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SATURDAY, May 30, 2015 / 11 Sha’aban 1436 AH timesofoman.com wtimesofoman.com facebook.com/timesofoman twitter.com/timesofoman blog.timesofoman.com ISO 9001:2008 Certifi ed Company

Southeast Asian nations agreed on Friday to intensify search and rescue eff orts to help vulnerable ‘boat people’ stranded in the region’s seas, as Myanmar. >A9

SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS AGREE TO RESCUE MIGRANTS

RED BULL CONTEST WINNER Qasim Al Farsi’s series of photos

capturing stormy weather in the

Hajar Mountains was declared the

winner of Red Bull 5 Pics photography

competition. -A R Rajkumar See also >A2FOR MORE PHOTOS

Staff Reporter

MUSCAT: With the mercury soaring, residents are feeling the heat and people suff ering from de-hydration, diarrhoea, body aches and fever along with blood pres-sure problems are fl ooding clinics.

Speaking to the Times of Oman, Dr Pradeep Maheswari, specialist of internal medicine at the Atlas Hospital, Ruwi, said a rise of 20 to 30 per cent in patients is being witnessed since last week.

“People should avoid unnec-essary exposure to the sun and drink plenty of water to protect themselves from these ailments,” he said on Thursday.

Even children have been af-fected because of the change in temperature. A city-based pae-diatrician said that he has treated several patients with symptoms of diarrhoea, jaundice and fever.

“There has been a sudden in-crease in the temperature, result-ing in people falling sick. The cur-rent weather condition favours growth of bacteria, which needs moisture. So, the chances of suf-fering from bacterial diseases increase in summer. Chances of infection from water-borne diseases, including diarrhoea, is also high in this weather,” said R. Modi, a city-based paediatrician.

The doctor suggested that peo-ple should wash their hands with

soap under running water. “Most children do not use soap while washing their hands and those who use soap do not use enough water. Washing hands with soap under running water is manda-tory in this season,” he added.

Doctors also advised people with blood pressure problems to go for a regular check-up.

“The blood pressure level tends to drop during summer because of excessive perspiration. Workers should also take a break to pre-vent heat exhaustion,” they said.

While admitting that he had not seen any heat stroke cases yet, Dr Maheswari said that he had, however, seen a large number of

heat exhaustion cases in the past week. As a preventive measure, they should avoid exposure to ex-treme temperatures or drink wa-ter that is too cold or hot.

“They should also avoid mov-ing from very low temperature to high temperature areas frequent-ly,” he said.

Doctors advised people to check the storage information for any medication before consum-ing them so that one is aware of temperature restrictions.

“You should always keep drugs such as insulin in the refrig-erator. They can also be kept in a cool pack, which is insulated,” they said.

Reducing exposure

to sun and drinking

plenty of water can

together help avoid

adverse impact of

the hot weather, say

health experts

HEAT-RELATED AILMENTS: A city-based paediatrician has said that he has treated several patients

with symptoms of diarrhoea, jaundice and fever.

Sohar Aluminium signs pact to build training centre for disabledTimes News Service

SOHAR: Sohar Aluminium Company signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Social Development to build a new OMR110,000 head-quarters for Omani Association for the Disabled in the Wilayat of Sohar.

A function was held in the presence of Sheikh Mohammed bin Said Al Kalbani, Minister of Social Development at Al Noor Association for the Blind in the

Wilayat of Sohar. Said bin Mo-hammed Al Masoudi, CEO of Sohar Aluminium Company signed the MoU on behalf of the company, while A'mer bin Mo-hammed Al Hajri, Director Gen-eral of Social Development in the Governorates of North and South Al Batinah, signed on behalf of the ministry.

The new building will serve as a training centre for the region, as well as contribute to the provision of services to more than 450 peo-ple with disabilities in the Gov-

ernorates of North and South Al Batinah, A'Dhahirah, Al Buraimi and Musandam.

The building will also pro-vide a large number of training programmes in various fi elds, such as information technology, the development of talent and courses of specialised training to meet the needs of the labour mar-ket, as well as lessons in arts and crafts. The foundation stone of construction will be laid down on June 1. The building is expected to be ready in one year.

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

HM greets Nepalese president

HM’s greetings

conveyed to

Mauritius

president

MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has sent a cable of congratulations to President Dr Ram Baran Yadav of Nepal on the occasion of his country’s National Day.

In his cable, His Majesty the Sultan has expressed his sincere congratulations along with his best wishes of good health and happiness to President Yadav and the friendly people of his country further progress and prosperity. -ONA

PORT LOUIS: Rajkeswur Purryag, President of the Re-public of Mauritius received the credentials of Mubarak bin Salim Al Zakwani, as the Sultan-ate’s extraordinary and plenipo-tentiary ambassador to the Re-public of Mauritius.

During the meeting with the president, the Omani ambassa-dor conveyed the greetings and wishes of good health and hap-piness of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said to the Mauri-tius president and his country’s people further progress and prosperity and further growth to the relations between the two countries.

Sincere greetingsIn his turn, President Purryag asked the ambassador to convey his sincere greetings and wishes to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said and the Omani people further progress and prosper-ity under the wise leadership of His Majesty the Sultan. The Mauritius president also wished the ambassador success in per-forming his duties for further progress and development of the relations between the two coun-tries. —ONA See also page >2

N A T I O N A L D A Y

O M A N I E N V O Y Scorching heat takes toll on people’s health

Staff Reporter

MUSCAT: The Sultanate recorded the second highest temperature globally on Tuesday (May 26) when the mercury touched 47.5°Cel-sius in Suwaiq wilayat, according to an offi cial of the Directorate General of Meteorology.

He was speaking to Al Shabiba, the sister publica-tion of the Times of Oman.

The rising temperatures raised calls of concern for workers who work in the sun. Despite the announce-ment by the Ministry of Manpower that workers should halt work from 12:30 pm to 3:30 pm from June to August every year, workers are forced to rest under the sun for long periods due to lack of proper resting facilities. >A2

Concern for safety of workers as Suwaiq records 47.5°C

OMANIndian students fare well in 10th exams

2Once again the students of Indian schools in Oman fared well in the Central

Board of Secondary Education class 10 examinations 2015. Many students got the highest CGPA of 10 in the exams. >A2,3

MARKETUS economy shrinks, strong $ hits growth

3US, the world’s largest economy hit a bigger ditch in the fi rst quarter

than initially estimated, held back by harsh winter weather, a strong dollar and delays at ports. >B1

OMAN84 girls undergo skill enhancement course

1Eighty-four Omani girls from the Oman International Maritime

College in Sohar and College of Applied Science in Ibri were welcomed to Oman Sail’s sailing school in Mussanah. >A2

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

A4

Three killed in Saudi mosque blast

A2 S AT U R DAY, M AY 3 0, 2 0 1 5

OMANI’m really happy I did it. Since the beginning I said I will get it. I know that nobody has been to these places when I was there, at the right time when there is a storm

Qasim Al Farsi, Omani photographer

Stormy weather steals Red Bull photo show

SARAH MACDONALDsarah@timesofoman.com

MUSCAT: From over 350 submis-sions to the Red Bull 5 Pics pho-tography competition, Qasim Al Farsi’s series of photos capturing stormy weather in the mountains was declared the winner.

The competition invited pho-tographers to submit fi ve photos under the theme “Unseen Oman,” and the entries were voted on online and judged by a three-member jury. An exhibition of the top 20 entrants was held at Bait Al Zubair on Wednesday night where the winner was announced by hosts Scott Clarke from Hi FM and Paul Doubleday, Director of Bait Al Zubair.

Qasim Al Farsi was all smiles after hearing that he had won the contest, but admits he’d been pret-

ty confi dent about his submission, a series of mountain landscapes during stormy weather.

“I’m really happy I did it. Since the beginning I said I will get it. I know that nobody has been to these places when I was there, at the right time when there is a storm. Everybody runs away and I roll in at that time,” Al Farsi told Times of Oman, explaining why his photos were unique.

He said he took the fi ve photos about three months ago at various locations in the Hajar Mountains braving the rain, wind, thunder and lightning. One of the dramatic photos even captures lightning fl ashing behind the craggy cliff s.

For the judges, who included photographers Ahmed S. Al Har-thy and Ahmed Al Shukaili and artist Hassan Meer, the compe-tition was a tough one to judge because there were many strong

entries. Even narrowing the fi eld down to the top 20 had been a chal-lenge, Al Harthy said.

“There are so many wonderful and well-captured images. It was not easy to pick the top 20, but it was something we had to do,” he said. Al Harthy said the pho-tos were a good representation of the theme, “Unseen Oman,” since many captured aspects of Oman that aren’t seen in daily life. Col-lections of photos of bullfi ghts, de-sert life, and fi shermen gave inter-esting perspectives on Oman.

“The most important thing about the competition was to have fi ve images that tell a story and that’s not an easy thing to do. But there were many photographs that man-aged to do that,” Al Harthy said.

Though not everyone could win, the photographers who had been selected to be in the top 20 were still happy to have made it that

far. Hussain Al Bahrani said it was quite an accomplishment consid-ering the number of contestants.

“I had a lot of pictures with dif-ferent, unique themes so it was a good opportunity for me to join this competition,” he said.

His photos focused on lone trees from diff erent landscapes around Oman, from the fl ower-fi lled plains on the hills of Dhofar to a tree peeking over the dunes in the desert.

For Qasim Al Farsi winning the top prize resulted in an OMR 1,000 voucher from Nikon, a copy of Oman: My Beautiful Country by Mohammed Al Zubair, and his photos will be used on DHL pack-aging sent from Oman around the world. The fi rst time event was held in partnership with the Min-istry of Tourism, Ooredoo, Nikon, DHL, Bait Al Zubair, Photo Centre, Hi FM, Hala FM and See Muscat.

An exhibition of the

top 20 entrants was

held at Bait Al Zubair

on Wednesday night

where the winner

was announced by

hosts Scott Clarke

from Hi FM and Paul

Doubleday, Director

of Bait Al Zubair

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

C B S E C L A S S X E X A M I N A T I O N

Students of Indian School Salalah excel

Times News Service

MUSCAT: All 212 students from Indian School Salalah who took the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Class X exam this year have qualifi ed for ad-mission to Class XI.

The school has been very con-sistent in achieving excellent re-sults and this year too, the school has obtained 100 per cent results.

Cumulative grade pointTwenty-two students secured the highest cumulative grade point average of 10 by securing the highest grade (A1) in fi ve sub-jects. While 56 students secured grade point average of 9 to 9.8, 56 students secured grade point av-erage of 8 to 8.8.

The following students se-cured the highest cumulative grade point average of 10: Apoor-va Dinesh Singh, Cathleen Sicily Benny, Imitiazuddin Ghazi and Kanika Dilip Ashar along with Maaz Syed, Priyanka Ravi, G

Rajeshwar and Swati Viswajit. The others were Clan Aby

Philip, Pratheeksha Susan Ja-cob, Sandhra Bibi and Adarsh Jeevakumar, in addition to Arjun Radhakrishnan, Arshad Sunil, Emanual Sebastian Kunnel and Keerthana Gangadharan. Fathi-ma Yusra Imran Zaheer, Hyada-rani Jayadharan, Dhiraj Kumar and Joelken Nithilan Baskar along with Waqir Yusuf Zanhar and Cherie Kuriakose also scored a perfect 10.

Following are the details of number of students who got A1 grade in each subject: English – 61, Hindi –16, Arabic – 4, Ma-layalam – 42, French – 16, Maths – 23, Science – 46 and Social Science – 51.

The president of the school management Ram Santhanam, other members of the SMC and principal, T R Brown expressed their heartfelt congratulations and wishes to the students who have emerged with fl ying colours and the staff for their eff ort.

NATURE’S BEAUTY: The fi ve photos were taken about three months ago at various locations in the

Hajar Mountains braving the rain, wind, thunder and lightning. - AR Rajkumar/Times of Oman

Omani girls complete skill development course

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Eighty-four Omani girls from the Oman International Maritime College in Sohar and College of Applied Science in Ibri were welcomed to Oman Sail’s sailing school in Mussanah under the BP leadership development programme for a three-day course to address the increasing work-force demand for individuals with transferable skills.

Aided by 12 facilitators, made up of Oman Sail trainers and BP ap-prentices, the students took part in individual and group tasks on land and at sea that challenged their creativity, initiative and

integrity, while teaching leader-ship, communication, teamwork and problem-solving that will enhance their employability and play a vital role in their personal development.

“These three days changed me a lot. I was impressed by the struc-ture of the programme, the warm welcome from the facilitators and the diversity of indoor and outdoor activities,” said Jokha Al Hinai, a student from the Oman Interna-tional Maritime College.

“My colleagues and I learnt valuable skills such as leadership, teamwork, confi dence and shar-ing, apart from trust, time manage-ment and planning. I am already

feeling the impact, not only in my social life, but also in my academic life,” she said.

Issa Al Mughairi, programme facilitator, commented, “This intensive learning programme started in September last year and it has received fantastic positive feedback from the participants as well as the management of the colleges. The managements were so impressed that they requested that programme facilitators visit the colleges and conduct work-shops with the students to build confi dence and promote self-em-powerment.”

“We aim to regularly assess and evaluate every aspect of the

programme to ensure that it can evolve and continually off er the best quality training possible,” added Al Mughairi.

Each participant takes part in role-play sessions where she learns how to take responsibil-ity more readily and communicate more eff ectively.

Included in the challenges are tailored sessions that comprise a mix of both theoretical and practi-cal lessons where students also re-ceive results from a self-reported psychometric evaluation tool on ‘Mental Toughness’ to give them further feedback on their personal preferences for emotional life, control and challenges.

O M A N S A I L ’ S S A I L I N G S C H O O L I N M U S S A N A H

‘Treat workers

humanely’

Salim Al Kaabi, vice president of the Majlis Al Shura, said that workers should be treated hu-manely and all the laws regard-ing their safety should be imple-mented.

Dr Abed Al Shaksi, secretary general of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said, “The commission will act if there are any violations in the regulations related to the or-ganisation and legislation of the workforce. If the workers are not issued with resting facilities and are unable to exercise their rights through offi cial authori-ties, they must report it to the commission and we will contact the authorities concerned.”

A manager from a contracting company, who did not wish to be named, said that those who work on development projects have resting facilities on site, but facilities are negligible on road works.

According to the regula-tions for occupational safety and health for establishments subjected to the Omani labour law issued by ministerial de-cree 286/2008, establishments must ensure the availability of resting facilities near the work area with proper furniture, ap-propriate air conditioning and must maintain cleanliness.

Some parts of Pakistan had temperatures of 48.5 degrees Celsius on Tuesday making it the highest temperature record-ed globally.

S A F E T Y C O N C E R N S

< FROM

A1 GUtech students feted for their featTimes News Service

BARKA: GUtech Student Awards were given to 32 students during a ceremony held at the GUtech amphitheatre on Tues-day under the auspices of Ahmed Mohammad Hassan Al Yahmadi, director of private sports at the Ministry of Sports Aff airs.

“Today, we would like to recog-nise the involvement of students and staff members in extra-cur-ricular activities. At the same time, we wish to motivate more students to be involved in those activities,” said Dr Hussain Al Salmi, deputy rector for admin-istration and fi nances at GUtech.

Awards were distributed in various categories to student council members, student vol-unteers, international and local competition winners, in addition to the best and the brightest stu-dent and the best club and staff volunteers.

“With praise we create and reinforce a positive self-image in students, making them feel valued for their involvement and contribution in activities and events. Rewards act as mo-tivators for students who believe that they have a chance to earn them if they put forth reasonable eff ort,” said Nawal Jawad, stu-dent aff airs manager.

The GUtech EcoMarathon Team, comprising students from the engineering department,

were honoured for their involve-ment in building an eco-friendly car for the Shell Eco Marathon competition held in Manila in February this year.

Nusaiba Al Sulaimani, a com-puter science student was pre-sented with an award for her suc-cessful participation in the Gulf Speaking Competition.

The Sports Awards were dis-tributed for the third time to ac-knowledge the high involvement and team spirit of students and staff . “The award recognises vol-untary engagements as instruc-tor, trainer and coordinator or as a tour guide, for example in vol-leyball, hiking and desert cross-ing,” said Gunhild Pfaff , sports offi cer at GUtech.

R E W A R D S

The Sports Awards were given

to acknowledge the involve-

ment and team spirit of stu-

dents and staff .

HM receives greetingsMUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has received a cable of thanks from Prince Mo-hammad bin Naif bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in reply to His Majesty’s congratulatory cable on being named as the Crown Prince, Dep-uty Prime Minister and Minis-ter of Interior in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

In his cable, Saudi Arabia Prince Mohammad expressed thanks for His Majesty Sul-tan Qaboos bin Said’s sincere feelings and prayers, wishing His Majesty the Sultan good health and happiness and the Omani people further progress and prosperity.

KuwaitHis Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has received a cable of thanks from His Highness Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah, Emir of Kuwait in re-ply to His Majesty’s condolences cable on the death of Jasim bin Mohammad Abdul Mohsen Al Khorafi former Speaker of the National Assembly.

In his cable, Sheikh Sabah expressed his utmost thanks for His Majesty’s sincere con-dolences and sympathy, pray-ing to Allah the Almighty to rest the deceased’s soul in peace and protect His Majesty against all harms. -ONA

C A B L E S

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Students of the Indian School Sohar brought laurels to their school by se-curing 100 per cent results.

Out of 141 students who ap-peared in the examination, 13 se-cured perfect 10 CGPA.

Salin Jishon George, Shan-mugapriya Mariselvan, Neha Reddy Somannagari and Sonali Ajit Karki, in addition to Kavya, Nidhi, Sruthi Rajesh and Prateek Prabhu scored 10/10 CGPA.

The others were Nitin Bhatia, Niharika and Khushi Chaudhary, along with Shamini Loganathan and Kaushal Kishor Kudale.

Prateek Prabhu and Nitin Bhatia need a special mention as they scored 10 CGPA without any upscaling.

Top bracketForty-two students are in the top bracket scoring 9.0 and above CGPA. No of A1 Grades in vari-ous subjects are 38 in English, 24 in Hindi, 18 in Arabic, and 16 in Mathematics, with 22 in both Science and Social Science.

Sanchita Verma, princi-pal, attributed the success to the hard work of the teachers and students. Counselling ses-

sions held with the parents to discuss the progress of their wards also helped in achieving better results.

Motivation, support and en-couragement provided to the students by their teachers during special classes also contributed to good overall results.

The school management com-mittee congratulated and appre-ciated the eff orts of the team ISS and expressed confi dence and faith that the team will keep up the good work.

A3

OMANS AT U R DAY, M AY 3 0, 2 0 1 5

Indian School Sohar students’ hard work refl ected in results

Indian School Muscat achieves 100% result in Class X exam

Times News Service

MUSCAT: All 544 students of the Indian School Muscat, who ap-peared for the Class X CBSE Ex-aminations in March 2015, passed ensuring 100 per cent success for their school.

The ISM stamped its superior-ity with 68 students scoring an

immaculate CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) score of a perfect 10 with A1 grades in all the fi ve subjects. Students and parents were overjoyed with the scores.

The number of students who scored A1 was 120 in English, 122 in Science, 106 in Mathematics, and 136 in Social Science, apart from 82 out of 223 in Hindi, 55 out

of 184 in French, 11 out of 48 in Ar-abic and 32 out of 89 in Malayalam.

The results were the outcome of perseverance of the students and their family and the pains-taking work of teachers. Toppers said their achievements were the result of the consistent support and dedication the teachers. The ISM’s seasoned teaching methods

unifi ed with the students’ desire to succeed helped them to be the stakeholders in this achievement. It was indeed a splendid display of team work.

Srinivas K. Naidu, the princi-pal, while praising the high-fl iers and their parents, noted that the outstanding grades gained were precursors of the inherent talent

in the new generation of students, both in scholastic and non-scho-lastic areas.

The results are there to stay and make a mark as teachers and the school take this very close to their hearts. The determination of students and the unrelent-ing hard work were the reasons for their success story. Scoring

thumping CGPAs in all curricular subjects was another magnifi cent achievement.

Naidu congratulated all the students on their hard work, and complimented Deep Wilson, sen-ior section vice principal, Geeta Chauhan, asst. vice principal, heads of departments and the teachers for their commitment.

C B S E

Exemplary performance by ISG students

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Forty-eight students of ISG were awarded the highest Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 10 in the CBSE class 10 Examinations 2015.

One hundred and forty-fi ve oth-ers received a CGPA of 8.5 and above, while 125 students out of 209 got A grade, which is consid-ered a remarkable achievement.

The number of A Grades is as fol-

lows: English – 88 % , Mathematics – 60%, Science – 71%, Social Sci-ence – 67% , Sanskrit – 87%, Ma-layalam – 91%, Arabic – 96%, Hindi – 58% and French – 77%.

The students who scored a per-fect 10 are: Abha Abhay, Aditya Manjusha, Afi fa Najeeb, Amartya Jagdish, Amogh Sudhir, Anupama Suresh Kumar, Anusha Madan, Arsal Usman, AshwinSankar, Chandni S, Dipesh Haldar, Dur-va Mahale, Elsa Jose, Grreshan

Ramesh, Harsha Anilkumar, Jose Johnylal, Jumana Habil Bhagat, Karan Sushilkumar, Kaustubh Banerjee, Madhumathi Madhu, Mahesh Krishnan, Minakshi Ashok, Necha Maggon, Niranajan Rajasekaran, Palandira Ponnanna, Priyadarshini Murali, Priyanka-Dasgupta, Priyanka Ramesh, Rhea Naresh, Rujuta Jitendra, Saad Ur Rahman, Saurav Sivaprasad, Shane Roger Pinto, Shaurya Sin-gh, Shradha Prakash, Sidharth

Suresh, Sneha Suresh, Srihari Sanjeev, Thejas Sasikumar, Vidya Suresh, Adarsh Varghese, Aditya Deepak, Anna Mathew, Deepesh Ganguli, Fleur Isaac, Namitha Ashik, Preetha Anantharaman, and Tamanna Ahamed.

The School Management Com-mittee and the Principal congratu-lated the students and expressed their gratitude to the teachers, the parents and, of course, the students for their exceptional performance.

C B S E C L A S S X E X A M S C B S E C L A S S X E X A M S

A remarkable achievement

Times News Service

MUSCAT: All 350 students of Indian School Wadi Kabir were successful in CBSE class X exams held in March, achieving a 100% result; a remarkable achievement, considering that all students opt-ed for the Board-based exams, making ISWK the only school in the capital region to have done so.

Among the toppers, 48 stu-dents achieved a Cumulative Grade Point Average of 10, be-ing placed in A1 grades in all fi ve subjects. Also, 59.14 per cent of the students scored above 90 per cent. Performance based upon subjects: Of the 350 students, 144 scored A1 in English, 103 in Sci-

ence, 62 in Mathematics, 89 in Social Science, 47 out of 218 in Hindi, 23 out of 54 in French and 39 A1 out of 78 in Malayalam. The toppers: Rahul RajendraShanb-hag, Sandeepa Bola Kamath, Ajay YogeshShenoy, Bevin Biju Thom-as, GayathriManoj, HetalJayesh Babla, SurajSudheerMenon, Su-shma Shailesh Rao, Ankit Baral, Mukhil Rajendran, Shivani Ra-jeev Nair, Tamanna Chawla, An-jali Krishna Prasad, Mohammed Afnan Shaikh, Syed Saifuddin, Aishwarya Vithayathil, Anju Ti-tus, Chris A. D Souza, Claire Fith,

Elizabeth Kuruvilla, Furqan-Mohomed Shafi Shaikh, Jyotsna Andrea Dsouza, Payal Santhosh, Sabareenath Madhusoothanan, Shania Fernandes, Sree Chithra, Srushti Paresh Sampat, Adithya Jane Koshy, Ash Chandran Asha, Ashima Yusuff , Nikhil Prasad, Ab-hilash Gireesh Nair, Antony Paul Paramel, DevikaBaburajEledath-Mana, Nabiha Mahmoud, Navan-ya Ratheesan, Ranjana Jayasree S Kurup, Sagnik Kumar Srimany, Sanjana Rajendra Naik, Vyshali Jai Prakash, Aditya Praveen Shid-haye, Disha Suresh, Emil Francis Kattadi, Gaayathri Swaminathan Sellappa, Jan Mary Jochan, Joel Prem Lobo, MayukhMisra, and ZaynahSajidShaikh.

I N D I A N S C H O O L W A D I K A B I R

Times News Service

MUSCAT: All 42 students of In-dian School Nizwa who appeared for the class X CBSE Examina-tions 2015 sailed through to Class XI, ensuring 100 per cent success to the school. The ISN secured the top position with Aparna Bharne, Olinda Fernandes, Prennoy Babu and Safi a Iqbal scoring an impec-cable GPA (Grade Point Average) score of 10 with A1 grades in all fi ve subjects.

Of the 42 students who ap-peared the ones who scored A1 were 10 in English, 8 in Science, 4 in Mathematics, and 9 in Social Science, apart from 4 out of 23 in Hindi, and 12 out of 19 in Malay-alam. The amazing results were the outcome of the eff orts of the students and their family along with the diligence and dedication of teachers. Dr Ayoob C P, presi-dent of the school management committee, and members of the SMC congratulated the students for their hard work and compli-mented Mainakshe Minoo, princi-pal, and the teachers for their com-mitment. Minoo, while praising the highfl iers and their parents, acknowledged that the outstand-ing grades were due to the eff orts of the teachers and the students.

I N D I A N S C H O O L N I Z W A

Students do their school proud by their performance

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Indian School Ibri students have done their school proud by achieving 100 per cent results in the CBSE Class X Ex-aminations held in March 2015.

Out of 47 students who ap-peared in the examinations, elev-en of them secured A1 grade in all subjects with the Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) 10, while one secured CGPA of 9.8.

The toppers of the batch who secured A1 grade in all subjects are Ashik Nazeer, Azma Aalam Muneeruddin, Adarsh K A and Kiran Sara Thomas, along with Mekhi Datta, Priya Elizabeth Raju, Sera Grace John and Syed Hamza Jan. Umme Rumana Quadri, Susan John and Steve George Mathew also secured

an AI in all subjects. Vishakh Dominic Vijayakumar

secured A1 grade in fi ve subjects and A2 grade in one subject, with a CGPA of 9.8. Of the 47 students, 28 secured CGPA 9 and above, 6 secured CGPA 8-9 and 13 se-cured CGPA 7-8.

Altogether there are 110 A1 grades and 80 A2 grades this year. This is the fi rst batch of students appearing in the CBSE examina-tion after the School opted for Information Technology as the sixth compulsory subject.

The school management com-mittee and the principal congrat-ulated the students for their com-mendable performance, parents for their co-operation and the teachers for their sincere eff orts and dedication in guiding the stu-dents to this success.

I N D I A N S C H O O L I B R I

All 42 sail

through to

Class XI

A4 S AT U R DAY, M AY 3 0, 2 0 1 5

REGIONSaudi-led coalition strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen’s second city Aden on Thursday and ground clashes killed at least 40 Houthis and their allies

Saudi mosque bombing claimed by IS kills three

RIYADH: An IS militant group extremist killed three people on Friday when he blew himself up in a car outside a mosque in Sau-di Arabia, the second such attack in a week.

The bombing was the third at-tack since November in the East-ern Province, and according to the interior ministry it killed three people and wounded four.

The suicide bomber — disguised in women’s clothing — detonated his device at the entrance to the mosque during Friday prayers, the offi cial Saudi Press Agency cited a ministry spokesman as saying.

Terrorist attack foiled“Authorities have managed to foil a terrorist crime targeting people performing the Friday prayers at Al Anoud mosque in Dammam,” the provincial capital, he said.

The bomber “detonated the ex-plosive belt he was wearing at the mosque entrance as security offi -

cials were on their way to inspect him”, he said, citing preliminary results of the investigation.

The explosion happened just as the attacker’s vehicle stopped at a car park near the mosque, the spokesman said. IS, in a statement

distributed by militant accounts on Twitter, quickly said it was be-hind the attack, which it said was carried out by “soldier named Abu Jandal Al Jazrawi”.

It said the bomber managed to “reach the target despite heavy protection” outside the mosque.

Friday’s blast comes exactly seven days after the militant group sent a suicide bomber into another mosque in a village in Eastern Province.

Twenty-one people were killed

in the May 22 blast, which was also claimed by IS.

Sympathisers of the extremist group are also accused by the Sau-di authorities of gunning down seven people last November.

Activist Nassima Al Sada, who arrived at the site right after the latest attack, said the suicide bomber blew himself up after se-curity volunteers tried to prevent him from entering the ladies’ side of the mosque in Dammam.

After the previous week’s deadly

attack, residents had set up secu-rity committees to search those entering mosques during prayers, witnesses said. They added that the authorities had not themselves brought in any extra security meas-ures around mosques despite the attacks. Women were not allowed to pray at the mosque this week for security reasons, Sada said.

CondemnedBahrain condemned the “terrorist bombing” which “aims to fuel sec-tarian divisions,” in a statement on the offi cial BNA news agency.

As the bomber struck in Dam-mam, cleric Osama Al Khayat, leading Friday prayers in the holy city of Makkah, slammed last week’s “ugly crime” and urged all residents across the kingdom to “stand up against this aggression... this great sin”.

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Ab-dulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Ara-bia has vowed punishment for anyone linked to last week’s “heinous crime”.

And the country’s top cleric, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Sheikh, has called it a “criminal act” targeting national unity.

Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf countries last year joined a US-led military coalition waging a campaign of air raids against IS in Syria, raising concerns about pos-sible retaliation.

Since late March, Saudi Arabia has also led a coalition bombing Houthi rebels who have seized large parts of Yemen and sent deadly shell and rocket fi re across the border. — AFP

The bombing, the

third attack since

November in the

Eastern Province,

also left four people

wounded according

to interior ministry

Governor of Sanaa killed by Houthi rebels, say relativesSANAA: Yemen’s Houthi rebels, under fi re from a Saudi-led coali-tion, have killed the capital’s gov-ernor in clashes that erupted dur-ing an attempt to detain him, his relatives said on Friday.

Abdulghani Jamil and his neph-ew Nasr Jamil “died of wounds sustained during late Thursday clashes between the governor’s aides and Houthi militiamen”, the sources said. Jamil was appointed by fugitive President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, who fl ed to Saudi Arabia after the rebels seized pow-er in Sanaa and later advanced on his last refuge in the south, the port city of Aden.

The Houthis “demanded Jamil hand himself over” to them. His re-fusal prompted a fi refi ght in which

both he and his nephew were wounded, the relatives said.

The Houthis, allied with ren-egade troops loyal to former presi-dent Ali Abdullah Saleh, have been in control of Sanaa since last September despite more than two months of Saudi-led coalition air strikes against their positions across the country.

Saudi-led coalition strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen’s second city Aden on Thursday and ground clashes killed at least 40 Houthis and their allies, the city’s deputy governor said. Residents reported non-stop air raids on re-bel positions across the city amid heavy fi ghting.

“Coalition forces carried out qualitative and successful op-

erations against the rebels after coordination between the coali-tion leadership and the Popular Resistance Council leadership” on the ground in Aden, the south-ern city’s deputy governor Naef Al Bakri said. Anti-rebel forces — pro-government fi ghters, tribes, and southern separatists — are referred to as Popular Resistance Committees. Bakri did not give details on the operations but said warplanes destroyed a number of rebel vehicles and hit checkpoints in Aden’s north and northeast, adding that Popular Resistance fi ghters were also “provided with qualitative weapons”.

“At least 40 rebels were killed and dozens were wounded” in air strikes and fi ghting, he said.

A military source close to the Houthis confi rmed that they had sustained “heavy losses”.

Aden health chief Al Kheder Lassouar said at least 19 civilians and anti-rebel fi ghters have been killed in two days of fi ghting there.

Meanwhile, in the capital, coa-lition jets hit a rebel-held air base and an arms depot on the Fajj At-tan hill overlooking Sanaa.

Similar strikes on Fajj Attan last month set off a chain of explosions that killed 38 civilians.

Amnesty International warned on Thursday that “scores of casu-alties in Sanaa have been caused by anti-aircraft munitions shot by the Houthi armed group which detonated after landing in popu-lated areas, killing and maiming

civilians”. The London-based rights group’s senior crisis adviser Lama Fakih said both the coali-tion and the rebels “have failed to take the necessary precautions to protect civilian lives in violation of the laws of war. Instead they have carried out attacks that have had devastating consequences for the civilian population”.

Amnesty urged the Arab coa-lition states “to take all feasible precautions to minimise the risks posed to civilians, as required by international humanitarian law.

“The Houthi armed group should also move its military po-sitions away from populated ci-vilian areas where feasible,” the watchdog said. Other strikes on Thursday hit the rebel stronghold

of Saada in the country’s north.Meanwhile, an Iranian plane

carrying aid for Yemen landed in Djibouti on Friday and the cargo will be inspected by the United Nations before it moves on, Iran’s Fars news agency reported.

