085010 120010 6 Times News Service MUSCAT: After 14 years of hunt- ing for rare, valuable historical pieces from around the world, a 25-year-old Omani private collec- tor, a resident of Mabela, decided to share his treasures at Oman Av- enues Mall on Wednesday. Antiques His rare collection consists of antiques such as cameras, type- writers, coins, passports, old home utensils, jewellery, and handicrafts. “I’ve been collecting items from 2001 when I was just 11-year-old,” Abdul Aziz Alkharusi, told the Times of Oman on Wednesday. He said the idea of collecting unique items came to his mind when he found a 1315 Hijri anna (coin) while playing with his friends. “Since then I have been searching and today I am the proud owner of some of the rare collec- tions of currencies and antiques in Oman,” he said. Unique collection The Oman Avenues Mall will be hosting his unique collection of antiques for a period of four days — from December 23 to 26. Commenting on the exhibition, the General Manager of the Oman Avenues Mall, Ben Watson, said the mall has always strived to be a destination for the Omani commu- nity; this is another step in this di- rection, which is to offer a platform to emerging talent for showcasing their skills. What’s more fascinat- ing, Alkharusi admitted, is the an- tiques’ journey and the number of hands they changed over the years. “Yet, surprisingly, the quality re- mains almost perfect,” he said. Commenting on his most prized collection, he said he loves notes, which have got mistakes all over them. “I love a note, which was written by hand and old coins be- longing to hundreds of years be- fore the Christ. These are really hard to find,” Alkharusi added. 28 258 THURSDAY, December 24, 2015 / 12 Rabi Al Awal 1437 AH timesofoman.com wtimesofoman.com facebook.com/timesofoman twitter.com/timesofoman blog.timesofoman.com ISO 9001:2008 Certified Company Before the opening of the annual session of the Council of Oman, 2004 FROM THE WORDS OF HIS MAJESTY THE SULTAN No society can isolate itself without interacting and communicating with others. ‘His Majesty’s Wisdom’ Customers to be hit by 3pc insurance hike REJIMON K [email protected]MUSCAT: Insurance is set to cost more in Oman as Majlis Al Shura has decided to impose a 3 per cent surcharge, in addition to the exist- ing 1.6 per cent government tax, on premiums. “The Shura has voted and okayed the introduction of a 3 per cent surcharge on insurance premiums. It’s a move to gener- ate extra revenue. We have to look into all kinds of solutions as the oil price dip is making it tough for us,” a source from the Majlis Al Shura said. Out of the 39 members present, 22 voted ‘yes’ and 17 voted ‘no’. The proposal will be now forward- ed to the State Council. According to the Shura source, life insurance and reinsurance schemes will be exempted from the new surcharge payment. Meanwhile, a top official from an insurance firm said the sur- charge would be passed on to the customer. “At present, the 1.6 per cent tax is paid by the customer. Now, we will have to also pass on the 3 per cent surcharge to them,” the in- surance firm official said. However, the official was not clear about whether the govern- ment entities, who also take in- surance, would also have to pay the surcharge. “Currently, government enti- ties are exempted from paying the 1.6 per cent tax. So, until the bill is issued officially, we won’t be able to comment on that,” the official explained. However, the Shura source said they were told that everyone would have to pay the surcharge. On Tuesday, the Shura had also voted for major tax reforms to fill the state’s coffers and meet the 2016 budget deficit. The Shura has proposed to imposing a 3 per cent increase in corporate income tax, removing the tax free ceiling of OMR30,000 for companies and bringing all companies under the ambit of taxation, regardless of their grade. The current corporate income tax for companies, which is 12 per cent, will become 15 per cent if ap- proved by the State Council. The Shura has also voted for increasing taxation for the oil and gas industry-based companies from 12 per cent to 35 per cent, and increase the tax for Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) companies from 12 per cent to 55 per cent to bring it at par with oil companies. Oman’s income has fallen by more than 60 per cent since June 2014, when it used to sell oil at $115 per barrel. According to data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), Oman’s budget deficit for the first eight months of 2015 rose to OMR2.68 billion as falling crude oil export revenues started affecting the fis- cal balance. This is against a surplus of OMR205.7 million for the same period last year and against a pro- jected deficit of OMR2.5 billion for the entire year by the govern- ment. As the surcharge is to be passed on to the customers, they will have to pay an additional 3% apart from the current 1.6% government tax HM grants Royal pardon His Majesty receives thanks MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, the Supreme Commander, has issued a Royal pardon to a number of prisoners convicted of different cases. A responsible source at the Royal Oman Police (ROP) said that they included 208 prison- ers, including 73 foreign prison- ers. His Majesty, the Supreme Commander’s Royal pardon comes to coincide with Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) Birthday, as well as in consideration of the families of the prisoners. -ONA MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has received a cable of thanks from His High- ness Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Jabir Al Sabah, Emir of Kuwait, in reply to His Majesty’s condo- lences cable to him on the death of Sheikha Najma Al Abdullah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah. In his cable, Sheikh Sabah expressed his utmost thanks for His Majesty the Sultan’s sin- cere condolences and sympathy, praying to Allah the Almighty to rest the deceased’s soul in peace and protect His Majesty against all harms. >A3 DECISION ADDITIONAL BURDEN: The proposal will be now forwarded to the State Council. Omani collector shares treasure troves with public PRIZED POSSESSION A4 The promoter of social justice OMAN Omani inmates showcase art 1 Wooden ship sculptures, canvas paintings and handicrafts made by the Omani inmates are being showcased at the Muscat Grand Mall, which was turned into a beautiful art gallery on Sunday.>A2 OMAN Supreme Council reviews rail project 2 Railway project was reviewed by the Supreme Council. The mechanisms for its implementation will play a key role in the growth. >A3 MARKET Sultanate’s non-oil exports decline 7% 3 Oman’s non-oil exports fell by 7.1 per cent at OMR1,920.4 million for the first seven months of 2015, from OMR2,066.7 million for the same period of last year. A fall in commodity prices must have caused the fall in export revenue this year. >B1 TOP THREE INSIDE STORIES e-visa norms eased for tourists Times News Service MUSCAT: Un-sponsored visi- tors will now be able to apply for a tourist visa using the Royal Oman Police’s (ROP) new online e-visa application. The initiative is aimed at en- hancing ROP’s services to mini- mise the time and effort spent on its processing. It will also enable people to fill tourist visa applications through the ROP’s website, thus reduc- ing the time taken for purchasing the application form and getting it typed. Group 1 nationals The tourist visa has been made eas- ier, especially for the 66 countries listed in Group 1, including those from the United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada and Lebanon among others. Applicants from these countries can submit their application forms at the Sultanate’s ports, land bor- ders or airport and receive their tourist visa. The new service also caters to those, who are not on the list of Group 1 nationals, but are ei- ther spouses or children of Group 1 nationals. Conventional applications Countries, such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines, among other nationals, who are not on the list of Group 1 countries, will still have to apply for a tourist visa conventionally. TOURIST VISA Omani rials of tax free ceiling for companies has been removed, bringing all the companies under the tax net 30,000 CABLES
Transcript
085010 1200106
Times News Service
MUSCAT: After 14 years of hunt-ing for rare, valuable historical pieces from around the world, a 25-year-old Omani private collec-tor, a resident of Mabela, decided to share his treasures at Oman Av-enues Mall on Wednesday.
AntiquesHis rare collection consists of antiques such as cameras, type-writers, coins, passports, old home utensils, jewellery, and handicrafts.
“I’ve been collecting items from 2001 when I was just 11-year-old,” Abdul Aziz Alkharusi, told the
Times of Oman on Wednesday.He said the idea of collecting
unique items came to his mind when he found a 1315 Hijri anna (coin) while playing with his
friends. “Since then I have been searching and today I am the proud owner of some of the rare collec-tions of currencies and antiques in Oman,” he said.
Unique collectionThe Oman Avenues Mall will be hosting his unique collection of antiques for a period of four days — from December 23 to 26.
Commenting on the exhibition, the General Manager of the Oman Avenues Mall, Ben Watson, said
the mall has always strived to be a destination for the Omani commu-nity; this is another step in this di-rection, which is to off er a platform to emerging talent for showcasing their skills. What’s more fascinat-ing, Alkharusi admitted, is the an-tiques’ journey and the number of hands they changed over the years.
“Yet, surprisingly, the quality re-mains almost perfect,” he said.
Commenting on his most prized collection, he said he loves notes, which have got mistakes all over them. “I love a note, which was written by hand and old coins be-longing to hundreds of years be-fore the Christ. These are really hard to fi nd,” Alkharusi added.
28258
THURSDAY, December 24, 2015 / 12 Rabi Al Awal 1437 AH timesofoman.com wtimesofoman.com facebook.com/timesofoman twitter.com/timesofoman blog.timesofoman.com ISO 9001:2008 Certifi ed Company
Before the opening of the annual session of the Council of Oman, 2004
FROM THE WORDS OF HIS MAJESTYTHE SULTAN
No society can isolate itself without interacting and communicating with others.
MUSCAT: Insurance is set to cost more in Oman as Majlis Al Shura has decided to impose a 3 per cent surcharge, in addition to the exist-ing 1.6 per cent government tax, on premiums.
“The Shura has voted and okayed the introduction of a 3 per cent surcharge on insurance premiums. It’s a move to gener-ate extra revenue. We have to look into all kinds of solutions as the oil price dip is making it tough for us,” a source from the Majlis Al Shura said.
Out of the 39 members present,
22 voted ‘yes’ and 17 voted ‘no’. The proposal will be now forward-ed to the State Council.
According to the Shura source, life insurance and reinsurance schemes will be exempted from the new surcharge payment.
Meanwhile, a top offi cial from an insurance fi rm said the sur-charge would be passed on to the customer.
“At present, the 1.6 per cent tax is paid by the customer. Now, we will have to also pass on the 3 per cent surcharge to them,” the in-surance fi rm offi cial said.
However, the offi cial was not clear about whether the govern-ment entities, who also take in-surance, would also have to pay the surcharge.
“Currently, government enti-
ties are exempted from paying the 1.6 per cent tax. So, until the bill is issued offi cially, we won’t be able to comment on that,” the offi cial explained.
However, the Shura source said they were told that everyone would have to pay the surcharge.
On Tuesday, the Shura had also voted for major tax reforms to fi ll the state’s coff ers and meet the
2016 budget defi cit. The Shura has proposed to imposing a 3 per cent increase in corporate income tax, removing the tax free ceiling of OMR30,000 for companies and bringing all companies under the ambit of taxation, regardless of their grade.
The current corporate income tax for companies, which is 12 per cent, will become 15 per cent if ap-proved by the State Council.
The Shura has also voted for increasing taxation for the oil and gas industry-based companies from 12 per cent to 35 per cent, and increase the tax for Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) companies from 12 per cent to 55 per cent to bring it at par with oil companies.
Oman’s income has fallen by more than 60 per cent since June 2014, when it used to sell oil at $115 per barrel.
According to data released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), Oman’s budget defi cit for the fi rst eight months of 2015 rose to OMR2.68 billion as falling crude oil export revenues started aff ecting the fi s-cal balance.
This is against a surplus of OMR205.7 million for the same period last year and against a pro-jected defi cit of OMR2.5 billion for the entire year by the govern-ment.
As the surcharge is
to be passed on to
the customers, they
will have to pay an
additional 3% apart
from the current 1.6%
government tax
HM grants Royal pardon
His Majesty
receives thanks
MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, the Supreme Commander, has issued a Royal pardon to a number of prisoners convicted of diff erent cases.
A responsible source at the Royal Oman Police (ROP) said that they included 208 prison-ers, including 73 foreign prison-ers. His Majesty, the Supreme Commander’s Royal pardon comes to coincide with Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) Birthday, as well as in consideration of the families of the prisoners. -ONA
MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has received a cable of thanks from His High-ness Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Jabir Al Sabah, Emir of Kuwait, in reply to His Majesty’s condo-lences cable to him on the death of Sheikha Najma Al Abdullah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah.
In his cable, Sheikh Sabah expressed his utmost thanks for His Majesty the Sultan’s sin-cere condolences and sympathy, praying to Allah the Almighty to rest the deceased’s soul in peace and protect His Majesty against all harms. >A3
D E C I S I O N
ADDITIONAL BURDEN: The proposal will be now forwarded to the State Council.
Omani collector shares treasure troves with publicP R I Z E D P O S S E S S I O N
A4The promoter of social justice
OMANOmani inmates showcase art
1Wooden ship sculptures, canvas paintings and handicrafts made by the
Omani inmates are being showcased at the Muscat Grand Mall, which was turned into a beautiful art gallery on Sunday.>A2
OMANSupreme Council reviews rail project
2 Railway project was reviewed by the Supreme Council.
The mechanisms for its implementation will play a key role in the growth. >A3
MARKETSultanate’s non-oil exports decline 7%
3Oman’s non-oil exports fell by 7.1 per cent at OMR1,920.4 million for
the fi rst seven months of 2015, from OMR2,066.7 million for the same period of last year. A fall in commodity prices must have caused the fall in export revenue this year. >B1
T O P T H R E E I N S I D E S T O R I E S
e-visa norms eased for touristsTimes News Service
MUSCAT: Un-sponsored visi-tors will now be able to apply for a tourist visa using the Royal Oman Police’s (ROP) new online e-visa application.
The initiative is aimed at en-hancing ROP’s services to mini-mise the time and eff ort spent on its processing.
It will also enable people to fi ll tourist visa applications through the ROP’s website, thus reduc-
ing the time taken for purchasing the application form and getting it typed.
Group 1 nationalsThe tourist visa has been made eas-ier, especially for the 66 countries listed in Group 1, including those from the United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada and Lebanon among others.
Applicants from these countries can submit their application forms at the Sultanate’s ports, land bor-
ders or airport and receive their tourist visa. The new service also caters to those, who are not on the list of Group 1 nationals, but are ei-ther spouses or children of Group 1 nationals.
Conventional applications Countries, such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines, among other nationals, who are not on the list of Group 1 countries, will still have to apply for a tourist visa conventionally.
T O U R I S T V I S A
Omani rials of tax free
ceiling for companies
has been removed,
bringing all the
companies under
the tax net
30,000C A B L E S
A2 T H U R S DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 5
OMANInmates need to cultivate their skills so that they can depend on them later when they get back to their normal lives outside the jail.
Omani inmates showcase artwork
Majlis debates Income Tax law
MUSCAT: The report of the eco-nomic and fi nancial committee on amending some provisions of the Income Tax Law was discussed by Majlis Al Shura members on Wednesday.
They also discussed a number of amended articles that resulted in amending some of them after voting. Some articles of the law were left as received from the gov-ernment. Six members requested to vote again on Article No 112 of the Income Tax Law, which in-creases royalty to 55% in oil and gas activity and 35% on extract-ing non-oil natural resources for exports and oil & gas-based petro-chemical industries.
The members approved the ad-dition to this article, which was made by Economic and Financial Committee at stated in its report.
They also approved the draft Insurance Companies Law, which reduced the period of paying the tax by insurance companies from 6 months to 3 months during the fi scal year , retained some articles as received in the draft law and amended some of them.The session approved the work plan submitted by Shura standing committees during the fi rst annual session of the 8th term. The plan of the economic and fi nancial com-mittee included giving priority to the economic draft laws. -ONA
MUSCAT: Wooden ship sculp-tures, canvas paintings and handi-crafts made by Omani inmates are being showcased at the Muscat Grand Mall, which was turned into a beautiful art gallery on Sunday.
Based on the theme “Together for Correction,” the fi ve-day art exhibition displays canvases of natural landscapes, happy fami-lies and Omani forts and mosques, all painted by inmates of Oman’s Central Prison.
Artworks Visitors can purchase the art-works, which are being sold at a price of between OMR100 and OMR200. The proceeds will be shared between the prison au-thority and the inmates.
Organised by the Directorate General of Prisons, the exhibition
also includes a Royal Oman Police corner where offi cers share stories of drug addicts and raise aware-ness about the most common nar-cotics sold in the Sultanate.
Sergeant Abdullah Al Harrasi of the Directorate General of Prisons said prisons in Oman have provid-ed a platform for talented inmates to learn about arts, computer and languages.
