Crude at $45 may cut deficit

TUESDAY | DECEMBER 13, 2016 | RABEE AL AWWAL 13, 1438 AH VOL. 36 NO. 29 | PAGES 28 | BAISAS 200 

Editor-in-Chief 

ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI 

Oman Establishment for Press, Publication and Advertising 

PO Box 974, Postal Code 100, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman 

www.omanobserver.om 

editor@omanobserver.om 

DEADLINE FOR OMAN RAIL CONSULTANCY BIDS EXTENDED P13 AL FAISAL TAKES GCC ROOKIE CLASS LEAD P24 PORTUGUESE-ERA BELLS ADORN MAHARASHTRA TEMPLES P26 

HM HOSTS DINNER: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos, the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, on Monday 

evening hosted a dinner party on the occasion of the Armed Forces Day at Hisn Al Shomoukh in the Wilayat of Manah. SEE P4 

OMAN 

Oman Air cancels 

flight to Chennai 

MUSCAT: Several international flights 

have either been cancelled, delayed or 

diverted due to severe winds blowing 

across the south Indian city of Chennai. 

Oman Air said on Monday that Flight 

WY253 MCT-MAA on December 12 

to Chennai was cancelled due to bad 

weather. 

REPORT ON P3 

ASIA 

China airs concern 

over Trump remark 

BEIJING: China expressed “serious 

concern” on Monday after US Presidentelect 

Donald Trump said the United 

States did not necessarily have to stick 

to its long-held stance that Taiwan is 

part of “one China”, calling it the basis for 

relations. 

REPORT ON P7 

INSIDESTORIES 

TURKEY DETAINS 235 OVER 

KURDISH MILITANT LINKS 

P6 

Crude at $45 

may cut deficit 

SAMUEL KUTTY 

MUSCAT 

Dec. 12: The rebound in price coupled 

with the projected average $45 a barrel 

of oil is expected to contain Oman’s 

budget deficit in the coming years. 

Currently Oman crude is hovering 

above $54 per barrel and is expected 

to sustain the uptrend following last 

week’s production cut agreement. 

According to sources, the draft 

budget for 2017 has set average oil price 

at $45 without any additional revenues 

next year. 

Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME) 

on Monday said that Oman oil price 

(February delivery) closed at $54.80, 

up $2.62 over Friday’s closing price of 

$52.18. Monday’s closing price is also 

the highest for Oman crude this year. 

The average price of Oman oil 

(December delivery) stood at $49.18, 

$5.78 per barrel higher than November 

delivery. 

“A spending cut of five per cent, in 

all likelihood, will be included”, said the 

source. 

Minister Responsible for Financial 

Affairs Darwish bin Ismaeel al Balushi 

last week had a closed door meeting 

with Majlis Ash’shura members on the 

2017 general budget. 

Experts are of the opinion that 

the rise in the oil price will help the 

Sultanate reduce its dependence on 

international borrowing. 

According to Lo’ai Bataineh, Chief 

Investment Officer at Oman Arab Bank, 

$45 per barrel per oil calculation is fair. 

“I believe $45 per barrel oil will be 

a good rate to be considered subject to 

trimming certain expenditures which 

are not related to development and will 

not have negative impact”, he said. 

The reliance on international 

financing has been a big shift for Oman. 

Now with improved oil price 

and ongoing reforms the country is 

expected to post higher growth next 

year, said another analyst with a local 

bank. 

“With many large oil exploration 

and production projects put on hold 

worldwide, he said oil supply is not 

expected to increase sharply soon, 

while a rebound in demand will help 

balance oil markets”, he said. 

TURN TO P5 

Guterres sworn 

in as UN chief 

Antonio Guterres takes oath as new 

UN Secretary-General. 

NEW YORK: Former Portuguese 

prime minister Antonio Guterres was 

sworn in as the next secretary general 

of the United Nations on Monday 

becoming the ninth leader of the 

organisation. 

Guterres will officially take over the 

top post on January 1, 2017, for a term 

of five years from current UN chief 

Ban Ki-Moon, who was at the helm of 

the world body for the past decade. 

Taking the oath of office, Guterres 

committed himself to carrying out 

the functions of UN secretary general 

“with the interest of the United Nations 

only in view” and without accepting 

instructions “from any government or 

other authority.” 

“I am deeply honoured by the trust 

and confidence member states have 

placed in me,” Guterres said after 

being sworn in. 

— dpa 

EYE ON 

STAFF REPORTER 

MUSCAT 

INVESTMENTS 

India offers permanent 

residency for investors 

Dec. 12: India has launched a new scheme 

for grant of permanent residency status to 

foreign investors valid for ten years and 

extendable for another ten years. 

Apart from free entry and no 

restrictions on the duration of stay, 

foreign investors are allowed to purchase 

one residential property in India for 

residential purposes. 

The spouses and dependents of 

investors will be allowed to work or study 

in India. The only requirement is to invest 

Rs 100 million (RO 571,000) within 

18 months or Rs 250 million (RO 1.43 

million) in 36 months, and generate 20 

jobs for Indians every year. 

This was revealed by Indra Mani 

Pandey, Indian Ambassador to Oman, 

during a seminar organised at the Indian 

Embassy. The ‘Invest in India’ seminar 

highlighted the attractive investment 

opportunities in India. 

Three presentations on ‘Investment 

opportunities in India’, ‘India’s 

attractiveness as an investment 

destination’ and ‘India’s taxation 

policies and ease of doing Business in 

India’, showcased to over 250 Omani 

Apart from free entry and no 

restrictions on the duration 

of stay, foreign investors 

are allowed to purchase one 

residential property in India 

for residential purposes. 

businessmen, government officials and 

others, the immense opportunities for 

investment available in India. 

Sayyid Khalid al Busaidy, Chairman, 

Al Nab’a Group, shared his experiences 

on how business opportunities offered by 

India has benefited Oman. 

The seminar was attended by Ahmed 

bin Hassan al Dheeb, Under-Secretary, 

Ministry of Commerce and Industry; 

Abdulsalam bin Mohammed al Murshidi, 

Executive President, State General 

Reserve Fund (SGRF); Sulaiman al Rahbi, 

Deputy Secretary General, Supreme 

Council of Planning; and Redha Juma al 

Saleh, vice chairman, Oman Chamber of 

Commerce and Industry (OCCI). 

INDIA AND INDONESIA AGREE 

TO BOOST RELATIONS 

RULING PARTY, OPPOSITION CLAIM 

VICTORY IN MACEDONIA POLL 

WEATHER TODAY 

MUSCAT 

MAX: 24 0 C 

MIN: 17 0 C 

PRAYER TIMINGS 

FAJR: 05:17 

DHUHR: 12:00 

ASR: 03:01 

MAGHRIB: 17:21 

ISHA: 18:51 

SALALAH 

MAX: 30 0 C 

MIN: 21 0 C 

SUNRISE 06.38 

P8 

P11 

NIZWA 

MAX: 26 0 C 

MIN: 11 0 C 

Ambulance call-out no longer free 

MAI AL ABRIA 

MUSCAT 

Dec. 12: If you’re treated by an 

ambulance paramedic and/or 

transported in an ambulance during 

a medical emergency, there is a charge 

you have to pay — even if someone 

else calls the ambulance for you. Royal 

Oman Police (ROP) has hitherto been 

providing this service for free, but has 

lately incorporated these charges into 

the motor vehicle insurance policy. 

Chapter 4 of the Unified Insurance 

Policy issued by the Capital Market 

Authority explains that in the event of a 

vehicle accident, “The insurer shall bear 

the cost of medical emergency services 

provided by ambulance crews working 

for the Public Authority for Civil 

Defence and Ambulance (PACDA) at 

fixed amount of RO 400 for any single 

accident.” 

The ROP however insists that the 

article has been an integral part of 

motor vehicle insurance policies from 

the outset, but was put into effect only 

recently. 

“In 2016, the government activated 

the article to reduce the cost of 

emergency medical services,” said 

an ROP official. “Emergency health 

services provide medical attention for 

illnesses or injuries requiring immediate 

treatment. Typical examples of injuries 

that may require emergency health 

services include those resulting from 

accidents, heart attacks or other sudden 

illnesses,” he explained. 

A motorcycle rider who had been 

ferried to hospital by ambulance 

following a road mishap told the 

Observer that he had to fork out more 

than RO 300 in expenses when it was 

discovered that his bike was uninsured. 

Where an ambulance is called out 

for a domestic medical emergency, the 

ambulance staff evaluate the gravity of 

the emergency by telephone en route 

to the location. If the case is indeed a 

full-blown emergency, the ambulance 

immediately proceeds to collect and 

transfer the patient to hospital for free 

on humanitarian grounds. 

However, if the case is not viewed 

as serious, the patient is encouraged to 

proceed to the nearest hospital on their 

own. 

A Turkish flag is projected on 

the historical Galata Tower in 

a tribute to the victims of 

Saturday’s blasts, in Istanbul, 

Turkey. — Reuters 

SULTANATE CONDEMNS 

ATTACKS IN EGYPT 

AND TURKEY 

MUSCAT: The Ministry of Foreign 

Affairs has strongly condemned 

the terrorist attacks which 

occurred at the St Mark’s Coptic 

Orthodox Cathedral church in 

Cairo and resulted in several 

deaths and injuries. 

The ministry said in a statement 

that the Sultanate offers deep 

condolences to the families of 

the victims and confirmed its 

solidarity with the sisterly Egypt 

in fight against terrorism. 

The Sultanate also condemned 

the two terrorist attacks which 

occurred in Istanbul and resulted 

in several deaths and injuries. 

— ONA

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2 

OMANDAILYOBSERVER 

TUESDAY l DECEMBER 13 l 2016 

FEMALE RECRUITS START POLICE TRAINING 

Oman at Summit of Women 

Speakers of Parliament 

The Sultan Qaboos Academy for Police Sciences (SQAPS ) has received a new batch of female recruits. Speaking at a 

ceremony held to celebrate the beginning of the training programme, Brigadier Salim bin Rashid al Alawi, Commander of 

SQAPS, congratulated the new recruits on joining the Royal Oman Police and getting the honour of serving the nation urging 

them to stick to perseverance and patience during the training period. 

MUSCAT: Oman State Council 

delegation joined nearly 50 

women speakers from global 

parliamentarians at a twoday 

summit titled ‘Summit of 

Women Speakers of Parliament’ 

at the Emirates Palace in Abu 

Dhabi. 

The summit is held under the 

auspices of HH Sheikha Fatima 

bint Mubarak, Chairwoman 

of the General Women’s 

Union, GWU, and Supreme 

Chairwoman of the Family 

Development Foundation, 

and President of the Supreme 

Council for Motherhood and 

Childhood. 

The first of its kind in history 

of global parliamentary work to be held in Middle East region, 

this Summit aims to provide women in decision-making 

positions of parliament a regular forum and an opportunity 

to exchange ideas and experiences, which are of interest to 

their national and international agendas. 

The event is hosted by the Federal National Council of the 

UAE and the Inter Parliamentary Union. The summit, which 

involves two days of forward-looking panels and debates in 

collaboration with the Inter-Parliamentary Union is themed: 

CBO says keep 

away from 

prize calls 


MUSCAT 

Dec. 12: The Central Bank 

of Oman (CBO) has warned 

citizens and residents in 

the Sultanate to keep away 

from fraud calls on fake 

cash prizes. The bank in a 

statement said it has been 

receiving a number of 

complaints from people in 

this regard. 

The bank said that the 

fraudsters generally pose 

as employees of certain 

telecom companies. 

The bank said these 

fraudsters generally seek 

some personal information, 

such as bank account 

numbers, debit and credit 

card numbers, PIN details 

and other confidential 

details. CBO has warned 

citizens and residents to 

be cautious and stay away 

from such calls as they have 

dubious intentions. 

Customers of telecom 

companies point out that 

they keep getting messages 

such as ‘You have won free 

tickets, free credit and other 

sops.’ 

‘United for Shaping the Future’. 

The delegation comprises 

of four women members, led 

by Dr Suad bint Mohammed 

al Lawati, State Council Vice- 

Chairperson. It includes 

members Naashiah al Kharousi 

and Rahma al Mashrafi from 

State Council and Naama Jamil 

al Busaidi, member of Majlis 

Ash’shura. 

Sheikha Fatima said, “Being 

convened under the overall 

theme United for Shaping the 

Future, the summit holds a 

significant value for the UAE, 

which represents a unique 

model of unit.” She added, “We 

should unite and close our 

ranks to use the huge opportunities made available by human, 

cultural and technological achievements in all spheres, and 

develop solutions to remove obstacles blocking development 

in several countries.” 

Speakers will include Sheikh Saif bin Zayed, Deputy 

Prime Minister and Minister of Interior; Ban Ki-Moon, UN 

Secretary-General; Federica Mogherini, Vice-President of 

the European Commission; and Dr Ahmed al Tayeb, Grand 

Imam of Al Azhar. 

ORSA campaign distributes 

600 child car safety seats 


MUSCAT 

Dec. 12: Oman Road Safety Association (ORSA) in 

partnership with Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), 

Al Khonji Group, and volunteering Groups from the Sultan 

Qaboos University Hospital, Oman Women Association in Al 

Seeb and the Scouts has distributed around 30 child restraints 

to the newborns and raised awareness of more than 100 visitors 

to the hospital in the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital as 

part of #save_your_child campaign. Shaima al Hammadi was 

present at the occasion and helped in distributing the seats 

and talking to the mothers of the newborns. 

ORSA has launched the pilot phase of a nationwide 

programme to distribute car seats for young children and 

infants, and to raise awareness on important road safety issues 

including correctly using seat belts and child restraints in all 

vehicles to safeguard passengers. The nationwide rollout of the 

#save_your_child campaign was launch in October this year. 

More than 600 child restraints to be distributed during the 

awareness campaign and will be completed in phases through 

government hospitals in Muscat and Batinah, Dakhiliyah, 

Sharqiyah, Dhofar, Musandam and other locations in 2016 

and 2017.

insideoman 

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Oman Air 

cancels flight 

to Chennai 

due to cyclone 

SAMUEL KUTTY 

MUSCAT 

Dec. 12: Several 

international flights have 

either been cancelled, 

delayed or diverted due to 

severe winds blowing across 

the south Indian city of 

Chennai. Oman Air said on 

Monday that Flight WY253 

MCT-MAA on December 

12 to Chennai was cancelled 

due to bad weather. 

“We apologise for the 

inconvenience caused”, the 

airline tweeted on its official 

twitter account. 

According to 

information, twenty flights 

have been diverted, nine 

were delayed and five 

were cancelled. Sri Lankan 

Airlines said all its Chennaibound 

flights were cancelled 

till Tuesday morning after 

authorities issued a red alert 

due to severe cyclonic storm 

“Vardah” which made a 

landfall in Tamil Nadu. 

Some airlines said they 

were offering change fee 

for those who wish to 

reschedule or edit their 

itinerary. 

Many incoming flights 

were diverted to nearby 

cities like Bengaluru or 

Coimbatore, Chennai 

Airport Director Deepak 

Shastri was quoted as saying. 

“The runway is open and 

is not flooded,” he added.

insideoman 

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4 



HM hosts dinner for Armed Forces 

MANAH: His Majesty Sultan Qaboos, the Supreme Commander of 

the Armed Forces, on Monday evening hosted a dinner party on the 

occasion of the Armed Forces Day at Hisn Al Shomoukh in the Wilayat 

of Manah. 

The event was attended by Their Highnesses, Their Excellencies, 

commanders of the Sultan’s Armed Forces and Royal Oman Police. 

The ceremony comes as honouring from His Majesty Sultan Qaboos, 

the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, to his courageous 

armed forces for performing its great national and sacred duty in 

safeguarding the nation and protecting its security and achievements 

which resulted, by virtue of Allah Almighty, in the Sultanate enjoying 

peace and stability. 

— ONA 

— PICTURES BY MOHAMMED MUSTAFA AND SALIM AL HASHLY

QATAR EMBASSY MARKS NATIONAL DAY 

oman/latenews 

oman 


TUESDAY l DECEMBER 13 l 2016 5 

Oman, Saudi Arabia explore 

investment opportunities 

MUSCAT: Qatar Embassy in Oman hosted a reception at Grand Hyatt on Sunday evening to mark the Qatar National Day. The 

reception was attended by ministers, officials, as well as heads of diplomatic missions accredited to the Sultanate. — ONA 

Crude at $45 may cut deficit 

FROM PAGE 1 

Oman’s oil production averaged one 

million barrels per day for the first time 

in history in 2016. 

The new agreement calls for a 4.5- 

per cent reduction in Oman’s total oil 

output, valued at almost RO 900 million, 

and will begin in January 2017. 

“The Omani economy which has 

been experiencing challenges of low oil 

prices, has undertaken policy measures 

to expedite economic diversification 

and to augment non-oil revenues,” the 

analyst said. 

However, the deficit has come in 

higher than projected, totalling RO 4.4 

billion in the first nine months. 

The Ninth-Five-Year Plan envisages 

average oil production to be 990,000 

barrels a day. 

Now with the new agreement 

reached among non-Opec countries, 

Oman will cut oil production by 45,000 

barrels a day. 

While plan targets growth of not less 

than 3 per cent per annum, the same as 

in the Eighth-Five-Year Plan, it projects 

an average annual deficit of RO 2.96 

billion. As a percentage of total revenue, 

the deficit is expected gradually to 

reduce from 38 per cent in 2016 to 25 

per cent in 2020. 

RIYADH: As part of the Invest in 

Oman campaign, a delegation 

from the Public Authority for 

Investment Promotion and Export 

Development (Ithraa) visited the 

Riyadh Chamber of Commerce 

and Industry (RCCI) and reviewed 

investment opportunities available 

in the Sultanate with a view to 

arriving at strategic agreements 

with Saudi companies. 

His Highness Sayyid Faisal bin 

Turki al Said, Director-General of 

Ithraa, led the Omani side at a 

meeting with the Saudi delegation 

led by engineer Mansour bin 

Abdullah al Shathri, Vice-Chairman 

of the Board of Riyadh Chamber of 

Commerce and Industry (RCCI). 

The meeting discussed ways of 

finding a mechanism to facilitate 

trade cooperation between Omani 

and Saudi investors as well as 

promoting the Sultanate as a 

promising market and an attractive 

investment hub. — ONA 

Kenya giving 

‘serious thought’ 

to quitting ICC 

NAIROBI: Kenyan President Uhuru 

Kenyatta (pictured) said on Monday 

his country was seriously thinking of 

quitting the International Criminal 

Court, after three other African 

nations moved to pull out of the 

tribunal. 

Kenya has been one of the most 

vocal critics of the court based in The 

Hague, which put Kenyatta and his 

Vice-President William Ruto on trial 

for orchestrating political violence 

that left over 1,200 dead after 2007 

elections. 

Charges were dropped against both 

leaders, with ICC chief prosecutor 

Fatou Bensouda blaming a relentless 

campaign of victim intimidation, but 

bitterness remains in Kenya where the 

battle against “imperialism” became 

a cornerstone of Kenyatta and Ruto’s 

successful 2013 election bid. 

“Our experience at the ICC 

demonstrated a glaring lack of 

impartiality in this institution,” 

Kenyatta said in a speech on Monday. 

“We have sought the changes 

that will align the ICC to respect for 

national sovereignty. Those changes 

have not been forthcoming. We will 

therefore need to give serious thought 

to our membership.” 

African nations have long felt 

they are unfairly targeted by the ICC. 

Currently nine out of the 10 ICC 

investigations are in African countries. 

The other is in Georgia. Numerous 

countries have failed in their duty to 

arrest Sudanese President Omar al 

Bashir, who was indicted by the ICC in 

2009 for alleged genocide, war crimes 

and crimes against humanity in the 

Darfur conflict. — AFP 

John Kelly, the Marine General 

to head US Homeland Security 

WASHINGTON: John Kelly, the 

retired Marine Corps general picked 

on Monday by Donald Trump to be 

Homeland Security Secretary, will take 

the lead in the new administration’s 

promised fight against extremists and 

illegal immigration. 

The third former general chosen for 

President-elect Trump’s cabinet, Kelly 

capped a 45-year military career as 

head of the US Southern Command, 

an assignment that immersed him in 

border security issues, migrant flows 

and counter-drug operations in the 

Caribbean and Central and South 

America. 

That experience — and his record 

running large organisations — will be 

useful if he is confirmed by Congress 

to take charge of the Department 

of Homeland Security, a sprawling 

bureaucracy responsible for border 

protection and internal security. 

With 240,000 civil servants, 

Homeland Security includes the Secret 

Service, the Coast Guard, immigration 

and customs enforcement, and the 

BEATING THE SOARING HEAT 

agency that protects airports. 

It also has an intelligence arm and an 

office dedicated to preventing nuclear 

terrorism. 

Those functions would make 

Kelly a pivotal figure in carrying out 

Trump’s election promises to build a 

wall on the Mexican border, deport 

undocumented immigrants and tighten 

legal immigration processes to screen 

out potential extremists. 

The blunt-talking Kelly is close to 

retired general James Mattis, Trump’s 

nominee for Secretary of Defence. 

Kelly served as Mattis’s top aide in the 

2003 assault on Baghdad that crushed 

Saddam Hussein’s army. 

He is also shaped by the experience 

of having his own son, also a Marine, 

die in battle. First Lieutenant Robert 

Michael Kelly was killed in action in 

Afghanistan in 2010. 

A native of Boston, Kelly, 66, enlisted 

in the Marines when he was 20, spent 

two years in an infantry company, and 

then left to go to university. 

After graduating he rejoined the 

Corps as a second lieutenant and rose 

steadily through a number of positions, 

including company and battalion 

commands. 

In the late 1990s, he was the Marine 

Corps commandant’s liaison to 

Congress, the first of two such stints 

that exposed him to the political giveand-take 

between the military and 

legislators. 

In 1999, he began a two-year stint 

as special assistant to the Supreme 

Allied Commander, Europe, in Mons, 

Belgium. — AFP 

Children leap into a tidal pool as temperatures soar at Camps Bay beach in Cape Town, South Africa, on Monday. — Reuters 

Gambia’s President to 

challenge election loss 

at Supreme Court 

President-elect Adama Barrow 

BANJUL: Gambia’s President Yahya 

Jammeh will challenge the results of a 

December 1 election at the Supreme 

Court, the ruling party said, raising 

the prospect that a shock opposition 

victory that was poised to end 22 years 

of autocratic rule will be overturned. 

Celebrations erupted across the 

tiny West African nation last week 

when Jammeh unexpectedly conceded 

defeat after the elections commission 

announced the victory of opposition 

candidate Adama Barrow. 

However, in a dramatic about-face 

that drew international condemnation, 

the mercurial former coup leader 

on Friday decried “serious and 

unacceptable abnormalities” and called 

for fresh polls. 

In a statement broadcast on 

state television late on Saturday, the 

Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation 

and Construction (APRC) said it was 

preparing a petition “against the flawed 

decision of the Independent Elections 

Commission”. 

The deadline for submitting a 

challenge to the court is Tuesday. 

There is no sitting Supreme Court 

in Gambia, though there is currently a 

chief justice, who is Nigerian. In order 

to hear Jammeh’s complaint, legal 

experts believe at least four other judges 

must be hired. 

Rights groups say Jammeh exerts 

strong influence over the court. 

Three chief justices served between 

President Yahya Jammeh 

2013 and 2015. The first, a Nigerian, was 

fired five weeks after his appointment 

then arrested and jailed. His Ghanaian 

successor lasted six months before his 

dismissal. 

Ali Nawaz Chowhan from Pakistan 

served for three months before abruptly 

leaving Gambia after acquitting the 

former navy chief in a treason case. He 

later told a Pakistani newspaper that he 

left because the decision displeased the 

government. 

The last two Gambian judges left the 

court a year and a half ago. 

“Either you do what Jammeh wants 

you to, or you lose your job or even go to 

jail,” said Bubacarr Drammeh, a former 

state prosecutor who fled into exile in 

the United States earlier this year. 

“The election results were correct, 

nothing will change that,” elections 

commission head Alieu Momarr Njai 

said on Sunday. “If it goes to court, we 

can prove every vote cast. The results 

are there for everyone to see.” 

Barrow, who has pledged to serve 

as a transitional leader and step down 

after three years, said on Saturday that 

Jammeh had no constitutional authority 

to reject the poll results. 

The residence in the capital Banjul 

where Barrow was staying on Sunday 

was surrounded by around 30 unarmed 

supporters who said they were 

providing security after the police and 

military declined to protect him. 

— Reuters

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6 



Rewarding for act of bravery 

US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter gives a medal of courage to 

Peshmerga officers during his visit at Erbil Airport, Iraq. 

SYRIAN ARMY IN ‘FINAL STAGES’ 

OF ALEPPO OFFENSIVE 

ON THE RUN: Rebels on brink of defeat in the city as army said to make advances 

ALEPPO/BEIRUT: The Syrian army 

and its allies are in the “final stages” 

of recapturing Aleppo after a sudden 

advance that has pushed rebels to the 

brink of collapse in a shrinking enclave, 

a Syrian general said on Monday. 

A Reuters journalist in the 

government-held zone said the 

bombardment of rebel areas of the city 

had continued non-stop overnight, and 

a civilian trapped there described the 

situation as resembling “Doomsday”. 

“The battle in eastern Aleppo 

should end quickly. They (rebels) don’t 

have much time. They either have to 

surrender or die,” Lieutenant General 

Zaid al Saleh, head of the government’s 

Aleppo security committee, told 

reporters in the recaptured Sheikh Saeed 

district of the city. 

Rebels withdrew from all districts 

on the east side of the Aleppo river after 

losing Sheikh Saeed in the south of their 

pocket in overnight fighting, the Syrian 

Observatory for Human Rights said. 

It meant their rapidly diminishing 

enclave had halved in only a few 

hours and Observatory director Rami 

Abdulrahman described the battle for 

Aleppo as having reached its end. 

“The situation is extremely difficult 

today,” said Zakaria Malahifji of the 

Fastaqim rebel group fighting in Aleppo. 

The rebels’ sudden retreat 

represented a “big collapse in terrorist 

morale”, a Syrian military source said. 

Syrian President Bashar al Assad, 

backed by Russia, is now close to taking 

back full control of Aleppo, which was 

Syria’s most populous city before the 

war and would be his greatest prize so 

far after nearly six years of conflict. 

The Russian Defence Ministry said 

that since the start of the Aleppo battle, 

more than 2,200 rebels had surrendered 

and 100,000 civilians had left areas of the 

city that were controlled by militants. 

“People run from one shelling to 

another to escape death and just to save 

their souls... It’s doomsday in Aleppo, yes 

Airbus in Iran to finalise deal 

TEHRAN: Airbus delegates have 

arrived in Tehran for talks aimed 

at finalising a deal to sell around 

100 planes, an Iranian official said 

on Monday. 

The representatives of the European 

aerospace giant arrived on Sunday just 

hours after national carrier Iran Air 

concluded a $16.6-billion deal with US 

firm Boeing to buy 80 planes. 

“An Airbus delegation has arrived in 

Tehran,” said Asghar Fakhrieh Kashan, 

Deputy Minister for Transport. 

“We have started negotiations 

and if there are no problems, we will 

sign the agreement within a week for 

the purchase of around 100 planes,” 

he said. 

Meanwhile, some officials in Iran 

reacted angrily to news of the deal with 

Boeing, which comes at a time when 

lawmakers in Washington have recently 

doomsday in Aleppo,” said Abu Amer 

Iqab, a former government employee in 

the Sukkari district in the heart of the 

rebel enclave. 

State television footage from 

Saliheen, one of the districts that had 

just fallen to the army, showed mounds 

of rubble and half-collapsed buildings, 

with bodies still lying on the ground 

and a few bewildered civilians carrying 

children or suitcases. 

While Aleppo’s fall would deal 

a stunning blow to rebels trying to 

remove Assad from power, he would 

Turkey detains 235 over Kurdish 

militant links after Istanbul blasts 

ISTANBUL/ANKARA: Turkey 

detained 235 people over alleged links to 

Kurdish fighters in nationwide raids on 

Monday, two days after twin bombings 

killed 44 people and wounded about 

150 outside an Istanbul soccer stadium. 

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu 

vowed those responsible for Saturday’s 

attacks, claimed by an offshoot of the 

PKK militant group, would be “wiped 

from this geography”. 

“Our people expect us to defeat and 

eliminate this terrorist organisation, 

which has attacked our nation for 

40 years,” Soylu said while paying 

a condolence visit to a riot police 

headquarters in Istanbul. 

“We want everyone to know that they 

will not get anywhere by hiding behind 

political parties, behind politicians, 

behind those media outlets protecting 

them,” Soylu said. 

Most of those killed in the bomb 

blasts were riot police. Funerals were 

held for a second day on Monday, the 

victims’ coffins draped in the Turkish 

Women react as they wait outside a government military police centre to visit their 

relatives, who were evacuated from the eastern districts of Aleppo and are being 

prepared to begin their military service, in Aleppo. — Reuters 

voted for renewed sanctions on the 

country. 

Iran says the renewal of sanctions, 

which President Barack Obama is 

expected to approve in the coming days, 

is a breach of the nuclear deal it signed 

with world powers last year. 

“60 trillion tomans: Iran’s gift to the 

US for violating the JCPOA (nuclear 

deal),” read Monday’s headline on the 

Javan newspaper. 

But Iran has been desperate to 

access new planes and parts after 

decades of economic isolation has left 

it with one of the world’s worst aviation 

safety records. 

Both Boeing and Airbus, which 

manufactures some of its parts in the 

United States, were granted special 

permission from the US Treasury in 

September to go ahead with deals in 

Iran. — AFP 

Interior minister vows revenge as mostly police officers killed in the blast 

flag. A cabinet meeting was postponed 

to enable government ministers to 

attend. 

The PKK, which took up arms 

against the Turkish state in 1984 and 

is fighting for Kurdish autonomy, is 

deemed a terrorist organisation by the 

United States and European Union, as 

BOOST TO TIES 

Relatives mourn in Diyarbakir, during the funeral ceremony of Velat Demiroglu, a 

taxi driver killed in twin bombings in Istanbul. — AFP 

well as by Turkey. Saturday’s attack was 

one of the deadliest claimed by Kurdish 

fighters for decades. 

Turkish warplanes carried out air 

strikes on PKK targets in northern Iraq, 

destroying a PKK headquarters and 

surrounding gun positions and shelters, 

an army statement said. — Reuters 

still be far from restoring control across 

Syria. Swathes of the country remain in 

rebel hands, and on Sunday IS retook 

Palmyra. 

Tens of thousands of civilians remain 

in rebel-held areas, hemmed in by everchanging 

front lines, pounded by air 

strikes and shelling, and without basic 

supplies, according to the Observatory, 

a British-based monitoring group. 

