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www.omanobserver.om editor@omanobserver.om Sunday, August 5, 2012/Ramadhan 16, 1433 AH

Solar superstorm menace A MONSTER blast of geomagnetic particles from

the sun could destroy 300 or more of the 2,100 high-voltage transformers that are the backbone of the US electric grid. Even a few hundred destroyed

transformers could disable the entire interconnected system. There is impetus for a group of federal

agencies to look for ways to prepare for such a storm.

Pathan bowls India to winIRFAN Pathan grabbed five wickets as India posted a 20-run victory over Sri Lanka in the fifth and final One-Day International in Pallekele to win the series 4-1. The paceman finished with 5-61, his second five-wicket haul in one-dayers, as India bowled Sri Lanka out for 274 after scoring a challenging 294-7 in the day-night match.Sri Lanka were struggling at 102-5.

13 27 17

Insi

de

Plastic spill on beaches — P7 Damascus retaken — P9 Floods batter India — P11 Iraq’s security hit — P12

THE Council of Ministers in its yesterday’s statement focused on a number of key issues and stressed a host of important points.

The authorities have been asked to visit different wilayats more regularly, instead of waiting in their offices for reports from their sub-ordinates, to make sure that government departments are working to the satisfaction of the people and government projects currently under way are proceeding expeditiously.

Serving the people, building close, cordial and regular contacts with them through visits to different regions to know the demands of the people are something whose importance cannot be overstressed.

The council has also emphasised the importance of real partnership between the private sector and the government in achieving the national agenda of sustainable economic growth, economic To page 2

Fahmi bin Khalid al Harthy, Editor-in-Chief

Partners in progress

MUSCAT — A combing operation is on to track the three undertrials who escaped from the Mawelah Court of Appeal, according to the Royal Oman Police (ROP).

“All border checkposts and airports are on alert and the border security forces are kept on the loop in connection with the escape of the three criminals,” a source at the Public Rela-tions Department, ROP, told the Observer.

The three detainees of Asian origin, who face multiple charges, were presented at the courthouse in connection with a hearing, where they broke open bathroom windows and fled, the ROP stated.

They were brought from the maximum se-curity Sumayil Central Prison to the Mawelah Court of Appeal with full security, To P2

BEIJING — Around 867,000 people have been evacuated from the eastern coast of Chi-na after gales lashed the region following the arrival of two tropical storms.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs said tropi-cal storm Saola, which weakened from a ty-phoon, made landfall in Fuding city in east China’s Fujian province, Xinhua reported.

Meanwhile, the World Food Programme will send a first batch of emergency food aid to North Korea, where a series of deluges and a typhoon killed nearly 120 people and left more than 84,000 others homeless last month, the agency has said. See also page 15

MUSCAT — Oman Air has renewed its res-ervations technology agreement with Sabre Airline Solutions. The multi-year agreement extends a long and established partnership be-tween Oman Air and Sabre for the technology driving the airline’s growth and improvements across all its customer-focused operations.

Maher Koubaa, Sabre Airline Solutions’ vice-president for the Middle East and Africa, said: “Oman Air’s appetite for technology gives them a competitive edge in the market and allows them to explore new revenue op-portunities and experiment with new products for customers.” Details on page 2

Search on to nab criminals

Storms hit China

Oman Air pact

MUSCAT — The Inspection and Food Control Depart-ments at Muscat Municipality implemented 2,767 inspection visits to different food outlets during July.

The teams carried out in-spection campaigns to food-stuff shops and supermarkets to check Ramadhan promo-

tional offers and observe viola-tions of health requirements.

As a result, 13 shops were shut down for violation of health instructions and handed down 210 tickets to others due to the expiry of items and stor-age. As many as 7,252 kilo-grammes of foodstuff and 352 packets of items were found to

be not fit for human consump-tion. The inspection teams also cancelled 7 kitchen tools, 20 bottles of cosmetics and 37 shaving tools.

Foodstuff dumped during the same period stood at 4,323 kg, including vegetables, fruits and dairy products. — ONA

(Pictures on page 3)

MUSCAT — The Council of Ministers, during its conven-ing in July, addressed the ma-jor challenges facing the la-bour market and the issues of food security, e-government and development projects.

In its study about the mar-ket and the process of employ-ment, the Council observed that some youths shun private sector jobs, while others re-frain from work in high pro-ductivity sites under the pre-

text of getting their demands answered.

The Council said disinter-est in private sector jobs and suspension of work reflect negatively on the sector and the economy. Details, P4

MUSCAT — The Ministry of Higher Education has urged students to complete their reg-istration within the given time frame this month via Higher Education Admission Cen-tre. The deadline for approval of study seats is this week (August 5-11), and the stu-

dents are required to finalise their registration in the institu-tions where they are admitted between August 5-29.

Preliminary results show that 25,610 study seats are available via the Higher Edu-cation Admission Centre and that 665 of the seats require

personal interviews and admis-sion tests. The results indicate that 5,971 seats are still not claimed, 35 per cent of which are in internal scholarships and 41 per cent in vocational train-ing centres.

The large percentage of va-cancies in internal scholarships

and vocational training centres shows failure to submit proper documents or lack of aware-ness about the importance of the specialisations or lack of interest since vocational cen-tres offer only diplomas.

The Sultan Qaboos Univer-sity has 3,111 seats available,

colleges of applied sciences 2,303 seats, technical colleges 10,470 seats, health institutes 656 seats, Sharia Sciences In-stitute 100 seats, vocational training institutes 3,664 seats, fishermen’s centres 180 seats, external scholarships 143 seats, internal To page 2

13 shops shut for violations

Labour issues under review

Study seats to be finalised this week

NEW DELHI — India’s economic growth could slip to near six per cent with the country facing the spectre of its third drought in a decade, top poli-cy-maker says.

In the last few months, the outlook for once-booming India has worsened with high inflation, steep interest rates, a ballooning deficit, nosediving busi-ness confidence, a falling currency and now growing worry of drought.

“If we factor in that agriculture which will not be strong... (growth)

will be closer to six per cent” for the fiscal year to March 2013, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Mon-tek Singh Ahluwalia said.

His forecast is down from the 6.5 per cent expansion India notched up last year, and far below the close to 10 per cent expansion seen during the past decade.

A survey released yesterday said the weak monsoon and a deteriorating global situation were expected to cut growth. Details, P11

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan yesterday reopened a major border crossing used to transport supplies for Nato forces in Afghanistan, an official said, almost two weeks after it was closed due to a militant attack.

Sangeen Shinwari, a border of-ficial at the Machini checkpoint, said by phone that Nato supply trucks crossed into Afghanistan after security was boosted. “Twelve trucks carrying food, medicine and other items so far crossed the border into Afghanistan on Saturday and three more would fol-

low,” Shinwari said. The Torkham border crossing was

closed to Nato supplies on July 24 af-ter Taliban attacked a convoy, killing a driver. Nato trucks loaded in the Pa-kistani port city of Karachi enter Af-ghanistan either through the Torkham crossing in the tribal area or the Cha-man crossing in Baluchistan.

Pakistan reopened Nato supply routes on July 2 after a seven-month closure in protest at the killing of 24 Pakistani troops in a US attack in No-vember. — Agencies

Indian growth to fall

Nato routes reopened

Top priority for food security challenges Nod for cut in agricultural land use price E-government regulations to be issued

MASSIVE expansion work in full swing at the Muscat International Airport yesterday. — Picture by Saleh al Sharji

OMAN DAILY Observer

2OMANSUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

MUSCAT — The national carrier of the Sultanate, Oman Air, has renewed its reservations technology agreement with Sabre Airline Solutions.

The multi-year agreement extends a long and es-tablished partnership between Oman Air and Sabre for the technology driving the airline’s growth and improvements across all its customer-focused op-erations.

Maher Koubaa, Sabre Airline Solutions’ vice-president for the Middle East and Africa, said: “Oman Air’s appetite for technology gives them a competitive edge in the market and allows them to explore new revenue opportunities and experiment with new products for customers”.

“Sabre’s reservations technology is one of the industry’s most powerful revenue-generating sys-tems and will support the airline’s drive for busi-ness efficiencies and top customer service.”

Wayne Pearce, chief executive of Oman Air, said: “It is important to work with the right technol-ogy partners in such a competitive marketplace.

“Sabre’s stable and well-proven reservations technology means we provide a trouble-free travel experience to our passengers.

“The technology provides significant value and return on investment, and in turn gives us the flex-ibility to offer a widening array of other value-add-ed services to our customers.”

Oman Air renews Sabre pact

By A Staff Reporter

MUSCAT — Tariq Hilal al Barwani, CEO and President of the KnowledgeOman.com, the leading community and knowledge shar-ing initiative in the Sultanate, has been hon-oured with the prestigious ‘Exemplary Leader Award’ at the Global HR Excellence 2012 event. Top entrepreneurs and professionals from 19 Asian countries including the Middle East and Australia competed for these mul-ti-category awards. The award recognises outstanding leaders around the world whom have demonstrated excellence in people and organisational leadership.

Jack Jones, Chairman of the Global HR Excellence, said: “Tariq has demonstrated excellent skills in creating an organisation and leading a team that delivers impact to the

community initiatives in Oman. Tariq is an example of contemporary leader that focuses on results.”

The awards of the highest stature are pre-sented to individuals and institutions that have surpassed several levels of excellence and set an example of being a role model through exemplary leadership.

The awards also recognise individuals behind the institution who are building their Institutions through leadership, innovation, professional excellence and industry inter-face with a supreme objective of building future leaders.

Tariq founded KnowledgeOman.com as a community organisation in 2008 and created a diverse team of local and expat community living in Oman who passionately work volun-tarily together to promote knowledge across the Sultanate.

Al Barwani gets Exemplary Leader Award

From page 1diversification, human re-sources development and employment generation for the Omani citizens. The Council of Minister relies on the private sec-tor to be strong partners in programmes for the job-seekers.

The government has assured that it will open the doors for more joint ventures in government projects and has told the private sector to become more proactive and a real partner in progress than re-maining mere suppliers.

The private sector com-panies have to go beyond the traditional relationship and become an active part-ner in the country’s progress by working together for the national agenda.

The private sector plays a critical role in making the economic diversifica-tion programmes effective. Similarly, it is important to realise that the private sec-tor and the public sector are on the same track; their tar-gets are common and their concerns are also common in their pursuit to achieve the national goals.

Over the past 42 years, His Majesty Sultan Qaboos has been giving a great deal of attention to development in all spheres. Economic development has enjoyed, and still enjoys, the largest share of that attention.

New road networks, ports and airports in dif-ferent part of the Sultanate have been built, and many other facilities and services offered to motivate the pri-

vate sector to play a more effective role within the framework of the overall development process.

Undoubtedly, the pri-vate sector has benefited from the positive condi-tions the government state has developed to enable this sector to grow and gain more strength as well as to make further achievements in the trade, industrial and investment spheres. The private sector has been co-operating with the govern-ment in nation-building.

It is time the private sector took a step further in developing employment opportunities for the Om-ani nationals and provided them training programmes. On the other hand, Omani nationals also need to take their jobs more seriously with commitment to pro-fessionalism.

Changing jobs from one organisation to another too frequently is not good for the nation’s economy or for the career of individuals. The citizens would do well to stick to their jobs, con-tribute professionally and make it a point to upgrade their skill sets so as to get promotions.

Among other impor-tant points, the Council has stressed the urgency of making the e-government portal fully functional and useful. Besides, the impor-tant role of Public Authority for Consumer Protection in maintaining price and mar-ket stabilisation has been stressed. Price of fish and meat should be maintained at reasonable levels.

Partners in progress

MUSCAT — The Di-rectorate General on Combating Misuse of Narcotics and Psy-chotropic Substances arrested at Muscat International Airport a woman of Asian na-tionality on charges of possessing narcot-ics. The woman, who was carrying the drugs in her handbag, con-fessed to the charges. She was transferred to the Public Prosecution Department for further legal action.

Smuggler arrested at airport

From page 1scholarships 1,500 seats, internal schol-arships for girls only 486 seats, social secu-rity scholarships 1,470 seats, scholarships for people with limited in-come 618 seats, grants for study abroad 101 seats and grants for study within the Sul-tanate 63 seats. The total number of seats available through all sources of higher edu-cation admission is 32,246.

The current period is highly significant for higher education study aspirants. Stu-dents should look out for the outcome of sorting by all means of advertising or through the Higher Education Admission Centre or via SMS or local news-papers. The students are urged to accept the seats offered to them so that they could final-ise their registration as soon as possible within the limited period.

Study seats to be finalised this week

From page 1but they managed to escape under the pretext of going to toilet, sources said.

Some of the crimes that are said they committed were the murder of a Chinese woman and drug dealing.

“Public is also warned of these three men and if anyone has any information on the whereabouts of any of these criminals, they can get in touch with the nearest police station," he further said.

Search on to nab criminals

OMAN DAILY Observer

3OMANSUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

By Ali Ahmed al Riyami

MUSCAT — As part of their annually held iftar gatherings, the Oman Chamber of Com-merce and Industry’s (OCCI) Al Dhahirah branch recently hosted an iftar gathering for local business owners, econo-mists, investors and officials — including members of the Majlis Ash’shura representing Al Dhahira governorate — in Ibri.

The iftar gathering provid-ed an opportunity for members of the community to have their meal together, enhancing so-cial and religious solidarity, as well as allowing for network-ing among fellow business as-sociates and acquaintances.

Shortly on completion of the iftar, the group headed to the Sultan Qaboos Mosque, Ibri, for their evening (Magh-rib) prayers. This was followed by a speech delivered by Ali bin Saleh al Kalbani, OCCI Board Member and Chairman

of the Al Dhahirah branch, in which he spoke about the in-creased pace of activities and programmes being carried out

by the Al Dhahirah branch of OCCI for the region.

He said that it is important to serve the local community

and that there is room for all within it, and reiterated their new slogan for the year: “The people of Al Dhahirah are the

investment of Al Dhahirah.” In response to this, Shaikh

Maktoum bin Matar al Azi-zi, member of the Majlis Ash’shura, representing the Dhanq province, noted that the new slogan requires and calls upon all residents of Al Dhahirah governorate — from its provinces of Ibri, Yanqul and Dhanq — to increase and encourage more economic investments so as to add and contribute to commercial, in-dustrial, agricultural and tour-ism related activities.

The main meal was then served and everyone had their dinner and continued to dis-cuss upcoming events and project proposals that will help to build upon the governo-rate’s economic development. The Chamber’s Al Dhahirah branch has prepared a detailed account of the investment op-portunities that can be availed by investors throughout the provinces of Ibri, Yanqul and Dhanq.

OCCI hosts annual iftar gathering in Ibri THE inspection and food control departments at Muscat Municipality made 2,767 visits to different food stalls and shops last month. — ONA

MUSCAT — The Appeal Court in Seeb (Criminal De-partment) handed down a five-year jail term to two drug traffickers and ordered them to pay fines of RO 3,000 each. A report led drug con-trol squads to the first suspect, a woman, who rented a room in a local hotel with the inten-tion of selling drugs. Her as-sociate was a man who was later nabbed during a mock purchase of the narcotics in the woman’s room.

Two get jail

MUSCAT — The Council of Ministers, during its con-vening in July, addressed the major challenges facing the labour market and the issues of food security, e-government and development projects. In its study of market and the process of employment of job-seekers, the Council observed that some youths shun private sector jobs, while others who are already employed refrain from work in high productivity sites under the pretext of get-ting their demands answered. A statement issued by the Council said that disinterest in private sector jobs and suspen-sion of work reflect negatively on the sector and the economy at large.

On its study of the Food Security Committee’s report, the Council stressed the im-portance of determining the commodities that form the backbone of food security and specifying the proportions of these food items to be kept as reserve for local consumption. It also underscored the need to make the prices of fish and meat affordable to consumers. The Council statement reads as follows:

In a bid to achieve further growth and development and

provide services to every part of this generous country, the Council of Ministers reviewed a number of developmental demands of the governorates and urged the authorities to submit to the Council specific programmes of the nature of these demands in accord-ance with requirements of the practical assessment that determines their priorities at each stage whether the current or the next plan. The Council stressed the necessity for of-ficials to conduct more work-ing visits to regions to closely view the progress of develop-ment programmes and require-ments of citizens to enhance them and report to the Council on the outcome of those meet-ings with those concerned in the governorates, in addition to conducting periodic evalua-tion of the performance of the directorates and departments affiliated to units in those areas and how far they deal with the scheduled programmes.

Within the framework of the Council's review of areas of co-operation between the Government and the private sector and then reaching the importance of enhancing the partnership between the two sides since the private sector

is a key partner in the compre-hensive development and is counted on in strengthening its role to accommodate the na-

tional cadres, qualify them and get them involved in steering development’s wheels towards a broader level, and since the nature of the production projects target recruiting more national manpower, the Gov-ernment will allow the private sector to participate in these

projects that meet that goal. Within the framework

of the attention accorded to the employment sector, the

Council has examined various reports on job-seekers and the progress of their recruitment in the governmental and private sectors as the Council’s Eco-nomic Committee has been tasked with crystallising the set programmes to deal with this issue. The Council will

continue to assess this aspect. The Council found, through re-viewing various reports on job-seekers, that there is reluctance on the part of some youths to work in the private sector who prefer the government sector, which is one of the challeng-es faced by the Government in the recruitment process, as well as the impact on the march of comprehensive de-velopment and the private sec-tor has to rely on more expatri-ates. So the Council calls upon the youth to accept work in all sectors, whether governmental or private, knowing that there are ongoing efforts exerted by the Government in creating conditions for employment in these sectors.

The Council examined the work-interruption phenom-enon in some production sites on the grounds that there are demands for workers, although the demands are legitimate, but the ways used to express them should be appropriate, which lead to achieve benefit of all parties and do not affect pro-ductivity that might negatively reflect on the economy and the pace of development. Demands are by nature taken some time to be met, when possible, and it is what happened in many cases.

Believing in the importance of balance and stability of food prices, the Council reviewed the report of the Food Security Committee and the actions taken by all relevant authorities and stressed the importance of identifying commodities, which constitute a necessary pillar for food security in the Sultanate and identifying the necessary rate to be kept as reserve for the domestic consumption. The Council advised to quickly accomplish what the governmental authorities are currently implementing in respect to food security projects within the Eighth Five-Year Development Plan and follow them up, emphasising on mechanisms of market monitoring and price control to ensure the activation of the Consumer Protection Law. The Council also viewed, during its meetings, the exerted efforts regarding the stability of fish and meat prices, so that they are in the reach of citizens and consumers with attention to the stability of grass prices to promote livestock.

Within the Government's endeavours to provide relief to citizens, the Council

approved reducing charges for agricultural land use.

In following-up the implementation of the approv-ed projects, the Council studied the reasons for the delay in awarding some projects and stressed the importance of giving priority in tenders to developmental and service projects of urgent nature. The Council will continue to examine this subject with the Tender Board, which has shown its willingness to co-operate in this area.

Within the framework of the good reputation enjoyed by Oman Air at the interna-

tional level and in view of the requirements of this important sector, the Government will support it to strengthen its ca-pabilities to provide more do-mestic and international serv-ices and facilities.

In a bid to provide and facilitate e-Government serv-ices, accelerate the delivery of services to the beneficiar-ies and to avoid duplication and repetition in the databases and information, the Council of Ministers has adopted con-trols for the implementation of e-Government and circu-lated to all governmental enti-ties.

In activating the role of clubs and promoting patriot-ism that binds, historically, morally and culturally, the individual to his society, the Council approved joining of the Sultanate’s Scientific Club to the Clubs Society affiliated to the United Nations Educa-tional, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).

Within the framework of cultural communication with the world, the Council of Ministers approved organising a multi-language mobile ex-hibition on Oman's role in the Islamic and human civilization through the ages. — ONA

OMAN DAILY Observer

4OMANSUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

Corporate efforts to fuel progress Private sector's role highlighted in development Steps to ensure balance, stability of food prices Youths urged to accept jobs in any of the sectors Regular assessment of directorates' performance

Ministry of DefenceAnnouncement

The Ministry of Defence invites MOD registered suppliers to participate in the

following tender:-

Subject TenderNo.

Last Date to Obtain Tender

Last Date for Tender Submission

Tender Document

Price Per CopySUPPLY AND INSTALLATION OF MEDICAL

EQUIPMENT FOR NICU DEPT. 57/2012 10 Sept. 2012 17 Sept. 2012 RO 64/-

MAM Camp between 0900 to 1300 hrs on the working days.Payment of Tender documents to be made by using of any Visa Electron Cards or 'Visa Credit' Cards or through Smart Card issued from Oman Arab Bank.

OMAN DAILY Observer

5AFRICASUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

AFRICAN Union peacekeeping forces advance into Al Shabaab controlled areas of the lower Shabelle region in tanks and armoured vehicles outside Somalia’s capital Mogadishu yesterday. — Reuters

KANO, Nigeria — Explo-sions rocked parts of the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri yesterday as troops engaged suspected insurgents and raided homes, residents said.

The explosions, which be-gan late on Friday, occurred in three neighbourhoods no-torious for attacks blamed on the Boko Haram sect, and residents ed as troops went door-to-door arresting people suspected of complicity, they said.

“Last night, there were explosions in Gwange area which went on till the late hours and today the explo-sions continued in Kalari and Budum neighbourhoods,” Modu Ari, a Budum resident, said by phone from the city.

“Soldiers moved from house to house arresting peo-ple, forcing residents to ee their homes to escape arrest,” said Ari, who had left his house with his family yester-day.

Ali Faltaye, a resident of Kalari, said troops battled suspected sect members in the area, sending residents

eeing to avoid being caught up in the ghting or arrested by soldiers.

“Since morning loud ex-plosions have been going on in the area and soldiers have been breaking into homes making arrests”, Faltaye said.

Military and police au-thorities were not available for comment.

Troops from Nigeria’s Joint Task Force who were deployed in the city two years ago to combat Boko Haram have been accused of burn-ing homes and committing rights violations against resi-dents whom they accuse of complicity with Boko Haram whenever there is an attack blamed on the sect.

The soldiers have denied such accusations.

The group has stepped up bomb and gun attacks since the start of Ramadhan.

Boko Haram has killed hundreds in an insurgency that has been focused in Ni-geria’s mainly Muslim north, with attacks also occurring in the country’s religiously and ethnically divided centre.

The country, Africa’s most populous nation and largest oil producer, is roughly di-vided between a mainly north and predominantly Christian south. — AFP

Explosions rock Nigerian city

BAMAKO — The interim president of Mali is to con-clude wide-ranging consul-tations with political and civil groups today, as the country appears set to form a unity government which will forge a plan for recap-turing the north from radical rebels.

“We are now looking to form a government of na-tional unity and hope to have one emerge in the coming days — hopefully, by the start of next week,” said one political source who declined to be named as negotiations were still ongoing.

Political sources in Bamako said that the govern-ment would include various actors, including groupings that supported the March coup d’etat of Captain Ama-dou Sanogo that plunged the capital into chaos.

An ongoing Tuareg rebel-lion in the north, which had begun in February, was then able to gather steam and the MNLA militia subsequently captured more than half the country.

Within weeks however, the northern area was occu-pied by several militias who imposed a strict religious doctrine and began destroy-ing Unesco World Heritage sites in the ancient city of Timbuktu.

The unity government would focus primarily on recapturing the north and would likely ask for the assistance of Ecowas, the regional West African com-munity. Interim leader Di-oncounda Traore has been holding consultations since Tuesday with a large number of players including religious of cials, political parties and civil society groups. — dpa

Mali heading towards

unity govt

LORIENT — France would back an African military inter-vention in northern Mali, De-fence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said yesterday.

But even if he believed such an operation was inevita-ble — and desirable — it was not for France to take the lead, he added. “It is not for France to take the military initiative in Mali,” he told journalists dur-ing a visit to Lorient in north-west France.

France, he said, “wants

it to be the African forces, in particular those of ECOWAS (the Economic Community of West African States) and pos-sibly the African Union, that take the initiative,” he said.

He said an African military intervention in northern Mali was “desirable and inevita-ble.” “France will support it and, I hope, the European Un-ion also.”

At stake was political stabil-ity in the south of the country which was not yet guaranteed,

even if interim president Dion-counda Traore had returned to the country from Paris earlier this week, he added.

The situation in the north of the country was “very wor-rying”, said Le Drian.

The hardliners who occu-pied the vast north in the chaos following a coup have tight-ened control over the area, im-posing a harsh form of law.

Among those now in power in the north are the group An-sar Dine (Defenders of Faith)

and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

Late last month, members of the new regime dragged an unmarried couple to the cen-tre of the town of Aguelhok for a public stoning, the rst reported execution according to strict Sharia law since the takeover.

“We must ... avoid (letting) Mali become a ‘Sahelistan’...,” Le Drian said, drawing a par-allel with hardline forces in Afghanistan. — AFP

France to back African intervention

NAIROBI — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Kenya yesterday to hold free and fair elections and be a role model for Africa, underlining the need to avoid the blood-shed and economic loss suf-fered during the last vote ve years ago.

The general election next March will be the rst since a disputed poll in 2007 that set off a politically based ethnic slaughter in which more than 1,200 people were killed.

“We urge that the nation come together and prepare for elections which will be a real model for the entire world,” Clinton told reporters in Nai-robi. She met President Mwai Kibaki, who is barred by law from seeking a third term, and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who leads in opinion polls in the race to replace him.

The two were the main ri-vals in the disputed presiden-tial poll, when then opposition leader Odinga accused Kibaki of stealing the vote.

Gangs faced off with ma-chetes and clubs, and secu-rity forces opened re on the streets, until mediator Ko Annan brokered a power-sharing pact between Kibaki and Odinga that ended the vio-

lence and made Odinga prime minister.

Before meeting with mem-bers of Kenya’s election com-

mission, Clinton told reporters that in her talks with Kibaki she had stressed “the impor-tance of a credible, transpar-

ent, free and fair election proc-ess.”

Hillary warned of the cost of another botched election, urging the government and civil society to work together.

“On the other hand the unrest that can result from a disputed election has a terrible cost both in lives lost and in economic impact,” she said.

“The instability that fol-lowed the last election cost the Kenyan economy by most es-timates more than one billion dollars.”

Launching a seven-nation Africa tour in Senegal on Wednesday, Hillary urged Africa to recommit to democ-racy, declaring the “old ways of governing” can no longer work on a continent with strong economic growth and an increasingly empowered citizenry.

She also met Somali Presi-dent Shaikh Sharif Ahmed and other Somali leaders in Nai-robi, and will visit Malawi and South Africa.

Clinton’s trip to Africa is intended in part to strengthen US security ties with allies such as Kenya, the economic powerhouse of eastern Africa, in the face of growing threats from ghters. — AFP

Hillary urges Kenya to hold fair poll

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria — Pirates attacked a ship be-ing used by an oil servicing company in the waters off southeastern Nigeria yes-terday, killing two Nigerian naval guards and kidnapping four foreigners, the Navy and the boat’s shipping rm said.

“An oil servicing company was attacked by gunmen. We lost two of our men and four expatriates were abducted, one Malaysian, one Iranian,” Navy spokesman Commodore Kabir Aliyu said, adding that a Thai and an Indonesian were also taken.

He said the attack took place around 33 nautical miles off the coast of Bonny, Niger-ia’s main oil export terminal.

Netherlands-based Sea Trucks Group, whose boat Jas-

con was attacked, con rmed that four of its staff had been seized and that two other secu-rity guards were also wounded in the attack.

“The two remaining in-jured security personnel are now in Port Harcourt hospital for treatment,” spokeswoman Corrie van Kessel said in a statement. “Sea Trucks Group is making every effort to nd out where the kidnappers are”.

Security in the Delta has improved since militant ac-tivity shut down nearly half of Nigeria’s oil output around the middle of the last decade, thanks to an amnesty between various militant factions and the government.

But the situation remains volatile and in amed by or-ganised crime and local politi-

cal rivalries.Piracy and kidnapping in

the Delta and offshore are common, and West Africa’s oil-rich Gulf of Guinea is second only to the waters off Somalia for the risk of pirate attacks, which drives up ship-ping insurance costs.

They are seen as more of a criminal enterprise making huge sums for armed gangs than as anything political.

Nigerian pirates usually release kidnapped crew mem-bers after their cargo has been looted, rather than held for ransom.

Meanwhile, explosions rocked parts of the northeast-ern Nigerian city of Maiduguri yesterday as troops engaged suspected ghters and raided homes, residents said.

Troops from Nigeria’s

Joint Task Force who were deployed in the city two years ago to combat Boko Haram have been accused of burning homes and committing rights violations against residents whom they accuse of complic-ity with Boko Haram when-ever there is an attack blamed on the sect.

The soldiers have denied such accusations.

Boko Haram has killed hundreds in an insurgency that has been focused in Nigeria, mainly in the north part of the country, with attacks also oc-curring in the country’s reli-giously and ethnically divided centre.

The country, Africa’s most populous nation and largest oil producer, is roughly divided between two groups.

— AFP

Pirates attack ship, kidnap four foreigners in Nigeria ALGIERS — Local elec-

tions are to be held in Alge-ria on November 29, Interior Minister Daho Ould Kablia announced yesterday, quoted by Algerian radio.

“The local elections will take place on November 29” for 1,541 municipal coun-cils and 48 general (wilaya) councils, Kablia said at a fo-rum in Algiers organised by Liberte newspaper.

Algeria held legislative polls in May and a presi-dential election is sched-uled for next year that the incumbent, Abdelaziz Boute ika, is not expected to contest.

While moderates in neighbouring Tunisia, Mo-rocco and in Egypt recorded major electoral gains on the back of the Arab Spring, Algeria’s legal parties lost ground in the parliamentary polls. — AFP

Algeria local elections on

November 29

HILLARY with Kenya’s President Kibaki in Nairobi.

OMAN DAILY Observer

6OUTLOOKSUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this page are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the opinion of the Observer.

The parking crisis at the Royal Hospital

THE Royal Hospital in Muscat Governo-rate is an important health powerhouse

not only because it is the rst referral hospital to be opened in the Sultanate but also be-cause it is the largest incuba-tor of healthcare services in the country, and as such, this hospital should live up to the reputation it has created in the mindset of the people as a signi cant healthcare pro-vider capable of catering to the needs of patients in the best way.

My point doesn’t pertain to the health services deliv-ered at the hospital nor does it have something to do with the

way the hospital staff treats the patients. The hospital de-serves commendation on both aspects despite criticism on the part of some people. Gain-ing everybody’s satisfaction remains an unattainable goal. The point I am trying to make is regarding the hospital’s car park which has become a topic of intensive discussion in the media and elsewhere, however, there has been hitherto no response either by the hospital’s administra-tion, who are well aware of the suffering of patients and their companions, nor by the Health Ministry of cials who de nitely receive information about the hospital’s condition

knowing that many of them used to work at the hospital.

Many suggestions were made as to how to resolve the problem but none was imple-mented, while the people’s suffering is aggravating and only God knows when it will end. The only initiative made to put an end to the trouble was that by the Muscat Mu-nicipality when it dedicated few parking spaces, however, the effect was not that tangi-ble.

The area adjacent to the hospital’s main entrance can accommodate the greater part of the administrative staff ve-hicles if it can be exploited as a multi-storey car park, thereby providing hundreds of parking spaces. The Minis-try of Health may be lacking the funds to construct such a large car park, however, it is possible to oat tenders for an investment project and once the plan it is completed drivers should pay a nominal

charge for parking their cars similar to the system imple-mented at the car park of the Muscat International Airport.

Without a doubt, every-body knows for certain that the of cials concerned are aware of the problem howev-er, waiting for better nancial conditions besides the delays caused by bureaucracy ham-per efforts to solve the prob-lem.

Understandably, lack of parking space at the Royal

Hospital can result in serious consequences like the case of the woman who delivered her baby in the car because the driver failed to get a parking space.

The question is why do we put ourselves in such embar-rassing situations? We are blessed with ample bounties, not the least is the budget surplus. So there is no need to complicate little troubles when the solutions are within our reach.

The hospital’s car park has become a topic of intense discussion in the media and elsewhere, however, there has been hitherto no response either by the hospital’s

administration, who are well aware of the suffering of patients and their companions, nor by the officials who definitely

receive information about the hospital’s condition knowing that many of them used to work at the hospital

Life of deception!

• Take care of the needy, the disabled — those whose hard earned income is insuf cient to meet their needs — and those whose businesses have stalled — and those who have lost their jobs. — Quran 4/36

• We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools. — Martin Luther King

• Never play with the feelings of others because you may win the game but the risk is that you will surely lose the person for a life time. — Shakespeare.

• The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. — Mahatma Gandhi

• It is very easy to de-feat someone, but it is very hard to win someone! — Dr Abdul Kaleem

MY late father always used to say to us that there

is neither age limit nor an end to learning things in life. Even in death, he says, when you have to lie down on your right side only, facing The Kaaba in Mecca as believers! That is as far as individual re-spectful last rites and bur-ial are concerned and not in mass graves as we have seen lately!

A — The prisoners: I was watching this Al Jazeera lm that recounted the story of some Arab and Palestinian prisoners who were detained in Israeli jails and how they had to adapt to a new life after their release.

Upon release, the pris-oners faced a number of dif culties adjusting to a new life of freedom — albeit within an occupied territory. They explain their mixed feelings to the change in society and in the political landscape which they experienced upon being released from the day-to-day monotony of prison life.

Beyond The Walls con-tains beautifully- lmed in-terviews and novel graph-ics to provide a moving portrait of the interviewees and the emotions and feel-ings they are describing.

One of the Palestinian is seen to remark: Noth-ing is harsher than impris-onment. It’s the cruellest form of torture.

Another one says: Life in prison is free of hypocri-sy. We had nothing to lose. We were ready to face any-thing. Almost all of us were sentenced to life imprison-ment. I felt like a stranger in the ‘outside world’ for a long time. I felt a new life was ahead of me.

The part that really was an eye-opener to me at least was when he said: I felt like a stranger among my family and friends. It was distressing. I couldn’t sleep. I was in a constant state of anxiety. I was in better intellectual and so-cial harmony with my fel-low detainees than with the people outside!

A person well known to me and an ex-peer tells me almost the very same things! He said to me: M, do you know that there are more crooks and hypo-crites outside jail than those inside? That includes even family, relatives and friends! You for sure can trust your fellow-inmate — than the person outside! When I asked him point

blank what he thought of me he just could not stop laughing. I guess the an-swer is in that laugh!

B — Being in debts: One of the nicest adver-tisements that I have seen this Ramadhan is in one of the UAE television chan-nels that demonstrates how easy it is to get into (heavy) debts and the re-percussions not only on the individual but the fam-ily members involved too. The message and theme is not to go for a lavish life style that can only spell dangers and troubles ahead, apart from losing your personal freedom and movement.

