Production cost of crude $26 per barrel

WEDNESDAY | MARCH 16, 2016 | JUMADA AL THANI 7, 1437 AH
P20 Investors sue VW in Germany for more than 3 bn euros
VOL. 35 NO. 123 | PAGES 32 | BAISAS 200
P32 Adventure and camping tourism in Al Sharqiyah Sands
P25 ‘ϐ‹†‡–Šƒ†”ƒ”‹‰–‘‰‘‹‡™•‡ƒ•‘
Inside
Water situation to be better this year India bars Pakistan diplomats Make-or-break White House test Editor-in-Chief
ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI
Oman Establishment for Press, Publication and Advertising
PO Box 974, Postal Code 100, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
www.omanobserver.om
FOLLOW US ON:
editor@omanobserver.om
WRECKAGE OF 14TH-CENTURY SHIP FOUND OFF DHOFAR
ZAINAB AL NASSRI
MUSCAT
March 15: A ship, which was part of
Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama’s
armada to India, was found off the
coast of Al Hallaniyah Island in Dhofar.
The ship, which sank in a storm in May
1503, is the oldest ship from Golden
Age of Exploration ever to be found.
Europe’s Golden Age of Exploration
referred to a period between the
mid-15th and 17th centuries, when
Europeans were trying to find trade
routes to India.
Supported by the National
Geographic
Society
Expeditions
Council, they also discovered a number
of relics which suggest the ship was led
by Gama.
This was revealed in a press
conference held on Tuesday at the
Ministry of Heritage & Culture (MHC)
by His Highness Mansoor bin Majid al
Said, the MHC adviser.
The exploration was conducted by
MHC in cooperation with UK’s Blue
Water Recoveries.
TURN TO P2
Production cost of crude $26 per barrel
TOWARDS EFFICIENCY: State Council praises PDO efforts to develop economy and generate jobs
OMAN CRUDE FUTURE
STAFF REPORTER
MUSCAT
$26.83-$31.94
March 15: Salim bin Nasser al Oufi,
Under-Secretary, Ministry of Oil and
Gas, said the cost for oil production
would decrease in light of the oil price
slump.
Al Oufi was talking journalists
during a visit by State Council delegation
headed by its Chairman Dr Yahya bin
Mahfoudh al Mantheri to the Petroleum
Development Oman on Tuesday. Aufi
said that the operational cost for each
barrel ranges between $9 to 10 while
the total cost for producing one barrel
ranges between $25 and $26.
He pointed out that the companies
OMAN
HM thanked by
Ajman Ruler
MUSCAT: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos
has received a cable of thanks from
Sheikh Humaid bin Rashid al Nuaimi,
Member of the United Arab Emirates
(UAE) Supreme Council and Ruler
of Ajman, in reply to His Majesty’s
condolences cable on the death of
Sheikh Mohammed bin Nasser al
Nuaimi. Ruler of Ajman expressed his
utmost thanks and appreciation for His
Majesty’s condolences and sympathy,
praying to Allah the Almighty to rest
the soul in peace, protect His Majesty
against all harms and grant him good
health, happiness and well-being.
INSIDESTORIES
TAIWAN’S NEW PRESIDENT CHOOSES
ECONOMY EXPERT AS PREMIER
P6
EGYPT STRUGGLES TO END
CORRUPTION IN WHEAT
P9
WEATHER TODAY
MUSCAT
MAX: 290C
MIN: 250C
SALALAH
MAX: 290C
MIN: 250C
SUNRISE 06.15 AM
PRAYER TIMINGS
FAJR: 05:00
DHUHR: 12:21
ASR: 15:45
MAGHRIB: 18:21
ISHA: 19:31
NIZWA
MAX: 310C
MIN: 200C
Operational cost
for each barrel
tion
c
u
d
pro rrels
e
d
l cru 683 ba
a
t
o
T
97,
to
$10
Total Production cost
for each barrel
29,3
$9
Total crude exports
28,804,712 barrels
$25
to
$26
ALL FIGURES FOR THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY
operating in this field seek to reduce the
operational and total cost.
During the visit, there was a focus
on how PDO had responded to the
present low oil price environment and
explanatory displays of oil samples,
fossils, rocks, equipment and goods
made by women on the Company’s
Banat Oman vocational training
programme.
Dr Mantheri praised PDO’s efforts
on the economy, new technology and
in providing training and employment
opportunities, saying: “As PDO is proud
to serve Oman, we are also proud of
PDO”.
TURN TO P2
Output goes up
MUSCAT: The Sultanate’s total
production of crude oil and
condensates amounted during
February 2016 to 29,397,683 barrels,
a daily rate of 1,013,713 barrels,
comprising an increase by 0.72 per
cent compared with January 2016 as
for the daily average.
The statistics showed that the
total quantities of crude oil exported
abroad during February 2016 stood
at 28,804,712 barrels, a daily rate of
993,266 barrels, comprising a rise by
12.67 compared to January 2016.
REPORT ON P5
FLAB
REDUCTION
Tough times
warrant cut in
lavish perks
CONRAD PRABHU
MUSCAT
March 15: Strengthening corporate
governance in majority governmentowned commercial entities is key to
curbing excess, notably in the form of
lavish perks and allowances, in these
challenging economic times, a wellknown Majlis Ash’shura member has
stressed.
Tawfiq al Lawati, who represents
the Muttrah constituency in the capital
region, made the assertion in the
context of a recent directive from the
Ministry of Finance requiring firms
that are partly state-owned, to cuts
unnecessary costs, including any ‘overthe-top’ benefits offered to senior-level
executives.
With
effective
corporate
governance, any benefits or payouts
that are unauthorised or exceed agreed
limits will come to light and can be
curbed as a result, he said, noting that
the finance ministry missive is aimed
precisely at curtailing such costs.
Speaking to the Observer, Al Lawati
also emphasised that any benefits to
senior executives should be paid only
on an “accrual basis”.
TURN TO P5
Sultanate wins PET resin
anti-dumping case in US
SAMUEL KUTTY
MUSCAT
March 15: The Sultanate of Oman won
a case against anti-dumping duty on its
polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin
exports to the United States.
The case related to the amount
of government subsidisation for this
product, which is produced by Oman’s
Octal Company.
“The victory is an addition to the
previous success in the cases raised
against the Sultanate’s exports”, said the
Ministry of Commerce and Industry
(MoCI).
PET resin is used for making PET
plastic packaging materials, beverage
containers and a host of other consumer
products.
The investigations lasted for nearly
a year and a half undertaken by the US
Ministry of Commerce.
The US Department of Commerce
issued a decision about the results of
the investigations carried out against
the Sultanate’s PET exports last week.
The results of investigations
showed that subsidisation ratio of
the Government of Oman to Octal
Company do not constitute harm to the
US industry.
“After the investigations, they found
out the subsidisation ratio is 0.59 per
cent, which is less than the minimum
ratio (De minimis), according to the
provisions of the applicable laws in the
United States”, the MoCI said.
The US had imported $239 million,
$92.1 million, $51.7 million, and $51.1
million worth of PET resin from
Canada, China, India, and Oman,
respectively, in 2014.
A preliminary report of the US
Department of Commerce on October
7, 2015 had recommended antidumping duty on these countries..
The Sultanate is now excluded
from subsidisation case without
imposing any fees against its
exports, while the subsidisation rates
of the exports of other countries was
between 5.12 per cent and 153.80 per
cent.
“During the period of investigation,
all departments concerned including
Octal Company joined hands to prove
that the government of Oman does
not provide subsidization in a way
that violates WTO Convention and
the laws of the United States to impose
additional fees on the exports of this
TURN TO P2
company”, MoCI said.
A Russian military jet flying from Syria lands on the runway of an airbase in Buturlinovka, Russia, on Tuesday. — Reuters
Return of Russia jets boosts peace talks
MOSCOW: The first of Russia’s
warplanes to leave Syria received a hero’s
welcome back home Tuesday, starting
a surprise withdrawal the West hopes
could boost peace talks by pressuring
Damascus.
Despite the initial pullout, a
monitoring group said Russian
helicopters — and likely warplanes —
which are still in Syria had pounded
Islamic State group positions as regime
troops pressed an advance.
UN peace envoy Staffan de
Mistura described the withdrawal
announcement as a “significant
development” for negotiations that
began in Geneva on Monday in the
latest push to end the brutal conflict as
it enters its sixth year.
“We hope (this) will have a
positive impact on the progress of the
negotiations,” he said in a statement.
President Vladimir Putin on Monday
ordered the “main part” of Russia’s
forces out of the war-torn nation, but
the Kremlin denied it was trying to
pressure its long-time ally President
Bashar al-Assad.
Russia will, however, keep a
contingent at its air and naval bases
in Syria and a senior official said
strikes against “terrorist targets” would
continue.
Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman
told AFP that “Russian helicopters and
warplanes, that are likely Russian” had
struck IS targets around the ancient city
of Palmyra.
— AFP
Sultan Special Force’s annual day
Suu Kyi friend Myanmar president
RAINS, HAIL FROM TODAY
T
M
MUSCAT: Oman Meteorology said that the Sultanate will be
affected by upper air trough less severe than that was last week,
starting from Wednesday and lasting until Saturday, March 19.
Isolated rains, occasional thundershowers associated with
fresh winds and hail are expected in Muscat, Mussandam,
Buraimi, North and South Batinah, Muscat, Dakhilyah and
Sharqiyah. Sea will remain moderate along the coasts with
maximum wave length of two to three metres.
Public has been urged to take precautions and not to take
risks by crossing wadis or venturing into sea. It also urged people
to follow updates only from authorised authorities.
he Sultan’s Special Force (SSF) on Tuesday celebrated its annual
day. Within the framework of marking this occasion, Gen Sultan bin
Mohammed al Numani, Minister of the Royal Office, patronised over
the ceremony and the graduation of new recruits.
Upon his arrival at the military parade field, the SSF Commander
received Gen Al Numani after which the national anthem was played
and the graduates saluted the chief guest. The chief guest inspected
the first column.
Then, the graduates performed regular march parade with
participation of the Royal Guard of Oman (RGO) music. Then the chief
guest distributed prizes to the top graduates.
The graduates proclaimed thrice ‘Long Live His Majesty Sultan
Qaboos’, the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. SEE PAGE 4
yanmar’s parliament elected a close friend and confidant of
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi as president on Tuesday, making
Htin Kyaw the first head of state who does not hail from a military
background since the 1960s.
Suu Kyi led her National League for Democracy (NLD) to a
landslide election win in November, but a constitution drafted by the
former junta bars her from the top office. She has vowed to run the
country anyway through a proxy president, and on Thursday the NLD
nominated Htin Kyaw for the role. He runs a charity founded by Suu Kyi
and has been a trusted member of her inner circle since the mid-1990s.
He is not a lawmaker. “Today’s result is because of the love of people
for her. It is the victory of my sister Aung San Suu Kyi,” Htin Kyaw told
reporters after the vote.
REPORT ON P7
2
MSM CLOSES A TAD LOWER
W E D N E S DAY l M A R C H 1 6 l 2 0 1 6
Muscat Securities Market general
index 30 on Tuesday lost 1.6 point,
comprising a decline of 0.03 per
cent, to close at 5,295.88 points,
compared to last session, which
stood at 5,297.73 points. The
trading value stood at RO 3,126,647
comprising a rise by 22.20 per cent
compared to last session, which
stood at RO 23,558,698.
OMAN
Production cost of oil barrel $26
FROM PAGE 1
A senior PDO management team,
headed by Managing Director Raoul
Restucci, gave an overview of the
company’s performance on a range of
matters including health, safety and
the environment, production, cost
control and the creation of job and
training opportunities for Omanis
through its pioneering In-Country
Value (ICV) and Lean efficiency
programmes.
Restucci said: “We are honoured
to have welcomed the first-ever
delegation from the State Council to
PDO”. He said: “We communicated
some of our notable achievements
and strategic priorities, such as our
OMAN OIL PRICE DECLINES $1.40
Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME)
said that Oman oil price (May
delivery) closed at $35.25 on
Tuesday. A DME statement said that
the price of Oman oil declined $1.40
over Monday’s price of $36.65. The
average price of Oman oil (March
delivery) has stabilised at $27.40,
thus $7.19 per barrel lower than
February delivery.
Wreckage of Vasco da Gama’s
ship found off Dhofar coast
FROM PAGE 1
determination to support Omani
businesses and jobseekers, and also
how we are adapting to the current
tough economic challenges through
greater efficiency and value creation”.
He further said: “We would like
to thank our distinguished guests
for their support for, and recognition
of, the great work our staff and
contractors are doing every day
Sultanate witnesses equinox
MUSCAT: Oman Astrological Society said that day and night was equal in the
Sultanate on Tuesday as the sun rose at 6.15 am and set at 16.15 pm. Ibrahim bin
Mohammed al Mahrouqi, Member of the Society said that the spring for 2016 will start
at 8.31 am in March 20 local timing.
OMSB takes part in EPA in Madrid
MADRID: Oman Medical Speciality Board (OMSB) took part in the 24th European
Congress of Psychiatry (EPA 2016), which was held at Madrid, Spain and concluded
on Tuesday. OMSB, represented by the Behavioural Medicine Programme, presented
a research by Dr Munthir bin Humaid al Muqbali, resident doctor at the Behavioural
Medicine Programme at OMSB on the experience of providing care for Alzheimer
patients in the Sultanate.
SAUDI INVITES STATE COUNCIL MEMBER
MUSCAT: Ahmed bin Yousuf al Harthi, State Council Member, received on
Tuesday His Royal Highness Prince Faisal bin Saud bin Abdul Mohsen al Saud,
Director-General of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Public Relations at King
Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies Centre. Ahmed welcomed Prince
Faisal and wished him a pleasant stay in Oman.
Ahmed received an invitation from His Royal Highness Prince Turki al Faisal al
Saud to participate in the International conference organised by the King Faisal
Centre for Research and Islamic Studies Centre of His Royal Highness Prince Saud
al Faisal bin Abdulaziz, titled ‘Saud al Autan’. The conference will be opened by
Salman bin Abdul Aziz al Saud and will be conducted for three days from April 23.
to support Oman. Such visits can
only encourage our employees to
even greater heights to support the
country’s development under the
visionary leadership of His Majesty”.
14.7 per cent of fatal road
mishaps due to speeding
MUSCAT: The National Centre
for Statistics and Information
(NCSI) is taking part in the
Traffic Exhibition being held at
Muscat City Centre as part of
32nd GCC Traffic Week. The
NCSI participation is aimed
at increasing awareness about
traffic-related statistics and
information.
The NCSI issued a publication
titled General Facts About
the Sultanate’s Traffic System
containing three major topics;
road accidents, roads and
vehicles.
The publication showed that
57.9 per cent of road fatalities in
2015 were caused by speeding,
14.7 per cent were due to wrong
overtaking while negligence was
responsible for 11.2 per cent of
road fatalities.
Statistics show that the
number of road crash victims
stood at 42,999 in 2015, 16 per
cent of them fatalities and 84 per
cent injuries.
Generally, the number of road
accidents dropped by 23.5 per
cent from 8,209 in 2012 to 6,279
in 2015.
According to the statistics,
road accidents were the major
cause of death among inpatient
at the government hospitals the
majority of whom are youths
between 20 to 34 years old.
Driving licenses for light
vehicles made up 87 per cent of
total licenses, heavy vehicles (9
per cent), equipment (3 per cent)
and motorbikes 1 per cent.
The total number of driving
licenses up to the end of 2015
stood at 1.33 million with an
increase of 7.3 per cent in 2014
and 2015. A total of 81,900
new driving licenses were
issued in 2015, the statistics
showed.
The statistics also showed
that the total length of roads
reached 34,557 km in 2014 up
from 28,903 km in 2012 with a
total length of 5,500 km added
between 2010 and 2014, an
increase of 20 per cent.
Oman wins
case in US
FROM PAGE 1
The benefit of this
decision includes all the
companies of the free zones
in the Sultanate of Oman,
the ministry said.
The antidumping law
provides US businesses and
workers with a transparent
and internationally accepted
mechanism to seek relief
from the market distorting
effects caused by injurious
dumping of imports into
the US, establishing an
opportunity to compete on a
level playing field.
According to US law,
dumping occurs when a
foreign company sells a
product in the US at less
than its fair value. The antidumping
investigation
into PET resin import
was initiated after the
department of commerce
received petitions from DAK
Americas, M&G Chemicals,
and Nan Ya Plastics
Corporation, America.
Oman’s Scouts come
2nd at world camp
MUSCAT: The World
Organisation of the Scouts
Movement published at its
website the results of the 58
World JOTA and 19th World
Scouts Jamboree on the
Internet which were held in
October 2015 and pointed
out that the Sultanate came
second at the camps.
The ship is believed to be Esmeralda
commanded by Vicente Sodré, who was
the maternal uncle of Vasco da Gama and
a descendent of the nobleman Frederick
Sudley of Gloucestshire, UK.
“This project is the first that is conducted
in Oman and the region in underwater
archaeology,” said Hassan al Lawati, adviser
to the Minister for Heritage and Culture.
“We appreciate the joint efforts of the local
and international entities and institutes that
made this project a huge success.”
He said the find included 2,800 antiques,
12 of which are golden coins in addition to
missiles and a copper bell that go back to
the ship Esmeralda.
The project was executed in four main
phases starting in 1998, then in 2013, 2014
and finally in 2015.
The wreck site was initially discovered by a
BWR team in 1998, on the 500th anniversary
of Vasco da Gama’s epic discovery of the
direct sea route to India, but full-scale
archaeological survey and excavation by the
MHC didn’t begin until 2013.
Since then two more excavations have
been conducted in 2014 and 2015.
There were a number of key individual
artefacts that helped in identification of the
wreck site as Vicente Sodré’s Esmeralda.
They include an important copper-alloy
disc marked with the Portuguese royal coat
of arms and an esfera armilar (armillary
sphere), which was the personal emblem of
King Dom Manuel I.
There was also a bronze bell with an
inscription that suggests the date of the
ship was 1498. Moreover, a gold cruzado
coins minted in Lisbon between 1495 and
1501 and an extraordinarily rare silver coin,
called the Indio, that was commissioned by
Dom Manuel in 1499 specifically for trade
with India. The extreme rarity of the Indio
(there is only one other known example in
the world) is such that it has legendary status
as the ‘lost’ or ‘ghost’ coin of Dom Manuel.
The bulk of the recovered artefacts were
artillery and ordnance from the arsenal
on board the ship. These included lead,
iron and stone shot of various calibres, a
large number of bronze breech chambers
and several ancient firearms. Together
they provide tangible proof of the military
objectives of this fleet as ordered by Dom
Manuel and brutally carried out by Vasco da
Gama and his two uncles Vicente and Brás
Sodré.
“This project differs from the majority
of maritime archaeology projects in that we
set out to specifically find the wreck site of
the Sodré ships, using a survivor’s and other
historical accounts, because of their very
early age and the potential they held for
new discoveries. It is extremely gratifying
therefore that this strategy has paid off with
such interesting revelations even though we
are still at a relatively early stage in the study
of the artefact assemblage,” said Project
Director David L Mearns.
Ibrahim al Busaidy, Assistant Professor
at the Department of History, Sultan
Qaboos University, said, “The arrival of
the Portuguese to India in 1498, led by
Gama is considered the beginning of a new
era of communication between East and
West at the beginning of modern times.
This historical discovery documents this
communication and confirms Oman’s
global stature and importance in the midst
of the international competition between
the various forces in the beginning of
modern times. The artefacts will provide the
researchers and scholars a lot of historical
information related to the nature of the
Portuguese campaigns to the east and its
goals, and the types of ships and weapons
in addition to the economic aspects, such
as currencies. Also it lends a lot of historical
facts and supports the documentations on
the Portuguese presence in the Middle East”.
Gama was famed for identifying India
Route in 1498. Four years later he was given
20 ships to carry out an expedition to India
for trade of their spices. On his return, he
left five ships on the southwest coast of
India, including the ship Esmeralda —
commanded by Sodré.
Instead of waiting in India for further
orders, Esmeralda and the other abandoned
ships headed west, to loot and steal Arab
ships. However, in May 1503, the ship
was torn from the moorings and smashed
against the rocks in a giant storm, ultimately
destroying and sinking Esmeralda. This
pushed the ship 28 miles off the coast, its
whereabouts unknown.
OMAN
W E D N E S DAY
MARCH 16 l 2016
omandailyobserver
3
Drinking water situation
to be better this year
POWER STATIONS: Desalination plant in Qurayat will begin by
June while the Aseela station is slated to be ready by July-end
VINOD NAIR
MUSCAT:
March 15: Drinking water situation
this year will be much better compared
to last year with enough capacity to
meet the demand, said Mohammed bin
Abdullah al Mahrouqi, Chairman of
the Public Authority for Electricity and
Water (PAEW), yesterday.
It may be noted the residents of
Muscat and also partly in Sohar were
severely affected by water shortages in
the initial months of summer last year
due to frequent technical disruptions at
desalination plants.
The crisis was slightly managed by the
commissioning of the new desalination
plant in Ghubra in September.
He was speaking on the sidelines of
the agreement between Oman Power
and Water Procurement Company
(OPWPC) and Muscat Water to
establish temporary desalination plants
in Qurayat and Aseela in South Al
Sharqiyah.
Mahrouqi said, “These water stations
are among the alternatives adopted
by PAEW to find quick solutions to
address any shortages may occur for
water in Qurayat and South and North
Al Sharqiyah, pointing out that there
is expansion in Sur desalination plant,
which is expected to be completed
during the current year.”
He expected to run the desalination
plant in Qurayat by the end of June this
year and Aseela station by the end of
July.
He added that there is another
expected agreement to establish a
desalination plant in Sohar with a
capacity of 250,000 cubic metres per
day, adding that last was an agreement
signed to establish a desalination plant
in the Wilayat of Barka, explaining that
these stations are important to keep
up with the growing demand for water
and to promote water Security in the
Sultanate.
The scope of the Project includes
the design, construction, ownership,
operation and maintenance of a high
efficiency reverse osmosis desalination
facilities. The total Potable Water output
of Qurayat plant is 8,000 m3 per day
(1.76 million gallon per day) whereas
total Potable Water output of Aseela
plant is 10,000 m3 per day (2.2 million
gallon per day).
According to the agreement
OPWPC will purchase the potable
water produced by the project under a
Water Purchase Agreement.
The Boulevard by Muscat Hills launched
LAKSHMI KOTHANETH
MUSCAT:
March 15: The Boulevard (The Jada)
by Muscat Hills was launched yesterday
by His Highness Sayyid Haitham bin
Tariq Al Said, Minister of Heritage and
Culture, at the premises of Muscat Hills.
With the handover of phase II villas,
the project is now focusing on lifestyle
development.
HH Haitham told the Observer, “I
would like to congratulate HH Sayyid
Al Rawy Kais Al Said. He has been a
driving force behind this project. His
dreams have come true and I hope that
they continue with what their father had
hoped for. I am sure they will because
what I have seen today is something
really unique.”
The master plan of the new
downtown area at Muscat Hills is
developed on the theme of integration.
The total footprint of the project
spans more than 85,000 sqm, and will
showcase a number of developments
featuring elegantly designed corporate
offices, commercial, retail and residential
space with unparalleled finishes.
An interesting feature of The
Boulevard is that the nerve-centre of
the development offers the protected
“pedestrian only” 32 metre wide and 665
metre long “JADA,” boasting shopping,
dining and leisure outlets.
The functionality features include
access roads, and stairs and ramps for
pedestrians as well asset back subdivision specifications and provision for
circulation of emergency vehicles and
goods deliveries. An environmentally
friendly approach has been a paramount
consideration, such as pergolas used for
Planning panel reviews
architectural designs
MUSCAT: The Technical Committee of the Interim
Mechanism of Urban Planning yesterday met under the
chairmanship of Saif bin Amir al Shaqsi, Under-Secretary
of the Ministry of Housing.
The committee reviewed a number of topics listed
on the agenda including the nature of layouts in the
Governorate of Muscat, getting the views of the relevant
organisations at the technical committee and the
municipal councils on the architectural designs at these
layouts and how far they meet the planning standards in
force.
The Technical Committee of the Interim Mechanism
of Urban Planning includes a number of public
organizations involved in services with the aim of
developing a standard vision towards the development
of layouts and connecting services to them after the
distribution of land plots.
Each organisation will develop a vision for the services
that will be included in these layouts. — ONA
shade, green landscaping and water,
to lower the localised temperature,
shielding systems of substations, and
timed illuminating systems.
The project is led by HH Sayyid Al
Rawy Kais al Said, Chief Executive
Officer of Muscat Hills. Considering The
Boulevard as a humble contribution to
the community, according to Sayyid Al
Rawy, “Muscat has come a long way from
the traditional souks. The Boulevard
is truly unique, and will redefine
the Muscat commercial and retail
landscape; setting a new benchmark
for mixed-use developments. It is the
first of its kind outdoor pedestrian only
space, where strolling, shopping and
dining are integrated into business and
community life. The Boulevard gives
the opportunity to share the beautiful
and tranquil destination with residents
of Oman and visitors alike. It is with
great anticipation that we wait for the
vision to be realised in 2018”
The properties in Muscat Hills offer
freehold ownership to all purchasers,
Omanis, GCC nationals and expatriates
alike. The idea of The Boulevard is to
bring the community together, offering
a new pedestrian space for business,
shopping, socialising, entertainment
and dining.
With a design inspired by the Italian
Piazza, the town centre will be the focal
point of the development, surrounded
by the buildings with distinctive
Mediterranean style features, balconies,
and courtyards for recreation.
MUSCAT: Muscat University Board of Directors yesterday held its first meeting at the site of the project to elect the chairman,
the deputy chairman and members of the executive office, in addition to making a decision on a number of urgent issues
related to the University. During the meeting, the members elected Khalil bin Abdullah al Khonji as Chairman and Rashad bin
Mohammed al Zubair as Deputy Chairman. — ONA
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omandailyobserver
ROYAL GUARD OF OMAN ORGANISES OPEN DAY
OMAN
W E D N E S DAY
MARCH 16 l 2016
Sultan’s Special Force marks Annual Day
DAY OF HONOUR: Graduation ceremony held for a fresh batch of cadets
The Royal Guard of Oman (RGO) organised an open day for its affiliates as part of
the 32nd Traffic Week at the Royal Guard of Oman Technical College.
30 films to be screened
at Muscat film festival
KABEER YOUSUF
MUSCAT
March 15: The much awaited Muscat
International Film Festival will see a
colourful beginning at the Hormuz
Grand Hotel in Seeb amid luminaries
and stars from international film world.
Organised by the Oman Film Society
(OFS) under the auspices
of the Ministry of Heritage
and Culture, as many as 30
films from, besides Oman,
GCC, Arab countries will be
shown in the next five days,
according to the organising
committee.
The festival, which is in its 9th
edition, will also have four international
feature films in the competition section
and includes Pathemari, a Malayalam
movie that tells the story of the decadesold foreign workers’ migration; a film
from Iran and another from Cyprus.
“We are all set to host the
international
films
and
film
personalities from across the seas for
the five-day long Muscat International
Film Festival 2016,” Fatma al Mukhaini,
Technical Director and In-charge of the
films selection told the Observer.
She further said that these movies
will be shown in a range of theatres that
include Vox Cinemas in Muscat City
Centre Seeb, Hormuz Grand Hotel as
well as Bayan College.
To be or not to be, a movie that speaks
of the atrocities against children across
the globe produced and filmed in the
Sultanate of Oman, will be shown at the
Bayan College where debates
and discussions also will be
conducted on the same, she
added.
There will also be feature
film competitions in various
categories,
including
international, short and
documentary films.
The awards, Golden Khanjar and
Silver Khanjar, will be given for the best
film, direction, cinematography, male
actor, female actor and script, towards
the end of the closing ceremony.
This year, there will be an award
for the debut film made by any filmmaker in addition to the best actor, best
actress and the jury award for any film
of their choice. Additionally, this year,
the festival will feature conferences
and workshops, an Omani short film
colloquy besides conferences with
actors, writers, critics and guests.
MUSCAT: The Sultan’s Special Force
(SSF) on Tuesday celebrated its
annual day. Within the framework of
marking this occasion, Gen Sultan bin
Mohammed al Numani, Minister of
the Royal Office, patronised over the
ceremony and the graduation of new
recruits. Upon his arrival at the military
parade field, the SSF Commander
received Gen Al Numani after which
the national anthem was played and the
graduates saluted the chief guest.
The chief guest inspected the first
column.
Then, the graduates performed
regular march parade with participation
of the Royal Guard of Oman (RGO)
music. Then the chief guest distributed
prizes to the top graduates.
The graduates proclaimed thrice
‘Long Live His Majesty Sultan Qaboos’,
the Supreme Commander of the Armed
Forces. Gen Al Numani also pinned
medals of excellent service and Royal
commendation on a number of SSF
commissioned and non-commissioned
officers in recognition of their dedication
and sincerity in carrying out the duty.
Within the framework of the
ceremony, Maj Gen Amir bin Salim
al Amri, SSF Commander pinned
special service, long service and good
conduct medals for a number of SSF
commissioned and non-commissioned
officers in recognition of their long
service and sincerity in carrying out the
sacred duty.
The ceremony was attended by
Inspector General of Police and Customs,
Lt Gen Chief of Staff of the Sultan
Armed Forces (SAF), commanders
of the SAF and security units and a
number of the SSF commissioned and
non-commissioned officers, as well as
SSF personnel.
— ONA
Higher Education Ministry launches employer survey
MUSCAT: The Ministry of Higher
Education on Tuesday launched the
Employer Survey 2016, which is one of
the periodic surveys conducted by the
Graduates Survey Department at the
Ministry of Higher Education, and runs
until April 15.
This survey will complement the
graduates’ survey 2015, which studied
status of graduates’ career and asked
their opinion about the harmonisation
of their specialties, qualifications and
abilities with the tasks required of them
in the labour market.
The Employer Survey 2016 aims at
addressing needs of the private sector
institutions for graduates in terms of
number, specialties and qualifications.
It also studies the methods followed
by the institutions in the recruitment
IN BRIEF
Nasima al Balushi
Ithraa opens export
club in Salalah
MUSCAT: With the rise in non-oil
Omani exports, Ithraa, the Sultanate’s
inward investment and export
development agency, recently held its
first Export Club meeting at the Oman
Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(OCCI) in Salalah.
Held under the auspices of
Shaikh Abdullah al Rawas, Chairman,
OCCI Dhofar Branch, the Export
Club has been designed to provide
Omani businesses with a network
that will help small companies
begin to export as well tackle
challenges facing current exporters
in international markets. Nasima al
Balushi, Ithraa’s Director-General
of Export Development pointed
out that Omani exporters face any
number of challenges. “Some are
external, ranging from exchange
rates, insurance, to shipping and
raw material costs, while others
are internal such as packaging,
marketing, intellectual property,
training and IT. It is with this in
mind that Ithraa created the Export
Club, meetings that will help local
exporters tackle these issues, prosper
and grow internationally.” Oman has
many export success stories, where
companies are competing globally
and producing goods and services
that people want to buy. Today,
Omani businesses are selling goods
in over 136 countries, from fibre optic
cables, car batteries, luxury perfumes,
automotive spare parts, marble to
mayonnaise. “Exporting is good for
Omani business, good for Omani
workers and good for Omani jobs.
When Oman exports, Oman prospers,”
enthused the Ithraa Director-General.
Ithraa has always been on the
frontline of international trade,
helping Omani businesses achieve
success by providing tailored export
services. The Export Club brings
together companies from different
sectors who have enjoyed success in
advanced and emerging economies,
business people who are more than
happy to share their experiences, give
advice and introduce Omani firms to
business contacts.
of graduates in terms of the things that
are focused on by the private sector in
advertising their vacancies and assessing
the graduates and their CVs. The survey
also seeks to identify the difficulties faced
by the employers in finding the suitable
graduates in terms of specialties and
qualifications and where and how the
higher education sector could contribute
to facilitating these difficulties.
The survey targets 4,000 private
sector companies and establishment
in the Sultanate to varying degrees and
with a variety of activities. The employer
Survey 2016 focuses on the opinion of
the CEOs, directors of employment of
human resources on the capabilities
of the graduates and the needs of their
institutions of specialised and qualified
manpower in certain areas. — ONA
NCSI holds its first meeting for this year
MUSCAT: The Board of Directors of the National Centre for Statistics and Information
(NCSI) held its first meeting of the current year on Tuesday at its headquarters in Ghala.
Sultan bin Salim al Habsi, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Planning and
Chairman of NCSI Board of Directors, chaired the meeting. The meeting discussed a
range of topics, including the adoption of the minutes of the fourth meeting in 2015
and reviewed the significant measures taken towards their implementation. The
meeting also reviewed the report of NCSI’s CEO that outlined NCSI’s achievements
in 2015, as well as the local and international awards bagged by the Centre for
outstanding performance on various fronts.
The report also took a look at the various projects that had been completed or are
under implementation stage, especially those related to technical, administrative
and other aspects, since the beginning of this year until March. During the meeting, a
visual presentation was given on the advantages of using technologies to rationalise
spending through the application of specialised GPS system on management
and follow-up of NCSI vehicles, acknowledged as one of the best of its kind. The
meeting reviewed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between NCSI
and Statistics Netherlands, which aimed at strengthening and developing mutual
cooperation in the fields of statistics and information.
The meeting also discussed other topics listed on its agenda and took appropriate
decisions on their regard. — ONA
Cruise ship visits Salalah Port
SALALAH: Cruise ship AIDAaura visited Salalah Port on Tuesday with 1,194 tourists of
different nationalities onboard as part of its tour programme to several ports around
the world. The cruise ship came from Sultan Qaboos Port and it will later leave for Port
of Aqaba in Jordan. The programme of tourists includes visits to the archaeological
and historical landmarks in the Governorate of Dhofar, besides visiting beaches and
traditional markets. The cruise ship MS Rotterdam will visit Salalah Port on Thursday
and cruise ship Costa neoRiviera will visit the port on Friday.
Rotana Resort to host Women’s Day event
SALALAH: An exhibition of Omani products and initiatives is to be held at
Salalah Rotana Resort on March 21 to mark the International Women’s Day,
which is celebrated on March 8 globally.
A large number of crafts such as pottery, jewellery and other accessories
crafted by talented women of Salalah would be on display at the Al Hajar
ballroom of the hotel from 9 am to 3 pm.
“Salalah Rotana Resort is gearing up for the event, as the hotel resort
has offered support to the Omani Women Association for the event as a
mark of commitment towards the local community and fulfilment of the
hotel’s corporate social responsibility,” said Rhoda Nuhu, Marketing and
Communications Manager.
The event managers are expecting a huge participation of women from
all walks of life especially entrepreneurs, craftswomen and girl students
from schools and colleges. “A large number of dignitaries have also
confirmed attendance for the event,” said Rhoda.
OMAN
W E D N E S DAY
MARCH 16 l 2016
Tweeters join the ‘No phone
while driving’ campaign
STRINGENT RULES: ROP to get tough on mobile phone users
LAKSHMI KOTHANETH
MUSCAT
March 15: Royal Oman Police (ROP)
yesterday confirmed that use of mobile
phones while driving is a traffic offence
and more enforcement will be brought
in as part of the strategy to deter this
practice, which is proving to be fatal to
all road-users.
Meanwhile, several leading Omani
tweeters have been selected to join the
ROP campaign called ‘No Phone while
driving.’ The role of media was also
stressed yesterday.
The campaign strategy was
introduced to the media and authorities
at a function held at the Traffic Institute.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Hamed
bin Salem al Rawahi, CEO of TRA said,
“No phone while driving is an extremely
important message to all the drivers
because all studies such as by the WHO
indicate that mobile phones cause a lot
of distraction and hence accidents. At
the moment there is nothing available
that can technically stop people from
using mobile phones while driving
except their behaviour. So hope they
will follow the traffic rules from ROP.
We do not wish the mobile to be the
reason for destruction in Oman.”
“As we are trying to reduce the
number of traffic accidents caused by
mobile users while driving. We have
been successful in reducing the number
of traffic speeding and offences, stressed
Col Dr Mohammed Awad Rowas,
Director-General of Traffic, Royal
Oman Police.
Checking with the telephone
companies after each accident to verify
if the driver has been using mobile
phone during the time of accident is not
in practice yet world over. “But we do
follow up with the details if an accident
results in death. We do check to verify
whether the driver was using the phone
or not,” pointed out Dr Rowas.
The first part of the campaign is
awareness, which will be followed by
Al Muzn Hotel to come
up in Mawaleh by 2018
MUSCAT: Muzn Oman Commercial
signed a management agreement
yesterday with Hospitality Management
Holdings (HMH) to operate Corp
Muscat Al Muzn Hotel.
According to a press release, the hotel
is part of Al Muzn project promoted by
Majan Development Company, which
will include a shopping mall as well as
a luxury wellness centre.
Mohamed al Kindi, chairman of
Muzn Oman Commercial, said, “The
steady growth of tourism in Oman, with
a vision to welcome 12 million visitors
annually by 2020, is fuelling demand for
quality mid-market hotels catering to
diverse segments and Corp Muscat Al
Muzn Hotel is being developed to serve
that growing need.
The hotel has been conceived to
be a comfortable and stylish address
for business and leisure travellers to
Muscat.” Corp Muscat Al Muzn Hotel
is expected to welcome its first guests by
the first quarter of 2018.
