www.omanobserver.om editor@omanobserver.om Tuesday, March 8, 2011/Rabee al Thani 3, 1432 AH

Ready to take up any challengeMUSCAT — Omani workforce is ready to take up any challenge and this is proved with the hard work of an entrepreneur who established his own oil and gas company by dint of hard work and clear vision. Oilfield services company Midwest is the re-sult of the concerted effort of a young Omani.

The company does not only meet international standards, it has the cred-it of being the only Omani company in the sector when started in 2001.

In such companies the Omani workers get training and qualify to join the international job market. Since the workers have exposure to international standards while working in Oman, they have a chance to get the best possible training in the sector.

— Features

MUSCAT — In the wake of the recent announcements inviting Omani youths to enrol their names for jobs in the govern-ment sector, the Office of the Diwan of the Royal Court in Al Khuwair received a large number of applications yesterday.

As many as 500 to 1,000 Omani youngsters have registered at the Diwan office in the past two days, according to an official.

These candidates will be assigned to various jobs across various sectors under the Diwan.

Musab bin Salem al Mukhbali, an as-pirant teenager from the Sidab village, said that it was a great move for young-sters like him. “I’m so excited that I stand better chances to get a government job if I register with the Office of the Diwan. A number of my friends are also in the queue to register their names for such jobs”

Meanwhile, a number of other private companies and public entities have come

forward with plans to absorb more Omani staff.

The Association of Contractors has an-nounced that it will increase the number of Omani employees to 100,000 in the next two years. The minimum wages of RO 200 has been implemented in the company since last week, according to company officials.

Mashhoor Dawood al Osfour, Vice- President of the Board of Directors of Contractors Association of Oman, said that it played a crucial role in responding to citizens’ requests. To page 4

Large turnout of job seekers

MUSCAT — The decision by the Fisheries Ministry ban-ning export of five kinds of fish: sirius, grouper, kingfish, sal and sahwa,went into effect on March 1.

Dr Hamad bin Said al Aufi, Fisheries Under-Secre-tary at the Ministry of Agri-

culture and Fisheries, said the decision regulates the export of some kinds of fish that are on high demand in the local market.

In an interview with Oman Arabic daily, Al Aufi pointed out that the studies conducted over the last two years showed a surge in the prices of fish in the local market To page 4

Fish demand to be metMUSCAT — The race for a licence to build a huge Independent Power Project (IPP) at Sur, on the Sultanate’s Sharqiyah coast, has whittled down to five bidders. AES Oasis Energy, one of six energy firms prequalified to bid for the licence, opted out of the contest, leaving fellow contenders Marubeni Corporation (Japan), Siemens LLC, Sembcorp Utilities, Enka (Turkey) and Mitsui & Co in the fray. Details on page 21

5 bidders for Sur IPP

MUSCAT — The Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI), signed an agreement with the National US Arab Chamber of Com-merce to establish the Oman-American Joint Business Council.

The council will pay regu-lar attention for strengthening co-operation and partnership in trade, industry and ex-changing experts and modern technologies.

The signing agreement took place during the inaugu-ration ceremony of the open-ing of the Oman-US Econom-ic Forum which was presided over by Darwish bin Ismaeel al Balushi, Minister Respon-

sible for Financial Affairs. The forum aims at devel-

oping trade relations introduc-ing investment opportunities in the Sultanate and opening new market for Omani ex-ports.

Khalil bin Abdullah al Khonji, Chairman of OCCI, said in his speech that the fo-rum which is being held here in co-operation with the local and American partners, aims at developing the trade and investment relations through private sector contributions and to strengthen joint invest-ments under the legal environ-ment provided by the bilateral trade agreements.

"Several opportunities are available that are given priori-ties To page 2

Oman-US Business Council established

Ramadhan quiz winners’ list on P3

MUSCAT — The Tender Board yesterday awarded tenders worth RO 12 mil-lion. The new projects are: technical preparations for radio transmission stations in Barka, Bidiya and Bahla (RO 6,160,597); power sup-ply to Najd, Baheer villages in Bahla, Al Shaar in Adam, Jabal al Sarah in Ibri and Al Saleel, Maaresh and Marjabah in Izki (RO 1,210,000); power supply to Al Jarwalah in Ibra, Al Re-hab, Al Eisi, Al Saleel, Khab al Khais, Al Qaleet, Alka, We-sal, Al Jar, Hail Braik and Al Jabatian in Dima Wal Taeyyin in the Sharqiyah Region (RO 1,053,360); power supply Wadi al Lubaidaa in Ja'alan Bani Bu Ali (RO 965,402); power supply to Al Qalea, Al

Haliyah, Wadi al Khashkhash, Jaiba, Dima, Faqarah and Al Zabai villages in Ja'alan Bani Bu Ali (RO 578,600); power supply to Al Saifani, Mati, Al Jamha, Qaran, Dhoha, Al Jailah, Al Theqab villages in Sur (RO 524,607); ad-ditional works for the provi-sion of consultancy services for preparing technical speci-fications for express ferries and coast guard boats (RO 522,060); supply of surgical materials for Royal Hospital (RO 446,713); power supply to Hail al Hlabi, Haloot, Al Walaja, Al Jareef, Al Areesa villages in Sur (RO 392,920); supply, installation, integra-tion, testing and operating of control and external warning system To page 2

Many villages to get supply of electricity

Queen Beatrix arrives todayQUEEN Beatrix of the Netherlands will arrive in the Sultanate today on a two-day private visit during which she will meet with His Majesty Sultan Qaboos. Details on page 2

Employment access pointsTHE Ministry of Manpower has set up points of access to re-ceive citizens who wish to apply for new jobs or update their data at the ministry’s register. Details on page 2

MUSCAT — His Majesty Sultan Qaboos has issued eight Royal Decrees.

Royal Decree No 31/ 2011 restructures the Council of Ministers.

Article 1 states that the Council of Minis-ters shall be restructured under the Chairman-ship of His Majesty the Sultan as follows:

His Highness Sayyid Fahd bin Mahmood al Said, Deputy Prime Minister for the Council of Ministers; His Highness Sayyid Haitham bin Tareq al Said, Minister of Heritage and Culture; Sayyid Khalid bin Hilal bin Saud al Busaidy, Minister of the Diwan of the Royal Court; Lt Gen Sultan bin Mohammed al Num-ani, Minister of the Royal Office; Sayyid Badr bin Saud bin Hareb al Busaidy, Minister Re-sponsible for Defence Affairs; Sayyid Hamoud bin Faisal bin Said al Busaidy, Minister of Interior; Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdallah, Min-ister Responsible for Foreign Affairs; Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdullah bin Zaher al Hinai, Minister of Justice; Darwish bin Ismaeel bin Ali al Balushi, Minister Responsible for Finan-cial Affairs; Shaikh Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Abdullah al Salmy, Minister of Awqaf and Religious Affairs; Dr Mohammed bin Hamad bin Saif al Rumhy, Minister of Oil and Gas; Hamad bin Mohammed bin Mohsin al Rashdi, Minister of Information; Dr Rawya bint Saud bin Ahmed al Busaidiya, Minister of Higher Education; Ali bin Masoud bin Ali al Sunaidy, Minister of Sports Affairs; Shaikh Moham-

med bin Marhoon bin Ali al Maamari, State Minister and Governor of Dhofar; Shaikh Saif bin Mohammed bin Saif al Shabibi, Minister of Housing; Shaikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Abdullah al Bakri, Minister of Manpower; Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Obaid al Saeedi, Minister of Health; Dr Madeeha bint Ahmed bin Nassir al Shibaniyah, Minister of Educa-tion; Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Mohammed al Shuhi, Minister of Regional Municipalities and Water Resources; Dr Ahmed bin Moham-med bin Salim al Futaisi, Minister of Transport and Communications; Shaikh Khalid bin Omar bin Said al Marhoon, Minister of Civil Serv-ice; Shaikh Saad bin Mohammed bin Said al Mardhouf al Saadi, Minister of Commerce and Industry; Sayyid Saud bin Hilal bin Hamad al Busaidy, State Minister and Governor of Mus-cat; Dr Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Said al Saeedi, Minister of Legal Affairs; Shaikh Ab-dulmalik bin Abdullah bin Ali al Khalili, Min-ister of Tourism; Dr Fuad bin Jaafar bin Mo-hammed al Sajwani, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries; Mohammed bin Salim bin Said al Toobi, Minister of Environment and Climate Affairs; Shaikh Mohammed bin Said bin Saif al Kalbani, Minister of Social Development;

Royal Decree No 32/ 2011 appoints Shaikh Al Fadhl bin Mohammed bin Ahmed al Harthy as Secretary-General of the Council of Minis-ters.

Royal Decree No 33/ 2011 appoints Shaikh

Nassir bin Hilal bin Nassir al Maawali as Chairman of the State Audit and Administra-tive Institution with the rank of minister.

Royal Decree No 34/2011 appoints Dr Rasheed bin al Safi bin Khamis al Huraibi as Chairman of the Tender Board with rank of minister.

Royal Decree No 35/2011 appoints Mohsen bin Mohammed bin Ali al Shaikh as Adviser at the Diwan of the Royal Court with the rank of minister.

Royal Decree No 36/2011 appoints Dr Ab-dulmalik bin Abdullah bin Zahir al Hinai as Adviser at the Finance Ministry with his exist-ing rank and financial allocations.

Royal Decree No 37/2011 appoints under-secretaries for the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

Article 1 appoints Dr Hamad bin Said bin Sulaiman al Aufi as Under-Secretary of the Min-istry of Agriculture and Fisheries for Fisheries.

Article 2 appoints Dr Ishaq bin Ahmed bin Mohammed al Ruqaishi as Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries for Agriculture.

Royal Decree No 38/2011 cancels the Min-istry of National Economy and states that a committee shall be formed by the Council of Ministers to manage the distribution of its pre-rogatives, allocations, assets and employees.

The decrees took effect yesterday. — ONA See also page 2

His Majesty issues eight Royal Decrees

MAJOR CABINET RESTRUCTURE

10 new faces Economy ministry abolished Agriculture and Fisheries ministries merged

OMAN DAILY Observer

2OMANTUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

MUSCAT — Ahmed bin Has-san al Dheeb, Commerce and Industry Ministry's Under-Secretary for Commerce and Industry, and Dr Sidi Ould Bebaha, Economic Affairs

and Development Minister and Governor of the Islamic Development Bank of Mau-ritania, yesterday discussed enhancing trade relations and economic co-operation.

They also reviewed projects to develop small and medium enterprises and fa-miliarised with mechanisms and needs to develop such enterprises. — ONA

Oman, Mauritania seek to boost trade relations

From page 1

for Omantel (340,112); and additional works for the construction of ex-ternal exhibitions for 2008, 2009 and 2010 (RO 175,966).

The board also opened bids for the following ten-ders: Tender No 281/2010 for construction of a pow-er plant in Sur; Tender No 353,2010 for construction of stores for the Public Authority for Stores and Food Reserves in Al Ka-mil Wal Wafi; Tender No 367/2010 for construction of stores for the Public Authority for Stores and Food Reserves in Barka; Tender No 368/2010 for SCADA project in South-ern Al Batinah, Dakhiliyah and Sharqiyah Regions (second stage); Tender No 378/2010 for provision of consultancy services for Nizwa/Thumrait (Adam-Thumrait) dual carriage-way projects; Tender No 7/2011 for assessment of mineral and mining sector; Tender No 9/2011 for op-eration and maintenance of water transport system in Southern Al Batinah and its associated works; Tender No 25/2011 for washing of insula-tors for power lines and plants (220 and 132 KV) for Oman Electricity Transmission company; Tender No 26/2011 for annual mainte-nance of roads in the Northern Sharqiyah Region; Tender No 29/2011 for annual maintenance of roads in the Southern Batinah Region. — ONA

Power supply to villages

From page 1

in the developmental plans of both countries," Al Khonji added.

The gathering concentrates on the signifi-cane of making appropriate environment for investment and promoting Oman as a wealthy destination of successful investment opportuni-

ties. The discussions will also cover the impor-tance of exchanging information on economic sectors to attract more American investors and to increase the volume of trade exchanges.

The necessity of further activating the roles of Chambers and Federations of Com-merce and Industry will also come up for dis-cussion, he noted.

Oman-US Economic Forum established

MUSCAT — Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands will arrive in the Sultanate today on a two-day private visit during which she will meet with His Majesty Sultan Qaboos.

The queen will be received upon her arrival by His High-ness Sayyid Fahd bin Mahmood al Said, Deputy Prime Minis-ter for the Council of Ministers, His Highness Sayyid Haitham bin Tareq al Said, Minister of Heritage and Culture, Dr Omar bin Abdulmunim al Zawawi, Special Adviser to His Majesty the Sultan for External Liaison, and Dr Rawya bint Saud al Busaidiya, Minister of Higher Education.

Queen Beatrix will be accompanied during the visit by a delegation comprising Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, other high-ranking personnel and the Dutch ambassador to the Sultanate. — ONA

Queen Beatrix visits Sultanate today

MUSCAT — The Ministry of Manpower has set up points of access to receive citizens who wish to ap-ply for new jobs or update their data at the ministry’s register.

Said bin Salim al Mzei-di, Adviser of the Minister of Manpower for Legal Affairs, said that four of the centres are in Sohar,

namely at the premises of the Omani Women’s As-sociation, Al Turaif and Al Multaqa.

There are also other points of access in the Ba-tinah region located at the ministry’s departments in Barka, Al Suwaiq, the of-fice of the Wali of Al Kha-bourah and Shinas Voca-tional Training Centre.

Other points of access for the reception of job-seekers are set up in differ-ent parts of the Sultanate, said Al Mzeidi, adding that the centres will continue to operate in day and evening shifts and that the min-istry is willing to provide the staff with computers to process the applications the soonest. — ONA

Ministry of Manpower opens employment access points

ABU DHABI — Foreign Ministers of GCC states held their 118th session here yesterday under the chairmanship of Shaikh Abdullah bin Zayed al Nahyan, Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates.

The Sultanate’s delegation was headed by Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdallah, Minister Re-sponsible for Foreign Affairs.

The ministers, in a closed-door session, dis-

cussed ways to enhance the joint GCC march and issues of common concern in political, legal, humanitarian, environmental and eco-nomic spheres.

The meeting also touched on ‘strategic dia-logue’ between GCC states and other econom-ic blocks, as well as the latest developments in the regional and international arenas.

— ONA

GCC foreign ministers review regional, global developments

YUSUF bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs, addresses journalists before a meeting of the GCC Foreign ministers in Abu Dhabi yesterday.

MUSCAT — Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed al Saeedi, Min-ister of Health, was the chief guest at the final stage of the Annual Light Arms Shooting Competition 2011 held here yesterday. The event was at-tended by Lt Gen Ahmed bin Harith al Nabhani, Chief of Staff of the Sultan’s Armed Forces and Chairman of the Omani Shooting Association.

The top winners were: Second Lieutenant Salim bin Hamad al Hinai of the Royal Oman Police (the Sultan’s Medal for Best Gun Marks-man); Second Warrant Of-ficer Ahmed bin Abdullah al Ghaisani from Royal Army of Oman (the Sultan Qaboos medal for Best Pistol Shoot-er); Warrant Officer Ahmed bin Abdullah al Ghassani from Royal Army of Oman (individual gun shooting com-petition named “Progress”); Staff sergeant Mohammed bin Abdullah al Khatri from Royal Army of Oman ( the individu-al gun shooting event named

“Retreat”); Second Warrant Officer Ahmed bin Abdullah al Ghassani from Royal Army of Oman (individual pistol shooting); Captain Mussalam bin Abdullah al Subhi from the Royal Army of Oman (gun shooting at the level of lieutenants) and Corporal Sal-mah bint Said al Miqbaliyah (female pistol shooting).

For the team gun shooting competition for progress and retreat, the team of the Royal Army of Oman came first while the team of the Royal Guard of Oman (RGO) came second.

For the team pistol shoot-ing competition on the level of individuals, the team of the Royal Army of Oman came first while the team of the Royal Air Force of Oman came second.

For the pistol shooting competition on the level of lieutenants, the team of the Royal Army of Oman came first while the team of the Roy-al Oman Police came second.

Shooting contest winners

SOME OF THE NEW MINISTERS: Shaikh Abdulmalik bin Abdullah al Khalili, Minister of Tourism; Dr Fuad bin Jaafar al Sajwani, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries; Mohammed bin Salim al Toobi, Minister of Environment and Climate Affairs and

Shaikh Mohammed bin Said al Kalbani, Minister of Social Development.

OMAN DAILY Observer

3OMANTUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

By Kabeer Yousuf

MUSCAT — Omar al Hashmi Legal Consultancy Bureau signed a mutual agreement with the representatives of UK’s Quist Solicitors yester-day.

Under this agreement, any Omani legal suit against any British citizen or entity in the United Kingdom’s jurisdiction can be taken care by Omar al Hashmi and vice versa.

Until such an arrangement came into force, the options in front of a plaintiff was either to approach the department con-cerned at the British embassy in Muscat or to be present in the UK in person.

With this arrangement, a lot of time, energy and money can be saved, according to Omar Salim al Hashmi, law-yer and legal adviser at the first party’s office.

“This is our second ar-rangement after the one which we made with a French legal firm. With such an arrange-ment, Omani nationals who have a legal suit against any British firm or citizen in their jurisdiction can be put up through us and any British person or company who has a legal transaction with an Omani company or individual can be approached through us. This service will be for all in the GCC and London and

Wales,” Omar Salim said. “This is a partnership

arrangement and we have pooled in our respective re-sources in such a way that we bring in our vast experi-ence from England and Wales to the Sultanate. Together, we can offer our service to companies and individuals throughout the Middle East,” said Akhtar Raja, Principal, Quist Solicitors, Oman.

Prof Dr Sulaiman Badry al Nassry, legal adviser/private law, Abbas Mahamood Jas-sim, legal adviser, and Osama al Hashmi, General Manager from the Omar al Hashmi were also present at the sign-ing ceremony.

Omar al Hashmi signs pact with UK’s Quist

MUSCAT — Dr Ali bin Saud al Bimani, Vice Chancellor of Sultan Qaboos University, yesterday received Tadatsuna Koda, Adviser of Japan Petroleum Exploration Compa-ny, JAPEX, and former ambassador of Japan to the Sultanate of Oman.

They discussed the possibilities of further strengthening research collaboration be-tween SQU and Japanese organisations in water desalination, water treatment, solar energy and fisheries.

SQU seeks research ties with Japan

MUSCAT — The opening ceremony of the Inter-national Workshop on Fire Safety Engineering and Management, organised by the Civil and Archi-tectural Engineering Department in the College of Engineering at SQU, in collaboration with the Civ-il Defence Unit of Royal Oman Police, was held yesterday under the auspices of Ahmed bin Sulei-man al Maimani, Under-Secretary for Administra-tive and Financial Affairs and Regional Affairs at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Dr Ali bin Salem al Harthy, Dean of the Col-lege of Engineering, said that the value of fire safety engineering is growing and it is consid-

ered as separate discipline in academic institu-tions as protection of people and their environ-ments from the destructive effects of fire and smoke is an matter of high importance.

He hoped that the workshop would pave way for more interaction among policy mak-ers, practising engineers, faculty members and students about the latest developments in fire safety engineering and management. The au-dience, later listened to the address of Dougal Drysdale from the BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering at the School of Engineering, the University of Edinburgh.

Workshop reviews trends in fire safety engineering, management

By A Staff Reporter

MUSCAT — Telecommuni-cations professionals from the across the Middle East and North Africa met in Muscat yesterday to discuss the future of Broadband at a Summit organised by the SAMENA Telecommunications Coun-cil under the auspices of Dr Mohammad Ali al Wohaibi, Under-Secretary for Commu-nications at the Ministry of Transport and Communica-tions.

Delegates at the summit were addressed by Omantel Chief Executive Dr Amer al Rawas, SAMENA Telecom-munications Council Chief Executive Thomas Wilson and by Stewart White, the MESA Head of Telecoms at KPMG. Omantel was the Diamond

Sponsor of the event, assum-ing a key role to ensure it suc-cess.

The keynote speeches and debates covered a broad spec-trum of issues including the demand for Broadband, alter-native technologies for Broad-band Access, the need for investments in the fixed and mobile areas, the critical role of regulations to stimulate in-vestments and the importance of building effective Public Private Partnerships for broad-band growth.

In his opening speech, Dr Mohammed al Wohaibi highlighted the importance of developing public private partnership to build the next generation national broadband networks as these networks are recognised to be a prereq-uisite for economic and social

development. Dr Al Wohaibi further commented that for many countries building a next generation national broadband networks constitute the single largest infrastructure invest-ment.

Dr Amer Awadh al Rawas highlighted in his speech the opportunities and challenges faced by the operators across the region due to the arrival of the over the top providers

(OTTP) and what may in the future constitute opportunities for these to take part in fund-ing investments.

The one-day summit held at Shangri-La’s Barr Al Jissah Resort and Spa attracted pro-fessionals from the private and public telecommunications sector from across South Asia, the Middle East and North Af-rica.