In the Sheikh Saeed district on 

Monday, an elderly couple stood 

lamenting their fate. 

“May every son return to his mother. 

I have suffered that loss. May other 

women not endure the same,” said the 

woman, her arms raised to the sky. “I 

have lost my three children. Two died 

in battle and the third is kidnapped,” she 

added, as an army officer attempted to 

calm her. 

Rebel groups in Aleppo received a 

US-Russian proposal on Sunday for a 

withdrawal of fighters and civilians from 

the city’s opposition areas, but Moscow 

said no agreement had been reached 

yet in talks in Geneva to end the crisis 

peacefully . 

The rebel official blamed Russia for 

the lack of progress in talks, saying it 

had no incentive to compromise while 

its ally Assad was gaining ground. “The 

Russians are being evasive. They are 

looking at the military situation. Now 

they are advancing,” he said. 

— Reuters 

Iranian Minister of Science, Mohammad Farhadi with French Minister of State for 

Higher Education and Research, Thierry Mandon in Tehran. — AFP 

EU sends 

aid plane 

for Mosul 

BRUSSELS: The European Union said 

it had sent a plane on Monday carrying 

aid for people in Mosul affected by the 

offensive to take the Iraqi city from the 

IS group. 

The aircraft carrying 40 tonnes of 

supplies landed in Erbil in northern 

Iraq and will be the first of several 

aircraft sent by the 28-nation bloc this 

week, it said. 

“These airlifts filled with urgently 

needed help are a tangible expression 

of European solidarity with the Iraqi 

people,” EU Aid Commissioner 

Christos Stylianides said. 

“The fighting continues to cause 

enormous suffering among the 

population in Iraq,” he added. 

The first plane carried 268 family 

tents capable of sheltering up to 1,400 

people, and 3,000 blankets as well 

as sleeping mats, maternity kits and 

hygiene supplies, the EU said. 

Iraqi forces launched the Mosul 

offensive on October 17 to drive 

out IS but progress has slowed in 

recent days. 

The UN says some 90,000 people 

have been displaced by the fighting. 

— AFP 

Bashir vows to crush 

opposition protests 

KHARTOUM: Sudanese President 

Omar al Bashir vowed on Monday to 

brutally crush anti-regime protests, 

warning the authorities will crack 

down on demonstrators as they did 

in 2013 when dozens were killed 

during clashes. 

Bashir’s warning came as 

opposition activists issued a new call 

to hold a two-day nationwide strike 

next week against a government 

decision to cut fuel subsidies that 

has led to rising prices for goods 

including medicines. 

“In the past few days we have 

heard some people, who are hiding 

behind their keyboards, calling for 

the overthrow of the regime,” Bashir 

told supporters gathered in the 

eastern town of Kasala. 

“We want to tell them that if 

you want to overthrow the regime, 

then face us directly on the streets. I 

challenge you to come out onto the 

streets. 

“But we know you will not come 

because you know what happened 

in the past... This regime will not 

be overthrown by keyboards and 

WhatsApp,” Bashir said in a speech 

broadcast live on state television. 

In 2013, dozens of people were 

killed in a government crackdown 

on street protests against to a similar 

round of subsidy cuts. 

Rights groups say about 200 lives 

were lost in that crackdown, while 

the government puts the death toll at 

less than 100. 

In recent weeks, groups of people 

have staged sporadic demonstrations 

against the latest cuts, but they were 

swiftly dispersed by anti-riot police. 

Opposition activists have now 

taken to social media networks like 

Facebook and Twitter as well as 

WhatsApp messenger to call for a 

new nationwide “sit-at-home” strike 

on December 19 and 20, urging 

the people to stage street protests 

in Khartoum and other cities to 

“overthrow the regime”. 

A similar three-day strike 

in late November saw a mixed 

response, with some private sector 

employees abstaining from work but 

government employees reporting for 

duty. 

Sudan’s powerful National 

Intelligence and Security Service, or 

NISS, has already arrested several 

opposition leaders and activists in a 

bid to prevent protests. 

— AFP 

SISI: BOMBER BEHIND 

CHURCH ATTACK, 

FOUR CAPTURED 

CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel 

Fattah al Sisi said on Monday that a 

bomber carried out an attack that killed 

24 people at Cairo’s main cathedral and 

security forces had arrested three men 

and a woman in connection with the 

bombing. 

Speaking at a state funeral 

for the victims, Sisi identified the 

suicide bomber as 22-year-old Shafik 

Mahmoud Mohamed Mostafa. He said 

security forces were seeking another 

two fugitives believed to be involved in 

the attack. 

He called for tighter laws to help 

deter future attacks. 

Meanwhile, mourners packed an 

Egyptian church on Monday for the 

funeral of 24 people killed in a bomb 

attack at Cairo’s Coptic cathedral and 

angry survivors said police had failed to 

protect the Christian minority. 

Tearful relatives gathered at the 

Virgin Mary and St Athanasius Church 

in Cairo where Coptic Pope Tawadros 

II prayed over the wooden coffins of 

victims of Sunday’s bombing, one of the 

deadliest to target Christians in recent 

memory. 

On the walls hung banners bearing 

the names of the dead, many of them 

women. 

Speaking after the funeral service, 

during which he shed tears, Pope 

Tawadros called the dead martyrs and 

sought to heal any friction caused by the 

attack, saying it “is not just a disaster for 

the church but a disaster for the whole 

nation.” He also condemned attacks 

against the security forces.“Those who 

commit acts such as this do not belong 

to Egypt at all, even if they are on its 

land,” he said. 

At least 24 people died and 49 were 

wounded when a bomb exploded in a 

chapel adjoining St Mark’s Cathedral, 

Cairo’s largest church and seat of 

the Coptic papacy, where security is 

normally tight. 

The blast was caused by a bomb 

containing at least 12 kg of TNT 

detonated on a side of the church used 

by women. 

The chapel’s floor was covered 

in debris from shattered windows, 

its wooden pews blasted apart, its 

pillars blackened. Here and there lay 

abandoned shoes and patches of blood. 

Dazed church officials wondered 

around in their black robes. 

Several hundred people gathered 

in the Madinat Nasr area furious at 

being denied entry to the funeral 

Several hundred people 

gathered in the Madinat 

Nasr area furious at 

being denied entry to 

the funeral ceremony, 

where admittance was 

by invitation only. Police, 

concerned over mounting 

anger, detained at 

least 25 youths 

ceremony, where admittance was by 

invitation only. Security sources said 

police, concerned over mounting anger, 

detained at least 25 youths. 

“They beat them up because they 

were chanting. Now they switched off 

their phones and we can’t find them,” 

said Atef Kamel, whose brother and 

cousin were taken away by police. 

“They came to attend the funeral, so 

they got arrested... Isn’t it enough what 

has already happened to us?” 

There was also anger at hospitals 

treating the wounded. 

Five survivors at Dar al Shefa 

Hospital said police did not conduct 

the usual checks as the cathedral was 

particularly busy for Sunday’s mass, 

which took place on a public holiday 

marking the Prophet Mohammad’s 

birthday, just weeks before Christmas. 

“There were large numbers so people 

entered without being searched,” said 

Mina Francis, who was at the mass with 

his mother, who was killed. 

President Abdel Fattah al Sisi, who 

announced three days of mourning and 

promised justice, is to attend a public 

ceremony later on Monday. 

Sisi is fighting battles on several 

fronts. His economic reforms have 

angered the poor, a crackdown on the 

Brotherhood has seen thousands jailed 

and an insurgency rages in Northern 

Sinai, led by IS’s Egyptian branch. 

The group has also claimed attacks 

in Cairo and urged its supporters to 

launch attacks around the world as it 

goes on the defensive in its Iraqi and 

Syrian strongholds. 

There was no immediate claim of 

responsibility, but exiled Brotherhood 

officials and other fighter groups 

condemned the church attack. 

— Reuters

IN BRIEF 

China fighter jet 

claim ‘untrue’: Japan 

TOKYO: Japan has lashed out at China 

over claims its fighter jets obstructed 

Beijing’s military aircraft, saying the 

allegation was “clearly untrue”. 

China’s defence ministry said two 

Japanese F-15s launched “decoy flares” 

in international airspace over the East 

China Sea on Saturday, actions it called 

“dangerous and unprofessional”. 

Tokyo denied anything was fired 

during the encounter, and said it had 

protested to Beijing over the allegation. 

“It is extremely regrettable that the 

Chinese defence ministry one-sidedly 

made a clearly untrue announcement,” 

Japan’s top government spokesman 

Yoshihide Suga told reporters on 

Sunday. — AFP 

School bomb kills 

nine-year-old 

PESHAWAR: A nine-year-old girl was 

killed and three other children were 

wounded on Monday when a bomb 

exploded near their school gate in a 

tribal region in northwestern Pakistan. 

The bombing took place outside 

a village school in the tense North 

Waziristan region where the Pakistani 

military has been battling Taliban 

militants since June 2014. 

“A nine-year-old girl was killed and 

three other children between eight 

to 10 years old were wounded when 

explosives planted close to their school 

gate exploded when they opened it,” a 

local government official said. 

A local security official also confirmed 

the blast. — AFP 

Pakistani carrier 

grounds ATR planes 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s national carrier 

on Monday grounded its entire fleet of 

ATR planes, in the wake of a fatal crash 

last week that killed all 48 people on 

board, officials said. 

“It has been decided to keep all 

10 ATR aircraft grounded till they are 

cleared after thorough examination,” 

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) 

spokesman Danyal Gilani said in a 

statement. 

The decision to ground the ATR fleet 

was prompted by the Civil Aviation 

Authority (CAA) after another ATR-42 

aeroplane encountered technical issues 

at take-off on Sunday night. 

The flight was cancelled. The airline 

denied media reports suggesting that 

one of the engines caught fire. — dpa 

Seoul bans poultry 

transportation 

SEOUL: South Korea’s agriculture 

ministry said on Monday it will issue 

a temporary nationwide ban on the 

transportation of poultry to contain the 

spread of bird flu, with 43 outbreaks 

recorded in the country. 

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and 

Rural Affairs said in a statement that the 

movement control order will be effective 

for 48 hours, from 1500 GMT on Monday 

or midnight in Seoul. 

Since the first outbreak of a severe 

strain of bird flu known as H5N6 was 

reported on November 18, South Korea 

ramped up quarantine measures to stop 

a wider spread of the virus, including 

issuing a 48-hour nationwide standstill 

order three weeks ago. — Reuters 

RELIGIOUS FERVOUR 

Pakistani residents take part in a march marking Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi, the birthday of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), in Lahore 

on Monday. — AFP 

Beijing warns Trump 

over One China policy 

THREAT: State media said the Asian giant could back ‘forces hostile to 

the US’ if the president-elect follows through with threats to drop policy 

BEIJING: Beijing issued its first clear 

warning on Monday over Donald 

Trump’s fiery rhetoric, as state media 

said the Asian giant could back “forces 

hostile to the US” if the president-elect 

follows through with threats to drop 

Washington’s One China policy. 

It was the strongest signal yet from 

Chinese authorities that abandoning 

the One China policy, which guides 

relations with self-ruling Taiwan, would 

upset decades of carefully managed 

Sino-US relations and end cooperation 

between the world’s top two economies. 

Beijing has not controlled Taiwan 

for more than 60 years but foreign 

ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said 

it considered the island a “core interest” 

that affected China’s sovereignty and 

territorial integrity. 

The One China policy was the 

“political bedrock” for relations with the 

US, he added, and if it was “compromised 

or disrupted”, sound and steady growth 

in China-US relations and cooperation 

in major fields would be “out of the 

question”, he told reporters. 

The comments came in response 

to Trump’s remarks in an interview 

on Sunday that he did not see why 

Washington must “be bound by a One 

China policy unless we make a deal with 

China having to do with other things, 

including trade”. 

He vehemently defended taking a call 

earlier this month from Tsai Ing-Wen, 

the democratically elected president 

of Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a 

rogue province awaiting unification. 

Although the United States is 

Taiwan’s main ally and arms supplier, 

Washington has not had official 

A magazine featuring US President-elect Donald Trump is seen at a bookstore in 

Beijing on Monday. — AFP 

diplomatic relations with Taipei since 

1979, when it switched recognition to 

Beijing. 

Trump’s decision to take the call 

broke with protocol, and seemed 

to catch China’s Communist Party 

leadership by surprise. 

The official response was initially 

muted, and state media largely blamed 

Taiwan for the phone call and advocated 

a wait-and-see response. 

But the remarks on Monday were 

more pointed, and a commentary in 

the nationalistic Global Times offered 

a more menacing warning to Trump, 

calling him “as ignorant of diplomacy as 

a child”, in its Chinese-language version. 

If the US openly supports Taiwan’s 

independence and ramps up arms sales 

to the island, it threatened, China could 

aid “forces hostile to the US”. 

“In response to Trump’s provocations, 

Beijing could offer support, even 

military assistance to US foes,” it said. 

“China would introduce a series 

of new Taiwan polices, and may not 

prioritise peaceful reunification over a 

military takeover.” 

Despite the escalation in official 

rhetoric, many Chinese analysts still 

offer a note of restraint, emphasising 

Trump’s background in business, not 

politics, and the possibility his actions 

in office will take a softer line. 

“I think this could be his negotiating 

technique because he knows the Taiwan 

issue is an extremely sensitive issue, an 

issue China is very concerned about,” 

Wu Xinbo, director of the Center for 

American Studies at Fudan University 

in Shanghai, said. 

Trump was playing the card in hopes 

of winning concessions on trade, he 

said, adding that China should not be 

“too nervous” nor should it react “too 

fiercely”. 

— AFP 

asia 

asia 


7 


King pardons prisoners 

in ‘first show of mercy’ 

BANGKOK: Thailand’s new King 

Maha Vajiralongkorn has issued a 

mass prisoner pardon, a first act of 

“mercy” as monarch as he reaches 

out to his subjects following the 

death of his beloved father. 

Revered King Bhumibol 

Adulyadej died in October aged 

88 after a seven-decade reign, 

leaving the politically febrile nation 

without its unifying figure. 

His only son, 64-year-old 

Vajiralongkorn, was proclaimed 

king in early December. 

But the thrice-divorced 

monarch is yet to draw the same 

level of devotion from a public 

well-versed in rumours over his 

private life. 

The prisoner pardon was 

Vajiralongkorn’s “first chance since 

he succeeded the throne to show 

the king’s mercy”, according to a 

statement published on Sunday 

in palace mouthpiece the Royal 

Gazette. 

Pardons were annual events 

under Bhumibol. 

Women jailed for first offences, 

some inmates who have served 

one third of their sentences, and 

prisoners with disabilities or 

serious illness were among those 

pardoned. 

The decree did not say how 

many prisoners will be freed. 

Ritual, propaganda and law 

underpin the status of Thailand’s 

monarchy. 

TUGBOAT CREW 

ZAMBOANGA: Abu Sayyaf militants 

in the southern Philippines have freed 

two Indonesian hostages, the military 

said on Monday, as the army mounted 

an offensive against the insurgent 

kidnapping group. 

The two were among seven crew 

seized from a tugboat off the southern 

Philippines in June. The others have 

already been released. 

They were undergoing medical 

checks and would later be turned 

over to Indonesian government 

representatives, the military said in a 

statement. 

It said the Abu Sayyaf handed 

the two over to the Moro National 

Liberation Front (MNLF), another 

armed group in the strife-torn island 

of Jolo, who in turn passed them to a 

local official. 

They were then handed over to the 

military on Monday, the statement 

added. 

“Indonesian (hostages) Mohammad 

Nazer and Robin Peter were released 

by the (Abu Sayyaf) captors to MNLF 

Commander Tahir Sali... after being 

Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn 

Thai schoolchildren are taught 

the primacy of the institution, 

while huge portraits of key royals 

adorn virtually every main street. 

Like his father, Vajiralongkorn 

is shielded from criticism by a 

harsh royal defamation law that 

carries up to 15 years in jail per 

charge. 

That has embedded a culture of 

self-censorship across the media, 

academia and the arts. 

The prisoner pardons follow a 

slew of public appearances by the 

new king, whose four decades as 

designated heir were characterised 

by publicity-shyness and long trips 

overseas. 

Since he was proclaimed King 

Rama X, the new monarch has 

offered flood relief, opened a town 

hall and been honoured in a video 

tribute played in cinemas. — AFP 

Philippine militants free 

2 Indonesian hostages 

pressured by non-stop operations of 

(military joint task force) Sulu and 

pressure by the MNLF,” a military 

statement said. 

The MNLF is a former separatist 

rebel group that has forged a truce 

with the government to negotiate an 

autonomous region in the south of the 

country. 

Meanwhile, Philippine troops killed 

10 suspected militants in an offensive 

against the Abu Sayyaf group on Jolo, 

the military said on Monday. 

Air strikes were launched against 

about 150 members of the group on 

Saturday in the town of Patikul, 1,000 

kilometres south of Manila, according 

to Major Filemon Tan, a regional 

military spokesman. Three soldiers 

were also killed and 21 were wounded 

in the operation, he said. 

Abu Sayyaf is holding several 

hostages captive on Jolo, including 

a 70-year-old German man who 

was abducted from his yacht off the 

southern province of Tawi-Tawi on 

November 5. 

— AFP/dpa 

Hwang has sought to calm anxiety over national security and to reassure financial markets while Park’s presidency is in limbo 

S Korea PM gets official briefings after Park impeached 

SEOUL: South Korean Prime Minister 

Hwang Kyo-Ahn began getting official 

briefings from aides of President Park 

Geun-Hye on Monday, having assumed 

presidential authority in a caretaker 

role following her impeachment by 

parliament last week. 

Hwang has sought to calm anxiety 

over national security and to reassure 

financial markets while Park’s presidency 

is in limbo pending the outcome of 

a Constitutional Court review of her 

impeachment, which may take up to 180 

days. 

Until then, Park will remain in the 

presidential Blue House a few blocks 

north of the main government complex 

where Hwang’s office is located. 

Eight of the Constitutional Court’s 

nine judges met on Monday to discuss 

how to proceed with the case but 

has not set dates for public hearings, 

its spokesman, Bae Bo-Yoon, told a 

briefing. The ninth was away from the 

country on business. 

At least six of the nine judges have to 

concur for the motion to be upheld. 

The court will next week decide on 

the date for the two sides’ lawyers to 

appear for a preliminary hearing, he 

said. 

Park, whose father ruled the country 

for 18 years after seizing power in a 1961 

coup, has been accused of colluding 

with a friend and a former aide, both of 

whom have been indicted, to pressure 

big businesses to donate to foundations 

set up to back her policy initiatives. 

She has denied wrongdoing but 

apologised for carelessness in her ties 

with her friend, Choi Soon-Sil. 

Park has yet to announce her defence 

team, which is expected to be made up 

of at least four lawyers, including an 

attorney she had retained last month. 

Park’s term was set to end in 

February 2018. If the court upholds 

her impeachment, she will become the 

first elected South Korean leader to be 

ejected from office in disgrace. 

If that were to happen, a new election 

would be held within 60 days to pick a 

successor who will serve a full five-year 

term. 

Hwang will get briefings from senior 

presidential secretaries on foreign policy, 

judicial, personnel and economic affairs 

on Monday and Tuesday, the Blue House 

said, giving no further details. 

Hwang has chaired a National Security 

Council meeting, met the cabinet twice 

and visited the military headquarters 

since assuming presidential powers late 

on Friday. Hwang was expected to keep 

Finance Minister Yoo Il-Ho to ensure 

continuity of policy instead of replacing 

him with the head of the financial 

regulator, who Park last month had 

designated as his replacement, Yonhap 

news agency reported. 

On Sunday, state prosecutors 

charged two more former senior 

officials as part of their investigation 

of a corruption scandal that has led to 

Park’s impeachment and the indictment 

of former aides and a friend, Choi Soon- 

Sil. Park herself has immunity from 

indictment while she is in office but 

could face prosecution if she is removed. 

— Reuters

india 

india 

8 



CYCLONE VARDAH RIPS THROUGH CHENNAI 

TRAIL OF DESTRUCTION: Uprooted trees, damaged roof sheets were seen in city as most people remained indoors 

CHENNAI: Cyclone Vardah crossed 

the Chennai coast and ripped through 

the city killing ten and leaving a trail 

of destruction in the form of uprooted 

trees, damaged roof sheets and more. 

“The cyclone crossed the coast near 

Chennai Port Trust. It will weaken 

into a depression in the coming hours. 

However there will be rains and winds 

blowing at 70 kmph,” S Stella, Director, 

Regional Meteorological Centre, 

Chennai, said. 

She said the wind speed touched 

a peak of around 120 kmph when 

the first part of the powerful cyclone 

crossed the coast on Monday evening. 

The cyclone was accompanied by 

heavy to very heavy rains, which left 

Chennai drenched. 

But most people, aware of the 

nature’s fury, remained indoors, leaving 

the roads across the city virtually 

deserted. 

According to S Balachandran, 

another Director at the Regional 

Meteorological Centre, said the 

western part of the cyclone crossed the 

coast first and then came the central 

part. 

Stella said the Meenambakkam 

Meteorological Centre recorded a 

rainfall of 18 cm from 8.30 am to 5.30 

pm. 

The Nungambakkam centre 

recorded 10 cm of rains. The cyclone 

felled several trees and claimed 10 lives, 

the government said. 

Overhead cables and electricity 

poles also crashed. 

Some trees fell collapsed on parked 

vehicles. 

Those on two wheelers who 

A man walks along a street covered with debris and fallen trees in Chennai as Cyclone Vardah approaches the Indian coast. 

(Inset) Residents walk through the rain in Chennai city. — AFP 

continued to drive despite warnings fell 

on the road due to strong winds. 

At least 260 trees and 37 electricity 

poles crashed in Chennai, officials said. 

The intensity of the gales made a 

severe impact on railway infrastructure, 

resulting in considerable damage to 

overhead electrical lines at several 

locations. 

This affect train services, said 

Anupam Sharma, the Divisional 

Railway Manager. 

A total of 20 trains were held up in 

Chennai stations. 

The government said over 8,000 

people were shifted to relief camps 

set up in Chennai, Kanchipuram, 

Thiruvallur and Villupuram districts. 

As a precaution, the electricity 

board cut power supply to major parts 

of the city in the morning itself. 

Mobile phone signals were affected 

severely due to the cyclone. 

The railways cancelled suburban 

rail services and diverted some long 

distance trains. 

“As the wind speed is around 50 

knots, it is not conducive to operate 

the flights,” Chennai Airport Director 

Deepak Shastri said. 

A total of 25 Chennai bound flights 

were diverted, nine got delayed and five 

were cancelled. 

The incoming flights were diverted 

to Bengaluru or Coimbatore. 

Passengers who reached Chennai 

by trains just before the cyclone hit 

faced huge problems reaching their 

destinations due to the fewer number 

of buses and autorickshaws on the 

roads. 

The Met department predicted 

rainfall over south coastal Andhra 

Pradesh, north coastal Tamil Nadu and 

Puducherry over the next 36 hours (till 

Wednesday). 

The Tamil Nadu government 

declared a holiday for all government, 

government-aided private schools, 

colleges and other educational 

institutions in the affected areas. 

It has told the private sector to allow 

their workers to avail a holiday or work 

from home. 

It is not clear whether the 

educational institutions will open on 

Tuesday as several uprooted trees are 

blocking Chennai roads and need to be 

cleared. 

Meanwhile, more than 23,000 

people in Tamil Nadu have been 

moved to relief centres, with plans for 

tens of thousands more to be evacuated 

if needed, a senior state official, K 

Satyagopal, said. 

More than 10,000 people from 

two districts in Andhra Pradesh state 

had also been moved, its disaster 

management commissioner, M V 

Seshagiri Babu, said. 

The NDMA warned fishermen not 

to venture out to sea for the next 36 

hours, and urged residents to stay in 

safe places. 

Navy ships and aircraft, as well as 30 

diving teams, were on standby to help 

move people and deliver aid if needed, 

a navy spokesman said. 

India’s cyclone season usually 

runs from April to December, with 

storms often causing dozens of deaths, 

evacuations of tens of thousands of 

people and widespread damage to 

crops and property. 

Wind speeds topped 300 km per 

hour in an Indian “super-cyclone” that 

killed 10,000 people in 1999, while a 

cyclone packing speeds of more than 

200 kph lashed the east coast in 2013. 

— IANS 

Trains delayed, cancelled due to fog 

NEW DELHI: Thousands 

of passengers were stranded 

on Monday, as 90 trains were 

delayed and 16 cancelled due 

to dense fog in parts of north 

India. 

According to a Northern 

Railway official, the Lichchvi 

Express was running 34 

hours behind its schedule, the 

Amritsar New Delhi Express 

was 30 hours late and the 12401 

Islampur-New Delhi Magadh 

Express was delayed by 25 

hours. 

The official said that 49 

trains were rescheduled as the 

visibility dropped to 400 metres on Monday. The railways has 

rescheduled New Delhi-Bhubaneshwar Rajdhani Express, 

People sit around on a foggy morning in Amritsar. — AFP 

which will now depart at 4.40 

am instead of its scheduled 

time of 5.05 pm. 

Even the New Delhi- 

Howrah Rajdhani Express 

was rescheduled to 10.10 pm 

instead of its scheduled time of 

4.55 pm, while the New Delhi- 

Sealdah Rajdhani Express has 

been rescheduled for 9.30 pm. 

Meanwhile, according 

to the Delhi International 

Airport Limited (DIAL), 

which manages operations 

at the Indira Gandhi 

International (IGI) airport 

here, no flight was cancelled 

on Monday, though a few international flights arriving in 

Delhi were delayed. 

— IANS 

Pact signed with Indonesia on 

sea lanes security and defence 

President, PM 

greet nation on 

Milad-un-Nabi 

NEW DELHI: President Pranab 

Mukherjee and Prime Minister 

Narendra Modi on Monday greeted 

the nation on the occasion of Miladun-Nabi, 

which is celebrated as the 

birthday of Prophet Mohammed. 

“Heartiest greetings and best wishes 

to all my fellow countrymen in India 

and abroad on Milad-un-Nabi,” 

Mukherjee tweeted. 

“May Holy Prophet’s message inspire 

us to work towards universal 

brotherhood, compassion, tolerance 

and well-being of all,” the President 

said in a series of tweets. 

“Let us on this day recall the life 

and ideals of Hazrat Mohammed Saheb 

and re-dedicate ourselves to the 

service of humanity,” he said. 

Modi tweeted: “Greetings on Milad-un-Nabi. 

May this occasion deepen 

the spirit of harmony and unity 

in our society, and may there always 

be peace and prosperity.” Congress 

President Sonia Gandhi on Monday 

greeted the nation on the occasion of 

Milad-un-Nabi. Extending her greetings 

on the occasion, Gandhi said the 

message of brotherhood and compassion 

is the guiding light for humanity. 

India to see 65pc rise in 

mobile frauds in 2017 

NEW DELHI: With the surge in 

digital transactions via e-wallets and 

other online payment gateways, mobile 

frauds are expected to grow to 60-65 per 

cent in the country by 2017, a leading 

industry body said on Monday. 

The joint study by Assocham and 

research firm EY, titled “Strategic 

National Measures to Combat 

Cybercrime”, said a secure cyberspace 

and the government’s initiatives in 

keeping tabs on cybercrime 

have become 

an important 

criteria for 

businesses to 

establish, 

operate and 

flourish in 

any region. 

“Mobile 

frauds are 

areas of great 

concern for companies as 40-45 per 

cent of financial transactions are done 

via mobile devices and this threat is 

expected grow to 60-65 per cent,” the 

study noted. 

Credit and debit card fraud cases top 

the chart of cybercrimes and there has 

been a six-fold increase in such cases 

over the past three years. 

“According to the data, about 

46 per cent complaints of online 

banking related to/credit/debit card 

fraud followed by Facebook-related 

complaints (39 per cent — mostly 

morphed pictures/cyber stalking/cyber 

bullying),” the study said. 

Other major cyber complaints 

were cheating through mobile (21 

per cent), hacking of 

e-mail ID (18 per 

cent), abusive/ 

offensive/ 

obscene 

calls and 

SMS (12 

per cent) 

and others. 

Enforcing data 

security measures and 

creating proactive security monitoring 

capabilities are vital for an organisation 

to maintain a lead over emerging threats 

and protect their financial, intellectual 

and customer-related information, the 

study said. 

— IANS 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President of Indonesia Joko Widodo at Hyderabad House in New Delhi. 

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister 

Narendra Modi on Monday said that 

India and Indonesia have agreed to 

ensure safety and security of the sea 

lanes while prioritising defence and 

security cooperation. 

“My extensive conversation with 

President Widodo today focused on 

the full range of our cooperation,” Modi 

said in a joint press conference with 

Indonesian President Joko Widodo 

following delegation-level talks between 

the two sides. 

“We agreed to prioritise defence and 

security cooperation,” he stated. 

“As two important maritime 

nations that are also neighbours, we 

agreed to cooperate to ensure the 

safety and security of the sea lanes, in 

disaster response and environmental 

protection.” 

Modi said that a joint statement 

on maritime cooperation signed after 

Monday’s talks outlined “the agenda of 

our engagement in this field”. 

“Our partnership will also extend to 

combating terrorism, organised crime, 

drugs and human trafficking,” he stated. 

Besides the joint statement on 

maritime cooperation, the two sides 

also signed two memorandums of 

understanding (MoUs) on cooperation 

in the areas of youth and sports, and 

standardisation. 

The agreement on maritime 

cooperation assumes significance as 

several Southeast Asian nations have 

problems with China over the South 

China Sea. 

In July, an international arbitration 

tribunal at the Permanent Court of 

Arbitration (PCA) ruled that China 

violated the Philippines’ rights in the 

South China Sea, one of the busiest 

commercial shipping routes in the 

world. 

The court accused China of 

interfering with the Philippines’ fishing 

and petroleum exploration, building 

artificial islands in the waters and failing 

to prevent Chinese fishermen from 

fishing in the zone. 

China reacted angrily, calling the 

verdict null and void with no binding 

force and that “China neither accepts it 

nor recognises it”. But Beijing has since 

decided to go for bilateral talks with 

Manila. 

Indonesia, the largest of the 

Southeast Asian nations, however, does 

not have any such issue with China. 

In Monday’s address to the media, 

Modi said that Indonesia was one of 

India’s most valued partners in its Act 

East Policy. 

“It is the largest economy in 

Southeast Asia. 

And, India is one of the fastest 

growing large economies in the world,” 

he stated. 

The Prime Minister said that he 

and President Widodo agreed to build 

a strong economic and development 

partnership that strengthened the 

flow of ideas, trade, capital and people 

between our two countries. 