Laurent A Voivenel, CEO of HMH,
said, “ HMH is well- positioned in the
country as one of the leading ‘alcoholfree’ hotel groups equipped with the
most advanced technology and we
are confident Corp Muscat Al Muzn
Hotel will add tremendous value to
our growing presence in Oman while
further strengthening our international
portfolio”.
Corp Muscat Al Muzn Hotel is
strategically located in Mawaleh
and will feature 132 guestrooms, Al
Muzn Mall and will offer a host of
services and facilities tailored to the
needs of modern business and leisure
travellers.
Orientation session held
for setting up stock firm
AL RUSTAQ: An orientation session
on initial opinion prepared by Oman
Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(OCCI) Branch of the Governorate
of South Al Batinah to establish nongovernment joint stock company in the
governorate in the presence of Dr Hilal
bin Ali al Habsi, Wali of Al Rustaq.
The meeting included the economic
aspects of the establishment of
the non-government joint stock
company through the provision of
job opportunities for the people of the
wilayats and the optimising investment
in real estate, construction, industry,
tourism, education and mining sectors,
as well as the company’s contribution
to the revitalisation of investment by
participating in the many different
economic projects. — ONA
enforcement to take necessary action
against the offenders, explained the
Director General for Traffic.
The tweeters chosen to be part of
the campaign were delighted as Jihan
al Lamki, Television Broadcaster
form Public Authority for Radio
and Television who has over 50,000
followers said, “It is a big responsibility
and we are on it.” In addition to Al
Lamki, some of the other tweeters are
Buthaina al Balushi, Hadil al Moosa,
Hamood al Toqi, Said al Barami and
Abdulaziz al Garbi.
Meanwhile, chairman of Oman
Journalists Association, Awad Baquwair,
said, “I think all the journalists and the
media as a whole unit should support
this initiative. The whole of society
should be part of it because this is to save
lives. The accidents are declining but
launching of this campaign will spread
more awareness especially amongst the
youth. Traffic accidents cost us socially
and economically.”
Tough times
warrant cut in
lavish perks
FROM PAGE 1
He said an expatriate, for example, is
entitled to airfare as a service and not as
a benefit, because he or she travels from
their home countries to work here. In
contrast, an Omani counterpart is not
entitled to the same service.
In similar vein, an expatriate
executive who works in Oman but has
children studying back home, should
not necessary be offered an educational
allowance, he stated. “Any perks offered
to such employees should be paid on
an accrual basis. Thus, if someone is
bringing his children here to Oman,
they require an allowance to go to
whichever school, but if this expense
is not accrued, then why should they
claim it,” he asked.
Exception however may be made
in companies where Omanis and
expatriates in top management are
instrumental in driving the profitability
and success of their respective
organisations, he noted. “As we are in a
free market economy, if you need good
people as CEOs or in top or middle
management, whether Omani or expat,
you have to pay them their market
value. But it should be paid according
to their contribution and achievements,
as is the case in the banking and oilfield
sector.”
Either way, cuts in lavish benefits are
only fair in today’s austere economic
circumstances, Al Lawati noted. “When
the economy was doing well, (the
executives) enjoyed all the benefits.
Now, with the economy not performing
as it used to, and with the average citizen
paying direct and indirect taxes, it’s only
fair that all concerned should (sacrifice)
some of their benefits as well.”
Mohammed Jawad bin Hassan,
Advisor at the Ministry of Finance,
said the memo to majority-government
owned firms was designed to rationalize
some of the questionable perks offered
to senior level staff.
He said: “If you talk about
educational allowance for the staff, you
will find certain companies paying, say
RO 1500, while other companies pay
RO 6,000. Some companies pay for
a maximum of three children, while
others keep it open. Some even pay the
fees of children who are still back home
while the parents are working here. This
(disparity) has to be regularized.”
Crude oil
production
rises in Feb
MUSCAT: The Sultanate’s
total production of crude oil
and condensates amounted
during February 2016 to
29,397,683 barrels, a daily
rate of 1,013,713 barrels,
comprising an increase by
0.72 per cent compared
with January 2016 as for the
daily average.
The statistics showed
that the total quantities of
crude oil exported abroad
during February 2016
stood at 28,804,712 barrels,
a daily rate of 993,266
barrels, comprising a rise by
12.67 compared to January
2016.
The import of China
declined by 26.39 per cent
in February, compared to
the previous month, on
the other hand the exports
to Taiwan, Singapore and
South Korea increased
by 7.93, 1.67 and 9.79
respectively in comparison
with January.
The USA imported the
Omani crude oil during
February 2016, comprising
7.99 per cent of the total
Omani exported oil.
Referring to the trend in
oil price in the international
market, the average price of
West Texas crude grade in
New York touched $32.20
per barrel in February 2016,
showing a decline with $ 0.31
a barrel over the previous
month. The average price
of North Sea Brent grade
reached $33.53 a barrel, an
increase of $1.49 per barrel
over January. — ONA
omandailyobserver
5
PACP marks World
Consumer Rights Day
MUSCAT: The Sultanate, represented by the
Public Authority for Consumer Protection
(PACP) yesterday celebrated, with other
countries around the world, the World
Consumer Rights Day (WCRD 2016), which
falls on March 15th every year.
Themed this year “Antibiotics off the
Menu,” the WCRD represents an annual
opportunity to highlight global activities of
the consumer.
It aims at enhancing the basic rights of
consumers and demanding the protection of
such rights to avoid the market exploitation.
Dr Said bin Khamis al Kaabi, PACP
Chairman, said that this occasion represents
a good opportunity to highlight the
importance of cooperation among all
socioeconomic and political elements of the
society with consumers.
He added that this occasion came to
affirm the global importance of the consumer
in the modern life, as well as the importance
of completely realizing the consumer’s rights
and endeavouring to provide the consumer
with top importance in various commercial
and economic operations. — ONA
6
BANGKOK SLAPS CURFEW ON WATER FESTIVAL
PRINCESS ASTRID MEETS INDONESIAN PRESIDENT
W E D N E S DAY l M A R C H 1 6 l 2 0 1 6
ASIA
Indonesian President Joko
Widodo (R) walks next to
Belgium’s Princess Astrid
(L) during a visit at the
presidential palace in Jakarta
on Tuesday. Princess Astrid
held a bilateral meeting with
President Joko Widodo to
boost the relationship between
the two countries.
ONGOING THREAT: Military tensions have been soaring on the divided Korean peninsula
N Korea leader orders nuclear
warhead test, missile launches
SEOUL: North Korean Leader Kim
Jong-Un has ordered an upcoming
nuclear warhead test and multiple
ballistic missile launches, escalating
Pyongyang’s
face-off
with
the
international community just days after
being slapped with tough UN sanctions.
The order came after Kim monitored
what was described as the successful
simulated test of the warhead re-entry
technology required for a long-range
nuclear strike on the US mainland, the
North’s official KCNA news agency
said on Tuesday. Military tensions have
been soaring on the divided Korean
peninsula since the North carried out
its fourth nuclear test on January 6,
followed a month later by a long-range
rocket launch that was widely seen as a
disguised ballistic missile test.
The UN Security Council responded
earlier this month by imposing its
toughest sanctions on North Korea
to date. Pyongyang, meanwhile, has
maintained a daily barrage of nuclear
strike threats against both Seoul and
Washington, ostensibly over ongoing,
large-scale South Korea-US military
drills that the North sees as provocative
rehearsals for invasion.
In order to boost the reliability of the
nation’s nuclear deterrent still further,
Kim said a nuclear warhead explosion
test and firings of “several kinds” of
ballistic rockets would be carried out “in
a short time”. “He instructed the relevant
section to make pre-arrangement for
them to the last detail,” KCNA said.
The order came days after state media
released photos of Kim posing with
what was claimed to be a miniaturised
nuclear warhead capable of fitting on a
ballistic missile.
Meeting with her cabinet ministers
on Tuesday, South Korean President
IN BRIEF
China plans to ease Vietnam drought
HANOI: China plans to open dams on the upper Mekong River in order to help
alleviate Vietnam’s worst drought in decades, news reports said on Tuesday.
The move was welcomed by the authorities in Hanoi, who last week requested
that China release water from its Jinghong Hydropower Station reservoir in Yunnan
Province so it could flow into the Mekong Delta, Voice of Vietnam reported.
“We held that the protection and sustainable use of water in the Mekong
River is a responsibility shared by countries along the river,” a Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman, Pham Thu Hang, said in a statement late Monday.
“We welcome the announcement by China’s agencies that they will actively
coordinate and execute a plan to release emergency water from March 15 to April 4,
2016,” the ministry said on its website. Vietnam is suffering from the worst drought
in 90 years, which has damaged at least 139,000 hectares of rice paddy in the
Mekong Delta as seawater is drawn inland, according to government statistics.
The United Nations said Monday that up to 500,000 hectares of paddies risked
being lost by the end of the year, damaging supply of Vietnam’s most important
agricultural crop. — dpa
2 charged over fire extinguisher mishap
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un looks at a rocket warhead tip after a simulated test of atmospheric re-entry of a ballistic
missile, at an unidentified location in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in
Pyongyang on Tuesday. — Reuters
Park Geun-Hye said North Korea’s There are numerous
endless threats reflected a “sense of
crisis” in Pyongyang at its increasing question marks over the
diplomatic and economic isolation.
North’s weapons delivery
“If North Korea continues its systems, with many experts
provocations and confrontation with
the international community and does believing it is still years from
not walk the path of change, it will walk developing a working interthe path of self-destruction,” Park said. continental ballistic missile
While North Korea is known to have
a small stockpile of nuclear weapons, (ICBM).
its ability to deliver them accurately to
a chosen target on the tip of a ballistic
missile has been a subject of heated
debate. There are numerous question is still years from developing a working
marks over the North’s weapons delivery inter-continental
ballistic
missile
systems, with many experts believing it (ICBM) that could strike the continental
United States.
Tuesday’s KCNA report was
accompanied by photos of Kim
personally monitoring a test simulating
the intense heat a nuclear warhead
would experience during atmospheric
re-entry. Protected by “newly developed
heat-resisting material” the warhead was
reportedly subjected to thermal flows
five times hotter than those associated
with ICBM flight.
The test was a complete success,
the agency said, and provided a “sure
guarantee” of the warhead’s ability to
withstand re-entry — a major step in the
North’s push towards a genuine ICBM
nuclear strike capability. — AFP
Thai referendum on charter set for Aug 7
BANGKOK:
Thailand’s
military
government on Tuesday set August
7 as the date for a referendum on a
controversial constitution it has drafted
since seizing power in a coup two years
ago.
The referendum will be the country’s
first return to the ballot box since junta
chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha toppled an
elected government and suspended
democracy in May 2014.
“The cabinet has approved the
referendum bill proposed by the election
committee,” junta spokesman Major
General Sansern Kaewkumnerd told
reporters after announcing the August
7 date.
Constitution rewrites have done little
to end the kingdom’s seemingly endless
cycle of coups and political turbulence
The Thai capital will impose a
curfew during Thailand’s annual
water festival next month to
show solidarity with farmers hit
by drought, city officials said
on Tuesday. Thailand is facing
its worst water shortage in
two decades, with 14 out of 76
provinces hit and large swathes
of agricultural land at risk.
The referendum will be the
country’s first return to the
ballot box since junta chief
Prayut Chan-O-Cha toppled
an elected government and
suspended democracy in
May 2014.
— this is the twentieth charter since
absolute monarchy was abolished in
1932.
Prayut insists this version will help
him deliver on his vow to rid the country
of corruption and bring stability once
and for all.
But civilian politicians on both
sides of Thailand’s divide have already
shot down drafts of the charter as
undemocratic, a rare show of unity.
In the past week two high-profile
rival ex-premiers, Thaksin Shinawatra
and Abhisit Vejjajiva, have slammed
the constitution, saying it is unlikely to
resolve bitter political disputes.
The past decade since Thaksin was
toppled by a coup has been marked
by a series of mass street protests and
changes of government, as rural-based
supporters of Thaksin struggle to wrest
power from a Bangkok-centric network
of business and military elite.
The constitutions have tended to flipflop between authoritarian documents
that empower the wealthy establishment
and non-elected bodies, and more
progressive democratic charters.
The junta’s latest version has yet to be
finalised but appears to be in the former
category, with proposals including
an appointed senate and a powerful
constitutional court that critics say
would hobble civilian politicians.
Prayut has kept a firm lid on free
speech since the coup, barring protests,
debates and academic seminars that
touch on sensitive political issues
including the new charter.
The junta leader has promised to
hold elections in mid-2017, though he
has not specified what will happen if the
constitution is rejected. The referendum
date came as Prayut congratulated
neighbouring Myanmar on the historic
election of its first civilian leader in more
than half a century. — AFP
BANGKOK: Thai police charged two executives of a fire safety company with
negligence on Tuesday after a malfunctioning extinguisher system killed eight
people inside a Bangkok Bank on Sunday night.
The accident happened while contract workers were upgrading the chemical
fire extinguisher system in the basement of the headquarters of Siam Commercial
Bank, one of the country’s largest financial institutions.
The bank said the contractors mistakenly set the system off, releasing a
chemical retardant designed to starve any fire of oxygen. Seven of those killed were
contractors while the eighth victim was a bank security guard.
On Tuesday police charged two executives from Megaplanet, a company
contracted by the bank that outsourced the work to a third outfit.
“Police explained the charge of negligence resulting in deaths to both suspects,”
said Bangkok’s city police commander Sanit Mahathavorn. The executives, Adisorn
Phoka and Napong Suksa-nguan, could face up to ten years in prison.
Sanit said police are still investigating how the system was triggered and why
victims were seemingly unable to escape the thick cloud of chemicals. Photos
published by local media showed rescue workers battling a smoky haze to reach the
victims, five of whom were killed at the scene. — AFP
Major trafficking trial starts in Bangkok
BANGKOK: Witness protection will be a key concern in the trial that started in
Thailand on Tuesday of dozens of trafficking suspects, including an army general
and police officers, a rights advocate said. Army General Manas Kongpaen, four
policemen and local politicians in southern Thailand were among 92 defendants
facing human trafficking and other charges, news reports said.
The defendants are accused of being part of a network that smuggled Rohingya
refugees from Myanmar, through Thailand, to Malaysia, and contributed to a
regional migration crisis last year.
The suspects were arrested over a period of months after investigators
discovered mass graves of Rohingya refugees at rafficking camp in southern
Thailand in early 2015.
“In cases like these where high profile defendants are on trial,witness
intimidation is a serious concern,” said Sunai Phasuk of Human Rights Watch.
Thailand has been in the worst category of the US State Department’s Trafficking
in Persons (TIP) report since 2014. According to the report, the country is a source,
destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced
labour and sex trafficking. “The government should not rush the trial to appease the
reviewers of the US TIP Report,” said Sunai. — dpa
ENHANCING BILATERAL TIES
East Timor’s President Taur Matan Ruak (R), accompanied by Japanese Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe (C), reviews a guard of honour prior to their meeting at Abe’s
official residence in Tokyo on Tuesday. — AFP
Lin Chuan is a former finance minister and will take office on May 20 when president is officially inaugurated after a landslide victory
Taiwan’s new president chooses economy expert as premier
TAIPEI:
Taiwan’s
president-elect
Tsai Ing-wen made her first major
appointment on Tuesday by naming a
former economist as premier in a bid to
kickstart the island’s flagging fortunes.
Lin Chuan is a former finance
minister and will take office on May 20
when Tsai is officially inaugurated after
taking a landslide victory over the ruling
Kuomintang (KMT) in January.
Among the challenges for Tsai’s
China-sceptic Democratic Progressive
Party (DPP) will be how to deal with
a stagnating economy, which played a
major role in the KMT’s defeat.
Many ordinary Taiwanese feel trade
pacts signed with Beijing during an Taiwan president-elect Tsai Ing-wen with former finance minister Lin Chuan (L), during
eight-year rapprochement under the a news conference announcing Lin as premier, in Taipei on Tuesday. — Reuters
KMT have failed to benefit them.
Lin is a good
Taiwan last month slashed its growth
communicator and
prediction for 2016 from 2.32 per cent
to 1.47 per cent after a worse-thanfamiliar with my ideas
expected 2015 saw the island sink into
on how to manage
recession at the end of the year.
Exports slumped 13 per cent year- the country. His previous
on-year in January — the longest government experience is
consecutive period of decline since 2009.
notable. That’s why I decided
Tsai said Lin, 64, had a “glowing
record” as finance chief. “Lin is a good to choose him as premier
communicator and familiar with my
TSAI ING-WEN
ideas on how to manage the country.
Taiwan’s president-elect
His previous government experience is
notable. That’s why I decided to choose
him as premier,” Tsai said.
to Tsai. “I would like to give my promise
The full lineup of the new cabinet that the cabinet led by Lin will not only
will be decided next month, according be economy-oriented,” she said. “It will
also be a ‘reform cabinet’” dealing with a
range of issues from funding for political
parties to pensions, she added.
Tsai did not mention ties with China
as speculation swirls over how she will
address relations with Beijing in her
inauguration speech. Beijing has warned
against any move towards a declaration
of independence by Taiwan.
The island is self-ruling after splitting
with the mainland in 1949 after a civil
war, but China considers it part of its
territory awaiting reunification, and
Taiwan has never formally declared
independence. The DPP is traditionally
a pro-independence party, though Tsai
has repeatedly promised to maintain the
status quo with Beijing. — AFP
SUBCONTINENT
W E D N E S DAY
MARCH 16 l 2016
NON-JUNTA MAN
Taliban rejected
Pak pressure on
peace process
TERROR OUT, SMILE IS BACK
SUU KYI
CONFIDANT
MYANMAR
PRESIDENT
NAYPYIDAW: Myanmar’s parliament
elected a close friend and confidant of
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi as
president on Tuesday, making Htin
Kyaw the first head of state who does
not hail from a military background
since the 1960s.
Suu Kyi led her National League
for Democracy (NLD) to a landslide
election win in November, but a
constitution drafted by the former
junta bars her from the top office.
She has vowed to run the country
anyway through a proxy president,
and on Thursday the NLD nominated
Htin Kyaw for the role.
He runs a charity founded by Suu
Kyi and has been a trusted member of
her inner circle since the mid-1990s.
Htin Kyaw leaves the parliament at
Naypyidaw on Tuesday.
— Reuters
He is not a lawmaker.
“Today’s result is because of the
love of people for her. It is the victory
of my sister Aung San Suu Kyi,” Htin
Kyaw told reporters after the vote.
The NLD’s sizeable majority
ensured a comfortable win for Suu
Kyi’s pick in a vote by both houses of
parliament. Htin Kyaw received 360
of the 652 votes cast. Suu Kyi was the
first member of parliament to vote and
clapped and smiled when the result
was announced. Outgoing President
Thein Sein issued a statement
congratulating the man who will
replace him on April 1. “On behalf of
the nation and the people, I take pride
in your being elected as the president,”
Thein Sein said in the statement. NLD
lawmakers, most of whom have no
experience as members of parliament,
spent time rehearsing how they would
vote the night before the election, a
witness said.
They were keen to ensure there
were no last minute mistakes that
would cost them a presidency they had
campaigned for decades to see.
Yanghee Lee, the UN Special
Rapporteur on human rights in
Myanmar, said that despite the
celebrations there was no time for
complacency because Myanmar had
hundreds of laws that were out of
line with its international obligations,
and people could be sentenced to
hard labour for “all kinds of reasons”.
The change of government was also a
chance to break the “tragic status quo
situation” of a million Muslims from
the Rohingya minority in Myanmar’s
Rakhine state, who had been deprived
of their most fundamental rights, she
said.
— Reuters
7
omandailyobserver
NO INFLUENCE: After the secret meetings
with Pakistani officials about two weeks ago,
Taliban rejected the invite to attend talks
An Afghan girl watches Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers in Dand-e-Ghori district in Baghlan province on Tuesday,
following weeks of heavy battles to recapture the area from Taliban militants. Afghan security forces claim to have flushed out
the Taliban from Dand-e-Ghori, a volatile district in northern Baghlan province after a military operation. — AFP
Manila casinos get $81 million
from Bangladesh cyber heist
DHAKA/MANILA:
Bangladesh’s
central bank governor resigned on
Tuesday over the theft of $81 million
from the bank’s US account, as details
emerged in the Philippines that $30
million of the money was delivered
in cash to a casino junket operator in
Manila.
The rest of the money hackers stole
from the Bangladesh Bank’s account at
the New York Federal Reserve, one of
the largest cyber heists in history, went
to two casinos, officials told a Philippines
Senate hearing into the scandal.
They said a mix of dollars and
Philippine pesos was sent by a foreign
exchange broker to the ethnic Chinese
junket operator over several days, a haul
that would have been made up of at least
780,000 banknotes.
Unknown hackers last month
breached the computer systems of
Bangladesh Bank and attempted to steal
$951 million from its Fed account, which
it uses for international settlements.
They managed to transfer $81
million to entities in the Philippines.
Bangladesh Bank officials have said
there is little hope of apprehending
the perpetrators and recovering the
money would be difficult and could take
months.
In Dhaka, central bank governor
TRAIL OF MONEY
Q Unknown hackers last month breached
the computer systems of Bangladesh
Bank and attempted to steal $951 million
from its Fed account, which it uses for
international settlements.
Q CCTV cameras at Philippines bank not
functioning when withdrawals made.
Philippines freezes 44 accounts, seeks FBI
assistance
Q $81 million was transferred to four
accounts at the Filipino Rizal Commercial
Banking Corporation (RCBC) — and then
transferred to an account belonging to
ethnic Chinese businessman William So Go
Atiur Rahman said he had resigned to
set an example in a country where there
is little precedence of accountability and
to uphold the image of the institution.
The government also fired two
deputy governors of the bank, Finance
Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith said,
days after blaming it for keeping the
government in the dark about the theft.
Rahman’s exit could be a blow to
Bangladesh, a South Asian nation of 160
million.
The country has been aspiring
to reach middle-income status, and
Rahman was seen as one of the driving
forces helping Dhaka towards that goal.
Under the former development
economics professor, the country’s
foreign exchange reserves have
increased four-fold to $28 billion and
he also sought to ensure farmers and
women entrepreneurs had better access
to banking services and credit.
Rahman defended his record at the
central bank, saying he was proud of his
achievements there.
He described the heist as an
“earthquake” and said the bank had
promptly
informed
intelligence
agencies in Bangladesh and abroad and
also brought in international experts
to investigate.FireEye Inc’s Mandiant
forensics division is helping investigate
the cyber heist.
The bank has also been in touch
with the Fed and other US authorities,
including the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) and Department of
Justice.
BUYING OPERATIONS
A man walks past
the NIB Bank Ltd
(NIB) in
Islamabad,
Pakistan.
Pakistan’s MCB
Bank Ltd (MCB) is
interested in
buying the
operations of NIB
in the country,
according to a
filing with the
Pakistan stock
exchange on
Tuesday.
— Reuters
I S L A M A B A D / P E S H A WA R :
Pakistani officials threatened to expel
Afghanistan’s Taliban from bases in
Pakistan if they did not join peace talks
this month, but the militants rebuffed
their traditional patron, two officials
said, casting doubt on how much
influence Islamabad retains over them.
After the secret meetings with
Pakistani officials about two weeks ago,
the Taliban’s Supreme Council met at an
undisclosed location and voted to reject
the talks scheduled for early March with
the Afghan government, according to a
council member.
Instead, the insurgents are now
pouring back into Afghanistan for what
they say will be a fierce spring offensive
to be launched soon.
Pakistan’s influence over the
insurgents is the lynchpin to the peace
plan developed over last few months
by Afghanistan, Pakistan, the United
States and China to bring an end to the
15-year-old war in Afghanistan.
A Pakistani official in Islamabad
said the Taliban’s recent success on
the battlefield inside Afghanistan had
changed the equation.
“They no longer need their Pakistan
bases in the same way, so if Pakistan
threatens to expel them, it does not
have the same effect,” said the official,
a retired military officer close to the
talks.
The insurgents have won new zones
of influence — if not outright control
— from Afghan security forces since
the United States and its allies pulled
most combat troops from Afghanistan
at the end of 2014, Afghan and Western
officials acknowledge.
“Pakistan’s trump card — safe havens
on its soil — is in danger of being
snatched away,” said Michael Kugelman
of the Woodrow Wilson Institute, a
Washington-based think tank.
“The Taliban have little incentive to
step off the battlefield now, given recent
gains and those likely to come in the
next few months. In effect, why quit
while you’re ahead?”
Nafees Zakaria, a spokesman for
Pakistan’s Foreign Office, said he had no
knowledge of meetings with the Taliban
but added, “We usually don’t know who
has met with whom” in the sensitive
and high-level peace initiative.
In Kabul, however, members of the
Afghan government were sceptical
about Pakistan’s assertions.
“Pakistan’s honesty and sincerity
with regard to the Afghan peace process
has always been a question,” said an
Afghan cabinet member, echoing
the sentiment of several officials
interviewed there.
Pakistan’s military has long been
accused of fostering the Taliban as a way
of pursuing regional rivalry with India.
Pakistani officials, however, deny the
charge and insist the government and
military recognise that Afghanistan’s
war threatens their own security.
A member of the Taliban’s leadership
council, or shura, whose members
are mostly based in Pakistan and
They no longer need
their Pakistan bases
in the same way, so
if Pakistan threatens
to expel them, it does not
have the same effect
AN OFFICIAL
Afghanistan but also travel between
Qatar and the United Arab Emirates,
said rebel representatives met in
Islamabad with Pakistani officials a little
more than two weeks ago.
“They have asked our representatives
to bring more decision-making people
to the next meeting...to the meeting
with US and Afghan officials.
This is their dream, but they will not
be able to see our senior commanders,”
the Taliban council member said.
A senior Pakistani security official
with knowledge of the talks said: “I don’t
think the talks are dead, but they are
definitely plagued by a serious illness.
“The ones who are in Pakistan...We
have told them repeatedly that they will
have to leave if they don’t participate in
the process,” the Pakistani official said..
“We have done what we can...but
influence does not mean control. Those
days are long gone.” The Taliban source
had knowledge of, but did not attend,
the meeting with Pakistani officials in
Islamabad.
He was at the subsequent Taliban
council meeting to decide on whether
to join the peace talks. The pro-talks
camp largely comprised supporters of
nominal Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar
Mansour, believed to be hiding in
Pakistan after being shot in a leadership
dispute last year and rumoured killed,
and his chief rival, Mullah Mohammad
Rasoul, who is believed to be in
Afghanistan.
“I personally feel that Mullah
Mansour and some other leaders are
in favour of peace talks and they don’t
want to annoy Pakistan...but they can’t
make decisions without approval of
other shura members,” said the Taliban
council member.”
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah
Mujahid declined to comment on any
meetings with Pakistani representatives.
He confirmed the Leadership
Council meeting but would not give
details. Publicly, both the Afghan and
Pakistani government are expressing
hopes that peace talks can begin before
the traditional Taliban spring offensive.
— Reuters
Several small plants are now supply power until the 900-megawatt plant is restarted, but cannot produce enough electricity to go around
Sri Lanka rations power after worst blackout in 20 years
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka announced lengthy daily
power cuts nationwide as the state-run electricity
monopoly struggled to restore supply after the
island’s worst blackout in 20 years.
The Ceylon Electricity Board said its main
Chinese-built coal-fired power plant that supplied
more than half the country’s electricity was still
offline following a massive system breakdown
on Sunday. “We will need a few days more to
get this power station online and this means we
need to ration electricity across the country on a
staggered basis,” a board official said.
Several small plants are now supplying
power to the whole of the country until the
900-megawatt plant is restarted, but cannot
produce enough electricity to go around.
The cuts will occur for seven and a half hours
— five and a half hours during the day and two
hours at night — the official said, without saying
how long the rationing would last.
Authorities are probing the cause of an
explosion and fire at a main distribution centre
outside the capital Colombo on Sunday that
caused the entire electricity grid to switch off
automatically. Power and Energy Minister
Ranjith Siyambalapitiya has said authorities have
not ruled out sabotage.
The country, which suffers sporadic power
cuts, was plunged into darkness for at least seven
hours on Sunday before electricity was restored.
The former government’s power minister Students work in classes lit by candles after a
criticised the Chinese-built plant in 2014, saying power cut in Biyagama, a suburb of the capital
it had broken down more than 35 times in the Colombo, on Tuesday. — Reuters
first three years of operation.
Sunday’s was the second major power failure
in less than a month, following a three-hour
disruption in late February, and the worst since
May 1996 when the entire country was without
electricity for four days.
The latest outage came as an investigation
was under way into last month’s embarrassing
disruption during a visit by New Zealand Prime
Minister John Key, who had described Sri Lanka
as a shining light in Asia. — Agencies
8
ANALYSIS
omandailyobserver
W E D N E S DAY
MARCH 16 l 2016
IS THERE ANSWER
TO ‘RIGHT’ SURGE?
W
infried Kretschmann has spent the last five years carefully crafting the image of
a pragmatic business-friendly leader of the conservative south-western German
state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.
On Sunday it paid off for the 67-year-old former biology teacher when his
Green Party emerged for the first time as the biggest party in one of the nation’s
parliaments after a 6.3-per-cent swing to the Greens in Baden-Wuerttemberg’s
state elections.
Home to some of Germany’s biggest brand names such as Mercedes Benz,
Porsche and Hugo Boss, Baden-Wuerttemberg was one of three of Germany’s 16
states that went to the polls on Sunday, with elections also held in neighbouring
Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt in the east.
But with five parties — including the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany
(AfD) — set to enter each of the state parliaments, the polls could mark the end of
the country’s post-World War II tradition of two-party coalitions.
The outcome of the polls raises the
prospect of multi-party coalitions in the
Winfried Kretschmann’s
regional parliaments.
In particular, the Baden-Wuerttemberg success in turning his
result could open the way for the Greens to Green Party for the first
become an option as a coalition partner to
time into the biggest
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative
Christian Democrats (CDU) for next year’s party in a German
national election.
parliament could
“On the party level I think this is an
help Merkel reshape
important testing ground,” said Daniela
Schwarzer, who heads the Berlin office of the country’s political
the German Marshall Fund of the United landscape, reports
States. A practicing Catholic, Kretschmann
ANDREW MCCATHIE
has cast himself as father of the state and
has ruled out moving to the national
political stage.
Kretschmann is already the first-ever Green Party head of government
after forging in 2011 a coalition with the left-leaning Social Democrats (SPD),
consequently ousting the CDU from power after 58 years at the helm of the state.
Now, Kretschmann’s Greens have tightened their grip on Baden-Wuerttemberg
by securing 30.5 per cent of the vote — far ahead of the 27 per cent for the CDU,
which suffered a humiliating 12-per-cent swing against the party.
“Baden-Wuerttemberg has again made history,” said Kretschmann.
With his trademark grey brush haircut, Kretschmann’s political ascendency
has coincided with the decline of the SPD, which is currently a junior member of
Merkel’s ruling national coalition.
The SPD vote slumped 10.4 per cent to 12.7 per cent coming in behind the
bigger-than-forecast 14.9 per cent garnered by the AfD, which turned the populist
right-wing party into the state’s third-biggest political force.
However, Sunday’s result will make Kretschmann’s task of forging anew
coalition in the state very complicated.
He has not ruled out teaming up with the CDU or the formation of a multiparty coalition, also incorporating the pro-business Free Democrats. But his
success in Germany’s third-largest state could help Merkelforge a new political
centre in Germany as the refugee crisis drives right-wing voters away from the
CDU and into the arms of the AfD, which surged into the parliaments in each of
the states voting on Sunday.
“There is a new phenomenon in Germany is protest voters, who voice their
discontent with the established parties,” said Schwarzer.
“It is a phenomenon which has already emerged in other countries,” she said.
“Voting is a valve for them to release their discontent.”
Merkel carried out intensive coalition talks with the Greens after the last
national election in 2013.
A short time later, the Greens decided to team up with the CDU in Hesse
under a close ally of Merkel, Volker Bouffier, which acts as a model for the Greens
to enter a conservative-led coalition after the 2017 election.
The Baden-Wuerttemberg premier has also praised Merkel’s crisis management
and her handling of the refugee crisis.
Polls show that more than 60 per cent of Green Party voters also back Merkel’s
liberal stance on the migrant issue.
The anti-nuclear Greens rode to power five years ago on the back of the
apocalytic images that emerged from Japan in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear
disaster and deep opposition to the former CDU-led government’s plans for
building a new central railway in the state capital Stuttgart.
The victims of ugly politics
G
Erdogan’s opponents say he is using anti-terrorism laws to
overnment resign! chanted some of the mourners at the
funeral on Tuesday of four young victims of the suicide silence dissent and that his leadership is dangerously dividing
a nation needed by its European and Nato allies as a bulwark
bombing in Turkey’s capital Ankara.
“Our child has become a victim of ugly politics. We don’t against the instability of the Middle East.
Almost as Erdogan spoke in Ankara, police used
want any politicians at our funeral,” one of the relatives called
out, before family members hushed him and warned him tear gas and water cannon to disperse several hundred
leftist demonstrators in Istanbul who had gathered to
against speaking out in front of journalists.
Far from bringing the nation together in mourning, the protest what they perceive to be the government’s failure
aftermath of Sunday night’s attack has again laid bare the deep to prevent Sunday’s attack.
Some in the crowd began chanting “Thief, Murderer,
divisions tearing at Turkey as it struggles to avoid being drawn
Erdogan”, a rallying cry during the anti-government protests
into its neighbours’ conflicts.
If Turkey continues on this path, some analysts warn, it of recent years, prompting police to intervene, witnesses said.
“Turkey has become a country that can neither rejoice nor
risks a cycle of violence and a lurch away from the European
standards of freedom and democracy to which it once aspired. mourn together, or find a common sense to unite around. It
has become an angry country, with ever
President Tayyip Erdogan shows little
shrinking and fragmenting tribal outlooks,”
sign of healing the rifts.
Parties from across
said Turkish-British researcher Ziya Meral.
Parties from across the political
the political spectrum
“Pressure on media and denials of
spectrum — from nationalists to the proKurdish opposition — have condemned
have condemned the freedom of expression are only fuelling
mistrust, dangerous propaganda and
the car bombing, which killed 37 people in
car bombing and was misinformation,” Meral, a research fellow
the heart of Ankara and was the third in the
the third in Ankara
at Britain’s Sandhurst military academy
city in five months. But the question of how
and founder of the London-based
to respond is far more divisive. Officials
in five months,
Centre on Religion and Global Affairs,
quickly blamed Kurdish militants.
writes UMIT BEKTAS wrote in a blog post.
Turkish warplanes began bombing their
The ruling AK Party, founded by
camps in northern Iraq within hours, and
Erdogan more than a decade ago, was
clashes with the security forces widened in
“no longer driven by pragmatism” but by its own survival
Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast.
In his first speech since the attack, Erdogan said the and its ambition of securing the stronger presidential
country’s anti-terrorism laws, already seen by rights groups as system that Erdogan wants, he said.
Since winning Turkey’s first popular presidential election
too invasive and used in recent months to detain academics
in 2014, Erdogan has lobbied for replacing its parliamentary
and journalists, should be widened further.
“It might be the terrorist who pulls the trigger and system with an executive presidency more akin to the United
detonates the bomb, but it is these supporters and accomplices States or France.
Many of his supporters, who represent just over half
who allow that attack to achieve its goal,” he told a dinner for
the electorate and see him as champion of the pious
doctors in his palace late on Monday.
“The fact their title is lawmaker, academic, writer, working class, believe the narrative that Turkey, battered by
journalist or head of a civil society group doesn’t change the regional conflicts, needs strong leadership for its long-term
fact that individual is a terrorist...We should redefine terror stability. His opponents fear too much power in the hands
of a man who brooks no dissent.
and terrorist as soon as possible and put it in our penal code.”
With Havana trip, President Obama seeks to make history
B
arack Obama’s historic visit to Havana
next week may be the closest he comes to a
Nixon-goes-to-China moment, but he also
has another more practical goal: to make his
opening to Cuba irreversible for the next US
president.
The Obama administration hopes
that getting more US companies invested
in Cuba and loosening up travel to the
island will make it almost impossible for
traditionally pro-business Republicans to
halt or even roll back the thaw in relations
if they win the White House in November.
Ahead of his March 20-22 trip to
Havana, the stage is set for a further easing
of trade restrictions and a string of business
announcements from the hotel and
telecommunications industries and possibly
even Major League Baseball.
“The administration wants to do as much
as it can unilaterally before the clock runs
out,” said a person who has been briefed on
Obama’s strategy.
What remains to be seen, however, is
whether Obama can prod Cuba’s prickly
Communist government to reciprocate at
least with modest economic reforms that
would help ensure his policy sticks.
Cuba’s leaders have been slow to loosen
their grip on the island’s state-run economy.
That plus strict limits that remain under
the US economic embargo against Cuba has
made many American firms wary. Obama’s
critics accuse him of giving up too much in
return for too little from Cuban President
Raul Castro and now taking a premature
“victory lap.”
But administration officials says deeper
US engagement should not be contingent
on concessions from the former Cold
War foe, such as improving its human
rights record.
Obama and his advisers insist that
his outreach to Havana has a better
chance of sowing the seeds of eventual
change than what they see as a failed US
policy of isolation pursued for more than
half a century.
“This is not a matter of providing
concessions,” Obama told CNN en Espanol.
“This is a matter of us engaging directly with
the Cuban people.”
Obama’s visit — the first by a US
president in 88 years — is meant to
showcase that approach. But it is also a
gamble for a US leader whose strategy of
Obama and his advisers
insist that his outreach to
Havana has a better chance of
sowing the seeds of eventual
change than what they see as
a failed US policy of isolation,
notes MATT SPETALNICK
engaging adversaries has had mixed results.
