LNG termi-nals are needed for gas import.

Other investors present com-plained about the government’s tax policies that were hurting electricity generation through renewable resources. They de-manded that the government withdraw Customs duties on import of solar panels and renew-able batteries. - Express Tribune

I N V E S T P A K I S T A N C O N F E R E N C E

CYCLONE WARNINGGirls clad in bur-

qas take picture

with a tablet while

visiting Karachi’s

Clifton Beach on

Tuesday. Accord-

ing to local media,

Pakistan authori-

ties closed the

coastal belt due

to the tropical

cyclone Nilofar

which has gained

further strength as

it continue to move

inwards. - Reuters

Nawaz urges dialogue to end MQM-PPP row

ISLAMABAD: As the MQM and PPP confl ict intensifi es, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tues-day urged political parties to resolve diff erences through dis-cussions and debates, Radio Paki-stan reported.

While talking to an MQM del-

egation led by Farooq Sattar in Islamabad, the premier said the constitution provides space for debate to all democratic forces in the country. “Diff erence of opin-ion is the beauty of democracy and should be aimed at country’s de-velopment,” he advised.

WitnessedNawaz went on to add that Paki-stan has witnessed an exemplary display of parliamentary democ-racy and rule of law in which all political parties expressed solidar-ity with the system for upholding the supremacy of democracy and strengthening of democratic insti-tutions in the country.

The prime minister called upon democratically elected forces to work together for the development and progress of Sindh. Speaking about developmental projects the premier had initiated for Karachi, PM Nawaz said directions have been issued to all concerned au-

thorities for timely completion.Other MQM members who

met PM Nawaz include Abdul Rashid Godil, Khalid Maqbool and Nasreen Jalil.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was to present a reso-lution in the Sindh Assembly, con-demning Muttahida Qaumi Move-ment’s (MQM) decision to observe ‘black day’ against Khursheed Shah’s statement on ‘muhajirs’, Express News reported Tuesday.

Life in parts of Sindh came to a standstill on October 26 after MQM gave a call to observe ‘black day’ against what they termed as derogatory remarks made by Shah against ‘muhajirs’. Shah had said he considers the word ‘muhajir’ a ‘gaali’ (curse) and urged people to stop referring to themselves as muhajirs.

PPP MPA Kulsoom Chandio will present the resolution in the house which states that the party condemns MQM’s decision to ob-

serve black day even after Shah apologised for his statements.

Businesses and petrol pumps were closed down on the ‘black day’, while entry tests in a few universi-ties were cancelled due to the strike call. MQM had also staged a sit-in in Karachi where party chief Altaf Hussain addressed the supporters.

Commenting on PPP’s decision to present the resolution, MQM leader Khawaja Izharul Hassan told the media that his party too can present resolutions against PPP October 18 rally and other po-litical issues.

“All political parties have dem-ocratic rights and can take part in political activities; we will re-spond equally to all such moves,” said Hassan.

Speaking about MQM leaving the Sindh government, Hassan said since the resignations have been accepted, MQM is now tech-nically part of the opposition. - In

exclusive arrangement with The Express Tribune

The prime minister

called upon

democratically

elected forces to

work together for the

development and

progress of Sindh

Cameron invites Sharif to attend Afghanistan meetISLAMABAD: British Prime Minister David Cameron has invited Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to attend an interna-tional conference on economic assistance to Afghanistan to be held in London in the last week of November. According to an offi cial handout, Cameron invited Nawaz via telephone on Tuesday. The conference is being co-chaired by Cameron and Afghan President Dr Ashraf Ghani and will serve to reiterate the international community’s commitment to Afghanistan. As one of Afghanistan’s most important neighbours, Paki-stan’s participation at the highest level would serve to high-light its commitment to peace and stability in the war-torn country. “Prime Minister’s participation in the conference would also enable the two leaders to discuss bilateral relations between Pakistan and the UK, and provide an opportunity for Nawaz to meet the Afghan president,” says the handout.

Two new polio cases put Pakistan’s total at 222PESHAWAR: Two new polio cases were reported in Pe-shawar and Khyber Agency on Tuesday, taking the country’s total number of cases to 222 in 2014. The National Institute of Health in Islamabad confi rmed that two infants were diag-nosed with wild type-1 polio. Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nige-ria are the only three countries where polio, which can cause paralysis and death, remains endemic. Fahimullah from Pe-shawar and Saima from Khyber Agency are the latest victims of the virus. Both of them are only 10 months old.

Four held for involvement in Karachi airport attackKARACHI: Four suspects were arrested on Tuesday for al-leged involvement in the Karachi airport attack, Express News reported.According to CID offi cials, the suspects were arrested from Tariq Road and Malir areas of Karachi.“The men belonged to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and al Qaeda,” CID offi cials said. Addressing the media in Kara-chi, the offi cials added that they recovered a large number of weapons from the men. On June 8, militants launched an as-sault at Karachi airport killing at least 37 people, including 10 terrorists, in the overnight siege.The TTP had claimed respon-sibility for what was the fi rst large-scale terrorist attack at the country’s largest airport in years.

Power tariff hiked by 52pISLAMABAD: A few days after the premier directed the gov-ernment to maintain electricity prices at the current level, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) on Monday raised the power tariff by Rs0.52 per unit on ac-count of fuel price adjustment for the month of September. The increased tariff , which will be applicable to all power distribution companies, will be refl ected in November 2014’s bills. However, lifeline consumers using up to 50 units per month and consumers of K-Electric will be exempted from the hike. - Agencies

B R I E F S

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WORLDW E D N E S DAY, O CTO B E R 2 9, 2 0 14

Ghani, Xi pledge long-term ties

BEIJING: Afghanistan and Chi-na pledged a long-term partner-ship on Tuesday as new Afghan President Ashraf Ghani began a four-day visit while Nato combat troops prepare to withdraw from his country.

Ghani, once a US-based aca-demic, was sworn in as Afghani-stan’s new head of state last month in the war-torn Asian nation’s fi rst democratic transfer of power.

His fi rst state visit as presi-dent is to resource-hungry China, which is seeking greater invest-ment opportunities in Afghani-

stan. “We look at China as a stra-tegic partner, in the short term, medium term, long term and very long term,” he told President Xi Jinping at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.

Xi’s “vision” for the continent had opened “not just a new chap-

ter for Asia, but an entirely new book”, he said. Hailing Ghani as “an old friend of the Chinese peo-ple”, Xi said he was prepared to work towards “a new era of coop-eration in China-Afghanistan re-lations” to “take development to a new depth and breadth”.

China shares only a 76 kilome-tre (47 mile) border with Afghani-stan’s remote far northeast, but has a keen interest in its neigh-bour’s mineral resources.

It has already secured major oil and copper-mining concessions in Afghanistan, which is believed to

have more than $1 trillion worth of mineral resources, according to studies by the US Geological Sur-vey. But all Nato combat troops will leave the country by Decem-ber, leaving Afghan troops and police to battle Taliban insurgents on their own. There are now about 40,000 foreign troops in Afghani-stan, down from their 2011 peak of around 140,000, and their depar-ture raises questions over stability in the country.

Residual forceA residual force of around 12,000 soldiers, including 9,800 Ameri-cans and 500 Britons, will remain under a security pact signed by Ghani, focusing on training local forces and counter-terrorism.

China will provide 1.5 billion yuan ($245 million) in “free as-sistance” to Afghanistan over the next three years, foreign ministry offi cial Kong Xuanyou told report-ers after Tuesday’s ceremony.

Kong said Ghani expressed “readiness and staunch support” in the struggle against “terrorist forces”—which Beijing blames for a string of attacks in its far-west-ern Xinjiang region, the homeland of the mostly Muslim Uighur mi-

nority. China’s international role has come under criticism from some parties including US Presi-dent Barack Obama, who in an August interview with the New York Times called Beijing a “free rider” for not doing more to quell violence in the Middle East.

China’s state-run media struck back with editorials blasting Obama’s remark.

“The US accusation, which comes out of nowhere, is nothing but an attempt for Washington to fi nd a scapegoat for its failed policy in Iraq,” the offi cial Xinhua news agency wrote in response.

China and Afghanistan signed four agreements Tuesday, in-cluding documents on expand-ing technical and commercial cooperation.

Ghani is also expected on Fri-day to attend the Istanbul Process, a key conference on his country which is being hosted by Beijing this year.

Ghani’s choice of Beijing for the trip only weeks after taking offi ce is symbolically signifi cant, Chi-nese analysts say.

“Seeking other sources of sup-port is essential to Afghanistan’s stability and development,” China Institute of Contemporary Inter-national Relations research fellow Fu Xiaoqiang told the state-run Global Times newspaper.

“China, as the most capable na-tion in the neighbourhood, has to be its fi rst option,” Fu added. — AFP

Hailing Afghan

President Ashraf

Ghani as ‘an old

friend of the Chinese

people’, Chinese

President Xi

Jinping said he was

prepared to work

towards ‘a new

era of cooperation’

Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters to fi ght for a yearHONG KONG: Nearly nine out of 10 Hong Kong protesters say they are ready to stay on the streets for more than a year to push for full democracy to counter China’s tightening grip on the city, ac-cording to an informal Reuters survey on Tuesday.

For a month now, key roads leading into three of Hong Kong’s most economically and politically important districts have been barricaded with wood and steel by thousands of protesters who have set up semi-permanent occupa-tion zones amid a sea of tents.

The overwhelming majority of the student-led protesters who responded to the Reuters survey - carried out at two major protest sites on the one-month anniver-sary of the start of the demonstra-tions - remained defi ant.

The straw poll found 87 per cent said they were willing to keep up the campaign for more than a year, while 93 per cent said that even if police forcibly cleared them away, they would

regroup to launch fresh street oc-cupations elsewhere.

China’s increasing control in Hong Kong was a major motivat-ing factor for 59 per cent of the protesters surveyed. — Reuters

P U S H F O R D E M O C R A C Y

10 killed as bus carrying students crashes

SAO PAULO: At least 10 people were killed and 31 injured when a bus carrying students on a hik-ing trip crashed in Brazil, police said on Tuesday.

“They were traveling on a bus for a school trip,” a police spokesman said.

Authorities said 16 of the in-jured were in serious condition.

The bus was traveling late Monday from Sao Paulo to Bor-borema when it collided with an oncoming freight truck, killing 10 people instantly, according to Brazil’s G1 news site.

The truck was carrying veg-etable oil and a fi re erupted after the crash, which took fi refi ght-ers two hours to control, G1 re-ported. The news site said an 11th body, badly charred, had been found Tuesday morning, but police were unable to con-fi rm the report. Police could not confi rm the identities of the dead. G1 reported six students between the ages of 15 and 17, three teachers and a school di-rector may have been among those killed.

There were three buses traveling for the school trip and the buses were returning to Sao Paulo at the time of the crash, Borborema’s education secretary Maria Angela Mar-tins told G1. — AFP

B R A Z I L

We look at China as a strategic partner, in the short term, medium term, long term and very long term

Ashraf Ghani, President, Afghanistan

GUARD OF HONOUR: Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, right, and China’s President Xi

Jinping inspect guard of honour during a welcoming ceremony outside the Great Hall of the People in

Beijing, on Tuesday. – Reuters

PREPARING FOR LONG HAUL: Pro-democracy protesters open

their umbrellas to mark one month since they took to the streets,

in the Mongkok district of Hong Kong, on Tuesday. – AFP


ARTICLE, PHOTOS



ARTICLE, PHOTOS


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WORLDW E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 2 9, 2 0 1 4

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Booming UAE realty faces cash crunch

DUBAI/ABU DHABI: Look at computer models for the Venice-like Arabian Canal proposed for central Dubai, or the plans for the world’s biggest shopping mall, and it seems as if the collapse of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) real estate market six years ago never happened.

Citibank estimated earlier this year that there were already two thirds of a trillion dollars worth of construction projects under-way in the UAE. That was before Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum unveiled models of the Mall of the World, a glassed-in city complete with an air-conditioned Times Square and Oxford Street and Earth’s biggest indoor theme park. But beneath the soaring cranes and the glass and steel domes, all is not well for builders, who have found massive amounts of work but profi t margins squeezed and developers slow to pay bills. And that means some of the glamorous new mega-projects may fall well behind schedule.

The UAE is recovering strongly from the 2008-2009 fi nancial crisis which battered its real es-tate market. Local governments and state-linked fi rms have an-nounced a slew of huge housing and infrastructure projects in the last 18 months. But as some de-velopers in Dubai and Abu Dhabi hold back payments, builders are now scrambling to obtain loans and digging into cash reserves for money to tackle the projects.

At the same time, the construc-tion boom is drawing new contrac-tors and sub-contractors to bid for business in the hope of winning quick profi ts. This is pushing down margins. Such diffi culties illus-trate the perils of the Gulf’s con-struction market. Foreign builders fl ock to the region to get a share of its oil wealth, but sometimes face unstable market conditions and erratic payment schedules.

“The biggest challenge contrac-tors face is that the margins are still going down. It’s getting more competitive, and a tough market to survive,” said Philippe Dessouy, managing director at Belgian con-struction fi rm BESIX.

Weak profi tsOne regional industry expert, who did not want to be identifi ed because of the sensitivity of his comments, said profi ts at UAE construction companies would be weak this year despite the massive volume of business.

“The contracting business is going through a rough phase. Pay-ments are coming in late, which is impacting builders, and they are now faced with liquidity issues. This would of course have an im-pact on the projects,” he added.

The challenges for construction

fi rms can be seen at companies such as Arabtec, Dubai’s larg-est contractor and builder of the world’s tallest tower.

Its backlog of projects has al-most doubled to about 26 billion dirhams ($7.1 billion) in about two years. The amount of money owed to it by clients jumped to 9.1 billion dirhams in the fi rst half of 2014 from 6.6 billion dirhams a year earlier. At the same time, the company’s cash balance shrank to 1.1 billion dirhams in June from 2.7 billion dirhams in the third quarter of 2013. Analysts said this was mainly because of high work-ing capital requirements; Arabtec declined to comment.

“If Arabtec wants to continue at the current rate of project ex-ecutions for the next two to three quarters, then we expect a cash outfl ow (incremental working capital) of 500 million dirhams each quarter,” said Allen Sandeep, director for research at brokerage Naeem Holding.

“That just means that the com-pany might run out of cash and it has to either raise funds or slow down on executions.”

Arabtec has also had to grapple with management changes such as the sudden resignation of its chief executive Hasan Ismaik in June.

The departure of top managers and staff will result in “signifi cant project delays”, analysts at HSBC said in June. The company has in-sisted all its construction projects are on track. But it has acted to reduce its commitments, pulling out of plans to launch its own real estate company and scaling back its strategy to bid for oil and gas projects in the region.

Similarly, Dubai’s Drake & Scull had outstanding receivables of 5.3 billion dirhams in the fi rst half of this year, more than double its fi rst-half revenue of 2.35 billion dirhams. Its backlog grew to 14.3 billion dirhams from 7.4 billion dirhams a year earlier. The com-pany declined to comment.

Such pressures may lead to de-lays in a range of projects around the UAE, possibly including high-profi le items such as the much-anticipated Louvre Museum in Abu Dhabi, which is being built by Arabtec and other companies.

At present just 55 per cent of construction work on the Louvre, which includes one of the world’s biggest domes, has been complet-ed, although work is scheduled to fi nish next year.

“To get to the fi nish line, a lot of hard work needs to be done. It is a challenge but we are working to

meet the deadline,” said Jassim Al Hammadi, head of infrastructure at Tourism Development & In-vestment Co, the Abu Dhabi state-owned fi rm which is developing the project. An industry source who is monitoring the project’s progress said it would be very dif-fi cult to complete construction next year, given the scale of the task and pressures on resources. A boom over the past two years has driven Dubai’s residential real estate prices back close to the bub-ble levels seen before its market collapsed in 2008. Prime rents in Dubai are now only 10 per cent lower than their peak in 2008, ac-cording to a report by property company Knight Frank.

With about a 30 per cent jump, Dubai rents and house prices are estimated to have recorded the highest growth rate in the world in the fi rst half of the year, after an increase of about 25 per cent in 2013. The market may at last have peaked, with increases fi nally slowing in the last few months.

Residents, most of whom are expatriates from Asia and Europe, complain about the surging cost of living, and wonder whether the boom is sustainable for a city that prides itself on attracting talent with a promise of the good life.

Jahanzeb Mashhadei, an as-sistant manager at Panasonic Corp’s Middle East arm, was priced out of his luxury high-rise in central Dubai and now com-mutes two hours to work from a modest apartment bordering the neighbouring emirate of Sharjah. It is still dark when his son gets on the school bus. “We kept push-ing our boundaries and eventually the market just pushed us out of Dubai. We just weren’t able to af-ford something,” he said.

Despite the boom, developers are still mindful of the crash six years ago, which makes them cau-tious with payments to building contractors. Industry executives say some property developers are slow to disburse cash, proceed-ing in stages instead of making big up-front payments to construc-tion fi rms. Local governments, es-pecially Abu Dhabi, do not lack for money. But bureaucratic and logis-tical obstacles can delay payments to construction fi rms.

Falling global oil prices could become another worry if pro-longed. Despite a plunge to four year lows in recent months, Abu Dhabi is still believed to be run-ning a budget surplus and there is no sign of state-backed projects being cancelled. — Reuters

Construction work

balloons in the UAE

as economy recovers

but some developers

delay payments

out of the post-

crash caution

Aquino not to seek second termMANILA: Philippine President Benigno Aquino on Tuesday ruled out any attempt to seek a second term, a highly controversial prop-osition that would have required the rewriting of the constitution.

Aquino in August had hinted at such a possibility. But he quickly ran into opposition in a nation still haunted by the rule of the late president Ferdinand Marcos.

Aquino, who was elected by a

landslide in 2010, is limited by the constitution to a single six-year term. “There are some quarters that were saying I should try and go for a second term. I don’t think that’s a right solution,” he said in a speech to businessmen.

Aquino instead urged voters to “discern properly” who to vote for in the 2016 elections for his successor. The president had previously hinted that he might

seek to rewrite the constitution, possibly allowing him to run for re-election.

His remarks were met with much criticism. Surveys also showed that the majority of Fili-pinos opposed this option.

The Philippines is still coping with the scars left by Marcos who declared martial law in 1972 in order to stay in power even after his term ended. — AFP

P H I L I P P I N E S

SOARING DEVELOPMENT: A part of Dubai’s Marina, left, and buildings at Sowwah Square on Marayah Island in Abu Dhabi’s new central business district. Citibank estimated

earlier this year that there were already two thirds of a trillion dollars worth of construction projects under way in the United Arab Emirates. – AFP/Reuters

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‘Plans to save Great Barrier Reef inadequate and short-sighted’SYDNEY: Australia’s plans to protect the Great Barrier Reef are inadequate, short-sighted and will not prevent its decline, the country’s pre-eminent grouping of natural scientists said on Tuesday.

The draft plan, released for consultation last month, was sup-posed to allay concerns by the United Nations about the reef’s health after UNESCO threatened to put it on the World Heritage “in danger” list.

Environment Minister Greg Hunt has said the proposal refl ects an eff ort to balance the priorities of protecting the reef, which is teem-ing with marine life, and long-term sustainable development.

But the Australian Academy of Science warned that the plan

ignored the impact of climate change and failed to address prob-lems with poor water quality, coastal development and fi shing.

“The science is clear, the reef is degraded and its condition is worsening. This is a plan that won’t restore the reef, it won’t even maintain it in its already dimin-ished state,” academy fellow Terry Hughes said.

“The plan also seems overly fo-cused on the short-term task of addressing UNESCO’s concerns about the reef’s World Heritage Listing, rather than the longer-term challenges of restoring the values of the reef.”

Hughes said while the plan iden-tifi ed targets for reducing harmful agricultural run-off , any improve-

ments would likely be lost in the unprecedented amount of dredging for coal ports and the Queensland state government’s plans to double agricultural production by 2040. The survival of the reef depended on a reduction in pollution from run-off and dredging, less fi shing and a decrease in carbon emissions from fossil fuels, he said.

A spokesman for Minister Hunt said the “Reef 2050 Long-Term Sustainability Plan” states the government’s vision to improve the health of the reef over succes-sive decades. “We note the Acad-emy is calling for such a vision, and it is front and centre of what we are working to achieve,” he said.

He said the plan acknowledged that climate change was a global

problem requiring global action, and was being addressed by the government through other poli-cies. The draft, prepared by the Australian and Queensland gov-ernments, calls for greater coor-dination between authorities in relation to the reef, a proposal wel-comed by environmentalists.

It also urges a 10-year ban on dredging to develop new ports or to expand existing ones both inside and next to the World Heritage site—apart from in priority port development areas.

And it bans future port develop-ments in the Fitzroy Delta, Keppel Bay and North Curtis Island near Rockhampton—areas of the reef described by environmentalists as key incubators of marine life. — AFP

S C I E N T I S T S ’ W A R N I N G

Kebabs catching up fast in France

BLOIS (FRANCE): In a coun-try whose national identity is so closely connected to its cuisine, France’s hard right has seized on a growing appetite for kebabs as proof of cultural “change”.

Four kebab houses opened last month in Blois, bringing the to-tal to over a dozen in the pretty Loire valley town where tourists come to see the castle. The far-right National Front party railed: “The historical centre of Blois, the jewel of French history, is turning into an Oriental city”.

UbiquitousThe implicit message is clear: the now ubiquitous kebab, popu-lar with the young and cash-strapped, is a sign that Middle Eastern culture has taken root in France, where not everyone is happy about the presence of 5 million Muslims.

“The kebab is a bit of a reflec-

tion of all the problems with immigration and integration in France,” says Thibaut Le Pel-lec, founder of KebabFrites.com, a website that ranks kebab houses across the country and seeks to raise the reputation of the “kebabistes” who make and sell the food.

Damien Schmitz, who runs a kebab shop in Paris, puts it more bluntly: by criticising the ke-bab, he says, “you can speak ill of Muslims without speaking ill of Muslims.”

Introduced by Turkish im-migrants to Paris in the 1990s, the doner kebab—where meat is carved off an upright rotating

spit and served in a fl atbread with salad and spicy sauce—quick-ly found favour with France’s North African population raised on spiced halal meat in tagines and stews.

The dish adapted to the French palate, served in crusty bread, with the addition of a creamy white sauce and side of fries.

Now, some 300 million kebabs at about 6 euros each are eaten in 10,200 outlets in France each year, putting the 1.5 billion euro ($1.9 billion) industry just be-hind burgers and pizza, accord-ing to Gira Conseil, a market research company.

Kebabs are everywhere - in cit-ies and towns, in supermarket freezers and drive-throughs. One brand of potato chips is even ke-bab-fl avoured, and advertised by Yohan Cabaye, a white footballer who plays for France and Paris Saint-Germain. — Reuters

Four kebab houses

opened last month

in Blois, bringing the

total to more than a

dozen in the pretty

Loire valley town

where tourists come

to see the castle

GROWING CONCERN: An aerial view of the Great Barrier Reef off the

coast of Australia. – AFP

GROWING APPETITE: A man cuts meat from a spit as he prepares

kebab in a fast-food restaurant in Marseille, on Monday. – Reuters


ARTICLE, PHOTOS


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GLOBAL EYEW E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 2 9, 2 0 1 4

INDIA: A camel herder with his camels at Pushkar Fair in the desert Indian state of Rajasthan on Tuesday. Thousands of animals, mainly camels, are brought to the fair to be sold and traded. – Reuters

PAKISTAN: A man rides on a horse past a grounded fi shing boat as people take pictures while visiting Karachi’s Clifton Beach on Tuesday.

According to local media, Pakistan authorities closed coastal belt due to the tropical cyclone Nilofar which has gained further strength as it

continue to move inwards. – Reuters

CALIFORNIA: Midnight Highwayman’s glasses refl ect the setting sun

while on patrol a local street fair in San Diego, California, on Monday.

Founded by Mr Xtreme in 2006, the group of volunteers creates their

own super hero identities and patrols the streets of San Diego off er-

ing assistance to those in need. Membership is open to anyone with

a costume and their own transportation — super hero powers are not

required. – ReutersNIGERIA: A house is partially submerged and surrounded by water hyacinth at the edge of the Lagos Lagoon in Nigeria on Tuesday. – Reuters

ITALY: Italian Corazzieri honour guard stands at the Quirinale

Presidential Palace, in Rome on Tuesday. Italy’s President Giorgio

Napolitano gave unprecedented testimony in a major trial that

accuses the state of holding secret talks with the Sicilian Mafi a in the

1990s. – Reuters



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New mass grave found in Mexico

COCULA (MEXICO): Mexican authorities looking for 43 students missing since late last month have found another mass grave, pros-ecutors said on Monday.

The students went missing in the town of Iguala and the mass grave was located in the nearby town of Cocula, prosecutors said.

Previously, a mass grave found containing 38 bodies was found near Iguala. But tests on 28 of the sets of remains showed they were not those of the students.

Meanwhile two drug gang mem-bers were arrested Monday on suspicion of direct involvement in the disappearance of the 43 stu-dents over a month ago, Mexico’s

top prosecutor said. Authorities detained four Guerreros Unidos members, two of whom are believed to have helped carry out the crime that has shocked Mexico, Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said.

A total of 56 people have now been arrested in connection with the abduction of 43 male teachers’ college students, in crime-plagued Guerrero state.

The students went missing after an attack by police and Guerreros Unidos cartel hitmen in Iguala that also left another six of their classmates dead and 25 wounded on September 26. Authorities still have not located the students.

Murillo Karam said the four ar-rested on Monday were the fi rst to have confessed that they took part in the “abduction and ultimate fate of this large group of people.”

President Enrique Pena Nieto meanwhile said he had met in Mex-ico City with Guerrero’s new inter-im governor Rogelio Martinez.

Mayor accused Federal authorities accuse on-the-run Iguala mayor Jose Luis Abarca of ordering the attack to prevent the students from disturbing an event held by his wife as president of the local child protection insti-tution. -AFP

The 43 students

went missing in the

town of Iguala and

the mass grave was

located in the nearby

town of CoculaCRIME SCENE: Forensic staff at the scene where a new mass grave

has been discovered in a trash dump near Coculaon Monday. – AFP

Families to seek harsher sentence for Pistorius nowJOHANNESBERG: The families of “Blade Runner” Oscar Pistorius and the woman he killed have ac-cepted the decision by South Af-rican prosecutors to press for a murder conviction and a harsher sentence for the athlete.

Pistorius began a fi ve-year prison stretch on October 21 af-ter being found guilty of culpable homicide, a charge equivalent to manslaughter, for shooting his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Prosecutors announced on Monday they would appeal both the verdict and the sentence handed down after a sensational eight-month trial which put an enormous emotional strain on both families. “We take note of the state’s announcement. The law must take its course,” the athlete’s uncle, Arnold Pistorius, said in a terse statement on Tuesday.

The uncle of Reeva Steenkamp, Pistorius’s girlfriend until he killed

her on Valentine’s Day 2013, said he was happy with the move if was going to be benefi cial to society.

“If it’s in the interest of society... then I think they should go forward if they think it’s correct,” Michael Steenkamp told AFP.

Pistorius admitted shooting Steenkamp four times through a locked toilet door at his upmarket Pretoria home, but said he believed he was fi ring at an intruder and she was safely in bed. Prosecutors said he deliberately killed her after an argument, but trial judge Thokoz-ile Masipa found the 27-year-old Paralympic and Olympic athlete not guilty of murder.

Legal experts say the prosecu-tion is likely to appeal against the judge’s interpretation and applica-tion of the principle of dolus even-tualis—awareness of the likely outcome of an action—when she acquitted the sprinter of the mur-der charge. -AFP

S O U T H A F R I C A

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WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COMW E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 2 9, 2 0 14

HSBC BANK OMAN POSTS OMR9.5M NET PROFITHSBC Bank Oman announced a net profi t of OMR9.5 million for the nine months ended on September 30, 2014. >B2

‘Low oil prices not to aff ect growth, if investment continues’A E [email protected]

MUSCAT: Low oil prices will not aff ect the Sultanate’s economic growth, if government continues to invest in development projects and fi nd alternative sources of funds like bonds, said two experts here.

“As long as Oman does not re-duce its spending to strengthen its non-oil sector of the economy, it (a slowdown on growth) might not happen,” said Carla Slim, econo-mist (Middle East and North Af-rica Research, Global Markets) at Standard Chartered Bank. The Sultanate depends on 83 per cent

of its revenue from hydrocarbon sector. If there is no impact on spending behaviour in the wake of a fall in oil prices, there will not be any major impact on growth, add-ed Marios Maratheftis, managing director, Global Head of Macro Re-search, Standard Chartered Bank.

However, he noted that a fall in

revenue will aff ect the ability of the government to invest in pro-jects and therefore, the country will have to look for other sources of funding like borrowing from overseas markets. Oman has been conservative in going for debt and the country’s debt to GDP ratio is very low at four per cent. Slim said

the country’s eff orts to diversify its economy away from hydrocarbon sector is producing better results with non-oil sector witnessing double digit growth this year.

