GROWING

SATURDAY | FEBRUARY 18, 2017 | JUMADA AL ULA 21, 1438 AH VOL. 36 NO. 96 | PAGES 20 | BAISAS 200
www.omanobserver.om
editor@omanobserver.om
INSIDESTORIES
Backing for political
solution in Syria
BONN: US allies said they had won
assurances on Friday from new Secretary
of State Rex Tillerson that Washington
backed a political solution to the Syria
conflict, ahead of UN peace talks.
Tillerson met a group of countries
who support the Syrian opposition for
talks on a way to end the nearly six-year
war. The meeting of the so-called “likeminded”
nations — made up of around
a dozen Western and Arab countries
as well as Turkey — was the first since
President Donald Trump took office.
PAGE 6
WHEELY ROAD
A spectator takes pictures of the peloton with her mobile as it rides
during the 4th stage of the cycling Tour of Oman between Al Sifah
and the Ministry of Tourism in Muscat on Friday. — AFP SEE PAGE P2&20
Pakistan crackdown
after IS bombing
Matchmaking a
GROWING
MAI AL ABRIA
MUSCAT, FEB. 17
Matchmaking — once
practised by wellrespected
community
elders who rarely
shared the secrets of
their trade — is now
growing rapidly online, with a new generation
of matchmakers adopting social media to help
prospective brides and grooms tie the proverbial
knot. ‘Khataba Omaniya’, meaning Omani
matchmaker, is a generic title of a slew of new
online sites and accounts that have proliferated
across a number of social media platforms,
including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and
WhatsApp.
These matrimonial sites offer a wide array
of matchmaking services that involve helping
people to meet, communicate, interact and
eventually entering into wedlock. They enable
people who are single or looking for a second
wife or searching for partners they are compatible
business
with, start to interact and eventually get to know
each other so well that they can start a relationship
independent of the matchmaker.
The matchmaker is responsible for bringing
people who he/she feels are a perfect match
together. When a person registers with a
matchmaker, the matchmaker would ask
One matchmaker, who is
well-known in the
matrimonial business, says
she only handles marriage
proposals from those
serious about getting
married and not dating
some basic questions, such as the name of the
candidate’s tribe, background, age, job, likes and
dislikes in the prospective partner, education and
so on.
One matchmaker, who is well-known in the
matrimonial business, says she only handles
marriage proposals from those serious about
getting married and not dating. The fee is set
at RO 30 at the time of registration, but upon a
successful match, the bride and bridegroom pay
RO 120 each.
“At first, I began to offer my services as a
matchmaker for free, but for financial reasons,
I eventually developed this service into a fullfledged
business,” the matchmaker, who did not
wish to be identified, said.
Matchmaking is handled with great deal of
care and discretion, according to the veteran
matchmaker. In particular, care is taken to
ensure the prospective bride and her family are
not embarrassed or slighted by the prospective
groom’s actions or indiscretions.
“The guy does not get to meet the girl directly
or obtain her phone number unless he meets her
family first. They then get to decide whether or
not to take things forward.”
It is not uncommon for men to agree for a
meeting with the girl’s family, but fail to show up
— actions that the matchmaker frowns upon. “I
feel sorry for these girls who keenly anticipate
these meetings but are stood up by these ungallant
men. I now entertain only serious proposals and
requests, and I know they are serious only when
they pay the registration fees.” Compatibility is the
single most important factor in the matchmaking
trade, she stressed. “Compatibility issues are taken
very seriously in the matchmaking business, and I
take adequate steps to ensure that a boy and girl are
compatible.
TURN TO P5
SEHWAN: Pakistan launched a
nationwide security crackdown on
Friday, officials said, after a bomb ripped
through a crowded shrine, killing at least
88 people including 20 children and
wounding hundreds.
The IS group claimed the attack,
which came after a series of bloody
extremist assaults this week.
Both the federal and provincial law
enforcement authorities and police
started a crackdown across the country,
and scores of suspects have been
arrested from different cities.
PAGE 7
Samsung heir held
in graft probe
SEOUL: Samsung Group Chief Jay Y Lee
was arrested on Friday over his alleged
role in a corruption scandal rocking the
highest levels of power in South Korea,
dealing a fresh blow to the technology
giant and standard-bearer for Asia’s
fourth-largest economy.
The special prosecutor’s office
accuses Lee of bribing a close friend
of President Park Geun-Hye to gain
government favours. It said on Friday
it will indict him on charges including
bribery, embezzlement, hiding assets
overseas and perjury.
PAGE 15
LIFESTYLE
OMAN SALSA & ZOUK GROUP IS SOMETHING
FOR EVERYONE, SAYS THUWAINI. ‘IT’S A MUST
DO IN OMAN BY POPULAR DEMAND AND
THE WEEKLY CLASSES PROMISE THE BEST
GATHERING, ACTIVITY, HOBBY AND FUN, ONE
CAN EVER HAVE, ALONG WITH THE MULTI
DIVERSIFIED INSTRUCTORS AND DJS FROM
DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD.
PAGE 4
Zealandia, a ‘lost continent’
WELLINGTON: New Zealand sits atop a
previously unknown continent — mostly
submerged beneath the South Pacific —
that should be recognised with the name
Zealandia, scientists said on Friday.
Researchers said Zealandia was a
distinct geological entity and met all
the criteria applied to Earth’s seven
other continents — elevation above the
surrounding area, distinctive geology, a
well-defined area and a crust much thicker
than that found on the ocean floor.
In a paper published in the Geological
Society of America’s Journal, GSA Today,
they said Zealandia measured five million
square kilometre (1.9 million square miles)
and was 94 per cent underwater.
The paper’s authors said it had only
three major landmasses, New Zealand’s
North and South Islands to the south, and
New Caledonia to the north.
The scientists, mostly from the official
New Zealand research body GNS Science,
said Zealandia was once part of the
Gondwana super-continent but broke
away about 100 million years ago.
“The scientific value of classifying
Zealandia as a continent is much more
NEW ZEALAND MIGHT BE
KNOWN AS AUSTRALIA’S
SMALLER NEIGHBOUR
BUT SCIENTISTS HAVE
DISCOVERED IT IS SITTING
ON A PREVIOUSLY
UNKNOWN CONTINENT
— ZEALANDIA
than just an extra name on a list,” they
wrote.
“That a continent can be so submerged
yet unfragmented makes it (useful)... in
exploring the cohesion and breakup of
continental crust.”
Lead author Nick Mortimer said
scientists have been gathering data to make
the case for Zealandia for more than 20
years.
But their efforts had been frustrated
because most of it was hidden beneath the
waves.
“If we could pull the plug on the oceans,
it would be clear to everybody that we have
mountain chains and a big, high-standing
continent,” he told TVNZ.
While there is no scientific body that
formally recognises continents, Mortimer
said he wanted Zealandia to become
an accepted part of how the Earth is
viewed.
“What we hope is that Zealandia
will appear on world maps, in schools,
everywhere,” he said.
“I think the revelation of a new
continent is pretty exciting.”
— AFP
London to introduce
new ‘Toxic Charge’
LONDON: Motorists in London who own
old polluting vehicles are to be hit with a
new charge from October, Mayor Sadiq
Khan said on Friday, two days after the
EU ordered Britain to cut air pollution.
“The context is this: Over 9,000
Londoners die each year because of
low quality air,” Khan told the BBC after
announcing the new “Toxic Charge”.
The new £10 ($12.5, 11.7 euros)
“T-Charge” will apply to motorists who
own vehicles that do not meet European
standards — typically petrol and diesel
cars registered before 2006.
PAGE 14
WEATHER TODAY
MUSCAT
MAX: 26 0 C
MIN: 20 0 C
SALALAH
MAX: 29 0 C
MIN: 23 0 C
SUNRISE 06.36 AM
PRAYER TIMINGS
FAJR: 05:18
DHUHR: 12:20
ASR: 15:37
MAGHRIB: 18:03
ISHA: 19:33
NIZWA
MAX: 28 0 C
MIN: 20 0 C

2 ADVENTURE
OMANDAILYOBSERVER SATURDAY l FEBRUARY 18 l 2017
Exhilarating
challenges
It is hard to resist
the siren call of the
Omani mountains.
climbs of the season,
the opportunity
to conquer them
continues to attract
an increasingly wide
range of riders
each year.
HARIDEV PUSHPARAJ
MUSCAT, FEB. 17
The 2017 Tour of
Oman will miss
the presence
of Vincenzo
Nibali, the 2016
winner, but
the prestigious
blue-riband event will have a new
champion this time around.
The race provides an early
opportunity to tackle some difficult
climbs and test the riders’ fitness.
The race will also offer two sprinterfriendly
stages, while puncheurs —
riders who thrive on rolling terrain
and short, steep climbs — will have
several chances to surprise the
peloton. Most importantly for the
GC, the Green Mountain summit
finish comes on the eve of the final
stage in Muscat, where climbers will
meet their moment of truth.
It is hard to resist the siren call
of the Omani mountains. Offering
the first really difficult climbs of
the season, the opportunity to
conquer them continues to attract
an increasingly wide range of riders
each year.
The familiar punchy finishes
on the Al Jissah climb at Al Bustan
and in Qurayat are tailor-made for
opportunistic attackers like Van
Avermaet and seasoned professionals
Alexis Gougeard and Niki Terpstra.
The showdowns on these climbs
will serve as the prelude to what
will be the main event of the Tour
of Oman: The ascent of Jabal Al
Akhdhar (Green Mountain). In
this penultimate stage, the GC
contenders will meet on the slopes
of this demanding climb to gauge
their form and see if their dreams of
overall victory will be fulfilled.
But in the Middle East climbers
are not the only kings. The masters
of the finishing straight, such as Tom
Boonen or Alexander Kristoff, will
also have multiple opportunities to
lunge for the victory. Naseem Park
and Muttrah Sea Road will be the
settings for these exciting high-speed
finishes. The fast men of the peloton
will put their trains to work in these
two stages, seeking to polish their
positioning and oil the machine in
order to claim their first major win of
the season.
Notable teams that are absent
are Team Sky, Lotto Soudal and
LottoNL-Jumbo.
Nibali the former overall winner
of the race will be missing in action
this time around, so will Chris
Froome, but the race will not be any
less exciting.
BUNCH FINISH EXPECTED
Organisers ASO have made full
use of the nation’s lumpier terrain
by adding meddlesome hills to
complicate what would otherwise be
straightforward sprint stages.
Stage two includes four climbs,
none longer than 4 km but all with
gradients averaging over eight per
cent; an uphill finish on stage three
plays into the hands of the puncheurs;
and the three-lap circuit that includes
the Climb of Bausher Al Amerat
should prove too challenging for the
pure sprinters.
That doesn’t leave too much for
sprinters — which explains why,
beyond Alexander Kristoff (Katusha-
Alpecin) and Sacha Modolo (UAE
Abu Dhabi), so few big names are
lining up — but both the opening
and closing stage should culminate
in a bunch finish.
GREEN MOUNTAIN ( JABAL
AL AKHDHAR )
One of the treats of the Tour of
Oman is that it boasts one of the
first proper out-and-out climbs of
the season — the Jabal Al Akhdhar,
otherwise known as the ‘Green
Mountain’.
Unlike the climbs tackled in
the likes of the Tour Down Under,
Jabal Al Akhdhar has a considerable
length (5.7 km) to match the bite of
its gradient (10.5 per cent), and it
provides a chance therefore to witness
a full-blooded climbing showdown.
That the GC will be decided on
its slopes is virtually a guarantee —
since its first inclusion in 2011, no
rider has ever managed to win the
overall classification without also
finishing in the top two of this stage.
ARU TO WATCH OUT FOR
Fabio Aru’s season is structured
around the Giro d’Italia, and last
year’s winner of that race, his exteam-mate
Vincenzo Nibali, opened
his account by sealing the overall at
the Tour of Oman.
A similar win for Aru would
install plenty of confidence in Astana
that he can adequately replace Nibali,
but may be unlikely given his usual
slow starts to the season.
BARDET HOPES FOR AN
ENCORE
Romain Bardet’s plans are more
long-term than Aru’s with his main
focus, the Tour de France, still
another five months away, but he’ll
still be hoping to make an impression
on his first race of the season.
The Frenchman generally doesn’t
take too long to get up to speed
as Aru, and tends to go well in
Oman, having finished runner-up
last year and won the young riders’
classification in 2014, but one thing
he has lacked throughout his career
is overall victories in stage races.
With no-time trial stage to deter
him, the Tour of Oman might
become the his first since the 2013
Tour de l’Ain — a win that would be
a clear indication that he’s capable of
winning the Tour come July.
5.7 km
Unlike the climbs tackled in the likes of the
Tour Down Under, Jabal Al Akhdhar has a
considerable length (5.7 km) to match the
bite of its gradient (10.5 per cent), and it
provides a chance therefore to witness a
full-blooded climbing showdown.

ENTERTAINMENT
3
SATURDAY l FEBRUARY 18 l 2017 OMANDAILYOBSERVER
T V SARNGA DHARAN NAMBIAR
MUSCAT, FEB 17
Aruba in the Caribbean islands — never mind
the dreaded hurricane belt looming in the
north, or Hawaii or Loire Valley (France)...
the call of the exotic lands is irresistible, when
it comes to tying the knot, or honeymooning
thereafter.
Destination weddings are in vogue. Sure, they raise the
pleasure quotient of couples (and guests) to new heights; but may
not guarantee enduring marital bliss. It’s all about experience.
Philosophically, wedding is a highly personal affair
involving two individuals; but economically, it’s a multi-billion
dollar enterprise involving stakeholders such as destination
management companies (DMC), tour and travel operators,
event management firms and hotels and resorts. Obviously,
they join in the excitement of the whole affair, with the couples.
According to industry sources, the annual operation cycle of the
wedding industry hovers around $300 billion, with a sizeable
share of it coming from destination weddings, which form
almost one-fourth of the total number of weddings.
Though a late entrant, the Sultanate has set its eyes on a
significant slice of this lucrative market, in its quest to boost
tourism revenues. It is steadily growing in popularity as the
choicest wedding destination, especially among Indians and to
some extent Europeans. True, the country doesn’t offer much of
a heady nightlife, but this void is more than compensated by the
serenity and mystical charm of unspoilt nature at its splendid
best, the rich heritage and a well-defined hospitality and tourism
infrastructure.
It’s not just weddings; Oman is attracting honeymooners
as well. The Ministry of Tourism (MoT) is actively showcasing
the country both as an attractive wedding and honeymoon
destination in the potential markets of India, Europe and GCC
countries.
These are exciting times for stakeholders. Oman’s major
DMCs have hosted several groups of wedding planners from
these countries in a bid to showcase the virgin beauty of the
land and its myriad possibilities, allowing them to inspect
major hotels and resorts, and other attractions such as the Royal
Opera House, the Grand Mosque, Amouage perfumery, and
landscapes. Pre- and post-wedding tours to fabulous locations
outside Muscat such as Sharqiyah, Jabel Akhdar, Al Hamra and
Salalah offering them enchanting glimpses of deserts, wadis,
mountains, and traditional life as defined by historical souqs,
ancient settlements and farming have helped boost ‘brand
Oman’ in the target markets.
The Ministry of Tourism has been extending strategic
support to the tourism industry, in line with the government’s
plans to diversify the economy. Wedding and honeymoon
tourism, MICE tourism and film tourism are all being vigorously
promoted by the ministry in foreign markets.
Compared with Dubai and Abu Dhabi (in the Middle East)
and regular hotspots in Asia and Europe, Oman is relatively
Travel to wed
unknown to the world as a wedding destination. And this
“charm of the unexplored” is being used as a deft marketing
strategy.
The Sultanate has, over the last few years, had quite a
number of destination weddings, a few of them high-profile
grandiose events with a guest count exceeding 1,000. Enquiries
are pouring in, sources say. Beyond the common attractions,
it’s the cultural similarities between Oman and India that
makes Oman more appealing to the Indian market, while
safety, tranquility, pleasing climate, the thrill of exploring the
“unknown”, and an authentic Arabian experience wow the
Europeans.
Talking about India, its famed “Big Fat” wedding market is
valued at $40 billion a year, and is poised for great growth. It is
expected to zoom past the $50 billion wedding market in the
US in a couple of years, enabling it to stake claim as the largest
wedding market in the world.
Destination wedding industry holds huge potential for
Oman, as it generates direct and indirect job opportunities for
nationals in segments such as event management, destination
management, transportation and logistics etc. Beyond this,
guests who come over to Oman to attend the weddings act as
its tourism ambassadors. More often than not they come back
to Oman for holidaying.
Statistics reveal that the wedding team and guests spend
heavily during their course of stay, usually a week
or so, significantly adding to the tourism
spending here. This is one of the
reasons why the ministry of tourism
is so keen to promote this lucrative
segment in the foreign markets,
holding several high impact
roadshows and advertising
campaigns as well as other
focused promotions,
in association with its
regional representative
offices. It has
even explored
collaboration with
popular digital
wedding platforms
such as weddingsutra.
com.

S
OMANDAILYOBSERVER SATURDAY l FEBRUARY 18 l 2017
4 LIFESTYLE
Oman Salsa &
Zouk Group is
something for
everyone, says
Thuwaini. ‘It’s a
must do in Oman
by popular
demand and the
weekly classes
promise the
best gathering,
activity, hobby
and fun, one
can ever have,
along with the
instructors
and DJs from
different parts
of the
world’
4
Dress
comfortably, trainers,
trousers, jeans and a top. Shoes
too, boots or any comfy shoes
SALSA ETIQUETTE
1
Look, smell good and
keep chewing gum or
mints handy
2
Stick to the level you
are really supposed to
be in, don’t rush
3
Enjoy and be patient,
keep in mind there
are others like you
and the instructor is giving it
his or her best
5Practice,
practice, practice
and have fun
Viva la Salsa
LIJU CHERIAN
MUSCAT, FEB 17
IF you want to learn some groovy Latin
Salsa, Bachata or Rueda moves, then
learn from Thuwaini al Harthy. As one
who single handedly started Oman Salsa
and Zouk Group in Muscat, Thuwaini
is striving his best to put Oman on the
world salsa map.
As he gets set for Oman’s first bootcamp next
month at the Al Nahda Resort, he rightfully
claims to live the Latin life in Oman. He is credited
to be the only local trainer in the Gulf region
and his passion to spread salsa rhythm across is
remarkable.
Friends call him ‘EzT’ an acronym for easy
going and friendly. They hardly see him getting
upset as he goes about his things smoothly. As one
passionate about salsa, which he started in Muscat
with a few salsa aficionados who found each other
and began teaching privately at first and later in
public.
Says Thuwaini: “Salsa in Oman has become
a ‘must do’ aspect and is growing rapidly.” He
spreads the message of dance and follows a
smooth easy style, joyful for the eyes to watch,
synchronising with the beat of music. He runs
classes simultaneously for absolute beginners,
newcomers, and fledglings.
About the teaching methods Thuwaini says:
“For those who started salsa the numbers 123567
rings a bell which repeats in their head a million
times... we teach 6-7 basics namely ‘Mambo,
side step, diagonal, back step, right and left
turn, also sometimes cross body lead. We teach
the beginners seven basic steps and counts are
important.’
Thuwaini who loves to explore, learns much
from his travels. He visits many new places
around the world and his fervour for dance knows
no bounds. Oman Salsa Group (OSG) which he
started in 2003 takes in between 10-60 members
to different festivals around the world each year.
His friends say his cool nature on the dance
floor brings out the dancer and the student in him
the best which leads them to fall in love with salsa.
“He is well-known for his unique style of teaching,
making any difficult move look so easy. Students
don’t just learn salsa in Thuwaini’s class, they have
fun, make friends, laugh out loud, becoming part
of a ‘salsa way of life.”
Thuwaini was born and brought up in Oman.
From a very young age, he was a passionate
dancer, be it contemporary, hip hop, break dance
or Lambada and had no formal training having
been brought up in an environment filled with
art, music and dance. His teen years were time
for dance parties and social gatherings with him
being an active participant.
Salsa was his first love and initiation as first
dance. Since their introduction in 2003, he started
exploring the world of salsa, teaching himself and
travelling to learn from the best. His free time
was devoted to watching YouTube and DVDs of
different artistes. He was able to develop his talent
and went on to create a unique style.
He has taken classes with numerous teachers
around the world during salsa festivals in Cyprus,
France, Nepal, UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia,
Lebanon, Malta, India, Romania and England.
Salsa experts especially Eddie the Freak, Oliver
and Luda, Susana Montero, Magna Gopal, Nunu
and Vanda and Anthony Persaud, inspired him.
As organiser and instructor, Thuwaini
founded the Oman Salsa Group (OSG), teaching
a small group of enthusiasts and spreading the
love for this vibrant dance. OSG has grown in
leaps and bounds since its humble beginning
and is the largest group of salsa dancers in Oman.
Today, OSG is a community that is strong across
borders having taught more than 15,000 students
from different nationalities.
He performed his first international show
at the Dubai International Salsa Festival 2008
(A Romantic Walk) which was broadcast as an
international TV dance show. Thuwaini’s passion
and dedication continues to inspire many to this
day and over the years, his various dance partners
have honed their skills and grown to be better
dancers.
‘The Oman Salsa & Zouk Group is something
for everyone,’ says Thuwaini. It’s a must do in
Oman by popular demand. Their weekly classes
promise the best gathering. Its full of activity
and fun, that one can ever have, along the multi
Salsa was his
first love and
initiation as first
dance. Since their
introduction in
2003, he started
exploring the
world of salsa
diversified instructors and DJs from different
parts of the world. This brings salsa enthusiasts,
non-salsa folks and families under one roof. It
is a chance to learn different forms and styles of
dance for all levels, may it be an absolute beginner
or advance stage.
The maiden Oman International Salsa
and Dance Festival 2011 was a mind-blowing
experience for Thuwaini. He has since then
participated at festivals in Cyprus, Paris, Fujairah,
Ras Al Khaimah, Beirut, Malta, Italy and Egypt.
The yearly festivals has grown to promise a
gathering of some of the best professional artists,
performers, instructors and DJs from different
parts of the world, bringing salsa enthusiasts and
non-salsa family under one roof.