Commenting on the sum-

mit, SAMENA Telecom-munications Council Chief Executive Thomas said: “We are delighted to be organising such a major event in Oman which is increasingly becom-ing a major regional hub for the telecommunications in-dustry thanks to its excellent geographic position and the leadership role played by Om-antel in introducing modern and highly sophisticated tel-ecommunications technology to the nation.

“Broadband technology — both fixed and mobile — is one of the fastest growing in the region and we have seen extremely rapid growth across the SAMENA region in recent years. That is why our con-ference is timely to discuss and debate key issues that af-fect its development so that

we can share knowledge and best practice to help ensure the continued healthy growth and expansion of broadband technology to individuals and the corporate and Government sectors.”

The summit represented an excellent opportunity for companies to exchange infor-mation and experience in the area of broadband technology that is becoming increasingly important both to individuals and the business sector in the Sultanate and the wider SA-MENA region.

As a diamond sponsor of the summit, Omantel recog-nises the crucial importance of broadband access — both fixed and mobile — to the fu-ture prosperity of Oman and the well being of individuals and businesses.

Muscat Broadband Summit debates strategies for future

MUSCAT — The first alumni meet of the Col-lege of Nursing at Sultan Qaboos University was held at Grand Hyatt Muscat yesterday. The event was historical as it is the first formal meeting ex-clusively planned for the graduates of College of Nursing.

Prof Bazdawi Mohammed Said al Riyami, Dean, College of Nursing welcomed the gathering. He gave an overview of the significance of alumni association and emphasised that alumni associa-tion is a means of connecting the college with the graduates of different generations as their experi-ences are valuable in building up the curriculum.

Dr Raghda Shukri, Expert, College of Nursing spoke about the history of Nursing Programme and the origin of alumni association, way back in 2007. Dr Raghda led the audience to walk through the memory lane of the initiation of bac-

calaureate nursing education, graduation of the first batch in 2007 and other significant events. She encouraged the students to be in touch with the alma mater always.

The highlight of the event was the presenta-tion on Empowerment of Nursing Alumni by Prof

Marianne Hattar-Pollara, Consultant from USA for International accreditation of the College of Nursing. She appreciated the efforts put in for establishing the foundation for alumni associa-tion. She said that alumni association is a critical building block for the future of nursing in Oman.

She threaded the important aspects of an alumni association such as purpose, requirement, leader-ship, types of meetings, significance of follow up meetings and calendar of events of projected ac-tivities. Another salient feature of the day’s event was the launching of the Nursing Alumni web link on the College of Nursing official website.

Suleiman al Sabei, alumnus from cohort 2004, was the mastermind behind the website with sup-port from others. The day’s activity culminated by the election of new president and board mem-bers. Dr Judith Angelitta Noronha, Assistant Dean for Training and Community Services, who is officially responsible for alumni association acknowledged the significant contribution of all those involved and extended vote of thanks. The event was attended by around 50 graduates and 20 faculty members.

SQU College of Nursing holds first alumni meet

MUSCAT — BankMuscat was honoured as the Best Bank in Oman, for the third year run-ning, and the Best Asset Man-ager and Broker in Oman, for the second year running, at the recent Emeafinance Middle East Banking awards ceremo-ny. The awards highlighted BankMuscat’s performance excellence and strategic initia-tives.

Ali Said Ali, AGM – As-set Management and Private Banking, who received the Best Bank award on behalf of the bank, said: “BankMuscat is focused on strategic initiatives that help sustain its growth trajectory. We are delighted to note that all our efforts are be-ing noticed and acknowledged as well with the bank receiv-ing almost all the prestigious foreign, regional and local awards and accolades. Con-sistently winning prestigious global awards helps Bank-Muscat to further raise the bar

on performance. Year on year, the bank adopts new initiatives to stretch its operational excel-lence.”

The Emeafinance award in recognition of excellence in banking across the Middle East region was presented at a ceremony in Dubai attended by senior bankers.

Ali Mustafa, Deputy

Head — Brokerage, who re-ceived the Best Asset Man-ager and Broker in Oman award, said: “BankMuscat enjoys proven expertise in asset management and stock broking services. The bank’s performance has been lauded by the global banking com-munity for several years and we are delighted to receive

yet another endorsement from Emeafinance. A keen percep-tion of customer requirements enables the bank to remain fo-cused on developing products and services in line with the current and emerging needs.”

BankMuscat Asset Man-agement Department (AMD) is one of the largest fund man-agers in the region. With a

track record of 15 years and approximately $906 million assets under management, BankMuscat AMD enjoys a dominant position in the as-set management business in Oman.

BankMuscat Asset Man-agement manages mutual funds investing in Oman (BankMuscat Muscat Fund, with returns of 7.44 per cent in 2010), Kuwait (BankMuscat MSCI® Kuwait Fund, with returns of 26.42 per cent in 2010), and India (BankMus-cat India Growth Fund, with returns of 22.40 per cent in 2010), as well as structured products, hedge funds, private equity funds and a real estate fund investing in Oman. The division offers discretionary portfolio management service to suit varied clients, including pension funds, global funds, high net worth individuals, corporations and other enti-ties.

BankMuscat gets Emeafinance award

Dr Mohammed al Wohaibi and Dr Amer al Rawas

1st Prize Abdullah Ibrahim HussainRO 350 Cash; RO 200 Coupons - Best Gulf; RO 200 Coupons - Al Amana; RO 100 Coupons - Lulu; RO 100 Coupons - Khimji Mega Store; RO 100 Coupons - McDonald; Air Conditioner - Muscat Electronics; Dehumidifier- Muscat Electronics

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5th Prize Irfan MeoRO 200 Coupons - Best Gulf; RO 100 Coupons - Lulu; RO 100 Coupons - Khimji Mega Store; RO 25 Coupons - McDonald; Dehumidifier - Muscat Electronics

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8th Prize Mahmood Salim al SulimiRO 200 Coupons - Best Gulf; RO 50 Coupons - Lulu; RO 50 Coupons - Khimji Mega Store; RO 50 Coupons - Muscat Electronics; RO 25 Coupons- McDonald

9th Prize Fatma MustafaRO 50 Coupons - Lulu; RO 50 Coupons - Khimji Mega Store; RO 50 Coupons - Muscat Electronics; RO 25 Coupons - McDonald

10th Prize Nafiz JamalRO 50 Coupons - Lulu; RO 50 Coupons - Khimji Mega Store; RO 50 Coupons - Muscat Electronics; RO 25 Coupons - McDonald

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21st Prize Sameer SaidRO 50 Coupons - Lulu; RO 25 Coupons - McDonald

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Ramadhan Quiz winners, prizes

BARKA — The first stage of a four-day round of annual camel races, organised by Oman Camel Racing Association, began here yesterday under the auspices of Shaikh Ali bin

Sultan al Mubaihsi, Deputy Chairman of Oman Camel Racing Association. Camel riders from all over the Sultanate took part in the first day’s 15 races. — ONA

OMAN DAILY Observer

4OMAN/THE WORLDTUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

TALLINN — Estonia’s prime minis-ter said he aimed to re-form his cur-rent centre-right coalition after win-ning an election, taking the credit for a successful launch of the euro and pulling the Baltic state out of reces-sion.

The Reform Party of Prime Min-ister Andrus Ansip won 33 seats in Sunday’s election while current jun-ior coalition partner, Pro Patria and Res Republica Union, won 23, fig-ures on the website of the election commission showed.

That gave a total of 56 seats in the 101-seat house, six more than the par-ties together won in the last election.

“I prefer to continue with the same coalition,” Ansip said after the vote.

“Our co-operation was really fruitful during all those good years,

but also during the difficult times,” he added.

“...but we all know that coalition negotiations are always very compli-cated,” he said.

Ansip said he aimed to keep Esto-nia on a path of fiscal restraint in the debt-ridden single currency zone.

Keeping a tight rein on finances allowed the nation of 1.3 million to become the 17th euro zone member in January.

Newspaper Eesti Paeveleht said in an editorial after the vote it want-ed “first and foremost real action to combat unemployment and revitalise the Estonian economy”.

The Reform Party campaigned under a slogan of “You can be sure” and touted its credentials as a good economic manager.

Estonia has the lowest debt bur-den in the European Union and one of the lowest fiscal deficits.

The Centre Party, the main oppo-sition group, was hit by allegations it asked for funding from Russia, Esto-nia’s neighbour which is traditionally regarded with distrust. The party de-nied the allegations. It came second with 26 seats.

Russia has often criticised Esto-nia for failing to properly integrate its large Russian-speaking minority, many of whom do not have citizen-ship and cannot vote in national elec-tions. Estonia has rejected such criti-cism.

The centre-left Social Democrats came fourth with 19 seats.

Estonia’s economic output dropped 14 per cent during the 2009 recession, the third worst in the EU after fellow Baltic states Latvia and Lithuania.

The government had to cut spend-ing to keep its budget deficit within euro zone limits to adopt the cur-rency.

Estonia remains one of the poor-est countries in the EU, which it en-tered in 2004, the same year it joined Nato.

Its fiscal situation is sound — the European Commission has forecast a total public sector budget deficit of 1.6 per cent of output for 2011, in line with the euro area average.

State debt, forecast at 9.5 per cent of output for this year, will be by far the lowest in the euro zone and well below the average 86.5 per cent of gross domestic product. The government has pledged to get the budget back in balance by 2014.

— Reuters

Winning Estonia PM to keep centre-right coalition

VIENNA — Austria will not extradite to Serbia a former Bosnian army general arrested last week on a Serbian warrant demanding he face war crimes charges, the foreign ministry said yesterday.

Austrian police arrested Jovan Divjak at Vienna airport on Thursday, triggering pro-tests in Sarajevo and Vienna at the weekend.

“According to our inter-national law experts, an ex-tradition to Serbia is incon-ceivable,” Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger told the Kurier newspaper.

A ministry spokesman con-firmed the comments, which he described as “a signal to-wards the people of Bosnia”. He said extradition requests had to take into account Aus-

tria’s foreign policy interests, international law and other factors.

Spindelegger cancelled a planned trip to Sarajevo yester-day due to illness but hoped to meet his Bosnian counterpart within days either there or in Vienna, the spokesman added.

Still popular in Bosnia, Divjak is one of a group of 19 Bosnian officials charged by Serbia over an attack on a Yu-goslav army column in Sara-jevo early in the 1992-95 war.

Serb prosecutors say 42 Yugoslav soldiers were killed and 73 wounded in May 1992 when the Bosnian army at-tacked the convoy after it had been offered safe passage and was being escorted out of the city by UN troops.

Yugoslav army General

Milutin Kukanjac, who had ordered the withdrawal of his forces from Sarajevo, has said that only six people were killed that day.

The United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague has dropped the case due to lack of evidence.

A British court, which last year arrested Bosnia’s wartime presidency member Ejup Gan-ic on the same warrant from Serbia, released him, saying the charges were unfounded.

Divjak, an ethnic Serb who defected from the former Yugoslav Peoples Army after it bombed Sarajevo in April 1992 and joined Bosnian forces, is seen as a hero in Sarajevo, which Bosnian Serb forces besieged for 43 months. — Reuters

Austria won’t send Bosnia army general to Serbia

ABIDJAN — People were fleeing yesterday from a town captured by forces allied with Alas-sane Ouattara in western Ivory Coast as fresh clashes in Abidjan reportedly killed three peo-ple in an escalation of a dispute over the presi-dency.

Fighters took control of the town of Toulep-leu in clashes on Sunday with forces of Laurent Gbagbo, who refuses to hand the presidency to Alassane Ouattara after losing November elec-tions in a conflict threatening civil war.

Locals feared Gbagbo’s forces would launch a counter-assault and the pro-Ouattara fighters, from a former rebel army called the New Forces (FN), were looting houses, resi-dents said by telephone.

“The town is controlled by the FN and has been emptied of its residents after heavy fight-ing,” one local said.

“The people have fled the town to hide in the forest,” he said, adding some had gone to surrounding villages. “Some have taken the di-rection for Liberia,” he said.

“Our houses have been sacked,” a teacher

said. Toulepleu is a large town near the bor-der with Liberia and was on the frontline of fighting in 2002 and 2003 between Gbagbo’s fighters and rebel forces after a failed uprising against his rule.

The uprising left the country split between the FN in the north and Gbagbo in the south, a divide it had been hoped would be healed by the November election.

But fighting resumed in the region in late February, with Gbagbo’s forces backed by lo-cal militia lined up against the FN, sending tens of thousands of people fleeing into Liberia.

One local said the capture of Toulepleu was part of an FN strategy to reach the southwest-ern port of San Pedro, a main export point for the Ivory Coast’s vital trade in cocoa, of which it is the world’s top producer.

The FN “have in their sites the town of Blole-kin after Toulepleu, so they can go down towards San Pedro,” he said on condition of anonymity.

Residents also feared that FDS forces loyal to Gbagbo planned a counter-offensive, one said. — AFP

People flee captured I Coast town

From page 1

due to rise in demand and slump of supply owing to competition in regional and international markets.

He added that the home market is open to competi-tion and free trade. Produc-ers and transporters choose the market with the highest profitability. In the past few months the market saw some changes that necessitated the intervention of the ministry to add new measures regularis-ing the fish market in order to orientate part of the fish production towards the local market.

“The decision came as a result of a study lasted for more than a year conducted by experts from the Fisheries Ministry as well as econo-mists. The participants stud-ied a number of choices of which the most suitable was a

ban on export of five kinds of fish that became effective on March 1,” Al Aufi said.

Speaking about the deci-sion, Al Aufi pointed out that the interests of fishermen and transporters were taken into account. Companies with large production lines which employ Omani manpower were also considered to avoid job loss.

He expected that the deci-sion will contribute largely to the provision of these kinds in the local market especially in months of scarcity such as March, April and May. It will also reduce fish prices. How-ever, he said the desired tar-get will not be achieved soon, because the market needs one or two weeks to regain equi-librium.

Al Aufi added: “The min-istry is currently co-ordinat-ing with all border centres to implement the decision. We

have placed supervisors to monitor the fish shipment.

“The ban excludes treated fish. Value-added fish and canned fish are not meant for local consumers. For instance, the Dhofar Company for Fish Industries and the Omani Fisheries Company own fac-tories in Al Buraimi for the production of value added fish. Shutting these factories will negatively affect the na-tional economy”.

Al Aufi said the exporting companies are being scruti-nised to ensure that they don’t put the fishermen under their mercy. The fish production should be treated in certain methods approved by the min-istry. Exporting certificates are also issued by the ministry to avoid any manipulation by the companies.

He pointed out that the ministry will set up a directo-rate-general for fish market-

ing to oversee marketing op-erations across the Sultanate. He added that the ministry has placed employees in local markets to monitor the proc-ess of sale and purchase of fish. A ministerial teamwork was set up to manage and co-ordinate the network of fish markets.

The under-secretary fi-nally expected co-operation from fishermen, saying the decision will be efficient in case of co-operation between transporters and companies, pointing out that fishermen and the ministry are partners in providing the required quantities of fish. The minis-try, on its turn, provides the appropriate infrastructure and equipment. The next period will see increasing finance, and the decision will prove useful to the fishermen.

— Translated by Khalid al Kush

Regulations target fish availability

MILAN/ROME — Climate change bringing floods and drought, growing biofuel demand and national policies to protect domes-tic markets could drive up global food prices and threaten long-term food security, the United Nations said.

High and volatile food prices are a growing global concern.Periods of price volatility are not new to agriculture, but re-

cent price shocks triggered by extreme weather and increasing use of grains to produce energy have caused great concern, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation said.

“There are fears that price volatility may be increasing,” the FAO said in its State of Food and Agriculture report.

The growing influence of commodities markets and “coun-ter-productive ‘beggar-thy-neighbour’ policy responses (to high

prices)...may exacerbate international market volatility and jeopardise global food security,” it said.

The Rome-based FAO has already warned food-producing countries against introducing export curbs to protect local mar-kets as world food prices push further above the levels that trig-gered deadly riots in 2007/2008.

A declining stock to utilisation ratio for major grain stocks like wheat and maize is a concern, said Kostas Stamoulis, direc-tor of Agricultural Development at FAO’s economics unit.

“We worry about this,” Stamoulis said on the sidelines of the presentation of the report.

“As prices increase, governments and others are trying to re-duce their stocks to soften the impact of decreased supplies. This

is one of the factors causing high prices ... If there is another sup-ply shock very soon, like in China for example, then the shock will happen amidst low stocks.”

Global food prices hit a record high in February, and the FAO said last week that further oil price spikes and stockpiling by im-porters keen to head off unrest would hit already volatile cereal markets.

Food prices are projected to rise over the next decade and stay at levels on average above those of the past decade, the agency said yesterday.

Urgent co-ordinated international action was needed to en-sure security of food supplies, including improvement of market regulation and transparency as well as of statistics on food com-

modity markets, establishment of emergency stocks and provi-sion of safety nets, the FAO said.

The number of undernourished people in the world has fallen to 925 million people last year from an estimated 2009 peak of 1.023 billion, but it remained unacceptably high, the FAO said.

In 2010, 16 per cent of developing countries’ populations were undernourished, down from 18 per cent in 2009 but still well above the UN’s Millennium Development Goal to halve to 10 per cent the share of the hungry between 1990 and 2015, it said.

The number of hungry people could fall by 100-150 million people if women farmers were given the same access to produc-tion and financial resources as men, the agency said. — Reuters

Climate change and biofuels threaten food security: FAO

From page 1“We always respect the

laws of the land and this move will benefit the citi-zens in addition to their sal-ary and will stimulate other sectors while improving the ratio of Omanisation”.

He pointed out that the construction sector employs half a million workers and the percentage of Omanis employed in this sector so far amounted to 12 per cent and it is required to increase this percentage to 30 per cent.

Al Osfour pointed that Minister of Manpower has set up a joint committee be-tween the ministry and the association, which follows the absorption of citizens in the construction sector and this is one of the most important goals of the joint committee.

Huge turnout of job seekers

By A Staff Reporter

MUSCAT — In observation of the World Kidney Day, the Ministry of Health’s (MoH) Renal Dialysis Centre will conduct the 7th ‘Think Kid-ney’ symposium at the Insti-tute of Health Sciences today.

The symposium will dis-cuss the trends in diabetes over the years and the preven-tive strategies of this ailment as well as shed light on cardio-vascular diseases and chronic diseases of the kidneys.

Discussion will also focus on the role of iron in chronic kidney diseases and the cur-rent trends in treatment and management of renal dialysis using different methods of treatment as well as the role of hypertension in relation to chronic kidney ailments.

Symposiumon kidneycare today

NAIROBI — Kenya’s tour-ism earnings hit a record in 2010, driven by more high-end visitors and the country forecast it would rake in even more this year by in-creasing marketing and tak-ing advantage of unrest in North Africa.

Tourism Minister Na-jib Balala said the country would need to spend more on marketing to promote its beaches and game safa-ris, but would also need to reduce political infighting, which was souring Kenya’s image.

The state-run tourist board has been positioning Kenya to appeal to high-spending tourists since 2009 and the industry is among the top foreign currency earners for east Africa’s big-gest economy alongside hor-ticulture and tea exports.

“We need to market ag-gressively. If we have the resources, we shall have 1.4 million passengers by end of year.”

The sector earned 73.68 billion shillings ($887.1 mil-lion) in 2010, up 18 per cent from 62.46 billion shillings a year earlier, but failed to hit a 100 billion target.

Last year’s earnings rose beyond the previous peak of 65.4 billion shillings reached in 2007, the best year in the sector’s history, before post-election violence and a global economic downturn dented revenues in 2008.

Balala said that with the right resources, it was pos-sible to surpass 2010’s ar-rival figures. Tourist arrivals stood at 1.1 million visitors, short of a 1.2 million target for the year but up from 952,481 arrivals in 2009.

“Our traditional markets are down, the markets that did well are India and Italy,” Balala said. Traditional mar-kets for Kenya include the United Kingdom, Germany and North America — all fell due to the lingering ef-fects of the global financial crisis.

Piracy by Somalia ban-dits saw cruise arrivals fall to 558 last year from 12,096 a year before, as holiday-makers responded to a rise in cases of kidnappings. The World Bank has said Kenya should revamp its tourism to diversify beyond the wildlife safari and beach tourism, and suggested that facilities at the coast be renovated.

However, in many cases the cost of repairs exceeded the value of the facilities, thus making it unfeasible to undertake.

“The main product that is tired is the beach destination. We are lacking good quality products in terms of hotels,” Balala said. “In terms of the safari circuit, it is doing very well. People have invested in boutique lodges and bou-tique hotels (mainly catering for wealthy tourists).”

— Reuters

Kenya’s tourism earnings up

A LOOTED house of a member of Ivorian pro-Ouattara Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace in Abidjan yesterday. — AFP

OMAN DAILY Observer

5ASIATUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

BANGKOK — Two decades of Western sanctions against Myanmar have failed to achieve their goal and need to be urgently overhauled, an influential international think tank said yesterday.

Myanmar’s first election in 20 years and move to a new political system, albeit one dominated by the military, have pro-vided a rare chance to encourage greater openness and reform, according to the In-ternational Crisis Group.

