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Condolences 

to Kuwait 

emir 

HIS Majesty Sultan 

Qaboos has sent a cable of 

condolences to Shaikh Sabah 

al Ahmed al Jabir al Sabah, 

Emir of Kuwait, on the 

death of Shaikh Sabah Nasir 

Sabah al Nasir al Sabah. 

His Majesty the Sultan 

expressed his sympathies 

and sincere condolences to 

the Emir of Kuwait and his 

family praying to God to 

rest the soul of the deceased 

in peace, and to grant his 

bereaved family fortitude to 

bear the loss. — ONA 

Condolences 

to UAE 

president 

HIS Majesty Sultan 

Qaboos has sent a cable 

of condolences to Shaikh 

Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan, 

President of the United Arab 

Emirates, on the death of 

Shaikh Ahmed bin Hamed 

al Hamed. In his cable His 

Majesty the Sultan expressed 

his deep sympathies and 

sincere condolences to the 

president and his family 

praying to God to rest the 

soul of the deceased in peace 

and to grant his bereaved 

family fortitude to bear the 

loss. — ONA 

Singapore 

strike ends 

after 2 days 

SINGAPORE’s first strike 

in 26 years ended yesterday 

when Chinese bus drivers 

demanding higher pay 

reported for duty after two 

days of protest that angered 

the city-state’s government. 

Transport operator SMRT 

said the rate of attendance of 

its bus drivers yesterday was 

“back to normal and all our 

bus services are running as 

scheduled”. 

Protests 

rage over 

factory fire 

P3 

THREE supervisors of 

a Bangladeshi garments 

factory were arrested 

yesterday as protests over 

a fire that killed more than 

100 people raged on into 

a third day, with textile 

workers and police clashing 

in the streets of a Dhaka 

suburb. The government 

has blamed the disaster 

on saboteurs. 

P6 

A FERRIS wheel can be 

seen at a market in 

Berlin yesterday. — AFP 

Seas rising faster than projected 

SEA levels are rising 60 per cent faster than UN 

projections, threatening low-lying areas from Miami 

to the Maldives, a study said yesterday. The report, 

issued during UN talks in Qatar on combating 

climate change, also said temperatures were 

creeping higher in line with UN scenarios, 

rejecting hopes the rate had been exaggerated. 

Protests in Egypt continue 

CAIRO — Hundreds of demonstrators 

were in Cairo’s 

Tahrir Square for a sixth day 

yesterday to demand that President 

Mohamed Morsi rescind 

a decree they say gives him 

dictatorial powers, and two 

Syria blasts kill 54; plane downed 

JARAMANA — Simultaneous 

car bombings killed more 

than 50 civilians and left a 

trail of destruction in a town 

near Syria’s capital yesterday, 

as dissidents downed a second 

military aircraft in as many 

days. 

The explosives-packed 

cars blew up at daybreak in 

the town of Jaramana, residents, 

state media and a rights 

watchdog reported. 

The blasts ripped through a 

central square near a petrol station, 

one going off as a bombladen 

car was driven against 

the traffic down a main road 

lined by many people. 

There was a ball of fire at 

the end of a narrow lane, and 

the impact of the explosions 

brought walls down onto cars. 

Pools of blood and severed 

body parts were left behind on 

GENEVA — Extreme temperatures, 

drought, floods and the 

unprecedented loss of Arctic 

ice marked global weather in 

2012, boosting concern at the 

march of climate change, the 

World Meteorological Organisation 

(WMO) said yesterday. 

“Climate change is taking 

place before our eyes and 

will continue to do so,” WMO 

chief Michel Jarraud said, unveiling 

a weather report. 

January-October 2012 was 

the ninth warmest such period 

LONDON — A small British 

company with a dream 

of building a re-usable space 

plane has won an important 

endorsement from the European 

Space Agency (ESA) after 

completing key tests on its 

novel engine technology. 

Reaction Engines Ltd believes 

its novel Sabre engine, 

which would operate like a jet 

engine in the atmosphere and a 

rocket in space, could displace 

rockets for space access and 

11 14 19 

PROTESTERS flee during clashes with police near Tahrir Square in Cairo yesterday. — Reuters 

of Egypt’s top courts stopped 

work in protest. 

But in a move that one Muslim 

Brotherhood official said 

could help resolve the worst 

crisis of Morsi’s five-month 

presidency, the assembly 

the streets, said an AFP photographer. 

The Syrian Observatory for 

drawing up a new constitution 

said it would complete work 

on a final draft yesterday. 

The official said the final 

draft could go to a popular referendum 

by mid-December. 

If approved it would cancel 

Human Rights gave a death 

toll of 54, all civilians. 

More than 120 other peo- 

the constitutional declaration 

that extended Morsi’s powers 

and sparked street protests 

that drew tens of thousands 

on Tuesday. Brotherhood and 

other supporters have called 

for a rally backing the presi- 

DISSIDENTS celebrate on top of the remains of a fighter jet at Daret Ezza yesterday. 

ple were wounded, and many 

residents rushed with them to 

hospital. — AFP 

2012 marked by extreme weather: UN 

since records began in 1850, 

the WMO said. 

The global land and ocean 

surface temperature over these 

10 months was about 0.45 

degrees Celsius above the 

1961-1990 average of 14.2 C, 

it said. 

“Notable extreme events 

were observed worldwide, 

but some parts of the northern 

hemisphere were affected 

by multiple extremes,” it said, 

highlighting these episodes: 

� HEATWAVES hit the Uni - 

ed States, which registered 

15,000 new daily temperature 

records in March alone, as well 

as southern Europe, much of 

Russia and northwestern Asia. 

Drought gripped many 

countries, notably affecting 

some 9.6 million people in 

China’s Yunnan and Sichuan 

provinces. 

� FLOODING struck many 

parts of western Africa and the 

Sahel between July and September, 

affecting nearly three 

million people and killing at 

least 300. 

In western Russia’s Krasnodar 

region, July floods killed 

nearly 200 people and caused 

property damage worth $630 

million. Parts of southern China 

experienced their heaviest 

rainfall in the last 32 years in 

April and May. 

� STORMS left a trail of da - 

age in the Caribbean and US 

East Coast as the Atlantic basin 

experienced an above-average 

hurricane season for the third 

year in a row. — AFP 

Biggest engine breakthrough since the jet 

transform air travel by bringing 

any destination on earth to no 

more than four hours away. 

That ambition was given a 

boost yesterday by ESA, which 

has acted as an independent 

auditor on the Sabre test 

programme.”ESA are satisfied 

that the tests demonstrate the 

technology required for the Sabre 

engine development,” the 

agency’s head of propulsion 

engineering Mark Ford told a 

news conference. 

“One of the major obstacles 

to a re-usable vehicle has 

been removed,” he said. “The 

gateway is now open to move 

beyond the jet age.” 

The space plane, dubbed 

Skylon, only exists on paper. 

What the company has right 

now is a remarkable heat exchanger 

that is able to cool air 

sucked into the engine at high 

speed from 1,000 degrees Celsius 

to minus 150 degrees in 

one hundredth of a second. 

This technology solves one 

of the constraints that limit jet 

engines to a top speed of about 

2.5 times the speed of sound, 

which Reaction Engines believes 

it could double. 

With the Sabre engine in jet 

mode, the air has to be compressed 

before being injected 

into the engine’s combustion 

chambers. Without pre-cooling, 

the heat generated by compression 

would make the air hot 

enough to melt the engine. 

dent on Saturday. 

“We will start now and finish 

today, God willing,” Hossam 

el Gheriyani, the constituent 

assembly speaker, said at 

the start of a meeting to finalise 

drafting the constitution. 

Diplomat shot 

dead in Yemen 

SANAA — A Saudi diplomat 

and his bodyguard 

were killed when their car 

was raked with gunfire by 

unidentified assailants in 

Yemen’s capital yesterday, 

a diplomatic source and the 

kingdom’s foreign ministry 

said. 

“Gunmen dressed in the 

central security forces’ uniforms 

opened fire heavily 

at the car of the Saudi diplomat 

in Sanaa, causing it to 

flip over, killing him and his 

bodyguard,” the source in 

Yemen said on condition of 

anonymity. The diplomat is 

an official at the embassy’s 

military section in Yemen, 

the source said. 

Saudi Arabia confirmed 

the incident, identifying the 

diplomat as Sergeant Khaled 

Shobeikan al Anzi. — AFP 

� See page 15 

HONOLULU — A volcano 

on Hawaii’s largest island is 

spilling lava into the ocean, 

making a rare and spectacular 

fusion of steam and waves 

that officials said could attract 

thrill-seeking visitors if 

it continues. 

Lava from a vent in Kilauea 

Volcano on the Big Island 

of Hawaii began flowing into 

the ocean11 km away on Saturday. 

The volcano has been 

erupting continuously from 

its Pu’u O’o vent since 1983. 

The flow was the first 

Kiwis eye Test win in Sri Lanka 

NEW ZEALAND were within sight of their first Test 

victory in Sri Lanka in 14 years after 17 wickets fell 

on a thrilling penultimate day of the series yesterday. 

The Black Caps set Mahela Jayawardene’s side 363 for 

victory after first bowling them out for 244 and making 

194 for nine declared in their second innings. By 

stumps Sri Lanka had slumped to 47 for four. 

Palestine wins 

more support 

UNITED NATIONS — A 

large majority of the 193 

member states of the United 

Nations are expected to vote 

in favour of an upgraded 

status for the Palestinians 

at the world body’s General 

Assembly today. 

More European states 

joined France yesterday in 

backing a Palestinian bid 

for limited statehood but 

Britain held back, saying 

it wanted an assurance 

that the Palestinians would 

not pursue Israel through 

the International Criminal 

Court. 

Among the ‘no’ votes 

will figure those of Israel, 

and its key Western ally 

the United States, which 

is one of the five powerful 

permanent members of 

the UN Security Council. 

Germany said it would 

not vote in favour of the 

bid. 

Russia and China, which 

also have permanent seats 

on the Security Council, 

have long stated that they 

will vote in favour of 

granting the Palestinian 

Authority the status of a 

‘non-member state’. 

However attention is 

LONDON — Oil prices fell 

yesterday as investors focused 

on key budget talks in 

the United States, the world’s 

biggest consumer of energy, 

analysts said. 

New York’s main contract, 

West Texas Intermediate 

(WTI) for delivery in January, 

slipped 49 cents to $86.69 a 

barrel. Brent North Sea crude 

for January lost 37 cents to 

$109.50 in London midday 

deals. 

“Following the agreement 

to provide further financial 

assistance to Greece, market 

players are clearly turning 

their attention to the next 

pressing problem, namely the 

budget dispute in the US,” 

said Commerzbank oil analyst 

Carsten Fritsch. 

US lawmakers are working 

to hammer out an agreement 

on the budget for next year 

that requires painful compro- 

likely to focus on a handful 

of Western states, such as 

France, who have said they 

will favour the motion. 

Among other Western 

countries which have 

said recently that they 

will support the General 

Assembly motion are 

Austria, Denmark, Norway, 

Spain, Switzerland and 

Turkey. 

Hanan Ashrawi, a senior 

member of the Palestine 

Liberation Organisation, 

said yesterday that a 

number of governments 

were seeking guarantees 

that if the Palestinians 

gained the new status, they 

would refrain from taking 

Israel before the ICC in the 

Hague. 

Despite Britain’s 

expected abstention, and 

opposition to the bid 

from nations including 

the US and Germany, the 

Palestinians are expected 

to easily win approval at 

the 193-member General 

Assembly. 

“We’re going to have 

a vast majority, a vast 

majority, more than 

two-thirds,” Ashrawi 

said. — AFP 

Oil hovers over $109 

from the volcano to reach the 

ocean since December, said 

Janet Babb, spokeswoman 

for the US Geological Survey’s 

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. 

Even as Hawaii tourism 

officials awaited an increase 

in visitors drawn by the explosive 

natural show, officials 

warned of potentially deadly 

risks and urged visitors to 

stay a safe distance away 

and respect barriers placed 

around the lava flow. 

“Ocean entries can be 

mises from both Republicans 

and Democrats, but negotiations 

have been marked by 

bitter political bickering. 

If no deal is reached before 

the end of the year, a “fiscal 

cliff” of tax rises and massive 

spending cuts, including 

slashes to the military, comes 

into effect and would likely 

send the world’s biggest economy 

back into recession. 

Initial euphoria over the 

debt deal reached between 

Greece and its creditors has 

meanwhile died down as both 

sides move to implement its 

terms. 

Lingering concerns over 

the euro zone debt crisis cut 

short a rally by the euro, which 

briefly got a boost from the 

Greek debt deal announced on 

Tuesday. 

A weaker euro makes dollar-priced 

oil more expensive, 

denting demand. — AFP 

Rare and spectacular fusion 

quite beautiful but also quite 

dangerous,” Babb said. 

When the lava reaches the 

ocean, it cools, darkens and 

hardens into a lava delta amid 

an outpouring of steam. The 

lava delta is newly developed 

land that is unstable and can 

collapse without warning. 

When it collapses, even 

visitors standing metres away 

can be hurt because large 

chunks of lava and hot water 

are hurled their direction by 

the collapse, Babb said. 

— Reuters 

A PLUME of smoke rises from the volcanic activity in Kilauea crater in Hawaii. 

Prayer timing Fajr Dhuhr Asr Magrib Isha Weather W Muscat Musc Nizwa Sohar Al Buraimi Sur Duqm Salalah 

EXCHANGE RATES 

GOLD 

Dollar per Omani Rial 

PRICE 

Muscat 05:11 am 12:00 pm 03:04 pm 05:25 pm 06:39 pm Max ax 28 29 28 27 30 32 29 

Min 21 19 20 17 24 19 22 

Buying 0.382 Selling 0.388 $1,717.01

Successful outcome 

to Blue City ‘B’ 

notes tender offer 

MUSCAT — The Oman Investment 

Fund has confirmed that the invitation 

by Onyx Investments Ltd, the OIF 

wholly owned subsidiary, to holders 

of Class B notes in the Blue City 

Project to sell their notes to Onyx has 

been successful and all conditions to 

the invitation have been met in full. 

Over 75 per cent of the Class B notes 

were tendered. 

The offer made by Onyx was at 

a price of 35 cents on the dollar for 

$143 million of outstanding Class B 

notes issued by the Blue City Project. 

This means that the total value of 

Onyx’s offer to Class B noteholders 

was $50 million only (representing 

a 65 per cent from the Class B notes 

nominal value). 

ADAM — Qualifying rounds for the 

camel race season 2012-2013 organised 

by the Oman Camel Races Federation 

kicked off on the Sih Al Sariya race 

track in the Wilayat of Adam in Dakhiliyah 

Governorate. The qualifying races 

are held at the level of governorates on 

the race tracks in the wilayats of Sa- 

2 OMAN 

OMAN DAILY Observer 

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2012 

National 

Day marked 

in Italy 

ROME — The Sultanate’s 

Embassy marked the 42nd 

anniversary of the National 

Day at Westin Excelsior hotel 

here yesterday when Said 

bin Nasir al Harthy, the Sultanate’s 

Ambassador to Italy, 

received nearly 800 guests 

including leading diplomatic 

and political figures and 

businessmen. 

During the celebration a 

documentary was screened 

featuring the stages of development 

and achievements 

that took place in the Sultanate 

thanks to the wise leadership 

of His Majesty Sultan 

Qaboos. — ONA 

Camel race qualifying rounds begin 

ham, Adam and Al Mudhaibi with the 

purpose of giving the chance to camel 

owners who are unable to participate in 

the general competitions. — ONA

SINGAPORE — Singapore’s 

�rst strike in 26 years ended 

yesterday when mainland Chinese 

bus drivers demanding 

higher pay reported for duty 

after two days of protest that 

angered the city-state’s government. 

State-linked transport operator 

SMRT said the rate of 

attendance of its bus drivers 

yesrterday was “back to normal 

and all our bus services 

are running as scheduled”. 

It said 20 of the drivers 

were “assisting the police” in 

an investigation after their action 

was declared illegal by 

the manpower ministry, which 

warned that anyone found 

guilty could be �ned or jailed 

for up to a year. 

The Chinese drivers, who 

are not unionised and issued no 

strike declaration, told reporters 

on Monday that they were 

protesting pay discrimination 

because their Malaysian counterparts 

were getting higher 

wages for the same work. 

The company, which must 

hire foreigners due to a chronic 

labour shortage in Singapore, 

said 171 Chinese drivers 

took part in the work stoppage 

on Monday, and 88 stayed off 

work on Tuesday. 

SMRT said it pays “competitive 

wages” and provides 

housing, utilities and worksite 

shuttles to its Chinese drivers. 

But it vowed to look into the 

grievances of the strikers and 

address problems like bedbugs 

in dormitories. 

Most Malaysian blue-collar 

workers in Singapore commute 

daily across a causeway 

linking the two countries. 

“There are lessons from this 

episode, including how we can 

better engage our (drivers), 

and we will improve in this 

area,” said Teo Chew Hoon, 

an executive vice president of 

SMRT. “In the meantime, we 

are doing our utmost to make 

immediate improvements to 

their living conditions,” she 

added. 

Strikes and other forms of 

industrial action are extremely 

rare in Singapore, where unions 

work closely with the 

3 ASIA/PACIFIC 



THAI Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra arrives at the parliament in Bangkok yesterday. Yingluck easily survived a no-con�dence vote 

yesterday orchestrated by her opponents in parliament who accused her of failing to crack down on graft. — AFP 

Japan demolishes anti-airport protest relics 

TOKYO — Two huts that 

stood for more than four decades 

on land earmarked for an 

international airport, bearing 

testimony to bloody protests 

against Japan’s rapid modernisation, 

were pulled down 

yesterday. 

The structures are a legacy 

of violent demonstrations that 

left police of�cers dead as 

homemade bombs were tossed 

by leftist students, activists and 

farmers who said they were the 

victims of a land grab at what 

became Narita Airport. 

Dozens of huts were built 

in a bid to halt the construction 

of the huge facility in a rural 

spot around 50 kilometres outside 

Tokyo. 

Some of them remained and 

the airport was built around 

them, leaving one of the taxiways 

bent. 

The demolition of two huts 

was given the green light by 

Tokyo High Court in April 

after it ruled in favour of a 

landowner who asked for the 

return of a family plot. 

“We will start the court enforcement 

of vacation of the 

land,” an of�cial from Chiba 

District Court announced at 

the site yesterday as some 30 

grey-haired protesters attempted 

to stop work crews. 

Around 100 police of�cers 

moved them along and there 

were no reports of injuries or 

major trouble at the scene, according 

to the Chiba prefecture 

police. 

Sukhoi jets approved 

JAKARTA — Indonesia has 

certi�ed Russian-made Sukhoi 

civilian jets as airworthy, 

allowing the export of the 

planes to the booming aviation 

market despite a pending 

probe into a crash that killed 

all 45 onboard. 

A Sukhoi Superjet 100 

slammed into the 7,200-foot 

Mount Salak volcano in western 

Java on May 9 during an 

exhibition �ight to showcase 

the jet in Indonesia, where the 

aviation industry is rapidly 

expanding. 

“We gave Sukhoi certi�cation 

on Tuesday that validates 

the aircraft as airworthy,” 

transport ministry spokesman 

Bambang Ervan said 

yesterday. “We looked at the 

aircraft’s build, design and 

engine and found it met both 

international and Indonesian 

standards.” 

The approval allows the 

sale of the jet in Indonesia, 

Ervan said, where local carriers 

Kartika Airlines and Sky 

Aviation have orders for 30 

and 12 aircraft respectively, 

with each jet priced at around 

$30 million. 

Sky Aviation will receive 

its �rst aircraft in December 

and the remaining by 2015, 

marketing manager Sutito 

Zainudin said. 

The National Transport 

Safety Committee conducting 

the investigation into the 

crash said it had come up with 

preliminary results in a draft 

that would be �nalised by December. 

“We cannot give any information 

about the investigation, 

but the crash and the 

certi�cation are two different 

things. They have nothing to 

do with each other,” committee 

chairman Tatang Kurniadi 

said. — AFP 

“We will not let it happen,” 

shouted a protester with a megaphone, 

while fellow activists 

held banners declaring: “We 

will not allow the destruction” 

of the buildings. 

But the relatively small 

protest bore witness to how little 

traction the issue now has 

among the general public, particularly 

with young people. 

Nearly 30 million people 

use Narita airport annually, 

and the facility faces constant 

pressure from airlines to expand. 

At the height of Japanese 

radicalism in the 1970s, thousands 

of extreme leftists congregated 

at dozens of similar 

huts in and around the area in 

a bid to stymie the airport. 

Japan was in the middle 

of a decades-long period of 

blistering economic growth 

as the ruined and largely rural 

country that emerged from the 

defeat of World War II rose 

to become the globe’s second 

largest economy. 

In 1966, the government 

decided to build the airport 

outside the capital after 

Haneda Airport in Tokyo Bay 

reached capacity. 

As the authorities began expropriating 

farming lots, many 

smallholders physically fought 

back. They were later joined 

by leftist students and activists 

staging violent protests. 

There were regular clashes 

between riot police and the 

thousands of protesters at the 

Singapore’s �rst strike in 26 years peters out 

A POLICE van reverses out of the premises of a dormitory as negotiations with striking 

bus drivers continue within the building in Singapore. -- Reuters 

government and private business, 

making the port city an 

attractive place for foreign 

investment. The last strike in 

Singapore was staged in 1986, 

the manpower ministry said. 

Strikes are illegal for workers 

in “essential services” 

such as transport unless they 

give a 14-day notice of their 

intent and comply with other 

requirements. The penalty for 

site, who fought back with 

homemade explosives, resulting 

in the deaths of at least 

three police of�cers and one 

activist. 

Hundreds of farmers and 

protesters were arrested and 

the airport became a rallying 

point for anti-government 

movements throughout the 

country at a time many Japanese 

felt disenfranchised by 

the rapid pace of change. 

But after the height of 

violence in the 1970s, the 

movement gradually lost momentum. 

Eight other huts still 

remain on land allocated for 

the airport or around it, according 

to Kyodo News. One 

of them has forced a taxiway 

to be bent to avoid it. — AFP 

Rule of law report pinpoints 

room for progress in Asia 

WASHINGTON — East Asia 

scores well when it comes to 

keeping a lid on crime, but it 

still has work to do on other 

key factors that constitute the 

rule of law, a study published 

yesterday suggests. 

The non-pro�t World Justice 

Project’s third annual 

Rule of Law Index takes stock 

of the development of the core 

legal concept in 97 countries 

and jurisdictions, based on interviews 

with 97,000 citizens 

and 2,500 experts. 

It quanti�es such factors 

as limited government powers, 

absence of corruption, 

order and security, fundamental 

rights, open government, 

regulatory enforcement, civil 

justice and criminal justice. 

Worldwide, the Nordic 

nations -- Denmark, Finland, 

Norway and Sweden -- as well 

as the Netherlands scored best 

across all nine factors, according 

to the 228-page report. 

In terms of order and security, 

Singapore and Hong 

Kong scored the highest of 

all countries, with regional 

neighbours Japan, Malaysia, 

Vietnam and South Korea 

also placing among the top 30. 

China was at 32. 

But with the exception of 

Japan and Hong Kong, East 

Asian nations lagged in other 

areas. 

China’s “relatively effective” 

criminal justice system 

was compromised by political 

meddling and due-process violations, 

while its strict limits 

on freedom of speech and as- 

sembly put it near the bottom 

for fundamental rights. 

Indonesia ranked last in 

East Asia in terms of corruption, 

and police abuses and 

harsh prison conditions were 

also deemed to be signi�cant 

problems, according to the 

report. 

Fundamental rights were a 

concern in Malaysia, the Philippines 

and Singapore, while 

Thailand lagged in terms of 

civil justice due to delays in 

processing cases and dif�culties 

in enforcing court rulings. 

Elsewhere, South Asia as a 

region came out as “the weakest 

performer overall in most 

dimensions of the rule of law,” 

despite efforts in many countries 

to beef up governance, 

the report said. — AFP 

an illegal strike is a �ne of up 

to S$2,000 ($1,636) or a maximum 

prison term of one year, 

or both. The wildcat strike 

began when the Chinese drivers 

refused to board a shuttle 

bus from their dormitory to a 

nearby depot on Monday. Local 

media reported that some 

of the drivers were apparently 

unaware they were breaking 

Singapore law. 

Police had no immediate 

comment on the investigations. 

SMRT, which is 54 per 

cent owned by state investment 

�rm Temasek Holdings, 

has had to hire bus drivers 

from China and Malaysia due 

to a chronic worker shortage in 

Singapore. 

In the case of SMRT Corp 

Ltd, one of two bus companies 

that ply Singapore’s roads, 

Chinese nationals account for 

about 450 of the 2,000 or so 

drivers on its payroll. 

Kit Wei Zheng, an economist 

at Citigroup, said more 

labour disputes could emerge 

given developments in the region. 

“Globally and regionally, 

there is greater labour activism 

taking place,” he said. “In 

China, you have seen more assertive 

industrial action so, in 

hindsight, it was not surprising 

that some of these pressures 

reached Singapore’s shores.” 

— AFP/Reuters 

Govt considers easing 

family planning rules 

BEIJING — China is considering 

changes to its onechild 

policy, a former family 

planning of�cial said, with 

government advisory bodies 

drafting proposals in the face 

of a rapidly ageing society in 

the world’s most populous nation. 

Proposed changes would 

allow for urban couples to 

have a second child, even if 

one of the parents is themselves 

not an only child, the 

China Daily cited Zhang Weiqing, 

the former head of the 

National Population and Family 

Planning Commission, as 

saying yesterday. 

Under current rules, urban 

couples are permitted a 

second child if both parents 

do not have siblings. Looser 

restrictions on rural couples 

means many have more than 

one child. 

TOKYO — Anti-nuclear 

parties banded into a new 

political group yesterday, as 

Japan’s fragmented electoral 

landscape shifts ahead of next 

month’s national poll. 

Three recently-sprouted 

parties and several independents 

merged into Nippon Mirai 

No To (The Future of Japan 

Party) on a platform of ridding 

the Fukushima-scarred country 

of atomic power. 

The party is headed by 

high-pro�le regional politician 

Yukiko Kada, and its 

formation comes as opinion 

polls show the December 16 

election is likely to leave no 

political party with suf�cient 

seats to govern alone. 

“We will form a new party, 

Population scholars have 

cited mounting demographic 

challenges in their calls for reform 

of the strict policy, introduced 

in 1979 to limit births 

in China, which now has 1.34 

billion people. 

Zhang said the commission 

and other population research 

institutes have submitted 

policy recommendations to 

the government. Zhang, who 

serves on China’s congressional 

advisory body, said any 

changes if adopted would be 

gradual. 

“China’s population policy 

has always taken into account 

demographic changes but 

any �ne-tuning to the policy 

should be gradual and consider 

the situation in different 

areas,” China Daily cited 

Zhang as saying. The relaxed 

policy might be implemented 

�rst in “economically produc- 

in response to people saying 

they don’t have any party to 

choose from at the moment,” 

Kada told a press conference 

near Lake Biwa, Japan’s largest, 

in a region with a number 

of ageing nuclear reactors. 

Japan must “graduate from 

nuclear power”, the 62-yearold 

governor of Shiga prefecture 

in western Japan said. 

She later suggested a ten-year 

period would be required. 

The governing Democratic 

Party of Japan (DPJ) on 

Tuesday declared its aim of 

weaning the country off nuclear 

power by the end of the 

2030s. 

Its opinion poll-leading 

opponent, the Liberal Democratic 

Party, has criticised 

tive regions” and places that 

have followed closely existing 

regulations, the paper said. 

President Hu Jintao 

dropped a standard reference 

to maintaining low birth rates 

in his work report to the ruling 

Communist Party’s �veyearly 

congress in early November, 

a break which some 

experts see as evidence of an 

imminent change to the onechild 

policy. 

Demographers warn that 

the policy has led to a rapidly 

greying population that could 

hamper China’s economic 

competitiveness. 

This year, debate over 

the country’s strict family 

planning rules erupted after 

a woman in the northwestern 

province of Shaanxi was 

forced by of�cials to have an 

abortion after seven months of 

pregnancy. — Reuters 

Anti-nuclear groups join forces 

anti-nuclear policies as “irresponsible” 

and unrealistic. 

The business-friendly bloc is 

broadly supportive of nuclear, 

which advocates say is essential 

if Japan is going to be able 

to power its industries. 

Last year’s tsunamisparked 

disaster at Fukushima, 

where reactors melted down 

and spewed radiation into the 

air and sea, has engendered a 

vocal anti-nuclear movement 

in usually-quiescent Japan. 

Ahead of next month’s 

election of lower house lawmakers, 

small single-issue 

parties have mushroomed and 

the establishment of Nippon 

Mirai No To is an attempt to 

consolidate their fractured 

support. — AFP 

CHINA’S Vice-Premier Li Keqiang (R) with World Bank President Jim Yong Kim at 

Zhongnanhai, the central government compound in Beijing yesterday. — Reuters 

Premier promises 

political stability 

CANBERRA — Papua New 

Guinea’s Prime Minister Peter 

O’Neill promised yesterday to 

bring stability to the revolving 

door of Papua New Guinea 

politics and to crack down on 

corruption as his government 

courts multi-billion dollar resources 

investments. 

O’Neill and rival Sir 

Michael Somare had both 

claimed to be the leader of the 

South Paci�c island nation 

last year, turmoil typical of 

PNG politics, before O’Neill 

was re-elected in August. 

In the middle of that crisis, 

corruption watchdog Transparency 

International ranked 

PNG 154th out of 183 nations 

on its global graft index released 

a year ago, only beating 

out countries like Somalia, 

North Korea and Afghanistan. 

“We have to �ght corruption. 

Corruption is like a cancer. 

If it is not detected, it simply 

grows and grows,” O’Neill 

told the National Press Club 

in the Australian capital, Canberra. 

“If not reduced, it undermines 

our efforts to maintain 

political stability and social 

cohesion. It is also a strong 

deterrent to good foreign investment.” 

On his �rst visit to 

PNG’s former colonial ruler 

Australia since his re-election, 

O’Neill said an anti-corruption 

commission should start 

operating next year. 

A special task force -- 

known as Sweep -- has been 

investigating graft for the past 

year and is looking into more 

than 170 complaints involving 

around $1 billion of public 

funds. 

PNG, a nation of around 

6.5 million people, is going 

through a resources boom 

and is home to a $15.7 billion 

Exxon Mobil gas export 

project, which is due to start 

production in 2014 and boost 

GDP by around 20 per cent. 

There is also the vast OK Tedi 

copper mine and the Frieda 

River copper project run by 

Xstrata. 

Task force Sweep’s chairman 

Sam Koim has targeted 

politicians and of�cials who 

have invested money in the 

tropical northern Australian 

city of Cairns, describing 

Australia as the money-laundering 

destination of choice. 

O’Neill said that, as well as 

plans for the new anti-corruption 

body early in 2013, parliament 

was also working on 

political stability. — Reuters 

Map row 

decried 

BEIJING — China said 

yesterday that people should 

not read too much into the 

placement of a new map 

in its passports that depicts 

claims to disputed maritime 

territory. The Philippines and 

Vietnam have condemned 

the new microchip-equipped 

passports, saying the map 

they incorporate violates 

their national sovereignty by 

marking disputed waters as 

Chinese territory. 

India, which also claims 

two Himalayan regions 

shown as Chinese territory 

on the map, is responding by 

issuing visas stamped with its 

own version of the borders. 

“The aim of China’s new 

electronic passports is to 

strengthen its technological 

abilities and make it convenient 

for Chinese citizens to 

enter or leave the country,” 

Foreign Ministry spokesman 

Hong Lei said. 

“The issue of the maps 

in China’s new passports 

should not be read too much 

into. China is willing to remain 

in touch with relevant 

countries and promote the 

healthy development of 

the exchange of people between 

China and the outside 

world.” — Reuters

TIBETAN monks and members of Tibetan Youth Congress hold lit candles during a protest in Siliguri yesterday. — AFP 

Maldives scraps GMR contract, 

New Delhi reacts sharply 

NEW DELHI — In a unilateral 

action, the Maldives government 

has decided to scrap the 

$500 million contract given to 

GMR Group for developing 

the Male airport. India reacted 

sharply, saying it sends a “very 

negative signal” to foreign investors. 

The Maldives cabinet on 

Tuesday annulled the agreement 

made with GMR Group 

to operate the Ibrahim Nasir 

International Airport (INIA), 

at Hulhulé Island nearby 

capital Malé, Maldivian President’s 

Press Secretary Masood 

Imad said. 

Maldives Attorney-General 

Aishath Azima Shakoor had 

announced cancellation of the 

contract and revealed that the 

decision has been conveyed to 

Maldives Airports Company 

Limited (MACL). GMR has 

also been informed of the de- 

Three Maoists 

killed by rivals 

RANCHI — Three guerrillas 

were killed by members 

of a rival Maoist group in 

Jharkhand’s Palamau district, 

police said yesterday. 

Members of the banned 

Communist Party of India- 

Maoist (CPI-Maoist) gunned 

down Jharkhand Prastuti 

Committee (JPC) chief Babulal 

alias Avinash and two 

other members of the group, 

a police of�cial said. 

The incident took place 

late on Tuesday after JPC 

members were abducted in 

the jungle area at Taal village 

of Palamu district, around 

145 km from here. The bodies 

have been sent for postmortem, 

said a police of�cer. 

In another development, 

police seized huge cache of 

arms in Ramgarh district on 

Tuesday. — IANS 

cision, Azima added, according 

to haveeru online. 

The Maldivian government 

said the decision to terminate 

the agreement signed on June 

28, 2010, between GMR- 

MAHB consortium, Maldives 

Airports Company Ltd and the 

government was based on a 

paper presented by the Attorney-General’s 

of�ce prepared 

after a “thorough research 

done for the past nine months 

by a Cabinet Committee”. 

The AG’s paper is based 

on “technical, �scal and economic 

issues” and includes the 

legal advice of lawyers from 

Britain and Singapore regarding 

the agreement which was 

“legally invalid, and impossible 

to further continue.” 

Given strong bilateral relations 

with the Indian Ocean 

island nation, India was surprised 

and distressed at the 

unilateral decision. 

It said the Maldives government’s 

decision to cancel 

the GMR contract would send 

“a very negative signal” to foreign 

investors. 

External Affairs Minister 

Salman Khurshid said: “Whatever 

legal decision is taken (by 

Maldives) will have repercussion 

here.” 

The decision was taken 

without due consultations, said 

the external affairs ministry. 

India also asked the Maldives 

to ensure Indian interests 

and security of Indian nationals 

in the Indian Ocean island 

country are “fully protected”. 

The investment by GMR represents 

the single largest foreign 

direct investment in the 

history of Maldives, it noted. 

“The decision to terminate 

the contract with GMR without 

due consultation with the 

4 INDIA 



company or efforts at arbitration 

provided for under the 

agreement sends a very negative 

signal to foreign investors 

and the international community,” 

said Syed Akbaruddin, 

the spokesman of India’s external 

affairs ministry. 