The plane would be the fi rst Ira-nian aid fl ight to land in Yemen since confl ict broke out in March.

“The aid plane landed early Fri-day morning in Djibouti safely,” said the head of Iran’s Red Cres-cent delegation, Sarem Rezaie, quoted by Fars. “The cargo will be delivered to the WFP (World Food Programme), which will give it to the Yemeni Red Crescent to dis-tribute it among innocent Yemeni people,” said Rezaie, who was on-board the plane. — Agencies

I N T E R N A L S T R I F E

Syrian army abandons Idlib as Al Nusra Front rebels tighten grip on provinceBEIRUT: The Syrian govern-ment has abandoned Idlib to con-centrate on regions deemed vital for its survival, a security source and monitor said on Friday, al-lowing Al Qaeda to seize the prov-ince’s last regime-held city.

Rebels now control the vast majority of Idlib province after Al Nusra Front — Al Qaeda’s Syrian affi liate — and its allies overran Ariha and surrounding villages on Thursday.

It was the latest blow to loyal-ist forces who have been battling myriad rebel groups, following the fall of the ancient city of Palmyra to the IS militant group last week.

Lightning off ensive“The lightning off ensive ended with a heavy pullout of regime forces and their allies from the western side of the city,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

“We can’t even say there were real clashes with the government in Ariha.”

Al Nusra’s allied in the so-called Army of Conquest also seized vil-lages around Ariha, even as re-gime warplanes bombarded the city. Abdel Rahman said 13 regime loyalists were executed by rebels inside Ariha, and another 18 were killed in fi ghting on its outskirts.

The rebel alliance has scored a string of victories in Idlib, includ-ing the provincial capital, the key

town of Jisr Al Shughur and a massive military base.

Government forces had pulled back to Ariha, which Abdel Rah-man said was heavily defended by fi ghters. But the city fell to the Al Nusra-led alliance “in a few hours,” he said.

President Bashar Al Assad’s regime still holds Abu Duhur mili-tary airport and a sprinkling of villages and military posts in Idlib, which borders Turkey.

“For the regime, the vital terri-tory to be protected is Damascus, Homs, Hama and the coast. Idlib

is no longer (vital), which explains the rapid retreat from Ariha,” a se-curity source said.

And Waddah Abed Rabbo, head of Al Watan daily which is close to the government, said the regime’s priority in Idlib was to protect main routes to its coastal bastion to the west and in central Syria.

The army’s retreat from Ariha “is part of the regime’s redefi ning of its lines of defence for major Syrian cities”, Abed Rabbo said.

Also explaining its retreat in Idlib, Abdel Rahman said the regime was hampered by a

serious shortage of fi ghters.In neighbouring Iraq, govern-

ment and allied paramilitary forces sought to sever the supply lines of IS militants in the western province of Anbar.

The militants seized Ramadi, the provincial capital, on May 17. The UN estimates that 85,000 people have since fl ed the city.

ClashesClashes with IS in nearby Sala-heddin killed nine security forces and Hashed Al Shaabi, an um-brella term for mostly militia and volunteers, an army lieutenant colonel and a medical source said.

Iraq’s health minister said au-thorities have exhumed the re-mains of 470 people believed to have been executed by IS near Tikrit last year in what became known as the Speicher massacre.

In June 2014, armed men be-longing or allied to IS abducted hundreds of young, mostly re-cruits from Speicher military base, just outside the city of Tikrit.

They were lined up in several locations and executed one by one, as shown in pictures and footage later released by IS on the Internet.

The highest estimate for the number of people killed in one of the worst IS atrocities stands at 1,700. The Speicher massacre played a key role in the mass re-cruitment of volunteers to fi ght the militants. — AFP

W A R W I T H I N C O U N T R Y

IS seizes control of Sirte airport

TRIPOLI: The IS militant group has seized control of the airport in the city of Sirte after forces of a Tripoli-based Libyan govern-ment withdrew, a spokesman said on Friday.

Mohamed Al Shami, whose gov-ernment is not recognised by the international community, said its forces pulled out late Thursday from the airport which had “fallen into the hands of the IS organi-sation”. He said the forces had pulled out of the airport, which is also a military base called Garda-biya, to redeploy “as part of an op-eration to secure” areas to the east and west of Sirte. It was the fi rst time that IS in Libya has recorded such a military gain.

“After they left, IS group fi ght-ers entered the base which had been completely emptied of equip-ment, except for one military plane which is out of use”, said Shami.

Gardabiya lies 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Sirte, hometown of late leader Muammar Gaddafi who was ousted and killed in Lib-ya’s 2011 protests. IS itself said it took full control of the airport fol-lowing clashes with forces loyal to the Tripoli government, in a mes-sage posted on Twitter. Offi cials in Tripoli said that IS had allied with supporters of the ousted Gaddafi regime to deploy across Sirte, a re-gion which has oilfi elds. Sirte has been the scene of several months of sporadic fi ghting between IS and the Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) mi-litia alliance tasked by the Tripoli government to secure the city.

Shami said the pro-Tripoli forces would launch a counterof-fensive to retake the airport once reinforcements arrived. — AFP

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DEADLY BOMBING: The suicide bomber, clothed as a woman, detonated his device at the entrance to

the mosque during Friday prayers. – Reuters

FLEEING FOR SAFETY: Civilians fl ee the northwestern city of

Ariha, after a coalition of insurgent groups seized the area, in Idlib

province, on Friday. – Reuters

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Airport cargo operations hit following radioactive leakNEW DELHI: A leak of radioac-tive substance from a consign-ment unloaded from a Turkish Airlines plane was detected at the Indira Gandhi International Air-port here on Friday, forcing sus-pension of cargo operations.

Union Home Minister Ra-jnath Singh said the leak has been “plugged” and a team from the atomic energy department is on the spot. According to Customs of-fi cials, cargo operations have been suspended till safety clearance is given by the concerned agencies.

“Entire area has been cordoned off . Staff have been evacuated.All cargo operations have been suspended till concerned agen-cies give safety clearance,” Chief Commissioner of Delhi Customs B. K. Bansal said.

He said the custodian of cargo operations is a private agency called Celebi and they are taking necessary measures.

The matter came to light when a pair of loaders felt irritation while handling containers that

arrived on board a Turkish Air-lines craft at 4:35am.

Leakage was observed from four of the 10 containers of 13 kg each that were imported from Turkey. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was called in to check the substance and contain and plug the leak, sources said. The material, said to be low radio activity Sodium Io-dide Liquid Class 7, was imported for medical purpose by a Delhi-based multi-speciality hospital.

‘No risk of exposure’Delhi International Airport Lim-ited (DIAL), which operates the airport, said in a statement that there was no risk of exposure to any passenger as the area where the leak has been reported is far away from any of the passenger terminals.

Meanwhile, aviation regula-tor DGCA has launched a probe into the incident. A team headed by the Director of Air Safety has been constituted to conduct an

investigation, the Civil Aviation Ministry said in a statement.

“A medical consignment of material suspected to be of ra-dioactive nature was reported at the cargo terminal of Delhi Air-port this morning. A team from Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD), Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and National Dis-aster Response Force (NDRF) are at the site and making arrange-ments for removal of the mate-rial,” DIAL said.

NDRF chief O P Singh said a special ten-member team from its base at Dwarka, close to the airport, was rushed to the spot and has sanitised the area.

“There is no need for panic and radiation has been contained. Our teams for countering Chemical, Biological, Radioactive and Nu-clear (CBRN )disasters have ac-complished the task nicely,” he said. The aviation ministry state-ment said fl ight operations at the airport were not aff ected. - PTI

N E W D E L H I

India beats China with 7.3% economic growth

MUMBAI: India posted annual growth of 7.3 per cent on Friday, overtaking China in the fi rst three months of 2015, but analysts warned further measures were needed to boost the economy.

The growth rate for the fi nancial year that ended March 31, 2015 came in slightly lower than the 7.4 percent that the statistics ministry had predicted back in February.

But the news that Asia’s third-largest economy grew by 7.5 per-cent in the fourth quarter, over-taking China, is a major boost for Prime Minister Narendra Modi a year after he was elected.

Friday’s fi gures were the fi rst gross domestic product data to be released since the government introduced a revised formula for

calculating GDP that has baffl ed analysts. “The real economic mo-mentum is not encouraging,” Shub-hada Rao, chief economist at YES Bank, said, indicating the Reserve Bank of India was almost certain to reduce interest rates for on Tues-day for a third time this year.

“Key sectors like agriculture and construction are slowing down. The GDP number is really being supported largely on the ba-sis of strong tax collections. The government now should move to arrest the slide in economic mo-mentum and support growth. A 25 basis point cut from the RBI is very much on the cards,” she added.

India’s central bank has al-ready cut interest rates twice this year by a total of 50 basis points

to 7.50 per cent. Modi’s right-wing government, which swept to power in general elections last May on pledges to boost a fl agging economy, wants RBI governor Ra-ghuram Rajan to slice more points off the benchmark repo rate, the level at which it lends to commer-cial banks. The governor has made controlling infl ation a priority and has it well within the RBI’s target of six per cent.

“With infl ation staying soft, the case for the central bank lowering rates by a quarter percentage point is very much the policy prognosis,” Dharmakirti Joshi, chief econo-mist with rating agency Crisil, said.

Joshi added that the economic activity on the ground “wasn’t matching” the rate of growth, sug-

gesting that analysts remained unconvinced about the new way of calculating the GDP numbers.

India’s government changed the way it calculates GDP back in January, with offi cials saying the new method was closer to interna-tional standards. The main change is that India now measures its eco-nomic growth at market prices to incorporate “gross value addition” in goods and services as well as in-direct taxes.

The base year to calculate In-dia’s GDP has also been advanced to 2011-12 from 2004-05. But ana-lysts say that the new data does not correlate with some other economic indicators, including last year’s industrial production fi gures and corporate profi ts. - AFP

The news that

Asia’s third-largest

economy grew by 7.5

percent in the fourth

quarter, overtaking

China, is a major

boost for Prime

Minister Narendra

Modi a year after

he was elected

Indian-Americans tie to win Spelling Bee second time in a rowWASHINGTON: Scripting his-tory, two Indian-American chil-dren on Thursday won the world’s prestigious spelling bee in a tie the second time in a row, maintaining the community’s complete domi-nance on the competition.

Vanya Shivashankar, 13, and Gokul Venkatachalam, 14, were declared co-champions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee as they together lifted the golden trophy amid confetti and ap-plause in a repeat of last year’s surprise tie — a feat achieved by Indian-Americans for the second consecutive year.

Cash rewardThe two winners will each re-ceive over $37,000 in cash and prizes. With this year’s success, young Indian-Americans have won as many as 14 of the past 18 contests and the eighth year in a row. This is also the fi rst time a sibling of a former champion won.

The third spot was also bagged by an Indian-American Cole Shafer-Ray from Oklahoma.

Dream come true“This is a dream come true. I have wanted this for such a long time,” Shivashankar, the sister of 2009 champion Kavya Shivashankar, said while dedicating the award to her grandmother who passed away in October.

Appearing for the fi fth and the fi nal time for the contest, the eighth-grader from Kan-sas confi dently spelled words as cytopoiesis, bouquetiere and thamakau before she was asked

to tackle the golden word. Bas-ketball enthusiast Venkatacha-lam spelled words like poblacion, caudillismo and nixtamal before offi cial bee pronouncer Jacques Bailly broke the news to him that Shivashankar had correctly spelled scherenschnitte, the German-derived word for artistic paper cutting.

Asked later what was on his mind when he heard the word nunatak, his winning word, he said: “Me and Vanya are going to be champions”.

Indian-Americans account for just under 1 per cent of the US population, but made up more than a fi fth of the 285 spellers who competed for the 88th edi-tion of the bee. - PTI

H I S T O R I C F E A T

ELATED: Vanya Shivashankar,

13, left and Gokul Venkatacha-

lam, 14, hold up the trophy as

co-champions after winning

the fi nals of the Scripps Na-

tional Spelling Bee, Thursday,

in Oxon Hill, Maryland. - PTI/AP

LOWER THAN PREDICTED: A vendor waits for customers at his stall at a wholesale vegetable and fruit

market in Mumbai. The growth rate for the fi nancial year that ended March 31, 2015 came in slightly

lower than the 7.4 per cent that the statistics ministry had predicted back in February. - Reuters fi le photo

A6

INDIAS AT U R DAY, M AY 3 0, 2 0 1 5

It is telling of the times as Modi government and his ministers are now feeling threatened by the activities of even students and more particularly students from the backward and Dalit communitiesAam Aadmi Party statement

TRIBUTES TO MOUNTAIN MANPeople pay tribute to legendary mountaineer Tenzing

Norgay during 55th Everest Day celebrations in Siliguri,

West Bengal, on Friday. The 101st birthday of Tenzing

Norgay, who along with Edmund Hillary was the fi rst in

the world to reach the summit of the Mount Everest, was

celebrated here on Friday. - PTI

India battles deadliest heatwave in two decades as toll climbs to 1,800HYDERABAD: Indian authori-ties urged hospitals to treat heat-stroke as an emergency as the toll from a long heatwave topped 1,800 on Friday, making it the deadliest in more than two decades.

Hundreds of mainly poor peo-ple die at the height of summer every year in India, but this year’s fi gures are already nearly double the annual average.

Experts say the offi cial fi gures likely understate the true impact because heatstroke dispropor-tionately aff ects the poor and homeless, who are less likely to die in hospitals. Most of the con-fi rmed deaths are in the southern states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, where doctors described hospitals overfl owing with vic-tims of severe heatstroke.

Record high temperaturesP. Tulsi Rani, special commis-sioner for disaster management in the state, said the high number of deaths was down to record high temperatures over a longer period that usual.

“So many people died this year because the heat wave is continu-ing for a longer period than it nor-mally does, and also record tem-peratures have been recorded in a number of places,” he told AFP.

“It (the heatwave) has been

continuing for a longer period, for about 7 to 8 days now, whereas usually it only lasts for a few days.”

Authorities in Telangana said they were running a television campaign to teach people how to stay cool and recognise the symp-toms of heat stroke, which can be fatal if left untreated.

Streets of the state capital Hy-derabad were deserted during the hottest period of the day, with many shops and businesses shut.

“All month I’ve basically stayed

inside the house,” said 28-year-old Tejaswini Madhabhushi, who works at a policy institute in the city. “The biggest problem is the power cuts. If they cut power in the afternoon then it gets unbear-ably hot, and we also run into a water shortage since the overhead tanks can’t be refi lled.”

Syed Samad, who owns a busi-ness renting out air conditioning units, said trade was brisk.

“All our units have been leased out throughout April and May,

which has never happened be-fore,” he said.

Authorities in Delhi, where top temperatures have hit 45 degrees Celsius, ordered hospitals to treat heat stroke victims as emergency cases. “The main thing is preven-tion in this situation, to ensure that preventive measures are be-ing taken,” said Charan Singh, ad-ditional director of public health in the state government.

The surge in demand for elec-tricity from air conditioners led to power cuts in parts of Delhi, exac-erbating the misery for residents of the capital.

Unconfi rmed reports said two people had died in Delhi, where tens of thousands sleep on the streets with little protection from the heat. Authorities in eastern Orissa state said they had 12 con-fi rmed deaths from heatstroke and were investigating the cause of another 80.

India declares a heatwave when the maximum temperature hits 45 degrees Celsius, or fi ve degrees higher than the average for the area in previous years.

The monsoon is forecast to hit the southern state of Kerala on May 30 before sweeping across the country, but it will be weeks before the cooling rains reach In-dia’s arid plains. - AFP

S C O R C H I N G S U M M E R

SEARING HEAT: A man carrying a large umbrella walks along a

road on a hot summer day, in Allahabad, on Friday. Indian authori-

ties urged hospitals to treat heatstroke as an emergency as the

toll from a long heatwave topped 1,800, making it the deadliest in

more than two decades. - Reuters

Rahul, Smriti spar over IIT-M student body derecognition

NEW DELHI: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and HRD Minister Smriti Irani were on Fri-day locked in a spat after protests by NSUI workers outside her offi -cial residence over derecognition of a student group by IIT Madras.

While Rahul said the derecog-nition was aimed at “crushing dissent” and he will fi ght such at-tempts, Irani shot back challeng-ing him for a debate on the issue of governance, including education, and accused him of fi ghting his battles hiding behind NSUI.

“IIT student group banned for criticising the Modi Government.What next? Free speech is our right. We will fi ght any attempt

to crush dissent and debate,” Ra-hul said on the twitter account of his offi ce.

‘Ready to debate’Replying to him in a series of tweets, Irani said, “next time fi ght ur (your) battles ur (your)self, don’t hide behind NSUI. N (And) by d (the) way I’m returning to Amethi soon. See you there.”

Challenging Rahul, she said, “give me a time n (and) place n (and) I’m ready to debate every-thing re (regarding) governance including education.”

She added, “tell ur (your) men strong arm tactics were tried in Amethi n (and) didn’t scare me during Lok Sabha elections. They won’t scare me now.”

She also said, “yesterday u (you) told NSUI to create disor-der where there is order. Today ur (your) goons come to my house as I’m away at work.”

The political slugfest erupted after the Indian Institute of Tech-nology Madras was at the centre of controversy over derecogni-tion of a students group, many of whom are Dalits, following a com-

plaint that it was critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Irani backed IIT’s action, saying the institution has clearly stated that some procedures by the stu-dents’ organisation was not fol-lowed and it knew that Dean will derecognise it for violating norms.

Scores of National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) workers today protested outside Irani’s of-fi cial residence in Delhi over the issue. The protesters from Con-gress’ students wing raised anti-government slogans and accused the Human Resource Develop-

ment (HRD) Ministry of being be-hind the action against the body.

Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday slammed the Indian Institute of Technol-ogy (IIT) Madras decision to de-recognise a students’ body for being critical of Prime Min-ister, saying the Bharatiya Ja-nata Party (BJP) was frustrated over Narendra Modi losing popularity and resorted to this “undemocratic” move.

The Ambedkar Periyar Student Circle (APSC) on the IIT Chennai campus must be allowed to func-tion as usual and its part of the democratic rights of the students to voice their concern over the policies and politics of the coun-try, AAP said.

“The forum named after Dalit icon Ambedkar and Periyar was banned because it was instrumen-tal in encouraging free speech and discussion around the erroneous and anti-people policies of the Narendra Modi government.”

“It is telling of the times as Modi government and his ministers are now feeling to be threatened by the activities of even students and more particularly students from the backward and Dalit communi-ties,” the party said in a statement.

As controversy raged over derecognition of a students group at IIT(M), former prime minister and JD-S chief H. D. Deve Gowda on Friday said everybody has the right to freedom of expression and speech but no unparliamentary words should be used against the prime minister. - PTI

A political slugfest

erupted after the

Indian Institute of

Technology Madras

de-recognised a

students’ group

following a complaint

that it was critical

of Prime Minister

Narendra Modi

PROTEST: Police stop National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) activists during a protest outside the

residence of Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani in New Delhi on Friday over the

ban on an IIT-Madras students group for allegedly criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi. - PTI

Six killed, 10 injured as truck rams into jeep

ANAND: Six persons, including two children, were killed while 10 others sustained injuries when their jeep collided with a truck near Mahemdavad town of Kheda district on Friday, police said.

The incident took place on the road connecting Kheda to Mahem-davad, at around 6am when the ve-hicle carrying a group of labourers from Rajasthan’s Banswada dis-trict was travelling to Bhavnagar and was hit by a truck coming from opposite direction, Mahemdavad police station sub-inspector G. P. Parmar said.

The labourers were travelling to Bhavnagar along with their fami-lies in search of employment.

Lost controlPrimary investigations revealed that the truck driver might have lost control as he dozed off and rammed the truck into the jeep, the offi cer said.

Four persons, including two children, died on the spot while two others succumbed to injuries during treatment in hospital, Par-mar said.

The deceased were identifi ed as Hiral Damor (2), Naresh Damor (30), Mukesh Damor (13), Subhash Damor (30), Laxman Garasiya (39) and Vithaliben Damor (30).

“At least 10 others were also severely injured and were rushed to Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad. We have lodged a case against the unidentifi ed driver who fl ed from the spot after the mishap,” he added. - PTI

G U J A R A T

Opposition questions rationale of amending land acquisition lawNEW DELHI: The fi rst meeting of joint Committee of Parliament on the contentious land bill on Fri-day saw a number of Opposition members raising questions over the rationale of the government changing provisions of the 2013 land law.

Expressing dissatisfaction over the government’s arguments in favour of the bill, the members de-manded a “composite” inter-min-isterial reply on the issue.

At the meeting, headed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member S S Ahluwalia, the Rural Development Ministry and Legis-lative department in the Law Min-istry made a presentation to mem-bers on the amendments made to the The Right To Fair Compensa-tion and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.

As the offi cials of the two minis-tries explained the amendments, members from the Opposition

parties including Congress, Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Trinamool Con-gress (TMC) and the Left raised questions over the rationale of do-ing away with the consent clause while acquiring land and removing necessity for a social impact as-sessment, sources said.

Interestingly, one BJP MP won-dered whether the consent clause was removed and then questioned why was it done.

The question left the other mem-bers amused as the amendments were made to the Act nearly six months ago through an ordinance in which the consent clause has been done away with. During the presentation, some members also wanted more clarity on land acqui-sition for industrial corridors.

Several members demanded that since the issues involved were complex in nature, they would like to have a “composite” inter-ministry reply on the rationale be-hind the amendments. The various

ministries, including Rural Devel-opment and Law, are likely to fur-nish a joint reply early next month to the committee, the sources said.

In a bid to ensure that the com-mittee is able to table its report on the fi rst day of the Monsoon ses-sion, it will meet twice every week.

The Monsoon session usually begins mid July.

While the 2013 law required that the consent of 80 per cent of land owners was obtained for pri-vate projects and that the consent of 70 per cent of land owners be obtained for PPP projects, the pre-

sent bill exempts the fi ve catego-ries from this provision of the Act.

These categories include de-fence, rural infrastructure, aff ord-able housing, industrial corridors and infrastructure projects in-cluding public private partnership (PPP) projects where the govern-ment owns the land.

The 2013 Act also required that a social impact assessment be con-ducted to identify aff ected families and calculate the social impact when land is acquired.

This provision has been done away with. The LARR Act, 2013 required land acquired under it which remained unutilised for fi ve years, to be returned to the original owners or the land bank.

The new bill states that the pe-riod after which unutilised land will need to be returned will be fi ve years, or any period specifi ed at the time of setting up the project, whichever is later.

Several members of the

30-member committee also ob-jected to the new provision and dubbed it as “pro-corporate”.

Almost the entire Opposition and even some allies of the ruling NDA like Shiv Sena and Swabhim-ani Pakshya, are against various provisions of the amendment bill brought by the government.

Congress and Left parties have been specially targeting the Modi dispensation on the bill and project it as “anti-farmer and pro-corporate”.

Meanwhile, the government is likely to take a call on re-promul-gating the controversial land ac-quisition ordinance on Saturday.

The earlier ordinance brought into force in March would lapse on June 4, six weeks after the Ra-jya Sabha was convened on April 23 after being prorogued to enable government bring the executive order. Sources said the issue of ordinance has been placed on the agenda of the Union Cabinet. -PTI

C O N T R O V E R S I A L M O V E

FIRST JOINT MEETING: Congress Leader Jairam Ramesh and TMC

MP Derek O’Brien with other MPs after the fi rst meeting on Land

Acquisition Bill at Parliament Annexe in New Delhi on Friday. - PTI

A7

PAKISTANS AT U R DAY, M AY 3 0, 2 0 1 5

IQBAL FETED IN INDIAChief Minister of the Indian state of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee with Waleed Iqbal, grandson of legendary Urdu poet, Mu-

hammad Iqbal, of Pakistan during inauguration of three-days long Jashn-e-Iqbal in Kolkata on Friday. — PTI

Route priority for corridor with ChinaBY DR PERVEZ TAHIR

The Annual Plan Coordina-tion Committee meeting on May 26 left no doubt where

the priority lies. Although the chief ministers present at the National Economic Council (NEC) may raise concerns, but the eastern route has become a fait accompli. The route-change band was sleep-ing when the current year’s Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) was fi nalised with some key projects.

The fi rst was land acquisition and shifting of utilities for the 959km Karachi-Lahore motor-way. Its total cost is Rs51 billion, of which Rs25 billion had been utilised by June 2014. An alloca-tion of Rs30 billion was made in 2014-15 and Rs25.5 billion were released by May 22, 2015. Second, the construction of the 276km La-hore-Abdul Hakim-Khanewal sec-tion was included. It cost Rs41.4 billion. Against an allocation of Rs6 billion in 2014-15, no release was made. Now the length has been reduced to 230km, while the cost is stated to be as high as Rs131 billion. The new allocation is Rs40 billion. This project, too, has not yet been approved.

Third, with Chinese support, construction of 387km Multan-Sukkur section was allocated Rs8.89 billion, with Rs3.89 billion having been released. The total cost of the project is Rs259.4 bil-lion, 90 per cent of which is the Chinese credit.

Fourth, the 296km Sukkur-Hy-derabad section was allocated half a billion rupees in 2014-15, but no release was made.

The total cost is Rs44.4 billion. The reason perhaps is that it has not as yet been approved.

Finally, the 460km Raikot-Havelian-Islamabad section, the extension of the Karakoram High-way (KKH), was also included in the PSDP 2014-15, at a total cost of Rs364 billion and an allocation of Rs4.5 billion was made including credit fi nancing of Rs4 billion.

Again, no amount was released. For 2015-16, Rs28.5 billion is being kept for the 120km Tha-kot-Havelian section (total cost Rs95.4 billion), and Rs 6billion for land acquisition.

The PSDP for the next year car-ries this work further. The Sukkur-Hyderabad section receives Rs10.5 billion. The Lahore-Abdul Ha-keem section has been allocated Rs131 billion.

The Thakot-Havelian sec-tion gets Rs28.5 billion. To pla-cate the political opponents from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), the Islamabad-Dera Ismail Khan road has been allocated an amount of Rs6.8 billion out of a total cost of

Rs55 billion. Similarly, Rs1.8 bil-lion have been allocated for the Burhan-Havelian road out of a to-tal cost of Rs39.5 billion.

These projects did not appear in the PSDP for 2014-15 and have been included this year without the normal approval process.

The idea is to connect KP with the eastern route.

Pashtun areasAll routes, eastern, central and western, lead to Gwadar and, there-fore, all routes are the same for the Baloch. The only left-outs are the Pashtun areas of Balochistan. It seems that the much-touted tran-sition from stabilisation to growth eff ectively means going all out for the eastern route. True, the Chi-na-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is not a single project or route, but the question is which route to take fi rst.

The allocation pattern of federal development funding suggests that the eastern route is the prior-ity of the government.

During the visit of the Chinese expert group in March this year, it was agreed that “the CPEC should be promoted on a priority basis and step by step, incorporat-ing long, short and medium term needs” and that it should be based on the concrete conditions of Paki-stan. — Express Tribune

C O M M E N T A R Y

It seems that the much-

touted transition from

stabilisation to growth

effectively means going

all out for the eastern

route. True, the China-

Pakistan Economic

Corridor is not a single

project or route, but

the question is which

route to take first. The

allocation pattern of

federal development

funding suggests

that the eastern route

is the priority of

the government

7 killed in clashesPESHAWAR: Two Pakistani troops and fi ve militants were killed on Friday in an exchange of fi re in a restive tribal region near the Afghan border, offi cials said.

The incident took place in North Waziristan’s Ghulam Khan area close to the border with Afghani-stan when paramilitary Frontier Corps troops ambushed a group of up to 20 militants.

“The troops ambushed the mili-tants on an intelligence tip off ,” a

senior security offi cial told AFP. “Five militants were killed and two soldiers embraced martyr-dom,” he said.

Remote areaAnother security offi cial also confi rmed the incident and casu-alties. The area is remote and off -limits to journalists making it diffi cult to verify the army’s claims, including the number and identity of those killed. — AFP

N O R T H W A Z I R I S T A N

900 teachers needed for KP girls’ schools

PESHAWAR: The government northwestern Khyber Pakh-tunkhwa province has managed to attract more girl students at the primary level, but as many as 900 women teachers are still required to teach them at the schools.

According to the Elementary and Secondary Education depart-ment, there are over 600 girls’ schools in Peshawar district. Of

the total, over 450 primary, 74 middle, 56 high and 13 higher secondary schools are in run-ning condition. At the same time, schools in some rural parts of the district are closed for diff erent reasons such as land disputes.

District Education Offi cer Samina Ghani said the number of students had increased con-siderably. She added there were 2,400 teachers in primary schools

which was not enough to meet the ever-increasing student body.

She added that international standards of education prescribe one teacher for every 40 students at a school.

“By these standards, around 900 teachers are required for pri-mary schools in the district.”

She said Rs350 million was al-located as an additional grant in the 2014-15 budget to provide

missing facilities and improve the condition of schools. Samina pointed out that a large part of this amount was spent through the Parent Teacher Councils (PTC) and people would see the results in the coming six months.

She added various schools had constructed new boundary walls and additional rooms. Also, stu-dents had access to running water and lavatory conveniences at nu-merous educational facilities.

Sports activitiesSamina said Rs7 million had been set aside for sport activities at girls’ schools and all kinds of kits have been purchased, while tour-naments are also being organised with this money.

She said that in some rural parts of Peshawar district, there are well furnished schools with every facility. However, the enrol-ment of girls remains low due to cultural barriers and lack of par-ents’ interest.

Samina added non-profi t organisations had launched awareness campaigns in ar-eas of the district to motivate parents to send their girls to school. — Express Tribune

A Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa district

education offi cer

said, there are 2,400

teachers in primary

schools which are

not enough to meet

the ever-increasing

student body

BASIC RIGHT: According to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Elementary

and Secondary Education Department, there are over 600 girls’

schools in Peshawar district. — Reuters fi le photo

Iconic singer Noorjehan’s hit song gets a reboot by Indian artist SonaNEW DELHI: As a tribute to Pakistan’s legendary singing sen-sation Noorjehan, Indian singer Sona Mohapatra has recreated the magic of one of her songs, ‘Sanu nehar wale pul tey bula ke’.

Sona has lent her voice to a modifi ed version composed by Sumit Sethi and Paras Sunda. Ac-cording to a statement, the musi-cal duo, have revisited the song from the 1973 classic Pakistani fi lm Dukh Sajna De.

RecomposeOn being asked as to why he had decided to recompose this partic-ular song from the extensive col-lection of songs that Noorjehan

had made eternal, Sumit respond-ed, “I simply loved the groove.”

Paras, who has rewritten some of the lyrics of the song to give it a contemporary feel, states that the

duo “agreed on a voice instantly that had the potential to go be-yond the ordinary.”

The ambarsariya hit-maker Sona has hit the right notes, leav-

ing her unique signature on the song. The new version acts like a time machine as it takes one back to the bygone era.

Musical expertiseTalking about the song, Sona said, “There is a bit of all three of us in the song.” Noorjehan was accord-ed the ‘Malika-e-Tarannum’ title because of her musical expertise and vocal articulation.

Songs like Kuch log rooth kar bhi, Chandni raatein and Kala sha kala still retain a special place in the hearts of music lovers across the globe. The team will begin working on the production of the video shortly. — IANS

M O D E R N V E R S I O N

Sona Mohapatra Noorjehan

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A8 S AT U R DAY, M AY 3 0, 2 0 1 5

As the World Education Forum meets in Incheon, South Ko-rea, it is time to confront some unsettling facts about the state of education in the world to-day. More than 91 per cent of children of primary school age

are now enrolled in school, but progress on edu-cating the remaining 9 per cent has slowed to a near standstill. The numbers have barely moved since 2005, and girls are still disproportionately left behind.

Worse, the headline fi gures do not describe the true depth of the problem. In poorer countries, even children privileged enough to have access to a classroom often do not receive a good education.

According to UNESCO, of some 650 million primary-school-age boys and girls, an estimated 250 million will not learn to read or count, regard-less of whether they have gone to school.

Moreover, in many parts of the developing world, state school systems are leaving tens of millions of children behind because of poverty and discrimination. These children’s true educa-tion will be that of the soil or the streets. They will grow up working as small holder farmers, share-croppers, and wage labourers, and will struggle to send their own children to school.

It is time for the United Nations and other in-ternational bodies to move beyond a singular fo-cus on enrolment numbers and grapple with the problem of quality in education. In September, my organisation, BRAC, joined a collaborative ef-fort, led by Hillary Clinton and former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, that puts more girls in school while addressing the problem of quality for both genders.

As part of that eff ort, BRAC, which is already the world’s largest private secular education provider, plans to invest at least $280 million to reach 2.7 million additional girls and train 75,000 teachers by 2019. We call on others to make simi-lar investments. All too often, poor countries’ ap-proach to education remains stuck in the colonial era, favouring rote memorisation over true learn-ing. Schools do little to impart the life and work skills needed to prepare young people for the twenty-fi rst-century knowledge economy.