“But this opportunity can only be seized if the West changes its failed policies of sanctions and isolation,” the Brussels-based group said in a report, de-scribing the punitive measures as “highly counterproductive”.

“Myanmar is in dire need of social, economic and political reforms,” it said.

A new approach could also signal to Myanmar’s authoritarian leaders that bet-ter relations with the West are possible if they pursue political reform, the ICG add-

ed. It called for a boost to aid money for the impoverished country along with an end to broad economic sanctions — such as a US ban on imports from Myanmar — as well as restrictions on development assistance.

The release of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest in Novem-ber after the elections has reignited debate over the sanctions, enforced notably by the United States and the EU in response to human rights abuses.

Suu Kyi’s party in February appealed for talks with the West about sanctions, but suggested the steps were not hurting the economy and said any changes should be linked to an improvement in human rights.

Her party has no voice in a newly opened parliament dominated by the military and its proxies. It was disbanded for opting to boycott the November vote because the rules seemed designed to bar

Suu Kyi from participating.Supporters of the trade and financial

sanctions say they are the only way to pressure the military rulers of Myanmar, where there are about 2,200 political pris-oners behind bars.

Despite the restrictions on Western businesses, Asian companies, especially from China, India, Thailand and South Korea, have overlooked the political situ-ation and human rights abuses to invest in resource-rich Myanmar.

These projects “will transform the economic landscape in Myanmar, and will give its neighbours a major stake in the country’s political stability”, the ICG said.

“But they will likely do so at signifi-cant social and environmental cost; and by further unbalancing external relations, they could place serious constraints on how Myanmar can position itself diplo-matically in the future.” — AFP

Think tank urges overhaul of Myanmar sanctions

BEIJING — Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi yesterday denied that his government had tightened its rules for foreign media despite recent restrictions on reporting anti-government “strolling” protests.

“China is a country under the rule of law, and we abide by the law,” Yang told reporters on the sidelines of the ongoing annual session of the National People’s Congress, China’s nominal parliament.

“We have always followed relevant laws and regulations in managing the affairs related to foreign journalists in China,” he said.

He said there were “no such issues” like assaults on foreign journalists despite reports that a Bloomberg reporter was at-tacked while trying to film a protest site on February 27 on Beijing’s Wangfujing shopping street.

Yang did not explain his comment on the Bloomberg reporter, who was as-saulted by several men in plain clothes who appeared to be co-operating with the police.

He urged foreign media not to “make something out of thin air” when reporting in China.

Yang’s comments followed the brief detention of at least 15 foreign journalists

who were trying to report a protest Sun-day in Shanghai and growing reports of harassment of reporters.

Public security and Foreign Ministry

officials have summoned dozens of jour-nalists in the past week in a bid to impose tough new reporting rules on them.

Some foreign journalists said they were threatened with punishment, includ-ing revocation of visas, if they continued to work in public areas without express permission.

Others have reported visits from the police or tailing by plain-clothed offic-ers.

“At least eight journalists or their landlords have had phone calls from po-lice in the past few days, checking their paperwork and reminding them to fol-low reporting regulations,” the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China said on Sunday.

Several journalists also reported unau-thorised access to their e-mail accounts in recent days, the club said.

Li Honghai, a Beijing municipal for-eign affairs official, on Sunday said for-eign reporters must “submit applications first before reporting in certain downtown areas” of the city.

Rights groups and officials from Ger-many, the United States and other nations have expressed concern over China’s re-cent treatment of foreign journalists.

— dpa

China’s foreign minister denies shift in reporting rules for media

TOKYO — Japan’s unpopu-lar Prime Minister Naoto Kan refused yesterday to step down after the resignation of his foreign minister over a political funding scandal that has added to pressure on him to quit or call a snap election.

But it is far from clear how Kan, if he does manage to cling to office, will be able to resolve the political stalemate that has left the government struggling to implement poli-cies to cut into a huge public

debt and win approval from a divided parliament to enact a new budget from April.

“Carrying out the admin-istration’s duty for the four-year term and then letting the people decide at the bal-lot box is best for the people themselves,” he told a parlia-mentary session.

“I intend to firmly fulfil my duty until that time comes.”

But some analysts warned that Kan’s government may well collapse sooner rather

than later. He is Japan’s fifth leader since 2006 and has no clear successor in sight.

The resignation of Seiji Maehara, a security hawk and critic of China’s military buildup, removes a strong contender to replace Kan and has deepened the impression of a government in disarray, unable to resolve fundamental problems facing the world’s third largest economy.

The stalemate is blocking passage of bills to implement

a $1 trillion budget for the year from April and keeping the government from tackling tax reforms to curb massive public debt, already twice the size of the $5 trillion econo-my.

Kan has made fiscal re-forms including a rise in the 5 per cent sales tax a priority as a way to fund the social costs of a fast ageing society. But he has failed to get opposition parties to join in talks on the topic. — Reuters

Japan’s PM hangs on but outlook grim

CHINA’S Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi at a news conference during

the ongoing annual session of China’s parliament, the National People’s

Congress in Beijing yesterday.

OMAN DAILY Observer

6THE WORLDTUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

BULGARIA’S President Georgi Parvanov (R) is welcomed by Austrian President Heinz Fischer for an official visit yesterday in Vienna. — AFP

FRENCH minister of Employment and health and counterpart Austrian Rudolf Hundstorfer (LtR) yesterday prior to an Employment, Social Policy,

Health and Consumer Affairs (EPSCO) Council at the EU headquarters in Brussels where the

Council was to hold a policy debate on the joint employment report before it is adopted. — AFP

SPAIN’S King Juan Carlos waits for the arrival of Chile’s President Sebastian Pinera at El Pardo palace outside Madrid yesterday. — Reuters

A PALESTINIAN activist holds News Israeli Shekels’ bills marked with stickers reading ‘Free Palestine’

yesterday in the West Bank city of Ramallah, as part of a campaign aimed to peacefully express opposition

to Israel’s occupation. Young Palestinian activists have found a new medium to protest Israeli occupation: scrawling anti-occupation slogans on the currency

they share with the Jewish state. — AFP

A MEMBER of small nationalist Pentru Patrie party holds flags during a protest against Romania’s deal

with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in front of the government headquarters in Bucharest

yesterday. In February, the IMF had agreed to a new deal with Romania, under which it would draw on

the 5 billion euro funds only if needed, to replace the current 20 billion euro bailout. — Reuters

PARIS — France’s Finance Ministry confirmed yesterday that its information system, which includes sensitive files on the country’s Group of 20 (G20) presidency, had been attacked by hackers. Budget Minister Francois Baroin said hackers had mounted a “spectacular” attack on the ministry’s IT system in December.

“What was targeted was the organisation of the G20,” he told Europe 1 radio. The dossiers of individual French taxpay-ers had not been targeted, he assured.

Although it was not yet clear whether files had been cop-ied, Baroin said it was very likely the hackers had stolen in-formation. French authorities had unconfirmed “leads” on the origin of the attacks, which “probably” came from “outside,” he said.

Paris Match magazine, which broke the story on its website yesterday, said the hackers tapped into 150 computers between December and last week, and copied several documents relat-ing to the G20.

The ministry took 12,000 computers offline at the weekend in an effort to secure the system.

The G20 is made up of the world’s leading developed and emerging economies.

Last month, G20 finance ministers held talks in France to discuss global economic imbalances. — dpa

ROME — Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was oper-ated on his face for four hours yesterday under general anaes-thetic to restore his jaw after an attack by a deranged man in 2009, the government said.

Berlusconi “underwent a maxillofacial operation with bone transplant and implant under general anaesthetic,” his personal doctor Alberto Zangrillo was quoted as saying in a statement released by the government’s press office.

The prime minister’s operation has forced him to cancel a scheduled meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lie-berman planned for today.

The doctor said Berlusconi, 74, was now recovering at his villa outside Milan and could be back at work for a key cabinet meeting on Thursday. — AFP

LONDON — A mother admitted yesterday that she killed her three children in Edinburgh last year during a custody battle with her estranged husband.

American Theresa Riggi stabbed her eight-year-old twins Austin and Luke and their five-year-old sister Cecilia at their home. Their bodies were discovered following a suspected gas explosion at the house.

At Edinburgh’s High Court, Riggi, 47, entered a plea of guilty to the culpable homicide of her three children on the grounds of diminished responsibility, the Press Association re-ported. She had originally been charged with murder.

Prosecutors had alleged that Cecilia and the twins, who were also known as Augustino and Gianluca, were repeatedly struck on the body with a knife or knives between August 2 and 4 last year. The family had moved to the city from Skene, Aberdeenshire, following the breakdown of her marriage to the children’s father, Pasquale Riggi.

Emergency services were called to the modern townhouse following an explosion on August 4. Riggi was found badly in-jured after apparently falling from a second-floor balcony and the children’s bodies were discovered inside. — Reuters

TASHKENT — An Uzbek court has sentenced six people to between seven and 10 years in prison for selling dozens of newborn babies, a pro-government website said yesterday.

The suspects, who initially included 10 women and two men, were arrested in 2009 on suspicion of organising the sale of a four-month-old baby for $3,000, gorizont.uz website said.

The court hearing “confirmed 70 cases of unlawful child fostering, including four cases in which the babies were taken out of the country,” said the website, which is close to the Uz-bek law enforcement authorities.

The report said that six other defendants received suspend-ed sentences.

The group was headed by Ikbarkhon Hamidova, 63, who worked as a lawyer at several maternity hospitals, the report said. — AFP

Hackers break into French government G20 files

Berlusconi operated on his face for 2009 attack

UK mother admits killing her three children

Uzbekistan jails six for trafficking babies

ROME — The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) called for gender equal-ity in agriculture yesterday to increase farm production and reduce the world’s hungry by at least 100 million.

“If women in rural areas had the same access to land, technology, financial services, education and markets as men, agricultural production could be increased,” FAO said in its 2010-11 State of Food and Ag-riculture report.

“The number of hungry people could be reduced by 100-150 million,” it said.

FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf told a confer-ence in Rome that “gender equality is not just a lofty ideal, it is also crucial for agri-cultural development and food security.”

“We must promote gender equality and empower women in agriculture to win, sustain-ably, the fight against hunger and extreme poverty,” Diouf said on the eve of International Women’s Day.

Women across the world do not have the same access to land or farming resources as men. For those developing countries for which data are available, between three and 20 per cent of all landholders are women, the report said.

“Women farmers typi-cally achieve lower yields than men, not because they are less skilled, but because they oper-ate smaller farms and use fewer inputs like fertilisers, improved seeds and tools,” said Terri Raney, the report’s editor.

Ann Tutwiller, the FAO’s deputy director-general, called

on governments, international organisations and develop-ment agencies to work on gen-der equality.

“Agriculture policy has to be one of gender equality be-cause women are present in every agriculture sector,” she told reporters.

Bina Agarwal, head of the Institute of Economic Growth in New Delhi, said there was “a growing concern” world-wide about the disparity be-tween men and women in ag-riculture and called for action to ensure women have access to land.

On average, women make up 43 per cent of the agricul-tural labour force in develop-ing countries, ranging from 20 per cent in Latin America to almost 50 per cent in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, according

to the report.“Just giving women the

same access as men to agricul-tural resources could increase production on women’s farms in developing countries by 20 to 30 per cent,” it said.

Women on farms tend to be lower paid than their male counterparts. They are also more likely to be employed in seasonal or part-time jobs.

“We must eliminate all forms of discrimination against women, ensure that ac-cess to resources is more equal and that agricultural policies and programmes are gender-aware,” said Diouf.

“We must... make women’s voices heard in decision-mak-ing at all levels. Women must be seen as equal partners in sustainable development,” he added. — AFP

Gender equality on farms and food output

GENEVA — The world as-sociation of parliaments said yesterday that the number of women in parliaments was at a record high, but said that gender parity was still out of reach in many countries.

At the end of 2010, wom-en made up a fifth of parlia-mentarians worldwide, up from 16.3 per cent in 2005.

“It is a small but signifi-cant gain,” said the Inter-Parliamentary Union in a statement. In 2010, some 43 chambers of parliaments met the UN target of including at least 30 per cent of women MPs.

However, 62 chambers remained below the 10 per cent mark and 10 chambers included no women at all.

Arab states remained at the bottom of the table, with an average of 11.7 per cent in female representation in parliaments.

Nevertheless, this marked progress from 4.3 per cent in 1995, thanks to the introduc-tion of a quota system in some countries. — AFP

Number of women MPs on the rise

VIENNA — Iran and Syria found themselves in the spot-light yesterday as the UN nuclear watchdog convened for its traditional week-long spring meeting.

The International Atomic Energy Agengy’s 35-member board of governors was set to discuss two new reports show-ing little or no progress in the watchdog’s long-running in-vestigations into Iran’s atomic programme and allegations of illicit nuclear activity on the part of Syria.

IAEA director general Yukiya Amano was scheduled to give the opening address to the closed-door session.

Just 10 days ago, Amano circulated to the agency’s member states updated reports which said that inspectors had received ‘new information’ about possible military dimen-sions to Tehran’s programme, but made scant progress in their probe against Damascus.

In the run-up to this week’s meeting, diplomats had sug-gested that some member states might seek to table reso-lutions against both Iran and Syria, as a way of turning up

the pressure on the two gov-ernments.

But with countries unde-cided about how much pres-sure to apply, diplomats said any possible action against Tehran and Syria would now probably be set back until the next board meeting in June.

The IAEA has been inves-tigating Iran’s nuclear pro-gramme for eight years now, but has so far been unable to establish that it is not entirely peaceful as Iran insists.

Iran is continuing to defy UN orders to halt uranium en-richment, the most controver-sial part of its nuclear drive, because enriched uranium can be used both to make nuclear fuel, as also the fissile mate-rial for a bomb.

In fact, the IAEA said Iran’s stockpile of low-enriched ura-nium in the main branch of its Natanz uranium enrichment plant had now reached 3,606 kilogrammes.

Among the many unre-solved issues about Iran’s atomic drive are allegations that Iran was involved in weaponisation studies — work which included uranium

conversion, high explosives testing and the adaptation of a ballistic missile cone — at least until 2003.

Iran has dismissed the evi-dence as “fabricated” and re-fused to discuss the “alleged studies” any further.

Nevertheless, “additional information... has come to the (agency’s) attention since Au-gust 2008, including new in-formation recently received” that prompted “further con-cerns,” Amano wrote in his latest 12-page report.

In his separate report on Syria, Amano said that Da-mascus was refusing to coop-erate on allegations that it had been building an undeclared nuclear reactor at a remote desert site called Dair Alzour until it was destroyed by Israe-li planes in September 2007.

Syria granted UN inspec-tors one-off access to the site in June 2008.

Amano sent a letter to Syria’s foreign ministry on November 18 asking the gov-ernment to provide the IAEA with prompt access to relevant information and locations” connected to Dair Alzour.

UN atomic body meet discusses Iran, Syria

BERLIN — Frankfurt airport yesterday denied a media report that security cameras malfunctioned in last week’s attack on US troops that killed two airmen.

“The cameras here worked, and the footage re-corded has been given to the investigators,” Thomas Uber, a spokesman for airport oper-ator Fraport, said, in response to a report in the Die Welt daily that they had failed.

Kosovan Arid U, 21, on Wednesday shot dead the two airmen and seriously injured two others after boarding their military bus, according to German federal prosecu-tors.

He then allegedly put his handgun to a fifth serviceman but it jammed. Pursued by this serviceman, he fled into the terminal building where he was overpowered and ar-rested.

Prosecutors said on Friday that he told investigators the attack was to avenge what he saw as atrocities by US troops in Afghanistan.

There are however no indications that the alleged

gunman had links to any “in-ternational terrorist groups,” prosecutors believe.

Late on Thursday, the US Air Force identified the dead servicemen as Senior Airman Nicholas Alden, 25, of Wil-liamston, South Carolina, and Airman First Class Zachary Cuddeback, 21, of Stanards-ville, Virginia.

Meanwhile, the head of the German Police Union, Rainer Wendt, has called for 2,000 additional staff to monitor websites.

A month ago German au-thorities had announced that additional security meas-ures imposed late last year in response to indications of an imminent “terrorist” at-tack were set to be gradually scaled back.

The newspaper earlier said security cameras at Frankfurt airport malfunctioned in the deadly attack.

Investigators therefore have no footage to assist them in their probe into the attack at one of Europe’s busiest airports, the Die Welt daily quoted an unnamed security source as saying. — AFP

Germany denies cameras failed in

recent attack

BASEL, Switzerland — Emerging economies are fac-ing clear signs of inflationary threat, European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet said yesterday after a meeting with fellow central bankers.

“We see clearly that there are inflationary threats that are particularly visible in the emerging economy area,” said Trichet, following the meeting at the Bank for International Settlements.

The EU central banker said his counterparts are “all very keen on anchoring inflation-ary expectations. “There is a sense of unity of purpose” on

this issue, he stressed.Many robust emerging

economies have escaped the 2008 global financial cri-sis largely unscathed, unlike their Western counterparts, but they now face a danger of overheating due to low inter-est rates and inflows of capi-tal from depressed Western economies.

On Saturday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said that reining in prices is China’s top priority in 2011, with food and other commodities all rising sharply.

Unrest in crucial areas has pushed oil prices stead-

ily higher and back to levels last seen before the bust in 2008.

On Monday, oil prices struck 2.5-year highs.

Trichet noted that in the medium- to long-term, it is necessary to reduce global imbalances in order to cut the risk of inflation.

“It is very very important that ... we could have a pro-gressive reduction of imbal-ances, which is certainly one of the conditions for the global economy to be as sustainable in the sense of being non-inflationary and being bal-anced,” Trichet said. — AFP

Inflation threat real: Trichet

PARIS — A Paris judge said he would rule today whether to refer the corruption trial of France’s former president Jacques Chirac to constitution-al authorities, which could en-tail a delay of several months.

Presiding judge Dominique Pauthe adjourned the first day of hearings in the case — the first ever trial of a French former president — while he consid-ers a constitutional request by defendants in the case.

A lawyer representing one of Chirac’s co-defendants had asked the judge to refer to France’s constitutional court for a ruling on whether the statute of limitations had ex-pired on some of the charges in the case.

Pauthe said the hearings would resume at 1:30 pm (1230 GMT) today when he would rule on the request. If he agrees this could delay the trial for several months.

Chirac yesterday became the first former French presi-dent to go on trial as the court heard charges he embezzled

public funds while he was mayor of Paris in the 1990s.

The 78-year-old, one of France’s most popular po-litical figures, was not present for the opening of the trial that will examine whether he misused public money to pay people working for his politi-cal party.

Chirac enjoyed immunity from prosecution as president from 1995 to 2007, but the case, which has already seen current Foreign Minister Alain Juppe convicted, has finally caught up with him.

The first day of hearings got under way in a packed court in central Paris. The first day was given to procedural matters.

The case could however promptly grind to a halt if a lawyer working for one of Chirac’s co-defendants suc-ceeds in getting a procedural matter referred upwards to France’s constitutional court.

Chirac, best known inter-nationally for his opposition to the 2003 US-led invasion

of Iraq, has denied any knowl-edge of corrupt payments and his lawyers accuse magistrates of harbouring a hidden politi-cal agenda.

He has been linked to a series of corruption scandals but never convicted. If found guilty, he faces up to 10 years in jail and a fine of 150,000 euros ($210,000) on charges including embezzlement and breach of trust.

The hearings in Paris are the result of the merging of two separate cases — one be-gun by magistrates in the Paris suburb of Nanterre in 1995, and another in the capital itself dating to 1998.

The case involves seven alleged ghost jobs for which Chirac is charged with con-flict of interest and 21 other jobs for which he is accused of embezzlement and abuse of trust.

Nine other people are go-ing on trial alongside Chirac, accused either of having ghost jobs or benefiting from those of town hall employees.

Judge to rule today on delaying Chirac trial

JERUSALEM — Top Israeli ministers yesterday urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to swiftly make public details of his new diplomatic initiative in a bid to end the Jewish state’s in-creasing isolation.

Over the past week, the Israeli press has been filled with reports about Netan-yahu’s new plan to establish a Palestinian state within provisional borders as part of ‘a long-term interim agreement’ — details of which were expected to be announced during a trip to Washington in May.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak yesterday urged Netanyahu to move faster “to move Israel out of its isolation.”

“Such a decision must be taken in the coming weeks, not the coming months. A declaration before the Con-gress in May would be too late,” he told public radio.

“The world will not ac-cept that we continue to rule over another people after 43 years,” he said in reference to Israel’s occupation of land it captured in 1967. — AFP

Israel PM told to bare peace plan

PARIS — The French gov-ernment and major mobile operators signed yesterday an agreement to introduce service plans affordable to low-income customers that would shave around 20 per cent off call charges.

The plans should offer at least 40 minutes of call time plus 40 text messages per month for no more than 10 euros ($14), according to the ministry of industry.

The plans, which should be introduced within six months, was set in order to be affordable to those re-ceiving social benefits.