The message and theme is good but it looks only at one side of the story — it does not address the lack of consideration and kind-ness from those who are ‘after their money’!

Frankly, when it comes to issue of money some people, if not many, are always hard and cruel to their own — even if it is beyond them to pay back the money — even if they wished to do so! .

Sayyiduna Abu Hurayra (Allah be pleased with him) narrates what the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) had said: Whoso-ever gives respite to a bor-rower who is in dif culty or forgives him altogeth-er, Allah Most High will Give him refuge under the shadow of His throne on the Day when there will be no other shadow. (Tirmidhi 1306)

Also in the Quran: If the debtor is in a dif -culty, grant him time till it is easy for him to repay. But if you remit it by way of charity, that is best for you if you only knew. (Su-rah al Baqarah — verse 280)

C — The jobless: She worked for over 30 years but now because of the economic downturn she has lost her job. Now un-employed for the rst time in her life she is staying in a shelter home for the un-employed and the needy. She says to the Al Jazeera TV team in her hometown in California: For a person used to helping others the most dif cult part for me is to ask for help for myself!

D — The starving: Over millions are suffer-ing from partial starvation — one meal a day at best — if not going without — though the country (India) can produce enough food to feed all her people. The problem is in the distri-bution system — where wheat lies rotting in some stores — instead of feed-ing the poor, hungry and the needy! Recent events have been there too, of the electricity distribution where over 670 million had electricity disruptions.

E — Warplanes and tanks: If the enemy was doing it there would have been an uproar. But it is the country which doing it to its own people. Bombs cannot distinguish between who is loyal and who is not — especially if they are living in the same town. The scared and frightened cannot ever imagine that this might is now being used against them!

What more can I say now? May Allah protect and preserve us all from His anger and fury. — Amin

Take care!

Adopting creative ideas and turning them into reality

IDEAS occasionally are recalled one after an-other in a free associa-tion of what looks like a

dream. The self yearns for the best and the most beautiful without being able to get their dreams ful lled, because the surrounding circumstances impose their own conditions powerfully and sometimes mercilessly. Available condi-tions never furnish us with the

tting opportunity to achieve the desired goals, despite hard thinking and endeavours.

The problem has some-thing to do with creative off-beat thoughts that abandon the traditional template inside which we have been locked in for ages. Classical frameworks

should be reconsidered, giv-ing way to novel approaches, while retaining the authentic features of traditional meth-ods and mixing them with elements of modernity. This is the natural course of develop-ment, adding up to elements of the past, rather than ignor-ing them altogether or imag-ining virtual worlds having no connection with reality.

Someone might say: ‘It is easy to criticise but the real question is whether or not your thoughts can be executed and under what circumstances’.

I do not ask a mechanic to tailor a disdasha with elabo-rate design and creativity, likewise I don’t expect a tai-lor to be skillful in car main-

tenance. Fine artists are not required to design houses nor are engineers required to cre-ate paintings with the same level of creativity as painters.

I hope to see the Muscat Municipality adopting crea-tive ideas and turning them to reality on the ground, instead of keeping them on papers. We wish that the city of Muscat appears in the shape we would love to see it. We would like to give tourists diversi ed op-tions to enjoy during their stay in the city instead of being con ned to Muttrah souq and the sea road which is devoid of any tourism features.

I would like the newly-ap-pointed governors — whose concepts are unmatched among their peers across the world — to be genuine inno-vators so that they will be able to boost the level of services and beauty in their respective governorates, otherwise their new designation as governors would be nothing more than a job title.

It is possible for the Gov-ernors to activate stagnant tourism in their governorates

and turn them into highly at-tractive tourist destinations by exploiting the natural beauty that abound in Oman. What is needed is a type of tourism that preserves the traditional lifestyle of local communi-ties while spurring tourism and consequently economic growth.

The Ministry of Tourism alone is incapable of creating big successes all across the country, therefore the need arises for a decentralised ad-ministrative system to curb bureaucracy and enhance ad-ministrative exibility there-fore activating several sectors, including tourism services.

All employees are request-ed to make their best effort for the sake of Oman. They have to let go of traditional think-ing when facing modern-day issues. A friend of mine told me that he saw Omanis thronging supermarkets in a Gulf country for Ramadhan and Eid shopping, bene tting from price differences.

If price difference really exist then some economic re-forms should be taken.

I hope to see the Muscat Municipality adopting creative

ideas and turning them to reality on the ground, instead of keeping

them on papers. We wish that the city of Muscat appears in the

shape we would love to see it. We would like to give tourists’

diversified options to enjoy during their stay in the city instead of being confined to Muttrah souq

and the Sea Road which is devoid of any tourism features

Ahmed Al Falahidreemlife11@yahoo.com

Mohammed Al Rahbi

Majid Al Suleimanywww.majidall.com

OMAN DAILY Observer

7THE WORLDSUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

WASHINGTON — Three aerospace firms have scored a total of $1.1 billion in Nasa contracts to compete to build the next spacecraft to carry astronauts to the Interna-tional Space Station after the shuttle programme’s end.

The awards, announced on Friday, went to SpaceX, Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corporation, and aim to sup-port efforts to return astro-nauts to space via US-made transport in the next five years. The retirement of the US space shuttle fleet last year left Russia as the sole nation capable of transport-ing astronauts to the ISS, three at a time aboard its Soyuz capsules.

The awards amounted to $460 million for Boeing, $440 million for SpaceX and $212.5 million for Sierra Ne-vada, based in Colorado.

Cash boosts efforts for

shuttle successor

BEIJING — China warned yesterday that American criti-cism of its decision to set up a new military garrison in the South China Sea sent the “wrong signal” and threatened peace in the hotly disputed waters.

Washington on Friday accused Beijing of raising tensions in the sea after it announced last week the es-tablishment of the tiny city of Sansha and a garrison on an island in the disputed Paracel chain.

The move has infuriated Vietnam and the Philippines who accuse Beijing of step-ping up harassment at sea.

But China reacted angrily to the American intervention, with the foreign ministry voic-ing its “strong dissatisfaction and opposition”, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

In a strongly worded state-ment, ministry spokesman Qin Gang warned that the US remarks had sent a “seriously

wrong signal” which could undermine efforts aimed at “safeguarding the peace and stability of the South China Sea”.

China says it controls much of the sea, but Brunei, Malay-sia, Taiwan, the Philippines and Vietnam all claim por-tions.

State Department spokes-man Patrick Ventrell said in a statement on Friday the US was “concerned by the in-crease in tensions in the South China Sea and are monitoring the situation closely”.

Ventrell said the estab-lishment of the garrison and Sansha “runs counter to col-laborative diplomatic efforts to resolve differences and risk further escalating tensions in the region”.

He also pointed to “con-frontational rhetoric” and in-cidents at sea, saying: “The United States urges all parties to take steps to lower ten-sions.”

Also yesterday, a commen-tary on Xinhua said the US accusations were “groundless and irresponsible” and urged Washington to “draw back its meddling hand from the South China Sea disputes”.

The United States has ral-lied behind Southeast Asian nations, expanding military ties with the Philippines and Vietnam. In April, the first of 2,500 US Marines touched down in Australia in a further show of US power in Asia.

The US Senate approved a resolution late on Thursday that “strongly urges” all re-gional nations to exercise self-restraint and to refrain from permanently inhabiting points in the South China Sea until a code of conduct is reached.

The resolution, sponsored by senators from both major parties, declared that the Unit-ed States was committed “to assist the nations of Southeast Asia to remain strong and in-dependent”.

During a 2010 visit to Vi-etnam, Secretary of State Hil-lary Clinton declared that the United States had a national interest in freedom of naviga-tion in the South China Sea, through which half of world cargo passes.

The State Department statement on Friday reiterated that the United States has an interest in stability and “un-impeded lawful commerce” in the South China Sea but that Washington does not take a position on rival claims.

Southeast Asian nations faced deep divisions last month during annual talks in Cambodia, preventing them from issuing a customary joint communique and holding up progress on reaching a code of conduct with China.

The code of conduct would aim to set rules to reduce the chances of a spat over fish-ing, shipping rights or oil and gas exploration tipping into an armed conflict. — AFP

MIAMI — Tropical Storm Ernesto strengthened yesterday and will soon bulk up into a hurricane while keeping a west-erly course in the Caribbean Sea that may threaten Jamaica, US forecasters said.

Officials in Jamaica issued a tropi-cal storm watch for the island as Ernesto moved in open waters at 30 kmph on a track that should keep it at sea until a forecast landfall in Mexico’s Yucatan Pe-ninsula on Wednesday.

With maximum sustained winds of 95 kmph, Ernesto yesterday was 490 km south/southwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and was expected to stay south of

Jamaica, according to US hurricane fore-casters in Miami.

“Gradual strengthening is forecast during the next couple of days, and Er-nesto is expected to become a hurricane today,” the US forecasters said.

Ernesto, which did no reported dam-age on Friday as it passed over the tiny island of Saint Lucia, would be deemed a hurricane if its winds reach or top 119 kph. Forecasters expect Ernesto to move into the southern Gulf of Mexico by Thursday, but it was too early to know whether it could disrupt oil and gas op-erations in the Gulf.

Separately, the US National Hurricane Centre forecasters said another tropical storm, called Florence, formed yesterday in the open eastern Atlantic about 530 km west of the southernmost Cape Verde Is-lands.

With maximum sustained winds of 65 kmph, Florence was the sixth named storm of the Atlantic-Caribbean hurricane season and was expected to track westerly before weakening next week.

August and September are usually the most active months of the Atlantic-Carib-bean hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30. — Reuters

China hits back at US over South China Sea

Ernesto moves west in Caribbean

HONG KONG — Hundreds of millions of potentially toxic plastic pellets from containers knocked off a vessel during Hong Kong’s worst typhoon in 13 years have washed up on its beaches where they lay for more than a week, activists said yesterday.

The Hong Kong gov-ernment estimated that 150 tonnes of the pellets may have been spilled on its beaches, of which a third have been cleaned up so far.

Local media questioned the government’s lack of public notice about the spill, almost two weeks after Typhoon Vin-cente which was upgraded to Signal 10.

It was the first time since 1999 that the city’s meteoro-logical body had invoked its highest measure.

In response, the government said its marine and environ-mental protection departments

responded immediately after receiving public complaints on July 24 and 26 respectively. Both departments are working with the ship owner to clean up the spill, they said in a joint e-mail reply. The Environmen-tal Protection Department said water quality had not been af-fected.

Gary Stokes, a representa-tive for Sea Shepherd Con-servation Society, an interna-tional marine life conservation non-profit and another stake-holder in the clean-up opera-tion, said the government had been forthcoming with its as-sistance.

China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec), manufacturers of the pellets, said the pellets were not toxic or hazardous on their own.

But while the pellets are harmless in their original state, they absorb toxins and pollut-ants over time and could poi-

son the food chain when ma-rine creatures consume them.

Also known as nurdles or mermaid tears, the tiny pellets are widely used to make plas-tic products.

“It looked like it snowed in east Lamma,” said Sea Shep-herd’s Stokes, referring to the beaches on the eastern coast of Lamma island, just south of the main Hong Kong island and around which remnants of three 40 foot containers hold-ing thousands of 25 kg bags of the white-coloured pellets were found scattered.

Recently, the worst pollu-tion in two years smothered Hong Kong for a second day, prompting warnings to the old and sick to stay indoors and obscuring one of the world’s most famous views.

Pollution readings were “very high” in business and shopping districts such as Cen-tral, Western, Causeway Bay

and Mongkok, air monitoring stations showed, surpassed only once in March 2010 when a sandstorm in northern China covered Hong Kong in dust.

“Bad air is trapped here. But even though external cir-cumstances can’t blow away the pollutants, the problem still lies fundamentally in ve-hicular emissions in Hong Kong itself,” said Patrick Fung of Clean Air Network, a local pro-environment group.

The view of the cramped skyscrapers of Hong Kong Island and the Peak was ob-scured from across the harbour in Kowloon.

Air pollution in Hong Kong, a former British colony which returned to Chinese rule in 1997, is a major source of worry for local citizens and foreign businesses, which in-creasingly see it as compro-mising the quality of life.— Agencies

HK govt criticised over plastic spill on beaches

A VOLUNTEER holds sand mixed with plastic pellets during a clean-up of a beach during Hong Kong’s Discovery Day.

FIREFIGHTERS spray water canons as they fight to extinguish the flames in a burning apartment building in downtown Oslo yesterday. — Reuters

OMAN DAILY Observer

8THE PHILIPPINES/SUBCONTINENTSUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

MANILA — Philippine nuns and priests led thousands of Catholics in a protest in Manila yesterday against a proposed law that would provide free contraceptives in a bid to curb population growth.

The protesters, mainly dressed in red, gathered at a Catho-lic shrine to voice opposition to the planned legislation, which would also encourage families to have only two children in an effort to reduce poverty.

The proposal, which is expected to face a tough time get-ting through parliament, has angered the in uential Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines which has led opposition and called yesterday’s protest.

Dolly Cruz, a 61-year-old pensioner, attacked the proposal as “contrary to the laws of God”.

“God gave humans the power of reason to decide what is right and what is wrong for themselves,” she said. Police es-timated the crowd at about 7,000. President Benigno Aquino has strongly backed the law, saying in a statement before the rally that in a situation where couples “are in no position to make an informed judgement, the state has the responsibility to so provide”.

The Philippines annual birth rate has been steadily declin-ing, but the government points out that some of the poorest regions have the highest rates.

The law would use the popular government health insur-ance fund to provide birth control pills, and other contracep-tives for free.

It would give the poor preferential access to family plan-ning services in state hospitals, while lessons on family plan-ning and education would become compulsory in schools and for couples applying for a marriage licence.

The House of Representatives, dominated by Aquino sup-porters, is expected to pass the bill on Tuesday after failing to do so last year.

But the Senate, parliament’s upper house, must also pass the law and has come out strongly against it. — AFP

Protests on proposed birth control law

ISLAMABAD — Coalition partners of Pakistani government led by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) have decided to bring new draft of Contempt of Court (CoC) law before August 8, it was learnt yesterday.

According to sources, the coalition partners have decided that a new draft of the law would be tabled in the parliament before August 8. This was decided in a meeting of coalition partners with President Zardari in Islamabad. The meeting was jointly chaired by the president and the prime minister.

As per details, the new bill too will give protection to the prime minister and the coalition partners have decided to meet the future challenges jointly. Later on Friday night, Prime Min-ister Raja Ashraf held talks with President Asif Ali Zardari and discussed political situation in the country in the backdrop of the Supreme Court’s decision on CoC law.

Meanwhile, a leading daily said Pakistan could do “without the headache of electing yet another short-term PM”.

An editorial in the Dawn said that the Contempt of Court Act, 2012, is no more. “Always likely to have only the briefest of existences, the law was gutted and then struck down in its entirety by the Supreme Court yesterday (Friday),” it said.

— Internews

ISLAMABAD — Locally assembled Chinese bikes failed to nd a foothold in Afghanistan mainly due to opening of new

plants and a discontinuation of duty drawback facility, sources said on Friday.

Chinese bikes assembled in Pakistan are seen in Kandahar but have been unable to grab a signi cant share of Afghani-stan’s bike market since there emerged a huge demand for used bikes. Meanwhile, a leading Japanese bike assembler in Pakistan was able to export a viable volume to Afghanistan, but said its company had also been facing problems over the previous few months due to discontinuation of duty drawback facility, as Afghanistan Customs had stopped issuing original receipts of goods exported.

“This is hampering export, the reason given is the change in procedures at Afghanistan Customs as they have now com-puterised checkposts at Torkhum as well as in Chaman”, said a senior executive.

Its exports to Afghanistan totalled 13,000 units in 2011-12 and over 5,500 units in 2009-10. However in the rst three months of scal year 2012-13, it has only exported 1,000 units. The assembler voiced his concern and said the massive de-crease in exports needs to be curtailed as the economy cannot afford to lose such a revenue stream of foreign exchange.

— Internews

PPP decides to make another contempt law

Sharp fall in bike exports

KABUL — The Afghan parliament dismissed the defence and interior ministers yesterday over continued cross-border shelling blamed on Paki-stan, in a vote accepted in principle by President Hamid Karzai.

Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak and Interior Minister Bismil-lah Mohammadi were summoned by parliament during a special session to discuss the cross-border attacks on Af-ghan villages. The Afghan government blames the Pakistani army and Taliban

ghters.Parliament also quizzed the two

ministers about a recent spate of assas-sinations of top government of cials and politicians.

“Afghan Interior Minister Bismillah Mohammadi could not secure enough votes of con dence. So, we have dis-missed him from his position,” lower house speaker Abdul Raouf Ibrahimi said after the vote.

“Also, Major General Abdul Ra-him Wardak, the Defence Minister, was not able to secure enough votes of con dence to keep his job and thus, the Wolesi Jirga (lower house) has dis-missed him from his post,” Ibrahimi added.

“We would like His Excellency

President (Karzai) to introduce eligible gures as the new interior minister and

the defence minister as soon as possi-ble,” he said.

Karzai said in a statement that the parliament had the right to disqualify ministers in accordance with the Af-ghan constitution. He would decide how to respond to their dismissal after a National Security Council meeting yesterday.

Although parliament has red the ministers, the nal decision rests with Karzai. The president has previously retained ministers dismissed by parlia-ment in an acting capacity for several months before appointing them to a new post. After the vote, one legislator said parliament had dismissed the min-isters due to the deteriorating security situation.

“Security incidents have increased and cross-border attacks from Pakistan continue. The ministers have not done enough and so it’s time for them to go,” Habiba Danesh said.

But Wardak, who has been defence minister since 2004, told parliament before the vote that his army was ready to retaliate against recent border shell-ings if the order was given. He said ad-ditional troops and long-range artillery had been placed in the mountainous border region.

Mohammadi showed legislators pictures of rocket casings, saying, “These rockets are only in posses-sion of the Pakistani army and not the Taliban.” South and east Afghanistan share some 2,600 kilometres of bor-der with Pakistan. The poorly marked border between the two neighbours has often been a topic of dispute.

The eastern border region is ex-tremely rugged and remote and is often used by insurgents to cross the border. Kunar and Nuristan provinces are at the centre of recent cross-border shellings. More than 50 shellings hit the Afghan side each day, of cials allege.

“More than 2,000 rockets and mor-tars have been red from the Pakistani

side in the last month,” said an of cial in Kunar province, adding that hun-dreds of villagers had to ee from their homes.

Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Nato-led alliance have made no headway in top-level meetings on the border issue.

Last week, the Afghan foreign min-istry warned Pakistan’s ambassador to Kabul that continued shelling would further damage the fragile relationship between the two countries. But diplo-matic efforts have yielded few results.

“So far, we haven’t received a posi-tive response to our diplomatic efforts with Pakistan to stop the artillery shell-ing and rocket attacks into Kunar and Nuristan provinces,” said Afghan For-eign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosa-zai.

“This is despite the fact that we have made it very clear to Pakistan that continuation of these attacks in-jures Afghan citizens, damages Afghan properties, and seriously damages our bilateral relationship,” he said. — dpa

YANGON — Dozens of jour-nalists marched in Myanmar’s main city yesterday to protest the suspension of two journals amid fears of cials are rowing back on pledges to ease strict junta-era censorship laws, a reporter said.

The Voice Weekly and The Envoy were suspended last week for failing to submit stories for pre-publication scrutiny, the chief censor said, adding the “temporary suspen-sion” may last for a fortnight.

The reporters, many wear-ing black T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan “Stop Killing (the) Press” in Burmese and English marched to several

sites across Yangon, including the two publishing houses be-hind the suspended weeklies.

Sti ing censorship was one of the key symbols of jun-ta-led Myanmar, where even seemingly innocuous details were scrubbed from public discussion and publications were frequently pulled for comments deemed damaging to the authoritarian rulers.

The government had re-cently taken a lighter touch on some of the less controversial publications as part of reforms sweeping the former army-ruled nation, prompting some editors to test the boundaries of the new found freedoms.

In June Tint Swe, head of the Press Scrutiny and Regis-tration Department (PSRD), said there “will be no press scrutiny job” from the end of that month, also insisting there will “be no monitoring” of lo-cal journals and magazines.

A petition by the newly-formed press freedom com-mittee called for an end to all “oppressive” media laws.

“We have seven demands which we are sending in a let-ter to the president to remove the oppressive laws covering the media,” Zaw Thet Htwe, a spokesman for the independ-ent committee said on phone.

— AFP

ISLAMABAD — A local Pakistani court has sent one of the key suspects in the so-called UK Olympics visa scam, Abid Chaudhry, for a 14-day judicial remand yesterday.

The Federal Investigative Authority (FIA) presented Chaudhry, who is associated with the Dream Land travel agency, in the local court yesterday.

FIA of cials informed the court yesterday that the passport scandal was currently being further investigated, after which civil judge Matiur Rahman ordered Chaudhry to be sent on a 14-day judicial remand.

Previously, the court had ordered a two-day physical remand for the defendant.

The scandal came to the fore after the British tabloid The Sun published a report of an alleged scam involving fake documents for travel to London, in connection with Pakistan’s Olympic contingent.

However, an investigation conducted by the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) had dismissed the claims, calling the report a “fake scam.”

The Sun said its report was based on information backed by a footage of Abid Chaudhry (an agent for the

Dream Land travel agency) claiming how for around £7,000 he could get its man a two-month visa and smuggle him into London 2012 as part of Pakistan’s Olympic squad.

Chaudhry claims he is innocent and that the real culprit is Mohammad Ali Asad.

The Pakistani government has registered a case against Asad for fraud, impersonation and mis-declaration, and is seeing his deportation from the United Kingdom, while also declaring him as the main accused in the case.

— Internews

Defence, interior ministers red

Journalists protest against censorship in Myanmar

Visa scam: Court sends key suspect on judicial remand

FIREFIGHTERS extinguish a re as rescue workers clear rubble from the site of an explosion in Multan yesterday. — Reuters

AN American ISAF soldier from team Apache of Task Force Geronimo, 4th Platoon Delaware of the United States Army, during a partol at Mans Kalay village in Sabari,

Khost district, yesterday. ISAF has noted a surge in attacks in recent months since the start of the Taliban’s annual summer offensive. — AFP

ISLAMABAD — At least six people were killed and several others were injured when three buildings col-lapsed following a massive explosion in a reworks workshop in Multan city yesterday.

The incident happened around 9.40 am when re engulfed a reworks work-shop causing a huge blast. Several nearby shops caught

re following the blast.“I was going to the mar-

ket to fuel my car when I heard a huge blast...and in a blink, the building and two surrounding houses (were) razed to ground,” Basharat Ali, an eye witness, said here yesterday.

The injured have been rushed to Nishtar Hospital for emergency treatment while others have been sent to a major hospital.

Amir Zul qar, a police of cer, said that six to eight people are under the debris, and rescuers were trying to pull them out. — Internews

Toll in reworks

blast rises

MYANMAR members of the press during a rally in Yangon yesterday. — AFP

YANGON — Protecting hu-man rights is the biggest chal-lenge facing Myanmar’s edg-ling democratisation process, United Nations special envoy Tomas Ojea Quintana said yesterday.

Quintana completed a six-day investigation into sectar-ian violence in the western Rakhine state and more than a year of heavy ghting be-tween troops and insurgents from an ethnic minority in the northern Kachin state.

His inspection of Myan-mar’s two trouble spots comes at a time of growing optimism

in the West that the once-pariah nation is on the path to political and economic re-form since a nominal civilian government came to power following an election in No-vember 2010.

“Human rights will be the main challenge for Myanmar’s democratisation transition,” Quintana told a press confer-ence at Yangon International Airport prior to his departure.

The UN rapporteur called on the Myanmar government to review its 1982 Citizens Act, which barred citizenship for the Rohingya minority

group in the Rakhine state, ex-posing them to discrimination, exploitation and abuses, lead-ing to occasional outbreaks of violence.

The rape and murder of a Buddhist Rakhine wom-an on May 28 allegedly by three Muslim Rohingya men, sparked a wave of sectar-ian violence in the state inJune that left at least 77 dead and up to 90,000 people dis-placed.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said the death toll exceeded 90 and 100,000 were displaced. — dpa

‘Human rights biggest challenge for Yangon’

Afghan ministers summoned by parliament during a special session to discuss cross-border attacks

OMAN DAILY Observer

9 REGIONSUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

A DESTROYED Syrian Army tank in Azaz, some 47 km north of Aleppo. — Reuters

TEHRAN — A bus load of Iranians were abducted by gun-men while on a pilgrimage in Syria yesterday, Iranian media reported, the latest in a string of kidnappings of visitors from the Islamic Republic, a country allied to President Bashar al Assad.

The 48 Iranians, planning to visit a shrine on the outskirts of Damascus, were kidnapped on the road from the airport, Iran’s consul general in Syria was reported as saying by state broadcaster IRIB.

“We still do not have any information about the fate of this group of Iranian pilgrims,” Majid Kamjoo said. “The consu-lar section of the Iranian embassy in Syria is seeking to trace the kidnappers of the Iranian pilgrims with the co-operation of Syrian of cials.”

Syria’s state television channel reported that “armed terror-ist groups” had snatched the Iranians who intended to visit the Sayyeda Zeinab Mosque, a popular pilgrimage site.

Several groups of Iranians have been abducted in Syria since the uprising began.

Five Iranian engineers were kidnapped in the ashpoint city of Homs in December. Iranian media said that they had all been released by last month. A group of pilgrims were snatched in January and another in February. Most have been released, Iranian media reported.

Iran’s of cial pilgrimage organisation said it did not have any pilgrims in Syria because of the circumstances in the coun-try and that those kidnapped yesterday had organised their trip privately, Iran’s Fars news agency reported. — Reuters

48 Iranians kidnapped in Syrian capital

ANKARA — Turkey’s top military council yester-day ordered the retirement of dozens of generals and admirals who are currently being held on charges of coup plotting, the army announced on its website.

Fifty- ve generals and admirals are required to retire due to a lack of vacancies in their positions and one admiral due to his age as of September 1, the army said in an online statement.

Among them were 40 generals and admirals in detention in connection with several probes includ-ing the so-called Ergenekon and Sledgehammer cases into alleged plots to topple the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reported the local media, after initially putting the number at 37.

The jailed generals had been due for a promotion suspended at last year’s military council meeting. But the council yesterday said it had ordered their retirement instead.

The Supreme Military Council (YAS) began meeting on Wednesday to discuss promotions and dismissals within the armed forces. The decisions were made public yesterday after being approved by President Abdullah Gul.

This year’s YAS meeting however ended without tensions compared to last year, which witnessed the shock mass resignation of the country’s top brass in a row with the government over of cers jailed for alleged coup plots.

Veteran journalist Fikret Bila said the retirement of the arrested generals and admirals was the govern-ment’s preference.

Bila told private NTV television that some of those in custody might eventually be cleared in the ongoing trials “but the decision on their retirement shows they are being dismissed from the army before the cases are concluded.”

The retirement orders are seen as the latest blow to Turkey’s beleaguered of cer corps which has been targeted by a series of probes in recent years into past military interventions and coup plots.

Hundreds of suspects, including several senior retired and serving of cers, as well as journalists, lawyers and politicians, separately face trial for their alleged role to topple the government.

The trials are widely seen as part of efforts by the current Justice and Development Party (AKP)

government to roll back the military’s in uence in politics.

But critics accuse Erdogan’s government of launching the probes as a tool to silence its opponents and impose authoritarianism — charges it denies.

The Turkish army, which sees itself as the guar-antor of Turkey’s secular principles, overthrew three earlier administrations in 1960, 1971 and 1980.

And in 1997, it pressured Prime Minister Nec-mettin Erbakan, Erdogan’s political mentor, to step down.

The military council also appointed General Gal-ip Mendi as new commander of the Second Army, which is based in southeastern Malatya province and responsible for protecting Anatolia from any threat emanating from Syria, Iran or Iraq.

The army recently reinforced defences on the bor-der with con ict-torn Syria with tanks, anti-aircraft missiles and other weapons.

The military council, which meets twice a year, also promoted 29 generals and admirals to higher ranks, the army said on its website. — AFP

Turkey military council orders retirement of held generals

ALEPPO — The Syrian army said yesterday it had seized the last dissident-held dis-trict of the capital Damascus as insurgents in the strategic northern city of Aleppo came under heavy bombardment by dissident forces.

The army said it had retak-en the hold-out dissident dis-trict of Tadamun in Damascus, a day after the United Nations deplored the failure of diplo-macy to end a con ict that has reportedly claimed more than 21,000 lives in nearly 17 months.

A brigadier general who refused to give his name told journalists visiting the neigh-bourhood of Tadamun, the scene of heavy ghting ear-lier, that it has been retaken, and that the military controls all of the capital.

“We have cleansed all the districts of Damascus, from Al Midan to Mazzeh, from Al Hajar Al Aswad to Qadam... to Tadamun,” said the of cer.

He said it was the last dis-sident bastion in the capital to be retaken.

“There is no more pres-ence of armed groups apart from some individuals who are moving from one place to another, just to prove that they exist,” he said.

Fighting erupted in Da-mascus on July 15 and raged for several days as dissidents seized several districts, forc-ing thousands of residents to

ee.In Aleppo, Abdel Jabar

Oqaida, commander of the Free Syrian Army there, said the Salaheddin district had “come under the heaviest bombardment since the bat-tle began” on July 20 but that loyalists had “not managed to

advance.”In what is also a war of

words, a senior government security gure said “the battle for Aleppo has not yet begun, and what is happening now is just the appetiser.”

“The main course will come later,” he warned.

More than a week ago, a pro-government newspaper was already proclaiming what was to be the “mother of all battles” in Aleppo.

And earlier last week, a security of cial said troops were “testing the dissidents’ defence systems before anni-hilating them by carrying out a surgical operation.”

The security of cial yes-terday said more reinforce-ments had arrived and that at least 20,000 troops were now on the ground.

“The other side is also sending reinforcements,” the of cial added of the dis-sidents, who claim to have seized half the city since they poured in two weeks ago.

Echoing UN chief Ban Ki-Moon’s remarks on Thursday that violence was intensify-ing, a watchdog said July was the deadliest month since the uprising against President Bashar al Assad erupted in March 2011.

Rami Abdel Rahman who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 4,239 people, the vast majority of them civilians, died in July, bringing the overall toll since March 2011 to more than 21,000.

“The death toll is escalat-ing,” Abdel Rahman said.

Meanwhile, explosions shook Aleppo as ghter jets and helicopter gunships over-

ew the city and dissidents

tried to storm the state tel-evision building before being driven back by shelling, said the Britain-based Observa-tory.

State media said the army defended the site from “mer-cenary terrorist groups.”

The violence killed at least 67 people across Syria yester-day, including at least eight in Aleppo province, the Observ-atory said. It said 42 civilians, 18 soldiers and seven dissi-dents were killed.

On Friday, a day after UN and Arab League envoy Ko Annan resigned in frustration over the failure of an April peace plan to take hold, Ban warned world powers they must overcome their rivalries to put an end to a “proxy war” in Syria.

And the UN General As-sembly voted overwhelm-ingly to condemn the Security Council for its failure to act and it condemned the Syr-ian dissident for using heavy weapons.

Ban said growing radi-calisation and extremism had been predicted at the start of the uprising, as had been a “proxy war, with regional and international players arming one side or the other.”

After the General Assem-bly vote, US Ambassador Susan Rice said that, “despite the continued opposition of an increasingly isolated minority, the overwhelming majority of UN members clearly stands resolutely with the Syrian people.”

That was an allusion to Russia and China, who voted against the resolution and who had already vetoed three Se-curity Council resolutions on Syria. — AFP

All Damascus isretaken: army

A BOY plays with an AK-47 ri e owned by his father in Azaz, Aleppo. — Reuters

THE debris after a car bomb exploded near the of ces of the military police in Tripoli yesterday. — Reuters

TRIPOLI — A gunbattle be-tween youths allegedly com-peting for space in a market place and a car blast rocked the centre of the Libyan capi-tal yesterday, leaving one wounded, residents and secu-rity sources said.

“There was a ght between youths over market space,” Mohammed, a young resident of Al Rashid neighbourhood near Martyr’s Square, said.

“They were shooting at each other and throwing gela-tin,” an easily available TNT-based explosive used in sh-ing, said the resident, adding that the ghting took place at around dawn.

A car blast — apparently caused by gelatin — rocked the same area.

“The car, a Honda Civic, blew up to pieces,” said a guard stationed at the military police base just metres from where the blast took place.

He said the blast could have been caused by “ shing explosives” that were either in or thrown at the car.

A foreign security expert who evaluated the site of the blast con rmed that the ex-plosion appeared to have been caused by TNT used in sh-ing.

“The blast appears to have been caused by gelatin,” he said, basing that assessment on the nature of the scorch marks and the absence of a crater.

He added that the blast did not appear to have been caused by a car bomb.

The shopping district bus-tled with activity in the morn-ing after the car had been removed from the area, a jour-nalist said.

Images diffused on social media showed the charred re-mains of a red vehicle.

Dark scorch marks stained

the sides of buildings on the corner where most of the ght-ing and the blast took place.

The windows of several clothes shop in the area were pockmarked by bullet holes and shopkeepers grumbled at the damage done to their stores.

At least two vehicles parked on the commercial street had bullet holes.

And at least one person, a Tunisian, was wounded.

Medical of cials at Al Hu-ruq hospital said they admit-ted a Tunisian, age 54, who was wounded by shrapnel from an explosion. He was under anaesthesia following an operation, an AFP photog-rapher said.

Al Rashid is known as one of the rougher areas in Tripoli and is also a hub for unli-censed market stalls selling T-shirts, jeans and suitcases.

— AFP

Gun ght and car blast rock central Tripoli TEHRAN — Iran has test- red a new, more accurate short-

range missile capable of striking land and sea targets, it said yesterday.

“With the fourth generation of the Fateh 110, the armed forces of our country are able to target and destroy land and sea targets, enemy headquarters... missile seats, ammunition sites, radars and other points,” Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi said in quotes carried by the of cial Irna news agency.

“Using new guidance methods, target-striking systems were installed on the missiles and during the ight test ... its ability to hit the target without deviation was proven,” Vahidi said, according to Irna.

“In future programmes, all future missiles built by the Defence Ministry will be equipped with this capability,” he added.

Israel has said it is considering military strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites if the Islamic Republic does not resolve Western fears it is developing atomic weapons technology, something Tehran denies.

Iran says it could hit Israel and US bases in the region if it comes under attack. It has also threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, the neck of the Gulf through which 40 per cent of the world’s sea-borne oil exports pass.

Iran has made “robust strides” in developing its ballistic missile capabilities, the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) wrote in a 2010 assessment which also said that Iran’s arsenal suffered from poor accuracy.

