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SATURDAY, July 25, 2015 / 8 Shawwal 1436 AH timesofoman.com wtimesofoman.com facebook.com/timesofoman twitter.com/timesofoman blog.timesofoman.com ISO 9001:2008 Certified Company

HM sends greetingsMUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has sent a cable of greetings to President Abdulla Ya-meen of Maldives on his country’s National Day. In his cable, His Majesty the Sultan has expressed his sincere greetings and wishes of good health and happiness to the president and his country’s people further progress and prosperity.

His Majesty the Sultan has also sent a cable of greetings to Presi-dent Beji Caid Essebsi of the Tu-nisian Republic on his country’s Republic Day anniversary. In his cable, His Majesty the Sultan has expressed his sincere greetings and wishes of good health, happi-ness and a long life to the president and his country’s people further progress and prosperity. —ONA

M A L D I V E S , T U N I S I A

A Renaissance Day gift to OmanSPORTS REPORTER

MUSCAT: Oman Cricket deliv-ered a perfect Renaissance Day gift to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said and the nation, by clinch-ing the World T20 Championship berth at the ongoing ICC World T20 Qualifier being jointly host-ed by Scotland and Ireland on Wednesday.

On a day when Oman annu-ally marks the advent of its glo-rious Renaissance, the national team scripted a new chapter in the Oman’s cricket history with a victory over the experienced Na-mibia, thereby sealing a spot in the ICC World Twenty20 tournament to be hosted in India next year.

Remember, no Omani national team had ever made it to the world

championships in recent times, make it over a decade, barring the beach soccer, handball teams and tent pegging teams.

It is truly a historic achieve-ment, but what made it more sig-nificant is the way it was achieved.

The Sultanate squad had al-ready made its mark at the quali-fier with stirring performances, humbling fancied teams like the Netherlands and Afghanistan.

But against Namibia, it was a do-or-die battle for the sixth and final qualifying berth.

It was a pressure cooker situ-

ation, and the tension was pal-pable. But these were a bunch of cricketers who, under the tutelage of Sri Lankan great Duleep Men-dis, learnt to deal with all sorts of pressure.

That is not to say that the team was not affected by the situation. They were. In both the innings, they committed some cardinal er-rors, but they showed character to fight back.

Initially, they dropped a few easy catches, but they managed to restrict the Namibians to 148 for nine in 20 overs.

Then they survived some tense moments in their ‘chase for glory’, which they achieved scoring 150 for five in 19 overs, thanks to some lusty blows from man of the match Zeeshan Ahmed Siddiqui. >A11

Drop in Shura candidates no sign of waning interest

SARAH MACDONALDsarah@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: A sharp decrease in the number of candidates vying for the Majlis Al Shura is not an indication that people are losing interest in Oman’s political sys-tem, according to experts.

There are 674 candidates on the final list for this year’s elec-tions, according to the Ministry of Interior — 40 per cent fewer than the 1,113 candidates who stood for election in 2011.

While this may seem like a sign people don’t care about the elec-tions, this is actually a return to normal after a politically-charged year in 2011, says Ahmed Al

Mukhaini, a lawyer and political analyst. In 2007 there were 631 candidates.

“If you look at the previous elec-tions they are at the same rate. 2011 was an exception years. It was a year of political activity and people realised the role of Majlis Al Shura and they realised it can be a channel for social mobility,” Al Mukhaini told Times of Oman.

In 2011, a year which saw pro-tests in Sohar and other places around the country, His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said extended the application period for Majlis

Al Shura candidates. Providing more opportunity to run in the Majlis Al Shura elections was a way to diminish the conflict and defuse the anger, explained Al Mukhaini.

“After the 2011 events, His Maj-esty opened the candidacy again. That’s why you have double the number,” he said.

This year 857 nationals applied as candidates, 21 women among them, for the 85 seats. Of those who initially applied 174 did not meet the criteria, withdrew their applications, or died, leaving a fi-

nal list of 674 candidates, accord-ing to the Ministry of Interior.

“We know there was a lot of controversy about this, but I talked to someone from the State Council and they said there was a lot of misunderstanding around this issue. It was not necessar-ily related to political issues but technicalities,” explained Dr Leon Goldsmith, Professor of Political Science at SQU.

The Basis Statute of Oman states that the candidate must be an Omani national by ori-gin, at least 30 years of age, have

completed high school, not have a criminal record, not affiliated to a security or military author-ity, not interdicted by a judicial judgment and not suffering from a mental illness.

“It’s the same in any country. Candidates are vetted accord-ing to their application or if they haven’t paid the fees or they have a conflict of interest. We shouldn’t read too much into that at this stage,” Goldsmith added.

He said some potential candi-dates may not run because if they win, they would have to resign from their government or private sector jobs so they could be avail-able for the sessions and to con-sult with their constituents for the four-year term.

Tawfiq Al Lawati, a member of the Majlis Al Shura for Muttrah, said the decrease in number of candidates doesn’t reflect a wan-ing interest since there are still many candidates in each wilayat and there will be competition for the seats.

“Even in some small wilayats where there are only 100 voters or 300 voters, you would see there are five or 10 candidates,” he said.

Al Lawati attributes the lower number of candidates to the fact that people who may have consid-ered running in the elections took more time to reflect on what it takes to win and thought careful-ly about whether they should go through the process or not, where-as in 2011 there were more people making impulsive decisions.

“I think people have become more realistic about their chances and that it takes effort,” he said.

Political analysts see

the decrease in the

number of candidates

for Shura elections to

a period of normalcy

after the surcharged

atmosphere of

2011 and the tough

eligibility criteria to

contest the elections

FAHAD AL GHADANIfahadnews@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: Two of the seven Emiratis, who went swim-ming in the sea off Al Dimr in the wilayat of Mirbat in Dhofar governorate, are still missing, said the Public Authority for Civil Defence and Ambulance (PACDA).

The other five are safe, it said. Rescue operations are still on as the PACDA has requested a helicopter from Oman’s Royal Air Force to help in the search of the two missing persons.

PACDA clarified that the two drowned due to high undertows.

In an earlier incident, an ex-patriate drowned in Wadi Shab in the wilayat of Tewi in Sharqi-yah region recently. Thereafter, the Ministry of Tourism made the decision to station patrols at the well-known tourist attrac-tions in Al Sharqiyah.

Rescue teams are now on-site at Mughsayl in the Dhofar gov-ernorate, and they plan to post personnel at Wadi Bani Khalid to help prevent drowning inci-dents during the holidays.

D R O W N I N G I N C I D E N T

Decline in Majlis Al Shura nominees

Source: Ministry of Interior Graphics

20112007

1,500

02015

631

1,113

Number of candidates

674women applied

for 85 seats

21

did not meet the criteria

174

857nationals

filed papers9

withdrew

674candidates on

the final list

candidates5 to 10are contesting in some small wilayats having between100 and 300 voters

TOUGH CONTEST: Tawfiq Al Lawati, a member of the Majlis Al Shura for Muttrah.

Gold price dip spurs sharp rise in salesTimes News Service

Muscat: With gold prices dipping to a five-year low early this week, there has been a big jump in jewel-lery sales, according to shopkeep-ers in Muscat.

On July 20, the gold rate for 22 carat was OMR13.850 per gram. On Thursday, the gold price was OMR13.650.

Speaking to the Times of Oman, Muhsin P, deputy head, Malabar Gold said, “We are seeing a surge in sales with the gold price re-maining low. We saw a hundred per cent increase in customer flow to our showrooms compared to the same period last year. The low gold prices have been a factor in driving our sales.”

Varghese T A, manager, main shop, Joyalukkas Jewellery, said, “The steepest five-year fall in global gold prices on Monday might be a bit too late for holiday shoppers to rejoice, but it turned out to be a boon for all retailers hit by a dismal sales during the tradi-tionally peak season of June and July. We faced an average 25 per cent plunge in sales in the normal-

ly brisk pre-holiday trading period of June and July, so the dramatic price dip has worked in our favour to reignite consumer demand and lure shoppers to our outlets.”

Muhsin P also noticed that most of the buyers were looking at it as an investment.

“We have noticed that most of them were buying gold coins and bars, which means they were buy-

ing these as investors,” he said.For some, the low prices pre-

sented a good opportunity to plan the purchase of gold for the up-coming Indian festive season.

Varghese said, “The decline in gold price usually drives retail jewellery demand and that has been the trend over the years. However, the sharp decline will translate into incremental sales

only if it sustains itself for a few days.”

“At the moment, the gold price is fluctuating constantly. We are yet to see if the sudden decline has encouraged retail activity substantially, and it is too early to draw any conclusions. How-ever, we have witnessed a good response from the shoppers also because of our ‘Joyalukkas Drive Your Dream’ summer promotion,” he noted.

Varghese added, “The current plunge had been triggered by in-vestors who turned to the US dol-lar, which rose on the likelihood of the Federal Reserve raising in-terest rates because of a stronger US economy. Investors buy gold during times of uncertainty. Mon-day was the first time gold traded below the level of $1,100 since March 26, 2010. The decline also comes after China’s central bank indicated its gold reserves were at half the expected levels.”

He also added, “Gold’s fall has been exacerbated by a slide in China’s stock market, as few peo-ple have the cash to buy the yellow metal.”

S A L E P I C K S U P

RISING DEMAND: It is a boom time for gold retailers.

Summer tips

by@winieariany23

1Stay hydrated

Put AC onFill the bath tubwith cold water

LIFESTYLE B7

S AT U R DAY, J U LY 2 5, 2 0 1 5

Omani Sunny Days

Crossword Puzzle

Q u e s t i o n s & A n s w e r sIt’s better not to argue with...Elders

One thing that puts me off...When I don’t get good sleep

One movie/book I can watch/read over and over again...Fast and Furious 7

When I’m in doubt... I search in wikipedia

If I met an alien I would... Ask him to give me a tour of the galaxy

I go crazy when...My tab gets stuck

The scariest thing that I have done... Opening the car door while the car was moving

If I win a lottery...I would go crazy

If I could go back in history, I would liket

AN

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IT WAS 6 in the morning and a light rain had started outside. Rabia, wanted to wake up her niece Amina, because she knew Amina loved the rains, she stood outside Amina’s door and considered letting her sleep in-stead. She raised her hand to knock

on the door, and jumped with surprise when it suddenly swung open.“Aunty, you saw the rains?” Ami-na said excitedly. “Yes dear, and it reminds me of

my childhood,” Rabia grinned. “Even though it hardly rained in Muscat, it rained quite a lot in Sumail where my grandparents lived.”Rabia sat on Amina’s bed and

continued. “All our friends would go out and get drenched till my mother would yell for us, saying come inside or else you will catch a cold.” “And would you always listen to

granny?’ Amina asked.“Most of the time, but your father wouldn’t. He loved being out in the rain, especially on the stoop in front of our house. He would be there for hours until our mother would find him and force him to get in,” she said, shaking her head with a smile. “But one day he caught a terrible cold, and after that, he began to listen.“Aunty! I have a wonderful idea,”

Amina said, “Let’s plan an outing to Kalbouh Park.” “Okay, we will go after the rain

stops,” Rabia said. She picked up the phone and called some friends to join them.

Rabia and Amina spent the af-

ternoon savouring the rain from their covered patio, snacking on fresh baked rolls and warm milk and tea.Then, just as Rabia was be-ginning to doze off, Amina woke her

with a jolt.“The rain has stopped aunty! Can

we go to Kalbouh Park now?” “Okay dear, let’s go,” Rabia laughed. When they arrived, Amina ran to meet her friend Zahara. Even through the girls studied in different schools, they have been great pals since they were born. Rabia sat with Zahara’s mother,

Mariam, and Zara, who’s two boys, Ali and Ahmed ran to meet Moham-med, who had just arrived with his

mother Juweina and his new one-year-old baby sister. Rabia stood and called the chil-dren over. “Everyone stay close and be careful on the swings and seesaw, they are still slippery from the rain. Whatever you do, don’t go anywhere by yourself, all alone,” she said.“Okay, go play and have fun.”Amina and Zahara walked down

by the water, while the boys yelled

excitedly and ran around the park chasing one another. “Ta’al! Come for ice cream,” Zara

called. Amina and Zahara rushed back with the other children. They all excitedly ate their ice cream, chasing the drips down the cones and shrieking as the sticky drops es-caped onto their hands.“Where’s Ali?” Zara suddenly

asked. Ahmed, her elder son, looked down at his feet. “He missed the ice cream...do

yo know where he is Ahmed?” she asked, her worry growing.“He was playing with us mum.

Then suddenly he saw some boys on roller-skates and he ran behind them. I told him not to go but he didn’t listen to me,” Ahmed said qui-etly as thick, dark clouds began to

fill the sky. “We should head off back home before it starts pouring,” said Rabia. “Ali! Time to go,” Zara called, looking around frantically.“Wait here,” Rabia said, as she

and the moms headed into the park to look for Ali. Everyone yelled out Ali’s name,

but there was no reply and no trace of him. After half an hour, Zara burst into tears. “I know Ali can be naughty and disobedient, but I have never lost track of him like this. I am so worried,” she said while wiping her tears.“Don’t worry mum we will find

him,” Ahmed tried to comfort her. It started drizzling, as they had feared. “Juweina take the other chil-dren to the car so no one falls ill,”

Rabia said. “We will stay and look for little Ali.” As they began to head for the car,

Amina heard a whimper and a rustle in the bushes. She broke away from the group to go investigate.She pushed aside the leaves and

saw Ali, sitting on the ground crying. “Ali!” she exclaimed. And the others ran over to join them. “Where did you go? I was so wor-ried,” his mother said, as he ran into

her arms. “I’m sorry mum, I was chasing some boys on their roller skates. But I lost track of them and couldn’t find the way back,” Ali whimpered.“Your brother told you not to go,

and we told you not to go away on your own,” she scolded. “What if something bad happened to you and we couldn’t find you?”He listened quietly.“If you had listened, you could

have been playing nicely and eating ice cream with everyone else in-stead of wandering alone.” “I will listen next time, I prom-ise,” said Ali, hugging his mother

tightly. As Rabia and Amina drove away, Rabia began to laugh. “What’s funny aunty?” Amina asked. “I think Ali is much like your fa-ther, and you are like me. Some peo-ple can learn from words and warn-ings and other people learn from

their mistakes. But eventually we all learn to listen to those who love us.” Amina smiled proudly the rest of the way home. swati@timesofoman.com

STORYTIME

By Swati Dasgupta

Learning to Listen

One skill I would like to learn...Computer lan

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COMFamilySECTIONBL I F E S T Y L E

S AT U R DAY, J U LY 2 5, 2 0 1 5

Make note of your

inventory. School lists often carry over each school

year, so make sure you aren’t buying multiples of

things you already own. Some supplies are more

exciting when refreshed every year, but buying the

same old boring ruler year after year is simply a

waste of money. Then, put everything you need on

that list. Having a complete list helps ensure nothing

vital is forgotten, and the list can serve as a handy

tool to keep your budget in check.

Hunt bargains before the traditional

back-to-school season to get the best deals. Not only

will you save some cash, shopping before the rush

will give you a wider selection to choose from, so

you’re sure to find the items you need in the styles

you (and your kids) want. Spreading the shopping

over several weeks also allows you to distribute the

expense across several pay periods, helping lessen

the chance that you blow your monthly budget with

one mega shopping excursion.

It seems that kids are

forever trading with their friends, so embrace that

mindset and see what exciting new treasures you can

find for your kids to call their own. Host a swap event

with other moms where you can exchange clothing,

backpacks, shoes, and supplies. Maybe someone over-

purchased pens, but forgot paper, perhaps someone’s

child rejected the brand new backpack that was pur-

chased for her. One mom’s headache is another mom’s

salvation. As a bonus, these get-togethers are a great

way to build community with other parents.

Involve your kids in the back-to-school shopping

process by giving them a budget. Help them allocate

money for all the expenses, including clothing, school

supplies, shoes and more. Use the opportunity to talk

about how shopping smart for the necessities can leave

room for some fun buys, too.

While it’s tempting to go

for the cheapest products when your list is long,

remember that sometimes quality buys actually

save more in the long run. You can buy a ton of

cheap pens that skip, or simply stop working, or

you can look at alternatives that are affordable, but

better quality.

You may find that your kids consistently run out

of certain items midyear. Devote a special area

of your home to keep extras in stock, and take

advantage of sales, buying extra essentials during

back-to-school season or buying in bulk for

a better price.

Save plastic and

money by encouraging kids to embrace reusable

items, such as lunch boxes in place of paper sacks,

and plastic containers instead of sandwich bags.

If water bottles are allowed at school, look for a

durable refillable option that can be used again and

again. This helps reduce waste and will save you

money as well.

You can also turn barely used items into some-

thing new by decorating or adding stickers. Not

only is this a fun activity that can help get the kids

excited about and engaged in planning for the year

ahead, it’s easy on the budget and eco-friendly. Keep

leftover supplies on hand to revive the enthusiasm

with fresh designs at the end of the quarter or

semester.

Though back-to-school

shopping can be fun, it can also be overwhelm-

ing. So ask yourself: Are you better at doing all

of your shopping all at once, or would you rather

make separate trips throughout a couple of weeks

to ease the stress? There is no one “right” way to

tackle back-to-school shopping; just go with what

works best for you. — Family Features

Making the Most of

Back-to-School Shopping

While kids and parents alike eagerly await the fresh start of a new school year, the back-to-school season

is not without its share of stressors for busy families. The start of school means new schedules, teachers,

shoes, backpacks and friends; as well as new academic challenges.

Adding some fun and excitement to the newness can help smooth the way. For example, allowing kids to help choose their

outfits for the first day of school can help diffuse that nervous anticipation. Similarly, the chance to put a fresh set of pens to use

or show off a cool new notebook can provide a distraction from those first-day jitters.

Ease the back-to-school shopping burden, perhaps even making it a fun experience, by following a few of these tips.

3Put AC onFill the bath tubwith cold water

Crossword Puzzle

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One movie/book I can watch/read over and over again...ast and Furious 7

I go crazy when...My tab gets stuck

scariest thing I have done...ng the car door the car was moving

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— Family Featuresurerere B5Making the most of back-to-school shopping

OMANInnovative children’s art workshop

1Old cardboard boxes and newspaper found new life as decorations and household objects thanks to an innovative children’s art workshop held recently at Musc Art Gallery in Ghubrah. >A2

OMANSouqs relive heritage

2Oman is known for its unique souqs — the traditional markets where

one can find Omani items. >A3

REGIONTurkey hits IS targets

3Turkish warplanes pounded IS targets in Syria for the first time on

Friday. >A4

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

SCAN THIS QR CODE TO INSTANTLY VISIT

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

Rescue operations are still

continuing in Mirbat.

Two Emiratis still missing in Mirbat Sea

NIKKEI GOES GLOBAL WITH ‘FINANCIAL TIMES’ TAKEOVERNikkei’s surprise acquisition of the Financial Times for $1.3 billion underscores its goal to be the voice of Asia on economic affairs. >B3

A2 S AT U R DAY, J U LY 2 5, 2 0 1 5

OMAN

Art and environment combine at workshop

SARAH MACDONALDsarah@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: Old cardboard boxes and newspaper found new life as decorations and household objects thanks to an innovative children’s art workshop held recently at MuscArt Gallery in Ghubrah.

Five children aged 5 to 8 years took part in the class led by Oman-based Greek artist Nikos Zarras. The artist shared his passion for recycled art with the children by teaching them how to make card-board and paper mache decorative animals and serving trays.

“They’ll remember this. It teaches them to recycle and make useful things or decorations for the house. I use a lot of recycled mate-rial in my own art,” Zarras said.

Eight-year-old Laila, who was taking her very first art class, was an eager participant and quickly picked up the skills Zarras taught such as layering strips of old news-

paper with glue around half a bal-loon to make a pear-shaped fruit bowl. “I love art. My favourite is painting and paper mache,” she said, showing a serving tray she had already finished making that looked like a slice of watermelon.

Child artistRazan, 5, had paint all over her hands and even on her face and in her hair as she gleefully painted a paper mache cat in bright blues and green, which she said were her favourite colours. This workshop was her second at MuscArt, fol-lowing a painting workshop earlier in the summer.

MuscArt has been holding a variety of workshops since mid-May, including weekly workshops throughout the summer. Subjects include photography, calligraphy, painting, clay, print making, draw-ing and painting and even art his-tory for children.

Instructors include art teachers

and practicing artists who are good at communicating their skills.

Alexandra Hoepfner, MuscArt Gallery Manager, said there are many benefits for children taking art classes. Small children develop hand-eye coordination, tactile skills, planning a few steps ahead, and basic colour theory.

“For that kind of development that is still in small children art can play a very important role,” she said.

Older children have been tak-ing the classes to learn new skills which they don’t learn in school and to build up portfolios to apply for advanced art classes or because they have future plans of studying creative subjects in university.

The workshops will continue through the end of August with courses in clay, world art, calen-dar-making and Arabic calligra-phy. For more information or to register for the classes visit www.muscart.net.

Five children aged

five to eight took

part in the class

led by Oman-based

Greek artist Nikos

Zarras,who shared his

passion for recycled

art with the children

‘Ibn Battuta’ musical to showcase Arab history at Expo MilanTimes News Service

MUSCAT: Arab world’s cultural journey will be showcased as Ibn Battuta Musical is staged at the Expo Milan 2015 on Saturday and Sunday. The show will be held un-der the patronage of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and is supported by the Ministry of Tour-ism, Oman Airport Management Company, Oman Arab Bank, Oman Air and Duqm Special Economic Zone Authority.

According to Expo Milan 2015 website, “on Saturday, Expo Milano 2015 will play host to the National Day of Oman. The Sul-tanate will stage musical perfor-mances by the Al Majd Band, the Omani Oud Association Ensemble of the Royal Muscat Opera House and, in the evening, a concert by ‘Ibn Battuta’ Musical. Plus, tasting events, guided tours of the Pavilion and a round table on the beauty and hospitality which Oman offers its tourists, will also be held.”

Ibn Battuta, which was staged in Muscat on May 30 and 31, is a musical that brings together 180 musicians, singers, and dancers. Together they will narrate an ad-venturous story about a modern-

day woman who goes back in time with the 14th century Moroccan explorer to retrace some of his travels through Morocco, Egypt, the Levant and Oman.

“The Arabs are not just what is all over the media about them. We also have a peaceful culture and we are trying to present it in their language, with European

orchestras and a modern dance company,” said Ahmed Abouzahra, general manager of Arabesque In-ternational, the company which produced the show while he was in Muscat.

Abouzahra described ‘Ibn Bat-tuta’ as a cultural journey that re-vealed the strength of the Arab cul-ture in the 13th and 14th centuries

when science, literature, mathe-matics and architectural discover-ies in the Middle East were being transferred to the West.

He said the musical would also show the diversity of the Arab World, since it would bring ele-ments of rhythm and dance from four different regions. The heart and soul of each area will be pre-

sented through music, he ex-plained.

The musical focuses strongly on Oman, which was one of the many countries Ibn Battuta visited in his travels. Abouzahra said this will help put Oman in the international spotlight in Milan and showcase what a beautiful, peaceful nation it is. “Our aim is to have this produc-

tion as branding for Oman and as an ambassador for the Sultanate all over the world...to attract people to come to Oman, to get to know this culture, to get to know the country, and how peaceful the society is,” said Abouzahra, and added that he hoped to present the musical in other countries after Italy.

For the extravagant produc-tion, Arabesque International has brought together the Fondazione I Pomeriggi Musicali Orchestra from Italy with Egyptian and Oma-ni musicians playing Middle East-ern instruments, the Sofia Ballet from Bulgaria, and the Antonine University Choir from Lebanon, in addition to the Lebanese Na-tional Conservatory Choir, and Al Mithaliya Group for Folklore from Oman.

Ibn Battuta stars Egypt’s Adbel Rahman Abou Zahra in the title role and features soloists Rehab Omar from Egypt, Ghada Shbeir from Lebanon, and Huda Al Khan-bashi from Oman.

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

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MUSICAL EXTRAVAGANZA: ‘Ibn Battuta’ is a cultural journey that reveals the strength of Arab culture in the 13th and 14th centuries when

science, literature, mathematics and architectural discoveries of the Middle East were being transferred to the West. – Photos by Khalid Al Busaidi

Shangri-La wins award at ‘tea challenge’ Times News Service

MUSCAT: Demonstrating their skills at the perfect brew, Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort and Spa, from the Sultanate of Oman, was awarded a silver medal at the final of the Dilmah Real High Tea Global Challenge 2015, held at the Hilton Residency in Sri Lanka.

Among all participants around the globe, Shangri-La Oman team was also honoured with the ‘Judg-es’ Choice’ award as the favour-ite team of Dilhan Fernando, the creator of Dilmah High Tea Chal-lenge and son of Merrill Fernando, founder of Dilmah Tea.

The team earned their place in the final back in September 2014 where they won the Dilmah Real High Tea Challenge UAE 2014 held

at the International Centre for Cu-linary Arts (ICCA), Dubai.

This prestigious competition aimed to involve and initiate a new generation of culinary and mixology professionals to the

world of tea and participants rep-resented some of the most luxuri-ous hotels worldwide.

The opening ceremony com-menced with the participation of 21 teams from 14 countries, interna-

tional media and the judges – Pre-siding Judge, Bernd Uber; Culinary Judge, Simon Gault (MasterChef New Zealand); Culinary Judge, Pe-ter Kuruvita (Award winning res-taurateur and Celebrity Chef ), and Tea Judge, Dilhan C. Fernando.

Along with Shangri-La Oman, representatives from five sis-ter properties including Island Shangri-La Hong Kong, and Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur also par-ticipated in the competition.

The judging criteria for the com-petition was based on the creativity of a theme as well as demonstrable knowledge and understanding of the tastes of different teas, how to make a perfect brew, how to pair tea with food, sustainable ingredients as well as the overall presentation of the concept.

H O S P I T A L I T Y S E C T O R

Narcotics, ‘khat’ haul

in Musandam, Dhofar

Times News Service

MUSCAT: An attempt by three Asian nationals to smuggle nar-cotics in Musandam was foiled by Royal Oman Police (ROP) on Wednesday.

In another case, ROP person-nel seized 947 bundles of ‘khat’ from a smuggler in Dhofar Gov-ernorate on the same day.

The ROP has called upon citi-

zens and residents to cooperate with them to combat the narcot-ics scourge and convey to the po-lice any information that could help in detecting drug smugglers.

Information can be provided by calling the emergency phone (9999) or toll-free number (1444) to contact public administration to combat drugs and psychotrop-ic substances or go to the nearest police station.

L A W A N D O R D E R

DRUG HAUL: Three Asian nationals were arrested for smuggling

narcotics in Musandam on Wednesday. In another case, ROP

personnel seized 947 bundles of ‘khat’ from a smuggler in Dhofar

Governorate on the same day. – Supplied photo

SAF shooting team wins top honoursTimes News Service

MUSCAT: Commending its sterling show, BAE Systems con-gratulated the Sultan’s Armed Forces Shooting Team for again performing to the highest stand-ards at the recently concluded International Military Shooting Championship, held at the Bisley Ranges in the UK.