“We call upon the Government 

of Maldives and all concerned 

parties to ensure that 

Indian interests in Maldives 

and the security of Indian nationals 

are fully protected,” he 

said. 

“The government of India 

proposes to monitor the situation 

in Maldives closely and is 

prepared to take all necessary 

measures to ensure the safety 

and security of its interests and 

its nationals in the Maldives. 

The government of India will 

continue to be seized of the 

matter,” said the spokesperson. 

— IANS 

‘China will not oppose 

India’s UN seat bid’ 

NEW DELHI — Seeking 

a co-operative relationship 

with India to build an Asian 

century, a senior Chinese of�cial 

yesterday underlined that 

China will not pursue a policy 

to obstruct or oppose India’s 

efforts to get a permanent seat 

in the UN Security Council. 

“We welcome a more positive 

and important role by 

India in the United Nations,” 

Huang Huaguang, an of�cial 

of the international department 

of the Communist Party 

of China, said in an interaction 

at the Observer Research 

Foundation, a think-tank. 

We don’t have a policy to 

obstruct or oppose India’s efforts 

to get a permanent seat 

in the UN Security Council, 

Hu, director-general, Research 

Of�ce, at international 

department of the CPC, said 

when asked about China’s 

position on India’s candidacy 

for a permanent seat in the 

UNSC. 

He added that the ongoing 

debate about the reforms 

of the UN Security Council is 

chaotic and should be better 

co-ordinated. 

Although it has backed 

a bigger role for India in the 

UN’s top decision-making 

body, China has vacillated 

and has yet to declare its support 

for India’s bid to join the 

UNSC. 

Huang is part of the Chinese 

delegation which is currently 

visiting New Delhi to 

KASHMIRI Sikh boys listen to chants inside a gurdwara on the occasion of the 543rd 

birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev in Srinagar yesterday. — Reuters 

apprise the Indian leadership 

and opinion-makers about 

broad contours of China’s 

economy and foreign policy 

under the new dispensation 

that is expected to take charge 

in March next year. 

He also underscored the 

need for better strategic communication 

with India and 

stressed on resolving con�icts 

through dialogue. 

“The rise of us (India and 

China) together will be a very 

important phenomenon on the 

world stage,” he said. 

We are two large developing 

and populous countries 

and we should have better 

strategic communication and 

stronger economic relations, 

he said. 

Gurpurab 

celebrated 

CHANDIGARH — Hundreds 

of devotees lined up 

at gurdwaras across Punjab 

and elsewhere in the country 

yesterday to celebrate Gurpurab 

— the birth anniversary 

of Sikhism founder Guru 

Nanak Dev. Tight security 

arrangements were in place 

outside famous gurdwaras in 

Amritsar, Anandpur Sahib, 

Talwandi Sabo and other 

places in Punjab. 

There was heavy rush of 

devotees at the Harmandar 

Sahib, popularly known as 

the Golden Temple, in Amritsar 

as people arrived to 

offer prayers. Devotees had 

started coming to the holiest 

of Sikh shrines on Tuesday 

night itself. 

The whole Golden Temple 

complex has been illuminated 

for the past few days. 

Voting right for expatriates 

in Kerala civic elections 

By Ashraf Padanna 

KOCHI — Kerala has decided 

to give voting rights to 

nearly four million citizens 

living outside the state in the 

civil polls under the Panchayati 

Raj, the three-tier local 

self-governments system. 

The Panchayati Raj Ministry 

had in January directed the 

state election commissions to 

install online voting system 

enabling citizens to vote from 

anywhere in the world even 

as the Election Commission 

of India, which conducts general 

elections, was groping in 

the dark about the longtime 

demand of expats. 

The state government is 

planning to emulate Gujarat, 

which has already put in place 

an Internet-voting system, developed 

by Tata Consultancy 

Services, providing username 

and password to every voter 

after making it mandatory for 

every citizen to cast their vote 

in the civic polls. 

K C Joseph, the minister 

for non-resident Keralite af- 

NEW DELHI — Zee News 

yesterday vehemently denied 

all allegations of extortion 

levelled against its two executives 

and said police were 

being forced to act on the 

matter under pressure from 

Congress MP Naveen Jindal 

and his associates. 

Sudhir Chaudhary, head 

of Zee News, and Samir 

Ahluwalia, head of Zee 

Business, were arrested here 

on Tuesday on charges of 

attempting to extort Rs 100 

crore from Jindal’s company 

in exchange for not 

�ling news reports linking 

his �rm to the coal blocks allocation. 

“Our executives’ arrest is 

illegal. We strongly condemn 

arrests of our two executives,” 

Zee News Chief Executive 

Of�cer (CEO) Alok 

Agarwal told reporters at a 

fairs and information and pubic 

relations, said almost 70 

per cent of the NRKs are living 

in the Gulf Co-operation 

Council countries while 5 per 

cent live in other countries. 

Around 25 per cent are eking 

out a living in other parts of 

India. 

“The state election commission 

would be asked to revise 

the voters’ list enrolling 

all citizens who are not living 

here,” Joseph told reporters 

yesterday while brie�ng the 

cabinet decisions in the state 

capital, Thiruvananthapuram. 

“Their empowerment will 

make huge difference in the 

outcome of elections”. 

Kerala has also urged the 

federal government to install 

a foolproof biometric identi- 

�cation system for the nonresident 

citizens and issue 

Aadhaar unique identi�cation 

numbers. 

The minister said the state 

election commission had decided 

to bring an amendment 

to the panchayat raj and municipality 

election rules and 

regulations to give voting 

press conference here. 

He alleged that Jindal had 

offered money to Zee journalists. 

“Our channel raised fundamental 

questions about 

coal blocks allocated to the 

Jindal Group. Jindal’s mother 

pleaded with us to play down 

the coalgate,” he said. 

Agarwal alleged that police 

were being forced to pursue 

the matter against them 

and make illegal arrests. 

Jindal last month released 

a CD which purportedly 

showed footage in which the 

Zee journalists were trying 

to strike a deal with his company 

of�cials, telling them 

that their TV news channel 

would not air negative stories 

on Jindal Group if the money 

was paid to them. 

Jindal, who is chairman of 

Jindal Power and Steel Ltd, 

rights to non-resident Malayalees 

in civic polls. All the 

procedures will be completed 

before the next polls. 

The local self-governments 

(LSG) department has 

already been offering many 

services, including marriage, 

birth and death registrations 

and issuing of certi�cates online 

at www.cr.lsgkerala.gov. 

in. 

Under the e-Voting system, 

voters who have registered 

online and got a separate 

ID with a password, will 

be allowed to vote. They will 

be recognised by their mobile 

phone numbers and SMS 

them of their time of voting 

using a onetime high-security 

password. 

Each voter will be allotted 

just two minutes to cast 

their vote once the ballot 

paper pops up on the screen 

for the ward where the voter 

is enrolled. The time control 

is to avoid a mass attempt at 

electors casting their votes at 

one and the same time, which 

could jam the portal. 

Though the NRIs were al- 

Zee defends its executives, 

says Jindal in�uencing cops 

(JPSL), had earlier claimed 

that the Zee executives had 

demanded Rs 20 crore for 

four years and they secretly 

�lmed the meetings. They 

later raised the demand to Rs 

100 crore for not broadcasting 

stories against the company 

in relation to the allocation 

of coal blocks, Jindal 

alleged. 

JPSL is among the companies 

named in the Comptroller 

and Auditor General’s 

report as one of the bene�ciaries 

of the controversial coal 

blocks allocation. 

Zee News last month sent 

a Rs 150 crore defamation 

notice to the Congress MP, 

who too had �led a Rs 200 

crore suit against the media 

conglomerate, claiming that 

the TV channel had tried to 

extort money from his company. 

— IANS 

lowed to enroll from abroad 

last year and vote if physically 

present in their constituencies 

at the time of ballot, 

only 8,820 expatriates have 

enrolled due to strict conditions 

and among them only 

4,639 could cast their vote in 

the March-April Assembly 

elections in Kerala. 

Expatriates feel the decision 

to amend the Representation 

of People Act 1950 

to enfranchise them was an 

‘insincere and half-hearted’ 

move knowing well that they 

would not be able to vote 

under present conditions and 

they were demanding facilities 

for secure online voting 

from the comforts of their 

homes wherever they are. 

Major announcements, 

including the online voting 

facility, are expected at the 

Pravasi Bharatiya Divas celebrations 

to be inaugurated by 

Prime Minister Manmohan 

Singh on January 8. A seminar 

on issues of NRIs in the 

Gulf will be held on January 

7 as part of the PBD 2013. 

Bribery: Jail 

for corporator 

BANGALORE — A Bangalore 

court yesterday 

sentenced Congress civic 

corporator L Govindaraju 

to four years of rigorous imprisonment 

in a bribery case 

registered against him by a 

builder in July 2010. 

Awarding the sentence 

under the Prevention of 

Corruption Act, Lokayukta 

(ombudsman) Special Court 

Judge N K Sudhindra Rao 

also slapped a �ne of Rs 

90,000 on Govindaraju, who 

represents the Ganesh Mandir 

ward of civic corporation 

in Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara 

Palike (BBMP) in 

the city’s western suburb. 

The corporator will have 

to serve an additional six 

months in the jail if he fails 

to pay the �ne. 

The ombudsman’s sleuths 

caught Govindaraju redhanded 

while taking a bribe 

of Rs 2 lakh from Udaykumar 

on July 17, 2010. 

— IANS 

PERFORMERS ride in cars inside a makeshift wooden cylindrical ‘Wall of Death’ structure, during the annual farmers 

fair at Shama Chak Jhiri, some 22 km from Jammu yesterday. — AFP 

Panel rejects British company 

AstraZeneca’s patent appeal THIRUVANANTHAP- 

URAM — Kerala Tour- 

NEW DELHI — An Indian 

panel has rejected an appeal 

by Britain’s AstraZeneca 

against a decision to deny 

patent protection to a cancer- 

�ghting drug in a new setback 

for global drug �rms in the Indian 

market. 

The case stems from 2007 

when the Indian patent of�ce 

refused to grant protection 

to AstraZeneca’s Ge�tinib, 

which is used to treat lung 

cancer, because the drug had 

“known prior use” and could 

not be considered an invention. 

The Intellectual Property 

Appellate Board dismissed the 

company’s appeal against the 

ruling late on Tuesday. 

The decision comes with 

Britain’s second largest drugmaker 

battling sharply falling 

pro�ts and the loss of patent 

protection on several of its 

biggest-selling drugs. 

The setback for AstraZeneca, 

which could not be immediately 

reached for comment, 

was the latest to be suffered by 

a global drug company. 

Earlier this year, an Indian 

ruling allowed a local �rm to 

produce a vastly cheaper copy 

of German pharmaceutical 

giant Bayer’s patented drug 

Nexavar for liver and kidney 

cancer. 

Medical charities have expressed 

concern that compliance 

with WTO rules could 

reduce the country’s role as 

a supplier of low-cost medi- 

cines. India is the world’s leading 

exporter and manufacturer 

of non-branded medicines. 

Western �rms — looking 

to countries such as India for 

sales growth — have voiced 

criticism of brand protection 

in India. 

India has some of the 

toughest criteria for drug companies 

to obtain patents, said 

D G Shah, Secretary-General 

of the Indian Pharmaceutical 

Alliance, an industry body. 

“These rulings show (foreign) 

companies need to take 

into account that India will not 

permit tweaking of formulations 

for getting a patent. If 

they had those expectations, 

they were unrealistic,” Shah 

said recently. — AFP 

CNBC Awaaz 

award 

ism has bagged the CNBC 

Awaaz travel award for 

2012. The state was recognised 

for being the “best 

destination for both domestic 

and foreign tourists”, a 

state of�cial said yesterday. 

Kerala Tourism Secretary 

Suman Billa received 

the award at a ceremony 

held at the Hotel Centaur in 

Srinagar last week. It was 

conferred the ‘best travel 

and tourism state’. 

“It is a recognition of the 

combined efforts of the private 

and public sectors in 

the travel and tourism sectors 

of Kerala to maintain 

the state as the best destination 

for both domestic 

and foreign tourists,” said 

Billa.

BUSINESS icon Ratan Tata �anked by University of New South Wales (UNSW) Vice-Chancellor Fred Hilmer (left) and 

Chancellor David Gonski, receiving an honorary degree from the university in Sydney. Tata has urged stronger trade ties 

with Australia, particularly in technology, saying there are major growth opportunities for both countries. — AFP 

Microsoft’s 

centre for 

poor youth 

NEW DELHI — An Information 

Technology (IT) 

based skill development centre 

working towards empowering 

underprivileged youths 

was launched here yesterday 

by Microsoft India, which 

also awarded cash grants 

worth $350,000 to the country’s 

NGOs. 

The ‘YouthSpark’ centre 

launched under Microsoft’s 

new global initiative has 

been set up in East of Kailash 

in south Delhi and is the 

�rst among 10 similar centres 

that will be coming up 

across the country over the 

next 18 months for youths 

between 16 to 24 years. 

“The theme of this centre 

is IT and likewise each centre 

will focus on one trade 

led enterprise — like retail, 

hospitality, automobiles 

etc,” Sanket Akerkar, managing 

director of Microsoft 

India, said. 

Offering training on basic 

IT skills, spoken English, 

personality development 

and job preparedness, etc. 

from each batch of students, 

a select few will be trained 

in a simulated set-up, and 

encouraged to start their own 

group enterprises. — IANS 

KOCHI — For Atul Dodiya, 

the Indian contemporary artist 

of several solo shows across 

the world, Kochi-Muziris Biennale 

is an entirely different 

show. He has come with rare 

photographs he had taken over 

several years using different 

cameras re�ecting the growth 

of technology as well. 

Currently under installation 

at the designated space within 

the walls of the abandoned Aspinwall 

House with 160,000 

sq ft of built-up area and as 

many open spaces, the image 

of legendary artist M F Husain 

as he posed for Dodiya in Dubai 

in 2010. 

Dodiya, whose oil and 

acrylic work on canvas, The 

Wall, dedicated to cricketer 

Rahul Dravid fetched Rs 5.67 

million in auction a couple of 

years back, is here without any 

of his painting to participate in 

India’s �rst Biennale where all 

forms of art, including sound 

and digital creations, converge. 

The artist from Mumbai 

says a poem by Malayalam 

litterateur K Satchidanandan 

came as an invaluable inspiration 

to his art work at the major 

show. Dodiya, a J J School 

of Arts graduate, was shown 

Satchidanandan’s poem, titled 

The Poet to Poetry by a 

friend. 

“My friend showed me a 

Xerox copy of the poem by 

5 INDIA 



Malayalam poet inspires top Biennale artist 

NEW DELHI — Amit Shah, 

former Gujarat minister of 

state for home and an accused 

in the Soharabuddin Sheikh 

and Tulsi Prajapati staged 

shootout cases, will contest in 

the upcoming state assembly 

elections. 

Shah will contest from 

Naranpura in Ahmedabad. 

His name features in the sec- 

London mayor invites 

tech �rms to invest 

HYDERABAD — The mayor 

of London, Boris Johnson 

yesterday invited Indian technology 

companies to invest in 

London, saying it was emerging 

as the city of choice for 

international investors. 

Johnson, who is leading a 

business delegation on a sixday 

visit to India, met leading 

Indian technology entrepreneurs 

here to highlight the opportunities 

London offers. 

He attended a business 

reception hosted by Infotech 

Enterprises, with representatives 

from about 20 leading 

technology �rms. 

Two IT �rms announced 

they would open their European 

headquarters in London. 

Nazara, a mobile games 

developer and publisher, and 

SmartPlay Technologies, 

India’s second largest semiconductor 

design services 

company, would open of�ces 

in London before the end of 

the year. 

Combined, the two companies 

would initially employ 40 

staff and would hire another 

125 employees over the next 

three years in the UK, said a 

statement from the mayor’s 

of�ce. 

ATUL Dodiya in preparation of his space for 

Kochi-Muziris Biennale at the Aspinwall House. 

ond list of candidates released 

by the Bharatiya Janata Party 

(BJP) in the capital yesterday. 

Shah won the last time 

from the Sarkhej assembly 

constituency, with a margin of 

over 2.50 lakh votes. 

After delimitation, Sarkhej 

has been divided into three 

constituencies — Vejalpur, 

Ghatlodia and Naranpura. 

“London is a powerhouse 

for entrepreneurial technology 

�rms, which play a crucial role 

in driving jobs and economic 

growth in the capital. This 

commitment from Nazara and 

SmartPlay is yet another example 

of the con�dence international 

�rms have in the 

city, and India’s burgeoning 

technology and computing 

sectors could bene�t greatly 

from following their lead,” 

said Johnson. 

“London is in the right time 

zone and speaks the right language 

for global business. The 

city is home to a talented and 

Shah is a close aide of Gujarat 

Chief Minister Narendra 

Modi. 

In September, Shah returned 

to Gujarat after a gap 

of two years, following the 

Supreme Court ruling allowing 

him to enter the state. The 

apex court rejected the Central 

Bureau of Investigation 

(CBI) plea to cancel Amit 

dynamic workforce, which is 

precisely why it is emerging 

as the city of choice for international 

investors,” he added. 

The technology and computing 

market in London 

already employs 100,000 

people, with 19,000 students 

in the city signing up for information 

and communication 

technology courses each year 

in a market worth £115 billion 

to the UK. 

With 24,000 IT companies 

already based in London, the 

city is home to signi�cantly 

more tech �rms than any other 

European city. — IANS 

Prof Satchidanandan and it 

had an immediate impact on 

me,” said Dodiya. The poem 

was part of his 2005 collections 

titled Stammer and 

Other Poems. After he saw 

the photocopy of the poem 

he took a photograph of the 

page containing the verse. The 

photograph has been shown 

prominently in his work titled 

Celebrations in the Laboratory 

at the show. 

“When I ask you to speak, 

you cry: asked to cry, 

you keep mum, ordered to 

keep your trap shut, you 

scream; 

I’m fed up. What’s the 

use of a follower who never 

follows.” 

This is how The Poet to Poetry 

begins. Dodiya, 53, commented: 

“The poem is totally 

about the creative process.” 

Satchidanandan, who is 

currently in the UK with his 

daughter who is a student in 

a university there, said he was 

excited to learn about a top Indian 

artist using his poem as 

part of an artistic work. 

“I have never met Atul 

Dodiya though of course I 

have known his work for a 

long time,” said the 66-year- 

Shah’s bail granted in the Sohrabuddin 

Sheikh encounter 

case. 

Since his return to Ahmedabad, 

Shah was keeping a low 

pro�le. He has stayed away 

from public functions, and has 

not interacted with the media. 

The CBI has, in its charge 

sheet, named Shah the prime 

accused in the Tulsi Prajapati 

UPA con�dent of FDI vote 

NEW DELHI — Assured of 

its numbers, the UPA yesterday 

appeared con�dent to 

face a vote on FDI in multibrand 

retail to end the parliament 

logjam but said a �nal 

decision on the debate rules 

lay with Lok Sabha Speaker 

Meira Kumar. 

According to government 

sources, a debate on the issue 

could start by Monday 

(December 3), and the vote 

could be held on Tuesday or 

Wednesday if the government 

agrees for a debate under 

rule 184. 

But since the matter relates 

to an executive decision, the 

Speaker could allow a debate 

with voting as a special case, 

said the sources. 

UPA partner DMK, which 

had some reservations on the 

move, is now backing FDI in 

retail while the Samajwadi 

Party and Bahujan Samaj 

Party, which support the alliance 

from outside, have not 

taken a tough stand on the issue. 

Sources said the two par- 

Cops to quiz 

Bangladeshi 

don till Dec 10 

KOLKATA — Bangladeshi 

crime lord Subrata Bayen, a 

prime accused in the 2004 

Dhaka grenade attack targeting 

Sheikh Hasina, was 

remanded in police custody 

till December 10 by a city 

court yesterday, a day after 

his arrest here. 

“Bayen was presented 

before the court and he 

has been remanded in 

police custody till December 

10,” said a government 

counsel. 

Bayen, against whom a 

red corner notice had been 

issued by the Interpol, was 

arrested on Tuesday by the 

Special Task Force (STF) 

of Kolkata Police. 

Fake Indian currency 

notes with denomination 

over Rs 11 lakh, some 

Nepali currency and a �rearm 

were recovered from 

him, police said. 

Bayen, a resident of 

Bangladesh who is on the 

most wanted list of criminals 

in that country, was 

earlier serving a prison term 

in the Eastern Regional 

Prison in Nepal. He along 

with 12 other inmates escaped 

from the jail on November 

8 by digging a tunnel. 

— IANS 

old Delhi-based poet-translator-playwright. 

“I am really 

excited about the artist doing 

a work based on my poem,” 

he said in his comments from 

Bournemouth. 

Satchidanandan said his 

poem is about a poet quarrelling 

with his poetry “that obstinately 

refuses to do what he 

wants it to do”. 

“The poem tries to reveal 

the element of unexpectedness 

and wonder in art that I so 

much believe in.” 

Dodiya’s art work will be a 

major element of the �rst-ever 

Biennale to be held in India, 

which opens on December 12 

and runs up to March 13. More 

than 80 artists from across the 

world are participating in the 

three-month show which is 

expected to catapult the Kerala 

city into the international art 

map. 

Many of the participating 

artists are already in town 

preparing their spaces at eight 

different locations from the 

modern port city of Kochi to 

Pattanam in the neighbouring 

district of Thrissur, where its 

ancient cousin Muziris was located 

by excavators recently. 

— By Our Correspondent 

Staged shootout accused Amit Shah to contest polls 

staged shootout case. 

Acting on a petition �led 

by Shah, the Supreme Court 

had stayed all the proceedings 

in the Prajapati case. 

The two-phase Gujarat assembly 

elections will be held 

on December 13 and 17. 

Counting of votes will 

take place on December 20. 

— IANS 

ties could support the government 

by abstaining from 

voting to address their respective 

constituencies. 

The government got a shot 

in the arm after its erstwhile 

partner Trinamool Congress 

too said it had left on the 

presiding of�cers of the two 

Houses the decision over the 

rules under which the debate 

should be held. 

But the government is not 

sure of Trinamool support, 

which is expected to abstain 

if a vote take place, said the 

sources. 

The Congress-led United 

Progressive Alliance is facing 

tough time as the Bharatiya 

Janata Party and the Left parties 

have not allowed parliament 

to run since the winter 

session started on November 

22 demanding a debate under 

rule 184, which entails voting. 

The government after 

holding two series of meets 

— �rst with all political parties 

and then with its own allies 

— tried to bring BJP to 

Shiv Sena shuts 

down Palghar 

THANE — Maharashtra’s 

Palghar town and surrounding 

areas remained shut yesterday 

in response to a call by 

the Shiv Sena to oppose the 

suspension of the two police 

of�cials who had arrested two 

girls for their Facebook comments 

on Bal Thackeray’s 

death. 

The shutdown call evoked 

a near-total response in the industrial 

town, around 100 km 

north-west of the state capital 

Mumbai in Thane district, of- 

�cials said. 

Two girls from Palghar, 

Shaheen Dadha and her friend 

Renu Srinivasan, had questioned 

on Facebook the shutdown 

after the death of Shiv 

Sena chief Bal Thackeray on 

November 17 and also the following 

day when he was cremated 

in Mumbai. They were 

arrested by two police of�cials, 

who were placed under 

suspension on Tuesday. 

G R Patil, a resident of 

the town with a population of 

around 200,000, said the shutdown 

evoked total response, 

paralysing public transport, 

trade and business activities. 

After the girls’ comments 

on the Facebook, suspected 

its side yesterday. 

But, Parliamentary Affairs 

Minister Kamal Nath’s meeting 

with Opposition Leader 

in the Lok Sabha Sushma 

Swaraj and Opposition Leader 

in the Rajya Sabha Arun 

Jaitely did not seem to have 

the desired affect as the BJP 

stuck to its demand of debate 

with voting rules. 

Emerging from the meeting, 

Kamal Nath said most 

MPs favoured a debate but 

were not rigid on the rule 

under which it should take 

place. 

“Everyone wants discussion 

on FDI. But a larger 

number (of political parties) 

are not concerned whether 

the discussion is held with 

voting or without voting,” 

Nath said after meeting the 

two BJP leaders. 

“We have left the decision 

with the Speaker,” he said. 

Kamal Nath’s meeting 

came a day after the UPA 

�rmed up its numbers in 

parliament and said the talks 

were part of an effort to en- 

Shiv Sena activists lodged a 

police complaint against the 

girls and also vandalised a 

hospital owned by Shaheen’s 

uncle. 

Following a nationwide 

uproar over the developments, 

Maharashtra Home Minister 

R R Patil ordered a probe into 

the incident and followed up 

by suspending two policemen 

on Tuesday. 

“Based on the report 

submitted by the inspector 

general of police, Konkan 

Range, (Sukhvinder Singh), 

it has been decided that the 

superintendent of police, 

Thane Rural, Ravindra Sengaonkar 

be suspended and 

a departmental probe be ordered 

against him,” Patil told 

reporters here. 

“Similarly, it has also been 

decided that the Palghar police 

chief, Senior Inspector 

Shrikant Pingle, also be suspended 

and a departmental 

inquiry be ordered against 

him too,” he added. 

To prevent bias in the investigations, 

the case was 

transferred from Palghar to 

Boisar police station, around 

15 km away, in the same district. 

— IANS 

sure the two Houses function 

smoothly. 

Prime Minister Manmohan 

Singh on Tuesday also 

said the government was 

con�dent of its numbers — 

an indication that if the government 

has to face voting, 

they would be able to sail 

through. 

“Presiding of�cers should 

take any decision they want 

in the interest of running parliament,” 

Kamal Nath said. 

Refusing to budge from 

its stand, BJP leader Sushma 

Swaraj said if the government 

was sure of its numbers 

it should face voting. 

“We have clearly said that 

parliament will function only 

after a debate under Rule 

184. The PM (Prime Minister 

Manmohan Singh) has said 

that he is con�dent of getting 

the majority and the DMK is 

also supporting the government...if 

the numbers are in 

your favour then why don’t 

you go for voting,” Sushma 

Swaraj said after meeting 

Kamal Nath. — IANS 

Four arrested 

for credit 

card fraud 

NEW DELHI — Four men 

were arrested for allegedly 

cloning and using international 

and domestic credit 

cards here, police said yesterday. 

Dheeraj Khanna, Pankaj 

Deewan, Yogesh Mahajan 

and Mohammad Yasin 

were arrested on Tuesday 

from Delhi. Three of their 

accomplices are untraced 

and on the run, police said. 

The arrests of the four 

men led to the recovery of 

13 Electronic Data Capture 

(EDC) machines, a 

skimmer, some debit and 

credit cards in various 

names and some forged 

documents. 

The arrests came after 

Samarjit Singh Sahi, manager 

of the risk control unit 

of HDFC Bank in west Delhi’s 

Rajouri Garden, lodged 

a complaint with police. 

“Dheeraj Khanna opened 

an account in HDFC Bank 

as Rohit Kumar, claiming 

to be the owner of a jewellery 

shop. He requested for 

four EDC machines, which 

the bank provided,” said 

Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, 

Deputy Commissioner 

of Police (Special Cell). 

— IANS

DHAKA — Three supervisors 

of a Bangladeshi garments 

factory were arrested 

yesterday as protests over a 

fire that killed more than 100 

people raged on into a third 

day, with textile workers and 

police clashing in the streets 

of a Dhaka suburb. 

The government has 

blamed last week’s disaster, 

the country’s worst-ever industrial 

blaze, on saboteurs 

and police said they had arrested 

two people who were 

seen on CCTV footage trying 

to set fire to stockpiles of cotton 

in another factory. 

The fire at Tazreen Fashions 

has put a spotlight on global 

retailers that source clothes 

from Bangladesh, where wage 

costs are low — as little as $37 

a month for some workers. 

Rights groups have called 

on Western firms to sign up 

to a safety programme in the 

world’s second-biggest clothes 

exporter. 

US retailer Sears Holdings 

Corp said on Tuesday its 

clothing was not meant to be 

made in that textile factory, 

and was investigating reports 

that one of its brands had been 

found in the charred debris. 

Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the 

world’s largest retailer, said 

one of its suppliers subcontracted 

work to the burned factory 

without authorisation and 

would no longer be used. 

Witnesses said that at 

least 20 people were injured 

yesterday in the capital’s industrial 

suburb of Ashulia as 

police pushed back protesters 

demanding safer factories 

and punishment for those responsible 

for the blaze, which 

killed 111 workers and injured 

more than 150. 

Thousands of workers 

poured out onto the roads, 

blocking traffic, as the authorities 

closed most of the 

300 garment factories in the 

area. They were driven back 

by riot police using tear gas 

and batons. 

Three employees of 

Tazreen Fashions — an administrative 

officer, a stores 

manager and a security supervisor 

— were arrested and paraded 

in front of the media. 

Dhaka District Police 

Chief Habibur Rahman said 

6 

THE PHILIPPINES/SUBCONTINENT 


they would be investigated for 

suspected negligence. 

He said that police were 

investigating complaints from 

some survivors that factory 

managers stopped workers 

from running out of the multistorey 

building when a fire 

alarm went off. 

Representatives of the 

Tazreen Fashions factory, including 

the owner, were not 

available for comment. 

The country’s interior minister, 

Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, 

has blamed arsonists for 

the fire. 

Adding to the case for sabotage, 

CCTV footage aired on 

a news channel showed two 

employees of another factory 

in the Ashulia area trying to 

set fire to stockpiles of cotton. 

Police chief Rahman said a 

woman and a man, who were 

identified from the video, had 

been taken into custody. 

The clip shows a woman 

dressed in a mauve head scarf 

and a traditional garment on 

her own passing through a 

room with garments piled 

neatly in various places on a 

table. She briefly disappears 


BANGLADESHI police march during a protest by garment workers in Asulia yesterday following a deadly fire in a garment factory. — AFP 

Protests rage over factory fire 

from view beneath the table 

and then is shown again walking 

through the room and out 

of range of the camera. 

Smoke soon begins billowing, 

first slowly then more 

rapidly, from the place where 

the woman was seen beneath 

the table. 

Workers come running 

in and try to douse it using 

various means. The woman 

first seen comes back into the 

room and is seen helping other 

workers in efforts to put out 

the fire. 

Two other incidents in the 

outskirts of Dhaka — a fire at 

a factory on Monday morning 

and an explosion and fire at a 

facility on Tuesday evening 

— has raised concern among 

manufacturing leaders that the 

industry is under attack. 

“The government today 

says they are smelling sabotage. 

We don’t yet know what 

they mean by that, we will 

know in a few days,” Annisul 

Huq, former president of the 

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers 

and Exporters Association, 

said. 

“I don’t know what infor- 

PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino with former Poland president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Walesa at the presidential 

palace in Manila yesterday. Walesa was in Manila for a series of talks on the various aspects of democracy. — Reuters 

Protesters ordered to end mine demo 

YANGON — Hundreds of 

villagers, students and monks 

yesterday defied a government 

order to end a protest 

at a controversial Chinesebacked 

copper mine in northern 

Myanmar, activists said. 

The standoff is the latest 

case of long-oppressed 

Myanmar citizens testing the 

limits of their new freedoms 

following the end last year of 

decades of iron-fisted rule by 

a junta that crushed any sign 

of dissent. 

“Hundreds of monks and 

villagers are still here,” monk 

Yaywata, who goes by one 

name, said by telephone from 

the site of the demonstration 

in Monywa in the district of 

Sagaing. 

“We will protest until they 

stop the project or promise to 

do so,” he said. 

The mine, a joint venture 

between military-owned Myanmar 

Economic Holdings 

and Chinese group Wanbao, 

has been the focus of months 

of protests over complaints of 

alleged land grabbing. 

The home ministry, in a 

statement carried by state TV, 

radio and newspapers, had 

warned protesters to vacate 

their camps near the mine by 

the end of Tuesday or face unspecified 

action. 

But about 300 protesters 

were refusing to leave, activist 

Hein Zaw Win said by telephone 

from Monywa. 

“We received information 

that about 300 police officers 

have been deployed there. But 

they didn’t do anything yet,” 

he said. 

The home ministry said an 

end to the rally was necessary 

to allow a parliamentary commission 

to make a fact-finding 

visit to the mine. 

Opposition leader Aung 

San Suu Kyi is also due to 

visit the site today. 

Environmental activists 

were emboldened by a government 

order last year to halt 

construction of a controversial 

$3.6 billion mega dam in 

a rare recognition of public 

opposition to the Chinesebacked 

hydropower project. 

Police said on Tuesday that 

they had arrested eight activists 

who protested in Yangon 

against the copper mine a day 

earlier and charged them with 

defaming the state. 

Myanmar earlier this year 

introduced a law allowing 

peaceful protests as part of 

political changes sweeping 

the former army-ruled country. 

But rights groups have 

criticised rules that mean 

demonstrators risk a year in 

jail if they do not seek permission 

five days in advance. 

Campaigners called for 

a peaceful resolution to the 

mine standoff. 

“The problem should 

be solved through discussions 

between the two sides. 

It should not be solved by 

force,” said Kyaw Min Yu, a 

member of the Generation 88 

movement, born during huge 

student-led demonstrations 

in 1988, which has become 

a key advocate for ordinary 

people in land and worker 

disputes. — AFP 

mation they have but we don’t 

like this link.” 

Talk of sabotage has spread 

fear. 

At least 50 garment workers 

were injured in a stampede 

as they tried to flee from their 

factory after a faulty generator 

caught fire in the city of Chittagong, 

the fire service said. 

Factory workers put out the 

fire quickly. 

Bangladesh has about 

4,500 garment factories and 

is the world’s biggest exporter 

of clothing after China, with 

garments making up 80 per 

cent of its $24 billion annual 

exports. 

Working conditions at 

Bangladeshi factories are 

notoriously poor, with little 

enforcement of safety laws. 

Overcrowding and locked fire 

doors are common. 

More than 300 factories 

near Dhaka were shut for almost 

a week this year as workers 

demanded higher wages 

and better conditions. At least 

500 have died in garment factory 

accidents in Bangladesh 

since 2006, according to fire 

brigade officials. — Reuters 

Kinnow exports 

starts on Dec 1 

KARACHI — In a marked 

departure from the past practice 

of selling unripe fruits 

abroad to grab a larger market 

share, kinnow exports 

from Pakistan will start from 

December 1, said industry 

officials yesterday. 

According to data compiled 

by the association, 

Pakistan exported 225,000 

tonnes of kinnow last year 

against the target of 300,000 

tonnes. It fetched the country 

a total of $125 million. 

Kinnow production is 

expected to be 1.8 million 

tonnes this year, which is 

likely to fetch $110 million 

from foreign markets if Pakistani 

exporters meet the supply 

target of 200,000 tonnes. 

Last year, Pakistani kinnow 

was sold at a price of $6.50 

per 10 kilogrammes. 