“I agreed with President Widodo to 

encourage Indian companies to work 

closely with Indonesia in the fields of 

pharmaceuticals, IT and software, and 

skill development,” he said. —IANS

analysis 


9 


Time to catch them young and nurture them 

analysis 

LAKSHMI KOTHANETH 

lakshmiobserver@gmail.com 

H 

e is just 18 years old and he won Red Bull’s title, 

King of Drift. He just got his driving licence. So 

where did he get all this energy and skill? And he 

has been go-karting for many years. Haitham al 

Hadidi impressed visitors from other countries as 

well as his home-based fans at the Red Bull Car 

Park Drift Final 2016 held at Sultan Qaboos Port. 

Spectators continued to cheer and jump on 

the stands as he was handed the trophy. Just as 

we rushed to capture the emotions of winners 

and the team members, I saw a gentleman come 

to support Hathim with a little flag and wondered 

if it was just another fan. There was pride in his 

eyes. 

It was soon revealed he is Hathim’s grandfather, 

Shekhan al Abry. He spoke about his grandson’s 

interest in cars even as a child and how Hathim’s 

father and rest of the family nurtured that interest. 

“I never thought I will see this in my life,” Al 

Abry said. It was a great moment to be with the 

grandson, rejoicing and soaking in his success. 

It left a lot to think about. When a grandfather 

comes to support a venture, you can imagine the 

support system for a child. Mentors come in all 

forms. As a child, one of the best form of support 

comes from maternal/ paternal grandparents, 

besides parents. 

Grandparents can handle shocks better than 

parents, who are very often in the “midst of 

impatience”. 

There are, however, children who do not have 

any of these support systems and yet excel. One 

reason, of course, is they have inborn talent and 

second, the teachers have identified and nurtured 

the budding talent. 

Identifying talent is as important as imparting 

knowledge to students. Equally important is 

offering opportunities for youngsters to prove 

and challenge themselves. 

The Shell Road Safety Awards 2016 was yet 

another platform that featured young talent. 

There were students and educationists, proud of 

their brilliant students, who had gathered at the 

Road Safety Institute of Royal Oman Police to 

attend the prize distribution. 

There were young ones who had painted to 

convey their message – the dangers of using a 

mobile phone while driving. There were young 

researchers and multimedia presentations that 

were delivered by students. 

Identifying talent is as important as 

imparting knowledge to students. 

Equally important is offering 

opportunities for youngsters to 

prove and challenge themselves. 

There is another important aspect of the 

whole initiative: the event has created many 

ambassadors of road safety who would be the 

right candidates to drive home the message of 

staying safe on roads. 

The message of road safety has been conveyed 

through the media, but nothing is as effective as 

a young one in the family cautioning elders when 

he/ she sees someone in the family speaking on 

the cellphone, or worse, texting while driving. 

“Making calls or replying to a text message can 

wait until you are safe to respond,” said Assem al 

Kharousi, a young school student. 

Another student on the podium asked, “Who 

is responsible for the young students being left 

behind in school buses? What is the role of school 

bus drivers? How can parents contribute to 

solving the issue?” 

“School buses have become a cause of concern 

vis-a-vis road safety. There are not enough 

studies about students being left behind in buses, 

except for one in the UAE. Why are kindergarten 

students forgotten in school buses?” 

“There is a need to teach students,” she 

pointed out. One of the important points that 

drew everyone’s attention was the photograph 

of Maryam al Kharousi, a survivor. She cried out 

for help and pressed the horn. When she didn’t 

receive any response, she decided to pick her bag 

and jump through the bus window.” 

“We need smart schools. Work on cooperation 

with schools, universities and colleges to invent 

alarms or sensors,” she suggested. 

To come to this conclusion, she had 

conducted research and visited schools to make a 

presentation while studying the subject. 

And all this was definitely not part of her 

school curriculum! 

Quake hits Aceh education 

COCO LIU 

Greece seeks ‘compromise’ in reform standoff 

G 

RENEE MALTEZOU AND LEFTERIS PAPADIMAS 

reece wants to end a standoff with its lenders 

through ‘honest compromise’, its finance 

minister said, indicating a willingness to 

give ground on reform, but he warned that 

inflexibility on their part could inflame antiestablishment 

sentiment in Europe. 

Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos 

said he anticipated a deal could allow the 

country’s inclusion in an asset-buying 

programme of the ECB by the spring of 

2017, allowing Greece to then test markets 

with a debt issue later in the year. 

Greece, which is on its third international 

bailout since crisis first hit the indebted 

nation in 2010, is again at odds with lenders 

on fiscal targets and the scope of reforms 

required to conclude its latest review on 

bailout progress. 

European Union and International 

Monetary Fund mission chiefs left 

Athens last month without a deal on key 

bailout review issues, including labour 

and energy reforms. Talks are being held 

over teleconferences until there is enough 

progress for direct talks to resume, probably 

this week. 

“The Greek expression is ‘put water into 

wine’. It’s not an expression I like, because 

I wouldn’t like my wine watered down, 

but you know what I mean, to reach an 

honest compromise,” Tsakalotos said in an 

interview. 

Delays in signing off on the bailout 

review, he argued, could temper economic 

recovery, an early return to markets, and 

further deepen a view — already entrenched 

with the result of referendums in Britain and 

Italy — that Europe was out of sync with its 

citizens and was not solving problems. 

“I can’t see the logic of returning to 

uncertainty and delay,” he said adding Greece 

was meeting its bailout commitments and 

was ‘constructively engaging’ with creditors. 

“We don’t go to the institutions with “this 

is our stance, take it or leave it” we try to 

respond to their criticisms, when they have 

objections to the nature of our structural 

measures, and we are willing to discuss all 

those issues in good faith.” 

Euro zone ministers want Greece to 

maintain a primary fiscal surplus of 3.5 per 

cent beyond 2018, but have yet to specify 

Greece, which is on its third 

international bailout since crisis 

first hit the indebted nation 

in 2010, is again at odds with 

lenders on fiscal targets and 

the scope of reforms required 

to conclude its latest review on 

bailout progress. 

how long it should keep this up and have 

also left open the question of longer-term 

debt relief. 

Last week, they offered relief on shortterm 

debt, which will eventually lop about 

21 points off the country’s massive debt 

mountain now standing at just under 180 

per cent of GDP, but did not outline any 

medium- or long-term debt relief measures. 

Both are important factors for the IMF in 

weighing up whether it will join the present 

bailout programme worth up to 86 billion 

euros. Germany, Europe’s paymaster, wants 

the IMF on board to add credibility to the 

programme. 

A 3.5 per cent surplus retained post-2018, 

when the bailout programme ends, implies a 

heavier tax burden and more pension cuts 

for Greeks, who have been squeezed due to 

a deep recession. 

It’s an option ruled out by Greece’s 

leftist-led government which argues the 

austerity burden is already crippling for a 

nation where one in four are unemployed, 

and many households rely solely on elderly 

relatives’ pensions to make ends meet. 

“No government would be able to legislate 

more measures to be implemented in 2019 

and further. There is no economic sense in 

that and there is no political possibility of 

them being carried out,” Tsakalotos said. 

The IMF has said that with the current set 

of reforms agreed with Athens, Greece will 

only reach a primary surplus of 1.5 per cent 

of GDP in 2018 and therefore the euro zone 

should grant it more relief or Athens should 

implement deeper cost-cutting. 

With Greece’s euro zone partners 

insisting on a 3.5 per cent surplus after 2018, 

Athens has offered a half-way compromise 

of attaining a 2.5 per cent surplus. Tsakalotos 

said his proposal remained on the table, 

though he said there had been no in-depth 

discussion of it at the Eurogroup meeting. 

“The IMF — I’m disappointed with it — 

the IMF has said on countless occasions that 

it thinks that in the post-programme period 

we should not have very high surpluses, that 

Greece can not have more austerity. 

“But in all honesty, I didn’t see them 

giving any fight with the Europeans on 

reducing the fiscal surplus,” Tsakalotos said. 

The pressure, he said, seemed to be 

applied only on Greece, and not those who 

were stalling on a better deal on debt, an 

indirect reference to Germany’s reticence. 

“What we want is an IMF that fights on 

two fronts,” he said. 

—Reuters 

L 

HEAD OFFICE 

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Website: omanobserver.om 

ast week’s earthquake in Indonesia’s northern province of Aceh damaged 

dozens of schools, undermining children’s ability to recovery from the 

trauma of the disaster, aid groups said. 

Wednesday’s 6.5 magnitude earthquake, which toppled dozens of 

buildings and killed at least 100 people, was the worst disaster to hit the 

region since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. 

Among those affected are 30,000 children and young people whose 

schools are closed as a result of the earthquake, said aid agencies. 

In Aceh’s Pidie Jaya, one of the hardest-hit districts, the quake 

damaged nearly a third of schools, with at least seven completely 

destroyed, according to Yayasan Sayangi Tunas Cilik, a local aid agency. 

Many residents of the town of 140,000 have been sleeping in shelters 

and relief workers last week were handing out food, water, and blankets. 

With students now on their winter break, the destruction might not 

have an immediate impact on their study, but it undermines their sense 

of safety, said Ronald Sianipar of Yayasan Sayangi Tunas Cilik. 

“When school buildings are safe, we know they are the best place 

for students to be following a disaster like this. It creates a sense of 

normality and safety and supports children’s emotional recovery,” he 

said in a statement. 

“With no schools to go to, there are no places for students to gather 

together and release their fear,” he said. 

At least 80 million children living in areas affected by war or natural 

disasters had their education disrupted last year, according to a report 

by British charity Theirworld. 

Schools offer a safe place to learn and play which in turn can help 

children deal with trauma in the aftermath of a crisis, say experts, but 

education is often overlooked by aid donors. 

When children are out of school, they are more vulnerable to falling 

prey to child labour, trafficking and extremism. 

Sianipar said his organisation was trying to help by creating play areas 

in camps where many families are living, and may set up temporary 

classrooms in tents. Local authorities in Pidie Jaya say they plan to 

reopen schools in time for the start of the new semester in January. But 

aid workers say children are still fearful. 

“Children in Pidie Jaya are afraid of going back to school,” Irsyad 

Hadi, spokesman in Jakarta for the global child rights organisation Plan 

International, said by phone. 

“Many schools are badly damaged. Even though some schools only 

have minor damage, students and teachers are still concerned. They are 

afraid of entering buildings.” — Thomson Reuters Foundation 

ESTABLISHED ON 15 NOVEMBER 1981 

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Abdullah bin Salim al Shueili 

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world 

world 


10 TUESDAY 

l DECEMBER 13 l 2016 

Military training exercises 

Members of France’s Regional Intervention and Security Teams 

(ERIS) take part in military exercises at the national training 

centre of the French gendarmerie in Saint-Astier. — AFP 

New Italy govt to be sworn in 

ROYAL VISIT 

ROME: The new Italian cabinet will be sworn in 

later on Monday to speed up the political transfer 

of power to Prime Minister-designate Paolo 

Gentiloni, a political source said. 

Gentiloni met various party leaders on 

Monday and in a sign that the talks had gone 

well, he announced he would see President Sergio 

Mattarella at 1630 GMT — little more than 24 

hours after receiving a mandate to put together a 

new government. 

Normally at least three hours are needed after 

the meeting between the prime minister and 

head of state before the official swearing in can 

take place. Gentiloni is expected to include many 

of the ministers from Matteo Renzi’s outgoing 

administration in his team. 

Barely 24 hours after receiving a mandate 

from President Sergio Mattarella to lead a new 

government, Gentiloni said he would see the head 

of state at 5.30 pm in a sign that talks with party 

leaders had proved successful. 

Outgoing premier Matteo Renzi, who resigned 

last week after suffering a heavy defeat in a 

referendum on his constitutional reform plans, 

said he expected an early election in 2017. 

Gentiloni is a loyal Renzi ally who is unlikely 

to undermine his predecessor within the ruling 

Democratic Party (PD). In a sign he was sticking 

to his master’s script, he was expected to include 

many members of Renzi’s team in his cabinet. 

Two sources said the one major change was 

CAMPAIGNING HEATS UP 

almost certain to see Interior Minister Angelino 

Alfano, head of a small centre-right party, replace 

Gentiloni as foreign minister. 

Another political source said Economy Minister 

Pier Carlo Padoan, who is trying to defuse a crisis 

in the banking sector, would stay put. “It is 99 

per cent sure that he will remain where he is,” the 

Candidate for the socialist party presidential primary election Vincent Peillon visits an emergency shelter, in Paris, 

as part of his campaign. — AFP 

Australian govt gives green 

light to Sydney’s second airport 

SYDNEY: The Australian 

government approved a second 

international airport for Sydney 

on Monday, opening the way for 

construction to begin in Australia’s 

largest city on a project mired in 

political squabbling for 70 years. 

Sydney Airport Holdings Ltd 

has first right of refusal to build 

the $3.7 billion airport, which 

the government hopes will boost 

inbound air passenger numbers to 

Sydney by about a quarter, or 10 

million people per year. 

The new airport is the centrepiece 

of Prime Minister Malcolm 

Turnbull’s A$30 billion national 

public works drive designed to keep 

Australia’s economy ticking over as 

a decade-long resources spending 

boom unwinds. 

Its location, at Badgery’s Creek 

in Sydney’s western outskirts, was 

first mooted in 1946 as the limits of 

the first airport — hemmed in by 

suburbs and the sea in the city’s east 

— became clear. 

The project has been bogged 

down in partisan debate over 

aircraft noise, funding and 

alternative sites ever since. 

“The need for an airport 

in western Sydney has been 

screamingly obvious for many 

years,” Turnbull told reporters in 

Gentiloni is a loyal Renzi ally 

who is unlikely to undermine his 

predecessor within the 

ruling Democratic Party 

The approval ends controversy over a squabbling project 

Australia’s Prime Minister Turnbull and Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul 

signing off on plans for a second international airport in Sydney. — AFP 

Sydney. 

“We are getting on with the job, 

and this airport will be built ... it will 

become a catalyst for investment 

and industry in western Sydney. 

That is where Sydney’s growth is,” 

he said. 

The airport’s proposed 

3,700-metre runway will be able 

to accommodate large Airbus 

A380 aeroplanes, said Australian 

Infrastructure Minister Paul 

Fletcher. 

A spokeswoman for Sydney 

Airport, Joeley Pettit, had no 

comment on whether the company 

would opt to build the new project 

or contribute an anticipated A$1 

billion towards its construction. 

The company must exercise 

its option within four months 

of receiving formal notice from 

the government, which Fletcher 

said would happen before 

December 31. 

The project is set for completion 

in the mid-2020s, with Sydney’s 

existing airport approaching 

maximum capacity, the government 

said in a statement. — Reuters 

source said. 

The cabinet is likely to be sworn in on Tuesday, 

with parliamentary votes of confidence expected 

later in the week. 

One of Gentiloni’s main tasks will be to draw up 

a new electoral law that, if done swiftly, could open 

the way to an election in the first half of 2017, a year 

ahead of schedule. 

Italy has different electoral laws for its two 

chambers and the president has said they need 

to be harmonised to try to make sure a coherent 

government can emerge from the next ballot. 

The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement is 

pushing for a rapid reform and a vote as soon as 

possible. Renzi wants an early election, hoping 

to steam-roller critics within his PD and present 

himself as the party’s prime ministerial candidate. 

“The next election, presumably in June, will be 

held with a proportional voting system,” Renzi said 

in an interview with Quotidiano.net. 

The PD leadership held a meeting on Monday at 

which their internal rifts were clearly visible. 

“We need to recognise our errors and radically 

change course, and the PD needs to do it with a 

courage that sadly has been lacking up until now,” 

said Roberto Speranza, a leading Renzi-critic 

within the centre-left party. 

Renzi called for a broader meeting of PD 

members on Sunday, saying it should then set a 

date for a party congress, where he could put his 

leadership of the group to a vote. — Agencies 

IMF chief faces 

court over 

negligence 

charges 

PARIS: International Monetary 

Fund (IMF) chief Christine 

Lagarde faced a French court 

on Monday over negligence 

charges raised by an arbitration 

case decided when she was the 

country’s finance minister. 

Lagarde said she did not 

intend to stay silent during the 

proceedings as she faced the 

Court of Justice of the Republic, 

which investigates and prosecutes 

allegations of wrongdoing by 

ministers in the course of their 

duties. 

But Lagarde’s lawyer Patrick 

Maisonneuve requested a 

postponement of the proceedings, 

arguing that ongoing 

investigations related to the case 

should first be concluded. The 

court then adjourned to consider 

the demand. 

Lagarde has been charged 

with negligence related to an 

approximately400-million-euro 

payment to Bernard Tapie, part 

of a 2008 arbitration agreement 

between Tapie and a public 

entity representing the liability 

of former state-owned Credit 

Lyonnais bank. 

She had given the go-ahead 

for the arbitration in 2007 after 

being appointed France’s finance 

minister during the office of thenpresident 

Nicolas Sarkozy. 

Tapie, long a Socialist who 

briefly held office in the early 

1990s,had quit the party to 

support Sarkozy’s bid for president 

during the campaign. 

Critics have long argued 

that the deal was too generous 

to Tapie and have speculated 

that he only got it because of his 

political connections, including to 

Sarkozy. Lagarde has consistently 

denied wrong doing. 

If she is found guilty, Lagarde 

could face up to a year in prison 

and a fine of 15,000 euros. A guilty 

verdict could also imperil her post 

at the head of the IMF. — dpa 

Hereditary Grand-Duke of Luxembourg Prince Guillaume and Hereditary Grand Duchess of 

Luxembourg Stephanie de Lannoy arrive for a visit of Luxembourge crown couple to 

Benelux Union general secretary and other Benelux institutions in Brussels. — AFP 

Bill elected to replace NZ 

prime minister John Key 

WELLINGTON: New Zealand’s ruling 

National Party appointed the experienced 

Bill English as the country’s new prime 

minister on Monday following last week’s 

shock resignation of his popular predecessor 

John Key. 

The centre-right National Party caucus 

met to confirm the decision on Monday 

morning, with English to be officially sworn 

in at Government House in Wellington later 

in the day. 

State Services Minister Paula Bennett 

was named as deputy prime minister. 

“Bill and Paula are outstanding leaders 

who will provide a good mixture of 

experience and fresh thinking,” said party 

president Peter Goodfellow. 

“Under their leadership, New Zealanders 

will continue to benefit from the stable 

government they expect, along with a 

dedicated focus on delivering results for 

families and businesses.” 

He added that with English at the helm 

the party would remain committed to 

“growing the economy, creating jobs, and 

allowing the government to invest in worldclass 

services like schools, healthcare and 

infrastructure”. 

English, 54, was Key’s preferred 

candidate to succeed him after serving 

under him as finance minister and returning 

New Zealand’s budget to a surplus. 

A farmer with degrees in commerce 

and literature, he has been in parliament 

since 1990 and was previously leader of the 

National Party in 2002 when it suffered its 

worst election defeat. 

“You learn more from losing than you do 

from winning,” said English, who will go to 

the polls in late 2017 seeking the National’s 

fourth straight election win. 

English said New Zealand’s prosperity, 

with an economy growing at about three 

per cent, meant the country did not have 

REYKJAVIK: A third attempt to form a 

new government in Iceland failed Monday 

as the leader of the anti-establishment 

Pirate Party handed back the mandate to 

the president. 

Birgitta Jonsdottir of the Pirate Party 

said the result was disappointing. 

“But if people are not ready to go a 

long way out of their comfort zone you 

can’t push them to join a coalition,” she 

said. 

President Gudni Johanness on 

December 2 asked her to form a 

government, and during the past 10 days 

she has held talks with other party leaders. 

The Pirate Party had aimed to form a 

five-party coalition with Bright Future, 

the Social Democrats, the Reconstruction 

Party and the Left-Green Movement. 

They would have had 34 seats — two 

more than needed for a majority — in the 

63-seat legislature. 

The Left-Green Movement’s leader 

the pool of disaffected voters responsible 

for Brexit and US President-elect Donald 

Trump’s victory. 

And he said a priority for his government 

was ensuring the most needy were given 

opportunities. 

“We have a strong economy, almost 

unique in the developed world, and most 

New Zealanders would expect to be able to 

share in that,” he said. 

A committed Catholic with six children, 

English is regarded as far more socially 

conservative than Key, opposing the 2013 

legalisation of same-sex marriage and 

speaking out against abortion and voluntary 

euthanasia. 

— AFP 

THIRD ATTEMPT TO FORM 

ICELAND GOVT FAILS 

Katrin Jakobsdottir, who earlier failed to 

forge a similar coalition, also expressed 

disappointment. 

“This was the coalition we thought was 

best,” Jakobsdottir said,noting that the 

gap between the parties was too wide. 

Jakobsdottir said she does not exclude 

a minority coalition. 

The October 29 elections — originally 

scheduled for April 2017 but conducted 

early as a result of fallout from the Panama 

Papers leak this year which engulfed some 

politicians — resulted in a fragmented 

parliament with seven parties. 

The equation is complicated by the 

fact that several parties have ruled out 

working together. 

The president initially approached 

Bjarni Benediktss on of the conservative 

Independence Party, which was part 

of the ousted centre-right coalition. 

Benediktsson’s party won 21 seats, making 

it the largest in the legislature. — dpa

CONFUSION: For voters, the outcome will be to get a govt capable of regaining stablity after years of political crisis 

europe 

errope 


11 


Ruling party, oppn claim win in Macedonia polls 

SKOPJE: Macedonia’s ruling 

conservative party and the opposition 

Social Democrats both claimed victory 

in snap elections held Sunday in the 

hope of solving a two-year long deep 

political crisis. 

“We won once again. Tonight, today 

on December 11, the 10th victory in a 

row,” Vlatko Gjorcev, a senior official of 

former prime minister Nikola Gruevski’s 

VMRO-DPMNE told supporters at the 

party’s headquarters. 

However, shortly afterwards the 

opposition Social Democrats (SDSM) 

also claimed to have won. 

“We are the winners!” Social 

Democrat leader Zoran Zaev told a 

cheering crowd. “We have one more 

seat, we are waiting for the final results 

... but the trend is clearly in our favour.” 

With votes counted at 85 per cent of 

polling stations, according to analysts’ 

projections the SDSM will have 52 seats 

and the VMRO 51. 

The SDSM had earlier proclaimed 

victory in some big cities, including 

the capital Skopje, and its supporters 

took the streets to celebrate, journalists 

reported. 

For voters, the most important 

outcome of the vote will be to get 

a government capable of regaining 

stability after the two-year deep political 

crisis. “What do I expect? I expect 

this agony to end,” 55-year-old Zoran 

Milevski said after he cast his ballot at a 

school-turned-polling station in central 

Skopje. 

The vote was called as part of a 

European Union-brokered deal between 

Macedonia’s four main political parties 

after a mass wiretapping scandal erupted 

in February 2015 and sparked rival street 

protests. 

No major incidents were reported 

during the day, electoral officials 

said, although observers warned of 

irregularities including unauthorised 

voter registration at several polling 

stations. 

Zoran Zaev, leader of the opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia 

celebrate after parliamentary elections in Skopje. — AFP 

Some voters reportedly faced 

pressure over who to vote for and local 

media said there were also attempts to 

bribe voters, but this was not confirmed. 

Voters’ photos appear next to their 

names on lists to limit fraud, a State 

Electoral Commission member said. . 

The turnout was higher than at earlier 

This is the day when people 

should tell their opinion... to 

exercise their right to vote 

and give their opinion on 

how and in what direction in 

the future Macedonia should 

move 

GRUEVSKI 

VMRO-DPMNE Party 

elections, around 66 per cent. 

Wiretapping allegations led Gruevski 

of the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE party 

to step down in January after nearly 10 

years in power — paving the way for 

Sunday’s snap election. The vote, which 

was twice delayed owing to international 

concerns over fraud, pitches the ex-PM 

against his nemesis Zaev. 

It was Zaev who released tapes 

last year that appeared to show the 

government had wiretapped thousands, 

including journalists and religious 

officials, as well as alleging high-level 

corruption. 

Gruevski denied the claims and 

accused Zaev of planning a coup with 

foreign support. 

“This is the day when people should 

tell their opinion... to exercise their 

right to vote and give their opinion on 

how and in what direction in the future 

Macedonia should move,” Gruevski said 

after casting his ballot in Skopje. 

Zaev, 42, has pitched the vote as 

a choice between “doom or life” and 

pledged to stop an exodus of young 

people from the former Yugoslav 

republic, which remains one of Europe’s 

poorest countries. 

“This day, today is a day on which 

we choose a progressive, free and united 

Macedonia,” Zaev told reporters after 

he voted in his native town of Strumica, 

where he is also mayor. — AFP 

Kremlin says US election 

hacking reports ‘unfounded’ 

MOSCOW: The Kremlin on 

Monday dismissed as “unfounded” 

reports of a secret CIA assessment 

that Russia tried to tip the US 

presidential poll in Donald 

Trump’s favour by hacking political 

institutions. 

“Not one of these absolutely 

baseless allegations is supported by 

any kind of information, let alone 

evidence,” Kremlin spokesman 

Dmitry Peskov told reporters. 

“This all looks like absolutely 

unfounded, unprofessional, amateur 

accusations that have nothing to do 

with reality.” According to a report 

in The Washington Post last week, 

WELCOMING NEW SUBMARINE 

the CIA believes that Russian cyber 

attacks against the US were aimed 

at helping the Republican candidate 

win the White House. 

The report came on the heels of 

President Barack Obama’s order to 

review all cyber attacks that took 

place during the 2016 election cycle 

amid growing calls from Congress 

for more information on the extent 

of Russian interference in the 

election campaign. 

Republicans at the weekend 

dismissed the reports, with National 

Committee spokesman Sean Spicer 

saying “the intelligence is wrong.” 

— AFP 

Crew members stand on the new submarine after it was handed over to the 

Navy of Egypt at the ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems shipyard in Kiel, northern 

Germany, on Monday. — AFP 

Pope: revenge 

is a dish 

best binned 

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis is 

asking the world’s political, economic, 

religious and media leaders to swap 

aggression, mud-slinging and revenge 

for “non-violence” in his annual 

message of peace published Monday. 

His slogan? “Non-violence as a 

style of politics for peace”. And those 

with clout in an increasingly poisonous 

society should be “refusing to discard 

people, harm the environment, or seek 

to win at any cost”. 

The Argentine’s message — which 

will be read out in Catholic churches 

on January 1, 2017 — was published 

after a particularly intense weekend 

of violence, from a deadly bombing in 

Turkey to an attack on a Coptic church 

in Egypt. 

The pope cited Mother Teresa, 

Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther 

King as models of non-violent 

peacemakers and said: “Violence is 

not the cure for our broken world. 

Countering violence with violence 

leads at best to forced migrations and 

enormous suffering.” 

The 79-year old said nonviolence 

“is sometimes taken to mean 

surrender, lack of involvement and 

passivity, but this is not the case”. 

“When victims of violence are able 

to resist the temptation to retaliate, they 

become the most credible promotors 

of nonviolent peacemaking,” he said. 

The pontiff said his message was 

not just aimed at the faithful but was 

“a programme and a challenge for 

political and religious leaders, the 

heads of international institutions, and 

business and media executives”. 

— AFP 

GUARD OF HONOUR 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Croatian prime minister Andrej Plenkovic inspect a guard of honour prior to a meeting 

at the Chancellery in Berlin. — AFP 

German parties discuss coalition option 

BERLIN: German lawmakers from 

the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) 

and two smaller parties met on Sunday 

to explore the possibility of forming 

a coalition government to replace 

Chancellor Angela Merkel next year. 

The SPD, environmentalist Greens 

and leftist Linke party already have 

more seats in parliament than Merkel’s 

conservative bloc but divisions at federal 

level - especially on foreign policy - have 

prevented them from forming a national 

government. 

Merkel currently leads a right-left 

coalition of her conservatives - the 

Christian Democrats (CDU) and their 

Bavarian CSU allies - and the smaller 

SPD. 

Merkel, whose popularity slumped 

after Germany let in 890,000 migrants 

last year, will seek a fourth term in office 

in a national election due in autumn 

2017. 

Sunday’s meeting marked the second 

time the left-leaning lawmakers have 

held exploratory talks and came after 

Merkel’s CDU moved to the right at a 

party conference last week, at which she 

called for a ban full-face veils. 

Axel Schaefer, deputy leader of the 

SPD’s parliamentary group, said the 

three left-leaning parties were not yet 

aiming to nail down a specific policy 

programme. 

“This is about the general direction 

of a progressive policy,” he told reporters 

before the talks in the Bundestag. 

The meeting, at which the lawmakers 

planned to talk about employment and 

social justice, also came after the same 

three parties last week joined forces in 

a so-called ‘Red-Red-Green’, or ‘R2G’, 

coalition to take control of Berlin’s city 

government. 

“We think the government 

formation in Berlin can give the project 

R2G a push at the federal level,” said 

Thomas Nord of the Linke, adding: “We 

know that we still have a lot of questions 

to discuss with each other.” 

— Reuters 

For the first time Serbia will try eight suspects involved in the string of mass killings for the 1995 Kravica kilings 

Serbia to open first trial for Srebrenica massacre 

BELGRADE: Serbia on Monday will 

take the unprecedented step of trying 

eight men for taking part in the 1995 

Srebrenica massacre, Europe’s worst 

atrocity since World War II. 

The eight will face a war crimes court 

in Belgrade on charges of ordering or 

taking part in the slaughter of hundreds 

near Srebrenica. 

The bloodbath unfolded over just 

one day in a warehouse in the town of 

Kravica. It was part of a string of mass 

killings in the east Bosnian enclave by 

Bosnian Serb forces commanded by 

General Ratko Mladic, currently on trial 

in The Hague. 

It is the first time Serbia will try 

suspects involved in the Srebrenica 

massacre. 

Carried out by ethnic Serbs, the 

episode has long been a highly sensitive 

matter in Serbia, which was gripped by 

virulent nationalism and demands to 

protect Serbian minorities as Yugoslavia 

broke up. 

If found guilty, the eight face up to 

20 years in jail. “This is a very important 

case as Serbia needs to face its past,” 

Serbia’s former war crimes prosecutor 

Vladimir Vukcevic told AFP. 

“Without that there can be no 

catharsis, no reconciliation in the 

region.” The Srebrenica massacre was 

ruled as genocide by two international 

courts although Serbia has persistently 

rejected the definition. 

The eight are suspected members 

of the Bosnian Serb “Jahorina” special 

police unit, a dozen of whose members 

have already been sentenced in Bosnia 

over the Kravica killings. All the 

defendants obtained Serbian citizenship 

after the war. 

One of those charged was the unit’s 

The Srebrenica massacre 

was ruled as genocide by 

two international courts 

although Serbia has 

persistently rejected the 

definition as Mladic awaits 

the ICTY’s verdict over his 

role in war crimes committed 

during the Bosnian war 

commander, 58-year old Nedeljko 

Milidragovic, or “Nedjo the Butcher.” 

