Observer 22 Apr 2011 - Oman Daily Observer

Fajr Dhuhr Asr Magrib Isha 

04.22 

am 

Mystery of 

missing 

family deepens 

Page 4 

Features 

�� Friday, April 22, 2011/Jumada al Ula 18, 1432 AH 

www.omanobserver.om ��editor@omanobserver.om 

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France may back Palestine 

FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy hosted Palestinian 

leader Mahmud Abbas in Paris yesterday as Europe 

reflects more and more openly on the prospect of 

recognising an independent Palestine. Any French 

move to welcome a Palestinian state into the 

community of nations would be made jointly 

with the European Union. 

Gold at record; oil 

continues race up 

LONDON — Gold hit $1,509 an ounce on 

the London Bullion Market, with silver also 

rising to record a 31-year high of $46.25 an 

ounce. 

“Gold prices traded through the $1,500 an 

ounce milestone ... on the back of inflationary 

concerns and sovereign debt uncertainty,” 

said Barclays Capital analyst Suki Cooper. 

The metal is seen as a safe store of value in 

troubled economic and political times. 

“Gold remains comfortably underpinned 

with short-term inflation pressures and economic 

woes triggering some fresh safe-haven 

inflows,” said Andrey Kryuchenkov, commodities 

analyst at Russian financial group 

VTB Capital. 

Oil prices too gained “following the weak 

US dollar that currently dominates and supports 

the oil market,” said Myrto Sokou, an 

analyst at Sucden Financial brokers. 

“It should be noted that crude oil prices 

have gained almost $5 since the start of the 

week, showing that the upside rally continues 

to remain strong despite these uncertain and 

fragile economic conditions,” she added. 

Tweeters defy poll law 

MONTREAL — Twitter users yesterday 

promised to defy Canada's ban on tweeting 

election results before federal polls close on 

May 2. 

The country's independent electoral body, 

met yesterday to discuss rules that prohibit 

the use of social media, such as Twitter and 

Facebook, to transmit federal election results 

before all polls close. The move set off an 

avalanche of criticism on Twitter. 

“This is a Canadian version of a social 

media revolution,” Tessie Sanci, a journalism 

student in Toronto tweeted. — AFP 

Airline tax raises $2 bn 

for health programme 

WASHINGTON — A tax on 

airline tickets in 15 countries 

has generated some $2 billion 

since 2006 to fight three major 

diseases in developing countries, 

Philippe Douste-Blazy, 

UN special adviser said. 

The former French foreign 

minister who now chairs UNI- 

TAID, the UN’s drug purchase 

facility funded by a small surcharge 

on airline fees, said it 

was “painless,” and “a way to 

find new sources of finance.” 

UNITAID, which is hosted 

by the World Health Organization, 

operates programmes 

to fight against the HIV/Aids, 

malaria, and tuberculosis. 

“With the financial crisis we 

are going to see a decline of 

ODA,” noted Douste-Blazy. 

The G20 meet in November, 

he said, “is the opportunity 

to have 2011 as the year 

of innovative financing” notably 

assessing how a pioneer 

effort to raise funds through 

the taxation. 

According to his calculations, 

a simple tax of 0.05 

per cent on foreign exchange 

transactions between banks 

could yield as much as $120 

billion per year. A variable tobacco 

tax ranging from one to 

five cents a pack could raise 

$8 billion, he said. — AFP 

Syria abolishes emergency 

DAMASCUS — Syrian President Bashar al Assad yesterday 

issued decrees ending nearly five decades of state of emergency 

law, abolishing state security courts and allowing citizens to 

protest peacefully, state television reported. 

The announcements made successively in news flashes on 

state television said Assad was ending the emergency law imposed 

when the ruling Baath Party came to power in 1963 as 

well as the state security courts. 

A third decree said citizens would be granted “the right to 

peacefully demonstrate” and noted that this is one of the “basic 

human rights guaranteed by the Syrian constitution.” 

The decree issued by Assad would “regulate” that right to 

demonstrate. The moves are aimed at placating more than a 

month of unprecedented protests across Syria. 

Amnesty International says about 220 people have been 

killed in the crackdown on the protests, which first erupted in 

the capital Damascus on March 15. 

The emergency law restricts many civil liberties, including 

public gatherings and freedom of movement, and 

allows the “arrest of anyone suspected of posing a threat to 

security.” — AFP 

Ivory Coast 

curbs lifted 

ADDIS ABABA — The 

African Union yesterday 

removed sanctions against 

Ivory Coast, after President 

Alassane Ouattara took control 

following the removal 

of former leader Laurent 

Gbagbo. 

“President Ouattara is assuming 

power so we have 

lifted the sanctions,” Joseph 

Nsengimana, Rwanda’s AU 

Ambassador and chair of the 

bloc’s Peace and Security 

Council, told journalists after 

council members met in 

the Ethiopian capital Addis 

Ababa. — Reuters 

2 6 

20 

THE newly announced Public Authority for Consumer Protection will ensure fair trade competition and protect the consumers from any exploitation 

� Authority to help maintain prices � Initiative is first in Arab world 

Consumer agency taking shape 

�� 

MUSCAT — Welcoming the 

Royal orders to enforce the 

necessity of maintaining commodity 

prices at a reasonable 

level in the local markets, 

Mubarak name 

ordered erased 

CAIRO — A Cairo court 

yesterday ruled that the name 

and images of former president 

Hosni Mubarak, and 

that of his wife, be removed 

from all public places, the 

official MENA reported. 

Judge Mohammed 

Hassan Omar said the names 

of Hosni Mubarak and his 

wife Suzanne would be removed 

from “public squares, 

streets, libraries and other 

public institutions around 

the country.” 

Mubarak stepped down 

on February 11 after nearly 

three weeks of anti-regime 

protests which ended his 30year 

rule. — AFP 

Dr Said bin Khamis al Ka’abi, 

Chairman of the Public Authority 

for Consumer Protection, 

said that the establishment of 

the Public Authority for Consumer 

Protection, the first of 

its kind in the Arab world, is an 

Ozone hole linked to rain increases 

WASHINGTON — The hole 

in the ozone layer over Antarctica 

is a significant driver 

of climate change and rain increases 

in the southern hemisphere 

over the past 50 years, 

US scientists said yesterday. 

The findings by a team at 

Columbia University’s School 

of Engineering and Applied 

Science are the first to link 

ozone depletion in the polar 

region to climate change all 

the way to the equator. 

Researchers said the analysis 

should lead policy-makers 

to consider the ozone layer 

along with other environmental 

factors such as Arctic ice 

melt and greenhouse gas 

emissions when consider- 

evidence of His Majesty’s will 

to provide welfare for his people. 

The move however, needs 

time to further improve the image 

of this precious country. 

Al Ka’abi said that the 

process of making regula- 

ing how to tackle climate 

change. 

“It’s really amazing that the 

ozone hole, located so high up 

in the atmosphere over Antarctica, 

can have an impact all 

the way to the tropics and affect 

rainfall there,” said Sarah 

Kang, lead author of the study 

in the journal Science. 

“It’s just like a domino effect,” 

she said. 

Scientists say the Antarctic 

ozone hole, discovered in the 

1980s, was created by the extensive 

use of manmade aerosols 

containing chlorofluorocarbons 

(CFCs). 

Since the signing by 196 

countries of the 1989 Montreal 

Protocol, most CFC pro- 

tions and rules, and defining 

the functions are currently in 

progress. He also mentioned 

that the budget is being drawn 

up for the establishment of the 

authority and to recruit the 

needed national staff and train 

� Put nation’s interest first � Refrain from any influence 

Vote with responsibility 

MUSCAT — His Eminence 

Shaikh Ahmed bin Hamed al 

Khalili, Grand Mufti of the 

Sultanate, said standing for 

election to Majlis Ash’shura 

is meant to serve religion, the 

community and the nation 

and this requires competent 

and honest candidates. 

He said the Shura process 

is based on harmony 

between the one who seeks 

advice and the adviser. He 

said the voters responsibility 

requires them to choose 

the most suitable candidate 

without being affected by 

nepotism or tribal considerations 

or any other biased 

preferences. 

He said the core of the 

thing is loyalty to God, ruler, 

and the nation all at once. 

People should not think 

of financial rewards or the 

position of the candidate but 

of his capabilities, honesty 

and the strength of his will 

to perform his duties. 

He said this will include 

sound reasoning, perception, 

logical thinking and sharp 

faculty of observation. 

He said election is a responsibility 

and any kind of 

money involved is considered 

a bribe which is unacceptable. 

One’s vote cannot 

be purchased by money. 

On Women participation 

in Shura he said it is not a 

matter of man or woman 

but the ability to offer sound 

judgement and appropriate 

advice. 

duction around the world has 

stopped, and experts expect 

the hole to close by the middle 

of this century. 

“While the ozone hole has 

been considered as a solved 

problem, we’re now finding 

it has caused a great deal of 

the climate change that’s been 

observed,” said co-author 

Lorenzo Polvani, senior research 

scientist at the Lamont- 

Doherty Earth Observatory. 

The study used two independently 

drawn climate 

models — the Canadian 

Middle Atmosphere Model 

and the US’ National Center 

for Atmospheric Research 

Community Atmosphere 

Model. — AFP 

KXIP run deluge sinks Royals 

SHAUN Marsh hammered 71 off 42 balls as Kings 

XI Punjab crushed Rajasthan Royals by 48 runs for 

their third win in a row in the IPL in Mohali yesterday. 

Marsh capitalised on a blazing start by new batting 

sensation Paul Valthaty (46) and skipper Adam 

Gilchrist (28) to help the home team post 195 for 

seven, the highest total of the T20 tournament so far. 

them. Surely, the co-operation 

of the people with the efforts 

of government will help to accelerate 

the implementation of 

His Majesty’s vision by giving 

the sufficient time for such a 

vital project. � To page 2 

SANAA — A new version of 

a Gulf Arab proposal to end 

Yemen’s political crisis calls 

for a three month transition 

that would end with a presidential 

election, a senior Yemeni 

official said yesterday. 

The Gulf Cooperation 

Council’s secretary-general 

presented the plan to President 

Ali Abdullah Saleh in a 

visit to Sanaa yesterday. 

Saleh is facing an unprecedented 

challenge to his 

32-year rule. More than two 

months of protests demanding 

his resignation have rocked 

the state. 

The Gulf proposal, which 

Shakespeare 

Gone Mad 

mesmerises 

Japan nuke plant 

a no-go zone area 

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Naoto 

Kan yesterday said that the government was 

banning entry into the 20-kilometre exclusion 

zone around a damaged nuclear power plant. 

The move came after some evacuated residents 

have been returning to their homes to 

fetch belongings and check on their residences 

despite radiation leaks from the plant. 

Kan announced the decision, which was 

to take effect at midnight, during talks with 

Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato at the 

Fukushima prefectural office. 

Sato told reporters he urged the premier to 

thoroughly explain the move to the municipalities 

within the legally binding “caution 

areas.” Many residents left the area around 

the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, 

250 km north-east of Tokyo, after it was 

crippled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. 

The government said it was to allow evacuees 

to return for short, monitored visits because 

the plant’s operator, the Tokyo Electric Power 

Co, said it would take six to nine months to 

bring the reactors under control. — dpa 

Call for Libya peace 

MOSCOW — UN Secretary-General Ban 

Ki-Moon yesterday urged Libyan authorities 

to “stop fighting and stop killing people” and 

said the priority of the world body was to secure 

a ceasefire. 

“At this time our priority is to bring about a 

verifiable and effective ceasefire, and then we 

can expand our humanitarian assistance, and 

we are going to engage in political dialogue,” 

Ban said during a visit to the Russian capital. 

“I urge the Libyan authorities to stop fighting 

and stop killing people,” he told reporters. 

GCC plan sees 3-month 

power transfer in Yemen 

envisages an immediate end 

to protests, would see Saleh 

step down within a month of 

signing the initiative and hand 

over powers to his vice-president, 

the official said. 

The plan requires the formation 

of new unity government 

that would be headed by 

an opposition figure appointed 

by Saleh. 

According to the plan, 

50 per cent of the government 

would be comprised of 

members of the current ruling 

party, 40 per cent from the opposition 

coalition, and 10 per 

cent from unaffiliated political 

groups. — Reuters 

Pirates hijack bulk carrier 

MOGADISHU — Somali pirates hijacked an Italian-owned 

bulk carrier yesterday about 560 km off the coast of Oman, the 

European Union’s anti-piracy taskforce and the vessel operator 

said. 

EU Navfor said the 74,500 tonne MV Rosalia D’Amato was 

on its way to Bandar Imam Khomeini in Iran from Brazil with 

a cargo of soya when an armed pirate gang onboard a single 

skiff attacked. 

“Coalition warships had communications with the vessel 

and were told: ‘pirates onboard stay away’,” the EU force said. 

Without citing its sources, Italian news agency ANSA said the 

vessel was now heading to the coast of Somalia. 

Pirates from the lawless Horn of Africa nation continue to 

outwit an international flotilla of warships patrolling the busy 

water routes that link Europe with Africa and Asia. 

Typically the pirates anchor the vessels off their land base 

until a ransom is paid, at which point the vessel along with its 

crew and cargo is released. 

An official at Perseveranza, the Naples-based operators of 

the vessel, said they had been in contact with the hostage crew 

of six Italians and 15 Filipinos and all were well. — Reuters 

THE construction of 90-km-long Jibrin-Ibri dual road is under way. The project will increase economic and commercial movement between Al Dhahirah and Al Dakhiliyah. � Story on P2

RESCUE workers and civilians gather at the site of a transport accident after a bus hit 

two trucks and plunged into a valley between Damascus and the central city of Homs. 

Twenty-five Iraqis died and 20 were injured in the accident. — AFP 

Ban on Baghdad street protests upsets citizens 

BAGHDAD — A government 

ban on protests on the streets of 

the capital has led some Iraqis 

to question their leaders’ commitment 

to democracy and the 

rule of law. 

Thousands of Iraqis have 

taken to the streets in recent 

months to press for better basic 

services and an end to corruption. 

But a government edict 

last week, restricting rallies in 

Baghdad to its two main sports 

stadiums, is being seen as unconstitutional 

and has raised 

questions over the government’s 

ability to meet protesters’ 

demands. 

“The government is swinging 

away from democracy. 

Banning protests and locking 

demonstrators inside a stadium 

is illegal and unconstitutional,” 

said Ali al Fredawi, an activist 

with the ‘15th of March Movement’ 

which helped coordinate 

recent rallies in Baghdad. 

“The government decision 

clearly shows its fear of 

mounting rage among Iraqis at 

the blundering performance of 

(Prime Minister Nuri) al Maliki’s 

government,” he added. 

Major-General Qassim al- 

Moussawi, a spokesman for 

the armed forces’ commanderin-chief, 

said protests were 

restricted to Al Shaab and Al- 

Zawraa stadiums for economic 

reasons. 

“Shop owners in Baghdad 

complained that recent protests 

started to affect their work and 

therefore we decided to ban 

protests on the streets and in 

commercial areas,” he said. 

Iraqis are frustrated over 

shortages of water, electricity, 

food rations and jobs. 

Politicians have tried to 

calm their anger by giving out 

free power supplies and diverting 

money from fighter jets to 

food rations. In February, Ma- 

liki gave ministers 100 days to 

step up reforms. 

Unlike other countries in 

the region, Iraqis have not tried 

to change their elected government, 

formed in December. 

Protests in Baghdad, which 

started in February and take 

place mainly on Fridays in central 

Tahrir Square, have been 

consistent but have dwindled 

in size since at least 10 people 

were killed in nationwide demonstrations 

on February 25. 

Moqtada al Sadr, whose 

Sadr bloc is part of the government, 

criticised the ban. 

“The government pretends to 

be democratic and that is contradictory,” 

he said in a written 

response to a follower. 

Haider al Mulla, an Iraqiya 

party lawmaker, agreed. 

“The constitution is clear on 

guaranteeing the right to demonstrate. 

This limitation from 

the government ... proves that 

2 OMAN/REGION 

OMAN DAILY Observer 

the government doesn’t have 

the ability to meet the demands 

of the Iraqi people,” he said. 

Maliki secured a second 

term as premier in December 

after months of wrangling between 

different factions. 

His government and that of 

Iraq’s semi-autonomous northern 

Kurdish region have been 

criticised for harsh crackdowns 

on protests causing scores of 

casualties. 

Amnesty International said 

Iraqi police and soldiers have 

used excessive force in their attempts 

to stifle the protests. 

So far the government has 

not enforced the ban. Protesters 

gathered in Tahrir Square 

last Friday and security forces 

did not arrest them. 

“We will not use force 

against protesters who refuse 

to abide by this decision,” said 

Moussawi, Maliki’s security 

spokesman. — Reuters 

FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011 

Camel racing festival concludes at Al Mudhaibi 

AL MUDHAIBI — A camel racing festival concluded here yesterday under the auspices of Shaikh Ahmed bin said al Majaali, Deputy Wali of Al Mudhaibi. The festival was held at 

Al Abyadh race track over three days with 530 camels participating in a total of 13 races. The chief guest felicitated the winners of the races held on the first and second days. 

The first winners received cars and prizes for the second to the fifth winners comprised of motor bikes, automated riders and cash. — ONA 

Consumer authority taking shape 

From page 1 

It is essential for any nation 

to have an authority that organises 

the process of selling 

and demand, and puts cleancut 

rules to facilitate a just 

dealing among the seller and 

buyer. The consumer needs 

to be protected from being 

exploited by some producing 

practices or trade manipulations. 

This stream of dealings 

needs to be monitored and 

observed carefully according 

to international standards of 

protecting customers who also 

should be compensated if exploited 

by any means. 

Oman’s initiative is considered 

to be the first among 

Arab countries and it is hoped 

that this authority will achieve 

the standards at all levels. It 

will cover services in all fields 

such as health, education, 

tourism, legal, besides communication, 

insurance and 

banking services. It is neces- 

sary to have a legal authority 

concerned about the issues 

raised on this regard as well as 

to find rules that ensure a safe 

smooth dealing between the 

consumer and seller. 

Dr Said has talked about the 

importance of awareness that 

each individual should have 

and the role of the authority 

in disbursing the knowledge 

needed in this regard towards 

bringing up more educated 

and aware generations of a 

new consuming culture that 

guarantees a proper utilisation 

of resources. He hoped that 

such principals should be included 

in schools’ curriculum. 

Concerning the current 

high prices in the local market, 

Dr Said affirmed that 

there is a need to have an actual 

assessment for the suppliers 

and to set certain levels of 

facilitations for each supplier 

according to its commitment 

to the social consideration of 

the consumer’s situation with- 

out exaggerating in the prices 

of goods in order to have a fair 

competition between suppliers. 

The goals of the authority 

will be achieved through 

such competitions that find 

practical alternatives for the 

current issues. The authority 

also looks forward to be a real 

partner in customer services 

by establishing co-operative 

markets. These markets will 

offer reasonable standards of 

prices in a way that competes 

with other suppliers and urge 

them to have better prices that 

suit all levels of consumers. 

All that such an ambitious 

institution needs now is time 

for its structure to be completed 

and the budget to be 

set. Currently, the authority 

will receive all comments and 

suggestions for the coming 

phases to have a better interaction 

with people and their 

views. 

— Translated by Aisha al Habsia 

Abbas in Paris as France mulls recognising Palestine 

PARIS — French President 

Nicolas Sarkozy hosted Palestinian 

leader Mahmud Abbas 

in Paris yesterday as Europe 

reflects more and more openly 

on the prospect of recognising 

an independent Palestine. 

Any French move to welcome 

a Palestinian state into 

the community of nations 

would be made jointly with the 

European Union, and would 

be seen as an attempt to give a 

jolt to the stalled Middle East 

peace process with Israel. 

Abbas was due at the Elysee 

Palace later yesterday, having 

said he is seeking Sarkozy’s 

advice on the Palestinian Authority’s 

drive to convince the 

world to accept its statehood 

even ahead of an ever elusive 

peace deal. 

Before the talks, Abbas told 

France 24 television that, while 

he hoped to return to talks with 

Israel, he thought most European 

governments were ready 

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s 

elections board ruled yesterday 

that more than half of 

the independent candidates 

it had previously barred from 

running in national elections 

set for June were eligible to 

run for parliament, local media 

reported. 

The Supreme Board of 

Elections’ (YSK) reversal 

of its earlier decision with 

regards to seven out of 12 

candidates, six of whom are 

supported by the pro-Kurdish 

Peace and Democracy Party 

(BDP), capped several tense 

days in Turkey. 

The board had ruled on 

Monday that the dozen politicians 

were ineligible to run 

to recognise a Palestinian state 

come what may. 

“All the signs from these 

organisations and states show 

that they’re waiting for the 

right moment to recognise us,” 

he said, while admitting that 

had so far received no outright 

promises to do so. 

Most world powers have 

been reluctant to recognise 

Palestine before it becomes 

a viable entity within agreed 

borders, but some have begun 

to think recognition could 

revive the stalled search for 

peace. 

“It’s a question we must reflect 

upon and upon which we 

are reflecting. It will be asked 

in September or October,” 

France’s Foreign Minister 

Alain Juppe told reporters at a 

diplomatic lunch on Tuesday. 

Juppe said France was 

working with its European 

Union partners to try to get 

Israelis and Palestinians “back 

in parliamentary elections 

in June due to their criminal 

records. 

Most of the candidates 

had prior convictions over 

ties to the outlawed Kurdistan 

Workers’ Party (PKK). 

The ruling sparked a political 

crisis in which the 

BDP threatened a boycott 

of the elections, saying the 

decision was an attack on 

Kurdish political rights. 

Protests erupted in Istanbul 

and many cities throughout 

the country’s primarily 

Kurdish south-east region. 

One person was killed by 

police gunfire on Wednesday 

in the Bismil district of Diyarbakir 

province and several 

FRANCE’S President Nicolas Sarkozy greets Palestinian 

President Mahmud Abbas before a meeting at the 

Elysee Palace in Paris yesterday. — Reuters 

around the negotiating table” 

and that this could lead to 

statehood recognition later this 

year. 

Turkey revokes disqualification 

of parliamentary candidates 

others were reported to be 

seriously injured in clashes 

between protesters and police. 

The BDP, Turkey’s largest 

legal Kurdish political 

party, is fielding candidates 

registered as independents 

in order to get around a 10 

per cent threshold required 

for parties to enter parliament. 

Well-known Kurdish 

rights leader Leyla Zana, 

who spent 10 years in prison 

for her activism, and two current 

members of parliament 

who were elected in 2007 

were among the candidates 

disqualified by the elections 

board. — dpa 

Construction of Jibrin-Ibri 

dual road under way 

By Saad al Shandoodi 

MUSCAT — The Ministry 

of Transport and Communications 

is implementing the 

Ibri-Jibrin dual road with a 

length of 90 km at a cost of 

RO 73 million. 

The road includes bridges, 

tunnels, rainwater drainage 

channels and a set of culvert 

and tube boxes. The project 

will help to increase contacts 

between Al Dhahirah and Al 

Dakhiliyah regions, stimulate 

economic and commercial 

movement and help in reducing 

road accidents. 

People in Ibri hope that 

the project will include some 

flyovers for the entrances to 

villages like: Al Sleef, Kibara, 

Amla, Al Araqi and Al Aynain. 

Sarkozy has himself been 

less forthcoming on the issue, 

and in January last year was 

careful to distance himself 

The Ministry of Transport 

and Communications is also 

implementing many projects 

of paving some of the roads 

like Ibri-Al Driz-Maskan dual 

road with a length of 35 km 

and a cost of RO 35 million. 

The project includes roundabouts, 

water drainage channels, 

culvert and tube boxes, 

and pedestrian channels. 

The ministry is also 

carrying out some other 

projects like Al Hajr-Bilad Al 

Shuhoom road with a length 

of 27 km and a cost of approximately 

RO 8 million, Western 

Aswad-Northern Aswad road 

in Hamra al Duroa, paving 

the road from the roundabout 

of Barot to Wadi Dham with 

a length of 6 km and paving 

Amla-Ma’wal road with 

length of 6 km. 

from his then foreign minister 

Bernard Kouchner’s suggestion 

that France might unilaterally 

recognise Palestine. 

But Abbas’ visit comes at 

a time when France, which 

holds the G8 and G20 presidencies, 

is adopting a more 

muscular foreign policy designed 

to revive its global role, 

and in particular its position in 

the Arab world. 

France led international 

calls for action against Muammar 

Gaddafi’s Libyan regime, 

spearheading coalition air 

strikes and becoming the first 

power to adopt ties with the 

dissident shadow government 

in Benghazi. 

Paris has not been in the 

vanguard of calls for Palestinian 

recognition, several Latin 

American states have already 

taken that step, but it backs the 

goal of statehood by the time 

of the UN General Assembly 

in September. — AFP 

2 die in protests against 

illegal construction 

TYRE, Lebanon — Two civilians were shot dead and two others 

wounded yesterday by police gunfire in a clash over the illegal 

construction of houses in southern Lebanon, officials said. 

“Two people were killed and two wounded in a clash related 

to illegally-built houses” in the southern port city of Tyre, a hospital 

official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. 

A police spokesman confirmed that two people had been 

killed in a clash over the houses at the southern entrance to the 

city of Tyre but could not give further details, adding that security 

forces had fired warning shots to disperse the residents. 

Witnesses said police opened fire during a clash with Tyre 

residents over a housing construction site on the outskirts of the 

city. The witnesses said a group of young men set a police car 

ablaze in protest after troops had ordered the building operations 

be stopped. 

They then dragged the burnt-out shell of the vehicle to the 

main road leading out of the city, cutting off traffic. 

An AFP reporter said blood stains could be seen where the 

car had been parked. Local television LBC reported that in a 

separate incident residents of the Ouzai sector, on the outskirts of 

the capital Beirut, had prevented a police patrol from approaching 

another cluster of illegal houses. — AFP 

IRAQI women walk on a sidewalk in a flooded area in Baghdad after heavy rains yesterday. — AFP

26 dead, scores missing in 

Bangladesh boat sinking 

DHAKA — At least 26 people, 

mostly women and children, 

drowned and scores of 

others were missing after a 

passenger river ferry sank in 

eastern Bangladesh yesterday, 

police said. 

Passengers were asleep on 

the ferry when it hit the wreck 

of a cargo ship that sank a few 

days ago in the river Meghna 

at Sarail, 90 km from Dhaka, 

local police officer Abbas Uddin 

said. 

“We have now found 26 

bodies,” he said by phone 

from the site of the accident, 

adding that the death toll 

would rise as divers continued 

the recovery operation. 

“It is a heart-breaking 

scene. Relatives of the victims 

are crying as we hand 

over the bodies. 

“ The families of those 

who are still missing are waiting 

anxiously on the river 

banks,” he said. 

“There are more bodies 

trapped in the ferry. The 

divers are bringing them up 

now,” he said, adding that the 

total number of passengers on 

the boat was not known. 

A team of divers from 

Dhaka was also scouring the 

river to look for bodies, while 

more divers were on their way 

from the capital, he said. 

“More bodies will come 

Taiwan presidential 

poll on Jan 14, 2012 

TAIPEI — Taiwan is set to hold its presidential election on 

January 14, 2012, the Central Election Commission said yesterday, 

a poll that will define the island’s relations with China 

for the four subsequent years. 

The poll will pit incumbent Ma Ying-jeou’s Nationalist 

Party (KMT) against a resurgent opposition Democratic Progressive 

Party (DPP). 

Ma’s policy of economic rapprochement with China has 

been a boon to the Taiwan economy and has brought ties between 

the political rivals to their closest in six decades. 

But it has drawn suspicion among the opposition, who see 

it as helping China further its aim of re-integrating the selfruled 

island. 

Ma is set to be the only candidate for the KMT, while the 

DPP will declare its candidate on May 4 after party members 

choose between Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen, 54, former 

Premier Su Tseng-chang, 63, and dark horse contender Hsu 

Hsin-Liang, a 69-year old former DPP chairman. 

A clear victory for Ma is the most favoured outcome 

in financial markets, and in China, while markets would 

accept with less enthusiasm a Ma victory with a reduced majority. 

A DPP victory is one that the markets would favour least. 

Taiwan’s president serves a four-year term. 

Presidential elections have traditionally been held in 

March, but this time the commission decided to move it to the 

same date as legislative elections to streamline the process. 

The plan is subject to final formal approval by the Commission, 

it said in a statement. — Reuters 

JALALABAD, Afghanistan — 

Three policemen were killed 

and six others wounded yesterday 

when a bomb planted 

inside their minibus exploded 

in eastern Afghanistan, local 

officials said. 

The blast claimed by the 

Taliban took place in Jalalabad, 

the de facto capital of 

eastern Afghanistan, which 

borders Pakistan and frequently 

witnesses heavy fighting. 

Armed groups have 

launched a string of recent attacks 

against Afghan security 

forces, who are due to take 

increased responsibility from 

foreign troops as they withdraw 

in a transition due to 

conclude in 2014. 

“The explosive material 

was set in the bus and went 

off when the policemen were 

en route to work” Ahmad Zia 

Abdulzai, provincial spokesman 

said. 

“There were three police 

officers killed and six others 

wounded in the incident.” 

He added that an investigation 

had been launched. 

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah 

Mujahid claimed 

responsibility for the attack, 

saying: “Our man planted the 

bomb inside the car and it 

killed nine policemen and injured 

two others”. 

The Taliban are known to 

exaggerate details of their attacks. 

A spokesman for the local 

provincial hospital, Dr Sayed 

Afandi Sayed, said it had received 

three bodies and was 

treating six wounded police. 

out. One body was pulled out 

now while I was talking to 

you,” Brahminbaria district 

administrator Abdul Mannan 

said by phone. 

At least 60 people on the 

overloaded double-decker 

ferry swam to shore, police 

said. 

Boat accidents due to lax 

safety standards and overloading 

are common in Bangladesh, 

which is criss-crossed 

by 230 rivers. 

Some 37 people drowned 

in December last year when 

a passenger ferry hit a cargo 

ship and sank. 

At least 85 people drowned 

in November when an over- 

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka 

asked the United Nations yesterday 

not to publish a forthcoming 

report on alleged war 

crimes during the island’s 

ethnic war, saying it could set 

back reconciliation efforts. 

Foreign Minister G L 

Peiris (pictured) warned 

UN Secretary General Ban 

Ki-Moon about releasing the 

study compiled by a panel of 

experts who looked into alleged 

rights abuses and crimes 

against humanity during the 

war which ended in 2009. 

“The publication of this 

report will cause irreparable 

damage to the reconciliation 

efforts of Sri Lanka. It will 

damage the UN system too,” 

Peiris told reporters in Colombo. 

“This UN report is preposterous.” 

Peiris stressed that the government 

had never accepted 

Ban’s appointment of the pan- 

loaded triple-decker ferry 

capsized off Bhola Island in 

the country’s south. 

A week later another boat 

sank leaving 46 people dead. 

So far this year, dozens 

of people have been killed in 

several smaller boat accidents 

in Bangladesh. 

Naval officials have said 

more than 95 per cent of 

Bangladesh’s hundreds of 

thousands of small- and medium-sized 

boats do not meet 

minimum safety regulations. 

But millions of people in 

Bangladesh rely on boats and 

ferries to travel to the capital 

or the delta nation’s major cities. 

— AFP 

el and warned him about initiating 

a full enquiry into suspected 

civilian deaths during 

the final stages of fighting. 

He declined comment on 

the contents of the report, a 

copy of which was handed 

over to him nine days ago, 

even though parts of the 200page 

document have been 

leaked in pro-government 

3ASIA 



Sri Lanka asks UN not to 

publish war crimes report 

“All of the casualties we 

have received are police officers,” 

he said. 

“The condition of the injured 

is normal and is not critical.” 

A reporter at the scene said 

that pieces of flesh were scattered 

around the totally destroyed 

vehicle. 

He added that foreign 

troops plus Afghan army and 

police were at the scene and 

the area had been cordoned 

off. 

There has been a spike in 

recent attacks carried out by 

Taliban members who have 

either infiltrated the Afghan 

army or police, or who have 

newspaper Island last weekend. 

The UN has said it intends 

to make the report public some 

time this week. 

“The consequences of publishing 

this report are far from 

favourable for the UN,” Peiris 

warned. “It will undermine 

the principle of sovereign 

equality. A report as preposterous 

as this will inflict grave 

damage to the UN system.” . 

Peiris also denied leaking 

the report, which recommends 

an enquiry into “credible allegations” 

of war crimes and 

crimes against humanity by 

both the government and the 

separatist Tamils, according 

to the leaks. 

It is said to state that “tens 

of thousands” of people died 

between January and May 

2009 in the final government 

offensive that resulted in the 

defeat of the separatist Lib- 

Bomb kills 3 policemen in Afghanistan 

Thai troops 

hail king 

BANGKOK — Thai troops 

staged a military exercise 

yesterday to demonstrate 

their support for the country’s 

revered monarchy amid 

rising political tensions. 

Some 1,600 soldiers belonging 

to the 2nd Infantry 

Regiment, also called the 

Queen’s Guards, staged an 

impromptu military preparedness 

drill at their base in 

Prachin Buri, 80 km east of 

Bangkok. 

“Everyone has a duty to 

protect the monarchy and 

to prevent violations of the 

institution,” 2nd Infantry 

Regiment commander Major 

General Pisit Sithisarn 

said . — dpa 

POLICE inspect the remains of a bombed minibus, in which three of their colleagues 

were killed and six others wounded, in Jalalabad city yesterday. — Reuters 

disguised themselves in uniforms 

for attacks. 

On Saturday, five foreign 

troops and four Afghan soldiers 

died in a suicide attack by 

a Taliban army infiltrator at the 

Afghan army’s headquarters in 

the eastern province of Laghman 

bordering Nangarhar, 

which includes Jalalabad. 

And on Monday, three people 

died when an attacker got 

into the defence ministry in 

Kabul in one of the worst security 

breaches in years. 

International forces are due 

to start limited withdrawals 

from eight safer areas of Afghanistan 

from July. 

This comes ahead of a 

planned full transition to Afghan 

security control across 

the country in 2014, aimed at 

allowing all foreign combat 

troops to leave. 

Jalalabad was the location 

two months ago of Afghanistan’s 

deadliest attack since 

June last year. 

In February, 38 people 

were killed when five bombers 

dressed in police and 

army uniforms and armed 

with machine guns stormed a 

bank where Afghan security 

forces were collecting their 

salaries. — AFP 

Vietnam and China vow to work 

on disputed sea agreement 

HANOI — Vietnam and China 

have agreed to take the first 

steps towards settling territorial 

disputes in the South China 

Sea, a government official 

in Hanoi said yesterday, after 

years of deadlock. 

The deal to set out a framework 

for talks was struck during 

a visit this week by the 

Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister, 

Zhang Zhijun, who met 

with Vietnamese Prime Minister 

Nguyen Tan Dung. 

“During this meeting the 

two sides agreed they will sign 

an agreement on the fundamental 

guidelines to settle the 

maritime issues,” foreign min- 

istry spokeswoman Nguyen 

Phuong Nga told a press briefing. 

She said this would serve 

as “the basis to resolve the 

concrete issues” in the sea, 

in line with United Nations 

conventions, although the timing 

of the pact signing has not 

been fixed and negotiations 

are still under way. “Both 

sides expressed their determination 

to soon complete this 

agreement,” she said. 

Beijing and Hanoi have 

a long-standing dispute in 

the South China Sea over the 

sovereignty of the Paracel archipelago 

and the more south- 

erly Spratlys, both potentially 

resource-rich rocky outcrops 

that straddle strategic shipping 

lanes. Vietnam has reported 

numerous cases of fishing 

boats and equipment being 

seized by China in disputed 

areas since 2009. 

The Philippines, Brunei, 

Malaysia and Taiwan also 

claim all or part of the Spratlys, 

and China’s increasingly 

assertive role in the area has 

raised tensions with other 

countries in the region as well 

as the United States. 

China and all members of 

the Association of Southeast 

Asian Nations (ASEAN), in- 

cluding Vietnam, signed a 

Declaration of the Conduct of 

Parties in the East Sea (DOC), 

in 2002. 

Vietnam’s state media reported 

last month that US oil 

giant ExxonMobil will begin 

exploratory drilling off central 

Vietnam in late April, potentially 

angering China, which 

has reportedly objected to 

similar plans in the past. 