Economy soars 

7.1 per cent 

MANILA — The Philippine 

economy grew 7.1 per 

cent year-on-year in the third 

quarter of 2012, the fastest in 

South-East Asia amid a weak 

global economy, the government 

said yesterday. 

The gross domestic product 

(GDP) growth in the 

July-September period was 

up from 3.2 per cent for the 

same period last year, said 

Jose Ramon Albert, secretary 

general of the National Statistical 

Coordination Board. 

The third-quarter figure 

brought GDP for the first nine 

months of the year to 6.5 per 

cent higher than the previous 

year, on track to surpass the 

government’s full-year target 

of 5.6 to 6 per cent annual 

growth, Albert said. — dpa 

Punjab increases budgets 

for major social sectors 

LAHORE — Pakistan’s Punjab 

government increased its 

budgetary allocations of major 

social sectors, including 

education, health, water supply 

and sanitation and infrastructure 

development during last 

four years, while funds for development 

of southern Punjab 

were enhanced more than five 

times as compared to 2007-08 

budget. 

Allocation for education 

was only Rs 11.807 billion in 

2006-07 now it has been increased 

to Rs 111.278 billion, 

while budgetary allocations 

for health has been increased 

from Rs 11.37 billion to 71 billion; 

water supply and sanitation 

from Rs 12.66 billion to 

Rs 43.38 billion; infrastructure 

development from Rs 104.70 

billion to Rs 318.49 billion 

and Southern Punjab from 

Rs 52.75 in 2006-07 to Rs 

292.43 billion in 2012-13. 

The allocation of education 

head was utilised for provision 

of IT labs to 4,286 higher sec- 

Wapda to add 

400MW of 

power soon 

LAHORE — The Water 

and Power Development 

Authority (Wapda) of Pakistan 

has said that it will 

add 400 megawatts (MW) 

of cheap electricity to the 

national grid by the mid of 

next year. 

This will be done through 

the completion of six hydropower 

projects under-construction 

across the country, 

said Wapda Chairman 

Raghib Shah. 

The distribution company, 

for the first time, is 

in negotiations with local 

banks to secure finance for 

mega-projects as international 

donors are reluctant to 

fund them. 

Wapda has 20 hydropower 

projects in the pipeline, 

keeping in view the growing 

energy and water demand of 

the country. 

Once completed, the 

project will have a total 

capacity of producing 

20,000MW of cheap power 

and store 12 million acre feet 

of water. — Internews 

MANILA — The Philippines 

said yesterday it would refuse 

to stamp Chinese passports 

containing a map showing 

most of the China South Sea 

as belonging to China, as it 

stepped up protests over the 

controversial move. 

The new passports have 

provoked angry reactions 

from around the region, with 

Vietnam, Taiwan and India 

all expressing their objections 

amid an ongoing row over Beijing’s 

territorial claims. 

The Philippines Department 

of Foreign Affairs said 

in a statement that immigration 

personnel would stamp 

“a separate visa application 

form” instead of the Chinese 

passport. 

Ballistic missile test fired 

BALLISTIC missile test launch being carried out yesterday. 

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan yesterday test fired a nuclearcapable 

ballistic missile with a range of 1,300 kilometres, the 

military said. The military described the Hatf V Ghauri missile 

as a liquid fuel missile, which can carry both conventional and 

nuclear warheads. It was Pakistan’s eighth missile test so far this 

year and comes two months after its last test of a Hatf-VII with 

a range of 700 kilometres. — AFP 

Philippines not to stamp 

new Chinese passports 

COLOMBO — Students in 

Sri Lanka’s former war zone 

clashed with troops and police 

yesterday over celebrations to 

commemorate defeated Tamil 

Tigers, residents said. 

At least 20 undergraduates 

were injured when troops and 

police beat up stone-pelting 

students outside Jaffna university, 

a witness said. 

It was first major clash since 

security forces crushed Tamil 

dissidents in May 2009. 

Police and troops had 

stormed university dormitories 

on Tuesday searching for 

Tamil Tiger propaganda after 

students tried to mark “heroes’ 

week” — the last week of November 

when Tiger guerrillas 

used to commemorate fallen 

comrades. 

“The students gathered in- 

ondary schools in the province, 

for establishment of Daanish 

schools to provide quality education 

to the poor and disadvantaged. 

Provision of missing facilities 

was ensured in 6,113 

school and 23 colleges, while 

42,000 qualified teachers were 

recruited. As many as 2,788 

schools were upgraded from 

primary to middle and middle 

to higher level besides providing 

training to 120,000 teachers 

and educational managers. 

The Punjab government 

also established 66 new degree 

colleges and 13 existing 

colleges were upgraded from 

inter to degree level, besides 

launching sub campuses of 

Punjab University at Jhelum 

and 5 new women universities 

in the province. 

Establishment of Information 

Technology University at 

Lahore, Rs 10 billion for PEEF 

(Punjab Education Endowment 

Fund) and Laptop Scheme for 

talented students under CM’s 

“Through this action, the 

Philippines reinforces its protest 

against China’s excessive 

claim over almost the entire 

South China Sea,” the department 

said. 

Stamping the Chinese 

passport could be “misconstrued” 

as legitimising China’s 

claim over vast parts of 

the South China Sea, which 

are also claimed in part by the 

Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, 

Malaysia and Taiwan. 

President Benigno Aquino’s 

spokesman also said 

yesterday the Philippines 

welcomed a recent US State 

Department statement that it 

planned to raise concerns over 

the new Chinese passports 

with China. 

side the university and came 

out to protest the military action 

(of Tuesday) when fighting 

erupted (on Wednesday),” 

a witness said, asking not to be 

identified. 

He said the vehicle of a local 

Tamil legislator was also damaged 

as he tried to stop the violence. 

There was no immediate 

comment from the military, but 

a news website published photos 

soon after Tuesday’s military 

raid of the campus along 

with one image of a student 

on the ground being beaten by 

three policemen. 

Tuesday’s incident degenerated 

into a bigger confrontation 

yesterday as students protested 

at the military intrusion into 

their hostels, leaving more than 

20 students injured, witnesses 

said. 

youth initiative programme 

were some other milestones in 

the education sector. 

Putting focus on health sector 

the provincial government 

established Medical Colleges 

in Gujrat, DG Khan, Sahiwal, 

Sialkot and Gujranwala, besides 

ensuring provision of issuing 

facilities in 42 hospitals 

of the Punjab province. 

The government also built 

3 new tehsil headquarters 

and two rural health centres, 

while 4 RHCs were upgraded 

as THQ level and two Basic 

Health Units were upgraded to 

Rural Health Centres. 

Additional Institute of 

Cardiology and Urology was 

established in Rawalpindi and 

another 410-bed hospital was 

constructed in Bahawalpur. 

With the aim to achieve 

Millennium Development 

Goals set for the sector of Water 

Supply and Sanitation to 

provide clean drinking water 

and sanitation facilities to all 

citizens of the province. 

Last week, Philippine 

Foreign Secretary Albert del 

Rosario sent Beijing a formal 

protest letter, calling the 

passport maps “an excessive 

declaration of maritime space 

in violation of international 

law”. Foreign governments 

became aware this month 

that China had begun issuing 

passports with maps showing 

a “nine-dash line” that runs 

almost to the Philippine and 

Malaysian coasts. 

Vietnam has also refused 

to stamp the passports while 

India, angered that the map 

claims Arunachal Pradesh and 

Aksai China as Chinese territory, 

is stamping its own map 

on visas given to Chinese visitors. 

— AFP 

Lanka clash over remembrance 

Sri Lanka lifted a state of 

emergency in August last year 

after defeating Tamil Tigers in 

May 2009, but heavily armed 

troops and paramilitary police 

units are often deployed to support 

police. 

Jaffna, the cultural capital of 

the island’s ethnic Tamil minority, 

was once run as a de-facto 

separate state by the Tigers. 

The latest clashes between 

the troops and students came 

amid international calls to 

de-militarise Jaffna, 400 kilometres 

north of Colombo, and 

ease restrictions on the civilian 

population. 

Tigers had led a 37-yearlong 

guerrilla war for an independent 

Tamil homeland in a 

campaign that claimed more 

than 100,000 lives, according 

to UN estimates. — AFP

Asian shares slip as 

US fiscal cliff 

fears spread 

� Page 9 

US business spending plans improve 

A GAUGE of planned US business spending increased in 

October, raising cautious optimism that the sharp cutbacks in 

capital investment during the summer are abating. Fears of deep 

reductions in government spending and big tax hikes early next 

year had caused �rms to hunker down. � Page 8 

Thursday, November 29, 2012 

China denies US charge as yuan 

‘signi�cantly undervalued’ 

A WOMAN walks past Chinese yuan (L) and US dollars symbols in Hong Kong yesterday. — Reuters 

BEIJING — China on yesterday 

denied US accusations that 

the yuan was “signi�cantly 

undervalued”, after the Treasury 

said the unit’s rise so far 

was “insuf�cient” but stopped 

short of labelling Beijing a 

currency manipulator. 

The issue is a sensitive 

one in Washington because 

SAN FRANCISCO — An unprecedented 

debate over how 

the global Internet is governed 

is set to dominate a meeting of 

of�cials in Dubai next week, 

with many countries pushing 

to give a United Nations body 

broad regulatory powers even 

as the United States and others 

contend such a move could 

mean the end of the open Internet. 

The 12-day conference of 

the International Telecommunications 

Union, a 147-year-old 

organisation that’s now an arm 

of the United Nations, largely 

pits revenue-seeking developing 

countries and authoritarian 

regimes that want more control 

over Internet content against 

US policymakers and private 

Net companies that prefer the 

status quo. 

Many of the proposals have 

drawn fury from free-speech 

and human-rights advocates 

and have prompted resolutions 

from the US Congress and the 

European Parliament, calling 

of China’s overwhelming surpluses 

in trade between the 

countries. 

If the US designates China 

as a manipulator it would be 

likely to lead to Washington 

issuing sanctions, risking a 

trade war between the world’s 

top two economies. 

But the Treasury avoided 

for the current decentralized 

system of governance to remain 

in place. 

While speci�cs of some of 

the most contentious proposals 

remain secret, leaked drafts 

show that Russia is seeking 

rules giving individual countries 

broad permission to shape 

the content and structure of the 

Internet within their borders, 

while a group of Arab countries 

is advocating universal 

identi�cation of Internet users. 

Some developing countries and 

telecom providers, meanwhile, 

want to make content providers 

pay for Internet transmission. 

Fundamentally, most of the 

193 countries in the ITU seem 

eager to enshrine the idea that 

the UN agency, rather than 

today’s hodgepodge of private 

companies and nonpro�t 

groups, should govern the Internet. 

They say that a new regime 

is needed to deal with the 

surge in cybercrime and more 

recent military attacks. 

The ITU meeting, which 

that on Tuesday, although it 

said that the rise of the yuan, 

or renminbi (RMB), over 

the past two years had been 

“insuf�cient”, based on Beijing’s 

huge foreign exchange 

reserves and the strong trade 

surplus. 

China’s foreign ministry 

spokesman Hong Lei denied 

aims to update a long-standing 

treaty on how telecom companies 

interact across borders, 

will also tackle other topics 

such as extending wireless 

coverage into rural areas. 

If a majority of the ITU 

countries approve UN dominion 

over the Internet along 

with onerous rules, a backlash 

could lead to battles in Western 

countries over whether to ratify 

the treaty, with tech companies 

rallying ordinary Internet users 

against it and some telecom 

carriers supporting it. 

In fact, dozens of countries 

including China, Russia 

and some Arab states, already 

restrict Internet access within 

their own borders. Those governments 

would have greater 

leverage over Internet content 

and service providers if the 

changes were backed up by international 

agreement. 

Amid the escalating rhetoric, 

search king Google last 

week asked users to “pledge 

your support for the free and 

the accusation yesterday, 

telling reporters: “In recent 

years... the yuan has been approaching 

equilibrium level, 

there is no such thing like the 

yuan being signi�cantly undervalued. 

“China will continue to 

press ahead with the reform of 

the yuan exchange rate regime 

open Internet” on social media, 

raising the specter of a grassroots 

outpouring of the sort that 

blocked American copyright 

legislation and a global antipiracy 

treaty earlier this year. 

Google’s Vint Cerf, the ordinarily 

diplomatic co-author of 

the basic protocol for Internet 

data, denounced the proposed 

new rules as hopeless efforts by 

some governments and state- 

controlled telecom authorities 

to assert their power. 

“These persistent attempts 

are just evidence that this breed 

of dinosaurs, with their peasized 

brains, hasn’t �gured out 

that they are dead yet, because 

the signal hasn’t travelled up 

their long necks,” Cerf said. 

The ITU’s top of�cial, 

Secretary-General Hamadoun 

Touré, sought to downplay 

the concerns in a separate in- 

in a self-initiated, controllable 

and gradual manner. 

“We hope the US side will 

deal with trade issues, including 

the yuan exchange rate 

issue, appropriately, so as to 

maintain the sound and steady 

development of China-US 

trade relations.” 

In its twice-yearly �nding 

to the US Congress the 

Treasury said the RMB had 

gained 9.3 per cent against the 

dollar between June 2010 and 

November 2012, and 12.6 per 

cent when in�ation was taken 

into account. 

But it said Beijing’s foreign 

currency reserves, trade 

surplus and other factors 

“suggest that the real exchange 

rate of the RMB remains 

signi�cantly undervalued 

and further appreciation 

of the RMB against the dollar 

and other major currencies is 

warranted”. 

It added that Beijing, 

which in 2010 pledged to allow 

the yuan to trade more 

freely, knew an appreciating 

currency was in its own interests. 

The RMB hit a year low 

of around 6.39 to the dollar in 

July but has steadily climbed 

in recent weeks, hitting a fresh 

record high of 6.2223 to the 

greenback on Tuesday. In late 

afternoon trade yesterday it 

stood at 6.2273. — Agencies 

terview, stressing to Reuters 

that even though updates to the 

treaty could be approved by 

a simple majority, in practice 

nothing will be adopted without 

near-unanimity. 

“Voting means winners and 

losers. We can’t afford that in 

the ITU,” said Touré, a former 

satellite engineer from Mali 

who was educated in Russia. 

Touré predicted that only 

“light-touch” regulation on 

cyber-security will emerge by 

“consensus”, using a deliberately 

vague term that implies 

something between a majority 

and unanimity. 

He rejected criticism that 

the ITU’s historic role in coordinating 

phone carriers leaves 

it un�t to corral the unruly Internet, 

comparing the Web to a 

transportation system. 

“Because you own the 

Google hits out at German law 

Google launched an Internet campaign in Germany on Tuesday 

aiming to drum up public support against a proposed law that 

would force the search engine to pay publishers for content 

offered on the site. The Internet videoshows consumers using the 

search engine to �nd what they want on the web. � Page 8 

roads, you don’t own the cars 

and especially not the goods 

they are transporting. But when 

you buy a car you don’t buy the 

road,” Touré said. “You need to 

know the number of cars and 

their size and weight so you 

can build the bridges and set 

the right number of lanes. You 

need light-touch regulation to 

set down a few traf�c lights.” 

Because the proposals from 

Russia, China and others are 

more extreme, Touré has been 

able to cast mild regulation as 

a compromise accommodating 

nearly everyone. 

Two leaked Russian proposals 

say nations should have 

the sovereign right “to regulate 

the national Internet segment”. 

An August draft proposal from 

a group of 17 Arab countries 

called for transmission recipients 

to receive “identity information” 

about the senders, 

potentially endangering the anonymity 

of political dissidents, 

among others. 

A US State Department en- 

voy to the gathering and Cerf 

agreed with Touré that there 

is unlikely to be any drastic 

change emerging from Dubai. 

“The decisions are going to 

be by consensus,” said US delegation 

chief Terry Kramer. He 

said anti-anonymity measures 

such as mandatory Internet address 

tracing won’t be adopted 

because of opposition by the 

United States and others. 

“We’re a strong voice, given 

a lot of the heritage,” Kramer 

said, referring to the United 

States’ role in the development 

of the Internet. “A lot of European 

markets are very similar, 

and a lot of Asian counties are 

supportive, except China.” 

Despite the reassuring 

words, a fresh leak over the 

weekend showed that the 

ITU’s top managers viewed a 

badly split conference as a realistic 

prospect less than three 

months ago. 

The leaked program for a 

“senior management retreat” 

for the ITU in early September 

Tech firms lead in 

European office 

rentals 

� Page 10 

Bitter struggle over Internet regulation to dominate global summit 

TELECOM MEET PREVIEW 

EU clears Bankia, Spanish 

banks restructuring 

BRUSSELS — The European 

Commission cleared yesterday 

the restructuring of four Spanish 

banks — Bankia, NCG 

Banco, Catalunya Banc and 

Banco de Valencia — as part 

of a major overhaul of Spain’s 

stricken banking sector. 

The Commission said the 

restructuring of the four banks 

“will allow them to become 

viable in the long-term without 

continued state support” 

while the plans contain provisions 

to limit distortions to 

competition. 

Banco de Valencia, whose 

independent future could not 

be secured, will be sold and 

integrated into CaixaBank, the 

Commission said in a statement. 

Spain secured funding of 

up to 100 billion euros from 

its euro zone partners in 

June to help rescue its banks, 

brought to their knees by a 

mountain of bad debt built up 

in a property bubble which 

burst in 2008. 

At that stage it looked as 

though Spain might need a 

full, sovereign debt bailout accord 

on top, but since then Madrid 

has weathered the storm 

and Prime Minister Mariano 

Rajoy has resisted pressure to 

ask for further help. 

“The approval... is a milestone 

in the implementation of 

the (accord)... Our objective is 

to restore the viability of banks 

receiving aid so that they are 

able to function without pub- 

EUROPEAN Union Competition Commissioner Joaquin 

Almunia addresses a news conference in Brussels. 

lic support in the future,” European 

Competition Commissioner 

Joaquin Almunia said 

in the statement. 

“Restoring a healthier �nancial 

sector capable of �nancing 

the real economy is 

indispensable for economic 

recovery in Spain” Almunia 

added. 

Spanish Finance Minister 

Luis De Guindos said on 

Monday that the �rst payment 

to recapitalise the banking system 

would be about 37 billion 

euros ($50 billion), expected 

in December. 

The Commission said that 

Bankia, the giant group at the 

the heart of Spain’s �nancial 

crisis and already bailed out 

by Madrid, would receive 36 

billion euros in all when the 

euro zone programme is also 

taken into account. 

NGC would get 10 billion 

euros, Catalunya Banc 14 billion 

euros and Banco de Valencia 

7 billion euros. 

Almunia told a press conference 

that the programme 

should ensure that taxpayers 

“get an adequate return 

for this effort” in due course, 

touching on a sensitive political 

issue running through the 

bailout plans. 

The Commission said that 

the balance sheets of Bankia, 

NCG Banco and Catalunya 

Banc would shrink by more 

than 60 per cent by 2017 compared 

with 2010, highlighting 

how over-extended the banks 

had become. 

The banks henceforth will 

focus on their “historical core 

regions. They will exit from 

lending to real estate development 

and limit their presence 

in wholesale business,” it 

said. — AFP 

EU agrees controls for rating agencies Qantas ends Tourism Australia link 

BRUSSELS — European Union 

countries and the bloc’s 

parliament agreed yesterday 

to introduce limited controls 

on credit ratings agencies after 

their judgment was called into 

question in the debt crisis. 

Michel Barnier, the European 

commissioner in charge 

of regulation who helped broker 

a deal on the new law, said 

it aimed to reduce the over-reliance 

on ratings and establish 

a civil liability regime. 

The new rules should make 

it easier to sue the agencies if 

they are judged to have made 

errors when, for example, 

ranking the creditworthiness 

of debt. 

The agencies came under 

�re for giving top-notch AAA 

credit scores to debt that later 

unravelled and they provoked 

more criticism by downgrading 

countries at sensitive moments 

of the crisis. 

“Credit rating agencies will 

have to be more transparent 

when rating sovereign states, 

respect timing rules on sovereign 

ratings and justify the 

timing of publication of unsolicited 

ratings of sovereign 

debt,” Barnier said in a statement. 

“They will have to follow 

stricter rules which will make 

them more accountable for 

mistakes in case of negligence 

or intent.” 

Others said the limited reform 

would do little to alter 

the agencies’ behaviour. 

“This reform is no big 

breakthrough in changing 

the rating agency market,” 

said Sven Giegold, a German 

member of parliament who 

was involved in the negotiations. 

“It’s a step towards better 

supervision but there are no 

big structural changes.” 

Banks currently rely on the 

credit ratings of assets, such as 

packages of loans, to decide 

how risky they are and how 

much capital should be set 

aside to cover this risk. The 

reform is designed to weaken 

these connections. 

The deal between the EU 

parliament and countries attempts 

to inject momentum 

into a regulatory drive to 

change the way the big three 

credit rating agencies — Fitch, 

Moody’s, and Standard & 

Poor’s — work. 

But the law has been softened 

during negotiations. 

“I think that the signi�cance 

of this reform is limited 

because the political ambition 

has been scaled back,” said 

Nicolas Veron of Brusselsbased 

think tank Bruegel. 

“In any event, the behaviour 

of rating agencies such 

as we saw with US securitised 

products before the crisis has 

changed.” 

Under the law, the agencies 

will set up a calendar indicating 

when they will rate countries, 

publishing ratings only 

after close of business and at 

least one hour before the opening 

of trading in the EU. 

All ratings will be published 

on a European platform 

to improve visibility. 

The EU’s executive said 

that the new rules ensured that 

a rating agency could be held 

liable in cases of negligence or 

intent that damaged an investor. 

The rules will also encourage 

competition by introducing 

rules to rotate agencies 

although these will be limited 

to complex structured �nance 

instruments. 

An earlier idea for temporary 

“blackouts” on some sovereign 

ratings when bailouts 

are being organised for them 

was dropped. 

A proposal to force debt 

issuers, such as companies, 

to rotate the agency they use 

to rank their bonds was also 

weakened. It will now apply 

only to resecuritised debt, a 

market that is largely dead. 

Rating agencies are already 

subject to stricter policing, 

since the establishment of 

ESMA as their chief European 

supervisor. — Reuters 

SYDNEY — Qantas Airways yesterday 

severed a lucrative marketing deal with 

Tourism Australia after claiming its boss 

was leading a consortium trying to unseat 

the airline’s management and buy out the 

company. 

The carrier said it had advised the 

country’s of�cial tourism agency it was 

halting the A$50 million ($52 million) 

deal “due to a potential con�ict of interest 

of the agency’s chairman”, former Qantas 

chief Geoff Dixon. 

Dixon ran the national �ag-carrier between 

2001 and 2008, when Alan Joyce 

took over. The two men, previously con- 

�dantes, are now locked in a bitter feud 

over the direction the airline is taking. 

“This con�ict has arisen from the involvement 

of Tourism Australia’s chairman 

with a syndicate that is actively 

canvassing fundamental changes to the 

Qantas Group strategy, including the proposed 

partnership with Emirates,” Qantas 

said. 

“Qantas cannot continue to collaborate 

with an agency whose chairman is 

a member of a syndicate committed to 

unravelling Qantas’ structure and direction.” 

Media reports have said the consortium, 

which is also said to include retail 

entrepreneur Gerry Harvey, advertising 

guru John Singleton, and another former 

Qantas executive Peter Gregg, have been 

buying up shares. 

The reports say they were scouting 

for global investors, mainly from China, 

QANTAS Airways CEO Alan Joyce. — AFP 

to back a takeover and stymie Qantas’s 

10-year tie-up with Emirates, which was 

unveiled in September but remains before 

the competition regulator. 

The syndicate is reportedly disaffected 

with the performance of Joyce and 

the company’s �oundering share price, 

preferring to sell off the “Flying Kangaroo’s” 

frequent �yer programme and 

low-cost offshoot Jetstar. 

They were also believed to be lukewarm 

on the proposed partnership with 

Emirates, which will see Qantas’s hub 

for European �ights shift to Dubai from 

Singapore, with the airlines co-operating 

on pricing, sales and scheduling. 

Joyce told a media lunch that selling 

the frequent �yer programme and Jetstar 

would be a big mistake and said share- 

holders were behind the current management’s 

strategy. 

“We have full support for the strategy 

that is there,” he said. 

Joyce wrote to Tourism Minister 

Martin Ferguson on Tuesday to tell him 

of the Tourism Australia decision, warning 

that Qantas would refuse to have any 

further dealings while Dixon was chairman. 

Despite ending the 40-year partnership, 

Qantas said it remained committed 

to supporting the tourism industry. 

“Not one dollar will be removed from 

tourism marketing as a consequence 

of this decision. Rather than providing 

this support through the federal agency, 

Qantas will instead look to do so through 

the states,” it said. — Reuters 

included a summary discussion 

of the most probable outcomes 

from Dubai, concluding that 

the two likeliest scenarios involved 

major reworkings of 

the treaty that the United States 

would then refuse to sign. The 

only difference between the 

scenarios lay in how many other 

developed countries sided 

with the Americans. 

An ITU spokesman said 

Tuesday that “the management 

team has never doubted that 

consensus will be found” and 

that the scenarios were meant 

to aid efforts at facilitating the 

process. 

Touré said that because the 

disagreements are so vast, the 

conference probably will end 

up with something resembling 

the ITU’s earlier formula for 

trying to protect children online 

— an agreement to cooperate 

more and share laws and 

best practices, perhaps with 

hotlines to head off misunderstandings. 

— Reuters

WASHINGTON — A gauge of 

planned US business spending increased 

in October by the most in 

�ve months, raising cautious optimism 

that the sharp cutbacks in 

capital investment during the summer 

are abating. 

Fears of deep reductions in government 

spending and big tax hikes 

early next year, a combination 

known as the �scal cliff, had caused 

�rms to hunker down. 

But orders for non-defense 

capital goods excluding aircraft, a 

closely watched proxy for business 

8 INTERNATIONAL THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2012 

US business spending plans improve despite �scal cloud 

S&P Index shows, for the month of September, home prices in major US cities have risen as much as 3 per cent. — AFP 

French jobless total 

hits 14-year high 

PARIS — The number of 

people out of work in France 

soared again in October to hit 

its highest level in 14-and-ahalf 

years, piling pressure on 

Socialist President Francois 

Hollande who has promised to 

halt the relentless rise by the 

end of 2013. 

Labour Ministry data 

showed the number of jobseekers 

in mainland France 

rose by 45,400, or 1.5 per cent, 

to hit 3.103 million, marking 

the 18th consecutive monthly 

increase and taking the total 

to its highest level since April 

1998. 

The increase was only 

slightly smaller than in October 

which saw the biggest 

jump in jobless rolls since 

April 2009, showing the deterioration 

in the job market 

is accelerating as recession 

in the broader euro zone hits 

demand. 

France’s 1.9 trillion euro 

($2.46 trillion) economy has 

been virtually stagnant since 

grinding to a halt at the end 

of last year, and many economists 

expect it to contract in 

the months ahead despite a 

BRUSSELS — A deal struck to cut 

back Greek debt to creditor countries 

and the IMF paves the way 

for easier cash�ow management in 

Athens, but analysts warn the paths 

identi�ed simply buy time. 

“The Greek deal is like a car 

made from junkyard parts that can 

collapse at the �rst bump in the 

road,” said Sony Kapoor, a London 

School of Economics Fellow and 

head of the Re-De�ne economic 

consultancy. 

“It is a very fragile contraption.” 

The euro zone and the International 

Monetary Fund agreed to unlock 

43.7 billion euros ($56 billion) 

in loans and on the need to grant 

signi�cant debt relief for decades 

to come. 

Four loan instalments from December 

13 through until the end of 

March are conditional on Greece 

funnelling the income back to creditors 

and on the implementation by 

Athens of tax reforms settled with 

creditors. 

A mixture of techniques will be 

used to bring down Greece’s debt 

burden from an estimated 144 per 

surprise 0.2 per cent rise in the 

third quarter. 

With the economy still 

struggling, the Labour Ministry 

said there was a risk the 

�gures could get even worse. 

But it noted that new 

measures to bolster company 

investment and the youth job 

market that will kick in from 

next year have yet to produce 

results. 

“This run of negative �gures 

on employment only 

increases our resolve to do 

something to reverse the trend 

between now and the end of 

next year,” Labour Minister 

Michel Sapin said in a statement. 

Hollande won power in 

May on a pledge to cut unemployment, 

but has since had 

to grapple with a wave of layoff 

announcements that have 

damaged his popularity and 

sapped public morale. 

The government unveiled a 

set of measures at the start of 

November, including sweeping 

tax rebates for companies, 

aimed at boosting industrial 

competitiveness and safeguarding 

jobs. 

cent of gross domestic product to 

124 per cent come 2020, and a ratio 

“substantially below 110 per cent” 

by 2022. 

These will begin with a buy- 

French business newspaper 

Les Echos said Hollande was 

now planning a faster rollout 

of the rebates so that they 

reach full speed within two 

years instead of the three year 

build-up initially envisaged. 

Meanwhile, Industry Minister 

Arnaud Montebourg has 

been increasingly vocal in his 

criticism of companies mulling 

job losses. He shocked 

steelmaker ArcelorMittal this 

week, fanning tensions over 

two threatened blast furnaces, 

by saying its CEO was no 

longer welcome in France. 

With the pace of job losses 

rising steadily, surveys show 

the public wants more than 

promises to save the economy, 

and economists want deeper 

structural reforms. 

The Labour Ministry data 

is the most frequently reported 

domestic jobs indicator 

for France, although it is not 

prepared according to widely 

used International Labour 

Organisation (ILO) standards 

nor expressed as a rate 

of the number of job-seekers 

compared with the total work 

force. — Reuters 

back by Greece of old debt that 

has fallen in value on commercial 

money markets as well as national 

central banks across the euro zone 

foregoing pro�ts on holdings of 

spending plans, rose 1.7 per cent 

last month, the Commerce Department 


“While the improvement in demand 

offers some encouragement 

debt whose worth has slumped. 

One senior euro zone source, 

speaking off the record, said the 

buy-back was “the �rst step” towards 

a write-down of the debt. 

that the worse of the malaise in 

capital investment may be behind 

us, there is little to suggest that 

this may be the beginning of any 

meaningful upturn,” said Millan 

Mulraine, a senior economist at TD 

Securities in New York. 

The increase in so-called core 

capital goods orders confounded 

economists’ expectations for a 0.5 

per cent fall. 

Lawmakers and the Obama administration 

are engaged in talks to 

avoid automatic spending cuts and 

tax increases that could suck $600 

billion from the economy early 

next year and fuel a fresh recession. 

Few visible signs of progress have 

emerged. 

“With intense focus on the �scal 

cliff and continued uncertainty 

surrounding the economic outlook 

in the new year, it remains to be 

seen whether the October advance 

can be maintained. It’s not clear 

that it can be,” said Omair Sharif, 

an economist at RBS in Stamford, 

Connecticut. 

“One month does not make a 

trend and the trend �rmly shows 

�rms are still in a kind of a waitand-see 

mode in terms of capital 

spending.” 

Given the lag between orders 

and shipments, economists expect 

business investment to remain a 

drag on economic activity in the 

fourth quarter. 

The IMF is pushing for a socalled 

“haircut” or write-down, but 

Germany has come out against this 

ahead of a general election next 

year, even if other Triple A-rated 

Shipments of core capital goods 

declined in October for a fourth 

straight month, and economists said 

the stronger orders might not translate 

into improved shipments until 

early 2013. 

Still, a few economists bumped 

up their meager fourth-quarter GDP 

forecasts slightly because the drop 

in shipments was smaller than they 

expected. Core goods shipments are 

used to calculate business spending 

on equipment and software in the 

gross domestic product report. 

In the third quarter, business 

spending tumbled for the �rst time 

since the 2007-09 recession ended, 

weighed down by the �scal cliff, 

Europe’s long-running debt problems 

and slowing global demand. 

While weakness in business 

spending has been restraining 

growth, the housing market is 

gaining momentum and consumer 

con�dence is more bullish, which 

should support the recovery. 

Single-family home prices rose 

for an eighth straight month in September, 

a separate report showed. 

The Standard & Poor’s/Case Shiller 

composite index of 20 metropolitan 

areas gained 0.4 per cent in September 

on a seasonally adjusted basis. 

Home building is expected to 

add to growth this year for the �rst 

time since 2005 and �rming home 

prices bode well for residential construction 

activity. 

states have said they would “not 

exclude” the possibility from 2015 

onwards. 

Interest rates will also be 

trimmed or deferred, while maturity 

dates will be pushed back by years. 

“These measures are sensible,” 

said Zsolt Darvas of Brussels think 

tank Bruegel, although he said lending 

rates should fall to zero, repayment 

not kick in until after 2030 and 

be indexed to growth in the Greek 

economy. 

However, the absence of “clarity” 

about the buy-back could maintain 

gradual capital out�ow, weak 

economic performance and further 

falls in employment, he said. 

This could revive the vicious 

circle of “social pressure on the 

government and the parliament,” 

resurrecting fears of government 

collapse and a chain of events leading 

to a euro-exit. 

Capital Economics, which has 

long been sceptical of efforts to rescue 

Greece and keep it in the euro 

zone, said the “relatively easy options 

are running out fast.” 

The drift is moving towards an 

“The strengthening in home 

prices is a plus for growth through 

various channels, including increased 

consumer spending because 

of wealth and con�dence 

effects,” said Jim O’Sullivan, chief 

US economist at High Frequency 

Economics in Valhalla, New York. 

A third report showed consumer 

con�dence hit a 4½ year high in 

November. Economists, however, 

warned that the �scal cliff could 

erode sentiment in the months 

ahead. 

Stocks on Wall Street ended 

down as investors worried over the 

lack of progress in working out a 

deal on the government’s budget 

problem, while prices for US Treasury 

debt eked out modest gains. 

The dollar �rmed against a basket 

of currencies. 

Orders for US-made durable 

goods — items meant to last three 

years or more — were unchanged 

in October as gains in machinery, 

fabricated metal products, and computer 

and electronic products offset 

the drag from automobiles, defence 

goods and civilian aircraft. 

Economists had expected durable 

goods orders to fall 0.6 per cent 

last month. They rose 9.2 per cent 

in September. 

Excluding transportation, orders 

rose 1.5 per cent in October after 

increasing 1.7 per cent the prior 

month. — Reuters 

Windows 8 sales reach 40 million 

SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft said 

yesterday it sold 40 million licences for 

its Windows 8 operating system in the 

�rst month after a launch which got a 

mixed reception. 

One of the new heads of the Windows 

unit, Tami Reller, made the announcement 

to an analysts’ meeting 

and Microsoft provided the information 

on its Windows blog. 

“Windows 8 is outpacing Windows 

7 in terms of upgrades,” the blog post 

said. “We built Windows 8 to work 

great on existing Windows 7 PCs. And 

we also set out to make upgrading from 

Windows 7 to Windows 8 super easy.” 