Low-income mobile call

OMAN DAILY Observer

7AMERICASTUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

WASHINGTON — A US lawmaker said on Sunday he would testify at controversial hearings on radicalisation as religious leaders blasted the congressional inquiry.

In the run-up to the hear-ings, US authorities have sought to stress their grow-ing partnerships with Muslim communities, with a senior White House official saying people that ‘being religious is never un-American.’

In New York's Times Square, several hundred peo-ple turned out under heavy

rain to protest the planned inquiries. “I am a Muslim but I love this country as much as any Christian or Jew loves his country,” Imam Shamsi Ali, head of the New York Is-lamic Cultural Center, told the crowd from a stage draped in a huge Stars and Stripes.

Participants waved flags and placards decrying what protesters said amounted to a collective attack on Muslims. “No to Anti-Muslim Bigotry and War!” one placard read.

Representative Keith El-lison, the first Muslim elected

to the US Congress, has said he would appear before the House of Representatives Homeland Security Commit-tee.

Ellison welcomed a con-gressional investigation into radicalisation, but said that focusing on a group was like looking into organised crime and talking only about the Russian community or focus-ing only on Irish gangs.

“I just think it doesn't make sense to narrow in on a group that has been the target of dis-crimination,” he said. — AFP

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — A 20-year-old female student who became the police chief in one of Mexico’s most danger-ous drug war towns was fired by the mayor yesterday for not showing up to work after Mexican media reported she received death threats.

Marisol Valles, a criminology student in Mexico's violent city of Ciudad Juarez, took charge of the police force in the neighbouring municipality of Praxedis G Guerrero near El Paso, Texas, in October, sparking intense media attention after few candidates dared to apply for the dangerous job.

Valles, the mother of an infant son, was due back at her post this week after taking leave on March 2 to attend to personal matters but Ciudad Juarez daily El Diario reported she had fled Mexico after being threatened by gangs.

Officials in Praxedis last week denied she had sought asy-lum in the United States and said they had received no reports of death threats. In a statement, the Praxedis mayor's office said she had failed to return to work yesterday without giving any notice, grounds for her firing. — Reuters

US lawmaker to testify at hearings on radicalisation

Mayor fires 20-yr-old Mexican police chief

WASHINGTON — The US Supreme Court yesterday made it easier for convicted death row inmates to seek new DNA testing, ruling for a Texas man who argued the forensic evidence could help clear him of a triple murder.

The top court ruled by a 6-3 vote that Texas inmate Henry Skinner can use a federal civil rights law to seek access to DNA evidence, rather than a more difficult legal process that requires him to prove he had been wrongly convicted.

Skinner argued that Texas authorities violated his rights

under the civil rights law by refusing to grant DNA testing of the evidence after his con-viction.

In a narrow ruling, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said for the majority that federal courts have jurisdiction to hear Skin-ner's lawsuit seeking DNA testing of crime-scene evi-dence.

She said success in the law-suit would only gain the pris-oner access to DNA evidence, which may turn out to help prove innocence, guilt or be inconclusive.

The court in its ruling ex-

pressed no opinion on the ul-timate disposition of Skinner's lawsuit, Ginsburg said.

Skinner was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1993 bludgeoning and stran-gling of his girlfriend, Twila Busby, and the stabbing of her two adult sons in the Pampa, Texas, home they all shared.

Skinner claimed he was in-capacitated by drink and could not have clubbed Busby 14 times with an axe handle and stabbed her sons.

He said the murders could have been committed by Bus-by's late uncle.

US top court: death row inmate can seek DNA tests

OMAN DAILY Observer

8REGIONTUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

MANAMA — Activists protested at the US Embassy in Bah-rain yesterday, calling for Washington to press the authorities for reform after weeks of demonstrations.

Dozens of activists gathered at a fence set up in front of the embassy, chanting slogans in English.

US Embassy political officer Ludovic Hood brought a box of doughnuts for the demonstrators as they gathered down the street from the embassy ahead of the protest rally.

“These sweets are a good gesture, but we hope it is translat-ed into practical actions,” Mohammed Hassan, 35, who wore the white turban of a cleric, told Hood.

Hood told the demonstrators who clustered around him that the United States had a “strategic relationship” with the gov-ernment of Bahrain which included dialogue on human rights.

“We’ve had a US Navy presence here accepted by the great majority of people for many decades,” he said.

“But part of our ongoing engagement with the government is discussions on human rights and universal rights.”

He reiterated US support for an initiative from the govern-ment for national dialogue, saying that “we continue to think that engaging in some kind of talks is the right way forward.”

Demonstrators at the embassy expressed doubts that dia-logue would produce any concrete results, with one protester asking who would guarantee that promises were kept.

A letter given to Hood by 27-year-old activist Zainab al Khawaja called for “the American administration (to) refrain from taking negative positions that contribute to the oppres-sion and abuse of the people” of Bahrain.

Anti-government protests in the country entered their 22nd day yesterday.

Protesters continued to keep vigil in hundreds of tents in Pearl Square, which has become the epicentre of anti-govern-ment demonstrations. — AFP

UN calls for $160m to help Libya conflict victims

GENEVA — The United Nations called yesterday for $160 million to cover the needs of those who have fled Libya as well as others who remained trapped in the strife-torn north African country.

The appeal is expected to cover relief support including shelter, food, transportation, water and sanitation for up to one million people for the next three months.

“This appeal is based on planning a scenario projecting up to 400,000 people leaving Libya — including the 200,000 who have left to date — and another 600,000 people inside Libya expected to need humanitarian aid to varying degrees,” said Valerie Amos, UN aid chief.

“I hope that this appeal receives a favourable response from donors, which will enable us to continue to support those in need,” added the United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief co-or-dinator.

The appeal will be revised in two weeks, said the UN.Tens of thousands of mostly migrant workers have been

streaming out to bordering countries, including Tunisia and Egypt, in a bid to escape violence in Libya.

An estimated 100,000 mainly foreign migrants have ar-rived in Tunisia alone since February 20. Thousands remain in temporary camps facing growing problems of hygiene.

Aid agencies are also increasingly concerned about the situ-ation of people who are trapped in Libya, where battle is ongo-ing between supporters of strongman Muammar Gaddafi and dissidents.

UN chief Ban Ki-Moon managed on Sunday to persuade Gaddafi’s foreign minister to allow in a humanitarian assess-ment team to Tripoli.

Former Jordanian foreign minister Abdelilah al Khatib will undertake “urgent consultations” with Gaddafi’s government and work on the humanitarian crisis it has caused, UN spokes-man Martin Nesirky said.

It is not immediately known where the team would be al-lowed to visit in Tripoli and whether they would be taken to other cities. — AFP

Tunisia-bound French warship leaves empty-handed

ZARZIS, Tunisia — A French warship sent to evacuate nearly a thousand Egyptian refugees fleeing Libya arrived yesterday at Tunisia’s Zarzis port only to find they had already left, a naval officer said.

The hi-tech Mistral helicopter-carrier had left on Satur-day from the southern port of Toulon to repatriate around 900 Egyptians who had crossed into Tunisia from Libya and bring them to the Egyptian port of Alexandria.

Soon after the ship dropped anchor however, spokesman for the French navy Lieutenant Thierry Delorme announced that it would “not be taking” refugees and would be leaving on the same day.

Most of the Egyptians had already left by plane, impatient to reach their homeland in just three hours as opposed to a boat ride that would take them three days, he added.

US military planes repatriated 640 Egyptians over the weekend, as part of an international effort to deliver refugees from unrest in Libya

European countries and the United States on Thursday be-gan airlifting more than 40,000 Egyptians who had fled Libya for Tunisia, to avoid chaos and epidemics spreading at make-shift camps on the border.

The French ship was equipped with 28 doctors as well as 69 beds, according to chief doctor Loic Lemesle. It was also loaded with medical supplies, food and water to help the UN refugee agency and the Red Crescent. — AFP

Jordan ex-minister named UN envoy for Libya

AMMAN — Former Jordanian foreign minister Abdul Ilah Khatib, named on Sunday as UN special envoy for humani-tarian affairs in Libya, will meet all sides in the conflict, an associate said yesterday.

UN spokesman Martin Nesirky, announcing Khatib’s ap-pointment, said he would have “urgent consultations” with Muammar Gaddafi’s government on the growing battle with dissident forces and work on the humanitarian crisis it has caused.

His associate in Amman said, “He will co-ordinate humani-tarian aid and means to find a solution to the crisis in Libya.”

Khatib, 56, will leave for New York “in the next few days before travelling to Libya, where he should meet with all par-ties involved in the conflict,” the source added. — Reuters

Bahrainis take protests to

US embassy

LIBYAN dissident fighters take cover as a bomb dropped by an air force fighter jet explodes near a checkpoint on the outskirts of the oil town of Ras Lanuf yesterday. — AFP

RAS LANUF, Libya — Government forces struck at dissidents in Libya’s east and were reported attacking a town near Tripoli yesterday as con-cern grew over civilian suffering and a growing refugee exodus.

The United Nations said more than one million people fleeing Libya and inside the country needed humanitar-ian aid, and conditions in dissident-held Misrata town were particularly worrying following attacks on it by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi.

Offering a potential olive branch to dissidents seeking to end Gadd-afi’s long rule, one of his associates appealed to opposition chiefs for dia-logue, in a sign he may be ready to compromise with the revolt.

The offer, rapidly dismissed by dissidents, coincided with warnings by Gaddafi that if he fell thousands of refugees from Libya would “in-vade Europe”.

Swiss-based exile group Libyan Human Rights Solidarity said forces loyal to Gaddafi had launched a new attempt to capture Zawiyah, a dis-sident-held town 50 km west of the capital.

It was impossible to verify the report because residents in the town who had been speaking to journalists by telephone were no longer reach-able.

In the east, a warplane launched

an air strike on the outskirts of the dissident-held oil terminal town of Ras Lanuf, 600 km east of the capital Tripoli, witnesses said.

“There was an aircraft, it fired two rockets, there were no deaths,” Mokhtar Dobrug, a dissident fighter who witnessed the strike, said.

The attack fitted the pattern of much of the fighting, which has been erratic, with small groups engaging each other, guerrilla-style, in hit and run raids. Air attacks have been fitful and the bombing often inaccurate.

In some areas, advantage on the ground has swung back and forth without conclusive result.

But the resilience of Gaddafi’s troops in the face of protests which started in mid-February and their ability to launch a counter-attack has raised the prospect that the country is heading for prolonged bloodshed.

“It’s clear the government feels a sense of momentum on its side,” said military analyst Shashank Joshi, an associate fellow at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute.

“Government forces have more mobility than the dissidents thanks to airlift and a decent amount of road transport.

“That’s blunted by the fact that we are seeing extremely poor fight-ing skills by government forces, and reasonably competent fighting by the

dissidents.”In Geneva, UN aid co-ordinator

Valerie Amos said more than a mil-lion people fleeing Libya and inside the country need humanitarian aid.

The dissidents have called for UN-backed air strikes against what they say are African soldiers-for-hire used by Gaddafi to crush the uprising against his 41-year-old rule.

The government says it is fighting against Al Qaeda terrorists and main-tains that its security forces have tar-

geted only armed individuals attack-ing state institutions and depots.

Witnesses said government forc-es advanced on dissident-held Ras Lanuf in a counter-attack that forced residents to flee and dissidents to hide their weapons in the desert.

In Ras Lanuf, one angry man told dissidents to go home, arguing that they were bringing fighting closer to oil terminals.

Another complained of the dis-sidents’ inexperience, as one opposi-tion fighter lay on his back and fired an automatic weapon at a government warplane flying overhead.

“I believe these youths are ready to die, but they won’t make a dif-ference,” he said. “Look at the way they’re firing at the plane. They have no experience, no leadership and no strategy.”

The army was moving down the Mediterranean coastal road east of the recaptured town of Bin Jawad, heading towards Ras Lanuf which is about 60 km away, witnesses said.

Residents of Ras Lanuf, fearing assault by the army, were leaving in cars laden with belongings yesterday and dissidents said they had moved weapons into the desert for safekeep-ing.

As the rival combatants prepared to resume battle, the authorities launched an appeal to the dissidents

in the east for dialogue, in the clearest overture yet to their opponents.

Jadallah Azous al Talhi, a Libyan prime minister in the 1980s who is originally from eastern Libya, ap-peared on state television reading an address to elders in Benghazi.

He asked them to “give a chance to national dialogue to resolve this crisis, to help stop the bloodshed, and not give a chance to foreign-ers to come and capture our country again.”

Ahmed Jabreel, an aide to dissi-dent leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil, said: “Any negotiations must be on the ba-sis that Gaddafi will step down. There can be no other compromise.”

In an interview with the France 24 television station, Gaddafi said Libya was an important partner for the West in containing Al Qaeda and illegal migrants trying to reach Europe,

“There are millions of blacks who could come to the Mediterranean to cross to France and Italy, and Libya plays a role in security in the Medi-terranean,” he said.

In the West, after what residents said was fierce fighting on Sunday with artillery, rockets and mortar bombs, dissident forces announced they had fought off Gaddafi’s forces in the towns of Zawiyah, to the im-mediate west of Tripoli, and Misrata to the east. — Reuters

Libya plane hits town, over 1m need aid Warplane strikes

outskirts of oil town Government

reported renewing assault on

Zawiyah town UN says more

than one million need aid

Benghazi dissidents release

British special forces

THOUSANDS of auxiliary police march near the Parliament in Algiers yesterday to demand a pay raise. — AFP

ALGIERS — Thousands of auxiliary police marched across Algeria yesterday to demand a pay raise, breaking through heavy security to reach parliament in a rare mass show of dissent in the tightly controlled country.

The protesters, estimated by organisers to number around 20,000 and 10,000 by reporters, braved a ban on demonstrations in the capital and pushed through several police cordons to move from Martyrs Square to the National Assembly.

They were quickly surrounded by regular police dispatched to the scene of the protest.

Algeria’s auxiliary police, a force numbering about 94,000 men, operate in the country’s villages as part of a pro-gramme set up in 1994 when the govern-

ment was battling dissident groups.Wearing their uniforms, the protesters

called on President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to bring their salaries and conditions in line with those of other security services, chanting: “Bouteflika is the solution.”

“We demand a rise in salaries and service indemnities along the lines of all the other security units,” said Cherif Ab-delkader, an auxiliary policeman.

The protesters want the raise to be backdated to 1994, Abdelkader said. “We only have the right to 21 days of leave a year. We take part in security sweeps without helmets or bullet-proof jackets,” another protester said.

Another said that radicals who were released from prison under Bouteflika after a ceasefire with the militants “have

more rights than us. We want the presi-dent to rapidly announce concrete meas-ures in our favour.”

The demonstrators decided to march on the National Assembly after a delega-tion of around a dozen of their representa-tives returned empty-handed from a meet-ing with Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, some of them said.

“We suggested to the delegation that they have a meeting with Interior Minis-ter Dahou Oukld Kablia but his team re-fused,” one said.

The deputy speaker of parliament, Seddik Chihab, urged the demonstra-tors to select representatives to meet the speaker, Abdelaziz Ziari, to discuss their complaints. A team of 11 was chosen, or-ganisers said. — AFP

1000s of Algeria police march for higher pay

SANAA — Yemen’s opposi-tion coalition vowed yester-day to escalate protests that have swept the country de-manding the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, after he rejected a plan that would have him step down in 2011.

Tens of thousands of pro-testers are camped out in major Yemeni cities, stay-ing awake through the night to hear speeches and sing national songs, as their tone against Saleh hardens.

Saleh rejected a plan pro-posed by an opposition coali-tion last week, which would have implemented political and electoral reforms while paving the way for his resig-nation within the year.

“Recent events have prov-en that the regime is incapable of answering the demands of the people, and for that reason it needs to go,” said the coa-lition’s spokesman, Moham-med al Sabry.

“The protesters are study-ing several options for an es-calation, including organising a day when all Yemenis will take to the streets, a ‘Friday of No Return’ protest, and other options,” he said.

Yemen was teetering on the brink of failed statehood even before recent protests. Saleh has struggled to cement

a truce with dissidents in the north and curb secessionist rebellion in the south.

The growing Yemeni pro-tests, and a series of defec-tions from Saleh’s allies, have added to pressure on Saleh to end his three-decade rule in the state. But neither side ap-pears willing to compromise to end the deadlock.

Saleh rejected the op-position plan, which would have also required him to re-move family members from key posts, and reiterated his pledge to resign when his term is set to expire in 2013. He also adopted a proposal by religious leaders for revamp-ing elections, parliament and the judicial system.

Protesters are frustrated with corruption and soaring unemployment in Yemen, where 40 per cent of its 23 million people live on $2 a day or less and a third face chronic hunger.

Half of Yemen’s popula-tion is armed, and experts worry that as protests con-tinue, sporadic clashes be-tween pro-government and anti-government demonstra-tors could evolve into greater violence.

The United States and Britain have warned citizens against travel in Yemen due to recent unrest. — Reuters

Yemenis vow to escalate protest

OMAN DAILY Observer

9REGIONTUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

CAIRO — Veteran diplo-mat Amr Moussa (pictured), talked economics and social justice when he hit the cam-paign trail for the Egyptian presidency with a string of interviews that flagged him as the front runner for the job.

Arab League secretary-general for the last decade, Moussa, 74, is the most prom-inent figure yet to declare his candidacy for the position from which Hosni Mubarak stepped down on February 11 after three decades in power.

The military, which took power after Mubarak went, plans to hold a parliamentary vote in June to be followed by a presidential election six weeks later.

In a country where years of oppression have crushed political life, Moussa’s high profile, oratory skills and cha-risma have given him a natural head start.

An online poll on the Web site of Al Ahram newspaper on Thursday showed him with a big lead over Mohammed ElBaradei, the Nobel prize-winning former head of the International Atomic Energy

Agency. ElBaradei, a leading figure in the reform move-ment, has yet to say whether he will run on not. He is wide-ly expected to.

“The Egyptian economy must move on two wheels: the free market and social justice,” Moussa said in an interview with the Al Masry Al Youm newspaper, one of at least three he gave this week.

The economic policies of the last decade had resulted in “overwhelming poverty for the majority and obscene wealth for the minority”, said Moussa, adding that growth had not benefited a large pro-portion of the population.

His move into economics marked a step away from the diplomacy that has defined his career. He was Egypt’s for-eign minister for 10 years un-til 2001, before being moved to the Arab League position which he will relinquish soon.

As foreign minister, Mous-sa was an outspoken advocate for Palestinian rights as Cairo played a leading role in the Middle East peace process.

His popularity was widely assumed to be the reason Mu-barak removed him from the foreign ministry in 2001. To some, the final straw for Mu-barak seemed to be the release of the 2001 Egyptian pop hit, “I hate Israel, I love Amr Moussa”.

Asked in the Al Masry Al Youm interview whether he was a part of the former ad-ministration, Moussa said: “I was not merely an employee who would be ordered and obey.”

Moussa said he had ex-pressed “the pulse” of the Egyptians. He declined to go into the details on his differ-ences with the former presi-dent. — Reuters

Moussa hits campaign trail in Egypt presidency race LONDON — The British

government was left red-faced yesterday after a botched at-tempt by special forces to make contact with opposi-tion forces in Libya ended in the team being seized by fighters.

The team, reportedly made up of six soldiers from the elite SAS and two diplomats, flew into Libya by helicopter and made their way to the opposition-held city of Beng-hazi. But they were rounded up by lightly armed fighters soon after they arrived, re-ports said.

The diplomats are be-lieved to have been officers from Britain’s MI6 foreign intelligence service whose mission was to contact rebel leaders and open the way for a delegation.

But they succeeded only in angering Libyan opposi-tion leaders who denied they had asked for any help and by late on Sunday they had been packed off to Malta on a Brit-ish naval ship.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague was to make a statement to lawmakers on the operation later yesterday.

After the government ini-tially kept silent on the affair, Hague confirmed on Sunday that “a small diplomatic team has been in Benghazi” and said their intention had been “to initiate contacts with the opposition”.

“They experienced dif-ficulties, which have now been satisfactorily resolved.

They have now left Libya,” he added.

However, Hague insisted that Britain intended to send “a further team to strengthen our dialogue in due course” al-though he stressed this would be done in co-operation with the Libyan opposition.

In Benghazi itself, an op-position spokesman said the fighters had refused to talk to the delegation because they had entered the country with-out prior permission.

“We do not know the na-ture of their mission. We refused to discuss anything with them due to the way they entered the country,” spokesman Abdul Hafiz Ghoqa told reporters in the rebel stronghold. The Britons left Benghazi for Malta on board the Royal Navy frigate HMS Cumberland, reports said.

The bungled operation raised eyebrows because Brit-ain prides itself on the com-petence of the SAS, which is believed to play a major role in the conflict in Afghanistan as well as in past wars in Iraq and the Falklands.

The Times asked why the SAS had felt it necessary to carry out such a cloak-and-dagger operation when it would have been possible for the team to simply drive into Benghazi.