Locking in his Cuba opening would
make it a major piece of his legacy.
Obama has relied on executive powers
to jump-start the normalisation of ties
given continued resistance in Congress to
lifting the long-standing US embargo. His
challenge is to advance the process to the
point that no successor could unravel it.
Cuba has not figured heavily in the
2016 presidential race but it could emerge,
especially in Florida, a swing state and home
to the largest Cuban-American community.
For decades, Cuban-Americans were
broadly opposed to any rapprochement
but a younger generation has warmed to
Obama’s policy shift.
Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton
and Bernie Sanders have pledged to stick
with Obama’s opening to Cuba if elected.
Republican frontrunner Donald Trump
said last week the old policy needed to be
changed but he would renegotiate with
Cuba for a better deal.
His challengers, Ted Cruz and Marco
Rubio, both Cuban-Americans, said they
would reverse Obama’s approach altogether.
Despite that, Obama told CNN en
Espanol he believes Congress will remove
the embargo in the next administration,
whether Democrat or a Republican —
though he acknowledged there were
not yet enough votes.
US President Barack Obama checks his watch, a reference to his time left in office,
while speaking at the State Department in Washington on Monday.
— Reuters
ANALYSIS
W E D N E S DAY
MARCH 16 l 2016
omandailyobserver
9
Need to protect national currency from tampering
T
HAIDER AL LAWATI
haiderdawood@hotmail.com
he recent statement issued by the Central Bank
of Oman (CBO) about the need for citizens and
residents to preserve and protect the national
currency from tampering, mutilation and damage
is not the first of its kind.
Many other notices had preceded this in the past
in the light of the ongoing awareness campaigns
carried out by the CBO to preserve the national
currency from all sorts of defacement. The CBO
has also published these notifications in various
media channels.
Banknotes are one of the most significant
achievements of humankind devised to facilitate
exchange and storage of wealth and the settlements
of obligations. The new banknotes and coins
require protection from abuse.
In addition to this, national currency contains
several national symbols, and at the same time a
legal value. Therefore, everyone has the obligation
to safeguard the national currency from damage
and tampering. People nowadays withdraw
money through automatic teller machines (ATMs)
operated by banks in different regions and
provinces of the country. These ATMs reject any
mutilated or damaged notes.
Before pointing out the legal provisions
that criminalise the mutilation and tampering
of national currencies, it is emphasised that
banknotes of any country represent one of
the true attributes of citizenship that everyone garlands, wreaths and arches made of the banknotes
must respect, preserve and refrain from worn around the neck during wedding ceremonies.
This defaces the national currency and
abusing by any means.
The national currency is an important symbol contravenes the law, especially the provisions of
of economic and social relationships. It is also Oman Banking Law No 114/2000. These acts
an essential means to ensure confidence in the do not reflect the civilised image of the citizen or
resident of the country. Everyone should stay away
national economy.
Therefore, the officials concerned at central from any negative behaviour. Writing personal
notes on banknotes is a breach
banks and other state
of Banking Law.
institutions have a duty to
Moreover,
some
protect the currency.
Many countries,
commercial institutions in the
Many countries, including
including Oman,
word also refuse to deal with
Oman, believe that defacing
believe that defacing
any mutilated currency in any
the national currency hurts
way, making the person using
the economy and overburdens
national currency
aware that he or she has
the state with massive financial
hurts the economy and itabused
the currency.
costs paid by their central
overburdens the state
Through follow up on this
banks to re-print banknotes to
matter, one can notice that
compensate for the mutilated
with massive costs to
there are frequent cases of
notes and thus unfit for use.
re-print the damaged
intentional or unintentional
There are many forms
banknotes.
mutilation of currency in many
of tampering with the local
Arab countries.
currency.
These
include
Several Arab and Asian
deliberate actions to deface it
by writing on them, tearing, damaging and burning central banks suffer from this scourge, contrary to
the developed countries, suggesting that people in
them or misuse at weddings and social events.
The central bank also noticed that some outlets those countries scorn or disparage their national
and shops selling dressmaking necessities and currencies instead of holding them in high esteem
the likes, manufacture, sell and profit by selling in a civilised image.
This behaviour could probably be due to the
absence of deterrent measures against those who
abuse their local currency.
Consequently, the Central Bank of Oman is
always keen to issue to the public clean banknotes
with some features making them a source of
assurance to deal with at both the national level
and abroad.
The national currency is a symbol of national
sovereignty, which makes it a national duty to
maintain its quality and worthy for everyone to
us. The latest statement of the CBO confirms
this notion. It points out that any use of the
national banknotes and the currency coins
other than circulated as public tender falls under
penalty of law.
It contravenes Article 43 (b) of Oman Banking
Law, which stipulates that: “Any violation of this
Article shall be an offense against public confidence
as provided in Chapter One, Title Three, Book Two
of Oman Penal Code or any other law replacing it”.
CBO officials had noticed cases of mutilation of
our national banknotes.
This mutilation takes place by affixing seals on
the banknotes or writing on them or otherwise
abusing them by piercing them resulting in
changing their intrinsic features or damaging
them. Every citizen must understand and
respect this statement.
DERAILED LIVES
KARAM AL MASRI
A
A man carries freshly baked bread on his head along a street in Cairo, Egypt.
promising student, a humble merchant, a skilled craftsman and a young
builder — these are just few out of the millions of lives thrown into
turmoil by Syria’s brutal five-year war. The peaceful protest movement
that broke out on March 15, 2011 has morphed into a conflict that has
changed the trajectory of Syria’s people.
Covered in grease and engine oil, Othman al Najjar, 12, wriggles
out from underneath a car in the mechanic shop he works in south of
Damascus. Since he fled a flashpoint suburb east of the capital in 2014,
he and his older brother Rashed have become the primary breadwinners
for their family, earning the equivalent of $5 (4.50 euros) a week.
But Othman had dreamt of a different future.
“I would have liked to be an architect. I used to like maths a lot in
school, and I wish I could have finished my studies,” he says. “My whole
life changed after the war.”
The scrawny boy wipes down an engine part before returning it to
the car he is working on. “Before everything started, I used to study
and play. But now, my face is constantly pressed against car engines and
covered in oil and grease,” he said.
In the divided northern city of Aleppo, rebel fighter Yasser Nabhan
carefully rolls his military fatigues over his prosthetic right leg in the
opposition-held Sayf al Dawla neighbourhood.
Syria’s war has transformed Nabhan from a successful textile
merchant, to a rebel sniper, to a handicapped administrative assistant.
Nabhan says he took up arms gradually, spending his days at his
shop then picking up a sniper rifle in the evenings to shoot militiamen.
But after a fierce battle southeast of Aleppo city, he experienced what he
calls a “paradigm shift.”
“I was wounded by a roadside mine in clashes with the regime in
Khanasser in 2013. My life changed, I lost my leg and was permanently
handicapped,” he said.
Nabhan now heads the public relations team of a rebel group. His
family fled to Turkey four months ago, and Nabhan feels lonely, but free.
In Damascus’ Sayyida Zeinab neighbourhood, Muntazar says his life
was changed by the war in a way unlike many Syrians. The 25-yearold sits comfortably behind a small desk, where his camera, a set of
batteries, and his laptop are carefully laid out.
“I used to work in construction in the village of Zahraa in Aleppo,
but my work completely stopped when the village was besieged,” he
said. To fill his days, Muntazar began taking photos on the front lines
and was soon hired by pro-government media.
— Reuters
Egypt struggles to end corruption in wheat
W
hen Egyptian lawyer Ahmed Gad stepped
out of a cafe on the outskirts of Cairo to take
a call last October, a gunman on the back of a
motorcycle trained a semi-automatic rifle on
him and opened fire.
Three bullets ripped into Gad’s right
side before his attackers sped off. Gad, who
survived, said the men were trying to silence
him for his attempts to expose corruption in
one of Egypt’s most important commodity
markets: wheat. Wheat can be a matter of life
and death in Egypt.
The country is the world’s biggest importer
of the grain, in large part because Cairo runs
a bread subsidy programme that feeds tens of
millions of poor Egyptians.
Wheat shortages have triggered riots in
the past, and when Egyptians rose up against
Hosni Mubarak in 2011 one of their signature
chants was “Bread, freedom and social justice.”
The pressures have returned over the past
few months as Egypt has faced potential wheat
shortages because of its strict ban on imports
of wheat infected with ergot, a common
fungus. The hardest blight to eradicate,
though, has been corruption.
President Abdel Fattah al Sisi has made
ending corruption — including graft in the
wheat industry — one of his government’s
priorities. In 2014, his government rolled
out a system of smart cards designed to stop
unscrupulous bakeries selling governmentsubsidised flour on the black market.
Cairo says the system has been a big
success, saving millions of dollars in bread
subsidies, reducing imports, and ending
shortages that once prompted long queues
outside bakeries across the country.
Supplies Minister Khaled Hanafi told
Egyptian reporters in late 2014 that roughly
50 per cent of the country’s flour supply was
stolen. In December last year he said that the
new system had saved more than 6 billion
Egyptian pounds ($766 million) worth of
flour. But industry officials, traders and bakers
say those reforms have failed — and even
made abuse of the system worse.
Eight sources in the wheat industry said the
smart card system could be hacked, allowing
some bakers to falsify receipts and request far
more subsidised flour than they officially sold.
Instead of reducing the amount of flour the
state paid for, the critics said, the smart card
system actually increased it.
That triggered a wave of fraud higher up
the supply chain that the sources say cost
the country hundreds of millions of dollars
last year. Internal statistics produced by the
Supplies Ministry and reviewed by Reuters
suggest the problems with the smart card
system were considerable.
The data show that consumption of statesubsidised flour rose in early 2015 in 12 of
the 19 provinces where the smart card system
had been introduced. In February 2015,
consumption of subsidised flour was 955,000
tonnes, the data show, up from 750,000 tonnes
the previous February.
The government concedes there were
teething problems in the smart card system
that temporarily drove up consumption.
But it said the problem was limited and
was dealt with. Whatever the case, the
extra consumption early last year drained
government grain reserves.
Wheat shortages triggered
riots in the past, and when
Egyptians rose up against the
government in 2011 one of
their signature chants was
‘Bread, freedom and social
justice,’ writes ERIC KNECHT
By last May, ministry data show, wheat
reserves had fallen to just 435,000 tonnes,
enough for about two weeks’ supply and
far below the stock of three to four months
normally held by the state.
Four traders said that the government
tried to paper over the shortage by declaring
a bumper domestic harvest last year and
then quietly filling the gap by buying extra
imported wheat. In fact, the traders and one
former adviser to the Supplies Minister said,
the harvest was no bigger than normal.
It was not possible to verify the size of the
harvest.
Nader Nour El-Din, a former adviser to
the supplies minister and now a professor
of agriculture at Cairo University, said it was
inconceivable for the harvest to have been
as big as the government said because the
area under wheat had not increased in size,
production methods had not changed and
fertiliser use had not increased.
In his December interview with Reuters,
Supplies Minister Hanafi said that wheat
levels were deliberately reduced in the first
five months of 2015 to clear space in silos for
the bumper crop the state was expecting.
“We never, (and) we are not facing at
all, a shortage in the reserves,” he said. “The
opposite is true.”
The smart card system was designed to
end corruption.
The scheme provides each family with a
plastic card allowing them to buy five small
flat loaves of bread per family member a day. A
family member must swipe their card through
a machine every time they visit a bakery — so
the Ministry of Supplies can track exactly how
much bread each bakery sells.
The government then pays each bakery a
subsidy per loaf. Until the smart card system,
the ministry relied on bakeries to report how
much bread they sold.
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10
omandailyobserver
INDIA
W E D N E S DAY
MARCH 16 l 2016
STING OPERATION: Much to the chagrin of ruling Trinamool, BJP
sought CBI probe while CPM demanded that tainted be kept off polls
MPs demand probe, BJP
meets Bengal governor
An Indian cricket fan poses for a picture before the start of the World T20
cricket tournament match between India and New Zealand at The Vidarbha
Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur on Tuesday. — AFP
India bars Pakistani
diplomats from
visiting Kolkata
NEW
DELHI:
The
Indian
government barred five Pakistani
diplomats and two of their family
members from travelling to
Kolkata to watch the upcoming
World T20 match between the two
neighbouring countries on March
19 due to security reasons.
A senior Pakistani diplomat,
who did not want to be named,
expressed disappointment over
the Indian decision and said: “It
is unfortunate that India, despite
being the host of the World Cup, is
refusing to fulfil its obligations and
creating hurdles.”
Pakistan’s High Commissioner
in New Delhi, Abdul Basit, was also
awaiting permission to travel to
Kolkata. So far, he had received no
communication green-lighting his
visit.
Basit is scheduled to travel on
March 18 to watch the World T20
encounter at Eden Garden.
Sources also revealed that the
Pakistani Foreign Office is expected
to summon the Indian envoy in
Islamabad to formally record its
protest over New Delhi’s decision
to bar the Pakistani diplomats from
travelling to Kolkata.
IANS has, meanwhile, reliably
learnt that the external affairs
ministry has denied permission to
the diplomats in question as they belong
to the Inter-Services Intelligence and
their travel posed a security threat.
NEW DELHI/KOLKATA: A sting
operation allegedly showing several
Trinamool Congress leaders accepting
money in return for lobbying for a
private firm snowballed into a major
political row on Tuesday both within
and outside parliament.
The issue figured prominently in the
Lok Sabha during Zero Hour.
Much to the chagrin of poll-bound
West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool
Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) urged Governor K N Tripathi for
a CBI probe while the Communist Party
of India-Marxist (CPM) said any leader
shown in the video footage should not
be allowed to contest the assembly polls.
On the defensive, senior Trinamool
leader Mukul Roy termed the video
footage “manufactured”.
“It is a manufactured video. There is
a political motive behind all these,” he
told reporters.
His party colleague and Dum Dum
MP Saugata Roy alleged in the Lok
Sabha: “There is a political conspiracy
against Trinamool by the three parties
— BJP, Congress and CPM — as they all
are going to lose the upcoming assembly
elections.”
Pressing for its demand for Chief
Minister Mamata Banerjee’s resignation
as well as a CBI probe into the alleged
bribery scandal, the BJP organised a
protest march in Kolkata and submitted
a memorandum to Governor Tripathi.
“Neither the chief minister nor
the Trinamool government has any
right to continue. We have placed our
demand with the governor seeking his
intervention in the matter,” BJP General
Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said in
Kolkata after meeting the governor.
Prominent people hiding taxable
income as farm earnings: Jaitley
NEW DELHI: The government has been
probing the cases of some “prominent
people” hiding their taxable income as
agricultural earnings, but there is no
proposal for taxing the farmers, Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley said in the Rajya
Sabha on Tuesday.
His statement came after members
expressed concern over the issue, citing
a report that the Central Board of Direct
Taxes (CBDT) has now been inquiring
into the genuineness of farm income
claims exceeding Rs 1 crore made by
people in their income tax (I-T) returns.
“Tax is not being paid and black
money is being generated in the name
of agriculture. Government should do
something; this is a serious issue,” said
Janata Dal-United leader Sharad Yadav,
raising the issue soon after the house
convened.
“In my village, several businessmen
are saving tax by doing agriculture,”
Yadav said.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader
Mayawati said that a high level inquiry
should probe the allegations.
“There should be a high-level inquiry
and those who have made black money
in the name of agriculture should be
caught,” she said. This, however, should
not be used as an excuse to tax farmers,
cautioned Samajwadi Party leader Ram
Gopal Yadav.
Jaitley clarified that the government
has no intention of taxing agricultural
income, but if someone is misrepresenting
non-agricultural income as farm
earnings, it will be probed.
“Seeing the situation of agriculture
sector, there is no proposal for levying
income tax on farmers,” Jaitley assured
the house.
“If someone misuses this provision
and shows a non-agricultural income as
agricultural income, we will probe the
individual case.”
“I will also tell you, there are many
prominent people who have done this
and probe is on against them. When the
probe is over and the facts are revealed,
don’t call it political victimisation,” said
the minister.
That statement irked Digvijay Singh
and a few other Congress members. “Let
him come out with the names of the
black money holders. He has misled the
country and again he is misleading the
country,” Digvijay Singh said. — IANS
Neither the chief
minister nor the
Trinamool government
has any right to
continue. We have placed our
demand with the governor
seeking his intervention in the
matter
KAILASH VIJAYVARGIYA
BJP General Secretary
The sting operation, purported to
have been done by a news portal, figured
prominently in the Lok Sabha during
Zero Hour and members from the BJP,
CPM and Congress unitedly demanded
a house probe. “We are ashamed that we
have to sit along with some members
who have been shown receiving money
in return for lobbying,” said Mohammad
Salim of the CPM.
He urged the Lok Sabha speaker to
call for the CDs from the portal which
conducted the sting and order a probe.
Salim was supported by Darjeeling
member S S Ahluwalia of the BJP and
Bengal Congress unit chief Adhir
Ranjan Chowdhury, who represents
Berhampore constituency.
The issue was also sought to be
raised in the Rajya Sabha but Deputy
Chairman P J Kurien said it can be
raised only after giving proper notice.
The Lok Sabha proceedings during
Zero Hour were also marked by
exchange of heated words between
Trinamool members like Saugata Roy
and Sultan Ahmed on one side and the
likes of Salim (CPM) and other Left
members and Chowdhury on the other.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister M
Venkaiah Naidu said truth must prevail
in the matter since it was related to the
conduct of the elected MPs.
“The matter needs to be probed
either by the government or by the Lok
Sabha speaker to establish the truth.
Truth must prevail in the case,” he said.
— IANS
Kingfisher owes 40pc of airline
dues to Airport Authority
NEW DELHI: Virtually all domestic
airlines owe money to the state-run
Airports Authority of India. But Vijay
Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines, now
inoperational, accounts for over 40 per
cent of that amount, the Rajya Sabha was
informed on Tuesday.
As per details provided by Civil
Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju
Pusapati, the total dues of the Airports
Authority is Rs 710.14 crore. Of that, Rs
294.57 crore is owed by Kingfisher. Next
on the list is IndiGo with Rs 71.81 crore,
GoAir (Rs 64.09 crore) and SpiceJet (Rs
63.28 crore).
In the case of Kingfisher, the amount
due also includes interest of Rs 121.88
crore. A recovery suit has been filed
in the court for the whole amount, the
minister said.
In another annexure, the minister
said while Jet Airways owes as much as
Rs 857.47 crore to the state-run Indian
Oil Corp, GoAir’s dues to the oil retailer
was Rs 76.34 crore towards aviation
Vijay Mallya
turbine fuel.
In the case of Hindustan Petroleum,
another public sector company, the
amount due from airlines was Rs 66.72
crore from Kingfisher, Rs 19.28 crore
from regional carrier Paramount and
a small sum of Rs 100,000 from Jet
Airways.
— IANS
IN BRIEF
Railways extends
e-catering to
408 stations
NEW DELHI: The e-catering
service of Indian Railways, allowing
passengers to book their meal in
advance and have it delivered on
the coach, has been extended to 408
stations from 45 large ones at present.
This service will also include home
food prepared by women.
Accredited journalists can also
book their tickets online.
“Under the extending scheme
of e-catering, travelling passengers
would be able to order food of their
choice from leading private caterers at
designated 408 major railway stations,”
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said,
launching the service here.
“This scheme will also include food
prepared by women at home for their
empowerment,” he said.
Initially, e-catering service was
train-specific and made available
on 1,350 trains which did not have
services of pantry car or train-side
vending. In September last year, this
was reoriented to make it a stationbased e-catering service, in place of it
being train-specific.
“Indian Railway Catering and
Tourism Corp is facilitating the
booking of meals via a specified phone
number, web site, SMS and mobile
app. Passengers with mobile number
can book meals under this scheme,”
a statement said, adding cash-ondelivery option is also available.
Burdwan blast:
Two JMB
terrorists held
NEW DELHI/KOLKATA: Two
suspected terrorists of the Jamaatul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB)
were arrested from West Bengal
on Tuesday in connection with
the Burdwan blast in which two
suspected terrorists of the outfit were
killed and another was injured, the
NIA said.
Habibul Hoque, 30, and Enamul
Molla, 25 — both residents of North
and South 24 Parganas, respectively
— were arrested for having close
association with the accused arrested
and absconding in the blast, an
official said.
The blast took place on October
2, 2014 in a two-storeyed building in
Khagragarh locality of Burdwan.
The
National
Investigation
Agency, which took up the probe
on October 10, 2014, has so far
arrested 18 people and filed its
second supplementary charge sheet
on December 14, 2015, slapping
fresh charges against 28 accused for
waging war against Bangladesh —
an Asiatic power which is in alliance
and peace with India.
The NIA filed its first charge sheet
before a designated special court on
March 30, 2015 naming 21 people,
including four Bangladeshi nationals,
for their role in the JMB conspiracy
to overthrow the existing democratic
government in Bangladesh through
violent terrorist acts.
— IANS
She founded the Missionaries of Charity with about a dozen nuns in the 1950s to help the poor on the streets of Kolkata
Mother Teresa to be made Roman Catholic saint on Sept 4
VATICAN CITY: Mother Teresa of
Calcutta, a nun who dedicated her
life to helping the poor, will be made a
saint of the Roman Catholic Church at a
ceremony on September 4, Pope Francis
announced on Tuesday.
Last December, he cleared the way for
sainthood for the Nobel peace laureate,
who died in 1997 at the age of 87 and was
known as “saint of the gutters”.
She founded the Missionaries of
Charity with about a dozen nuns in the
1950s to help the poor on the streets of
Calcutta, now known as Kolkata. The
religious order spread throughout the
world. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in
1979.
There was no immediate word
from the Vatican on the location of
the canonisation ceremony, which is
expected to take place in Rome with a
thanksgiving ceremony held at a later
date in the Indian city where Teresa is
buried.
She was also a controversial and
divisive figure with critics branding her
a religious imperialist whose fervent
opposition to birth control and abortion
ran contrary to the interests of the
communities she claimed to serve.
Despite posthumously published
letters revealing that she suffered crises of
faith throughout her life, Teresa has been
fast-tracked to canonisation in unusually
quick time, underlining her status as a
modern-day icon of Catholicism.
Teresa took the first step to sainthood
in 2003 when she was beatified by Pope
John Paul II following the recognition of
a claim she had posthumously inspired
the 1998 healing of a critically-ill Bengali
tribal woman.
the Church’s standard requirement for
sainthood of having been involved in
two certifiable miracles.
Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha
Bojaxhiu to Albanian parents in 1910 in
Skopje, now the capital of Macedonia.
She started her life as a nun as a
teenager with a missionary order in
Ireland and arrived in India in 1929.
After more than two decades of
missionary and charity work, she
founded her own Missionaries of Charity
order in 1950. She was granted Indian
citizenship a year later.
Francis, who regards Teresa as the
incarnation of the kind of Church
Catholic nuns from the order of the Missionaries of Charity gather under a picture of he wants to lead, met the by-then
Mother Teresa during the tenth anniversary of her death in Kolkata in this September internationally famous nun three years
5, 2007 file photo. — Reuters
before her death, when he was still a
Last year she was credited by Vatican of a Brazilian man suffering from bishop in Argentina.
He later joked that she had seemed
experts with inspiring the 2008 recovery multiple brain tumours, thus meeting
so formidable he “would have been
scared if she had been my mother
superior”.
Others were much harsher in their
judgement, with the likes of Australianborn feminist writer Germaine Greer
and British polemicist Christopher
Hitchens accusing her of contributing
to the misery of the poor with what they
saw as her dogmatic views.
In her Nobel acceptance speech Teresa
described terminations of pregnancies as
“direct murder by the mother herself ”.
Critics also raised questions about the
Missionaries of Charity’s finances and
conditions in the order’s hospices.
The late Italian film director and
writer Pier Paolo Pasolini was among
those who fell under her spell, in his case
when he met her during a trip to India in
the early 1960s.
— Agencies
INDIA
W E D N E S DAY
MARCH 16 l 2016
Bhujbal sent to two
days’ ED custody
MUMBAI: A court on Tuesday sent
former Maharashtra deputy chief
minister Chhagan Bhujbal, who was
arrested on corruption charges, to
two days custody of the Enforcement
Directorate (ED).
The ED had interrogated the senior
Nationalist Congress Party leader for
nearly 11 hours on Monday in the
various corruption cases against him and
arrested late night.
Charged under provisions under the
Prevention of Money Laundering Act
(PMLA), he was produced by the ED
before a Special PMLA Court on Tuesday
evening which granted the agency two
days custody to interrogate him further.
Seeking his remand, ED counsel
Hiten Vengaonkar said that Bhujbal
failed to cooperate when his statement
was being recorded by the agency on
Monday.
For most questions put to Bhujbal, the
response was ‘he did not know’, he said.
An emotional Bhujbal pleaded
innocence and said that he had
cooperated.
“I have not done any wrong. I have
cooperated and am being framed as part
of a conspiracy. When some questions
were put (by the ED), I genuinely said I
did not know and yet I was arrested,” he
said, his eyes moist.
He added that he did not grant
the contract (of constructing the
Maharashtra Sadan, New Delhi), but had
only obeyed the directives of the then
chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.
He claimed that it was some
disgruntled employees of the Mumbai
Education Trust (MET) run by his
family who created the story against
him, referring to its founder-trustee
Sunil Karve who had lodged a complaint
of financial misappropriation against
the Bhujbal family with the charity
commissioner and the Economic
Offences Wing of Mumbai Police.
Bhujbal argued what was the need for
the ED to arrest him when they could
summon him anytime for interrogation
in the matter.
— IANS
NEW DELHI: Jawaharlal Nehru
University on Tuesday denied media
reports that a high-level inquiry
committee had recommended the
rustication of five students from the
university.
“It is not true. Not at all...,” Chief
Proctor Ashok Dimri said when asked if
the media reports were correct.
“What the panel has recommended
is a different issue. I’ve just received the
report and will review it when the time
comes. The students have been issued
show-cause notices in which there are
different clauses. But the media reports
are not true,” Dimri said.
“The quantum of punishment will be
decided once I receive the responses to
the show cause (notices),” he added.
On Monday, media reports said the
panel had recommended the rustication
of JNU Students Union president
Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid, Anirban
Bhattacharya and two other students for
their alleged role in raising anti-national
slogans on the campus on February 9.
Meanwhile, the JNU Teachers
Association also said the media reports
on rustication were false.
“These reports are completely false.
The teaching community is going to
demand from the JNU administration to
set up an inquiry and find out who leaked
the rumours in media. We want the
media organisations which carried the
Students and activists stage a protest against the arrest of students on sedition charges in New Delhi on Tuesday. — AFP
report to disclose the name of the person
who said this,” JNUTA general secretary
Professor Bikramaditya Chaudhury said.
Kanhaiya’s bail plea: A plea to cancel
the six-month interim bail to Kanhaiya
Kumar in a sedition case is likely to come
up for hearing in the Delhi High Court
on Wednesday.
Real estate bill passed, govt says
will bring property prices down
Congress releases
list of 43 candidates
for Bengal polls
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday
released a list of 43 candidates for the
coming assembly polls in West Bengal
amid efforts to work out a working
alliance with the Left Front.
Among the candidates cleared by the
Congress central election committee,
sitting legislator Shaoni Singha Roy will
be fielded from Murshidabad, a known
party stronghold.
West Bengal will see balloting on
seven dates: April 4, 11, 17, 21, 25 and 30
and May 5.
The party has selected Mohit
Sengupta for the prestigious Raiganj
seat in north Bengal while Indrani Mishra
will contest from Asansol Uttar in south
Bengal. The Congress is also fielding
Mohammad Sohrab from Jangipur and a
local prominent leader Sukhbilas Barma
will try his luck from Jalpaiguri (reserve)
seat.
Even as there were some problems in
the tie-up between the Congress and the
Left Front, state Congress president Adhir
Ranjan Chowdhury has claimed there
was no dispute with the leftists. — IANS
We are not against
builders. If there are
problem with the
builders, I am ready to
discuss it with them anytime.
I say you will get more
investment, you will get early
clearances and the property
prices will come down.
M VENKAIAH NAIDU
Urban Development Minister
defence, civil aviation, environment and
consumer affairs.
Expressing satisfaction after members
expressed their support to the bill, he
said: “It is a historic moment for the
country as we are fulfilling the aspirations
of the people who wish to own a house,
giving them the needed protection. The
bill will be giving credibility to real estate
sector also.”
During the debate, Congress leader in
Lok Sabha Malikarjun Kharge extended
his party’s support, saying: “We want to
pass the bill.”
RSP member N K Premchandran
and RJD’s Jaiprakash Narain Yadav also
supported it.
BJD’s
Kalikesh
Singh
Deo
11
JNU denies media reports on rustication of students
ALL APPLAUD: Members rising above party lines including from Cong supported the bill
NEW DELHI: The real estate bill pending
before parliament since 2013 was finally
passed on Tuesday with the Lok Sabha
giving its nod as members cutting
across party lines backed it. Terming
the development “historic”, Urban
Development Minister M Venkaiah
Naidu asserted the new law will help
bring down property prices.
Members rising above party lines
including from the Congress, the Biju
Janata Dal (BJD), the Revolutionary
Socialist Party (RSP), the Rashtriya Janata
Dal and the Indian Union Muslim League
supported the Real Estate (Regulation
& Development) Bill, which had been
passed by the Rajya Sabha on March 10.
Replying to the debate on the bill in
the lower house, Naidu assured that the
government is also open to discuss with
the builders if they have any issue with
the bill.
“We are not against builders. If there
are problem with the builders, I am ready
to discuss it with them anytime,” he said,
adding the speedy land clearances for the
real estate projects will help in bringing
down prices of the houses.
“I say you will get more investment,
you will get early clearances and the
property prices will come down.”
Naidu said the bill was brought in
the house after consultation with several
stake holders including the ministries of
omandailyobserver
complimented the government for
bringing the bill.
“There was an absolute screaming
need for regulation to be brought in.
Under the previous avatar, many laws
and many authorities regulated different
aspects of the real estate business
environment. The excesses caused by the
imbalance of power during negotiations
between consumers and sellers were
indeed extreme,” he said.
IUML’s E T Mohammad Basheer also
called it “a very good piece of legislation”
but wondered whether there will be clash
with the central law as various states also
have legislation in this regard.
In his reply, Naidu stressed that the
builders should fulfil the promises they
make to the flat buyers.
“The builders will have to do their
duty. Parliament is not interested in
interfering with their activity. What you
(builders) are committing, what you are
promising, fulfill that. This is the only
purpose of this real estate bill,” he said.
The minister also said that he will
write to all the chief ministers requesting
them to give speedy clearances to the real
estate projects in their states.
A major benefit for consumers
proposed in the bill is that builders will
have to quote prices based on carpet area
and not super built-up area, while carpet
area has been clearly defined in the bill
to include usable spaces like kitchen and
toilets.
The bill makes it mandatory for all
commercial and residential real estate
projects where the land is over 500 square
metres, or eight apartments, to register
with the regulator for launching a project.
For failure to register, it proposes a
penalty of up to 10 per cent of the project
cost or three years’ imprisonment.
Naidu said the main purpose of the
bill is to protect consumers’ interest.
“Sometimes we are called probusiness, I do not mind being called that.
After all business and industry (people)
are also Indians,” he said, adding the
interests of farmers and consumers will
be protected.
— IANS
The plea filed on Tuesday by lawyer R
P Luthra said Kanhaiya has violated the
conditions imposed on him by the Delhi
High Court when it granted him interim
bail on March 2.
Custody extended: On Tuesday, a
Delhi court extended till March 29 the
judicial custody of JNU students Umar
Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, facing
sedition charges for allegedly raising
“anti-India” slogans, court sources said.
Both the accused were presented
before a magistrate via video conferencing
due to security concerns after expiry of
their earlier remand of judicial custody,
sources said.
— IANS
IN BRIEF
Kejriwal demands Bharat Ratna for Kanshi
ROPAR: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday demanded Bharat Ratna for
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder Kanshi Ram and said he will form a SIT to probe
all crimes against Dalits if his Aam Aadmi Party is voted to power in Punjab.
On a political trip to Punjab on Tuesday to woo Dalit voters, the AAP convener
visited Pirthipur Bunga village — the native place of Dalit leader Kanshi Ram in Ropar
district to mark his 82nd birth anniversary.
“Kanshi Ram should get Bharat Ratna. MP Bhagwant Mann will raise this issue in
parliament,” Kejriwal said addressing a gathering at the village.
Kejriwal said that if voted to power in Punjab, the AAP government would fulfil
Kanshi Ram’s dreams for the Dalit community.
“I will form an SIT to investigate all crimes against Dalits and till I am alive, no one
can dare touch SC reservations,” he said.
Kejriwal said Kanshi Ram was a great visionary and was the only leader of the
Dalit Samaj after Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar. He also garlanded a statue of
Kanshi Ram.
Motion against Andhra speaker defeated
HYDERABAD: The no-confidence motion moved by opposition YSR Congress Party
against Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kodela Sivaprasad Rao was defeated on
Tuesday. A total of 97 members opposing it, while 57 legislators belonging to the
lone opposition party supported it.
Eight members of YSRCP, who recently crossed over to ruling Telugu Desam
Party (TDP), abstained. The voting took place after two-hour-long debate on the
motion. The YSRCP alleged that speaker is running the house in violation of rules and
ignoring the opposition.
Deputy Speaker M Buddha Prasad, who was in the chair, conducted the voting on
a request by Legislative Affairs minister Y Ramakrishnudu.
The motion against the speaker was moved a day after he declared the no-trust
motion moved by the opposition against the government rejected with a voice vote
even as YSRCP pressed for division.
Man stabs woman and her son to death
NEW DELHI: A man stabbed a woman and her 16-year-old son to death and later
slit his throat here on Tuesday evening, police said. The man was still alive and being
treated at a hospital. The incident took place around 4.30 pm in Raj Nagar Part II near
Palam in south Delhi.
The deceased were identified as Anju Devi, 37, and her son Prashant Chaudhary.
Police refused to divulge the identity of the man who attacked the two people at
their first floor flat.
“Initial investigation revealed that the man first stabbed Prashant. He stabbed
Anju when she came to rescue her son. As some neighbours gathered after hearing
Anju’s cry, the man closed himself inside a room and slit his throat with the same
weapon he used to commit the two killings,” said a police officer.
Both the man and his victims were rushed to a hospital where Prashant was
declared brought dead while his mother succumbed to her injuries, the officer said.
The officer said the attacker was still alive and being treated at the hospital. — IANS
Union minister Rudy said ‘there is no place for such incident in our society, and the party will take all necessary steps’
Outcry over BJP legislator’s cruelty to horse
NEW DELHI: Uttarakhand BJP
legislator Ganesh Joshi, who brutally
thrashed and injured a police horse, is
a “danger to society” and he must be
sacked both from the legislature and the
party, prominent global animal rights
group PETA said on Tuesday.
“He must be disqualified from his
post because any person who beat up
a horse is not far from doing the same
with people and is a danger to society.
The party must not retain him,” PETA
chief executive Poorva Joshipura said.
In a bizarre display of cruelty,
Joshi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
legislator from Mussoorie, attacked and
severely injured Shaktimaan, a white
horse with Uttarakhand Police, during
a protest against the Harish Rawat
government in Dehradun on Monday.
The horse was left bleeding and the
vets attending it said its leg will have to
be amputated. The severe attack led to
widespread public outrage.
The PETA chief urged Uttarakhand
Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal to
“immediately expel Joshi from the
Vidhan Sabha on the grounds of extreme
and criminal misconduct”.
“To ensure the maximum safety
of animals, a strict action needs to be
taken,” Poorva said.
She also urged BJP president Amit
Shah to expel Joshi from the party. “This
is a party which is supposed to stand for
everyone, including animals. How can it
tolerate the bleeding of a horse?”
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi
himself is expected to demonstrate
respect for the country’s animal
protection laws and basic decency
of publicly condemning his party
colleague,” the PETA official said.
“We are calling upon police to make
sure he is punished to the maximum
extent of the law,” an angry Poorva said.
On the social media, people,
including animal rights activists,
Bollywood celebrities and prominent
political leaders, slammed Joshi and
sought his sack from the party and the
legislature.
B-town’s leading lady Sonam Kapoor
termed Joshi’s act “inhuman”. “This is
disgusting inhuman behaviour. (Chief
Minister) Harish Rawat I hope you deal
with this man!” a disappointed Sonam
said. Bollywood actress Minissha Lamba
also spelt the same view and said: “What
fault was it of the police horse? Yolked
by man into service.. Beaten by man for
his service..”
Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha slammed
Joshi for his action and said: “That
white horse is such a metaphor for
the common man. Power rides it and
anarchy incapacitates it.”
Model-actor Rajneesh Duggall said:
“What a shame.. Ganesh Joshi deserves
to be punished.. Whatever ur agenda, y
drag an animal into it..”
The horse had been working with
Uttarakhand Police for a decade but
the injury may well end its career. An
FIR has been lodged against Joshi, who
denied the charge of attack on the horse,
well captured on videos, and said that
the government was trying to “shift
focus from the core issues” of the state.
Meanwhile, the BJP has taken serious
note of the incident in Dehradun where
a party legislator attacked and severely
injured a horse of Uttarakhand Police,
union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy said
on Tuesday.
“The way the horse was beaten up is
completely unacceptable. So far, there is
no discussion in the party over the issue
but it has taken a serious note of the
incident,” Rudy told reporters at a press
conference here.