The team used 5.56mm am-munition from BAE Systems during the competition. This year, the team was successful in a number of events, including the Methuen Cup, where it achieved the highest score (1372 out of 1500) amongst competitors from

all three British services, as well as teams from countries such as the United States, Canada and Germany. Overall the team won 24 trophies, including the pres-tigious His Majesty’s Cup, and a number of medals.

Matthew Foster, general man-ager, BAE Systems Oman, said, “We have been pleased to work closely with all of the Sultan’s Armed Forces to support their training...the shooting team’s suc-cess at this prestigious interna-tional championship reflects the importance of nurturing compet-itive spirit and developing skills through long-term support of training for such events,” he said.

S H O O T I N G C H A M P I O N S H I P

BREWING SUCCESS: The contest aimed at involving and initiating a

new generation of culinary and mixology professionals.–Supplied photo

HOLIDAY WORKSHOP: MuscArt has been holding a variety of workshops since mid-May, including weekly workshops throughout the

summer.– TIMES OF OMAN

They’ll remember this. It teaches them to recycle

and make useful things or decorations for the house.

I use a lot of recycled material in my own art

Nikos Zarras, Art instructor

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Oman’s souqs relive past heritageOman is known for its

unique souqs — the

traditional markets

where one can find

unique Omani items.

These markets are

important landmarks

and active economic

and tourism centres.

Times of Oman photographer

A.R. Rajkumar captures the scenes

from the souqs in

Mutrah, Salalah, Seeb

and Nizwa.

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A4 S AT U R DAY, J U LY 2 5, 2 0 1 5

REGIONAden International Airport was recaptured on

July 14 by Gulf Arab-backed Yemeni forces as

they drove Houthi forces out of the southern

port city and much of the surrounding areas.

Turkey carries out first air strikes on IS group in Syria, launches raids

ANKARA/ELBEYLI: Turkish warplanes pounded IS militant group’s targets in Syria for the first time on Friday, with President Tayyip Erdogan promising more decisive action against both the insurgents and Kurdish militants at home.

The air strikes, which followed a phone conversation between Erdogan and US President Barack Obama on Wednesday, were ac-companied by a series of police raids across Turkey to detain hun-dreds of suspected militants, in-cluding from Kurdish groups.

Reluctant partnerTurkey has long been a reluctant partner in the US-led coalition against IS, emphasising instead the need to oust Syrian President Bashar Al Assad and saying Syrian Kurdish forces also pose a grave security threat.

But Friday’s attacks, which of-ficials said were launched from

Turkish airspace, signalled that Ankara would crack down against IS across the Syrian border, while pursuing the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) - which An-kara describes as a separatist or-ganisation - at home.

“In our phone call with Obama, we reiterated our determination in the struggle against the sepa-

ratist organisation and the IS,” Erdogan told reporters. “We took the first step last night.”

Ankara acted hours after of-ficials in Washington said it had agreed to let US jets launch air strikes from a base near the Syrian border, dropping an earlier refusal to allow manned American bomb-ing raids.

Turkey has faced increasing insecurity along its 900-km (560-mile) frontier with Syria. A cross-border firefight on Thursday between the army and IS, which has seized large areas of Syria and Iraq, left one militant and one sol-dier dead.

It has also suffered a wave of vio-lence in largely Kurdish southeast-

ern Turkey after a suspected IS suicide bombing killed 32 people, many of them Kurds, in the town of Suruc on the Syrian border this week. But Erdogan’s critics say he is more concerned with keeping Syrian Kurdish fighters in check, afraid that gains they have made against IS in the Syrian civil war will embolden Turkey’s own 14 million-strong Kurdish minority.

“Even though Erdogan has so far failed to achieve his goals in Syria - the overthrow of Assad - and IS has become a problem, it is neverthe-less a convenient instrument for him,” said Halil Karaveli, manag-ing editor of The Turkey Analyst, a policy journal.

“Now he has all the excuses he needs to go after the Kurds and also it makes him look very good in the eyes of the US, which will be happy that Turkey is on board in the coalition.”

Three F-16 fighter jets took off from a base in Diyarbakir, south-east Turkey, early on Friday and hit two IS bases and one “assem-bly point” before returning, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

“We can’t say this is the begin-ning of a military campaign, but certainly the policy will be more involved, active and more en-gaged,” a Turkish government of-ficial said. “But action won’t likely be taken unprompted.”

Police also rounded up near-ly 300 people in Friday’s raids against suspected IS and Kurdish militants, Prime Minister Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said after vowing to fight all “terrorist groups” equally. Local media re-

ported that helicopters and more than 5,000 officers, including spe-cial forces, were deployed in the operation. Anti-terror police raid-ed more than 100 locations across Istanbul alone, broadcasters CNN Turk and NTV reported.

One senior official said: “This morning’s air strike and operation against terrorist groups domesti-cally are steps taken as preventive measures against a possible at-tack against Turkey from within or from outside... There has been a move to active defence from pas-sive defence.”

Turkey has repeatedly said it would take any “necessary meas-ures” to protect itself from attack by both IS and Kurdish militants.

US defence officials said on Thursday that Turkey has agreed to allow manned US planes to stage air strikes against IS mili-tants from an air base at Incirlik, close to the Syrian border. US drones are already launched from the base.

Obama and Erdogan agreed in their call on Wednesday to work together to stem the flow of for-eign fighters and secure Turkey’s border.

The ability to fly manned bomb-ing raids out of Incirlik against tar-gets in nearby Syria could be a big advantage. Such flights have had to fly mainly from the Gulf.

Turkey’s stance has frustrated some of its NATO allies, including the United States, whose prior-ity is fighting IS rather than Assad. The allies have urged Turkey to do more to prevent its border being used as a conduit to Syria by for-eign militants. — Reuters

Ankara acted hours

after officials in

Washington said it

had agreed to let US

jets launch air strikes

from a base near the

Syrian border

Iran to rejoin SWIFT system three months after curbs are lifted; Zarif to visit Kuwait, Qatar, IraqVIENNA/TEHRAN: Iran ex-pects to rejoin the internation-al electronic payment system SWIFT three months after sanc-tions imposed on it are lifted and it will also become easier for foreign firms to take part in privatisations in Iran, a senior Iranian official said.

Also on Friday, Iran’s ISNA press agency said that Iran’s For-eign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif will visit Kuwait, Qatar and Iraq this weekend.

His remarks suggested Iran’s long isolated but high-potential, energy-based economy will be open for investment once sanc-tions are removed as a result of its July 14 deal with world powers placing limits on its nuclear pro-gramme.

Industry Minister Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh also said Iran’s foreign reserves total between $115 billion and $125 billion, in-cluding assets in its sovereign wealth fund.

It was one of the most detailed public descriptions of the reserves by an Iranian official. The size of the foreign reserves and the way Iran uses them will be crucial in its bid to rebuild its economy after years of international sanctions.

Iran was barred from SWIFT, crippling its ability to make in-ternational bank transfers crucial to foreign trade, due to Western sanctions.

Speaking on the sidelines of a business conference in Vienna on Friday, Nematzadeh said foreign banks would gradually be able to re-establish links with Iranian banks as sanctions relief kicks in, which he expected to happen in less than three months.

When asked to clarify the timing, he said he meant three months “from the sanctions (be-ing removed)”.

Iran and the six powers struck the nuclear deal on July 14 and, if UN inspectors confirm Tehran is complying with provisions to curb its nuclear activity, sanctions could begin to be removed later this year.

Sanction reliefNematzadeh also said sanctions relief would smooth the way for foreign companies to take part in planned privatisations of state-owned Iranian companies.

“Some downstream (compa-nies) like petrochemical indus-tries or refining industries, they are all either privatised or the

ones left are going to be priva-tised,” he said.

He stressed that Iran’s national oil company NIOC would not be sold and that the government would retain up to 20 percent in

companies in “important indus-tries”. He did not give details.

Iranian officials also used the business conference to offer tax breaks and other benefits to for-eign technology firms to persuade

them to set up research and de-velopment (R&D) centres in the Islamic Republic.

“The government would offer support for R&D investment by foreign firms, and they would be

treated just as domestic firms, especially if they were exporters,” Sorena Sattari, Iran’s vice presi-dent for science and technology, said.

Nematzadeh said the Iranian government had set up a $1 billion fund for such R&D support for private companies and this was already included in the national budget.

Further, the government will cover up to half of private compa-nies’ research costs out of the run-ning budget, he said.

The Iranian central bank’s for-eign reserves, obtained from the country’s oil and gas exports, are around $90 billion to $100 billion, Nematzadeh told the Vienna con-ference.

The National Development Fund of Iran, which was founded in 2011 and receives a portion of oil and gas export proceeds, has around $20 billion to $25 billion.

In addition, some Iranian gov-ernment companies and organi-sations have foreign holdings of about $5 billion to $10 billion, Nematzadeh said.

During the sanctions era, Iran was secretive about the size of its assets, apparently believing that disclosing information could make it harder to defend itself against the restrictions.

US officials have said over $100 billion of Iranian assets abroad are currently frozen by the sanctions, but deputy central bank governor Akbar Komijani disputed that on Thursday. He said only about $29 billion was blocked, of which $23 billion were central bank reserves and $6 billion belonged to the gov-ernment.

Iran can already access most of the reserves and is using that money to develop its oil, petro-chemical and gas industries as well as to finance nearly 60 invest-ment projects through the Chi-nese government, Komijani said without elaborating.

During Zarif ’s visit to Kuwait, Qatar and Iraq, the Vienna accord is expected to form the basis of discussions.

Zarif is expected to visit town of Najaf in Iraq on Sunday before heading to Baghdad, according to ISNA.

The Iranian foreign minister will return to Tehran next week where he will host talks with EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini before meeting his French counterpart Laurent Fa-bius. — Agencies

P O S T N U C L E A R D E A L

Aircraft land in Aden with equipment to re-open airport

ADEN: Two Saudi aircraft landed at Aden on Friday bringing equip-ment needed to re-open the city’s airport four months after the Yem-eni civil war shut it down, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV reported.

Aden International Airport was recaptured on July 14 by Gulf Ar-ab-backed Yemeni forces as they drove Houthi forces out of the southern port city and much of the surrounding areas.

Houthi fighters allied with army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh captured Aden in March and April at the outset of the country’s four-month-old war, dealing a blow to President Abdrabbo Mansour Hadi, an ally of Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Hadi and his aides fled to Riyadh as Houthi forces, who had seized the capital in September, closed in on Aden. In the wake of Aden’s recapture, his ministers are slowly returning there. If the airport re-sumes regular operations using the equipment carried by the plane that landed on Friday, then the city is expected to be able to expedite the import of badly needed emer-gency humanitarian aid.

Four months of air raids and civ-il war have killed more than 3,500 people in Yemen. Aden has suf-fered especially, with acute short-ages of food, medicine and fuel.

Aden and the other southern provinces have been largely inac-cessible to UN food aid, and about 13 million people - more than half the population - are thought to be in dire need of food.

A coalition of Arab states has been bombarding Houthi forces since late March in a bid to rein-state Hadi. It has also run training programmes for Yemeni soldiers loyal to Hadi and dropped arms to local forces fighting the Houthis.

UAE plane with aidThe first plane to land at Aden air-port since pro-Hadi government forces took over was Saudi, car-rying weapons and military assis-tance. An aircraft from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), at dawn on Friday landed at Aden airport car-rying humanitarian aid, Al Arabiya TV reported.

In the latest military action, coalition warplanes bombed tar-gets across Yemen including the capital Sanaa on Friday, according to Houthi media Saba news and se-curity sources. — Reuters

N A T I O N A T W A R

PAIN AND GRIEF: A Turkish soldier prays during the burial ceremony of Turkish soldier Mehmet Yalcin

Nane on Friday in Gaziantep. – AFP

NEW YORK: US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday it would be embarrass-ing to him and a blow to US credibility on the world stage if Congress rejects the Iran nuclear deal.

“Do you think the ayatollah is going to come back to the table if Congress refuses this and negotiate again?” he told a well-heeled audience at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York.

Kerry has spent recent days trying to sell the hard-fought deal to skeptical Americans as the Republican-majority, 535-member Congress has 60 days to review the deal.

Congress can pass a mo-tion of disapproval, which President Barack Obama can veto. An override of the veto

requires two-thirds approval in both the House and Senate.

“Do you think that they’re going to sit there and other people in the world are going to say, ‘hey let’s go negoti-ate with the United States, they have 535 secretaries of state’?,” Kerry said.

“I mean please. I would be embarrassed to try to go out. What am I going to say to peo-ple after this as secretary of state. ‘Come negotiate with us.’ ‘Oh Can you deliver?’ Please.”

Blistering criticismKerry faced blistering criti-cism on Thursday that he had been “fleeced” and “bamboo-zled” by Tehran, as he defend-ed the Iran nuclear deal pub-licly on Capitol Hill.

He encountered a tsunami

of skepticism from Republi-cans on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, during a marathon four-and-a-half-hour hearing.

Kerry also said it would be a huge mistake if Israel decided to take unilateral military action against Iran over its nuclear programme in the future.

Kerry was asked in an NBC “Today” show interview if the nuclear deal reached last week between would make it more likely that Israel might attempt a military or cyber attack on Tehran.

“That’d be an enormous mistake, a huge mistake with grave consequences for Israel and for the region, and I don’t think it’s necessary,” Kerry said. — Agencies

‘It will be embarrassing’ and blow to American credibility if Congress rejects Iran deal: Kerry

MAKING A POINT: US Secretary of John Kerry speaks next to Richard Nathan Haass, left, at the

Council on Foreign Relations, about the Iran nuclear agreement in New York on Friday. – AFP

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NDA counter-attacks, protests outside House

NEW DELHI: Seeking to counter the opposition that has stalled Par-liament, National Democratic Alli-ance (NDA) MPs on Friday staged a protest in Parliament complex against the alleged corruption in Congress-ruled states.

Led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), MPs of NDA including those of Akali Dal, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Peoples Demo-cratic Party (PDP) staged the pro-test before Mahatma Gandhi’s statue holding placards that read “Parliament should function”.

Launching a counter-offensive against the Congress, the pro-testing NDA MPs demanded resignations of Chief Ministers of Himachal Pradesh and Utta-rakhand for their role in alleged scams.

The MPs were carrying placards that read “Shame Shame. Scams and scams in Congress states” and also questioned the silence of So-nia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi on scams in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka.

The MPs demanded that Con-gress should let Parliament func-tion smoothly and discuss any is-sues they wanted. The protesting MPs also demanded resignation of Uttarakhand chief minister over the alleged liquor licence scam.

Deadlock prevailsParliament has not been able to transact any business for the fourth day today as deadlock pre-vailed between the Opposition and the ruling side over the Lalit Modi and Vyapam issues.

Union Commerce and Indus-try Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “Government is coming for-ward for discussions but the oppo-sition is not ready to discuss any-thing. We are, therefore, standing in front of the Gandhi statue here to show the public that the opposi-tion is not discussing.”

She said she was ready to an-

swer to questions in Parliament but the opposition was not allow-ing us to answer and was only cre-ating obstacles.

Party leader Avinash Rai Khan-na said, “We want that Parliament should be allowed to function. We also highlighted the Congress dou-ble-standards over corruption as its leaders are silent on corruption by their own leaders”.

Union Minister Prakash Ja-vadekar said, “Congress only wanted disruption and not a dis-cussion”.

Complete washoutIt was a complete washout of pro-ceedings of Lower House of Indian Parliament Lok Sabha in the first week of the Monsoon session, as the Opposition remained unre-lenting on its demand for the resig-nation of Union Minister Sushma Swaraj and Chief Ministers of Ra-

jasthan and Madhya Pradesh.The House was adjourned for

the day on Friday till Monday, min-utes after it assembled this morn-ing. No business has been trans-acted since the session began on July 21, witnessing adjournments after adjournments over the op-position uproar. Even the papers listed for the day were not tabled, as this is scheduled for noon every day. Two bills -- the Delhi High Court (Amendment) Bill and the Scheduled Castes and the Sched-uled Tribes (Prevention of Atroci-ties) Amendment Bill, were also listed on Thursday for considera-tion and passage.

As soon as the House met, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan an-nounced she had disallowed notic-es of adjournment motion moved by Congress and Left leaders on Lalit Modi controversy, Vyapam scam and other issues. -PTI

Launching a counter-

offensive against

the Congress, the

protesting NDA

MPs demanded

resignations of the

chief ministers of

Himachal Pradesh

and Uttarakhand for

their role in alleged

scams

PROTEST: BJP lawmakers hold placards during a protest near Mahatma Gandhi statue against Congress party for not allowing Parliament to function during the monsoon session, in New Delhi on Friday. -PTI

Owaisi questions death to MemonHYDERABAD/NEW DELHI: A row broke out over the death sen-tence for Yakub Memon in Mum-bai blasts case with AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday sug-gesting he met this fate because of his religion and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Sakshi Maharaj saying those who do not respect judiciary can go to Pakistan.

BJP also accused Owaisi of do-ing “communal politics” over ter-rorism and said that nothing can be “uglier” than this.

Triggering a controversy, Owai-si questioned the capital punish-ment awarded to Yakub, the lone convict in the Mumbai blasts case ordered to be sent to the gallows.

He sought to know whether the perpetrators of demolition of dis-puted structure in Ayodhya, com-munal riots of Mumbai and Guja-rat and other such sinister cases would get a similar punishment.

“Why have not perpetrators of demolition of Babri Masjid been convicted and will they also be given capital punishment as that is the original sin?” the Hy-derabad MP asked while address-ing a gathering in Hyderabad.

Alleging that the recommen-dations of Sri Krishna Commis-sion have been put in cold storage both by the BJP-Shiv Sena and Congress-NCP governments in Maharashtra, he wondered how many have been convicted in the Mumbai riots of December, 1992 and January, 1993.

“1,000 people killed in commu-nal riots of December, 1992 and January, 1993. How many are con-victed?” he asked.

“Will Sadhvi Pragya, Col. Puro-hit and Swami Aseemanand, whose name cropped up in con-nection with Malegaon blasts, would get capital punishment,” he said, adding “this is up to NIA to prove to courts.”

He questioned why the assas-sins of former prime minister

Rajiv Gandhi haven’t been award-ed the same punishment.

“Rajiv Gandhi and Beant Singh killers have backing of respective political parties, that is why they have not been given capital pun-ishment,” Owaisi said.

Hitting back at Owaisi, Sakshi Maharaj, a BJP MP, sparked an-other controversy.

“I think those who cannot re-spect this nation, cannot respect the national flag, cannot respect

India’s Constitution, cannot re-spect the judiciary such people do not have the right to live in India. The way is open, they can easily go to Pakistan,” he said outside Par-liament House.

Sakshi Maharaj said the poli-tics of communalism must be put to an end.

“This country is not run by Owaisi. He (Memon) has been found guilty by courts not us. A terrorist is a terrorist. This poli-tics of communalism should be stopped,” he said.

Union Minister and senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar said Owaisi has done “communal poli-tics” over terrorism.

“There cannot be an uglier form of communal politics. Owaisi sees religion in everything. The deci-sion for execution is taken by the Supreme Court not government,” Javadekar told reporters in New Delhi.

Plea hearingThe Supreme Court will hear on Monday the plea by 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts convict Yakub Memon’s plea challenging the death warrant issued against him and for the stay of his execution set for July 30.

“I have already assigned the bench. It will come by Monday,” said Chief Justice H.L. Dattu as senior counsel T.R. Andhyarujina mentioned the matter before the bench on Friday. -PTI

M U M B A I B L A S T S C A S E

DOUBLE STANDARDS: Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi at Parliament house during the monsoon ses-sion in New Delhi on Friday. -PTI

Top level athlete dies after being thrown off trainNEW DELHI: Indian Railways on Friday ordered an inquiry into the death of a national-level fencing champion who was alleg-edly pushed off a moving train by railway police personnel in UP’s Hathras district.

“Asking UP govt to take strict-est possible action against the police. We can’t tolerate crime by uniformed police, supposed to be Protector (sic),” Railway Minis-ter Suresh Prabhu tweeted.

“Ordered immediate action on police for this heinous crime. Condolence to bereaved family. Such acts can’t be tolerated,” he said.

The alleged incident took place when 27-year-old Hoshi-yar Singh was travelling with his mother, wife and their 10-month -old child in Kasganj-Mathura passenger train on Thursday.

Singh and his family were re-turning home to Mathura after attending a function at Patiyali block in Kasganj district and had boarded the passenger train around noon.

He had boarded the general coach after seating his mother

and wife in the women’s coach.Though there was no official

word as to how he died, his fam-ily members alleged that when Singh went to the women’s coach to meet his ailing wife, Govern-ment Railway Police (GRP) per-sonnel stopped him and asked for Rs 200.

When he refused to pay, he was thrown off the train by police per-sonnel, they alleged. Since GRP is under the state government, railways has been seeking more policing power for RPF and seek-ing states’

cooperation in this regard.“Constitutional provision law

and order state subject. For bet-ter safety and security have re-quested states to give policing powers to Rail (sic),” Prabhu said

on the social networking site.SP (Railway), Agra, Gopesh

Khanna said that on the demand of his family members, an FIR was lodged against two Govern-ment Railway Police (GRP) per-sonnel - Ram Bilas and

Rajesh Kumar - who were ac-cused of “pushing” him out of the running train.

The athlete’s younger brother Munesh Kumar Singh said all of them were returning home to Mathura after attending a func-tion at Patiyali block in Kasganj district and had boarded the pas-senger train around noon.

“While the ladies sat in the women’s coach with the baby, my brother was travelling in the general coach. My sister-in- law complained of dizziness and my mother phoned my brother,” he said. Munesh claimed that his brother had alighted at the Si-kandra Rao station, 40 km from Aligarh, to meet his wife when the two GRP constables stopped him from entering the women’s coach.

Demanding bribe“He pleaded that his wife was unwell, but they would not lis-ten. They asked for Rs 200,” he alleged.

The athlete’s wife alleged that the police came and asked her husband what he was doing in the ladies’ coach.

“They pushed him and he got stuck between the train and plat-form,” she claimed.

Shashibala, the victim’s moth-er, claimed, “My son was just about to give them the money when the train began to

move. The GRP constable pushed him and he was trapped between the train and platform.”

In 2005, Singh had won a bronze medal in the under-17 national championship held in Kerala. -PTI

P R O B E O R D E R E D

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INDIAS AT U R DAY, J U LY 2 5, 2 0 1 5

Human bomb alert for Modi’s Bihar visit

PATNA: A day ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bihar visit, the intelligence agencies have warned of a possible “hu-man bomb attack” on the lines of former prime minister Rajiv Gan-dhi’s assassination, a top police officer said.

Modi is scheduled to visit Patna on Saturday and address a rally in Muzaffarpur.

“The Intelligence Bureau (IB) has alerted Bihar government and the Special Protection Group officials camping in the state to

be on high alert for a possible hu-man bomb attack against Modi during his visit to Patna and Mu-zaffarpur on Saturday,” a top po-lice official said.

Stating that the attack could be similar to Rajiv Gandhi’s as-sassination by the LTTE in 1991, the IB alert has specified that well

trained women Maoists may be used as a human bomb to target the prime minister during the visit, the official added.

“IB has alerted of possible at-tack on Modi during his visit to Bihar. The suicide bomber may target Modi disguised as a media-person, police official, electrician,

an organiser, caterer or labourer,” officials said.

Modi is scheduled to arrive here to launch Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhayay Rashtriya Gramin Joyti Yojna and inaugurate the new campus of IIT-Patna.

He would also attend two other functions in Patna before leaving for Muzaffarpur, around 70 km from Patna, to address a public meeting.

He is likely to launch the Bharatiya Janata Party’s cam-paign for the forthcoming state assembly polls from Muzaffarpur.

A government official said the authorities would ensure unprec-edented security.

“The Bihar government will go for unprecedented security cover during Modi’s rally in Muzaffar-pur,” a state home department of-ficial said.

Though Modi’s security is looked after by the Special Pro-tection Group, the Bihar govern-ment has directed senior officials to make special security arrange-ments for his rally, the official said.

Modi’s rally at Gandhi Maidan here was rocked by serial bomb blasts on October 27, 2013, leav-ing five people dead and nearly 100 injured. -IANS

The IB alert has

specified that well

trained women

Maoists may be used

as human bomb

to target the prime

minister during his

visit to the state

HIGH ALERT: Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a function in New

Delhi on Thursday. -PTI

Militants attack cell phone centres in SrinagarSRINAGAR: Unidentified as-sailants on Friday attacked two mobile phone sales and service centres here and lobbed grenades to force their closure, police said. Besides, a BSNL tower was also attacked.

The attackers hurled a grenade at the public sector Bharat San-char Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) tower in Shaheedgunj locality, adjacent to the civil secretariat, on Friday afternoon. One person has been injured.

“Two unidentified assailants entered an Aircel office in Karan Nagar business centre and asked the staff to close their business and leave the office,” a senior po-lice officer told IANS in Srinagar.

“They hurled a grenade inside that damaged furniture and fix-ture inside,” police said.

Shahnawaz Ahmed, an auto-rickshaw driver, was injured in the attack on Aircel office.

After that, the assailants en-tered a Vodafone office and asked the staff to vacate.

They lobbed another grenade inside the office and escaped, po-

lice said, adding that searches have been launched to nab the at-tackers.

Unidentified gunmen have been threatening mobile phone service providers in north Kash-mir. Friday’s attack is the first

such incident in Srinagar. Post-ers of threat, believed to be cir-culated by Hizbul Mujhaideen surfaced on Friday in some areas of Pulwama district of northern Indian state of Kashmir, asking beauty parlours to shut business

and people to stay away from “immoral activities” like drug abuse.

“We are warning the people of Karimabad, Newah, Jadoora, Wahibug and Kalaan to stay away from alcohol, charas and other

unnecessary immoral activities,” read the posters.

The posters bearing the stamp and logo of Hizbul Mujahideen, appeared this morning in many areas of Pulwama district.

These also demanded the beau-ty parlours in the area to close down their businesses.

A police officer, while acknowl-edging the surfacing of the post-ers, said that the development can also be a handiwork of pranksters.

“We are investigating the mat-ter... while we do not rule out pos-sibility of Hizb being behind the posters, it seems to be handiwork of pranksters,” the officer said.

The posters have surfaced in a day when suspected militants hurled grenades inside offices of two private telecom companies in the heart of the city.

At the time of eruption of mili-tancy in Kashmir in 1989, sepa-ratist and militant outfits forced closure of liquor shops, video par-lours, cinema theatres and beauty parlours, asserting that these places promoted immorality in the society. -PTI

G R E N A D E S L O B B E D

SECURITY CHECK: Special Operation Group (SOG) personnel of J&K police check a scooter during a

search operation against militants at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on Thursday. -PTI

Love affairs behind farmers’ suicide: Minister

NEW DELHI: Dowry, love af-fairs and impotency were among the reasons for the deaths of over 1,400 farmers in 2014, union Ag-riculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said on Friday.