He is accused of having ordered 

the executions and saying “nobody 

File photo shows Bosnian women, survivors of July 1995 massacre in Srebrenica 

reacting as they watch live broadcast of the verdict reading in the trial of former 

Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, in Tuzla. — AFP 

should get out alive”, according to the 

indictment. 

After the war, Milidragovic became 

a successful businessman in Serbia, local 

media reported at the time of his arrest. 

Some 8,000 men and boys were 

killed and their bodies dumped in mass 

graves during the massacre, which 

became a symbol of the horror of the 

1990s Balkan wars that accompanied 

Yugoslavia’s collapse. 

Bosnian Serb police and the military 

packed the prisoners into the warehouse 

and began shooting and throwing 

grenades, according to the prosecutor 

and previous court hearings. 

Their remains have been found in at 

least eight mass graves, according to the 

prosecutor. 

Previous prosecutions linked to the 

Srebrenica massacre have been held by 

the Bosnian authorities and The Haguebased 

International Criminal Tribunal 

for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). 

Mladic awaits the ICTY’s verdict 

over his role in war crimes committed 

during the Bosnian war, including for 

Srebrenica. — AFP

worldinpictures 

panorama 


12 TUESDAY 


INNOCENT LOOKS: A young girl in front of Cairo’s Coptic Cathedral after an explosion 

inside the cathedral in Cairo, Egypt, on Monday. — Reuters 

SECURING THE STREETS: A soldier loyal to the Ansar Allah movement sits on a wall as he 

secures a street leading to the site of a rally in Sanaa, Yemen, on Monday. — Reuters 

LYON: Thieves held up a van transporting 

70 kg of gold in a dramatic heist near the 

French city of Lyon on Monday, police 

sources said. 

Four robbers used two cars to block 

the van at a motorway exit leading to an 

industrial estate north of Lyon, the sources 

said. 

After grabbing the gold and loading it 

into their getaway car, they locked the two 

security guards in the back of their van. 

Before making off, they set fire to their 

abandoned vehicle. 

The fire gutted the car and spread to 

nearby vehicles but police arrived on the 

scene before it engulfed the van, freeing 

the two guards who escaped unharmed, 

the investigators said. 

The robbery took place at an exit from 

the A6 motorway that connects the city 

with Paris. 

Police were hunting the assailants. 

France has experienced a growing 

number of motorway hijackings in recent 

Breaking with 

coming-of-age 

tradition to 

save the lion 

KIMANA: Under the shadow of a 

snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro, 

hundreds of Maasai boys brave the 

morning chill to take part in a ritual 

that marks their coming of age. 

But those vying to become a ‘moran’, 

or warrior, in the biennial ‘Maasai 

Olympics’ were not there to hurl their 

spears at lions as their ancestors did. 

Instead, the would-be morans, their 

cheeks smeared with ochre, hurled 

their javelins deep into the veldt in 

the Sidai Oleng Wildlife Sanctuary in 

Kenya’s southern Rift Valley. 

With a throw of 55.7 metres, the 

competition was won by 20-yearold 

Tipape Lekatoo from Mbirikani 

Manyatta village. 

“The prize money won’t pay for 

my tourism management education, 

but I am grateful that (efforts to raise 

awareness) of negative vices within 

the community are bearing fruit,” said 

Lekatoo. For Maasai boys on the cusp 

of manhood, killing lions was a rite of 

passage that turned them into warriors. 

Launched in 2012, the event is held 

to encourage communities to stop the 

killing, as hunting has brought lions to 

the brink of extinction in this territory 

at the foot of Kilimanjaro. — Reuters 

Robbers grab 70kg of gold in dramatic French van heist 

years. In March 2015, a group of around 

15 robbers held up two vans carrying 

jewellery worth around nine million euros 

($9.5 million) at a toll booth on the A6, 

near the central city of Auxerre. 

More recently, two women were held 

in their chauffeur-driven Bentley after 

leaving Le Bourget airport north of Paris 

in November. The masked robbers made 

off with valuables worth more than 

five million euros in jewels and other 

valuables. — AFP

TUESDAY | DECEMBER 13, 2016 | RABEE AL AWWAL 13, 1438 AH 

business 



OIL SURGES AFTER OUTPUT CUTS, STRONG DOLLAR WEIGHS P16 BANKS WANT TO BE SUBJECT TO EU LAWS FOR FIVE YEARS P17 LOCALS FEARFUL FOR LAND ON KENYA’S COAST P20 

GCC VAT revenues to 

reach $25bn per year 

EXPANDING TAX REVENUES: All GCC countries are 

expected to have implemented VAT by the end of 2018 

BUSINESS REPORTER 

MUSCAT 

Dec 12: The adoption of value added tax 

(VAT) by the GCC countries represents 

a major shift in tax policy that will 

impact all segments of the economy and 

lead to a fundamental change in the way 

businesses operate across the region. 

According to EY, the VAT of 5 per 

cent is expected to produce revenues of 

over $25 billion per annum for the six 

GCC countries. This will allow them 

to amend the tax policy and other fees 

and charges and increase infrastructure 

investments. 

EY has appointed David Stevens 

as VAT Implementation Leader to 

help clients with the adoption of VAT. 

David’s extensive global experience in 

VAT combined with his substantial 

experience in both the private and 

public sectors will help businesses 

ensure that their business operations 

and systems are fully prepared ahead of 

the January 1, 2018 as a target date to 

go-live. 

Sherif El Kilany, MENA Tax 

Leader, EY, comments: “The expected 

VAT laws are not ‘business as usual’ 

and may require several months for 

companies to successfully integrate a 

VAT functionality into their systems. 

It is a unique and transformative time 

for the region and we are keen to ensure 

that clients have access to the tools 

to derive VAT best practices tailored 

to their needs. 

Furthermore, we 

are delighted to 

welcome David 

as our new VAT 

Implementation 

Leader. David 

brings with 

him a wealth of 

international 

David Stevens experience and 

knowledge 

of VAT implementation in complex 

environments.” 

David Stevens, VAT Implementation 

Leader, EY, says: “While the 

introduction of a tax may seem daunting 

to consumers and businesses alike, the 

overall impact for consumers is less 

than the usual annual inflation rate. 

As businesses prepare to implement 

VAT across numerous sectors, they will 

need to invest in analysing, redesigning, 

developing and implementing updated 

systems, processes, contracts and 

business arrangements to match the 

requirements of the new tax system. I 

am very excited to be working with EY, 

as a leading tax practice in the region, 

during this time of economic progress.” 

All GCC countries are working 

towards VAT implementation by 

January 1, 2018 to avoid transaction 

and sales issues that could arise from 

intra-GCC trade. Businesses that are 

not ready by the VAT go-live date may 

suffer fiscal consequences from the 

inability to pass on the underlying VAT 

to the end customer. All GCC countries 

are expected to have implemented VAT 

by the end of 2018. 

“The priority for companies at the 

moment should be to secure the right 

accounting and IT talent that have 

previous VAT experience. As this is 

a new scheme, there is a limited pool 

of expertise that all GCC businesses 

are recruiting from. Additionally, the 

GCC ministries are building their tax 

administration systems almost from 

scratch and will require expansive 

teams to first develop the processes, and 

then monitor compliance after January 

1, 2018,” says David. 

Lonza in talks to buy Capsugel for $5 bn 

ZURICH: Swiss pharmaceutical 

manufacturer Lonza Group AG is in 

advanced talks to acquire Capsugel, a 

US maker of capsule products and other 

drug delivery systems, for more than 

$5 billion, according to people familiar 

with the matter. 

The deal would come as Lonza seeks 

to boost its life sciences capabilities and 

produce a wider range of molecules used 

in active pharmaceutical ingredients and 

drug delivery. It held unsuccessful talks 

to acquire US drug delivery technology 

company Catalent Inc earlier this year. 

Discussions between Lonza and 

Capsugel’s owner, private equity firm 

KKR & Co LP, could lead to a deal as 

A logo is pictured on the laboratory 

building on the Lonza site in Visp, 

western Switzerland. — Reuters 

early this week, the people said on 

Sunday, cautioning that it was still 

possible for the negotiations to fall 

through. 

The sources asked not to be 

identified because the negotiations are 

confidential. Capsugel, Lonza and KKR 

did not immediately respond to requests 

for comment. 

Based in Morristown, New Jersey, 

Capsugel manufacturers empty twopiece 

hard capsules as well as finished 

dosage forms for drug delivery. It serves 

more than 4,000 corporate customers in 

over 100 countries. 

Reuters reported in March that KKR 

was preparing to run a sale process for 

Capsugel this year, and also explore the 

possibility of an initial public offering 

of the company as an alternative to an 

outright sale. 

— Reuters 

Deadline for Oman Rail consultancy 

bids extended to December 15 

CONRAD PRABHU 

MUSCAT 

Dec 12: The deadline for submission of 

bids for Oman Rail’s keenly anticipated 

tender for Multifunctional Consultancy 

Services has been deferred by a week 

to December 15, 2016, the Observer 

has learnt. The extension is designed to 

enable a wider response from qualified 

international consultancy firms to 

participate in the competitive tender. 

Oman Rail, part of the wholly 

government-owned Oman Global 

Logistics Group SAOC (OGL), says 

the selected consultant will serve as an 

“adviser” to the national rail company, 

notably in the development of a rail 

network optimised for heavy haul bulk 

operations. 

A large number of international 

firms are expected to compete for the 

Multifunctional Consultancy Services 

contract, which requires the selected 

firm to demonstrate expertise across 

(Picture for illustration) 

seven key areas of railway development 

and operations: (i) Operation & 

Maintenance (ii) Infrastructure (iii) 

Rolling Stock (iv) Management (v) 

Railway Facilities (vi) Mass Transit 

System, and (vii) Auxiliary Services 

(Ports and Mines). 

As part of its brief, the selected 

consultant shall develop a system, 

complete with simulations, to identify 

and define the specific types of terminals 

and facilities required to support the 

operation of heavy haul freight systems 

suitable to handle axle loads of 32.4 

tonnes and more, as well as mixed 

(freight and passenger), and mass transit 

(metro and light rail transit) systems. 

Given this wide-ranging scope, 

interested consultants must demonstrate 

proven expertise encompassing heavy 

haul railway design, development and 

operation of commercial terminals, 

maintenance requirements based 

on freight and passenger demand 

projections, and integration of railway 

systems. 

Additionally, the consultant should 

be adept at providing schematic 

concepts, based on reviews of previous 

studies, in preparing training running 

simulations, operational plans, 

maintenance plans, design guidelines 

of complete infrastructure and systems 

for all commercial terminals and freight 

maintenance facilities. The schematics 

envision conceptual outlines of a fully 

functional and operating heavy haul 

railway, multipurpose railway, or mass 

transit system, according to Oman Rail.

insideoman 

business 


14 TUESDAY 


BUSINESS ALERT 

Start-up Oman to feature local entrepreneurs 

MUSCAT: Startup 

Oman (www. 

startupom an.om ), 

the Sultanate’s only 

platform created 

by entrepreneurs 

for entrepreneurs 

and the ‘home of 

entrepreneurship’ in 

Oman will host the 

December edition of the “Caribou Chats,” monthly talks for local start-ups 

and entrepreneurs. “Caribou Chats” is an educational programme designed 

specifically for Oman’s start-up community. It aims to fully promote the 

entrepreneurial lifestyle, with all of its daily hurdles and learnings. The December 

edition of Caribou Chats is scheduled to take place on December 14 at 6.30 pm 

and will feature Sadiq Mehdi al Lawati, Director of Mehdi Group. Sadiq is the 

owner of Slider Station, B+F and Shabestan, three upscale restaurants in Muscat 

amongst others and a franchisee of 6 brands in Oman. Joining Sadiq will be Ali 

al Abdullatif, the Managing Director of Creative Foods LLC, a company that 

operates and runs two outlets of Creative foods restaurant, Shuwa Express and 

Shuwa Diner. 

Ahlibank announces MyHassad daily winners 

AHLIBANK announced the names 

of the MyHassad daily prize draw 

winners, Sami Abdullah Sulaiman al 

Balushi from Sohar branch, Sulaiman 

Hamood Aamir al Mahrezi from Sur 

branch, Said Fahad Said al Rasbi from 

Seeb branch and Nasser Issa Saleh Ali 

al Flaiti from Barka branch, were the 

lucky winners of RO 1000 each for the 

week. MyHassad savings account continues to successfully satisfy the existing 

customers and attract new ones. 

MyHassad Saving Scheme was introduced in July 2008 as an extension of the 

bank’s tradition of product innovation. Opening MyHassad Saving account is 

simple and easy. Customers need only to open their MyHassad account with RO 

100 for their chance to win RO 1,000 in the next working day’s draw hence their 

chance to “open today and win tomorrow” continues. Further enhancements in 

March 2009 allows customers to participate in the RO 10,000 monthly draw, by 

maintaining a minimum RO 250 during the month. 

Get amazing benefits on all new Renault Koleos 

RENAULT Oman, from the house of Suhail Bahwan Automobiles (SBA), is 

offering the best possible value with amazing deals and offers on the new Renault 

Koleos, which features proven powertrain and technologies. 

As part of the offer, customers who purchase Renault Koleos will be entitled 

to receive an assured cash gift of RO 2000. All 

customers purchasing Renault Koleos during 

the scheme period will be eligible for free 

first year vehicle registration. Renault Koleos 

vehicles purchased during the scheme period 

will have an extended six years/unlimited 

mileage warranty. 

Customers purchasing Renault Koleos 

in the scheme period will get free periodic 

vehicle maintenance of two years/20,”000 kms (whichever is earlier). This offer 

excludes battery. Offers are not applicable for rent a car/ taxi/driver trainer 

segments. Free AAA/Road Assistance card will be given on the purchase of 

Renault Koleos for the first year only and as supported by AAA Oman. 

Oman Motor Show welcomes 31,541 visitors 

OMAN’S grandest four-day Motor 

Show welcomed a total of 31,541 unique 

visitors to its new venue at the Oman 

Convention & Exhibition Centre from 

December 7 to 10. 

As promised, pioneer and leading 

organiser Omanexpo has once again 

brought a much-bigger and more 

exciting show, with reputable top car 

brands unfailingly displaying and unveiling their top-of-the-line models — from 

saloon cars to SUVs and four-wheel drives to luxury, sports and hybrid cars. 

Equally grabbing the spotlight were the elegant display of classic cars and the 

lineup of Harley Davidson motorbikes. The auto parts and accessories pavilion 

also did not fail to impress the visitors. Another highlight was the Land Rover 

adventure zone, which provided visitors the opportunity to do test drives. 

In addition, there were the traditional road safety demonstrations, a children’s 

zone that offered educational and interactive activities, the adventure exhibits by 

Oman Riders Club, Muscat Bikers, Oman Riders Club and Shabek Adventure 

Oman, and the grand raffle draw. 

“Because of the show’s popularity, new companies participate each edition. 

This year, we had BMW, Land Rover, Honda and Hyundai and China car maker 

BAIC, which recently entered the Oman market. This is apart from regular 

exhibitors such as Toyota, Lexus, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Jeep, Dodge and others,” 

Nader Abbas, Omanexpo General Manager said. 

Lincoln MKS now with offer 

THE Lincoln MKS is renowned for its luxury. Right from its attractive looks to its 

list of advanced features and technologies, the MKS has remained one of Lincoln’s 

most successful luxury models. 

Boasting an available 305HP, V6, dramatic styling and a spacious, leatherlined 

cabin loaded with the latest high-tech features, the MKS appears to check 

all the boxes for a large luxury sedan. 

The Lincoln MKS feels like the big, solid car it is when driven down the 

freeway. The steering is responsive and well weighted and provides a welcome 

sense of control. In terms of engines, the 

base 3.7-litre V6 is sufficient for moving 

the big and heavy MKS. 

Customers looking to own the MKS 

can now look forward to impressive Cash 

Gift of RO 5000 and 0 per cent interest on 

EMI (Conditions apply. Visit showroom 

for details). 

Nissan Oman’s special offer ends on Dec 15 

FOR the benefit of customers who aspire to own a Nissan vehicle, Nissan Oman 

from the house of Suhail Bahwan Automobiles (SBA), had launched the “Get the 

Nissan Excitement” offer. The offer which started on October 16 will be valid till 

the December 15 on all models purchased for personal use only. 

Extending buyers a surplus of appealing value propositions, which include 

attractive cash back offer, free registration, free periodic maintenance service of 

10,000 km, extended mileage warranty, the promotion offers the best of the deals 

for its customers. These offers vary across all models. 

Talking about the promotion, a senior official of SBA said, “Excitement is at 

the heart of everything we do at Nissan, which is why we came up with this offer. 

The “Get the Nissan Excitement” campaign wants to reward customers who are 

enthusiasts of the Nissan brand. This offer makes the process of owning a Nissan 

vehicle easy and attractive. Brand Nissan is trusted by auto enthusiasts and we feel 

our customers deserve the best for heir loyalty.” 

A’Saffa Foods reinforces ‘100 pc promise’ 

A’SAFFA Foods, Oman’s largest 

fully integrated poultry project 

leaves no stone unturned in its 

commitment to delivering superior 

quality products that are 100 per 

cent natural, fresh and tasty. 

Focusing on the corporate 

philosophy — “Core values 

of Healthy Food, Health and 

Happiness”, A’Saffa’s success is based on its “100 per cent promise” and its three 

pillars — “100 per cent halal, 100 per cent natural and 100 per cent tasty”. Each 

and every A’Saffa product is produced, packaged and transported to a wholesaler 

or retailer keeping health, freshness and safety in mind. 

Having built its competence and expertise in fully integrated Poultry and 

food production, food processing and innovative food recipes, the brand is thus 

known for delivering fresh, flavourful, halal and healthy choices for its consumers 

in Oman and beyond. 

New 2017 Toyota 

COROLLA 

launched 

The Corolla launch event was graced by 

Honourable Chief Guest Sayyid Tareq bin 

Shabib al Said along with Sayyid Khalid bin 

Hamad bin Hamoud al Busaidi, Chairman, 

SABCO Group and Eng Ahmed bin Hassan al Dheeb, 

Under Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, 

in the presence of Saud Mohamed Bahwan. 

At the venue — the futuristic Toyota Pavilion at 

Oman Motor Show 2016 — scores of eager Toyota 

enthusiasts were present along with friends and family... 

a clear indication of the mass excitement that the new 

Corolla generates. 

Emphasising the significance of the launch of the new 

2017 Toyota Corolla, a prominent online automotive 

site stated, “Toyota has a big influence on the industry. 

Now, the Corolla is no different — with over 40 million 

sales, this go-getter is just getting started. People have 

been speculating about the new edition for quite some 

time now, and there used to be this mystery fog around 

it — nobody really knew when it was going to come out, 

or even what it could look like!” 

Making a strong design statement with its unique 

visual signature, the Corolla Multi Drive 7S signifies 

Toyota’s brand evolution. The Corolla’s design theme 

combines clean lines and balanced proportions to give 

it an immediate visual impact. It tapers at the front and 

rear of the vehicle to help emphasise the wheel arches 

and wheels-to-the-corner stance. 

Indeed the 2017 Corolla attracts all the right 

attention. There are many distinctive upshots of 

the 2017 restyle. According to the Saud Bahwan 

Automotive spokesperson, “The new 2017 Corolla has 

been restyled to turn heads, arrest attention. These 

include a refreshingly redesigned grille that set off its 

stylish profile. The new front bumper, the redesigned 

headlamps, daytime running lights & fog lamps 

further accentuates the effect. A truly well-heeled 

look is imparted by the New Alloy Wheels as it passes 

by. Finally, like perfume wafting in the air, the new 

rear combination lamps & rear spoiler leave a lasting 

impression. The 2017 Corolla is now available with 

two new exciting colours — Beige Metallic & Phantom 

Brown Metallic” 

Stepping in, one is greeted by the aesthetically 

refreshed interior of the new Corolla. It boasts of a 

refreshed and pleasingly contoured Dashboard, even 

the A/C vents have been redesigned to enhance the 

new Corolla experience. The new Corolla is up-todate 

on the inside with the new design Display Audio 

System, Steering Wheel with controls and automatic 

Air-conditioner. In other words, Toyota Corolla 2017 

is ready to come out and play. No wonder then that 

industry experts are giving rave reviews on the new 

Corolla. 

The feature-rich Corolla is an exceptional value, 

but that is not all. The world famous Toyota Corolla is 

no less than an icon. Not only does it have a legendary 

reputation, it offers a truly impressive resale value, even 

after years of use. It was no surprise for anyone that 

when the Multi Drive 7S transmission equipped Toyota 

Corolla was introduced in Oman, it quickly climbed to 

the top of the list of favourites. 

Customers love the fact that the Corolla has Multi 

Drive 7S Transmission that allows them to ‘Drive 

Smooth and Save Smart.’ It does so by delivering a very 

smooth, yet powerful driving performance; topping 

it up with gratifying fuel efficiency. The Multi Drive 

7S continuously variable transmission meticulously 

controls the speed and shifting pattern to realize 

excellent power train performance while ensuring a 

powerful and linear acceleration. It also has a 7-Speed 

Sequential Shiftmatic Mode with Manual Gear Shiftinglike 

characteristics that give the driver complete control 

when required. Under the bonnet lies, a 2.0 litre engine 

mated with the Multi Drive 7S transmission. Apart 

from this, the Corolla is also available with a 1.6 litre 

engine that offers excellent fuel efficiency. 

It is indeed fortunate for many customers that the 

‘Toyota never-before’ offer is currently running. At this 

moment, the Corolla, even the 2017 YM, is available 

with an attractive cash gift. Customers are advised to 

make the most of this wonderful opportunity to own 

one of the best-loved cars across the world. 

The 2017 Corolla comes with an array of safety, 

comfort and convenience specifications that add to 

customers’ delight — including ABS with EBD and 

Brake Assist, Cruise Control, Vehicle Stability Control 

System and the Tyre Pressure Monitoring System. 

Engineered to provide high active and passive safety 

standards, the Corolla also offers enhanced pedestrian 

impact protection. The adoption of numerous energy 

absorbing components offer significantly improved 

pedestrian protection in the event of a frontal impact. 

For occupant protection, impact-absorbing structures 

have been adopted for the interior part of the pillar 

areas to ensure cabin safety. To help reduce the impact 

of a collision on occupants, the 2017 Corolla Multi 

Drive 7S is equipped with SRS Airbags for the driver 

and front passenger. 

In addition to the above, the Corolla also features 

other class-leading features such as LED Projector 

Headlamps with Integrated-type Daylight Running 

Lights, Smart Entry System with Push Button Start, new 

Sport Drive mode, Auto Headlamp Levelling, Chrome 

Garnished Retractable Outer Mirrors with Turn Signals 

and Moonroof, amongst others. 

The new 2017 Corolla invites you to visit any Toyota 

showroom for a closer look. 

All specifications listed above are standard Toyota 

equipment. Safety kit (fire extinguisher, warning 

triangle, tyre pressure gauge & first aid kit) is a dealer 

installed non-Toyota item provided on Toyota models 

as standard equipment. The vehicle specifications may 

change without prior notice. Pictures and colours may 

differ from actual specifications of the vehicles. For 

further details & to ascertain availability of stocks, 

please visit your nearest Toyota showroom. 

In Oman, Toyota’s outstanding product quality is 

supported by the nationwide parts and service network 

of Saud Bahwan Automotive. No wonder then that 

today, Toyota is one of the most trusted and well-known 

brands.

omaninternational 

business 


15 


Kempinski to support Oman to 

attract more quality tourists 

SALEH AL SHAIBANY 

MUSCAT 

Dec 12: Kempinski Hotel, set to be 

officially inaugurated in the second half 

of 2017, aims to help Oman’s ambitions 

to attract quality tourists to the country, 

its General Manager told the Observer in 

an exclusive interview. 

Konstantin Zeuke said he would 

bring in his international experience 

and the proud tradition of the famous 

European luxury brand Kempinski to 

Oman to push forward the tourism 

drive. 

“Oman is an ideal destination for 

tourists. We will work with the local 

authorities, travel agents and tour guides 

to promote the interest of the country 

and highlight all the major attractions. 

Kempinski has a rich tradition of 

hospitality and we plan to bring it here 

as part of the tourism campaign,” Zeuke 

told the Observer. 

Kempinski have been hoteliers since 

1897 catering for luxury holiday resorts, 

business and spas around the world. The 

hotel’s uniqueness is designed for guests 

who value five star holidays and luxury 

getaways and it would work well for 

Oman’s tourism plans. 

Oman is an ideal destination 

for tourists. We will work 

with the local authorities, 

travel agents and tour guides 

to promote the interest of 

the country and highlight all 

the major attractions 

KONSTANTIN ZEUKE 

GM, Kempinski Hotel 

Nevertheless Zeuke said, although 

Kempinski follows the finest traditions 

of its European heritage, under his 

management, the hotel will infuse local 

cultures and customs for the guests to 

enjoy what Oman has to offer. 

“We will be the ambassador of 

Oman’s rich culture. I know this country 

has a proud background. Tourists do 

not come here for tall buildings or big 

shopping malls. Oman is different 

from other regional countries. It has a 

fascinating history, beautiful beaches, 

sceneries and attractive mountain 

background. It is also attracting water 

sports such as snorkelling and diving, 

which is increasingly becoming popular 

to tourists from different part of the 

world,” Zeuke explained. 

The Sultanate has received over 2 

million tourists in 2015 and the number 

of visitors has been steadily increasing at 

the rate of 7 per cent per annum in the 

last five years. With the current situation 

of falling oil revenues, the government 

is stepping up its efforts to diversify 

the economy. Tourism is the pivotal 

part of it. At the moment, tourism is 

contributing to less than 5 per cent of 

the total revenues while oil and gas over 

80 per cent. 

Zeuke stressed that Kempinski is not 

France’s Amundi to buy Pioneer 

from UniCredit for 3.6 bn euros 

PARIS: French asset manager 

Amundi has agreed to buy rival 

Pioneer Investments from Italian bank 

UniCredit for 3.6 billion euros (£3.01 

billion), extending its reach in Europe 

and bringing in some much-needed 

capital for UniCredit. 

Amundi’s share price surged 

more than 6 per cent to record highs 

following the announcement, as analysts 

welcomed the deal, which should boost 

earnings for both Amundi and majority 

owner Credit Agricole, while UniCredit 

shares also rose. 

The Pioneer sale follows on the heels 

of UniCredit’s sale of its Polish assets last 

week and is expected to be followed by 

the announcement of a massive share 

issue this week worth up to 13 billion 

euros as it seeks to shore up its balance 

sheet. 

“The deal is a positive for all the 

parties involved. UniCredit raises 

some money and Amundi boosts its 

market presence,” said Clairinvest fund 

manager Ion-Marc Valahu, who holds 

shares in European banks. 

UniCredit’s chief executive Jean- 

Pierre Mustier, a former top banker 

at Societe Generale who along with 

Amundi’s CEO Yves Perrier managed 

the creation of the French asset manager 

back in 2009-2010, also signed an 

agreement that gives Amundi access 

The Amundi company logo is seen at their headquarters in Paris. — Reuters 

to UniCredit’s distribution networks in 

Italy, Germany and Austria for up to 10 

years. 

Amundi will finance the deal via a 

1.4 billion share issue and the issue of 

around 0.6 billion euros of senior and 

subordinated debt, with the rights issue 

to be launched in the first half of 2017. 

It also has 1.5 billion euros in excess 

capital. 

UniCredit said the sale of Pioneer 

would boost its best-quality capital 

adequacy ratio by around 0.78 percentage 

points and it would also receive 

an extraordinary dividend payment of 

315 million euros before the closing of 

the sale, which is expected in the first 

half of 2017. 

The sale would also result in it 

booking a net gain of 2.2 billion euros, 

the bank said. 

Amundi is on an expansion spree 

following its stock market flotation 

by French banks Credit Agricole and 

SocGen in 2015, which resulted in 

SocGen selling out, and the company is 

aiming to win market share in Europe 

and Asia. 

— Reuters 

seeking to compete with other hotels 

already operating in the country but to 

work with them towards common goals 

and targets. 

“Competition is healthy for the 

country. We are here to work together 

with the tourism campaign by helping 

the government to achieve its objectives. 

For example, I am impressed with the 

Ministry of Tourism’s efforts to build 

recreation, convention facilities and 

more hotels, giving opportunities to 

other hotel chains. Kempinski is here to 

be part of the team,” he said. 

He gave an example of resorts in the 

Jabal Al Akhdhar which Kempinski 

would work out joint packages with 

them to bring in tourists to enjoy the 

breathtaking views and the tranquility 

of the mountainside’s life. 

The Kempinski general manager 

also paid tribute to the stability of the 

country under the reign of His Majesty 

Sultan Qaboos. 

“ It is a trouble free country and that 

is the other reason why Oman is an 

ideal destination for many people who 

want to come to enjoy a quiet holiday 

and meet the friendliest people in the 

region,” he added. 

BCC nudges 

up 2017 growth 

forecast, cuts 2018 

LONDON: The British Chambers 

of Commerce nudged up its forecast 

for economic growth next year but 

downgraded the outlook for 2018 due 

to inflation pressures and ongoing 

uncertainty as Britain prepares to 

leave the European Union, it said on 

Monday. 

The BCC modestly revised up 

its expectations for gross domestic 

product growth to 1.1 per cent for 

2017 from 1 per cent after a strongerthan-expected 

economic performance 

following June’s vote to quit the EU 

which means the economy is likely to 

grow 2.1 per cent this year, roughly its 

long-run average. 

However, the business group said 

it expected the current economic 

momentum to slow over the next two 

years and downgraded its GDP forecast 

for 2018 to 1.4 per cent from 1.8 per 

cent, as Britain continues its divorce 

from the EU. The BCC’s forecast is 

exactly in line with the consensus 

among private-sector economists 

polled by Reuters last week, and their 

economic analysis is similar. Weaker 

economic activity and an erosion of 

real wage growth triggered by sterling’s 

post-referendum slide is expected to 

curb household consumption and 

business investment, the BCC said. 

— Reuters 

Large turnout for 

‘Invest in India’ forum 

BUSINESS REPORTER 

MUSCAT 

Dec 12: Around 250 representatives of public sector organisations, 

investment funds, banks, business enterprises and institutions in the 

Sultanate attend the 3rd ‘Invest in India’ seminar hosted by the Indian 

Embassy at the at Sheraton Oman Hotel recently. 

The seminar highlighted the attractive investment opportunities in 

India. Three presentations on ‘Investment opportunities in India’, ‘India’s 

attractiveness as an investment destination’ and ‘India’s taxation policies and 

ease of doing Business in India’, showcased the immense opportunities for 

investment available in India. Sayyid Khalid al Busaidi, Chairman, Al Nab’a 

Group, shared his experiences of doing business with India and explained 

how the business opportunities offered by India has been benefitting Oman. 