LEISURE
5
SATURDAY l FEBRUARY 18 l 2017
OMANDAILYOBSERVER
JOSEPH NASR
BERLINOne drops you, trapped and
powerless, in the middle of
a civil war, while the other
uses humour to depict
what’s it like to start a
new life in Europe after escaping the same
conflict.
“Insyriated” and “The Other Side of
Hope” are two films about Syria, and they
brought tears and smiles to the Berlin Film
Festival.
Set entirely in a few rooms over the
course of one day as skirmishes rage and
ebb around them, Insyriated is designed
as an intense ensemble piece in which the
mother’s single-minded determination to
ensure the safety of her charges is severely
tested by outside forces.
Philippe Van Leeuw’s direction is
more fluid than his dialogue, and there’s
a crudeness to certain scenes that takes
the viewer out of the horror exactly when
we’re meant to feel it most. The sense of
suffocation remains, however, and given the
subject’s topicality, “Insyriated” will likely
see scattered play, especially at human-rights
showcases.
A concisely-told story that couldn’t be
more timely in view of the traumas currently
afflicting the Syrian people, Insyriated
features a terrific lead performance by
Hiam Abbass heading a multi-generational
ensemble cast.
Playing the lady of the house, Hiam
Abbass delivers an edge-of-seat performance,
supported by a career-changing turn by
Lebanese actress Diamand Bou Abboud as
a young mother who undergoes a horrible
ordeal.
By focusing on these two women, the
SYRIAN
FILMS
bring
tears and
smiles
film underlines the courage under fire of
ordinary Syrians who find themselves caught
in the midst of an all-out war while they sit
in their living room. It’s harrowing just to
watch this film, and the audience at its Berlin
Panorama premiere trooped out mutely after
the screening, too stunned to talk.
“It shocked people in a very smart
way. Westerners saw enough images of
destruction on their television screens. But
few of them know what Syrians are going
through or how they feel being trapped in
there,” Iraqi film critic Kais Kasim said.
The film forces viewers to ask themselves
how they would act in the same situation.
Belgian director Philippe Van Leeuw said
the silence that followed the screening as well
as seeing some of his actors and members of
the audience in tears at the end made him
think: “Mission accomplished.”
“It is hard for me to say I was happy when
I saw the film for the first time with the
audience,” said actress Hiam Abbass, who
plays Oum Yazan.
“It brought people close to the Syrian
people,” she said, adding that she had no
idea the film would leave people speechless.
“The Other Side of Hope” by Finnish
director Aki Kaurismaki uses humour
to depicts the experiences in Helsinki of
stowaway Syrian asylum seeker Khaled, who
decides to remain in the country illegally
after his application is rejected.
“The Other Side of Hope,” the new
Kaurismäki film that just premiered at the
Berlin International Film Festival, is set in
Helsinki, a cosmopolitan city that, in this
movie, at least, looks like a quaint, dinky,
pre-tech-era throwback. People sit in offices
in front of tiny manual typewriters, or they
stub out cigarettes in kitchens that look like
they belong in a Diane Arbus photograph.
A restaurant bar serves sardines — right
out of the can! — and has a décor that
consists of nothing more than bare walls, a
few tables and chairs, and a painting of Jimi
Hendrix. Is this what a dive in Helsinki really
looks like? Or is it just another of Kaurismäki’s
bare-bones movie sets? Maybe a bit of both.
His fate is to meet the main character in the
second story of the film, Finnish salesman
Wikstrom, who buys a restaurant in the capital
where he gives Khaled a job and a bed.
Wikstrom and the other Finns in the film
are burlesque characters, the source of most
of the light-hearted humour that almost
obscures Khaled’s ordeal: most of his family
died in a bomb in Aleppo and he lost his
sister shortly after they arrived in Europe
from Turkey.
A soothing balm for
genre
Debbie Harry,
frontwoman of rock
band Blondie, was
crowned a fashion
icon at London’s Elle
Style Awards, and she thanked her
punk influences for defining her style.
“Coming from the punk
point of view, which was very
deconstructionist, destructive,
and disrespectful, you have to find
something in yourself that makes
you feel a lot of different ways,” she
said at the red carpet event late on
Monday.
“So you have to feel beautiful, you
have to feel comfortable. I have to feel
sexy.”
Harry, who attended the event
with Blondie co-founder Chris Stein,
playfully wore a crown designed by
Vivienne Westwood, while posing
for photographers. Harry also wore a
Westwood red suit with a black-andwhite
shirt and shoes.
Blondie, an American punk band
famous for hits like “Heart of Glass”
and “Call Me” in the late 1970s and
early 1980s, is expected to release
their 11th studio album, “Pollinator”,
in May.
Debbie Harry was born Deborah
Ann Harry on July 1, 1945, in Miami,
Harry is the
Style Icon
Florida, and was adopted by Richard
and Catherine Harry when she
was 3 months old. Growing up in
Hawthorne, New Jersey, Harry sang
in the church choir.
She tried college for two years
before dropping out and moving to
New York City. Having sang with the
1960s’ band Wind in the Willows and
worked as a Playboy Bunny, Harry
ended up waiting tables at Max’s
Kansas City, a popular club that was
part of the downtown art and music
scene.
“It’s about the ongoing circle
of culture and how we all feed off
of each other and I think at this
particular time... it’s very important
to remember that. That we’re all so
deeply connected,” Harry said about
the new album.
British actress and United Nations
Women Global Goodwill Ambassador
Emma Watson was given the Woman
of the Year award in recognition of
her acting career and work for gender
equality.
Other winners included French
singer-songwriter Christine and the
Queens, who won Album of the Year,
and Christopher Bailey took home
British Brand of the Year for Burberry.
Erdem Moralioglu won British
Designer of the Year.
Blondie’s self-titled debut was
released in 1976. The following year,
the band toured in support of their
second album, Plastic Letters, which
scored a No 2 spot on the British
charts with single “Denis.” Over the
years, Blondie would continue to be a
formidable force in the UK.
SAKET SUMAN
Pulitzer Prize-winning
author Jhumpa
Lahiri’s latest book, at
first glance, is a sort
of soothing balm that
brings much-needed relief in the
non-fiction genre — addressing a
significant aspect of the publishing
industry, ignored for far too long
— which instantly catches the
imagination of readers.
But, does the offering answer as
many questions as it raises remains to
be decided.
The axiom that advises readers
not to judge a book by its cover finds
a challenge in Lahiri’s examination of
book covers. And why not, if you look
at the extent to which book covers have
been decisive in the success, as also
the failure, of books in contemporary
times.
In short, the attention span of a
normal reader is shrinking while the
number of books on offer is multiplying
manifold. Thus, the jacket plays a much
more vital role today than it would have
in the past.
The author’s clarity is commendable,
her choice of diction and simple flow of
words are sufficient to keep the readers
involved for the duration of a 71-pagelong
quick read. But the offering, which
is more of a lengthy essay, demands
sincere and uninterrupted attention
to understand the subtle yet complex
issues around book covers that Lahiri
explores. Interestingly, the book
begins on a rather unusual note,
“The Charm of the Uniform”. Lahiri
recalls being fascinated by the school
uniform of her cousins in Calcutta
(now Kolkata) and was herself
“tormented” by the freedom to wear
whatever one wanted in her school
in the US and says she would have
BOOK:
The Clothing of Books
AUTHOR:
Jhumpa Lahiri
PUBLISHER:
Penguin
preferred a uniform herself.
But is the author hinting at some
sort of uniformity in book covers? If
so, what would be the ideal uniform
for all books?
Lahiri reminds readers that
her mother “barely tolerated my
American clothes. She did not find
my jeans or T-shirts cute. The older I
grew, the more it mattered to her that
I, too, wear Indian or, at the very least,
concealing clothing. She held out for
my becoming a Bengali woman like
her.”
This is customary for many Indian
families. It is the context of book covers
that lends an altogether different
dimension to Lahiri’s childhood
protests against, both, freedom to wear
what one wanted at school and her
mother wanting her to wear concealing
clothing.
Was it regressive for a mother to
demand that her child wears only the
“traditional clothing of her country”
or was Lahiri’s “American clothes”, a
normal result of her upbringing in the
Western world?
In any case, if the same formula
is applied to the theme that Lahiri
explores, one again falls short of
answers.
Lahiri says that she would “certainly
prefer the uniformed elegance of a
series to an insipid cover” and calls
for upholding aesthetic values of book
covers. Lastly, a word on the cover of
“The Clothing of Books”. A simple
blue cover, displaying only the title
and author’s name, it just falls short
of appearing elegant. It looks simple,
unadorned and even undecorated.
While this may not be among the
eye-catchers in a bookstore displaying
hundreds of books, it is perhaps close
to how the author expects her book
covers to be.
FROM P1
Matchmaking a
GROWING
business
Of course, compatibility is not a fullproof
science — there are couples who
got along very well before marriage but
got separated after tying the knot due to
compatibility issues.”
Online matchmaking sites are popular
with Omani men and women who believe
they are past the ‘most eligible’ threshold
for marriage. Some desperate people also
falsify their details in the hope of snagging
a good match. Take the example of 34-yearold
Muna, who had recently approached a
matchmaker for assistance.
“Having crossed my thirties, my
chances of getting married were not too
bright. In desperation, I decided to seek
out a matchmaker. But in the information
that I had disclosed, I did not furnish my
exact age — a mistake that came back
to haunt me. Not long thereafter, a man
came to propose to me but found out I
was older than I had claimed. I was truly
embarrassed.”
Muna is determined to get the help of a
matchmaker in her quest for wedded bliss,
but she urges prospective brides to furnish
their correct details because, as she stresses,
the “entire matchmaking process and the
build-up to a relationship between two
individuals requires truthfulness”.
Muna cautions against matchmakers
who charge exorbitant amounts of up to
RO 1,000 per couple upon a successful
match. “I think since she is doing this
business for a good cause, she should
keep the prices affordable. After all, the
cost of wedding arrangements is huge,”
she lamented. Al Kharousi, a 27-yearold
man, opines that prospective brides
and grooms have their own reasons
and circumstances for depending on
matchmakers to find suitable spouses.
“For me, although I am still relatively
young, I stammer when speaking. I
proposed to many girls but with no luck.
So I sought the help of a matchmaker.
She is still searching for the right girl for
me.”

6 REGION GO
OMANDAILYOBSERVER SATURDAY l FEBRUARY 18 l 2017
Turkish shelling kills
nine in IS-held town
BEIRUT: Nine civilians were
killed in overnight Turkish
bombardment of a militantheld
town in northern Syria,
a monitor said on Friday, but
Ankara said the shelling killed 13
“terrorists”.
Three women were among
those killed in the artillery fire on
Al Bab, which Turkish-backed
Syrian rebels have been fighting
to take from the IS group, the
Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights said.
“In the past 48 hours, Turkish
air strikes and shelling have
killed 45 civilians, including
18 children and 14 women,”
Observatory head Rami Abdel
Rahman said.
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu
news agency said the army had
hit dozens of IS positions, seven
of them from the air.
“In total, 13 IS terrorists were
killed,” Anadolu reported.
Ankara began military
operations in Syria in August last
year, targeting Kurdish fighters
as well as IS, but says it is doing
its utmost to avoid civilian
casualties.
Al Bab is IS’s last stronghold
in Aleppo province and has
come under fierce attack in
recent months by Turkish forces
and allied Syrian rebels.
They entered the town last the
weekend and are now engaged in
“clean-up” operations, Turkish
Defence Minister Fikri Isik said
on Thursday.
The Observatory, however,
said Turkish forces had made
little progress since entering the
town from the west, and rebels
said IS was putting up fierce
resistance.
Field commander Abu Jaafar
said his forces had been able to
overrun part of the town early
on Thursday, but were then
ambushed by IS.
At least one militant
suicide attacker wounded
several rebels and seriously
damaged their equipment, Abu
Jaafar said.
“Daesh seeks to install itself in
civilian and public buildings and
use civilians as human shields,”
rebel spokesman Mahmud Hadi
said on Friday.
“They use suicide attacks
and they move about through
basements and tunnels...
they infiltrate in between
civilians fleeing the military
operations to try and penetrate
behind the lines of the rebel
factions.”
Dozens of civilians have been
fleeing Al Bab on a daily basis,
according to the Observatory,
leaving newly liberated areas as
well as escaping territory still
under IS control.
From outside the town on
Friday, a line of fleeing residents
could be seen crossing a field to
escape the fighting, as gunshots
sounded in the distance.
On a road leading to the
rebel-held town of Azaz, several
fleeing residents had piled their
belongings into carts on the back
of motorbikes and were driving
away. — AFP
BONN: US allies said they had won
assurances on Friday from new
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
that Washington backed a political
solution to the Syria conflict, ahead of
UN peace talks.
On the sidelines of a G20 gathering
in Germany, Tillerson joined a group
of countries who support the Syrian
opposition for talks on a way to end
the nearly six-year war.
“All the participants want a political
solution because a military solution
alone won’t lead to peace in Syria,”
German Foreign Minister Sigmar
Gabriel told reporters in Bonn, adding
that “Tillerson became very involved
in the debates”.
The meeting of the so-called
“like-minded” nations — made up
of around a dozen Western and Arab
countries as well as Turkey — was the
first since President Donald Trump
took office.
Diplomats had said before the talks
that they were hoping for clarity on
whether there had been a change in
US policy on Syria, particularly on the
future of President Bashar al Assad.
The meeting came ahead of a
new round of United Nations-led
talks in Geneva on February 23
involving Syrian regime and rebel
representatives.
Under Trump’s predecessor Barack
Obama, Washington insisted Assad
had to go, putting it at odds with
Moscow which backs the Syrian
leader. But Trump has called for closer
cooperation with Moscow in the
fight against the IS militants in Syria,
downplaying what happens to Assad
as secondary to US interests.
With Russia’s sway in the conflict
Allies claim US backing for
political solution in Syria
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (R), Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (2nd R) and other diplomats listen to
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel (3rd L) speaking during a meeting on Syria at the World Conference Centre in Bonn,
western Germany, on Friday. — Reuters
growing, Moscow has seized the
initiative by hosting separate peace
talks in Kazakhstan along with Turkey,
to broker a fragile six-week truce
between Syria’s warring parties.
Gabriel said the “like-minded”
countries had agreed to step up
pressure on Russia to back a political
solution, reaffirming that there could
be no alternative to the UN-led Geneva
talks. “Any political solution must
be obtained in the framework of the
Geneva negotiations and there should
not be any parallel negotiations,” he
said.
Tillerson, on his first diplomatic
trip abroad, has used the two-day G20
event as a chance to sit down with a
string of foreign counterparts unsure
The meeting of the
so-called “likeminded”
nations —
made up of around a
dozen Western and
Arab countries as well
as Turkey — was the
first since President
Donald Trump took
office
about what Trump’s “America First”
policy means for them.
The former Exxonmobil boss on
Friday held his first talks with Chinese
counterpart Wang Yi, the highest level
Sino-US encounter yet after the two
powers got off to a rocky start under
Trump.
Trump angered Beijing by
questioning the “One China” policy
agreed in the 1970s as the basis for
what has become one of the most
important global relationships.
Wang only agreed to go to Bonn
after a conciliatory phone call between
Trump and President Xi Jinping in
which the US president backtracked
on his earlier comments. Tillerson has
also moved to reassure nervous allies
with a cautious approach to Russia,
signalling there would be no radical
shift despite Trump’s pledges to seek a
softer line. — AFP
DEMO AGAINST SETTLEMENTS
Germany says building more Israeli
settlements may end 2-state solution
Palestinians and foreigners march towards Israel’s controversial separation wall between the West Bank village of Bilin near
Ramallah and the Israeli settlement of Modiin Ilit during a demonstration against settlements in the area, on Friday. — AFP
BONN: Germany’s foreign minister
has warned that building more
Israeli settlements in the Palestinian
territories could end the prospect of a
two-state solution and fuel conflict in
the region.
Sigmar Gabriel’s comments came
as conflicting statements by the
new US administration threw off
European allies who had hoped to
get some clarity from Washington
following US President Donald
Trump’s apparent shift in policy on
Wednesday regarding the Middle East
peace process.
“We are concerned that unlimited
construction of settlements will...
make a two-state solution impossible
and could increase the risks of
conflicts in the Middle East, including
possible war,” Gabriel told reporters,
showing Berlin’s growing frustration
about settlement activity in the Israelioccupied
West Bank.
A vote by the Israeli Knesset to
“legalise” settlements banned under
international law further complicated
the situation, Gabriel said during a
news conference at a G20 foreign
ministers meeting.
Trump on Wednesday dropped
a US commitment to a two-state
solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, abandoning a major pillar of
US Middle East policy.
But on Thursday, US Ambassador
to the United Nations Nikki Haley
said it would be wrong to say that
Washington no longer supported a
two-state solution.
French Foreign Minister Jean-
Marc Ayrault told reporters after a
meeting with US Secretary of State
Rex Tillerson that the US position
on the Israeli-Palestinian dossier was
“very confused and worrying”.
Gabriel, who met with Tillerson
later on Thursday, said Germany
would continue to advocate a two-state
solution for the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, calling it “the only realistic
option to reduce conflict in the region
and prevent the emergency of a new
war”. — Reuters
In ‘liberated’ Mosul, residents say danger remains
MOSUL: The Iraqi forces that retook
east Mosul from militants last month
have moved on to their next battle,
leaving a security vacuum that has
residents complaining of a job halfdone.
The traffic jams in the streets and
the crowds swarming the shops of the
eastern neighbourhoods that the IS
group controlled only weeks ago are
deceptive, residents say.
“Everything looks like it’s back
to normal but people know that
bloodshed could be just around the
corner and they live in constant fear,”
said Omar, from a civil society group
that has been trying to breathe life
back into Iraq’s second city.
“Everybody is talking about the
liberation but Daesh (IS) is still here,”
the 25-year-old said. “Their drones
are flying above our heads, target
our homes, our hospitals and our
mosques.”
The Joint Operations Command
that has been coordinating Iraq’s fight
back since IS seized a third of the
country in 2014 announced that the
east bank of Mosul had been “fully
The traffic jams in
the streets and the
crowds swarming the
shops of the eastern
neighbourhoods
that the IS group
controlled only weeks
ago are deceptive,
residents say
liberated” on January 24.
The Iraqi tricolour has replaced IS’s
black flag above official buildings but
the atmosphere is tense.
“The suicide car bombs are back
and that brings back memories of
Daesh,” said Umm Sameer, a resident
of Al-Zuhoor neighbourhood.
On February 9, a suicide bomber
blew himself up at a popular restaurant
in east Mosul, injuring several people,
according to officials.
Contrary to some expectations,
roughly three-quarters of the
People shop after returning to their homes in the Al-Zuhoor neighbourhood of
Mosul. — Reuters
population of east Mosul stayed
home and weathered the fighting
that engulfed their neighbourhoods
when elite forces from the Counter-
Terrorism Service (CTS) punched into
the city to take on the militants.
Yet some of them are leaving now,
despite the fact that their areas have
been officially liberated.
Nuriya Bashir, in her sixties, left
her home with her children and
grandchildren this week.
“My daughter’s husband was
killed when a drone dropped a
grenade. Daesh knew where he was
that evening. The sleeper cells are
everywhere,” she said, speaking from
the Hasansham displacement camp
east of Mosul where she and her family
found shelter.
“Just after the announcement
that east Mosul was liberated, many
displaced people left the camp to
return to their homes,” said camp
manager Rizqar Obeid.
“But over the past few days, we
have received around 40 families who
couldn’t bear the situation in the city
any longer,” he said.
There are security forces deployed
in east Mosul but Umm Sameer
accused them of “negligence” in their
work. CTS fighters have now moved
out to prepare for an assault on the
city’s west bank.
“We have handed over this part of
the city to the army,” Abdulwahab al
Saadi, a top CTS commander, said.
He admitted that insecurity
remained in the east and blamed it on
the fact that “militants on the west side
continue to fire mortar rounds.”
But weaponised drones and mortar
fire are not the only security concerns
for east Mosul residents.
“The security shortcomings in
east Mosul are obvious,” said Amer
al Bek, an activist with a local civil
society group, criticising “the lack of
professionalism of some of the security
forces.”
Residents of four villages that lie
just north of the city limits on the east
bank of the Tigris have said that armed
IS fighters are still in their midst.
“There are around 100 of them
in the area, walking around freely
with their weapons and combat gear,”
said one resident who would not
give his name for fear of retribution,
adding that the militants had recently
executed several villagers.
“Why is the army not liberating our
villages,” another resident asked.
In the city proper, the number of
residents who stayed on during the
fighting made effective screening
almost impossible.
The Institute for the Study of War
said last week that the “inability to find
a suitable hold force is also creating
openings for IS to reinfiltrate, as shown
by several attacks in eastern Mosul.”
— AFP