Children are awarded higher grades for writing sentences exactly like the ones they see in text-

books than for coming up with ideas of their own.This is an approach that fails to foster curios-

ity, self-confi dence, and independent thinking. It is also especially ill-suited for children from poor backgrounds, who fi nd much of what they are taught in the classroom to be irrelevant to their daily lives. I was pleased when, in May, a panel tasked by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon came up with a post-2015 development agenda that included quality education, not just univer-sal access, as one of its recommendations. Setting targets based on quality rather than quantity will be diffi cult but not impossible.

Basic outcomes of literacy and numeracy are imperative. But so are standards for social and emotional learning, which stresses the impor-tance of recognizing our emotions, learning how to deal with them, and fostering empathy for others. These skills, known as “emotional intel-ligence,” are just as important for children in poor countries as they are for children in rich coun-tries. In confl ict and post-confl ict environments like Afghanistan or South Sudan, a safe and peaceful future will depend on a new generation being able to heal its emotional and psychological wounds, just as it did in my native Bangladesh af-ter our Liberation War in 1971.

Even in countries not scarred by war, navigat-ing one’s way out poverty requires emotional in-telligence, in addition to problem-solving skills and critical thinking. Given recent cuts in aid for education, some might object that focusing on quality and emotional intelligence are luxuries that we cannot aff ord. This is not the case.

In Bangladesh, we have found a way to bring quality education to the poor, with schools that cost just $36 per student per year.

With community support, local women are trained to teach children to think for themselves. One-room schools operate out of rented and bor-rowed spaces to save costs. A majority of the stu-dents in every classroom are girls.

We need to promote universal standards for education, not just universal access, for both girls and boys. A child’s potential is truly unleashed only when he or she learns to spot and seize the opportunities that his or her parents never had.

This is the standard we should set, and it will be a great moment indeed when it is universally adopted. - Project Syndicate

Girls are still left behind in education

In poorer countries, even children privileged enough to have access to a classroom often do not receive a good education. According to UNESCO, of some 650 million primary-school-age boys and girls, an estimated 250 million will not learn to read or count, regardless of whether they have gone to school

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)

COMMENTARY

Balochistan was always going to be diffi cult to rid of polio. It is vast, arid and with a thinly scattered population, many of whom are nomadic. Add the reality that for most of the last

two decades the province has experienced a violent insurgency which remains ongoing — then the battle to eradicate polio is placed in per-spective. A further impediment to eradication is the pervasive myth that the anti-polio vaccines are a part of some diff use Western con-spiracy theory to sterilise the Muslim world — and pointing out the logic that polio is eradicated in most countries, including Muslim ones, with no attendant drop in fertility, does no good either. Now the Balochistan Emergency Operation Centre (BEOC) has identifi ed 51 union councils in fi ve districts that are found to be at high risk from the levels of polio virus found in environmental samples. The polio vi-rus thrives in insanitary conditions and unsanitary personal hygiene, a fatal conjunction wherever it breaks out in Pakistan.

The BEOC is calling for “concrete steps and greater commitment” to eradicate the disease. A fresh campaign is due to start on May 28 targeting 1.2 million children in eight districts.

It is estimated by Unicef that at least 21,000 children are missed in every campaign in the province, and these children provide an un-vaccinated pool that represents not only a danger to themselves but magnifi es the risk of infection to others. Balochistan is to launch a programme of female community health volunteers to improve anti-polio coverage in high-risk areas.

Laudable as this may be, it must be remembered that polio teams, even when given nominal protection by police and paramilitary forces, are the frequent targets of terrorists who have vowed to halt the campaign at all costs. The numbers of women who have laid down their lives for a pittance — when the responsible authority bothers to pay them at all — is now in the hundreds and rising. Recruiting unpaid volunteers may not in that event be the most viable strategy. Recruit, train, pay, protect — that is the way forward. Cheap solutions are never the answer. - The Express Tribune

Polio in Balochistan

Where lies the greatest potential for disaster in this ever more disordered world? In Russia’s eff orts to rebuild its former empire? In the chaos of the Middle East, or the

chronic instability of a nuclear-armed Pakistan? Conceivably, none of the above. A case can be made that the biggest danger is represented by a semi-submerged archipelago in the South China Sea called the Spratly Islands, object of a confrontation between China and the US and America’s regional allies that without wisdom and restraint could escalate beyond control. The stakes, even by a purely material reck-oning, are exceptionally high. The tiny islands sit astride a shipping route carrying $5trn of trade a year. The waters that surround them contain rich fi shing grounds and, almost certainly, major reserves of oil and other resources. The dispute over the Spratlys, where China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have over-lapping claims of maritime sovereignty, goes back decades. But only recently, with the increasingly assertive and nationalistic policies of Beijing, has it gone critical.

A glance at the map might suggest that China’s case is tenuous. But that is not how Beijing sees it. Instead it is carrying out a massive land reclamation project, enlarging some of the islands and building run-ways, harbours and other facilities. In eff ect, Beijing is constructing a giant unsinkable aircraft carrier 800 miles south of the Chinese main-land. Unsurprisingly, rival claimants far closer to the Spratlys than China are deeply alarmed by these developments. So, and even more ominously, is the US, their de facto protector.

While John Kerry, the Secretary of State, has been urging restraint on Beijing, the Pentagon sent a surveillance aircraft over the disputed area last week, ignoring eight warnings from the Chinese military to leave. Now Washington has announced it is considering sending warships and warplanes into the 12-mile strip of “territorial waters” around this emerging Chinese base.

But this response has merely prompted more sabre rattling from Beijing. In a new strategic document, China’s State Council has set out plans for the country’s military to shift from a defensive to a more off ensive posture, with a focus on the South China Sea. Meanwhile a newspaper close to the ruling Communist Party has described the island-building as the country’s “most important bottom line”. If the bottom line of the US is that China must halt these activities, it add-ed, “then a US-China war is inevitable in the South China Sea”. All of which makes a diplomatic solution more urgent than ever. Nor is one hard to envisage. Indeed, the required fi rst steps have been outlined by Taiwan’s President, Ma Ying-jeou, for the parties involved to tem-porarily lay aside their disagreements, guarantee freedom of naviga-tion and overfl ight, and open negotiations on the sharing of resources. Alas, this obvious compromise is unlikely to go very far. - The Independent

A brewing confl ict in South China Sea

New cinema halls should learn a few lessonsBeing avid movie buff s my fam-ily and I welcomed additions to Muscat’s cinema halls with great anticipation. Unfortunately our visits to these new venues have been constantly plagued with is-sues. Double billing, bad service, improper communication of the movie rating, low standards of maintenance and impersonal staff have marred many a movie experience for us. Recently, I had the opportunity to go to one of the old theatres (which I had neglected for almost a year) and realised the impact that small gestures and a caring manage-ment can bring about to a fun evening. Kudos to the manage-ment of the theatre for main-taining excellent standard of service and for treating the cus-

tomers like guests. I only wish that the new chain of cinemas take a few lessons from the su-perior skills of the management of the old theatre and improve their services. Nikky YadavalliMuscat

Microaggression is rising across Europe and the USIn Europe and in the United States microaggression is on the rise. There was a time when such slight were either ignored or laughed away or considered as harmless jokes. But no more are these slights taken as harmless or unintended jibes. Since past few years victims have become more outspoken in sharing their insults. Blogs and social media are getting fl ooded with reports of microag-

gressions. Responses against such reports and complaints of micro-aggressions have been macroag-gressive. There are deniers who believe that microaggression is a misnomer which is not the new face of racism. Microaggression does not express discriminations on stereotype, apartheid and as-sert superiority of any kind. These respondents feel that the hue and cry over microaggression is only a means to create a mountain out of a mole hill.Nirmala SrinivasWadi Kabir

The United States has lost in its war against povertyNone are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free, said Goethe. This is what is prevail-

ing in the United States today. The US President of yesteryear Lyndon Johnson was wrong to believe that America would win the war against poverty. He did not see the future, his posterity and their sins which made one of the most visionary American president wrong in his convic-tion. The top ten per cent of the Americans have defeated the nation in its war against poverty. They have kept a vast majority of their fellow citizens virtually starving. Between 1979 to 2007, income for the highest-earning Americans grew more than it did for anyone else. From 1980 to 2005, over eighty per cent of the total increase in income went to the top one per cent of American earners.Asadul Iqbal LatifMuscat

READERS’ FORUM

Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers

T. S. ELIOT

website: www.newindiaoman.com

NEW INDIA ASSURANCENew India’s PROFESSIONAL INDEMNITY and PUBLIC LIABILITY POLICIES safeguard the professional hazards of Doctors/Engineers/Architects/Hospitals/Hotels etc.

ASIAS AT U R DAY, M AY 3 0, 2 0 1 5 A9

Health authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong said it was likely the disease would spread as the patient had taken a bus, crossed a busy border checkpoint from Hong Kong and stayed in a hotel before being taken to hospital.

Southeast Asian countries agree to rescue migrants

BANGKOK: Southeast Asian na-tions agreed on Friday to intensify search and rescue eff orts to help vulnerable “boat people” stranded in the region’s seas, as Myanmar said its navy had seized a vessel off its coast with more than 700 mi-grants aboard.

More than 4,000 migrants have landed in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar and Bangla-desh since Thailand launched a crackdown on people-smuggling gangs this month. Around 2,000 may still be adrift in boats on the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal, the United Nations said.

Task forceCountries aff ected by the crisis agreed at the meeting in Bang-kok to set up an anti-traffi cking task force, and approved a wide-ranging list of recommendations to tackle the “root causes” of the crisis — although the plan was carefully worded to avoid upset-ting Myanmar, which denies it is the source of the problem. “That the summit took place at all with this wide participation is itself a good result,” William Lacy Swing, director general of the Interna-tional Organisation for Migration (IOM), said. “It’s a very important fi rst step. Having Myanmar there was key. I’m pretty optimistic. We’re pleased that they’ve re-tained an emphasis on intensify-ing search and rescue operations.”

While some of the migrants are

Bangladeshis escaping poverty at home, many are members of My-anmar’s 1.1 million Rohingya mi-nority who live in poor conditions in the country’s Rakhine state.

“You cannot single out my coun-try,” Htein Lin, director general at Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Aff airs and head of the country’s delegation, had said in his open-

ing remarks. “In the infl ux of mi-gration, Myanmar is not the only country.” Myanmar does not con-sider the Rohingya citizens, ren-dering them eff ectively stateless, while denying it discriminates against them or that they are fl ee-ing persecution. It does not call them Rohingya but refers to them as Bengalis, indicating they are

from Bangladesh.Just as the meeting was wrap-

ping up in Bangkok, Myanmar’s Ministry of Information an-nounced its navy had intercepted a boat with 727 “Bengalis” aboard and was taking them to a base on an island off its southern coast to determine their identity.

The Bangkok gathering brought

together 17 countries from the As-sociation of Southeast Asian Na-tions (ASEAN) and elsewhere in Asia, along with the United States, Switzerland and international bodies such as the UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, and the IOM.

One delegate said Myanmar had pushed for other participants not to use the term “Rohingya” and that most were respecting Myan-mar’s request. The fi nal statement included a paragraph that called for addressing factors in the areas of origin of migrants, including “promoting full respect for hu-man rights” as well as investing in economic development. It did not mention Myanmar by name.

“Myanmar agreed to this paper,” Norachit Sinhaseni, permanent secretary of Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Aff airs, told reporters.

Volker Turk, Assistant High Commissioner for Protection at the UNHCR, said earlier the deadly pattern of migration could only be ended if Myanmar ad-dressed discrimination against its Rohingya minority. “This is a very good beginning,” Turk said after the meeting. “There is a strong paragraph on root causes in the agreement... There is a sense of opening from Myanmar that I welcome. There was a discussion about Rakhine State.”

There were also pledges of money to help deal with the crisis from the United States, Australia and Japan.

Offi cially called the Special Meeting on Irregular Migration in the Indian Ocean, the gather-ing took place against the grim backdrop of Malaysia’s discovery of nearly 140 graves at 28 sus-pected people smuggling camps strung along its northern bor-der. Thai authorities had found 36 bodies in abandoned camps on their side of the border at the start of this month, which led to the crackdown.

When the Thai crackdown made it too risky for traffi ckers to land migrants, they abandoned thousands at sea, triggering the crisis. Regional governments have struggled to respond, although im-ages of desperate people crammed aboard overloaded boats with lit-tle food or water prompted Indo-nesia and Malaysia to soften their initial reluctance to allow the mi-grants to come ashore. — Reuters

More than 4,000

migrants have

landed in Indonesia,

Malaysia, Thailand,

Myanmar and

Bangladesh since

Thailand launched

a crackdown on

people-smuggling

gangs this month

China has mobile artillery on reclaimed island: USSINGAPORE: The United States said on Friday that China had placed mobile artillery weapons systems on a reclaimed island in the disputed South China Sea, a development that Republican Senator John McCain called “dis-turbing and escalatory”.

Brent Colburn, a Pentagon spokesman travelling with De-fence Secretary Ash Carter, said the United States was aware of the weapons.

McCain, chairman of the Sen-ate’s Armed Services Committee, said the move would escalate ten-sions but not lead to confl ict.

‘Disturbing development’“It is a disturbing development and escalatory development, one which heightens our need to make the Chinese understand that their actions are in violation of inter-national law and their actions are going to be condemned by every-one in the world,” he said at a news conference in Ho Chi Minh City.

“We are not going to have a con-fl ict with China but we can take certain measures which will be a disincentive to China to continue

these kinds of activities,” he said.In Beijing, China’s foreign min-

istry spokeswoman Hua Chuny-ing said she had no information on the weapons. US offi cials say Chinese dredging work has added some 2,000 acres to fi ve outposts in the resource-rich Spratly is-lands in the South China Sea, in-cluding 1,500 acres this year.

It has released surveillance

plane footage showing dredgers and other ships busily turning re-mote outcrops into islands with runways and harbours.

Carter called on Wednesday for an immediate halt to land reclamation in the South China Sea and was expected to touch on the issue of maritime secu-rity and freedom of navigation again on Saturday in a speech at

the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference in Singapore.

China says the islands are in sovereign Chinese territory. Pen-tagon offi cials said eff orts by Chi-na and other claimant countries to turn reefs into islands in the Spratlys undermines internation-al law and raises questions about their future plans and intentions.

“It creates an air of uncertainty

in a system that has been based on certainty and agreed-upon norms,” said Colburn, the Pen-tagon spokesman. “So anything that steps outside of the bounds of international law we see as a con-cern because we don’t know what the ... motivations are behind that. We think it should concern every-one in the region.”

Symbol of intentAsian military attaches and ana-lysts said the placement of mobile artillery pieces appeared to be a symbol of intent, rather than any major development that could tilt any balance of power.

“It is interesting and a point to watch. But it should be remem-bered they’ve already got poten-tially a lot more fi repower on the naval ships that they routinely move through the South China Sea,” one military attache said.

China claims most of the South China Sea. The Philippines, Viet-nam, Malaysia, Brunei and Tai-wan also claim parts of the vital trade route. All claimants except Brunei have military fortifi ca-tions in the Spratlys. — Reuters

E S C A L A T I N G T E N S I O N S

China’s fi rst MERS caseconfi rmed

BEIJING/HONG KONG: China said on Friday a 44-year-old South Korean man had tested positive for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), China’s fi rst confi rmed case, but that it had not found any symptoms in 38 people who had been in close contact with him.

Health authorities in the south-ern Chinese province of Guang-dong said it was likely the disease would spread as the patient had taken a bus, crossed a busy bor-der checkpoint from Hong Kong and stayed in a hotel before being taken to hospital. “As we have said before, the possibility of MERS transferring into Guangdong is very high,” He Jianfeng, direc-tor for the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control, told reporters. “In theory, it’s possible to have a second case.”

He added, however, that 38 people found to have come into contact with the patient hadn’t tested positive.

First identifi ed in humans in 2012, MERS is caused by a corona-virus from the same family as the one that triggered China’s deadly 2003 outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). There is no cure or vaccine. “The vi-rus appears to be circulating widely throughout the Arabian Peninsula,” the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on its website. “All re-cent cases that have been reported outside the Middle East fi rst devel-oped infection in the Middle East.”

South KoreaWHO said on Friday 10 people in South Korea were confi rmed as having MERS, but there had been no sustained human-to-human spread. The UN agency said that it was not recommending screen-ing of passengers or that travel or trade restrictions be imposed on South Korea due to the outbreak.

“The virus is not behaving dif-ferently. It is direct transmission and not sustained human-to-hu-man-transmission. They are all related to the same case who came travelling from the Middle East,” WHO spokesman Christian Lind-meier told a briefi ng in Geneva.

The patient, in isolation in hospital in the southern Chinese city of Huizhou, had a fever and a chest examination showed possi-ble pneumonia, China’s National Health and Family Planning Com-mission said. — Reuters

D E A D L Y D I S E A S E

IN POOR CONDITION: This combination photo shows a fi le picture, top, of Rohingya migrant men from

Myanmar, left to right, Muhammad Rubail, 14, Hasyik, 20, Najibul Hasan, 15, and Yusuf, 22, on a drift-

ing boat in the Thai waters off the southern island of Koh Lipe in the Andaman on May 14 this month

and, bottom, Rohingya migrants, left to right, Muhammad Rubail, 14, Hasyik, 20, Najibul Hasan, 15,

and Yusuf, 22, sit together at the confi nement camp in Bayeun district in Indonesia’s Aceh province

on Thursday, after Indonesian fi shermen rescued about 400 Rohingya migrants from Myanmar and

Bangladesh from a boat on May 20 off the eastern coast of Aceh. – AFP

DISPUTED PROPERTY: The alleged on-going land reclamation by China at Subi reef is seen from Pa-

gasa (Thitu) island in the Spratlys group of islands in the South China Sea, west of Palawan, Philip-

pines, in this May 11, 2015 fi le photo. – Reuters Files

Soldier surrenders after holding hostages

MANILA: A Philippine soldier in camoufl age uniform and carrying an assault rifl e held dozens of local tourists hostage on a bus for four hours on Friday, but surrendered peacefully, police said.

Corporal Rene Prajele, who was carrying his army-issued M-16 rifl e, stopped the bus in a farm-ing area about 300 kilometres from the Philippine capital, said police spokeswoman Maria Luisa Calubaquib.

She said Prajele was angry over suspicions his wife was cheating on him, but gave himself up with-out any violence after negotiations with his army superior.

“He was heavily burdened, that’s why he did it,” Calubaquib said.

Police said the hostage-taking caused a 20-kilometre-long traffi c jam on a highway in Del Gallego.

Prajele, a soldier of 11 years, was arrested and faces criminal inves-tigation, Calubaquib said. — AFP

P H I L I P P I N E S

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Flash fl ood warning issued, rains kill 18 in North Texas

DALLAS: Storms bringing as much as seven inches of rain drenched North Texas overnight into Friday, prompting hundreds of calls for emergency assistance and adding to the woes of the state where 18 people have been killed in severe weather this week.

The National Weather Service issued a fl ash fl ood warning for the Dallas area on Friday morning and a fl ash fl ood watch for an area stretching from central Texas into central Kansas. The seven inches (17.8 cm) in North Texas from Thursday morning into Friday comes after storms dumped sev-en inches on Austin on Monday and as much as 11 inches (28 cm) overnight on Monday in the Hou-ston area.

Hundreds of people spent the night in evacuation shelters across Texas as this week’s fl oods turned streets in rivers, ripped homes off their foundations and swept over thousands of vehicles.

In Houston alone, more than

4,000 structures were damaged by fl oods since Monday that hit the fourth-biggest US city.

In central Texas overnight, Travis County fi refi ghters rescued 21 people from a drifting house-boat while Johnson County emer-

gency workers rescued 14 drivers and residents. No injuries were reported, offi cials said. Before Thursday night’s storm, Texas climatologist John Nielsen-Gam-mon said so far in May the state had received 7.54 inches (19 cm)

of rainfall on average. That breaks the record of 6.66 inches (17 cm) set in June 2004, based on records dating back to 1895, according to Nielsen-Gammon of the Offi ce of the Texas State Climatologist at Texas A&M University. — Reuters

Travis County

fi refi ghters rescued

21 people from a

drifting houseboat,

in central Texas

overnight, while

Johnson County

emergency workers

rescued 14 drivers

and residents

Japanese Island evacuated after volcanic eruptionTOKYO: A violent volcanic erup-tion in Japan forced the evacu-ation of an island on Friday, as a huge column of ash was shot high into the sky.

Footage by the Japan Meteoro-logical Agency captured the mo-ment the plume rocketed from Mount Shindake on the far south-ern island of Kuchinoerabu.

The black cloud reached as high as 9,000 metres (29,500 feet), the agency said, and was accompanied by a fi ve-minute volcanic quake. Television pictures showed the after-eff ects of the pyroclastic fl ow, which had cascaded down the mountainside towards one of the island’s harbours.

Grey ash blanketed the break-waters and discoloured the sea.

The volcano continued to belch steam throughout the day as a dusting of white ash settled on mountain peaks, giving them a winter-like appearance.

Minor facial injuryThe Fire and Disaster Manage-ment Agency said it had account-ed for all of the nearly 140 inhabit-ants, with one elderly man having suff ered a minor facial injury and another feeling nauseous.

Residents were evacuated to a nearby island aboard coastguard boats and a ferry, offi cials said.

A woman who was taken by hel-icopter told reporters the eruption had been frighteningly powerful.

“The sky turned completely dark and there was a thunderous

roar and then I heard a boom,” she said.

Community leader Nobuaki Hayashi told public broadcaster NHK how the eruption, which came around 10am (0100GMT) had blocked out the morning light.

“Dark smoke rose quite high, I couldn’t tell how high. But it became dark outside,” he told the network.

The volcano has been under observation since an eruption last year, with a two-kilometre (one-mile) exclusion zone in force, but volcanologists on Friday rapidly raised the alert level to fi ve -- the highest on the scale -- triggering the evacuation order.

“A volcanic eruption occurred at Shindake at 9:59am. Along with this eruption, a pyroclastic fl ow

reached the coastline” of the is-land, the weather agency said.

Sadayuki Kitagawa, director of the volcanology division at the agency, warned the danger was not over.

“It’s possible that eruptions of a similar scale could happen in the future. We are warning residents about pyroclastic fl ows, and ask-ing people to obey evacuation in-

structions,” he told a briefi ng.Japan sits at the junction of sev-

eral of the Earth’s tectonic plates and the country is dotted with active volcanoes. Any eruption is big news, and sends the nation’s emergency response organs into a fl urry of activity.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he had mobilised “all functions of government” to ensure the safety of residents, including coastguard boats and military helicopters.

“I ordered authorities to swiftly gather information on damage, ensure local residents’ safety through evacuations, and boost observation of the volcano,” he told reporters.

Military help soughtKagoshima prefecture, in which Kuchinoerabu sits, said it had re-quested the military send troops to help with disaster relief.

Major carriers Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways said there had been no immediate impact on fl ights.

Eruptions at Shindake have been recorded for nearly two cen-turies, with the last signifi cant pe-riod of activity from 1966 to 1980.

Volcano expert Kazuhiro Ishi-hara, professor emeritus at Kyoto University, told NHK that evacua-tion managers would be taking ac-count of cinders and wind direc-tion in deciding how to proceed.

“The eruption could continue for some time given the moun-tain’s history,” he said. — AFP

N A T U R E ’ S F U R Y

Scientists working on amnesia restore lost memories in miceWASHINGTON: Researchers have gained new understanding on the workings of amnesia through research that used light to revive lost memories in mice, a study published Thursday reported.

Amnesia remains a controver-sial subject in the fi eld of neuro-science, with some researchers arguing that it occurs when cells are damaged and memory cannot be stored, while others believe that the memories are simply blocked and cannot be recalled.

The study, published in the US journal Science, indicated that memories do in fact remain, but are simply unable to be recollect-ed. “The majority of researchers have favoured the storage theory, but we have shown in this paper that this majority theory is prob-ably wrong,” researcher Susumu Tonegawa of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said.

“Amnesia is a problem of re-trieval impairment,” the Nobel Prize-winning scientist said. The study, carried out by researchers at MIT and the Riken Brain Sci-ence Institute in Japan, used blue

light pulses to stimulate “memory engrams,” the neurons that are ac-tivated as memories are formed.

When these engrams are acti-vated in normal day-to-day life by stimuli such as an image, smell or

taste, memories are triggered.Scientists conducting the re-

search, however, attached a pro-tein to these neurons to enable them to be activated by light.

One change that was thought

to occur in engrams during the formation of memory was the strengthening of their synapses -- structures that allow the neurons to send signals to each other.

So the researchers set out to see what would happen if the synapses did not strengthen, by using a com-pound called anisomycin to pre-vent that process from happening in mice. The mice were placed in a chamber where they were given an electric shock to the feet — which elicits a “freezing” response in the rodents. Those that did not receive the compound would exhibit the same freezing response when re-turning to the chamber where the shock was administered, but those that were given anisomycin did not freeze, having clearly forgotten the shock.

The researchers would next ac-tivate the neurons involved in the foot-shock memory in the treated

mice, by using blue light pulses.Even when placed in a totally

diff erent chamber, the treated mice would demonstrate the freezing response, indicating that they were paralysed with fear from the memory, which still existed.

The study allowed scientists to separate memory storage mecha-nisms from those allowing an organ-ism to form and recover the mem-ory, said MIT researcher Tomas Ryan, who co-authored the study. “The strengthening of engram syn-apses is crucial for the brain’s ability to access or retrieve those specifi c memories,” Ryan said.

Tonegawa added that the re-search indicated that “past memo-ries may not be erased, but could simply be lost and inaccessible for recall.” The fi ndings “will stimu-late future research on the biology of memory and its clinical restora-tion,” he added. — AFP

S H E D D I N G L I G H T

Jackson’s property to be sold for $100 million

WASHINGTON: The sprawling California property that was once the location of the ‘king of pop’ Michael Jackson’s mind-boggling amusement park is going on sale for $100 million, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The late star built up his Never-land Ranch on 2,700 acres outside Santa Barbra to include zoo ani-mals, numerous amusement rides and lavish gardens. It has 22 build-ings on it, the paper said.

RenovatedThe zoo animals have been re-moved, save for a single llama, and the property has changed hands. Now called the Sycamore Valley Ranch, the Wall Street Journal reports that an investment fi rm renovated the property and several real estate agents are looking for a buyer at the cool-listing price of $100 million.

The property includes a massive six-bedroom main house, a movie theatre and stage.

Michael Jackson, considered by some to be the greatest pop artist of all time, wrote some of his top hits on the ranch.

The Wall Street Journal report-ed that in order to avoid Jackson’s passionate fan base, tours will not be given of the property. — AFP

A M U S E M E N T P A R K

Abducted German freed in Afghanistan

BERLIN: A German aid worker kidnapped in Afghanistan in April is free and safe, the German for-eign ministry said on Friday.

“Foreign minister (Frank-Wal-ter) Steinmeier is relieved that a German man who was abducted in mid-April has been free since last night,” the spokeswoman told reporters.

“He is doing well under the cir-cumstances and is in the custody of the German consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif” in northern Afghanistan, she added. The German develop-ment agency GIZ, the man’s em-ployer, also confi rmed he was free.

Meanwhile, an Afghan offi cial said the man had been liberated by security forces.

Rescued“He was rescued in a police opera-tion at 3:00 am early Friday,” Ab-dul Wadood Wahidi, the spokes-man for the Kunduz provincial governor, said. He did not off er any details about the operation.

The German foreign ministry spokeswoman also declined to provide further information on the case, which was kept quiet during the hostage’s captivity, but said a German crisis team had been working to secure his release.

Steinmeier also discussed the case with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in early May.

“The German government wish-es to thank the Afghan government and the Afghan security forces for their full support in Kabul and Kunduz (the northern province where the aid worker was taken),” the spokeswoman said. — AFP

R E L I E V E D

DESTRUCTION: A totalled Porsche rests against the foundation of a home destroyed in the Memorial Day weekend fl oods in Wimber-

ley, Texas. Hundreds of people spent the night in evacuation shelters across Texas as this week’s fl oods turned streets in rivers, ripped

homes off their foundations and swept over thousands of vehicles. – Reuters

BELCHING SMOKE: Smoke rising from Mount Shindake on Kuchinoerabu island in Kagoshima pre-

fecture of Japan’s southern island of Kyushu on Friday. – AFP

The mice were placed in a chamber where they were given

an electric shock to the feet — which elicits a “freezing”

response in the rodents. Those that did not receive the

compound would exhibit the same freezing response

when returning to the chamber where the shock was

administered, but those that were given anisomycin

did not freeze, having clearly forgotten the shock

SPOR S

S AT U R DAY, M AY 3 0, 2 0 1 5

Federer and Wawrinka advance at French Open

PARIS: Swiss pair Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka both eased into the last 16 of the French Open on Friday as hopes of a fi rst home winner in 32 years were boosted.

Second-seeded Federer, whose sole title win in Paris came in 2009, reached the fourth round for the 11th straight year with a straightforward 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 win over Bosnian Damir Dzumhur.

That set up a potential block-buster against Gael Monfi ls, con-ditional on the French showman seeing off Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay in a third round tie later Friday.

Already set in the same quarter of the draw at the last 16 stage is another Franco-Swiss encounter

opposing Wawrinka and Gilles Simon. Former Australian Open champion Wawrinka blasted past American Steve Johnson, while Si-mon saw off a tough challenge from fellow Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 6-2, 6-7 (6/8), 6-7 (6/8), 6-3, 6-1.

The French will be out for some semblance of revenge on Federer and Wawrinka who combined to infl ict a painful defeat on France in the Davis Cup fi nal in Lille last November.

“He’s played me tough through-out my career, I thought. Espe-

cially the last four, fi ve years now. He’s been tougher for me to play against,” said Federer of a poten-tial matchup against Monfi ls.

“We have played against each other here (Roland Garros) on a few occasions as well. Semis, quar-ters, some of my big years here. So clearly I’d love to play against him.”

Earlier in the day Richard Gas-quet made it seven French players into the third round of the tourna-ment stirring hopes of a realistic home title challenge.

That number equalled the sec-

ond best showing for French play-ers at the last 32 stage in Paris in the Open-era (since 1968), beaten only by the eight men who made it that far in 1971.

Gasquet, a former Wimbledon semifi nalist and world top ten-ner, fi nally saw off the challenge of Argentine claycourter Carlos Ber-locq 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, 4-6, 6-1 after the match had been suspended over-night at two sets all.

His reward is a third round tie against South African Kevin An-derson. “Yeah, we are a lot in the

third round. I saw maybe six or seven. It’s a lot,” Gasquet said of the French charge. “It’s not the record. The record was eight. So, yeah, it’s very good for French tennis. It’s a good start for us. But I think we can go farther in the draw.”

Also through to the third round in the top half of the draw is Jer-emy Chardy, who takes on Bel-gium’s David Goffi n on Saturday, while fi ve other French hopes were in action in the bottom half of the draw on Friday.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, a semi-fi -nalist for France at Roland Garros in 2013, was scheduled last on the Philippe Chatrier Centre Court taking on Spain’s Pablo Andujar.

Finally Benoit Paire had a tough task going up against fourth seed Tomas Berdych.

The last home winner of the men’s singles at the French Open, and of any Grand Slam tourna-ment, was Yannick Noah in 1983 with Henri Leconte the last to reach the fi nal in 1988 where he lost to Mats Wilander.

Since then Leconte in 1992, Cedric Pioline (1998), Sebastien Grosjean (2001), Monfi ls (2008) and Tsonga (2013) all fell at the semi-fi nal stage.

Also into the last 16 — for the second time in his career — was Georgian-born Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili who was too good for Czech player Lukas Rosol, win-ning 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

He will next play Japanese fi fth seed Kei Nishikori, who moved through when third round oppo-nent Benjamin Becker withdrew from the tournament with a shoul-der injury. - AFP

Second-seeded

Federer, whose sole

title win in Paris

came in 2009,

reached the fourth

round for the 11th

straight year with

a straightforward

6-4, 6-3, 6-2 win

over Bosnian

Damir Dzumhur

GREAT GOING: Roger Federer celebrates his third round win. – Reuters

Sharapova, Ivanovic in pre-quartersPARIS: Defending champion Ma-ria Sharapova reached the French Open last-16 on Friday although she appeared on the verge of tears at the end of her straight-sets win over Samantha Stosur.

The world number two made the fourth round for the 11th time with a 6-3, 6-4 win over the 26th seeded Australian.

It was the Russian’s 15th win in 17 matches against Stosur who she defeated in a three-set Paris mara-thon last year. “I knew it would be a tough match today,” said the 28-year-old Sharapova.