All of Tehran’s ballistic missiles would be capable of carry-ing a nuclear payload, the IISS said. — Reuters

Iran tests missile with new guidance system

RAMALLAH — The Pal-estinians will next month renew a bid to upgrade their status at the United Nations, their foreign minister said yesterday, a move which could strengthen their state-hood claims after talks with Israel stalled.

Palestinians are listed as a UN observer “entity” with no voting rights. They will ask to be made a non-mem-ber observer state at the UN General Assembly on Sep-tember 27, Foreign Minister Riyad al Malki said here.

Such status, akin to the Vatican’s, would be an in-direct recognition of their claims on statehood in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip. It would al-low them to join a number of UN agencies, as well as the International Criminal Court. The Palestinians say Israeli settlement-building has stymied prospects for a bilateral statehood deal.

— Reuters

New UN statusbeing sought

BAGHDAD — Hamed al Mutlak, an MP and brother to one of Iraq’s deputy prime ministers, said he survived a roadside bomb attack west of Baghdad yesterday that wounded at least one of his guards.

“A roadside bomb explod-ed on the main road in Abu Ghraib when we passed,” Mutlak, an MP in the secu-lar Iraqiya bloc, said, adding that one of his bodyguards was lightly wounded.

An interior ministry of-cial con rmed the attack,

saying the bomb exploded while Mutlak’s convoy passed Al Nasr Wa al Salam village in the Abu Ghraib area, putting the toll at two guards wounded.

It was unclear if the at-tack was aimed at Mutlak personally, or if his con-voy was just a target ofopportunity for insurgents. — AFP

MP survives bomb blast

OMAN DAILY Observer

10INDIASUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

By Ashraf Padanna

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM — A court in Kerala has denied bail to senior Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) leader P Jayarajan, who was arrested last week for the killing of a student leader of a rival party.

First Class Judicial Magis-trate Mujib Rahman rejected the bail plea of the CPM Kan-nur district secretary who was a member of the Kerala Legislative Assembly for two consecutive terms, admitting the prosecution's argument that he would destroy evi-dence and influence witnesses if set free.

The magistrate remanded him in judicial custody and sent to the Central Prison in Kannur after the police prob-ing the killing of Abdul Shuk-koor, 21, a Muslim Student Federation (MSF) functionary, arraigned him as an accused

along with young legislator T V Rajesh and 37 others.

"My point was that the case against him was fabricated by political rivals to tarnish him, which the court rejected. My client would appeal against it and move his bail application in the high court on Monday," his lawyer B P Shasheendran said. The HC will also con-sider Rajesh's anticipatory bail tomorrow.

The lawyer also argued that the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) was angry at Jayarajan for complaining to the district police chief against collecting money after Shuk-koor's killing. Besides, he told the court, Jayarajan had spo-ken in public against the 'mafia' model activities of K Sudhaka-ran, the Congress lawmaker from Kannur.

The lawyer submitted that Jayarajan, maimed by the Hin-du extremists in an attempt on

his life 14 years back, is not in a position to conduct himself and pressure on him could ag-gravate his heart problems.

Pointing out that there were 157 cases of violence regis-tered by the police in the dis-trict after the arrest and several police persons and their houses were attacked, the special pub-lic prosecutor, C K Sreedharan, argued that his release would escalate the violence and he should not be given bail since investigations were still on.

According to the remand report submitted by the police while producing Jayarajan in the court, he was witness in his hospital room to the party's lo-cal committee chief U V Venu giving instruction to others on telephone that IUML workers were detained at Keezhara, a party stronghold, and they should be 'handled properly". He did nothing to save the life of the student.

CPM leader denied bail

NEW DELHI — India's gov-ernment has cleared plans to put an orbital probe around Mars next year to study the red planet's climate and geol-ogy, a report said yesterday.

The mission would mark another step in India's am-bitious space programme, which placed a probe on the moon three years ago and en-visages its first manned mis-sion in 2016.

A cabinet meeting late on Friday approved the mission as India aims to cement its reputation as a serious play-er in the space industry, the Press Trust of India quoted an unnamed official in the prime minister's office as saying.

The Indian Space Re-search Organisation (Isro) is expected to launch the Mars Orbiter as early as November next year, the semi-official news agency said.

The unmanned Mars mis-

sion, which will study the red planet's atmosphere, will be launched by an Isro rocket.

The cost of the mission, approved by the cabinet meeting headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is estimated to be Rs 4-5 billion ($70-90 million), ac-cording to an Isro official.

The reported approval of the Indian mission comes as the United States expects to land tomorrow its most advanced robotic rover to hunt for clues about past life and water on Earth's nearest planetary neighbour.

India will be the sixth country to launch a mission to Mars after the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and China.

In September 2009, In-dia's Chandrayaan-1 lunar probe discovered water on the moon, boosting the coun-try's credibility among estab-lished space-faring nations.

But the space programme suffered a setback in Decem-ber 2010 when a satellite launch vehicle blew up and fell into the Bay of Bengal after veering from its intend-ed flight path.

Plans for the Mars mis-sion come as India's govern-ment has been under pres-sure to concentrate on other issues such as massive power shortages and improving the nation's creaking roads, ports and other infrastructure.

Earlier in the week, mon-ster blackouts on two consec-utive days knocked out elec-trical power for vast swathes of the country.

India, which kicked off its space programme in 1963 and has developed its own satellites and launch vehi-cles to reduce dependence on overseas agencies, plans to launch its maiden manned space flight later in the dec-ade. — AFP

Green signal for mission to Mars

DARJEELING — As the newly-elected members of the Gorkha Territorial Administra-tion were sworn in yesterday, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as-sured all kinds of support to the newly formed autonomous hill agency.

The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) on Thursday swept the polls to the newly formed Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), captur-ing all 45 seats in the Darjeel-ing hills governing council.

"I congratulate the mem-bers of newly formed GTA. I assure all of you that we will extend all kinds of sup-port. We will give you Rs 200 crore every year for next three years. If more money is need-

ed for development, we will give you," said Shinde at the swearing-in ceremony.

GJM supremo Bimal Gu-rung was sworn in as the chief executive of the GTA.

Shinde also assured the new administration that the youngsters of Darjeeling will get relaxations in physical norms laid down for recruit-ment to posts of constables in central police forces.

The long-standing agita-tion on the demand for form-ing a separate state out of the northern West Bengal hills has led to loss of many lives over the past two decades, besides hitting hard the region's eco-nomic mainstays of tea, tim-ber and tourism.

On July 18 last year, a tri-partite agreement was signed

between the GJM, and the state and central governments for setting up a new autonomous, elected GTA, a hill council armed with more powers than its predecessor, the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council formed in the late 1980s.

"You should work hard for the development of hills, the state government is there al-ways with you. We will build a university here in Darjeeling, the hospital will also be reno-vated here," said Banerjee.

"Whatever you have to ask from me you can, but please don't quarrel. We will all stay together like one family," she said. The process of elections to the 45 GTA seats, held on July 29, came to an end on Thursday with GJM emerging victorious. — IANS

GTA members sworn in HYDERABAD — Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor D Subbarao yesterday said the Indian banks will have to raise an additional capital of Rs 1.6 trillion to Rs 1.75 trillion by March 2018 to conform to the Basel-III capital adequacy norms.

"Our own estimate shows that after accounting for what-ever banks will generate by way of internal accruals and interest earnings, the banks should raise an additional capi-tal of Rs 1.6 to 1.75 trillion," he said while speaking on risk management at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies here.

Developed by the Basel Committee on Banking Su-pervision, Basel-III is a set of reform measures to consolidate

the regulation, supervision and risk management of the bank-ing sector. The reforms are aimed at propping up the bank-ing sector's ability to absorb shocks arising from financial and economic stress and im-prove risk management.

The RBI has set a deadline of March 2018 for Indian banks to complete their conformation to the Basel-III norms.

The RBI governor said the Indian banking sector could raise the additional capital and pointed out that the Indian bank-ing system as a whole raised Rs 500 billion from the market during the last five years.

"Can public sectors banks raise the additional capital," he asked while noting that 70 per cent of Indian banking is in public sector.

Subbarao said given the constraints of government be-cause of fiscal deficit, it would be difficult for the government to infuse the additional capital. "There will alternatives before the government either to reduce shareholding to 50 per cent or change public sector banking or restrict its expansion."

"Private banks can probably raise the additional capital," he said.

The RBI governor said Ba-sel-III raised the cost of credit when the economy needs more credit. "The demand for credit is going to go up. Credit GDP ratio is something like 25 per cent today. The banking system has to supply the credit."

He said the demand for credit would also go up as the country was shifting from serv-

ices to manufacturing sector. "The manufacturing sector

is more credit-intensive. We need to be focusing on manu-facturing because you cannot accelerate from current level of 6.5 per cent to 7,8,9 and even 10 per cent without a focus on manufacturing. You can-not provide jobs to hundreds of millions of people who are going to be released by agricul-ture sector in the other sectors unless you focus on manufac-turing," he said.

The governor noted that the world has been going through crisis for last four years and there are a lot of lessons emerg-ing from it. Stating that the fi-nancial stability is important, Subbaro said over last four years, they have seen financial instability taking a devastating

toll on growth and welfare. "We thought that as an

emerging economy, we are decoupled from the advanced economies. Because of our re-forms, financial sector being more resilient, industrial sec-tor growing, foreign exchange reserves are sufficient but the crisis has proved decoupling is a myth."

"In a rapidly globalising world, national and interna-tional stability are interlinked. If there is financial instability anywhere in the world it will hit you no matter how much you protect your financial sys-tem. We have seen the evidence of this in our own country over last four years how financial sector affected by what is hap-pening around the world," he added. — IANS

Banks need to raise Rs 1.75 tn capital by 2018

ALAPPUZHA — They're 120 to 140 feet long, are manned by 120 oarsmen and have at-tracted global attention. When they race furiously through the backwaters here on August 11, the snake boats will not only vie for the Nehru Trophy — which itself has an interesting history — and a Rs 500,000 cash reward but also herald the beginning of Kerala's new tourism season.

The 16 snake-boats are the pick of some 100-odd boats that will be seen during the event but they alone will be competing for the Nehru Tro-phy, now in its 60th edition. The other boats will be eligible for a different set of prizes.

Four other snake-boats will be on display at the event, as would, for the first time, four dragon boats, said Tomy Pu-likattil, one of the organisers of the event.

"Boat races have now be-

come the most talked about event by tourists across the globe. The most common question asked by tourists is whether boat races will be hap-pening when they visit Kerala," Pulikattil said.

Kerala's tourist season be-gins in the second week of August, peaks towards the end of December and continues till the end of January.

Tourism Minister A P Anil Kumar said that boat race has now become one of the most popular events for tourists.

"Historically and tradition-ally, boat races were mainly centred in districts of Alap-puzha, Kollam and Kottayam. The popularity of this event has now spread to other dis-tricts and we are now planning to have more boat races in dis-tricts like Thrissur, Kozhikode and Kannur," Kumar said.

Seeing the popularity of the Nehru Boat Race, the state

government has extended addi-tional financial benefits for it.

"This time the bonus given to the oarsmen has been hiked by 25 per cent. As a result, the best snake-boat's team in the race will get up to Rs 5 lakh," said Pulikattil.

The history of the boat race dates to 1952 when the then prime minister, Jawaharlal Ne-hru, visited Kerala and a flo-tilla of boats accompanied him from Kottayam to Alappuzha. An impromptu race was then conducted in Nehru's honour and he was so thrilled by the performance of the oarsmen that he jumped into one of the boats.

On returning to Delhi, Ne-hru donated a silver trophy and a replica of a snake-boat mounted on a wooden abacus with an inscription and his sig-nature. This is the trophy that the winner of the snake-boat race is awarded. — IANS

Nehru Boat Race to herald Kerala’s new tourist season

COLOMBO — India will set up three more investment and manufacturing zones this month, taking the total number of such zones in the country to 15, union Com-merce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said yester-day.

“Three more National Manufacturing and Invest-ment Zones will be notified taking the total number of NMIZs to 15,” Sharma, who is on an official visit to Sri Lanka, told reporters here.

One new manufactur-ing and investment zone will be in Andhra Pradesh, while two will be set up in Karnataka, according to a statement by the ministry of commerce and industry.

NMIZs will be mega in-dustrial zones with world-class supporting infrastruc-ture. — IANS

3 investment zones planned

NEW DELHI — A Delhi court yesterday granted bail to former union health minis-ter Anbumani Ramadoss and eight other accused in a cor-ruption case of illegally giv-ing permission to a medical college to admit students.

Central Bureau of Inves-tigation (CBI) Special Judge Talwant Singh granted bail to all nine accused, considering that they co-operated during the investigation.

The court asked them to furnish a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh each with a surety of similar amount.

"Keeping in view that the accused persons have co-operated during the inves-tigation and they were not arrested during the investiga-tion and the charge sheet has

already been filed, and the material relied upon by the CBI has already been filed in the court, all the accused are entitled to bail on a per-sonal bond of Rs 1 lakh with a surety of the like amount," the court said.

The former health minis-ter was facing charges of al-legedly granting permission to admit students to the med-ical college which did not have sufficient faculty mem-bers or clinical infrastructure to run the course.

According to the charge sheet filed by the CBI in April, Ramadoss abused his official position to grant per-mission to the Indore-based institution to admit students although it lacked adequate facilities.

The Medical Council of India and a panel appointed by the Supreme Court said that the Indore-based Index Medical College Hospital and Research Centre (IM-CHRC) lacked sufficient faculty and clinical material required as per the norms, it said.

The court also granted bail to Cabinet Secretariat di-rector K V S Rao, health and family welfare ministry sec-tion officer Sudershan Kumar and Safdarjung Hospital's J S Dhupia and Dipendra Kumar Gupta.

The court also granted bail to former dean of IMCHRC S K Tongia, medical director of the college K K Saxena and Nitin Gothwal and Pa-wan Bhambani. — IANS

Ramadoss, 8 others get bail in corruption case

BOYS play soccer on Marina beach in Chennai yesterday. — Reuters

BOATMEN with their families row past water lilies in Dal Lake as it rains in Srinagar yesterday. — Reuters

NEW DELHI — A del-egation of Left party lead-ers yesterday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to demand universal distri-bution of excess food stock to check rising prices of es-sential commodities.

Communist Party of In-dia-Marxist leader Prakash Karat, Communist Party of India's S Sudhakar Reddy, Forward Bloc's Debabrata Biswas and Revolution-ary Socialist Party's (RSP) Abani Roy met Manmohan Singh at his residence.

The meeting comes after a five-day protest held by four parties demanding food security for all.

"Around five crore tonnes of surplus stocks are availa-ble in government godowns (warehouses). These should be distributed universally," said Karat. — IANS

‘Distribute excess food’

AHMEDABAD — Former Gujarat chief minister Kes-hubhai Patel resigned from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yesterday and is expected to announce a new party soon ahead of the state assembly polls.

Announcing his decision in Gandhinagar, Patel said everyone is unhappy with the way the BJP was functioning in Gujarat. "People are un-happy with the government of Narendra Modi. No one listens to the common peo-ple, there is no sympathy for them."

Patel and former union minister Kanshiram Rana sent in their resignation letters to the party high command. Earlier, Patel held a meeting with Rana and another former Gujarat chief minister, Suresh Mehta, at his residence.

Patel, who has a large fol-lowing in the Saurashtra re-gion, is expected to announce a new party today. — IANS

Keshubhai quits BJP

OMAN DAILY Observer

11INDIASUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

NEW DELHI — At least 10 people were killed and more than 50 went missing as flash floods and landslides hit India's northern mountainous state of Uttarakhand, officials and me-dia said yesterday.

The floods came after a cloudburst in the Uttarkashi district swept away homes, bridges, and a large portion of the main highway in the region late on Friday.

"At least seven people, in-cluding three fire service per-sonnel, were killed in the floods and landslides since Friday night," an inspector at the police control room in Uttarkashi said by phone.

"We also have reports of three deaths in similar inci-dents in the adjoining district of Chamoli," he said.

Meanwhile, broadcaster CNN-IBN reported that more than 50 people were still miss-

ing in the flood-hit areas as disaster management personnel braved heavy rains to carry out rescue and relief work.

Local authorities estimated that 2,000 people were affected, many of whom had sought ref-uge in government-run shelters. Hundreds of pilgrims were also left stranded.

With levels of the state's Bhagirathi and Ganga rivers on the rise and the regional weather bureau forecasting heavy rains until today, local agencies were placed on high alert.

Meanwhile, the Srinagar-Jammu highway was closed yesterday following landslides in Ramban sector.

“Heavy rains triggered land-slides in the Ramban sector of the Srinagar-Jammu road Sat-urday morning,” a senior police officer said.

“The vehicular movement on the over 300-km long road

has been stopped for safety of passengers and vehicles. At-tempts are on to clear the road,” the officer said.

“Intending travellers are advised to contact the traffic control rooms in Srinagar and Jammu before undertaking the journey,” he added.

All essential supplies to the valley, including petroleum products, cooking gas, food-stuffs and other commodi-ties, are brought into Kashmir along the Jammu-Srinagar highway.

Meanwhile, hundreds of vehicles were stranded on the Manali-Rohtang Pass highway due to massive landslides trig-gered by a cloudburst near pic-turesque resort of Manali, an official said yesterday. No casu-alties was reported.

“The highway has been blocked at a number of places. Work has been on to reopen it,”

Deputy Commissioner Amitabh Awasthi said on phone.

He said a cloudburst occurred in the Rohtang tunnel area near Dhundi, 25 km from Manali, around 10 pm on Friday, dam-aging two balley bridges near Palchan and Dhundi villages.

“The bridges and some por-tion of the highway between Palchan and Dhundi have been washed away. The total loss to property is estimated Rs 6-7 crore,” he added.

Awasthi said more than 150 vehicles have been stranded on the highway. “All the passen-gers are safe and it would take two to three days to restore the traffic between the Manali and the Rohtang Pass.”

Ved Thakur, president of gram panchayat of Shanag, the village near the disaster spot, said locals are working with the administration in the relief op-eration.

Rescue workers said more than 80 hutments of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), an inter-services organisation un-der the defence ministry, were washed away.

Even the BRO machinery, which is deployed for the con-struction of the Rohtang tunnel, was damaged.

Over 350 BRO person-nel and experts from Germany and Austria have been working round the clock to construct the 8.8 km horseshoe shaped Ro-htang tunnel. The work began in June 2010.

Cloudbursts are a common occurrence in India's mountain-ous states during the country's monsoon season between June and September.

More than 400 people have died during the current mon-soon season across India, ac-cording to the federal Home Ministry. — Agencies

PANAJI — In order to en-sure that fish continues to be available in the quintessential Goan thali (plate), it has now been decided to extend the ban on fishing in Goa's sea waters to 70-75 days, as the government steps up effort to stave off a fish famine.

Goa Chief Minister Parri-kar said that fishermen, who use traditional means to har-vest fish, could be compen-sated by the state government for not being allowed to enter into the sea during the pro-posed extended ban period, which currently is 45 days.

"To maintain the fish catch, a minimum of 70-75 days to-tal fishing ban will have to be maintained. We can also give the traditional fishermen compensation in order not to go out to sea," Parrikar said, adding that it was imperative to maintain the carrying ca-

pacity of the seas off Goa and stave off fish famine.

Parrikar has also warned that the unit of the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) stationed in Goa would be used to en-sure that trawlers from the neighbouring states of Karna-taka and Maharashtra do not fish in the state's already fish-depleted waters.

Currently, Goa bans fish-ing from June 15 to July 31 for a period of 45 days. But the ban applies only to heavy duty mechanised fishing, while traditional fishermen are still allowed to venture out into the sea.

According to the state gov-ernment's Economic Survey (ES) report, the state's fish haul has reduced drastically from 1.03 lakh tonnes in 2005 to 80,680 tonnes in 2009 from a peak of a whopping 9.9 lakh tonnes in 2004-05.

"With the total fish pro-duction in the state crossing maximum sustainable yield (MSY), there is a need to re-strict the fishing efforts in the coastal waters of the state," the report stated.

"With the fish and fishing product decreasing day by day, all efforts are being made to provide the infrastructure needed at the landing centres so as to minimise the port har-vest losses," it adds.

Leading marine biologist Baban Ingole, a chief scien-tist at the Goa-based National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), has warned that a combination of the state's burgeoning fishing trawler industry, pollution and cli-mate change was resulting in the fish being driven off the Goa coast, resulting in a fish famine in the entire region. — IANS

10 killed in flash floods in northern region

Goa extends ban on fishing

PUNE — Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan reviewed here yesterday the investigations into the serial bomb blasts which rocked the city three days ago.

Chavan, who visited the city for the first time since the four low-intensity blasts on Wednesday evening in which one person was in-jured, held discussions with police officials and the in-vestigating agencies.

"I cannot comment any-thing on the matter as the investigations are still under way," Chavan said after the meeting.

The chief minister's re-view came two days after state's Home Minister R R Patil visited the spots of the blasts on the busy Junglee Maharaj Road.

Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde would visit Pune to assess the situa-tion arising out of the blasts.

GURGAON — A group of trade unions yesterday demanded withdrawal of the lockout at Maruti Su-zuki's Manesar plant and a CBI probe into the July 18 violence at the unit that led to the death of a senior ex-ecutive, and left over 100 injured.

A co-ordination com-mittee, including four trade unions and factory leaders, was formed to look into the matter. Maruti's Gurgaon plant union leader Kuldeep Janghu said that there could be a conspiracy behind the Manesar violence.

He said that an inquiry by the special investigation team was not enough and de-manded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe.

Workers said that they would meet Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Tuesday. — IANS

COLOMBO — The Indian government may change the definition of small and medium enterprises (SME) to facilitate investments from Swedish furniture gi-ant IKEA, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said yesterday.

"Definition of SME may require change," Sharma, who is on an official visit to Sri Lanka, told reporters when asked whether the gov-ernment would tweak policy to facilitate investments from IKEA.

IKEA is the world's larg-est furniture maker and has announced $1.9 billion in-vestment for opening 25 re-tail stores in India.

However, the Swedish firm has been pressing for changes in regulation be-

fore the actual investment is made. It has called for change in definition of SMEs.

Under the current norm, firms with an investment of upto $1 million are consid-ered SMEs.

If IKEA opens its store in India, it will be required to source a particular amount of materials from small and medium enterprises.

The Swedish firm argues that once it starts sourcing from an SME, the profit and size of those firms might grow rapidly and as a result it might not be considered an SME.

Sharma said the Depart-ment of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) was working on the issue and would bring more clarity on it soon. — IANS

Blasts: Chavan examines probe

Call to end Maruti lockout

‘Definition of SMEs may require change’

NEW DELHI — The Delhi High Court has ruled that students should neither be de-prived of their right to educa-tion on bonafide mistakes nor penalised to the extent that their admission is cancelled.

Bonafide mistakes of students while submitting entrance form online can be ignored, said the court, partic-ularly if the students belonged to areas where proper compu-ter and Internet facilities were unavailable, and more so when they had secured a seat in the entrance exam.

Justice G S Sistani, allow-ing a student from Haryana to join the National Institute of Technology (NIT), has observed that bonafide mis-take of the student cannot be penalised to the extent that the admission granted to him should be cancelled.

The court's observation came while hearing a plea filed by Rohit Yadav who, while applying online for AIEEE 2012 (All India En-gineering Entrance Examina-tion) conducted by the CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) filled up the wrong date of birth mistakenly.

Yadav, after clearing AIEEE, secured a seat in NIT. But the institute denied him admission citing variance in date of birth.

The court, passing the or-der, said: "Having regard to the facts of this case, I am of the view that on account of the bonafide mistake of the petitioner (Yadav), the peti-tioner cannot be penalised to the extent that the admission granted to him should be can-celled".

The court observed that

"on account of this mistake to debar him would amount to travesty of justice".

"The petitioner had no intention to mislead the NIT or gain any unfair advantage. The certificate from CBSE is a genuine document. Thus the petitioner cannot be de-barred," the order said.

Justice Sistani mentioned that students from villages that do not get continuous electricity cannot be deprived of their right to education.

"The court cannot lose track of the fact that Delhi is not India. There are lakhs of students in rural areas, like the petitioner herein, who have the potential, and the students from rural back-ground are not less intelligent than the students from afflu-ent background," the court said. — IANS

Court: can’t deny education to students on bonafide mistakes

NEW DELHI — India's eco-nomic growth could slip to near six per cent this year with the country facing the spectre of its third drought in a decade, a top government policymaker says.

In the last few months, the outlook for once-booming In-dia has worsened with high inflation, steep interest rates, a ballooning deficit, nosediving business confidence, a falling currency and now growing worry of drought.

"If we factor in that agricul-ture which will not be strong ... (growth) will be closer to six per cent" for the fiscal year to March 2013, Planning Com-mission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia told reporters in New Delhi.

His forecast, delivered on Friday, is down from the 6.5 per cent expansion India notched up last year, and far below the close to 10 per cent expansion seen during a good part of the past decade.

It comes as private econo-mists also pare their growth es-timates for Asia's third-largest economy, citing concern about "deficient" monsoon rains that sweep India from June to Sep-tember.

A survey of economists and industry leaders by the Associ-ated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, released yesterday, said the weak mon-soon and a deteriorating global situation were expected to cut growth to between 6 and 6.3 per cent.

The projections are far be-low the 7.6 per cent expansion initially seen in the Congress-led government's March budg-et and the 6.5 per cent growth forecast by India's central bank earlier in the week.

While around six per cent growth is still much faster than most other nations, the left-leaning government says much more rapid expansion is needed to lift hundreds of mil-lions of Indians out of crush-

ing poverty.The weather office has

forecast the rains will be "15 per cent deficient" during the monsoon period which would spell drought.

A countrywide drought is declared if rainfall drops below 90 per cent of average annual levels. In 2009 and in 2002, India was hit by drought, bringing misery to farmers and driving up food prices.

Already "the drought in Maharashtra is the worst in last 20 years, the Gujarat drought is the worst in last 25 years and the Karnataka drought is the worst in last 40 years," Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said.

Farming's contribution to gross domestic product has fallen from 50 per cent in the 1950s to some 15 per cent but remains key by supporting 700 million rural Indians and fuel-ling demand for everything from TVs to motorcycles and gold. — AFP

Growth seen lower as rains play truant

MUMBAI — India's foreign exchange (forex) reserves grew by $1.31 billion to $288.64 billion for the week ended July 27, 2012, Re-serve Bank of India (RBI) data showed. The forex had earlier risen by $589 million to $287.34 billion for the week ended July 20, 2012.

The country's forex re-serves had declined by $872.7 million in the week ended July 13, 2012.

Foreign currency assets, the biggest component of the forex reserves kitty, in-creased by $1.29 billion to $256.39 billion for the week under review, according to weekly statistical supple-ment released by the RBI.

The foreign currency as-sets had risen by $565.5 mil-lion to $255.10 billion for the week ended June 20.

Forex reserves up by $1.31 bn

A BRIDGE built over a stream leading to the river Tawi is damaged by flash floods on the outskirts of Jammu yesterday. — Reuters

RANCHI — In a joint op-eration with paramilitary troopers, Jharkhand Police recovered 130 landmines yesterday from the state's Jharkhand's Seraikela-Kharsawan district, police said.

"On a tip-off, the land-mines were recovered from Chauka area of Seraikela-Kharsawan district. The landmines were planted in a one-km area along the roadside in a series con-nected with wires," a po-lice official said.

Police suspect it to be a handiwork of the Maoist activists, who are active in 18 of the 24 districts of the state.

The the bomb disposal squad was called in to de-fuse the mines, the official said. — IANS

130 landmines recovered

A PHOTOGRAPHER lifts a fake tiger used as a prop at the Table Top tourist destination at Saputara, some 400 km from Ahmedabad, yesterday. The one-month long ‘Saputara Monsoon Festival’, Gujarat’s only hill station, began yesterday.

NEW DELHI — The su-preme Court yesterday was moved seeking the review of its judgement quashing the first information report (FIR) registered by the CBI against former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati in an ille-gal assets case in 2003.

Pointing to the errors in the verdict quashing the FIR in the case against Mayawati, Kamlesh Verma, an intervener in the case, sought the review of the decision.

Verma said that he moved court because the Central Bu-reau of Investigation (CBI) had made it known that they were not exercising the op-tion.

The apex court bench of Justice P Sathasivam and Jus-tice Dipak Misra on July 6 quashed the CBI FIR against Mayawati holding that the

"impugned FIR is without jurisdiction and any investiga-tion pursuant thereto is illegal and liable to be quashed, ac-cordingly quashed".

The court upheld Maya-wati's contention that the FIR filed against her by the CBI was malafide and the misread-ing of the apex court's orders in the Taj corridor Case.

Mayawati wanted to devel-op the Taj corridor, an 80-acre wasteland sandwiched be-tween the Taj Mahal and Agra Fort, as a commercial hub and amusement park.

But as archaeologists did not clear the project, the apex court ordered its suspension in 2003.

Verma, who has moved the court seeking the review of its July 6 verdict, was an inter-vener in the appeal filed by the Mayawati seeking the quash-

ing of the FIR by the CBI.He contended that the court

had not considered that once the investigating agency had filed the chargesheet then any challenge to it was rendered redundant.

"Public policy required that even if there was some technical flaw in the investiga-tion, the same could not have been given precedence over the overwhelming evidence collected by the CBI against Mayawati," Verma said in his review petition.

"When it was not the case of the petitioner (Mayawati) that no offence is made out of the evidence collected by the CBI, this court could not have simply let the accused go scot-free, thus rendering the evidence nothing more than bundles of waste paper," the petition said. — IANS.

Plea in apex court seeks review of quashing FIR against Maya

OMAN DAILY Observer

12ANALYSIS/OPINIONSUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

SUPPORTERS of Anna Hazare wave national ags at the India Gate in New Delhi on Thursday. — Reuters

By J T Nguyen

KOFI Annan's resig-nation last week as international envoy

to Syria has underlined the United Nations failure to stop the con ict in Syria.

On the day that the UN General Assembly, impatient with the unrestrained escalation of the con ict, blamed the Security Council for inaction, diplomats re ected the growing sense of doom over Syria.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon warned that Syria faces the "grim possibility of long-term civil war," which he called an "avoidable... catastrophe" had the Syrian government listened to demands for reform in 2011.

French Ambassador Gerard Araud, president of the Security Council in August, was asked last Friday if Annan's resignation was the result of UN inability.

"Unfortunately yes, you can draw a conclusion from that decision," he said.

"The Council had been blocked by three vetoes from Russia and China when it tried to promote a political process to put an end to the con ict," Araud said in the transcript of an interview released by the French mission to the UN.

Annan was not supported by the divided council, now "deadlocked" on Syria, Araud noted.

Annan's resignation takes effect on August 31. Diplomats said that diplomacy may be put on hold until a capable replacement is found.

But there is no certainty the momentum generated by Annan's six-point plan in April could be relaunched, given the escalation of violence.

"For the moment, let's be clear, there is no diplomacy, no political process in Syria," Araud said.

France, the United States, Britain, Germany and Portugal — the Western nations in the 15-nation Council — have been stopped by Russia and China in their efforts to promote a political process and implement Annan's six-point plan, which included a cease re.

Araud said that if Washington implements a reported authorisation by US President Barack Obama

for the CIA to clandestinely assist Syria's opposition, this would not impede the political process because, in fact, there is none at present.

The UN General Assembly, a sort of legislature for the UN, blamed the Security Council for the failure in Syria as it met last Friday to vote on a second resolution this year to condemn the violence. Its president, Nassir Abdulaziz al Nasser, said the Council's failure hurt UN credibility.

"The deadlock in the Security Council sends the wrong signals to all parties in the Syrian con ict," Al Nasser said.

Ban told the assembly that he was discussing with the Arab League a successor to Annan who, he said, had been spurned by the Syrian parties, and "the sharp differences in the Security Council... made Annan's work more dif cult."

Russia and China, which vetoed three UN Security Council resolutions on Syria in the past year, joined 12 countries that voted against the resolution in the General Assembly. The resolution passed 133-12, with 31 abstentions.

The resolution strongly condemned the continued and widespread violence in Syria and called for a Syria-led political transition in Damascus.

Following a stormy closed-door meeting late last Thursday, Council members appeared to be inclined to terminate the mandate of the UN Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) when it expires on August 20. The remaining 150 UN observers, down from 300 a month ago, had been severely restrained in their tasks by the intensi ed ghting.

The UN may opt for a some kind of presence in Syria following the departure of the observers, in order to assist delivery of humanitarian supplies to more than 2 million Syrians affected by the con ict.

"Beyond that (after UNSMIS), it will be up to the Security Council to decide," said Herve Ladsous, the chief of UN peacekeeping operations.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross appealed to all parties in the con ict to respect international humanitarian law.

By Mauricio Weibel

THE dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-

1990) systematically spied on foreign media correspondents in Chile. Previously unpublished documents from the secret services and several ministries establish that the 1973-90 military regime watched over the reporting on Chile by journalists from around the world. They reveal yet another layer of Pinochet's dictatorial rule, under which tens of thousands were killed, imprisoned and tortured.

A single memorandum of November 2, 1976 mentions as many as 761 correspondents from the United States, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Argentina, Brazil and Israel whose work was to be observed.

"When I returned to Chile, the secret services knew everything I had been doing outside the country," said Carlos Dorat, a former correspondent in Chile and former vice-president of the Foreign Correspondents Association in the South American country.

Dorat lived until 1984 in England, where he studied and was active in the Chilean exile community.

The former secretary-general of the Chilean Presidency, general Hernan Mejares, warned in 1975 about the reporting of correspondents for the US networks CBS and NBC.

"All the background leads to the belief that their purpose would be to work on a feature on Chile that is deliberately unfavourable," Mejares told foreign minister Patricio Carvajal.

However, Mejares further noted that banning their entry to the country would prompt "negative reactions" and should therefore be avoided.

In order to combat the "international campaign against Chile," the head of the secret service, general Manuel Contreras, distributed in late 1976 to Chilean embassies around the world 600 positive pro les of Pinochet which described him as "soldier and statesman."

Contreras also proposed in June 1975 the so-called Plan Epsilon, in order to neutralise international reports on human rights violations in Chile.

UN inaction to stop violence

A secret war on media

By Amulya Ganguli

AS if low growth, high in ation and a poor monsoon were not enough trouble for the Indian

government headed by Manmohan Singh, it faced further problems with an outbreak of ethnic and communal violence in Asom, massive power cuts on two successive days and a series of bomb blasts in Pune, which were evidently the handiwork of a terrorist group. Mercifully, the blasts' intensity was low key and so only one person was injured.

The violence in Asom was a throw-back to the communal and parochial clashes of the 1980s when the state was in the throes of an agitation. Although it was at the time directed mainly against the illegal immigrants.