“There is no place for such incident
in our society. The party will take all the
necessary steps,” he added.
BJP leader and national executive
member of the party’s cultural cell Guru
Nair demanded action against the party
legislator.
— IANS
12
ETHIOPIA TO RAISE EMERGENCY DROUGHT CALL
W E D N E S DAY l M A R C H 1 6 l 2 0 1 6
WORLD
SHARAPOVA SUSPENDED AS GOODWILL ENVOY
Ethiopia’s government and aid
agency leaders are revising upwards
their joint $1.4 billion appeal for
more than 10 million people hit
by the country’s worst drought in
50 years. “Surges in humanitarian
needs are already registered since
December,” the United Nations
Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs said.
The United Nations has suspended Maria
Sharapova as a goodwill ambassador
after she failed a drug test at the
Australian Open, the latest fall from grace
for the Russian tennis star. Sharapova
had been a goodwill ambassador for the
UN Development Programme for the
past nine years, and had been active in
helping recovery efforts after the 1986
Chernobyl disaster.
MAKE-OR-BREAK TEST FOR WHITE HOUSE
POLLING: Five states in presidential nominating contests in ‘Super Tuesday 2’
YOUNGSTOWN: Voters began going
to the polls on Tuesday in five make-orbreak presidential nominating contests,
with Republican Donald Trump and
Democrat Hillary Clinton seeking to
tighten their grip as their party’s front
runners.
Polls opened at 10:30 in the states of
North Carolina and Ohio, and at 11:00
GMT in Florida, Illinois and Missouri, in
an event dubbed ‘Super Tuesday 2.’
Trump is seeking to push one or two
of his rivals out of the race, while Clinton
hopes to fend off a resurgent Bernie
Sanders and assert her claim as the party’s
all-but-certain presidential nominee.
“I love you Ohio. You can make the
difference!” Trump said at a late Monday
rally at the Youngstown airport — a last
minute push which suggested that he
viewed the Midwestern state as his closest
of the five races.
Violent clashes and protests at Trump
rallies over the weekend dominated US
headlines, with rivals in both parties
accusing the billionaire real estate mogul
of creating a toxic campaign environment.
The latest polls showed the Republican
frontrunner poised to win the Tuesday
contests, although Ohio’s Governor John
Kasich held a narrow lead in his state in
some surveys.
A Kasich victory in Ohio may be the
last chance to derail Trump’s march to
July’s Republican nomination, especially
as Tuesday marks the point when the
party moves to a winner-takes-all format
in terms of the delegates accorded for
each primary win.
Trump struck a blue-collar tone as
he urged Ohio to reject their popular
governor, saying he was better positioned
to re-invigorate the state’s struggling
Voters use electronic machines at a polling venue during primary voting in Stark County, Beach City, Ohio. — AFP
economy.
“Your steel industry is dead,” Trump Violent clashes and protests
said. “I’m going to bring your industry at Trump rallies over the
back.”
weekend dominated US
Florida, Illinois and Ohio are the day’s
biggest prizes for both parties, as each headlines, with rivals in
state offers large delegate hauls.
both parties accusing the
Among Democrats, if polls prove
billionaire real estate mogul
accurate Clinton will extend her lead over
rival Sanders. She is comfortably ahead in of creating a toxic campaign
Florida, but in Ohio the former secretary environment.
of state only held a five-point lead,
according to a Quinnipiac University poll
out Monday.
Sanders, appealing to blue-collar
voters, has made impressive gains in the in polls last month.
state, after trailing by as much as 30 points
In a sign of the high stakes, Trump
cancelled a rally Monday in Florida,
where he has a 20-point lead over Florida
Senator Marco Rubio, to make a final
pitch in Ohio.
Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican
nominee, campaigned with Kasich on
Monday in an attempt to thwart a Trump
victory in Ohio.
Sanders also campaigned in Ohio on
Monday. The self-described Democratic
Socialist drew some 2,000 people at a
rally in Youngstown where he slammed
“disastrous” US trade policies over
the past 20 years that he said had cost
America “millions of decent paying jobs.”
“If we have a good vote, and people
come out, we’re going to win in Ohio,”
In the latest shock to
civilians, meat has become
scarce as the army has
closed cattle markets to stop
Boko Haram from raising
funds by selling livestock
of cattle traders, herdsmen, butchers and
labourers unemployed.
“We are suffering,” said Usama Malla,
a cattle herdsman who lost his job.
While he spoke, an angry crowd quickly
gathered to criticise the government.
“We want compensation,” others
demanded.
The sprawling market had been one
of the main employment opportunities
for the more than one million displaced
people who live in camps on the outskirts
of the town after fleeing Boko Haram.
Officials say they were forced to shut
the market because Boko Haram has
resorted to stealing cattle from villagers
to feed its fighters and raise funds after
BOSASSO: Somali al Shabaab fighters
have seized a small port in the semiautonomous Puntland region, the latest
sign of a resurgence in activity by the
militants in the Horn of Africa nation.
A series of offensives last year by
the African Union force AMISOM and
the Somali National Army had driven
al Shabaab out of major strongholds in
the southern region of Somalia.
At the time, officials said some al
Shabaab fighters had moved north
to the Puntland region, beyond
AMISOM’s area of operation. In recent
weeks, al Shabaab has also retaken
smaller towns and launched deadly
attacks in the southern region.
“Al Shabaab fighters with several
boats captured Garad town,” Hassan
Mohamed, Governor for Mudug
region of Puntland said, adding that
the attack took place on Monday. “We
do not want to say publicly how we will
react.”
The head of the local authority
in the port town of Garad, Abdinur
Abdullahi, said by telephone that al
Shabaab with foreign fighters had met
local elders, saying they would “capture
many places and fight.”
“Most of the residents have fled,”
he said, adding al Shabaab had been
building up forces in the Galgala
Hills, echoing comments previously
made by officials in Puntland. Garad
is a former haven for pirates, who had
used the natural port to mount raids on
commercial ships passing along nearby
shipping lanes leading to and from the
Red Sea.
— Reuters
HRW asks DRCongo to free youth activists
Herders suffer as army
shuts cattle trade
MAIDUGURI: A Nigerian government
push to strangle the Boko Haram
insurgency has shut down the cattle
trade that sustained the city of
Maiduguri, leaving many residents with
no livelihood, including many of the two
million people displaced by the war.
In recent months the army has taken
back much of the territory lost to the
rebels during the five-year insurgency.
But the war, which killed thousands
of people, is still taking its toll in
the northeast, despite President
Muhammadu Buhari’s vow to crush
Boko Haram by the end of last year.
The group, now officially allied to
the IS fighters who control much of Iraq
and Syria, has responded with suicide
bombings and hit and run attacks
against civilians.
In the latest shock to civilians, meat
has become scarce as the army has closed
cattle markets to stop Boko Haram
from raising funds by selling livestock,
officials say.
The shutdown of the Maiduguri cattle
market — one of the biggest in west
Africa — has, overnight, made hundreds
Somali militants
seize small
Puntland port
AROUND THE GLOBE
Nigeria bid to fight Boko Haram insurgency
A man walks past a truck loaded with animal food at the cattle market in Maiduguri,
Nigeria. — Reuters
said Sanders, 74.
The clashes that erupted at Trump’s
Friday rally in Chicago marked an
escalation in tensions that have trailed the
controversial candidate.
Protesters turned up at his rally in
Hickory, North Carolina on Monday, but
this time, he patiently waited for their
chants to subside.
“There’s no violence,” he said. “It’s a
movement, it’s a love fest.”
He acknowledged there was “anger
from all sides including from our side”
but added: “We’re not angry people.
We’re all good people. There’s anger at the
incompetence.”
Nevertheless, Trump’s invective against
immigrants, Muslims and Hispanics have
become a staple of his campaign, drawing
roars of approval from supporters but
also increasingly aggressive protests.
On Saturday, a protester rushed the
stage as Trump was winding up a speech
near Dayton, Ohio.
“I was thinking that Donald Trump
is a bully, and he is nothing more than
that,” Thomas DiMassimo, a 22-year-old
college student who was charged with
disorderly conduct and inciting panic,
told CNN.
Trump has rejected suggestions
that his words have created a climate
of violence, instead blaming Sanders
supporters for sowing trouble — and
threatening to respond by sending his
own supporters to picket Sanders rallies.
The Vermont senator was blunt at
a CNN Democratic town hall event:
“Donald Trump is a pathological liar.”
Trump’s Republican rivals also seemed
shaken by the ugly turn in a campaign
that has for months endured mudslinging
and name-calling.
— AFP
SHABAAB ATTACK
the army pushed it out of cities. Cattle
looting has displaced its previous
sources of income: robbing banks and
kidnapping wealthy people.
The market closure has disrupted
beef supplies in Maiduguri and the rest
of Borno state, adding to the hardship
of people who have long complained
of poverty and neglect in the north —
struggles that prompted some to join
Boko Haram’s revolt.
“I cannot afford meat anymore,” said
Musa Abdullahi, a labourer sipping milk
sold by a female street vendor. He said he
has to feed two wives and nine children,
and can’t remember the last time he was
able to buy meat for the family. “I used to
get a piece of meat for 350 naira ($1.75),
now it costs 900.”
Borno state governor Kashim
Shettima said he had reopened the
Maiduguri market to trade existing
stock but banned the arrival of any new
cattle for two weeks so authorities could
identify sellers.
“There were suspicious persons who
sold cattle which they had bought from
Boko Haram,” he said. “This is financing
the terrorists.”
The closure has left some 400 animals
dying in trucks stopped by the army on
the way to Maiduguri, traders said.
Officials say authorities plan to
distribute food and find jobs for the
city’s youth. But options are limited
as a slump in vital oil revenues has
undermined Buhari’s plans to develop
the north, which is poorer than the
mostly Christian south, where Nigeria
pumps its oil.
Located some 1,600 km from the
Atlantic coast and the southern megacity
of Lagos, Maiduguri used to be a busy
cattle market serving neighbouring
Cameroon, Chad and Niger until
Boko Haram attacks closed the nearby
borders.
— Reuters
Ex-president
Lula to accept
ministerial post
SAO PAULO: Brazil’s ex-president
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is about to
join the government of his embattled
protege and successor Dilma Rousseff,
administration sources said on
Tuesday, as both seek to save their
political lives.
“There are two possibilities for Lula
in the government: chief of staff or
cabinet secretary,” an administration
source said, saying the former
president would travel to Brasilia on
Monday or Tuesday to discuss his
options with Rousseff in person.
Speculation had swirled in recent
days that such a move was imminent,
as both Lula and Rousseff’s political
stars waned.
He is facing charges in a case
linked to a massive corruption
scandal, and she faces an
impeachment drive, a deep recession
and mass protests.
If confirmed, the move would
spare Lula from facing trial in ordinary
court over money-laundering charges
tied to the multi-billion-dollar scandal
at state oil giant Petrobras.
Under Brazilian law, cabinet
ministers can only be tried before the
Supreme Court.
But the source denied the move
was aimed at saving Lula from arrest.
“The aim is to help the president
confront the impeachment process
and not to escape justice,” the source
said.
Citing administration sources,
newspaper ‘O Globo’ reported that
Lula was prepared to accept a post on
condition Rousseff agrees to overhaul
her economic policy to make it “more
focused on rebooting growth.” — AFP
KINSHASA: Leading rights watchdog Human Rights Watch on Tuesday asked DR
Congo authorities to immediately free two civil society activists arrested a year ago
during a pro-democracy workshop.
The New York-based group said the arrest of Fred Bauma and Yves Makwambala on
March 15 last year was part of a growing government crackdown on those speaking
out against President Joseph Kabila’s bid to extend his stay in power beyond a
constitutional two-term limit, ending December 19.
“The authorities should immediately drop the baseless charges and release Bauma,
Makwambala, and other activists and politicians held solely for peacefully expressing
their political views,” a statement said.
The pair, both in their 20s, were arrested along with at least two dozen other
people — including Senegalese and Burkinabe activists and an American diplomat —
during a workshop on good governance in Africa.
Congolese authorities then accused them of planning terrorist activities and a
violent insurrection. They were held without charge for weeks and then transferred to
Kinshasa’s main prison where they remain. — AFP
Flowers are seen on the beach in Grand-Bassam, a day after gunmen
attacked the Ivory Coast resort town popular with Ivorians and Westerners,
killing fourteen civilians and two soldiers. — AFP
Missing Venezuela miners’ bodies found
CARACAS: The bodies of 17 miners have been found in a mass grave in Venezuela,
from among 28 missing after an armed attack, officials said.
The bodies were found in a pit in the town of Tumeremo, in far southeastern
Venezuela near the border with Brazil.
Family members say the miners failed to return home from their shifts on March
4, and reports soon emerged that they had been gunned down by attackers trying to
take over their unlicensed small-scale gold mine.
“We have concluded the search for the missing people in Tumeremo with the
discovery of 17 bodies,” Attorney General Luisa Ortega wrote on Twitter late Monday.
Ortega earlier told TV network Globovision that four bodies had been found, and
that a suspect had been detained. The toll rose as investigators dug in the site.
Ortega however said that officials were “almost certain” that there were 21 miners,
not 28.
According to witnesses the bodies of the slain miners were cut into pieces and
loaded onto trucks, said Carlos Chancellor, the head of Sifontes, the municipality that
includes Tumeremo. — AFP
REGION
W E D N E S DAY
MARCH 16 l 2016
Cyprus likely to
block EU-Turkey
migrant deal
PRESSURE TACTICS OPPOSED:
Stresses disagreements with Ankara
European Council President Donald Tusk (L) holds a press conference with Cypriot
President Nicos Anastasiades after a meeting in the Cypriot capital Nicosia. — AFP
NICOSIA: Tiny Cyprus on Tuesday
threatened to derail a proposed EU deal
with Turkey to end Europe’s migration
crisis, warning it would not be
pressured into dropping longstanding
disagreements with Ankara.
EU President Donald Tusk held
hastily arranged talks in Nicosia in an
attempt to win Cyprus’s backing for
the proposal, which has been hailed
as a “game-changer” for countries
buckling under the burden of a mass
refugee influx. But there has been a
growing pushback against the deal, with
both France and the Czech Republic
warning against attempts by Turkey to
“blackmail” Europe.
Cypriot
President
Nicos
Anastasiades said his country would
not accept “Turkish demands without
the implementation of Turkey’s
long-pending obligations,” including
Ankara’s official recognition of the
Cyprus government. EU and Turkish
leaders agreed last week to a tentative
proposal including the return to Turkey
of all migrants landing in Greece. For
each Syrian refugee returned, the EU
agreed to take one from a Turkish camp
and resettle them in Europe.
Cyprus has expressed reservations,
not least as its longtime adversary
Turkey expects the accord to lead to the
opening of new chapters in Ankara’s
EU membership bid and to ease visa
requirements in Europe’s passport-free
Schengen area. Tusk, who later headed
to Ankara for talks, admitted that “we
are not there yet” in terms of a deal.
“The Turkish proposal still needs
to be rebalanced so as to be accepted
by all 28 member states and the EU
institutions,” he told reporters.
“One of the issues to be sorted out is
the key question of legality,” Tusk said,
after the UN’s top officials on refugees
and human rights questioned whether
the plan would be legal.
EU leaders will tackle the issue at
a crucial summit this weekend, with
The Turkish proposal
still needs to be
rebalanced so as to
be accepted by all 28
member states and the EU
institutions.
DONALD TUSK
EU President
France warning ahead of the meeting
that Turkey will not be allowed to
dictate terms.
France will tell Turkey at the
summit that it wants “more efficient”
cooperation on the migrant crisis,
but will warn against any attempt at
“blackmail”, Prime Minister Manuel
Valls said.
Czech President Milos Zeman also
lashed out at Turkey, claiming that
Ankara was seeking billions of euros
more in EU aid.
“Impolite people like myself call
that blackmail,” the 71-year-old veteran
leftwinger told reporters.
Last year more than 1.2 million
people sought asylum in Europe in
the continent’s biggest such crisis since
World War II. Member states such as
Greece and Italy, where arrivals are
highest, are struggling to cope.
A Cypriot refusal of the migrantswap deal would effectively block the
largest diplomatic push yet to ease
Europe’s burden of accommodating
hundreds of thousands of refugees,
most of whom enter the EU through
Turkey. The island of Cyprus has been
divided since 1974 when Turkish troops
invaded its northern sector in response
to an Athens-engineered coup attempt.
Turkey does not recognise the
Cypriot government and Nicosia has
blocked six key chapters of Ankara’s
negotiations for EU membership since
2009. — AFP
omandailyobserver
Jolie visits Syrian refugees in Lebanon
BEKAA VALLEY: Hollywood star and
UN refugee agency envoy Angelina Jolie
on Tuesday met Syrian refugee families
living in squalid conditions in Lebanon,
on the fifth anniversary of the Syrian war.
“We should never forget that for all
the focus on the refugee situation in
Europe at this time, the greatest pressure
is still being felt in the Middle East and
North Africa, as it has for each of the last
five years,” she said.
Jolie met Khulud, a 38-year-old
mother of four now living in a tent in
the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon,
who was left paralysed three years ago
by a sniper in Syria, according to the UN
refugee agency.
“Never once during our discussion did
she ask for anything, did she stop smiling,
or talk of anything other than her desire
for her children to have the chance to
go to school and have a better life,” the
actress and activist said.
“When I saw her beautiful smile, and
her dedicated husband and children
looking after her, I was in awe of them.
They are heroes to me. And I ask myself,
what have we come to when such
survivors are made to feel like beggars?”
Jolie later visited Beirut “where she
met a group of women living in poor
conditions, a damp collective shelter, that
left them and their families exposed to
sickness,” said the UN High Commissioner United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Special Envoy Angelina Jolie
for Refugees.
visits Syrian refugees in the Bekaa valley. — Reuters
41 killed in Yemen air strikes
SANAA: Saudi-led air strikes killed 41
civilians and wounded 75 on Tuesday in
Yemen’s northwestern province of Haja,
a senior provincial health official said,
a region largely controlled by the Iranallied Houthi militia. A spokesman for
the Saudi-led coalition that intervened
in Yemen’s civil war was not immediately
available for comment.
“So far, the death toll mounted to 41
civilians and 75 others injured when
the Saudi-led fighter jets launched two
air strikes on Al Khamees market in
Mastaba district in Hajja province,” a
medical official told Xinhua.
Doctors without Borders reported
that they have received about 40
injured from the air strikes in Mastaba
district and they were brought to the
organisation-hosted Rural Hospital in
Abs district.
Hajja, about 123 km northwest of the
rebel-held Sanaa, is another stronghold
of the Houthis, who also control
northern provinces, while southern
provinces have been retaken over the
past few months by the government
forces loyal to the internationally
recognised
President
Abedrabbo
Mansour Hadi. The Saudi-led coalition
started daily air bombing on the Houthis
and their allied forces since March 2015,
vowing to drive out the rebels and
retrieve Sanaa, the capital.
Dozens of injured civilians sought
medical help at a Medicins Sans
Frontieres (MSF) hospital in Yemen
after an air strike in Haja province by
the Saudi-led coalition, the medical
group said on Tuesday.
It said in a series of Tweets that more
than 40 injured people, all of them
civilians and including women and
children, among them an eight-year
old in critical condition, were admitted
to the Abs Hospital after a strike in
Mustaba.
A spokesman for the coalition was
not immediately available for comment.
Saba Net, a Yemeni news agency
controlled by the Houthis, reported
that 65 people had been killed and 55
wounded in the strike on a market and
restaurant in Mustaba.
Over 6,000 people, half of them
civilians, have been killed in the
war since the Saudi-led coalition
entered the conflict in March 2015, the
UN says.
In January, a UN panel found that
the coalition had targeted civilians
with air strikes, said some of the attacks
could be crimes against humanity, and
recommended the Security Council
consider establishing an inquiry into
violations. — Agencies
People ride on a motorbike past a building destroyed during recent fighting in Yemen’s city of Taiz. — Reuters
Troops deployed in the north alongside US forces and fighters from Kurdish region
IS retrenching before Mosul battle: Commander
MAKHMOUR: IS is retrenching as
Iraqi forces build up for an operation to
retake the northern city of Mosul and
some local militants desert the group,
the commander in charge of the highly
anticipated offensive said.
Thousands of Iraqi troops have
deployed to the north with heavy
weapons in recent weeks, setting up base
alongside US forces and troops from
Iraq’s Kurdish autonomous region in
Makhmour — a launchpad around 60
kilometres south of Mosul.
Although he described IS as depleted,
Nineveh Operations Commander Major
General Najm al Jubbouri said jockeying
between the various forces preparing
to take part in the battle for Mosul
benefited the militants.
“The operation to liberate Nineveh
will be done in stages,” Jubbouri said,
13
The operation to
liberate Nineveh will
be done in stages.
Now we are more
or less just waiting for the
order of the commander in
chief to begin the first step.
MAJ GEN NAJM AL-JUBBOURI,
Nineveh Operations Commander
referring to the province of which Mosul
is capital. “Now we are more or less just
waiting for the order of the commander
in chief to begin the first step.”
Mosul, home to around two million
People who fled the IS strongholds arrive at a refugee centre in Makhmour, south of
people before it fell to IS during a
Mosul, Iraq. — Reuters
lightning offensive in 2014, is by far the
biggest city ruled by the rebel group in
either Iraq or Syria. An Iraqi offensive
to recapture it, backed by air strikes
and advisors from a US-led coalition,
would be the biggest counterattack ever
mounted against the group.
Kurdish and Iraqi military sources
say the initial move will be westwards
from Makhmour to the town of Qayyara
on the Tigris River, which would sever
IS’s main artery between Mosul and
territory it controls further south and
east.
Jubbouri said the timing would hinge
on the progress of military operations in
the valley of Iraq’s other great river, the
Euphrates, where Iraqi forces have been
advancing against the militants after
routing them from a provincial capital,
Ramadi, in December. — Reuters
The star, who has visited Syrian
refugees in Lebanon before, appealed
to governments around the world to
step up their assistance to the nearly five
million people who have been forced by
war to flee their country.
Jolie called for “reason and calm and
foresight” in response to the international
migrant crisis, which in 2015 saw more
than one million asylum-seekers reach
Europe’s shores. “We must not let fears
get the better of us,” she said, noting
that tiny Lebanon alone has seen more
than one million Syrians flow across the
border since war erupted in 2011.
“We must not let fear stand in the way
of an effective response that is in our
long-term interests,” she said.
“My plea today is that we need
governments around the world to show
leadership: to analyse the situation and
understand exactly what their country
can do... to explain this to their citizens
and address fears — based not on
emotion but on a measured assessment
of what can and must be done to share
the responsibility and get on top of this
situation.”
Syria’s war began as a peaceful prodemocracy movement that faced a brutal
government crackdown in 2011.
It has since evolved into a brutal
war that has pushed nearly five million
people out of the country, and left 6.5
million others displaced inside it. — AFP
IN BRIEF
Palestine for
peace meet
with France
RAMALLAH: Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday
announced that the Palestinians were
ready to cooperate with France on
holding an international conference
for achieving peace in the Middle
East.
Abbas’s reiteration was made
in a meeting held at his office in
Ramallah with France’s special peace
envoy Pierre Vimont, who is visiting
Israel and the Palestinian territories,
Xinhua reported.
According to the Palestinian
official, Abbas explained to Vimont
the Palestinians appreciation to
France’s backing role in the peace
process and the ideas that Paris
presented for a peace solution.
“The Palestinian leadership fully
backs these important ideas,” Abbas
was quoted as saying, referring the
French ideas of pushing forward
the stalled peace process and find
a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
The French diplomat previewed to
Abbas in details his country’s ideas,
mainly the point related to holding
an international conference for peace
in the Middle East, and the contacts
with the international community.
— IANS
Turkey bomber
identified as
Kurdish militant
ANKARA: The suicide bomber
who carried out the deadly attack in
Ankara on Sunday was identified as
a member of the outlawed Kurdish
Workers’ Party (PKK), Turkey’s
Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.
The PKK member was Seher Cagla
Demir and she was born in 1992
in the province of Kars in eastern
Turkey, the ministry was quoted by
Xinhua as saying.
Demir joined the PKK in 2013
and later received training with the
People’s Protection Units in Syria.
The car bomb in Ankara’s
central Kizilay neighbourhood on
Sunday evening hit a major public
transportation hub, killing 37 people
and injuring over 100 others.
Since a ceasefire between the
government and the PKK collapsed
last July, Turkish security forces have
been conducting a major campaign
against the group in the southeast of
the country.
More than 260 members of
Turkish security forces and thousands
of PKK members have been killed
inside Turkey and in northern Iraq.
— IANS
14
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Viral Today
This new species of
spider is scaring the
I
f you haven’t notice yet, we’ve dedicated
this particular section mostly to artists and
photographers both local and from all over the
world.
There’s always something enlightening about
seeing new pieces of work. It can transport the
viewers to new destinations one hasn’t gotten to yet
or more frequently, to totally new realms that’s way
beyond a common man can imagine. Artists and
photographers are great storytellers. They just do it
differently than writers.
Today, we’re moving a bit closer to home.
Artist Arkut Ardogdu is based in Istanbul,
Turkey. Using digital painting to create intriguing,
mesmerizing and often, thought-provoking
illustrations, this artist is able to show the complexity
of the human soul by playing with very strong
symbolism using animals and flowers in his works.
To see more of his works, visit https://www.
behance.net/ayknroses. PS: We have to warn
though, some of his illustrations can be very graphic
and may not suitable to your beliefs.
bug lover in us
O
kay, this is a ‘What if...” game. What if you see a
cluster of spiders heading towards you, what
would you do? The only option you have is to
either run or go underwater, which option would you
choose?
If you selected the latter, we have bad news for you. A
new species of spider was discovered in Australia. Called
Dolomedes briangreenei, or just Brian for short [named
after Professor Brian Greene, cofounder of the World
Science Festival], this spider can both glide on the surface
of the water or submerge for hours. And that’s actually
how they hunt their prey, hold their breath and hunt fish,
insects, toads etc.
The only good news is that the bite from this spider
isn’t dangerous to humans. But still, it doesn’t make it less
scary.
Editor’s Pick
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SHIPWRECK
IPW
IPWR
PW
DISCOVERED OFF
OMAN COAST FROM VASCO DA
GAMA’S FLEET (MARCH 15, 2106)
Images © Aykut Aydogdu
Images © Getty Images
Royal Oman Police launches new campaign for 32nd GCC
Traffic Week: No phone while driving. Leading Omani tweeters
will be joining the initiative.
This is a very lovely news. The inner Lara
Croft in me wanted to immediately embark on
an adventure and go diving to see this wreckage.
Whatever they find, those are all priceless
pieces of history of which a lot of people would
love to see, even for just a moment.
I’ve already started creating my places to go
here in the country. I’ve already been here for
two years but haven’t had the opportunity to
explore the historical treasures that abounds at
every corner. It’s exciting to be this close when
others are just dreaming of these opportunity.
I’m brushing off my historical know-how
about Vasco and his fleet. Can’t wait also for
some items to get to the museum. I’m sure
there all very charming.
Mary Terese G, via email
EUROPE
W E D N E S DAY
MARCH 16 l 2016
omandailyobserver
15
Macedonian troops send migrants back to Greece
IN QUANDARY: The migrants were trying to escape a camp in Idomeni, where 14,000 or so people have been stuck in increasing squalor
GEVGELIJA, Macedonia: Some 1,500
migrants who managed to cross into
Macedonia, despite the border being
closed to them for a week, have been sent
back to Greece by Macedonian troops,
officials said on Tuesday.
The desperate group of men, women
and children had set off from an
overcrowded refugee camp on the Greek
side on Monday and waded thigh-deep
through a river to get into Macedonia,
where they were stopped by troops.
“Yesterday we had a large group of
illegal migrants who tried and managed
to cross the border unlawfully near
the village of Moin,” Toni Janevski, a
Macedonian army spokesman, said.
“Without any incident or use of
force, they were blocked and in the early
morning hours they were returned to
Greece.” Back on the Greek side, however,
AFP reporters said they had seen at
least two men who appeared to have
been beaten, while a Greek government
source said the migrants were sent back
by “non-legal” crossings. A group of
around 80 journalists and activists who
were detained by Macedonian police
Refugees return to a makeshift camp at the GreekMacedonian border, near the Greek village of Idomeni,
on Tuesday, where thousands of refugees and migrants
are stranded by the Balkan border blockade.— AFP
Chances of new Ukraine
govt fade after talks stall
KIEV: The chances of
Ukraine forming a new
technocrat
government
to replace Prime Minister
Arseny Yatseniuk faded on
Tuesday after cross-party
talks failed to produce
a breakthrough, likely
prolonging a months-long
political crisis.
Yatseniuk’s government
has been hanging by a
thread since three smaller
parties quit his coalition and Ukrainian Parliament Speaker
President Petro Poroshenko Volodymyr Groysman attends
pushed for the premier to a parliament session in Kiev
on Tuesday. — Reuters
resign. Technocrat Finance
Minister Natalia Yaresko
was touted as a possible replacement. Ukraine needs a stable
government to conclude negotiations with the International
Monetary Fund for new aid worth $1.7 billion to keep its
war-torn economy afloat and pass economic and judicial
reforms demanded by its Western backers.
If Poroshenko cannot get parties to agree on an alternative
to Yatseniuk, it will leave in power a prime minister
opposed by the majority of lawmakers and whose party’s
popularity ratings has fallen to 1 per cent, according to a
February poll.
“Last week I said with confidence that 80 per cent of the
government issues would be resolved this week,” said Vadim
Denisenko, a lawmaker in Poroshenko’s party. “Now I see
that everything has hit a dead end.” After Monday’s crossparty evening talks, a senior lawmaker in Poroshenko’s
faction accused the reformist Samopomich party of killing
off the chances of a technocrat cabinet to tackle financial
problems and the blight of corruption.
The idea “was basically buried yesterday by Samopomich’s
announcement that it will not join any new coalition under
any kind of government,” Yuriy Lutsenko told parliament.
Samopomich has said it would agree to a new government
on three conditions, including the introduction of a new
electoral law. The Ukrainian public has grown increasingly
disillusioned with the pro-Western government that took
over after the 2013/2014 Maidan street protests ousted a proKremlin president. — Reuters
Prize-winning novelist Anita
Brookner dies aged 87
London: Anita Brookner, the
author and art historian who
won the 1984 Booker Prize
for fiction, has died at the age
of 87, it was announced on
Tuesday.
The novelist, who won the
Booker for her novel Hotel
du Lac, died peacefully in her
sleep on Thursday, according
to a notice of her death in The
Times newspaper.
The only child of secular
Polish Jews who settled in
London, Brookner was born
in 1928.
She studied art history
before becoming the first
woman to hold the Slade
Professorship of Fine Art
— the oldest professorship
of art at the universities
of Cambridge, Oxford and
London.
After writing several art
history books in the 1960s
and 1970s, she switched to
fiction in the 1980s and won
the Booker Prize, one of the
English-speaking world’s
foremost literary awards.
Hotel du Lac, centred on a
romance novelist staying on
the shores of Lake Geneva,
was a surprise winner.
Her novels often involved
lonely female protagonists.
She was made a
Commander of the Order of
the British Empire, one step
below a knighthood, in 1990.
Her last book was At
The Hairdresser’s, a novella
published in 2011.
Brookner was a “wonderful
writer who had this wonderful
lucid prose... she was an icon
of my age”, British novelist Jilly
Cooper told The Times.
She was a “serious, serious
writer who was very spare in
her prose”.
Orange Prize-winning
novelist Linda Grant called
her an “underrated master
of incisive fiction and laser
prose”.
Brookner never married
and had no children. At her
request there will be no
funeral, the notice in The Times
said. — AFP
after travelling with the group were also
released and allowed to return to Greece.
The migrants were trying to escape
a camp in Idomeni, where 14,000 or so
people have been stuck in increasing
squalor following a string of border
closures on the European migrant route.
An AFP video journalist who was
with them said the Macedonian army
had allowed the migrants to get as far as
the village square in Moin, where they
were herded together. They were all told
to sit on the ground and the media were
taken away first, the journalist said. A
Syrian refugee said that they were then
divided into groups of 100.
“They put us on army trucks, took
us to a location some 10 minutes from
Idomeni where the fence is broken, and
sent us back through there,” he said.
The Macedonian police said 1,500 had
managed to cross into Macedonia before
being returned, and another 600 were
prevented from entering.
The returns appeared to surprise the
Greek authorities, who had said earlier
on Tuesday that some 700 refugees
and migrants remained stranded in
Macedonia, indicating that they were
ready to discuss their readmission if
Macedonia asked.
“There wasn’t in any case an official
request for readmission from Skopje,
and no return through official crossing
points,” said the Greek government
source. “Nearly all the refugees have come
back through an unguarded location,”
added a local Greek police source.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras
meanwhile denounced the “criminal”
attitude of people who appeared to have
orchestrated the migrants’ attempt to
cross into Macedonia, and called on them
to take note of the closure of the Balkan
route.
He said there had been in Idomeni “an
unacceptable situation, with strangers,
perhaps pretending to be volunteers”
who had encouraged migrants to go to
Macedonia “at risk to their lives”.
Greek authorities said the migrants
had read leaflets in Arabic which
described the route across the river and
warned they risked being sent back to
Turkey if they stayed in Greece, the ANA
news agency reported. — AFP
16
PANORAMA
omandailyobserver
Scrapped
taxis are seen
in a parking
lot in Taiyuan
as the city is
adapting to
electric taxis,
Taiyuan,
Shanxi
Province,
China, on
Tuesday.
— Reuters
Fruits
imported from
Spain which
failed to pass
quality checks
are destroyed
in Tianjin,
China, on
Tuesday.
— Reuters
Biggest waste
incineration plant
BEIJING: China’s southern city of
Shenzhen is planning to build three
waste incineration power plants
including the one which will be the
world’s largest in the next three years, the
media reported on Tuesday.
According to Wang Guobin, the
director of Shenzhen City Urban
Administrative and Law Enforcement
Bureau, the biggest plant alone can
handle one third of Shenzhen’s garbage
and will be put into use in 2018, the
People’s Daily reported. The main body
construction will start by the end of this
year,” said Wang. — IANS
W E D N E S DAY
MARCH 16 l 2016
Library publishes Shakespeare
scene with appeal for refugees
LONDON: The British Library on
Tuesday published online a handwritten
scene, added to a late 16th-century play
and attributed to William Shakespeare,
in which an official appeals for sympathy
for refugees.
In what experts believe is the
only surviving manuscript of a play
containing Shakespeare’s handwriting,
Thomas More, the chancellor to English
King Henry VIII, urges anti-immigrant
rioters to consider what would happen
to themselves if they became stateless.
“What country, by the nature of your
error, Should give you harbour?,” More
asks, in a scene added to another writer’s
manuscript for the play, The Book of Sir
Thomas More.
Shakespeare and other playwrights
were asked to revise the script around
1603, but there is no evidence that
the play was ever performed or
published, said Andrew Dickson, a
writer specialising in Shakespeare. The
manuscript features in an exhibition,
Shakespeare in Ten Acts, scheduled to
open next month at the British Library.
The library made some 300
Shakespeare-related
manuscripts,
books, maps, paintings, illustrations
and photographs available online for the
first time on Tuesday on its Discovering
Literature web pages. — dpa
A farmer harvests broccoli in the town of Al Ansariyeh south of Sidon, Lebanon, on
Tuesday. — Reuters
Spiders spreading their
web to trap veg meals too?
LONDON: Traditionally viewed as a predator of insects, a new
study has revealed that spiders like to spice up their menu
occasionally with a vegetarian meal.
The study showed evidence of spiders from ten families
feeding on a wide variety of different plant types such as trees,
shrubs, weeds, grasses, ferns or orchids.
Also, these spiders demonstrated a diverse taste when it
comes to the type of plant food: Nectar, plant sap, honeydew, leaf
tissue, pollen and seeds are all on the menu.
As plant-dwelling, highly mobile foragers with excellent
capability to detect suitable plant food, these spiders seems to be
predestined to include some plant food in their diets.
Spiders diversifying their diet with plants are advantageous
as it provides them with additional nutritional supplements and
helps them survive when the insects are scarce, said the study
detailed in the Journal of Arachnology.
“The ability of spiders to derive nutrients from plants is
broadening the food base of these animals; this might be a
survival mechanism helping spiders to stay alive during periods
when insects are scarce,” said study lead author Martin Nyffeler
from University of Basel in Switzerland.
However, the extent to which the different categories of plant
food contribute to the spiders’ diet is still largely unexplored.
Although spiders feeding on plants are global in its extent, it
is reported more frequently from warmer areas, the study said.
The researchers suggested that it might be due to the fact
that a larger number of the reports relate to nectar consumption,
which has its core distribution in warmer areas where plants
secreting large amounts of nectar are widespread. — IANS
The sun sets behind the World Trade Centre building in
Mexico City. Authorities have issued an environmental alert
for the city due to high levels of ozone and particulates
brought on by weather conditions. — Reuters
New ‘social’ robot can teach
better than humans
NEW YORK: A team of
researchers from the
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) is working
on a new social robot that
is helping students learn
through personalised
interactions.
A team led by Cynthia
Breazeal, director of the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media
Laboratory, developed a socially assistive robot called “Tega” that
is designed to serve as a one-on-one peer learner in or outside of
the classroom.