He said inmates need to culti-vate their skills so that they can depend on them later when they get back to their normal lives out-side the jail. “We off er our inmates courses and weekly lectures in coordination with the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Af-fair and the Ministry of Health,” Al Harrasi said, adding that free edu-cation is also given to all inmates.
The Central Prison facilitates a library and a sports fi eld so that inmates can practice football, vol-leyball and basketball.
The exhibition is part of the ac-tivities organised during the 4th GCC Inmates Week and is set to conclude on Thursday.
The art exhibition
displays canvases of
natural landscapes,
happy families and
Omani forts and
mosques, all painted
by inmates of Oman’s
Central Prison
HM sends condolences to MauritaniaMUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has sent a cable of condolences to President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz of Mauritania on the death of his son Ahmad.
In his cable, His Majesty the Sultan has expressed his sincere condolences and sympathy to President Ould Abdel Aziz and all his family members, praying to Allah the Almighty to rest the deceased’s soul in peace and grant his family patience. -ONA
CABLE
A3
OMANT H U R S DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 5
Share your
world with us
on Instagram
SCAN THIS TO INSTANTLY SHARE YOURPHOTOGRAPHS
Don’t litter a beautiful
country like OMAN.
Ensure proper disposalof garbage.
Supreme Council reviews railway project, finances
MUSCAT: Railway project was reviewed by the Supreme Coun-cil. The mechanisms for the implementation of the railway project will play a key role in the growth of the Omani economy as it is one of the most strategic lo-gistic projects in the country.
The Supreme Council also dis-cussed the means of fi nancing the projects at its diff erent im-plementation stages.
The Council also reviewed the circular of the Secretariat Gen-eral of the Council on the visions and remarks of the State Council and Majlis Al Shura on the draft 9th fi ve-year development plan (2016-2020). The Board recom-mended to raise the replies on the recommendations to the Council of Ministers.
The Supreme Council gave its nod to providing enough land
plots for residential layouts for building schools, hospitals and private polyclinics and encour-aging private sector to set up health and educational institu-tions and eliminating the diffi -culties for investors in these two important sectors.
The Council also followed up the executive measures that were taken for the strategic pro-jects that have been approved by the Council, most importantly the master plan for Shinas Port, the infrastructure for the Geo-graphic Information System (GIS), in addition to developing the public transport sector.
It also discussed a number of applications to approve a num-ber of projects, in addition to other items listed on the agenda and took appropriate decisions towards them.
The Council on Wednesday held its fi fth meeting this year under the chair of Dr. Ali bin Masud Al Sunaidi, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Coun-cil for Planning. -ONA
The Supreme Council gave its nod for
providing enough land plots for residential
layouts for building schools, hospitals and
private polyclinics, and encourage private
sector to set up health and educational
institutions and eliminate the diffi culties for
investors in these two important sectors
Four arrested for damaging camerasTimes News Service
MUSCAT: Four vandals accused of damaging speed cameras in Al Dhahirah governorate have been arrested, the Royal Oman Police (ROP) stated on Wednesday.
Following reports of four speed cameras being damaged on the Hafeet-Dhank highway on Tues-day, the ROP confi rmed that the off enders were arrested in coordi-nation with the citizens after in-vestigating the crime scene.
ConfessionThe accused confessed to the charges and admitted that they
had set ablaze the fi xed cameras.According to the ROP, devices
similar to speed cameras, which were stolen earlier, were found in the possession of the accused.
D H A H I R A H
A damaged camera.
HM receives thanks
His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said has also received a cable of thanks from President Fran-cois Hollande of France in reply to His Majesty’s condolences cable to him on the death of victims after the attacks in the French capital, Paris.
In his cable, President Hol-lande expressed his thanks for His Majesty the Sultan’s condolences, sympathy and noble feelings.
His Majesty the Sultan has received a cable of thanks from Tammam Salam, Prime Minis-ter of Lebanon, in reply to His Majesty’s congratulatory cable to him on the occasion of the 72nd Independence Anniver-sary of his country.
In his cable, Salam expressed his appreciation and gratitude for His Majesty’s good feelings and sincere wishes. He com-mended the relations of broth-erhood and cooperation binding the two countries. He also af-fi rmed his ambition to enhance such relations in all fi elds for the interest of the Omani and Leba-nese people. -ONA
C A B L E S
< FROM
A1
OMR1.71million
tender awarded
MUSCAT: Tenders worth OMR1,709,835 were awarded by the Tender Board on Wednes-day as it held its 20th meeting for 2015 under the chair of Dr. Rasheed bin Al Safi Al Hraibi, Chairman of the Tender Board.
The tenders were awarded for the following projects:
Provision of development services for educational pro-grammes and operational sup-port for the Arabic language, science and math programmes at the Teachers Specialised Vocational Training Centre at OMR291,850.
Provision of services to de-velop educational programme and provide operational sup-port for the Teachers Special-ised Vocational Training Centre at OMR361,623.
Additional works for the sup-ply of periodic maintenance services with spare parts for the medical equipment at the Sul-tan Qaboos Hospital in Salalah at OMR307,073.
Additional works for the pro-vision of consultancy services for the supervision of the con-struction of 50 housing units with internal roads and light-ing in the Wilayat of Liwa at OMR21,919.
Provision of computer pro-grams for the development works at Oman Educational Portal at OMR727,370. -ONA
T E N D E R B O A R D
A4 T H U R S DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 5
OMAN
PROPHET MUHAMMAD (PBUH), THE PROMOTER OF MERCY,
EQUALITY, UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD AND
SOCIAL JUSTICECOMPILED BY: MOHAMMAD OSAMA RAWAT
“…. And We have sent you (O Muham-mad, prayers and peace of Allah be upon him) not but as a mercy for the ‘Alamin (mankind, jinns and all that
exists)….” (Al Quran- Sura Al-Ambiya: aayat -107).
Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was born around 570 AD into a no-ble Arabian tribe called Quraish in the holy city of Mecca, in the house of one of the most respected the tribal chiefs, Abdul Mutallib, on 12th Rabi-Al-Awwal which falls on December 24 (Thursday) this year, at a time when the Arabs were leading their lives in the age of darkness without the light of true human, social, cultural, and spiritual values. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was orphaned at a young age and was raised by his grandfather. He carried all normal routines like other youths of his tribe — even his duties as shepherd for the family’s cattle. After his grandfa-ther’s death, he was raised by his uncle, Hazrat Abu Talib. He accompanied him on the trade caravans which used to travel between Mecca and Syria. He was well respected and noted for his honesty and integrity, and was called ‘AI-Ameen’ (The Trustworthy One) by the people of Mecca.
In those days, the people of Mecca used to worship idols but Prophet Muham-mad (PBUH) never participated in the polytheistic practices carried out by his tribe. Instead, he would spend long hours, meditating in a nearby cave called Hira and it was here, at the age of 40, that Lord sent angel Hazrat Jibraiel (Gabriel) to him with the fi rst revelation:
“Recite with the name of your Lord, who created. He made man from the clot of blood. Recite for your Lord is the Most Generous. Who taught writing by the pen. Taught man what he knew not.” (Al Quran - Surah Al Alaq: Aayyat: 1-5)
Some times later, angel Hazrat Jibraiel (Gabriel) came with the second revelation:
“O you (Muhammad) who are clothed! Arise and warn. And your Lord do magnify. And your garment do purify. And unclean-ness do shun. And bestow not favour that may receive again with increase. And for the sake of your Lord be patient..” (Al Quran – Surah Al Mudassir: Aayaat 1-7 )
Through the above revelation, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was asked by the Almighty, Our lone Lord, to call the people of his tribe to direct their lives and wor-ship the Almighty alone and to abandon the worship of anything other than Him. In the beginning, a handful of his tribes-men and women from the families of no-bles, commoners and slaves accepted the divine message propagated by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), who were later per-secuted by the fellow tribesmen and their masters for abandoning the religion of their forefathers. Even then, the impact of his divine message was such that numbers of companions of Muhammad (PBUH) continued to increase day by day. With the passing of months and years, the persecu-tion eventually became more severe and harsh. The frustration of the tribal chiefs reached its peak as their near and dear ones were deserting them to join the faith of worshiping One Lord, who is unseen, who is independent, who is neither begot-ten nor born and He has no equivalent. Af-ter long consultations, they decided to kill Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). It is then that the Almighty, the Lord of universe, in-structed his Messenger to emigrate to the city of Medina along with his companions.
The people of Medina accepted his companions with open arms and the mes-sage of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) with open mind. They sincerely pledged to worship none other than one Allah (God), to obey only His commandments, to estab-lish the fi ve daily prayers, to participate in compulsory annual charity (Zakaat) and to obey and follow His Messenger. It was from here that Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was freely able to invite peo-ple and to propagate the divine message of Islam openly, and the divine message spread far and wide within and beyond the
Arabian peninsula. The Pagans of Mecca, the tribesmen-turned-enemies of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), sent huge armies, time and again, to wipe out the small com-munity of believers in One Lord, who were signifi cantly outnumbered.
Despite this, the believers overcame their aggressors and within 10 years of migration to Medina, Prophet Muham-mad (PBUH) returned to his motherland Mecca to conquer it peacefully without a drop of blood shed.
The Meccans who has earlier trou-bled him and persecuted his compan-ions, feared revenge. However, they were soon astounded by Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) mercy and his act of pardon to-wards a community that had tortured him and driven him out of his homeland. This inspired most of them — the tribal chiefs, the leaders, the nobles of the city and their families — to embrace Islam.
By the time of his departure from this world at the age of 63, Prophet Muham-mad’s (PBUH) mission had spread beyond the Arabian Peninsula and within a short period of around 100 years, it had spread to almost two-thirds of the world.
It is needless to mention that before the advent of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), the Arabs had quite an insignifi cant place in history. It was Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) who united them, raised them from paganism and idolatry to the wor-ship of the one true Lord; from tribal wars to unity and brotherhood; from drunken-ness and debauchery to sobriety and piety.
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) changed them into a nation that would take their faith to most parts of the world within 100 years of his departure from this world.
History has not seen such a startling change or the speed at which a faith would spread. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)) was, and will continue to be the supreme example of humanity in behaviour, man-ners, belief and worship, as a husband, as a father, a military leader, teacher, neigh-bour and friends.
Allah has testifi ed about his virtues in the Quran:
“….Indeed in the Messenger of Allah, you have a good example to follow for he who hopes in (the meeting with) God and the last Day and remembers Allah much….” (Surah Al-Ahzab- Aayat: 21)
In his farewell sermon, Prophet Muham-mad (PBUH)) preached about the divine message of equality and human values:
“…..All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superi-ority over black nor does a black have any superiority over white except by piety and good action. Nothing shall be legitimate to a Muslim which belongs to another fel-low Muslim unless it was given freely and willingly. Allah has forbidden you to take usury (interest) therefore all usury hence-forth have to be waived off . Do treat your women well. Beware of satan. Remember one day you all will appear before Lord and answer for your deeds. Do not therefore do injustice to yourself….”
These mentioned practices, the other divine message of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) which could be traced from the book of Sunnah and the commandments of Allah mentioned in the Quran, if reli-giously followed, can bring an end to all kinds of inequality, social injustice, enmi-ty and can rope in, the entire planet into a global brotherhood, peace, prosperity and happiness.
Furthermore, to this eff ect Allah says in the Qur’an:
“..Indeed your religion is one religion, I am your Lord and cherisher therefore fear Me (and no other), but people divided their religion (their aff airs of unity) among them into sects-each faction in what it has, rejoicing. But leave them in their confused ignorance for a time…” (Surah Al Mumi-noon- Aaayat 52-54)
It is better for the mankind that we un-derstand the divine message of univer-sal brotherhood of our Lord and make this planet a beautiful and peaceful place to live in.
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Iraq troops to drive IS from Ramadi soon: Army chief
BAGHDAD: Iraq’s army chief was quoted on Wednesday as say-ing he needed only days to drive IS militant group from the city of Ramadi, whose fall in May ex-posed the weakness of the Bagh-dad government and dampened hopes of restoring control in the north and west.
Iraqi troops began advancing on Tuesday in an off ensive compli-cated by rivalries and suspicions harboured by local tribes and by militia backed. US offi cials, con-cerned also by militant operations over the border in Syria, have ex-pressed frustration at delays in seizing back the city.
Good news“In the coming days will be an-nounced the good news of the complete liberation of Ramadi,” Iraqia TV cited army chief of staff Lt-General Othman Al Ghanemi as saying.
Government troops are now concentrating on the last district held by the militants in the centre
of Ramadi, a city on the river Eu-phrates some 100km (60 miles) west of Baghdad and capital of Anbar province.
If it is captured, it will be the second major city after Tikrit to be retaken from IS in Iraq. It would provide a major psychological boost to Iraqi security forces after the militant group seized a third of Iraq, a major OPEC oil producer and US ally, in a sweeping advance
last year. Progress has been slow because the government wants to rely entirely on its own troops and not use militias in order to avoid rights abuses such as occurred after the recapture of Tikrit from the militants in April.
Iraqi offi cials say militias are reluctant to yield power, making it hard to forge a unifi ed strat-egy. Operations are also compli-cated by competition for foreign
infl uence in Baghdad.Local tribes have not been in-
volved directly in the assault, but have been active in support activities across the province - a contrast to the US-backed Tribal Awakening campaign ten years ago when they united to drive Al Qaeda elements from Anbar.
Joint operations command spokesman Yahia Rasool told Reuters the city would be handed
over to the Anbar police and lo-cal tribes after it was fully cleared and secured. By contrast to 2005, the tribes are now dealing with a government less given to sectar-ian loyalties. The ultimate aim is to clear IS from Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, and Fallujah, which lies between Ramadi and Baghdad, as well as large areas of Syria - the core of what it has de-clared to be a caliphate.
The control of major population centres in Iraq and Syria allows it to maintain a revenue base, con-trolling oil resources and large, fertile agricultural areas, and possibly plan attacks outside its core territory.
KilledCiting military statements, state TV said government forces had killed hundreds of militants since Tuesday. It gave no casualty toll for government forces.
The off ensive started on Tues-day at dawn, when units crossed the Euphrates river into central districts using two bridges - one rebuilt by army engineers, and a second fl oating structure, an army spokesman said, describing fi ght-ing as “ferocious”.
There has been no major push into the centre overnight, said an offi cer on the ground asking not to be identifi ed. The fi ghting has been limited to skirmishes, sniper fi re and exchanges of mor-tar rounds, he said. State TV cited the Anbar province military com-mander Major General Ismail Shihab saying the army was pro-ceeding cautiously so as to avoid civilian casualties. — Reuters
Government
troops are now
concentrating on the
last district held by
the militants in the
centre of Ramadi
Tehran calls new US visalaw breach of nuclear dealDUBAI: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Wednesday a new US law putting visa restrictions on Iranians and those who had visited Iran would, if implemented, breach a nuclear deal Tehran had struck with world powers earlier this year.
The new measure passed by the US Congress will prevent visa-free travel to the United States for people who have visited Iran or hold Iranian nationality.
The measure, which President Barack Obama signed into law on Friday, also applies to Iraq, Syria and Sudan, and was introduced as a security measure after IS at-tacks in Paris and an attack in San Bernardino, California.
Iran staunchly opposed to radi-calism espoused by groups like IS, says its inclusion on the list is in-tended to undermine the nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.
“If the Congress law is imple-mented as it is, it would defi nitely be a breach (of JCPOA),” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Ja-
vad Zarif was quoted as saying by the Tasnim news agency, speak-ing at a joint press conference with his Mongolian counterpart, Lundeg Purevsuren.
Zarif said he had raised the is-sue with US Secretary of State John Kerry at their meeting in New York this month and also in several emails in the last 10 days, hoping that “these measures stop any obstacle in implementation of the JCPOA.”
Citizens of 38 countries, most of them in Europe, are eligible for waivers under the US Visa Waiv-er Program. Under the new re-strictions, citizens who have vis-ited Iran, Iraq, Syria or Sudan in the last fi ve years, and those who hold dual nationality with one of those countries, are excluded.
In a meeting with French Sen-ate President Gerard Larcher in Tehran on Monday, Zarif called the new US legislation discrimi-natory and asked Europeans to oppose the law that was “against their independence”.