The project will be located 

at “Block 119” off Danang city 

and the adjacent Quang Ngai 

province, the Vietnam News 

reported, but it was not immediately 

clear if the drilling was 

in the disputed area. — AFP 

RESCUE workers after a ferry accident in Sarail, 90 km from Dhaka yesterday. — AFP 

eration Tigers of Tamil Eelam, 

ending a decades-old conflict. 

It also listed alleged violations 

by the separatist forces, 

saying they had intentionally 

used civilians as human 

shields. 

Peiris said Sri Lanka was 

ready to engage the UN in a 

construction discussion on 

taking the country’s reconciliation 

process forward. 

Sri Lanka’s administration 

argues that no civilians were 

killed during its offensive 

against the Tigers. 

The country has been 

fiercely criticised by international 

rights groups for failing 

to investigate deaths during 

the fighting. 

President Mahinda Rajapakse 

has asked his supporters 

to turn this year’s May 

Day rally into a demonstration 

against any UN war crimes investigation. 

— AFP 

Clampdown on 

sale of uniforms 

KABUL — Kabul police 

clamped down on markets 

selling police and army uniforms 

yesterday after a disguised 

insurgent killed three 

people at a ministry, one of 

the worst security breaches 

in years. 

The move came after an 

attacker in military uniform 

struck on Monday at the 

high-security defence ministry, 

located at the heart of Afghanistan’s 

government quarter 

opposite President Hamid 

Karzai’s palace. 

“In separate operations in 

Kabul, the police confiscated 

military uniforms and equipment 

which were illegally 

available for sale,” a statement 

from Kabul police said. 

Military uniforms and 

equipment have been openly 

for sale in markets in Kabul 

at relatively low prices for 

years. 

It is not yet clear whether 

the man behind Monday’s attack 

was an army infiltrator 

or had simply bought a uniform. 

But the security breach at 

the defence ministry came 

Philippine army probes 

overpriced petrol deal 

MANILA — The Philippine 

military yesterday removed 

the head of its logistics division 

as an inquiry began into 

an alleged overpriced petrol 

deal, the latest graft case to hit 

the scandal-tainted security 

forces. 

The 130,000-member 

armed forces have been struggling 

to improve their image 

after lawmakers uncovered 

large-scale graft involving 

some retired generals who 

were found to have acquired 

assets using military funds. 

General Eduardo Oban, 

military chief, said he had relieved 

Commodore Teddy Pan 

from his post as head of logistics 

while an investigation is 

under way to determine facts 

in the purchase of overpriced 

petroleum, oil and lubricant 

early this year. 

“It is an accepted practice 

in the military establishment 

to relieve the commander of 

a unit or office being investigated 

to pave the way for an 

amid a recent wave of similar 

attacks. 

The police chief of the key 

southern province of Kandahar 

was killed last Friday by a 

man in police uniform. 

And the day after that, 

five foreign troops and four 

Afghan soldiers died in an attack 

on an eastern army base 

by a Taliban member who 

had infiltrated the army. 

Afghanistan’s defence 

ministry insists there are “intelligence 

filters” in place to 

screen candidates joining the 

army and that two people 

have to vouch for each recruit 

when he signs up. 

Lieutenant General William 

Caldwell, head of the 

Nato training in Afghanistan, 

said this month that an 

eight-step vetting process for 

recruits had recently been 

launched and that Afghan 

soldiers and policeman were 

being enrolled on a biometric 

database. 

He added that 222 counter-intelligence 

agents had 

also been trained to look 

for infiltrators in military 

units. — AFP 

impartial and honest investigation,” 

Oban told reporters, 

promising a “fair and just” 

inquiry. 

Oban said the military 

consumed about 150 million 

pesos ($3.4 million) worth 

of petrol and lubricants every 

quarter, but auditors had discovered 

that it had spent about 

400 million pesos for the first 

three months of 2011. 

Separately, the military’s 

former budget officer had 

filed a complaint with the justice 

department against seven 

generals, including one active, 

and 10 other officers for 

allegedly siphoning off nearly 

2.5 billion pesos earmarked 

for soldiers’ training and salaries 

to their personal bank accounts. 

The scandals have affected 

the morale of soldiers fighting 

two long-running insurgencies 

that have killed 160,000 

people, displaced 2 million 

and stunted growth in the 

Philippines. — Reuters 

Pepsi deal for 

$60 m Kabul 

bottling plant 

DUBAI — PepsiCo has 

signed a deal with the Dubaibased 

Alokozay Group to set 

up a $60 million bottling 

plant in Kabul, Afghanistan. 

PepsiCo “signed an Exclusive 

Bottling Appointment 

(EBA) with the Alokozay 

Group of Companies to 

manufacture and distribute a 

broad range of PepsiCo beverages 

in Afghanistan,” the 

statement said. 

“The beverages will be 

produced at ABCo (Alokozay 

Beverages Company), 

Alokozay’s beverage bottling 

plant, which will be set 

up in Kabul with an initial 

investment of US $60 million,” 

it said. 

ABCo chief executive officer 

Jalil Alokozay said in 

the statement that his firm 

was “delighted to take the 

PepsiCo franchise into Kabul”, 

with the plant expected 

to come into operation in 

March 2012. “The plant will 

contribute significantly to 

the local economy by creating 

direct and indirect employment 

for 3,000 people, 

including 800 direct jobs,” 

the statement said. — AFP 

RANAN Lurie, an American editorial cartoonist and journalist, speaks next to his wife 

during a news conference about his three paintings that are going to be sent to the 

summit of Mount Everest, upon his arrival at Tribhuvan International Airport 

in Kathmandu yesterday. — Reuters

Bulgaria to spend $1.5 billion 

on military equipment 

SOFIA — Bulgaria plans to spend up to 2 billion levs ($1.5 billion) 

on buying and maintaining military equipment by 2020, 

Defence Minister Anyo Angelov said yesterday. 

Bulgaria — a Nato and European Union member — envisages 

buying fighter aircraft so it can secure its airspace within 

the alliance’s integrated system for anti-missile defence. 

The ministry, which has sent letters of interest to the US, 

France, Germany and Sweden about the purchase of eight new 

or used fighter aircraft, has already received an offer from 

Saab for its Gripen jets. 

Next week, the Defence Ministry will meet representatives 

of European aerospace and defence group EADS and the US 

government, Angelov said. 

It also expects to receive a response from France’s Dassault 

Aviation and Lockheed Martin Corp. 

Angelov has previously said the tender for the fighter jet 

purchase will take place in 2012. 

The Defence Ministry plans to allocate 1.5 per cent of annual 

gross domestic product from its budget to fund the programme, 

which also envisages the modernisation of its MiG- 

29 fighters. — Reuters 

Germany says wants clarity 

on iPhone data storage 

BERLIN — Apple Inc must clear up ‘a string of open questions’ 

about user data stored by its iPhone, iPad, and other devices, 

a spokesman for Germany’s consumer protection ministry 

said yesterday. 

The call follows a similar request made by US Senator Al 

Franken on Wednesday, which cited a report by security researchers 

alleging the company’s iOS4 operating system secretly 

compiled customers’ location data in a hidden file. 

“Apple must reveal where, for how long, and for what 

purpose the data is saved, who has access to it, and how it is 

protecting against unauthorised access,” ministry spokesman 

Holger Eichele said. 

“The secret collection and storage of a smart phone’s location 

data would be a major invasion of privacy,” he added. 

Germany has particularly strong data protection laws, and 

companies such as social networking site Facebook and search 

engine Google have faced challenges here from regulators. 

A spokesman for Apple Germany declined to comment on 

the matter. — Reuters 

Former New Mexico governor 

to run for US president 

BOSTON — Self-made millionaire and former two-term New 

Mexico Governor Gary Johnson said yesterday he will seek 

the Republican nomination for US president in 2012. 

Johnson, 58, made the announcement on the steps of the 

New Hampshire State House in Concord. New Hampshire 

holds an important early contest in the race for the Republican 

nomination. 

“I have the qualifications, the ability and the know-how to 

do the job. I also have a track record,” Johnson said. 

Johnson is considered a long-shot candidate to win his 

party’s nomination to challenge President Barack Obama, a 

Democrat who has announced he is running for re-election. 

As a state governor, Johnson pushed for lower taxes and 

lower government spending, and set records by vetoing some 

750 pieces of legislation. 

“America needs a ‘President Veto’ right now — someone 

who will say ‘no’ to insane spending and stop the madness that 

has become Washington,” Johnson said. 

Before entering politics, he founded one of New Mexico’s 

largest construction companies after starting out as a handyman 

to help pay for college. — Reuters 

Bulgarian hate speech law 

‘excessive’, says OSCE 

VIENNA — A tough new Bulgarian law which threatens journalists 

with jail for inciting hatred could lead to self-censorship, 

a leading security body warned yesterday. 

Under the new legislation, journalists could be sentenced 

for between one and four years if convicted of instigating hatred 

or discrimination. 

The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe 

(OSCE) criticised the move as “excessive” and said it represented 

a violation of international standards on freedom of 

expression. 

Dunja Mijatovic, the group’s media freedom spokesperson, 

has written to Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov 

to voice its concerns. 

Only the intentional incitement to violence should be criminalised, 

Mijatovic said. 

“It is very important to find effective ways to address hate 

speech without endangering free expression, and to ensure that 

legitimate criticism can be expressed,” she wrote in her letter. 

“If journalists fear imprisonment for their reports, it can 

lead to self-censorship and hinder media pluralism.” 

The OSCE also raised concerns that amendments to the 

criminal code, passed by Bulgaria’s parliament last week, went 

through without a public debate or the participation of media 

organisations. 

The government also failed to give a clear definition of 

what was meant by “discrimination,” allowing for different 

interpretations of the law, the organisation said. 

The OSCE is the world’s largest regional security organisation, 

with 56 member states from Europe, Central Asia and 

North America. — AFP 

British pensioner survives 

being dropped into ocean 

LONDON — An elderly British woman taken ill on a cruise 

along the Norway coast was dropped into the Arctic Ocean as 

paramedics tried to transfer her off the ship, the holiday company 


Janet Richardon, 73, was in the freezing waters for eight 

minutes before rescuers finally plucked her to safety and took 

her to hospital. 

Pictures showed the distraught grandmother trying desperately 

to stay afloat in rough waters after she had been 

dropped. 

“It was very traumatic to see her fall in. I thought I was 

going to lose her,” her husband George Richardson, 78, told 

Britain’s Sun newspaper. 

The elderly couple were on the homeward leg of a twoweek 

voyage from Britain to see the natural phenomenon 

known as the Northern Lights when she started to suffer from 

internal bleeding on March 29. 

Norwegian rescuers were dispatched in a boat to take her 

off the cruise liner, the Ocean Countess, but as they were moving 

her to the rescue vessel, the stretcher slipped from their 

hands. 

“Mrs Richardson was rescued and immediately transferred 

to the Norwegian port of Bodo, approximately two nautical 

miles away and was transferred to the local hospital,” said a 

statement from holiday company Cruise and Maritime Voyages. 

— AFP 

4 THE WORLD 



BP to spend $1 bn after 

massive Gulf oil spill LONDON 

WASHINGTON — BP has 

pledged $1 billion to jumpstart 

projects aimed at restoring 

the US Gulf Coast after 

last year’s massive oil spill, 

officials said yesterday. 

“The agreement in no way 

affects the ultimate liability 

of BP or any other entity for 

natural resource damages or 

other liabilities, but provides 

an opportunity to help restoration 

get started sooner,” the 

US Justice Department said in 

a statement. 

The Justice Department 

called it a “first step” towards 

fulfilling BP’s obligations to 

fund the “complete restoration 

of injured public resources.” 

The announcement came 

a day after the first anniversary 

of the Deepwater Horizon 

disaster, which unleashed the 

biggest maritime oil spill in 

history. 

The money will be used to 

rebuild coastal marshes, re- 

BRUSSELS — European rabbis are up in 

arms over a bid to impose meat labels indicating 

how an animal was slaughtered, 

saying it could kill kosher food business 

by portraying their ritual as “barbaric.” 

A European Parliament committee endorsed 

this week a draft bill that would require 

meat labels to say whether or not an 

animal was stunned before being slaughtered. 

“Meat from slaughter without stunning 

(in accordance with certain religious traditions), 

should be labelled as such,” the 

parliament says. 

The Rabbinical Centre of Europe lamented 

that the legislation appears to “discriminate 

against the Jewish community 

as no other method of slaughter will be 

mentioned.” 

Rabbi Arye Goldberg, the organisation’s 

deputy director, argued that the 

Jewish method of slaughtering an animal, 

plenish damaged beaches, conserve 

sensitive areas for ocean 

habitat to help injured wildlife 

and restore barrier islands and 

wetlands that provide protection 

from storms. 

“This milestone agreement 

will allow us to jump-start 

restoration projects that will 

bring Gulf Coast marshes, 

wetlands, and wildlife habitat 

back to health after the damage 

they suffered as a result of 

the Deepwater Horizon spill,” 

Secretary of the Interior Ken 

Salazar said in a statement. 

Oil-coated dolphin carcasses 

and sticky tar balls continue 

to wash up on beaches a year 

after the April 20, 2010 explosion 

which killed 11 workers 

and sank the Deepwater Horizon 

rig some 80 kilometres off 

the coast of Louisiana. 

By the time the well was 

capped 87 days later, 4.9 million 

barrels of oil had gushed 

out of the runaway well 5,000 

feet below the surface of the 

Gulf of Mexico. 

Hundreds of kilometres of 

coastal wetlands and beaches 

were contaminated, a third of 

the Gulf’s rich US waters were 

closed to fishing, and the economic 

costs have reached into 

the tens of billions. 

“BP believes early restoration 

will result in identified improvements 

to wildlife, habitat 

and related recreational uses 

in the Gulf, and our voluntary 

commitment to that process is 

the best way to get restoration 

projects moving as soon as 

possible,” said Lamar McKay, 

chairman and president of 

BP America. “Our voluntary 

agreement to accelerate restoration 

projects builds upon the 

co-operative approach BP has 

taken towards working with 

Gulf communities and regulators 

since the accident, and in 

assessing the potential injury 

to natural resources.” — AFP 

shechita, “has been proven to be one of the 

most humane ways of animal slaughter.” 

“It is insulting to the Jewish community, 

which holds ancient precepts about 

caring for animals, to have our traditions 

portrayed as barbaric as some have done,” 

Goldberg said. 

The Jewish shechita ritual requires the 

animal to be healthy and uninjured before 

its throat is slit in order for the meat to be 

considered kosher to eat. 

The process is similar for Muslim halal 

meat, and some Christian communities in 

parts of central Europe also slaughter their 

animals in a similar fashion. 

In large-scale slaughterhouses, cattle 

are usually rendered unconscious, often 

with a steel bolt shot in the head or by 

electric shock, before they are cut up and 

meat is sold. 

The Rabbinical Centre of Europe worries 

that non-Jews could be turned off by 

Brits’ way of 

losing their 

passports 

— Britons mindlessly 

threw 10,000 passports 

out with the rubbish, 

while others had theirs stolen 

by gunmen or gave them 

to tramps, officials said yesterday. 

The Identity and Passport 

Service (IPS) said almost 

275,000 passports needed 

to be replaced in 2009, with 

more than 10,000 being 

thrown out in the garbage 

and another 10,000 being 

lost in bars and nightclubs. 

Among the reasons given, 

one Briton said the passport 

was taken when the taxi 

was attacked by a gunman in 

Brazil. Another Brit had it 

stolen in somewhat less terrifying 

circumstances — a 

children’s party. 

Others have fallen out of 

bags while snowboarding, 

been left in the pocket of a 

coat given away to a tramp, 

and been left among old 

clothes that were set ablaze. 

Mystery of missing French family deepens 

A FRENCH policeman (2nd L) holds a document with photos of missing family members 

outside the house where a human body part was found in Nantes yesterday. — Reuters 

NANTES, France — French 

police launched a murder and 

kidnap probe yesterday after 

officers investigating the odd 

disappearance of an apparently 

ordinary middle class 

family found a severed leg 

then a body. 

A 50-year-old business 

manager, his 49-year-old 

school assistant wife and their 

children — boys aged 21, 18 

and 13 and a girl aged 16 — 

went missing from their home 

in the western town of Nantes 

earlier this month. 

Before the family’s disappearance, 

the father, identified 

in an appeal for information 

as Xavier Dupont de 

Accused S African makes 

an impressive show 

JOHANNESBURG — South 

African youth leader Julius 

Malema, on trial for “hate 

speech”, surprised critics with 

a polished performance in the 

witness box, denting perceptions 

that he is simply a dangerous 

man. “Be warned, this 

man is not insignificant,” popular 

radio talk show host John 

Robbie, a long time critic of 

Malema, said yesterday after 

his testimony on Wednesday. 

Malema faces “hate 

speech” charges brought by 

the Afrikaner civil rights 

group Afriforum over his 

singing of an anti-apartheid 

song containing a reference to 

“shoot the Boer (Afrikaner)”. 

The trial in South Africa’s 

Equality Court in Johannesburg 

began 10 days ago and 

saw several leaders of the 

ruling African National Congress 

defend Malema, who 

arrived at court flanked by 

several bodyguards carrying 

assault rifles. 

The judge last week 

banned the bodyguards from 

court. 

Malema’s drive for nationalisation 

of the country’s giant 

mines has unnerved investors 

in the world’s No 4 gold producer 

and his militant speeches 

nearly 17 years after the 

end of apartheid have scared 

many white South Africans. 

The government has repeatedly 

said nationalisation 

is not its policy. 

Malema took the stand on 

Wednesday, deftly answering 

questions from Afriforum’s 

advocate and even relating 

how he was given a pistol by 

the ANC at age 9 to attend 

the funeral of venerated ANC 

leader Chris Hani — gunned 

down by a member of the 

white right wing in 1993. 

Whites calling into Robbie’s 

show yesterday said they 

were surprised by Malema’s 

testimony. 

“Having been a critic of 

him for a very long time... he 

did come across to me as very, 

very sincere,” said one caller 

who gave her name as Annie 

and said she was an Afrikaner. 

— Reuters 

Ligonnes, told acquaintances 

that he was a secret agent and 

was leaving to join a witness 

protection scheme. 

Police probing the disappearance 

found a section of 

human leg in the garden of 

the grey stone two-storey 

house yesterday morning and 

the rest of the body later in the 

day, said Nantes prosecutor 

Xavier Ronsin. 

“So the investigation of a 

worrying disappearance has 

become one for kidnap and 

murder,” he said, briefing reporters 

in the city, adding that 

there was no sign of violence 

in the house itself. 

Ronsin said the father’s 

tales of espionage were “selfcontradictory 

ravings”, adding 

that the family had settled 

their children’s private school 

fees, claiming they were 

planning to emigrate to Australia. 

Investigators said, however, 

that they could find no 

records suggesting the family 

had made major bank transactions 

or passed through a port 

or airport. 

In Nantes, local people described 

a quiet and respected 

Catholic bourgeois family 

with no history of odd or 

criminal behaviour. 

The father sold advertising 

space, while his wife Agnes 

volunteered for church activities 

and taught the Catholic 

catechism to school children. 

— AFP 

Britain gears up for 

global royal wedding 

LONDON — Britain is making 

final preparations for the 

wedding of Prince William 

and Kate Middleton next week 

as the biggest royal occasion 

in 30 years brings closure to 

the tragic legacy of Princess 

Diana. 

A worldwide television audience 

of two billion people is 

set to watch live on April 29 

while crowds of hundreds of 

thousands are expected to line 

the route from Westminster 

Abbey to catch a glimpse of 

the newlyweds. 

Royal officials are working 

around the clock to put the 

finishing touches on the global 

event, the climax of a royal romance 

that began eight years 

ago when William and Kate 

were students together at university 

in Scotland. 

Around 1,900 guests including 

foreign royals and 

celebrities are heading to 

London for the service, while 

British police have launched a 

massive security operation to 

guard against the threat of attacks 

and protests. 

William, the 28-year-old 

second-in-line to the throne 

who works as a Royal Air 

Force helicopter pilot, proposed 

last year to Kate, 29, the 

commoner daughter of selfmade 

millionaires, using his 

late mother Diana’s engagement 

ring. 

The pomp and ceremony 

surrounding the service reflects 

the fact that it is the grandest 

royal wedding since William’s 

parents Prince Charles — the 

heir to Queen Elizabeth II — 

married Princess Diana on 

June 21, 1981. 

“William and Catherine, as 

they will be known, are saying 

‘we are the future of the 

British monarchy and we are 

going to be a success,’” royal 

expert Robert Jobson said. 

Diana’s shadow has hung 

over the royals since she died 

in a car crash in Paris on August 

31, 1997. William and his 

younger brother Harry, who 

will be his best man, were seen 

by millions as they followed 

her coffin into the Westminster 

Abbey for her funeral. — AFP 

Ruckus over EU meat labelling decision 

meat with the proposed labelling, causing 

a financial drain for the kosher industry. 

When a shechita slaughter goes wrong, 

making the meat not kosher, a slaughterhouse 

will still sell the steak or chicken 

filet to a non-Jewish market without a kosher 

label. 

Without that non-Jewish business, the 

Rabbinical Centre of Europe fears that 

slaughterhouses would hike their prices, 

which would in turn force the kosher industry 

to increase its own prices for Jewish 

customers. 

“Funds from kosher food are an important 

contribution to Jewish institutions in 

Europe, the lack of these funds will mean 

the closure of many institutions which in 

turn will severely restrict Jewish life on 

the continent,” said Rabbi Goldberg. 

The bill must now be negotiated with 

EU states and debated within the full EU 

Parliament. — AFP 

CHINESE Vice President Xi Jinping (C) with US 

Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat from Illinois, at the 

Great Hall of the People in Beijing yesterday. A highpowered 

US Senate delegation led by lawmaker Harry 

Reid met senior Chinese officials for talks expected to 

touch on thorny economic issues and human rights. 

JAPANESE Prime Minister Naoto Kan with 

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard before their 

talks in Tokyo yesterday. Gillard arrived in Tokyo a 

day earlier on a four-day visit to hold talks with Kan 

and to visit northeastern Japan hit by the 

March 11 disaster. — AFP 

CEO of EDF (Electricite de France) French Henri 

Proglio gives a press conference yesterday in the 

French energy company’s headquarters in Paris. The 

French power giant listed, in its first public statement 

since Fukushima’s nuclear disaster, on March 11, 

its first proposals to secure the French nuclear 

power plants. — AFP 

NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong-Il at the newlybuilt 

Susongchon General Foodstuff Factory in North 

Hamgyong province, N Korea, in this undated picture 

released by the official news agency KCNA 

yesterday. KCNA did not state expressly the 

date the picture was taken. — Reuters 

CZECH Defence Minister Alexander Vondra (R) 

with Nato’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe 

(SACEUR) Admiral James Stavridis of the US before 

their meeting yesterday in Prague. — AFP

Oppn ‘captures’ a border 

post as Nato warns civilians 

MISRATA, Libya — Libyan 

opposition fighters yesterday 

overran a post on the Tunisian 

border, marking their 

first advance in weeks against 

government forces as Nato 

warned civilians to stand clear 

of its bombing blitz. 

The capture of the Wazin 

border post was cheered by 

several hundred fighters after 

some 150 to 200 pro-Gaddafi 

soldiers abandoned their weapons 

and fled into Tunisia. 

Some insurgents paraded 

in the bucket of a bulldozer 

and dozens of opposition vehicles 

were present at the border 

post, located about 200 

kilometres south of the main 

Tunisian-Libyan crossing at 

Ras Jdir. 

Opposition forces have 

been pinned back by government 

troops for more than 

three weeks in the east of the 

country and have suffered 

heavy losses in Misrata in 

fighting which a doctor said 

had claimed at least 1,000 

lives. 

Among the latest to die in 

Misrata, some 215 kilometres 

west of Tripoli, were 41year-old 

Tim Hetherington, an 

Oscar-nominated British film 

director and war photographer, 

and award-winning US photographer 

Chris Hondros, also 41. 

DAMASCUS — Syrian President 

Bashar al Assad signed 

a decree to lift almost five 

decades of emergency rule 

yesterday, as a protest movement 

called for more demonstrations. 

Assad issued the order to 

scrap the state of emergency 

and decrees to abolish the 

state security court and allow 

citizens to hold peaceful demonstrations. 

The announcements were 

flashed in quick succession on 

state television. 

The moves are aimed at 

placating more than a month 

of unprecedented protests 

across the country. 

Prominent Syrian rights 

activists welcomed Assad's 

action but said more steps 

were needed to meet the people's 

demands and stressed 

they would monitor for any 

violations of the new laws by 

the security forces. 

"Lifting the emergency 

rule and the abolition of the 

state security court are positive 

steps but over the next 

few days we will monitor 

The two photographers 

were hit by a mortar on 

Wednesday while covering 

fighting in Misrata's Tripoli 

street, the frontline in a bloody 

battle for control of the city, 

witnesses said. 

Government spokesman 

Mussa Ibrahim told reporters 

in Tripoli that Libyan troops 

were not to blame for the 

deaths of the two photographers. 

"We are very sad for the 

loss of any human life even 

from the opposition side, so 

we're really sad for the loss of 

these two lives," Ibrahim said, 

adding, 

"Our planners and pilots go 

to very great lengths to ensure 

we do all we can to reduce the 

risk to civilians when we attack 

targets, but the risk cannot 

be reduced to zero," the 

general in charge of Nato's 

operations said in a statement 

from Brussels. 

"Civilians can assist Nato 

by distancing themselves from 

forces and equipment whenever 

possible," Lieutenant-General 

Charles Bouchard said. 

"Doing this will allow 

Nato to strike those forces and 

equipment with greater success 

and with the minimum 

risk to civilians," the statement 

said. 

closely the security forces to 

see if they violate the law," 

said Rami Abdul Rahman 

of the London-based Syrian 

Observatory for Human 

Rights. 

"Now we expect the release 

of thousands of people who 

have been sentenced" by the 

state security court, he said. 

And prominent human 

rights lawyer Haitham Maleh 

said Assad's lifting of emergency 

rule was "a good thing 

but it only meets some of the 

demands of the Syrian people." 

Maleh renewed calls for 

some changes in the constitution. 

Assad's government has 

offered a series of concessions 

to the opposition movement 

since the first protests in Damascus 

on March 15, but the 

demonstrators have been undeterred, 

calling for greater 

freedoms. 

More rallies are planned 

for today. A page on social 

networking website Facebook 

has called for Good Friday 

protests, ahead of the Chris- 

Nato's warning came as 

Libyan official media reported 

seven civilians killed and 18 

wounded in an alliance air raid 

that targeted the southwestern 

Tripoli suburb of Khellat Al- 

Ferjan late on Wednesday. 

Nato said yesterday however 

it had no indications that 

its raid on the suburb killed civilians, 

saying the target was a 

command and control bunker 

in a military compound. 

State news agency Jana 

said a number of civilians were 

also killed in Nato air strikes 

yesterday on the Libyan town 

of Gharyan, 90 kilometres 

southwest of Tripoli. 

There was no independent 

confirmation of the report. 

In Paris, Libyan rebel leader 

Mustafa Abdel Jalil said 

the insurgents expect "major 

strikes by the coalition" 

against Gaddafi's forces. 

"We are sure that Gaddafi 

will be overthrown sooner or 

later, but we want it to be as 

soon as possible," Jalil told 

French TV on Wednesday after 

meeting with French President 

Nicolas Sarkozy. 

Asked whether the conflict 

would be won by force or negotiation, 

Jalil, who heads Libya's 

Transitional National Council 

(TNC), told France 24: "We expect 

there to be major strikes by 

A BOY is treated for light wounds after an all-night shelling in Misrata yesterday. — Reuters 

Syria emergency rule scrapped 

tian holiday of Easter Sunday. 

"Good Friday, April 22, 

2011, one heart, one hand, 

one goal," said the Facebook 

announcement on a banner 

showing a cross on top of a 

church between two minarets 

with crescents, spanning the 

Muslim and Christian faiths. 

Groups both inside and 

outside Syria have repeatedly 

urged the authorities to scrap 

the emergency. 

Assad finally signed the 

decrees yesterday. 

The announcements on 

state television said Assad was 

ending the emergency law as 

well as scrapping the security 

court. 

A third decree said citizens 

would be granted "the right to 

peacefully demonstrate" and 

noted this was one of the "basic 

human rights guaranteed 

by the Syrian constitution." 

Also yesterday, the president 

appointed a new governor 

in Homs after dismissing 

his predecessor on April 7 

following protest-related violence, 

said the official SANA 

news agency. — AFP 

EGYPTIANS take part in a demonstration to call for the release of Sheikh Omar Abdel 

Rahman in front of the US Embassy in Cairo yesterday. Abdel Rahman, was jailed 

for life in January 1996 for his role in attacks, including that on the World 

Trade Center in New York in February 1993. — AFP 

the coalition, then Libyans can 

reach a solution." 

Opposition leaders in Misrata 

have pleaded for foreign 

soldiers to help them battle 

government forces, saying the 

air strikes are not enough to 

dislodge troops. 

France, Italy and Britain 

have said they would send 

military personnel to insurgent-held 

eastern Libya, but 

only to advise the fighters on 

technical, logistical and organisational 

matters and not to 

engage in combat. 

Russian Foreign Minister 

Sergei Lavrov yesterday 

warned against a Western 

ground operation in Libya, 

saying it would be an "extremely 

risky" action with unpredictable 

consequences. 

Massive Libyan protests 

in February — inspired by 

the revolts that toppled longtime 

autocrats in Egypt and 

Tunisia — escalated into war 

when Gaddafi's troops fired on 

demonstrators and protesters 

seized several eastern towns. 

The battle lines have been 

more or less static in recent 

weeks, however, as Nato air 

strikes have helped block 

Gaddafi's eastward advance but 

failed to give the poorly organised 

and lightly-armed rebels a 

decisive victory. — AFP 

CAIRO — Ousted Egyptian 

president Hosni Mubarak's 

health is "unstable," the state 

news agency MENA reported 

yesterday quoting a medical 

source in Sharm el-Sheikh 

where he is under hospital arrest. 

Mubarak "is in suite 309 

and his health is unstable," 

the source was quoted as saying 

by MENA. 

Doctors are following up 

on Mubarak's health and "carrying 

out several medical tests 

to know the cause of the instability," 

the source added. 

The report came as Egypt's 

public prosecutor was considering 

moving the 82-year-old 

former president to jail or to a 

prison hospital pending health 

checks, his office said. 

Mubarak, who quit on February 

11, is being held in connection 

with violence against 

5 REGION 



Egypt media: Mubarak’s 

health is ‘unstable’ 

CAIRO — Egypt's former oil 

minister has been detained for 

15 days in connection with a 

corruption probe, the latest 

member of the ousted regime 

to face questioning, a judicial 

official said yesterday. 

Sameh Fahmi and five 

other former officials from 

the oil ministry are accused of 

having sold Israel gas at less 

than market prices, the source 

said. 

State prosecutor Abdel 

Meguid Mahmud has also 

issued an arrest warrant for 

Egyptian businessman Hussein 

Salem who is said to 

have profited from the gas 

deals, the source added. 

State news agency MENA 

reported last week that Egypt's 

prime minister has asked for 

the revision off all contracts 

to supply gas abroad, including 

to Israel. 

Egypt supplies an estimated 

40 per cent of Israel's gas 

protesters during 18 days of 

anti-regime rallies that ended 

his 30-year grip on power. He 

is also being questioned on 

corruption charges. 

Egypt, however, was 

yesterday mulling sending 

Mubarak to jail or to a prison 

hospital as a court ruled his 

name be removed from public 

places. 

Egypt’s public prosecutor 

Abdel Magid Mahmud 

Mahmud has ordered a medical 

team to head to Sharm 

el-Sheikh where Mubarak 

is under arrest in hospital to 

“establish his latest health 

condition and the possibility 

of having him transferred to 

Tora prison or to the prison 

hospital,” his office said. 

The prosecutor has also 

ordered that preparations be 

made at the hospital in southern 

Cairo’s Tora prison. 

Egypt former oil minister 

detained over corruption 

CAIRO — Hundreds of supporters 

of a radical Muslim Egyptian cleric 

called on the United States to release 

him in a rare public demonstration by 

Islamists who have become more vocal 

since president Hosni Mubarak was 

ousted. 

About 400 protesters, most of whom 

said they belonged to the militant Al 

Gama'a Al Islamiya group, gathered 

near the heavily fortified US Embassy 

in downtown Cairo to demand freedom 

for their spiritual leader Sheikh Omar 

Abdel Rahman. 

Abdel Rahman, a blind 73-year-old 

cleric, was jailed in 1995 and is serving 

a life sentence in the United States 

for plotting to attack the United 

Nations headquarters and other 

TURKISH soldiers stand guard as people evacuated from the city of Misrata disembarks from the Turkish 

ship Ankara upon arrival at Benghazi port yesterday. — AFP 

in what, under ousted president 

Hosni Mubarak, was a 

highly controversial deal. 

Prime Minister Essam 

Sharraf "has directed the revision 

and review of all gas 

contracts Egypt agreed to 

with all countries, including 

Jordan and Israel," MENA 

said on April 13. 

The contracts are to be revisited 

so the gas "would be 

sold with deserved prices that 

achieve the highest returns for 

Egypt," it added. 

A sweeping probe into corruption 

has been launched under 

the ruling military council 

which took power when 

president Hosni Mubarak was 

ousted on February 11 following 

anti-regime protests. 

Several powerful members 

of the former regime 

and close associates are being 

questioned by prosecutors, including 

Mubarak's sons Alaa 

and Gamal. — AFP 

Hopes raised as new 

plan for Yemen ready 

SANAA — A Gulf Arab peace 

plan presented in Sanaa yesterday 

calls for President Ali 

Abdullah Saleh to transfer 

power over three months, an 

official said, the latest effort to 

stop Yemen's descent into further 

violence and chaos. 

Saleh's ruling party said 

it would respond within 24 

hours, but aides to Saleh — 

who sounded defiant in a 

speech on Wednesday — said 

he seemed poised to accept the 

initiative. 

Gulf Arab and Western 

states are trying to negotiate 

an orderly transition after 

three months of protests. 

A Yemeni government official 

said the revised GCC 

proposal would see Saleh 

announce his resignation to 

parliament one month after 

signing an agreement, then 

hand over power to his vice- 

president. 

Saleh would also appoint 

an opposition leader to run a 

new cabinet that would prepare 

for presidential elections 

two months later. The propos- 

New York City landmarks. 

The US government lists Al Gama'a 

al Islamiya, or The Islamic Group, as a 

terrorist organisation. 

"The US administration, to appease 

(Egypt's) former regime, detained 

Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman... and 

accused him without any evidence," 

Abdallah Abdel Rahman, the detained 

cleric's son, who was among the protesters, 

said. 

Mubarak, who resigned in February 

after mass protests, suppressed Islamists 

he saw as a threat to his 30-yearrule 

through an emergency law that allowed 

for arbitrary detention. 

"United States, enough torture, Dr 

Omar is dear to us," the demonstrators 

chanted. Most of the men were dressed 

al envisages protesters winding 

down their activities. 

"We welcome this new initiative 

and we will deal with 

it positively," an official said 

after Saleh met Gulf Co-operation 

Council Secretary General 

Abdullatif al Zayani. 

According to the Gulf plan, 

the new unity cabinet would 

consist of members of the current 

ruling party (50 per cent), 

members of the opposition coalition 

(40 per cent), and other 

political groups (10 per cent). 

This might help Saleh supporters 

keep a majority, as the 

10 per cent from other groups 

might include recently resigned 

ruling party members. 

The proposal also grants 

Saleh, his family and close 

aides immunity from legal 

prosecution, the Yemeni official 

said. The opposition has 

given no clear view as to what 

it would accept. 

Members of the opposition 

coalition, who also met Zayani, 

say they are still studying 

the proposal. 

The ending of protests 

would be a major sticking 

point. 

"That condition will be difficult 

to achieve," one opposition 

leader said. He said the 

opposition did not fully control 

the hundreds of thousands 

of people, many of them youth 

activists, who have taken to 

the streets. 

The opposition leader said 

Saleh could use his ruling 

party's parliamentary majority 

to avoid standing down. 

Under Yemeni law, two-thirds 

of the parliament must accept 

a president's resignation. 