“According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), causes of (farmer) suicides in-clude family problems, illness, drugs...dowry, love affairs and im-potency,” he said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha to a question on what had caused the death of so many farmers in the country.

The minister’s reply, however, did not rule out debt as one of the reasons.

The minister also cited NCRB data to show that the total number of suicides committed by persons working in the farming or agri-

culture sector were 13,754, 11,772 and 5,650 in 2012, 2013 and 2014 respectively.

The number of suicides by farmers due to agrarian distress,

as reported by the state govern-ments, was 1,066, 890 and 1,400 during 2012, 2013 and 2014 re-spectively.

Meanwhile, the minister’s reply triggered a storm with opposition parties accusing the government of “insensitivity”.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi ask his ministers to visit the houses of farmers to “see what is going on”.

Samajwadi Party leader Naresh Agrawal demanded an apology from the minister, terming his re-marks “irresponsible” while Com-munist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury dubbed as “ridiculous” the reasons given for the farmers suicides while the ground reality, he said, was differ-

ent. He said that the number of distress suicides had gone up by 26 per cent in the last one year since the NDA alliance came to power at the Centre and the reply was meant to “divert attention” from the actual reasons for suicides.

Communist Party of India lead-er D. Raja said the reply showed the government “callousness” towards farmers’ suicides, which occurred due to “unprecedented debt crisis” faced by them and de-manded that the central govern-ment take steps to come to their rescue. Janata Dal-United leader K.C. Tyagi said apart from insen-sitivity, the statement was an “in-sult” to the country’s farmers. He threatened to move a privilege no-tice against the minister for “mis-leading” parliament. -IANS

U P R O A R

Rahul Gandhi meets the family

of a farmer who committed

suicide in Anantapur district

on Friday. -PTI

High Court extends

Teesta’s interim bail

MUMBAI: In a breather for so-cial activist Teesta Setalvad, the Bombay High Court on Friday ex-tended her and her husband Javed Anand’s interim bail by two weeks.

The high court order came barely hours after a special court rejected their anticipatory bail ap-plication, paving the way for their immediate arrest.

Anticipating arrest for custodial interrogation sought by the Cen-tral Bureau of Investigation, Setal-vad’s lawyers moved the Bombay High Court.

Setalvad, Anand and an asso-ciate G.M. Peshimam have been charged with committing fraud and irregularities pertaining to foreign donations received by her NGO, Sabrang Communications & Publishing Pvt. Ltd. under the Foreign Contributions Regula-tion Act.

Setalvad’s NGO Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) has been put under Prior Permission cat-egory by the Home Ministry.

The decision has been taken following an investigation by the Home Ministry which found al-leged violation of various provi-sions of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act by CJP.

“The NGO will have to take prior permission from the foreign-ers division of the Home Ministry before accepting or utilising the foreign contribution,” an official

said. CJP, which has been fighting cases for victims of 2002 Gujarat riots, had received a total foreign contribution of around Rs 11.8 million from 2008-09 to 2013-14. According to the notice, more than 80 per cent or nearly Rs 9.5million was spent for legal aid.

Citizens for Justice and Peace and Sabarang Trust, run by teesta and her husband Javed Anand, were served notices by the Home Ministry about two months ago asking the NGOs why their regis-tration under FCRA would not be cancelled. -PTI

S I P H O N I N G O F F F U N D

IN THE DOCK: Teesta Setal-

vad arrives with her lawyer at

Sessions Court in Mumbai on

Friday. -PTI

New initiatives to mark Pranab three years

NEW DELHI: Scores of new ini-tiatives including restoration of heritage properties in Rashtrapati Bhavan and making it accessible to over 500,000 people mark consoli-dation of achievements of Presi-dent Pranab Mukherjee’s three years in office.

“We have started the celebra-tions for the conclusion of third year (of President in office) and opening of fourth year. It has been a very busy year,” Omita Paul, Sec-retary to the President, told re-porters here while pointing out the initiatives undertaken during the past one year.

On Saturday, Mukherjee com-pletes three years in office, a pe-riod in which he had undertaken 105 domestic visits.

She said that efforts are on to open more and more areas of the President’s estate to lakhs of visi-tors.

“We are seriously looking into the possibility of opening up of a nature’s trail inside the Rashtra-pati Bhavan,” Paul said. -PTI

R E S T O R A T I O N O F P R O P E R T Y

A7

PAKISTANS AT U R DAY, J U LY 2 5, 2 0 1 5

Karachi artists reclaiming hate graffiti-filled city walls

KARACHI: For years Karachi’s walls have been spattered with the bloodstains of murder victims and scrawled with graffiti touting everything from hatred to quack cures.

Now a group of artists and vol-unteers are reclaiming the walls by painting them with cheerful designs aimed at bringing some happiness and pride back to an often violent, chaotic and corrupt city.

Karachi, Pakistan’s economic capital and biggest metropolis, has been swamped in recent years by a wave of extortion, murder and kidnapping -- for religious, crimi-nal, ethnic and political reasons.

Those behind the new project, called “Reimaging the walls of Ka-rachi” hope that by taking art to the streets they can bring a more positive outlook for its 20 million inhabitants.

“We are working together and taking back the city by reclaim-ing the walls which are filled with hate graffiti,” artist Norayya Shai-kh Nabi told AFP while drawing an abstract of the city on a wall along a busy road.

Nabi, an art teacher at the Indus

Valley School of Art and Architec-ture, is one of 200 artists, artisans and labourers taking part in the project.

With help from the city authori-ties to get the permission they need, they aim to repaint walls in 1,600 different places — from warehouses to schools to flyovers and underpasses.

The scheme is being run by I Am Karachi, a charity working for the cultural, social and literary uplift of the city, backed by funds from the US Agency for Interna-tional Development.

Pakistan boasts some talented young artists, but public art is rare.

Munawar A. Syed, who is lead-ing the team of artists, said it was a pleasure to take their work be-yond the elite circles of galleries and graduate shows.

“It’s important for society to re-main involved with art and music, but unfortunately such things are waning from our culture,” Syed told AFP.

“In my 17-year art practice in the galleries, I have enjoyed work-ing here the most as I am directly communicating with my viewers.”

Under Syed’s watchful eye, a team of artists use stencils to cre-ate images of boys flying kites, donkey cart races and other im-ages of rural life.

Elsewhere, flamboyant, bright-ly coloured paintings of peacocks and elephants have not only radi-cally changed the feel of Karachi but have also drawn foreigners, who usually move with extreme

caution around what is a volatile city.

Aside from daily murders, Ka-rachi was hit by two major terror attacks in just over a year.

Attack by ISA Taliban attack on the airport left 38 people dead last year June, and in May this year gunmen slaugh-tered 45 members of the minor-ity Ismaili community on a bus. It was the first attack in Pakistan to be claimed by the IS group.

The project’s coordinator Adee-la Suleman said she was delighted the work had brought a “less hos-tile” look

Schoolchildren have also been made part of the project, in the hope of shifting a sense of owner-ship of the city and its appearance on to the younger generations.

“We included younger people so they can carry this work on

further,” said Nabi, as she worked with her teenage daughter on a wall.

“When they grow up they will feel that they are comfortable in sort of working for the city -- this is like planting a seed to the next generations.”

The artists hope the project will subtly change people’s behaviour after years of violence, softening them a little.

“I believe that this will yield good results in the long term,” Syed said.

“When you see positive things around you so your behaviour be-comes positive and a big change comes along in one’s life.” — AFP

Those behind the

new project, called

‘Reimaging the walls

of Karachi’, hope

that by taking art to

the streets they can

bring a more positive

outlook for its 20

million inhabitants

ART FOR PEACE: In this photograph taken on June 8, 2015, Pakistani artists and volunteers paint

designs on a wall in the southern port city of Karachi. — AFP

SCAN THIS QR CODE TO INSTANTLY VISIT

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

It’s important for

society to remain

involved with art

and music, but

unfortunately such

things are waning from

our culture.

In my 17-year art

practice in the

galleries, I have

enjoyed working

here the most

as I am directly

communicating with

my viewers, artist

Munawar A. Syed said

Pakistan to buy eight submarines from China

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Chi-na on Thursday agreed to a multi-billion dollar deal that would see Beijing provide eight submarines to the Pakistan Navy, in an agree-ment that analysts are calling the largest-ever defence deal China has agreed to with any country.

Despite the magnitude of the deal, government officials did not provide any details, even declining to confirm the size of the transac-tion.

However, the composition of the Chinese delegation with which the agreement was reached suggests that the arrangements have been struck for purchase of eight sub-marines.

“Pakistan and China have reached an understanding on mat-ters of defence cooperation relat-ing to Pakistan Navy,” announced the finance ministry after a meet-ing with Chinese authorities. “Fi-nancial arrangements to this effect were also concluded.”

Largest-ever dealAccording to a briefing that the de-fence ministry gave to parliament in April this year, Pakistan was negotiating a deal for acquisition of submarines from China. In the same month, the UK-based Finan-cial Times, citing a retired senior official, claimed in a report that the contract could be worth $4 billion to $5 billion, the largest defence deal ever by China.

Sources in the finance ministry said that Pakistan would make down payments to China in four installments and the delivery of the submarines will be made in the coming years.

Last month, both the countries had also signed an agreement for construction of six patrol vessels for the Pakistan Maritime Secu-rity Agency (PMSA). The agree-ment had been signed by China Ship Trading Company (CSTC) and the Pakistani defence produc-tion ministry. — Express Tribune

D E F E N C E D E A L

Flash floods wreak havoc in Chitral LONDON: Flash flooding caused by torrential monsoon rains has killed at least 28 in Pakistan and affected hundreds of thousands of people, according to aid agencies, with further downpours expected in the coming days.

In Chitral in the northwest, roads, bridges and crops were badly damaged, with more than a quarter of a million affected, the EU’s humanitarian office said. Pakistan’s poorest province, Balu-chistan in the southwest, was also badly hit.

“Some villages have been cut off from the rest of the district,” said Shah Fahad Ali Khan, 27, a university lecturer living in Zar-grandeh, a village in Chitral.

People in flood-prone areas

have been shifted to safer ground, he said on Friday in an online message.

LandslidesHeavy rains are expected over the weekend, which may cause more flash flooding and could trigger landslides in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which includes Chitral, Pakistan’s me-

teorological department said ear-lier this week.

The heavy rains started fall-ing on July 15, and continued over the next week throughout the country, causing some urban flooding in Lahore, Islamabad and Rawalpindi, the Pakistani Red Crescent said in a statement.

Deadly flooding is common in Pakistan’s monsoon season,

which runs from June to Sep-tember.

Last September dozens of peo-ple in Punjab and Kashmir were killed when flash floods caused their homes to collapse.

Worst floodsIn 2010, the worst floods in memo-ry affected killed more than 2,000 people in Pakistan, with damage to infrastructure running into bil-lions of dollars, and huge swathes of crops destroyed as a fifth of the country was inundated.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has announced a $5 million aid package for Chitral, and visited flood relief camps in Punjab prov-ince on Friday, local media report-ed. — Reuters

I N C L E M E N T W E A T H E R

The heavy rains started falling on July 15, and

continued over the next week throughout the country,

causing some urban flooding in Lahore, Islamabad and

Rawalpindi, the Pakistani Red Crescent said

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Hasnain Iqbal

He could ride the most fearsome of storms, we thought — and he did. Pakistanis lapped up the aura of invincibility he courted, per-

haps more out of fascination than admiration as the media heaped awe on Pakistan Peoples’ Party’s co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, declaring him the uncrowned political oracle, the uber-survivor. An-alysts unabashedly lavished praise on his mythical abilities, his flair for conjuring rabbits out of thin air, his panache for stitching opposites together. To be fair, he indeed survived a veritable buffet of crises. From Memogate to the judicial rubbish-ing of the NRO to the disqualification of his prime minister, a public sector eyeballing bankruptcy, the crash of governance in Sindh, Zardari attracted scandals like Don Juan did nymphets. Yet he com-pleted his presidential term of five years, silencing all the naysayers.

Is he really the granddaddy of intrigue, the Mo-riarty of politics? My perverted conventional wis-dom concedes that he deserves many pats on the back for navigating his ship through a more than tumultuous presidential term. Question is, how and at what cost to Pakistan? Is mere survival a praiseworthy end, the fallout notwithstanding? Much more than any latent talents, his real ben-efactors have been the conspiring circumstances. A striking confluence of events strait-jacketing the very forces that have long hewn the course for Pa-kistan.

Numerous factors helped Zardari survive the judicial/media onslaught despite unprecedented mismanagement. Foremost was General Kayani’s aversion to disrupting the democratic process though not necessarily out of any love for democ-racy. Pervez Musharraf’s disastrous fling as presi-dent, the Kargil fiasco and Osama’s discovery in its own backyard were like jabs smack in the face, leaving the establishment with a bloody nose. This effectively forced it to take a back seat, convalesce in the shadows and rebuild. The judiciary, bent on claiming space in the national discourse, through its rebukes of martial law dampened the establish-ment’s messianic fervour further. In addition, the military was stretched thin with its occupation on both the eastern and western fronts. Zardari had, therefore, little to worry about and could focus all his wile on neutering the rest. The West happily threw its weight behind the elected civilian gov-ernment. Lastly, Zardari demonstrated great flair in keeping his greedy coalition partners satiated and was thus able to summon political support at

will. I wonder though if feeding slobbering part-ners is a talent at all.

Wide-eyed appreciation of Zardari’s Houdini acts blinds us to the monumental unravelling of governance during his term. What about the toll his survival instincts took on Pakistan? The ques-tion has to be eyeballed squarely to make a ration-al, dispassionate assessment of Zardari. The truth is Karachi drowned in blood on his watch despite the fact that the key stakeholders (MQM, PPP and ANP) were all part of the ruling coalition. Yet Ka-rachi continued to sink in the bog of incompetency, greed and indifference of frightening proportions. The economy cracked open as the government lived off borrowed money. Public sector enterpris-es like PIA, Pakistan Steel and Pakistan Railways caved in under the weight of corruption and mis-management. Compounding national misery was the unprecedented power crisis that shut down hundreds of industrial units, rendering thousands jobless. The crowning embarrassment was the dis-qualification of Prime Minister Gilani who went down fighting gallantly, protecting his president in the Swiss money scandal.

The 2013 elections saw the first democratic transition of government in Pakistan. Zardari’s PPP lost massively across the country, barely mus-tering enough seats to assume the reins in Sindh. For the unfortunate citizens of Sindh, the night-mare continued under the doddering leadership of Qaim Ali Shah. The leaderships of Punjab and Sindh were a strange contrast: where Shahbaz Sharif looked firm and in control, Shah looked like a threadbare puppet. Extortion, target killing, land mafia, and terrorism took over Karachi, plunging the city of lights into a deathly darkness. The PPP had to pay a heavy price for the governance col-lapse with a complete wipeout in the Gilgit-Bal-tistan elections. The party of the people, felled by its own, was a pale shadow of its former glory.

The PPP survived Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s hanging. It survived Benazir’s assassination. It survived Zi-aul Haq’s brutal martial law. The PPP did not sur-vive Zardari. The party that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had founded is imploding, bleeding loyalists, withering at the altar of Zardari’s whimsy and cronyism. It has lost its ideological moorings. The fall of the PPP makes for an epic story of a starry-eyed beginning, of blossoming into a juggernaut and of a heartbreak-ing demise wrought by its own. Zardari has de-prived Pakistan of the political Left, so necessary to balance the raging Right. And this is unpardonable. He survives for sure but is irrelevant to Pakistan. The myth of Zardari stands busted. — Express Tribune

OMANI WORKERS BY GENRE

Source: NSCI

In the private sector (may 2015)

Monthly salary (OMR)

MaleFemale

325 to 40020,210

401 to 5005,718

501 to 6003,649 16,897

601 to 7002,609 10,891

701 to 8001,861 6,997

801 to 9001,578 4,870

901 to 1,0001,204 3,633

1,001 to 2,0003,599 14,352

More than 2,000

736 6,188

42,859

40,577

Authorities deserve praise for awareness driveThis refers to the online report, Do not leave children in locked cars: Royal Oman Police (July 22). I offer my sincere condolences to the family of the deceased children. Sadly we often hear of youngsters playing in cars. This happens all over the world. Accidents happen as children are so inquisitive. I am glad that the authorities are do-ing such a good job in educating the public. Before the campaign to

‘clunk click every trip’, we in the UK never thought to wear seat belts. Now we do and many lives have been saved. Swimming was compulsory in schools when I was a child. This saved many lives. May all keep safe. — Lorraine Paton, Muscat

Oman truly deserve to be in the Twenty20 World Cup tourneyThis refers to the online story, Oman make history, book World Twenty20 spot (July 23). My heartiest congratulations to the Omani cricket team for qualifying for the Twenty20 World Cup to be held in India 2016. They truly deserve the place. — Ishtiaque Ahmad, Sohar

Need to build cricket grounds of global standards to perform wellThis refers to the online story, Oman make history, book World Twenty20 spot (July 23). This is very good news indeed. Oman should now think of building on this and

thus focus on building facilities that would help the team to perform well in the tournament in India in 2016. For this purpose interna-tional level cricket grounds should be built in all the major cities of the Sultanate — including Salalah, Muscat and Sohar. — Nadeem Feroz, Muscat

T I M E S O F O M A NS AT U R DAY, J U LY 2 5, 2 0 1 5A8

Zardari seems to have run out of Houdini acts

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Second round of Afghan talks in China next week

KABUL/ARBIL: China is likely to host a second round of peace talks between the Afghan govern-ment and Taliban representatives next week, an Afghan official said on Friday, raising hopes for pro-gress toward a political settlement to end years of bloodshed.

Also on Friday, the Pentagon said that a US air strike in Af-ghanistan killed a senior Al Qaeda commander in charge of suicide bombing and two other militants.

The attack, which occurred in Paktika province on July 11, killed Abu Khalil Al Sudani, a “high-ranking Al Qaeda operational commander”, the Pentagon said in a statement released to reporters in Iraq who were travelling with US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter. China is increasingly wor-ried about insurgency in the re-gion spilling over into its territory and has been playing a role to bro-ker a peace deal between Kabul and the Taliban insurgents.

“The second round of talks is most probably going to be held in Urumqi in China on July 30,” said Ismail Qasimyar, a senior member of Afghan High Peace Council.

Urumqi is the capital of China’s far-west Xinjiang region. Beijing says it faces its own radical insur-rection there, members of which it believes get shelter and training

from Taliban and other militants along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Qasimyar said delegations from China and the United States would observe the talks, as they did in the groundbreaking first of-ficial meeting this month.

Inaugural talksPakistan hosted the inaugural talks between Afghan government and the Taliban in its capital in a tentative step to end more than 13 years of fighting in Afghanistan that kills hundreds every month.

Neighbouring Pakistan is key to the process because of its historic ties to the Afghan Taliban leaders, who have used the Pakistan bor-der region as a safe heaven.

While the budding peace pro-cess represents a step forward, its success is uncertain. The Taliban leadership is divided on whether to talk or continue fighting, and it is unclear whether those who are negotiating would be able to en-force any cease-fire.

The Afghan delegation to the talks in Pakistan said the Taliban side had raised the issues of for-eign troops operating in Afghani-stan, UN sanctions against its leaders and prisoners of war and those issues would be discussed further in the second round. US forces and their Afghan allies ousted the Taliban in 2001. The hardliners have been fighting since then to expel foreign troops

and overthrow the US-backed government. US-led forces for-mally ended their combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of last year, leaving a small contingent of about 12,000 NATO troops to train Afghan forces. However, violence has sharply increased in most parts of the country this year with Afghan forces suffering re-cord number of casualties.

Violent extremistsThe Pentagon statement said, “Al Sudani was one of three known violent extremists killed in the strike. The death of Al Sudani will further degrade Al Qaeda opera-tions across the globe.”

The Pentagon described Su-

dani as a senior shura member and head of Al Qaeda’s suicide and explosive operations, and said he was directly linked to plotting at-tacks against the United States.

“He also directed operations against Coalition, Afghan and Pa-kistani forces, and maintained a close association with Aymar Al Zawahiri, Al Qaeda’s leader,” the statement said. In the statement, Carter said the killing of Sudani underscored the work done by General John Campbell, the com-mander of NATO forces in Af-ghanistan, and his troops “to take the fight to Al Qaeda”.

“We will continue to counter vi-olent extremism in the region and the world,” Carter said. — Agencies

Delegations from

China and the United

States will take part

in the talks, said a

senior member of

Afghan High Peace

Council

Maldives ex-president’s jail term commuted to house arrestCOLOMBO: Former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed has had his 13-year prison sentence commuted to a term under house arrest, his international lawyer Jared Genser said on Friday.

“The government of the Mal-dives has permanently moved president Nasheed to house arrest for the balance of his 13-year term in prison”, Genser told reporters in Colombo, the capital of neighbour-ing Sri Lanka.

AppealThe lawyer’s comments came hours after the Maldives govern-ment said it would appeal against Nasheed’s conviction for terror-ism in March which drew heavy international criticism.

A spokesman for the Maldivian High Commision in Colombo con-firmed the changes to Nasheed’s sentence, but said he had no fur-ther details.

“It is correct that the jail term is now commuted to house arrest,” Hussain Mazin told AFP.

Nasheed had been incarcerated in a prison on a remote island in the immediate aftermath of the sentencing in March.

Moved backBut Genser said that his client had been moved back to the main island of Male to receive medical treatement and his sentence was formally commuted to house ar-rest on July 19.

The US-based attorney said that

his own efforts to see Nasheed had been so far thwarted by the Mal-divian authorities. He told report-ers that he had applied for a busi-ness visa and complied with all the requirements, but on his arrival in Male on Monday he was told that he needed another clearance from the Maldivian Supreme Court certifying that he was licenced to practise law internationally.

“There is no Maldivian law, reg-ulation, or rule that imposes such a requirement on applicants for business visas who are lawyers - it appears the Supreme Court spe-cially designed this requirement just for me,” he said.

“I am honoured to be considered so important, but this is unusual,” he added. — AFP

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

Brown cleared to leave ManilaMANILA: Grammy-winning hip-hop star Chris Brown was cleared to leave the Philippines late Friday, an official said, after he was temporarily barred from exiting the country over a row with a powerful religious sect.

The 26-year-old American — who was stuck in Manila for two days — secured an emigration clearance certificate (ECC) stat-ing he has no legal obligations in

the Southeast Asian country and was free to leave, immigration spokeswoman Elaine Tan said.

“ECC was issued... today,” Tan said in a text message to AFP.

In a brief video posted to his of-ficial Twitter feed on Friday night an exuberant Brown is seen walk-ing towards a plane, apparently headed to his next gig in Macau.

“Manila it was fun, love y’all man,” the rapper says. “If you’re

free to come to Macau -- party tonight!” Brown, who performed to a packed crowd at a Manila arena on Tuesday, was barred from leaving the Philippines after the politically-connected Chris-tian group Iglesia ni Cristo filed a fraud complaint against him.

The group said it was owed a million-dollar-plus refund after he failed to show up for a concert sponsored by them last year. — AFP

H I P - H O P S T A R

‘China has every right to drill in East China Sea’BEIJING: China said on Friday it had every right to drill in the East China Sea close to waters disputed with Japan, adding that it did not recognise a “unilateral” Japanese median line setting out a boundary between the two in the waters.

Japan this week called on China to halt construction of oil-and-gas exploration platforms in the East China Sea close to waters claimed by both nations, concerned that Chinese drills could tap reservoirs that extend into Japanese territory.

Patrol ships and aircraft from both countries have been shadow-ing each other in the area over the past couple of years, raising fears of a confrontation and clash.

In an escalation of the latest dis-pute, Japan released aerial photo-graphs of China’s construction in the area, accusing it of unilateral development and a halfhearted at-titude towards a 2008 agreement to jointly develop resources there.

China resumed exploration in the East China Sea two years ago, Japan said. In 2012, Japan’s gov-ernment angered China by buying a disputed island chain there from private owners.

Before then, China had curtailed activities under an agreement with Japan to jointly develop un-dersea resources in disputed areas.

The platforms are being erected on the Chinese side of a median line delineating the exclusive eco-nomic zones of the two countries, according to a Japanese ministry official said.

China’s Foreign Ministry said its drilling activities in waters which are not disputed and under Chinese administration are “com-pletely appropriate and legal”.

“China and Japan have not yet delineated maritime boundaries in the East China Sea, and China does not recognise the Japanese side’s unilateral marking out of a so-called ‘median line’,” the minis-try said in a statement. — Reuters

D I S P U T E D W A T E R S

PRAYING FOR PEACE: Men sit on a hill overlooking parts of Kabul city, Afghanistan. Ismail Qasimyar, a senior member of Afghan High Peace Council, said on Friday that the second round of talks is most probably going to be held in Urumqi in China on July 30. – Reuters

SOME RELIEF: In this photograph taken on February 23, 2015, Maldives police try to move former president Mohamed Nasheed, centre, during a scuffle as he arrives at a courthouse in Male. – AFP

A10

WORLDS AT U R DAY, J U LY 2 5, 2 0 1 5

White gunman kills two in Louisiana cinema attack

CHICAGO: The author of the lat-est mass shooting in the United States was a drifter who tried to escape after killing two women in a movie theatre, then took his life as police closed in, authorities said on Friday.

The incident came just hours after President Barack Obama said an inability to enact “com-mon sense” gun controls was one of the greatest frustrations of his time in office.

It was not yet clear how John Houser -- a 59-year-old white male with a criminal record -- ob-tained his gun. Nor was his motive immediately known. Police said Houser tried to flee after shooting 13 rounds from a single handgun into the crowded cinema in La-fayette, Louisiana Thursday even-ing. Nine people were wounded. “What happened is that the quick law enforcement response forced him back into the theatre, at which time he shot himself,” La-fayette police chief Jim Craft told reporters.

Houser had been staying at a nearby motel where authorities found glasses and wigs apparently intended for disguises.

“He’s kind of a drifter,” Craft said, adding that Houser -- who he said had acted alone -- had ar-rived in Louisiana recently from Alabama.

Craft later told CNN that Hous-

er had a criminal record, includ-ing previous arrests for arson and a misdemeanor charge for selling alcohol to a minor. Louisiana state police chief Michael Edmon-son said they were investigating Houser’s motive, and had spoken to his friends and family.

It is possible that he may have been inspired by a 2012 theatre massacre in Colorado that left 12 dead and 70 injured, Craft said.

Almost exactly three years ago, James Holmes opened fire on a packed screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora, Colo-rado, in a meticulously-planned attack during which he wore body armour and used tear gas to pre-vent victims from escaping.