ASIA
7
SATURDAY l FEBRUARY 18 l 2017 OMANDAILYOBSERVER
Japan to speed up
frigate build to
reinforce E China Sea
TOKYO: Japan plans to accelerate a
warship building programme to make
two frigates a year to patrol the fringes
of the East China Sea, where it disputes
island ownership with China,
three people with knowledge of the
plan said.
Japan previously was building one
5,000-tonne class destroyer a year,
but will now make two 3,000-tonne
class ships a year, beginning from the
April 2018 fiscal year, the people said,
declining to be identified as they are
not authorised to talk to the media. It
aims to produce a fleet of eight of the
new class of smaller, cheaper vessels,
which may also have mine-sweeping
and anti-submarine capability.
Naval shipyard operators including
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Japan
Marine United Corp (JMU) and
Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding
are expected to bid for the work, the
people said.
Japan and China dispute ownership
of a group of islands in the East
China Sea, about 220 km northeast of
Taiwan. In Japan, they are known as
the Senkakus, while China calls them
the Diaoyu islands.
Senior Japanese military officials
have said they are concerned that
China may seek to increase its influence
in the East China Sea around Japan’s
southern Okinawa island chain.
Japan provides military aid to Southeast
Asian countries including the
Philippines and Vietnam that oppose
China’s territorial claims in the neighbouring
South China Sea.
In a departure from normal procurement
practice, Japan’s Ministry
of Defense said in a report published
on Wednesday it will require the winner
of the — eight frigate — contract
to offer major portions of the build to
other bidders.
The change is meant to ensure naval
shipyards remain open.
In the past two years, JMU has
won contracts to build the larger Aegis-equipped
destroyers, raising some
concern among defence ministry officials
that rivals could shutter their
shipyards, one of the sources said.
“We need to ensure our ability to
build naval vessels at home,” the person
said. — Reuters
FLORAL DANCE
Ethnic Miao people perform a dance during a local festival in Kaili, Guizhou province, China. — Reuters
Pakistan crackdown on militants
after shrine attack, toll rises to 88
SEHWAN SHARIF: Pakistani security forces killed
dozens of suspected militants on Friday, a day after IS
claimed a suicide bombing that killed more than 80
worshippers at a Sufi shrine in the latest of a series of
attacks across the country.
The bombing at the famed Lal Shahbaz Qalandar
shrine in southern Sindh province was Pakistan’s
deadliest attack in two years, killing at least 88 people
and underlining the threat of militant groups like the
Pakistani Taliban and IS.
With authorities facing angry criticism for failing
to tighten security before the bomber struck, analysts
warned that the wave of violence pointed to a major
escalation in militants’ attempts to destabilise the region.
“This is a virtual declaration of war against the
state of Pakistan,” said Imtiaz Gul, head of the independent
Centre for Research and Security Studies in
Islamabad.
With pressure growing for action, Pakistan demanded
that neighbouring Afghanistan hand over
76 “terrorists” it said were sheltering over the border.
The bombings over five days have hit all four of Pakistan’s
provinces and two major cities, killing around
100 people and shaking a nascent sense that the worst
of the country’s militant violence may be in the past.
A series of military operations against insurgent
groups operating in Pakistan had encouraged hopes
that their leaders were scattered.
“But this has led to a degree of complacency
within our civil-military leadership that perhaps they
have completely destroyed these elements, or broken
their back,” Gul said.
If so, that impression has been shattered by the
events of recent days.
At Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, the white marble floor
was still marked by blood on Friday, and a pile of
abandoned shoes and slippers was heaped in the
Devotees react as they gather outside the closed gate of the shrine of 13th century Sufi saint Lal Shahbaz
Qalandar a day after a bomb blew up at the shrine in the town of Sehwan in Sindh province, some 200 km
north-east of Karachi on Friday. — AFP
courtyard, many of them belonging to victims.
Outside, protesters shouted slogans at police, who
they said had failed to protect the shrine.
“I wish I could have been here and died in the blast
last night,” a devastated Ali Hussain said, sitting on
the floor of the shrine.
He said that local Sufis had asked for better security
after a separate bombing this week killed 13 people
in the eastern city of Lahore, but added: “No one
bothered to secure this place”.
Anwer Ali, 25, rushed to the shrine after he heard
the explosion, and described seeing dead bodies and
chaos as people fled the scene.
“There were threats to the shrine. The Taliban
had warned that they will attack here, but authorities
didn’t take it seriously,” Ali said.
Sindh police chief A D Khawaja said on Friday
that the death toll had reached 88 people with scores
more wounded. Security forces in Sindh said they
killed 18 suspected militants.
On the same day, army and police raids in the
northwestern cities of Peshawar and Bannu killed
seven militants and another six were killed in shelling
on the border with Afghanistan. — Reuters
Malaysian forensics test
samples in N Korea killing
KUALA LUMPUR/JAKARTA:
Malaysian government scientists
were on Friday examining samples
from the autopsy of the half-brother
of North Korea’s leader.
Police were meanwhile questioning
two female suspects who
were arrested carrying Vietnamese
and Indonesian passports, as well
as a Malaysian man, as they attempted
to shed light on the murder
of Kim Jong-Nam.
Lab forensics received samples
from the post-mortem on Thursday
and will “conduct the analysis
as soon as possible”, Dr Cornelia
Charito Siricord of the science
ministry’s chemistry department
told national news agency Bernama.
Malaysia’s deputy prime minister
said on Thursday he believed
North Korea had put in a request to
claim the body through the police
and the hospital, and that Malaysia
was ready to comply once investigations
were completed.
Police obtained a seven-day remand
order for the two female suspects,
Selangor state police chief
Abdul Samah Mat said.
SHOCK AND DISBELIEF: The
family and former neighbours of
an Indonesian woman arrested
over the assassination of the North
Korean leader’s half-brother expressed
shock on Friday that “a
nice person” like her could have
committed such a crime.
The woman, Siti Aishah, was
detained over the killing of Kim
Jong-Nam. Indonesian Vice-President
Jusuf Kalla suggested that the
25-year-old Aishah, was a “victim”
of a “scam” who thought she was
taking part in a reality show involving
hidden cameras.
Malaysian police say that Jong-
Nam was preparing to board a
plane to Macau when he was
jumped by two women who squirted
some kind of liquid in his face.
In the Jakarta neighbourhood
of Tambora, where Aishah used
to live with her then husband, her
former father-in-law was horrified
on hearing the news of her arrest
over the dramatic murder.
“I was shocked — no way,” said
Tija Liang Kiong, 56. “There’s no
way such a nice person would do
that. I could not believe it because
she was a good person.”
“She was kind — if she was not
kind I would not marry her off to
my son,” he added. She married the
son after meeting him while working
for Kiong’s business.
They had a baby and went to
Malaysia to find work but got a divorce
in 2012, Kiong said.
Kiong said the child they had
still lives with his family and that
Aishah last visited her son on January
28. Indonesian immigration
authorities said she flew to Malaysia
from Indonesia on February 2.
— AFP
Kim Jong-Nam sought reform: Japanese author
TOKYO: The assassinated half-brother
of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Un
was a courageous man who sought to
reform his country, a Japanese journalist
who wrote a book about him said on
Friday.
Kim Jong-Nam, who was killed
on Monday at Kuala Lumpur’s international
airport, had regularly corresponded
with Tokyo Shimbun senior
writer Yoji Gomi.
“Even if it put him in danger,
he wanted to tell his opinions to
Pyongyang through me or other media,”
Gomi told reporters.
Gomi also said that Kim told him he
had never met his younger half-brother
who succeeded their father Kim Jong-Il
and allegedly ordered his assassination,
sending female agents to poison him,
according to South Korea.
Gomi’s relationship with Kim began
Kim Jong-Nam, who
was killed on Monday
at Kuala Lumpur’s
international airport,
had regularly
corresponded with
Tokyo Shimbun
senior writer Yoji
Gomi
when he spotted him at Beijing’s international
airport in 2004.
They began to regularly exchange
emails in 2010. Gomi also interviewed
Kim in Macau and Beijing in 2011 for a
total of seven hours.
Tokyo Shimbun senior staff writer Yoji Gomi (R) at a press conference entitled ‘Kim
Jong-Nam and his death’ at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo
on Friday. — AFP
The last contact was via an email received
in January 2012, just weeks after
the death of Kim’s father.
Gomi said that Kim wanted North
Korea to carry out economic reforms
similar to those pursued by China from
the late 1970s.
“He said that the only way that
North Korea could survive would be
to go through the series of reforms and
liberalisation that China had carried
out,” Gomi said.
“He was critical of the system that
was in place in North Korea,” Gomi
added.
“He said that power should not depend
on hereditary succession. That
was not appropriate for a socialist society.
The leader should be selected
through a democratic process.”
He did say, however that at their first
meeting, in Macau in January 2011,
Kim was visibly nervous, sweating and
fidgeting.
Gomi also said he found Kim to be a
polite “intellectual” with a sense of humour,
unlike his reputation as a playboy
gambler, though he acknowledged
he enjoyed drinking, especially in Tokyo’s
fancy restaurants.
“He said that there he was able to
enjoy singing and drinking with South
Koreans, North Koreans and regular
Japanese people, and he said he hoped
that someday walls throughout the
world would disappear like that.”
Kim is often remembered for a
failed attempt in 2001 to enter Japan on
a forged passport to visit Disneyland.
He was expelled in an incident that
was widely seen as an embarrassment
for his father and may have scotched
his hopes of succeeding him as the
first-born son.
But Kim told Gomi he did not believe
that was the reason behind his
father’s decision. In his book, Gomi
quoted Kim as saying that his father
grew angry and distant after he advocated
reform. — AFP

8 INDIA
OMANDAILYOBSERVER SATURDAY l FEBRUARY 18 l 2017
Jats turn down talks
offer, crucial meet today
HARMONY IN THE AIR
CHANDIGARH: Agitating Jat leaders
on Friday turned down an offer
from the Haryana government for
talks even as all eyes were on the future
course of the agitation that the Jat
leadership will take on Saturday.
The Jat agitation, which started on
January 29, completed 20 days with
no breakthrough in sight over acceptance
of their demands by the BJP government
in Haryana led by Manohar
Lal Khattar.
All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh
Samiti (AIJASS) president Yashpal
Malik said that the Jat community
will decide its next course of action
on Saturday.
The AIJASS has given a call to observe
February 19 as ‘Balidan Diwas’
(sacrifice day) to mark the one year of
violence during the Jat agitation last
year.
Malik said that additional director-general
of police (ADGP)
Mohammad Akil, who is part of a
five-member panel of senior officers
set up by the Khattar government to
engage Jat leaders in talks, had made
an appeal for talks.
Malik accused Khattar and his
government of not taking the agitation
seriously. He said that the Jats
will continue to protest peacefully.
The Haryana government on Friday
deputed senior IAS officers “to
guide and support” Deputy Commissioners
in eight districts in view of the
ongoing Jat agitation. Jat community
members have been holding protests
across Haryana since January 29 in
support of their demands.
Their demands include reservation
for Jats, jobs to the next of kin of those
killed in violence in the Jat agitation
last year, withdrawal of cases against
them and action against officers who
ordered action against the Jats.
— IANS
The Yakovlevs team performs during the Aero India show at the Yelahanka Air Force Station in Bengaluru on Friday. — Reuters
EC notice to
Sasikala on
petition by
Panneerselvam
faction
NEW DELHI: The Election
Commission of India (ECI) on
Friday sent a notice to AIADMK
leader V K Sasikala and sought
her reply on the petitions filed by
a delegation of MPs from the O
Panneerselvam camp challening
her appointment as party General
Secretary.
Sasikala, currently lodged in
Parappana Agrahara prison in
Bengaluru, has been asked by EC
to respond by February 28.
“The Commission has directed
that your reply on the aforesaid
petitions may be furnished latest
by 28.02.2017, failing which it
will be presumed that you have no
comments to offer and the Commission
will take appropriate action
in the matter,” the EC letter
read. On Thursday, a delegation
of AIADMK MPs led by Rajya
Sabha member V Maitreyan petitioned
the EC over Sasikala’s appointment
as the party’s General
Secretary, which they said was
illegal.
The delegation comprising of
11 AIADMK parliamentarians
told the EC in their petition that
as per the party constitution, to
become the party General Secretary,
one has to be a member for
five consecutive years, and pointed
out that Sasikala did not fulfil
this basic criterion.
The petition also mentioned
Rule 20 (2) of the party by-law
which says that the General Secretary
shall be elected by the primary
members of the party units
of Tamil Nadu and members of
other states. — IANS
Palaniswami seeking trust vote today
CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister
Edappadi K Palaniswami is all set to
seek a vote of confidence on Saturday
in the state assembly — that is likely
to see some tight-rope walk, with the
rival AIADMK faction led by O Panneerselvam
joined by opposition parties
to vote against the government.
The southern state, that has not
seen a day without hectic political developments
since the past 10 days, is
poised for another day of intense political
activity with the scene shifting
to the state assembly.
Palaniswami, 63, a senior leader in
the ruling AIADMK of the V K Sasikala
camp, was sworn in on Thursday. He
needs the support of 117 legislators to
continue in the post.
The AIADMK party commands
the support of 124 legislators, including
the Speaker, while the breakaway
UP doesn’t need to adopt Modi: Priyanka
RAE BARELI: Daughter of Congress
President Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka
Vadra made a strong attack on Prime
Minister Narendra Modi on Friday,
saying that the people of Uttar Pradesh
do not want to “adopt him”, as there is
no dearth of leaders in the state.
She was addressing her maiden assembly
election rally in the state, along
with her brother Rahul Gandhi, in
the parliamentary constituency of her
mother, Rae Bareli.
Referring to Modi’s Thursday
speech in Barabanki, where he said he
felt honoured to be the “adopted son of
Uttar Pradesh”, Priyanka said that “UP
does not want to adopt an outsider”.
“Youths of this state are talented
enough to write their own destiny,” she
said, adding that Uttar Pradesh is the
“heart and life of Rahul Gandhi”.
Cheered by the crowd, Priyanka
went on to ask what the Prime Minister
has done for Varanasi as its representative
in the Lok Sabha. She urged
the people to vote for a leader who
works for the people and does development
and not for one who makes
false promises. Priyanka also slammed
Modi over demonetisation.
“With a clap of hands, he created
serious problems for the poor and the
women,” she said and sought support
and votes for the Samajwadi Party-
Congress alliance. After addressing
the rally in Maharajganj, Priyanka
went to Fursatganj from where she
flew back to New Delhi.
Campaigning ends: Campaigning
for the third phase of the Uttar
Pradesh state assembly elections came
to an end at 5 pm on Friday. There are
826 candidates contesting for 69 seats,
spread across 12 districts. — IANS
group led by former Chief Minister
Panneerselvam has 11 legislators.
The other opposition includes
DMK with 89 members, Congress —
eight, Indian Union Muslim League
with one, and one seat is vacant. The
DMK has said it will vote against the
government, while the Congress has
said it will wait for the party high command’s
directive. However, the Congress
has indicated it will vote against
the Palaniswami government.
The DMK (minus its President M
Karunanidhi who is unwell has 88 legislators
to vote), Along with the Congress
and Indian Union of Muslim
League, the opposition group comes
to 97.
The Panneerselvam camp has the
support of 11, taking the tally against
Palaniswami to 108. If there is some
cross-voting to the tune of 10 legislators
from Sasikala’s camp then it could
be the end for Palaniswami.
The assembly has a total strength of
234 of which one seat is vacant.
On Friday, the Chief Minister’s
support base suffered erosion by one
legislator.
AIADMK legislator representing
Mylapore constituency and former
The AIADMK party
commands the support
of 124 legislators,
including the Speaker,
while the breakaway
group led by Panneerselvam
has 11 legislators
Congress party leader Priyanka Gandhi arrives at an election campaign rally at Rae
Bareli in Uttar Pradesh on Friday. — AFP
Director-General of Police (DGP) R
Nataraj said he would vote against Palaniswami.
Following Nataraj’s about-turn at
the last minute, Palaniswami’s support
base is down to 124 legislators.
Meanwhile, a week after he was
sacked from the AIADMK, former
party Presidium Chairman E Madhusudanan
on Friday in turn “dismissed”
General Secretary V K Sasikala,
Chief Minister Palaniswami Deputy
General Secretary T T V Dinakaran,
Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha M
Thambidurai, A Navaneethakrishnan,
Thangamani, N Dalavai Sundaram,
Valarmathi, R B Udhayakumar, C Ve.
Shanmugam and S Venkatesh — from
the party’s primary membership.
The vote of confidence is being held
following a split in the AIADMK party
after Panneerselvam revolted against
General Secretary VK Sasikala charging
her of forcing him to quit.
Sasikala is now in a jail in Bengaluru
after being convicted in a corruption
case.
On Thursday, Palaniswami was
sworn in as Chief Minister and 30
ministers also took oath.
— IANS
Taj Mahal
turning
yellow: NGT
UP govt
NEW DELHI: The National Green
Tribunal on Friday slapped fines on
Uttar Pradesh government agencies
for not replying to a plea claiming
that large-scale garbage burning is
turning the Taj Mahal yellow.
The Tribunal had asked the state
government’s Urban Development
ministry, Agra municipal authority
and its District Magistrate to pay a
fine of Rs 20,000 to the Central Pollution
Control Board (CPCB).
The decision came after an NGO
named Social Action for Forest and
Environment (SAFE) claimed that a
Pul alleges graft by SC judges, Cong leaders
NEW DELHI: Late Arunachal
Pradesh Chief Minister Kalikho Pul
had named some sitting as well as
former Supreme Court judges and
senior Congress politicians in a 60-
page suicide letter he left behind at the
time of his death last August. His wife
has demanded a CBI probe into the
corruption charges levelled by Pul.
“We want a central investigation
agency — the CBI or the National Investigation
Agency — to investigate
the case. Every politician and judge
named in the letter should be brought
into limelight and action taken against
them for demanding bribe,” his wife
Dangwimsai Pul told the media here.
The suicide note written by Kalikho
Pul in Hindi mentions the names of
several Congress politicians both at
the Centre and in Arunachal Pradesh
along with Supreme Court judges, including
ex-Chief Justices of India H L
Dattu and Altamas Kabir, for demanding
bribe.
Dangwimsai — the first wife of
Pul — has demanded a new FIR in the
case as the state government did not
probe the death of Pul “properly”, despite
an FIR by the family.
She alleged the current state government
threatened her against demanding
a CBI probe.
On being asked who was threatening
them, Dangwimsai said: “I can’t
take the names, but certainly they are
people close to the ministers in the
current Arunachal government.”
In his 60-page suicide note, a copy
of which is with IANS, Pul said H L
Dattu was allegedly paid Rs 28 crore
in 2012 to stay an order against the
former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister
Nabam Tuki, despite the Gauhati
The suicide note
written by the
Arunachal CM,
mentions the names
of several Congress
politicians both at
the Centre and in
Arunachal Pradesh
High Court ordering a CBI inquiry
against Tuki after finding him guilty.
Similarly, another ex CJI Altamas
Kabir had given a decision in favour
of Arunachal contractors regarding
a Public Distribution System (PDS)
scam. The Central government and
Food Corporation of India termed the
decision wrong, he alleged in the letter.
Pul also alleges that on the directions
of former Chief Minister Dorjee
Khandu, he in 2009 had given Rs 6
crore to President Pranab Mukherjee,
then Union Finance Minister.
Mukherjee was paid the money after
he cleared an advance loan of Rs 200
crore to Arunachal Pradesh.
“In 2008, I, on the directions of
Dorjee Khandu, was compelled to
give Rs 37 crore to Congress Treasurer
Moti Lal Vora,” said the suicide note.
The suicide note which brings to
light several irregularities and scams
in Arunachal Pradesh also mentions
that Pul was contacted by some (unidentified)
people, demanding Rs 86
crore to give a SC ruling in his favour,
an offer which Pul said he denied.
Pul had become Chief Minister
on February 19, 2016, after he along
with 29 (19 Congress and 11 BJP)
MLAs defected to the People’s Party
of Arunachal Pradesh (PPA) — a state
outfit — to form a new government,
bringing down the existing Congress
government led by Chief Minister
Tuki. However, the Supreme Court reinstated
the Tuki government on July
13, following which Pul and his supporters
returned to the Congress and
supported Pema Khandu as the Chief
Minister. — IANS
joint report of IIT-Kanpur, Georgia
Institute of Technology and University
of Wisconsin has revealed that
the dust and carbon produced from
the large-scale municipal solid waste
burning is turning the Taj Mahal’s
white marble yellow.
A bench headed by NGT Chairperson
Justice Swatanter Kumar
earlier sought a reply from the concerned
authorities regarding the
same. The bench has given a last
opportunity to the authorities to file
the response.
“Let reply be filed within two
weeks subject to payment of Rs
20,000 each as cost to CPCB,” the
bench said. — IANS