Earlier this month, a similar 

GCC initiative proposed 

that presidential powers be 

transferred to the vice-president 

until an election. The opposition 

rejected it. 

On Wednesday he vowed 

to stand firm against "conspiracies 

and coups". "Those 

who want power... should do 

so through the ballot box," he 

said. "Change and departure 

will be through voting via the 

legal framework of the constitution." 

— Reuters 

A PROTESTER carries a gas cylinder as demonstrators protest the lack of cooking gas 

and demanding the ouster of Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh in 

the southern Yemeni city of Taiz yesterday. — Reuters 

Egyptians demand freeing arrested man 

in the skull caps and flowing robes favoured 

by fundamentalist Muslims and 

the female protesters wore full face 

veils. 

The Gama'a is one of the Islamist 

groups that has emerged from the shadows 

in the post-Mubarak era. 

The Gama'a, which wants to turn 

Egypt into a strict Islamic state, fought 

a low-level guerrilla war with the security 

forces in the 1990s. Its jailed leadership 

renounced violence in 1997, but 

Mubarak maintained tight restrictions 

on the group. 

Al Gama'a Al Islamiya is part of 

the ultra-orthodox Salafist movement, 

which advocates a return to what they 

say are the practices of Islam during its 

earliest days. — Reuters 

Bahraini goes 

on trial 

MANAMA — A Bahraini 

man went on military trial 

yesterday, his daughters said. 

Bahrain saw the worst unrest 

since the 1990s last month 

after protesters took to the 

streets as unrest spread across 

the region. The demonstrations 

prompted Bahrain's king 

to impose martial law. 

Abdulhadi al Khawaja 

was arrested with two sonsin-law 

earlier this month as 

part of a government move 

following protests in the 

country. Hundreds of people, 

many of them opposition activists 

and politicians, have 

been arrested. — Reuters

NEWS IN BRIEF 

Five corporate honchos 

seek bail in 2G case 

THE five corporate honchos arrested in 

2G spectrum allocation case will have to 

remain in jail till at least April 26 when 

the Delhi High Court will resume hearing 

yesterday’s inconclusive arguments in 

connection with their bail pleas. 

During the arguments on their bail 

petitions that lasted for nearly four hours, 

the honchos objected to their arrest 

yesterday and told Justice Ajit Bharihoke 

that “mere apprehension” of fleeing and 

tampering with the evidence was not a 

“good enough” ground to “trample” their 

personal liberty. 

Justice Bharihoke, who would now 

hear remaining arguments on April 26 

on behalf of CBI, also asked the defence 

counsels to provide their main points in 

writing. 

Ban iron ore export, 

Karnataka tells SC 

THE Karnataka government told the 

Supreme Court yesterday that it was 

committed to curbing the menace of 

illegal iron ore mining and favoured a 

ban on export of ore. 

The government filed an affidavit and 

said that it “has taken stringent steps to 

curb the illegal mining”. 

The recommendations made by 

the apex court appointed Central 

Empowered Committee (CEC) to assist 

the forest bench were acceptable to it 

and it had already taken some steps for 

implementing them, said the affidavit 

filed by Karnataka Chief Secretary S V 

Ranganath. 

Congress bags 

Gandhinagar civic body 

THE Congress will hold power in 

this capital of Bharatiya Janata Partyruled 

Gujarat following its victory in 

the maiden polls to the Gandhinagar 

Municipal Corporation (GMC). 

The Congress bagged 18 of the 33 

seats, edging out the BJP which won 

16 seats. While the Congress sought to 

interpret its victory as a major setback 

to Chief Minister Narendra Modi, 

the BJP brushed it off as a very local 

phenomenon and an attempt by the 

political rivals to make a mountain of a 

molehill. 

The civic elections in the Gujarat 

capital, the first since the city came up in 

1960, were held on April 19 and counting 

took place yesterday. Hitherto an area 

coming under the jurisdictional control 

of a state government controlled notified 

authority, the city was declared to be a 

municipal corporation through an 

order of the Gujarat High Court in 

April 2010. 

The results come as a shot in the arm 

for the Congress, which lost to the BJP in 

all the six key municipal corporations — 

Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, 

Surat, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar 

in 2010. 

Karnataka’s response 

sought on bail plea 

THE Supreme Court yesterday sought 

Karnataka government’s response on the 

bail plea of PDP leader Abdul Nasser 

Madani, an accused in 2008 Bangalore 

serial blasts case, with the presiding 

judge wondering how a wheel chairbound 

person could pose a threat if 

released on bail. 

A bench of justices Markandeya Katju 

and Gyan Sudha Misra asked the state 

to respond within a week and posted the 

matter for April 29. 

Two persons were killed and 20 

injured when serial blasts rocked 

Bangalore city in nine locations in 2008. 

During the brief hearing, Justice 

Katju wondered how a person whose leg 

is amputated and lives with the help of 

wheel chair could pose a threat if granted 

bail. 

However, Justice Misra pointed out 

that the accused was facing the serious 

charge of being involved in the blasts 

which claimed lives. 

PM to visit Afghanistan 

early next month 

PRIME Minister Manmohan Singh 

is expected to undertake a visit to 

Afghanistan next month during which 

he will make some announcements to 

reflect India’s continued commitment of 

developmental support to the war-torn 

nation. 

Singh is expected to undertake the 

visit in the early part of May, which will 

be the second since 2005. 

The Prime Minister will hold talks 

with Afghan President Hamid Karzai that 

are expected to cover bilateral relations, 

India’s assistance programme and 

regional problems like terrorism. 

Sources said some announcements 

are likely to be made during the 

visit that will demonstrate India’s 

continued commitment to support in 

the development and reconstruction of 

Afghanistan. 

These could include infrastructure and 

social projects. 

The visit is taking place at the 

invitation of Karzai, who has been here 

a number of times, the latest being in 

February this year. — PTI 

NEW DELHI — As corruption allegations 

swirled around Lokpal Bill drafting 

panel members Shanti Bhushan and his 

son Prashant, social activists rejected 

demands for their resignation and urged 

them not to quit even as another member, 

justice N Santosh Hegde said he would 

consider leaving the committee. 

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan 

Singh said he hoped to bring the 

Lokpal Bill, ensuring stringent anti-graft 

measures, in the monsoon session of parliament 

in July. 

RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal, a member 

of the drafting committee, addressing 

a press conference in the capital said: 

“No one is going to resign.” 

He was referring to allegations against 

the joint committee co-chair Shanti 

MUMBAI — Congress’s Industry 

Minister Narayan Rane yesterday 

locked horns with the Shiv Sena by 

alleging that some corporate houses 

have offered Rs 5 billion to the saffron 

party to oppose and scuttle the 

Jaitapur nuclear power project. 

Making the sensational allegation 

in the Maharashtra assembly, 

Rane said the 11 corporate houses 

— whom he did not identify — 

apprehended that they would be 

compelled to lower power tariffs on 

electricity produced by them if the 

9,900-MW Jaitapur Nuclear Power 

Project was implemented. 

“They had approached a particular 

political party. As per our 

information, that political party is 

Shiv Sena and the matter is being 

probed,” Rane declared to vociferous 

protests from the opposition 

benches. 

Rane further said that the Sena’s 

public rally in Jaitapur, which was 

originally scheduled for April 3 was 

postponed by six days (April 9) after 

it secured an ‘advance’ on the alleged 

deal. 

He sarcastically remarked that 

(Sena) party leaders have gone on 

vacation after collecting the money, 

referring to Sena executive president 

Uddhav Thackeray who is on 

a holiday at Kanha National Park 

since this week. 

Sena group leader who was not 

present when Rane made the utterances, 

rushed inside and denied the 

allegations. They demanded that 

Rane submit proof of his allegations 

and also sought that the remarks 

be expunged from the assembly 

records. 

Bharatiya Janata Party’s Opposition 

Leader Eknath Khadse and BJP 

state president Sudhir Mungantiwar 

also raised objections to Rane’s 

statements. 

Former opposition leader Ramdas 

Kadam also dismissed Rane’s 

allegations as “baseless” and challenged 

him to give proof. 

Kadam pointed out that in the 

past, Rane had made allegations that 

some political leaders were aware 

of the November 26, 2008 Mumbai 

terror attacks. 

However, even at that time, he 

failed to substantiate his allegations, 

Kadam said. 

Earlier, the minister, a former 

chief minister of the Shiv Sena, has 

termed the Sena agitation against 

6 INDIA 



Lokpal panellists reject resignation demand; bill in July 

Bhushan and his lawyer son and panel 

member, Prashant Bhushan, of wrongdoing 

in land deals in Noida and Allahabad, 

which they have vigorously denied. “We 

are not going to run away from the field,” 

Kejriwal said. 

However, former Supreme Court 

judge Santosh Hegde, who is another 

member of the panel, said in Bangalore 

that he would come to Delhi tomorrow 

and discuss the demand of resignations 

with his colleagues. 

He told a TV channel that he was “hurt 

by the vilification campaign (against the 

Bhushans) by some political leaders”. 

“I am seriously thinking of quitting the 

Lokpal panel,” Hegde said. 

Besides alleged to be involved in 

wrongdoing in land deals, the Bhushans 

have also figured in a controversial audio 

CD which has purported conversations 

between Shanti Bhushan, Samajwadi 

Party leader Mulayam Singh and expelled 

SP member Amar Singh trying to 

fix a dubious legal deal. 

While a Delhi Police source yesterday 

said the CD was not tampered with, the 

civil activists claimed the CD was fake. 

Meanwhile, Manmohan Singh said 

the government was hopeful of speedy 

work on the Lokpal Bill. 

“Our aim is to strengthen the legislative 

framework, revamp administrative 

practices and procedures and fast track a 

systemic response to fighting corruption. 

A committee of ministers and representatives 

of civil society is at work to finalise 

the draft of the Bill, which we hope to 

WOMEN watch the burial ceremony of anti-nuclear protester Tavrez Sejkar in the village of Nate, near Jaitapur, some 400 kilometres 

south of Mumbai yesterday. Sejkar was shot dead by police during a demonstration on April 18. Opposition to a proposed nuclear power 

station at Jaitapur has hardened since the Japanese nuclear crisis, with concerns about the impact on the livelihoods of farmers and 

fishermen, as well as pollution and the location of the plant, which environmentalists say is in an earthquake-prone zone. — AFP 

Shiv Sena got Rs 5 bn to 

oppose Jaitapur: Rane 

Can’t reveal names in black 

money cases, court told 

NEW DELHI — The government 

yesterday told the Supreme Court that 

under the Double Taxation Avoidance 

Agreement (DTAA) with other countries, 

it could not disclose the names 

of the people under investigation for 

alleged money laundering and parking 

funds in foreign banks based in 

tax havens. 

The apex court bench of Justice 

B Sudershan Reddy and Justice S S 

Nijjar was told by Solicitor General 

Gopal Subramanium that under the 

provisions of the Income Tax Act, 

the DTAA agreement had the force of 

domestic law and thus any information 

coming via that route from other 

countries can’t be made public. 

In a related matter, the court asked 

Delhi Police commissioner to file a 

status report on its investigation on 

a complaint that Enforcement Directorate 

(ED) officer Prabha Kant 

had threatened Indian Institute of 

Technology-Kharagpur Director S K 

Dubey for writing to Prime Minister 

Manmohan Singh against ED officials 

investigating the money laundering 

scam. 

“It is a very, very serious matter 

concering the nation. Don’t try to 

trivialise it by engaging in settling 

individual grudges,” the court said. 

The court was earlier told by 

Subramanium that the government 

could make the information regarding 

alleged money launderers 

public only after prosecution was 

launched against the accused. In that 

situation, legally they (names) come 

in the public domain and could be 

made public. — IANS 

Jaitapur as ‘anti-development’ and 

against the interests of the people of 

the backward Konkan region. 

Outside the assembly, Sena MP 

and spokesman Sanjay Raut dismissed 

Rane’s allegations as “a conspiracy 

to defame” the anti-JNPP 

movement. 

Raut said the anti-JNPP protests 

have now become a mass movement 

in the Konkan region. 

“The ground is slipping from underneath 

Rane’s feet and Congress 

is finished in Konkan. So he keeps 

making such statements,” Raut 

said. 

It may be recalled that after Union 

Minister for Environment & 

Forests Jairam Ramesh declared the 

centre’s intentions of implementing 

the JNPP, the Shiv Sena had 

adopted an aggressive stance in its 

opposition to the project. 

A few days ago, Shiv Sena executive 

president Uddhav Thackeray 

had asserted that the party “would 

not allow JNPP to come up” in a 

public meeting in the region. 

On Monday, several hundred 

Sainiks attempts to barge into the 

JNPP site and police resorted to 

caning them. — IANS 

be able to introduce during the monsoon 

session of parliament,” he told a gathering 

of civil servants. 

While the prime minister put forward 

the government’s agenda, the panel to 

draft the bill, set up on April 9 after a 

fast-unto-death by reformer Anna Hazare, 

found itself fighting taint. 

Shanti Bhushan has claimed that the 

CD is forged and that he has never spoken 

to the two politicians — Mulayam 

Singh and Amar Singh. He had last week 

registered a police complaint. 

A Delhi Police official yesterday said 

that “initial” reports from a forensic lab 

in Hyderabad suggested the CD was not 

tampered with. “We have received the reports 

on Thursday (yesterday) and the test 

confirms that it is not tampered,” a source 

HYDERABAD — Spiritual 

leader Sathya Sai Baba continues 

to be in a very critical 

condition, doctors attending 

on him said yesterday. 

According to the doctors 

at Sathya Sai Super Speciality 

Hospital at Puttaparthi 

in Anantapur district, Baba 

is suffering from liver failure 

while the heart has 

turned weak. The medical 

bulletin said all the organs 

are showing very poor response 

to the treatment. 

“The intermittent episodes 

of low blood pressure 

are persisting indicating 

that the heart is quite 

weak,” said the statement 

by the hospital director A N 

Safaya. 

“The parameters of the 

functioning of the various 

organs of the body are also 

erratic. Every attempt is being 

made to keep them in 

the normal limits by the administration 

of appropriate 

drugs,” the statement said. 

“The breathing is still 

assisted by the ventilator. 

One successful cycle of low 

haemodialysis was conducted 

during the past 12 

hours to assist the kidney 

functioning,” it added. As 

Baba’s deteriorating con- 

at the Delhi Police Special Cell said. 

However, Kejriwal said the CD controversy 

was engineered by “vested interests” 

carrying out a “malicious campaign” 

against them. He also pointed 

out that Truth Labs in Hyderabad and an 

independent US audio forensic expert 

George Papcun had found the CD to be 

spliced together from earlier conversations. 

Meanwhile, Amar Singh reiterated 

yesterday that the Bhushans should resign 

from the committee. 

“The Bhushans say they don’t know 

me... He said he has not met or interacted 

with me, but in 1996 he appeared twice 

in a case filed by us. We paid fees to him 

which he has conveniently forgotten,” 

Amar Singh told a TV channel. — IANS 

Sai Baba’s condition 

still critical 

dition sent anxiety among 

millions of his devotees in 

India and abroad, the Andhra 

Pradesh government 

deployed additional police 

forces. 

About 3,000 policemen 

were rushed from neighbouring 

districts to tackle 

any law and order situation 

that may arise due to any 

emotional outburst by the 

devotees. 

Minister for Major Industries 

J Geeta Reddy, 

who rushed to the town to 

monitor the situation, held 

a meeting with doctors attending 

on Baba and also 

members of Sathya Sai Central 

trust. 

In Hyderabad, Minister 

for Revenue Raghuveera 

Reddy said Baba’s condition 

had turned very critical 

and doctors were making 

last-ditch efforts to make 

his vital organs function. 

The 85-year-old spiritual 

leader, seen as the incarnation 

of god by his devotees 

in India and abroad, was 

admitted to the hospital 

March 28 with breathing 

problem. The doctors later 

said he was suffering from 

multi-organ dysfunction. 

— IANS 

Special observer to monitor tough 

third phase, says poll official 

KOLKATA — With the third 

phase of the West Bengal assembly 

polls on April 27 expected 

to be a “tough one”, 

the Election Commission has 

decided to send a special observer 

from Orissa on that day, 

said a senior election official 

yesterday. 

“The Chief Electoral Officer 

of Orissa S Srinivassan 

will arrive in the state during 

the third phase of the assembly 

polls, when polling will 

be held in South 24 Parganas, 

North 24 Parganas and Kolkata 

on April 27. He has been 

appointed as special observer 

for the third phase,” said state 

Joint Chief Electoral Officer 

Dibyendu Sarkar. 

“EC apprehends that third 

phase of state assembly polls 

is going to be a tough one. So 

they have decided to send a 

special observer,” said another 

senior officer. 

According to sources in 

CEO’s office, more than 3,000 

polling stations have been 

identified as super sensitive 

in the three districts going to 

polls in the third phase, while 

around 1.4 lakh people have 

been identified as vulnerable 

to threats from miscreants. 

“In South 24 Pargans district 

alone there are 1,875 

super sensitive booths and at 

least 1,36,572 people have 

been listed as vulnerable to 

threats and 938 persons as 

intimidators. There are 433 

super sensitive booths, 15,000 

vulnerable people and 314 

intimidators in Kolkata,” said 

Rajesh Pandey, officer on special 

duty in CEO office. 

“In the North 24 Parganas, 

number of super sensitive 

booths is 729 and vulnerable 

people and intimidators are 

1,660 and 177, respectively,” 

he said. 

Meanwhile, the Trinamool 

Congress yesterday complained 

to the Election Commission 

against the CPM saying 

it was defaming Trinamool 

leaders by claiming they were 

using black money to fund 

their election campaign. 

“We have received a complaint 

from the Trinamool 

saying that CPM leaders are 

defaming and insulting the 

Trinamool leaders by alleging 

that they are using black mon- 

ey in vote canvassing. A copy 

of the defamation suit filed by 

the Trinamool leaders against 

the CPI-M leader has been attached 

with the complaint,” 

said state Joint Chief Electoral 

Officer Dibyendu Sarkar. 

Earlier, the CPM complained 

that the Trinamool 

was using a huge amount of 

black money in election campaigns 

and urged the EC to 

probe the matter. “We have 

forwarded the CPM’s complaint 

to the EC in Delhi. The 

Trinamool’s complaint will 

also be forwarded to the EC,” 

said Sarkar. 

As many as 54 out of 280 

candidates contesting the third 

phase of the West Bengal assembly 

polls spread over 75 

constituencies have criminal 

cases pending against them, 

a report by West Bengal Election 

Watch (WBEW), an 

NGO, said. The report has 

been prepared on the basis 

of the affidavits filed by the 

candidates before the Election 

commission (EC). 

WBEW analysed 280 candidates 

out of a total of 480 

contesting in the third phase. 

A WORKER monitors an automatic candy making machine inside an ice cream factory on the outskirts of Ahmedabad 

yesterday. India’s annual food inflation snapped a three-week easing trend on April 9, while fuel inflation 

also quickened, raising the odds for an aggressive rate hike by the central bank next month. — Reuters

Gulf Coast gets 

taste of recovery 

� Page 10 

Australia-US 

gas project 

signs Sinopec 

SYDNEY — Canberra yesterday 

welcomed a huge 

deal that will see an Australian-US 

joint venture supply 

clean-burning liquefied natural 

gas (LNG) to China’s 

Sinopec in one of Australia’s 

biggest ever LNG deals. 

Australia-Pacific LNG, a 

A$35 billion joint project by 

Origin Energy and US firm 

ConocoPhillips, will supply 

the Chinese petrochemical 

giant with 4.3 million tonnes 

of LNG per year for 20 years 

from 2015 under the deal. 

Sinopec will also spend 

$1.5 billion for a 15 per cent 

stake in the joint venture in 

Queensland state, the largest 

project currently planned 

in Australia using pioneering 

coal seam technology 

to cool and liquefy underground 

gases. 

The move comes as China, 

the world’s biggest energy 

consumer, tries to diversify 

and move away from its 

reliance on coal and crude 

oil while also struggling to 

take control of its pollution 

problem. 

Conoco executive Ryan 

Lance said the nuclear crisis 

in Japan had also boosted 

interest in LNG, which is 

considered easy to ship because 

of its liquid form and 

is cheap to transport from 

Australia compared with the 

Middle East. 

“Since the tragic events 

in Japan gas is going to be 

in greater demand in the 

Asia Pacific region, and 

we’re finding that with the 

customer interaction that we 

have today,” Lance told reporters. 

Nokia posts 

slight drop in 

net profit 

HELSINKI — The world’s 

top mobile phone maker 

Nokia reported yesterday a 

slight fall in first-quarter net 

profit although beating analysts’ 

expectations, but its 

global mobile phone market 

share shrank to 29 per cent. 

The company’s net profit 

fell only 1.4 per cent to 344 

million euros ($503 million) 

from 349 million euros in 

the first quarter of 2010. 

The number beat expectations 

by analysts polled by 

Dow Jones Newswires, who 

had foreseen a net profit of 

279 million euros. 

Yesterday’s figures are 

the first quarterly results 

to be released since Nokia 

chief executive Steven Elop 

said in February that the 

company, facing stark competition 

in the vital smartphone 

market from iPhone, 

Blackberry and Google, 

would abandon its own mobile 

operating system and 

start using one designed by 

Microsoft instead. — AFP 

LONDON — British retail 

sales rose unexpectedly in 

March, helped by stronger 

food sales but doing little to 

alter a picture of fragile consumer 

demand that is deterring 

the Bank of England from 

raising interest rates. 

Other data showed the 

government borrowed slightly 

less in the 2010/11 fiscal 

year than its fiscal watchdog 

had predicted last month, but 

the finance ministry said this 

did not lessen the need for it 

to press on with hefty public 

spending cuts. 

The Office for National 

Statistics said retail sales 

volumes including automotive 

fuel rose 0.2 per cent last 

month, confounding forecasts 

for a 0.5 per cent fall, after 

February’s 0.9 per cent decline. 

Analysts had been braced 

for a weak number after a very 

poor British Retail Consor- 

US homes sales gain raises hope 

US home resales volumes bounced back in March, a hopeful 

sign for recovery in the housing market, but prices continued 

to decline. The housing market is struggling to find its footing 

as housing sector led the economy into its worst recession 

since the 1930s in 2007-2008. � Page 8 

tium survey last week, and the 

pound hit a fresh 16-month 

high versus the dollar and 

strengthened against the euro 

after the data. 

But on the quarter, sales 

volumes were just 0.3 per cent 

higher, showing the sector 

poised to make only a modest 

contribution to first-quarter 

GDP data due next week. 

“These figures and those 

from the last couple of months 

are not really showing the retail 

sector as being a picture 

of health,” said Victoria Cadman, 

economist at Investec. 

“I suspect the Monetary 

Policy Committee will not see 

this as a sign that consumer 

demand is gathering pace.” 

Year-on-year, retail sales 

were 1.3 per cent higher. 

Economists had forecast a 

month-on-month fall of 0.5 

per cent and an annual rise of 

0.9 per cent. 

The ONS said the monthly 

increase was driven by the 

strongest rise in food store 

sales since June. Sales at garden 

centres and sports good 

stores were boosted by better 

weather this March than last 

year. Non-store sales, which 

includes Internet retailing, 

also rose strongly. 

Friday, April 22, 2011 

Surprise UK retail sales rise fails to lift gloom 

SALES at garden centres and sports good stores were 

boosted by better weather this March. 

Retailers have been complaining 

about tough conditions 

on the High Street as 

consumers face rising prices, 

higher taxes and muted wage 

growth. The biggest public 

spending cuts in a generation 

also prompt worries about job 

security for many. 

British supermarket chain 

Tesco said this week it failed 

to meet its UK profit expectations 

for the last year and 

expected conditions to remain 

challenging. 

Sportswear retailer Sports 

Direct, however, yesterday 

posted higher sales and profit, 

helped by growth in its core 

UK business. 

Britain is pressing on with 

spending cuts aimed at eliminating 

the budget deficit over 

the next four years and separate 

data showed the government’s 

preferred measure 

of public borrowing fell to 

£141.1 billion ($232.1 billion) 

compared to 145.9 billion predicted 

at last month’s budget. 

“As this week’s action by 

S&P (on the United States) 

has shown, concerns over deficits 

persist for even the largest 

economies, and we need to 

stick to our plan to pay off the 

nation’s credit card,” a Treas- 

Arab markets seen consolidating 

TRADING in Gulf Arab markets appears immune at times from 

the unrest in the wider region, judging from new highs reached 

this week. Upbeat first quarter earnings from companies in Saudi 

Arabia spurred gains, and the petrochemical sector is forecast to 

outperform on rising fuel prices. � Page 9 

OECD halves Japan 2011 growth forecast 

TOKYO — The impact of last 

month’s devastating quake-tsunami 

disaster will slash Japan’s economic 

growth to 0.8 per cent this year, the 

OECD said yesterday, halving its earlier 

forecast of 1.7 per cent. 

But massive government and 

business investment in reconstruction 

is expected to drive a sharp rebound 

in 2012, with the economy seen expanding 

2.3 per cent, up from the 

OECD’s previous estimate of 1.3 per 

cent given in a November report. 

“While it is still too early to assess 

the full extent of the damage, the 

immediate impact will be to reduce 

output, although this will later be reversed 

by reconstruction efforts,” the 

Paris-based OECD said. 

The monster March 11 quake and 

tsunami struck just as Japan appeared 

to be back on track following a slowdown 

in the latter part of last year, the 

Organisation for Economic Cooperation 

and Development said in its 2011 

Japan economic survey. 

“The immediate impact of the 

horrendous disaster is likely to be 

large, extending beyond the areas 

devastated by the earthquake and tsunami,” 

it said. 

“Indeed, damage to factories in 

the Tohoku region has disrupted the 

supply chains of key industrial products 

even beyond Japan, notably in 

the automobile sector.” 

The quake and tsunami hit facilities 

of many vehicle component firms 

and damage to nuclear power plants 

has resulted in severe power shortages, 

which have forced companies 

to scale back production. 

But as devastating as the disaster 

was, the OECD said its impact on 

the Japanese economy was likely to 

be far less than that of the collapse of 

Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers at 

the beginning of the global financial 

crisis. 

The damage “is projected to significantly 

reduce output in the second 

quarter of 2011, although it is likely 

to be relatively mild compared to the 

20 per cent drop following the 2008 

Lehman shock,” the OECD said. 

Experience from previous disasters 

suggested that the short-term 

negative impact would be followed 

by a rebound fuelled by government 

spending, firms replacing and repairing 

equipment and the rebuilding of 

damaged and destroyed housing. 

“Such a pattern is projected to 

slow real GDP growth to 0.8 per cent 

Fiat makes $1.3bn 

Chrysler leap 

MILAN — Fiat took a giant step yesterday to 

becoming one of the biggest automakers in the 

world with a $1.3 billion (889 million euro) deal 

to boost its stake in Chrysler to 46 per cent. 

Fiat said the deal would be completed during 

the second quarter of this year and would involve 

billions of dollars in loans given to Chrysler 

by the US and Canadian governments during 

the economic crisis being “fully repaid”. 

“This is a fundamental step towards completion 

of the momentous integration of Fiat and 

Chrysler initiated less than two years ago,” Fiat 

chief executive Sergio Marchionne, who also 

heads up Chrysler, said in a statement. 

The deal “will result in the creation of a global 

automaker,” he said. 

The Italian automaker also said yesterday it 

expected to increase its stake by a further five 

per cent to 51 per cent “before year end.” 

The aim, Fiat said, was the creation of an 

auto giant with “the determination to establish 

itself as a leader in the sector.” 

Fiat took over management of the iconic US 

company after it emerged from bankruptcy in 

2009 and currently owns a 30 per cent stake. 

Chrysler suffered from an implosion of sales for 

the auto sector in the United States. 

Investors welcomed the news, with Fiat’s 

share price on the Milan stock exchange rocketing 

up 3.80 per cent to 6.825 euros during trading. 

But Italy’s Fiom trade union said the deal 

was “bad news” for Italy. 

“Everything will be sacrificed in Italy to find 

money for the takeover and this will signal the 

end of independent auto production in the country,” 

Giorgio Cremaschi, head of the powerful 

Fiom union, told reporters. 

Chrysler confirmed the deal, saying that 

“Fiat has agreed with Chrysler Group’s other 

members that it will exercise its option” to increase 

the stake. 

The other shareholders are the US and Canadian 

governments and the pension fund of the 

AUW union based in Detroit at the hear of the 

US auto industry. 

At the end of 2010, Chrysler owed the US 

government $5.8 billion and $1.7 billion to the 

Canadian government and the province of On- 

tario. 

Chrysler is set to raise around seven billion 

euros in debt on the markets. 

Fiat, which announced its first-quarter profits 

on Wednesday, said it had chosen to “accelerate 

the pace” of the merger. Analysts said the 

financial time was right ahead of a planned listing 

of Chrysler at the end of 2011. 

“Fiat, together with Chrysler, will create a 

stronger automobile group, with a full range of 

products, present in every market around the 

world and able to compete with the best,” the 

Turin-based company said. 

Fiat and Chrysler combined have a production 

volume of about four million vehicles a 

year, which should be increased to six million 

by 2014 — putting the combined company 

among the top auto makers in the world. 

Toyota was the world’s biggest car maker 

last year with total sales of 8.418 million vehicles. 

General Motors produced 8.39 million. 

“The transaction that we are announcing 

today represents a historic step for Fiat and 

Chrysler,” Fiat chairman John Elkann, grandson 

of Fiat’s historic boss Gianni Agnelli for decades, 

said in a statement. 

Fiat began managing Chrysler in June 2009 

with a 20 per cent stake. — AFP 

OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria (left) and Japanese Foreign 

Minister Takeaki Matsumoto in Tokyo yesterday. — AFP 

in 2011, followed by a pick-up to 2.3 

per cent growth in 2012,” it said. 

Japan has said the cost of rebuilding 

could be as much as 25 trillion 

yen ($303 billion). 

The OECD however warned that 

BERLIN — German business 

confidence fell for the second 

month in a row, the Ifo index 

showed yesterday, but the euro 

rose as markets had expected 

a drop amid ongoing crises in 

Japan and the euro zone. 

Analysts largely shrugged 

off the setback, noting that 

sentiment in Europe’s top 

economy was still close to 

record highs and that prospects 

for growth in the euro zone’s 

powerhouse remained bright. 

The closely watched Ifo 

indicator, based on surveys of 

about 7,000 firms in Germany, 

fell to 110.4 in April from 

111.1 in March. 

The decline was in line 

with expectations, with econo- 

deflation was likely to remain a problem. 

Japan has long been fighting a 

losing battle against falling consumer 

prices, recording a 24th straight 

month of deflation in February. 

“Deflationary pressures are likely 

SEOUL — South Korean officials trying to 

check the local currency’s rise will inspect 

foreign exchange transactions at banks to 

see whether they comply with rules on derivatives, 

officials said yesterday. 

The Central Bank of Korea and the finance 

ministry said the eight-day joint inspection 

would start on April 26 and focus 

on banks’ positions in the overseas nondeliverable 

forward (NDF) market. 

NDFs differ from a normal foreign currency 

forward contract in that there is no 

physical settlement of two currencies at 

maturity. 

In an NDF settlement, one party pays 

the other the difference between an agreedupon 

exchange rate and the actual spot rate 

at the time of settlement, in respect of an 

agreed-upon notional sum. 

Heavy selling of the dollar by offshore 

players, largely via the NDF market, 

has helped pushed up the won in recent 

weeks. 

It has gained about five per cent 

against the greenback so far this year hit a 

31-month high close to 1,080 to the dollar 

yesterday, prompting authorities to inter- 

mists surveyed by Dow Jones 

Newswires on average forecasting 

a drop to 110.5 points. 

The institute’s president, 

Hans-Werner Sinn, dismissed 

the dip, saying: “Despite considerable 

risks at the international 

level, the situation of 

the firms in Germany remains 

excellent.” 

And Carsten Brzeski, an 

economist from ING bank 

in Belgium, said the markets 

could shrug off the April decline. 

“Do not forget: even after 

today’s drop, the Ifo remains 

close to record highs and 

bodes well for a continuation 

of strong German growth,” he 

said. 

ury spokesman said. 

The UK Debt Management 

Office said it would cut 

the amount of bonds it will issue 

in 2011/12 by £1.5 billion 

to 167.5 billion, due to the 

lower 2010/11 borrowing figures. 

Separate figures released 

by the Bank of England 

showed that major UK lenders 

approved 44,000 mortgages 

for house purchase in March, 

up from 43,000 in February. 

Despite the modest rise, 

approvals are still running 

at around half their long-run 

levels. The net lending flow 

to UK businesses fell by 

£0.4 billion in February, versus 

a £2.7 billion decline in 

January. 

“The housing market clearly 

is still very weak, which 

does not bode well for house 

prices,” said Howard Archer, 

economist at IHS Global Insight. 

— Reuters 

to remain a headwind to growth,” it 

said. “The Bank of Japan should thus 

maintain an accommodative stance 

until deflation is overcome, paying 

attention to downside risks. The monetary 

policy framework could be improved, 

in part by raising the ‘understanding’ 

of price stability to ensure 

more of a buffer against deflation.” 

Deflation prompts consumers to 

defer purchases, clouding the outlook 

for corporate investment and creating 

a drag on growth. 

Japanese shoppers have also been 

cutting back on non-essential spending 

in the wake of the disaster, which 

devastated swathes of the northeast 

and left more than 27,000 dead or 

missing. 

“In contrast to fixed investment, 

private consumption is projected to 

remain relatively subdued during 

2011, reflecting weaker household 

confidence... and the impact of measures 

to finance reconstruction spending 

without increasing government 

borrowing,” the OECD said. 

The International Monetary Fund 

earlier this month cut its 2011 growth 

forecast for Japan to 1.4 per cent, 

compared with 1.6 per cent before the 

quake. — AFP 

“For the time being, fortunately, 

the German economy 

will continue to be (almost) 

everybody’s darling,” he added. 

Both the euro and stock 

markets in Germany rose on 

the news as fears of a sharper 

drop proved unfounded. 

“Relative to the scale of 

the problems that have erupted 

recently (Japan, surge in oil 

prices, Greece/Spain, stronger 

euro), this is only a very 

mild correction,” said Holger 

Schmieding at Berenberg 

bank. 

Although companies were 

more pessimistic about their 

future prospects, an index 

measuring their sentiment 

vene in the market. Officials believe an 

excessively strong won will damage export 

competitiveness, although some analysts 

say it should be allowed to rise freely 

to ease imported inflation. 

Dow Jones Newswires said at least 

four banks — two domestic and two local 

branches of foreign banks — would be 

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple 

Inc’s results smashed Wall 

Street’s expectations after 

iPhone and Mac sales scaled 

new heights while iPad supplies 

could not keep up with 

roaring global demand. 

Shares of the world’s most 

valuable technology corporation 

rose 3 per cent after it 

said a record 18.65 million 

units of the category-defining 

iPhone — its flagship product 

— moved in the March quarter, 

outpacing the 16 million 

or so expected. 

Apple sold just 4.69 million 

iPads — which command 

an 80 per cent share of 

a burgeoning tablet market in 

which Motorola Inc and Samsung 

Electronics also compete 

— but investors argued that 

would not detract from strong 

long-term demand. 

But investors largely ignored 

the lower-than-expect- 

Persimmon’s home 

sales bounce back 

� Page 10 

MUFG-Morgan 

Stanley in 

$1.8 bn hit 

TOKYO — A securities 

joint venture between Japan’s 

Mitsubishi UFG Financial 

Group and Morgan 

Stanley said yesterday it 

would take a $1.8 billion hit 

for the year ended March 

due to derivatives trading 

losses. 

Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan 

Stanley Securities Co Ltd 

said it would book a net 

loss of 145 billion yen ($1.8 

billion) for the year ended 

March 2011, largely due to 

a loss of 99.3 billion yen 

from trading derivatives in 

the last quarter. 

The announcement at a 

news conference in Tokyo 

came shortly before Morgan 

Stanley was due to release 

its results for the January- 

March quarter. 

MUMSS brokerage officials 

said risk management 

was not handled properly 

but stressed that the losses 

were not the fault of a single 

trader or from illegal transactions. 

— Reuters 

German confidence suffers another drop 

about their current situation 

actually rose to near record 

high levels. 

