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WEDNESDAY, November 5, 2014 / 12 Muharram 1436 AH timesofoman.com wtimesofoman.com facebook.com/timesofoman twitter.com/timesofoman blog.timesofoman.com ISO 9001:2008 Certified Company

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One out of three expatriateslacks proper qualifications

REJIMON K reji@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: One out of every three expatriate workers in Oman is not academically qualified, says a report released by National Centre of Statistics and Informa-tion (NCSI).

“Till the end of May 2014, there were 1.5 million expatriates work-ing in Oman, and one out of every three, did not possess academic

qualification. Between 2009 and 2014, there was an increase of 7.9 per cent in the number of expatriate workers,” says the NCSI report.

According to the NCSI’s Sep-tember statistics, there are 595,396 Indians, 524,660 Bang-ladeshis and 216,477 Pakistanis working in Oman.

Out of the 1,541,430 expatriate workers, only 97,853 posses a uni-versity degree or above.

Meanwhile, the increase in the number of Omani workers in the private sector in the same pe-riod was 3.5 per cent only and 78 per cent of Omanis in the private sector receive a salary less than OMR400. The report also says that among Omanis, while 40 per cent are employed and 5 per cent are job seekers, the remaining 55 per cent constitute students, those above employment age and those who don’t wish to work. >A4

N C S I R E P O R T

FAHAD AL MUKRASHIfahad@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: Reckless drivers who risk their lives, and those of res-cue workers, by trying to cross overflowing wadis could face jail or hefty fines.

According to the amendments being proposed in the civil de-fence law, which are still under-

going review, those foolhardy enough to attempt wadi crossings when it is unsafe to do so may face tough sanctions.

Speaking to Times of Oman, an official at the Public Authority for Civil Defence and Ambulance (PACDA) said, “Such a law will help reduce the number of deaths such as those witnessed during the recent rains.”

The official added, “The law is still being reviewed by the Min-istry of Legal Affairs for final approval.”

Despite repeated warnings from authorities, people continue to risk their lives and cross over-flowing wadis when it rains.

So far 15 deaths and dozens of injuries related to such crossings have been reported in 2014, said the official.

During the recent rains, four nationals including three children were killed when their vehicle was

swept away in Wadi Huqayn in the wilayat of Rustaq.

“Many people take the risk and cross wadis thinking that their vehicles can withstand the strong currents in the wadis. There were 10 persons on board the 4W vehi-cle when the incident took place. The residents of Huqayn had even warned the driver not to cross the wadi, but he ignored their pleas,” said a resident of the wilayat.

The PACDA official said, “The incident on Friday occurred de-spite intensive awareness cam-paigns via the media. The culture of taking risks and crossing wadis has to stop,” said the official.

When asked whether it made sense to introduce new technol-ogy to stop citizens from crossing wadis, the official replied, “Oman

has hundreds of wadis and this makes it harder for us to introduce new technology near wadis.”

He added that the authority is open to looking at new solutions.

“We can look at building a dam or finding a way to change the course of the wadi’s flow,” he said.

The official affirmed that PAC-DA along with ROP and other security forces have been assign-ing teams at wadis to stop drivers from crossing them as well as for rescue operations.

“PACDA receives hundreds of calls for rescue operations when it rains heavily and we respond im-mediately,” said the official.

“The ROP and PACDA send out early weather warnings to prevent such incidents, but these are often ignored,” added the official. >A4

The proposed law aims to rein in

adventurous drivers who not only risk their

lives but also the lives of rescue workers

Prince Harry to visit Oman on November 18

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Prince Harry will visit Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this month, confirmed a statement from Buckingham Palace.

The prince will be in Oman between November 18 and 20.

On his first visit to Oman, the prince’s programme will revolve around the National Day Parade on November 18.

He will also have additional engagements during the stay.

“The visit reflects the close personal relationship between the royal families of each coun-try and follows recent visits by the Queen and the Duke of Edin-burgh in 2010 and by the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall in 2013. Additionally, it will support the strong bilat-eral relations between the Unit-ed Kingdom (UK) and Oman,” said the statement. >A3

C L O S E T I E S

Prince Harry

Expatriate labour force in Oman

Source: National Centre of Statistics and Information Graphics

1.5 500,000million

Expats working (2014)

Possessing academic

qualifications

97,853

Possessing university

degree or above

By country By sectorIndia

Expats

Ministry of Health

595,396

Bangladesh

524,660

Pakistan

216,477

Omani

30.2% 69.8%

Construction44% 56%

Private sector79.1% 10.9%

H AV E YOU R SAY AT # WA D I P E R I L AT T W I T T E R.CO M

Rescuers back jail for reckless wadi crossers

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OMANPrice war hots up over Gulf skies

2 If you are looking for a 25 per cent discount on air tickets, purchase

them today as a large number of airlines have slashed their prices to woo customers in the lean season. >A5

MARKETPDO unveils new oil well training centre

3Petroleum Development Oman inaugurated New

Wells Learning Centre with the aim of sustaining production and improving efficiency of oil output. >B1

OMANStorage facilities gutted in Qantab

1A fire destroyed storage facilities belonging to fishermen in Qantab but

there was no loss of life. The fire started at around 3pm, and it took two hours to bring it under control. >A3

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

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Storage facilities gutted in QantabHAROON JUMA AL HASANI MUSCAT: A fire destroyed stor-age facilities belonging to fisher-men in Qantab on Tuesday after-noon, but there was no loss of life.

According to fire station of-ficials, the fire started at around 3pm, and it took two hours to bring it under control.

The reasons for the fire could not be ascertained.

Seven storage facilities located near the beach which were used by local fishermen to keep their fishing material were damaged in the blaze. On hearing about the incident, locals rushed to the beach but could not prevent the fire from spreading.

“Three of our boats were dam-aged as well,” said the fishermen.

One of the fishermen Omar

Al Alhzami told Times of Oman: “We are shocked. The fire de-stroyed my store among others, in which I used to keep my fishing nets and other important fishing tools. Thank God there were no casualties.”

An engine of a boat belonging to a fisherman, Guland Al Hasni, was also destroyed. While he was upset at the loss, he appreciated the prompt response of the civil defence officials.

“Without any delay, fire fight-ers reached the beach and put out the fire. They have already begun their investigations,” he added.

B E A C H B L A Z E

BATTLING DANGER: Seven storage facilities located near the beach were damaged in the blaze. –Supplied photo

Harry to bat for African childrenPrince Harry will then travel to Abu Dhabi on November 20 to take part in the Sentebale Polo Cup, at Ghantoot Racing and Polo Club. Now in its fifth year, the Sentebale Polo Cup raises awareness and funds for Sentebale’s work in pro-viding healthcare and education to vulnerable children in Lesotho.

Many of these children from the

African nation are victims of ex-treme poverty and Lesotho’s HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The Sentebale Polo Cup will also support the charity’s plan to scale up the highly effective Mamohato Programme, which addresses the emotional and psychologi-cal needs of children living with HIV, reducing the stigma linked to

the disease, inspiring confidence and most importantly making a marked improvement in these young people’s quality of life.

HIV/AIDS The Mamohato Children’s Cen-tre is due to be completed in June 2015, allowing Sentebale to support many more vulner-

able children affected by HIV/AIDS. The build marks the begin-ning of Sentebale’s plans to ex-pand, both in Lesotho and across southern Africa.

This will be Prince Harry’s first visit to Oman and his second to the United Arab Emirates, having at-tended a dinner in aid of Sentebale in Dubai in 2013.

G U L F T O U R

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MoH has most expat workers

A4 W E D N E S DAY, N OV E M B E R 5, 2 0 14

OMAN 100 tour operators from Germany, Austria

and Switzerland toured Oman on an

invitation from the Ministry of Tourism

Omani road shows draw huge crowdsTimes News Service

MUSCAT: The Ministry of Tour-ism, Sultanate of Oman, held a se-ries of hugely successful ‘Omani Road Shows’ in various cities in Germany recently.

The road shows were a part of the ministry’s efforts for promot-ing Oman as a choice destination in the German speaking countries. Enthusiastic crowds of not less than 200, as well as various stake-holders of the German travel and tourism industry people in Berlin, Hamburg, Düsseldorf and Frank-furt, greeted these road shows en-thusiastically.

Oman Tourism has been in-creasingly focusing on tapping the vast tourism market in German-speaking countries, including Ger-many, Austria and Switzerland.

Recently around 100 tour opera-tors from these countries toured Oman on an invitation from Oman’s Ministry of Tourism.

Ralf Schepers, marketing man-ager at the Berlin-based Interface International GmbH, which is a market-based representative of Ministry of Tourism for the Ger-man-speaking markets and Scan-dinavia, said, “The German market is only gradually getting familiar-ised with the enchanting destina-tion called the Sultanate of Oman. More awareness is needed to make the travel and tourism sector in Germany focus more on the tour-ism potential offered by Oman. At the end of the day, we want to help the German travel and tourism in-dustry to achieve more sales and good bottom-line vis-à-vis tour packages for Oman.”

T O U R I S M P R O M O T I O N

Shangri-La resumes full moon beach dinnerTimes News Service

MUSCAT: Back by popular de-mand, Shangri-La’s Barr Al Jis-sah Resort & Spa is bringing back their Full Moon Beach Dinner at Al Bandar’s sandy beach from Wednesday.

Cashing in on the success of the full moon beach dinners held in March 2014 for two months, the resort has decided to bring them back as part of their new sea-sonal signature events and will

be hosting it on the first full moon of each month.

Guests are invited to dine in the moonlight overlooking the beauti-ful Al Jissah bay where they will experience a truly unique setting on the beachfront of the Al Bandar Hotel with the majestic mountain-ous backdrop.

The evening will feature an ex-tensive buffet consisting of Arabic mezzeh, freshest seafood, premi-um meat cuts, finest mixed grills and a wide range of tempting sweet

delights, along with free flowing drinks throughout the dinner.

Live entertainmentThis exquisite dining experience is further complemented by live entertainment from the resort’s band, which will be playing jazz, classic songs and relaxing tunes throughout the evening.

Mark Kirk, general manager at Shangri-La’s Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa, said, “We are delighted to resume our full moon beach din-

ners in our events programme as this is such a popular and unique experience for our guests. We an-ticipate immense interest and look forward to once again host-ing these wonderful nights at the resort.”

The first such dinner will take place on Wednesday from 7.00pm to 11.00pm.

For more information and bookings, please call 2477 6565 or email: fbreservation.slmu@shangri-la.com.

L U X U R Y D I N I N G

GLAMOUR AND GLITZ: The exquisite dining experience is further

complemented by live entertainment from the resort’s band.

CAMEL RACING SEASON BEGINSThe annual camel racing season kicked off at Al Fulaij in Barka yesterday. These traditional

races will take place in various governorates and wilayats over the next few months. -ONA

Oman Air opens upgraded Bangkok airport lounge Times News Service

MUSCAT: Oman Air has unveiled its refurbished lounge at Suvarn-abhumi Airport in Bangkok, which offers more facilities and space than the previous facility.

The interiors sport a natural colour scheme, enhanced by soft lighting which also reflects the Oman Air corporate colours. Tra-ditional Omani artefacts are show-cased in cabinets hung from the walls, and contemporary sculp-tures provide an additional focus.

With nearly 100 square metres of additional floor space, customers can now relax before their flights on one of the luxurious day beds within new rest areas. In addition, the seating has been redesigned to be even more comfortable, and can accommodate 72 customers instead of the previous 34.

Mouth-watering food and re-freshments are available from a state-of-the-art buffet and bar, echoing Oman Air’s internation-ally-acclaimed in-flight dining. A sparkling shower room and luxury toiletries, as well as a baby-chang-ing station, have also been added to the lounge’s extensive facilities.

Announcing the opening, Paul Gregorowitsch, chief executive officer of Oman Air, said, “We are proud to unveil the superb new Oman Air Lounge at Bangkok Su-varnabhumi Airport. Oman Air’s guests, and other air travellers at Bangkok, are invited to come along

and discover the lounge’s calm and tranquil atmosphere, and its out-standing facilities.

“These are underpinned by Oman Air’s trademark hospitality, making the Oman Air Lounge the perfect place to relax and prepare for your flight.”

Open for all The lounge is available for Oman Air’s Business Class guests, as well as Silver and Gold tier Sind-bad frequent flyer members. In addition, air travellers flying with

other airlines are invited to use the Oman Air lounge on payment of THB1500 (Thai Baht) for adults, or THB750 for children.

The Oman Air Lounge at Bang-kok is one of four dedicated pre-mium lounges within the airline’s network, with the others located at Muscat and Salalah. In addition, Oman Air offers the Majan Lounge at Muscat International Airport for use by Sindbad members and following payment of a modest fee, for economy class guests of Oman Air and other airlines.

T R A V E L F A C I L I T YQatar Airways to have daily Salalah flights

RAHUL DASrahuldas@timesofoman.com

DOHA: Salalah has emerged as the top destination for Qataris who are looking for a holiday in the Middle East.

With Qatar Airways introduc-ing four flights a week to Salalah couple of years back, a large num-ber of Qataris are regularly travel-ling to Salalah for a short break.

“Almost all flights to Salalah are going full. So, we are planning to make it a daily flight from Doha to Salalah from December 16,” a sen-ior official of Qatar Airways told Times of Oman on Tuesday.

Holidaymakers taking advan-tage of the Khareef season have helped increase outbound flights from Doha, a Qatar-based travel agency told Times of Oman.

Tourists flying out of Doha, comprising mostly Qataris, prefer Salalah as the most favoured tour-ist destination followed by Dubai and Abu Dhabi in Middle East.

“This is simply because the whole of Salalah goes green dur-ing this time, giving a rare feeling to the tourists, where rains are rare,” said Sudhakar Rao, a travel agent based in Doha.

The number of local and in-ternational Salalah Khareef sea-son visitors recorded from June 21 to August 30 in 2014 stood at 415,209, compared to 399,747 visitors during the same period in 2013, representing an increase of 3.9 per cent.

The majority of Khareef Sala-lah visitors were Omanis, rep-resenting 76.2 per cent of total visitor numbers, while other GCC citizens represented 16.1 per cent of the total tourist count.

Joegendra Charles Rajadurai, Qatar Airways Country Manager

Oman, said, “Qatar Airways is of-fering daily services from Salalah this winter season, commencing from December 16 with a choice of four morning and four evening departures which will connect you to their worldwide network of over 140 destinations.

“With these daily connections Qatar Airways will connect to major Indian subcontinent hubs namely Bangalore, Kochi, New Delhi and Ahmedabad along with Kozhikode and Amrit-sar. Other connected cities are Goa, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Trivandrum. Apart from Indian subcontinent hubs, daily flights will give wider options to pas-sengers/travellers who are travel-ling towards Europe, Middle East or Americas.”

The Qatar Airways official also said, “We are extremely delighted that we have added the highly popular leisure destination of Salalah to our international net-work a couple of years back and extend our award-winning ser-vices to the people of Salalah and

Dhofar region. We will be provid-ing daily services to them from next month.”

“As one of the most beautiful places in the Gulf, affectionately known as the Perfume Capital of Arabia, Salalah holds a tremen-dous appeal for visitors across the Gulf including Qataris,” he said.

Besides Khareef, according to officials, numerous Qatari citi-zens also come to attend the Sala-lah Tourism Festival (STF) which draws a large number of tourists from GCC countries.

“The festival is a huge hit among our citizens due to a rare geographical phenomenon of del-icate drizzles, which begin in the last week of June and continue till September,” added Rao.

The festival attracts a large number of tourists from the neighbouring GCC countries as well as from Europe and other Middle Eastern countries. Over the years, Salalah has earned a reputation as one of the best sum-mer destinations in the entire Middle East.

Commencing from

December 16 this

winter season,

Qatar Airways will

be offering daily

services to Salalah

GREEN CHARM: Tourists flying out of Doha, comprising mostly

Qataris, prefer Salalah as the most favoured tourist destination.

This is simply because the whole of Salalah goes green during

this time. –File photo

CLASSIC LUXURY: The Oman Air Lounge at Bangkok is one of the

four dedicated premium lounges within the airline’s network, with

the others located at Muscat and Salalah. –Supplied photo

Wadi crossers face official ire

Calling for self-restraint, an Om-ani resident said, “When people drive into a wadi and get stuck they risk not only their lives but also endanger the lives of their rescuers.”

A relative of the grieving fam-ily of four who lost their lives recently said, “A solemn atmos-phere prevails over the village in which children and one older boy died. Six others were rescued by PACDA officials and citizens.”

The relative called on road us-ers not to take the risk and cross such wadis. “The pain caused by the loss of loved ones is unbear-able,” he added.

Many citizens and residents have reacted to the last drown-ing incident, calling on road users not to risk their lives and that of others by crossing such wadis.

Ahmed Al Sobhi, a national, said, “Crossing a wadi is extreme-ly dangerous because nobody can judge the current at a given time.”

Danger aheadHe added that people who un-dertake such crossings should think a million times before do-ing so.

“They should think of the fam-ily and friends who are with them in the car as well as those waiting for them back home,” he said.

However, another resident, Karim Ahmed, believed that heft-ier penalties would not help.

“It is all about the mindset of some drivers. We should try to educate our youth about the per-ils of crossing overflowing wadis. That will help in saving many lives,” said Karim.

P U B L I C S A F E T Y

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According to the report, only one out of every 10 Omanis is em-ployed in the private sector.

The NCSI’s latest statistics show that out of 1,541,430 expa-triates, 1,251,809 are working in the private sector and 57,527 in the government sector.

“Around 30.2 per cent of work-ers in Ministry of Health (MoH) are expatriates, the highest as compared to any civil sector in Oman in 2014,” says the report.

The construction sector, which amounts to only 2 per cent of the foreign investment in Oman, employs 44 per cent of expatriate workers.

In the government sector, out of the 85.8 per cent Omani work-ers, 50.7 per cent are male and 35.1 per cent are female. In the case of expatriates working in the

government sector, 9.5 per cent are male and 4.7 are female.

Meanwhile, in the private sec-tor, out of the 89.1 per cent expa-triate workers, 79.1 are male and 10 per cent are female. In the case of 10.9 per cent of Omani work-ers, 8.6 per cent are male and 2.3 are female.

N C S I R E P O R T

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The construction sector in Oman, employs 44 per cent of expatriate workers

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Price war hots up over Gulf skiesTimes News Service

MUSCAT: If you are looking for a 25 per cent discount on air tick-ets, purchase them today as a large number of airlines have slashed their prices to woo customers in the lean season. UAE-based fly-dubai has announced a 25 per cent discount on economy class fares to compete with other carri-ers in Oman.

According to travel agents, flydubai is offering 25 per cent off on economy class fares from Oman, an offer which is available till Friday.

“Simply book by noon on No-vember 7 and get 25 per cent off on the lowest return fares in economy class from Muscat to Dubai and beyond,” said a leading travel agent in Ruwi.

Citing discount fares, he said that Muscat-Dubai is now OMR49 instead of OMR65, Muscat-Am-man is OMR84 instead of OMR112 and Muscat Istanbul is OMR116 instead of OMR155.

The catch is that the offer must be availed by noon on November 7

and is valid for select return flights originating in Oman between No-vember 14 and December 10.

Even Doha-based Qatar Air-ways rolled out a limited period promotional fares scheme, offer-ing up to 25 per cent discount to

its customers, including in India to destinations across Europe, Af-rica, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and the Americas.

The week-long offer which came into effect from Novem-ber 3 will continue till November

10 with a travel period window of six months, announced Qatar Airways. Qatar Airways’ cus-tomers can avail of this offer by visiting any of their sales offices, appointed travel partners or qata-rairways.com.

Country Manager of Qatar Air-ways – Oman, Joegendra Charles Rajadurai said, “Our endeavour is to provide seamless connectivity and comfort to all our passengers.”

He also claimed that Qatar Air-ways’ signature five-star hospital-ity offers passengers an in-flight experience like no other. Awarded Best Business Class for two con-secutive years by industry audit Skytrax, the airline provides a pre-mium travel experience to passen-gers combined with unparalleled comfort, sophisticated luxury and excellent service.

Another airline, Turkish Air-lines has also introduced special fares to Istanbul and Europe. “You can book your return flights to places like Milan, Brussels, Paris and Rome from Muscat for a little over OMR200,” said Rajeev Mishra, a travel agent.

flydubai has

announced a 25

per cent discount

on economy class

fares, while Qatar

Airways has rolled

out a limited period

promotional fares

offering up to 25

per cent discount.

Turkish Airlines

has also introduced

special fares to

Istanbul and Europe

Source: Travel agencies Graphics

Offers announced to cover lean seasonflyDubai Qatar AirwaysTurkish Airlines25% discount on bookings till November 7 (economy class) 25% discount on bookings

from November 3 to November 10, including destinations across Europe, Africa, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and the Americas.

Istanbul, Milan, Brussels, Paris and Rome from around :Muscat-Dubai OMR 49

Muscat-Amman OMR 84Muscat-Istanbul OMR 116

OMR 200

Spe al

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

A6

OMANW E D N E S DAY, N OV E M B E R 5, 2 0 14

The kindergarten is the stepping stone for young ones to go on to

experience a positive academic experience throughout their childhood

Said Juma Al Busaidi, senior communications and

public relations officer at Saraya Bandar Jissah

Boot Camp to boost skills of Omani entrepreneursTimes News Service

MUSCAT: Offering an excellent platform to empower and develop Omani entrepreneurs, the Na-tional Business Centre (NBC), which falls under the umbrella of the Public Establishment for In-dustrial Estates (PEIE), will host an Entrepreneurs Boot Camp from November 16 to 20, 2014 at the Knowledge Oasis Muscat (KOM).

“This event, which is in line with the global entrepreneurship week, aims at preparing entrepre-neurs for the upcoming stages on their journey to create a successful start-up. NBC is continuing to ed-ucate youths from universities and colleges in Oman to participate in the boot camp before the applica-tion deadline on November 9, 2014 via the website www.nbcoasis500.com,” said Malak Al Shaibani, director general of the National Business Centre.

To instil best practices, the NBC has partnered with Oasis 500 in Jordan to run the boot camp in Oman. The applications will be

evaluated and interviews will be conducted to select the best ideas. The boot camp aims at promot-ing entrepreneurship by selecting the best ideas from a group of 60

entrepreneurs. Oasis 500 is recog-nised globally for conducting spe-cialised training boot camps for budding entrepreneurs.

Malak Al Shaibani added, “Since

its launch, NBC has contributed in activating a number of incu-bated projects through the offered facilities, consultation services and guidance. The centre, in co-

operation with global expertise in the field, organises workshops and training courses for the incubated companies.

In addition, the centre has signed a number of MoUs to sup-port these companies, among which are agreements guaran-teeing access to financial sup-port (loans) with competitive advantages from various govern-ment and private organisations and initiatives.”

The National Business Cen-tre makes constant efforts to train entrepreneurs and equip them with the skills to succeed in their careers.

“One of these initiatives is the monthly event of Reyooq which aims at presenting a platform for Omani entrepreneurs to network with experts, and learn about en-trepreneurship and creative ideas for their businesses,” she said.

NBC cooperates closely with the organisations that support SMEs including SAS Centre which is affiliated with Information Tech-nology Authority (ITA), Public

Authority for SME Development, Al Rafd Fund, Fund for Devel-opment of Youth Projects, Bank Muscat, among other institutions. Currently, the centre comprises 14 incubated companies specialised in a variety of fields.

During the next phase, the cen-tre will emphasise in expanding the allocated space to embrace start-ups in addition to providing office space to activate student projects in collaboration with the institutions concerned with stu-dent ideas and projects.

NBC is an initiative launched by the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates at KOM to offer promising Omani entrepreneurs a platform to develop their inno-vative business ideas and nurture them into growing ventures.

The centre attempts to become the premier platform for entre-preneurs by providing business development support and guid-ance, training and mentoring, access to markets and indus-try experts, and fully equipped facilities.

G L O B A L E N T R E P R E N E U R S H I P W E E K

This event aims at preparing entrepreneurs for the upcoming stages on their journey to create a successful start-up

Malak Al ShaibaniDG, National Business Centre

Saraya Bandar Jissah assists Qantab school

Times News Service

MUSCAT: To make a meaning-ful difference and with the objec-tive of supporting the growth of the next generation in the local community, Muscat’s newest and most exciting integrated tourism complex, Saraya Bandar Jissah, has made special contributions for the young students of Qantab Public School.

Qantab village is home to more than 150 families and the youth of the village have made their mark in various fields, within the village and beyond.

Commenting on the impor-tance of joining hands with the lo-cal community, Said Juma Al Bu-saidi, senior communications and public relations officer at Saraya Bandar Jissah, said, “Children are the future of our country. We be-lieve that it is our responsibility to help the next generation achieve their full potential, to aid their growth to become citizens who each make a valuable contribu-tion to our beautiful country.”

To support the Qantab Public School in their role of providing an outstanding quality of edu-cation, they wanted to leave no

stone unturned. Qantab Public School’s kindergarten section is a platform for pre-schoolers to de-velop motor, social and emotional skills, and at Saraya Bandar Jissah they decided to begin there.

The stepping stone“The kindergarten is the stepping stone for young ones to go on to experience a positive academic experience throughout their childhood,” said Al Busaidi.

Saraya Bandar Jissah’s initia-tive involved designing a modern and dynamic environment in order to create a great learning space for youngsters, both to en-gage with their teachers and be stimulated in their classroom en-vironment. It developed plans to optimally utilise the kindergarten space at Qantab Public School.

“We restored the classroom with slip-resistant and hygienic flooring, and provided modern ergonomic furniture suitable for the children. The classrooms not only appear to have a vibrant and energetic presence but are in line

with the highest safety standards required for pre-schoolers. The finishing and material theme has been selected in a way to cre-ate inspired environment for the children. The combination of col-ours and natural materials such as wooden tables and chairs will enrich the children’s interaction and connectivity with the class-room daily activities. It was a pleasure being a part of this initia-tive.” said Ashraf Mahmoud, the senior design manager at Saraya Bandar Jissah.

Lockers for studentsBroadening their focus on the other pupils at Qantab Public School, Saraya Bandar Jissah has also provided and installed secure lockers for students to avoid car-rying heavy backpacks around the school premises.

Commenting on the Saraya Bandar Jissah initiative, Shareefa Yousef Al Wahaibi, principal of the school said, “When the stu-dents have a place of their own to keep their extra baggage, they

don’t have to carry it every day from home to school and back. It not only helps them keep their belongings secure, but helps them stay organised. We are appre-ciative of Saraya Bandar Jissah’s contributions to our school and must say that the pre-school-ers and pupils are enjoying the new amenities.”

Initiatives“Saraya Bandar Jissah has a num-ber of such initiatives in the pipe-line and we hope that our contri-butions will help build a friendly and positive community in Qant-ab village,” concluded Al Busaidi.

Saraya Bandar Jissah will be home to 398 exclusive residen-tial units, spacious hilltop vil-las, and luxury apartments with attractive waterfront and moun-tainside views.

Scheduled for opening in 2017, the two hotels form the major leisure components of Saraya Bandar Jissah, providing their guests with a luxurious and relaxing home.

Saraya Bandar

Jissah believes that

children are the

future of the country

and it is imperative

for the society to

nurture and help

them achieve their

true potential

SOCIAL OBLIGATION: Saraya Bandar Jissah’s initiative involves creating a modern and dynamic

environment in order to create the right learning space for youngsters. – Supplied picture

Oman, UAE sign consumer protection agreementTimes News Service

MUSCAT: The United Arab Emirates (UAE), represented by the Ministry of Economy, and the Sultanate of Oman, represented by Public Authority for Consumer Protection (PACP), have signed a memorandum of understand-ing (MoU) to expedite legal and technical cooperation in the field of consumer protection between the two countries.

Mohammed Ahmed Al She-hhi, under-secretary for eco-nomic affairs at the Ministry of Economy, confirmed that the UAE and Oman have made sig-nificant progress in the field of legislations concerning the pro-

tection of consumer rights. The MoU will build upon the synergy established and facilitate the exchange of knowledge and best practices for the benefit of con-sumers in both countries.

Dr Saeed bin Khamis Al Kaabi, chairman, Public Authority for Consumer Protection, said the MoU will give further impetus to cooperation between Oman and the UAE.

C O O P E R A T I O N

CONSUMER RIGHTS: The MoU will facilitate knowledge exchange

and best practices for the benefit of consumers in two countries.

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REGIONW E D N E S DAY, N OV E M B E R 5, 2 0 1 4

South Sudan president in Khartoum for talks with BashirKHARTOUM: South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir was in Khar-toum for talks with his Sudanese counterpart on Tuesday after a new flare-up of fighting in his country’s 11-month civil war.

Last week, rebels attacked the oil town of Bentiu, capital of Uni-ty state on the Sudanese border, ending a lull in fighting during the rainy season, which renders roads

impassable to military vehicles. Clashes between the rebels and

troops loyal to Kiir have also raged in neighbouring Upper Nile state, another key oil-producing area, further threatening the south’s ex-ports though Sudan, a key revenue earner for Khartoum.

Kiir was greeted at the airport by President Omar Al Bashir and other top officials on his first visit

to Sudan since April, a news corre-spondent reported.

Oil exports tops agendaSouthern oil exports through Port Sudan were high on the agenda for their talks, along with secu-rity issues and demarcation of the two countries’ contested border, Sudan’s ambassador to Juba said on Monday.

South Sudan split from the north in 2011 under a peace deal that ended a 22-year civil war. Its secession saw the South take most of the formerly united coun-try’s 470,000 barrels per day of oil production. But the civil war, which erupted in the South last December, has seriously hit its oil output and Khartoum’s earnings from transit fees on exports, which

all pass through Sudan. What be-gan as a political dispute between Kiir and his former vice president Riek Machar has degenerated into a brutal ethnic conflict between their Dinka and Nuer peoples, driving 1.8 million people from their homes.

Hundreds of thousands have fled across the border to camps in Sudan. — AFP

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

20 Al Qaeda militants killed in Yemen

SANAA: Overnight drone strikes killed at least 20 sus-pected Al Qaeda militants in Yemen, where Washington has conducted a sustained drone war against militant leaders, tribal sources and witnesses said on Tuesday.

The twin raids targeted Al Qaeda positions near Rada, a central town which has been the focus of deadly fighting between the militants and advancing Houthi rebels, the sources said.

The United States is the only country operating drones over Yemen, but US officials rarely confirm individual strikes.

Washington regards Al Qaeda’s Yemen branch as it is most dangerous and there has been no let-up in the drone war even as the militants battle the Houthi rebels alongside tribes.

The rebels, known as Houthis from the name of their leading family, overran the capital San-aa in September and have since advanced south from the mainly northern highlands areas.

The Rada area is confession-ally mixed and has seen deadly clashes in recent weeks.

Armed tribesmen killed 22 rebels in a series of attacks in the area late on Monday, tribal sources said. The attacks came as a four-day ultimatum expired for the rebels to withdraw, one tribal source said.

The rebels captured sev-eral areas around Rada late last month after a suspected US drone strike and raids by the Yemeni air force killed dozens of Al Qaeda militants and their tribal allies.

The Houthis have seized on instability in Yemen since the 2012 ouster of veteran strong-man Ali Abdullah Saleh to take control of large parts of the country. The fighting has raised fears that Yemen—which lies on the key shipping route from the Suez Canal to the Gulf—may collapse into a failed state. — AFP

D R O N E S T R I K E S

South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir was greeted at the airport by President Omar Al Bashir and other top officials on his first visit to Sudan

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INDIAW E D N E S DAY, N OV E M B E R 5, 2 0 14

Cabinet approves Delhi assembly’s dissolution

NEW DELHI: Ending months of uncertainty, the Centre on Tues-day recommended dissolution of the Delhi Assembly with imme-diate effect after BJP, AAP and Congress expressed their inability to form a government. Assembly elections in the national capital are likely to be held early next year.

“The Union Cabinet recom-mended dissolution of the Delhi Assembly with immediate effect,” a senior union minister said after the brief meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The decision came after the Cabinet considered the report of Delhi Lieutenant Governor Na-jeeb Jung in which he had sug-gested dissolution of the year-old Assembly after his meeting with the Bharatiya Janata Party, Aam Aadmi Party and Congress.

The report by Jung paved the way for holding of fresh polls in the capital which is under President’s Rule since February after the AAP

government quit after ruling for 49 days. With all the three main par-ties favouring fresh mandate, the LG recommended to the President dissolution of the Assembly.

The LG held consultations on Monday with political parties in the wake of the Supreme Court putting the issue on the fast track and giving him time till Novem-ber 11 to explore the possibility of forming a government.

The court was hearing AAP’s petition seeking early dissolution of the Assembly which has been under suspended animation since February after the fall of the AAP government.

Currently BJP, along with ally Akali Dal’s lone MLA, has 29 leg-islators and would have required support of five more MLAs to form a government and prove majority in the 67-member Assembly.

Three seats fell vacant after the incumbents were elected to the Lok Sabha (Lower House). The by-polls for the three seats are sched-uled for November 25.

Bharatiya Janata Party had emerged as the single largest party in the December Assembly polls winning 31 seats but fell four seats short of a simple majority.

It had refused to form govern-ment then, saying it will not resort to any “unfair means” to take over the reins. Aam Aadmi Party had formed the government in Delhi with the support of Congress.

The government led by Kejriwal had resigned on February 14 after the party’s pet project, the Janlok-pal Bill, could not be passed due to opposition from the Bharati-ya Janata Party and Congress. President’s Rule was imposed on February 17. - PTI

The report by Delhi

Lieutenant Governor

Najeeb Jung paved

the way for holding

of fresh polls in the

capital which is

under President’s

Rule since February

BRIEFING: AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal addressing a press

conference in New Delhi on Tuesday. Party leaders Gopal Rai and

Ashutosh are also seen. - PTI

Government plans to step up safety to cut road deathsNEW DELHI: This year, the fam-ily of Rakesh Pillai, a bank em-ployee, fulfilled a long-held aspi-ration. After hauling themselves around on bicycles and scooters all their lives, they bought a white Suzuki Wagon R, one of India’s best - selling compact cars.

It didn’t matter that no family member knew how to drive. Pil-lai immediately took the car for a spin around his neighbourhood in New Delhi. He almost knocked down a couple of pedestrians, scratched a car door on a gate when making a turn, and bumped a wall while trying to reverse.

“In India, the main rule for most drivers is that you don’t stop for anyone,” said Pillai, 31, who wears frameless glasses and sports a neatly trimmed moustache. “Cars don’t stop for walkers, and walk-ers don’t stop for cars.”

India has the world’s deadliest roads, the result of a flood of un-trained drivers, inadequate law enforcement, badly maintained highways and cars that fail mod-ern crash tests.

Alarmed by the increasing fa-talities, the new government has begun a five-year project to cut road deaths by a fifth every year, part of the most ambitious over-haul of highway laws since inde-pendence in 1947.

About 1.2 million Indians were killed in car accidents over the past decade, one every four min-

utes on average, while 5.5 million were seriously injured. While road deaths in many emerging markets have dipped even as vehicle sales rose, Indian fatalities have shot up by half in the last 10 years.

The government is proposing a drastic increase in fines and prison sentences for dangerous driving. It will create an authority with a sole focus on road safety, impose stricter regulations on car manufacturers, and employ tech-nology, such as automated driving tests, to cut down on corruption.

Drivers caught speeding or who drink and drive will face a fine of $800 — 10 times the average monthly salary — and the threat of jail. The current maximum fine

for speeding is $16 and for drink driving $50.

“It is not going to change road habits overnight, and any suc-cess will depend on a lot of work from the government to ensure these laws are implemented,” said Piyush Tewari, who founded the SaveLIFE Foundation to reduce accidents after his teenage cousin was killed in a crash.

The new law was inspired by the death of Rural Development Minister Gopinath Munde in a crash in June. The legislation, to be introduced in a parliament ses-sion starting this month, will be a test of Modi’s ability to win cross - party consensus because he lacks an upper-house majority. - Reuters

F I V E Y E A R P R O J E C T

Army orders inquiry into Kashmir youths’ killingSRINAGAR: The army on Tuesday ordered an inquiry into the killing of two youths by soldiers in J&K’s Budgam district, say-ing “anyone found guilty will be severely dealt with”. Defence Minister Arun Jaitley had termed the firing incident “highly regrettable” and assured a fair inquiry. An army statement on Tuesday expressed regret over the loss of lives in the firing. “The army regrets the loss of lives and has ordered an inquiry into the circumstances leading to the incident. Anyone found guilty will be severely dealt with,” the statement said.

Shiv Sena-BJP talks ‘stuck’ over post of deputy CM MUMBAI: With just a week left for Fadnavis government to prove its majority in the Maharashtra Assembly, BJP and Shiv Sena are yet to resolve their differences over terms for the lat-ter’s participation in the ministry, the deputy chief minister’s post being one of the sticking points. While both sides have been maintaining since last Friday when Sena Chief attended Devendra Fadnavis’ swearing-in that discussions were on to sort out the differences, a Sena MP on Tuesday said talks were “stuck” over deputy chief minister’s post. - Agencies

B R I E F S

GOOD MOVE: Vehicles move along New Delhi’s Connaught Place

during evening hours on October 28, 2014. - Reuters

SECURITY STEP: A police drone gets airborne to help

keep watch on a Muharram procession in tension-hit

Trilokpuri area of New Delhi on Tuesday. - PTI

1.2m Indians were killed in car accidents over the

past decade, on average one every four minutes,

while 5.5 million were seriously injured

A9

INDIAW E D N E S DAY, N OV E M B E R 5, 2 0 1 4

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Kolkata on high alert as terror attack ‘possible’

KOLKATA: India’s navy on Tuesday withdrew two warships from Kolkata’s port, a spokes-man said, as the eastern city was placed on high alert for a possible “terror” attack. The navy said the ships had withdrawn for “prior operational reasons”, although a port official indicated they had been due to take part in an exhibi-tion on Wednesday.