Among the dignitaries attending the event were Ahmed bin Hassan 

al Dheeb, Under- 

Secretary, Ministry 

of Commerce and 

Industry; Abdulsalam bin 

Mohammed al Murshidi, 

Executive President, State 

General Reserve Fund 

(SGRF); Sulaiman al 

Rahbi, Deputy Secretary- 

General, Supreme 

Council for Planning; and 

Redha Juma al Saleh, Vice Chairman, Oman Chamber of Commerce and 

Industry (OCCI). 

Indra Mani Pandey, Ambassador of India to the Sultanate of Oman, in 

his welcome remarks, conveyed India’s keenness to enhance bilateral trade 

and investment relations with Oman. He explained how the economy of 

India has been transformed to become the fastest growing major economy 

of the world and a preferred investment destination for the world business 

community. With recent improvements in ease of doing business, India has 

been receiving a record amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) — $44 

billion during April 2015-March 2016, and $29 during April-September 

2016. 

Ambassador Pandey drew attention to the decline in bilateral trade 

between India and Oman from $5.7 billion during the year ending March 

2014 to $3.8 during the year ending March 2016, and invited business 

communities of India and Oman to expand their mutual trade and 

investments. He underlined that India, as always, is keen to work with 

the government and business community of Oman to achieve the goal of 

diversification of Oman’s economy, with focus on sectors identified through 

Tanfeedh. 

The ambassador also announced that the Government of India has 

launched a new scheme for grant of permanent residency status to foreign 

investors valid for 10 years and extendable for another 10 years. Apart from 

free entry and no restrictions on the duration of stay, foreign investors are 

allowed to purchase one residential property in India for residential purposes. 

The spouses and dependents of investors will be allowed to work or study in 

India. The only requirement is to invest RO 571,000 within 18 months or RO 

1.4 million in 36 months, and create 20 jobs for Indians every year. With a 

view to promote visits by Omani businessmen to India, the Embassy of India 

has streamlined business visa processes and issues multiple entry visas with 

a minimum six month validity. 

For high-level Management of Omani companies, the embassy is issuing 

visas valid for one to five years. 

Philips to sell Lumileds majority share for $1.5bn 

AMSTERDAM: Dutch electronics 

giant Philips announced on Monday the 

sale of a majority share in its Lumileds 

LED lighting business for $1.5 billion, 

after cancelling the spinoff earlier this 

year over US regulatory concerns. 

“Royal Philips today announced that 

it has signed an agreement to sell an 80.1 

per cent interest in Lumileds to certain 

funds managed by affiliates of (USbased) 

Apollo Global Management,” 

the Amsterdam-based company said in 

a statement. 

Philips said it expected the deal to 

net the firm approximately $1.5 billion 

(1.41 million euros) in cash and equity. 

The new move comes after Philips 

dropped a planned $2.8 billion sale to 

Beijing-based GO Scale in January. 

“With this transaction, we will be 

completing an important phase of the 

transformation of our portfolio and I 

am satisfied that in the Apollo managed 

funds we have found the right owner for 

Lumileds,” said Philips chief executive 

Frans van Houten. 

— AFP 

Growth in global coal demand to slow over next five years: IEA 

LONDON: Growth in global coal 

demand will slow over the next five 

years due to lower consumption in 

China and the United States and as 

renewable energy sources gain ground, 

the International Energy Agency (IEA) 

said on Monday. 

The IEA said last year that the world’s 

top coal consumer, China, could be 

facing peak coal demand for the first 

time due to measures to cap coal use 

to tackle air pollution and curb excess 

supply. 

“In China, coal demand is in 

structural and slow decline driven by 

a new economic growth model and 

diversification of coal,” the Paris-based 

IEA said in its medium-term coal 

market report. 

Even though China’s consumption is 

likely to have peaked, the country will 

still be the largest coal user over the next 

five years. 

Its coal demand should decrease 

slightly to 2.816 billion tonnes of coal 

equivalent by 2021, compared to 2.896 

billion tonnes of coal equivalent in 2014. 

Globally, the IEA expects coal 

demand to total 5.636 billion tonnes by 

2021, compared to 5.400 billion tonnes 

last year, when coal demand dropped for 

the first time this century. 

This equates to 0.6 per cent average 

annual growth from 2015 to 2021, below 

the 2.5 per cent average yearly growth 

over the past decade. 

“Because of the implications for air 

quality and carbon emissions, coal has 

come under fire in recent years, but it is 

too early to say that this is the end for 

coal,” said Keisuke Sadamori, director 

of the IEA’s energy markets and security 

directorate. 

“Coal demand is moving to Asia, 

where emerging economies with 

growing populations are seeking 

affordable and secure energy sources to 

power their economies.” 

The biggest growth in coal demand 

will occur in India, which will have an 

annual average growth rate of 5 per cent 

by 2021. 

After years of decline, coal prices 

have rebounded sharply in 2016, driven 

by a sharp cut in Chinese coal output 

coupled with strong demand across the 

Asia-Pacific region and in Europe. 

Benchmark API2 2017 coal futures 

rose by 4 per cent to $65.75 a tonne on 

Monday morning, the highest level since 

December 2. 

In its report, the IEA forecasts 

thermal coal prices to decline next year 

and then remain relatively flat to 2021. 

“Reasonable doubts persist on the 

sustainability of current prices, given 

that climate pressure continues and air 

pollution is a serious issue which will 

shape policies in China, India and other 

emerging countries,” it said. 

Coal demand in the United States 

and Europe will continue to decline, 

falling to 475 million tonnes and 337 

million tonnes respectively in 2021. 

— Reuters Locals carry coal from an open cast coal field at Dhanbad district, Jharkhand, India. — Reuters


business 

16 TUESDAY 



Oil surges after output cuts, strong dollar weighs 

A gas station attendant pumps fuel into a customer’s car at PetroChina’s petrol station in Beijing, China. — Reuters 

HONG KONG: Oil prices jumped to 

their highest levels in a year and a half 

on Monday after Opec and non-Opec 

producers agreed to cut oil output to 

ease a global glut, while the US dollar 

extended gains before a Federal Reserve 

meeting this week, at which a rate hike is 

widely expected. 

The agreement between Opec and a 

number of other oil producing nations 

was the first joint action since 2001, 

following more than two years of low 

prices that strained many government’s 

budgets and spurred unrest in countries 

from the Middle East to Latin America. 

Brent futures for February delivery 

rose 4.4 per cent to $56.72 per barrel, 

with US crude rising 4.8 per cent to 

$53.98 per barrel in Asian trade. 

The jump in oil prices comes in the 

wake of a renewed focus on inflation 

after data on Friday showed a rare spike 

in producer prices in China, prompting 

investors to worry that inflationary 

pressures are making a come back 

globally. 

“We have seen Opec and non-Opec 

producers agreeing, which is also 

boosting reflation expectation around 

the world,” said Chris Weston, an 

institutional dealer with IG Markets. 

The 10-year US Treasuries yield rose 

as high as 2.5 per cent in Asian trade, 

matching its 2015 peak. 

In another sign of the reflation trade, 

breakeven rates, the gap between yields 

of five-year US debt and a matching 

tenor in inflation-protected securities, 

were at two-month highs, indicating 

markets are expecting inflation to 

accelerate. 

European shares were expected to 

open higher following strong gains in 

the previous week which saw the STOXX 

600 score its best week since January 

2015. IG Markets expected Germany’s 

DAX and Britain’s FTSE to mark solid 

gains at the open. 

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia- 

Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 

0.5 per cent after posting its biggest 

weekly rise in nearly three months last 

week. But energy plays in Hong Kong 

and Shanghai such as CNOOC and 

PetroChina were among the top gainers. 

Japan’s Nikkei ended up 0.8 per cent 

at its highest closing level since mid- 

December last year. 

Despite the bounce in some Asian 

stocks, broad investor sentiment 

remained cautious from a flows 

perspective with data showing a pick up 

in outflows from emerging markets and 

inflows toward US markets, according to 

Jefferies analysts. 

A preliminary survey from the 

University of Michigan on Friday 

showed US consumer sentiment index 

at its highest since January 2015, which 

may see the Fed strike a more confident 

tone on the US economic outlook at its 

final policy meeting of 2016 starting on 

Tuesday. 

Futures have virtually priced in a rate 

increase this week while the greenback 

gained fresh legs from the data. It was 

0.2 per cent higher against the Japanese 

yen at 115.61. 

The euro changed hands at $1.0556. 

Analysts at BBH expect a rebound to 

1.07 per dollar if the 1.05 level is not 

broken. 

Morgan Stanley economists expect 

six rate increases between now and end- 

2018 and say that any dollar pause is an 

opportunity to add to long positions 

though some analysts adopted a more 

cautious stance. 

“The markets are expecting too much 

from the Fed and that is what latecomers 

to the dollar rally will be thinking,” said 

Cliff Tan, a markets strategist at Bank of 

Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ. 

Spot gold steadied at $1,157.76 per 

ounce after hitting its lowest levels since 

early February. 

— Reuters 

China should target 

6.5 pc growth in 2017 

SHANGHAI: China should set an 

economic growth target of around 

6.5 per cent for 2017, although it 

is very likely that it will be able 

to exceed that level, the State 

Information Centre said on Monday. 

The State Information Centre 

is an official think-tank affiliated 

with the National Development and 

Reform Commission, a powerful 

economic planner. It suggested the 

growth target in an article carried in 

the China Securities Journal. 

Its recommendation comes as 

top leaders prepare to meet this 

month to map out an economic 

and reform agenda for 2017 during 

an annual Central Economic Work 

Conference. 

“In 2017, China’s economic 

operations will need to intensify 

efforts to alleviate deep-seated 

contradictions and structural 

problems,” the think-tank said, 

singling out the property market, 

social capital and regional financial 

risks as among its concerns. 

China’s economy grew 6.7 per 

cent in the third quarter from a 

year earlier and looks set to achieve 

the government’s full-year forecast 

of 6.5-7 per cent, buoyed by higher 

China’s economic 

operations will need 

to intensify efforts to 

alleviate deep-seated 

contradictions and 

structural problems 

OFFICIAL 

State Information Centre 

government spending, a housing 

boom and record bank lending. 

However, growing debt and 

concerns about property bubbles 

have touched off an internal debate 

about whether China should tolerate 

slower growth in 2017 to allow more 

room for painful reforms aimed at 

reducing industrial overcapacity and 

indebtedness. 

The government has said growth 

of at least 6.5 per cent is needed 

each year through to 2020 to meet 

a previously stated goal of doubling 

gross domestic product and per 

capita income by then, from 2010 

levels. 

— Reuters 

Honda ties up with ride-hailing service Grab 

Iran seals $17 bn Boeing 

deal, close to Airbus order 

PARIS/DUBAI: Iran signed a $16.6 

billion deal for 80 Boeing passenger 

jets on Sunday and was said to be close 

to another for dozens of Airbus planes 

to complete what would be the biggest 

package of firm contracts with Western 

companies since Iran’s revolution in late 

1970s. 

The deal between IranAir and US 

planemaker Boeing includes 50 narrowbody 

737 MAX aircraft and 30 longhaul 

777s, split equally between the 

777-300ER, which is badly in need of 

an order boost, and the 406-seat 777-9, 

which is under development. 

An Iranian official said that IranAir 

was also at the “very final stage” of 

formalising a deal with Europe’s Airbus, 

which led Western companies back into 

Iran with a provisional agreement for 

118 planes when Tehran emerged from 

global sanctions in January. 

The Airbus deal, which is expected to 

involve a first batch of 50-60 jets, should 

be completed in the next couple of days, 

the official said. 

Also closing in on a deal to renew 

Iran’s ageing fleet, kept going by 

smuggled or improvised parts after 

decades of sanctions, European 

turboprop maker ATR said it had 

received US approvals needed to finalise 

the sale of up to 40 aircraft. 

The Boeing contract, the biggest 

Iran-US deal so far, clears a major 

A Honda logo is seen on media day at 

the Paris auto show, in Paris. — Reuters 

SINGAPORE: Southeast Asian ridehailing 

service Grab disclosed on 

Monday that Japan’s Honda Motor 

Co had invested in the firm, as part 

of a $750 million funding announced 

previously, to collaborate on motorbikehailing 

services. 

This is the latest tie-up of its kind in 

the auto industry, where carmakers such 

as Volkswagen, Toyota Motor Corp and 

General Motors have also struck deals 

with ride-sharing firms to hedge against 

a shift in the vehicle market away from 

private ownership. 

Grab, the biggest rival to ridesharing 

service Uber Technologies 

Inc in Southeast Asia, said Honda had 

agreed to invest an undisclosed amount 

in the firm, and the two would form a 

technical hurdle toward implementing 

last year’s pact between Iran and world 

powers to reopen trade in return for 

curbs on Iran’s nuclear activities. 

However, political opposition could 

yet threaten a deal that would provide 

a welcome boost to Boeing’s order book 

after a year in which it has lagged behind 

rival Airbus. 

Congressional Republicans are trying 

to counter last year’s nuclear accord, 

with the US House of Representatives 

passing a bill last month seeking to 

partnership to develop the ride-sharing 

technology and related driver education 

programmes. 

The Honda investment is a part of 

the $750 million funding announced in 

September, said Ming Maa, President at 

Grab, which provides services such as 

taxi and motorbike-hailing, car-pooling, 

delivery and mobile payments. 

“We are in the planning stages on 

exactly what a full partnership will look 

like, and there are many different prongs 

of that. One prong would obviously 

include selling Honda motorbikes 

within the region,” Maa said. — Reuters 

Farhad Parvaresh (L), Chairman and Managing Director of IranAir, shakes the hand 

of Fletcher Barkdull (R), Boeing Regional Director, after signing an agreement in the 

capital Tehran on Sunday. — AFP 

restrict financial transactions by US 

banks in an effort to block the sale of 

Western passenger jets to Iran. 

The Iranian official said the Boeing 

deal was subject in part to further 

agreements on financing, but added that 

money from the deal would not pass 

through the US financial system. 

Financial sources said Boeing has a 

financing plan for 15 777-300ER jets, 

which are expected to be delivered from 

2018, but the rest of the financing may 

still have to be negotiated. — Reuters 

BIZ BRIEF 

Demonstrator holds a placard 

during a protest against Brazil’s 

President Dilma Rousseff at Paulista 

Avenue in Sao Paulo. — Reuters 

Brazil bribery 

probe hits projects 

in other countries 

BRASILIA: Construction projects in 

at least six Latin American countries 

have been impacted by a major 

Brazilian corruption scandal that saw 

companies pay bribes for contracts, 

a regional investigation showed on 

Sunday. 

Progress in “Operation Car 

Wash” — a massive probe into 

embezzlement and bribery at the 

Brazilian state oil firm Petrobras — 

led the Brazilian Development Bank 

(BNDES) to suspend the disbursement 

of $3.6 billion for 16 projects in 

Argentina, Venezuela, Dominican 

Republic, Cuba, Honduras and 

Guatemala, according to a report by 

the Latin American press consortium 

Diarios America (GDA) published in 

Brazil’s O Globo newspaper. 

Grants were awarded between 

2003 and 2015 under the 

governments of left-wing presidents 

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma 

Rousseff. 

In Venezuela, which received $3.1 

billion for six construction projects, 

the expansion of the Caracas metro is 

now compromised. 

In the Dominican Republic, which 

received $2.5 billion, the completion 

of road works and the construction of 

a thermoelectric plant are at stake. 

Projects in the African countries of 

Angola, Ghana and Mozambique are 

also under review. 

The GDA report said the projects 

were all under the charge of Brazil’s 

largest construction companies 

now embroiled in Operation Car 

Wash: Odebrecht, Andrade Gutierrez 

Camargo Correa, Queiroz Galvao and 

OAS. 

The investigation indicated that 

seven countries — Argentina, Chile, 

Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, 

Peru and Uruguay — requested 

information from Brazilian prosecutors 

in order to investigate contracts under 

suspension. 

— AFP 

Maduro orders 100-unit bill out of circulation 

CARACAS: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday signed an emergency 

decree ordering the country’s largest banknote, the 100 bolivar bill, taken out of 

circulation to thwart “mafias” he accused of hoarding cash in Colombia. 

The announcement came as the government of Venezuela — a country in the 

midst of an economic crisis and crippled with the world’s highest inflation — prepares 

to issue new banknotes and coins in values up to 200 times the highest denomination 

currently available. The 100 bolivar bill is worth fewer than three cents of a dollar at 

current market rates. One bill can barely cover the cost of a piece of candy, while a 

stack of 50 notes is needed to buy a hamburger. 

“In accordance with my constitutional powers and through this emergency 

economic decree, I have decided to take the 100 bolivar bill out of circulation in the 

next 72 hours,” the president said on Sunday on his TV show “Contact with Maduro.” 

Maduro said the move was necessary after a Venezuelan investigation found that 

billions of bolivars, in bills of 100, were stashed away by international mafias, mainly in 

Colombian cities but also in Brazil. 

He said the national banks were “accomplices in this plot,” seeking to “destabilise” 

the economy and led by an NGO “contracted by the US Department of Treasury.” He 

did not elaborate. 

Maduro ordered “all land, air and sea possibilities closed immediately so that they 

do not return those notes that were taken.” “You can stay outside with your scam,” 

Maduro said, calling for the “maximum penalty” against the criminals. 

— AFP 

Shopping bags of German retail chain Kaiser’s Tengelmann seen standing in 

front of a Kaiser’s supermarket in Berlin. Germany’s largest supermarket 

group Edeka and rival Rewe on last Friday agreed a deal to take over the 

loss-making Kaiser’s chain, potentially ending years of uncertainty over the 

future of the group. The two companies will send a purchase contract to the 

German Economy Ministry, which needs to approve the deal. — AFP 

UK home sales solid, prices to rise in 2017 

LONDON: Buoyant property sales in England and Wales in November show that the 

housing market has steadied after Britain’s decision to leave the European Union and 

asking prices for homes look set to rise by 2 per cent next year, property data firm 

Rightmove said. Sales agreed were up by 5.2 per cent last month compared with 

November 2015, Rightmove said. 

“There was a bout of jitters with the unexpected referendum result, albeit now 

seemingly short-lived, but more may arrive after Article 50 is invoked,” Miles Shipside, 

Rightmove Director and Housing Market Analyst, said. 

British Prime Minister Theresa May has said she will trigger the start of formal Brexit 

negotiations with the EU before the end of March, based on Article 50 of the bloc’s 

treaty. 

“For the time being any nervousness is being over-ridden by high demand for the 

short supply of suitable homes for sale in the lower and middle market in many parts 

of the country,” Shipside said. 

Sales were up in all regions except London in November. The capital’s central area 

was expected to remain weak with prices falling by a further 5 per cent in 2017 while 

outer London was expected to match this year’s roughly 3 per cent price rise. 

A Reuters poll of economists, estate agents and brokers conducted last week 

showed house prices across the country were likely to climb 2.0 per cent next year, half 

the pace expected before the Brexit vote. 

— Reuters

perspective 

business 


17 


* 

INTEREST RATE 

Fed turns to Trump with rate hike nearly in the bag 

THE Federal Reserve 

inaugurates the Trump 

era this week with a 

near-certain interest 

rate increase and new 

economic forecasts 

providing a first glimpse into whether 

the US election has reshaped the central 

bank’s growth and inflation outlook. 

Fed fund futures show a 97 per cent 

probability that the Fed will lift rates 

by a quarter of a percentage point at 

the end of its two-day policy meeting 

on Wednesday, according to the CME 

Group. 

All 120 economists in a Reuters poll 

expect a rate hike in the wake of a string 

of solid US economic reports. 

More telling will be whether the 

stock market rally and jump in bond 

yields triggered by Trump’s November 8 

victory will push the Fed to an inflection 

point of its own and a higher projected 

pace of rate increases for 2017 and 

beyond. 

The Republican businessman is 

inheriting a good economy, one that 

grew by 3.2 per cent in the third quarter, 

the fastest pace in two years. There 

are, however, concerns that his plan to 

reduce taxes, cut regulation and increase 

infrastructure spending could not just 

boost the economy but also fuel higher 

inflation. 

Since first published in 2012, the 

Fed’s quarterly “dot plot” of projected 

interest rates has generally moved in 

one direction — down — and any postelection 

change will show whether 

policymakers expect Trump’s policies to 

shake things up. 

As of September, Fed officials’ median 

projection was for two rate increases 

A view shows the Federal Reserve building in Washington. — Reuters 

next year and a long run “neutral” level 

of 2.6 per cent. A rate increase this week 

would be the first since last December 

and only the second since the 2007-2009 

financial crisis. 

“Their path is going to move up faster 

and a little sooner,” said Steve Rick, chief 

economist for CUNA Mutual Group. 

He said the economy was running at its 

potential, and that was the Fed’s cue to 

“exit stage right” and steadily move rates 

to normal. 

Fed officials have long hoped that 

other government policies would take 

the place of monetary engineering, 

which some believe may have lost its 

effectiveness in lifting economic growth. 

They have warned in recent weeks 

that any new government spending 

should specifically be designed to boost 

productivity in an economy that is 

already near full employment and facing 

a high public debt burden. 

The Fed’s new forecasts will indicate 

if policymakers feel that the monetaryto-fiscal 

handover is on the horizon, 

or need more time for the Trump 

administration’s plans to become more 

detailed and move through Congress. 

Fed Chair Janet Yellen is scheduled to 

hold a press conference at 2:30 pm (1930 

GMT) on Wednesday to elaborate on the 

economic outlook and policy statement. 

She’ll have a broad set of issues to 

cover since her last press conference in 

September — from the Federal Open 

Market Committee meeting itself, to the 

likelihood she will be replaced in early 

2018 and the risks she foresees from the 

Trump agenda. 

Trump repeatedly attacked Yellen 

during the election campaign, accusing 

her of holding down rates to help his 

Democratic rival. Since the election, 

he has expressed his disapproval of 

corporate America, criticising Boeing, 

and took credit for a deal to keep 

hundreds of jobs at an Indiana plant 

from being moved to Mexico. 

The president-elect also will be under 

scrutiny after this week’s Fed meeting for 

clues about how he plans to handle his 

relationship with the central bank. 

“There is a real risk that he could be 

openly critical of the decision to raise 

rates next week,” Paul Ashworth, an 

economist with Capital Economics, said 

in a note last week. 

That could upset markets and raise 

serious issues about whether Trump 

intends to leave the Fed alone or try to 

influence its decisions. Top US elected 

officials, in particular the president, 

typically avoid criticising the Fed’s shortterm 

rate decisions, emphasising instead 

the need for monetary policy to be set 

independently. 

“If he remains silent after the 

announcement to raise interest rates 

next Wednesday, then we can begin to 

assume that it will be business as usual 

for the Fed,” Ashworth wrote. 

WATCHING THE MARKETS: 

Trump’s plan to cut taxes and regulation 

and funnel fresh billions into capital 

projects must pass Congress, and 

it may be well after that before any 

new programmes meaningfully effect 

economic forecasts. 

But policymakers also watch the 

markets closely. It may be hard for the 

Fed to stick with its ultra-slow pace of 

rate hikes if a major tax overhaul and 

fiscal spending plan are unleashed. 

TD Securities analysts said that fiscal 

policy at this point in the economic 

recovery could prompt “an inflationary 

demand shock” that adds nearly a per- 

Fed fund futures show a 97 

per cent probability that 

the Fed will lift rates by a 

quarter of a percentage 

point at the end of its 

two-day policy meeting on 

Wednesday. 

centage point to economic growth, but 

spurs the Fed to raise rates much quicker 

than expected — by nearly an extra percentage 

point per year. 

That scenario of a central bank caught 

behind the curve and forced to act faster 

is one that Yellen and other policymakers 

have said they hope to avoid out of fear it 

could prompt a recession. 

Fed officials in recent days have 

acknowledged the Trump agenda may 

cause them to switch gears, though it is 

not clear how soon. 

“At this juncture, it is premature to 

reach firm conclusions,” New York Fed 

President William Dudley said last week. 

But, since Trump won the election, 

Dudley added, “the stock market has 

firmed, bond yields have risen and 

the dollar has appreciated... Market 

participants now anticipate that fiscal 

policy will turn more expansionary and 

that the (FOMC) will likely respond by 

tightening monetary policy a bit more 

quickly than previously anticipated.” 

— Reuters 

* 

HARD BREXIT 

Banks want to be subject to EU laws for five years 

Large banks in Britain 

want the UK government 

to allow their industry 

to remain subject to EU 

laws for up to five years 

after Brexit, a move likely 

to enrage euro sceptics who want to 

break away from the bloc’s legal system 

as soon as possible. 

The banks are also pressing the 

government to allow the European 

Court of Justice to rule on decisions 

related to their businesses during 

that period, according to a document 

reviewed by media. 

The document was drawn up by 

law firms on behalf of banks lobbying 

the government for a departure in 

stages from the EU. It has the support 

of major banks, has been shared with 

the Treasury and is the most detailed 

request yet by Britain’s financial industry 

for a transitional period to give it longer 

to adapt to Brexit, bankers said. 

Banks in Canary Wharf financial district are seen from the top of the ArcelorMittal Orbit in east London. — Reuters 

“The report has been received as a 

fairly serious piece of work. It focuses on 

process. 

“Transitional arrangements are likely 

change and the sooner they wake up and 

accept it the better.” 

the legal underpinning of a transitional 

essential,” the document says. “This is The document was drawn up by 

arrangement,” according to one banker If no transition deal is important in order to avoid potential three of Britain’s biggest law firms — 

at a large international firm. “It’s a 

damage to the “real economy” that is Linklaters, Freshfields and Clifford 

agreed, there is a risk that 

heavyweight legal piece of work.” 

reliant upon uninterrupted access to Chance — and says it is “intended to 

The British government is currently some banks may not be financial services.” 

provide technical support to those 

divided on whether to support demands able to move parts of their The demands for special treatment developing a negotiating position for 

for transitional arrangements — and if 

for an industry scorned by Britons the UK.” 

so, in what form — reflecting diverging 

operations out of Britain 

since the financial crisis may put it on All the law firms declined to 

views about the best way to leave the or set up new British 

a collision course with swaths of the comment. Financial services firms face 

EU and concerns about a backlash from 

subsidiaries in time. 

public and politicians who voted for some of the biggest challenges of all 

those who campaigned and voted for 

Brexit because they wanted Britain to sectors responding to the vote to leave 

Brexit. 

While some Treasury officials are 

backing the move, the Brexit Minister 

withdrawal period that will begin when 

the government invokes Article 50 of 

regain control of its law. 

OPPOSITION 

Hardline supporters of Brexit are 

the EU because large areas of their 

businesses are governed by passporting 

rules, which allow them to operate 

David Davis and Prime Minister the EU’s Lisbon Treaty. 

opposed to any transitional arrangement across Europe. 

Theresa May are yet to commit publicly 

to supporting any deal. 

The Treasury said in a statement 

Finance Minister Philip Hammond is 

closely listening to the financial sector’s 

views. The Department for Exiting the 

European Union referred Reuters to the 

Treasury for comment. 

The document warns of the potential 

shock to the British and European 

economy from a loss of critical financial 

services if banks do not secure a 

If no transition deal is agreed, there is 

a risk that some banks may not be able 

to move parts of their operations out of 

Britain or set up new British subsidiaries 

in time, the document says, running the 

risk that the banks may have to halt their 

EU business activities abruptly. 

It would normally take banks as long 

as three years to relocate operations, 

according to the document, but due to 

the large number of firms seeking to do 

this simultaneously regulators may be 

worrying it could become permanent 

as final trading terms can take years to 

agree. 

Richard Tice, Co-chairman of the 

Leave Means Leave campaign, which 

is pushing for a so-called “hard Brexit”, 

where Britain leaves the EU’s single 

market in order to impose controls 

on immigration, said the banks are 

exaggerating the potential disruption. 

“This is a nonsense. It is just the 

banks, frankly, not dealing with the 

Finance accounts for about 10 per 

cent of Britain’s economy, a larger 

share than in other big economies, 

highlighting its importance as the 

government embarks on talks that may 

determine if it remains a leading global 

financial centre for years to come. 

The document argues that Britain 

must secure an agreement with Brussels 

— around the time of triggering Article 

50 — for a period of delay following the 

two-year exit process for it to have any 

transition phase beyond the two-year flooded with requests, slowing down the issue,” he said. “The country voted for impact. 

— Reuters 

* 

NO BAILOUT 

Italy’s BMPS to go with 

private sector-led rescue 

CÉLINE CORNU 

Italy’s troubled Monte dei Paschi di Siena (BMPS) bank on Sunday 

announced it would go ahead with plans to seek a private sectorled 

rescue, narrowly avoiding the need for a government bailout. 

The world’s oldest bank’s woes have raised concerns over the 

euro zone’s third-largest economy, particularly in the aftermath 

of prime minister Matteo Renzi’s resignation after a crushing 

referendum defeat. 

The bank’s prospects appeared somewhat less alarming on Sunday 

however, after Italian 

President Sergio Mattarella 

asked Renzi’s ally Paolo 

Gentiloni to form a new 

government. 

BMPS’s stock tumbled 

on Friday over reports that 

the European Central Bank 

had denied it more time to 

raise the cash it needed to The logo of Italian bank the Monte Dei 

avoid being wound down, Paschi di Siena in Rome, is seen in this 

image. — AFP 

triggering speculation it 

would be forced to seek a 

government bailout. 

The bank — seen as the weak link in Italy’s economy — had asked to be 

given until January 20 to avoid collapse. 

The request was reportedly refused, with the ECB’s board believed to 

have ruled that two weeks of extra time would be of little use in turning 

around the historic bank. 

In a statement published on Sunday after a board meeting in Milan, 

BMPS said it had “decided to go ahead” with plans to seek a market-led 

rescue by December 31. The bank had initially announced its plan to seek 

a private sector-led rescue in July. 

The bank, whose stock has fallen more than 80 per cent this year, plans 

the sale of 27.6 billion euros ($29 billion) in non-performing loans. 

It also aims for a capital injection of up to five billion euros. 

BMPS has already collected more than a billion euros by converting 

bonds into shares — but it still has four billion more to go before it is in 

the clear. 

According to reports in the Italian press, up to two billion euros could 

be raised by allowing private investors to convert bonds into shares. 

Though it remains unclear whether the bank’s plan will actually work, 

BMPS appeared on Sunday to have avoided the worst-case scenario. 

Italian media reports say the Qatar Investment Authority — the Gulf 

nation’s state-owned holding company — may be willing to contribute 

another billion euros. 

“Qatar is ready and willing to contribute the sum that was mentioned,” 

a source close to the BMPS board reportedly said. 