Another bullish analyst, Alexander 

Koch from Unicredit, 

said that Germany appeared 

to be immune to the sizeable 

risks in the world economy. 

“Without any doubt, the 

risk factors for the German 

economy are plentiful,” he acknowledged. 

“But neither the intensifying 

eurozone debt crisis, nor 

the unrest in the Arabic world, 

nor skyrocketing commodity 

prices, nor the Japanese 

catastrophe show noticeable 

dampening effects on real 

economic activity so far,” he 

added. — AFP 

South Korea to probe forex deals 

A FOREIGN currency dealer walks past a monitor displaying the Korea 

Composite Stock Price Index in Seoul yesterday. — Reuters 

inspected. 

It quoted an unnamed financial official 

as saying: “A significant portion of forwards 

position changes among the banks 

have been through NDFs, so the regulator 

wants to take a closer look at that particular 

aspect and see if there are any major 

issues.” — AFP 

Apple beats Wall St 

forecasts again 

ed sales for iPads during the 

quarter as company executives 

said they were scrambling 

to meet “staggering” 

demand and were heavily 

backlogged for now. 

“I’m not going to predict 

when supply and demand will 

come into balance,” Chief 

Operating Officer Tim Cook 

said. “I can only be confident 

on supply side.” 

Apple’s iPad 2 dominated 

the nascent market for tablets 

with competing products like 

Research In Motion’s Play- 

Book receiving poor reviews 

from customers and experts. 

The stellar results on 

Wednesday came as concern 

is growing over how component 

supply constraints 

after Japan’s earthquake and 

tsunami would squeeze margins 

and restrain iPhone and 

iPad sales in coming months. 

— Reuters

8 

OMAN/THE WORLD FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011 

US homes sales gain 

raises cautious hope 

WASHINGTON — US home 

resales volumes bounced back 

in March, a hopeful sign for 

recovery in the housing market, 

but prices continued to 

decline. 

The housing market is 

struggling to find its footing as 

a wave of foreclosed properties 

keeps supply up but prices 

down. 

The housing sector led 

the economy into its worst 

recession since the 1930s in 

2007-2008 and is now lagging 

recovery in the broader 

economy. 

Existing home sales in 

March rose 3.7 per cent from 

February to an annual rate of 

5.10 million units, the National 

Association of Realtors said on 

Wednesday. Economists had 

expected a smaller increase to 

a 5 million-unit pace. 

But the median home price 

fell 5.9 per cent in March from 

a year earlier to $159,600. 

“The underlying trend for 

existing home sales is improving, 

but only at a gradual 

pace,” said Michael Gapen, an 

economist at Barclays Capital 

in New York. “Demand should 

gradually firm as labour market 

conditions continue to improve.” 

With US unemployment 

beginning to fall and significant 

job growth seen in February 

and March, economists 

are cautiously optimistic home 

sales will continue to rise as 

the year progresses, putting a 

floor under prices. 

Analysts also cited a jump 

last week in demand for home 

loans as boding well for the 

housing recovery. The Mortgage 

Bankers Association said 

on Wednesday that its purchase 

loan index rose 10 per 

cent to its highest since early 

LONDON — Britain’s biggest bookmaker William 

Hill said it had confidence in its full-year 

forecasts after demand for its online gambling 

sites boosted first-quarter operating profit, 

sending shares higher. 

The company, which has around 2,350 betting 

shops in the UK and Ireland, said it had 

also seen increased amounts wagered in its 

over-the-counter business and through gaming 

machines. 

William Hill, which takes over a million bets 

a day, said the strong performance resulted in 

group net revenue being up by 11 per cent, with 

retail revenues up 8 per cent and online net revenues 

up 26 per cent. The news, which followed 

an update from Ladbrokes earlier this month reporting 

operating profit up 1.9 per cent for the 

period, sent shares in William Hill up 9 per cent 

at 216.3 pence. 

“We have seen excellent growth across our 

business in the first quarter, enabling us to remain 

confident in our expectations for the full 

year,” Chief Executive Ralph Topping said in 

a statement. 

William Hill said it had seen an over-thecounter 

gross win margin above the top end of 

the expected trading range of 17 to 18 per cent. 

At 30 per cent growth, Bingo continued to 

deliver the fastest growth in gaming but Poker 

and Casino were also growing well, up 16 per 

December. 

“The housing market in 

terms of demand has bottomed. 

We have some reason for modest 

optimism as we go through 

2011,” said Peter Muoio, a 

senior principal at real estate 

research firm Maximus Advisors 

in New York. 

But the huge number of 

foreclosed properties on the 

market has some economists 

feeling less optimistic. 

Foreclosures and “short” 

sales, which typically occur at 

about 20 per cent below market 

value, made up 40 per cent 

of transactions last month — 

the highest since April 2009 

and up from 39 per cent in 

February. 

“While the higher share 

of distressed properties is 

encouraging in that it should 

help to clear the market sooner 

of the glut of foreclosures already 

listed, it will, of course, 

prevent a sustained recovery 

in prices for some time,” said 

Omair Sharif, an economist at 

RBS in Stamford Connecticut. 

All-cash purchases made 

up a record 35 per cent of sales 

in March, which some economists 

said could be a sign some 

investors were starting to seek 

a hedge against inflation. 

“It is probably way too 

early to realistically connect 

the dots from cash sales to 

inflation expectations as opposed 

to simple bargain hunting,” 

said Steve Blitz, Senior 

Economist at ITG Investment 

Research in New York. 

“It isn’t too early, however, 

to start watching to see whether 

this activity is rewarded 

by putting a bid on prices in 

certain areas and thereby reinforce 

what could be inflationhedging 

activity.” 

Home sales in March rose 

across the board. Purchases 

of multifamily dwellings rose 

1.6 per cent and single-family 

home sales advanced 4 per 

cent. 

At March’s sales pace, 

the supply of existing homes 

on the market slipped to 8.4 

months’ worth from 8.5 in 

February. A supply of between 

six and seven months is generally 

considered ideal, with 

higher readings pointing to 

lower prices. 

The number of previously 

owned homes on the market 

rose 1.5 per cent to 3.55 million 

— well above the economy’s 

natural rate of between 2 

and 2.5 million. — Reuters 

William Hill shares jump 

on strong start to the year 

NEW YORK — Nasdaq OMX 

Group will pursue its bid for 

crosstown rival NYSE Euronext 

to the “endgame” and is 

willing to battle for up to another 

year, its chief executive 

said. 

Robert Greifeld added on 

Wednesday that he and partner 

IntercontinentalExchange 

could put a “fully reflective” 

offer on the table if the Big 

Board parent reveals its detailed 

financial records to 

them. 

Nasdaq this month joined 

ICE to bid $11.1 billion for 

the New York Stock Exchange 

parent company, which earlier 

this year agreed to be acquired 

by Germany’s Deutsche Boerse 

AG for $9.8 billion. 

Though NYSE’s board rejected 

the higher offer from 

Nasdaq and ICE, the pair 

sweetened their bid on Tuesday 

with a promise to pay 

NYSE Euronext $350 million 

if regulators blocked a merger 

— a pledge meant to ease the 

board’s antitrust worries and 

draw them to the negotiating 

table, according to analysts 

and media on a conference call 

that was scheduled to discuss 

Nasdaq’s record first-quarter 

profit. 

“But that has the ability to 

change as we put things on the 

table that obviously are attractive 

to shareholders (and that) 

will also be attractive to the 

NYSE board.” NYSE Euronext 

directors are set to meet on 

Thursday to discuss the sweetened 

offer from Nasdaq and 

ICE, though the company is 

unlikely to be swayed, a source 

familiar with its thinking said 

on Wednesday. 

Greifeld, known as an aggressive 

cost-cutter, said he 

will continue to try to convince 

NYSE shareholders of the 

benefits of his unsolicited bid, 

saying they are primarily concerned 

that antitrust regulators 

will block any deal. 

Nasdaq has given “reams of 

data” about the plan to the US 

Justice Department, he said, 

adding that he has had two 

face-to-face meetings with department 

officials and expects 

to have a “two-way dialogue” 

with them in about six weeks. 

The DOJ would have to 

sign off on any deal to merge 

cent and 13 per cent, respectively. The group 

also reported strong growth in mobile gambling. 

“We feel that William Hill is creating its own 

momentum especially in Machines and Online,” 

said Liberum analyst Nigel Hicks. 

“This is a strong set of Q1 data, clearly outperforming 

Ladbrokes IMS trading update results 

last week. We regard both stocks as too 

lowly valued, but for the short-term have more 

recently been favouring William Hill.” 

Rival Ladbrokes said earlier in April operating 

profit rose by 1.9 per cent to £49.2 million 

in the first quarter but warned of an uncertain 

outlook with the economic climate in Britain set 

to remaining challenging throughout 2011. 

Peel Hunt said they had upgraded their forecasts 

for William Hill after the better than expected 

start to the year. 

“More importantly, retail is showing good 

resilience, while the extreme volatility in the 

pure online gaming stocks could also work in 

William Hill’s favour as a way to play the sector,” 

Nick Batram said. 

“These may prove to be the long awaited 

catalysts for a re-rating. We move to Buy.” 

Last week, William Hill said it would move 

into the US gaming market for the first time after 

agreeing to buy two American sports betting 

businesses for $39 million. — Reuters 

Nasdaq to pursue NYSE 

bid to the ‘endgame’ 

the top two US stock exchanges, 

which would create a virtual 

monopoly in listing public 

companies. The NYSE board 

said on April 10 the Nasdaq/ 

ICE plan had “unacceptable 

execution risk.” 

Deutsche Boerse’s plan to 

combine with NYSE Euronext, 

creating the world’s largest exchange 

operator, faces its own 

antitrust hurdles because the 

combined companies would 

dominate exchange-traded futures 

in Europe. 

Greifeld, a fierce rival of 

NYSE CEO Duncan Niederauer, 

said he and ICE CEO Jeffrey 

Sprecher “will consider all 

options available to us” as they 

go after the NYSE, adding he 

sees a “scenario that takes us 

out into April 2012.” 

He said he is taking a friendly 

approach, hinting it would 

be in NYSE’s best interest to 

give Nasdaq and ICE access to 

its books. 

“Clearly, diligence is an opportunity 

for NYSE shareholders 

to allow us to put on the 

table an offer that’s fully reflective 

of the knowledge available 

to us,” he said. — Reuters

HONG KONG — The US 

dollar slid to a three-year low 

against a basket of major currencies 

yesterday, a move 

which could see it test record 

lows, while Asian stocks 

jumped as investors scrambled 

for higher-yielding assets, 

particularly in emerging 

markets. 

European stocks looked 

set to rise for the third straight 

session, following Asia higher, 

while S&P 500 futures rose 

0.5 per cent, indicating a likely 

firmer start for Wall Street later 

in the day. 

Investors flocked back to 

riskier assets, emboldened by 

strong US corporate earnings 

and signs the global economy 

is chugging along even as the 

US Federal Reserve remains 

cautious about when it will 

start to unwind its super-loose 

policy. 

With little chance of the 

Fed raising interest rates anytime 

soon, the dollar index fell 

about 0.6 per cent to 73.898, 

its lowest level since August 

2008, and technical charts suggested 

it could move towards a 

record low of 70.698 hit earlier 

that year. 

Asian stocks recovered 

sharply from a stumble earlier 

in the week and rose to 

their highest level since January 

2008. The MSCI Asia ex- 

Japan advanced 1.3 per cent 

bringing its weekly gain to 2.4 

per cent. 

Technology stocks, particularly 

chip makers, led gains after 

iPod maker Apple crushed 

earnings forecasts. 

Shares in Hynix Semiconductor, 

the world’s No 2 memory 

chip maker, surged 7.9 per 

cent to a record high. Samsung 

Electronics, the world’s No 1 

memory chip maker, climbed 

1.3 per cent. 

“The risk-on mood prevailing 

in global markets allowed 

investors to focus on fundamental 

strengths of emerging 

economies, boosting prices of 

their equities,” said Dariusz 

Kowalczyk, analyst at Credit 

Agricole in Hong Kong, in a 

note. 

Japan’s Nikkei rose a more 

modest 0.8 per cent. 

“The market is looking for 

clues about the damage from 

the quake in US earnings, but 

it’s hard to draw any conclusions 

as both Apple and Intel 

have very diversified supply 

chains,” said Koichi Ogawa, 

chief portfolio manager at Daiwa 

SB Investments, referring 

to a massive earthquake in Japan 

last month which knocked 

many factories offline. 

The sharply weakening US 

dollar has suffered the most 

against commodity-linked currencies 

such as the Australian 

9 INTERNATIONAL FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011 

Asian stocks march on, dollar hits 3-year low 

and Canadian dollars, as well 

as emerging markets currencies 

such as the Singapore 

dollar as some policymakers 

in Asia allow more currency 

Arab markets seen consolidating 

DUBAI/CAIRO — Trading in Gulf Arab 

markets appears immune at times from 

the unrest in the wider region, judging 

from new highs reached this week. 

Upbeat first quarter earnings from 

companies in Saudi Arabia spurred gains, 

and the petrochemical sector is forecast to 

outperform on rising fuel prices. 

But regional stock indexes are due for 

a correction, analysts say, as share trading 

shifts to track global equities and energy 

prices more closely. 

“I think investors are looking for 

pause, and new positions will be limited 

to mainly petrochemicals if at all,” said 

Muhammad Shabbir, chief investment officer 

and head of Saudi asset management 

at Rasmala Investment Bank. 

Dubai’s benchmark hit new peaks 

with investors seen buoyant on back of 

the country’s safe-haven status and a possible 

inclusion in the MSCI index with a 

decision expected in June. 

Caution remains though until most 

large cap stocks in banking and real estate 

sector post earnings. 

“Not a lot of people are expecting 

blazing earnings growth,” said Ibrahim 

Masood, senior investment officer at 

Mashreq Bank. “Real estate and banks 

are still in a challenging environment.” 

Signs have started emerge of improving 

liquidity in the United Arab Emirates, 

one of the worst debt-hit countries in the 

region. Abu Dhabi’s investment fund Mubadala 

Development Co launches a new 

bond and conglomerate Dubai Investments 

is speaking to banks for a 1.2 billion 

dirhams ($326.8 million) loan. 

BRASILIA — China has put its relations 

with Latin America’s largest 

economy back on track by sending 

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff 

home with billions of dollars in 

pledged investments, showing its economic 

clout and easing, for now, Brazil’s 

concerns over trade imbalances. 

The Asian giant’s showering of 

business deals on Rousseff contrasts 

sharply with last month’s trip to Brazil 

by US President Barack Obama, 

who offered much praise for Brazil’s 

rising economy but few concrete 

agreements. 

Rousseff had gone to China with 

complaints from Brazilian manufacturers 

ringing in her ears about a wave 

of cheap imports that have decimated 

some Brazilian export sectors even as 

China became Brazil’s largest direct 

investor last year. 

Those complaints have received 

a more favourable hearing since 

Rousseff was sworn in on January 1 

as her government has sought a more 

balanced relationship with the country 

that is now its biggest trade partner 

and has long been the main buyer of 

A DEALER watches price movements on the Amman Stock Exchange 

electronic board in the investors’ gallery of the bourse yesterday. — Reuters 

Investors in Egypt await Mobinil first 

quarter results due to be released on April 

27 for the first major indication of how the 

political unrest that toppled Egypt’s president 

and brought much of the economy to 

a temporary halt will affect company earnings. 

Mobinil is considered one of the exchange’s 

lesser affected companies, since 

people continued to rely on telephones 

during most of the unrest, analysts say. 

However, mobile companies are expected 

to have lost important roaming fee 

revenue from tourists, whose numbers 

have been greatly reduced by the troubles. 

“First quarter results generally will be 

important for the market to watch,” said 

Wael Ziada, head of research at EFG- 

Brazil’s huge farm and mining output. 

Thorny currency and trade issues 

were largely left untouched 

in Beijing. They will continue to 

dog ties, but Brazilian officials say 

Rousseff advanced her main objective 

— to diversify trade and investment 

ties beyond raw materials to include 

more value-added goods. 

She avoided bringing up the 

touchy issue of China’s currency in 

public, but secured a host of business 

deals that signalled Chinese sensitivity 

to Brazilian concerns over their 

lopsided relationship. 

“The agenda with China looks 

much more promising than that with 

the United States,” said Andre Nassar, 

head of Icone, a Sao Paulo-based 

trade think tank. 

Obama’s visit to Brazil last month 

was partly aimed at taking advantage 

of Rousseff’s more critical stance 

towards China, whose growing influence 

in Brazil and Latin America 

has eroded traditional US economic 

dominance in the region. 

Obama’s concrete pledges were 

Hermes. “The market is already expecting 

the recent events to impact first quarter results 

for most of the companies. 

Egyptian real estate stocks will also be 

in the spotlight as probes on how the government 

distributed land under the ousted 

government move forward. 

An Egyptian court will rule soon on 

whether the sale of state land to Palm 

Hills Development (PHD), the country’s 

second-biggest listed developer, should be 

scrapped. 

A judicial panel concluded earlier this 

month the sale was illegal because it was 

priced too cheaply and was not publicly 

auctioned. The judicial body decision 

has in the past influenced court verdicts. 

— Reuters 

strength to fight imported inflation. 

Brazil’s central bank raised 

its benchmark interest rate on 

Wednesday to 12 per cent from 

11.75 per cent as it seeks to 

rein in consumer prices. 

Spot gold hit a record high 

of $1507.15 an ounce and spot 

silver soared to a 31-year high 

while the Australian dollar 

powered to peaks above $1.07 

— a level not seen since the 

currency became free-floating 

in the early 1980’s. 

For the week, the Aussie 

was up 1.8 per cent, making it 

the best performer among G10 

currencies. 

The euro pushed to 

15-month peaks but has lagged 

the broader move due to resurgent 

worries about the euro 

zone crisis. Although a solid 

auction of Spanish debt the 

previous day helped provide 

some reassurance, markets 

remain concerned that Greece 

is on the verge of announcing 

a debt restructuring, despite 

repeated denials by Athens. 

— Reuters 

China eases Brazil’s concerns with pledged investments 

slim though, especially compared 

with China, which last year invested 

about $17 billion in Brazil in areas 

from oil to manufacturing. 

Rousseff, a career bureaucrat who 

has adopted a more pragmatic foreign 

policy than her predecessor, returned 

from China with billions of dollars 

of investment pledges in areas ranging 

from research and development to 

food processing. 

ANALYSIS 

Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology 

Group, which has a heavy presence 

on the mainland, is eyeing a 

massive investment in an assembly 

line for electronic displays in Brazil, 

precisely the type of labour-intensive 

industry that Rousseff’s administration 

aims to promote. 

Brazilian aircraft manufacturer 

Embraer secured an order of up 

to $1.4 billion for its mid-sized 

E-190 commercial jet and authorisation 

to assemble its Legacy 

High oil price slows 

China, US demand 

SHANGHAI — High oil prices have hurt demand in top consumers 

China and the United States, and Opec needs to raise 

output around June to stem further price rises, the International 

Energy Agency’s executive director said yesterday. 

The IEA has already warned that high oil prices are threatening 

to slow global economic expansion, which would in turn 

erode the pace of growth in fuel demand. 

A sustained price of $100 or more for the rest of 2011 would 

cause demand destruction similar to 2008, Nobuo Tanaka said. 

Then, fuel demand fell as the world economy reeled from the 

impact of the global financial crisis. 

“There is a six-month lag for the world economy to fully 

show the impact of high oil prices. But if they stay at current 

levels, the consequences will be bad,” he said. 

Earlier this week, Tanaka described signs of the slowdown 

in demand as “alarming”. 

Investors and speculators would need to heed the growing 

chorus of warnings and “not repeat the same mistake made in 

2008”, when the price of crude was driven to over $147 a barrel, 

Tanaka said. 

Global demand fell by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) in 

2008 and 1.3 million bpd in 2009, according to the IEA. 

Oil markets were well supplied for now, but producer group 

Opec would need to boost output in June or July as European 

refineries come back online after seasonal maintenance and 

as Japan begins reconstruction in the wake of its devastating 

earthquake and tsunami last month, Tanaka said. 

“As Saudi Oil Minister Ali al Naimi has always said: Saudi 

will fill the gap,” Tanaka said. “So please, Opec countries need 

to make sure this happens when demand comes back.” 

Opec next meets in June to discuss supply policy, but has to 

date taken no co-ordinated action to boost supply to cool prices. 

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia said this week it cut supply 

in March from February as the market was oversupplied. 

The kingdom had ramped up output in February to plug 

the gap in supplies left by Libya, where civil war disrupted 

exports. — Reuters 

corporate jet in China. 

After years of neglect, high-level 

communications channels between 

the two governments have been revived, 

allowing differences to be addressed 

more swiftly, Brazilian Foreign 

Minister Antonio Patriota said. 

“It exceeded expectations, I think 

they genuinely understood and addressed 

Brazil’s concerns,” he said. 

China’s Communist government 

is free of the congressional restraints 

that Obama faces in granting trade 

concessions and also sees more at 

stake in Brazil, a crucial supplier of 

food and metals for China’s economy, 

said Nassar. 

“Brazil provides them with food 

security. They need and want this relationship 

to work.” 

In a sign that Brazil will remain 

on Beijing’s radar screen in coming 

months, China’s Trade Minister Chen 

Deming is to lead a business delegation 

here during the second quarter to 

consolidate potential business deals. 

These include Chinese interest in a 

planned $21 billion, high-speed railway 

linking Rio de Janeiro and Sao 

Paulo as well as a line of credit that 

Brazil’s oil giant Petrobras is negotiating 

with Chinese banks. 

In exchange for the business deals, 

Brazil agreed to speed up its recognition 

of China as a free-market economy, 

which could make it harder to apply 

anti-dumping tariffs on imports. 

Despite pledges by both sides to 

promote trade in value-added products, 

Brazilians say several tariff barriers 

remain on products such as steel, 

poultry, and processed soy. 

“I don’t think they were simply 

trying to be nice but we’ll have to see 

in coming months whether they carry 

through on their pledges,” said Energy 

and Mines Minister Edison Lobao, 

who participated in Rousseff’s meetings 

in China. 

Rousseff largely skirted the issue 

of China’s cheap yuan by saying it 

was best discussed by the G20 group 

of major economies. 

The currency imbalance, heightened 

by a rallying real, has fuelled a 

wave of Chinese imports from white 

goods to car parts and helped erode 

Brazil’s trade balance. — Reuters 

Tepco listing to 

remain on TSE 

TOKYO — The Japanese 

government will allow Tokyo 

Electric Power Co 

(Tepco), the operator of the 

crippled Fukushima nuclear 

power plant, to remain a listed 

company even after being 

saddled with an unknown 

amount for compensation for 

crisis victims, sources said. 

The government is now 

working on a plan to support 

the troubled nuclear operator 

Tepco, which is expected to 

be unveiled as early as next 

week, the people familiar 

with the matter said. 

The plan is made up with 

a scheme to set up a fund that 

would buy preferred shares 

from Tepco, they said, asking 

not to be identified because 

the information is not 

yet public. 

“Regarding the compensation 

for those affected by 

the nuclear power plant, we 

would like to go in line with 

the government law for nuclear 

compensation. Also 

we want to act appropriately 

based on the government 

guidance,” a Tepco spokesman 

said. 

Tepco, Asia’s largest 

utility, has started making 

compensation payments to 

affected residents and local 

governments near Fukushima 

Daiichi plant, who were 

forced to evacuate after the 

March 11 earthquake and 

tsunami caused radiation 

leaks. But the power company 

has yet to determine 

how much it will have to pay 

in total. 

PARIS — French catering and 

vouchers group Sodexo raised 

its full-year sales growth 

goal yesterday on the back 

of a healthy order book and 

a stronger-than-expected first 

half. 

The world’s No 2 catering 

services company after Britain’s 

compass Group kept its 

operating profit growth target 

unchanged, however, due to 

accelerating food and energy 

costs. Its shares fell 2.7 per 

cent. 

Chief Executive Michel 

Landel said Sodexo, which 

manages canteens and facilities 

for office workers, 

the armed forces, schools and 

prisons, and provides vouchers 

for meals and gifts, was 

forecasting global food inflation 

of 3-4 per cent this year. 

Sodexo, which makes 

about 70 per cent of its reve- 

JP Morgan had estimated 

Tepco could face 2 trillion 

yen($24 billion) in compensation 

losses in the financial 

year that started this month, 

while Bank of America-Merrill 

Lynch had said the bill 

could reach $130 billion if 

the crisis continues. 

Concern that Tepco would 

not be able to shoulder all 

the costs by itself has raised 

speculation the company 

would eventually come under 

government control, helping 

its stock price sink and costs 

to protect Tepco’s debt from 

defaulting skyrocket. 

Tepco, which supplies 

roughly a third of electricity 

in the world’s third-largest 

economy, had $91 billion of 

debt on its books before the 

March crisis, and has since 

taken on a $24 billion bank 

loan. 

The sources said the fund 

would provide loans to Tepco 

for it to pay compensation to 

those affected by the crisis at 

the nuclear plant in northern 

Japan, which was damaged 

by the March 11 tsunami. 

Tepco will repay the money 

to the fund with its cash 

and also through dividend on 

the preferred shares, the people 

said. 

Other utilities including 

Kansai Electric Power 

and Chubu Electric Power 

Co will contribute to the 

fund, they said, adding that 

it will be also funded by 

the special purpose bonds 

the government would issue. 

— Reuters 

Sodexo raises full-year 

sales growth 

nue in catering, was confident 

it could pass a “good part” of 

these price increases to clients, 

Landel told a conference call. 

The order book was “better” 

than at the same time last 

year, notably in the US health 

sector, where it was 20-30 per 

cent higher, and in emerging 

economies. 

Sodexo said it now expected 

annual like-for-like sales 

growth of 4.5 per cent against 

a previous range of 3 to 4 per 

cent, having achieved 4.8 per 

cent growth in the first half. 

It kept a target for fullyear 

operating profit growth 

of around 10 per cent, having 

achieved 8.5 per cent growth 

in the first half of the year. 

By 0819 GMT, Sodexo 

shares were off 2.71 per cent 

at 51.43 euros as analysts focused 

on the cautious profit 

outlook. — Reuters

10 

OMAN/INTERNATIONAL FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011 

Gulf Coast gets taste of recovery one year after oil spill 

GRAND ISLE, Louisiana — A 

year after the worst US offshore 

oil spill swamped the Gulf coast 

with petroleum and misery, officials 

yesterday declared the 

hard-hit region reborn. 

It is still too early to know 

the long-term damage to the 

Gulf's rich and complex ecosystem. 

But, so far, predictions 

made at the height of the spill 

of an impending environmental 

Armageddon appear well overstated. 

"We're inviting America to 

come down here, have a great 

time, enjoy our seafood and be 

part of the greatest rebirth you 

will ever see," said Louisiana's 

Republican Governor Bobby 

Jindal at a ceremony to mark 

the event's anniversary. 

An explosion aboard the 

Deepwater Horizon drilling 

rig on April 20, 2010, killed 

11 workers and released nearly 

5 million barrels of oil that 

fouled the shorelines of four 

Gulf Coast states. 

Louisiana bore the brunt of 

the BP Plc spill's damage — 

about 1,050 km of its coastline 

were oiled, versus 280 km in 

Florida, 255 km in Mississippi 

and 144 km in Alabama. 

On Grand Isle, a barrier island 

at the mouth of Barataria 

LONDON — Miner Anglo 

American stuck to its production 

targets yesterday despite 

a first quarter that saw floods 

and heavy rains hampering 

output, with coal output from 

its Australian operations down 

by over a third. 

Anglo, the world's fifthbiggest 

diversified miner, is 

the latest operator to detail the 

impact of freak weather across 

its operations. BHP Billiton 

warned on Wednesday that 

persistent rains in Australia 

were delaying a recovery in its 

coal operations. 

Anglo said iron ore production 

fell 19 per cent while copper 

dropped 14 per cent, the 

latter hit by both heavy rains 

and lower grades. Iron ore and 

copper are the Anglo-South 

African group's most profitable 

products. 

"It was pretty much as anticipated. 

We have had an awful 

lot of rain in Queensland 

and that has had an impact on 

everyone operating in the re- 

Builder Persimmon says 

home sales bounce back 

LONDON — Persimmon, 

Britain's biggest housebuilder, 

reported a rebound in sales as 

homebuyers returned to the 

market after bad weather and 

an uncertain outlook froze activity 

at the end of 2010. 

Persimmon said reservations 

taken in the year-to-date 

had risen 12 per cent compared 

with the same period 

last year, thanks to a steadyflow 

of visitors and low cancellation 

rates. 

"Our sales rates have picked 

up. To be 12 per cent ahead in 

this period, it shows the market 

is there. It's still a challenging 

market but those numbers 

are good for us, and it brings 

us back to where we stood at 

this time last year," Chief Executive 

Mike Farley said. 

Housebuilders have reported 

a more robust selling environment 

so far in 2011 with 

smaller peer Redrow reporting 

encouraging sales on Tuesday 

and supported by positive retail 

data in March. 

But poor mortgage availability 

continues to drag on housing 

transactions, particularly the 

first-time buyer market. 

Gross lending for home 

purchases rose 21 per cent in 

March from February and the 

industry body said it expected 

mortgage credit availability to 

improve this quarter. But on 

the year, mortgage lending fell 

2 per cent. 

Bay which was heavily oiled, 

business is returning to normal 

after the spill shut down fisheries 

and caused widespread economic 

damage, said an offshore 

platform worker who came 

down from Donaldson, La, for 

some offshore fishing. 

"I can't wait to get back 

out there." When Hood's son, 

a commercial fisherman, ventured 

out recently, he had a respectable 

haul. 

"By 10 am he had 75 speckled 

trout," Hood said. 

Nearby, local TV chef 

Kevin Diez whipped up the region's 

signature seafood dish — 

shrimp etouffee — made with 

the famous Gulf crustacean. 

The scene was a far cry 

from the early days of the spill 

when there were images of 

oiled pelicans and the undersea 

"spill cam" dominated the 

media. Then, environmentalists 

warned of the death of the Gulf 

Coast's fisheries and said that 

undersea currents threatened to 

carry the oil to the shores of the 

United Kingdom and beyond. 

"The greatest environmental 

disaster with no end in sight!" 

a group called Seize BP, an 

advocacy group that gathered 

petitions to ask the federal 

government to seize BP's as- 

gion," analyst Charles Kernot 

at Evolution said. 

"To some extent they are a 

bit worse than BHP, but each 

operator is going to be slightly 

differently impacted." 

Shares in the miner dipped 

0.3 per cent to 3,167 pence at 

0750 GMT in London trade, 

underperforming a 0.7 per 

cent rise in the broader mining 

sector. 

Analysts at Oriel said the 

production numbers were 

worse than expected across 

many divisions: "Nonetheless, 

the company has said that full 

year targets should be achievable 

as production shortfalls 

are made up during the back 

end of the year, notably in 

platinum." 

Anglo, Australia's fourth- 

biggest producer of coal and its 

number two exporter, said output 

of metallurgical coal, used 

for steelmaking, dropped over 

a third to 2.1 million tonnes 

from its Australian mines. 

Australia's Queensland 

Ahead of the group's annual 

meeting, the builder 

said the average selling price 

will rise this year as it focuses 

on its high-end brand, 

Charles Church homes, and 

it welcomed the government's 

plans to back a shared-equity 

scheme, bolstering the frozen 

first-time buyer market. 

"Given that the group are 

guiding for a flat volume position, 

an increase in average 

selling prices and a continued 

increase in net margins, there 

is probably scope for around a 

5 per cent upgrade to forecast 

assumptions," said analysts at 

Panmure Gordon. 

The York-based company 

said it had secured a new fiveyear 

£300 million ($493.6 million) 

credit facility, replacing 

its existing facility which was 

due to mature in March 2012, 

with support that was "substantially 

oversubscribed". 

Farley added that the group is 

WORKERS remove oil soaked grass from a marshland, one year after the BP Oil Spill, 

in Bay Jimmy near Myrtle Grove, Louisiana yesterday. — Reuters 

sets, said in a statement in May 

2010. "Millions of gallons of 

oil gushing for months (and 

possibly years) to come. Jobs 

vanishing. Creatures dying." 

To be sure, in places like 

Bay Jimmy and Barataria Bay, 

the oil lingers in the form of 

brownish, sometimes caramelcoloured 

tar and there are dead 

or dying marsh grasses. 

There are also perhaps mil- 

not pursuing any acquisitions, 

despite its strong balance sheet 

and low debt. 

Shares in UK housebuilders 

got a further boost by 

the government unveiling a 

new shared equity scheme in 

March, aimed at helping firsttime 

buyers and promises to 

overhaul the planning system. 

Persimmon described the 

changes as "helpful" and said 

it is operating successfully despite 

the current low levels of 

mortgages. 

Meanwhile, the short-term 

outlook for the overall housing 

market remains subdued. 

A Reuters poll published on 

Tuesday showed UK house 

prices were likely to fall 1.3 

per cent over the course of 

2011 before recouping losses 

in 2012. 

The group added that its 

chairman John White is retiring 

after 32 years in the business. 

— Reuters 

lions of barrels of oil lingering 

beneath the ocean surface, according 

to federal government 

estimates. The effect of that oil 

on life in the sea are still largely 

unknown. 

But the spill's effects are 

far less serious than the 1989 

Exxon Valdez disaster, which 

soaked Alaska's environmentally 

fragile coast in heavy oil, 

said Edward Overton, an ecolo- 

Rains hit Anglo American coal, iron ore 

state lost up to 30 million 

tonnes of coal production 

when monsoonal rains and a 

cyclone battered the eastern 

seaboard between November 

and February. 

"A number of initiatives 

are in progress for the remainder 

of 2011 to mitigate the 

production shortfall from Q1," 

the miner said in its statement. 

Iron ore production dropped 

to 9.9 million tonnes due to 

heavy rains that made access 

to pits virtually impossible 

— its flagship Sishen Mine 

in South Africa saw twice the 

annual rainfall recorded during 

the first two months of the 

year. 

Anglo confirmed Kumba 

production is expected to be 

flat and said plans were in 

place to recover the shortfall 

in production by the end of 

2011. 

Production of copper, 

which accounts for almost 

a third of operating profit, 

dropped to 138,800 tonnes, 

hit by weather but also lower 

grades at its Chilean Collahuasi 

and Los Bronces mines. The 

expansion of the Los Bronces 

project is on target for first 

production in the last quarter 

of the year. 

Nickel production increased 

27 per cent to 6,100 

tonnes while platinum refined 

production increased by 19 per 

cent, despite lower production 

at its mines after safety-related 

stoppages. 

Diamond production increased 

by 5 per cent to 7.4 

million carats. 

The key to Anglo's future 

performance and production 

is its hefty project pipeline, 

including Barro Alto Nickel 

in Brazil and the Minas Rio 

project, also in Brazil, which 

could help the group nearly 

double iron ore production by 

2014. 

Analysts say overall production 

could double from 

2009 levels by the end of the 

decade. — Reuters 

gist and professor emeritus at 

Louisiana State University in 

Baton Rouge. "I think it's too 

early to tell, but I am extremely 

optimistic," Overton said. 

"We're way off what Exxon 

Valdez was, way off." 

In Florida, where the oil 

spill cost the state's touristdependent 

economy more 

than $1 billion, officials were 

eager to tout their hotels, 

AMSTERDAM — Dutch 

staffing firm USG People said 

it suffered lower demand from 

the public and financial sectors 

in its main Netherlands 

market, and warned it could 

face a hit of 40 million euros 

in German legal claims. 

USG is the first major staffing 

agency to report results, to 

be followed by bigger US rival 

Manpower later , Dutch rival 

Randstad next week and Switzerland's 

Adecco on May 10. 

Such companies are considered 

a barometer of economic 

health. As economic activity 

starts to pick up, employers 

often prefer to hire temporary 

staff first before offering permanent 

contracts. 

In the Netherlands, seasonally 

adjusted unemployment 

in March held steady at 5.1 per 

cent, and economic growth 

this year is seen at 1.75 per 

cent. 

But the Dutch staffing 

market has grown slower than 

expected, largely a reflection 

restaurants and resorts. 

"Bookings are up and our 

beaches are spotless," Florida 

Governor Rick Scott declared 

after touring Destin's white-sand 

beaches. "The fishing is good 

and the seafood tastes great." 