“They had come there as part of

preparations for the navy week ex-ercise and moved out of the port for some prior operational reasons,” spokesman D.K. Sharma said.

“Like every year, the ships will return as and when the opportu-nity exists.”

The move came as police and the Indian Coast Guard said the city and port had been placed on high alert for a possible attack.

“We have received a fax on

Tuesday afternoon from central intelligence agencies warning of the possibility of a terror attack in Kolkata, especially in the port area,” senior Indian Coast Guard official B.N. Mahato said.

“We have deployed hovercraft to intensify (a) night-long vigil in the Bay of Bengal.”

Kolkata Police Commissioner Surojit Karpurakayastha said se-curity had been stepped up in the port area and parts of the city.

Police were “acting on the basis of the central intelligence agen-cies’ alert,” he said. No further de-tails about the alert were imme-diately available, but it came days after a suicide bomb attack near the Pakistani side of the border with India that killed 55 people and wounded more than 120.

Official sources in Delhi said the withdrawal was a precaution-ary measure. - Agencies

An Indian Coast Guard official said they

had received a fax from central intelligence

agencies warning of the possibility of a terror

attack in Kolkata, especially in the port area

PRECAUTIONARY STEPS: Children visiting INS Khukri at an exhibition organised as part of Navy

Week celebrations, at Khidirpur Dockyard in Kolkata, on Tuesday. - PTI

CBI arrests BJD MP NEW DELHI: Biju Janata Dal Lok Sabha MP Ramchandra Hansdah and two former MLAs were on Tuesday arrested by the Central Bureau of Investiga-tion in connection with a chit fund scam case — an off shoot of Saradha scam — for allegedly duping thousands of investors through a company founded by them. - PTI

C H I T F U N D S C A M

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PAKISTAN W E D N E S DAY, N OV E M B E R 5, 2 0 14

Conservationists struggle to save endangered Indus dolphinsSUKKUR: Local legend has it that Pakistan’s Indus River dolphin was once a woman, transformed by a curse from a holy man angry that she forgot to feed him one day.

After thousands of years swim-ming the mighty river the gentle, blind mammal is under threat from a combination of uncontrolled fishing and damage to its habitat caused by man-made dams.

Conservationists are fighting to save the dolphin as well as the river’s black spotted turtle, at risk from poachers who hunt it to sell to collectors and traditional medi-cine dealers.

The dolphin, which can grow up to 2.5 metres, is one of the world’s rarest mammals, with a popula-tion of just 1,400 living scattered along a 1,200-kilometre stretch of the Indus, which rises in the Himalayas and flows out into the Arabian Sea near Karachi.

Dwindling populationThey are classed as endangered on the International Union for Con-servation of Nature (IUCN) red list of threatened species, which says the population has fallen by more than 50 per cent since 1944.

Functionally blind, they use echolocation — a form of natural sonar — to find fish, shrimp and other prey in the muddy river wa-ters. Sticking their snouts and heads from the waters, the dol-phins bring serenity to the river in the shadow of the Sukkur Barrage,

built by the British, around 470 kilometres north of Karachi.

The monsoon season draws families and picnickers hoping to catch a glimpse of the dolphins.

But the series of dams and barrages built across the Indus since the late 19th century to help irrigate farmland have di-vided the dolphin’s habitat into 17 separate sections.

The dolphin has died out in 10 of these sections, according to a recent study published in the PLoS One journal by experts from Britain’s St Andrews University, and the sub-populations are left

more vulnerable by their isola-tion. When the river recedes after the heavy rains of the monsoon, the dolphins can become stranded in isolated ponds and tributaries, starving them of food and making them vulnerable to predators.

Another threat to the dolphin, whose pinkish-grey skin breaks the surface of the turbid waters as it comes up to breathe, comes from fishing.

“Narrow fishing nets trap the dolphin under the water and she needs to come out to breathe af-ter every one to two minutes,” Muhammad Imran Malik, from

the dolphin protection project of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said on the riverbank in the town of Sukkur. The WWF has set up a network of fishing communities on both banks of the river and the link canals to keep vigil on any trapped dolphin and report it to conservators.

“We have different awareness activities among local fisher-men, communities and other peo-ple about the dolphins’ habitat, threats and the importance of its existence in the river,” Malik said.

Fisherman Gajan Khan Malah is one of the WWF volunteers

who plays a role in monitoring the dolphins.

“Some years ago we saw a dol-phin stranded in shallow waters, while we were fishing,” Malah said.

“We called the WWF officials and they came instantly to rescue her and we netted the dolphin and handed her to them. They released it in the river,” he added proudly.

As the WWF and other Paki-stani agencies strive to save the dolphin, a new threat to the Indus ecosystem has emerged: smug-glers hunting black pond turtles, also known as black spotte turtles, to sell them illegally to clients in China and Thailand.

Illegal trade“There is a market for every spe-cies, and this is a very unique turtle. It has a black colour with white and yellow spots, which is fascinating for many turtle lov-ers who keep them as pets,” said Uzma Noureen, the WWF pro-ject coordinator at a sanctuary for rescued turtles.

Around 200 turtles, which are listed as vulnerable on the IUCN list, were smuggled from Pakistan to Taxkorgan in China’s Xinjiang autonomous region in June.

Pakistan officials travelled by

road to bring the turtles back home to the sanctuary in Sukkur, where they were held in a makeshift quarantine.

“It is like we rescued a ship from the clutches of pirates. We are now releasing them into their natural habitat and it is a great accom-plishment for me and my whole team,” said Javed Mahar, chief of Sindh Wildlife Department, as the turtles were slipped into a tribu-tary of River Indus.

Pakistani customs authori-ties recently recovered at least two consignments of hundreds of protected turtles, which were being smuggled abroad from Karachi airport.

“There is an alarming rise in smuggling cases of the black spot-ted turtles because of the lucrative market in countries like Thailand and China,” said Ghulam Qadir Shah, researcher at IUCN.

CoordinationA turtle can fetch $1,600 overseas with prices kept high by both pas-sionate turtle enthusiasts look-ing for pets and others who want to consume the flesh or use the species for traditional medicine purposes.

Shah stressed the need for re-gional coordination to protect the turtles.

“We are planning with other Pa-kistani departments and wild life protectors to stop the smuggling of this beautiful creature”. - AFP

U N D E R T H R E A T

RARE SPECIES: A blind dolphin swims along the Indus river in the southern Pakistani city of Sukkur in

this photograph taken on September 13, 2014. - AFP

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In Wagah aftermath, trade suffers setback

LAHORE: After Sunday’s attack at the Wagah border, a setback to trading activity has been envi-sioned as a backlash.

However, hope is keeping the business community optimistic over the future of bilateral trade between Pakistan and India.

There were reports of bilateral trade being suspended soon af-

ter the blast, which killed over 50 people, but a Customs official said trade resumed but only for a lim-ited amount of time.

Only 10 trucks from Pakistan crossed the border on Monday, while India did not send any, he said. Normally, around 300 trucks from both countries cross the bor-der during trading hours.

Long queues of trucks were seen all around the Grand Trunk road in Lahore, waiting for trade to reopen.

The business community once again asserted the need to develop a joint mechanism from traders on both sides to counter such acts, which would ultimately affect bi-lateral trade.

“This is the time that private sectors of both sides need to come forward and build a mechanism that protects bilateral trade,” said Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) President Ejaz Mumtaz.

Pakistan’s economy is going to be the ultimate loser when such acts of terrorism occur, said Mumtaz. Traders from both sides have matured many deals but the suspension has once again added to the worries, he said.

Bilateral tradePak-India bilateral trade is the key to enhancing trading activi-ties in the South Asian region, as both countries account for around 90 per cent of the regional Gross Domestic Product. Experts be-lieve that the nature of relations between Pakistan and India is the biggest hurdle in making this re-gion the engine of global economy.

They said that trade and other issues should be dealt with sepa-rately and nothing should disrupt business activities.

The current bilateral trade vol-ume is around $2.4 billion and studies have termed it very low in comparison to its potential. Re-

search reports also said that the trade volume between $10-15 bil-lion would be powerful enough to outweigh geostrategic concerns.

“If we want to compete with the world, then we have to act accord-ingly”, said Saarc President If-tikhar Malik. This terrorist attack might hurt trading activities but the chambers are meant to coun-ter this and we will do our best to normalise the situation, he added.

He further said that this is the responsibility of the state to pro-tect the overall business environ-ment as one single terrorist activi-ty hurts investors’ confidence and can derail the country’s economy.

Positive reactions emergeThe condemnation from the Indi-an premier is also a positive signal for trade normalisation, accord-ing to some traders. They also said that business continued despite the tension at the Line of Control. - Express Tribune

Long queues of

trucks were seen all

around the Grand

Trunk Road in

Lahore, waiting

for trade to reopen

Barrage of drone strikes in October is most in a monthISLAMABAD: A barrage of drone strikes in the month of Oc-tober doubled the total number of strikes in Pakistan this year, taking the total number of strikes under the Obama administration past 350 in Pakistan.

Nine drone strikes were re-corded in October, the most strikes in a month since October 2011, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

The United States halted drone strikes in Pakistan for the first six months of 2014 while the govern-ment engaged in ultimately fruit-less peace talks with the Taliban insurgency.

But the strikes restarted on June 11, just four days before the military launched a full-scale of-fensive against militants in North Waziristan agency.

Four strikes in October hit Sha-wal where many of the militants who fled the offensive are be-lieved to be hiding in the thickly forested, mountainous area.

In early hours of October 7, drones had fired two missiles at a compound at Kund Ghar area of Shawal and killed at least six while injuring nine persons. In the same area, US drone had tar-geted another compound of sus-pected militants at afternoon and eliminated at least eight more lives on the spot.

Five suspected militants were killed in a strike in Shawal on Oc-tober 6, and another five killed in a

strike in the same area on October 5. Death tolls from drone strikes are often disputed since the area is off limits to independent jour-nalists and observers.

The Taliban also frequently seal off the sites of attacks. Drones have also hit targets in Datta Khel, North Waziristan, striking three times in four days. Datta Khel has been the target of eight US drone strikes this year and numerous Pakistani air strikes.

Two US predator strikes on October 11 killed at least eight suspected militants — includ-ing a senior member of al Qae-da’s South Asia franchise and a key Taliban commander in the Khyber and North Waziristan tribal regions.

There have now been more

than 400 drone strikes since June 2004 in the country lead-ing to a total of 2,383 to 3,858 reported killed. Despite the in-tensity of the attacks, on average 3.2 people died per strike — a rela-tively low monthly casualty rate in the campaign ongoing since June 2004.

Seven of the 29 to 49 people killed in drone strikes in Pakistan in October have been named in media reports as alleged militants.

A purported spokesperson for the newly established al Qaeda franchise for the Indian Subcon-tinent, said that a senior member of his group, Sheikh Imran Ali Siddiqi, aka Haji Shaikh Waliul-lah, was killed in a strike in Khy-ber on October 11. - In exclusive arrange-

ment with The Express Tribune

W A R O N T E R R O R

INTENSITY OF ATTACKS: There have now been more than 400

drone strikes since June 2004 in the country leading to a total of

2,383 to 3,858 reported killed. - Reuters file photo

We have different awareness activities among local fishermen,

communities and other people about the dolphins’ habitat,

threats and the importance of its existence in the river

Muhammad Imran Malik, World Wildlife Fund project member

A11

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‘ROCK N ROLL’ AUCTIONSpectacles worn by John Lennon are pictured on display at Julien’s Auctions for the upcoming

‘Icons & Idols: Rock n Roll’ auction in Beverly Hills, California on Monday. The spectacles are

expected to be auctioned off between $20,000 and $40,000. — Reuters

Five shot dead by gunmen in Saudi Arabia

DUBAI: Gunmen shot dead at least five people in Al Ahsa dis-trict of Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province, state news agency SPA reported on Tuesday.

An Interior Ministry spokes-man said six people had been arrested in connection with the attack in Al Dalwah village, SPA reported.

“As a group of citizens was leav-ing a building ... three masked men opened fire at them with machine guns and pistols,” the spokesman said, according to SPA, adding that the incident was under inves-tigation. It gave no further details.

CondemnedIn Riyadh, an official council of top scholars condemned the at-tack as a “vicious assault and a heinous crime whose perpetra-tors deserve the harshest reli-gious penalties”.

Separately, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television reported that

a wanted man and a member of the security forces were killed in “security clashes” north of the capital Riyadh. It was not imme-diately clear if the incident was linked to the shooting in Al Ahsa.

On a Facebook page, activists posted a video of a young boy in hospital with a bandaged foot describing the attack with a limp voice. Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the video.

“The prayer had finished. Me, Mahdi, Mohammed and Amer were leaving. We saw him carry-ing a gun and coming from the side road. Then he shot at Moham-med, Hassan, then me and Mahdi. Then there was more shooting. It finished and later they showed me the shell casings,” he said.

A local rights activist said that the victims were mostly young men who were standing at the

entrance of the local gathering place, known as a Huseiniya.

“It seems the criminals were in a hurry and opened fire on young-sters at the entrance and fled,” Ali Al Bahrani, a local rights activist, told Reuters by telephone.

He said there were reports that Saudi security forces had found a vehicle apparently used by the at-tackers, with automatic weapons inside it, and arrested one person in connection with the attack.

“This seems to be the work of criminals and terrorists trying to mix cards, but security authori-ties seem determined to strike with an iron fist,” he told Reuters.

A local online newspaper ear-lier reported that six people were killed and 12 were wounded, some seriously, in what it called a “ter-rorist attack” on the ceremonies in the village. — Reuters

Six arrested in

connection with the

attack in Al Dalwah

village, said Interior

Ministry spokesman

Six-feet snake found

‘travelling’ in a bus

LEON: There have been snakes on a plane, and now there are snakes—or at least one very big one—on a bus.

Passengers had a nasty sur-prise on a Nicaraguan bus on Monday when they discovered they were travelling with a boa constrictor that was two metres (more than six feet) long, local television reported.

Sudden stopThe bus made a sudden stop when the reptile was discovered and passengers hailed “the boa hero”—a member of the public—who saw the commotion and

tamed the snake by holding its head firmly in his hands for sev-eral hours.

Send to zooAn animal expert with the gov-ernment arrived on the scene four hours later, got the snake into a container and took it to a local zoo.

“If you find one of these ani-mals, do not be alarmed,” said hero Francisco Garcia, saying the snakes are harmless unless at-tacked. Authorities have not ex-plained how the snake came to be on the bus, headed to a university in the city of Leon. — AFP

N I C A R A G U A

Swedish Pirate Bay co-founder arrested at Thailand borderBANGKOK: The Swedish co-founder of file-sharing website The Pirate Bay Fredrik Neij has been arrested while trying to en-ter Thailand, immigration police said Tuesday.

Neij, 36, was stopped late Mon-day at the Thai border with Laos, where he had reportedly settled with his Laotian wife.

“He was arrested yesterday evening as he was about to enter Thailand,” Colonel Panlop Suri-yakulna Ayutthaya, commander of Nong Khai border post, said.

“The Swedish government had asked Thai immigration to arrest him because he violated movie copyright causing $5 million damage,” he said, adding Swed-ish authorities had said that Neij may be in Laos and could have a Laotian wife.

The Swede has travelled to Thailand nearly thirty times since 2012 and has a home on the resort island of Phuket, Police Major General Chartchai Eim-saeng told reporters.

Most visited sitesFounded in 2003, The Pirate Bay evolved into one of the most vis-ited sites for sharing copyrighted works, allowing users to skirt fees and share music, film and other files offered on the site.

The site’s founders Neij, Got-

tfrid Svartholm Warg and Peter Sunde were convicted in 2009 and sentenced to a year in jail for promoting copyright infringe-ment with the website. Also sen-tenced to a year was the finan-cier of the site, 50-year-old Carl Lundstroem. All of them apart from Warg had their prison terms cut on appeal.

But they were also ordered to pay a total of 46 million kronor ($6.9 million) in damages for cop-yright infringement to the music and movie industry. Neij reportedly fled to Southeast Asia after being released on bail.

Warg did not attend his appeal hearing and his sentence was upheld, followed by an interna-tional warrant for his arrest. He was deported from Cambodia in the autumn of 2012 after Swed-ish authorities tracked him down and was later handed over to Denmark, where he stood trial for hacking the files of a tech-nology company as well as the police force.

Last week Warg, also known by his hacker alias “Anakata”, was sentenced to 3-1/2 years in prison after being found guilty of hacking into the mainframe of IT provider CSC in Denmark and accessing the Danish Civil Regis-tration System and a police crim-inal register in 2012. — Agencies

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As a group of citizens was leaving a building ... three masked men opened fire at them with machine guns and pistols. The incident was under investigation

SpokesmanInterior Ministry

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The IS has accompanied its brutal takeover of large swaths of Iraq and Syria with the kidnapping and beheading of journalists. Any Western journalists who would dare to venture into IS terri-tory today would be risking their

lives every second. So the US is now involved in the first prolonged war in the modern Middle East that American reporters and photographers can’t cover firsthand on a daily basis, with the freedom to observe and write what they please and with the sustained presence to offer perspective on how the story is evolving. That is not good.

But it gets worse. The Times reported last week that the IS had one of its British hostages act as a combat reporter in a propaganda video from the Syrian town of Kobani, “forecasting that the town is about to fall to militants despite waves of American airstrikes,” and suggesting that the IS was getting even more savvy in promoting its cause by adopt-ing the techniques of a 24-hour news channel. “‘Hello, I’m John Cantlie,’ the hostage says in the video, dressed in black, ‘and today we are in the city of Kobani on the Syrian-Turkish border. That is, in fact, Turkey right behind me.’”

And it will get even worse. Dylan Byers, Politico’s media reporter, wrote on October 23 that the FBI had sent a bulletin to news organisations warning that the IS had identified reporters and media per-sonalities as “legitimate targets for retribution at-tacks” in response to the U.S.-led airstrikes.

What are we missing by not having reporters permanently present inside IS territory? A lot. We can’t answer for ourselves important questions: How is our bombing campaign being perceived? Is it drawing IS fighters and local Iraqi majority sect closer together or pushing them apart?

How is the IS governing, running schools and the justice system, and how is this perceived by Iraqis and Syrians under its rule? What motivates so many losers and lost souls to join this extremist movement? Do we have the right message directed at them? I could go on.

Retiring Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns re-cently authored a piece in Foreign Policy magazine with his parting advice to U.S. diplomats. He quoted Edward R. Murrow, the CBS News giant, advising incoming diplomats that the “really critical link in the international communications chain is the last three feet, which is best bridged by personal con-tact - one person talking to another.’’

The same is true for reporters and photogra-phers. Sure, polls, graphs and Twitter feeds are im-

portant. They are one form of data. But interview-ing another human being about hopes and dreams, fears and hatreds, is also a form of data collecting and analysis - something the best diplomats, jour-nalists and historians rely upon. You can’t capture in numbers a raised eyebrow or a wry smile or the fear in a refugee’s eyes or the regret in a militia-man’s voice. Sometimes just listening to someone’s silence speaks volumes.

I often reflect on interviews I did with Egyptian women at an all-female voting station in the poor-est neighborhood in Cairo in the 2012 election that brought a Muslim Brotherhood leader to the presi-dency. Almost all of them had voted for the Muslim Brotherhood candidate, Mohammed Morsi. But when I asked why, not a single one cited religion. Instead they said that Morsi would bring jobs, secu-rity, sidewalks, better living conditions and an end to corruption - in short, better governance. Morsi was eventually toppled for bringing none of those, not because he was impious.

Recently, Vice News used the veteran Al-Jazeera and Arabic photojournalist Medyan Dairieh to pro-duce a compelling documentary from Syria. But that was a one-shot deal done with “conditions in order to get in and get out with your life,” Jason Mo-jica, the Vice News editor-in-chief, told a panel at NYU, according to The Huffington Post.

I asked Mina Al Oraibi, assistant editor of the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat, how an Arabic daily covered the IS, also known as ISIS:

“We have our correspondents supported by a few local stringers who risk their lives by being in touch with us from Iraq. However, we have a black-out from ISIS-controlled areas in Syria, especially Raqqa. In Iraq, our use of phones and emails to get information leaves us worried about the safety of these reporters, and often they are working without knowing how they will eventually get paid. ... Hav-ing said that, our coverage is enriched by networks of Iraqis and Syrians reaching out to tell us their stories, in addition to relations with Iraqis, Syrians, and other Arabs who have either interacted with some ISIS militants or had relations with them when they were under other banners.”

But the reality, she added, “is that much of what we know is either from ISIS militants, or anecdotal stories from observers or people with families in places controlled by ISIS.”

Indeed, the IS is telling us what it wants us to know through Twitter and Facebook, and keeping from us anything it doesn’t want us to know. So be wary of what anyone tells you about this war - good, bad or indifferent. -New York Times

Flying blindfolded in Iraq, Syria war zones

Sure, polls, graphs and Twitter feeds are important... But interviewing another human being about hopes and dreams, fears and hatreds, is also a form of data collecting and analysis... You can’t capture in numbers a raised eyebrow or a wry smile

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

ERA OF DISORDER

The enormity of the crime was amplified by the innocence of the victims, with at least 10 women and seven children among the casualties so far. The device that wreaked havoc at Wagah

was laced with nails and ball-bearings to maximise the damage. The choice of location was significant as well, with tensions running high between India and Pakistan, it was clearly calculated to exacerbate those tensions. There may well now be an adverse fallout on India-Pakistan relations. Reports say intelligence shared information with police which obviously did not take it seriously.

This was a target begging to be attacked, and it is a matter of wonder that it has not been struck before. Although closely guarded it is a place where both military and civilians are in regular close proximity. The attack was claimed by three spin-offs from the fragmentation of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. It underlines yet again, the powerless-ness of the state in crafting and implementing an alternative narrative to that of galloping extremism. And with the dreadful spectre of the IS making its presence felt in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa through pamphlets, there is now a plethora of non-state actors who are well motivated, in many cases well trained and funded, and all bent on the overthrow of the state by violent means. Operation Zarb-e-Azb, in purely military terms, may be going well, but in isolation, it may be acting as a magni-fier for extremist thoughts and tendencies. The operation has created a well of anger and resentment among certain elements that is not going to dissipate quickly. When you dispossess a million people and deprive them of their homes and livelihoods on an open-ended basis, the social compact between people and state disappears. And extrem-ism likes nothing better than pushing at an open door. -The Express Tribune

The monsters among us

The Pentagon disclosed last week that America’s ever-shifting new war in the Middle East has cost taxpayers more than half a billion dollars since it began in August. Yet Congress has not

bothered to hold a vote to authorise the Obama administration’s deci-sion to get into another war. As the price tag of the military campaign in Iraq and Syria rises, it might seem reasonable to expect that Con-gress would have to consider the state of the effort and appropriate funding for it. Thanks to the dysfunctional politics of defence budg-eting, it turns out Congress won’t have to - at least not anytime soon.

As of October 16, the air campaign against the IS had cost $580 mil-lion, according to the Pentagon. The military is paying for the bomb-ing sorties using the Overseas Contingency Operations budget, a flex-ible fund established for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. With the Afghan war drawing to a close this year, the Obama administration had sought to cut that fund from the nearly $85 billion appropriated for 2014 to $59 billion for 2015. But because lawmakers were not able to pass a budget in time, the fund will continue at last year’s level un-der a continuing resolution that ends in December and is likely to be extended until the spring. Authorising a new defence budget would force lawmakers to take stock of the military action that was initially billed as a limited defensive measure before the White House said that it was likely to last for years. It would also serve as an opportunity to revisit the dubious legal authority the White House is relying on.

U.S. officials continue to be alarmingly vague about a central unan-swered question about the military campaign against the IS: whether it formally or implicitly represents a shift in U.S. policy toward the government of President Bashar Al Assad of Syria. Washington has called for Assad’s ouster and has provided limited support to rebel factions fighting the state. But the United States must clarify what its goals are concerning Assad, some senior administration officials believe, including Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, as Mark Landler of The Times reported recently. The Pentagon says the bombing cam-paign has dealt the IS setbacks in the battlefield. But the group remains strong and continues to make inroads in key parts of Syria and Iraq. Military officials have said curiously little in recent weeks about Kho-rasan, a militant group they described during the early stages of the airstrikes in Syria as posing an imminent threat to the US. The vague and at times contradictory information the government has provided about that group, and the broader strategy, shows a distressing level of improvisation. The past few weeks have also presented reminders of the risks of the military mission.

Officials at the Pentagon are worried about reports that IS fighters have acquired shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, which could be used to bring down U.S. aircraft. Those fighters recently took credit for shooting down an Iraqi military helicopter; the group posted on-line a manual instructing fighters how to use one of the missiles to bring down Apache helicopters, one of the attack aircraft the Penta-gon has been using. Congress has a responsibility to take a hard look at the long-term goal of the military mission and its projected cost. It has skirted that duty for too long. -New York Times

Rising cost of America’s new war in Middle East

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

Important to curb use of phone while drivingThis refers to the news story, ‘Gonu victims wait seven years for home’ (November 4). It is a measure of the devastation caused by Cyclone Gonu and the massive work it left behind for the authori-ties that even after such a long time some of the families rendered homeless by the extreme weather condition are still without homes. However, given the problems faced by the people living in difficult conditions for such a long time, one hopes that the houses being built for them get ready at the ear-liest. I am sure that the work must be on for completing the houses as fast as possible and that they will be ready before long. In the mean-while, the problems of those who have to put up in the caravans be can be taken care of. Last, but not

the least, thanks to the Times of Oman for highlighting the issue of the people who with the passage of time had been almost forgotten by the public and everyone else bar-ring the authorities who are creat-ing the dwelling units for them. It is indeed the work of the media to draw the attention of people to the plight of those among them who may need a helping hand.Pradeep Kumar MathurMuscat

Ethical medical practices are worth striving forThis refers to the report titled ‘Badr Al Samaa dermatologist de-livers talk in Amsterdam’. While emphasis put on ethical medical consultation can bring great suc-cour to the long-suffering people across the globe, it will also be

able to give the medical commu-nity much satisfaction.Gautam Ghosh-DastidarMuscat

Need to find the means for more development projectsThis refers to the news story, ‘Sur Gate plan to offer jobs, better services’, published in the Times of Oman on November 4. It was good to know that residents of Sur won’t have to drive as far to go shopping, relax in posh cof-fee shops, and have fun playing games like bowling, and above all, avail themselves of more job opportunities. If all that can be made possible by one project, I believe that we should find the means and will to get more of such projects started. If someone like me can think of it, I am sure

that there would be no dearth of men of means and vision who would be enthused by the exem-plary project to start their own —and possibly even better imagined — projects in the Sultanate.RubyWadi Kabir

Suicide attack reminder not to let down vigilThe suicide attack at the main Pakistan-India border crossing on Sunday, which killed scores of people and left even many more injured, some with life threatening wounds, is a stark reminder to the leaders of the country and beyond that the fight against extremist ele-ments is far from over and has to be fought on many fronts.Shakeel AhmadSohar

READERS’ FORUM

Silence is a text easy to misreadA. A. ATTANASIO

website: www.newindiaoman.com

NEW INDIA ASSURANCEProtect your cash and valuables through New India’s MONEY INSURANCE POLICY.

PERSPEC IVET I M E S O F O M A N W E D N E S DAY, N OV E M B E R 5, 2 0 1 4 A13

Latin America may have weathered the global eco-nomic slowdown, but for

many, the potential impact of global warming, and the measures required to avoid its worst effects, may undermine its fragile politi-cal, economic, and social balance – and roll back years of progress.

But prosperity and action to mitigate climate change need not be mutually exclusive. Indeed, the current election cycle in Latin America, coupled with the United Nations Climate Change Confer-ence to be held in December in Lima, Peru, provide an opportu-nity for the region to show how.

Latin American countries are not starting from scratch. Most governments are already crafting policies and drafting legislation on climate change. Mexico was the first to pass a comprehensive climate-change law, in 2012, tar-geting a 30 per cent reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions by 2020. Brazil succeeded in reduc-ing Amazonian deforestation, and net carbon-dioxide emissions have dropped as a result. Uruguay plans to generate 90 per cent of its elec-tricity from renewable sources by 2015, while Chile aims to generate 20 per cent of its power with re-newable energy by 2025.

As Latin America’s 2014 elec-tion cycle draws to a close, new governments in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, and Costa Rica, and presidential hopefuls in Uruguay will be in a position to lead on climate change. At the very least, they must eschew strategies that needlessly undermine exist-ing climate and environmental policies. At best, Latin American leaders can actively facilitate the upcoming Lima conference, which will charge delegates with producing a draft agreement for a new global treaty, to be finalised in Paris next year.

The agreement must be both ambitious and fair, in order to

form a basis for global response to climate change that does not jeop-ardise prosperity.

But the Lima conference can do much more. It can kick-start a major drive to enact climate legis-lation across Latin America that would create low-carbon, eco-nomically resilient societies. Far from putting brakes on economic growth, a coordinated legislative campaign should be viewed as an essential prerequisite for sustain-able development, especially in Latin America. That was a central premise of last month’s flagship report of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, chaired by former Mexican Presi-dent Felipe Calderón, which made a compelling economic case for action and reducing climate risk.

Climate-change legislation also provides a means to reflect the wider concerns of Latin Ameri-ca’s citizens, and to win their sup-port. Legislation can send positive signals to the private sector too, including foreign investors, who may be instrumental in bringing about far-reaching change.

Properly motivated, inves-tors can boost renewable en-ergy; invest in sustainable urban transport; encourage innovation; create jobs in cleaner technolo-gies; raise productivity; and help

the region shift from reliance on finite resources.

The legislative process can also bolster the diplomatic influence of the Independent Association of Latin America and the Car-ibbean at the UN climate talks. AILAC, which comprises Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, and Peru, can be a criti-cal voice for worldwide cuts in greenhouse-gas. AILAC’s “third way” is gaining traction and could prove instrumental in achieving a global agreement.

For this new approach to be credible, AILAC’s progressive rhetoric at the UN must be sup-ported by domestic climate ac-tion. It is vital for governments not to see combating climate change and bolstering economic growth as contradictory goals. The recent approval of a carbon tax in Chile suggests that politicians increas-ingly understand this.

If the region’s new leaders re-ally wish to show their commit-ment to change, what better way than to dispel the economic fears surrounding action on climate change? By acting now, they will set their countries – and the wider world – on a new course, giving rise to prosperous, inclusive, and resilient societies this decade and beyond. -Project Syndicate

TODAY IN HISTORY

OPINION POLL

1556 Akbar defeats Hemu at Panipat and secures control of the Mogul Empire.

1605 Guy Fawkes betrayed, arrested in an

bid to blow up the British Parliament in the “Gunpowder Plot.” Ever since, England has celebrated the day.

1872 Susan B. Anthony is arrested for

trying to vote.

1914 France and Great Britain declare war on Turkey.

1935 Parker Brothers company launches “Monopoly,” a game of real estate and capitalism.

2006 Former president of Iraq Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death.

MINISTRY TEAM VISITING WILAYATSMUSCAT: A working team from the Directorate General of Economic Statistics at the Ministry of National Economy is visiting several regions and wilayats of the Sultanate to identify the sources of collecting data of consumer prices from commercial shops and establishments. Sabir Said Ali Harbi, di-rector general of economic statistics and head of the team, said that the objective of this process was for the creation of a new system of indices for consumer prices which he said was one of the most important indices for consumer prices.

FROM OUR ARCHIVES

The poor in the country don’t have the means to take care of their families. They don’t have access to quality education even when the children of poor households get to attend school

Much of the political turbulence that has marked Pakistan’s history can be traced to one economic factor:

persistent and growing inequality. It was the fear that the Muslim minority in British India will not have a level playing field once colonial rulers left and handed over power to the Hin-du majority that prompted the demand for the creation of an independent Muslim state.

Two decades later, it was the perception on the part of the citizens of East Pakistan that they were not treated equally by the politi-cally and economically dominant leadership groups in West Pakistan that led to the de-mand for greater provincial autonomy.

Inequality comes in many forms. It can re-late to the differences in personal and family incomes, to regional differences, to differenc-es among ethnic groups. While this economic phenomenon has received a great deal of aca-demic and policy attention in the West, it has been largely ignored in the developing world.

It has become the focus of recent political discourse in the United States. Some of what is being discussed in that country has rel-evance for Pakistan.

The latest American voice raised to express considerable concern about the long-term consequences of inequality is that of Janet L Yellen, the Federal Reserve chairwoman.

Speaking at a conference on inequal-ity at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, she said that “the past several decades have seen the most sustained rise in inequal-ity since the 19th century after more than 40 years of narrowing inequality following the Great Depression”.

It was, she continued, “appropriate to ask whether the trend is compatible with values rooted in our nation’s history, among them the high value Americans have traditionally placed on equality of opportunity”.

Yellen focused on four sources of economic opportunity: the means to raise children, ac-cess to education, owning a small business and inheritance. Research done at America’s central bank, showed that the distribution of those opportunities was becoming increas-ingly unequal.

For instance, the share of wealth held by the lower half of the households fell from

three per cent in 1989 to as low as one per cent in 2013. The state of the ‘bottom 99 per cent’ has become a potent political slogan in the country.

These findings by the United States’ central bank can be applied to Pakistan. Not much serious research has been done in Pakistan on the trends in various manifestations of in-equality, let alone what causes them.

But the four determinants identified by the head of the US central bank are relevant for Pakistan. The poor in the country don’t have the means to take care of their families. They don’t have access to quality education even when the children of poor households get to attend school.

Persistent inequality has political conse-quences. In reviewing a number of books on the subject, Mark Vandevelde of the Financial Times noted that inequality causes hardship and has a built-in dynamic that keeps the rich happy and the poor miserable.

He wrote: “Give the wealthy too much rope and they will reel in still more money and pow-er, unravelling the ties of social cohesion until a life of ordinary means is made threadbare.” This comment applies very well to Pakistan.

One of the books reviewed by Vandvelde, Inequality and 1 per cent, by Danny Darling presents evidence suggesting that in une-qual societies people are less healthy, worse educated, shorter lived and less happy than their more egalitarian peers.

Another book, The Rich: From Slaves to Super-Yachts: A 2000-Year History by John Kampner provides colourful details of the lives of the super-rich.

For the rich, wealth becomes an intoxicant whose effects are constant through the ages. “It makes people fearful and ruthless, and it distorts their vision until success and self-enrichment look the same.” The deprived can become politically active, and force the politi-cal and economic systems to change.

The rise of extremism in the country, per-sistent violence in Karachi, and built-up griev-ances in Balochistan are some of the more re-cent examples of the political consequences of inequality. Reducing inequality, therefore, must be given high priority in shaping public policy. -The Express Tribune

The close link between economic inequality and political stability

HISTORYNET.COM

LAST POLL RESULT

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Every student of Indian history knows that the late Sardar Vallabhb-

hai Patel was a giant of our freedom struggle, an icon without parallel.

Patel is known as the Iron Man of India in view of his ex-traordinary resourcefulness in having been able to keep the nation united during what could be termed a severe ex-istential crisis. He, as the first home minister, was instru-mental in uniting hundreds of princely states with the main-stream India following the exit of Britain.

Anybody who is au fait with India’s war of independence knows the narrative in detail and it’s pointless to cite chap-ter and verse about Patel’s role in it. It’s tautological to say that Patel is one of India’s most revered freedom fathers.

Narendra Modi’s desper-ate attempts at appropriating the legacy of a redoubtable Congress leader like Patel are called into question by aca-demics, parties and several such persuasions. Doubtless, it’s appropriate to honour the late Sardar in a fitting way. As a matter of fact, there has been a general feeling that he has been sidelined over the years even as the national heroes from the Nehru-Gandhi fam-ily have been more than ad-equately honoured.

We hardly hear or read about the commemoration of the late former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s anniver-saries. The criticism that Con-gressmen are unable to come out of the Nehru-Gandhi world has long been in the air.

Modi and his party have every right to acknowledge the greatness of the Iron Man. But what is not in good taste is the government’s decision to pick his birth anniversary, October 31, as the National Unity Day. The same day is already be-ing observed as former prime minister Indira Gandhi’s mar-tyrdom day. He could have picked Patel’s day of demise as the national unity day instead. That would have given the whole shebang a semblance of non-partisanism.

Modi said while addressing a ‘unity run’ organised to mark Patel’s 139th birth anniversa-ry in the capital that ideology should not divide the nation. In fact, this is what the right-thinking people want to tell Modi too. Partisan politics and

policies will only serve to div-vy up the nation on religious, regional or casteist lines, as the case may be.

The perception that the late Sardar was anti-Muslim or pro-Hindutva is way off beam. It’s true that Patel had differ-ences with the then prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, on several issues. But there is not a scintilla of doubt that he was a Congressman to the core. It is also illustrative to remember that it was Patel, who as the then home minis-ter, banned BJP’s parent or-ganisation for reasons known to all. Therefore, the logic behind attempts at putting a saffron halo over Patel seems puerile in the extreme.

Modi did mention the late Indira Gandhi’s death anni-versary during his speech but that was to fairground the kill-ings that followed her assassi-nation. It was for the Congress party to draw the conclusion which is that Indira’s death sparked killings of a particular community and thus denoted division rather than unity of the country.