US Secretary of State John Kerry wrote to Zarif on Saturday to assure him Washington re-mained committed to the JCPOA, noting that the White House can waive the new requirements in individual cases.
Iran has been promised a lift-ing of international sanctions hobbling its economy once it has restrictions on its nuclear pro-gramme in place as stipulated by its deal with the powers. — Reuters
T R A V E L R E S T R I C T I O N S
Gunmen kill colonel in YemenADEN: Unidentifi ed gunmen shot dead a colonel in Yemen’s south-ern resistance in Aden on Tuesday night, a local offi cial said, the latest in a string of assassinations in the city often carried out by militants.
The gunmen opened fi re on a car containing resistance leader Jalal Al Awbali in the Dar Saad district of northern Aden, killing him im-mediately, the offi cial said. Mili-tants from both Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and
the Yemeni wing of the IS group have staged attacks throughout southern parts of Yemen, includ-ing in Aden, for years.
Rate of attacksThe rate of attacks in Aden has ac-celerated since July, when forces backed by the government of Presi-dent Abdrabbo Mansour Hadi and a Saudi-led military alliance recap-tured the city from the Houthi mi-litia after months of street fi ghting.
Insecurity in Aden, the biggest prize yet won by Hadi in Yemen’s nine-month civil war, threatens to undermine the campaign waged on his behalf against the Houthis and army units loyal to former presi-dent Ali Abdullah Saleh. In a sign of growing international concern over Yemen’s security problems, a US drone strike killed four sus-pected AQAP militants in central Yemen on Tuesday, the fi rst such attack since September. — Reuters
V I O L E N C E
2 Palestinians shot dead, three Israelis wounded
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Is-raeli security forces shot dead two Palestinians who had gone on a stabbing spree along a popular walkway in Occupied Jerusalem on Wednesday and wounded three people in what police described as a terrorist attack.
A wave of violence in Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank which began almost three months ago has shown no sign of dying down and has sparked concern of wider escalation, a decade after the last Palestinian uprising sub-sided. Wednesday’s stabbings took place right outside the Jaff a Gate, one of the main entrances to Occu-pied Jerusalem’s walled Old City.
“Paramilitary border police-women saw terrorists armed with knives stabbing a man,” police spokeswoman Luba Samri said. “They fi red toward the terrorists and neutralized them.” She added that the two Palestinians were killed. Three Israelis were serious-ly wounded in the attack, accord-ing to emergency medical workers and Samri said one of the victims may have also been wounded by police gunfi re. Samri said the as-sailants were from the Occupied West Bank and local mosques mourned their deaths.
Almost daily stabbings, shoot-ings and car-rammings by Pal-estinians have killed 19 Israelis and a US citizen since October. Israeli forces or armed civilians have killed at least 118 Palestin-ians, 70 of whom authorities de-scribed as assailants, while oth-ers died in clashes with security forces. — Reuters
S T A B B I N G S P R E E
MILITARY OPERATIONS: Iraqi pro-government forces stand next to armoured vehicles as they take
position in Al-Aramil area, south of the Anbar province’s capital Ramadi, during military operations
on Tuesday. – AFP
Iranian Foreign Minister Mo-
hammad Javad Zarif. – Reuters
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INDIAT H U R S DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 5
Ex-top cop Gill accuses Jaitley of nepotism in appointments
NEW DELHI: Seeking to put further pressure on Arun Jaitley, banned IHF president KPS Gill on Wednesday urged the Delhi government to probe the Union Fi-nance Minister’s “confl ict of inter-est” in the national hockey body, an allegation which was outrightly rejected by Hockey India.
Former top cop, Gill, who is the chief of banned Indian Hockey Federation, has written to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, alleging that Jaitley had appointed his daughter Sonali as the counsel for Hockey India (HI) when he was a member of the advisory board of Hockey India League.
Hockey India President Nar-inder Batra strongly refuted the allegations, saying Gill’s charges were “baseless”. Batra said it was just a “creation” by the banned IHF chief to settle scores with him.
Batra admitted that Jaitley’s daughter Sonali fought one of the many cases for Hockey India for a very brief period but just as a pro-fessional and it was unfair to at-
tach any motives. “The time that KPS Gill is talking about, we had a number of cases to fi ght. To be precise we had 22 cases to fi ght in that period in diff erent places
of the country, so we had to hire a lot of lawyers and lot of law fi rms. Jaitley and Bakshi fi rm was one of them. The money that went to them was hardly 2 per cent. So I
don’t know where the confl ict of interest comes from,” Batra told reporters.
“I just can’t give my cases to any-body. I have to hire some body who
is a professional and whom I know.All my dealings and balance sheet is on the HI website,” he added.
“It’s all Gill saab’s creation.I don’t know what Gill has against me. I am not worried, we come un-der the RTI,” he asserted.
‘Shielding corruption’It is a fresh attack on Jaitley who has been accused by AAP, Con-gress and BJP MP Kirti Azad of “shielding corruption” when he was the president of Delhi and Dis-trict Cricket Association (DDCA).
Gill’s allegations came a day after the Delhi Assembly on Tues-day passed a resolution to set up a Commission of Inquiry over the alleged irregularities in the Delhi and District Cricket Asso-ciation (DDCA).
IHF secretary Ashok Mathur confi rmed the development, say-ing the letter was sent to Kejriwal two days back.
“Yes, Gill has written to Delhi Chief Minister urging him to in-vestigate Jaitley’s confl ict of inter-est in HI. As HI is registered under Registrar of Societies, Delhi, the Delhi government has every right to investigate into the complaint,” Mathur said when contacted.
Jaitley has earlier sued six peo-ple including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for Rs100 million in a defamation suit for their com-ments that DDCA had seen cor-ruption when it was under Jaitley.
Though Azad has been unrelent-ing in his attack, Jaitley has chosen not to proceed against him.
BJP has rallied around Jaitley with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he will come out of it with fl ying colours. Amit Shah also batted for him saying the party stands united with him. -PTI
Gill, who is the chief
of banned Indian
Hockey Federation,
has alleged that
Jaitley had appointed
his daughter Sonali
as the counsel for
Hockey India when
he was a member of
the advisory board of
Hockey India League
I just can’t give my cases
to anybody. I have to
hire some body who is a
professional and whom I
know. All my dealings and
balance sheet is on the
Hockey India website
Narinder BatraHockey India President
NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party (MP and former cricketer Kirti Azad was on Wednesday suspended by par-ty chief Amit Shah for publicly targeting Finance Minister Arun Jaitley with allegations of irregularities in DDCA.
“Kirti Azad, Darbhanga MP, is suspended from party with immediate eff ect for his anti-party activities,” a BJP statement said. A show cause notice has been issued to him asking him to explain his “anti-
party conduct”, the party said, adding that further action will depend on his reply. Azad had defi ed the party chief and went ahead with a press conference on Sunday highlighting cor-ruption allegations linked to the Delhi and District Cricket Association(DDCA) of which Jaitley was the president for 13 years till 2013.
Azad is the fi rst BJP MP to be suspended since Narendra Modi became the prime minis-ter in May last year. - PTI
BJP suspends Kirti for ‘anti-party activities’
Kirti Azad
HAVE YOUR SAY Send us your comments at facebook.com/timesofoman blog.timesofoman.com [email protected]
Maharashtra government to challenge Salman’s acquittal
MUMBAI: Bollywood super star Salman Khan may face fresh trouble with the Maharashtra government on Wednesday in-forming the Bombay High Court of its decision to challenge in the Supreme Court the verdict ac-quitting him of all charges in the 2002 hit-and-run case.
The Government told the High Court that a Special Leave Petition (SLP) will be moved in the apex court against the De-cember 10 verdict of Justice A R Joshi, who overturned the ses-sions court judgement that held Salman guilty and sentenced him to fi ve years’ imprisonment.
Government Pleader Abhi-nandan Vagyani informed a bench that the Law and Judici-ary department had accorded sanction to fi le a SLP in the Supreme Court challenging the High Court verdict which had acquitted Salman, ruling that shoddy investigations were conducted by police in the case.
Seeking compensationThe SLP would be fi led in due course, the pleader said during a hearing of a public interest liti-gation fi led by journalist Nikhil Wagle, seeking compensation from Salman for the victims of the 2002 hit-and-run case. -PTI
H I T - A N D - R U N C A S E
Grieving relatives of BSF plane crash confront Rajnath
NEW DELHI: Tearful relatives of the victims of the BSF plane crash here that killed all 10 oc-cupants confronted Union Home Minister of India Rajnath Singh on Wednesday with a slew of questions including why “old air-craft” were being used and lives of troops put at risk.
As Singh and mourning rela-tives bid adieu to victims amid grief and anger, the Border Secu-
rity Force(BSF) chief D. K. Pathak maintained that its crashed Beechcraft Super King was com-pletely “airworthy” and fl ying “very well” and rejected allega-tions about any possible defect in the 11-seater aircraft.
A small 20-year-old BSF plane ferrying the force’s technical personnel to Ranchi crashed in Dwarka area on Tuesday and burst into fl ames just outside IGI
airport shortly after take-off .“Why are old aircraft being used
and lives of troops put at risk?” was one of the questions faced by Singh. A distraught and agitated daughter of Sub-Inspector Ra-binder Kumar, who was among the 10 personnel killed in Tues-day’s crash, asked Singh and Pathak to “address” these issues so that soldiers on the line of duty are not killed in such mishaps.
“Jawab dijiye (give me an an-swer).Why only soldiers get killed in such accidents and it never happens to VIPs,” she asked as soon as Singh began meeting the families after paying tributes.
Rajnath consoled the young woman and assured that their grievances would be looked into as he said he would review each and every aspect that they have underlined. - PTI
A C C I D E N T
Constable killed in court room fi ring
NEW DELHI: A Delhi Police constable was killed and an un-dertrial critically injured when a group of “contract killers”, all suspected to be minors, opened fi re inside a court room here on Wednesday, following which four persons, including a juve-nile apprehended for a murder case last year, were detained.
The deceased identifi ed as Head Constable Ram Kanwar Meena was escorting an under-trial, Irfan alias Chaini Pehlwan, at court number 73 in Kark-ardooma court of Delhi when the incident took place around 11am, said a police offi cial. - PTI
‘ C O N T R A C T K I L L E R S ’
Salman Khan
FACING ALLEGATIONS: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley speaks dur-
ing the 28th IB Centenary Endowment Lecture 2015, in New Delhi
on Wednesday. - PTI
A7
INDIAT H U R S DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 5
Ansari laments disruptions in Rajya Sabha
NEW DELHI: The Winter Ses-sion of Upper House of Indian Parliament Rajya Sabha, which lost over 47 hours due to dis-ruptions, was on Wednesday adjourned sine die as an upset Chairman Hamid Ansari lament-ed that the record of this session belied the commitment to the principles of the Constitution
“in good measure”. He appealed to the members “to introspect on this state of aff airs (and) desist from approaches and practices that demean the stature of the Ra-jya Sabha”.
“The 237th Session of the Ra-jya Sabha, that last week seemed singularly unproductive in terms of legislative work, comes to an end this afternoon after having redeemed itself somewhat in the past three days,” said Ansari in his
valedictory remarks before the House was adjourned sine die.
He recalled that three weeks back on December 1, the Rajya Sabha had solemnly committed itself to the principles and ideals of the Constitution.
“A functioning legislature is an essential concomitant of these principles; disruptions amount to their negation. The record of this session belies this commitment in good measure,” he said.
The interruptions in the func-tioning of the House, he said sought to be “justifi ed by spe-cious logic by diff erent sections of the House at diff erent times to suit their tactics of the mo-ment”, continue to result in loss of working time and neglect of listed business.
In 20 sittings from November 26 till on Wednesday, nine Bills, including the Negotiable Instru-ments (Amendment) Bill, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Bill and the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, were passed. - PTI
The Vice President
recalled that on
December 1, Rajya
Sabha had solemnly
committed itself
to the principles
and ideals of the
Constitution
TALKING TOUGH: Vice Presi-
dent Hamid Ansari speaks in
Rajya Sabha in New Delhi on
Wednesday. - PTI/TV GRAB
INS Godavari
decommissioned
MUMBAI: India’s fi rst indige-nously-built guided missile frig-ate INS Godavari was decom-missioned from service after 32 years, at a solemn sundown ceremony here on Wednesday.
The ship was the fi rst to be completely designed by the In-dian Navy’s Design Directorate and Mazagaon Docks Ltd, where it was also fully constructed. -IANS
I N D I G E N O U S L Y - B U I L T
The 237th Session of the Rajya Sabha, that last week seemed singularly unproductive in terms of legislative work, comes to an end this afternoon after having redeemed itself somewhat in the past three days
Hamid Ansari, Vice President
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C I R C U L A T I O N
Essa bin Mohammed Al ZedjaliMohamed Issa Al ZadjaliAnees bin Essa Al Zedjali Ahmed Essa Al Zedjali
Early this year, a former top White House offi cial secretly went to Damascus and met with leaders of the Syrian regime.
The visit is part of a broader eff ort by the Syrian government to reach out to Washington’s power brokers and gain infl uence.
The former offi cial, Steven Simon, served as the National Security Council senior director for Middle Eastern and North African aff airs from 2011 to 2012. He has not publicly disclosed his trip, but two senior Obama administration of-fi cials said he was not acting as a back channel between the two governments. He traveled there as a private citizen and was representing only himself. The offi cials said he met with the Syrian president, Bashar Al Assad.
Simon had been a paid consultant at the Mid-dle East Institute, but the think tank ended their relationship after he made the Syria trip. Two employees there told me that the institute did not want to be associated with the trip, which they did not organise and were not consulted about.
Simon declined to comment for this article. MEI also declined to comment. Several Syria scholars who were aware of this visit told me that the trip was part of Assad’s broader recent out-reach to Washington scholars and offi cials.
The timing of Assad’s courting of Washing-ton’s elite makes sense. The Obama administra-tion has been slowly altering its long-held stance that Assad must give up power immediately to make way for a transitional government in Syria and the end of the long civil war. Just last week, the US endorsed a United Nations Security Council resolution that would establish an 18- month transition process during which Assad could stay as Syria’s president and even run for elections sometime in 2017.After years of insist-ing that Assad had to go, last month President Barack Obama spoke of a political process in which “we can start looking at Mr. Assad choos-ing not to run.”
Last week, Obama was asked at a press confer-ence what he thought about the prospect that As-sad’s presidency will outlast his own. The presi-dent insisted that Assad would eventually have to step aside and that the US cannot be seen publicly as working with Assad because that would make America an even bigger target for terrorists.
“I think that Assad is going to have to leave in
order for the country to stop the bloodletting and for all the parties involved to be able to move for-ward in a non-sectarian way,” Obama said.
He pointed to his administration’s eff ort to cooperate with Russia and Iran on a political process that would bring the regime to sit down with the opposition. Obama also said he has been telling Russian President Vladimir Putin since the beginning of the war that the Syrian people would not accept Assad’s continued rule.
“I said, look, the problem is that the history of trying to keep order when a large majority of the country has turned against you is not good,” he said. “And fi ve years later, I was right.”
There have been at least two camps inside the top levels of the Obama administration who vig-orously disagree on the goals of US Syria policy.
Simon, along with his two successors, Philip Gordon and now Robert Malley, have argued internally that the US should make the fi ght against the IS its fi rst priority and delay the drive to oust Assad. The fear is that pushing Assad out too soon would create a power vacuum that the terrorists would fi ll, gaining territory. The other camp, led by UN Ambassador Samantha Power, insists that Assad’s removal is a necessary step toward ending the war. The thinking is that un-less he steps down or is removed, there is no way to defeat the IS. By this logic, the best policy is to work with the opposition and ramp up US sup-port for the rebels fi ghting the regime.
This camp is losing ground as the IS appears to be a bigger threat and as the war drags on.
The military and intelligence community is di-vided at top levels, with some offi cials supporting a strategy more focused on the IS and some push-ing for more pressure on the Assad regime.
Damascus is trying to exploit this divide, con-tinuing its outreach. Experts say the Assad re-gime has invited more Washington insiders to Damascus. People familiar with the regime’s campaign won’t discuss it openly, because rela-tionships with Damascus can be seen as a con-cession or can make offi cials look like they are being used to spread Assad’s message.