ANALYSIS SS
9
SATURDAY l FEBRUARY 18 l 2017
OMANDAILYOBSERVER
Red blooms and warm glows at Pyongyang show
A
SEBASTIEN BERGER
humble two-room hut nestles beneath snowladen
trees, a warm red glow emerging from
within, reminiscent of a Christmas Nativity.
It is, according to North Korean orthodoxy,
the mountainside birthplace of Kim Jong-
Il, who inherited power from his father and
passed it in turn to his son, current leader Kim
Jong-Un.
The image of the Day of the Shining Star, as
the occasion is known, is a recurring motif at
the Kimjongilia flower festival in Pyongyang,
appearing in mosaics and models surrounded by
the eponymous red blooms.
Guide Ri Yun-I had no doubts. “The great
leader general Kim Jong-Il was born in a secret
camp on Mount Paektu,” she said — a volcano
straddling the Chinese-Korean border seen as the
spiritual birthplace of the Korean nation.
Such origins would be appropriate for a man
destined to lead the Democratic People’s Republic
of Korea, as the North is officially known.
“Our great general Kim Jong-Il devoted his
whole life only for the prosperity of the country
and our people’s happiness,” said Ri. “Our people
Around 700,000 people
are expected to cram
into the exhibition hall
in Pyongyang over
seven days, and its
passages were packed on
Friday as soldiers and
civilians made their way
past the displays, many
in jovial mood
strongly miss him.”
But outsiders beg to differ, pointing instead
to Soviet records putting his place of birth as a
Siberian village where his father was in exile, and
a year earlier than Pyongyang’s 1942.
Officially, it is 75 years since Kim Jong-Il was
born, and the North is marking the anniversary
with skating and synchronised swimming shows,
fireworks and the flower festival — with no
mention of the killing this week in Malaysia of
Kim Jong-Nam, his first-born son and Kim Jong-
Un’s half-brother.
Around 700,000 people are expected to cram
into the exhibition hall in Pyongyang over seven
days, and its passages were packed on Friday as
soldiers and civilians made their way past the
displays, many in jovial mood.
The Kimjongilia, a large begonia, was the
unquestioned dominant feature, with 100,000
potted blooms on show.
Each stand was supplied by a different
organisation or individual, ranging from the
North’s central bank — whose stand featured a
red map of a unified Korea, decked out in lights
— to an 11-year-old schoolboy.
Two stands held flowers presented in the
names of overseas “friendship and solidarity”
organisations or foreign embassies and leaders,
with pride of place given to the President of the
Syrian Arab Republic and the general secretary
of the central committee of the Lao Peoples
Revolutionary Party.
“Our people cultivate very many Kimjongilias
greeting the birthday of the great general Kim
Jong-Il,” explained Ri.
The flower was bred by Japanese botanist
Kamo Mototeru, who Ri said “visited our country
several times and he witnessed the reality of our
country”.
As a result he “admired the brilliance of
General Kim Jong-Il” and so presented him with
his creation.
His father Kim Il-Sung had previously been
honoured in 1965 with the Kimsungilia, a purple
orchid named after him by Indonesian leader
Sukarno.
Kim Jong-Il died in 2011 and regular visitor
Kim Nam-Hui said that he was “someone we all
follow like our father and miss so much”.
In the 29-year-old teacher’s opinion, the
Kimjongilia is “the most beautiful flower in the
world”.
But, she said, “We come to this flower festival
out of our longing for the general Kim Jong-Il and
the longing for our nation, rather than because of
the beauty of flowers.” — AFP
In harmony with wildlife
US President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at the White House in Washington, DC.
News media takes it on the chin again
U
GRETEL JOHNSTON
S President Donald Trump held a news
conference at the White House on Thursday
in what the press corps had believed would
be a routine announcement of his new
choice to be labour secretary.
Instead, it turned into a tour-de-force of
his combative style, with the former reality
television star hammering the media and
championing his accomplishments as if he
were still stumping on the campaign trail.
After nearly four weeks in office Trump
delivered an overwhelmingly positive selfcritique
of his presidency thus far, in sharp
contrast to criticism from all political camps
except the Republican base and his ardent
supporters.
To hear him tell it, he has only been
keeping promises he made to the American
people.
“There has never been a presidency
that’s done so much in such a short period
of time,” he crowed. “And we have not even
started the big work yet.”
Among the highlights he touted were
announcements about jobs returning to
the country, record highs on Wall Street
and a tremendous surge of optimism in the
business world.
He cited a poll by Rasmussen putting his
approval rating at 55 per cent — selecting
the highest of three prominent polls, with
the other two, Gallup and Pew Research,
placing his approval rating at 40 per cent and
39 per cent.
At the same time he claimed he “inherited
a mess” and ticked off a litany of problems
both domestic and international.
While reporters questioned the
resignation of his national security adviser
over his dealings with Russia and contacts
his aides had with Russians during the
campaign, Trump denied any involvement
with Russia.
His energy would go into fixing things,
including relations with Russia: “We’re going
to take care of it all,” he said.
After US President
Donald Trump’s first
solo news conference, the
US news media were left
wondering where to start
their summation of the
77-minute Q&A. While
picking up the pieces
from the tongue-lashing
they received, some
asked whether it was the
new normal
Above all else in Trump’s almost streamof-consciousness
pronouncements were his
complaints about the “dishonest” and “out of
control” media.
He griped about the “tone” some
television reporters used, a “nasty” story on
the front page of the New York Times and
the “hatred and venom” that he said flowed
from a CNN broadcast in particular.
“I sort of enjoy this back and forth — I
guess I have all my life — but I’ve never
seen more dishonest media than frankly, the
political media,” Trump said.
His election victory, he said, was thanks
to his news conferences and speeches, not
because voters listened to “you people,” he
said, adding, “that’s for sure.”
It was surprising that Trump for the
first time as president opened the floor for
what turned into a rollicking session, with
reporters hands flying into the air, hoping to
be called on, as they realised the president
was ready to spar.
Surprising because the day before
during a joint news conference with Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he
ignored reporters from major newspapers
and television networks, calling only on
those who have been friendly to him.
While much of what he said was
familiar or taken straight out of his
campaign handbook, he did give reporters
something they hope for the most in such
a setting: news.
He said he would issue a new “executive
action” next week, implying that it would
be more narrowly tailored than the
controversial January 27 executive order
on immigration that has been halted by a
court.
Trump also said that an immigration
programme to stop the deportation of
people who arrived in the US as children,
but never became legal immigrants, had
been difficult for him, saying “we’re gonna
show great heart.”
The president who is so fond of using
Twitter to bypass the media, told reporters
he would let them ask him questions about
his proposals because he liked to take his
message “straight to the people.”
And even with all the bashing, in his
inimitable way, he said some reporters were
“fantastic,” adding that he would make a
good reporter himself. — dpa
A
HEAD OFFICE
VISHAL GULATI
nimals in the wild mostly avoid any encounters with humans — and when
they do attack people, it is usually in self-defence, says legendary field
biologist George Schaller.
And it would be wrong to declare tigers and leopards that attack
humans as “man-eaters”, Schaller, who believes he’s still young at 83, said.
Thus, there is a need for training the communities settled on the
periphery of wildlife parks and sanctuaries because the wild animals — be
it the tiger or the leopard or the elephant — don’t want trouble from the
humans, said Schaller.
“And if a tiger is a man-eater, then its killing is certain,” he added.
German-born Schaller, who devoted six decades to conservation of
wildcats and their ecosystems, is currently the Vice-President of Panthera,
an organisation founded in 2006 for conserving the animals.
Schaller, who is wild at heart, said in India — a storehouse of biodiversity
— development is a big issue.
“India is saying it’s doing a lot for the preservation of wildlife. But it is
really disturbing that 200 sq km of forest area of the Panna tiger reserve (in
Madhya Pradesh) which is being diverted for non-forest purposes. After
the 1990s, the country’s image in preserving forests is going down,” said
the biologist-cum-author, who travelled to Central Africa to study the
mountain gorilla when he was 25.
It is greed and corruption that threaten nature more.
The problem, in fact, across the globe is that oil, mining and timber
companies are prepared to pay anything to operate in sensitive areas.
Sadly, governments and officials succumb to their pressures.
“I know people (supposed conservationists) who prefer to sit in their
offices (rather than go into the field). Conservation has not to do only with
animals. It also has to do with economics and politics.”
Schaller, who has studied wildlife in several reserve forests and national
parks in India, said the Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand is the
most vulnerable to poaching for international trade owing to its proximity
to the Nepal border, a major trade link to the Chinese traditional medicine
market.
Estimates say India supports the highest population of tigers in the
wild, accounting for 2,226 of the estimated 3,890 worldwide.
Schaller, who has worked for nearly two decades on studying endemic
wildlife in the Tibetan Plateau, said the snow leopard also needs protection
from pastoral communities.
“The Spiti Valley (in Himachal Pradesh) and the Hemis National Park
(in Jammu and Kashmir) support a good population of the snow leopard,”
said Schaller, who spent most of his time in the field in Asia, Africa and
South America. — IANS
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10 WORLD
OMANDAILYOBSERVER SATURDAY l FEBRUARY 18 l 2017
DEPARTED SOULS REMEMBERED
Queen Mathilde (L), King Philippe-Filip (2nd L), Princess Maria Esmeralda (2nd R) and Princess Lea of Belgium (R) stand as they listen during a special mass to
commemorate the deceased members of the Belgian Royal Family, at the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwkerk, in Laeken-Laken, Brussels, on Friday. — AFP
Your looks may
not influence
pay cheque
LONDON: A fat pay cheque may be
influenced by more than just physical
attractiveness or the lack of it, say
researchers dispelling the ‘beauty
premium’ theory which says beautiful
people earn more while those who are
not so gorgeous are paid less.
The findings showed that healthier
and more intelligent people and
those with more conscientious,
more extraverted and less neurotic
personality traits are the ones who
take fatter pay checks home.
“Physically more attractive workers
may earn more, not necessarily
because they are more beautiful,
but because they are healthier, more
intelligent and have better personality
traits conducive to higher earnings,
such as being more conscientious,
more extraverted and less neurotic,”
said Satoshi Kanazawa from the
London School of Economics and
Political Science.
Economists have widely
documented the “beauty premium” —
or, conversely, the “ugliness penalty”
— on wages. Population-based
surveys in the US and Canada for
instance showed that people who are
physically attractive earn more.
For the study, detailed in the
Journal of Business and Psychology,
the team analysed a nationally
representative sample from a US
data set that measured physical
attractiveness of all respondents on a
five-point scale at four different points
in life over 13 years. — IANS
Italy minister says June
national vote impossible
ROME: A prominent Italian minister
said on Friday it would be impossible
to hold a national election in June,
as the head of the ruling Democratic
Party (PD) is urging.
The PD party leader, former Prime
Minister Matteo Renzi, last week
called for a PD leadership contest
in a bid to reassert his authority,
after he lost last year’s constitutional
reform referendum and resigned in
December.
Renzi is expected to resign as
party leader at a PD assembly on
Sunday. That would probably trigger
a leadership contest — which begins
with a party congress, followed by a
primary vote — and could open the
way for an early vote.
But Culture Minister Dario
Franceschini, who leads a large PD
faction, on Friday urged Renzi to
postpone the party congress in an
effort to keep the party together. He
also argued that the party hasn’t got
enough time for a congress, a primary
and a national election in June.
“We need not rush to hold the
congress,” Franceschini said in an
interview with the newspaper la
We need not rush to hold
the congress. There is
time, given the fact it’s no
longer possible to vote in
June
DARIO FRANCESCHINI
Culture Minister
Repubblica. “There is time, given the
fact it’s no longer possible to vote in
June.” The legislature’s term is not due
to end until February 2018.
Polls show that Renzi should easily
win back control of the party. But PD
dissidents are threatening to quit and
form a rival party, accusing him of
being authoritarian and of dragging
the PD away from its leftist roots.
Renzi, in an interview with
Corriere della Sera newspaper on
Friday, repeated pleas to party rivals
not to leave, but gave no signal that he
would slow his push for a congress and
early vote.
Three-quarters of PD voters do not
want a party split, and 64 per cent want
Renzi to remain the bloc’s secretary, an
Ixe poll published on Friday by state
TV RAI showed.
But many fear the PD will fare
badly in local elections scheduled
for June, and parliament continues
to squabble over changing Italy’s
proportional electoral laws, which are
slightly different for the upper and
lower houses.
Under current laws, the party
leader has the power to select many
of the candidates, meaning Renzi’s
internal foes might not make it into
the next parliament if he keeps his
post.
If they form a rival party, the critics
would be able to create their own list
of candidates and would also bleed
votes from the PD, making it harder
for Renzi to regain power.
The PD is now polling at about 30
per cent, which means it would not be
able to govern alone if a vote were held
under the current proportional voting
systems. — Reuters
Environmental lawyer
murdered in Philippines
MANILA: A Philippine lawyer
who specialised in investigating
crimes against the environment
has been ambushed and shot dead,
police said on Friday.
The murder on Wednesday
of Mia Manuelita Mascarinas-
Green deepened concerns that
the Philippines is one of the
world’s most dangerous places for
environmental campaigners, with
more than 100 killed over the past
15 years.
Four motorcycle-riding
gunmen opened fire after
surrounding a van being driven
by Mascarinas-Green — with her
children and nanny in the vehicle
— near her home on the central
island of Bohol, the authorities
said.
Mascarinas-Green was
pronounced dead at a hospital
but her children were unharmed,
regional police spokesman Senior
Inspector Reslin Abella said.
“The victim is a known
environmental
lawyer.
Investigators are checking whether
the attack had any link to the cases
she had handled in relation to
environmental issues,” Abella said
by telephone.
“They now have the identity
of at least one of the perpetrators
and a hot pursuit operation is
ongoing,” she said without naming
the suspect.
Abella said police were at the
moment unaware if Mascarinas-
Green had been threatened
previously in relation to her work.
Her children are twins, aged
two, and a 10-year-old daughter,
according to local media reports.
CEMENTING RELATIONS
Her death brings to 112
the number of environmental
campaigners murdered in the
Philippines over the past 15 years,
according to Filipino environment
monitor Kalikasan.
This includes 12 since President
Rodrigo Duterte took office seven
months ago, Kalikasan said.
“Most of these cases remain
unresolved as the government
continues to ignore the threat
against environmental defenders,”
Clemente Bautista, its national
coordinator said.
“What this means is that the
perpetrators are emboldened to
do it again and again because no
one ever gets caught.”
Greenpeace Southeast Asia
executive director Yeb Sano
also said the killing highlighted
the culture of impunity in the
Philippines, where powerful
figures abuse a corrupt political
and justice system to literally get
away with murder.
“Those who cause
environmental destruction are
resorting to savage measures
and deplorable acts to stop
communities and people who
are standing up to protect our
imperilled environment,” Sano
said.
Environmental monitor Global
Witness separately lists 88 killings
of environmental activists and
workers in the Philippines between
2010 and 2015. The attacks spiked
with 33 dead in 2015, ranking the
Philippines as the second most
dangerous country in the world
for environmental campaigners
behind Brazil. — AFP/dpa
Romania’s Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu (L) shakes hands with European
Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker upon his arrival at the European
Commission in Brussels on Friday. — AFP
WAR ANNIVERSARY MARKED
Ethical qualms make UK police
cameras a mixed success
People place flowers and incenses sticks during a small rally marking the 38th anniversary of the Chinese border war against
Vietnam (February 17, 1979) in front of the statue of Vietnam’s King Ly Thai To in downtown Hanoi on Friday. — AFP
LONDON: With accusations of
police misconduct raging on both
sides of the Atlantic, Britain has taken
the lead in supplying officers with
body cameras despite worries about
ever-increasing surveillance by the
authorities.
London’s Metropolitan Police
Force is currently providing over
22,000 officers with Body Worn Video
(BWV), saying it will “help officers
to gather evidence and demonstrate
their professionalism.”
The force is one of around a dozen
that have tested wearable technology,
motivated by a fatal police shooting in
2011 that sparked widespread riots, as
well as a major study that suggested
they led to a 93 per cent reduction in
complaints against the police.
A series of police shootings in the
United States and the recent claims of
rape against a French policeman have
intensified an international debate
about whether cameras should be
used all the time.
British police say they have helped
defuse tense encounters and speed
up prosecutions, but the absence of
a legal obligation to use them means
their scope in uncovering any police
misconduct could be limited.
Privacy advocates also fear that the
speed of technological advancement
is outpacing ethical considerations
about privacy.
“While we understand the
perceived transparency benefits
relating to body-worn cameras, we
do have profound concerns about the
potential rollout of the technology for
purposes beyond law enforcement,”
Renate Samson, head of Big Brother
Watch, said.
Officials such as traffic wardens
and even local council litter enforcers
see the “new capabilities as the
solution to a broad range of problems”,
she said. “We could find ourselves
being filmed all the time by officials
wandering the streets.”
Bernard Hogan-Howe, Chief
Commissioner of the Metropolitan
Police, began a trial of body-worn
video cameras in 2014 after the death
of Mark Duggan, who was shot by
officers in north London in August
2011.
The death led to riots in London
and other major cities, and the police
chief said the use of cameras would aid
investigations into police shootings.
However, the fatal shooting of
Yassar Yaqub by West Yorkshire
Police marksmen during a car chase
last month was not caught on camera
despite a force-wide rollout of the
devices.
Home Office guidelines state that
“the decision to record or not to
record any incident remains with the
user”. — AFP