Oman is one of the countries with lowest oil reserves in the GCC and break-even oil price is high among GCC peers, the coun-

try is vulnerable to an oil price shock. “However, the situation is not as gloomy as it sounds because it will take a sustained period of low oil prices of a year or more to seriously put pressure on the country’s budget,” noted Slim, who projected a 4-5 per cent growth in real GDP this year. > B4

S T A N D A R D C H A R T E R E D B A N K E X P E R T S

Oman’s Islamic

banking assets

expected to

double by 2018

DUBAI: Islamic banking opera-tions in Oman have grown to ac-count for over four per cent of the country’s total banking assets in the past two years and could dou-ble that ratio by 2018, a study by Thomson Reuters found.

The Sultanate introduced Is-lamic fi nance at the end of 2012, becoming the last country in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to do so.

Since then, two full-fl edged Is-lamic banks and six Islamic win-dows at conventional banks have opened their doors; they held a combined OMR1.1 billion ($2.86 billion) in assets as of June, or a 4.4 per cent share of total bank-ing assets, the study found.

That is far from the roughly 25 per cent market share that Islamic banks enjoy in the Gulf Arab region, but close to the fi ve per cent share in countries such as Turkey and Egypt.

Under a base scenario, the study estimates Oman’s Islamic banking operations could reach OMR5 billion of assets by 2018, a seven per cent share of esti-mated total banking assets at that time. A best-case scenario puts the fi gure at OMR7.1 bil-lion, a 10 per cent share.

But Islamic banks still need tools to help them manage their funds and ensure profi tability; Bank Muscat’s Islamic unit was the only operation to post prof-its in 2013, the study said. Bank Sohar’s Islamic unit posted its fi rst profi t in the fi rst quarter of this year.

The government is working on its fi rst issuance of sukuk and the central bank has set up a task force to develop sharia-compli-ant liquidity management tools, Oman’s central bank chief Ha-mood Sangour al-Zadjali was quoted as saying in the study.

The need for Islamic inter-bank tools is relatively acute in Oman because regulations ban the use of commodity murabaha, a money market contract widely used elsewhere in the Gulf.

“To the credit of Islamic banking providers in Oman, they have managed to oper-ate successfully given the con-straints they face in the inter-bank market,” Zadjali said.

The Capital Market Author-ity (CMA) has now fi nalised rules governing issues of cor-porate sukuk, after making amendments to ensure their tax neutrality vis-a-vis conven-tional bonds. “We are targeting the approval of the CML (Capi-tal Market Law) and issuance of the sukuk regulation by the second half of 2014,” Ahmed Al Qassabi, the CMA’s acting gen-eral manager of issues and dis-closures, was quoted as saying.

LimitsWhen Oman introduced its Is-lamic banking rules, it took a highly prescriptive approach to ensure the religious per-missibility of the industry. But some banks have sought relaxation of certain rules until the market matures.

Last year, the central bank granted Islamic banks a one-year relaxation on the amount of foreign assets which they can hold.

Bank Muscat, which operates the largest Islamic window in Oman, said in the study that it was seeking relaxation of capi-tal requirements for Islamic windows, aiming to calculate these on a consolidated basis with the parent bank. — Reuters

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HSBC Bank Oman posts OMR9.5m profi t for nine monthsTimes News Service

MUSCAT: HSBC Bank Oman an-nounced a net profi t of OMR9.5 million for the nine months ended on September 30, 2014. While this represented a 25.2 per cent de-crease over the same period last year, the comparative period in 2013 had benefi tted from signifi -cant recoveries and the release of

a portion of the general provision following the sale, and other man-aged reductions, of assets.

Net operating income before loan impairment charges in-creased by 2.1 per cent to OMR53 million compared to OMR51.9 mil-lion for the same period in 2013. Net interest income also increased, up 1.4 per cent to OMR36.5 million compared to OMR36.0 million for

the same period last year. Total other operating income increased by 3.1 per cent to OMR16.4 million compared to OMR15.9 million for the same period in 2013.

David Eldon, Chairman of HSBC Bank Oman, said, “We con-tinued to see good progress on our strategic objectives of growing revenues, streamlining processes and procedures, and implement-

ing the highest global standards to protect the Bank, our sharehold-ers and our customers against the growing risks of fi nancial crime, within a framework of delivering excellence in customer service at all times. I am particularly pleased to see that the fi nancial results for this third quarter are better than the fi rst two quarters of 2014.”

He added, “In Retail Banking and

Wealth Management, the deploy-ment of our more focused custom-er-centric way of serving custom-ers earlier in the year continued to drive strong sales activity with double-digit growth seen in asset acquisition. In our key segments of Advance and Premier, this also translated into double-digit growth in customer acquisition. On the corporate side, we continued to win

important new business through our unique service off ering where we are able to combine our local ex-pertise with HSBC Group’s inter-national connectivity.”

HSBC Bank Oman invested fur-ther in its digital banking proposi-tion, with the launch of an Arabic language version of its public web-site and made enhancements to its Phone Banking service.

PERFORMANCE

B3W E D N E S DAY, O CTO B E R 2 9, 2 0 14

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Al Maha share off er raises OMR155m

A E [email protected]

MUSCAT: Al Maha Ceram-ics, which raised OMR155.34 million from investing public for its OMR7.9 million public issue, has allotted a minimum of 200 shares and thereafter at the rate of three per cent for additional shares applied in the case of retail applicants.

As far as mutual funds are concerned, the share allotment is four per cent, said a top-level offi cial at the Capital Market Authority (CMA).

The initial public off ering was subscribed to the tune of 19.5 times — 17.3 times in the case of retail investors and 24.7 times in the case of mutual funds, which was the second category. As many as 34,851 in-vestors applied for the share of-fer. The shares will be listed on the Muscat Securities Market on November 3.

Sources said that refund of excess money to investing public has already been start-ed and will be completed by Wednesday.

Al Maha off ered 20 million shares or 40 per cent of its paid up capital at 397 baisas per share — 295 baisas premium and two baisa issue expenses.

As much as 70 per cent of the shares were reserved for individuals applied for 100,000 shares or less, while the remain-ing 30 per cent was allocated to local mutual funds.

Al Maha Ceramics has pro-jected a cash dividend of 35 per cent for 2014, which is payable by March 2015. The company, which has an installed capacity of six million square metres per annum, is running close to 100 per cent capacity utilisation. The capacity utilisation was 102 per cent and 104 per cent in 2013 and 2012, respectively.

I N I T I A L P U B L I C O F F E R I N G

Bank Muscat, Shadeed mark fi nancial closure of loan facilityTimes News Service

MUSCAT: Bank Muscat, the fl agship fi nancial services pro-vider in the Sultanate, and India’s industrial conglomerate Jindal Group marked a celebration in New Delhi to commemorate the successful fi nancial closure of $725 million facility for Shadeed Iron & Steel (SIS).

The ceremony coincided with the visit to India of a high-level Omani business delegation led by Dr Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidi, Minister of Commerce and In-dustry, along with representa-tives from various public and

private sector companies, as part of the B2B Oman-India roadshow.

In June 2014, Bank Muscat ar-ranged the $725 million syndicated term loan facility for Shadeed Iron & Steel, the fi rst integrated steel plant in Sohar. The facility was ar-ranged by Bank Muscat together with a consortium of 11 banks.

The consortium comprising banks from Oman, other Gulf countries and India included Bank Muscat, Qatar National Bank; Qatar National Bank, Oman; National Bank of Oman, al Khaliji Commercial Bank; Bank Dhofar; Bank Sohar; Ahli Bank Bahrain; Ahli Bank Oman; State

Bank of India, Dubai and State Bank of India, Oman.

The facility was oversub-scribed with commitments in ex-cess of $855 million received as against the required commitment of $725 million. The entire facil-ity was structured and arranged by Bank Muscat, which was also mandated as the Facility Agent, Account Bank and Security Agent for the facility.

AbdulRazak Ali Issa, Chief Ex-ecutive of Bank Muscat, thanked the consortium banks for the suc-cessful fi nancial closure of $725 million syndicated facility for Shadeed Iron & Steel. > B4

N E W D E L H I E V E N T

MSM shares declineMUSCAT: The MSM30 Index dropped below the 7,000 mark to close at 6,981.08 points, down by 0.56 per cent. The MSM Sharia index declined by 0.24 per cent to close at 1,040.58 points. Al Anwar Holding was the most active in terms of volume while Omantel was the most active in terms of turnover. The top gainer of the day was Construction Materials, up by

2.04 per cent, while Al Batinah De-velopment, down by 4.71 per cent was the top loser of the day.

A total number of 1,063 trades were executed during the day’s trading session generating turno-ver of OMR7.7 million with more than 16.4 million shares changing hands. Out of 48 traded stocks, fi ve advanced, 20 declined and 23 re-mained unchanged. — United Securities

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DRIVE SLOWER LIVE LONGER ‘Oman has options to retain spending’

E C O N O M Y

MAKING A POINT: Oil prices will recover to rule above $100 per

barrel in the long term. — Picture by Jun Estrada/Times of Oman

< FROM

B1

Demand for iron, steel set to surge

AbdulRazak Ali Issa said: “Oman has always facilitated a conducive environment for overseas inves-tors, including Indian investors, to set up projects in the country and this has played a pivotal role in helping Oman to achieve its Vision 2020 economic objec-tive of diversifying from oil as a major source of income to other allied activities such as metals, downstream oil and gas etc.”

AbdulRazak Ali Issa added: “Bank Muscat has supported various projects jointly promot-ed with Indian companies like Oman India Fertilizer Company, Bharat-Oman Oil Refi nery and Shadeed Iron & Steel to name a few. Going forward, we antici-pate there would be many such projects being set up by Indian corporates in Oman and that the B2B Oman-India roadshow will be an excellent opportu-nity to further explore mutually benefi cial relationships.”

Naveen Jindal, Chairman of

Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL), said: “We are committed to build-ing a comprehensive steel manu-facturing facility in the Sultanate of Oman. Huge infrastructure spending in the Middle East is driving a strong demand for steel and fuelling investment in steel projects. We see great synergy in this tie-up with Bank Muscat, which will help us drive our ex-pansion projects in Oman.”

Ravi Uppal, MD and Group CEO, JSPL, said: “We foresee a tremendous demand surge for iron and steel in the Gulf market. This strategic tie-up is a step to-wards our expansion plans for the Arabian peninsula. Currently, we are producing billets and rounds at the Oman facility and we are on course to set up a 1.4 MTPA rebar mill, which will be commissioned in 2015.” Shadeed is the fi rst in-tegrated steel plant in Sohar Port area. SIS, originally founded by Al Ghaith Holdings, was acquired by Jindal Steel & Power Limited.

O M A N - I N D I A R O A D S H O W

< FROM

B3

If oil price remains at a low lev-el, Oman has diff erent options, which include a cut in expendi-ture (which will aff ect economic growth), use foreign current re-serves (which is estimated at $25 billion) or it could get support from its sovereign wealth funds.

Maratheftis said that the world growth will be slightly better in 2015, when compared to this year. He said the oil prices may

come down further in the short-term since Opec supply is at 16 month high.

But it will recover in the long term, prices will recover to rule above $100 per barrel.


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Nissan’s technical centres provide excellent service, training options

MUSCAT: Suhail Bahwan Au-tomobiles (SBA) state-of-the-art sales, service and parts (3S) fa-cilities across the Sultanate have been receiving rave reviews. The key purpose of setting up such fa-cilities is to provide high standards of customer service and technical training to Nissan, Infi niti, Re-nault and SBA service staff , says a press release.

Performance of a vehicle has al-ways been of key importance to a discerning customer. SBA follows high performance parameters for each model in any class. The ‘en-riching people's lives’ philosophy goes with their aim of encouraging new, reliable, high-performance models at a reasonable price.

Most of the service facilities are equipped with up to date technolo-gy that complements international standards. Equipped with service bays, paint booth facility, qualifi ed and skilled technicians, Nissan’s service facility caters to the needs of the discerning customer base in the region, to all kinds of periodic

maintenance service and body paint cash jobs.

Great courses Nissan Service Technicians Edu-cation program (NSTEP) and Nissan Service Adviser Educa-tion Programme (NSAP) certi-fi cation trainings are off ered at some of their state-of-the-art fa-cilities. Along with that, SBA staff is provided with up-to-date new model training, need based train-ing, CRM workshops held, KAM and fl eet customer training pro-grammes are conducted too.

They have plenty to off er other than their routine in-house class room training and physical train-ing programmes like:

Tailor-made logistics opera-tors vehicle maintenance training (Train the Trainer program).

On-site vehicle end users Training program on do's & don’ts, daily checks and routine mainte-nance checks for vehicles plying in extreme severe dusty conditions

Specifi c commercial product service maintenance training to engineer level, highlighting and aiding preventive vehicle mainte-nance aspects for a longer run of fl eet vehicles.

Fleet workshop for managers This is indeed a milestone

achievement for SBA Service to develop the service technicians for quality service.

SBA have their facilities spread across the Sultanate located stra-tegically all across the country in Muscat, Sohar, Sur, Salalah, Shinas, Sumail, Ibra, Ibri, Nizwa, Buraimi, Barka, Bahla, Jaalan Bani Bu Ali, Seeb, Sinaw, Wudam and Bidiyah. This goes to show that Nissan Oman has been success-

fully growing in operations and is consistently spreading its network throughout the Sultanate of Oman.

Nissan has built up its repu-tation, for more than 100 years, through innovative technology, a broad product line-up and rac-ing wins. In Oman, people have increasingly opted for Nissan models because they come with class leading features, great per-formance, ideally suited to the lo-cal conditions and off er great value for money besides being among the safest cars on the road.

Moreover, Suhail Bahwan Au-tomobiles’ relentless pursuit to-wards value creation and attrac-tive consumer schemes drawn from incisive insights of local con-sumer behaviour has contributed to this stupendous growth.

Performance of a vehicle has al-ways been of key importance to a discerning customer. Nissan boasts high performance parameters for each model in any class. The ‘en-riching people's lives’ philosophy goes with Nissan’s aim of encourag-ing new, reliable, high-performance models at a reasonable price.

Suhail Bahwan Automobiles over the years have institution-alised robust systems and people processes to continuously monitor and measure customer satisfac-tion levels at point of sale and ve-hicle service. This is done through periodic surveys with customers, analysing key consideration fac-tors for improving customer sat-isfaction and implementing them. Good reliable customer service has helped SBA to build a loyal fol-lowing thus ensuring additional revenue streams and enhanced its reputation in Oman.

Solid core“When it comes to providing good service, the fi rms that are able to build strong relationships with their customers are more likely to maintain a solid core of enthusias-tic supporters. Quickly resolving issues and going beyond custom-ers' expectations encourages re-peat business from patrons, and in many cases, we go further than that. High quality customer ser-vice helps to create customer loy-alty. Customers today are not only

interested in the product they are being off ered, but also all the addi-tional elements of service that they receive starting from the greeting when they enter a retail outlet,” the key spokesperson opined.

At sales showrooms Suhail Bahwan Automobiles’ sales execu-tives take the customer through a needs analysis process whereby asking focused questions the sales executive identifi es customer needs. Based on the needs thus identifi ed the sales executive then proposes the correct vehicle.

At service centres the customer service staff is available from the time customers book a service appointment at any of our service centres across the Sultanate till they receive their vehicles ready after service. Additionally, an on-call staff person is available dur-ing evening, weekend, and holiday hours for emergency-situations.

SBA has recently introduced Employee Suggestion scheme, with a focus on enhancing partici-pation of employees in improve-ment of customer service delivery.

SBA also has a Hall of Fame

Award scheme that includes Cus-tomer First Champions and Cus-tomer Super Stars schemes. These schemes are high value cash re-wards with trophies presented to the employees who demonstrate customer enthusiasm.

The Nissan warehouse in Oman is one of the largest in the GCC, en-suring 98 percent parts availability at all times. SBA has successfully spearheaded Nissan’s growth in Oman with 19 Showroom, 22 Ser-vice Centre and 35 parts centers. They have been awarded the Nis-san Champion Distributor Award three consecutive years in a row (2009, 2010 & 2011).

This award is a true refl ection of SBA’s commitment to provide cutting edge solution to the auto-mobile needs of the people of the Sultanate. SBA has achieved lau-rels for excellence in Sales, Service and Parts and Operations making them one of the pioneering leaders in customer satisfaction among automobile companies.

Quality after sales supportFor every customer purchasing a Nissan vehicle, it is the beginning of a fulfi lling experience as Nis-san’s top class after sales service off ered from SBA service centres is truly outstanding & makes sure every customer is happy and de-lighted. Nissan’s after sales service in Oman ensures that custom-ers get the advantage of factory trained expertise and genuine Ni-ssan replacement parts always in vehicle maintenance and body paint jobs.

Customers can expect reliabil-ity and assistance, which will help retain Nissan’s performance and resale value for years to come.

Most of the service

facilities are

equipped with up

to date technology

that complements

international

standards

Pizza Hut Oman celebrates Global Handwashing Day

MUSCAT: As the world was pre-paring to celebrate Global Hand-Washing Day, Pizza Hut, Oman’s favourite pizza place, took the ini-tiative a step further by organising an awareness drive at all Pizza Hut outlets in Oman.

The Khimji Ramdas Group’s leading food chain from the con-glomerate’s F&B division, called its branches to participate in a food and restaurant hygiene com-petition that was conducted ad hoc by Atyab Foodtech, authorised food safety and sampling partners for Pizza Hut. Offi cials from the Atyab ISO IFC 17025 laboratory in Oman arrived at Pizza Hut outlets unannounced to collect samples for a hand swab microbial testing, says a press release.

“Pizza Hut’s safety systems include rigorous standards and training for all of our employees. To support our goal of ‘Trust in every bite’ nothing is more impor-tant than protecting our consum-ers and the very core values our brand represents. We ensure that the food we serve to our custom-ers is prepared to the very highest standards of quality with the high-est quality of ingredients,” said Vivek Pande, CEO, Khimji Life-style Group.

The aim of the competition therefore, he added, also recog-nises the importance of consistent and eff ective food safety practices. “Above all, Global Handwashing Day is another refl ection of the KR Group’s commitment to serving its customers quality food in a clean, safe and hygienic environment,” said Pande.

Results from the impromptu hand-swab checks found the sam-ples taken to be free of pathogens and microbiological levels to be well within the parameters of CCFRA stipulations. The surprise inspection also rated the total hy-giene standards of Pizza Hut out-lets as standard compliance.

Commenting on the success of the hand-wash drive, Anil Khimji director, Khimji Ramdas said that it was an extension of the restau-rant chain’s motto ‘Trust in every bite’, which doesn’t put a premium on food safety and hygiene. It epit-omises the very core of the chain’s service strategy and is implement-ed at every stage of food handling and preparation.

“Overall the hand-washing culture was raised in restaurant operations and Pizza Hut is deter-mined to ensure that we continue with the highest standards of food

safety in each and every part of our operations which includes our restaurants, commissary kitchen, frozen storages and our ware-houses which go through rigorous and strict audit guidelines by our principles Yum Restaurant Inter-national,” Yogesh Shah, general manager, Khimji Ramdas, said.

Pizza Hut has trained members of its team to carry out internal audits and spot checks at all of its restaurants to ensure that all staff follows hand-washing procedures as an eff ective safeguard against germs and illnesses. As part of this programme each restaurant is equipped with a specifi c sink for hand-washing with running hot water at 38 degrees Celsius, anti-bacterial soap, sanitiser to reinforce the message to staff and customers alike.

Since its introduction during the Annual Water Week at Stockholm in 2008, the Global Handwashing campaign has motivated millions around the world to adopt the simple and safe practice of hand-washing to arrest and prevent the spread of disease. Initiated by the World Health Organisation, the day is a global commemoration of international eff orts for a healthi-er, more hygienic future.

A W A R E N E S S D R I V E

Ahmed Mohsin participates in Home Show

MUSCAT: Ahmed Mohsin Trad-ing, well-known for representing world renowned luxury building materials brands, is participat-ing at the Home Show 2014 with exclusive special off ers on a wide range of sanitary ware and kitch-ens, says a press release. Ahmed Mohsin Trading (AMT) off ers total solutions for construc-tion building and general industry,

representing a wide range of high-end quality products from around the world.

AMT is a name synonymous with quality, reliability and effi -cient after sales service.

Most desired brand"At the AMT stand you will wit-ness a stirring display of most de-sired brands like Laufen, Grohe,

Nolte and more; giving you the opportunity to make your dream home a reality. You can choose from a selection of gold, silver and bronze special off er pack-ages starting from just as low as OMR200 onwards," it said.

The Home Show exhibition is till today and is open for visitors from 10am to 1.30pm and 4.30pm to 8.30pm.

E X H I B I T I O N

ISWK hosts English drama competitionMUSCAT: Students of Indian School Al Wadi Al Kabir ex-pressed the best on the occasion of their annual English Drama curtain-raiser held recently on the school premises.

All the four houses presented their pieces in the state-of-the-art mode possible. They were austere but extraordinary to touch the teeming multipurpose hall to lend them an ear, says a press release.

The chief guest, Kanan Kapa-dia, a member of the Late Math-radas Khimji Memorial Awards instituting family, and, an alumni of the American British Academy Muscat and Camberwell College of Arts in London, was given a warm welcome by the august as-sembly of the evening.

The Tagore House was the maiden invitee to present their production Dare to be Daniel. Characters there were busy struggling for survival as the fi t-test to follow their dreams en route for their goals in the 21st century modus operandi.

Then it was the spell for A Christmas Carol — staged by the Vivekananda House — the spell-bound story of Charles Dickens which has never lost its lure since it saw the light in 1843.

It was followed by The Mon-key’s Paw, W. W. Jacob’s short story, a classic of horror writing; worldwide well-liked for more than a century by now was staged by the Ashoka House.

The Akbar House performed John Boynton Priestley’s play Mother’s Day — commemorat-ing the centenary of the Mother’s Day ceremoniously signed by the US President Woodrow Wilson in 1914.

Interludes were well satiated by way of presenting the Late Mathradas Khimji Memorial Awards for academic excellence to all the scholars from the mid-dle, secondary, and, senior sec-ondary wings of the school.

In addition to the three crème de la crème from all classes, the top 10 per cent of the pupils were also recognised by presenting prizes and certifi cates.

Bharath Prasad of the Vive-kananda House was adjudged the Best Actor while Aiswarya Aso-kan of the Akbar House bagged the accolade for her Best Sup-porting Role. The trophy for the Best Performance went to the Vivekananda House for A Christ-mas Carol. Nevertheless ISWK altogether remained the ultimate title holder for all time.

A C T I N G S K I L L S

Muscat Overseas presents 'JCB Dancing Diggers'

MUSCAT: JCB and Muscat Overseas Co. presented 'JCB Dancing Diggers' for the fourth time in Oman. This was part of the Infra Oman Exhibition held at the Oman International Ex-hibition Centre recently, says a press release.

The programme was a great success and large crowd turned out to watch the spectacular event. Muscat Overseas had also displayed the complete range of JCB products. JCB manufactures a range of over 300 machines and the prod-uct range encompasses heavy tracked and wheeled excava-tors, wheeled loading shovels, compaction equipment, tel-escopic handlers, backhoe load-ers, skid steer loaders, Gensets and power packs.

Managed by a professional and experienced team Muscat Overseas strives to provide best products, solutions and quality service to customers. The head offi ce, main showroom, main workshop, central parts ware-house are situated in Ghala on Al Maridh street. They provide best product support in the business and they have parts and service teams.

S P E C T A C U L A R E V E N T

Al Hassan supports Watasimu’s new album MUSCAT: In line with its com-mitment to support initiatives that have a positive impact on the community, the Al Hassan Group recently supported the launch of Omani inshaad group Watasimu’s new album titled Our Identity, says a press release.

Watasimu, is a group of fi ve lo-cal inshaad singers who hail from diff erent backgrounds. Inshaad is a popular form of music which

generally discusses positive issues such as faith, family, and being thankful, and watasimu (also the name of their fi rst album) is a word in the Holy Quran which means ‘to adhere fi rmly to the covenant of Allah’. Their fi rst album sold over 120,000 copies and garnered over 100,000 likes on Facebook, evok-ing an interest in positive music.

“We are very happy to support Watasimu in their noble endeav-

our to promote Omani talent and values. We are thankful that the second album made a marvellous success in terms of the number of audience and the positive impact it had on the listeners by the pow-erful positive messages it has giv-en the audience. We deeply hope that their success story continues and new albums get produced," said Ali Maqbool, director, Al Has-san Manufacturing and Trading.

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Watch ‘Happy New Year’ to win all-new Mazda3

MUSCAT: In a fi rst of its kind promotion, Mazda Oman has tied up with City Cinema, to bring to its customers an opportunity to win an all new Mazda3, on purchase of tickets for Shah Rukh Khan-Deep-ika Padukone starrer Happy New Year that released last week.

Buy a ticket at any City Cinema,

fi ll a coupon and the lucky winner chosen through a raffl e draw will win a Mazda3 and many other ex-citing gifts. This off er is valid till December 4, says a press release.

A much awaited movie of 2014, Happy New Year has a massive starcast and is creating waves internationally. And just like the movie, the all new Mazda3 also has a popular fan following and has made many hearts skip their beat. Under this promotion, look for your favourite Mazda3 being dis-played at various locations of City Cinema for movie-goers to see.

“Every step taken by TAC is a stride closer to our customers. Always enhancing our relations with buyers and satisfying them at every point of purchase through our innovative promotions is a vital part of our marketing strat-egy,” said a senior spokesperson of Towell Auto Centre (TAC), sole distributors of Mazda in Oman.

“The city cinema promotion is an excellent opportunity to win a Mazda3. The Mazda3 has been praised for its combination of superb handling, overall ride comfort, excellent overall packag-

ing and well-proportioned design globally. The growing number of Mazda3 cars on the roads of the Sultanate is evidence of the fact that the car is popular among auto-mobile afi cionados in the country as well,” he added.

Innovative promotionsThrough their innovative promo-tions and off ers, TAC over the years has cemented its position as a premier automobile distributor-ship that constantly strives to raise the bar in customer satisfaction.

The Mazda3 embodies all three elements of Mazda’s DNA: Dis-tinctive design, exceptional func-tionality, responsive handling and driving performance. Towell Auto Centre provides service to all mod-els of Mazda and makes owning a Mazda extra pleasant with its effi -cient after sales service and quick response time. With a network of 13 service outlets and 10 parts out-lets spread across Oman, TAC is the only Mazda distributor in the world to win the Mazda Customer Service award fi ve years in a row.

Buy a ticket at any

City Cinema, fi ll

a coupon and the

lucky winner chosen

through a raffl e draw

will win a Mazda3

and many other

exciting gifts

Bank Nizwa sees massive growth in customer fi nancingTimes News Service

MUSCAT: Bank Nizwa’s fi nan-cial performance over the last 12 months period ending Septem-ber 30, 2014 demonstrated the solid growth of the institution since its inception and its leading position in the Islamic fi nance sector in Oman, reporting a 349 per cent surge in the bank’s cus-tomer fi nancing portfolio and a 204 per cent growth in deposits to reach OMR101 million and OMR69 million respectively.

As a result the bank posted an increase in assets of 49 per cent to reach OMR257 million com-pared with the same period last year, while operating income in-creased by 216 per cent and net loss decreased by 49 per cent.

“Trust is the most fundamen-tal factor for the success of any organisation and our fi nancial performance is a clear indica-tion of just that,” said Dr Jamil El Jaroudi, CEO of Bank Nizwa.

“Day after day, we are winning

the trust and confi dence of cus-tomers by consistently delivering on our promise of off ering high quality Islamic fi nance products and services and investing in our technology, human capacity and network. The results are the fruit of a strategic plan we have put in place to always put customers at the centre of everything we do and make Islamic banking ac-cessible to all and relevant for today’s changing 21st century needs,” he added.

“The bank is steadily building its fi nancing portfolio backed by the momentum we witnessed this year. We expect losses to continue to decrease, and the de-crease in net loss is a positive in-dication that we are on the right path towards reaching profi tabil-ity,” explained El Jaroudi.

Through transparent off er-ings and consistency in operating practices and product features, Bank Nizwa plans to expand its customer reach in addition to products and services.

G R E A T Y E A R

Bank Muscat conducts breast cancer awareness campaignMUSCAT: Coinciding with the breast cancer awareness month marked across the world in October and the Omani Women’s Day, Bank Muscat, in association with Oman Cancer Association (OCA), organ-ised a two-day breast cancer aware-ness campaign at the head offi ce.

The opening ceremony of the campaign was attended by Yuthar bint Mohamed Al Rawahi, chair-person and founder, Oman Can-cer Association (OCA), Dr Wahid Al Kharousi from OCA and senior bank offi cials, says a press release.

The campaign organised by the bank’s HSE department came as part of responsibility to spread awareness on good health. The programme included breast can-cer awareness lectures, Q&A ses-sions and screening facility for clinical examination at the mo-bile mammography unit (MMU) stationed by OCA at the bank’s head offi ce. Over 46 per cent of

the bank’s employees comprise women who availed the opportu-nity to familiarise themselves with measures for early detection and prevention of breast cancer.

WalkathonBank Muscat is also supporting the 11th Annual Walkathon to raise awareness on cancer. The

support for the walkathon refl ects the bank’s commitment to encour-aging health, social interaction and integration through activities linked to healthy lifestyle. Bank Muscat is committed to promoting a healthy lifestyle and thereby con-tribute to a healthy society and the overall progress and development of the country.