But across the Gulf Coast, 

residents who still feel the 

spill's impact fear they will be 

abandoned by BP and an army 

of contractors who swarmed 

over the coast in the largest 

oil-spill response in US history, 

involving nearly 50,000 workers 

and 7,000 offshore vessels 

at its height. 

"Oil is still washing up 

on our beaches and on the islands. 

Now that the media is 

gone, the BP effort has all but 

disappeared and so has our 

livelihood," said Craig Moore, 

a charter boat captain in Long 

Beach, Mississippi. 

President Barack Obama, 

who was criticized as reacting 

too slowly to the spill, said the 

government will keep pressure 

on BP, and that "the job isn't 

done." 

"We continue to hold BP 

and other responsible parties 

fully accountable for the damage 

they've done and the painful 

losses that they've caused," 

Obama said in a statement. 

of government cost-cutting 

and the restructuring of the 

financial sector, and this has 

weighed on the performance 

of some staffing agencies. 

The government plans to 

cut annual spending by 18 

billion euros by 2015, while 

Dutch banks ABN AMRO, 

ING, SNS Reaal and insurer 

Aegon are all restructuring after 

they were crippled by the 

2008 financial crisis and had 

to be bailed out by the state. 

"The Dutch performance 

disappointed again. Because 

we have a cautious stance on 

the recovery in the Netherlands 

and USG is highly de- 

BP sues Transocean for $40 bn 

NEW YORK — On the first anniversary of the Gulf of 

Mexico oil spill, BP Plc sued Transocean , seeking at least 

$40 billion in damages and other costs from the owner of the 

Deepwater Horizon rig. 

London-based BP also sued Cameron International Corp 

for negligence, saying a blowout preventer made by Cameron 

failed to avert the catastrophe. 

Both complaints were filed on Wednesday in federal court 

in New Orleans. 

Eleven people died when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded. 

About 4.9 million barrels, or more than 200 million 

gallons, of oil later flowed out of a subsurface BP well. BP 

has incurred tens of billions of dollars of liabilities from the 

disaster. 

BP accused Transocean of negligence, saying it caused the 

drilling rig to be "unseaworthy." 

"The simple fact is that on April 20, 2010, every single 

safety system and device and well control procedure on the 

Deepwater Horizon failed, resulting in the casualty," BP 

said. 

Transocean called the lawsuit a "desperate bid" by BP to 

renege on a contract to assume full responsibility for pollution 

and environmental costs. 

"This suit is specious and unconscionable," it said in a 

statement. 

In a separate lawsuit, BP asked US District Judge Carl 

Barbier, who oversees national litigation over the spill, to order 

Houston-based Cameron to reimburse it for "all or a part" 

of its damages. 

"The blowout preventer failed to work and perform the 

function it was designed and manufactured to perform — i.e., 

to secure the well," BP said. "The blowout preventer was 

flawed in design, and alternative designs existed that did not 

have these flaws." 

USG suffers from slow Dutch market 

pendent on this market, USG 

is our least preferred stock in 

the staffing sector," KBC Securities 

analyst Margo Joris 

said in a note. 

Yesterday Dutch telecoms 

firm KPN said it will slash its 

Dutch workforce by 20 to 25 

per cent after it cut its 2011 

profit forecast citing weak domestic 

revenues in the face of 

intense competition. 

USG People shares were 

down 4.8 per cent at 13.13 

euros by 0814 GMT, underperforming 

the STOXX Europe 

600 Industrial Goods and 

Services sector, which rose 0.4 

per cent. Randstad and Adecco 

shares rose 0.2 per cent each. 

USG shares have underperformed 

the index, having 

fallen more than 10 per cent 

year-to-date, compared to a 

rise of about 2 per cent for the 

index, and a fall of about 1.9 

per cent for Randstad and 0.5 

per cent for Adecco. 

The company, Europe's 

fourth-largest staffing firm by 

revenue after Adecco, Randstad, 

and Manpower, makes 

about 38 per cent of its sales 

in the Netherlands, against 20 

per cent for Randstad and less 

than 5 per cent for Adecco. 

USG People employs administrative 

and professional 

workers such as accountants 

and IT staff. 

"Recovery in the private 

sector was offset by contraction 

in the public sector and at financial 

institutions. These sectors 

form a substantial part of the 

administrative market segment 

in the Netherlands, thus delaying 

growth in these activities," 

USG said. —Reuters 

TEL: 24601003, 24600586 • FAX: 24600736 

• WEBSITE: www.salalahport.com

By Abdulaziz al Jahdhami 

Lindsay Lohan is back 

in Gotti movie 

� Page 12 

DRAMA is not just a matter of acting certain 

roles in a play or a movie; it is another 

way of revealing different feelings 

and emotions as well as touching on significant 

issues. Drama serves various purposes such as 

giving mental relaxation with lighter moments of 

humour as well as thought-provoking experiences. 

Actors, for instance, express sad and happy 

emotions through dramatic acts in the theatre. 

Drama simultaneously implies entertainment and 

art as both reflect two faces of the same coin. 

A few days ago, the English Department at 

Sultan Qaboos University raised the curtains of 

the Conference Hall to release a new dramatic 

work, Shakespeare Gone Mad. The play, produced 

by the English Department, was staged 

by 11 talented students and directed by Fatema 

al Rubai'ey, a Linguistic Lecturer in the department. 

Shakespeare Gone Mad, the first play of its 

kind with an Omani perspective, was a great suc- 

cess not only for the university but also for the 

whole Omani society. The play brought to the 

fore the outstanding Omani talents who success- 

Winnie Mandela turns 

opera heroine 

� Page 12 

fully played the roles and the unrivalled Omani 

female director who was an inspiring captain to 

the crew. 

This striking play combined four of Shake- 

speare’s heartbreaking classic tragedies — 

Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and Romeo and Juliet. 

With one-and-a-half-hour show, the actors 

Blogger Bachchan 

marks 3 years 

� Page 12 

Istanbul’s ferries survive change, 

charm anew 

� Page 14 

Fea ures 

Friday, April 22, 2011 

amazingly brought to the audience the parallel 

themes of the four plays in a context of Shakespeare’s 

dream in which he was relocated in a 

new era in Oman. 

In his dream, the four plays are performed one 

after another and he was communicating with the 

Omani audience of the future. Out of this, Shakespeare 

wanted to realise how his work would be 

perceived by the audience in Oman. Accordingly, 

Shakespeare finds himself facing rebellious modern 

actors who insist on acting out his famous 

tragic plays in a humorous way and making fun 

of him. 

The challenge of this work was represented by 

the difficulty of combining four Shakespearean 

tragedies within one comedian play. It was a big 

challenge for the actors to comply with the script 

and original themes of the plays in regard to making 

Shakespeare's tragedies into comedies. 

However, the actors with their unique talents 

in drama and the constant help of the competent 

director, they undoubtedly excelled in bringing 

the history of Shakespeare to Oman with different 

artistic touches of the Omani culture and 

traditions. 

This play came as a third drama produced by 

the English Department at SQU after Bernard 

Shaw's Pygmalion in 2005 and Moliere's A Doctor 

in spite of Himself in 2007. The previous two 

plays were also directed by Fatema al Rubai'ey. 

She directed Pygmalion in 2005 while she was a 

fourth-year student at SQU. Her fascination for 

the English literature was the inspiration to perform 

Pygmalion. 

Shakespeare Gone Mad, along with the previous 

remarkable plays, came as part of a variety of 

co-curricular activities organised by students of 

the English Department represented in the English 

and Translation Society (ETS). 

Students at ETS organise various activities 

throughout the academic year, some of which 

are the Speaking Course, Drama Workshop and 

Writing Workshop. 

In addition to acting, producing and directing 

plays, students of the English Department 

organise the annual open day of ETS in which 

they commemorate the annual anniversary of 

establishing the English and Translation Society 

(ETS). This year, they celebrated the 15th anniversary 

of ETS. 

What distinguishes Shakespeare Gone Mad is 

the wonderful combination of its striking scenes 

as they showcased both tragedy and comedy together. 

The play mirrored the historical incidents 

The play combines 

four of Shakespeare’s 

heartbreaking classic 

tragedies — Hamlet, 

Macbeth, Othello Othelloo and 

Romeo and Juliet Juliet. . The 

actors brought to the 

audience the parallel 

themes of the four 

plays in a context of 

Shakespeare’s dream in 

which he was relocated 

in a new era in Oman 

The English 

Department at Sultan 

Qaboos University 

raised the curtains of 

the Conference Hall to 

release a new dramatic 

work, Shakespeare 

Gone Mad. The play 

was staged by 11 

talented students and 

directed by Fatema al 

Rubai’ey, a Linguistic 

Lecturer in the 

department 

all through a range of heartbreaking and exciting 

scenes. In fact, it revived the old English literature 

in general and Shakespeare's renowned 

works in particular to the audience. 

Fatema al Rubai’ey, the play’s director, pointed 

out: “Shakespeare Gone Mad is a timely look 

at the tragic endings of four tragedies — Romeo 

and Juliet, Macbeth, Othello and Hamlet — by 

Shakespeare. It places Shakespeare in 2011 in 

Oman to test the degree of acceptance by the 

present-day audience of the death in Shakespeare's 

tragic plays”. 

“We do not like the heroes to die in the stories. 

I found this feeling very intriguing. Why 

do we not accept that, although we appreciate 

Shakespeare's plays a lot? In this play, I was trying 

to imagine if Shakespeare asked me how the 

endings should be, then surely I would tell him: 

"Stop killing the heroes". We do not like that. 

Why do we not like that? Because comedy gives 

us a break from the painful reality”, Al Rubai’ey 

added. 

Commenting on the significance of theatre 

in relation to English learning, Fatema stated: 

“The theatre is a great opportunity to push students 

to practise their English confidently. The 

theatre is also a great tool of communication to 

express one's views on local and global issues”. 

She also remarked that Shakespeare Gone Mad 

Prenatal pesticide 

exposure tied to lower IQ 

� Page 14 

is not about Shakespeare as much as about how 

does his works relate to our everyday life here 

in Oman. 

Shakespeare Gone Mad was a grand success 

as the two shows were pleasantly received by 

both the SQU community and the public. As a 

matter of fact, the play reflected the significance 

of students’ extracurricular activities at the uni- 

versity. It also demonstrated the brilliant talents 

of Omani youth and their capability to present 

other cultures in their own distinguished way.

LOTS of celebrities write blogs, but no 

one blogs quite like Bollywood superstar 

Amitabh Bachchan who this week 

marked three years of writing in which he has 

often produced 1,000 words a day. 

Bachchan celebrated the anniversary of his 

Internet outpourings with a characteristic array 

of long postings covering family news, spiritual 

thoughts and updates on his health, travel 

plans and sleep patterns. 

Each Bachchan message attracts a huge 

readership and hundreds of comments contributed 

by adoring Indians who view him as 

a national father figure as well as an ageing 

screen star. 

"Thank you for your presence and for your 

gratitude," Bachchan wrote to followers who 

congratulated him on his blog landmark. 

"You have stood by me in rough weather 

and fair," he continued in inimitable style. 

"You have commented and encouraged, analysed 

and assessed, laughed and cried." 

"This is indeed a superior class of people 

and I am proud to have been an initiator for 

all." 

Bachchan, who is universally known as 

"the Big B", blogs about 5,000 words most 

weeks — a rate that would give him a total 

output of about 780,000 words since his first 

posting on April 18, 2008. 

Korean tale of motherly love 

becomes US best-seller 

SHIN KYUNG-SOOK 

(pictured) took South 

Koreans by storm with 

Please Look After Mom, her 

poignant novel of family 

love which sold 1.7 million 

copies domestically. Now it 

is going international. 

The book sold more than 

100,000 copies in the United 

States just a few days after 

its debut and there are plans 

to publish in 24 countries in 

total. 

The novel ranks 21st 

on the upcoming New York 

Times best-seller list for 

hardcover fiction, based on 

sales between April 3 to 9. 

It's the first time a Korean 

novel has made it on the list, 

according to Shin's agent 

Lee Ku-Yong, president of 

KL Management. 

Shin, 48, is one of South 

Korea's most acclaimed 

novelists but Please Look 

After Mom is her first book 

to appear in English. Now 

she hopes she's set a globalising 

trend for other Korean 

writers. 

"I am getting all these 

congratulatory messages 

but it (the success) doesn't 

feel so real yet," she said in 

a phone interview from the 

United States. 

"But, if I think about it, 

it's marvellous and I feel like 

I have achieved something 

new in a different world." 

The book tells the story 

of an elderly, disorientated 

and illiterate mother from 

the countryside who gets 

separated from her husband 

at Seoul's busy train station 

and goes missing. 

Her grown-up children 

distribute fliers and search 

the city for her, racked with 

guilt that none of them went 

to the station to meet their 

parents. 

The story is told from the 

different perspectives of the 

husband, the children and 

the mother herself. 

Shin attributes her US 

success partly to its universal 

theme and partly to the 

meticulous translation by 

Chi-Young Kim. 

"I tried to understand and 

analyse the mother as another 

human being, the same as 

all of us, and to portray the 

burden everyone might have 

as being a mother to someone 

else," she said. 

"Everyone has a mother, 

and their mothers have 

mothers, so I think the sentiment 

and symbolic meaning 

behind the mother-figure 

was commonly shared." 

Shin said great effort 

went into the translation. 

"Rather than simplifying 

Korean backgrounds and 

words for the sake of foreign 

readers, my translator, 

Knopf (the US publisher) 

and I worked on translating 

everything word by word," 

she said. — AFP 

Almost every day, and often in the middle 

of the night, Bachchan — who admits to being 

an insomniac — writes in detail about his children, 

his dog "Shanouk", politics, philosophy 

and memories of his movie career. 

As the patriarch of Bollywood's leading 

family, Bachchan's news is followed avidly, 

especially concerning his son Abhishek, a 

successful actor who is married to actress and 

former Miss World Aishwarya Rai. 

As well as his "EF" (extended family), 

Bachchan's other favourite topics include 

cricket, his life on film shoots around the 

world, and current affairs ranging from Indian 

government issues to unrest in the Arab 

world. 

Blogs often end with him saying his eyes 

are about to close with exhaustion. 

"I know it's late — very late! But no matter 

what time it is I get disturbed and anxious until 

I put down my post for the day," he wrote in a 

piece uploaded at 3:30 am on Wednesday. 

After 600 words in which he wondered 

whether he could post blogs while in his sleep, 

he complained of "black squares" in front of 

his eyes and signed off with: "Goodnight my 

dearest loves." 

The physical exertion on Bachchan, 68, 

should not be underestimated. 

He types all the words himself before post- 

HER voice soaring over the stage, 

a soprano captures the rebellious, 

violent passion of Winnie 

Madikizela-Mandela, in an opera devoted 

to the former wife of South African icon 

Nelson Mandela. 

"I know I will be demonised and hated 

in my day, but there is no other way," she 

proclaims, as the orchestra thunders from 

the pit. "With our rubber tires and our boxes 

of matches, we will liberate this land." 

Fist raised, standing in army fatigues 

before a cardboard township, singer 

Tsakane Maswanganyi rehearses her role 

ahead of the world premiere of Winnie 

the Opera, which opens on April 28 at the 

State Theatre in Pretoria. 

The story begins in 1997, with 

Madikizela-Mandela testifying before the 

Truth and Reconciliation, the panel tasked 

with uncovering political crimes committed 

during white-minority apartheid rule. 

She's under the spotlight for the excesses 

of her young male entourage, the 

Mandela United Football Club, blamed for 

at least 18 deaths in the township of Soweto 

during the violent end to the 1980s. 

The scene is a snapshot of the life of 

a woman harassed by the police, banished 

far from her home, held in solitary and repeatedly 

tortured, while her husband languished 

in an apartheid prison. 

"Still she stands up and fights for what 

she believes," said co-producer and librettist 

Mfundi Vundla. 

"That's inspiring. It makes for a great 

12 

ENTERTAINMENT FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011 

Lindsay Lohan is 

back in Go ti movie 

LINDSAY INDSAY A Lohan h is iis back b ki in a proposed d film il 

about the Gotti crime family after she perpersonally persuaded its reluctant producer to 

Shooting hooting is expected to start in October. Fiore 

said the budget for the self-financed film was $70 

million to $80 million. He declined to specify the 

give her a shot, he said. 

source of the funds. 

The actress, whose promising career has been New Jersey- and Los Angeles-based Fiore 

derailed by drug and criminal problems, had been Films previously produced the 2008 DVD Na- 

in negotiations for a role in Gotti: Three Generational Lampoon's One, Two, Many, starring 

tions, starring John Travolta as mob boss John former Howard Stern radio sidekick "Stuttering" 

Gotti, Sr. She even showed up at a news confer- John Melendez. 

ence announcing the project last week. 

Lohan, 24, is scheduled to appear at a Los 

But producer Marc Fiore said earlier that he Angeles preliminary court hearing today over a 

had broken off talks because of demands made by jewellery theft charge that will determine if she 

Lohan's management team, and planned to meet should stand trial. She could be sent to prison if 

with other actresses. 

eventually convicted. 

Hours later, he appeared to have been swayed The former child star has not headlined a 

by the Mean Girls actress herself. 

movie since the widely ridiculed 2007 bomb I 

"We had a little rocky road today, but Lindsay Know Who Killed Me. 

definitely revived the situation," Fiore said, add- Pattinson terrified of circus: Actor Robing 

that Lohan called him personally to plead her ert Pattinson is terrified of circuses as he saw a 

case. 

clown die during a childhood trip. 

Lohan will play Kim Gotti, the wife of Gotti's The Twilight actor was left traumatised after 

namesake son, Fiore said. Previous media reports a stunt went wrong during his first ever visit to a 

said she was in line to play his daughter, Victo- circus with his parents when he was a young boy, 

ria. Fiore said the Kim role was bigger since the reports femalefirst.co.uk. 

movie is about the father-son relationship. “The first time I went to the circus somebody 

Fiore has the co-operation of retired mobster died. One of the clowns died. His little car ex- 

John Gotti, Jr, whose character has yet to be cast. ploded. Seriously,” he said. 

His father, the so-called "Teflon Don," died of “Everybody ran out. It was terrifying. It’s the 

cancer in 2002 while serving a life term for mur- only time I’ve ever been to the circus,” he addder, 

racketeering, extortion and tax evasion. ed. 

Fiore said he hoped to announce a new direc- The 24-year-old star is not the only celebtor 

next week. Nick Cassavetes, who was origirity who shuns the circus. P Diddy and Johnny 

nally attached, exited the project earlier this week Depp both suffer from Coulrophobia — a fear of 

because of a scheduling conflict. 

clowns. — Agencies 

ing them on the Internet, though secretaries are 

thought to help edit and spell-check the reams 

of often verbose copy. 

Any mention in the blog of health problems 

character to explore in any form," he said. 

"She has elements of Mother Courage, 

also Carmen." 

Her tumultuous life has already turned 

her into the heroine of a TV-movie on 

BBC and the Hollywood film Winnie starring 

Jennifer Hudson, currently in postproduction. 

But composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen 

says only opera can capture the sheer scale 

of her life. 

"Opera is the language of grand gesture. 

It can be a nuanced language, but it 

has grandeur in it," he said. 

"Winnie Mandela is iconic, she is the 

most famous black woman in Africa of the 

20th century," he said. "The statements she 

made, that itself would be lost in a piece of 

theatre. Those powerful incendiary words, 

which a 65 piece orchestra can just light 

up." 

The idea for the opera was born in 

2007, with fellow South African Warren 

Wilensky, a film producer who also works 

in Canada. 

A few months later, the staged a multimedia 

show called The passion of Winnie 

at a Toronto festival. Madikizela-Mandela 

was supposed to attend, but Canada denied 

her a visa. 

The incident won headlines, but critics 

weren't impressed by their work. 

Undaunted, they returned to South Africa, 

revised their text, and teamed up with 

Mfundi Vundla, who brought the twin 

benefits of being a television producer and 

or family disputes is immediately picked up 

by readers and soon reaches the national press 

and TV channels. 

Last year fans were aghast when Bachchan 

blogged that he was suffering from cirrhosis of 

the liver and needed regular medical care. 

He tried to reassure followers that he was 

not at death's door, explaining that the disease 

was linked to a serious accident in which he 

ruptured his spleen on the set of the 1982 film 

Coolie. 

Bachchan, who is treated like royalty in 

movie-mad India, made his name in the 1970s 

as a handsome young man playing lead roles 

in Hindi blockbusters such as Sholay and Deewaar. 

His career later took a dive, but hosting the 

Indian version of TV game show Who Wants 

to Be a Millionaire? put him back in the spotlight 

and his blog has become a key part of his 

image as Bollywood's elder statesman. 

"Thanks for writing on the net each single 

day without fail for three years... feel connected 

with you... it's a great feeling," wrote blog 

follower Madhu Jain this week. 

And for those who still can't get enough of 

Bachchan, he has also developed into a keen 

Twitter fan, filing updates several times a day. 

Bachchan blogs at http://bigb.bigadda.com 

and tweets as SrBachchan. — AFP 

Winnie turns opera heroine 

having an activist background respected 

by Madikizela-Mandela. 

Vundla's support helped win government 

financing for the project, and a blessing 

from their muse for the material. 

"She never wanted to see anything. She 

said, 'I want to be surprised on the night'," 

Wilensky said. 

On April 28, the "Mother of the Nation" 

will be in the audience to hear the 

song of her life, which still arouses passionate 

opinions in South Africa. 

"It is not about loving or hating her," 

Wilensky said. "People have misjudged 

her." 

"It was a war. People don't realise that 

there wasn't a system of justice," he said. 

"During times of peace, they judge someone 

who was fighting a war in times of 

struggle." — AFP 

WINDOW 

By Salim al Jahwari Jah 

THE performance of government establishments is 

being monitored in the new phase. It is the fallout of 

recent developments in the Sultanate that have brought 

things on their right track. 

Today, supervision is being keenly done first by the 

leadership, then Majlis Ash'shura and finally by the citizens 

themselves. This means that every minister is put 

under observation that might bring about changes in the 

ministry’s priorities and performance. Such a system envisions 

a joint responsibility in managing the country’s 

affairs, and that is a good democratic approach. 

The ministers, who previously thought that citizens 

have no control over their powers, are finding new limits. 

A number of projects have been hanging fire, but it is 

time to consider them without any further delay. Ministers 

have to be more cautious since there are eyes that watch 

their actions closely. 

Today, each minister’s task is to ensure proper implementation 

of his ministry’s plans. And this is a huge responsibility 

and not a privilege as some may view this. 

Any failure in performing this duty may bring the situation 

to further monitoring. Soon, Majlis Ash'shura will 

have more powers that will enable it to put in place a 

framework for implementing government projects. During 

the next phase, time is the most valuable thing than 

anything else. 

There are some government projects that have been 

stopped or interrupted, and these need to be revived by 

the ministries concerned. This will help one to judge the 

performance of these ministries. 

Citizens are against giving unlimited and unjustified 

powers to Majlis Ash'shura which could sometimes block 

projects and delay their implementation on the pretext of 

'assessing' the government performance. This is not the 

intended objective of the mutual agreement. 

We request Majlis Ash'shura to provide an impartial 

monitoring to check irregularities. We need to give priority 

to the citizen as he/she represents the real wealth of 

this country. 

New ministers should add a positive value to government 

performance by learning from previous experiences 

of other ministries. Nothing can be hidden from citizens 

today. People have become aware of what is happening 

around them as they have got rapid access to information 

thanks to the electronic media. 

— Translated by Aisha al Habsia 

Lovato has bipolar disorder 

ACTRESS-SINGER 

Demi Lovato, who 

was recently treated 

for "emotional and 

physical" issues in a 

rehabilitation centre, 

says she was diagnosed 

with bipolar disorder 

during her stay. 

The 18-year-old underwent 

three months 

of treatment for an eating 

disorder until January. 

"I never found out 

until I went into treatment 

that I was bipolar. 

Looking back it 

makes sense. There 

were times when I was 

so manic, I was writing 

seven songs in one 

night and I'd be up until 

05.30 in the morning. I 

feel like I am in control 

now where my whole 

life wasn't in control," 

femaleftirst.co.uk quoted her as saying. 

Hudson wants to be top film-maker 

ACTRESS Kate Hudson wants to work with a list of 

her dream directors who will help her become a top 

film-maker. 

According to contactmusic.com, 

Hudson 

wants to learn from 

the best as she wants 

to take charge of her 

own movies after giving 

birth to her second 

child. 

"I think directing is 

where I will end up in 

my life because I can't 

sit in the make-up chair 

for two hours and I'm 

gonna get old. And I've 

always been behind the 

camera anyway. My 

whole life is behind the camera," she said. 

"I've gotten opportunities to watch some amazing directors, 

whether they'd be directing my parents or me, working 

personally with certain film-makers. I think the greatest 

lessons you can learn is by watching and I'm one of those 

watchers," Hudson told WENN. 

Vanessa Williams writing book 

SINGER-ACTRESS Vanessa Williams is writing a 

motivational book for women with her mother. 

The Desperate 

Housewives star has 

signed a deal with 

Gotham Books to write 

about family, fear, success 

and loss and she's 

enlisted her mother, 

Helen Tinch Williams, 

to help, reports 

contactmusic.com. 

Williams' mother is a 

retired, award-winning 

music teacher. 

The book, which is 

yet untitled, is slated 

for a 2012 release. 

— IANS

FLIGHT LIGHT SSCHEDULE 

CHEDULE 

ARRIVALS ALS — FRIDAY 

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SV532 EMB170 Jeddah 2105 

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KL449 A330 Amsterdam-Abu Dhabi 2150 

IC923 A319 Madras 2200 

BA073 B777 London Heathrow-Abu Dhabi 2230 

LH618 A340 Frankfurt-Abu Dhabi 2230 

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EY388 A320 Abu Dhabi 2240 

GF566 E190 Bahrain 2250 

WY624 ATR42 Al Ain 2300 

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LX242 A330 Zurich-Dubai 2320 

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WY684 B737-8 Dammam 2335 

9W540 B737-8 Bombay 2340 

WY702 B737-8 Dar-es-Salaam 2355 

QUOTATIONS FOR TODAY 

Under the influnce of the blessed spirit, 

faith produces holiness, and holiness 

strenthens faith. Faith, like a fruitful 

parent, is plenteous in all good works; 

and good works, like dutiful children, 

confirm and add to the support of faith. 

— Juan Valera y Alcala Galiano 

CINEMA 

FILM INFORMATION 

AL BAHJA CINEMA: 

24540856, 24540855. 

AL NASR CINEMA: 

24831358, 24831809 (after 3pm) 

AL SHATTI PLAZA: 

24607360, 24692656 (after 2pm) 

STARS CINEMA: 

24791641, 24792360 

MAJLIS A’SHURA 

ADDRESSES 

Keep in touch with Majlis Ash’shura’s news. 

Log on to the Majlis’s website: 

www.shura.om 

and the Majlis’s 

e-mail: info@shura.om 

Or write to the Majlis’s postal address: 

P O Box 981 

Postal Code 111, Muscat 

Tel: 24510344 / 24521427/ 

Fax 24510560 

INFORMATION 

MINISTRY WEBSITES 

Ministry: www.omanet.om 

Oman TV: 

www.oman-tv.gov.om 

Oman Radio: 

www.oman-radio.gov.om 

Omani Centre for Traditional Music: www. 

octm-folk.gov.om 

OMAN RADIO 

6.00 Opening, Royal Anthem, The Holy Quran, Preview 

of Morning Programme, Weather Forecast and 

Pharmacies on Duty, 6.15 Morning Tea; 7.00 News 

Bulletin; 7.10 Morning Tea; 9.00 News Headlines; 

9.02 Piano; 10.00 Instrumental Music; 11.00 Light 

Classical Music; 12.00 News Headlines, 12.02 Country 

Music; 1.00 Jazz Cafe (Suhail); 2.30 News Bulletin; 

2.40 In Biz — Laxmi, Repeat of Wednesday 3.00pm; 

2.45 Radio Station Jingles and programmes; 2.55 Mix 

Music; 3.00 Cybertalk (Tariq) — Repeat of 5.30 Wed; 

4.00 News Headlines, 4.02 Thursday Afternoon Show 

Live; 5.30 Top 10 (Lakshmi) Repeat on Frinday 1.00; 

6.30 News Bulletin; 6.40 Women in Focus — Nisham 

Repeat of Tue 3.00 & Fri 6.40pm; 7.05 Omanesque 

— Laxmi Live (2 hours); 8.00 News Headlines; 8.02; 

Omanesque — Laxmi Live (2 hours); 9.00 Best by the 

Request; 10.00 News Bulletin; 10.10 Station Beats; 

12.40 News Summary ; 12.45 The Holy Quran; 01.00 

National Anthem, Close Down.. 

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DEPARTURES 

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ARIES 

(March 21-April 20) 

If you have to take 

over an absent colleague’s 

work do so to the best 

of your ability but make sure that 

at the same time your own work 

does not suffer. 

TAURUS 

(April 21-May 20) 

It is possible that a 

useful social connection 

could successfully be carried 

over into your business activities 

and provide some very profitable 

results.. 

GEMINI 

(May 21-June 21) 

It might be advisable 

to call off that social 

arrangement which you fear is 

likely to cause you embarrassment. 

There is no point in looking for 

trouble. 

CANCER 

(June 22-July 21) 

Today is “count your 

blessings” day. It never 

does any harm to take stock of 

the good things in your life when 

you compare it with the lives of 

less fortunate people. 

13 

INFORMATION/LEISURE FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011 

PHARMACIES 

PHARM 

24-HOUR SERVICE 

Al Hashar ph, ph Ruwi 24783334 

Muscat ph, Ruwi, 24702542 

Al Sarooj, 24695536 

Scientific ph, Qurum, 24566601 

Ruwi, 24702850 

Muscat 

DAY DUTY 

Capital 24700720 

Muscat 24561942 

Muscat 24456344 

Al Salam 24537331 

Sur Ibn Al Nafees 25544779 

Ibri Muscat 25689216 

Buraimi Al Hayah 25654188 

Rustaq Muscat 26878631 

Barka Muscat 26885372 

Nizwa Nizwa 25412323 

Samayil Al Jinan 25351030 

Salalah Arab 23294710 

NIGHT DUTY 

Muscat Al Hashar 24833115 

Muscat 24695536 

Al Tadawi 24450670 

Belqees 24540622 

Sur Al Fajr 25543113 

Ibri Sarah 25689460 

Buraimi Al Naseem 25653070 

Barka Belqees 26884541 

Rustaq Bader Al Jashmi 

26875798 

Nizwa Basmat Nizwa 

25431060 

Samayil Balsm 25351064 

Salalah Al Mawasa 23299393 

KHOULA HOSPITAL VISITING HOURS 

Private & Other Wards 

Working Days: 16:00-18:00. Weekends & Public 

Holidays: 10:-12:00, 16:00-18:00 

ICU 

Working Days: 16:00-17:00. Weekends & Public 

Holidays: 16:00-17:00 

Special Care Baby Unit 

Working Days: Parents may visit at any time. 

Weekends & Public Holidays: Parents may visit 

at any time 

� YOUR STARS � 

IF IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY: Certain plans you had for the coming year will prove successful. Some connections 

of old may be severed in the process, but new associations will soon make up for any lo0ss. Your prestige will be 

greatly enhanced and you will go steadily on towards a most satisfactory period. 

LEO 

(July 22-August 21) 

Having some spare time 

on your hands you really 

ought to make a concentrated effort 

to follow the artistic inclinations you 

have neglected g for so long. 

VIRGO 

(August 22- 

September 22) 

You are usually quick 

to recognise and seize a chance to 

make a profit and must not overlook 

one that will come your way 

shortly. y 

LIBRA 

(Sept 23-Oct 22) 

Don’t let a domestic 

situation get out of 

hand for want of an understanding 

word. If relationships are bad 

sit down and talk about it. 

SCORPIO 

(Oct 23-Nov 21) 

Do your best to 

straighten out a misunderstanding 

among friends 

before the matter becomes too 

acrimonious. 

CARTOONS 

SAGITTARIUS 

(November 22- 

December 21) 

An idea which occurred 

to you first thing this 

morning could possibly be developed 

into something really worthwhile. 

CAPRICORN 

(December 22- 

January 20) 

The youngsters will 

want you to participate in their 

activities this evening and it 

would be best if you could cooperate 

with them. 

AQUARIUS 

(January 21- 

February 19) 

Avoid antagonising a 

certain person whose help you are 

likely to need even if you cannot 

always see eye to eye. 

PISCES 

(February 20- 

March 20) 

It is pointless to 

antagonise a colleague by criticising 

his actions. He will only 

accept opinions of his work from 

his superiors. 

ADAM @ HOME by Brian Basset 

CALVIN AND HOBBES by Bill Watterson 

GARFIELD by Jim Davis 

STONE SOUP by Jan Eliot 

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 

Sumayil. . . . .25350055 . . 25350022 

Izki . . . . . . . .25340033 . . 25340033 

Haima . . . . . .23436013 . . 23436055 

OTHER HOSPITALS 

Sohar . . . . . .26840022 . . 26840099 

Al Buraimi . . .25650855 . . 25652319 

Sur . . . . . . . .25440244 . . 25461373 

Tanam. . . . . .25499011 . . 25499033 

Masirah. . . . .25404018 . . 25404018 

Ibra . . . . . . . .25470533 . . 25470535 

Adam . . . . . .25434167 . . 25434055 

Bidiya . . . . . .25483535 . . 25483535 

Ibri. . . . . . . . .25491011 . . 25491990 

Saham . . . . .26854427 . . 26855148 

Khasab . . . . .26830187 . . 26830187 

Dibba . . . . . .26836443 . . 26836443 

Burkha . . . . .26828397 . . 26828397 

Sinaw . . . . . .25474338 

M USEUMS IN OMAN 

FAISAL BIN ALI AL SAID 

MUSEUM, 

Tel: 24641650 

MUSEUM OF OMANI HERITAGE, 

Tel: 24600946 

CHILDREN’S SCIENCE MUSEUM. 

Tel: 24605368 

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, 

Tel: 24641374 

NATIONAL MUSEUM, Tel: 24701289 

SULTAN’S ARMED FORCES 

MUSEUM, Tel: 24312646 

CURRENCY MUSEUM, 

Tel: 24796102 

MUSCAT GATE MUSEUM, 

Tel: 24739005. 

OMANI-FRENCH MUSEUM (Bait 

Fransa), Tel: 24736613 

BAIT AL ZUBAIR, Tel: 24736688 

BAIT A’NAMAN, Tel: 24641300 

SOHAR FORT MUSEUM. 

Tel: 26844758 

NAHKAL FORT, Tel: 26781384 

BAIT AL MAKHAM. Tel: 24641300 

BAIT ADAM MUSEUM, QURUM, 

Tel: 24605033, 24605013 

OIL AND GAS EXHIBITION 

CENTRE AND PLANETARIUM, 

Tel: 24677834. 

PLANETARIUM, Tel: 24675542. 

AQUARIUM at the Marine Science 

and Fisheries Centre (located next to 

Marina Bandar Rowdha, Sidab). 

SALALAH MUSEUM, Tel: 23294549 

CULTURAL CENTRE, 

Tel: 23294549. 

SUR MARITIME MUSEUM, 

Tel: 24541466. 

BAIT AL BARANDA, Tel: 24714262. 