Microsoft released the new operating 

system worldwide on October 26 as 

a way to help the dominant PC software 

maker get a bigger share of the market 

for mobile devices such as tablets. 

But some say the new system may 

be hard to adapt to both PC and tablet 

format and that businesses may be slow 

to adopt Windows 8. 

It’s not clear how many people are 

using Windows 8, because the licences 

BERLIN — Google launched an Internet 

campaign in Germany on Tuesday 

aiming to drum up public support 

against a proposed law that would force 

may be sold to PC makers and not yet 

in use. 

Earlier this month, Microsoft said 

the head of its Windows unit was leaving. 

Windows president Steven Sinofsky 

will depart Microsoft and, effective 

immediately, his duties will be divided 

between a pair of executives who will 

answer directly to chief executive Steven 

Ballmer. 

Julie Larson-Green was promoted to 

lead Windows software and hardware 

engineering. Reller will run the business 

side of Windows in addition to her 

duties as chief �nancial of�cer. 

Microsoft has not disclosed sales 

data for its new Surface tablet computer, 

which uses Windows 8, and was 

launched at the same time as the operating 

system. 

The Redmond, Washington giant 

said it was also boosting the number of 

apps in its Windows Store as part of its 

mobile strategy. 

“There were more apps in the Windows 

Store at launch than any other app 

the search engine to pay publishers for 

content offered on the site. 

The one-minute Internet video, entitled 

“defend your net”, shows con- 

Greek deal seen as path to buy time and drift towards debt write-down 

INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde (right) talks during a joint press conference. 

store at their launch and since then, the 

number of apps in the Windows Store 

has doubled,” the blog said. 

“A number of apps in the Windows 

Store have crossed the $25,000 rev- 

sumers using the search engine to �nd 

what they want on the web. 

“For more than 10 years, you have 

been able to �nd the things that move 

you. A planned law will now change 

that,” the �rm says in the video. 

“Do you want that to happen? Get 

involved,” ends the message, offering 

users the possibility to sign an online 

petition against the law, due to be debated 

in the Bundestag lower house of 

parliament on Thursday. 

The draft law — dubbed the “Lex 

Google” as the giant US search engine 

is seen as the main target — would 

force search engines to pay a fee to 

publishers when Internet users click 

through to their content. 

Demanded for many years by 

powerful media groups such as Axel 

Springer and Bertelsmann, which want 

to retain the copyright over their content, 

the draft legislation is backed by 

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling 

enue mark and the developer keeps 80 

per cent of the revenue they make off 

downloads for the life of their app. A lot 

of great new apps have been added to 

the Windows Store since launch.” 

Google hits back against German law 

coalition. 

The media groups also argue that 

a user of “Google News” can simply 

read the short summaries offered on 

the front page to get his or her �x of 

the daily news, rather than clicking 

through to the paper concerned. 

But the head of Google Germany, 

Stefan Tweraser, hit back, saying: “The 

majority of citizens have never heard 

of this draft law even though it could 

affect all Internet users in Germany.” 

Tweraser said the law would restrict 

the content citizens could access on 

the web and result in higher costs for 

companies. 

However, Justice Minister Sabine 

Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger noted 

that consumers did have a choice. 

“There are other search engines 

than Google,” she told business daily 

Handelsblatt in its Wednesday edition. 

France is also pushing Google to 

compensate media websites. — AFP 

echo at government level of the 

gradual dawning among banks and 

insurers that they would have to 

take losses on Greek debt. 

For Michala Marcussen of 

France’s Societe Generale, “of�cial 

sector debt forgiveness [is] a very 

real, but politically challenging, 

possibility”. 

She said even with the new 

measures 2017 is likely too soon a 

target for Greece to return to market 

�nancing on anything other than the 

shortest-maturity issuance. 

The time for a haircut is not now, 

said Christian Schulz of Germany’s 

Berenberg. 

“This would have done little to 

improve Greece’s immediate �nancial 

situation and resistance to such 

a move in Germany could have 

sparked market fears over a potential 

aid package for Spain,” he said. 

Schulz added that ongoing 

“street protests and the independence 

movement in Catalunya (Catalonia) 

also highlight the political 

risks of front-loaded austerity,” 

although the deal certainly “buys 

more time.” — AFP

NEW YORK — When Citigroup 

Inc’s board of directors 

was looking for a chief executive 

in 2007, it called Michael 

O’Neill, who had turned 

around Bank of Hawaii Corp 

a few years before. 

O’Neill spoke to a Citigroup 

board member on the 

telephone, but the board was 

reluctant to consider O’Neill 

seriously because he had never 

run a bank of Citigroup’s 

size or complexity, according 

to a person familiar with the 

situation. 

Five years later, O’Neill, 

66, is effectively running Citigroup, 

which is more than 130 

times bigger than Bank of Hawaii 

was last decade, as measured 

by assets. He joined the 

Citigroup board in 2009, became 

chairman this year and 

has played an increasingly 

powerful role, as most vividly 

shown by his ousting of 

Vikram Pandit as chief executive 

in October, after months 

of tension. 

O’Neill, who hand-picked 

new CEO Michael Corbat, has 

an uphill task ahead of him. 

Citigroup is groaning under 

$171 billion of assets it wants 

to shed, has high expenses, 

and its profitability lags behind 

that of such competitors 

as JPMorgan Chase & Co. 

And O’Neill faces the 

same question that kept him 

from being a contender for the 

Citigroup CEO spot: while he 

can fix a smaller bank, can he 

revamp a behemoth as complicated 

as Citigroup? 

“It is an awfully complex 

situation,” said current Bank 

of Hawaii CEO Peter Ho, who 

worked for O’Neill. “He relishes 

simplicity.” 

O’Neill, who declined to 

comment for this story through 

a spokesman, has provided 

some clues about his plan to 

turn the bank around. On a 

conference call with investors 

the day that Pandit stepped 

down, he said that he will follow 

his typical playbook. 

A dozen people who have 

worked with O’Neill over the 

years say that plan usually involves 

the ruthless pruning of 

underperforming operations 

and deciding which ones are 

worth additional investment. 

As he evaluates a bank, 

he delves deeply into details 

to look for value or risk that 

others may have missed. His 

decisions may differ from 

those of competitors, but he 

has a strong track record of 

being right, these people said. 

For example, when he was at 

BankAmerica in 1998, he e 

xited a type of mortgage lending 

that brought heartburn to 

competitors a few years later. 

Given Corbat spent three 

years after the financial crisis 

helping to dispose of Citigroup’s 

bad assets, he may be 

a perfect chief executive — 

and ally — for O’Neill. 

Still, it remains far from 

certain that O’Neill can use 

the methods he has previously 

9 INTERNATIONAL THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2012 

Asian shares slip on US fiscal cliff fears 

HONG KONG — Asian markets 

fell yesterday, following 

losses on Wall Street, as traders 

fret US lawmakers will not 

agree a deal to avert the fiscal 

cliff. 

Forex dealers also ran for 

cover after the Senate Majority 

Leader Harry Reid said “little 

progress” had been made in 

cross-party talks on the looming 

tax hikes and spending 

cuts due to come in on January 

1 that would tip the US into 

recession. 

Tokyo slumped 1.22 per 

AN investor before an electronic board showing stock information in China. — Reuters 

cent, or 114.95 points, to close 

at 9,308.35, Seoul ended 0.65 

per cent, or 12.42 points, lower 

at 1,912.78 while Sydney shed 

0.21 per cent, or 9.5 points, to 

finish at 4,447.3. 

Chinese shares fell to their 

lowest in almost four years 

yesterday, pulling down the 

Hong Kong market, as hopes 

of monetary easing anytime 

this year faded in the light of 

improving economic data. 

A lack of progress on US 

budget talks also weighed on 

markets, reigniting fears of a 

fiscal crisis in the world’s largest 

economy. 

The Hang Seng Index went 

into the midday trading break 

down 0.8 per cent, while the 

China Enterprises Index of 

the top Chinese listings slid 

1.5 per cent. Midday turnover 

stayed weak, as it had for most 

of November. 

In the mainland, the CSI300 

Index and Shanghai Composite 

each slid 0.7 per cent, with 

the latter going into the lunch 

break at 1,977.4, its lowest 

intra-day level since January 

2009. 

“This isn’t panic in the Ashare 

market, but a systematic, 

slow downward grind,” said 

Hong Hao, head of China research 

at Bank of Communications 

International Securities. 

Hong added that industrial 

profit data on Tuesday gave 

further evidence that China’s 

economy was improving, dousing 

hopes of further monetary 

policy easing for those still 

expecting the A-share market 

will rebound into year’s end. 

“But they are waking up 

The uphill task: Can O’Neill turn the Citi bank around? 

used to turn Citi around. It not 

only dwarfs Bank of Hawaii 

but is also seven times as large 

as BankAmerica was in 1997, 

when O’Neill was that bank’s 

chief financial officer. 

Citigroup is also vastly 

more complicated and has 

been exiting businesses for 

years. 

At this stage, O’Neill could 

still decide to shed a big business, 

like investment banking. 

But Citigroup executives who 

have considered such steps in 

the past decided that the damage 

to other businesses, like 

corporate lending, would be 

too great. 

now, cutting their losses and 

getting out of the market, especially 

with the bumper crop 

of lockup expiry coming up 

in December, which will further 

decrease market volumes 

and result in more weakness,” 

Hong said. 

Cyclical sectors such as 

steel and industrials that would 

benefit the most from stimulus 

measures fell sharply as investors 

discounted such a step. 

Baotou Steel dived 5.3 per 

cent in Shanghai to its lowest 

since early September. Shares 

of gold miners were also weak 

on declining gold prices, with 

Zijin Mining down 0.6 per 

cent in Hong Kong and 2.4 per 

cent in Shanghai. 

The China banking sector 

was also broadly weaker and 

were among the top drags on 

the Hang Seng Index. Industrial 

and Commercial Bank 

of China (ICBC) shed 1.3 per 

cent, while China Construction 

Bank (CCB) slid 1.9 per 

cent. 

A-share proxy plays such 

as Chinese insurers and brokerages 

were also weak. China 

Life Insurance was down 2 

per cent in Hong Kong and 

0.3 per cent in Shanghai. Citic 

Securities lost 1.6 per cent in 

Hong Kong and 1.3 per cent in 

Shanghai. 

Shares of Chinese oil majors 

were also a key drag as 

oil prices declined. CNOOC 

Ltd slipped 2.1 per cent, while 

Within six months 

of being named 

CEO, O’Neill 

announced that the 

company would 

shed its holdings 

in California, Asia 

and most of the 

South Pacific 

“Take the process at Bank 

of Hawaii, and multiply it by 

10,000, and you’ve got what 

Citigroup will be like,” said 

one former senior Citi executive. 

It may take years for 

O’Neill’s effort to bear fruit, 

barring a major global economic 

turnaround, he added. 

In 2000, when O’Neill took 

the CEO’s job at Bank of Hawaii, 

he had to fix a regional 

bank that was struggling after 

over-expanding around the 

Pacific Rim. 

Employees, already 

bruised by deep cost-cutting, 

were wary of an outsider from 

the US mainland, said Lori 

China Petroleum & Chemical 

Corp (Sinopec) lost 1.2 per 

cent in Hong Kong and 0.3 per 

cent in Shanghai. 

China’s state-owned 

CNOOC Ltd and its Canadian 

takeover target Nexen Inc said 

on Tuesday they withdrew and 

resubmitted their application 

for US approval of their $15.1 

billion deal, as Canada gets 

close to a crucial decision on 

whether to approve the transaction. 

Reid’s comments raised 

the spectre of another long 

battle between Republicans 

and Democrats, similar to 

last year’s row over raising 

the country’s borrowing cap, 

which led to the United States 

losing its AAA credit rating. 

“The difficulties with solving 

the US ‘fiscal cliff’ are 

coming to a head again and 

may present a good selling opportunity 

for investors,” said 

Kenichi Hirano, market analyst 

at Tachibana Securities. 

The news hit Wall Street 

shares. The Dow ended 0.69 

per cent lower, the S&P 500 

lost 0.52 per cent and the 

Nasdaq slid 0.30 per cent. 

The losses came despite 

data showing US consumer 

confidence rose in November 

to its highest level since February 

2008, while a separate 

report said home prices increased 

in September, a fresh 

sign of recovery in the crucial 

housing market. — Agencies 

McCarney, the bank’s former 

chief marketing officer. 

But O’Neill listened to 

employees, laid out a strategy 

and put his own money behind 

it, investing $10 million in the 

bank’s stock. The former US 

Marine even starred in a series 

of commercials, dressed in a 

flowered aloha shirt. 

At investor meetings in 

New York, O’Neill would 

show a chart with about 30 

bars — about three-fourths 

represented businesses that 

were profitable, while the remainder 

were losing money or 

breaking even. 

“It was a pretty clear 

graphic picture of what to expect,” 

said Al Landon, a risk 

manager hired shortly before 

O’Neill’s arrival and who later 

became his successor. 

Within six months of being 

named CEO, O’Neill announced 

that the company 

would shed its holdings in 

California, Asia and most of 

the South Pacific. 

O’Neill dug into various 

businesses to understand what 

was happening. He would suddenly 

show up in employees’ 

offices or summon them for 

LONDON — UK blue chips 

edged lower yesterday as 

signs of sluggish progress 

in crucial US budget talks 

fuelled some profit-taking after 

recent, hefty gains. 

Growth-dependent cyclical 

stocks lead the retreat after 

US Senate Majority Leader, 

Harry Reid, said there had 

been “little progress” among 

lawmakers in negotiations to 

avoid a ‘fiscal cliff’ of spending 

cuts and tax hikes that 

could stall the world’s largest 

economy. 

Britain’s FTSE 100 was 

down 22.94 points, or 0.4 per 

cent at 5,776.03 points, shedding 

all of Tuesday’s gains 

and a fraction of last week’s 

213 points rally. 

The FTSE has been trading 

in a range comprised 

between 5,600 and 5,900 

since August as a boost from 

monetary stimulus from the 

Thomas Cook travel group says annual losses deepen 

LONDON — Travel firm Thomas 

Cook yesterday posted deepening 

losses, hit by the euro zone crisis, 

Middle East unrest and high fuel 

costs, and added it was mulling options 

for its French and North American 

units. 

Thomas Cook said in a results 

statement that it had suffered a loss 

after taxation of £585.9 million 

($937.9 million, 725.5 million euros) 

in the year to September, compared 

with a shortfall of £520.7 million in 

2010/2011. 

Total revenues fell 3.2 per cent to 

£9.5 billion in a “difficult” trading 

environment, as customers in Europe 

shunned destinations in the Middle 

East and North Africa (MENA) area 

— particularly in Egypt, Tunisia and 

Morocco. 

The debt-laden company’s performance 

was hit by high fuel costs 

of £100 million and reduced capacity. 

Thomas Cook added that it cut net 

debt by £103 million to £788 million, 

partly through asset disposals. 

The company, Europe’s second- 

largest travel group, added that it was 

reviewing all options for its French 

operations. 

“The French management team... 

is reviewing various options to help 

the business reach its full potential, 

either through a restructuring, a disposal 

of certain assets or a corporate 

transaction such as a merger or a 

sale.” 

In recent times, Thomas Cook 

has been battered by the weak global 

economy, recession in Britain, restructuring 

charges, high fuel costs, 

and unrest in the MENA region. 

Borrowing by small UK firms at near 3-year low 

LONDON — The proportion 

of Britain’s small and medium-sized 

businesses (SMEs) 

borrowing money in the past 

quarter fell to its lowest level 

since at least early 2010, a survey 

showed yesterday. 

Of the SMEs surveyed by 

BDRC Continental, 57 per 

cent had neither borrowed, 

nor intended to borrow money, 

whilst only 40 per cent said 

they took out some form of 

external finance between July 

and September, the lowest 

since the survey began. 

Findings from the survey, 

commissioned by the Business 

Finance Taskforce, showed 

entrepreneurs increasingly felt 

applications to borrow money 

would be turned down by 

banks. 

“SMEs seem to be moving 

away from external finance so 

we’ve got fewer SMEs currently 

using it, fewer that have 

applied in the past and fewer 

that are planning to apply,” 

Shiona Davies, Director of 

BDRC Continental, said. 

“Those who plan to apply 

are less confident that they will 

get it, and more SMEs, albeit 

a minority, now talk about being 

discouraged from applying 

at all.” Of all the applications 

made, 71 per cent did result in 

a loan or overdraft being provided, 

with less than a quarter 

of applicants not receiving any 

form of funding, equivalent 

to 3 per cent of all th e UK’s 

SMEs. 

But perceptions weighed 

heavily in the survey, with just 

a third believing that a bank 

would agree to their request 

for finance, the lowest ever 

level recorded by the quarterly 

survey. 

The survey of over 5,000 

small and medium sized businesses 

was conducted before 

news in October that Britain 

was no longer in recession following 

the strongest growth 

for five years. 

The quarterly SME Financial 

Monitor also showed a 

year-on-year decrease in the 

use of ‘core products’, such 

as loans, overdrafts and credit 

cards, at 34 per cent in the third 

quarter of 2012, compared 

with 39 per cent in 2011. 

Looking ahead to the final 

quarter, Davies said despite 

reason for optimism, it could 

take a while for good news 

— such as the impact of the 

government’s Funding for 

Lending scheme to encourage 

banks to lend — to filter 

through to SMEs. — Reuters 

“The West Europe segment has 

continued to be affected by the ongoing 

political unrest in the MENA 

region and the economic uncertainty 

caused by the European debt crisis,” 

Thomas Cook added in yesterday’s 

earnings release. 

“In the MENA region, we have 

seen some recovery in demand for 

Tunisia but less than anticipated for 

Morocco and the important market of 

Egypt has deteriorated further.” 

West Europe revenues tumbled 

by 13.9 per cent after capacity reductions 

in all markets, especially in 

France. 

North American revenues meanwhile 

slumped 15.2 per cent, hit by 

persistent market overcapacity, a very 

mild Canadian winter and the loss of 

a key premium hotel contract. 

“We saw a continuation of the 

previously announced poor trading 

in our French and North American 

businesses and we are taking steps 

to minimise cash requirements and 

considering the best long term options 

for these businesses. 

“The French market is acutely 

UK’s FTSE, too, 

edges lower 

impacted by both domestic economic 

uncertainty and the political unrest 

in the MENA region, as the Frenchspeaking 

destinations of Tunisia and 

Morocco are very popular with our 

French customers.” 

The debt-plagued group came 

close to collapse in November 2011 

when it was forced to request a vital 

credit line from banks. 

Earlier this year, it clinched a £1.4 

billion deal with lenders to extend the 

maturity of its bank loans to 2015. 

As part of a key turnaround strategy, 

Thomas Cook has sold its aircraft 

fleet and five Spanish hotels. It also 

agreed to dispose of its Indian division. 

Chief executive Harriet Green, 

who was appointed in May to help 

overhaul the group, added that the its 

strategy was on course and bookings 

for the current winter season were 

strong. 

“These results reflect the major 

issues that Thomas Cook faced last 

year, but they mask the material improvement 

that we made in the fourth 

quarter.” — AFP 

short discussions, recalls Ho, 

who was then a senior vicepresident 

fairly low down in 

the chain of command. 

“He clearly understood the 

issues in my sphere, wanted to 

get my opinion on them, and 

wanted to make sure that I 

understood that he understood 

what was going on several 

layers down,” said Ho, who 

became CEO of the bank in 

2010. 

It was in such no-nonsense 

meetings that O’Neill 

convinced Bank of Hawaii 

employees that the company 

would rationally sort out 

which of its businesses. 

When O’Neill departed 

in 2004, he left the bank 

“with a very strong credit 

culture and they got through 

the credit crisis better than 

most banks,” said Fred Cannon, 

who was director of 

investor relations at BankAmerica 

and is now director of 

US research and chief equity 

strategist at Keefe, Bruyette & 

Woods. 

Former colleagues say 

O’Neill also has a knack for 

seeing risks that other executives 

may miss. — Reuters 

world’s largest central banks 

was offset by concerns about 

a recession in part of the euro 

zone and uncertainty over the 

US fiscal cliff. 

“We’re seeing short positions 

coming on board with 

a view to closing at 5,600,” 

Manoj Ladwa, head of trading 

at TJ Markets said. 

“(If a deal on the fiscal 

cliff is reached) you’ll start 

seeing volumes returning 

back to the market and the index 

creeping up towards the 

high end of the range around 

5,900.” 

In a sign of the flight to 

safety yesterday, shares in 

defensive United Utilities 

topped the FTSE 100 leader 

board, up 2 per cent after the 

multi-utility posted a rise 

in first-half revenues and 

said it was on track to meet 

regulatory out-performance 

targets. — Reuters 

Telenor 

refuses to 

be drawn on 

merger talk 

NEW DELHI Norway’s 

Telenor refused to comment 

yesterday on reports it is 

in talks to merge its Indian 

operations with local firm 

Tata Teleservices to enlarge 

its presence in the vast 

mobile phone market. 

Media reports have said 

the state-run Norwegian 

firm, the largest phone 

operator in the Nordic 

region, is seeking a majority 

stake in the proposed 

merged group. 

“Telenor Group 

never comments on 

rumours or speculation,” 

a spokesman said, while 

Tata Teleservices could not 

immediately be reached for 

comment. 

Telenor won the right 

to operate in six Indian 

cellular zones in an auction 

earlier this month after 

India’s Supreme Court 

cancelled its previous 13 

permits due to alleged 

irregularities in the 2008 

bidding process. 

Tata Teleservices — part 

of the tea-to-steel Tata conglomerate 

— has licences 

to operate in all of India’s 

22 mobile zones, making 

it an attractive partner for 

Telenor. 

A deal between Telenor 

and India’s Tata would 

mean the Tata Group 

would reduce its holding in 

unlisted Tata Teleservices, 

the country’s sixth largest 

mobile phone operator by 

number of subscribers, the 

reports said. 

But Japan’s NTT 

DoCoMo would retain 

its 26 per cent stake, the 

reports said. 

Telenor has had a rough 

ride since entering the 

crowded Indian mobile 

market four years ago. 

The Norwegian firm 

paid $1.10 billion for a majority 

stake in a phone venture 

with property developer 

Unitech, which bought 

an operator’s licence. But 

then Telenor found itself 

mired in controversy. 

Its Indian unit was 

among eight mobile operators 

whose licences were 

cancelled by the Supreme 

Court on grounds the 2008 

permit sale was underpriced 

and corrupt. The 

issue has become a major 

scandal. 

Analysts say the ruling 

may have one welcome 

fallout for operators by 

leading to a long-anticipated 

industry consolidation, 

as weak operators 

fall by the wayside or are 

swallowed up by stronger 

rivals. There are more than 

a dozen operators which 

have pushed talk rates 

down to a cent or less a 

minute. — AFP

WASHINGTON — For the past four 

years, Elisse Walter stood out at the US 

Securities and Exchange Commission for 

her deep loyalty to SEC Chairman Mary 

Schapiro. 

Now the veteran regulator and SEC 

commissioner — one of two Democrats 

on the SEC — is moving to the fore at the 

powerful agency, taking over the chairmanship 

after Schapiro steps down next 

month. The promotion is prompting regulatory 

watchers to talk about whether Walter 

will blaze her own path. 

“She has been very loyal to Mary Schapiro, 

and there are times when I thought 

she prioritised her loyalty to Mary over 

sometimes even her own positions on an 

issue,” said Barbara Roper, the director of 

investor protection for the Consumer Federation 

of America. 

“It will be interesting to see what she 

is like when she comes out of Mary’s 

shadow. Will it be more of the same? Or 

... will her own style and views become 

more apparent?” 

Walter’s and Schapiro’s strong working 

relationship has carried through their 

closely intertwined career paths to their 

nearly uniform agreement on controversial 

regulations. 

The two women first worked together 

at the SEC, when Schapiro started there 

as a commissioner in 1988 and Walter 

worked as a deputy director in the Corporation 

Finance Division. 

They later worked together at the 

Commodity Futures Trading Commission 

and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority 

before returning to the SEC, where 

they served side by side. 

With just one exception, Walter has 

publicly voted for all of the regulations 

championed by Schapiro — from the 

controversial “proxy access” rule later 

overturned by a US appeals court to rules 

that force companies to disclose if their 

products contain certain African conflict 

minerals. 

Walter’s only public dissent was over a 

rule creating a central database that stores 

every trade order, execution and cancellation. 

Walter argued that the rule was too 

weak. 

For the most part, the financial services 

sector and the legal community are not ex- 

10 

OMAN/INTERNATIONAL THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2012 

Elisse Walter seen taking similar path to ally Schapiro 

SAN FRANCISCO — 

Smartphones and tablets powered 

by Google’s Android 

software are devouring the 

mobile gadget market, eating 

into Apple’s turf by feeding 

appetites for innovation and 

low prices, analysts say. 

The Android operating system 

powered nearly three out 

of four smartphones shipped 

worldwide in the recently ended 

quarter as the mobile platform 

dominated the market, 

according to industry trackers 

at IDC. 

“Android has been one of 

the primary growth engines of 

the smartphone market since 

it was launched in 2008,” said 

IDC’s mobile phones research 

manager Ramon Llamas. 

“In every year since then, 

Android has effectively outpaced 

the market and taken 

market share from the competition.” 

In tablets, Apple’s market 

share has fallen to just over 50 

per cent from 65 per cent in 

the second quarter as Android 

devices gain ground, according 

to IDC figures. 

“Having a lot of people 

building a lot of things covering 

a lot of price points with 

multiple brands in multiple 

places makes a big difference,” 

said NPD Group analyst 

Stephen Baker. 

“Variety is strength when it 

comes to moving units.” 

Android smartphones shipments 

surged to 136 million, 

topping those in the same 

three-month period last year 

by slightly more than 90 per 

cent, IDC reported. 

Samsung’s Galaxy S3 

ELISSE Walter, NASD Executive Vice President (left) and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairperson Mary Schapiro. 

Google’s Android termed 

eating Apple’s lunch 

overtook Apple’s iPhone 4S 

in the third quarter to give the 

South Korean firm the world’s 

best-selling smartphone model 

for the first time ever, according 

to research firm Strategy 

Analytics. 

“The pace of innovation in 

Android is faster than Apple,” 

said Gartner vice president of 

mobile computing Ken Dulaney. 

“They are just trying 

harder; Apple is way behind 

in that area.” 

Android is benefiting from 

being an “open-source” platform 

that gadget makers use 

free of charge and improve 

as they deem fit, providing 

Google with insights along 

the way. 

Apple tightly controls its 

products from the software 

to the hardware and even the 

online shop for music, books, 

games or other content. 

“What you get with Android 

is this incredible feedback 

loop with developers, 

equipment makers, customers, 

and designers,” Dulaney said. 

“At Apple, as long as they 

have a great vision internally 

it is fine but they don’t have 

the feedback Android does.” 

Having thousands of different 

Android devices vying for 

consumers’ cash is a strength 

when it comes to market share 

but puts hardware makers into 

a fiercely competitive arena, 

Baker noted. 

“Other than Samsung, I 

don’t know if other Android 

guys are making money,” the 

analyst said. 

Google gives Android 

away free, but the platform 

is crafted to make it easy for 

people to use the California 

Internet titan’s money-making 

services such as search and 

maps, and get content at its 

online Google Play shop. 

Forrester analyst Charles 

Golvin said that forces powering 

Android momentum include 

changing demographics 

of smartphone buyers. 

Early adopters of 

smartphones focused more on 

new technology than on price, 

but the devices have gone 

mainstream with cost increasingly 

important to shoppers, 

according to Golvin. — AFP 

pecting many surprises when Walter takes 

over the agency’s reins next month after 

Schapiro steps down from her post. 

“She will pursue the agenda that Schapiro 

started,” said Thomas Sporkin, a 

former top SEC enforcement attorney now 

with Buckley Sandler, a financial services 

law firm. “Essentially you are handing off 

the mantle to somebody who has the same 

agenda.” 

That would probably mean moving full 

steam ahead with finalising Wall Street 

reforms required by the Dodd-Frank Act 

of 2010, including adding transparency 

to the derivatives market and revamping 

oversight of credit rating firms. 

It could also mean trying to advance 

Schapiro’s own initiatives, including reworking 

the structure of US markets to 

ensure that high-frequency traders don’t 

get an unfair edge over ordinary investors. 

But Walter is facing a challenge that 

Schapiro did not for most of her tenure 

— trying to win support for reforms from 

an SEC split between two Democrats 

and two Republicans. Even if President 

Barack Obama moves quickly to nominate 

another commissioner, it is expected 

to take months to secure Senate confirmation. 

“The SEC chairmanship is a difficult 

job any way you cut it, and at least as it 

stands right now, she is dealing with a 

four-person instead of a five-person commission,” 

said David Tittsworth, the executive 

director of the Investment Adviser 

Association. “I don’t think her job was 

made any easier by the fact that you lose 

Schapiro.” 

Walter, 62, is a Brooklyn-born Democrat 

who has spent most of her career as a 

financial regulator. 

With an undergraduate degree from 

Yale and a law degree from Harvard, Walter 

has a reputation as a smart and accomplished 

attorney with a deep knowledge of 

the industry. 

She is well respected in SEC circles, 

including by those who tend not to agree 

with her liberal-leaning regulatory philosophy, 

and many say she’s been accessible 

to interest groups. 

Former Republican SEC Commissioner 

Paul Atkins, who has known Walter for 

22 years, said her deep SEC background 

will be an asset. 

“There is a lot of promise there,” 

Atkins said. “If she draws on all of that, I 

think she can do a great job.” 

Walter joined the SEC as a commissioner 

in July 2008, a tumultuous time in 

both the agency’s history and her personal 

life. About a month into her tenure, Walter 

was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It was 

the second time in her life she had fought 

cancer. She had successfully beaten breast 

cancer during her career at the CFTC in 

the 1990s. 

Walter underwent treatments at the 

same time as the SEC was dealing with 

the collapse of investment bank Lehman 

Brothers and acute criticism for not uncovering 

Bernard Madoff’s decades-long 

$65 billion Ponzi scheme. 

Today, Walter is in good health, with 

no signs of cancer. 

Though her SEC term technically expired 

in June, she will be able to continue 

serving at least until the end of December 

2013. 

Walter has been coy about whether she 

wants a longer appointment as the head of 

the SEC, and the White House is said to be 

looking at other replacements with potentially 

more name recognition. 

Among those names are Sallie Krawcheck, 

a former top executive at Bank of 

America and Citigroup, and Treasury official 

Mary Miller, who spent 26 years at 

T Rowe Price. 

Although Walter’s policy positions 

have mostly been in lockstep with Schapiro’s, 

Walter found her niche at the SEC. 

She is probably best known for championing 

potential reforms for the US municipal 

market. Earlier this year, she played 

a leading role in the rollout of a new report 

by the SEC calling for new measures to 

bolster investor protection, such as forcing 

states and cities to disclose more financial 

information. 

Scott Lilienthal, a partner in Hogan 

Lovells and president of the National 

Association of Bond Lawyers, said Walter 

has demonstrated a willingness to be 

flexible on new rules for the muni market. 

He described her as “pragmatic.” Another 

area in which she’s been vocal is the oversight 

of investment advisers. — Reuters 

Fitch chops Argentina rating Tech firms lead in European office rentals 

WASHINGTON — Bond in an earlier bond swap with tightening of capital 

LONDON — Triton Court, a able sharing a building with 

rater Fitch chopped 

investors to resolve the 2001 controls, the nationalisation 

century-old old art deco build- bankers. So, we had to reposi- 

Argentina’s rating yesterday sovereign default. 

of YPF and the inability of 

ing on London’s Finsbury tion it physically and conceptu- 

by five notches to CC, deep After the November 21 certain provinces to access 

Square, is a good example ally.” 

in junk territory, saying it ruling, Economy Minister USD to repay their dollar- 

of how the financial crisis is Technology and telecom 

expects Buenos Aires to Hernan Lorenzino said at denominated debt under local 

transforming demand for com- (T&T) companies rented more 

default after a US court a news conference said the law.” 

mercial property in Europe. new office space in Europe in 

ordered it to repay old debt. country would appeal the Earlier, Argentina has 

Its grand, arched entrance the first half than banking and 

The downgrade “reflects decision. 

sought to halt a US court 

faces the City’s financial heart- finance firms for the first time, 

Fitch’s view that a default by “We do not think it is right order that it must pay $1.3 land while a scruffy, narrow a report by property consultan- 

Argentina is probable,” the or legitimate to pay vulture billion to a minority of its street runs along the back in a cy CBRE said on Tuesday. 

agency said. 

funds,” he said. 

creditors by mid-December by gritty area containing technol- Growing use of 

The downgrade came after Fitch said it will monitor trying to persuade an appeals ogy firms such as Google and smartphones, tablet computers 

a New York judge ruled on how the case evolves and court this would hurt banks Mind Candy, creator of online and cloud computing is driv- 

November 21 that Argentina the Argentine government’s and other investors. 

game Moshi Monsters. ing demand, CBRE said, cit- 

must repay holders of some response in the coming weeks, The move by Argentina Resolution Property paid ing a forecast from technology 

$1.3 billion worth of bonds but said a missed payment follows a separate move £43 million ($69 million) for researcher Gartner that global 

the country already defaulted would constitute a default. by other creditors late on the empty block in June. As part sales of tablet computers such 

on 11 years ago. 

Fitch added that the Monday to also overturn the of a 1£50 million revamp it will as Apple’s iPad will triple to 

The judge said that downgrade reflects the court order to pay the small switch the entrance to the back 326 million units in 2015. 

Argentina would have to “sustained deterioration” of group of bondholders who and reopen in 2014, turning Companies such as Ama- Berlin, Dublin and London to the crash. Triton Court was The British government has 

repay the bondholders by Argentina’s finances. did not participate in the away from finance in favour of zon, LinkedIn, Skype and leading the way. 

built by Royal London Insur- been keen to push the creden- 

December 15, concurrent with “The uncertainty related country’s 2005 and 2010 debt technology companies. Russian email service Mail.Ru “Some of the most successance and used as its HQ from tials of London as a home for 

the country’s obligation to to the impact of the US court restructurings. 

The redesign, which in- rented 520,000 square metres ful companies are harvesting 1902-30. Past tenants include technology companies, coining 

pay out another $3 billion on ruling is likely to further After a legal battle lasting cludes renaming the building of space versus 420,000 for the fruits of their innovation National Westminster Bank the term Silicon Roundabout 

previously restructured debt. damage confidence and nearly a decade, US District Alphabeta, will let staff cycle finance and banking over the and have hoarded substan- — now part of Royal Bank of for an area in east London sev- 

Fitch said it did not intensify political and social Judge Thomas Griesa last week through the reception area en period, placing the T&T sectial cash reserves despite the Scotland, Toronto Dominion eral hundred metres north of 

expect Buenos Aires, already tensions in the country and ordered Argentina to deposit route to amenities including tor third behind manufacturing economic turmoil which they Bank and UBS. 