O M A N I W O M E N ’ S D A Y

39 contestants selected for Star Chef Hunt semifi nals on Oct. 31 Times News Service

MUSCAT: As many as 39 home cooks from Oman have been fi -nalised for the semifi nal round of Spicy Village Star Chef Hunt on October 31. The selected contest-ants will have to put their culi-nary skill to the test for a once in a lifetime opportunity to showcase their talent in front of celebrity Indian Chef Sanjeev Kapoor on November 21.

The challenge is to experiment with new ingredients and to cre-ate imaginative dishes that would make an impact. The semifi nal round will be conducted at the sprawling Spicy Village restau-rant lawn at Rusayl.

The judges will also keep an eye oncooking technique and skills, health-consciousness of the recipe, safety and sanitation, presentation, taste, and timing. The selected 12 contestants for

the fi nals will be announced on November 3.

Speaking about the ‘Star Chef’ competition, Arun S Jayakaran, General Manager, Spicy Village said, “We were both impressed and delighted with the response we got form the enrolment round. The recipes which we have got and the detailing in the cooking process clearly indicates that we will witnesses intense competi-tion among the contestants.

“After getting through the semi-

fi nal stages of the competition, only the 12 best contestants will remain in the competition and one of them will walk away with the Star Chef title and a hoard of attractive prizes”

To any member of the general public, the ‘Star Chef’ hunt will be a visual extravaganza of culinary showpieces and practical cookery demonstrations. The competition will have recipes in four genre namely Arabic, Chinese, Indian and Continental.

C U L I N A R Y S K I L L S

BankDhofar completes

CSR training course

for top management

MUSCAT: Social and environ-mental responsibility has been an integral part of the way BankDho-far operates. As part of sustainable banking, BankDhofar conducted a CSR and Sustainability training programme specifi cally for the top management team recently.

The training concentrated on providing the top management with research that leads to the de-velopment and implementation of theories, tools, and methods to enable banking and fi nancial ser-vices transactions that promote environmental sustainability, says a press release.

“We believe that true progress begins with social and economic development at a community level. Corporate Social Responsi-bility focuses on the principle of sustainability and at BankDhofar we ensure that we are infl uential contributors to economic and so-cial progress. Our CSR programme focuses on 3 core areas, social de-velopment, environment protec-tion and employee engagement,” commented Ahmed Said Al Ibra-him, deputy general manager of

Government Banking.The training concentrated

on the bank’s CSR/sustainabil-ity strategy and plan, including stakeholder engagement. Using a systems-based approach the train-ing aligned the methods to assess, implement CSR, manage risks and develop a CSR strategy.

“The programme was designed to develop socially responsible leaders, which actually builds a platform for developing lead-ers both at the business front and community front,” added Ahmed Said Al Ibrahim.

Global best practice and the leading reporting framework on sustainability (GRI) include stake-holder engagement as one of the primary functions of a robust CSR and Sustainability framework. Training the top team at BankDho-far in sustainability is one of many steps that include engaging bank’s customers and employees alike also driving long-term economic devel-opment which should occur in a manner that, it is not only economi-cally viable but also environmental-ly responsible and socially relevant.

I M P A R T I N G S K I L L S

Qasmi steals show at Mushairah 2014MUSCAT: Mushairah 2014 - an evening with Qasmi proved to be just that, an out and out Atta ul Haq Qasmi show, organised by Al-pha Events at Al Falaj Hotel.

Presenter by Sohar Poly Indus-tries, the Mushairah saw legend-ary Pakistani poet Qasmi, who presided the event, at his best and the audience could not have asked for a better evening, says a press release.

Apart from being a highly re-spected poet, Qasmi is equally popular as a columnist, humour-ist and playwright. He was re-cently presented Hilal-e-Imtiaz (crescent of excellence), country’s highest literary honour, by the government of Pakistan. Famous Urdu poets including Hassan Ab-basi from Pakistan, Ehsan Shahid Choudhry from UK and popular Urdu poetess Ishrat Afreen from USA also recited their poetry at the evening.

Syed Ayaz Hussain, Ambas-sador of Pakistan, was the chief guest while Syed Fayyaz Ali Shah, chairman of Syed Fayyaz Group, Mian Mohammad Munir, chair-man and A.H. Raja, vice-chairman of PSC, Mohammed Pervaiz Abu Haroon, managing director of Abu Haroon International Trading and Mohammed Ali Fazal, mem-ber of management committee of Pakistan School Musannah, were guests of honour.

Fahad Awais Munir was the chief organiser while Muhammad Nadeem Azeemi was the main host of the Mushairah. Qamar Riaz, general secretary and Na-sir Maroof, deputy head of PSC Literary Wing, were honorary organisers while Ch. Mohammad Ilyas, ex-PSC director and Azra Aleem, director of PSC were co-ordinators of this family oriented literary evening which was largely attended by Omani, Pakistani and Indian poetry lovers.

During the fi rst session of the programme, Hafi z Faisal Sultan recited a few verses from the Holy Quran. Mohammad Afzal and Safa Arif presented impressive Naats. Qamar Riaz and Murawwat Ah-mad, prominent local poets and Hassan Abbasi, Ishrat Afreen and Ehsan Shahid Choudhry, guest poets paid rich tributes to living legend Atta ul Haq Qasmi.

Atta ul Haq Qasmi entertained the audience by reading select

masterpieces of his humorous work and got a big round of ap-plause. The chief guest, Ayaz Hus-sain praised Atta ul Haq Qasmi’s great eff orts towards promotion of Urdu literature for more than a half-century.

In the second session of the event after local poets, Moham-mad Ali Fazal, Azra Aleem, Za-kir Hussain Zakir, Nasir Maroof, Qamar Riaz and Faheem Zia, guest participants Ishrat Afreen,

Hassan Abbasi, Ehsan Shahid Choudhry and Atta ul Haq Qasmi read their poetry and were highly appreciated. The audience gave standing ovation to Qasmi.

The Ambassador of Pakistan congratulated Alpha Events, Oman for organising a beauti-ful literary evening. He also gave away mementos to the poets, Mushairah organisers, coordina-tors and supporters.

The organisers also presented a shield to the chief guest as a token of thanks. Some gifts, provided by Azra Aleem, were also distributed among some lucky winners. The event was conducted by Qamar Riaz nicely.

The mega sponsor of the event was Al Qassabi Travel while other sponsors included Al Hashar Tour-ism & Travel, Zaeem Foods, Sohar, Rahat Computer, Total Engineer-ing Solutions, Alpha Apex, Bends & Bends and Alpha Graphics.

L I T E R A R Y E V E N I N G

The Ambassador of Pakistan congratulated Alpha

Events, Oman for organising a beautiful literary

evening. He also gave away mementos to the poets,

Mushairah organisers, coordinators and supporters

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There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds. — G. K. Chesterton

QUOTES

The whole purpose of

education is to turn

mirrors into windows.

— Sidney J. Harris

Every man is the architect of his own future.

— Appius Claudius

Don’t be afraid to take

a big step if one is

indicated; you can’t

cross a chasm in two

small jumps.

— David Lloyd George

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2015 Toyota Land Cruiser now even better in Limited Edition

MUSCAT: The Pride of the Land, 2015 Toyota Land Cruiser GXR is now being made available in a Limited Edition. Even more at-tractive and impressive, the Lim-ited Edition is a pride to own, says a press release.

With a heritage stretching over 60 years, the Land Cruiser con-tinues to be a symbol of strength, durability and reliability. It con-tinues to convey a rugged yet luxu-rious image while delivering high performance and advanced off -roading capabilities.

The 2015 Land Cruiser GXR

Limited Edition features changes to the exterior, yet also manages to refl ect the heritage of the Land Cruiser identity.

The radiator grill has been re-designed, a design which creates a powerful and fi nely-crafted im-age.

The vehicle is adorned with

the Limited Edition badge, which stands out very vividly.

Elements like chrome rear li-cense garnish, chrome rear lamp garnish, chrome roof rail and chrome and coloured side protec-tion moulding on the Land Cruiser enhance its appeal and create a sense of sophistication.

Revamped interiorThe interior has also been re-vamped with features like 10.2” roof mounted DVD system and 9” navigation system with EZ-Cloud (Internet based services). The white coloured fl oor illumina-tion creates a soothing ambience inside the vehicle. Also, the rich woodgrain panelling on the steer-ing wheel, gear knob & Instrument panel take the entire interior expe-

rience to a new high. The 2015 Land Cruiser comes

with umpteen numbers of safety features. It includes multi terrain ABS, brake assist, electronic brake distribution, all-round airbags i.e. driver, passenger curtain (front, 2nd & 3rd row) + side (front row).

For safe and accurate parking, the Land Cruiser comes with back view camera with display on Navi-gation screen.

The 2015 Land Cruiser GXR is available with the choice of a 5-speed and 6-speed automatic transmission, a powerful 4.6L V8 engine, refi ned 4.0 V6 engine and a V8 4.5L diesel engine, options that demonstrate the high power and performance of the Land Cruiser with an ability to tackle some of the toughest terrains around.

The Land Cruiser comes with an independent double wishbone type front suspension, and a coil spring to enhance riding comfort and the strength to withstand the most rigorous use.

The 2015 Land

Cruiser GXR Limited

Edition features

changes to the

exterior, yet also

manages to refl ect

the heritage of the

Land Cruiser identity


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

Bank Sohar net profi t soars by 31% in Q3

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Bank Sohar’s net profi t soared by 31.14% to OMR23.749 million in Q3 2014 compared to OMR18.110 mil-lion in Q3 2013 as per the fi nan-cial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2014.

The Net Interest Income witnessed an improvement of 15.06%, increasing from OMR31.842 million for the peri-od ended September 30, 2013 to OMR36.637 million for the pe-riod ended September 30, 2014. The operating income increased by 24.39% to OMR53.262 mil-lion in Q3 2014 compared to OMR42.817 million in Q3 2013.

Operating expenses went up by 13.71% to OMR22.872 million, in comparison to OMR20.115 million in the same period last year. Despite the in-crease in expenses, the cost to income ratio has reduced from 46.98% in 2013 to 42.94% this year. The bank’s total assets grew from OMR1.849 billion in 2013 to OMR1.854 billion in the same period this year, a growth of 0.29%. Gross loans have increased by 16.70% from OMR1.241 billion on Septem-ber 30, 2013 to OMR1.449 bil-lion as at September 30, 2014. Net Loans and advances grew by 17.00% to OMR1.419 billion in comparison to OMR1.213 bil-lion in 2013. Customer deposits stood at OMR1.341 billion as at September 30, 2014, as com-pared to OMR1.324 billion as at September 30, 2013, registering an increase of 1.30%.

S U P E R I O R P E R F O R M A N C E

Landmark Group initiates blood-glucose test camps MUSCAT: Landmark Group, the region’s leading retail and hospital-ity conglomerate, through its ‘Beat Diabetes’ campaign and as part of its outreach programme, continues to raise awareness on the condition of diabetes in the region.

The Beat Diabetes campaign which was launched in 2010 and is supported by the Ministry of Health and the Oman Diabetic Association, incorporates a num-ber of free blood glucose testing camps conducted by Landmark Group across the Sultanate, says a press release.

The group along with its sup-port partners, Al Raff ah Hospi-tal, Johnson & Johnson (Muscat Pharmacy) will conduct the camps

in various key locations and com-panies from October till December across Muscat, Sohar and Salalah.

Diabetes is a condition, which af-fects more than 14.21 per cent of the population in Oman (as per 2014 IDF fi gures). Landmark Group, through this CSR programme, is working with Ministry of Health to bring out greater awareness on dia-betes in the Sultanate.

“Activities raising public aware-ness are essential tools towards prevention and control of diabe-tes and with eff ective participa-tion, the individuals are empow-ered to make informed decisions about living healthy and adopt-ing healthy lifestyles,” said Dr Sulaiman Al Shereiqi, a senior

specialist in public health from Ministry of Health.

“The Beat Diabetes Initiative from Landmark Group is an excel-lent model of public private part-nership; continuing for the fi fth year in a row, and raising public awareness about a growing prob-lem in this country. It will defi nite-ly have good health impact in the years ahead,” he added.

Dr Noor Al Busaidi, president of the Oman Diabetes Association commented, “Landmark Group’s initiative ‘Beat Diabetes’ has been supported by ODA for the fourth year and we are continuing to co-operate and partner with them to raise public awareness and help control diabetes.”

“I also need to highlight that the fi ght of diabetes epidemic does not stop at providing best quality care in hospitals but must include implementing comprehensive preventive measures. The ulti-mate awareness raising objective among all health stakeholders will include helping in developing the city plans to having enabling environment to promote walking and exercise, national strategies to control obesity, strategies pro-moting healthy eating and healthy lifestyle and the early detection of the disease. Working with the diff erent stakeholders, we can and we must control this growing problem,” she added.

Speaking on the initiative, Clive

Freeman, COO, Landmark Group-Oman, said: “Since the launch of the Beat Diabetes campaign in Oman, Landmark Group’s com-mitment towards this cause has only strengthened through the years. I advise the residents to at-tend these camps and get their blood glucose level checked by professionals from Al Raff ah hos-pital. They can also use this oppor-tunity to take medical advice about the condition.”

Landmark Group’s campaign is creating awareness about Dia-betes. In addition to the blood – glucose-testing camps, a variety of other events and activities are be-ing organised by them throughout the year.

‘ B E A T D I A B E T E S ’

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SECTIONC W E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 2 9, 2 0 14

NORMAN ALL PRAISE FOR NBO GOLF CLASSICOn the eve of the second edition of the National Bank of Oman Golf Classic, course designer Greg Norman sent his best wishes, saying: “I still regard The Wave as one of the fi nest golf courses we have created.” >C4

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E SICf thessic, nt ard

Sheikh Khalid leads stubborn Abu Dhabi challenge in Oman

MUSCAT: When the Oman In-ternational Rally will be fl agged tomorrow, all eyes will be on the region’s strongest team Abu Dhabi Racing Team, which will fi eld fi ve teams (Citroen DS3) in an attempt to buttress its regional supremacy.

Leading the charge will be sea-soned campaigner Sheikh Khalid bin Faisal Al Qassimi and co-driv-er Chris Patterson, who won the Abu Dhabi Rally two weeks ago.

However, the real strength of the team lies in four youngsters — Mo-hammed Al Mutawaa, Mansoor Bel Helei, Saeed Bin Towq and Juma Al Falasi — who have already carved a niche for themselves in the regional rally circuits. For the record, the foursome had an im-pressive outing in the Abu Dhabi Rally where Al Mutawaa fi nished fourth, Bel Helei came fi fth while Bin Touq notched a decent seventh place fi nish. As the Oman Interna-tional Rally, a candidate event for the Middle East Rally Champion-ship, is all set to begin tomorrow, meet the youngster who will pose a big challenge to the seasoned cam-paigners in the fray.

Big dreamTwenty-two-year-old Al Mutawaa began his tryst with motorsports just eight years ago. Though he had a natural inclination towards cars and motorbikes, the youngster never thought that he would be-come a rally driver. “I just followed my brother’s footsteps, and I became a rally driver. Now, I don’t think I can live with out this,” he said.

The turning point in Al Mu-tawaa’s career came when he was selected to Abu Dhabi Rac-ing’s young driver’s programme. “It changed my life forever, and helped me gain more skills and knowledge. I am really grateful to Abu Dhabi Racing,” he said.

The young driver, who comes to Oman with plenty of confi dence, says his goal now is to reach the peak of motorsports.

“I want to make use of all the op-portunities and work on myself in all the areas that form a successful driver, as the saying goes, ‘Go Big or Go Home’.”

Driver by chanceSaeed Bin Twaq hails from Dubai,

and it was a chance visit to a kart-ing track that ignited his passion for motorsports. “I took part in a karting race just for fun four years ago. But I performed well and it gave me the confi dence to involve in motorsports seriously,” revealed the 25-year-old driver.

Now the youngster feels proud

to be part of Abu Dhabi Racing and works hard to perform well in com-petitions. “It is a great honour to be part of Abu Dhabi Racing fam-ily and I will try my best to achieve good results in Oman and else-where,” he said.

The youngster, who will be driv-ing Citroen DS3 in Oman Inter-

national Rally, aims to take part in as many competitions as he can to make his country proud. “I want to achieve the best results for my country in all competitions,” he said.

Natural choiceRallying was a natural choice for Mansoor Ble Helei. “My father, Yahya Bel Helei, was a renowned rallyist in UAE. I grew up watching him winning the rallies and cele-brating in the podium. As a young-ster, I used to listen to comments from his crew and slowly began learning the tricks of the trade. I got the real taste of rally when I worked as a co-driver for my fa-ther in a rally in 2010. But frankly, I didn’t enjoy it because I felt I would be a better rally driver than a co-driver,” 22-year-old Bel Helei took a trip down the memory lane.

And the youngster didn’t mince words to thank Abu Dhabi Racing and Shiekh Khalid for grooming him as a rally driver. “I couldn’t de-scribe my feeling when Abu Dhabi Racing picked me for their young driver programme. As a young team, our aim is to get as much ex-

perience to improve our skills,” said the youngster, who will be driving Citroen DS3 with Khalid Al Kindi in the Oman International Rally.

Dream becomes realityAs an eight-year-old Juma Rashid Al Falasi dreamt of becoming a rally driver. And his passion was to collect racing car models and watching drivers in action. “I be-gan to learn the nuances following my fi rst visit to Dubai Autodrome in 2009. Later, I took part in kart-ing competitions in Al Ain Race-way and Al Forsan in Abu Dhabi to hone my skills,” he reminisced.

But the unforgettable day in Al Falasi’s life came when the Abu Dhabi Racing picked him for their young drivers programme. “Emo-tions overwhelmed me when they announced the results. It was the best day in my life.”

The 25-year-old, who aims to put up a good show in Oman, how-ever, wants to emerge as the best driver from the UAE.

“I want to win the top of the podium fi nish in the World Rally Championship,” he said.

Leading Abu Dhabi

Racing Team’s

charge at the Oman

International Rally

will be seasoned

campaigner Sheikh

Khalid Al Qassimi

and co-driver Chris

Patterson, who won

the Abu Dhabi Rally

two weeks ago

STRONG CONTENDERS: Young and highly talented drivers of the Abu Dhabi Racing Team looks set to make an impression in the Oman International Rally. – Supplied photo

My aim is to win in

Oman, but I would also

like to see our junior

team perform well

Sheikh Khalid Al QassimiAbu Dhabi Racing Team

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Kinshasa still rumbles with Ali-Foreman bout

KINHASA: The Tata Raphael stadium looks as though it has lost a few rounds against Muhammad Ali in the 40 years since it staged the greatest boxing fi ght in history.

The terraces, which were packed with 100,000 people for “The Rumble In The Jungle”, are falling apart. Water leaks into the gyms where Ali and George Fore-man trained for their epic fi ght.

But Kinshasa, capital of one of the poorest countries in the world, remains proud of having staged one of the most important sporting events of the 20th cen-tury on October 30, 1974.

Then the world was scared that Ali — aged 32 and fi ghting his way back to the top after his ban for refusing to fi ght in the US Army — would suff er a humiliating beat-ing by the fearsomely powerful George Foreman, the defending world champion.

Ali soaked up the pressure for seven rounds, taunting his op-ponent all the time, and then knocked him out in the eighth with a lightning right hook. Ali be-came a legend.

Now each day, dozens of men, women and children still train in the stadium. After work and school they practice hooks and simulate fi ghts, often without gloves and when they are still hungry. Stadi-um security chief Abdelaziz Sali-boko Serry took up boxing after watching Ali and Foreman.

“I was a good boxer but my father forced me to give up and study. I would still like to box, but I’m over 50 now so I can’t. I could have made a name like Muham-mad Ali,” he said.

Ali won the fi ght and also the hearts of the people of DR Congo, which was then known as Zaire.

“Ali was one of us. We consid-ered him a Zairean who was liv-ing in America. Foreman did not like contact with black people. He did not like this population and that was a factor in his defeat,” added Serry.

Guy Lioki, now 50 and a referee

in amateur boxing tournaments, twice came across Foreman — who had already aggravated the local population by arriving on his plane accompanied by two Ger-man Shepherd dogs which evoked memories of the brutal rule of their former colonial masters Belgium — before the fi ght when a child. “Foreman was too moody, even if he was black like us. He stayed with the important people and was really interested in the women,” he said.

Judex Tshibanda remembers Ali coming to box with the local children. “We tried to hit him. I got him once in the stomach,” said the 52-year-old who became a boxer himself and now trains young fi ghters.

Ali completely won the occa-

sion. Even his pre-bout quote de-riding Foreman, “Float like a but-terfl y, sting like a bee — his hands can’t hit what his eyes can’t see,” has gone down in sporting folklore.

Foreman was totally out of place while Ali, a divisive fi gure in the United States even though he became a symbol of the fi ght against segregation in his home-land, felt entirely at home.

Dictator’s GiftMobutu Sese Seko was the other key fi gure. He agreed to part fi -nance the bout organised by American promoter Don King. It was priceless global propaganda for the country’s dictator.

Posters put up across Kinshasa proclaimed “A gift from President Mobutu to the Zairiean people and an honour to the black man.”

Even the venue was then known as the May 20 Stadium after the date of the creation of Mobutu’s ruling party in 1967 and also played host to less welcome violence as opponents of the re-gime were tortured there.

The bout should have taken place in September, but had to be put back when Foreman injured a hand in training. A three day music festival featuring James Brown, BB King and Manu Diban-go had even been organised lead-ing up to the fi rst date.

While the stadium was packed to the rafters for the fi ght, Mobutu watched a special live television broadcast in his palace. The bout started at 4:00am local time so that US television channels could show it live.

“Ali boma ye” (Kill him Ali), the crowd chanted. The slogan in-spired Ali, even though his eff orts to repeat the phrase with his thick American accent caused hilarity among Zaireans.

“It was an extraordinary knock-out,” recalled Felix Mputu, 71, who had refereed some of the amateur fi ghts that preceded the Ali-Foreman duel.

Mputu believes Foreman lost because he was too physical. “He hit too hard!”

“That is not what boxing should be, there has to be the spectacle. Muhammad Ali is a stylist, a tech-nician,” said Mputu of the box-ing legend, now 72, who has been brought to his knees by Parkin-son’s disease. — AFP

Kinshasa, capital of one of the poorest

countries in the world, remains proud

of having staged one of the most important

sporting events of the 20th century

on October 30, 1974



RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE: This photo taken on October 30, 1974 shows the fi ght between US boxing

heavyweight champions, Muhammad Ali, left, (born Cassius Clay) and George Foreman in Kinshasa.

Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman in a clash of titans known as the “Rumble in the Jun-

gle”, watched by 60 000 people in the stadium in Kinshasa and millions elsewhere. – AFP

FROM THE FILES: In this photo

taken on October 29, 1974 US

heavy weight boxing cham-

pion George Foreman getures

during the weigh-in. – AFP

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SPORTSW E D N E S DAY, O CTO B E R 2 9, 2 0 14

Spin-hit Australia hope to bounce back in Abu DhabiABU DHABI: After failing anoth-er Asian spin test, Australia will strive to bounce back in the sec-ond and fi nal Test against Pakistan starting in Abu Dhabi tomorrow.

The world number two team were all at sea against an inex-perienced but eff ective Pakistan spin attack and suff ered a crushing 221-run defeat in the fi rst Test in Dubai. It was their fi fth consecutive fl op against spinners in Asia after being routed 4-0 in India last year.

Left-arm spinner Zulfi qar Ba-bar, playing only his third Test, fi nished with seven wickets in the match as did debutant leggie Yasir Shah.

Pakistan’s batsmen also had a fi eld day. Veteran Younis Khan

scored a century in each in-nings while Sarfraz Ahmed and Ahmed Shehzad chipped in with hundreds.

Pakistan will maintain that spin pressure as they look to win their fi rst Test series against Aus-tralia since beating them at home in 1994.

Australian captain Michael Clarke promised a fi ght back.

“Any time we lose a game it breeds fi re in your belly. We don’t like losing, Australians in general don’t like losing,” he said after on Sunday’s defeat.

“We got outplayed and Pakistan deserve a lot of credit for the way they played over the whole fi ve days. We know we can play a lot

better and look forward to show-ing that in the second Test match.”

Australia’s top order of David Warner, who hit a hundred in the fi rst Test, and Chris Rogers were steady. But the middle order, es-pecially Clarke and Alex Doolan, failed in both innings.

Clarke was confi dent runs would come in the second Test.

“I do have that confi dence. We

do have to fi nd a way though,” said the Australian skipper, who was the highest run-scorer in Tests in 2013 with 1,093.

Australia have the option of bringing in Glenn Maxwell, who can also bowl off -spin, for either Mitchell Marsh or Doolan.

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul Haq warned his team not to be com-placent against a tough Australian

team. “We have to make sure that we remain focused,” said Misbah. “We often get lazy and lose focus but we can’t aff ord this against a tough opponent like Australia, so we must keep that focus and achieve an important series win.”

If Pakistan win 2-0 they will jump to number three in the Test rankings, and Misbah called this a strong incentive.

“We have to keep in mind that if we win we achieve our fi rst series win for so many years and also get into the top three,” he said.

Teams (from): Pakistan: Misbah-ul Haq (capt), Ahmed Shehzad, Mohammad Ha-feez, Taufeeq Umar, Shan Masood,

Younis Khan, Asad Shafi q, Azhar Ali, Haris Sohail, Mohammad Tal-ha, Rahat Ali, Imran Khan, Ehsan Adil, Sarfraz Ahmed, Zulfi qar Ba-bar, Yasir Shah.

Australia: Michael Clarke (capt), David Warner, Chris Rog-ers, Alex Doolan, Steven Smith, Ben Hilfenhaus, Phillip Hughes, Brad Haddin, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Marsh, Mitchell John-son, Steve O’Keefe, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, James Faulkner, Nathan Lyon.

Umpires: Richard Ket-tleborough (ENG) and Nigel Llong (ENG)

TV umpire: Marais Erasmus (RSA), Match referee: Ranjan Madugalle (SRI). — AFP

T E S T P R E V I E W

It was Australia’s fifth straight flop against spinners

in Asia after being routed 4-0 in India last year

Keep focus on the straight ball, warns Lehmann

ABU DHABI: Australia’s bats-men need to concentrate as much on hitting the straight ball as wor-rying about movement when they face Pakistan’s spinners in the ongoing Test series, coach Darren Lehmann has said.

Australia, who topped the world rankings briefl y earlier this year, face the prospect of a fi rst se-ries defeat against Pakistan since 1994 after a 221-run loss in the fi rst of two Tests on Sunday.

Pakistan’s spinners Zulfi qar Babar and Yasir Shah took 14 wickets between them in Dubai, sometimes bamboozling the bats-men by skidding the ball straight on to the wickets when the Aus-tralians expected turn.

Conceding that they had been outplayed in the fi rst Test, Leh-mann refused to blame the wicket and laid into his players for their failure to play the conditions.

“I think this was a really good cricket wicket and we didn’t adapt

well enough and didn’t play well enough, simple as that,” he told reporters in Dubai.

“I think when you are talking about learning to play in these conditions ... we missed a lot of straight balls. I think fi ve or six dismissals throughout the game.

“We need to get better at actu-ally hitting straight balls, watch-ing the ball for a start.

“We need to be sharper,” he added. “A lot of wickets came from no spin, so maybe we’re trying to play for things that aren’t there.”

Of the Australian batsmen, only opener David Warner, who scored 133 in the fi rst innings, and Steve Smith, who hit 55 in the second as Australia were battling to avoid defeat, made serious inroads

into the Pakistan bowling. Australia will be keen to limit

the impact of Pakistan’s spin at-tack in the second test, which starts in Abu Dhabi tomorrow.

“We were again just disap-pointing with the bat, weren’t we? We’ve got to get through that and make big scores,” Lehmann added.

“One of the things we haven’t done on the sub-continent is make big, big scores.

“We should have made 450-500. At the end of the day Pakistan out-bowled us and out-played us.”

The defeat was a stark reminder of the 4-0 humiliation in India last year, the nadir of Australian crick-et in recent years which cost coach Mickey Arthur his job. — Reuters

Conceding that they

had been outplayed

in the fi rst Test,

Lehmann refused to

blame the wicket

A lot of wickets came

from no spin, so maybe

we’re trying to play for

things that aren’t there

Darren LehmannAustralian coach

Australia name

charity partner

for World Cup

MELBOURNE: The McGrath Foundation was Tuesday named as an offi cial charity partner in Australia for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.

The tournament returns to Australia and New Zealand in February and March for the fi rst time in 23 years.

According to an ICC release, the McGrath Foundation joins the ICC’s two global char-ity partners — THINK WISE, a joint initiative between ICC, UNAIDS and UNICEF which promotes awareness and un-derstanding about HIV; and Room to Read, which promotes literacy — as well as the local charity partner in New Zealand, the Cancer Society.

The McGrath Foundation was started 10 years ago out of the much publicised experience that Jane McGrath and three-time World Cup winner and Aussie pacer Glenn McGrath, had with breast cancer. — IANS

P A R T N E R S

ICC forced to clamp down on chuckingSYDNEY: International Cricket Council (ICC) chief executive Dave Richardson said Tuesday the game had reached the “straw that broke the camel’s back” with sus-pect bowling actions, forcing the governing body to launch its con-troversial crackdown on chucking.