WORLD
11
SATURDAY l FEBRUARY 18 l 2017 OMANDAILYOBSERVER
INDEPENDENCE ANNIVERSARY MARKED
People wave flags and carry banners as they gather in Pristina on Friday during the celebrations marking the 9th anniversary of Kosovo’s declaration of independence.
Nine years since the independence, Kosovo is recognised as a state by more than 110 countries, despite fierce opposition from Serbia, which is backed by its traditional
ally Russia. — AFP
Dutch PM: Country ‘better
off’ ahead of crunch polls
THE HAGUE: Just weeks before
elections, Dutch Prime Minister Mark
Rutte on Friday pressed his bid for a
third term insisting The Netherlands
is better off today than when his
coalition took power in 2012.
The Dutch are headed for crunch
polls next month and the Liberal
centre-right Rutte is one of the frontrunners
in opinion polls, which have
seen far-right political opponent
Geert Wilders surge into the lead.
“The Netherlands is much
better off today than before the
inauguration of cabinet,” Rutte told
journalists at his final weekly press
conference before the March 15 vote.
“The economy, anno 2017, is
in superb shape, with solid growth
across the board,” Rutte said —
achieved not only by “the coalition
government and the opposition
in parliament... but above all by 17
million Dutch citizens.”
He pointed to figures released
earlier this week by the central
statistics office that put economic
growth back to levels before the
2008 economic crisis.
Economic recovery is one of
three themes of Rutte’s election
campaign, together with “keeping
things stable in an unstable world”
and further integration into Dutch
society.
Asked about a letter he penned
three weeks ago urging people to
vote for stability, and calling on all
people including immigrants to
adapt to the country’s values, the
Dutch premier said: “My message is
that if you find it intolerable to live
here or to be a part of this beautiful
country you have the option to
leave.”
“That’s not just for immigrants,
but for everybody,” he said.
Rutte, and his liberal VVD party
is bidding for a third term in office
under the slogan “Act. Normally.”
At a time of political turbulence
in Europe and the United States,
the pragmatic Rutte has positioned
himself firmly as a candidate of the
status quo. “It’s up to the voters to
decide how things will look after
March 15 — but I would plead for a
continuation of the current situation,”
he said.
Political parties are gearing up for
the crucial polls, which experts say
will focus more on national identity
and immigration than economics.
On Saturday, Wilders, who has
led opinion polls for the past month,
takes to the streets to officially
launch his campaign and canvass
for votes. Wilders and his Freedom
Party (PVV) have gained traction with
a heavily anti-immigration, anti-EU
and anti-minority message which
has struck home among parts of
the electorate worried by Europe’s
migrant influx. — AFP
Common interests
outweigh differences
with US: China minister
BEIJING: The common interests
between China and the United States
far outweigh their differences, China’s
Foreign Minister Wang Yi told US
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
on Friday in their first face-to-face
meeting since Tillerson took up his
job.
US President Donald Trump
angered Beijing in December by
talking to the president of Taiwan and
saying the United States did not have to
stick to the “one China” policy, under
which Washington acknowledges the
Chinese position that there is only one
China and Taiwan is part of it.
In a phone call with Chinese leader
Xi Jinping last week, Trump changed
tack and agreed to honour the “one
China” policy, a major diplomatic
boost for Beijing, which brooks no
criticism of its claim to self-ruled
Taiwan.
However, several areas of
disagreement between the two
countries, such as currency, trade,
the South China Sea and North
Korea, were not mentioned in
public statements on the telephone
conversation.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry
statement released after Wang met
Tillerson on the sidelines of a meeting
of foreign ministers of the G20 top
economies in the German city of
Bonn, made no specific mention of
where the two disagree.
Wang said the Xi-Trump call
was extremely important, and that
the two countries should promote
even better relations. “China and the
United States have joint responsibility
to maintain global stability and
promote global prosperity, and both
sides’ joint interests are far greater
than their differences,” the statement
paraphrased Wang as saying.
The two countries should increase
mutual trust, deepen cooperation and
ensure that under Trump they make
even greater contributions to global
peace and prosperity, Wang added.
The two also had a “deep exchange
of views” on the North Korean nuclear
issue, the statement said, without
giving details. Tillerson on Friday
urged China to do all it could to
moderate North Korea’s destabilising
behaviour after Sunday’s ballistic
missile test by Pyongyang, Tillerson’s
spokesman Mark Toner said after the
Wang meeting. — Reuters
Germany says Europe must spend
more on defence, aid also vital
BONN: Europe needs to spend
more on defence but tackling poverty
and climate change also contribute
to world peace, Germany’s foreign
minister said on Friday, responding to
US President Donald Trump’s calls for
greater European military spending.
Germany has Europe’s largest
economy but currently spends only
about 1.2 per cent of its gross domestic
product (GDP) on defence, well below
Nato’s target of two per cent.
“There is no question that Europe
will have to take more responsibility
for that (military spending), but we
cannot reduce security and peace
policies to just the extent of military
spending,” German Foreign Minister
Sigmar Gabriel said.
“That will not allow us to fight
climate change, drought or poverty,”
Gabriel told reporters at the end of a
gathering of foreign ministers from
the G20 largest economies attended
by Trump’s new Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson.
“An important message from this
G20 (meeting) was that peace and
development prospects are two sides
of the same coin,” Gabriel said.
Defence Minister Ursula von der
Leyen said on Friday said Germany
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel (R) presides over a working session
during the Foreign Ministers of the G20 leading and developing economies at the
World Conference Centre in Bonn, western Germany, on Friday. — AFP
was working to boost its defence
spending, but that it would take time
to reach the 2 per cent goal.
Gabriel told reporters on Thursday
that Germany would have to spend
about 25 billion euros more a year
to meet the target, but said it had
already invested 30 to 40 billion more
to integrate about a million refugees,
many of whom were displaced by
failed military interventions.
“That shows that focusing on
military interventions also taps
funding that could be better spent in
combatting hunger and misery,” he
said.
Germany has sought to focus the
G20 foreign ministers’ meeting on
efforts to better utilise the potential
of many African countries and halt a
growing stream of economic refugees
fleeing to Europe.
The European Union is also taking
steps to stem immigration from
Africa, which is set to rise further
after 181,000 people arrived last year
An important message
from this G20 (meeting)
was that peace and
development prospects are
two sides of the same coin
SIGMAR GABRIEL
German Foreign Minister
and an estimated 4,500 are believed
to have died while crossing the
Mediterranean, often in flimsy boats.
Anthony Mothae Maruping,
economics commissioner for the
African Union, participated in the
G20 meeting, which also focused on
implementing the UN Agenda 2030
for sustainable development agreed by
all members of the United Nations.
Gabriel, who took over as German
foreign minister last month, said the
G20 countries, which account for
about four-fifths of the world’s gross
domestic product, agreed they had a
responsibility to prevent crises before
they gathered steam. — Reuters
3D printing, virtual reality
used to bring dinosaur to ‘life’
NATURE’S FURY
SYDNEY: A team of Australian
scientists are using a worldfirst
approach combining threedimensional
(3D) printing and virtual
reality (VR) to bring a dinosaur “back
to life”. Palaeontologists at a site in
New South Wales state near the Great
Ocean Road have uncovered more
than 200 bits of bones of the wallabylike
leaellynasaura, an ornithopod
native to Australia, in just 12 days,
Xinhua news agency reported.
Meanwhile, mechatronics students
from Deakin University are using the
bones uncovered to create a 3D model
of the dinosaur on a computer which
will eventually be printed.
When completed, the project will
be displayed at Geelong’s National
Wool Museum.
Experts from Deakin’s Virtual
Reality Lab will then create a VR
experience to make the tactile
We’re looking at how we
can use virtual reality and
3D printing to help with
providing educational
experiences in a museum
context
BEN HORNAN
Co-founder of the project
3D-printed model of the dinosaur
appear real.
Ben Hornan, a co-founder of the
project, said he hoped the experience
would further the general population’s
knowledge of dinosaurs that once
roamed Australia.
“We’re looking at how we can
use virtual reality and 3D printing
to help with providing educational
experiences in a museum context,”
Horan told the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on
Friday.
“So we are doing experiments on
how we can best print dinosaur-like
skin so people will not just feel the
geometry, the size and the scale but
also the contour of the skin as well.”
Researchers believe they will
be able to replicate the skin of a
leaellynasaura by scanning a blue
tongue lizard, which has scaly skin
similar to that of the dinosaur, and
3D-printing its scales.
The leaellynasaura was a small
herbivore and was thus understood to
be a shy dinosaur, so participants who
put the VR glasses on will be warned
to approach it with care. — IANS
People and rescue team members gather by buildings which collapsed following a landslide in Auquisamana district in La
Paz, Bolivia. — Reuters

12 EUROPE
OMANDAILYOBSERVER SATURDAY l FEBRUARY 18 l 2017
BILATERAL VISIT
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau inspect a guard of honour prior to a meeting
at the Chancellery in Berlin on Friday. — AFP
Blair urges Britons
to reverse Brexit
LONDON: Britain’s departure from
the European Union is not inevitable,
former prime minister Tony Blair said
on Friday, calling for the creation of
a cross-party movement to persuade
the public they can change their
minds on Brexit.
Since voting in a June 23
referendum to leave the 28-member
European Union, Prime Minister
Theresa May has tried to shut down
any hope that the country can go back
on the vote and stay in the union.
Blair, who campaigned for the
Remain camp in the lead-up to the
vote, said many of the claims about
the benefits of an EU departure were
debunked in the first week after the
vote, and challenged Theresa May’s
government on its commitment to
leave the EU “at any cost.”
“The people voted without
knowledge of the true terms of Brexit,”
Blair said, speaking in London at the
Open Britain group.
“As these terms become clear, it
is their right to change their mind,”
Blair said. “Brexiteers,” or supporters
of the EU divorce, were wrong to
assert that the “will of the people”
cannot change, Blair said.
“The one incontrovertible
characteristic of politics today is its
propensity for revolt. “The Brexiteers
were the beneficiaries of this wave;
now they want to freeze it to a day in
June 2016.”
“They will say leaving is inevitable.
It isn’t,” Blair said. Conservative
Prime Minister Theresa May has
steered a course towards a so-called
“hard Brexit,” meaning a withdrawal
Tony Blair delivers a keynote speech
at a pro-Europe event in London on
Friday. — Reuters
from the EU’s single market and its
free movement of persons and goods,
arguing in favour of government
sovereignty on the issue of migration.
Earlier this month, British
lawmakers approved May’s plan to
trigger formal talks on Britain leaving
the EU.
Blair criticised May’s government
for flip-flopping on the terms of
Britain’s exit, saying Chancellor
Philip Hammond’s current optimism
about leaving the single market
comes after declaring the same move
“catastrophic” seven months ago.
“This jumble of contradictions
shows that the PM and the
government are not masters of this
situation,” Blair said.
— dpa
Lord Mayor
backs Trump’s
controversial
London trip
HONG KONG: Donald Trump
is an enormously successful
businessman who should be
welcomed to the British capital,
London’s Lord Mayor said Friday
during a visit to Hong Kong,
despite huge public antipathy
towards him.
More than 1.8 million
Britons have signed a petition
demanding that the US
president’s invitation to make a
state visit be withdrawn because
it would embarrass Queen
Elizabeth.
But Lord Mayor Andrew
Parmley — a ceremonial
figurehead whose role dates
back 900 years — said the city’s
business community wanted to
work with Trump.
“It’s too early for us to really
evaluate what the political
situation is,” he said.
“But my view is that Donald
Trump has been an enormously
successful businessman. He’s a
dealmaker. The City of London
has made its fortunes by being a
dealmaker. So we’re very much
hoping to work with him.”
Britain’s Daily Telegraph
has reported the visit could be
moved out of London to an area
deemed to be more a receptive
to Trump.
Asked whether he would
be disappointed if the visit was
shifted from the capital, Parmley
said: “I don’t think it will be.”
“We have to embrace the fact
that we are world citizens and he
is the leader of the free world,” he
said. — AFP
Spanish king’s sister
cleared in tax fraud case
MADRID: A Spanish court on Friday
acquitted King Felipe VI’s sister,
Princess Cristina, of charges that she
helped her husband evade taxes.
Her husband, however, Inaki
Urdangarin, was given a jail sentence
of six years and three months for
siphoning off millions of euros
between 2004 and 2006 from a
foundation he headed in the island of
Majorca.
The 51-year-old princess was the
first member of Spain’s royal family
to face criminal charges since the
monarchy’s restoration in 1975.
“We must acquit and we are
acquitting Cristina Federica... of tax
fraud, of which she was accused,”
the court said. She was ordered
however to pay a fine of 265,000 euros
($282,000) for benefiting from her
husband’s wrongdoing. He was fined
512,000 euros.
The scandal broke in 2011 amid
Spain’s deepest economic crisis in
decades. Princess Cristina was facing
up to eight years in prison if convicted
of fraud over her 49-year-old
husband’s work with the non-profit
Noos Institute sports foundation.
Urdangarin, a former Olympic
handball medallist was charged
with the more serious crimes of
embezzlement, influence peddling,
forgery and money laundering.
The couple, who have been
married since 1997 and have four
children together, went on trial last
year along with 15 others, including
former government minister Jaume
Matas.
KEEPING VIGIL
This file photo taken on January 11,
2016 shows Spain’s Princess Cristina
leaving after a hearing at the
courtroom in the Balearic School of
Public Administration (EBAP) building
in Palma de Mallorca, on the Spanish
Balearic Island of Mallorca.
— AFP file photo
After her 1997 fairytale marriage
to Urdangarin, Princess Cristina
was in the celebrity spotlight and
won praise for having a salaried job.
But eventually, people began to raise
eyebrows at the couple’s lavish lifestyle.
In 2004 they purchased a
1,200-square-metre house for six
million euros ($6.3 million) in
Barcelona, with centre-right daily El
Mundo asking: “Where is the money
coming from.” Cristina’s husband
Her husband,
however, Inaki
Urdangarin, was
given a jail sentence
of six years and three
months for siphoning
off millions of
euros between 2004
and 2006 from
a foundation he
headed in the island
of Majorca
Urdangarin has consistently claimed
he never made any decisions without
the royal family’s knowledge.
Since the scandal erupted, the pair
have been excluded from all of the
family’s official public appearances.
After Friday’s ruling was
announced, Cristina’s lawyer Miquel
Roca said she was “satisfied” with the
verdict but saddened by her husband’s
jail sentence.
“She was satisfied but also ...
pained to see her husband convicted.
She believes his conviction is unjust,
because she has always believed — and
still believes — that he is innocent,”
Roca told reporters in Barcelona.
The judgement, he added, acts as
proof of “the equality of all citizens
before the law”. — AFP
Anti riot police stand guard as people protest against the visit of French right-wing Les Republicains (LR) party’s presidential
election candidate, Francois Fillon in Tourcoing, northern France on Friday. — AFP
Petition challenge leaves Budapest Olympics bid in balance
BUDAPEST: Budapest edged closer
on Friday to a possible withdrawal
of its bid to host the 2024 Olympic
Games, dealing a potential further
blow to global organisers’ attempts to
find a city to host the event following a
number of pullouts.
Hungarian political movement
Momentum said had collected more
than 266,000 signatures on a petition
against the bid, which its leader Andras
Fekete-Gyor indicated would be
enough to trigger a referendum.
Budapest’s Mayor Istvan Tarlos
told a news conference earlier that,
if a referendum was called, he would
“seriously consider” a proposal to
withdraw the bid.
The city is competing against Paris
and Los Angeles to host the Games,
and an event whose costs have risen
sharply over the past 20 years.
If it did pull out, it would join
Hamburg, Rome and Boston among
candidate cities that later abandoned
bids.
“The past 30 days have been one
Budapest’s Mayor
Istvan Tarlos told
a news conference
earlier that, if a referendum
was called,
he would “seriously
consider” a proposal
to withdraw the bid
of the most magnificent periods in the
history of democracy in Budapest,”
Fekete-Gyor told a news conference
after the petition result.
Spokesmen for the bid organisers
declined immediate comment, but
Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s ruling
Fidesz party appeared to distance itself
from the bid.
Lajos Kosa, a senior Fidesz
lawmaker, said the issue was not
Timea Szabo (C), co-chair of opposition party Parbeszed Magyarorszagert hands over documents with signatures supporting a
referendum on Budapest’s 2024 Olympic bid to political movement Momentum at a stand in Budapest. — Reuters
discussed at a party meeting and the
bid was in the hands of Budapest.
Momentum, launched by a group
of students born around 1989 when
the country’s Communist regime
collapsed, has collected the signatures
over a month-long campaign.
The Budapest Election Office will
now rule whether a sufficient number
of valid signatures — in broad terms
amounting to 10 per cent of Budapest’s
around 1.4 million voters — has been
collected to call a referendum.
The International Olympic
Committee is due to announce the
2024 host city in September.
If Budapest won, Hungary would
become the first Eastern European
country to welcome the Summer
Games in the post-Communist era.
The government and the city’s
authorities have both supported the bid
vocally but plebiscites are usually risky
for Olympic hopefuls.
Hamburg pulled out after a negative
referendum result in 2015, while Rome
mayor Virginia Raggi ended her city’s
bid last year to honour an election
promise.
A Zavecz Research institute poll
published last week on news website
Index.hu showed 51.95 per cent of
Budapest citizens would vote against
the Olympics, up from 31.7 per cent
in September. In a separate survey
commissioned by the bid organisers
in early December, 55 per cent of
Budapest residents backed the hosting
of the Games. — Reuters