BMPS’s prospects appeared more favourable on Sunday, particularly 

after Gentiloni was named prime minister. — AFP

TUESDAY l DECEMBER 13, 2016 l RABEE AL AWWAL 13, 1438 AH 



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URGENTLY required 

experienced MEP 

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OMANI company seeks 

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condition, the price will be 

RO 15,000/- (negotiable). 

For more details kindly call 

99339448. 

· · · · · 

A RESTAURANT for sale or 

partnership in Al Khuwair. 

93204595/ 93203481. 

· · · · · 

FOR sale residential (1,343 

SQM land) in Al Ghubrah 

South with two residents 

house (750 sqm villa) and 

 

rented for monthly RO 1,000). 

Request for RO 500,000. Call 

99895225. 

· · · · · 

WE have crusher (parker) 

with complete set (Joe + 

screen+ compactor) and we 

have 2 generators (Commens 

480), Caterpillar 240 and 

Renault unit trailer. For more 

information call 99339448. 

· · · · · 

SHOPPING market for sale. 

Close to petrol station and 

Bank Muscat. Located in Al 

Awabi. Contact 98886813. 

· · · · · 

JEWELLERY shop in Ruwi 

High Street with furniture 

and settings. Contact: Mr Raza 

99459440. 

· · · · · 

SHOP for sale: wallpaper, 

carpet, curtains, furniture in 

Maabela 90600280. 

· · · · · 

COROLLA Sport 2015, price: 

RO 4,800. 93639624. 

· · · · · 

COMPLETE block factory, egg 

laying machine, made in Spain. 

Machines can be seen during 

production. Call 97092070, 

97681753. 

· · · · · 

TRUCK, buses, cranes, forklift 

& pick-ups 99454660, 

99465358. 

· · · · · 

HEIDELBERG GTO single 

colour, 36cm x 52cm & 

Sorm Machine, single colour, 

52cm x 74cm.99369880/ 

92857355. 

· · · · · 

WE supply quantities of 

excellent mountainous soil 

in Bausher (suitable for 

 

99242445, 99327939. 

· · · · · 

 

behind GUtech is offered 

for sale. The land enjoys a 

permit for twin-villa. 

2) A LAND is for sale in 

Al Maabela 8 owner. 

95959166. 

· · · · · 

RESTAURANT in an excellent 

location in Salalah with 

equipment and workers. 

93397812. 

· · · · · 

FOR sale: Extravagant 

and furnished residences 

for female students in Al 

Khuwair, Al Mawaleh and Al 

Khoudh along with all assets. 

99001332. 

· · · · · 

A SHOWROOM in Al Qurum 

in strategic location with 

extravagant interior design 

on 280 sqm is offered for sale 

at RO 25,000. 92470024. 

· · · · · 

Situation Wanted 

LOOKING for suitable 

placement, Indian female, 

Master in computer 

application with 11 years 

of experience in data 

warehousing, Teradata and 

date modelling looking 

for suitable placement 

in Muscat. 91192543. 

E-mail: 

gmail.com 

INDIAN male, MBA 

(marketing) with Omani 

driving licence, 10 years 

of experience in sales and 

marketing in Oman seeks 

job. Contact 91939227. 

· · · · · 

SENIOR network engineer 

(USA citizen) CCNARS/ 

CCNPRS/ CCIERS (wr) 8 years 

experience network design 

and implementation enterprise 

network managment. 

90350262. 

· · · · · 

CIVIL site supervisor looking for 

job having 3 years experience 

in building construction. 

95475006. Email: 

 

· · · · · 

BANGLADESHI, 5 years 

experience in Oman with D/L. 

95865971. 

· · · · · 

B Tech civil engineer, Indian 

male with 1 year experience in 

AutoCAD, looking for suitable 

position, on visit visa. Contact 

97206179 

· · · · · 

PAKISTANI, needs driving job. 

Contact 95604741. 

· · · · · 

OMAN experienced Indian 

Lawyer, (35) BA, Arabic, 

LLB, MBA. Knows English, 

Arabic. Looking for 

suitable position in legal 

 

working as a legal 

adviser. NOC available. 

97351649. E-mail: 

 

· · · · · 

INDIAN male having 13 years 

IT software experience in 

Muscat with skills on Oracle 

Database, Oracle Forms/ 

Reports, ERP, IT administration, 

E-commerce, VMware & 

Desktop Virtualization, seeks 

suitable job in Muscat. E-mail: 

 

94672201. 

· · · · · 

SUDANESE Civil Engineer, 

4 years experience in 

construction and building 

design. 97906770. 

· · · · · 

INDIAN male, 23 years, BTech, 

Electrical and Electronics, 

having 2 years of work 

experience, looking for suitable 

placement. Currently in Oman 

on visit. Contact 96739500. 

· · · · · 

INDIAN male, 24 years, BCom, 

MBA (Finance) with 3 years 

experience, seeking job in 

Accounts/sales. On visit 

visa. Contact 90115058/ 

 

· · · · · 

PAKISTANI seeks a driving job 

in a house or company. Contact 

93257654. 

· · · · · 

Situation Wanted 

FLUENT in English, Arabic, 

having Omani driving licence, 

seeks suitable job 91460280. 

· · · · · 

INDIAN Electronics & 

Communication Engineer, 24 

years, have 1 year experience 

as Junior Network admin in 

India, presently on visit looking 

for an immediate placement. 

Call: 90107380, email: 

 

· · · · · 

POSTGRADUATE in Power 

Systems (transmission & 

distribution) Electrical 

Engineer. Experience in substation, 

MV, LV systems, power, 

oil and gas projects, having 

Omani driving licence. Presently 

working in Oman. NOC 

available. 94669679, e-mail 

 

· · · · · 

BANGLADESHI, 5 years exp 

in distribution, loading with 

D/L, speaking Arabic & Hindi 

95865971. 

· · · · · 

INDIAN male graduate with 

excellent English and vast 

multi-tasking experience of 

29 + years in major areas like 

admin, PR, logistics, facilities, 

management, procurement 

with driving licence at present 

 

Qatar, on visit seeks placement. 

94984600/92094907. 

· · · · · 

INDIAN male with ample 

experience in logistics, exportimport 

documentation. Oman 

D/L, NOC/release available, 

seeks job. Call: 95370652, 

 

· · · · · 

1. AC maintenance and 

servicing. 

2. Fridge, washing 

machine and dish washer 

repairing. 

3. Painting and cleaning 

services. 4. Electrical, 

plumbing and carpentry 

work 97014234, 

99447257, 24504281. 

· · · · · 

AL SUMRI AC maintenance. 

We are ready to repair 

and install all types of Air- 

Conditioner within Muscat 

Governorate. 94301888. 

· · · · · 

AZOOZ House of truest 

Providing all type of 

workers skill and unskilled 

from Filipino, Sri Lanka, 

India and Bangladesh. 

 

com 95330209/ 

24831448. 

· · · · · 

AZOOZ House of truest 

Providing domestic 

servant, cook and 

babysitters, from Filipino, 

Sri Lanka, India and 

Bangladesh. 95330209/ 

24831448. 

· · · · · 

CLOSED warehouses, 

600 m 2 and labour camp 

accommodation available in 

Ghala. 99451831. 

· · · · · 

FLATS family new to the Amerat 

behind Oman Oil. 95250300/ 

92125648/ 99119699. 

· · · · · 

FAMILY 

Hamriya, Ruwi, Al Khuwair, 

Ghubrah, Bausher, Athaiba, Al 

Hail and Amerat. 95250300/ 

92125648. 

· · · · · 

 

near Atlas Hospital, opposite 

to Panorama Mall. Interested 

candidates please contact 

00968-97093283. 

· · · · · 

 

near to Ministry of Sports, 

 

1 living room, 2 bedroom, 

kitchen, 3 toilets. Every rooms 

with split AC and high quality 

 

320/-. Interested parties please 

contact 00968-92225523. 

· · · · · 

SINGLE 

behind German Embassy near 

to Al Nahdha Hospitla Ruwi 

& near to Indian School Al 

Ghubrah. 99203954. 

· · · · · 

2 BHK 

BHD at Bausher. 99322344. 

· · · · · 

FURNISHED 

Mall Muscat. 93204595/ 

93203481. 

· · · · · 

Services 

For Rent 

MAINTENANCE: 1. AC 

Maintenance & Servicing; 

2. Fridge, Washing 

Machine & Dish washer 

repairing; 3. Painting 

& cleaning services; 4. 

Electrical & Plumbing 

Carpentry work. Contact: 

99447257, 97014234, 

24504281. 

· · · · · 

WE offer you the Business 

Services: Maintenance 

of buildings and villas 

for paint and carpentry 

and decoration works 

and installation of 

material water proof and 

cleaning services building 

management and leasing 

of real estate (Out motto 

is to provide quality in 

all our business). Muscat 

Renaissance Development 

and Investment. 

99070093. 

· · · · · 

PROVIDES all kinds 

of legal works, LLC 

registration, agreements, 

contracts. Takes all kinds 

of cases of companies. 

97351649. 

· · · · · 

FLAT in Wattayah, behind 

Honda Showroom, consists 

of 2 bedrooms, 2 toilets, a 

hall and kitchen with balcony. 

99428161. 

· · · · · 

NEW 

Al Kabir behind Oasis Hotel. 

98863399. 

· · · · · 

A VILLA in Al Ansab consists 

of 4 bedrooms, 2 majles + 

kitchen and 5 toilets. RO 550. 

99363504/ 99234196. 

· · · · · 

FULLY maintained, 4 bedrooms 

with toilets in every room, 

family hall, kitchen and covered 

parking in Al Hail north RO 230 

negotiable. 99316900. 

· · · · · 

 

 

near Brazilian Embassy. 

24704994. 

· · · · · 

4 BEDROOM villa at Madinat 

Qaboos, RO 1000.000. One 

 

near LULU RO 200/RO 225 

 

with AC and 2 toilets RO 275. 

Opp police station, Ruwi. 

24790449. 

· · · · · 

EXTRAVAGENT villa in Qurum, 

3 bedrooms + toilets + majlis + 

garden. 99332706 . 

· · · · · 

 

 

Brazilian Embassy. Call 

24704994. 

· · · · ·


20 TUESDAY 



LOCALS FEARFUL AS MEGA-PROJECTS DRIVE 

RUSH FOR LAND ON KENYA’S COAST 

SOPHIE MBUGUA 

Too poor to buy land 

where they grew up 

on Kenya’s palmfringed 

southern coast, 

Sylvester Jefua and his 

wife migrated 300 kms 

northwards to Witu Forest, where they 

felled seven acres of trees and built a 

mud and thatch house for their family. 

Ten years later, Jefua, 36, still does not 

feel secure. 

Land prices in Lamu County where 

he built his home are soaring as the 

government buys up thousands of acres 

for a new road, port, coal plant, airport 

and railway line — and Jefua doesn’t 

have a title deed. 

Last year, an unknown developer 

served him and other villagers in Witu, 

some 75 km (47 miles) southwest of 

Lamu town, with eviction notices. 

“It was a nightmare,” he said. “Where 

do you settle your family after almost 10 

years of what they have called home?” 

The government intervened to 

protect them, and promised, yet again, 

to issue the villagers with title deeds. 

But Jefua is still waiting for the 

precious document, which he wants to 

use to get a loan for a motorbike taxi 

business. 

A title deed would also give him 

security to invest in a well to irrigate his 

cassava, maize and cashew nut fields and 

save his wife a lengthy trek into the forest 

to fetch water. 

“The government knows that a group 

of people live in this area but recognising 

that it is our land and granting us title 

deeds has been the problem,” said 

the father of five, sitting under a tree, 

watching a hen tend to her chicks. 

Since coming to power in 2013, the 

government has issued tens of thousands 

of title deeds to squatters on the coast, 

like Jefua, to reduce landlessness. 

But the process is being complicated 

by a flurry of infrastructure projects, 

which are driving up property prices, 

attracting an influx of speculators and 

exacerbating long-simmering tensions 

over land ownership. 

SPECULATORS 

Untitled land on the coast has long 

been traded informally, with buyers 

and sellers signing agreements in the 

presence of a government official. 

The urgent need to formalise 

ownership has been brought into sharp 

focus with construction of the Lamu 

Port and the Southern Sudan-Ethiopia 

Transport Corridor (LAPSSET). 

The $25 billion project aims to 

improve Kenya’s links with neighbouring 

South Sudan and Ethiopia via a highspeed 

rail line, port, oil pipeline, 

highway, fibre-optic networks and three 

new airports. 

After the government announced the 

project in 2008, people — known locally 

as commercial squatters — started 

clearing untitled land, putting up fences 

and selling it, often to speculators. 

Many poor coastal residents have 

also sold their land to savvy speculators 

from other parts of Kenya, often armed 

with wads of cash, said Amina Rashid 

Masoud, Lamu County lands executive. 

The new owners have acquired 

Untitled land on the coast has 

long been traded informally, 

with buyers and sellers signing 

agreements in the presence of a 

government official. 

A young 

mother carries 

her child as 

she sells 

handcraft 

baskets in 

Lamu beach, 

Kenya. 

title deeds from the lands ministry in 

Nairobi, increasing its value ten-fold to 

more than 1 million shillings ($9,800) an 

acre, raising concerns about where local 

people will farm, experts say. 

They also point to the risk of further 

conflict in the future between investors 

and locals who are likely to remain 

landless after selling all their land. 

Lamu residents face eviction from their lands for not possessing land titles. 

DISPOSSESSED 

Despite being a major tourist 

destination, development of Kenya’s 

coast has lagged behind since 

independence in 1963. 

Many residents are illiterate, 

unemployment is high and few have 

electricity or running water in their 

homes. 

Before colonialism, Kenya’s coast 

Young men use 

donkeys as their 

mode of transport in 

Lamu, Kenya. 

was owned by the Sultan of Zanzibar. 

Enslaved Africans work on plantations, 

while local Mijikenda inhabitants fled 

inland. 

The British colonialists introduced 

laws recognising those who registered 

their land, mostly Arab and Swahili 

people. 

Many Mijikenda were dispossessed of 

communally-owned land and rendered 

squatters as the British ruled that all 

unregistered land belonged to them. 

“Before independence, only a 

small portion of land was allotted and 

assigned title deeds,” said Mohamed 

Mbwana, Chairman of the Shungwaya 

Welfare Association, a civil society 

group campaigning for residents to be 

issued with title deeds. 

The British forced Africans off 

prime agricultural land and into native 

reserves, to make way for white settler 

farmers. 

While post-independence 

governments have settled squatters on 

public land and private land that they 

have bought, this has not solved the 

problem, experts say. 

Much of the coast is still owned 

by wealthy foreigners and politicallyconnected 

Kenyan elites who, as 

absentee landlords, struggle to keep 

squatters off their land. 

President Uhuru Kenyatta has issued 

more than 60,000 title deeds to coastal 

squatters since 2013, including giving 

away 2,000 acres of his family’s land. 

But many coastal people feel they are 

still being exploited by richer and more 

powerful outsiders. 

COMPENSATION 

Joyce, who declined to give her 

real name, is one of the new breed of 

migrants who have moved to Lamu 

County to take advantage of LAPSSET. 

Wearing a floral dress and a blue 

jacket, she sat outside her well-stocked 

hardware shop in Hindi, 26 km from 

Lamu, that supplies construction 

materials to several nearby towns. 

Joyce moved here from Kenya’s 

capital, Nairobi, last year and has bought 

three parcels of land, totalling eight 

acres, half of which is titled. 

“I plan to construct commercial 

houses for lease as well as sell some land 

to these investors,” she said, adding she 

has also helped friends from Nairobi 

invest in land in Hindi. 

The government has already paid 

compensation to acquire land from 

some Hindi residents living along the 

route of a road which will run 254 km 

inland from Lamu to Garissa. 

Negotiations over compensation 

are ongoing for other LAPSSET 

development projects. 

The county government is surveying 

land and drawing up a spatial 

plan, designating areas suitable for 

conservation, settlement, farming, 

herding and future development 

projects. 

This will help to speed up the issuance 

of title deeds, Masoud said, and reduce 

landlessness. 

“Perhaps this county planning 

will ensure the government finally 

recognises us and allocates us titles,” 

Jefua said. — Reuters


sport 



ASHWIN STARS AS INDIA THUMP ENGLAND BY INNINGS P22 MKHITARYAN TAMES SPURS TO STOP MAN UTD ROT P23 WESTBROOK’S STREAK STOPPED, WARRIORS REBOUND P24 

WENGER LOOKS TO GUNNERS 

TO KEEP PRESSURE ON CHELSEA 

CHAMPIONS 

LEAGUE 

Arsenal’s Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in action 

with Stoke City’s Charlie Adam. — Reuters 

LONDON: Arsene Wenger believes Arsenal 

are in the ‘fight’ for their first Premier League 

title since 2004 and insists the Gunners will 

maintain the pressure on leaders Chelsea in 

Tuesday’s trip to out of sorts Everton. 

Arsenal have not lost in the Premier 

League since the opening day of the season, 

and had a short stay at the top at the weekend 

before Chelsea eked out a 1-0 win over West 

Brom to maintain their three point lead. 

With a visit to bottom side Sunderland 

on Wednesday they should retain top spot 

ahead of next weekend’s games. 

Wenger, though, is pleased with the way 

his side have progressed from last season 

when they finished a distant second to 

Leicester having never posed a significant 

challenge. “At the minute there is no 

difference anyway with the other teams,” 

said Wenger. “But we are in there. So that’s 

good — we are in the fight. 

“We were not too bad last year but I 

believe we have improved. I believe that we 

have created confidence.” 

Wenger will be without the impressive 

German international Skohdran Mustafi, 

who went off in the 3-1 win over Stoke with 

a hamstring injury, which will be music to 

the ears of Belgian international Romelu 

Lukaku. He returned to form with a brace 

TOKYO: Real Madrid are battling 

the effects of jet-lag but are fully 

focused on their Club World Cup 

semifinal against Mexican team Club 

America, coach Zinedine Zidane 

said on Monday. 

Concacaf Champions League 

holders America stand in the way of 

Real reaching Sunday’s final against 

Atletico Nacional or Kashima 

Antlers after they beat South Korean 

side Jeonbuk Motors. 

“The most important game is our 

next game, the only thing in my head 

at the moment is Thursday’s game. 

We will give everything to win,” 

Zidane told reporters. 

“I watched three games, against 

the Koreans, a cup game and a derby 

match. I didn’t know anything about 

them before and now we have to 

Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud prepares to come 

on as a substitute as manager Arsene 

Wenger looks on during the match against 

Stoke City. — Reuters 

in the 3-2 defeat to Watford but Ronald 

Koeman’s honeymoon with the Everton fans 

is well and truly over after a run of just one 

win in 10 games. 

Chelsea’s trip to Sunderland shouldn’t 

pose too many problems — even with 

rumours swirling they may be punished 

with a points deduction over the players role 

in the angry climax to the Manchester City 

match earlier this month — despite the Black 

Cats having won three of their previous five 

matches. 

really look at them and how they 

play.” 

Real, bidding to win the Club 

World Cup for the second time 

in three years, beat Deportivo La 

Coruna 3-2 on Saturday thanks to 

a stoppage-time winner by captain 

Sergio Ramos, setting a club record 

35 games unbeaten and keeping 

them six points clear at the top of La 

Liga. 

“The secret to our success is 

simply hard work. When you add 

hard work to talent you get a very 

interesting mix,” Zidane said. 

Real won the 2014 tournament 

in Morocco but have to deal with 

another obstacle this time before 

Thursday’s game against the Mexican 

side — coping with jet-lag following 

a 13-hour flight to Japan from the 

Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has 

proved the doubters wrong in sending out a 

far more fluent and happier side than the one 

that led to Jose Mourinho being sacked last 

season. Diego Costa, who scored his 12th 

goal of the season on Sunday, is one of those 

who have been transformed and Conte is 

expecting the 28-year-old to get even better. 

“I’m happy for him because he is showing 

great passion. In every game he is showing 

great commitment and work rate to help the 

team,” said Conte. 

The two London clubs gained some 

breathing space at the weekend as the chasing 

pack all dropped points — Manchester City 

and Spurs both losing and Liverpool held 

2-2 at home by struggling West Ham. 

Spurs — who host struggling Hull on 

Wednesday — could at least point to a 

narrow 1-0 defeat by Manchester United 

whereas Pep Guardiola’s problems appear 

to be mounting with City’s 4-2 humbling by 

Leicester. 

FIXTURES (2000 GMT UNLESS STATED): 

On Tuesday: Everton v Arsenal (1945), Bournemouth v 

Leicester (1945) 

On Wednesday: Crystal Palace v Manchester United, 

Manchester City v Watford, Middlesbrough v Liverpool 

(1945), Sunderland v Chelsea (1945), Tottenham Hotspur 

v Hull, Stoke v Southampton, West Bromwich Albion v 

Swansea, West Ham v Burnley (1945) 

Wenger won’t 

let Oxlade- 

Chamberlain 

leave Arsenal 

LONDON: Arsene Wenger says 

he is determined to keep Alex 

Oxlade-Chamberlain amid 

speculation the England winger 

could be set to leave Arsenal. 

The Gunners are reported not 

to have opened discussions over 

a new contract with Oxlade- 

Chamberlain, who has 18 months 

to run on his current deal. 

The north London club are 

locked in negotiations to extend 

contracts for stars Alexis Sanchez 

and Mesut Ozil, who have similar 

terms remaining on their existing 

deals. 

Oxlade-Chamberlain joined 

Arsenal from Southampton in 

2011 and has won 24 England 

caps, but he has struggled to 

hold down a regular place in the 

starting line-up. 

But Arsenal boss Wenger 

insists that isn’t a snub of Oxlade- 

Chamberlain because he is still 

part of his long-term plans. 

“I want Oxlade-Chamberlain 

to stay at the club. I bought him 

at a very young age, I think he’s 

developing well,” Wenger said. 

“This season he’s making steps, 

moving forward. When you’ve 

invested so much time and work 

in a player, and the player loves 

it here and is integrated in the 

qualities we want him to have, 

overall, I want him to stay.” — AFP 

Jet-lagged Real ready for Club World challenge 

Spanish capital. 

“We have experts who have given 

us special procedures to follow and 

we have done that, but I, for example, 

feel dead,” said Zidane. 

“I couldn’t sleep but we are 

delighted to be at the tournament 

and we’ll be well prepared,” added 

defender Marcelo. 

Injured winger Gareth Bale 

was the only absentee for Real as 

while talisman Cristiano Ronaldo is 

expected to be announced as world 

player of the year on Monday after 

leading Real to the Champions 

League and captaining Portugal to 

the Euro 2016 title. 

“I don’t think he’ll be able to sleep. 

He deserves it and I’m certain he’ll 

win it but it will prevent him from 

resting,” Marcelo said. — Reuters 

Netherlands’ former striker Ruud Gullit shows the name of 

Borussia Dortmund during the draw for the Round of 16 of 

the Uefa Champions League tournament at the Uefa 

headquarters in Nyon. — AFP 

Arsenal get Bayern 

again in last 16 

NYON, Switzerland: Arsenal were once again drawn 

against Bayern Munich in the last 16 of the Uefa Champions 

League on Monday, while Barcelona will also come up 

against familiar foes in the shape of Paris Saint-Germain. 

Arsene Wenger’s side had hoped winning their group 

for the first time in five years would spare them a tie against 

one of the continent’s giants in the first knockout round, but 

instead they must face Carlo Ancelotti’s German champions, 

who came second in their section. 

Bayern eliminated Arsenal en route to winning the 

trophy in 2012/13 and repeated the feat a year later, while 

the teams also met in the group stage last season. 

PSG came second to Arsenal in Group A, leaving them 

vulnerable to a tough draw and five-time winners Barcelona 

have eliminated the French club in the quarterfinals in two 

of the past four seasons. 

Reigning European champions Real Madrid will face 

Napoli, while Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City face a testing 

two-legged encounter against Monaco. 

Premier League champions Leicester City will take on 

last season’s Europa League winners Sevilla, with Atletico 

Madrid drawn against Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus drawing 

FC Porto and Borussia Dortmund meeting Benfica. 

The first legs will be played on February 14, 15, 21 and 22 

with the second legs on March 7, 8, 14 and 15. — AFP 

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE LAST 16 DRAW 

Manchester City (ENG) v Monaco (FRA) 

Real Madrid (ESP) v Napoli (ITA) 

Benfica (POR) v Borussia Dortmund (GER) 

Bayern Munich (GER) v Arsenal (ENG) 

FC Porto (POR) v Juventus (ITA) 

Bayer Leverkusen (GER) v Atletico Madrid (ESP) 

Paris Saint-Germain (FRA) v Barcelona (ESP) 

Sevilla (ESP) v Leicester City (ENG) 

Pogbas to clash 

as Man Utd draw 

Saint-Etienne 

NYON, Switzerland: Manchester United will take on 

Saint-Etienne in the last 32 of the Europa League, with Jose 

Mourinho’s side hosting the French club in the first leg, after 

Monday’s draw. 

The tie will see United and France midfielder Paul Pogba, 

the world’s most expensive player, come up against his elder 

brother Florentin, the Guinea international defender. 

The teams met in the now defunct Cup Winners’ Cup 

first round in 1977, with United winning 3-1 on aggregate. 

On that occasion, United were forced to host the second 

leg in the southern English city of Plymouth, 450 kilometres 

away, following crowd trouble in the first leg in France. 

Mourinho’s men finished second in Group A behind 

Fenerbahce while Saint-Etienne topped Group C. 

The other Premier League representative, Tottenham 

Hotspur, will face Gent of Belgium after being eliminated 

from the Champions League. 

Villarreal of Spain will face Italian giants Roma in 

one of the standout ties, while Bundesliga club Borussia 

Moenchengladbach were drawn against Fiorentina of Italy. 

The first legs will be played on Thursday, February 16, 

with the return matches a week later. — AFP 

EUROPA LEAGUE ROUND OF 32 DRAW 

Athletic Bilbao (ESP) v APOEL (CYP), Legia Warsaw (POL) v Ajax (NED), Anderlecht 

(BEL) v Zenit (RUS), Astra (ROU) v Genk (BEL), Manchester United (ENG) v Saint- 

Etienne (FRA), Villarreal (ESP) v Roma (ITA), Ludogorets (BUL) v FC Copenhagen 

(DEN), Celta Vigo (ESP) v Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR), Olympiakos (GRE) v 

Osmanlispor (TUR), Gent (BEL) v Tottenham Hotspur (ENG), Rostov (RUS) v Sparta 

Prague (CZE), Krasnodar (RUS) v Fenerbahce (TUR), Borussia Moenchengladbach 

(GER) v Fiorentina (ITA), AZ Alkmaar (NED) v Lyon (FRA), Hapoel Beer-Sheva (ISR) 

v Besiktas (TUR), PAOK (GRE) v Schalke 04 (GER)

cricket 

sport 


22 TUESDAY 


ASHWIN LEADS INDIA TO 

SERIES WIN OVER ENGLAND 

NEXT 

CHANGE 

India’s Ravichandran Ashwin and team-mates appeal for an leg before wicket decision. — Reuters 

MUMBAI: Off-spinner 

Ravichandran Ashwin blew away 

England’s lower order resistance 

to spin India to a crushing seriesclinching 

victory on the final day 

of the fourth test at the Wankhede 

Stadium on Monday. 

The touring side, who resumed 

the final day on 182 for six, were 

only able to add 13 runs to their 

total as Ashwin (6-55) took all four 

remaining wickets in a little more 

than half an hour and the hosts won 

by an innings and 36 runs. 

The five-wicket haul was the 

24th for the world’s top-ranked test 

bowler and his seventh 10-wicket 

haul, after the 30-year-old also took 

six wickets in England’s first innings, 

inspired India to an unassailable 3-0 

lead. 

England had beaten India in 

their last three test series including 

a 2-1 triumph on their last visit to 

the South Asian country in 2012 but 

the tourists have been thoroughly 

outplayed by the hosts since drawing 

the opening match in Rajkot. 

“This series win is probably the 

sweetest of all we’ve won so far 

in the past 14-15 months,” India 

captain Virat Kohli said at the 

presentation following his side’s fifth 

series victory in a row. “It could not 

get any better. 

“To win at Wankhede, going 

three-nil against a top quality side 

that has beaten us convincingly last 

two times, it feels really good.” 

Trailing by 49 runs entering the 

final day, England’s hopes of making 

India bat again rested on a pair of 

wicketkeeper-batsmen — Jonny 

Bairstow, who was unbeaten on 50 

overnight, and Jos Buttler. 

Bairstow, however, misread 

Ashwin’s ‘carrom’ ball, a fingerspinner 

delivered with the knuckle, 

to be struck in front of the wicket 

after adding just a run to his 

overnight score and was unable to 

overturn the leg before decision on 

review. 

ANGRY EXCHANGE 

Ashwin then claimed a wicket in 

each of his next three overs to bring 

about a quick end to proceedings as 

England’s lower order capitulated 

meekly. 

There were some angry 

words exchanged between James 

Anderson and the India players 

when the England number 11 

walked in to bat with the umpires 

forced to intervene to prevent the 

incident from escalating further. 

On what has been a generally 

dismal tour for England, they also 

picked up an unwelcome statistic of 

becoming just the third side in test 

history to compile 400 in the first 

innings and still lose by an innings. 

“Historically on this ground 400 

is a good score in the first innings 

and in the second innings, we had 

our chances,” rued England captain 

Alastair Cook. “We’ve just not taken 

those chances. 

“We were in the game for three 

days but not good enough to take 

those opportunities and that’s what 

cost us.” 

Ashwin, who has won the man of 

the series awards in each of India’s 

last four test series, took his tally to 

27 wickets from the four matches 

against England. 

Man of the match Kohli, who hit 

235 in India’s massive first innings 

total of 631 for his third double 

century of the year, leads the runscoring 

list with 640 at an average 

of 128. 

The fifth and final test will be 

played in Chennai from Friday. 

— Reuters 

SCOREBOARD 

England first innings: 400 

India first innings: 631 

England second innings (O/n: 

182/6): 

A Cook lbw Jadeja -------------------------------18 

K Jennings lbw B Kumar -----------------------0 

J Root lbw Yadav ---------------------------------77 

M Ali c Vijay b Jadeja ----------------------------0 

J Bairstow lbw R Ashwin ---------------------51 

B Stokes c Vijay b R Ashwin -----------------18 

J Ball c P Patel b R Ashwin --------------------2 

J Buttler (not out) ----------------------------------6 

C Woakes b R Ashwin ----------------------------0 

A Rashid c Rahul b R Ashwin -----------------2 

J Anderson c U Yadav b R Ashwin ----------2 

Extras (B-15, LB-2, NB-2) --------------------19 

Total (all out, 55.3 overs) -----------------195 

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-43, 3-49, 4-141, 

5-180, 6-182, 7-185, 8-189, 9-193. 