Pakistan’s Saeed Ajmal, Sri Lanka’s Sachitra Senanayake and Zimbabwe’s Prosper Utseya are among those who have been banned since the ICC’s cricket committee in June recommend-ed sterner procedures to identify suspect actions. While some have welcomed the move, others have questioned the timing so soon before a World Cup, scheduled to be held in Australia and New Zea-land February 14-March 29.

Richardson, however, said that chucking had not only become an issue at the elite level but also at under-19 category and the ICC could not aff ord to wait until after their showpiece event.

“It was virtually nine months before the World Cup. If we decide that there’s something wrong with the game, why should we wait until after a World Cup?” Richardson was quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald.

“I think we’d reached that straw that broke the camel’s back. There were just too many bowl-ers starting to emerge that people were starting to worry about. I think it was simply that we said ‘no, this is far enough’. It’s argu-

able that we should have taken this kind of action earlier. That we can take on the chin.”

As a result of the ICC’s harder stance, umpires have become more confi dent in reporting sus-pect actions, who previously had fear of the ramifi cations on their career if a player was subsequent-ly cleared. “Over the years, some-times they felt like they were the ones being victimised for iden-tifying bowlers with suspect ac-tions,” Geoff Allardice, ICC’s gen-eral manager of cricket, said.

“The other thing that they want is a testing process or testing re-sults that match up with what their observations were on the fi eld. They’re the two things that go together to giving them the con-fi dence to express their views.”

The ICC is now looking to re-duce the period for Tests to be con-ducted on bowlers with suspect actions with testing now possible at four centres — Brisbane, Chen-nai, Cardiff or Loughborough.

Players are required to be test-ed after being reported from 21 days to 14 days. At the World Cup and other ICC events the period is seven days. “If you were report-ed in a World Cup for instance, you’d be straight off to the nearest testing facility, which we would have ready to go and the results would be fast-tracked. “I think getting tests arranged at shorter notice is a distinct possibility,” Allardice said. — IANS

N O L E N I E N C Y

C4


Ricardo ready to rock at NBO Golf Classic

Times News Service

MUSCAT: As the penultimate event of the European Challenge Tour season, the National Bank of Oman Golf Classic, to be organised at Almouj Golf at The Wave, Mus-cat from tomorrow, is a huge week for every player involved and Ri-cardo Gouveia is one of the many arriving in Muscat primarily fo-cussed on beating a path into next week’s season fi nale in Dubai.

According to the news posted on the offi cial website of the European Tour, the Portuguese has come from nowhere this season, turning professional less than four months ago before making an instant im-pression on the Challenge Tour by claiming a victory in just his sev-enth start at the EMC Golf Chal-lenge Open 2014 earlier this month.

That triumph has suddenly launched him into contention for

a place at the season-ending Dubai Festival City Challenge Tour Grand Final hosted by Al Badia Golf Club, while graduation to The European Tour is still within his sights.

Like so many others, a win this week would fast-track him to the highest echelon of European golf, but the talented 23-year-old is keen to avoid thinking too far ahead and is just happy to have put himself in this position in the fi rst place.

“It’s a big week here for every-one,” said Gouveia, who enjoyed a stellar amateur career in the Amer-ican collegiate ranks, having stud-ied at University of Central Florida. “My goal since winning has been just to make the top 45, but if I can-not do that, it’s not a big deal for me.

“That win in Rome took a lot of pressure off me and now I have a

category for the Challenge Tour for next year so in that case, it would be another year of golf at a good level and another year of experience.

“Of course, having played so well in the last month, I’m going to do whatever I can to force myself into that top 45 but there is no pressure on me to do that.

“I played really well in China last week (where he fi nished tied 12th) and a couple of errors cost me a re-ally good fi nish but I’m still in with a chance of top 45 and maybe with a good fi nish this week I can have a go at getting a European Tour card.”

Having played in front of big crowds at the Portugal Masters a week after his fi rst professional victory, Gouveia has been rid-ing the crest of a wave and now he looking forward to taking on

the Greg Norman-designed Al-mouj The Wave, this week’s venue which proved one of the most pop-ular of the season in 2013.

“I’ve been asking the guys about the course and they all say it’s one of the best we play on the Chal-lenge Tour,” he said. “It could get windy and that would make it tough but I’m looking forward to it.

“This form came out of nowhere for me because I was not perform-ing when I started on the Chal-lenge Tour and I was getting a bit down about it.

“But I kept fi ghting and I kept working and I knew if I did that the hard work was going to show at some stage. It would be amazing to continue playing like I am playing and maybe get a European Tour card but we’ll see.”

A win this week

would fast-track

Ricardo Gouveia to

the highest echelon

of European golf, but

the talented 23-year-

old is keen to avoid

thinking too far ahead

PLEASED: Norman said ‘The Wave one of the fi nest’ courses.

The players say

(Almouj) course is

one of the best we

play on the Challenge

Tour. And I’m looking

forward to play

Ricardo Gouveia

Norman all praise for NBO ClassicTimes News Service

MUSCAT: On the eve of the sec-ond edition of the National Bank of Oman Golf Classic, course de-signer Greg Norman sent his best wishes to everyone involved in the tournament, saying: “I still re-gard The Wave as one of the fi nest golf courses we have created any-where in the world.”

“I couldn’t have been more pleased to read all the accolades the tournament and the course received last year, particularly from the players. It was another fi rst for me to have had the privi-lege to design the only golf course to host a professional tourna-ment in Oman and in the GCC,” the Australian great was quoted as saying on the offi cial website of the European Tour.

“The Wave is a wonderful venue for the European Challenge Tour event. It’s situated in a spectacu-

lar setting on the shores of the ocean, with fi rst-class facilities. I’m sure this week will be another resounding success and I wish all involved a great week of golf.”

The Wave CEO Hawazen Es-ber, said: “It’s an exciting mile-stone for The Wave to be hosting its second National Bank of Oman Golf Classic at Almouj Golf.

“We are justly proud to be able to facilitate a world-class golfi ng ven-ue which can attract and challenge some of the best emerging young golfers in the world. Through the support of the NBO the tourna-ment has helped to position the country as one of the leading golf destinations in the region.”

The Wave General Manager Simon Duffi eld, added: “We are proud to host the second edition of the NBO Golf Classic. The feedback we received last year has inspired us all to make this an even better event this year.”

S E N D I N G B E S T W I S H E S

FRIENDI MOBILE CHALLENGER CUP DRAW HELDThe draw for the ninth edition of FRiENDi Mobile Challenger Cup, organised by Jazz Boys

Cricket Club, was held at Palm Restaurant in Al Khuwair recently with Adnan Al Alawi,

FRiENDi Mobile CEO, and Joseph Rajan, FRiENDi Mobile Brand Manager, and Anisha

Pervin of AFMNC presiding over the ceremony as guests of honour. The matches will be

played on two Fridays - October 31 and November 7 - at Al Ghubrah Power Plant lush green

grounds. The tournament is mainly sponsored by FRiENDi MOBILE, Cluttons, Al Hajiry

Group, Danube, AFMNC, The Body Shop and supported by Palm Restaurant. The fi rst-round

matches on October 31 will feature HCC vs Al Sulaimi Group (6.30 am), Muscat Rocks vs

Future CC (7.30 am), QAD vs Masters XI (8.30 am), Asfandyar XI vs National Gas (9.30 am),

AKCT Muscat vs Royal Challengers (10.30 am), Asian Brothers vs Rain Riders (1 pm), Ruwi

Kings vs Al Taher Aces (2 pm), and Royal Friends vs SS Friends (3 pm). — Supplied photo

C5

SPORTSW E D N E S DAY, O CTO B E R 2 9, 2 0 14

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Oman play friendlies ahead of Asian Beach Games

MUSCAT: The Oman national beach soccer team’s preparations for the forthcoming Asian Beach Games are in full swing with Talib Hilal Al Thanawi-coached side undergoing rigorous train-ing camps and playing a series of friendly matches.

The team, who recently trained in the United Arab Emirates, played two friendlies against their UAE counterparts.

They will now travel to Ma-nama to play two more matches against Bahrain. The matches are scheduled to be played on Novem-ber 1 and 2.

The Oman team comprises Haitham Harib, Mahmoud Al Khadhury, Yahya Al Araimi, Jalal Al Sinani, Munther Al Araimi,

Khalid Al Araimi, Yaqoub Rabie, Khaled Al Rajhi, Abdullah Al Bal-ushi, Ghaith Al Alawi, Isaac Al Qasimi and Hani Al Dhabit.

The Asian Beach Games will

take place in Phuket, Thailand, from November 14 to 21.

Meanwhile, coach Talib Hilal is scheduled to attend a Fifa organ-ised workshop in Dubai. Coaches

from Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Japan and Russia will also be tak-ing part in the workshop which is scheduled to take place on No-vember 8 and 9.

B E A C H G A M E S

Udayachandran, Aadi in semis

MUSCAT: Udayachandran S and Aadi Srivastava powered themselves for a semifi nal show-down in the under-10 section at the Villeroy & Boch + Hansgrohe Open Table Tennis Tournament organised by the Indian Social Club Muscat.

Udayachandran and Aadi were ruthless as both sailed into the semifi nals with comfortable victories. While top seed Uday-achandran coasted to a 11-2, 11-2, 11-5 victory over Shayaan Tan-veer, Aadi was in full fl ow and showed no mercy on the way to a comprehensive 11-0, 11-5, 11-2 win over Manvi Sarawanan.

In other quarterfi nals of the same event, second seed Vedanth Bahirat had to fi ght hard for a place in the last four after record-ing a 15-13, 7-11, 11-7, 11-8 victory over the determined Alina Desai.

Aditya Sairam lined up a semi-fi nal meeting with Vedanth after

rallying from a game down to score a hard-fought 5-11, 11-5, 11-6, 8-11, 11-6 victory over Arjun Sriram.

Earlier in the under-10 singles, Shayaan Tanveer had prevailed over Kavineshwar 11-6, 7-11, 12-10, 11-7, Aadi Srivastava defeated Shweta Ganesh 11-3, 11-3, 11-1 Arjun Sriram was impressive in his 11-8, 11-8, 11-6 win over Shi-vam K and Alina Desai downed Mahwish Mujtaba 11-6, 11-9, 11-7.

In the girls under-13 singles, Alina Desai advanced after de-feating Saachi Sheldenkar 11-9, 11-8, 11-5, Hima Shah struggled in the fi rst game but overcame Rhea Simon 13-11, 11-4, 11-8 and Manvi Sarawanan beat Malaviya Dimple 11-2, 11-6, 11-3.

Anaum Akhtar downed Mah-wish Mujtaba 11-4, 11-9, 11-5, Khushi Shah prevailed over Ma-nasi Ramesh 11-8, 11-1, 11-3 and Smrithi Natan beat Devanshi Savaliya 11-5, 11-4, 11-4.

I S C T A B L E T E N N I S

Participants in the under-10 competition pose for a group photo.

FANJA STAY TOP, AL KHABOURAH SHOCK CHAMPIONS AL NAHDAFanja blanked Bauhser 2-0 at the Sultan Qaboos Sports

Complex yesterday to stay top of the Omantel Profes-

sional League with 14 points. But close on their heels are

Al Arouba (13 points) after routing Seeb 3-0. Al Kha-

bourah shocked defending champions Al Nahda 3-0. Al

Khabourah (11) moved to fourth behind Al Shabab (11)

while Al Nahda (10) slipped to fi fth. In another match, So-

har edged Al Musannah 1-0. — ISMAIL AL FARSI/Times of Oman

Chennai rout Mumbai

CHENNAI: Chennaiyin FC mar-quee player Elano Blumer and John Mendoza fi red two goals each to steamroll a hapless Mum-bai FC 5-1 and bounce back from their previous match defeat in the Indian Super League (ISL) here yesterday.

Brazilian Elano, with his two goals (ninth and 69th minutes) yesterday, became the highest

goal scorer in the ISL and was adjudged the hero of the match, while Colombian Mendoza scored the third and fourth goals (40th and 44th).

In between, Indian striker Jeje Lalpekhlua netted the second goal for Chennaiyin FC in the 26th minute. For Mumbai, Syed Ra-him Nabi scored the consolation goal in the 87th minute follow-ing a corner kick. In fact, Elano,

who found the target from the penalty spot and from a free-kick, could have scored on two other occasions also.

Chennaiyin FC manager-cum-player and 2006 World Cup win-ner Marco Materrazi took the fi eld for the fi rst time in the ISL and the home side controlled for most part of the match against the visitors who has lost their previ-ous match at home at the hands of

NorthEast United FC. With Materrazi coming out to

the huge delight of the Chennai fans, the home side showed bet-ter co-ordination and cohesion in both attack and defence than against Delhi Dynamos, who had thrashed them 4-1 in their previ-ous match in the national capital.

Indian cricket captain and co-owner of Chennaiyin FC, Mahen-dra Singh Dhoni was seen celebrat-ing at each goal scored by his team.

Former France and Chelsea star Nicholas Anelka’s presence did not bring any change to the fortunes of the Mumbai side who have now lost three matches out of the four they have played so far.

Anelka was playing for the fi rst time for Mumbai City FC as he was serving a fi ve-match ban by Football Association in England for a gesture in December while playing for West Bromwich Albion in the English Premier League. - PTI

Brazilian Elano

and Colombian

Mendoza scored two

goals each while

Indian striker Jeje

Lalpekhlua netter

one in Chennaiyin’s

dominant display

DOUBLE DELIGHT: Chennaiyin FC’s Elano Blumer celebrates after

scoring a goal against Mumbai City FC during their Indian Super

League match in Chennai yesterday. – PTI



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Samar storms into semifinals

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Local lass Samar Al Bakry trounced Aanchal Ram to storm into the girls under-18 semifi nals of the Oman Arab Bank (OAB) Open Tennis Champion-ships, organised by the Oman Ten-nis Association, at the Sultan Qa-boos Sports Complex.

The rising Omani talent Samar pulverised Aanchal Ram for a 6-0, 6-0 victory before booking a berth in the last four.

In the boys section of the un-der-18 competition, Tim Ru-therford, Barnaby Myers and Vendath Ram advanced with con-trasting victories.

Vedanth led the way into the quarterfi nals with a stunning 6-0, 6-0 win over Ali Al Sharhani.

Tim conceded three games in his straight sets 6-1, 6-2 win over YashTanna while Barnaby thwart-ed a late challenge by Eyad Al Khanjari for a 6-2, 5-7, 10-7 verdict.

Lula al Riyami, another Omani talent, entered the under-10 (uni-sex) quarterfi nals edging Toby Al Riyami 9-7.

Lula’s compatriot Abdullah Al Barwani, meanwhile, made it to the boys under-14 quarterfi nals. The Omani boy overcame Ethan Maclure for a 6-4, 6-3 win and a place in the last eight.

In the boys under-12 category, Tareq Al Husseini continued his winning run when he eased past Ayaan Malhotra for a 9-2 win and a place in the quarterfi nals.

Also advancing to the last eight stage of the same event are Has-san Haider and PiyushSivakusnar. Hassan Haidern booked his place after defeating Ribhav Singh 9-1

while Piyush went through with a 9-2 win over Abdullah Al Raisi.

Fawaz shocks top seedFawaz Al Mandhari created an up-

set when he defeated top seed Drar Antar in the men’s B singles. Fawaz overcame a late challenge from Drar for a 6-1, 6-4 win and as a re-sult booked a place in the last 16.

Jodhbir Singh, Tomoki Nishino and Abbas Haider also moved into the last 16. Jodhbir defeated You-nis al Naamani 6-2, 6-4, Tomoki blanked Mohammed Al Amry 6-0, 6-0 while Abbas downed Aiman al Ghawari by same 6-0, 6-0 margin.

Yauhene Ivanou entered the second of the same event when he defeated Khalid Al Raisi 6-0. 6-0

Meanwhile, the three of the quarterfi nals were spotted in the men’s doubles.

The pairings of Abdullah Al Yahyaei and Khalid Ikram, Imran Khan and Bruno Van Begin, and Ariel Baldidinio and RuelLeopar-dos moved into the last eight.

Abdullah and Khalid defeated Nikhil Sampath and Sam Jesuraj 6-2, 6-3. Imran and Bruno beat Brian Majucha and Simon B 6-2, 6-2 and Ariel and Ruel won 6-3, 7-5 against Rohan and Karan Negi.

The annual championship, one of the biggest events to be organ-ised by Oman Tennis Association with participation of 260 players in various categories, runs till No-vember 26 and is supported by one of country’s leading banks, Oman Arab Bank, as the title sponsored and co-sponsored by Omantel and Pocari Sweat.

Samar, the rising

Omani talent,

pulverised Aanchal

Ram before booking a

berth in the last four

of the girls under-18

competition

OMANI TALENTS: Fawaz Al Mandhari, left, and Samar Al Bakry in action in the men’s B singles and girls under-18 competitions at the

Oman Arab Bank Open Tennis Championships at Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex in Bausher. – FAISAL AL BALUSHI/OTA

MUSCAT: The Oman Tennis Association (OTA) will host an ITF-Olympic Solidarity coach-ing beginner and intermediate tennis players course from October 29.

The 11-day course, being or-ganised with the support from Olympic Solidarity and Oman Olympic Committee, will be conducted by the ITF expert Amir Borghei and OTA’s Siddiq Al Hashmi as the tutors.

OTA Executive Manager Salman Al Balushi and Direc-tor of Olympic Solidarity Hichem Al Adwani will be the course managers.

Amir Borghei said the course

is a regional course for the West Asia region and will be conducted in two phases.

The fi rst phase, which runs for three days and is called “Play Tennis”, will be dedicated

to teaching on how to coach the children and the newcomers and it will be followed by the main course.

“Basically it will be a combi-nation of a workshop and the main course,” he said.

The course has attracted eight participants from the UAE, Qatar, Iraq and Yemen as well as a large number of Omani participants.

“It is very encouraging to see that 37 local participants have registered for the course,” he said.

“After the fi rst phase, 24 par-ticipants will be selected for the main course,” he added.

OTA to organise ITF coaching course

Amir Borghei

OEF HOSTS SEASON’S FIRST SHOWJUMPING EVENTThe Oman Equestrian Federation (OEF) will organise the fi rst showjumping competition

of the 2014-2015 season with the participation of 65 horses at Al Rahba Farm in Barka.

The teams were divided into four groups. In the 26-strong Class D competition, Royal Cal-

vary’s Mohammed Al Hadrami astride Renard took top honours in a time of 63 seconds.

Jamal Humaid (65.53 secs) and Khalfan Al Hattali (72.10 secs) fi nished second and third

respectively. In the Category C, Royal Calvary’s Madeen Al Yousifi won fi rst place in 71.25

seconds while in B category, Mohammed Al Hadrami, also from Royal Calvary, clinched

the fi rst place in 68.35 seconds. — Supplied photo

Robredo rumbles on as Verdasco stuns Simon

PARIS: Spanish veteran Tom-my Robredo survived a fi rst round scare at the Paris Mas-ters yesterday before prevailing 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7/5) over Canada’s Vasek Pospisil.

Former world No. 5 Robredo was evidently feeling the eff ects of reaching the fi nal of the Va-lencia Open on Sunday where he was beaten by Andy Murray in the longest fi nal of the year.

Now ranked 17 in the ATP rankings, the popular 32-year-old has reached three fi nals this sea-son but lost them all as a 13th ca-reer title continues to elude him.

Pospisil, who came into the week ranked 54, rained down 13 aces against Robredo’s one, and led 4-2 in the third set be-fore painfully falling at the fi nal hurdle. Robredo seized a 6-3 ad-vantage in the decisive third set tie-break and squandered two of them before Pospisil hit long to end the match.

Robredo now plays Japanese sixth seed Kei Nishikori in the second round.

French hopes were badly dented when 15th seed Gilles Simon, crashed out in the sec-ond round against Spaniard Fernando Verdasco. The world No. 33 broke in the fi nal game to outlast Simon 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in one hour and 53 minutes.

Verdasco will now play either former champion and last year’s fi nalist David Ferrer or Belgian talent David Goffi n.

The 23-year-old Goffi n over-powered Czech Republic world No. 29 Lukas Rosal 6-4, 6-3.

Jeremy Chardy edged com-patriot and qualifi er Kenny De Schepper 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/4) in a battle of Frenchmen.

Chardy’s reward is a second round match against Swiss leg-end Federer who has a bye after winning his sixth Basel crown on Sunday and 82nd ATP tour-nament. - AFP

P A R I S M A S T E R S

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COMSECTIONC W E D N E S DAY, O CTO B E R 2 9, 2 0 14

T he old bike leans against a wall of a modest house in Meeuen, a small village in the middle of Holland’s farm country. A front

wheel is missing, the frame is streaked with rust and the lime-green paint is faded and scratched.

But Marianne Vos will never get rid of that old bike. She won her fi rst-ever race on it — the start of a career which has made her the most successful woman cyclist on the planet.

Today at 27, Marianne has won every major women’s road race, has i2 world titles and two Olympic golds. Last year she won 40 races (her male counterpart Mark Cavendish won 21) bringing her career total to more than 300.

Yet her only indulgence is a silver BMW. She still lives in Meeuwen with her parents and her brother Anton, a photographer and a black and white cat named Sjekkie. Her world and national championship medals from cyclecross, road and track, fi ll a tea-chest in the corner of her bedroom, but she rarely looks at them.

“What I do is not about trophies,” Marianne says. “It’s about that fantastic feeling when you cross the line. There’s nothing compared to that feeling. It’s not about medals or world champion-ships. It’s about the life and how great it is to be able to travel the world and do every day what you like most.

“There’s more to my life than being Olympic champion because the next day you’re still Olympic champion but it’s also just another normal day. I never look at that box of trophies because I’m always having fun on the bike and fo-cusing on the next goal.”

Marianne began cycling with her brother at six and rode her first race at eight on the bike now propped against her wall. She astonished her coaches with her speed and endur-ance and in 2002 at 15 she turned professional to become Dutch junior mountain bike champion, and world champion two years later.

Turning to road and track in 2006, Marianne became the fi rst woman world champion in road, track and cy-clecross racing.”I had always been shy as a schoolgirl and I found in the bike a way to excel and get recognised, “Mari-anne says. “I had found something I was

LIFE & STYLE

At 27, Marianne Voshas won every majorwomen’s road race, has12 world titles and twoOlympic golds. Last year she won 40 races bringing her career total to more than 300

really good at. I don’t know what would have happened to me otherwise.

“When I started racing I didn’t re-ally think about whether I would be suc-cessful and couldn’t imagine I would do what I have. When I started, women’s cycling wasn’t such a big sport and there weren’t many female profession-als back then.”

As a schoolgirl, Marianne wanted to be a doctor but all that changed with cy-cling success and soon she was a famil-iar fi gure at major races, arms thrown high, face hidden behind sunglasses as she stormed across the fi nishing line.

Today, whenever possible she heads back to the tiny village of her childhood and the house she bought for her par-ents next to a white windmill. It’s much the same as its neighbours. Inside are stacks of cycling magazines and Mari-anne’s mother Connie, a former sec-retary, is busy with the family lunch — beef and gravy, red cabbage spiced with cinnamon and potatoes.

“I worry that she doesn’t eat enough,” Connie says of her daughter. “She burns up so much energy and there have been times that I have worried that the pres-sure is too much.”

“It’s true that after you win it’s hard to fi nd the motivation to do it all over again. You just have to keep fi nding new goals and setting yourself new challeng-es” says the girl who has been a cycling legend for more than a decade.

“There are new young riders coming up and of course the pressure is high. You can only control certain things — like at the London Olympics (where she won gold) it was pouring with rain and it meant you could crash or have a fl at tyre but you mustn’t let yourself worry about things you can’t control.

“Of course you talk to other riders and understand their mindset and how they react in stressful situations. It’s important to understand how members of your team react in certain situations

“And you’ve got to be aware that you’re only human! Physically I’m now at a level where I can’t gain that many more per cent of power — I can improve a little more, but it’s marginal. Once you reach the top it gets harder to stay there.

“I’m always looking round at the other girls at the start of a race and thinking that they all look so strong and their teams are impressive and ask my-self; ‘Am I good enough?’ Maybe that’s strange after all I’ve won but I also think it keeps me sharp and motivated and fo-cused on the job I have to do.”

Although she wins with machine-like regularity, the girl who looks more like a ballerina than an athlete says she gets nervous like everyone else. She can’t forget the fi ve frustrating years fi nishing second in the world champi-onship road race.

“I was really worried that Lizzie Armitstead would beat me in the sprint — she was riding really strongly. In the end it was all down to the sprint and I managed to do it. — Tony James

C8

EXTRAW E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 2 9, 2 0 1 4

The belief in the power of positive thinking, expressed with varying degrees of so-phistication, informs eve-rything from affi rmative

pop anthems like Katy Perry’s Roar to the Mayo Clinic’s suggestion that you may be able to improve your health by eliminating “negative self-talk.”

But the truth is that positive thinking often hinders us. More than two dec-ades ago, I conducted a study in which I presented women enrolled in a weight-reduction program with several short, open-ended scenarios about future events — and asked them to imagine how they would fare in each one. Some of these scenarios asked the women to imagine that they had successfully completed the programme; others asked them to imagine situations in which they were tempted to cheat on their diets. I then asked the women to rate how positive or negative their re-sulting thoughts and images were.

A year later, I checked in on these women. The results were striking — The more positively women had imag-ined themselves in these scenarios, the fewer pounds they had lost.

My colleagues and I have since per-formed many follow-up studies, ob-serving a range of people, including children and adults; residents of diff er-ent countries (the United States and Germany); and people with various kinds of wishes — college students wanting a date, hip-replacement pa-tients hoping to get back on their feet, graduate students looking for a job, schoolchildren wishing to get good grades. In each of these studies, the results have been clear — Fantasis-ing about happy outcomes — about smoothly attaining your wishes — didn’t help. Indeed, it hindered people from realising their dreams.

Why doesn’t positive thinking work the way you might assume? As my col-leagues and I have discovered, dream-ing about the future calms you down, measurably reducing systolic blood pressure, but it also can drain you of the energy you need to take action in pur-suit of your goals.

In a 2011 study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psy-chology, we asked two groups of college students to write about what lay in store for the coming week. One group

was asked to imagine that the week would be great. The other group was just asked to write down any thoughts about the week that came to mind. The students who had positively fan-tasised reported feeling less energised than those in the control group. As we later documented, they also went on to accomplish less during that week.

Fooling ourselvesPositive thinking fools our minds into perceiving that we’ve already attained our goal, slackening our readiness to pursue it. Some critics

of positive thinking have advised peo-ple to discard all happy talk and “get real” by dwelling on the challenges or obstacles. But this is too extreme a correction. Studies have shown that this strategy doesn’t work any better than entertaining positive fantasies.

What does work better is a hybrid approach that combines positive think-ing with “realism.” Here’s how it works. Think of a wish. For a few minutes, imagine the wish coming true, letting your mind wander and drift where it will. Then shift gears. Spend a few more minutes imagining the obstacles that stand in the way of realising your wish.

This simple process, which my col-leagues and I call “mental contrast-ing,” has produced powerful results in laboratory experiments. When par-ticipants have performed mental con-trasting with reasonable, potentially attainable wishes, they have come away more energised and achieved better results compared with par-ticipants who either positively fanta-sized or dwelt on the obstacles.

When participants have performed mental contrasting with wishes that are not reasonable or attainable, they

have disengaged more from these wishes. Mental contrasting spurs us on when it makes sense to pursue a wish, and lets us abandon wishes more read-ily when it doesn’t, so that we can go after other, more reasonable ambitions.

In a recent study on healthy eating and exercise, we divided participants into two groups. Members of one group engaged in mental contrasting and then performed a planning exercise designed to help them overcome what-ever obstacles stood in their way. Four months later, members of this group were working out twice as long each week as the control group and eating considerably more vegetables. In other studies, we found that people who en-gaged in mental contrasting recovered from chronic back pain better, behaved more constructively in relationships, got better grades in school and even man-aged stress better in the workplace.

Positive thinking is pleasurable, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for us. Like so much in life, attaining goals requires a balanced and moderate approach, nei-ther dwelling on the downsides nor a forced jumping for joy. - Gabriele Oettingen/The

New York Times News Service

MANY PEOPLE THINK THAT THE KEY

TO SUCCESS IS TO CULTIVATE AND DOGGEDLY MAINTAIN

AN OPTIMISTIC OUTLOOK

THE

TROUBLE

WITH

POSITIVE

THINKING

LAURENCE J. Peter, who was a Canadian educator, said, “If two wrongs don’t make a right, try three.”

We have been looking at deals with two potential trump suits, not three.

By far the best analysis of the subject was written by Albert Morehead for his book, “Morehead on Bidding.” This was updated by Alan Truscott and your Present Author under the title “On Bidding.” It was an easy job because it was such a good book. Sadly, it has been out of print for years, but maybe you can fi nd a copy online.

In today’s deal, the problem is not locating the best trump fi t, but landing in a game contract that can be made.

North-South have only one eight-card fi t. Five diamonds, though, can be defeated if East establishes his club trick quickly. Then the defenders will take two hearts and one club.