“But when I come out on to this court all the great memories come fl ooding back for me.”

Sharapova, also the champion in 2012 and runner-up in 2013, goes on to face Czech 13th seed Lucie Safarova for a place in the quarter-fi nals. Both Sharapova and Stosur struggled in the windy, cold condi-tions on Court Philippe Chatrier.

The fi rst set featured fi ve breaks of serve and just four winners for Sharapova who also suff ered fi ve double faults.

But 2010 runner-up Stosur was undone by 19 unforced errors in the opener and 34 over the entire match. One break in the seventh game of the second set, courtesy of the Australian’s fourth double fault of the tie, proved the decisive breakthrough.

Safarova made the fourth round for the third time by beating big-serving German Sabine Lisicki 6-3, 7-6 (7/2).

Sharapova has a 4-1 record over the 28-year-old Czech whose only win came in the pair’s fi rst meeting in Madrid fi ve years ago.

However, their last clash in Stuttgart in 2014 only went in the Russian’s favour after three tie-break sets.

Former champion Ana Ivanovic reached the last 16 in just 53 min-utes. The Serbian seventh seed, the 2008 winner in Paris, tri-umphed over 18-year-old Croatian opponent Donna Vekic 6-0, 6-3.

Ivanovic won the fi rst seven games before Vekic, the world number 165 and playing in the third round of a major for the fi rst

time, stopped the rot and broke for 2-1 in the second set.

But that was as good as it got for the teenager as Ivanovic, watched by German football star boyfriend Bastian Schweinsteiger, swept into a fourth round clash against ninth-seeded Russian Ekaterina Makarova. “After my fi rst two matches, I have really started to get a little bit of feeling and groove,” said the Serb, who had to come back from losing the opening set in her fi rst two rounds in Paris.

“When you know you are work-ing the right direction, it always gets results.”

Makarova reached the last-16

for the second time by defeating doubles partner and best friend Elena Vesnina 6-2, 6-4. “I hate having to play my best friend,” ad-mitted the 26-year-old left-hand-er. “It’s not a good feeling.”

Alize Cornet, the 29th seeded Frenchwoman, needed two and a half hours to defeat 33-year-old Croatian Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in a match scarred by 85 unforced errors.

Lucic-Baroni made her Paris de-but back in 1999 and had made the last-32 by putting out third-seeded Simona Halep in the second round.

Cornet, who knocked Serena Williams out of Wimbledon last year, will be playing in the second week in Paris for the fi rst time.

“It was diffi cult, she hits the ball very hard,” said Cornet.

“I had a terrible start but I came back with courage. It’s magical.”

Cornet next takes on Elina Svi-tolina, the 19th seeded Ukrainian who has reached the fourth round of a major for the fi rst time.

Svitolina defeated fellow former French Open junior champion An-nika Beck of Germany 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.

Spanish 21st seed Garbine Muguruza, who beat Serena Wil-liams on her way to the quarter-fi nals in 2014, knocked out Ger-man 11th seed Angelique Kerber 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.

She could face compatriot and doubles partner Carla Suarez Na-varro if the eighth seed beats Ital-ian veteran Flavia Pennetta later Friday. - AFP

F R E N C H O P E N

EMOTIONAL: Maria Sharapova in action against Samantha Stosur. – AFP

Latham and

Ronchi lead

Kiwis recovery

LEEDS: Tom Latham and Luke Ronchi lifted a New Zealand side bristling with attacking in-tent to 297 for eight at the close on a rain-disrupted fi rst day of the second Test against England at Headingley on Friday.

Latham made 84 and Ron-chi a sublime 88 on his debut, the pair sharing a sixth-wicket partnership of 120 to help their side recover from a dire start af-ter losing the toss.

England’s James Anderson had Martin Guptill caught at slip by Ian Bell for nought in the third over to claim his 400th test wicket.

Two balls later Kane Wil-liamson edged the fast bowler to wicketkeeper Jos Buttler to leave the touring side reeling before Latham and Ross Tay-lor shared a fl uent third-wicket partnership of 66 in between the showers.

Taylor was lbw to Stuart Broad for 20 but New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum made his intentions clear by smashing the same bowler over extra cover for six off the fi rst ball he faced.

Brief scores: New Zealand 1st innings 297 for 8 (Latham 84, Ronchi 88, McCullum 41, Broad 3 for 83, Ander-son 2 for 43, Wood 2 for 63 ) v England. - Reuters

T E S T S E R I E S

Pakistan take one-day series

LAHORE: Pakistan beat Zim-babwe by six wickets in the sec-ond day-night international in Lahore on Friday, winning their fi rst series in 17 months by a 2-0 margin. Pakistan chased down Zimbabwe’s 269-run target in 47.2 overs, thanks to a good cen-tury by skipper Azhar Ali and a half century by an unbeaten Haris Sohail.

Earlier, Sikaner Raza scored a brilliant unbeaten hundred while opener Chamu Chib-habha missed his by one run as Zimbabwe posted 268 for 7.

Pakistan-born Raza smashed an 84-ball 100 not out with eight fours and three sixes while Chibhabha’s career-best 100-ball knock had 11 fours and a six after Pakistan won the toss and opted to fi eld at Gaddafi Sta-dium. Raza was in brilliant form as he lifted Zimbabwe total with a fl urry of boundaries, taking 59 in the last six overs.

Brief scores: Zimbabwe 268 for 7 in 50 overs (Chibhabha 99, Sikander Raza 100 not out, Wa-hab Riaz 2 for 55, Yasir Shah 2 for 40) lost to Pakistan 269 for 4 in 47.2 overs (Azhar Ali 102, Haris Sohail 52not out). - AFP

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Barca target second leg of treble in home Cup fi nalMADRID: Barcelona can move another step closer to just the second treble in the club’s storied 115-year history when they host Athletic Bilbao at the Camp Nou in the Copa del Rey fi nal on Saturday.

It is the third meeting between the two sides in the fi nal in the past seven years with Barca emerging victorious on their way to their fi rst treble in 2009 and in Pep Guardiola’s fi nal match as Barca coach in 2012.

Saturday will also see the Camp Nou say goodbye to another club legend as Xavi Hernandez plays his fi nal game on home soil before his farewell in the Champions League fi nal against Juventus on June 6. “We are very proud to have won La Liga and now comes the Cup fi nal, which although it seems like a mi-nor trophy, matters just as much to us as the Champions League fi nal,” said Barca defender Gerard Pique.

“It is another title in the club’s museum and here at Barca we only know how to win.”

Pique’s return to his best form over the past six months has been key to Barca’s run of 29 wins in 33 games that has left them on the brink of glory in all competitions

this season. Barca conceded just 21 goals in 38 La Liga matches and have improved markedly on set-pieces under Luis Enrique this campaign.

However, he understands why his displays have been overshad-owed by the stunning form of Li-onel Messi, Neymar and Luis Su-

arez, who have combined for 117 goals between them.

“When you win people always look to the strikers and when you lose to the defenders, goalkeeper and coach,” added the Spanish in-ternational. “This happens in all the big clubs and is normal. We have three of the best players in the

world up front, they understand each other perfectly and are play-ing marvellously.”

‘Not invincible’In contrast to Barca’s treble chase, Athletic are searching for their fi rst major trophy in 21 years since do-ing the league and Cup double in

1983/84. The Basques have already suff ered at the hands of Messi this season as he played a part in all fi ve of Barca’s goals in a 5-2 thrashing at San Mames in February.

However, Ernesto Valverde’s men improved signifi cantly from a disappointing fi rst half of the campaign to ensure qualifi cation for next season’s Europa League and go into the fi nal on an unbeat-en seven-match run. “Barcelona aren’t invincible,” insisted Ath-letic starlet Inaki Williams. “We deserve a victory. We are going to give them a very hard game.”

Barca received a huge boost with the news that Suarez will be fi t to start having not featured since the second leg of their Champions League semi-fi nal against Bayern Munich due to a hamstring prob-

lem. Oscar de Marcos is suspend-ed for Athletic so Andoni Iraola will start at right-back on his farewell after 12 years and nearly 500 appearances.

Long-term injury absentees Iker Muniain and Ander Iturraspe also miss out for Athletic.

And Barcelona-target Aymeric Laporte believes overcoming the pre-match nerves will key for Val-verde’s men with Athletic fans ex-pected to fi ll more than half of the 99,000 seats at the Camp Nou.

“We must know how to over-come the pressure and the nerves. We know that Barcelona is a very good team and we have to think about what we have to do to play well. “There is so much talent in their team we have to be vigilant to every move.” - AFP

K I N G S C U P

TRAINING SESSION: Barcelona’s players take part in a training session on the eve of the King’s Cup

fi nal football match against Athletic Bilbao. – AFP

Arsenal eye FA Cup history

LONDON: Arsene Wenger would love to silence his critics by making history when hold-ers Arsenal take on Aston Villa in the FA Cup fi nal on Saturday.

Wenger heads to Wembley on the cusp of an historic dou-ble achievement that would go some way to answering the doubters who claim he has lost his touch in recent years.

Frustrated by Arsenal’s fail-ure to win the Premier League since 2004 and their inability to make an impact in the Champi-ons League, even some Gunners fans have turned on Wenger over the last two years.

Verbally abused at a rail-way station following defeat at Stoke and forced to endure the indignity of supporters holding banners calling for his sacking, the Arsenal manager has main-tained a dignifi ed stance in the face of extreme provocation this term.

But that isn’t to say the jibes don’t sting Wenger and, af-ter a strong second half of the season saw Arsenal climb to a third place fi nish in the Premier League, the 65-year-old has an opportunity to further reassert his credentials by retaining the FA Cup.

A victory over Villa would make Wenger the fi rst post-war manager to win the FA Cup six times, taking him ahead of Alex Ferguson and level with George Ramsay — the only manager to have won six FA Cups, with his last coming in charge of Villa in 1920. — AFP

F A C U PSepp Blatter wins fifth Fifa term as Prince Ali concedes

ZURICH: Sepp Blatter was re-elected president of Fifa for a fi fth term on Friday after the only other candidate conceded defeat after a fi rst round of voting in an election overshadowed by allegations of corruption in world soccer.

Blatter’s victory came despite demands that he quit in the face of a major bribery scandal being investigated by U.S., Swiss and other law enforcement agencies that plunged the world soccer body into the worst crisis in its 111-year history.

Neither Blatter nor Jordanian challenger Prince Ali bin Al Hus-sein got the necessary two thirds of the vote in the fi rst round, with

Blatter on 133 and Prince Ali on 73. Prince Ali later conceded.

In a victory speech, Blatter de-clared: “Let’s go Fifa, let’s go Fifa,” to a standing ovation.

Speaking just before the vote, Blatter, who joined Fifa in 1975, said he felt that he had only been with the organisation for a short time and wanted to stay longer.

“What is time anyway. I fi nd that the time I have spent at Fifa is very short,” he said. “The more one ages the more time fl ies by quickly. I am

with you, and I would like to stay with you,” he said to applause.

Prince Ali, in his pitch for votes, had pledged an open, more demo-cratic Fifa, saying: “We have heard in recent days, voices which de-scribed our Fifa as an avaricious body which feeds on the game that the world loves.

“There are no easy answers. And no blame that can be cast that will wash away the stain that marks us all,” he said.

While Asian, African and Latin

American states had been expect-ed to rally around Blatter, Europe, which accounts for all but three of the countries that have ever made it to a World Cup’s fi nal match, had been keen for him to step aside.

On a visit to Berlin, British Prime Minister David Cameron told Blatter to go “the sooner the better”. Chancellor Angela Merkel said the dirty side of soccer must be cleaned up.

CorruptionU.S. authorities have accused top Fifa fi gures and sports executives of corruption, while Switzerland is investigating the award of the next World Cup fi nals to Russia and Qatar.

The scandal widened on Friday when Britain’s Serious Fraud Of-fi ce said it was examining possible corruption at Fifa.

A judge in Argentina has or-dered the arrest of three business-men accused of using bribery to obtain soccer media rights, and the Brazilian Senate moved to open a formal inquiry into soccer bribery allegations.

Marco Polo Del Nero, the presi-dent of the Brazilian Football Confederation, dramatically fl ew back to Brazil from the Fifa Con-gress shortly before the election. His abrupt departure followed the arrest of nine senior Fifa offi cials including former Brazilian soccer chief Jose Maria Marin.

Del Nero told a press confer-ence on Friday he did not plan to resign and “had nothing to do” with corruption.

Fifa takes in billions of dollars in revenue from television mar-keting rights and sponsorships, making it one of the wealthi-est and most powerful sports bodies in the world. It has been dogged by corruption scandals for decades, mostly investigat-ing itself and avoiding scrutiny by criminal courts.

Russia and Qatar deny wrong-doing in their bids to host the cup. Russian President Vladimir Pu-tin has accused the United States of meddling in an eff ort to force Blatter out.

Qatar on Friday issued a fur-ther defence of its bid and said it would carry on with plans to stage the event. The decision to host the world’s biggest soccer tournament in a small desert state where day-time summer temperatures rarely fall below 40 degrees Celsius star-tled many in global sport.

Many of Blatter’s opponents have spoken of steps they can take against him. English Football As-sociation chairman Greg Dyke said England could back a possible boycott of the 2018 World Cup if Blatter stays in offi ce.

Other European soccer offi cials have also alluded to the prospect of a boycott, but that is still seen as unlikely given the tournament’s importance to the global game.

Most of the developing world in Africa, Asia and parts of Central America and the Caribbean are happy that Fifa under Blatter has guaranteed them annual grants and bonus payments in World Cup years. - Reuters

Neither Blatter nor

Jordanian challenger

Prince Ali bin Al

Hussein got the

necessary two thirds

of the vote in the fi rst

round, with Blatter

on 133 and Prince

Ali on 73. Prince Ali

later conceded

REIGN CONTINUES: Fifa President Sepp Blatter gestures after he

was re-elected at the 65th Fifa Congress in Zurich. – Reuters

BMARKE

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SHINSEI BANK EYES GE’s JAPAN LEASING BUSINESS Shinsei Bank is interested in bidding for General Electric’s leasing assets in Japan as it seeks to diversify away from traditional lending, its incoming chief executive offi cer said. >B3

Dubai International Capital in talks to sell Almatis to OyakDUBAI: Dubai International Capital (DIC), the private-equity unit owned by Dubai government, is in talks to sell its German alu-mina products-maker Almatis to Turkish army pension fund Oyak Group, people familiar with the matter said.

Negotiations between DIC and Oyak, which invests in everything from manufacturing to fi nancial services, are advanced but could still fall apart, the people said, asking not to be identifi ed as the information is private.

DIC, which bought Almatis in 2007, is seeking as much as $1 billion for the business, they said. Should talks between the two parties fail, DIC is likely to start an auction process for Almatis, the people said.

A spokesman for Oyak Group, who asked not to be named in line with company policy, denied it was in talks to buy Almatis. A representative for DIC declined to comment. Almatis couldn’t be immediately be reached for com-ment.

Disposing of businessesDIC is disposing of businesses after a property crash in the emir-ate forced it to reach an accord with creditors to restructure $2.5 billion of liabilities in 2012. The private- equity arm agreed to sell German packaging company Mauser to Clayton Dubilier & Rice for about $1.7 billion in May last year.

The investment fi rm’s largest asset in its portfolio is Doncas-ters Group, a UK-based engineer-ing aerospace company which it agreed to acquire from Royal Bank of Scotland Group for 700

million pounds ($1.1 billion) in 2005. Turkish companies have been acquiring assets abroad as they seek to expand sales and bring new brands to the coun-try. Yildiz Holding agreed to buy United Biscuits Holdings for $3.3 billion in November. Oyak has $2 billion in cash for acquisitions, the company said in November.

Oyak Group is the manager of Turkey’s military pension fund through long-term investments in the manufacturing industry including steelmaking unit Eregli Demir ve Celik Fabrikalari TAS and a car manufacturing joint venture with Renault. The group employs about 29,000 people in 50 companies, according to its website.

Almatis, which was a unit of Al-coa Inc. till 2004, makes refracto-ry products, ceramic applications and polishing products, accord-ing to information on DIC’s web-site. The company employs over 1,100 people across 10 facilities in Europe, US and Japan as well as China and India. — Bloomberg News

C O R P O R A T E

US economy contracts as strong dollar hits growth

WASHINGTON: US, the world’s largest economy hit a bigger ditch in the fi rst quarter than initially estimated, held back by harsh winter weather, a strong dollar and delays at ports.

Gross domestic product (GDP) in the US shrank at a 0.7 per cent annualised rate, revised from a previously reported 0.2 per cent gain, according to Commerce De-partment fi gures issued on Friday in Washington. The median fore-cast of 84 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a 0.9 per cent drop. By contrast, the report also showed incomes climbed, fuelling the debate on whether GDP is be-ing underestimated.

A swelling trade gap subtracted

the most from growth in 30 years as the appreciating dollar caused exports to slump while imports rose following the resolution of labour disputes at West Coast ports. Federal Reserve offi cials are among those who believe the setback in growth will be tempo-rary, helping explain why they are considering raising interest rates this year. “A lot of the weakness was really contained in the fi rst quarter,” said Gennadiy Goldberg, a US strategist at TD Securities USA in New York. “This sets us up nicely for a rebound in the second quarter.”

Stock-index futures held ear-lier losses after the report. The contract on the Standard & Poor’s

500 Index maturing in June fell 0.2 per cent to 2,117 at 8:51am in New York.

Survey resultsEconomists’ forecasts ranged from a decline of 1.2 per cent to an increase of 0.2 per cent. The GDP estimate is the second of three for the quarter, with the third release scheduled for June, when more information becomes available. The economy grew at a 2.2 per cent pace from October through December.

The revisions showed the trade gap widened more than previous-ly estimated, inventories grew at a slower pace and consumer spend-ing climbed less than previously

estimated. That was partly off set by a gain in home building.

While poor weather and mer-chandise delays due to a labor dispute at West Coast ports were temporary restraints, the damage caused by the plunge in fuel prices and stronger dollar may be longer-lasting.

GDP reportThe income side of the economy was more upbeat last quarter, with the GDP report off ering a fi rst snapshot of the quarter’s gross domestic income. The measure, which shows the money earned by the people, businesses and government agencies whose pur-chases go into calculating growth,

is seen by researchers including some at the Fed as a better gauge of the strength of the economy.

Income sideGDI adjusted for infl ation climbed at a 1.4 per cent annualised rate in the January through March pe-riod after rising 3.7 per cent in the fourth quarter. While the income and GDP should theoretically match, the diff erent methods used in calculating the numbers cause them to sometimes diverge.

“Recently, the income side of the economy has been grow-ing faster than the product side (GDP),” Joseph LaVorgna, chief US economist at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. in New York, wrote in a note. “This suggests that GDP growth is understated.”

The contraction last quarter may not have been as bad as it ap-pears, in part due to the so-called residual seasonality that probably distorted the data. The tendency of the fi rst quarter to be persis-tently weak in recent years has sparked a debate about the extent of the bias, with the Fed Board and regional Fed banks including the San Francisco Fed jumping into the fray.

Consumers’ purchasing power grew, with disposable income ad-justed for infl ation increasing 5.3 per cent. The saving rate rose to 5.5 per cent from 4.7 per cent. —

Bloomberg News

Gross domestic

product (GDP) in the

US shrank at a 0.7

per cent annualised

rate, revised from

a previously

reported 0.2 per

cent gain, according

to Commerce

Department fi gures

issued on Friday

Libya seconds Opec crude output target

LONDON: Opec will maintain its production target next week, Libya’s deputy vice prime minister said, joining Kuwait in predicting no policy change when oil minis-ters from the 12-member group meet in Vienna.

The output target will remain 30 million barrels a day, Moham-mad Oun, Libya’s deputy vice prime minister for energy, said by phone on Thursday from al-Bayda, eastern Libya. Oun will be part of Libya’s delegation to the June 5 meeting. Opec is working on a long-term strategy draft to present next week that is likely to show projections of crude supply from non-Opec producers are the same as those forecast in 2014, he said.

“The target number will not change,” Oun said. Libya is pump-ing 400,000 barrels of oil a day, state-run National Oil Corp. spokesman Mohamed Elha-rari said in a phone interview on Thursday. That makes Libya the smallest producer in Opec.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) will be meeting to decide on the group’s production target for the next six months amid a glut that sent prices down about 50 per cent last year. Saudi Arabia, the group’s big-gest exporter, led Opec’s decision in November to maintain its out-put target to defend market share amid booming US shale supplies.

Brent crude has climbed 9.9 per cent this year with US producers scaling back. The contract add-ed 45 cents to $63.03 a barrel at 1:47pm Singapore time on Friday.

Kuwait is Opec’s fourth biggest crude producer, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. — Bloomberg

News

O I L S U P P L I E S

US-China competition in Asia creating risks: SingaporeSINGAPORE: Competition be-tween the US and China for in-fl uence in Asia creates risks for smaller states, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said, as Southeast Asian nations could fi nd themselves caught between the world’s two biggest economies.

All Asian countries hope that US-China relations will be posi-tive, and none want to choose a side, Lee said in a speech to de-fense offi cials on Friday at the Shangri-La security forum in Sin-gapore, a meeting that will be at-tended by US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter and Chinese Admi-ral Sun Jianguo.

Lee’s speech comes as the US expresses increased concern over China’s reclamation work on reefs

in the South China Sea that coun-tries including the Philippines and Vietnam also claim. China this week set out its ambitions for a bigger naval presence far from its coasts, while Carter has asked his military to look at boosting free-dom of navigation challenges in the South China Sea.

“Actions provoke reactions,” said Lee. “The US is responding to Chinese activities with increased over-fl ights and sailings near the disputed territories, to signal that it will not accept unilateral assertions of sovereignty in the South China Sea.” The current dynamic risks “tensions and bad outcomes,” he said.

It’s a “good sign” that China and the US say the Pacifi c Ocean is big

enough to accommodate both, Lee said. But such comments should not be taken to mean the two di-vide up the region, “each with its own sphere of infl uence, circum-scribing options for other coun-tries, and increasing the risk of rivalry and confl ict between two power blocs.”

China claims more than 80 per-cent of the South China Sea and keeping tensions down in the area is key given about half the world’s merchant ships pass through the waters every year. Japan and Chi-na are embroiled in a separate ter-ritorial dispute over uninhabited islands in the East China Sea.

Carter in a speech in Hawaii en route to Singapore said the US military would go wherever inter-

national law permitted, a rebuff to China’s eff orts to deter planes and ships from coming near reclaimed reefs.

“There should be no mistake about this: The United States will fl y, sail and operate wherever in-ternational law allows, as we do all around the world,” said Carter.

It is an “open secret” that the US had reservations about the China-led Asian Infrastructure Invest-ment Bank (AIIB) and discour-aged its friends from participating, Lee said. Some observers in turn believe that the requirements of the US-led Trans-Pacifi c Partner-ship free trade agreement are be-ing crafted to raise the hurdle for China to join, he said.

Japan, which has not joined the

AIIB, said it plans with the Asian Development Bank to boost fund-ing for infrastructure projects in Asia to about $110 billion over the next fi ve years. Most South-east Asian countries want Japan to play a more active role in the region, but don’t want to get em-broiled in rivalry between China and Japan either, Lee said.

Japan needs to acknowledge its past wrongs and the nation’s pub-lic opinion should be more forth-right in rejecting the “more outra-geous” interpretations of history by right-wing academics and poli-ticians, he said. At the same time, Japan’s neighbors need to accept its acknowledgments and not de-mand it apologise over and over, he said. — Bloomberg News

S O U T H C H I N A S E A I S S U E

UNCERTAIN TIMES: Income side of the economy was more upbeat last quarter, with the GDP report

off ering a fi rst snapshot of the quarter’s gross domestic income. — Bloomberg fi le picture

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Lee Hsien Loong. — Bloomberg picture

DIC, which bought

Almatis in 2007, is

seeking as much as $1

billion for the business

B2

MARKETS AT U R DAY, M AY 3 0, 2 0 1 5

UK bonds risk losing their edge over euro area rivals

LONDON: UK government bonds risk losing their status as the least bad performers in Europe as the Bank of England (BOE) moves closer to ending emergency stimulus.

Unlike the European Central Bank (ECB), which is set to con-tinue its monthly 60 billion-euro ($65 billion) bond-buying plan until September 2016, offi cials in the US and Britain are debating when to increase record-low bor-rowing costs. Economists predict the Federal Reserve will act in September, with the BOE follow-ing suit early next year.

That may weigh on gilts, which lost less than debt from every eu-ro-region sovereign in May. Royal Bank of Canada expects investors to begin demanding a bigger yield premium to hold 10-year UK debt instead of similar-maturity Ger-man bunds. The so- called spread has narrowed to 130 basis points

from as much as 162 in early March.

Monetary-policy expectations“It is ultimately monetary-poli-cy expectations” that will drive spreads, said Vatsala Datta, a UK rates strategist at RBC in London. “As the Fed approaches rate hikes, UK gilt yields are expected to be pulled higher along with Treas-uries, while bunds are not going anywhere with the ECB in action.”

The yield on 10-year gilts will climb to 2.03 per cent by the end of this year, and 2.39 per cent by June 2016, according to the medi-an estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The yield was at 1.83 per cent on Thursday.

Government bonds around the world, which had been boosted by years of central-bank stimulus,

began tumbling in April as inves-tors turned against record-low yields. Losses for gilts were lim-ited this month by UK infl ation falling below zero and Prime Min-ister David Cameron’s surprise election victory, which ended weeks of political uncertainty and cleared the way for deeper budget cuts than the opposition Labour Party had proposed.

With his Conservative Party vowing to eliminate a budget defi -cit equal to almost fi ve per cent of gross domestic product by 2018, gilt issuance will be lower than it would have been under Labour, strategists at ING Bank, includ-ing Amsterdam-based Jeroen van den Broek, wrote on May 8.

UK securities’ 0.7 per cent de-cline this month compares with a 1.6 per cent fall in German bonds

and a 1.9 per cent drop in Span-ish debt, according to Bloomberg World Bond Indexes. Treasuries fell 0.5 per cent.

There were “some short posi-tions in gilts being run into the election that then needed cover-ing,” said Jason Simpson, a fi xed-income strategist at Societe Gen-erale in London. “That has been the main driver. The big perfor-mance has come versus bunds.”

‘Pretty OK’Some analysts remain upbeat about the prospects for UK debt.

“Relative to other world bond markets gilts look pretty OK,” Mark Burgess, chief investment offi cer at Colombia Threadnee-dle Investments, which has about 341 billion pounds ($521 billion) of assets under management, said

on Bloomberg Television on May 27. “We think sterling is set fair, infl ation is very, very contained, growth is robust, the public fi -nances look in better shape than they do in many other countries.”

The BOE expects spare capac-ity — the economy’s room to grow without triggering faster infl a-tion — to be erased within a year. Economists predict offi cials will raise the benchmark rate from 0.5 per cent in February and interest-rate forward contracts are almost fully pricing in an increase by mid-2016. — Bloomberg News

Unlike the European

Central Bank, which

is set to continue its

monthly 60 billion-

euro ($65 billion)

bond-buying plan

until September

2016, offi cials in the

US and Britain are

debating when to

increase record-low

borrowing costs

China’s rich seek to own private islands

GUANLONG ISLAND, (China): As sunset falls on his private island in the South China Sea, entrepre-neur Lin Dong likes few things bet-ter than to lounge on a hammock strung between two trees as waves lap the shore.

“I don’t like noise, and I’m not a fan of the pollution in crowded cit-ies,” he said. “The island life suits me much better”.

Lin made his fortune after founding a medical equipment company and is one of a small but growing number of wealthy Chi-nese acquiring their own islands.

Thin with a greying goatee, the 42-year-old says uncertainty over bureaucratic land ownership re-strictions blights his fruit tree-strewn paradise.

“I don’t dare to invest in the is-land, anything I build on it could be demolished,” he told AFP.

There are at least 600 island owners in China, he estimates, mostly corporations planning tourism or fi shing development, but also individuals who build private clubhouses to entertain friends and offi cials.

Elite groupBut Lin counts himself amongst an elite group who buy them for pleasure alone — and has founded China’s fi rst association of island owners. Its members “love nature, beaches, and lying on our backs lis-tening to music”, added Lin, who fa-vours melodic singer-songwriters.

Lawyer Wang Yue, 41, com-mutes from China’s commercial hub Shanghai to a one square kilo-metre uninhabited island about 40 kilometres from the coast.

“On the island at night you can see a sky full of stars, and the moon rising from the east. That’s a great feeling,” he said.

A few weeks ago Lin arranged the second “Chinese Island Own-ers Forum”, on the sidelines of a luxury goods trade fair touting sports cars, yachts and private helicopters in his home province of Guangdong. - AFP

R E A L E S T A T E

Swiss growth shrinks in fi rst quarterZURICH: Switzerland’s econo-my shrank the most in six years as the strong franc took its toll on exports.

Gross domestic product (GDP) fell 0.2 per cent in the fi rst quarter, after a revised growth of 0.5 per cent in the previous three months, the State Secretariat for Econom-ic Aff airs in Bern said in a state-ment on Thursday. The contrac-tion is the biggest since early 2009 and missed the median economist forecast for stagnation.

Franc still overvaluedWith the franc still overvalued, according to the Swiss National Bank (SNB), the risk is that the weakness persists.

The data also hands ammuni-tion the central bank’s critics, who say its January decision to give up the cap versus the euro is jeopard-ising the economy.

The ceiling exit caused the franc to surge by a record against the euro in the quarter, a particu-lar hardship for industrial compa-nies that export a large portion of their wares.

“We’ve got the fi rst sign of a re-cession, the second quarter surely won’t be better,” said Karsten Ju-nius, chief economist at Bank J Safra Sarasin in Zurich, adding that the SNB won’t necessarily have to revise its growth outlook for this year.

“I think the SNB will be able to shrug this off ,” he added.

Slower growthSNB President Thomas Jordan predicts the economy will grow “just under” one per cent in 2015, half what was forecast when the cap of 1.20 per euro on the franc was still in place. In the fi rst quar-ter, the franc rallied 15 per cent against the euro, the biggest such increase since the single currency was introduced in 1999. The franc traded at 1.03497 against the euro at 11:18am in Zurich on Friday, a 0.2 per cent decline from a day

earlier. So far, SNB policy mak-ers have not predicted a reces-sion — two consecutive quarters of contraction. In fact, SNB Vice President Jean-Pierre Danthine said as recently as last week that there would only be “probably one bad negative quarter.”

While Swiss reactions to the SNB’s abandonment of its cap have generally been benign, the prospect of slowing growth and rising joblessness has prompted criticism from members of the Social Democratic party, the sec-ond-biggest in parliament, who have called for the establishment of a new minimum exchange rate. Trade union Unia even called on the central bank’s board to resign.

“I think the SNB accepted the risk of a slowdown in growth when they gave up the cap,” said Maxime Botteron, economist at Credit Suisse Group in Zurich. “I don’t think they’ll necessarily have to revise down their growth forecast.

New forecastsThe central bank will publish up-dated growth and infl ation fore-casts at its next policy review on June 18.

Recent surveys have pointed to a slowdown in momentum. A manufacturing sector gauge has signaled contraction and export-ers have experienced revenue and prices declines in the fi rst quar-ter. The May reading of the KOF

economic barometer indicated that ‘‘the Swiss economy can be expected to exhibit growth rates clearly below average,” according to a statement Friday.

Exports of goods fellIn the fi rst quarter, exports of goods fell 2.3 per cent, and a “sig-nifi cant negative contribution came from the category of chemi-cals, pharmaceuticals,” SECO said. Machinery, electronics as well as precision tools and watch-es also declined. At the same time private consumption increased 0.5 per cent thanks to growth from housing, energy and health.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Swiss growth is set to slow this year to 0.75 per cent, due to the unfavora-ble exchange rate, with unemploy-ment set to increase moderately.

Nevertheless, Switzerland starts in a strong position. Its ILO unemployment rate fell to 4.4 per cent in the fi rst quarter — less than half the European Union’s 10.2 per cent.

Also, net trade is only one growth component. Domestic de-mand accounts for more than 85 per cent of output, with household spending at 54 per cent last year, and there is confi dence in the out-look. The ZEW indicator, which gauges fi nancial analysts’ expec-tations for the next six months, rose to the highest level in eight months in May. — Bloomberg News

E C O N O M Y

ACTION PLAN: Bank of England expects spare capacity — the economy’s room to grow without triggering faster infl ation — to be

erased within a year. — Bloomberg fi le picture

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

We’ve got the first

sign of a recession,

the second quarter

surely won’t be better.

I think the SNB will be

able to shrug this off

Karsten JuniusChief economist at Bank J Safra Sarasin in Zurich

S AT U R DAY, M AY 3 0, 2 0 1 5

MARKETB3

Robots with human grasp is new challenge to students by Amazon

SAN FRANCISCO: Amazon.com’s inaugural “Amazon Picking Challenge” inspired mechanical engineering and computer science students from around the world to design robots that can grab boxes of Oreo cookies and pencils from warehouse shelves and place them in bins, tasks ordinarily done by people.