Engagement with the regime is not black and white. Foreign Aff airs managing editor Jonathan Tepperman interviewed Assad this year and showed that there is a way for experts to enlight-en US about how the Syrian regime is thinking without becoming a tool of the propaganda ma-chine. — Bloomberg View
Climate change talks just a subterfuge for corporatesThis refers to the news report, Storms uproot 1.7 million, destroy 40,000 homes in Philippines, (December 23). The damage infl icted by Typhoon Melor is one of the many events that show that the
so-called successful Paris talk are set to be of no use. By the time the world is able to meet the deadlines and universalise the proposed technology, numerous other problems would likely have arisen. A far better response to climate change would be to evolve with respect to the changes. The inhabitants of island countries, which are likely to go under water, should be the areas whereby they can reestablish their countries. People from coastal cities should be shifted to places where the sea is unlikely to cause any damage. This is so because some of the proposed technolo-gies have not been tried on an industrial scale. This means there are no real results or known ill eff ects, which could alter the practicality of these initiatives. Also, the main energy companies are set to further develop renewable energy. Taking every
proposal into consideration, it would be right to suggest that the large established companies are using these talks just to protect their interests. In turn, the common masses and countries behind them continue to impose their ideologies for imperial purposes.— Ravi Nair, Ruwi
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Ceremony to mark Intilaaqa graduation held in SoharMUSCAT: A ceremony was held at the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Sohar yesterday to mark the grad-uation of the second batch of the Intilaaqa project, under the chairmanship of Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Kindi, wali of Sohar. A number of offi cials in the wilayat attended the event. Abdul-wahid bin Abdul Aziz Al Farsi, director of the Intilaaqa project delivered a speech, in which he pointed to the success achieved by the programme since its launch four years ago. He said the project aimed at setting up free projects and self employment among Omani youth.
1917: The Kaiser warns Russia that he will use “iron fi st” and “shin-ing sword” if peace is spurned
1956: African Americans defy a city law in Tallahassee, Florida, and occupy front bus seats.
1974: An oil tanker’s spill pollutes 1,600 square miles of Japan’s In-land Sea.
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The Taliban reject the Afghan Constitution while the majority,
including Pakistan and the international community,
consider this as the foundation for any dialogue on the political
future of the countrybit.ly/afghanistanpeace
IMTIAZ GUL
Angela Merkel may move against Nord Stream next year to prevent
a new confl ict with southern European countries, where anti-
German sentiment is already high. She is more likely, however, to make
sure the gas project fully complies with European rulesbit.ly/transparentruse
LEONID BERSHIDSKY
The Paris agreement has drawn the fi rst broad strokes of a solution to climate change. However, until
its targets are translated into action, the world’s least-developed
countries may not be convinced that the developed countries are serious about equity – or ‘climate
justice’bit.ly/climatediplomacy
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T O D A Y I N H I S T O R Y
Residents in low-lying towns and villages in the Philippines struggle through fl ood waters caused by Typhoon Melor.
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Denied hospital entry, baby diesKARACHI: A ten-month-old girl died on Wednesday as doors of one of Karachi’s biggest public medical facility, Civil Hospital, were closed as part of security measures taken for Pakistan Peo-ples Party (PPP) chairman Bila-wal Bhutto Zardari’s visit.
Bisma breathed her last after her parents security guards re-fused them entry to the Civil Hos-pital’s emergency department for over an hour.
“I brought my 10-month-old daughter who was suff ering from a breathing illness to the Civil Hos-pital’s Emergency Ward but secu-rity guards did not allow me inside,” Bisma’s father told reporters.
The parents of the deceased girl expressed their angst over the
unfair treatment of the hospital’s authorities and demanded justice from the government.
Traffi c jam Doors of the hospital were closed for patients and people were caught in hours-long traffi c jam
as part of security measures taken for the PPP chairman and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah’s visit.
The PPP leaders were invited to visit a newly built trauma centre in the government facility which is most visited by the city’s impov-
erish citizens to seek cheap medi-cal treatment. However, a Bilawal House spokesperson denied the news. “Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s visit lasted just for 15 to 20 min-utes and the road to the trauma center was diff erent than that of Civil Hospital where some news
channels have reported about the girl’s death,” Jameel Soomro said.
“Bilawal Bhutto Zardari visited the trauma center, inaugurated and returned within 15 to 20 min-utes without any traffi c jams or protocol,” he added.
Further, the spokesperson up-held that Bilawal does not need security protocol and some “el-ements are targeting his visits and generating negative media coverage.”
Further, Bilawal ordered the Sindh government to conduct an impartial inquiry into the incident.
“A transparent inquiry should be conducted into the reported death and complete fi ndings should be made public,” the PPP chairman said. — Express Tribune
Bisma, a ten-month-
old girl, breathed
her last as the doors
of one of Karachi’s
biggest public
medical facility, Civil
Hospital, were closed
as part of security
measures
Doors of the hospital were closed for patients and people
were caught in hours-long traffic jam as part of security
measures taken for Bilawal Bhutto and Sindh Chief
Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah’s visitBilawal Bhutto
CHRISTMAS PREPARATIONS Pakistani Christian girls display their henna decorated
arms ahead of Christmas celebrations, in a slum area
on the outskirts of Islamabad on Wednesday. — AFP
Zardari’s aide Asim to remain in custody for two more weeksKARACHI: An accountabil-ity court in Karachi extended on Wednesday the remand of for-mer petroleum minister Dr Asim Hussain till January 5 over his al-leged role in illegal appointments and award of contracts in the Sui Southern Gas Company.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) through its Inves-tigating Offi cer Zameer Abbasi furnished a letter before the ac-countability judge, claiming half of the data regarding the alleged money laundering and record of Ziauddin Trust’s land, which is owned by the former minister, was to be recovered.
Requesting the court to allow physical remand of the accused, Abbasi said more raids and ar-rests were also to be made as part of the investigation.
Law violationMeanwhile, the Dr Asim’s coun-sel Amer Raza Naqvi, opposed seeking of remand, saying the ac-cused remained in custody for a period of 120 days which, he said, was a violation of law.
He argued the investigators could not bring any incriminat-ing evidence during inquiry, and instead levelled false allegations against his client.
The NAB is empowered to keep in custody a suspect for 90 days but has to ensure the latter’s presence before a judge every two weeks.
Dr Asim’s counsel said the pe-riod allowed to the accountabil-ity body for investigation was al-ready over, as the PPP leader was taken into custody on August 27.
However, NAB’s Deputy Prose-cutor General Amjad Ali Shah in-tervened, saying the suspect was in the custody of Rangers earlier and his custody was given to the bureau weeks after the remand period ended.
Refuge to terroristsNAB had arrested the former minister from the Sindh High Court on December 11, after an administrative judge of the ATC allowed the accountability body to take him into custody after po-lice released him under Section 497(2) of CrPC.
He was under police custody for allegedly facilitating treat-ment and providing refuge to terrorists at his hospital. Asim, who is also a close confi dante of former president Zardari, was ar-rested by Rangers on August 26 and placed into 90-day preven-tive detention. — Express Tribune
A C C O U N T A B I L I T Y C O U R T
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WORLDT H U R S DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 5
Kremlin critic and former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who denies the charges, was arrested in 2003 after falling out with Vladimir Putin and later convicted of tax evasion and fraud in a trial he said was politically-motivated.
7 migrant children among 13 drown off Greek island
ATHENS: Seven children, four men and two women drowned when a boat carrying migrants capsized off the tiny Greek island of Farmakonisi, coastguard of-fi cials said on Wednesday as a refugee exodus towards Europe continued despite winter cold.
Another 15 people — 13 men and two women — were rescued and taken for health checks to the nearby island of Leros, where Greece has set up dozens of pre-fabricated homes. One person was still missing according to witness-es, the offi cials said.
Unknown circumstances“The vessel, a 6-metre (20-foot) speedboat, sank under unknown circumstances,” one of the offi -cials told Reuters.
The coastguard has rescued
roughly 100,000 people trying to reach Greek islands from mainly Turkish shores this year. The is-land of Farmakonisi has a popula-tion of about 10 people and is close to Turkey’s coast. A helicopter, two patrol boats and private ves-sels assisted the rescue operation in the early morning hours.
Fleeing war, thousands of main-ly Syrian refugees have braved rough seas this year to make the short but precarious journey from Turkey to Greece’s islands, from
which most continue to main-land Greece and northward into wealthier western Europe. Win-ter conditions make the journey even more dangerous. “As we enter the winter season, it will only become more diffi cult,” said another Greek offi cial. “We are out there, night and day, but some tragedies cannot be averted.”
More than 1 million refugees and migrants came to the Euro-pean Union in 2015, while almost 3,700 died or went missing dur-
ing the journey, which has reaped huge profi t for smugglers, the In-ternational Organization for Mi-gration said on Tuesday.
The biggest migration crisis in Europe since World War Two has caused strains and recriminations between EU governments.
The EU is counting on Ankara to stem the fl ow of refugees from Turkey into Greece and onward to Germany and other EU countries. But an EU report said there was little evidence of progress since
Turkey signed an “action plan” with the EU.
Its neighbour, Greece, which is a gateway to the EU, is also trying to rebuff criticism that it has done too little to manage the people ar-riving on its shores.
During an EU summit on migra-tion last week, Athens promised to speed up the construction of EU-assisted reception and registra-tion centres, so-called hotspots, on fi ve islands. So far, only one in Lesbos is operational. — Reuters
Another 15 people
— 13 men and two
women — were
rescued and taken
for health checks to
the nearby island of
Leros, where Greece
has set up dozens of
prefabricated homes
Man pulled out alive from rubble in ChinaSHENZEN(CHINA): A man was pulled out alive from rub-ble in a southern Chinese city on Wednesday, more than 60 hours after a waste heap collapsed and buried dozens of buildings in mud and construction debris, state media said.
Tian Zeming, who was found at 3.30am (1930 GMT Tuesday), was in a coherent state but his legs had been crushed in Sunday’s landslide at an industrial park in Shenzhen, a boomtown near Hong Kong. “He told the soldiers who rescued him, there is another sur-vivor close by,” state news agency Xinhua said, although it later re-ported rescuers had found anoth-er body rather than a survivor.
That took the confi rmed death toll to two. The government has said more than 70 people are missing in China’s latest indus-trial disaster, although the fi gure continues to be revised down as authorities make contact with people who were believed to have been buried but were not. Fire-fi ghters had to squeeze into a nar-row room around Tian and pull debris out by hand at the dump site in Hengtaiyu industrial park, rescuer Zhang Yabin told Xinhua.
Tian has had surgery and is in a stable condition in hospital, though he may lose a foot, the Xin-hua report said. With growing wor-ries about China’s industrial safety standards and lack of oversight, Premier Li Keqiang ordered an
investigation within hours of the mudslide. As authorities conduct rescue operations and investigate the disaster, work has sharply slowed in factories around the site. Wang Yiwen, 49, who runs a fac-tory near the dump, said he was losing 10,000 yuan ($1,545) a day. “We cannot go out now. We cannot transfer the goods in and out (of this area),” said Wang.
“There is no guarantee for our lives. So many workers have to eat.
There is no power supply now.”On Tuesday, police raided of-
fi ces of the company that was managing the dump site, Shen-zhen Yixianglong Investment Development. Chinese news por-tals said police had taken away a deputy general manager named Yu Shengli. Calls to the company seeking comment went unan-swered. Shenzhen police did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Xinhua said the
dump was being used 10 months after it was supposed to have stopped taking waste, earning Yixianglong some 7.5 million yuan ($1.16 million) in fees.
While no waste was being brought to the Hengtaiyu in-dustrial park, dumping has also stopped at another controversial site in Shenzhen, in the district of Bujiuwo, which opened in 2008 and was due to close three years later. Its use was extended in 2013
despite strong opposition from residents and even some local politicians, according to Chinese newspapers. A Reuters reporter saw dozens of trucks sitting idle in a parking lot on the site on Wednesday. “We stopped because of the landslide,” said a Bujiuwo waste collection site worker, who gave his family name as Huang. “It’s usually very busy here,” he said, adding that hundreds of trucks usually come and go every day. “We’ve stopped since the sec-ond day of the disaster.”
Security guards did not let Reu-ters enter the site’s main offi ces. Shenzhen media has warned that the city was running out of space to store construction waste, es-pecially as the city works on an ambitious subway construc-tion scheme.
On Wednesday, mud and earth were being extracted from the ground at a subway construction site in the city. About 10 workers manned the machinery, with no sign of having halted their work in the wake of the landslide. “We haven’t stopped,” said one worker, who identifi ed himself by his fam-ily name of Si. “They’re still cart-ing away the mud,” he said. — Reuters
M U D S L I D E
Storms uproot 1.7 million, destroy 40,000 homes in PhilippinesBANGKOK/MANILA: Succes-sive storms across the Philippines, including Typhoon Melor, have temporarily uprooted 1.7 million, aid workers said, as President Be-nigno Aquino distributed food on Wednesday in areas hardest hit by the disaster.
At least 41 people were killed when Typhoon Melor struck cen-tral Philippines on December 15, inundating villages, damaging crops and disrupting power sup-plies to six provinces.
Known locally as Nona, Me-lor damaged or destroyed about 200,000 homes mostly in the provinces of Oriental Mindoro, Northern Samar and Sorsogon, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said.
Damage to agriculture and in-frastructure is estimated at $99
million, according to the IFRC, which has appealed for $3.8 mil-lion to deliver emergency assis-tance to survivors.
“These multiple disaster events have made life extremely diffi cult for communities, some of whom have been hit by repeated waves of fl ooding,” Kari Isomaa, head of IFRC in the Philippines, said in a statement.
As rains continued across much of the Philippines, with fl ooding and landslides in some provinces, President Aquino met displaced families in Northern Samar and Oriental Mindoro.
His visit came a day after Maoist rebels attacked an army truck, that was delivering equipment to help clear up the destruction caused by the typhoon.
Military spokesman Colonel Restituto Padilla said one soldier
was killed in the attack on Tuesday morning, which could hamper re-lief work in typhoon-hit areas.
“It divides our focus on the pri-mary mission at hand and takes away much needed helping hands from the main eff ort of saving lives,” Padilla said.
The Philippines is one of the countries hardest hit by natural disasters, with an average of 20 ty-phoons per year.
IFRC said many families were still struggling to recover from the devastation wrought by Typhoon Koppu last October. Koppu, a cat-egory 4 storm, unleashed 4-metre storm surges, fl oods and land-slides, killing 58 people and dis-placing more than 100,000.
Reports from aid workers on the ground suggest residents were bet-ter prepared for Typhoon Melor.
“Prior to landfall of the typhoon,
community volunteers worked with the local government to dis-seminate information house to house,” said Lolita Arellano, Plan International programme manag-er in Eastern Samar province.
“People are very aware. Each time there is typhoon, they are ready. They have stocks of food, stocks of water and relief items on the roof and ceiling.”
The IFRC appeal will help the Philippines Red Cross provide aid - including emergency shelters and cash grants - to 45,000 people hit by storms and fl oods across the islands of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Funds from the appeal will also be used for home repairs, awareness raising campaigns on the prevention of waterborne dis-eases and repairs to water and san-itation facilities at schools, IFRC said. — Thomson Reuters Foundation
N A T U R A L D I S A S T E R
Explosion kills cleaner atIstanbul airport
Russian court issues globalwarrant against Khodorkovsky
ISTANBUL: An overnight ex-plosion at an airport in Istanbul killed one person and damaged three planes hundreds of metres apart, Turkish media said, trigger-ing a security alert as authorities sought to determine if a bomb was responsible.
The blast at Sabiha Gokcen, the city’s second airport and located on its Asian side, occurred shortly after 2:00 am (midnight GMT), local budget carrier Pegasus said, fatally wounding a cleaner on one of its planes. The airport’s owner, Malaysia Airports, referred to more than one explosion “at the tarmac area”, adding that normal fl ight operations had resumed by 0200 GMT. Police declined com-ment, while the airport said inves-tigations into the cause of the blast were ongoing.
Bomb attacks by Kurdish, leftist and militants are common in Tur-key. A three-decades-old confl ict between the state and the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has fl ared up in the country’s mainly Kurdish southeast since the collapse of a ceasefi re in July.