Reaching a 4-3-fi t contract is always diffi cult. Here, South’s three-heart cue-bid asks North to bid three no-trump with a heart stopper. When North cannot oblige, he shows three-card spade support. (With four spades, he would have raised on the previous round.) Then South, with such strong spades, goes with the 4-3 fi t, the only game that cannot be defeated.

West leads the heart three. East takes two tricks in the suit and -- best -- plays a third round.

Ruffi ng this trick will be fatal unless the trumps are breaking 3-3. Instead, South discards a club. If East either plays a fourth heart or shifts to the club king, declarer can win, draw trumps and claim.

— By Phillip Alder

C9

ENTERTAINMENT

Survival might be the top priority

B I G N A T E

B O R N L O S E R

M A R M A D U K E

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

C I N E M A S C H E D U L E

K I D S P O T H E A L T H C A P S U L EC R O S S W O R D

Ans

wer

to p

revi

ous

puzz

le

WITH LOVE7 1 3 8 2 1 4 4 6 5 9 7

1 3 7 5 2 2 3 5 1 9

8 6 3 2 6 5 9 3 8 3 4 2 6

6 9 3 8 4 7 5 2 1 2 5 4 6 9 1 7 3 8 7 1 8 3 5 2 9 4 6

4 7 6 9 1 3 8 5 2 9 8 2 5 7 4 1 6 3 1 3 5 2 6 8 4 7 9

8 6 9 4 3 5 2 1 7 3 4 1 7 2 9 6 8 5 5 2 7 1 8 6 3 9 4

Previous puzzle Solution

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

S U D O K U

W E D N E S DAY, O CTO B E R 2 9, 2 0 14

Send us a colour photograph of the child (below 16 years) whose birthday you are

celebrating, along with his/her full name, date of birth, address, telephone number

and parents’/your name to Times of Oman, With Love, PO Box 770, PC 112, Ruwi

or through e-mail to [email protected]

REHAAN PRIJUOctober 29, 2011

RISHABH PAIOctober 29, 2007

MIHIKA SARAFOctober 29, 2007

RACEJA VELAVANOctober 30, 2003

NANDUOctober 29, 2009

GAURANG PAIOctober 29, 2007

HIRANMAYEEOctober 29, 2004

ABRAHAM BAIJUOctober 29

22 Wild guess23 Companion25 House buzzer26 Mountain goat27 Retina cell28 Get fresh30 Bikini halves31 Ms. Hagen of fi lms34 Waning35 Chip brand

37 Bagel centers38 Foul smells39 Pub orders40

“Fancy” singer41 Bard’s river42 Diamond corner44 Kind of reaction45 Dress part46 Constantly, to Poe47 Tackle a slope

ACROSS 1 Paramount rival 4 Wobbles, as a

rocket 8 Brass component12 Cranberry

growing site13 Layered cookie14 Diva’s rendition15 Made shorter17 Collars a crook18 Vendetta19 Get the suds out20 Headache, so to

speak23 Cobbler kin24 Kind of insurance25 Silk and linen29 Boise’s st.30 Male elephants32 Python or wrap33 “With — — and

justice for all”35 Hubble

component36 Moo companion37 Some April 1

stories39 Haik wearers42 Trunk or torso

43 Name in blue jeans

44 Rainwear48 Deep black49 Software buyer50 Mouse alert51 Did karaoke52 Ms. Harper53 CAT scan relative

DOWN 1 Exec’s degree 2 Dollop 3 Ball club VIP 4 Matterhorn echo 5 Take part in a

dispute 6 Dandelion, to

many 7 Pregrown lawn 8 More wacky 9 Persia, in modern

times10 Robins’ bills11 Inspect the joint16 In that case (2

wds.)19 Curved bones20 Flag down21 Autobahn vehicle

BAHJA CINEMA

STARS CINEMA

Film Information - 24540856 / Advance Booking - 24540855Website: www.albahjacinemaoman.com

For More Information 24789032, 24786776 Website: www.isurf.co.om

Film information 24791641 / 24786776

Fury (Action / War) Cast: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman2:45, 7:00, 9:30 & 11:5pmCP No: 2125 (12+) Happy New Year (Action / Comedy) Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan12:15, 3:30, 7:00 & 10:30pm CP No: 2123 (PG) The Boxtrolls (Animation / Adventure / Comedy) Voice Overs: Ben Kingsley, Jared Harris, Nick Frost1:00 & 5:15pm

Happy New Year (Action / Comedy) Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan9:30pm at Cinema Main, 3:45 & 6:45pm at Cinema 3 Kaththi (Tamil) (Action)Cast: Vijay Chandrasekhar, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Neil Nitin Mukesh3:00 & 6:15 at Cinema Main, 9:30pm Cinema 2, 9:45pm Cinema 3, 9:45pm Cinema 4 Rajadhi Raja (Mal) (Act/Drama)Cast: Mammootty, Lakshmi Rai3:45 & 6:45 pm at Cinema 4Sapthama Sree Thaskaraha (Mal) (Act\Com)Cast: Prithvi Raj & Asif Ali3:30 & 6:30pm at Cinema 2NEXT CHANGE: Money Ratnam (Mal) Poojai (Tamil)

Happy New year (2D) (Action | Comedy) (PG12) Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan 12:00, 3:30, 7:00, 10:30 pm The Boxtrolls (3D) (Animation | Adventure) (PG) Voice Overs: Ben Kingsley, Jared Harris, Nick Frost12:15, 3:15, 5:00 pm Once in Life Time (2D) (Drama) (PG) Cast: Salem al amry, Ashref almsheky, Mubarak almasheny6:45pm Kite (2D) (Action | Drama) (15+) Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, India Eisley, Callan McAuliff e1:30, 8:15, 10:00, 11:45 pm Left Behind (2D) (Action | Sci Fi) (PG12) Cast: Nicolas Cage, Lea Thompson, Cassi Thomson7:15 pm

Fury (2D) (Action | Drama) (15+) Cast: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman2:15, 4:45, 9:15, 11:45 pm

Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, India Eisley, Callan McAuliff e1:30, 5:45 & 10:00 pm Fury (2D) (Action/Drama/War) (15+)Cast: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman3:15, 7:30 & 11:45pmGold Class: 2:30 & 5:00pm The Boxtrolls (3D)(Animation/Adventure) (PG)Voice Overs: Ben Kingsley, Jared Harris, Nick Frost10:15am, 2:00 & 3:45pm Love, Roise (2D)(Drama/Mystery/Thriller) (18+)Cast: Lily Collins, Sam Clafl in, Art Parkinson5:30pm Left Behind (2D)(Action/Sci-Fi/Thriller) (PG12)Cast: Nicolas Cage, Lea Thompson, Cassi Thomson12:00pm

Happy New Year(Action/Comedy) (PG12)Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan10:00am, 7:30 & 11:00pmGold Class: 11:00am, 7:30 & 11:00pm Kite (2D) (Action/Drama) (15+)

Screen 1

Happy New Year (Hindi) (Action |Romance | Drama) (PG 12 ) Cast: Shahrukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Deepika Padukone3.30, 7.00, 10.30pm

Screen 2

Bang Bang (Action/ Romance ) (PG)Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Katrina Kaif3.45, 6.45, 9.45

Left Behind – 2D (PG12) (Action | Sci-Fi | Thriller)Cast: Nicolas Cage, Lea Thompson7:15pm

Kite – 2D (15+) (Action | Drama) Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, India Eisley, Callan McAuliff e3.30 , 6.30 , 8.45 , 11.30 pm

Kaththi – 2D (T) (PG12) (Action)Cast: Vijay Chandrasekar, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Neil Nitin Mukesh8:30pm

Happy New Year – 2D (PG12) (Action | Comedy | Drama)Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan3.15 , 5.15 , 8.15 , 10.30pm

Fury – 2D (15+) (Action | Drama | War)Cast: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman4.45 , 9.15, 11.45pm

The Boxtrolls – 3D (PG) (Animation | Adventure | Comedy)Voice Overs: Ben Kingsley, Jared Harris, Nick Frost 3:00 & 4:45pm

Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn – 2D (TBC) (Action | Adventure | Drama)Cast: Val Kilmer, Katherine McNamara,

Enemies Closer (Act | Thriller) (PG12)Cast: Tom Everett Scott, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Orlando Jones3:30, 6:45, 11:30 pmHappy New Year (Act | Com ) (PG 12)Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan5:15, 8:15, 11:00 pmFury (Action | Drama | War) (15+)Cast: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf,3:45, 8:30, 11:45 pmLeft Behind ( Sci-Fi | Thriller) (PG12)Cast: Nicolas Cage, Lea Thompson, Cassi Thomson6:15 pmThe Boxtrolls - 3D (Animation ) (PG)Voice Overs: Ben Kingsley, Jared Harris, Nick Frost3:15, 5:00 pmKaththi (Action) (PG 12)Cast: Vijay Chandrasekar, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Neil Nitin Mukesh8:15 pm

Happy New Year (Action |Drama | Comedy) (PG12) Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan7:00, 10:30pmKaththi (Tamil) (Action) (PG12) Cast: Vijay Chandrasekar, Samantha Ruth

The Boxtrolls (3D/PG) (Animation)Voice Overs: Ben Kingsley, Jared Harris10:45am, 12:30pmKite (2D/15+) (Action/Drama)Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, India Eisley2:15, 10:00, 11:45pmFury (2D/15+ (Action/Drama/War)Cast: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf2:30, 9:15, 11:45pmThe Mule (Border Run) (2D/15+) (Crime)Cast: Sharon Stone, Promise LaMarco5:45pmTom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn (2D/PG) (Action/Adventure/Drama)Cast: Val Kilmer, Katherine McNamara 12:45, 7:30pmLove, Rosie (2D/18+) (Com/Romance)Cast: Lily Collins, Sam Clafl in5:00pmHappy New Year (2D/PG12) (Act)Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan10:45am, 2:15, 4:00, 7:30, 11:00pmKaththi (2D/PG12) (Action)Cast: Vijay Chandrasekhar, Samantha Ruth Prabhu; 7:00pm

Prabhu, Neil Nitin Mukesh8:30pmFury (Action | Drama | War) (15+) Cast: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman4:30, 11:30 pmThe Boxtrolls (3D) (Animation | Adventure | Com) (PG)Voice Overs: Ben Kingsley, Jared Harris, Nick Frost5:00, 6:45 pm

Screen 3

Haider (Action | Drama) (18+ )Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Kay Kay Menon, Shraddha Kapoor3.45, 6.45, 9.45 pm

Jake T. Austin3.30 , 6.45 pm

The Berlin File – 2D (TBC) (Action | Drama | Thriller)Cast: Jung-woo Ha, Suk-kyu Han11:45 pm

C10

FIND-IT-ALLW E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 2 9, 2 0 1 4

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

HOSPITALSAl Amal Medical & Health Care Centre: 24485052Atlas Hospital: Ruwi: 24811743/ Ghubra: 24504000Al Musafi r Specialised Medical Clinic: 24706453Hatat Polyclinic LLC,Ruwi: 24563641, Azaiba: 24499269, Sohar: 2683006Al Raff ah Hospital: 24618900/1/2Al Massaraat Clinic & Laboratory: 24566435Al Makook Medical Coordinance Centre: 24499434Apollo Medical Centre, Hamriya: 24787766, 24787780Capital Polyclinic: 24707549Badr Al Samaa Polyclinic, Ruwi: 24799760/1/2Capital Clinic, Seeb: 24420740Ceregem National Raak: 24485633Dr Harub’s Clinic: 24563217Elixir Health Centre: 24565802Emirates Medical Centre: 246045401st Chiropractic Centre: 24472274Hamdan Hospital: 23212340International Medical Centre LLC: 24794501/2/3/4/5Kims Oman Hospital: 24760100

24 Hrs Emergency: 24760123Lama Polyclinic, Sohar: 26751128, MBD: 24799077, Al Khuwair: 24478818Magrabi Eye and Ear Hospital: 24568870Muscat Private Hospital: 24583600Welcare Diagnostic and Treatment Centre, Al Khuwair: 24477666Al-Hayat Polyclinc LLC: 22004000

ROYAL OMAN POLICEEmergencies and inquiries: 9999General Directorate of Passport and Residence: 24569603Directorate General of Customs: 24521109Traffi c violations inquiries: 24510228Public Relations Admin: 24560099

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

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

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

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

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

W E A T H E R

OMAN

Max 38Min 31

Max 33Min 25

Max 32Min 24

Max 37Min 24

Max 35Min 26Max 36

Min 20

Max 36Min 22

Max 34 Min 23

Clear to partly cloudy skies over most of the Sultanate governorates becoming cloudy skies over the southeastern coasts with chances of isolated rain. Chances of convective clouds development and rain over

Al-Hajar mountains and adjoining areas during afternoon. Chances of dust raising by fresh wind in the open areas of Al-Buraimi governorate and the southeastern coast.EXPECTED WIND: Along the coastal areas of Oman Sea the wind will be northeasterly to easterly light to moderate during day becoming variable light at night and easterly to northeasterly moderate to fresh along the south eastern coast and northeasterly to easterly light to moderate over rest of the Sultanate.SEA STATE: Very rough along southeastern coast with maximum wave

height of 5.0 metres and slight to moderate along Musandam coasts with maximum wave height of 2.0 metres and moderate to rough along Oman Sea coast with maximum wave height of 3.5 metres.HORIZONTAL VISIBILITY: Good over most of the Sultanate becoming poor, rain and raising dust.THE NEXT 48 HOURS OUTLOOK: Partly cloudy skies with chances of isolated rain along the coasts of south Al-Sharqiya, Al-Wusta, Dhofar and Muscat governorates. Mainly clear skies over rest of the Sultanate with chances of convective clouds development and rain over Al-Hajar mountains during afternoon may extended to coastal areas. Chances of fresh wind and blowing dust in open areas along the southeastern coasts.

Max Min

GULFAbu Dhabi 37 21Doha 33 29Dubai 35 23Kuwait 33 23Manama 31 27Riyadh 35 21

WORLDAthens 18 13Baghdad 32 17Beijing 16 9Berlin 12 5Boston 22 8Cairo 26 17Colombo 30 25Frankfurt 13 8Hong Kong 27 24Istanbul 17 13Johannesburg 28 14Kuala Lumpur 33 24Lisbon 24 17Paris 18 12Perth 26 14Singapore 32 29Tokyo 21 11Toronto 11 4

WORLD

Max 20Min 9

Max 31Min 28

Max 14Min 12

Max 33Min 22

Max 30Min 17

Max 21Min 13

Max 11Min 9

Max 31Min 24

LISTINGS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FROM MUSCAT (RUWI) TO MUSCAT (RUWI)

WEDNESDAY

FLT NO ARRIVALS FROM ETA WY682 RIYADH 0005WY676 JEDDAH 0005WY636 ABU DHABI 0010WY924 SALALAH 0035WY824 KUALA LUMPUR 01054H585 DACCA 0115TK776 ISTANBUL-BAHRAIN 0205PK229 LAHORE 0215GF560 BAHRAIN 0320EY384 ABU DHABI 0340QR1132 DOHA 0345EK866 DUBAI 0355QR8550 DOHA 0620WY672 MEDINA 0635WY674 JEDDAH 0640FZ041 DUBAI 06454H586 DOHA 0645WY638 ABU DHABI 0650WY658 BAHRAIN 0650WY902 SALALAH 0655WY668 DOHA 0700WY692 DAMMAM 0705WY686 RIYADH 0705WY644 KUWAIT 0720WY102 LONDON HEATHROW 0740FZ043 DUBAI 0800WY602 DUBAI 0800WY274 JAIPUR 0820WY202 BOMBAY 0825NL768 LAHORE 0830WY342 LAHORE 0900G9114 SHARJAH 0915WY236 HYDERABAD 0925WY242 DELHI 0925WY252 MADRAS 0930EK862 DUBAI 0930WY226 COCHIN 0930WY346 ISLAM ABBAD 0930WY268 LUCKNOW 0935WY212 TRIVANDRUM 0935QR1128 DOHA 1000EY382 ABU DHABI 1010IX549 TRIVANDRUM 10209W530 TRIVANDRUM 1045WY3922 DUQUM OMAN 1055WY604 DUBAI 1100G9841 RAS AL KHAIMA 1120WY332 KATHMANDU 1130IX337 CALICUT 1155PA450 LAHORE 1215WY904 SALALAH 1225WY3302 MUKHAIZNA 1230WY826 KUALA LUMPUR 1245WY324 KARACHI 1300WY632 ABU DHABI 1320WY606 DUBAI 1330WY906 SALALAH 1440WY918 KHASAB 1440FZ045 DUBAI 1545WY656 BAHRAIN 1600QR1126 DOHA 1605WY204 BOMBAY 1645WY610 DUBAI 1710WY292 CALICUT 1710WY264 LUCKNOW 1725WY3304 MUKHAIZNA 1730WY254 MADRAS 1740WY246 DELHI 1740WY232 HYDERABAD 1740WY284 BANGALORE 1750WY664 DOHA 1750GF564 BAHRAIN 1810G9116 SHARJAH 1915WY434 TEHRAN 1930WY914 SALALAH 1930WY144 MALPENSA 1945WY614 DUBAI 2020WY152 ZURICH 2030FZ047 DUBAI 2050AI977 BANGALORE-HYDERABAD 2105WY312 CHITTAGONG 2110WY312 CHITTAGONG 21109W534 COCHIN 2115KL441 AMSTERDAM-DOHA 2115AI973 DELHI 21256.00E+81 BOMBAY 2130QR1130 DOHA 2140BA073 LONDON HEATHROW-ABU DHABI 2140WY624 DUBAI 2140WY914 SALALAH 2150UL205 COLOMBO 2155WY386 MALE 2155AI907 MADRAS 2200QR1134 DOHA 2225LH618 FRANKFURT-ABU DHABI 2235LX242 ZURICH-DUBAI 2235GF566 BAHRAIN 2240EY388 ABU DHABI 2245WY124 MUNICH 2255WY414 AMMAN 2300WY116 FRANKFURT 2305AI985 AHMEDABAD-BOMBAY 23109W540 BOMBAY 2315WY654 BAHRAIN 2335FZ049 DUBAI 2340WY662 DOHA 2340WY816 BANGKOK 2340WY612 DUBAI 2345WY717 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM 2345WY406 CAIRO 2345WY696 DAMMAM 2350WY648 KUWAIT 2355

THURSDAY

FLT NO ARRIVALS FROM ETA

WY676 JEDDAH 0005WY682 RIYADH 0005WY636 ABU DHABI 0010WY924 SALALAH 0035BG021 DACCA-CHITTAGONG 0100WY928 SALALAH 01054H585 DACCA 0115TK774 ISTANBUL 0135PK225 KARACHI 0215GF560 BAHRAIN 0320EY384 ABU DHABI 0340QR1132 DOHA 0345ET624 ADDIS ABABA 0350EK866 DUBAI 0355MS930 CAIRO 0410FZ041 DUBAI 0510WY658 BAHRAIN 0600WY674 JEDDAH 06404H586 DOHA 0645WY638 ABU DHABI 0650WY902 SALALAH 0655WY668 DOHA 0700WY686 RIYADH 0705WY102 LONDON HEATHROW 0730WY602 DUBAI 0800FZ043 DUBAI 0800WY274 JAIPUR 0820WY202 BOMBAY 0825NL768 LAHORE 0830WY342 LAHORE 0900WY282 BANGALORE 0910WY346 ISLAM ABBAD 0915G9114 SHARJAH 0915WY242 DELHI 0925WY236 HYDERABAD 0925EK862 DUBAI 0930WY226 COCHIN 0930WY252 MADRAS 0930WY212 TRIVANDRUM 0935QR1128 DOHA 1000EY382 ABU DHABI 1010IX443 COCHIN 10309W530 TRIVANDRUM 1045WY604 DUBAI 1105G9841 RAS AL KHAIMA 1120WY372 COLOMBO 1130IX337 CALICUT 1155WY384 MALE 1200WY904 SALALAH 1225WY3302 MUKHAIZNA 1230WY826 KUALA LUMPUR 1245WY324 KARACHI 1300WY918 KHASAB 1300BG023 DACCA 1305WY818 BANGKOK 1310WY632 ABU DHABI 1315IX817 MANGALORE-ABU DHABI 1325WY606 DUBAI 1330WY434 TEHRAN 1340WY906 SALALAH 1425PK291 LAHORE-ISLAM ABBAD 1430FZ045 DUBAI 1545SV530 JEDDAH 1550WY908 SALALAH 1555QR1126 DOHA 1605WY204 BOMBAY 1645WY822 KUALA LUMPUR 1645WY292 CALICUT 1710WY3304 MUKHAIZNA 1730WY232 HYDERABAD 1740WY246 DELHI 1740WY254 MADRAS 1740GF564 BAHRAIN 1810TG507 BANGKOK-KARACHI 1900G9116 SHARJAH 1915WY914 SALALAH 1930WY664 DOHA-BAHRAIN 1930WY646 KUWAIT 1950WY614 DUBAI 2050FZ047 DUBAI 20509W534 COCHIN 2115KL441 AMSTERDAM-DOHA 2115AI973 DELHI 21256.00E+81 BOMBAY 2130BA073 LONDON HEATHROW-ABU DHABI 2140WY624 DUBAI 2140QR1130 DOHA 2140UL205 COLOMBO 2155AI907 MADRAS 2200QR1134 DOHA 2225LX242 ZURICH-DUBAI 2235LH618 FRANKFURT-ABU DHABI 2235GF566 BAHRAIN 2240EY388 ABU DHABI 2245WY916 SALALAH 2245WY916 SALALAH 2245WY414 AMMAN 2300SG061 AHMEDABAD 2300AI985 AHMEDABAD-BOMBAY 23109W540 BOMBAY 2315WY654 BAHRAIN 2335WY816 BANGKOK 2340WY662 DOHA 2340WY717 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM 2345WY612 DUBAI 2345WY696 DAMMAM 2350WY406 CAIRO 2355WY648 KUWAIT 2355

FLT NO DEPARTURES TO ETD BA072 ABU DHABI-LONDON HEATHROW 0001AI986 BOMBAY 00059W539 BOMBAY 0020FZ050 DUBAI 0045WY251 MADRAS 0110WY201 BOMBAY 0115WY211 TRIVANDRUM 0120WY225 COCHIN 0120WY685 RIYADH 0120WY273 JAIPUR 0145WY267 LUCKNOW 0150WY235 HYDERABAD 0155WY601 DUBAI 0155WY657 BAHRAIN 0200WY901 SALALAH 0200WY123 MUNICH 0205WY115 FRANKFURT 0205WY133 PARIS 0210WY151 ZURICH 0210WY643 KUWAIT 02104H585 DOHA 0215WY637 ABU DHABI 0220WY241 DELHI 0225WY691 DAMMAM 0235WY667 DOHA 0235WY143 MALPENSA 0235WY341 LAHORE 0240TK777 BAHRAIN-ISTANBUL 0255PK230 LAHORE 0315EK867 DUBAI 0500QR1133 DOHA 0515EY385 ABU DHABI 0525WY3921 DUQUM OMAN 0715FZ042 DUBAI 07304H586 DACCA 0745GF561 BAHRAIN 0745QR8551 DUBAI WORLD CENTRE-DOHA 0750WY3301 MUKHAIZNA 0800WY603 DUBAI 0800WY903 SALALAH 0820WY323 KARACHI 0840FZ044 DUBAI 0840WY253 MADRAS 0920WY345 ISLAM ABBAD 0920WY291 CALICUT 0930NL769 LAHORE 0930WY815 BANGKOK 0940WY917 KHASAB 0945G9115 SHARJAH 0955WY283 BANGALORE 1000WY231 HYDERABAD 1010WY905 SALALAH 1020WY203 BOMBAY 1025WY631 ABU DHABI 1030WY605 DUBAI 1030WY245 DELHI 1040WY311 CHITTAGONG 1040EK863 DUBAI 1045WY717 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM 1045QR1129 DOHA 1100IX554 TRIVANDRUM 1110EY383 ABU DHABI 1110WY917 KHASAB 11409W533 COCHIN 1145WY655 BAHRAIN 1200G9842 RAS AL KHAIMA 1210WY331 KATHMANDU 1235WY927 SALALAH 1240IX350 CALICUT 1255WY3303 MUKHAIZNA 1300PA451 LAHORE 1315WY433 TEHRAN 1330WY413 AMMAN 1345WY663 DOHA 1400WY101 LONDON HEATHROW 1400WY609 DUBAI 1405WY405 CAIRO 1440WY913 SALALAH 1525FZ046 DUBAI 1630WY675 JEDDAH 1645WY613 DUBAI 1715QR1127 DOHA 1750WY623 DUBAI 1805WY915 SALALAH 1840WY681 RIYADH 1840WY647 KUWAIT 1850GF565 BAHRAIN 1855WY695 DAMMAM 1930WY653 BAHRAIN 1935WY661 DOHA 1950G9117 SHARJAH 1955WY923 SALALAH 2030WY611 DUBAI 2045WY825 KUALA LUMPUR 2115WY635 ABU DHABI 2120FZ048 DUBAI 2135AI978 HYDERABAD-BANGALORE 22009W529 TRIVANDRUM 2230KL442 DOHA-AMSTERDAM 2230QR1131 DOHA 2240WY673 JEDDAH 22406.00E+82 BOMBAY 2245AI908 MADRAS 2300UL206 COLOMBO 2305AI974 DELHI 2310GF567 BAHRAIN 2325QR1135 DOHA 2330WY817 BANGKOK 2330LX243 DUBAI-ZURICH 2335EY381 ABU DHABI 2345LH619 ABU DHABI-FRANKFURT 2355

FLT NO DEPARTURES TO ETD BA072 ABU DHABI-LONDON HEATHROW 0001AI986 BOMBAY 00059W539 BOMBAY 0020FZ050 DUBAI 0045WY811 BANGKOK 0100WY251 MADRAS 0110WY201 BOMBAY 0115WY281 BANGALORE 0120WY211 TRIVANDRUM 0120WY685 RIYADH 0120WY225 COCHIN 0120WY821 KUALA LUMPUR 0140WY371 COLOMBO 0145WY273 JAIPUR 0145WY601 DUBAI 0155WY235 HYDERABAD 0155WY901 SALALAH 0200WY657 BAHRAIN 02004H585 DOHA 0215WY637 ABU DHABI 0220WY241 DELHI 0225TK775 ISTANBUL 0230WY345 ISLAM ABBAD 0230BG022 CHITTAGONG-DACCA 0230WY667 DOHA 0235WY383 MALE 0235WY341 LAHORE 0240PK226 KARACHI 0315ET625 ADDIS ABABA 0450EK867 DUBAI 0500MS931 CAIRO 0510QR1133 DOHA 0515EY385 ABU DHABI 0525FZ042 DUBAI 0555WY433 TEHRAN 0740GF561 BAHRAIN 07454H586 DACCA 0745WY603 DUBAI 0800WY903 SALALAH 0830WY3301 MUKHAIZNA 0830FZ044 DUBAI 0840WY323 KARACHI 0840WY253 MADRAS 0920WY291 CALICUT 0930NL769 LAHORE 0930WY263 LUCKNOW 0935WY815 BANGKOK 0940G9115 SHARJAH 0955WY917 KHASAB 1000WY231 HYDERABAD 1010WY905 SALALAH 1020WY631 ABU DHABI 1020WY203 BOMBAY 1025WY605 DUBAI 1030WY311 CHITTAGONG 1040WY245 DELHI 1040EK863 DUBAI 1045WY717 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM 1045QR1129 DOHA 1100EY383 ABU DHABI 1110IX442 COCHIN 11259W533 COCHIN 1145WY907 SALALAH 1200G9842 RAS AL KHAIMA 1210WY331 KATHMANDU 1235IX350 CALICUT 1255WY925 SALALAH 1325WY3303 MUKHAIZNA 1330WY413 AMMAN 1345WY3921 DUQUM OMAN 1345WY113 FRANKFURT 1355WY101 LONDON HEATHROW 1400WY663 DOHA-BAHRAIN 1400IX818 MANGALORE 1415WY423 BEIRUT 1415BG024 CHITTAGONG 1420WY405 CAIRO 1440WY645 KUWAIT 1440WY927 SALALAH 1510WY913 SALALAH 1525PK292 ISLAM ABBAD 1530FZ046 DUBAI 1630WY675 JEDDAH 1645SV531 MEDINA-JEDDAH 1650QR1127 DOHA 1705WY613 DUBAI 1715WY623 DUBAI 1805WY681 RIYADH 1840WY915 SALALAH 1840WY647 KUWAIT 1850GF565 BAHRAIN 1855WY695 DAMMAM 1930WY653 BAHRAIN 1935WY661 DOHA 1950G9117 SHARJAH 1955TG508 KARACHI-BANGKOK 2005WY923 SALALAH 2030WY611 DUBAI 2045WY825 KUALA LUMPUR 2050WY635 ABU DHABI 2120FZ048 DUBAI 2135KL442 DOHA-AMSTERDAM 22309W529 TRIVANDRUM 2230WY817 BANGKOK 2240WY673 JEDDAH 2240QR1131 DOHA 22406.00E+82 BOMBAY 2245AI908 MADRAS 2300UL206 COLOMBO 2305AI974 DELHI 2310GF567 BAHRAIN 2325QR1135 DOHA 2330LX243 DUBAI-ZURICH 2335EY381 ABU DHABI 2345LH619 ABU DHABI-FRANKFURT 2355

A I R L I N E S

—www.met.gov.om

PRAYER TIMINGS

Dhuhr 11.56am

Asr 3.11pm

Maghrib 5.36pm

Isha 6.47pm Fajr (Tomorrow) 4.54am

Sunset 5.31pm

Sunrise (Tomorrow) 6.11am

High tide 1:11am 10:52am

Low tide 6:10pm 6:04am

BORN today, you are dead set on being remembered — but for what may not be clear while you are young. Indeed, the goal itself will inspire you, while the road to achieving it may remain something of a mystery for a time. You are one of the most independent individuals born under your sign, and you will always be attracted to endeavors that allow you to assert your individuality and prove that your way is the best way. You don’t enjoy doing what you are told, and you are not always compelled to follow the rules — but you will surely do so if you feel that personal safety depends on it! You are not a fool, and you recognise when there are dangers that can be avoided simply by doing what you are supposed to do.