The Seattle retailer hopes to make its challenge a regular event that encourages innovation in robotics and steers academic re-search toward e-commerce au-tomation. Participants, however, said Amazon will have to be more generous with prize money and travel vouchers in the future for that to happen.

The world’s largest e-tailer, which had 2014 revenue of $89 billion, budgeted a total of $26,000 for prizes and $60,000 for travel

grants for more than 30 teams par-ticipating in the competition this week at the International Confer-ence of Robotics and Automation in Seattle.

Strong teams“If you really want strong teams, you need a bigger investment,” said Alberto Rodriguez, who led a team of graduate-level students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “This probably needs 10 times the money.”

The feedback highlights the competition Amazon faces in using a contest to attract the re-sources and talent of academic researchers to solve its problems. The Department of Defense, for instance, hosts the DARPA Ro-botics Challenge in Pomona, Cali-fornia, next month, featuring $3.5 million in prize money for teams that design the best robots that can assist humans in natural disasters.

Amazon has made big invest-ments in automation to make its

warehouses more effi cient. It pur-chased warehouse robot-maker Kiva Systems for $775 million in 2012 and has 15,000 robots de-ployed in its facilities. Those ma-chines move entire shelving units, but picking individual items is a diffi cult task for machines and re-mains better performed by people.

That was the focus of the Ama-zon challenge. Each team’s robot tried to pick up a shopping list of items of varying shapes and sizes — Crayola markers, a duck toy, ten-

nis balls — stored on shelves and place them in a bin.

It’s tricky for robots, which use sensors to identify objects that can be confused by plastic packag-ing. The machines also sometimes wrestle with how to fi gure out the best way to grab an object.

It’s a simple task for people. Last year, Amazon hired 80,000 tem-porary workers for its more than 50 warehouses during the holi-day shopping season to do similar tasks.

MCube’s performanceThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology team’s orange ro-bot MCube nabbed seven of 12 items on the shopping list, using a pincher that resembled a large set of tongs with a suction cup on one end. One of the items that defi ed the robot was a tennis ball.

Amazon Chief Technology Of-fi cer Peter Wurman, who solicited feedback from participants, said he would make the case for additional funding. Only about half of the par-ticipants said they would return for future competitions with similar support from Amazon.

“I brought the executives who funded this by and they were all very impressed,” Wurman said. “So we’ll work on them and see what we can do.”

A team from Technical Uni-versity of Berlin won the contest with its vacuum-powered robot grabbing nearly all of the items on the list.

Team leader Oliver Brock said he wasn’t sure the university would compete again.

It cost $6,000 to ship the team’s $250,000 robot, which got dam-aged on the way to Seattle, threat-ening the school’s ability to use the equipment in other research.

“This really got people’s atten-tion and it’s a cool way to illustrate the state of the art,” he said of Am-azon’s contest. “It’s just a big risk for us.” — Bloomberg News

e-Retailer has

budgeted a total of

$26,000 for prizes

and $60,000 for

travel grants for

more than 30 teams

participating in

the competition

this week

WAREHOUSE AUTOMATION: Employees process customer orders ahead of shipping at one of Amazon.com’s fulfi lment centres in Peter-

borough, UK. — Bloomberg fi le picture

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AirAsia’s fi rst quarter profi t rises to $41 million on lower operating costsKUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia-based AirAsia, the region’s big-gest low-cost carrier by fl eet size, said its fi rst-quarter net profi t climbed seven percent year-on-year due mainly to lower fuel and operating costs.

Net profi t for the quarter end-ing March 31 was 149.3 million ($40.8 million) the company said in a statement late Thursday, while revenue dipped 0.4 per cent to 1.30 billion ringgit.

“As seen in the fi rst quarter of 2015, we are benefi ciary of the low fuel price,” Tony Fernandes, group CEO said in a statement.

AirAsia recorded a net profi t of

139.7 million ringgit in the same period last year while it posted its fi rst net loss (since 2008) of 429.4 million ringgit in the previous fourth quarter.

AirAsia said total passengers carried during the period rose 3.0 per cent to 5.5 million people year-on-year while average fuel price was 20 per cent lower at $88 per barrel. It is the carrier’s fi rst results following the crash of one of its planes in the Indonesian ar-chipelago last December, with the loss of 162 lives.

Flight QZ8501, operated by AirAsia’s Jakarta-based affi li-ate, went down in the Java Sea en

route to Singapore from the Indo-nesian city of Surabaya.

“Indonesia AirAsia was on a good turnaround track in the last two quarters of 2014 but unfor-tunately was faced with a trag-edy that impacted its turnaround timeline,” Fernandes said.

Meanwhile, AirAsia said that its Indonesian unit recorded a 26 per cent fall in passenger volume and a 19 per cent decline in capac-ity. “Demand is expected to re-main moderate post QZ8501 but is expected to improve leading up to the peak season (for travel) as brand recovery eff orts launched in April by Indonesia AirAsia take

eff ect,” AirAsia said.With impressive performance

in Malaysia and Thailand, Fer-nandes said: “Sales are looking good in the second quarter as de-mand from China is slowly com-ing back.”

Fernandes also said the carrier will continue to drive its ancil-lary revenue up, adding that the restructuring of loss-making Ma-laysia Airlines will bring about a healthier competition environ-ment for all industry players.

AirAsia also said it will take fewer deliveries of new aircraft and dispose of older planes as part of its cost cutting measures. - AFP

P E R F O R M A N C E

Shinsei Bank keen to buy GE’s Japan leasing businessTOKYO: Shinsei Bank is interest-ed in bidding for General Electric’s leasing assets in Japan as it seeks to diversify away from traditional lending, its incoming chief execu-tive offi cer said.

The Japanese bank, which al-ready owns Showa Leasing, wants to examine how GE’s operation would fi t into its existing business before deciding whether to make a bid, said Hideyuki Kudo, who takes over from CEO Shigeki Toma next month.

“GE’s businesses are of high quality and stable,” Kudo, 51, said in an interview on May 26. “If the door is open for us, we intend to participate in the auction in a very aggressive manner.”

Leasing operationShinsei, partly owned by private-equity investor J. Christopher Flowers, has been branching out into areas such as consumer fi -nance as Japan’s low interest rates crimp loan profi tability. GE plans to seek bids for its Japanese leas-ing operation, which has 500 bil-lion yen ($4 billion) of assets and 1,000 local employees, as soon as in July, people with knowledge of the matter said this week.

It wouldn’t be the fi rst time Shinsei did a deal with GE. The bank bought a consumer-fi nance unit of the US company for $5.4 billion in 2008.

GE is seeking to divest about $200 billion of fi nancial assets and return the company to its indus-trial roots. It plans to sell all of the Japanese assets in one go, said the people.

Mitsubishi UFJ Lease & Fi-nance, Sumitomo Mitsui Finance & Leasing and Orix Corp. are among companies that have said they’re interested in buying the assets. GE’s Japan fi nance arm does commercial lending as well as leasing of automobiles, offi ce equipment and construction ma-chinery.

Shinsei is also looking for op-portunities to buy consumer- credit companies in Southeast Asia and China to expand the busi-ness abroad, Kudo said.

“The domestic consumer-fi -nance market will become satu-rated in the medium to long term,” he said. “It’s the type of industry where its always better to expand where economies are growing. Acquisitions, joint ventures with high capital contributions or set-ting up our own companies are op-tions,” he added. — Bloomberg News

A S I A - P A C I F I C A S S E T S

ROBUST DEMAND: AirAsia said total passengers carried during the period rose 3.0 per cent to 5.5 million people year-on-year while

average fuel price was 20 per cent lower at $88 per barrel. — Bloomberg fi le picture Hideyuki Kudo. — Bloomberg picture

FEATURES AT U R DAY, M AY 3 0, 2 0 1 5B4

YouTube, Maps go offl ine

With all the talk of cloud services and streaming media, it’s easy to forget

that for many people around the world, a mobile data connection is a scarce, expensive

resource. To make such existing products as Maps better suited to these customers, Google is

adding both search and turn-by-turn directions to the app’s offl ine mode.

These offl ine Maps developments come on the back of other modifi ed and pared-down services. Most notably, there is YouTube Offl ine, a service

available in India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, that lets users download vid-

eos to mobile devices via Wi-Fi that can be watched without a con-

nection over the next 48 hours.

Android MThe next iteration of Google’s op-

erating system, which runs on 79 per cent of smartphones around the globe, is getting a security

makeover, with more robust privacy controls and restric-tions on apps’ data access. Fingerprint scanning will also become a more integral part of Android, adding another layer of security.

While the last version represented an overhaul of Android’s look and feel — colours and designs throughout the software — Google put more

focus this year on revamping the mobile operating system’s basic building blocks. Case in point: Android M will include a new feature called Doze, which

dials power usage down to a trickle when a smartphone or tablet detects that it isn’t being used. Google is also adding more capabilities for faster battery charging

and power management.“For M, we have gone back to the basics,” said Sundar Pichai, Google’s senior vice president of products. “We have really focused on polish and quality.”Cardboard

Of all the gadgets Google unveiled at last year’s event, Google Cardboard was a sur-prise hit, putting virtual reality into the hands of everyday users without the high costs

that come with specialised devices, such the Oculus Rift.Now, Google is taking the gadget more seriously, seeing it as a way to catch up to Fa-

cebook and Microsoft in virtual reality. It’s also a way to get aff ordable, wow-factor technology into more peoples’ hands, drawing them closer to Google’s Web-based

services. Underscoring Google’s ambitions, Jon Wiley, lead designer for its main Web-search service, was sent in to lead design eff orts for its cardboard

and virtual reality initiative. The new cardboard design makes it easier to set up and use. Another tidbit that could make things interesting:

Google is opening up the Cardboard software standard for Ap-ple’s iOS. As part Google’s virtual-reality eff ort, the com-

pany also introduced Jump, a camera rig made up of 16 GoPro cameras to capture 360 degrees of

video to help create virtual envi-ronments.

Google PhotosWhile it might seem like a

minor upgrade, Google just solved a major problem for mobile users in

one fell swoop by enabling unlimited free storage for photos and videos.

Similar to the “unlimited” storage that Google off ers with Gmail, Google Photos will let users store, organise and view their digital images without any monthly or annual fees. Apple, as well as a host of other Web compa-

nies, off er online photo storage, but they usually start charging when data ex-

ceeds certain limits, or for high-quality image storage.

GOOGLE can’t seem to resist

the temptation to show pro-grammers all its latest and greatest

— and to keep adding to the pile every year. Google introduced technologies rang-

ing from a brand new mobile-payments sys-tem to a virtual-reality camera rig in front of

more than 6,000 software engineers at the Web company’s I/O developer’s conference in San Francisco. That’s in stark contrast to Apple, which tends to focus on a few top- priority

products at its annual developer’s confer-ence, which will take place in less than

two weeks. Here’s a compilation of everything you need to know

from this year’s techfest:

Android PayGoogle has sought to break into

mobile payments for years, with lit-tle to show for it. So the company is taking

another stab at turning peoples’ smartphones into digital wallets.

The new Android Pay feature, which will work for Android M and the two preceding versions of the

mobile software, will let shoppers buy goods in stores by tapping their phone on a payment terminal in about 700,000 US locations and in over 1,000 apps, including car service Lyft. A new element that will help Google compete with Apple Pay, which debuted last year

and has gained some success, is the inclusion of loyalty points, coupons and off ers. That

could make Android Pay more appealing for consumers, who are still getting

used to the idea of mobile payments.

HBO NowApple already stole the

show by announcing the on-line-only version of HBO for its

own devices last month. (HBO Now lets people pay $14.99 a month for ac-

cess to the network’s movies and TV shows, untethered to a cable or satel-lite subscription). Time Warner Inc.’s

premium pay-TV channel will now join Google Play’s lineup, making

HBO available across all of Google’s devices.Project Brillo

Google knows that it needs to play a role in home automation

— that much is clear after it paid $3.2 billion to acquire digital thermostat maker

Nest Labs in February 2014. Oddly enough, there weren’t any major hardware announce-

ments or an appearance by ex-Apple executive Tony Fadell, who co-founded Nest and is leading digital-home eff orts. Instead, Google unveiled Pro-ject Brillo, a set of technologies to connect more household items to the Web. The platform aims

to make it simpler for developers to build ap-plications for everyday devices, Pichai said.

The company also announced a system called Weave to help with commu-

nication between devices.

Universalapp campaigns

Google also introduced a one-stop-shop that will make it easier for marketers and de-

velopers to buy ads for app downloads on mobile devices, seeking to boost sales and take share from

Facebook. While ad technology isn’t as sexy as new hard-ware or software, it’s important because it fuels Google’s

revenue, which is projected to total almost $60 billion this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Universal App Campaigns will make the app-advertising process easier and quicker, Jonathan Alferness, a Google vice president, wrote in a blog post Thursday. With the initiative, Google is aiming to sign up smaller software developers or

customers looking to automate their application- market-ing campaigns. The new ad product is part of Google’s

eff orts to drive more promotions around mobile-software installations and app stores. That will

also help generate more revenue for pro-grammers developing Android apps,

as well as Google’s services.

Android 101 Google isteaming up with Udac-

ity to give Android developers a curric-ulum to help tackle the growing demands

of the mobile operating system. The Android Nanodegree will take six to nine months to com-

plete and costs $200 a month, said Sebastian Thrun, Udacity’s chief executive offi cer. Google created the

coursework for the certifi cate, using its own experts and developers. Many apps “are very poorly written,” said Thrun, a former head of the Google X research laboratory. The program will help “people to become

really excellent app developers.”Google is seeking ways to encourage software en-

gineers to build better apps for Android, which dominates the smartphone market. That

means engaging users on everything from cool games to communica-

tion features. — Bloomberg

News

SECTIONB LIFE & STYLE WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COMS AT U R DAY, M AY 3 0, 2 0 1 5

John Lasseter, a notepad in hand, settled into his seat in a dimly lit screening room at Pixar headquarters in Emeryville, Cali-fornia, in July 2012. Lasseter, Pixar’s chief creative offi cer, was there to evaluate pro-

gress on Inside Out, a new fi lm set inside an 11-year-old girl’s mind. Had the fi lmmaking team cracked the unusual concept?

It did not take long for the air to frost over.“We got up and said, ‘We’re not going to show

you a screening, because the fi lm is not work-ing,’” recalled Pete Docter, who turned to Inside Out after his Oscar-winning Up (2009).

Docter’s movie had already been in the works for more than two years at that point.

“I saw John do this,” Docter said, scowling and crossing his arms. “It was scary. Not happy.”

Solving creative puzzles is a Pixar hallmark, and the studio may have done it again. In its fi n-

ished form, Inside Out, set to arrive in theatres on June 19, is expected to become Pixar’s 15th consecutive blockbuster. Analysts predict do-mestic ticket sales alone of at least $250 million.

The bittersweet fi lm, which received a eu-phoric response from critics at the Cannes Film Festival, could also become an Oscar force, and not only in the animation category.

A triumphant Inside Out would mean more to the Disney-owned Pixar than money and trophies. Success would prove that the little studio’s soul is undeniably intact, despite wor-ries by some fans and critics about a brain drain and an increased reliance on sequels.

Last year, for the fi rst time in nine years, Pixar did not release a fi lm because of problems with an entry called The Good Dinosaur. Its director was replaced, and the fi lm is to arrive on Novem-ber 25. Increasing the stakes: The rival Dream-

ANGERINSIDE THE MINDSolving creative puzzles is a Pixar

hallmark, and the studio may

have done it again. In its fi nished

form, ‘Inside Out’

FEARDISGUST

SADNESSJOY

works Animation has struggled badly in the time Pixar has been absent, leading to chatter that the computer-animation genre is in a funk.

“The pressure on Inside Out is tremendous,” said Maija Burnett, director of the character-animation programme at the California In-stitute of the Arts, Docter’s alma mater. “Au-diences now have extra-high expectations of computer animation as an art form.”

Notably, Inside Out is Pixar’s fi rst original fi lm to come to fruition almost entirely without Steve Jobs, a Pixar founder who was a powerful pres-ence at the studio until his death in 2011. The Pixarians also had to make do with less from Lasseter, who in recent years has worked to fi x a fl oundering Walt Disney Animation. He accom-plished it in 2013 with a little fi lm called Frozen.

“For a while there was a sense in the halls like, ‘Oh, Daddy has a new wife and family down in Los Angeles, and he loves them more than us,’” said Docter, who joined Pixar in 1994, becoming its third animator.

“John has done a really great job balancing,

an almost superhuman job, but for a while he was inevitably not part of the fi lms on a day-to-day basis as much.”

The 46-year-old Docter is not the type to swoop in with stereotypical director bravado. A gentle Minnesotan who comes across like Tom Hanks in Big (1988), Docter is more likely to talk about his self-doubt.

“I’m not the typical take-charge, silver-backed-gorilla director,” Docter said last month, over a breakfast of eggs and fried chick-en at a greasy spoon near Pixar. “I often think I’m on the verge of getting fi red. And then I’ll think, well, maybe I should just quit: ‘It’s been nice, guys. I’ll miss you.’”

Those are only voices in his head, though.Inside Out tells the story of Joy, Fear, Dis-

gust, Anger and Sadness. They run a girl named Riley from a control centre inside her mind,

stepping in to keep her safe, to make her feel happy or to inspire her to stand up for what’s right — all except lethargic, lumpy Sadness. No-body knows why she is there. Could she actu-ally be bad for Riley?

Then, as Riley’s family moves to a new city, Sadness and Joy (voiced by Phyllis Smith and Amy Poehler respectively) get lost in the far reaches of Riley’s mind, a through-the-looking-glass place populated with dancing cupcakes, a French-fry forest and an out-of-work imagi-nary friend made of cotton candy.

As the lost pair navigate regions such as Long Term Memory and Abstract Thought in a quest to return to the controls, Fear (Bill Hader), Dis-gust (Mindy Kaling) and Anger (Lewis Black) remain in charge.

Stand back: The result is a petulant, prepu-bescent Riley.

An animated movie that tries to make sense of the adolescent mind? Even for Pixar it was an ambitious proposition. Too cartoony, and adults probably would revolt. Too intellectual, and children would fi nd it boring.

Like Up, about a septuagenarian coping with the loss of his wife, Inside Out seeks to both en-tertain and leave viewers with a deeper under-standing of themselves.

The success of Up, which took in $731 mil-lion worldwide, is one reason Pixar was will-ing to let Docter tackle another sophisticated story, part of which undoubtedly will go over the heads of young viewers.

Inside Out again fi nds Docter grappling with loss — in this case, the end of childhood bliss.

“We knew from the fi rst pitch of this idea that it had the potential to be really special,” Lasseter said, “but in the same breath we knew it would be really hard. It turned out to be one of the most diffi cult fi lms we’ve ever made.”

As for the bumps along the way, he said, they weren’t unusual. “We’re always tearing up work and starting over,” Lasseter said. “At Pixar we trust our process, and we trust each other.”

If anyone could pull it off , Pixar president Ed Catmull said, it was Pete Docter. Perhaps more than anyone at the studio except Lasseter, the shy Docter is imagination incarnate.

“But it’s not just creativity,” Catmull said. “Pete has always had an intense focus on emo-tions, and the ability to convey those emotions to those he works with and to the audience.”

With his fi rst fi lm, Monsters, Inc. (2001), Docter set out to answer a question: What if the creatures under your bed were really nice guys? Up made tying balloons to a house and fl oating off into the South American jungle believable. Docter, who is married with two children, also has writing credits on Toy Story (1995) and WALL-E (2008).

“I guess you may know that he lives in a tree house,” Catmull said dryly in response to a ques-tion about Docter’s childlike, cynicism-free sensibility. In 2008 Docter, who is 6-foot-5 and drives a tiny Smart car, built a home partly on a secluded hillside in northern California and partly tucked into the branches of an adjoining, 60-foot-tall artifi cial tree. A suspension bridge connects the two. “I had a dream to live in a tree house when I was a kid,” he said at the time, “and that dream never quite went away.” — Brooks Barnes/

The New York Times News Service

ENTERTAINMENTB6 S AT U R DAY, M AY 3 0, 2 0 1 5

Konrad Lorenz, an Austrian zoologist, ethologist and

ornithologist who was a Nobel Prize winner, said, “It is a good morning exercise for a research scientist to discard a pet hypothesis every day before breakfast. It keeps him young.”

Discarding at the bridge table can add years to your life, especially when facing a predicament like East’s in this deal. What should he do?

South is in three no-trump. West cashes his four club tricks, dummy pitching a spade on the fourth.

But what should East discard at tricks three and four?

Assuming a raise of one no-trump to two no-trump would have been invitational, not a minor-suit transfer, North’s sequence shows about nine points with a four-card heart suit. South, with a maximum 17, has no hesitation in bidding game.

South has eight top tricks: two spades, three hearts and three diamonds. His best chance is a 3-3 diamond fi t, but we can see that they are 4-2. However, maybe East will not discard correctly.

East seems to be

squeezed in three suits. He needs to remember to keep equal length with the dummy. East must discard two spades and hope that his partner can hold the suit.

Note that if East discards either a heart or a diamond, declarer gets four tricks in that suit and nine in all.

Phillip Alder is combining in May 2016 with Kalos to run a bridge and golf river cruise starting from Bordeaux, France. Details are available on Phillip’s website:

www.phillipalderbridge.com.

- By Philip Alder

What happens when you’ve no discard?

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

Answer to previous puzzle

WITH LOVE

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

TERESA PAULMay 30, 2010

MAYUGA MANOJMay 30, 2009

PRANAY PREMJEETMay 30, 2008

TANISHQA MISHRAMay 30, 2002

TIBIN SAM THOMASMay 30, 2002

SATWIK MISHRAMay 30, 2001

SANDRA SAJITHMay 27, 2014

KEZIA MARIA SOJI May 22, 2012

ACROSS

1 Lean-to 4 Walk back and forth 8 Turkeys and chickens12 Gleeful cry13 Cuba, to Castro14 Singer — Brickell15 Lamb-roast necessity17 Grabbed a taxi18 Raise one’s voice19 Artists’ lifeworks21 Baby beaver23 Frat letter24 Illuminated by the hearth28 Physically delicate

32 Previously33 Daisy — Scraggs35 Ring champ36 Striped animal39 Wild dogs42 Eyebrow or rainbow44 Suffi x for forfeit45 Coal bucket49 Empire builders53 Blackjack54 Runway56 “Rule Britannia” composer57 Hudson Bay tribe58 Out — — limb59 Salty drop60 Frat party items61 Qt. parts

DOWN 1 Straw items 2 Nope (hyph.) 3 Luau staple 4 Stamen’s counterpart 5 Deadly snake 6 Ad award 7 Restaurant patron 8 Ardor 9 Garbage bin output10 Like the Amazon River11 Wine vat sediment16 Reheat quickly20 Antenna type22 Country star — McGraw24 City in Morocco25 Vexation

26 Johnny —27 — Mahal29 Road-map org.30 Laid up31 Fleur-de- —34 Perfume label word37 Just as soon38 Museum contents40 Emergencies41 Superman, incognito43 Metallic sound45 Hightail it46 Innermost part47 Annapolis sch.48 Dublin’s land50 Riding whip51 — it the truth!52 Hot-tub locales55 Bylaw, for short

C I N E M A S C H E D U L E

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Mad Max: Fury Road (Action) Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult7.45 pm; CP No: 1273 (12+)Unfriended ( Thriller )Cast: Heather Sossaman, Mathew Bohrer, Courtney Halverson2.00, 6.00 & 11.55 pm CP No: 383 (18+)Green Street 3: Never Back Down (Action/Drama ) Cast: Scott Adkins, Kacey Bamfi eld12.00, 4.00 & 10.00 pmCP No: 1382 (12+)Two Faces of January (Rom/Thr ) Cast: Vigo Mortensen, Kristen Dunst 2.00 & 6.00 pmCP No: 1380 (PG12)San Andreas (Action / Thriller) Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Alexandra Deddario, Carla Gugino12.00, 4.00, 8.00, 10.00 & 11.55 pm CP No: 1381 (PG)

Masss (Tamil) (Act/ Horror ) Cast: Surya and Nayanthara 3:00, 6:30 & 10:00 pm at Cinema Main Demonte Colony ( Tamil ) (Horror ) Cast: Arulinidhi and Rajesh Thilak 3:30, 6:30 & 9:30 pm at Cinema-2 Bhaskar The Rascal (Mal ) (Rom/Com) Cast: Mammootty, Nayanthara and Isha Talwar 3:45, 6:45 & 9:45 pm at Cinema -3, 6-45 & 9-45 Pm Cinema-4 Oru Vadakka Selfi e (Mal) (Com) Cast: Navin Pauly, Manjima & Vineeth Sreenivasan 3:45 pm at Cinema -4 NEXT CHANGE : Chandrettan Evideya (Mal )

San Andreas (Act, Adv) (3D) PGCast: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino11:00 am, 5:00, 9:30 & 11:45 pmSan Andreas (Act, Adventure) (2D) PGCast : Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino1:00, 7:15 pmMad Max Fury Road (Act, Adv)(3D) 12+Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron5:00, 9:15 pmTomorrowland (Act, Adventure) (PG)Cast: George Clooney, Britt Robertson3:00, 9:15 pmTwo Faces of January (Rom) (PG12)Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst1:00, 7:15 pmMaggie (Drama, Horror) (PG12)Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Abigail Breslin, Joely Richardso3:00, 11:45 pmJungle Master (Anim, Adv) (2D) PGCast: Victoria Justice, David Spade11:15 amJungle Master (Animation) (3D) PGCast : Victoria Justice, David Spade, Josh Peck1:15, 3:15 pmUnfriended (Horror, Thriller) (18+)Cast: Heather Sossaman, Courtney5:30, 11:30 pmZanket Al Sittat (PG12)Cast: Hassan El Raddad, Amy Samir11:00 am, 7:15 pm

Hugh Laurie3:15 & 9:20pmSan Andreas (2D) (Act/Thriller) (PG)Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino11:15 amSan Andreas (3D) (Act/Thriller) (PG)Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino5:45, 9:40 & 11:45 pmGold Class: 2:15, 9:00 & 11:15 pmJungle Master (3D) (Animation) (PG)Cast: Victoria Justice, David Spade11:30 am & 1:30 pmAlways Watching (2D) (Horror) (PG12)Cast: Alexandra Breckenridge, Jake McDorman, Doug Jones3:15 pmZanket Al Sittat (2D) (Com) (PG12)Cast: Hassan El Raddad, Amy Samir5:00 pmTwo Faces of January (2D) (Thr) (PG12)Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst1:15 pmMaggie (2D): (Horror) (PG12)Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Abigail Breslin7:50 & 11:45pmGold Class: 4:30 PM

Tanu Weds Manu Returns (2D) (Comedy/Romance) (PG)Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Madhavan, Eijaz Khan6:55pmGold Class: 6:30pmTomorrowland (2D)(Sci-Fi) (PG)Cast: George Clooney, Britt Robertson,

SCREEN 1Masss - Tamil (Horror/Com ) – PG12Cast: Suriya, Nayantara, Parthiban1.00 pmWelcome to Karachi (Dra/Com) – PG12Cast: Arshad Warsi, Nigel Barber3.45, 9.45 pmTanu Weds Manu Returns (Rom) – PGCast: Kangana Ranaut, R. Madhavan6.45 pmSCREEN 2Tanu Weds Manu Returns (Rom) – PGCast: Kangana Ranaut, R. Madhavan1.00, 3.45, 9.45 pmMasss - Tamil (Horror/Comedy) – PG12Cast: Suriya, Nayantara, Parthiban, 6.45 PM

Mad Max: Fury Road - 3D (12+) Act, Cast : Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron9:20, 11:45 pmTanu Weds Manu Returns- 2D (PG) Comedy | RomanceCast: Kangana Ranaut, Madhavan, Eijaz Khan12:00, 9:00 pmSan Andreas - 2D (PG) Act | Dr | Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario3:00 pmSan Andreas - 3D (PG) Act | Dr Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino, Alexandra Daddario12:45, 7:00, 9:15, 11:30 pmJungle Master - 3D (PG) Animation Cast: Victoria Justice, David Spade1:15, 5:15 pm Jungle Master - 2D (PG) Animation 3:15 pmThe Two Faces of January - 2D (PG12) Romance | ThrillerCast: Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst; 2:30, 5:00 pmZanket Al Sitat - 2D (Arb) (PG12) Romance | Comedy Cast: Hassan El Raddad, Amy Samir5:10 pmMaggie - 2D (PG12) Drama | Horror Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Abigail Breslin; 7:10, 11:50 pmMasss - 2D (T) (PG12) Com |HorrorCast: Suriya, Nayanthara, Pranitha 12:00, 6:00, 9:00 pm

San Andreas – 3D (PG) Act, DramaCast: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino1:00, 6:45, 9:45, 11:45 pmSan Andreas – 2D (PG) Act, Thriller3:45 pmMasss - 2D (PG12) Comedy, HorrorCast: Suriya, Nayanthara, Pranitha 12:30, 7:15, 8:45 pmJungle Master - 3D (PG) Anim, AdvCast: Victoria Justice, David Spade; 3:00, 3:00, 5:45 pmMaggie – 2D (PG12) Drama, Horror, Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, 4:40, 8:05, 10:00 pmThe Two Faces of January – 2D (PG12) Romance, ThrillerCast: Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst, 6:20, 11:35 pmGreen Street 3: Never Back Down – 2D (12+) Action, DramaCast: Scott Adkins, Kacey Barnfi eld3:15, 11:50 pmThe Dinosaur Project - 2D (PG12) (Adventure, Sci-Fi)Cast: Richard Dillane, Peter Brooke5:15pm

San Andreas (3D) (Act| Adv) (PG) Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Carla Gugino12.00, 5:30, 7.30, 9:30, 11.30 pmSan Andreas (2D) (Act | Adv ) (PG) 2:00, 3.30 pmJungle Master (3D) (Animation) (PG) Cast: Victoria Justice, David Spade

San Andreas (2D) (12+) (Act, Drama) 10:15AM, 3:00pmSan Andreas (3D) (12+) (Act, Thriller) 5:00, 9:15. 11:30pmMaggie (2D) (PG12) (Drama) Breslin; 1:15, 11:45pmMad Max: Fury Road (3D) (12+) (Action, Adventure, Thriller) 5:00, 7:00pmThe Two Faces of January (2D) (PG12) (Romance, Thriller) 12:15pmUnfriended (2D) (18+) (Horror) 2:00, 11:45pmTomorrowland (2D) (PG) (Act, Mys) Cast: George Clooney, Britt Robertson12:00, 5:00pmJungle Master (2D) (PG) (Animation) 10:15/11:45AMJungle Master (3D) (PG) (Animation) 3:30pmAlways Watching: A Marble Hornets Story (2D) (PG12) (Horror) 7:15pmZankat Al Sitat (2D) (PG12) (Rom) 10:15AM, 7:20pmWelcome to Karachi (2D) (TBC) (Adventure, Comedy, Crime) 9:15 pmMasss (2D) (PG12) (Com, Horror) 2:15, 9:00 pm

4:00 pmJungle Master (2D) (Animation ) (PG) 12.30, 2:00 pmZanket Al Sitat (Arabic)(Rom) (PG12) Cast: Hassan El Raddad, Amy Samir Ghanem; 5.30, 7.25 pmTanu Weds Manu Returns (Hindi) (Comedy | Romance) (PG) Cast: Kangana Ranaut, Madhavan9:20 pmSpooks: The Greater Good (Action (12+) Cast: Kit Harington, Tuppence Middleton, Jennifer Ehle11:45 PM

SCREEN 3Tanu Weds Manu Returns (Rom) – PGCast: Kangana Ranaut, R. Madhavan1.00 pmPiku (Drama / Comedy) – PGCast: Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Irrfan Khan3.45, 6.45, 9.45 PM

Unfriended - 2D (18+) (Horror | Thriller) Cast : Heather Sossaman, Courtney4:15, 11:30 pmTomorrowland - 2D (PG) (Action) Cast: George Clooney, Britt Robertson2:50, 6:50 pm

FIND-IT-ALL

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: 4537080Dhofar RegionMuscat, Al Nahdha Road, Salalah. Tel: 23291635

HOSPITALSAl Amal Medical & Health Care Centre: 24485052Atlas Hospital: Ruwi: 24811743/ Ghubra: 24504000Al Musafi r Specialised Medical Clinic: 24706453Hatat Polyclinic LLC,Ruwi: 24563641, Azaiba: 24499269, Sohar: 2683006Al Raff ah Hospital: 24618900/1/2Al Massaraat Clinic & Laboratory: 24566435Al Makook Medical Coordinance Centre: 24499434Apollo Medical Centre, Hamriya: 24787766, 24787780Capital Polyclinic: 24707549Badr Al Samaa Polyclinic, Ruwi: 24799760/1/2Capital Clinic, Seeb: 24420740Ceregem National Raak: 24485633Dr Harub’s Clinic: 24563217Elixir Health Centre: 24565802Emirates Medical Centre: 246045401st Chiropractic Centre: 24472274Hamdan Hospital: 23212340International Medical Centre LLC: 24794501/2/3/4/5Kims Oman Hospital: 24760100