Bowling: B Kumar 4-1-11-1, U Yadav 

3-0-10-0, R Jadeja 22-3-63-2, R Ashwin 

20.3-3-55-6, J Yadav 6-0-39-1. 

How Tendulkar put 

Kohli on path to glory 

MUMBAI: Virat Kohli revealed 

Monday that sage advice from 

India great Sachin Tendulkar after 

a disastrous tour of England 

two years ago helped turn him 

into world cricket’s top batsman. 

Kohli flopped during India’s 

3-1 series defeat in England in 

the summer of 2014, making a 

total of only 134 runs over 10 innings 

and mustering a top score 

of just 39. Two years on and 

28-year-old Kohli is celebrating 

a 3-0 series victory over Alastair 

Cook’s side, which included a 

century and a stunning double 

century — his third of the year. 

Kohli said he spoke to 

Tendulkar, regarded by many 

as the greatest batsman ever, 

and attributed some of the turnaround 

in his form to what the 

former India captain had to say. 

“The best advice was not to 

read or look up things that were 

being said about me. I’m not 

joking or trying to be sarcastic. 

That was the best advice I got,” 

said Kohli. 

“That was one thing that 

kept pulling me back as far as 

Test cricket is concerned,” added 

Kohli, who succeeded Mahendra 

Singh Dhoni as captain early last 

year. 

“Being captain took my mind 

more off those things because I 

had absolutely no time to read 

up or hear what people had to 

say about me. 

“It was all about thinking 

about what the team has to 

do and that has helped me immensely 

to stay focused on what 

I have to do on the field,” said the 

star batsman. 

Kohli has been the standout 

batsman of 2016, amassing 

more than 1,000 runs in Test 

cricket for the year and bringing 

the total for his career to more 

than 4,000. The Indian skipper 

smashed 235 runs in the second 

innings against England as the 

hosts humiliated their opponents 

in the fourth Test, winning 

by an innings and 36 runs. 

It came after he scored a 

century in the first Test in Rajkot. 

Kohli has also hit double tons 

against the West Indies and New 

Zealand this year. — AFP 

Joe Root 

Root ready to 

captain, 

SAYS COOK 

MUMBAI: England captain Alastair Cook said Monday Joe 

Root was ready to take over as skipper but that no decision 

on his own future would be taken until the new year. 

India humiliated England in the fourth Test in Mumbai 

to clinch the series 3-0 with a match to spare, raising questions 

about how long Cook can remain in the job. 

His future was called into question just before the tour 

started when he admitted he could quit at the end of the series 

and he was finding it difficult to be apart from his family 

for long periods. 

“Those comments I made don’t change,” Cook told reporters 

following England’s innings and 36-run loss at 

Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium. 

“It sticks true to the end 

of this series. Then I’ll sit 

down with Straussy (England’s 

Director of Cricket 

Andrew Strauss) in the new 

year, like we made that pact 

to always talk openly and 

honestly about stuff.” 

Indian spinner Ravichandran 

Ashwin claimed 

four wickets in just half-anhour 

on Monday morning 

to send England crashing to 

‘It sticks true to the 

end of this series. 

Then I’ll sit down 

with Straussy in the 

new year, like we 

made that pact to 

always talk openly 

and honestly about 

stuff 

195 all out, meaning the hosts 

won without having to bat a second innings. It was the tourists’ 

third heavy defeat in a row in the series after the drawn 

first Test in Rajkot. “My position hasn’t changed whether we 

won this game or lost,” said Cook, 31, who admitted though 

that the nature of the defeat could influence his thinking. 

“You start having questions, of course you do. Naturally 

you look at stuff. Clearly it’s a hard place to come on tour 

with the balance of our squad,” he added, referring to England’s 

lack of world-class spinners. 

RESPECT IN DRESSING ROOM 

Root has been widely tipped to succeed Cook and the 

veteran left-hander said the 25-year-old was the ideal candidate 

to step into his shoes. 

“I think Joe Root is ready to captain England. He’s ready 

because he’s a clued on guy, he’s got the respect of everyone 

in the changing room. 

“He hasn’t got much captaincy experience but that doesn’t 

mean he can’t be a very good captain,” Cook added, saying 

the magnitude of the task should not be underestimated. 

“You’re thrown in at the deep end and you kind of sink or 

swim. Nothing can really prepare you for it. 

“You are the forefront of the team and it comes onto your 

shoulders when you win or lose. 

“In the heat of the battle you make those decisions. You 

either make good ones or bad ones and you have to live with 

that,” said Cook. Cook, who recently overtook Michael 

Atherton’s record of 54 Tests as England captain, said a lack 

of world class spin bowlers had hurt his side in India. 

“This is no disrespect to Mo (Moeen Ali) and Rash (Adil 

Rashid) but Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar were world 

class bowlers in 2012,” when England won a series in India, 

said Cook. 

— AFP 

Pakistan confident Yasir will be fit to face Australia 

Yasir Shah 

SYDNEY: Pakistan coach Mickey 

Arthur is confident leg spinner Yasir 

Shah will be fit to face Australia in this 

week’s day-night opening test of a threematch 

series at the Gabba in Brisbane. 

Yasir, who was left out of Pakistan’s 

final test of the recent series in New 

Zealand, missed last week’s pink-ball 

tour match against a Cricket Australia 

XI in Cairns because of a back injury 

sustained in training. 

“I saw him at the team hotel before I 

came and he seemed fine,” South African 

Arthur told reporters in Brisbane. 

“Which is good because you don’t 

want to deprive the Australian public 

I saw him at the team 

hotel before I came and he 

seemed fine. Which is good 

because you don’t want 

to deprive the Australian 

public the chance to see an 

unbelievable leg spinner go 

about his business 

the chance to see an unbelievable legspinner 

go about his business. 

“And obviously he is integral to our 

plans as well.” 

Pakistan have never beaten Australia 

in a test series Down Under and the 

ability to dismiss their hosts twice 

in a match will be key to their hopes 

of doing so in the upcoming contests, 

which also includes tests in Melbourne 

and Sydney. 

Yasir, who has taken 116 wickets in 

20 tests at average of 27.89, is their topranked 

bowler in the ICC test rankings 

and took 12 wickets at an average of 

a shade over 17 when Pakistan swept 

Australia in his debut series in the UAE 

in 2014. 

Arthur, a former coach of Australia, 

also said he would be looking for a better 

batting performance from the tourists 

after their middle and lower collapsed 

against the Black Caps in Hamilton last 

month and they lost the series 2-0. 

“It’s no secret we need to get some 

runs,” Arthur said. “Adapting outside our 

conditions is difficult. It is like Australia 

playing on the sub-continent but we are 

working hard on that.” 

The opening test, the first day-nighter 

at the Gabba, starts on Thursday. 

— Reuters

football 

sport 


23 


Blundering West 

Ham keeper gifts 

Liverpool point 

MKHITARYAN 

tames Spurs to stop Man Utd rot 

MANCHESTER, United Kingdom: 

Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored his first Premier 

League goal for Manchester United and was 

later stretchered off as Jose Mourinho’s side 

claimed a timely 1-0 victory over Tottenham 

Hotspur on Sunday. 

Mkhitaryan converted Ander Herrera’s 

through ball just before the half hour to end a 

frustrating run of four successive home draws 

and give United just a second win in nine 

league matches. 

It was the Armenian playmaker’s second 

goal in two games, after he opened his 

account for the club against Zorya Luhansk 

on Thursday. 

He exited on a stretcher after turning his 

ankle in a late challenge by Danny Rose, but 

Mourinho said: “We don’t think it’s a serious 

injury. Maximum a couple of weeks.” 

Mourinho’s team remain 13 points 

below leaders Chelsea, but closed to within 

three points of fifth-place Spurs and six of 

Manchester City, who occupy the fourth and 

TURIN, Italy: Gonzalo Higuain hit his 19th Serie A brace 

as Juventus moved provisionally seven points ahead of Roma 

and AC Milan at the top with a 3-1 derby win over Torino on 

Sunday. 

Scoring his last league goal in a 2-1 win over Napoli at the 

end of October, Juve fans had every right to be concerned 

about Higuain’s consistency following his 90-million-euro 

move to Turin in the summer. 

But the Argentine netted in Juve’s 2-0 Champions League 

win over Dinamo Zagreb in midweek and he confirmed his 

return to form with a well-taken double that left England 

goalkeeper Joe Hart with no chance. 

“It was a great derby that we won thanks to some late 

changes,” said coach Massimiliano Allegri, whose side were 

given a spur by the late introduction of Paulo Dybala and 

Miralem Pjanic, the Bosnian hitting Juve’s third at the death. 

“Higuain was moving well and did well for us.” 

Torino coach Sinisa Mihajlovic had upped the stakes at a 

dramatic pre-match press conference attended by a 60-yearold 

fan and the club’s long-serving kit man at which he claimed 

final Champions League berth. 

United once again failed to convert their 

dominance into goals, but unlike in their 

recent 1-1 draws against Arsenal, West Ham 

United and Everton, they were not made to 

pay. 

“After so many matches playing well but 

not winning, we needed more the points than 

the performance,” Mourinho said. 

“But I knew against Tottenham it’s difficult 

to get a result without playing well. But we 

played very well.” 

Initially kept on the sidelines by Mourinho 

following his arrival from Borussia Dortmund, 

Mkhitaryan has become something of a 

lucky charm for the Portuguese, who will be 

relieved the injury is not grave. 

Defeat curbed Spurs’ recent revival, which 

had seen them beat Swansea City 5-0 and 

secure a Europa League place with a 3-1 win 

over CSKA Moscow. 

Mauricio Pochettino’s side remain without 

an away league win since September 24. 

Mkhitaryan converted Ander 

Herrera’s through ball just 

before the half hour to end a 

frustrating run of four successive 

home draws and give United 

just a second win in nine 

league matches 

“It was a disappointing result, but if 

we analyse the game I think it was a very 

competitive game and we need to take positive 

things from that,” Pochettino said. 

POGBA SMACKS BAR 

Tottenham centre-back Toby Alderweireld 

made his first start in eight weeks after a knee 

injury and he and his defensive colleagues 

quickly found themselves under examination. 

It took United less than two minutes to 

carve Spurs open, Zlatan Ibrahimovic teeing 

up Paul Pogba for a left-foot shot that was 

parried by his France team-mate Hugo Lloris. 

Mkhitaryan saw an effort blocked by 

Jan Vertonghen, Herrera gave Lloris some 

catching practice with a dipping volley and 

Michael Carrick whistled a shot over from 

range. United goalkeeper David de Gea had 

to deal with a zippy free-kick from Christian 

Eriksen, but the hosts looked the more likely 

scorers and duly went ahead in the 29th 

minute. Harry Kane played the ball straight 

to Herrera, whose inviting pass between the 

Spurs centre-backs freed Mkhitaryan to run 

through and smash a rising shot past Lloris. 

The Spurs goalkeeper was called into 

action again shortly after, dropping to his 

right and saving from Ibrahimovic. 

— AFP 

DEADLY HIGUAIN BREAKS TORINO HEARTS 

Juventus’ Gonzalo Higuain (right) celebrates after scoring 

during the Serie A match against Torino at the Grande Torino 

Stadium in Turin. — AFP 

the “whole of Torino” was set on beating their arch rivals. 

But with only one win from the past 21 derbies — a 2-1 

defeat of Juve in April 2015 that ended their 20-year wait for 

Manchester United’s 

Henrikh Mkhitaryan 

scores their first goal. 

— Reuters 

bragging rights — the pressure was all on Torino, and by the 

end the Serbian conceded defeat to the richer, more powerful 

neighbours. 

“We wanted to win this game and, looking at the chances we 

created, we should perhaps have had more,” said Mihajlovic. 

“But Juve have a team that’s capable of challenging at home 

and in Europe, while we are trying to qualify for the Europa 

League.” 

The Juve victory saw the champions stretch their lead at the 

top, with Roma hosting AC Milan on Monday night. 

Hart needed to act quickly to stop Mario Mandzukic 

turning in from close range, but hosts Torino settled quickly 

and were 1-0 up on the quarter hour. 

Daniele Baselli kept the ball in play at the right touchline 

and delivered a cross for Andrea Belotti to send a header past 

Gianluigi Buffon and into the far bottom corner. 

Higuain soon had the visitors level when he powered clear 

on an accidental flick by Mandzukic to fire past Hart on 28 

minutes. 

— AFP 

LIVERPOOL: Divock Origi scored for the fourth 

consecutive match to save a point for frail Liverpool as 

they were frustrated in their attempts to stay in touch 

with Premier League leaders Chelsea on Sunday. 

Jurgen Klopp’s side took an early lead through Adam 

Lallana’s stylish finish, but weaknesses at the back allowed 

Dimitri Payet’s free-kick and a neat finish by Michail 

Antonio to give West Ham a surprise half-time lead at 

Anfield. 

Loris Karius, the Liverpool goalkeeper, was arguably at 

fault for Payet’s goal, but then saw Hammers counterpart 

Darren Randolph make a mistake for Origi’s equaliser by 

failing to hold Sadio Mane’s cross. 

The 2-2 draw did at least lift West Ham out of the 

relegation zone, although it extended their run without a 

Premier League victory to six matches. 

It looked like being a gloomy day for Slaven Bilic’s side 

when they conceded a well-worked goal in the first five 

minutes, as Mane crossed from the left and Lallana took a 

touch to control before steering a shot past Randolph. 

Yet even in the early stages Liverpool’s defensive 

frailties that marked last weekend’s 4-3 defeat at 

Bournemouth were apparent once again. 

Antonio found space too easily as he sprinted 

between centre-backs Dejan Lovren and Joel Matip to 

collect Winston Reid’s long ball over the top, but Karius 

turned aside the shot at his near post. 

Karius was then caught out as West Ham drew level in 

the 27th minute, getting a hand to Payet’s free-kick as it 

was floated over the wall, but failing to stop it. 

That equaliser affected Liverpool’s rhythm, despite 

half-chances for Jordan Henderson and Roberto Firmino 

soon afterwards, and they went behind six minutes 

before half time to another soft goal. 

This time Havard Nordtveit’s long diagonal pass out of 

defence flicked off Henderson to wrongfoot Matip, who 

was caught on his heels as Antonio ran into the space 

behind him to flick the ball beyond Karius — who was 

caught in no-man’s land — and in. 

Liverpool could have been level by the interval but 

Firmino glanced wide from Georginio Wijnaldum’s cross 

and then Lallana had a penalty appeal rejected after 

tumbling with Payet’s arm across his chest. 

Referee Mark Clattenburg gave only a corner and from 

it Matip nodded Henderson’s delivery on to the face of 

the crossbar. 

Klopp’s team were though level 

within three minutes of the restart. 

Mane spun to cross from the left, 

Randolph lost his balance and the 

ball as he stretched to try to gather, 

and Origi turned it in via the 

post. 

Spirits restored, 

Liverpool almost 

regained the lead 

within moments, 

as Wijnaldum 

steered a shot 

just wide 

on the 

turn 

from 

the 

Divock 

Origi 

edge of 

the penalty 

area. 

Wijnaldum had 

another good chance 

just 

after the hour mark after being 

played into space down the left, but 

placed his effort beyond the far post. 

Henderson then bent a fine 25- 

yard shot towards the top corner 

midway through the second half, 

only for Randolph to deny 

him with magnificent 

flying save. 

Bilic brought on 

former Liverpool striker 

Andy Carroll with just under 

half-an-hour to play. 

The home side finished 

the 

stronger, though, with 

full-back Nathaniel Clyne blazing over after 

Lallana’s clever backheeled flick from Mane’s 

low cross. — AFP 

Controversy as Gladbach break winless streak 

BERLIN: Borussia Moenchengladbach 

claimed their first Bundesliga win 

for 11 weeks on Sunday to relieve the 

pressure on coach Andre Schubert with 

a controversial 1-0 victory over 10-man 

Mainz. 

Danish defender Andreas 

Christensen netted ‘Gladbach’s crucial 

winning goal on 76 minutes when 

the ball flew his way after captain Lars 

Stindl’s shot cannoned off a Mainz 

defender and the centre-back stabbed 

home. 

But Mainz had a goal ruled out when 

striker Pablo De Blasis poked his shot 

into the Gladbach goal on 89 minutes 

after the ball rolled free of Borussia’s 

goalkeeper Yann Sommer following a 

save. 

De Blasis was already off celebrating, 

but referee Robert Hartmann refused 

to give the goal, even though replays 

showed Sommer did not have a glove on 

the ball when De Blasis kicked it. 

“The ball was in my hand, but it all 

happened very quickly. It was a very 

difficult decision to make,” Sommer told 

Sky after the final whistle. 

To add insult to injury, Hartmann 

sent off Mainz midfielder Jean-Philippe 

Gbamin for a second yellow card on 90 

minutes. “It’s a pity that we have to talk 

about things other than football,” fumed 

Mainz coach Martin Schmidt when 

asked about the disallowed goal as his 

side suffered their fourth away league 

defeat in a row. 

The result lifts Gladbach up to 12th, 

a point below Mainz and six from the 

relegation places after a first Bundesliga 

win since September 24. 

After their 4-0 Champions League 

Andreas Christensen 

thrashing at Barcelona in mid-week, 

Gladbach’s sports director Max Eberl 

said their three Bundesliga games 

against Mainz, Augsburg and Wolfsburg 

matter more than the Barca defeat. 

“I’ll say it very clearly: up until 

Christmas, we must deliver results,” 

Eberl said before kick-off. 

But this was another poor 

performance from Gladbach, whose 

defence looked shaky, especially in 

the controversial scene around the 

disallowed goal and Schubert still 

remains in danger of becoming the sixth 

Bundesliga coach sacked this season. 

Later on Sunday, Bayer Leverkusen 

poached a 1-0 win thanks to Stefan 

Kiessling’s late header at Schalke, who 

played nearly the whole match with ten 

men. Brazil defender Naldo was sent 

off after being shown a straight redcard 

with just four minutes gone for 

bringing down Javier Hernandez when 

‘Chicharito’ was through on goal. 

Despite the numerical disadvantage, 

Schalke outplayed Leverkusen for long 

periods as the visitors scored with their 

only clear chance. 

Kiessling gave his side three 

points when he headed home Hakan 

Calhanoglu free-kick on 89 minutes for 

his first league goal of the season. 

The result lifts Leverkusen to 

eighth as they wait to hear their last 

16 opponents when the draw for the 

Champions League’s knock-out stages is 

made on Monday (1100GMT) in Nyon, 

Switzerland. 

On Saturday, Bayer Munich went 

back to the top of the table with a 5-0 

win over Wolfsburg after RB Leipzig’s 

three-week run as leaders was ended by 

a shock 1-0 defeat at Ingolstadt. 

Both Leipzig and Bayern have 33 

points, but Carlo Ancelotti’s Bavarian 

giants top on goal difference with the 

teams to meet in Munich on December 

21. — AFP

nba/local 

sport 


24 TUESDAY 


Finland sack winless coach Hans Backe 

Finland have sacked head coach Hans Backe who failed to win a match in less than a year in the job, the Nordic 

country’s Football Association said on Monday. Assistant coach Markku Kanerva will replace the 64-year-old Swede 

on a three-year contract with Finland lying fifth in 2018 World Cup qualifying Group I on 1 point from four games. 

“Top-level football is a result sport and these results did not satisfy anybody,” Finnish FA chairman Pertti Alaja said. 

Westbrook’s streak stopped, Warriors rebound 

LOS ANGELES: Russell Westbrook 

had his streak of triple-double scoring 

snapped but he still scored a game high 

37 points to power the Oklahoma City 

Thunder to a 99-96 victory over the 

Boston Celtics on Sunday. 

Westbrook saw his streak of 

consecutive games with triple-doubles 

end at seven as he shot 14-of-26 and 

tallied 12 rebounds and six assists in 

front of a crowd of 18,400 at Chesapeake 

Energy Arena. 

“We have got to be able to close the 

door,” Westbrook said. “We are not 

going to be able to blow teams out like 

we used to. We have got to grind it out.” 

Steven Adams added 16 points and 

eight rebounds for the Thunder who 

improved to 15-9. Enes Kanter came off 

the bench to score 14 points. 

Al Horford led Boston with 19 points 

and six rebounds. Jae Crowder and 

Avery Bradley each finished with 18 

points as Boston dropped to 13-11. 

Westbrook, who leads the NBA in 

fourth quarter scoring, had 13 in the 

quarter. 

“I’ll say this about the triple-doubles, 

because I always find this interesting,” 

Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. 

“On a night like tonight, does it make 

it any less special if he had a couple of 

more assists. He did a lot of different 

things that impacted the game at a high 

level.” 

With 3:20 left in the fourth, 

Oklahoma City’s Adams completed a 

three-point play to cut the deficit to 90- 

89. Bradley responded with a jumper on 

the other end. 

Westbrook then sank a three-pointer 

to tie the game. But once again Bradley 

answered with a basket off a missed 

shot. 

Joakin Noah of the New York Knocks and Timofey Mozgov of the Los Angeles Lakers vie for the tip-off during their NBA match 

in Los Angeles, California. — AFP 

Strong drive in round four of Porsche Challenge ME secures sixth overall for Omani youngster 

Al Faisal takes GCC Rookie class lead 

I’ll say this about the 

triple-doubles, because 

I always find this 

interesting. On a night 

like tonight, does it make 

it any less special if he 

had a couple of more 

assists. He did a lot of 

different things that 

impacted the game 

BILLY DONOVAN, 

Thunder coach, on Westbrook 

NBA RESULTS 

LA Clippers bt New Orleans .............. 133-105 

Utah bt Sacramento .............................104-84 

San Antonio bt Brooklyn ................... 130-101 

Chicago bt Miami ............................. 105-100 

Memphis bt Golden State ....................110-89 

Houston bt Dallas ................................109-87 

Cleveland bt Charlotte ...................... 116-105 

Washington bt Milwaukee ............... 110-105 

Denver bt Orlando ............................ 121-113 

Indiana bt Portland ........................... 118-111 

LOCAL FLAVOUR 

Girish bags veteran’s 

crown at ISC 

Veteran’s champion KK Girish (left) 

and runner-up R Murali. 

MUSCAT: KK Girish cornered glory to 

bag the veterans’ singles title at the 

Falcon Insurance Company-sponsored 

Annual Tennis Tournament organised 

by the Indian Social Club. 

Girish’s hard-work and 

determination paid off when he 

reached the peak to capture the 

veterans singles crown with an 

Westbrook tied the game with 1:20 

remaining in the fourth. Boston gave 

the ball to Horford, but he had his shot 

blocked by Adams. 

The Thunder got the ball with 39 

seconds left and Westbrook carried 

down the lane to the front of the rim for 

a layup and Oklahoma City grabbed a 

96-94 lead. 

Westbrook won a tip ball and tapped 

it ahead to Anthony Morrow. He pushed 

it to Jerami Grant for an impressive twohanded 

dunk with 14 seconds left in the 

game. 

The Celtics were able to cut the lead 

down to two, but Westbrook nailed 

one-of-two free throws. Marcus Smart 

had a chance to tie, but his three-point 

attempt missed. 

In Minneapolis, the Golden State 

Warriors rebounded from a road 

loss to beat the rebuilding Minnesota 

Timberwolves 116-108 and extend their 

NBA-record streak of not losing backto-back 

games. 

The Warriors delivered in the fourth 

quarter to fend off the Timberwolves 

and make sure their 111-game streak 

of not losing consecutive regular season 

games continued. 

“It’s really one of the most impressive 

streaks that I’ve ever seen,” said Warriors 

coach Steve Kerr. “That’s a lot of games.” 

One night after a road loss to the 

Memphis Grizzlies, Golden State trailed 

by 10 after three quarters but outscored 

Minnesota 38-20 in the fourth to pull 

away for the win. 

Golden State began the fourth 

quarter with a 25-4 surge. Warriors 

guard Klay Thompson scored 12 of his 

30 points during that fourth-quarter 

run. 

Kevin Durant added 22 points and 

eight rebounds, Stephen Curry had 22 

points and nine assists, and Draymond 

Green scored 18 for the Warriors, who 

improved to 21-4. 

Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns 

tallied his 15th double-double of the 

season with 25 points and 18 rebounds. 

In Detroit, TJ McConnell had 12 

points and 10 rebounds and finished 

one assist shy of a triple-double as the 

Philadelphia 76ers defeated the Detroit 

Pistons 97-79. — AFP 

impressive 6-2, 6-3 victory to upset 

defending champion R Murali in the 

final. 

Girish proved that his victory over 

second seed Mohan Kannan in the 

semifinal was no flash in the pan when 

he played fluent ground strokes to 

both flanks and displayed swiftness 

on court to unsettle Murali, who one 

thought lacked vigour and direction. 

Girish played a brilliant mix of attack 

and placing and his moves paid off. 

Murali’s unforced errors added to 

his woes. Girish did not mind being 

broken after leading 5-1 and broke 

Murali to win the first set. Murali came 

close to breaking Girish in the first 

game of the second set. He played with 

more assurance until Girish earned the 

first break in the sixth game. Murali 

broke back but failed to hold his next 

serve. Girish capitalised and served out 

to win his first veteran’s singles title at 

the ISC. 

Indian hockey vice-captain felicitated 

MUSCAT: Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge 

Middle East racer Al Faisal al Zubair 

wrapped-up an outstanding weekend 

of action at Dubai Autodrome with his 

second GCC Rookie Class victory of the 

event during round four on December 

10. 

Claiming his third GCC Rookie win 

in just four races, the Omani 18-year-old 

also finished second in the Silver Class 

during Saturday afternoon’s contest 

and went on to end the encounter sixth 

overall with a determined performance. 

Added to his sensational outright 

top three result from Friday’s race, the 

talented Arab driver has moved into the 

overall championship top five and has 

also rocketed into a significant lead at 

the top of the GCC Rookie standings, as 

well as moving to the head of the Silver 

class championship. 

“It’s good we showed we had the 

pace this weekend and I’m happy to 

have finished P6, second in the Silver 

class and first in the GCC Rookie class”, 

said Al Faisal, “It’s been a very strong 

weekend overall and it’s great to be 

leading the GCC Rookie championship 

and Silver championship. Now the aim 

is to bring it on for the next round when 

we’ll be back in Dubai next month.” 

During the second free practice 

session of the weekend on Saturday 

morning, the Muscat teenager 

continued to lap in among the lead 

contenders with the sixth fastest time 

overall – just over a tenth of a second 

outside the top four. Naturally, that pace 

was easily good enough to be fastest 

Rookie. 

In the all-important round four 

qualifying session later in the morning, 

Al Faisal steered his powerful Porsche 

racer to the GCC Rookie pole position 

once again, third in the Silver class, with 

the seventh best lap overall. 

Although not making the start he 

wanted to Saturday’s race, slipping back 

to eighth position and fourth in Silver, 

Al Faisal soon hit back and climbed 

into seventh again and into the podium 

placings for the Silver class. 

Instantly pulling well clear of the 

chasing pack, the Omani closed on 

Wolfgang Triller and into lap seven 

there was nothing to separate the two. 

Slicing past to climb into sixth position 

overall, and second in the Silver class, Al 

Faisal remained there to the flag to net 

another GCC Rookie win. 

“Qualifying for race two wasn’t as 

good, it was quite dusty and I didn’t hook 

a lap up so it wasn’t the best”, reflected 

Al Faisal, “For the race we were on used 

tyres, most of the guys in front were on 

new ones, and I did lose a position at the 

start. I got back past, though, and then 

caught and passed [Wolfgang] Triller. I 

started to catch the guys ahead, but they 

were just too far away by that point.” 

Dubai Autodrome will also host the 

third event of the Porsche GT3 Cup 

Challenge Middle East season, rounds 

five and six, on Friday, 27th January, and 

Saturday, 28th January. 

PORSCHE GT3 CUP CHALLENGE MIDDLE EAST GCC 

ROOKIE STANDINGS (AFTER RD4): 

1st Al Faisal Al Zubair, 62pts 

PORSCHE GT3 CUP CHALLENGE MIDDLE EAST 

SILVER CLASS STANDINGS (AFTER RD4): 

1st Al Faisal Al Zubair, 62pts 

PORSCHE GT3 CUP CHALLENGE MIDDLE EAST 

OVERALL STANDINGS (AFTER RD4): 

5th Al Faisal Al Zubair, 62pts 

MUSCAT: Dr Hammad Hamed al Ghafri, Adviser, Ministry of Civil Services, and the 

former president of Oman Olympic Committee had presided over the felicitation 

of Rupindra Pal Singh, vice-captain of Indian hockey team, who is representing Al 

Ahli Sidab club in the ongoing His Majesty’s Hockey Championship 2016. 

Earlier in March, Shreejesh, captain of the Indian hockey team had been 

felicitated by SAS Naqvi and Team Coorg Muscat. 

The 86th birthday of SAS Naqvi was also celebrated on the occasion on 

December 10 at the residence of Naqvi. 

The Team Coorg Muscat members led by Bellu Kuttappa, the Somiahs and 

Ahli Sidab coach KK Punooacha, Ahmed Hammad Hamed al Ghafri, CEO of Future 

Group of Companies, and Mohammed Shambeh al Raisi, financial expert, Ministry 

of Supreme Planning and Finance, Nooruddin Mohammed, General Manager 

of Future Plastics LLC, Raffi, secretary of UTSC hockey, Engineer Abdul Latheef, 

cricket coach Mohammed Iqbal, SK Sharma, Sulochana, Shebin Abdul Latheef, 

Shijas Abdul Latheef, Shijin Abdul Latheef, Mohammed Irfan, Noel Jeron and 

sports commentator Salih Thacher attended the function. 

In addition, Team Coorg had honoured Naqvi at a function at the Qurum 

ground on December 9. Rupindra Pal Singh was also honoured at the same 

function. 

SAS Naqvi has completed 75 years in hockey as he started as the age of 8 

years at school. He has the rare honour to play with Indian hockey wizard Dada 

Dhyanchand, Indian captain for 1936 Berlin Olympics, Dada Kishenlal (1948 

London Olympics) and KD Singh Babu (1952 Helsinki Olympics). 

He is one of the survivor of golden era of hockey and his passion is being 

continued as the sports consultant of Oman Hockey Association.

@climatechange 

Arafat’s UN speech in Geneva 

On this day in 1988 PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat gives a speech at a UN General 

Assembly meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, after the US refused to grant him a visa to 

visit UN headquarters in New York. 



25 


Nine fruits to eat in 

winter for healthy skin 

If Santa is recruiting helpers to 

haul Christmas presents around 

the world this year he had better 

take a few extra, said researchers 

on Monday who warned that 

reindeer are shrinking. Over the 

past 16 years, the weight of adult reindeer 

in Svalbard in the Norwegian Arctic 

has dropped by 12 per cent, likely due 

to global warming, said study findings 

presented to a meeting at the British 

Ecological Society (BES) in Liverpool. 