Triton Court. 

struggling with deteriorating undermine growth prospects,” money before December 15 a basketball court, film studio and energy, commercial serv- can use to fund their growth,” Wolstenholme said its rede- A nearby Resolution prop- 

state finances, would make it said. 

to pay the so-called “holdout” and roof terraces. 

ices and leisure. 

CBRE said. 

velopment “is all about attracterty, which will be occupied 

the payments. 

“Argentina’s economy has creditors who did not agree to “Financial services is in Though T&T companies are Banks, by contrast, are ing bright young employees. by Mind Candy next year, 

Argentina has refused to decelerated sharply in 2012 the debt restructurings. About a state of retreat,” said Rob- not immune to the downturn, slashing staff, selling build- Taking a square corporate box has astro turf instead of car- 

pay the debt, saying the bonds owing to the increased state 93 per cent of Argentina’s ert Wolstenholme, a partner the amount of rented office ings and leasing more modest in the middle of the financial pet tiles, treehouses and an 

are held by predatory hedge intervention. This has been other bondholders participated at Resolution. “The creative space recovered to just below premises after being the biggest district is against everything £80,000 slide between two 

funds which did not take part highlighted by the progressive in the plans. — AFP 

world does not feel comfort- pre-crash levels in 2011 with renters of office space prior they would want to do.” floors. — Reuters 

TEL: 24601003, 24600586 • FAX: 24600736 

• WEBSITE: www.salalahport.com

Holmes to spend 

Christmas with Suri 

� Page 14 

Myna in dock for pushing 

out native birds 

� Page 13 

Busy birthday for 

Yami Gautam 

� Page 14 

ISAM holds second annual 

athletic meet 

� Page 12 

Fea ures 

Thursday, November 29, 2012 

Seas rising faster than projected, 

low areas threatened 

A view of the Swedish Baltic Sea port of Lulea. In contrast to worries from the Maldives to Manhattan of storm surges and higher ocean levels caused by 

climate change, the entire northern part of the Nordic region is rising and, as a result, the Baltic Sea is receding. — Reuters 

� “Global warming has not slowed down” 

� Compared UN projections with actual satellite data 

� Temperatures climbing, risk of droughts and floods 

By Alister Doyle 

SEA levels are rising 60 

per cent faster than UN 

projections, threatening 

low-lying areas from Miami 

to the Maldives, a study said 

yesterday. 

The report, issued during 

UN talks in Qatar on combat- 

ing climate change, also said 

temperatures were creeping 

higher in line with UN scenarios, 

rejecting hopes the 

rate had been exaggerated. 

“Global warming has not 

slowed down, (nor is it) lagging 

behind the projections,” 

said Stefan Rahmstorf, lead 

author at the Potsdam In- 

stitute for Climate Impact 

Research that compared UN 

projections to what has actually 

happened from the early 

1990s to 2011. 

The study said sea levels 

had been rising by 3.2 mm 

(0.1 inch) a year according 

to satellite data, 60 per cent 

faster than the 2 mm annaul 

rise projected by the U.N.’s 

Intergovernmental Panel on 

Climate Change (IPCC) over 

that period. 

“This suggests that IPCC 

sea-level projections for the 

future may also be biased 

low,” the authors from Germany, 

France and the United 

States wrote in the journal 

Environmental Research Letters. 

Antarctica 

The IPCC’s latest report 

in 2007 said seas could rise 

by between 18 and 59 cm 

this century, not counting a 

possible acceleration of the 

melt of the Greenland and 

Antarctic ice sheets that 

could add more still water to 

the oceans. 

In the last century, seas 

rose by about 17 cm. 

Rahmstorf said his best 

estimate for sea level rise was 

between 50 cm and a metre 

this century, possibly more 

if greenhouse gas emissions 

surged. Higher temperatures 

would melt more ice on land 

and expand the water in the 

oceans. 

That would leave lowlying 

regions — from Pacific 

island states and Bangladesh 

to Tokyo and New York 

— facing a greater risk of 

storm surges, erosion and, 

in a worst case scenario, 

complete swamping by flood 

waters. 

The IPCC was criticised 

after it had to correct parts 

of its 2007 report that exaggerated 

the rate of melt 

of Himalayan glaciers and 

wrongly said they might 

vanish by 2035. 

People sceptical that 

man-made emissions of 

greenhouse gases are stoking 

climate change also wonder 

if warming has flattened out. 

They note that 1998, 2005 

and 2010 are tied as the 

warmest years since records 

began in the mid-19th century. 

But the study said overall 

warming was in line with 

IPCC projections of a gain of 

0.16 degree Celsius (0.3 F) a 

decade from 1990 to 2011, 

after correcting for natural 

variations caused by volcanic 

eruptions, El Nino events 

that warm the Pacific and 

shifts in the sun’s output. 

Almost 200 nations are 

meeting in Doha from November 

26-December 7 as 

part of floundering efforts 

to work towards a UN deal 

to curb global emissions of 

greenhouse gases from 2020. 

“Unless we reduce our 

carbon pollution rapidly, this 

study clearly shows we are 

heading for the nightmare 

world at the top end of the 

IPCC predictions,” said professor 

Mark Maslin of University 

College, London. 

The IPCC says rising temperatures 

could cause more 

floods, droughts, heatwaves, 

mudslides and desertification 

that would strain water 

and food supplies for a rising 

world population. 

“The authors have stressed 

what many of us have thought 

for some time — the IPCC is 

far from alarmist in its projections,” 

said Professor Sir 

Brian Hoskins, Director of 

the Grantham Institute for 

Climate Change at Imperial 

College, London. — Reuters 

Kung fu nuns teach cosmic energy to CERN scientists 

The 12th Gyalwang Drukpa, Jigme Pema Wangchen, along with Kung-Fu trained nuns visit the universe of 

particles exhibition at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Meyrin near Geneva. 

By Robert Evans 

A DOZEN 

kung fu nuns from 

an Asian Buddhist order 

displayed their martial arts 

prowess to bemused scientists at 

CERN recently as their spiritual 

leader explained how their energy 

was like that of the cosmos. 

The nuns, all from the Himalayan 

region, struck poses of hand-chops, 

high-kicks and punches while tour- 

ing the research centre where physicists 

at the frontiers of science are 

probing the origins of the universe. 

“Men and women carry different 

energy,” said His Holiness Gyalwang 

Drukpa, a monk who ranks 

only slightly below the Dalai Lama 

in the global Buddhist hierarchy. 

“Both male and female energies are 

needed to better the world.” 

This, he said, was a scientific 

principle “as fundamental as the 

relationship between the sun and 

the moon” and its importance was 

similar to that of the particle collisions 

in CERN’s vast “Big Bang” 

machine, the Large Hadron Collider 

(LHC). 

The nuns, mostly slim and fitlooking 

teenagers with shaven 

heads and clad in flowing burgundy 

robes, nodded sagely. 

But the 49-year-old Gyalwang 

Drukpa, head since the age of four 

Tibetan Buddhist monks visiting the CERN during a 

two-day stay in Geneva. 

of one of the new independent 

schools of Tibetan Buddhism centred 

in India and Nepal, stressed 

that their visit to CERN was not just 

scientific in purpose. 

By taking the nuns around the 

world and letting people of other 

countries enjoy their martial displays, 

he told physicists and reporters: 

“I hope to raise awareness about 

gender equality and the need for the 

empowerment of women.” 

The nuns themselves — who star 

on Youtube videos — have benefited 

from this outlook, he said. 

For centuries in Tibet — incorporated 

into communist China since 

1951 — and its surrounds, women 

were strictly barred from practising 

any form of martial art. 

In his homeland Himalayan 

region of Ladakh, the Gyalwang 

Drukpa said, women were mainly 

servants, cooks and cleaners to 

monks. 

About three years ago he decided 

to break out of this pattern and improve 

the health and spiritual wellbeing 

of women by training them in 

kung fu and even allowing them to 

perform sacred rites once also restricted 

to men. 

“And a very good thing too,” 

declared CERN physicist Pauline 

Gagnon, who recently wrote a blog 

study pointing to the low, although 

growing, proportion of women 

in scientific research around the 

world. 

The visit to CERN, whose director-general 

Rolf Heuer recently 

sponsored a conference of scientists, 

theologians and philosophers to discuss 

the tense relationship between 

science and religion, was not the first 

by a top religious leader. — Reuters 

Watson to cut ties with 

fashion industry 

� Page 14 

Winter fashion for men: Try 

bandhgalas, angrakhas 

By Nivedita 

WHO said there are 

less options for 

fashion-conscious 

men during winters? This season, 

jazz up your wardrobe 

with Indian cuts and styles 

such as classic ‘bandhgalas’ 

or ‘angrakha’-style jackets to 

make a statement, suggest designers. 

Unlike women, who can 

use accessories to glamourise 

their look, men face limitations 

on this front. But no 

harm in experimenting a bit! 

“Being your glamorous 

best is a little difficult in winter, 

especially for men. But 

one can try out bandhgala 

jackets with ‘dhotis’ and ‘salwars’, 

angrakha and frocktunic 

silhouette with palazzo 

pants and double-breasted cut 

in silk-brocade. These make a 

very contemporary statement,” 

designer Sunil Mehra said. For 

party animals, go mafia chic, 

says designer Aniket Satam. 

“Sport well-fitted trousers 

teamed with shirts in baroque 

jacquard. Also try suede and 

velvet jackets for maximum 

party appeal,” he said. 

There are other options too 

depending on the mood and 

the setting. 

“Classic Indian patterns and 

style lines such as angrakha 

jackets, ‘bandi’-style ‘koti’ 

and asymmetrical panelled 

jackets work well for a more 

Indo-Boho appeal. Bow ties 

for guys are in trend with contrasting 

funky graphic socks. 

Woollen fedora (hat) and vintage 

watches also add a quirky 

element in regular dressing for 

men,” Satam said. 

Also, accessorising would 

not be a bad idea for men, especially 

when it comes to ethnic 

and fusion wear. 

So, how about throwing 

in these options-a simple embroidered 

collar on a bandhgala 

jacket, a crushed silk 

stole, a brocade handkerchief, 

a classic brooch, pearl, silver 

or ‘minakari’ buttons and embroidered 

‘juttis’. However, be 

wary of bling and glitter. 

“Please avoid anything 

shiny. No bling for a man. 

It is quite passe to put on a 

stone-jewelled brooch on the 

left of your jacket or a gold or 

pearl necklace. And absolutely 

no shiny lines of lurex in the 

fabrics. Do not touch polyesters 

and acetates-they tend to 

cheapen even the best of designs,” 

said Mehra. 

No wonder then that it is 

best to stick to understated 

yet luxurious clothing in rich 

and dark tones. Follow fabrics 

such as velvets, silks and wool 

blends and opt for expensive 

cashmere wool garments if 

you want true luxury. 

In terms of colours, grey, 

metallic and black with accents 

of neon are hot trends, 

says designer Pam Mehta. 

“Also pull out deep military 

greens, browns, fawn and 

burgundy to add deeper hues 

to your wardrobe,” she said. 

The designers feel it is 

important for men to flaunt 

the right attitude as trying on 

anything new needs a lot of 

confidence. 

“Always remember the 

basic rules-that of comfort 

and confidence. Wear the garment; 

do not let it wear you,” 

Mehra said. — IANS 

New Mercedes S-class drives 

itself in slow city traffic 

THE new generation Mercedes-Benz S-class limousine, 

due out next year, will be able to drive itself through slowmoving 

traffic jams, the Stuttgart maker has announced. 

The flagship is packed with gadgetry, much of it designed 

to improve safety. A series of 26 cameras and monitoring 

systems scan the road terrain ahead, controlling both the 

speed of the vehicle and the distance between it and the vehicle 

in front. The autonomous driving system in the new 

S-class operates at speeds up to 40 kilometres an hour. The 

driver could actually take his hands off the steering wheel 

below that speed, but Mercedes says the driver must always 

remain in control. 

The assistant is likely to be a boon in gridlocked traffic 

situations, where a high level of driver concentration is 

called for even though cars make only slow progress. 

Other S-class safety features are a brake assist system 

which can detect cars and pedestrians approaching from the 

side, ideal for when another vehicle jumps a red light. The Sclass 

warns the driver, tightens the seatbelts and modulates 

braking in order to avoid or lessen the impact. 

Daytime LED running lights are also standard along with 

a device which turns off the high-beam when an incoming 

car is detected. — dpa

Abdul Fathah 

Oman Daily Observer would like to take the lead in sharing the joy 

with its readers. Send us a colour photograph of your baby (below 10 

years) along with name, date of birth, address, telephone number and 

parents’ names. Send in your baby’s picture and other details to: 

observerfeatures@gmail.com or Kids Corner, Oman Daily 

Observer, P O Box 974, PC 100, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman 

12 SPOTLIGHT THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2012 

ISAM holds second annual athletic meet 

REALISING the importance 

of games and to 

ensure that academics 

and sports go hand in hand 

in the overall development 

of a child , Indian School al 

Maabela held its second Annual 

Athletic Meet 2012-2013 

last wek on its school ground. 

ISAM dedicated its Annual 

Athletic Meet to one of its 

budding and promising athlete 

Afnan Baja for his remarkable 

achievement in athletics at the 

inter school level in the Sultanate 

of Oman. 

Abdullah Mousa Ayyad, 

General Manager, International 

Barter Net, was the Chief 

Brain bleeds bug high 

altitude climbers 

MOUNTAINEERS 

experiencing high 

altitude sickness 

have traces of bleeding in the 

brain years after the incident, 

say a new study. 

High altitude cerebral 

edema (HACE) is a severe 

and often fatal condition that 

can affect mountain climbers, 

hikers, skiers and travellers 

at high altitudes — typically 

above 7,000 feet, or 2,300 

metres. 

HACE results from swelling 

of brain tissue due to leakage 

of fluids from the capillaries. 

Symptoms include 

headache, loss of co-ordination 

and decreasing levels of 

consciousness. 

Guest and other distinguished 

guests included, Dr Sathish 

Sylvester, Vice-President; Syed 

Ayaz, Convenor; Mohammad 

Jameel, Managing Director, Al 

Manar Group of Companies; 

and Kelkar, Officiating Principal, 

Indian School Al Seeb. 

The programme began with a 

prayer song followed by the 

national anthems of Oman and 

India. 

P Prabakaran, Principal of 

the school delivered the welcome 

address while Preetisree 

Medisetti, Cultural Secretary 

welcomed the Chief Guest 

with a sapling. The programme 

commenced with the march- 

“HACE is a life-threatening 

condition,” said Michael 

Knauth, neuroradiologist from 

the University Medical Centre, 

Goettingen, Germany. 

“It usually happens in a 

hostile environment where 

neither help nor proper diagnostic 

tools are available.” 

Knauth and colleagues at 

the University Hospitals in 

Goettingen and Heidelberg, 

compared brain MRI findings 

among four groups of 

mountaineers: climbers with 

well documented episodes of 

HACE; climbers with a history 

of high altitude illness; 

climbers with a history of severe 

acute mountain sickness 

(AMS). 

past of the parade contingents 

of ISAM belonging to the four 

different houses, Red — Gandhi 

House; Blue — C V Raman 

House; Green-A P J Abdul 

Kalam House; and Yellow- 

Swami Vivekananda House. 

The houses are named and 

dedicated to great personalities 

from different fields of human 

endeavour. The four different 

colours of the houses depict 

different qualities- courage, 

perfection, perseverance and 

faithfulness that ISAM tries to 

inculcate in every student entrusted 

to its care. 

Agility of movement, timing, 

co-ordination and uni- 

Cloudy with a chance of flu? Study 

offers influenza forecast 

By Deborah Zabarenko 

NEW research suggests it may be 

possible to forecast flu outbreaks in 

much the same way meteorologists 

predict weather, a potential boon for public 

health officials and consumers, one of the 

study’s authors said on Tuesday. 

Using real-time US data gathered by 

Google Inc, along with a computer model 

showing how flu spreads, the researchers 

offered a system that could generate local 

forecasts of the severity and length of a 

particular flu outbreak. 

This kind of forecasting could improve 

preparation and management of annual flu 

outbreaks in the United States, said Irene 

Eckstrand of the National Institutes of 

Health. Influenza kills 250,000 to 500,000 

people each year around the globe; the U.S. 

annual flu death toll is 35,000. 

If the forecasts are reasonably accurate, 

they could help public health officials target 

vaccines and anti-viral drugs to areas of 

greatest need, said study co-author Jeffrey 

Shaman of Columbia University’s Mailman 

School of Public Health. 

“If you have a six-week forecast with 

good confidence that you’re going to have 

an outbreak in New York City and nothing’s 

going on in L A, you’d send the vaccines 

there (to New York) because there’s 

enough time to distribute them... before 

there’s an actual outbreak,” Shaman said. 

Soy unlikely to help hot flashes: study 

WOMEN who eat a 

lot of soy-based 

foods or fiber 

don’t seem to have fewer 

menopause symptoms, according 

to a US study — the 

latest research to find no 

benefits from eating extra 

amounts of soy, a food abundant 

in dietary estrogen. 

Hormone replacement 

therapy, based on estrogen 

and other hormones, is effective 

in reducing hot flashes 

and other menopause symptoms, 

but carries some risks 

of heart disease and cancer. 

Researchers have been testing 

whether plant estrogens 

can offer benefits, perhaps 

without the risks. 

“Many women can’t 

or don’t want to take hormones,” 

making dietary 

estrogen an appealing alter- 

formity were the base criteria 

for judging the spectacular 

show. The Dr Abdul Kalam 

House emerged as the defending 

champions of the March 

Past. 

Shameel Ramzan, the 

Sports Captain administered 

the oath to respect and honour 

the rules and regulations in 

the true spirit of sportsmanship. 

Sport drill displays emphasised 

on body balance, the 

first physical ability which the 

young athletes should learn in 

order to demonstrate mastery 

in a particular task. The drills 

focused on skills needed to 

play different sporting activities 

such as speed, balance and 

sharp reflexes. It also builds 

strong hand and leg muscles. 

The students of Class I displayed 

their marvellous Beach 

Ball Drill entitled ‘In Synchrony’, 

keeping in time with 

the music. Next followed the 

Umbrella Drill entitled ‘Splash 

of Colours’ displayed by the 

students of Class II, Both the 

drills were enjoyed and appreciated 

by all. The most colour- 

He suggested that flu forecasts might 

be distributed through TV weather programming. 

Individuals then could decide 

whether to get the flu vaccine, keep their 

distance from people who sneeze or cough 

and closely monitor symptoms. 

This pilot study, published on Monday 

in the journal Proceedings of the National 

Academy of Sciences, looked only at the 

New York City area, using data from 2003 

native, said Ellen Gold, the 

lead author of the study and 

a professor at the University 

of California Davis School 

of Medicine. 

But studies on plant estrogens 

have been mixed. 

A review of 17 studies on 

soy supplements has found 

that the pills can reduce the 

frequency and severity of 

hot flashes, but some individual 

trials on soy protein 

pills have found no benefits. 

“It might be a dead end,” 

said William Wong, a professor 

at Baylor College of 

Medicine who has studied 

the effects of soy protein on 

menopause symptoms but 

was not part of the study. 

To see if women who 

choose to eat more phytoestrogens 

have an easier time 

ful and interesting part of the 

athletic meet was the Toddlers 

walk past by the tiny tots of the 

Kindergarten. 

They were dressed in 

various colours of the Indian 

National flag. The toddlers 

amused and enthralled the 

spectators with a series of novelty 

games that involved great 

skill and agility. The students 

of Class III and above exuberantly 

performed their drill 

display entitled ‘Rhythm and 

Sound’. They used Dumbbells 

that clang in time with 

through menopause, Gold 

and her colleagues tracked 

1,651 women for 10 years. 

At the beginning of the 

study, none of the women 

had gone through menopause. 

Each year the researchers, 

whose findings appeared 

in the journal Menopause, 

followed up with them to 

gather any reports of hot 

flashes or night sweats, and 

every few years the women 

filled out a food survey. 

By the end of the study, 

Gold’s team could find no 

consistent pattern between 

the amount of phytoestrogens 

eaten and how often or 

how severely women experienced 

hot flashes and night 

sweats. 

The same was true for 

how much fiber the women 

the music, exhibiting a great 

deal of body co-ordination and 

synchrony. “Success is where 

preparation meets opportunities 

and every successful person 

is rewarded. 

The winners of various 

track events and individual 

house games were felicitated 

by the chief guest and other 

guests of honour. 

The Annual Athletic Meet 

of ISAM concluded with the 

vote of thanks proposed by the 

School Head Girl, Shabnam 

Mohammad. 

Researchers wash spinach clean of deadly E.coli 

SCIENTISTS using an 

ultrasound-chlorine 

washing combo, made 

a clean sweep of the deadly 

E.coli pathogen from spinach 

leaves. 

This way “we can reduce 

the total number of food-borne 

pathogenic bacteria by over 

99.99 per cent”, said Hao Feng, 

professor of food science and 

human nutrition, University of 

Illinois. 

“Combining technologies is 

the key to bridging the gap between 

our current capacity and 

what USDA (US Department 

of Agriculture) would like to 

see. The use of ultrasound exposure 

during chlorine washing 

gives the industry a way to 

significantly enhance microbial 

safety,” he said. 

The USDA is looking for 

proposed technologies that 

can achieve a four- to six-log 

reduction in pathogen cells 

(a six-log reduction would 

achieve a million-fold reduction 

in such bugs), the journal 

Innovative Food Science and 

Emerging Technologies re- 

ports. 

The food processing industry 

can presently achieve 

a one-log or tenfold reduction. 

In comparison, the Illinois 

technique yields a four-log 

reduction, according to an Illinois 

statement. 

If even part of a leaf escaped 

the full ultrasonic treatment, it 

could contaminate the rest of 

the produce, he said. Hao Feng 

and team have used the technique 

on iceberg and romaine 

lettuce as well as spinach with 

similar results. 

through 2008. 

The computer program the scientists 

used is a standard epidemiological model 

showing how influenza moves through a 

population, from those who are susceptible 

to flu, to those who have it, to those 

who have recovered, said study co-author 

Alicia Karspeck of the National Center 

for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, 

Colorado. — Reuters 

ate. 

In some cases, the researchers 

did see a relationship 

between one type of 

dietary estrogen and menopause 

symptoms, but it 

didn’t always carry through 

when they examined women 

of different ethnicities or 

looked at different points in 

time. 

But those apparent results 

may simply have been 

due to chance, they wrote. 

Gold said it’s possible 

that for some subsets of 

women, plant estrogens 

might have a benefit, but 

they weren’t able to tease 

that out in this study. 

“I think the more promising 

avenue for us in the future 

is to see if there are some 

women who might benefit,” 

she said. — Reuters 

PEOPLE’S 

PLATFORM 

Do you have a word of appreciation for 

any services you received? Or suggestions 

for improvement? Observer is giving you an 

opportunity to rant or rave about anything and 

everything around you: Please write to: 

Tel: 24649451, Fax: 24649469; e-mail: 

observerfeatures@gmail.com 

Musical chairs need 

to be stopped 

IT was heartening to read in the newspapers that 

about 94 per cent Omani jobseekers got jobs this 

year. 

This shows good groundwork done by the policymakers 

to ensure jobs for all those who are qualified and skilled. 

Ninety-four per cent is an amazing figure and the youths 

of the nation are lucky to have such a leader, who cares 

for them. 

The private sector companies deserve appreciation 

for opening their doors for the Omanis at all levels. 

Their initiative to send the qualified youths for further 

training is also a good move to empower the local 

population and ensure a sustainable development of 

the country. 

What disturbs me is the careless attitude of a section 

of Omani youth. The way they are joining private 

sector and quitting them is very disturbing for the private 

sector. The private sector generated many new 

jobs just to accommodate the unemployed youths, ignoring 

the financial burden on them. They did it in the 

larger interest of the nation. 

The youths, however, are treating them as ‘musical 

chairs.’ I came to know that 300 Omanis are quitting 

private jobs daily to join public sector. No one understands 

the plight of the private sector establishments. 

They are bearing the financial burden of hiring the 

Omani youths by creating new positions and by the 

time these youths get some training to get involved in 

real jobs, they just quit. 

This needs to be checked and policies should be 

drafted accordingly, as future of any country lies in 

the private sector too. Only a healthy private sector 

can provide economic stability and overall prosperity. 

— Abdullah 

Editor: Both private sector and government jobs 

have their own advantages and disadvantages. Impressive 

salary packages, faster promotions and the 

opportunity to be on the cutting edge in your field of 

work are some advantages of private sector jobs. We 

need to change the attitude of the youth towards private 

sector and teach them the dignity of work and 

progress of the nation. 

Men with belly fat 

ripe for bone loss 

MEN with belly fat are ripe candidates for bone loss 

and decreased bone strength, says a new study. 

“It is important for men to be aware that excess 

belly fat is not only a risk factor for heart disease and diabetes, 

it is also a risk factor for bone loss,” said Miriam Bredella, 

radiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate 

professor at Harvard Medical School, Boston. 

More than 37 million 

American men alone 

over 20 years are obese, 

according to official statistics. 

Obesity is tied to 

cardiovascular diseases, 

diabetes, high cholesterol, 

asthma, sleep apnea and 

joint diseases. Yet it was 

commonly accepted that 

men with increased body 

weight were at lower risk 

for bone loss. 

“Most studies on osteoporosis 

have focused 

on women. Men were 

thought to be relatively protected against bone loss, especially 

obese men,” said Bredella, who and her team evaluated 35 

obese men with a mean age of 34 years, according to a Massachusetts 

statement. But not all body fat is the same. 

Subcutaneous fat lies just below the skin, and visceral or 

intra-abdominal fat is located deep under the muscle tissue in 

the abdominal cavity. Genetics, diet and exercise are all contributors 

to the level of visceral fat that is stored in the body. 

Excess visceral fat is considered particularly dangerous, because 

in previous studies it has been linked to heightened risk 

for heart disease.

FLIGHT LIGHT SSCHEDULE 

CHEDULE 

ARRIVALS S — THURSDAY 

S 

Flight No Aircraft From om / Via STA 

WY614 B737-8 Dubai 0005 

WY682 B737-8 Riyadh 0015 

WY648 B737-8 Kuwait 0015 

PK229 B737-3 Sialkot 0030 

TK858 B737-8 Istanbul 0130 

BG021 DC10 Dacca-Chittagong 0130 

QR170 A320 Doha 0315 

EY384 A320 Abu Dhabi 0350 

EK866 B777 Dubai 0355 

GF560 E190 Bahrain 0425 

MS930 B737-8 Cairo 0500 

RJ600 A319 Amman 0505 

WY114 A330-200 Frankfurt 0645 

WY652 E175AR Bahrain 0700 

WY662 E175AR Doha 0700 

FZ043 B737-8 Dubai 0740 

NL771 B737-2 Peshawar 0800 

WY202 B737-8 Bombay 0800 

WY674 B737-8 Jeddah 0800 

WY632 ATR42 Abu Dhabi 0800 

WY602 B737-8 Dubai 0825 

WY274 B737-8 Jaipur 0840 

NL768 B737-2 Lahore 0845 

WY238 B737-8 Hyderabad 0850 

WY102 A330-300 London Heathrow 0900 

WY254 B737-8 Madras 0920 

WY286 B737-8 Bangalore 0920 

WY218 B737-8 Trivandrum 0925 

WY224 B737-8 Cochin 0925 

EK862 B777 Dubai 0930 

WY242 B737-8 Delhi 0945 

QR166 A321 Doha 0950 

G9113 A320 Sharjah 0955 


9W530 B737-8 Trivandrum 1045 

WY604 E175AR Dubai 1100 

PK233 B737-3 Karachi 1110 

WY371 A330-300 Colombo-Male 1130 

IX543 B737-8 Trivandrum-Cochin 1130 

WY336 B737-8 Kathmandu 1140 

PK291 A310 Lahore 1140 

WY916 E175AR Salalah 1200 

WY3302 ATR42 Mukhaizna 1230 


IX337 B737-8 Calicut 1255 

WY918 ATR42 Khasab 1315 

WY606 B737-8 Dubai 1330 

IX815 B737-8 Mangalore 1425 

WY924 B737-8 Salalah 1440 

WY324 B737-8 Karachi 1440 

FZ045 B737-8 Dubai 1545 

WY664 E175AR Doha 1615 

WY826 A330-300 Kuala Lumpur 1635 

WY204 B737-8 Bombay 1655 




QR164 A321 Doha 1735 

WY608 B737-8 Dubai 1740 

WY298 B737-8 Calicut 1750 

WY264 B737-8 Lucknow 1755 

WY646 B737-8 Kuwait 1805 

GF564 A319 Bahrain 1810 

TG507 A330 Bangkok-Karachi 1900 

G9117 A320 Sharjah 1905 

WY316 B737-8 Chittagong 1910 

WY926 B737-8 Salalah 1945 

UL205 A320 Colombo 2020 


FZ047 B737-8 Dubai 2020 

KL449 A330 Amsterdam-Abu Dhabi 2045 

AI973 A320 Delhi 2125 

BA073 B777 London Heathrow-Abu Dhabi 2130 

WY616 B737-8 Dubai 2145 

AI907 A319 Madras 2200 

WY3928 B737-8 Salalah 2205 

WY406 B737-8 Cairo 2215 

LH618 A330 Frankfurt-Abu Dhabi 2215 


LX242 A330 Zurich-Dubai 2235 

QR168 A320 Doha 2235 

GF566 B737-7 Bahrain 2250 

WY624 ATR42 Al Ain 2305 

WY656 B737-7 Bahrain 2305 

WY668 B737-8 Doha 2310 

WY928 B737-8 Salalah 2310 

AI985 A321 Ahmedabad-Bombay 2310 

WY672 A330-300 Jeddah 2315 

WY636 E175AR Abu Dhabi 2315 

WY686 B737-8 Dammam 2320 

WY425 B737-8 Amman-Beirut 2325 

9W534 B737-8 Cochin 2330 

9W540 B737-8 Bombay 2340 

QUOTATIONS FOR TODAY 

Do not press your young children 

into book learning; but teach them 

politeness, including the whole 

circle of charities which spring from 

the consciousness of what is due to 

their fellow-beings. 

— Johann Kaspar Spurzheim 

CINEMA 

FILM INFORMATION 

www.citycinemaoman.net 

AL BAHJA CINEMA: 

24540856, 24540855. 

AL NASR CINEMA: 

24831358, 24831809 (after 3pm) 

AL SHATTI PLAZA: 

24607360, 24692656 (after 2pm) 

STARS CINEMA: 

24791641, 24792360 

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 

06.00 am Opening, Royal Anthem, The Holy Quran, 

Preview of Morning Programme, Weather Forecast, 

Pharmacies on Duty; 06.15 Morning Tea; 07.00 

News Bulletin; 07.10 Morning Tea; 10.00 News 

Headlines; 10.02 Piano; 11.00 Instrumental Music; 

11.30 Light Classical Music; 12.00 News Headlines; 

12.02 Country Music (June); 12.45 Words in Action 

(Monday 6.40pm); 01.00 Jazz Cafe (Suhail) (Sat 

12pm); 02.30 News Bulletin; 02.40 Mix Music; 03.00 

World Chart Show (Repeated); 05.00 Kidz Zone 

(Live) Anika — (Live); 06.00 Mix Music; 06.30 News 

Bulletin; 06.40 Out in Oman; 07.00 The Thursday 

Night Show-(Abdulhafedh al Harthi) Live; 08.00 

News Headlines; 08.02 The Thursday Night Show- 

(Abdulhafedh al Harthi) Live; 10.00 News Bulletin; 

10.10 Hollywood Hamiltons Remix Top 30; 12.40 

News Summary; 12.45 The Holy Quran; 01.00 

National Anthem, Close Down. 

DEPARTURES 

Flight No Aircraft To / Via STD 

BA072 B777 Abu Dhabi-London Heathrow 0001 

AI986 A321 Bombay-Ahmedabad 0005 

WY371 A330-300 Colombo-Male 0025 

9W539 B737-8 Bombay 0045 

KQ318 B737-8 Nairobi 0050 

WY601 B737-8 Dubai 0115 

WY217 B737-8 Trivandrum 0115 

WY253 B737-8 Madras 0115 

WY237 B737-8 Hyderabad 0120 

WY223 B737-8 Cochin 0120 



WY661 E175AR Doha 0130 

WY201 B737-8 Bombay 0130 

PK230 B737-3 Sialkot 0130 

9W529 B737-8 Trivandrum 0130 

WY241 B737-8 Delhi 0130 

WY285 B737-8 Bangalore 0135 


WY273 B737-8 Jaipur 0205 

TK859 B737-8 Istanbul 0220 

WY335 B737-8 Kathmandu 0235 

BG022 DC10 Chittagong-Dacca 0300 

EK867 B777 Dubai 0500 


QR171 A320 Doha 0550 

MS931 B737-8 Cairo 0600 


RJ601 A319 Amman 0715 


WY915 E175AR Salalah 0800 

FZ044 B737-8 Dubai 0820 


WY315 B737-8 Chittagong 0900 

NL772 B737-2 Peshawar 0900 

NL769 B737-2 Lahore 0945 

WY717 B737-8 Zanzibar-Dar-es-Salaam 1000 

WY297 B737-8 Calicut 1005 


WY815 A330-200 Bangkok 1010 

WY263 B737-8 Lucknow 1010 

WY323 B737-8 Karachi 1020 

WY917 ATR42 Khasab 1030 

WY605 B737-8 Dubai 1030 

WY923 B737-8 Salalah 1035 

G9114 A320 Sharjah 1035 

WY203 B737-8 Bombay 1040 

EK863 B777 Dubai 1045 


QR167 A321 Doha 1055 

9W533 B737-8 Cochin 1145 

PK234 B737-3 Karachi 1210 

WY663 E175AR Doha 1215 

IX542 B737-8 Trivandrum 1220 

PK292 A310 Lahore-Islamabad 1240 

WY645 B737-8 Kuwait 1255 

WY425 B737-8 Amman-Beirut 1300 

WY405 B737-8 Cairo 1310 



WY115 A330-200 Frankfurt 1325 



IX350 B737-8 Calicut 1355 

WY101 A330-300 London Heathrow 1400 

WY607 B737-8 Dubai 1440 

IX142 B737-8 Abu Dhabi-Amritsar 1515 

WY925 B737-8 Salalah 1540 

WY671 A330-300 Jeddah 1540 

FZ046 B737-8 Dubai 1630 


WY3927 B737-8 Salalah 1800 

WY615 B737-8 Dubai 1805 

QR165 A321 Doha 1840 

GF565 A319 Bahrain 1855 

WY685 B737-8 Dammam 1905 

WY647 B737-8 Kuwait 1905 

WY927 B737-8 Salalah 1905 

WY667 B737-8 Doha 1910 

WY681 B737-8 Riyadh 1910 

WY655 B737-7 Bahrain 1915 

G9118 A320 Sharjah 1945 

TG508 A330 Karachi-Bangkok 2005 

WY623 ATR42 Al Ain 2015 

WY635 E175AR Abu Dhabi 2015 

WY613 B737-8 Dubai 2045 

FZ048 B737-8 Dubai 2105 

UL206 A320 Colombo 2120 

KL450 A330 Abu Dhabi-Amsterdam 2200 

WY913 B737-8 Salalah 2245 

AI908 A319 Madras 2300 

AI974 A320 Delhi 2310 


LX243 A330 Dubai-Zurich 2335 

LH619 A330 Abu Dhabi-Frankfurt 2335 

QR169 A320 Doha 2335 

GF567 B737-7 Bahrain 2345 

SAGITTARIUS 

(November 22- 

December 21) 

Worry over a sick 

friend will be ease d when you 

have news in a letter. The post 

will also bring you opportunities 

for travel within a few weeks. 