You are likely to be widely imitated, but no one is likely to capture the true essence of you! You are the kind to prevail because you are unique, and you will never do something that requires you to sacrifi ce either your originality or your autonomy. You may make waves now and then, but you will always be yourself.

Also born on this date are: Winona Ryder, actress; Finola Hughes, actress; Fanny Brice, comedian; Melba Moore, singer; Kate Jackson, actress; Richard Dreyfuss, actor; Bill Mauldin, cartoonist; Rufus Sewell, actor.

Seeking a way out of a tricky situation, you’re likely to stumble upon an option formerly hidden, but that now reveals some surprises.

VIRGO [AUG. 23-SEPT. 22]

LIBRA [SEPT. 23-OCT. 22] LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL[S[[[S[S[S[[S[SS[SSSS[S[[[[SSSSSSSSSS

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

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

AQUARIUS [JAN. 20-FEB. 18]

You’re looking forward to taking part in something that you and others fi nd very exciting. A good showing can change everything.

Promptness is the key to success, and it will certainly shape how others think about you. You’ll want to make a good fi rst impression.

You’ll have a choice to make before the day is out, one that is complicated by the fact that a loved one is urging you to make a change.

You may get a glimpse of the way things would be if you had made one or two very diff erent decisions recently.

You must stay the course, even though you may have a run-in with someone in charge who is forcing you out of your comfort zone.

The creative process becomes more of an exercise in self-discovery as you try to make headway under diffi cult circumstances.

You may not be able to interpret another’s messages correctly at fi rst, but further study gives a more accurate picture.

PISCES [Feb. 19-March 20]

You’re in no mood to continue along your current path without taking time out to replenish certain resources that are running low.

GEMINI [MAY 21-JUNE 20]

CANCER [JUNE 21-JULY 22]

LEO [JULY 23-AUG. 22]

CAPRICORN [DEC. 22-JAN 19]

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

ARIES [March 21-APRIL 19]

TAURUS [APRIL 20-MAY 20]

Speed is not essential, but the willingness to put in several hours of steady, uninterrupted work certainly is — so get ready.

How you are feeling in your head and soul is more important than your physical state. Mental prowess is key at this time.

Certain things may prove elusive, but if you stock up on what is readily available, you can certainly acquit yourself well.

C11

EXTRAW E D N E S DAY, O CTO B E R 2 9, 2 0 14

In addition to heartburn and indigestion, refl ux symptoms may include postnasal drip, hoarse-ness, diffi culty swal-

lowing, chronic throat clearing, coughing and asthma. Taken to-gether, sales of prescribed and over-the-counter anti-refl ux med-ications exceed $13 billion per year in the US alone.

The number of people with acid refl ux has grown signifi cantly in recent decades. Refl ux can lead to oesophageal cancer, which has increased by about 500 per cent since the 1970s. And anti-refl ux medication alone does not appear to control refl ux disease. A Dan-ish study published this year con-cluded that there were no cancer-protective eff ects from using the common anti-refl ux medications, called proton pump inhibitors, and that regular long-term use was actually associated with an increased risk of developing oe-sophageal cancer.

What is responsible for these disturbing developments? The an-swer is our poor diet, with its huge increases in the consumption of sugar, soft drinks, fat and pro-cessed foods. But there is another important variable that has been underappreciated and overlooked:

our dinnertime.I specialize in the diagnosis and

management of acid refl ux, espe-cially airway refl ux, which aff ects the throat, sinuses and lungs. Airway refl ux is often “silent,” occurring without telltale diges-tive symptoms, like heartburn and indigestion.

Most of the tens of thousands of refl ux patients that I have seen over the last 35 years are well today because I treat refl ux by modifying my patients’ diets and lifestyles.

Over the past two decades, I’ve noticed that the time of the even-ing meal has been trending later and later among my patients. The after-work meal - already later because of longer work hours - is often further delayed by activities such as shopping and exercise.

Typical was the restaurateur who came to see me with symp-toms of postnasal drip, sinus dis-ease, hoarseness, heartburn and a chronic cough. He reported that he always left his restaurant at 11 pm, and after arriving home would eat dinner and then go to bed. There was no medical treatment for this patient, no pills or even surgery to fi x his condition.

The drugs we are using to treat refl ux don’t always work, and even

when they do, they can have dan-gerous side eff ects. My patient’s refl ux was a lifestyle problem. I told him he had to eat dinner be-fore 7 pm, and not eat at all after work. Within six weeks, his refl ux was gone.

In my experience, the single most important intervention is to eliminate late eating, which in the

United States is often combined with portions of large, over-pro-cessed, fatty food. Europeans have fewer cases of reflux than we do, even though many of them eat late. That’s most likely from portion control.

In France, for example, a serving of ice cream is typically a single modest scoop, while in America, it’s often three gargantuan scoops.

For my patients, eating late is often accompanied by overeat-ing, because many skip breakfast and eat only a sandwich at lunch. Thus the evening meal becomes the largest meal of the day. After that heavy meal, it’s off to the sofa to watch television.

After eating, it’s important to stay upright because gravity helps keep the contents in the stomach.

Refl ux is the result of acid spill-ing out of the stomach, and lying down with a full stomach makes refl ux much more likely.

And if you add an after-dinner dessert or bedtime snack? Again, refl ux is a natural consequence.

In a healthy young person, the stomach normally takes a few hours to empty after a moderate-size meal. In older people or those who have refl ux, gastric emptying is often de-layed. Further, those dessert calo-ries tend to be high in carbohydrates

and fat, and high-fat foods often cre-ate refl ux by slowing digestion and relaxing the stomach valve that normally prevents reflux. Oth-er popular but notoriously bad-for-nighttime-reflux foods and beverages are mints, chocolate, soft drinks and alcohol.

Many of my patients fi nd that eating earlier alleviates their al-lergies, sinusitis, asthma, sleep apnea and diabetes symptoms. Al-though these conditions may not seem linked, postnasal drip and a cough are typical refl ux symptoms that can easily be mistaken for something else.

Some of my patients who arrive complaining of refl ux already eat healthfully. For them, dining too late is often the sole cause of their problem. And yet, hearing that they need to change the timing of their meals is sometimes a chal-lenge they cannot meet.

To stop the remarkable increase in refl ux disease, we have to stop eating by 8 pm, or whatever time falls at least three hours before bed. For many people, eating din-ner early represents a signifi cant lifestyle shift. It will require eating well-planned breakfasts, lunches and snacks, with healthy food and beverage choices. — Jamie A. Koufman/

The New York Times News Service

The number of people with acid refl ux has grown signifi cantly in recent decades

Women tend to ignore heart symptoms more

PARTLY due to a per-ception that coronary artery disease is a “man’s disease”, women are more likely to delay seeking care when heart symp-toms strike, a research has found. “The main danger is that when someone comes to the hospital with a more severe or advanced stage of heart disease, there are simply fewer treatment options avail-able,” said lead study au-thor Catherine Kreatsou-las from Harvard School of Public Health. The study included patients with suspected coronary artery disease, just prior to undergoing their fi rst coronary angiogram test.

Advanced hearingaids distorting music moreTHE MORE advanced an hearing aid is today, the worse experience it would off er to music lovers who use such aids, says a study. Less sophisticated hear-ing aids might actually be more compatible with lis-tening to music, especially recorded music that has itself been processed to change the way it sounds, the fi ndings showed. “Hearing aids have gotten very advanced at pro-cessing sounds to make speech more understand-able,” said lead researcher Naomi Croghan from University of Colorado Boulder in the US.

Infants know what your eyes tell, says studyTHE ABILITY to respond to eye cues develops during infancy — at seven or so months, fi nds research. “Our study provides developmental evidence for the notion that humans possess spe-cifi c brain processes that allow them to automati-cally respond to eye cues,” said study co-author Tobias Grossmann from Univer-sity of Virginia. The eye white, or how much of it is shown and at what angle, plays a role in the social and cooperative interactions among humans. For the study, the researchers used electroencephalography to measure the brain activity of seven-month-old infants while showing images of eyes wide open, narrowly opened, and with direct or averted gazes. —IANS

H E A L T H N O T E S

Eating late is often

accompanied by overeating,

because many skip

breakfast and eat only a

sandwich at lunch. Thus

the evening meal becomes

the largest meal of the day.

After that heavy meal, it’s

off to the sofa to watch

television.

THE DANGERSOF EATING LATE NIGHT

C12

EXTRAW E D N E S DAY, O C TO B E R 2 9, 2 0 1 4

FASH I ON

BEYONCE and Topshop have announced the launch of a joint label of athletic streetwear in autumn 2015.

When you thought you had seen it all from Queen B, arguably the most talented and powerful woman, she surprises us with a new fashion venture. The pop star and the high street giant have joined forces to create Parkwood Topshop Athletic Ltd, which is set to produce clothing, footwear and accessories across dance, fi tness and sports categories, with collections that promise to include a fusion of fashion and technical performance.

WWD reports that the new brand will target “women who go to yoga or the health club, as well as those who just want to look as if they do”. Unlike previous projects involving supermodels and stars, like Kate Moss for Topshop, this is not collabora-tion; it is a whole new company, a 50-50 venture. And although Moss’s collection proved to be extremely successful, this is a whole new experiment.

“This not a collaboration. This is about building a brand and building a business — a sepa-rate, proper business, with sep-arate overhead and a separate offi ce,” Topshop owner Sir Phil-ip Green told the publication of the venture.

According to The Telegraph, the pop star will work with a de-sign team set to put by Sir Green. She said: “I could not think of a better partner as I continue to grow the Parkwood business. I

have always loved TopShop for their fashion credentials and for-ward thinking.”

Beyonce has already been es-tablished as a Topshop fan, she’s often spotted wearing pieces from the British high street label and regularly pays visit to the Ox-ford Street fl agship store when-ever she’s in London. But this is the fi rst time she will be getting involved with the brand from a design perspective.

Sir Philip Green said: “We have been looking at this category as fashion inspired fi tness develops, and know that this is right in our customers’ heartland.

“Creating a partnership with

Beyoncé, one of the most hard-working and talented peo-ple in the world, who spends many hours of her life dancing, rehearsing and training is a unique opportunity to develop this category.”

Sir Philip adds: “Being part-ners with Beyoncé and her team who have the greatest creative energy and enthusiasm

This joint project, however, won’t be Beyonce’s fi rst fashion venture as she already owns her own fashion line called House of Dereon. But this is the fi rst time she joins forces with a UK-based fashion giant. - Linda Sharkey/The Inde-

pendent

Beyonce all set to create streetwear label

When Patrick Grant pitch-es up to our interview wearing jeans and a T-

shirt, I have to confess to a slight sense of disappointment. After all, it’s a bit disingenuous, this being the man credited with the spectacular revival of Savile Row tailors Nor-ton & Sons, who is now opening another tailoring-focused estab-lishment, E. Tautz, again dredged up from the back catalogue of London menswear’s fi nest and given a new lease of life. The least you could expect would be for him to have his wares on his back.

Although, in fact, he is. The T-shirt and wide-cut jeans, rolled at the ankle, are from the spring 2015 E. Tautz collection. Grant took his bow in a near-identical pair and they cropped up a few times in a collection devoted to the water-logged, wintry English seaside. Grant has been cycling around London for the past four months in another pair, too. “I’m not even sure if there were any suits in it,” he says of that spring collection. “I’m quite open minded about clothes, although most people see me wearing a suit most of the time. I actually like wearing lots of diff erent clothes.”

He enjoys making them, too — notably, for Norton & Sons, the

tailor that Grant acquired in 2005, while still studying for his MBA at Saïd Business School at Oxford University. It was with this busi-ness that Grant made his name on the menswear scene, giving Norton & Sons, founded in 1821, a 21st-century relevance.

Thanks to a combination of punchy link-ups with contempo-rary London’s leading designers — Norton & Sons tailor catwalk looks for designers including Christopher Kane and Henry Hol-land — and by wooing a loyal cadre of clients back to the brand, he has pulled it back into profi tability. Norton & Sons’ bespoke business has doubled since Grant’s reboot.

“If I drew a Venn diagram of all the things that I liked — brilliant well-made things, old British brands and clothes — Savile Row is right in the middle,” says Grant. “But the clothes I love are not just lim-ited to suits, so it grew.”

Again, Grant is denouncing — sort of — the dominance of the traditional suit. Or at least, as-serting an alternative. That was one of the reasons for launching E. Tautz — or rather relaunch-ing, as Tautz is another old Brit-ish brand (it dressed Winston Churchill back in its heyday) — as

the ready-to-wear arm of Norton & Sons. The rationale? Capital-ise on the attention drawn to the bespoke branch with a ready-to-wear label, which can turn a tidi-er profi t. Although there is much more to it than that — namely, the fashion slant that Grant has given E. Tautz.

“Tautz is a very defi nite prop-osition,” he says. “We are put-ting forward something which we think is an interesting way of dressing... it’s an idea that hope-fully feels slightly diff erent from what you’ve seen before.” It is a recipe that’s working.

In 2010, E. Tautz received the British Fashion Council’s Mens-wear Designer of the Year. And this month, its fi rst fl agship store opens on Duke Street, around the corner from the original 19th-century premises on Oxford Street.

This is why Grant is in work-wear, because he was fi nishing the last details in the shop before (and after) our interview. For him, a physical shop — a home — for E. Tautz on the London menswear landscape is vital.

“The web is good for some stuff — you can get access to a million things, or straightfor-ward things that you can buy without any bother,” says Grant on the subject of retail versus e-tail. “But if you make the ‘bother’ a lovely part of the process, the bother becomes a positively enhancing part of it. You just can’t replicate

that human contact online.”Human contact is, of course,

key to menswear. Women are frequently expected to force their bodies into clothes that, maybe, don’t quite fi t right, whereas tweaking a man’s suit is all part of the service.

“I used to get my suits tweaked all the time, when I was spending money on reasonably expensive suits in my twenties — when I had a proper job that allowed me to do these things,” says Grant, grinning a little. “But I would always get it tweaked at a little place around the corner — fi ddle with it, improve it.”

This idea keys into his view of Norton & Sons. “When peo-ple ask what our house style is, I shy away,” he says. “It’s what you want... we’re there to provide a service.” By contrast, E. Tautz is about Grant proposing a look; an idea for the season ahead. And, he asserts, there is nothing in the collection that he wouldn’t put on his back.

This is important, because Grant is something of a fi gure-head for both Norton & Sons and E. Tautz. And not only in the small pond of the fashion world.

Grant is best-known to the public at large not from the pages of GQ or Esquire (both of which feature him regularly), but via his role on The Great British Sew-ing Bee, the cultish BBC2 sewing show where Grant is a dashing, besuited, technical know-it-all, judging a clutch of amateur home

stitchers. It is returning for a third series in 2015.

The show has also spun out into Grant’s latest venture, Hammond & Co, a range for high-street re-tailer Debenhams.

Looking right is a fi xation with Grant — but it is teamed with an obsession with the fi nicky details of cut and construction. “I ended up doing a degree in material sci-ence and engineering because I just liked how things were made, that interaction between process and material and fi nish,” he says. “There’s a process you go through in designing anything – my pro-cess is rigorous around seams and material and fi t and function and shape. How it looks, how it works.”

Of course, that could easily have been applied to engineer-ing, or aerodynamics. But Grant’s love of fashion began even earlier — he recalls a home haircut and perfectly pressed uniform on his fi rst day at school and the fact that, as a teenager, “my friends’ walls were mostly covered with bands: mine were covered with pages from Vogue.

The focus now, though, is not the past, but the future for E. Tautz, as the last sections of wood and brass panelling are in-laid on Duke Street and the Au-tumn/Winter 2015 collection, to be shown at London Collections: Men, in January, continues to be tweaked. “I really, really love it — I want it all,” Grant leans in and confesses conspiratorially. -Alexander Fury/The Independent

THE TAILOR OF DUKE STREET

Looking right is a fi xation with Grant and it

is coupled with an obsession with the fi nicky

details of cut and construction

Grant is best-known to the

public at large not from

the pages of GQ or Esquire

(both of which feature him

regularly), but via his role

on ‘The Great British

Sewing Bee’

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

CONNECT H E D A I LY G U I D E

D

D4 VACANCY CARGO D7

W E D N E S D AY, O C T O B E R 2 9, 2 0 1 4

RENT D2

*Classifi ed Advertisement space booking with text, should be done till 12.00 noon for next day’s publication. * Subject to space availability

DAILY GUIDEEmail: [email protected] classifi [email protected].: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461

FOR RENT

For rent apartments: An apartment

in old Muscat at Oman Arab Bank’s

building. 3 bedrooms + 3 bathrooms,

dining room, living room and a

kitchen. Air conditioned apartments.

2 bedrooms + 2 bathrooms, living

room, dining room area and kitchen

in an excellent location in

Al Khuwair opposite the court of fi rst

instance. For further information

call 97072976

Industrial land in Al Rusayl 1000 m

squared. For further information

call 97072976

2BHK Flat at Old Muscat. Contact: 91393005

Indian School Muscat, 3 minutes

by walk, very spacious 1 BHK fl at, 2

bathrooms, brand new well main-

tained building, ground fl oor OMR

275/- per month. Contact 99310180

Room for rent at Athaiba for single

male/ lady OMR 125/- E&W shared

B/K. Contact 92162032

Small offi ce for rent in Azaiba

North. Contact 92294409

Villas / fl ats / store / labor /

accommodation. Contact 99776071

/ 99057348

2 BHK fl at in Al Khuwair.

Contact 99792181

Studio fl at for rent in Ruwi.

Contact 99792181

2 BHK fl at in Mumtaz area.

Contact 99792181

Labour camp for rent in Wadi Kabir

(50 to 60 people can stay).

Contact 99792181

100 +140+180+200 sq mtrs offi ce

space in Al Khuwair.

Contact 99792181

1 bedroom and 2 bedrooms fl at

available for rent at Ghubrah, close to

Grand Mall, near Atlas Hospital next

to Diwan’s Offi ce. Contact 24562526,

99833747

Offi ce/Store space for rent at Ruwi

near OC Centre. Contact 92924000

Flat for rent 2 BHK fl at with 3 toilets

near Muscat Bakery, Wadi Kabir.

Contact 99885169, 99897223

New fl at in Hamriya, 3 rooms, 2

bathrooms and kitchen with split AC

RO 240. Contact 99639909

Deluxe one, two, three bedroom fl ats

in Wadi Kabir, Ruwi, Darsait, Wat-

tayah with immediate possession.

Contact 24707340 / 99472457

Flats, Amerat Souk. Contact

99647903 / 98026234

Beautiful villa for rent next to post

offi ce in Al Qurum, 5 bedrooms, hall

and kitchen. Contact 99311454

Warehouse for rent 200 SQM at

Ghala near Bridgestone, Ghala.

Contact 99349311

Industrial land for rent available at

November 2014, Ghala Area 3.500

SQM way #5251 next to Naseem

Workshop opposite Rimsigns Indus-

try LLC Ghala. Contact 99349311

Single & 3 bedroom fl ats behind

German Embassy near to Al Nahdha

Hospital. Contact 99203954

Shops available for rent in Honda

road and Ruwi. Contact 24833972

OR GSM 99367448

2 BHK beautiful fl at with split AC

available for rent at Qurum near PDO

Gate No-2. Contact 94057023

Excellent fl at for rent in Ruwi,

Mumtaz Area and Al-Hail South.

Contact 98051159

Flat for rent in al Amerat.

Contact 99209264

Flat in Bousher with 3 rooms, living

room RO 400 net, house in Sadab

with 3 room living room

RO 250. Contact 99131232

1,2,3 BHK Flats & Villas.

Contact 97799175

Villas for rent. Contact 97799175

1 BHK near Oman House, Muttrah.

Contact 99233116

Offi ce/shops near Oman House,

Muttrah. Contact 99233116

2 BHK pent house R. 360, 2 BHK

RO.340, 1BHK RO.250/- Bldg #1619

way# 1322 adjacent to Indian

Nursary Darsait.

Contact – 99476728 / 99831047

Flats & shops for rent in Al Amerat.

Flats only for family 3 rooms,

3 attach bathrooms & 1 kitchen.

Flat RO.230/- & shop RO.150/-.

Contact – 98046005

D2 W E D N E S D AY, O C T O B E R 2 9, 2 0 1 4

Showroom in Washal Area near

Oman House Area 225 SQM, Rent

RO 3 per meter. Contact 95501858

Bachelor villa at Al Ansab.

Contact 98458542

5 bedrooms villa, 2 halls, 4 bath-

rooms in Darsait, behind Khimjis

Mart. Contact 24700120 / 92584715

2 B/R Fully Furnished Executive

Apartment @Azaiba Near Zubair

Showroom. 2 B/ R Fully Furnished

Executive Apartment @ Al Khuwair

33 Near Zhaker Mall. 5 B/R Luxury

Fully Furnished villa at Azaiba with

servants quarter. Contact: Atlas Real

Estate & Rent A Car LLC : 99249069

/ 92888376/ 93201688,

Email: [email protected]

2 BHK, 2 Bath, Split A/C,

Wadikhabeer, Near Indian elementry

school. Way 6926, building 1733.

99441193, 93004802.

Commercial villa for rent in Sarooj

next to Thailand Embassy

Contact :96969824

2 bedrooms fl at in Muttrah,

Corniche. Contact 99414644

5 Bedroom Villas at Al Ansab

(Near express highway).

Contact 99199365

Large fl at of 2 bedrooms, hall & 3

bathrooms with split A/C’s in Al

Ghobra North 18 Nov Street RO.360.

Contact - 93191111

Store in Ghala, behind Komatsu.

Contact 99414644

Rooms available near Qurum Park

with separate bathroom for

family and bachelor.

Contact 99664703

1 BHK fl at in Wadi Kabir.

Contact 99277787

For rent fl at and showroom,

Al Azaiba, Ghala, Ghubrah, al

Khuwair-33 and Mabelah. Contact

93651633, 24485240, 24485241

8 Rooms villa in Al Khuwair for rent

opp. Rawasco, way 4104, villa 341.

Contact - 99361589

1 BHK Flat in Ghobra. Contact

99792181

Room for rent in Ruwi.

Contact 95372192

Building with four fl ats near Pizza

Hut Mawaleh. Contact 99044164

1,000 sq mtrs industrial land in

Misfah Industrial area near to Khan-

co. OMR 1,500 Monthly. Electricity

and Boundary wall will be provided.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

Land and Shops in Rusayl.

Contact 99323957, 95490842,

fax : 24452534

Flat for rent in Wadi Kabir.

Contact 99383569

Flat for rent opposite Gharnata

Shoes, Ruwi. Contact 99358331,

99218484

Flat one bedroom in Wadi Kabir

with split AC. Contact 99313274

1 BHK fl at in Wadi Kabir. RO 215/-.

Contact 99358589

2 BHK fl at - near Kuwaiti Mosque,

Wadi Kabir. Contact 24816774 /

97608564

Small house for rent at Ghubrah.

Contact 95032152

For rent one room with kitchen,

bath, small hall in Sidab.

Contact 93233440

2 BHK with A/Cs Mutrah behind

Oman house. Contact 99896838

1 BHK fl at near Star Cinema, Ruwi.

RO 240/-. Contact 97079146 /

95570288

Flats in Darsait, 2 and 3 rooms,

price RO 250, RO 300. Contact

99357586, 97500025, 97884787

Small offi ce for rent in Azaiba North.

Contact 92294409

3 BHK Flat Ghubra close to ISG Way

4041, Building 4390.

Contact 99319880

I BHK Flat Wadi Kabir. RO 180/-.

Contact 99376454

Flat for rent in Ruwi, Mumtaz Area

and Al-Hail South. Contact 91409778

Villa for rent in Muscat 6 rooms.

Contact 96116767

Furnished / unfurnished apartments

available for rent on long term /short

term basis, near Vacha’s hypermar-

ket in Ghala. Contact : 97677211

5 Rooms, main living room + Wom-

en living room+2 halls, 6 toilets,

kitchen in Azaiba near Al Fair

800 RO. Contact 99888873

For rent Flat 2 bedroom attach bath-

room opp Ruwi police station Ruwi.

Contact 99311209/ 99013580

Flats, shops basements, location,

Ruwi MBD area, Honda road, Qurum.

Contact 96942749 / 97293708

Big Villa at Bowshar 8 rooms,

8 bathrooms, kitchen, maid room &

Majlis. Contact 91183117

3 rooms, 3 bath & Kitchen Oman

House Muttrah. Contact 99319149

Shop for sale in Al Hail North main

road near Bank Muscat ATM. Serious

buyers only. Contact 96435935

23,886 Sq Mtrs Agriculture land

with water well in Al Salwa, Barka.

OMR 260 Thousand. Tel: 99333479

or 95215360

Leather sofa for sale, brand new

unused black color. 3+2+1+1.

Contact- 99349311

Villa in Mawaleh for sale town

house style near Sahwa roundabout

taamer road. Contact :96969824

Shop for sale behind ROP building.

Honda Road, Ruwi.

Contact 92130636

Electrical & Building Material Shop

in Muscat for sale.

Contact 95330905

For sale 8000 GLO Water Tanker

new. Contact 92906773

Lady Beauty saloon. Contact

97786792, 96644372

Shop for sale in Seeb near Bank

Muscat. Contact 99828343

Vegetable shop for sale in Wadi

kabir, Cont : 92786449

For Sale Well running Pharmacy at

primelocation. 93240949

Flats For Sale in Boushar: OMR

35 Thousand 1 bedroom. OMR 45

Thousand 2 bedroom. Monthly

income 1 bedroom OMR 270 and 2

bedroom OMR 350. Tel: 99333479 or

95215360

Restaurant for sale. Contact 95901870

FOR SALE

FOR SALE

We have 1 BHK Ghubrah, 2 BHK

Ruwi, Mumtaz, Rex Road and Darsait,

2 BHK in Ghala, 1 BHK in Ghala,

2 BHK full furnished fl at in Ghala,

1 BHK & 2 BHK offi ces in Ghala and

full furnished offi ces in Ghala, 20

SQM, 25 SQM, 5 BHK villa in Ghub-

rah, 2 BHK fl at in Qurum.

Contact 93782735 / 99208033

7 Bedrooms Commercial Villa is

available for lease at Al Ghobrah

North, Way No. 3234 H. No. 2189.Built

up area 530 sq.meters,. Additional

contents three sitting halls and

6 toilets. Contact 99411607

New 1 and 2 B/R near Bank Muscat,

Bausher directly from owner.

Contact 92158031

Café Shop for Rent at Ghubrah North.

Contact 99359755

Restaurant in a running and excellent

condition, ample parking space with a

capacity of 55 seating and a party hall

for sale. Contact - 99343735

We are dealing with sale of all beauty

salon equipments, furnitures & cos-

metics. # 942 888 61 / 942 888 63

*Classifi ed Advertisement space booking with text,

should be done till 12.00 noon for next day’s publication.

* Subject to space availability

Expat leaving Oman has house

hold items and furniture for sale.

Contact 96964756.

3 BHK fl at available for rent in

Al Hail (North), rent RO 280/-.

Contact 97661432

2 rooms, 1 hall, 1 kitchen, 1 toilet fl at

available for rent in Al Khoudh, rent

RO 250/-. Contact 97661432

If you have any properties /

Inquiries. Contact us

[email protected] .

Tel 24505072/ 91155779

Fax 24507045

New Villas in (Al Ghobra/ Al Khoudh

/ Al Mabella). Contact 24505072/

91155779 Fax 24507045

Logistic Company with new equip-

ments, contracts sale. Contact

99438523 / 94252527

DAILY GUIDEW E D N E S D AY, O C T O B E R 2 9, 2 0 1 4 D3

BUYING/SELLING

ACC. AVAILABLE

ACC. AVAILABLE

Sharing accommodation for a fam-

ily in W/K. contact 97167857

Room available for Executive

bachelor in Ruwi near Honda Road.

Contact 92241735

Sharing accommodation available

for family big room, hall & separate

toilet at Mumtaz, Ruwi.

Contact 97612335

Single room available for exclu-

sive bachelors in Azaiba villa

and complete ground fl oor with

Kitchen facility bedroom and

Hall in Darsait. Contact details –

98048207,99261773

Sharing accommodation avail-

able bedroom, bathroom & sharing

kitchen for small family near Indian

School Wadi Kabir.