Jurors are currently consider-ing whether Holmes, 27, should receive the death penalty. More than 100 people were in the Loui-siana cinema when Houser began shooting indiscriminately into the

audience about 30 minutes into a screening of “Trainwreck.”

Seven people remained in hos-pital on Friday, one of whom is in critical condition.

Random act of violenceLouisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said on Friday it did not appear that the victims were targeted and said residents were coming to grips with the “random act of violence.”

“There’s never a good explana-tion. In this case, the explanation will be less than in other cases based on what they learned by talking to family members and processing that hotel room and car,” Jindal said on CNN.

He praised the “selfless hero-ism” of two wounded teachers. The first threw herself in front of her friend to shield her from the bullets. The second, who was shot in the leg “had the presence

of mind to pull the fire alarm” to warn others of the danger.

Jindal, who is also vying for the Republican presidential nomina-tion, said it was not the right time to discuss gun control and that the focus should remain on the vic-tims.

The shooting came just hours after Obama said the issue he felt “most frustrated and most sty-mied” was gun control.

“If you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it’s less than 100. If you look at the number that have been killed by gun violence, it’s in the tens of thousands,” Obama said in an interview with the BBC taped before the shooting. “And for us not to be able to resolve that issue has been something that is dis-tressing,” he said.

The White House said the president was briefed late Thurs-day while en route to Kenya about

America’s latest mass shooting tragedy.

This latest incident also comes a week after Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, 24, opened fire on two military centers in Chatta-nooga, Tennessee and killed four US Marines and a Navy sailor be-fore dying in a shootout without police.

Television images from Lafay-ette showed a hectic scene at the cinema, surrounded late Thurs-day by dozens of emergency medi-cal vehicles and police cars.

“It was crazy, chaos every-where,” Jacob Broussard, who was watching a movie across the hall, told CNN. Police said Mayci Breaux, 21, died at the scene. Jil-lian Johnson, 33, died in hospital.

Houser’s apparent LinkedIn profile showed a varied career, with experience in investment management, real estate and short stints as a cafe owner. — AFP

It was not yet clear

how John Houser —

a 59-year-old white

male with a criminal

record — obtained

his gun. Police

said he tried to flee

after shooting 13

rounds from a single

handgun in Lafayette

on Thursday evening

RAMPAGE: A member of police, front, stands outside a movie theatre where a man opened fire inside a crowded movie theatre in Lafay-

ette, Louisiana on Thursday.— Reuters

Russia jails politician for hate killings

MOSCOW: A Russian court on Friday sentenced a nationalist leader to life imprisonment for organising a string of hate kill-ings including the shooting of a prominent rights lawyer in broad daylight.

Moscow City Court jailed Ilya Goryachev, a former journalist and pro-Kremlin activist, after he was found guilty of ordering the mur-der of 34-year-old lawyer Stan-islav Markelov on a busy Moscow street in 2009 as he walked from a news conference.

A 25-year-old reporter at oppo-sition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Anastasia Baburova, was also shot dead as she accompanied Mar-kelov.

“Goryachev has been sentenced by the court to a term of life impris-onment,” Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement.

A nationalist activist, Nikita Tikhonov, is serving a life sentence for shooting Markelov, while his co-accused, Yevgenia Khasis, was sent to a penal colony for 18 years.

“It was Goryachev who gave Tikhonov the assignment to mur-der lawyer Stanislav Markelov,” investigators said.

Anti-fascist viewGoryachev felt “ideological hatred and enmity” towards Markelov due to his “professional activities in defending the rights of victims with anti-fascist views,” they add-ed.

Russian investigators said Goryachev and Tikhonov were among the founders in 2008 of a “highly organised” and heavily armed group called the Battle Or-ganisation of Russian National-ists, or BORN.

Goryachev, 33, studied history at a Moscow university before found-ing with Tikhonov a radical group called Russian Image, inspired by a Serbian ultra-nationalist move-ment.

He worked for a time on an Or-thodox television channel and wrote articles for several newspa-pers.

He also claimed to have worked as an assistant to two Russian law-makerss.

BORN committed dozens of crimes including eight murders, investigators said. Their victims included a judge, several anti-fas-cist campaigners and members of ethnic minorities. — AFP

L I F E T E R M

Nepal protest against constitution change turns violent; 250 arrestedKATHMANDU: Nepalese police arrested nearly 250 demonstra-tors on Friday as they torched ve-hicles and forced schools, shops and businesses to shut down in protest over government plans to pass a new constitution.

Police said they had arrested 247 Maoist activists over the vio-lence and deployed heavy secu-rity during the first national strike since a devastating quake hit the country in April.

“Seven vehicles have been torched and another 19 vandal-ised,” police spokesman Kamal Singh Bam told AFP, adding that no casualties had been reported so far.

Bitter disagreementNepal’s Maoists struck a deal with rival parties on a new constitution last month after years of bitter dis-agreement, spurred by an earth-quake that killed more than 8,800 people in the Himalayan nation.

But a breakaway faction of the party says the deal betrays the principles of the Maoists, who fought a decade-long civil war with the state that ended in 2006 and led to the abolition of a centuries-old feudal monarchy.

‘People’s war’“The draft is against the people and the spirit and hopes of the people’s war,” their spokesman Khadga Bahadur Bishwokarma told AFP, referring to the conflict.

“The constitution does not ad-dress the problems of the ethnic, racial and gender discrimination that we fought against.”

Dozens have been injured this week in clashes between police and protesters angered by the terms of the draft constitution, af-ter a public consultation process

began on Monday. The opposition is pushing for new provinces to be created along lines that could favour historically marginalised communities.

Other parties have attacked this

model, calling it a threat to nation-al unity.

Friday’s strike emptied Kath-mandu’s usually packed roads of traffic and many Nepalis expressed frustration over the impact on

livelihoods already devastated by the quake.

“I am tired of strikes. It is peo-ple like us who suffer... whenever there is a strike, there is no work and we go hungry,” said daily wage labourer, Karma Tamang.

EarthquakeBank official Nisha Shrestha told AFP she was on her way to work in defiance of the strike.

“It makes me angry that at a time when we are trying to recover from an earthquake, these people want to trouble us more with strikes,” the 28-year-old said. — AFP

H A R D L I N E F A C T I O N O F M A O I S T R E B E L S

Malaysia suspends

top publications

over graft reports

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malay-sian government’s crackdown on the media and dissenters wid-ened on Friday, as the home min-istry suspended publication of two leading financial newspapers over their reporting of alleged graft at the country’s troubled state investment fund.

The Edge Weekly and The Edge Financial Daily were suspend-ed for three months from July 27, just days after authorities blocked access to a website that has covered the scandal and has been critical of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government.

Two opposition lawmakers said this week that they had been issued travel bans in connection with investigations into the debt-laden state fund 1MDB.

Legal actionNajib has also been weighing le-gal action against the Wall Street Journal which reported earlier this month that investigators looking into 1MDB had traced close to $700 million of deposits moving into his personal account.

Reuters has not verified the WSJ report.

Najib has denied taking any money for personal gain and said the corruption allegations are part of a malicious campaign to force him out of office.

The Edge Media Group, which has a staff of around 350 people in Malaysia, has been reporting extensively on the allegations di-rected at 1MDB.

1MDB, with debts of over $11 billion, is being investigated by authorities in Malaysia for finan-cial mismanagement and graft. The state-owned firm’s advisory

board is chaired by the prime minister.

The Edge Media Group said in a statement on Friday that the ministry issued a notice that claimed the two publications’ reporting of 1MDB was “prejudi-cial or likely to be prejudicial to public order, security or likely to alarm public opinion or is likely to be prejudicial to public and na-tional interest”.

Billions of ringgit“We don’t see how exposing the scam to cheat the people of Ma-laysia of billions of ringgit can be construed as being detrimental to public and national interest,” said The Edge Media Group publisher and CEO Ho Kay Tat.

“This is nothing more than a move to shut us down in order to shut us up.” Ho said the matter would be taken to court in a bid to lift the suspension. — Reuters

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

GENERAL STRIKE: People gather around a damaged taxi burned by demonstrators during a general

strike called by the hardliner faction of former Maoist rebels, who are protesting against the first draft

of the new constitution that has been published, in Kathmandu on Friday. — Reuters

The opposition is pushing for new provinces to be

created along lines that could favour historically

marginalised communities

‘The Edge Weekly’ and

‘The Edge Financial Daily’

were suspended for three

months from July 27, just

days after authorities

blocked access to a

website that has covered

the scandal and has been

critical of Prime Minister

Najib Razak’s government

SPOR S

SATURDAY, JULY 25, 2015

Top 10 start for ORT’s Ahmad

MUSCAT: Just 0.5 seconds made the difference for the Oman Rac-ing Team during qualifying for this weekend’s Total 24 Hours of Spa – the front-running Blancpain Endurance Series team missing out on the final ‘Super Pole’ period after being impacted by slower traffic during yesterday evening’s timed sessions.

Ahmad Al Harthy, plus team-mates Jonny Adam, Daniel Lloyd and squad newcomer Jonathan Venter, enjoyed a strong day at the Belgian track on Thursday, July 23 but ultimately had to settle for a best lap of 2m19.615 seconds in the late evening run courtesy of Scot-tish driver Adam.

Lapping within just 0.5 seconds of the cut-off for today’s Super Pole qualification finale, Adam was also little more than a second shy of the top of the times. With traffic on his quickest lap costing the Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 driver a substantial chunk of time, though, the team was unfortunate to miss out on the overall top 20 shoot-out

but will still begin the race inside the Pro-Am top 10.

“We set a respectable time in qualifying, it was very close to Su-per Pole and we might have made it actually – on our fastest lap, with Jonny behind the wheel, we were compromised by a slower car so we honestly feel we should have been there”, reflected Aston Mar-tin Middle East and North Africa ambassador Ahmad.

“We all believe we have a strong car for the race, though, and we

can’t wait for it. Our preparations have gone well, we know what we need to do and we’re all comfort-able in the Aston Martin. Jonny, Dan and Jonathan have all done a great job so far and I’m happy with my pace too – roll on the start of the race now on Saturday afternoon!”

Running just outside the Pro-Am top 10 in Pre-Qualifying, the Oman Air, Oman Ministry of Sports Affairs, Ooredoo, National Bank of Oman and Al Hashar Group backed squad ended the evening’s main qualifying period in 24th position overall, from a near 60 car entry, and 10th in Pro-Am.

During the subsequent Night Qualifying run, the No.44 Aston Martin was an improved 14th quickest overall - just a second shy of the best time in the session – and inside the top four in Pro-Am. Due to the quicker laps in the preceding evening period, however, the team just missed the cut by fractions for Super Pole but will still line-up a competitive 10th in Pro-Am.

This weekend’s Total 24 Hours of Spa, round four of the Blancpain Endurance Series campaign, is the blue riband race meeting of the season and the big event also marks the first of the year for the Oman Racing Team in the Pro-Am cat-egory, having been regraded from the Pro class. Following a warm-up session at Spa-Francorchamps at 09.05 (local time) on Saturday, the twice-round-the-clock race will get underway at 16.30 (local time).

Ahmad Al Harthy,

plus team-mates

Jonny Adam, Daniel

Lloyd and squad

newcomer Jonathan

Venter, enjoyed a

strong day at the

Belgian track on

Thursday

ALL SET: Ahmad Al Harthy of

Oman Racing Team.

The Wave, Muscat at top of the tableMUSCAT: The Hamburg race-track, brand new to the Extreme Sailing Series in 2015, proved fa-vourable for The Wave, Muscat who are sitting top of the table after the first day’s action while Oman Air gave the thumbs up to a ‘superb’ venue.

Leigh McMillan’s champion-ship winning team of Nasser Al Mashari, Sarah Ayton, Pete Greenhalgh and Ed Smyth on The Wave, Muscat, made a Ger-man debut to remember, win-ning the second race of the day outright and adding another four podium places to earn a two point lead at the top of the table.

Second placed SAP Extreme Sailing Team, who are vying with the Omani team as overall se-ries leaders, posted some strong results to give their opponents notice of the fiercely competitive match that lies ahead over the next three days. “We are happy to be leading but frustrated because there were opportunities to in-

crease it,” said McMillan who sur-vived the day without causing fur-ther damage to the hand he broke three weeks ago while racing GC32s in Cowes, UK. “We made a hash of the last race because we had a chance to come right back at the fleet but messed it up. We need to continue to try and improve over the weekend. We had some issues with the hydraulics for the first few races which was a bit of problem but we fixed it and were fully up to speed after that.”

Bowman Nasser Al Mashari, along with his Omani mates Ali Al Balushi, Sulaiman Al Manji and Hilal Al Zadjali, paid tribute to Sultan Qaboos bin Said and the people of Oman to mark Oman’s Renaissance Day, a celebration that had inspired their perfor-mances. “We are very happy and very proud because today is Oman’s Renaissance Day, the day our Sultan ascended the throne in 1970 so this is a big gift to His Majesty,” said Al Mashari.

S A I L I N G

Rain washes out fourth day of first Test in Chittagong

CHITTAGONG: Rain washed out the fourth day’s play in the first Test between Bangladesh and South Africa on Friday.

Match officials at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong called off play at 1:25pm (0725 GMT).

Rain and bad light had forced early finishes on the second and third days, eating up time and the chances of a result in the match. South Africa made a sedate start to their second innings after conceding a first innings lead of 78 runs. South Africa, who made 248 in the first innings, bowled out Bangladesh for 326 and reached 61-0 in their second knock when bad light forced an early stumps with 24.5 overs left to be bowled on the third day.

Openers Stiaan van Zyl and Dean Elgar were on 33 and 28 runs respectively.. The second and final Test of two-match se-ries will be held in Dhaka from July 30 to August 3. - AFP

T E S T S E R I E S

Oman cricket team deliver

perfect Renaissance Day gift

Zeeshan, ‘playing his own game’, really helped the team cross the line. After his historic knock, a delighted Zeeshan said, “We were thinking that with the required run-rate being about eight we could go along at seven per over. That was my plan when I went in. In the penultimate over I thought I should loosen up and go for a few more shots. I took my chances and it paid off.”

“Throughout the tournament, we preferred to chase rather than set a total, and it paid off. This was the plan of our coach, so we are very happy to win today,” he said.

“We are delighted. Back in Oman, all the supporters and my family will be so happy that we have qualified. I was just play-ing my own game, not taking any pressure, so I am happy to have helped the team,” added Zeeshan.

Historic dayCaptain Sultan Ahmed, mean-while, described the qualification as a great achievement. “It is a great achievement for us on the Renaissance Day of our country,” said an emotional skipper.

“It has been a difficult period, especially for Khawar Ali and me.

Khawar lost his father before the tournament, and I lost my mother during the course of the tourna-ment,” he said.

“We stuck to our plans right from the start of the tournament and have done extremely well. Each one of us has contributed to the success. It was nice to see Zee-shan Siddiqui strike form when it mattered most,” said the skipper.

Madhu Jesrani, general secre-tary of Oman Cricket, who was accompanying the team, said it was a historic day for Oman cricket.

“I would like to thank everyone for supporting the Oman team. It

is a historic day for Oman cricket. Everyone’s prayers and wishes definitely helped a lot in this greatest achievement,” he said.

“The boys played some out-standing cricket. We are proud of our team. Our coaches and of-ficials also made outstanding con-tributions,” said Jesrani.

It is an achievement that has made everyone sit up and take notice of the team. Perhaps it was a performance that would have pleased one and all in this soccer-crazy nation and one that will certainly change the status of the cricket in Oman.

The team, along with Duleep Mendis and his coaching staff, is sure to be accorded a grand recep-tion, probably an unprecedented one for an Oman cricket team, when they arrive.

However, that will have to wait as the team still has some unfin-ished business in Dublin, where they are scheduled to take on Afghanistan on Saturday in the Qualifier’s fifth place play-off at Clontarff ground.

From there, Mendis will have to prepare the team for a tougher but more glamorous and equally satisfying sojourn in India.

I C C W O R L D T 2 0 Q U A L I F I E R

< FROM

A1

Zeeshan Ahmed Siddique.

Hamilton on top again in Hungary BUDAPEST: Defending world champion Lewis Hamilton topped the times ahead of Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull in Friday’s second free practice session ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

On an eventful day, just 72 hours after the funeral of Jules Bianchi, Hamilton led the way as the driv-ers demonstrated their respect for the 25-year-old Frenchman who died last Friday by pulling down their visors and showing total commitment. In searing heat that reached 50 degrees Celsius on the

pit wall, Hamilton, who is seeking a record fifth Formula One win on one of his favourite circuits, recorded a best lap time of one minute and 23.949 seconds to out-pace the Russian by 0.351 seconds.

“That was very good fun,” said Hamilton. But I cannot tell you how hot it is out there. The heat is so intense. It is like driving in a sauna with this racing suit on, and the thermal underwear, and so hot!

“And it is not easy. This is a chal-lenging circuit and that is how it should be.” - AFP

F O R M U L A O N E

Nibali wins 19th stage

LA TOUSSUIRE: Reigning cham-pion Vincenzo Nibali won the 19th stage of the Tour de France on Fri-day as Nairo Quintana clawed back time on race leader Chris Froome.

Italian Nibali went some way to rescuing what has been a difficult Tour defence by claiming a stun-ning solo victory on the 138km stage from Saint Jean de Mauri-enne to La Toussuire. Quintana

took second on the stage at 44sec but finished 30sec ahead of third-placed Froome to perhaps reignite the yellow jersey battle. Colombian Quintana is now 2min 38sec back from the Briton ahead of Saturday’s 20th stage finish on Alpe d’Huez.

But it was the return of the ‘Shark of Messina’ that most ani-mated an enthralling day in the Alps. — AFP

T O U R D E F R A N C E

BMARKE

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COMS AT U R DAY, J U LY 2 5, 2 0 1 5

NIKKEI GOING GLOBAL WITH FINANCIAL TIMES TAKEOVERJapanese media giant Nikkei’s surprise acquisition of the Financial Times for $1.3 billion underscores its goal to be the voice of Asia on economic affairs as part of a broader Internet-driven global expansion. >B3

What’s in a name: US, EU battle over ‘feta’ in trade talksBRUSSELS: European Union plans to seal the world’s largest free trade deal with the United States are threatened by intracta-ble differences over food names, none more so than the right of cheese makers to use the term “feta”. Negotiators talk of acceler-ated progress and hope to thrash out a skeleton agreement on a Transatlantic Trade and Invest-ment Partnership (TTIP) within a year, aiming for a major boost to growth in the advanced Western economies.

But geographical indications (GIs), a 1,200-long list ranging from spirits to Parma ham, pre-sent a major headache.

At the same time as euro zone leaders are ordering Greece to balance its budget and liberalise its product markets, EU trade ne-gotiators are fighting to defend its signature cheese.

GIs are a cornerstone of EU agri-cultural and trade policy, designed to ensure that only products from a given region can carry a name.

To the United States, it smacks of protectionism.

“It’s politically extremely im-portant in Europe. As (the EU) phases out direct agricultural sup-port, there has to be a trade-off by promising to do more in trade poli-cy,” said Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, di-rector of the European Centre for International Political Economy.

“For 20 years they have been fighting about it at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) even if the economic value is disputed.”

EU member states will have to approve any deal and will need food name protection as compen-sation for EU farmers facing a

flood of US beef and pork imports. Agriculture is not a sizeable part of either the EU or the US economy, but farmers retain political mus-cle, as French livestock and dairy producers showed this week by forcing the government to offer aid after protests including road blockades. Washington does not object to protection of niche items such as British Melton Mowbray pork pies.

But negotiators face a very dif-ficult task to find a balance for widely produced feta, Parma ham or parmesan, the biggest maker of which is America’s Kraft Foods.

6,000-year heritageIt is a view echoed by Christina Onassis, marketing manager at the Lytras & Sons dairy in cen-tral Greece. She describes the unique plants and microflora of Greece’s mountainous regions and says feta “imitations” mostly use cow’s milk.

“For 6,000 years, Greece has produced continuously using milk from ewes and goats,” she said.“We also ripen the cheese for

days, which does not happen in any other feta production.” The issue is about more than just national pride for near-bankrupt Greece.

Its feta exports rose 85 per cent between 2007 and 2014 to 260 million euros, and sales to coun-tries outside the EU more than doubled. US agricultural and trade experts generally recognise the region-specific terms such as “Gouda Holland” or “Camembert de Normandie”, meaning that US producers can still make and name their own gouda and camembert cheeses. However, they argue that the European Union has gone too far by including the likes of gor-gonzola and feta - terms they say are not region-specific but generic like cheddar or mozzarella, which do not have GI status.

“Show me on the map where feta is?” asked one US trade negotiator.

In fact, under EU law, the feta-producing region covers almost the whole of the Greek mainland plus the island of Lesbos.

The European Commission says names can be protected even if they are not linked to a particular

place. Feta, it says, is so closely connected to Greece as to be iden-tified inherently as a Greek prod-uct. In 2012 several non-European food producers and associations, many from across the Americas, formed the Consortium for Com-mon Food Names (CCFN) to fight what they see as Europe’s appro-priation of generic food terms.

‘Nothing wrong’“There’s nothing wrong with GIs, but is something a true GI or just a method of production?” said CCFN executive director Jaime Castaneda.”Most consumers do connect feta with Greece, but most also connect cheddar with England but it does not have to be made there.”

United States producers, he says, could lose billions of dollars in income if they are forced to re-name their products.

Even before an EU-US free trade deal, Castaneda says US businesses are already affected in countries like South Korea, whose trade accord with Europe includes GI protection. — Reuters

F R E E T R A D E D E A L

Global economy’s second half begins on shaky note

LONDON/SYDNEY: The global economy started the second half of the year on shaky ground as business activity in the euro zone was weaker than expected and China’s vast factory sector ap-peared to be contracting at the fastest pace in 15 months in July.

The surveys come just months after the European Central Bank (ECB) embarked on a 60 billion euro a month bond-buying pro-gramme and as Beijing said that it

would allow its yuan currency to fluctuate more widely within its trading band as a way to support the trade.

Markit’s purchasing managers’ indexes (PMI) are one of the earli-est monthly economic indicators and could dampen hopes that ECB bond-buying and the tumbling euro are boosting growth and driving inflation higher in Europe.

Although Athens has accepted the conditions imposed on it by

its international lenders, and on Thursday approved a second package of reforms required to start talks on a financial rescue deal, Greece’s brush with bank-ruptcy meant July was a turbulent month for the euro zone.

“While the latest data sug-gest that the Greek crisis has not derailed the euro zone recovery altogether, growth seems to be slowing as the boosts from earlier falls in oil prices and the euro ex-

change rate fade,” said Jennifer McKeown, at Capital Economics.

The euro has sunk more than nine per cent against the dollar since the start of the year, hit by the ECB’s massive cash injection and fears a Greek exit from the bloc would bring the whole union crashing down.

Cheaper abroadThat has made the bloc’s goods cheaper abroad but done little for demand. Markit’s Composite Flash PMI, based on surveys of thousands of companies and seen as a good guide to growth, fell to 53.7 this month from June’s four-year high of 54.2. A Reuters poll had predicted a more modest dip to 54.0. The headline index has nevertheless now been above the 50 level that separates growth from contraction since mid-2013.

Markit said the data provi-sionally pointed to third-quarter growth of 0.4 per cent, slightly weaker than the 0.5 per cent pre-dicted in a Reuters poll published on Thursday.

Second-quarter growth is fore-cast at 0.4 per cent.

A corresponding survey due later from the United States is expected to show manufactur-ers increased activity at the same

modest pace as last month. Metal prices also hit multi-year lows on Friday after the weaker-than-expected data from China and the euro zone.

Fears of faltering demand in China, the world’s largest com-modity buyer, piled the pressure on resource prices, sending gold to a five-year low and copper to a six-year trough.

It also added to the woes of emerging market nations already struggling with the risk of a rise in US interest rates later this year.

The flash Caixin/Markit China PMI dropped to 48.2, the lowest reading since April last year and the fifth straight month under 50.

According to government data, industrial output is still rising.

The drop confounded forecasts for a rise to 49.7 from June’s final reading of 49.4 and slugged the Australian dollar to a six-year low.

China is Australia’s biggest ex-port market and investors use the currency as a liquid proxy for risk in the Asian giant. - Reuters

Markit’s Composite

Flash PMI, based on

surveys of thousands

of companies and

seen as a good guide

to growth, fell to 53.7

this month from

June’s four-year

high of 54.2

‘Iran’s foreign reserves total $115-125b’VIENNA: Iran’s foreign reserves total between $115 billion and $125 billion, including assets in its sovereign wealth fund, its industry minister said on Friday in one of the most detailed public descrip-tions of the reserves by an Iranian official. The size of the foreign re-serves and the way in which Iran uses them will be crucial in its ef-forts to rebuild its economy after years of international sanctions, which may be removed around the end of this year after last week’s agreement between Tehran and world powers.

The Iranian central bank’s for-eign reserves, obtained from the country’s oil and gas exports, are around $90 billion to $100 billion, Minister of Industry, Mines and Trade Mohammad Reza Nemat-zadeh said. The National Devel-opment Fund of Iran, which was founded in 2011 and receives a portion of oil and gas export pro-ceeds, has around $20 billion to $25 billion. In addition, some Ira-nian government companies and organisations have foreign hold-ings of about $5 billion to $10 bil-lion, Nematzadeh said.

He further added that only about $29 billion was blocked, of which $23 billion were central bank re-serves and $6 billion belonged to the government. - Reuters

E C O N O M Y

WTO members seek to seal trillion-dollar IT trade accordGENEVA/ WASHINGTON: World Trade Organisation (WTO) members met in Geneva on Fri-day trying to finalise a deal to cut tariffs on $1 trillion of information technology products from video games to medical equipment.

The United States said a deal had been struck, but WTO Di-rector General Roberto Azevedo postponed a press conference at which he and the talks’ chairman, European Union Ambassador Angelos Pangratis, had been due to announce the agreement.

Need more time“Some delegations needed more time to get full clearance from their capitals.

They contacted the chairman Angelos Pangratis and he re-scheduled the meeting for three hours later,” WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell told Reuters.

Once finalised, the agreement to update the WTO’s 18-year-old Information Technology Agree-ment (ITA) will add more than 200 products to the list of goods covered by zero-tariff and duty-

free trade. The US Trade Repre-sentative Michael Froman said more than $100 billion of US ex-ports alone would be covered by the updated agreement and in-dustry estimates showed the re-moval of tariffs could support up to 60,000 additional jobs.

“ITA’s expansion is great news for the American workers and businesses that design, manufac-ture and export state-of-the-art

technology and information prod-ucts, ranging from MRI machines to semiconductors to video game consoles,” Froman said in a state-ment issued in Washington.

Global economyAzevedo said last week that the deal, which is the first tariff-cutting agreement in the World Trade Organisation for 18 years, will jump-start the global econ-omy. “The trade covered in this agreement is comparable to an-nual global trade in iron, steel, textiles and clothing combined,” he further added.