While the in ux of the Bengali-speaking peasants from the east into Asom is a century-old process, it ac-quired a communal overtone in the 1980s because of the growth of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) in u-ence on the middle class Assamese.

This time, it is the Bodo tribals who have clashed with the immigrants. As the violence continued for several days, claiming more than 40 lives, the centre came under attack from the Congress's own chief minister, Tarun Gogoi, for not responding quickly enough to his request for sending the army.

Subsequently, when the then home minister, P Chidambaram, vis-ited the relief camps, he was booed. Chidambaram has since become the

nance minister, but the episode is evi-dently a blot on the capabilities of the

centre, already under attack for a long time for policy paralysis.

But, even as Asom simmered down, there was no respite for the Manmohan Singh government since northern, east-ern and north-eastern India experienced prolonged periods of blackouts because of the tripping of the power lines. The outage was said to have been caused by the overdrawing of power by several states, mainly Uttar Pradesh, which has denied the charge.

But the plunge into darkness also underlined the yawning gap between demand and supply, pointing to a fail-ure to build up installed capacity, which portends ill for the future.

The indignation caused by darkened homes, stalled long-distance and metro trains, disruption of hospital services and other hardships was accentuated by the almost immediate "promotion" of the Power Minister, Sushilkumar

Shinde, to the powerful home ministry.Since the seemingly unwarranted

elevation denoted to most people the rewarding of loyalty at the expense of merit, the step further undermined the government's position. To make mat-ters worse, Shinde, who is a Dalit, lost no time in playing identity politics by heaping praise on the Nehru-Gandhi family, which, he said, "has always tak-en care of the welfare of the backward castes" and that the "Dalits can always take bigger responsibility".

The future will show whether Shinde can live up to this claim, but what his observation con rms is that he looks to the Congress's rst family for his upward mobility rather than to the prime minister.

He is fortunate that he is succeed-ing Chidambaram, whose tenure in the home ministry (after the stint of Shivraj Patil, to quote Wikileaks) has

been marked by welcome initiatives in setting up the National Investiga-tion Agency (NIA) and the National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC) although the latter has been stalled by non-Congress states on the ground that it violates the federal concept.

The Pune bomb blasts have been seen as a reminder by the terrorists to the new home minister that they have not faded away after the Mumbai may-hem of November 26, 2008, and the German bakery blasts in Pune of Febru-ary 13, 2010. After his forgettable spell at the power ministry, and the fact that his name cropped up in relation to the Adarsh housing society scam, Shinde is beginning what is undoubtedly his most important assignment till now.

The changes in the home and -nance ministries have been neces-sitated by the elevation of the former

nance minister, Pranab Mukherjee, to the president's post. It is possible that Chidambaram's assumption of the -nance portfolio will be welcomed by the investors.

But it is too early to say how effec-tive he will be in reviving the "animal spirits" in the business environment, as promised by Manmohan Singh during the few days he acted as nance minis-ter after Mukherjee stepped down.

After Asom, Pune and the power failures, the only good news for the government is Anna Hazare's decision to call off the fasts of his own and some of his colleagues. The tepid response to his agitation may have persuaded Anna not only to end the fasts but even to an-nounce the decision that his movement will assume a political colour.

No end to India’s woes

By W G Dunlop

A WAVE of brazen at-tacks killed dozens of Iraqi soldiers, police

and anti-Qaeda ghters in re-cent days, but security forces say it pales in comparison with the worst years of violence in the country.

At least 49 security forces personnel have been killed and 39 wounded in at least 18 separate shootings and bomb-ings since July 31, and some security forces positions in Baghdad remain strikingly ex-posed to attack.

Most of the violence target-ed police or army patrols and checkpoints, though some at-tacks were against more heav-ily guarded facilities.

Gunmen attempted to use bombs to breach a prison gate in Taji, north of Baghdad, last Wednesday, and employed similar tactics on the anti-ter-rorism directorate in the capi-tal the day before, which the Interior Ministry said was an attempt to free inmates.

While security forces were killed, the attackers appar-ently failed to free any of the detainees. Though there has been a heavy toll from the attacks, members of the se-curity forces in Baghdad said they have been through worse. Death tolls for some months in

2006, 2007 and 2008 reached more than 1,000 people killed, according to of cial gures, which by comparison put the July 2012 toll at 325.

"There is not any fear, be-cause we lived through the hardest days in 2004 and 2005 and 2006, which was when we had the most violence, and at-tacks were 80 per cent more than what is happening now," said a 28-year-old who has been in the federal police for seven years.

"The security situation now is much better than in past years, when we were never able to go out wearing military uniforms," said the policeman.

"The security situation now

is much better compared to 2007 or before," a 33-year-old federal policeman at a nearby store said.

"The terrorists are trying to cause gaps in the security forc-es," said the policeman, who joined the force eight years ago, adding that "we do not have any fear or concern, and we are stronger than them."

And Iraqi army Sergeant Ahmed Hussein, a 30-year-old who said he joined the mili-tary eight years ago, insisted that "terrorism never shakes me, and the recent attacks do not plant any fear or confusion among the security members."

"The aim of striking the security forces is targeting the country," Hussein said.

Despite the increased at-tacks against security forces, some of their positions in Baghdad remain woefully ex-posed.

One federal police check-point on a road to the anti-terrorism directorate, which was attacked just days before, consisted of a line of junk spanning the street — a pile of tyres, a plastic chair weighted with a stone, a small metal ta-ble, and a coil of barbed wire strung with plastic bags and other trash.

The position, which offered almost no cover, was manned by just two policemen, only one of whom had a ri e.

At a guard post a few blocks away, the policeman

and at least one colleague were escaping the blistering heat inside an air-conditioned shelter made of a makeshift roof covering the area between two concrete blast walls.

A blanket covered the en-trance, keeping cool air in, but blocking the view out. Two ri es leaned against a wall in-side, but other key equipment including a helmet, boots and

body armour were outside the entrance.

Only a dirty, uttering Iraqi ag in a metal stand kept watch over the street.

The attacks on security forces come after an Al Qae-da's front group said in July that it was launching a "new military campaign aimed at recovering territory."

An earlier message posted

on various forums said the group would begin targeting judges and prosecutors, and try to help its prisoners break out of jails.

When asked about the at-tacks on security forces, John Drake, a security analyst with AKE Group, said by e-mail that "they may be focusing their efforts on the security forces to make them seem

weak in the eyes of the peo-ple." “When civilians think that the police can’t protect them, they turn to other groups for support,” Drake said.

The attacks are ultimately “likely aiming at polarising communities, which puts pres-sure on the security forces and may eventually lead to a rise in support for these groups,” he said.

Wave of attacks shatters Iraqi security

Even as Asom simmered down, there was no respite for the government with

power blackouts in most of the country and followed

by Anna’s agitation

The security situation in Iraq is now much better compared to 2007 or before. Death toll in 2006, 2007 and 2008 reached more than 1,000, according to some of cial gures, which by comparison put the July

2012 toll at only 325

IRAQI police forces stand guard at a checkpoint in central Baghdad yesterday. — AFP

SYRIAN SITUATION

OMAN DAILY Observer

13 ANALYSIS/OPINIONSUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

THE Palestinian Au-thority is to host its

rst meeting of the Palestine committee of the Non-Aligned Movement in Ramallah today, aimed at garnering support for their bid for statehood, Palestini-an Foreign Minister Riyad al Malki announced yesterday.

NAM is a group of states which say they are not for-mally aligned with or against any major world power bloc, or the West.

It has some 120 mem-bers, mostly in Africa and the Middle East, besides in Asia and South America, and is sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.

Al Malki said the meet-ing, requested by the Pal-estinian Authority, was to introduce NAM members to the Palestinian situation and to ask for their support, should they ask to become a non-member state in the United Nations General As-sembly.

“The meeting aims to stress the right of our people and leadership to hold con-ferences on our land and to support our struggle to end the occupation and settle-ments and establish our in-dependent state with East Je-rusalem as its capital,” said Al Malki.

The Palestine Committee meeting in Ramallah com-prises the foreign ministers of 13 NAM member states, headed by Egypt.

Malki said it was prob-lematic to invite foreign ministers of countries that do not have diplomatic rela-tions with Israel, since they would have to pass through Israeli crossings to reach Ramallah.

It was therefore decided — in apparent agreement with Israel — to y the heads of the delegations in a helicopter from Jordan straight to Ramallah to avoid contact with the Israelis.

The meeting is to open with an address by Pales-tinian President Mahmud Abbas, and will conclude with what Malki called the Ramallah Declaration — ex-pected to support Palestinian membership of the General Assembly.

The Ramallah Declara-tion is to be introduced as an of cial document at the upcoming NAM conference scheduled in Tehran later this month.

The Palestinians say Is-raeli settlement-building on occupied West Bank land has stymied prospects for a bilateral statehood deal.

— dpa

Statehood support attempt

By Deborah Zabarenko

US weather has been lousy this year, with droughts, heat and killer storms. But a solar superstorm could be far worse.

A monster blast of geomagnetic particles from the sun could destroy 300 or more of the 2,100 high-voltage transformers that are the backbone of the US electric grid, according to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Even a few hundred destroyed transformers could disable the entire interconnected sys-tem. There is impetus for a group of federal agencies to look for ways to prepare for such a storm this year as the sun moves into an ac-tive period called solar maximum, expected to peak in 2013.

US experts estimate as much as a seven per cent chance of a superstorm in the next decade, which seems a slight risk, but the effects would be so wide-ranging — akin to a major meteor-ite strike — that it has drawn of cial concern.

Power blackouts can cause chaos, as they did brie y in India when more than 600 mil-lion people lost electricity for hours on two consecutive days in July. However, the kind of long-duration outage that might happen in the case of a massive solar storm would have more profound and costly effects.

There is disagreement on how costly the damage would be, but experts in the US gov-ernment and industry acknowledge it is a com-plex problem requiring a co-ordinated solution. A report by the NAS estimated that about 365 high-voltage transformers in the continental United States are at risk of failure or permanent damage requiring replacement in the event of a solar superstorm.

Replacements might not be available for a year or more, and the cost of damage in the

rst year after a storm could be as high as $2 trillion, the report said. The most vulnerable areas are the eastern one-third of the country, from the Midwest to the East Coast, and the Northwest, as far east as Montana and Wyo-ming and as far south as California.

The national grid was built over decades to get energy at the lowest price from where it is generated to where it is used. A solar su-perstorm has the capacity to bring that network down, the academy’s report said.

“Historically large storms have a potential to cause power grid blackouts and transformer damage of unprecedented proportions, long-term blackouts and lengthy restoration times, and chronic shortages for multiple years are possible,” the report said.

Richard Andres, an energy and environ-mental security expert at the military’s Na-tional Defense University (NDU), is helping to co-ordinate an interagency group to deal with the problem. The failure of the national power grid could be disastrous, he said.

In a worst-case scenario, commerce would almost instantly cease, he said, noting he was speaking for himself and not the US Govern-ment. Water and fuel, which depend on elec-tric pumps, would stop owing in most cities within hours, modern communications would end and mechanised transport would stall.

Back-up generators for hospitals, the mili-tary and other critical facilities would be vul-nerable if they depended on diesel or natural gas, which also rely on pipelines for resupply. Law and order might break down if the outage was prolonged, as of cers might leave their posts to protect their own families, Andres said.

The academy report said more than 130

million people in the United States could be af-fected. Andres said the death toll could run into the millions in the worst-case scenario.

Other countries besides the United States would feel the impact of a solar superstorm if it hit their electric power systems, but the US power grid is so large and interconnected that any major strike could have catastrophic results.

The only way to deal with this kind of threat, Andres said by telephone, is to involve the White House, Congress, private industry, the Pentagon and agencies ranging from the Department of Homeland Security to Nasa and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin-istration. This group has been meeting at NDU since last year to tackle this problem.

Many of these agencies already have con-sidered this type of outage, but not because of an attack from the sun. The US national se-curity community has been worried about an enemy high altitude nuclear burst that could do roughly the same thing: generate an electro-magnetic pulse that fried the power grid.

About three or four times in the 11-year solar cycle, the sun hurls a chunk of its atmos-phere into space big enough to have an impact on humans, said Bill Murtagh, an expert on space weather at the National Oceanic and At-mospheric Administration.

Civilization deals well with ordinary solar storms, when the sun blasts charged particles that can affect power grids, satellite navigation, radio transmissions and some airplane routes. Such storms in January and March caused few problems, Murtagh said.

Of greater concern are severe solar storms that bombard Earth with magnetised particles that could damage giant transformers so thor-oughly that they would be impossible to restart. Two such monster storms occurred in 1859 and 1921. Neither was catastrophic, mostly because society was not as dependent on electricity and the US electric grid was not the sophisticated, interconnected network it is now.

The US Geological Survey suggested a six per cent to seven per cent chance of an 1859-type solar storm in the next 10 years, Murtagh said. The coming solar maximum does not increase this probability, though solar storms could be more frequent.

Solar superstorm could kill millions

EXPRESSING concern over a massive decline in the number of Sindh voters in the newly released electoral rolls, political parties look up to the election commis-

sion to explain factors behind the sudden drop of over 1.1 mil-lion registered voters in the province.

The total number of voters in Sindh in 2007 was 19,539,510 and in the new electoral rolls, their number stood at 18,432,877. This means some 1,106,633 voters are no more part of the new electoral rolls.

The ruling coalition — the Pakistan People’s Party, Mutta-hida Qaumi Movement, Awami National Party, Pakistan Mus-lim League-Functional and PML-Q — as well as the Jamaat-i-Islami, which currently has no representation in the Sindh Assembly, are equally perturbed over the reduction of a large number of voters in the new electoral rolls.

A couple of these parties even see conspiracies in the mas-sive reduction of voters in the province.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, who is PPP provincial president, said that his party had serious reserva-tions over the reduction of voters in Sindh in the computerised electoral rolls.

He said that the number of voters in Sindh should have been increased over the years. He said that a committee had been constituted at the provincial level to review the new voters’ list and the election commission was also approached for review-ing the electoral rolls. MQM leader Raza Haroon said that the Muttahida would condemn deletion of even a single legitimate voter from the electoral rolls. “The reduction of voters in Sindh is indeed a matter of concern, but at present we are reviewing the new voters’ list.”

PML-F leader Jam Madad Ali opined that the election com-mission should take prompt notice of the reduction of voters in Sindh and take meaningful steps to rectify the situation.

PML-Q leader Haleem Adil Shaikh believed that the reduc-tion of voters mainly from the interior of Sindh would widen the gulf between urban and rural areas.

“We were not satis ed when the election commission had started the process and today the decrease in the number of voters proved that our reservations were based on facts.”— Internews

Drop in Sindh voters alarms politicians By Neil Chatterjee

DISCORD in Southeast Asia over how to deal with Bei-jing’s claims in the South

China Sea comes as the region strug-gles to overcome competing national interests and form a European Union-style economic community by 2015.

Political leaders and of cials say the row may not directly affect plans by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) for the economic in-tegration of countries ranging from wealthy Singapore to impoverished Myanmar.

But what doesn’t help is China’s growing investment in the bloc’s poorer members, which critics say gives it in uence that it has effec-tively used to block a uni ed Asean stance in the South China Sea dis-pute. The South China Sea, which stretches from China to Indonesia and from Vietnam to the Philippines, lies atop what are believed to be rich reserves of oil and gas.

“It’s not going to hold progress (on integration) hostage,” Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan told diplomats in Jakarta, referring to a recent meeting in Cambodia, where rifts over the South China Sea pre-vented the group’s foreign ministers from issuing a communiqué for the

rst time in its history.“It is an early warning sign... this

will not be the last.”Southeast Asia is a hot destination

for investors seeking returns that are drying up in Europe, still to recover in the United States and slowing in the rest of Asia.

Estimated net ows into offshore Asean funds stood at $1.4 billion in 2012 through June, according to data reported until July 10. By compari-son, China and India offshore funds saw net out ows worth $1.6 billion and $185 million respectively.

Investors have high hopes for plans by the 10-member Asean for a single market and production base for a combined economy of $2 trillion, with free movement of goods, serv-ices, investment and skilled labour among 600 million people.

While there is consensus in Asean for economic union, the group strug-gles with political differences ranging from a land border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia to a cultural spat between Malaysia and Indone-

sia. The most destructive is the in-ability to deal with claims by four of its members, and China and Taiwan, in the South China Sea.

Since only some elements of the economic plan will be in place by 2015, such as zero tariffs, more de-veloped members may have to push on with integration in a two-tier mod-el, just as the European Union did, leaving the others at risk of missing out on regional investment.

Asean’s older and more developed members are Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Brunei. Vietnam, Laos, Cambo-dia and Myanmar joined later.

The two-tier model could leave fringe members further exposed to in uence from China — and the

United States — as they seek in u-ence through investment and diplo-macy in a “Great Game” played out in the tropics.

China is already the top investor in Cambodia and Myanmar and is catching up with investment by Eu-rope, Japan and the United States in the region overall.

“The difference is that China is giving something that Cambodia needs, while Asean is promising something that is abstract,” said Ale-ksius Jemadu, dean of the school of political and social sciences at Pelita Harapan University in Jakarta.

“Asean countries will act based more on their domestic needs ... When this community is built we can’t expect them to be in unison,

just like what happened to the South China Sea.”

At the Phnom Penh meeting of foreign ministers, some diplomats said Cambodia blocked the South China Sea dispute being put on the agenda at China’s behest. Cambodian diplomats in turn accused the Philip-pines and Vietnam of trying to hijack the meeting.

China has maintained it wants to deal with the issue bilaterally.

The Philippines has said it de-plored Asean’s failure to address the row and criticised Cambodia for its handling of the issue.

Cambodia had GDP per capita of $900 in 2011 and foreign direct investment (FDI) of $800 million in 2010, according to World Bank g-ures. That compares to Singapore’s $46,241 per capita and $39 billion in FDI.

The China Daily has said Bei-jing’s investment in Cambodia from 1994 until 2011 was $8.8 billion.

Even without the economic and political differences, a lack of capac-ity among some of Asean’s members is making it hard to implement eco-nomic agreements.

Completion of measures towards a single market in its 2010-2011 phase was only 49 per cent overall, according to Asean’s latest scorecard, with reform lagging in food and ag-riculture.

“Early achievements were based on low hanging fruit... The process of transposing regional commitments into national laws is the biggest (chal-lenge),” said Subash Pillai, Asean’s director of market integration.

Asean path to economic union muddied by sea rift

By Anne-Laure Mondesert

A YEAR after riots engulfed Lon-don and spread to other English cities, the buzz around the Olym-

pics is sweeping the capital, but with re-cession hammering the poorest London-ers the threat of unrest lingers.

In Tottenham, the multicultural north London district where the unrest rst erupted after police shot dead a young black suspect last August 4, the main road still bears some of the scars of last year’s violence.

Houses and shops are still being re-built, while signs proclaim the local may-or’s promise to boost activities for young-sters, clean up the streets and pump £4 million into local jobs. “They’re rebuild-ing the shops, but apart from that noth-ing’s changed,” said 18-year-old Tamzin as she waited for a bus.

The trainee actress said she did not take part in last summer’s wave of loot-ing and arson in which ve people were killed and property worth millions of pounds was destroyed.

But she added that she understood the frustrations of some of those who did.

“A lot of them did it because they’d had enough. No one cares about them,” she said. “We must get them paid jobs.”

Tottenham was rocked by riots before, when racial tensions spilled over into

erce violence in 1985, and the unem-ployment rate there remains among the highest in London. Many people fear an-other are-up could come at any time.

“The situation is fragile, and I think it remains fragile across the whole coun-try,” warned Tottenham lawmaker David Lammy, who has written a book titled Out of the Ashes: Britain after the riots.

“Unemployment has got worse in Tot-tenham,” he said. “Austerity is biting this year, it’s biting people’s bene ts and it’s biting our youth services.”

But he voiced hope at plans to regen-

erate the district, and welcomed the deci-sion by Premier League football club Tot-tenham Hotspur to drop its bid to move from its nearby home into the Olympic Stadium after the Games.

The Olympics have boosted the city’s morale, Lammy said, but he believes Brit-ain has failed to tackle the root causes of the riots — poverty, bad parenting, obses-sive consumerism and a plethora of other social ills.

“People are watching the Games and they are being inspired and entertained, so I do think that this summer things are

different,” he said. “But I don’t think any-one should pretend that just because we have a summer that goes well, the prob-lems have gone away.

“I wouldn’t predict that we won’t see rioting again over the next ve or six years.” Tim Newburn, professor of crimi-nology at the London School of Econom-ics, also warned that the capital could slide back into violence.

“Riots are always unpredictable,” said Newburn, whose team interviewed 270 people who joined the unrest in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool for a study on why it happened.

Newburn said the rioters shared “a sense of marginalisation and exclusion” as well as anger towards the police, and he blamed authorities for not engaging more positively with young people.

Prime Minister David Cameron, meanwhile, blamed “the moral collapse of society” and promised “zero tolerance” for troublemakers.

More than 4,500 people have been ar-rested for their role in the London riots and more than 2,900 prosecuted, accord-ing to the latest police gures.

Across the country, nearly 1,300 peo-ple have been sentenced to prison terms averaging 17 months. As of mid-June, half of them had been released.

As for the incident which triggered the riots, the circumstances surrounding the police shooting of 29-year-old Mark Duggan remain disputed.

On Thursday, the eve of the rst an-niversary of his death, the father-of-four’s family said they had still not received a full explanation of how he died.

“Thirty-one police of cers surrounded Mark and he was shot twice — why?” Duggan’s mother Pam said. “One of the last things my partner, Mark’s dad, said before he died a few weeks ago was that he wanted justice for his son.” A provi-sional date for an inquest into Duggan’s death has been set for January 2013.

Games mask London tensions A DANCER performs during an interval at Horse Guards Parade during the Olympic Games yesterday. — Reuters

People are watching the Games and they are being inspired and entertained, so I do think that this summer things are

different. But I don’t think anyone should

pretend that just because we have a summer that goes well, the problems have gone away. I

wouldn’t predict that we won’t see rioting again over the next

ve or six years

There is disagreement on how costly the

damage would be, but experts in the US Government

and industry acknowledge it is a complex problem

requiring aco-ordinated

solution

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0094718418857. Local No: 98847106, E-mail: indeewarinadeeka@gmail.com

1. Business Development Manager (HVAC PROJECTS & PRODUCTS) Person with technical background, good communication & negotiation skills, 5 to 6 years marketing experience, capable of securing & developing the business independently.

2. Sales Engineer (HVAC PROJECT)With minimum 3 to 4 years experience in marketing & tendering ofair-conditioning projects & services up to the finalization of contract.

3. Project Engineer/Supervisor (HVAC PROJECT)With good experience in central air-conditioning projects execution of Chillers, Piping, Ducting and Packaged unit up to handing over.

4. Draughtsman (HVAC)With minimum 4 to 5 years experience of central air-conditioning and MEP projects, capable of working independently.

URGENTLY REQUIRED FOR (ELECTRO-MECHANICAL COMPANY)

Forward the CV on naukrioman123@gmail.com

ITUATION WANTED SITUATION WANTED SITUATION WANTEDITUATIOS

ACCOUNTS Manager, M Com, Indian male, 21 years wide experience in accounts and finance in Muscat seeks job change. Contact: 92785207.

INDIAN, 47 yrs looking for a job as watchman/ ats security with visa. Now on visit. Call 94075808 Moorthy

30 years, Indian male PGDBA-operations, having 8 yearsexperience in sales co-ordinator and logistics looking for suitable placement. Contact 92337137

CHARTERED Accountant, Indian male with 1 year Gulf experience seeks suitable placement. Contact: 92416051.

FINANCE Manager, 15 years + experience in project financing, management accounts, ERP, finalisation, cost control, financial analysis, feasibility study, business development etc.

92439941. E-mail: georaji9@hotmail.com.

INDIAN female, 25 years, B Tech (electronics & communication) 2 years of experience as lecturer, seeks suitable position in technical/nontechnical/teaching. 99805368.

EXPERIENCE with more than 15 years in Accounts & Finance, looking for a suitable placement. Ready to join on immediately. 97309276

ACCA (UK) Female, 26 years old with 5 years experience is seeking accounts, audit, finance roles in Oman. sidrashamsuddin@gmail.com Contact: 94025276.

INDIAN driver (BCom) with own car, looking for trip basis or part-time job. Contact: 92581644.

INDIAN female, BBA in Finance available for immediate placement under finance/ banking/ back office/ accounts/ administration.

95910427.

EXPERIENCED MEP Engineer (diploma) looking for suitable placement in oil & gas field. 93782685.

A 3D Animator and Modelor cum Graphic Designer looking for job currently on visit visa in Muscat. Fluent in English and Urdu languages. Please contact:

96658544.

INDIAN male secretary having more than 10 years experience in Oman, seeks placement. 98663977.

30 YEARS Indian male PGDBA operations, having 8 years experience in sales co-ordinator and logistics looking for suitable placement.

92337137.

EXECUTIVE Secretary/PA/HR Assistant, looking for a suitable placement.

95128596.

12 YEARS experience, male candidate, as medical secretary, in medical records management, and of ce administration, looking for a suitable placement. Good knowledge in MS Of ce, Windows OS and the Internet. Contact:

97893716, 95727612.

30+YEARS experienced MEP department manager worked with contractors and consultants and have good experience in bidding/planning/procurement/engineering/installation and commissioning, seeks suitable placement, presently working in UAE, have worked in Oman and Qatar. Please contact for CV e-mail: cvmailsmr@gmail.com 99321626.

INDIAN female graduate + INDIAN male, logistics in-charge, 4 years experience in Oil & Gas sector, Oman; and 9 years in Dubai, seeks suitable placement. 96976133/ 92882081. E-mail: reji_nm@yahoo.com; lijirajiv@yahoo.com

INDIAN male, BCom graduate, 10 years Oman experience in Administration and Accounts seeks suitable placement. Can join immediately. Contact:

93989230.

INDIAN male 22 years, B Tech in electronics & communication, having 5 months experience in CCTV con guration, looking for job, please contact: 92533114.

INDIAN male, BTech, Computer Engineer with experience as asst system Eng — Diploma in Oracle-10G, Database Administration, and Java. Good knowledge in ASP.NET, C, C++, MS Office, Photoshop, on visit visa looking for suitable placement in software, networking, IT sales. Contact:

97638112/93937141. E-mail: getrenji@gmail

GENERAL manager, BE civil, 22 years experience in Oman since 1995 is looking for suitable opening in reputed construction company. Contact: 94006761.

SENIOR Accountant, Indian male, B Com, PGDCA, 11 years experience in accounts up to finalisation and MIS reporting. Well versed with Tally, MS Office & ERP systems. 5 years experience in Oman, can join immediately. Contact:

95593273.

INDIAN male masters degree in IT, MCSE, CCNA, CCNP, ITILV3 with 8 years of experience, seeks suitable placement. Contact: 99059728.

INDIAN male, looking for a vacancy of a recrea-tion manager/supervisor position in hotel/clubs. 15 years of experience as gym trainer and 2 years of experience as rec-reation manager. Contact:

97093993

INDIAN male, 8 years experience, BSc (chemistry), MBA, presently working as business development manager in India, seeks suitable placement. Contact: +919995026711 e-mail: ajitlal24@gmail.com

INDIAN female, 22 years BTech (IT) with SAP ABAP certified C++ Java. Looking for suitable placement, now on visit visa and staying with parents. Release date: 11-07-12 one week. Contact: 93214845 e-mail: kcthambi@yahoo.com.

A SYRIAN electronics engineer (automation control) with a CCNA plus. Contact: 97618698 e-mail: alaashawwa@hotmail.com

SOFTWARE engineer, B Tech, 4 years experience in Java, J2ee, struts. Look-ing for a suitable place-ment. 96200984 e-mail: shiljyrajan@gmail.com.

PETROLEUM Engineer — Ram Haridas — Masters graduate from University of NSW, Australia, with 1 year Australian experience in oil and gas field operations, on visit visa (till 26-09-2012), seeks suitable employment. Please contact:

+968 24833874 or e-mail: ramharidaas@yahoo.com

AN Egyptian male on a visit visa, worked as purchasing officer in a construction company and as a supervisor, with 4 years experience in UAE and have Emirati driving licence, seeks suitable placement. Contact:

96987787.

INDIAN male, 32 years ‘Steel Foreman’ having 7 years Gulf experience in well reputed company working as cutting, bending and xing supervision of steel. Seeking immediately placement in well reputed company. Contact

94105072.

LOOKING job in retailing and outdoor sales, 2½ years experience in Qatar market, Qatar valid D/L holder. Contact:

97420506 E-mail: shirumck@gmail.com and shiru_mck@yahoo.co.in

8 YEARS experienced Sri Lankan houseboy looking for gardening, ironing, cleaning job. Contact:

99085573, 99085574.

SEEKING vacant job for store manager, retailing working experience in Saudi Arabia, 6 years. . Contact: 93473367 E-mail: Asifthatan@gmail.com.

M-TECH Project Manager, 12 years experience in project/people management, design, certified 6Sigma green belt with valid Oman driving licence, seeks suitable placement in Muscat. Contact: 92283707 e-mail: ashokan745@gmail.com

DIPLOMA with 13 years experience in secretarial/of ce assistance/documentation jobs, Gulf experienced, pro cient in computer with ability to multitask jobs and good communication skills in English, seeking a job for immediate joining, presently on visit visa. Contact 93464456.

BIG store management and accounts, 6 years experience and in food companies marketing as sales officer, 7 years experience. Other abilities: team leading accounting, salesmanship, showroom management, as purchaser.

94086932.

Mailing Address: OBSERVER CLASSIFIEDS SECTION, P.O. Box 974, Muscat, P.C. 100Location: OEPPA HEAD OFFICE, Medinat Al Alam,

Near Ministry of Information 24649 593, 594, 594, 595, 596, 597& OEPPA Ruwi Office, Next to Dhofar Bldg, Behind Ruwi Police Station 24785668

OMAN DAILY Observer

15 THE WORLD/CLASSIFIEDSSUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

CLASSIFIEDSECTION

RUWI: 24785668

HR manager/administration manager with 25 years experience in Oman. Contact

92719485.

ADDIS ABABA — Sudan and South Sudan have reached a deal on oil transit fees, but Khartoum said it would be im-plemented only after the issue of border security had been re-solved, dampening hopes of a quick resumption of southern oil exports through the north.

The oil agreement, an-nounced yesterday, was a big step towards ending hostili-ties between the neighbours, which came close to war in April when ghting worsened along their shared border, cre-ated when the south seceded in July last year.

The two sides, deeply mis-trustful of each other, have often not implemented previ-ous agreements and still need to mark their 1,800 kilometre border and resolve charges both have made of supporting rebels in the other’s territory.

The UN Security Council had given the African neigh-bours until Thursday to re-solve all con icts left over from South Sudan’s secession a year ago under a 2005 peace agreement.

Landlocked South Sudan threw both economies into turmoil when it shut down its output of 350,000 barrels a day in January after failing to agree on a transit fee with Su-

dan, which started seizing oil to make up for what it called unpaid fees.

African Union mediator Thabo Mbeki said the neigh-bours had now agreed on how much South Sudan should pay to export its oil through north-ern pipelines. He gave no de-tails.

“It’s an (oil) agreement about all of the matters. The issues that were outstanding were charges for transporta-tion, for processing, transit,” Mbeki, the former South Afri-can president, told reporters.

“What will remain (now)...is to then discuss the steps as to when the oil companies should be asked to prepare for the resumption of production and export,” Mbeki said.

He gave no time frame, saying only the parties had until September 22 to resolve border security and other con-

icts.Sudan con rmed an oil

deal had been reached but reit-erated that security talks need-ed to resume after Ramadhan ended at the end of August, the state news agency Suna reported.

“Both sided reached under-standings regarding oil which are considered acceptable... (but) the (oil) agreement does

not ful l the ambitions of both sides,” Sudanese delega-tion spokesman Mutrif Siddig said. “Its implementation will start after understandings on security issues.”

Oil industry sources have said restarting oil production could take six months or long-er as the pipelines have been

lled with water to avoid gel-ling and some wells were not closed properly.

Mbeki’s announcement was a surprise as the South’s top negotiator, Pagan Amum, had just said that Sudan was still demanding a high oil transit fee.

In an indication of the mis-trust between the arch-foes Amum, speaking just before Mbeki, said that Khartoum was trying to “impose very exorbitant transit fees.”

Both sides had made con-cessions in the past few days. Juba had last said it was will-ing to pay $9.10 and $7.26 per barrel to use two pipelines crossing Sudan, as well as a $3.2 billion package to com-pensate Sudan for the loss of most of its oil reserves to the South. It had previously of-fered $2.6 billion. — AFP

Sudan, S Sudan reach oil deal on transit fees

SEOUL — Floods which hit parts of North Korea in re-cent weeks killed 169 people and left 400 missing, the state news agency said yesterday, sharply updating earlier casu-alty gures.

It said the oods and tor-rential rain between late June and the end of July also made 212,200 people homeless and washed away or inundated 65,280 hectares of cropland.

United Nations agencies have visited the worst-hit ar-eas to assess aid needs and the World Food Programme

(WFP) is sending an initial shipment of emergency food aid.

The country suffered a famine in the 1990s that killed hundreds of thousands and still struggles to feed its people even in normal times.

UN agencies estimated last autumn that three million people would need food aid this year even before this sum-mer’s deluge.

More than 8,600 houses were destroyed and another 43,770 swamped, and more than 1,400 schools, hospitals

and factories collapsed, the news agency said.

Of cial media had previ-ously reported 119 deaths, with 84,000 people made homeless and 45,370 hectares of farmland damaged.

The WFP said its initial as-sistance would provide victims with an initial ration of 400 grams of maize a day for 14 days, after the UN assessment mission found considerable damage to maize, soybean and rice elds.

The mission has said im-mediate food aid is needed

for residents of the worst-hit counties, such as Anju and Songchon in South Pyon-gan province and Chonnae in Kangwon province.

It also stressed that tens of thousands of families urgently need clean drinking water to prevent disease.

Wells had been contami-nated by over owing latrines, creating a high risk of a diar-rhoea outbreak, while oods had damaged water sources and pumping stations.

Citing government gures, the UN mission said about

50,000 families would need puri cation tablets or other help to secure clean water.

The UN children’s fund Unicef has ordered 10 million tablets along with other mate-rials. Drugs and IV uids were also badly needed.

The assessment mission said on Thursday a hospital in Chonnae county had already seen a fourfold rise in diar-rhoea cases.

“In general, unless... needs are addressed, rapid increase in diarrhoea, skin infection and respiratory infections could occur,” it said in a report.

Outdated and inef cient ag-ricultural practices, along with a shortage of fertiliser and di-version of food to the military, have contributed to the annual food shortages.

The mountainous North is also short of arable land.