“Tega”, the latest in a line of smartphone-based, socially
assistive robots developed in the MIT Media Lab, is unique
as it can interpret the emotional response of the student it is
working with and, based on those cues, create a personalised
motivational strategy. “We started with a very high-quality
approach, and what is amazing is that we were able to show
that we could do even better,” said Goren Gordon, an artificial
intelligence (AI) researcher from Tel Aviv University in Israel.
After testing the set-up in a pre-school classroom, the team
showed that the system can learn and improve itself in response
to the unique characteristics of the students it worked with.
The results, shared at the 30th Association for the
Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Conference in
Phoenix, Arizona, recently, proved the machine to be more
effective at increasing students’ positive attitude towards the
robot and activity than a non-personalised robot assistant. Robot
is equipped with an Android phone containing customised
software that can interpret emotional content of facial
expressions, a method known as “affective computing.” — IANS
WEDNESDAY | MARCH 16, 2016 | JUMADA AL THANI 7, 1437 AH
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Subsidy recipients fret over delays in payouts
AUSTERITY EFFECT: Flour mill, animal feed, poultry and milk producers worry that any reduction or phaseout of subsidy will impact margins
CONRAD PRABHU
MUSCAT
March 15: Annual wheat and feed
subsidy paid out by the government to
a number of Omani flour mill, animal
feed, poultry and milk producers
could be next in line for possible cuts
as part of austerity measures rolled out
by authorities at the start of the year,
industry observers say.
An assortment of listed Omani
companies that have long been
beneficiaries of the subsidy have voiced
concern that delays in the payout of
these annual grants have impacted their
bottom lines.
Some are even fretting that, given
the budgetary cuts and belt tightening
measures announced by the government
at the start of the year, the feed subsidy
could also go the way of fuel subsidy, as
well as a host of other subsidies, targeted
to be partially reduced or gradually
phased out in light of the current
economic crisis.
Articulating these concerns, Hamoud
bin Musthail Ahmed al Mashani,
Chairman of Dhofar Cattle Feed
Company, a major dairy producer, said:
“The uncertainty regarding the depth
and duration of the current economic
situation has cast doubt about the level
of subsidy expected next year and in the
future.
Till today we have not received
any official communication towards
discontinuance of subsidy and hence
we believe that the government will
continue to support basic industries
OPWP, Muscat Water sign agreement
to establish desalination plants
MUSCAT: Oman Power and Water
Procurement Company (Member of
Nama Group) the sole procurer of
all new power generation and water
desalination capacity in the Sultanate,
signed on Monday at InterContinental
Muscat the Water Purchase Agreement
to establish the Qurayat & Aseelah
Temporary Desalination Plants with
Muscat Water LLC.
The signing ceremony was held
under the auspicies of Mohammed
bin Abdullah al Mahrouqi, Chairman
of the Public Authority for Electricity
and Water (PAEW). In attendance
were a number of dignitaries including
government officials, as well as board of
directors and representatives from the
consortium and electricity and water
sector in the Sultanate.
The agreement was signed by Yaqoob
bin Saif al Kiyumi, Chief Operating
Officer of OPWP and on behalf of
Muscat Water Haitham al Fannah, Chief
Operations Officer of Al Sulaimi Group
Holding.
The scope of the Project which
will be located in Qurayat in Muscat
Governorate and Jaalan Bani Bu Ali in
Sharqiyah South Governorate includes
the design, construction, ownership,
operation and maintenance of a high
efficiency reverse osmosis desalination
facilities.
The total potable water output of
Qurayat plant is 8,000 m3 per day (1.76
million gallon per day) whereas total
potable water output of Aseelah plant
is 10,000 m3 per day (2.2 million gallon
per day).
The projects will be structured as
Independent Water Projects (IWPs)
with OPWP purchasing the potable
water produced by the project under a
Water Purchase Agreement.
TURN TO PAGE 19
Talks for global oil freeze ‘probably in April’
MOSCOW: A meeting of oil producers
to discuss a global deal to freeze
production levels will likely take place
in April, Russian Energy Minister
Alexander Novak said.
“The place and time of a meeting
of oil-producing countries is being
discussed. It will probably be held in
April,” Interfax news agency quoted
Novak as saying.
Novak said earlier this month that
a meeting of Opec members and other
oil-producing countries could be held
between March 20 and April 1.
Four major oil producers — Russia,
Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Qatar
— said last month they were ready to
freeze their output at January levels if
other oil-producing countries joined
their initiative.
Oil prices, which have plummeted
more than 60 per cent since mid2014, have recently recovered slightly
following talk of an output freeze.
Novak said that Iran could be
excluded from the deal to allow it to
increase its crude production after
Western sanctions over its nuclear
programme hindered its access to the
global oil market.
— AFP
and may give sufficient time to
implement new strategies if in case the
subsidy is withdrawn,” he stated in the
Directors’ Report of the company 2015
performance.
The Salalah-based firm, which has
been receiving feed subsidy since 2011,
did collect the subsidy for the first six
months of 2015, which is typically based
on the consumption of raw materials for
the period.
The payout for the remainder part of
2015, which has been already accounted
for in the company’s books, is still
awaited, he said.
Voicing
confidence
in
the
continuation of the subsidy policy, Al
Mashani remarked: “We also see the
government spending at elevated levels
to enhance the growth in non-oil sector,
of which the food and food related
industries would be predominant.
As such we believe that the
government would continue to provide
necessary impetus to attract necessary
foreign investments in these industries
to make them as import substitutes
and also as part of the food security
programme.”
He nevertheless warned that any
change in the government’s policy on
subsidy would impact the company’s
margins.
Similar concerns have also been
expressed by the nation’s two main flour
mills, which have stopped receiving
subsidy on wheat imports for over the
past two years.
TURN TO PAGE 19
18
OMAN
omandailyobserver
W E D N E S DAY
MARCH 16 l 2016
All-new Toyota Fortuner — The Urban Adventure is here
Spacious, stylish and stronger than ever, the all-new 2016 Fortuner has arrived in Oman with a lot of fanfare
I
t was a special moment for
the eager audience when the
All-New 2016 Fortuner was
thematically unveiled.
Mr. Takayuki Yoshitsugu,
Chief Representative, Middle
East & North Africa Representative
Office, Mr. Osamu Tomioka, Assistant
Chief Engineer and other officials from
Toyota Motor Corporation graced the
special event.
Also present on the occasion were
Salim and Saud Mohamed Bahwan.
In the opening presentation, Mr.
Takayuki Yoshitsugu remarked, “The AllNew Fortuner is a completely redesigned
SUV that enhances driving confidence on
every level while setting a new standard
for SUVs all around the world.
It debuts a compelling design with a
strong identity, expressing refinement and
innovation as well as being functional and
tough. It also epitomises Toyota’s focus
on developing vehicles with impressive
quality, durability, reliability and off-road
ability.
The result of this is a comprehensive
revamp, creating a unique SUV that’s every
bit as comfortable on the urban roads as it
is on the region’s toughest off-road trails.”
Sharing the development philosophy
of the vehicle, Mr. Osamu Tomioka,
said: “To build a true SUV with Style &
Confidence. To enhance the customer’s
confidence, we developed a new stronger
frame with bigger cross section, which
enables the vehicle to withstand rougher
road conditions.
We improved the 4-link suspension
system for a more comfortable drive.
The new engine with high torque
at lower revolution provides higher
fuel efficiency. While the new 6-speed
transmission takes full potential of
this new engine by providing smooth
acceleration at both low and high speeds.
It’s a true SUV with 4×4 go-anywhere
ability.”
Earlier in the evening, the Saud
Bahwan Automotive (SBA) representative
welcomed the guests and thanked them
for the popularity of the brand in Oman,
“Toyota has enjoyed a strong patronage
amongst our customers over generations.
Models like Land Cruiser, Corolla and
Top officials with the All-New 2016 Fortuner
Hilux enjoy iconic status.
During the last 4 decades, SBA has
invested extensively in Infrastructure,
Manpower and Customer satisfaction
initiatives thereby ensuring that Toyota
continues to be the leading automobile
brand in Oman.”
Later in the evening, the AllNew Fortuner was revealed to the
accompaniment of a 3D interactive Hitech entertainment act that added to the
anticipation in the room.
As the Fortuner was finally unveiled,
the audience seemed eager to touch & take
a closer look for themselves.
In the new Fortuner, Toyota has created
a new “Solid Fluidity” design language,
which expresses toughness and wideness
through the high body axis, the bulging
wheel arch flares as well as the chunky
trapezoidal front bumper. The Fortuner
has a tough yet smart rear design that
defies the typical unrefined image of an
SUV.
The Fortuner’s ample cabin space is
complemented by superb convenience
features, culminating in a sublime driving
experience.
The interior exhibits the toughness of
an SUV, tempered with the elegance of a
premium sedan.
A focal point of the dashboard
architecture is the vertical centre cluster
flanked by columns of soft simulated
leather upholstery that offer leg support
from both sides.
In fact, soft-touch textures and
exquisite chrome detailing liberally pepper
the cabin; all beautifully harmonising with
each other.
The interior is stylish & creates a warm
atmosphere that passengers enjoy.
There are 8 exterior colours and the
Fortuner is available with a range of petrol
engine options.
The available petrol engines include
a 2.7-litre four-cylinder engine that
produces 164 hp and 25.0 Kg-m of torque
and the 4.0-litre V6 engine, which churns
out 235 hp and 38.3 Kg-m of torque.
The Fortuner has a 6-speed automatic
transmission and its impressive ground
clearance along with its superb suspension
comfortably absorbs vibration, resulting in
a ride experience expected from a luxury
SUV.
The Fortuner is equipped with all
terrain tyres or 18” alloy wheels with HT
tyres depending on the grade selected,
7” navigation display with audio system,
power back door & follow me home lights,
for convenience of customers.
Additionally, comprehensive safety
systems like anti-lock braking system
(ABS), SRS Airbags for front seats topping
it up with a knee airbag for the driver.
Apart from this, Fortuner is equipped
with rear camera, rear-parking sensors,
amongst many other features.
Please visit the nearest showroom to get
a hands-on feel of the new marvel from
Toyota... today!
The All-New 2016 Toyota Fortuner
Stylish Looks
Customers viewing the new vehicle
BUSINESS ALERT
Platinum Records 2016 Red Carpet Gala
MUSCAT: Leading regional music
entertainment company Platinum
Records, owned by MBC Group,
delighted audiences with jawdropping performances led by its
music artists in four consecutive
acts during its annual red carpet
gala event, held at Meydan Sobha’s
Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum
City — District One in Dubai, on
Sunday night. The evening titled, “The Art Of Performance”, presented by District
One in partnership with Jaguar MENA was an evening to remember and set the tone
for reshaping the future plans of Platinum Records as the leading regional music and
entertainment company. The event took place after being postponed due to the storm
and was bigger & better as “The Show Must Go On”.
“The Art of Performance” event was the biggest in Platinum Records’ history in
terms of both audio-visual and technical production, featuring 10 different Artists
performing with over 70 musicians from Kiev, Bucharest and Beirut, 10 Khaleeji Iqaat,
20 international dancers and over 400 distinguished guests, including chairman and
CEOs of top regional brands and companies, leading Arab Artists, actors and celebrities,
pan-Arab press, MBC Group management & TV personalities.
MEMA launches
Innovative and
Sustainable Road
Safety Solutions
MIDDLE East Media & Advertising
LLC (MEMA) & Kissan Turkey, one of
the major player in Europe launched
various Road Safety Solutions in the
Sultanate of Oman in the presence
of Ministry of Transport and
Communication (DGR), Regional
Municipality, Muscat Municipality
and engineers and officials from
consultants and contractors at Al
Bustan Palace Hotel on March 9 On
behalf of Shaikh Nassar Khamis al
Hashar, Chairman and Sam Varghese,
Managing Director of Al Hajiry
Group, Sudheer Paleri from MEMA
welcomed the guests and highlighted
The Renault Dokker Van comes with
unmatched benefits
the association between MEMA and
Kissan Turkey will bring Innovative
and sustainable Road Safety Solution
to the Sultanate of Oman partnered
with ViaCon, SAFEROAD and Colas
the world leaders in their respective
field.
During the launch function Sam
Varghese, Managing Director of
MEMA and Al Hajiry Group said:
“Our commitment and continues
expansion in the field of Road Safety,
we are committed to introduce
innovative and sustainable road safety
products and solutions which will
enhance Road Driving more safer.”
THE
Renault
Dokker
Van from Suhail Bahwan
Automobiles is a modern
and efficient transportation
solution for tradespersons
and professional businesses. It
is an affordable and practical
commercial vehicle with a new
modern design.
Spacious and impressive,
the Renault Dokker Van aims to please, with an innate sense of
practicality and versatility. It can take all kinds of loads, assisted by XL
sliding side doors (more than 70 cm wide) and two asymmetrical rear
doors meeting the challenges of transport and delivery with ingenuity
and panache.
Customers will be entitled to receive assured cash gift of RO 500 on
both Renault Dokker LE 1.6 ltr M/T with and without partition along
with other benefits that include free registration and 2 years/ 30,000 kms
free service (whichever is earlier).
The 3rd MEC International Conference on Big
Data and Smart City concludes
Al Obaidani Stores donate dishdasha to
needy students
Oman wins best Arabian tourist
destination award at ITB Berlin
THE
3rd
MEC
International
Conference on Big Data and Smart
City (ICBDSC) 2016 was organized by
Middle East College on March 15-16,
2016. The conference was inaugurated
by Hilal bin Hamed al Hasani, CEO of
the Public Establishment for Industrial
Estates (PEIE). Among the attendees
were top officials from ministries in the
Sultanate, national and international
researchers, IT experts, academicians
and students.
The conference drew together researchers, academics and practitioners from across
the globe to discuss, divulge and promote the latest advances in the field of Big Data and
Smart City.
The conference saw seven eminent speakers from around the world presenting their
Keynote address on various topics related to big data and smart city.
Martin Curley, Director of Intel Labs Europe at Intel Corporation presented the first
keynote session on ‘Open Innovation 2.0 and Digital Technology’. Prof Latif Ladid, the
Chair of IEEE ComSoc TCsub Internet of Things delivered a session on ‘Impact of the
New Internet Protocol version 6 on Big Data, IoT, SDN-NFV, 5G & Smart Cities’.
AL Obaidani Stores, one of
the leading organisation in
tailoring Disdasha in Oman,
on the occasion of 45th
National Day celebration,
donated Dishdasha to the
needy students in 45 schools
in the various parts of the
Sultanate through Dar Al
Atta’a. It has been estimated
that above 1,500 students benefited through this donation campaign.
“The part of the fabric is donated by M/s One World Co Ltd Osaka, Japan,
the leading fabric exporter from Japan to Middle East under the brand name
‘Vintage’. This programme is part of Al Obaidani’s commitments in CRS
activities and we are thankful to DarAl Atta’a and One World Co Ltd for
supporting this programme and making it a grand success”, said Musallam
Salim al Obaidani, The Managing Director of the Company.
Al Obaidani Stores, is the leaders in sewing Dishdasha since 45 years
in Oman with more than 25 branches spread across the Sultanate. The
organisation is providing high quality brands with an excellent customer
service as per the tailor-made requirements of the customers.
THE Sultanate of Oman won
the “Best Arabian Tourist
Destination” at the ITB Berlin
trade fair which concluded last
weekend.
Also, the German marketbased representative (MBR)
of the Ministry of Tourism of
Oman has won the third place in
‘Marketing the country as a tourism destination for the German market’,
which is a testament to the streamlining efforts of both the Ministry of
Tourism and the Ministry’s MBRs.
The awards were given by “Go Asia” website and were received by
Ahmed bin Nasser al Mehrzi, the Minister of Tourism.
Al Mehrzi has also met with different representatives of the GCC and
Arab countries, as well as international tourism organizations at the ITB
Berlin trade show, to discuss different investment opportunities for the
Sultanate, as well as opportunities to educate the different markets on the
tourism industry in the Sultanate. Al Mehrzi encouraged the different
organizations to consider the Sultanate as a prime destination, as it is one
of the fastest growing tourism destinations around the world.
OMAN
W E D N E S DAY
MARCH 16 l 2016
PDO, GlassPoint
Solar win Shell Global
Impact Award
BUSINESS REPORTER
MUSCAT
March 15: The Miraah solar project
under way in southern Oman earned
Petroleum Development Oman (PDO)
and GlassPoint Solar a prestigious Shell
Upstream International (UI) Impact
Award.
Recognized for ‘Safety and
Environment’, Miraah will harness the
sun’s clean energy to produce steam
used to recover Oman’s heavy oil. The
project will replace natural gas typically
burned to produce steam, resulting in
more than 300,000 tonnes of carbon
emissions savings each year.
“PDO and GlassPoint have worked
relentlessly to move from a successful
pilot project to building Miraah, a world
leading innovation aimed at reducing
environmental impact and conserving
valuable gas resources,” commented
De la Rey Venter, Shell Executive Vice
President.
“The Miraah solar project showcases
a concept that can be replicated in other
oilfields where a steam-flood is required.
Shell is proud about the deployment of
this innovative technology, both as a
partner and investor, and congratulate
our colleagues at PDO and GlassPoint
for their part in creating a cleaner
energy future.”
The award was received by PDO’s
Amal steam project team along with
senior representatives from GlassPoint
at a special ceremony hosted by Shell
Development Oman recently. The Shell
UI Impact Awards recognize companies
and teams that are part of the global
Shell Group, that demonstrate over
the top commitment to find ways to
do things more safely, economically
and effectively, driving delivery and
results and encouraging best practices
for others in the Shell Group to follow.
Shell is one of the major shareholders
in PDO with a 34 per cent interest in
the company. In its latest edition, the
judges received 397 entries from over
20 countries.
GlassPoint’s Chief Operating Officer,
Ben Bierman, said, “I am honoured to
receive this prestigious recognition
along with our partners from PDO.
The award demonstrates the growing
convergence of solar and the oil and
gas industry and is a testament to
our joint efforts to recover heavy oil
sustainably while positively impacting
the environment.”
Bierman explained, “Miraah will
be able to save 5.6 trillion British
Thermal Units (BTUs) of natural gas
each year. The saved gas can be used
to fuel other high value industries that
support Oman’s economic growth and
diversification objectives and create
jobs for Omanis.”
Sameh Afifi, PDO’s Project Manager,
commented, “PDO and GlassPoint are
committed to delivering Miraah on
time and to securing significant energy
saving and efficiency benefits for the
Sultanate. Miraah has been progressing
extremely well during the early months
of construction and we are on track
to producing steam from the first
glasshouses in 2017. These are truly
exciting times for PDO and GlassPoint.”
Subsidy recipients fret
over delays in payouts
FROM PAGE 17
“No subsidy on wheat has been
paid since July 2013 and the company
is regularly following up with the
(government) to pay the amount,”
Khamis Abdullah al Farsi, Chairman,
Oman Flour Mills, said in the Board
of Directors’ report for the six months
ended December 31, 2015.
Salalah Mills, the largest flour
milling firm, echoed the sentiment.
“The company is accounting the value
of the government subsidy on flour on
an accrual basis from October 2010.
The company did not receive any
subsidy from July 2013 onwards. We are
pursuing this matter with the competent
authorities,”
commented
Ahmed
Abdullah Saeed al Rawas, Chairman, in
the Group’s 2015 Director’s Report.
Other dairy and poultry farms that
depend on government subsidy against
the procurement of relatively pricey
animal feed are also agonising over the
issue of reduced payouts.
A’Saffa Foods, a leading poultry
producer, said its feed subsidy for 2015
was dramatically slashed to RO 0.719
million, down from RO 2.189 million
in 2014.
Consequently, the company’s pretax profit declined to RO 6.551 million
for 2015, from RO 7.728 million in
2014, Rashid Saif Mohammed al Saadi,
Chairman, stated in the company’s 2015
performance review.
OPWP, Muscat Water sign
agreement to establish
desalination plants
FROM PAGE 17
Speaking at the event, Naif bin Ali
al Abri, Acting Director of Projects
Development at OPWP said: “This
project is part of temporary and urgent
desalination water projects being
developed by Oman Power and Water
Procurement Company in coordination
with the Public Authority for Electricity
and Water, to keep up with the growing
demand for water in the Sultanate of
Oman.”
It is expected that this project will
contribute to creating job opportunities
for the national cadres and create
contractual opportunities for local
business and enrich the Omani content
through the award of the project to one
of the national companies operating in
this field. Most of the project’s materials
will be manufactured or procured
locally through specialized local
companies.
Omani technical cadres will be
contributing in the manufacturing of
the plants in the various engineering,
technical and occupational safety fields.
OPWP started the procurement
process to develop the project in June
2015 where five companies participated
in the tendering process. Bidders
competed and the project was awarded
to the consortium of AquaSwiss and Al
Sulaimi Group Holding.
omandailyobserver
19
46 per cent rise in break bulk
cargo volumes at Sohar Port
BUSINESS REPORTER
MUSCAT
March 15: Sohar Port and Freezone (SOHAR) headed
east this week to participate in Breakbulk China 2016 –
Asia’s largest conference and exhibition addressing the
needs of break bulk and project cargo logistics.
Breakbulk China offers SOHAR invaluable
opportunities to connect with shippers, international
freight forwarders, logistics and transportation decision
makers in Asia, along with over 160 other exhibitors.
Thousands of specialists attended the four-day event
at the World Expo Exhibition and Convention Centre
in Shanghai, home to the world’s number one container
port.
SOHAR Port’s Executive Commercial Manager,
Marc Evertse, speaking during a break in the conference
said: “Last year, SOHAR Port saw a sharp increase in
break bulk cargo shipments to over 1.9 million tonnes,
increasing by 46 per cent from 2014 to 2015.
We’re also handling over 200,000 vehicles a year
at the Port, making SOHAR a significant regional
automotive hub for the Middle East.”
Break bulk continues to grow in the region thanks
to the huge investments in infrastructure projects
throughout the Middle East, offering significant
opportunities on all sides of the business.
Because of the prime location of SOHAR outside the
Strait of Hormuz, and the Port’s seamless sea-road-air
access right across the Arabian Peninsula, SOHAR has
seen double-digit growth across all cargo volumes since
operations started in 2004, and both Port and Freezone
continue to grow rapidly.
The Port’s general cargo terminal is operated by C
Steinweg Oman, part of the leading Rotterdam-based
group with terminal operations all over the world.
A recent survey among Asian investors placed
SOHAR as the region’s second most important business
and logistics hub after Dubai’s JAFZA, which has been
active since the 1980’s.
“Being outside the Strait of Hormuz gives us a real
advantage over other port and freezone sites in the
Middle East when it comes to handling break bulk
and project cargoes. Our multimodal infrastructure
and ground handling capabilities are also equipped to
be able to transport goods seamlessly throughout the
region,” explained Andre Toet, SOHAR CEO.
He continued: “In SOHAR we say ‘It all starts here’
and that is particularly true when it comes to our
growing break bulk business.”
MUSCAT SECURITIES MARKET
20
omandailyobserver
INTERNATIONAL
W E D N E S DAY
MARCH 16 l 2016
MIXED SIGNALS: BoJ left policy on hold z Euro zone government bond yields z US Treasury yields z Gold held near two-weeks low
Europe shares track Asia lower after gloomy BoJ view
LONDON: European shares fell on
Tuesday, mirroring declines in Asia
after the Bank of Japan (BoJ) painted a
bleaker picture of the Japanese economy
and helped push the yen higher, and as
oil prices dropped again. The BoJ left
policy on hold, as expected.
Investors’ attention now turns to
a two-day meeting of the US Federal
Reserve’s rate-setters, who are likely to
signal a slower pace of interest rate hikes
than forecast after they raised the cost
of borrowing in December for the first
time in nearly a decade.
The BoJ has resorted to negative rates
in an effort to spur growth and inflation.
The Fed signalled in its “dot plot”
charts of the possible path of interest
rates after its December hike that it could
raise rates four more times this year.
Economists say this could be reduced
to three or even two.
Recent data has suggested the US
economy is growing stronger, however,
with fears of a return to recession much
diminished compared with earlier this
year.
“The Fed meeting is important
because there is a risk of a hawkish
statement,” RIA Capital Markets bond
strategist Nick Stamenkovic said.
“Investors will wait for the statement
and the dot plots before taking new
positions.”
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300
stocks index fell 0.9 per cent, led lower
by commodity-related stocks.
The STOXX Europe 600 Basic
Resources index was down 4.3 per cent.
“There is still a soft demand
coupled with excess supply story in the
China weighs tax on
currency trades: Report
Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell in New York. — Reuters
commodities spectrum,” said Lorne
Baring, Managing Director at B Capital
Wealth Management.
Tokyo’s Nikkei share index closed
down 0.7 per cent as a stronger yen hurt
exporters.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific
shares outside Japan extended early
losses and were down 1.2 per cent.
Chinese shares eked out small gains.
The CSI300 index of the largest listed
firms in Shanghai and Shenzhen rose 0.3
per cent and the Shanghai Composite
0.2 per cent.
In currency markets, the yen
strengthened after the BoJ removed from
its post-meeting statement language
used after it lowered rates in January that
it would cut rates further into negative
territory if needed. The dollar was down
0.7 per cent at 113.03 yen.
The euro edged higher to $1.1108 and
the dollar index, which measures the
greenback against a basket of currencies,
fell 0.1 per cent.
Oil prices, which fell up to 4 per
cent on Monday, dropped further after
the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries (Opec) said it
expected lower demand for crude in
2016 than previously thought.
Brent crude last traded down 85 cents
French Connection posts full-year loss
LONDON: French Connection Group
Plc on Tuesday reported a bigger fullyear loss, citing disappointing sales of
its spring and summer collections in
a fiercely competitive British fashion
market.
The company said it would not
recommend a dividend as it plans
instead to preserve cash for its longrunning turnaround programme.
French Connection’s shares fell as
much as 11 per cent to their lowest in
more than two months.
Known in the 1990s for its FCUK
logo, French Connection has closed
dozens of stores since embarking on a
major programme to restore its ebbing
due to “the very poor first half ” but that
sales had improved during the second
half and into the new financial year.
French Connection said its
underlying operating loss widened to
£4.7 million ($6.7 million) for the year
ended January 31 from £60.8 million a
year earlier.
Revenue fell 8 per cent to £164.2
million.
Retail revenue from stores around
People walk past a French Connection
the
world, which accounted for more
store in London, Britain. — AFP
than half of total sales, fell 10.6 per cent.
popularity on the high street.
The company, which closed 13 stores
Chairman Stephen Marks said in a in the last financial year, also said it
statement that the company’s full-year had appointed Lee Williams as finance
performance had been disappointing director, effective on April 4.
— AFP
He did not comment on why he took so long to report the missing money
Bangladesh central bank
governor quits over $81m heist
DHAKA: Bangladesh’s central bank
chief resigned on Tuesday, after hackers
stole $81 million from the nation’s
foreign reserves in one of the biggest
bank heists in history, the finance
minister said.
The audacious cyber-theft has
embarrassed the government, triggered
outrage in the impoverished country
and raised alarm over the security of the
country’s foreign exchange reserves of
over $27 billion.
On Tuesday the finance minister said
Atiur Rahman (pictured) had stood
down at his request, after revealing that
the Bangladesh Bank governor failed
to inform authorities of the theft for a
month.
“He called me yesterday and I’ve
asked him to resign. And he has resigned
today,” minister AMA Muhith said.
On February 5, the hackers stole $81
million from an account that Bangladesh
held with the Federal Reserve Bank
of New York and transferred the
cash electronically to accounts in the
Philippines.
They attempted to steal almost $1
billion and were only prevented from
taking more because of a basic typing
error, the Bangladesh Bank’s deputy
governor said last week.
Before his resignation, an emotional
Rahman said he was alarmed by the
The audacious cyber-theft
has embarrassed the
government, triggered
outrage in the impoverished
country and raised alarm
over the security of the
country’s foreign exchange
reserves of over $27 billion.
hack but did not comment on why
he took so long to report the missing
money.
“This event was almost like a militant
attack, almost like an earthquake. I did
not realise how it happened, from where
it originated and who had done it,” he
said, choking back tears.
“When I was informed I was so
puzzled. Fearing that it might destroy
our economy, I quickly took opinion
of the experts. I brought them to the
country from abroad and ensured
security so that it did not occur again.”
Rahman, a 64-year-old economist,
was appointed as the governor of the
Bangladesh Bank in 2009 and had been
due to retire in August.
As details of the scandal emerged
last week, he flew to India to attend an
International Monetary Fund meeting,
leaving junior central bank officials
scrambling to explain how the hackers
managed to take such large sums.
Some of the funds have been
recovered and Filipino authorities have
frozen the stolen money following court
orders, Bangladesh Bank has said.
It suspects the hackers were Chinese.
The thieves, who bombarded the
New York bank with dozens of transfer
requests, had been attempting to steal
a further $850 million, but the bank’s
security systems and typing errors in
some requests prevented the full theft.
The hack took place on a Friday,
when Bangladesh Bank is closed, while
the Federal Reserve Bank in New York is
closed on Saturday and Sunday. — AFP
a barrel at $38.68, raising the possibility
that a six-week recovery in oil prices that
has helped buoy stocks markets may be
fading.
Euro zone government bond yields,
which fell in the previous two days after
the European Central Bank cut interest
rates and expanded its asset-purchase
scheme last Thursday, held steady.
US Treasury yields fell as investors
squared up positions before the Fed
meeting. Ten-year yields fell 3.2 basis
points to 1.93 per cent.
Gold, up around 16 per cent this year,
held near two-week lows. It last traded
around $1,234 an ounce. — Reuters
BIZ BRIEF
Investors sue VW in
Germany for more
than 3 bn euros
BERLIN: A group of 278 institutional
investors from Germany and abroad
is suing embattled auto giant
Volkswagen for more than 3.0 billion
euros ($3.3 billion) in damages over
the emissions-cheating scandal, their
lawyers and the court said on Tuesday.
The lawyers, TISAB
Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH, said
in a statement that they had filed
“the first multi-billion euro lawsuit
in Germany against Volkswagen”
at a court in Brunswick, northern
Germany. They accuse the carmaker
of repeatedly violating capital market
disclosure rules between June 6, 2008
and September 18, 2015.
“The 278 plaintiffs are exclusively
institutional investors from Germany
and all over the world, including
Australia, Austria, Britain, Canada,
Denmark, France, Italy, Japan,
Luxembourg, the Netherlands,
Norway, Sweden, Switzerland,
the United States and Taiwan,” the
statement said.
Among them were 17 German
investment funds and one of the
biggest US pension funds, CalPERS.
A spokeswoman for the Brunswick
court confirmed that a combined
suit for 3.255 billion euros worth of
damages had been lodged.
VW declined to comment.
The suit was filed in Brunswick
because VW is based in the nearby
town of Wolfsburg.
VW has been plunged into its
deepest-ever crisis by revelations last
September that it installed emissionscheating software into 11 million
diesel engines worldwide.
On top of still unquantifiable
regulatory fines in a range of
countries, VW is facing a slew of legal
suits, notably in the US and Germany,
from angry car owners, as well as from
shareholders seeking damages for
the massive loss in the value of their
shares since September.
The shareholders say the carmaker
knew about the irregularities long
before the scandal broke and should
have informed shareholders much
earlier because they must have known
it would affect the share price. — AFP
BEIJING: China’s central bank has
drafted plans to impose a tax on
currency trades, Bloomberg News
reported on Tuesday, in what would be
its latest volley against those betting on
a depreciation of the yuan.
Chinese authorities have spent
unprecedented sums to support the
currency and stem capital flight since
a surprise devaluation rattled investors
last summer.
The tax would be the most dramatic
measure to date, although Bloomberg
reported that the rules had yet to be
approved and the level might initially
be kept at zero as an experiment.
Dubbed a “Tobin tax” after Nobel
economics prizewinner James Tobin, it
would impose a small levy on foreignexchange transactions. The aim would
be to deter investors from seeking to
profit on fluctuations in the currency.
Analysts said the move would
reduce liquidity in the long-term and
possibly fuel short-term volatility
as investors were forced to leave the
market. If implemented, the tax could
also raise questions about plans for
the yuan to join the International
Monetary Fund’s elite reserve currency
basket, scheduled for October.
“RMB as reserve currency RIP,”
George Magnus, associate at the
University of Oxford China Centre,
wrote on Twitter. “Not that it was likely
anyway.”
“Tobin taxes” have been fiercely
debated since they were first
proposed, with Sweden adopting a
financial transaction tax in the 1980s
to boost government revenue, and
then abolishing it after bond trading
volumes collapsed.
Major banking hubs such as Britain
and the US have previously opposed
them for the damage they would cause
the financial sector.
The idea of a Chinese Tobin tax was
floated last year by the deputy chief of
the central People’s Bank of China in
an article for China Finance magazine,
in which he said it would help “contain
the inflows and outflows of short-term
speculative and arbitrage funds”
Chris Weston, Chief Market
Strategist at IG, said there was
speculation that the central bank “Is
taking the fight to the speculative FX
community”, but that the Tobin tax
would “not be taken kindly by the
IMF” if adopted.
“If Chinese officials broaden this
to other markets, like swaps, then
speculators may pile into proxy
currencies” such as the Hong Kong
dollar, he added.
— AFP
Nigeria’s state oil firm withheld $16.2 bn in 2014
ABUJA: Nigeria’s state-run oil firm withheld some 3.2 trillion naira ($16.2 billion, 14.6
billion euros) from the sale of crude oil in 2014, according to a government report from
Auditor-General Samuel Ukura.
“From the examination of NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation)
mandates to (the) CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) on Domestic Crude Oil sales (the)
amount not remitted to FACC (Federation Account Allocation Committee) was
N3,234,577,666,791.35,” the report read.
A total of $235.7 million made from gas sales was also not paid to the federal
government but “transferred to some undisclosed Escrow Accounts”, said the audit,
which was presented to parliament on Monday.
Non-remittance of crude oil revenue from the NNPC caused a scandal in February
2014 when the former CBN governor Lamido Sanusi said $20 billion had not been sent
to the bank from January 2012 to mid-2013.
Sanusi was suspended just months away from leaving office in what was seen as a
political move by then-president Goodluck Jonathan to silence an arch critic and cover
up endemic fraud.
Jonathan and his government disputed the figure.
The NNPC has long been seen as corrupt and opaque but President Muhammadu
Buhari has embarked on a clean-up campaign, sacking the entire board and calling for
greater transparency.
— AFP
A labourer carries a basket with papayas at a wholesale fruit and vegetable
market in Mumbai, India. India’s wholesale prices fell for a 16th straight month in
February, declining an annual 0.91 per cent, driven down by tumbling oil prices,
government data showed on Monday. — Reuters
AI wins final game against Go grandmaster
SEOUL: The Google supercomputer AlphaGo won the final game of its five-match
challenge against South Korean Go grandmaster Lee Se-Dol on Tuesday, to take the
series 4-1.
After Lee managed to pull one back for humanity in game four, AlphaGo returned
to its best destructive form, using the much-hyped “intuitive” artificial intelligence (AI)
of its formidable neural networks to outwit the 33-year-old Lee.
A visibly upset Lee held his head in his hands at the table after resigning at the end
of a five-hour battle.
It was a disappointing finale for the South Korean who has 18 international titles
under his belt and is widely considered one of the greatest Go players of the modern
era. Described as the “match of the century” by local media, the series was closely
watched by tens of millions of fans of the ancient board game — mostly in East Asia —
as well as AI scientists.
The “machine vs human” element meant the games also made headline around the
world, with AlphaGo’s winning performance hailed as a watershed for the future of AI.
The most famous AI victory to date came in 1997, when the IBM-developed
supercomputer Deep Blue beat the then-world class chess champion Garry Kasparov.
But Go, played for centuries mostly in Korea, Japan and China, had long remained
the holy grail for AI developers due to its complexity and near-infinite number of
potential configurations.
AlphaGo uses two sets of “deep neural networks” that allow it to crunch data in a
more human-like fashion — dumping millions of potential moves that human players
would instinctively know were pointless.
— AFP
PERSPECTIVE
W E D N E S DAY
MARCH 16 l 2016
LEAVE
omandailyobserver
21
OR STAY ?
Brexit and Britain: What would it mean for UK trade?
T
he stakes will be high
for Britain’s historic
role as a free-trading
nation when it holds a
referendum on whether
to stay in the European
Union on June 23.
There is no precedent for an economy
as big as Britain’s leaving a trade bloc, and
the rival campaigns paint contrasting
pictures of what quitting the EU might
mean for its trade.
Below are some of the main issues
around the potential risks or benefits for
British trade of a so-called Brexit.
TRADE WITH EU — HOW MUCH
RISK?
Britain’s most important trade
partnership is with the EU’s single
market, the world’s biggest trade area.
Campaigners seeking to keep Britain
in the EU say it would be in a weak
negotiating position if it left and then
sought to hammer out a trade agreement
with its former partners, something
many “out” campaigners say they want.
Government figures show 12.6 per
cent of Britain’s economic output is
linked to exports to the EU’s 27 other
members, for whom only 3.1 per cent of
output is linked to exports to Britain.
Pascal Lamy, a former head of the
World Trade Organization, said a postBrexit Britain would probably have to
resort to raising its import tariffs on EU
and other countries’ goods or restricting
access to its market in services in order
to gain some muscle for trade talks that
could last as long as a decade.
“Britain would have to say, ‘Sorry,
consumers, but you have to pay more’.
The European Commission
has exclusive competence to
forge trade deals on behalf
of the bloc. If Britain leaves,
it would have to create its
own negotiating team able
to handle the wide range of
complex issues immediately
on the agenda.