24 Hrs Emergency: 24760123Lama Polyclinic, Sohar: 26751128, MBD: 24799077, Al Khuwair: 24478818Magrabi Eye and Ear Hospital: 24568870Muscat Private Hospital: 24583600Welcare Diagnostic and Treatment Centre, Al Khuwair: 24477666Al-Hayat Polyclinc LLC: 22004000

ROYAL OMAN POLICEEmergencies and inquiries: 9999General Directorate of Passport and Residence: 24569603Directorate General of Customs: 24521109Traffi c violations inquiries: 24510228Public Relations Admin: 24560099

ACCOMMODATIONAl Bahjah Hotel: 24424400Al Bustan Palace: 24764000 Al Khuwair Hotel Apartments: 24478171Al Madina Holiday Inn: 24596400Al Maha International Hotel: 24494949Al Fanar Hotel: 24712385Al Falaj Hotel: 24702311Al Qurum Resort: 24605945Azaiba Hotel Apartments: 24490979Beach Hotel: 24696601Bowshar Hotel: 24491105Coral Hotel Muscat: 24692121Crowne Plaza Muscat: 24660660Crystal Suites: 24826100Golden Tulip Seeb: 24510300Grand Hyatt Muscat: 24641234Haff a House Hotel: 24707207Hotel Muscat Holiday: 24487123InterContinental Muscat: 24680000Majan Continental Hotel: 24592900Marina Hotel: 24711711Midan Hotel Suites: 24499565Mina Hotel: 24711828Muttrah Hotel: 24798401

Nuzha Hotel Apartments: 24789199Oman Dive Centre: 24824240Park Inn: 24507888Qurum Beach House Hotel: 24564070Radisson Blu Hotel: 24487777Ramee Dream Resort Seeb: 24453399Ramee Guestline Hotel: 24564443Ruwi Hotel: 24704244Safeer Hotel Suites: 24691200Sheraton Oman Hotel: 24772772Shangri-La’s Barr Al Jissah Resort and Spa: 24776666The Chedi Muscat: 24524400The Treasurebox Muscat Hotel: 24502570

AIRLINE OFFICESMuscat Airport Flight information (24 hours): 24519456/24519223Aerofl ot: 24704455, Air Arabia: 24700828, Air France: 24562153, Air India: 24799801, Air New Zealand: 24700732, Biman Bangladesh Airlines: 24701128, British Airways: 24568777, Cathay Pacifi c: 24789818, Egypt Air: 24794113, Emirates Air: 24404400, Ethiopian Airlines: 24660313, Gulf Air: 80072424, Indian: 24791914, Iran Air: 24787423, Japan Airlines: 24704455, Jazeera Airways: 23294848, Jet Airways: 24787248, Kenya Airways: 24660300, KML Royal Dutch Airlines: 24566737, Kuwait Airways: 24701262, LOT Polish Airlines: 24796387, Lufthansa: 24796692, Malaysian Airlines: 24560796, Middle East Airlines: 24796680, Oman Air: 24531111, Pakistan International Airlines: 24792471, Qatar Airways: 24771900, Qantas: 24559941, Royal Jordanian: 24796693, Saudi Arabian Airlines: 24789485, Singapore Airlines: 24791233, Shaheen Air: 24816565, SriLankan Airlines:

24784545, Swiss International Airlines: 24796692, Thai Airways: 24705934, Turkish Airlines: 24703033

MUSEUMSBait Al Baranda: Corniche (seafront opp fi sh market), Open from Saturday to Thursday 9am to 1pm and 4 to 6pmNatural History Museum: Al Khuwair, Tel: 24604957, Open from Saturday to Wednesday: 8am to 1:30pm; Thursday: 9am to 1pmMuseum of Omani Heritage: (former Omani Museum), Madinat Al Alam, Sat-Wed 8am to 1:30pm, Thursday - 9am to 1pm, Tel: 24600946Armed Forces Museum: Bait Al Falaj, Tel: 24312651, Open from Sat to Wed: 8am to 1:30pm; Thurs 9-12pm and 3-6pm; Fri 9-11am and 3-6pm. Al Hoota Caves 24498258; Turtle Beach 96550606/96550707Children’s Science Museum: Shatti Al Qurum, Tel: 24605368, Open from Saturday to Wednesday: 8am to 1:30pm, Thursday: 9am to 1pmOman-French Museum: near Muscat Police Station, Tel: 24736613, Open from Sat to Wed: 8am to 1:30pm, Thurs: 9am to 1pmBait Al Zubair, Muscat: Tel: 24736688, Al Saidiya St., 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

Dhuhr 12.09pm

Asr 3.29pm

Maghrib 6.53pm

Isha 8.14pm Fajr (Tomorrow) 3.55am

Sunset 6:48pm

Sunrise (Tomorrow) 5.20am

High tide 7:19am 6:23pm

Low tide 12.33pm 1.17am

PRAYER TIMINGS

B7S AT U R DAY, M AY 3 0, 2 0 1 5

W E A T H E R

OMAN

Max 43Min 31

Max 39Min 31

Max 40Min 31

Max 43Min 28

Max 39Min 31Max 42

Min 24

Max 42Min 28

Max 33 Min 28

Clear to partly cloudy skies over the coastal area of Dohfar governorate and adjoining mountains. Mainly clear skies over rest of the Sultanate with chance of late night to early morning low

level clouds or fog patches along the coastal areas of Arabian Sea and Oman Sea. Chances of clouds development over Al-Hajar mountains towards afternoon. EXPECTED WINDS: Along the coastal areas of Oman Sea winds will be northeasterly light to moderate during day becoming variable light at night and along the coastal areas of Arabian Sea winds will be southwesterly moderate to fresh while over the rest of the Sultanate winds will be southeasterly light to moderate.

SEA STATE: Rough along the Arabian Sea coast with maximum wave height of 3.0 metres and slight along rest of Oman’s coast with maximum wave height of 1.25 metres.HORIZONTAL VISIBILITY: Good over most of the Sultanate becoming poor during fog formation.THE NEXT 48 HOURS OUTLOOK: Chances of clouds development with chance of isolated rain over Al-Hajar mountains during afternoon. Chance of late night to early morning low level clouds or fog patches along the coastal areas of Oman Sea and the coastal areas of south Al Sharqiyah and al Wusta. Increase in relative humidity along coastal areas of Oman Sea.

Max Min

GULFAbu Dhabi 43 28Doha 39 29Dubai 43 29Kuwait 47 31Manama 38 29Riyadh 43 27

WORLDAthens 24 17Baghdad 42 27Beijing 29 17Berlin 17 7Boston 29 19Cairo 29 18Colombo 31 29Frankfurt 19 7Hong Kong 31 27Istanbul 22 15Johannesburg 24 8Kuala Lumpur 34 25Lisbon 25 18Paris 21 13Perth 21 9Singapore 33 27Tokyo 32 21Toronto 23 9

WORLD

Max 28Min 20

Max 43Min 28

Max 18Min 12

Max 38Min 29

Max 28Min 18

Max 19Min 9

Max 28Min 18

Max 34Min 27

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

QURIYAT - SUR - JAALAN (Route 36)Dept Destination Arrival Operating Time Time Days 15:00 Quriyat 16:30 Daily15:00 Sur 18:00 Daily15:00 Jaalan 19:30 Daily

FROM JAALAN-SUR-QURIYAT (Route 36)Dept Destination Arrival Operating Time Time Days 05:30 Sur 06:45 Daily05:30 Quriyat 08:30 Daily05:30 Ruwi 10:00 Daily

TO AL BURAIMI (Route 41)06:30 Sohar 08:50 Daily06:30 Buraimi 11:00 Daily08:00 Buraimi 14:30 Daily via Ibri13:00 Sohar 15:45 Daily13:00 Buraimi 17:40 Daily16.00 Sohar 18.35 Daily16.00 Buraimi 20:20 Daily

TO AL BURAIMI (Route 41)07:00 Sohar 08:55 Daily07:00 Ruwi 11:40 Daily13:30 Ruwi 20:20 Daily via Ibri13:00 Sohar 14:55 Daily13:00 Ruwi 17:40 Daily13:00 Sohar 19:20 Daily17:00 Ruwi 22:15 Daily

TO SINAW (Route 52)17:30 Sinaw 20:50 Daily

TO SINAW (Route 52)07:00 Ruwi 10:25 Daily

To Yanqul (Route 54)14:30 Nizwa 16:50 Daily14:30 Yanqul 19:30 Daily

To Yanqul (Route 54)06:00 Nizwa 08:40 Daily06:00 Ruwi 11:00 Daily

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (Route 54)08:00 Nizwa 10:20 Daily08:00 Al Araqi 12:30 Daily

TO IBRI (ARAQI) (Route 54)15:40 Nizwa 17:55 Daily15:40 Ruwi 20:20 Daily

TO SUR (Route 55)07:30 Sur 12:00 Daily14:30 Sur 18:45 Daily

TO SUR (Route 55)06:00 Ruwi 10:45 Daily14:30 Ruwi 19:00 Daily

TO FAHUD - YIBAL (Route 62)06:30 Fahud 10:30 Daily06:30 Yibal 11:15 Daily

TO YIBAL - FAHUD (Route 62)12:30 Fahud 13:15 Daily12:30 Ruwi 17:30 Daily

TO DUBAI (Route 201)06:00 Sohar 08:30 Daily06:00 Dubai 11:30 Daily13:00 Sohar 15:30 Wed,Thur13:00 Dubai 18:30 Wed,Thur15:00 Sohar 17:35 Daily15:00 Dubai 20:55 Daily

TO DUBAI (Route 201)07:30 Sohar 10:50 Daily07:30 Ruwi 13:40 Daily13:00 Sohar 16:15 Thur-Fri13:00 Ruwi 19:10 Thur-Fri15:30 Sohar 18:45 Daily15:30 Ruwi 21:35 Daily

TO MARMUL-SALALAH (Route 100)07:00 Salalah 20:00 Daily10:00 Marmul 20:30 Daily10:00 Salalah 23:30 Daily19:00 Salalah 07:40 Daily

TO SALALAH -MARMUL (Route 100)07:00 Ruwi 19:50 Daily10:00 Marmul 13:15 Daily10:00 Ruwi 22:30 Daily19:00 Ruwi 07:30 Daily

TO MARMUL (Route 101)06:00 Marmul 16:50 Daily

SALALAH TO DUBAI (Route 102)15:00 Dubai 07:00 Daily

TO MARMUL (Route 101)06:00 Marmul 16:30 Daily

DUBAI TO SALALAH (Route 102)15:00 Salalah 07:00 Daily

TO DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH & SHARJAH (Route 204)Dept Destination Arrival Operating Time Time Days 07:00 Fujairah 11.45 Daily07:00 Sharjah 13.30 Daily07:00 Dubai 14.00 Daily

FROM DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH & SHARJAH (Route 204)Dept Destination Arrival Operating Time Time Days 16:00 Sharjah 16:30 Daily16.00 Fujairah 18.15 Daily16.00 Ruwi 23.00 Daily

FROM MUSCAT (RUWI) TO MUSCAT (RUWI)

LISTINGS

Source: www.met.gov.om

SATURDAY

FLT NO ARRIVALS FROM ETA WY406 CAIRO  0005WY648 KUWAIT  0005WY672 MEDINA  0005WY424 BEIRUT  0005WY676 JEDDAH  0005WY682 RIYADH  0010WY914 SALALAH  0020WY916 SALALAH  0120TK774 ISTANBUL  01354H583 DACCA  0200PK225 KARACHI  0215GF560 BAHRAIN  0325QR1132 DOHA  0345ET624 ADDIS ABABA  0350EK866 DUBAI  0350EY384 ABU DHABI  0400MS930 CAIRO  0410FZ041 DUBAI  0415WY114 FRANKFURT  0515WY658 BAHRAIN  0635WY638 ABU DHABI  0640WY902 SALALAH  0645WY644 KUWAIT  0650WY154 ZURICH  0700WY144 MALPENSA  0705WY668 DOHA  0715WY692 DAMMAM  0715WY132 PARIS  0735WY674 JEDDAH  0735WY102 LONDON HEATHROW  0740FZ043 DUBAI  0800WY602 DUBAI  0805WY432 TEHRAN  0805WY346 ISLAM ABBAD  0815WY202 BOMBAY  0835WY236 HYDERABAD  0900G9114 SHARJAH  0905WY282 BANGALORE  0910PK191 TURBAT  0930EK862 DUBAI  0930WY210 GOA  0935WY242 DELHI  0935WY252 MADRAS  0955IX549 TRIVANDRUM  0955QR1128 DOHA  1000EY382 ABU DHABI  1010IX443 COCHIN  1020WY844 MANILA  1020WY652 BAHRAIN  10409W530 TRIVANDRUM  1045WY604 DUBAI  1115WY918 KHASAB  1115GF562 BAHRAIN  1130FZ037 DUBAI  1140IX337 CALICUT  1155WY384 MALE  1210PA450 LAHORE  1215WY705 DARESSLAM-ZANZIBAR  1215WY822 KUALA LUMPUR-SINGAPORE  1215WY818 BANGKOK  1220WY634 ABU DHABI  1220WY904 SALALAH  1230BG023 DACCA  1230PK291 ISLAM ABBAD  1235WY670 DOHA  1250WY324 KARACHI  1300NL771 PESHAWAR  1300WY332 KATHMANDU  1305WY606 DUBAI  1340WY3302 MUKHAIZNA  1350WY906 SALALAH  1440WY920 KHASAB  1445FZ045 DUBAI  1535SV532 JEDDAH  1550WY344 LAHORE  1605WY656 BAHRAIN  1615QR1126 DOHA  1650WY204 BOMBAY  1655WY632 ABU DHABI  1710WY292 CALICUT  1710WY216 TRIVANDRUM  1745EK864 DUBAI  1745WY232 HYDERABAD  1750WY246 DELHI  1750WY694 DAMMAM  1805WY664 DOHA  1805GF564 BAHRAIN  1810G9116 SHARJAH  1905WY274 JAIPUR  1910WY374 COLOMBO  1915WY386 MALE  1935FZ047 DUBAI  1940WY908 SALALAH  2000PK259 PESHAWAR  2000RG125 ABU DHABI  2005WY646 KUWAIT  2010WY224 COCHIN  2025WY614 DUBAI  2025WY338 KATHMANDU  2040FZ049 DUBAI  2100WY124 MUNICH  2105KL441 AMSTERDAM-DOHA  21059W534 COCHIN  2115AI973 DELHI  21256.00E+81 BOMBAY  2130BA073 LONDON HEATHROW-ABU DHABI  2140WY624 DUBAI  2150WY254 MADRAS  2150UL205 COLOMBO  2155WY684 RIYADH  2200AI907 MADRAS  2200WY264 LUCKNOW  2200WY312 CHITTAGONG  2210LX242 ZURICH-DUBAI  2225QR1134 DOHA  2225GF566 BAHRAIN  2240LH616 FRANKFURT-DOHA  2245WY717 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM  2250WY328 KARACHI  2250EY388 ABU DHABI  23009W540 BOMBAY  2315AI985 BOMBAY  2325WY662 DOHA  2335WY654 BAHRAIN  2340WY636 ABU DHABI  2340WY928 SALALAH  2345WY816 BANGKOK  2350WY696 DAMMAM  2355WY612 DUBAI  2355

SUNDAY

FLT NO ARRIVALS FROM ETA

WY406 CAIRO  0005WY648 KUWAIT  0005WY676 JEDDAH  0005WY672 MEDINA  0005WY682 RIYADH  0010WY914 SALALAH  0020WY916 SALALAH  0120WY910 SALALAH  0130TK774 ISTANBUL  01354H585 DACCA  0200NL669 SIALKOT  0200PK225 KARACHI  0210GF560 BAHRAIN  0325QR1132 DOHA  0345ET624 ADDIS ABABA  0350EK866 DUBAI  0350EY384 ABU DHABI  0400FZ041 DUBAI  0415WY114 FRANKFURT  05154H586 DOHA  0600CV732 LUXORE  0635WY658 BAHRAIN  0635WY638 ABU DHABI  0640WY902 SALALAH  0645WY326 KARACHI  0650WY644 KUWAIT  0650G9841 RAS AL KHAIMA  0655WY686 RIYADH  0655WY154 ZURICH  0700WY144 MALPENSA  0705WY692 DAMMAM  0715WY668 DOHA  0715WY674 JEDDAH  0735WY132 PARIS  0735WY102 LONDON HEATHROW  0740FZ043 DUBAI  0800WY602 DUBAI  0805NL768 LAHORE  0830WY272 JAIPUR  0830WY202 BOMBAY  0835WY3932 SOHAR  0840WY236 HYDERABAD  0900G9114 SHARJAH  0905WY282 BANGALORE  0910WY226 COCHIN  0920EK862 DUBAI  0930WY210 GOA  0935WY242 DELHI  0935WY212 TRIVANDRUM  0950WY252 MADRAS  0955IX549 TRIVANDRUM  0955QR1128 DOHA  1000IX817 MANGALORE  1010EY382 ABU DHABI  1010IX443 COCHIN  10209W530 TRIVANDRUM  1045WY3922 DUQUM OMAN  1045WY3302 MUKHAIZNA  1110WY604 DUBAI  1110WY918 KHASAB  1115GF562 BAHRAIN  1130FZ037 DUBAI  1140IX337 CALICUT  1155WY384 MALE  1210WY822 KUALA LUMPUR-SINGAPORE  1215WY818 BANGKOK  1220WY634 ABU DHABI  1220WY904 SALALAH  1230WY670 DOHA  1250WY324 KARACHI  1300WY332 KATHMANDU  1305WY652 BAHRAIN  1330WY606 DUBAI  1340KU677 KUWAIT  1405WY906 SALALAH  1440WY920 KHASAB  1445WY348 ISLAM ABBAD  1515FZ045 DUBAI  1535WY3304 MUKHAIZNA  1550WY344 LAHORE  1605QR1126 DOHA  1650WY204 BOMBAY  1655WY632 ABU DHABI  1710WY292 CALICUT  1710WY264 LUCKNOW  1740WY664 DOHA  1745EK864 DUBAI  1745WY246 DELHI  1750WY232 HYDERABAD  1750WY610 DUBAI  1800GF564 BAHRAIN  1810WY656 BAHRAIN  1820TG507 BANGKOK-KARACHI  1900G9116 SHARJAH  1905WY374 COLOMBO  1915WY646 KUWAIT  1920FZ047 DUBAI  1940WY908 SALALAH  2000WY614 DUBAI  2025WY848 JAKARTA  2035WY338 KATHMANDU  2040WY386 MALE  2045WY434 TEHRAN  2055FZ049 DUBAI  2100WY124 MUNICH  21059W534 COCHIN  2115AI973 DELHI  21256.00E+81 BOMBAY  2130WY254 MADRAS  2135BA073 LONDON HEATHROW-ABU DHABI  2140WY624 DUBAI  2150UL205 COLOMBO  2155AI907 MADRAS  2200WY312 CHITTAGONG  2210QR1134 DOHA  2225LX242 ZURICH-DUBAI  2225GF566 BAHRAIN  2240LH616 FRANKFURT-DOHA  2245EY388 ABU DHABI  2300WY414 AMMAN  2300WY910 SALALAH  23109W540 BOMBAY  2315AI985 BOMBAY  2325WY662 DOHA  2335WY654 BAHRAIN  2340WY636 ABU DHABI  2340WY928 SALALAH  2345WY816 BANGKOK  2350WY696 DAMMAM  2355WY612 DUBAI  2355

FLT NO DEPARTURES TO ETD 9W539 BOMBAY  0020AI986 BOMBAY  0020SG062 AHMEDABAD  0030WY657 BAHRAIN  0055WY637 ABU DHABI  0105WY281 BANGALORE  0110WY235 HYDERABAD  0110WY201 BOMBAY  0115WY251 MADRAS  0120WY643 KUWAIT  0120WY345 ISLAM ABBAD  0125WY601 DUBAI  0145WY431 TEHRAN  0155WY123 MUNICH  0200WY901 SALALAH  0215WY241 DELHI  0215WY667 DOHA  0225WY691 DAMMAM  0225TK775 ISTANBUL  0230WY383 MALE  0230WY209 GOA  02554H584 DACCA  0300PK230 LAHORE  0315WY331 KATHMANDU  0350ET625 ADDIS ABABA  0450EK867 DUBAI  0450EY385 ABU DHABI  0500MS931 CAIRO  0510FZ042 DUBAI  0510QR1133 DOHA  0515WY651 BAHRAIN  0645GF561 BAHRAIN  0715WY903 SALALAH  0750WY603 DUBAI  0750WY917 KHASAB  0815WY669 DOHA  0835WY323 KARACHI  0835FZ044 DUBAI  0845WY373 COLOMBO  0900WY633 ABU DHABI  0900WY215 TRIVANDRUM  0900WY815 BANGKOK  0905WY343 LAHORE  0915WY291 CALICUT  0915WY717 ZANZIBAR-DARESSLAM  0940WY821 SINGAPORE-KUALA LUMPUR  0945WY385 MALE  0945G9115 SHARJAH  0955WY3301 MUKHAIZNA  1000WY231 HYDERABAD  1000PK192 TURBAT-GWADUR  1015WY905 SALALAH  1020WY605 DUBAI  1020WY203 BOMBAY  1025WY245 DELHI  1040EK863 DUBAI  1045IX554 TRIVANDRUM  1045WY337 KATHMANDU  1050QR1129 DOHA  1100EY383 ABU DHABI  1105IX442 COCHIN  1120WY311 CHITTAGONG  1140WY919 KHASAB  11459W533 COCHIN  1145GF563 BAHRAIN  1215WY223 COCHIN  1215WY655 BAHRAIN  1220WY273 JAIPUR  1220FZ038 DUBAI  1225IX350 CALICUT  1255WY253 MADRAS  1310PA451 LAHORE  1315WY113 FRANKFURT  1320WY693 DAMMAM  1330PK292 ISLAM ABBAD  1335WY631 ABU DHABI  1345WY131 PARIS  1345WY663 DOHA  1350WY143 MALPENSA  1350WY263 LUCKNOW  1400BG024 CHITTAGONG-DACCA  1400WY101 LONDON HEATHROW  1400WY153 ZURICH  1420WY927 SALALAH  1430NL668 SIALKOT  1430WY405 CAIRO  1440WY645 KUWAIT  1440WY907 SALALAH  1540WY675 JEDDAH  1615FZ046 DUBAI  1620WY683 RIYADH  1620SV533 RIYADH-JEDDAH  1650WY671 MEDINA  1705WY613 DUBAI  1710QR1127 DOHA  1750WY327 KARACHI  1810WY681 RIYADH  1840WY623 DUBAI  1840WY647 KUWAIT  1845GF565 BAHRAIN  1855EK865 DUBAI  1910WY695 DAMMAM  1915WY661 DOHA  1920WY653 BAHRAIN  1920G9117 SHARJAH  1955WY913 SALALAH  2000WY635 ABU DHABI  2015FZ048 DUBAI  2025WY611 DUBAI  2035RG126 ABU DHABI  2045PK226 KARACHI  2100WY915 SALALAH  2100WY909 SALALAH  2110FZ050 DUBAI  2145KL442 DOHA-AMSTERDAM  2220WY817 BANGKOK  22259W529 TRIVANDRUM  22306.00E+82 BOMBAY  2245AI908 MADRAS  2300UL206 COLOMBO  2305AI974 DELHI  2310LX243 DUBAI-ZURICH  2325GF567 BAHRAIN  2325QR1135 DOHA  2330BA072 ABU DHABI-LONDON HEATHROW  2330WY673 JEDDAH  2350EY381 ABU DHABI  2355LH617 DOHA-FRANKFURT  2355

FLT NO DEPARTURES TO ETD AI986 BOMBAY  00209W539 BOMBAY  0020WY657 BAHRAIN  0055WY225 COCHIN  0105WY637 ABU DHABI  0105WY235 HYDERABAD  0110WY281 BANGALORE  0110WY211 TRIVANDRUM  0110WY685 RIYADH  0115WY201 BOMBAY  0115WY643 KUWAIT  0120WY251 MADRAS  0120WY271 JAIPUR  0135WY601 DUBAI  0145WY123 MUNICH  0200WY325 KARACHI  0210WY847 JAKARTA  0215WY241 DELHI  0215WY901 SALALAH  0215WY691 DAMMAM  0225WY667 DOHA  0225WY383 MALE  0230TK775 ISTANBUL  0230WY209 GOA  02554H585 DOHA  0300PK260 PESHAWAR  0310NL772 PESHAWAR  0330WY331 KATHMANDU  0350ET625 ADDIS ABABA  0450EK867 DUBAI  0450EY385 ABU DHABI  0500FZ042 DUBAI  0510QR1133 DOHA  0515WY3931 SOHAR  06354H586 DACCA  0700GF561 BAHRAIN  0715WY3921 DUQUM OMAN  0745G9842 RAS AL KHAIMA  0745WY903 SALALAH  0750WY603 DUBAI  0750WY3301 MUKHAIZNA  0800CV732 HONG KONG  0800WY917 KHASAB  0815WY347 ISLAM ABBAD  0830WY669 DOHA  0835WY323 KARACHI  0835FZ044 DUBAI  0845WY373 COLOMBO  0900WY815 BANGKOK  0905WY291 CALICUT  0915WY343 LAHORE  0915NL769 LAHORE  0930WY651 BAHRAIN  0935WY263 LUCKNOW  0940WY821 SINGAPORE-KUALA LUMPUR  0945WY843 MANILA  0955G9115 SHARJAH  0955WY231 HYDERABAD  1000WY605 DUBAI  1020WY905 SALALAH  1020WY203 BOMBAY  1025WY385 MALE  1040WY245 DELHI  1040EK863 DUBAI  1045IX554 TRIVANDRUM  1045WY337 KATHMANDU  1050QR1129 DOHA  1100IX818 MANGALORE  1100EY383 ABU DHABI  1105IX442 COCHIN  1120WY311 CHITTAGONG  11409W533 COCHIN  1145WY919 KHASAB  1145GF563 BAHRAIN  1215FZ038 DUBAI  1225WY3303 MUKHAIZNA  1230WY253 MADRAS  1255IX350 CALICUT  1255WY633 ABU DHABI  1300WY113 FRANKFURT  1320WY663 DOHA  1330WY631 ABU DHABI  1345WY143 MALPENSA  1350WY645 KUWAIT  1350WY655 BAHRAIN  1400WY101 LONDON HEATHROW  1400WY153 ZURICH  1420WY927 SALALAH  1430WY405 CAIRO  1440WY413 AMMAN  1440WY433 TEHRAN  1445WY609 DUBAI  1445KU678 ABU DHABI-KUWAIT  1505WY907 SALALAH  1540WY675 JEDDAH  1615FZ046 DUBAI  1620WY671 MEDINA  1705WY613 DUBAI  1710QR1127 DOHA  1750WY623 DUBAI  1840WY681 RIYADH  1840WY647 KUWAIT  1845WY909 SALALAH  1850GF565 BAHRAIN  1855EK865 DUBAI  1910WY695 DAMMAM  1915WY653 BAHRAIN  1920WY661 DOHA  1920G9117 SHARJAH  1955WY913 SALALAH  2000TG508 KARACHI-BANGKOK  2005WY635 ABU DHABI  2015FZ048 DUBAI  2025WY611 DUBAI  2035WY915 SALALAH  2100FZ050 DUBAI  2145WY421 BEIRUT  2215WY817 BANGKOK  22259W529 TRIVANDRUM  22306.00E+82 BOMBAY  2245AI908 MADRAS  2300UL206 COLOMBO  2305AI974 DELHI  2310WY705 DARESSLAM-ZANZIBAR  2310GF567 BAHRAIN  2325LX243 DUBAI-ZURICH  2325QR1135 DOHA  2330BA072 ABU DHABI-LONDON HEATHROW  2330WY673 JEDDAH  2350EY381 ABU DHABI  2355LH617 DOHA-FRANKFURT  2355

A I R L I N E S

BORN today, you have tremendous talent that is almost certain to be evident to the world at large when you are still quite young. As a result, you are likely to enjoy rare and valuable professional opportunities at a remarkably early age. Whether you choose to continue along that particular path into adulthood and throughout your life is not easy to determine, for you are not only quite talented, but also interested in a great many things that will surely compete for your time and attention. This may actually compel you to change course professionally more than once in your lifetime. You are very closely in touch with your own needs and desires — as you are with those of family members and loved ones.

You will surely be remembered for being a deeply caring, involved individual, and these traits will bring a richness to your life that mere accomplishment and tangible reward could never give you. As far as you are concerned, it is a part of life to do things for others; such philanthropy is deeply ingrained in your psyche.

Also born on this date are: Idina Menzel, singer and actress; Mel Blanc, voice actor; Wynonna Judd, singer; Benny Goodman, bandleader; Gale Sayers, football player; Manny Ramirez, baseball player; Ted McGinley, actor; Keir Dullea, actor; Colm Meaney, actor.

You’ve been envisioning one thing for quite some time. When it fi nally comes to pass, you may be very surprised!

VIRGO [AUG. 23-SEPT. 22]

LIBRA [SEPT. 23-OCT. 22] LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL[S[[[S[S[S[[S[SS[SSSS[S[[[[SSSSSSSSSS

SCORPIO [OCT. 23-NOV. 21] S[

SAGITTARIUS [NOV. 22-DEC. 21] S[[[[[[[[[[[[[[

AQUARIUS [JAN. 20-FEB. 18]

Focus your energies on the job you have been given, and not the kinds of additional projects that usually pull you in diff erent directions.

You may be surprised to learn that others have proceeded without you. Not to worry — they’re only getting the lay of the land.

You’re going to want to take the fi rst steps toward a new goal without any distractions. Later, you can start to multitask.

You’ll have your hands full with things brought to you by others who don’t fully understand what is going on.

Others will look to you for the kind of guidance only you can give. You have served them well in the past, so why not now?

You may be expecting a change of assignment soon, but the truth is that you fi t quite well where you are, so changes may not be made.

You have only a certain amount of time in which to complete a major project. Once again, you’ve put yourself in a jam by procrastinating.

PISCES [Feb. 19-March 20]

You’ll want others to go about their business and pretty much leave you alone, but that’s not likely to happen during evening hours.

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]

There are more options available to you than you are aware of, so you may not have to ask for an outright donation.

You’ll be reminded of just how much you think of someone who has not been around for a while. Perhaps it’s time to collaborate.

You may not want to get started as early as some others, but trust those who tell you that the early bird catches the worm.

B8

EXTRAS AT U R DAY, M AY 3 0, 2 0 1 5

Blockbuster alert follows ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ teaser

IT HAS STYLE, glamour, action, energetic music and dance — all packed in one. The teaser of Salman Khan’s next Ba-jrangi Bhaijaan has left tinsel town asking for more, and fi lm fraternity members like Karan Johar, Sonakshi Sinha and Huma Qureshi are raving about the Kabir Khan directorial. Salman will be a man on a mission in the fi lm. The clip gave a sneak peak of the storyline, which revolves around a young Pakistani girl who is mute and is lost in India. The actor will embark on an adventurous journey to take the girl back to her country. The fi lm will narrate a tale around the people he will stumble upon during his travels. Actress Kareena Kapoor Khan smiles her way to the teaser and is seen shar-ing screen space with Salman as his love interest. Another powerful point of the fi lm is actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who features in the teaser in one scene. Bajrangi Bhaijaan is extensively shot in Kashmir, Mandawa and Delhi. The fi lm will hit the screens on Eid this year.

Dharmendra may soon undergo shoulder surgery

VETERAN ACTOR Dhar-mendra may undergo shoul-der surgery soon, his wife and actress Hema Malini said on Friday. Addressing Dharmen-dra’s health scare, Hema said he is recuperating well, but necessary medical treatment has to be ensured. “Just an update on Dharamji. He got admitted to Breach Candy to chk his blood count as he felt tired all the time & to chk his shoulder pain,” Hema tweet-

ed on Friday. “His haemoglobin count was a bit low so he was anaemic. Under observation now & he may have a shoulder surgery a lil later. Pray he is ok fast,” she added. According to reports, the actor was rushed to the hospital after he com-plained of pain in his shoulder, which he hurt while shooting for Second Hand Husband. The couple have two daughters — Esha and Ahana — together.