AMERICAS
13
SATURDAY l FEBRUARY 18 l 2017
OMANDAILYOBSERVER
ELECTION CAMPAIGN RALLY
Former admiral
rejects Trump’s
offer to be top
security adviser
CREO party presidential candidate Guillermo Lasso, vice-presidential candidate Andres Paez and Lasso’s wife Maria de Lourdes attend a closing campaign rally in
Guayaquil, Ecuador. — Reuters
Call to investigate Odebrecht’s partners
LIMA: An ombudsman on Thursday
called for prosecutors to investigate
Peruvian builder Grana Montero and
other partners of Brazil’s construction
conglomerate Odebrecht in a
corruption probe that has already
sunk Grana’s shares.
Grana, Peru’s biggest engineering
conglomerate and Odebrecht’s most
important partner in Peru, has
repeatedly denied having known
about $29 million in bribes that
Odebrecht has said it distributed in
Peru from 2005 to 2014.
But ombudsman Walter Gutierrez,
whose office defends the interests
of the public, said Grana cannot be
taken at its word.
“If I’m your partner, I know about
the financial status and relevant
actions of the business... how could I
not know, or at least have a suspicion”
if bribes were paid, Gutierrez said at a
press conference with foreign media.
“They should be investigated.”
The comments added to growing
calls from lawmakers for Grana to
be included in an investigation into
Odebrecht’s past kickback schemes
Thousands march against corruption through the streets of downtown Lima on
Thursday. — AFP
after Odebrecht promised to provide
prosecutors with relevant testimony
and documents.
Grana said it was not under
investigation but would cooperate
fully if needed to help prosecutors
with their work or to clear up doubts.
“We’ve instructed our lawyers to
study this case deeply and determine
next steps. We’ve asked that
whatever we do that our willingness
to collaborate with the state... be
respected,” Grana said in a statement.
The value of Grana’s shares have
dropped about 37 per cent since
Odebrecht signed a settlement with
US prosecutors that made public
bribes that Odebrecht admitted to
distributing across Latin America.
Grana was Odebrecht’s junior
partner on several projects that
are now under investigation: Two
highway contracts awarded in 2005,
a metro line it still operates and a
natural gas pipeline contract that the
government revoked last month after
financing got snagged on corruption
concerns.
Prosecutors have accused former
president Alejandro Toledo of
taking $20 million in bribes to help
Odebrecht win the highway contracts.
Toledo has not been convicted of any
crimes and has denied wrongdoing.
He is being sought by authorities.
Grana owns a minority stake
in Odebrecht’s stalled irrigation
project Chavimochic III, which the
government wants Odebrecht to exit.
Odebrecht has said it was willing to
sell off its remaining contracts with
Peru amid calls from the government
to leave. — Reuters
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump’s
reported pick for national security
adviser turned down the job just hours
after the president defended the ousted
Michael Flynn, saying he “wasn’t
wrong” for dealing with Russia.
Retired Navy Admiral Robert
Harward’s rejection of the key post late
on Thursday leaves Trump without a
replacement for Flynn, the first high
profile casualty of the US leader’s
tenure, and it added to a perception of
disarray in his administration.
Harward told CNN he bowed
out because of family and financial
commitments, but several US media
outlets reported that he was unhappy
because he had no guarantees that the
National Security Council — and not
Trump’s political advisers — would be
in charge of policy.
Members of the council currently
include Steve Bannon, Trump’s
controversial far-right former
campaign manager.
One Harward friend told CNN that
he didn’t want the job because of chaos
at the White House.
Flynn, a close adviser on Trump’s
2016 campaign, resigned after it
was revealed that he held telephone
conversations during the election
race with Russia’s ambassador in
Washington about US sanctions.
Flynn was no stranger to
controversy. His past included a paid
appearance at a 2015 dinner sitting
next to President Vladimir Putin
and suggestions that Russia’s seizure
of Crimea and its support for Syrian
leader Bashar al Assad were acceptable.
Russia was the hot topic of a lengthy
and often rambling press conference
given by Trump on Thursday.
The president insisted neither he
nor his campaign team had contacts
with Russian officials in the run-up to
last year’s US election, contradicting an
explosive report which he dismissed as
“fake news.”
Trump instead accused members
of US intelligence agencies of breaking
the law by leaking information about
the calls.
Asked whether he or anyone on
his staff had engaged in contacts with
Robert Harward. — AFP file photo
Retired Navy Admiral
Robert Harward’s
rejection of the key
post late on Thursday
leaves Trump without a
replacement for Flynn,
the first high profile
casualty of the US
leader’s tenure, and it
added to a perception
of disarray in his
administration
Russia prior to the election, Trump
proclaimed: “No, nobody that I know
of.” “I have nothing to do with Russia,”
Trump said. “The whole Russia thing is
a ruse.”
It was a full-throated denunciation
of a bombshell New York Times report
which said intercepted calls and
phone records show Trump aides
were in repeated contact with Russian
intelligence officials well before the US
election.
“It’s all fake news,” Trump insisted.
He stressed that the Times story
centred instead on inappropriate
action by US intelligence agencies, and
he stepped up earlier attacks vowing to
catch “low-life leakers” of potentially
classified information that led to
Flynn’s ouster. — AFP
Eateries shut down to show
support for immigrants
WASHINGTON: From burger
joints to posh eateries, scores of
Washington restaurants shut down
on Thursday as part of a protest with
echoes across the United States
against President Donald Trump’s
treatment of immigrants.
Some restaurants on the “Day
Without Immigrants” closed out of
solidarity with the largely lowearning
people who staff them, a
strike meant to show how important
foreign born workers are to the
economy. Others shuttered because
not enough staff showed up to
work in the immigrant-dominated
restaurant industry.
From New York to Los Angeles,
immigrants stayed home from work,
kept their kids out of school, avoided
buying gas and otherwise tried to
illustrate the cost to America of going
a day without them. One museum in
Massachusetts removed all artworks
created or donated by immigrants.
A sign on a shuttered salad shop
called Sweetgreen, a short walk from
the White House, explained what it is
all about. All 18 Sweetgreen shops in
Washington closed for the day.
“The three of us are sons of
immigrants,” the trio of co-founders
wrote. “We respect our team
members’ right to exercise their voice
in our democracy.”
Edward Burger, 84, a retired
doctor, stood reading that sign and
said the protest was a great idea.
“This question of immigrants and
the hospitality of the United States is
terribly important, both for them and
for us,” said Burger.
Trump has just taken up
residence in a staunchly Democratic
town: Hillary Clinton won more
than 90 per cent of the votes in the
presidential election.
The mix of protest, boycott and
strike comes as acute fear spreads
mainly in Latino communities
across the United States because of
raids that have led to the arrest of
hundreds of people without legal
status to live in the US.
Some have been summarily
deported as Trump says he is making
good on a campaign promise to get
rid of unauthorized immigrants.
Anger also remains over his
now-suspended ban on entry of all
refugees and people from seven
mainly Muslim countries.
The immigration raids prompted
the idea of a protest, which spread
quickly by word of mouth in the
nation’s capital. Altogether, some 70
restaurants closed in Washington —
from fast food joints in a Pentagon
food court to restaurants in mainly
Hispanic neighbourhoods to chic
shopping streets near the White
House and Capitol Hill. — AFP
Venezuela oppn parties fear election ban
ARACAS: Venezuela’s government
is pushing forward with measures
that could exclude some opposition
political parties from future elections,
potentially paving the way for the
ruling Socialists to remain in power
despite widespread anger over the
country’s collapsing economy.
The Supreme Court, loyal to
socialist president Nicolas Maduro,
has ordered the main opposition
parties to “renew” themselves through
petition drives whose conditions are
so strict that party leaders and even
an election official described them as
impossible to meet.
Socialist Party officials scoff at the
complaints. They say anti-Maduro
candidates would be able to run under
the opposition’s Democratic Unity
coalition, which has been exempted
from the signature drives, even if the
main opposition parties are ultimately
barred. But key socialist officials
are also trying to have the coalition
banned, accusing it of electoral fraud.
Government critics point to this
and the “renewal” order as signs the
socialists are seeking to effectively run
uncontested in gubernatorial elections
and the 2018 presidential vote.
Investors holding Venezuela’s
high-yielding bonds had broadly
expected Maduro to be replaced with
a more market-friendly government
Mitzy Capriles de Ledezma (R), wife of the Mayor of Caracas, Antonio Ledezma and the wife of jailed Venezuelan opposition
leader Leopoldo Lopez, Lilian Tintori (L), wave upon their arrival at the Simon Bolivar International Airport, in Maiquetia,
Venezuela. — AFP
by 2019.
The prospect of opposition parties
being blocked from elections could
raise concern in Washington where
the Trump administration this week
blacklisted Venezuela’s Vice President
Tareck El Aissami and called for the
release of jailed opposition leader
Leopoldo Lopez.
Maduro’s opponents say his
strategy is similar to that of Nicaraguan
leftist president Daniel Ortega, who
cruised to a third consecutive election
victory in November after a top court
ruling ousted the leader of the main
opposition party. That left Ortega
running against a candidate widely
seen as a shadow ally.
“The regime is preparing
Nicaraguan-style elections without
political parties and false opposition
candidates chosen by the government,”
legislator and former Congress
president Henry Ramos wrote via
Twitter, suggesting the government
would seek to have shadow allies run
as if they were part of the opposition.
The moves come as Maduro’s
approval ratings hover near 20
per cent due to anger over chronic
food shortages that lead to routine
supermarket lootings and force many
Venezuelans to skip meals. — Reuters

14 PANORAMA
OMANDAILYOBSERVER SATURDAY l FEBRUARY 18 l 2017
London to tax old cars to
combat air pollution
THE JUMBO JUNGLE: An elephant family arrives to drink from a water hole at the Sarova salt-lick lodge in Kenya. — AFP
DONATE
YOUR BRAINS,
SCIENTISTS
APPEAL
TO PEOPLE
NEW YORK: Scientists are
appealing for more people to
donate their brains for research
after they die, a media report
said on Friday.
They say they are lacking the
brains of people with disorders
such as depression and posttraumatic
stress disorder for
their study due to lack of
knowledge among people, who
do not attach much importance
to these problems.
The researchers aim to
develop new treatments for
mental and neurological
disorders, the BBC reported.
In recent years, researchers
have made links between the
shape of the brain and mental
and neurological disorders.
More than 3,000 brains are
stored at the Harvard Brain
Tissue Resource Centre at
McLean Hospital just outside
Boston. It is one of the largest
brain banks in the world.
Most of their specimens are
from people with mental or
neurological disorders.
Samples are requested
by scientists to find new
treatments for Parkinson’s,
Alzheimer’s and a whole host of
psychiatric disorders. Scientists
at McLean Hospital and at brain
banks across the world do not
have enough specimens for the
research community.
There is a shortage of brains
from people with disorders
that are incorrectly seen as
psychological — rather than
neurological in origin. — IANS
ANCIENT LIGHT: Officials light a torch on a replica of an ancient Axum obelisk
during its unveiling in the northern town of Axum in Ethiopia. — Reuters
Polluted lake catches fire
NEW DELHI: Parts of Bellandur Lake
in India’s information technology hub
Bangalore caught fire because of the
waste dumped in and around it, a fire
official said on Friday.
Parts of the lake, including
dry weeds and garbage on its
banks,caught fire and smoke billowed
out over the area for more than three
hours until firemen managed to bring
it under control late on Thursday night.
“People from surrounding areas
dump waste and toxic stuff... we have
had fires on two earlier occasions,” fire
department official R Basavanna said.
Bangalore residents have also
complained of a toxic froth from
Bellandur Lake spilling on to nearby
roads and drains in 2015.
Thousands of dead fish washed up
on the banks of Ulsoor, another lake, in
March, 2016.
Experts say the froth is produced
by the untreated sewage that flows
into the lakes and the fires are caused
by chemical reactions. — dpa
LONDON: Motorists in London who
own old polluting vehicles are to be
hit with a new charge from October,
Mayor Sadiq Khan said on Friday, two
days after the EU ordered Britain to
cut air pollution.
“The context is this: Over 9,000
Londoners die each year because of
low quality air,” Khan told the BBC
after announcing the new “Toxic
Charge”. The new £10 ($12.5, 11.7
euros) “T-Charge” will apply to
motorists who own vehicles that do
not meet European standards and
come on top of the congestion charge
for the city centre.
All vehicles entering central
London already pay a daily £11.50
congestion charge, introduced in 2003
to ease pressure on the city’s roads.
The new policy was unveiled two
days after the European Union issued
a warning to five member states
including Britain, urging them to take
action on car pollution or risk being
sent to the European Court of Justice.
The European Commission
said that “persistently high” levels
of nitrogen dioxide caused 70,000
premature deaths in Europe in 2013.
Heavy smog has enveloped much
of Europe this winter prompting
emergency measures in several big
cities including London, Paris and
Berlin.
In January, London authorities
issued a “black” alert for very high
levels of particulates as a cloud of
freezing smog forced the cancellation
of around 100 flights.
— AFP
Traffic queues in central London. Motorists in London who own old polluting
vehicles are to be hit with a new charge from October, Mayor Sadiq Khan said on
Friday, two days after the EU ordered Britain to cut air pollution. — AFP
CRAZY AUNTIE! Bangladesh’s lone female rickshaw puller Mosammat Jasmine poses on her battery-run rickshaw in
Chittagong city on Friday. — AFP
RACE OF SHIPS: Thai and US landing craft participate in
the Cobra Gold military exercise. — AFP

SATURDAY | FEBRUARY 18, 2017 | JUMADA AL ULA 21, 1438 AH
business
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ASIAN SHARES RISE AS US RATES EASE P16 ALLIANZ WARNS YEAR AHEAD UNCERTAIN AFTER STRONG 2016 P16 ESSENTRA FY PROFIT FALLS 26PC ON INTEGRATION WOES16
Oman awards first-ever contract
extension to private power plant
FRESH LEASE OF LIFE: Al Kamil Power receives 4-year contract extension
CONRAD PRABHU
MUSCAT, FEB. 17
Oman Power and Water Procurement Company
(OPWP), the nation’s principal procurement of new
electricity generation and water desalination capacity,
has inked a deal that formally allows Al Kamil Power
— one of Oman’s earliest Independent Power Projects
(IPP) — to remain in operation for a further four years
beyond its existing contract which expires this year.
Under the terms of an extended Power Purchase
Agreement (PPA) signed late last week, Al Kamil Power
Company SAOG, which operates a 280 megawatt (MW)
gas-powered plant in South Al Sharqiyah Governorate,
will continue to be in service up to December 31, 2021.
It follows the successful completion of negotiations
with OPWP, a subsidiary of the wholly governmentowned
Nama Group, leading to a contract extension
with revised terms and conditions, the company said
in a filing to the Capital Market Authority (CMA) on
Thursday.
Significantly, the extended PPA is the first of a
number of similar pacts planned by OPWP that will
allow for some of Oman’s oldest privately owned power
plants to stay in operation well beyond the expiry of
their current contracts. This, alongside options to
procure new capacity, is key to the procurer’s strategy to
ensure adequate capacity to meet galloping electricity
demand growth
“Extensions are being negotiated only on a
guaranteed capacity basis at economic commercial
terms, and all plants have completed independent
technical evaluations to confirm the capacity on offer,”
The extended PPA is the first
of a number of similar pacts
planned by OPWP that will
allow for some of Oman’s
oldest privately owned power
plants to stay in operation
well beyond the expiry of
their current contracts
the procurer said in its 7-Year Outlook Statement for
the 2016-2022 timeframe.
Also expected to receive a contract extension
is Barka-1 Independent Power Project, which is
co-located with a water desalination plant. With
the existing Power & Water Purchase Agreement
(PWPA) due to expire next year, OPWP has already
initiated negotiations with the plant owner, ACWA
Power Barka, for a contract extension up to December
31, 2021.
An extended contract will see Barka-1 offering 388
MW of capacity during normal operation in Combined
Cycle Generation Turbine (CCGT) mode without
water production from the multi-stage flash (MSF)
component of its desalination capacity. However, if
water capacity has to be operationalised in the event of
a contingency, then Barka-1 will offer up to 435MW of
generation capacity, according to OPWP.
However, for Manah Power — the Sultanate’s first
Independent Power Project — ownership of the plant
transfers to the government upon the expiry of the
current Power Purchase Agreement in December 2020.
OPWP says it is weighing a number of options for
the continued operation of the 264 MW capacity plant,
including a competitive tender for the sale of the asset,
backed by a multi-year Power Purchase Agreement.
While the Al Kamil Power contract extension is
the first for privately owned plants, older state-owned
generation assets in Al Ghubra (Muscat Governorate)
and Wadi Jizzi (Buraimi Governorate) have already
received new leases of life — for part of their capacity
at least.
Contracts for several gas turbine units of Al Ghubra,
offering up to 405 MW of capacity, have been extended
up to September 30, 2018, when the plant will be fully
retired. Similar extensions have also been granted to
a number of gas turbine units at Wadi Jizzi, enabling
326 MW of capacity to be available until September 30,
2018, when the plant is also planned for retirement.
Importantly, future contract extensions for Al
Kamil, Barka-1 and other plants nearing the end
of their contract, are possible under a new capacity
procurement strategy that OPWP plans to unveil later
this year. The strategy, which is aimed at liberalizing
the electricity sector and opening it up for competition
for the first time, will enable existing power plants with
expiring contracts to compete directly with new project
bidders for long-term contracts.
“The first capacity procurement to use this new
methodology is expected to be for contract terms
beginning in 2022,” said OPWP.
Samsung chief Lee
arrested as S Korean
graft probe deepens
SEOUL: Samsung Group Chief Jay Y Lee was arrested on Friday
over his alleged role in a corruption scandal rocking the highest
levels of power in South Korea, dealing a fresh blow to the
technology giant and standard-bearer for Asia’s fourth-largest
economy.
The special prosecutor’s office accuses Lee of bribing a
close friend of President Park Geun-Hye to gain government
favours related to leadership succession at the conglomerate. It
said on Friday it will indict him on charges including bribery,
embezzlement, hiding assets overseas and perjury.
The 48-year-old Lee, scion of the country’s richest family, was
taken into custody at the Seoul Detention Centre early on Friday
after waiting there overnight for the decision. He was being held
in a single cell with a TV and desk, a jail official said.
Lee is a suspect in an influence-peddling scandal that led
parliament to impeach Park in December, a decision that if
upheld by the Constitutional Court would make her the country’s
first democratically elected leader forced from office.
Samsung and Lee have denied wrongdoing in the case.
Prosecutors have up to 10 days to indict Lee, Samsung’s thirdgeneration
leader, although they can seek an extension. After
indictment, a court would be required to make its first ruling
within three months. Prosecutors plan to question Lee again on
Saturday.
No decision had been made on whether Lee’s arrest would be
contested or whether bail would be sought, a spokeswoman for
Samsung Group said.
Samsung Group Chief, Jay Y Lee, is surrounded by media upon
his arrival to the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul. — Reuters
“We will do our best to ensure that the truth is revealed in
future court proceedings,” the Samsung Group said in a brief
statement after Lee’s arrest. The same court had rejected a request
last month to arrest Lee, but prosecutors this week brought
additional accusations against him. “We acknowledge the cause
and necessity of the arrest,” a judge said in his ruling.
The judge rejected the prosecution’s request to also arrest
Samsung Electronics president Park Sang-Jin.
Shares in Samsung Electronics ended on Friday down 0.42 per
cent in a flat wider market. Ratings agencies did not expect any
impact on the flagship firm’s credit ratings, and said Lee’s arrest
would accelerate improvements in management transparency
and corporate governance. — Reuters
US housing starts drop; permits rise to one-year high
WASHINGTON: US homebuilding
fell in January as the construction
of multi-family housing projects
dropped, but upward revisions to
the prior month’s data and a jump in
permits to a one-year high suggested
the housing recovery remained on
track.
Other data on Thursday showed
only a modest increase in the number
of Americans filing new applications
for unemployment benefits last week,
a sign that the labour market was
continuing to tighten.
Housing starts fell 2.6 per cent
to a seasonally adjusted annual rate
of 1.25 million units last month,
the Commerce Department said.
December’s starts were revised up to
a rate of 1.28 million units from the
previously reported 1.23 million pace.
Homebuilding was up 10.5 per cent
compared to January 2016. Permits
for future construction jumped 4.6
per cent in January to a rate of 1.29
million units, the highest level since
November 2015. Building permits in
the South, where most homebuilding
occurs, hit their highest level since July
2007.
With overall permits now
outpacing starts, homebuilding is
likely to rebound in the coming
months. Economists polled by Reuters
had forecast ground breaking activity
slipping to a rate of 1.22 million units
last month and building permits rising
to a 1.23 million pace.
Prices of US Treasuries slid and
US stock index futures trimmed losses
after the data. The dollar pared losses
against a basket of currencies.
The housing recovery is being
driven by a strong labour market,
which is boosting employment
opportunities for young people and
supporting household formation.
In a separate report, the Labour
Department said initial claims for state
unemployment benefits rose 5,000 to
A house under construction has a sold sign out front in the Candelas development
in the northwest Denver suburb of Arvada, Colorado. — Reuters
a seasonally adjusted 239,000 for the
week ended February 11.
Claims have been below 300,000,
a threshold associated with a strong
job market, for 102 consecutive weeks.
That is the longest stretch since 1970,
when the labour market was much
smaller. The labour market is at or
close to full employment, with the
unemployment rate at 4.8 per cent.
Economists had forecast firsttime
applications for jobless benefits
rising to 245,000 in the latest week.
While the labour market is expected
* Housing starts fall
2.6 per cent in Jan
* Building permits
increase 4.6 per cent
* Weekly jobless
claims rise by 5,000
to continue to underpin the housing
market, higher mortgage rates could
slow demand for housing. A survey
on Wednesday showed homebuilders’
confidence slipped in February but
remained at levels consistent with a
growing housing market. Builders
anticipated a slowdown in buyer
traffic and continued to grapple with
shortages of developed lots and skilled
labour.
January’s starts were above the
fourth-quarter average, suggesting
housing will again contribute to gross
domestic product in the first three
months of this year.
Homebuilding last month surged
55.4 per cent in the Northeast region
of the country. It jumped 20.0 per cent
in the South to the highest level since
August 2007. Starts fell 41.3 per cent
in the West, likely due to the impact of
unusually wet weather.
Last month, single-family
homebuilding, which accounts for the
largest share of the residential housing
market, climbed 1.9 per cent to a pace
of 823,000 units.
Starts for the volatile multi-family
housing segment tumbled 10.2 per
cent to a rate of 423,000 units.
Single-family permits slipped 2.7
per cent last month after increasing for
five consecutive months. Single-family
starts in the South rose to their highest
level since August 2007.
Building permits for multi-family
units soared 19.8 per cent. — Reuters