But widespread deforesta-tion, partly to clear land for crops, has made the impover-ished nation increasingly prone to serious ooding which ends up washing away the harvest.

In February the United States reached a deal to offer the North 240,000 tonnes of food in return for a freeze on nuclear and missile tests.

But the plan was scrapped after Pyongyang’s failed rocket launch in April, seen by the US and its allies as an attempted ballistic missile test. — AFP

N Korea oods kill 169; many missing

1616INFORMATION/LEISURE SUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

Hospital . . . .Board . . . . . Emer-gencyRoyal. . . . . . .24599000 . . 24590491 Health Services DepartmentMuttrah . . . . .24797602Quriyat . . . . .24845001 . . 24845003 SQH, Salalah 23211555 . . 23211151Police . . . . . .24603988 . . 24603980Al Nahda. . . .24831255 . . 24837800Ibn Sina . . . .24876322 . . 24877361Nizwa . . . . . .25439361 . . 25425033Al Rustaq . . .26875055 . . 26877186Sumayil. . . . .25350055 . . 25350022Izki . . . . . . . .25340033 . . 25340033Haima . . . . . .23436013 . . 23436055

Sohar . . . . . .26840022 . . 26840099Al Buraimi . . .25650855 . . 25652319Sur . . . . . . . .25440244 . . 25461373Tanam. . . . . .25499011 . . 25499033Masirah. . . . .25404018 . . 25404018Ibra . . . . . . . .25470533 . . 25470535Adam . . . . . .25434167 . . 25434055Bidiya . . . . . .25483535 . . 25483535Ibri. . . . . . . . .25491011 . . 25491990Saham . . . . .26854427 . . 26855148Khasab . . . . .26830187 . . 26830187Dibba . . . . . .26836443 . . 26836443Burkha . . . . .26828397 . . 26828397Sinaw . . . . . .25474338

OTHER HOSPITALS

Private & Other WardsWorking Days: 16:00-18:00. Weekends & Public Holidays: 10:-12:00, 16:00-18:00

ICUWorking Days: 16:00-17:00. Weekends & Public Holidays: 16:00-17:00

Special Care Baby UnitWorking Days: Parents may visit at any time. Weekends & Public Holidays: Parents may visit at any time

KHOULA HOSPITAL VISITING HOURS

FAISAL BIN ALI AL SAID MUSEUM,

Tel: 24641650

MUSEUM OF OMANI HERITAGE, Tel: 24600946

CHILDREN’S SCIENCE MUSEUM. Tel: 24605368

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, Tel: 24641374

NATIONAL MUSEUM, Tel: 24701289

SULTAN’S ARMED FORCES MUSEUM, Tel: 24312646

CURRENCY MUSEUM, Tel: 24796102

MUSCAT GATE MUSEUM, Tel: 24739005.

OMANI-FRENCH MUSEUM (Bait Fransa), Tel: 24736613

BAIT AL ZUBAIR, Tel: 24736688

BAIT A’NAMAN, Tel: 24641300

SOHAR FORT MUSEUM. Tel: 26844758

NAHKAL FORT, Tel: 26781384

BAIT AL MAKHAM. Tel: 24641300

BAIT ADAM MUSEUM, QURUM, Tel: 24605033, 24605013

OIL AND GAS EXHIBITION CENTRE AND PLANETARIUM, Tel: 24677834.

PLANETARIUM, Tel: 24675542.

AQUARIUM at the Marine Science and Fisheries Centre (located next to Marina Bandar Rowdha, Sidab).

SALALAH MUSEUM, Tel: 23294549

CULTURAL CENTRE, Tel: 23294549.

SUR MARITIME MUSEUM, Tel: 24541466.

BAIT AL BARANDA, Tel: 24714262.

M U S E U M S I N O M A N

EMERGENCY 9 9 9 9

DG of Passports & Residency, 24569603DG of Customs, 24714626Traffic offences, 24510227/228ROP Public Relations, 24569270Consumer Complaints Cell, 24817013

Muscat Governorate Headquarters, 24560021

Muscat, 24736611

Wattayah, 24677990

Ruwi, 24701099

Muttrah, 24712211

Bausher, 24600099

Al Amerat, 24875999

Qurayat, 24845555

A’Seeb, 24420099

Al-Athaiba, 24521099

AI-Khodh, 24425012

Directorate of the University Security, 24513999

Directorate of Traffic Muscat, 24567898

Al Batinah Headquarters, 26840096

Al Rustaq Division, 26875099

Al Dakhiliyah, 25425099

Nizwa Division, 25425099

Samayil Division, 25350099

Al Sharqiyah Headquarters, 25545070

Ibra Division, 25570100

Al Dhahirah Headquarters, 25650099

Al Buraimi Division, 25650199

Ibri Division, 25689099

Al Wusta Headquarters, 23436099

Haima Division, 23436211

Special Task Force, 24560088

Coastguard Headquarters, 24714888

Dhofar Governorate Headquarters, 23234599

Salalah Police Station, 23290099

Thamrait Division, 23279099

Musandam Governorate Headquarters, 26730299

Khasab Division, 26731502

ROYAL OMAN POLICE

ROP websites: www.rop.gov.om, www.ropoman.net and

e-mail: ropnet@omantel.net.om

Ministry: www.omanet.om

Oman TV:

www.oman-tv.gov.om

Oman Radio:

www.oman-radio.gov.om

Omani Centre for Traditional Music: www.

octm-folk.gov.om

Keep in touch with Majlis Ash’shura’s news.

Log on to the Majlis’s website:

www.shura.om

and the Majlis’s

e-mail: info@shura.om

Or write to the Majlis’s postal address:

P O Box 981

Postal Code 111, Muscat

Tel: 24510344 / 24521427/

Fax 24510560

INFORMATIONMINISTRY WEBSITES

MAJLIS A’SHURAADDRESSES

FILM INFORMATIONwww.citycinemaoman.net

AL BAHJA CINEMA:

24540856, 24540855.

AL NASR CINEMA:

24831358, 24831809 (after 3pm)

AL SHATTI PLAZA:

24607360, 24692656 (after 2pm)

STARS CINEMA:

24791641, 24792360

CINEMA

DAY DUTY

Muscat Al Badiya 24425024

Al Kawakib 24830343

Al Riyami 24835912

Majan 24596664

Sur Badr al Samaa

25546112

Buraimi Yass 25653855

Ibri Al Huda 25692604

Nizwa Al Qalaa 25431666

Salalah Scientific 23298095

Sohar Badr al Samaa

26846660

NIGHT DUTY

Muscat Seeb 24420294

Starcare 24557222

Badr al Samaa

24799760

Muscat 24497264

Sur Ibn al Yafei 25542267

Buraimi Al Shamsi 25650452

Ibri Muscat 25689216

Rustaq Masalhi 26877687

Barka Balqees 26884541

Samayil Samayil 25350653

Nizwa Al Hadhfa 25431650

Salalah Dhofar International

23288101

Ibra Al Bawaraq 25572556

Sohar Al Rawaei 26844277

24-HOUR SERVICE

Al Hashar ph, Ruwi 24783334

Muscat ph, Ruwi, 24702542

Al Sarooj, 24695536

Scientific ph, Qurum, 24566601

Ruwi, 24702850

PHARMACIES

STONE SOUP by Jan Eliot

GARFIELD by Jim Davis

CALVIN AND HOBBES by Bill Watterson

ADAM @ HOME by Brian Basset

C A R TO O N SC A R TO O N S

LEO(July 22-August 21)There is a very impor-tant meeting on the

cards for you, at which you must try to discourage too much general discussion and get down to the im-portant points you wish to raise.pportant points

VIRGO(August 22- Sept 22)Nostalgic memories will be provoked today

when talking to someone who has recently visited a favourite place of yours and is full of interesting news for you.news for you.

LIBRA(September 23-October 22)Discuss a proposed

enterprise with some experienced people before taking a chance of losing your investment. You can-not afford to speculate at the mo-ment.ment.

SCORPIO(October 23-Nov 21)If you feel that a tradesman is over-

charging you ask him what exactly his charges are. It is very difficult to keep up with tradesmen’s way of charging.

SAGITTARIUS(November 22-December 21)Due to a lack of co-op-

eration on the part of a colleague you may have to tackle a job on your own. Make sure you get full credit for your efforts.

CAPRICORN(December 22-January 20)A full social life should

not make you neglect a friend who is a great deal alone. Try to include him in some of your activities.

AQUARIUS(January 21-Feb 19)Follow up a good first impression you made

on a person whose high opinion of you could be important and very useful for the future.

PISCES (February 20-March 20) It would be better to

tell a white lie than to stick to the whole truth and hurt someone’s feelings. If the truth comes out, you will have to explain your motives.

ARIES (March 21-April 20)Be patient with an older relation whose

memory tends to be faulty at times. Certain facts are likely to be re-peated and you must just listen and pretend to be interested.

TAURUS(April 21-May 20)Your self-discipline and principles have

stood you in good stead up to now, and you must stick to them even though you are tempted to deviate from the occasionally.

GEMINI(May 21-June 21)You will be entrusted with a delicate assign-

ment, which you feel you cannot handle alone. Teamwork with the right assistant will see you through the job without a hitch.the job withou

CANCER(June 22-July 21)By planning economy on just one single item

of regular expenditure you will not deprive yourself of any necessity and will be surprised how much is saved over a period

IF IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY: Thanks to unexpected circumstances, in the coming year you will establish a social contact, which will play a large part in your activities. You will be able to build upon your happy family life, and your

new interests will benefit the whole family. Any additional expenditure will be minimal.

YOUR STARS Don’t aim for success if you want it;just do what you love and believe in,and it will come naturally.

— David Frost

Every charitable act is a steppingstone towards heaven.

— Henry Ward Beecher

QUOTATIONS FOR TODAYCRYPTIC PUZZLE

ACROSS 1 Work desultorily in

ceramics? (6) 7 One burning to start

shooting? (4,4) 8 Funny sort of fence!

(2-2)10 Twisted by a twin boy

(6)11 From whom a Spaniard

will accept £1? (6)14 A very high limit! (3)16 Slopes specially for

prams (5)17 Not so much of it! (4)19 In terrible dread, showed

courage (5)21 Was this king half-way

Anglo Saxon? (5)22 There’s simply too much

beyond it (5)23 Machine used by

learners on the motorway (4)

26 Kid Mr Gore, that’s all! (5)

28 Favouring a loud choral piece (3)

29 When I’m gone, perhaps, you can make a name (6)

30 It’s a conductor’s place to show dislike for the piano (6)

31 In historic times, a wandering sage (4)

32 It’s our kindness that makes us what we are (8)

33 The degree to which one can give a divorced spouse shelter (6)

DOWN 1 Killer in Shakespeare (6) 2 The gratitude of a star

named Tom (6) 3 Rode noisily one way

(4) 4 Certain there’s terrible

sin about, takes precautions (7)

5 A more than crotchety note! (5)

6 Being seedy, it’s better to be full of them! (5)

8 It’s heard repeatedly in suspicious circumstances (4)

9 At the end of the day, he gives a cry (3)

12 Chap left at the end of the road (3)

13 When the wrong pair’s obviously not right! (5)

15 Send dotty Dora round with half of it! (5)

18 Not seaside place, but it has its salts (5)

19 Barely visible Roman numerals (3)

20 A much less than ingratiating character (3)

21 In London, a very short distance to the eastern extremity (4,3)

22 If not in prison, he’s in the village (3)

23 Being humble is unexceptional (6)

24 She embraces a pupil (4)25 Complain when lent out

for the morning (6)26 But not too mean to get

drunk? (5)27 In the army, he can play

around with a medal (5)28 In difficult weather, go

back for a fresh start (3)

30 Dad’s half year tax? (4)

EASY PUZZLEACROSS

1 Divulge (6) 7 Out of date (8) 8 Taps (4)10 Subsides (6)11 Infer (6)14 Colour (3)16 Sacks (5)17 Cooking fat (4)19 Meeting (5)21 Courteous (5)22 Filleted (5)23 Let fall (4)26 Pigmeat (5)28 Charge (3)29 Takes on (6)30 Ban (6)31 Heehaw (4)32 Estrange (8)33 Over there (6)

DOWN 1 Recollect (6) 2 Very happy (6) 3 Bereavement (4) 4 Dreary (7) 5 Thighbone (5) 6 Hereditary units (5) 8 Young salmon (4) 9 Man’s name (3)

12 Faint (3)13 Musical instrument (5)15 Original (5)18 In front (5)19 Flipper (3)20 Free (3)21 Vie (7)22 Dance (3)23 Delay (6)24 Depend (4)25 Mass of fine particles

(6)26 Trite (5)27 Comedian (5)28 Animal’s coat (3)30 Do as told (4)

YESTERDAY’S CRYPTIC SOLUTIONS

ACROSS: 1, Smash (hit) 6, Bar-bs 9, M-us-ical 10, G-R-ain 11, Raise 12, Heirs 13, Righted 15, Pro 17, Only 18, School 19, B-rook 20, Assert 22, Derv 24, Les 25, Rev.-Erie 26, Hated 27, Dalek 28, Bilko 29, Remo-Val 30, Peter 31, Aside. DOWN: 2, Me-RL-in 3, Smithy 4, Hun 5, Fired 6, B-a-rr-ack 7, Alas 8, Bistro 12, He-art 13, Roy-Al 14, Glass 15, Power 16, Olive 18, Sol-E-d 19, Breaker 21, Se-Nat-e 22, D-evils 23, Ri-Sk-ed 25, Resow 26, Here 28, Baa.

YESTERDAY’S EASY SOLUTIONS

ACROSS: 1, Harsh 6, Rinse 9, Teacher 10, Scorn 11, Filly 12, Fumes 13, Dossier 15, Ton 17, Eras 18, Feline 19, Table 20, Trowel 22, Pane 24, Hat 25, Secular 26, Pious 27, Cameo 28, Lilac 29, Subdues 30, Beats 31, Thyme.DOWN: 2, Anchor 3, Stress 4, Hen 5, Occur 6, Referee 7, Iris 8, Salmon 12, Feral 13, Death 14, Sabot 15, Tidal 16, Never 18, Flees 19, Tedious 21, Ravage 22, Punish 23, Napalm 25, Suede 26, Pest 28, Let.

CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Scorn (6) 5 Staunch (4) 8 Willow (5) 9 Mouthful (3)10 Prejudice (4)11 Thoroughfare (4)12 Swift (5)13 Frightened (6)16 Vend (4)18 Employed (4)20 Wager (3)22 Illuminated (3)23 Broadcast (3)24 Change (4)25 Paradise (4)28 Determine (6)30 Inexpensive (5)32 Threesome (4)33 Acid (4)34 Vase (3)35 Soar (5)36 Valley (4)37 Niche (6)

DOWN 1 Dishearten (6) 2 Journalist (8)

3 Wreckage (6) 4 Attacked (9) 5 Grave (7) 6 Trampled (4) 7 Manufactured (4)

8 Scull (3)14 Deputed (9)15 Novel (3)17 Cover (3)19 Loneliness (8)

20 Wicked (3)21 Storm (7)26 Snuggle (6)27 Sport (6)29 Deer (4)30 Quote (4)31 Equality (3)

YESTERDAY’SQUICK SOLUTION

ACROSS: 3, Lever 9, Ca-reer 10, Vulgar 11, Eaten 12, Epee 15, Once 17, Worried 20, Ton 21, Dined 23, Tool 25, Grit 26, Rated 28, God 30, Reflect 33, Anew 35, Late 36, Gamin 38, Exuded 39, Newest 40, Melee.DOWN: 1, Screw 2, Order 3, Lee 4, Erased 5, Ever 6, Run 7, Agent 8, Green 13, Portion 14, Error 16, Con-tact 18, Diver 19, Beg 22, Droll 24, Lap 27, Define 28, Gazed 29, Debut 31, Eager 32, Teeth 34, Wade 36, Gem 37, Nee.

QUICK CROSSWORD

06.00 am Opening, Royal Anthem, The Holy Quran, Preview of Morning Programme, Weather Forecast, Pharmacies on Duty; 06.15 Good Morning Oman; 07.00 News Bulletin; 07.10 Good Morning Oman (Sat-Wed); 10.00 News Headlines; 10.02 Piano; 11.00 Instrumental Music; 11.30 Light Classical Music; 12.00 News Headlines; 12.02 Artist of the Day (June); 12.07 Mid Day Edition - June; 02.30 News Bulletin; 02.40 Behind The Wheel (Laxmi); 04.00 News Headlines; 04.02 Omanesque (Laxmi); 06.30 News Bulletin; 06.40 Out in Oman; 07.00 Premium League (Murtadha) Live; 08.00 News Headlines; 08.02 The Oasis (Frank); 10.00 News Bulletin; 10.10 Euro Hits; 11.00 Selector Part 1 (Repeat); 12.00 Selector Part 2 (Repeat); 12.40 News Summary; 12.45 The Holy Quran; 01.00 National Anthem, Close Down.

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OMAN DAILY Observer

17SPORTSUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

MUSCAT — Young Stars, Mobile Plus Qurum and Ahmed Mohsin Trad posted victories in the second round of the Ramadhan softball cricket tournament organised by the Pakistan Social Club at the PSM ground on Friday.

While Young Stars had an easy seven-wicket vic-tory over Marala XI, Mobile

Plus Qurum beat Karwan Int’l by six wickets. Ahmed Mohsin Trad thrashed Oman Engineering by nine wickets.

Brief scores: Marala XI 107 for 8 in eight overs lost to Young Stars 108 for three. Karwan Int’l 86 in eight overs lost to Mobile Plus Qurum 87 for 4 in six overs. Oman Engineering 105 in eight overs lost to Ahmed Mohsin Trading 106 for one wicket in 7.1 overs.

Young Stars, Mobile Plus Qurum and Ahmed Mohsin Trad win

MUSCAT — Coastal upset Assarain while Asad XI, Star Light and Century advanced to the quarterfinal by beating Shapqadar XI, Muscat War-rior and Mobile Plus respec-tively in the FRiENDi Cup.

Brief scores: Coastal XI 68/2 (Saleem 16) beat Assarain 63/2

(Waseem 44); Asad XI 66/5 (Ba-ber 19) beat Shapqadar XI 57/7; Star Light 69/7 (Imran 17, Shams 14) beat Muscat Warrior 38 all out and Century 53/7 (Sahil 24) beat Mobile Plus 52/6.

Saleem (Coastal XI), Ameer (Asad XI), Shams (Star Light) and Sahil (Century CC) were declared man of the match.

Coastal, Star Light and Century reach quarters

MUSCAT — ISC Kachi Wing defeated Wonderfull Trade by nine wickets in the Al Turki/NMC Cup cricket tournament organised by the Oman Indo-Pak Friends at the Al Rifa ground on Friday. Brief scores: Wonderfull Trade 72 for 7 in 8 overs (Liaqat 30, Ma-hek 2/3, Brijesh 2/12) lost to ISC Kachi Wing 76 for 1 in 6.3 overs (Satyam 34 n.o.,Viren 19 n.o.). MoM: Satyam of ISC Kachi Wing.In another match, Stars Light beat Century CC by 10 wkts. Brief scores: Century CC 39 for 9 in 8 over (Zaheer 10, Usman 2/5, Shamas 2/9) los to Stars Light 42 for no loss in 2.5 overs (Faisal 29 n.o. Adnan Ilyas 10 n.o). MoM: Faisal from Stars Light..

Big win for ISC Kachi

Wing

Akron, Ohio — Jim Furyk fired a four-under 66 to maintain his two-shot lead at the halfway stage of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on Friday while Tiger Woods is off to his worst start in four months.

Furyk reached 11-under 129 and has a two-shot lead over Spain's Rafael Cabrera-Bello, who shot a five-under 65 on Friday at the Firestone Country Club course.

"I thought it was key to get off to a nice start and see some putts go in," Furyk said. "I made a good birdie putt at two, and saw some birdies go in on the front nine, good putt

at nine, and off to the races."Cabrera-Bello is alone at

nine-under 131. Former Brit-ish Open champ Louis Oost-huizen also had a 65 in round two and is alone in third at eight under.

Jason Dufner shot a four-under 66, good for fourth at seven under par. Seven-time winner Woods had a difficult day. He shot a two-over 72 and is tied for 44th, 13 shots back of Furyk.

Woods has had good success at this event for most of his career but has stum-bled on this course the last two times he played here and

needs to get his putting turned around to avoid another dis-mal score at Firestone.

His two-over 142 is his highest 36-hole score to par since his three-over 145 start at the Masters. "I get in these little spells where it's hot or cold," Woods said.

"It’ll be nice to relax a lit-tle bit this afternoon," said Furyk, who has not won since his 2010 Tour Championship victory. "I think the wind is supposed to pick up a little bit. If it gets breezy and the greens get faster, this place will show a little bit more teeth than we've seen so far." — AFP

Furyk maintains leads at Firestone

HAMILTON, New Zealand — The Waikato Chiefs powered to their first ever Super Rugby title yesterday with a sparkling 37-6 win over the travel-weary Sharks in Hamilton.

The Chiefs lived up to their billing as the most en-tertaining side in this sea-son's championship and also outshone the hardworking South African forwards to bury memories of their fi-nal humiliation to the Bulls three years ago.

The Chiefs made light of difficult conditions at Waikato Stadium and led through tries by Tim Nanai-Williams, Kane Thompson and Lelia Masaga before Sonny Bill Williams marked his farewell appearance with his side's fourth and final ef-fort. The Chiefs become the sixth winners in 17 seasons of Super Rugby competi-tion, while the Sharks sim-ply looked drained by a third straight play-off away from home and have now lost all four of their final appear-ances.

The Sharks shocked the Queensland Reds in a play-off and overcame the Storm-ers. "The boys were getting up in their faces," Chiefs captain Craig Clarke said. “We've got a heap of pride in our defence. We talked about not giving over and keeping them to no tries. “This is awesome." — Reuters

Waikato Chiefs crush Sharks

for maiden title

SATYAM

SALEEM of Coastal XI.

JYVASKYLA, Fin-land — Citroen’s world champion Se-bastien Loeb won the Rally of Finland for the third time in his record-breaking career yesterday to stretch his overall lead in the standings.

The Frenchman, chasing his ninth cham-pionship in a row, fin-ished ahead of local fa-vourite and team-mate Mikko Hirvonen with another Finn, Ford's Jari-Matti Latvala, in third place.

Loeb finished the final stage 6.1 seconds ahead of Hirvonen. Latvala was a further 28.9 adrift.

Norway’s Petter Solberg was fourth in a Ford.

The victory was Loeb’s sixth in eight races this season and he led from start to finish. — Reuters

Loeb wins in Finland for

the third time

PALLEKELE, Sri Lanka — Irfan Pathan grabbed five wickets as India posted a 20-run victory over Sri Lanka in the fifth and final one-day in-ternational here yesterday to win the series 4-1.

The paceman finished with 5-61, his second five-wicket haul in one-dayers, as India bowled Sri Lanka out for 274 after scoring a challenging 294-7 in the day-night match.

Sri Lanka were strug-gling at 102-5 before Lahiru Thirimanne (77) and Jeevan Mendis (72) gave India some anxious moments with a 102-run stand for the sixth wicket.

Thirimanne hit three sixes and five fours in his career-best knock before he was run out, and then Pathan removed Thisara Perera (18) and well-set Mendis in the same over.

Mendis cracked six fours in his maiden half-century in one-day internationals.

India earlier put in an im-pressive batting performance, with opener Gautam Gambhir (88), middle-order batsman Manoj Tiwary (65) and skip-per Mahendra Singh Dhoni (58) all making half-centuries.

Fast bowlers Lasith Malin-ga (3-64) and Nuwan Pradeep (2-63) were the main wicket-takers for Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka and India will clash in a one-off Twenty20 international at the same venue on Tuesday.

SCOREBOARDIndiaGambhir c Malinga b Senanayake ................88Rahane lbw Perera .........................9Kohli lbw Pradeep ........................23Sharma b Pradeep ..........................4Tiwary c Perera b Malinga ...........65Raina c Thirimanne b Malinga.......0Dhoni c Chandimal b Malinga .....58Pathan (not out) ............................29Ashwin (not out) ............................2Extras: (lb-10, w-6) .......................6Total: (for seven wickets; 50 overs) ..........................294Fall of wickets: 1-29, 2-77, 3-87, 4-197, 5-197, 6-213, 7-290.Bowling: Malinga 10-0-64-3 (w-1), Perera 10-0-53-1 (w-4), Mathews 5-0-29-0, Pradeep 10-0-63-2, Sena-nayake 10-0-50-1 (w-1), Mendis 5-0-25-0.Sri LankaTharanga c Rahane b Pathan ........31Dilshan c Zaheer b Pathan .............0Thirimanne run out ......................77Chandimal lbw Dinda ....................8Mathews run out ..........................13Kapugedara lbw Zaheer .................9Mendis c Dhoni b Pathan .............72Perera c Kohli b Pathan ................18Senanayake b Pathan ......................7L Malinga c Raina b Dinda ..........10

Pradeep (not out) ............................0Extras: (b-2, lb-14, w-13) ...........29Total: (all out; 45.4 overs) .........274Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-61, 3-74, 4-89, 5-102, 6-204, 7-252, 8-256, 9-266.Bowling: Zaheer 9-1-53-1 (w-8), Pathan 10-0-61-5 (w-5), Dinda 7.4-0-55-2, Kohli 1-0-3-0, Ashwin 9-0-37-0, Sharma 6-0-23-0, Raina 2-0-12-0, Tiwary 1-0-14-0. — AFP

Pathan bowls India to victory

GAUTAM Gambhir plays a shot against Sri Lanka.

IRFAN Pathan celebrates taking the wicket of Mendis.

KINGSTON, Jamaica — West Indies, looking to win their series 2-0, thanked a pair of morning wickets from Nars-ingh Deonarine and Tino Best to leave New Zealand strug-gling to establish a strong lead on the third day of their second Test in Kingston. The Kiwis had been 110 ahead overnight at 59 for 2 but by lunch they were hanging on grimly at 109 for 7, a lead of 160.

Best struck twice in the same over as the tourists served up some erratic batting — rath-er as had the hosts on Friday, when the Kiwis bowled them out for 209 — 123 of which went to Marlon Samuels.Part time off-spinner Deonarine-and Best were in fine fettle as they whittled down the middle order.

After seeing off openers Martin Guptill and BJ Watling Best had Neil Wagner caught for six in the 32nd over and two balls later had skipper Ross Taylor removed in similar vein as wicketkeeper Denesh Ram-

din took the catch.Deonarine was at it again as

he had Brendon McCullum of-fer a bat-pad catch to forward short leg on 19 before also claiming Williamson's scalp as he drove to Darren Sammy. Earlier Marlon Samuels struck a fine century for West Indies on the second day on Friday.

SCOREBOARD

New Zealand first innings 260West Indies first innings (over-night 62 for three at lunch)M Samuels c Wagner b Bracewell ............123S Chanderpaul c Taylor

b Southee ..............9N Deonarine c van Wyk b Boult ...0D Ramdin c Williamson b Wagner ...................15D Sammy lbw Southee ................ 32S Narine c Guptill b Bracewell .....1K Roach c Guptill b Bracewell .....0T Best (not out) .............................0Extras: (lb-4, w-2) ........................6Total: (all out, 64.3 overs) ........209Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-17, 3-53, 4-82, 5-83, 6-113, 7-162,8-177, 9-183, 10-209Bowling: Boult 17-2-58-3, Bracewell 15.3-3-46-3 (w-1),Southee 19-5-70-2, Wagner 10-3-24-2, Williamson 3-0-7-0New Zealand 2nd innings M Guptill lbw Deonarine ...........42 B Watling lbw Deonarine ........... 11 N Wagner c Ramdin b Best ..........6B McCullum c Fudadin b Deonarine .......... 19R Taylor c Ramdin b Best ............0K Williamson c Sammy b Deonarine ........... 8D Brownlie (not out) .............12C van Wyk c Chanderpaul b Narine .....................5D Bracewell (not out) ...................0Extras: (lb-1, w-1, nb-4) 6Total: (7 wickets; 51 overs) ......109 Fall of wickets: 1-55, 2-56, 3-80, 4-80, 5-85, 6-98, 7-105Bowling: Roach 12- 3-34-0, Best 9-2-22-2, Sammy 6-2-19-0, Narine 7-0-12-1, Deonarine 17-6-21-4.

New Zealand struggling as Windies fight back

MARLON Samuels ... fine century

From Andy Jalil at Headingley

LEEDS – With the main focus of the sporting public on the Olympic Games down south in London, the northern city of Leeds too had much entertain-ment to offer and it came from the bat of Kevin Pietersen in the second Test. In imperious form he dominated the play on the second day, registering his 21st Test century and bringing up 7,000 Test runs in the proc-

ess. It was an extraordinary innings which saw him in su-preme form and which brought out the best in him.

South Africa had no answer to his aggression as he went from strength to strength tak-ing control of the game. He made the tourists’ strong bowl-ing attack look totally innocu-ous, forcing them almost into a state of disarray. By stumps he had helped England to 351 for 5 and trailing by 68 on the first innings and remaining un-beaten with 149 from 212 balls

of which he hit 22 fours and a six.

England resumed their first innings on 48 without loss and lost the wicket of Alastair Cook within half an hour of the start of play. The ball from Vernon Philander pitched on just about the leg stump and moved across the left hander to pin him right in front. It was a waste of an England review to have gone to the third um-pire. Andrew Strauss, on 19 overnight took his score to 32 with a lovely drive to the extra

cover boundary off Philander just before rain stopped play for an hour and a half during which lunch was taken with England on 80 for one.

With playing time extended owing to rain, only seven overs were reduced and South Africa wasted little time in striking again.

After just four overs, dur-ing which only five runs were scored, the second England wicket went with Dale Steyn having Strauss, on 37 from 106 balls, caught behind. Bowling

from round the wicket, Steyn brought the ball into the left hander and Strauss edged it playing from the crease.

The stand between Jonathan Trott and Pietersen seemed to be progressing well although Trott’s shots were somewhat tentative at times. His drive to the wide mid-wicket boundary off Morne Morkel looked good but the next four came off the shoulder of the bat and another was edged to third man which would have gone into the hands of third slip had there

been one. Pietersen, however, batted with authority, playing his shots with confidence.

He was joined by Test debutant James Taylor with whom he added 147 for the fifth wicket. It would have been a satisfying debut for 22- year-old Taylor who contrib-uted 34 patiently in two and a half hours and learnt much in watching his senior partner.

From the start of his in-nings Pietersen played freely opening his account with pull for four off Steyn whom he

powerfully hit later as if with disdain to the extra cover boundary to take his score to 28. Meanwhile England lost Trott after the third wicket had put on 57. Trott edged Steyn to first slip playing at an away swing without moving his feet. His 35 runs had come in two hours and England were 142 for three. Pietersen took his score to 42, flicking Steyn to mid-wicket.

SCOREBOARD

South Africa, first innings 419

England first innings (overnight 48-0)A Strauss c De Villiers b Steyn ...37A Cook lbw b Philander ..............24J Trott c Smith b Steyn ................35K Pietersen (not out) .................149I Bell c Smith b Kallis .................11J Taylor b Morkel ........................34M Prior (not out) .........................20Extras: (b-5, lb-16, nb-6, w-14) .41Total: (5 wkts, 105 overs) 351Fall of wickets: 1-65, 2-85, 3-142, 4-173, 5-320 Bowling: Morkel 27-9-70-1, Phi-lander 25-9-63-1, Steyn 24-6-92-2, Kallis 12-3-34-1, Imran Tahir 16-0-66-0

Pietersen leads England rally with magnificent century

SUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

18

Athletics: (1000) Women's marathon; (1800) Women's 400m hurdles 1st rd; (1805) Men's high jump qualification rd; (1835) Women's triple jump final; (1845) Men's 100m semifinals; (1915) Men's 1,500m semifinals; (1920) Men's hammer final; (1940) Men's 400m semifinals; (2010) Women's 400m final; (2025) Men's 3,000m steeplechase final; (2050) Men's 100m finalBadminton: (0800) Men's singles bronze medal match, men's doubles bronze medal match; (1200) Men's singles final, men's doubles finalBasketball: Women's preliminary round: (0800) France v Russia (Group 'B'); (1015) Angola v Czech Republic (Group 'A'); (1330) Canada v Australia (Group 'B'); (1545) China v United States (Group 'A'); (1900) Croatia v Turkey (Group 'A'); (2115) Great Britain v Brazil (Group 'B')Beach Volleyball: (1700) Women's quarterfinalsBoxing: (1230) Last 16 — women's 51 kg, 60 kg, 75 kg; (1930) Quarterfinals — men's 56 kg, 91 kgTrack Cycling: (0900) Men's Omnium (individual pursuit, scratch, time-trial), qualification; Women's sprint — last 32 and last 16 women; Men's sprint — quarterfinalsEquestrian: (1000) Jumping individual 2nd qualifier, jumping team round 1Fencing: (0800-1400) Men's team foilArtistic Gymnastics: (1300) Apparatus finals: men's floor exercise final, women's vault final, men's pommel horse final.Weightlifting: (1430) Women's +75 kg finalHandball: Women 1st rd: (0830) Sweden v South Korea (Group 'B'); (1015) Brazil v Angola (Group 'A'); (1330) Montenegro v Russia (Group 'A'); (1515) Croatia v Great Britain (Group 'A'); (1830) Norway v Spain (Group 'B'); (2015) Denmark v France (Group 'B')Hockey: Men 1st rd: (0730) New-Zealand v Belgium (Group 'B'); (0945) Pakistan v South Africa (Group 'A'); (1245) India v South Korea (Group 'B'); (1500) Nether-lands v Germany (Group 'B'); (1800) Great Britain v Aus-tralia (Group 'A'); (2015) Argentina v Spain (Group 'A')Greco-Roman Wrestling: (1200) 55 kg, 74 kgSynchronised Swimming: (1400) Duets (technical rou-tine)Diving: (1800) Women's 3m springboard finalTennis: (1100) Bronze medal matches men's singles, wom-en's doubles; mixed doubles final; (1300) Men's singles final, women's doublesTable Tennis: (0900) Men's team quarterfinals; (1800) Women's team semifinalsShooting: (0800) 50m pistol men's qualification, trap men's qualificationSailing: (1100) Women's RS:X, 470 opening series, Men's 49er, RS:X opening series; (1200) Men's Star final; (1300) Men's Finn finalVolleyball: Women 1st rd: (0830) Algeria v Czech Re-public (Pool 'A'); (1030) China v South Korea (Pool 'B'); (1345) Great Britain v Japan (Pool 'A'); (1545) Italy v Rus-sia (Pool 'A'); (1900) United States v Turkey (Pool 'B'); (2100) Brazil v Serbia (Pool 'B')Water Polo: Women's quarterfinals: (1350) 2A v 3B; (1510) 3A v 2B; (1800) 1A v 4B; (1920) 4A v 1B. (All times GMT) — AFP

TODAY'S SCHEDULE

GOLD medallist China’s Li Xuerui, silver medallist compatriot Wang Yihan (left) and bronze winner India’s Saina Nehwal pose at the badminton victory ceremony. — Reuters

LONDON — Gold medal favourites Brazil twice came from behind to beat Honduras 3-2 with a penalty from Ney-mar and two from Leandro Damiao to clinch their place in the semifinals of the men's Olympic soccer tournament yesterday.