R. Madhavan one of the most wonderful actors, says Hirani

FILMMAKER Rajkumar Hirani has lauded R. Madhavan’s performance in Tanu Weds Manu Returns. The director, who worked with Madhavan during 3 Idiots, feels that Madhavan is one of the most underrated actors. “Madhavan is one of the most wonderful actors we have. I am happy that he is getting his share of praise. To match up the performance of a fabulous actor like Kangana (Ranaut), in a role that had to be so sub-dued, it is highly commendable,” Hirani said in a statement. Tanu Weds Manu Returns, directed by Anand L. Rai, has been winning hearts of many since its release last week. — IANS

BR I E FS

Connected cars could cause communication chaosCONNECTED CARS, which are built to include complicated map-ping and entertainment systems, could cause travel and commu-nication chaos as they overload phone networks, experts have warned.

A horde of cars with devices connected to the Internet could have “grave implications” for mo-bile networks, a report from ana-lysts Machina Research warns. “Machine to machine” commu-nications — where appliances and other objects connect to the Internet.

Connected cars will use mobile networks to access the Internet and provide the people driving them with information and enter-tainment. A range of companies are working on them, including Google and Apple.

The machines don’t necessar-ily put high demands on networks for data, the report notes. But they consume it in completely diff er-ent ways, spreading their use out through the day but often doing so in specifi c locations.

By 2024, Machina Research predicts that there will be 2.3 bil-lion such connections, up from 250 million last year. They will only account for 4 per cent of traf-fi c, but will be putting special load

of on certain bits of the network. “In terms of overall data volumes, connected cars don’t present much of a problem,” said Matt Hatton, the founder and CEO of Machina Research. “But network resource management is not based on total traffi c volume, it’s based on particular cell sites dur-ing peak times of network use.”

The report recommends that phone networks upgrade and change their infrastructure to fi x the potential problems. — Andrew

Griffi n/The Independent

TECHNOLOGYBOLLYWOOD

Rush hour traffic

could overload

mobile networks,

with some set to

see a 97 per cent

increase in usage

A recent eye infection suff ered by 18-year-old Nottingham Uni-versity (UK) student Jess Greaney is the

kind of story that fi lls us with hor-ror. Greaney had keratitis, an in-fl ammation of the cornea, caused by Acanthamoeba castellanii, a parasite that was living and feast-ing on her eye.

A. castellanii is a ubiquitous organism, found in many eco-systems worldwide. It is able to survive in harsh environmental circumstances – even in some contact lens solutions – and this is not the fi rst occurrence of A. castellanii appearing in the eye. Acanthamoeba keratitis (AK) is a neglected malady frequently asso-ciated with contact lens wear and it is thought Greaney caught the bug after splashing tap water on her contact lenses.

Not a great friend to haveAcanthamoeba infection of the cornea causes severe infl amma-tion, intense pain and impaired vision, which is blinding if left untreated. Infection begins when the parasite is at its active feeding trophozoite stage and sticks to the corneal tissue before penetrating the lower stromal layer. The re-

sulting opacity leads to less sharp vision and eventually blindness.

Even more worrying is that besides the painful progressive sight-threatening corneal disease, the parasite can cross the blood brain barrier and cause granu-lomatous amoebic encephalitis, a progressive disease of the central nervous system that often results in death. Greaney was lucky – if you can put it that way – because she was able to receive treat-ment. After a week her eye was red, painful and bulged, “it looked like a huge red golf ball,” she said. Treatments included clamping her eye open, keeping her awake, scraping off layers of tissue and repeated eye drops.

How does it get in?Lenses can be contaminated by exposure to water during swim-ming, using a hot tub, washing with tap water or as a result of poor personal hygiene or inap-propriate disinfection regimes, which can promote the growth of bacteria on lenses onto which amoebae in turn adhere and pro-liferate. In the case of Greaney it was suggested that the parasite was trapped between the eye and the lens before it burrowed.

As contact lenses continue to gain popularity (including for rec-reational purposes) the propor-tion of the population at increased

risk of developing Acanthamoeba keratitis may rise.

No vaccineAcanthamoeba infections (not just in the eye) are being detected by clinicians with increasing fre-quency, especially as opportunistic infections in patients whose im-mune system is already compro-mised. This at-risk population is expanding as a result of increasing use of immune-suppressing thera-pies for cancer treatment and the global HIV/AIDS pandemic.

No vaccine is available, and the current drugs used to treat these infl ammatory infections is largely

insuffi cient, has undesirable side eff ects and doesn’t work well in the later chronic stage of infec-tion. Treatment also requires the application of a mixture of drugs for prolonged periods, with mixed results. New drugs, either for this or for other neglected parasitic illnesses that affl ict millions of people worldwide, are not be-ing developed. The development of cheaper and more effi cient, preferably A. castellanii-specifi c, chemotherapies would be highly advantageous.

Practice good hygieneWhen it comes to contact lens wearers, there have been previous eff orts looking at whether contact lens care solutions can counter against Acanthamoeba. Contact lenses treated with an antimicro-bial peptide have also been de-veloped and tested in human and rabbits, but more clinical trials are still needed before they can be worn by humans.

However, there are some cardi-nal rules for contact lens wearers: always wash your hands and fol-low all instructions in handling and storing contact lenses prop-erly. Reusable lenses should be cleaned and disinfected with pow-erful lens disinfecting solutions every day. Contact lens wearers should also apply make-up only after lenses are put in to avoid contact with eyeliner or mascara and lens. These are some of the “golden rules” that contact lens wearers should stick to.

Millions of people use contact lenses to improve their vision and to enhance the ability to focus or to do activities unencumbered by glasses. And overall, the risk of Acanthamoeba keratitis – and other infections – is low with proper hygiene and care. In the very near future we might even see smart lenses that can monitor the body’s health conditions and measure glucose levels in the tear fl uid of the eyes of diabetes pa-tients. So don’t let the horror story lead you to ditch them just yet.— Hany Elsheikha/The Independent

Eye-feasting parasite that lives in your contact lensLenses can be con-

taminated by expo-

sure to water during

swimming, using a

hot tub, washing with

tap water or as a re-

sult of poor personal

hygiene. If untreated,

an Acanthamoeba

infection can lead to

blindnessThe parasite can

cross the blood brain

barrier and cause

granulomatous

amoebic encephalitis,

a progressive disease

of the central nervous

system that often

results in death

DEEPIKA PADUKONE is “blown away” after watch-ing Zoya Akhtar’s fi lm Dil Dhadakne Do, and she is espe-cially impressed by rumoured beau Ranveer Singh’s perfor-mance in it. “And you @Ran-veerOffi cial ...YOU can do THIS ALSO!!?? #incredible! Soo proud of you!(and no...I’m not being biased...Y%Y),” Deepika tweeted after watching the fi lm at a screening on Thursday. Af-ter watching the fi lm, Deepika couldn’t get over it and showered praises on the fi lm. — IANS

Deepika fi nds

Ranveer

incredible in ‘Dil

Dhadakne Do’

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lease in Ghala. Please contact

98154444

1 Villa & 4 big apartments of 2/3

BHK with hall, Kitchen & ACs

Al Khoudh 6. Tel 97600322

alnehang@gmail.com

C2 S AT U R D AY, M AY 3 0 , 2 0 1 5

We have, 2BHK fl at in Mabela 7, 2

rooms, sitting hall, kitchen & 2 bath-

rooms only 200/- R.O.

Contact 93782735/ 99208033

Flat for rent South Ghubrah 3 bed-

rooms, 3 bath rooms & kitchen with

A.C. Contact: 97896982

3 rooms with attached bath room,

hall Brand new in Mabelah near

Sharahe Noor. Contact 99663905/

99415119

Three new Executive fl ats op-

posite grand mall 287, 273 & 219

m2 respectively, Elevator available.

Contact: 99207840

Three bedrooms fl at, fi rst fl oor

Al Rawdha Street Al Hail North.

Contact: 99207840

1BHK fl ats at Muttrah near Oman

House. Contact: 93231403

Flat for rent in Al Hamriyah,

3 rooms & accessories.

Contact: 99341112

5000 sqm prime indusial land in

Misfah, Bausher, with 550 sqm of

covered warehouse and offi ce space,

for rent only.

Contact: + 968 – 99264162

1BHK, 2BHK, 3BHK new fl at avail-

able at Mabela in front of Modern

English School Contact: 96239126

Deluxe 1, 2 BHK fl ats in Darsait,

AL Khuwair 1deal for offi ce &

residence. Contact 99369081

/99142314

1,000 sq mtrs industrial land in

Misfah Industrial area near to

Khanco. OMR 1,500 Monthly. It has

Electricity and boundary wall.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

1-BHK apartment available for

immediate occupancy from June

1st in Azaibah next to Al Meera

hypermarket, close to highway and

18-November St. Call 93504997

for viewing.

Deluxe 3 Room Penthouse with

Seaview, ideal for offi ce / resi-

dence at Qurum near PDO.

Contact: 97721313 / 9507 0421

Villa for rent with 4 bedroom at

Al Khodh, Rent 600/-RO.#92888115

Flat at Darsait. Contact 99326879

For rent new building 2 & 3 BHK

fl ats at Wadi Al Kabir behind Mus-

cat Bakery. Contact: 99338133

Commercial villa 10 BHK

Al Khuwair 25 near HTC.

Contact: 94300909

Showroom 606 sqm Bousher

height. Contact: 94300909

Independent villa in Darsait (Opp.

KIMS Hospital, behind Khimji

Mart) for rent 4 bedrooms, big hall

and 1 kitchen + 1 pantry. Please

call Ms Hiba Shaikh.

Contact 98048210/

Mr. Anil Kumar 99261773

Villa for rent in Azaiba near

well roundabout & Umm AL

Qura Mosque, 5 bedrooms, two

hall, kitchen. Contact: Mr Sunil

92887809/ Mr. Habib 98048207

Flat ( ground fl oor ) with living

room + 2 big room & hall , big kitchen

& store , 3 toilet with car parking in

Mabela South with new split AC only

240/- R.O. Contact 93295953

Flat for Rent- Contact No 99315515

AL- Khuwair 33/1 3 Bedrooms.

Dining room. Family hall. 3 Bathrooms.

Kitchen with store. Split A/C units

2 bedroom fl at new building in

Wadi Kabir. Contact 99313274

Spacious 1& 2 BH fl ats having

good fi nishing A/C kitchen etc,

AL Khuwair near Al Zawawi

mosque. Contact: 99385074

3 bedrooms fl at for rent near NIT

Institute Darsait. Contact 93494098

1 Bedroom bachelors, sharing K & T

in Al Khuwair R.O 100/-.

Contact 95154331

506 sqm space with mezzanine

available for rent in Al Wadi Al

Kabir. Suitable for carpentry / auto

workshop and /or electrical shop.

Interested parties may

Contact 24703981

New 3 bedroom fl ats split AC,

attached toilets available behind

Kims Oman hospital.

Contact 95225662

2 BHK (with split AC) residential

fl at at Honda road.

Contact 98087644 / 99795241 3000 sq mtrs Industrial landß,

in Barka Sanaiya, with electricity

400KW, shed, staff accommodation

and offi ce. Ready to start any kind

of factory. Contact 99384255.

DAILY GUIDES AT U R D AY, M AY 3 0 , 2 0 1 5 C3

MV. SALE

CHANGE OF

COMPANY NAME

FOR SALE

FOR SALE

FOR RENT

Curtain shop for immediate sale

South Al Hail with 2 clearance.

Contact: 99041337

Best Investment opportunity in

Muscat a brand new furnished show

room for electronics building, mate-

rial mobiles etc available for sale at

prime location. Contact : 91710624 /

98873484

Running computer shops for sale

Souq Sohar. Contact 99420543

Shop in Ruwi OPP: OC.

Contact: 99378397

Coff ee shop & BBQ running

Wadi Kabir, open parking having

clearance. Contact: 97161811

Shfandish & tables for sale.

Contact 99368907

Restaurant for sale well running

with open area and good parking

area. 3 new clearance also in Wadi

Kabeer near Mars hyper market.

Contact 99656863

2,560 sq mtrs industrial land

Wadi Kabir Main Road, First line on

way to Al Bustan hotel. Possible to

make petrol station or hotel. OMR

990 Thousand Tel: 99333479 or

95215360

5 Flats of 1 bedroom for Sale in

Boushar: OMR 35 Thousand each.

Monthly income OMR 270 Tel:

99333479 or 95215360

Coff ee shop for sale in North

Al Ghubra. Contact 95256009

Well equiped and running condition

Restaurant for sale.

Contact: 97710015 / 92934027

near Missfah Khanco Road Cement

Factory

Port cabin new & refurbished –

porta cabin for sale & rent.

Contact: 96723468 / 97775501 /

97775502

23,886 Sq Mtrs Agriculture land

with water well in Al Salwa, Barka.

OMR 260 Thousand. Tel: 99333479

or 95215360

3 fl oor commercial building in

Muttrah behind Police. Generating

income of OMR 18 Thousand annu-

ally. Neat and well maintained. Built

on 197 sq mtrs land. 2 tailor shops

on ground fl oor and 6 fl ats. OMR

207 Thousand. Tel: 99333479 or

95215360

Ice cream & Juices shop in Ruwi

good location for sale, 1.5mt fi sh

display machine unused for sale.

Contact: 92150455

558 Sq mtrs residential land in

Barka (Al Jenainah) near Lulu and

near to school. OMR 32 Thousand.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

Ladies beauty parlor for sale in

Muttrah, above Ahla Sceps Market.

Contact : 93231403

Residential land for sale 21000

sqm, best for housing complex

at Al Harm – Barka, opp to Khimji

logistic. Contact 99438397

60,000 Sq Mtrs Agriculture Land in

Misfah, can be changed to Industrial

Land. OMR 29 Per Square Meter.

Tel: 99333479 or 95215360

Shopping center for sale at Bousher

by good price 400 m2 with all equip-

ment. Reason for selling

part-time. Contact 92916490

Labor camp available with all facili-

ties at Sohar Falaij (Near Sohar Sea

port) - Contact – 92982172

2 & 3 BHK in Qurum, with split AC, Near PDO Gate 2.

Contact 94057023

Mezzanine fl oor offi ce space

for rent area 200 sq. Contact

97175979 / 99001341

Flat with 2 rooms, toilet & kitchen

in second fl oor in Souk Al Khoud

behind bank Al Ahli 200/- R.O .

Contact : 99738881

Villa for rent in Khuwair 33, 8 bed-

rooms, 5 Bathrooms with parking

area near Taimur Mosque.

Contact 99366624

2BHK fl ats in Al Khuwair-33 with

split AC. Contact: 94057023

One BHK fl at for rent in Ghobra with

attach and common bathroom. For

Indian family. Contact 92322096

Flats for rent in Wadi Kabeer.

Contact : 92800007

3 fl ats for rent 3 bedrooms include

A/C, near the highway (Bowshar

Amerat). Contact 97777911 /

95533777

1st fl oor fl at in Amerat Phase 5,

4 rooms, bathrooms (3), kitchen

with A/C for family.

Contact 95522405

2BHK at Al Azaiba, 2bedrooms,

1 hall & dinning , 3 bathrooms.

Contact : 99224748 / 99425665

2 BHK & studio fl at at Darsait

1SM. Contact 99024730

Flats shops and store for rent in

Ruwi, MBD Honda road.

Contact 97293708 / 92433127

Flat for rent 1 & 2 bedroom avail-

able behind Zaker Mall Al Khuwair.

Contact - 99530405

Ghubra near Al Maha hotel &

Indian school (2BHK with 5 split

ac units). Contact 94652485/

99273774 / 99202278

Villa in Al Khuwair and Seeb.

Contact 95250300/ 99119699 /

92125648

WANTED

Treadmill –motorized. Contact:

99378397

Showroom for rent 200 m in

Al Misfah, Bousher facing the main

road. Contact 95202430

Labour camp for Rent in

Wadi Kabir. Contact 99797422

Room main road, Al Khuwair

R.O 110/-. Contact 97799175

For rent 3 industrial land.

Contact 92702891/ 95490842

1/3 BHK Flat Ghubrah, close to

ISG Way 4041, building 4390.

Contact 99319880

1& 2BHK for rent at Wadi Kabir,

Hilal Al Sad and Al Khoud areas .

Contact Offi ce: 24834644

Mobile: 93994401/02/03

New building, residential apart-

ments and offi ces, in Al Khoud

Souq. Contact 95202340

Flat for rent, 2 BK near Kuwaiti

Mosque, Wadi Kabir. Contact

97007934 / 92629232

Flat for rent 2 BK near Oman

House Muttrah. Contact 97007934

/ 92629232

If require fl ats for rent in Wadi

Kabir please send me

messages through whatsapp or

call 99376454

Spacious 2 BHK fl ats in Ruwi

MBD area only on 350/- OMR.

Contact – 95122188 / 96441499

Studio fl at Wadi Kabeer 160/-O.R.

Contact - 99358589 / 97079146/

95570288

1BHK fl at near star cinema with

split A/C 230/- O.R.

Contact - 99358589/

97079146/95570288

Industrial land for rent in Wadi

Kabir 7000 Sq mtrs.

Contact 99354340

Apartments for rent Ghubra : near

Indian School Ghubra & Al Maha

International Hotel (2BHK with 5

split A/C units).Contact 99273774 /

99202278 /94652485

2 Prime Movers Man 2008 with 40

ton petrol tank each working at the

moment in Al Maha. Price OMR 35

Thousand each. Contact 97000155

or 92688692

2013 LEXUS ES350 for Sale 40,000

km Full Option Gold Color Bought

from Bahwan dealership Price:

13,500 Riyals Call: 9291 2660

Land Cruiser 2012. Contact

99336093

Peugeot 206-2007 Model, expat

driven. Contact 99209285

Fork Lift for rent or sale Nissan 3.5 Ton. Contact: 94102899

Furnished fl ats for rent in

Al Buraimi, daily, weekly, monthly.

Contact 97819981 / 93593336

Flat or rent in Al Khuwair 33.

Contact: 92277419

2BHK fl at with store room, split A/cs

in CBD, Ruwi near QNB. Rent 400/-.

Contact 99603696

Short term quick rental wanted (3

months) 2 bedroom fl at (brand new).

Attached bathroom for each room.

near school. Well-equipped ac only

200 OMR/month location:

Al Hail South. Contact:99549745

2 BHK with A/C Muttrah near Oman

house. Contact: 99896838

2 BHK with A/C Ghobrah. Contact:

92144045

Flats for rent near Indian school in

Wadi Kabir. Contact 99777122

AVAILABLE

Party & Wedding equipment rentals.

Full line, from Tables, Linen & Skirt-

ing, Chairs & Chair covers, Cutlery,

Crockery, Glassware, Chafi ng Dishes,

Ice Sculptures, to Large Sound Sys-

tems and spectacular lighting. Call

Andrea 9606 2222 for Catering and

Croyden 9623 5555 for Sound & Light.

www.tunesoman.com,

E-mail: info@tunesoman.com

DRIVING

Learn driving with professional

only automatic. Contact 94022250

ACC. AVAILABLE

ACC. AVAILABLE

Family room available at Muttrah.

Contact: 24712088 / 99022790

Furnished /independent room with

bathroom for Executive bachelor

near Oman House.

Contact : 98796982

Single room for Indian Executive

bachelor near Al Khuwair R/A .

Contact 99659513

Single room with AC, separate toilet,

kitchen at Al Hail highway side.

Contact: 92968292

Bath attached room for rent at

Al Amerat. Contact 99008803

Excellent room, with A/C kitchen

available from June/ July 1st, near

ONTC Bus station (Ruwi).

Contact 95569740

Furnished single room / sharing for

Exe. bachelor at Rex Road.

Contact 92873832

Independent rooms in Qurum /

Al Hail. Contact 95529970

Single room with sharing bathroom

and kitchen available for rent near

honda road signal.

Contact: 99562884 / 93654412

Sharing accommodation available

for Indian family Ruwi high street

Raymond bld. Contact : 97380459

Furnished room attached bath for

Indian bachelor - Al Falaj area &

for lady at Wadi kabir (Al Maya) -

95941515.

2 Rooms with separate bathroom &

kitchen for executive bachelors.

Gsm 942-888-63

Sharing for non-cooking Executive

bachelor in CBD area wi fi free,

advance deposit. Contact 95934642

Sharing accommodation available

for Executive bachelor. Ruwi high

street. Contact-99776193

Single room for executive bachelor

near AL Falaj Hotel. # 99643845

1BHK available Mumtaz area Ruwi.

Contact: 99269751

Sharing accommodation avail-

able opposite Mars at Al Ghubra for

Executive bachelor or small family

sharing, kitchen. Contact 94474351

/ 96237050

Accommodation available for South

Indian family, one bedroom with

attached toilet, kitchen, hall in a

villa, Al Ghubrah. Contact 99209160

Sharing acc. Available in Muttrah

behind Oman house. # 99354340

Sharing family accommodation in

Wadi Kabir. Contact 99335057

Room with attached bath, kitchen in

Ghala. Contact: 99334770

Salem Al Ghailani modern company for trading limited partnership ,

which is registered at the industrial

and commercial administration in

South Al Sharqiyah governorate in

Sur under the number (1153014), the

company is in process of modifying

its trade name to Afaq Al Khu-

waimah National Trading company

– Limited partnership. This is a

notifi cation for all those who have

any link with this modifi cation.

Flats/villas owned by ROP pension

fund available for rent in Muscat.

Contact 99349526

Bath attached room for rent

Al Khuwair. Contact 99743569

FOR RENT

DAILY GUIDEC4 S AT U R D AY, M AY 3 0 , 2 0 1 5

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION VACANT

MEDICAL

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

DRIVER

BEAUTICIAN

CATERING

ARCHITECT / DRAFTSMAN

DOMESTIC HELPER

ENGINEER

EDUCATION

SALES / MARKETING

SALES / MARKETING

ACCOUNT. & FINANCE

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

Omani family looking for full time

lady driver. Contact: 91401838

SITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED

An Indian family in Al Ghubra re-

quires a full time living housemaid. Contact : 97084023

Required looking for full time Housemaid preface Indian / Sri

Lanka for Omani family at Mabela,

visa available. Contact: 92454170

Urgent required House maid in Ma-

bela. Visa available. #95200180.

Email: amanammc@gmail.com

Indian CA with 15 yrs exp working

as Finance Head for MNC

looking for suitable job.

NOC available. 94047434

Indian male M.Com 6 yrs experi-

ence in accounts up to fi nalization in

Oman having Oman D/L available to

join immediately with NOC.

Contact : 98363897

Email: princ9496@hotmail.com

MBA Graduate seeking a suitable

position as an Assistant Accountant.

Contact 94627227

Accountant having 8 yrs, experience

looking for part time job.

Contact: 99867456

Jordanian, Senior accountant,34 year old, 12 years experience in

the GCC, 7 years in construction & 4

years in hospital having Oman D/L

profi cient in tally 9.0.

Contact 96470036

Young dynamic Indian MBA having

one year exp in CA Firm looking for

an opening. Skills: MS Offi ce & Tally.

Contact:+919744732896/

Email: asifakbar4@gmail.com

Finance Manager (15+yrs experi-

ence) thorough knowledge on Hold-

ing Company accounts. Well versed

on Trading, Investment, Insurance

Brokerage, Travel & Rent A Car

accounts. Ability to manage Group

of companies. Contact: 92701962 :

amritaa.m2002@gmail.com

Indian male B.Com, 1 year experi-

ence in accounts and sales looking

for suitable placement on visit visa.

Contact: 98295101

Chief Accountant / Accounts

Manager, Indian male (34 years)

MBA/ M.com more than 10 years

experience (7 tears in Oman) with

D/L NOC available seeks suitable

placement. Contact: 96915438

MBA Indian male looking for suit-

able position having 2 years working

experience as an accountant now in

Oman a visiting visa.

Contact: 99424803

Indian female B.com 4 years experi-

ence in accountant 1 years experi-

ence in Oman having knowledge of

tally seeking suitable placement.

Contact: 93491124/92054531

Indian female B.com Graduate

over 8 years experience in Finance,

customer relation, sales coordinator,

secretary, Bank Offi ce seeks suitable

placement. Contact: 95433987

Indian male graduate B.com looking

for suitable in Account Finance / sales

marketing release available with

2 years working experience.

Contact: 94574596

Indian male 2 years experience in

account cum sales coordinator NOC

available looking for suitable job.

Contact: 91298422/96458189

Indian male 22 yrs B. Com Graduate

1 year exp in Accounts, currently on

visit visa. Looking for suitable job.

Contact 94341848 /

Email – mohdhaji7272@gmail.com

Analyst accountant knowledge

& skill excel Advance misreport

account & fi nance administration

work document oracle advertising

knowledge degree MBA, BBM.

Contact 91840109/99783953

Email: mohd.rashid19@gmail.com

Indian male 25 yrs B.com having

experience in accounts for 3 yrs

currently on visit looking to job.

Contact: 97937868 Email:

rehman.naseer999@gmail.com

Male 24, B.com / PGD having 2

years experience in accounts and

inventory fi eld. Looking for suitable

job, on visit visa. Contact 94129550

Part time Accounts job & fi nalization

work Muscat. Contact: 92917448

An Indian lady Chartered Accountant

with fi ve years experience (including

article ship) on family visa in Oman

looking for a suitable job. Please

Contact 9621 0347 / 9943 5346,

shincycrajan@gmail.com

Sr. Accountant M.com (fi nance)

15 years experience (2years in Oman

with a reputed fi rm) NOC available.

Contact: 92404608

Email: jin_75@rediff mail.com

Indian Female 25 MBA looking

for a suitable opening in Accounts,

Admin/Hr. Contact 97013375

MFA (Master of fi nance and account-

ing), B.com. 6 months experience,

looking suitable position in fi nance

and accounts. Contact: 97829315.

Email: muhsin1819@gmail.com

SECRETARIAL & OFFICE

Required Offi ce Assistant

160+25+Acc, Contact 99454425

Indian male, B.E ( computer science

engineer), MBA (fi nance), OCA certi-

fi ed, having 5 years of experience in

oracle Dba/ oracle apps Dba, seeks

a suitable position in the fi eld of IT.

Contact: 96212062

email: zubairkhan11@gmail.com

ACCOUNTANT

ADMIN

CATERING

Sales man for electrical and build-

ing material Items, experience: 2

years with driving license. Contact:

24703484 / 96918100 Email:

om.omanlights@gmail.com

Required Indian Salesman for a

Spare parts Company, Good salary

package and visa will be off ered for

suitable candidates. Can send CV on

alrabhe@omantel.net.om

Salesman with driving license for

company. Contact: 96440587

Furniture company urgently seeks outdoor sales team, attractive sala-

ries for right candidates. Contact:

batrading2014@gmail.com

Required Sales Staff for a reputed

insurance Broker male / Omani.

Contact at 97619595 or send CV to

msaif@ace-ins.com

website: ace-ins.com

Marketing Representative – Gen-

eral items, Experience: Minimum

2 - 3 years, Should have knowledge

about Oman market, Valid Oman

Driving License must Forward CV to

hr@barikgroup.com

Urgently required out door Sales Executive for furniture company,

minimum 5 years experience with

Oman D/L. Contact: 93231403

Looking for smart & intelligent female Telesales Executive/Sales coordinator with IT background, 2-3

yrs experience with clear & com-

manding voice, good & eff ective

communication, correspondence and

coordination skills. Send your resume

to 002atech@gmail.com

Urgently need a Marketing Executive to develop marketing

campaigns to promote company’s

product &service. He/She should

have 2-3 years in organizing events,

product branding, Social Media

marketing, Email Marketing and

Web Site promotion. Send your

resume to 002atech@gmail.com

Looking for a Retail Sales Execu-tive & 3-5 yrs experience in selling

building material, structure cabling,

Access control, and CCTV products

& motivated by sales and targets.

Candidate with Omani D/L will be

given preference. Send your resume

to 002atech@gmail.com

Required Van Salesman for a major

beverages company in Qatar. Salary

1800 Qatar Riyal + free accomoda-

tion & food+ Sales commissions

averaging around 2000 Qatari Riyal.

Also require key accounts supervi-

sor. Salary negotiable. Interested

candidates may send their CV to

rlkekkas@gmail.com or

Contact 0097455096272

Light duty driver seeks job.

Contact : 91122145 / 95992137

Driver with car, 3 years experience

part & full time looking for job.

Contact: 97456062

Light Driver needs Job.

Contact: 93284327

For Driving. Contact: 95870012

Bangladeshi male looking for a light

vehicle driving job.

Contact: 97751070

Pakistani male looking for a

light vehicle driving job.

Contact: 95149231

Driver light. Contact: 91020999

DRIVER

DESIGNER

Sales Engineer (37), 15 yrs (12 yrs

Oman) experience in structured

cabling fi ber optics, data centers,

security & AV, Telecom, Network &

datacom, OSP, Industrial Connectiv-

ity. Contact: 99771815, Noc.

Indian male 30 years Mechanical

Engineering Diploma with 4+ years

of Experience in Fabrication draw-

ings using CAD Software’s in India,

now on a visit visa seeking for a

suitable placement in OMAN. Will be

available till 12/6/15 for interview.

Contact 99013952,

vineetf56@gmail.com

Indian male 26 yrs mechanical

Engineer with 3 yrs experience in

Indian in MEP, HVAC& mechanical

maintained fi eld on visit visa look-

ing for suitable job.

Contact: 99191535

Email: fareed029@gmail.com

Instrumentation Engineer, Indian

male having 2 years experience in

process instruments and sales seeks

suitable placement on visit visa.

Contact: 95954385

Email: irfancisinn@gmail.com

B.Sc in civil Engineer having

2 years experience with driving

license in Oman. Contact 94618906

Email: msamps988@yahoo.com

Electrical Engineer : Indian male 29

years , having 5 years of experience

in industrial automation and utility

maintenance in India (MRF Tyres)

seeking suitable placement.

Contact 92789995,

Email: akhilabrahamlktr@gmail.com

Civil Engineer (B.E) 12 years experi-

ence with valid Oman D/L.

Contact: 93843448

BE Electric & telecom Eng: 4 yrs

exp in Oman , exp in AV system

design integration & telecom work

with D/L , looking for better opportu-

nity fi eld of electronic & telecom.

Contact 97423932 Email:

mzeeshanshaikh89@gmail.com

MISCELLANEOUSVinyl Applicators (preferably for

vehicles), Metal Fabricators.

Contact 98918344

Required Salesman, Tailor and Barber. Contact : 96964767

Urgently Required: Draftsman - Temporary for 1 month. Apply,

fax 00968–24605955,

emails sbc@steelbuildingsllc.com,

sbeoman@yahoo.com.

Urgently required a junior Architect for a consultancy offi ce.

Email: ajith@milesconsultancy.com

Urgently required a Senior Drafts-man for a consultancy offi ce. Email:

ajith@milesconsultancy.com

Leading Construction company requires MEP Draftsman and Civil Draftsman with 5 to 7 years gulf

experience with NOC available.

Send your CV to

recruitment1947@gmail.com

Indian male, MA multimedia, 25 yrs

presently working in Bangalore as

visual layout / Graphics designer hav-

ing 2 years experience, seeks suitable

placement. Currently on short visit.

Contact 92368969

Email: don007james@gmail.com

Urgently required Indian experi-ence beautician, good salary +

Accommodation + Food visa Avail-

able location Al Hail.

Contact: 92284899 / 92139922

Beautician required with good

experience visa available.

Contact: 95867900

Wanted Female Nurse with or with-

out MOH license for a Polyclinic.

Salary negotiable.

Contact: 97091664, 97327175.

Email: mmcmuscat@gmail.com

Required Nurse for a Clinic in

Al Buraimi, S. Of Oman.

Contact: 00968 92737149. Send CV

to drpkabbas@yahoo.co.in

Urgent required Staff Nurse

in Mabela. Contact- 95200180.

Email: amanammc@gmail.com

We are looking for a Staff Nurse, who is having 60% or above in pro-

metric exam. Contact : 99235643

/99463609 Email:

abuahamedclinic@gmail.com

Urgently required Staff Nurse, Pharmacist and endodontist Fe-male Staff nurse, Pharmacist and endodntist with MOH License/

Prometric exam passed

with 60% and above.

Contact 24780088, 97374459

Email : karamadental@gmail.com

Immediate placement ( with or

without MOH) A. Pharmacist - 3 nos B. Asst.pharmacist - 2 nos

Contact Tel.99338219 , 93240949

Wanted Lady Doctor GP or Gynecologist with MOH license.

Immediate opportunity.

Contact - 99310590

ADMIN/HR

Indian male 29, MBA (HR & Admin),

six years experience in UAE as sales

coordinator and offi ce / Administrator

valid GCC driving license. Now on visit

visa looking for suitable placement.

Contact: 98466505/93061079

Filipino Female, 30 yrs old, with

8yrs experience in Payroll/Admin/

HR and 2yrs experience as Techni-

cal Support/Cashier/Secretary.

Currently in Muscat on Family Visit

Visa, Seeking for suitable placement.