16 INTERNATIONAL
OMANDAILYOBSERVER BUSINESS SATURDAY l FEBRUARY 18 l 2017
Business Briefs
Allianz warns year ahead
uncertain after strong 2016
Asia shares ease after run of gains;
oil lifted by Opec supply cut hopes
Business Briefs
Business Briefs
Business Briefs
Business Briefs
Business Briefs
FRANKFURT AM MAIN: German insurance giant Allianz reported
a rise in profits for 2016 and increased its dividend, but warned that
political and market uncertainty could make for an unpredictable 2017.
Allianz increased net profit by 4 per cent to 6.9 billion euros ($7.4
billion) in 2016, it said in a statement, slightly overshooting analysts’
forecasts. The firm notched up 122 billion euros in revenues last year,
down 2.2 per cent from 2015, but still beating its own forecast.
Operating, or underlying profit edged up 0.9 per cent 10.8 billion
euros. In the fourth quarter alone, Allianz booked a 23 per cent increase
in net profit to 1.7 billion euros.
“Positive developments in all business segments” had put the group
“on track” to meet its goals for 2018, said chief financial officer Dieter
Wemmer.
The life and health insurance unit put in the best performance
among the group’s divisions, with operating profit there growing by
9.3 per cent. By contrast, operating profit at the property and casualty
insurance arm fall back 4.2 per cent and underlying earnings in its asset
management division were down 4 per cent. — AFP
26pc on integration woes
LONDON: Essentra Plc, a supplier of speciality plastic and packaging
components, said full-year profit fell 26 per cent on flagging sales at its
health and personal care packaging unit, due to integration issues from
an acquisition completed in 2015. This reiterates the challenges the
company has been facing, prompting it to issue profit warnings three
times in the past 12 months.
Essentra shares opened 3.9 per cent lower at 405 pence at 0805 GMT
on Friday on the London Stock Exchange. The health and personal
care packaging unit, which bought the specialist packaging division of
the Clondalkin Group, is the company’s biggest business, accounting
for about 40 per cent of total revenue. Operating profit at the unit fell
44 per cent. Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire-based Essentra had
indicated on January 23 that sales at the business were more challenging
than previously expected. The company had said in January that its new
chief executive had initiated a strategic review of the company and that
the health and personal care unit would be receiving “specific shortterm
focus and remedial attention” from him. — Reuters
S&P downgrade warning
sends Toshiba shares falling
The logo of Toshiba Corp is seen at its headquarters in Tokyo. — Reuters
TOKYO: S&P Global Inc said in a report on Friday it could cut its
rating of Toshiba Corp (6502.T) credit by several notches should the
Japanese firm receive financial support that includes debt restructuring,
sending Toshiba stock down 9 per cent.
S&P rates Toshiba credit as junk, at CCC+, following downgrades in
December and January, after the conglomerate flagged a multi-billion
dollar writedown in its nuclear power business. The credit-rating firm
expects banks to help Toshiba, including by extending deadlines for
loan repayments.
Any further downgrade would prompt banks to charge Toshiba even
higher rates for credit, at a time when the conglomerate is dealing with
the crippling writedown while still working to recover from a financial
scandal in 2015. — Reuters
SINGAPORE: Asian stock markets took a breather
on Friday from their recent surge as investors booked
profits, while the dollar inched up after Thursday’s
slide and optimism over possible renewed supply cuts
by Opec lifted oil prices.
Financial spreadbetter CMC Markets expects
Britain’s FTSE 100 to start the day flat, Germany’s
DAX to be slightly higher and France’s CAC 40 to
be marginally lower, with markets failing to recover
Thursday’s losses.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares
outside Japan pulled back 0.2 per cent, on track to end
the week up 1.2 per cent, its fourth straight weekly
gain.
Overnight, Wall Street lost momentum, with the
Dow Jones Industrial Average barely eking out its sixth
straight record high, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq
snapped a seven-day winning streak as investors
slowed buying to digest recent gains.
US President Donald Trump’s first solo news
conference on Thursday, where he adopted a combative
stance against the news media and deflected questions
about contacts between his presidential campaign and
Russian operatives, also gave investors pause.
“Apart from a reflection of the slight easing in
US market momentum after several strong days,
investors are making some greater allowance for
rising risk,” said Angus Gluskie, managing director
of White Funds Management in Sydney. “Trump’s
erratic performance in the press conference has had a
destabilising influence on investor confidence.”
The arrest of Samsung Group chief Jay Y Lee over
his alleged role in a government corruption scandal is
also a source of concern, Gluskie said.
Until Thursday, the index had beaten its previous
intraday highs for seven consecutive sessions, and
closed at 19-month highs in the past two.
A batch of positive economic data out of Asia
this week, driven by improving exports and rising
commodity prices, has bolstered shares, although
concerns linger that any protectionist threats posed by
Trump could reverse the recovery.
On Friday, Singapore revised its fourth-quarter
gross domestic product growth sharply higher. Earlier
in the week, Taiwan raised its 2017 economic growth
target to a three-year high, Indonesia’s January exports
rose at the fastest pace in more than five years and
China’s January inflation picked up by more than
expected to near six-year highs.
Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.6 per cent lower, down 0.7
per cent for the week. Australian shares fell 0.2 per
cent at the close, shrinking the week’s gains to 1.5 per
cent.
Chinese shares slipped after earlier touching a near
two-month high after the securities regulator said
that, starting on Friday, it will relax certain rules on
stock index futures trading as restrictions imposed
during the 2015 stock market crash are unwound.
The CSI 300 index lost 0.4 per cent after gaining as
much as 0.5 per cent, on track for a weekly advance of
the same magnitude.
Hong Kong shares dropped 0.7 per cent, but are
still poised to close up 1.6 per cent for the week.
The dollar edged up, but remained near the oneweek
low hit on Thursday, when it posted its biggest
one-day drop in more than two weeks, as uncertainty
about the timing of the next Federal Reserve rate hike
offset the impact of stronger economic data.
The dollar climbed almost 0.2 per cent on Friday
— to 113.41 yen, up by the same percentage for the
week. It lost about 0.8 per cent on Thursday.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback
against a basket of trade-weighted peers, was
fractionally higher at 100.49, on track to end the week
0.3 per cent lower. It tumbled 0.7 per cent on Thursday.
The euro was little changed at $1.0671 on Friday,
retaining Thursday’s 0.7 per cent gain, and set to end
the week 0.3 per cent higher.
The stronger dollar on Friday weighed on gold,
which slipped 0.1 per cent to $1,237.36 an ounce. But
the precious metal remains poised for a 0.3 per cent
rise for the week.
Oil prices built on Thursday’s gains, driven by a
report that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries may consider extending its oil supplyreduction
pact with non-members and may even
apply deeper cuts if inventories don’t fall to a targeted
level.
For now, that optimism appears to be winning the
tug of war with concerns over a rise in US production,
but the worry is set to leave oil prices with a weekly
loss.
US crude added 0.2 per cent to $53.42 a barrel, but
is headed for a decline of 0.8 per cent for the week.
Global benchmark Brent crude advanced 0.1 per
cent to $55.74, narrowing the week’s loss to 1.7 per
cent. — Reuters
German minister backs Peugeot
and Opel deal after GM assurances
LONDON/FRANKFURT: Germany expects PSA
Group’s proposed acquisition of General Motors’
Opel business to go ahead, a minister said, after the
US carmaker sought to allay fears of large-scale plant
closures.
“I expect it to take place,” Economy Minister
Brigitte Zypries told reporters after discussions with
senior executives from General Motors and PSA,
maker of Peugeot and Citroen cars.
The German government is “doing everything we
can” to preserve Opel’s domestic plants, Zypries said.
Talks on a sale of GM’s European arm to PSA
were confirmed by both companies on February 14,
causing alarm in London and Berlin over possible
job cuts. Germany accounts for half of GM Europe’s
38,000 staff, with 4,500 in Britain where the company
operates under the Vauxhall brand.
Two sources close to PSA said on Thursday that
job and plant cuts were part of the tie-up talks, with
the two Vauxhall sites in Britain in the front line.
However British Business Minister Greg Clark
said he had been told by GM President Dan Ammann
that there was no plan to scrap the Vauxhall plants in
the UK.
“I was reassured by GM’s intention, communicated
to me, to build on the success of these operations
rather than rationalise them,” Clark said in a
statement, vowing to maintain “close contact” with
both carmakers as talks progress.
Little is known about the terms of the proposed
PSA-Opel deal, or whether GM would even keep
a stake in the combined entity. PSA declined to
comment on the talks or the prospect of restructuring.
‘NO ASSURANCES’: However, Britain’s Unite
trade union, which met with Ammann and Clark,
said it had not received the guarantees it sought.
“There’s no assurances at the moment,” Unite
leader Len McCluskey told Sky News. “My immediate
priority now is to understand where Peugeot is now
in this process.”
Unite is seeking urgent discussions with PSA
A pedestrian stands in front of an electronic quotation board flashing the Nikkei key index of the Tokyo Stock
Exchange (L) and the current exchange rate of the Japanese yen against the US dollar (R) in Tokyo on Friday. — AFP
“Apart from a reflection
of the slight easing in US
market momentum after
several strong days, investors
are making some greater
allowance for rising risk”
The logo of German car manufacturer Opel is pictured at the company headquarters in Ruesselsheim. — Reuters
Both carmakers are privately
making the case that Opel
would face sharper cutbacks
under GM’s continued
ownership than under PSA’s
Chief Executive Carlos Tavares, McCluskey said.
Both carmakers are privately making the case
that Opel would face sharper cutbacks under GM’s
continued ownership than under PSA’s, sources
close to the matter have said. GM had pledged
“renewed actions” to restore its European business to
profitability before news of the talks broke.
PSA is also pledging to “maintain Opel as a
German company in full compliance with German
labour law”, according to a person briefed on its
contacts with political and union leaders.
UK JOBS: Another source with knowledge of the
PSA-Opel talks said on Thursday that Britain’s June
referendum vote to leave the European Union was a
factor weighing against UK plants.
“It’s much easier to cut jobs in Britain than
Germany,” the person said. “Restructuring is very
likely to happen at the Vauxhall plants.”
The German minister’s latest comments contrasted
sharply with her initial reaction two days earlier,
when she said the companies’ failure to involve labour
or local government representatives in the deal talks
was “totally unacceptable”. — Reuters

FOOTBALL
17
SATURDAY l FEBRUARY 18 l 2017
SPORTS
OMANDAILYOBSERVER
Dzeko forms a
timely boost for
title-chasing Roma
Bayern Munich’s Spanish
midfielder Thiago Alcantara
(R) celebrate scoring with
Bayern Munich’s defender
Philipp Lahm during the UEFA
Champions League round of
sixteen football match
between FC Bayern Munich
and Arsenal in Munich,
southern Germany, on
February 15, 2017. — AFP
MILAN: Edin Dzeko hit his second successive Europa
League hat-trick to edge closer to his all-time season record,
and give Roma’s title hopes a timely boost ahead of Sunday’s
visit of Torino.
Dzeko, who also hit a hat-trick against Viktoria Plzen in
November, took the match ball home from Villarreal after
a 4-0 rout in Spain to give to his daughter after taking his
Europa League-leading tally to eight goals.
Also tied with Juventus striker Gonzalo Higuain at the
top of Serie A on 18 league goals, and with two from the
Italian Cup, the Bosnia striker now has 28 overall — only
one short of his all-time record of 29, set at Wolfsburg in
2009-2010.
“Tonight we showed what we’re made of. We won 4-0 at
a big Spanish club, they were a really good side,” said Dzeko.
“I’m not that surprised to be scoring so many goals. It
was always like that, only last season that really didn’t go well
for me.
“But I don’t want to stop. I want to score more.”
Keeping the goals coming will be crucial at the Stadio
Olimpico if Roma are to thwart a robust Torino side that hit
five in a 5-3 win over Pescara last week.
Torino striker Andrea Belotti struck twice last week and
is only one goal behind the league’s leading pair with 17.
Roma, seven points behind leaders Juventus, can ill afford
to slip up.
Lahm backs Bayern’s struggling
Mueller in Berlin
Roma’s Edin Dzeko (centre) celebrates at the end of the
Europa League round of 32 match against Villarreal. — AFP
BERLIN: After thrashing Arsenal in mid-week, leaders
Bayern Munich return to Bundesliga business at Hertha
Berlin on Saturday with captain Philipp Lahm backing
Thomas Mueller to return to form.
Bayern head to the capital with a seven-point lead in
Germany’s top flight and one foot in the Champions League’s
quarterfinals after hammering Arsenal 5-1 in Wednesday’s
last 16, first-leg.
Carlo Ancelotti opted for Thiago Alcantara instead of
Mueller to run Bayern’s attack against the Gunners.
The attacking midfielder scored two goals in a display his
coach hailed as ‘perfect’.
Germany star Mueller was left on the bench but still
managed to come on and score Bayern’s fifth goal in his four
minutes on the pitch — after Thiago presented him with a
simple tap-in.
It had been 999 minutes since he had previously netted
for Bayern.
Ancelotti is set to rotate his squad with Mueller poised to
make the starting line-up at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium.
Lahm says home-grown Germany star Mueller is working
tirelessly to rekindle his form.
“He has a place in every team,” Lahm told Kicker.
“It’s unbelievable the way he trains every day, he always
Johnson, Mickelson near
early lead at Riviera
Adam Scott, Justin Rose and Dustin Johnson meet following the conclusion of
first round play in the Genesis Open. — USA Today Sports
LOS ANGELES: Big-hitting Dustin
Johnson made a strong start in his
bid to claim the world number one
ranking this week by firing a fiveunder
66 that left him two shots
off the early first-round lead at the
Genesis Open at Riviera.
The reigning US Open
champion, who can claim the top
ranking with a victory should
incumbent Jason Day tie for third or
worse here, made six birdies and one
bogey to stand two shots behind Sam
Saunders on the classic Los Angeles
layout.
“Obviously, it would be great to
get there but I’m focused on this week
and this golf tournament, each shot
that I’m hitting,” said Johnson. “I just
want to put myself in position to win
on Sunday.” Saunders, grandson of
the late Arnold Palmer, made seven
birdies in a bogey-free round of 64 as
he chases his first PGA Tour win in
his 79th start.
Among the pack of seven golfers
lurking three shots off the pace was
Ireland’s Padraig Harrington and
American favourite Phil Mickelson,
who displayed some of his short game
magic to the delight of fans.
— Reuters
looks forward and pushes, regardless of whether he plays
from the start or not.
“It’s just a question of time until he finds his form.”
Germany star Mueller was
left on the bench but still
managed to come on and
score Bayern’s fifth goal in his
four minutes on the pitch -
after Thiago presented him
with a simple tap-in
All of their six closest rivals lost last weekend and Berlin
is a happy hunting ground for the Bavarians.
They won the Bundesliga title there with a record seven
games to spare in March 2014, and have been victorious in
their last 11 games against Hertha.
Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer could record his 100th clean
sheet in the league playing a team that has not scored against
Bayern in their last five meetings.
Having been as high as third this year, Hertha are down to
sixth after winning just two of their last seven league games.
Hertha striker Vedad Ibisevic is set to play despite an
ankle knock. Second-placed RB Leipzig are at Borussia
Moenchengladbach on Sunday looking to bounce back from
defeats in their last two games.
Gladbach are on a roll and up to tenth after last week’s 3-2
comeback win against Bayer Leverkusen, when they fought
back from two goals down.
There is a seven point gap behind Leipzig in the table, but
the Saxons are wobbling.
Their defence was badly caught out in their 3-0 home loss
to Hamburg, their first home defeat this season, which came
on the back of a 1-0 defeat at Dortmund.
Centre-back Willi Orban is suspended while striker
Yussuf Poulsen is out for the coming weeks with a leg injury.
Fourth-placed Borussia Dortmund will host Wolfsburg
on Saturday with their iconic south stand empty.
The club will lock fans out as part of a German FA (DFB)
punishment after hooligans attacked RB Leipzig fans,
including families, two weeks ago.
— AFP
Jesus absence offers Aguero a chance
HUDDERSFIELD, United
Kingdom: Pep Guardiola faces a
double selection quandary as he
prepares for an FA Cup fifth round
visit to in-form Championship club
Huddersfield Town on Saturday.
The Manchester City manager,
still active on three fronts as he seeks
silverware in his first season in the
English game, will be without injured
Brazilian striker Gabriel Jesus who
broke a metatarsal in this week’s league
victory at Bournemouth.
The talented teenager, who had
scored three goals in as many league
games since his January arrival,
may not play again this season, with
estimates putting his rehabilitation
period at two to three months.
Jesus has been flown to Barcelona
to undergo treatment with Ramon
Cugat, the City manager’s physician
of choice who has overseen the
rehabilitation of a number of the club’s
players this season.
But Guardiola’s decision as to
Jesus’s replacement is complicated
by the looming Champions League
last 16 first leg tie with French club
Monaco, which takes place at the
Etihad on Tuesday.
Thereafter, and assuming they do
not have to schedule an FA Cup replay
with Huddersfield, City have a 12-
day break until they are in action in a
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola celebrates with his players after the
game. — Reuters
league visit to struggling Sunderland
on March 5, with Guardiola using that
opportunity to take his players to Abu
Dhabi for a period of warm weather
training.
‘SERGIO IMPORTANT’
But, before then, Guardiola must
decide whether to recall talismanic
veteran Sergio Aguero as Jesus’s
replacement — and run the potential
risk of an injury ruling him out of the
Monaco game — or recall Nigerian
understudy Kelechi Iheanacho who,
despite a prolific scoring record,
appears to have fallen out of favour
with Guardiola in recent weeks.
Aguero appears likely to win the
battle for selection and be granted his
first start since Jesus broke into the
first team picture with an exhilarating
appearance when he came on as
a substitute against Tottenham on
January 21.
After the victory over
Bournemouth,
Guardiola
acknowledged the important role
he expects Aguero to fill over the
remainder of the season.
“I know how important Sergio
is,” he said. “I did yesterday, the day
Juventus host relegation-haunted Palermo on Friday
when Massimiliano Allegri’s men will likely go 10 points
clear.
Former Juventus and Palermo striker, Fabrizio Miccoli,
told Tuttojuve.com: “I’m sorry, but I really don’t see how
Palermo can put Juve in difficulty.”
Napoli, in third at just two points further off the pace,
will look to make amends for a 3-1 defeat at Real Madrid
on Wednesday with a win at Chievo. Napoli have won the
past four encounters including those at Chievo’s Bentegodi
Stadium.
Roma coach Luciano Spalletti had blasted Dzeko only last
month for being “too soft” in front of goal. But the striker’s
recent purple patch has Spalletti purring with praise.
“Italian football has improved Dzeko, said Spalletti. “He’s
a sensitive lad and when things don’t go to plan it affects him.
“His second goal was magnificent, a goal from a mature
striker. He’s strong, he’s got character and he will become an
even better player.”
Inter Milan, in fourth at 15 points adrift, sit in pole
position in the race for Europa League qualification.
But Atalanta, also on 45 points, Lazio (44), AC Milan (41)
and Fiorentina (40) are all in hot pursuit.
— AFP
Jesus has been
flown to Barcelona
to undergo
treatment with
Ramon Cugat,
Guardiola’s
physician of choice
before, the last week, the last month.”
Meanwhile, Jesus’s team-mate
and countryman Fernandinho has
revealed he is hopeful the striker may
be able to return before the end of the
season. “He was treading badly with
his right foot, but we will see what the
doctors will say,” said Fernandinho.
“We are all hoping it was nothing
serious and hopefully he can come
back as soon as possible.”
Guardiola has fielded strong lineups
in the FA Cup until this fifth
round stage and the game also appears
a perfect opportunity for captain
Vincent Kompany, who started the
fourth round win at Crystal Palace to
continue his comeback from injury.
— AFP