“Nabbed while escorting a junior diplomat in a city that would have welcomed them... this was not their finest hour,” the newspaper said. — AFP

Britain scrambles to explain SAS’s ‘blunder’

EGYPTIAN protesters confront army soldiers in front of the state security headquarters in downtown Cairo. — Reuters

LAMPEDUSA — More than 1,000 illegal im-migrants escaping political turmoil in North Africa arrived on this southern Italian island in the Mediterranean during the night.

Taking advantage of good weather, the im-migrants, most of them from Tunisia, arrived in more than 10 boats.

Some of the boats made it to the shores of this tiny island on their own, others were in-tercepted by the coastguard and their passen-gers taken off. So far, none of the immigrants were believed to have left from Libya itself but Italian officials fear an exodus from its former colony if the situation worsens.

From Lampedusa, immigrants are sent by plane to holding centres on the mainland but the backlog was beginning to grow.

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said last week an aid mission to Tunisia to provide food and medical help was aimed at handling the refugee situation in North Africa, but it was already preparing for a potential surge of im-migrants to Italy.

More than 7,000 migrants from Tunisia have arrived in Italy since the overthrow of President Zine al Abidine Ben Ali in mid-Jan-uary.

Tens of thousands have fled violence in Lib-ya and crossed the border to Tunisia since an uprising against Muammar Gaddafi prompted a violent crackdown by security forces.

In 2009, Rome and Tripoli signed a deal al-lowing Italy’s coastguard to return boatloads of illegal immigrants back to Libya. — AFP

New wave of immigrants arrives in southern Italy

TUNIS — The following is a list of ministers in the Tu-nisian transition government announced yesterday after the resignation of prime min-ister Mohamed Ghannouchi and four ministers.

It has 22 members, in-cluding the prime minister, of whom 17 have been re-appointed from the previ-ous transition government formed on January 17 and five are newcomers.

- Prime Minister: Beji Caid Essebsi

- Justice: Lazhar Karoui Chebbi (reappointed)

- National Defence: Ab-delkrim Zbidi (reappointed)

- Interior: Farhat Rajhi (reappointed)

- Foreign Affairs: Mouldfi Keffi (newcomer)

- Social Affairs: Moham-ed Ennacneur (reappointed)

- Finance: Jalloul Ayed (reappointed)

- Religious Affairs: La-roussi Mizouri (reappointed)

- Education: Taieb Bac-couche (reappointed)

- Culture: Ezzeddine Bach Chaouch (reappointed)

- Higher Education: Ri-faat Chaabouni (newcomer)

- Health: Habiba Zahi Ben Romdhane (reappoint-ed)

- Commerce and Tour-ism: Mehdi Houas (reap-pointed)

- Agriculture: Mokhtar Jalleli (reappointed)

- Women’s Affairs: Lilia Laabidi (reappointed)

- Transport and Equip-ment: Yassine Brahim (re-appointed)

- Labour and Profes-sional Training: Said Aydi (newcomer)

- Youth and Sports: Mohamed Aloulou (reap-pointed)

- Planning and Interna-tional Co-operation: Ab-delhamid Triki (newcomer)

- Industry and Technol-ogy: Abdellaziz Rassaa (re-appointed)

- State Property: Ahmed Adhoum (reappointed)

- Regional Develop-ment: Abderrazak Zouari (newcomer).

Meanwhile, Tunisia is moving to dismantle the ves-tiges of toppled leader Zine al Abidine Ben Ali’s era.

The interim president last week called a July 24 election to choose a na-tional constituent assembly tasked with rewriting a con-stitution which he said “no longer reflects the aspira-tions of the people after the revolution”. — Agencies

Tunisia’s new transitional government

OMAN DAILY Observer

10INDIATUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

Pranab Mukherjee’s son to join Congress on FridayCONGRESS stalwart and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s son Avijit will officially join the party on March 11 and contest the state assembly polls from Nalhati constituency in Birbhum district, an official said yesterday.

“Avijit Mukherjee will be officially joining Congress on March 11. We will make the announcement on that day. He has left his public sector job a few days back, so now he can join the party and contest in the elections,” Birbhum district Congress president Asit Mal said.

“We will announce it officially on March 11 at the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee office in Kolkata,” he said.

According to Mal, Avijit Mukherjee, 52, an engineering graduate from Jadavpur University, will contest the polls from Nalhati constituency.

Speaker wants women’s quota bill introducedLOK Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar yesterday said she wants the women’s reservation bill to be introduced in the lower house in the current session, but all the political parties have yet to arrive at a consensus on it.

“I would want this bill to be introduced (in current session of parliament), but all the parties have to arrive at a consensus. That is the whole reason this (the bill) has been held up,” Meira Kumar told women journalists during an interaction on the eve of International Women’s Day (March 8).

The women’s reservation bill, passed by the Rajya Sabha on March 9 last year, seeks to reserve 33 per cent seats for women in Lok Sabha and the state assemblies. It has yet to be moved in the Lok Sabha.

Shops in malls down shutters against taxFOUR major retail chains and other shops downed shutters at popular malls in south Delhi yesterday to protest against the 10 per cent excise duty proposed on branded apparel.

“We protest on behalf of our customers, suppliers and employees. We demand that the government rolls back the 10 per cent excise on garments and made-ups in full support of Clothing Manufacturers’ Association of India (CMAI) and Retailers Association of India (RAI),” read a common poster pasted at the shuttered outlets.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee proposed the tax while presenting his budget for fiscal in parliament on February 28.

Mulayam in parliament after ‘house arrest’ SAMAJWADI Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav attended parliament in Delhi yesterday and claimed that he and his son Akhilesh were put under house arrest in the Uttar Pradesh capital earlier in the day.

“There were dozens of policemen and they had barricaded my house (in Lucknow),” Mulayam Singh said outside parliament after attending the Lok Sabha.

He claimed that the Mayawati government had put restrictions on his and his son’s movements to thwart their anti-government rally in the state that began yesterday.

He claimed the restrictions were removed only after he faxed a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, mentioning that under such circumstances he would not be able to attend parliament.

Bengal to release 37 Bangladeshi prisoners THE West Bengal government will today release 37 Bangladeshi nationals who were arrested for infiltrating into Indian territory, police said yesterday.

“We will release at least 37 Bangladeshi nationals who have served their terms in Raiganj correctional home (in North Dinajpur district) for entering Indian territory without any valid documents,” Additional Director General of Police (correctional services) B D Sharma said.

“They will be handed over to Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) personnel at Changrabandha immigration checkpost in Cooch Behar,” Sharma said

Zero-deficit Kashmir budget promises jobsANNOUNCING job-generation schemes, Jammu and Kashmir Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather yesterday presented a zero-deficit budget for fiscal 2011-12 in the state assembly.

It was the 11th occasion when Rather has presented the state’s budget as finance minister. Rather announced a number of schemes to help unemployed youth get jobs. The budget provided Rs 3,100 million for skill development mission which would enable youth start self-employment ventures. The finance minister also provided Rs 400 million under the employment and welfare pro-grammes for the youth.

NEWS IN BRIEF

By Ashraf Padanna

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM — Women from the lower strata of society are more vulnerable to physi-cal assaults in cities than those from the upper class, according to a study supported by Unifem, the UN entity for gender equality and empowerment of women, in Kozhikode.

Women who commute by bus face different vulnerabilities than those who own a car and liv-ing in a slum area poses different challenges to safe movement than living in a middle class residential area, the study conducted by the city-based Sakhi Women’s Resource Centre and Anweshi Women’s Counselling Centre in Kozhikode.

The findings are similar to the survey conducted by Sakhi in Thiruvananthapuram which found the public spaces are increasingly unsafe for women.

As many as 99 per cent of the respondents iden-tified harassment as the main safety problem fol-lowed by robbery. The respondents shared their ex-periences of robbery by young men in bikes wearing

helmets and snatching away ornaments, which also sometimes lead to harassment.

Lack of lighting, toilets and safe transportation leaves women more vulnerable to gender-based violence. The basic factors, which contribute to this feeling of being unsafe as pointed out by women and common witness are crowded public transport and bus stops. Another main factor is the nuisances of drunkards in public spaces.

Gender-based violence includes physical, psy-chological and economic abuse. Women are vul-nerable to various forms of violence for several reasons. When 74 per cent of women feel there is disrespect for women only 28 common witnesses share this perception. The ‘problem spots’ include Puthiya bus stand, Palayam area, railway station and surrounding areas, Mananchira, SM Street and Vellayil beach area.

Some 69 per cent of the women reported harass-ment while using public transport. Roadsides, cin-emas and parks are other unsafe areas.

“The bus conductor instead of asking her to

move back, he physically pushed her,” the report quotes one respondent as saying. A student shares the abusive language used by the conductor while another reported they are allowed to enter the bus only after everybody gets in.

A student said while travelling in a bus, her dress was torn with a blade from top to bottom by some-one from behind. Another respondent was pulled into a jeep while waiting for bus.

The report also points to a widely reported inci-dent of the robbery, physical assault and murder of 23-year-old Soumya at a time when the volunteers were taking samples for the survey. While returning from work in a local train, a man tried to snatch her bag. When she resisted she was pushed out from the running train and physically assaulted by the same person. She succumbed to her injuries a couple of days later.

Sakhi has started a campaign to make public places safe for women by holding meetings with of-ficials and collaborating in training for bus conduc-tors with the Kerala State Road Transport Corpora-

tion (KSRTC).Over 12,143 bus conductors were trained in

10 regions of the state in 2009. Sakhi produced a sticker with the message ‘Behave decently with women; ‘Safe journey is the right of women’ and the women help line number (1091) and the traffic help line number (1099) have been depicted into it to enable the victims to seek immediate assistance from authorities.

The project was part of the Unifem’s (United Nations Development Fund for Women) initiative for gender equality. The pilot study began with the state capital and was completed by September 2010. The Kozhikode study started from October and the survey was conducted from November to January 2011. The sample population belonged to categories like students, workers, homemakers, unorganised workers, commuters, drivers, conduc-tors etc and spread across public places such as roadsides, bus stops, markets, beaches, buses, hos-pital compounds, hangouts, knowledge centres and theatres.

Unifem study says women feel unsafe in Kerala city

NEW DELHI — The Supreme Court ruled yes-terday that life support can be legally removed for some terminally ill patients in a landmark ruling that will allow “passive euthanasia” for the first time.

The judgement came during a hearing into the case of former nurse Aruna Shanbaug (pictured), who has been in a vegetative state in a Mumbai hos-pital since being physically assaulted and strangled with a chain while at work 37 years ago.

A plea by journalist and friend Pinki Virani to stop her being force-fed was rejected by the Su-preme Court on the grounds that Virani was not eli-gible to make the demand on Shanbaug’s behalf.

But withdrawing life support could be allowed under exceptional circumstances, provided the re-quest was from family and supervised by doctors and the courts, a two-judge bench in the Supreme Court said.

“We agree ... that passive euthanasia should be permitted in our country in certain situations,” the court said in its ruling, adding that “we are laying down the law... until parliament makes a law on the subject”.

The ruling gives some legal clarity in an area that has posed legislators and judges all over the world with moral dilemmas thrown up by modern medicine which can keep alive severely injured or handicapped people.

In the case of a person in a permanent vegeta-tive state and unable to speak for themselves, such

as Shanbaug, a request to withdraw life support should come from family or a spouse, the court in New Delhi ruled.

The request should then be reviewed by the lo-

cal high court, which would rely on the opinion of a court-appointed panel of three doctors who would examine the patient and speak to hospital staff.

The supervision was required to prevent “un-scrupulous” family members attempting to kill off wealthy relatives, the Supreme Court said.

“The commercialisation of our society has crossed all limits,” it said. “Hence we have to guard against the potential of misuse.”

Virani filed the case in the Supreme Court in 1999 asking for Shanbaug to be allowed to die with dignity. Both of her parents have died and other family members have not maintained contact with her, according to the petition.

Shanbaug, who is bed-ridden, blind and in a vegetative state, has spent three-and-a-half decades being fed mashed food and cared for by a team of doctors and nurses.

Her attacker, a ward boy at the hospital, was freed after a seven-year jail sentence.

Lawyer T R Andhyarujina, who was an adviser to the Supreme Court in the case, said it was the first time there had been a ruling on euthanasia by the top court.

“The court has accepted the withdrawal of a life support system, but has not given the permission to inject any lethal substance,” he said.

Laws on euthanasia or assisted suicide, in which patients are helped by doctors to end their own lives, vary across the world.

In Europe, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium have legalised it under strict conditions, while in Switzerland a doctor can provide a patient who wants to die with lethal medication that the pa-tient takes by him or herself.

In 1994, the US state of Oregon became the first in the country to legalise euthanasia for certain ter-minally ill patients. The state of Montana has also legalised it and the east coast state of Vermont is considering a law.

The Supreme Court ruled that the nurses who have cared for Shanbaug, who is now 60, at Mum-bai’s KEM Hospital were the only ones who could ask for feeding to be stopped.

In the absence of any family, they were Shanbaug’s “next friend” in the eye of the law, rather than Pinki Virani, and they were in favour of keeping her alive.

“We consider it as a duty to look after her. The court has recognised our efforts,” Bhanuprita, a nurse at the hospital, was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India.

Indian laws do not permit euthanasia or self-starvation to the point of death, although fasting is a part of Indian culture, made famous by independ-ence leader Mahatma Gandhi.

The only exception to the law on self-starvation is the religious practice of “santhara,” which sees elderly believers from the Jain religion give up food and water until death. — AFP

Supreme Court allows ‘passive euthanasia’

WIDOWS and relatives of Sikhs who were killed in the 1984 riots demonstrate in New Delhi yesterday. The protesters were demanding homes, jobs and compensation from the government. — AFP

HYDERABAD — The Telan-gana Joint Action Committee (JAC) yesterday declared that it would go ahead with its mil-lion march to Hyderabad on March 10 to press the demand for separate statehood to Tel-angana while police have im-posed ban orders and warned action against violators.

JAC convenor M Kodan-daram told reporters after a meeting of the steering com-mittee that the march would begin in the afternoon instead of morning so that students appearing for intermediate ex-aminations on that day face no hurdles.

JAC, comprising Telan-gana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other groups fighting for a separate state, met here yes-terday to discuss any possible postponement of the march in view of the appeals made by parents of the students appear-ing for examinations.

The meeting decided to go ahead with the planned march but changed its timings to ena-ble students of Class 11 and 12

standards to reach the exami-nation centres in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts.

The million march will be held at Tank Bund on the banks of Hussain Sagar Lake, which divides the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secundera-bad.

The march will demand that the central government introduce a bill in parliament for carving out a separate Te-langana state.

JAC convenor Kodan-daram said people from two to three points will come in a procession to Tank Bund and stage a sit-in there. “There will be no speeches but artistes will sing and dance to highlight the demand for a separate state,” he said.

However, Kodandaram ad-mitted that the march would not be on the scale on which it was originally planned. The JAC had earlier planned to bring the city to halt by block-ing all the roads. “There will be more protests on a much larger scale,” he said.

The march is expected to

further intensify the move-ment for separate statehood to Telangana, which comprises 10 districts including Hydera-bad.

Meanwhile, police made it clear that the march had no permission. Police commis-sioners of Hyderabad and Cy-berabad yesterday announced prohibitory orders to prevent any gathering.

Hyderabad Police Com-missioner A K Khan said there was no permission to hold ral-lies, meetings and processions in the twin cities. He warned that police would deal firmly with those violating ban or-ders.

Prohibitory orders ban-ning the assembly of four or more people have also been imposed in Cyberabad police commissionerate, which cov-ers outskirts of the city includ-ing the IT hub.

Cyberabad Police Com-missioner Tirumala Rao said the police would prevent peo-ple from gathering. He urged the protesters not to disturb the IT sector. — IANS

Telangana million march on, ban orders in Hyderabad

NEW DELHI — India will host foreign ministers from Brazil and South Africa for talks on UN reforms, offi-cials said yesterday.

The ministers’ meeting is scheduled for this evening in New Delhi, officials in the External Affairs Ministry said.

“One of the focus areas is on intensifying efforts for expanding the permanent and non-permanent mem-bership of the UN Security Council,” a ministry official said. ‘‘Other areas include enhancing trade, co-opera-tion in energy and closer co-ordination on global issues.”

Foreign Minister S M Krishna also planned sepa-rate talks with his South African and Brazilian coun-terparts Nkoana Mashabane and Antonio Patriota. Brazil and India along with Ger-many and Japan have been seeking a status on par with the UN Security Council’s five permanent members.

India to host Brazil, S Africa

meeting onUN reforms

NEW DELHI — Facing the wrath of environmentalists, the central gov-ernment yesterday withdrew its new guidelines for declaring lands as criti-cal wildlife habitats and relocating people from such areas. New guide-lines would be put in place soon.

The environment ministry’s deci-sion came after the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advi-sory Council said that rights of forest dwellers should not be diluted in any way.

“Members of some civil society organisations made representations to the ministry about some technical, scientific, social and ecological issues that related to the process of identifi-cation and notification of the critical wildlife habitats and relocation of peo-ple from such areas,” said a statement issued by the ministry here.

“Taking note of their concerns, the ministry has decided to withdraw the guidelines issued on February 7, 2011, and has initiated the process for hav-ing new guidelines in place,” it said.

The ministry organised a meet-ing of civil society groups on March 4 after they sought fine tuning of the guidelines to make it compliant with the provisions of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act, 2006.

The biggest concern against the guidelines was lack of a democratic process to determine the critical habi-tats which, once identified, will give powers to the government to relocate people from there.

The environmental groups also claimed that the new guidelines con-tradicted the recommendations of a joint committee of environment and tribal affairs ministries.

According to environmental groups, the guidelines aimed at doing away with the consultation process before notifying a critically wildlife habitat.

There was no clarity on the process for identification of areas for declaring them as critical wildlife habitats under the guidelines. — IANS

New norms for shifting forest people withdrawn

NEW DELHI — The Delhi High Court yesterday sought a clarification from the Supreme Court whether it should take up a spectrum scam-related plea filed by Swan Telecom promoter Sha-hid Usman Balwa. He has questioned allegations by investigators about his links with don Dawood Ibrahim.

Justice S Muralidhar said: “As the Supreme Court is monitoring the 2G (second generation) scam-related matter, therefore, it’s better for me to take clarification from there whether I should take up the 2G-related matter or not.”

The matter will now be taken up on March 24.

Balwa was arrested in Mumbai February 7 and is now in judicial cus-tody in Delhi.

In his petition, Balwa contended that the Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Mumbai police and the Intelli-gence Bureau (IB) had not found any evidence against him to support their allegations that he was linked to the underworld don.

On Balwa’s plea, the high court earlier asked the home ministry to file an affidavit. The central government is yet to do so.

“On Thursday, 2G-related matter is listed in the Supreme court, therefore, I will take up this matter after it,” said

Justice Muralidhar.On December 3 last year, Balwa,

vice chairman of Etisalat DB Telecom India Pvt, approached the high court with a copy of an official note from the union home ministry.

In the note, the ministry recom-mended to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to deny permission to Etisalat to invest in a Chennai-based firm.

The ministry said he shouldn’t be associated with the company either as a director or in other capacity as he had links with the underworld.

The central government claimed that it had sufficient inputs in this re-gard from the Mumbai ATS and the IB.

The IB alleged that Dawood in-vested large sums of money in Balwa’s firm, which was used by him to finance many of his business deals.

The central government was to file its reply on the plea of Balwa yester-day but Additional Solicitor General A S Chandiok informed the court that the Supreme Court was hearing a re-lated matter.

He said details of the Balwa’s plea were also presented before the apex court which has restrained all other courts from passing any or-ders. — IANS

Clarification sought from apex court on Balwa’s plea

OMAN DAILY Observer

11INDIATUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

PANDEMONIUM broke out at the venue of the West Bengal Youth Congress committee elections yesterday as the supporters of a losing candidate broke furniture, upturned tables and chased people with rods and flag poles.

The election at the Nazrul Mancha in south Kolkata saw Congress MP Mousam Benazir Noor becoming the new state Youth Congress chief after defeating Arindam Bhattacharya who had the backing of Deepa Dasmunshi, wife of ailing Congress leader Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi.

Soon after the results were announced, Youth Congress activists owing allegiance to the losing candidate forced their way onto the dais and went on a rampage. They broke chairs, tore up cloth used to decorate the stage and beat up some of the Congress workers with rods and flag poles.

Sandeep Wadhwa held in CWG overlays scamTHE Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) yesterday arrested Sandeep Wadhwa, director of the India operations of a Swiss-based company, in connection with the Commonwealth Games (CWG) overlays scam.

Wadhwa was called for questioning in the afternoon and arrested in the evening, a CBI official said.

“Wadhwa was held in connection with alleged irregularities in the award of overlays contracts for over Rs 6 billion,” said the official.

Wadhwa is Managing Director of Comfort Net Traders India Pvt Ltd, the company which was part of Switzerland-based Nussli India Consortium. Nussli India was given a contract of nearly Rs 140 crore for supplying tents, portable cabins, containers and other items for six venues.

Quashing of Doordarshan staff appointment stayedTHE Delhi High Court yesterday restrained a Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) order quashing appointment of 25 anchors and reporters in Doordarshan (DD) News channel in 2010.

Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna issued notice to the central government, public broadcaster Prasar Bharati and asked them to file their replies by May 10.

The court was hearing a petition filed by DD’s anchors and reporters who challenged the CAT’s September 2010 order annulling their recruitment.

AIIMS questioned for disobeying court orderTHE Delhi High Court yesterday issued notices for contempt of court to the additional director-general, health and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for denying an MBBS doctor admission in a masters course despite the court’s order last week.

Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjeev Khanna said: “Why have you not allowed the child to take admission even after this court has directed on March 4 to allot a seat? You have committed contempt of this court order.”

“Issue notice to additional director- general, health, central government and AIIMS. They will have to file their reply by March 15, with a clarification on which ground he was denied admission twice,” said the court.

Woman killed while resisting robberyTHE Delhi Police have arrested a man for allegedly killing a 58-year-old woman at her residence when she resisted a robbery attempt by a three-man gang, police said yesterday.

Ranjit was arrested from Harsh Vihar in north Delhi for murdering Kiran Soni, wife of Shiv Charan Soni, a goldsmith, when she refused to part with her jewel-lery and cash on Sunday, police said.

The woman was alone in her Harsh Vi-har home when the men broke in. Ranjit had worked for the family for two months in the past. The two accomplices are ab-sconding.

Ensure safety of Sikhs abroad, PM toldPUNJAB Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal yesterday asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take all possible diplomatic steps to ensure the security of Sikhs working in the US and in other countries, following the killing of a Sikh in California.

Surinder Singh, 68, was killed and Gurmej Singh Atwal, 71, was critically injured in Sacramento after unidentified assailants opened fire at them.

“We are very shocked over this incident of attack on Sikhs at California. It is a suspected case of hate crime. This was the second such incident during last four months in the same US city and it has triggered panic among the Sikhs, who have a sizeable population in California,” Badal said. — IANS

NEWS IN BRIEF Violence mars Bengal Youth Congress polls

MUMBAI — The Enforce-ment Directorate (ED) yes-terday raided the home of Hasan Ali Khan and quizzed him on the allegations of money laundering including the alleged $8 billion stashed away abroad, officials said here.

ED teams raided Khan’s Pune home and detained him for questioning. He was like-ly to be brought to Mumbai last night for further ques-tioning in the matter.

The ED and other agen-cies investigating the money laundering racket are also likely to open some bank lockers in his presence in Mumbai, the official said.

However, the official de-clined to reveal the outcome of the raids or of Khan’s pre-liminary questioning.

This is the second time that Khan has been raided, the previous one being in January 2007.

Among other things, Khan is suspected to have stashed away around US$8 billion in Swiss bank ac-counts, transferring cash and assets out of the country through dubious means and evading taxes on income with a suspected liability of over Rs 40,000 crore.

Recently, the ED issued summons to him to appear before it on March 10 while he was quizzed by the In-come Tax Department last month in connection with notices served to him in De-cember 2008. — IANS

Tax evader q uestioned

By Ashraf Padanna

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM — The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is plan-ning a high-voltage campaign to open its account in the state assembly with Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj camping here leading the campaign.

The party which could so far get its candidates elected to the local self-governments only had come second in at least two constituencies (Kasara-god and Manjeshwaram bordering the BJP-ruled Karnataka) in 2006 elec-tions raising hopes of the party.

This time the BJP has fielded sen-ior leader O Rajagopal (pictured), the 81-year-old former federal minister, from Nemam constituency to make the last push for the breakthrough and the entire focus is on his candidature for the party that wants to establish its presence in the state’s bipolar politics.

Rajagopal had unsuccessfully con-tested from here in the 2004 parlia-mentary elections though he came first in three assembly segments, including Nemam. The BJP just banks on his popularity in the constituency rather than its political strength.

BJP leader in charge of Kerala, Muralidhra Rao, said besides Swaraj the entire top brass of the party will soon be in Kerala campaigning for Rajagopal who had already started so-liciting votes.

“The top BJP leadership has taken the electoral battle in Kerala very seri-ously and the party will open its ac-count in Kerala Assembly,” Rao told reporters here yesterday. “The first list

of the candidates will be released in Delhi on Thursday after the formal ap-proval by the core committee and the election committee of the party”.

The BJP is going it alone in all the 140 constituencies, long dominated by the rival United Democratic Front (UDF) and Left Democratic Front (LDF) alternately.

“The BJP will play a major role in the electoral politics of Kerala this time and the party will emerge as a strong and creative opposition party in the state as it has been doing at the national-level,” he said.

To a question on alleged distribu-tion of sarees to women by a prospec-tive BJP candidate in Palakkad, he said the Left parties, which don’t have self confidence to fight the BJP on ideo-logical level, was promoting violence and raising baseless allegations.

“The party has no role in organis-ing the function and there is no need for BJP to canvass votes by extending gifts like clothes,” he said.

BJP hopes to openaccount in Keralain coming elections

NEW DELHI — A key mem-ber of the Congress-led coali-tion put off its plan to resign ministerial posts until today, offering respite to a govern-ment fighting to win back public trust after a raft of cor-ruption scandals.

The Dravida Munnetra Ka-zhagam, which gives Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s coalition vital support in par-liament, had said its six min-isters would quit the coalition yesterday because of a row over seat to be contested in a local election next month.

But a leader of the south-ern party said the two sides were holding talks to resolve the dispute that has underlined the shaky nature of the federal coalition.

“The resignations are on hold,” DMK leader M K Stalin told reporters.

The announcement by the regional group that it was leaving the cabinet was the lat-est in a series of problems that Singh has faced, ranging from corruption scandals to an ina-bility to push through reforms in parliament.

The coalition was not in danger of collapse even if the DMK ministers left because the party said it would contin-ue to give conditional support to the government.

The Congress Party could also seek support from other regional groups to boost its numbers in parliament, as few want to face an election more than three years ahead of schedule.

But the cracks in the rul-ing alliance have reinforced the image of an administra-tion adrift, unable to tackle a culture of corruption or curb inflation that has stoked public anger.

Analysts said it looked increasingly likely that the Congress and the DMK would patch things up, as each was weaker without the other.

“I expect a compromise. They need each other. Howev-er bad the Congress is with the DMK, they are worse without it,” said Mahesh Rangarajan of the University of Delhi.

The DMK, which has been implicated in a massive tel-

ecoms scandal, has six min-isterial posts in the council of ministers, which represents the full range of the federal government.

It holds two positions — minister of textiles and minis-ter of chemicals and fertilisers — in the 34-member cabinet.

Singh’s coalition has a ma-jority of one, with 273 mem-bers in the 545-seat Lower House of Parliament.

A political party based in the north has said it would consider supporting the coali-tion if it was approached.

Shares dropped 1.4 per cent yesterday, with rate sen-sitive sectors contributing the most to losses, hit by political worries and surging crude oil prices.

“DMK’s pullout will add to the already weak investor sentiment,” said Arun Kejri-wal, director of research firm KRIS.

“The uncertainty over the political scene will lead to a volatile market.”

Ties between the Con-gress and the DMK have been strained since former telecoms

minister A Raja, a DMK mem-ber, was fired from and de-tained for selling 2G telecom licences at low prices which an audit said had cost the gov-ernment $39 billion loss.

The scandal, said to be the country’s biggest, has deeply embarrassed Singh who has seen his reputation dashed to the ground.

In February, he bowed to demands for a parliamentary investigation into the scandal after months of protests by the opposition stalled the assem-bly’s last session.

Yesterday, Singh appeared before parliament, accepting responsibility for naming a civil servant to the country’s top anti-graft watchdog even though the officer was himself facing allegations of wrong-doing. He made similar com-ments on Friday.

“There has been an error of judgement and I accept full responsibility,” he said fol-lowing the Supreme Court’s decision last week cancelling the appointment of the tainted officer. — Reuters

DMK puts off decision to quit UPA, holds talks

ACTIVISTS of National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW), the women’s wing of the Communist Party of India, during a rally in Hyderabad yesterday on the eve of International Women’s Day. International Women’s Day (IWD), originally called International

Working Women’s Day is celebrated annually on March 8, this year marking 100 years since its creation. — AFP

LUCKNOW — An Indi-an court yesterday fined a former lawmaker more than $100,000 for falsely accus-ing rising political star Rahul Gandhi of rape.

The High Court in the northern city of Lucknow ordered Kishore Samrite to pay Rs 5 million for smearing 40-year-old Gandhi, widely seen as a prime minister-in-waiting.

Samrite had accused Ra-hul, the latest member of the Nehru-Gandhi political dy-nasty to be tipped for high office, and five of his friends of gang-raping 24-year-old Sukanya Singh during a De-cember 2006 trip to his home constituency of Amethi.

Samrite said he read about the alleged attack on an un-named website and tried to contact the supposed victim, but turned to the courts after failing to track her down. At no point has Singh filed a complaint.

“The court also considers it necessary that an inquiry is carried out by an independ-

ent agency to find out if there was a political design behind the move,” judges Uma Nath Singh and Satish Chandra said in their ruling.

Samrite is a former legis-lator of regional opposition Samajwadi (Socialist) Party in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and de-scribes himself as a social activist.

Singh appeared in the court and said she had not been attacked by Rahul, who has sought to establish him-self as a champion of the poor by sleeping in the houses of low-caste Hindus.

Two million rupees should be given to Rahul, state pros-ecutor Devendra Upadhaya said, adding that Singh, a daughter of a Congress activ-ist, would receive Rs 2.5 mil-lion. The remainder will go to the police.

Rahul is the great grand-son of independence prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and son of Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, who currently heads the ruling Congress party. — AFP

Court clears Rahul Gandhi over smear

NEW DELHI — With a special char-tered flight bringing 155 people from Libya yesterday morning, over two-third of nearly 18,000 Indian nation-als have been evacuated from the vio-lence-torn north African country.

A chartered Fly Dubai flight with the last batch of 155 people who had crossed over from Libya to Dzerba in Tunisia returned to India early yester-day morning.

In all, 1,120 Indians had crossed over to Tunisia, all of whom have since returned home safely.

Another 67 Indians who had crossed over to Salloum in Egypt reached Mumbai yesterday morning by a Gulf Air flight.

Giving an update on Operation Safe Homecoming, the multi-pronged operation to evacuate Indians from Libya, the External Affairs Ministry said over 12,000 Indian nationals, have been evacuated so far.

Chartered ship MV Red Star One returned to Malta from Misurata in Libya on Sunday morning with 301 Indians and 29 foreign nationals on board. The passengers returned to In-dia on Sunday night, on special Jet Air and Kingfisher flights.

“All our nationals have thus been brought back from Malta,” the min-

istry said. MV Red Star One would now set sail for Sirte in Libya today and reach its destination in 24 hours. It is expected to evacuate 600 people to Malta.

Presently, there are 1,600 Indians in Sirte, many of who may be heading for Tripoli by road, for being airlifted from there, the ministry said.

MV Scotia Prince is on its way back to Alexandria with 972 people from Benghazi in Libya on board.

The ministry, however, added that the ship’s arrival has been delayed due to some engine trouble and it is now expected to reach today. All passen-gers will be flown back to India on three Egypt Air and one IL 76 flight on March 9.

Naval vessels INS Jalashwa and INS Mysore are headed for Tripoli and expected to reach on March 10, the last day for evacuating the remaining Indian nationals in Tripoli.

India launched Operation Safe Homecoming on February 26 to bring back its nationals — the biggest such exercise mounted since the August 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait that forced thousands of Indians to flee to Jordan from where they were flown home. — IANS

Over 12,000 citizens evacuated from

strife-torn Libya

NEW DELHI — The Lok Sabha yesterday passed Rail-way Minister Mamata Ban-erjee’s (pictured) budget, but not without the expected acrimonious scenes between her and her political rival Left MPs. Replying to a nearly half-day debate on the Febru-ary 25 railway budget, Baner-jee said the work of the rail-ways should go on unhindered irrespective of whether she was the minister or not.

This was seen as an indi-cation of her future moves in case her party, the Trinamool Congress, wins the West Ben-gal assembly elections.

Touted to become the state chief minister if the Trinamool Congress ousts the Left par-ties in the state, Banerjee said: “I may remain tomorrow or not (as the railway minister). Somebody else may come and take over... but there has to be some system for proper rail services. We have to do it.”

Combative as ever, Baner-jee also countered the attacks of her detractors that she was announcing railway projects for West Bengal that had no Planning Commission ap-proval.

“I have not done anything without the approval of Plan-ning Commission. I will do it within the norms and not out-side the norms of the Planning Commission and constitution. Anybody can have differences of opinion with me on my pol-icies, but they should not play politics with development,”

she said. Banerjee said rail-ways was one field in which India could do better and help the economy to grow faster.

She also objected to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) attacking her on what it termed as her Bengal-centric railway budget. “It is not correct. I do not agree with this,” she said.

The minister said she had “the heart to give more” rail lines, train services and stop-pages as per the request of the MPs, but there was no scope for more when the available resources were looked at.

The house witnessed a minor clash between the law-makers of her party and Left MPs over an alleged suicide attempt by a youth outside Banerjee’s residence in Kolk-ata because he was denied a job in railways after being promised one.

Trinamool MPs strongly objected to CP03/07/11M member Ramchandra Dome’s allegation. Senior Trinamool leader Sudip Bandopadhyay said the Left MP was anti-Bengal. Reacting to the alle-gation, the minister denied the

incident took place.“This is absolutely con-

cocted and false. He can speak anything about the railways but this allegation is totally wrong,” an angry Banerjee shouted.

Earlier in the pre-lunch ses-sion, the house witnessed two adjournments after Samajwadi Party members forced disrup-tion during the question hour over the alleged “house arrest” of their leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh in Lucknow ahead of their agita-tion against Uttar Pradesh’s ruling Bahujan Samaj Party.

Soon after the house paid homage in the morning to Congress leader Arjun Singh, who died on Friday, Sama-jwadi Party members rushed towards the chair and raised slogans demanding the dis-missal of the Uttar Pradesh government.

Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar’s requests to the pro-testing members to return to their seats went unheeded, forcing her to adjourn the house twice.

Rajya Sabha also mourned the death of Arjun Singh who was a sitting member, with chairman Hamid Ansari say-ing the country had lost “an eminent administrator and a distinguished parliamentar-ian.” The upper house ad-journed for the day soon after as a mark of respect for the departed leader. — IANS

Lok Sabha gives nod to Mamata’s rail budget

By Laura Villena

GO through your wallet some day and you might see a surprise. Along with Queen

Elizabeth on a British pound, George Washington on the US dollar or Jew-ish leaders on the Israeli shekel, you might see something new.

It could be “Free Palestine” en-grained across those familiar images. The new message is the product of a new non-violent resistance campaign by Palestinian protesters against Is-rael’s occupation.

With the help of Facebook, its organisers said they hope to turn it into a worldwide movement, and it is one of many attempts by Palestinian groups to use the social-networking site to get out their mes-sage.

The most recent campaign was launched on Saturday with one 50- shekel ($13.80) note across which

appeared the handwritten slogan in big black letters. Before long, organ-isers said, they hope “Free Palestine” will show up on paper currency eve-rywhere.

Israeli shekels are used in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but the initiative, defined as an “everywhere campaign,” has quickly spread around the world.

“No matter what country you are from, no matter what currency you use, every time you get any note, write on it in pen or permanent mark-er ‘Free Palestine,’” the Facebook page said.

“This message must be spread far and wide.” One day after being launched, another Facebook page showed photos of Indonesian rupi-ahs, euros and US dollars stamped with the message.

Queen Elizabeth II seems to be shouting the slogan on a £20 note while a note of 20 Canadian dollars

also demands “Stop the Gaza block-ade.” The three organisers said they have a “firm belief in non-violent national resistance.” “This is a sim-ple, non-violent, innovative way to resist” Israeli occupation, they said.

Success, recognition“This is an ingenious way of

sending a vital message to so many people,” a statement said on the Facebook page. “Just ‘Free Pales-tine’ will sit in people’s heads. Some will look into it more.

Some won’t. This vital message will reach people on something that is handled in every part of the globe each and every day.” Previous efforts

have met with varying degrees of success and recognition.

“Gaza Youth Breaks Out” was the name of an initial group formed in January to protest all sides in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Five students from the Gaza Strip, who didn’t provide their identities, published a furious manifesto on the site railing against Israel, the Gaza Strip ruler Hamas, the Fatah admin-istration in the West Bank and the international community.

The page, which has now turned into a plea by the authors for the end of Palestinian internal division, has received 20,645 “like” clicks. It continues to get messages of support

from all over the world.Despite that push, Hamas has

continued to block all street demon-strations in recent weeks. On Feb-ruary 28, Hamas security forces in Gaza City stormed a rally for politi-cal freedom and the end of Palestin-ian division.

Even Palestinian officials have tried to make greater use of Facebook as shown by a message sent in ad-vance of anticipated parliamentary elections.

“In your opinion, in light of the ongoing discussion to form a govern-ment, who is the person you believe is trustworthy and has leadership and distinguished scientific skills that could be relied on to be given a min-isterial portfolio?”

Palestinian acting Prime Minister Salam Fayyad asked on his personal Facebook page. “Name the place and the person.”

By Rupam Jain Nair

SOON after he exposed how bricks were bought for six times

their value for roads that were never built in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Amarnath Pandey was shot near his home.

The bullet, which he believes was fired by con-tractors who were benefiting from the brick scam, clipped his ear and grazed his skull, leaving him in hospital for weeks.

Pandey, 56, a doctor from Robertsganj, a sleepy city 640 kilometres from New Delhi, has been fighting for better civic amenities in the area for more than two decades.

He used India’s new Right to Information (RTI) Act, passed in 2005, to find out why roads were not be-ing constructed despite funds allocated by the government — and the facts he discov-ered nearly cost him his life.

Pandey refuses to be put off and is determined to un-earth other corruption scams using RTI, a law introduced to promote accountabil-ity and good government through giving open access to official data.

It was hailed as a major breakthrough for India’s bureaucratic and graft-ridden public service culture, but few people foresaw the vio-lence that the RTI Act would unleash.

At least 11 people were killed, or died in unexplained circumstances, last year after exposing corruption in public utilities, mining, food distribution and unauthor-ised water and electricity hookups, according to RTI activist groups in New Delhi.

In July 2010, environment activist Amit Jethwa, from the western state of Gujarat, was shot dead by two men on a motorbike outside a court.

Jethwa, 35, had been us-ing the RTI act for two years to fight against illegal mines operating inside the Gir lion sanctuary, the only natural habitat of the endangered Asiatic lions.

Hundreds of other whistleblowers have been attacked, threatened or harassed for pursuing similar crusades, said Manish Siso-dia of Kabir, a voluntary organisation who has been spreading awareness about RTI to encourage its use.

The organisation has initi-ated a “RTI-brotherhood” campaign to provide safety to whistleblowers.

In the latest case, the daughter-in-law of a man who exposed a pension scam in Haryana state was alleg-edly murdered by a village council head whose role in the corruption had been exposed.

Last September, Justice Minister Veerappa Moily called murdered RTI activists “martyrs” and said action was needed to protect those who exposed wrong-doing.

The government now plans to propose the new law in the current parliamentary session, but RTI activists say delays in the police’s response would still provide ample opportunity for any “vested interest” to plot their revenge.

The Bihar Human Rights Commission, a government body working in the eastern state of Bihar released a report last year on harass-ment of people who made RTI requests and asked the government to suspend 54 guilty officers.

Sumankant Raichaudhari, a teacher in Bihar’s capital city, Patna, says he has filed 150 applications to find out more about money budgeted for government schools and whether it was all being used on students.

The authorities reacted by trying to bribe him and, when that failed, they threat-ened to kidnap his teenage daughter, he said.

Mumbai-based Sumaira Abdulali, who founded the Movement against Intimida-tion, Threats and Revenge against Activists, has been attacked twice for expos-ing a multi-million-dollar sand mining scam allegedly involving politicians, civil servants and police.

OMAN DAILY Observer

12ANALYSIS/OPINIONTUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

By Simon Akam

THE slopes of Leicester Peak, a protected rainforest on a hill above Sierra Leone’s capi-

tal, are a jumble of haphazard de-velopment and half-finished villas. Concrete buildings cluster against a tangle of trees and vines — a con-struction site in a forest reserve that supplies the city of Freetown with its water and where building is meant to be banned.

It highlights a common problem across Africa, where efforts to halt forest loss are routinely flouted, often with the consent of a cash-strapped government or corrupt officials.

“There is a huge encroachment,” said Jochen Moninger, who works for the German NGO Welthunger-hilfe on a project to preserve the for-est. “By the law of Sierra Leone no settlement, no activity is supposed to happen in these areas.”

And house building is the least of the worries facing Sierra Leone’s for-ests — which like many neighbours in Africa’s humid, forested belt are being plundered for logs and char-coal or cleared for rice fields to feed one of Africa’s poorest nations.

According to a United Nations report in 2008, the African continent is losing forest at a rate of more than 4 million hectares per year — twice the world average.