CAPRICORN 

(December 

22-January 20) 

Your obvious dislike 

of having your faults pointed out 

by others should make you less 

prone to criticise some of your 

friends. 

AQUARIUS 

(January 21-Feb 19) 

Replace an unsatisfactory 

domestic appliance 

before it wears out altogether. 

It may just fail when you 

need it the most. 

PISCES 

(Feb. 20-March 20) 

Don’t take your partner’s 

words spoken in 

a moment of anger any more 

seriously than you would expect 

any outburst of yours to be 

taken. 

13 

INFORMATION/LEISURE THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2012 

PHARMACIES 

PHARM 

24-HOUR SERVICE 

Al Hashar ph, ph Ruwi 24783334 

Muscat ph, Ruwi, 24702542 

Al Sarooj, 24695536 

Scientific ph, Qurum, 24566601 

Ruwi, 24702850 

DAY DUTY 

Muscat Ibn Sina 24788436 

Balqees 24540622 

Muhaq 24421644 

Scientific 24480679 

Sur Rawdha 25546454 

Buraimi Yass 25653855 

Ibri Attka 25691455 

Nizwa Muscat 25410235 

Salalah Al Khuwair 23298892 

Sohar Muscat 26840211 

NIGHT DUTY 

Muscat Apolo 24787766 

Starcare 24557222 

Linelife 24422039 

Muscat 24497264 

Sur Al Fajr 25543113 

Buraimi Muscat 25652145 

Ibri Iraqi 25694515 

Rustaq Badr al Samaa 

26884910 

Barka Badr al Jashmi 

26875798 

Samayil Balqees 25352186 

Nizwa Hathfa 25431650 

Salalah Muscat 23291635 

Sinaw Abu al Khazmi 

25524337 

Ibra Ibn al Haytham 

25570625 

Saham Scientific 26854302 

Sohar Scientific 26845798 

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: A number of unreasonable demands by relatives and friends will be made on you in the 

coming year, which may be hard to refuse. There must be a limit to what you r good nature can allow you to do. It 

will be a matter of telling certain people that there are things, which you are now not prepared to do. 

ARIES 

(March 21-April 20) 

The tension of the past 

week will be relieved 

if you make a point of having a 

complete change of scene and 

plenty of fresh air and exercise 

this weekend. 

TAURUS 

(April 21-May 20) 

This may not be the 

best time to look for a 

new job but make sure you have 

a de�nite offer before you resign 

from your present occupation. 

GEMINI 

(May 21-June 21) 

Unless you have 

money to throw away 

you should steer clear of a ‘good 

bet’ suggested by someone who is 

very persuasive but about whom 

you know very little. 

CANCER 

(June 22-July 21) 

The postman should 

be calling today with 

good news but it will be offset by 

the not so good news. By the end 

of the day you will have forgotten 

the minor upset. 

CARTOONS 

LEO 

(July 22-August 21) 

You will be asked 

to speak your mind 

frankly on a certain subject. If 

you feel strongly about it, thee is a 

danger you might be too severe in 

expressing your attitude. 

VIRGO 

(August 22- 

September 22) 

Your social life is getting 

a little complicated lately with 

you trying to please two groups of 

people at the same time. 

LIBRA 

(September 23- 

October 22) 

Today you will meet 

with a rare kindness from an 

unexpected quarter, and will be 

pleasantly surprised to realise how 

well you are liked. 

SCORPIO 

(October 23- 

November 21) 

A meeting to settle a dispute which 

has been going on for a long time 

may produce some �ared tempers 

but should be settled in the end. 

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 

Former Oxford 

dictionary editor 

deleted words 

FORMER editor of the 

A Oxford English Dictionary 

tried to rewrite the dictionary 

by deleting thousands of words 

with foreign roots, a new book 

claims. 

Deleted words include 

“balisaur”, a badger-like animal 

from India, “Danchi”, a 

Bengali plant and “boviander”, 

the name in British Guyana for 

a person of mixed race living 

on the river banks, the Daily 

Mail reported on Tuesday. 

The OED is now re-examining 

words removed by Robert 

Burch�eld who edited the respected 

dictionary during the 

1970s and ‘80s and who died 

in 2004 aged 81. 

Burch�eld has long been 

considered the editor who 

opened up the English dictionary 

to the wider world, until 

now, according to the Mail. 

Sarah Ogilvie, also a 

former OED editor, in her new 

book “Words of the World” 

reveals how Burch�eld started 

a rumour that his earlier editors 

of the OED were inwardlooking 

anglocentrics, when in 

fact the opposite was true 

and it was Burch�eld himself 

who was deleting foreign 

words. — IANS 

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 

Myna in dock for pushing out native birds 

THE common myna, listed as 

the third most invasive species 

by the International Union for 

Conservation of Nature, has now 

been convicted of pushing other native 

birds out of their homes. 

Debate has raged for more than a 

decade about the damage caused by 

swelling myna populations, both in 

Australia and other countries. These 

birds are known to communicate in a 

singsong manner. 

Now Australian researchers have 

come up with what is thought to be 

the world’s �rst clear proof that mynas 

do indeed have a negative impact 

on native bird numbers, the journal 

Public Library of Science ONE reported. 

Kate Grarock and colleagues 

at the ARC Centre of Excellence for 

Environmental Decisions (CEED) 

and Australian National University 

investigated 20 birds species around 

Canberra, analysing ornithological 

records collected by the Canberra 

Ornithologists Group (COG). A total 

of 74,492 surveys were conducted in 

Canberra over 29 years. 

“We found a negative relationship 

between the establishment of the 

Common Myna and the long-term 

abundance of three Australian cavity- 

‘World’s largest horse-drawn 

hearse’ a museum hit 

REGAL 19th-century horse- 

A drawn hearse believed to be the 

world’s largest has become a crowd 

magnet for a Czech museum built 

single-handedly by a plumber with a 

passion for historic vehicles. 

Czech master craftsman Vaclav 

Brozik built the massive eight-horse 

hearse around 1895. It is over four 

metres high, 6.5 metres long and 

weighs in at almost three tonnes. 

Vaclav Obr, a 45-year-old Czech 

plumber, recently spent two years restoring 

the hearse for his museum, featuring 

60 historic carriages and built 

with European Union funding to the 

tune of 174,000 euros ($225,000). 

He opened the museum in 2009 

in Cechy pod Kosirem, a town of 

about 1,000 people some 220 kilometres 

southeast of the Czech capital, 

Prague. 

This year, the hefty hearse became 

the museum’s star attraction. Obr 

found it badly damaged in a nearby 

town about two years ago. He was 

then able to identify it with the help 

of a photograph hanging in a Prague 

museum. 

“When I saw the picture in Prague, 

I almost fell off my chair,” Obr said. 

Many details, including carvings 

and sculptures of angels, had vanished 

from the wreck he had found. 

With the help of local craftsmen 

he managed to restore the hearse to its 

former glory, using the single photo- 

nesting species and eight small bird 

species,” Grarock said, according to 

a CEED statement. 

The affected birds include the 

sulphur-crested cockatoo, crimson 

rosella, laughing kookaburra, and 

small birds such as the superb fairywren, 

striated pardalote, rufous whistler, 

willie wagtail, grey fantail, magpie-lark, 

house sparrow, silvereye 

and common blackbird. Mynas were 

introduced into Australia in 1862, 

originally to control insect pests at 

the Melbourne markets. 

A pair was brought to Canberra in 

1968. — IANS 

This year, the hefty 

hearse became the 

museum’s star attraction. 

Obr found it badly 

damaged in a nearby 

town about two years 

ago. He was then able to 

identify it with the help of 

a photograph hanging in 

a Prague museum 

graph as a model. 

Obr, who repaired his �rst carriage 

18 years ago, collected them from all 

over the Czech Republic for years. 

His labour of love is a public service 

mission of sorts to salvage the 

country’s remaining transport artefacts. 

Obr also takes special pride in 

his Golden Coach, or Carrosse d’Or, 

bought second-hand by a Czech archbishop 

around 1750. 

Unlike similar coaches used for 

royal coronation ceremonies on 

display in Lisbon, Moscow, Saint 

Petersburg or Versailles in France, he 

boasts his is “fully functional”. 

He once lent it to �lmmakers in 

Austria and “drove into Vienna like in 

the old days,” said Obr. — AFP

Busy birthday 

Lindsay Lohan befriended by 

for Yami 

Gautam 

ACTRESS Yami 

Gautam, who turned 

24 yesterday, prefers to keep 

herself 

occupied 

with work 

on her 

birthday. 

“Birthdays 

were 

really specialduring 

school 

times. We 

really look forward for that 

special day. But for the last 

two-three years I have been 

busy shooting for my �lms 

during my birthdays. This 

year again I am shooting for 

a South �lm in Hyderabad,” 

Yami, who made her 

Bollywood debut with critically 

acclaimed �lm Vicky 

Donor, said. 

Andre to propose 

girlfriend for 

marriage? 

SINGER Peter Andre is 

reportedly planning to 

propose girlfriend Emily 

MacDonagh (pictured) and 

feels he has found true love. 

“Pete 

knows it’s 

quick, but 

he doesn’t 

w a n t 

to wait 

around 

any longer. 

It’s true 

love and he worships Emily; 

he honestly believes that fate 

brought them together ... He’s 

already spoken to Emily’s 

dad about it. He wanted to 

reassure him he would never 

stop her pursuing her medical 

career...,” Heat magazine 

quoted a source as saying. 

Andre, 39, who is in relationship 

with MacDonagh, 

23, from past four months 

does not mind having a long 

engagement if she wants. The 

singer was married to model 

Katie Price for four years before 

calling it quits in 2009 

and has two children with 

her, son Junior, 7 and daughter 

Princess Tiaamii, 5. 

HBO to make 

Knowles-starrer 

documentary 

SINGER Beyonce 

Knowles will act in a 

documentary made by HBO, 

which will give fans a chance 

to know her more closely. 

The documentary will be 

produced 

by singer 

herself, 

reports 

MTV. 

“HBO 

has a history 

of 

pushing 

every 

boundary 

with class and authenticity. 

Some of my favourite shows 

are on HBO, so I am excited 

that my �lm will be part of 

its bold programming. This 

�lm was so personal to me, it 

had to have the right home,” 

Knowles said in a statement. 

Some of the footage will 

have scenes which will be 

specially directed by her 

and the documentary will be 

aired on February 16, 2013. 

Holmes to spend 

Christmas with 

Suri 

ACTRESS Katie Holmes 

is said to have agreed 

that daughter Suri will spend 

Christmas with her after the 

little one spent Thanksgiving 

with father Tom Cruise in 

London last week. 

Holmes split from Cruise 

in June after six years of marriage 

and 

has sole 

custody 

of their 

six-yearold 

Suri. 

“Katie and 

Tom are 

focused 

on Suri 

and as part of their divorce 

agreement, Suri will spend 

Christmas with Katie,” female�rst.co.uk 

quoted a source 

as saying. “They are trying to 

be amicable and Tom will see 

Suri over the holidays but on 

Christmas, Suri will be with 

Katie and her family,” added 

the source. 

Sheen, loses out as Liz 

HOLLYWOOD bad boy 

Charlie Sheen found 

a kindred spirit in actress 

Lindsay Lohan when they 

worked on the set of Scary 

Movie 5 and gave the actress 

$100,000 to pay off some of her 

overdue taxes. 

Sheen’s camp on Monday 

con�rmed that the Anger Management 

star gave the cash gift 

to the in-and-out-of-trouble 

Lohan who reportedly owes 

the US government more than 

$200,000 in unpaid taxes for 

Crowds of fans cram the 

streets during the world 

premiere of The Hobbit 

movie in Courtenay Place 

in Wellington yesterday. 

Thousands of fans of JRR 

Tolkien’s fantasy stories 

turned out on the streets 

of Wellington to see the 

stars arrive for the world 

premiere of The Hobbit: An 

Unexpected Journey. -- AFP 

2009 and 2010. 

“Charlie has a long history 

of helping out his friends in 

many ways and this is just another 

example of that,” Sheen’s 

publicist Larry Solters said in a 

statement. 

Sheen and Lohan worked 

earlier this year on the horror 

spoof Scary Movie 5 which is 

scheduled for an April 2013 

release. 

Lohan’s latest performance 

as late Hollywood screen legend 

Elizabeth Taylor did not 

14 

ENTERTAINMENT THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2012 

go so well. Her role in the TV 

movie Liz & Dick was slammed 

by critics and largely ridiculed 

on Twitter. Cable TV channel 

Lifetime said on Monday that a 

modest 3.5 million Americans 

watched the �lm at the weekend. 

Lohan and Sheen’s hard partying 

and off-screen antics have 

made them tabloid favorites. 

Lohan, 26, has been mired 

in legal and �nancial troubles 

and since 2007. Sheen, 47, once 

the highest-earning actor on tel- 

Halle Berry’s ex claims he was 

victim in Thanksgiving brawl 

HALLE Berry’s exboyfriend 

Gabriel 

Aubry won a restraining 

order against the actress’s 

current lover, as the two men 

fought in the Los Angeles 

courts over who started their 

Thanksgiving Day brawl. 

Releasing photos of himself 

with a black eye and cuts 

to his face, Aubry claimed that 

he was the victim in the Nov. 

22 punch-up with Berry’s �ance, 

French actor Olivier 

Martinez, in the driveway of 

her Los Angeles house. 

“I suffered numerous injuries 

as a result of the attack, 

including a fractured rib, mul- 

Actress Halle Berry and model Gabriel Aubry. — Reuters 

tiple bruises on my face and a 

number of cuts which required 

stitches,” Aubry said in court 

papers, alleging that Martinez 

had threatened the day before 

to kill him. 

“It all happened so fast and 

so suddenly; I did not see Mr 

Martinez’s actions coming 

and thus I was not ready for 

it and was not able to defend 

myself,” Aubry wrote. 

Aubry, Martinez, and the 

Oscar-winning Monster’s Ball 

actress have been embroiled 

for months in a custody 

�ght over Berry’s 4-year-old 

daughter, Nahla. Berry wants 

to take the daughter she had 

with Aubry to live with her 

and Martinez in France, but a 

Los Angeles judge denied that 

request earlier in November. 

Aubry claimed in his request 

for a restraining order 

on Monday that Martinez told 

him, “You cost us $3 million,” 

while the French actor 

punched and kicked him on 

November 22. 

Aubry, a Canadian model, 

was arrested last week for battery 

after the �st �ght, and ordered 

to stay away from Berry, 

the child, and Martinez. 

Neither man has been yet 

been formally charged in the 

case. — Reuters 

Lindsay Lohan is 

shown in the character 

of actress Elizabeth 

Taylor for the 

television movie Liz & 

Dick. — Reuters 

evision, was infamously �red 

from CBS comedy Two and a 

Half Men in 2011 after making 

derogatory comments about the 

show’s creator, Chuck Lorre. 

During that time Sheen 

gripped the public in a meltdown 

of drug use, erratic 

behavior and Internet soliloquies. 

Sheen has cleaned up his 

image in recent months while 

starring in Anger Management 

on cable television channel FX. 

— Reuters 

Watson to cut 

ties with fashion 

industry 

HARRY Potter actress 

Emma Watson is cutting 

her ties with the 

fashion world so she can focus 

entirely on her acting career. 

Watson has previously 

served as the face of fashion 

�rm Burberry and cosmetic 

company Lancome, and she 

recently teamed up with fair 

trade corporation People 

Tree as a creative advisor 

and helped in designing two 

clothing ranges. 

Now, the 22-year-old insists 

she is taking a step back 

from the industry in a bid to 

concentrate on her chosen 

profession — acting. 

“It was fun when I was 

younger, but I don’t think it 

will be quite as much part 

of my future, honestly. Now 

that I know acting is the thing 

I want to do, that’s more 

where my passion is and my 

focus is,” contactmusic.com 

quoted Watson as saying. 

“I still �nd fashion very 

interesting, but it’s quite fullon. 

I am �nding more and 

more that I don’t want to wear 

a dress and heavy make-up... 

I want to wear jeans more. 

It’s quite intense to do it all 

the time,” she said. 

Middle Earth mania 

for Hobbit debut 

By Neil Sands 

HUGE crowds swarmed central Wellington 

yesterday for the world premiere of 

Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, an event 

that sparked Middle Earth mania and brought a 

touch of Hollywood to New Zealand. 

Presenters on national radio greeted listeners 

in the �ctional language elvish, while 

newspapers came with complimentary Hobbit 

posters, and sculptures of characters from the 

�lm dotted the capital. 

Thousands of fans, many in costume, staked 

out spots hoping for a glimpse of stars such as 

Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood and Martin Freeman 

treading the red carpet leading to the Embassy 

Theatre. 

“I can’t see Leicester Square putting on a 

premiere like this, with a week of events leading 

up to it and getting the huge crowds all 

dressed up,” said British fan Becky Allsop, 

referring to the London venue of movie openings. 

Walking the red carpet, Wood said: “The 

whole of Wellington seems to be here, it’s extraordinary.” 

The city renamed itself “The Middle of 

Middle Earth” for the event and the New Zealand 

tourism industry has launched a major 

promotional push on the back of the movies, 

hoping to revive �agging international visitor 

numbers. 

Jackson admitted he was nervous about the 

reception his three-part prequel to the blockbuster 

The Lord of the Rings trilogy would receive, 

saying he had “lost all objectivity” during 

a lengthy and gruelling shoot. 

“Nothing’s ever perfect and it never will 

be, it’s a real mistake if you say we’re stopping 

now because we’ve made the perfect �lm,” he 

told Radio New Zealand. “You never have and 

you never will.” 

Oscar-winner Blanchett admitted she was 

so keen to be in the �lms “I did stalk him (Jackson) 

a little bit”. 

“I’ve long been a fan of Peter’s,” she added. 

“He’s incredibly free, he’s a free thinker, 

he’s a free associater and somehow as a �lmmaker 

even though he’s got this enormous trilogy 

on his shoulders, he’s very, very nimble.” 

The �lms, which were shot back-to-back in 

New Zealand with an estimated budget of $500 

million, depict Bilbo’s quest to reclaim the lost 

dwarf kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome 

dragon Smaug. 

Bringing the trilogy to the screen proved a 

saga in itself, taking more than six years since 

the project was �rst mooted in September 2006. 

The �rst movie The Hobbit: An Unexpected 

Journey will be released globally in December 

Alleged stalker of Alec 

Baldwin rearrested 

Genevieve Sabourin (R) speaking with her 

lawyer Maurice Sercarz in Manhattan 

Criminal Court. — AFP 

AN aspiring Canadian 

actress accused 

of stalking US television 

star Alec Baldwin 

was arrested on Tuesday in 

New York right after a court 

hearing. 

Genevieve Sabourin’s 

re-arrest came minutes after 

a chaotic hearing in which 

her lawyer quit her case, 

saying they could not work 

together. 

The lawyer, Maurice 

Sercarz, said she’d taken to 

arguing her case on Twitter 

and television “contrary 

to my advice. He also cited 

“her unwillingness to negotiate.” 

Sabourin was led away 

in handcuffs, saying she 

did not know why she was 

being detained. However, 

‘Don’t judge by title’ Sonam for Indian ‘24’ 

ELUGU director T 

T Prabhakar feels it isn’t 

right to judge �lms by their 

titles as they are most often 

either named to attract 

audience attention or have at 

best a vague connection. 

“You can’t judge a �lm 

by its title because not all 

�lm titles have some connection 

with the context. 

New York media reports 

quoted sources saying she is 

accused of violating a court 

order telling her to keep 

away from Baldwin, who 

is the star of the television 

series 30 Rock. 

Some of her tweets have 

mentioned Baldwin and his 

wife, a yoga instructor. 

Baldwin �led stalking 

charges against Sabourin 

earlier this year, accusing 

her of sending love-struck 

emails, asking him to marry 

her and showing up uninvited 

at his Manhattan apartment. 

Sabourin, who was arrested 

on April 8 and detained 

for 36 hours, said the 

stalking allegations were 

part of a “misunderstanding.” 

— AFP 

Cate Blanchett arrives for the world 

premiere of The Hobbit. — AFP 

Chinese actress Yao Chen arrives for the 

premiere of The Hobbit in Courtenay Place 

in Wellington. — AFP 

following its premiere in Wellington. 

The second, The Hobbit: The Desolation of 

Smaug, is due in December 2013 and the �nal 

chapter The Hobbit: There and Back Again follows 

in July 2014. 

Meanwhile, This is a great �lm for children 

but they might want to cover their eyes 

for some of the more scary scenes, Australian 

actress Cate Blanchett said yesterday. 

Blanchett, who plays the elf queen Galadriel, 

said before the world premiere in Wellington 

that she had taken her three sons, ages 4, 8 

and 10, onto the set and was comfortable with 

it being a �lm to show to children. 

But it was up to parents to decide if they 

thought their own children would be able to 

cope with it, she said. — AFP/dpa 

Haridas’ not my 

comeback film: 

Sneha 

TAMIL actress Sneha 

feels her role in the 

upcoming Tamil drama 

Haridas must not be tagged 

as her comeback. “I’m eagerly 

looking forward to the 

release of the �lm. Though I 

was away for few months after 

my marriage, I still believe 

I wasn’t gone long enough to 

be referred as a comeback actress. 

I was very much active 

and was shooting for few advertisements 

as well,” Sneha 

said. 

Sneha, who got married to 

Tamil actor Prasanna earlier 

this year, says she has acquired 

a better sense of responsibility 

ever since her wedding. 

“Marriage has been very 

special and it certainly has 

made more responsible,” she 

added. 

Haridas is directed by G N 

R Kumaravelan and features 

actor Kishore in the lead. 

The story of the �lm revolves 

around the sensitive relationship 

between a father and his 

son. 

The �lm, which also features 

Prithviraj Das, Soori and 

Pradeep Rawat, has music by 

Vijay Anthony and cinematography 

by R Rathnavelu. 

CTOR Anil Kapoor, 

A who is set to bring the 

Indian adaption of awardwinning 

American TV series 

“24” to the small screen, says 

he is willing to cast daughter 

Sonam Kapoor if there is 

a role for her. “If there is a 

character which suits Sonam 

or Sonam thinks will suit 

her, then why not?

PARIS — Hopes for a ceasefire 

in the battle within France’s 

right-wing opposition UMP 

were dashed yesterday as party 

chief Jean-Francois Cope rejected 

plans for a referendum 

on a new leadership vote. 

The interminable struggle 

— which has forced expresident 

Nicolas Sarkozy to 

intervene — looked set to continue 

after lawmakers loyal 

to ex-premier Francois Fillon 

formally broke away from the 

UMP’s parliamentary wing. 

The UMP, the political heir 

to the movement founded by 

Charles de Gaulle after World 

War II, has been on the verge 

of collapse over the dispute, 

which saw a November 18 

leadership vote tarnished by 

accusations of vote-rigging. 

The rival camps appeared 

to have reached a breakthrough 

late on Tuesday when 

they agreed to a snap party referendum 

on whether to hold a 

new leadership vote. But Cope 

backed away yesterday, saying 

that Fillon had crossed the line 

by forming a splinter parliamentary 

group. 

“The red line has been 

crossed and I am drawing the 

conclusions from that,” Cope 

said, denouncing the “lamentable 

spectacle we are offering 

the French.” 

Fillon’s group, dubbed the 

Rally for the UMP, filed formal 

documents splitting from 

the rest of the party late on 

Tuesday, with 68 of the 194 

UMP-affiliated deputies in the 

lower house National Assembly 

signing up. 

The dissidents decided 

they would remain financially 

attached to the UMP so as not 

to deprive it of parliamentary 

public funding, but Fillon insisted 

the bloc would not rejoin 

the rest of the party until a 

deal on a new leadership vote 

is reached. 

A party appeals commission 

on Monday confirmed 

Cope’s win in the election, 

raising his margin of victory 

from 98 votes to nearly 1,000 

following an examination of 

complaints over alleged irregularities. 

Fillon’s camp has accused 

the commission of bias and 

said he will pursue legal action 

including a civil suit to have 

the results overturned. 

Both Fillon, 58, and Cope, 

48, are fiscal conservatives advocating 

free-market policies 

15 

THE WORLD 



ROMANIA'S Prime Minister Victor Ponta (L) and Austria's Chancellor Werner Faymann at Victoria Palace in Bucharest yesterday. — Reuters 

Cameron warns press rule must change 

LONDON — Prime Minister 

David Cameron warned yesterday 

that Britain’s current 

newspaper regulation system 

is unacceptable, as he received 

a landmark judicial report into 

the Rupert Murdoch phonehacking 

scandal. 

Cameron’s comments came 

a day before senior judge Brian 

Leveson is due to publish his 

findings from a year-long inquiry 

into press ethics, which 

are widely expected to include 

recommendations for statutory 

regulation. 

The prime minister told 

lawmakers that he hoped the 

process would lead to “an independent 

regulatory system” 

for the press and called for a 

cross-party consensus, but did 

not say if he supported new 

laws. 

Cameron set up the Leveson 

inquiry in July 2011 after 

the discovery of widespread 

hacking of voicemails and 

other illegal practices at Murdoch’s 

News of the World tabloid, 

which the Australian-born 

tycoon then closed down. 

“The status quo, I would argue, 

does not just need updating 

— the status quo is unacceptable 

and needs to change,” 

he told parliament. “This 

government set up Leveson 

because of unacceptable practices 

in parts of the media and 

a failed regulatory system.” 

The British press is currently 

self-regulated by the 

Press Complaints Commis- 

sion, a body staffed by editors, 

which critics say is toothless. 

Cameron called for lawmakers 

to work across party lines on 

the issue. 

“What matters most is that 

we end up with an independent 

regulatory system that can 

deliver and in which the public 

will have confidence.” 

The leader of the main opposition 

Labour party, Ed Miliband, 

described the inquiry as 

“a once-in-a-generation opportunity 

for real change and I 

hope that this House can make 

it happen”. 

Cameron will give a statement 

to parliament on Thursday 

following the publication 

of Leveson’s report and there 

will be a parliamentary debate 

Blair opposes EU exit 

LONDON — Prime Minister 

David Cameron risks committing 

a monumental error that 

would threaten Britain’s status 

as a world power if he allows 

rising anti-European Union 

sentiment to spiral into an EU 

exit, former leader Tony Blair 


Britain’s tortured relations 

with Europe have shot to the 

top of the political agenda in 

recent months, with rebellious 

anti-EU members of Cameron’s 

ruling Conservatives 

pushing for a new role inside 

the 27-nation bloc — or even 

leaving altogether. But while 

turning away from Europe 

may be a vote winner in the 

short-term, it would isolate 

Britain, undermine its international 

standing and damage its 

economy at a time of shifting 

global power, Blair said. 

“This is the last moment 

conceivable that we should 

start talking about leaving... 

marginalising ourselves at the 

very point at which we should 

be at the centre of things,” 

Blair, who won three elections 

for the Labour Party, said in a 

speech at the Chatham House 

thinktank in London. 

Cameron suffered a humiliating 

defeat in parliament on 

October 31 when dissidents 

sided with Labour to demand 

EU spending cuts. He also 

faces a threat from the UK 

Independence Party, an anti- 

EU minority group. The anti- 

EU camp sees Brussels as a 

meddling, wasteful superstate 

that threatens Britain’s sovereignty. 

A poll on November 17 

suggested 56 per cent want to 

leave, against 30 per cent who 

want to stay. Urging politi- 

cians to do more to combat the 

anti-EU mood, Blair said Britain 

faced a “real and present 

danger by edging towards the 

exit”. 

“It would be a monumental 

error of statesmanship to turn 

our back on it and fall away 

from a crucial position of 

power and influence,” Blair, 

wearing a navy suit and tie, 

told business leaders in the 

basement of an elegant 18th 

century townhouse. 

Blair forged closer ties with 

Europe when he was prime 

minister from 1997 to 2007, 

although he did not take Britain 

into Europe’s single currency. 

Current Labour leader 

Ed Miliband was accused of 

hypocrisy and opportunism 

for suspending his pro-EU beliefs 

to back the Conservative 

rebels in parliament. 

next week on its recommendations. 

The prime minister’s 

Downing Street office received 

“half a dozen” advance copies 

of Leveson’s 1,000-page 

report yesterday so that Cameron 

can prepare his statement, 

a spokesman said. 

He is not obliged to follow 

the report’s recommendations 

but they are likely to present 

him with a dilemma amid 

splits in his Conservative party 

over the need for statutory 

regulation. 

More than 80 lawmakers 

from the three major parties 

said in a letter published yesterday 

that any introduction of 

statutory regulation would be 

the biggest blow to media freedom 

in Britain for 300 years. 

William, Kate visit 

city of their titles 

LONDON — Britain’s Prince William and his wife Catherine 

visited the university city that is home to their dukedom yesterday 

for the first time since they were given their official titles. 

William and Catherine, who were given the titles the Duke 

and Duchess of Cambridge when they married last year, received 

an ecstatic welcome from hundreds of people who started 

lining the streets in the early hours of the morning. 

The royal couple arrived in the city in eastern England by 

train and were driven through the crowd before a day visiting 

Cambridge’s prestigious university and a homeless charity. 

Catherine, formerly known as Kate Middleton, dressed in a 

MaxMara dress with a coat and showed off a new hairstyle — 

long layered locks with a parted fringe, which she first sported 

in London the night before. William wore a dark suit. 

While on their visit, William and Catherine, who are both 

30, will open a 24-hour support centre for rough sleepers run 

by the charity Jimmy’s. 

Jane Heeney, a manager of the homeless organisation Centrepoint, 

which William has been a patron of since 2005, said 

the royal couple would get an insight into the organisation’s 

work while on their visit. 

“It is an incredible honour — in fact it’s more than that. But 

we want them to see Jimmy’s as it really is,” Heeney told the 

Cambridge News newspaper. — AFP 

Fresh turmoil as UMP party vote rejected 

JEAN-FRANCOIS Cope (C) with MPs Michele Tabarot and Marc-Philippe Daubresse. — AFP 

and economic reforms, but 

Cope has carved out a niche 

on the right of the UMP with 

his tough-talking approach to 

immigration. 0After staying 

out of the dispute last week, 

Sarkozy stepped in on Monday, 

meeting with the two rivals 

and reportedly pushing 

the referendum plan. 

Sarkozy is anxious to maintain 

the UMP — a decade-old 

coalition of Gaullist conservatives, 

centrists, Christian democrats 

and liberals — in case 

he decides to make a come- 

“As parliamentarians, we 

believe in free speech and are 

opposed to the imposition of 

any form of statutory control 

even if it is dressed up as underpinning,” 

said the letter 

published in the Guardian and 

Daily Telegraph newspapers. 

It added: “No form of statutory 

regulation of the press 

would be possible without 

the imposition of state licensing 

— abolished in Britain in 

1695.” 

London 2012 Olympics 

chief Sebastian Coe was 

among the senior Conservatives 

who signed the letter, 

as well as former defence 

minister Liam Fox and 

former Europe minister David 

Davis. — AFP 

back bid for the presidency in 

2017. 

Though defeated after a single 

term by Socialist Francois 

Hollande in May’s presidential 

vote, the charismatic Sarkozy, 

57, remains popular with party 

rank-and-file and many expect 

he will return to politics. 

The ridicule foisted on the 

party over the leadership debacle 

has done serious damage to 

the UMP’s image and has been 

a windfall for Hollande as he 

struggles with a flat economy 

and falling popularity. — AFP 

Saudi diplomat and 

guard shot dead 

SANAA — A Saudi diplomat 

and his bodyguard were killed 

when their car was raked with 

gunfire by unidentified assailants 

in Yemen’s capital yesterday, 

a diplomatic source and 

the kingdom’s foreign ministry 

said. 

“Gunmen dressed in the 

central security forces’ uniforms 

opened fire heavily at 

the car of the Saudi diplomat 

in Sanaa, causing it to flip 

over, killing him and his bodyguard,” 

the source in Yemen 

said on condition of anonymity. 

The diplomat is an official 

at the embassy’s military 

section in Yemen, the source 

said. Saudi Arabia confirmed 

the incident, identifying the 

diplomat as Sergeant Khaled 

Shobeikan al Anzi. 

Anzi “came under gunfire 

from unknown gunmen as he 

was leaving his home, killing 

him and his Yemeni bodyguard,” 

Saudi’s official news 

agency SPA quoted a foreign 

ministry official as saying. 

“Yemeni authorities have 

launched immediate investigations 

into this criminal act 

in co-ordination with the kingdom’s 

ambassador in Sanaa to 

find out the circumstances and 

motives behind the crime and 

to bring the criminals to justice,” 

the official was quoted 

as saying. 

The attack took place in 

Sanaa’s southern district of 

Hada, where embassies and 

diplomats’ residences are located. 

In October 2010, three 

people including a diplomat 

were hurt in a rocket-propelled 

grenade attack on a British 

Embassy car in Sanaa. 

That attack came less than 

six months after Britain’s 

ambassador to the Arabian 

Peninsula country escaped an 

assault by a bomber on his 

convoy in the capital. 

More recently, attacks in 

Sanaa have targeted members 

of the security forces and have 

mostly been claimed by Al 

Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula 

(AQAP), the network’s 

deadliest branch. 

In May, as soldiers rehearsed 

for a parade, an attacker 

detonated explosives 

hidden under his uniform in 

the middle of a battalion, killing 

96 troops and wounding 

about 300. The attack was 

claimed by Al Qaeda. In October, 

unidentified gunmen shot 

dead a senior Yemeni security 

official employed by the US 

Embassy in a Sanaa hit-andrun 

attack. — AFP 

Hunt for WWII Spitfire planes 

LONDON — A British team 

preparing to dig for a rumoured 

hoard of World War 

II Spitfire planes in Myanmar 

said yesterday it would be one 

of the most fascinating discoveries 

in aviation archaeology 

if they were found. 

The team believe there 

could be 36 of the iconic 

single-seat British fighter aircraft 

buried in sealed crates up 

to 10 metres beneath Yangon 

International Airport, a wartime 

airfield, with more at two 

other sites in Myanmar. 

Britain, the former colonial 

power in what was then Burma, 

is thought to have buried 

the brand new planes in 1945 

as they were surplus by the 

time they arrived by sea. 