Contact 99209727,

Sharing one big room with AC and

bathroom, kitchen sharing for lady or

single person near OC Centre, Ruwi

RO 130 Rials. Contact 99410160

Sharing room with AC available.

Contact 95470129

Executive bachleor accomodation

available at north al hail. Near wave.

Contact : 91325959

Big room, bathroom, kitchen near

Riyam Park, Muscat. RO 110.

Contact 95094028

Semi furnished room with Separate

T&B Split AC Wifi pref Filipino or non

cooking bachelor lady in Boushar

near Rehab Hotel RO.145/mo incl

W&E. Contact 99058225

1 room with attach toilet rent RO

120/- at Al Hail North.

Contact 97661432

Independent rooms in Qurum / Hail.

Contact 95529970

Looking for purchase of Used Portable Compressor (350 CFM,

7 Bar Pressure) powered with Diesel

run Generator. Kindly contact :

99014686 or

[email protected]

*Classifi ed Advertisement space booking with text,

should be done till 12.00 noon for next day’s publication.

* Subject to space availability

M.V. FOR SALE

Expat driven single user Honda

CRV 2009 model. 100,000 km.

Contact 95392848

Lexus GS300, 2006.

Contact 93218349

For sale – Camry 2011, Mazda 6

2006, Lancer 2010, Civic 1996.

Contact 96408433/ 93806625

Toyota Yaris auto 2009, 142 k,

RO 2,500. Contact 93289652

PROTON GEN 2 FOR SALE: Manual

Gear. Good condition. Single owner.

Silver colour. 1st registered August

2009. Full insurance till August

2015. Price OMR 1,680.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

ACC. WANTED

M.V.WANTED

LOST

Sharing accomodation required

for a non- cooking executive lady.

Contact - 99360615

Abdul Awal has lost Bangladeshi

Passport No. AC8389558. Finder

please handover to ROP

Mohammad Nejam Uddin has

lost Bangladeshi Passport No.

AD8960464. Finder please handover

to ROP

Mohammed Abdul Malek has lost

Bangladeshi Passport No. E1590303.

Finder please handover to ROP

Ismat Ali has lost Bangladeshi Pass-

port No. F0650305. Finder please

handover to ROP

Asokan Kattippara has lost In-

dian Passport No. J4125952. Finder


Wajeed Hseen has lost Pakistani

Passport No. MA6892821. Finder


CHANGE OF NAME

AVAILABLE

Established Restaurant for rent

with sponsorship.

Contact 97628242

Party & Wedding equipment rent-

als. Full line, from Tables, Linen

& Skirting, Chairs & Chair covers,

Cutlery, Crockery, Glassware, Chaf-

ing Dishes, Ice Sculptures, to Large

Sound Systems and spectacular

lighting. Call Andrea 9606 2222 for

Catering and

Croyden 9623 5555 for Sound &

Light. www.tunesoman.com,

E-mail: [email protected]

Fully furnished bathroom attached

room in Darsait, sharing kitchen

RO 170/-. Contact 94052928

Furnished single room with

bathroom, Al Khuwair area only for

ladies. Contact 96059431

1 BR accommodation available

at Rex road, suitable for bachelors.

Contact 99889590

Required Nissan Tida / Toyota yaris

/ Suzuki swift / hyundai hatchback

car in good condition.

Contact : 95405033

We, Looke Mullikattu Vilayil (name of father as per the passport, holder

of Indian Passport No. F8717577) and Merin Rajan (name of mother as per

the passport, holder of Indian Passport No. G6943046) having permanent

address in Mullikkattu Vilayil, Thevalakara (W) – PO, Kollam, Kerala, India

(complete postal address in India) and presently residing in Ghala, P.B. No

3992, P.C. No 112, Sultanate of Oman, hereby solemnly affi rm and declare

to change the name of our child Master Johan Looke (name as per present

passport), holder of Indian Passport No. J6642867, date of issue 15/07/2011

issued at Cochin. The name of our child will be henceforth known as Johan

Luke (new name) for all purposes. Any objection towards change of name of

our minor child may please be communicated to Embassy of India, Muscat,

Diplomatic Quarters, Al Khuwair, P.B. No 1727, Postal Code 112, Ruwi,

Sultanate of Oman.

I, Jagjit Singh (name exactly as in present passport) son of Naranjan Singh

presently residing in the following address in al Mudhibi, P.B. No 60, P.C. No

420 Sultanate of Oman and having permanent address in India H.No-71,

MOH Pathana, PO Dera Bessi, Patiala Punjab (as per present passport), holder

of Indian Passport No. G9972292 date of issue 10/11/2008 place of issue

Muscat hereby solemnly affi rm and declare that Manmindar Kaur (name of

my wife appearing as my passport) and the name of my wife Manvinder Kaur

appearing as per her Indian Passport No. L7479921 are the same individuals

and not two diff erent individuals. Any objection towards name change of my

wife may please be communicated to Embassy of India, Muscat, Diplomatic

Quarters, Al Khuwair, P.B. No 1727, Postal Code 112, Ruwi, Sultanate of Oman.

NRI

Looking for an experienced A/R

conditioner and deep freezer Tech-

nician to independently handle

a running refrigeration service

center in Kannur Kerala. Attractive

terms off ered. Please send CV to

vfi [email protected]

For Astrological consultation, Jathakam. Contact 99860435 /

97102599

DAILY GUIDED4 W E D N E S D AY, O C T O B E R 2 9, 2 0 1 4

DAILY GUIDE

DOMESTIC HELP

DOMESTIC HELP

DRIVER

EDUCATION

SKILLED / UN SKILLED

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION VACANT

MEDICAL

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED

SITUATION WANT-

EDSIT. WANTED

Housemaid for Indian family in

Al-Khuwair. Off er Salary, Visa,

Accommodation, Food, ticket.

Call 99316937.

Required a cook. Contact 99209264

ADMIN/HR

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE DRAUGHTSMAN

DESIGNER

DRIVER

Email: [email protected] classifi [email protected].: 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 /431 / 456 / 461

ENGINEERS/TECH..

ENGINEERS/TECH..

Pakistani male having 2 yrs exp in

light vehicle driving, knows English

& Arabic also looking for job.

Contact 92399605 / 95168660

Light driver looking for job.

Contact 92014540

Bangladeshi male, Light Driver

experience 12 yrs looking for job in

any Company any Offi ce.

Contact 99165961

Light driver seeking job with visa,

10 yrs experience has Dubai License

until 2019, 32 yrs old Bangladeshi.

Contact 93977320

Indian light driver having good

experience wanted urgently job.

known language - English, Hindi &

Arabic. Contact 97366822

Light driver looking for job.

Contact 94216536

Driver require job with visa.

Contact 92073175 / 95803184

Bangladeshi male having 2 yrs exp

in Light Vehicle Driving.

Contact 98487511

5 Years exp light driver. Contact – 95884504

Sri Lankan driver looking for job.

Contact - 97387112

Light driver looking for job, 5 years

exp in Saudi Arabia + Oman 2 yrs.

Contact 96088707

Pakistani male, light duty driver.

Contact 95963682

Experienced Light Driver available.

Contact 95076476

Light driver urgently looking for

driver with offi ce boy job, family,

personal driver. NOC ready. Visa

required. Contact 91291108

2 yrs experience. Release available

& seeking job in any company for

light driver. Contact 93966254 /

95151738

Required Indian driver. Contact

99209264

Wanted driver. Contact 97469823

Risk & Compliance Manager with

10 years experience in International

Bank, currently in Muscat looking for

suitable opportunity.

Contact 91252808.

Email : [email protected]

Sr. Accountant M.Com (Finance),

14 years experience (1 year in Oman)

in fi nance & Accts. NOC available im-

mediate joining. Contact 92404608.

Email : jin_75@rediff mail.com

Indian Male: B.COM, 4 years experi-

ence in Accounts, in Manufactur-

ing Co Oman, Working Knowledge

With Tally ERP- With Oman valid

D/L,Presently working in Muscat

NOC Available Looking for Suitable

position in Reputed Company,

Contact; 95745287 and Email:

raiforeveryone@rediff mail.com

Indian Male, 24 MBA Finance,

1+ years experiences in US Health

Care in Accounts looking for a suit-

able job. Contact 92239445

Sr. Accountant, Indian Male, 35

yrs, B.Com, PGDCA, having 13 yrs

experience in Accounts/Finance up to

fi nalization. 8 yrs in Oman.

Contact 95593273

Indian Female, MBA, Finance,

1 year 6 months experience in Oman

seeking suitable placement.

Contact 97349904.


Looking senior positions for a Char-

tered Accountant (CA) with 12 years

post qualifi cation experience, now

working as head of fi nance at a lead-

ing construction company in Muscat.

Contact:97916442

Indian male, 30 yrs MBA Finance, 5

yrs experience in Accounts, fi nance

and Insurance, well versed in ERP

Tally 9, MS Offi ce, valid Oman D/L.

NOC available. Contact 97366016

ACCA Member, currently working in

UAE as a Senior Accountant seeking a

job in Oman (Pakistani Male). Contact

for details CV 94066698

Female, Indian having 2 years

experience in Muscat, currently on

visit visa seeks suitable placement.

Qualifi cation : B.Com MBA (Finance).

Contact 95742787

Financial Manager, Egyptian, experi-

ence 10+ years. Contact 91676723

28 yrs, female, B. Com, 6.5 years ex-

perience in client servicing in Indian

markets for wealth management,

fi nancial products & Banking domain

knowledge. Excellent communication

skills, seeks immediate placement,

family visa. Contact : 91242128.

B.Com, 16 years experience in Stores,

accounts and procurement seeks

suitable position. Local release

available (NOC). Contact 98606546 /

91680124

Chief Accountant with 20 years

experience in reputed companies

looking for suitable placement.

Contact 97385562

MBA (UK) B.Sc (Hons), 24 yrs male

professional with ACCA background

and Masters in International Busi-

ness Management from UK is cur-

rently seeking employment

on immediate basis.

Contact - +968-97941288,

email : [email protected]

Indian male, 39 years B.Com Gradu-

ate, 10 years experience in Accounts

fi eld looking for a job currently on

visiting visa. Contact 98510225 /

99165117

Indian male, 44 yrs, Account Man-

ager, B.Com & MBA, 20 yrs above

experience, 9 yrs experience seek-

ing suitable position, NOC available,

currently visa expires.

Contact 97438194

MBA, Finance, Indian male, 2 yrs

experience in Accounting experience,

seeks suitable placement.

Contact 92045306

Senior Position for CA with 24 years

of experience: Managing Finance, Ac-

counts, Audit, Bank Loans, Budgeting,

Business planning, Strategy,

Operations management of SAOG,

group of companies. Mobile

91799262

Masters in Banking and Finance,

UK University, 6 months experience

as Account Analyst at UK

seeking suitable position in reputed

companies. Contact 99883502,

97422558

Chartered Accountant with 10 yrs

of Gulf & MNC experience, in depth

knowledge in Financial statements

including consolidation, treasury,

MIS, AR/AP, Insurance, Taxation,

Payroll etc looking for Senior posi-

tion in fi nance, NOC available.

Email : [email protected].

Contact : 96293649

Accountant 10 years Oman exp,

M.Com, upto fi nalization available for

part time works, timing 2 pm to 6 pm.

Contact 96247295

Indian male age 30 having

10 yrs experience in Finance &

Accounts seeking suitable place-

ment. mob.93675399

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

SALES / MARKETING

Reputed building material company looking for outdoorSales executive having valid Omani

driving license with more than 2

years local sales experience in tiles/

sanitary ware.

Please fax your CV to 24798709 /

Email – [email protected]

Requirement: Sales Executive (Building materials/ lightings).

Experience: Candidate having mini-

mum 5 years experience of selling

building materials in Oman. Driving

License: Must Mail your CV to:

[email protected]

Wanted civil Engineer, Civil Fore-man, Blocks and Tile Masons, Shut-tering Carpenter, Email :

[email protected]

5 years experience with Diploma Civil required urgently for an

excellent grade company. Email :

[email protected]

Required Civil Engineer (Diploma) with Oman experience

and NOC. Email –

[email protected]

Civil Engineer with 3 yrs Gulf expe-

rience with Driving License. Send CV

by mail to : [email protected].

Contact 98015925, 95049910

Urgently required Lab Techni-cian either Locum (3 months) or

permanent for a hospital in Muscat.

wanted the following : Gynecologist

(female), Embryologist (Muslim),

Nephrologists, Nursing Superin-

tendant (female), Nurse (female with

MOH license), Dialysis Nurses,

all other medical specialist /

consultants. Email CV :

[email protected]

AUTOCAD DESINGER, 3D, 3DMAX,

REVIT, PHOTOSHOP PH : 93837973

B.Tech, AutoCAD, Indian Electrical 4

yrs experience in designing, drawing,

testing commesioning of transform-

ers D.G. Sets HT Panels, LT Panels,

LT and HT, cable laying looking

immediate placements.

Contact- 94516624.


Urgently required Tile Masons for

an excellent grade company.

Contact 99882565

Required Tailor. Contact 95204145

Electrical cum plumbing foreman capable of handling site by himself.

Free food and accommodation sal-

ary negotiable. Contact – 24811425

/ 99410979

Experienced in fi eld operation – in-

ventory controlling safety & admin-

istration. Holding IOSH & OSHA with

D/L. Contact – 91710274

Indian Female MCA (Computer

Science) looking for placement in

Admin/Purchase/Sales Coordina-

tor/Offi ce, currently on family visa.

Contact 95462266.


Indian female MBA, HR 1 year

experience in India seeking suitable

opportunity. Contact 99889718

Indian male MBA 32 yrs having 10

yrs of exp seeking suitable place-

ment in Admin/ HR/ Operations/

Coordination/ Logistics etc. Holding

valid Oman D/L Contact - 99054786

Indian male, MBA 23 years having

1 year of exp seeking suitable place-

ment in Admin/ HR/ Marketing/ Co-

ordinator/ Logistic etc. #97014369.


MBA, 30 yrs male, Indian fresher

seeks suitable post in HR, Supervi-

sor, Admin. Contact 96329315

Male, 27 years with MBA in HR/

MKT having 2 years exp in respec-

tive fi eld looking for suitable

placement in leading organization.

Contact 91705051

Indian female, 25 yrs, HR, MBA,

Marketing having 2 yrs experience,

residing in Wadi Kabir. Contact

91208916

Experience PRO Oman Male, 36

Yrs, 16 yrs experience in PRO/ HR &

Administration, Prefect English lan-

guage speaking & writing with D/L,

Seeks suitable placement, Can join

immediate. Contact 91221773

Omani female with 9 yrs exp look-

ing for PRO job with Oman D/L.

Contact 97917333

Required Teachers for English,

Physics & Art. Only eligible candi-

date with the required experience

and qualifi cation may apply within

a week’s time at

[email protected]

Urgently required - For a reputed

British English Training Insti-

tute - English Teachers - 02 nos - Candidate should be qualifi ed in

respective fi eld and have experi-

ence min 5 years in TEFL courses

and preparation of certifi cations

like CELTA, TOEFL and IELTS etc.

Interested candidates may send CV

to [email protected]

An Electrical Engineering and Con-

sulting Services Company is looking

for a Dynamic Marketing person; with strong valid contacts in GCC.

Must posses 3-4 years of experi-

ence in the relevant fi eld. Send your

updated resume with latest

passport sized picture at

[email protected]

Fire and Safety Company required

certifi ed, 1. Electrician for fi re con-

trol panel and fi re fi ghting system. 2.Pipe fi tter for fi re fi ghting system

and gas installation. Oman experi-

ence with NOC and Driving license

preferable. Send CV with expected

salary to [email protected]

Required mobile technician for Samsung, Iphone and other

Smartphones.

Contact 97613774

Indian B.Sc. Maths+PGDCA - well

experienced, seeks suitable place-

ment as Admin/Commercial/

Logistic Executive or Document

Controller/Customer Service Execu-

tive; expected on short visit by Nov.

1st Week; Contact 99702383. Email:

[email protected]

Required General Physician, Gynecologist, Lab Technician, Pharmacist, Staff Nurses. Contact 96064925.


Dentist male & female with MOH

License for a polyclinic near Sohar.

Excellent salary, accommodation

and commission.

Contact 99006915,

email : [email protected]

IBH Multispeciality Medical Center- Seeb, requires the follow-ing faculty: 1) General Practitioner. 2) Gynecologist. 3) Dermatologist. 4) Nurse. 5) Pharmacist. E-mail CV : [email protected]

Contact: 97884856

MEDICAL

Part time Accountant with 19 yrs

exp in Accounting Management.

Contact 95857199

Indian Document Controller,

15 years, GCC experience, release

available. Contact 99324617

Accountant 8 years experience in

Oman seeking part time job.

Contact 99867456

Indian female Senior Account-

ant with 10 years experience in

Accounts, Finance, Audit & Tax

Management. Contact 96263157

AutoCAD Draughtsman looking for

suitable position. Contact 94436180

AUTOCAD D/MAN, STEEL STRUC-

TURE, 3 YRS DME, AUTOCAD,

TEKLA , EXP, PH : 93837973

Draughtsman, 2D & 3D (DCSE) with

2 years experience for any vacancy.

Contact 91781227

Autocad d man experienced (arch /

str) revit, 3dmax, Photoshop.

Contact : 93837973

Seeking a good replacement as Ac-

countant in a good organization in

Oman having 4 years experiences

in India and 6 years in Muscat in a

reputed group of companies as senior

accountant. Contact 9512 9352 /

91350411.

18 years of extensive experience in

Sales & Marketing in GCC. Holding

valid Omani driving license & NOC

is available. Fluent in Arabic and

English Language seeking for

a suitable placement.

Contact : 96383958

Indian male, b.com with tally, having

11 years experience in accounting

,looking for a part time job.

contact.96423671

Well experienced Senior Account-

ant seeks part time accounting job.

Contact :98803439

Indian, Female, Pharmacist avail-

able with MOH License, preferably in

Muscat. Contact 94391355.

Indian female B.Com with 5years

experience in accounts/commercial

assistant, having Oman D/L

seeks for suitable placement in

Ruwi /w.kabir surrounding.

Contact: 99665096


Purchase Offi cer Professional, Indian male having 5 Years of Expe-

rience in Oman Having Valid Driving

License working as a purchase of-

fi cer , Looking for a suitable Position,

Contact: 95132564/96456071.

E-mail:[email protected]

Having 17 years experience HR

Management in Oil & Gas Industry

with M.A and an HR Diploma from

American University, I am looking

for an HR Role. Mobile: 99898150.


Indian Female 29 yrs, B-Com Gradu-

ate with Basic Computer Knowledge

and Tally having 6 yrs experience

in accounting, seeking for the place-

ments in Accounts/ HR/ Admin,

Presently on visit visa in Oman.

Contact: 95478149,


Masters in Information Systems

with 10.5 years of experience is

looking for a placement in teaching,

Technical support & System

Administration. Contact: 98502793,

email: [email protected]

Pakistani male 35 years, looking

for suitable placement in accounts,

14 years experience with 2 years

in Oman. Contact 97646927 /

92531035.

Indian male, 27 yrs, NOC available.

Offi ce boy, helper degree B.Com,

exp 1.8 months, Oman. Contact

93764069, room boy (watchman

building maintenance)

Looking for full time/part time job,

cleaning, cooking, personal care

taker, ladies and kids.

Contact 97882204 / 98562066

BE Civil Engineer, fresh graduate,

male 24 yrs, Indian looking for a

suitable placement.

Contact 95117509

Indian male Diploma in Mechani-

cal Fitter (Marine) having 3 years

experience seeking suitable place-

ment. Contact 93435399, 97858235.

Email : [email protected],

[email protected]

Indian female (25), M.Tech

(Electronics/VLSI) seeking place-

ment in Electronics/ Education

(Teaching)/ Admin.

Contact 91712140 / 93937141.


Biomedical Engineer with driving

license, 1 year experience willing to

work out in the fi eld, perfect English

language speaking, writing.

Contact 95902585

Pakistani male 46, welding/me-

chanical/pipeline engineer,25 years

experience,certifi ed welding inspec-

tor, omani driving license,

Contact: 93215186

Senior Accounts Professional,

Indian male, 35 years, M.Com, MBA

(Fin) 8 years in Oman, with valid

Oman DL and NOC available. Capable

to handle accounts up to fi nalization.

Contact 9602 3965.

Indian Male 30yrs,having around

8yrs experience in Sales & Market-

ing & Customer relations, Looking

for immediate placement with NOC

available. Contact 99369497 /

92080354.

Indian male, Accountant , 11 years

experience in accounting, tally, look-

ing for a part time job.

Contact 96423671

B.Tech mechanical Degree Attested

from UAE, Dubai, seeks job as a

Mechanical Engineer or Trainee.

Call.+968 96728279

Having Experience in Junior Sys-

tem Administrator Cybex Solutions,

Cochin, Assembling & Dissembling

PC, A+, Networking Essentials, pres-

ently working in India.

Contact 97239854-Asher


DAILY GUIDESITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED

MISCELLANEOUS

INFORMATION TECH

INFORMATION TECH

EDUCATION

HOSPITALITY

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

MEDICAL

PHARMACIST, D PHARM , EXP,

PROMETRIC OMAN EXAM PASS,

PH : 99506977

Female dentist (BDS, P.G. certi-

fi ed) with MOH license and 5 years

experience (India + Oman) presently

in Oman seeking job as Dentist.

Contact 93471581

Female Dentist, Indian, MOH Pro-

metric Passed, more than 3 years

experience presently in Oman on

visit seeks suitable position.

Contact 99879755 / 92932440,


Senior Staff Nurse with MOH

license and more than 20 years of

experience presently on family visa

seeking suitable placement in

capital area. Contact 99630557

Indian Male GP with MOH License

and NOC, having 10 years of excel-

lent hands on experience in Oman

with corporate culture. # 98140024


Nursing caregiver, qualifi ed Nurse/

Asst. Nurse (male/ female) medical

staff seeks placement for Hospital/

clinic. Contact 92989109 (Oman),

0091 – 9555427742 (India),

[email protected]

Land Surveyor : Indian male, 1 year

experience in India, using total

station, Auto Level and AutoCAD


Contact 95140761, 99208290,


22 yrs female completed MBA

looking for job in any or-

ganization willing persons

can contact:92441525 OR

email:[email protected]

Indian male, senior Miller fl our

mills, 24 yrs exp. including erection

& QC, presently working in India.

Contact 0091 9744167051

27 Years Pakistani male in (Crimi-

nology having 4 years experience in

security and management seeking

suitable placement as security

offi cer. Contact 99191701


Indian male, 3 years experience in

Automobile Service Engineer seeks

suitable placement.

Contact 95936331

Bangladeshi male, Plumbing

Supervisor, 32 years experiences

Mechanical Diploma Engineering

having UAE D/L holder with 24 yrs

practical experience in the Gulf

countries looking for a suitable job.

Contact 97357960 / 91306037

Diploma Civil Engineer looking for

suitable job. Contact 95659028

Indian male - 23 yrs-Mech Engi-

neer-on visit visa-1 year exp-

Contact: 99669889 -


Mechanical Engineer 2 years

experience in HVAC. Now in Oman

on visit. Seeking suitable placement.

GSM:91744764

email: [email protected]

Indian male B.E. Electronics & Com-

munication, from Anna University,

Chennai and also done a BSNL certi-

fi ed optical fi bre optic course on

visiting visa, looking for a suitable

job. Contact 91530768,


Electrical Engineer (24), female,

fresher looking for suitable jobs,

Falaj Al Qabail, Sohar.

Contact 94347258,


Instrumentation Engineer, Indian

male having 2 years experiences in

process instruments seeks suitable

placement. Contact 95954385

Sudanese Mechanical Engineer, male, 5 yrs experience looking for

job in Oman. Contact 91762602

Indian male (23), Diploma in

Computer Engineering, 1.5 years

experience in IT Company in India.

IT skills including Web Design and

Development, Computer Hardware

Maintenance and BPO, looking for

a suitable placement, currently on

visit. Contact 92689778 / 92150123,


Indian Female, University 1st rank

holder in M.Sc Computer Science

seeking for suitable placement

available in Muscat on a visit visa.

Contact 93778682 / 95378696

Telecom Engineer with 8 yrs exp

from India in IT Networking seeks

suitable opportunities now in Oman.

Contact 99002635 Emal :

[email protected]

B.Tech Mechanical Engineer with

Quality Controller certifi cate looking

for a job. Contact 94525819.


Male 26 yrs, B.Tech Engineer (EIE),

with 4 years experience looking for

a good position in oil and Gas fi eld,

automation fi eld, DCS fi eld. currently

on Visit Visa, willing to join immedi-

ately. Contact 92453908, Email I’d:

yousuf_Omair [email protected]

Indian male, Civil Engineer (B.Tech)

with 4 yrs & 6 months experience in

Gulf & India, presently on visit visa,

seeking suitable position at Capital

region in Oman.

Contact 93453417, Email :

[email protected]

Civil Engineer, with 4 year experi-

ence in Gulf as Site Engineer, seeks

suitable position.

Email: [email protected].

Contact: 96305224

BMS CAD Engineer, total 8 years

exp, 3 yrs exp in Oman BMS Design-

ing and drafting Diploma in Mechan-

ical Eng. Looking for BMS designing

and drafting job. Contact 91237089.


Civil Engineer 10 years experi-

ence with valid Omani Driving

License, India No. 00917558957784,

00914742519390

Graduate Mechatronic Engineer with Diploma in product design and

analysis, seeking a job.

Contact – 98584349 /


Electrical Engineer having 2

yrs of experience, substation/

maintenance seeking for suitable

placement. Contact 97698493 /

99253909

MSc. Chemistry Teacher (5 y EXP.)

Pakistani female looking for a job in

School/college 96580101

Indian Male 25 MBA in Sports

Management; Looking for job in

Sports administration/Sports

events/sports facility management

and Sports related Organisations.

Exp. as sports development of-

fi cer in schools,Project Manager in

Syncotts international Bangalore

& part of World Hockey Series of

India-2012 as Production Runner.

Presently on Visit visa in Oman.

Contact; 96398569.


Indian Female 25yrs,

M.Sc (IT)+B. Ed with 2 yrs ex-

perience of full time teaching in

Indian school (Maths, Science and

Computers) seeking for suitable

placement. M: 97065049,

[email protected]

MANAGER/ SUPER

Professionally qualifi ed Manager with Financial and Commercial

experience at a Group level with

diversifi ed operations across the

Middle East. Contact 98480428 ,

[email protected]

General Manager/working partner

20 years advertising agency experi-

ence. Contact 93031168

Purchase & Logistics Manager -

(12 + yrs Exp. in Oman) With D/L,

looking for suitable position.

Contact: [email protected] ,

Gsm: 93826090

Civil Engineer with 8 years experi-

ence and valid Omani D/L looking

for suitable placement. Ready to join

immediately. Contact 95326194 /

99525367

Indian female, Civil Engineer, 10 yrs

experience QS, valid Oman D/L look-

ing for better opportunities.

Contact 95719108

6 years experienced, NET WEB

DEVELOPER (Software Engineer)

available in Oman on visit visa &

looking for opportunity.

Contact 91125896

Civil Engineer, Indian male with 5

yrs experience in building looking

for immediate opportunity.

Contact 99126087

Sudanese Electrical Engineer, Bsc.

Degree with more than 8 Years Ex-

perience in Projects Field available

on Visit Visa 96160749`,


BSc Mechanical Engineer, 6 years experience Master of Project

Management (USA), energy gradu-

ated study. Contact 99487902. Email

[email protected]

Diploma in Electronics Engineering

with 5 years experience in Oman

as Customer Service Coordinator,

Inventory Control and Indoor Sales

Executive seeks suitable job. Speaks

Arabic, English & Hindi.

Contact 95681406.

Email [email protected]

Electrical Engineer, Indian, 2.5

years experience at Thermal Plant,

(erection and commissioning). Now

in Oman on visit seeking suitable

job. Contact 95836714.

Email – [email protected]

Srilankan B.Tech Quantity Surveyor

with 6 years exp (3 yrs GCC) looking

for a suitable placement with NOC.

Contact 98357512.


Mechanical Engineer,(BTech in

Mechanical) with Certifi ed quality

controller - NDT level 2 qualifi ed as

per ASNT - SNT-TC-I A, with

1 & half yr exp. as quality control

engineer, presnetly in India seeks

suitable placement Cont : 95405033

[email protected]

Indian Male, 26 yrs, graduate in

hospitality science, with New Zea-

land business diploma and previous

Oman experience in Customer

service seeks suitable placement in

hospitality/salesmarketing/ logis-

tics/ admin. Contact 91383167

Female 21 yrs, Tally 1 year experi-

ence, looking for visa.

Contact 95330720

Male 22 Housekeeping front offi ce

Hotel management degree course.

Contact 96732520

Civil Engineer 8 years Exp (2 in

Angola with DAR AL HANDASAH, 4

months in Oman) as a site engineer.

He holds a Diploma in project man-

agement, fl uent in English & Arabic.

Contact: 99170315

SALES / MARKETING

SKILLED/UN SKILLED

MBA Graduate with 2 years of

experience as working as Executive

assistant in Dubai is looking for a job

(full time) other than as an Execu-

tive Assistant / Offi ce Assistant.