A sign for pro Brexit pressure group “Leave.eu” is seen in their office in London, Britain. — Reuters
It’s just crazy,” said Lamy. In return for a
trade deal, the EU would want Britain to
make contributions into its budget and
to keep on allowing EU citizens to work
on its soil — two big concerns for the
Brexit camp.
It could also face a long battle to
ensure its banking industry did not face
hurdles doing business in Europe.
“Out” campaigners say the EU
would probably be reluctant to reward
a breakaway Britain with a trade deal
but would not want to impede its firms
from selling into the world’s fifth-biggest
economy by raising tariffs or imposing
tough new regulations.
They say the boot would even be on
Britain’s foot because, in value terms,
EU exports of goods and services to
Britain were worth £289 billion in 2014,
substantially more than Britain’s £230
billion of exports the other way.
Tariffs agreed by the EU with the
WTO for imports from countries
outside the bloc stand at below 5 per
cent on over a third of factory goods
but have been abolished on about 30 per
cent more; the EU has a nearly 10 per
cent tariff on cars, a big British export.
A breakaway Britain would also need
to renegotiate its WTO membership
terms with all WTO members, including
some with which Britain has frosty
relations such as Russia and Argentina.
TRADE WITH REST OF WORLD
The Brexit camp says the EU moves too
slowly on trade and Britain on its own
would strike deals more quickly.
The big prizes would be agreements
with heavyweights such as the United
States, India and China, none of which
have full trade pact with the EU to date.
But others warn that Britain, with a
population of 60 million people, would
go into talks in a weaker position on
its own than as part of the 500 million
strong EU.
UNCERTAIN FUTURE
China’s 5-year plan may face reality check
I
n the run-up to the country’s
annual parliament, which
started over the weekend,
China devoted considerable
resources to promoting its
“13th five-year plan.”
In October, it rolled out a sing-along
music video in English.
Animated characters, including
one that resembled David Bowie,
trumpeted the chorus line: “If you want
to know what China’s gonna do, best pay
attention to the shi san wu (13-5)!”
The viral video announced that the
Chinese Communist Party’s social and
economic policies were going to be
finalized soon.
By the end of the ongoing parliament
session on March 16, the National
People’s Congress (NPC) is expected
to approve an economic and social
development blueprint for 201620 that will guide policy at all levels
of government and state-owned
enterprises.
After decades of growth at a
breakneck pace, China’s economy grew
by 6.9 per cent in 2015, the slowest
growth in more than a quarter of a
century.
Earlier this month, Moody’s Investors
Service cut China’s credit rating outlook
from “stable” to “negative,” citing rising
government debts, a fall in reserve buffers
and uncertainty about authorities’
capacity to implement reforms as main
reasons for the downgrade.
China’s leadership has indicated it
is well aware of the pressure it faces to
implement fiscal and monetary policies.
Premier Li Keqiang delivered
a speech on economic policies to
some 5,000 congress delegates and
government consultants on Saturday.
“The larger the economy grows,
the greater the difficulty of achieving
growth,” Li said.
“Every percentage point of GDP
growth today is equivalent to 1.5
percentage points of growth five years
ago or 2.5 percentage points of growth
10 years ago,” Li told delegates in the
Great Hall of the People.
Li’s speech stressed the importance
of supply-side structural reform, of
addressing overcapacity in the steel
and coal industries, and of cutting
government red tape and encouraging
business start-ups.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (C), Premier Li Keqiang (R) and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's
Congress (NPC) Zhang Dejiang (L) arrive for the 2nd plenary session of the National People's Congress in the Great Hall of the
People in Beijing. — AFP
Earlier this month, Moody’s Investors Service cut China’s
credit rating outlook from ‘stable’ to ‘negative, citing rising
government debts, a fall in reserve buffers and uncertainty
about authorities’ capacity to implement reforms as main
reasons for the downgrade.
The Communist Party of China’s 13th
five-year plan draft, released on March
5, set an annual growth rate target of 6.5
per cent until 2020.
Amid global financial problems
and slowing Chinese export growth,
the government is aiming for more
sustainable development driven by
domestic consumption.
If reforms fail, analysts say China is
in danger of succumbing to the so-called
middle-income trap, in which a country
struggles to push past a certain income
level.
The draft plan calls for the creation
of more than 50 million new urban jobs,
improvements to expressways and highspeed railways, and to have the scienceand-technology sector make up 60 per
cent of economic growth.
Research and development spending
would make up 2.5 per cent of gross
domestic product per year, according to
the plan.
It also reconfirmed pre-existing
targets to double per capita income and
gross domestic product by 2020 from
2010 levels.
Analysts had mixed expectations on
whether the 13th five-year plan would
bring about significant improvements.
“The
plan
will
promote
decentralization, but the reality is
likely to be greater centralization. More
infrastructure will be built, mainly to
enhance intraregional development —
for example, around Greater Beijing,”
according to an analysis published by
McKinsey.
The plan aims to raise productivity
in the workforce, but there is concern
that “implementation will be left to
local administrators and that the regions
requiring the most help will have the
lowest amounts of money to invest in reskilling the workforce,” the article said.
Hu Xingdou, professor of economics
at the Beijing Institute of Technology,
also raised concerns that local officials
would be more likely to exaggerate
figures in order to please the central
government.
“The central government has made
local government officials promise to
get their jobs done. If they can’t reach
the goals, they would lose their jobs.
But whether the numbers (local officials
submit) will be real could be the next
serious issue,” Hu said.
Other critics said the government’s
plan is too heavy handed, and that
regulators should instead allow the free
market to play a greater role in guiding
the economy.
“The five-year plan is a heritage
from the (socialist) planned economy.
I don’t think it is meaningful,” said Wu
Qiang, professor of politics at Tsinghua
University in Beijing. “The targets are
also a bit inconsistent with the (current
economic situation),” Wu said.
Although the National People’s
Congress is derided as a “rubberstamp”
parliament by critics, some delegates do
raise concerns, and admit that China’s
economic transition will be difficult.
“In any society, monopolies (such as
those held by state-owned enterprises)
will prevent development. So we should
change this situation,” said Li Mei, a
delegate from northwestern Shaanxi
province.
“We should support small- and
medium-sized enterprises because they
are the real impetus for the development
in a society,” Li said.
— dpa
“It’s not a question of being smart or
not. At the end of the day it depends on
how much clout you have,” said Arancha
Gonzalez, head of the International
Trade Centre, a joint agency of the
United Nations and the WTO.
A 2013 trade deal between
Switzerland and China, which some
Brexit supporters say shows what Britain
might achieve on its own, got rid of tariffs
on 99.8 per cent of Chinese exports to
Switzerland immediately compared with
77.3 per cent of Swiss exports to China,
rising to nearly 90 per cent by 2028.
Fredrik Erixon, at think-tank ECIPE
in Brussels, said a UK-China deal could
provide big gains for British exporters
and investors but might come at the
cost of Britain providing China with
privileged status as an investor or more
political support.
Simon Evenett, a trade professor at
St Gallen University in Switzerland, said
Britain might be able to do a deal quickly
with Brazil because it does not share the
concerns of other EU countries about
Brazil’s ambitions to export more farm
goods.
But he said India could repeat a
demand it made in trade talks with the
EU — namely that more of its skilled
workers be given work visas, touching
on a sensitive issue for many Brexit
supporters for whom high levels of
immigration are a concern.
As for the United States, its top trade
official said last year Washington’s focus
was on deals with regional groups not
individual nations.
And as well as seeking to open up
new markets, a post-Brexit Britain
would face the challenge of regaining
the preferential trade access it currently
has with over 50 countries under EU
deals, ranging from Mexico to Egypt and
Ukraine.
WHO WILL NEGOTIATE FOR
BRITAIN?
The European Commission has
exclusive competence to forge trade
deals on behalf of the bloc.
If Britain left, it would have to
create its own negotiating team able to
handle the wide range of complex issues
immediately on the agenda.
Only a few of the 55 British officials
in the European Commission’s trade
department actually work on trade deals.
“Britain’s trade negotiators would
need technical and legal experience,
which is accumulated over many years,
and they would be stretched by the need
to negotiate simultaneously on multiple
fronts,” said Gregor Irwin, Chief
Economist at Global Counsel, a think
tank led by Britain’s former EU trade
chief Peter Mandelson. “No country has
ever tried to do this before.” — Reuters
FUNDING WOES
Low interest rates hurting
US corporate pensions
L
ow US interest rates and a stuttering stock market are
hitting corporate pensions hard, but instead of boosting
contributions some companies are taking advantage of a
new regulatory rule that allows them to contribute fewer
dollars now and make up the difference later.
The average pension among companies in the S&P 1500
was funded at just 78.1 per cent of its liabilities at the end of February, down
from nearly 95 per cent in late 2013, according to the most recent numbers
from human resources consultant Mercer, a part of Marsh & McLennan.
At some companies, the funding levels are much lower: The pension
plan at Delta Airlines Inc, which has the worst funding status among large
corporate pension plans, only has enough assets to cover 45.4 per cent of
its pension obligations.
In September 2015, the US Securities and Exchange Commission
decided to allow companies to adopt a different way of measuring their
discount rates, which can bring the immediate funding needs down.
The only problem with this way of seeking relief is that their longerterm obligations remain the same, according to David Zion, a veteran
accounting and pensions analyst at Credit Suisse.
So far, 19 companies in the S&P 500 have either adopted or are planning
to adopt the new so-called spot rate approach, Zion said.
They range from auto parts retailer Autozone Inc to media company
Walt Disney Co and tractor maker Deere & Co.
The savings vary, with telecom giant AT&T saying that it expects to
get a $1 billion pre-tax boost to its bottom line while Disney expects a
$137 million reduction in costs, both in the current fiscal year. The plans
concerned are usually what are known as defined benefit plans.
Many companies now only offer 401K defined-contribution plans that
are largely funded by employees rather than their employers and therefore
don’t create such corporate obligations.
Many of the companies that have legacy defined benefit plans are older
companies in industrial businesses, particularly manufacturing businesses
whose workers belong to labour unions.
Federal law requires a company with an underfunded pension to
eventually make additional payments into their plans to make up the
difference, rather than requiring retirees to accept fewer benefits.
The main culprit behind the dramatic decline in funding levels is
exceptionally low interest rates that continue to eat into the bond income
that pension plans have long relied on to meet, or at least measure, their
future obligations.
— Reuters
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ADAM @ HOME
W E D N E S DAY
MARCH 16 l 2016
by Brian Basset
by Bill Watterson
by Jim Davis
by Jan Eliot
CRYPTIC PUZZLE
ACROSS
1 Raged about little
Anthony being in the red!
(6)
7 Early music (8)
8 Her love was for Leander
(4)
10 Is he quick to get the
batsman in stitches? (6)
11 They’re sweet, though not
at first (6)
14 Is not expected to drop a
brick! (3)
16 Thanks for the rubbish to
do with fortune-telling (5)
17 Dull as a backward bard
(4)
19 Poet’s residence at a tourist
centre (5)
21 We’re unhappy about
being cut (5)
22 There’s nothing really
meteoric about me in bed!
(5)
23 Look both ways (4)
26 Just claptrap, but
acceptable in sound (5)
28 An apple for the
helmsman (3)
29 Can be seen at Sheffield,
but not on Wednesday (6)
30 Spicy girl with a French
friend (6)
31 Strait-laced, soft and on
edge (4)
32 An Aussie bounder,
maybe boxer? (8)
33 The high part in a trio? (6)
DOWN
1 Brought up with the right
ideas, possibly (6)
2 Both are upset about me
getting up a gang (3,3)
3 For a donor losing heart,
there’s a way out (4)
4 Worked hard in the
nursery? (7)
5 More than passable
possibly to get us through
(5)
6 Robbery by some atheists?
(5)
8 Repetition always gets a
laugh (2-2)
9 In snooker, it has its point
(3)
15 Religious song (5)
18 Tree (5)
19 Total (3)
20 Signal assent (3)
21 Enclosed field (7)
22 Meadow (3)
23 European country (6)
24 Genuine (4)
25 Surrenders (6)
26 Groups (5)
27 Frighten (5)
28 In favour (3)
30 Arrange (4)
CRO SSW O RD
12 Sailor in the last armada
(3)
13 Being surrounded by deer
can get us excited (5)
15 Swore Victor was in debt
(5)
18 Light on something silky
(5)
19 Would a meaty
melodrama suit him? (3)
20 The police can get me
time! (3)
21 May does wrong, but not
at present (4,3)
22 The executant’s share (3)
23 It’s civil for a bad poet to
accept merely £1 (6)
24 No longer a forenoon test
(4)
25 Son of Rex? (6)
26 Large chunks of beefcake?
(5)
27 Slink around contributing
to brick production (5)
28 In America, reasonably
called ÒautoÓ (3)
30 Pick out a place (4)
EASY PUZZLE
ACROSS
1 Sweet (6)
YESTERDAY’S
CRYPTIC SOLUTIONS
ACROSS: 1, Spray 6, Stor-y 9, Federer 10, Dr.-ift
11, Right 12, Slump 13,
Satiate 15, Ass 17, Char
18, Knight 19, Lions 20,
Mr. Bean 22, S-of-A 24,
Pa-y 25, Rene-wal 26,
Boxes 27, V-I-ta-L 28,
B-ill-y 29, S.-Iberia 30,
She-en 31, G-lade.
DOWN: 2, Purdah 3, Affair
4, Ye-t 5, Belle 6, Ser-Mon-S 7, Trip 8, Rehas-H
12, Stain 13, Scam-p 14,
Tabby 15, A-glow 16, Steal
18, K-nees 19, Lanolin
21, Radish 22, Serial 23,
Faile-D 25, Rebe-l 26,
B-as-e 28, Big.
7 Notorious (8)
8 Volume (4)
10 Excited (6)
11 Confound (6)
14 Mesh (3)
16 Men (5)
17 Peruse (4)
19 Navigation aid (5)
21 Don (3,2)
22 Crippled (5)
23 Beseech (4)
26 Founded (5)
28 Enemy (3)
29 Shopping street (6)
30 Comfort (6)
31 Spoken (4)
32 Manager (8)
33 Smartens (6)
YESTERDAY’S EASY
SOLUTIONS
ACROSS: 1, Carol 6, Silly
9, Repasts 10, Grade 11,
Riots 12, Saris 13, Parasol
15, Wet 17, Idol 18, Desire
19, Refer 20, Trader 22,
Peri 24, Eon 25, Ripened
26, Serum 27, Cubed 28,
Stout 29, Reverie 30, Steed
31, Pries.
DOWN: 2, Abroad
3,
Ordeal 4, Lee 5, Fatal 6,
Striker 7, Isis 8, Litter 12,
Sober 13, Piste 14, Roman
15, Widen 16, Tepid 18,
Denim 19, Receded 21,
Robust 22, Pester 23,
Resume 25, Runes 26, Sere
28, Sip.
DOWN
1 Wreckage (6)
2 Selected (6)
3 Bound (4)
4 Troglodyte (7)
5 Tycoon (5)
6 Charred remains (5)
8 Fish (4)
9 Encountered (3)
12 Spoil (3)
13 Shade of brown (5)
Hospitals
Hospital. . . . . Board . . . . . . . Emergency
Royal . . . . . . . 24599000 . . . 24590491
Health Services Department
Muttrah . . . . . . . 24797602
Quriyat . . . . . . . 24845001 . . . . 24845003
SQH, Salalah. . . 23211555 . . . . 23211151
Police. . . . . . . . . 24603988 . . . . 24603980
Al Nahda . . . . . . 24831255 . . . . 24837800
Ibn Sina. . . . . . . 24876322 . . . . 24877361
Nizwa. . . . . . . . . 25439361 . . . . 25425033
Al Rustaq. . . . . . 26875055 . . . . 26877186
Samayil . . . . . . . 25350055 . . . . 25350022
Izki . . . . . . . . . . . 25340033 . . . . 25340033
Haima . . . . . . . . 23436013 . . . . 23436055
Sohar . . . . . . . . . 26840022 . . . . 26840099
Al Buraimi. . . . . 25650855 . . . . 25652319
Sur . . . . . . . . . . . 25440244 . . . . 25461373
Tanam . . . . . . . . 25499011 . . . . 25499033
Masirah . . . . . . . 25404018 . . . . 25404018
Ibra. . . . . . . . . . . 25470533 . . . . 25470535
Adam. . . . . . . . . 25434167 . . . . 25434055
Bidiyah . . . . . . . 25483535 . . . . 25483535
Ibri . . . . . . . . . . . 25491011 . . . . 25491990
Saham . . . . . . . . 26854427 . . . . 26855148
Khasab . . . . . . . 26830187 . . . . 26830187
Daba . . . . . . . . . 26836443 . . . . 26836443
Bukha . . . . . . . . 26828397 . . . . 26828397
Sinaw. . . . . . . . . 25474338
CLASSIFIEDS
W E D N E S DAY
MARCH 16 l 2016
Situation Vacant
URGENTLY required
experienced MEP
Engineers and
Estimators. Contact
95229608,
93214092 or
gulfemaar@gmail.com
·····
WANTED A
Bilingual Sales
Executive, with 3 to
4 years experience
& driving licence.
Should be dynamic
and capable of
planning sales
forecast, calls and
reports. Fluency
in Arabic must.
Email CV to vijay@
bigllcoman.com
·····
REQUIRE an
Accountant, must
have experience in
accounting. e-mail:
alkhatwa2009@
hotmail.com.
·····
URGENTLY required
a Nurse for a clinic at
Barka 98776799.
·····
URGENTLY required
Expatriate Heavy
Duty Drivers, JCB
Operators with valid
Omani licence. Send
your CV to gdsoman@
gdsoman.com.
Contact: 99890076,
93894018, Fax:
24590866.
·····
SUBCONTRACTORS
required: SME
contractors interested
in telecom side — civil
and underground
telephone cable
laying work — may
contact Mr S Ravi
99424605 or Mr
Sayed.99358733 of
National Telephone
Services Co LLC.
·····
A COMPANY
specialised in pest
control seeks to hire
Omani chartered
accountants and
receptionists
with a command in
English language.
99015218.
URGENTLY required
for immediate
appointment with
MoH licence and
NOC against the
following vacancies
in a polyclinic
in Muladdah
(Musannah).
1. Gynaecologist
and Obstetrician
2. Radiologist cum
Sonologist
3. X-Ray
Technologist
(Radiographer)
4. Laboratory
Technician. Contact
99110254
·····
URGENTLY required
graphic designer
knows Arabic and
English typing. Good
skills in illustrator, Corel
Draw and Photoshop.
Visa available and salary
will be RO 350 whereas
accommodation and
food not included.
Interested candidates
may send their CV to
email: nsralaraimi@
gmail.com
·····
URGENTLY required
duplicate key makers
and good skills in car
key programming.
Visa available
and salary will be
RO 250 whereas
accommodation and
food not included.
Interested candidates
may send their CV to
email: nsralaraimi@
gmail.com
·····
URGENTLY required
Indian or Bangladeshi
light driver good
experience in Oman
or GCC. Visa available
and salary will be
RO 220 whereas
accommodation and
food not included.
99844497.
·····
Situation Wanted
VACANCY: sales
executive, 360 care
Oman. 360 care,
a premium auto
care company is
Ž‘‘‹‰ˆ‘”“—ƒŽ‹ϐ‹‡†
sales executives to
recruit immediately.
—ƒŽ‹ϐ‹…ƒ–‹‘ƒ†
requirements:
candidate should hold
at least a bachelor
degree in marketing
or business studies.
Candidate should
have at least 2 years
of experience in sales.
Candidate should have
strong communication
and negotiation skills.
Interested candidates
should send their CV:
Abdullah.alhinai86@
gmail.com
·····
URGENTLY required
Building Technician.
98111363.
·····
A LEADING company
‹–Š‡ϐ‹‡Ž†‘ˆ”‡ƒŽ
estate development
headquartered in Ruwi
seeks an Omani male
(real estate broker)
holder of general
diploma and a resident
of Wilayat Muttrah. The
CV is emailed to gccrs@
gmail.com
·····
Situation Wanted
AN MBA with more than
10 years of
sales & marketing
experience in Gulf and
1.6 years in Oman in
electronics & appliances
division. Having Omani
driving licence,
NOC available.
91298641
·····
INDIAN graduate
civil engineer from
Muscat College in
2015 with D/L, seeks
suitable placement
with employment visa.
93121505.
·····
OPERATIONS &
Accounts Manager.
Indian male with 15
years of experience
in Oman — Finance,
Purchase, Sales,
Admin & HR, looking
for a Sr. Position in a
medium size company.
srjobsinoman@yahoo.
com. 99889396
·····
INDIAN male, 23 years
PG Dip in Petroleum
Engineering and
B.Tech in Mechanical
Engineering Holding
UAE driving licence,
seeks suitable
placement immediately.
95880127, 95084905,
vijith2573459@gmail.com
·····
MBA marketing and
ϐ‹ƒ…‡ǡ†‹ƒˆ‡ƒŽ‡ǡ
PROCUREMENT
10 years business and IT
Manager, Indian,
experience in sales and
Engineer + MBA with
16 years experience and marketing, consulting,
product management
Oman driving licence.
rules in banking and
NoC available. Contact
sustainability currently
96561943, e-mail:
srajan_kripa@yahoo.com on visit visa, looking
ˆ‘”•—‹–ƒ„Ž‡’”‘ϐ‹Ž‡Ǥ
·····
95431357.
INDIAN male, 12 years
experience in printing
and advt production
and Marketing, seeks
suitable placement.
92972898.
·····
INDIAN male 27,
B Tech in Electronics,
Comm Engg and MBA in
operation management
™‹–Šϐ‹˜‡›‡ƒ”•
experience in optical
ϐ‹„”‡’”‘Œ‡…–’Žƒ‹‰ǡ
co-ordination and
execution. Currently on
visit visa 94819139,
e-mail: usamahaq@
gmail.com
·····
INDIAN female Btech
civil engineer with
3 years experience.
Having sound
knowledge of Revit Stad
software on family visa.
Looking for suitable
post. 94537638.
·····
EDUCATIONAL
Institution interested in
hiring trainer specialist
in teaching English
language and must
be native English. To
Scheduling an interview
please send your CV to
alomani_institute1990@
yahoo.com
A NEW medical complex
in Izki required medical
staff:
- 2 General doctors.
- 1 Specialist
obstetrician and
gynaecologist.
- 2 Paediatrician and
·····
specialist.
- 1 Dermatologist.
HIGH Pressure Trading
- 1 Spec phys
ǡ›†”‘ϐŽ‘™ǡ
otorhinolaryngology.
looking for Accounts
- 2 X-Ray technicians.
Clerk and PRO with
- 2 LAB technicians.
one or two years
- 2 Pharmacists.
experience in Sohar
94359172.
kindly send your CV
with expected salary
·····
ƒ–ǣƒŽœ—Žϐ‹̷‡‹Ǥƒ‡
A LEADING
·····
international
company in the
JOB opportunity
ϐ‹‡Ž†‘ˆ‹ˆ‘”ƒ–‹‘
in engineering
technology
…‘•—Ž–ƒ…›‘ˆϐ‹…‡ˆ‘”ǣ headquarter in Ruwi
- Architect engineer
seeks an Omani
- Civil/ structural
female (secretary)
engineer
holder of general
- Civil/ supervision
†‹’Ž‘ƒ…‡”–‹ϐ‹…ƒ–‡
engineer
and a resident of
Experience: 3 years
Wilayat Muttrah.
and more, e-mail CV to: The CV is emailed to
rm.allawaty@gmail.
hr.oman.eng@gmail.
com
com
INDIAN, male, BE
in Electrical and
electronics with Post
Graduate Diploma
in Power Systems
(Transmission and
distribution), seeks
placement. Presently in
Oman on visit. Contact
94669679. E-mail:
prsabarish@gmail.com
INDIAN male, 23
years, BBM graduate
with computer
knowledge, having 2
years experience in
accountancy looking for
accounts, admin, stores
or sales. Currently on
visit visa 95356512.
MBA, HR Marketing
(male 26), 3 years
experience in
Noor Islamic Bank
(UAE), 1 year HR
Coordinator looking
for suitable placement.
901462412,
mabeenkottekaran@
gmail.com
·····
·····
·····
·····
omandailyobserver
·····
·····
·····
INDIAN male 23,
BCom, IATA (Cargo),
1 year experience,
good computer skills,
looking for suitable
position in cargo/
admin/accounts/back
‘ˆϐ‹…‡Œ‘„Ǥ 97826180,
nihalsiddheeque@gmail.
com
·····
10 YEARS
experience in
Procurement,
Tenders, Importing,
marketing and
Sales, Organising
Events. Have
car. NOC
available. Contact
94123939
·····
INDIAN male, B.Tech
E&I, 10 years experience
in sales, procurement &
business development, 6
years Oman experience
in oil & gas sectors,
seeks placement, Omani
D/L, NOC available.
97233074.
·····
INDIAN male 25, 2
years experience in
UAE. B.Com, good
computer skills, looking
for suitable position in
auto spare parts/sales.
Knows all catalogues like
Toyota, Nissan, Suzuki
etc. Currently on visit.
909694804. e-mail:
fahu.fahadkc56@gmail.
com
····
TELECOM Engineer,
Indian, BE (Electronics
and Communication
Engineering), 2 years
corporate experience,
seeking for all suitable
jobs. 92916894.
E-mail: salu.mn555@
gmail.com
SALE OF VEHICLE/ EQUIPMENT
25 years experienced
supervisor in plumbing
ƒ†ϐ‹”‡ϐ‹‰Š–‹‰ǡ
available NOC and
driving licence.
95912720.
·····
GULF experienced
Indian graphic designer,
familiar in Photoshop,
Illustrator, InDesign,
Coral Draw looking for
immediate placement.
Contact 96397486.,
www.karloanthony.
portfoliobox.net
LEADING construction company in
Oman intends to dispose off their
used vehicles and equipment, in “as
is where is” condition. The items
‹†‡–‹ϐ‹‡†ƒ”‡’”‡•‡–Ž›Ž‘…ƒ–‡†ƒ–‘—”
Misfah camp and can be inspected on
20, 21 and 22 March 2016
Timing: 8 AM - 12:00 PM & 2:00 PM 5:00 PM
Contact Numbers:
Tel: (+968) 91372796/ 91371156/
91293095
Situation Wanted
·····
B.Sc computer
science, Indian male
35 years, total 14
years experience in
computer Networking
and Hardware, 9 years
expertise in Oman
with valid Oman
driving licence, seeking
suitable placement.
96367387. E-mail:
anoopfrancis18@gmail.
com
·····
ASSISTANT purchase
manager, 9 years
experience in Oman
in construction
companies. Computer
skills driving licence
marketing experience.
98894178.
·····
INDIAN female with
nearly 10 years
INDIAN male, 22 years,
of experience in
mechanical engineer,
administration and
fresher, looking for
HR, seeking for a
a placement in any
‡…Šƒ‹…ƒŽϐ‹‡Ž†Ǥ‘–ƒ…– suitable placement. NOC
available. 99242841.
95020044.
·····
·····
23
· · · ··
INDIAN male, 24 years
old, on visit visa, 3
years diploma in civil
engineering, 8 years
experience. Contact
98515106.
·····
INDIAN female,
IT graduate, BE
(Hons) systems
administration with
2 years experience in
teaching, seeks suitable
position in education/
training industry,
communication.
96447091,
fatimahaq24@outlook.
com
·····
INDIAN male, rich Oman
experience personal
ƒ••‹•–ƒ–Ȁ‘ˆϐ‹…‡
manager (executive
‘ˆϐ‹…‡ȌȀƒ†‹‹•–”ƒ–‘”Ȁ
buisness development
asst. Holding Omani
licence. Release
available. Contact
99168054. E-mail:
mbk1961@outlook.com
·····
INDIAN female, MBA
(25) seeking job in
ƒ”‡–‹‰ǡϐ‹ƒ…‡ǡ
administration, having
1 year marketing
experience. Contact
95910427. E-mail:
ritashivprasad1111@
gmail.com
INDIAN male, 26 years
accountant, 3 years
experience in Oman
with Omani driving
licence, NOC available
seeking for suitable
position. 94282980.
E-mail: msjob4578@
gmail.com
INDIAN male,
BBM, having 2
years experience in
accounting, looking
Sr accounts, credit
controller and
store management.
95523154.
·····
·····
·····
WEDNESDAY l MARCH 16, 2016 l JUMADA AL THANI 7, 1437 AH
editor@omanobserver.om
‫آي أم ﺳﻲ‬
The Diabetes Package include
investigations for a known Diabetic
patient, covering:
‫اﻟـــــﻤـــــﺮﻛــــــﺰ‬
‫اﻟـﺪوﻟﻲ اﻟﻄﺒﻲ‬
1. Consultations: By 3 specialist Doctors
2. Lab Investigations: Special
Laboratory Tests for Diabetes
3. Vitals – Height, Weight, Pulse Rate,
Blood Pressure
4. Electric Cardio Gram – ECG
5. Fundoscopy – Retina Examination
6. Foot Assessment procedures
As a part of the enhanced services
and the latest inclusions, Apollo Sugar
introduces an exclusively Discounted Diabetes
Package and Special Wellness Program.
RENTING & LEASING
Tours and Airport Transfer
Tel: 24582663
GSM: 95859497,
Fax: 24582664,
abcrent@omantel.net.om
·····
DRIVING SCHOOL
MUSCAT driving
school 97026581.
·····
For Rent
6 BEDROOMS,
6 bathrooms,
garden. Bausher 36.
96404089
·····
FLATS for residency
ƒ†‘ˆϐ‹…‡•‹—™‹ǡ
MBD and Darsait.
94402003
·····
FLATS in Wadi
Kabir, MBD, Darsait,
Hamriyah and
Sidab. 92125648,
95250300, 24182000
·····
FLATS in Al Khuwair,
Al Ghubra, Al Hail, and
Seeb. 92125648,
95250300, 24182000
Supply
of
Pesticides,
Gel (Cockroaches),
Public Health
chemicals,
Agriculture
chemicals,
Snake repellent, Rodent
baits
and
other insect
repellent from
Agropharm
Ltd UK.
PROFESSIONALS
in Pest Control Service,
Bedbug Treatment, Rodent
Treatment, Snake Treatment
and Termite Treatment
(Pre and Post Construction).
Tel: 24787606 / 24787503
Fax: 24787607
E-mail: pcomctom@omantel.net.om
P. O. Box: 565, Wadi Kabir,
Postal Code: 117,
SULTANATE OF OMAN
CLASSIFIED SECTION
Ruwi : 24785668 Behind Royal
Oman Police, Adjacent to
Dhofar Building
Car For Rent
Buttercup
Rent A Car
AMAZING OFFERS
€ Rent a car for 10 days
and get an extra free
day.
€ Rent for one month
and get 5 days free.
All the cars are 2016
brand new special prices
for public departments,
companies and longterm contracts.
972494490.
·····
Al Shorooq Car Rent
location oppsite to
Al Nahda Hospital.
99222617.
·····
Guest House
QURUM BEACH
HOTEL24564070.
·····
For Rent
1) 2 bedrooms, 2
bathroom, kitchen, living
room, store with split unit
Air conditioner in Ruwi
Rex road.
2) Basement 580 square
metre (new building).
Contact. 99833369.
FULLY furnished 3
BHK accommodation
with all spacious
rooms in a villa at
Darsait near ISD.
95265289/
96048422.
FLATS in Al Ghubra, 2
bedrooms, hall, near
Indian School, Way No.
4039, building No. 4250.
Contact 99341138,
98003444.
Available on UNBEATABLE prices
·····
FLAT for rent in
Maabela 3 master
rooms. 96088926.
·····
2 BEDROOMS with
toilets, one sitting room
with toilet. Contact.
993803465.
·····
·····
FOR rent directly
from the owner, 3
BHK, studio
apartments,
mezzanine,
showroom and
basement of brand
new building in
Salalah, CBD area
ready to occupy
from mid of March
2016 . 99333110,
24814853.
·····
SEMI furnished 2 & 3
BHK flats at Bausher near Atlas Hospital.
99348493/
93200424/ 24502254.
·····
·····
·····
·····
VILLA in Seeb, near
the beach and Dreams
Resort. 92125648,
95250300
FLATS for rent in Al
Khuwair, Al Hail, Wadi
Kabir, Al Falaj, MBD and
Muttrah. 99119699/
95250300/
24813002.
·····
VILLA in Al Khuwair.
92125648,
95250300
·····
LUXURIOUSϐŽƒ–‹•
available in Wadi
Kabir. Please Call
99277787
·····
·····
ǧfloor house behind
German University of
Technology in Halban is
offered for rent. The house
contains 4 bedrooms,
living room, a kitchen and
3 toilets.91239119.
·····
·····
AN apartment consists
of two bedrooms,
two toilets, a kitchen
and a living room is
offered for rent in Sidab.
99455397, 99181929.
·····
ELFAYED for sedative
investment in Salalah
introduces the best
price and utilities, for
rent: Super furnished
ϐŽƒ–•ǡ†ƒ‹Ž›ǡ‘–ŠŽ›ƒ†
yearly. 98035135/
96177304/ 91788999.
on UNBEATABLE prices
AII HP, Epson, Canon,
Lexmark, Samsung
Cartridges also available
For Rent
VILLA in Al Mawaleh
(5), 5 rooms + toilets +
majlis and family
living room.
92880977.
·····
All Cartridges also
available
CLASSIFIED SECTION:
·····
GOOD PRICE!!! GOOD PRICE!!!
·····
·····
RO 10.900 only
comsuply@omantel.net.om
2 BEDROOM flat in
Al Ghubra near Oman Oil
18 November Street, RO
330 monthly.
99333479 or
95215360.
FLAT at Hamriyah
99341112
3 in 1 Printer
Ruwi: 24792-792
2-STOREY villa in South
Al Maabela consists of
majlis, 4 bedrooms with
toilets for each + 2 sitting
rooms and kitchen,
located near a public
water source. Contact
999700908
2 FLOOR house at Al Hail
North. Each floor: 3
bedrooms, 3 bathrooms,
kitchen, store, 1 sitting
room. 92133551,
95067585
HP2130
ȍ͵
VILLAS for sale/
rents KABIR/AL
),
ȋŠ‘’•Ȁ‘ˆϐ‹…‡•
for rent/ Al
Khuwair)
(Flats for rent/
Wadi Kabir).
ͻ͸ͷͻ͸͵ͶͺǤ
COMPUTER SUPPLIES
FLAT for rent near
NEW villa in Al Khoudh 6 City Centre Al
is offered for rent. The
Mawaleh, room,
majlis and hall.
premise comprises 6
99336776.
bedrooms, male majlis,
female majlis, a split unit
·····
air-conditioned family
living room and 8 toilets.
ROOM with attached
99668686.
bathroom is available
for rent in Al Khuwair,
·····
oppsite to Zakher Mall.
2BHK ϐŽƒ–•™‹–ŠȀ•ƒ– 99731656.
Ruwi MBD
Area, Way No 3526, Pizza · · · · ·
Muscat
FOR RENT AND
Building. 99333110/
INVESTMENT: LAND
24814853.
industrial shops in
Rusayl. 99323957,
·····
95490842
A COFFEE shop with all
·····
equipment in South Al
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WEDNESDAY | MARCH 16, 2016 | JUMADA AL THANI 7, 1437 AH
P26
P27
P28
Inside
Morgan feels for suspended bowler Narine Arsenal face uphill task against Barcelona Red Bull F1 Showrun to hit Oman streets FOLLOW US ON:
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editor@omanobserver.om
CONFIDENT AHMAD
RARING TO GO
NEW SEASON: Al Harthy to be joined by Jonny Adam and
Devon Modell for major title push
MUSCAT: Oman Under-23 national
team coach Hamad al Azzani, along with
assistant coach Mohammed Khamis al
Araimi announced the players list for
the camp to be held in Buraimi between
March 19 to 28.
The camp will consist of 25 players
coming from 12 clubs.
The list of players: Ammar al Rashidi,
Ammar al Shiadi (Suwaiq), Thuwaini al
Mukhaini, Yousef al Mukhaini, Ibrahim
al Mukhaini, Omran al Mukhaini (Al
Arouba), Ayman Haikal, Abdullah al
Mushaikhi, Abdulaziz al Ghailani (Sur),
Bilal al Balushi, Wanes al Saadi, Munthir
al Alawi (Oman), Hatim al Rashdi,
Salim al Muqbali, Majdi al Ajmi (Sohar),
Mohammed al Badawi, Mazin al Balushi
(Al Salam) Muath al Khaldi, Ahmed
al Beraiki (Saham), Zaher al Aghbari,
Marwan Awlad Wadi (Seeb), Musallam
Akaak (Al Nasr), Bakheet Fadhal (Salalah),
Abdullah Arafa (Dhofar), Thani al Rashidi
(Al Khabourah)
Italy coach Conte
to step down
ROME: Italy coach Antonio Conte, who
has been linked to Chelsea, will give
up his post after Euro 2016, the Italian
Football Federation said on Tuesday.
The 46-year-old former Juventus
coach took over the national team
in August 2014 and secured their
qualification for the European
Championship.
Federation president Carlo Tavecchio
told Italian media: “Antonio Conte has
told me that at the end of the European
championship, his job will end.
He feels the need for the pitch, the
everyday training, and this is something
you can understand.”
“Now is the time for us to take stock
of the decision of a person who has
worked with commitment and sacrifice
in his mission to lead our national team’s
recovery. I will always thank him for that.”