No passengers were in the area at the time of the airport blast, which the Dogan news agency caused damage to at least three planes as far as 300 metres (330 yards) from each other.
A photo on Dogan’s website showed a hole in one plane win-dow. Video footage showed inves-tigators taking photos of a termi-nal building wall, dozens of metres from the nearest planes.
Police armed with rifl es and protective vests imposed tight se-curity at entrances to the airport, searching vehicles. — Reuters
MOSCOW: Russia has issued an international arrest warrant for Kremlin critic and former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky whom police accuse of ordering the killing of the mayor of a Sibe-rian oil town, a police spokesman said on Wednesday.
Khodorkovsky, who denies the charges, was arrested in 2003 af-ter falling out with Vladimir Putin and later convicted of tax evasion and fraud in a trial he said was po-litically-motivated.
Released in 2013, he now spends a lot of time in London. Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia’s Investigative Committee, said in a statement police had concluded that Khodorkovsky had ordered subordinates to kill Vladimir Petukhov, the mayor of Nefteyu-gansk, in 1998. Markin said the motive was fi nancial and linked to Petukhov’s demands for Yukos to pay taxes he said it was avoiding.
Russia announced the warrant a day after armed police raided the Moscow offi ces of a pro-democra-cy movement founded by Khodor-kovsky, a move they said was part of a criminal investigation into the former tycoon and his associates.
Khodorkovsky interpreted the latest pressure on him as pay-back for his criticism of President Vladimir Putin. — Reuters
S E C U R I T Y A L E R T
K R E M L I N C R I T I C
FLEEING WAR: A migrant woman holds her child while disembarking from a Coast Guard ship in the Sicilian harbour of Messina, Italy
in this August 29, 2015 fi le photo. – Reuters
LUCKY TO BE ALIVE: Rescuers carry 19-year-old survivor Tian Zeming after he was pulled out from
debris on Wednesday, more than 60 hours after a giant fl ow of mud and construction waste engulfed
buildings in Shenzhen, Guangdong province. – AFP
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INUNDATED: An aerial view shows fl oodwaters aff ecting an area of
Pampanga, suburban Manila. At least 41 people were killed when
Typhoon Melor struck central Philippines on December 15, inun-
dating villages, damaging crops and disrupting power supplies to
six provinces. – AFP
SPOR S
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2015
Smith is Cricketer of the Year
DUBAI: Australia captain Steve Smith was named ICC Cricketer of the Year for 2015 on Wednes-day after scoring a world leading 1,734 runs at an average of 82.57 with seven centuries over the voting period. The 26-year-old right-hander kept the Sir Garfi eld Sobers Trophy in Australia for
the third straight year after pace bowler Mitchell Johnson and his predecessor as skipper, Michael Clarke, won in 2014 and 2013.
Smith also scored four centuries and 1,249 runs in 25 one-day in-ternationals from Sept. 18, 2014 to September 13, 2015, notching up the winning runs as Australia stormed to a fi fth World Cup triumph.
“I’m obviously completely sur-prised by it, very humbled,” said
Smith, who was also part of the team that lost the Ashes to Eng-land during the voting period.
“You don’t think about these accolades, you just want to go out there and do the best you can for the team and try and win as many games as possible.
“My favourite moment would have to be winning the World Cup, playing against New Zealand at a packed house at the MCG. It was
an amazing feeling to be able to hit those winning runs.”
The Australian also scooped the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year award while South Africa bats-man AB de Villiers was rated the best player in the one-day game, winning the award for the second successive year.
De Villiers, South Africa’s cap-tain in the ODI format, also won the award in 2010.
The 31-year-old’s brilliant quickfi re batting lit up the World Cup, not least his unbeaten 162 against West Indies in Sydney, and he racked up 1,265 runs in total at an average of nearly 80 an innings over the relevent period.
His team mate Faf du Plessis won the award for best Twenty20 performance of 2015 for his 56-ball innings of 119 against West Indies in January, the third highest score of all time in T20 internationals.
Australian paceman Josh Ha-zlewood was named best emerg-ing player, while the Spirit of Cricket Award went to New Zea-land captain Brendon McCullum, who made a virtue of his team’s sportsmanship as he led them to the fi nal of the World Cup.
McCullum said on Tuesday that he would be retiring from inter-national cricket after the two-test series against Australia in New Zealand in February.
Australia captain Meg Lan-ning was the women’s One Day International Cricketer of the Year, while her West Indies coun-terpart Stafanie Taylor won the women’s Twenty20 award.
Khurram Khan of the United Arab Emirates was named Asso-ciate and Affi liate Cricketer of the Year, while England’s Richard Ket-tleborough was named best um-pire for a third year in a row. - Reuters
The 26-year-old
right-hander kept
the Sir Garfi eld
Sobers Trophy in
Australia for the
third straight year
after pace bowler
Mitchell Johnson
and his predecessor
as skipper, Michael
Clarke, won in
2014 and 2013
I’m obviously
completely surprised
by it, very humbled.
You don’t think about
these accolades
Steve SmithAustralia skipper
England aim to dethrone Test kings South AfricaDURBAN: South Africa’s status as the top-ranked Test-playing nation has been dented after their crushing defeat in India last month and is in danger of being eroded completely by England over the next month or two.
The two nations begin a four-match test series in Durban on Saturday, which is expected to be evenly matched and should provide answers to several questions asked of both amid their recent trials.
England will look to solve per-sonnel problems in key batting and bowling slots and build more consistency in their selections, while South Africa seek to dispel suggestions that they are a side on the decline, suddenly lacking in the confi dence that has been the hallmark of their reign as the world’s top test side.
Both countries return to seam-friendly wickets after losing on spinning tops in India and — for
some of the time — the United Arab Emirates in the last two months. South Africa’s limitations against spin were cruelly exposed in India in a one-sided four-test series, which the home team won 3-0 and which could have been a whitewash had weather not in-tervened. England were beaten 2-0 by Pakistan in a three-match
series in the UAE, prompting sev-eral changes — notably the axing of stalwart Ian Bell — to the squad for the South African tour.
SuccessorEngland are still seeking to solve the longstanding problem of fi nd-ing a reliable opening partner for Alastair Cook, having gone
through seven in 39 tests since Andrew Strauss retired in 2012.
Alex Hales will be the eighth to open the innings with the captain while the No.3 slot is likely to go to Nick Compton, making a return to the side after lasting only nine tests at the top of the order after being appointed Strauss’s imme-diate successor. It will be a boost
to England’s confi dence that each of their scheduled top six batsmen go into the series with a score of 50 or more under their belts from the two warm-up matches over the last week. They included centuries from Cook and Joe Root, who is looking to take his Ashes form from earlier this year into the series. “We will have to play some strong crick-et, be disciplined and play at our best if we are going to compete with them,” Root said this week.
But South Africa have lost much of their swagger since charismatic captain Graeme Smith and all-rounder Jacques Kallis retired.
After their poor batting display in India, they have persuaded a re-luctant AB de Villiers to again don the wicketkeeper’s gloves to make room for an extra batsmen.
But they have received a boost with attack bowler Dale Steyn passing a fi tness test after a groin injury. - Reuters
T E S T C R I C K E T
DURBAN: England are to wait until Thursday before making a decision on whether James Anderson can lead the attack in the fi rst test against South Africa after the fast bowler had a scan on his calf
on Tuesday. Anderson, the country’s leading wicket-taker, complained of stiff ness in his calf and his scans will be evaluated by medical staff in England before a decision is made on whether he can play
in the Boxing Day test in Dur-ban, offi cials told reporters.
The 33-year-old Anderson bowled just fi ve overs on tour so far in the fi rst warm-up game in Potchefstroom one week ago. - Reuters
England sweat on Anderson’s fi tness for Boxing Day Test
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SPORTST H U R S DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 5
AHF to initiate measures for overall growth of hockey in GCC countries
MUSCAT: The Asian Hockey Federation (AHF), as part of its plan to ‘boost the status of hockey in the continent’, is making sincere eff orts to develop hockey in the entire Gulf region by involving the GCC nations in the process.
The Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) during its recent Executive Board meeting held in Malaysia has decided to ‘create a large, en-gaged hockey community in Asia’ and the eff orts to develop the game in the GCC region forms part of that vision.
AHF CEO ‘Dato’ Tayyib Ikram, who is here on an invitation from the Oman Hockey Association (OHA) to attend the fi nal of His Majesty’s Cup Hockey Champi-onship, revealed the Asian body’s attempt take three of the GCC nations into the fold and plans
for the development of hockey in the region.
The AHF offi cial was accorded a warm welcome by OHA Treas-urer Zohair Al Ajmi, Technical Director Mohie Saad Al Zaghlool, offi cial Abdulrahman Yahya and former national team coach and OHA consultant SAS Naqvi upon his arrival at Muscat International Airport on Wednesday evening.
Speaking to the Times Sport, right after his arrival, Tayyib Ikram said: “First we want to cre-ate a suitable mechanism to realise our ambition — to involve all the GCC nations. We also want to en-gage and activate the hockey situa-tion in the region.”
Tayyib Ikram, who is on his fi rst visit to the Sultanate after becom-ing the CEO of AHF, has been vis-iting the Gulf nations, including Bahrain, in the past few days to discuss the ways to put their plans into practice.
“Our aim is to develop hockey in the Gulf region. What better way
to do that than by engaging the national bodies. But three GCC na-tions — Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait, are not yet members of the FIH (International Hockey Fed-eration). So our primary task is to welcome them to the fold, to help them become members of AHF and FIH,” he said.
Tayyib Ikram, who is also the FIH Regional Development Offi c-er, said: “Then we want to involve the others, especially Oman, who have been very active in hockey for many years.
“With the involvement of all
countries we want to develop the game in the region.”
Asked whether there is a plan to facilitate the formation of a GCC hockey federation, he said: ‘Let’s see how everything will work out. As I said our main aim is to bring all the GCC nations together and plan for the development of hock-ey in the region.”
During his stay, AHF offi cial is also likely to discuss Oman’s prep-arations for the Under-18 AHF Cup Hockey Championship, likely to be hosted here in Muscat in Oc-tober next year.
OHA General Secretary Mo-hammed Ridha Al Lawati, with-out going into the details, said that U-18 AHF Cup will form part of the discussions with Tayyib Ikram.
“There will be a lot of topics on the agenda during our meeting with Tayyib Ikram.
The Under-18 AHF Cup will hopefully be one of them. “But what I can say with certainty is there will be a lot of things to dis-cuss regarding development of Oman hockey.”
OHA like to get new roles Tayyib Ikram, meanwhile, also talked about the possibility of Oman Hockey Association get-ting new roles and responsibilities at the FIH.
“All I want to say this moment is that some new portfolios are to be created in the FIH. There is a pos-sibility of Oman being considered for some roles. But let me make it clear one thing, we will have to talk to the Oman Hockey Association
offi cials fi rst and then get back to the FIH. Only then we can make it public,” he said.
“Hopefully there will be some positives. Let’s wait and see,” he added with a smile.
Awards for OmanisTayyib Ikram also revealed that he has come with some AHF awards to be given to Omani offi cials but refused to reveal the details.
“The awards are to be given to Omani individuals who have con-tributed to hockey over the years. And it will not be appropriate to reveal the names now. We will do that during His Majesty’s Cup fi -nal, which I am privileged to be at-tending,” he said.
Meanwhile, the OHA launched a coaches’ course on Wednesday.
The course, which will intro-duce new trends in hockey coach-ing, is being conducted by FIH Ex-pert and Master Coach Siegfried Aikman of the Netherlands. The course concludes on December 27.
AHF CEO Tayyib
Ikram, who is here on
an OHA invitation to
attend His Majesty’s
Cup fi nal, revealed
the Asian body’s
plans to develop
hockey in the GCC
region as well as the
possibility of Oman
getting new roles as
FIH looks to create
‘new portfolios’
WARM WELCOME: Asian Hockey Federation CEO Tayyib Ikram, second from right, being received at
the Muscat International Airport by Oman Hockey Association offi cials.
There will be a lot of
topics on the agenda
during our meeting
with Tayyib Ikram.
The Under-18 AHF
Cup will hopefully
be one of them
Mohammed RidhaOHA general secretary
Warner faces new batting partnership in MelbourneMELBOURNE: Australia bats-man David Warner has profi ted from his opening partnership with Joe Burns but the fl edgling relationship could be nipped in the bud by selectors for the Box-ing Day test against West Indies.
Since teaming up with Queens-lander Burns in the opening
test of the New Zealand series, Warner has smashed three centu-ries, including a sparkling 253 in Perth, from four Tests.
Burns smashed a century in the series-opener against New Zealand at the Gabba but has had a more modest output since and could be the batsman to make way
for the fi t-again Usman Khawaja for the second Test at the Mel-bourne Cricket Ground.
The Warner-Burns partner-ship has proved eff ective in all but one of the four Tests, with the pair piling on 100-run stands in Brisbane and Perth against New Zealand. — Reuters
T E S T S E R I E S
MARKEWWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COMT H U R S DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 5B
Muscat
5,419.30 + 1.31
+ 0.02%
Dubai
3,137.32- 9.72
- 0.31%
Abu Dhabi
4,241.73+ 32.58
+ 0.77%
Saudi Arabia
6,992.62- 54.35
- 0.77%
Kuwait
5,619.98- 4.70
- 0.08%
Bahrain
1,189.53 - 0.25
- 0.02%
Qatar
10,217.19+ 42 .39
+ 0.42%
CURRENCY RATES* DRAFT RATES (OMR1)* GOLD PRICES*Forex rates vs OMR1*
US Dollar ................................. 2.58
Euro ............................................2.34
Pak Rs .................................... 267.81
Bangla Taka......................200.20* Rates are as of Dec. 23
Source: Bank Muscat
Indian Rs ................................... 171.80
Pakistan Rs ............................. 271.50
Sri Lanka Rs ...........................370.50
Bangla Taka............................203.75
Phil Peso ................................... 122.40
* Rates as of Dec. 23 Source: Oman UAE Exchange
Muscat 24ct per gm (OMR) .......13.80
Muscat 22ct per gm (OMR) .......13.35
Dubai 24ct per gm (Dh) ............ 129.75
Dubai 22ct per gm (Dh) ............ 123.00
* Rates as of Dec. 23
Source: Malabar Gold & Diamonds
Type ............................Delivery...........Price
Oman Crude ............. (Spot) ........$32.25
Dubai Crude ............. (Spot) ........$32.00
Murban Crude ........ (Spot) ........$33.52
Arabian Light ......... (Spot) ........$30.83
N.Sea Brent ............... (Spot) ........$36.58
West Texas Int ....... (Spot) ........$36.64
CRUDE OIL PRICE
Sultanate’s non-oil exports decline 7%
Times News Service
MUSCAT: Oman’s non-oil exports fell by 7.1 per cent at OMR1,920.4 million for the fi rst seven months of 2015, from OMR2,066.7 million for the same period of last year.
A fall in commodity prices, which constitute a sizeable share of Oman’s exports, must have caused the fall in export revenue this year.
Total exports for the fi rst seven months ending July 2015 declined by 31.7 per cent to OMR8,066.5 million from OMR11,805.4 mil-lion posted for the fi rst seven months of 2014.
The Sultanate has been taking several initiatives to raise its non-oil exports, especially to untapped African markets.
Oman is seriously considering raising its non-oil exports to Ethi-opia by holding a high-profi le ex-hibition in the country early next year, following a detailed market study.
The Sultanate of Oman, which exported goods and services worth $40 million to Ethiopia in 2014, plans to hold an Omani products exhibition in Addis Aba-ba in April 2016.
The Sultanate’s export promo-tion agency, the Public Authority for Investment Promotion and Export Development (popularly known as Ithraa) had conducted a market study in Ethiopia to as-sess the export potential of 59 Omani products.
The survey was based on dif-ferent sectors, such as foodstuff s, building material, furniture, marble, stones, textiles and veg-etables.The study was also con-ducted to fi nd the consumption, demand and logistics patterns for these sectors.
Furthermore, in April this year, Ithraa had organised a business-
to-business meeting for Omani businessmen in Addis Ababa, which was mainly aimed at show-casing Omani products for Ethio-pian businessmen and traders.
Omani product exhibitionsIthraa has been conducting a se-ries of Omani product exhibitions, mainly in Gulf Cooperation Coun-tries countries, since 2012 to raise non-oil exports from the country and has drawn growing participa-tion with each passing year.