ROYAL OMAN POLICE 

EMERGENCY 9 9 9 9 

DG of Passports & Residency, 24569603 

DG of Customs, 24714626 

Traffic offences, 24510227/228 

ROP Public Relations, 24569270 

Consumer Complaints Cell, 24817013 

Muscat Governorate Headquarters, 24560021 

Muscat, 24736611 

Wattayah, 24677990 

Ruwi, 24701099 

Muttrah, 24712211 

Bausher, 24600099 

Al Amerat, 24875999 

Qurayat, 24845555 

A’Seeb, 24420099 

Al-Athaiba, 24521099 

AI-Khodh, 24425012 

Directorate of the University Security, 

24513999 

Directorate of Traffic Muscat, 24567898 

Al Batinah Headquarters, 26840096 

Al Rustaq Division, 26875099 

Al Dakhiliyah, 25425099 

Nizwa Division, 25425099 

Samayil Division, 25350099 

Al Sharqiyah Headquarters, 25545070 

Ibra Division, 25570100 

Al Dhahirah Headquarters, 25650099 

Al Buraimi Division, 25650199 

Ibri Division, 25689099 

Al Wusta Headquarters, 23436099 

Haima Division, 23436211 

Special Task Force, 24560088 

Coastguard Headquarters, 24714888 

Dhofar Governorate Headquarters, 23234599 

Salalah Police Station, 23290099 

Thamrait Division, 23279099 

Musandam Governorate Headquarters, 

26730299 

Khasab Division, 26731502 

ROP websites: www.rop.gov.om, www.ropoman. 

net and 

e-mail: ropnet@omantel.net.om 

Tribeca festival opens with The Union 

Actresses Ashley (left) and Mary-Kate Olsen arrive for the 

opening night premiere of The Union during the 10th annual Tribeca 

Film Festival in New York. — Reuters 

AYING tribute to his piano- 

P playing idol Leon Russell, 

Elton John opened the Tribeca 

Film Festival with a free outdoor 

performance and film premiere 

about the making of his album, "The 

Union." 

The 64-year-old British singer 

belted out six songs, including several 

that appeared on the 2010 critically 

acclaimed album he collaborated 

on with fellow singer-songwriter 

Russell, at the opening of the 10th 

Tribeca Film Festival in New York 

that runs until May 1. 

The opening night documentary, 

also called The Union, by director 

Cameron Crowe, was shown to an 

audience of several thousand people 

in the downtown area of Manhattan 

Love songs galore in Haunted 3D 

HE music of upcoming horror 

Tfilm Haunted 3D, directed by 

Vikram Bhatt, can be described 

as a simple, love-inspired album. 

Composed by Chirantan Bhatt, the 

album offers six slow to moderately 

paced songs and there are no remixes, 

which is a breather. 

The music album opens with Tum 

ho mera yar, which has been making 

the rounds of various TV channels. 

Although the sound of the song is 

not very contemporary, it still manages 

to generate interest mainly because 

of its melodious composition. 

KK's vocals breathe life into the song 

with ample support from Suzanne D 

Mello. Certainly a good way to start 

the album. 

Next is the composer himself effortlessly 

and beautifully crooning 

Jaaniya, a soft, love song. It pos- 

where the film festival was founded 

in order to revive the area after the 

September 11, 2001 attacks. 

"He's got the accolades that he 

deserves and I am so proud of him," 

John told the crowd before playing 

two songs, including Never Too Old 

(to Hold Somebody), which he made 

with Russell, whose musical abilities 

as a composer and piano player 

inspired John before he became a 

hit-making world sensation. 

The film shows John and Russell 

reuniting after having not spoken 

in 38 years and gives a behind-thescenes 

glance at the writing and recording 

of the collaboration between 

John, John's lyricist Bernie Taupin 

and Russell for the album that was 

released last year and debuted at No 

Music Review by Ruchika Kher 

Film: Haunted 3D; Music Directors: Chirantan Bhatt; Lyricists: 

Shakeel Azmi and Junaid Wasi; Singers: KK, Suzanne D’Mello, Jojo, 

Najam Sheraz, Nikhil D’Souza and Tia Bajpai; Rating: *** 

sesses a touch of melancholy and the 

sound of the piano is most prominent 

in it. On the whole, an average track, 

neither too good, nor too bad. 

It is followed by Tera hi bas hona 

chahun, which brings in the rock 

feel to the album. Although it's a 

love song, the touch of rock makes 

it hard-hitting and gives it an edge. 

Jojo and Najam Sheraz have sung 

the song. 

Then comes in Mujhe de de 

har gham tera, a slow, love ballad 

crooned by Chirantan again, which 

is quite similar to Jaaniya. The orchestration 

is less. In a nut shell, the 

song offers nothing extraordinary. 

A nice, breezy, youthful and raw 

number You are beautiful opens up 

next. 

Sung aptly by Nikhil D'Souza, 

the interesting composition will defi- 

3 in the Billboard 200. 

It also flashes back to old footage 

of both musicians in the early 1970s, 

snippets of guest musicians on "The 

Union" such as Brian Wilson and 

various sequences of John hailing 

Russell, now 69, as the greatest piano 

player that ever influenced him 

and crying when Russell composes 

In the Hands of Angels off "The Union." 

John said on the red carpet that 

the film was Crowe's idea, and his 

style was "uninvasive. You know, 

you don't notice him there after a 

while, he's got a knack of kind of 

appearing behind plants and things 

like that." 

Russell and Crowe, who made 

the fiction rock film Almost Famous, 

did not attend the event. The Jerry 

Maguire and Vanilla Sky director 

also has a Pearl Jam documentary 

due out this year. 

The Union is one of 15 musicthemed 

feature films showing at 

Tribeca. Cinematic accounts of 

Kings of Leon, rocker Ozzy Osbourne 

and South African singer 

Miriam Makeba will also screen. 

The opening night marked a 

change for the festival, one of the 

most prominent in the United States, 

after recent years in which Tribeca 

featured an uptown glitzy private 

premiere with feature fiction films 

like last year's Shrek Forever After. 

This year more than 5,000 films 

were submitted, resulting in 93 feature 

films, which include 41 documentaries 

and 52 narrative fiction 

films. — Reuters 

nitely appeal to youngsters. A good 

attempt by the composer. 

Finally there is Sau baras, the 

only female solo in the album with 

Tia Bajpai, who is also the heroine of 

the film, behind the mike. The slowpaced 

track has substance and a lot 

of drama in the composition. Less 

orchestration and more focus on the 

vocals give the song a step-up and 

the change in tempo makes it all the 

more interesting. — IANS

14 SPOTLIGHT FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011 

Istanbul’s ferries survive change, charm anew 

A passenger-vehicle ferry, one of 17 conventional passenger-vehicle boats of the IDO fleet, sets sail 

in the Bosphorus in Istanbul. — Reuters 

By Alexandra Hudson 

WITH a rush of churning 

water then a jolt, the Karaoglanoglu 

ferry docks at 

Karakoy passenger terminal on Istanbul's 

European shore and a familiar 

rite begins. 

Young men dart from the waiting 

room and leap aboard before the 

gangway is fixed, racing for a prized 

spot on the benches just above the 

water. 

Parents with children make for the 

top deck of the 34-year-old ferry, the 

best place for feeding the flocks of 

seagulls, who swoop to catch morsels 

of bread as they fly. 

Huge changes lie in store for how 

the citizens of this growing city of 

almost 15 million people cross the 

Bosphorus Strait, which separates its 

European and Asian shores. 

The government will shortly tender 

a third Bosphorus bridge, expected to 

bear rail as well as vehicles, and on 

the seabed giant tubes will encase a 

privately-operated commuter rail link, 

the Marmaray, and another a twindeck 

road. 

While these projects will offer 

speed, convenience, and landmark engineering, 

they are unlikely to capture 

citizens' hearts in the same way as the 

old-fashioned ferries. 

Even the city itself acknowledges 

the affection in which the ferry boats 

are held. 

Seyfried keen to have kids 

CTRESS Amanda Seyfried can't wait to have 

A children. 

But the 25-year-old, who is said to be dating Ryan Phillippe, 

hasn't decided when to start a family, reports femalefirst.co.uk. 

"I want children! 

My publicist 

now has 

two kids — I 

love her, so I 

like to think 

I'm an auntie to 

her kids. I can't 

wait to have my 

own! I think it's 

really exciting 

to know that 

I want them. 

Knock on 

wood, I hope 

I'm fertile, but 

I've never got 

pregnant before," 

Seyfried 

told Now magazine. 

Carey loves 

spending time 

in nursery: 

Singer Mariah Carey loves to sit in the nursery built for her 

unborn twins and stare at the ceiling. 

"Sometimes I just sit in the nursery and stare at the ceiling 

because I love it so much. To me, it symbolises wanting 

my children to dream as big as possible and to let their 

imaginations be unbridled," Carey told Life & Style magazine. 

The 42-year-old singer, who is expecting a boy and a 

girl with husband Nick Cannon, has made a room that celebrates 

the individuality of their twins, reports femalefirst. 

co.uk — IANS 

Aspirin cuts heart attacks, 

but not deaths or strokes 

S 

MALL doses of aspirin can lower the risk of heart attacks in 

people who never had heart disease, but the blood-thinning 

drug doesn't appear to cut the chances of strokes or dying from 

the disease, according to a study. 

And people should 

consult their doctors before 

taking the medication, 

which increases the 

risk of bleeding ulcers. 

"Aspirin decreased the 

risk for cardiovascular 

events and nonfatal myocardial 

infarction in this 

large sample," wrote Alfred 

Bartolucci, from the 

School of Public Health 

at the University of Alabama 

and leader of the 

study, and colleagues. 

"Thus, primary prevention with aspirin decreased the risk 

for total cardiovascular events and nonfatal myocardial infarction, 

but there were no significant differences in the incidences 

of stroke, cardiovascular mortality, all-cause mortality and total 

coronary heart disease." 

The study, published in the American Journal of Cardiology, 

pooled the results of nine trials that tested aspirin in the 

prevention of heart disease so far. It was supported by aspirin 

maker Bayer AG. 

The study included three trials that weren't part of the review 

by the US Preventive Services Task Force that led to 

2009 aspirin recommendations. 

About 100,000 men and women aged 45 and up took part 

in the studies. Some were healthy and some had diabetes, but 

none had chest pain or other symptoms of an ailing heart. 

The study found a 19 per cent reduction in non-fatal heart 

attacks among participants who took aspirin compared to those 

who did not. — Reuters 

Istanbul Municipality this month 

sold its high-speed passenger and vehicle 

ferries to a Turkish-Scottish consortium 

for $861 million — but hived 

off the slower boats into a separate 

firm, Sehir Hatlari (City Lines), to be 

kept in state hands. 

"Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality 

wanted to keep operating those 

lines as a public service," said Hamdi 

Ugur, Vice-President at Finansinvest 

which advised the city on the privatisation. 

Municipal transport experts say the 

city is trying to invite large private investment 

but also segment the market 

and ensure affordability for its citizens 

whose income spectrum is huge. 

High-speed vessels charge more 

MELTING glaciers and 

ice caps on Canadian 

Arctic islands play a 

far greater role in sea level rise 

that previously suspected, according 

to a study published 

yesterday. 

Between 2004 and 2009, 

the 30,000 snow-and-ice covered 

islands in the Canadian 

Archipelago shed 363 cubic 

kilometres of water, equivalent 

to three-quarters of contents 

of Lake Erie, the study 

found. 

During the first half of this 

six-year period, the average 

loss was 29 cubic kilometres 

per year. But during the second 

three-year period, the 

average jumped to 92 cubic 

kilometres annually. 

Over the full six years, this 

added a total of one millimetre 

to the height of the worlds 

oceans, the researchers calculated. 

"This is a region that we 

previously didn't think was 

contributing to sea level 

rise," said Alex Gardner, a researcher 

at the University of 

Michigan and lead author of 

the study. 

"Now we realise that outside 

of Antarctica and Greenland, 

it was the largest contributor 

for the years 2007 

through 2009. This area is 

highly sensitive and if tem- 

peratures continue to increase, 

we will see much more melting," 

he said in a statement. 

Ninety-nine per cent of all 

the world's land ice is trapped 

in the massive ice sheets of 

than double the traditional ferries to 

make a slightly longer distance crossing. 

"People would riot if we cut the ferries' 

journey time by even a minute," 

said Suleyman Genc, manager of City 

Lines, whose boats carry 150,000 people 

a day and charge 1.75 Turkish lira 

($1.14) for the 20-minute crossing. 

"It is the most pleasant form of 

transport in Istanbul." 

A look at the expressions of content 

and repose aboard the Karaoglanoglu, 

as passengers drink dainty glasses of 

Turkish tea from the buffet, or photograph 

yet again the famous skyline, 

corroborates his view. 

Elsewhere in Istanbul vehicles 

are lined bumper-to-bumper on the 

Bosphorus and Fatih Sultan Mehmet 

suspension bridges, crowded buses 

stand in grid-locked rush-hour roads, 

and taxi drivers honk in fury at the 

congestion. 

"Istanbul is beautiful, the Bosphorus 

is beautiful, but the ferries make 

them even more beautiful," said Hasan 

Cebesoy, a 48-year-old civil servant 

sitting on the outside deck, crossing to 

the Asian side of the city. 

The history of sea transport in Istanbul 

reflects the history of a city to 

which modernisation and industrialisation 

came suddenly. 

At first a few solitary steam boats 

began to operate in Ottoman Istanbul's 

waters, but such was their popularity 

that by 1851 the state founded its own 

ferry company — from which today's 

City Lines derives. 

Turkish Nobel laureate writer 

Orhan Pamuk describes how the city's 

citizens doted on every ferry ever 

owned by City Lines and how his father 

could recognise each boat by its 

silhouette. 

When the city needed to add to its 

fleet in 2005 it allowed the public to 

vote on their favourite model. They 

Antarctica and Greenland. 

Despite their size, however, 

they currently only account 

for about half of the land-ice 

bleeding each year into the 

oceans, mainly because they 

chose the vessel most closely resembling 

the ones they knew and loved. 

"I always sit upstairs for the view 

and of course I find the old ferries the 

most beautiful," said 65-year-old pensioner 

Esmet Ulukut, fondly patting a 

wooden window sill. 

"I wouldn't want to use any of the 

tunnels under the sea, I wouldn't want 

to take the risk," he said. 

The decommissioning in 2008 of 

the Fenerbahce ferry, built in Glasgow 

in 1952 and widely considered the 

most beautiful, sparked protests. 

"That length of service is two or 

three times longer than the average 

life of a ferry," said Genc. 

The vessels' unusual slender frame 

caters to the challenges of serving in 

one of the world's busiest shipping 

straits. 

"Manouevreabilty is very important. 

They have to serve crowded harbours 

where at rush hour a ferry might 

be arriving every 15 minutes. They 

also need to unload and reload passengers 

very rapidly," said Ilhan Or, 

professor of industrial engineering at 

Istanbul's Bosphorus University. 

Sea traffic will no longer grow in 

Istanbul, he thinks, largely because 

it is comparatively slow and the density 

of transit traffic in the Bosphorus 

keeps strict speed limits in place. 

Genc believes new modes of crossing 

the Bosphorus will eventually hit 

numbers, but that a future for the ferries 

as a nostalgic tour service awaits 

— much in the way a historic tram 

now transports tourists along Istanbul's 

busiest shopping strip. 

"Although our passenger numbers 

will fall the number of tourists to Istanbul 

will increase. So in future we 

may focus more on tourist tours rather 

than commuter transportation." 

"We already have a fantastic Golden 

Horn tour... but Istanbulites don't 

know about it." — Reuters 

Melting ice on Arctic islands boosts sea levels 

BABIES exposed to pesticides before birth may have significantly 

lower intelligence scores by age 7 than children 

who were not exposed, three separate studies published 

yesterday said. 

Results from the studies — two in New York and one in an 

agricultural community in California — suggest prenatal exposure 

to pesticides can have a lasting effect on intelligence. 

In one study, a team at the University of California Berkeley 

found that every tenfold increase in prenatal exposure to organophosphate 

pesticides corresponded with a 5.5 point drop in 

overall IQ scores in children by age 7. 

"That difference could mean, on average, more kids being 

shifted into the lower end of the spectrum of learning, and more 

kids needing special services in school," Berkeley's Brenda Es- 

are so thick and cold that ice 

melts only at their edges. 

The other half of the ice 

melt contributing to sea-level 

rise comes from smaller 

mountain glaciers and ice caps 

such as those in the Canadian 

Arctic, Alaska and Patagonia. 

The study's results, published 

in Nature, show that 

the impact of these regions on 

sea level rise has been largely 

overlooked. 

Gardner cautioned that the 

relatively short time span of 

the study — six years — is not 

long enough to constitute a climate 

trend, but said the results 

should be taken as a warning. 

"This is a big response to 

a small change in climate," he 

said. "If the warming continues 

and we start to see similar 

responses in other glaciated 

regions, I would say it's worrisome." 

Most experts on climate 

change and sea levels project 

that the ocean watermark will 

rise roughly a metre by century's 

end. 

This could be devastating 

for tens of millions of people 

living in low-lying deltas, 

many of which are also sinking 

at the same time. 

Rising sea levels could poison 

aquifers and amplify the 

impacts of storm surges and 

tsunamis, experts say. — AFP 

Prenatal pesticide exposure linked with lower IQ 

kenazi, who led one of the three studies published online in Environmental 

Health Perspectives, said in a statement. 

The two other studies — one at Mount Sinai Medical Centre 

and the other at Columbia University — also examined prenatal 

exposure to pesticides and IQ in children at age 7. 

The teams at Berkeley and Mount Sinai sampled pesticide 

residues in maternal urine, while the team at Columbia tested 

umbilical cord blood levels of chlorpyrifos, part of a class of 

pesticides known as organophosphates that are known to be 

toxic to brain cells. 

Until it was banned for indoor residential use by the US Environmental 

Protection Agency in 2001, chlorpyrifos was one of 

the most widely used insecticides for residential pest control. 

In the Columbia study, researchers sampled 265 New York 

City minority children born before the ban. The higher levels 

of chlorpyrifos in the babies' umbilical cord blood were linked 

with lower performance on two different IQ tests. 

Children who were in the highest 25 per cent of exposure 

levels scored 2.7 points lower on IQ tests than children whose 

exposures were in the lowest quarter of the study. 

The UC Berkeley study involved 329 children whose mothers 

enrolled when they were pregnant. 

Urine samples were taken twice during pregnancy from the 

mothers and after birth from the children at regular intervals 

between ages 6 months and 5 years. 

The team said while prenatal exposure to pesticides were 

significantly linked with childhood IQ, pesticide exposure after 

birth was not, suggesting exposure during fetal brain development 

was a more critical period than childhood exposure. 

Children in the UC Berkeley study were exposed to pesticides 

in 1999 through 2000. Since the 2001 ban, use of organophosphates 

in the United States has fallen by more than 50 per 

cent, but agricultural use of chlorpyrifos is still permitted. 

"It is vitally important that we continue to monitor the levels 

of exposure in potentially vulnerable populations, especially in 

pregnant women in agricultural communities, as their infants 

may continue to be at risk," Dr Robin Whyatt of Columbia said 

in a statement. — Reuters 

AROUND THE WORLD 

Actress Amber Heard arrives at an Evening of 

Cocktails and Shopping to Benefit the Children's 

Defence Fund hosted by Coach at Bad Robot in 

Santa Monica, California. — AFP 

Participants dressed as Roman soldiers wait in a 

line before the start of the Moriones (mask or visor) 

Festival parade along a main street of Boac town 

in Marinduque island, central Philippines, 

yesterday. — Reuters 

Dancers from the St Petersburg Ballet Theatre 

perform Swan Lake during a dress rehearsal at the 

Taiwan National Theatre in Taipei yesterday. 

The show is set to be performed during 

April 21-24. — Reuters 

An Arakwal Aborigine performs the traditional 

‘Welcome to Country’ during the opening ceremony 

of the annual Blues Festival (Bluesfest) near Byron 

Bay yesterday. Australia's largest celebration of blues 

music runs until April 26. — AFP 

Star trails and an abandoned cabin standing in the 

foreground of Mount Krivan, Slovakia’s the most 

characteristic peak, in the western part of the High 

Tatra mountains near Vychodna late at night. —AFP

Large participation in Kashmir 

third phase panchayat polls 

SRINAGAR — Polling in 

the third phase of Jammu and 

Kashmir’s panchayat elections 

ended yesterday afternoon 

with a large number of 

enthusiastic voters joining the 

democratic process to choose 

village heads. 

Polling started at 8 am 

and concluded at 2 pm in five 

blocks of the Valley and five 

blocks in the Jammu region. 

“According to preliminary 

figures, in the Valley, 56 per 

cent votes were polled in north 

Kashmir Ganderbal district, 

62 per cent in south Kashmir 

Kulgam district, 78 per 

cent in north Kashmir Sogam 

block, 65 per cent in Boniyar 

and 72 per cent in Chadoora 

blocks that went to the polls 

yesterday. 

“In the Jammu region, 78 

per cent votes were polled in 

Parmandal block, 78 per cent 

in Ghagwal, 73 per cent in 

Dudu, 70 per cent in Ramnagar 

and 74 per cent in Satwari 

blocks,” said a poll official. 

As bright sunshine greeted 

the Valley after five days of 

incessant rains, a large number 

of men and women came out 

in Wayil and Nuner villages of 

Ganderbal block where Panchayat 

polls were held. 

In Nuner village polls had 

to be countermanded by the 

authorities as a large number 

of villagers who had gathered 

to vote at two polling stations 

discovered their names did not 

figure in the voter lists. 

“Agitated villagers indulged 

in violence at these 

two poll stations and polls 

have been countermanded. 

“Fresh polling will take 

place at these two polling stations 

on April 25. 

Votes polled in the other 

eight polling stations of Nuner 

village have been sealed in 

Opposition over devotees 

taking over Sai trust 

HYDERABAD — A section 

of devotees of spiritual leader 

Sathya Sai Baba has opposed 

any move by the government 

to take over the Sathya 

Sai Central Trust, saying the 

government will not be able 

to carry on the trust’s work 

in the manner in which it had 

been functioning. 

With the 85-year-old guru 

battling for life at a hospital 

run by the trust at Puttaparthi, 

all eyes are on the powerful 

trust headed by him. 

Stories of mismanagement 

of funds and the rift among the 

trustees are doing the rounds 

since Sai Baba was admitted 

to the hospital last month with 

serious health problems. 

There are also suggestions 

from some quarters that 

the government take over the 

trust to prevent any misuse of 

funds. 

But a section of devotees 

is opposed to the idea and feel 

that the central trust should be 

allowed to run on its own so 

that it can continue its welfare 

work in India and abroad. 

The trust, which is believed 

to have thousands of crores in 

funds, runs hospitals, educational 

institutions and drinking 

water supply schemes 

and undertakes various social 

service and charitable works 

in 180 countries. 

“I personally feel the 

government will not be able 

to continue the stupendous 

works undertaken by the 

trust,” Justice (retd) J Eeswar 

Prasad, a former judge of the 

Andhra Pradesh High Court 

and a staunch devotee of the 

Baba, said. He hoped that a 

situation will not arise where 

the government has to take 

over the trust. 

“There are no irregularities 

in the trust. Men of integrity 

and highly respectable persons 

are managing the trust,” 

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM — The second 

season of Kerala’s unique travelling theatre 

event Summer Theatre Festival will begin in 

Kozhikode next week, its organisers said. 

The first season of the touring theatre festival 

organised by the city-based Abhinaya, a 

common platform for theatre practitioners, activists 

and enthusiasts, was a big hit attracting 

quality audience wherever it went. 

The actors this time include senior bureaucrat 

Dr Venu V, presently Principle Secretary 

(Tourism) and leading television personality 

and occasional film actor Parvathy T, besides 

43 other talented actors. Dr Venu who has been 

on leave for a month for month for practicing 

sessions plays the role of Macbeth in the play 

(pictured). 

They will be travelling across Kerala with 

four plays — Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Eugene 

Ionesco’s Lesson, Bhagavadajjuka (a hilarious 

satire based on a 2,000-year-old Sanskrit 

script) and Ibsen’s Lady from the Sea — from 

Kozhikode to the state capital here for one and 

a half months. 

The plays are directed by award winning 

theatre personalities D Raghoothaman and 

Jyotish M G the driving forces behind Abhinaya 

which performed some 100 plays since its 

inception in 1992. 

“Ranging from women empowerment to 

spirituality and materialism to education, the 

plays in the festival this time will showcase 

the changing dynamics of a changing society 

he said. 

He revealed that former 

chief justice of India P N 

Bhagwati, who is a trustee, 

recently met Prime Minister 

Manmohan Singh to brief him 

about the trust and its activities. 

“There is no scope of any 

irregularities in the trust and 

the reports in a section of media 

are not true,” said Eeswar 

Prasad. 

However, another devotee 

differed. 

“I believe the situation of 

government taking over the 

trust will not arise but if such 

a situation arises, the government 

can take over the trust,” 

said V Appa Rao, a retired 

police officer. He, however, 

felt the trust should carry on 

its activities with respectable 

personalities. 

Appa Rao, who was instrumental 

in designing security 

arrangements for Prashanti 

Nilayam, the abode of Sai 

Baba in Puttaparthi, said the 

reports that gold and silver 

were being transferred were 

baseless. 

“There is no hundi system 

in Puttaparthi and all 

donations are taken through 

cheques,” he said. 

Anil Kumar Mulpur, 

former head of cardiothoracic 

and vascular surgery at 

Baba’s superspeciality hospital 

in Bangalore, refused to 

comment on the suggestion 

that the government take over 

the trust. 

Besides Bhagwati, wellknown 

chartered accountant 

Indulal Shah, former chief 

vigilance commissioner S 

V Giri, eminent industrialist 

Srinivasan, and Sai Baba’s 

nephew Ratnakar are members 

of the trust while former 

IAS) officer K Chakravarthi 

is the member secretary. 

— IANS 

ballot boxes and deposited in 

the Ganderbal treasury. 

“The sealed ballot boxes 

will be carried back to the 

polling stations in the village 

on April 25 and counted in 

presence of the contestants after 

fresh polling is concluded 

at the two polling stations,” 

said the poll official. 

Reports of minor clashes 

between supporters of contesting 

candidates have also come 

in from Shallabugh village of 

Ganderbal district, but polls 

finally ended there peacefully, 

officials said. Votes are being 

counted at the polling stations 

where panchayat elections 

were held so that the results 

are declared by the evening. 

Instead of the electronic 

voting machines (EVMs), 

paper ballots are used for the 

panchayat polls process in 

Jammu and Kashmir state. 

— IANS 

NEW DELHI — Mother 

of national-level volleyball 

player Arunima Sinha, whose 

leg had to be amputated after 

she was pushed out of a running 

train, yesterday thanked 

the doctors at the All India 

Institute of Medical Sciences 

(AIIMS) for her daughter’s 

improving condition. 

“Her condition has improved 

very much since she 

was brought from Lucknow. 

Doctors and the support staff 

are very helpful and have taken 

good care of my daughter,” 

Gyanbala Sinha said. 

According to doctors, 

Arunima’s condition has improved 

satisfactorily. She is 

eating properly and getting 

good sleep. 

Touring theatre begins 

second season next week 

through the art,” said Parvathy T. 

Abhinaya launched its first edition of summer 

theatre festival last summer with the aim 

of spreading the Live Theatre culture and 

among the objectives were using theatre as a 

viable option to train autistic children. 

“The proceeds from the festival will be contributed 

towards our efforts in sustaining pure 

art and redirecting the energies derived from 

that into social causes,” she said. 

Renowned painter and curator Bose 

Krishnamachary and Tamil actor Pashupthy 

will inaugurate the festival at Tagore Centenary 

Hall in Kozhikode at 6.30 pm on April 28. 

— From Our Kerala Correspondent 

15 INDIA 



A CUSTOMER at a jewellery showroom at Noida in Uttar Pradesh yesterday. India’s gold recovered 

from its previous session’s losses yesterday to hit another record high nearing Rs 22,000 ($ 495) following 

firm overseas markets, triggering purchases from physical traders to stock for festivals. — Reuters 

Arunima recovering, 

mother thanks AIIMS 

“There is minimal infection 

in the amputated leg and 

she has not got any fever in 

the last two days,” said Vijay 

Sharma, who is leading a team 

of four doctors to look after 

Arunima. 

Doctors said that psychological 

counselling is also 

helping Arunima. “Two more 

operations will be done on 

her. One on the amputated leg, 

and the other to fix the broken 

bones of her second leg,” said 

Sharma. Arunima was pushed 

out of the general compartment 

of the Padmawati Express 

near Bareilly on April 

11 while resisting a chainsnatching 

attempt by some 

hoodlums as she was travelling 

from Lucknow to Delhi. 

She was brought to the 

AIIMS Trauma Centre on 

Monday night after a serious 

infection was noticed in the 

amputated leg for which she 

underwent a second round of 

surgery at Lucknow’s prestigious 

King George Medical 

College. Arunima has repeatedly 

expressed her desire to 

be able to play again. Doctors 

said the process to provide 

Arunima with sports prosthetic 

to enable her to play will 

begin once her amputated leg 

has shrunk completely. 

“Right now, we are getting 

voluntary offers from many 

organisations who are willing 

to provide sports prosthetic 

to Arunima,” AIIMS Trauma 

Centre head M C Misra said. 

N CHANDRASEKARAN (2nd left), Chief Executive of Tata Consultancy Services, with 

members of his management team before a news conference to announce the company’s 

Q4 results in Mumbai yesterday. Tata Consultancy Services, largest software services 

exporter, posted a 23 per cent rise in quarterly net profit yesterday, beating analysts’ 

forecasts on rising demand for outsourcing services from western clients. — AFP 

Target higher growth 

for next plan period, 

says Manmohan 

NEW DELHI — Prime Minister Manmohan 

Singh yesterday called for an enhanced 

growth target for the next Five Year Plan 

that starts April 2012, against 9 per cent for 

the current plan, and said policies that come 

in its way must be recast. 

“The 12th Five Year Plan must build 

on what we have achieved and indeed 

do better in the next five years,” the prime 

minister told a meeting here of the full Planning 

Commission, of which he is the chairman. 

“We need to identify critical areas where 

existing policies are not delivering results, 

and should, therefore, be strengthened, or 

even restructured. We also need to consider 

what new challenges have emerged which 

call for altogether new initiatives.” 

The high-powered meeting was called to 

consider what is called the approach paper 

of the next five year plan, which officials 

said will be finalised next month. 

After that, it goes to the National Development 

Council, which includes state chief 

ministers. 

The meeting was attended among others 

by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, 

Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Human 

Resource Development Minister Kapil 

Sibal, Home Minister P Chidambaram and 

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman 

Montek Singh Ahluwalia. 

The prime minister said the nation will 

end the current five year plan with a growth 

rate of 8.2 per cent, as per estimates of the 

Planning Commission and circulated among 

members. 

“This is short of the 9 per cent target, but 

it is a commendable achievement for a plan 

period which saw a severe drought as well 

as a global economic slowdown,” he told the 

meeting at Yojana Bhawan, the headquarters 

of the plan panel. 

Noting that the availability of resources 

a critical issue in any plan, the prime minister 

said the Planning Commission and the 

finance ministry should work to together to 

arrive at an agreed position on its availability 

for the12th Plan. 

“However, we do know that resources 

will be a constraint. This underlines the need 

to focus more on efficiency of resource use, 

and also supplement public resources with 

private investment, wherever feasible.” 

— IANS 

Kerala start-up receives 

World Bank recognition 

By Ashraf Padanna 

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM — 

Artin Dynamics, a start-up company 

‘incubated’ at the state-run 

Technopark here, has emerged 

winners in the Top 50 Innovative 

SMEs of InfoDev, a technology and 

innovation-led development finance 

programme of the World Bank and 

International Financial Corporation 

(IFC). 

The company promoted by fresh 

graduates has been invited to participate 

in the 4th Global Forum 

on Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship 

in Helsinki, Finland 

from May 28 providing them with 

the opportunity to interact with 

mentors, financiers and established 

companies and other incubation associations. 

“Artin Dynamics will have a 

tailored programme to connect 

them with the most relevant funding 

and partnership opportunities, 

thus providing the team with ample 

opportunities to expand the firm’s 

international business linkages,” the 

company said in a statement here 

yesterday. 

The Technopark-based company 

was screened among 1,000 applications 

of which 50 SMEs were 

selected for this recognition. The 

honour will bring the company global 

exposure and access to funds, 

grants and other financial benefits 

of the WB. 

“This will also allow us soft 

landing in other countries where we 

plan to start development. We are 

looking forward to represent India 

at Helsinki, Finland, in May-June,” 

said Nelvin Joseph, CEO, Artin Dynamics. 

Technopark Business Incubator 

(TBI) Registrar K C C Nair congratulated 

the team and said such 

recognitions would prove to be a 

boost and inspiration for the incubated 

companies of Technopark to 

dream big and achieve bigger. 

InfoDev is co-ordinated and 

served by an expert Secretariat 

that acts as a neutral convener of 

dialogue and co-ordinator of joint 

action among bilateral and multilateral 

donors. 

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NEWS IN BRIEF 

I-T seizes Rs 28 crore in 

poll-bound states: CBDT 

INCOME Tax Department yesterday said 

it has until now detected tax evasion to 

the tune of Rs 85 crore and seized Rs 28 

crore unaccounted cash from individuals 

in the poll bound states. 

“The maximum cash — Rs 17.5 crore 

was seized from Tamil Nadu and (Union 

Territory of) Puducherry,” a CBDT 

official said. 

The Income Tax Department, which 

is working “shoulder to shoulder” with 

the Election Commission of India, seized 

about Rs 9 crore from different persons 

in West Bengal and Asom, while Rs 1.54 

crore unaccounted money was recovered 

in Kerala. 

Following the seizure of money, 

searches were conducted leading to 

disclosure of tax evasion of about Rs 85 

crore, including Rs 60 crore from Tamil 

Nadu and Puducherry and Rs 16 crore in 

West Bengal and Asom. Cases have been 

registered against the tax evaders, the 

official said. 

Women’s reservation 

planned in assembly polls 

AFTER the successful experiment of 

reserving seats for women candidates 

in the Bihar assembly elections, the 

women’s wing of the Bharatiya Janata 

Party (BJP) plans to replicate the model 

in Goa, which goes to polls in 2012. 

All-India Mahila Morcha (AIMM) 

president Smriti Irani yesterday said 

that since 11 out of the 13 women who 

contested polls on a BJP ticket in Bihar 

had won, the party was keen to make a 

similar move in Goa. 

“In the Bihar polls, we gave tickets 

to 13 women, of whom 11 won. These 

tickets were given on the basis of a 

survey conducted by the party. A similar 

survey will be conducted in Goa,” Irani 

said at the party headquarters. 

Irani, however, refused to say how 

many seats will be reserved for women, 

and added that the reservation of seats 

for women would depend on the “survey 

which would be conducted before the 

polls”. 

Maharashtra official gets 

prime minister’s award 

VIJAY Nahata, Maharashtra’s Director- 

General of information and public 

relations, was felicitated by Prime 

Minister Manmohan Singh with the 

Prime Minister’s Award for excellence 

in public administration in New Delhi 

yesterday, a statement said. 

Nahata was honoured for his services 

to Mumbai’s satellite city of Navi 

Mumbai during his previous tenure as 

the commissioner of the Navi Mumbai 

Municipal Corporation (NMMC). 

Nahata has successfully established 

a learning and vocation centre for the 

physically handicapped in the region, the 

statement said. 

The special school, established in 

Rabale township, has proved to be a onestop 

centre for children who need more 

than one treatment and therapy, along 

with special education. In 2007, 

Nahata became the first NMMC 

commissioner to make a six-month 

performance report public. Nahata also 

received a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh along 

with the award, given on the occasion of 

Civil Services Day. 

A diploma course in 

traditional Oriya cuisine 

A DELHI-based Hotel Management 

Institute has launched a six-month 

course on traditional cuisine of Orissa to 

promote its authentic food in the rest of 

the world. 

The Bhartee Institute of International 

Hotel Management (LBIIHM) has 

launched the diploma course from this 

year. “For the first time an academic 

orientation is being provided to train 

students in Oriya food and beverages,” 

institute director-cum-chief executive 

officer Kamal Kumar, who belongs to 

Orissa, said. 

“The first batch will have a strength 

of 15 students and the classes will 

comprise of both theory and practical 

components where students will be 

trained in Odia Snacks, main course, 

sweets and beverages,” he said. 

Describing Oriya cuisine as very 

healthy and delicious, Kumar said that he 

is trying to build a group of Oriya-cuisine 

ambassadors. 

Army chopper with four 

personnel goes missing 

AN Army helicopter, with two pilots 

and two soldiers, yesterday went 

missing while flying over north Sikkim, 

triggering concerns over the fate of the 

machine and the personnel. 

The Advance Light Helicopter (ALH) 

Dhruv helicopter of the Army Aviation 

Corps had taken off from Sewak Road 

Base in Siliguri at 10.30 am, army 

sources said. 