Technology manufacturers like General Electric Co, Intel Corpo-ration, Texas Instruments Inc, Microsoft Corp and Nintendo Co are among companies expected to benefit from the deal.

Additional duty-free products include computer software and software media, video game con-soles, printer ink cartridges, GPS devices, medical devices such as MRI machines and next genera-tion semiconductors, the Tech-nology CEO Council said. - Reuters

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

FOOD NAMES: Negotiators face a very difficult task to find a bal-

ance for widely produced feta, Parma ham or parmesan, the biggest

maker of which is America’s Kraft Foods. — Bloomberg file picture

SLOWING DOWN: Business activity in the euro zone was weaker

than expected and China’s vast factory sector appeared to be

contracting at the fastest pace in 15 months in July. — Reuters

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

WTO Director General Roberto

Azevedo. — Bloomberg file picture

HR

B2

MARKETS AT U R DAY, J U LY 2 5, 2 0 1 5

China pain seen as India’s gain as foreign funds escape to Mumbai

MUMBAI: The tumult in China’s stock markets has turned into a blessing for Indian shareholders.

International investors are pull-ing out of China, fuelling record outflows through the Shanghai-Hong Kong exchange link, amid a $2.8 trillion plunge in mainland equity values since June 12.

They’ve plowed $705 million into India over the same period, sparking a world-beating seven per cent gain in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex index.

China’s interventionist re-sponse to the rout — including un-precedented trading restrictions — has prompted foreigners to shift

their equity exposure to India, ac-cording to hedge fund Alexander Alternative Capital. The $2 tril-lion economy, which got a fresh boost from tumbling crude prices this month, is less exposed than its emerging-market peers to slowing growth in China, Aquarius Invest-ment Advisors says.

“The recent travails in China make India seem like an oasis of calm in terms of volatility,” Jona-than Schiessl, the head of equi-ties at the UK-based Ashburton Investments, which oversees $12 billion, said in an e-mail.

The fund has cut its exposure to China by one per cent in the past

month to invest in Indian equities and raise its cash position, he said.

The Sensex tumbled 11 per cent from this year’s peak on Jan-uary 29 through June 12, making it the world’s worst performer after Egypt.

IMF forecastThose concerns have been allayed by the biggest jump in indirect tax receipts in May since 2011, which gives Modi ammunition to boost expenditure. A 12 per cent decline in Brent crude prices this month has also pared government sub-sidy bills in a country that imports about three-quarters of its oil.

India’s economy expanded 7.5 per cent in the March quarter, beating China’s seven per cent growth, while the International Monetary Fund predicts India will outpace its neighbour in the cur-rent fiscal year.

The longer-term growth outlook is also stronger in India because of its superior demographics, accord-ing to Franklin Templeton Tem-pleton Investments. More than 62 per cent of the nation’s 1.2 billion people are between age 15 and 59, government data show.

China’s pool of workers in this age group is expected to shrink by 61 million by 2030, according to

United Nations. That’s about the equivalent of losing the combined working populations of the UK and France.

“India is in a phase in which multiple engines of growth can drive GDP from 7-8 per cent to 9-10 per cent in the next five years,” said Sukumar Rajah, who manages about $9 billion as chief investment officer of Asian Eq-uity at Franklin Templeton in Singapore.”For China, we expect growth to decelerate over the next few years partly because it doesn’t benefit from demographic trends the way that India does.”

State interventionTempleton is overweight India and underweight Chinese shares in Hong Kong relative to bench-mark indexes, Rajah said.

He’s bullish on Indian industrial companies such Larsen & Toubro amid signs of increased spending on infrastructure.

The Hang Seng China Enter-prises Index declined 0.8 per cent at 1:19pm in Hong Kong on Friday after a private gauge of Chinese manufacturing unexpectedly fell to the lowest level in 15 months.

India’s Sensex lost 0.3 per cent in Mumbai trading, poised for a weekly decline. - Bloomberg News

International

investors are

pulling out of China,

fuelling record

outflows through

the Shanghai-Hong

Kong exchange link,

amid a $2.8 trillion

plunge in mainland

equity values since

June 12

Bangladesh pushes mobile phones use to move money to its rural poorDHAKA: Bangladesh, home to the world’s second-largest mo-bile money company, is moving to consolidate the industry as it expands financial services to the rural poor.

The central bank has proposed channeling all mobile transac-tions through bank-led compa-nies with a minimum capital of 1 billion taka ($13 million), said Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman. This would force small-er providers to merge and link up with banks. “There are a lot of en-trepreneurs who could never be reached by conventional banks,” Rahman said in an interview in Dhaka on Thursday.”It’s a con-scious move by the central bank to bring those unserved or under-served into financial flows.”

More of Bangladesh’s 157 mil-lion people use mobile phones to transfer money than bank ac-counts. The nation — upgraded this year to the World Bank’s low-middle-income status — has a mobile network that covers 99 per cent of its population, and remit-tances account for more than 10 per cent of its economy.

The central bank has made it mandatory for all banks to give a minimum of 25 per cent of total loans to agriculture. Farmers can open accounts with as little as 10

taka ($0.13). The new companies would need to boost capital by retaining at least 10 per cent of net profits a year, according to the central bank proposal.

Telecom companiesTelecom companies would be al-lowed to hold stakes of as much as 30 per cent in them.

While their main role would be to provide payment services, they can also accept deposits, insurance premiums and dis-burse loans. The central bank will finalise the proposal after re-ceiving comments from various

stakeholders. All existing mobile money platforms would need to restructure operations within three years of the proposal being ac-cepted and implemented.

Peasants & classesWhile Bangladesh has long en-joyed a history of financial inno-vation to reach its unbanked pop-ulation, Rahman has increased the pace of inclusion.

Born to a poor family in 1953, he’d briefly quit school due to a lack of funds before graduating from Dhaka University.

He then wrote a doctoral thesis titled “Peasants and Classes” at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

Since taking office in 2009, the former professor of development economics has made it mandato-ry for banks to open a rural branch for each new urban one, raising the ratio to 1:1 from 1:5.

He also allowed mobile bank-ing in 2011, granting licenses to 28 banks. Twenty of them have started operations.

“We have embarked on an era of new central banking which has got a distinct developmental fo-cus,” Rahman said.”

That focus is inclusivity and en-vironmental sustainability, which was never reflected in any mon-

etary policy anywhere in the world.” The number of mobile money users rose 1.8 per cent to 27 million in May from the previ-ous month, and mobile cash trans-actions rose 6.4 per cent, Bangla-desh Bank data show.

January-May mobile transac-tions were worth 590.03 billion taka, on pace to overtake last year’s total.

Eight million accountsBKash, run by BRAC Bank, has close to eight million accounts, behind only Vodafone Plc’s M-Pesa in Kenya.

Even so, the value of mobile money transactions in Bangla-desh was 5.6 percent of GDP, far lower than Kenya’s 55 per cent.

Analysts say the lack of cus-tomisable payment platforms and poor user education hamper penetration.

Part of Rahman’s inclusive ef-fort is to support the farm sector in a country where agriculture accounts for about a fifth of gross domestic product but gets less than 6 percent of total bank loans.

“Before 2009 in Bangladesh there were only threads of inclu-sivity and environmental sustain-ability,” Rahman said.”We have strengthened the focus,” he fur-ther added. — Bloomberg News

E C O N O M Y

Tokyo investors eye earningsTOKYO: US and Japanese firms’ corporate earnings will be key trading cues for Tokyo investors next week, after the benchmark Nikkei 225 index finished lower on Friday.

Asian markets broadly dropped as a fall in commodities prices and weak Chinese manufacturing figures dented confidence in the global economy, with a surging dollar taking the air out of US cor-

porate earnings so far. Next week, Facebook, Twitter and automak-er Ford are among the firms re-porting while, across the Pacific, Japan Airlines, Sony, Canon and Panasonic are on deck to report their latest financial results.

“With the US dollar likely to keep rising as the Fed prepares to raise rates, there’s still some sort of weakness to come in the com-modity space,” said Angus Glusk-

ie, managing director at White Funds Management.

“The earnings outlook in the United States is also somewhat subdued as a result of the strong US dollar.

We’re not likely to see a mas-sive rally in the next few months.”

On Friday, the Nikkei at the To-kyo Stock Exchange slipped 0.67 per cent, or 139.42 points, to end at 20,544.53. - AFP

S T O C K M A R K E T

STRONG DEMAND: India’s Sensex lost 0.3 per cent in Mumbai trading, poised for a weekly decline.

- Bloomberg file picture

Bangladesh Bank Governor

Atiur Rahman. — Bloomberg file picture

B3S AT U R DAY, J U LY 2 5, 2 0 1 5

MARKET

Nikkei going global with ‘Financial Times’ takeoverTOKYO: Japanese media giant Nikkei’s surprise acquisition of the Financial Times for $1.3 bil-lion underscores its goal to be the voice of Asia on economic affairs as part of a broader Internet-driv-en global expansion.

But the unlikely cross-border marriage — Japanese media rarely venture overseas and are routinely criticised as timid in pursuit of investigative news — has sparked concerns about editorial inde-pendence at the storied salmon-pink business paper founded in 1888. “The merger of the Finan-cial Times and Nikkei will give the group a major international presence in the media sector,” the Japanese paper said in its Friday edition, touting it as the country’s biggest-ever foreign media acqui-sition. President and CEO Nao-toshi Okada said on the Nikkei’s website: “Our goal is nothing short of making Nikkei the leading me-dia voice in Asia”.

In Japan, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun — or Nikkei daily — is a must-read for executives and has a strong track record of financial

scoops. About 2.7 million copies of its morning edition are printed daily while the afternoon version numbers 1.4 million copies.

FT dealThe FT deal adds an international-ly known brand and about 225,000 print copies to the Nikkei’s arsenal as it eyes a battle with business powerhouses the Wall Street Jour-nal and Bloomberg.

Online, the Nikkei-FT marriage would catapult the group past the New York Times’ 910,000 Internet subscribers. Like the FT, the Nik-kei is seen as a business bible.

Its 140-year-old history is in-extricably linked with Japan’s in-dustrial sector and once-booming economy, and the Tokyo Stock Ex-change’s benchmark index — the Nikkei 225 — takes it name from the group.

Digital domain The move into magazines, books and television, among other sec-tors, has left the Nikkei on solid financial ground, even as many major media struggle with their

finances in the age of the Internet.Meanwhile, the FT has earnt

a reputation as one of the most nimble media giants in the digital age, building a giant subscriber base and successfully attracting advertisers because of its upmar-ket readership.

“It’s a good story for the Nikkei — buying the FT offers the expe-rience online and a foreign sub-scriber base in the dominant lan-guage in the world, English,” said Yasuhiro Matsuzaki, deputy chief editor at the rival media group Tokyo Keizai.

“The Nikkei is already the most advanced Japanese newspaper in the digital domain but it takes time to get subscribers,” he added.

However, the takeover could make for a rocky cultural exchange. The FT, among other media, has strongly criticised the Nikkei’s ap-parently privileged access to earn-ings results and other company news, often weeks before it is of-ficially announced. And the Japa-nese press is routinely accused of being conflict shy and self-censor-ing to avoid offence.

That issue came into stark focus during the Fukushima nuclear cri-sis when some viewed the media as soft in its criticism of company and government officials.

‘Worrying’Nikkei is basically a PR machine for Japanese biz; it initially ig-nored the 2011 Olympus account-ing scandal (which FT broke),” a New York Times reporter wrote on Twitter, referring to one of Japan’s worst ever accounting scandals.

Goushi Kataoka, an economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Research, was blunt in his assessment of the deal.

“I’m worried that the Financial Times could become like the Nik-kei, and I hope that will not be the case,” he said.

Robert Peston, former political editor and financial editor of the Financial Times and now BBC economics editor, also expressed concern at the sale.

“If I were still at FT, I’d ask if Nikkei respects culture of trying to hold all power to account (even if FT, like rest of us, often fails),” Peston wrote on Twitter. — AFP

A C Q U I S I T I O N

GM earnings surge on solid sales in USNEW YORK: General Motors (GM) reported on Thursday that quarterly earnings quadrupled on solid sales in the US and China as it pledged better results in the sec-ond half of 2015.

The largest US automaker bene-fited in the quarter ending June 30 from improved profit margins in the key North America region, as well as brisk sales in China despite worries about a slowing economy.

GM chief executive Mary Barra said Thursday’s earnings were “a proof point that we’re doing what we say we’re going to do.”

GM shares jumped 4.2 per cent to $31.58 in midday trade.

Earnings for the second quar-ter were $1.1 billion, up from $278 million in the year-ago period.

The 2014 second-quarter earn-ings were depressed by $1.2 billion in elevated costs for car recalls fol-lowing an ignition-switch scandal.

Revenue dipped 3.7 per cent to $38.18 billion. GM attributed the drop to the strong dollar.

Operating earningsOperating earnings in North America were roughly double that of last year at $2.8 billion, setting a new company quarterly record due in part to robust sales of sport utility vehicles and other large cars in its home market.

The profit margin in North America, by far GM’s largest re-gion by revenues, hit 10.5 per cent in the quarter, up from 8.8 per cent in the first quarter of the year.

Barra has promised to reach a 10 per cent profit margin in 2016.

Earnings in GM International Operations, which includes China, rose 10.8 per cent to $349 million.

GM delivered 823,000 cars in China, up 2.6 per cent from a year ago. GM chief financial of-ficer Chuck Stevens said the com-pany has taken a number of steps to manage the Chinese market through cost cutting, working with dealers to manage inventory lev-els and boosting output of popular SUV models. GM owns research and auto parts businesses in Chi-na and manufactures vehicles through a number of joint ventures with Chinese companies.

Close monitoringThe automaker “will continue to closely monitor” China as growth slows, Stevens said. The company has analysed downturn scenarios for China, but believes car sales will remain healthy, he added.

“General Motors expects strong results in China will be sustained through” the second half of 2015, the company said in an investor presentation. GM had a smaller operating loss in Europe than in the year-ago quarter. Stevens said the company was on track to reach a target to return the division to profitability in 2016.

The weakest division was South America, where GM had an oper-ating loss of $144 million, deeper than the $81 million lost a year ago.

In Brazil, sales slid 35.2 per cent to just 92,000 vehicles.

General Motors earnings were negatively affected by charges to-taling $1.1 billion. - AFP

Q U A R T E R L Y S A L E S

GOING GLOBAL: Nikkei’s President and CEO Naotoshi Okada

attends a news conference in Tokyo on Friday. Nikkei’s $1.3

billion purchase of the Financial Times from Britain’s Pear-

son PLC marks the culmination of decades of attempts by the

Japanese household name to break into mainstream English-

language media. - Reuters

NEW MODEL: Alan Batey, president of General Motors (GM) North

America, speaks before the unveiling of the Chevrolet 2016 Camaro

Convertible at the Motor City in Detroit, Michigan, US, on June 24,

2015. - Bloomberg file picture

Ferrari files for New York public offering

MILAN: Italian sportscar maker Ferrari has taken a step closer to a stock market listing in New York, as its parent Fiat Chrysler Auto-mobiles (FCA) seeks to boost its own coffers to fund an ambitious 48 billion euro ($53 billion)in-vestment plan.

FCA said on Thursday Ferrari, the marque famous for its “pranc-ing horse” logo and its Formula One racing team, had filed a re-quest with US regulators for a New York initial public offering.

The Maranello, northern Italy-based maker of typically red mod-els such as the 488 GTB and the one million euro LaFerrari, could attract a market value of at least 10 billion euros, according to Ser-

gio Marchionne, FCA chief execu-tive and Ferrari chairman.

Some analysts said it could be half that. FCA, home to a stable of brands ranging from Fiat and Jeep to Alfa Romeo, has one of the highest debts in the industry and needs the funds from the flotation of its most prestigious brand to help finance its own plan to boost sales by 60 per cent to seven mil-lion cars by 2018 and increase net profit five-fold.

FCA said last year it would sell up to 10 per cent of Ferrari via the share offering and would dis-tribute the rest of its stake to its shareholders.

The float is expected after mid-October while the sepa-

ration should be completed in early 2016.

Following the blueprint of Fi-at’s marriage with Chrysler and a New York listing of the merged entity last year, FCA will create a Dutch-registered holding com-pany for Ferrari and list its shares on Wall Street, according to the filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Ferrari may apply for a second-ary listing in Milan.

FCA currently owns 90 per cent of Ferrari, with the remaining 10 per cent held by Piero Ferrari, vice chairman and son of the founder Enzo, who died in 1988.

As in FCA’s case, Ferrari’s float will also include a loyalty

share scheme for long-term in-vestors, set to tighten the grip on the company by Fiat’s founding Agnelli family.

The Agnellis, through their holding company Exor, and Piero Ferrari together could end up with a voting power of just under 51 percent, enabling them to thwart any unwanted takeover bid.

UBS will be the offer’s global coordinator, with BofA Mer-rill Lynch and Santander joint bookrunners. A successful Fer-rari listing would bolster FCA’s finances at a time when its search for a merger partner to deal with falling margins and high develop-ment costs appears to have fallen on deaf ears. - Reuters

Fiat Chrysler

Automobiles said on

Thursday Ferrari, the

marque famous for

its ‘prancing horse’

logo and its Formula

One racing team,

had filed a request

with US regulators

for a New York initial

public offering SLEEK MODEL: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said last year it would sell up to 10 per cent of Ferrari via

the share offering and would distribute the rest of its stake to its shareholders. — Bloomberg file picture

BASF quarterly profit misses estimatesFRANKFURT: BASF reported second-quarter profit that missed analyst estimates as the slump in the oil market forced the German chemical maker to cut prices and demand waned for paper ingredi-ents. The stock dropped as much as 4.2 per cent.

Earnings before interest, tax and one-time items rose two per cent to 2.04 billion euros ($2.24

billion), the Ludwigshafen, Ger-many-based company said on Friday. Analysts had predicted 2.12 billion euros, according to a Bloomberg survey. The price of Brent crude oil has almost halved in the past year, prompting cus-tomers to demand that chemicals manufacturers such as BASF pass on lower raw-material costs.

The world’s largest chemical

maker, celebrating its 150-year anniversary this year, on Friday cut its prediction for the global economy, saying it now expects “somewhat weaker” growth for industrial and chemical produc-tion this year.

“The customers will have de-manded that the company make some concessions,” said Heiko Feber, an analyst at Bankhaus

Lampe KG, who rates the stock hold.”The strong effect of the oil price was underestimated.”

BASF on Friday cut its growth expectations for global gross do-mestic product to 2.4 per cent in-stead of a previously predicted 2.8 per cent. Growth in chemical pro-duction will probably be 3.8 per cent instead of 4.2 per cent, the company said. - Bloomberg News

P E R F O R M A N C E

I S T H E W A Y F O R W A R D

B4

FEATURES AT U R DAY, J U LY 2 5, 2 0 1 5

TESLA has rocked the world of high-performance automobiles with the introduction of its new “Ludicrous mode.” The internal-combustion en-gine business may never be the same.

Regular readers of mine usually know at least two things about me: First, I believe that all predic-tions are silly, more about marketing than actually trying to figure out what comes next. Second, I am a fan of sleek, go-fast machines, preferably beautiful ones from Italy, Germany or Britain.

Thus, I am going to break with both of these tra-ditions to make a forecast about the future of the automotive industry. Gasoline-powered cars are toast. They are over, finito, kaput, the walking dead who have not yet realised they are goners. It is high-ly likely that in your lifetime, you will no longer see the mass manufacturing of gasoline-powered auto-mobiles. My guess is that by 2035, if not sooner, the majority of automobiles sold in the US and Europe will no longer be gasoline powered.

Tesla and Toyota have been the two companies driving much of the technology changes for clean alternatives to gas-powered drivetrains. What Tesla has done with its “Ludicrous mode” upgrade for the Model S is figure out how to put almost all of the power in its system to all four wheels at once with-out melting its engine-management components.

The Tesla P85D with the complete 90kWh “lu-dicrous” upgrade costs about $100,000. The up-grade gives it a 0 to 60mph time of 2.8 seconds. To put that into context, to get that sort of accelera-tion from a car previously required a Porsche 918 Spyder (0-60 in 2.3 seconds) or a Bugatti Veyron (2.6 seconds) or a Koenigsegg One (2.5 seconds). They each cost $1.1 million, $2.9 million and $3.8 million respectively.

You can save some money by buying a Lam-borghini Huracan ($237,250), or the Ferrari 458 Italia ($239,340) but both are slower than the Tesla. That makes the McLaren 570s a relative bar-gain at $184,900, but it too, is slower than the Tesla.

Think about what this does to the high-end seg-ment of the auto market. Tesla founder Elon Musk could put a sexier body on the Model S — low-slung, fat tires, gull-wing doors and steal share from Fer-rari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Porsche, Bentley and Bugatti. Or, he can sell entire drive trains to those companies and let them clad the cars with their own bodies. Or both. Whatever happens, the sports-luxury market just had a huge shot fired across its bow.

These major shifts take time. To get an idea of how long a paradigm change takes in an entrenched industry like carmakers, consider these few facts about the Toyota Prius.

It first went on sale in Japan in 1997; it wasn’t until 2000 that it was introduced outside of that country. It was the first mass-produced hybrid ve-hicle in the world. Originally introduced as a com-pact sedan — weight and power were always issues — it has grown along with the underlying technol-ogy. Now it is a midsize hatchback, rated by the Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board as among the cleanest vehi-cles sold. Of the seven million hybrids that Toyota has sold since 1997, almost five million have been Priuses. (Toyota now sells 27 different hybrid pas-senger car models but only one plug-in hybrid mod-el — also a Prius).

Toyota proved with the Prius that a reasonably priced hybrid electric could be a practical vehicle for the ordinary household. Tesla has taken the ba-ton from Toyota, building a true, pure plug-in only electric car. The ramifications are far reaching.

This issue is more than fodder for discussion at car shows and among enthusiasts; it is going to affect many of the world’s largest companies — automakers such as GM, Ford, Fiat Chrylser, VW, BMW, Honda, Mercedes, Nissan, and Hyundai; oil companies such Exxon Mobil, Conoco Philips, Shell, BP; and all of the many support businessess in exploration, drilling and shipping. There also are implications for tech companies such as Google and Apple, which have considered building autono-mous, advanced technology vehicles.

I won’t try to predict whether Apple or Google buys Tesla (Google has been more acquisitive than Apple). Or perhaps one of the automakers ponies up the $35 billion to buy Tesla. But someone should.

How might this play out during the next few dec-ades? The incremental changes of better reliability and longer range have reached critical mass in the 15 years since Toyota began selling the Prius world-wide. Other automakers from Porsche to Ford have to be watching for the day when Tesla can manu-facture and sell a million cars per year. If they were smart, they would be playing catch-up full on.

The gas-assisted hybrid — think Prius or Chevy Volt — is a transitional vehicle to the fully electric-powered automobile.

Gasoline won’t go away anytime soon. A massive infrastructure for refueling vehicles still exists. Diesel is still needed for long-haul truckers, whose heavy cargo loads and long-distance routes are now impractical for electric battery power. At least for now; at some point in the future, though, that too will change.

Electric-vehicle technology is no longer a nov-elty. It is inevitable that we will see a series of in-novations that are going to invert this business — automakers, energy suppliers and the whole in-frastructure that supports cars that run on fossil fuels. — Barry Ritholtz Washington Post-Bloomberg News

What Tesla has done with its 'Ludicrous mode' upgrade for the Model S maybe heralding the doom of the fuel powered cars industry

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM

FamilySECTIONB L I F E S T Y L E S AT U R DAY, J U LY 2 5, 2 0 1 5

Make note of your inventory. School lists often carry over each school year, so make sure you aren’t buying multiples of things you already own. Some supplies are more exciting when refreshed every year, but buying the same old boring ruler year after year is simply a waste of money. Then, put everything you need on that list. Having a complete list helps ensure nothing vital is forgotten, and the list can serve as a handy tool to keep your budget in check.

Hunt bargains before the traditional back-to-school season to get the best deals. Not only will you save some cash, shopping before the rush will give you a wider selection to choose from, so you’re sure to find the items you need in the styles you (and your kids) want. Spreading the shopping over several weeks also allows you to distribute the expense across several pay periods, helping lessen the chance that you blow your monthly budget with one mega shopping excursion.

It seems that kids are forever trading with their friends, so embrace that mindset and see what exciting new treasures you can find for your kids to call their own. Host a swap event with other moms where you can exchange clothing, backpacks, shoes, and supplies. Maybe someone over-purchased pens, but forgot paper, perhaps someone’s child rejected the brand new backpack that was pur-chased for her. One mom’s headache is another mom’s salvation. As a bonus, these get-togethers are a great way to build community with other parents.

Involve your kids in the back-to-school shopping process by giving them a budget. Help them allocate money for all the expenses, including clothing, school supplies, shoes and more. Use the opportunity to talk about how shopping smart for the necessities can leave room for some fun buys, too.

While it’s tempting to go for the cheapest products when your list is long, remember that sometimes quality buys actually save more in the long run. You can buy a ton of cheap pens that skip, or simply stop working, or you can look at alternatives that are affordable, but better quality.

You may find that your kids consistently run out of certain items midyear. Devote a special area of your home to keep extras in stock, and take advantage of sales, buying extra essentials during back-to-school season or buying in bulk for a better price.

Save plastic and money by encouraging kids to embrace reusable items, such as lunch boxes in place of paper sacks, and plastic containers instead of sandwich bags. If water bottles are allowed at school, look for a durable refillable option that can be used again and again. This helps reduce waste and will save you money as well. You can also turn barely used items into some-thing new by decorating or adding stickers. Not only is this a fun activity that can help get the kids excited about and engaged in planning for the year ahead, it’s easy on the budget and eco-friendly. Keep leftover supplies on hand to revive the enthusiasm with fresh designs at the end of the quarter or semester.

Though back-to-school shopping can be fun, it can also be overwhelm-ing. So ask yourself: Are you better at doing all of your shopping all at once, or would you rather make separate trips throughout a couple of weeks to ease the stress? There is no one “right” way to tackle back-to-school shopping; just go with what works best for you. — Family Features

Making the Most of Back-to-School ShoppingW hile kids and parents alike eagerly await the fresh start of a new school year, the back-to-school season

is not without its share of stressors for busy families. The start of school means new schedules, teachers, shoes, backpacks and friends; as well as new academic challenges.

Adding some fun and excitement to the newness can help smooth the way. For example, allowing kids to help choose their outfits for the first day of school can help diffuse that nervous anticipation. Similarly, the chance to put a fresh set of pens to use or show off a cool new notebook can provide a distraction from those first-day jitters.

Ease the back-to-school shopping burden, perhaps even making it a fun experience, by following a few of these tips.