DUCHESS of Cambridge meets members of public in central England yesterday. — AFP 

Mafia whistleblower found 

dead outside UK mansion 

LONDON — A Russian 

businessman helping Swiss 

prosecutors uncover a powerful 

fraud syndicate has died 

in mysterious circumstances 

outside his mansion in Britain, 

in a chilling twist to a Russian 

mafia scandal that has strained 

Moscow’s ties with the West. 

Alexander Perepilichny, 

44, sought refuge in Britain 

three years ago and had been 

helping a Swiss investigation 

into a Russian money-laundering 

scheme by providing 

evidence against corrupt officials, 

his colleagues and media 

reports said. 

He has also provided evidence 

against those linked to 

the 2009 death of anti-corruption 

lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, 

a case that caused an international 

outcry and prompted 

the United States to push for a 

bill cracking down on Russian 

corruption. 

Perepilichny, a Russian 

citizen, collapsed and died 

abruptly outside his home on 

an upmarket estate in the English 

county of Surrey on Nov 

ember 10, police said yesterday, 

the first time the case has 

come to light.Perepilichny is 

the fourth person linked to the 

Magnitsky case to have died 

The dig, set to start in 

early January, has excited 

military history and aviation 

enthusiasts around the world. 

There are thought to be fewer 

than 50 airworthy Spitfires 

left in the world and the digs 

could potentially double their 

number if they remain in pristine 

condition. 

"Eyewitnesses talk about 

36 being buried in this particular 

spot, though we do have 

evidence that there might be 

more," project leader David 

Cundall told a briefing at the 

Imperial War Museum in London. 

"They are buried at eight 

to 10 metres. There's no oxygen 

down there so we don't 

think they've corroded. 

"It's like opening a can of 

in strange circumstances. 

“It is being treated as unexplained,” 

a police spokeswoman 

said. “A post-mortem 

examination was carried out 

which was inconclusive. So 

further tests are now being 

carried out.” 

British media reports said 

Perepilichny appeared to be in 

good health when he collapsed 

in the evening outside St 

George’s Hill, one of Britain’s 

most exclusive estates, where 

he was renting a house for 

£12,500 ($20,000) a month. 

Dubbed as Britain’s Beverly 

Hills and surrounded by 

neatly trimmed golf courses, 

the sprawling leafy estate 

is home to many prominent 

magnates and celebrities, its 

list of one-time tenants boasting 

stars such as Elton John 

and Ringo Starr. 

This month the US House 

of Representatives voted 

overwhelmingly to “name and 

shame” Russian rights violators 

as part of a broader trade 

bill, brushing off warnings 

from Moscow that the move 

would damage relations. 

William Browder, a former 

employer of Magnitsky and a 

prominent London-based investor, 

said Perepilichny had 

beans at 67 years old: it's not 

going to be at its best but if 

you're hungry, you're going to 

eat it." 

The leaders of the expedition 

admit that the entire 

project could end up being 

a wild goose chase, with no 

physical evidence that the rare 

Mark XIV Spitfires exist. 

Cundall, a farmer and aircraft 

enthusiast, has been on 

the chase for the rumoured 

lost Spitfires for 16 years. 

He first heard of the story 

from another aircraft recoverer 

and gathered eight eyewitnesses, 

including US servicemen 

who dug the holes and 

Myanmar locals who shifted 

teak timber to seal the crates 

in. — AFP 

come forward in 2010 with 

evidence involving the Magnitsky 

case that subsequently 

helped Swiss prosecutors open 

their investigation. 

“Alexander Perepilichny 

approached us in 2010 as a 

whistleblower with evidence 

about the complicity of a 

number of Russian government 

officials in the theft of 

$230 million which Sergei 

Magnitsky had uncovered,” 

said Browder, founder of Hermitage 

Capital Management. 

“He provided us with copies 

of many of the original 

bank documents. In January 

2011, Hermitage filed an application 

to the Swiss authorities 

seeking an investigation. 

It was announced in March 

that the Swiss prosecutor’s 

office opened an investigation 

and froze the assets in a 

number of accounts.” 

Browder, whose grandfather 

was the general secretary 

of the American Communist 

Party, was one of the biggest 

Western investors in Russia 

but was barred from Russia 

in late 2005 and most of his 

staff left the country as Hermitage 

found itself coming 

under increasing official pressure. 

— Reuters

PORTA CABINS / TURNKEY CAMPS 

Our Services Manufacturing, Erection, Mobilization. 

Our Products Camps, Kitchens, Offices, Ablutions 

Phone 24503725 Fax 24503723 

Mobile 95228450 Mobile 99277505 

e-mail info@speedhouseoman.com 

Web www.speedhouseoman.com 

SPEED HOUSE BUILDING CONSTRUCTION LLC 

R 

BUSINESS or PLEASURE P 

OMAN or ABROAD A 

ALKH: 24489248/648 

RUWI: 24707074, QURUM: 24691110 

SOHAR: 26845565 

MUSCAT AIRPORT: 24521189 

SALALAH: 23296246 

Also available — Luxury Cars with 

Chauffeur Service 

S 

ENT-A-CAR 

ENT-A-C 

ERVICES 

SERVICES 

1. AC, Fridge 

id & Washing 

Machine Servi Servicing & 

Repairing 2P 2. Painting, 

Plumbing, Electrical & 

Carpentry Works. Contact: 

�97014234/ 97123569, 

24504281. 

HOOPOE SMART 

CARD SERVICES 

Sanad Service Centre 

We provide the following 

services: Typing, clearing 

all transactions related to 

government departments 

and private sector, eg 

labour agreement for 

Omanis and expatriates, 

typing of labour card 

for expatriates, typing 

of visas and document 

clearing from immigration 

department, Ministry of 

Commerce & Industry, 

Ministry of Manpower, 

Commercial names 

reservation, renewal of 

commercial registration, 

renewal of OCCI 

membership, attestation of 

all documents from OCCI 

& Ministry of Foreign 

Affairs. Renewal of labour 

cards through electronic 

payment or cash payment. 

Please note you may 

deliver your transaction 

through our e-mail 

and our representative 

will deliver it to your 

of�ce personally after 

completion. Our address 

is: Ruwi, near Gulf 

Transport Co. (GTC), 

Fax: 24793331, GSM: 

98793665 (Direct) 

99231500. 

E-mail: hoopoeoman@ 

gmail.com 

AL FAHAD 

TRANSLATION 

SERVICES 

Translation of all kinds 

of legal, medical, and 

other types of documents, 

Commercial Agencies, 

etc. Ruwai, near Gulf 

Transport Co (GTC), 

Fax: 24794286. GSM 

: 98793665 (Direct) 

95959838. E-mail: 

bptland@gmail.com 

LANDRAIL TRADING 

& SERVICES (Smart 

Card) Ruwi, near Gulf 

Transport Co. (GTC), Fax: 

24780244, Tel: 24789117, 

GSM 98793666 (Dir), 

96777170. E-mail: 

landrailoman@gmail.com 

G 

UEST HOUSE HO 

MURAHIB HOTEL 

APARTMENTS 

APARTME 

welcome our valuable 

GUESTS to our 

excellent location, 

AL KHUWAIR, near 

AL ZAWAWI 

MOSQUE, a single 

bedroom, a bedroom 

& majlis, two 

bedrooms & majlis. 

�24478087, 

Fax: 24482454. 

QURUM BEACH 

HOTEL. �24564070. 

CLASSIFIED SECTION 

RUWI: � 24785668 

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. 

TRANSPORTATION 

from and to home by 

luxury cars. Contact 

�24487827, 93204595. 

AL Khalidiya Financial 

Consultancy. Market 

Research, Feasibility 

Study, Auditing and 

Taxation, Portfolio 

Investment and 

Management (Financial 

Security) Real Estate and 

Management. P O Box: 

785, Al Azaiba, P C 130, 

Sultanate of Oman. Tel: 

(968) 24498975/34; Fax: 

(968) 24498947; GSM: 

(968) 99229700. E-Mail: 

alkhalidiyafinancial@ 

hotmail.com 

MARBLE Marble 

polishing and 

crystallisation building, 

cleaning floor, floor 

polishing, carpet, sofa 

shampooing, pest 

control, anti-termite, 

shifting, maintenance. 

�99504275. 

D 

RIVING SSCHOOL 

MORNING STAR 

DRIVING SCHOOL S 

— Learn L driving d i 

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 

Wanted 

1. Electrician (ITI 5 yrs to 

10 yrs experience) 

2. Electrical Lineman - 

(ITI - 5 yrs to 10 yrs 

experience) 

3. Electrical Helper (5 yrs 

to 10 yrs experience) 

Ph: 24562183/24562187 

Fax: 24562851 

GSM: 99100327, 

99215720 

E-Mail: 

eoseas@yahoo.com 

T 

OURS 

MARINE To Tourism 

� � 92808636, 92808636 e-mail: 

info@alainain.com 

if@li i 

SPECIAL Rates on 

New Cars & 4 WDs 

RENTING & LEASING 

Tours and Airport Transfer 

Tel: 24582663 

GSM: 95859497, 

Fax: 24582664, 

abcrent@omantel.net.om 

S 

ERVICES 

DESIGNING and 

printing on the screen 

promotional gifts, ID 

cards, occasions' cards, 

designing printed materials. 

Contact �92223460 

— Amerat 

WE at Quick Fix offer a 

wide range of superior 

services. Our new 

services are Smart 

Maintenance 

Membership & 

Attractive Internal/ 

External painting/ 

Designs. We also 

provide Membership in 

our Special maintenance 

Programme that will 

provide you with smart 

maintenance solutions 

for your building. Our 

expert Philippine 

workers are well-trained 

to meet your 

expectations. We also 

provide electrical 

repairs, A/C 

maintenance, plumbing 

repairs, cleaning 

solutions, pest control 

solutions, swimming 

pool construction & 

maintenance, gorgeous 

gardening and 

landscaping. Please call 

us on 92849838/ 

95790142. 

M 

ANPOWER 

ANPOWE 

FRIENDS 

MANPOWER: 

Filipino housemaids 

and all kinds of 

workers. �24489268 

Tel/Fax: 24478153. 

AZOOZ. House drivers 

and heavy drivers with 

Gulf driving licence. 

Furniture carpenter. 

�95330209, 

92801098, 24831448. 

AZOOZ. Filipino, Sri 

Lankan, Ethiopian and 

Indonesian. We have 

ready H/M in the 

office. �95330209, 

92801098, 24831448. 

G 

OOD NEWS NEW 

AYURVEDIC 

Treatment, Yo Yoga massage 

& slimming. Contact: 

�92504980/24475280, 

www.drsajjay.com 

FARMHOUSE and 

concert hall, swimming 

pool, jacuzzi, 

playground, basketball, 

billiards places. Al 

Khabourah, near main 

road for rent, daily. 

�99330889. 

CLASSIFIED SECTION: 

OMAN DAILY Observer � THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2012 

W 

PURCHASING 

PURCHASIN 

immediately: WWe 

would 

like lik to purchase h your 

land at Maabela 

� 95490842, 9323957. 

F 

ANTED 

OR RENT 

FOR RENT 

SAVILLS OMAN 

QUALITY homes for 

rent throughout 

Capital Area Muscat. 

Contact: �24692151. 

www.sav-oman.com 

SHAWARMA BBO 

room & sandwichs & 

juice room in Al Athaiba. 

�95789955. 

NEW deluxe 1, 2 BHK 

flats, shops and 

warehouse in Ruwi. 

�99369081. 

A BUILDING at Al 

Wadi Al Kabir near the 

Indian School consists of 

36 flats, 8 shops and 

basement (luxury 

finishing, central airconditions). 

A single 

tenant preferable. Call: 

�24494979, 95098103, 

92283444. 

LABOUR camp 

accommodation/store, 

Ghala, behind Komatsu. 

�99414644, 93666201. 

2 STOREY villa at 

Wilayat of Nizwa, 

consists of 5 bedrooms 

and 2 sitting rooms 

suitable for residence or 

clinic or school or as a 

company premises. 

Contact: �93822022. 

FLAT at Bausher Heights 

— 3 bedrooms, 3 

bathrooms �96655506. 

FULLY furnished villa at 

Maabela south-Sania 4 

bedrooms, 7 toilets, 1 

kitchen, 1 sitting room, 2 

main halls. Contact 

�92369651. 

2 BEDROOMS flat in 

Mumtaz and Al Ghubra 

�93248832, 98003444. 

A 

NNOUNCEMENT 

NNOUNC 

AL-HADRAMI AL-HADRAM and 

Sons for Service Servi and 

Trade (LLC) wwhich 

is 

registered to the board of 

commercial registration 

in Muscat with the 

number (1632558) 

announce that it has 

changed its commercial 

name to Al-Hadrami 

and Brothers for 

Service and Trade 

(LLC). (Therefore it has 

been important to inform 

who may concerned). 

C 

AR BUY 

& SELL 

IF you are interested in 

to sell your cars, c send 

SMS, SMS we pay cash 

�99333088. 

OFFICES, shops, villa 

at Al Khuwair, �ats 

at Al Khuwair, Wadi 

Kabir, MBD, Mumtaz, 

furnished/unfurnished. 

�96596348. 

A FLAT next to City 

Centre, consists of 2 

bedrooms with 

attachments at Al Maabela 

south, phase 3. Contact 

�92620007. 

FOR serious people — 

Penthouse for rent, 1 

bedroom, sitting room, 2 

WS kitchen terrace � 

93248832, 98003444. 

FOR serious people — 

Flat in Al Khuwair, 2 

bedroom, sitting room, 3 

WS kitchen, ground floor, 

marble flooring with AC 

� 93248832, 98003444. 

LUXURY housing for 

female students and 

employees in Al Athaiba 

near Al Fair �99342916 

A BEDROOM and a hall 

with attachments at Al 

Hail. Contact: 

�99357404. 

A BUILDING near 

Manam Sohar — Falaj Al 

Qabail. Showroom, 

Mezzanine, suitable for a 

hypermarket or shopping, 

showroom and other 

activities + flats. Contact: 

�96677542, 96234545. 

A FLAT at Grand 

Mall, Muscat. Contact 

�24487827, 93204595 

3 NEW villas with aircondition 

for rent @ al 

Hail south 99246721, 

99417783. 

U 

MRAH/HAJ 

MRAH/HA 

AL Hikmani ffor 

HAJ 

and UMRAH — With 

a host of servi 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. 

Sulaiman Awlad Thani: 95181747 

Ali al Maashari: 99639264 

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

16 

FLAT, 3 bedroom attached 

bathroom, family hall + 

kitchen. Al Amerat, near 

Azooz. �95330209. 

BAUSHER 37, modern 

villa for rent. 3 bedroom + 

storages, 4 bathrooms, 

lobby, large family living, 

yard, garage and wide car 

parking and split units. 

Fridge, cooker, oven, 

washing machine, pool 

table + staff are available. 

Contact the landlord. 

�99443529 anytime. 

E-mail: yi12cu@yahoo. 

com 

BUILDING in a very 

prime location in Al 

Qurum 91126393. 

Available on very GOOD prices 

HP 1000 Wireless Printer 

RO 10.500 only 

FLAT for rent in Wattayah 

behind Honda showroom, 

2 rooms, 2 bathrooms, 

sitting hall and kitchen 

with balcony. GSM 

�98544508. 

NEW building, available 

2 BHK & 1 BHK at 

Darsait with split AC � 

2 BHK with split AC at 

Darsait opposite Lulu 

Hypermarket � 1 

BHK with split AC near 

Honda Road, Ruwi. 

For details contact: 

Alkhonji Development 

& Investment LLC 

�98989287, 98989265, 

Of�ce: 24787275 

3 B/R deluxe flat in Ruwi, 

Mumtaz. RO 500/- 

�99009179, 99466655. 

4 B/R villa in Al Hail. 

Rent: RO 450/- p/m 

�99009179, 99466655. 

2 BEDROOM �at at Wadi 

Adai �99377249 

R 

GOOD PRICE!!! GOOD PRICE!!! 

HP 2510 3 in 1 Printer 


HP OJ 4500 4 in 1 Printer 


HP Laptop 4540 2 GB VGA 

RO 249.900 only 

AII HP, Epson, Canon, Lexmark, Samsung 

Cartridges also available 

ENT-A-CAR 

ENT-A-CA 

JOHNY International 

Intern 

rent a car and 

leasing: 

Saloon cars/pi cars/pick 

up/4WDs. Daily/short 

term rentals - corporate 

leasing - chauffeur 

services - airport 

transfers. Best rate and 

services. Location: Johny 

International Hotel Opp. 

Sultan Qaboos Sports 

Stadium, Bausher. Call: 

Vaidya - 94146487, 

24502570 e-mail: 

Johnyinternational 

rentacar@gmail.com 

COMPUTER SUPPLIES 

Ruwi: 24792792 

GOOD PRICE!!! GOOD PRICE!!! 

DIRECT: 24649594 - FAX : 24649590 

e-mail: classified@omandaily.om 

S 

CLASSIFIED SECTION 

RUWI: � 24785668 

Behind Royal Oman Police 

Adjacent to 

Dhofar Building 

ITUATION VACANT 

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

Urgently required: (in a 

running dental clinic of a 

medical centre). Female 

Arabic speaking dentist 

with MOH licence in 

Oman. If you think you 

are an expert in dental 

bridging, third �00968- 

95950579 E-mail: 

drchowdhury650812@ 

gmail.com 

A REPUTED insurance 

agency looking for insurance 

marketing person 

with minimum quali�cation: 

Based in Oman, 

�uent in English, valid 

Omani driving licence, 

minimum of 2 years’ 

experience in insurance 

market, having good 

marketing and management 

skills. Interested 

applicants should 

send their resumes on 

sadiq864@gmail.com 

within 10 days from this 

date. 

REQUIREMENT for 

the post of HSE Manager. 

Eligibility for the 

candidate: 1. NEBOSH 

diploma or international 

certi�cate, 2. 20 years 

experience in the �eld 

of safety, 3. Experience 

in oil �eld transportation 

preferred, 4. In possession 

of Oman driving licence 

(light). 5. Conversant with 

Omani laws relating to 

health, safety and environment, 

6. Conversant with 

PDO (Petroleum Development 

Oman) guidance, 

procedures and speci�cations 

relating to HSE. 

Please send your resume 

at: natasha.salim@ 

sultan-s.com 

PHYSIOTHERAPIST is 

required to work in a 

private medical centre. 

�99611618, 99362088. 

PART-TIME English 

Teacher in Al Buraimi 

�95339934. 

S 

R 

ALE/RENT/INVEST 

ALE/REN 

INDUSTRIAL land 

(1,400m) in Dubai 

Al Raudah Al Madam. 

Contact: �99323957, 

95490842. 

EQUIRED EQUIRE 

A PRIVATE driver. ddr 

Contact �24487824, 

�244 

92445775 

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 

FREE 

INFORMATION 

ABOUT ISLAM 

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 

ILYA MANPOWER 

HOUSEMAIDS 

available from 

Philippines, 

Sri Lanka & 

Africa. All 

types of skilled 

workers (waiters, 

cooks, drivers, 

constructions, 

industrials, hotels 

& ministries.....) 

Tel/Fax 

22050086 — Hail 

Shimaly Al Jabri 

Bldg. next to 

Bahja Mall. 

F 

ONE bakery bbakery k aand 

sweet 

shop shop in Ghubr Ghubra, near 

Mars Hypermarket. 

Hyperma 

Contact: �95292128/ 

98989745. 

BARBER shop for sale: 

Prime location on main 

road at Al Khuwair, 5 

seats and fully equipped 

with required machinery 

and accessories. For 

more information and 

serious buyers please call 

�97203030. 

COM/RES plot at 

Maabela 5/2, Plot No 

850, area 500m 2 . Price: 

RO 70,000 �99009179, 

99466655. 

V 

OR SALE 

EHICLE SSALE 

ALTIMA mo model 2011, 

good price. CCall: 

�96693937. 

�96693937 

CLASSIFIEDS 

Continued on P-17

S 

MEXICAN President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto meets with US Senate Majority 

Leader Harry Reid at the US Capitol in Washington. — Reuters 

PAKISTANI male, m (24 

years) BCom, two years 

experienced in 

Accounts 

field, on visit visa, seeks 

suitable placement. 

�91152612, 91152613. 

E-mail: bilal147baigg@ 

yahoo.com 

INDIAN male, 28 years, 

Autocad draftsman seeks 


�97892269. 

FINANCE & 

Administration Manager, 

excellent verbal & written 

English, very good 

communication skills, 

experienced in diverse 

industries in Oman & 

India, can speak Arabic, 

seeks finance/ 

administration/ 

commercial/ management 

roles in reputed companies. 

Immediate joining. 

�99283938. 

CIVIL Engineer, Egyptian/ 

American, 4 year 

experience 91120019. 

A Lebanese national now 

in Oman for the last 2 years 

is looking for an opening 

job in a reputable company. 

Age - 52, experience in 

general management, banking, 

business field, contracting, 

management, finance 

administration, IT & 

human resources. Known 

languages perfectly read 

and write (Arabic/French/ 

English). Reference for 

call: �0096892549511. Email: 

labeaa@ymail.com 

12 YEARS experience 

driver with car looking for 

driving job. Contact 

� 93131386. 

INDIAN female, 21 years 

fashion designer (B.F.T) 

fresher, currently staying 

in Muscat on visit visa, 

looking for suitable job. 

Contact �91195107. 

OFFICE boy cum cleaning 

supervisor, 12 years experience 

in Oman looking for 

job �93468561. 

SRI Lankan teacher 

female, 33 years, BA in 

statistics graduate, diploma 

in accounting (AAT, Sri 

Lanka), diploma in primary 

teaching, 5 years experience 

as an accounts executive, 

3 years experience in 

teaching mathematics and 

geography in international 

school, seeks suitable position. 

Contact �98878771, 

E-mail: induniljanakaf@ 

yahoo.com 

DIPLOMA in aviation 

hospitality and 

management, 1 year 

experience in hospitality 

(front office assistant) in 

India seeks job. Please call 

�94359168. 

INDIAN male, graduate, 

having 12 years experience 

in retail sales/marketing, 

also have experience in 

admin, have knowledge of 

computerised financial 

accounting packages. 

Contact �93036772. 

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 

17 

US/CLASSIFIEDS 



Obama, lawmakers 

discuss tax issues LOS 

WASHINGTON — President 

Barack Obama launched a 

public relations push for his 

bid to raise taxes on wealthy 

Americans, but US lawmakers 

remained deadlocked 

over dramatic, year-end tax 

increases and spending cuts 

known as the “fiscal cliff.” 

At the White House, small 

business leaders emerged 

from a one-hour meeting with 

Obama to voice support for 

his goal of extending low tax 

rates for the middle class beyond 

the end of the year, while 

letting rates rise for wealthier 

taxpayers. 

The business owners urged 

Obama “to fight to keep the 

middle-class tax cuts,” said 

Lew Prince, co-founder of 

Vintage Vinyl, an independent 

music store in St Louis, Mo. 

“What grows jobs in 

America is consumers spending 

money, and the average 

person needs that two or three 

thousand dollars a year in his 

pocket to help drive the economy,” 

Prince told reporters at 

the White House. 

Republicans want to extend 

low tax rates — enacted 

INDIAN male (Kerala), 52 

years, well experienced 

storekeeper/ shop 

supervisor, currently on 

visit visa seeks placement. 

�91167052. 

PAKISTANI male, 4 years 

in Oman, BA education, 

holding Omani driving 

licence, seeks placement as 

a salesman or driver 

�98284816. 

INDIAN female, 22, BE 

(Computer Science) & 

Diploma in .Net on family 

visit seeks suitable 

placement. Contact 

�98807566. 

FINANCE and Accounts 

Manager, 9 years Oman 

experience plus India exp, 

excellent English, 

communication, 

finalisation, audit, banking, 

credit, receivables, ERP, 

etc seeks placement in 

MNCs/reputed companies. 

Immediate joining 

�99283938. 


MBA, 2 years experience 

in sales & operations in 

Oman with D/L seeks 


�97434842. 

IRAQI Civil Engineer, 26 

years experience, 4 years 

in Oman, managing and 

implementing projects. 

�99168409. 

INDIAN male (25 years), 

MBA with 2 years 

experience in accounts, 

seeks suitable placement. 

Contact: �92651573. 

E-mail: vinuayyanchira@ 

gmail.com 

ELECTRICIAN/ plumber/ 

civil maintenance/ 

purchasing, 20 years 

experience in Oman, 

looking for suitable job. 

Willing to work as 

building caretaker and 

maintenance. Having 

Omani D/L. �94258868. 

a decade ago under the administration 

of former Republican 

president George W Bush — 

for all taxpayers, including 

households earning more than 

$250,000 a year. Raising tax 

rates on the wealthy would 

discourage investment and 

hiring at a time of high unemployment, 

Republicans say. 

Congressional Democrats 

allied with the president 

showed no sign of backing 

down from his stance on raising 

taxes for the wealthy. But 

both sides have softened on 

some long-held positions: 

Republicans have been 

showing a willingness to consider 

new revenue increases 

while Democrats have relaxed 

their hard line against new savings 

to the costly governmentrun 

Medicare and Medicaid 

healthcare programmes. 

With just a month left before 

the Bush tax cuts expire 

and automatic spending cuts 

begin to take hold, markets 

were anxious about predictions 

that falling off the “fiscal 

cliff” could trigger another 

recession. 

“There remains no clarity 

INDIAN NDIAN male, graduate, 

having 20 years experience 

in HR/Administration. 

Seeks for a suitable 

placement in senior 

management. Pls contact 

�95803243, 95803243, 95803243. 

INDIAN male, D/L, total 

18, Oman 14 yrs, overall 

work exp in General 

management (Sales/ 

Admin) seeks suitable 

placement. (B Com, MA 

Public Admin, PG 

Diploma in Supply Chain 

& Logistics management) 

�98523067, E-mail: 

marsvenkat2012@gmail. 

com. 

CEO/GM, MBA with 

Engineering background 

and over 20 years 

International/specific GCC 

experience in General 

Management/ Profit Centre 

Head for sales, marketing 

& business development of 

FMCG and consumer 

durables. Contact: 

�98672030. 

DUBAI experienced 

Indian cleaning supervisor 

with 3 years experience 

with valid GCC D/L. 

�93091709. 

LOOKING for a job, crane 

operator now on a visit in 

Oman, if anybody 

interested, please contact: 

�93110127, 99044748. 

28-YEARS-OLD Indian 

male, BE civil engineer, 4 

years Oman experience in 

civil projects with Oman 

driving licence, seeking 

suitable job openings. Contact: 

�99489201 

FACTORY manager, B. 

Tech (mech. engg), MBA, 

PGDHRM, having 25 

years experience (1.5 years 

in Oman) in manufacturing 

industry, quality control 

and administration with 

valid Oman D/L, seeks 

suitable placement 

�92935296. 92935296. 

on the ultimate status on the 

Bush tax cuts, which have to 

be resolved before you can 

move forward with the remainder 

of the fiscal cliff,” 

said Chris Krueger, an analyst 

at Guggenheim Securities' 

Washington Research Group. 

Stock prices declined 

modestly despite government 

reports that planned US business 

spending rose again in 

October and that single-family 

home prices rose again in September. 

Despite a mild sell-off in 

stocks, the Dow Jones industrial 

average closed at about 

12,878, up 14 per cent from 

a year ago. Brian Gardner, 

an analyst at financial firm 

Keefe Bruyette & Woods, said 

a limited deal would likely 

be struck to avert the fiscal 

cliff, with larger fiscal issues 

pushed into 2013. 

“Fiscal cliff headlines could 

have the biggest impact on the 

market,” he said. “Over the 

coming weeks, we expect many 

headlines that will raise and 

then dash investors' hopes... 

The next three weeks could be 

a bumpy ride.” — Reuters 

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(Fluent in English and 

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Servicewomen sue 

army: combat ban 

ANGELES — Four US 

servicewomen, including two 

who won Purple Hearts in Afghanistan, 

sued the Pentagon 

over its policy barring women 

from ground combat. 

Backed by rights watchdog 

the American Civil Liberties 

Union (ACLU), they 

slammed the policy as an “injustice 

to the women... who 

continue to put their lives on 

the line for their country.” 

In practice women have 

served in combat roles for 

years, they said — but US 

military policy still bans 

them, resulting in a “brass 

ceiling” in which women 

cannot be promoted because 

of lack of recognised combat 

experience. 

“Ever since I was a little 

girl I wanted to be an Air 

Force pilot, and I have proven 

my ability every step of the 

way,” said Major Mary Jennings 

Hegar, a rescue helicopter 

pilot who flew Medevac 

missions in Afghanistan. 

Her aircraft was shot down 

in 2009 while rescuing three 

injured soldiers, and she had 

to fight, returning fire and 

sustaining shrapnel wounds. 

She was awarded the Purple 

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Heart and Distinguished Flying 

Cross with Valour. 

“The ability to serve in 

combat has very little to do 

with gender or any other generalisation. 

It has everything 

to do with heart, character, 

ability, determination and 

dedication,” said the 36-yearold, 

quoted by the ACLU. 

Women are still barred 

from ground combat units, 

although female troops have 

found themselves in combat 

anyway over the past decade 

in Afghanistan and Iraq, with 

more than 140 killed on the 

battlefield. 

“Women have more equal 

opportunity to die for serving 

their country than to actually 

be allowed to serve their 

country,” said Army Staff 

Sergeant Jennifer Hunt, who 

won a Purple Heart after her 

vehicle was hit by a roadside 

bomb. 

In February, the Pentagon 

announced incremental 

changes that will allow 

women to serve in more than 

14,000 jobs, mostly in the 

Army and Marine Corps, that 

had previously been closed 

to female service members. 

— AFP 

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18 SPORT 



Lazio score win over Udinese amid racist chants 

LAZIO’S Miroslav Klose (left) vies for the ball with Udinese’s Andrea Coda. — AFP 

ROME — Lazio’s Alvaro 

Gonzalez, Miroslav Klose 

and Hernanes secured a 3-0 

victory over Udinese in Serie 

A on Tuesday at the Stadio 

Olimpico where the home 

fans sang racist chants aimed 

at rivals Roma who share the 

stadium. 

Lazio took to the �eld 

wearing a “No Racism” logo 

on their shirts in the aftermath 

of an attack in Rome on Tottenham 

Hotspur fans on the 

eve of last week’s Europa 

League tie and anti-Semitic 

chanting during the game with 

the London team. 

However, chants of “Roma, 

Jewish club” could be heard on 

Tuesday from the Curva Nord, 

home to Lazio’s hardline ultra 

supporters, aimed at their bitter 

local rivals, although other 

sections of the crowd booed 

and tried to drown them out. 

European soccer’s governing 

body UEFA is deciding 

what sanctions to take after 

the events of last week, with 

Lazio president Claudio Lotito 

having met one of the injured 

Spurs fans, many of whom are 

Jewish, in hospital earlier on 

Tuesday. 

The victory over Udinese 

took �fth-placed Lazio to 26 

points from 14 games, six 

behind leaders Juventus and 

within two of Fiorentina and 

Inter Milan in third and fourth 

respectively. 

Lazio started brightly, 

earning a penalty in the 11th 

minute when Udinese’s Willians 

handled as he got in the 

way of Stefan Radu’s backheel 

from a corner. 

However, Antonio Candreva’s 

spot kick was weak, 

allowing visiting goalkeeper 

Zeljko Brkic to save. 

LAZIO LEAD 

Five minutes later Lazio 

did take the lead when the 

lively Stefano Mauri’s nicelyweighted 

pass found Gonzalez, 

who slotted the ball past 

Udinese’s Serbian keeper. 

With playmaker Candreva, 

on loan from Udinese, working 

well in a wider role and 

Mauri and Ederson controlling 

central mid�eld, Lazio were 

in control for long stretches of 

the game. 

It was thus no great surprise 

when they scored a 

second just past the half-hour 

thanks to another Mauri assist 

which found Klose, who beat 

the offside trap before coolly 

Dortmund held by battling Fortuna, Schalke lose 

BERLIN — Champions 

Borussia Dortmund stumbled 

to a 1-1 draw against promoted 

Fortuna Dusseldorf on 

Tuesday, tightening their grip 

on second place in the Bundesliga 

standings but failing 

to make up signi�cant ground 

on leaders Bayern Munich. 

Jakub Blaszczykowski’s 

goal just before the break 

looked enough for lacklustre 

Dortmund but Stefan Reisinger 

equalised in the 78th 

minute for the battling visitors 

to snap the champions’ 

three-game winning streak. 

Dortmund, who take on 

Bayern in the big match of the 

season on Saturday, lacked 

speed and precision inside the 

box with playmaker Mario 

Goetze and central defender 

Mats Hummels rested. 

Fortuna were down to 10 

men in the �nal minutes after 

a second booking for Ivan 

Paurevic. 

The draw lifted Dortmund 

to 26 points, two clear of 

Schalke 04 who lost 3-1 at 

Hamburg SV and Eintracht 

New Zealand’s 

Hore banned 

for �ve weeks 

for striking 

LONDON — New Zealand 

hooker Andrew Hore will 

miss the rugby Test against 

England on Saturday and 

three pre-season matches for 

club side Highlanders after 

being suspended for �ve 

weeks yesterday for striking 

an opponent. 

Hore, 34, felled Wales 

lock Bradley Davies from 

behind in the opening minutes 

of last Saturday’s match 

in Cardiff and was found 

guilty of “inherently dangerous” 

foul play at a disciplinary 

hearing in Bristol, 

England. 

A judicial of�cer appointed 

by the International 

Rugby Board (IRB) ruled 

that the offence should be 

dealt with at the top end of 

the IRB’s sanctions table. 

“The judicial of�cer held 

that the act of foul play was 

inherently dangerous, being 

a deliberate swinging of the 

arm, delivered with signi�cant 

force, causing serious 

injury to the victim player, 

Bradley Davies, who was 

unsighted,” disciplinary of�cials 

said in a media release. 

“However, the judicial 

of�cer found that the player 

had not intended to make 

contact with the victim player’s 

head.” 

The judicial of�cer had 

reduced the ban from a possible 

eight weeks, taking account 

of Hore’s acceptance 

of his guilt, his remorse, 

his exemplary disciplinary 

record and his conduct during 

the hearing, the statement 

said. 

Hore is suspended until 

February 24, meaning he can 

serve most of his ban during 

his club pre-season. 

Frankfurt, beaten 3-1 by visitors 

Mainz 05. 

Bayern, top on 34, travel 

to Freiburg and Bayer 

Leverkusen, on 24, will move 

into second place with a win 

at Werder Bremen. 

Dortmund, desperate to 

close in on Bayern ahead of 

Saturday’s game, had to wait 

until two minutes from halftime 

to crack open a populous 

Fortuna defence. 

Poland captain Blaszczykowski 

volleyed in after a 

lightning quick combination 

with Kevin Grosskreutz in 

the box. 

Instead of �nishing it off, 

however, Dortmund, looking 

tired after a busy month in 

three competitions, gradually 

allowed the visitors back into 

the game. 