As many as 120 companies participated in an Omani prod-ucts exhibition in Jeddah, with 100 Omani fi rms taking part in a
Dubai exhibition in 2014.As many as 60 companies from
Oman attended the fi rst Omani products exhibition in Riyadh in 2012 and 65 per cent of participat-ing companies secured contracts, while 85 companies took part in an exhibition in Qatar the follow-ing year and 70 per cent of the participating fi rms signed new business deals.
Total exports for the
fi rst seven months
ending July, 2015
fell by 31.7 per cent
to OMR8,066.5m
from OMR11,805.4m
posted for fi rst seven
months of 2014
HAVE YOUR SAY Send us your comments at facebook.com/timesofoman blog.timesofoman.com [email protected]
EXPORT REVENUE DIPS: A fall in commodity prices, which constitute a sizeable share of Oman’s
exports, must have caused the fall in export revenue this year. – File picture
Larsen & Toubro Oman wins $64 million dealTimes News Service
MUSCAT: Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Oman has won an engineering, pro-curement and construction (EPC) contract worth $63.58 million from Oman Oil Refi neries and Petro-leum Industrial Company (Orpic) for building a pet coke handling and storage project.
“The scope covers design, en-gineering, procurement, supply, construction erection, installation and commissioning of the petro-leum coke handling and storage facility at Sohar, Oman,” Larsen & Toubro said in a statement.
India-based Larsen & Toubro, which partly owns L&T Oman, secured an EPC order from the world’s largest integrated pro-
ducer of zinc for the construction of a 1.5 million tonnes per annum lead-zinc ore benefi ciation plant at the Sindesar Khurd mines in Ra-jasthan, which also involves EPC, installation and commissioning of the plant.
Besides these, the global infra giant also acquired power trans-mission and distribution projects orders worth Rs5,150 million in both the international and domes-tic markets.
L&T Saudi Arabia, a fully owned subsidiary of L&T India, has bagged an order valued at $56.6 million for the construction of two 115 kV substations at the Dam-mam area from National Grid, Saudi Arabia, a subsidiary of Saudi Electricity Company.
P R O J E C T C O N T R A C T
Shell cuts spending as
it readies to acquire BG
LONDON: Royal Dutch Shell, Eu-rope’s largest oil company, further reduced spending plans for this year and 2016 as it prepares to take over BG Group amid slumping prices of crude oil.
The combined company plans $33 billion of capital spending next year, lower than Shell’s pre-vious guidance of $35 billion, it said Tuesday.
Shell also cut its spending fore-cast for this year by $1 billion to $29 billion.
Crude’s collapse to less than $37 a barrel from about $55 on the day the deal was announced in April has prompted some investors to question whether Shell is paying too much.
The oil producer has justifi ed the deal by saying that it boosts its ability to maintain dividends, makes it the world’s biggest liq-uefi ed natural gas company and
gives it oil and gas assets from Australia to Brazil.“The two com-panies are combining during a low oil-price environment and cutting their spending plans makes a lot of sense,” said Jason Gammel, a London-based analyst with Jeff er-ies International. “This moves the plans for the deal forward.”
Shell expects operating costs to fall by $4 billion this year, about 10 per cent lower than last year, and by $3 billion in 2016.
The acquisition will break even with Brent crude prices in the low $60s and add to operating cash fl ow per share at $50 a barrel in 2016, the company said. It expects the deal to be accretive to earnings per share, excluding identifi ed items, in 2017 at $65 Brent. Shell in April off ered to pay 0.4454 of its B shares and 383 pence in cash for each BG share in a deal valued at $70 billion. - Bloomberg News
T A K E O V E R
Google and Ford in talks on self-driving car partnershipWASHINGTON: Google and Ford Motor are in talks about forming a partnership to develop autonomous car technology, a person briefed on the matter said on Tuesday.
The extent of a partnership be-tween the second-largest United States automaker and search engine giant Alphabet remains under discussion and the precise framework of any eff ort is un-clear but it could include jointly building and developing cars. The two sides have been talking for months, the source said.
A partnership between a ma-jor automaker and Google could speed the introduction of self-driving vehicles by giving the car company access to Google’s wealth of software development while Google would benefi t from the industrial and automotive know-how of a fi rm such as Ford.
Fully autonomous cars could eventually prevent thousands of crashes, deaths and injuries, re-duce oil use through better traffi c management and extend personal mobility to people unable to drive.
Ford chief executive Mark Fields met with Google co-found-er Sergey Brin earlier this month in California to discuss the status of the talks, the source, who was briefed on the matter, said.
Google says it is in talks with many automakers. It is not clear if the talks with Ford have pro-gressed beyond discussions with
other automakers. “We’re not go-ing to comment on rumor or spec-ulation about specifi c conversa-tions,” Google said in a statement. Ford declined to confi rm or deny talks with Google.
Prototype“We have been, and will continue working with many companies and discussing a variety of sub-jects,” Ford spokesman Alan Hall said. Google has logged more than 1.3 million miles of autonomous driving. It has developed a proto-type pod-like self-driving car that could be driven without a steering wheel and pedals.
Automotive News reported
Monday the companies are in talks to have the automaker build Google’s next-generation autono-mous cars.Yahoo Autos reported the two fi rms will create a joint venture to build self-driving ve-hicles with Google’s technology. Both said an announcement on the partnership could be made at the Consumer Electronics Show in early January.
Ford shares were up 3.4 per-cent, or $0.47 a share, to $14.20 on news of the potential partnership. Google rose 0.3 percent, or $2.23, to $750 a share.
Karl Brauer, senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book, said both part-ners could benefi t. - Reuters
T E C H N O L O G Y
Fully autonomous cars could eventually prevent
thousands of crashes, deaths and injuries, reduce oil
use through better traffic management and extend
personal mobility to people unable to drive
HUAWEI SHIPS OVER100M SMARTPHONES Huawei Technologies shipped more than 100 million smartphones this year as a drive to attract higher-end customers, which helped defy an industry slowdown. >B3
B2
MARKETT H U R S DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 5
........................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ......29........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................... TRADED SEC. ........ 5........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
ISIN ......................................SECURITY NAME .................................................................. VOLUME ..... TURNOVER ............TRADES ......OPEN PRICE ......HIGH ............. LOW ........ CLOSE PR. ...PREV. CLOSE...DIFF (RO).........DIFF % ............. LAST PR .....LAST BID .............LAST OFFER ........MARKET CAP .PAR VALUE
MUSCAT: Shares on the Muscat Securities Market (MSM) recov-ered on the third day on contin-ued support at lower levels. The MSM 30 index ended fl at to close at 5,419.32 points, up by 0.02 per cent.
The MSM Sharia Index rose 0.01 per cent to end at 863.22 points. Bank Muscat was the most active in terms of volume as well as turnover. Al Jazeira Ser-vices, up by 3.31 per cent, was the top gainer while Al Sharqia In-vestment was the top loser, down by 3.13 per cent.
As many as 410 trades were executed on Wednesday, generat-ing turnover of OMR1.6 million with 5.4 million shares changing hands. Out of 37 traded securities, nine advanced, seven declined and 21 remained unchanged. Omani investors were net buyers to the tune of OMR479,000 worth of shares, while foreign investors were net sellers at OMR436,000 followed by GCC and Arab inves-tors who sold shares amounting to OMR43,000.
Financial Index closed at 6,503.83 points, marginally down by 0.01 per cent. Ahli Bank and Oman United Insurance in-creased by 2.11 per cent and 0.45 per cent, respectively. Al Shar-qiya Invesmtent and BankDhofar declined by 3.13 per cent and 2.27 per cent, respectively.
Industrial Index ended at 6,813.12 points, down by 0.07 per cent. Galfar Engineering was the only gainer and was up by 1.39 per cent to close at OMR0.073. Con-struction Materials, Oman Fish-eries, Al Jazeera Steel Product and Oman Cables fel by 3.03 per cent, 1.89 per cent, 1.36 per cent and 1.12 per cent, respectively.
Services Index closed at 3,066.81 points, up by 0.25 per cent. Al Jazeera Services, Port Services Corp, Sembcorp Salalah and Sharqiyah Desalination in-creased by 3.31 per cent, 1.49 per cent, 1.03 per cent and 0.54 per cent, respectively. Pheonix Pow-
er was the only loser in the sector and was down by 0.69 per cent to close at OMR0.144.
Emerging stocks surgeEmerging-marketstocks climbed for a third day as energy compa-nies rallied with oil and investors grew more optimistic over the Chinese and United States econ-omies. Russia’s ruble strength-ened the most among develop-ing-nation currencies.
Energy shares paced an ad-vance in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index as oil extended gains before US crude inven-tory and production data. Chi-nese stocks rose to a three-week high in Hong Kong as broker-ages surged after Guotai Junan International Holdings Ltd. said its chairman will resume his du-ties. Short- term yuan borrow-ing costs climbed in Shanghai on year-end demand for cash. The ruble headed for a one-week high and Indonesia’s rupiah was poised for the longest rally in a year. Vietnam’s dong fell to the limit of its current trading band for the fi rst time.
China’s earliest indicators of growth for December showed more signs of stabilisation as leaders of the world’s second- largest economy signaled they will do more to prevent a sharp slowdown. In the US, consumer purchases climbed in November by the most in three months, the latest evidence of resilience that gave the Federal Reserve confi -dence to increase interest rates last week.
All 10 industry groups in the developing-markets index gained as a measure of energy companies climbed 1.3 per cent. Cnooc and China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation rallied at least 4 per cent in Hong Kong. Crude futures in New York rose as much as 1.2 per cent and traded near parity to Brent. The Hang Seng China Enterprises Index surged 1.6 per cent. – United Securities/Bloomberg News
Al Jazeira Services, up by 3.31 per cent, was
the top gainer, while Al Sharqia Investment
was the top loser, down by 3.13 per cent
MUMBAI: Putting the previous day’s pain behind, the bench-mark BSE Sensex on Wednesday rebounded by about 260 points to close at 25,850.30 — a nearly three-week high — helped by a raft of positive United States eco-nomic data on growth and con-sumer spending.
For the broader NSE Nifty, it was a sense of deja vu as it retook the 7,800-mark after investors built up their bets. The 30-share
Sensex rose 259.65 points, or 1.01 per cent, to 25,850.30 at the close — its highest closing since December 3. The index was down 145.25 points on Tuesday.
The 50-share Nifty closed at 7,865.95, up 79.85 points, or 1.03 per cent. Shares of metal, oil and gas, healthcare, power and realty spear-headed the rally following a fresh spell of buying. Sentiment was lift-ed after data showed that foreign funds after remaining sellers.
Rupee appreciatesThe rupee on Wednesday con-tinued its upward march for the seventh day by surging 12 paise to close at 66.21 against the US dollar on sustained selling of dollars by banks and exporters.
The rupee resumed higher at 66.26 as against Tuesday’s closing level of 66.33. It moved in a range of 66.12 and 66.30 during the day before fi nishing at 66.21 per dollar, showing a gain of 12 paise. - PTI
I N D I A N M A R K E T S
Sensex rises; rupee fi rms up
B3T H U R S DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 5
MARKET
Oman and Emirates gets extension for repaying soft loanMUSCAT: Oman and Emir-ates Investment said that the company has received a letter from the Ministry of Finance approving the extension of government soft loan, which was due in No-vember 2016 up to Novem-ber 2025. The outstanding loan amount of OMR7.5 mil-lion will be repayable in six annual equal installments beginning November 2020 to November 2025, said a stock market fi ling.
No trading on MSM todayMUSCAT: There will not be any trading on the Muscat Securities Market (MSM) on Thursday since the bourse is closed due to Holy Prophet’s (PBUH) birth-day. The stock market will resume trading on Sunday, after week-end holidays.
Oman National Engineering wins ministry contractMUSCAT: Oman National Engineering and Investment said that the company has received a contract from the Ministry of Health for provision of maintenance technicians for the operation and maintenance of equip-ment and services at Al Masarra Hospital in Muscat. The value of the contract is OMR1.71 million and is for a period of fi ve years, the com-pany said in a fi ling to the Muscat Securities Market.
Al Jazeera Services meet on stake saleMUSCAT: Al Jazeera Ser-vices has decided to convene an extra ordinary general meeting of shareholders to authorise the board to negotiate and conclude the sale transaction of its entire stake of 36.99 per cent con-sisting of 109,571,414 shares of Al Anwar Ceramics Tiles at a price not less than 300 baisas per share and board to endeavour to achieve the best price possible.
UK’s economic growth slows LONDON: UK economy expanded less than previ-ously estimated in the past two quarters in a sign growth is losing some momentum. Gross domestic product rose 0.4 per cent between July and September instead of the 0.5 per cent previ-ously estimated, the Offi ce for National Statistics in London said on Wednesday. Growth in the second quarter was revised down by 0.2 per centage points to 0.5 per cent. The revisions indicate a loss of momentum in an economy that continues to rely heavily on consumers and domestic demand. While the economy is seen growing 2.3 perc ent next year, almost matching 2015’s pace, economists in a survey published on Tuesday. - Times News Service/Agencies
B R I E F S
Women entrepreneurs to share business experience next weekTimes News Service
MUSCAT: ‘Najihat’, an ini-tiative of the National Business Centre (NBC), which aims to highlight successful experiences of Omani female entrepreneurs in the business arena, will fea-ture Amal Al Jamali, a fashion designer, and Asma Al Kharusi, owner of Asma Collectionz in an event to be held on December 30.
The event, which will take place at the KOM 4 building in Knowledge Oasis Muscat, will highlight the fruitful journeys of Al Jamali and Al Kharusi, ac-cording to a press release.
The Najihat programme con-
sists of a session held every quarter, where women meet and share their experience in the business arena.
These series of sessions aspire to utilise the skills and knowledge of Omani women and highlight inspiring stories of successful women leaders in the business
fi eld, as well as encourage other talented entrepreneurs to start their own ventures.
Besides, the event presents in-novative ideas for potential en-trepreneurs and start-ups, and supports those who are willing to enter the entrepreneurship pitch.
NBC is an initiative of the Public Establishment for Indus-trial Estates (PEIE) that aims to off er promising Omani entrepre-neurs a platform to develop their business ideas and advance them into growing ventures.
The centre also provides busi-ness development support and guidance, training and mentor-ing, access to markets .
E N T R E P R E N E U R S
China’s Huawei exports 100 million smartphones
HONG KONG: China’s Huawei Technologies shipped more than 100 million smartphones this year as a drive to attract higher-end customers helped defy an indus-try slowdown that hit rival Chi-nese vendors.
China’s largest mobile brand boosted shipments by 33 per cent and moved into the top three glob-ally, the Shenzhen-based compa-ny said in a statement on its web-site. Samsung Electronics and Apple are the world’s two biggest producers.
Huawei, which debuted its fi rst Android device in 2009 to complement its main business of making networking equipment, is pushing into markets from the United States to Europe to take on Apple and Samsung.
Expanding beyond China, where slowing market growth has hurt Xiaomi Corporation and Lenovo Group, is part of a goal to sell 60 per cent of smartphones overseas and generate about $16 billion of revenue from phones this year.
The company bets on “the trend among consumers to up-grade to higher-end devices from
entry-level smartphones,” John Butler and Matthew Kanterman, analysts with Bloomberg Intelli-gence, wrote on Tuesday. “Huawei is likely to maintain this tack in 2016, as it invests in expanding its
mid-range and high-end smart-phone product suite.”
A third of the smartphones shipping by Huawei in the third quarter cost more than 2,000 yuan ($309), the company said.
Domestic marketGrowth at Huawei, founded by former Chinese army engineer Ren Zhengfei, comes as IDC fore-casts domestic market growth will slow to the low single-digits this year. That has rippled through a domestic industry crowded with brands such as Gionee, OnePlus, Oppo and Meizu, backed by Ali-baba Group Holding.
Xiaomi is in danger of miss-ing its target of selling 80 million smartphones in 2015, people with
knowledge of its production plans said earlier this year.
The startup founded by Lei Jun saw domestic shipments drop in the third quarter in their fi rst-ever decline, according to research-ers at Canalys and IHS. Through the fi rst nine months of this year, Xiaomi moved about 53 million smartphones.