Contact 91615322

Looking for Sales/Marketing job : Indian male with 5 years experience

& GCC Driving License.

Contact +91 9916918977,


15 years experience in Sales / Mar-

keting FMCG and Building Materials,

Indian male seeking suitable posi-

tion with Oman D/L. NOC available.


10 years Oman experience in Sales

and Marketing with valid D/L and

NOC available from current sponsor.

Can join immediately.

Contact 96491505

Sr. Procurement and logistics Ex-ecutive with 8 years experience (in

middle east), in Oil and gas as well

as Industrial projects and an overall

16 years of total job experience

together in India and Qatar is on the

lookout for a suitable placement.

Valid GCC driving license.

Contact: 91750084

Indian male, 24 years, Com-

pleted MBA(Marketing & HR)

with one year experience in sales,

Now in Oman on visit, seeking

for placement. GSM:94535493,

Email:[email protected]

5 years experience, valid Omani D/L,

4 years warehouse experience look-

ing for good placement. Release letter


Indian male, MBA (USA) having 5

years of International experience in

Sales and Marketing.

Contact 98853309.


Indian male, 26 with own vehicle

and Oman D/L can work in any fi eld

like Sales, Marketing, Technical side,

transportation etc. Contact 91692439

/ 97464052

Indian Male, 25 yrs in FMCG Busi-

ness looking for Senior position D/L

available. NOC available.

Contact 99015946

I have release and want job in any

company. Contact 95151738

Indian female, 32 yrs, MBA

(Marketing), holding Omani D/L

seeks suitable placement.

Contact 95041134.


Indian male, 15 years experience

in Sales & Marketing dealing with

Building Materials, construction

equipments, industrial tools,

automobile, cleaning and agricul-

tural equipments seeking suitable

position with Oman D/L. NOC


24 years Pakistani male having 3

years experience in Pre Sales and

Distribution / Marketing of FMCG

products is looking for a job.

Contact 96955096

Indian male, MBA, 6 years of experi-

ence looking for suitable placement

in Marketing and Sales.

Contact 91780948

MBA with 15+ years of experience

in Senior/Middle Level Mgt in India

and GCC with various MNC’s is on

family visit looking for a suitable

opening. Contact 97330734

Indian male, MBA (Marketing) hav-

ing more than 3 years experience in

Marketing & Sales, currently on visit

visa seeking suitable placement.

Contact 96301626.


Indian Male, MBA in Marketing and

Finance, 10 years’ Sales & Business

Development Experience with valid

D/L of Oman & UAE looking for a

suitable placement. NOC Available.

Contact: 93969961

e-mail [email protected]

Bsc computer-science gradu-

ate, MCSE certifi ed & diploma in

.netframework, Java, SQL, UML,

ASP.NET with good experience as

computer technician, seeking for

suitable position in IT & sales.

Mob: 95853895


B.Sc (Information Technology),

MBA Finance, 26 in search of job.

Accountant, Accounts Executives,

Commercial Assistant. Currently

under visit visa till 20th November

2014 seeks suitable placement.

Contact 92486255

Indian male (34), IT System and

Network Manager, 8 years experi-

ence within Tunisia MS Exchange

SQL Backup Exec, trouble shooting

network on family visa. # 97441102

IT support, 1 yr experience in Oman,

5 yrs in India looking for suitable

job. Contact 97311847

Indian Male 23yrs, BBM With 2.5

yrs of exp. in Sales & Marketing.

Looking for a suitable placement in

sales & Marketing/Counter sales,

Store keeper or Supervisor.

Contact 92092248

WELDER, TIG, ARC, 6G, GULF EXP

PH : 93837973

Welder cum fabricator tig, 3g 6g ,

gulf experienced, PH : 93837973

Indian Male, 28 yrs, having 5

years experience in FMCG Sales in

visit visa, Looking for any suitable

jobs in Oman. Contact 98531486/

98988824

Pakistani male, 30 years looking

for a suitable position in Market-

ing/ Sales having 8 years relevant

experience, Graduate in Business

Administration with fl uent English

in Muscat on visit visa.

Contact 96528508

Sales/ Marketing / customer

service release / NOC available UK

+ Oman experience valid Oman D/L,

excellent communication & organ-

izing skills, can join immediately,

Email : [email protected],

gsm 92342060 / 96761225

SALES / MARKETING

SECRETARIAL

MISCELLANEOUS

MISCELLANEOUS

29 yr old indian male graduate 5yrs

oman exp in sales and marketing

with valid oman driving license

looking for suitable job.Noc available

ready to join immediately

Contact 95136784

Indian male with over 19 years of

qualitative experience in Automo-

bile fi eld, expert in providing techni-

cal advice on repairs and servicing

seeks jobs in sales/ service in ma-

negerial capacity. #91-7736048460.

[email protected]

Indian male 32 Years 6 years expe-

rience in Building material outdoor

Sales with valid Oman D/L.

Contact 97462080

Indian male, 22 yrs, MBA(HR) BCA

looking for suitable position. Pre-

ferred Admin, Accounts, HR, Sales,

Purchase Co-ordinator.

Contact 94512430

Indian male MBA (HR& FIN) exp one

year as HR, EXP now we have visit

visa, looking opportunity in Admin

–HR/ hospitality / purchase, seeking

suitable placement as soon as pos-

sible. Contact 93662430


M. Com/PGDCA having 15 years

of experience in Oman, looking

for a new placement in the fi eld of

Accounts and administration. NOC

available. Contact : 92425421 /

Email: [email protected].

Sr. Accountant M.Com (Finance) 14

years experience (1 year in Oman) in

fi nance & Accounts. NOC available.

Contact 92404608.

Email : jin_75@rediff mail.com

Draughtsman 10 years experience

in Oil/ Gas, looking for suitable job

immediate joining NOC available.

Contact 968 98628657

Email [email protected]

Indian male, 26 Years. AutoCAD

M.E.P. Draftsman (Plumbing &

mechanical) having 4 years Oman

experience. Presently working in a

reputed company in Oman. Seeks

suitable placement.

Contact 97351786 / 96143708.

Accountant 4 years Exp (2 in UAE)

as a Business Developer & HR. CMA

holder, Fluent in English & Arabic.

Contact: 93447760

7 Yrs exp Driver Keralite.

Contact 93412587

Indian male, MBA Having experi-

ence in Accounts, looking for suit-

able job. Contact 92045306

Sudanese Mechanical Engineer, 5 years experience looking for a job

in Oman, male. Contact 91762602

Indian female BE Electrical & Elec-

tronics with 2.8 years of Experience

in Software Company. Presently in

Muscat on Residence Visa, seeking

suitable Placement. Ready to join

immediately. Contact : 93422434,

[email protected]

Civil Engineer 12 years experience

GCC with valid D/L in Oman.

NOC available. Contact 91531213

Indian male, 23, Mechanical

Engineer looking for suitable job

vacancies. Contact 91623313 Email

: [email protected]

Indian male, Diploma in Civil Engi-

neering having 17 years experience

in India & 5 months experience in

UAE, now available in Oman in visit-

ing visa seeking suitable placement

GSM- 93097757,

e-mail :[email protected]

Electrical Engineer with 7 years

experience. Looking immediate

placementPh# 91293519

Indian male B.tech Mechanical

Engineer with 3years experiance

looking for suitable job. Currently

on visit visa. Mob:96268488

[email protected]

Pakistani driver looking for a job.

Contact 99805236

B.Tech Mechanical. Indian male

with 1 year experience in Oman

looking for suitable job. NOC avail-

able. Contact: 96542340.


Indian Male B.E & MBA, 20 yrs expe-

rience in Civil construction including

7 yrs in Oman, Looking for project

manager (Civil) readily available with

NOC. Contact 97906977,


Indian male, B.Tech (Mech), 15 yrs

experience, in Oman more than 3

yrs in Manufacturing Industry with

valid Oman D/L. Exposure in Op-

erations, Quality Management and

Admin seeks suitable placement.

NOC available, can join immediately.

Contact 91301625.

25, Male, ACCA fi nalist, have good

experience upto fi nalisation of

accounts and statutory audit, seek-

ing for part time or project based

job,GSM-97654769,email id-

[email protected]

Having Experience in Junior Sys-

tem Administrator Cybex Solutions,

Cochin , Assembling & Dissembling

PC, A+, Networking Essentials.

PRESENTLY WORKING IN INDIA

Please contact-97239854-Ashe

Sudanese Civil Engineer has

15 years experience in contracting

and construction in Gulf, looking for

a job in Oman, on visit visa.

Contact 95963355

Civil Engineer 8 years Exp (2 in

Angola with DAR AL HANDASAH, 4

months in Oman) as a Site Engineer.

Holding Diploma in project manage-

ment, fl uent in English & Arabic.

Contact: 99170315

North Indian female, Commerce

Graduate with good communication

skills, looking for a job as Reception-

ist / Data Entry Operation / Offi ce

Staff at reputed companies.

Contact 91289686

Microsoft Certifi ed Systems En-

gineer (Hardware)-5 years experi-

enced Systems Engineer (2 years in

UAE as plant IT operations) search-

ing for job in Oman -

Contact 92254218 / 99412003

Searching for job BSC Computer

Science. Contact – 97923444

[email protected]

DAILY GUIDE Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461Fax: 24812624





SITUATION WANTED

*Classifi ed Advertisement space booking with text, should be done till 12.00 noon

for next day’s publication. * Subject to space availability

British Female with 4 years experi-

ence in Oman in Marketing and

Project Management.

Call 00974 3343 7619

Indian Male MBA & PGDFM 26

Yrs. having 3.2 yrs of exp. seeking

suitable placement in Admin/HR/

Accounts/Purchase co-ordinator

etc..Holding valid Oman driving

license. Contact No :93359371

Indian Female, B.Com, Secretarial

skills, MS offi ce, Oracle, 5 years

experience in Oman, as QA/QC As-

sistant, Administrator, Document

Controller, seeking placement.

Contact: 96465391 or

E-mail: [email protected]

Indian female MCA., M. Phil in

computer Science having 5 yrs of

experience in teaching(as Lecturer)

seeking for teaching position in

school or college. Can join im-

mediately. Contact :97765173.

Email:[email protected]

Indian male 23YRS, 4 Years expe-

rienced in Architectural Draughts-

man looking for a suitable Post

GSM:96023726, Email :

[email protected]

Indian Male having 10 years of

Experience in Oman having Valid

Omani Driving license working in

Purchase Dept looking for a suit-

able position. salary is negotiable.

[email protected]

Mob: 94304324/92654817

Female Candidate: Having

experience(ISRO) in Adminis-

tration (seeking suitable op-

portunities &presently in Oman

Mob:97239854,

Mail:[email protected]

Indian male 27 years B.com gradu-

ate 4 years experience as marketing

executive in IT fi eld looking for a

good job in any fi eld.

Contact 98765838

INDIAN female having ten years ex-

perience as cook. South Indian, Gu-

jarathi special. Contact:: 94224512

Homoeopathic Doctor, Indian

Female, with MOH License( to be re-

newed) (Nearly 2 years exp in Mus-

cat, Oman) seeks suitable place-

ment in Clinics/Hospitals in Muscat

area. Please Contact:92975815.

PDO Approved in Contracts, Pro-

curement, Operations, Project Indian

Male PMP, CIPS, PGDBA, DME, Oil &

Gas with Exp-18+ Yrs. & having valid

Oman & PDO D/L Seeking job -

Contact 92560287 /

[email protected]

Senior Accounts Professional, Indi-

an Male, 35 years, M.Com, MBA (Fin)

8 years in Oman, with valid Oman

DL and NOC available. Capable to

handle accounts up to fi nalization.

Contact 9602 3965.


experience(ISRO) in Administration

(seeking suitable opportunities &

presently in Oman

Mob:97239854,


Indian male, 24 years MA Sociol-

ogy (Social science) B-Ed. 2year

experience in teaching, currently

on visit seeking suitable placement.

Contact 91632006, 91397505

Email- [email protected]

Indian Male, MBA Finance, 1.5

years’ experience in Operations and

Customer Service. In Muscat on

Visit Visa till 14th Nov.

Contact: 93755852, Email:

[email protected]

Indian male having 10 years of

experience in Oman having Valid


Purchase Dept looking for a suit-

able position. Salary is negotiable.

[email protected]

Mob: 94304324/92654817

Indian Male, 24 years old on visit

visa, 3 years Diploma in Civil Engi-

neering, 3 yrs experience. #98515106

Indian Male, 24 years old on visit

visa, 3 years Diploma in Civil Engi-

neering, 3 yrs experience.

Contact 98515106

Post graduate in hospitality and

tourism, Indian ,male 26 , looking

suitable placement ,in Muscat on

visiting visa contact 98861272

Communication Manager, pleasing

personality, strong English skills,

highly qualifi ed, Oman experience in

Corporate, Organizational & Market-

ing Communication, Business Devel-

opment, Marketing Press Relations,

Ads, Campaigns, CSR Programs.

NOC. Contact 98179887

Senior Sales & Marketing special-

ist with 14 years of experience

and proven track record in Muscat

looking for a suitable placement in

a reputed Company. Indian Male,

38 years (Electronics Engineer)

preferred industry (Electronics /

Electrical / Electro Mechanical) hav-

ing good exposure in access Control

& Automation systems, Lighting &

Electrical accessories etc.

Contact 92208744.


NDT ASNT Level II (RT,UT,PT,MPT)

Technician having 3 & half yr experi-

ence, seeks suitable placement. Cur-

rently on visit visa. # 94514454,

[email protected]

Indian male 24: Looking for job in

admin /sale/offi ce/customer service/

maintenance etc. Currently on family

visit. Contact:94514201, email id:

[email protected]

28year Indian female (MBA-

Finance) with 3+yrs experience

(Oman) in Accounts is seeking suit-

able placement in Accounts/Admin.

Contact:96141283.

Indian Male, 24 yrs on visit visa,

3 yrs Diploma in civil Engineering,

3 yrs experience. Contact 98515106

23,male, ACCA fi nalist-last paper

left, 2 years of accounts, external &

internal audit and feasibility study

experience in Audit Firm, looking for

permanent replacement, #95140445

email address:[email protected]

Indian male, age 27, having 6 years

experience in fi nance & accounts,

seeking suitable jobs. Ph: 92902651

M.Com Graduate seeking suitable

placement. Contact 99363721

Young male, 22 years, B. Arch. gradu-

ate with 7 months training experience,

seeks suitable entry-level position

in an architecture fi rm or architec-

ture and engineering consultancy.

Currently on visit visa, ready to join

immediately. Phone no. 91265929


Indian Male, Purchase/Procurement

Offi cer with 16 years experience,

presently working in UAE,


Contact: 00 971 55 3390 467

Mail: [email protected]

Indian Female Lawyer 36 yrs hav-

ing 10 yrs experience presently in

Oman seeks suitable placement in

Legal fi eld/HR/Admin # 94436960


CIVIL ENGINEER (Diploma) Male

25, 3 years experience in site, CAD,

3d, MS Project, seeking job in

Oman.#92887561,

[email protected]

Diploma in Civil Engineering, site

engineer with Auto Cad (Civil & MEP),

Total Station, Theodolite, Dumpy

level, etc., having 4 years experience

in Oman with Omani LMV Driving

License, Seeking suitable chances.

Contact:- 0091 9744851943(India),

00968 99416057(Oman)

Female Dentist with MOH li-

cense, 4 years experience look-

ing for work as dentist in Muscat.

Contact 91268110/99884299 or

+639274302729

8 yrs exp 2d, 3d draughtsman

(HOLDING OMANI DRIVING LICENSE)

seeking job. Contact : 97449630

B.E(Civil), Indian male with 1 year

of experience, on visit visa seeking

for a suitable job. Contact 91231972,


Indian Male 25, Offi ce Administra-

tor/Assistant, 2 years experience in

Oman, Well versed with Computer

operation and basic knowledge

in Computer Software and Hard-

ware, seeks immediate change.

NOC available. Contact: 94024096

Eamil:[email protected]


experience (ISRO) in Administration

(seeking suitable opportunities &

presently in Oman Mob:97239854,


Female/29 yrs old/MSC Biotechnol-

ogy& pursuing Phd /4 yrs total exp/

Seeking for a suitable placement/

Contact No :- 95925881

Indian Female 23, BE Electronics

and Communication, First Class with

distinction, C,C++,VHDL. Currently

on family visa, looking for suitable

placement in electronics division or

associated areas. Contact : 98952340

Indian Male, 39, graduate 17 years

experience in FMCG sales and mar-

keting Managerial and supervisor

level. With driving license also know

all over Oman include Mazira Island

and Casabu, looking for better Op-

portunities -Mob-92090949

Indian Male seeking a job in Sales

& Marketing, 11 years experience

proven experience as a dynamic

candidate with excellent Manage-

rial & Communication skills. Cur-

rently on visit Contact 99363159,

94093154 [email protected]

8 yrs exp 2d, 3d draughtsman cum

site supervisor (HOLDING OMANI

DRIVING LICENSE) seeking job.

Contact : 93790601

Finance Manager/Administrator,

Male 40, MBA-Finance & Marketing,

with over 20 years’ experience in

large multinational organizations.

Excellent project management skills.

Seeking to continue career at Senior

level. Contact: 97436065. Email:

[email protected]

Electronic Engineer, 23, looking for

suitable placement.# 96271586

Female staff nurse with Oman

Prometric passed, seeking suitable

placement, currently on visit visa.

Contact 97803046

Electronics Engineer, experience in

Siemens Scada PLC. On visit. Looking

for suitable job. Contact: 96271586

Filipino Female photographer/ graphic designer / receptionist

looking for suitable job in Muscat.

Contact: +971 563749414

Indian Female 30yrs, MCA, working

as Computer Teacher in India & Mal-

dives looking for Job in Oman now on

Visit Visa, CTC No. Mob 95083454,

[email protected].

Indian male Commerce Graduate

with 8 years experience in stores

and logistic, fl uent English currently

in Muscat on visit visa till November

17th 2014.seeking for suitable place-

ment. Contact 99849247.

E mail - [email protected],

[email protected]

Indian male graduate 17 years ex-

perience in fmcg sales distribution

with valid driving license seeking

suitable placement

Contact. 92090949

Young male, 22 years, B. Arch. gradu-

ate with 7 months training experience,

seeks suitable entry-level position in

an architecture fi rm or architecture

and engineering consultancy.

Currently on visit visa,

ready to join immediately.

Contact:: 91265929


Indian male Commerce graduate

with 8 years experience in stores and

logistic, working knowledge in SAP &

ERP, fl uent English, currently in Mus-

cat on visit visa till 17th November

2014, seeking for Suitable placement

Contact no 99849247

email - [email protected],

[email protected]

Diploma in civil engineering having

an experience 23 years (19 years

in Oman) experience in Estimator /

quantity surveyor looking for a

suitable placement,

willing to join immediately

Contact : 96328687.

26 years Indian male with MBA &

PGDFM, Total 3.2 years experience in

administration and accounts .seek-

ing suitable placement in Muscat,

having Oman valid driving license.

Contact :93359371.

MBA Finance, 5 Years’ experience in

Accounts, Finance & Administration ,

with Valid UAE D/L

Contact 96970930

Indian male, 24 yrs, MBA in HR/

Marketing. More than 1 years experi-

enced in retail Banking (Axis Bank)

Presently in family visit in Oman

seeking for a suitable placement

Contact : 99892082 / 997 43 709

Indian female having ten years

experience as cook. South Indian,

Gujarathi special.

Contact:: 94224512

A female with a B.Sc Business

Management Degree, specialized in

Human Resource Management cur-

rently living in Sri Lanka seeking for

a suitable position in Oman.

Contact:: 9801 1529

SIT.WANTED


DAILY GUIDESITUATION WANTEDCARGO

Dolphin Watch, Dhow Cruise with

Buffet, & Land Tours

Al- Ainain Marine Tours Contact-

98029602, 92808636

TOURS

RENT A CAR

TRANSPORTATION

TRANSPORTATION

Transportation available.

Contact 95068976

Transportation. Contact

99542393

Transportation. Contact 94122131

Transport. Contact 99664703


99508282

Transportation for women only

from Muscat area only. Contact

97007934 / 92629232




96538078

BUSINESS

Increase your income on commis-

sion basis with our landscaping &

gardening services provided for

big, small projects & maintenance

contracts. Contact +968 99242207


We want to buy car workshop any

place in Oman or any other good

running business up to RO 20,000.

Please contact 99157377,


*Classifi ed Advertisement space booking with text, should be done till 12.00 noon for next day’s publication. *

Subject to space availability

Transportation. Contact:

97897833

Transportation Available Contact:

97180655

GOOD NEWS

Ayurvedic treatment for backache,

paralysis, arthritis etc & massage,

All Season (Vaidyaratnam).

Contact 24475280 / 95371554 /

92504980 , www.siddhayur.com

Ayurvedic treatment for joint

pain, backache, paralysis massage,

steambath, obesity, spondylitis,

IDEAL CARE Ayuvedic Clinic,

18 November Street Azaiba.

Contact 99639695

FREE INFORMATION ABOUT ISLAM. If you would like to know

more about Islam, please call:

99425598, 96050000, 99353988,

99253818, 99341395, and

99379133. For ladies: 99415818,

99321360, 99730723

Orvisit: www.islamfact.com

Genuine Ayurvedic treatments

& massage, ayurvedic clinic at

Al Khuwair. Contact 24478618 /

97263637/ 93309131

SIT.WANTED

SIT.WANTED

INDIAN, B.E. MECHANICAL ENGI-

NEER, 2 yrs job experience in Oman

in pipeline fi eld, fl uent in English,

Gujarati, Hindi and Marathi, with

valid oman driving license (light),

searching for a new job.

Contact no-+968 92745691

Indian, Female, Pharmacist avail-

able with MOH License, preferably in

Muscat. Contact 9439 1355.

PDO Approved - Indian Male PMP,

CIPS, PGDBA, DME, Oil & Gas/Con-

struction with 18+ Yrs. in Contracts,

Procurement, Operations, Project

with valid Oman-PDO D/L seeking

job - Contact 92560287

Indian 34M with 14 years experi-

ence in Business development /

Sales / Marketing looking for

challenging role. Contact 9367 8885

Mail: [email protected]

Indian male having 5 Years of Expe-

rience in Oman Having Valid Driving

License working as a purchase of-

fi cer ,Looking for a suitable Position,

Contact: 95132564/96456071

E-mail:[email protected]

Indian Male, 23, MBA in Marketing.

More than 1 years experienced in

the Axis Bank Presently in family

visit in Oman Looking for a suitable

vacancy Contact : 997 43 709

Printing professional, having 20

yrs experience in Gulf / Africa with

NOC seeks suitable placement.

Contact 95427923,


Part- time accountant available.

Contact ; 98803439

Indian Male looking for job in mar-

keting/sales/operations with 10yrs

experience as a dynamic candidate,

with excellent communication skills.

Please contact 93506291.

Senior Accounts Professional, Indi-

an Male, 35 years, M.Com, MBA (Fin)

8 years in Oman, with valid Oman

DL and NOC available. Capable to

handle accounts up to fi nalization.

Contact 9602 3965.

Sudanese.male 31years.B.SC Me-

chanical Engineer.5years experi-

ence, working now in water pipeline

project, fl uent Arabic and English,

have Omani driving .looking license,

looking for good opportunity

TEl: 91117089

Indian Male having 10 years of

Experience in Oman having Valid


Purchase Dept looking for a suitable

position. salary is negotiable.

[email protected]

Mob: 94304324

Microbiologist having 13 years

experience in Pharmaceutical/Food

Beverage Quality Assurance. on

FAMILY VISA. Currently search-

ing a suitable Job in Oman. e-mail:

[email protected] , Mobile in

Oman: +96892068377

Bangladeshi Male, Seeking Offi ce

Boy position in Oman.

Contact 97451456

Indian Male PMP, CIPS, PGDBA,

DME, Oil & Gas with 18+ Yrs. in

Contracts, Procurement, Operations,

Project, seeking job -

Contact 92560287

Indian Female 25 yrs, Bsc.(Physics)

Bed. 2 Yrs experience in teaching,

currently on visit

seeking suitable placement .

Contact 98217776 Email:

[email protected]

Indian Female, B.Sc Maths Resid-

ing in Al-Ghubra, having 2 years of

experience in teaching. Looking for

school. Ph. 94231633

28 year Indian female (MBA) with

3+yrs experience (oman) in Accounts

is seeking suitable placement in Ac-

counts/Admin. # 96141283

MEP Project Manager Engineering

Degree holder with 16 years of expe-

rience in Engineering, Contracting

and Execution of Building, Infra-

structure and Industrial Construc-

tion seeks suitable job. Valid D/L,

NOC available Contact 95689623

GP Male doctor with Valid Oman

MOH license, looking for suitable

placement. Contact Mob: 97063454

Telecommunication and Electron-

ics Engineer Seeking for suitable

Placement, with valid Omani Driving

License. professional and

experienced individual.

Call 99013323

Indian male 11 years experience in

sales and marketing having D/L of

Oman looking for a suitable place-

ment. Contact: 98125746,


Admin Executive, 31, Indian Male,

having 8+ years exp. in reputed

companies. Seeking suitable place-

ment in any gulf region. Contact

+968 99276601 & 97693456. email :

[email protected]






CLASSES

WEBSITE

WEB, ERP and Business Intelli-

gence (BI) creation and man-

agement at rock bottom price.

Contact: http//webviewoman

COMPUTER

SITUATION WANTEDSERVICES

GULF INTERNATIONAL LLC

all kind of pest control. # 92326955

Civil maintenance, Electrical &

Plumbing work. Contact 99557080 /

96236476

Truck body making, Misfah

Industrial Area. Contact 92326955.

BRIDGE GULFA LLC

House Shifting. Contact 99708138

GUARANTEED CLEANING: Carpet & sofa shampooing,

Contact 99314807/24792998

MARBLE CRYSTALLIZATION restore the original shine of your

marble. Contact 24793614/

99314807

Pest Control Treatments, termites,

cockroaches, bedbugs. Oman

Center LLC - Contact 99344723

Carpet and Sofa shampooing.

Oman Center LLC – Contact

99884591

Building construction & mainte-

nance. Contact 95659028

For All Your Maintenance Solutions,

A/c Servicing & Fixing, Painting,

Cleaning, Electric.

Contact No. 99002390

Civil Maintenance, Painting Elec-

tric, Plumbing, Decor, Tile Fixing,

Lecithin Copra Board fl at stifl ing ,

Carpet Cleaning and A/C Servicing.

Contact 97897831 (Indian keralite)

House shifting & transporting.

Contact 92490422

Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles

polishing, carpet shampooing,

maintenance. Contact ABU QA-

BAS- 99320217 /24788722

Split & window A/C servicing &

repairing. Contact 99557080

A.M Trading Pest control.Contact 99067923

Painting Interlock plumbing

maintenance. Contact 92142319

For HT cable jointing and

termination works 33KV/11KV.

Contact 99056438 /


Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles

polishing, carpet shampooing,

maintenance. Contact ABU QA-

BAS- 99320217 /24788722

Door to Door Computers repair

specialist laptop software Website

cartridges. Contact 99199376

Carpet Shampoo, marble & tile pol-

ishing, pest control & anti-termite

treatment, general cleaning paint-

ing, Plumbing, Electrical, shifting.

Contact Mundhir Al-Rizaiqi trading.

L.L.C. # 24810137, 99450130

Catering services We do industrial

catering service, Canteen/ mess,

3 times packed meals,

and all types of catering events.

Contact 92188777/ 99249899

Water proofi ng ABUQABAS-

Contact 99320217/24788722

Learn Driving from professional

instructors. Contact 94022250

Learn driving automatic from

scratch. Contact 98599675

DRIVING

Civil maintenance, Electrical &

Plumbing work. Contact 99557080 /

96236476

Electrical Plumbing Painting

Contract and Maintenance.

Contact 98456535

Waterproofi ng, light weight Screed,

Antitermite and MS Fabrication.

Contact 92888337

Waterproofi ng, light weight Screed,

Antitermite and MS Fabrication.

Contact 92888337

Window & split unit A/C servicing

& maintenance. Contact 96236476

Split & window A/C servicing &

maintenance. Contact 93769089

FOR HIRE

TRUCK FOR HIREIsuzu 10 ton cargo body truck

(2012 FVR) with UAE experienced driver

available for long term / short term rent.

Contact: 95346950

Cuplock System Scaff olding. Contact 99828343

We provide all heavy duty equip-

ment, tractor & trailers & all type

of trucks. Contact 97722507

Running truck wash for rent in

Ouhi Sunia Sohar. Serious people

can. Contact on 97864747

50 seater bus with PDO specifi ca-

tion for rent or lease.

Contact 99839898

MANPOWER

Housemaid , driver/operator (heavy & light Gulf D/L), house boy, cleaner, all skilled and unskilled cat-

egories process, (embassy agreement

and immigration). Contact 95175192,

EMAIL. [email protected]

MATRIMONIAL

Mangalore Sunni Muslim, seek-

ing suitable bride (preferably from

Dakshina Kannada) for their son

working as Logistics Manager.

Contact 92198085

*Classifi ed Advertisement space booking with text, should be done till 12.00 noon

for next day’s publication. * Subject to space availability

times of oman

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