Notably, Modi did not go to Indira Gandhi’s memo-rial place, Shakti Sthal, to pay homage. Congressmen say that BJP’s A.B. Vajpayee vis-ited the memorial every year of his tenure as the prime min-ister to pay tributes to the late leader. The question naturally arises whether the new dis-pensation at the centre is off to a strictly partisan start.

A few weeks ago the central government had declared that only Mahatma Gandhi’s death and birth anniversaries would be observed by the nation of-ficially. Other national heroes may, however, be honoured by their respective parties, trusts, societies or supporters.

Nobody knows why the PM chose to do a volte-face now on his own government’s or-der. We want to know if Patel’s name was added to the ‘hon-our list’ as an after-thought. In any case, how couldn’t he, especially when a gargantuan statue of Patel is being con-structed on a river island in Gujarat as if to prove a point? Next up, we may see history books doctored to reflect the ruling party’s blinkered views.

Modi said to the effect that Patel was Mahatma Gandhi’s true successor. Did he mean others were not his succes-sors? It was Gandhiji who sug-gested that Jawaharlal Nehru become the first prime min-ister of India. And Patel was very much in the loop at every step of the way.

Anyway, it is quite churlish to debate about who among the freedom fighters was the true successor of the Ma-hatma or who was the first among equals.

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

Bid to saffronise Sardar Patel

Latin America’s climate vanguard

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

R I C A R D O L A G O S

S H A H I D J AV E D B U R K I

Romanian PM to face mayor in runoffCentre-left prime minister Victor Ponta will face Sibiu city mayor Klaus Iohannis in the second round of Romania’s presidential election after no candidate secured a majority of the vote

GraphicsGraphic News /Source: Wire agencies

Victor Ponta, 42Social DemocraticParty (PSD)

Klaus Iohannis, 55Christian LiberalAlliance (ACL)

40.3%

30.4%

PontaFirst round result with 98.3 %of ballots counted

Iohannis

Turnout 52.3%

Former prosecutor was Europe’s youngestprime minister when his party came to power on anti-austerity ticket in 2012

Has promised stability and end to bitterfeuding between prime minister and president if he wins

His popularity appears not to have beenbadly damaged by corruption probes of senior PSD members. His pledges include lower taxes, higherpensions, good relations with EU and China,and referendum on restoring monarchy

Ethnic German has been mayor of Sibiusince 2000, winning praise for managingrestoration works in medievalTransylvanian city, named EuropeanCapital of Culture in 2007

Stands out in rough-and-tumble worldof Romanian politics for being mild mannered and serious, saying he wantsto be a “mediator president”

Advocates reforms to boost recession-hiteconomy and says he will guarantee ruleof law and independent justice system

A14

WORLDW E D N E S DAY, N OV E M B E R 5, 2 0 14

TRICOLOUR ARROWSThe Italian Air Force aerobatic unit Frecce Tricolori

(Tricolour Arrows) spreads smoke with the colours

of the Italian flag over the Piazza Venezia during the

armed forces day which marks the end of World War I

for Italy, in Rome on Tuesday. — Reuters

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

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

Extremists of IS tortured Kobane child hostages

ANKARA: IS militants subjected a group of teenagers from the Syr-ian battleground town of Kobane to a string of abuses, including torture, during six months in cap-tivity, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.

A group of 153 schoolchildren was taken hostage by IS in May en route to their hometown of Kobane after sitting exams in the Syrian city of Aleppo, according to HRW. IS released the last 25 hos-tages in late October.

Regular beatingsInterviewed in Turkey where they were given refuge, four boys from the group recounted regular beat-ings with cables and a hose and being forced to watch videos of IS militants in combat and be-heading captives.

The militants beat the chil-dren—aged 14 to 16 – when they tried to escape or did poorly in compulsory lessons, the New York-based group said.

“Those who didn’t conform to the programme were beaten.

They beat us with a green hose or a thick cable with wire run-ning through it. They also beat the soles of our feet...” one boy was quoted as saying.

Punished“They made us learn and beat those who didn’t manage to learn. When some boys tried to escape, the treatment got worse and we were all punished and given less food.” IS group has captured large parts of Syria and Iraq, declaring a “caliphate” and committing a lita-ny of atrocities, including behead-ings, mass executions, torture and forcing women and children into slavery.

The group has besieged the mainly Kurdish town of Kob-ane just a few kilometres (miles) from the Turkish border, sparking

an exodus of some 200,000 refu-gees to Turkey.

Those whose families were close to the Kurdish fighters de-fending Kobane were singled out by the captors, who were from Syria, Jordan, Libya, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia, a boy said.

“They told them to give them the addresses of their families, cousins, uncles, saying ‘When we go to Kobane we will get them and cut them up’.”

The boys said they were given no explanation for their release other than that they had completed their education.

HRW said the abuse of the chil-dren was a “war crime under inter-national humanitarian law” and urged the international commu-nity to swiftly take measures “to stem ISIS abuses.” — AFP

A group of 153

schoolchildren

en route to their

hometown of Kobane

after sitting exams

in the Syrian city of

Aleppo was taken

hostage by IS in May

Palestinians to submit draft resolution to UNSC ‘this month’OCCUPIED RAMALLAH/OC-CUPIED JERUSALEM: The Pal-estinians will submit a draft reso-lution to the UN Security Council later this month calling for an end date for Israeli occupation, a sen-ior official said on Tuesday.

The text, which the Palestinians have been preparing for weeks, is expected to be vetoed by perma-nent member the United States.

But officials in occupied Ramal-lah have said that will not deter them after round upon round of failed peace talks with Israel.

“No other solution has been proposed by the United States” to achieve peace and the establish-ment of a Palestinian state, senior Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) official Wassel Abu Yusef said. “The US administration is pushing to resume bilateral nego-

tiations, even while it’s clear that these have failed throughout the last few years.”

PLO secretary general Yasser Abed Rabbo had said last month that the text would be submitted by the end of October but that target date passed. The Palestinians have said that if Washington does wield its veto, they will seek member-ship of the International Criminal Court, where they could sue Israeli officials over alleged war crimes in the occupied territories.

Meanwhile, Israel’s parliament has passed a law aimed at limiting the practice employed in the past of releasing Palestinians convict-ed of killing Israelis to promote peace efforts. “Fighters should die in jail,” Israeli Economy Minis-ter Naftali Bennett, from the far-right Jewish Home party, which

promoted the legislation, said after parliament voted 35-15 late on Monday to approve it. Pales-tinians regard their people jailed by Israel as heroes in a campaign for an independent state in the oc-cupied West Bank, occupied East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip.

Qadoura Fares, head of the Pal-estinian Prisoners’ club, the main group representing Palestinians in Israeli jails, called the law “rac-ist”. He said Israel would inevita-bly have to free inmates as part of a prisoner exchange or to restart talks. “Israel will find themselves one day compelled to change the law if it is important for political reasons,” he said.

Israeli forces demolished two Palestinian homes on Tuesday in an occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood that has been at

the heart of clashes between Is-raeli police and Palestinian pro-testers, a move likely to exacerbate weeks of tension in the city.

Authorities knocked down the buildings near the district of Abu Tor, southeast of the Old City, in the early hours, saying they had been built without construction permits. “At 5 o’clock this morning, around 90 policemen and two bull-dozers kicked us out of the house and started destroying it without letting us take any of our belong-ings,” Hamza Abu Rajab, owner of one of the buildings, said.

He said his extended family of 17 was now homeless. Occupied Je-rusalem’s municipality said it had carried out two demolition orders on partially-built structures put up without permits in an area where building is banned. — Agencies

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

UK spy chief wants greater access to Twitter, Facebook to thwart attacksLONDON: Twitter and Face-book are so important to militant groups that the US technology gi-ants should give security services greater access to allow Western governments to foil attacks, the head of Britain’s eavesdropping agency said.

The new director of Britain’s GCHQ, Robert Hannigan, said Twit-ter Inc, Facebook Inc and WhatsApp were in denial about their unintend-ed role as “the command and control networks of choice for terrorists”.

Militants are harnessing the pow-er of Internet to create a militant network with near global reach just a quarter of a century since creation of the World Wide Web, he said.

“The challenge to governments and their intelligence agencies is huge—and it can only be met with greater co-operation from technology companies,” Hanni-gan wrote in the Financial Times newspaper.

“If they are to meet this chal-lenge, it means coming up with

better arrangements for facilitat-ing lawful investigation by secu-rity and law enforcement agencies than we have now.”

Twitter and Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, declined imme-diate comment before US busi-ness hours. GCHQ also declined to comment on the article. Such

a strong public warning from one of the West’s most powerful spies indicates the gravity of the per-ceived threat and a sense of frus-tration felt by many spies about the damage done by former Na-tional Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Media reports based on previ-

ously top secret documents stolen by Snowden, a US citizen who now lives in Moscow, laid bare the ex-tent of American and British sur-veillance, including demands spies made to telephone and technology companies.

AccusedIn the wake of the Snowden rev-elations, GCHQ, which stands for Government Communications Headquarters, was accused by pri-vacy groups and some lawmakers of the widespread illegal monitor-ing of electronic communications.

British ministers denied any il-legality and top spies dismissed any sinister intent, saying they sought only to defend the liberties of Western democracies.

The director general of the MI5 Security Service, Andrew Parker, warned last year that the revela-tions were a gift to terrorists be-cause they had exposed GCHQ’s ability to track, listen and watch plotters. — Reuters

M I L I T A N T S ’ A C T I V I T I E S

BATTLING GOES ON: Smoke and dust rise from the Syrian border

town of Kobane as seen from the Turkish border town of Suruc, in

Sanliurfa province, on Monday. – AFP

ATROCITIES CONTINUE: Palestinian children take shelter from

rains amid the ruins of a house, which witnesses said was de-

stroyed by Israeli shelling during the most recent conflict between

Israel and Hamas, in the east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza

Strip on Tuesday. – Reuters

The challenge to governments and their intelligence agencies is huge—and it can only be met with greater co-operation from technology companies

Robert HanniganNew director of Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)

Virgin Galactic not to abandon plansLONDON: Space tourism ven-ture Virgin Galactic on Tuesday said it was pressing ahead with plans to build a second model of the SpaceShipTwo which crashed in the Mojave Desert last week.

“While this has been a tragic setback, we are moving forward and will do so deliberately and with determination,” the com-pany founded by British bil-lionaire Richard Branson said in a statement.

“We are continuing to build the second SpaceShipTwo (serial number two), which is currently about 65 per cent complete and we will continue to advance our mission over the coming weeks and months.”

It added: “We owe it to all of those who have risked and given so much to stay the course and deliver on the promise of creating the first commercial spaceline.”

One pilot of the spaceship, Mi-chael Alsbury, was killed in the crash on Friday. The other, Pete Siebold, survived.

Branson has already stressed that he plans to press ahead with the programme, although he indi-cated that this would depend on the results of an investigation by the US National Transportation Safety Board. The probe is ex-pected to take about a year.

Investigators on Monday gave a precise timeline of the accident, detailing when a slowing mecha-nism was wrongly deployed, but said they could not determine who activated it. — AFP

U N D E T E R R E D

DETERMINED: Virgin Galactic

chief Richard Branson. – AFP

A15

WORLDW E D N E S DAY, N OV E M B E R 5, 2 0 1 4

The deal was signed in Riyadh by Saudi Finance Minister Ibrahim Al Assaf and Edouard

Guillaud, the head of the ODAS organisation set

up by France for the export of defence equipment

Saudi, France sign deal for Lebanon

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia and France sealed an agreement on Tuesday for Riyadh to finance the delivery of $3 billion worth of French weapons to the Leba-nese army, which has come under mounting militants’ attack.

French Foreign Minister Lau-rent Fabius hailed the conclusion of the deal, first announced last December, as a major boost to the Lebanese army’s ability to tackle “terrorism” at a time when the country is under mounting threat.

The deal comes as the poorly equipped Lebanese army battles hardliners, including militants of the IS group, both along its porous border with Syria and in its second city Tripoli. The deal was signed in Riyadh by Saudi Finance Minis-ter Ibrahim Al Assaf and Edouard Guillaud, the head of the ODAS organisation set up by France for the export of defence equipment, a diplomat said.

Lebanese army chief General Jean Kahwaji was also present at the ceremony, the diplomat said, without giving details on the list of weapons to be supplied—a clause that had stalled the agreement for

months. A French source said that the contract would now “be rap-idly implemented”.

Unity and stabilityThe French foreign minister said: “This agreement, financed through Saudi aid, will contribute to strengthening the Lebanese army, guarantor of Lebanon’s unity and stability. “It will help it to carry out its mission to defend national ter-ritory and fight terrorism, at a time when Lebanon is under threat.”

Lebanon’s main northern city of Tripoli was rocked by three days of devastating fighting between troops and suspected Al Qaeda

loyalists late last month that left at least 11 soldiers and five civil-ians dead. In August, troops fought deadly clashes with militants of the IS group and Al Qaeda affiliate Al Nusra Front in the town of Arsal close to the Syrian border. The militants withdrew across the bor-der after a truce deal, but took with them several dozen captive Leba-nese soldiers and police, three of whom they have since executed.

Last December, Saudi Arabia agreed to finance a $3 billion pack-age of French military equipment and arms for the Lebanese army.

And in mid-June, at a confer-ence in Rome, the international

community pledged its backing for the Lebanese military.

But in September, Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil said his country was still waiting “impatiently” for the delivery of the French-made weapons.

In August, Saudi Arabia pledged a further $1 billion to strengthen the Lebanese army and last month Washington announced it had de-livered a new shipment of Hellfire missiles and would also supply light aircraft. Announcing the supplies, US ambassador David Hale said the aircraft would be paid for out of the additional Saudi funding. - AFP

Riyadh will finance the delivery of $3

billion worth of French weapons to the

Lebanese army to fight militants

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Americans begin voting in crucial legislative polls

WASHINGTON: Americans began voting on Tuesday in key legislative elections expected to deal a stinging defeat to President Barack Obama, with Republicans poised to take full control of Con-gress by wresting the Senate from his Democrats.

The party of an incumbent US president historically fares badly in elections in the middle of his second term, and this time is expected to be no different for Obama. Many Republicans have essentially based their campaigns on attacks against the president and his policies, particularly his health care plan. Many Demo-crats even avoided including the president in their campaign ral-lies and photo ops. The first poll-ing stations opened in the states of Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Virginia, with the rest of the country to follow.

Although the economy has been improving gradually since the recession of 2008, the nation-al mood is far from buoyant.

Much attention has focused on recent flashpoint crises like Ebola and advances by the Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.

Democrats currently hold a 55-45 seat advantage in the US Sen-ate, while Republicans control the House of Representatives.

If Republicans take a net six seats in the Senate, Obama will spend his last two years in of-fice facing a hostile Congress as he contends with Ebola, Islamic extremists and improving the economy. The race for the Senate has been very expensive—an esti-mated $423 million in TV spots about Senate races, according to the Washington Post.

Pulling aheadRecent polls show Republicans pulling ahead in the battle for power in Washington despite rac-es in Alaska, North Carolina and other states remaining very close, and they expressed confidence in the home stretch.

“We intend to be a responsible governing Republican major-ity,” the party’s top Senator Mitch McConnell told ABC News as he barnstormed his state of Ken-tucky. The veteran politician is locked in the tightest race of his

career with resilient Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes, but two weekend polls showed McConnell extending his lead.

“The wind is at our backs,” Senator Rand Paul, a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate, told CNN on Sunday. “I think people are ready for new leadership.”

Republicans have hammered home their message that a vote for Democrats is a vote for a tar-nished Obama and his policies.

“This is a referendum on the president,” Paul told NBC.

In the House of Representa-tives, where all 435 seats are in play, experts predict the Republi-cans will gain more seats. A third of the 100-seat Senate is also up for grabs.

Three top forecasters now give Republicans between a 70 per cent and 77 per cent chance of winning the Senate as well. — AFP

Elections are

expected to deal a

stinging defeat to

President Obama

USING FRANCHISE: Voters cast their ballots at a polling place

at Eastern Market in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, during the mid-

term elections. – Reuters

MARKEWWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COMW E D N E S DAY, N OV E M B E R 5, 2 0 14B

Muscat

7,006.02- 25.29

- 0.36%

Dubai

4,549.05- 28.34

- 0.62%

Abu Dhabi

4,949.83- 0.43

- 0.01%

Saudi Arabia

9,784.57- 357.10

- 3.52%

Kuwait

7,293.25- 25.74

- 0.35%

Bahrain

1,446.28+ 2.15

+ 0.15%

Qatar

13,799.29+ 18.70

+ 0.14%

CURRENCY RATES* DRAFT RATES (OMR1)* GOLD PRICES*Forex rates vs OMR1*

US Dollar .................................2.58

Euro ............................................2.05

Pound ............................................1.61

Indian Rs .............................159.08

Pak Rs ...................................262.40

Bangla Taka.......................198.29* Rates are as of Nov. 4

Source: BankMuscat

Indian Rs .................................. 159.20

Pakistan Rs ............................ 265.60

Sri Lanka Rs .......................... 339.00

Bangla Taka...........................200.80

Phil Peso .................................... 116.20

* Rates as of Nov. 4 Source: Oman UAE Exchange

Muscat 24ct per gm (OMR) .......14.95

Muscat 22ct per gm (OMR) .......14.40

10 Tola Bar Muscat (OMR) ............. N/A

Dubai 24ct per gm (Dh) .............141.50

Dubai 22ct per gm (Dh) .............134.25

10 Tola Bar Dubai (Dh) ..................... N/A

* Rates as of Nov. 4Source: Malabar Gold & Diamonds

Type ............................Delivery...........Price

Oman Crude ............. (Spot) ........$80.96

Dubai Crude ............. (Spot) ......... $81.47

Murban Crude ........ (Spot) ........ $83.70

Arabian Light ......... (Spot) ........$82.34

Arabian Heavy ....... (Spot) ................N/A

N.Sea Brent ............... (Spot) .........$82.61

West Texas Int ....... (Spot) ........ $76.67

CRUDE OIL PRICE

PDO unveils new oil well training centre

SALEH AL-SHAIBANYsaleh@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: State-run Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) on Tuesday inaugurated New Wells Learning Centre with the aim of sustaining production and im-proving efficiency of oil output.

The centre, a joint venture be-tween PDO and Shell, officially was opened at PDO’s Mina Al Fahal headquarters by Dr Mohammed bin Hamad Al Rumhy, the Minister of Oil and Gas with the objectives of training experienced wells pro-fessionals and new recruits.

“This is an example of Shell’s long-standing partnership with Oman and with PDO in particular. The world class training centre will further enhance well engi-neering in Oman and produce highly skilled Omani well en-gineers, who will not only help the sustainable and efficient de-velopment of Oman’s oil and gas

resources but will also be highly competitive internationally,” said Chris Breeze, Shell Oman Country Chairman.

PDO currently produces rough-ly about 550,000 barrels per day of crude oil but said earlier this year it is not planning to boost produc-tion but keep the output stable. The new wells training facility will enhance PDO’s production plans and boost safety in oilfields. It will also give opportunities to Omani engineers to increase their level of expertise in oil well management and overcome the challenges of extracting difficult oil from the ground.

“Since the Gulf of Mexico dis-aster in 2010, it has become an

industry requirement to introduce Well Operation Crew Resource Management training to test the ability of crews and individuals to work together under pressure and this facility will enable us to do this,” added PDO Learn-ing and Development Manager Hamed Al Hadhrami.

The Sultanate’s national oil company has recorded an average production of 1.25 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2013

and added 317 million barrels of oil reserves. Also, the total natural gas-developed reserves increased by 1.3 trillion cubic feet last year.

The company is heavily spend-ing on Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) programme to make up for the dwindling oil production. PDO’s productions in 2013 came from four major EOR develop-ments at Marmul, Qarn Alam and Harweel. In addition, the company has EOR pilots at Fahud, Lekhwair, Nimr, Al Noor, Marmul, Amin and Ghubar. One of its biggest success stories is the polymer project in Marmul which has reached the milestone of one million cubic me-tres (6.3 million barrels) of incre-mental oil recovery end of last year.

The new oil wells

training facility will

enhance Petroleum

Development Oman’s

production plans

and boost safety

in oilfields

WORLD CLASS CENTRE: The centre, a joint venture between PDO and Shell, was officially opened at

PDO’s Mina Al Fahal headquarters by Dr Mohammed bin Hamad Al Rumhy. — Jun Estrada/Times of Oman

HSBC Bank Oman launches OMR20m SME support fundTimes News Service

MUSCAT: HSBC Bank Oman on Tuesday launched an Inter-national Growth Fund, commit-ting OMR20 million to Oman’s international and internationally aspirant small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

The fund is open to new and existing customers with cross bor-der trading requirements for those who aspire to grow internationally, and who have an annual turnover of OMR1 million and above.

Developing small and medium enterprises is of significance in Oman since the sector represents over 90 per cent of the total reg-istered firms in Oman, but the combined contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) is only around 15 per cent.

Combined with the fact that 78 per cent of firms in Oman employ five people or fewer and therefore account for less than 10 per cent

of total employment nationwide, it demonstrates the opportunity that these businesses have to make a material contribution to the growth and diversification of the economy in Oman.

The function was organised under the auspices of Dr Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidi, minister of commerce and industry.

“SMEs are critical to the future of Oman’s economy and at HSBC Bank Oman we are committed to Oman and the businesses that support ongoing growth, mod-ernisation and diversification of the country’s economy,” said Andrew Long, chief executive of-ficer of HSBC Bank Oman, who addressed the media to announce the new initiative. > B4

I N T E R N A T I O N A L G R O W T H F U N D

MAKING A POINT: The fund aims at supporting those businesses

in Oman, which have international requirements and those that

aspire to trade internationally. — O K Mohammed Ali/Times of Oman

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BMW sales pace trails Mercedes in tightening race for luxury carsMUNICH: Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW) failed to match the pace of sales growth at Audi and Mercedes-Benz in the third quarter, as the world’s biggest maker of luxu-ry vehicles battles to defend its lead.

BMW’s auto deliveries rose 5.8 per cent to 509,669 vehicles, in-cluding Mini and Rolls-Royce models. Daimler’s Mercedes sales, including the Smart brand, rose 9 per cent to 431,000 vehi-cles on new models like the GLA compact sport-utility vehicle, while Volkswagen’s Audi, which expanded with the A3 sedan, de-livered 429,925 cars, 7.2 per cent more than a year ago.

More modelsBMW has added models like the 4-Series coupe and the van- like 2-Series Active Tourer to thwart plans by Audi and Mercedes to take the No. 1 spot in luxury cars by the end of the decade. That lead may become tougher to defend as Audi pushes ahead with a programme to invest €22 billion ($27.5 billion) by 2018 and Mercedes expands with vehicles like the upcoming M-Class coupe.

“Next year, I expect a slight tendency for BMW to lose mar-ket share as some models are a little older,” said Juergen Pieper,

a Frankfurt-based analyst with Bankhaus Metzler.

BMW shares fell as much as 1.9 per cent to €83.64 and were down 1.6 per cent. The stock has dropped 1.5 per cent this year, valuing the company at €53.9 billion.

Profit gainsEarnings before interest and taxes in the third quarter rose 17 per cent to a record for the period of €2.26 billion. Vehicle produc-tion exceeded deliveries by about 36,200 vehicles in the period as the company ramped up new models like the five-door Mini hatchback and X6 SUV. —Bloomberg News

AUTOMOT IVE Apple is planning to tap euro bonds

NEW YORK: Apple is gearing up for its first bond offering in euros as the iPhone maker seeks to fund another round of shareholder rewards without using overseas cash that would be subject to United States repatriation taxes.

The world’s most valuable tech-nology company has hired Gold-man Sachs and Deutsche Bank to manage the sale and the money would be used for share buybacks and dividends, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter. Banks have started gauging in-vestor interest in the offering, ac-cording to investors at two firms who have been approached.

By borrowing in euros, Califor-nia-based Apple can take advan-tage of a market that’s offering the

lowest yields in six years relative to dollar-denominated debt. Ap-ple, which has the biggest corpo-rate cash hoard at $155 billion, has raised $29 billion from bond sales since 2013 to give back cash to its owners instead of repatriat-ing its overseas reserve.

“All-in funding levels in euros are so low for corporates at the moment it makes sense to issue here,” said Jens Vanbrabant, the lead money manager at London-

based ECM Asset Management, which oversees $8 billion.

“It’s much lower than dollars. There is no doubt investors will like the name.”

Stock buybacksA London-based spokesman for Apple declined to comment on whether the securities would be denominated in euros. Apple, which holds more than 88 per cent of its cash overseas, has been pushed by activist investor Carl Icahn to accelerate its stock re-purchase programme.

The company sold $12 billion of bonds in April after issuing $17 billion in 2013 in the largest corporate bond sale at the time, data shows. Its $2.5 billion of 3.45 percent notes sold this year have gained 2.9 per cent .

The securities coming due in May 2024 traded at 102.9 cents on the dollar on Monday to yield 3.1 per cent, says Trace, the bond-price reporting system of the Reg-ulatory Authority. — Bloomberg News

iPhone maker seeks

to fund another

round of shareholder

rewards without

using overseas cash

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

Is Apple’s corporate cash hoard. It has raised

$29b from bond sales since 2013 to give back

cash to its owners, instead of repatriating

its overseas reserve

$155b

Qatar, China’s Citic group plan

$10b joint fund

SHANGHAI: Qatar’s sover-eign-wealth fund, which con-trols more than $100 billion of assets, plans to set up a $10 bil-lion investment venture with China’s Citic Group as it seeks to diversify from retail and property assets in Europe.

The two signed a preliminary agreement for the fund yester-day, with the deal to be complet-ed in coming months, Ahmad Al-Sayed, chief executive officer of the Qatar Investment Author-ity (QIA), told reporters in Bei-jing. Each will invest $5 billion.

Qatar plans to put as much as $20 billion into the region in the next five years and expand offic-es in Beijing and New Delhi. It’s already invested billions of dol-lars in China and Asia this year, including in Citic, Alibaba and Hong Kong department-store owner Lifestyle International as it seeks to move beyond trophy European assets such as Lon-don’s Harrods department store.

“They’re diversifying,” Bobby Sarkar, a Doha-based head of research at Qatar National Bank Financial Services, said. China “is eventually going to be the biggest economy and they’d like a bigger presence there.”

The QIA is an investor in Citic Capital, an alternative invest-ment company backed by the state-owned Citic Group and sovereign fund.- Bloomberg News

I NVESTMENT

B3W E D N E S DAY, N OV E M B E R 5, 2 0 1 4

MARKETCompetitive bidding process for award of mining concession

A. E. JAMESbusinesseditor@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: Mining companies will have to participate in a competi-tive bidding process to get con-cession area from Oman govern-ment, when the new mining law is in place, said Dr Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidi, minister of commerce and industry.

The minister, who spoke to jour-nalists on the sidelines of a func-tion to announce an SME focused growth fund of HSBC Bank Oman here on Tuesday, said that the gov-ernment is planning to change the procedure for awarding conces-sion area for mining companies.

Dr Al Sunaidi said that the com-panies will have to compete for getting mining concessions. “Peo-

ple will have to make a bid and decide how much to pay. What we have today in mining is fragment-ed, we have crushers, which are needed and we have not touched much of that. Minerals that are produced without any value addi-tion, exported with minimum fair value of minerals cannot continue. That has to stop,” he said, adding: “There is an authority in charge of

mining sector and there is a new law in the making.” “The new law will try to look at value addition if possible, try to look at minerals, which we have in abundance.”

Marbles and chromitesThe minister said that Oman has been exporting marbles and chro-mites and two major projects are coming up in Sohar for producing

ferrochrome, using locally avail-able chromite.

He said the government has not stopped licences of those compa-nies add value to minerals. “But we have not looked at licences that are 100 per cent trying to export raw materials without any value addition.” The new mining law is framed in such a way to strengthen value addition in mining sector.

N E W L A W

Bank Sohar highlightsits continuous growth

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Bank Sohar’s strong financial standing at the end of the third quarter of the year is a clear indication of the funda-mental strength of its products, customer relations and sound operational strategy.

Addressing an investors’ meet here yesterday, Rashad Ali Al Musafir, acting chief executive officer of Bank Sohar, said that the bank has achieved a 31 per cent growth in net profit for the first nine months of this year at

OMR23.75 million, which shows continuous growth in profit.

The operating income in-creased by 24.39 per cent to OMR53.26 million for the first nine months of 2014 compared to OMR42.82 million for the same period last year. The bank’s total assets grew from OMR1.85 billion in 2013 to OMR1.854 billion in the same period this year, a growth of 0.29 per cent.

Net loans and advances grew by 17 per cent to OMR1.419 billion by end-September 2014, com-parison to OMR1.213 billion in

2013. Customer deposits stood at OMR 1.341 billion by September 2014, from OMR1.324 billion for the same period of 2013, register-ing an increase of 1.30 per cent. The total shareholder equity in-creased to OMR190.248 million, an increase of 17.89 per cent over the previous year.

Platform for investors“Thanks to our strong showing in the third quarter of 2014 and a comprehensive discussion with our investors and the media at the event, I am pleased to report that the meeting concluded with posi-tive sentiments and also provided us with an opportunity to meet with other prospective investors and key analysts in the region; al-lowing us to showcase the bank’s strength as a valuable long-term investment,” added Al Musafir.

“The forum provided an ideal platform for investors to meet with members of the bank’s ex-

ecutive management, while the open nature of the meeting al-lowed attendees to gain insight-ful feedback on our operational strategy and helped build a strong understanding between the bank and our investors. Such open-ended forums further enhance the Bank’s value whilst helping build a stronger corporate gov-ernance and investor relationship culture within the bank.”

The investor’s meeting, which took place at the Muscat Securi-ties Market, was also attended by members of the executive man-agement team at the bank, includ-ing Munira Abdulnabi Macki, deputy general manager of hu-man resource and corporate sup-port; Sasi Kumar, deputy general manager and head of strategy and corporate business division; Salim Khamis Al Maskari, sen-ior assistant general manager branches; Abdulali Al Lawati, board secretary among others.

At an investors’ meet, the acting CEO said

that the bank has achieved a 31% growth in

net profit for the first nine months of 2014

Dr Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidi

B4

MARKETW E D N E S DAY, N OV E M B E R 5, 2 0 14

DRIVE SLOWER LIVE LONGER

‘New fund complements commitment to support SMEs’“The International Growth

Fund is aimed at supporting those businesses in Oman who have international requirements and those that aspire to trade interna-tionally. This is where we believe we can add most value, using our local knowledge and expertise combined with HSBC Group’s international connectivity. We continue to work closely with rel-evant government authorities and key working groups to ensure that this segment flourishes and grows, in recognition of the importance of SMEs to the national agenda of Oman,” said Long.

“The International Growth Fund is new for HSBC Bank Oman. The fund is based on an existing formula that has already

been successfully launched in oth-er countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. In fact, HSBC was the first bank in the UAE to launch a fund like this in 2010 and has renewed the fund an-nually since then. In 2013, HSBC also launched the International Growth Fund in Egypt,” he added.

International and internation-ally aspirant SMEs play an im-portant role and have a unique opportunity to increase their con-tribution to the Oman economy and HSBC Bank Oman actively seeks to support them in this am-bition, he said.

“We are delighted to see further contributions from the private sector to support the important SME segment in Oman. The fund

launched today by HSBC Bank Oman complements the efforts of the government in this regard and demonstrates the bank’s continu-ing commitment to support SMEs across the Sultanate,” said Dr Al Sunaidi. He further said, “We hope to see many SMEs benefit from this fund, leveraging the local and global expertise that HSBC Bank Oman can provide.”

Looking at the international SME landscape, confidence that export and import trade volumes will increase over the next 12 months is very positive. With con-tinued GDP growth of 3 to 4 per cent and over $100 billion worth of major projects planned in the country, there are significant op-portunities for the SMEs.

The fund will be administered by HSBC Bank Oman’s Business Banking team.

“The SME sector is very im-portant to Oman’s economy, both from an employment perspective and for the role these businesses play in both the traditional oil and gas industries, as well as the indus-tries contributing to the diversifi-cation of the Oman economy, such as tourism, professional services, health care and logistics,” added Daniel Felton, head of middle market and business banking for HSBC Bank Oman.

“HSBC research suggests that in the medium to long-term, the fastest growing exports will be to emerging markets such as Vi-etnam, China, India, Malaysia

and Indonesia. The UAE, Turkey, Egypt and neighbouring Saudi Arabia will also become increas-ingly important sources of de-mand. We will see similar trends on the import side,” said Felton.

Although developed countries are currently some of the fast-growing importers to Oman, by 2030, emerging markets such as Vietnam, India and China will be-come increasingly prominent.

“It is clear that businesses, large and small, need to position them-selves to make the most of inter-national opportunities — taking advantage of international trad-ing corridors — in order to con-tinue to grow and succeed. The Middle East is a historic trading hub for East to West trade flows,

and alongside the ongoing infra-structure development in country, Oman is becoming well placed to take advantage of these,” he said.

They believed that international and internationally aspirant SMEs will truly benefit from the Interna-tional Growth Fund in this regard and look forward to speaking to both new and existing customers in the coming days on how best the bank can support the ongoing growth of their business, Felton further added.

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MSM ends lower

MUSCAT: The MSM30 Index closed at 7,006.02 points, down by 0.36 per cent. The MSM Sharia index declined by 0.11 per cent to close at 1,047.78 points. Al Anwar Holding was the most active in terms of volume while Al Maha Ceramics was the most active in terms of turnover. Voltamp En-ergy, up by 2.30 per cent was the top gainer of the day while the top loser of the day was United Power, down by 9.66 per cent.

A total number of 5,820 trades were executed during the day’s trading session generating turno-ver of OMR8.8 million with more than 20.9 million shares changing hands. Out of 51 traded stocks, six advanced, 26 declined and 19 remained unchanged. For-eign investors switched to net

buyers for OMR300,000 fol-lowed by GCC & Arab investors for OMR135,000 while Omani investors were net sellers for OMR436,000 worth of shares.

The financial Index declined strongly to close at 8,527.22 points, down by 0.77 per cent. Oman United Insurance in-creased 0.48 per cent by to close at OMR0.424. Al Anwar Holding, Al Sharqia Investment, Oman & Emirates Holding, Global Fi-nance & Investment and Gulf Investment Services declined by 5.59 per cent, 4.69 per cent, 3.21 per cent, 2.38 per cent and 2.37 per cent respectively.

Industrial Index risesIndustrial Index increased by 0.26 per cent to close at 9,637.91

points. Voltamp Energy, National Aluminium, Al Anwar Ceramics and Oman Cables increased by 2.30 per cent, 2.07 per cent, 1.86 per cent and 0.20 per cent respec-tively. Construction Materials, Dhofar Cattlefeed, Al Hassan En-gineering, Oman Fisheries and Al Maha Ceramics decreased by 3.85 per cent, 3.14 per cent, 2.94 per cent, 2.63 per cent and 1.79 per cent respectively.

Services Sector Index was the worst performing sector and end-ed the session at 3,638.26 points, down by 0.94 per cent. Al Kamil Power closed at OMR0.308, up by 0.65 per cent. United Power, Al Ja-zeera Services, Sembcorp Salalah, SMN Power Holdings and OIFC decreased by 9.66 per cent, 3.61 per cent, 3.19 per cent, 3.03 per cent and 1.80 per cent respectively.

Saudi stocks slump Saudi shares headed for the big-gest drop in almost three weeks as oil tumbled to a four-year low and profit at the nation’s largest phone company missed estimates.

The benchmark Tadawul All Shares Index lost 2.8 per cent, set for the steepest slump since Oc-tober 16 and making it the world’s worst performer among more than 90 benchmarks tracked globally, to 9,855.76 at 1:42pm in Riyadh. Etihad Etisalat led 155 de-cliners with a 9.9 per cent plunge, the steepest in almost four years.

- United Securities/Bloomberg News

Voltamp Energy, up

by 2.30 per cent was

the top gainer of the

day, while the top

loser of the day was

United Power, down

by 9.66 per cent

EU slashes growth forecastsBRUSSELS: The European Un-ion (EU) cut sharply its growth forecasts for the eurozone on Tuesday, warning that France and Italy remain huge problems for the sluggish European economy.

According to the European Commission’s autumn economic forecasts, output in the 18-nation eurozone will grow by only 0.8 per cent this year, instead of the earlier prediction of 1.2 per cent.

The growth outlook for 2015 is also much lower, cut down to 1.1 per cent from an earlier forecast of 1.7 per cent.

While the figures show the eu-rozone economy avoiding a triple-dip recession for now, they will renew global concerns about its sluggish recovery from the euro

debt crisis that nearly sank the sin-gle currency three years ago.

“The economic and employ-ment situation is not improving fast enough,” said Jyrki Katainen, the commission’s vice president for jobs and growth in a statement announcing the bleak numbers.

Also haunting Europe is the danger of deflation, and while the commission believes prices will not fall outright, it said inflation will remain very low and also drag on growth.

The commission said inflation in the eurozone this year would sink to a “very low” 0.5 per cent this year and rise only to 0.8 per cent next year. Both forecasts are way off the European Central Bank target of just under two perc ent.

In its breakdown of all the EU member states, France and Italy stand out as the biggest problems for a struggling European economy.

Those two countries are under huge pressure from the commis-sion to cut back on government overspending and push through reforms that Rome and Paris have promised but largely failed to implement. In its dire forecasts, Brussels said the public deficit in France would surge to 4.5 per cent of total GDP in 2015 and keep wid-ening to 4.7 per cent in 2016, mak-ing it the biggest in the eurozone.