Contact: 96708114

Email: lucy08_tm@yahoo.com

Indian Female MBA, 3 Years experi-

ence in Admin MIS, Family Visa.

Contact 98234427,

jkjsmith01@gmail.com

Indian female, 28 yrs, experience

in Admin / sales coordination /ac-

countant and secretarial. Knowledge

in accountant software, with Oman

D/L, looking for a suitable place-

ment. Contact: 96751993

Indian male 2+yrs oman exp in HR.

joing immediatly. release available.

Contact :93671437

Over 15 years of gulf experience

in Admin /HR /Logistics, fl uent in

Arabic & English with D/L looking

for suitable position.

Contact 95824598

Indian female with 10 yrs of experi-

ence in HR/Banking/Operations

seeks a suitable placement. Can be

contacted on 98919015 or

sherianne.coelho@gmail.com

Document controller / project coor-

dinator having 15 years experience

is same Field.

Contact: 00919605635590

Indian male 24 years, Mechanical

Engineer,pdms.1 yr experience in

pipeline,16years in oman seeking

immediate placement

Contact 95775742

Indian male currently in Oman on

visit, looking for suitable vacancy in

hotel Industry as Supervisor having

8 years experience in Europe.

Contact: 97376612

Indian male MBA, Finance, 6 years

experience in Finance & Accounting

spatially in Oil & Gas , Now on visit

visa . Contact: 94327063

Email: shabab3939@yahoo.com

Part Time Accounting, Accounts

Finalization, Audit Preparation,

Internal Audit, Onsite Tally Train-

ing, Inventory Management

Contact: 96975454,

Email: ibfc.gcc@gmail.com

Indian Female, 34 yrs, B.Com,

Knowledge in MS Offi ce & Tally, exp

in accounting & admin seek suitable

placement 99199710/96744965

A reputed water treatment com-pany is looking for 10 years experi-

enced Civil Engineer with driving

license. Knowledge of civil works, QS.

Apply : md.mohamed@gmail.com

Electrical Engineer having 3 years

gulf experience with driving license.

Contact: 24703484 / 96918100

Email: om.omanlights@gmail.com

Urgently required Site Engineers & all kinds of civil construction work-

ers for a reputed construction com-

pany. Interested candidates can send

your CV’s to mohamed@oasisgrace.

com, contact 99881459, 24826566,

fax: 24812226

Engineers / Tech urgently required Civil Engineer with four years expe-

rience for a consultancy offi ce.

Email: ajith@milesconsultancy.com

Omani lady HR Manager for a lead-

ing metal fabrication company. Min.

5 yrs exp, familiar with Oman labor

Laws. Responsibilities – Making HR

policies, Training of Omanis, liaising

with various Ministries. Contact:

operation@khancogroup.com

Teachers required (B.A, BEd, BSc, and

B.ed) for Omani Pvt. School

Al Hail (North). # 95141554/ 96653118

AUTO CAD/ARCHITECT

Autocad D man, Gulf exp in major

projects, knows arch, structural,

MEP, NOC available

ph: 98225740

Female architect (27) 4 years ex-

perience seeking for suitable job in

Oman experience in Oman,

India & UK. Contact: 96146645

Email: anjuovil@gmail.com

Finance Manager, CPA, with more

than 15 yrs. of experience in GCC.

Fully knowledgeable in Finance,

General & Management Accounting .

NOC available. Contact 96209331

Indian male, 32 years, M. Com.

7 out of 9 years experience in Oman

in Accounts/fi nance. Having NOC and

valid Oman D/L. Contact 98277143,

Email: anzarks@gmail.com

Indian male with total 5 year experi-

ence (2 years experience in Account-

ant cum sales co ordinator in a FMCG

Company in Oman) in accounts fi eld

and NOC available. Looking for suit-

able job Contact 92130188

India Accountant: Male, M com,

7 Yrs experience in Accounts up to

fi nalization, having knowledge of

ERP, Tally, seeks suitable placment.

contact 93950138 Email:

lijinrajan123@gmail.com

MBA Graduate with 6 yrs exp in

fi nance/accounts/ auditing. Special-

ized in accounts payable dept, Oracle

app user, profi cient in Sap (fi co) end

user & tally 9.0. lean &six sigma

certifi ed trainer on visit visa.

Contact – 91967213 / 99064780

EDUCATION

English Teacher female (M. A. B.

Ed) having 14 years experience with

11 years experience in Oman with

reputed Institute and School. Con-

tact: 92289080 / 99318276 Email:

babvjosev@yahoo.com

Qualifi ed primary English Teacher for almost 12 years W/ experience in

Qatar independent school interna-

tional school & British curricular

IELTS qualifi ed looking for immedi-

ate post. Contact: 98938272

Email: me_ann_laloma@yahoo.com

Tanzanian male, 25 yrs Accountant

successful experience in Tanzania

looking for suitable placement in any

fi eld. Contact : 96710154

Tunisian lady has Professorship in

social and economical sciences and

accounting, diploma in Experi-

mental Sciences degree in English

for media. Contact 95391050,

aysser2013@gmail.com

Looking for a Restaurant Manager

for a well known restaurant in

Muscat, with atleast 2 years of work

experience in Oman. Candidate must

have a valid Omani driving license,

excellent marketing and commu-

nication skills and an eagerness to

work. For enquiries and interview

contact: 92978956 or 94027151.

Shawarma /Arabic/Chinese/ cook & helper. Contact 95529970

Well trained, with military base

experience catering staff available

for contractual catering operation.

Cook – 08, Waiter - 6, Utility worker - 6, Supervisor-1. Contact: 97984335

Required Sales man - 1 Person

Qualifi cation. Gulf Experienced

- Minimum 5 Years with Oman

Driving Licence Language - English

Education:- Any Degree Further

Contact :Mr. Abdul Hameed

Nashabat - Mobile No: 97414307

and -92807399

amn@yaqeeneng.com

Salesman experienced 5 yrs in

Oman, in the fi eld of industrial &

oilfi eld service, garage equipment

tools & spares, safety wears &

rescue equipments. Please forward

your CV to almaadhi.trd@gmail.com

Assistant Accountant experience: 2

years. #24703484 / 96918100

Email: om.omanlights@gmail.com

SKILLED LABOUR

Wanted experienced female tailor from Philippines. Contact: 99466062

DAILY GUIDES AT U R D AY, M AY 3 0 , 2 0 1 5 C5

DAILY GUIDESITUATION WANTEDSITUATION WANTED

ENGG. / TECHNICAL

Indian female M.E power system

B.E Electrical Engg, seeks suitable

placement. Contact: 99842083

/99326054

Keralite Comp: Engr experienced

in BPO on visit seeking any type of

job. Email: khais2001@gmail.com,

contact 92094926

B.Com DMM logistics Telecom-

munication Agriculture 15 years

experience 2 years Oman seeking

placement. Contact: 91227198 Email:

raju_poduval@rediff mail.com

Indian- B.E.-MBA having 25 years

Experience. Last 12 years in Oil & Gas

Sector in Oman. Business Develop-

ment /Sales. Looking opening in Oil

Gas Trading/Drilling Service Compa-

nies as GM/ Country Manager/ Busi-

ness Development Manager. Email :

gmbdm2015oilandgas@gmail.com;

Contact -94688594;

0091 9768406574

Graduate Electrical Engineer

having 6 years experience of Gulf

and professional license available to

join. Contact: 98063081

Indian male, B.A, 4 years experi-

ence in Teaching 3 years experience

in life insurance, 3 years experience

in supermarket division UAE as

Sales Promoter for the whole group.

Contact : 91968699

Indian male, (B.E) Electronics and

Communication (ENC), 2 years

experience in Instrument Engineer

and plant supervisor in India.

Contact : 94188216

Email: azeez45ec@gmail.com

Indian Civil Engineer (building)

available immediately as supply

contract. Contact : 95218004

Electrical Engineer 10 years experi-

ence in underground cables exten-

sion and distribution substation and

terrestrial station available in Oman,

on visit visa. Contact : 95471606

Civil Engineer: 5 years experience

in building & structure works in

Oman seeks suitable placement.

NOC available. Contact: 98180524

Engineer (ECE) seeking job.

Contact: 98584498 / 91981503

Electrical Engineer new in Oman

B.Tech (Hons.) with Diploma of

Electrical Engg. seeks a suitable job.

Contact: 96752080

Email: ilyasqader97@gmail.com

Btech computer science graduate

2015 passout.. Android application

marketing.. Having good communi-

cation skills and mindset to work in

a team. Contact 91024385

Toms Davis, 5+yrs Exp in Projects

and design, 10+2+Diploma in Mech

Eng, 92068508

Civil Engineer, Indian Female, 3 yrs

experience, on visit visa seeking suit-

able placement. Contact: 99195433

Indian female 27 yrs-BSc Biotech

and P.G Diploma in Quality Assur-

ance having experience in Pharma-

ceutical Industry seeking immedi-

ate placement- Contact- 93218363.

Fiber design and implementation

Engineer, 8+ yrs experience (6 yrs in

Saudi ARAMCO) in OPS & ISP/FTTX,

on visit visa till June end, with valid

GCC D/L, GSM: 94769479,

email: fi beroptic2011@gmail.com

Indian male B.Tech marine Engi-

neer on visit visa. Seeking suitable

placement. Contact – 91991386 /

prvnpurushan@gmail.com

Sudanese Electrical Engineer, 2 years experience.

Contact: 91211592 Email:

aymanhamza1990@gmail.com

Network / system Engineer B.E /

ECE + CCNA & Ms certifi ed with 4+

yrs exp looking for a job, currently

in Oman on visit visa. Contact :

92589502 / 96216397,

Email : jeganscareer@gmail.com

Filipino HSE offi cer with 7 years

and 5 months experience in MEP

and civil construction works, Qatar

petroleum, nakilat shipyard, super

substation and high NSE building

with Nebosh IGC 3, IOSH, Auditor

lead course etc. Contact 98938461

Email: e.romil@yahoo.com

MEDICAL

29 Indian male Nurse.B.SC prometric

exam passed on a visit. 10 years expe-

rience in India & Italy seeks a suitable

placement in multinational hospitals

& clinics. Contact 96071773 –

sanukochiparampil@gmail.com

Assistant Pharmacist (Indian female,

28 yrs) with MOH license.

Contact 93022787 / 99108751

Indian female Dentist MOH Oman

passed seeking a suitable placement

in capital region. Contact– 91377681

hashimsarawat@gmail.com

Well experienced MOH Licensed

Indian GP Doctor looking for

locum / permanent position in the

Capital area. Contact 98140024

email:drgpoman@yahoo.com

Lab Technician, Civil (8yrs Gulf

experience) looking for a suitable

job (NOC available)

Contact-93344378

IT

Indian female B.E 2 years of IT expe-

rience with IBM – Indian certifi ed in

oracle PL /SQL and forms developer

seeking job in IT fi eld in reputed

company. Contact: 95094189

Email: bijigopu7@gmail.com

Indian male BCA, MCA, 2 years

experience in software programming

knowledge of Java, SQL, NET, C#, ASP.

NET, DB2, Oracle.

Contact: 99210940

IT, female fresher MCA, BCA Oracle

certifi ed 6 months PLSQL, data ware

housing training PHP seeking job at

good company. Contact: 95694330

Email: monakasapool@gmail.com

Expat Lady (M.Sc IT), Looking for

suitable position in IT/Offi ce work.

Contact 98176793,

Email : santhi.85@gmail.com

IT professional with 20 years

experience MBA, PMP, OCP, ITIL cer-

tifi ed looking for suitable position.

Contact: 91829676

Indian female 27 yrs B.Tech (IT)

MBA one years of experience as a

software analyst. Contact 91234864

Email: ashwinirathnam2011@gmail.

com

Network Engineer, Female, CCNA,3

yrs exp specializing in DHCP, DNS,

NTP, desktop level3 assistance

in diff erent OS, on resident visa

94525630/93215372

Indian female MCA, Experience in

C#.Net, SQL Server, ORACLE with

4.5 years experience seeking

suitable positions.

Contact: 96485923, 99886271

prathibhakp07@gmail.com

Indian male, 20+ years experience

in IT management, ERP imple-

mentation, seeks suitable opening.

Contact: 96101779

IT Network and Security Engineer

with a master degree, CISCO and

Linux red hat certifi ed seeking a suit-

able job in a good company.

Contact 99818601

Networking technician with

driving license, with Noc, having

2 experiences in data & telephone

structured cubing EPABX & CCTV

installation is looking for suitable

jobs. Contact: 96027516

Gulf experienced Software Develop-

er & certifi ed professional in English

looking from a Job with vast experi-

ence in sales and Management +

D/L. Contact 00968 96701312

Email: farhanaslam586@yahoo.com

Indian male 25, BSE computer with

MBA, 3 years experience in IT, in

visit visa seeking a suitable post.

Contact: 92364368

Network system Engineer B.E / ECE

+ CCNA & Ms certifi ed with 4+ yrs exp

looking for a job.

Currently in Oman on visit visa.

Contact: 92589502

Email: careersjegan@gmail.com

B.Com Graduate with 12 years experi-

ence in procurement/logistics/ware-

house in construction and building

materials seeks suitable placement.

NOC available. Contact : 94657319

Indian male 29 yrs, M.sc post gradu-

ate having 7 years experience in

healthcare Industry presently work-

ing in orthopedic Implants company

(MNC) in Indian ( trauma & spine )

on visiting visa seeking suitable job

opening. Contact: 93083553

Email: prakash05629@yahoo.com

Cargo & logistics Manager, Indian

with more than 15 years experience

in UAE, seeks suitable position.

Contact: 95402099

MANAGER/ SUPERVISOR

MISCELLANEOUS

MISCELLANEOUS

MISCELLANEOUS

13 Years UAE experienced in MNC &

reputed fi rms logistics distribution

looking for a suitable placement, on

visit visa contact 99838743,

gani.dawood@gmail.com

Construction Surveyor Indian

looking for suitable job.

Contact 91977142 / 95141554

SECRETARIAL/OFFICE

Arabic – English translator having,

3 years experience currently on visit

visa seeks translation or Bi-Lingual,

Secretarial job. Contact: 96599601

Email: gawadjamal@gmail.com

Indian male more than 10 years

Gulf experience in Offi ce / Sales

Coordinator, Admin (employees visa

processes), Secretarial and purchase

coordination with good computer

skills. Having Driving license and

NOC available. Looking for suitable

placement. Contact 99709336

SALES / MARKETING

SALES / MARKETING

Indian male 10 years experience in

Welding Supervisor NDT Technician,

MIG Welding specialist seeking suit-

able job. Contact 96771841

Indian male MBA 7 years experience

in Hospitality industry, operation,

sales & marketing looking for suitable

vacancy. Contact 92115860

Email vibin.py@gmail.com

Indian male, 30 yrs, 6 years Gulf

experience in shipping operations

and customer service, NOC available.

Contact: 93042516

8 years store experience Indian

male looking for placement. N.O.C

available. Contact: 98456535

8 years purchase experienced

Indian male looking for job. N.O.C.

available. Contact: 98161323

Indian male, 30, BSc, Food Science

and Quality control, MBA 5 years

experience, driving license.

Contact: 93405643

Indian male with 08 yrs exp in sales

& marketing, seeks suitable place-

ment. NOC available.

Contact: 95970204

Indian Male, B.Com Graduate, 23,

with experience in Sales looking for

suitable placements.

Contact - 9837 1144

Having 20 years experience in Gulf

area for sales, marketing distribu-

tion, having Oman D/L looking for

suitable work, speaking Arabic &

English. Contact: 94639053

Indian male, B.Sc (Mathematics)

PGDBM (Marketing). 9 yrs of Oman

experience in sales in midlevel

management, NOC available.

Valid Oman D/L.

Contact: 95278838

Email: anup2p4p@yahoo.com

BE computer science 6 years

experience software developer and

support Engineering exp sales and

management Oman D/L, NOC avail-

able. Contact: 98097722

P.H.D , 20 years, 2.5yrs Oman

agriculture green house fertilizers

marketing seeking suitable place-

ment. Contact 93220249

Email: anthurium7777@gmail.com

25 Indian female B.S.C. Fashion

Technology. 5 years experience in

textile industry as a merchandiser

and good in fashion marketing.

Currently available on visit visa,

seeking for a suitable job.

Contact 96990368.

Email: simmy.missy@gmail.com

TOURS & TRAVELS

Sr. Manager, MBA, 18yrs profes-

sional exp in Building materials, in-

teriors, tiles, sanitary wares, Gypsum

in gulf, seeking job immediately/on

visit/ Contact - 93364846 /

mgrprofessional@hotmail.com

Indian Male 34 years Mechanical

Engineer 3 years of Experience seek-

ing suitable placement immediately

Contact: 91991435, 93310821

Civil Engineer, Diploma, Male 25, 3

years experience in site, CAD, 3d, MS

Project, Seeking job in Oman.

Contact 92875345,

jubincivileng@gmail.com

Indian female B.ED & BCA looking

for a suitable placement in school

or admin offi ce, having 5 yrs exp in

same fi eld. Contact – 97384206 /

rani_sweet786@live.com

Electronics and instrumentation

Engineer 28 year Indian male, elec-

trical, electronic, industrial, building

& automation exp of 4+ yrs in India.

Contact - 93154156

CCNP Network Professional with 6 years experience having

Bachelors degree on visit visa look-

ing for suitable job.

Contact: 96760618 email:

varghese.manthara@gmail.com

Indian female, B.Com. knowledge of

MS Offi ce & Tally, 4yrs experience

in Accounts &admin dept. looking

for good placement in any fi eld.

Contact.98928220

Indian male MBA (HR& marketing)

2 years experience in sales seeking

suitable position now on visiting.

Contact: 96483964

An Indian male having rich

experience in procurement, Sales

marketing and offi ce administration

seeking suitable position.

Contact: 93689602

Indian male Graduate in business

management having work experience

of 12 years looking for a suitable posi-

tion. Contact : 93431567

Male MBA (General) from Cardiff

Metropolitan University London)

looking for a suitable placement.

Contact 92819301

Email: adicbhat@outlook.com

Pakistani male 34 yrs Intermedi-

ate 2 yrs exp in sales & marketing

in Oman. Looking for suitable job.

Contact - 92146864

Indian male 45+ yrs , 20 yrs exp as

sales supervisor in India looking for

indoor sales /stores /cashier or any

suitable placement can speak

Hindi , English, Malayalam, Tamil,

kannada can join immediately

on visit visa.

Contact 93086105/33016546

B.E Biomedical Engineer, having 5

years of experience in Diagnostics

division seeking suitable position.

94151658

Indian Male, 29 years, CCNP, MCITP

having Bachelor degree and 6 years

of experience in Networking looking

for job. 96760618 /

varghese.manthara@gmail.com

B.E. Civil Engineer from India with 3

years of experience looking for suit-

able vacancy in oman now on visit

visa. Contact 9571 3441,

Email . Khatrialeem@gmail.com

Indian male 21 IT Eng. networking &

computer hardware diploma, 1 year

experience, currently on visit visa

looking for a suitable job

Contact 96036273 email:

faizanfarooqui23@gmail.com

Indian Female, Commerce Graduate,

Total 9 yrs of experience in India.

worked as Accounts Assistant and

Business executive seeking for

suitable placement.

Tel : 96173533/24222457

Email : topranidivya@gmail.com

24 year Indian Chartered Account-

ant male with 3yrs of experience is

seeking suitable placement in Mus-

cat, currently on visit visa & ready

to join immediately. Contact him on

98201476 or email at

lokeshkaluri@gmail.com

Indian, 32 years, completed M.A.

English, M.Sc. Psychology and B.Ed

in English. Searching for suitable job

in the fi eld of teaching. To

Contact: 00968 99869535

Email: sahadkeyi33@gmail.com

8 Years successful experience,

SENIOR ACCOUNTANT, Indian

male,29 years. Presently working in

Oman as a Senior Accountant with

oman Driving license seeks suitable

opportunity. GSM: 97705854

Female Executive Assistant/Execu-

tive Secretary with 27+ experience,

worked with top management/Board

in fi nancial services with shorthand

skills & Omani driving license, seeks

suitable placement. call 95941515

26 years Indian male with MBA &

PGDFM, Total 3.8 years experience

in Administration, seeking suit-

able placement in any gulf region.

Holding Oman valid driving license.

Contact :94501423

8 yrs exp Site supervisor cum 2d,

3d Draughtsman (holding Omani

driving license) seeking job.

Contact : 93790601

Indian Male 24 years, Looking for a

Suitable Job in Telecom / Network-

ing. 1 year sales experience. MSc.

Communications Engineering &

Valid Driving license. Ph: 91280121.

Email: jackrprasad@yahoo.com

Indian Male, 29 years, CCNP, MCITP

having Bachelor degree and 6 years

of experience in Networking looking

for job. 96760618 /

varghese.manthara@gmail.com

Iraqi Pharmacist with 15 years

experience as regulatory aff airs and

Marketing Manager seeking job in

pharmaceutical co. Mobile 96720441

Finance ACCA Affi liate, 2.5 years

experience in audit/fi nance and oil

company in reputed fi rms. Look-

ing for suitable permanent place-

ment. Release available. Contact

95140445, a.saran891@gmail.com

Indian male, Mechanical Engineer,

2 years experience in fabrication

& erection of heavy structures as

Project Engineer in India, now on

visiting visa seek suitable place-

ment. Contact: 91251818 Email:

krishnakumarkk9@gmail.com

Indian male 26 yrs mechanical

Engineer with 3 yrs experience in

Indian in MEP, HVAC& mechanical

maintained fi eld on visit visa looking

for suitable job. Contact: 99191535

Email: fareed029@gmail.com

Indian female, B.Tech biotechnology with strong computer

skills and 2 years experience as

associate research analyst (Media

Monitoring) in Nasdaq Oman seek-

ing growth oriented jobs. Contact

92044603 /918056169148 or

angeline.babithac@gmail.com.

Electrical Eng. Degree (MEP) need

suitable job of construction 12 yrs exp.

Email: mohd.ateeq.khan@gmail.com

Indian Male, IT Support Engineer,

2 yrs in Oman & 5 yrs Indian experi-

ence. Contact 97311847

Indian female with MBA (Finance)

on visit visa, seeks immediate place-

ment. Phone: 968-98430089

Indian female, IATA, Bsc, Looking

for suitable placement.

Contact-95514305, email id-

raveendranmala@gmail.com

Sudanese male, 31 year old, have 3

year Diploma in electrical engineer,

5 year experience in diff erent activi-

ties. Contact; +96894549609

CCNP Network Professional with 6

years experience having Bachelors

degree on visit visa looking for suit-

able job. Contact: 96 76 06 18

Indian male, total experience is 5

years in Retail industry. Currently su-

pervisor in Sun and sand sports Mus-

cat City centre. Contact : 96994345.

Email : jsp.jsr85@gmail.com

Indian male, post graduate,

currently in Oman on visit visa.

Seeks suitable placement.

Contact 92388346

Indian male 60 years old have 30

years Muscat experience in all offi ce

works with Omani driving license.

Contact: 99024055

Male, 30 years Accountant, 1 year

Oman experience in accountants,

fi nance. Seeking suitable position in

Muscat .Can join immediately, NOC

available. Email: lalitbls1@gmail.

com Call: 97903175

More than Ten years of experience

in Sales & Marketing, Advertise-

ment and Credit Control and Logis-

tics& Administration.

Contact 91076608 / 99322748

MCA IT Professional Indian Female

seek placement in Teaching/ Non

Teaching fi eld. Presently on visit

visa. Contact 9588 7051,

Email: ashwininakod@gmail

Indian male, Engineer, BE Mechani-

cal, having with 21 years of experi-

ence in India and 13 years in Oman,

In production, project management,

quality control and assurance and

MR for ISO and API Standards look-

ing out for a suitable placement

in Oman. GSM: 00968 97311616.

E-MAIL: fahazasa@yahoo.com

Indian female BA graduate. My total

experience is 4 and half year in Call

Center looking for jobs in admin

and HR. Contact : 96089143, Email:

sharanjit_kaur2009@yahoo.com

Indian male, MBA marketing &

fi nance with B com & diploma in

IFRS seeks job.

Contact 99469726 / 99469729

Key Account Executive, Indian

male, currently working with a

reputed FMCG company Oman is

looking for a placement asap, NOC

will be given. Valid Omani driving

license. Total experience in Oman is

12yrs and particularly in Sales is 8

1/2 years. Contact 95589765 Email :

agnelfrancis@yahoo.co.in

25 Indian female, B.Sc fashion tech-

nologist, 5 years exp in merchandis-

ing, familiar with fashion marketing

& designing. Currently available on

visit visa, seeking for a visual mer-

chandising job. Contact : 96990368,

email jumshi@gmail.com

Sudanese male BSC Telecommuni-

cations Engineer , 4 years experi-

ence in telecom fi eld #97783092,

Email: Alrsheed88@hotmail.com

Indian male, 28 years, 7 years

experience in transporting & heavy

equipment renting company. Having

Omani driving license seeks suit-

able positions. Contact 94410485

Civil autocad draughtsman part

time work for job mob :96023726

Working as Senior Accountant,4 yrs.exp.in oman, relevant com-

puter skills, Audit, Accounting upto

fi nalization, valid oman driving

license, languages known Arabic,

Hindi. NOC available can join im-

mediately. Tel: (+968) 96339599,

E-mail-(ahmedmohdkhan@gmail.

com)

Mechanical Engineer, Indian, (B.E.)

on visit visa, seeking suitable post.

Contact :99534733

Email: rajesh92prince@gmail.com

Male, 19 years of experience in

Finance and Administration cur-

rently on visit visa seeks suitable

placement. Contact: 99720132/

abidrafi 33@hotmail.com

Sudanese male BSC Telecommuni-

cations Engineer, 4 years experience

in telecom fi eld.Contact : 97783092,

Email: alrsheed88@hotmail.com

Piping Design Engineer, Indian

male 27, looking for suitable place-

ment in Piping Design & Engineer-

ing. Having 7 years of experience in

AutoCAD. Also familiar with PDMS

(11.6 Version),CAESAR ll. Contact :

97351786 / 96143708, E-mail :

mohammednazeer07@gmail.com

Indian female, B.Com. knowledge

of MS Offi ce &Tally, 4yrs experience

in Accounts &admin dept. looking for

good placement in any fi eld.

Contact: 98928220

DAILY GUIDE Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461Fax: 24812624

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com

C6 S AT U R D AY, M AY 3 0 , 2 0 1 5

*Classifi ed Advertisement space booking with text, should be done till 12.00 noon for next day’s

publication. * Subject to space availability

Looking for a working partner to

run a well established fabrication

& carpentry workshop in Barka.

Contact: 95120404 or mail to

elmechoman@gmail.com

BUSINESS

BUSINESS

SITUATION WANTEDSERVICES

Specialist available for explosive

growth in term of restructuring

all modules of businesses with

over 30 years of experience across

continents with a decade in Oman.

Contact 96733578

Email : profi toman@gmail.com

Maintenance / House shift. Ng

works / Labour supply on daily ba-

sis. Contact: 95696001 / 97439768

A/C maintenance & servicing.

Fridge, washing machine & dish

washer repairing. Painting & clean-

ing services & electrical & plumb-

ing. Contact 99447257/97014234/

24504281

We do building maintenance all

kind of works. Contact 99247663

Carpet & sofa cleaning, house clean-

ing. Contact 99542979 / 98855815

P.R.O services. Contact 99368907

House shifting packing. Contact 99657644/ 98518013

Carpet & sofa shampooing. Ocean

Centre LLC. Contact 99884591 /

92682970

Split & window A.C servicing &

maintenance. Contact 93769089 /

95323517

A/C maintenance split A/C servic-

ing. RO. 10 only. Contact 94217681/

99210141

Marble Restoration, Mosaic tiles

polishing, carpet shampooing,

maintenance.

Contact ABU QABAS- 99320217

/24788722

Carpet Shampoo, marble & tile

polishing, pest control & anti-ter-

mite treatment, general cleaning

painting, Plumbing, Electrical,

shifting. Contact Mundhir

Al-Rizaiqi trading. L.L.C.

# 24810137, 99450130

WEBSITE

WEB, ERP and Business Intelli-

gence (BI) creation and man-

agement at rock bottom price.

Contact: http//webviewoman

CLASSES

COMPUTER

ACCOUNTANTS AND CONSULTANTS

WE ARE PROVIDINGACCOUNTING/ AUDITING

TAX/ CONSULTINGCONTACT: 24 567 251 / 95 498 033

GUARANTEED CLEANING: Carpet

& sofa shampooing, Contact

99314807/24792998

MARBLE CRYSTALLIZATION restore the original shine of

your marble. Contact 24793614/

99314807

Window & split unit A.C servicing & repairing.

Contact 99557080

Split & window A.C servicing &

maintenance. Contact: 96236476

Split & window A.C servic-

ing & maintenance. Contact

93769089/95323517

Air condition maintenance split

and window services AC specialist

ducted and package type unites.

Contact: 98667326

Water proofi ng ABUQABAS-

Contact 99320217/24788722

House shifting. Contact 99708138

Pest Control Treatments, Termites, Cockroaches, Bedbugs.

Contact Ocean Centre LLC.

Contact 99344723

MATRIMONIAL

KERALA NAIR BOY working in

Muscat, age 31 ,Height 165cm.

Seeking alliance from Nair /

Nambiar girls, especially from north

Malabar area. Manager visa with

family status GSM: 96344388

Alliance invited for a Hindu, Ezhava

male 28, 5”8” working as a machin-

ist in a well established company in

Oman. Contact: 98323862

We are Muslim family seeking

alliance for our son interested

families. Contact 97664009

Kerala Nair girl, B.Com, 22 yrs, 5.2”

very fair, slim, (Star Uthrattathi)

Presently working in infosis, Chen-

nai. Financially sound, from parents

of nair boys from Trissur, Palakkad

and Eranakulam & Calicut dist. .

Contact :0091 8301865688

email: raveendrandr@yahoo.com

Alliance invited for a Nair girl 24 yrs, 5ft, 1”, fair, slim, B.Tech

graduate reputed family of

Ernakulam dist. (Star Thiruvonam

Sudhajathakam) fi nancially

sound, from parents of B.Tech

nair boys from Trissur, Palakkad

and Eranakulam dist. . Contact

:00919495924302

email: raveendrandr@yahoo.com

NRI

Ready / under construction apart-

ments / villas / row houses / shops,

available for sale in North / South

Goa (India). tel # 95867021 E- mail -

tonynoronha@rocketmail.com

Residential plot 47 cents, also as

10-15 cents plots at Manjapra 15kms

from Nedumbassery Airport with

calm and beautiful surroundings.

Price IRS.180,000/cent.

Contact 9193 6563

Hindu Ezhava family, settled in

Muscat looking for suitable groom

working within Oman for their

daughter 25 yrs (MBA) working

with a reputed company in Muscat.

Contact : 98689663

GOOD NEWS

Ayurvedic massage backache, joint

pain & neck pain etc.

Contact: 98254909

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 Ayurvedic Clinic 18 November

street, Azaiba. Contact 99639695 /

99117987

FREE INFORMATION ABOUT IS-LAM. 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

Taimour Ayurvedic Clinic, Ruwi

off ers genuine & eff ective treatment

for back pain, paralysis, cervical and

lumbar spondylitis, osteoarthritis,

joint pains, sinusitis, migraine, aller-

gic problems, varicose vein and all

other health related problems. Kerala

massage and rejuvenation package

available. For details please

Contact 92197920/ 24799689

Software development based on

requirements such as: Web devel-

opment & cloud computing, SAP

implementation & services. Android

App development networking.

Contact 97423932

DAILY GUIDES AT U R D AY, M AY 3 0 , 2 0 1 5 C7

DAILY GUIDESITUATION WANTEDCARGO

Dolphin Watch, Dhow Cruise

with Buffet, & Land Tours Al- Ainain

Marine Tours Contact- 98029602,

92808636

RENT A CAR

TOURS

TRANSPORTATION

Transportation available. Contact:

99867456

Transportation. Contact

99077348

House shifting & transporting.

Contact 92490422

Transportation. Contact

99508282

Transportation. Contact: 91310107

Driver with vehicle. Contact

99159277

Transport to ISWK. Contact

93172589

Pick & Drop any time. Contact

97014786

DAILY GUIDE Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461Fax: 24812624

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com

C8 S AT U R D AY, M AY 3 0 , 2 0 1 5

DAILY GUIDE Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461Fax: 24812624

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com

DAILY GUIDE Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461Fax: 24812624

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com

DAILY GUIDE Tel. 24726666 Ext: 413 / 430 431 / 456 / 461Fax: 24812624

Email: dailyguide@timesofoman.com

Party booking & sugges�ons 99320065, 99341643

Indian, Arabic, Chinese dishes, Buffet Lunch

(On Friday)Indoor & Outdoor, Catering, Party hall

availableTake Away & Home Delivery