Lenovo strugglingLenovo meanwhile is struggling to turn around the Motorola brand it acquired in 2014.
The company is taking $900 million of charges to cut costs and restructure the division.
Still, the Chinese market has proven volatile in past years. Xiao-mi once led local vendors through
viral marketing and crafting a so-cial-media experience for its us-ers. It’s now ranked fi fth globally, behind Lenovo.
Huawei accounted for 7.5 per cent of all phones shipped glob-ally in the third quarter of 2015, behind Apple’s 13.5 per cent and Samsung’s leading 24 per cent, according to IDC.
“We hope to be able to sustain our growth in 2016,” He Gang, Huawei’s smartphone products president, said. - Bloomberg News
China’s largest
mobile brand boosted
shipments by 33%
this year moving into
the top three globally,
and now aims to sell
60% of smartphones
overseas
HAVE YOUR SAY Send us your comments at facebook.com/timesofoman blog.timesofoman.com [email protected]
PUSHING IN GLOBAL MARKET: Huawei, which debuted its fi rst Android device in 2009, is pushing into markets from the United States
to Europe to take on Apple and Samsung. – Bloomberg News
was the share of Huawei, of all the
phones shipped globally in the third quarter of 2015, behind Apple’s 13.5% and Samsung’s leading 24%, says IDC
7.5%
SUCCESS STORIES The event will highlight
the fruitful journeys of Amal Al Jamali, a fashion designer, and Asma Al Kharusi on December 30
B4
FEATURE T H U R S DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 5
Mark Zuckerberg is relentless in his campaign to charm China. In the last year, he has asked Chinese
President Xi Jinping to bestow an honourary Chinese name on his unborn daughter (Xi turned down the request); told China’s chief censor that he’s not only reading Xi’s latest book of speeches, but handing it out to friends and colleagues; and most impressively, deliv-ered a 20-minute speech in Mandarin at elite
Tsinghua University over the weekend. Zuckerberg has not spelled out his reasons, but they’re pretty easy to deduce. China, home to the world’s largest number of Internet us-ers, has blocked out Facebook since 2009. If Zuckerberg is going to succeed in his mission to “connect the world,” he needs to fi nd a way back in.
Actually, that might be the easy part. If Zuckerberg is willing to play by the Chinese regime’s rules, adhering to strict censorship guidelines among other things, doors will eventually open. The tougher question is whether Chinese Internet users are interested in what Zuckerberg and Fa-cebook have to sell. At the moment, there’s little reason to believe they are.
Facebook’s problems in China date back almost to its birth. In 2008, the company launched a mainland China version of the site that by the following spring had amassed only around 285,000 users-- a trifl ing number in a coun-
try that even then boasted almost 300 million Internet users. The problems were several. Established instant-messaging services (espe-cially QQ) had grown into their own social net-works, presenting stiff competition. Chinese strongly prefer to be anonymous in public fo-rums, something that Facebook’s architecture doesn’t provide. And Facebook was largely
seen as a foreign import - useful primarily to the few Chinese who had spent time abroad and ac-quired friends and contacts there.
The question of whether Face-book could grow that user base was rendered moot in July 2009, when the Chinese government blocked the site, claiming that it had played a key role in enabling separatist riots in China’s Xinjiang
province. Today, a small Chinese user base remains, but it’s largely an elite, overseas-educated cohort adept at using virtual private net-works and other means to circum-vent China’s strict Internet controls. While Facebook does not release user numbers for China, an infl uential tech blog posted in 2011 said that there were 694,000 Chinese using the network. Could Facebook compete better today? In a way, it’s already trying. WhatsApp, the world’s leading mobile-messaging service, which Facebook purchased for $19 billion in February 2014, can be freely downloaded and used in China. But it has few users. That’s not surprising: As foreign policy noted last year, the ser-vice is vastly inferior to WeChat, China’s leading mobile- messaging and social-networking app. On WeChat, users can shop, take out loans, hail taxis, buy movie tickets, play games and communicate with friends. On WhatsApp, they can … communicate with friends.
Facebook’s Messenger -- still banned in China -- allows for some ad-ditional functionality (including peer-to-peer payments). Feature-wise, though, it’s still a shadow of WeChat. The gap is wide enough that on Oc-tober 8, Facebook’s head of messaging products acknowledged that the company still lags WeChat and other Asian messaging services such as Japan’s Line. If Facebook has any signifi cant advantage over its Chinese competition, it’s that its content is not censored. But as Chi-nese offi cials have made abundantly clear in recent years, if Facebook wants a presence in China, that’s going to have to change. LinkedIn, which began operating a Chinese-language site in 2014, has shown the way by actively deleting content that Chinese authorities view as politically sensitive.
That’s less of a problem for LinkedIn, however, since its core business involves connecting a global network of profes-sionals and employers (something that no Chinese company can hope to replicate). If Chinese are off ended by its approach to free expression, they still have other reasons to use the service - and no viable local alternatives. The same cannot be said for a censored Facebook, which would off er little that can’t be found on China’s other social networks.
For the moment, Facebook might want to con-sider reining in its ambitions for China and focus instead on bringing some of WeChat’s social-networking features to markets that Facebook already dominates. That would not only serve to increase the loyalty of its current customer base but might eventually generate the kind of innova-tions to which Chinese Netizens have grown ac-customed. If and when Facebook does ever enter China, it’ll need them. - Adam Minter/Bloomberg News
WWW.TIMESOFOMAN.COM
CultureSECTIONB L I F E STY L E T H U R S DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 5
TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2015
CarolIt is an adaptation of Patricia High-smith’s seminal novel, The Price of Salt. The movie follows two women from very diff erent backgrounds in 1950s New York. As conventional
norms of the time challenge their at-traction, an honest story emerges to reveal the resilience of the heart in the face of change.
1
Mad Max: Fury RoadAn apocalyptic story set in the furthest reaches of earth, in a stark desert landscape where hu-manity is broken, and almost eve-
ryone is crazed fi ghting for the necessi-ties of life. Within this world exists two rebels on the run who just might be able to restore order.
2
Love & MercyIn the 1960s, Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson struggles with emerging psychosis as he attempts to craft his avant-garde pop mas-
terpiece. In the 1980s, he is a broken, confused man under the 24-hour watch of shady therapist, Dr Eugene Landy.
3
The MartianDuring a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fi erce storm and left behind by his crew.
But Watney has survived and fi nds him-self stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meagre supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and fi nd a way to signal to Earth that he is alive.
4
SicarioWhen drug violence worsens on the USA Mexico border, the FBI sends an idealistic agent, Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) on a mis-
sion to eradicate a drug cartel responsi-ble for a bomb that had killed members of her team.
5Clouds of Sils MariaIt is the story of a fi lm star who comes face-to-face with an un-comfortable refl ection of herself while starring in a revival of the
Inside OutThe movie tells the story of young Riley who is uprooted from her Midwest life and moved to San Francisco, her emotions - Joy,
Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness - con-fl ict on how best to navigate a new city, house, and school.
7
CreedThe former World Heavyweight Champion Rocky Balboa serves as a trainer and mentor to Adonis Johnson, the son of his late friend
and former rival Apollo Creed.8
WhiplashA promising young drummer en-rols at a cut-throat music conserv-atory where his dreams of great-ness are mentored by an instructor
who will stop at nothing to realise a stu-dent's potential.
9
MommyA widowed single mother, rais-ing her violent son alone, fi nds new hope when a mysterious neighbour inserts herself into
their household.10
1
6
2
3
4
5 7
8
9
10
As the year comes to a close, we look at the top 10 finest movies that made headlines in 2015
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LIFESTYLEB6 T H U R S DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 5
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Johnny Depp named most overpaid actor in Hollywood
Leaving behind the likes of Will Smith, Chris-tian Bale, Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, actor Johnny Depp has been named Hollywood’s most overpaid actor in 2015 by Forbes. Depp has replaced actor Adam Sandler, who topped the list for the last two years. Sandler was ineligible this year due to his deal with Netfl ix. Depp’s last two movies - Mortdecai and Transcendence - re-
turned a meagre $1.20 for every $1 he was paid on them. Depp came in second on Forbes’ 2014 list. It examined the last three movies each actor starred in before June 2015, excluding animated fi lms and those in limited release. Actor Denzel Washington was runner-up, returning $6.50 for every $1 he earned, while Will Ferrell came third with Get Hard. He returned $6.80 for every $1 earned.
Tom Hanks collects antique World War II typewritersActor Tom Hanks has over 50 typewriters which were made in the 1940s. He says he loves collecting them and uses them too. Asked what he wants for Christmas, Hanks said: “Antique WWII typewriters. Takes a repair guy a month to get them working, and I write my letters on them. I own over 50.” While he loves the old-fashioned way of writing his letters, Hanks is also an avid user of social media. Earlier he used Twitter to thank a man who had found and returned his lost credit card. He had posted: “A guy named Tony found my credit card on the street in New York City and returned it! Tony! You make this city even greater! Thanks.”— IANS
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d
BAHJA CINEMAFilm information 24540856 / Advance Booking 24540855Website: www.albahjacinemaoman.com
Point Break (Action / Crime)Cast: Edgar Ramirez, Luke Bracey, Ray Winstone2:00, 6.00, 10.00 & 11.55 p.m. CP No: 3051 (12+)Morning Star (Action / Adventure / Fantasy) Cast: Adrian Bouchet, Mike Mitchell4.00 & 11.55 p.m;. CP No: 3052 (12+)Dilwale (Action / Comedy) Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Varun Dhawan1.00, 6.00 & 9.00 p.m; CP No: 3047 (PG12)Belle & Sebastian 2 (Adventure / Family)Cast: Félix Bossuet, Tchéky Karyo, Thierry Neuvic4.00 & 8.00 p.m; CP No: 3053 (PG)
STAR CINEMAFilm information 24791641 / 24786776Website: www.isurf.co.om
CITY CINEMAContact (10 am to 6PM) 24567664 | 68 www.citycinemaoman.netfacebook.com/citycinemaoman
SHATTIStar Wars: The Force Awakens (3D) (Action | Adventure) (PG12) Cast: Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher6:00, 11:30 PMPoint Break (2D) (Action | Crime (12+) Cast: Édgar Ramírez, Luke Bracey6:45 PMPoint Break (3D) (Action | Crime (12+) Cast: Édgar Ramírez, Luke Bracey2:30, 9:15, 11:45 PMDilwale (Action | Crime) (PG12) Cast: Shahrukh Khan, Kajol, Kriti Sanon4:30, 8:30 PMMorning Star (Action | Adventure) (12+) Cast: Adrian Bouchet, Mike Mitchell5:00, 9:45, 11:30 PMRoom (Drama) (PG12) Cast: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay2:15, 7:30 PMThe Peanut Movie (2D) (Animation | Adventure | Comedy) (PG) Cast: Voice (Noah Schnapp, Bill Melendez2:30, 4:15 PM
MUSCAT GRAND MALLPoint Break -3D (Action | Crime | Sport) 12+Cast : Édgar Ramírez, Luke Bracey9:15PM & 11:45PMGold Class - 3:15PM & 11:00PMBelle and Sebastian 2 - (Adventure) PGCast : Félix Bossuet, Tchéky Karyo3:15PMThe Peanut Movie - (Animation|Comedy) PGVoice Overs: Noah Schnapp, Bill Melendez, Hadley Belle Miller11:30AM, 1:30 & 7:15PMStar Wars: The Force Awakens -3D (Action | Adventure | Fantasy ) PG12Cast : Oscar Isaac, Harrison Ford12:30PM, 6:15 & 11:30PM
Gold Class - 8:30PMDilwale (Action | Romantic | Comedy) PG12Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Kriti Sanon 3:15PM & 8:45PMGold Class - 5:30PMThe Good Dinosaur-3D (Animation) UVoice Overs: Jeffrey Wright, Frances McDormand5:15PM
SURThe Peanut Movie ( Animation) ( U ) Cast: Voice:- Noah Schnapp, Bill Melendez2:30, 6:30 PMMorning Star ( Action ) ( 12+ ) Cast: Adrian Bouchet, Mike Mitchell7:30, 11:45 PMPoint Break (3D) ( Action) (12+ ) Cast: Edgar Ramirez, Luke Bracey4:15, 9:15 PMStar Wars : The Force Awakens (3D) (Action | Fantasy) (PG12) 5:00 PMDiwale (Action | Romance ) (PG12) 2:00, 11:30 PMBajirao Mastani (Action) ( PG12) Cast : Ranbir Singh, Dipika Padkone8:30 PM
SOHAR
Star Wars: The Force Awakens - 3D (PG12) Action | Adventure | Fantasy Cast : Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill2:30, 11:30 PMDilwale - 2D (PG12) Action | Comedy Cast : Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Varun Dhawan2:45, 8:30, 10:45 PMBajirao Mastani - 2D (PG12) Drama Cast : Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone5:30, 8:45 PMPoint Break - 3D (12+) Action | Crime | SportCast : Édgar Ramírez, Luke Bracey3:15, 9:10, 11:30 PMThe Peanut Movie - 2D (PG) Animation Cast : Voice (Noah Schnapp, Bill Melendez3:00, 5:00 PMRoom - 2D (PG12) DramaCast : Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay4:50 , 6:50 PMMorning Star - 2D (12+) Action | Adventure Cast : Adrian Bouchet, Mike Mitchel7:00, 11:45 PMHeidi - 2D (PG) Family | Comedy |DramaCast : Bruno Ganz, Katharina Schüttler5:30 PMAl Laila Al Kabeera - 2D (Arabic) (15+) Drama7:45 PM
BURAIMIStar Wars: The Force Awakens– 2D (Action, Adventure, Fantasy) (PG12)
Cast: Daisy Ridley, Oscar Issac, Harrison Ford3:00, 6:00PMPoint Break – 3D (Action, Crime, Spot) (12+)Cast: Edgar Ramirez, Luke Bracey3:00, 7:15, 9:30, 11:30PMMorning Star – 3D (Action, Adventure) (12+)Cast: Adrian Bouchet, Mike Mitchell5:25, 9:45PMHeidi – 2D (Family, Comedy, Drama) (PG)Cast: Bruno Ganz, Katharina Schüttler5:15PMDilwale – 2D (Action, Romantic, Comedy) (PG12)Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Kriti Sanon3:15, 6:00, 11:30PMBajirao Mastani– 2D (Drama) (PG12)Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh8:30PM
SALALAH