Italy will have a debt of 133.8 per cent of output in 2015 and slip only very slightly to 132.7 per cent in 2016, according to the commis-sion’s forecasts. — AFP

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

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All-new 2015 Renault Fluence makes a stylish debut in Oman

MUSCAT: Suhail Bahwan Auto-mobiles (SBA), the exclusive im-porters and distributors of Renault vehicles in Oman, unveiled their most anticipated vehicle for this year — the 2015 Renault Fluence.

The new sedan features a new look with the 1.6 16V 115 CVT X-Tronic automatic gearbox and the 2.0 16V 140 CVT X-Tronic auto-matic gearbox. The new Fluence is all set to offer class-leading com-fort, thoughtful technology and a rewarding driving experience, says a press release.

“The new Fluence is just as ac-complished as the previous model, but adds style, comes in an excit-ing design, smart technology and has exceptional comfort features that set a new benchmark in the fiercely competitive C segment,” said a SBA spokesman.

“Our goal for the new Fluence is not only to be the best in class but also to move the whole seg-ment forward into the future. We are sure that the 2015 Fluence will not only appeal to car aficio-nados who value innovation and

contemporary looks, but also buy-ers who look for details like state-of-the-art safety and convenience features in a sedan,” he added.

Fitted with a new petrol en-gine that is powerful and dynamic (117hp and 156Nm), Fluence sparks with energy. With the CVT X-Tronic next-generation auto-matic gearbox, the 2.0 16V 140 combines responsiveness and low fuel consumption. CVT tech-nology — Continuously Variable Transmission — allows for smooth gear shifting with instant respons-es and no bumps. The new Fluence is comfortable, dynamic and lively with low fuel consumption.

2015 enhancements With its flowing and modern lines, the 2015 Renault Fluence features new, confident and more dynamic frontal design identity. Inside, the cabin carries over the major themes of the previous ver-sion but delivers finishes that are more sophisticated and a more high-tech ambience.

The redesigned front end en-hances the new Fluence’s unique character which takes its inspira-tion from the Renault F1 and the aerodynamics of the F1 cars. The focal point at the front is a promi-nent logo set vertically to a gloss black and chrome strips back-ground. Meanwhile, the new Re-nault Fluence’s curvier lines and full surfaces ensure a more dynam-ic, assertive stance, underlining the model’s status-enhancing look.

Exterior featuresThe other exterior features include LED lights that enhance the over-all appeal of the rear of the vehicle. To exalt the design of the Fluence, the vehicle comes with 17” Aki-

hiro two tone alloy wheels in the LE version. The reassuring side panels favour fluid, energetic lines. The design of the front bumper is bolder, with a large lower air intake that broadens towards the base: fog lights set against a gloss black surround have the effect of visu-ally widening this lower intake, giving the front a sporty touch. Fi-nally, wheel arch openings that are two centimetres tighter than on the previous version provide the 2015 Fluence with an even more dynamic allure.

The insides of the headlamp units have been reworked in order to convey a more expressive and more upmarket effect. The head-light module is equipped with a lens, which concentrates the beam

of light and ensures superb quality illumination at night. The metal-effect ‘eyelid’ and dark-coloured headlight mask add further depth to new Renault Fluence’s look.

The higher-end equipment lev-els are distinguished by the addi-tion of a series of gloss black trim features, as well as bright-effect chrome.

Technology to aid driving The new Renault Fluence is packed with high-end technolo-gies designed to make driving sim-pler. The principal instrument in-side the cabin incorporates a large round LCD screen, the main func-tion of which includes a digital speed display and the white seg-ments around the circumference of the LCD screen indicate the set-tings of the cruise control and the speed limiter systems.

The multimedia functions on the new Renault Fluence include hands free mobile phone con-

nectivity and audio streaming music with bluetooth or with USB / jack connection.

The 2015 Renault Fluence also offers a range of driver-assistance technologies, including the hands-free key card for no-touch locking and unlocking of doors, as well as push-button ignition in LE ver-sion. On the higher equipment lev-el, the parking assist system of the new Fluence features four rear-parking sensors neatly integrated into the rear bumper. Another in-telligent feature is the automatic parking brake, which applies itself as soon as the ignition is turned off and released once the engine is running again.

Notably, the new Renault Flu-ence is equipped with climate control system that is specially designed to cope with the intense sunlight and high levels of humidi-ty in the Oman market. In addition, an automatic dual-zone climate control system is offered as stand-ard equipment on the higher-end version LE.

Values of quality and safetyThe 2015 Renault Fluence builds on the quality and safety standards of its predecessor. Reliability and durability have been the focus of detailed design work, guaranteed with extreme endurance testing, to meet the specific needs of the Oman market.

From its entry level model, the new Renault Fluence offers ABS with electronic brake force distri-bution, emergency brake assist, three-point front safety belts with pretensioners and load limiters, driver and front passenger air-bags, three-point Isofix child seat anchorage for the outer rear seats and projector headlights. Available

as standard or optional, depending on the equipment level, are safety key features such as stability con-trol (ESP) with under steer con-trol, front side airbags, as well as front and rear curtain airbags.

A world class brand Renault is a world class brand to-day, focusing mainly on the impor-tant aspects such as safety, style, performance, value and reliabil-ity — keeping alive the motoring heritage of Renault.

The Renault principle of safety is outlined in four basic points: Prevent, correct, protect and edu-cate. Renault provides equipment that performs auxiliary tasks auto-matically to promote the responsi-bility of drivers by warning them when they are not in a position to control their vehicle or when they put themselves in a position of potential danger.

For example, the visual and au-dible seatbelt reminders and tyre pressure monitoring. The inherent handling and braking qualities of a vehicle are fundamental factors of its overall dynamic, active safety and accident avoidance perfor-mance. Moreover, Renault is also known to have the maximum num-ber of Euro-NCAP Five Star rated models globally.

SBA is largely committed to sup-porting Renault Oman’s growth in the Sultanate through major emphasis on customer satisfac-tion and by providing world-class after-sales services in Oman. With a national network of more than 80 outlets – showrooms, service cent-ers and parts outlets, SBA has fur-ther built upon its legacy of trust, excellent customer service and providing value for money to each of its customers.

The new Fluence is

packed with high-

end technologies

designed to make

driving simpler,

safer and much more

delightful

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Country Club Group launches its fitness centre in SultanateMUSCAT: Country Club Group, known as the powerhouse of enter-tainment, holidaying, clubbing and fitness, inaugurated their first ever Country Club Fitness branch here at a press conference on Sunday.

The opening of the state-of-the-art facility was held in the pres-ence of world renowned Indian tennis star, Sania Mirza, Global Brand Ambassador of Country Club Fitness along with Y. Rajeev Reddy, Chairman and Manag-ing Director of The Country Club Group. The event was also attend-ed by J. S. Mukul, Indian Ambassa-dor to Oman, says a press release.

As a part of the ambitious ex-pansion plans, the fitness division is a cumulative over OMR400,000 (AED 40 million) initiative un-dertaken by Country Club Group. Envisioned as contemporary net-work of 100 fitness centres glob-ally, Country Club has more than 23 health and fitness centres across their properties in India and Middle East.

“Country Club has achieved leadership status in clubbing and holidays and now targets health and fitness arena in a big way.

“With our fitness division al-ready creating stir across differ-ent regions, we are confident to embark on Oman market with a swing,” said Y. Rajeev Reddy, CMD Country Club Group.

“Staying fit is a passion. Country Club Fitness is not just providing facility to its members to train, moreover, it is a 360 degree ap-proach to motivate our members to lead a healthy lifestyle. Oman being a fostering economy, we wish to educate and enhance the fitness industry and also bring in a

positive change in the mentality of the residents and our members in this region” he added.

The fitness centre in Oman is the fourth addition to the Middle East expansion plan of the group. Spread across an area of 7,500 square feet, the group aims at es-tablishing 10 such facilities across the region in the first phase, where each facility built with an invest-ment of AED 4 million will boast of latest equipment, best experts to address varied fitness needs of members and well qualified management team.

Soon to be open in Riyadh and Dammam in the Middle East, Country Club Fitness globally of-fer affordable wellness services to every individually providing an as-sortment of contemporary health rejuvenation alternatives includ-ing Zumba, Pilates, Aerobics, weight loss and gain, Cardio, strength training and general fit-ness facilities.

“Country Club’s fitness centres are driven by passion for stay-ing fit and self-developed. We as a team wish to create awareness of the importance of health and well-being and to let communities and members walk into our facilities to start a fit and active lifestyle in a modern, friendly and welcoming facility,” said Sania Mirza.

“I would personally like to ap-plaud the team’s efforts for taking the initiative and establishing a branch in yet another country in the Middle East. I am confident fit-ness will reach to greater heights with Country Club’s efforts and wish them all the success in con-quering the other markets in the region,” she added.

S T A T E - O F - T H E - A R T F A C I L I T Y

MB Petroleum Services receives

coveted OHSAS 18001 certificationMUSCAT: MB Petroleum Ser-vices, the integrated oilfield and drilling services company within the MB Holding group, recently received an OHSAS 18001 accred-itation for its standards in Occu-pational Health and Safety Man-agement System. The company is now internationally recognised for its high level of standards in HSE which is aligned to OHSAS 18001 and monitored with strict parameters that are used globally, says a press release.

Some benefits of this certifi-cation include reduction of ac-cidents and incidences, staying abreast of relevant legislation and reduce the likelihood of prosecu-tion and fines, standardisation of HSE management systems keep-ing in mind international proce-dures and rules. It also allows the company to demonstrate a seri-

ous commitment towards health and safety of its employees as well as the community at large.

“The OHSAS 18001 mark is a globally recognised symbol of our organisation's ongoing commit-ment to excellence, sustainability and reliability. Organisations of all kinds are increasingly concerned by achieving and demonstrat-

ing sound occupational health and safety performance to their shareholders, employees, clients and other stakeholders by man-aging the hazards and improv-ing the beneficial effects of their activities, products and services. We are very happy that MBPS has received this certification and this further reaffirms our commit-

ment to stringent legislation and measures to foster occupational health and safety protection and welfare,” said Madhusudan Swa-mi, CEO – Oman & Middle East, MBPS.

Established in 1986, MB Petro-leum Services group has grown to become one of the largest drilling and integrated oilfield services companies in the Middle East. The company has presence in more than 15 countries and em-ploys more than 5,000 people with offices in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South East Asia and Asia Pacific. The major services offered include drilling services, workover services, drilling fluids, engineering & chemical services, mud logging geological services, well testing, wireline & comple-tion services, coiled tubing, nitro-gen & pumping services.

R E C O G N I T I O N

Asia Express Exchange opens branch in Saham

MUSCAT: Asia Express Ex-change Company (AEE), the leading money exchange com-pany operating in the Sultanate of Oman, announced the opening of its newest branch in wilayat of Saham in the North Batinah gov-ernorate, on Monday.

The branch was inaugurated by Faisal bin Ali bin Rashid Al Zaidi, the Deputy Wali of Saham, in the presence of Sheikh Mohammed Hamed Ali Al Ghazali, director, Asia Express Exchange, and sen-ior managers. The branch will accelerate AEE’s expansion into Oman’s northern region, and is an important milestone in the firm’s continuing expansion in Oman, says a press release.

Speaking to the media in the sidelines of the event, Adeeb Ahamed, MD of Asia Express Ex-change, said, “We are pleased to open a new branch here in Saham. The firm has made great progress in expanding and enhancing the range of services we are able to offer to clients so far. The Saham branch opening is yet another significant step in expanding our coverage for clients in an impor-tant Omani region with strong growth momentum. The credit for

AEE’s growth and success in the nation is squarely attributed to its relentless pursuit of excellent customer service and customer satisfaction. ”

Asia Express Exchange has five branches (Sohar, Al Khabourah, Al Khadra, Tharmad and Barka) in the Al Batinah region.

Fair business practices“We are committed to fair busi-ness practices and are 100 per cent compliant with global anti-money laundering protocols.

Our culture of quality and stand-ardisation makes sure that every branch offers the same quality of service that we have become renowned for. It is our high cali-bre workforce backed by training and the latest technologies that help us deliver the highest stand-ards of customer satisfaction. We have been incessantly spreading our network, worldwide, to get as closer to our customers as possi-ble. We dedicate this branch to the service of our esteemed custom-ers, who have always supported

and encouraged the company to deliver the best,” added Adeeb.

Adeeb dedicated the new branch to the service of AEE’s es-teemed customers, who he said, have always supported and en-couraged the company to deliver the best. Among the dignitaries present during the occasion were the several bankers and senior management of the company.

Asia Express Exchange has partnered with internationally renowned and trusted names like Western Union Worldwide Re-mittance Services, Xpress Mon-ey Services, and other premier MTOs to guarantee that the cli-ent’s hard earned money reaches its destination in the fastest and the most secure way possible. The exchange house caters to markets across the world and has direct online remittance arrangements for India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Indonesia.

Asia Express Exchange cur-rently has 24 branches in the Sultanate of Oman. Each branch provides clients with integrated solutions through the Exchange’s comprehensive financial platform and first-class wholesale financial products and services.

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Sporty Mazda MX-5 now even more fun to drive

MUSCAT: The MX-5 from Maz-da, certified by Guinness World Records as the world’s bestsell-ing two-seater sports car in 2011, has been made even more special. Being around for 25 years, Mazda MX-5, also called the Miata, is fa-mous for its pure fun to drive quo-tient. In celebration of this, Maz-da Oman has also unveiled two special 25th anniversary edition Mazda MX-5 Miata cars which is a collector’s car.

Just like the groundbreaking first generation, Mazda has con-tinued building the MX-5 Miata to be an exuberant partner with un-matched driving pleasure, stimu-lating and exciting for both drivers and onlookers alike. In February 2011, total production surpassed 900,000 vehicles, earning the MX-5 Miata certification from Guinness World Records.

A senior spokesperson of Towell Auto Centre (TAC), the sole dis-tributors of Mazda range of vehi-cles in Oman, comments: “Mazda deeply appreciates the enthusias-tic support our lightweight road-ster has received from around the world since its debut. And to ex-press their gratitude, Mazda has crafted a 25th anniversary edition,

equipping it with special, careful-ly-selected parts. In Oman, only 2 limited edition Mazda MX-5 ve-hicles are present, which are be-ing currently displayed in Mazda showroom at Azaiba and the sec-ond one will be rotating from Wat-tayah to different locations based on customer demand. We look forward to requests from our cus-tomers to get in touch through our social media channels or call our CRM number 92888005 for more information. We invite all our cus-tomers to view this anniversary celebration of the unique Jinba Ittai driving performance — and just plain fun — that have always been hallmarks of the MX-5 Miata. Available on a first-come-first-serve basis, only two automobil-

ists in the county will be the proud owners of this convertible coupe.”

Mazda’s designers and brain trust have shown great wisdom with the Miata sports car. For 25 years, the MX-5 Miata has been noteworthy because it has not changed much. There have been tiny body styling tweaks and in-terior tucks and horsepower grew from 116 originally to 167 today. But Miata has remained true to its original design and purpose — be-ing a lightweight, superb handling sports car with enough pep to put a perpetual smile on a driver’s face.

Smooth ride“Mazda MX-5 handling is ace and it is so light it feels like a high-end go-kart. It rides smooth and feels light on its wheels, and the double wishbone front and multi-link rear suspension are perfectly tuned for the car. And the most excit-ing aspect is the convertible top. It is fun to power the roof down quickly, and it is nice that it tucks

neatly under a hard tonneau cover. Miata also happens to be the fast-est folding hard convertible in its segment, with a record 12 seconds to roof up”, the spokesperson adds.

The Mazda MX-5 truly repre-sents Mazda’s vehicle-engineering philosophy – the pursuit of driving pleasure along with outstanding environmental and safety per-formance. Towell Auto Centre provides service to all models of Mazda and makes owning a Mazda extra pleasant with its efficient after sales service and quick re-sponse time. With a network of 13 service outlets and ten parts out-lets spread across Oman, TAC is the only Mazda distributor in the world to win the Mazda Customer Service award and the Super-brands award in the GCC region.

With 98.2 per cent parts deliver-ability, TAC also offers quick, ef-ficient service with genuine parts available for all models and have highly trained staff who pride in their quality of service.

Named best-

selling sports car

by Guinness World

Records, MX-5 Miata

offers unmatched

driving pleasure

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Bank Muscat launches 2 new Zeinah products

MUSCAT: In commemoration of the Omani Women’s Day and as part of continuing efforts to promote specialised banking services for women, Bank Mus-cat launched two unique Zeinah products. The revamped Zeinah suite of products were unveiled at Al Mar’a Excellence Awards ceremony supported by the bank, says a press release.

The new Zeinah auto finance offers interest rate as low as 3.5 per cent bundled with compli-mentary handbag insurance.

The main features of Zeinah auto finance for old and new ve-hicles include low monthly pay-ment option, low interest rates, financing up to eight years for new vehicles, on-the-spot ap-provals and motor insurance funding with one of the lowest monthly payments in the market.

Zeinah customers are also not required to furnish post-dated cheques, making Zeinah auto fi-nance the easy, convenient and completely hassle-free way for women to own a new car.

Notably, Zeinah auto finance can be obtained from any of the 138 Bank Muscat branches spread across Oman.

Zeinah also launched a unique

Health & Beauty finance scheme for women with exclusive dis-counts on premium health and beauty services.

With women comprising a major customer segment, Bank Muscat offers unique products and services aimed at enriching women’s lives at different levels.

The Zeinah suite of products and services is based on the premise that women prefer to use special banking services that preserve their privacy. Catering to the unique needs, Zeinah of-fers privacy and a relaxed atmos-phere for women at Bank Muscat branches. The Zeinah suite of products include exclusive cards, designated counters at branches and specially designed products. Exclusive tie-ups with leading merchants and retailers offer the best deals and discounts to Zeinah cardholders.

Oman is witnessing the in-creasing role of women in work-place and education. As women manage their financial respon-sibility, the need for new and specific banking products and services has emerged. Zeinah ad-dresses this need offering a per-sonal and comfortable banking environment for women.

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Daihatsu range: ‘Still your most practical choice’

MUSCAT: Daihatsu, a Toyota Group company, has a range of popular models like Sirion, Terios and Granmax in Oman. Daihat-su’s popularity in Oman stems from the fact that it is perceived as the most practical choice, says a press release.

“For starters, Daihatsu is a Japanese brand. Secondly, it is

a Toyota Group company, so the quality is assured. Thirdly, it is a very economical choice,” said an auto analyst.

Daihatsu’s line-up consists of the Sirion, the big compact car that has been appreciated by buyers all over the globe. Avail-able in 1.3 and 1.5 litre variants, the Sirion clearly stands out as one of the most desirable Japa-nese cars in its class. In today’s age of bumper-to-bumper traf-fic snarls, parking problems and rising expenses, the Sirion is the most practical choice, thanks to its ease of manoeuvring, ease in parking, and also its amazing fuel economy. What more, it’s easy on the environment too.

Daihatsu also has the every-

popular Terios Trend, an everyday 4WD, which is compact, economi-cal and fun to drive with a dash of style, offering the customers a quality Japanese SUV for the price of a Sedan. Adding to this impres-sive line-up is the Terios Long Wheel Base 7-seater, which is an ideal and economical family trans-porter, comfortably seating seven, with extra space for extra comfort.

Daihatsu range also includes the Gran Max line-up consisting of a Versatile MPV, a spacious De-livery Van and a sturdy 1 Tonne Pick Up. The complete range comes with power steering. It is built to suit a variety of personal and commercial transportation needs of customers.

Daihatsu models may include some dealer installed non Daihat-su accessories. Daihatsu, a Toyota Group Company offers the best-in-class Japanese technology. Daihatsu’s innovative automobile manufacturing practices serve to make it a truly global company.

Daihatsu, a Toyota

Group company,

offers the best-in-

class Japanese

technology at

affordable cost

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CHAPPELL RUBBISHES TENDULKAR’S CLAIMS Sachin Tendulkar’s scathing attack on Greg Chappell received the backing of two of his then teammates — Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh — even as the Australian hit back at the batting maestro’s claim that he tried to topple Rahul Dravid. >C3

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Good Gulf Cup show ‘important for Oman and all coaching staff’

A SESHAGIRI RAOraoas@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: After having experi-enced and still going through the experiencing of the rollercoaster ride that is a coach’s life, the much-travelled Paul Le Guen knows the significance of good results in the ‘philosophy football’.

In French manager’s own words a good result is vital for not just the team but everyone involved with it.

Le Guen, speaking at an inter-active meeting — a ‘debate on the national team’s preparations for the forthcoming Gulf Cup’ host-ed by the Omani French Centre on Tuesday night, admitted that Oman team’s good performance in Riyadh is as important to himself and his coaching staff as it is to the national team and Oman football.

The Frenchman, who has been in charge of Oman football team since 2011 after taking over the reins from his illustrious compa-

triot Claude Le Roy, will be lead-ing the squad for the second time at Gulf Cup, the 22nd edition of which will be hosted by Saudi Ara-bia from November 13 to 26.

“A good result at the Gulf Cup is important for everyone of us. For the Omani national team, Omani football and also myself as a coach as well as all other members of my coaching staff.”

Le Guen, however, assured the gathering which included a num-ber of Omani football enthusi-asts, the team is ready for the Gulf Cup challenge.

“The preparations have been good. The players are confident. And we are all ready for the chal-lenge,” he said.

The amiable Frenchman also tackled some tough questions from the staunch Oman soccer supporters who obviously tried to draw his attention to Oman’s not so impressive performances in the recent friendlies against Costa Rica and Uruguay, most notably the deficiencies in the defence.

Showing his customary cool and composure, a smiling Le Guen said: “There is a lot of difference

between Oman team and teams like Uruguay and Costa Rica. That is a fact. But we should admit there were some drawbacks which we tried to rectify during training.”

Further pressed on the subject, Le Guen attributed the Oman’s failure to match the world class teams like Uruguay and Costa Rica to lack of fitness among the Omani players.

“There is no parity between Oman and the other two teams in terms of fitness. Their players are supremely fit whereas our players are not at the same level,” he said.

The Frenchman also placed the blame on the ‘long break’ in the season for players’ lack of fitness.

“The long break between the league seasons is not doing any good for the players. In fact, it is affecting their physical condition and their match fitness, which in turn are affecting their on-field performance,” he said.

Respect nation’s rulesThe talk, naturally, veered towards the often repeated discussion on why Oman cannot produce more world class players like goalkeep-

ing hero Ali Al Habsi. And Le Guen’s reaction: “Honestly there are players like Raed Ibrahim Al Haikal, Eid Al Farsi and Moham-med Al Musallami who can play outside the country in big leagues abroad. But it’s a matter of time when more Omanis will come up to the level of Ali Al Habsi.”

Following a question from the audience regarding the selection of players, Le Guen also admitted to have thought of naturalisation of players who are plying their trade here in Oman.

“I saw there are a few good for-eign footballers playing for Omani clubs. Honestly once I brought up the topic of naturalisation with the Oman Football Association chief (Sayyid Khalid Al Busaidy). But he told me that the Sultanate’s rules do not allow such methods. I re-spect that opinion and we all have to respect the country’s law and regulations,” he said.

Ali’s availabilityMeanwhile, speaking about the availability of Ali Al Habsi, who has been recently loaned to Eng-lish Championship side Brighton by Wigan Athletic, he said: “He will surely be playing in the three group stage matches. After which he may have to play a two of matches for his club before returning the na-tional team duty.

“We hope everything goes well and we still be competing once re-turn for the knockout stages of the Gulf Cup,” he said.

Oman football coach

Paul Le Guen, assured

the gathering which

included a number

of Omani football

enthusiasts, the team

is ready for the Gulf

Cup challenge

CANDID DEBATE: Oman national football coach Paul Le Guen, right, and his coaching staff, involved in an interactive session at the Omani French Centre. – O.K. MOHAMMED ALI / Times of Oman

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Tamim, Shakib slam tons

KHULNA: Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal scored centuries as Bangladesh took charge of the second Test against Zimbabwe in Khulna on Tuesday.

The hosts, who plodded to 193-3 on the opening day after electing to bat, made 433 in their first innings before being dismissed in the final session of the second day.

Zimbabwe ended the day on 53-1, still trailing by 380 runs with nine wickets in hand, after left-arm spinner Taijul Islam trapped Sikandar Raza leg-before for 11.

Hamilton Masakadza was un-beaten on 15 and Brian Chari was on 21 when stumps were drawn.

Bangladesh lead the three-match series 1-0 after winning the first Test in Dhaka by three wick-ets. The left-handed pair of Tamim and Shakib put Bangladesh on top with a fourth-wicket stand of 132 on a slow pitch.

Shakib made 137, his third Test century, with the help of 18 bound-aries and two sixes.

Tamim scored a painstaking

109, his fifth Test hundred and the first in four years, with 10 fours.

When Tamim reached 100 off 312 balls, he recorded the slow-est Test century by a Bangladeshi batsman — surpassing his elder brother Nafees Iqbal, who needed 309 deliveries to reach a hundred against the same opponents in 2005. Bangladesh captain Mush-fiqur Rahim played 31 consecutive dot balls before he was run out for 11, but Shakib broke free to reach

his century with a straight drive off Tinashe Panyangara.

Tamim fell to part-timer Ma-sakadza, before Malcolm Waller dismissed Shakib and Shuvagata Hom (15) to ease the pressure on Zimbabwe.

Taijul hit a quick-fire 32 off 44 balls to carry Bangladesh past the 400-run mark.

Tendai Chatara got rid of Tai-jul and Shahadat Hossain, before Natsai M’shangwe wrapped up the

innings by claiming Jubair Hos-sain leg-before to earn his maiden Test wicket.

The third Test between the two lowest-ranked teams — Zimbabwe at number nine and Bangladesh at 10 — will be played in Chittagong from November 12-16.

The Tests will be followed by five One-day Internationals. — AFP

The hosts, who

plodded to 193-3

on the opening day

after electing to bat,

made 433 in their

first innings before

being dismissed in

the final session of

the second day

FINE CENTURY: Bangladesh bastman Shakib Al Hasan plays a shot

during the second day of the second cricket Test match against

Zimbabwe at the Sheikh Abu Naser Stadium in Khulna. – AFP

Bangladesh 1st inningsT. Iqbal c Ervine b Masakadza 109 S. Rahman lbw b Chigumbura 2 M. Haque c and b Panyangara 35 M. Mahmudullah lbw b Panyangara 56 Shakib Al Hasan b Waller 137 M. Rahim run out 11 S. Hom c Chari b Waller 15 T. Islam c Masakadza b Chatara 32 S. Hossain c M’shangwe b Chatara 18 J. Hossain lbw b M’shangwe 1 R. Hossain not out 0 Extras (b-6, lb-6, w-2, nb-3) 17 Total (all out, 158.5 overs) 433 Fall of wickets: 1-6 (Shamsur), 2-78 (Mominul), 3-173 (Mahmudullah), 4-305 (Tamim), 5-322 (Rahim), 6-376 (Shakib), 7-383 (Shuvagata), 8-426 (Taijul), 9-433 (Shahadat), 10-433 (Jubair) Bowling: Panyangara 29-10-49-2 (nb2), Chigumbura 22-5-60-1 (w2), Chatara 27-7-61-2(nb1), M’shangwe 40.5-7-127-1, Waller 23-4-65-2, Raza 11-2-31-0, Ma-sakadza 6-1-28-1. Zimbabwe 1st innings: S. Raza lbw b Taijul 11 B. Chari not out 21 H. Masakadza not out 15 Extras (b-1, lb-5) 6 Total (for one wicket, 19 overs) 53 Fall of wicket: 1-17 (Raza) Bowling: Shahadat 4-0-12-0, Taijul 8-2-21-1, Shakib 3-0-3-0, Jubair 3-1-11-0, Rubel 1-1-0-0 Umpires: Billy Bowden (NZL) and Aleem Dar (PAK) TV umpire: S. Ravi (IND) Match referee: Chris Broad (ENG)

S C O R E B O A R DWaqar attributes ‘3 Ds’ for successABU DHABI: Pakistan’s head coach Waqar Younis said on Tuesday that determination, dedication and discipline had been the keys to his team’s first series win over Australia in 20 years. Pakistan annihilated Aus-tralia by 356 runs in the second Test in Abu Dhabi on Monday to win the two-match series 2-0, their first over their opponentss-ince 1994.

Waqar said he was pleased with the manner of his team’s win. “I am pleased with this win,” Waqar said. “The determination, dedication and discipline led to the goody goody stuff and credit to the boys for putting up this brilliant show.”

Waqar praised skipper Mis-bah-ul Haq for his positive think-ing. “Misbah’s positive frame of mind helped the team and the way he looked at his captaincy and batting inspired other play-ers to do their best,” said Waqar.

Misbah set a new world record for the fastest half-century off just 21 balls and equalled the fast-est hundred feat off 56 balls dur-ing his 101 not out in the second Test, also hitting twin hundreds in the match.

Waqar said he always respect-ed Younis Khan, declared man-of-the-series for his 468 runs in the two Tests, including hun-dreds in each innings of the first Test and 213 in the second.

“We always knew he has this ability and with his amazing performance he has once again proved that he is an institution and juniors sharing the dress-ing room with him develop with every moment, hats off to

the man,” said Waqar of the vet-eran batsman.

Waqar also credited his sup-port staff. “I would also credit my support staff, from Mushtaq Ahmed to Grant Luden to Grant Flower — everyone kept a posi-tive frame of mind, even when we were left frustrated with the results in Sri Lanka,” said Waqar of Pakistan’s last tour in August where they lost 2-0 in Tests and 2-1 in a one-day series.

Waqar denied he ever thought of revenge from Australia after being whitewashed 3-0 as cap-tain in a neutral venue series in 2002.

Pakistan were then shot out for 59 and 53 in a Test in Sharjah.

“I can’t even recall that,” said Waqar. “Those were my playing days so its nothing like revenge, its another era.”

Waqar, however, hoped his team keeps the same momentum.

“We must not think that be-cause we have beaten Australia we are now world beaters,” he warned. — AFP

V I T A L F A C T O R S

PLEASED: Waqar Younis.

Wasim hails ‘incredible’ Pakistan winABU DHABI: Fast-bowling legend Wasim Akram on Tues-day hailed Pakistan’s “incred-ible” Test series win over Aus-tralia — their first in 20 years.

Former captain Akram said the win was all the more re-markable because Pakistan were missing a host of key players, including star spinner Saeed Ajmal, suspended over his illegal bowling action.

“This is an incredible win for Pakistan,” Akram, the last cap-tain to lead Pakistan to a Test win in Australia, said.

“Pakistan gave an extraordi-nary performance, something I had not expected before the series with Saeed Ajmal not there and because of batting weaknesses.”

“I had thought Australia would be tough to beat but ku-dos to our players like Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq and spin-ners that they made Australia look an ordinary team,” said Wasim. — AFP

L E G E N D L A U D S

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SPORTSW E D N E S DAY, N OV E M B E R 5, 2 0 1 4

FROM THE FILES: In this photograph taken on September 7, 2006, Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar,

centre, is watched by coach Greg Chappell, left, and captain Rahul Dravid during a practice session

at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore. – AFP

Chappell rubbishes Tendulkar’s claims

NEW DELHI/MELBOURNE: Sachin Tendulkar’s scathing at-tack on Greg Chappell on Tuesday received the whole-hearted back-ing of two of his then teammates — Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh — even as the Australian hit back at the batting maestro’s claim that he tried to topple Rahul Dravid as captain. A day after Ten-dulkar’s revelations that Chappell tried offering him the captaincy at the expense of Dravid barely a few months before the 2007 World Cup, the Australian denied dis-cussing such a possibility with the now-retired legend.

In his autobiography Playing it My Way which is due for re-lease on Thursday, Tendulkar has claimed that the Australian visit-ed his house and tried to convince him to take over the captaincy from Dravid. But Chappell said he was stunned by the claims. “Whilst I don’t propose to get into a war of words, I can state quite clearly that during my time as Indian coach I never contemplated Sachin re-placing Rahul Dravid as captain,” Chappell said in a statement.

“I was therefore very surprised to read the claims made in the book. During those years, I only ever visited Sachin’s home once, and that was with our physio and assistant coach during Sachin’s rehabilitation from injury, at least 12 months earlier than what was

reported in the book,” he said. Chappell said he enjoyed a

pleasant afternoon at Tendulkar’s home and the captaincy issue never came up for discussion.

Tendulkar, in the book, said that he was shocked by Chappell’s suggestion and the lack of respect shown to Dravid.

Tendulkar is scathing in his criticism of Chappell, who was the national coach from 2005 to 2007, describing him as a “ringmaster who imposed his ideas on the players without showing any signs of being concerned about whether they felt comfortable or not”.

However, Zaheer and Harb-hajan supported Tendulkar’s version of the events, stating that they too had been victims of Chappell’s dictatorial style of functioning.

While Zaheer claimed that Chappell tried his best his to prevent his comeback into the national team and called him a “control freak”, Harbhajan said that the Australian “temporarily destroyed Indian cricket” and tar-getted the senior players.

“After he was appointed the coach of the Indian team, he once came upto me and told “Zaheer, you will not be playing for India till I remain the coach,” Zaheer said.

Zaheer said that Chappell’s two-year phase in Indian cricket was “easily the worst and darkest phase” that he could remember.

Zaheer didn’t stop short of call-ing him a “control freak”.

“He had some issues with the senior guys in the team. He tried many ways to stop my comeback into Indian team during the phase when I was out of the team for nearly a year. I came to know later that everytime when my name was discussed, he (Chappell) would find means to delay my comeback by 3-4 months,” added Zaheer.

Harbhajan echoed the senti-ments but added that a few play-ers in the team were complicit in feeding wrong information to

Chappell. “Chappell destroyed In-dian cricket to such an extent that it required at least 3 years to again get back on track. The worst part was some players in that team, who sucked upto the coach and would supply selective misinformation cre-ating bigger rifts,” Harbhajan said.

Harbhajan also made another shocking claim that Chappell was writing a damaging e-mail to the BCCI about erstwhile skip-per Saurav Ganguly, when India were in the midst of a Test match against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo.

Meanwhile, Ganguly on Mon-day disclosed that Rahul Dravid was aware of what Greg Chappell was up to during his stint as India coach but he “could not control” the Australian. “I really don’t want to go back to that period, you have seen it in the results. (It was) one of worst phases of Indian cricket and worst phase a cricketer can go through, especially someone like me. There were lies after lies and six months later he wanted Rahul removed and Sachin as captain. This goes on to show how the man went about his job,” said Ganguly.

“I was not surprised to see India not qualifying for the next round (in 2007 World Cup). When I came back to the team, I had spo-ken to Dravid about that much later and told him that these were the things going on. He said he knew it all but ‘couldn’t control Greg’,” Ganguly disclosed.

Asked to throw some light on Tendulkar claiming in his book that Chappell once told him ‘I have got the job because of Saurav but that did not mean he was going to do favours to Saurav for the rest of his life’, Ganguly asked, “Is it?”

Expressing surprise at the dis-closure, Ganguly said, “I haven’t heard about that before. This must be closed door discussion between Chappell and Sachin. But I presume it is true and I think it is absolutely ridiculous.”

He said Chappell was someone who could not be trusted. — PTI

Sachin Tendulkar’s

scathing attack

on Greg Chappell

received the whole-

hearted backing of

his then teammates

Cummins relaunches careerADELAIDE: Young Austral-ian paceman Pat Cummins gets a chance to relaunch his injury-blighted international career in Wednesday’s Twenty20 series opener against South Africa in Ad-elaide. Cummins, 21, will play his first international for more than two years as fifth-ranked Australia take on the third-rated Proteas in the first of three T20 matches.

The New South Wales fast bowler has missed three consecu-tive Australian summers with low-er back stress fractures, but Aus-tralia skipper Aaron Finch expects Cummins to issue a reminder of his talents. “When you have got a guy as skilful as Pat in your squad, it adds a real lot of depth,” Finch

told reporters. “He can bat, bowl, is brilliant in the field. So for Austral-ian cricket to have him back is a real asset. He is someone who can swing the ball, and in Twenty20 it’s about taking wickets and he’s a definite wicket-taker.

“When you have that asset, it just gives you so much at the top of the order with the ball. If you can knock over good players early in this for-mat, it goes a long way to winning.”

South Africa captain J.P. Duminy said the Proteas were wary of Cummins, who took seven wickets and scored the winning runs in his sole Test match against South Africa three years ago.

“I was pretty impressed with what I came up against there,”

Duminy said of Cummins. “We have seen some good spurts from him over different formats and ob-viously he’s another guy that has been hindered by injury.

“I’m sure he’s on the way back in terms of bowling confidence. Definitely a key player for them and a player that we definitely are wary of.”

Finch said the T20 series, ahead of five one-dayers against the South Africans, was an ideal plat-form for the likes of Cummins to gain early-season momentum.

“From a personal point of view, if you start off the series well it gives you a lot of confidence ... it probably takes a little bit of pres-sure off,” Finch said. — AFP

T 2 0 S E R I E S

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SPORTSW E D N E S DAY, N OV E M B E R 5, 2 0 14

Trial camp for GCC women’s tourneyMUSCAT: Oman Cricket is to host the inaugural GCC Women’s T20 Cricket championship from December 15 to 19.

Four teams from the GCC nations, one each from Oman, UAE, Kuwait and Qatar, will participate in the tournament to be played at the Oman Cricket’s grass ground with turf pitches at Amerat.

Oman Cricket will be organis-ing training camps on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays for the team selection at the Bousher Cricket Academy starting from Thursday, November 6 from 6.00 pm to 8.00 pm.