Data from the Food and Agricul-ture Organisation (FAO) shows Sierra Leone lost 19,000 ha or 0.7 per cent per year of forest from 2000 to 2005, as it emerged from a brutal civil war.

Freetown, a rundown, palm-fringed capital with a population of just over a million, has a water defi-cit of 12 million gallons (55 million litres) per day. Sierra Leone is one of a number of African countries where deforestation is impacting water sup-ply.

Although the house building on Leicester Peak is outside the main water catchment area of Freetown’s main dam, officials worry it sets a precedent that protected forest can be cut.

“Our efforts have not yielded much fruit,” said Samuel Serry, Sierra Leone Forests and Agriculture Minis-try spokesman. “There is a serious problem enforcing the regulations.”

Dependence on waterIn Moseh, a village on a penin-

sula south of Freetown, village chief Foday Koroma said water supplies were getting more irregular and lo-cal people were carrying water in jerrycans.

On a continent where rain often buckets down then dries up, trees help moderate the cycle, by slowing run-off and soaking up precipitation to be released later.

“When you take forest off, all

(the water) comes off in the wet sea-son,” said Richard Harding, of the UK-based Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. “It will all be lost ... out to sea.”

Only 40 per cent of a protected forest of 17,482 hectares on a penin-sula south of Freetown is left, yet a fifth of the nation’s six million peo-ple depend on it for water.

Government regulation is weak, and illegal farming, building wood-cutting and stone mining have all re-duced the forested area.

Scott Bode, a resource specialist in a US-funded programme fears se-vere water shortages if the peninsula loses its trees.

“It’s crazy that there could be wa-ter shortages in a country that gets 3,000 mm rain per year,” he said.

Environmentalists say Africa could cash in on carbon credits under a UN scheme recognising the role of trees in fighting climate change

by storing carbon, but few countries plan to.

Gabon began working on a plan last year to conserve 80 per cent of its forests on the UN scheme to re-duce emissions from deforestation or degradation (REDD).

The African Development Bank has formed a huge programme for the Congo basin, the world’s second-biggest forest.

In Sierra Leone, with much forest already razed, some environmental charities like Welthungerhilfeare (WHH) are seeking to make new, downsized protected areas that can be more easily protected.

A tender is out for projects to attract REDD money, but they are a long way off working out the de-tails.

“Sierra Leone has not yet devel-oped a national strategy, how to do this REDD,” said WHH official Jo-chen Moninger.

Forest loss threatens S Leone water resources

It’s dangerous to fight graft

Palestinians using cash, Facebook for freedom

By Stuart Williams

RUMBLINGS of protest and increased criticism of the authorities on the Internet present a new test for the Russian ruling elite led by Vladimir Putin one year be-

fore presidential polls, analysts said. But while Russia has in the last months seen unusual protests on issues ranging from sirens used by officials to a highway through a forest and time zones, they do not — for now — pose the risk of an Egypt-style turnaround.

The last presidential elections held on March 2, 2008, de-livered Dmitry Medvedev to the Kremlin for a four-year man-date, taking over from Putin who had served a maximum two terms and instead became a powerful prime minister. Putin, still seen as Russia’s de-facto leader, now has the right to stand again as president. He and Medvedev have made two things clear — they will not compete against each other and they will decide who will stand nearer the time.

A crucial indicator will be parliamentary elections at the end of 2011 which will test the dominance of the ruling party United Russia in regions which have seen the biggest protests against authorities. These include Moscow and Saint Peters-burg as well as further-flung regions with a tradition of liberal thinking and a string of local gripes against the Kremlin like the western Kaliningrad exclave and the Far East.

In one bizarre incident in the Far East Kamchatka region, the authorities tried to ban a production of Cinderella when audiences cheered wildly at what they saw as a subliminal protest against a Kremlin-imposed time zone change. “The mood has changed and there are reasons to be worried,” pro-Kremlin analyst Sergei Markov, a United Russia MP in the State Duma parliament, said.

“The ratings for the authorities remain very high but the protest mood is growing in the country,” he added. “This pre-election year promises to be more stormy than the last.” The Internet — finally now penetrating deep into Russia — has allowed activists like whistleblowing shareholder Alexei Navalny to expose abuses at state firms or bloggers to claim Putin is building a lavish new dacha on the Black Sea.

Forums like Live Journal and social networking sites have given critical Russians a chance to spread their views, be it criticising the authorities on their response to terror attacks or mocking the mascots for the 2014 Olympics. According to the Renaissance Capital brokerage, Russia’s Internet penetration rate is still only 45 per cent, compared with 84 per cent in Brit-ain, but broadband Internet access is now expanding fast.

“Opposition supporters are particularly speaking out on the Internet,” said Markov. “For the moment this protest has no defined political expression but if it gets one, it could change the election campaign.” And there is much fodder for complaint. Corruption remains endemic and events like the murder of 12 people in a farmer’s house in south Russia in November by a known criminal group expose how anarchy has been allowed to rage unchecked in some places.

“There is dissatisfaction and for the State Duma elections United Russia will see a drop in its support,” liberal political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin said. “But the situation has not yet reached a crisis.” Russia remains in suspense over which of the ruling duo will choose to stand and win an almost certain victory on the back of continued popularity and slavish state media support.

Test for Putin By Takehiko Kambayashi

THE resignation of Ja-pan’s foreign minister is adding to the troubles

of embattled Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s government.

Seiji Maehara, once seen as a possible successor to Kan, stepped down after tak-ing responsibility for receiv-ing campaign donations from a foreign national in violation of Japanese law.

Kan, facing protracted economic troubles and mount-ing public debt, has struggled to get key budget measures through a divided parliament before the April 1 start of the fiscal year.

His popularity ratings have fallen to around 20 per cent, and opposition parties em-boldened by the resignation of Maehara are pressing the premier to step down.

Maehara’s resignation demonstrated that Kan’s cabi-net “lacks governing ability,” said Kenji Kosaka, an upper house lawmaker of the main

opposition Liberal Democrat-ic Party (LDP).

“The only ways to break through this situation are for the entire cabinet to resign or to dissolve the lower house as soon as possible” to hold a snap election, Kosaka said.

Kan, the fifth prime minis-ter since 2006, has also been criticised by fellow members of his Democratic Party of Ja-pan (DPJ).

DPJ lower house member Yuko Sato offered to resign from the party as she ques-tioned Kan’s political leader-ship, but party secretary-gen-eral Katsuya Okada did not accept the resignation.

Sato’s move followed a re-volt within the ruling party in mid-February when a group of 16 DPJ lawmakers said they would openly challenge initiatives by Kan.

The 16 members and Sato were particularly opposed to Kan’s plan to raise the na-tion’s 5 per cent consump-tion tax. They argued the hike would violate DPJ campaign

pledges before the 2009 gen-eral elections, in which the party won a historic landslide victory, ending more than a half-century of almost unbro-ken LDP rule.

Last week, the 16 law-makers skipped the vote on the budget plan although it cleared the powerful lower house. Critics said Kan is entrenched in internal feuds and has surrounded himself with opponents of former DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa despite his repeated insistence on party unity.

Maehara was one of those who had harshly criticised Ozawa, who was indicted in January in a political funding case. Kan decided yesterday to ask chief cabinet secretary Yukio Edano, another critic of Ozawa, to serve as interim foreign minister.

Edano, who lacks a dip-lomatic background, called China a “vicious neighbour” last year amid mounting ten-sions between the neighbour-ing countries after a collision

between a Chinese fishing boat and Japan Coast Guard vessels near a disputed group of islets.

Edano said he expected the premier to pick a new foreign minister before a meeting of the Group of Eight major in-dustrialised countries in mid-March.

Kan told a parliamentary session yesterday that “for-eign policy is extremely im-portant” and that he would try to name a permanent minister soon.

Japan has been plagued by diplomatic troubles, espe-cially since Kan took office, while facing nuclear and mis-sile threats from North Korea.

Japan’s relations with Russia have been especially tense since Russian President Dmitry Medvedev travelled in November to Russian-con-trolled islands that Japan also claims.

Kan called the visit an “un-forgivable outrage.” Analysts said his comments further ag-gravated diplomatic tensions.

More troubles for premier

By Raymond Colitt

BRAZILIAN President Dilma Rousseff is backing away from a reform agenda that the business community, the IMF and others say is needed to spur investment and

sustained growth in Latin America’s largest economy. Despite commanding a large majority in Brazil’s Congress, Rous-seff’s centre-left coalition government has been spooked by concerns about its spending, inflation and uncertainties in the global economy, according to its leaders.

That has led it to water down or delay legislation that would, among other things, simplify the unwieldy tax system, reform the oil royalty structure and tighten oversight of the country’s massive mining industry. Business leaders have said those changes would make it easier to operate in Brazil, where manufacturers and other companies frequently complain that the strong real currency, onerous red tape and high tax burden make it hard to compete.

“At this juncture, even with political stability, you could make financial instability” by attempting to pass the reforms, Candido Vaccarezza, government leader in the lower Chamber of Deputies, said. “You undertake such changes when things are calm, not during an international economic crisis.”

Rousseff, an economist who defeated a centrist challenger in a 2010 election, oversaw austerity measures opposed by unions and other key supporters of her Workers’ Party (PT), raising hopes among business leaders of more reforms to come. But she began distancing herself from the reform agen-da before taking over from her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, putting the brakes on overhauling costly pension benefits and rigid labour laws.

Now the government has watered down the planned tax overhaul, which Rousseff had highlighted as one of her top economic priorities, to a few targeted payroll and capital in-vestment tax breaks. The big task of harmonising state taxes will be postponed.

Industry leaders have long complained that the current system favoured imports over exports and penalised adding value to goods. States competing to offer the lowest tax for foreign goods, boost imports and hurt local industries, they say. Rousseff’s defenders, once again, cite timing as the main reason for the move.

“It’s not worth tackling that because it requires agreement we don’t have,” Humberto Costa, Senate leader for Rousseff’s ruling Workers’ Party, said. “There are a lot of interests in-volved. It’s not so easy.” A bill that would define the distribu-tion of oil royalties between Brazil’s states also is unlikely to be discussed until the second half of the year, preventing the government from auctioning rights to explore vast, offshore oil reserves.

Investors were eagerly awaiting the legislation, especially as the recent rise in global oil prices had made Brazil’s off-shore oil deposits more attractive to multinationals seeking to boost their reserves. “We don’t know how to deal with that issue yet. I don’t see us voting on it for at least three to four months,” Vaccarezza said.

Framework legislation that would heighten government control and tighten concession rights in the mining industry, a mainstay of the booming economy, may be sent to Congress by mid-year. But debate over a possible mining royalty hike is held up and will continue to generate uncertainty for inves-tors.

“The government’s attitude is worrying, this could be a lost opportunity,” said Rogerio Cesar de Souza with Iedi, an industry-financed think tank in Sao Paulo. Pressure on Rous-seff’s government is likely to increase, as Brazil’s economy slows following breakneck expansion in 2010.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Mon-etary Fund, joined the chorus of voices calling for the country to keep to its reform agenda on a visit to Brazil on Thursday, saying it would help ensure sustainable economic growth.

Reform hurdles This is a simple, non-violent, innovative

way to resist Israeli occupation, according to the organisers

JAPAN’S Prime Minister Naoto Kan (R) speaks with Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara at the start of a regularparliament session in the lower house of parliament in Tokyo in a file photo. — Reuters

OMAN DAILY Observer

13THE PHILIPPINES/SUBCONTINENTTUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

THREE policemen were killed and five wounded in an attack by suspected com-munist fighters in the southern Philip-pines, police and army spokesmen said yesterday.

The ambush occurred late on Sunday in Malaybalay town in Bukidnon province, 870 kilometres south of Manila, said national police spokesman Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz.

The police officers were aboard two vehicles en route to the village of Magsaysay to investigate a report of a killing when the guerrillas ambushed them, Cruz added.

Regional army spokesman Major Julio Eugenio Osias said three policemen died in the ambush while five were wounded.

“We have sent more soldiers to the area to help conduct pursuit operations against the fighters,” he added.

Government and rebel negotiators resumed formal peace talks last month after the talks were stalled for more than six years. They agreed to complete the negotiations in 18 months.

Govt orders oil firms to boost inventoriesTHE Philippine government yesterday ordered oil firms to ramp up imports and stocks amid growing concern about potential supply disruption due to unrest in the Middle East and North Africa.

The energy ministry said in a statement it had ordered oil companies to step up imports and maintain a minimum inventory sufficient for 15 days.

“The Philippines needs to be resilient in light of these events,” Energy Minister Jose Rene Almendras said in the statement. He said the oil-poor country’s main concern was supply security.

Ministry spokesman Joel Gaviola said the government had not previously imposed a minimum inventory requirement.

The energy ministry puts the country’s daily fuel consumption at about 300,000 barrels or 48 million litres.

Inflation surged to 4.3 per cent last month, its highest level in nearly a year, from 3.6 per cent in January, as bloody protests spread from Tunisia and Egypt to Libya and beyond.

Sri Lanka’s remittances rise by 23.6 per centSRI Lankans employed abroad sent home a record $4.11 billion in 2010, up by nearly a quarter from the previous year, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka said yesterday.

Over 1.5 million Sri Lankans are employed abroad, mainly as labourers or housemaids in Gulf states. They are the biggest single source of foreign exchange for the South Asian nation which has a population of 20 million.

“During 2010, workers’ remittances increased by 23.6 per cent to $4.11 billion over that of 2009,” the bank said in a statement.

It said Sri Lanka’s exports also hit a record $8.3 billion in calendar 2011, up 17.3 per cent compared with 2009, but the overall trade deficit grew to $5.2 billion, an expansion of 66.7 per cent on the previous year.

Import costs were sharply higher, mainly because of surging oil prices and a flood of vehicles and consumer goods following a reduction in import duties, the bank said.

Better prices for Sri Lankan tea, the main export commodity, and clothing helped to partially offset these factors, the bank said. The country’s economy grew 8 per cent in 2010, up from 3.5 per cent a year earlier. Sri Lanka expects to maintain 7 to 8 per cent growth in 2011.

Philippines to tender $1bn worth of rail, toll roadsPHILIPPINE President Benigno Aquino yesterday invited investors to help his cash-strapped government build more than a billion dollars’ worth of road and rail projects.

Aquino said he wanted the private sector to build this year a road linking Manila’s North Luzon and South Luzon toll highways, as well as a toll road to unclog traffic around Manila airport, and a new access route to the South Luzon tollway.

The government also plans to sell Manila’s Light Rail Transit and Metro Rail Transit systems to improve service, he added.

“And with an estimated investment of more than a billion dollars lined up for bidding, these projects give us more reason to be optimistic,” Aquino said in a speech to an investor conference.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda told reporters formal bid invitations for the first project would be sent out at the end of the month, and the second project in early April.

To attract investors, the government earlier offered assurances about the Philippines’ notoriously poor and corrupt business environment, which has seen governments not honour contracts and investors lose millions of dollars. — Agencies

NEWS IN BRIEF Three police killed in Philippines attack

MANILA — The Philippine Navy said yester-day it had bought a large Hamilton-class patrol craft from the United States to help it guard its waters, amid tensions over territorial claims, notably with China.

The announcement was made by the new Philippine military chief of staff, Air Force Lieutenant-General Eduardo Oban, as he as-sumed his post.

“As I speak, Philippine Navy officers are now in the United States... preparing to sail our first Hamilton class navy (vessel) to the Philip-pines,” he said in a speech to troops. “We shall sustain efforts to modernise our armed forces,” he added.

Details of the acquisition were not dis-closed, but the navy said in January that ac-quiring the refurbished, 380-foot vessel was aimed at boosting its border patrol capability.

Yesterday’s announcement came amid fresh tensions between Manila and China over alle-gations that Beijing’s patrol vessels harassed a Philippine oil exploration boat in disputed wa-ters in the South China Sea last week.

After lodging a formal protest, President Benigno Aquino ordered coast guard escorts for the oil exploration vessel, which was con-ducting a seismic survey in the Reed Bank, which is close to the disputed Spratly Islands.

China has brushed the protest aside, reas-

serting that the Spratlys, which it calls the Nan-sha islands, and adjacent waters have always been part of its territory.

The new ship will replace the Philippine na-vy’s flagship, Raja Humabon, a Cannon-class destroyer escort, which is probably one of the world’s oldest warships, the navy has said.

Equipped with a retractable hangar, a heli-copter flight deck and powered by a dual en-gine or gas turbines, the Hamilton is described as a high endurance cutter with close-in weap-ons systems.

Washington considers the Philippines a ma-jor non-Nato military ally and the two countries are bound by a 1951 mutual defence treaty.

Meanwhile, a high-profile name-and-shame campaign against tax cheats helped the Philip-pines keep its 2010 budget deficit from spin-ning out of control, Finance Minister Cesar Purisima said yesterday.

The government said last year’s funding gap was limited to P314.4 billion ($7.25 bil-lion), due to improved customs and income tax collection.

“Collections in both (customs and in-ternal revenue) agencies have benefited from the vigorous implementation of the Run After Tax Evaders and Run After The Smugglers programmes,” Purisima said in a statement. — AFP

Philippine Navy gets patrol craft to guard its borders

ISLAMABAD — Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani yesterday sought scholars’ help in curbing ex-tremism and urged the country’s youth to follow teachings of tolerance and peace.

Gilani’s appeal came after sus-pected fighters gunned down his lone Catholic minister Shahbaz Bhatti in broad daylight in Islamabad last week.

Minorities Affairs Minister Bhatti, 42, who was an outspoken campaign-er against Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, died in a hail of bullets as he left his mother’s home on Wednesday.

Bhatti’s murder came months after Punjab provincial governor Salman Taseer, a liberal politician and oppo-nent of the blasphemy law, was shot dead by one of his police bodyguards, who was hailed as a hero by religious groups.

The minister’s assassination last week rekindled international fears about violence in Pakistan, a crucial ally in the US-led war in Afghanistan.

“The country’s present situation demands that we follow the life of the Prophet Mohammad, who taught us tolerance and brotherhood,” Gilani told a conference of scholars.

Some 300 scholars from Pakistan and abroad are attending the privately

arranged three-day conference aimed at hammering out a strategy to end ex-tremism in the country.

“Today we need to follow the true message of tolerance and understand-ing preached and practised by the Holy Prophet,” Gilani told the participants.

He said the murderers of Shah-baz Bhatti tried to create a “wedge” between two groups. But, he said, “I warn such elements they will never succeed in their objective.” Gilani said that Islam and the Pakistani constitu-tion ensure rights and freedom for mi-norities.

In their speeches, scholars vowed opposition to bombings, extrem-ism and terrorism, saying that they were struggling to spread message of peace. Pakistan has been wracked by violence, mostly targeting security of-ficials.

Some 4,000 people have been killed in bomb blasts, suicide and gun attacks blamed on home-grown Tali-ban and Al Qaeda linked fighters since Pakistan troops stormed fighters in Is-lamabad in July 2007.

“Extremism, terrorism and attacks are heinous acts and have nothing to do with Islam. Such acts violate what Islam stands for,” senior scholar Mufti Abu Huraira Mohiuddin told the gathering. — AFP

Pakistan prime minister urges peace, tolerance

KABUL — US Defence Sec-retary Robert Gates arrived in Afghanistan yesterday at a time of increased strain be-tween Kabul and its Western backers and with important security transition milestones looming.

Gates, whose visit was not announced in advance, will meet President Hamid Karzai, who complained angrily last week after nine Afghan chil-dren were mistakenly killed by helicopters from the Nato-led International Security As-sistance Force (ISAF).

Karzai will soon unveil a timetable for the start of a handover of security respon-sibility from foreign forces to Afghans. The process is to begin in July and be complete by 2014. US officials said it would be the focus of Gates’s trip.

Gates is expected to visit parts of southern and eastern Afghanistan where Nato com-manders say they have weak-ened the Taliban and created “bubbles” of security they hope to link up.

But civilian casualties have clouded the relationship and diverted attention from transi-tion plans, with blunt exchang-es between Karzai and US leaders after a string of recent accidental killings, mainly in remote eastern provinces .

Karzai has said a rare and candid apology by ISAF Commander General David Petraeus was “not enough”. The boys were killed while collecting firewood in a vola-tile eastern province.

US President Barack Obama has also expressed his “deep regret” but Karzai told a meeting of security advisers on Sunday, which Petraeus at-tended, that civilian casualties caused by foreign troops were “no longer acceptable”.

Petraeus again apologised for the killings, saying they were a “great mistake”, ac-cording to a statement released by the presidential palace.

Karzai in turn said such casualties were the main cause of strained relations between the United States and Afghan-istan, the statement said.

Gates visited a military hospital at the vast Bagram base north of Kabul soon after arriving but had no immediate comment on civilian casual-ties.

“You’ve had a tough winter and it’s going to be a tougher spring and summer, but you’ve made a lot of head-way and I think you’ve proven with your Afghan partners that this thing is going to work,” he told troops at the base.

Major-General John Camp-bell, commander of Nato-led forces in eastern Afghanistan, said 90 per cent of civilian casualties in his area were caused by insurgents. Of the rest, most came during “esca-lation of force” incidents such as when a car failed to slow down as instructed at a check-point, he told reporters.