It lost radio contact at around 11.30 

AM, the sources said adding efforts are 

on to locate it. The Base is under the 33 

Corps Headquarters based in Siliguri. 

Dhruv is an indigenously-developed 

helicopter inducted in the army only 

recently. — PTI/IANS

Blast kills 15, 

criminals 

suspected 

KARACHI — At least 

15 people were killed and 

several wounded when a 

bomb ripped through a club 

in Karachi yesterday, police 

said. 

“It was most likely a 

planted bomb, and it took 

place inside the club,” police 

official Saqib Sultan said. “I 

can confirm that 15 people 

are dead so far and at least 

20 are wounded”. 

Hospital officials said at 

least 35 people were wounded. 

No one claimed responsibility 

for the bombing at 

the club, which is in an area 

known for turf wars between 

criminal gangs. 

Officials said that the 

club was also run by criminals. 

They suspected that the 

attack might be a result of a 

gang war. — Reuters 

SC dismisses 

Mai’s appeal 

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s 

Supreme Court yesterday 

dismissed an appeal 

by Mukhtar Mai against the 

acquittal of five men she accused 

of attacking her, court 

officials said. 

Mai, now 40, was attacked 

on June 2002 on the orders of 

a village council in Meerwala 

town of Punjab province as 

punishment after her younger 

brother was wrongly accused 

of having illicit relations with 

a woman from a rival clan. 

The boy was 12-years-old 

at the time. 

Meerwala is located 120 

km southwest of the central 

city of Multan. 

A local anti-terrorism 

court (ATC) had sentenced 

the six accused men to death, 

but the Lahore High Court 

acquitted five of the men in 

March 2005, and commuted 

the sentence for the main accused, 

Abdul Khaliq, to life 

imprisonment. 

The Supreme Court then 

took up the case to hear separate 

appeals against the high 

court’s judgement. — AFP 

16 PAKISTAN 



PHARMACISTS demonstrate to demand pay hike in Islamabad yesterday. About 250 pharmacists 

took part in a protest against the government’s plan to amend pay scales and 

services structure in the pharmaceutical profession. — Reuters 

Kayani vows to defeat Taliban, 

rejects negative propaganda ISLAMABAD 

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s army chief 

General Ashfaq Kayani vowed to defeat 

terrorism and rejected the notion 

of Islamabad “not doing enough” in the 

anti-Taliban fight, the military said yesterday. 

His comments followed remarks by 

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the 

US Joint Chiefs of Staff, accusing Pakistan’s 

Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) 

agency of having ties with Afghan Taliban 

in Pakistan’s northwest tribal belt. 

The White House also criticised Pakistan’s 

efforts to defeat the Taliban operating 

on the border in a report this month 

refuted by Islamabad. 

The army chief “strongly rejected 

negative propaganda of Pakistan not doing 

enough and Pakistan army’s lack of 

clarity on the way forward,” the military 

said in a statement, a day after Mullen 

met top generals in Islamabad. 

Kayani said that the “army’s ongoing 

operations are a testimony of our national 

resolve to defeat terrorism”, according to 

the statement. 

In an interview with private TV channel 

Geo, Mullen — the highest ranking 

officer in the US armed forces — said: 

“ISI has a long standing relationship with 

the Haqqani network, that does not mean 

everybody in ISI but it is there.” 

The statement did not mention the 

Haqqani network. 

The army defended its stance against 

terrorism in general and acknowledged 

that a “trust deficit between the institutions 

as well as the people” existed between 

the US and Pakistan. 

But Kayani and Mullen re-stated their 

aims of building “reciprocal respect towards 

each other’s sovereignty” and 

the statement said “security ties will not 

be allowed to unravel between the two 

armed forces”. 

The Haqqani network run by Afghan 

warlord Sirajuddin Haqqani and based 

in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal district. 

The group has been blamed for some 

of the deadliest anti-US attacks in Afghanistan, 

including a suicide attack at 

a US base in Khost in 2009 that killed 

seven CIA operatives. 

Kayani said public support was key to 

success in the war against terrorism but 

Govt wins pledges of $5 bn for dam 

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan received 

commitments from international lenders 

of about $5 billion for financing the 

$11.2 billion Diamer-Bhasha dam, but 

it still needs up to $1 billion to cover 

the foreign exchange component of the 

multi-purpose project’s cost. 

A senior Wapda official said that a 

meeting of the Pakistan-US working 

group on water sector would be convened 

soon to finalise details of $600 

million US assistance for the project. 

The meeting was earlier scheduled to 

be held in Islamabad on April 25-26 but 

might have to be delayed till the first 

week of May. 

The authorities were planning to hold 

the groundbreaking ceremony of the 

project, to be presided over by Prime 

Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, within two 

weeks, the official said. 

The project is ready for implementation 

as the technical formalities have 

Afghan traders to be taxed 

PESHAWAR — The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) of Pakistan 

is considering bringing Afghan nationals doing business 

in Pakistan into tax net, said Khawar Khurshid, member 

Inland Revenue Service, speaking at the Sarhad Chamber of 

Commerce and Industry (SCCI) yesterday. 

He said the FBR was facing some technical problems to 

tax Afghans doing business in Pakistan, as they could not be 

issued the National Tax Number (NTN) because they do not 

have the national identity cards. 

This is one of the factors affecting the process to bring the 

Afghan businessmen into the tax net, he said. 

Khurshid said that the FBR was weighing all options, including 

issuing NTN to those holding Refugee Cards and involvement 

of Kafeels as practised in some Middle East countries. 

He admitted that they were facing problems in taxing Afghans, 

as there no system exists in the country to tax foreigners, 

who were so far tax exempted. Nonetheless a way out 

would soon be found to tax Afghans, he said. 

Final decision would be taken at a meeting soon to take up 

the measures to expand the tax base. 

SCCI President Usman Bilour urged upon the Inland Revenue 

Service (IRS) not to waste more time and take steps 

to bring Afghan businessmen into the tax net for which the 

Chamber will provide all kinds of assistance to the FBR. 

“Only in Peshawar around 12,000 Afghan nationals were 

pursuing various types businesses and they were not paying 

any tax,” Bilour said quoting an official survey. 

The FBR official assured that the Prime Minister’s 

Relief package for the revival of the economy of the 

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa would be implemented, “the delay was 

caused due to the confusion in the language of the SROs, but 

soon the grievances of the business community would be addressed.” 

— Internews 

been completed. According to government 

estimates, the delayed implementation 

of the project is costing the national 

economy about $3 billion (Rs 255 

billion) per annum. 

The Pak-US working group on water 

is working under the umbrella of the 

strategic dialogue process since June 

2010. Three rounds of the dialogue have 

so far been completed. 

Pakistan had requested for $1.5 billion 

in assistance but the United States 

agreed to provide $600 million over a 

period of three years, according to the 

Wapda official. During the current fiscal 

year, the US will be providing $50 million, 

followed by $350 million in 2011- 

12 and about $200 million in 2012-13. 

The USAID is already providing $82 

million for three water sector projects, 

of which $40 million has already been 

released. The projects involve upgradation 

of Tarbela dam hydropower station, 

and construction of Gomal Zam dam 

and Satpara dam. 

The official said the Asian Development 

Bank has already agreed in principle 

to provide $4 billion for the project, 

subject to an adequate resettlement plan 

and final approval of the scheme by the 

Council of Common Interests. (The CCI 

has already adopted a resolution and discussions 

on the mode of financing are to 

take place soon.) 

The Islamic Development Bank has 

agreed to extend $1 billion in assistance 

for the project and $2.5 billion worth of 

suppliers’ credit will be available from 

some friendly countries to fund import 

of electro-mechanical equipment. 

After the US contribution, the authorities 

are predicting a foreign exchange 

shortfall of $500 million to $1 billion 

that Pakistan expects to get from the 

World Bank, so far reluctant to fund the 

project. — Internews 

Corporate tax may 

rise in next budget 

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s 

corporate sector is likely to 

suffer a heavy blow as the federal 

government is expected to 

increase the corporate tax rate 

from the existing 35 per cent 

to 40 per cent in the forthcoming 

budget 2011-12, official 

sources said yesterday. 

It could be a major revenue 

measure in the upcoming federal 

budget and increase in 

corporate tax rate is expected 

to generate huge revenues in 

2011-12 with increased tax 

burden on the corporate sector. 

“Tax experts within the 

government and private sector 

in a meeting at FBR have 

discussed the proposal and 

it would be submitted to the 

government soon,” sources 

added. 

Pakistan’s corporate sector 

comprises of 55,511 companies 

registered with Securities 

and Exchange Commission of 

Pakistan, a main contributor to 

the national revenues in terms 

of their annual corporate tax 

payments as well as largest 

private employment-generating 

sector. 

Increase in corporate tax 

rate is expected to invite criticism 

from the local as well as 

foreign companies operating 

in Pakistan, as such were already 

demanding lowering the 

tax rate. 

The government had promised 

to the corporate sector few 

years back that it would lower 

the corporate tax rate from the 

existing 35 per cent to at least 

25 per cent to help them reinvest 

in Pakistan from their 

profits for employment generation 

in the private sector. 

However, government’s 

failure in introduction and implementation 

of the reformed 

general sales tax on goods 

and services in the last year’s 

budget 2010-11 is compelling 

the government to put 

additional burden on the existing 

tax base and generate 

required revenues for the 

country. — Internews 

said that controversial US drone strikes 

“not only undermine our national effort 

against terrorism but also turn public support 

against our efforts”. 

The drone strikes inflame anti-US 

feeling, which is running high after the 

January killing of two Pakistani men in 

a busy Lahore street by a US Embassy 

official later revealed to be working for 

the CIA. 

Missile attacks doubled last year, with 

more than 100 drone strikes killing over 

670 people in 2010 compared with 45 

strikes that killed 420 in 2009. 

Most have been concentrated in North 

Waziristan, the most notorious Taliban 

bastion, where the US wants the Pakistan 

military to launch a ground offensive as 

soon as possible. 

Pakistan says its troops are too overstretched 

to launch such an assault. 

Mullen’s trip is the latest shuttle 

diplomacy mission after a fatal shooting 

by a CIA contractor in January triggered 

a row between the US and Pakistan 

over intelligence sharing and raised 

tensions over the controversial US drone 

war. — AFP 

Number of train 

passengers 

drops by 70 pc 

ISLAMABAD — Ratio of 

passengers travelling via 

trains fall down by 70 per 

cent mainly due to ill-functioning 

engines, rise in fair 

and poor travelling facilities 

provided by the authorities 

in Pakistan, it was learnt 

yesterday. 

The passengers are losing 

confidence over Pakistan 

Railways and the interest if a 

large number of commuters 

shifted to travel via buses, 

because of poor operations 

of trains. 

Trains stop at different 

places only after 15 minutes 

while speed of trains have 

fallen from 70 km to 50 km 

per hour because of old engines. 

Railway is a government 

funded institution in Pakistan 

but due to corrupt officials 

and lack of interest by the 

government, it has witnessed 

a constant decline. 

Experts believe that there 

is a severe need for reorganisation 

and restructuring of the 

department, which is possible 

only through honest, sincere, 

efficient and loyal officials in 

the department. — Internews 

KARACHI — Cellular operators’ officials 

in Pakistan expressed their resentment 

over fresh demand of federal 

Interior Minister Rehman Malik for 

verifying Subscribers Identity Module 

(SIM) and blocking handsets without or 

of duplicate International Mobile Equipment 

Identity (IMEI) in 30 days. 

The operators termed all instructions 

as unrealistic and unfavourable for businesses 

of cellular operators, who have 

invested heavily in the country and provided 

employment to millions of people 

directly and indirectly. 

Malik directed all operators to verify 

SIMs of their subscribers and block all 

unverified SIMs and handsets without or 

of duplicate IMEI number in a month. 

He also instructed operators to issue 

only one SIM to an individual subscriber 

Government of national 

consensus likely in May 

ISLAMABAD — Realising 

that the economic and security 

situation in the country 

cannot improve without 

all political parties, in and 

outside parliament, being 

on the same page, the Pakistani 

government is considering 

a proposal of forming 

a government of ‘national 

consensus.’ 

A source said the government 

was seriously thinking 

about the proposal and if 

all political parties agreed 

to it, a government of national 

consensus could possibly 

be formed in May this 

year. 

Even Prime Minister Yusuf 

Raza Gilani dropped a hint 

of formation of a national 

government when asked if 

there was such a possibility 

when he said “politics was 

a day-to-day affair.” 

Asked to comment on the 

news of talks between the 

ruling Pakistan People Party 

(PPP) and the Pakistan 

Muslim League- Quaid 

(PML-Q) for the latter’s 

joining the federal government, 

Gilani did not deny 

the notion, but hinted that 

talks had not been finalised 

yet. 

While the efforts are afoot to 

take the PML-Q into the 

government’s fold at the 

Centre, the government is 

also likely to invite other 

political parties to join the 

broad-based dispensation, 

the source said, adding that 

the PML-N, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf, 

Baloch and 

Pakhtun nationalist parties 

and the Jamaat-e-Islami 

would also be approached 

Pakistan to host world 

women speakers meet 

— Pakistan will host the 7th meeting of 

women speakers from around the world in November this 

year, an official said here yesterday. 

This was announced by the Secretary-General of the 

Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Panama City at the conclusion 

of the 124th General Assembly of the IPU, according 

to message received from Panama. 

It will be for the first time that Pakistan will be given the 

prestigious opportunity to host an IPU event of this stature 

ever-since the country became member of this international 

body of the parliaments of the world. The IPU has currently 

157 member countries. 

It may be recalled that Dr Fehmida Mirza had made the 

offer for hosting the women speakers of the world at the 

118th General Assembly of the IPU, held in South Africa 

in April 2008, soon after she had taken office in March the 

same year. 

The offer was repeated in Vienna in 2009 and then in 

Berne in 2010. 

However, in view of the security concerns, there remained 

some hesitation in accepting the offer. Nevertheless, 

it was the personal pursuance and lobbying of Dr Mirza that 

the women leaders finally agreed to meet in Islamabad in 

2011. 

The meeting will draw 37 women speakers from different 

Parliaments of Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, South 

America and Asia. 

There are no women speakers in the Australian continent. 

Asia has the least number of women speakers, which 

is 4, namely Pakistan, India, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. 

Europe has 15, Africa 9 while the Caribbean and the Latin 

American Region have 8 women speakers. — Internews 

A BOY looks on as a man pours liquid gold into 

bowl of chemicals to separate impurities 

at a workshop in Quetta yesterday. — AFP 

and sell all connections via mail to the 

requesting customers by their official 

representative. 

These demands are unrealistic and 

impossible to be materialised by any operator 

in the country, an official of mobile 

phone operator said. 

“The government should realise the 

investors’ concerns and role of their law 

enforcement agencies (LAEs) instead of 

blaming it all on cellular operators,” he 

said. 

It is impossible to complete verification 

of SIMs in such a short time period 

and it’s the same with blocking handsets 

without IMEI, however, the demand of 

the minister could be fulfilled in the realistic 

timeframe, he said on the condition 

of anonymity. 

The IMEI number verification and 

in this regard. 

The source said the government 

would also contact the 

Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl 

(JUI-F) leadership, asking 

them to rejoin the government 

in the larger national 

and democratic interest and 

be a part of the national 

consensus government. 

He said that the government 

would also try to convince 

MQM leadership to help 

the government in tackling 

the crucial economic and 

energy crisis to strengthen 

the process of national consensus 

in the interest of the 

democratic process. 

Gilani also hinted at the return 

of the MQM and the 

JUI-F to the federal cabinet, 

saying that this possibility 

could not be ruled 

out. — Internews 

One of every 

four arms 

licences forged 

ISLAMABAD — Nearly 

one out of every four arms 

licences issued from 2007 

to 2009 by the Pakistani 

authorities are forged, indicating 

a dangerous rise 

in the proliferation of illegal 

weapons in the country, 

said a parliamentary panel 

in a meeting yesterday. 

Around 32,000 of the 

0.14 million licences issued 

by the Ministry of 

Interior in the three years 

were unauthorised and unsanctioned, 

the sub-committee 

of the Senate Standing 

Committee on Interior 

said. 

During the course of 

proceedings, Additional 

Secretary Shabbir Ahmed 

said that no licences were 

issued to foreigners in 

2010. The committee was 

informed that some 9,000 

licences were issued on the 

prime minister’s directions 

despite the ban last year 

the senate panel expressed 

concern on the discriminatory 

policy of the PM and 

said they would raise the 

issue on the floor of the 

house. 

Only the PM and the 

chief executive of the state 

can issue licences for prohibited 

bore weapons according 

to the new arms 

policy implemented this 

year. The majority of the 

5,986 licences issued on 

the directives of former 

state minister for interior 

Tasneem Qureshi in 2009, 

were fake. 

Lawmakers were informed 

that 138 fake licences 

were issued to 

American defence contractor, 

DynCorp, which paid 

$0.2 million as illegal gratification 

with assistance 

from the American envoy 

to Pakistan in 2009. Former 

additional secretary interior, 

Imtiaz Qazi, chief census 

commissioner Khizer 

Hayat Khan and Ramzan, a 

senior government officer 

were allegedly involved in 

issuing fake licences. 

Interior Ministry officials 

said only 1,400 licences 

have been issued 

to citizens this year, while 

9,197 forms were issued. 

The proliferation of illegal 

weapons is the main 

cause for rising incidents 

of robbery and target killings, 

said committee chairman 

Senator Tahir Hussain 

Mashahdi. — Internews 

Cellular operators resent demand to block SIMs 

blocking is beyond the capacity of operators 

because there are millions of handsets 

without or same IMEI numbers, he 

said. 

Cellular operators announced that 

they completed verification of all SIMs 

following the instructions of Pakistan 

Telecommunication Authority (PTA) 

through a proper mechanism with National 

Database and Registration Authority 

(NADRA) a couple of months ago. 

They implemented PTA’s issued Standard 

Operating Procedures (SOP) to verify 

subscribers’ identity and blocked almost 

10 million unverified and unregistered. 

Malik constituted a committee under 

PTA chairman, which includes Federal 

Investigative Agency (FIA) member 

and representatives of cellular operators. 

— Internews

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www.sav-oman.com 

A VILLA for rent 

in north Al Hail 

�95588775 

2 BEDROOM 

apartment wellmaintained, 

near 

Indian School Al 

Ghubra. � 99247471, 

92530652. 

D 

RIVING SSCHOOL 

MORNING STAR 

DRIVING SCHOOL S 

— Learn driving 

manual/ automatic 

with professionally 

qualified male/ female 

trainees in brand new 

cars and flexible 

payments. 

Call: �99043283, 

24478589, 24478505, 

www.chamberman. 

com/member/ 

morningstar 

www.morningstar.com 

NEW building, 20 flats, 

2 bedroom each, Wadi 

Kabir, preferably one 

party. � 99441076, 

99335227, 99359988. 

A FLAT at Al Mawaleh, 

Phase One, consists of 3 

bedrooms, 4 toilts and 2 

sittings rooms. Contact 

�99116431. 

2 NEW flats for rent in 

Wadi Kabir each flat 

consist of 3 bedrooms, 3 

bathrooms, small setting 

hall and kitchen with 2 

balkonies �99210008 

FLAT at Darsait near 

Church. � 95347496. 

VILLA at Al Khoudh 

behind A’Seeb club 

consists of 4 bedrooms 

with toilets, a sitting 

room, a hall and a 

kitchen. Contact: 

�99422812. 

VILLA, flats, offices & 

shops (Al Khuwair), flats 

(Wadi Kabir), 

good furnished/ 

unfurnished (Mumtaz). 

�96596348. 

3 BEDROOM flat in Al 

Khuwair. � 99747714, 

24706521. 

U 

MRAH/HAJ 

MRAH/HA 

AL Hikmani 

for 

HAJ and and UM UMRAH 

— With a ho host of 

services including 

the following: Hiring 

luxurious coaches, 

arranging weekly 

trips, preparing 

visas for expats at 

cost-effective price, 

including transport, 

housing, meals 

and visits to shrine 

locations. Land and 

air trips weekly. 

(99311310, 24566016, 

99361982, 99707248, 

99322124. 

CLASSIFIED SECTION: 

F 

S 

OMAN DAILY Observer � FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2011 

REAL ESTATE AGENTS 

TALK TO OUR INTERNATIONAL 

SALES TEAM FOR ALL YOUR REAL 

ESTATE REQUIREMENTS 

24695023 

24695025 

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION, 

OR SALE 

TWIN Villa each 5 

bedroom with toilet, 

dining and sitting 

room, two car parks, 

Al Khuwair 33, very 

close to Technical 

College for 

RO 210,000 net. Call 

owner: � 99331413 

BAKERY Machines 

and equipment in fully 

working condition for 

immediate sale. 

� 96798765. 

ITUATION WANTED 

INDIAN driver with 

25 years experience 

in Oman. Contact: � 

95581729. 

20 YEARS Oman 

experienced male, 

who could able to 

introduce full pledged 

accounting procedures 

and system & could 

manage the day to day 

affairs of the whole 

accounts department & 

administration, seeking 

a suitable placement, 

part time or full time 

�97221993. 

BTECH Civil Engineer 

with 3 years experience. 

Contact: � 97749430 

manoj-vembalaz@ 

yahoo.com 

BE, MBA (HR), 

PGDBM, Indian female, 

3 yrs exp in HR & 

admn, well versed with 

Oman HR practise, 

Oman labour laws, good 

in interpersonal skills, 

proficient in MS Office. 

Contact: � 92474376. 

INDIAN chartered 

accountant male, 

having 11 years Gulf 

experience, holding 

valid GCC licence, 

presently on visit visa 

looking for suitable post. 

Contact: 

� 95215241. 

S 

F 

ITUATION VACANT 

REQUIRED 

Mechanical Engineer. 

Minimum work 

experience of 5 years. 

Experience in leading 

mechanical 

engineering projects. 

Good Auto cad 

knowledge and 

Microsoft project. 

Experience in 

installation and 

commissioning of 

machineries. 

Competitive offer will 

be provided to chosen 

candidate. E-mail: 

gm@ossoman.com 

�24483112 

OMAN Wings Travel & 

Tours 

Job Vacancy 

1. Branch manager 

2. Accountant 

3. Sales executive 

CV's with current 

photo should be sent to 

omanwing@omantel. 

net.om or hafeedh. 

balushi@gmail.com 

REQUIRED 

REQUIRED, , Sales 

Executive, Sales 

Supervisor, Assistant 

Accountant, Store 

keeper Assistant. All 

with driving licence 

� 24565646. 

ON TRANSFERABLE 

VISA, require 3 Sales 

In-charge for electrical/ 

safety/hardware & oilfield. 

Minimum 5 years 

experience required in 

same field with D/L. Pls 

send CV to E-mail: 

tradecir@omantel.net. 

om 

OR RENT/SALE/INVT 

RENT/S 

INDUSTRIAL and 

commercial land at Al 

Maabela, Rusayl, 

Barka, Al Amerat and 

Quriyat. �95113217, 

95490842, 99323957, 

24453352. 

NEW building, 3 floors, 

Wadi Adai. Contact 

owner �99323914. 

Sulaiman Awlad Thani: 95181747 

Ali al Maashari: 99639264 

Saada: 95919344 

GOOD PRICE!!! GOOD PRICE!!! GOOD PRICE!!! 

S 

17 

Available on very GOOD prices 

ERVICES 

SERVICES 

HOOPOE Sm Smartcard 

Services near Gulf 

Transport Co Co, Ruwi. 

Typing of all Labour 

Agreements for Omanis 

& expatriates & all 

documents related to 

Ministry of Manpower, 

Immigration & ROP. 

�24793331, Ruwi. GSM: 

95959838. 

Al Fahad Translation 

Services 

Near Gulf Transport 

Co, Ruwi, Translation of 

all kinds of documents. 

� 24794286 Ruwi, 

GSM: 99231500 

Landrail Smartcard 

Services 

Dohat Al Adab Street 

Near Used Car 

Showroom 



& Expatriates & 

All documents related 

to Ministry of 

Manpower, Immigration, 

ROP etc 

� 24487759, Al 

Khuwair, GSM: 

96777170 

Landrail Trading & 

Services Co. 

Near Gulf Transport Co, 

Ruwi 



& Expatriates & All 

documents related to 

Ministry of Manpower, 

Immigration, ROP etc. 

� 24789117, 

Fax: 24780244 

GSM: 99231500 

Website: www. 

brightplanettrading.com, 

E-mail: 

bptland@gmail. 

com/salim@ 

brightplanettrading.com 

MARBLE polishing and 

crystallisation building, 

cleaning floor, floor 

polishing, carpet, sofa 

GOOD PRICE!!! GOOD PRICE!!! 

HP F1000 Printer 

RO 10.900 only 

HP F1050 3 in 1 Printer 


Compaq 20” LCD Monitor 


Samsung ML 1660 Laser Printer 


AII HP, Epson, Canon, Lexmark, Samsung 

Cartridges also available. 

COMPUTER SUPPLIES 

Ruwi: 24 792-792 

Sohar: 2684 2420 

GOOD PRICE!!! GOOD PRICE!!! 

P.C.O. (PEST 

CONTROL OMAN 

CO. LLC) Professionals 

who specialise in all 

types of Pest Control 

Services & Snake 

control and Guaranteed 

Termite Control. Also 

available Gel treatment 

for Cockroaches. 

Suppliers of UK 

Pesticides Chemicals, 

Snake Repellent, 

Cockroach Gels and 

Peripel treated 

Mosquito Nets. 

�24787606, 24787503, 

Fax: 24787607. 

shampooing, pest control, 

anti-termite, shifting, 

maintenance. �99504275. 

MARBLE 

CRYSTALLISATION, 

restore the original shine 

of your marble 

�24792998/99314807. 

CARPET, sofa 

shampooing, 

GUARANTEED 

CLEANING 

�24793614/99314807 

B 

UYING CCARS 

WE are buyin buying cars 

in cash. Cont Contact 

�95921203. 

CLASSIFIED 

SECTION 

RUWI: 

� 24785668 

Behind Royal 

Oman Police 

Adjacent to 

Dhofar Building 

CLASSIFIED 

SECTION 

RUWI: � 24785668 

Behind Royal Oman Police 

Adjacent to Dhofar 

Building 

TRANSFER and 

installation of 

furniture with 

packaging. 

�92118538 

DIRECT: 24649594 - FAX : 24649590 

e-mail: classified@omandaily.om 

GOOD PRICE!!! GOOD PRICE!!! GOOD PRICE!!! 

Sulaiman Awlad 

Thani:95181747 

Ali al Maashari: 

99639264 

Saada: 

95919344 

Presents 

1. Tourism journeys to all around 

the Sultanate’s areas. 

2. Delivery service from/to Dubai. 

3. Delivery service from/to the airport. 

In association with Thrifty Rent-A-Car 

For enquiries: 24478902/99337159 

G 

S 

OOD NEWS NEW 

FREE FRE 

INFORMATION 

INFORMA 

ABOUT ISLAM I 

If you would like to 

know more about 

Islam, please call: 

Tel : 99425598, 

96050000, 99353988, 

99253818, 99341395, 

99379133, 

For ladies: 99415818, 

99321360, 99730723 

Or visit: 

www.islamfact.com 

ITUATION WANTED 

INDIAN male, BA 

graudate, having 19 

years experience 

(3 years in Oman) 

as commercial exe/ 

secretary/exp & import 

documentation/storekeeper, 

seeks suitable 

position. Contact: 

� 98178614. 

IRAQI Civil 

Engineer with 10 

years experience (4 

years in Oman) with 

masters degree in civil 

engineering. 

� 95612180. 

INDIAN male 25 years 

on visit visa having 

Master of Science degree 

in petroleum engineering 

from University of New 

South Wales Australia. 

Possessing good subject 

knowledge in Reservoir/ 

production operations, 

seeks suitable placement 

in Oman. Contact: 

� 95701429. e-mail: 

ramakrishnanh2020@ 

yahoo.com 

OMANI seeks a position in 

a leading company. Admin/ 

HR & other experiences. 

e-mail: asaleel@hotmail. 

com �96658377 

INDIAN male, 32 years, 

BCom with 5 years 

exp as an accountant in 

Oman, knowing Tally 

ERP 9, Tally 6-3 & 

Focus, seeks suitable 

placement 

� 92568253. 

INDIAN male, graduate, 

4 yrs experience in India, 

assistant accountant, 

store keeper and admin 

seeks suitable placement 

�96512861. 

A MALE candidate with 

16 years of experience 

in automobile service 

industry having degree 

in Automobile 

Engineering 8 years 

experience in Oman 

with a reputed company. 

Looking for a suitable 

placement. �99632218. 

INDIAN male, 3 years 

experience in AutoCad, 

Civil Draughtsman, 

seeks for suitable job. 

� 96387042. 

CLASSIFIEDS 

Continued on P-18

Strong quake shakes 

buildings in Tokyo 

TOKYO — A strong earthquake of magnitude 6.0 hit eastern 

Japan late yesterday, rattling buildings in Tokyo but appearing 

to cause no damage and there was no tsunami warning. The 

tremor struck at a depth of 70 kilometres, off Chiba prefecture, 

at 10:37 pm, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The 

US Geological Survey measured the jolt at 6.1. 

A massive earthquake and tsunami hit northeastern Japan 

on March 11, leaving more than 27,000 people dead or missing 

as well as crippling nuclear power reactors. 

Fukushima Daiichi’s 

partner plant stabilising 

TOKYO — Japan’s Fukushima Daini nuclear plant, the companion 

of the crippled Daiichi plant 10 kilometres away that 

is still leaking radiation, has cleared a key milestone towards 

stabilising, regulators said yesterday, although the outlook for 

a restart remains uncertain. 

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said yesterday 

it reduced the evacuation zone around the four-reactor, 4,400 

megawatt Daini plant after engineers had repaired the cooling 

systems and maintained the plant in a “cold shutdown” for 

several weeks. 

The magnitude-9.0 earthquake and 15-metre tsunami that 

struck northeast Japan on March 11 automatically shut the 

plant, along with the Daiichi facility, and the reactors’ cooling 

systems briefly lost power, leading the government to impose 

a 10 km evacuation zone the following day. 

Yesterday’s reduction of that zone to 8 km from 10 km was 

purely symbolic, however, as it remains entirely within the 20 

km evacuation zone still in force around the crisis-hit Daiichi 

plant, where engineers continue struggling to restore cooling 

systems and staunch radiation leaks. 

The government said yesterday that the 20-km ring around 

the 4,696 megawatt Daiichi plant would become a no-go zone 

as of midnight, although engineers would still be able to operate 

within the area. 

A reopening of the Daini plant would require the operator, 

Tokyo Electric Power Co, to get approval from regional governments 

and residents. 

An agency spokesman said further repair work was needed 

at the Daini plant but it had stabilised and partially met additional 

anti-quake safety steps the government ordered on 

March 30. — Agencies 

S 

18 

JAPAN/CLASSIFIEDS 



ITUATION ITUATIO WANTED SITUATION WANTED SITUATION WANTED SITUATION WANTED SITUATION WANTED 

NURSE, Indian female 

22 years having 2 years 

experience (without MoH 

licence), presently on 

visit visa, seeks suitable 

placement. 

�95885342, 98871203. 

INDIAN male, MCom, 

MBA, finance, presently 

working in Oman, having 

good experience in 

accounts, seeks suitable 

placement. Contact: 

� 96680544. 

INDIAN male 23 years, 

B.Tech/IT, professional, 

seeks suitable job. Contact 

�93370081. 

INDIAN male, 31 yrs, 8½ 

yrs exp in Oman in office 

admn/secretarial/property 

maintenance & operations/ 

commercial/purchasing 

etc, seeks suitable 

placement. Contact: � 

92819899. 

MBA Finance, LLB, 

Indian male, 5 years 

experience as finance & 

admin manager with 

Omani D/L, seeks suitable 

placement. �92105416. 

MCA, 9 years experience, 

Oracle 9i/10g, PL/SQL, 

Forms, Reports, Java, 

seeks suitable placement. 

� 99564639. 

ELECTRICAL Engineer, 

higher national diploma 

(HND), 8 yrs exp in elect 

installation, maintenance 

and repair, industrial/ 

domestic/power. � 

96115423 or manijoe@ 

live.com 

INDIAN female staff 

nurse, 13 years experience 

in India & Gulf with MoH 

licence, seeks suitable 

placement near Muscat. 

Contact: � 99498552. 

INDIAN driver, having 

valid Oman driving 

licence, 5+years GCC 

experience, seeks suitable 

placement. Contact 

�93054924. 

Mailing Address: OBSERVER CLASSIFIEDS SECTION, P.O. Box 974, Muscat, P.C. 100 

Location: OEPPA HEAD OFFICE, Medinat Al Alam, 

Near Ministry of Information � 24649 593, 594, 594, 595, 596, 597 

& OEPPA Ruwi Office, Next to Dhofar Bldg, Behind Ruwi Police Station � 24785668 

STUDENTS from Ogatsu middle school carry flower pots to place in a hall for the 

entrance ceremony at the Ishinomaki-kita high school in Ishinomaki, Miyagi 

prefecture yesterday. Prime Minister Naoto Kan declared the 20-kilometre evacuation 

area around the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant a legal no-entry zone. — AFP 

QUALIFIED Finance 

Manager with almost 

10 years experience 

in manufacturing, 

contracting and trading 

companies, looking for 

an immediate placement. 

Contact: � 96341326. 

INDIAN male, M.Com/ 

MBA (finance), 32 years, 

experience of 4 years in 

Gulf/India as accountant, 

administrator on visit visa. 

Contact �95309741, 

92880150. e-mail: 

psnair1808@gmail.com 

INDIAN female, 

ICWAI (Inter) having 

5+ yrs exp in accounts, 

adminstration dept with 

computer knowledge and 

communication skill, 


Contact: � 95183934. 

INDIAN Engineer, B.Tech 

(mech), MBA, PGDHRM 

with 23 years experience in 

production, quality control, 

maintenance, HSE, HR/ 

admin, now working as a 

plant manager in a large 

Indian company, seeks 

suitable position. Contact 

�98081756. 

YOUNG, dynamic 

Sudanese female graduate 

in BSc Business with 2½ 

years experience in USA 

and Oman, seeks job in 

admin, HR, Business 

Development. Release 

available. �98591626. 

MBA Finance, 11 years 

experience (Financial 

statements, inventory, 

budgeting, payroll, Oracle 

11i) Now on family visa, 

looking for a suitable 

placement. �96364241 

GENERAL Manager, 20 

years in Oman. 

Engineer, experience in 

trading, sales/marketing, 

real estate, building 

materials, construction 

machinery, home 

appliances, exportimport, 

product 

sourcing. �92618954. 

INDIAN female, computer 

Engg, looking for suitable 

job in admin, HR, IT, back 

office, 2 yrs exp as quality 

analyst.Contact: 

� 92597626. 

B TECH electronics and 

communication, Indian 

female, 23 years, having 

one year experience, 


Contact �95679072. 

INDIAN male 38 yrs on 

visit, 15+ experience in 

sales, 5 yrs electronics 

sales (Mumbai & 15 yrs 

furnishing sales (Oman) 

looking for suitable 

sales manager post. 

�98485605, e-mail: 

sudhir36@live.com 

BTECH/MBA — Finance 

(29) presently working in 

Industrial Finance division 

of a leading nationalised 

bank in India is looking for 

a suitable post. Knowledge 

of Peoplesoft 8.9 

implementation, C,C++, 

oracle9i, SQR etc. Contact: 

� 98416190. 

BE Mechanical, Indian 

male, 23 years with 8 

months experience. On 

visit visa, seeks suitable 


NETWORK/System 

support Engineer, BS 

Computer, Microsoft, 

Linux, Cisco based 

environments (CCNA, 

MCSE), 3 years job 

experience. 

� 96034599. 

INDIAN male, 34, with 12 

years experience in 

Accounts & Admin 

(including 6 years in 

Oman) working in a 

reputed organisation, seeks 

suitable placement. 

�92353285. 

INDIAN female, B.Com, 

chief accountant, 18 years 

experience in accounts up 

to finalisation (15 years in 

Oman), valid Oman D/L, 

seeks suitable position. 

�92107410. 

ELECTRONIC 

Instrumentation Engineer 

B Tech 4 years exp in 

Instrumentation. Having 

Gulf petroleum plants exp 

worked as engineer and 

QA/QC engineer. Indian 

exp in automation field 


Contact �93569489. 