All those, including school girls, who are interested in play-ing for Oman Women’s Cricket Team are requested to register their names on the prescribed with Oman Cricket and be avail-able at the camps venue for train-ing and selections.

This tournament, first of its kind to be hosted by Oman Crick-et, is aimed at promoting and de-veloping women’s cricket in the Sultanate and in the region.

The participating teams will play in a league format, with two matches in a day, to be played on December 15, 16 and 18 with De-cember 17 a rest day.

The finals and third/fourth po-sition play-off will be played on December 19.

The tournament will be held annually in various Gulf coun-

tries when more teams are ex-pected to participate.

Oman Cricket has formed a tournament committee with Vaishali Jesrani, Lady Coordina-tor as the main tournament coor-dinator and the key contact.

T W E N T Y 2 0

LADY COORDINATOR: Vaishali

The GCC tournament to be held from December 15 is first of its kind to be hosted by Oman Cricket and is aimed at promoting and developing women’s cricket in the Sultanate and in the region

UTSC CRICKET TEAM TO DEBUT IN OC LEAGUEUnited Thalaserry Sports Club cricket will make their maiden entry in the league this

year. All the team members of UTSC hail from Thalaserry a city in the northern part of

Kerala in India. UTSC have been regularly conducting cricket, hockey, football and other

sports events in Oman. However this is the first time UTSC had entered the OCC league in

the D Division. The cricket team members of UTSC are: Faleel Thailakandy [captain] Mu-

hammed Ali, Shanidh kottara Mohammed Sherif, Shameer Kariyadan, Wasir Ali, Rashmal,

Mohammed Ijas, Naseer, Jaleel, Mohammed Dilwar, Pavaz, Shameel and Mohammed Rafi.

Coach: Jawis. Manager: Jamsher ACM. Administrator: Hashir Ponmanichi. — Supplied photo

India lose to Australia in first Test

PERTH: The Indian men’s hockey team suffered a 0-4 loss against Australia in the first of the four-match Test series at the Perth Hockey Stadium here on Tuesday. Dragflicker Jeremy Hayward (15th, 34th minutes), Jacob Whetton (30th) and Glenn Simpson (39th) scored for the world champions Aus-tralian team, which dominated the contest.

Both the teams started ag-gressively but it was Australia who capitalised on the first op-portunity. Hayward sounded the board in the 15th minute to help his team take 1-0 lead which was doubled with Whetton’s field goal in the 30th minute.

India found the going tough as Australia stepped up the pres-sure and scored the third goal in the 34th minute with Edwards’ second goal. Five minutes later. mid-fielder Simpson made it 4-0 with a perfectly executed penalty corner. — IANS

H O C K E Y

Chile eyes hosting 2030 WC

SANTIAGO: Chile is inter-ested in hosting the 2030 soccer World Cup but Argentina will not be bidding to stage the tour-nament, local media reported on Tuesday. Chilean soccer fed-eration president Sergio Jadue, who was re-elected on Monday, said his country had spoken to soccer’s ruling world body Fifa about hosting the competition, either alone or with Uruguay.

Jadue has previously ex-pressed interest in Chile hold-ing the 2030 World Cup, build-ing on its experience of hosting next year’s Copa America re-gional competition and the Un-der-17 World Cup.

Argentina has also been mooted as a possible host for 2030, but Miguel Angel Silva, the Argentine soccer associa-tion vice-president, appeared to rule that out.

“Argentina is not thinking about the 2030 World Cup. We haven’t even considered it yet. If you asked me concretely, Ar-gentina will not bid to organise that World Cup,” Chilean local daily La Tercera quoted him as saying.

The 2030 World Cup will mark the centenary of the global soccer competition which is held every four years. — Reuters

F O O T B A L L

Elano saves Chennaiyin with equaliser

CHENNAI: Coming back af-ter an injury layoff, Atletico de Kolkata skipper Luis Garcia and the tournament’s leading scorer Elano Blumer, of Chennaiyin FC, scored a goal each as the two sides shared points in a top-of-the-table clash in the Indian Super League here on Tuesday.

Garcia found the target in the 35th minute when he successful-ly converted from the spot, while Elano struck as late as the 90th minute, also from the spot at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

After missing the last two games, Garcia seemed to be tak-ing Kolkata to another victory before Elano, leading the scor-ing chart with six goals, dashed the visitors’ hopes of pulling off a win on the road.

Garcia, the Spanish defen-sive midfielder, made a differ-ence in the middle and was one of the best players of the day on either side.

ATK maintained their table-topper status scoring against the run of play. But it was Elano, who bagged the Moment of the Match award with his strike at the death.

The hosts were awarded the penalty after John Mendonza was brought down by ATk’s sub-stitute Kingshuk Debnath. — PTI

I N D I A N S U P E R L E A G U ENo margin of errors for City

LONDON: Everyone at Man-chester City is flying high after the 1-0 derby win over Manchester United at the weekend but they could all come crashing back to earth after Wednesday’s meeting with CSKA Moscow in the Cham-pions League.

The English top-flight champi-ons, with striker Sergio Aguero in outstanding form, should in theory be too strong for their Russian counterparts at the Etihad Sta-dium, a year to the day since City won the corresponding fixture 5-2.

The omens are on the side of the home team too. CSKA have never

won in England in five appearanc-es while Aguero has scored seven goals against Russian clubs in four outings for City and previous club Atletico Madrid. However, City’s performances in Europe this sea-son have produced two draws and a defeat from three Group E matches and they are now battling to stay in the competition.

The second of those draws came in Moscow two weeks ago when they let a 2-0 lead slip in the clos-ing stages, allowing CSKA to re-cover for a 2-2 draw, but they have no margin for errors now.

Bayern Munich lead the way with nine points followed by AS Roma on four, City on two and CSKA one. Anything less than a home win will put a huge dent in the home team’s hopes of advanc-ing to the last 16.

A CSKA victory would put the Russians back in the hunt if Bay-

ern, who handed City a lifeline when they thrashed Roma 7-1 two weeks ago, beat the Italian outfit again on Wednesday.

Despite a surprise recent de-feat by West Ham United, City are third in the Premier League, six points behind leaders Chelsea, and their form domestically is far superior to their results in Europe.

Schizophrenic CityMidfielders David Silva and Frank Lampard are sidelined against CSKA through injury while Alek-sandar Kolarov is a doubt after being hurt in the warm-up against United on Sunday.

While City are showing some-what schizophrenic form in the two biggest competitions they play in, CSKA travel to Manchester seeking to salvage a season that is beginning to slide. The Moscow side trail leaders Zenit St Peters-

burg by seven points in the Rus-sian top-flight after losing 1-0 to Andre Villas-Boas’ side at the weekend. Javi Garcia, who used to play for City, scored Zenit’s winner at CSKA on Saturday.

Injuries and suspensions have hit CSKA hard in Europe this season but coach Leonid Slut-sky welcomes back Alan Dza-goev and Pontus Wernbloom on Wednesday after both served three-match bans.

The Russians will still be with-out young forward Kirill Panchen-ko and Swedish midfielder Ras-mus Elm who has yet to feature this season because of a serious stomach problem.

“We are treating Elm in Sweden and in Russia,” said club president Evgeny Giner. “I was told that 10 footballers in the world suffer from this condition and nine aren’t playing football.” — Reuters

The English top-

flight champions,

with striker

Sergio Aguero in

outstanding form,

should in theory

be too strong for

their Russian

counterparts at the

Etihad Stadium

GEARING UP: Manchester City players attend a training session at The Etihad Stadium in Manchester,

north-west England. – AFP

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SPORTSW E D N E S DAY, N OV E M B E R 5, 2 0 1 4

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Ahmad sets sights on potential silverware

MUSCAT: Omani racing driver Ahmad Al Harthy has his sights set on future of success and potential silverware as he prepares for Sea-son 6 of the Middle East’s most suc-cessful racing series, the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East.

Set to line up for Al Nabooda Racing in the powerful Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, Al Harthy will face strong challenges from rival driv-ers coming out of Qatar, UAE, Ku-wait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and knows he will have to learn quickly if he is to contest for trophies.

With the sixth installment of the series getting underway at Bah-rain International Circuit on No-vember 14, excitement is reaching fever pitch for the drivers and re-gional fans as they prepare for the first lights to go out, signalling the return of the region’s most profes-sional series.

Having competed in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East in 2011, Ahmad Al Harthy is well aware of the task at hand but with his new competition having spent much more time getting used to the unique traits of the cars and the tracks which the drivers will visit; Bahrain International Cir-cuit, Dubai Autodrome and Losail International Circuit.

However, since his last outing in the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup the Om-ani driver has clocked up hundreds of hours of elite racing cars and is

looking forward to getting out on the tracks. Speaking ahead of the opening round Al Harthy said: “It is great to have prior knowledge of the series, its format and of course, previous incarnations of the car but I’ve refined my approach to all forms of racing over the past few years so I will be coming from the same direction as I usually would.

“The focus early on will be on my own driving and performance to ensure I can progress quickly.

“I’ve kept track of the series over the years and know a number of the drivers personally so it will be great to see how they have devel-oped. The GT3 spec car will be an intense learning curve but I am ready for the challenge and very excited to get going.

“We have high hopes for suc-cess and of course I want to secure some silverware, whether that be personally or for the team.”

Al Harthy also takes a huge sense of pride as the only Omani partici-pant in the Porsche GT3 Cup Chal-lenge Middle East and believes his involvement adds a new layer to the series. He’s also hopeful that his participation creates a path which other Omani drivers aspir-ing to compete at the highest levels of motorsport, can follow.

Al Harthy said: “Being a part of the series is a tremendous honour

and of course I will be representing Oman foremost and secondly the UAE where my team, Al Nabooda Racing are based.

“I think my involvement shows that Oman can still compete at the pinnacle of professional driv-ing despite not having a racetrack. There has been huge investment in karting in our country and that is starting show positive results, but the Porsche series is the next step that we would want to see our local drivers taking to improve their skills and I’m very proud to be leading that charge.

“This region really owes a great debt of gratitude to the GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East as it con-tinues to help grow motorsport in the Gulf, Oman and beyond.”

Regarded as the purest form of racing with all drivers competing in identical fifth generation Por-sche 911 GT3 Cup, the unique one-make series will consist of 12 races between November 2014 and April 2015. Six intensely competitive race round weekends will be staged at the region’s leading circuits with two rounds in Bahrain, two in the United Arab Emirates and two in Qatar over a six month period.

Following a gripping Season 5 which Kuwaiti star Zaid Ashka-nani won by a single point over former champion and Al Harthy’s

Season 6 teammate Clemens Schmid, Season 6 is poised to be one of the most dramatic and ex-citing instalments yet.

The new season will open with a night race on November 14 at the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) as part of an illustrious World En-durance Championship weekend.

It will be the first time the cham-pionship will open under flood-light conditions adding to the chal-lenge and tension of the first race of the new season.

The championship will also fin-ish in style returning to Sakir for the final round of the series.

As a fitting finale to the season whilst providing local drivers with a chance of a lifetime the sixth season is expected to form part of the official race weekend schedule to support the 2015 Formula One Bahrain Grand Prix in April 2015.

Race schedule: Round 1: Race 1 (Nov 14) and Race 2 (Nov 15) at Bahrain International Circuit, Bahrain. Round 2: Race 3 (Dec 5) and Race 4 (Dec 6) at Dubai Autodrome (UAE). Round 3: Race 5 (Jan 23) and Race 6 (Jan 24) at Losail Inter-national Circuit in Qatar. Round 4: Race 7 (Feb 13) and Race 8 (Feb 14) at Losail International Circuit in Qatar. Round 5: Race 9 (Feb 27) and Race 10 (Feb 28) at Dubai Autodrome (UAE). Round 6: Race 11 (April 4) and Race 12 (April 5) at Bah-rain International Circuit, Bahrain.

Trailblazing Omani

Ahmad Al Harthy

looks to lead his

country’s motorsport

ambitions through

Porsche GT3 Cup

Challenge Middle

East with first

round scheduled

for November

14 in Bahrain

“Being a part of the series is a tremendous honour and of course I will be representing Oman foremost and secondly the UAE where my team, Al Nabooda Racing are based

Ahmad Al Harthy

A’Saffa golf tourney on November 15MUSCAT: Complimenting their 100 percent natural and tasty, healthy food range, A’Saffa are now joining forces with Ghala Valley Golf course to organise their first A’Saffa Golf Tourna-ment on November 15.

The tournament is open to all golfers in Oman, with a registered handicap, and is an 18-hole one-tee start competition running from 6.30 am to the early evening.

A’Saffa Golf Tournament is their inaugural sporting event, promoting healthy choices through the game of golf. As part of the event, gift bags will be giv-en to all of the players with shirts and caps included.

The event will be held at the Ghala Valley Golf club. Walking the golf course for just 9 holes, a golfer can burn on average 718

calories. Now that the winter sea-son is kicking in and the temper-atures have dropped, walking the course lets the players fully enjoy the natural beauty of the course from tee to green.

Sidhartha Lenka, Head of Mar-keting and Sales at A’Saffa Foods commented: “As the market lead-er, it is our promise to provide consumers with food products that are wholesome and pro-cessed hygienically from pure, tasty, premium natural healthy ingredients and aromatic spices.”

Further details on the tourna-ment can be had from Ghala Val-ley Pro Shop (92194957).

The registration for the A’Saffa Golf Tournament is OMR 10 for Ghala Valley members, OMR 25 for non-members and completely free for juniors.

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

Rhea wins two titles

at ISC tournament

MUSCAT: Rhea Bhatia cornered double glory at the Villeroy & Boch + Hansgrohe Open Table Tennis Tournament organised by the Indian Social Club Mus-cat, retaining the girls under-13 singles title and added the girls under-16 to her collection.

In the final of the under-13 sin-gles, although she won in straight games, top seed Rhea was made to work hard before sealing the title with a 11-9, 13-11, 11-7, 12-10 win over second seed Smrithi Natan.

In a repeat of the under-13 fi-nal, Rhea and Smrithi met in the final of the girls under-16 singles as well. Any hopes Smrithi had of avenging her defeat to Rhea were put to rest as Rhea once again dominated the final to win in straight games 11-7, 11-8, 11-7, 11-5 to claim the double crown.

In the mixed doubles round-robin league action, Srinivas Iyer and Gayathri Borpujari defeated Jeet Mehta and Tanuja Sharma 11-8, 11-6, 11-4, Kenneth Vaz and Smrithi also Handed Jeet and Tanuja a 11-5, 11-2, 11-4 defeat, fancied Suhail Khan and Erica Vaz struggled in the first game before overcoming Simon Joseph and Sneha Narayanan 14-12, 11-

5, 11-9 while Kenneth Vaz and Smrithi Natan defeated Srinivas Iyer and Gayathri Borpujari 11-6, 11-4, 8-11, 11-6 and the team of Gopalakrishnan and Rhea Bha-tia beat Srinivas and Gayathri 11-6, 11-7, 11-6.

T A B L E T E N N I S

THE FINALISTS: Rhea Bhatia,

left, and Smrithi Natan.

FC Tokyo eyeing Xavi TOKYO: FC Tokyo are eyeing an ambitious swoop on Barce-lona and Spain great Xavi Her-nandez, joining a list of suitors thought to include Manchester United and Bayern Munich.

The Japanese outfit has be-gun making overtures to the World Cup-winning midfielder via intermediaries, the Nikkan sports said.

FC Tokyo, currently seventh in the 18-team J-League first division, have yet to make an of-ficial offer for 34-year-old Xavi, with a team official telling the daily that no formal decision has been made. The newspaper said money remained a huge question, with deep-pocketed European and Middle Eastern clubs also reportedly interested in Xavi, who last month broke the record for the most appear-ances in the Champions League.

Xavi has already been linked with possible moves to the Pre-mier League and the Bundes-liga. There have reportedly been offers from Qatar as well. — AFP

F O O T B A L L

MUSCAT: Omani star Fatma Al Nabhani and compatriot Sarah Al Balushi stormed into the final of the women’s doubles final while young Lara Schmid stayed on course for two titles, in the wom-en’s singles and doubles, at the ongoing Oman Arab Bank (OAB) Open Tennis Championship at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex.

In the women’s singles, Lara Schmid booked her place in the summit clash after overcoming an early resistance from Rafaella Saa in a 6-3, 6-1 semifinal victory.

Lara also reached the semifi-nals of the women’s doubles in the company of Alexandra Sere. In their quarterfinal match, the duo brushed aside the challenge of Ar-lyn Torralba and Rose Higham for a 6-0, 6-1 victory.

In the last four stage, Lara and Al-exandra will face Deepthika Goon-eratne and Catherine Bonfert.

Awaiting the winners of that semifinal match will be Fatma Al Nabhani and Sarah Al Balushi. The Omani girls have already stormed into the final, dropping just one game on their way to a 6-0, 6-1 victo-ry over Yashika Jain and Rupsha D.

Arlyn Torralba, despite los-ing in the women’s doubles, has something to cheer about as she combined well with Arjay

Canoja enter the semifinals of the mixed doubles.

Arlyn and Arjay, however, had to overcome a spirited challenge from the husband-wife team of Emerson and Joy Ocampo to make it to the last four.

In fact, Arlyn and Arjay fought bravely to clinch a thrilling three-set match at 7-5, 4-6, 10-3.

Mariam Al Balushi and Rich-

ard Martinez also booked a place in the semifinals after defeating Samar Al Bakry and Tinny G in straight sets 6-4, 6-3.

In the men’s B singles, Ronnie Pereira defeated Achilleas Chriso-volous 7-5, 6-0 on his way to quar-terfinals while Bruno Van Begin moved into last 16 with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Cled Taporco.

In the boys under-14, Tim Ru-

therford and Abdullah Al Barwani entered the semifinals. Tim de-feated Muneer Al Rawahi 6-1, 6-2 while Abdullah got the better of Yash Tanna in a 6-3, 6-3 win.

Taisei Nishino reached the quarterfinals of the same event with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Shlok Ali.

Mariam Al Khanjari, mean-while, scraped into the semifinals of the under-10 (unisex) event

when she overcame Isa Al Suleim-ani 9-8 (7-1). The annual champi-onship, one of the biggest events to be organised by Oman Tennis As-sociation with participation of 260 players in various categories, runs till November 26 and is supported by one of country’s leading banks, Oman Arab Bank, as the title spon-sored and co-sponsored by Oman-tel and Pocari Sweat.

C6

SPORTSW E D N E S DAY, N OV E M B E R 5, 2 0 14

Tweet all about it

SCAN THIS TO INSTANTLY LAUNCH TWITTER PAGE

Schmid stays on course for two titles, Fatma-Sarah duo in finalLara Schmid booked

a place the women’s

singles final and also

reached the women’s

doubles semifinal

in the company

of Rafealla Saa

EYING TWO CROWNS: Lara Schmid in action during her women’s singles semifinal match against Rafaella Saa at the Oman Arab Bank Open Tennis Championships at the

Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex. Fatma Al Nabhani, right in right picture, and Sarah Al Balushi pictured during a women’s doubles match. – FAISAL AL BALUSHI/OTA

SS Friends, Masters XI, Asian Brothers, Future CC in quarterfinals

MUSCAT: SS Friends, Masters XI, Asian Brothers and Future CC reached the quarterfinals as the ninth edition of FRiENDi Mobil Challengers Cup cricket tourna-ment kicked off in style at the lush green grass ground at the Al Gub-rah Power Plant.

Asian Brothers made 100 for six in eight overs and in reply Rain Riders could only manage 69 all out in their stipulated overs.

In another match, Ruwi Kings bowled out Al Taher Aces for 40

in eight overs and in reply Ruwi Kings just managed to score 41 runs losing seven wickets.

The quarterfinal and semifinal matches as well as the final are scheduled will be played at the same venue on November 7.

The tournament, in which 16 team are competing, is mainly sponsored by FRiENDi Mobile, Danube, Abdul Fatah Mohd Noor Co, Al Hajiry Tdg, Cluttons, The Body Shop and supported by Palm Restaurant and Red Bull.

Results: Al Sulaimi Group 46 for 6 lost to HCC 48 for 1. Man of the match: Giri. Muscat Rocks 45 for 8 lost to Future CC 49 for 3 by 7 wickets. Man of the match: Akhil

Masters XI 84 for 8 bt QAD 59 for 5. Man of the match: Iqbal. Asfandyar XI 95 for 1 bt National Gas 53 for 5 by. Man of the match: Iftikhar.

AKCT Muscat 70 for 7 lost to Roy-al Challengers 71 for 1. Man of the match: Nithin. Asian Brothers 100 for 6 bt Rain Raiders 69 all out. Man of the match: Mumhaaj

Altaher Aces 40 all out lost to Ruwi Kings 41 for 7. Man of the match: Sahil.

Royal Friends 43 for 6 lost to SS Friends 44 for 4. Man of the match: Ashwith.

Friday fixtures: Quarterfinals: Fu-ture CC vs SS Friends (6.30 am), Mas-ters XI vs Asian Brothers (7.30 am), HCC vs Ruwi Kings (8.30 am), Royal Challengers vs Asfandyar XI (9.30 am). 1st semifinals 10.30 am, 2nd semifi-nals 1.30 pm. Final – 3.00 pm. Prize dis-tribution ceremony at 4.15 pm.

F R I E N D I M O B I L E C H A L L E N G E R S C U P

MAN OF THE MATCH: FRiENDi Mobile’s Joseph Rajan, right, hon-

ours one of the star performers. – Credit

IPL 2015 to be played from Apr 8 MUMBAI: The 2015 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will be played Apr 8-May 24, its governing council an-nounced on Tuesday.

“The 2015 season of the IPL will commence on Wednesday, April 8 and conclude on Sunday, May 24,” Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Secre-tary Sanjay Patel said in a press statement.

For the league’s next edition, Mumbai Indians have acquired Unmukt Chand from Rajasthan Royals and R. Vinay Kumar from Kolkata Knight Riders, respectively. Mumbai also have released Michael Hussey and Praveen Kumar.

Along with the 2015 edition, the governing council also an-nounced the dates for the next two seasons, 2016 and 2017 re-spectively. While the 2016 edi-tion will be played Apr 8-May 29, the 2017 edition is slated for Apr 5-May 21. — IANS

C R I C K E T

WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COMSECTIONC W E D N E S DAY, N OV E M B E R 5, 2 0 14LIFE & STYLE

Travelling always came easy to actor Miller.

Even before his star turn on CSI: Miami and a life of inter-

national film premieres, back when he was a penny-pinch-ing college student, he said he would find cheap last-minute flights, arrive in a new city and make a weekend of it.”

“You know what I get a lot?” Miller said over the phone recent-ly. “Must be nice. Yeah, it is nice. My life is great. But it’s not some-thing other people can’t do.”

He added, “There’s an intimida-tion that comes along with travel that doesn’t need to be there.”

Demystifying travel is a mission of Miller’s on Weekend Fix, a new series that had its premiere on the Esquire Network last month. With his co-host, Andres Izquieta, Miller travels to a different city on the fly and seeks out recommen-dations by using social media and talking to locals. “Having a smart-phone is like having a concierge in your pocket,” he said. “We’re doing

a lot of high-tech stuff, but there’s no substitute for people.”

Below are edited excerpts from a conversation with Miller about tips for spontaneous travel.

Q: Let’s say you’re travelling to a new city in the States. What do you do?

A: I figure out my transportation from the airport into the actual city, get from point A to point B. Most cities now have a pretty good se-lection of options, from shuttle to train to cabs or Uber. I never check baggage. For a carry-on, I have this hard-plastic Coleman bag that is bright, bright yellow — can’t be confused with anyone else’s — or I use this beautiful leather duffel bag I got in Florence.

Q: You’re in the city centre. Now what?

A: Usually I’m hungry. I throw out a blast on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and see if they have any suggestions. You’d be surprised how many people respond. And with Instagram — man, forget about it — it’s a menu nowadays. If you hashtag the right thing, you can

find the food you’re looking for: the name of the city, plus #restaurant, #delicious, #padthai, #streetfood #food — as inappropriate as that sounds. Or #nomnom is another one people love. And once you’re eating, you can determine where you want to stay.

Q: Oh. You hadn’t already booked a hotel?

A: It’s not that big of a deal to find one, especially if you’re landing in the daytime. You’ve got plenty of time to hustle. First figure out what part of town you want to stay in, and you can discover that just by speaking to people. Talk to the waiter, the waitress, people on the street. Ask what neighbor-hoods they like, explain you’re looking for something artistic, luxurious, whatever it is. People know their city, they’re proud of where they’re from, so they’re your best resources.

Q: You’ve narrowed down your list of hotels. Do you start calling them?

A: I can’t remember the last time I was actually on the phone

with a hotel. I try different apps like HotelTonight or Hotels.com. I’m a big fan of boutique hotels. I love all of the Joie de Vivre hotels in the Bay Area; the Palomar in D.C.; Le Petit Hotel in Montreal; and Opus in Vancouver. The In-ternational House Hotel in New Orleans is great, just close enough to the French Quarter, but not on Bourbon Street because that’s just too much.

Q: What if you’re going abroad?A: You have to do a little bit

more planning because of the language barrier. Make sure you have a phone: either a local phone or get a data package on your do-mestic phone — the last thing you want to do is double up the price of your trip. You’re using a lot of translation apps like Word Lens, which lets you upload a photo of a sign and translates it, so this will eat up your battery. Make sure you always have a charger. And try to learn a couple of words. Everyone appreciates someone attempting to speak their native tongue. – Emily Brenan/The New York Times News Service

When visiting a new city, actor Omar Miller uses social media and locals to help him

find the best places to eat, stay and explore

There’s an intimidation that comes along with travel that doesn’t need to be there

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EXTRAW E D N E S DAY, N OV E M B E R 5, 2 0 14

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

A bowl of porridge that tastes of burning plastic; never again smelling your moth-er’s perfume; cakes that seem like wedges of soil;

the creeping fear that you forgot deodorant; opening your front door after months away only to be met with nothingness; no sense of home. Anosmia can be a many-flavoured loss. Like 15 per cent of anosmics, I managed to obliterate my own sense of smell and taste and, as a consequence, pour wet concrete across my emotional landscape, with a head injury — simply by falling off my bike and hitting the road headfirst. Hit it so hard, in fact, that the back of the helmet broke off into chunks, while I politely screeched, “Oh, don’t worry!” and daubed at the red serpent of blood slipping down my neck.

Anosmia and its ugly sisters, parosmia and phantosmia, are a collection of disorders that af-fect a significant per cent of the population in the UK, yet most of us know, or care, very little about them. I, somewhat greed-ily, have suffered from all three. While anosmia — the loss of smell — can be easily understood by others (we’ve all had colds or can hold our noses), parosmia —to suffer from smell and taste distortions that turn a cheese sandwich into a slab of mint or a cup of tea into fat — is harder for others to experience.

Phantosmia — to be haunted by smells and tastes that are not

there — is possibly the strang-est of all. For weeks after my ac-cident, I walked around with an ever-present tang of burnt plastic and chemical smoke across the back of my mouth. Currently, just over seven months after the acci-dent, I have parosmia. So I’ve gone from having no sense of smell or taste, to the constant companion of burning plastic, until here I am now, able to smell my spice cup-board, but totally unable to differ-entiate it from my old socks.

It’s no surprise that 92 per cent of those surveyed by Fifth Sense, the charity for those with smell or taste disorders, reported impair-ment of eating. But, sadly, it’s not as simple as just losing your ap-petite, or that food now has all the flavour of a sack of clay. Because, while flavour is a huge part of taste, it is not the entirety. The five tastes are processed by the tongue. Therefore, sweetness, salt, sour-ness, bitterness and that pleas-ant mouth-drying savoury taste of umami found in soy sauce and spinach, are still with me.

But everything else, every shade of citrus, dairy, grain, protein, smoke, courgettes, garlic, cheese, freshly baked bread and picked tomatoes — comes from your nose; your sense of smell. Or, more specifically, the olfactory bulb at the front of your brain where the nasal receptors meet your thinking cap. The very place, in fact, that I smashed into the front of my skull while riding a

borrowed bike in New Zea-land. Pure anosmia — the lack of smell — reduces all meals to something like an overly-chilled supermarket sandwich. You know what’s in there, you can see, feel, taste and appreciate some of it, but the actual flavour has been dulled to the point of irrelevance. “There’s a sensory input, but it’s beige,” says Guy Kelly, the comedian and anos-mic. “Like a TV tuned to static.”

I can now taste the difference between a pineapple and a pasty, and have developed the kind of sweet tooth that could dissolve coins, but the parosmia remains. Despite being raised a vegetarian and eating meat about as often as most people drink guava juice, I have had days when everything I

consumed tasted of animal fat.Foods that I once adored seem

permanently distorted; ginger tastes of soil, noodles taste of burnt onions, coffee tastes of chalk. Fruit may now taste like a perfect symphony of angelic harps, and I can enjoy the cheap-est white wine that Costcutter dares to stock, but I am not a Ro-man; I cannot live on wine and fruit alone. “I had one day where everything tasted of mint,” says Guy Kelly. “It doesn’t sound like a bad thing, but it’s awful. It was a constant, all-pervasive thing that undercut all other tastes. I didn’t eat much because it was so horri-ble. Tasting mint when you’re eat-ing scrambled eggs is no fun.”

Phantosmia is, possibly, even worse. “There’s a chemical taste that comes and goes, like the smell of when you take apart an old VCR, or circuit boards.” says Kelly. “It’s like a cross between the chemicals that go into pro-ducing Juicy Fruit chewing gum and burning rubber.” To have the flavour of burning plastic, rotting meat or bleach washing around your saliva for days, like a chemical spill out at sea, turns eating into an unpleasant but unavoidable refuelling exercise.

“One woman was affected so badly (by phantosmia) that it caused her to throw up,” says Duncan Boak, the founder of Fifth Sense. “She went on to be hospital-

ised, suffering from malnutrition, because the smells were so foul that she couldn’t really eat.” No wonder that 45 per cent of those surveyed by Fifth Sense reported depression. It is depressing. The whole thing can feel bleaker than a cold Ginsters scotch egg, eaten one-handed at the wheel of a rust-ing Fiesta, while travelling down the M6, alone, at night.

Of course, to complain about the loss of smell automatically invites comparison to other sense deprivation; to have gone blind, or deaf. But, while anosmia doesn’t affect our ability to navigate the world, smell is re-sponsible for a lot of what con-stitutes earthly pleasures, and the emotional consequence of its loss can be significant. “Ref-erences to lust, desire, even envy are liberally sprayed around the perfume industry,” says Boak. “But we don’t understand how critical smell is to our emotional makeup and psychological well-being. It was only during the Age of Enlightenment that smell start-ed to be seen as this base, animal sense; something that connect-ed us to our primal ancestors. As we started to understand the world through science, sight and hearing were considered more important; they allow us to eval-uate the world. But it’s through our sense of smell that we really feel the world.” – Nell Frizell/The Independent

A HEAD INJURY FROM A BICYCLE ACCIDENT

HAD THE SURPRISING EFFECT OF ROBBING

NELL FRIZZELL OF TWO OF HER SENSES. SEVEN MONTHS ON, SHE EXPLAINS HOW SHE IS LEARNING

TO ADAPT TO A DISTORTED WORLD

ANOSMIA

Nell Frizzell

THERE are some deals that can be quite deceptive. The normal-looking bid or play is wrong, and the hard part is recognising that and making the correct choice.

In this deal, for example, who should come out ahead in four clubs after West leads the diamond two?

South opened with a modern weak three clubs, holding only a six-card suit. After West’s clear-cut takeout double, North should have bid four clubs immediately if willing to go that high over three diamonds.

South has seven potential losers: two spades, one heart, three diamonds and one club. He will have to establish dummy’s heart king and ruff some diamonds in the dummy.

At the table, South won with his diamond ace and led the heart queen. Now West found the only winning defense: He won and shifted to his low trump. He saw the need to try to reduce those ruffs in the shorter trump hand.

South won with dummy’s ace (finessing would not have helped), discarded a spade on the heart king, ruffed a heart in his hand, ruffed a diamond on the board, and called for a heart.

Now East undid his partner’s good work by ruffing. South overruffed, trumped another diamond, and discarded his last spade on the high heart eight. West had to ruff, but it cost his trump trick. If East had discarded on the fourth heart, he could have ruffed the fifth heart and the defenders would have taken one spade, one heart, one club and either one diamond or a second club.

In general on defence, do not waste a trump by ruffing a loser.