They will face the winners of the last quarterfinal to be played between Britain and South Korea who meet at Car-diff, while Mexico will face Japan in the other semifinal.

Mexico survived a fight-back from Senegal in a thrill-ing match that delighted a crowd of almost 82,000 at Wembley who saw Senegal come from 2-0 down to level at 2-2 before two defensive errors allowed Mexico to win 4-2 in extra time.

Japan also made it to the last four with a 3-0 win over Egypt that pulled another huge crowd of 70,000 at Old Trafford.

Both semifinals will be played on Tuesday with Mex-ico facing Japan at Wembley

and Brazil playing their game at Old Trafford.

STUNNING VOLLEYBrazil, chasing their first

ever Olympic soccer gold, fell behind when Mario Mar-tinez scored with a stunning curling, dipping volley after 11 minutes, but Honduras were reduced to 10 men when Wilmer Crisanto was sent off for two swift yellow cards in the first half.

Leandro Damiao equalised when three Honduras defend-ers failed to clear in front of goal eight minutes before the break, but the underdogs un-expectedly went back in front after 48 minutes when Roger Espinoza found the net with a soft, low angled shot.

Neymar brought Brazil back into the game with a 50th minute penalty before Leandro Damiao made it 3-2 10 minutes later with a well placed shot.

MORE THRILLSThere was even more goals

at Wembley were Mexico, 2-0 up midway through the sec-

ond half, were pegged back to 2-2 by Senegal before Gio-vani Dos Santos and substitute Hector Herrera scored in extra time to put Mexico into the last four for the first time since they hosted the Olympics in 1968 and lost to Japan in the bronze medal match.

With just over an hour played Mexico appeared to be cruising into the last four, leading 2-0 up after a header from Jose Enriquez and a sec-ond from Javier Aquino who pounced on a loose ball in the area and rifled it home.

Senegal, so impressive in

the group stage, were never out of contention though and after plenty of chances of their own pulled one back when tournament top scorer Moussa Konate headed home after 69 minutes.

It was his and Senegal's fifth goal of the tournament, but seven minutes later sub-stitute Ibrahima Balde joined him on the score-sheet when he thundered in an unstop-pable header to pull Senegal level.

Japan also made it through to the last four for the first time since 1968 after keeping a fourth consecutive clean sheet with a 3-0 win over Egypt.

The north African side were reduced to 10 men in the 41st minute at Old Trafford in Manchester, where 70,000 fans turned up for the often maligned men's Olympic soc-cer tournament.

Japan won with goals from Kensuke Nagai after 14 minutes and late headers from Maya Yoshida and Yuki Otsu. — Reuters

Brazil, Mexico and Japan into men’s semis

LONDON — American Serena Williams filled the only hole in her resume as she demolished Russia's Maria Sharapova 6-0, 6-1 to win the gold medal in the women's singles at Wim-bledon yesterday.

The fourth-ranked Ameri-can turned in an utterly ruth-less performance to crush the Russian and become only the second woman — after Ger-many's Steffi Graf — to win all

four Grand Slam titles and the Olympic gold in her career.

American twins Bob and Mike Bryan completed a ca-reer golden slam of their own as they beat France's Jo-Wil-fried Tsonga and Michael Llo-dra 6-4, 7-6 to win the men's doubles.

Williams roared as she hit her 10th ace to clinch victory before leaping up and down in the middle of the court. She

is the only player in history to win singles and doubles at all four Grand Slam titles and at the Olympics.

"I didn't think I would be this happy," said Williams, who could barely stand still before being presented with the gold medal.

"I'm so pumped, oh my gosh, I got the gold. I didn't think it could be better than winning Wimbledon but you

see how happy I am. I don't know what to do."

World No 3 Sharapova, who won the French Open in June for her fourth Grand Slam title, also had the chance to complete a golden career but was helpless in the face of the Williams onslaught.

Having won the Wimble-don title less than a month ago and not lost to Sharapova since 2004, Williams was the strong

favourite and brilliant serving and heavy groundstrokes saw her to a dominant victory.

Sharapova finally got a game on the board at 6-0, 3-1 and had two chances to break back in the next game but Wil-liams shut her out.

"I've never played better on Centre Court," Williams said. "I've won everything. Now I can go to Disneyworld."

Sharapova admitted there was little she could have done to change things.

"Obviously you want to win when you're in a final but she just played a lot better than me today," she said. "She was too powerful. She got confi-dence from Wimbledon and she was on fire."

"It means a lot (to win a medal). To win a medal as a first-time Olympian is an amazing accomplishment."

Belarus picked up their first ever tennis medal as world No 1 Victoria Azarenka beat another Russian, Maria Ki-rilenko, 6-3, 6-4 to win the bronze.

Hammered by Williams in the semifinal, Azarenka recovered her poise to see off Kirilenko, who was a sur-

prise semifinalist after beating former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova.

Frenchmen Julien Benne-teau and Richard Gasquet won the men's doubles bronze with a 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 victory over David Ferrer and Feliciano Lopez of Spain.

LEANDER-SANIA OUTLeander Paes and Sania

Mirza's dreams of a mixed doubles medal at the London Olympics were shattered yes-terday as they lost 7-5, 7-6 (7/5) to Belarusian top seeds Max Mirnyi and Victoria Azarenka.

Paes and Mirza were hop-ing for a shock win on Wim-bledon's Court 12 which would have put them into the semifinals and within touching distance of the podium.

But the duo bowed out at the quarterfinal stage, in a match which had been postponed due to bad light on Friday evening with the Belarusians leading 7-5, 2-3.

All of India's tennis com-petitors have now been elimi-nated from the Games. Paes has a singles bronze medal from the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. — dpa

Ruthless Serena crushes Sharapova for singles gold

DORNEY, England — British row-ing won two Olympic gold medals in 20 minutes yesterday when the men's four beat fierce rivals Aus-tralia and the women's lightweight double shocked even themselves to take the title in thrilling scenes on Dorney Lake.

Confirming their position as the strongest rowing nation in the world, the British team then looked like they would make it three out of three when the lightweight men's double stormed off the start to lead for the majority of their final.

With 30,000 ecstatic fans scream-ing the popular duo on, Mark Hunt-er and Zac Purchase sprinted for the

line but were left disconsolate when Denmark came through them in the final metres of a 2,000 metre course.

Drama then followed as an ex-hausted Hunter had to be carried out of his boat to lie almost unconscious on the ground before Britain's most successful rower Steve Redgrave left his position providing punditry for the BBC to pull Hunter to his feet and walk him up and down the pon-toon.

Despite the disappointment, the haul of four gold medals, two silver and three bronze medals won by the British rowing team make the Lon-don 2012 Games the most successful Olympics for the British squad.

Britain powered off the start in the men's four final which had been dubbed an "Ashes" clash on a par with the cricketing rivalry between the two countries. They took an early lead against the normally fast-starting Australians and then clung on to the finish.

The commanding performance followed days of tough talking from the Australian boat and gave Britain a fourth consecutive win in the men's four. The win by just over a second also denied Drew Ginn the chance to become the first Australian to win gold in four Olympic Games.

Twenty minutes later, Kather-ine Copeland and Sophie Hosking

rowed through the favourites to win the lightweight women's double by a length.

The duo looked to be in utter dis-belief as they crossed the line and needed confirmation from the big screen before they hugged each oth-er and stood up in the boat to accept the applause.

The Czech Republic's Miroslava Knapkova won the last final of the day in the women's single scull in one of the most dominant perform-ances of the regatta. Denmark's un-heralded Fie Udby Erichsen took silver and Australia's Kim Crow the bronze, to add to the silver she won in the double on Friday. — Reuters

Britain take two rowing gold in 20 minutes

LONDON — China's Li Xuerui survived two ferocious comebacks by her top-seeded compatriot Wang Yihan to seal the women's singles badminton gold at the London Games yesterday, capping her fairytale rise to the pinnacle of the sport.

Li had never imagined she would force her way onto China's peerless badminton team but a 30-game winning streak in the lead-up to the tournament won her a spot.

"Just being selected for China means something," the soft-spoken 21-year-old told reporters after upsetting the world champion 21-15, 21-23, 21-17.

"To be honest it's still like I am dream-ing at the moment but looking back, it re-ally was my hard work that got me on the team."

Li, like the rest of her team-mates, has shown remarkable composure to shrug off a match-fixing scandal that threatened to derail the Chinese juggernaut and resulted in the expulsion of their world champion doubles pair Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli.

Instead, Li seems to have gone from strength to strength, thrashing second-seeded countrywoman Wang Xin in the

semifinal and then grinding down gallant world No 1 Wang Yihan in front of an en-thralled crowd at Wembley Arena.

"I think it was extremely cruel for my two team-mates to be disqualified because it's extremely difficult for any athlete to compete at the Olympics," Li added.

"Having said that, China has done well, winning both the mixed doubles and the singles and we should share that with them."

BATTERED CREDIBILITYChina's credibility took a beating over

the scandal but Li and Wang did their bit to restore the team's pride by playing out a 78-minute classic.

Li raised her arms in triumph after forcing an error to seal the match and ac-knowledged ecstatic Chinese fans with an army salute. The vanquished Wang tried to smile but grimly held back tears as she stood next to the beaming Li on the po-dium.

Li appeared to have Wang beaten in the second game as she brought up two match points, but her Shanghai-born op-ponent saved both to take the match to a decider.

Li, born in the Yangtze River port of Chongqing, marched to an 8-3 lead in the decider but was reeled in to 17-17.

Both appeared to tire in the final points, but it was Wang who broke down first as she netted a regulation smash to hand Li the momentum.

Li took the chance with both hands, blasting a smash down the line to bring up three match points and then sealing the match when Wang netted a volley.

That gave China their second gold medal for the tournament after Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei thrashed second-seeded compatriots Xu Chen and Ma Jin 21-11, 21-17 to win the mixed doubles on Friday.

India's Saina Nehwal celebrated her country's first Olympic badminton medal after she won the bronze medal decider when China's Wang Xin retired with a knee injury when leading 21-18, 1-0.

Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei secured China's third gold medal when they beat Japan's Mizuki Fujii and Reika Kakiiwa 21-10, 25-23 to win the women's doubles final. — Reuters

Li wins all-China battle for gold, Saina takes bronzeSENEGAL’S Moussa Konate (right) challenges Mexico’s Jorge Enriquez (left) and Darvin Chavez for the ball in the

quarterfinal match at Wembley Stadium in London, yesterday. — AFP

SERENA Williams of the US returns the ball to Russia’s Maria Sharapova during their gold medal match yesterday.

LONDON — Russia roared back from a 20-2 deficit to beat Spain 77-74 after a crucial free throw miss by Pao Gasol, seizing the upper hand for a critical seeding advantage at the Olympic men's basketball tournament yesterday.

The victory between the previously unbeaten teams of Group 'B' gave Russia (4-0) the inside track with one preliminary round left to win the group and ensure a path to a possible gold medal game against the defending United States.

The see-saw struggle came down to the last sec-onds.

Gasol went to the foul line for two shots with Spain trailing 75-73 and 5.3 sec-onds left on the clock.

After a Russia timeout to give the Los Angeles Lakers NBA All-Star time to ponder his task, Gasol hit the back rim and missed his first at-tempt. After making the second the world's second-ranked Spaniards trailed 75-74.

Russia's Vitaliy Fridzon was fouled immediately after the inbound pass and made his two shots from the charity stripe for the final to-tal. He led all scorers with 24 points.

There was still 4.8 sec-onds left when Spain in-bounded, but the ball came to Marc Gasol in the back-court and he was not able to set up a desperation shot for Spain (3-1). — Reuters

Russia cagers beat Spain in battle of unbeatens

OMAN DAILY Observer

19SPORTSUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

LONDON — The London Games finally got a fleeting glimpse of the world's fast-est man Usain Bolt yesterday as the Olympic 100 metres champion enjoyed nothing more than a light canter after a sloppy start to safely reach the semifinals.

The leading protagonists for today's blue riband show-down, including world cham-pion Yohan Blake, Jamaican compatriot Asafa Powell and Americans Justin Gatlin and Tyson Gay all enjoyed a com-fortable passage.

On a track described by the stadium's PA as a "magic car-pet", Bolt stumbled slightly at the start but still barely broke sweat on a sunny morning for the second day of track and field action.

"I made a bad step. I stum-bled a bit. I'm glad it happened now," the Jamaican said after easing home in 10.09 seconds in the fourth heat.

Bolt shared the stage with South Africa's "Blade Run-ner", Oscar Pistorius, who be-came the first double amputee to compete on the track at an Olympic Games.

Pistorius, who wears car-bon fibre prosthetic blades after being born without a fib-

ula in both legs, qualified for the 400m semifinals to huge cheers with a season's best of 45.44 seconds.

British hopes of a gold-tinged evening grew when Jes-sica Ennis stretched her lead in the heptathlon with just the 800 metres remaining.

Bolt entered the arena well wrapped up in beanie hat and hooded top as he went through some stretching routines, half-heartedly acknowledging the crowd before touching knuck-les with the official behind his starting block.

The Jamaican, disqualified

for false-starting in the world final in Daegu, South Korea, last year and entering these Games with doubts over his fitness, said he was "running well" and his training had been "great".

The semifinals and final are today.

Blake looked in good form by clocking 10.0, as did 2004 Olympic champion Gatlin (9.97) who was one of two runners to dip under 10 sec-onds. American Ryan Bailey signalled that he will be in the medals shake-up by dashing to 9.88, the fastest of the day.

Former world champion Kim Collins was a surprise absentee from the heats with local media reporting that the St Kitts & Nevis runner had fallen out with his country's officials over a visit from his wife.

The 2003 world champion hinted as much yesterday when he tweeted: "Even men in prison get their wives to visit. 6 athletes and 9 officials. That ain't enough to make some people happy. Omg."

POSTER GIRLBritain's track poster girl

Ennis remained on course to be crowned Olympic heptathlon champion after consolidating her overnight lead following the morning's long jump and javelin.

Ennis, who missed the Beijing Games through injury, holds a 188-point lead over Lithuanian Austra Skujyte and has the gold medal firmly in sight.

Ennis has 5,971 points to Skujyte's 5,783 with Ukraine's Lyudmyla Yosypenko (5,701) in the bronze medal position.

While Ennis appears in-spired by the fervent home support, Pistorius revelled in the roars of another 80,000 crowd.

"I was so nervous this morn-ing," the 25-year-old said.

"Thanks to everyone for showing their support. I didn't know whether to cry. I had a mixture of emotions. It was the most amazing experience... I saw the South African flag. I've run so much in the UK it feels like my second home."

World 400 champion Kira-ni James breezed through but Olympic champion LaShawn Merritt was the biggest casual-ty of morning qualifying with the American, who had been suffering from a hamstring injury coming into the Games, pulling up in his heat.

Merritt, who appeared on the track with a heavily strapped left thigh, served a 21-month suspension after a positive doping test for using of an over-the-counter male enhancement product in 2010 which contained a banned sub-stance. — Reuters

Bolt cruises after stutter, Pistorius joy

LONDON — Colombian 400 metres runner Diego Pal-omeque Echevarria has been temporarily banned from the London Games following a positive test for testosterone, the International Olympic Committee said yesterday.

Brazilian female rower Kissya Cataldo da Costa has also been expelled from the Olympics for failing a dope test for EPO prior to the start of the official Olympic period, a Brazilian rowing team offi-cial told reporters.

The 18-year-old Palom-eque is the fourth athlete to have been officially suspend-ed, provisionally or perma-nently, from the Games since the start of the Olympic period on July 16.

Several other athletes have been confirmed as positive by their own federations.

Palomeque, scheduled to compete yesterday, had pro-vided a urine sample on 26 July in London that tested positive for testosterone of ex-ogenous origin.

"Upon receipt of the re-sults of the B sample analysis, a final decision will be pro-nounced by the Disciplinary Commission," the IOC said in a statement.

Should the second sample also come back positive, Pal-omeque faces a possible two-year suspension as a first-time offender.

Kissya, 30, tested posi-tive for performance-boosting EPO in a pre-competition test

carried out in Brazil on July 12 by the International Rowing Federation (Fisa), the Brazil-ian Olympic Committee said.

Russian track cyclist Victo-ria Baranova, who has already been sent home, has been of-ficially expelled following a July 24 positive test for testo-sterone in Belarus.

The 22-year-old Baranova, ranked two in the world in kei-rin, was a medal contender in London.

"I do not think this chang-es where we are at all," IOC spokesman Mark Adams told reporters when asked whether the latest positive tests were showing a wider use of banned substances at the Games than expected.

"Cheats are being caught

and ejected," he said. "At this stage it is a pretty low number."

On Friday, Moroccan middle-distance runner Amine Laalou was thrown out of the Games after his team con-firmed he had failed a doping test in July.

Uzbek gymnast Luiza Gal-iulina and Albanian weight-lifter Hysen Pulaku have also been expelled by the IOC while St Kitts and Nevis sprinter Tameka Williams admitted to taking a banned substance and was told by her Olympic team to return home.

There were 20 proven cases of doping at the Beijing Games four years ago, includ-ing six horses, down from 26 cases in Athens in 2004.

IOC provisionally bans Colombian, Brazil rower out

LONDON — Chen Ding won China's first ever men's Olympic 20 kilometres walk title and first ever medal in the event here yesterday coming home in a time of 1hr 18 min 46 sec.

The 19-year-old beat home Guate-malan Erick Barrondo, who gave his country their first ever Olympic medal in any sport, while another Chinese walker, Wang Zhen, was third.

Defending champion Valeriy Borchin of Russia collapsed and lay distressed against a barrier within two kilometres of the finish while he was in fourth place and had to be stretchered away by medi-cal staff.

Japan's Asian champion Yusuke Suzuki set the early pace and opened a decent gap on the pack which was headed by Irish veteran Robert Heffernan.

However, a burst from Wang ap-proaching the halfway mark firstly split the pack apart and then reeled in Suzuki, who paid for his over-enthusiasm by dropping steadily down the field.

Wang led a breakaway group of 10 including Chen, Australia's Jarred Talent,

the bronze medalist in the event four years ago, and Indian Kolothum Thodi Irfan.

However, in a lively race Frenchman Bertrand Moulinet emerged from the pack to open up a sizeable lead while Hef-fernan crept back into medal contention

as he rejoined the chasing group.Moulinet's trot for glory was brought

to a halt as he was swallowed up and then dropped from the pack, with the new rab-bit being Chen.

In the final kilometres Chen and Wang were involved in a battle for the honours with Russian duo Borchin and Vladimir Kanaykin as well as the tenacious Ber-rondo.

Colombian world bronze medalist Luis Fernando Lopez's dreams of an-other major medal were shattered as he received his third and final warning; he turned disbelievingly to the official ask-ing for clarification and got the confirma-tion he was dreading.

Kanaykin too suffered the same fate shortly afterwards, leaving four to contest the medals.

Chen made the decisive break with just two kilometres remaining while Ber-rondo shook off the attentions of Wang, which earned the 21-year-old a big hug from the coach at the end, and Borchin's challenge for the medals came to its dis-tressing conclusion. — AFP

Chen gives China first ever 20 km walk gold

USAIN Bolt (centre) of Jamaica runs on his way to winning his 100m heat round 1 during the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium yesterday. — Reuters

OMAN’S Barakat al Harthy (right), Justin Gatlin (centre) of the US and Trinidad and Tobago’s Rondel Sorrillo run in heat 2 during round 1 of the men’s 100m heats at the

Games yesterday. Gatlin topped with 9.97 seconds to the next round while Barakat finished seventh out of eight in 10.41 seconds. — Reuters

GOLD medallist China’s Chen Ding waves at the men’s 20 km race walk

victory ceremony. — Reuters

Country G S B T United States 24 11 14 49 China 23 16 11 50 Great Britain 11 7 8 26 South Korea 9 2 5 16 France 8 6 8 22 Germany 5 9 6 20 Italy 5 5 3 13 North Korea 4 0 1 5 Kazakhstan 4 0 0 4 Russian Fedn 3 13 9 25 Netherlands 3 1 4 8 South Africa 3 1 0 4 New Zealand 3 0 4 7 Japan 2 9 11 22 Cuba 2 2 1 5 Hungary 2 1 2 5 Poland 2 1 1 4 Ukraine 2 0 4 6 Australia 1 10 6 17 Romania 1 4 2 7 Canada 1 2 6 9 Belarus 1 2 3 6 Denmark 1 2 2 5 Czech Rep 1 2 1 4 Brazil 1 1 4 6 Slovenia 1 0 2 3 Ethiopia 1 0 0 1 Georgia 1 0 0 1 Lithuania 1 0 0 1 Switzerland 1 0 0 1 Venezuela 1 0 0 1 Mexico 0 3 1 4 Sweden 0 3 0 3 Spain 0 2 1 3 Colombia 0 2 1 3 Slovakia 0 1 3 4 India 0 1 2 3 Serbia 0 1 1 2 Norway 0 1 1 2 Indonesia 0 1 1 2 Mongolia 0 1 1 2 Kenya 0 1 1 2 Belgium 0 1 1 2 Croatia 0 1 0 1 Thailand 0 1 0 1 Chinese Taipei 0 1 0 1 Egypt 0 1 0 1 Guatemala 0 1 0 1 Greece 0 0 2 2 Azerbaijan 0 0 1 1 Hong Kong 0 0 1 1 Iran 0 0 1 1 Qatar 0 0 1 1 Uzbekistan 0 0 1 1 Singapore 0 0 1 1 Moldova 0 0 1 1

MEDAL TALLY

SUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

LONDON — Swiss Nicola Spirig won the gold medal in the London 2012 women's triathlon in the sport's first photo-finish at the Olympics yesterday.

After a ferocious sprint fin-ish in Hyde Park, both Spirig and Lisa Norden of Sweden were given the same time of one hour 59 minutes 48 sec-onds.

The judges examined the photographic evidence and said Spirig's winning margin was less than 15 centimetres.

Two seconds back, Erin Densham of Australia won the bronze medal, having been in contention for gold until the final 200 metres.

"I had a feeling but I wasn't

really sure," the 30-year-old Spirig said when asked if she knew she had won the gold medal. "I really needed an of-ficial to tell me. It took a few minutes and those minutes were really hard."

Fourth was Sarah Groff of the United States, in two hours dead, while British world champion Helen Jenkins was fifth, 19 seconds further back.

The swimming, cycling and running course took in some of the British capital's most famous landmarks, including Buckingham Palace.

It began with a 1.5 km swim in the Serpentine lake in Hyde Park on a day cold enough, with a water tempera-ture of less than 20 degrees

Celsius, to allow the women to wear wetsuits.

The wetsuits assisted the weaker swimmers and led to almost half the field of 56 start-ers, including the pre-race fa-vourites, forming a lead group on the 43 km cycle phase.

London's roads, wet from overnight rain, claimed some early casualties including Aus-tralia's Emma Moffatt, the 2008 Olympic bronze medal-winner, who was involved in a five-woman crash on the first lap.

Vicky Holland, in the Brit-ish team as a domestic to help Jenkins' cause, was brought down in the incident, leaving her unable to assist the favour-ite. "I was here to do every-thing I could to help Helen and

I wasn't able to help her," Hol-land said. "It was like a wait-ing game, which is not what we wanted."

On the 10 km run, over four laps around the park, strong pace-setting by Densham and Jenkins whittled down the challengers until, into the final lap, five remained in conten-tion.

Jenkins was the first to crack, to the shock of the huge crowd. Going into the final straight beside the lake, Spirig, sixth in Beijing four years ago, launched a surge for home.

Only Norden could keep with her, throwing herself across the line in a late but ultimately unsuccessful lunge for gold. — Reuters

Spirig wins gold in photo finish

NICOLA Spirig (right) of Switzerland wins the women’s triathlon final at the London 2012 Olympic Games at Hyde Park yesterday. Lisa Norden (left) of Sweden took the silver. — Reuters

Sunday, August 5, 2012Sunday, August 5, 2012

Nissan’s Ramadhan Carnival‘THE Ramadhan Carnival’, launched by Nissan Oman from the house of Suhail Bahwan Automobiles along with LuLu Hypermarket to make Ramadhan moments unique and special for families across Oman, has been a great hit with lots of families flocking to the venues across Muscat. Page 23

Nawras launches mobile broadbandNAWRAS, Oman’s customer friendly communications provider

has introduced a new weekly mobile broadband Internet plan for Nawras Mousbak prepaid customers. For only 500 baisas,

customers using a smartphone can now enjoy unmatched value with 50MB of data and 50 SMS for an entire week. Page 22

WASHINGTON — The In-ternational Monetary Fund last night issued a $2 billion loan for Jordan to steady the country's battered economy and protect it from external "shocks" in the region.

The IMF executive board approved the three-year loan, making $385.35 million im-mediately available, the fund said in a statement.

The remaining amount will be phased in, subject to quar-terly reviews of the economy's performance under the so-called Stand-By Arrangement.

The IMF noted that the loan, requested by the Jordani-an authorities, represents "ex-ceptional access" to the fund's resources, amounting to 800 per cent of Jordan's financial commitment to the institution.

Flanked by a circle of insta-bility, Jordan has been ravaged

by spluttering natural gas sup-plies from revolutionary Egypt and a flood of refugees cross-ing the border from war-torn Syria.

In addition, large financ-ing needs to protect consum-ers from the increase in energy prices in 2011 were further deepened in 2012 by the need to provide housing and medi-cal services to refugees from Syria.

"The Jordanian authorities have developed an economic programme focused on achiev-ing fiscal and external sustain-ability in a socially acceptable manner, while strengthening growth prospects," IMF man-aging director Christine Lagarde said in the statement.

"The programme envis-ages supporting confidence as well as strong medium-term consolidation in the fiscal and

energy sectors."The IMF said that Jorda-

nian authorities intend to cut the country's deficit by about six per cent of gross domestic

product during the programme. The energy-poor country has expressed concerns that cuts in natural gas supplies from Egypt could cost the kingdom

more than $2 billion in 2012.The IMF also announced it

was opening a "precautionary" $6.2 billion line of credit for Morocco to protect the econo-

my from external shocks."The Moroccan authori-

ties have stated that they... do not intend to draw on the line, unless Morocco experiences actual balance of payments needs from a deterioration of external conditions," the IMF said in a statement.

Known as the Precaution-ary and Liquidity Line, the financing is the latest version of a credit line launched in 2010 amid the global financial crisis, available for countries with sound economic policies.

"The PLL will allow the au-thorities to continue with their home-grown reform agenda aimed at achieving rapid and inclusive economic growth, while providing them with a useful insurance against exter-nal shocks," the Washington-based institution said. — AFP

IMF approves $2 billion loan for Jordan

WASHINGTON — Facebook shares have lost nearly half their value since a highly-touted public offering in May, but it's still not a bargain for some.

Facebook in the past week dropped below $20 a share for

the first time since its $38 of-fering price in May.

On Friday, the stock re-bounded five per cent to $21.09 but remains down a hefty 44.5 per cent.

There is some fear that shares could take another hit

in mid-August after the expi-ration of a "lockup," a 90-day period after the IPO during which insiders are barred from selling.

Michael Comeau of the fi-nancial website Minyanville says 268 million shares could

come onto the market, in ad-dition to the 460 million that are already floated. And more will become available later this year.

"I'm fixated on the 268 million shares that hit in two weeks," he said. "Will there be enough buyers to satisfy the new supply?"

Comeau said analyst’s full-year earnings estimates on Facebook "are actually coming down" from 51 cents per share to 49 cents.

"Declining earnings es-timates are usually a nega-tive indicator for momentum stocks," he added.

Facebook underwhelmed the market in July when it re-ported its first earnings as a public company, barely meet-ing estimates for earnings per share and delivering disap-pointing revenue growth.

The results showed growth for Facebook in overall rev-enue, operating profits and the number of users — which in-creased to 955 million by the end of the quarter.

But the company indicated in a regulatory filing that as many as 83 million accounts may come from dubious sourc-es — duplicate accounts, pages for pets and those designed to send spam.

Trip Chowdhry at Global Equities Research, who has consistently said Facebook was overpriced, said the com-pany may be a victim of its own success.

"Everybody's on Facebook. Your parents are on Facebook. Your neighbours are on Facebook," he said.

"So what do people do? They create fake IDs or they go hang out somewhere else. People are reducing their en-gagement on Facebook."

Chowdhry said it remains unclear if Facebook can "tran-scend" the current generation of users, or will be replaced by something else.

Additionally, he said there is "a lot of uncertainty" about the expiration allowing insid-ers to sell, adding the stock is still not a bargain.

"The stock is reflecting that the company can grow 80 to 90 per cent year-over-year, which is impossible," he said.

Larry Chiagouris, a profes-sor of marketing at Pace Uni-versity, said Facebook has yet to define its strategy for long-term growth and profits.

Chiagouris said founder Mark Zuckerberg's mantra that he wants to "help every per-son stay connected" and "be a great social experience" is too fuzzy.

"That is not focused enough," he said.

"They probably expanded too quickly without articu-lating their mission. From a profit-making perspective, Facebook has kind of lost its way."

Chiagouris said most im-portant for him is that market-ers are cool to expanding the use of the Facebook platform.

"The large marketers know exactly how many people are clicking on the ads and to what degree that is helping market-ing," he said.

"Facebook has yet to prove it is a good return on invest-ment."

Lou Kerner of the Social Internet Fund remains upbeat on Facebook, saying it will re-bound similar to Amazon after the dot-com bubble burst over a decade ago.

"The lesson I learned from the last bubble is you have to separate what the market is doing from the fundamentals of the business," Kerner said. "And the fundamentals at Facebook continue to be posi-tive."

One of Facebook's prob-lems, he said, is that it has "too many customers" especially on the mobile Internet, but that the company will find a way to leverage that massive user base."

"I think it's turned into a 'show me' stock," he said. "As soon as Facebook shows it can meaningfully monetise its mobile users I think you'll see the shorts (short-sellers) cover and people lining up to buy." — AFP

Even at half-price, Facebook faces trouble

NEW YORK — A 30-year-old former Barclays Plc swaps trader in New York, who was fired from the bank in 2010, is among those drawing scrutiny from prosecutors in the deep-ening scandal over the manip-ulation of global benchmark interest rates.

US prosecutors in Wash-ington, DC are looking at Ryan Reich's activities while at Barclays between August 2006 and March 2010, said several people familiar with the situation, who declined to be identified because the bid-rigging investigation is ongo-ing.

Reich, now a portfolio manager with New York-based hedge fund WCG Man-agement, was dismissed from Barclays for allegedly sending inappropriate e-mails seeking internal bank information, ac-cording to two sources famil-iar with the situation.

One of those sources, who used to work for the bank, said the information Reich sought concerned how the Li-bor benchmark rate was going to be priced, information that could have been useful for his trading positions.

Reached by telephone on Friday, Reich declined to com-ment. A spokeswoman at the

US Department of Justice did not return phone calls or e-mails seeking comment.

Libor, the London inter-bank offered rate, is used to set rates on trillions of dollars of contracts for everything from home mortgages to credit cards. The investigation has embroiled banks on both sides of the Atlantic and involves yen and euro rates as well as those for the dollar.

Lawyers familiar with the investigation say federal pros-ecutors continue to reach out to individuals to gauge inter-est in co-operating or taking pleas. They said prosecutors

are expected to begin making decisions on charging individ-uals late this month or in early September.

Indeed, many of the traders under scrutiny do not believe they did anything wrong be-cause their employers and reg-ulators had some awareness of their activities, the lawyers said. Information released by the New York Fed shows that bank regulators in the United States and Europe knew some banks were submitting low Li-bor bids during the financial crisis to make institutions ap-pear healthier than they were.

A person familiar with Re-

ich's dismissal from Barclays said that the young trader, who joined Barclays just two years after graduating from Princ-eton University, was directed by his supervisors to send the e-mails and they were aware of everything he was doing.

The person, who did not want to be identified, said the practice of sending e-mails to gather information on future Libor pricing went back to the 1990s at Barclays, long before Reich joined the firm.

"This was systemic at Barclays," said the person.

Barclays declined to com-ment.

Reich was a part of a low-profile New York trading desk at Barclays that is now increasingly in focus as pros-ecutors and regulators extend their investigation of the Li-bor scandal, which began to come to light in 2008. In June, Barclays paid a $453 million penalty to authorities in the United States and the UK to settle allegations some of its traders colluded with people at other banks to manipulate Libor.

In the United States, fed-eral authorities and regulators are focusing on the activities of the Barclays desk on which Reich worked. It traded US Treasury and US dollar and Canadian dollar interest rate swaps.

Reuters previously reported that Jay Merchant, one of that desk's top traders, who in 2009 served as head of US dollar swaps trading, is being scruti-nised by federal authorities as well. Merchant moved to UBS in late 2009 to run that firm's swaps desk.

Ritankar "Ronti" Pal, who Merchant reported to and who had overseen all of the desk's trading since 2006, recently left Barclays, according to people familiar with the mat-ter. — Reuters

Fired Barclays trader draws scrutiny in Libor

WASHINGTON — The US Treasury Department said on Friday it expects to raise $5 billion from its sale of Amer-ican International Group stock, cutting the govern-ment's stake in the bailed-out insurer to 55 per cent.

The sale, which would bring a profit of about $300 million to the US Treasury, comes as President Barack Obama campaigns for a second term and has been forced to defend his admin-istration's decision to use taxpayer money to prop up companies during the crisis.

The Treasury Department priced the offering at $30.50 a share, six per cent above the $28.72 price needed for the US government to break even on its investment in the insurer.

AIG intends to buy up to $3 billion of the offering.

The government has al-ready sold three tranches in AIG above the break even price, putting Treasury on track to make a profit when it exits the insurer.

Treasury has said it will not sell below the break even level.

The sale of 163.9 million shares of AIG stock will re-duce the government's hold-ing in the insurer to 55 per cent from 61 per cent. The offering is expected to close next week.

The insurer received multiple bailouts under both the Obama and Bush admin-istrations, with the govern-ment pledging as much as $182 billion in aid. After the latest sale, the Treasury's investment in AIG will be about $25 billion.

US to raise $5bn from

AIG stock sale

NEW YORK — The dollar slid against other major cur-rencies except the yen, after an upbeat US jobs report suggested resilience in the slow-growing economy and encouraged risk taking.