Fortuna were unlucky not 

to score when Reisinger’s 

drive from 10 metres was 

accidentally blocked by his 

team-mate Ken Ilso with 

Dortmund keeper Roman 

Weidenfeller beaten. 

Reisinger was not to be 

St Etienne reach Cup 

semis on penalties 

PARIS — St Etienne had 

goalkeeper Stephane Ruf�er 

to thank as they reached the 

League Cup semi�nals by 

beating Paris St Germain 5-3 

on penalties after the game 

�nished goalless on Tuesday. 

Ruf�er blocked Thiago 

Silva’s weak spot kick to effectively 

seal the home team’s 

passage into the last four after 

a tense affair at the Geoffroy 

Guichard ended 0-0 after extra 

time. 

“It was not easy. The 

whole match was tough 

against a great PSG team,” 

the keeper told French TV 

channel France 3. 

Ruf�er started brightly 

and never lost concentration 

in a game dominated by PSG 

whose forwards just could not 

beat him. 

PSG’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic 

intercepted an awful pass 

from a St Etienne defender 

and rushed into the box but 

Ruf�er kept his composure 

to parry the Swede’s low shot 

with his right foot. 

St Etienne responded 

quickly but Pierre-Emerick 

denied, however, shaking off 

Marcel Schmelzer to head in 

through Weidenfeller’s legs 

at the far post in the 80th 

minute. 

Hamburg showed they can 

win this season even without 

injured Rafael van der Vaart, 

scoring three times in an exciting 

second half to beat 

Schalke 3-1 and move up to 

eighth and back into European 

contention. 

A �erce 20-metre missile 

from Maximilian Beister in 

the 52nd put them ahead and 

Artjoms Rudnves tapped in a 

second goal from �ve metres 

in the 65th as Schalke scrambled 

in defence. 

Dutch striker Klaas-Jan 

Huntelaar scored on the rebound 

after Rene Adler did 

well to save his spot kick with 

10 minutes to go but it was 

the hosts who struck again 

with Milan Badelj converting 

his penalty in the �nal minute 

to see Hamburg bounce back 

from last week’s defeat to 

Fortuna. — Reuters 

SAINT-Etienne team players celebrate their victory at the 

end of the French League Cup match against PSG. 

Aubameyang’s header was 

cleared off the goal line by 

Clement Chantome. 

PSG striker Ezequiel 

Lavezzi then had a goal disallowed 

for offside and while 

Les Verts had most possession, 

the visitors looked more 

dangerous. 

PSG’s second-half substitute 

Nene provided more pace 

up front but they still struggled 

to create any clear chances in 

a match featuring the best two 

defences in Ligue 1. 

In extra time, Lavezzi collected 

a terrible back pass by 

Francois Clerc but his own 

poor delivery to Ibrahimovic 

enabled Ruf�er to dive at the 

striker’s feet to deny PSG 

once again. 

Lavezzi fell on his knees 

in disbelief while former AC 

Milan striker Ibrahimovic hit 

the ground in anger. 

PSG fullback Sylvain Armand 

unleashed a spectacular 

rising shot from the edge of 

the box in the closing stages 

but Ruf�er tipped the ball 

over the bar to send the tie 

into a shootout. — Reuters 

HAMBURG SV’s Maximilian Beister celebrates after scoring 

during the Bundesliga match against Schalke 04. — Reuters 

MADRID — Tiny Cacereno 

from the Spanish third tier 

came within centimetres of 

upsetting Malaga in the King’s 

Cup on Tuesday, winning 1-0 

at the Rosaleda but going out 

on the away goals rule 4-4 on 

aggregate. 

Qatar-owned Malaga, who 

lie fourth in La Liga and who 

have cruised into the last-16 of 

the Champions League, were 

clinging on desperately at the 

end of their last-32 second leg 

with luck on their side. 

Winger Chapi pounced on 

a loose ball after a free-kick 

to put the visitors ahead in the 

37th minute and they sensed 

an upset towards the end of 

the second half. 

Malaga defender Martin 

Demichelis diverted a goalbound 

shot just wide of his 

own post and goalkeeper Carlos 

Kameni pushed another 

shot into the side-netting in 

the closing stages. 

When the visitors did �nally 

bundle in a second at a 

corner, it was ruled out for offside 

and Manuel Pellegrini’s 

side hung on to progress. 

In other games, Real Madrid, 

Real Betis and Osasuna 

all moved into the last 16, 

while second division Cordoba 

and Las Palmas claimed 

the scalps of top-�ight side to 

progress. 

Jose Mourinho gave four 

B team players a place in the 

starting line up at the Bernabeu, 

including an of�cial debut 

for winger Denis Cheryshev 

who made his �rst appearance 

for Fabio Capello’s Russia in a 

friendly this month. 

However, it was the established 

�gures of Jose Callejon 

with two, and substitute Angel 

Di Maria with one, who 

grabbed late goals in a 3-0 

victory, as Real triumphed 7-1 

on aggregate over third-tier 

Alcoyano. 

side-footing home. 

The victory was secured 

shortly just before the hour 

when Brazilian Hernanes, a 

halftime substitute for Ederson, 

clipped a free kick, 

awarded for a clumsy Andrea 

Coda challenge on Klose, over 

the wall and into the net from 

the edge of the box. 

“That was a great performance,” 

Lazio’s Bosnian coach 

Vladimir Petkovic told Sky 

Italia. 

“It wasn’t easy after the 

missed penalty, but we believed 

in ourselves, we kept 

up a high rhythm for 90 minutes 

and didn’t allow Udinese 

any space. 

Udinese coach Francesco 

Guidolin, whose side �nished 

fourth last season but are currently 

languishing in 12th after 

�ve games without a win, 

said they now had lots of work 

to do. 

“We’ve got to start again, 

because if we carry on like 

this we’re not going to be going 

anywhere. This can’t be 

the real Udinese. Yes, we’ve 

got problems with injuries, 

but that’s no excuse. Our objective 

now has to be to reach 

40 points.” — Reuters 

City assistant 

Platt banned 

for 2 matches 

LONDON — Manchester 

City assistant coach David 

Platt has been given a twomatch 

European ban after 

being sent to the stands 

during last week's Champions 

League match with Real 

Madrid, UEFA said yesterday. 

Platt will not be allowed 

in the dugout for City's �nal 

Champions League group 

game next Tuesday against 

Borussia Dortmund. 

He was charged with improper 

conduct by UEFA's 

Control and Disciplinary 

Body following his dismissal 

by the referee during the 

1-1 draw with Real. 

"The UEFA Control and 

Disciplinary Body has suspended 

Manchester City FC 

assistant coach David Platt 

for the next two UEFA competition 

matches," a UEFA 

statement read. 

The club have three days 

to appeal the decision. 

Malaga lose but scrape past third-tier 

Cacereno in King’s Cup 

Cordoba upset Real Sociedad 

taking advantage of some 

poor defending to draw 2-2 

at Anoeta and make the next 

round 4-2 on aggregate. 

The Andalucian club’s 

prize is likely to be a meeting 

with holders Barcelona, who 

host Alaves with a 3-0 �rst-leg 

advantage. 

Las Palmas ousted Rayo 

1-0 on aggregate grabbing a 

goalless draw in Vallecas after 

the home side had their goalkeeper 

sent off for the second 

time in the tie. 

Real Betis, spurred on by 

their surprise 1-0 defeat of 

league champions Real Madrid 

on the weekend, overturned 

a �rst leg de�cit against 

Valladolid to progress 3-1 on 

aggregate. 

Osasuna joined them with 

a 2-0 home win over recentlyrelegated 

Sporting Gijon, giving 

them a 2-1 triumph. 

REAL Madrid’s Angel Di Maria (centre) scores during their Spanish King’s Cup match 

against CD Alcoyano at Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid on Tuesday. — Reuters 

Redknapp starts QPR 

reign with Sunderland 

stalemate; Villa win 

QPR coach Harry Redknapp gestures during their EPL 

match against Sunderland on Tuesday. — Reuters 

LONDON — Harry Redknapp’s 

salvage operation at 

Queens Park Rangers started 

with a battling 0-0 draw at fellow 

strugglers Sunderland in 

a dour Premier League match 

on Tuesday. 

Aston Villa beat Reading 

1-0 thanks to a late goal by 

striker Christian Benteke in 

another game between teams 

near the bottom of the table 

but the focus was on Redknapp’s 

�rst match in charge 

at his �fth Premier League 

club. 

“We worked hard and 

there were a lot of positives,” 

Redknapp told Sky Sports. “I 

feel more optimistic than I did 

on Saturday.” 

QPR, who have not won 

in 14 matches this season, remained 

rooted to the foot of 

the standings on �ve points, 

four adrift of Reading. 

Villa climbed to 17th on 

13 points following their third 

win of the season, level with 

Sunderland who are one place 

above them. 

QPR came closest to scoring 

in the �rst half when 

Jamie Mackie was denied in 

a one-on-one situation with 

Sunderland goalkeeper Simon 

MUSCAT — Nevil Philips 

and Armaan Sattikar justi�ed 

their top billing when the duo 

quali�ed to face each other 

in the pennant clash for the 

boys’ under-17 singles title 

at the Falcon Insurance Company-sponsored 

annual tennis 

tournament organised by the 

Indian Social Club Muscat. 

The tournament will culminate 

tomorrow evening when 

top seed Nevil Philips takes 

on second seed Armaan Sattikar 

in the �nal of the boys’ 

under-17 singles which will 

be followed by an exhibition 

doubles match between the 

junior doubles champs taking 

on a senior doubles team. 

This will be followed by the 

prize distribution. Surprises 

are in store for the lucky spectators 

attending the �nals and 

a lucky players’ raf�e draw. 

Nevil, who has established 

himself as the best junior 

player at the ISC will start 

Mignolet and Adel Taarabt’s 

follow-up shot was blocked. 

Rob Green replaced the 

injured Julio Cesar in the 

Rangers goal at the start of 

the second half and the former 

England keeper made a brilliant 

save to keep out Steven 

Fletcher’s powerful downward 

header from a corner. 

Redknapp, 65, replaced 

Mark Hughes who was sacked 

last week after 11 months in 

charge. 

The former Portsmouth, 

West Ham United, Southampton 

and Tottenham Hotspur 

manager was strongly linked 

with the vacant England job 

this year before being controversially 

sacked by Spurs 

in June. 

Villa’s Brett Holman 

struck a crisp shot centimetres 

wide early in the second half 

and Adam Le Fondre should 

have put Reading ahead when 

he sent a free header wastefully 

over the bar. 

The deadlock was broken 

10 minutes from time when 

Benteke rose at the far post to 

head Ashley Westwood’s corner 

�rmly into the far corner 

of the net. — Reuters 

Nevil faces Armaan in 

u-17 �nal tomorrow 

LOS ANGELES — Indiana 

guard George Hill came up 

with last second heroics usually 

reserved for Kobe Bryant 

as the Pacers outgunned the 

Los Angeles Lakers 79-77 in 

a scrappy National Basketball 

Association (NBA) contest in 

Los Angeles on Tuesday. 

The Lakers trailed for 

most of the night but seemed 

destined for a comeback when 

Bryant slotted a three-pointer 

to tie the scores at 77 apiece 

with 24 seconds left on the 

clock. 

Hill, however, had other 

ideas, milking the time down 

before driving hard to the 

hoop and getting the layup to 

fall after a few bounces on the 

rim in the �nal second. 

as favourite. His consistency 

on both �anks and a strong 

mindset are his best attributes. 

In the semi�nal, Nevil blasted 

his way to a comfortable 6-0, 

6-1 victory over Ajay Srivatsan. 

Nevil’s challenger for the 

title, Armaan Sattikar cannot 

be taken lightly. Armaan’s 

con�dence will be boosted by 

his splendid 6-1, 6-1 victory 

over Kenneth Vaz in the last 

four. His victory in the �nal 

of the under-14 over Kenneth 

where he laboured from a set 

down to defeat Kenneth 3-6, 

6-0, 10-5 should also do his 

con�dence a world of good. 

Percy Pereira will take on 

Nevil Philips in the men’s singles 

�nal to be played today. 

In the semi�nals, unseeded 

Percy downed Girish K K 

6-3, 6-4 while No 1 seed Nevil 

advanced to the �nal with a 

6-0, 6-1 victory over Suhail 

Khan. 

Pacers outgun Lakers 

Bryant, in doubt prior to 

the game with “�u-like symptoms”, 

scored more than half 

the Lakers points with 40 on 

the night but couldn’t bring 

his side home. 

Hill top-scored for the 

Pacers with 19 while David 

West contributed a doubledouble 

with 16 points and 10 

rebounds in assistance. 

The result left both teams 

at 7-8 on the season. 

Results: Philadelphia 

76ers bt Dallas Mavericks 

100-98, Phoenix Suns bt 

Cleveland Cavaliers 91-78, 

Houston Rockets bt Toronto 

Raptors 117-101, Minnesota 

Timberwolves bt Sacramento 

Kings 97-89, Indian Pacers bt 

Los Angeles Lakers 79-77.

COLOMBO — New Zealand 

were within sight of their first 

Test victory in Sri Lanka in 14 

years after 17 wickets fell on a 

thrilling penultimate day of the 

series yesterday. 

The Black Caps set Mahela 

Jayawardene’s side 363 

for victory after first bowling 

them out for 244 and making 

194 for nine declared in their 

second innings. By stumps 

Sri Lanka had slumped to 47 

for four as New Zealand dismissed 

Tharanga Paranavitana 

(0), Tillakaratne Dilshan (14), 

Kumar Sangakkara (16) and 

Jayawardene (5). 

New Zealand went into the 

match on the back of five successive 

losses, their worst run 

in 57 years. Their last win in 

Sri Lanka was in 1998 and 

they were thrashed in the first 

Test of the series in Galle, losing 

by 10 wickets inside three 

days. 

19 SPORT 



Kiwis within sight of rare Test win in Sri Lanka 

NEW Zealand bowler Tim Southee (3rd left) celebrates with team-mates after he dismissed Sri Lankan batsman Tharanga Paranavitana (2nd right). — AFP 

But thanks to fast bowlers 

Tim Southee, Trent Boult and 

Doug Bracewell, along with 

captain Ross Taylor, they set 

up the chance of a rare win. 

“We are well aware of the 

history,” coach Mike Hesson 

told reporters. “Results don’t 

lie and five (losses) in a row is 

Messi favourite for record 4th Ballon d’Or 

PARIS — Barcelona superstar Lionel 

Messi will discover who his rivals are for 

this year’s Ballon d’Or today when Fifa 

and France Football announce the three 

finalists for the prestigious award in Sao 

Paulo. 

Argentine Messi appears the overwhelming 

favourite for the honour and 

should he be crowned, he would become 

the first player to win the award four times 

having already joined French legend 

Michel Platini as the only other player to 

triumph on three consecutive occasions. 

In normal circumstances, Cristiano 

Ronaldo’s haul of 46 goals in La Liga last 

season — only surpassed by Messi’s astonishing 

50 — would likely have placed 

him in pole position, but Messi’s recordbreaking 

feats have left the Portuguese 

talisman in his shadow. 

Messi’s brace in Barca’s 4-0 win at 

Levante on Sunday lifted him onto 82 

goals for the season, just three short of 

Gerd Mueller’s all-time calendar record 

of 85 set in 1972. 

The 25-year-old also drew level with 

Ruud van Nistelrooy as the secondhighest 

scorer in Champions League history 

with 56 goals last week, trailing only 

former Real Madrid and Schalke striker 

Raul’s tally of 71. 

Oman v Italy 

friendly 

today 

MUSCAT — The Sultanate’s 

under-22 team 

will play a friendly 

match against Italy today. 

The match at Seeb 

Sports Complex will 

commence at 3.30 pm. 

Watson fit to 

share bowling 

workload 

PERTH — Australia’s Shane 

Watson has declared himself 

fit for both batting and bowling 

duties in the third and final 

Test against South Africa 

beginning in Perth tomorrow. 

The all-rounder missed 

the first two drawn Tests of 

the series in Brisbane and 

Adelaide with a calf injury 

but was named in the squad 

for the final match. 

“Over the last week I 

have gradually built up my 

bowling and my running,” 

he told reporters yesterday. 

“I am up to bowling 

as many overs as Michael 

(Clarke) wants, the normal 

workload I have in a Test.” 

The 31-year-old was 

deemed fit to play as a specialist 

batsman in the second 

Test but Australia opted to 

give him a chance to regain 

full fitness. — Reuters 

Unsurprisingly, Messi has the backing 

of Barca team-mate Gerard Pique — one 

of eight Spaniards on the 23-man shortlist. 

“I respect those who believe that Cristiano 

Ronaldo deserves the Ballon d’Or, 

but I live with Leo, he is an alien, and 

Cristiano is the best of the humans,” reasoned 

the Barcelona defender. 

With Ronaldo, who guided his country 

to the semifinals of Euro 2012 only 

for Portugal to lose to their Iberian neigh- 

RIO DE JANEIRO — Zico 

quit as coach of the Iraqi national 

team on Tuesday after 

little more than a year in the 

post, saying the country’s 

soccer association had failed 

to fulfil the terms of his contract. 

The former Brazil captain’s 

resignation comes with Iraq 

still battling for a place at the 

2014 World Cup finals. 

“I would like to inform via 

this website that I have sent a 

communication to Fifa... and 

to the Iraq Football Association 

declaring that I consider 

my contract to be void due 

to the IFA’s failure to abide 

by its terms,” he said on his 

website. 

“I will provide further details 

shortly.” 

Iraq are third in Group ‘B’ 

in the fourth phase of Asian 

qualifying with five points 

from five games, trailing second-placed 

Australia only on 

goal difference. Japan lead the 

group on 13 points. 

The top two teams qualify 

directly for Brazil in 2014 

while the third-place team 

bours Spain on penalties, also assured of 

making the cut, the identity of the third 

nominee will arguably be today’s most 

intriguing revelation. 

Andres Iniesta and Xavi are prime candidates 

for the final spot, having played 

central roles in Spain’s defence of their 

European title, while La Roja captain Iker 

Casillas labelled Real Madrid colleague 

Sergio Ramos as his “first option”, hardly 

music to Ronaldo’s ears. 

Iniesta, voted the best player of Euro 

2012, finished second to Messi following 

Spain’s World Cup glory in 2010, while 

Xavi has featured on the last three ballots, 

coming third each time. 

The winner, voted for by journalists 

as well as the captains and managers 

of national teams, will be unveiled in 

Zurich on January 7. 

23-man shortlist of players listed 

alphabetically: Sergio Aguero, Xabi 

Alonso, Mario Balotelli, Karim Benzema, 

Gianluigi Buffon, Sergio Busquets, 

Iker Casillas, Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier 

Drogba, Radamel Falcao, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 

Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi, 

Manuel Neuer, Neymar, Mesut Ozil, Gerard 

Pique, Andrea Pirlo, Sergio Ramos, 

Wayne Rooney, Yaya Toure, Robin van 

Persie, Xavi. — AFP 

Zico quits as Iraq coach in middle 

of qualifying campaign 

goes into a play-off system. 

Zico is widely considered 

one of his country’s finest 

players but has refused to 

coach in his homeland, saying 

the pressure is too great. 

Instead he has plied his 

trade abroad, most notably in 

a four-year spell with Japan, 

who he led to the 2006 World 

Cup and won the Asian Cup in 

2004. 

Since then, he has coached 

Turkish club Fenerbahce, 

reaching the Champions 

League quarterfinals once and 

Greek side Olympiakos. 

Zico made his debut as Iraq 

coach against Jordan in September 

last year. He has been 

in charge for 21 games, with 

10 wins and six draws. Iraq 

have played home matches in 

Doha for security reasons. 

Bottas to join Maldonado at Williams 

LONDON — Finland’s Valtteri Bottas attempted 

to lower expectation levels after being 

named as the replacement for Bruno Senna in 

the Williams Formula One team next season. 

Bottas, a test driver for Williams since 

2010, will join Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado 

next season after the British team announced 

their driver line-up for 2013 yesterday. 

Williams team principal Frank Williams described 

the 23-year-old Bottas as “quite simply 

one of the most talented young racing drivers 

I have come across” in a team statement, saying 

he expected “great things” from him in the 

future. However, Bottas said it might be the 

second half of next season when he starts to 

show what he is capable of. 

While he will be a rookie, Bottas will be 

no stranger to the Williams set-up, having been 

given the use of Senna’s car on Fridays at most 

of this season’s races. 

A protege of McLaren’s double world champion 

Mika Hakkinen, he has been groomed by 

Williams over the past two years and his lap 

times during practice sessions have turned 

heads. “I have been in most of the Friday sessions 

and that has been perfect preparation and 

gave me a chance to prove what I could do in 

the car,” Bottas said. — Reuters 

hard to take. 

“I’m delighted we have 

been able to string together 

four good days but clearly we 

have still got a lot of work to 

do and tomorrow is a huge day 

for us. 

“We have continued to 

bowl well and I thought we 

Mominul to 

replace injured 

Shakib 

KHULNA, Bangladesh — 

Bangladesh have called 

up uncapped middle-order 

batsman Mominul Haque 

to replace injured Shakib al 

Hasan for the first two oneday 

internationals against 

West Indies. 

All-rounder Shakib has 

been ruled out of the matches 

with a shin injury. 

“There is no suitable 

all-rounder at the moment, 

so we were in a dilemma 

whether to pick a bowler or a 

batsman,” said chief selector 

Akram Khan yesterday. 

“At the end of the day we 

went for Mominul because 

team management preferred 

a batsman. We have some 

part-time bowlers, hopefully 

they will complete Shakib’s 

job as a bowler.” 

The first two one-dayers 

of the five-match series will 

be held in Khulna tomorrow 

and on December 2. 

BRASILIA — Brazil’s 2002 

World Cup-winning coach 

Luiz Felipe Scolari is to return 

to lead his country’s bid to win 

a sixth world title on home soil, 

a source close to the Brazilian 

Football Confederation (CBF) 

told reporters yesterday. 

The man known as Big 

Phil, who also led Portugal to 

a European championship and 

World Cup semifinal before a 

short, unsuccessful spell with 

Chelsea, would be officially 

named today to replace the 

sacked Mano Menezes, the 

source said. 

Carlos Alberto Parreira, 

who led Brazil to their fourth 

world title in 1994, would 

be named technical director, 

according to another source 

close to the federation. 

In his first stint as coach, 

Scolari took over with the 

team in disarray, turned around 

the situation and led them to 

an unexpected triumph against 

all odds in barely more than a 

year at the helm, resisting public 

demand for him to pick an 

ageing Romario. 

However, many feel that 

the 64-year-old, who declined 

an offer to continue after the 

2002 tournament, has lost his 

magic touch. 

In his most recent job, he 

quit Palmeiras in September 

after a dismal run left them 

near the bottom of the Brazilian 

championship. They did 

not recover and were later relegated. 

Scolari will have to cope 

bowled well in Galle too with 

the young seamers and they 

stood up again tonight. 

“It was nice to get the 

three big boys out (Dilshan, 

Sangakkara and Jayawardene) 

tonight but we know we are 

going to have to work for every 

one of those six wickets and 

it could take us until 5 o’clock 

(today).” 

SUPERB SPELLS 

The day began with superb 

spells by Southee (five for 62) 

and Boult (four for 42) as New 

Zealand took the home side’s 

final four wickets for 19 runs 

after they had resumed at 225 

for six. 

The stubborn Thilan Samaraweera 

top-scored with 

76 but he failed to add to his 

overnight total before being 

caught at second slip by Martin 

Guptill off Boult to give the 

left-armer his 100th first-class 

wicket. 

Boult also removed overnight 

batsman Suraj Randiv 

(39), lbw to an excellent inswinger, 

and claimed the final 

wicket when he had Rangana 

Herath (5) brilliantly caught in 

the gully by Kane Williamson. 

Southee weighed in with the 

wicket of Nuwan Kulasekara 

(6), caught at first slip by Ross 

Taylor, to record his first fivewicket 

haul of the series. 

That gave New Zealand a 

first-innings lead of 168 but 

when they slumped to 75 for 

five just after lunch, including 

the loss of three wickets in four 

balls, their dreams of levelling 

the series appeared on rocky 

ground. 

LONDON — Andy Flower 

is handing over responsibility 

for England’s one-day and 

Twenty20 sides, with Ashley 

Giles named as head coach by 

the England and Wales Cricket 

Board (ECB) yesterday. 

Flower will continue as 

England Team Director and 

will remain in charge of the 

Test team but will take a back 

seat in limited-overs cricket 

after five years at the helm. 

Giles, an England selector 

since 2008, will take charge of 

the side for the first time on the 

tour of India and New Zealand 

in January and February. 

“England cricket has enjoyed 

considerable success 

over the past five years,” ECB 

managing director Hugh Morris 

said in a statement. 

“In order to build on that 

success we know that we need 

to look for ways to evolve and 

it has become clear that the 

Team Director role needs to 

They were rescued by Taylor, 

who followed up his first 

innings 142 with a patient 74 

from 95 balls, including only 

two fours, the first of which 

he struck to bring up his halfcentury. 

The captain found a willing 

ally in debutant Todd Astle, 

who made a resourceful 35 as 

the pair added 97 for the sixth 

wicket. “There were some jitters 

straight after lunch,” said 

Hesson. “It was important not 

to look too far ahead and Ross 

was extremely composed while 

Todd backed his own game to 

produce a crucial partnership 

for us.” 

Herath was again the most 

successful bowler for Sri 

Lanka and finished with three 

for 67 to give him nine wickets 

in the match and 20 in the two- 

Test series. 

Sri Lanka were left with an 

awkward period to negotiate 

before bad light set in and in 

that time Southee (two for 19) 

and Bracewell (two for five) 

created havoc. 

Southee removed Paranivitana 

first ball, lbw to a swinging 

delivery, and had Dilshan 

driving airily and edging to 

wicketkeeper Kruger van Wyk. 

Then Bracewell got in on the 

act as Sangakkara played on 

before Jayawardene pushed 

tamely at another Bracewell 

delivery to edge to Van Wyk. 

Samaraweera was unbeaten 

on one at the close with Angelo 

Mathews also on one and 

Sri Lanka needing a miracle 

to prevent a New Zealand victory. 

change if we are to ensure we 

are utilising the role as effectively 

as possible. 

“Bringing in a Head Coach 

for the ODI and T20 formats 

allows the Team Director 

more time to plan for forthcoming 

series and tournaments 

and also have a more 

realistic and sustainable work 

life balance.” 

Flower, 44, said part of the 

reason for the change was to 

spend more time with his family, 

having been present at virtually 

every England Test and 

one-day match since taking 

the role. 

He is currently in India 

where England are level with 

their hosts at 1-1 after two 

matches of a four-Test series. 

“I’m very excited by these 

changes and very much looking 

forward to working with 

Ashley Giles as we look to 

build on the success England 

cricket has had in the last few 

SCOREBOARD 

New Zealand 1st innings ........ 412 

Sri Lanka 1st innings 

(overnight 225 for six): 

T Samaraweera c Guptill b Boult 76 

S Randiv lbw Boult .................... 39 

N Kulasekara c Taylor b Southee . 6 

R Herath c Williamson b Boult .... 5 

S Eranga (not out) ........................ 3 

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

Total: (94 overs) ...................... 244 

Fall of wkts: 1-7, 2-7, 3-12, 4-102, 

5-103, 6-128, 7-225, 8-232, 9-240. 

Bowling: Southee 22-4-62-5 (nb-1); 

Boult 21-7-42-4 (nb-2, w-1); Patel 

22-3-47-1; Astle 13-2-41-0; 

Bracewell 13-1-44-0; Williamson 

3-1-5-0. 

New Zealand 2nd innings 

M Guptill c Dilshan b Eranga .... 11 

B McCullum st P 

Jayawardene b Herath ................ 35 

K Williamson c Paranavitana 

b Kulasekara ............................... 18 

R Taylor run out ......................... 74 

D Flynn lbw Kulasekara .............. 0 

K van Wyk c Paranavitana 

b Herath ..................... 0 

T Astle c Dilshan b Randiv ........ 35 

D Bracewell c Kulasekara 

b Herath ................... 1 

T Southee (not out) ...................... 8 

J Patel st P Jayawardene b Randiv 0 

T Boult (not out) .......................... 6 

Extras: (lb-4, nb-2) ...................... 6 

Total: (9 wkts decl; 54 overs) .. 194 

Fall of wkts: 1-32, 2-56, 3-74, 4-74, 

5-75, 6-172, 7-177, 8-180, 9-182. 

Bowling: Kulasekara 12-2-47-2; 

Eranga 10-1-39-1 (nb-1); Herath 

21-3-67-3; Randiv 11-1-37-2 (nb-1). 

Sri Lanka 2nd innings 

T Paranavitana lbw Southee ......... 0 

T Dilshan c Van Wyk b Southee 14 

K Sangakkara b Bracewell ......... 16 

M Jayawardene c 

Van Wyk b Bracewell ................... 5 

T Samaraweera (not out) .............. 1 

A Mathews (not out) .................... 1 

Extras: (b-4, lb-6) ...................... 10 

Total: (4 wkts; 15.4 overs) ......... 47 

Fall of wkts: 1-0, 2-35, 3-41, 4-46. 

Bowling: Southee 6-0-19-2; Boult 

5-2-12-0; Bracewell 4-3-5-2; Patel 

0.4-0-1-0. 

Andy Flower replaced by Giles as 

England’s one-day head coach 

with huge pressure and enormous 

expectations from his 

190 million compatriots. 

Brazil’s vast and fickle 

army of supporters always 

expect them to win the World 

Cup and the pressure will be 

even greater as the country 

hosts the event. 

Their failure to win on 

home soil in 1950, when Uruguay 

beat them in the decisive 

match before a 200,000 crowd 

at the Maracana, still rankles 

and the members of that team 

found themselves shunned for 

years afterwards. 

“Pressure will be great at 

the World Cup and that’s understandable, 

and we need 

someone who can cope with 

that,” CBF president Jose 

Maria Marin told reporters at 

an event in Sao Paulo. 

“We need everyone to get 

behind the new coach,” he 

said, adding that the official 

announcement would be made 

today. 

“We did a thorough evaluation 

and what we need is 

someone with the right skills, 

dedication and experience. I 

am absolutely certain that the 

fans will be happy with our 

choice,” added Marin. 

SANCHEZ QUITS 

This time, Scolari will inherit 

a team which has been 

steadily taking shape under 

Menezes but with the CBF in 

a state of turmoil following his 

predecessor’s shock dismissal 

last Friday. 

While Marin was talking 

to reporters, national teams 

director Andres Sanchez, who 

publicly opposed the decision 

to fire Menezes, quit his post. 

Marin had previously said 

Menezes’ replacement would 

be named in January but was 

forced to backtrack by the 

embarrassing prospect of going 

into tomorrow’s Confederations 

Cup draw without a 

coach. 

“This shows that there is no 

crisis, that everything is under 

control,” said the 80-year-old 

Marin, who took over the CBF 

in March after Ricardo Teixeira 

quit citing health problems 

and amid allegations of corruption. 

Commentators were baffled 

as to why Menezes, who had 

been painstakingly rebuilding 

the Brazil team since the 2010 

World Cup, was sacked just as 

his side appeared to be finding 

their rhythm and showing 

promise. 

Menezes admitted that 

years,” Flower said in a statement. 

“The changes in my role 

will provide me with new challenges 

and the time to allow 

me to focus on areas that are 

important if England cricket is 

to continually improve. 

“The change in role will 

also allow me to thoroughly 

plan and prepare for each of 

our international series whilst 

spending the right amount of 

time at home with my young 

family.” 

Giles, a member of the 

2005 Ashes-winning side, 

said: “I am delighted to have 

been appointed England ODI 

and T20 head coach and to be 

given an opportunity to coach 

at international level. 

“I have worked closely 

with Andy in recent years as 

a selector and am looking forward 

to continuing to work 

together and to build on the 

progress that has been made.” 

Brazil turn to old favourite Scolari: source 

Brazil had fallen behind world 

and European champions 

Spain but the attacking combination 

of Oscar, Neymar and a 

revitalised Kaka had begun to 

make them look like a worldclass 

team again. 

Scolari’s challengers for 

the job were Abel Braga, 

coach of Brazilian champions 

Fluminense, Tite, who led 

Corinthians to the Libertadores 

Cup title this year, and 

Muricy Ramalho of Santos. 

Former Barcelona coach Pep 

Guardiola has also been touted 

as Brazil’s first foreign coach. 

The choice quickly divided 

opinions. 

“I don’t think a coach who 

led a team to the second division 

deserves to be coach of 

the national team,” Brazil’s 

1970 World Cup captain Carlos 

Alberto Torres said at the 

Soccerex conference in Rio de 

Janeiro. 

“It’s a matter of timing. At 

the moment, the names would 

be Muricy (Ramalho), Tite 

and, especially, Abel Braga, 

coach of the Brazilian champions.” 

However, Zico, who played 

in three World Cups, approved 

the choice of Scolari and Parreira. 

“It’s a fantastic pair for the 

national team, who know Brazilian 

football inside out,” he 

said. “They are both top level 

and helped Brazil win World 

Cups. The team is in good 

hands.” — Reuters

Dr Ibrahim bin Ahmed al Kindi, 

Chief Executive Officer 

Fahmi bin Khalid al Harthy, 

Editor-in-Chief 

20 

PANORAMA 



TREES decorated with lights are reflected in a puddle as people walk along the 

Unter den Linden promenade in Berlin yesterday. — Reuters 

A MAN takes a picture of a giant “Kuratas” robot at an exhibition 

in Tokyo yesterday. The four-meter-high, limited edition, madeto-order 

robot is controlled through a pilot in its cockpit, or 

via a smartphone. The four-tonne (4,000 kg) “Kuratas” can be 

customised in 16 different colours, and is armed with a futuristic 

weapons system, including a multi-rocket launcher that fires 

plastic rockets filled with compressed water. — Reuters 

A GIRL poses for a photograph at a commercial area of downtown 

Shanghai yesterday. China is mulling changes to its one-child 

policy, a former family planning official said, with government 

advisory bodies drafting proposals in the face of a rapidly ageing 

society in the world's most populous nation. — Reuters 

STUDENTS 

play basketball 

beside a 

leaning tower 

at school 

playground in 

Xi’an, Shaanxi 

province. The 

Wanshousi 

tower, located 

at a middle 

school 

playground, 

was built 

during 

Ming Dynasty 

(1368-1644). It 

has been tilting 

since the 1960s, 

and is now 

supported by 

steel frames, 

local media 

reported. 

— Reuters 

A RED panda stands on a tree trunk housed in the same 

enclosure as two giant pandas during the official opening at the 

River Safari in Singapore. A pair of Red Pandas and two giant 

pandas, aged four and five-years old and on loan from China 

for 10 years to the Wildlife Reserve Singapore (WRS) 

will make their public appearance today. — AFP 

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birds fly above 

a man rowing 

a boat on the 

Yamuna river 

in the old 

quarters of Delhi 

yesterday. 

— Reuters 

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