— By Phillip Alder

C9

ENTERTAINMENT

If you zig, they will zag

B I G N A T E

B O R N L O S E R

M A R M A D U K E

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

C I N E M A S C H E D U L E

K I D S P O T H E A L T H C A P S U L EC R O S S W O R D

Ans

wer

to p

revi

ous

puzz

le

WITH LOVE

Previous puzzle Solution

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

S U D O K U

W E D N E S DAY, N OV E M B E R 5, 2 0 1 4

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

SAMAY SANDEEPNovember 5, 2012

DHANYA HIRIYANNANovember 6, 2006

M. SYED MUFEEDNovember 7, 2011

MARIAH LIZ ABRAHAMNovember 6, 2013

22 Orderly grouping24 Zeppelin kin26 Decline, as stock

prices 28 Jungle crusher30 Tribute 32 Talked

monotonously33 Shabby 34 Mexican lad

36 Volcanic rock37 Receptacle38 Sphere 40 DEA operative42 Southpaw44 Like some eagles45 Compliment

lavishly51 Appliance maker53 Scale note

ACROSS

1 Like Florida in July

6 Invisible swimmer

11 Diner favourite

13 Campfire fare14 Health resort15 Type of duck17 Part of TNT18 Sardines holder19 Gymnastics

competitions20 Legal matter21 General vicinity23 Apply salve24 — noire 25 Makes a faux pas27 Weasellike

mammals29 Team cheer31 Louis XIV, e.g.32 Chinese festival

“must” 35 Lectern 38 Dingy 39 Opposite of max41 One of the

Beatles

43 Chainsaw target44 Lacking originality46 Sault — Marie47 Que. neighbour48 Greek forum49 Sitcom spaceman50 Darwin’s ship52 Veal serving54 Moved inch by

inch 55 Short, simple song

DOWN

1 Shade-loving plant2 Game official3 Nastier 4 Neighbour of KY5 Hold, as an opinion6 Melodies 7 Search —! 8 Menu choice9 Headgear for

Special Forces members

10 Get out of the sack12 Wedding-cake

part13 Hotel-suite

amenity (2 wds.)16 — ex machina

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Interstellar (Adv / Sci-Fi ) Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica ChastainTimings: 11.30 pm, CP No : (PG12)Ouija ( Horror ) Cast: Olivia Cooke, Ana Coto,6.00 pm & 9.45 pm, CP No : 2220 (15+ ) Wolves (Action / Horror) ( PG 12 )Cast: Jason Momoa, Merritt Patterson 4.00 pm & 8.00 pm, CP No : 2219 Captain Harlock (Animation) Cast: Yu Aoi, Jessica Boone2.00 pmCP No : 2167 ( 15+ )Fury (Action / War) Cast: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf3.00 pm & 11.55 pm,CP No : 2167 ( 15+ )Happy New Year (Action / Comedy) Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan5.30 pm & 8.45 pm CP No: 2165 ( PG 12 )

Poojai (Tamil) (Act/Com)Cast: Vishal Krishna, Shruti Hassan 3:30 pm at Cinema Main, 6:45 & 9:45pm at Cinema 3Money Rathnam (Mal) (Com/Drama)Cast: Fahadh Fasil & Niveda Thomas3:45, 6:45, 9:45 at Cinema 4Kaththi (Tamil) (Action)Cast: Vijay Chandrasekhar, Samantha3:45pm at Cinema 3; 6:30pm at Cinema 2, 9:30pm Cinema MainHappy New Year (Action / Comedy) Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone6:15pm at Cinema Main, 3:30pm & 9:30 pm at Cinema 2 Next Change: Varsham (Mal)Vellimoonga (Mal)Oru Oorula Rendu Raja (Tamil)

Interstellar (2D) (Adv) (PG12) Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica11:45 pmJohn Wick (2D) (Act) (15+) Cast: Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen4:15, 5:30, 9:45, 11:45 pmQuija (2D) (Horror) (15+) Cast: Olivia Cooke, Ana Coto,2:15, 11:30 pmHappy New year (2D) (Act| Com) (PG12) Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan6:15, 8:15 pmSpace Pirate Captain Harlock (2D) (Animation | Adventure) (PG12) 2:00, 04:15 pmWolves (2D) (Act| Horror) (PG12) Cast: Jason Momoa, Lucas Till, Merritt Patterson6:30, 10:00 pmReaper (2D) (Crime | Horror) (12+) Cast: Danny Trejo, Vinnie Jones3:45 pmFury (2D) (Action | Drama) (15+) Cast: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf1:15, 7:30 pm

3:00 pm & 8:15 pmGold Class:2:00 & 05:00 pmJohn Wick (2D)(Act/Thriller) (15+)Cast: Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist11:00 am, 4:30, 8:45 & 11:45 pmGold Class: 12:00 pm, 9:00 & 11:15 pmQuija (2D) (Horror) (15+)Cast: Olivia Cooke, Ana Coto, Daren Kagasoff1:00 pm & 6:30 pmReaper (2D) (Crime/Horror) (12+)Cast: Danny Trejo, Vinnie Jones2:45 pmSpace Pirate Captain Harlock (2D) (Animation/Aduventure) (PG12)Cast: Yû Aoi, Ayano Fukuda10:30 am & 12:45 pmThe Trial (2D)(Crime/Drama) (15+)Cast: John Lloyd Cruz, Gretchen Barretto, Sylvia Sanchez6:15 pm

Interstellar (2D) (Sci-Fi/Adv) (PG12)Cast: Anne Hathaway, Jessica11:15 pmHappy New Year (Hindi) (2D) (Action/Comedy/Drama) (PG12)Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan

SCREEN 1

Happy New Year (Action |Romance | Drama) (PG 12 )Cast: Shahrukh Khan, Abhishek Bachchan, Deepika Padukone10.00 pm

SCREEN 2

Super Nani ( Drama/ Family (TBC )Cast: Sharman Joshi, Rekha 9.45 pm

SCREEN 3

Kaththi – 2D (T)(PG12) (Action)Cast: Vijay Chandrasekar, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Neil Nitin Mukesh5.15 pmHappy New Year – 2D (PG12) (Action | Comedy | Drama)Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan6.15 , 8.15 pmFury – 2D (15+) (Act | Drama | War)Cast: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf 11.30 pmReaper – 2D (12+) (Crime | Horror | Sci-Fi)Cast: Danny Trejo, Vinnie Jones2.30, 11.45 pmJohn Wick – 2D (15+)( Act | Thriller)Cast: Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist2:45, 4.15, 6.15, 9.45 , 11.45 pmQuija – 2D (15+) (Horror)Cast: Olivia Cooke, Ana Coto3.30 pmSpace Pirate Captain Harlock – 2D (PG12) (Animation | Adv | Sci-Fi)Voice Overs: Yû Aoi, Ayano Fukuda4.30, 6.30 pmThe Trial – 2D (15+) (Crime)Cast: John Lloyd Cruz, Sylvia Sanchez4.00 pmPoojai – 2D (T) (PG12) (Act | Drama)Cast: Vishal, Shruti K. Haasan8:45 pmMoney Ratnam – 2D (M) (15+)

Wolves (Action | Horror) (PG12)Cast: Jason Momoa, Lucas Till,3:00, 6:30, 8:15, 11:30 pmOuija (Horror) (15+)Cast: Olivia Cooke, Ana Coto2:45, 4:45, 10:15, 11:45 pmHappy New Year (Act | Com) (PG 12)11:15 pmInterstellar (Adv |Sci-Fi) (PG12)Cast: Anne Hathaway, Jessica8:15 pmKaththi (Action) (PG 12)Cast: Vijay Chandrasekar, Samantha3:15 pmSpace Pirate Captain Harlock (Animation | Adv | Sci-Fi) (PG12)Cast: Yû Aoi, Ayano Fukuda4:30, 6:15 pmMoney Ratnam (Com | Thriller) (15+)Cast: Fahadh Faasil, Niveda Thomas9:00 pmFury (Act | Drama | War) (15+)Cast: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf6:30 pm

Happy New Year (Drama) (PG12) 8:30 pmKaththi (Tamil) (Action) (PG12) 5:45 pmFury (Action | Drama | War) (15+) 2:30 pmSpace Pirate: Captain Harlock

Reaper (2D/PG) (Crime/Sci-Fi 12:15 am, 2:00pm, 8:00pmInterstellar (2D/PG12) (Adv/Mys) Cast: Anne Hathaway, Jessica11:00pmJohn Wick (2D/15+) (Act/Thriller) 12:30pm, 8:45pm, 9:45pmFury (2D/15+) (Action/Drama/War)Cast: Brad Pitt; 2:00pmQuija (2D/15+) (Horror)4:30pm, 11:45pmWicked Blood (PG12) (Act/Adventure)6:15pmSpace Pirate Captain Harlock (2D/PG12) (Animation/Adv/Sci-Fi)12:00pmHappy New Year (2D/PG12) (Act)7:45pm, 11:00pmRoar (2D/PG12) (Act/Adv/Thriller)5:30pmKaththi (2D/PG12) (Action)2:30pmMoney Ratnam (2D/TBC) (Com)Cast: Fahadh Faasil, Ranji Panikkar10:15, 6:30pmPoojai (2D/PG12) (Action/Drama)3:30pm

(Animation | Adv| Sci-Fi) (TBC) 3:30 pmWolves (Action | Horror) (PG12) 5:00, 11:45 pmQuija (Horror) (15+) Cast: Olivia Cooke, Ana Coto,6:45, 8:45 pmMoney Rathnam (Mal) (Thril) (TBC) 10:30 pm

Roar (Action | Adventure) (TBC )Cast: Abhinav Shukla, Achint Kaur, Subrat Dutta9.45 pm

(Comedy | Thriller)Cast: Fahadh Faasil, Niveda Thomas9.15 pmInterstellar – 2D (PG12) (Adv/ Sci-Fi)Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica11. 45 pm

C10

FIND-IT-ALLW E D N E S DAY, N OV E M B E R 5, 2 0 14

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

HOSPITALSAl Amal Medical & Health Care Centre: 24485052Atlas Hospital: Ruwi: 24811743/ Ghubra: 24504000Al Musafir Specialised Medical Clinic: 24706453Hatat Polyclinic LLC,Ruwi: 24563641, Azaiba: 24499269, Sohar: 2683006Al Raffah Hospital: 24618900/1/2Al Massaraat Clinic & Laboratory: 24566435Al Makook Medical Coordinance Centre: 24499434Apollo Medical Centre, Hamriya: 24787766, 24787780Capital Polyclinic: 24707549Badr Al Samaa Polyclinic, Ruwi: 24799760/1/2Capital Clinic, Seeb: 24420740Ceregem National Raak: 24485633Dr Harub’s Clinic: 24563217Elixir Health Centre: 24565802Emirates Medical Centre: 246045401st Chiropractic Centre: 24472274Hamdan Hospital: 23212340International Medical Centre LLC: 24794501/2/3/4/5Kims Oman Hospital: 24760100

24 Hrs Emergency: 24760123Lama Polyclinic, Sohar: 26751128, MBD: 24799077, Al Khuwair: 24478818Magrabi Eye and Ear Hospital: 24568870Muscat Private Hospital: 24583600Welcare Diagnostic and Treatment Centre, Al Khuwair: 24477666Al-Hayat Polyclinc LLC: 22004000

ROYAL OMAN POLICEEmergencies and inquiries: 9999General Directorate of Passport and Residence: 24569603Directorate General of Customs: 24521109Traffic violations inquiries: 24510228Public Relations Admin: 24560099

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

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

AIRLINE OFFICESMuscat Airport Flight information (24 hours): 24519456/24519223Aeroflot: 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, Turkish Airlines: 24703033

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

W E A T H E R

OMAN

Max 34Min 28

Max 32Min 25

Max 32Min 24

Max 33Min 22

Max 35Min 24Max 34

Min 18

Max 34Min 22

Max 31 Min 25

Mainly clear skies over the Sultanate with chance of late night to early morning low level clouds or shallow fog patches formation along the Arabian Sea coast. Chance

of clouds development over Al-Hajar mountains & adjoining areas towards afternoon.

EXPECTED WINDS: Along the coastal areas of Oman Sea wind will be variable light during night becoming northeasterly light to moderate during day, while over the Arabian Sea coast wind will southeasterly light to moderate and northwesterly light to moderate over the rest of the Sultanate.

SEA STATE: Sea state will be moderate along western coast of Musandam with maximum wave height of 2.0 metres. And it will be slight over the rest of the Sultanate coast with maximum wave height 1.25 metres.HORIZONTAL VISIBILITY: Good over most of the Sultanate becoming poor during fog.THE NEXT 48 HOURS OUTLOOK: Mainly clear skies over the Sultanate. Chances of clouds development over Al-Hajar mountains and adjoining areas towards afternoon. Chance of low level clouds formation along the coastal areas during late night to early morning along the coastal areas.

Max Min

GULFAbu Dhabi 33 25Doha 31 23Dubai 34 28Kuwait 24 11Manama 29 21Riyadh 28 18

WORLDAthens 19 16Baghdad 19 9Beijing 17 4Berlin 16 8Boston 17 9Cairo 24 17Colombo 29 20Frankfurt 9 3Hong Kong 26 22Istanbul 16 9Johannesburg 28 12Kuala Lumpur 32 29Lisbon 17 12Paris 11 8Perth 27 11Singapore 31 27Tokyo 18 12Toronto 12 7

WORLD

Max 19Min 11

Max 30Min 18

Max 11Min 3

Max 31Min 24

Max 31Min 18

Max 28Min 15

Max 6Min 2

Max 30Min 23

LISTINGS

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

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

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

TO AL BURAIMI (Route 41)06:30 Sohar 08:50 Daily06:30 Buraimi 11:00 Daily08:00 Buraimi 14:30 Daily via Ibri13:00 Sohar 15:45 Daily13:00 Buraimi 17:40 Daily 16.00 Sohar 18.35 Daily 16.00 Buraimi 20:20 Daily

TO AL BURAIMI (Route 41)07:00 Sohar 08:55 Daily07:00 Ruwi 11:40 Daily13:30 Ruwi 20:20 Daily via Ibri13:00 Sohar 14:55 Daily13:00 Ruwi 17:40 Daily 13:00 Sohar 19:20 Daily 17:00 Ruwi 22:15 Daily

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FROM DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH & SHARJAH (Route 204)Dept Destination Arrival Operating Time Time Days 16:00 Sharjah 16:30 Daily 16.00 Fujairah 18.15 Daily16.00 Ruwi 23.00 Daily

FROM MUSCAT (RUWI) TO MUSCAT (RUWI)

WEDNESDAYFLT NO ARRIVALS FROM ETA WY406 CAIRO  0005WY676 JEDDAH  0005WY682 RIYADH  0005WY648 KUWAIT  0010WY816 BANGKOK  0015WY916 SALALAH  01054H583 DACCA  0115PK229 LAHORE  0215TK776 ISTANBUL/BAHRAIN  0300QR1132 DOHA  0345EK866 DUBAI  0355GF560 BAHRAIN  0405EY384 ABU DHABI  0405FZ041 DUBAI  0415WY902 SALALAH  0630WY638 ABU DHABI  0650WY324 KARACHI  0700WY686 RIYADH  0700WY658 BAHRAIN  0700WY668 DOHA  0710WY674 JEDDAH  0730WY602 DUBAI  0805WY202 BOMBAY  0815WY102 LONDON-HEATHROW  0820NL768 LAHORE  0830WY342 LAHORE  0835FZ043 DUBAI  0850G9114 SHARJAH  0915WY236 HYDERABAD  0920WY226 COCHIN  0930WY242 DELHI  0935EK862 DUBAI  0940WY212 TRIVANDRUM  0940WY252 MADRAS  0940IX443 COCHIN  1010QR1128 DOHA  1010EY382 ABU DHABI  1015IX549 TRIVANDRUM  10209W530 TRIVANDRUM  1035WY282 BANGALORE  1100WY604 DUBAI  1110G9841 RAS AL KHAIMA  1120WY372 COLOMBO  1140IX337 CALICUT  1155FZ037 DUBAI  1200WY384 MALE  1205WY384 MALE  1205WY332 KATHMANDU  1210WY268 LUCKNOW  1210WY332 KATHMANDU  1210PA450 LAHORE  1215WY904 SALALAH  1215WY3302 MUKHAIZNA  1230WY826 KUALA LUMPUR  1230WY818 BANGKOK  1235WY918 KHASAB  1300WY606 DUBAI  1330WY906 SALALAH  1445WY812 BANGKOK  1525WY656 BAHRAIN  1530WY274 JAIPUR  1530FZ045 DUBAI  1555WY204 BOMBAY  1710WY434 TEHRAN  1720WY292 CALICUT  1720WY822 KUALA LUMPUR  1720WY3922 DUQUM OMAN  1730WY3304 MUKHAIZNA  1730WY610 DUBAI  1730WY246 DELHI  1730WY232 HYDERABAD  1740WY284 BANGALORE  1740QR1126 DOHA  1745WY348 ISLAM ABBAD  1745WY664 DOHA  1745EK864 DUBAI  1800GF564 BAHRAIN  1810WY646 KUWAIT  1900G9116 SHARJAH  1915WY254 MADRAS  1920RG125 BATEEN AIRPORT OF AUH  1930FZ047 DUBAI  1945WY914 SALALAH  1950WY614 DUBAI  2030AI977 BANGALORE/HYDERABAD  2105KL441 AMSTERDAM/DOHA  2120WY624 DUBAI  2125WY312 CHITTAGONG  2125AI973 DELHI  21256.00E+81 BOMBAY  2130WY414 AMMAN  21359W534 COCHIN  2140AI907 MADRAS  2200QR1134 DOHA  2210UL205 COLOMBO  2225GF566 BAHRAIN  2240BA073 LONDON-HEATHROW/ABU DHABI  2240EY388 ABU DHABI  2250WY908 SALALAH  2255AI985 AHMEDABAD/BOMBAY  2310WY662 DOHA  2315LX242 ZURICH/DUBAI  23209W540 BOMBAY  2325LH618 FRANKFURT/ABU DHABI  2330WY654 BAHRAIN  2330WY612 DUBAI  2335WY928 SALALAH  2350WY636 ABU DHABI  2350WY696 DAMMAM  2350WY910 SALALAH  2355WY717 ZANZIBAR/DARESSLAM  2355

THURSDAYFLT NO ARRIVALS FROM ETA

WY682 RIYADH  0005WY406 CAIRO  0005WY676 JEDDAH  0005WY648 KUWAIT  0010WY816 BANGKOK  0015BG021 DACCA/CHITTAGONG  0100WY916 SALALAH  01054H585 DACCA  0115PK225 KARACHI  0210TK774 ISTANBUL  0215QR1132 DOHA  0345ET624 ADDIS ABABA  0350EK866 DUBAI  0355EY384 ABU DHABI  0405GF560 BAHRAIN  0405FZ041 DUBAI  0415MS930 CAIRO  04304H586 DOHA  0600WY902 SALALAH  0630WY638 ABU DHABI  0650WY658 BAHRAIN  0700WY686 RIYADH  0700WY324 KARACHI  0700WY668 DOHA  0710WY122 MUNICH  0715WY644 KUWAIT  0715WY114 FRANKFURT  0715WY674 JEDDAH  0730WY602 DUBAI  0805WY202 BOMBAY  0815WY102 LONDON-HEATHROW  0820NL768 LAHORE  0830W342 LAHORE  0835FZ043 DUBAI  0850G9114 SHARJAH  0915WY236 HYDERABAD  0920WY226 COCHIN  0930WY242 DELHI  0935WY252 MADRAS  0940EK862 DUBAI  0940WY212 TRIVANDRUM  0940IX443 COCHIN  1010QR1128 DOHA  1010EY382 ABU DHABI  10159W530 TRIVANDRUM  1035WY282 BANGALORE  1100WY604 DUBAI  1110WY346 ISLAM ABBAD  1110WY372 COLOMBO  1140IX337 CALICUT  1155FZ037 DUBAI  1200WY384 MALE  1205WY904 SALALAH  1215WY826 KUALA LUMPUR  1230WY818 BANGKOK  1235BG023 CHITTAGONG  1245WY606 DUBAI  1330PK291 LAHORE/ISLAM ABBAD  1430WY918 KHASAB  1440IX817 MANGALORE/ABU DHABI  1440WY906 SALALAH  1445WY656 BAHRAIN  1530WY632 ABU DHABI  1535SV530 JEDDAH  1550FZ045 DUBAI  1555WY274 JAIPUR  1640WY204 BOMBAY  1710WY292 CALICUT  1720WY246 DELHI  1730WY610 DUBAI  1730WY264 LUCKNOW  1735WY232 HYDERABAD  1740QR1126 DOHA  1745WY664 DOHA  1745EK864 DUBAI  1800GF564 BAHRAIN  1810WY646 KUWAIT  1900G9116 SHARJAH  1915WY254 MADRAS  1920RG125 BATEEN AIRPORT OF AUH  1930TG507 BANGKOK/KARACHI  1935FZ047 DUBAI  1945WY914 SALALAH  1950WY434 TEHRAN  2000WY614 DUBAI  2030KL441 AMSTERDAM/DOHA  2120WY312 CHITTAGONG  2125WY624 DUBAI  2125AI973 DELHI  21256.00E+81 BOMBAY  2130WY414 AMMAN  21359W534 COCHIN  2140WY374 COLOMBO  2150AI907 MADRAS  2200QR1134 DOHA  2210UL205 COLOMBO  2225WY338 KATHMANDU  2235GF566 BAHRAIN  2240BA073 LONDON-HEATHROW/ABU DHABI  2240EY388 ABU DHABI  2250WY908 SALALAH  2255SG061 AHMEDABAD  2300AI985 AHMEDABAD/BOMBAY  2310WY662 DOHA  2315LX242 ZURICH/DUBAI  23209W540 BOMBAY  2325LH618 FRANKFURT/ABU DHABI  2330WY654 BAHRAIN  2330WY612 DUBAI  2335WY636 ABU DHABI  2350WY696 DAMMAM  2350WY910 SALALAH  2355WY717 ZANZIBAR/DARESSLAM  2355

FLT NO DEPARTURES TO ETD AI986 BOMBAY  0005LX243 DUBAI/ZURICH  00209W539 BOMBAY  0025BA072 ABU DHABI/LONDON-HEATHROW  0025LH619 ABU DHABI/FRANKFURT  0050WY685 RIYADH  0105WY211 TRIVANDRUM  0110WY251 MADRAS  0110WY201 BOMBAY  0120WY811 BANGKOK  0120WY225 COCHIN  0125WY235 HYDERABAD  0135WY601 DUBAI  0135WY821 KUALA LUMPUR  0140WY341 LAHORE  0150WY241 DELHI  0155WY281 BANGALORE  0200WY637 ABU DHABI  0205WY657 BAHRAIN  0205WY323 KARACHI  0210WY371 COLOMBO  0210WY667 DOHA  0220WY383 MALE  02354H584 DACCA  0245PK230 LAHORE  0315TK777 BAHRAIN/ISTANBUL  0350WY267 LUCKNOW  0355EK867 DUBAI  0455FZ042 DUBAI  0510QR1133 DOHA  0520EY385 ABU DHABI  0525GF561 BAHRAIN  0745WY603 DUBAI  0800WY903 SALALAH  0800WY273 JAIPUR  0820WY3301 MUKHAIZNA  0830WY291 CALICUT  0920NL769 LAHORE  0930FZ044 DUBAI  0935WY231 HYDERABAD  0955WY245 DELHI  0955WY917 KHASAB  1000G9115 SHARJAH  1005WY815 BANGKOK  1010WY203 BOMBAY  1030WY905 SALALAH  1030WY605 DUBAI  1030WY253 MADRAS  1040WY347 ISLAM ABBAD  1040WY311 CHITTAGONG  1040WY717 ZANZIBAR/DARESSLAM  1045EK863 DUBAI  1055EY383 ABU DHABI  1105WY433 TEHRAN  1105IX554 TRIVANDRUM  1110WY655 BAHRAIN  1110IX442 COCHIN  1115QR1129 DOHA  11159W533 COCHIN  1135WY331 KATHMANDU  1205G9842 RAS AL KHAIMA  1210IX350 CALICUT  1255PA451 LAHORE  1315WY101 LONDON-HEATHROW  1325WY663 DOHA  1330WY3303 MUKHAIZNA  1330WY413 AMMAN  1330WY413 AMMAN  1330WY645 KUWAIT  1340WY645 KUWAIT  1340WY3921 DUQUM OMAN  1345WY113 FRANKFURT  1345WY927 SALALAH  1415FZ048 DUBAI  1415WY609 DUBAI  1420WY121 MUNICH  1425WY405 CAIRO  1430WY913 SALALAH  1545WY675 JEDDAH  1630FZ046 DUBAI  1700WY613 DUBAI  1700WY623 DUBAI  1820WY907 SALALAH  1840QR1127 DOHA  1845WY681 RIYADH  1845GF565 BAHRAIN  1855WY647 KUWAIT  1900WY661 DOHA  1900WY695 DAMMAM  1910WY653 BAHRAIN  1910EK865 DUBAI  1915WY909 SALALAH  1940G9117 SHARJAH  2005RG126 BATEEN AIRPORT OF AUH  2015WY611 DUBAI  2025WY635 ABU DHABI  2030FZ048 DUBAI  2040WY915 SALALAH  2050WY825 KUALA LUMPUR  2110AI978 HYDERABAD/BANGALORE  2200KL442 DOHA/AMSTERDAM  2230WY817 BANGKOK  22359W529 TRIVANDRUM  22406.00E+82 BOMBAY  2245AI908 MADRAS  2300AI974 DELHI  2310QR1135 DOHA  2320GF567 BAHRAIN  2325UL206 COLOMBO  2335EY381 ABU DHABI  2350WY901 SALALAH  2350WY673 JEDDAH  2350

FLT NO DEPARTURES TO ETD AI986 BOMBAY  0005LX243 DUBAI/ZURICH  0020BA072 ABU DHABI/LONDON-HEATHROW  00259W539 BOMBAY  0025LH619 ABU DHABI/FRANKFURT  0050WY685 RIYADH  0105WY251 MADRAS  0110WY211 TRIVANDRUM  0110WY201 BOMBAY  0120WY225 COCHIN  0125WY601 DUBAI  0135WY235 HYDERABAD  0135WY345 ISLAM ABBAD  0150WY341 LAHORE  0150WY241 DELHI  0155WY281 BANGALORE  0200WY643 KUWAIT  0200WY657 BAHRAIN  0205WY637 ABU DHABI  0205WY371 COLOMBO  0210WY323 KARACHI  0210WY667 DOHA  0220WY383 MALE  02354H585 DOHA  0245BG022 CHITTAGONG/DACCA  0250TK775 ISTANBUL  0310PK226 KARACHI  0310ET625 ADDIS ABABA  0450EK867 DUBAI  0455FZ042 DUBAI  0510QR1133 DOHA  0520EY385 ABU DHABI  0525MS931 CAIRO  05304H586 DACCA  0700GF561 BAHRAIN  0745WY603 DUBAI  0800WY903 SALALAH  0800WY263 LUCKNOW  0920WY291 CALICUT  0920NL769 LAHORE  0930WY273 JAIPUR  0930FZ044 DUBAI  0935WY231 HYDERABAD  0955WY245 DELHI  0955G9115 SHARJAH  1005WY815 BANGKOK  1010WY373 COLOMBO  1020WY203 BOMBAY  1030WY605 DUBAI  1030WY905 SALALAH  1030WY311 CHITTAGONG  1040WY253 MADRAS  1040WY717 ZANZIBAR/DARESSLAM  1045EK863 DUBAI  1055EY383 ABU DHABI  1105WY655 BAHRAIN  1110QR1129 DOHA  1115IX442 COCHIN  11159W533 COCHIN  1135WY917 KHASAB  1140WY631 ABU DHABI  1225IX350 CALICUT  1255WY337 KATHMANDU  1310WY101 LONDON-HEATHROW  1325WY663 DOHA  1330WY413 AMMAN  1330WY433 TEHRAN  1340WY113 FRANKFURT  1345WY153 ZURICH/MALPENSA  1405BG024 CHITTAGONG  1415WY121 MUNICH  1415FZ048 DUBAI  1415WY609 DUBAI  1420WY7041 AMMAN  1420WY131 PARIS  1420WY405 CAIRO  1430IX818 MANGALORE  1530PK292 ISLAM ABBAD  1530WY913 SALALAH  1545WY675 JEDDAH  1630SV531 MEDINA/JEDDAH  1650WY613 DUBAI  1700FZ046 DUBAI  1700WY623 DUBAI  1820WY907 SALALAH  1840QR1127 DOHA  1845WY681 RIYADH  1845GF565 BAHRAIN  1855WY647 KUWAIT  1900WY661 DOHA  1900WY695 DAMMAM  1910WY653 BAHRAIN  1910EK865 DUBAI  1915WY909 SALALAH  1940G9117 SHARJAH  2005RG126 BATEEN AIRPORT OF AUH  2015WY611 DUBAI  2025WY635 ABU DHABI  2030FZ048 DUBAI  2040TG508 KARACHI/BANGKOK  2040WY915 SALALAH  2050KL442 DOHA/AMSTERDAM  2230WY421 BEIRUT  22309W529 TRIVANDRUM  22406.00E+82 BOMBAY  2245WY411 AMMAN  2250AI908 MADRAS  2300AI974 DELHI  2310QR1135 DOHA  2320GF567 BAHRAIN  2325UL206 COLOMBO  2335WY901 SALALAH  2350WY673 JEDDAH  2350EY381 ABU DHABI  2350

A I R L I N E S

—www.met.gov.om

PRAYER TIMINGS

Dhuhr 11.55amAsr 3.08pmMaghrib 5.32pmIsha 6.44pm Fajr (Tomorrow) 4.58am

Sunset 5.27pmSunrise (Tomorrow) 6.14am

High tide 7:01pm 6:48amLow tide 12:47am 1:32pm

BORN today, you are one of the most reflective individuals born under your sign. You will never go through anything in life without taking the time -- before, during or after -- to think carefully about what you are doing, why you are doing it and what may come as a result. The unexamined life is, to you, not worth living. Only by giving things the attention you feel they deserve -- internally, externally, implicitly and explicitly -- are you able to make the most out of what life offers. You are content only when contentment is the result of some kind of personal growth and development; you’re not the kind to enjoy that which is simply granted to you. You want to earn your rewards.

Popularity is something you can enjoy, but which you do not actively seek out in most situations. You are comfortable with the fact that not everyone is going to like you, get along with you or work well with you. Still, you always try to avoid alienating those around you. You understand the value of genuine alliances!

Also born on this date are: Tatum O’Neal, actress; Tilda Swinton, actress; Bryan Adams, singer; Sam Shepard, playwright and actor; Art Garfunkel, singer-songwriter; Elke Sommer, actress; Ike Turner, singer-songwriter and producer; Vivien Leigh, actress; Joel McCrea, actor.

You’re in need of something that is just out of reach. You know just what it is and how it can be of use to you. Don’t get frustrated.

VIRGO [AUG. 23-SEPT. 22]

LIBRA [SEPT. 23-OCT. 22] LLLLLLLLLLLLLLL[S[S[S[S[[[S[[S[S[S[[S[S[SSS[SS[SSSS

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

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

AQUARIUS [JAN. 20-FEB. 18]

Once you take a wrong step, you’ll find yourself careening down a course fraught with danger. How you begin makes all the difference.

Practice may not make perfect, as you may have hoped, but you can certainly maneuver yourself into a more advantageous position.

You may not agree with the way a friend is handling a tricky situation, but that’s no reason to stand in his or her way.

You can put two and two together and arrive at a satisfying conclusion. The evidence points to something you suspected all along.

Others are waiting for you to step up and claim what is yours. You’ll have the chance to rise above a troubling situation.

A partner seeks more from you in the way of hands-on involvement. You don’t want to cross the line, however, so judge things carefully!

Something you claim is worthless to you may prove quite valuable to another. This will be food for thought and discussion later.

PISCES [Feb. 19-March 20]

A friendship is challenged simply because you are unwilling to see things through another’s eyes. Don’t be stubborn for long!

GEMINI [MAY 21-JUNE 20]

CANCER [JUNE 21-JULY 22]

LEO [JULY 23-AUG. 22]

CAPRICORN [DEC. 22-JAN 19]

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

ARIES [March 21-APRIL 19]

TAURUS [APRIL 20-MAY 20]

You’ll want to leave yourself reminders wherever you go, as a coming duty must not be forgotten! Responsibilities are on the rise.

You may have to work hard to get information from someone who is stubbornly trying to conceal what he or she knows.

You may find yourself gravitating toward one whose outlook is quite different from your own. Clearly, you have something to learn.

C11

EXTRAW E D N E S DAY, N OV E M B E R 5, 2 0 1 4

In the late 17th century, the Dutch naturalist An-ton van Leeuwenhoek looked at his own dental plaque through a micro-

scope and saw a world of tiny cells “very prettily a-moving.” He could not have predicted that a few centuries later, the trillions of microbes that share our lives — collectively known as the mi-crobiome — would rank among the hottest areas of biology.

These microscopic partners help us by digesting our food, training our immune systems and crowding out other harmful microbes that could cause dis-ease. In return, everything from the food we eat to the medicines we take can shape our microbial communities — with important implications for our health. Studies have found that changes in our microbiome accompany medical problems from obesity to diabetes to colon cancer.

As these correlations have unfurled, so has the hope that we might fix these ailments by shunting our bugs toward health-ier states. The gigantic probiot-ics industry certainly wants you to think that, although there is little evidence that swallowing a few billion yoghurt-borne bacte-ria has more than a small impact on the trillions in our guts.

The booming genre of microbi-ome diet books — self-help manu-als for the bacterial self — peddles a similar line, even though our knowledge of microbe-manipulat-ing menus is still in its infancy.

This quest for a healthy mi-crobiome has led some people to

take measures that are far more extreme than simply spooning up yogurt.

In September, the archaeol-ogy writer Jeff Leach used a tur-key baster to infuse his guts with the faeces of a Hadza tribesman from Tanzania. Doctors have carried out hundreds of faecal transplants, particularly to treat people with unshakable infec-tions of the diarrhoea-causing bacterium Clostridium difficile.

The procedure has been spec-tacularly successful, far more than conventional antibiotics.

But Leach did not have C. diffi-cile. He experimented on himself because he views the Western microbiome as “a hot microbial mess,” he wrote on his blog.

Poor diets, antibiotics and overly sanitized environments have gentrified the Western gut, he wrote, “potentially dragging us closer to ill health.”

The Hadza, with their tradi-tional hunter-gatherer lifestyle, carry diverse microbial commu-nities that are presumably closer to a healthier and disappearing ideal. Hence the stunt with the turkey baster. Leach billed it as “(re)becoming human.”

This reasoning is faulty. It ro-manticises our relationships with our microbes, painting them as happy partnerships that were bet-ter off in the good old days. It also invokes an increasingly common trope: that there is a “normal” or “healthy” microbiome that one should aim for. There is not.

The microbiome is complex, varied, ever changing and context-dependent — qualities that are the

enemies of easy categorisation.“Healthy” microbes can easily

turn rogue. Those in our guts are undoubtedly helpful, but if they cross the lining of the intestine and enter our bloodstream, they can trigger a debilitating im-mune response.

The same microbes can be beneficial allies or dangerous threats, all for the difference of a few millimetres.

Conversely, “unhealthy” con-figurations of microbes can be normal, even necessary.

Ruth E. Ley at Cornell Univer-sity and colleagues demonstrat-ed this in dramatic fashion when they found that microbiomes go through a huge upheaval by the third trimester of pregnancy.

They end up looking like the microbiomes of people with metabolic syndrome — a disor-der that involves obesity, high blood sugar and a higher risk of diabetes and heart disease. These communities might in-dicate someone on the verge of chronic disease — or merely motherhood.

The dynamic nature of the microbiome partly explains the enthusiasm that surrounds it. If scientists identify changes in the human genome that increase the risk of disease, it is hard to re-write those genes or to find drugs that target them.

But the microbiome could the-oretically be altered through pro-biotics, fecal transplants or other means. It is, as some researchers say, the only “organ” that can be replaced without surgery. -Ed Yong/The New York Times News Service

Those in our guts are helpful, but if they cross the lining of

the intestine, they can trigger a debilitating immune response

Singer horrified to discover medical issue caused by spider living in her ear

KATIE MELUA’S medical complaint had a truly terrifying cause.The singer, 30, had gone to her doctors to complain about a repetitive scratch-

ing noise she could hear in her ear that had failed to quieten after a week. The mu-sician, to her horror, discovered that it wasn’t in fact an early sign of tinnitus, but that the noise had actually been caused by a spider living in her ear for seven days.

Melua, who once released the track Spider’s Web, said she believes the spider burrowed its way inside her ear after hiding in a pair of headphones.

“Basically I used these old in-ear monitors to block out sound on a flight, a little spider must have been in them and crawled inside my ear and stayed there for the week,” she captured one horrifying image of the arachnid on Instagram. “Though the thing looked terrifying up-close on the doctor’s camera, once he took him out (using a micro-hoover) it was pretty small, and now it’s in this little test tube, alive and seemingly fine. “It was no hassle at all, apart from the occasional shuffling noises.” Melua’s spokesperson has since added: “The ear specialist said he’d never in his career taken out a live bug before. Plenty of dead ones. When it was out it was pretty tiny. “Katie kept it in the test tube and released it in her garden when she got home. Apart from shuffling and random noises in her ear, the spider was no bother for the entire week it lived there. She was relieved it was what it was as she was worried she was losing her hearing.” —The Independent

WACKY

Is there a healthy microbiome at all?

C12

EXTRAW E D N E S DAY, N OV E M B E R 5, 2 0 14

Focus on acting, and not on clothes, SRK tells strugglers

AN INSPIRATION for many, Shah Rukh Khan says struggling actors should be concerned about their craft rather worrying about looks. Asked whether he would like to give any tips to struggling actors, he said: “You have to work hard and focus on acting. Yes PR and portfo-lio are all important, but acting is more important. Focus on acting.” Now a superstar, Shah Rukh had entered the movies with Deewana, in which he played a second fiddle,

and worked his way up to be a superstar. “Nobody becomes an actor by planning things. Don’t focus on your clothes or make-up. Focus on your acting,” he said on the sidelines of his birthday celebrations. SRK turned 49 Sunday. The actor rose so high on the firmament that he was given the title of “Bol-lywood Badshah”. The 49-year-old says he takes pride in be-ing an outsider who made it big in filmdom. Shah Rukh said: “I feel proud about the fact that I am an outsider. This industry has been harsh at times — at times it loves you and at times it punishes you. There are a lot of people responsible for who I am today. I don’t think I can ever play character Shah Rukh Khan in any film because I don’t think my personal life is so important. I think I am too small a person and have a long way to go,” added SRK.

Not unwell, says Big B; neck brace only for roleA SNEAK peek into the sets of Piku, with Amitabh Bachchan sporting a neck brace, led to speculation that he is unwell. But the megastar has clarified that he’s not ill and that the collar is part of his costume for the movie. “So...media conjectures that I am ill is incorrect! That neck brace that they see me wear-ing is part of my costume in ‘PIKU”,” the 72-year-old, who’s shooting the movie in Kolkata, tweeted on Monday. Once the rumours of his illness began doing the rounds, Big B received a barrage of messages from his ‘extended family’ on social net-working platforms. He also clarified it on his Twitter handle. The film is being directed by Shoojit Sircar. Big B plays father to Deepika Padukone in it.

Does Ayushmann want to be anonymous?CELEBRITY STATUS seems to be taking a toll on Ayush-mann Khurrana — or so it seems from a latest tweet from the actor, where he talks about going anonymous briefly. “I’m so dependant on the world around me. I don’t even know how to buy groceries. Need to live in anonymity for a month, to learn basic life,” Ayushmann tweeted on Tuesday. The Vicky Donor actor has featured in films like Nautanki Saala and Bewakoofi-yaan. He will next be seen in Hawaizaada. —IANS

BOLLYWOOD

The news is replete with seemingly end-less tales of health threats. Who could blame you for decid-

ing to remain indoors, alone in bed, indefinitely?

That would hardly be a life worth living. But many people do respond to health risks, however small, in ways that take joy out of their lives, all the while falsely believing that they are protect-ing themselves. I once wrote that there are as many cancer-causing mutagens in two raw mushrooms as in a serving of peanut butter. It was supposed to be reassuring, but a reader lamented, “Now I can’t eat mushrooms!”

What health risks do you worry about, and how do those concerns affect your behaviour? Do you become anxious after learning of a new or increasing threat, no matter how remote?

Or do you ignore the risk of de-veloping a common and possibly life-threatening ailment like heart disease or the flu, resisting protec-tive measures and persisting in behaviours even if they increase your risk?

In an ideal world, people would base medical decisions on an un-biased evaluation of available evidence. But people are often ir-

rational, and many, perhaps most, of their actions are driven more by emotion than facts.

Fear-mongering, intentional or otherwise, is epidemic now that every health threat — real, poten-tial or imagined — can instantly go viral on the Internet. Widely dis-seminated graphic images of peo-ple dying of Ebola, for instance, have greatly enhanced the pub-lic’s fear. But even without instant communication, panic can ensue.

“A child’s risk of getting can-cer from asbestos insulation in a school building is about one third the chance of being struck by lightning,” Dr. Lisa Rosenbaum wrote last month in The New Eng-land Journal of Medicine. “Never-theless, in 1993, frightened New York City parents agitated for as-bestos removal from schools.”

Although many experts endorsed containment, not removal, as a san-er and safer solution, fear prevailed. Billions of dollars were spent on asbestos removal that should have been spent on education. And re-

moval probably increased - not de-creased — children’s exposure to airborne asbestos.

“Many medical decisions involve considerable uncertainty and complex trade-offs,” wrote Rosen-baum, a national correspondent for the journal. And while it is widely believed that better edu-cating and informing prospective patients will keep them from act-ing irrationally, she cited studies that clearly show otherwise.

Sometimes, in fact, more in-formation can heighten people’s concerns and prompt them to act in ways unsupported by evidence.

For example, one study used solid data and graphic images to reassure parents that vaccinat-ing children against measles can be lifesaving and is not linked to autism. The effort “not only failed to increase vaccination intent but also cemented some parents’ conviction that there is a link between vaccines and autism,” Rosenbaum wrote.

“People did not respond as

expected,” Rosenbaum said in an in-terview. Research by Dan Kahan, who heads the Cultural Cognition Project at Yale University, indi-cates that people pick and choose evidence that reinforces their sense of who they are and the groups they belong to. That partly explains the persistent belief among some parents in a link between vaccines and au-tism or in the risks of genetically modified foods.