The European currency also climbed against the Japanese unit, rising to 97.30 yen from 95.26 yen last week, while the dollar inched up to 78.59 yen from 78.22 yen. Markets surged higher on official data showing the United States added 163,000 jobs in July. — AFP

Dollar dips

22OMAN SUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

Yokohama’s ‘Gold Rush’ a huge success

MUSCAT — Yokohama's Gold Rush campaign which ended recently was a huge suc-cess. Yokohama recently announced the third round of winners in the monthly raffle draw of the Yokohama Gold Rush scheme. Naoki Ando, General Manager — Yoko-hama Rubber Company was present at the draw.

The scheme which lasted from April to July evoked great excitement and interest amongst the customers in Oman. The Yokohama Gold Rush scheme offered customers a unique chance of winning 120 gold prizes, one all-new 2012 Ford Focus which is the Grand Raffle and loads of RO 5 shopping vouchers from Lulu. All this, over and above the satisfaction of driving on the finest Japanese quality tyres. During the 2012 Gold Rush period, customers who have purchased Yokohama passenger car/light com-mercial radial/van/4x4 tyre from an authorised Yokohama showroom, dealer outlet can now look forward to the results of the final Grand Raffle draw on August 15 where the lucky winner will get a chance to win the all-new 2012 Ford Focus.

Yokohama's Gold Rush campaign has grown in popularity year after year. Besides the appeal of high value prizes, customers prefer Yokohama for exceptional qualities like uncompromising safety, exceptional comfort and durability. Yokohama tyres are ideally designed to meet the demanding operating conditions of Oman. Yokohama’s state-of-the-art technology ensures top-notch safety and reliable performance.

Today’s customers insist on Yokohama for another all-important reason — safety. Yokohama tyres have won global acceptance as ‘safe’ tyres which are engineered to of-fer excellent road grip and comfortable smooth drive, in addition to extended tyre life.

Yokohama Rubber Company, Japan is among the world’s leading tyre manufactur-ers, enjoying the status of a technology leader in the global tyre industry. Yokohama tyres are engineered to provide firm road grip, maximum stability and silent, smooth ride over vastly varied terrain and operating conditions. Manufactured at one of the world’s largest and the most advanced facilities of its kind, the tyres are also torture-tested at D-PARC, one of the most challenging test tracks in the world, to ensure maxi-mum safety. In Oman, the Saud Bahwan Group markets Yokohama Tyres with a na-tionwide network of 45 branches and 475 dealers.

How Kia proves its mettle

WHEN car manufacturers boast about their vehicles' prowess, one often wonders; 'How do they know?' and 'Can they prove it?'

In fact, Kia understands this reaction quite well. “Its natural,” replies the Kia spokes-person, “People do want to know the basis of the claim. Which is why Kia has invested in its ‘proving grounds,’ — a term for the special tracks where we put our cars to the test against extreme and unpredictable conditions, at different speeds and with differ-ent passenger loads. I am happy to tell our customers that the people who put your Kia together know precisely what it will stand up to — whether it is strange weather, crazy terrain, bumpy roads, and even certain types of collisions. Your Kia has been driven through a multitude of road and environmental conditions at our sophisticated testing facilities.” Kia's proving grounds put vehicles through an exhausting array of tests at various speeds and under diverse road conditions. These testing grounds cover an area of 4,940 acres and are located in South Korea at Kia's Namyang R&D Center and Kia’s Hwasung plant. In addition, Kia's sprawling 4,329 acres testing area is located in California’s Mohave Desert.

Some of Kia's most notable Proving Grounds are located in Hwasung and Namyang in Korea, “Our Hwasung proving ground, which is adjacent to our factory that cur-rently produces the Cerato (Forte), Optima, Sorento, Borrego (Mohave) and Cadenza was completed in 1993 and features 16 test drive tracks,” explains the spokesperson.

Opened in 1995, the proving ground at our Namyang R&D Center is of international standards and features no less than 34 roads including a Belgian road, and a high-speed track that is 4.5 km long. In all, the site features a total road length of 70 km.

The California Proving Ground is located 100 miles north of Los Angeles in the Mojave Desert. This facility boasts an impressive total road length of 116 km and top speed of 250 km/h. Constructed with a total investment of $60 million, the test site is approximately 10 times the size of the proving ground at Namyang R&D Center and is the third largest in the US operated by a foreign automaker. Eight test roads combine to form a total length of 116 km. The longest track is the 10.4 km oval, a three-lane high speed track which allows a top speed of up to 250 km/h. The facility supports high-speed and endurance tests, and also include a 2 million square foot Vehicle Dy-namics Area (VDA); 2.75-mile winding track; 3.3-mile hill road; and various special surface roads constructed to duplicate US highways. The proving ground also includes a 30,000 square-foot office complex for its 50+ staff members.

This proving ground is used to conduct a diverse range of automotive performance tests that include High-speed track tests, very old roads tests, low friction (slippery) road tests, dust tunnel tests, artificially recreated roads — (pebbly/cracked/wavy/ as-phalt/long wave pitch and high-speed roadways). Additional tests include wind-tunnel, electromagnetic wave, heavy rain/snow and extreme temperatures.

In sum, Kia's proving grounds take the guess-work out of how cars will hold up and help to make sure that no manufacturing defects or design miscalculations will cause it

to be unsafe or behave in unpredictable ways. It further adds to the trust people have in Kia cars keep them and the passengers safe.

Reliable International Automotive, the distributor for Kia in Oman provides a rewarding ownership experience for customers. Excellent product attributes and un-matched 18 facilities easily ensure their absolute satisfaction, every mile of the way.

No wonder then that Reliable International Automotive has been ranked amongst the top Kia distributors worldwide and has been honoured with prestigious accolades including the Kia 'Dealer of the Year' award; Kia 'Distributor of Distinction' award, 'Family Like Care' Service award and the 'Zenith Club' award for excellent perform-ance. The prestigious 'Kia Award for Overall Excellence and Outstanding Performance' amongst Kia distributors worldwide was bestowed most deservingly.

Ahlibank trains staff on Islamic Banking

AHLIBANK’S soon to be launched Al Hilal Islamic Banking Services conducted a training programme for the new joiners. The objective of the Islamic banking training courses is to equip the staff of Al Hilal Islamic Banking services with the knowledge and experience of Sharia principles, models and structures which will be used by the bank. Commenting on the various training initiatives Said al Hamdani AGM Head of Human Resources said “A well equipped and knowledgeable workforce is vital for successful operations, we always strive to provide the best possible service to our cus-tomers and it’s vital that the staff members dealing with them have substantial knowl-edge about Sharia principles, models and structures.”

Al Hilal Islamic banking services will offer a vast variety of Sharia compliant banking solutions to different regions of the Sultanate through an initial network of 6 branches. “We have been preparing in ernest for the launch of Al Hilal Islamic Bank-ing services, since the royal directives of His Majesty the bank has been rigorously working around the clock to insure that our Islamic Banking Services will be a pioneer in the field in Oman. We had 21 staff members who achieved Islamic Bankers certi-fication at the start of 2011 and now we have over 40 certified Islamic bankers in our ranks.” Added Said al Hamdani.

Abdullah al Jabry, Deputy General Manager Heading Al Hilal Islamic Banking Services who was also present at the training session added “One of the unique and salient characteristics of Islamic banking is the integration of ethical and moral values with the banking operation. The ethical and moral consideration of Islamic banks can-not be detached and their behaviour should be consistent with the moral and ethical standards laid down by the Islamic Sharia. We have made this characteristic a central pillar in all our products and services and our aim is to provide a service which show-cases truth and transparency in banking.”

MHD Automotive announces festive offer

THE Automotive Division of Mohsin Haider Darwish LLC is celebrating the holy month of Ramadhan in its true spirit. The sole importers for Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles in the Sultanate of Oman, MHD LLC have announced a range of festive offers for the benefits of its customers during the holy month of Ramadhan and beyond.

The offers on the Jaguar range of premium vehicles include free service for 3 years or 48,000 km for the Jaguar XF 3.0-litre/3-year or 72,000 km for Jaguar XF 5.0-litre while the Jaguar XJ is available with free service — 3 years or 48,000 km. Free regis-tration is also available for these vehicles.

The Land Rover range of premium SUV’s is also available with a plethora of offers including free one-year Comprehensive insurance + Apple iPad3 4G 16GB for the Range Rover Evoque. Free Apple iPad3 4G 32GB for the Range Rover Sport. Free one-year comprehensive insurance + free service for 3 years/72,000 kms + Apple iPad 4G 16GB for the Land Rover LR4 and free Land Rover merchandise along with the Land Rover LR2.

The automotive division also organised an Iftaar party for its valued customers and business associates on the July 30 at the Crowne Plaza Muscat which was attended by over 300 guests. Senior members of the sales and after-sales teams from the company welcomed all the guests and broke the fast along with them after Maghrib.

Ramadhan offer on Suzuki Kizashi

DURING the month of Ramadhan, Moosa Abdul Rahman Hassan and Co LLC is of-fering Suzuki vehicles with value-added benefits that include free insurance for Oman and UAE, free registration, free comprehensive service for 2 years / 40,000 km and attractive prices on all models. An added attraction is a complimentary X-Box 360 for

the ultimate gaming experience along with a gift hamper on every purchase.A range of 2013 models and select 2012 models of Suzuki are on offer to suit a

varied budget that includes the ‘Kizashi’ — a vehicle endowed with distinctive looks and elegance that is a total new generation car.

‘Kizashi’ has a class leading engine power (195- bhp/gross) equipped with loads of safety features such as 6 airbags, ABS+EBD+BA, hill hold control and ESP and convenience features like Keyless Push Start System, Tiptronic/ CVT, Dual Zone Auto Air-conditioning system with rear vents, 17-inch sport alloy wheels, modern audio systems with dashboard centre speaker, USB/i-pod, MP3 and WMA compatibility. Of Japanese origin, the ‘Kizashi’ is true value for money.

Suzuki offers service intervals of 10,000 km and multiples on its entire range as an added value for the convenience of their customers.

Kizashi ‘Premium’ is an absolute delight for retail customers as well as fleet cus-tomers and is a huge success due to its contemporary add-on features such as electric sunroof, cruise control system, leathered upholstery + door trims + steering wheel + armrests + CVT shift knob, 18-inch sport alloy wheels, 10-way power seats with 3-po-sition memory system, four-way co-passenger power seat, parking sensors (front and rear), fog lamps, Rockford Fosgate audio system with additional sub-woofer, boot-lid spoiler, auto levelling HID headlamps with washers, auto rain sensor wipers, sport front bumper and side-sill, to name a few.

The quality automobiles of Suzuki celebrating its centenary, combined with the reliability of Moosa Abdul Rahman Hassan and Co LLC, the exclusive distributors for Suzuki vehicles in Oman, assures and delivers performance at all times, delighting its esteemed retail and fleet customers across Oman.

Bank Sohar credit card promotion

BANK Sohar’s credit card holders are in for an irresistible promotion this summer that offers customers the chance to win 100 per cent cash back daily on their transac-tions. Entitled “The 100 per cent cash back promotion”, this innovative scheme will be on offer from August to October 30, 2012. The scheme is the latest in a series of promotional activities rolled out by Bank Sohar to fulfil its commitment in providing customers with unique and innovative experiences.

For every Point of Sale (POS) or Internet transaction of RO 30 and above, the credit card holder is entitled to a chance to win 100 per cent cash back — subject to a maximum of RO 300 — of a particular transaction. Each transaction of a minimum of RO 30 gives the card holder one chance to enter the draw in order to avail the 100 per cent daily cash back prize. Winnings are paid directly into the lucky customer’s credit card account.

The promotion covers the use of Bank Sohar credit cards through various transac-tion mediums including Point-of-Sale and online Internet transactions. The offer is also valid against transactions executed with the use of Classic, Gold, Platinum and Internet card variants. Commenting on Bank Sohar’s new scheme, Khalfan al Tal’ey, DGM-Retail Banking said: “This is indeed a great opportunity for Bank Sohar customers to make the most of their credit cards. Our credit card products offer unmatched value in the form of features, benefits and rewards. Added to this is the element of conven-ience and security that comes with these cards. Whilst existing card holders can look forward to three months of excitement simply by swiping their cards, it also provides those without a card a splendid opportunity to sign up and be part of this promotion and many more to come”. “Our bouquet of products and services come with a wealth of benefits, including travel insurance, purchase protection, zero lost card liability, free priority pass and online shopping security via verified by Visa. Together with our best-in-class services, this latest promotion will add to the appeal of Bank Sohar credit cards as among the most sought-after in the country,” added Al Tal’ey.

Mazda’s daily Ramadhan raffle winner

MAZDA Oman has announced Adnan al Farsi as the first winner of their daily Ra-madhan Raffle Draw held at the Towell Auto Centre (TAC) headquarters in Athaiba. Adnan al Farsi has bought himself a swanky new Mazda3 Hatchback under Mazda’s Ramadhan offer and has won himself the uber cool Samsung Galaxy SIII.

Packed with new and exciting offers Mazda’s Ramadhan promotion — ‘Get more than you wished for with your Mazda’ this Ramadhan provides exceptional offers and gifts that further enhance the overall driving experience of the Mazda. To avail of the Mazda Ramadhan promotion, buy a Mazda during the offer period and drive home with free vehicle registration, free service up to 100,000 kms, an assured buyback value of 50.55 per cent, and a special Ramadhan gift. Moreover, by buying a Mazda during the course of the Ramadhan offer, one can win a Samsung Galaxy SIII in Mazda’s daily Ramadhan raffle, just like Adnan al Farsi!

That’s not all; on buying the CX9 GT ALT or Mazda6 2.5L one will also get a striking free In-car Entertainment System, or Bluetooth with Rear Parking Sensors respectively; absolutely free. This offer is valid until September 30, 2012. All Mazda showrooms will be open from Saturday to Thursday from 9am to 1:30pm and 4:30pm to 11:30pm; and on Friday from 4:30pm to 11:30pm during Ramadhan.

Mazda consistently tries to exceed the expectations of their customer’s wants and needs, through customer aimed benefits and promotions, and a constant effort towards better service and customer satisfaction. Towell Auto Centre provides service to all models of Mazda and makes owning a Mazda extra pleasant with its efficient after sales service and quick response time. With a network of 11 showrooms, 16 service outlets and 10 parts outlets spread across Oman, TAC is the only Mazda distributor in the world to win the Mazda Customer Service award five years in a row. With 98.2 per cent parts deliverability, TAC also offers quick, efficient service with genuine parts available for all models and have highly trained staff who pride in their quality of service.

BUSINESS ALERT

By A Staff Reporter

MUSCAT — Nawras, Oman’s customer friendly communica-tions provider has introduced a new weekly mobile broadband Internet plan for Nawras Mousbak prepaid customers. For only 500 baisas, customers using a smartphone can now enjoy unmatched value with 50MB of data and 50 SMS for an entire week.

“This package is ideal for our light data usage customers who prefer to use mobile broadband on their handsets for chat applica-tions to get closer to their family and friends,” said Musab Nasser al Haddabi,(pictured) Nawras Mobile

Broadband Internet Manager. “We listen to our customers and under-stand their needs then design serv-ices that match their usage styles. In this case, the result is a simple, has-sle free plan that offers great value for money and is easy to use.”

Al Haddabi explained, “Broad-band is the future of communica-tions and is becoming increasingly popular in our daily lives. This package is also a great way for new customers to explore the excit-ing world of mobile Internet with Nawras.”

The 50MB mobile broadband package is the latest addition to the wide range of data plans provided for Nawras Mousbak prepaid cus-

tomers. Tailored to suit different needs and budgets, Nawras mobile

broadband packages can be used with a smartphone, tablet, modem or dongle and start from a one-day prepaid plan with 1GB for just one Omani rial.

There is also a 2GB monthly plan RO 9 and the most popular and in demand Nawras Internet bundle of 500MB is only three Omani Rials.

Mobile broadband Internet al-lows customers to browse the web, read and respond to e-mails and check social networks while on the go. To select any of these data bun-dles, customers simply dial *141# and then follow the instructions. The subscription fee will be de-ducted from the credit balance.

Nawras launches weekly mobile broadband plan for prepaid customers

23OMAN/INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

P&G quarterly profit jumps 45pcNEW YORK — Procter and Gamble, the US consumer products giant, posted a sharp rise in earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter, boosted by the sale of its snacks business.

P&G said net profit rose 45 per cent from the year-ago quarter to $3.6 billion.

The sale of its Pringles potato-chip business to The Kellogg Company for $2.7 billion in an all-cash transaction added a net gain of 48 cents per share, P&G said. Excluding one-time items, earnings per share were 82 cents in the April-June quar-ter, well above the average analyst estimate of 77 cents. Net sales fell 1 per cent to $20.2 billion, slightly missing expectations of $20.3 billion.

P&G, the maker of Gillette razors, Tide laundry detergent, Crest toothpaste and other consumer products, said the decline was primarily due to a negative foreign exchange impact, which reduced sales by four per cent. The Cincinnati, Ohio-based company, which has a pres-ence in about 180 countries, has been battling rising commodity costs and a stronger dollar.

Sales growth increased in four of the company's five business segments compared with a year ago. "Despite a difficult macro environment, we see significant opportunities for top- and bottom-line growth," said chief executive Bob McDonald in a statement.

"We enter fiscal 2013 with very strong developing market momentum, strengthened plans on our core developed market business, and with the benefit of a $10 billion cost-savings programme, which is well under way," he said.

For its first fiscal quarter, from July to September, P&G predicted earnings per share of 83 cents to 91 cents and net sales growth down as much as six per cent.

"A major driver of the lower first-quarter EPS outlook is foreign exchange, which is fore-cast to reduce net earnings by five to six per cent versus the prior year," it said.

The company said it will repurchase $4 billion in P&G stock during the fiscal year.

Virgin Atlantic swings to full-year lossLONDON — British airline Virgin Atlan-tic swung to a full-year loss as higher fuel costs and tough economic conditions took their toll, it said.

The carrier, founded by serial entre-preneur Richard Branson, posted a pretax operating loss of £80.2 million ($124.5 million) in the year to the end of Febru-ary compared to a profit of £18.5 million in 2010/11.

The airline, part owned by Singapore Airlines, said revenues grew 3 per cent to

£2.74 billion though fuel costs rose a third. Virgin's passenger numbers rose 2 per cent to 5.4 million during the year and its load factor — a measure of how full its planes were — came in at 78 per cent.

"In an incredibly challenging market, we have managed to grow top line revenues and fly more customers than last year," the airline's chief executive Steve Ridgway said.

"However, with the prevailing uncertainty in the economy, sky high fuel prices and a 25 per cent hike in our air passenger duty fees, converting this sales growth into profit has not been possible." The airline, which is due to take delivery of six new Airbus A330 planes in the coming months, said it had made an encouraging start to its new financial year.

Rival British Airways, part of the IAG group, posted an operating profit of 13 million euros in the six months to the end of June.

SilkAir places $4.9bn order with BoeingSINGAPORE — SilkAir, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines (SIA), said it would buy 54 new Boeing planes in a deal worth $4.9 billion, with an option to buy a further 14 aircraft. The airline said the order is the largest in its history and "re-mains subject to the negotiation of a final purchase agreement". SilkAir said the firm orders will cover 23 Boeing 737-800s and 31 Boeing 737 MAX 8s. The deal for the 54 aircraft is worth $4.9 billion based on Boeing's current list prices.

The B737-800 is the best selling variant of Boeing's popular next generation family of single-aisle aircraft, and the 737 MAX is currently in development. "Deliveries are due to begin in 2014 and continue to 2021, by which time the airline's fleet will have more than doubled in size," the carrier said.

SilkAir currently operates 21 Airbus A319s and A320s, with three more A320s due for de-livery by the end of 2013. It said the new orders will cater for both growth and fleet renewal. "We continue to see very strong growth within the region and these new aircraft will position SilkAir well," said SilkAir chief executive Marvin Tan.

"They will enable us to spread our wings to even more destinations and increase capacity on existing routes, contributing to the overall SIA Group network," he added.

"The selection of the B737 follows detailed evaluations and extensive negotiations with both Airbus and Boeing." SilkAir is a wholly owned subsidiary of SIA and flies to popular holiday destinations in the Asia Pacific region. SIA also has a long-haul budget carrier called Scoot and owns nearly 33 per cent in low-cost carrier Tiger Airways.

Japan’s ANA posts small Q1 net profitTOKYO — Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA) posted a net profit of 668 million yen ($8.55 million) in its fiscal first quar-ter to June, reversing a year-earlier loss, thanks to increased travel demand.

The carrier's sales rose 12.5 per cent from a year ago to 343.19 billion yen as the Japanese economy continued its recov-ery from last year's quake-tsunami disaster, while the stronger yen made overseas trips cheaper. In the fiscal first quarter last year, ANA logged a group operating loss of 8.1 billion yen amid tumbling passenger num-

bers in the aftermath of the March 11 disasters and meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Cost cutting and a recovery in international travel demand helped the nation's second-largest airline post a record operating profit of $1.2 billion in the fiscal year ended in March.

ANA said international flight sales rose more than 20 per cent on year in the latest quarter. While the surging value of the yen has hurt the nation's manufacturers it has had a positive effect on airlines as Japanese tourists' spending power increases.

"Travel demand for international passengers as well as visits to Japan, which were badly damaged by the disaster last year, steadily recovered," the company said in a statement.

Domestic flight revenue rose nearly 11 per cent, it added.But the airline also warned it was "facing a number of headwinds in the shape of a slowing

world economy, the growing government debt crisis in Europe and increased competition".

UK’s Xcite Energy says CEO to retireLONDON — British oil company Xcite Energy Ltd said Chief Executive Richard Smith would retire and that it promoted Chief Financial Officer Rupert Cole as the new CEO, among several other manage-ment changes it made.

Cole will continue to maintain overall responsibility for the strategic financing of the company and the associated exter-nal relationships, North Sea-focused Xcite said in a statement.

Stephen Kew, currently exploration and development director, will be the new

chief operating officer. Jon Dale has been appointed as finance director of Xcite Energy Re-sources Ltd, the company's operating subsidiary through which it holds interests in three licence blocks in the UK North Sea.

Separately, the company said the 9/03b-7 well at its Bentley oil field in the North Sea had been producing at a stabilised rate of about 3,200 barrels per day with no associated basic sediments or water. The Bentley field is estimated to be holding 116 million barrels of oil, according to Xcite's latest annual report.

Shares in the company, which have fallen about 15 per cent since the beginning of this year, closed at 75.25 pence last week on the London Stock Exchange.

BIZ BRIEFS

TEL: 24601003, 24600586 • FAX: 24600736 • WEBSITE: www.salalahport.com

By A Staff Reporter

MUSCAT — ‘The Ramadhan Carnival’, launched by Nis-san Oman from the house of Suhail Bahwan Automobiles along with LuLu Hypermarket to make Ramadhan moments unique and special for families across Oman, has been a great hit with lots of families along with kids flocking to the ven-ues across Muscat.

The first of its kind cam-paign, the Ramadhan Carnival is being held every Wednes-day through Friday from 8 pm to 12 am at select branches of LuLu Hypermarket. The recently held carnival at the Darsait and Bausher branches was a sure hit among shop-pers and it showcased a tan-

talising array of learning, fun and excitement suited to the interests of every member of the family.

The carnival is suited mainly for families with kids, as officials at Nissan Oman designed a fun and memora-ble night out packed with ac-tivities. It is during Ramadhan that families get an opportuni-ty to enjoy shopping and out-ings till late night and keeping that in mind, Nissan Oman has exclusively designed a car-nival night out for families at selected branches of LuLu Hy-permarkets.

Interested shoppers while shopping at the lavish ex-panse of LuLu can make a pit stop at the ongoing Ram-adhan Carnival where Nissan

has showcased their exclusive Ramadhan schemes and of-fers and two of their stylish cars, the all-new Micra and the smart Nissan Sunny are also at display and available for test drive.

It does not stop there, cus-tomers can take a test drive of the two cars where they will have a designated Nissan of-ficial to assist and guide them through the aesthetics of the two cars. Kids on the other hand can enjoy the ongoing activities at the Ramadhan Carnival like magic show and face painting.

To make the affair even more attractive for kids, a fun and friendly joker is there at all times to keep them enter-tained. If that’s not enough,

then avail their exclusive Ra-madhan Jackpot scheme which is constantly announced by an emcee.

Valued customers can be part of the ongoing carnival and enquire about the Nis-san Jackpot scheme which includes a host of luxury gifts and unlimited benefits that will make purchasing and owning a Nissan model convenient and exciting. If customers plan on buying any of the prestig-ious Nissan models from their prestigious line-up of Sedans, SUVs, Crossovers and LCV range, they will be entitled to free insurance, free registra-tion; six years extended war-ranty and easy financing that include a loan term up to eight years with attractive inter-

est rates (available on certain models).

Customers also get an op-portunity to receive a scratch and win coupon with every purchase which guarantees two assured gifts.

The gifts include either a chance to win free service of the car up to a lifetime or a chance to win a high value gift item from a range of luxury products like LED TV, Black-Berry Curve, Galaxy Tab, CD player and Philips blender.

Speaking on the success of the Ramadhan Carnival, a Nissan Oman official said, “We received a huge response from the carnival that was held at the Darsait and Bausher branches and it is an instant hit amongst shoppers for various reasons.”

“Families can now enjoy their shopping time as kids can be dropped off at the car-nival venue where they are kept engaged with series of magic shows and an entertain-ing joker. On the other hand, car aficionados are thronging to the venue to enquire about their favourite Nissan models and if they choose to buy a Nissan Sunny or the new Nis-san Micra, they get an oppor-tunity for a test drive that very moment. We hope to receive the same kind of response from the carnival that will be held at the Barka and Nizwa branches of LuLu Hypermar-kets. This is a first of its kind campaign in Oman which has been a huge hit amongst buy-ers and we hope to offer them more of such firsts in the near future”.

Nissan Ramadhan Carnival a huge hit

WELLINGTON — Ratings agency Standard and Poor's reaffirmed New Zealand's AA rating with a stable outlook, but warned there might be renewed pressure if the coun-try's external debt levels were to deteriorate further.

A year after S&P cut New Zealand's ratings a notch, it said the current level was ap-propriate given the economy's outlook, fiscal strength, and the strength of its banks, which countered the threats from high external debt and vulner-able commodity markets.

"The stable outlook bal-ances the stabilisation we ex-pect between the government's debt profile over the medium term and the risks associated

with the country's high exter-nal debt," said S&P sovereign analyst Kyran Curry.

He said the government's finances had been hit by the global slowdown and the costs of the February 2011 earth-quake which hit the second biggest city, Christchurch, ex-acerbated the impact of a do-mestic recession.

The government's finances, which have been in deficit since 2009, were expected to return to surplus in 2015, as forecast in the May budget, with the debt burden peaking around that time before head-ing lower.

The centre-right govern-ment has made a return to budget surplus by 2014/15 an

economic and political pri-ority, and in May unveiled a budget with no new spending, cost cutting, asset sales and moves to close tax loopholes.

Finance Minister Bill Eng-lish said the S&P statement backed the government's tight fiscal management.

"This... confirms New Zea-land is heading in the right direction — and it is better placed than many other coun-tries," he said in a statement.

Financial markets were un-moved by the S&P statement.

But S&P said New Zea-land's high external debt lev-els, much of which is private bank borrowing, would weigh on the economy, and if it were to worsen could prompt inves-

tors to shift out of NZ dollar assets, and put pressure on rat-ings. "Downward pressure on the New Zealand ratings could emerge if New Zealand's ex-ternal position continues to deteriorate," Curry said, add-ing that higher public savings were needed to keep the coun-try's current account deficit under control.

It noted that households were cutting their debt and saving more, and an independ-ent monetary policy and float-ing currency, as well as the po-sition of the mainly Australian owned local banks, which are among the world's strongest, were positives.

New Zealand's current ac-count deficit widened to 4.8

per cent of GDP in the year to March 31, as the trade surplus narrowed, and is expected to worsen as the economy gains momentum, stoking import demand and delivering higher profits to foreign investors.

Conversely the country's ratings might be eventually boosted by current account surpluses, higher export earn-ings, reduced debt, and higher public savings. Last Septem-ber, Standard & Poor's and Fitch cut New Zealand's rank-ing by one notch within hours of each other over concerns about its growing foreign debt. The third major agency Moody's has left New Zealand as one of only nine AAA-rated economies. — AFP

S&P affirms New Zealand AA sovereign rating

24OMAN/THE WORLD SUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

SAN JOSE — The judge in a massive smart-phone patent dispute reprimanded Samsung yesterday for releasing excluded evidence but denied a bid by Apple to order a verdict in the case.

Judge Lucy Koh expressed irritation with Samsung's release to the media of documents she had ruled were not to be viewed by the jury in the trial over patent infringement involving the iPhone and other mobile devices.

Koh said Samsung lawyers "were on notice that the possibility of a jury taint was real," and scolded them for "a wilful attempt to propagate that evidence they knew had been excluded."

But she rejected Apple's request for addi-tional sanctions or to order a verdict in favour of the Silicon Valley firm.

She polled the jurors, asking if they had read any press coverage. One said he read a headline online, but did not read any articles.

The others said they had read nothing."I will not let any theatrics or sideshows

distract us from what we are here to do, which is to fairly hear this case," said Koh.

Apple said in court documents released on Thursday that "Samsung and its counsel have engaged in bad faith litigation misconduct by attempting to prejudice the jury" by releasing documents suggesting Samsung was working on its own smartphone before the iPhone was released.

"Samsung was not allowed to tell the jury the full story and show the pre-iPhone design... in development at Samsung in 2006, before the iPhone," said the statement from the South Ko-rean firm.

As testimony resumed, Apple's senior vice-president of worldwide marketing, Philip Schiller, said he was stunned by copying un-dertaken by the South Korean electronics gi-ant.

Schiller said Apple had spent more than $1 billion marketing iPhones and iPads since 2008, in a campaign that presents the "product as a hero."

The goal was to instil products with a high "lust factor," said Schiller.

When Samsung came out with its Galaxy line of smartphones similar to the iPhone, Schiller testified that he was "shocked" and that the copying created problems for his mar-keting team.

"When someone comes up with a product that copies that design and copies (our) mar-keting, customers get confused about whose product is whose," said Schiller.

Schiller said he was “even more shocked”

when Samsung launched its Galaxy tablet computer, alleged to be a copy of the iPad.

He said his reaction was “they’ve done it again, they’re just going to copy our entire product line.”

Another prominent Apple executive on the stand on Friday was Scott Forstall, who built the super-secret team that created the iPhone.

“We wanted to build something great with-out anyone else finding out what we were do-ing and leaking it,” he testified.

The user interface features Apple is suing Samsung over — like double-tapping to navi-gate a web page — were not small things, For-stall told the jury.

“I personally dedicated years of my life to this, as did hundreds of people on this team,” he said.

Jurors on Tuesday began hearing the big-gest US patent trial in decades, with billions at stake for the tech giants.

Apple is seeking more than $2.5 billion in the case accusing the South Korean firm of in-fringing on designs and other patents from the iPhone and iPad maker.

This is one of several cases in courts around the world involving the two electronics giants in the hottest part of the tech sector — tablet computers and smartphones.

While the results so far have been mixed in courts in Europe and Australia, Samsung is clearly on the defensive in the US case. — AFP

Judge scolds Samsung, says let patent trial proceed

MADRID — Spain will study new measures being planned by the European Central Bank to ease the euro zone debt cri-sis before deciding whether to use them, Prime Minister Mar-iano Rajoy said yesterday.

"I want to know what these measures are to see if they are adequate. Then I will take the best decision for the general interest of the Spanish peo-ple," Rajoy told a rare news conference.

"I have not yet made any decision. We still don't know exactly what is being planned. We can't act irresponsibly," he said, of what would be a momentous decision for both Spain and the whole euro zone project.

ECB head Mario Draghi said on Thursday the central bank could intervene directly in the bond markets — and for as long as needed — so as to bring down euro zone borrow-ing costs but this was contin-gent on government support and subject to conditions.

Draghi also said the ECB might consider additional measures to calm markets which have driven borrow-ing costs for Italy and Spain back near to levels that forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek massive bailouts.

In June, Spain secured a 100 billion euro ($123 billion) credit line from the European Union for its stricken banking sector but investors fear that with its borrowing costs ris-ing, it may in the end need a full bailout.

Rajoy defended his con-servative government's record, recalling that it has reformed the country's strict labour laws, liberalised the transport sector and restructured the fi-nancial sector since taking of-fice in December.

He recognised that Spain had depended too much on borrowings in the past and now had to pay the price in higher interest rates, noting that Draghi's plan to intervene on the bond markets was "an important change."

Separately, the government said it planned savings of 102 billion euros ($125 billion) by 2014 as it stepped up efforts to balance the strained public finances and bring them back into line with EU norms.

The savings include 65 billion euros of tax hikes and spending cuts contained in a July austerity package, with 35 billion euros to come from a hike in sales taxes while the public sector, the regions, health and education will all

be affected.In July, Brussels gave

Spain an extra year to 2014 to balance its books, saying it must bring down the public deficit — the shortfall between spending and revenues — to 6.3 per cent of gross domestic product this year from 8.9 per cent in 2011, when it badly missed its 6 per cent target.

For 2013, the deficit target is 4.5 per cent and then 2.8 per cent in 2014, taking it back below the EU limit of 3 per cent.

In Brussels, the European Commission said it welcomed the “adoption of Spain’s mul-ti-annual budget plan.... We expect the plan to fully under-pin (the) targets.”

Rajoy conceded that the cutbacks needed to meet the targets “are not nice measures, these are not popular meas-ures. We do not promise mira-cles. It is a huge task but not an impossible task.

“You may not be in agree-ment with some of the meas-ures but nobody can say that the government has not made decisions,” he added.

Despite market pressure to reduce spending further, Ra-joy said he had “no intention to lower pensions next year,” based on current data. — AFP

Spain to see 102bn euro savings

SUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

Righteousness is key to Islamic teachingsBy Dr Syed Bashir Ahmad Kashmiri

ISLAM targets developing of a righteous human be-ing so as to qualify him

with worthiness of being the vicegerent of Allah, the Crea-tor, on the earth — the high-est adornment of honour with which Allah graced the human being.

Human being was created in the best form and to him was subjugated all that is in the universe; angels were made to prostate to him in respect; he is the one who besides all divine favours and honours, was equipped with character-istics that distinguished him from the rank of animals and other creatures.

To Islam, such a righteous human being is the founda-tion of a righteous family, of a righteous society, of a right-eous nation and of a righteous mankind. "Personal integrity must lead to a wholeness of character in which narrow partisanship can be banished without curbing individual freedom of thought. Man's many-sided nature must be developed, with special re-gard to aspects in which our world today may be reckoned backward — the moral and spiritual potentialities that distinguish men from beasts."