C C
OMANDAILYOBSERVER SATURDAY l FEBRUARY 18 l 2017
18 CRICKET
SPORTS
Tahir weaves spell as
SOUTH AFRICA
beat New Zealand
Tahir, who was on a hattrick
in his second over,
had his figures ruined
by successive sixes from
Colin de Grandhomme
but still finished with
5-24 in 3.5 overs, with the
New Zealanders unable
to pick his googly
Imran Tahir of South Africa fields off his own bowling during the Twenty20 international against New Zealand at
Eden Park in Auckland on Friday. — AFP
AUCKLAND: Leg spinner Imran
Tahir underlined why he is the
world’s top-ranked bowler in limited
overs cricket as he bamboozled New
Zealand’s batsmen to help South
Africa to a 78-run victory in their
only Twenty20 match at Eden Park on
Friday.
Tahir, who was on a hat-trick
in his second over, had his figures
ruined by successive sixes from Colin
de Grandhomme but still finished
with 5-24 in 3.5 overs, with the New
Zealanders unable to pick his googly.
The 37-year-old did reap the
benefits of a superb bowling
performance by the rest of the team
with Chris Morris, who was also
denied a hat-trick, having figures of
2-10 in his opening three-over spell.
Andile Phehlukwayo took three
wickets, including the important
wicket of New Zealand captain Kane
Williamson, as the hosts crumbled to
107 in 14.5 overs while chasing South
Africa’s 185-6.
The loss was New Zealand’s first at
home this summer.
Both sides had said beforehand
they felt just having one Twenty20
clash before the five-match one-day
series did not have much meaning
and more games should have been
scheduled.
The South African top order,
however, underlined how dangerous
they would be in the one-day series
with nearly all making telling
contributions.
While Quinton de Kock fell for a
duck in the third over, Hashim Amla
(62), captain Faf du Plessis (36), AB de
Villiers (26) and JP Duminy (29) all
scored quickly.
Amla’s innings was particularly
impressive as he played just pure
cricket shots to hit nine boundaries
and a six in his 43-ball innings.
The opener also combined with du
Plessis in an 87-run partnership from
8.3 overs and the visitors looked well
set to score in excess of 200 if the pair
could stay at the crease.
De Grandhomme, however,
dismissed both du Plessis and de
Villiers to leave their side on 145-4 in
the 16th over ensuring the all-rounders
needed to push the innings on.
Opening bowler Trent Boult
finished with an impressive 2-8
from four overs. The first one-day
international is at Seddon Park in
Hamilton on Sunday. — AFP
SCOREBOARD
South Africa
H Amla c Bruce b Wheeler ----------------------------------62
Q de Kock c Santner b Boult ----------------------------------0
F du Plessis lbw De Grandhomme ----------------------36
AB de Villiers c Wheeler b de Grandhomme -------26
JP Duminy (run out) -------------------------------------------29
F Behardien c Anderson b Boult----------------------------8
C Morris (not out) --------------------------------------------------9
W Parnell (not out) ------------------------------------------------4
Extras: (B-4, LB-4, W-3)11
Total: (For 6 wkts, 20 overs)185
Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-102, 3-123, 4-145, 5-171,
6-181.
Bowling: T Boult 4-0-8-2, B Wheeler 4-0-49-1,
T Southee 4-0-47-0, M Santner 4-0-40-0, C de
Grandhomme 3-0-22-2, C Munro 1-0-11-0.
New Zealand
G Phillips c de Kock b Morris ---------------------------------5
K Williamson c Parnell b Phehlukwayo ---------------13
C Munro b Morris --------------------------------------------------0
T Bruce b I Tahir ---------------------------------------------------33
C Anderson c de Kock b Phehlukwayo ------------------6
C de Grandhomme c Duminy b I Tahir ----------------15
L Ronchi c de Kock b I Tahir -----------------------------------0
M Santner c Amla b Phehlukwayo ------------------------5
B Wheeler b I Tahir ------------------------------------------------6
T Southee b I Tahir -----------------------------------------------20
T Boult (not out) ----------------------------------------------------1
Extras: (LB-1, W-2) -----------------------------------------------3
Total: (all out, 14.5 overs)107
Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-10, 3-38, 4-55, 5-60, 6-60,
7-68, 8-80, 9-106.
Bowling: C Morris 3-1-10-2, D Paterson 2-0-13-
0, W Parnell 3-0-40-0, A Phehlukwayo 3-0-19-3, I
Tahir 3.5-0-24-5.
Marin Cilic
Cilic downs Coric to make
Rotterdam last-eight
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands: Top
seed Marin Cilic reached his first
quarterfinal of 2017 on Thursday
when he overcame Croatian
compatriot Borna Coric 6-1, 2-6,
6-4 at the Rotterdam World Tennis
event.
Cilic, who had just one victory
this year going into the Ahoy
Stadium tournament, improved to a
perfect 3-0 over Coric, whose career
was sidelined last autumn by injury.
“It’s always tough to play a
countryman and Borna has been
doing well in his comeback. It
was not an easy match, even after
winning the first set fast,” said
former US Open champion Cilic.
“Borna has proved himself as a
‘next-gen’ player. Maybe he didn’t
have the best season due to his
knee surgery, but he’s playing quite
consistently.”
Following his first-set thrashing,
where he trailed 5-0, Coric steadied
to square the match at a set each.
However, a break in the third by
Cilic handed the top seed a crucial
4-3 lead.
Tomas Berdych, seeded fourth,
hit 10 aces to defeat Frenchman
Richard Gasquet 7-6 (7/4), 6-1
and advance into a contest against
defending champion Martin Klizan
of Slovakia.
Belgian third seed Dàvid Goffin
earned a comeback win over Robin
Haase, the last Dutchman in the
field, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.
“It’s always nice to play these
tournaments. They are smaller
draws than Masters or Grand Slams,
but the matches are always tough,”
said Goffin.
Second seed Dominic Thiem
defeated Frenchman Gilles Simon
6-4, 7-6 (7/4) as the top five seeds all
reached the last-eight.
Simon, a three-time semifinalist,
went down as Thiem finally
made a Rotterdam quarterfinal on
his third attempt.
Fifth seed and last weekend’s
Sofia champion Grigor Dimitrov
put out Denis Istomin — the shock
conqueror of Novak Djokovic at the
Australian Open — 7-6 (9/7), 6-1.
— AFP
Sri Lanka beat Australia off
MELBOURNE:
Chamara
Kapugedera smashed a four off the
last ball to give Sri Lanka a thrilling
five-wicket victory over Australia in
their first Twenty20 international at
the Melbourne Cricket Ground on
Friday.
The win kept Sri Lanka unbeaten
in four T20 internationals in Australia
and followed their 2-1 series win over
South Africa last month.
The pulsating win was made
possible by a dashing 52 off 37 balls
by Asela Gunaratne, who was named
man-of-the-match for his matchturning
innings.
Gunaratne slammed seven fours to
share in a decisive 60-run stand with
Milinda Siriwardana to put the Sri
Lankans just 18 runs short of victory
with 17 balls remaining.
It was a tense finish with skipper
Aaron Finch making fielding changes
before every ball to prevent Sri Lanka
from getting home.
But it was Kapugedera who stood
up to the pressure and slammed fast
bowler Andrew Tye’s final delivery
through the covers to the boundary
rope for the winning hit.
The win put Sri Lanka one up in
the series with two matches to play in
Geelong on Sunday and Adelaide on
Wednesday.
For a time it looked as though the
Australians, playing without their
leading stars, Steve Smith, David
Warner, Mitchell Starc and Josh
Hazlewood all on tour in India, would
hold off the fast-finishing Sri Lankans.
The home side posted a competitive
total of 168 for six off their 20 overs
with skipper Finch smashing two
sixes and two fours in his top scoring
43 off 34 balls.
Finch shared in an opening
SCOREBOARD
Australia
A Finch c Malinga b Gunaratne ----------------43
M Klinger c Malinga b Sandakan -------------38
T Head c Prasanna b Malinga -------------------31
M Henriques c Kapugedera b Bandara ----17
A Turner c Prasanna b Malinga -----------------18
J Faulkner (not out) ----------------------------------14
T Paine (run out) ----------------------------------------- 0
P Cummins (not out)---------------------------------- 0
Extras: (B-1, LB-1, W-4, NB-1) -------------------- 7
Total: (For 6 wkts, 20 overs) ------------------168
Fall of wickets: 1-76, 2-86, 3-116, 4-153,
5-153, 6-162.
Bowling: L Malinga 4-0-29-2, N Kulasekara
4-0-38-0, V Sanjaya 3-0-35-1, S Prasanna
4-0-23-0, L Sandakan 4-0-30-1, A Gunaratne
1-0-11-1.
Sri Lanka
N Dickwella c Klinger b Zampa ----------------30
U Tharanga c Paine b Cummins ----------------- 0
D Munaweera c Finch b Zampa ----------------44
A Gunaratne st Paine b Turner ------------------52
M Siriwardana lbw Turner ------------------------15
C Kapugedera (not out)----------------------------10
S Prasanna (not out) ----------------------------------- 8
Extras: (B-1, LB-3, W-9) ---------------------------13
Total: (For 5 wkts, 20 overs) ------------------172
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-79, 3-91, 4-151,
5-152.
Bowling: P Cummins 4-0-29-1, B Stanlake
3-0-42-0, J Faulkner 4-0-27-0, A Tye 3-0-32-
0, A Zampa 4-0-26-2, A Turner 2-0-12-2.
stand of 76 with T20I debutant
Michael Klinger.
Klinger, making his debut at the
age of 36 after starring with the Perth
Scorchers in the domestic Big Bash
League, hammered 38 off 32 balls with
four boundaries.
Lasith Malinga, who has played
virtually no cricket for nearly a year
due to injuries, was an influential
figure taking two wickets in two balls
and taking two catches.
Malinga claimed the wickets of
Travis Head for 31 off 24 balls and
debutant Ashton Turner for 18 off
13 balls, both caught by Seekkugge
Prasanna at deep mid-wicket.
Malinga finished with two wickets
for 29 off his four overs.
Paceman Pat Cummins struck
with the last ball of his opening over
getting skipper Upul Tharanga to
edge to wicket-keeper Tim Paine for a
duck in the first over of the Sri Lanka
innings. Leg-spinner Adam Zampa
claimed the big wicket of free-scoring
opener Niroshan Dickwella for 30 off
25 balls. — AFP
Bangladesh
tour of
Sri Lanka
schedule
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s cricket
board on Friday announced
the schedule for a series of
Test matches and limited
overs internationals against
Bangladesh who begin a tour of
the island next month.
The teams will play two Tests
at the start of the tour, one in the
capital Colombo and another
at Galle on Sri Lanka’s southern
coast.
They then play three 50 over
internationals before facing off
for two Twenty20 matches.
Sri Lanka have a formidable
record at home and beat
Australia 3-0 in the last series
that they hosted in August 2016.
Bangladesh by contrast
have only won three of their
Test matches on the road since
gaining full status 17 years ago
although they have shown
recent signs of improvement
and beat England in a home Test
late last year.
The last series between the
two sides in Sri Lanka in 2014
saw the hosts win one of the
Tests by 248 runs while the
second was a draw.
First Test: March 7 - 11 at the Galle
International Stadium
Second Test: March 15 - 19 at
the Saravanamuttu Stadium,
Colombo
First ODI: March 25 day and night
at Dambulla
Second ODI: March 28 day and
night at Dambulla
Third ODI: April 1 at Sinhalese
Sports Club grounds, Colombo
First T20: April 4 at Premadasa
Stadium Colombo
Second T20: April 6 at Premadasa
Stadium Colombo.

OO
19
SATURDAY I FEBRUARY 18 I 2017
SPORTS
OMANDAILYOBSERVER
Hat-tricks
for United’s
IBRAHIMOVIC,
Roma’s DZEKO
Manchester United’s striker Zlatan
Ibrahimovic shoots from the penalty
spot to score his team’s third goal
during the UEFA Europa League
Round of 32 first-leg match. — AFP
Roma’s Edin Dzeko (left) vies with Villarreal’s Manu Trigueros during the Europa
League round of 32 first leg match at El Ceramica stadium in Vila-real. — AFP
LONDON: The goals continued to flow for
Manchester United’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic and
AS Roma’s Edin Dzeko as they bagged hattricks
to help their teams take commanding
leads in the first legs of their Europa League
last 32 ties on Thursday.
United swept aside St Etienne 3-0 at Old
Trafford and Roma made light work of last
season’s semifinalists Villarreal with a 4-0
win in Spain, leaving their sides with little
work to do in next week’s return encounters.
Tottenham Hotspur’s Europa League
campaign, however, got off to a frustrating start
as they were beaten 1-0 at mid-table Belgian
outfit Gent, while Olympique Lyonnais beat
AZ Alkmaar 4-1 away and Fiorentina edged
Borussia Moenchengladbach 1-0.
St Etienne will be totally sick of the sight
of Ibrahimovic as the Swede took his tally
against the Ligue 1 side to 17 goals in 14
games, having terrorised Les Verts during his
four years at Paris St Germain.
“Every time I’ve played against St Etienne,
with hard work there has been a couple of
goals. I’ve scored a couple of goals tonight
and hopefully I can do the same next week,”
Ibrahimovic told BT Sport.
He opened the scoring with a deflected
free kick in the first half and added two
more — a tap-in and a late penalty — after
the break as United quelled the visitors’ early
enthusiasm.
The match was billed as a battle of the
Pogba brothers with younger sibling Paul
facing St Etienne’s Florentin for the first time
in a competitive encounter.
It was the 35-year-old Ibrahimovic who
stole the show, however, grabbing his first
United hat-trick and taking his tally in a
remarkable maiden season at Old Trafford
to 23.
RICH VEIN
Dzeko is in a similarly rich vein of form
at Roma, who swatted aside a Villarreal team
United swept aside
St Etienne 3-0 at Old
Trafford and Roma
made light work of
last year’s semifinalists
Villarreal with
a 4-0 win in Spain,
leaving their sides
with little work to do
who are in freefall having now won just one
of their last 10 games in all competitions.
Emerson Palmieri gave Roma the lead
after 32 minutes and then Dzeko took over
after the break, netting for the seventh
straight game to double the lead in the 65th
minute before adding two more goals to take
his tally for the campaign to 28.
Spurs, who have dropped into the
competition from the Champions League,
were off colour throughout in Belgium
and were undone in the second half when
journeyman French striker Jeremy Perbet
stroked home at the second attempt on the
hour.
Spurs had arrived looking to restore
pride in north London football after Arsenal
were thrashed 5-1 by Bayern Munich in the
Champions League on Wednesday but were
stifled in a poor performance and were lucky
to escape with a one-goal deficit.
After Perbet scored, Gent, eighth in the
Belgian league, had a golden chance to double
their lead but Danijel Milicevic’s effort was
tipped onto the post by keeper Hugo Lloris.
Gladbach came into their encounter
with Fiorentina on a hot streak having won
their last four games and they dominated
possession and made several chances against
the Italians.
The Serie A side were resilient at the back,
however, and grabbed the only goal when
Federico Bernardeschi fired home a fine free
kick in the dying seconds of the first half.
Lyon will take a commanding lead into
their second leg against AZ Alkmaar after
teenager Lucas Tousart scored his first senior
goal and Jordan Ferri rounded off the scoring
in stoppage time either side of Alexandre
Lacazette’s double.
Alireza Jahanbakhsh had reduced the
deficit for AZ with a 68th-minute penalty.
Schalke 04’s Klaas-Jan Huntelaar netted
his 50th European goal to round off a 3-0
win at PAOK Salonika while Anderlecht
overcame a sluggish Zenit St Petersburg,
playing their first competitive game in 10
weeks, to win 2-0 in Belgium. — Reuters
Arsenal boss Wenger says future
will be settled soon
Fifa boss unworried about
Russia 2018 hooligans
LONDON: Arsenal manager Arsene
Wenger said his future would probably
be decided “in March or April” as he
pondered whether to take up the offer
of a contract extension or leave the
club he has managed for 20 years at
the end of the season.
The Frenchman was speaking to
German television station ZDF before
Arsenal’s 5-1 Champions League
humiliation by Bayern Munich
on Wednesday, but details of the
interview emerged only on Thursday
as speculation intensified about
Wenger’s intention.
Asked when he would decide
whether to continue next season,
he said: “March, April probably.”
Separately, the BBC reported, without
sources, on Thursday that his future
would be determined at the end of the
season, when his existing deal expires.
The 67-year-old Frenchman was
stunned almost into silence after
Wednesday’s game, answering just
three questions in a press conference
that lasted under three minutes.
Wenger is due to speak publicly
again on Friday, by which time he will
have had time not only to digest the
5-1 defeat but also the hostile reaction
from pundits and former Arsenal
players who lined up to predict his
demise when his contract expires this
summer.
Such is Wenger’s standing at the
club, he will effectively decide his
Arsenal’s Francis Coquelin (left) and manager Arsene Wenger (right) speak
together during the UEFA Champions League round of sixteen match against
Bayern Munich in Munich. — AFP
own fate. British media reported that
a new two-year deal had been offered
but Arsenal legends Lee Dixon, Ian
Wright and Bob Wilson all said they
felt Wenger might decide to walk away.
“I doubt he will sleep very much
between now and a horrible (FA Cup)
game on an artificial pitch at Sutton
on Monday night,” said Wilson. “He
might say enough is enough.”
Critics were quick to point out that
Wenger’s explanation for the Munich
mauling — that his players were “jaded
and lacking organisation” — reflected
his own managerial shortcomings,
and almost mirrored his remarks the
last time his side were thumped, also
5-1, by the same opponents 18 months
earlier. The only support seemed to
come from Bayern manager Carlo
Ancelotti. “This is football,” he said. “I
think Arsene has a lot of experience,
the experience to manage this
moment, this result and look forward
to the next game. It’s only one game.”
The trouble is, it isn’t.
Six successive eliminations at the
same stage of the knockout phase
do not suggest coincidence and a
tactically disjointed Arsenal side
I doubt he will sleep
very much between
now and a horrible
(FA Cup) game on an
artificial pitch at Sutton
on Monday night
BOB WILSON
Arsenal legend
were well beaten by opponents below
their best. Arsenal’s two biggest stars
Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil,
underperformed in wildly contrasting
fashion and did little to suggest either
is worth the enhanced new contracts
they seek.
While Ozil was anonymous,
confirming the critical view that he
goes missing in the big games, Sanchez
got visibly agitated in chasing the ball,
often on his own.
NON-LEAGUE CHALLENGE
It was unclear whether his solo
defiance accorded to a game plan
that he had just invented, or one put
in place by Wenger which his teammates
were ignoring. Either way, it did
not reflect well on the manager at the
heart of it all.
— Reuters
Fifa president Gianni Infantino (centre) cuts the ribbon as part of a
ceremony to open the national football academy in Yangon. The opening is
part of a push to reinvigorate grassroots football in Myanmar. — AFP
DOHA: Fifa president Gianni
Infantino said on Thursday he was
not worried about hooliganism at
next year’s Russia World Cup, amid
growing fears the tournament
could be blighted by fan violence.
Speaking in Qatar following a
Fifa executive summit meeting,
Infantino also said that football’s
governing body has not asked
Russian Deputy Prime Minister
Vitaly Mutko to resign as the
tournament’s chief organiser.
“I am not concerned about
trouble and violence in 2018,”
Infantino told AFP and a small
group of reporters on the sidelines
of the meeting.
“I have full confidence in the
Russian authorities, they are taking
this matter very, very seriously.”
He added that Russian
organisers had been in touch with
Fifa, UEFA and the organisers
of Euro 2016 in France, where
Russian and English fans clashed in
bloody street battles, especially in
Marseille, leading to the expulsion
of several Russians.
He added that Russia was a
“welcoming country, which wants
to celebrate football”.
Infantino’s comments came
ahead of the broadcast of a
television documentary in Britain
on Thursday in which Russian
hardline fans are said to threaten
trouble against English fans who
go to the World Cup.
Hardline hooligans warned that
the 2018 World Cup would be a
“festival of violence”. — AFP

sport
SATURDAY | FEBRUARY 18, 2017 | JUMADA AL ULA 21, 1438 AH
follow us @observersportz
www.omanobserver.om
editor@omanobserver.om
Norwegian Alexander Kristoff, from
Team Katusha Alpecin, raises his arm
at the finish line of the 4th stage of
the Tour of Oman between Al Sifah
and the Ministry of Tourism in Muscat,
on Friday. — AFP
KRISTOFF
storms to stage
four victory
Norwegian Alexander Kristoff, from Team Katusha Alpecin, raises his arms while holding a
bouquet during the victory ceremony after winning the 4th stage of the cycling Tour of
Oman between Al Sifah and the Ministry of Tourism in Muscat. — AFP
The peloton rides during the 4th stage of the cycling Tour of Oman between Al Sifah and the Ministry of
Tourism in Muscat. — AFP
MUSCAT: Alexander Kristoff (Katusha
Alpecin) survived the high pace and
multiple climbs of the fourth stage of the
Tour of Oman to take the sprint victory.
He finished just ahead of Sonny Colbrelli
(Bahrain-Merida) and Greg Van Avermaet
(BMC Racing).
The stage was marked by various breaks,
and a group of the top favourites which
formed near the end looked to make the win
out amongst themselves. But parts of the
splintered peloton were able to catch them
on the tricky finale, leaving the way open for
the sprinters. Ben Hermans (BMC Racing)
easily defended his overall lead by finishing
in the first group, extending his lead to five
seconds over Rui Costa (UAE Abu Dhabi).
Five ranked climbs spiked the route
today, with three closing laps of a circuit
course including the Bausher Al Amerat
ascent each time. The short, 118 km, stage
got off to a fast start, with a group of nine
riders getting away early.
Tanel Kangert (Astana), Axel Domont
(AG2R), Stefan Küng (BMC), Anass Ait
El Abdia (UAE Abu Dhabi), Bob Jungels
(Quick-Step Floors), Stefan Denifl (Aqua
Blue Sport), Mike Teunissen (Sunweb),
Fabien Douby (Wanty-Groupe Gobert),
and Daniel Eaton (UnitedHealthcare) sped
through the first intermediate sprint and
the first two early climbs. Jungels took both
the sprint and the first climb, with Denifl
claiming the second one.
A flat 30 km section then beckoned, and
the group went into it with a 1:45 lead. They
were not working well together, and the gap
settled in at about 1:30. That gap held on the
first climb of the final mountain, with Denifl
once again first at the top, while the gap
grew to nearly two minutes on the descent.
That was the high point, however, as
the field turned on the speed. Jungles,
Teunissen and Eason were dropped on the
second ascent and the field moved up on
the remaining six riders. With 20 km to go,
a reduced peloton of about 70 riders was
within a minute of the lead group.
Küng was the first to feel the pressure and
attack out of the break group on the final
climb. AG2R La Mondiale turned up the
heat and led the capture of the remaining
escapees, with the peloton shedding riders
constantly under the blistering pace.
New attacks followed immediately on the
Belgian
Hermans easily
defended his
overall lead
by finishing in
the first group,
extending his
lead to five
seconds over
Rui Costa
climb, with AG2R’s Romain Bardet among
them. A 15-man group topped the climb for
the final time, and race leader Hermans took
the full complement of points as they did.
The high-powered group included Bardet,
Fabio Aru, Jakob Fuglsang, Mathias Frank
and Costa.
The speed on the final climb was enough
to totally shred the remaining field, leaving
the outcome of the stage to those in front. On
the descent, attack followed attack amongst
the favourites. Despite the power up front, a
large group was able to catch the leaders on
the run to the line, bringing about a bunch
sprint, with Kristoff once again proving to
have the best legs and taking his second win
of the race.