Point Break (3D) (12+) (Action/Crime/Sport) Cast: Édgar Ramírez, Luke Bracey1:15, 2:10, 9:25, 11:45PMPoint Break (2D) (12+) (Action/Crime/Sport) 11:30AMStar Wars: The Force Awakens (3D) (PG12) (Action| |Fantasy) Cast: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac10:45 AM, 11:55 PM Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2D) (PG) (Action|Adventure) 5:55PM Dilwale (2D) (PG12) (Action | Romantic) Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Kriti Sanon3:35, 6:35, 8:45, 11:30PM Bajirao Mastani (2D) (PG12) (Drama)Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone8:30PMBelle and Sebastian 2 (2D) (PG) (Family) Cast: Félix Bossuet, Tchéky Karyo12:20, 3:55PM The Peanut Movie (2D) (PG) (Animation) 10:30, 2:00PMRoom (2D) (PG12) (Drama) Cast: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Sean Bridgers 4:25PMThanga Magan (2D) (PG) (Tamil)( Comedy/Drama/Romance) Cast: Dhanush, Amy Jackson6:25PM
CINEMA SCHEDULE CHILDREN BELOW THE AGE OF 3 YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED IN THE CINEMA | BOX-OFFICE COUNTER OPENS 30-MINUTES PRIOR TO THE SCREENING OF THE FIRST SHOW
ROYAL OMAN POLICE
Emergencies and inquiries: 9999
General Directorate of
Passport and Residence 24569603
Directorate General
of Customs 24521109
Traffic violations inquiries 24510228
Public Relations Admin 24560099
EMBASSIES IN OMAN
Afghanistan 24698 791/4
Algeria 24605 593
Bahrain 24 605 074/133
Bangladesh 24 698 660
Brazil 24640100
Brunei 24 603533
China 24 696782
Cyprus 24 699815
Egypt 24 600 982/411
France 24681 800
Germany 24835000
India 24684500
Indonesia 2469 1050
Iran 24 696 944/7
Iraq 24603642
Italy 24693727
Japan 24 601 028
Jordan 24692760/1/3
Kazakhstan 24 692418
Kenya 24 697664
South Korea 24 691490
Kuwait 24 699628
Lebanon 24 693208
Libya 24603466
Malaysia 24698329/643
Morocco 24696152/3
Nepal 24696177
Netherlands 24603706
Pakistan 24603439
Palestine 24601312
Philippines 24605335
Qatar 24 691 153/2/4
Russia 24602894
Saudi Arabia 24601705
Senegal 24694139
Somalia 24697977
South Africa 24647300
Spain 24691101
Sri Lanka 24697841/2
Sudan 24697875
Switzerland 24603267
Syria 24697904
Tanzania 24601 174
Thailand 24 602684/5
Tunisia 24603486
Turkey 24697050/1/2
UAE 24400000
United Kingdom 24609000
United States 24643400
Yemen 24600815
PHARMACIES
Round the clock
Al Hashar Pharmacy, Ruwi 24783334
Apollo Medical Centre,
Hamriya 24782666
Muscat Pharmacy, Ruwi 24702542
Salalah 23291635;
Atlas Pharmacy, Ghubra 24503585
Muscat Region
Apollo, Al Hamriya 24787766
Muscat, A Seeb Market 24421691
Muscat, Al Khuwair 24485740
Muscat, Al Hail South 24537080
Dhofar Region
Muscat, Al Nahdha Road,
Salalah 23291635
HOSPITALS
Al Amal Medical & Health Care
Centre 24485052
Atlas Hospital
Ruwi 24811743/
Ghubra 24504000
Al Musafir Specialised
Medical Clinic 24706453
Hatat Polyclinic LLC,
Ruwi 24563641
Azaiba 24499269
Sohar 2683006
Al Raffah Hospital 24618900/1/2
Al Massaraat Clinic &
Laboratory 24566435
Al Makook Medical
Coordinance Centre 24499434
Apollo Medical Centre,
Hamriya 24787766, 24787780
Capital Polyclinic 24707549
Badr Al Samaa Polyclinic,
Ruwi 24799760/1/2
Capital Clinic, Seeb 24420740
Ceregem National Raak 24485633
Dr Harub’s Clinic 24563217
Elixir Health Centre 24565802
Emirates Medical Centre 24604540
1st Chiropractic Centre 24472274
Lifeline Hospital Salalah 23212340
International Medical
Centre LLC 24794501/2/3/4/5
Kims Oman Hospital 24760100
24 Hrs Emergency 24760123
Lama Polyclinic, Sohar 26751128
MBD 24799077
Al Khuwair 24478818
Magrabi Eye and
Ear Hospital 24568870
Muscat Private Hospital 24583600
Welcare Diagnostic and Treatment
Centre, Al Khuwair 24477666
Al-Hayat Polyclinc LLC 22004000
AIRLINE OFFICES
Muscat Airport Flight information
(24 hours) 24519456/24519223
Aeroflot 24704455
Air Arabia 24700828
Air France 24562153
Air India 24799801
Air New Zealand 24700732
Biman Bangladesh Airlines 24701128
British Airways 24568777
Cathay Pacific 24789818
Egypt Air 24794113
Emirates Air 24404400
Ethiopian Airlines 24660313
Gulf Air 80072424
Indian 24791914
Iran Air 24787423
Japan Airlines 24704455
Jazeera Airways 23294848
Jet Airways 24787248
Kenya Airways 24660300
KML Royal Dutch Airlines 24566737
Kuwait Airways 24701262
LOT Polish Airlines 24796387
Lufthansa 24796692
Malaysian Airlines 24560796
Middle East Airlines 24796680
Oman Air 24531111
Pakistan International
Airlines 24792471
Qatar Airways 24771900
Qantas 24559941
Royal Jordanian 24796693
Saudi Arabian Airlines 24789485
Singapore Airlines 24791233
Shaheen Air 24816565
SriLankan Airlines 24784545
Swiss International
Airlines 24796692
Thai Airways 24705934
LISTINGS
LONG DISTANCE BUS TIMINGS (OMAN NATIONAL TRANSPORT COMPANY SAOC) *SUBJECT TO CHANGE
FROM MUSCAT (RUWI)
Dept Destination Arrival Operatingtime time days
QURIYAT - SUR - JAALAN (ROUTE 36)
15:00 Quriyat 16:30 Daily
15:00 Sur 18:00 Daily
15:00 Jaalan 19:30 Daily
TO AL BURAIMI (ROUTE 41)
06:30 Sohar 08:50 Daily
06:30 Buraimi 11:00 Daily
08:00 Buraimi 14:30 Daily via Ibri
13:00 Sohar 15:45 Daily
13:00 Buraimi 17:40 Daily
16.00 Sohar 18.35 Daily
16.00 Buraimi 20:20 Daily
TO SINAW (ROUTE 52)
17:30 Sinaw 20:50 Daily
TO YANQUL (ROUTE 54)
14:30 Nizwa 16:50 Daily
14:30 Yanqul 19:30 Daily
TO IBRI (ARAQI) (ROUTE 54)
08:00 Nizwa 10:20 Daily
08:00 Al Araqi 12:30 Daily
TO SUR (ROUTE 55)
07:30 Sur 12:00 Daily
14:30 Sur 18:45 Daily
TO FAHUD - YIBAL (ROUTE 62)
06:30 Fahud 10:30 Daily
06:30 Yibal 11:15 Daily
TO MARMUL-SALALAH (ROUTE 100)
07:00 Salalah 20:00 Daily
10:00 Marmul 20:30 Daily
10:00 Salalah 23:30 Daily
19:00 Salalah 07:40 Daily
TO MARMUL (ROUTE 101)
06:00 Marmul 16:50 Daily
SALALAH TO DUBAI (ROUTE 102)
15:00 Dubai 07:00 Daily
TO DUBAI (ROUTE 201)
06:00 Sohar 08:30 Daily
06:00 Dubai 11:30 Daily
13:00 Sohar 15:30 Wed,Thur
13:00 Dubai 18:30 Wed,Thur
15:00 Sohar 17:35 Daily
15:00 Dubai 20:55 Daily
TO DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH & SHARJAH (ROUTE 204)
07:00 Fujairah 11.45 Daily
07:00 Sharjah 13.30 Daily
07:00 Dubai 14.00 Daily
TO MUSCAT (RUWI)
Dept Destination Arrival Operatingtime time days
FROM JAALAN-SUR-QURIYAT (ROUTE 36)
05:30 Sur 06:45 Daily
05:30 Quriyat 08:30 Daily
05:30 Ruwi 10:00 Daily
TO AL BURAIMI (ROUTE 41)
07:00 Sohar 08:55 Daily
07:00 Ruwi 11:40 Daily
13:30 Ruwi 20:20 Daily via Ibri
13:00 Sohar 14:55 Daily
13:00 Ruwi 17:40 Daily
13:00 Sohar 19:20 Daily
17:00 Ruwi 22:15 Daily
TO SINAW (ROUTE 52)
07:00 Ruwi 10:25 Daily
TO YANQUL (ROUTE 54)
06:00 Nizwa 08:40 Daily
06:00 Ruwi 11:00 Daily
TO IBRI (ARAQI) (ROUTE 54)
15:40 Nizwa 17:55 Daily
15:40 Ruwi 20:20 Daily
TO SUR (ROUTE 55)
06:00 Ruwi 10:45 Daily
14:30 Ruwi 19:00 Daily
TO YIBAL - FAHUD (ROUTE 62)
12:30 Fahud 13:15 Daily
12:30 Ruwi 17:30 Daily
TO SALALAH -MARMUL (ROUTE 100)
07:00 Ruwi 19:50 Daily
10:00 Marmul 13:15 Daily
10:00 Ruwi 22:30 Daily
19:00 Ruwi 07:30 Daily
TO MARMUL (ROUTE 101)
06:00 Marmul 16:30 Daily
DUBAI TO SALALAH (ROUTE 102)
15:00 Salalah 07:00 Daily
TO DUBAI (ROUTE 201)
07:30 Sohar 10:50 Daily
07:30 Ruwi 13:40 Daily
13:00 Sohar 16:15 Thur-Fri
13:00 Ruwi 19:10 Thur-Fri
15:30 Sohar 18:45 Daily
15:30 Ruwi 21:35 Daily
FROM DUBAI VIA FUJIRAH/SHARJAH (ROUTE 204)
16:00 Sharjah 16:30 Daily
16.00 Fujairah 18.15 Daily
16.00 Ruwi 23.00 Daily
@PANORAMA MALL @SHATTI
The Peanut Movie (Animation)(2D)(PG)Voice Overs : Noah Schnapp, Bill Melendez, Hadley Belle Miller2:45, 5:30 pm
@MGM
Point Break -3D (Action | Crime | Sport) 12+Cast : Édgar Ramírez, Luke Bracey9:15PM & 11:45PMGold Class - 3:15PM & 11:00PM
Morning Star (Action | Adventure) (12+) Cast: Adrian Bouchet, Mike Mitchell5:00, 9:45, 11:30 PM
WEATHER
260
Maximum
190
Minimum
TEMPERATURE
35-75%RELATIVE HUMIDITY
Send us a colour photograph of the child (below 16 years) whose birthday you are celebrating, along with his/her full name, date of birth, address, telephone number and
parents’/your name to Times of Oman, With Love, PO Box 770, PC 112, Ruwi or through e-mail to
LIFESTYLET H U R S DAY, D E C E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 5
BUY LOCAL:SALMA’S CHOCOLATESSalma’s Chocolates are Oman’s fi rst local, hand-made chocolate brand that creates extraordinarily luscious and sensory provoking chocolates that encompasse the quintessentially classic fl avours of Oman using fi nest natural ingredients.
WHOEstablished by two Omani women en-
trepreneurs, Salma Al Hajri and Aisha
Al Hajri, the brand has become popular
within a short span of time, as each piece
is handmade by experienced chocolat-
iers. Committed to encouraging local
businesses, it has been sourcing ingredi-
ents, including lemon, honey, rose, dates,
thyme, and cardamom, from local farmers
and suppliers. The chocolates are healthy
also as they do not use artifi cial sweeten-
ers and fl avours.
WHATSalma’s Chocolates are known for intro-
ducing new varieties, and the brand will
soon launch 10 new fl avours during this
festive season. Their eff orts won many
accolades, and the latest honour being
the ‘Shaikh Mohammed Bin Rashid SME
Award’ in the Gulf region instituted by
SME Dubai.
WHERESalma’s chocolates are available in eight
branches of Al Fair Hypermarket—CCC
Qurum, Madinat Sultan Qaboos, Sarooj,
Azaiba, Al Mouj, Markaz Al Bahja, Al
Khoud and Panorama Mall. It can also be
bought from the company’s fl agship store
at Bank Muscat Head Quarters Building
opposite Muscat International Airport. You
can order it online at:
salmaschocolates.com
HOW MUCHSalma’s Chocolates are available
from baisas 400 to OMR 100.
Contact:
+968 9508 5881
+968 9508 5880
GHAWIBAZAAR
PHO
TO
GR
APH
Y: C
OU
RT
ESY
OF
SALM
A’S
CH
OC
OLA
TES
After Miss Universe fl ub, Ariadna saysit was her destiny
Miss Colombia Ariadna Gutierrez, who was wrongly crowned the
2015 Miss Universe for just a couple of minutes, says the inci-dent was written in her destiny.
Gutierrez has shared a touching message on Instagram in which she congratulated Miss Philip-pines Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach for winning the Miss Universe title.
“After the storm comes the calm,” Gutierrez, 21, wrote along-side a photograph of her putting her hands to create a heart symbol.
“I want to thank each and eve-ryone of you who have sent mes-sages of support and strength. Every one of you has become an incredible human being in my book and I am the most for-tunate and thankful for having the support not only from one country but from the whole en-tire world. Your destiny is writ-ten for you. And my destiny was this,” she added.
Later on, Gutierrez addressed the wrong announcement at the beauty pageant.
“I was able to bring happiness to my country after becoming Miss Universe for only a couple of min-utes... Today because of that Co-lombia and the Latin community are being talked about in every cor-ner of the world,” she continued.
The 21-year-old beauty has ap-parently been able to let go of the fl ub and congratulated the real winner Pia from the Philippines.
She said: “I also want to con-gratulate the Philippines for their
new Miss Universe. The hap-piness that you must be feeling must be incredible. Life contin-ues and in the future we will fi nd out why things happen the way they happen. Thank you all for your love, support, and kindness.”
Meanwhile, former Miss Uni-verse winner Sushmita Sen had nothing but goodwill for the Philippines as she congratu-lated the new Miss Universe Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach.
Sen on her Twitter account posted, “Congratulations Philip-pines. Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach is a beautiful n (well-spoken) Miss Universe. May her reign be a cel-ebrated one.”
The Indian actress became popular among Filipinos after she won the crown for the Miss Uni-verse, which was held in the Phil-ippines in 1994.
“For me, every Filipino is fam-ily… and Philippines (is) my 2nd home ever since 21st May 1994. Winning Miss Universe in Ma-nila (is) a cherished blessing,” she added.
Sen said she was on a fl ight to Dubai when the pageant was aired live and had to watch it much later.
Wurtzbach was reportedly a frontrunner for the pageant. She especially stood out after the ques-tion-and-answer portion when she said, “I want to show the world, the universe, rather, that I am con-fi dently beautiful with a heart.”
Sen, like Wurtzbach, gave a memorable answer during the 1994 pageant.
Asked “What is the essence of being a woman?” she answered, “Just being a woman is God’s gift that all of us must appreciate. The origin of a child is a mother, and is a woman. She shows a man what sharing, caring, and loving is all about. That is the essence of a woman.” After her Twitter post congratulating Wurtzbach, she replied to a Filipino fan who said, “We miss you too. Filipinos can still recite your fi nal answer by heart–we’ve forgotten everyone else’s. You’d be amused.”
“Such is the power of the ‘es-sence of a woman.’ Beautiful ques-tion,” Sen replied. -IANS
The Colombia beauty queen, who was wrongly crowned
2015 Miss Universe for a couple of minutes, congratulates
eventual winner Pia Alonzo of Philippines
I am the most fortunate
and thankful for having the
support not only from one
country but from the whole
entire world. Your destiny
is written for you. And my
destiny was this
Ariadna GutierrezMiss Universe first runner-up
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W W W.T I M E S O F O M A N . C O MSECTION
CONNECT H E D A I LY G U I D E
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T H U R S D AY, D E C E M B E R 2 4 , 2 0 1 5
RENT C2
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Th ose interested please send your CV to Th ulasi <[email protected]> or call 98294218
for enquiries
INTERNATIONAL CONSULTING FIRM WISHES TO RECRUIT HIGHLY QUALIFIED ENGINEERS FOR OUR PROJECTS
IN SULTANATE OF OMAN.
Electrical Engineers (B.Sc Degree in Electrical)Site Supervision, Testing & Commissioning, Protection & ControlExperience:10 – 20 yearsTh e fi eld of these Projects are:HV/MV/LV Electrical Neworks including Grid Stations, Distribution Networks, OHTL, U/G Power Cables.
VACANCYA reputed Electrical Contracti ng Company invites applicati ons from qualifi ed and experienced candidates for the following positi ons.
Electrical Testi ng & Commissioning Engineer - 2 Nos.Qualifi cati on – BE/BTech in Electrical EngineeringExperience – Min. 5 year experience in Electrical testi ng and commissioning, preferably in Oil & Gas sector.
Electrical Industrial Technician - 2 Nos.Qualifi cati on – Diploma or ITI in Electrical EngineeringExperience – Min. 5 year experience in Electrical erecti on and commissioning jobs, preferably in Oil & Gas sector.
Interested candidates meeti ng above requirements may apply with recent bio-data to [email protected].
Preference for candidates currently in Oman with NOC.
CONTRACTING COMPANY GRADE ONEURGENTLY REQUIRED
Full ti me work, Visa clearance is available; The candidates D/L have
1. Architect (male/female with minimum 3 years experience)2. Administrati on offi cer (female Filipino, or Indian 3years experience)3. PRO (Omani) Minimum 3years experience