“We don’t process negative events, only positive ones. Anyone who doesn’t get Ebola falls beneath the radar,” Rosenbaum said. “No one wants to hear, ‘Calm down.’”

As shown with Ebola, people are more fearful of things they can’t control, however remote the risk may be.

As Dr. H. Gilbert Welch of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice pointed out last year in JAMA Internal Medicine, patients have been taught to think there are no harms in cancer screening: “It’s always good to know. It is just about gathering information. Of course you want it. It is a brain-dead decision.”

But all screening tests have ben-efits and risks that should be con-sidered before deciding to under-go them. The most serious risks are overdiagnosis of a condition.

Yet even knowing this, many — perhaps most — people still opt for screening.

In an editorial last April in JAMA, Dr. Joann G. Elmore and Dr. Barnett S. Kramer empha-sised the need for physicians to discuss with patients their val-ues and personal philosophies: “Does the patient think that less is more, prefer to minimise his or her interactions with the medi-cal care system, or want to do anything that might yield some benefit, even if it comes at a cost or with potential risks?” – Jane E

Brody/The New York Times News Service

People ideally would

base medical

decisions on an

unbiased evaluation

of evidence. But

people are often

irrational and don’t

rely on facts

Emotion not thebest medicine

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2BHK Flat at Old Muscat. Contact: 91393005

Indian School Muscat, 3 minutes

by walk, very spacious 1 BHK flat, 2

bathrooms, brand new well main-

tained building, ground floor OMR

275/- per month. Contact 99310180

1 BHK, 2 BHK new building in

Wadi Kabir. Contact 99313274

Flat for rent behind Indian School in

south Mabela

(2 rooms+hall+kitchen+2 toilets) for

family only. Contact 92900776

Room for rent for family attached

bathroom. Contact 92354545

For rent 2 BHK at Al Azaiba, build-

ing no. 5145 way 4470. Contact

99224748, 99425665

For rent 1 BHK at Al Khoudh, com-

mercial area Al Khoudh Souq.

Contact 99224748, 99332297

D2 W E D N E S D AY, N O V E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4

3 BHK deluxe flat in Al Khuwair

(Jasmine Rd), rent RO 800/-.

Contact 97616158

1 & 2 bedroom & studio flats in

Al Khuwair. Contact 96616158

Villas and apartments any location.

Contact 95178930

3 BHK flats in Ruwi near Masjid

Sultan Qaboos. Contact 99421637,

98546002

Fully furnished room with sharing

toilet, equipped kitchen immediately

available for executive bachelor in

MBD area.Contact-95450250

1st floor flat in Amerat 4 rooms, 3

bathrooms, family hall, kitchen with

A/C. Contact 95522405

2 BHK flat in Ruwi.

Contact – 99792181

Family room for rent at Muttrah.

Contact 99712088 / 99022790

Flat in Wadi Kabir near Indian

School. Contact 99362003

Flat/rooms for rent in Mumtaz Area.

Contact 92502241 / 92245110

Room for rent in Ruwi. Contact

95372192

Villa for rent at Madinat Sultan

Qaboos – Three storied villa, 3

bedrooms, having spacious halls,

drawing and dining rooms, Majlis,

kitchen, store room, with split AC

units in all rooms, servant rooms

and pantry, surrounded by garden.

Contact 24785555 / 99427951, villa

no. 3190, way no. 2388 at Madinat

Sultan Qaboos

Office room for rent at prime

location Muttrah. Contact 24712088

/ 99022790

Double bedroom flat near Wadi

Kabir Lulu. Contact 99719471,

99639102

Independent rooms in Qurum / Hail.

Contact 95529970

Furnished flat with room & toilet,

kitchen with A/C in Hilt Al Saad opp

Al Nahdha Hospital RO 180/- with

E/W. Contact 91114040

Flats/villas owned by ROP pension

fund available for rent in Muscat.

Contact 99349526

Studio flat for Rent in Ruwi.

Contact – 99792181

100 + 140 +180 + 200 SQ Mtrs office

for Rent in Al khuwair. # 99792181

Furnished room for couple or family

near Honda Road in Walja.

Contact - 91018560

2 BHK flat for rent near Baladiyah

Office and Indian School Darsait.

Contact 99552832

Flat for rent in Al Amerat.

Contact 99209264

2 bedrooms flat for rent at Mumtaz

Area near Al Burj Hotel. Contact

99104418, 99345914, 99884924

Available for rent – Labor camp in

Barka for 300 workers along with

provisions : Catering, Dining Hall.

Also available open lands for

rental in same place. Contact

24564460 / 61, GSM: 99430943

Email : mhca@mhabibgroup.com

Flat and room for rent in Qurum near

park. Contact 99664703

2 Bedroom Flat with free Internet,

Gas, Gym, Play area and reserved car

parking for rent in Ruwi.

Contact: 92197959/92502497

Showroom / office for rent located in

Prime location of Azaiba Main High-

way. Contact: 92197959 / 92502497

3 BHK flat available for rent in

Al Hail (North), rent RO 280/-.

Contact 97661432

2 rooms, 1 hall, 1 kitchen, 1 toilet flat

available for rent in Al Khoudh, rent

RO 250/-. Contact 97661432

Flat for rent 2 BHK Muttrah near

Oman House. Contact 97007934 /

92629232

Studio for rent of two rooms and two

bathrooms and a kitchen in South

Mabela with electricity and water.

Contact 94090550

Shop for rent in Ruwi near Bank

Sohar. Contact- 97452727 /

99358615

Fully furnished luxury 2 bedroom

flat for rent at Ghala for long term or

short term basis. Contact 91786526

1 BHK for commercial MBD RO

280/-. Contact 92144045

2 BHK without A/C RO 300/-.

Contact 92144045

1 BHK Mumtaz Area RO 250/-.

Contact 92144045

2 BHK without A/C Wadi Kabir.

Contact 92144045

Showroom with Mezzanine, 310

meter square at Qurum Prime loca-

tion with excellent interior decora-

tion. Ideal for exotic jewellery etc.

Contact 24714625 / 94460790

New deluxe 2&3 BHK flats in

Mumtaz, Al Falaj Area, Darsait.

Contact 99142314, 99369081

Flat for rent in Mabela near express

road rent RO 300/-.

Contact 97695450

2 & 3 Bedrooms Townhouse with

Swimming pool, free Wi-Fi for Rent

near British School in Madinat Qa-

boos. Contact: 92197959 / 92502497

New 1 and 2 B/R near Bank Muscat,

Bausher directly from owner.

Contact 92158031

Café Shop for Rent at Ghubrah

North. Contact 99359755

DAILY GUIDEW E D N E S D AY, N O V E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4 D3

FOR RENT

BUYING/SELLING

Restaurant in a running and excellent

condition, ample parking space with a

capacity of 55 seating and a party hall

for sale. Contact - 99343735

We are dealing with sale of all beauty

salon equipments, furnitures & cos-

metics. # 942 888 61 / 942 888 63

Looking for purchase of Used Portable Compressor (350 CFM,

7 Bar Pressure) powered with Diesel

run Generator. Kindly contact :

99014686 or

operation@khancogroup.com

Building material shop for sale at

Al Ghobrah near Mars Hypermarket.

Contact 93797343 / 99881647

Running building material shop for

sale in Honda Road Ruwi. Contact

99628797, 24831113

A Renault van for goods transporta-

tion, registration – 17.12.2014. You

can pay the owner, RO 1500 and to

complete the rest of the installments,

RO 147 monthly. Contact 93642648,

92182145

Industrial Area land in Rusayl 5000

SQM and building with 8 shops.

Contact 95490842, 92702891

New & Refurbished portable cabins,

Fabrication of car parks & all types of

fabric shade. Contact - 94475705

Shop for sale in Seeb near Bank

Muscat. Contact 99828343

NRI

Awesome investment opportu-

nity, ideal location for hotel/resort/

hypermarket/business/residen-

tial complex construction in the

outskirts of Munnar for immedi-

ate sale, (50+cents worth 10+c),

serious buyers please contact

0096891791419,

propertiesmunnar@gmail.com

Looking for an experienced A/R

conditioner and deep freezer Tech-

nician to independently handle

a running refrigeration service

center in Kannur Kerala. Attractive

terms offered. Please send CV to

vfixenterprise@gmail.com

For Astrological consultation, Jathakam. Contact 99860435 /

97102599

Expat leaving household iem for

sale include sofa set, A/C, fridge, cot.

Contact 99552832

Treadmill, LED TV 42’.

Contact 98887511

Running Business Marble & Granite

cutting & polishing workshop in

Wadi Kabir for immediate sale.

Contact 99105492

Running studio for sale at Amerat

Souq. Contact 97621737

Used restaurant furniture and

kitchen equipment for sale.

Contact 96500940

Running ladies beauty parlor for

sale at Amerat, on main road near

Al Mahaj R/A. Contact 96349635 /

95622129

6 Seater sofa set & dining table with

6 chairs, good condition.

Contact 99327247

For Sale Well running Pharmacy at

primelocation. 93240949

New Villas in (Al Ghobra/Al Khoudh

/ Al Mabella). Contact 24505072/

91155779 Fax 24507045

Building Material Shop for sale

in Mabela. Contact 95094141,

95099335

Parlor for sale in Ruwi near

Honda Road. Contact 97452727 /

99358615

Lady Beauty saloon. Contact

97786792, 96644372

Villa in Mawaleh for sale town

house style near Sahwa roundabout

taamer road. Contact :96969824

Running restaurant with all ameni-

ties for sale. For further information

contact: restforsale2014@gmail.com

Shop for sale in Al Hail North main

road near Bank Muscat ATM.

Serious buyers only.

Contact 96435935

23,886 Sq Mtrs Agriculture land

with water well in Al Salwa, Barka.

OMR 260 Thousand. Tel: 99333479

or 95215360

AVAILABLE

FOR SALE

FOR SALE

FOR SALE

FOR RENT

Established Restaurant for

rent with sponsorship. Contact

97628242

Party & Wedding equipment rent-

als. Full line, from Tables, Linen

& Skirting, Chairs & Chair covers,

Cutlery, Crockery, Glassware, Chaf-

ing Dishes, Ice Sculptures, to Large

Sound Systems and spectacular

lighting. Call Andrea 9606 2222 for

Catering and Croyden 9623 5555

for Sound & Light. www.tunesoman.

com, E-mail: info@tunesoman.com

1 BHK without A/C Darsait.

Contact 92144045

1 BHK near ISD Darsait.

Contact 92144045

1,2,3 BHK flats & villas.

Contact 92144045

Flats, Amerat Souk. Contact

99647903 / 98026234

Small office for rent in Azaiba

North. Contact 92294409

Bachelor villa at Al Ansab.

Contact 98458542

Villas / flats / store / labor /

accommodation. Contact 99776071

/ 99057348

Flat for rent 2 BHK flat with 3 toilets

near Muscat Bakery, Wadi Kabir.

Contact 99885169, 99897223

Room for rent in Ruwi.

Contact 95372192

Beautiful villa for rent next to post

office in Al Qurum, 5 bedrooms, hall

and kitchen. Contact 99311454

Warehouse for rent 200 SQM at

Ghala near Bridgestone, Ghala.

Contact 99349311

1 BHK Flat in Ghobra.

Contact 99792181

Industrial land for rent available at

November 2014, Ghala Area 3.500

SQM way #5251 next to Naseem

Workshop opposite Rimsigns Indus-

try LLC Ghala. Contact 99349311

2 BHK beautiful flat with split AC

available for rent at Qurum near PDO

Gate No-2. Contact 94057023

Excellent flat for rent in Ruwi,

Mumtaz Area and Al-Hail South.

Contact 98051159

1 BHK near Oman House, Muttrah.

Contact 99233116

2 BHK pent house R. 360, 2 BHK

RO.340, 1BHK RO.250/- Bldg #1619

way# 1322 adjacent to Indian

Nursary Darsait.

Contact – 99476728 / 99831047

Flats & shops for rent in Al Amerat.

Flats only for family 3 rooms,

3 attach bathrooms & 1 kitchen.

Flat RO.230/- & shop RO.150/-.

Contact – 98046005

BHK, 2 BHK flat for rent near ISM

Darsait. Contact 95158570

For rent flat and showroom,

Al Azaiba, Ghala, Ghubrah, al

Khuwair-33 and Mabelah. Contact

93651633, 24485240, 24485241

5 bedrooms villa, 2 halls, 4 bath-

rooms in Darsait, behind Khimjis

Mart. Contact 24700120 / 92584715

Logistic Company with new equip-

ments, contracts sale. Contact

99438523 / 94252527

Electrical & Building Material Shop

in Muscat for sale.

Contact 95330905

Vegetable shop for sale in Wadi

kabir, Cont : 92786449

Flats For Sale in Boushar: OMR 35

Thousand 1 bedroom. OMR 45 Thou-

sand 2 bedroom. Monthly income

1 bedroom OMR 270 and 2 bedroom

OMR 350. Tel: 99333479

or 95215360

If you have any properties /

Inquiries. Contact us

gk@goldenkeyreal-estate.com .

Tel 24505072/ 91155779

Fax 24507045

2 B/R Fully Furnished Executive

Apartment @Azaiba Near Zubair

Showroom. 2 B/ R Fully Furnished

Executive Apartment @ Al Khuwair

33 Near Zhaker Mall. 5 B/R Luxury

Fully Furnished villa at Azaiba with

servants quarter. Contact: Atlas Real

Estate & Rent A Car LLC : 99249069

/ 92888376/ 93201688,

Email: info@alshahiintl.com

2 BHK, 2 Bath, Split A/C,

Wadikhabeer, Near Indian elementry

school. Way 6926, building 1733.

99441193, 93004802.

Commercial villa for rent in Sarooj

next to Thailand Embassy

Contact :96969824

5 Bedroom Villas at Al Ansab

(Near express highway).

Contact 99199365

Large flat of 2 bedrooms, hall & 3

bathrooms with split A/C’s in Al

Ghobra North 18 Nov Street RO.360.

Contact - 93191111

Rooms available near Qurum Park

with separate bathroom for

family and bachelor.

Contact 99664703

1 BHK flat in Wadi Kabir.

Contact 99277787

8 Rooms villa in Al Khuwair for rent

opp. Rawasco, way 4104, villa 341.

Contact - 99361589

For rent Flat 2 bedroom attach bath-

room opp Ruwi police station Ruwi.

Contact 99311209/ 99013580

1 BHK flat near Star Cinema, Ruwi.

RO 240/-. Contact 97079146 /

95570288

Furnished / unfurnished apartments

available for rent on long term /short

term basis, near Vacha’s hypermar-

ket in Ghala. Contact : 97677211

Building with four flats near Pizza

Hut Mawaleh. Contact 99044164

5 Rooms, main living room +

Women living room+2 halls, 6 toilets,

kitchen in Azaiba near Al Fair

800 RO. Contact 99888873

1,000 sq mtrs industrial land in Mis-

fah Industrial area near to Khanco.

OMR 1,500 Monthly. Electricity and

Boundary wall will be provided. Tel:

99333479 or 95215360

Flat for rent in Wadi Kabir.

Contact 99383569

Flat one bedroom in Wadi Kabir

with split AC. Contact 99313274

I BHK Flat Wadi Kabir. RO 180/-.

Contact 99376454

Flat for rent in Ruwi, Mumtaz Area

and Al-Hail South.

Contact 91409778

Villa for rent in Muscat 6 rooms.

Contact 96116767

1 BHK flat in Wadi Kabir. RO 215/-.

Contact 99358589

Small house for rent at Ghubrah.

Contact 95032152

2 BHK with A/Cs Mutrah behind

Oman house. Contact 99896838

3 BHK Flat Ghubra close to ISG Way

4041, Building 4390.

Contact 99319880

3 rooms, 3 bath & Kitchen Oman

House Muttrah. Contact 99319149

Flats, shops basements,

location, Ruwi MBD area, Honda

road, Qurum. Contact 96942749 /

97293708

Big Villa at Bowshar 8 rooms,

8 bathrooms, kitchen, maid room &

Majlis. Contact 91183117

DAILY GUIDED4 W E D N E S D AY, N O V E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4

DAILY GUIDE

DOMESTIC HELP

DRIVER

EDUCATION

SKILLED / UN SKILLED

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION VACANT

MEDICAL

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED

SITUATION WANT-ED

SIT. WANTED

SITUATION WANT-ED

SIT. WANTED

Required immediately on visa full-time housemaid for family in Azaiba. Providing work visa, good

salary, shared accommodation,

medical, 2 Fridays off per month,

airfare to home country after com-

pleting two years. Must be proac-

tive, caring, good cook, and must

speak English. Contact 95123244

for interviews ASAP.

Required a cook. Contact 99209264

ADMIN/HR

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

DRAUGHTSMAN

DESIGNER

DRIVER

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

ENGINEERS/TECH..

ENGINEERS/TECH..

Required driver for tailor & tipper

present in Oman. Contact 99454425

We need the following: driver-1, driver with car-1, coffee shop part-ner-1, printing press working part-ner. Contact 95116938, 97807262

Light duty driver. Contact

92341826

Required Indian driver. Contact 99209264

Urgently required A Driver for a

reputed family in Muscat.

Contact : 24810353 ( 8 AM - 5 PM).

Driver required for morning 7 to 9

am and 2 to 7 pm. call at 99101958

after 6 pm or SMS.

Cosmetic leading company is look-

ing for: qualified experienced light driver. Please email CV to mary-

anaoman@hotmail.com

or call +968-99389888

Coordinator for Transport/ Heavy

Equipment Company and Light Driver salary RO 175 + Accommoda-

tion. Contact 99454425

Wanted driver. Contact 97469823

Indian Male: B.COM, 4 years experi-

ence in Accounts, in Manufactur-

ing Co Oman, Working Knowledge

With Tally ERP- With Oman valid

D/L,Presently working in Muscat

NOC Available Looking for Suitable

position in Reputed Company,

Contact; 95745287 and Email:

raiforeveryone@rediffmail.com

Indian Male, MBA, 12 years experi-

ence in Banking & Insurance, well

versed in Accounting, banking

operations, insurance underwrit-

ing & sales co-ordination, currently

on visit visa. Contact 97221657,

00919444298845

Indian Male, MBA Finance, (Pursu-

ing CMA from US) , 15 plus years

Oman experience in Finance/Ac-

counts and Administration seeks

suitable placement.

Contact 99669275

Chartered Accountant & com-

pany Secretary currently in Oman,

Indian Male, 34, 10 yrs experience

in Finance, accounting, consulting,

MIS looking for position in finance.

Release available. Contact 97331650

Accountant, Sales Executive driving

license available. NOC available, 3

yrs experience of Accounts & can do

any job. Contact 96131298

MBA Finance with 6 years of experi-

ence including Oman experience in

the field of Accounts and Finance,

Male. Contact 91157870

Sr. Accountant up to finalization

looking for part time job after 5 pm

(location prefer – Qurum to

Al Khoudh). Contact 92917574

Part Time Accounting, Accounts

Finalization, Internal Audit, Onsite

Tally Training, Onsite Training for

Accountants, Inventory Manage-

ment, MIS Reports, Feasibility Study

and Project Reports.

Contact: 96975454,

email: ibfcoman@hotmail.com

Indian Male, 24 MBA Finance,

1+ years experiences in US Health

Care in Accounts looking for a

suitable job. Contact 92239445

Indian Male, 24 yrs, MBA in HR/

Finance, 2 yrs experience in Trade

finance (Standard Chartered Bank)

presently on visit visa. Contact

95912453

Sr. Accountant, M.Com (Finance),

14 yrs experience (1 year in Oman) in

Finance & Accounts. NOC available,

immediate joining.

Contact 92404608,

email: jin_75@rediffmail.com

Indian Male, 25 years, B.Com gradu-

ate having 4 years of experience

(2 years in Oman) in Accounts and

Admin field seeking for suitable

placement, currently on visit visa

in Oman. Contact 93207867 /

98353078

Pakistani Male, ACCA Fundamental

Level qualified, advanced Diploma

in Accounting and Business certified

accounting technician, 3 years expe-

rience as Accounts Officer.

Contact 99860453,

Email: khalid.ikram08@gmail.com

Indian Male, 28, B.Com, 6 years exp

in East Africa seeking suitable job,

3 months visit visa.

Contact 94613626

M.Com, MBA having 7+ years of ex-

perience in Accounts seeking suitable

placement. NOC available.

Contact 91006072

MBA (Management, finance) from

UK with 5+ years of experience in

management and Accounts positions

seeks a suitable job. # 95658916

Indian Female 29 Yrs, B-Com Gradu-

ate with Basic Computer Knowledge

and Tally, having 6 yrs experience in

accounting seeking for the placement

in Account Assistant, currently on

visit visa in Oman Contact: 95478149

Email: tnaik15@gmail.com

Chartered Accountant Indian

(Female) having valid Omani DL and

work experience of 1 year in a Big

4 Audit firm (India) seeks suitable

placement. GSM: 99484368

Looking senior positions for a Char-

tered Accountant (CA) with 12 years

post qualification experience, now

working as head of finance at a lead-

ing construction company in Muscat.

Contact:97916442

SALES / MARKETING

IT

Require Experience Salesman Cum Technician for

Computer & Mobile Shop.

Email: alriyangg@gmail.com

Work on very good commission

basis in Sales in Muscat & Salalah

only for expats. Contact 92760281

Exciting career opportunities in

Advertising/Media Sales/Busi-ness Development/Web & Graphic Design for experienced people. At-

tractive terms. Apply with photo CV

to jobs@interacoman.com

Required a Salesman whose expert

in Oman market in the field of com-

mercial kitchens catering. Mail CV

to: bahrain.stainless.steel@gmail.

com / Fax:0097317911337

Required Sales & Marketing person for engineering items, work on

commission basis,

rohangupta2424@gmail.com

Wanted Marketing and Lawyer. Email : fmlawoffice@gmail.com

Reputed building material company looking for outdoor Sales executive having valid Omani

driving license with more than

2 years local sales experience in

tiles/ sanitary ware. Please fax your

CV to 24798709 /

Email – united@omantel.net.om

Urgently required marketing person with minimum 4-5 years ex-

perience with good communication

skills and driving license (optional)

to work part time. Fax – 24564459,

email: mhca@mhabibgroup.com

Urgently Required Software Engi-neer with minimum 2 years experi-

ence in Web based ERP Applications

Contact: alriyangg@gmail.com

An established Construction Com-pany requires the following profes-

sional: 1-Graduate Civil Engineer, 5 years’ local exposers, 2-Civil Engineer (Diploma), 7 years’ local

exposers. Confident candidates with

relevant experience may forward

the CV’s through

fax: 2200911, 99703972

Email: yahyaalmulla@hotmail.com,

Grade 1 Construction Company required Civil Quantity Surveyor – 1 No

with 10 years of local experience.

Email: omaniantrad@gmail.com

Wanted civil Engineer, Civil Fore-man, Blocks and Tile Masons, Shut-tering Carpenter, Email :

almoosaengineering@gmail.com

Wanted Doctor with MOH license for

a Polyclinic. Excellent salary with

accommodation and commission.

Contact 99752442,

email : mmcmuscat@gmail.com

Pharmacist and Assistant Pharma-cist with MOH license are required.

Interested candidates

contact 97091664 or

mmcmuscat@gmail.com.

Good payment with incentives.

MOH license Dentist / Pharmacist / Nurse / Lab Technician. Immedi-

ately required for a new Polyclinic

in Muscat. Contact 95146957, email:

medicare@fusionlogicoman.com

Require 2 dentists and 5 nurses,

Bahla. Contact 99237436

MOH licensed GP doctors and dentist immediately required for

polyclinics at Sohar and Liwa:

Attractive package is offered.

Contact: 93952123 / 98855602;

email: alshifamodern@gmail.com

Required PAED Doctor, Gyn doctor, dentist -female G.P lab technician,

X.ray technician staff nurse for poly-

clinic for Saham.

Contact: 92406024/ Email:

mohammedgoda21@hotmail.com

Required for a reputed Medical

Center in Al Khuwair: 1-GP Doctor with MOH license, 2-Neurolab Technician, 3-X-Ray Technician. Please send CV to

absmc2013@gmail.com

Dentist male & female with MOH

License for a polyclinic near Sohar.

Excellent salary, accommodation

and commission.

Contact 99006915,

email : alhinaee.clinic@yahoo.com

Required General Physician, Gynecologist, Lab Technician, Pharmacist, Staff Nurses. Contact 96064925.

Email : kunoozghala@gmail.com

Urgently required Lab Techni-cian either Locum (3 months) or

permanent for a hospital in Muscat.

wanted the following : Gynecologist

(female), Embryologist (Muslim),

Nephrologists, Nursing Superin-

tendant (female), Nurse (female with

MOH license), Dialysis Nurses,

all other medical specialist /

consultants. Email CV :

vacancyahh@gmail.com

Indian Male, 36 yrs available on

visit visa, 14 yrs experience seeking

suitable placement in games devel-

opment / graphics industry.

Contact 98454245

AUTOCAD DESINGER, 3D, 3DMAX,

REVIT, PHOTOSHOP PH : 93837973

B.Tech, AutoCAD, Indian Electri-

cal 4 yrs experience in designing,

drawing, testing commesioning of

transformers D.G. Sets HT Panels, LT

Panels, LT and HT, cable laying look-

ing immediate placements.

Contact- 94516624.

Email: jayeshum2@gmail.com

Required Tailor. Contact 95204145

Required Electrical cum plumber

foreman capable of handling site

by himself, free food and accom-

modation, salary negotiable. Contact

99410979, fax: 24810592, email:

fwillc2009@gmail.com

HR Professional (Indian/Female)

with MBA from Symbiosis, having 6+

years of work experience in leading

organization in Muscat, with SAP

experience seeks suitable position.

NOC available. Contact: 97288278,

hrjoboman@gmail.com.

Indian Female MCA (Computer

Science) looking for placement in

Admin/Purchase/Sales Coordina-

tor/Office, currently on family visa.

Contact 95462266.

Email : mca.blore@gmail.com

Legal adviser and consultant in

International arbitration (Egyptian

resident) legal and administrative

expertise and the Omani Labor Law

and drafting contracts.

Contact 99664890

Indian Male 32 yrs( MBA-HR) 9 yrs

of Exp (GCC,AFRICA) in EPC, Diversi-

fied industries, Seeking Suitable

placement in HR/Admin. Currently

on visit visa, NOC available, join

immediately. Contact 94535618

Email:mdakhter5219@gmail.com

HR & Admin Assistant, 26 yrs

Indian Male having 6Years of experi-

ence looking for suitable position.

Contact No: +968-93264616

Indian female MBA, HR 1 year

experience in India seeking suitable

opportunity. Contact 99889718

Indian male MBA 32 yrs having 10

yrs of exp seeking suitable place-

ment in Admin/ HR/ Operations/

Coordination/ Logistics etc. Holding

valid Oman D/L Contact - 99054786

Indian male, MBA 23 years having

1 year of exp seeking suitable place-

ment in Admin/ HR/ Marketing/

Coordinator/ Logistic etc.

Contact 97014369.

Email : riyasrayhan@gmail.com

Male, 27 years with MBA in HR/

MKT having 2 years exp in respec-

tive field looking for suitable

placement in leading organization.

Contact 91705051

Experience PRO Oman Male, 36

Yrs, 16 yrs experience in PRO/ HR &

Administration, Prefect English lan-

guage speaking & writing with D/L,

Seeks suitable placement, Can join

immediate. Contact 91221773

Omani female with 9 yrs exp look-

ing for PRO job with Oman D/L.

Contact 97917333

Required Teachers for English, Phys-

ics & Art. Only eligible candidate with

the required experience and qualifica-

tion may apply within a week’s time

at applyigcse@gmail.com

AUTOCAD

MISCELLANEOUS

Indian B.Sc. Maths+PGDCA - well

experienced, seeks suitable place-

ment as Commercial/Logistic

Executive or Document Control-

ler/Customer Service Executive;

expected on short visit by Nov. 1st

Week; Contact 99702383. Email:

prabhapisharody@yahoo.com

Indian female Senior Account-

ant with 10 years experience in

Accounts, Finance, Audit & Tax

Management. Contact 96263157

Indian male, 30 yrs MBA Finance,

5 yrs experience in Accounts, finance

and Insurance, well versed in ERP

Tally 9, MS Office, valid Oman D/L.

NOC available. Contact 97366016

ACCA Member, currently working in

UAE as a Senior Accountant seeking a

job in Oman (Pakistani Male).

Contact for details CV 94066698

Female, Indian having 2 years

experience in Muscat, currently on

visit visa seeks suitable placement.

Qualification : B.Com MBA (Finance).

Contact 95742787

AutoCAD Draughtsman looking for

suitable position. Contact 94436180

AUTOCAD D/MAN, STEEL STRUC-

TURE, 3 YRS DME, AUTOCAD,

TEKLA , EXP, PH : 93837973

Draughtsman, 2D & 3D (DCSE) with

2 years experience for any vacancy.

Contact 91781227

Autocad d man experienced (arch /

str) revit, 3dmax, Photoshop.

Contact : 93837973

Chief Accountant with 20 years

experience in reputed companies

looking for suitable placement.

Contact 97385562

Masters in Banking and Finance,

UK University, 6 months experience

as Account Analyst at UK

seeking suitable position in reputed

companies. Contact 99883502,

97422558

Financial Manager, Egyptian,

experience 10+ years.

Contact 91676723

28 yrs, female, B. Com, 6.5 years ex-

perience in client servicing in Indian

markets for wealth management,

financial products & Banking domain

knowledge. Excellent communication

skills, seeks immediate placement,

family visa. Contact : 91242128.

B.Com, 16 years experience in Stores,

accounts and procurement seeks suit-

able position. Local release available

(NOC). Contact 98606546 / 91680124

Chartered Accountant with 10 yrs

of Gulf & MNC experience, in depth

knowledge in Financial statements

including consolidation, treasury,

MIS, AR/AP, Insurance, Taxation,

Payroll etc looking for Senior posi-

tion in finance, NOC available.

Email : prds1406@gmail.com.

Contact : 96293649

MBA (UK) B.Sc (Hons), 24 yrs male

professional with ACCA background

and Masters in International Business

Management from UK is currently

seeking employment on immediate

basis. Contact - +968-97941288,

email : r.shaqib.k@gmail.com

Accountant 10 years Oman exp,

M.Com, upto finalization available for

part time works, timing 2 pm to 6 pm.

Contact 96247295

Indian male, 44 yrs, Account Man-

ager, B.Com & MBA, 20 yrs above

experience, 9 yrs experience seek-

ing suitable position, NOC available,

currently visa expires.

Contact 97438194

Senior Position for CA with 24 years

of experience: Managing Finance,

Accounts, Audit, Bank Loans, Budg-

eting, Business planning, Strategy,

Operations management of SAOG,

group of companies.

Mobile 91799262

MBA, Finance, Indian male, 2 yrs

experience in Accounting experience,

seeks suitable placement.

Contact 92045306

Indian male age 30 having

10 yrs experience in Finance &

Accounts seeking suitable place-

ment. mob.93675399

Indian Document Controller,

15 years, GCC experience, release

available. Contact 99324617

Accountant 8 years experience in

Oman seeking part time job.

Contact 99867456

Recruitment 1- Marketing Execu-tive. 2 - Chemical laboratory. 3 – Designer. Experience in Marble,

Granite or ceramic industry with

minimum 3 years, experience

preferred. Send detailed CV with

expected salary - sudakv@gmail.com

Wanted Accountant-Male/Female, Marketing executives-male/female with driving license, secretary/office

admin staff-male/female.

Contact 92058868, email :

moderncarthage@gmail.com /

srioman57@yahoo.comHOSPITALITY

Manager/Caretaker wanted for

small Tourist Camp near Sur. Can-

didate must start soon. Couples also

welcome. Call 93356310

A Filipino COMPUTER TECHNICIAN (Hardware & Software) is wanted for

a computer shop in Sohar. Please,

send your CV to

greenapple.soh@gmail.com

IBH Multispeciality Medical

Center- Seeb, requires the following

faculty: 1) General Practitioner. 2) Gynecologist. 3) Dermatologist. 4) Nurse. 5) Pharmacist. E-mail CV : sarita_h23@yahoo.com

Contact: 97884856

B Pharm, Indian female, Oman MOH

License holder, seeking job.

Email- shivallath@gmail.com.

Contact no: 99665183

Indian male Engineer (B.E in E&C,

MBA) with 5 years admin/profes-

sional experience looking for a

suitable placement in a reputed

company. Contact 91387463

email: i.career543@gmail.com

Senior Accounts Professional, Indi-

an Male, 35 years, M.Com, MBA (Fin)

8 years in Oman, with valid Oman

DL and NOC available. Capable to

handle accounts up to finalization.

Contact 9602 3965.

Indian Female, 22yrs, married

(current in Muscat in visit visa) with

civil draftsman experience, Diploma

with AutoCAD (2D, 3D, 3 Ds max,

and rivet) seeking for any position.

Please contact +968-95601266

5 years experience with Diploma Civil required urgently for an

excellent grade company. Email :

new2014recruitment@outlook.com

Urgently required a Doctor for leave

vacancy, good payment with com-

mission. Contact 97091664

MEDICAL

Sri Lankan driver looking for job.

Contact - 97387112

Light driver looking for job, 5 years

exp in Saudi Arabia + Oman 2 yrs.

Contact 96088707

DOMESTIC HELP

DOMESTIC HELP

DAILY GUIDEW E D N E S D AY, N O V E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4 D5

DAILY GUIDESITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED

DRIVER

MISCELLANEOUS

INFORMATION TECH

EDUCATION

EDUCATION

HOSPITALITY

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

MEDICAL

MEDICAL

Female Pharmacist B Pharm MOH

license seeking suitable position.

Contact 91391547 / 99538357

Indian female Dentist, MOH license

holder, with an experience of 6 yrs,

looking for a suitable opportunity.

Contact 94046651 or

prachiarekar24@gmail.com

Senior Staff Nurse with MOH

license and more than 20 years of

experience presently on family visa

seeking suitable placement in

capital area. Contact 99630557

Indian female, 30 years, MBA in

Health Care Services (MBA HCS)

looking for suitable job in hospital.

Contact 92606341

Indian Male GP with MOH License

and NOC, having 10 years of excel-

lent hands on experience in Oman

with corporate culture. #98140024

Email: drgpoman@yahoo.com

Indian Male 26 yrs Store keeper

having experienced of 2 years in

Oman looking for a good placement

Note: Release/ NOC Available by cur-

rent Company Contact 96671102,

mohdparvez656@yahoo.com

Indian male, experienced executive

secretary / Document Controller /

Admin Executive, looking for suit-

able job. Contract No. 91091963 /

99707262”

Bangladeshi man wants good job,

can speak English, Arabic, Hindi.

Contact 93822195

Land Surveyor : Indian male, 1 year

experience in India, using total

station, Auto Level and AutoCAD

seeking suitable placement.

Contact 95140761, 99208290,

Email : binu.brijiv@gmail.com

22 yrs female completed MBA

looking for job in any or-

ganization willing persons

can contact:92441525 OR

email:talathfatima38@gmail.com

Indian male, senior Miller flour

mills, 24 yrs exp. including erection

& QC, presently working in India.

Contact 0091 9744167051

27 Years Pakistani male in (Crimi-

nology having 4 years experience in

security and management seeking

suitable placement as security

officer. Contact 99191701

Email : crimekiller371@yahoo.com

Electronics & Communication Engi-

neer, graduate with BSNL Certified

Engineering (GSM) seeking suitable

placement. Contact 91611341, email:

shuhaib_begins@hotmail.com

Civil Engineer, 6+ years work

experience in Oman, valid Omani

D/L looking for suitable placement.

Contact 96936404

Pakistani, 3 years experience in

Surveying + engineer DAE in Civil

Engineer, looking for suitable posi-

tion, valid Omani Driving License

with valid Omani visa. #97255360

B. E electrical & electronics Indian

male 24 yrs having 2 yrs Exp NOC

available seeking suitable place-

ment. Contact: 99381733

Email: shihab4eee@gmail.com

Indian Male, Diploma holder in

Mechanical Engineering with 2

years experience as Site Supervisor

in leading company in India who is

presently at Muscat looking for good

opportunity. Contact 98856004

Sudanese Mechanical Engineer, 3

years experience (production, opera-

tion), driving license easy to transfer

immediately. Contact 91135140

Physical Science/Mathematics

female teacher with 6 years Indian

experience, seeking a position in a

reputed school/Institution. QUALI-

FICATION: B.Sc (Mathematics, Elec-

tronics & computer science), B.Ed

(Mathematics & English) Contact:

Kamaal. GSM: 94300026, email:

tahaniyath.sultana@gmail.com

MANAGER/ SUPERVISOR

FOREMAN

Indian male, 24 years experience

Senior Miller Flour Mills includ-

ing erection and QC, presently in

India. Contact 00919744167051,

98657006

MBA graduate Indian male with

6 yrs experience as Marketing

Manager in Oman’s leading oilfield

company looking for suitable posi-

tion - contact: 94097731

Indian Male 25 MBA in Sports

Management; Looking for job in

Sports administration/Sports

events/sports facility management

and Sports related Organisations.

Exp. as sports development of-

ficer in schools,Project Manager in

Syncotts international Bangalore

& part of World Hockey Series of

India-2012 as Production Runner.

Presently on Visit visa in Oman.

Contact; 96398569.

Email : limshukachery@gmail.com

Indian Male, 25 years in Oman, FMCG business in Senior Manager

level looking for senior position.