FIND-IT-ALLB6 S AT U R DAY, J U LY 2 5, 2 0 1 5

ROYAL OMAN POLICE

Emergencies and inquiries: 9999

General Directorate of

Passport and Residence 24569603

Directorate General

of Customs 24521109

Traffic violations inquiries 24510228

Public Relations Admin 24560099

EMBASSIES IN OMAN

Afghanistan 24698 791/4

Algeria 24605 593

Bahrain 24 605 074/133

Bangladesh 24 698 660

Brazil 24640100

Brunei 24 603533

China 24 696782

Cyprus 24 699815

Egypt 24 600 982/411

France 24681 800

Germany 24835000

India 24684500

Indonesia 2469 1050

Iran 24 696 944/7

Iraq 24603642

Italy 24693727

Japan 24 601 028

Jordan 24692760/1/3

Kazakhstan 24 692418

Kenya 24 697664

South Korea 24 691490

Kuwait 24 699628

Lebanon 24 693208

Libya 24603466

Malaysia 24698329/643

Morocco 24696152/3

Nepal 24696177

Netherlands 24603706

Pakistan 24603439

Palestine 24601312

Philippines 24605335

Qatar 24 691 153/2/4

Russia 24602894

Saudi Arabia 24601705

Senegal 24694139

Somalia 24697977

South Africa 24647300

Spain 24691101

Sri Lanka 24697841/2

Sudan 24697875

Switzerland 24603267

Syria 24697904

Tanzania 24601 174

Thailand 24 602684/5

Tunisia 24603486

Turkey 24697050/1/2

UAE 24400000

United Kingdom 24609000

United States 24643400

Yemen 24600815

PHARMACIES

Round the clock

Al Hashar Pharmacy, Ruwi 24783334

Appolo Medical Centre,

Hamriya 24782666

Muscat Pharmacy, Ruwi 24702542

Salalah 23291635;

Atlas Pharmacy, Ghubra 24503585

Muscat Region

Apollo, Al Hamriya 24787766

Muscat, A Seeb Market 24421691

Muscat, Al Khuwair 24485740

Muscat, Al Hail South 24537080

Dhofar Region

Muscat, Al Nahdha Road,

Salalah 23291635

HOSPITALS

Al Amal Medical & Health Care

Centre 24485052

Atlas Hospital

Ruwi 24811743/

Ghubra 24504000

Al Musafir Specialised

Medical Clinic 24706453

Hatat Polyclinic LLC,

Ruwi 24563641

Azaiba 24499269

Sohar 2683006

Al Raffah Hospital 24618900/1/2

Al Massaraat Clinic &

Laboratory 24566435

Al Makook Medical

Coordinance Centre 24499434

Apollo Medical Centre,

Hamriya 24787766, 24787780

Capital Polyclinic 24707549

Badr Al Samaa Polyclinic,

Ruwi 24799760/1/2

Capital Clinic, Seeb 24420740

Ceregem National Raak 24485633

Dr Harub’s Clinic 24563217

Elixir Health Centre 24565802

Emirates Medical Centre 24604540

1st Chiropractic Centre 24472274

Hamdan Hospital 23212340

International Medical

Centre LLC 24794501/2/3/4/5

Kims Oman Hospital 24760100

24 Hrs Emergency 24760123

Lama Polyclinic, Sohar 26751128

MBD 24799077

Al Khuwair 24478818

Magrabi Eye and

Ear Hospital 24568870

Muscat Private Hospital 24583600

Welcare Diagnostic and Treatment

Centre, Al Khuwair 24477666

Al-Hayat Polyclinc LLC 22004000

AIRLINE OFFICES

Muscat Airport Flight information

(24 hours) 24519456/24519223

Aeroflot 24704455

Air Arabia 24700828

Air France 24562153

Air India 24799801

Air New Zealand 24700732

Biman Bangladesh Airlines 24701128

British Airways 24568777

Cathay Pacific 24789818

Egypt Air 24794113

Emirates Air 24404400

Ethiopian Airlines 24660313

Gulf Air 80072424

Indian 24791914

Iran Air 24787423

Japan Airlines 24704455

Jazeera Airways 23294848

Jet Airways 24787248

Kenya Airways 24660300

KML Royal Dutch Airlines 24566737

Kuwait Airways 24701262

LOT Polish Airlines 24796387

Lufthansa 24796692

Malaysian Airlines 24560796

Middle East Airlines 24796680

Oman Air 24531111

Pakistan International

Airlines 24792471

Qatar Airways 24771900

Qantas 24559941

Royal Jordanian 24796693

Saudi Arabian Airlines 24789485

Singapore Airlines 24791233

Shaheen Air 24816565

SriLankan Airlines 24784545

Swiss International

Airlines 24796692

Thai Airways 24705934

LISTINGS

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

CINEMA SCHEDULE

FROM MUSCAT (RUWI)

Dept Destination Arrival Operatingtime time days

QURIYAT - SUR - JAALAN (ROUTE 36)

15:00 Quriyat 16:30 Daily

15:00 Sur 18:00 Daily

15:00 Jaalan 19:30 Daily

TO AL BURAIMI (ROUTE 41)

06:30 Sohar 08:50 Daily

06:30 Buraimi 11:00 Daily

08:00 Buraimi 14:30 Daily via Ibri

13:00 Sohar 15:45 Daily

13:00 Buraimi 17:40 Daily

16.00 Sohar 18.35 Daily

16.00 Buraimi 20:20 Daily

TO SINAW (ROUTE 52)

17:30 Sinaw 20:50 Daily

TO YANQUL (ROUTE 54)

14:30 Nizwa 16:50 Daily

14:30 Yanqul 19:30 Daily

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (ROUTE 54)

08:00 Nizwa 10:20 Daily

08:00 Al Araqi 12:30 Daily

TO SUR (ROUTE 55)

07:30 Sur 12:00 Daily

14:30 Sur 18:45 Daily

TO FAHUD - YIBAL (ROUTE 62)

06:30 Fahud 10:30 Daily

06:30 Yibal 11:15 Daily

TO MARMUL-SALALAH (ROUTE 100)

07:00 Salalah 20:00 Daily

10:00 Marmul 20:30 Daily

10:00 Salalah 23:30 Daily

19:00 Salalah 07:40 Daily

TO MARMUL (ROUTE 101)

06:00 Marmul 16:50 Daily

SALALAH TO DUBAI (ROUTE 102)

15:00 Dubai 07:00 Daily

TO DUBAI (ROUTE 201)

06:00 Sohar 08:30 Daily

06:00 Dubai 11:30 Daily

13:00 Sohar 15:30 Wed,Thur

13:00 Dubai 18:30 Wed,Thur

15:00 Sohar 17:35 Daily

15:00 Dubai 20:55 Daily

TO DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH & SHARJAH (ROUTE 204)

07:00 Fujairah 11.45 Daily

07:00 Sharjah 13.30 Daily

07:00 Dubai 14.00 Daily

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

SHATTI Bajrangi Bhaijaan (Drama)(PG)Cast: Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Harshaali11:30 am, 3:30, 8:30, 11:30 pmTerminator: Genisys (Action, Adventure)(3D)PG12Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke 9:15, 11:45 pmTerminator: Genisys (Action)(2D)PG122:30 pmMinions (Animation, Comedy)(3D) PG1:30, 5:00 pmMinions (Animation, Comedy)(2D) PG11:30 pmHayaty Mebahdela (Comedy)(PG)Cast: Mohamed Saad, Nicole Saba7:00 pmThe Gallows (Horror, Thriller) (15+)Cast: Reese Mishler, Pfeifer Brown, Ryan Shoos6:15, 10:00 pmThe Vatican Tapes (Horror, Thriller) (12+)Cast: Michael Peña, Kathleen Robertson, Djimon Hounsou, 4:30, 11:45 pmPixels (3D) (Action, Comedy) PG12Cast: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle2:30, 6:30, 8:00 pmPixels (2D) (Action, Comedy) PG1212:15 pm

MUSCAT GRAND MALLA Royal Night Out 2D (Drama)Cast: Sarah Gadon, Emily Watson, Jack3:45PM (15+)Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! 2D (Horror) (15+)Cast: Tara Reid, Bo Derek, Frankie Muniz7:45PMTerminator Genisys (3D): (Action) (PG12)9:30 PM, 11:55 PMGold Class: 12:30 PM, 11:15PMTerminator Genisys (2D) (Action) (PG12)4:15 PM

Minions (3D) (Animation, Comady) (PG)12:30 PM, 2:00PMBajrangi Bhaijaan (2D): ( Action) (PG)11:00 AM, 8:45 PM, 11:45PMGold Class: 3:00 PM, 8:15 PMPixels (3D) (Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi ) (PG12)Cast: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle 2:15, 6:45 PMGold Class: 6:00 PMHayaty Mebahdela (2D) (Comedy)(PG)Cast : Mohamed Saad, Nicole Saba, Hassan Hosny5:45 PM

RUWISCREEN 1Bajrangi Bhaijaan (Action/Drama ) – PGCast: Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Harshaali1.00, 4.00, 7.00, 10.00 PM

SCREEN 2Baahubali: The Beginning (Action) – (12+)Cast: Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka2.30, 7.30, 10.30 PMBajrangi Bhaijaan (Action/Drama ) – PG5.30 PM

SCREEN 3Masaan (Romance/Drama) – (12+)Cast: Richa Chadda, Sanjay Mishra, Saurav Choudhary3.00, 8.15, 10.30 PMBaahubali: The Beginning (Action) – 12+5.15 PM

SOHARTerminator Genisys - 2D (PG12) (Action) 3:30 PMTerminator Genisys - 3D (PG12) (Action) 12:30, 9:00, 11:45 PMBajrangi Bhaijaan - 2D (PG) Drama, Action4:00, 6:00, 8:45, 11:30 PMMinions - 2D (PG) (Animation)11:45 AMMinions - 3D (PG) (Animation)2:15, 5:00 PMBaahubali - 2D (Telegu)(12+) (Action)3:15 PMHayaty Mebahdela - 2D (Arabic)(PG) (Comedy) 6:45 PMPixels - 2D (PG12) (Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi) 6:15 PMPixels - 3D (PG12) (Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi) 12:15, 3:00, 7:00 PM

The Vatican Tapes - 2D (18+) (Horror)1:30, 11:55 PMNom El Talat - 2D (12+) Comedy 8:15 PMMasaan - 2D (12+) (Drama)Cast: Richa Chadda, Saurabh Chadhary, Sanjay Mishra10:00 PMIvide - 2D (M) (12+) (Crime, Drama)12:45, 9:05 PMBaahubali - 2D (12+) (Action)11:45 PM

BURAIMITerminator Genisys - 3D (Action) (PG12)12:30, 6:45, 11:50PMBajrangi Bhaijaan– 2D (Drama, Action) (PG)12:45, 2:45, 7:00, 9:00, 11:30PMIvide– 2D (Crime/Drama) (12+)Cast: Prithviraj Sukumran, Nivin Pauly 7:30PMMinions– 3D (Animation) (PG)12:15, 2:00, 6:00PMBaahubali: The Beginning – 2D (Thriller) Cast: Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka3:45PM (12+)The Vatican Tapes– 2D (Horror) (18+)Cast: Olivia Taylor Dudley, Michael Pena

11:45PMSharkando 3: Oh Hell No! (2D) (Horror) (15+)Cast: Ian Ziering, Tara Reid, Cassie Scerbo, 5:45, 10:00PMThe Gallows– 2D (Horror/Thriller) (15+)Cast: Reese Mishler, Pfeifer Brown, Ryan3:45, 10:00PM

SURTerminator Genisys (3D) (Action) (PG12) 6:45, 9:00 PMMinions (3D) (Animation) (PG) 12:15, 5:00 PMBajrangi Bhaijaan (Hindi) (Drama) (PG)2:00, 3:30, 9:00 PMBahubali (Hindi) (Action) (12+) Cast: Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Anushka11:15 PMThe Vatican Tapes (Horror | Thriller) (18+) Cast: Michael Peña, Kathleen Robertson 11:50 PMIvide (Mal) (Crime | Drama) (12+) Cast: Prithviraj Sukumaran, Nivin Pauly 12:45, 06:25 PM

SALALAHTerminator (3D)(PG12) (Action)

9:00, 11:55PMTerminator (2D)(PG12) (Action) 2:45PMMinions (3D) (PG) (Animation) 10:30, 2:15PMMinions (2D) (PG) (Animation) 1:00PMPixels (3D)(PG12) (Action/Comedy/Sci-Fi ) 10:15AM, 12:15, 5:00, 7:00PMCast: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, MichelleBajrangi Bhaijaan (2D) (PG) (Drama/Action) 10:00AM, 12:30, 4:00, 9:00, 11:15PMCast: Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, HarshaaliHayaty Mebahdela (2D) (PG)(Arabic) 5:00PMThe Gallows(2D)(15+) (Horror/Thriller) Cast: Reese Mishler, Pfeifer Brown, Ryan Shoos3:30, 11:30PMMasaan (2D)(12+) (Drama) Cast: Richa Chadda, Saurabh Chadhary, Sanjay Mishra7:00PMMahra Story (2D)(PG) (Drama) Cast: Salim Bahwan, Raniya alali7:00PMIvide (2D) (12+) (Crime/Drama) Cast: Prithviraj, Nivin Pauly, Bhavana8:45PM

BAHJA CINEMAFilm information 24540856 / Advance

Booking 24540855

Website: www.albahjacinemaoman.com

Terminator: Genisys (Action / Adventure)

Cast: Arnold Schwarznegger, Emily Clarke

3.30, 7.30, 9.45 & 11.55 pm

CP No: 1714 (PG 12)

The Gallows (Horror/ Thriller)

Cast: Cassidy Gifford, Pfiefer Brown, Riyan

Shoos

8.00 & 10.00 pm

CP No: 1730 (15+)

Minions ( Animation/ Comedy )

12.00 & 5.45 pm

CP No: 1731 (PG)

Max (Adventure/ Family)

Cast: Thomas Harden Church, Josh Wiggin

4.00 pm

CP No: 1732 ( PG)

Vatican Tapes ( Horror/Thriller )

Cast: Katheleen Roberston, Djimon Hounsou,

Dougrey Scott

12.00, 1.45 & 11.55 pm

CP No: 1835 (18+)

Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! ( Horror/Sci: Fic )

Cast: Tara Reid, Bo Derek, Frankie Muniz

2.00 & 6.00 pm

CP No: 1836 (15+)

STAR CINEMAFilm information 24791641 / 24786776

Website: www.isurf.co.om

Baahubali (Tamil) (Action)

Cast: Prhabas, Rana Daggubatti, Anshka

Shetty, Tamannaah & Satya Ra

3-00, 6-30 & 10-00 Pm At Cinema Main

Baahubali (Telugu) (Action)

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

Ivede (Mal ) (Thriller)

Cast: Prithviraj, Nivin Pauly & Bhavana

3-45, 6-45 & 9-45 Pm At Cinema – 3

Premam (Mal) (Rom)

Cast: Nivin Pauly & Anupama

3-45, 6-45 & 9-45 Pm At Cinema -4

(Programmes are subject to change)

TO MUSCAT (RUWI)

Dept Destination Arrival Operatingtime time days

FROM JAALAN-SUR-QURIYAT (ROUTE 36)

05:30 Sur 06:45 Daily

05:30 Quriyat 08:30 Daily

05:30 Ruwi 10:00 Daily

TO AL BURAIMI (ROUTE 41)

07:00 Sohar 08:55 Daily

07:00 Ruwi 11:40 Daily

13:30 Ruwi 20:20 Daily via Ibri

13:00 Sohar 14:55 Daily

13:00 Ruwi 17:40 Daily

13:00 Sohar 19:20 Daily

17:00 Ruwi 22:15 Daily

TO SINAW (ROUTE 52)

07:00 Ruwi 10:25 Daily

TO YANQUL (ROUTE 54)

06:00 Nizwa 08:40 Daily

06:00 Ruwi 11:00 Daily

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (ROUTE 54)

15:40 Nizwa 17:55 Daily

15:40 Ruwi 20:20 Daily

TO SUR (ROUTE 55)

06:00 Ruwi 10:45 Daily

14:30 Ruwi 19:00 Daily

TO YIBAL - FAHUD (ROUTE 62)

12:30 Fahud 13:15 Daily

12:30 Ruwi 17:30 Daily

TO SALALAH -MARMUL (ROUTE 100)

07:00 Ruwi 19:50 Daily

10:00 Marmul 13:15 Daily

10:00 Ruwi 22:30 Daily

19:00 Ruwi 07:30 Daily

TO MARMUL (ROUTE 101)

06:00 Marmul 16:30 Daily

DUBAI TO SALALAH (ROUTE 102)

15:00 Salalah 07:00 Daily

TO DUBAI (ROUTE 201)

07:30 Sohar 10:50 Daily

07:30 Ruwi 13:40 Daily

13:00 Sohar 16:15 Thur-Fri

13:00 Ruwi 19:10 Thur-Fri

15:30 Sohar 18:45 Daily

15:30 Ruwi 21:35 Daily

FROM DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH/SHARJAH (ROUTE 204)

16:00 Sharjah 16:30 Daily

16.00 Fujairah 18.15 Daily

16.00 Ruwi 23.00 Daily

9:15, 11:45 pm 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 10:00 pm 5:45 & 10:00 pm 10:15 am, 12:15, 5:00, 7:00 pm

@MGM @SHATTI @RUWI @BURAIMI @SALALAH

TERMINATOR: GENISYS (3D) (Action, Adventure) (PG)Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke

3:45 pmA ROYAL NIGHT OUT 2D (Drama)Cast : Sarah Gadon, Emily Watson, Jack (15+)

BAJRANGI BHAIJAAN(Action/Drama ) Cast: Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor,

Harshaali Malthotra

SHARKANDO 3: OH HELL NO (2D) (Horror ) (15+)Cast: Ian Ziering, Tara Reid, Cassie Scerbo

PIXELS (3D) (PG12) (Action/Comedy/

Sci-Fi ) Cast: Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Michelle Monaghan

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

WEATHER

360

Maximum

310

Minimum

TEMPERATURE

70-90%RELATIVE HUMIDITY

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

WITH LOVE

NOHAN VARGHESE SANOSHJuly 25, 2013

MEENAKSHI VINAI KUMARJuly 24, 2009

Summer tips by@winieariany

2 31Stay hydrated Put AC on Fill the bath tub

with cold water

LIFESTYLEB7S AT U R DAY, J U LY 2 5, 2 0 1 5

Omani Sunny Days

ACROSS 1 Backpacker’s shelter 5 Vt. neighbour 8 Jazzy — Horne12 Hydrox competitor13 Coffee brewer14 Up above15 Layer16 Hyde, to Jekyll (2 wds.)18 Haunted house sound20 Gross!21 Fuzzy fruit23 Back talk26 “Minimum” amount29 Sounding catty?31 Ocean fish32 Pitch in33 Jedi master34 Fauna36 Racehorse, slangily37 Ike’s rank38 Main points40 Leo mo.41 Caught cold45 Accounting times (hyph.)49 Bluesman — Redding51 Heavy-metal band52 Bolt down53 Anthracite, for example54 Heifers’ hellos55 Hair salon application56 Merely

Crossword Puzzle

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

It’s better not to argue with...

Elders

If I had treasures I would

hide them...In a dark graveyard where no one would

enter

One thing that puts me off...

When I don’t get good sleep

One movie/book I can watch/

read over and over again...

Fast and Furious 7

When I’m in doubt... I search in wikipedia

If I met an alien I would...

Ask him to give me a tour of the galaxy

If I could steal one thing it would be...

Bugatti Veyron

One person I would trade

places with (real or ficitional)

Cristiano Ronaldo

I go crazy when...My tab gets stuck

The scariest thing that I have done...

Opening the car door while the car was

moving

The best way to my heart is...

Play football with me and my friends

If I win a lottery...I would go crazy

If I have to describe myself

as a flavour it would be...

Lychee

If I could go back in history,

I would like to meet...

Neil Armstrong

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

SHIHAB MUSHTAQ

1 Small fry 2 “Layla” performer — Clapton 3 — -do-well 4 Ran fast 5 Seismic activity 6 Home page addr. 7 Led on 8 Escapade 9 Hot time in Paris10 Eggy drink11 Military addr.

17 Canyon effect19 Simian22 Wrongly23 Mane possessor24 A famous 50025 Tiger Woods’ org.26 Opposite of wax27 Similar28 Topaz or opal30 Colo. neighbour31 Crone32 Evened up35 Flu symptom

36 Frat letter39 Take a sip40 Flight routes42 Loony43 James Bond’s school44 Obsolescent phone part45 Candied goody46 Novelist Umberto —47 Turmoil48 Popular shift50 Underhandedly clever

AN

SWER

TO

PR

EVIO

US

PUZ

ZLE

IT WAS 6 in the morning and a light rain had started outside. Rabia, wanted to wake up her niece Amina, because she knew Amina loved the rains, she stood outside Amina’s door and considered letting her sleep in-stead. She raised her hand to knock on the door, and jumped with surprise when it suddenly swung open.

“Aunty, you saw the rains?” Ami-na said excitedly.

“Yes dear, and it reminds me of my childhood,” Rabia grinned. “Even though it hardly rained in Muscat, it rained quite a lot in Sumail where my grandparents lived.”

Rabia sat on Amina’s bed and continued. “All our friends would go out and get drenched till my mother would yell for us, saying come inside or else you will catch a cold.”

“And would you always listen to granny?’ Amina asked.

“Most of the time, but your father wouldn’t. He loved being out in the rain, especially on the stoop in front of our house. He would be there for hours until our mother would find him and force him to get in,” she said, shaking her head with a smile. “But one day he caught a terrible cold, and after that, he began to listen.

“Aunty! I have a wonderful idea,” Amina said, “Let’s plan an outing to Kalbouh Park.”

“Okay, we will go after the rain stops,” Rabia said. She picked up the phone and called some friends to join them.

Rabia and Amina spent the af-

ternoon savouring the rain from their covered patio, snacking on fresh baked rolls and warm milk and tea.Then, just as Rabia was be-ginning to doze off, Amina woke her with a jolt.

“The rain has stopped aunty! Can we go to Kalbouh Park now?”

“Okay dear, let’s go,” Rabia laughed. When they arrived, Amina ran to meet her friend Zahara. Even through the girls studied in different schools, they have been great pals since they were born.

Rabia sat with Zahara’s mother, Mariam, and Zara, who’s two boys, Ali and Ahmed ran to meet Moham-med, who had just arrived with his mother Juweina and his new one-year-old baby sister.

Rabia stood and called the chil-dren over. “Everyone stay close and be careful on the swings and seesaw, they are still slippery from the rain. Whatever you do, don’t go anywhere by yourself, all alone,” she said.“Okay, go play and have fun.”

Amina and Zahara walked down by the water, while the boys yelled

excitedly and ran around the park chasing one another.

“Ta’al! Come for ice cream,” Zara called. Amina and Zahara rushed back with the other children. They all excitedly ate their ice cream, chasing the drips down the cones and shrieking as the sticky drops es-caped onto their hands.

“Where’s Ali?” Zara suddenly asked. Ahmed, her elder son, looked down at his feet.

“He missed the ice cream...do yo know where he is Ahmed?” she asked, her worry growing.

“He was playing with us mum. Then suddenly he saw some boys on roller-skates and he ran behind them. I told him not to go but he didn’t listen to me,” Ahmed said qui-etly as thick, dark clouds began to fill the sky. “We should head off back home before it starts pouring,” said Rabia. “Ali! Time to go,” Zara called, looking around frantically.

“Wait here,” Rabia said, as she and the moms headed into the park to look for Ali.

Everyone yelled out Ali’s name, but there was no reply and no trace of him. After half an hour, Zara burst into tears. “I know Ali can be naughty and disobedient, but I have never lost track of him like this. I am so worried,” she said while wiping her tears.

“Don’t worry mum we will find him,” Ahmed tried to comfort her.

It started drizzling, as they had feared. “Juweina take the other chil-dren to the car so no one falls ill,”

Rabia said. “We will stay and look for little Ali.”

As they began to head for the car, Amina heard a whimper and a rustle in the bushes. She broke away from the group to go investigate.

She pushed aside the leaves and saw Ali, sitting on the ground crying. “Ali!” she exclaimed. And the others ran over to join them.

“Where did you go? I was so wor-ried,” his mother said, as he ran into her arms. “I’m sorry mum, I was chasing some boys on their roller skates. But I lost track of them and couldn’t find the way back,” Ali whimpered.

“Your brother told you not to go, and we told you not to go away on your own,” she scolded. “What if something bad happened to you and we couldn’t find you?”

He listened quietly.“If you had listened, you could

have been playing nicely and eating ice cream with everyone else in-stead of wandering alone.”

“I will listen next time, I prom-ise,” said Ali, hugging his mother tightly. As Rabia and Amina drove away, Rabia began to laugh. “What’s funny aunty?” Amina asked.

“I think Ali is much like your fa-ther, and you are like me. Some peo-ple can learn from words and warn-ings and other people learn from their mistakes. But eventually we all learn to listen to those who love us.” Amina smiled proudly the rest of the way home. swati@timesofoman.com

STORYTIME

By Swati Dasgupta

Learning to Listen

One skill I would like to learn...

Computer language

B8

LIFESTYLES AT U R DAY, J U LY 2 5, 2 0 1 5

ELEPHANTA Ditsa MukherjeeGrade XIndian School Wadi Kabir When I was a kid,Mom used to tell a story.Something was common about this and that,As it was about an elephant named Tori.

The thought came to my mind,As I was thinking about my trip to Sri Lanka.Seeing the Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage there,You could easily name the land as ‘Elephanta’.

The orphanage was established in 1975,At that time there were seven orphans.As the time kept passing on and on,Grew the children and grandchildren.

That was just the beginning,When I got to see those many.Next day at Minneriya National Park,You will just faint on seeing them being so many.

Some were angry, some were sad.Some were happy while some got mad.Some were bathing here and there,Some were taking each other’s care.

Mom, dad, sister and their siblings.Small to big and right from the trip’s beginning.Someone just asked, “Are we in Africa?”I just reminded, “No, we are in Sri Lanka!”

Finally, it was our turn to say them bye.No more fears, no more crying.Back came Tori asking, “Now can I come with you?”“Oh, there you are! I was just waiting for you.”

Send your contributions to lifestyle@timesofoman.com

All the words below appear in the puzzle - horizontally, vertically,

diagonally, even backward. Find them and circle their letters.

The leftover word spells the Teleword.

How to playFill empty cells

with the numbers

1 to 9, so that each

number appears

once in each row,

column and area.