Faith and ConvictionIn Islam the human being

— before any other consid-eration — is an entity of faith and belief, the one who, in his deliberation, is cognisant of his own being and conscious about the world around him. He is not like a diabolic wild plant that emerges without anyone having sown it; the universe around him has not emerged on its own without a designer having designed it and a creator having created it. He is conscious that he has a Lord, Who created him, then molded him proportionately and then shaped him precise-ly, Who taught him the ex-pression, Who endowed him with the intellect and the will, Who sent His messengers to him, Who revealed His guid-ance for him, Who established the evidence for him and de-fined to him the purpose of the existence and the path to salvation.

"Not without purpose did We create heaven and earth and all between! that were the thought of Unbelievers! but woe to the Unbeliev-ers because of the Fire (of Hell)! Shall We treat those who believe and work deeds of righteousness, the same as those who do mischief on earth? Shall We treat those who guard against evil, the same as those who turn aside from the right?" (Al-Qurān,

38:27-28)Devotion and PietyHuman being of Islam,

similarly, is the human be-ing of devotion and worship. He knows that the universe around him has been created for him, but in turn he himself was created for the servitude of Allah alone. This knowl-edge unfolds to him the pur-pose of his life and the secret of his existence on the earth.

Worship and servitude of Allah — who has no partners — is the objective of all his objectives. He has been cre-ated for this purpose and for this very purpose, everything existing in the universe, has been subjugated to him. Al-lah, the Omnipotent, says:

"I have only created Jinns and men, that they may serve Me. No Sustenance do I re-quire of them, nor do I re-quire that they should feed Me. For God is He Who gives (all) Sustenance,- Lord of Power,- Steadfast (forever)." Al-Qurān 51:64)

The creatures serve each other — each of the species serves some other specie or species; solid bodies serve the plants, plants serve the animals and animals serve the humankind. Who then, does the human being — the finest creature - serve?

The Muslim who complies with this divine mission is loved by Allah — for being obedient to Him by submit-ting to His commands, for ab-staining from His prohibitions and for making His fear and piety his prime objectives of his existence.

Devotion to Allah, before anything else, is manifested through establishment of the major practices of worship that Islam has made obligato-

ry and are considered to be its pillars. These are the regular obligatory prayers, fasting the month of Ramadhan, the man-datory charity (Zakāt) and pil-grimage to Mecca (Haj), and are complimented by remem-brance, glorification, venera-tion and exaltation of Allah, supplication to Him and reci-tation of his book, the Glori-ous Qurān.

The Muslim remembers

his Lord all the time and in every situation and deed; he remembers Him while eating and drinking, upon going to sleep and upon waking up, in mornings and in evenings, upon setting out on journey and upon return, upon wear-ing his clothes, and upon rid-ing his conveyance; he does not forget remembrance of Allah, the Exalted.

"Men who celebrate the praises of God, standing, sit-ting, and lying down on their sides." (Al-Qurān, 3:191)

If followers of other re-ligions worship their gods merely once in a week, the Muslim has to observe his appointments with his Lord through five mandatory prayers each day. Moreover, he is ever in touch with Him through voluntary supereroga-tory prayers, constant remem-brance, supplications and by

seeking His forgiveness and blessings.

"O ye who believe! Cel-ebrate the praises of God, and do this often; And glorify Him morning and evening." (Al-Qurān, 33:41-42)

Thus in brief, the Muslim can enjoy the distinction of all his life being an integral part of the uninterrupted precision guided system of worship, provided he truly adheres to

the course of Allah and aims at His gratification.

Noble CharacterThe Muslim — besides be-

ing a being of faith and belief, and devotion and worship — is a being of an upright character and noble deeds. He embod-ies purity with all its denota-tions, and exemplifies virtues of justice, mercy and altruism. He has taken the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, as his moral compass for him having been sent by Allah to perfect the nobility of charac-ter and to personify the apex of morality.

From this greatest guide of humankind in all times, he ob-tains prudence and guidance, and follows the right path of his ideal role model; from him, he acquires his noble character so as to be nearest possible to him on the Day of Judgment.

Thus having chastened himself by continuous train-ing, struggle and self-moni-toring, he triumphs over his negative temptations and cravings, to be transformed from “soul certainly prone to evil” to attain the state of “self-reproaching spirit”.

“By the Soul, and the pro-portion and order given to it; And its enlightenment as to its wrong and its right; - Tru-ly he succeeds that purifies it, And he fails that corrupts it!” (Al-Qurān, 91:7-10)

This unceasing toil entitles him to ultimate success of having his piety triumph over the lewdness of his soul and thereby scale to attain the sta-tus of “the serene soul” well pleased and well-pleasing to Him!

“O (thou) soul, in (com-plete) rest and satisfac-tion! Come back thou to thy Lord,- well pleased (thyself), and well-pleasing unto Him! Enter thou, then, among My devotees! Yea, enter thou My Heaven!” (Al-Qurān, 89:27-30)

Islam teaches that good character and noble attitude are the requisites of the belief and exigencies of faith, just as they are the innate fruits of faithful worship.

If worship does not bear the fruits of nobleness and righteousness, it underlines nothing but fakeness of wor-ship.

The benevolent Messenger enlightens us about inevitabil-ity of existence of faith in the form of morals, noble deeds and virtues — for example in two of his luminous com-mandments, he says:

“He who believes in Al-lah and in the day of judg-ment, must brace the bond

of kinship; he who believes in Allah and in the day of judgment, must not harm his neighbour; he who believes in Allah and in the day of judgment, must utter good or maintain silence.”

“Faith comprises of seventy-plus branches; the highest of these branches is (declaration of faith) ‘there is no god, but the one and only Allah’ and the lowest of these branches is removing of a harmful thing from the road; modesty is one of these branches.”

The obligatory canonical acts of worship must lead to purification of the soul, so that these acts can bear fruits of virtues and purge vices — exactly as the glorious Qurān has beckoned to this. About the regular prayers (Salāt), it says: “Prayer restrains from shameful and unjust deeds” (Al-Qurān, 29:45) “Of their goods, take alms, that so thou mightest purify and sanctify them” (Al-Qurān, 9:7-103) “Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that ye may (learn) self-restraint” (Al Qurān, 2:183)

Many Hadeeth, narrated by al Bukhāri compliment the same spirit: “Whoever does not give up uttering untruth and acting on it, Allah is in no need of him giving up food and drink”.

“Many faster gains noth-ing from his fasting except hunger, and many a person standing (to pray) by night does not gain anything from his standing (to pray) except loss of sleep.”

(Dr. Syed Bashir Ahmad Kashmiri, College of Arts & Sciences, University of Nizwa)

In Islam the human being — before any other consideration — is

an entity of faith and belief, the one who, in his deliberation, is

cognisant of his own beingand conscious about the

world around him

16th Day of Ramadhan: Oh! Allah, on this day, grant me compatibility with the good, keep me away from patching up

with the evil, lead me in it, by Your mercy, to the permanent abode, by Your Godship,

Oh! The God of the Worlds

Auspicious Daily Supplication

Pakistani Muslims offer prayers at the Data Darbar mosque in Lahore. — AFP

Fair economic system

ECONOMY is the backbone of life and people’s social, political, intellectual and cultural concerns, among other

aspects of life, are pinned to the economy. The Almighty made money the force that forms the foundation of livelihood activi-ties. Despite that, economy has to be put in the right legitimate framework in terms of Sharia, so that it would not impact the hu-manity of a person.

Economy has to be managed according to the Sharia method as defined by the Quran. When the Industrial Revolution emerged in the world (1750-1850), this was accom-panied by the emergence of a social caste system where the poor class was oppressed. Another revolution, that of the Proletariat, erupted, and this mechanism led to the start of communist revolutions which promised a paradise for the poor, but, instead, impov-erished both the poor and the rich. At best these revolutions equated people in depriva-tion and humanity suffered for a long time until the failure of this system.

Communism had to again give way to its adversary, capitalism, and plead for rescue. The problem also lies in injustice caused by the caste system of capitalism. Communism cannot find a solution in capitalism.

But the Islamic system is a middle course, a fair system that gives individu-als their rights. The poor are regarded with mercy by the rich. They are not looked down upon with contempt, but they live in contact with the rich in a social mix.

The Almighty ordained the zakat to be part of a Muslim’s faith (one of the five pil-lars of faith). Apart from zakat, the poor find solace through this system of mercy, which also links stronger faith with charity from a Muslim’s most beloved financial earnings to the relatives, the orphans, the destitute, the bankrupt traveller, the homeless and the en-slaved ones seeking freedom.

These alms or extra ways of giving to the needy (and be receiving reward by spiritual promotion into the grades of devoutness) are different from zakat because zakat is a reli-gious obligation to be honoured in prescribed quotas from a Muslim’s money linked to pe-riods of maturity of funds (one year).

Assistance other than zakat becomes ob-ligatory, even against little amounts of mon-ey or food, when people are in urgent need. Scholars said that, if one owns nothing but a loaf of bread which he/she does not need but knows that another person is hungry, the owner of that loaf of bread has to give it to the needy. This is the system of Islam which narrows the gap between the classes. This middle course does not deprive an individual from his/her property, but sets ethical regu-lations that consider the interests of others, too. It develops human links between those who have and those who do not have.

HE Shaikh Ahmed al Khalili,Grand Mufti of the Sultanate

Reflections on Islam

Palestinians gather near the Dome of the Rock (R), on the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary in Jerusalem’s Old City. — Reuters

26RAMADHAN SUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

Body, mind and soulTHIRD week of Ramadhan

and it is a lot of activities on 90.4 FM, Radio Sultanate of Oman. Body, Mind and Soul has been a regular programme for more than ten years. During the first two weeks we have been reflecting on chapters from Body, Mind and Soul. That means the

month of Ramadhan being divided into three parts — the first part mercy, the second for forgiveness and the third for salvation. Forgiveness seemed to be having a special significance with our listeners, whether it is about asking forgiveness or giving forgiveness.

Sheikh Khalfan al Esry, the Islamic scholar who engages us on these deep reflections, everyday between 1.30 and 2.30pm and repeated from 9 to 10pm, explained how we ben-efit when we forgive others. But the key issue is we have to forgive unconditionally. That is when we can forget and start all over again fresh.

How many of us still hold onto past memories that are painful that result in us stag-nating and not moving for-ward. But there must be so much more that is meant for us in life but we miss all these opportunities just because we are looking the other way. Yet again one of our listeners had asked what is that would keep us in a positive mode even when we are being chal-lenged. The answer was hope. Hope is a beautiful gift and the best part of it is that we are all gifted with it. It is only the realisation that differs in us. Yet again hope is prominent

with people who have faith. It seems like a chain reaction.

Is it only some time we need to take for us to con-template that makes the dif-ference. Time is precious yet we fill our days with activities that do not give us any returns. Perhaps it is the lifestyle of the generation we are part of.

Would the youngsters be explained the importance of dedicating a few minutes daily to ourselves just to con-template?

Sheikh Khalfan points out that the importance of time as a resource can be one of the highest because this is one thing we can never regain. Once it is gone it is gone for-ever. The medical field has been investing in great deal to advance the facilities for the benefit of our health. Yet no one has been able to bring us back lost time.

But the hope is this state-ment — ‘It’s never too late.’ It is never too late to realise the time management of our life, but to think a little more about the universe and the mira-cles that surround us, most of which we take for granted.

From this week on wards we will be taking live calls for questions to Sheikh Khalfan Al Esry in the programme be-tween 1.30 and 2.30 pm.

RAMADHAN OFFERCOINCIDING with the Month of Ramadhan, the Observer has come up again with an attractive contest for its esteemed readers. All that the participants need to do is to fill in the coupons which will be featured daily in the Observer throughout the Month. PARTICIPANTS SHOULD SEND ALL THE COUPONS IN ONE BUNCH to the Oman Daily Observer, Post Box 974, PC 100, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. Contestants can send in any number of entries but no photocopies are allowed. Many valuable prizes are on offer. Winners will be decided in a draw.Note: Employees of Oman Establishment for Press, Publication and Advertising and their close relatives are NOT eligible to take part in this contest.

16

July/ Ramadhan Fajr Sunrise Dhuhr Asr Maghrib IshaAugust 1433 AH (am) (am) (pm) (pm) Iftar (pm) (pm)

Aug 5 16 04:16 05:38 12:18 03:42 06:53 08:10Aug 6 17 04:17 05:39 12:18 03:42 06:52 08:09Aug 7 18 04:17 05:39 12:18 03:42 06:52 08:08Aug 8 19 04:18 05:39 12:18 03:42 06:51 08:07Aug 9 20 04:19 05:40 12:18 03:42 06:50 08:06Aug 10 21 04:19 05:40 12:17 03:43 06:50 08:06Aug 11 22 04:20 05:41 12:17 03:43 06:49 08:05Aug 12 23 04:20 05:41 12:17 03:43 06:48 08:04Aug 13 24 04:21 05:41 12:17 03:43 06:47 08:03Aug 14 25 04:22 05:42 12:17 03:43 06:47 08:02Aug 15 26 04:22 05:42 12:17 03:43 06:46 08:01Aug 16 27 04:23 05:43 12:16 03:42 06:45 08:00Aug 17 28 04:23 05:43 12:16 03:42 06:44 07:59Aug 18 29 04:24 05:43 12:16 03:42 06:44 07:58Aug 19 (30) 04:25 05:44 12:16 03:42 06:43 07:57Aug 20 04:25 05:44 12:16 03:42 06:42 07:56

RAMADHAN TIMINGS — MUSCAT

Area Sunrise Sunset (min) (min)Ras Al Hadd –8 –4Al Ashkhara –9 –2Sur –7 –3Wadi Bani Khalid –5 –2Qurayyat –3 –2Jaalan –7 –1Al Kamil –6 –1Bidiya –4 0Ibra –3 0Bid Bid +1 +1Samayil +1 +1Barka +2 +1Nakhl +2 +1Al Mudhaibi –1 +2Al Musana +3 +2Izki +1 +3Saiq +2 +3Al Rustaq +1 +2Al Awabi +4 +5Al Hamra +5 +3Al Khaburah +6 +3Musandam +14 +3Masirah –8 +4Nizwa/Manah +2 +4Saham +7 +4

Sohar +8 +4Shinas +10 +4Adam +1 +5Bahla +3 +5Liwa +9 +5Wadi Hibi +8 +6Mahout –5 +7Qarn Al Alam –2 +7Ibri/Yanqul +7 +7Mahdha +11 +11Dhank +8 +8Fahoud +5 +9Al Buraimi +11 +9Ras Madraka –7 +10Al Duqm –5 +10Al Khuwair +11 +12Haima +1 +15Al Jazir –2 +16Al Halaniyat –2 +20Maqshan +6 +21Marmool +2 +22Mirbat +2 +26Taqa/Al Mamura +4 +28Thamrait +6 +28Salalah/Raysut +5 +29Rakhyout +5 +30Sarfait/Dalkout +8 +33Habrout +11 +34

TIMING IN OTHER REGIONS AS COMPARED TO MUSCAT

On The Airwaves

By Lakshmi Kothanethlkairwaves@gmail.com

27RAMADHAN SUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

IFTAR (breaking of the fast) gatherings at different mosques in Oman and other countries

are an incredibly spiritual experi-ence where shared values of Islam such as unity, solidarity, charity, and mutual love come to the fore in a big way. People sit close to each other, break the fast together, eat the dinner together and offer prayers together, thus cementing Muslim unity and solidarity.

Oman is dotted with mosque and at every mosque and office arrangements for Iftar have been made. Omani as well as expatri-ate Muslims daily attend iftar and prayers.

Generally the iftar includes various types of fruits, dates, juices, yogurt, bread and water. During this month, people includ-ing old and young compete with one another to serve the faithful at the time of iftar both as volunteers and as donors of funds. The youth volunteers play a commendable role by extending various services to the fasting people at different mosques.

Basically, iftar banquets bring people together, develop goodwill in society and cement unity and solidarity among people. Those who regularly pray in mosques make new friends in the pious and righteous environment of the mosque and these friendships pros-per over time in that people coop-erate with one another in promot-ing good values and preventing the evil. These friendships are built on shared values of Islam and mutual love and understanding.

The prayer leaders in their ser-mons and speeches emphasise the importance of Islam’s shared vi-sion among Muslims. They define what Islam stands for so everyone has ownership. For example, Is-lam advocates financial, moral and intellectual support for needy as well as oppressed people in differ-ent parts of the world. They define what binds Muslims together.

The importance of prayer lead-ers’ involvement in developing a shared vision, urging Muslims to make decisions consistent with the vision, and promoting accountabil-ity for actions is very important. Shared values of Islam are at the heart of unity and solidarity amng world Muslims.

— OmarEditor: All Islamic events bring

people together, cement unity and solidarity and promote peace in society. The month of Ramadhan in particular promotes these healthy trends.

Women’s rights

IN this month of Ramadhan, it is befitting to talk about women’s

rights. Islam guarantees complete freedom of expression, movement and activity, trade and investment to women. But in some countries, the woman is not always allowed these rights in practice and therefore it is appropriate to enact laws in the light of Shari’ah (Islamic law) to make sure that she gets her due. Full face veil, for example, is not binding in Islam and is not commonly found in Muslim countries.

Islam gives her rights to di-

vorce, and to be socially active. Islam grants her a balanced, spir-

itually rich and socially active life. The Glorious Quran says men are

“Qawwam”, which means “protec-tor and maintainer” of women.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said paradise lies at the feet of your mother. He said the best among you are those who are best with their wives.

Islam allows the woman to take up decision making positions, to vote in elections and be elected by voters, own and invest her own property, work outside, and pur-sue higher education. Islam frees her from the joint family or from attending to her husband’s male relatives.

— Safia Editor: Women’s rights in Islam

are well protected. Oman presents a model in this respect. Omani women are active in all fields of human endeavour.

Oman’s GDP at RO 7.37 billion

IT was heartening to read in your newspaper that the Sultanate’s

Gross Domestic Product GDP at the end of March this year stood at RO 7. 371 billion compared to RO 6.198.6 billion at the end of March 2011.

Similarly, the non-oil exports of the country are on the increase. The reason is simple. The authori-ties have been trying hard to ex-pand the industrial sector and have been pursuing an export promotion

and import substitution approach to development. Oman’s economic diversification programme as de-fined in the Vision 2020 is also in-spiring and pushing the country to greater development.

— Abdul RazaqEditor: Indeed economic plan-

ning is a pre-requisite for the success of the diversification pro-grammes. The GDP is on the rise because Oman’s economy has been expanding and growing in all sec-tors.

Omanisation in private sector

THE National Manpower Em-ployment Index shows that 1,126 citizens received jobs

in private sector establishments in one week, (July 27-August 1).

This is very good news. Omani citizens deserve more jobs in the private sector because the public sector has employed maximum number of the nationals.

Another point which is very important is that more and more Omani citizens must be encour-aged to join media organisations of the country.

In recent times, one can see Omanis in the media centres but more training programmes are needed to ensure that they also join English media organisations.

— Suhail Ahmed Editor: Indeed greater repre-

sentation of the Omani nationals in media organisations is very im-portant. This calls for more train-ing programmes.

Iftar events bring people togetherPEOPLE’S PLATFORM

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Tel: 24649451, Fax: 24649469; e-mail: observerfeatures@gmail.com

GARLIC is the original crime fighter! It battles vil-lains inside and outside the body from vampires to the dreaded ‘evil eye’ to common cold. All of

us consume many harmful chemicals and toxins with our food. If we eat garlic daily, it expels toxins from our body through pores of skin.

Garlic is one of nature’s wonder drugs, for the heart whether taken as food or pills. The bulb is packed with at least four hundred chemicals, including many antioxi-dants, that guard cells from damage, protect arteries, pro-mote blood flow, and retard aging. Garlic contains dozens of therapeutic compounds. These are the most important: Allin, Allicin, Ajoene, Sulfur containing Amino Acids, Organic Sulfide Compounds. All these therapeutic com-pounds have a very important roles in cholester-ol lowering and clot prevention. Garlic blocks blood platelets from sticking to each other or the walls of arteries , the first step to artery clogging. Garlic chemicals have a range of talents: as cho-lesterol reducers, anticoagulants, blood pressure reducers, and anti-inflammatory agents. Some research suggests that garlic behaves much like class of prescription blood pressure drugs called angiotensin — converting enzymes. Garlic has also been found to have beta blocker activity by decreasing the strength and frequency of vascular mus-cle contractions. Beta –blockers are well known heart and blood pressure drugs.

There are studies indicate that garlic can kill bacteria and can act as an effective anti bacterial agent. The amount of allicin produced in one clove of garlic after chopping was found to be effective against killing vancomycin resist-ant Enterococci and methicillin — resistant staphylococcus aureus. Phyto chemicals in this wonderful bulb attributed to protecting your body from harm, such as allicin, a bacte-ria killer, saponin, a cholesterol soaker; and coumaric acid, a cancer fighter, to name a few.

You can also try garlic juice if you don’t feel like eating your meals and always feel filled up. It can stimulates your appetite and makes you feel hungry. Trying it on you or your family members is a good idea if anyone complains of low appetite.

Research found that garlic may help to boost the birth weight of babies and decrease preeclampsia and complica-tions at birth.

Garlic is available in powder, flakes and oil form, as well as chopped and pureed versions. Always store garlic in a cool, dark place — do not refrigerate! Peeling, crush-ing and cutting garlic increase the number and variety of active compounds including an enzyme called allinase that produce diallyl disulphide. Don’t cook with it right away! Scientist recommended waiting 15 minutes between peel-ing and cooking garlic to allow the allinase reaction to oc-cur. Do light cooking — long cooking destroys its benefi-cial compounds. If you don’t like garlic breath, or reject fresh garlic for other reasons, take garlic supplement. You can chew some parsley leaves after a garlic meal that may reduce any mouth odour.

Valued as a health-protector for thousands of years, gar-lic bulbs are very useful to our health. Consuming garlic in any form every day keeps you healthy and fit. It is good for your heart and reduces the chances of heart disease to a great extent.

(The writer is a dietician at Atlas star Medical Centre, Al Khuwair, Muscat.)

Garlic the Great

HEALTHYFOODSBy Mini PadikkalMUSLIMS who

fast during R a m a d h a n

must abstain from eat-ing, drinking, sensual pleasures, use of oral medications, and smok-ing (smoking is un-healthy and one should stop completely) from predawn to after sunset; however, there are no re-strictions on food or flu-id intake between sunset and dawn.

Most people con-sume two meals per day

during this month, one after sunset, referred to in Arabic as iftar (breaking of the fast meal), and the other before dawn, referred to as suhur (predawn).

What happens to your body during fasting?Food is the fuel for our body and we need this fuel

for energy, to help our body grow and repair itself, and to keep warm.

Usually your body enters into a fasting state eight or so hours after the last meal. Your body will initially use stored sources of glucose (from food intake) and then later in the fast it will break down body fat to use as the next source of energy.

Using your body’s fat stores as an energy source can, in the long run, help to reduce your cholesterol levels and blood pressure as well as your weight. Losing weight, particularly if you are overweight, can also lead to better control of diabetes.

Ramadhan tips for diabetics and others:1. It is common practice that the intake of food rich in car-

bohydrates and saturated fats rises during Ramadhan. Continue a varied and balanced diet. Maintaining a healthy diet is important for everyone (regardless of Ramadhan), but it is vital for people with diabetes.

2. It is important for diabetics (both type 1 and 2) that you consult and speak to your diabetes healthcare team beforehand if you are planning to fast. Your diabetes healthcare team may advise you to change the time, type or dose of medication to ensure your blood glu-cose levels are well controlled throughout the fasting period.

3. If you are diabetic, ensure that you check your blood glucose levels more often.

4. Remember to use less oil in cooking and avoid fried food and prefer grilling and baking. This practice and the choice of cooking method should apply throughout the year.

5. When you break the fast, only have small quantities of sugary and fatty foods such as dates, sweets, samosas, as too many can make you gain weight. Then include more slowly absorbed foods that have a lower glycae-mic index such as, rice, pitta bread and chapattis.

6. Drink as much water and/or some (not excessive) fruit juices as possible between iftar and bedtime so that your body may adjust fluid levels in time and to avoid dehydration and formation of kidney stones.

7. At suhur (do not overeat) eat slow-digesting foods so that the food lasts longer making you less hungry. These are known as complex carbohydrates, foods that contain grains and seeds like barely, wheat, oats, millet, semolina, beans, lentils, whole meal flour and unpolished rice.Refined or simple carbohydrates (ie sugary food:

cakes, pudding etc), especially at suhur, should be avoid-ed for both diabetics and non-diabetics. Otherwise the body produces too much insulin causing the blood glu-cose to drop, resulting in hypoglycaemia, which could be serious.

Don’t use diabetic foods or drinks — they offer no benefit to people with diabetes. They will still affect your blood glucose levels and they contain just as much fat and calories.

— The author is a retired PDO Head of Medical Laboratory and ex-editor of PDO Health Newsletter

Fasting, diabetes and diet

A GENETIC clue to why women outlive men has been found in

a study of fruit flies by British researchers.

The research, published in the journal Current Biology, show that a set of DNA inher-ited from the mother can be harmful to males and speed up male ageing, Xinhua reported on Friday.

Researchers from Lancas-ter University said the results point to numerous mutations within mitochondrial DNA that affect how long males live, and speed at which they age.

Mitochondrial DNA, which is found in many species, in-cluding human, is inherited through the mother only.

So there is no evolution pressure from the male side to sieve out those mutations that are just harmful to male, researchers said after carrying experiments with fruit flies.

The unaffected females will continue to pass on those mutations to their sons.

The accumulation of those mutations could eventually

lead to the difference of lon-gevity between male and fe-male. That theory was named “Mother’s Curse” by some researchers.

“We show that Mother’s Curse is much broader in its effects on male life history than previously envisaged, re-sulting in the build-up of mu-tations that cause males to age faster, and live shorter lives than females,” said David Clancy of Lancaster Univer-

sity.He said these findings offer

a new and compelling expla-nation to one of life’s greatest puzzles — why the female of many species, including humans, live longer than the males.

Generally women outlive men by about five to six years. By age 85 there are roughly six women to every four men and by age 100 the ration is more than two to one.

Clue to why women live longer discovered

By Ali Said Ali al Mandhry

PEOPLE with heart dis-ease who live alone tend to die sooner than those

sharing their home with oth-ers, a new study shows.

Although the reasons for the gap are still murky, lead researcher Dr Deepak Bhatt said access to regular medi-cine might be involved.

“Patients living alone may have more difficulty getting their medications refilled and taking them regularly,” Bhatt said. “They also don’t have anyone at home to call the

doctor’s office or emergency room if they are not looking well.”

Earlier research has yielded mixed conclusions, but studies have linked social isolation to everything from heart at-tacks to weakened immune systems.

Bhatt, of Harvard Medical School in Boston, and his col-leagues focused specifically on people with known heart disease or at very high risk for it. They included more than 44,000 people, all of whom

were 45 or older, from multi-ple countries across the globe.

Over the four years the study lasted, 7.7 per cent of participants younger than 65 who lived on their own died, compared to just 5.7 per cent of those who didn’t live alone.

The gap was smaller for people age 66 to 80, but it remained statistically reliable even after accounting for age, sex, employment, ethnicity and country. The living situa-tion of those over 80, however, wasn’t tied to death rates.

Writing in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the re-searchers speculate that in people under 80, living alone could signal psychological and social problems like job strain or loneliness. In contrast, very old people who live on their own may be healthier and more independent than those who don’t.

Whatever the explanation, Bhatt said cardiologists should routinely ask their patients if they live alone.

“If the answer is yes, that might be a red flag and they should make sure the pa-tients have a way to get their medicine regularly,” he said. Meanwhile, patients living solo should think twice before ignoring changes that might be a sign of health problems.

“Many times people just adapt to their circumstances,” he said. “Perhaps just lower your threshold a little bit and realise it’s better to call (the doctor) than not to call.”

But that might not be the whole story, he acknowl-edged.

“Other mechanisms by which living alone could in-crease cardiac risk have to do with possible social isolation and loneliness, and these are more challenging to fix,” Bhatt said. Indeed, another report published along with Bhatt’s shows older people who felt lonely had more difficulty per-forming basic tasks of daily living and died younger than those who didn’t feel alone.

— Reuters Health

Loneliness, living alone tied to shorter lifespan

EATING a high-salt diet for several years

may damage blood vessels — increasing your risk of developing high blood pressure, according to research reported in the American Heart Association journal Circulation.

People with this type of blood vessel damage who eat a high-salt diet are more likely to develop hyperten-sion, or high blood pressure. This research hints at the presence of a “sodium am-plification loop” in which eating too much salt for a long time damages blood vessels, leading to a greater chance of developing high blood pressure if the high-salt diet is continued.

The study’s results “add to the considerable evidence that a diet heavy on salt is closely linked to high blood pressure,” said John For-man, MD, lead author of the study.

Too much salt may damage blood vessels

28RAMADHAN SUNDAY, AUGUST 5, 2012

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Thalassery Muslim Welfare Association organised an iftar gathering and Zakat collection at Muscat Tower, Wadi Kabir.

THOUSANDS of children and fami-lies from different

areas of Muscat attended a special Qaranqasho event at the Bait Al Zubair Mu-seum, on the 14th evening of the blessed month of Ramadhan (August 3rd in the Gregorian calendar) and enjoyed a fun filled evening.

Commenting on the evening’s activities, a staff member of the museum, Musa’b al Jabri, explained, “The Qaranqasho evening kicked off with children receiving gift bags full of goodies to eat and play with. We distributed more than 1,500 gift bags and re-ceived over 2,000 people, so next year we will have to arrange more gifts.

“The children then had their faces painted in a myr-iad of butterflies, snakes, flowers, henna designs, and superhero characters. Habibi the Turtle was also there, from Shangri-La’s Barr Al Jissah Resort and Spa, for the kids to meet. A traditional band from Sidab performed special songs and the whole place was alive with their rhythmic music and dance.”

He went on to express his appreciation by saying, “We would like to thank all our team and the event would not have been pos-sible without the support of the Zubair Corporation and our generous sponsors at the Zubair Automotive Group, Zubair Furnishing, Zubair Electric, TBWA/Zeenah, Larsen and Toubro Oman, Larsen and Toubro Electromech, Infocomm, Oman Oil Industry Sup-plies and Services, Oman Sweets, Business Interna-tional Group, Oasis Water, and Shangri-La’s Barr Al Jissah Resort and Spa.”

To visit Bait Al Zubair Museum and learn more about Oman’s rich cultural history during Ramadhan the timings are from Sat-urday to Thursday from 9.30am to 2.30pm. To get more information about Bait Al Zubair events and activities visit them on Facebook www.facebook.com/bait.alzubair.museum and Twitter: @Bait_AlZu-bair.

Children celebrate Qaranqasho at Bait Al Zubair Museum

Women’s exhibition by bank muscat concludes

THE recently concluded two-day women’s ex-hibition, held at bank

muscat head office, was a big success. The exhibition was part of the 2nd ‘Layali al Khair’ (Ramadhan Evenings) of the bank.

All the participants make

their living working from home, and bank muscat has offered a public platform to exhibit their wares. Visitors were able to pick and choose from the products in 26 stalls, including abayas, jalabiyas, accessories, home decoration, food stuff and much more.

The exhibition turned out to be an exciting event for the whole family. The Kids Zone engaged the children while their parents shopped. Carrom board games for men, henna painting for women, and a raffle draw also added to the fun. A festive atmosphere was

created to the delight of all the visitors, while Al Wisal radio channel interviewed organis-ers, participants and visitors to get their on-the-spot feedback of the event.

Aliya al Balushiya, Events and Sponsorships, bank mus-cat, commented: “We are pleased to see such an enthu-siastic response to the bank’s initiative. More than 150 visi-tors turned up on the first day, alone! Many Omani women showcased their products for the first time and already want to do so again.” She continued, “We would like to thank Amal Jawad Sultan, the visitors, the bank muscat team and all the participants for making this event a big success. We shall certainly consider doing simi-lar events in the future.”

bank muscat organises and supports similar events for Omani women to encourage vocational and employment opportunities; and support these women to become fi-nancially independent and self sustainable.

Bright colours adorn Egyptian streets during Ramadhan

By Ra’al al Jardaniya

EGYPTIAN people are keen to add a joy-ful atmosphere before

Ramadhan starts, every street and home in Egypt prepares to celebrate this month well in advance. Some of the manifes-tations of celebrations are the flags and colourful lights with their different shapes. Shops, cafes and homes are well lit

up with Ramadhan lanterns, which are an expression of the bright colours of this month, according to Mustafa Abdul Gawad, Head of Press and Information Office in the Em-bassy of Arab Republic Egypt, in Muscat.

The (Ramadhan lantern) is one of the most important aspects of the celebration. It is one of the features of this month in Egypt, where all chil-

dren buy it to revive the nights of the fasting month and to sing its famous heritage songs.

The main dishes which dis-tinguish Egyptian food is Al Mahashi, red and white meat, in addition to the vegetables and dry fruits which are local-ly named as Khushaf. On the other hand some of the tradi-tional dishes like as Al Kush-ari have disappeared from the scene during Ramadhan. The

sweets which most Egyptians prefer to eat during this season are Basbosah, Kunafa and Ruz Blaban. Ruz blaban is rice that is mixed with some sugar and other flavours.

As in other Arab countries mosques in Egypt are crowd-ed with people coming in for prayers, especially during Al Traweeh. The crowd of devo-tees extend to almost one-and-a-half kilometres outside

the mosque and the numbers could easily cross over one million.

Egyptian nights are spent more in worship. Usually, Egyptian people spend the last days of Ramadhan in mosques worshiping after breaking their fasting till Al Sahoor starts. The Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic holy sites have organised and sponsored these holy nights in Jordan also. The Ramadhan tents are open for all those who want to break their fast, including the gener-al public and foreigners. These tents are named “Al Rahman” and it is made for those who live far away from their fami-lies and relatives.

Sahoor in Egypt has its main dish as well, called AL Fool, which is made from cheese and eggs and is the main course of Egyptian sa-hoor along with Tamiyah, which causes a lot of thirst.

People also go around vis-iting relatives and neighbours during the Ramadhan nights in order to strengthen and ex-pand their social relations and the links between members of the community. On the first day of Ramadhan usually the Egyptians gather at the house of their grandparents for breaking their fast and praying together.

They also have a habit of having iftar or sahoor in res-taurants as a kind of socialis-ing with friends and relatives and stay out till midnight.

Some of the manifestations of the celebrations in Egypt are the flags and colourful lights with their

different shapes. Shops, cafes and homes are well lit up with Ramadhan lanterns, which are an ex-

pression of the bright colours of this month