SRI Lankan male, having 

more than 10 years 

experience in Sales and 

Marketing, looking for 

challenging job, on visit 

visa. Contact: 

�93317472/ 98540764. 

ZAJEL weekly magazine evry saturday along with �OMAN DAILY � 

for advertising contact � 

Mobile � 96224397 � 95181747 

Tel �24649593 Fax �24649590 Email � zajeloman@yahoo�com 

Australia PM vows to 

back disaster-hit nation 

TOKYO — Australian Prime 

Minister Julia Gillard vowed 

yesterday to help Japan recover 

from last month’s earthquake 

and tsunami by securing 

natural resources and energy 

supplies for the Asian country. 

Gillard arrived in Tokyo 

late on Wednesday on a fourday 

visit to hold talks with her 

Japanese counterpart Naoto 

Kan and visit northeastern Japan, 

hit by the March 11 disaster 

that has left more than 

27,000 people dead or missing. 

“Australia will do anything 

it can to assist during this very 

difficult period,” Gillard said 

at a news conference after her 

talks with Kan. 

Gillard said she told Kan 

Australia “will continue to 

be a reliable supply of energy 

into the future. “Particularly 

now the people in Japan need 

new energy sources because 

of the nuclear emergency.” 

Resource-poor Japan is 

reliant on energy imports and 

nuclear power to produce 

electricity but power generation 

has been hit by the disaster 

which damaged several 

atomic plants. Australia is also 

a key supplier of uranium. 

Kan vowed to review 

the accident at the stricken 

Fukushima nuclear power station 

and share the experiences 

gained with the international 

community. 

“The two prime ministers 

recognised the need to 

INDIAN Engineer, 

BE (Civil), working as 

Senior Manager, having 

20 years experience in 

Oman, seeks suitable 

placement. Contact: 

� 98839709. 

enhance their co-operation 

in the framework of the 

International Atomic Energy 

Agency to globally strengthen 

the safety standards of nuclear 

power generation,” they said 

in a joint statement. 

Kan and Gillard also said 

they would hold further talks 

on a free-trade agreement. 

The Australian prime minister 

earlier pledged to ensure supplies 

of gas and rare earths to 

support Japan in its recovery. 

“Over the next few years 

Australia will become Japan’s 

most important supplier of 

liquefied natural gas, as we 

are already with coal and iron 

ore,” Gillard said in a speech 

at a meeting with Japanese 

business leaders. 

“Japan can certainly 

continue to rely on Australia 

as a reliable source of supply 

at this difficult time,” she 

said. 

“We are also committed 

to being a secure and reliable 

supplier to Japan of rare earth 

metals, which are so important 

to advanced manufacturing,” 

Gillard added. 

Attention has shifted to 

Australia’s nascent rare earths 

industry after China, which 

dominates global production, 

began restricting exports of the 

metals which are vital in making 

many high-tech products. 

Gillard also met Emperor 

Akihito and Empress Michiko 

at their residence, voicing her 

condolences for victims of the 

INDIAN male, 34, with 

12 years experience in 

Sales & Marketing, 

including 9 years in 

Oman working in 

reputed organisation, 


�96283909. 

ACCOUNTANT, Indian 

male, BCom, PGDCA, 9 

years experience in 

Accounting/ Finance up to 

finalisation. 4 years in 

Oman. Well versed with 

ERP systems, Tally, MS 

Office. Contact: 

�95593273. 

INDIAN Lady/36 years, 

7.6 years experience (1.6 

years in Oman), as sales 

Co-Ordinator as well as 

Administration 

Department, Asst. 

Accounts, seeks suitable 


INDIAN executive having 

15 yrs of experience in 

sales and marketing of 

various products, having 

driving licence and 

release is looking for a 

suitable position. Presently 

working for a food stuff 

company and I can shoulder 

bigger responsibility 

and give positive results. 

�97905735. 

calamity, Japan’s worst since 

World War II. 

“They also inquired about 

how we were responding and 

overcoming from our summer 

of natural disasters. They were 

very interested to hear how 

Queensland and other parts of 

the country were going to get 

over the impacts of flood and 

cyclone,” she told reporters. 

Gillard, on her first visit to 

Japan since the disaster struck, 

plans to visit evacuation centres 

in the northeast town of 

Minamisanriku tomorrow. 

Meanwhile, two underwater 

robots operated by a 

joint US-Japanese team have 

searched a bay in northeast 

Japan for bodies of victims 

swept away by a tsunami 

nearly six weeks ago, officials 


Although the Micro- 

ROV robots failed to spot 

any corpses in the search on 

Tuesday and Wednesday, they 

found that the fishing port of 

Minami Sanrikucho was free 

of major underwater obstacles 

and could be reopened soon. 

“The water in the port is 

still so murky that it is very 

difficult to inspect visually,” 

said local fishery promotion 

official Akihiro Dazai. 

“The robots’ sonar and 

video cameras could check 

what it was like underwater,” 

he said. “We’ve confirmed 

that fishing boats can reach 

unloading berths without a 

major hindrance.” — AFP 

INDIAN male, graduate, 

holder of FIATA/DGR 

foundation with 5 years 

experience in shipping / 

logistic operations, seeks 

suitable placement 

� 99284879 

saviorodrigues2002@ 

yahoocom. 

INDIAN female, MSc 

computer science, more 

than 3 years experience 

as teacher, on family 

visa, seeks placement 

�92124644. 

INDIAN Lady/35 years, 

15 years experience (5 

years in Oman). Accounts/ 

up to Finalisation, with 

valid Oman D/L, seeks 

suitable placement. 

Contact �93595180. 

INDIAN male 25 years 

old, 4 years Oman 

experience, valid 

Oman D/L, seeks job 

as marketing. Contact 

�99140901. 

MALE, 26 years, 

Bachelor of Management 

(Western educated), 3 

years+ administrative 

experience. Tech savvy. 

Good knowledge of MS 

Office applications, seeks 

immediate placement. 

Contact: � 98569053. 

CLASSIFIED 

SECTION 

RUWI: � 24785668 

Behind Royal Oman Police 

Adjacent to Dhofar Building 

Sulaiman Awlad Thani: 95181747 

Ali al Maashari: 99639264 

Sada: 95919344

19 SPORT 



Ronaldo header seals King’s Cup for Real 

VALENCIA — Real Madrid 

claimed their first trophy under 

Jose Mourinho in dramatic 

fashion when Cristiano Ronaldo's 

extra-time winner secured 

a 1-0 King's Cup final victory 

over arch-rivals Barcelona on 

Wednesday. 

With penalties looming in 

a tense and occasionally brutal 

clash at a festive Mestalla Stadium 

in Valencia, the Portuguese 

forward leaped to crash 

home a 103rd-minute header 

from Angel di Maria's superb 

centre after regular time had 

ended in stalemate. 

Real Madrid's first domestic 

cup since 1993 in Mourinho's 

debut season since joining 

from Inter Milan denied Pep 

Guardiola's Barca, who lead 

La Liga by eight points, the 

chance of a second treble in 

three seasons. 

Their first silverware after 

two barren seasons also gives 

Real a lift ahead of their twolegged 

European Champions 

League semifinal against Barca 

on April 27 and May 3. 

"Winning a trophy is always 

good," a weary-looking 

Mourinho, who was criticised 

by honorary Real president 

Alfredo di Stefano after Saturday's 

1-1 La Liga draw with 

Barca at the Bernabeu, said at 

a news conference. 

"I try to do my work as well 

as possible and I am tired now 

but very pleased," added the 

48-year-old. 

"It gives me some tranquil- 

ity, nothing more, and I will 

continue with my work." 

Mourinho, who won the 

King's Cup in 1997 and 1998 

as assistant to Barca coaches 

Bobby Robson and Louis van 

Gaal, has now won cups in 

four different countries following 

triumphs in his native 

Portugal with Porto, in England 

with Chelsea and in Italy 

with Inter. 

"In my opinion it was a 

great football match," he said. 

"I think we played well against 

a great team and beating a 

great team has more value." 

SHARED GLORY 

In a festive atmosphere in 

the Mediterranean port city, 

one half of the 55,000-capacity 

stadium was decked out in the 

claret and blue of Barca and 

draped in Catalan flags, while 

the other was a sea of white 

flecked with the yellow and 

gold of Spain. 

Mourinho opted not to include 

a striker in his starting 11, 

instead deploying an attacking 

trident of Cristiano Ronaldo, 

Mesut Ozil and Di Maria, who 

was sent off after receiving his 

second yellow card just before 

the end of extra time. 

Mourinho's Barca counterpart 

Pep Guardiola left 

captain Carles Puyol, who 

only returned from injury in 

Saturday's "Clasico", on the 

bench and midfielder Javier 

Mascherano partnered Gerard 

Pique in central defence. 

Barca, the 2009 Cup win- 

ners, had six players from 

Spain's World Cup-winning 

squad in their starting 11 and 

Real four but any memories of 

shared glory in South Africa 

seemed far from their minds in 

an attritional first half hour. 

Real successfully closed 

down Barca's creative midfielders 

and pacy forwards 

and had much the better of the 

first half before Pepe crashed a 

header off the post in the 44th 

minute with goalkeeper Jose 

Manuel Pinto well beaten. 

Barca had failed to muster 

a shot on target but the second 

period was a different story 

Hotspur rally to hold Arsenal 3-3; Chelsea win 

LONDON — Arsenal wasted a golden 

opportunity to close the gap at the 

top of the Premier League when they 

squandered a two-goal lead to draw 

3-3 at Tottenham Hotspur in a thrilling 

London derby on Wednesday. 

Champions Chelsea kept alive their 

slim chance of retaining the title with 

a routine 3-1 home win over Birmingham 

City. Manchester United top the 

standings on 70 points, six ahead of 

Chelsea and Arsenal, who slipped to 

third, with five matches left. 

Arsenal, who conceded a penalty 

deep into stoppage time to draw with 

Liverpool on Sunday, were again left 

to rue the concession of a late spot-kick 

as their hopes of a first trophy for six 

years suffered another blow. 

"It is not over, we have to fight and 

continue to battle," manager Arsene 

Wenger told Sky Sports. "We had an 

Palermo hold Milan 

ROME — Palermo produced 

a spirited display to hold Serie 

A leaders AC Milan to a 2-2 

draw at the San Siro in the 

Italian Cup semifinal first leg 

on Wednesday. 

The result gives the Sicilians 

an excellent chance of 

progressing when they play 

the second leg in Palermo in 

three weeks. The winners will 

face either holders Inter Milan 

or Roma in the final, with Inter 

holding a 1-0 advantage following 

their win on Tuesday. 

Zlatan Ibrahimovic gave 

Milan the lead but Urby 

outstanding first half and in the second 

we dropped physically because we had 

a difficult game on Sunday. 

"Maybe the second goal was decisive 

because we needed to go with a 

two-goal difference at half-time. We 

had an outstanding spirit and we need 

to keep battling until the last day." 

Spurs stayed fifth on 54 points, two 

adrift of Manchester City. 

Chelsea opened the scoring against 

Birmingham in the third minute 

through Frenchman Florent Malouda 

and forward Salomon Kalou doubled 

the lead with a superb goal before halftime. 

Malouda grabbed his second after 

62 minutes and Fernando Torres came 

on as a substitute soon afterwards 

but the Spanish striker again failed to 

register his first goal since his record 

transfer in January. 

Emanuelson had to come to 

their rescue after Javier Pastore 

and Abel Hernandez had 

turned the tie on its head. 

However, Palermo coach 

Delio Rossi insisted the job 

wasn't done yet. "For the second 

leg tonight's performance 

won't be enough, we need an 

even better one," he said. 

"We played against a great 

team which is in high spirits 

at the moment and has good 

legs. We prepared well but 

we're a little bitter at the result. 

However, I'm happy with 

how we played." — AFP 

REAL Madrid’s players celebrate with the trophy after winning the King’s Cup final against arch-rivals Barcelona 

at the Mestalla Stadium in Valencia on Wednesday. — Reuters 

NEW YORK — The Washington 

Capitals silenced a 

stunned New York crowd by 

rallying from three goals down 

to beat the Rangers in double 

overtime and seize control of 

their NHL play-offs series on 

Wednesday. 

Pittsburgh also scored a 

double-overtime win to push 

the Tampa Bay Lightning to 

the brink of elimination, while 

Buffalo beat Philadelphia and 

Anaheim crushed Nashville to 

even their respective best-ofseven 

series at 2-2. 

In Phoenix, the Detroit Red 

TOTTENHAM Hotspurs’ Luka Modric (centre) shoots at goal past 

Arsenal’s Bacary Sagna (left) and Alex Song during their Premier 

League match at White Hart Lane in London on Wednesday. — AFP 

Wings advanced to the next 

round of the play-offs after 

a 6-3 win over the Coyotes 

sealed a 4-0 sweep of the bestof-seven 

series. 

After a scoreless opening 

period in New York, the Rangers 

sprang to life with three 

goals in the second, Artem 

Anisimov opening the scoring 

followed by goals from Marian 

Gaborik and Brandon Dubinsky 

seven seconds apart. 

However, the Capitals 

stormed back in the third with 

three goals in nine minutes, 

Alexander Semin and Marcus 

THE winners of the Challengers Cup, Taiseer Electronics and (picture right) runners-up Time Travels. In the final of the 

three-week tournament, organised by Challengers Cricket Club, Taiseer scored 85 runs in the allotted eight overs and 

then restricted Time Travels to 68 runs to win by 17 runs. Kurum of Taiseer was declared the man of the match. Navin 

Suriya Narayanan from Muscat Pharmacy gave away the prizes to the winners and runners-up teams. 

and they utterly dominated 

possession, Andres Iniesta and 

Pedro forcing fine saves from 

keeper and Spain team-mate 

Iker Casillas. 

However, even World Play- 

LOS ANGELES — The Los 

Angeles Lakers came alive 

following their disappointing 

NBA play-off opener to 

grind out an 87-78 victory 

over the New Orleans Hornets 

on Wednesday and level their 

best-of-seven series 1-1. 

The San Antonio Spurs 

also tied up their first round 

series 1-1 with the Memphis 

Grizzlies while the Oklahoma 

Thunder went 2-0 up over 

Denver. 

Holders Lakers were 

shocked in their series opening 

loss on Sunday when New 

Orleans point guard Chris 

Paul ran riot, but they returned 

with a strong defensive effort 

and now head to New Orleans 

for Game Three today. 

Capitals, Pens win in double OT; Wings advance 

Johansson finding the net 57 

seconds apart and Johansson 

adding another to silence the 

boisterous New York crowd. 

New York netminder Henrik 

Lundqvist stopped Capitals 

sniper Alexander Ovechkin on 

a breakaway in the first overtime 

period but in the second 

he was unable to freeze a loose 

puck and Jason Chimera poked 

it home to give the Caps a 3-1 

series lead. 

It was Chimera's third career 

play-off goal and all three 

have been game winners. The 

series shifts back to Washing- 

er of the Year Lionel Messi 

was unable to break the deadlock 

and Ronaldo almost put 

Real ahead when he sped on 

to Xabi Alonso's pass in the 

eighth minute of extra time 

but his arrowed drive whistled 

narrowly wide. 

He made no mistake five 

minutes later and his powerful 

header sent the white half of 

the stadium into raptures and 

had them singing Mourinho's 

name long after Casillas had 

hoisted the trophy aloft and the 

Barca fans had trooped dejectedly 

into the warm Valencia 

night. 

"It's a very important title 

we're going to enjoy it," Ronaldo 

said in a television interview. 

"Mourinho has done a good 

job," he added of his compatriot. 

"He's helped us a lot. 

Barca played very well but as 

you know the team who scores 

wins." 

Guardiola was philosophical 

in defeat and said he and 

his players now had to concentrate 

on recuperating for 

tomorrow's La Liga game at 

home to Osasuna. 

"First of all I want to congratulate 

Real Madrid," the 

former Barca and Spain midfielder 

told a news conference. 

"Life is like that. You can't always 

win." 

Barca are the record King's 

Cup winners with 25, while 

Real now have 18. — Reuters 

Lakers, Spurs even series 1-1 

ton for Game Five tomorrow. 

The Penguins will also return 

home with a commanding 

3-1 lead and an opportunity 

to clinch a spot in the Eastern 

Conference semifinals after 

their 3-2 win over Tampa Bay. 

Buffalo Sabres levelled 

their series with a 1-0 win 

over Philadelphia thanks to a 

first-period goal from Jason 

Pominville. 

Anaheim's Corey Perry, 

who finished the regular season 

as the NHL's top goal scorer, 

got a short-handed goal as the 

Ducks blasted Nashville 6-3. 

Andrew Bynum led the 

way with 17 points and 11 rebounds 

and Lamar Odom added 

16 to offset poor performances 

from Kobe Bryant (11 

points) and Pau Gasol (eight). 

Los Angeles established a 

six-point half-time lead and 

were up seven after three 

quarters before stretching their 

lead to 15 in the fourth where 

they held off the Hornets. 

New Orleans were limited 

to just 39 per cent shooting. 

Trevor Ariza scored 22 and 

Paul had 20 for the visitors. 

The Spurs, top-seed in the 

Western Conference, had to 

once again fight to earn their 

93-87 triumph. 

They trailed by three points 

at half-time but were inspired 

Yanks beat Blue Jays 

TORONTO — Bartolo Colon 

made his first start in 

nearly two years to help the 

New York Yankees beat the 

Toronto Blue Jays 6-2 in the 

Major League Baseball on 

Wednesday. 

The 37-year-old Colon, 

who had not started since July 

2009 and missed all of last 

season, enjoyed a solid outing 

while surrendering two runs 

in 6-2/3 innings and striking 

out seven batters. Alex Rodriguez 

rejoined the line-up 

after missing two games with 

a sore left side and drew two 

King’s Cup 

slips, falls 

under bus 

MADRID — Spain's 

most treasured football 

trophy, the King's Cup, 

slipped from the hands 

of a Real Madrid player 

yesterday, fell under the 

team bus and was reportedly 

crushed into pieces. 

Defender Sergio Ramos 

held the 15-kilo 

trophy above his head in 

an open-top bus as the 

triumphant team were 

about to enter Madrid's 

central Cibeles Square, 

packed with fans partying 

throughout the night. 

But he lost his grip 

and the Cup, which Real 

Madrid got their hands 

on just hours earlier for 

the first time since 1993 

after a 1-0 victory over 

Barcelona, fell in front of 

the bus. 

The team bus then ran 

over the silver trophy before 

stopping. 

Police rushed to retrieve 

the Cup and gave 

it to the bus driver but it 

was not displayed to the 

public again. 

Emergency services 

workers picked up at 

least 10 pieces of the trophy, 

news radio Cadena 

Ser reported. 

"It fell, it fell, it's fine, 

it's fine," Ramos told reporters 

when asked about 

the slip. — AFP 

by shooting guard Manu Ginobli 

who missed the opener 

through injury but returned 

with 17 points. But San Antonio 

kept their cool and George 

Hill made sure of the win with 

four points with free throws. 

Sam Young top scored for 

the Grizzlies with 17 points. 

The Thunder comfortably 

took a 2-0 lead in their series 

against the Denver Nuggets 

with Kevin Durant scoring 23 

points and Russell Westbrook 

scoring 21 in the 106-89 win. 

The Thunder took charge 

from the outset and had a 26point 

lead early in the second 

quarter as they secured their 

second win before the series 

moves to Denver tomorrow 

for Game Three. — Reuters 

walks and recorded a sacrifice-fly 

RBI, and the Yankees 

(10-6) scored early to take a 

3-0 lead in the second inning. 

Other MLB results: Philadelphia 

Phillies bt Milwaukee Brewers 

4-3, Washington Nationals bt St 

Louis Cardinals 8-6, Chicago Cubs 

bt San Diego Padres 2-1 (1st gm), 

San Diego Padres bt Chicago Cubs 

5-4 (2nd gm), Colorado Rockies bt 

San Francisco Giants 10-2, Detroit 

Tigers bt Seattle Mariners 3-2, Tampa 

Bay Rays bt Chicago White Sox 

4-1, Baltimore Orioles bt Minnesota 

Twins 5-4, Boston Red Sox bt Oakland 

Athletics 5-3, Florida Marlins 

bt Pittsburgh Pirates 6-0, Houston 

Astros bt NY Mets 4-3. — Reuters 

ACTION from the last league games between Nizwa and Al Nasr, and Ahli-Sidab versus Seeb in the Samsung Basketball 

League at Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex. While Nizwa beat Al Nasr 71-53, Ahli-Sidab (picture right) defeated Seeb 65-57. 

Nizwa top the standings, followed by Ahli-Sidab, Seeb and Al Nasr. The final match on Sunday at SQSC at 6 pm and the 

awards ceremony will be held under the auspices of Rashaad al Hinai, Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Sports Affairs.

Haider does 

U-turn on 

return to 

Pakistan 

KARACHI — Former Pakistan 

wicketkeeper Zulqarnain 

Haider yesterday abandoned 

plans to return to the 

country later this week from 

London, saying he had received 

more death threats. 

"I received death threats 

from a Pakistani caller on 

Wednesday night and that 

made me abandon my plans 

to return home because I 

don't feel secure," Haider 

told Pakistani channel Geo. 

The 24-year-old fled to 

Britain in November last 

year citing death threats 

from match-fixers. 

"The man threatened me 

saying, 'You are coming 

back despite being told not 

to come, you are responsible 

for the consequences'," 

Haider said of the latest 

threat. 

He said he had informed 

London police about the 

calls and would again seek 

political asylum. 

Earlier this week Haider 

met Pakistan's Interior Minister 

Rehman Malik and, after 

getting safety assurances 

for himself and his family, 

agreed to return home on 

April 24. He had also decided 

to withdraw his asylum 

request. 

Haider was part of the 

Pakistan team in the series 

against South Africa in the 

United Arab Emirates when 

he went missing on the day 

of the fifth and final one-day 

match on November 8. 

Ronaldo header 

seals King’s Cup 

for Real 

Page 19 

MOHALI, India — Shaun 

Marsh hammered 71 off 42 

balls as Kings XI Punjab 

crushed Rajasthan Royals by 

48 runs for their third win in 

a row in the Indian Premier 

League (IPL) yesterday. 

Marsh capitalised on a 

blazing start by new batting 

sensation Paul Valthaty (46) 

and skipper Adam Gilchrist 

(28) to help the home team 

post 195 for seven, the highest 

total of the Twenty20 tournament 

so far. 

Rajasthan were hardly ever 

in the chase, folding up at 147 

for seven with seamer Praveen 

Kumar and Bhargav Bhatt 

grabbing two wickets apiece 

on an easy-paced track at the 

Punjab Cricket Association 

stadium. 

Ashok Menaria (34) did try 

to salvage the innings after Rajasthan 

were reduced to 99 for 

five but in vain. 

The defeat was Rajasthan's 

third in six matches while Punjab 

joined Mumbai Indians at 

the top with six points from 

four outings each. 

Skipper Shane Warne's decision 

to field first backfired 

as Punjab raced away to the 

100-run mark inside the first 

10 overs. 

Luck also seemed to go 

Punjab's way with openers 

Gilchrist and Valthaty enjoying 

early reprieves in their 

knocks. 

Gilchrist played on to his 

stumps off Siddharth Trivedi 

but it turned out to be a no-ball 

and Valthaty was caught at 

third slip, but this time Shuan 

Tait (three for 22) was found 

to have over-stepped. 

The Australian wicketkeep- 

Nadal keeps winning 

BARCELONA — Top seed 

Rafael Nadal extended his 

current clay-court win streak 

to 31 matches as the Spaniard 

overcame an early run of 

breaks to post a 6-3, 6-1 win 

over Santiago Giraldo at the 

Barcelona Open yesterday. 

Nadal is bidding for a sixth 

title at his 'home' event in seven 

editions after missing 2010 

due to treatment on a knee. 

He moved into the quarterfinals 

in less than 90 minutes, 

surviving a first set with five 

breaks of serve against a 

South American opponent. 

But Nadal did not hang 

er-batsman went on to share 

67 runs off 26 balls with his 

younger partner before falling 

to his former team-mate Shane 

Watson. 

Valthaty, who was dropped 

twice in two balls in his 40s, 

finally ran out of luck when he 

was caught by Tait off Warne 

in the 10th over. 

He hit three sixes and four 

fours in his 31-ball knock to 

surge to the top of the batting 

charts with 247 runs ahead of 

superstar Sachin Tendulkar 

(236). 

Marsh also made merry, 

once carting three sixes in an 

over by Warne to cap a miserable 

outing for the Aussie spin 

legend. 

Today’s matches: Kolkata 

Knight Riders vs Bangalore 

Royal Challengers; Mumbai 

Indians vs Chennai Super 

Kings. 


Kings XI run deluge sinks Royals 

about after securing the opening 

set. He took a 3-0 lead in 

the second and quickly closed 

it out. He was last beaten on 

clay at Roland Garros in 2009 

by Robin Soderling in the 

fourth round. 

Results (3rd round): Gael 

Monfils (FRA x7) bt Richard Gasquet 

(FRA x9) 6-4, 7-6 (9/7); David 

Ferrer (ESP x4) bt Victor Hanescu 

(ROM) 6-3, 6-2; Rafael Nadal (ESP 

x1) bt Santiago Giraldo (COL) 6-3, 

6-1; Juergen Melzer (aut x6) bt Albert 

Montanes (ESP x11) 6-7 (2/7), 

6-3, 6-2; Nicolas Almagro (ESP 

x8) bt Nikolay Davydenko (RUS) 

7-6 (7/2), 6-3; Juan Carlos Ferrero 

(ESP) bt Simone Vagnozzi (ITA) 

7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 6-4. 

KINGS XI Punjab’s Shaun Marsh plays a shot during 

the IPL match against Rajasthan Royals at the PCA 

Stadium in Mohali yesterday. — AFP 

Sur shoot out Al Musannah for title 

THE victorious Sur team members pose for a group photo after defeating Al Musannah 5-3 via penalties in the final to 

clinch the Oman Football Association’s ahlibank League crown at the Seeb Stadium yesterday. Fanja defeated 

Majees 2-1 to settle for the third place. — Picture by Mohammed Mahjoub 

STANDINGS 

SCOREBOARD 

Kings XI Punjab 

A Gilchrist c Tait b Watson ..........28 

P Valthaty c Tait b Warne .............46 

S Marsh c&b Watson ...................71 

D Karthik c Yagnik b Tait ............21 

A Nayar run out .............................1 

R McLaren c Raut b Tait ...............2 

Sunny Singh (not out) ....................5 

P Chawla b Tait ..............................4 

Extras: (b-1, lb-6, w-7, nb-3) ......17 

Total: (7 wkts, 20 overs) ...........195 

Fall of wickets: 1-67, 2-105, 3-175, 

4-178, 5-183, 6-190, 7-195. 

Bowling: S Trivedi 4-0-59-0; S 

Tait 4-1-22-3; S Warne 4-0-50-1; S 

Watson 4-0-24-2; S Binny 2-0-18-0; 

A Menaria 1-0-7-0; A Raut 1-0-8-0. 

Rajasthan Royals 

S Asnodkar b P Kumar ..................9 

R Dravid b Harris ...........................8 

S Watson c Chawla b P Kumar ....24 

S Binny c Chawla b McLaren .....30 

R Taylor lbw Chawla .....................0 

A Menaria c Marsh b Bhatt ..........34 

A Raut c Harris b Bhatt ................25 

D Yagnik (not out) .......................10 

S Warne (not out) ...........................5 

Extras: (lb-1, w-1) ........................2 

Total: (7 wkts, 20 overs) ...........147 

Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-18, 3-47, 

4-49, 5-99, 6-124, 7-140. 

Bowling: P Kumar 4-0-22-2; R 

Harris 4-0-34-1; B Bhatt 3-0-20-2; 

P Chawla 4-0-24-1; P Valthaty 

2-0-19-0; R McLaren 2-0-24-1; A 

Nayar 1-0-3-0. 

P W L T N/R NRR Pts 

Kolkata 5 3 2 0 0 +0.629 6 

Mumbai 4 3 1 0 0 +0.477 6 

Punjab 4 3 1 0 0 +0.290 6 

Kochi 5 3 2 0 0 +0.096 6 

Rajasthan 6 2 3 0 1 -0.898 5 

Pune 4 2 2 0 0 +0.667 4 

Deccan 5 2 3 0 0 +0.073 4 

Chennai 4 2 2 0 0 -0.097 4 

Bangalore 5 1 3 0 1 -0.730 3 

Delhi 4 1 3 0 0 -0.632 2 

(Read as played, won, lost, tied, no result, net run rate, points) 

GROS ISLET, Saint Lucia 

— Chris Gayle claimed on 

Wednesday he had been frozen 

out by the West Indies Cricket 

Board and was left with no option 

but to choose the moneyspinning 

IPL over national 

team duty. 

The former captain said he 

was forced to accept an offer to 

play for the Royal Challengers 

Bangalore because he was not 

sure about his place in the West 

Indies team, following his axing 

for the opening matches of 

Pakistan's tour. 

West Indies officials reacted 

angrily to Gayle's decision, 

and said they were less 

than pleased with the manner 

in which the he handled the 

situation. They begrudgingly 

gave him a No Objection Certificate 

(NOC) to participate in 

the IPL. 

But a few hours later Gayle 

blasted the WICB in a revealing 

radio interview from India. 

He said after getting injured 

during the World Cup, he paid 

all expenses for medical treat- 

ACTION from the Seeb and Suwaiq match in the Oman Hockey Association’s 

National Hockey League played at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex yesterday. 

Seeb defeated Suwaiq 2-0. In another match played at the Sohar Sports Complex, Muscat 

played out a 0-0 draw against Sohar. — Picture by Said al Harrassi 

ment in Britain before returning 

home to Jamaica, where 

he took it upon himself to 

commence a rehabilitation 

programme with his personal 

trainer. 

"A group of players were 

selected for a training camp 

in Barbados, and I never got a 

call, nobody spoke to me, and 

I decided to leave it alone," 

an emotional Gayle said in 

an hour-long interview on Jamaican 

radio station, KLAS 

Sports. 

"I continued my training 

programme, and I came to find 

out via the media that a Twenty20 

squad was announced, 

and a one-day international 

squad was announced, and I 

was stunned when I saw a big 

headline in the newspapers, 

'Gayle, Sarwan, Chanderpaul 

dropped'." 

Gayle said he was puzzled 

because no WICB official had 

actually called to check-up 

on him. He felt the least they 

could have done was to call 

him to the training camp at the 

Chief Executive Officer ABDULLAH BIN NASSIR AL RAHBI. Editor-in-Chief FAHMY BIN KHALID AL HARTHY 

Printers and Publishers OMAN ESTABLISHMENT FOR PRESS, PUBLICATION AND ADVERTISING 

Capitals, Pens win 

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Page 19 

Windies froze me out, says Gayle 

STUTTGART, Germany — 

Samantha Stosur admitted 

yesterday's quarterfinal win 

over second-seed Vera Zvonareva 

was her best of the year 

so far as she reached the last 

four at Stuttgart's WTA tournament. 

The 27-year-old Australian 

fifth-seed battled back from 

losing the first set for a 2-6, 

6-3, 7-6 (7/3) victory over the 

Russian, who is ranked third 

in the world, in just over twoand-a-half 

hours. 

Having made an early exit 

from January's Australian 

Open, Stosur is hoping to use 

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka are 

set to extend a deadline to recall 

their players from the Indian 

Premier League (IPL) to 

avoid embarrassing India, the 

country's sports minister said 

yesterday. 

"We are favourably looking 

at giving players more 

time to play IPL before joining 

the team for the England 

tour," Mahindananda Aluthgamage 

said. 

"We have excellent relations 

with the government of 

India and the Indian cricket 

board. We don't want to upset 

India. We don't want to embarrass 

them (BCCI)." 

Aluthgamage said he will 

meet cricket administrators 

shortly and suggest players 

be allowed to join the team by 

May 18 in London. 

The change of heart comes 

days after Sri Lanka Cricket 

(SLC) ordered its IPL players 

home by May 5 to prepare 

for the tour of England, more 

than three weeks before the 

money-spinning Twenty20 

tournament ends. 

The Test team was due to 

leave for England on May 10 

ahead of a warm-up game on 

May 14 followed by the first 

Test at Cardiff on May 26. 

The Board of Control for 

Cricket India (BCCI) wrote to 

SLC last Friday asking them 

to reconsider pulling out players 

early. 

Eleven Sri Lankan players 

are currently playing in the 

IPL, including former skip- 

West Indies High Performance 

Centre in Bridgetown, and assess 

his fitness before making 

a decision about the team. 

"The only communication 

I have had with anyone connected 

with the WICB was 

when I sent a text message to 

(team physio) C J Clark, and 

gave him an update about how 

I was doing," he said. 

"I told him I was feeling 

good, the progress I was making, 

I was running, I was in the 

gym, and working. His only response 

was that he would send 

a fitness programme, which I 

did not receive until the IPL 

offer had presented itself." 

He continued: "I wanted to 

get back on track as quickly as 

possible. I wanted to play and 

represent West Indies. 

"This was my ultimate goal, 

since I did not have a contract, 

but I was forced into this decision 

because teams were 

picked, I was not informed 

about what was happening, 

and I did not know what the 

future would hold.” 

Stosur enters semis 

Sri Lanka relent to 

India over players 

recall from IPL 

Stuttgart to recapture the form 

which helped her reach the 

French Open final at Roland 

Garros last year. 

"That's probably the 

best match I have played all 

year," beamed Stosur after 

reaching the last four of a 

tournament for the first time 

in 2011. "It is very encouraging 

to beat a player as good as 

her in a tough, tight match." 

Results (quarterfinals): Samantha 

Stosur (AUS x5) bt Vera 

Zvonareva (RUS x2) 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 

(7/3); Julia Goerges (GER) bt Sabine 

Lisicki (GER) 6-4, 6-4; Caroline 

Wozniacki (DEN x1) bt Andrea 

Petkovic (GER) 6-4, 6-1. 

pers Kumar Sangakkara and 

Mahela Jayawardene who are 

captaining their respective 

franchises. 

Their early exit would 

have disrupted the balance of 

the IPL teams they play for as 

the franchises were under the 

impression that the players 

would be available till May 

21. 

Aluthgamage said the extended 

deadline will only affect 

seven Sri Lankan players 

who were selected on Wednesday 

for the Test squad. 

The minister brushed aside 

speculation that the compromise 

came after BCCI used its 

financial clout and threatened 

to withhold the 10 per cent 

royalty due to SLC, in the 

event of an early pullout. 

Aluthgamage also insisted 

that the decision to recall the 

players was taken by a fivemember 

selection panel headed 

by former skipper Duleep 

Mendis. 

"The selectors felt the boys 

were playing too many onedayers 

and T20s for the past 

two months. They wanted the 

players to come early and adjust 

to English conditions and 

new changes in team management. 

"There is no sinister 

move." 

The Indian board earlier 

in the day said it was 'inappropriate' 

on the part of Sri 

Lanka to order players back 

home early. — AFP 

Back to school 

for Pak players 

in fight against 

corruption 

KARACHI — The Pakistan 

Cricket Board (PCB) has 

launched a programme to 

educate cricketers and officials 

on how to avoid corruption 

and be on their best 

behaviour in the sport. 

"We have held lectures 

for all the regional teams including 

coaches who are part 

of the domestic structure and 

also for the national under- 

19 and 'A' team players and 

support staff," former Test 

captain Wasim Bari, who 

heads the programme, said. 

Participants are given 

lectures on the International 

Cricket Council's anti-corruption 

code and the PCB 

code of conduct. 

"We are also telling them 

how to behave in a dressing 

room, how to interact 

with strangers and outsiders. 

How to avoid getting lured 

into corrupt practices. We 

are preparing them for international 

cricket." 

Banned trio of Salman 

Butt, Mohammed Asif and 

Mohammed Aamir were not 

allowed to take part in the 

programme. 

"Since they have appealed 

against their bans the 

matter is technically subjudice," 

said Bari. "So we can't 

involve them in any programme 

at the moment." 

The trio are serving 

minimum five-year bans 

from the ICC's anti-corruption 

tribunal for their role 

in a spot-fixing scandal during 

last year's tour to England. 

— Reuters

Observer 22 Apr 2011 - Oman Daily Observer

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