The news fueled speculation that
Conte, who won three Serie A titles with
Juventus, will be appointed manager
of Chelsea following the tournament in
France from June 10 to July 10. — AFP
Wawrinka
advances, Murray
bows out
INDIAN WELLS, United States:
French Open champion Stan
Wawrinka reached the Indian Wells
fourth round while world No 2 Andy
Murray suffered a shock third-round
exit at the hands of claycourt specialist
Federico Delbonis on Monday.
Wawrinka toppled Andrey
Kuznetsov 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) in the third
round of the ATP and WTA hardcourt
tournament and Murray lost 6-4, 4-6,
7-6 (7/3) to 53rd ranked Argentinian
Delbonis. Wawrinka next faces 15th
seeded David Goffin of Belgium.
Murray’s exit left things wide open
in the bottom half of the men’s draw,
where Wawrinka, Richard Gasquet,
Marin Cilic, Milos Raonic and Tomas
Berdych all advanced. — AFP
Ahmad al Harthy along with his sponsors at the press conference.
ANUROOP A
MUSCAT
March 15: Star Omani racing driver
Ahmad al Harthy is confidence
personified for the new season with a
fully upgraded Aston Martin car in his
tenth year of motor sports racing.
Confirming his participation at
the high-profile Blancpain Endurance
Cup this year, Ahmad said on Tuesday
that the Oman Racing Team is keen
to establish its reputation as a true
challenger for the title.
“We are feared by the rivals for
our capability in endurance racing
and everything is in place for a strong
showing in 2016,” the Muscat GT
driver said.
The 34-year-old from Muscat will
again pilot a glorious Aston Martin
V12 Vantage GT3 race car in the
ultra-competitive endurance racing
championship and will be joined by
British duo Jonny Adam and Devon
Modell.
During a launch ceremony at the
Barr Al Jissah Resort near Muscat on
Tuesday, Ahmad outlined his 2016
motor racing activities where it was
confirmed the Oman Racing Team
would again be engineered by vastly
experienced UK squad Motorbase.
Ahmad said he is thrilled to
compete at Blancpain.
“I am elated to confirm we will be
racing in the Blancpain Endurance
Cup again this year with the Oman
Racing Team — it’s the biggest GT
racing championship on the globe and
the only place we wanted to be.”
“We have a fantastic driver line-up,
Jonny is a world class competitor and
Devon is a quick young driver too.
It’s also been very important to keep
continuity on the engineering side of
things. David (Bartrum — Motorbase
team principal) and all of his guys at
Motorbase have done an incredible job
for the Oman Racing Team over the
last couple of years. Everything is in
place for a strong 2016.”
On a query on supporting future
Omani drivers, Ahmad cited the case
of Faisal al Zubair, who is a second
circuit driver. “Faisal can come up with
lot of success in the future. He is at a
learning curve now,” Al Harthy said.
Aston Martin ‘works’ driver Adam
remains with the Oman Racing Team
for the full Endurance Cup season,
having contested four of last year’s five
events as team-mate to Ahmad. The
Scottish driver is widely regarded as
one of the UK’s premier GT racers and
was British GT Champion last year.
Team newcomer Modell was
selected for the Aston Martin Racing
Evolution Academy back in 2014, after
his first season in GT racing on home
soil in the UK, and in 2015 he won the
24H Series SP3 Class Championship
at the wheel of an Aston Martin V8
Vantage GT4.
“We all wanted Jonny to be part
of the team again this year, so I am
delighted he’ll be back”, said Ahmad,
“He is such a fantastic driver and a
real benchmark, exactly the kind of
racer we need to help spearhead our
challenge. Devon has achieved a great
deal in GT racing in a short space of
time and I think he and I will be quite
evenly matched. Overall, we have a
very strong team this season.”
Last year the Oman Racing Team
entry became a top 10 finisher in the
championship, its best result coming at
the Nurburgring in Germany during
the final round, and the result achieved
the objective Ahmad set himself at the
of the Sultanate, which greatly assists
us in our journey of promoting Oman
as the unique destination.”
Importantly, the Oman Ministry
of Sports Affairs also continues its
support of Ahmad’s racing in 2016.
Fahad Al Raisi commented: “Ahmad is
clearly one of Oman’s most high profile
sportsmen and an extremely proud
ambassador for our country. We are
very happy to continue our support
for his motorsport season this year
2016 BLANCPAIN ENDURANCE CUP CALENDAR
„ April 23-24
— Monza, Italy
„ May 14-15
— Silverstone GP Circuit, UK
„ June 24-25
— Paul Ricard, France
„ July 28-31
— Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium (Total 24 Hours of Spa)
„ September 17-18 — Nurburgring, Germany
beginning of the campaign.
Ahmad has found the continued
support of several high-profile
sponsors, not least Oman Air which
remains for an eighth consecutive year
as one of his prime backers.
Mohammed Al Shikely, VicePresident Marketing Oman Air,
said: “We are absolutely delighted to
continue being the key sponsor to
our Omani international star as he
continues to raise the Omani flag in
the UK, Europe and other circuits in
the Middle East. His performance and
charisma has certainly added value in
the efforts to further improve visibility
and wish Ahmad every success as he
proudly flies the flag for Oman.”
National Bank of Oman (NBO) is
another key partner remaining as a
central part of Ahmad’s racing career
into the new season. John Chang,
General Manager and Chief Retail
Banking Officer at NBO, said: “We
continue to extend our support to
local Omani talent who are promoting
Oman to a global audience, including
our Brand Ambassador and local
star Ahmad al Harthy, who has been
receiving international acclaim. Our
partnership with Ahmad and the Oman
Racing Team reflects our commitment
to supporting rising Omani stars.”
Notably, Ahmad has attracted vital
backing from two new sponsors for
the Blancpain Endurance Cup season
with Muscat real estate business Barr
Al Jissah on Tuesday announced as a
partner for the coming campaign.
On behalf of Barr Al Jissah, Firas
Matraji said: “All at Barr Al Jissah
are extremely excited to be part of
Ahmad’s high-profile motor racing
season this year.”
Omantel was confirmed as part of
the 2016 sponsorship portfolio just
over a week ago.
Hamdan Moosa al Harasi, Acting
Vice-President Corporate Strategy,
said: “We are pleased to welcome back
our national champion Ahmad al
Harthy to the Omantel family. Omantel
and Ahmad have both passion for
leading performance, excellence, and
we believe that this new partnership
will bear fruits for both parties. This
sponsorship is an extension to Omantel
efforts to support Omani talents in
various fields which reiterates the
company’s leadership in supporting
youth and sport in the Sultanate.”
Ahmad also has the support
of Aston Martin Middle East and
North Africa — for whom he is an
ambassador. General Manager for
the Mena region, Neil Slade, said:
“Ahmad’s appointment as a brand
ambassador last year for Aston Martin
was extremely important for the brand
and we are very pleased to continue
our relationship in 2016.
The Omani tennis ace also went out in singles quarterfinals against second seed Julia Terziyska of Bulgaria
Fatma misses out in doubles semis in Egypt
SPORTS REPORTER
MUSCAT
March 15: Oman tennis player Fatma
al Nabhani missed out in the singles
quarterfinals and the doubles semifinals
of the $10,000 Sharm el Sheikh ITF
tournament held from March 7 to 13 in
Egypt.
Fatma, seeded sixth in the
tournament, lost to second seed Julia
Terziyska of Bulgaria 7-5, 6-4 in the
hardcourt tournament.
Earlier, Fatma overcame the
challenges from Katie Boulter of Great
Britain 6-4, 6-1 in the first round and
Oleksandra Andrieieva of Ukraine 7-5,
with Anna Zaja of Germany lost to
Russian pair Anastasiya Komardina and
Anna Morgina in the semifinals 7-5 6-0.
In the first round, the OmaniGerman pair beat Cheyenne Biancheri
(USA) and Elina Vikhryanova (Russia)
6-2, 6-2. In the quarters, they beat
British pair of Katie Boulter and Laura
Deigman 6-2, 6-4.
The top-seeded pair of Alona Fomina
(Ukraine) and Ekaterina Yashina
6-2 in the second round.
(Russia) won the title beating Anastasiya
Anna Morgina of Russia beat Komardina and Anna Morgina in the
Karolina Muchova of Czech Republic final 7-6 (2) 3-6 [10-8].
1-6, 6-0, 6-3 to win the title.
Fatma has current singles ranking of
In the doubles section, Fatma along 381 and doubles ranking of 272.
In the doubles section,
Fatma al Nabhani along with
Anna Zaja of Germany lost
to Russian pair Anastasiya
Komardina and Anna
Morgina in the semifinals
7-5, 6-0
26
SPORT
omandailyobserver
W E D N E S DAY
MARCH 16 l 2016
WORLD T20: England would want to atone for a humiliating early exit from last year’s 50-over World Cup in Australia and New Zealand
Caribbean ‘Gayle Storm’ set to hit England
MUMBAI: Controversial batsman
Chris Gayle will be looking to ensure
the West Indies’ troubled build-up
to the World Twenty20 becomes a
distant memory when they open their
campaign against England in Mumbai
on Wednesday.
The Windies are out to prove they
are still a force in the shortest form of
the game despite their declining Test
status, while England want to atone for
a humiliating early exit from last year’s
50-over World Cup.
A pay dispute cast doubt over the
West Indies’ appearance in India and
while the row was resolved at the 11th
hour, relations between players and the
country’s cricket board remain tense.
Their preparations have also been hit
by the withdrawal of all-rounder Kieron
Pollard and off-spinner Sunil Narine,
who is T20 cricket’s top-performing
bowler and has thrived in the Indian
Premier League (IPL).
But in the enigmatic Gayle they
possess a batsman capable of destroying
whatever bowling attack he faces and
single-handedly winning any match,
providing he stays clear of off-field
controversy. The Jamaican, nicknamed
“Gayle Storm”, faced allegations of
sexism after he asked an Australian
TV presenter for a date live on air in
January during the Big Bash League. He
also lit up the tournament for the right
reasons, hitting a 12-ball half-century.
West Indies skipper Darren Sammy
said the 36-year-old was unfazed by all
the attention and would be his usual
“destructive” self on the pitch.
“There always seems to be pressure
for him to perform but Chris is just
going to do what Chris has done
throughout his T20 career,” said Sammy
This file photograph taken on March
12, 2014, shows West Indies batsman
Chris Gayle as he hits a boundary
during the second T20 match between
England and West Indies at the
Kensington Oval in Bridgetown. — AFP
SPIN
Teams
West Indies (from): Darren Sammy (captain),
Samuel Badree, Sulieman Benn, Carlos Brathwaite,
Dwayne Bravo, Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher,
Chris Gayle, Jason Holder, Evin Lewis, Ashley Nurse,
Denesh Ramdin, Andre Russell, Marlon Samuels,
Jerome Taylor
England (from): Eoin Morgan (captain), Moeen Ali,
Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Liam Dawson, Alex Hales,
Chris Jordan, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root,
Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, James Vince,
David Willey
Bangladesh bid to turn screw on Pakistan
THOUGHT
Morgan feels for
suspended Narine
MUMBAI: England skipper Eoin
Morgan voiced sympathy on Tuesday
for West Indies spinner Sunil Narine
after the number one-ranked bowler
pulled out of the World Twenty20
following his suspension for a suspect
action.
The West Indies’ hopes of winning
the tournament were dealt a severe
blow last month when Narine pulled
out of the squad, saying he was not
ready to return to the international fold
after work to remodel his action.
But while Narine’s absence from the
World T20 is something of a relief for
Morgan’s team who play the West Indies
in their opening match on Wednesday,
the England skipper said he felt for his
former team-mate.
“I think it’s a very touchy subject. I
know Sunil. I’m not pleased to see what
he’s going through. I wouldn’t wish it
upon anybody,” Morgan told reporters
in Mumbai.
The 27-year-old Trinidadian was
suspended in November after being
cited during a match in Sri Lanka for
a suspect bowling action, the second
time he has been reported for an illegal
action.
Morgan and Narine have played
together for the Kolkata Knight Riders
in the Indian Premier League (IPL), a
in an eve-of-match presser conference.
“There’s never too much pressure on
Chris.”
Gayle, 36, holds the record for
the highest ever score in T20s, 175
off 66 balls, and hit the format’s first
international century during the
inaugural World T20 in 2007.
But the second-ranked Windies,
who are looking to add to their 2012
World T20 title, face a tough prospect
at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium in the
shape of a new, attack-minded England
side.
Eoin Morgan’s team have turned
their fortunes around since they were
dumped out of the 2015 World Cup by
Bangladesh, adopting a more aggressive
attitude which has seen them up their
run rate.
In Morgan, all-rounder Ben Stokes,
opener Jason Roy and classy righthander Joe Root, England have strength
in depth but they will miss injured fast
bowler Steven Finn.
England had a disastrous 50 over
World Cup campaign last year, knocked
out in the group stages after losing to
Bangladesh.
But Morgan said two victories in
warm-ups had given the team a boost
“We’ve built a little bit of confidence
and we are in a really good place
mentally,” said the captain in his prematch press conference.
‘I think it’s a very touchy
subject. I know Sunil. I’m
not pleased to see what he’s
going through. I wouldn’t
wish it upon anybody’
competition in which the spinner has
regularly bamboozled opponents.
“He’s bowled the same way since he
was probably 15 or 16 years old. The fact
he’s got to this stage in his career and it’s
only being looked at now is probably
disappointing from his point of view,”
said Morgan.
“But there are set rules in place that
are being applied.”
Despite not playing since November,
Narine is still way ahead of his nearest
rivals in the T20 international rankings.
Narine was a key member of the
West Indies team which won the 2012
World T20, taking three wickets for just
nine runs in the final against Sri Lanka
in Colombo.
He is one of a number of leading
bowlers who are absent from this year’s
tournament, including Pakistan’s former
world number one Saeed Ajmal who has
struggled with a remodelled action after
being reported in 2014.
— AFP
KOLKATA: Bangladesh will look to
compound the misery of beleaguered
Pakistan on Wednesday in their opening
group match of the World Twenty20,
fresh from humbling their arch-rivals in
the Asia Cup.
Despite their recent improvements
in 50-over cricket, Bangladesh have a
rotten record in the World T20 and have
never beaten Pakistan in the premier
tournament of cricket’s shortest format.
But they will fancy their chances like
never before at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens
against a team who are on a miserable
run and whose preparations have been
hit by their late arrival in India in a
row over security. Bangladesh cruised
through last week’s preliminary round
and know that a victory over Pakistan
will set them up nicely if they are to
make the semifinals for the first time.
Star batsman Tamim Iqbal is in the
form of his life, scoring Bangladesh’s
first ever international T20 century in
Sunday’s victory over Oman after scores
of 83 and 47 in the first two games.
Fans in the cricket-mad nation held
impromptu street parties earlier this
month when Bangladesh clinched a
five-wicket win over Pakistan in Dhaka,
sealing a place in the final of the Asia
Cup which they lost to India.
Bangladesh was part of Pakistan
before a brutal 1971 war of separation,
and matches between the sides therefore
always have an extra edge to them.
Mashrafe Mortaza’s side can expect
strong support from their fellow
Bengalis in what is the capital of the
Indian state of West Bengal.
Bangladesh’s captain
Mashrafe Bin Mortaza
(right) talks with teammates Tamim Iqbal (left)
and Shakib Al Hasan
during a training session.
— AFP
But Afridi has been making his own
overtures towards the locals by claiming
his team has received more “love” from
fans in India than back home, comments
that incensed former Pakistan skipper
Javed Miandad.
BACKING FOR BOOM BOOM
Pakistan coach Waqar Younis said
that the team’s troubled build-up to the
tournament did not mean they should
be written off.
“We’re the kind of team that once
we get the momentum going, we can
surprise people,” Younis said in a prematch press conference.
The former bowling great also backed
the big-hitting Afridi to rediscover the
kind of form with the bat that earned
him the nickname Boom.
“It takes less than a minute to lose
form and to get it back as well. T20
cricket is like that, we’re hoping that he’s
one innings away from getting back his
old form,” said Younis.
Bangladesh’s build-up has been
serene in comparison to the dramas in
Pakistan’s camp.
But after seeing off Oman, the
Netherlands and Ireland in the
preliminaries, Mortaza knows the hard
work now begins in a group that includes
India, Australia and New Zealand. “In that
group you can’t make any mistakes, you
have to be up to the mark everywhere,”
said the veteran bowler. — AFP
Teams
Bangladesh (from): Mashrafe Mortaza (captain),
Shakib Al Hasan, Abu Hider, Al-Amin Hossain,
Arafat Sunny, Mahmudullah, Mohammad Mithun,
Mushfiqur Rahim, Mustafizur Rahman, Nasir
Hossain, Nurul Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Soumya
Sarkar, Tamim Iqbal, Taskin Ahmed
Pakistan (from): Shahid Afridi (captain), Anwar
Ali, Imad Wasim, Khalid Latif, Khurram Manzoor,
Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad
Irfan, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Sami, Sarfraz
Ahmed, Shoaib Malik, Sharjeel Khan, Umar Akmal,
Wahab Riaz
Pakistan coach Waqar backs Afridi on India love row
KOLKATA: Coach Waqar Younis stood by
his skipper Shahid Afridi on Tuesday over
his declaration that Pakistan’s cricketers
receive more love in India than back home,
saying critics should stop stirring up trouble.
Former Pakistani captain Javed Miandad
has been at the forefront of the outrage over
Afridi’s comments at the weekend shortly
after the team’s delayed arrival for the
World Twenty20 being played in India.
But Younis said Afridi’s critics were
making something out of nothing and he
should not be criticised for wearing his
heart on his sleeve. “This is something
he felt. It’s his emotions,” the former fast
bowler told reporters in Kolkata on the eve
of Pakistan’s opening match in the World
Twenty20 against Bangladesh.
“I believe we should leave it at that rather
than creating a controversy out of nothing.
We are here to play cricket, to beat teams,”
he said ahead of Pakistan’s opening rubber
against Bangladesh.
“My message to the boys is just leave
everything behind. This is about playing
some quality cricket and playing for the
nation.” In a press conference in Kolkata
on Sunday, Afridi said that Pakistan had
always enjoyed playing in India and “have
been loved by Indians crowds more than
crowds back home in Pakistan.”
The comments raised eyebrows as
Pakistan’s build-up to the tournament
has been embroiled in controversy over
whether they would be allowed to travel to
arch-rivals India.
They agreed to take the trip only after
negotiations with India over security
arrangements and the shifting of their
match against the hosts to Kolkata from
Dharamsala.
Diplomatic tensions between the two
countries have meant that the two teams
have not played any bilateral series for
more than three years, and their rivalry is
restricted to multi-national tournaments
such as the World T20. India’s batting great
Sunil Gavaskar on Tuesday said Afridi’s
comments would help dull the hostility of
the usually raucous home crowd at Eden
Gardens, the venue for the much-awaited
India-Pakistan tie on March 19.
— AFP
SPORT
W E D N E S DAY
MARCH 16 l 2016
omandailyobserver
27
PREMIER LEAGUE: Rafael Benitez’s first match as Newcastle United manager was overshadowed by the brilliance of the Japanese player
Okazaki stunner helps Leicester march on
LEICESTER, United Kingdom: Shinji
Okazaki’s stunning goal upstaged new
Newcastle United manager Rafael
Benitez as Leicester City reasserted a
five-point lead in the Premier League
with a tight 1-0 victory on Monday.
Benitez was taking charge of
Newcastle for the first time since being
appointed as the successor to the sacked
Steve McClaren on a three-year contract,
but it was Japan international Okazaki,
29, who stole the headlines with an
acrobatic 25th-minute overhead kick.
Okazaki’s sixth goal of the season took
Leicester five points clear of Tottenham
Hotspur, who had trimmed their lead to
two points with victory at Aston Villa on
Sunday, and nudged Claudio Ranieri’s
men a step closer to an extraordinary
title triumph.
“It was not our best performance, but
we showed great spirit,” said Ranieri,
whose side require 20 points from their
final eight matches to win the title.
“I feel now that I am just concentrating
on the next game against Crystal Palace.
We are so strong, we think only one
game at a time. Step by step, that is our
philosophy.”
It was Newcastle’s fourth consecutive
defeat — a first this season — and saw
Leicester complete a league double over
the north-east giants for the first time
since the 1974-75 campaign.
The visitors showed more fight than in
recent weeks at the King Power Stadium,
but they remain in the relegation zone
ahead of Benitez’s St James’ Park baptism
of fire on Sunday against local rivals and
fellow strugglers Sunderland.
“I will take the positives,” said
Benitez. “We did well. You could see the
commitment and the passion.
“There were a lot of positives and the
CHAMPS
Shinji Okazaki celebrates
scoring the first goal for
Leicester City with Danny
Drinkwater. — Reuters
team showed that they are convinced
they can win.”
Benitez made two changes to the
team beaten 3-1 by Bournemouth in
McClaren’s final game, with Vurnon
Anita and Aleksandar Mitrovic coming
in, while Jack Colback moved from
LEAGUE
Barca clash highlights
Arsenal’s missed
Suarez chance
BARCELONA: Arsenal Manager
Arsene Wenger admitted his side face
an almost impossible task when they
travel to face a red-hot Barcelona on
Wednesday looking to overturn a 2-0
first-leg deficit to reach the Champions
League quarter-finals for the first time
in six years.
As so often in the second half of
Wenger’s 20-year reign, Arsenal will
travel to the Camp Nou with a sense of
what might have been.
They had their chances to lead at
the Emirates three weeks ago before
Barca’s brilliant forward triumvirate of
Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez
cut through them with an unerring ease
they have made routine.
Messi, Neymar and Suarez have
scored a combined 103 goals this
season, Arsenal’s entire squad a mere
71. Top of the list of Wenger’s detractors
has been his inability or unwillingness
to splash out on the top-class striker
needed to turn Arsenal from perennial
pretenders into winners. Yet, he tried to
land Suarez whilst the Uruguayan was
still at Liverpool in 2013.
In a tale of Arsenal’s penny-pinch
culture under Wenger, they infuriated
Liverpool by launching a bid one pound
over Suarez’s reported £40 million
buyout clause.
“What do you think they’re smoking
over there at Emirates?” Liverpool’s
American owner John W. Henry
famously replied on Twitter.
Even more damming for Arsenal was
that Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard
managed to talk Suarez into staying for
an extra season at Anfield by telling him
he was “too good for Arsenal” and that
his move to Barcelona would come.
Gerrard was proved right. Inspired
by Suarez’s 31 Premier League goals,
Liverpool agonisingly just missed out
on their first title in 24 years.
At the same time Barca had just
suffered their first trophyless season
in six years. Suarez then bit Italian
defender Giorgio Chiellini at the 2014
World Cup, the third time he had bitten
an opponent in his career, sparking
widespread condemnation and a fourmonth ban.
Yet, whilst others dithered, Barca
pounced, eying exactly Suarez’s
aggression as the tonic to revitalise the
squad already blessed with the talents of
Messi and Neymar.
— AFP
central midfield to left-back.
Another novelty saw Moussa Sissoko
line up on the left flank and the France
international gave the hosts an early
scare when he chased down Wes
Morgan’s back-pass and forced Kasper
Schmeichel into a hurried clearance.
Albrighton goes close It set the tone for an assured start
by Newcastle, for whom lone striker
Mitrovic proved an effective battering
ram.
Ayoze Perez and Colback each shot
wide from decent positions, Sissoko
headed the wrong side of the post from
Daryl Janmaat’s right-wing cross and
Mitrovic played a cross-shot right across
the face of goal.
But Leicester stirred, Riyad Mahrez
seeing a shot blocked by Steven Taylor
and Robert Huth nodding the resulting
corner over the bar, and midway
through the first half they made the
breakthrough.
Mahrez’s free-kick from deep on
the right was only cleared as far as
Marc Albrighton, loitering on the lefthand edge of the box, and his cross
was nodded back by Jamie Vardy for
Okazaki to score with a picture-book
overhead bicycle kick.
Moments later Albrighton almost
made it two, jinking this way and then
the other before bending a shot a foot
wide of the right-hand upright.
Perez warmed Schmeichel’s gloves
from range at the other end, but with
Leicester keeping Newcastle at arm’s
length, Benitez made a change early in
the second half by sending on Andros
Townsend for Anita.
The
change
saw
Georginio
Wijnaldum drop into central midfield
and Newcastle were immediately
enlivened, Janmaat forcing Albrighton
into an alert block and Perez sending a
shot into the side-netting.
Ranieri responded by introducing Jeff
Schlupp for Okazaki, giving Leicester
extra cover on the left against the tricky
Townsend, while Albrighton switched
flanks to the right and Mahrez moved
inside.
Newcastle goalkeeper Rob Elliot
almost gifted Vardy a goal when he
dropped a long throw from Christian
Fuchs, only to gather it at the second
attempt.
But the butterflies were all in the
stomachs of the home fans in the latter
stages, Huth blocking from Sissoko
and Newcastle substitute Siem de Jong
miscuing from 15 yards, before the
whistle drew a roar of relief.
— AFP
Ranieri still in denial over Leicester bid
LEICESTER,
United
Kingdom:
Leicester City Manager Claudio Ranieri
said he was still refusing to look at the
Premier League table despite his team
re-establishing a five-point lead by
beating Newcastle United 1-0.
Shinji Okazaki’s stunning 25thminute overhead bicycle kick gave
Leicester a hard-earned 1-0 win at the
King Power Stadium on Monday and
left them needing 20 points from their
final eight games to complete one of the
most improbable title triumphs in the
history of European football.
But while teams like Arsenal and
Manchester City continue to flounder
in their slipstream, Ranieri was insistent
that neither he nor his players are
allowing themselves to think about the
title.
“I don’t look at the table. I look at the
next match — Crystal Palace,” he told
his post-match press conference.
“It’s difficult. We want to enjoy, we
want to continue. Of course our fans are
dreaming, are so proud of us. We must
continue.”
He added: “Never we speak about
the title. Every time we speak about our
performance, how we enjoy the football
and helping our team-mates. I’m very
proud when I say everyone helps each
other.”
Okazaki’s goal, a textbook overhead
volley from Jamie Vardy’s knockdown, took the Japan striker’s tally to
six goals for the campaign, but Ranieri
made a point of praising his all-round
contribution.
“I’m not pleased now because he
Leicester City Manager Claudio Ranieri congratulates Shinji Okazaki as he is substituted. — Reuters
scored a goal — I’m so pleased with
Shinji because he’s part of the team and
he works so hard every time,” he said.
“He scored a goal tonight (Monday),
but Shinji has made a fantastic job
during all the season. It was a good goal,
a fantastic goal.”
Leicester’s last three wins, against
Norwich City, Watford and Newcastle,
have all come by a 1-0 scoreline and
Ranieri was heartened by the gritty
attitude shown by his players.
“I know very well we played better
maybe against Aston Villa or West
Bromwich, but we drew both these
matches,” he said.
“We played well and we achieved
just one point. We played our match
(against Newcastle), a tough match,
very concentrated, and we won -- three
points.
“At this point of the season, the points
are important, not how you play.”
‘USE THEIR BRAINS’
With new manager Rafael Benitez
furiously orchestrating his charges from
the edge of his technical area, Newcastle
produced an improved display and
Ranieri said that he had not been
surprised by their tenacity.
“I was sure it would be this kind
of match,” said the Italian, who, like
Benitez, counts Napoli, Valencia,
Chelsea and Inter Milan among his
former clubs.
“Their players showed Rafa their
attitude and the Newcastle players are
very good. I am sure that they will be
safe.”
— AFP
Bayern want no repeat of Juve’s Turin fightback
Barcelona’s Lionel Messi (centre) and his teammates signs autographs for children
who managed to gate-crash the training session at the Sports Center FC Barcelona
Joan Gamper in Sant Joan Despi, near Barcelona. — AFP
BERLIN: Bayern Munich host Juventus
on Wednesday in the Champions
League last 16 return-leg clash eager
to cut out any mistakes and prevent a
repeat of the Italians’ first-leg fight back.
Bayern host the Italian champions
at the Allianz Arena looking to seal
their fifth consecutive quarter-final
appearance in the Champions League.
They were steaming towards the last
eight when Thomas Mueller and Arjen
Robben gave them a two-goal lead
in Turin before Juventus pounced on
mistakes in Munich’s ranks with goals by
Paulo Dybala and Stefano Sturaro.
Juventus are in rich form, unbeaten
in their last 19 games, but coach
Massimiliano Allegri suffered a set
back on Monday when Italy midfielder
Claudio Marchisio dropped out of
training with a calf injury.
Dybala is also out and Allegri was
already missing defenders Giorgio
Chiellini and Martin Caceres, while
former Bayern striker Mario Mandzukic
is nursing a knock.
Both Bayern coach Pep Guardiola
and captain Philipp Lahm have warned
the Germans can ill afford committing
more mistakes for Juventus to again
exploit. And ex-Bayern coach Ottmar
Hitzfeld says the Italians are more
than capable of pulling off an upset in
Munich. “After leading Juventus by 2-0,
the 2-2 is not an ideal result,” Hitzfeld
told Munich-based newspaper TZ.
“They have build Juventus back up
again and they’ll believe in their chances
again. “Bayern is vulnerable on the
break and Juventus will be lurking and
100% ready to take their chances.”
Mainz proved just how vulnerable
Bayern are when they became the
only side to win at the Allianz Arena
this season with a 2-1 victory just over
a fortnight ago. Bayern lost despite
enjoying 78 percent possession and
firing in 17 shots on goal and Juventus’
analysts will noted the way Mainz
patiently took their chances. Bayern’s
injury crisis in defence has eased.
Guardiola is set to field Joshua
Kimmich and Medhi Benatia at centreback, but he has the luxury problem of
knowing which stars to leave out with
Germany’s World Cup winner Mario
Goetze now back from a groin injury.
His forwards Robert Lewandowski
(34) and Thomas Mueller (27) have
scored 61 goals between them this
season in all competition and they
contributed three goals in Saturday’s
5-0 drubbing of Werder Bremen in
Germany’s top flight. — AFP
28
omandailyobserver
SPORT
W E D N E S DAY
MARCH 16 l 2016
Curry celebrates birthday with 60th win
DIVISION CROWN: Golden State secured the Pacific Division title thanks to the Clippers’ loss to Cleveland
LOS ANGELES: Golden State star
Stephen Curry had plenty to celebrate
on Monday, pouring in a game-high
27 points on his 28th birthday as the
Warriors stayed perfect at home this
season with a 125-107 victory over the
New Orleans Pelicans.
The Warriors improved to 60-6 —
becoming the fastest team in league
history to reach 60 wins and the first
since the 2007-09 Boston Celtics
to record 60 wins in back-to-back
campaigns.
With 16 games remaining, they
continue to chase the record of 72 wins
set by the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls.
Curry was feted with songs and
chants to celebrate his birthday. But it
was Australian big man Andrew Bogue
who sparked a third-quarter surge with
a rare three-pointer — the third of his
career and his first since March 8, 2013
— followed by a blocked shot at the
other end.
His efforts ignited a 13-0 scoring run
that put the Warriors well on their way
to a 49th straight regular-season victory
at home in Oakland, California, a streak
dating back to last season.
The Warriors secured the Pacific
Division title on their day off on Sunday
thanks to the Los Angeles Clippers’ loss
to Cleveland.
They have won back-to-back division
titles for the first time since 1975 and
1976. “It’s a major accomplishment,”
coach Steve Kerr said.
JAZZ DOWN CAVALIERS
The Utah Jazz kept up their push
for an NBA playoff berth with a 9485 victory over LeBron James and the
Eastern Conference-leading Cleveland
Cavaliers.
Rodney Hood scored 28 points and
Shelvin Mack added 16 oints, 10 assists
and seven rebounds to lead the Jazz, who
were without leading scorer Gordon
Hayward who missed the contest with
plantar fasciitis.
James scored 23 points and Kyrie
Irving added 15 and Kevin Love 12
for the Cavaliers, who had won three
straight coming into the game.
Cleveland looked primed to end their
road trip on a high note when the raced
to an 11-4 four lead courtesy of an alleyoop dunk from James.
But Utah battled back as Mack
UK agency given
pre-Olympic
drug testing role
LONDON: UK Anti-Doping is
to oversee the worldwide effort to
stamp out the use of performanceenhancing drugs in the run-up to this
year’s Olympic Games in Rio, it was
announced on Monday.
UKAD has been appointed as the
secretariat for an International Olympic
Committee anti-doping taskforce
which will seek to standardise testing
procedures. Monday’s announcement
came with Russia still banned by the
IAAF, athletics’ world governing body
and on course to be excluded from the
Olympics following a damning report
into mass doping violations.
Meanwhile five other countries have
now been placed on notice by the IAAF.
This is the second time this month that
UKAD has been granted a role beyond
its own borders after it was asked to
oversee drug testing procedures in
Russia for the time that its own antidoping agency, Rusada, remains noncompliant with the World Anti-Doping
Agency code.
“UK Anti-Doping is delighted to
have been asked by the World AntiDoping Agency to be the secretariat for
the pre-Rio Anti-Doping Taskforce,”
said UKAD chief executive Nicole
Sapstead. “This is an important
step forward for global sport and
the protection of clean athletes. It
is an opportunity for international
federations and national anti-doping
organisations to collaborate to ensure
pre-Games testing programmes are
targeted, meaningful and effective.”
“It’s the first time something like this
has been done. Global co-operation is
a vital aspect of protecting clean sport
and developing a level playing field for
all athletes.” — AFP
Denver Nuggets’ Kenneth Faried (35) dunks the ball past Miami Heat forward Luol Deng (9) during the first half at American Airlines Arena. — USA Today Sports
drained a three-pointer and French
center Rudy Gobert converted a threepoint play to key a 13-2 run that put the
Jazz up 19-15.
Cleveland used a 14-3 run to take a
slim lead late in the third and they went
into the final quarter with the score tied
at 66-66.
Trey Lyles scored 10 of his 12 points
in the fourth quarter for Utah — before
he was ejected for a flagrant foul against
Channing Frye with less than four
minutes to play.
Frye was also tossed after retaliating
with a head-butt to earn his second
technical.
With the victory Utah remained
two games behind the Houston
Rockets and Dallas Mavericks — both
winners on Monday — for the last
Western Conference play-off berth.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are two and a
half games ahead of Toronto in atop the
East.
GRIZZLIES MAULED
Trevor Ariza and Patrick Beverly set
the tone with six three-pointers between
them in the first quarter as the Houston
Rockets thrashed the short-handed
Memphis Grizzlies 130-81.
The Rockets connected on 16 of 33
attempts from long range.
Ariza finished with 16 points, one of
nine Rockets players to score in double
figures in the wire-to-wire win.
The last time Houston had nine
scorers in double figures was in 1993.
In Toronto, the Raptors once again
brought out the best in Chicago reserve
forward Doug McDermott, who scored
a team-high 29 points in the Bulls’ 109107 victory.
“It’s something about playing one
of the top teams in the East gets you
motivated,” said McDermott, who had
a career-high 30 points when the teams
last met in February in Chicago.
The Chicago Bulls led by as many
as 13 points early in the fourth quarter
but the Raptors, who had won 15 of
their previous 16 home games, twice
cut the deficit to one in the final 20
seconds.
THUNDER PUNISH BLAZERS
Enes Kanter scored 26 points to lead
the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 128-94
victory over the Portland Trail Blazers,
avenging a January defeat.
It was the first time since January 4
that a player other than Kevin Durant
Red Bull F1 Showrun set to
perform on streets of Oman
or Russell Westbrook led the Thunder in
scoring. Oklahoma City’s stars did their
part, however, with Westbrook posting
his 12th triple-double of the season with
17 points, 16 assists and 10 rebounds —
all with no turnovers.
Durant added 20 points as seven
Thunder players scored in double figures
and Oklahoma City posted their largest
margin of victory this season. — AFP
NBA RESULTS
Dallas bt Charlotte 107-96
Miami bt Denver 124-119
Chicago bt Toronto 109-107
Houston bt Memphis 130-81
Oklahoma City bt Portland 128-94
Washington bt Detroit 124-81
Phoenix bt Minnesota 107-104
Golden State bt New Orleans 125-107
Utah bt Cleveland 94-85
NO
FUNDS
Athletes, public
demanding
answers, says
Wada chief
LAUSANNE, Switzerland: Global
sport’s anti-doping agency Wada says
it needs more funding to help root
out cheats and wants sponsors and
broadcasters to help foot the bill.
Wada president Craig Reedie said
the agency’s basic annual budget was
around 27 million dollars, less than
some individual sportsmen earn in a
year. “I think at the end of the day most
of the world thinks that clean sport
would be a good idea and perhaps now
we could encourage them (sponsors)
to help bring it about,” he said on the
sidelines of a Wada conference.
“I think we have to say to very
successful commercial companies,
for example the pharmaceutical
companies with whom we work very
closely, there is a real interest here for
you and for us.”
Athletics, the showpiece sport of
the Olympic Games, was rocked last
year when Russia was suspended from
the sport after a Wada investigation
revealed a state-sponsored doping
programme.
Tennis was also hit last week when
five-times grand slam champion Maria
Sharapova revealed that she had tested
positive for the banned substance
meldonium.
“The difficulty comes from the
never-ending list of things we have to
do,” Reedie said.
“It’s become quite apparent that as
greater pressures appear, we need to
find other sources of revenue.
“It’s possible to get evidence that
one athlete can earn more in one year
than the Wada annual budget which
I think is a reasonably interesting
comparison,” he said, adding that
Wada was understaffed and had an IT
system that was 10 years out of date.