By the time they reached adulthood, 

reindeer born in 2010 weighed just over 

48 kilogrammes (106 pounds), compared 

to 55 kg for those born in 1994. 

“Twelve per cent may not sound very 

much, but given how important body 

weight is to reproduction and survival, 

Reindeer are shrinking: 

WARMING THREATENS XMAS ICON 

There could be more, but 

smaller reindeer in the 

Arctic in the decades to 

come, “possibly at risk 

of catastrophic die-offs 

because of increased ice 

on the ground.” 

it’s potentially huge,” study leader Steve 

Albon of the James Hutton Institute in 

Scotland, said. Previous research had 

shown that when the 

average adult weight in April is less than 

50 kg, the population as a whole declines, 

he added. 

Albon and his fellow researchers 

blame climate change for the shrinking 

reindeer. 

Scientists say land surface 

temperatures in the Arctic were about 2.8 

degrees Celsius (five degrees Fahrenheit) 

higher last year than when records began 

a century earlier. 

Warmer winters mean more rain, 

which falls on snow and freezes, the BES 

explained in a statement. 

‘Catastrophic die-offs’ 

The ice prevents reindeer from getting 

to the lichen which comprises the bulk and weight. 

of their winter diet and for which they 

usually forage in the snow. 

Lichen are complex organisms 

comprised of a fungus living in symbiosis 

with an alga or bacterium. 

“The reindeer starve, aborting their 

calves or giving birth to much lighter 

young,” said the BES. 

Reindeer numbers have increased 

over the past two decades, said the 

research team, so greater competition 

for food likely also contributed to their 

smaller size. 

This meant there could be more, 

but smaller reindeer in the Arctic in 

the decades to come, “possibly at risk of 

catastrophic die-offs because of increased 

ice on the ground.” 

The team has tracked Arctic reindeer 

since 1994, catching, marking and 

measuring 10-month-old calves every 

winter and returning the following year 

to recapture and note the animals’ size 

A study earlier this year 

pointed to 61,000 reindeer starving to 

death on the Yamal Peninsula in Siberia 

in the winter of 2013-2014 due to a “rainon-snow” 

event as described in the new 

research. — AFP 

Winter calls for a hot cup of tea and fried snacks. 

But don’t forget to dig into gooseberry, papaya 

and pomegranate to combat dry skin which the 

cold season brings along with it, says an expert. 

Anju Majeed, Senior Scientist, Sami Labs, has shared a list of winter 

fruits that you and your skin can enjoy during winter season: 

* Gooseberry: It is popularly known for its nutritional value, 

extensively used in natural cosmetic products. 

It helps in detoxification and acts as a blood purifier which 

makes skin look radiant and clear. 

* Papaya: It is a fruit rich in Vitamin A and contains enzymes 

that exfoliate your skin to provide you a glowing complexion. 

It also helps as an anti-oxidant. 

The enzyme papain breaks down inactive proteins and 

eliminates dead skin cells. 

Papaya also works as a great skin-firming and anti-ageing agent. 

* Avocado: It is a fruit that is rich in proteins and Omega-9 fatty 

acids which are building blocks of healthy complexion and help 

the skin fight winter dryness from inside. It helps in retaining a soft 

and glowing skin. 

Vitamin E in avocado prevents wrinkling while the fruit oil can 

be used as a natural moisturiser. 

* Pomegranate: This fruit is a great rejuvenator with high power 

to regenerate skin. 

Pomegranates help clear pores, slow ageing and reduce the 

appearance of wrinkles and fine lines. In winter, the skin expands 

due to the cold weather. 

This fruit will help in keeping the skin pores tight. 

* Pineapple: It is a fruit that is considered as a storehouse of 

Vitamin C. 

Acne is another problem that is faced during winter, the pimples 

last longer and deeper as the pores are cracked leaving it open for 

dust particles to enter. 

Pineapple is an anti-oxidant for acne, fights blemishes, black 

marks, blackheads and purifies pores deeply which leaves skin 

clean and clear. 

* Banana: This fruit contains potassium which hydrates and 

moisturises dehydrated skin with Vitamins E and C that promote 

glowing skin. It reduces the skin dullness during winter. 

It also helps in keeping the skin moisturised. 

* Custard apple: This fruit has a combination of Vitimins A and 

C, which help in combating free radicials in the body. 

It works to keep skin moisturised and healthy. Custard apple 

works great as a natural scrub as well. 

Consuming custard apple juice on a regular basis stimulates the 

development of new cells in the layers of the skin. It also assists in 

healing of abrasion and cut. 

* Kiwi: Kiwis contain large amounts of Vitamin C, which helps 

your body produce collagen, a connective tissue protein that helps 

firm the skin. 

Kiwi also contains Vitamin E, which keeps skin moisturised 

and glowing. 

* Plum: It is a seasonal fruit of the winters and has Vitamins 

B and E, along with minerals like magnesium, iron, calcium and 

zinc. 

These help to purify body and to maintain skin’s elasticity. It 

hydrates the body. — IANS 

* crossword 

CRYPTIC PUZZLE 

ACROSS 

4 Possibly edit letters as dull 

routine (6) 

7 Was a hair mat her undoing? 

(4,4) 

8 One wandering off course (6) 

10 It helps to create keenness (5) 

13 For British Rail to cut pay 

would have been an asinine 

thing to do (4) 

14 Checked a number of points (4) 

15 A ‘Mr’ to exile out East (4) 

16 A form of wood simply without 

imitation (3) 

17 The flag lady (4) 

19 Only partly construed to be 

accurate! (4) 

21 Indicates plainly the marks are 

simply wrong (6,3) 

23 Statesman and writer of a news 

piece (4) 

24 Service in bulk (4) 

26 Some stage of a game? (3) 

27 Not the heaviest part of the 

programme (4) 

29 Tease the Tory leader with 

humour (4) 

32 Mother’s was alcoholic (4) 

33 How could a lofty-sounding 

lady be such a beast? (5) 

34 Soldiers can make sport out of 

nothing! (6) 

35 Aussie bounder giving a groan 

in a knockout situation! (8) 

36 It’s hard to squeeze a cathedral 

in behind part of a monastery! 

(6) 

DOWN 

1 It’s wrong to be in a state! (5) 

2 Possibly set out with a warm 

hearted look (5) 

3 Food for old Bill, being out of 

breath (4) 

4 As to a headdress, it’s up to an 

artist (5) 

5 Maybe it calls for payment (4) 

6 Not exactly unable to be 

employed (6) 

9 Where there’s an emergency 

message about an insect (6) 

11 Whence you can see a fair way, 

of course (3) 

12 Vegetable one gets in the noon 

break (5) 

13 Probable winner getting 

batsmen out (4,3) 

15 Combination container? (3) 

16 Place to turn up at the West 

End (3) 

18 Call to rip out a gun, possibly 

(4,2) 

20 It’s rotten being out of practice 

(5) 

21 She keeps in shape, generally 

(3) 

22 The anti-aircraft missile man 

(3) 

23 Polly’s standard nonsense (6) 

25 Relatively kind people (3) 

28 What it is to ski rashly in the 

outskirts of Rugby (5) 

30 Tired and hesitant about an 

early start (5) 

31 A sharp thing used in hospital 

only (5) 

32 Developing more capital (4) 

33 A greeting heard at top level (4) 

EASY PUZZLE 

ACROSS 

4 Opposed (6) 

7 Sloth (8) 

8 Original (6) 

10 Crowd (5) 

13 Ale (4) 

14 Layer (4) 

15 Liquid measure (4) 

16 Swamp (3) 

17 Adjoin (4) 

19 Thing (4) 

21 Splashed (9) 

23 Body parts (4) 

24 Level (4) 

26 Perplex (3) 

27 Weary (4) 

29 Team (4) 

32 Sea bird (4) 

33 M East country (5) 

34 Comment (6) 

35 Lens (8) 

36 Declared (6) 

DOWN 

1 Vision (5) 

2 Angry look (5) 

3 Formerly (4) 

4 Poplar (5) 

5 Islamic chieftain (4) 

6 Ski race (6) 

9 Stop working (6) 

11 Lubricant (3) 

12 Hang (5) 

13 Wading bird (7) 

15 Place (3) 

16 Cot (3) 

18 Beat (6) 

20 Anxious (5) 

21 Gender (3) 

22 Previous day (3) 

23 Wooded area (6) 

25 Poem (3) 

28 Annoyed (5) 

30 Force (5) 

31 Finished (5) 

32 Sharp (4) 

33 Barks (4) 

YESTERDAY’S CRYPTIC 

SOLUTIONS 

ACROSS: 1, Con-do-r 7, Ordinary 

8, Rill 10, S-h-ovel 11, Ignore 14, 

Sea 16, Pa-ris 17, Star 19, Pop in 

21, Sedan 22, Super 23, Lash 24, 

Set up 26, Si-X 29, Trumps 30, 

Detes-t 31 Acts 32, Contract 33, 

Errand. 

DOWN: 1, Ca-U-ses 2, Driver 3, 

Roll 4, King-pin 5, Major 6, Tyres 

8, Rosa 9, Lea 12, Nan 13, Rings 

15, Y-ode-l 18, Tuber 19, Pep 20, 

Par 21, Sup-port 22, Sum 23, Litter 

24, A-X-es 25, Hatred 26, Stuck 27, 

Turns 28, Sec 30, D-ate. 

YESTERDAY’S EASY 

SOLUTIONS 

ACROSS: 1, Pollen 7, Elevator 8, 

Iris 10, Sprint 11, Arcade 14, Oak 

16, Rated 17, Mint 19, Bosun 21, 

Talon 22, Titan 23, Free 26, Enter 

28, Hoe 29, Behead 30, Mirage 31, 

Opal 32, Nerve gas 33, Thence. 

DOWN: 1, Possum 2, Lariat 3, 

Nest 4, Overrun 5, Stoat 6, Greed 

8, Iron 9, Ink 12, Can 13, Delve 15, 

Solar 18, Inane 19, Bat 20, Son 21, 

Tirades 22, Tee 23, Forage 24, Real 

25, Emerge 26, Ebony 27, Thorn 

28, Hip 30, Most.


features 26 

Archbishop 



@heritage 

Makarios III becomes President 

On this day in 1959 Archbishop Makarios III becomes the first 

President of Cyprus. 

Things not to eat before 

going to bed 

PORTUGUESE-ERA BELLS 

adorn Maharashtra temples 

QUAID NAJMI 

Few may be aware that the bells ringing 

in some of the most important 

temples in modern-day Maharashtra 

have Christian antecedents and 

once adorned imposing churches 

constructed during the early part 

of the 450-year-long Portuguese rule — till they 

were taken away as war trophies by the conquering 

Maratha armies. 

This is one resounding piece of Portuguese- 

Maratha era history that came to light after 25 years 

of research initiated by Father Francis Correa of 

Vasai, and guided his team of experts to crystallise it 

in the past couple of years. 

“There were 80 churches built during the 

Portuguese era in the 1730s in (what is now) 

Maharashtra, with an average of two bells per 

church, plus other bells in educational institutions 

and convents, totalling to around 500-600. 

We have concrete evidence of 38 of those bells 

now adorning 34 temples in nine districts,” the 

77-year-old Correa said. 

The research team comprised Pascal Lopes 

(numismatist, archaeologist, historian), Affigin 

Tuscano (academician), Joseph Pereira (local 

geography expert), Berina D’Silva (writer) and 

Augustine Tuscano (photographer).Their efforts have 

culminated in a book entitled: “Old Ambassadors 

of the New Era” and its Marathi version named 

“Navyugachya Preshita”, penned by Correa. 

Correa said a majority of the bells remain in good 

condition, though some are over 400 years old, and 

many have saved thousands of lives when they were 

sounded as warnings during natural calamities, 

storms or floods. 

“The most amazing aspect is that the bells have 

not been tampered or tinkered with in any manner; 

they have been accorded the same dignity; and the 

condition of a majority is excellent. 

A few developed cracks due to improper use, 

which can be repaired,” he said. 

The Portuguese bells are visible in important 

Hindu temples like Rameshwar Temple, Nashik 

(the site of Kumbh Mela); Tulja Bhavani Temple, 

Osmanabad; Bhimashankar Temple and Jejuri 

Temple, both in Pune district; Mahalaxmi Temple, 

Kolhapur; and Shri Shetra Mahabaleshwar Temple, 

Satara; among others. 

Church bells of different sizes, weight, but all 

made of ‘Panch Dhatu’ (five metals — gold, silver, 

copper, iron and lead), are placed in temples in 

Nashik, Ahmednagar, Jalna, Osmanabad, Pune, 

Satara, Kolhapur, Raigad and Ratnagiri, with the 

maximum 12 in Pune and eight in Satara, he added. 

“The bells in these 34 temples came from the 

centuries-old churches in modern-day Palghar- 

Thane districts bordering Mumbai. 

After the Marathas vanquished the Portuguese, 

these bells were taken as war trophies or victory 

symbols by the Maratha armies,” Lopes, who 

specialises in Portuguese-Maratha era history, said. 

The great Maratha warrior king, Chhatrapati 

Shivaji Maharaj, was devoted to the Tulja Bhavani 

Temple and regularly prayed there, and had once 

visited the temple in Satara town, the birthplace of 

five major rivers — Krishna, Koyna, Venna, Gayatri 

and Savitri. 

Correa explained that the Church has two main 

denominations — Catholics and Protestants — and 

his team looked for various symbols to identify the 

origins of the bells. 

The Catholics have 2,000-year-old traditions and 

venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus, 

but not so the Protestants, who emerged only in the 

16th century. 

They came across marks/symbols like “Iesus 

Humilis Societas” or “Iesus Hominum Salvator” 

(Humble Society of Jesus or Jesus Savior of Men) 

connected with Lord Jesus, and “Ave Maria” linked to 

Mary. Correa, who belongs to the Vasai Diocese, and 

is an expert historian on the Vasai Portuguese fort, 

stumbled upon a mention of the missing bells from 

that fort in an 1876 book by 19th century historian, 

Gerson D’Cunha, which ignited his research on the 

topic. 

It mentions how during a 26-month period 

between March 28, 1737, and May 23, 1739, when 

the Maratha warrior, Gen Chimaji Appa, the younger 

brother of the great Bajirao Peshwa, defeated the 

Portuguese and captured several forts in the Konkan 

This is one resounding piece of 

Portuguese-Maratha era history 

that came to light after 25 years 

of research initiated by Father 

Francis Correa of Vasai, and 

guided his team of experts to 

crystallise it in the past couple 

of years. 

region, including Vasai and Arnala. 

At that time, there were more than 80 big and 

small churches and after their success, the victors 

carried away these bells which were installed in 

Hindu temples, whose trustees lovingly care for 

them till today. 

Lopes said the study involved research from 

primary sources, extensive footwork, systematic 

documentation, scanning historical records, meeting 

trustees, experts, local historians and people from 

different walks of life for the authentic outcome. 

After the great explorer, Vasco da Gama, came 

to India at Calicut now in Kerala, in May 1498, the 

foundation was laid for the Estado Portugues da 

India, and they later ruled over large parts of western 

and eastern coastal India. 

In 1661, what is now Bombay, a group of seven 

isles, was handed over to Britain as dowry of the 

Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza during 

her marriage to King Charles II of England. 

As the Marathas gained strength in the Konkan, 

Deccan and other parts, the Portuguese lost most 

of their Northern Province to the Maratha Empire 

by 1739, when they were defeated by Gen Chimaji 

Appa. 

Portuguese rule continued in pockets of India 

like Goa, Daman and Diu till December 19, 1961; 

They were defeated by the army of Independent 

India, ending nearly 450 years of their influence on 

the subcontinent. — IANS 

One should eat carefully to 

stay fit and fabulous but 

keeping a check on your 

diet before going to bed 

needs extra attention as some food 

items have the tendency to disturb your 

sleep if taken regulalry. 

Sonia Narang, nutrition expert, lists 

products that shouldn’t be consumed at 

night 

* Chocolate: Dark chocolates are 

considered as a healthy food that 

contains magnesium and antioxidants, 

but it also contains caffeine, which 

could keep you awake. 

So one should avoid it specially 

during night-time as it may create 

hindrance in your sound sleep. 

* Nut Butter: Nut butter is a healthy 

source of fat. 

Also, it may help in losing weight but 

fats digest slow and may remain present 

in your stomach all night if consumed 

in large quantities, hence, may lead to 

disturbed sleep. 

So keep high fat foods like (nuts, 

cheese, cream sauces) relatively low at 

night. 

* Chillies and spicy foods: Chillies 

are healthy if made with the right 

mix of ingredients, but they are spicy, 

and may end up causing heartburn, if 

consumed late in the night and may 

result in killing your sound sleep. 

So heavy spiced foods should be 

avoided during night because if your 

sleep is disturbed, your health will 

deteriorate. 

* Greasy or fat-filled foods like pizza: 

Greasy, heavy, fatty foods would make 

your stomach overwork throughout 

night, resulting in disturbed sleep and 

making you sluggish next morning. 

So foods like fast food, nuts, ice 

cream or super cheesy foods should be 

avoided before bed. 

* Chinese Food: This is another 

food item that is important to avoid 

during night as the MSG (Monosodium 

Glutamate, flavour enhancer) found 

in Chinese food works in a similar 

manner as the caffeine would do in the 

body, making it really difficult to fall 

asleep. 

* Milk: Though we consider milk to 

be a rich source of protein and calcium, 

it may kill your sleep if you drink it 

before bed because of its lactose content 

that can create digestive issues in many 

individuals. 

Especially if you are lactose 

intolerant, you should definitely avoid 

it. 

* Red meat and other non-veg items: 

Eating red meats and other non-veg 

items in large amounts at night will 

remain in your digestive system for 

long time and it will make it hard for 

you to get sound sleep while you’re 

digesting. 

Suffering from mental 

illness? Adopt a pet 

@ health 

Running is actually good for knee joints: Study 

Contrary to popular perception, running actually 

reduces inflammation in knee joints and slows the 

process that leads to osteoarthritis, a study said. 

“This idea that long-distance running is bad for your 

knees might be a myth,” said study co-author Matt Seeley, 

Associate Professor of exercise science at Brigham Young 

University in Utah, US. 

In the study published in the European Journal of Applied 

Physiology, the researchers measured inflammation markers 

in the knee joint fluid of several healthy men and women 

aged 18-35, both before and after running. 

The researchers found that the specific markers they were 

looking for in the extracted synovial fluid — two cytokines 

named GM-CSF and IL-15 — decreased in concentration in 

the participants after 30 minutes of running. 

When the same fluids were extracted before and after a 

non-running condition, the inflammation markers stayed 

at similar levels. 

“What we now know is that for young, healthy individuals, 

exercise creates an anti-inflammatory environment that 

may be beneficial in terms of long-term joint health,” said 

study lead author Robert Hyldahl from Brigham Young 

University. Hyldahl added the study results indicate 

running is chondroprotective, which means exercise may 

help delay the onset of joint degenerative diseases such as 

osteoarthritis. — IANS 

For individuals suffering 

from various mental illness, 

pets can provide them with 

unconditional support as 

well as help manage stigma, a research 

suggests. 

The study found that the consistent 

presence and close physical proximity 

of their pets can provide an immediate 

source of calm and therapeutic 

benefit for people with mental health 

conditions. 

“The people we spoke to through 

the course of this study felt their pet 

played a range of positive roles such 

as helping them to manage stigma 

associated with their mental health 

by providing acceptance without 

judgement,” said lead author Helen 

Brooks from University of Manchester 

in Britain. 

For 60 per cent of study participants, 

pets played a central role in the social 

networks of people managing a longterm 

mental health problem. 

“Pets were also considered 

particularly useful during times of 

crisis. 

Pets provided a unique form of 

validation through unconditional 

support, which they were often not 

receiving from other family or social 

relationships,” Brooks added. 

According to the participants, 

one reason for this was that their 

pet helped by distracting them from 

symptoms and upsetting experiences 

such as hearing voices or suicidal 

thoughts. 

Participants from the study were 

quoted as saying: “I felt in a sense 

that my cat was familiar, in that he 

understood or was an extension of my 

thoughts.” 

However, despite the identified 

benefits of pet ownership, pets were 

neither considered nor incorporated 

into the individual care plans for 

people with mental conditions, the 

researchers said, suggesting that pets 

should be considered a main source of 

support in the management of longterm 

mental health problems. 

For the research, published in the 

journal BMC Psychiatry, the team 

interviewed 54 participants, aged 18 

and above, who were under the care 

of community-based mental health 

services and had been diagnosed with 

a severe mental illness. — IANS

@environment 

Nasa launches Relay 1 

On this day in 1962 Nasa launched Relay 

1, the first active repeater communications 

satellite in orbit. 


features 


27 


Today, some 60 per cent of 

methane originates from human 

activity, the rest coming from 

wetlands and other natural 

sources. About a third of 

human-generated methane is 

a by-product of the fossil fuel 

industry. Livestock production 

and agriculture (especially rice 

paddies), together account for 

nearly two-thirds of man-made 

methane emissions. 

Surging methane 

emissions imperil climate goals 

MARLOWE HOOD 

A 

decade-long surge 

of the potent 

greenhouse gas 

methane threatens to 

make the fight against 

global warming 

even harder, top researchers warned on 

Monday. 

“Additional attention is urgently 

needed to quantify and reduce 

methane emissions,” they wrote in 

the Environmental Research Letters 

journal, summarising the findings of a 

consortium of 81 scientists. 

After rising slowly from 2000 to 

2006, the concentration of methane in 

the air climbed 10 times more quickly 

the following decade, according to that 

study, which was published in the peerreviewed 

Earth System Science Data. 

The unexpected — and largely 

unexplained — increase was especially 

sharp in 2014 and 2015. 

“Keeping global warming below two 

degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) 

is already a challenging target,” they said, 

referring to the goal set in the 196-nation 

Paris climate pact, which entered into 

force last month. 

“Such a target will become 

increasingly difficult if reductions 

in methane emissions are not also 

addressed strongly and rapidly.” 

With only 1 0 C (1.8 0 F) of warming 

above pre-industrial era levels so 

far, the world has seen an uptick in 

extreme weather, including droughts, 

superstorms, heat waves and coastal 

flooding boosted by rising seas. 

On current trends, average global 

temperatures are on track to jump by 

more than 3 0 C (5.4 0 F) by 2100, even 

if national carbon-cutting pledges 

annexed to the Paris Agreement are 

honoured. 

Without those pledges, the increase 

would be much higher. 

Trapping the sun’s heat 

To date, efforts to keep the planet 

from overheating have focused mostly 

on the main greenhouse gas carbon 

dioxide, a by-product of burning fossil 

fuels that accounts for at least 70 per cent 

of warming. 

But even as CO2 output has started to 

plateau, methane (CH4) — responsible 

for about 20 per cent of the increase in 

global temperatures — is soaring. 

Indeed, the pace of recent emissions 

aligns with the most pessimistic 

scenarios laid out by the UN’s top 

science authority, the Intergovernmental 

Panel on Climate Change. 

CH4 is 28 times more efficient at 

trapping the sun’s heat. 

As with carbon dioxide, Earth 

naturally absorbs and releases methane. 

But industrialisation and a surging 

human population have upset a longstanding 

natural balance, leaving an 

excess of both heat-trapping gases in the 

atmosphere. 

Even if scientists agree that total 

emissions of methane are rising sharply, 

they remain uncertain as to why. 

Today, some 60 per cent of methane 

originates from human activity, the rest 

coming from wetlands and other natural 

sources. 

About a third of human-generated 

methane is a by-product of the fossil fuel 

industry. 

Fracking boom, coal power 

Researchers point to a surge in coalgenerated 

power in China, along with 

leakage from the natural gas fracking 

boom in the United States. 

“Both these regions are thought to 

play a role” in the sudden hike, said 

Marielle Saunois, lead author of the 

editorial as well as the review, and an 

assistant professor at the University of 

Versailles Saint Quentin. 

But coal-fired plants and leaks from 

gas production are not sufficient, and do 

not jibe with the dramatic increase in the 

last two years, she said. 

A more likely culprit, the study 

concluded, is livestock production and 

agriculture (especially rice paddies), 

which together account for nearly twothirds 

of man-made methane emissions. 

A third possibility is a slow-down 

in the natural chemical reaction in the 

atmosphere that breaks down CH4. 

A more frightening prospect — that 

climate change has started to unlock 

massive natural stores of the gas in sub- 

Arctic permafrost — has been set aside, 

said Saunois. 

“Right now, it is a very minor factor,” 

she said by phone. ‘‘But there’s still a high 

degree of uncertainty, and not necessarily 

a consensus among scientists.” 

When it comes to climate change, 

methane’s saving grace is that it is much 

more short-lived in the atmosphere that 

CO2. That means that actions taken to 

reduce emissions will show rapid results, 

the researchers said. 

“Trends in methane emissions 

should be taken seriously,” said Stefan 

Schwietzke, an expert at the US 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration whose own estimates 

of CH4 output, recently published in 

Nature, are even higher. 

“But we should not forget that we 

also need to reduce CO2 emissions, no 

matter what.” — AFP 

@sharedthoughts 

Three cheers for the underdog 

DR RAJAN PHILIPS 

rajanph@yahoo.co.uk 

An underdog strives against 

adversity and heavy odds 

without the many advantages 

his opponent, the favourite, 

may possess. When such a 

person becomes a winner, 

he deserves our unreserved 

respect and admiration. 

In around 1000 BC a young lad, representing his 

country, took up the challenge of a one-on-one 

combat with a seasoned Philistine warrior who 

stood over 9 feet. The lad vanquished and killed the 

contemptuous giant with a stone hurled from his 

slingshot. That in a nutshell is the famous story of 

David and Goliath that has contributed an expression to the 

English language as an endorsement of an underdog. 

An underdog is a person or group, which under normal 

circumstances is expected to lose in life situations or a contest, 

usually in sports. However, if the underdog wins, beating the 

heavy odds, the joy experienced is immense. 

It is but apt that we have a day of the year, 13th December, 

designated as Underdog Day, to honour the world’s unsung 

heroes and heroines who emerge unlikely winners in different 

spheres of life. The day was established by Peter Moeller in 

1976. 

Interestingly, originally, a worker in shipbuilding process, 

who stood in a dark pit and helped to saw planks of wood 

from beneath and got covered in dirt and sawdust, was called 

the underdog. The other one, the ‘overdog’, sawed the planks 

from above. Soon the underdog became covered in dirt and 

sawdust, but got very little credit for all his gruelling work. 

Sadly, even today, a vast majority of us carry out demanding 

tasks but receive very little recognition. 

Some celebrate the ‘Underdog Day’ by watching with 

friends, movies starring famous underdogs. Some hold a 

costume party where they dress up as famous underdogs 

like Batman’s Robin, Robinson Crusoe’s Man Friday, Forrest 

Gumpor Kung Fu Panda. 

Common folks often admire an underdog who battles 

bravely in the game of life as he is a more likely role model and 

source of inspiration than a super-hero. 

An underdog strives against adversity and heavy odds 

without the many advantages his opponent, the favourite, may 

possess. When such a person becomes a winner, he deserves 

our unreserved respect and admiration. 

The journalist writer Malcolm Gladwell highlights a few 

key qualities of an underdog in his book ‘David and Goliath’. 

An underdog maintains an honourable reputation, plays by 

the rules, does everything in person, possesses grit, courage 

and determination. He is passionate and empathetic, a good 

team leader and takes care to build and nurture sound interpersonal 

relationships at the workplace. 

The more common reference to the underdog comes in 

different forms of sports. It is definitely more thrilling when 

a less fancied team or athlete wins shattering a predictable 

pattern. 

In literature, we have plenty of colourful characters who 

don the mantle of the underdog, like Robin in Batman, 

Watson in Sherlock Holmes stories or Cinderella in the fairy 

tales. In movies, characters like Forest Gump and Karate Kid 

fascinate us. They complement the super-heroes. 

In contemporary times, we have the inspiring examples of 

daring entrepreneurs like Facebook creator, Mark Zuckerberg, 

or entertainers like YouTube sensation Justin Bieber. In 2008 

US elections, both Barack Obama and John McCain referred 

to themselves as underdogs! 

Our identification with a successful underdog is born of 

an inherent belief that each one of us has unique qualities and 

talents that must find expression. 

As a motivational speaker puts it, ‘you should believe that 

‘every “no” you hear, every door that gets shut on your goal, 

you are one step closer to achieving that goal.’ 

Incredible feats of ‘Davids’ in this world give us, common 

folks who feel we are underdogs, the hope and determination 

to overcome all hurdles, and achieve true success. 

QUOTES : 

Even when I’m the underdog, I still prepare a victory 

speech. 

— H Jackson Brown, Jr 

We grew up learning to cheer on the underdog because 

we saw ourselves in them. — Shane Koyczan 

When you’re an underdog, you’re forced to try things 

you would never otherwise have attempted. 

— Malcolm Gladwell




Warming 

threatens 

Xmas icon 

Researchers blame climate change for the shrinking reindeer. Over the past 16 years, the weight of adult 

reindeer in Svalbard in the Norwegian Arctic has dropped by 12 per cent. If Santa is recruiting helpers to 

haul Christmas presents around the world this year he had better take a few extra, said researchers. P25 

comingsoon 

@ editor’spick 

worldcelebration 

U 

happeningtoday 

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY 

Starring: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, 

Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen and 

Forest Whitaker. Release Date: 15 

December 2016 

In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely 

heroes band together on a mission to 

steal the plans to the Death Star, the 

Empire’s ultimate weapon of 

destruction. This key event in the Star 

Wars timeline brings together ordinary 

people who choose to do extraordinary 

things, and in doing so, become part of 

something greater than themselves. 

Malaysian children compete for prizes by climbing up a 20-feet slippery pole 

called “panjat pinang”, smeared with butter at Kampung Sungai Kertas, a village 

in the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur yesterday. The competition and other festivities 

in the village were held in conjunction with celebrations marking the birth of 

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), a public holiday in the country. — AFP 

VIOLIN DAY 

The violin is easily the most 

popular bowed string 

instrument across the world. 

Everything from Western and 

Indian classical music to 

bluegrass and jazz would be 

unimaginable today without 

the violin. It’s quite possibly 

the most versatile instrument 

in the world in terms of 

repertoire, and that’s why 

there’s a Violin Day to celebrate 

it! 

The violin itself evolved from 

medieval fiddles, and came 

into a distinct form by the 15th 

century becoming the most 

popular virtuoso instrument in 

Europe by the 1660s. Today, 

the violin has found its way into 

various forms of classical and 

folk music around the world as 

well as various other genres. 

— www.daysoftheyear.com

Crude at $45 may cut deficit

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