Contact 99015946

Professionally qualified Manager with Financial and Commercial

experience at a Group level with

diversified operations across the

Middle East. Contact 98480428 ,

accaprof@outlook.com

Indian male, 3 years experience in

Automobile Service Engineer seeks

suitable placement.

Contact 95936331

B.E (Civil) Engineer, male 6 years

experience as a project Engineer

in multinational ISO standard

company (Oman, Dubai & Qatar)

high rise building, substation,

industrial building, pipe line &

Oil & Gas fields. Knowledge Auto

CAD, Ms Excel, MS Project. Look-

ing suitable placement. Contact:-

+97433854588, +96896007635

E-mail- mmosharoff08@gmail.com

B.Sc Civil Engineer over 19 years

experience in construction field with

project management skills seeks

suitable placement. NOC available &

can join immediately.

Kindly contact 92198264,

email: mdrana197@gmail.com

Electrical Engineer, 9 yrs experience

in Electrical Projects with Oman D/L,

NOC available, can join immediately.

Email: jobluk.om@gmail.com

Civil Engineer, 4 yrs experience

in Oman as Site Engineer holds

Diploma in civil Engineering looking

for job. NOC available.

Contact 91003490

Civil Engineer (Diploma), 5 yrs ex-

perience with Oman D/L currently on

working visa. NOC available. Contact

93091214 / 99030342

Indian Male, 24, B.Tech Electrical

and Electronics Engineering, 2+

years experience in Electrical field,

panel board designing, electrical

AutoCAD drawings and manage-

rial skills. Contact 92181106, email :

shonejthermadom@gmail.com

Civil Engineer with exp 5 years in

construction and roads. NOC avail-

able. Contact 97646908

An Indian Male, land surveyor,

27 years old, 8 years experience,

5 years in GCC. NOC available in

Oman. Contact 98498137

BS Electronic engineer, Pakistani

Male, 23, specialize in Industrial

Automation (Siemens PLC, HMI),

embedded system design & instru-

mentation looking for suitable place-

ment in Oman. Contact 96271586

Civil Quantity Surveyor with 12yrs

exp (4yrs in oman-Sewerage Net-

works HAYA) looking for a suitable

job with NOC. Contact-96785025

A Filipino National seeking for the

job Vacancy as Safety Officer, Fire

Engineer, Fire Inspector, Fire and

Safety Instructor. Well experienced

in Offshore and Petrochemical Plants

with an IOSH Certificate. Please

contact 91718309 or 26855037

Sudanese Mechanical Engineer, male, 5 yrs experience looking for

job in Oman. Contact 91762602

BE Software Engineer, 2 years ex-

perience in JAVA on visit visa. Kind-

ly contact 93403948, 99426840

Indian Male, 9 years experienced

Mechanical piping Engineer work-

ing in MNC Company, Saudi Arabia

currently in Muscat seeking suitable

placement. Contact 96255649

Indian Male, 9 years experienced

Mechanical Engineer (oil and gas)

background seeking suitable place-

ment. Contact 96255649

BE Electronic & Communication

Engineer, fresh graduate male, 23

yrs Indian looking for a suitable

placement. Contact -Email:

shahbazpatel4469@gmail.com

BSc Computer Science Programme

seeking job, visit visa.

Contact 97923444

Indian Male, 26 yrs, graduate in

hospitality science, with New Zea-

land business diploma and previous

Oman experience in Customer

service seeks suitable placement in

hospitality/salesmarketing/ logis-

tics/ admin. Contact 91383167

Indian male 28 completed

B.H.M.CT, 4 yrs exp in food & bever-

ages dept. looking for senior super-

visor position. Contact – 91018857 /

mirazhar.ali51@gmail.com

Female 21 yrs, Tally 1 year experi-

ence, looking for visa. #95330720

Male 22 Housekeeping front office

Hotel management degree course.

Contact 96732520

B.E (Chemical), 23, Indian male

with 1 year experience (production)

in Chemical Plant, on visiting visa

seeking for a suitable job.

Contact: 94525650,

Email: nglsgy@gmail.com

Indian male 30 yrs seeking suit-

able placement to work as forklift

operator, having 5 yrs of exp. NOC

available. Contact – 94370085

Indian male 28, completed B.H.MCT 4 yrs exp in food &bever-

ages department. Looking suitable

job for senior supervisor.

Contact – 9108857 /

mirazhar.al51@gmail.com

Piping/Pipeline engineer, 3+ yrs

exp with B.E degree (Mech), familiar

with CAESAR-2, PDMS, AutoCAD,

stress analysis and piping of criti-

cal lines for hydrocarbon industry.

Contact: 95785479,

Email: mdshaji6105@gmail.com

SKILLED/UN SKILLED

WELDER, TIG, ARC, 6G, GULF EXP

PH : 93837973

Welder cum fabricator TIG, 3G 6G,

Gulf experienced, PH : 93837973

SECRETARIAL

Executive Secretary-Indian Male,

graduate, 16 years of experience, 9

years in Oman having valid Oman

D/L seeks suitable placement.

Contact 94542833

Egyptian woman resident has

considerable experience in the

administration and secretarial

executive for companies.

Contact 97221126

North Indian female, Commerce

Graduate with good communication

skills, looking for a job as Reception-

ist / Data Entry Operation / Office

Staff at reputed companies.

Contact 91289686

Indian Housemaid from Mumbai

available for cooking, babysitting

from 7-12 noon. Contact 95896415

Housemaid looking for job in Qurum

area. Contact No. 93623629

Sri Lankan housemaid looking for a

job. Contact 99529499

Indian male, 27 yrs, NOC available.

Office boy, helper degree B.Com,

exp 1.8 months, Oman. Contact

93764069, room boy (watchman

building maintenance)

Looking for full time/part time job,

cleaning, cooking, personal care

taker, ladies and kids.

Contact 97882204 / 98562066

Mechanical Engineer, Sudanese,

3 years experience in HVAC

Site Engineer, driving license easy to

transfer immediately.

Contact 91135140

Civil Diploma Engineer, Indian

Male, 5 years experience in Oman

with valid Omani D/L.

Contact 98518370

Chemical Engineer with M.Tech

in Energy Engineering is looking

for process/chemical Engineer

post. Contact 95094101, email:

sachin_s_46@yahoo.co.in

Indian Male, B.Tech in Mechani-

cal Engineering with Level II NDT,

Certification & also an MBA Graduate

with 18 months experience as a QC

Engineer & 24 months experience in

an Automobile field, now in Oman on

visit visa seeking suitable place-

ment. Contact: 92551673

Email: arunadur87@gmail.com

Consultancy professional experi-

enced civil manager with 18 yr in

Oman with experience in PDO and

other Government sector liking for

handle self-governing projects, inter-

ested consultancy firm may contact

on 99765165.

Male 26 yrs, B.Tech Engineer (EIE),

with 4 years experience looking for

a good position in oil and Gas field,

automation field, DCS field. currently

on Visit Visa, willing to join immedi-

ately. Contact 92453908, Email I’d:

yousuf_Omair 14@yahoo.com

B.Tech Electronics, Indian Male with

2 years experience in Oman in office

management, looking for suitable

job, NOC available. # 96539538.

Email: dpkprm19@gmail.com

Irrigation Engineer to work as mar-

keting and sales in charge. Min

5 years experience with Oman

driving license. Email CV to:

ucrecruit@gmail.com

Indian M/25 Engineering, Software

developer, 2yrs Exp, ADO.Net, WPF,

ASP.net, SQL Server, Oracle. On visit

Visa. GSM.94513655

Mechanical Engineer (B.E), Indian

Male, 8+ years experience in Manu-

facturing/Production/Project Plan-

ning seeking placement. #98359944,

Email : sbandarkar16@gmail.com

Indian Male, 29 years.

BCA + ITI Electronics, 8 years

experience in Electronic service and

telecommunication networking,

Contact 98689568

Nanotechnology (M.Tech), Karunya

University 7.3 GPA, Project: Non-

Linear Energy Harvesting Electron-

ics and Communication (B.Tech)

Anna University 68%, Project: Wire-

less Remote Sensing Robot. Contact

98434781, 98373764,

email: bijo.boban@gmail.com

Indian Male, Civil Engineer with

0.5 years of experience as a Site

Engineer looking for a job as a Site

Engineer / Site Supervisor. Please

contact: 98247618, 99775118

Female Software Engineer Contact -91706562

Licensed Electrical Engineer Gulf

experienced looking for suitable job.

Contact 98063081

Indian female, Civil Engineer, 10 yrs

experience QS, valid Oman D/L look-

ing for better opportunities.

Contact 95719108

Indian Female, 25 years, Electronics

& Communications Engineer from

Vishwarya Technological University

with 3 yrs experience in Technical

Support and Sales looking for suit-

able placement, currently on visit

visa. Contact 91713423

Indian male - 23 yrs-Mech Engi-

neer-on visit visa-1 year exp-

Contact: 99669889 -

Email: arun.runnithan@gmail.com

Indian male B.E. Electronics & Com-

munication, from Anna University,

Chennai and also done a BSNL certi-

fied optical fibre optic course on

visiting visa, looking for a suitable

job. Contact 91530768,

Email : vipinp23@gmail.com

Electrical Engineer (24), female,

fresher looking for suitable jobs,

Falaj Al Qabail, Sohar.

Contact 94347258,

Email : seenaarun43@gmail.com

Diploma Civil Engineer looking for

suitable job. Contact 95659028

Instrumentation Engineer, Indian

male having 2 years experiences in

process instruments seeks suitable

placement. Contact 95954385

Omani graduate, Male, HRM (oracle)

and PR Director, experience 3 years

seeking suitable placement.

Contact 93546877

Indian Male, 29 yrs, IT Professional

MCA, having 6+ years of experience

in IT MNC Companies Software

Development & implementation

support looking for suitable position

currently on visit visa. #94543668,

email: mohdjaveed26@gmail.com

Indian Female (25), married, MSc

(Software Engg), 2+ years of experi-

ence in leading MNC, IT skill include

HTML, CSS with the design and

development of web based applica-

tion using struts frame work, J2EE

and oracle with excellent commu-

nication skills looking for a suitable

job opening. Contact 95892587,

96265726

Computer Programmer 27F B.Tech

3yrExp (.net, php) seeking for suit-

able placement 98620611

Indian Female, BE, 1 year experience

in Mobile Application Development

IOS, Android currently in family visa

seeks suitable job. # 97632721,

email: ranjini2016@gmail.com

Indian Female, working as IT Pro-

fessor in India since 2009, M. Phil

& MBA (Dist edu) M.Sc IT, seeking

for suitable placement in data base

management systems.

Contact 91105949. Email:

parvin.sathyashibu@gmail.com

MBA (Operations) with 13 years

experience in IT Infrastructure

enterprises, voice network, unified

communication, MS Certified Lync

Avaya Polycom is on visit visa

seeking a suitable placement.

Contact 94535700.

Email: chetan.padole@gmail.com

Indian male (34), IT System and

Network Manager, 8 years experi-

ence within Tunisia MS Exchange

SQL Backup Exec, trouble shooting

network on family visa.

Contact 97441102

IT support, 1 yr experience in Oman,

5 yrs in India looking for suitable job.

Contact 97311847

Searching for job BSC Computer

Science. Contact – 97923444

sudheeshmohan123@gmail.com

Microsoft Certified Systems En-

gineer (Hardware)-5 years experi-

enced Systems Engineer (2 years in

UAE as plant IT operations) search-

ing for job in Oman -

Contact 92254218 / 99412003

Experienced Indian driver need job.

Contact 96460224

Pakistani driver needs job.

Contact 99285194

Malayalee driver need job.

Contact 93729371

Driver is available for his personal

home, driver as a Company driver,

outhouse to go to UAE, please do not

hesitate to contact 96964343

Light driver, 3 years experience in

Oman. Contact 94453093

Indian L/D, driver, 2yrs exp.

Contact 98783139

Light driver seeking job.

Contact 95963682

Light driver looking for job in any

Company. Release available.

Contact 98368378

Light driver. Contact

98537756

Light driver looking for job.

Contact 93181200

Experienced Light Driver available.

Contact 95076476

Light driver looking for job.

Contact 92014540

Bangladeshi male, Light Driver

experience 12 yrs looking for job in

any Company any Office.

Contact 99165961

Light driver looking for job.

Contact 94216536

Driver require job with visa.

Contact 92073175 / 95803184

Bangladeshi male having 2 yrs exp

in Light Vehicle Driving.

Contact 98487511

6 years experienced, NET WEB

DEVELOPER (Software Engineer)

available in Oman on visit visa &

looking for opportunity.

Contact 91125896

Civil Engineer, Indian male with 5

yrs experience in building looking

for immediate opportunity.

Contact 99126087

Indian male (23), Diploma in

Computer Engineering, 1.5 years

experience in IT Company in India.

IT skills including Web Design and

Development, Computer Hardware

Maintenance and BPO, looking for

a suitable placement, currently on

visit. Contact 92689778 / 92150123,

Email : midhunbabu98@gmail.com

Indian Female, University 1st rank

holder in M.Sc Computer Science

seeking for suitable placement

available in Muscat on a visit visa.

Contact 93778682 / 95378696

Telecom Engineer with 8 yrs exp

from India in IT Networking seeks

suitable opportunities now in Oman.

Contact 99002635 Emal :

sibinkumar.acharya@gmail.com

B.Tech Mechanical Engineer with

Quality Controller certificate looking

for a job. Contact 94525819.

Email : jithsree07@gmail.com

Indian male, Civil Engineer (B.Tech)

with 4 yrs & 6 months experience in

Gulf & India, presently on visit visa,

seeking suitable position at Capital

region in Oman.

Contact 93453417, Email :

mohmmed.tajuddin.ksa@gmail.com

Graduate Mechatronic Engineer with Diploma in product design and

analysis, seeking a job.

Contact – 98584349 /

Email: chalapronsulhil@gmail.com

Electrical Engineer having 2

yrs of experience, substation/

maintenance seeking for suitable

placement. Contact 97698493 /

99253909

Civil Engineer with 8 years experi-

ence and valid Omani D/L looking

for suitable placement. Ready to join

immediately. Contact 95326194 /

99525367

Sudanese Electrical Engineer, Bsc.

Degree with more than 8 Years Ex-

perience in Projects Field available

on Visit Visa 96160749`,

Email : youssifosman@yahoo.com

BSc Mechanical Engineer, 6 years experience Master of Project

Management (USA), energy graduat-

ed study. Contact 99487902. Email

mohammedyousif37@yahoo.com

Diploma in Electronics Engineering

with 5 years experience in Oman

as Customer Service Coordinator,

Inventory Control and Indoor Sales

Executive seeks suitable job. Speaks

Arabic, English & Hindi. #95681406.

Email nizampu@yahoo.co.in

Mechanical Engineer,(BTech in

Mechanical) with Certified quality

controller - NDT level 2 qualified as

per ASNT - SNT-TC-I A, with

1 & half yr exp. as quality control

engineer, presnetly in India seeks

suitable placement Cont : 95405033

suhylehameed@gmail.com

Electrical Engineer, Indian, 2.5

years experience at Thermal Plant,

(erection and commissioning). Now

in Oman on visit seeking suitable

job. Contact 95836714.

Email – sarat.thalappil@gmail.com

Srilankan B.Tech Quantity Surveyor

with 6 years exp (3 yrs GCC) looking

for a suitable placement with NOC.

Contact 98357512.

Email : lebbeah@yahoo.com

BE Civil Engineer, fresh graduate,

male 24 yrs, Indian looking for a suit-

able placement. Contact 95117509

An Indian Male, 24 yrs old foreman,

5 years experience, 3years in GCC.

NOC available. Contact 93087122

MSc. Chemistry Teacher (5 y EXP.)

Pakistani female looking for

a job in School/college.

Contact 96580101

Nursing caregiver, qualified Nurse/

Asst. Nurse (male/ female) medical

staff seeks placement for Hospital/

clinic. Contact 92989109 (Oman),

0091 – 9555427742 (India),

medicoport@gmail.com

DAILY GUIDE Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461 Fax: 24812624

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com

D6 W E D N E S D AY, N O V E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4

DAILY GUIDE Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461 Fax: 24812624

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com

SITUATION WANTED

INDIAN female having ten years

experience as cook. South Indian,

Gujarathi special.

Contact:: 94224512

Homoeopathic Doctor, Indian

Female, with MOH License( to be re-

newed) (Nearly 2 years exp in Mus-

cat, Oman) seeks suitable place-

ment in Clinics/Hospitals in Muscat

area. Please Contact:92975815.

Male senior accountant with 20+

years experience readily available.

6 years experience in construction

industry Oman. NOC & Oman driving

license holder. 93969767/ gnana-

sathia@gmail.com

Electronics & communication

Engineer, having 3+years experience

(2Yeras GCC) in Security systems/

low current systems (FAS, CCTV,

ACS, PAVA etc) seeking suitable

Post in construction/manufactur-

ing/production/maintenance depts.

Contact: hashimjm@gmail.com

91001523

Experience salesman with 5 years

experience and vehicle looking for a

job. Contact 93079087

Dynamic Indian Female, Chemical

Engineer (fresher from NIIT),

holding Oman D/L

seeks suitable placement.

Contact 97477127,

email: anjana.nanda@outlook.com

Indian Male, B.Sc, Fashion & Ap-

parel Design having 4+ yrs of experi-

ence (in retail sector as Designer-

Visual Merchandising & Marketing)

seeking suitable placement.

Contact 94535866,

email: tomsjon@gmail.com

Indian Female, B.Com, Secretarial

skills, MS office, Oracle, 5 years

experience in Oman, as QA/QC As-

sistant, Administrator, Document

Controller, seeking placement.

Contact: 96465391 or

E-mail: alanns123@gmail.com

Indian female 29 Graduate/Com-

puter diploma 5-year work experi-

ence as Manager Administration/

HR in Construction & Real Estate

seeking suitable placement .

On family Visa. Contact - 91191236

British Female with 4 years experi-

ence in Oman in Marketing and

Project Management.

Call 00974 3343 7619

Indian Male MBA & PGDFM 26

Yrs. having 3.2 yrs of exp. seeking

suitable placement in Admin/HR/

Accounts/Purchase co-ordinator

etc..Holding valid Oman driving

license. Contact No :93359371

Indian female MCA., M. Phil in

computer Science having 5 yrs of

experience in teaching(as Lecturer)

seeking for teaching position in

school or college. Can join im-

mediately. Contact :97765173.

Email:dtkthillai@gmail.com

Indian male 23YRS, 4 Years expe-

rienced in Architectural Draughts-

man looking for a suitable Post

GSM:96023726, Email :

jayan.mathew009@gmail.com

Indian Male having 10 years of

Experience in Oman having Valid

Omani Driving license working in

Purchase Dept looking for a suit-

able position. salary is negotiable.

obarla313@gmail.com

Mob: 94304324/92654817

Female Candidate: Having

experience(ISRO) in Adminis-

tration (seeking suitable op-

portunities &presently in Oman

Mob:97239854,

Mail:asherlalitha@yahoo.com

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED

*Classified Advertisement space booking with text,

should be done till 12.00 noon for next day’s publication. * Subject

to space availability

SALES / MARKETING

MBA Graduate with 2 years of

experience as working as Executive

assistant in Dubai is looking for a job

(full time) other than as an Execu-

tive Assistant / Office Assistant.

Contact 91615322

29 years, Indian Male with PGDM

and B.Com, experience 4.5 years in

administration, corporate sales and

marketing seeking suitable place-

ments, willing to join immediately.

Contact 99720370,

Email: deepujoseph1985@gmail.com

28 years Indian Male, 5 years

experience in Sales/FMCG-(B.Com),

holding UAE D/L, now in Oman on

visit visa, searching suitable posi-

tion. Contact 98211481

Urgent Indian 37, indoor, outdoor,

13 years Sales experience having

NOC with D/L. Contact 99646321

Indian Male, Sales and Admin expe-

rience in India, 4 yrs now in Muscat.

Contact 91344706,

Email: wilsonvarghese1@gmail.com

Indian male, Graduate, 23 yrs on

visit visa looking for suitable posi-

tion in Sales and Marketing.

Contact 91757222,

email: danishdani460@gmail.com

Indian male, MBA, 6 years of experi-

ence looking for suitable placement

in Marketing and Sales. # 91780948

Indian Male, 26 yrs old having

3 years experience in Networking

and Sales in KSA, have valid GCC

driving license, CISCO Certified and

BBA Graduate, visiting visa,

looking for a suitable placement.

Email : mufaisar@gmail.com

Indian female having 8 years

experience in Sales & Marketing

in oil and gas field as commercial

manager, looking for a suitable

placement-NOC available -Contact -

Email- mvrajagd_d@yahoo.com

Mob: 96311709

Looking for Sales/Marketing job : Indian male with 5 years experience

& GCC Driving License.

Contact +91 9916918977,

Email : me.punith@gmail.com

15 years experience in Sales / Mar-

keting FMCG and Building Materials,

Indian male seeking suitable posi-

tion with Oman D/L. NOC available.

Email : haneefavista@gmail.com

10 years Oman experience in Sales

and Marketing with valid D/L and

NOC available from current sponsor.

Can join immediately. #96491505

5 years experience, valid Omani D/L,

4 years warehouse experience look-

ing for good placement. Release letter

available. Contact 98615731

Indian male, MBA (USA) having 5

years of International experience in

Sales and Marketing. #98853309.

Email : savincgnr@yahoo.com

Indian female, 32 yrs, MBA (Market-

ing), holding Omani D/L seeks suit-

able placement. Contact 95041134.

Email : divya.vini@gmail.com

Indian Male, 28 yrs, having 5

years experience in FMCG Sales in

visit visa, Looking for any suitable

jobs in Oman. Contact 98531486/

98988824

MBA with 15+ years of experience

in Senior/Middle Level Mgt in India

and GCC with various MNC’s is on

family visit looking for a suitable

opening. Contact 97330734

Indian Female: Bachelor in Travel &

tourism.1 year experience in ticket-

ing and 6 month in cargo (CIAL).

Looking suitable placement.

Contact 95883404

TOURS & TRVLS

ACC. AVAILABLE

Furnished non cooking bachelor

behind Khimji near Oman House.

Contact 95865686

Sharing flat with A/C for bachelor

in Wadi Kabir. Contact 95470129

Furnished single room + bath for

executive bachelors at Darsait.

Contact 92116197

Executive Bachelor sharing flat,

Ruwi, Mumtaz main Rd RO 85/-.

Contact 92230581 / 95084850

Furnished large room separate

entrance Wadi Kabir.

Contact 99336206

Sharing accommodation available

for veg family/bachelor.

Contact 99877845

Fully furnished room with separate

toilet, equipped kitchen and big

terrace available for executive

bachelor from Nov.1s tin N. Ghobrah.

Contact-- 95450250

Fully furnished room with sharing

toilet, equipped kitchen immediate-

ly available for executive bachelor

in MBD area. Contact-95450250

Fully furnished Villa at Al Mawalah

with 5 bedrooms asking 700

Tel: 95339258

Sharing accommodation for executive bachelor in Ruwi.

Contact: 95453473

Sharing accommodation available

for family big room, hall & separate

toilet at Mumtaz, Ruwi.

Contact: 97612335

2 BHK available in Darsait near

Lulu RO 250/-. Contact 92383882

Furnished room in Ruwi high street

for a non cooking ex bachelor.

Contact- 94412557

Independent rooms in Qurum /

Hail. Contact 95529970

Candidate having 9 years of logis-

tics operation and marketing experi-

ence in Saudi Arabia and India with

valid Saudi Driving License,

looking for suitable placement .

Please contact 94525696

MISCELLANEOUS

Furnished room near Manam

Apartments executive bachelor/

working lady RO 140/-. Wattaya.

Contact: 93476160/92446858

Semi furnished room with Separate

T&B Split AC Wifi pref Filipino

or non cooking bachelor lady in

Boushar near Rehab Hotel RO.145/

mo incl W&E. Contact 99058225

1 BR accommodation available at

Rex Road, suitable for bachelors.

Contact 99889590

Furnished room available for

Executive bachelor in Ruwi area.

Contact 99054542

Furnished room for Indian Bachelor

in Al Falaj/Ruwi & for lady in Wadi

Kabir Al Maya-RO 130/-.

Contact 96202458

Sharing accommodation for a fam-

ily in W/K. contact 97167857

Single room available for exclu-

sive bachelors in Azaiba villa

and complete ground floor with

Kitchen facility bedroom and

Hall in Darsait. Contact details –

98048207,99261773

Big room with attached bath near

Mabela Souq for working lady or

single couple.R.O. 110 –

Call 95208305

Sharing one big room with AC and

bathroom, kitchen sharing for lady

or single person near OC Centre,

Ruwi RO 130 Rials.

Contact 99410160

Executive bachleor accomodation

available at north al hail. Near wave.

Contact : 91325959

1 room with attach toilet rent

RO 120/- at Al Hail North.

Contact 97661432

Furnished single room with

bathroom, Al Khuwair area only for

ladies. Contact 96059431

Transportation Available

Contact: 97180655

Transportation. Contact98698909

Transportation. Contact 96538078

Transportation. Contact: 97897833

TRANSPORTATION

PDO Approved in Contracts, Pro-

curement, Operations, Project Indian

Male PMP, CIPS, PGDBA, DME, Oil &

Gas with Exp-18+ Yrs. & having valid

Oman & PDO D/L Seeking job -

Contact 92560287 /

shaileshsyal@yahoo.com

Indian Male, 24 years old on visit

visa, 3 years Diploma in Civil Engi-

neering, 3 yrs experience.

Contact 98515106

Senior Accounts Professional, Indi-

an Male, 35 years, M.Com, MBA (Fin)

8 years in Oman, with valid Oman

DL and NOC available. Capable to

handle accounts up to finalization.

Contact 9602 3965.

Female Candidate: Having

experience(ISRO) in Administration

(seeking suitable opportunities &

presently in Oman Mob:97239854,

Mail:asherlalitha@yahoo.com

Indian male, 24 years MA Sociol-

ogy (Social science) B-Ed. 2year

experience in teaching, currently

on visit seeking suitable placement.

Contact 91632006, 91397505

Email- abdulnisar.kv@gmail.com

Post graduate in hospitality and

tourism, Indian ,male 26 , looking

suitable placement ,

in Muscat on visiting visa

contact 98861272

Indian male having 10 years of

experience in Oman having Valid

Omani Driving license working in

Purchase Dept looking for a suit-

able position. Salary is negotiable.

obarla313@gmail.com

Mob: 94304324/92654817

Indian Male, 24 years old on visit

visa, 3 years Diploma in Civil Engi-

neering, 3 yrs experience.

Contact 98515106

Communication Manager, pleasing

personality, strong English skills,

highly qualified, Oman experience

in Corporate, Organizational & Mar-

keting Communication, Business

Development, Marketing Press Rela-

tions, Ads, Campaigns,

CSR Programs. NOC.

Contact 98179887

Senior Sales & Marketing special-

ist with 14 years of experience

and proven track record in Muscat

looking for a suitable placement in

a reputed Company. Indian Male,

38 years (Electronics Engineer)

preferred industry (Electronics /

Electrical / Electro Mechanical) hav-

ing good exposure in access Control

& Automation systems, Lighting &

Electrical accessories etc.

Contact 92208744.

Email : ebpadmakumar@yahoo.com

Indian Male 23yrs, BBM With 2.5

yrs of exp. in Sales & Marketing.

Looking for a suitable placement in

sales & Marketing/Counter sales,

Store keeper or Supervisor.

Contact 92092248

Indian B.Sc. Maths+PGDCA - well

experienced, seeks suitable place-

ment as Commercial/Logistic

Executive or Document Control-

ler/Customer Service Executive;

expected on short visit by Nov. 1st

Week; Contact 99702383. Email:

prabhapisharody@yahoo.com

Indian male, MBA (Marketing) hav-

ing more than 3 years experience in

Marketing & Sales, currently on visit

visa seeking suitable placement.

Contact 96301626.

Email : georgekutti1@gmail.com

Indian Male, MBA in Marketing and

Finance, 10 years’ Sales & Business

Development Experience with valid

D/L of Oman & UAE looking for a

suitable placement. NOC Available.

Contact: 93969961

e-mail abhilash.pvrk@gmail.com

Sales/ Marketing / customer

service release / NOC available UK

+ Oman experience valid Oman D/L,

excellent communication & organ-

izing skills, can join immediately,

Email : plavon_ctg@yahoo.com,

gsm 92342060 / 96761225

SITUATION WANT-ED

SIT. WANTEDNDT ASNT Level II (RT,UT,PT,MPT)

Technician having 3 & half yr experi-

ence, seeks suitable placement. Cur-

rently on visit visa. # 94514454,

ranjithrt1988@gmail.com

Indian male 27 years B.com gradu-

ate 4 years experience as marketing

executive in IT field looking for a

good job in any field.

Contact 98765838

Indian Male, 24 yrs on visit visa,

3 yrs Diploma in civil Engineering,

3 yrs experience. Contact 98515106

DAILY GUIDEW E D N E S D AY, N O V E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4 D7

DAILY GUIDESITUATION WANTEDCARGO

Dolphin Watch, Dhow Cruise with

Buffet, & Land Tours

Al- Ainain Marine Tours Contact-

98029602, 92808636

TOURS

RENT A CAR BUSINESS

BUSINESS

Experienced Civil Engineers invite

Sponsors/Investors to start

contracting business set-up.

Contact 93299940

We assist in new business set up

local sponsorship, real estate

services, assist in company

formation services. Contact -

93166088

Increase your income on

commission basis with our land-

scaping & gardening services

provided for big, small projects &

maintenance contracts.

Contact +968 99242207

Email: bestgardens.om@gmail.com

GOOD NEWS

Ayurvedic treatment for backache,

paralysis, arthritis etc & massage,

All Season (Vaidyaratnam).

Contact 24475280 / 95371554 /

92504980 , www.siddhayur.com

Ayurvedic treatment for joint pain,

backache, paralysis massage, steam-

bath, obesity, spondylitis, IDEAL

CARE Ayuvedic Clinic, 18 November

Street Azaiba. Contact 99639695

FREE INFORMATION ABOUT ISLAM. If you would like to know

more about Islam, please call:

99425598, 96050000, 99353988,

99253818, 99341395, and 99379133.

For ladies: 99415818, 99321360,

99730723 Orvisit: www.islamfact.com

Genuine Ayurvedic treatments

& massage, ayurvedic clinic at

Al Khuwair. Contact 24478618 /

97263637/ 93309131

M.V. FOR SALE

2010 Toyota Yaris (automatic), ex-

cellent condition. Contact 99737879

2008 Kia Sportage (manual).

Contact 97214143

Subaru Impreza 2.0 ltr 2000 model,

manual in super condition.

Contact 99844601

Toyota Corolla X Limited, Model:

2005, Make: 2004, 1.3 liters, Fully

Automatic, Grey, 96,800 km, Excel-

lent condition, New Battery (20.7.14),

diplomat driven with brand new

tyres. Mob: 96530055

Toyota Yaris auto 2009, 142 k,

RO 2,500. Contact 93289652

Pajero 2007, Camry 2006.

Contact 98887511

Expat driven single user Honda CRV

2009 model. 100,000 km.

Contact 95392848

For sale – Camry 2011, Mazda 6

2006, Lancer 2010, Civic 1996.

Contact 96408433/ 93806625

Lexus GS300, 2006.

Contact 93218349

PROTON GEN 2 FOR SALE: Manual

Gear. Good condition. Single owner.

Silver colour. 1st registered August

2009. Full insurance till August

2015. Price OMR 1,680.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

M.V.WANTED

Required Nissan Tida / Toyota yaris

/ Suzuki swift / hyundai/Kia hatch-

back car in good condition.

Contact : 95405033

MATRIMONIAL

Hindu Ezhava, family settled in

Muscat looking for suitable groom

for their daughter, 24 yrs, MBA-HR

presently working (preferably BE,

B.Tech, MBA Professional).

Contact 95693133

Indian Doctor, Businessman look-

ing for working lady in Oman for

marriage, any nationality, Muslim

preference self. Contact 96290792

Keralite Hindu Nair, Male 33 yrs

divorcee 6.1, working in Ministry

as Administrator seeks suitable

alliance. Please send details on

kichu23009@gmail.com.

Contact 93139524

Mangalore Sunni Muslim, seek-

ing suitable bride (preferably from

Dakshina Kannada) for their son

working as Logistics Manager.

Contact 92198085

FOR HIRE

TRUCK FOR HIREIsuzu 10 ton cargo body truck

(2012 FVR) with UAE experienced driver

available for long term / short term rent.

Contact: 95346950

Cuplock System Scaffolding. Contact 99828343

We provide all heavy duty equip-

ment, tractor & trailers & all type

of trucks. Contact 97722507

Running truck wash for rent in

Ouhi Sunia Sohar. Serious people

can. Contact on 97864747

50 seater bus with PDO specifica-

tion for rent or lease.

Contact 99839898

MANPOWER

Housemaid , driver/operator (heavy & light Gulf D/L), house boy, cleaner, all skilled and unskilled cat-

egories process, (embassy agreement

and immigration). Contact 95175192,

EMAIL. oman.manpower@yahoo.com

Running hotel in Marbella Muscat

required investor/partner for

expansion contact mr Zeeshan

97913980

DAILY GUIDE Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461 Fax: 24812624

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com

D8 W E D N E S D AY, N O V E M B E R 5 , 2 0 1 4

DAILY GUIDE Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461 Fax: 24812624

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com

CLASSES

WEBSITE

WEB, ERP and Business Intelli-

gence (BI) creation and man-

agement at rock bottom price.

Contact: http//webviewoman

COMPUTER

SITUATION WANTEDSERVICES

GULF INTERNATIONAL LLC

all kind of pest control.

Contact 92326955

Truck body making, Misfah

Industrial Area. Contact 92326955.

BRIDGE GULFA LLC

House Shifting. Contact 99708138

GUARANTEED CLEANING: Carpet & sofa shampooing,

Contact 99314807/24792998

MARBLE CRYSTALLIZATION restore the original shine of your

marble. Contact 24793614/

99314807

All types of curtain ventation,

Roman, vertical (blinds), sofa

shampooing. Contact 99539521

Pest Control Treatments, termites,

cockroaches, bedbugs. Ocean

Center LLC - Contact 99344723

Carpet and Sofa shampooing.

Ocean Center LLC – Contact

99884591

Building construction & mainte-

nance. Contact 95659028

For All Your Maintenance Solutions,

A/c Servicing & Fixing, Painting,

Cleaning, Electric.

Contact No. 99002390

Civil Maintenance, Painting Elec-

tric, Plumbing, Decor, Tile Fixing,

Lecithin Copra Board flat stifling ,

Carpet Cleaning and A/C Servicing.

Contact 97897831 (Indian keralite)

House shifting & transporting.

Contact 92490422

Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles

polishing, carpet shampooing,

maintenance. Contact ABU QA-

BAS- 99320217 /24788722

A.M Trading Pest control. Contact 99067923

Painting Interlock plumbing

maintenance. Contact 92142319

For HT cable jointing and

termination works 33KV/11KV.

Contact 99056438 /

Email: npgoman@gmail.com

Door to Door Computers repair

specialist laptop software Website

cartridges. Contact 99199376

Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles

polishing, carpet shampooing,

maintenance. Contact ABU QA-

BAS- 99320217 /24788722

Carpet Shampoo, marble & tile pol-

ishing, pest control & anti-termite

treatment, general cleaning paint-

ing, Plumbing, Electrical, shifting.

Contact Mundhir Al-Rizaiqi trading.

L.L.C. # 24810137, 99450130

Water proofing ABUQABAS-

Contact 99320217/24788722

Window & split unit A/C servicing

& maintenance.

Contact 96236476

Split & window A/C servicing &

maintenance.

Contact 93769089

Learn Driving from professional

instructors. Contact 94022250

Driving School, automatic.

Contact 92245110

Learn driving automatic from

scratch. Contact 98599675

DRIVING

Civil maintenance, Electrical &

Plumbing work. Contact 99557080 /

96236476

Part time services available for

Arabic/Quran classes or transport in

the evening. Contact 92567848

Bus service available with experi-

enced driver on monthly basis for

2 yrs. Contract for companies only.

Contact 98605556, 92577588

Electrical Plumbing Painting

Contract and Maintenance.

Contact 98456535

Waterproofing, light weight Screed,

Antitermite and MS Fabrication.

Contact 92888337

Waterproofing, light weight Screed,

Antitermite and MS Fabrication.

Contact 92888337

Catering services We do industrial

catering service, Canteen/ mess,

3 times packed meals,

and all types of catering events.

Contact 92188777/ 99249899

TRANSPORTATION

TRANSPORTATION

Transportation. Contact 91310107

Transportation. Contact 98518979

Transportation. Contact 97838217

Transport. Contact 99664703

Transportation available car with

driver. Contact 98475141

Transportation for women only from

Muscat area only.

Contact 97007934 / 92629232

Transportation available.

Contact 95068976

Transportation. Contact 94122131

Transportation available driver

with car-Muscat. Contact 97361454

Transportation. Contact 99508282

Pest Control and cleaning best

services – 1. Cockroach, ants, etc, 2.

Tiles cleaning, marbles cleaning,

floor cleaning, and carpet cleaning.

Contact 92108447, 99666505

Pest control service, bed bugs,

cockroach, termite, snake

RA+Rodent and all insects. Contact

95084939, 97914212

Split & window unit AC servicing &

repairing. Contact 99557080

Window & split unit AC servicing &

maintaining. Contact 96236476

Civil maintenance, electrical &

plumbing work. Contact 99557080,

96236476