Answer to

previous puzzle

SOLUTION

M L P S M H C L L I R R E F WE A E E U A E P K S E A R C HE U S R R N R A I D U A L C PC G N S O S T I M L E X R B SY H O L A H O I N N O E L R TL N O K E C C N S E I T E O AA C D R R H H N A D S H G A RT N I E A A Y U A L S A A D SY N N E T L L G S I I P T C RE E L O I R I C L E A T S A ES G R M U R O B P M T D Y S PH K A F B N U I E R K T N T OO F O M F P C L T S O H S I OW E S O E E A E E F I L M N LO G N I B S J D R A W D E G B

TelewordSudoku

Children’s PoetryArt for the Ages

Children up to the age of 15 who would like to have

their art considered for inclusion in “Art for the

Ages” can e-mail their drawings or paintings (in

jpeg or tiff format) to lifestyle@timesofoman.com

Kaden Rodrigues, Grade 3, ISM

Alyce, Anchor, Announcer, Bingo, Bloopers, Books, Brigadier, Broadcasting, Carson, Clark, Claudia, Colonel,

Detroit, Edward, Family, Ferrill, Film, Games, Host, Hurn, Jeffrey, Katherine, Laugh, Leon, Lex, Linda, Marines,

Massachusetts, Michael, Pamela, Personality, Peter, Pilot, Publishers, Role, Search, Show, Stage, Star.

Answer: Sweepstakes

CLUE: ED MCMAHON SOLUTION: 11 LETTERS

Puzzle 2 (Easy, difficulty rating 0.32)

5 3 8 2 7 4 9 1 6

6 9 4 1 8 3 5 2 7

1 2 7 9 5 6 4 8 3

9 7 5 3 2 1 6 4 8

2 6 1 7 4 8 3 5 9

4 8 3 5 6 9 1 7 2

3 5 2 6 1 7 8 9 4

8 1 9 4 3 2 7 6 5

7 4 6 8 9 5 2 3 1

Vikhyat Dwivedi, Grade 2, ISM

Divya Soni, Grade 9, ISM

Manya S. Talati, Grade 6, ISWK

Sapthami Muthu Kumar, Grade 10, ISM

8 3

2

6

3

4

1 7

2 5

3

5

5

8

9

3 8

9 1

2

7

9

6

5

6

2

9

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

CONNECT H E D A I LY G U I D E

C

C4 VACANCY CARGO C7

S AT U R D AY, J U LY 2 5 , 2 0 1 5

RENT C2

*Classified Advertisement space booking with text, should be done till 12.00 noon

for next day’s publication. * Subject to space availability

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

FOR RENT

3BR villa, sitting, dining & hall,

Azaiba behind Al Meera H- Market.

Contact: 99259977 / 95033008

1BHK, Darsait, walking distance to

ISM , neat and clean building, ground

floor, OMR 260/- per month rent

Call IQRAR on 99076557

Fully furnished 3 BHK accommo-

dation with all spacious rooms in a

villa at Darsait near ISD.

Contact: 9526 5289 / 9604 8422

Furnished room for rent at

Al Khuwair R.O 225/- for family only.

Contact: 99251975

Villa AL Ghobrah, 6 bedroom 1200/-

R.O. Contact: 99340055/97557555

For rent in Qantab European style 4

bedrooms, 4 baths, Guest toilet, fully

equipped modern kitchen, covered

car park for two cars, approximately

150 meters from the beach. For

enquiries, please Contact: Yasser at

92606005

Small old house for rent Al Ghobrah.

Contact 95112461

House for rent 4 bedrooms, 2 bath-

rooms, hall, kitchen Muscat Sidab

opposite the sea 250/-.

Contact: 99277377

1BHK without A.C Ghubra R.O 275/.

Contact: 97799175 / 92144045

2 BHK with A.C Mumtaz R.O 300/-.

Contact: 97799175

3BHK, 3 bathrooms, 2 balconies,

nr. Al Hassan W/ Kabir R.O 350/-.

Contact: 99384640

Flats shops for rent in

Ruwi MBD area Mumtaz area.

Contact: 97293708 / 92433127

2BHK at Al Khodh, 2BHK at Wadi

Kabir 2 room, 1hall, dining, 2

bathrooms. Contact: 99224748 /

99332297

Store in Wadi Kabir 1900 SQM.

Contact: 99473751 / 91471067

1BHK close to ISWKG Wadi Kabir

Bldg # 1690 R.O 250/-.

Contact 99476728

1BHK Darsait R.O 225/-. Contact: 92144045

1BHK Wadi Kabeer, RO 225/-.

Contact: 92144045

2BHK Darsait R.O 300/-.

Contact: 92144045

2BHK Ghubra R.O 350/-. Contact: 92144045

1,2,3 BHK. Contact: 97799175

Spacious 2- BR flat in MBD.

Contact 99713489

C2 S AT U R D AY, J U LY 2 5 , 2 0 1 5

2 bedrooms apartments for rent in Al

Khuwair and Ghubra. Call Yellow Bird

property on 24615375 / 97137989

or visit

www.muscat-realty.com

One & two bedroom apartments

available for rent, near avenue mall,

close to Atlas hospital next to Diwans

office, South Ghobrah.

Contact 99833747

250 sq mtrs restaurant for rent in

Plaza Hotel, Walja Ruwi.

Contact 99326339

3 Bedroom flat in Wadi Kabeer and

2 bedroom villa in Sidab- Muscat.

Contact: 95755953

Villa with two floors in (Hay Al

Arjan) in AL Khoud with 4 bedrooms,

hall, Majles, kitchen & one room in

ground floor. Contact: 93219597

For rent office CBD flat in Ruwi.

Contact: 92820734 / 95345909

House in Amerat near to Makah

hypermarket with three room,

5toilets, kitchen and hall 430/-.

Contact: 92747078

Room with A.C AL Khuwair

R.O 120/- Contact: 97799175

3000 sq mtrs Industrial landß,

in Barka Sanaiya, with electricity

400KW, shed, staff accommodation

and office. Ready to start any kind

of factory. Contact 99384255.

FOR SALE

BUYING/SELLING

DAILY GUIDE

FOR RENTBuilding In Rusail Industrial

comprising a store divisible area 266 sq. meters.

The building includes Studios

residence.Preferably to be leased to

one company.

Mob + 968 96177505

All type of car scanner available

easy car diagnostic for professional

and self use Authorize LAUNCH

and Autel dealer. GSM:92393972

www.omancartools.com

Used furniture & Electronic items,

office & house. Contact: 99834373

For rent if require flats for rent in

Wadi Kabir please send me mes-

sages through Whatsapp.

Contact: 99376454

Bath attached room for rent

Al Khuwair. Contact 99743569

Flat with A/C in the South Al Ma-

bella close to the Mosque Al Tawab

consists of 2 rooms, hall, 2 bathrooms

and kitchen. Contact: 99388995

4 BHK single villa in Al Khuwair.

Contact: 97616158

1 Villa & 3 big Flats of 2/3 BHK with

hall, Kitchen & ACs Al Khoudh 6,

Close to express way,

from owner. Tel 97600322

alnehang@gmail.com

Fabulous AC flat at Al Khoud 3 bed-

rooms, hall and kitchen RO 270/-

for rent. Contact: 99334699

2 BHK flat in Al Ansab with

split A/C. RO.250/- Contact – 93191111

2BHK near Oman house behind

Khimji, H.O. Contact: 95865686

506sqm space with mezzanine

available for rent in AL Wadi Al

Kabir, Suitable for carpentry / Auto

workshop and / or electrical shop

interested parties may.

Contact: 24703981

Equipped kitchen showroom

company for sale at Ghubrah, Muscat.

6 visa available,

Contact owner at 96303747

Computer set up for sale. Contact

94412557

A parlour well settled / well

equipped in running position at

Ghobrah for sale. Contact immedi-

ately on 97498898

Darsait near labor card Medical

business furnished office for sale,

rent R.O 260/- p/m.

Contact: 91211117

Ladies beauty parlor sale in Mut-

trah, above Ahla supermarket.

Contact: 93231403

Used Super market Gandola RO

40.000 PER meter, double tube light

RO 2.000 per piece.

Contact: 96441670

Total Station Survey Instrument

S3 2” / Servo/ Trimble access

bundle - batch 9101025 – not used.

Contact: 94282782 / 95425747

6 bedroom, 6 bath rooms, sitting &

dining villa at Qurum.

Contact: 99342733

Turkish MDF door with frame for

sale, size 210 x 100 Price: RO 75/-.

Contact: 95899296 / 92141514

Sale & repair of Tyres 315/80

R 22.5 & 12.00 R 24.

Contact: 97477128

Brand new 4 BHK plus Maids room

in Barka, 2 Kms from Lulu.

Contact: 99347089

Commercial land for sale 3000 m

in quriyat road main high way can

use as a petrol station license

available asking price 350,000

For more information please call on

99070701 with out name

Villa for rent in Al Khuwair 33,

8 bedrooms & 5 bathrooms with

parking area near Taimur Mosque.

Contact: 99366624

2BHK with split AC at Al Khuwair

33. Contact: 94057023

Office space at Alasfoor Plaza

Qurum. Contact : 24566217

/24564686

For rent if require flats for rent in

Wadi Kabir please send me mes-

sages through Whatsapp.

Contact: 99376454

Luxury 3 BHK flat in Al Wattaya

with split A/C & private parking.

RO.500/- Contact – 93191111

Flat for rent in Mabellah 8th.

Contact: 97147240

Flat in South Al Hail, 2 bedrooms,

Majlis, 2 bathrooms, kitchen RO

250/-. Contact 93221474

Flat in Ruwi Mumtaz 2 BHK

RO 300 or 1 BHK 250 RO.

Contact 98588240

2BHK with split AC near PDO Gate

no -2 at Qurum. Contact: 94057023

2 bed rooms, kitchen, toilet & car

park in Al Khuwair R.O 200/- .

Contact 95154331

Deluxe furnished / unfurnished

flats Qurum. Contact: 24566217 /

24564686

Commercial 3 BHK flat in Al Ghobra

18 Nov Street. RO 700/-

Contact 93191111

2 BHK flat in Al Azaiba near sea,

with split A/C. RO.340/- Contact

93191111

Villa of 5 BHK in Al Ansab with split

A/C. RO.650/- Contact – 93191111

For rent in Qantab European style 4

bedrooms, 4 baths, Guest toilet, fully

equipped modern kitchen, covered

car park for two cars, approximately

150 meters from the beach. For

enquiries, please Contact: Yasser at

92606005

1BHK, 2BHK, 3BHK new flat

available at Mabela in front of Mod-

ern English School

Contact: 96239126

Deluxe 1, 2 BHK flats in Darsait,

AL Khuwair 1deal for office &

residence. Contact 99369081

/99142314

Flat at Darsait. Contact 99326879

2 BHK Town house at Assarain

complex Al Khuwair for rent.

Contact 96365824 Rent RO 750

2 BHK near Kuwaiti Masjid Wadi Ka-

bir. Contact: 24816774 / 97608564

2 BHK, 2 bathrooms behind Abu

Nabil, Honda Road R.O 240/-.

Contact: 99737562 / 93887852

2BHK, 2 bathroom behind Sana

Wadi Kabir R.O 300/-.

Contact: 99737562 / 93887852

Luxurious room, fully furnished

with free WIFI and gas at Ruwi.

Contact : 95586937

Shop for rent/ sale in Ruwi near

Dish market good location, behind

City Cinema. Contact: 91318111

Flat for rent in Wadi Kabir with

3 rooms. Contact : 98555580 /

92800007

Flat for rent 2 bedrooms, sitting

room, store gym in ground floor in

Mumtaz area-Ruwi.

Contact 95135445

1BHK flats at Muttrah near Oman

house. Contact : 93231403

DAILY GUIDES AT U R D AY, J U LY 2 5 , 2 0 1 5 C3

FOR SALE

MOTOR VEHICLE FOR SALE

Urgent sell KIA CERATO 2012,

63200 KM Run Expat family

used,1.6L, Price R.O. 3300/-. Excellent

Condition. GSM 92286477

Volvo prime mover model 1998 for

inspection Contact: Mr. Mohammed

Al Harthy 99427071

Doctor driven, Toyota Corolla 2009,

Honda CRV 2009, low mileage

available at Bombay Medical, behind

Ruwi Police Station.

Contact 99326339

Toyota Corolla 1.8 ltr GLI excellent

condition 28,000 kms.

Contact: 97717152

Touareg 2011 Oman cars, 114000

KM, silver, 8500/-R.O.

Contact 92857111

Prado ,2012. Contact : 99336093

Peugeot 206-2007 Model, expat

driven. Contact 99209285

Sportage, 2013. Contact:

99336093

Land Cruiser 2012. Contact:

99336093

2 Prime Movers Man 2008 with 40

ton petrol tank each working at the

moment in Al Maha. Price OMR 35

Thousand each. Contact 97000155

or 92688692

2 Rooms & 2 bathrooms with

kitchen near al meera hyper mar-

kets, azaiba for executive bachelors

/ family. Gsm : 942 888 63

ACC. WANTEDACC. AVAILABLE

ACC. AVAILABLE ACC. AVAILABLE

Required a room in Darsait /

WadiKabir /Ruwi area.

Contact: 95405033

Fully furnished 1BHK with all

household items in Darsait near Lulu

on monthly Basis.

Contact : 99493500

Self contained furnished room for

executive bachelor in a decent Ghu-

bra North villa. Contact 92595830

1BHK sharing in Ruwi. Contact:

91214537

Sharing accommodation available

for working lady or couples near

Ruwi Church. Contact: 92837206

Room attached toilet and kitchen

near Indian School Wadi Kabir.

Contact: 95345537

Single furnished room, attached

bathroom in Wadi Kabir.

Contact: 92155261

Fully furnished room in Ruwi for

non cooking ex- bachelor.

Contact 94412557

Room with bath, kitchen Al Khuwair.

Contact: 99743569/ 97004265

*Classified Advertisement space booking with text, should be done till 12.00 noon for next day’s publication.

* Subject to space availability

Accommodation available with

Keralite family near W.K main

school. Contact: 95882866

/96575016

Rooms for rent in Seeb for couple /

single/ working ladies.

Contact: 96996938

Furnished room AL Khuwair for In-

dian Sri Lankan. Contact: 96536307

Furnished room for Indian couples

or family near Honda Road (Walja).

Contact 98952904

Furnished room attached bath for

lady in Wadikabir (Mars Hypermar-

ket) – 95941515

Independent rooms in Qurum /

Al Hail. Contact 95529970

3 cents plots-(12nos.) at walk-

able distance from Kovalm

Jn.,Trivandrum,Lorry site near to

main road-Bus route, for immediate

sale. 3 cents- 15 lakhs only.

Call 00968-95036240,

0091-9961034763 or

email- cfhd1@ yahoo.com

Centre For Housing Development-Trivandrum: Group of senior and

retired Engineers and Architects

provides service in the field of

Design and Supervision of buildings

in Kerala.For appointments, E-mail

your site location and building

requirements to cfhd@ymail.com. or

call 00968-95036240,

0091-9961034763.

38 cents plot with 2BHK house by

the river bank in Thrissur Dist. near

Irinjalakuda (Karavanoor).

Contact: 99347089

500 acre agricultural land suitable

for rubber plantation for sale in Rat-

nagiri Maharashtra. price 2 lakh per

acre, rubber board approved land,

minimum purchase 20 acre.

We provide care taking by expe-

rienced Malayalee team for your

plantation. please call ,

prasad 95760790

NRI

Well established medium size con-

struction company for sale. Equip-

ments, 30 employees &

ongoing projects.

Serious buyers only 99412020

Wall papers, grass carpets sale

& fixing. Contact 99834373 /

97102699

Coffee shop at Liwa main road.

Contact : 99515419

BUSINESS

New company seek partnership.

Contact: 96996938

General Investors. Gsm-99674870

2013 NISSAN MAXIMA FOR SALE.Single Owner,10 Months full cover

Insurance (UAE & Oman), 15,000

Km only. Intrested buyers can Call/

Whatsapp on 95692099

AVAILABLE

Party & Wedding equipment rentals.

Full line, from Tables, Linen & Skirting,

Chairs & Chair covers, Cutlery, Crockery,

Glassware, Chafing Dishes, Ice Sculp-

tures, to Large Sound Systems and spec-

tacular lighting. Call Andrea 9606 2222

for Catering and Croyden 9623 5555 for

Sound & Light. www.tunesoman.com,

E-mail: info@tunesoman.com

Fully furnished room for a decent

expatriate. independent kitchen,

bathroom in Wadi Adai.

Contact 96243086 at 5p.m.

Furnished room with attached bath-

room in W/K. Contact: 97167857

Sharing for non cooking executive

bachelor in CBD area WIFI free,

Advance deposit. Contact: 95094504

FOR HIRE

Silver Car, car for rent. Contact:

96166155 / 98402662

Volvo 12 Ton Truck for monthly

rent. Contact: 98713900

DAILY GUIDEC4 S AT U R D AY, J U LY 2 5 , 2 0 1 5

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION VACANT

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED

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

CATERING

DESIGNER

ADMIN

ENGINEER

ENGINEER

EDUCATION

SALES / MARKETING

DESIGNER

AUTO CAD/DRAUGHTS-

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

SECRETARIAL & OFFICE

Secretary (Female), Experience:

Minimum 1 - 2 years. Forward CV

to hr@barikgroup.com

Required Office Assistant

160+25+Acc, Contact 99454425

Mechanical Engineer, Indian 24

with 2 yrs experience in HVAC- MEP

Revit – MEP, AutoCAD – MEP Navis

solid works Catia PRO-E primavera.

Contact: 96975382

Email: bonny491@gmail.com

2 years experienced Electrical Engi-

neer looking for suitable placement.

Contact: 98480509

SAP – SCM.MM Consultant B.Tech.

(Chemical), from NIT, working with

oil industry, seeks employment.

Contact: 98049288

Indian female 23, B.Tech (Electrical

& Electronics) & Diploma in

Electrical CAD on Visit Visa seeks

suitable placement.

Contact: 99278410 / 94027398,

Email: renju.raghavan7@gmail.com

ACCOUNTANT

BEAUTY

Indian CA with 15 yrs exp working

as Finance Head of MNC looking for

Job. NOC Available. 94047434

Indian male, 30 years, CMA(Inter),M.com, 4 out of 7 years

experience in Oman in Auditing/

Accounts/ Finance. Having NOC

and valid Oman D/L.

Contact: 96746420 ,

Email: sijuthampi@ymail.com

Indian male 32 years MBA, 6 out

of 14 years experience in Oman in

accounts / finance having NOC and

Valid Oman driving license last date

in Oman 01/AUG/2015.

Contact: 94051463

Email: gkvenkatesh83@gmail.com

Indian male, B. Com having experi-

ence in Accounts or Sales on visit

visa. Contact - 98295101

Indian Male B.com, 11 Year (8 Years

in Oman as a Senior Accountant) ex-

perience in accounts having 5+ year

experience in construction industry.

Working knowledge with SAP,

AS400 & Tally –with valid Oman D/L, presently working in Qatar,

will be available in Oman form 17th

July-21st July-2015 looking for a

suitable position in reputed

organization. Contact 00974

77181323 / 98065641,

email: bennybaby1982@gmail.com

Finance Manager, 10 years Oman

experienced MBA-Finance graduate

seeking suitable placement.

Contact 97745764

Assist Accountant Indian (m) 2

years experience in Oman looking

for a job immediate joining, cur-

rently working in Oman. Contact

Shaheed Shamsadin : 98427810

Accountant, Indian male, 10 years

experience in Oman. Can do upto

finalization and knowledge of Tally

ERP9 can be joined immediately

with NOC. Contact: 94134085

Email: muscatoman95@yahoo.com

Married lady 25 years, Master

Accounts having 5 years experience

in Indian looking for full / part time

job. Contact: 95140332 /93223050

family visa holder.

Contact 95140332

Indian male, well experienced in

Accounts and Admin looking for a

suitable vacancy. Contact : 98717938

Indian female, M.Com Finance, DCA,

3 years experience in Accounts /

finance& knowledge in ERP & Tally

seeking suitable position in corpo-

rate finance / banking / consulting.

Email: prapullasuvarna@gmail.com

Contact: 96953705 now in family visa.

Indian male with total 5 year

experience (2 years experience in

Accountant cum sales co ordinator

in a FMCG Company in Oman) in

accounts field and NOC available.

Looking for suitable job

Contact 92130188

Indian male, B.Com, Accountant,

10 yrs in Oman experience in

Accounts, knowledge of Tally ERP 9,

focus RT having NOC & D/L,

looking for suitable job.

Contact 93086105

Male 26 yrs, MBA in Accounts

and Finance, 2 years Experience in

Management and Accounts Fields,

and 1 year experience in Operations

in Oman Looking for a suitable job.

Contact 94374745

Indian male 22 yrs B. Com Graduate

1 year exp in Accounts, currently on

visit visa. Looking for suitable job.

Contact 94341848 /

Email – mohdhaji7272@gmail.com

MBA Graduate with 6 yrs exp in

finance/accounts/ auditing. Special-

ized in accounts payable dept, Ora-

cle app user, proficient in Sap (fico)

end user & tally 9.0. lean &six sigma

certified trainer on visit visa.

Contact – 91967213 / 99064780

Finance Manager, CPA, with more

than 15 yrs. of experience in GCC.

Fully knowledgeable in Finance,

General & Management Accounting .

NOC available. Contact 96209331

Sudanese Accountant seeking job

in Nizwa state experience 10 years

3 years in Saudi Arabia, 7 yrs in

Sudan. # 97796394 / 94003247

Chinese/ Arab/ continental cook & helper wanted. Contact 95529970

Required experience Waiter / Supervisor/ Juice maker, Shawarma maker. Contact: 95395378

Urgently required Accountant B. Com with 4-6 years Gulf experience

in construction field and good knowl-

edge in FOCUS accounting software.

Send CV : pccllcoman@gmail.com

Urgently required a part – time female Accountant fluent in English

with 2-3 years experience in Tally.

Email: mhca@mhabibgroup.com

Fax: 24564459

Urgently required female accountant with an experience

minimum 3years Email CV on

cv.hrcharity@gmail.com

Urgently required Junior Account-ant. Please send CV:

hr.azatllc@gmail.com

SKILLED

IT

DRIVER

Indian female B.Sc- Fashion De-

signer 21 years, fresher, One month

internship in a garment industry

2015 University best designer award

holder. Now looking for a creative

job, currently on residential visa.

Contact: 98297940 / 99741604.

Email : zintasabu@gmail.com

Architect and Interior designer, 8

years exp capable of managing turn

key projects, design, BOQ, Execution.

NOC available. Contact : 95273166

AutoCAD Draughts man seeks

Employment. Contact: 91889873

Electrical draftsman AutoCAD

switch gear & MEP control panel

7 years experience Qatar.

Contact: 92546203/96228100

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

SITUATION WANT-ED

SIT. WANTED

Looking For office support staff with driving license and having

good knowledge of all official duty.

Contact .. 91624908, 93540898

Urgently required Male with 2

years’ experience in Admin Works,

fluent in Arabic and English,

Computer knowledge,

preferably with driving license.

Working hours 6am to 2pm or 2pm

to 10 pm daily

Email: jayan@ra.cc or 99661980

Vacancy for lady Receptionist

at Sinaw Hala Medical Center - Flu-

ency in English and Arabic Omani

or non Omani. Contact: 25524180 /

91362141 Email:

halamedicalgroup@gmail.com

Urgently Required: Administration with an experience minimum in

3 years in building construction,

required immediately join and MUST

have NOC.Apply, fax 00968–24605955,

emails sbc@steelbuildingsllc.com,

sbeoman@yahoo.com.

MANAGER

A vending Machine for sale of coffee products and Derivatives Company in Muscat having opera-

tions in Oman is on the lookout for

quality staff for the below positions:

Sales & Marketing Staff, Mechani-

cal maintenance mechanic, General

electric maintenance machines with

D/L. Send CV to

service@arabianvending.com

Urgently required Sales Executive and interior designer for furnish-

ing company with Valid Oman D/L

and minimum 3 years experience.

Contact: 93231403/

rainbowfurnishing156@gmail.com

Experience building material Salesman required in Amerat shop.

Contact : 99641900

Required Sales man - 1 Person Quali-

fication. Gulf Experienced - Minimum

5 Years with Oman Driving Licence

Language - English Education:- Any

Degree Further Contact :

Mr. Abdul Hameed

Nashabat - Mobile No: 97414307 and

-92807399 amn@yaqeeneng.com

Urgently required female Sales Promoters individual with pleasant

personality, excellent communica-

tions & presentation skills & experi-

ence in selling perfumes cosmetics

and skincare products would be

preferred. Send your CV & details

with recent photograph to

info@mawaridoman.com

or fax no 24127484/ Tel: 24127485

Tyre / Spare parts outdoor Sales Executive with experience required

driving license and NOC. Send CV to

ptf_25@hotmail.com

Wanted part time female Sales Executive with D/L for a reputed

company. Contact 94688874

A leading marketing company is

looking for outdoor Sales Execu-tives on part time or full time basis

in Salalah. Contact 92760281 /

96436719

Looking for Outdoor Salesman for

heavy equipment spare parts.

Contact - 93292015,

Email: mail.om@gulfcenter.co

Urgently required Sales and Marketing Executive for Graphic de-

signing company. Contact: 96727631

mail: smartgraphic518@gmail.com

Minimum 2 years of experience

with valid gulf light driving license

interested candidates please

Contact: 99222086 /98585851

Required male or female candidate with 5 years experience in renting

of properties. Interested candidates

may please mail to

alqurumprop@gmail.com

DRIVER

Urgently Required: Male – handles overall store operations of the Su-

permarket, Prior Experience a MUST,

knowledgeable in MSOffice. Send CV

to chanda@dolphin-oman.com or

fax to 244-92718.

Mason, C.C.T.V, Technician, Electrician cum Plumber. Contact - 99383044

Indian Female MBA, 3 years experi-

ence in Admin MIS, Family Visa.

Contact 98234427,

jkjsmith01@gmail.com

A Lady with 5 years experience in

HR/Admin is looking for suitable job

and can join immediately.

Contact : 94465835

Indian (male) MBA (MHA) with 5+

years of experience in HR. Looking

urgently for suitable position.

Ph-96395254, 24813065

Email-shm1691@gmail.com

Indian female with 1 half years ex-

perience in MBA / HR seeks suitable

placement. Contact 99257214

Indian female with 10 yrs of experi-

ence in HR/Banking/Operations

seeks a suitable placement.

Can be contacted on 98919015 or

sherianne.coelho@gmail.com

Quantity Surveyor for Mechani-cal, Electrical BOQ preparation and

verification required for part time as-

signment on immediate basis. Please

Contact-tgi17@omantel.net.om

MEP Engineer on urgent basis

required for immediate placement.

Please contact

tgi17@omantel.net.om

Urgently required: HSE Engineer with an experience minimum in

5 years in building construction,

MUST have NOC and immediately

join. Apply, fax 00968–24605955,

emails sbc@steelbuildingsllc.com,

sbeoman@yahoo.com

Urgently required Project Engineer for a reputed Construction Company

in Muscat with Civil Engineering

Degree/Diploma, 6 to 10 years expe-

rience, holding Oman/GCC Driving

License.E.mail: assaud@omantel.net.

om or FAX: 24953530

Fire and Safety Technician with

NIFE or equivalent Diploma holder

preference to those having D/L. Send

CV to visionansara@gmail.com

Required a part time steel Struc-tural Design Engineer for a reputed

steel fabrication company in

Muscat. Interested person may

Contact : 99451158

Required Civil Engineer (build-

ings) Oman experience 5+ years,

BOQ+ Tendering + site supervision.