Wada director general David
Howman said a bigger budget would
help the organisation become more
proactive.
“You might look at broadcasting
and say can we get 0.2 per cent of the
annual broadcast fees they’re giving
out to sport,” he said. — Reuters
LOCAL FLAVOUR
OSA HOLDS ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
The general assembly of Oman Swimming Association (OSA) held its annual
general meeting on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Taha bin Sulaiman al
Kashri, Chairman of OSA at its premises in Al Ghubra North. The OSA general
assembly ratified the programmes and activities planned to be held this year
and discussed the administrative and technical aspects for implementing
these programmes. It also reviewed last year’s budget and discussed the
estimated budget of the current year.
OFA to host Copa Coca-Cola tourney
MUSCAT: It’s not every day you get
to see a Formula 1 car, never mind a
World Championship winning one.
That is exactly what the people of Oman
will see when the Red Bull Formula 1
Showrun Team visits Oman on Friday
April 8 at Muttrah Sea Road.
The Constructors’ Championship
winning machine will be driven by a
Red Bull driver who will perform a
full repertoire of donuts, burnouts and
speed stretches in front of an expected
20,000 racing fans that will line the
streets.
The car, which accelerates from
0-100km/h in 2.4 seconds, will reach
speeds of 250km/h and above. The
Running Showcars have visited the four
corners of the world, visiting locations
that would not normally host a Formula
1 event and in many instances giving
people their first taste of Formula 1 in
the Flesh.
The hype for the Red Bull F1
Showrun will begin a few days before
the main event, when the team’s car
will be displayed and fired up around
various locations in Oman at the
Omantel headquarters on April 7.
Red Bull Showruns take place at
racing circuits, on city streets, at festivals
and exhibitions. Often playing to crowds
measured in hundreds of thousands,
they give fans the chance to witness the
contained ferocity of a Formula 1 car at
very close quarters. Formula 1 is a great
sport for TV, but there is no substitute
for the ear-splitting roar of the engine,
the haze of tyre smoke and aroma of
burning rubber.
“We are delighted to be part of this
exciting event for the first time in the
Sultanate. Our brands have speed, thrill
and excitement as common principles,
and we trust that our customers will
get a closer feel of our broadband speed
through this event”, said Hamdan
Moosa al Harasi, acting vice-president
corporate strategy at Omantel.
“We are confident that everyone will
mark April 8 in his calendar and we are
looking forward to meet and engage
with thousands of spectators expected
to take part in this unique show,” Al
Harasi added.
The Showrun Team has been to
every inhabited continent, from cobbled
city streets in Europe to baking deserts
in the Americas. It conquered the
highest road in the Himalayas, skated
on frozen rivers in Canada and drifted
across golden Caribbean beaches. Red
Bull Racing is an Austrian team based
in Milton Keynes, England. The team’s
Formula 1 adventure began in 2005.
This Red Bull F1 Showrun is being
held under the umbrella of the Oman
Automobile Association and Royal
Oman Police with the support of the
Ministry of Tourism. The event is being
held in partnership with Omantel and
Khimji Ramdas.
MUSCAT: The Oman Football
Association (OFA) and Coca-Cola
Middle East have today announced
that Copa Coca-Cola, the annual youth
football tournament, will take place
in May under the management of the
Oman Football Association.
The Copa Coca-Cola football
tournament is a concept that takes
place across the world and is for
the age groups 13-15. Oman will be
hosting a one off event on May 7 at
Seeb Stadium with the OFA events
team handling the event on behalf of
Coca-Cola.
Teams of six players can enter the
tournament and registration is done
via the OFA website (www.ofa.om)
with registration being available form
the first week of April. The winning
team will receive an invite to train in
front of the Oman Under-14 national
team coach, who has recently returned
from a successful trip to Saudi Arabia
where the Oman Under-14 team won
the Asian festival tournament.
Nic Cartwright, OFA Commercial
Director, was happy to see the
OFA events team take on another
property. “Our events team are very
busy undertaking a good number of
activities across Oman. The interest
has been very good and it is great
news that Coca-Cola will be working
with on this. The larger Copa CocaCola will take place later this year – this
is an extra date in our calendar that we
are looking forward to running.”
Tolga Cebe, Marketing Director
at Coca-Cola Middle East, said: “Copa
Coca-Cola is more than a game. It’s
an opportunity for teens to be active
while playing the sport they love.
We have been working with Oman
Football Association for the upcoming
Copa Coca-Cola football tournament
and look forward to an engaging
tournament uniting everyone with one
common goal - to celebrate football.”
Copa Coca-Cola is an international
youth football tournament and a
global celebration of football passion.
It unites more than 1 million teens
in over 60 countries around the
world, promoting an active lifestyle
and encouraging values that are the
foundation of life and sportsmanship.
It’s about team spirit, friendship and
respect. More details of upcoming
events will be available on the OFA
website (www.ofa.om).
ENTERTAINMENT
W E D N E S DAY
MARCH 16 l 2016
I’ve got used to people knowing
me outside India: PRIYANKA
A
FASHION
‘Fun has gone from fashion,
it’s more ruthless now’
fashion designer and someone who makes
clothes just to sell them,” added the talent,
who was among those who sowed the seeds of
the Indian fashion industry, which is thriving
nowadays. The industry has grown by leaps
and bounds, but Bal misses the “friendship and
warmth that was there once”.
“I see more and more people running large
scale factories rather than fashion houses. I miss
the patronised feeling of fashion.
I miss the love, calm and fun,” stressed the
alumnus of the prestigious St.
Stephens College of Delhi University.
Often seen at most fashion events and parties,
Bal now wishes he could have a quieter life and
is working towards it.
“Well, after reaching where I am, I
really wish for a quiet life where no one
will judge me for who I am and what
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan
I do. It is difficult to always be in the
in Rohit Bal creation
spotlight, but I have learnt to deal with
it.
Q NIVEDITA
“I only go out when I am absolutely
Designer Rohit Bal
needed and where I really want to go.
is ensembles draw on
No more social obligations,” said the
history, fantasy and folklore
and desired by discerning fashion designer, who is the finale designer at the
aficionados around the globe. Ace designer Rohit forthcoming edition of Lakme Fashion Week
Bal, who has completed 25 years in the industry, in Mumbai. Bal worked in his family’s export
says the biggest shift over the years is in how the business before launching his label in 1990. His
“fun” has gone out of the fashion world, which is distinct sense of style and eye for detail helped
him stand out from the beginning.
now “ruthless and competitive”.
And he uninhibitedly credits his success to his
“Everything has changed. I’ve seen it all
happen and start. It’s like being a witness to the originality.
“For designers who do bridal couture, India
Big Bang. The explosion of stars into the universe
(that) we call fashion. Now we are a full-fledged still remains the most important market. There
industry, almost ruthless and competitive. The was no industry when I started.
I am lucky that my designs have been
fun has gone,” Bal said in an interview.
“Very few of us (are) left who do fashion appreciated and patronised since the beginning.
I am lucky to have laid my own path and not
because we love it.
There is a big difference between being a follow one. — IANS
H
ctress
Priyanka
Chopra,
whose
international debut TV show “Quantico”
has got a renewal and whose Hollywood
debut “Baywatch” is already under
production, says Indian movies have a
“global demographic” and that she is used
to having fans abroad. She says her fan base has expanded
with the reach of foreign TV, and added that an artiste always
yearns for “applause”. The actress answered some questions by
fans through a special video posted on her official Facebook
page.
She spoke about how she gets along with her co-stars, her
camaraderie with them and how she is relieved that the show
is being liked by all.
On being asked about how it feels to get the kind of
reception and recognition that she gets in India, in the US
now, she said: “Indian movies have a very global demographic.
So I’ve got used to a lot of people knowing me outside of
India as well.
“But with ‘Quantico’ going to almost 120 territories — yes,
wherever I go people know me from the show.
I’m really happy, they enjoy the show and my work.
Eventually an artist just wants applause and I’m really
happy to be able to be getting that.”
Priyanka plays Alex Parrish, an FBI recruit who becomes
a suspect of terrorist bombing of New York’s Grand Central
Station.
The show’s storytelling prism shifts between the present
day with Parrish navigating her way through a class of
FBI new agent trainees to the near future as the truth and
repercussions of the attack emerge.
The show is aired on Star World, Star World HD and
Star World Premiere.
Priyanka asserted that doing action scenes
was not an arduous task for her thanks to the
training from Bollywood.
She said: “I have done a lot of action
movies in India, like ‘Don’, ‘Drona’, ‘Don
2’, ‘Mary Kom’, ‘Jai Gangaajal’, because of
which I have a lot of prep and experience
with action, so that’s not hard.
But getting to know a character,
someone like Alex, that was hard.”
“Quantico” also stars actors Jake
McLaughlin, Tate Ellington and
Graham Rogers, who all play fellow
recruits.
The actress says the co-stars
have “been like each other’s
support system throughout the
season.
And I love them. They are
great”. On getting a green light
for the second season, the
actress said: “I’m so excited. I
feel so happy because I
love the show.
I think this is very
entertaining, the kind of
TV I like to watch.
So I’m glad I get to be a part of that.”
Priyanka Chopra may have made it big internationally
as an FBI sleuth in television serial ‘Quantico’, but for Goa
policewomen, it is her role as spunky cop Abha Mathur in ‘Jai
Gangajal’ that has captured their imagination.
Speaking to reporters after attending a free screening of
Prakash Jha’s latest film ‘Jai Gangajal’, where Chopra plays
a feisty cop, a Superintendent of Police in the badlands of
North India, policewomen in Goa were both enamoured and
inspired by the sense of leadership displayed by the fictional
SP Mathur.
“Women are empowered from within. Whether the system
supports or not, at the end women will decide the course
of our lives,” Superintendent of Police (Anti-Terror Squad)
Priyanka Kashyap said, after the film screening organised in
a cinema hall in the state capital recently.
“Women in leadership roles bring in healthy changes to the
system and bring the much required change that the ‘system’
needs.”
WHEN RITA ORA KNEELED
BEFORE MADONNA
S
inger Rita
Ora
has
recalled her
first meeting with
Madonna, when
she had to kneel
down on the floor
to be able to speak
to the pop star at
the best angle.
Ora, 25, first met
Madonna at a charity concert
here in 2013. She spoke about
the meeting in a conversation
with
Metro
newspaper,
reports femalefirst.co.uk.
“I was waiting in the room
and Madonna walks in with
the lighting — how major is
that?
“We say hello and then
she’s like, ‘This isn’t working,
can we just kneel down on
the floor?’ So I
knelt down and
we had the whole
conversation
because
the
lighting
was
better,” Ora said.
Ora says she
does not worry
about what other
people think and say about
her behaviour.
“At the end of the day,
there’s going to be judgements
on anything that you do in
any kind of aspect and it just
comes back to your security.
I know who I am, I know
my fans, I know the records
I sell, I know what I do and
what I desire and if that’s not
getting tarnished then I’ll do
what I like,” she said.
omandailyobserver
29
TINSELTOWN
‘Supergirl’ cast blown
away by on-set pranks
S
he may be the Woman of Steel in front
of the camera but “Supergirl” star Melissa
Benoist revealed on Sunday there was
a villian even she struggled to cope with on
set — a phantom farter. The identity of the
flatulent fiend had the hit CBS show’s cast
scratching their heads, until it was revealed
to be a remote control “fart noise” machine
hidden by a mystery prankster.
“It was in a different spot every day,” she
said at a panel discussion at the PaleyFest
television festival in Los Angeles.
“I think it was someone on the
camera crew and they would wait for the
most opportune moment to hit it, like when someone was
bending over,” said Benoist, 27.
“I fell for it like five times, and I could not get back into character.”
Benoist was joined on stage by fellow cast members Jeremy Jordan,
Mehcad Brooks and Calista Flockhart, who is best known for playing the title
role in legal comedy-drama “Ally McBeal,” which ended in 2002.
“Feminism mean probably something different to everybody,” Flockhart
said when asked about following up her role as Ally McBeal with another
strong female character, media mogul Cat Grant, in “Supergirl.”
“For me, personally, feminism means choice, and we’re not fighting the
battle our grandmothers fought about the right to vote, to go to college...
we’ve passed all that.”
“The question I find when I’m acting these parts is can women have it all,
and at what price and do we want to have it all?” she added. — AFP
There probably won’t be ‘Iron
Man 4’: Robert Downey Jr
R
obert Downey Jr is happy to wear his Iron
Man suit again in “Captain America:
Civil War”. The actor says that for him,
the forthcoming film is like his “little Iron Man
4” as chances of a fourth instalment based on
the American superhero are bleak.
“I don’t think that’s on the cards,” usatoday.
com quoted Downey Jr as saying when the
subject of a fourth solo “Iron Man” film
came up.
“In a way it’s ‘Captain America’ three,
but for me it’s like my little ‘Iron Man
4’ and then it’s back to the thing we all
recognise.
Everything pulls over to the side of
the road when the thunder of an ‘Avengers’ thing
comes through because that’s how it is until it changes.
If it changes,” Downey Jr said.
The actor also shared that he is not sure whether he would ever direct a
Marvel film.
Downey Jr will be making his comeback as the superhero with the release
of “Captain America: Civil War”. The film also features Chris Evans as Captain
America.
Alia Bhatt turns 23, B-Town
wishes love, luck
O
n her 23rd birthday, actress Alia
Bhatt, who is busy promoting her
forthcoming entertainer “Kapoor
& Sons”, was wished a year full of happiness,
love and luck by celebrities like Karan Johar
and Athiya Shetty. Celebrities like her friend
Shraddha Kapoor and Mahesh Bhatt,
Alia’s father, have wished her a year full of
happiness, luck and love.
Alia made her first appearence as a
child artist in a minor role in the thriller
“Sangharsh”. As an adult, she made her
acting debut alongside actors Sidharth
Malhotra and Varun Dhawan in Karan
Johar’s directorial “Student of the Year”.
She was lauded for her role in “Highway”. Alia also
starred in two romantic films “Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya” and
“2 states”.
Julia Roberts to star in crime
drama ‘Train Man’
A
ctress Julia Roberts is said to be in talks
to star in “Train Man”, a courtroom
drama about a New York-based
man who has been arrested several times for
stealing various forms of mass transit. Roberts
would play a lawyer tasked with defending
Darius McCollum, the criminal known for
impersonating public transit authorities
in order to drive away subway trains and
Greyhound buses, reports variety.com.
McCollum, who is diagnosed with
Asperger’s syndrome, has been arrested
more than 25 times for such crimes.
Roberts’ character would be his most recent lawyer, and
his previous heists will be shown throughout the film via flashbacks.
“It is a meaty role for Roberts, along the lines of her Oscar-winning portrait
in 2000’s ‘Erin Brockovich’,” said a source.
The script is by Simon Stephenson, while director has not been hired yet.
30
LIFESTYLE
omandailyobserver
W E D N E S DAY
MARCH 16 l 2016
COMING TO A HOTEL NEAR YOU:
the robot humanoid receptionist
Q MARIE JULIEN
HUMANOID ROBOT CHIHIRA KANAE
GREETS VISITORS — IN ENGLISH, GERMAN,
CHINESE AND JAPANESE. DRESSED IN A
BLUE JACKET WITH A NECK SCARF, CHIHIRA
KANAE IS ON HER FIRST VISIT TO EUROPE
WHERE SHE IS SEEKING POTENTIAL
EMPLOYMENT FOR
HERSELF AND
HER KIND
Chihira Kanae at a
welcome desk at the
International Tourism
Fair in Berlin. — AFP
I
n a hotel not in a galaxy far, far away, a robot
bids you welcome as you pull into the driveway.
Another hands out the keycard to your room,
and a third gives you the password to the WiFi
network. Robots are making an entry into the
hospitality industry that has until now always
prided itself on delivering a warm and personable touch.
At an entrance to Berlin’s exhibition hall where
thousands of travel industry professionals are gathering
for the ITB trade show, humanoid robot Chihira Kanae
greets visitors — in English, German, Chinese and
Japanese.
Dressed in a blue jacket with a neck scarf, Chihira
Kanae is on her first visit to Europe where she is seeking
potential employment for herself and her kind.
Three months ago, her “sister” began working as a
meet-and-greeter in a Tokyo shopping centre.
Their creator, Toshiba, also foresees a great future
ahead for them in tourism.
Mario has already found a job — at the Ghent
Marriott Hotel in Belgium, where he has welcomed
visitors since June.
He is also multi-lingual, speaking 19 languages to
be precise. On top of that, he helps with serving at hotel
buffets, and entertains guests by singing and dancing.
He makes guests smile
Unlike ChihiraKanae, Mario doesn’t pretend to look
like a human.
Standing just 50 centimetres (1.6 foot) tall, Mario is
white with red stripes, has speakers for ears and a total
of just six fingers.
But his employer is pleased with his work.
He “puts a smile on everybody’s face,” said Roger
Langhout, Director General of the hotel, adding that
“it’s a good way to get people to remember our hotel”.
“We are still exploring the possibilities of Mario,”
he said, even if he acknowledges that humans can
never be fully replaced by machines in the hotel
business.
Oxford University’s Carl Benedikt Frey
believes however that robots do have a big
future in the industry.
“In tourism, quite a few jobs remain nonautomatable, like concierges or chefs,” he
said.
“But a wide range of jobs are very
much sustainable to automation,” he added,
suggesting that robots could work as waiters,
dishwashers, tour guides or even chauffeurs.
What is key is that they should do tasks that
require only basic communication, he said.
In fact, a survey of 6,000 travellers by US online
bookings company Travelzoo found that two in three
people are comfortable with seeing robots in the
tourism industry.
The Chinese are among the most enthusiastic, while
the French and Germans are more reticent.
Taleb Rifai, Secretary General of the World Tourism
Organization, said the industry should broaden its
usage of technology and robots.
“I would not put any limit on the use of technology
or innovation in any hotel or tourism facility,” he said.
“As a matter of fact, we are way behind as a sector
Some people pass kidney
stones without noticing
S
ome people pass small kidney stones
without even noticing, but larger
stones often make the sufferer double
up in extreme pain, an independent German
health advisory agency says.
Hard deposits often consisting of calcium
salts, kidney stones can form in people who
either don’t drink enough fluids or lose
too much fluid, for example by perspiring
heavily, points out the Cologne-based
Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health
Care (IQWiG) on its web portal for patient
information.
A salt-rich diet and genetic predisposition
are also possible contributing factors.
A mild twinge in the kidney region can be
the first sign of a kidney stone.
Many affected persons have no symptoms,
however.
Smaller stones are passed out without the
sufferer noticing them.
But often, when a stone enters a ureter —
the duct through which urine passes from a
kidney to the bladder — it makes itself felt
with pain ranging in intensity from mild
discomfort to pain so severe that you barely
move. The pain can occur below the ribs, in
the lower abdomen or back, depending on
where the stone is at the moment.
Other possible symptoms are painful or
frequent urination.
It’s important that someone who has
developed kidney stones pinpoint the cause
so as to help prevent their recurrence.
According to the IQWiG, in Germany
between 1 and 2 per cent of the population
develop kidney stones at one time or another.
A physician generally detects the presence
of kidney stones with an ultrasound scan.
While smaller stones usually pass out
of the body on their own, larger ones have
to be removed surgically, the treatment
depending on their size and position,
the IQWiG points out.
Medical intervention is also
necessary if a stone doesn’t pass out of
the body within four weeks, there is renal
colic — a type of intense pain that typically
begins in the abdomen — or complications
arise. Left untreated, kidney stones can
constrict or block the ureter and lead to an
infection. — dpa
in the implementation of technology and the use of it.
We were able to send a man to the moon long before we
thought about adding wheels on a suitcase.”
Virtual reality
If robots are still a nascent discovery in the industry,
virtual reality (VR) has charmed operators.
German high-tech association Bitkom said virtual
reality is the technology that “perhaps has the greatest
potential” in the travel industry.
At several stands at the ITB fair guests could put
on virtual reality glasses and escape the gloomy Berlin
winter.
In one case, you could lounge on a tropical terrace
and watch elephants lumbering against the backdrop
of the setting sun, while a waiter delivers a colourful
cocktail.
The hotel chain Cinnamon, which is active in the
Maldives and Sri Lanka, is using the “new marketing
tool” to allow potential visitors to get “closer to the
product you see,” said Marketing Director Dileep
Mudadeniya.
At the stand for southern Germany’s Bavaria region,
young women dressed in the traditional dirndl dress
are also trying to tempt visitors to put on the glasses
for a glimpse of its green meadows and snow-capped
mountains.
British tour operator Thomas Cook has been a
pioneer in giving its clients a VR preview of adventure
— a tour by helicopter above Manhattan.
Professor Armin Brysch, from Kempten’s Applied
Sciences University in southern Germany, believes
that VR is here to stay in the industry as it provides a
“new quality of experience” that could entice people to
book holidays in destinations that they may not have
considered.
But would people just opt to see the world from their
armchairs?
Unlikely, said Rifai.
“To think that virtual reality could be used so that
you stay at home and travel the world, it is not going to
happen — I hope,” he said. — AFP
Robot Mario
Yoga can make life
better for people
with abnormal
heart rhythm
Y
oga may improve quality of life in
patients suffering from abnormal
heart rhythm because it gives them
a method to gain some self control over
their symptoms instead of feeling helples,
says a new study.
The researchers examined the effects
of yoga on patients with paroxysmal atrial
fibrillation (AF) in which faulty electrical
signals and rapid heart rate begin suddenly
and then stop on their own.
“Many patients with paroxysmal atrial
fibrillation (AF) can’t live their lives as they
want to — they refuse dinners with friends,
concerts and travelling — because they are
afraid of an AF episode occurring,” said
one of the researchers Maria Wahlstrom
from Sophiahemmet University in Sweden.
“AF episodes are accompanied by chest
pain, dyspnoea and dizziness,” added
Wahlstrom in the study published in
the European Journal of Cardiovascular
Nursing. These symptoms are unpleasant
and patients feel anxious, worried and
stressed that an AF episode would occur.
AF is the most common cardiac rhythm
disorder and has no cure, the researches
pointed out.
Patients with paroxysmal AF experience
episodes of AF usually lasting less than 48
hours and stop by themselves, although
in some patients they can last up to seven
days.
The team included 80 patients with
paroxysmal AF who were randomised to
yoga or a control group that did not do
yoga.
Yoga was performed for one hour, once
a week, for 12 weeks in the hospital with
an experienced instructor, which included
light movements, deep breathing and
meditation.
After 12 weeks, the yoga group had
higher “SF-36” mental health scores, lower
heart rate and lower systolic and diastolic
blood pressure than the control group.
“We found that patients who did yoga
had a better quality of life, lower heart rate
and lower blood pressure than patients
who did not do yoga.
The breathing and movement may
have beneficial effects on blood pressure,”
Wahlstrom stated.
“Patients in the yoga group said it felt
good to let go of their thoughts and just be
inside themselves for awhile,” Wahlstrom
noted.
CHILDREN
Poor sleep in kids may raise attention deficit disorder risk
I
s your child having an irregular sleep pattern?
If yes, then it is better to sort the pattern before
the age of five, as not doing so may put him
or her at a heightened risk of attention deficit
disorders, says a new study. Sleeping problems
make it difficult for kids to adjust to school life
and also increase their risk of emotional and
behavioural issues at school, the study pointed out.
“If these sleep issues aren’t resolved by the time
children are five years old then they are at risk of
poorer adjustment to school,” said lead researcher
Kate Williams, faculty at Queensland University of
Technology in Australia. Parents need to withdraw
some habits, like lying with children over and
over, letting them into their bed, the researchers
suggested.
The research, published in the British Journal
of Educational Psychology, was one of the first to
use a large sample size and examine the longterm impact of children’s sleep on early school
behaviour. The team analysed the sleep behaviour
of 2,880 children born in 2004 until they were sixseven years old.
The mothers reported on children’s sleep
problems, emotional and attention from birth
to five years and teachers reported on children’s
social emotional adjustment to school.
SPOTLIGHT
W E D N E S DAY
MARCH 16 l 2016
Female engineers strive to
break male dominance
S
houting above the din of a concrete mixer,
25-year-old civil engineer Angela James
says she is unfazed about being the only
woman technician working at a busy
construction site in the Tanzanian capital.
“I am a trained civil engineer, so you
should expect to see me working in the field,” she said.
“It doesn’t matter who I’m working with, as long as my
job is done perfectly.” The graduate engineer from the
University of Dar es Salaam has over the past two years
been gaining practical experience as she works towards
her final professional qualification. “Some people don’t
believe that a woman can work in this field, but I have
proved them wrong,” she said.
Dressed in a shiny yellow safety jacket and a hard
hat, James mingles with the casual labourers while
giving instructions on the construction of the wedgeshaped, five-storey building that will house offices and
apartments in the Dar es Salaam suburb.
“I have to ensure that all the technical standards are
met. There’s no margin of error,” she said.
James is one of almost 300 female trainees
participating in the women-only Structured Engineers
Apprenticeship Programme (SEAP) which aims to
equip them with knowledge and experience to become
professional engineers in a male dominated field.
Although the first female engineers in Tanzania
graduated in 1976, official statistics show that by 2009
only four per cent of all registered engineers in the
east African country were women. But under the
SEAP programme, implemented by the Engineering
Registration Board, Tanzania’s professional body, with
funding from the Norwegian government, the number
of female engineers in Tanzania has more than doubled
since 2010, said ERB officials.
Q ELLEN WULFHORST
C
an land rights for women
drive down child marriage and
domestic violence? “Yes and
more”, says an international group of
land and property rights specialists who
are due in Washington this week to
discuss how improved land management
can reduce global poverty and foster
development.
When women have rights to land,
argues Klaus Deininger, a lead economist
and organizer of this week’s World
Bank conference, children’s health and
education improves, household resources
increase and there are fewer child brides
as daughters do not need to be married
off young for financial reasons.
Equally, women with land rights tend
to have savings accounts, a factor that
reduces domestic violence.
“If women have stronger bargaining
power, they actually can resist. Their
husbands will think twice before beating
them because they can move out and take
their money with them,” Deininger said.
Organizers say the conference will focus
on women and property with particular
emphasis on gender equality and land
rights which are key to achieving the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The goals, adopted by the United
31
BIMAL SAIGAL
bimalsaigal@hotmail.com
The Slumdog
Millionaires
DRESSED IN A SHINY
YELLOW SAFETY
JACKET AND A HARD
HAT, ANGELA JAMES
MINGLES WITH THE
CASUAL LABOURERS
WHILE GIVING
INSTRUCTIONS ON THE
CONSTRUCTION OF THE
WEDGE-SHAPED, FIVESTOREY BUILDING THAT
WILL HOUSE OFFICES
AND APARTMENTS IN
THE DAR ES SALAAM
SUBURB
Q KIZITO MAKOYE
omandailyobserver
W
Inspiration
Few girls complete secondary
education in Tanzania due to
widespread poverty and the
perception among parents
that girls should carry out
domestic duties.
If they are in school,
girls have received little
encouragement to pursue
mathematics and science
subjects, often considered
the domain of male students.
According to Zuhura Said
of Temesa — the government
agency dealing with electrical,
engineering and mechanical
services — more women engineers
would inspire young girls to study
mathematics and sciences and take up the
profession themselves.
“Female trainees will become mentors for
young engineers and some of them will take leadership
positions,” she said. Over five years, the Norwegian
government has provided 13.9 million Norwegian
crowns ($1.65 million) in funds to support trainee
female engineers, mostly in the form of a monthly living
allowance and training for mentors.
“This programme... aims to bring gender balance in
professional training and to empower women engineers
to manage their responsibilities,” said Monica Blaalid, a
consultant at the Norwegian Embassy in Dar es Salaam.
Benedict Mukama, ERB’s Assistant Registrar, said
the programme had enrolled 291 women, of whom 143
have already been registered as professional engineers.
The trainees who have received Norwegian
funding had a completion rate of 86 per cent,
compared to 20 per cent for the candidates who had to
pay their own way, ERB data shows.
“The Norwegian funding has brought a new spirit —
the number of female applicants has increased and more
people see the importance of registering,” Mukama
said by email. According to ERB, many of the female
engineers have secured jobs in the field even before they
finished their training stints, and some have started their
own businesses.
“I have several job offers waiting, but I haven’t made
the decision yet on which company I will be taking,”
James said. — Thomson Reuters Foundation
‘Poverty, child marriage,
violence decline when
women own land’
In sub-Saharan Africa,
women make up more
than half of the
agricultural
workforce
Nations last September, provide the
foundations for an ambitious plan
to tackle the world’s most troubling
problems over the next 15 years.
Land and property rights experts say
when women are included in a nation’s
land ownership, there can be far reaching
impacts.
In sub-Saharan Africa, women make
up more than half of the agricultural
workforce, yet fewer than one in five own
farms, according to the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO).
But if women farmers had the same
access to resources as men, the number
of hungry in the world could be reduced
by up to 150 million, the UN World Food
Programme (WFP) says.
According to Rodney Schmidt of
the Rights and Resources Initiative, a
global coalition that works on forest and
land policy reform, more than half the
world’s land is still held under age-old
customary arrangements often arranged
by gender.
Traditionally, women are most often
engaged in producing and collecting
food, and as such, women do play a
major role in how land is used, he said.
When foreign companies enter
the picture, buying land from local
governments, they can find themselves
on a collision course with resident
communities, he added.
“These women and their families
and men are watching their livelihoods
disappear,” Schmidt said. “You have the
seeds there of major social conflict.”
Some 1,400 delegates representing
governments, the private sector,
academia
and
non-governmental
organisations are expected at the World
Bank land and poverty conference from
March 14-18, organizers said.
— Thomson Reuters Foundation
hile I stopped at a busy intersection the other day, I was
wondering why the two cars ahead of me had not moved
even though the traffic signal had turned green for quite
some time. Then I saw a man crawling out on his fours from the space
between the two cars towards the side of the road reaching where he sat
on the raised pavement securing something in the pocket of his shirt.
As the traffic moved I spotted a hand-pedalled rickshaw parked nearby
on the side of the road. It displayed a signboard of some NGO. So, this
young person, who was weak in his legs but was otherwise healthy and
stoutly built was helped with a special rickshaw by some NGO to make
him proverbially stand on his feet and be independent through some
job or profession, had sadly chosen instead to be a beggar. It was really
an ironical situation. Unfortunately, it was not an exceptional case; one
finds that most of the beggars on the streets do not suffer from any
physical infirmities that must compel them to abandon opportunities
available or reserved by the Government to make a respectful living by
earning their livelihood through hard work. The infirmities, therefore,
are not in the limbs but in the fickle minds which put them on this
strayed way.
I am reminded of one polio-stricken teenaged boy whom I saw
growing over the years since the mid-Seventies. He could hardly
stand up with his crutches and also had problem with one of his
hands. But for commuters on the busy intersection near the Oberoi
InterContinental Hotel in South Delhi, for years he was a familiar sight
of resilience and self-esteem as he would make a dignified living by
selling ‘Evening News’ there for hours each day. A similar spirit of selfesteem I find in an old man in his early Eighties who sells incense sticks
at an intersection near to our house while only thirty yards away large
groups of able-bodied men, women and children sit idly all the day for
alms in front of a temple.
Begging is a social evil plaguing not only the third world
societies but it is prevalent in some form or other all around the
world. As one finds hordes of beggars on intersections of roads,
in bazaars, in residential areas and around places of worship, it is
difficult to believe in those figures when the Minister of State for
Social Justice informs the Indian Parliament that there are only
around four lakh beggars in the country — 2.2 lakh males and
1.91 females. There are large families of beggars settled all around
under the flyovers or on the roadside pavements. One finds
women and children of all ages come rushing to you when your
vehicle stops at a red light. Children in such families unfortunately
are raised only as extra hands to run the family business of begging. In
bazaars or at intersections one is bound to find another kind of beggars
— the eunuchs. As one stops at the intersection they come and tap on
the window of the car but unlike in the past they are modest and do
not harass any one. It is a curse in this part of the world that while
such people are able-bodied and have equally full potential in acquiring
knowledge and being useful part of the society, under social taboos
they are still left to live such marginalized lives.
But then one finds several cases around the world where despite
their riches people must continue to live the lives of beggars out of their
compulsive disorders. There was a recent news item of arrest of a man
in London. The worth of the news did not lie in the arrest for begging
but for violation of a ban imposed on Simon Wright, 37 for begging
anywhere in London as the authorities had found out that wearing
ragged clothes and displaying a begging sign of ‘homeless and hungry’
not only he was earning a handsome fifty thousand pounds — a year
but went home each night to a three lakh Pound lavish upcountry flat.
But despite the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959, the 60-yearold millionaire Malana Khan, better known as Massu does not face any
such challenge. He leaves home in the night like any other well-dressed
person going for a party and hires an auto rickshaw to Lokhandwala
Complex in suburban Mumbai’s Andheri, which with restaurants and
bars there frequented by TV and film stars comes alive at night. He
changes his dress to a filthy set of clothes in a nearby lane and hoists
himself at his marked place begging for alms till 3 in the morning
when he gets back into his normal outfit and leaves for home in a hired
conveyance, after pocketing a sizeable income through which he has
already bought two flats in the city dreaded for prohibitive real estate
prices. As per a conservative estimate, his assets are worth Rs 300
million. But then it is modest in comparison to the worth of 45-yearold Bharat Bhagat, who operates near the crowded Chhatrapati Shivaji
Teminus in Mumbai. Through his knack for begging he has not only
established his family into a business of school stationery and owns
another shop, he has bought two adjacent flats in Parel area of the
central Mumbai. Even with their real estate worth of about Rs 700
million, a school dropout Bhagat, who speaks impeccable English, is
not ready to give up on his steady income from this lucrative profession.
Saudi Gazette had reported that 100-year-old blind Saudi woman,
Eisha, who spent her life panhandling in Jeddah died leaving a fortune
of Saudi Riyals 3 million in cash, jewellery worth another million and
four buildings in Jeddah. But then she allowed a number of low-income
families to stay free in those buildings. Similarly, 99-year-old Dobri
Dobrey of Sofia, Bulgaria also begs on the streets but does not keep
anything for himself and gives away all the proceeds to orphanages
and churches, preferring to make living out of his small pension
alone. Unlike them, Talat Habibian of Shahr-e-Kord in Iran was not so
generous. When the 75-year-old beggar died in 2009, the authorities
found that the dishevelled tramp had tugged a fortune worth several
billion Iranian Rials in cash, precious jewellery including ornaments
of historical importance, ownership documents of lucrative properties
and businesses and title deeds to acres of fertile farmland.
Despite there being laws enacted by most of the countries
against the institution of beggary and extension of social welfare
programmes to the needy citizens, begging as one of the oldest
professions has not only survived this long even in the developed
countries but with the ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ fetes as above, no wonder
this conning art is thriving as well as any other lucrative modern
profession.
WEDNESDAY | MARCH 16, 2016 | JUMADA AL THANI 7, 1437 AH
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ADVENTURE and CAMPING
tourism in
AL SHARQIYAH SANDS
T
he Sultanate of Oman,
AL
long loved by tourists
for its sun-kissed
SHARQIYAH SANDS,
pristine
beaches,
ancient
forts
and
IN THE GOVERNORATE OF AL
castles, turquoise seas,
is one of the frontline countries in
SHARQIYAH, HAVE WITNESSED
the region in attracting tourists from
abroad.
CONSIDERABLE TURN OUT BY OMANI,
Oman’s ports are visited every year
ARAB AND FOREIGN TOURISTS
by several cruise vessels, disgorging
thousands of sightseers who come to
OVER THE PAST WEEKS. THE
enjoy this peaceful land with a rich
culture and heritage.
GOVERNORATES OF NORTH AND
But travellers on an expedition to the
desert
will experience being virtually one
SOUTH AL SHARQIYAH HAVE
with nature, landing in a place where they
can enjoy the tranquillity of the desert. They
GOOD TOURISM FACILITIES
encounter the pristine nature, which is the
original homeland of the Bedouins.
Al Sharqiyah Sands, in the Governorate of Al
Sharqiyah, have witnessed considerable turn out by
Omani, Arab and foreign tourists over the past weeks.
The governorates of North and South Al Sharqiyah have
good tourism facilities and services including camps as a
result this segment of tourism is growing in the country.
Al Sharqiyah Sands are one of the best camping areas
of the Sultanate as they host 200 animal species. The
sands, which are known for their red to brown colours,
attract the desert adventures; thanks to easy access and
proper tourism services and facilities.
The Wilayat of Bidiya is one of the most beautiful
oasis on the entry point to Al Sharqiyah Sands. It is an
entry point to explore the exciting desert world and enjoy
tranquillity and peace of mind.
The camps in Bidiya, Al Mudhaibi, Al Kamil W’al
Wafi have been successful; thanks to the camping facilities
they provide for the different categories of tourists who
seek to explore the sands.
The many factors behind the high turn out by
tourists include the tourism facilities and camps that are
renovated yearly. The sites have also points for setting
craft products and practising camel riding, horse riding
and sand skating sports.
Tourists who visit the area enjoy riding
camels, swimming at the wadis, shooting,
sand-skating and riding 4x4 beach
buggies.
Visitors and tourists coming
from Muscat may take the internal
road from the Wilayat of Al Seeb to
the Governorate of Al Dakhiliyah
crossing Samayil, Wadi Al Uqq till
the wilayats of Al Qabil and Bidiya
(200 km).
They can also take the coastal road
from Qurayat passing the Wilayat of Sur and
then to the Wilayat of Al Kamil W’al Wafi and to
Jaalan Bani Bu Hassan (250 km). — ONA