Contact: 95218004

Email: alhilalint@yahoo.com

IND male WEB developer 5 yrs exp

B.Tech (comp science) PHP, HTML

MYSQL Java script CSS.

Contact: 95990529

Email: renjith341@gmail.com

Required Beautician for a parlor

in Ghubra. Contact: 94241385 /

97244766

Wanted experienced Beautician

for beauty parlor in Al Amerat 3.

Contact: 91107337 Indian male 2+yrs oman exp in HR.

joing immediatly. release available.

Contact :93671437

ADMIN

CATERING

Urgently Required: Civil Engineer with an experience minimum in

5 years in building construction,

MUST have NOC

and immediately join. Apply,

fax 00968–24605955,

emails sbc@steelbuildingsllc.com,

sbeoman@yahoo.com

Construction Company in Oman

urgently requires following candi-

dates: BE Civil Engineer, minimum

3-5 years gulf experience & Civil site foreman, minimum 5 years gulf

experience, diploma not required.

Email: applyforoman@gmail.com

Leading Construction Company requires Quantity Surveyor (QS)

with 4-6 yrs Gulf experience. Send

your CV : qsmuscat2015@gmail.com

(NOC required).

Construction Company in Oman

urgently requires the following:

B.Sc Civil Engineer, minimum 3-5

yrs Gulf experience. Civil Site Fore-man, minimum 5 yrs experience

with operating knowledge of Tally.

Please Email CV ;

applyforoman@gmail.com

Grade”A” company in interior

Designing looking for: Operations manager Sales executive Qs Inte-rior Designer CVs to be emailed to :

alzahi.oman@gmail.com

Designer required for wooden

joinery company with excellent

knowledge of 3D Max, 2D Autocad.

Contact: 94249047

Email: mfqazi@gmail.com

Professional Teacher Qualified

M.Com Post Graduate in finance for

teaching Accounting subject.

Contact: 91251210

English Teachers wanted imme-

diately locations Muscat, Salalah,

Ibri, Nizwa, Buraimi, Khabourah and

Khasab. Contact : 91979343

Email: eaglesmuscat@gmail.comIndian male 38 yrs Senior Chef de.

De. Party pastry exp 15 yrs in five

star hotels, 10 yrs exp Oman get NOC

looking for job in hotel & bakery.

Contact: 96460519

MISCELLANEOUS

Required urgently experienced Gardener and building care taker. Contact: 99231676

Well established company in

selling chocolate, Arabian sweets

and fresh flowers, opening ITS first

branch in Muscat seeking:

1- sweets and chocolates Sales man 2- flower arranger (Asian/

Filipino Nationality)

Contact: 94490011

Email: labelleoman@gmail.com

A company from UAE require 2 merchandisers in retail food

supply, store keeper with English

and invoicing experience. Email:

yesterdaysun@hotmail.com

Driver with 8 years experience

looking for job. Contact: 98130645 /

94342106

Indian (Kerala) light driver seeking

for job, 12 years experience Oman.

Contact: 98175321

Pakistan male (27) light driver

seeking job, 4 years experience in

Oman. Contact 96346582

Light duty driver with 2 yrs experi-

ence looking for job. #96342684

Light driver. Contact: 96961993

Indian (Kerala) light driver seek-

ing for job, 5 yrs experience in

Oman. Contact: 98029273

Looking for driving job. Contact: 98219182

Driver: 15 years Driving Experi-

ence in Saudi Arabia, Looking for

suitable place, Contact.. 91624908,

93540898

Driver available with car and with-

out car Education, B. A exp. 5 years,

language Hindi, Arabic, English.

Contact: 98522914

Bangladeshi male light driver seeking suitable placement 1 yr

experience. Contact: 94158238

Driver available with car driver &

without car. #96771598 / 94039796

Driver, 42 yrs seeks for suitable

job KSA, 12 years Oman 4 years,.

Contact: 95796030

Heavy duty driver with PDO

license, 5 yrs Intl. exp. # 95546585

Light driver. Contact:95779594

Driver looking for job. #99507039

Pakistani driving available.

Contact : 96913836 Wanted driver. Contact: 95112461

Driver heavy duty required urgent-ly for trailer. Oman / GCC experience

must. Those ready for immediate

joining. Contact: 99310859

MEDICAL

Require Quality Caregiver for an

elderly Mother. Contact: 99425200

Required MOH licensed lady G.P Dentist Pharmacist, Asst Pharma-cist for Salalah based pharmacy

and clinic. Contact: 92732491 Email:

clinicrecruitment2015@gmail.com

Urgently wanted Lady Ayurveda

Therapist. Contact: 91590083 /

92798678

Vacancy Lab Technician for inquiry

or send CV zmczahara@yahoo.com

Contact 24571094 Fax: 24571097

Required Prometric passed nurse to

join clinic from end August.

Contact: 99352793

ADVERTISING

Looking for JOB. I have done BS

Hons in Mass communication and

media, Specialised in Public Rela-

tions and Advertising. I have upto

1 year of experience. Immediate

Available. Open for any JOB.

Sultan Zafar #97034134

Accountant 8 yrs experience

looking part time job.

Contact 99867456

Indian Accountant: Male, M com,

7 Yrs experience in Accounts up to

finalization, having knowledge

of ERP, Tally, seeks suitable

placment.Contact 93950138

Email: lijinrajan123@gmail.com

Motivated and energetic male 25

having 4 years of experience in

finance with Master’s degree in Eco-

nomics and CAT Certified seeking

opportunity in Accounts/finance/

audit in a reputable organization.

Cell no: 00968-94626209

E-Mail: omerjawedshah@gmail.com

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

Urgently required experienced sub-contractors for Marble Flooring /

Marble Cladding / Grinding / Carving

works. Contact 92884177 / 99485595

Urgently required a silk Screen printer with good knowledge and

release letter or NOC. Contact:

93280288 or send CV to

albayanstamps@gmail.com

DAILY GUIDES AT U R D AY, J U LY 2 5 , 2 0 1 5 C5

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED

MEDICAL

MANAGER/ SUPERVISOR

Indian male, B.E ( computer science

engineer), MBA (finance), OCA certi-

fied, having 5 years of experience in

oracle Dba/ oracle apps Dba, seeks

a suitable position in the field of IT.

Contact: 96212062

email: zubairkhan11@gmail.com

Well experienced MOH Licensed

Indian GP Doctor looking for locum /

permanent position in the

Capital area. Contact 98140024

email:drgpoman@yahoo.com

Indian male, B.com, diploma in ma-

terial management, 12+ years exp in

international / local purchase, ware

housing 4 logistics seeks suitable

placement NOC available.

Contact: 96477638 / 96477638

Production Manager 13 years

experience in cast Aluminium fab.

field and good track record seeking

for a suitable job. NOC ready in Hand.

Contact: 96392319

Indian male, with 8 yrs exp. in

Oman (BA- Graduate) working as

a project Sales Coordinator, with

Oman D/L, looking for suitable job,

ready to join immediately with NOC.

Contact 95245057

ENGG. / TECHNICAL HOSPITALITY

Female Dentist Indian, Prometric

passed 63%,4 years of work experi-

ence, immediately available to join.

Contact 97469553,

nazianbaig@gmail.com

Indian male GP doctor, 12 years

experience parametric passed with

74% seeks suitable post.

Email: ppdr2020@gmail.com.

Contact 97985325

Indian female Dentist MOH Oman

passed seeking a suitable place-

ment in capital region.

Contact– 91377681

hashimsarawat@gmail.com

Lab Technician, Civil (8yrs Gulf ex-

perience) looking for a suitable job

(NOC available) Contact-93344378

TOURS & TRAVELS

25 Indian female B.S.C. Fashion

Technology. 5 years experience in

textile industry as a merchandiser

and good in fashion marketing.

Currently available on visit visa,

seeking for a suitable job.

Contact : 96990368.

Email: simmy.missy@gmail.com

Civil Engineer, Diploma, Male 25,

3 years experience in site, CAD, 3d,

MS Project, Seeking job in Oman. #

92875345, jubincivileng@gmail.com

Indian male accountants, 12 years

experience, tally also. Looking for a

part time/ full time job in accounts

or purchase. Contact- 98983122

Indian Female 2yrs exp. in

Accountant 5 yrs exp. in Electronics,

seeking suitable Job.

Contact: 97162705,93705090

Indian male, 14 years Experience in

maintenance & Supervisor in hotel

field (Electrical, Ac Mechanical &

Plumber). NOC available #95253640

email = hareeshma24@yahoo.com

Female Candidate: Having experi-

ence (ISRO India) in Administration

(seeking suitable opportunities

&presently in Oman Mob:97239854,

Mail:asherlalitha@yahoo.com

Diploma civil Engineer seek-

ing jobs(positions suits me:

civil engineer ,site engineer,qa/qc

engineer,land surveyor ,total sta-

tion, auto level,draftsman (autocad,

microstation) mob:97239854,

Mail:asherlalitha@yahoo.com

MOH Indian Dentist 10 years experi-

ence in Oman. Can speak Arabic, has

driving license. Contact 98995321

or ventureoman007@gmail.com

BRANCH-HEAD, MBA-BBA, Indian

Male having experience in UAE,

India, Oman total 5 years (including

MNC), looking for similar or same

openings.NOC available.

Mobile :92700670,

E mail:catanalur131@gmail.com

Qualified Native speaking male

English Teacher with 18 years

experience seeks position. Salary

Negotiable. Whatsapp on +968 9334

1047 / +968 93952732 or e-mail me

on nadgov@gmail.com

Indian female, IATA, B. Sc, look-

ing for suitable placement.Con-

tact-95514305, E mail id-

raveendranmala@gmail.com

ACCOUNTANT, Indian male, 29

years, 8 years experience. Presently

working in Oman as a Senior Ac-

countant with Oman Driving license.

NOC available seek suitable opportu-

nity. GSM: 98184170

Iraqi Civil Engineer, 12 years expe-

rience with Omani driving license.

Contact: 94695595

Degree holder Civil Engineer hav-

ing 10 years experience with driving

license looking for better position.

Contact 98451844

Email: zahid_ruet@hotmail.com

Indian male, 38 years old, DME –

Mechanical Maintenance Technician

11 years Oman experience. Ready for

NOC, VISA transfer, ready to join im-

mediately, Mob +968 95612870,

Email: seeniselvan@gmail.com

Indian male, 34 years old, DEE –

Electrical Supervisor 10 years Oman

experience. Ready for NOC , VISA

transfer and valid Oman driving

license light, ready to join imme-

diately. Contact +91 9740679094,

kulasekar1980@gmail.com

MBA having 4years Gulf experience

in Coordination with contracting com-

pany .NOC Available. Ph: 95405885

Indian female, BE, Civil engineer

with 1 year experience looking for

suitable vacancy, on visit.

Contact 95139583,

Email : aisushetty09@gmail.com

Indian male Safety Officer, 4+

years experience diploma in fire &

safety Eng seeks suitable post.

Contact: 98843139

Electrical Engineer, B. Sc degree,

Filipino, 15 years experience in oil

& gas, power plant, substation, EPC

projects, testing & commissioning,

O & M with Oman D/L light.

Contact: 97090934

Electrical Engineer Indian male 29

years, having 5 years of experience in

industrial automation and utility main-

tenance in India (MRF Tyres) seeking

suitable placement.#92789995

Email: akhilabrahamlktr@gmail.com

Structural Engineer of 2 years &

7 months experience, specialized

in Structural Design and Site Su-

pervision looking for a job. Contact:

94634906 / 94370767

Email: muazomer45@gmail.com

Indian Civil Engineer (buildings)

available immediately as supply

contract. Contact: 93263834

Indian Male, IT Support Engineer,

2 yrs in Oman & 5 yrs Indian experi-

ence. Contact 97311847

Btech computer science graduate

2015 passout.. Android application

marketing.. Having good communi-

cation skills and mindset to work in

a team. Contact 91024385

Engineer with 3 yrs experience in

Indian in MEP, HVAC& mechanical

maintained field on visit visa looking

for suitable job. Contact 99191535

Email: fareed029@gmail.com

B.E in ECE worked as Junior Scientist

Trainee in Chennai worked as System

Admin in Berik Honda Nagger coil

worked at Technical Support in Sam-

sung Service, presently in Bangalore.

Contact : 0091 7026267513

Indian female, B.Tech biotechnology with strong computer

skills and 2 years experience as

associate research analyst (Media

Monitoring) in Nasdaq Oman seek-

ing growth oriented jobs. Contact

92044603 /918056169148 or

angeline.babithac@gmail.com.

Electrical Eng. Degree (MEP) need suit-

able job of construction 12 yrs exp.

Email: mohd.ateeq.khan@gmail.com

MISCELLANEOUS

SKILLED / UNSKILLED

SALES / MARKETING

12 yrs exp FREELANCE 2d, 3d

Draughtsman (holding Omani driv-

ing license). Contact : 93790601

Sudanese male, 31 year, have 3 year

Diploma in Electrical Engineer, 6

years experience in construction and

electrical plant.

Mobile No ; +96894549609

Freelance Graphic Designer availa-

ble to assist in Photoshop, Illustrator,

InDesign and Corel Draw Projects.

Contact : 95811820

Indian Female Lawyer 36 Yrs

having 11 yrs experience presently

working in Oman as Legal Advisor

seeks placement in Legal/HR/Admin

NOC available Contact-94436960

Email: famidakhan123@gmail.com

23, Male, ACCA Affiliate, 2 years+

experience in Audit and Finance

in audit firm, Looking for suitable

permanent placement, NOC release

Available. Contact: #95140445

a.saran891@gmail.com

MBA - (F), M.Com, B.COM. Indian fe-

male having knowledge of accounts

with Tally looking for part time or

full time job. Presently on family

visa. Contact :- 91892264.

Email:- yashicapandya@gmail.com

Indian Female 10 years exp as cook

in Oman. South Indian & Gujarati

special looking for part-time job

Contact 96733187.

Indian male-28 Years, Diploma in

Electrical Egg, having gulf experi-

ence. Specialization on Electrical

Installation and Maintenance, Opera-

tion. 7 years experience seeks for

suitable placement.

Mob – 968-95334580. E-mail

-sunilkumar257.sk23@gmail.com

Seeking Teaching Position. Quali-

fied and experienced Native English

speaking teacher seeking posi-

tion in Muscat, I have a Teaching

Diploma , two Honours Degrees

and a CELTA Certificate. Position

at Language school will be suit-

able. Will e-mail CV. Whatsapp only

+96893952732

MBA (F), B.COM. Indian female

having knowledge of accounts with

Tally looking for full or part time

job. presently on family visit visa.

Contact :- 96259171.

Email:- bhumicapandya@gmail.com

Indian female MCA, 24 years seek-

ing suitable job. Contact 93439467

IT professional MCA Oracle certi-

fied 6 months training of PLSQL

data warehousing, PHP, 3 months

trained seeking job at good com-

pany. Contact: 95694330 Email:

monakashyap001@gmail.com

B.E Computer Science, Indian male

looking for suitable job in the field

of software or information technol-

ogy having good knowledge in Java,

ASP. Net, MS Sql, MS Word.

Contact: 91986919 Email:

dileep2468.a@gmail.com

Indian male 25 yrs exp in Adminis-

tration, Telecom, Optical Fiber Com-

munication, Networking, MS Office.

Seeks any job. On visit visa.

Contact 91385373 /

sridharbsnlma1455@gmail.com

Network system Engineer B.E / ECE

+ CCNA & Ms certified with 4+ yrs exp

looking for a job. Currently in Oman

on visit visa. Contact: 92589502

IT

MISCELLANEOUS

MISCELLANEOUS

Indian male MBA 7 years experi-

ence in Hospitality industry, opera-

tion, sales & marketing looking for

suitable vacancy. Contact 92115860

Email vibin.py@gmail.com

MBA from UK with 9 yrs experience

in London, Dubai & Mumbai. Special-

ized GCC experience in top real estate

co & bank with driving license. NOC

available. #968 95168205,

dubaihomes1@gmail.com

B. Com & MBA Graduate on visit

visa seeks suitable placement.

Contact : 97372624 ,email :

sivaraj.gurukripa@gmail.com

Indian male 27yrs , diploma,3yrs

exp in oman in sales & supervisor ,

oman driving license holder, looking

for suitable placements.

GSM -96489211

B.Tech (MECH) MBA (Marketing)

having 20 years of experience in

sales, marketing, projects presently

working in Oman seek suitable place-

ment N.O.C available and ready to join

immediately. Contact: 91257781

email: rajrathsing@yahoo.com

Indian male 45+ yrs , 20 yrs exp as

sales supervisor in India looking for

indoor sales /stores /cashier or any

suitable placement can speak Hindi

, English, Malayalam, Tamil, kan-

nada can join immediately on visit

visa. Contact 93086105/33016546

Young Bangladeshi male 26 know-

ing coffee shop work as watering

sandwich making juice marking

etc presently in Bangladesh if any

employer need please Contact

behalf of candidate with his brother.

Contact: 92278538

Indian male 31 visionary business

strategist having over 8+ years of

global experience seeking a chal-

lenging position that utilizes my

years of experience currently on

visit. Contact: 91902154

Management professional experienced in profitable manage-

ment with organization skills with

over 21+yrs exp. in Bombay, Saudi

Arabia, Dubai, UAE & in Oman11 yrs

as GM Publications, Printing, Media

& Advertising in entire operations,

Sales marketing & etc. Looking for a

reputed organization for a challeng-

ing position any industry, can Join

immediately with NOC. Contact :

+968 98864706/99574638

Mail : akdas_uae@yahoo.com

4 Years experienced (Money

exchange services & Hospitality

services in Oman & India) - Indian

male 27 years, graduate in Hospital-

ity science, fluent in English, Hindi

& Arabic seeks suitable placement.

Contacts: 91383167

Female Postgraduate searching

suitable job. Contact 97792820

Filipino Male looking for a job &

have experience in sales, waiter,

barista, technical support / customer

service with good communication

skills. Contact 91789465

Indian Female with over 9 yrs

experience with good

communication skills seeks jobs in

customer service or sales field.

Contact : 96108289,

Email - shijipaul84@gmail.com

Part- Time Accountant, well experi-

ence senior accountant ,doing all

type of accounting works, Finaliza-

tion, Budgeting available.

Contact: :98803439

13 Years UAE experienced in MNC &

reputed firms logistics distribution

looking for a suitable placement, on

visit visa contact 99838743,

gani.dawood@gmail.com

Male Indian BBM Graduate 8 years

experience in logistics and ware

housing in a reputed company valid

driving license NOC available

looking for suitable position.

Contact : 96311786

Email: ubinfs@gmail.com

SALES / MARKETING

Looking for Sales Assistant job

(having Oman driving license).

Contact: 95872634

Pakistani male 34 yrs Intermedi-

ate 2 yrs exp in sales & marketing

in Oman. Looking for suitable job.

Contact - 92146864

Indian male seeking job, 8 years

experience in Qatar in clerical/ad-

ministration/documents controlling

fields. Willing to work in customer

care or sale also. Qatar driving

license available. Job preferred in

Sohar and surrounding cities.

Contact 93285117

Indian male. 27, Post Graduate, 5+

yrs exp in Oman in Sales & Credit

Control, with valid Oman driving

License, NOC available,

looking for suitable placements.

Ph: 9199 3376

Indian Male, B.Com Graduate,

23, with experience in Sales looking

for suitable placements. .

Contact 98371144

Market research / Hospitality In-

dian male Graduate with nearly 30

yrs experience in Market research &

hospitality industry. NOC available.

Contact: 99347089

Looking for job as Mason, pipe fit-

ter, Electrician and Aluminum fixer

available. Contact: 93015630

Indian male Diploma, Civil engineer

4.3 year experience at building

construction and consulting

company with Oman driving licence

and N.O.C available

seeking suitable placement

Contact 95989500

email cv.shihabedappal@gmail.com

Indian Male, Diploma in Civil Engi-

neer working as a Project engineer

with 7years of experience looking for

suitable job. Contact- 92636569

BE civil Engineer with a vast

experience of 18 years in Oman

seeks immediate placement as

General Manger /Partner. contact @

joboman2015@gmail.com.

DAILY GUIDE Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461 Fax: 24812624

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com

C6 S AT U R D AY, J U LY 2 5 , 2 0 1 5

Electrical Engineer, 29, Indian

Male, having 7+ years exp. in re-

puted companies. Seeking suitable

placement in any Oman.

Contact - 97693456.

Mail ID : venkatbadri23@gmail.com

BE. Biomedical Engineer, 5 years

experience in the same field

(Hospital/company)looking for suit-

able placement. Contact:92084807

Email:bonnygeorge1005@gmail.com

ELECTRICAL ENGINEER – Indian

male seeking Electrical Engineer job

with 2 years’ experience.

Contact: 94263445, E mail –

janardhanan53@gmail.com

32 years, Filipina with experience

in Teleperformance, Manila call

centre, now working as Waitress in

Qatar seeking suitable post.

Contact 99022484

Sudanese/ 26 years/ master of

clinical pharmacy(1st class)/ 1 year

experience/live in India/excellent

communication in English(IELTS

Certificate) and arabic/pharmacist

license/hassan_kassala@hotmail.

com 00919600413966-96387227

24 Years, indian male 2.5 Years ex-

perience in admin & accounts, dubai.

Currently on visit visa. Seeking suit-

able placement in admin & accounts.

M: 93016252 EMAIL:

shahabaskp@gmail.com

Indian male, MBA with 20 years of

experience in back office operation,

risk and operational management,

financial management for Finance

and Trading companies. Presently

available on visit visa.

Contact 91276221

CCNA MCITP network support /net-

work technician with 2 years experi-

ence indian male having bachelors

degree on visit visa. #93080871

sean.f.peters@outlook.com

SITUATION WANT-ED

SIT. WANTED

SITUATION WANTEDSERVICES

House shifting & transporting.

Contact 92490422

MARBLE CRYSTALLIZATION restore the original shine of

your marble. Contact 24793614/

99314807

House shifting. Contact 99708138

House shifting packing.

99657644 / 98518013

Carpet Shampoo, marble & tile

polishing, pest control & anti-ter-

mite treatment, general cleaning

painting, Plumbing, Electrical,

shifting. Contact Mundhir

Al-Rizaiqi trading. L.L.C.

# 24810137, 99450130

Water proofing ABUQABAS-

Contact 99320217/24788722

AC servicing maintenance fixing.

Contact: 99540621

WEBSITE

WEB, ERP and Business Intelli-

gence (BI) creation and man-

agement at rock bottom price.

Contact: http//webviewoman

CLASSES

CLASSES

COMPUTER

IELTS preparation course, unlock

your educational and career oppor-

tunities with eagles to; achieve your

required band. Contact 91979343.

Split & window A.C servic-

ing & maintenance. Contact

93769089/95323517

Air condition maintenance split

and window services AC specialist

ducted and package type unites.

Contact: 98667326

GUARANTEED CLEANING: Carpet

& sofa shampooing, Contact

99314807/24792998

Split & widow unit A.C servicing &

repairing. Contact: 99557080

Split & window unit A.C servicing &

maintenance.

Contact: 96236476

Window & split unit A.C servicing &

maintenance. Contact : 93769089 /

95323517

Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles

polishing, carpet shampooing,

maintenance.Contact ABU QABAS-

99320217 /24788722

Carpet, Sofa Shampooing. Ocean

Center LLC. Contact: 99884591

A/C Maintenance & servicing, fridge,

washing machine & dish washer re-

pairing, painting & cleaning services,

electrical & plumbing.

Contact: 99447257 / 97014234 /

24504281

Pest control Treatments, termites,

cockroaches, bedbugs Ocean Center

LLC. Contact: 99344723

Hair dressing, facial massage &

other beauty treatment for women.

Contact: 94689448

FOR LADIES

SITUATION WANT-MANPOWER

SITUATION WANT-MATRIMONIAL

Syrian CSI boy 30/184, working in

a Automobile dealership at Muscat,

inviting proposals.m4marry ID:

3951195 Ph: 0091- 9656439949 /

94946429292

Indian male Roman Catholic Divor-

cee 40 yrs working in Muscat seeks

suitable alliance from widow/ divor-

cee/single. Contact: 96059801

Muslim boy, 32 years MBA, studied

and working in Oman as Sales

manager in a reputed organisation,

Tableeg Jamath invites proposals

from educated girls in Gulf prefer-

ably Malayalees. Contact 99357458

and 92656899

RC SC girl (Kerala) 28 yrs, 154cm

BSC Nurse working in Oman (SQUH)

seeks alliances from professionaly

qualified employers.

Contact: 96228192

Kerala Christian Orthodox boy 29/185 Staff Nurse MOH Muscat

seeks suitable alliances.

Contact: 99461264

GOOD NEWS

Genuine Ayurvedic treatments

& massage, Ayurvedic clinic at

AL Khuwair. Contact: 24478618 /

97263637 / 93309131

Ayurvedic treatment for joint pain,

backache, paralysis massage, steam

bath, obesity, spondylitis IDEAL ,

CARE Ayurvedic Clinic 18 November

street, Azaiba. Contact 99639695 /

99117987

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

Ayurvedic treatment for backache,

paralysis, arthritis etc & massage,

All Season (Vaidyaratnam).

Contact 24475280 / 95371554 /

92504980

www.siddhayur.comAdmission Open: CAMBRIDGE /

BILINGUAL CURRICULUM

admission started in Al Burj Private

School, Azaiba for KG and Grade I to

IV. Please register soonest.

Contact: 93211417 / 92887809.

*Classified Advertisement space booking with text,

should be done till 12.00 noon for next day’s publication.

* Subject to space availability

DAILY GUIDES AT U R D AY, J U LY 2 5 , 2 0 1 5 C7

SITUATION WANTEDCARGO

Dolphin Watch, Dhow Cruise

with Buffet, & Land Tours Al- Ainain

Marine Tours Contact- 98029602,

92808636

RENT A CAR

TOURS

DRIVING

Learn driving with professional

only automatic. Contact 94022250

TRANSPORTATION

Taxi in Muscat for any where and

any time just send whatssapp be-

fore one hour and we will confirm to

you your appointment ,We have also

travel in Muscat. what you wait for

call: 99887282

Email: Awraqmuscat@yahoo.com

Pick & drop anytime in Al Khuwair.

Contact 99764307

Transportation. Contact: 96538078

Transportation. Contact:98522914

Transportation. Contact 99508282

Transportation. Contact: 98244078

Pick & Drop any time. Contact:

97014786

DAILY GUIDE Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461 Fax: 24812624

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com

C8 S AT U R D AY, J U LY 2 5 , 2 0 1 5