He said an ISAF base had come under attack in the area where the boys were killed and his forces had responded.

Hundreds of Afghans chanting “Death to America” gathered in the capital on Sun-day in protest. — Internews

Casualties take focus from Gates’s Afghan trip

DHAKA — A court hear-ing into whether Bangladeshi Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus was illegally sacked from his microfinance bank adjourned yesterday after his lawyers expressed doubts he would get a fair trial.

Yunus, 70, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his pioneering concept of small cash loans to tackle poverty, was removed from Grameen Bank last week in what his supporters say was part of a political vendetta against him.

He has defied the central bank’s dismissal order, re-turning to work at Grameen’s headquarters in Dhaka and lodging the high court case contesting his firing.

“The world is watching this courtroom and what it will decide. My client is very apprehensive of whether he will receive a fair hearing,” Yunus’s lawyer Rokonuddin

Mahmud told the court.Mahmud said the central

bank’s charges against Yu-nus were baseless and that he had personally encountered “problems” as a result of rep-resenting his client against the government. The central bank claims Yunus has been in his position illegally since he did not seek its approval when he was reappointed to the post of Grameen Bank managing di-rector in 2000.

Yunus founded Grameen in 1983, and its microfinance work offering credit to mil-lions of villagers and farmers who do not have access to mainstream banking has since been copied in developing countries around the world.

His lawyers have argued that the Bangladesh bank gave “implied consent” by not rais-ing the issue of his reappoint-ment for 12 years, and that they were also not the compe-tent authority to fire him.

“During the 12 years you say he held the post illegally, Yunus received the Nobel Prize — does this mean the award is illegitimate? Does this mean the Nobel Prize was given to a usurper, a pretender to the throne?” Mahmud said.

Supporters say Yunus’s troubles stem from 2007 when he floated the idea of form-ing a political party, earning the wrath of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has pub-licly disparaged his work.

In December, following the release of a Norwegian TV documentary critical of Yunus, Hasina accused him of “sucking blood from the poor” and pulling a financial “trick” to avoid paying tax.

Yunus has since been vili-fied in the Bangladeshi press, summoned to court three times in cases nominally connected to Grameen, and seen his bank become the target of a govern-ment probe. — AFP

Yunus ‘apprehensive’ over fair trial

ISLAMABAD — Tajik President Emomali Rahmon arrived in Islamabad yesterday to discuss bilateral relations and economic co-operation, an official of Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said.

Rahmon is expected to meet President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani during his three-day visit. He also plans to visit the main commercial city and southern port of Karachi.

The ministry said Rahmon is accompanied by several Tajik lawmakers and a delegation of businessmen who will discuss agreements in the fields of hydropower, investment, healthcare, trade, sports and agriculture.

“The project is still in the phase of plan-ning and we are not expecting an agreement right now but its vital for Pakistan since it will help us to meet our electricity needs in future,” said the Pakistani official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

New special envoy in Islamabad to ease diplomatic tensions

ISLAMABAD — The new US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan met yesterday with Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani in Islamabad to ease growing tensions over the arrest of a US national for killing two people.

On his first trip to the region, Marc Gross-man held talks with Foreign Secretary Sal-man Bashir before meeting Gilani.

The visit came as the relations between two countries are strained because of the arrest of Raymond David, a CIA contractor, who shot and killed two Pakistanis in the eastern city of Lahore on January 28.

The US had claimed that Davis was a US Embassy official and therefore enjoyed dip-lomatic immunity, but a local court on Thurs-day said that no evidence had been produced about his diplomatic status.

An official privy to the talks between the US envoy and Gilani yesterday said the prime minister told Grossman that the issue would be handled “in a responsible way and in the light of the court verdict.” — Agencies

Tajik president arrives in Pakistan on three-day visit

SOLDIERS stand atop a vehicle during an Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) parade and change of command ceremony inside the Camp Aguinaldo military headquarters in metro Manila. — Reuters

DHAKA — Bangladesh will create a $700 million mutual fund, the country’s biggest ever, in a bid to stabilise the highly volatile Dhaka Stock Exchange, the head of a state-owned in-vestment bank said yesterday.

The plan is part of the government’s drive to restore calm to the market, after sharp falls triggered angry protests by inves-tors in the capital Dhaka and across the country.

Eight state-run financial institutions will invest cash to create the planned 50 billion taka ($700 million) Bangladesh Fund, said M Fayequzzaman, Chief Executive Officer of the Investment Corp of Bangladesh.

“It is the largest ever mutual fund in the country’s history. It is aimed at stabilising the country’s stock exchange and boost-ing liquidity in the crisis-hit market,” Fayequzzaman said.

The Dhaka Stock Exchange has shed more than 40 per cent in the past three months, wiping over $16 billion off the share market’s capitalisation since its benchmark index hit a record high of 8,918.51 points on December 5.

The benchmark DGEN index was trading up 2.90 per cent, or 160 points, at 5,697 points in morning trade on the back of Sunday’s announcement of the fund’s creation. The fund is in addition to a re-form package that includes tighter regulation and other measures an-nounced by the government to prop up the market and boost investor confidence.

Saudi team visits projects in calamity-hit areas

ISLAMABAD — The three-member Saudi high echelon engi-neering delegation has undertaken inspection of the projects in different parts of the country, which are under completion and funded by Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi Development Fund (SDF) delegation, headed by chief engineer Abdullah al Shoaibi had an important meeting with Saudi Ambassador in Pakistan, Abdul Aziz Ibrahim bin Saleh al Ghadeer, and discussed with him about the plans to help the people living in calamity-hit areas.

Yaser al Bakri and Muhammad al Masood are the other members of the visiting delegation. The SDF has initiated a number of projects in the 2005 earthquake and 2010 flood-affected areas for the rehabilitation of the people of the areas.

King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia dispatched huge assistance on both the occasions for relief and rescue pur-pose and subsequently a number of projects were started under the auspices of Saudi organisation for the rehabilitation of the affectees.

According to Saudi embassy in Islamabad, the site project of King Abdullah University was handed over to the project contractors to initiate the execution at an estimate costing $60 million in Muzaffarabad on the occasion of the visit of the del-egation to the project site. — AFP/Internews

B’desh sets up $700m fund to prop up stocks

MICROFINANCE pioneer Muhammad Yunus emerges from the high court building to contest the decision to remove him from his post in Grameen Bank in Dhaka. — AFP

HAFIZABAD — The gov-ernment of Pakistani prov-ince of Punjab launched a revolutionary step “Kitchen Garden Project” to increase vegetables’ production as well as provision of cheap vegetables to the consumers, officials said yesterday.

Punjab Kitchen Garden Project Director Asghar Khan, addressing a semi-nar, said the objective of in-troducing this project was not only to create a new trend of growing vegetables at domestic level but also to provide cheap vegetables to the people of the province.

At least 100 kitchen gar-dens would be established at district level in Punjab; he said, adding that experts in the Agriculture Depart-ment would provide as-sistance to the people who would establish the kitchen gardens.

Hafizabad District Co-ordination officer Muham-mad Asif said the kitchen gardens would increase environmental beauty and income of the growers.

Kitchen Garden Project

launched

14OMAN DAILY Observer TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

95228450

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MALE, 27 years, BA, 2 years Hotel Management, MS Office, 5 years Oman 5-star hotel experience.

98806986, 99850227.

INDIAN male, BA, 3 years experience, multimedia and animation, 3D visualiser, AutoCad, MS, Coral draw, Photoshop, seeks suitable placement. 99421537, 98443288.

BE, MBA (HR), PGDBM, Indian female, 3 years experience in HR & Admin, well versed with Oman HR practice, Oman labour laws, goozzd in inter personal skills, proficient in MS Office.

92474376.

GULF experienced 3D Viewmaking, looking for part-time. 95516807.

INDIAN male, graduate, 10 years experience in Oman, in Import Export documentation, Admn/HR seeking suitable job. Contact: 93364154.

GULF experienced production engineer (BE) knows AutoCad.

95775221.

INDIAN male having 9 years experience in technical desktop & server support, seeks a suitable placement. 95857316 e-mail: thameemr@gmail.com

INDIAN, BSc Electronics, 4 years experience in Computer Hardware, Networking and Tele communication (optical fibre networking for 1 year). Presently on visit visa. 92454665.

ACCOUNTANT professional MCom, ACCA, 12 years UAE & 1 year Oman experience, knowledge of Tally seeks senior Accountant post. Contact: mohammed_shareef786@hotmail.com

CHARTERED Accountant, Indian female, with 4 years experience in finance, audit, management, accounts & reports, financial statements, budgeting, MIS, is looking for a suitable placement.

99147922. enjoylife138@gmail.com

ACCOUNTANT, 13 years experience, 7 years experience in transport co Oman with knowledge of Tally, seeks jobzzzzzzz. Contact: 98075840.

ACCOUNTANT/Asst Acct, BCom, on visit visa, needs immediate placement. Contact:

96093722. E-mail: sheikcok@yahoo.zzzcom

ACCOUNTS Assistant/ clerical works, BCom on visit visa, needs immediate placement. Contact:

99100926.

INDIAN female, BCom, PG in HR, 4 yrs experience in India. Looking for suitable assignment in Admin/sales/ co-ordination/ HR Asstt/ Back office. Contact:

95248485. E-mail: amrubhusari@gmail.com

INDIAN male, BE (Computer Science Engineering) (CCNA, CCNP, MCP), with 4 years experience in networking/ hardware/ telecom, seeks suitable placement. Contact: 99342044/ 99540876.

IT NETWORK administrator/supporter, with Oman driving licence, 3 years experience in IT, B.Com, CCNA, MCSE, MCTS, ISA fire Wall Hardware, seeks placement. 98427610.

MALE, 26, Indian, BSc in Information Technology (IT), Oman, 2 years experience in indoor sales, 3½ years working in sales as a team leader with Reliance and Tata USB — Broadband. Also worked in computer hardware, seeks for suitable position in Muscat. Contact:

92983456. E-mail: wilfsome@gmail.com, wilfsome_tall@yahoo.co.in

AN experienced and qualified sales executive six years experience in Oman local market and interior with Omani driving licence.

96416273.

INDIAN male Office Secretary/ Administrator, 20 years experience in Oman, looking for suitable job. Contact: 92118648.

20 YEARS Oman experienced male, who could handle accounts up to finalisation, L/C operation, banking, budget, having Omani driving licence, seeking suitable opening in a senior level.

97221993

INDIAN male BCom with over 8 years experience in Sales, Accounts, Administration, Store-keeper, seeks suitable placement. On family visit. 96458518, 92203891.

SOFTWARE Engg, BTech with 3+ years experience in Net, web design, OFC , knowledge in VBNet, Java script, XHTML, XML, HTML, ASP.Net. Looking for suitable placement in IT/Telecom.

92684002. E-mail: mdkaleem1184@yahoo.co.in

HR & Administration Generalist with 14 years experience in diversified industries looking for a challenging and exciting career. Personally suitable in Muscat till 10 March 2011.

93530687. e-mail: Josephabraham@rediffmail.com

INDIAN male, graduate, holder of FIATA/DGR foundation with 5 years experience in shipping /logistic operations, seeks suitable placement

99284879. saviorodrigues2002@yahoo.com

CHARTERED Accountant, Indian male with 8 years experience (4 years in Oman) in finance, audit, accounts, consolidation financial statements (CMA &CBO requirements), budgeting, MIS.

98441907. enjoylife@gmail.com

ARCHITECT graduate 10 years experience with driving licence seeks suitable placement.

99590287.

AUTOMOBILE diploma holder, 8 years experience as service adviser in auto mobile industry, Indian, male, 28 years, seeks suitable placement

95310423.

HOTEL Management and catering tech, Indian male, seeks suitable placement for the position of Commis — Continental, Indian and various other cuisine.

99274639.

YOUNG dynamic male with 12 years experience in oilfield industry in Oman (transport & logistics sector) in reputed organisations in managerial positions, seeks suitable placement. roced_mas@rediffmail.com

M COM, MBA (finance), completed Oracle Financials 11i Module, having 26 years experience out of which 19 years in Oman, having valid Omani driving licence, can handle finance and accounts independently, up to finalisation, seeks suitable post. 98096644.

PROJECTS Co-ordinator, experienced in execution and co-ordination of construction projects, over 14 years, Indian, MBA, employed in Muscat, Seeks suitableplacement. Contact

97528928.

INDIAN female, 27, experienced MBA professional looking for a suitable assignment in HR/admin/sales co-ord/back office. 97920717. chauhanchani@gmail.com

OMAN DAILY Observer

15ASIA/CLASSIFIEDSTUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

ZAJEL weekly magazine evry saturday along with OMAN DAILY for advertising contact

Mobile 96224397 95181747

Tel 24649593 Fax 24649590 Email zajeloman@yahoo com

Rotana HotelSahara Hotel ApartmentsWe are glad to receive our honourable customers in our new hotel (Rotana Hotel) at our distinguished

location at Al Khuwair area opposite the Ministries Street next to Al Zawawi Mosque. We have Single, Double rooms, suites and Meeting Hall.

For further information please contact us on the following numbers: +968-24476000/ 24394444 /99449009 fax: +968- 24476999

For further information please contact us on the following numbers:24483888/+968-24487799 /+968-24488117 / fax : 968-24488221

ITUATION WANTED SITUATION WANTED SITUATION WANTEDS

Mailing Address: OBSERVER CLASSIFIEDS SECTION, P.O. Box 974, Muscat, P.C. 100Location: OEPPA HEAD OFFICE, Medinat Al Alam,

Near Ministry of Information 24649 593, 594, 594, 595, 596, 597& OEPPA Ruwi Office, Next to Dhofar Bldg, Behind Ruwi Police Station 24785668

26, MALE, Indian, graduate seeks suitable placement as Office Administrator, Data Entry, on visit visa, seeks immediate placement. Contact:

996248925. E-mail: shrinivas.devang@gmail.com

SOFTWARE Projects/ Products: Indian Male, M Tech, Rich exp (10 yrs Oman exp), QMS/ Testing, Implementation & Support (including Change, Config & Incident Management). Knowledge in QMS, ITIL, SDLC, SRLC & STLC Life Cycles. Currently on visit & seeks suitable placement. Call 96274923/ 92398489 or e-mail: garimellar@gmail.com

TOKYO — Japan’s health ministry has suspend-ed two widely-used vaccines made by Pfizer and Sanofi-Aventis as it investigates whether they are linked to the recent deaths of four infants.

The infants, aged from around six months to under two years old, died over a three-day period this month after receiving the vaccinations or in combination with other drugs, the health ministry said in a statement.

The two drugs — used to prevent forms of pneu-monia and meningitis — are Prevenar made by New York-based Pfizer and ActHIB, a drug made by the Sanofi Pasteur wing of Paris-headquartered Sanofi-Aventis.

Sanofi’s ActHIB is used in over 120 countries, according to the company.

The two vaccines have been administered to an estimated 1.5 million children in Japan, the ministry said.

There have been no reports so far from the doc-tors who treated the children that establish a causal relationship between the vaccines and their deaths,

according to the Ministry of Health.In Japan the precautionary suspension remain un-

til at least today pending the results of an investiga-tion by a group of medical experts.

The ministry reported that three infants under the age of two died within three days of receiving the two vaccine shots, with two of the children also re-ceiving DPT shots for diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus.

A one-year-old died a day after being adminis-tered Prevenar and a DPT shot, the ministry said, adding that some of the infants had underlying ill-nesses.

Prevenar and ActHIB became available in Japan around two years ago.

Authorities decided to suspend them after the four deaths occurred between March 2-4, the min-istry said.

“Sanofi Pasteur would like to express its sincere condolences to the families affected by these loss-es”, a spokesman said.

“An investigation is under way to which Sanofi

Pasteur intends to fully co-operate with health au-thorities by providing all data available regarding HIB.”

In a statement Pfizer said it was fully co-oper-ating with the ministry’s suspension and was in the process of gathering information. “Our company has studied and assessed accumulated information, in-cluding that on causal relationships, with regard to the side effects of all products including Prevenar.”

The suspension follows the deaths of two infants in southwest France in late February who had been administered Prevenar.

Health authorities on Thursday said the deaths were not linked to the drug.

In 2009, US firm Wyeth, which was later bought by Pfizer, suspended distribution and quarantined a batch of Prevenar in the Netherlands following re-ports of the deaths of three infants around the time of vaccination.

Dutch authorities and Wyeth in February 2010 determined there was no correlation between the three deaths and the vaccine injections. — AFP

Japan suspends 2 vaccines after infant deaths SEOUL — North Korea has proposed Red Cross talks to try to resolve a row over the fate of 31 of its nationals in South Korea, four of whom have said they want to defect, officials in the South said yes-terday.

The South says the four, on a fishing boat that drifted into South Korean waters last month, would be allowed to stay, while the remainder would be sent back home.

“The government’s official position is that the will of in-dividuals must be respected,” a Foreign Ministry official told a news briefing in Seoul.

The North has lashed out at its neighbour, accusing Seoul of forcing the North Koreans to defect against their will.

North Korea’s Red Cross requested working-level talks tomorrow at the truce village of Panmunjom on their heav-ily fortified border to resolve the issue, the South’s Red Cross said in a statement. North Korea said the four who wished to defect should be brought to the talks.

The Unification Ministry in Seoul rejected the North’s proposal, but an official said the South was still willing to hold discussions tomorrow

to “confirm the free will of the four people”. The North had yet to reply to Seoul’s re-sponse, the official said.

The 27 returnees and the vessel they sailed south off the peninsula’s west coast on February 5 in thick fog were meant to be repatriated through land and sea borders on Friday, but the North re-fused to allow their re-entry.

The boat was spotted drift-ing near Yeonpyeong island, which lies just 11 km from the North’s soil and was bom-barded in November by North Korean artillery, killing four people. — Reuters

North Korea proposes talks to resolve row over defection

1616INFORMATION/LEISURE TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

DAY DUTY

Muscat Ibn Sina 24540137

Al Hashar 24833115

Muscat 24421691

Al Rimah Medical

Center 24479664

Sur Masirah 25544033

Ibri Al Zaiyana 25694458

Buraimi Zahrat Al Buraimi

050-693504

Nizwa Al Hazfah 25426102

Salalah Al Hadeeqa

23292991

NIGHT DUTY

Muscat Scientific 24537127

Apollo 24787766

Mahaq 24421644

Muscat 24485740

Sur Ibn Sina 25540669

Ibri Al Aryaf Al Omania

25689715

Buraimi Zohal 25640211

Barka Muscat 26885372

Rustaq Bader Al Jashmi

26876523

Nizwa Alqalaa 25410076

Salalah Al Eman 23290170

24-HOUR SERVICE

Al Hashar ph, Ruwi 24783334

Muscat ph, Ruwi, 24702542

Al Sarooj, 24695536

Scientific ph, Qurum, 24566601

Ruwi, 24702850

PHARMACIES

6.00 Opening, Royal Anthem, The Holy Quran, Preview of Morning Programme, Weather Forecast and Pharmacies on Duty; 6.15 Good Morning Oman; 7.00 News Bulletin; 7.10 Good Morning Oman (Sat-Wed) with What the Paper Says; 9.00 News Headlines; 9.02 Piano; 10.00 Instrumental Music; 11.00 Light Classical Music; 12.00 News Headlines, 12.02 Midday Edition (Live) Sat-Wed; 2.07 Around the World in 30 mins; 2:25 Jungle — On Road with 90.4 — Sat-Wed; 2.30 News Bulletin; 2.40 Sports (Faiq) Daily except Thu & Fri; 2:50 Mix Music Except Thu & Fri; 3.00 Women in Focus — Nisham Repeat of Thu 6.40 & Fri 3.30 pm; 3.20 Radio Station Jingles and Programmes; 3.25 Mix Music; 3.30 Health Matters; 4.00 News Headlines; 4.02 Health Matters; 6.00 Forts and Castles of Oman — Laxmi Repeat of Monday 3.00 & Fri 2.40 pm;. 6.15 Radio Station Jingles and Programmes; 6.30 News Bulletin; 6.40 Mix Music; 7.00 Football Lounge (Rumaitha); 8.00 News Headlines; 8.02 Night Express; 10.00 News Bulletin; 10.10 Flash Back; 11.15 Mix Music; 12.40 News Summary; 12.45 The Holy Quran; 01.00 National Anthem, Close Down.

Ministry: www.omanet.om

Oman TV:

www.oman-tv.gov.om

Oman Radio:

www.oman-radio.gov.om

Omani Centre for Traditional Music:

www.octm-folk.gov.om

Keep in touch with Majlis Ash’shura’s

news.

Log on to the Majlis’s website:

www.shura.om

and the Majlis’s

e-mail: info@shura.om

Or write to the Majlis’s postal address:

P O Box 981

Postal Code 111, Muscat

Tel: 24510344 / 24521427/

Fax 24510560

INFORMATIONMINISTRY WEBSITES

MAJLIS A’SHURAADDRESSES

OMAN RADIO

FILM INFORMATIONAL BAHJA CINEMA:

24540856, 24540855.

AL NASR CINEMA:

24831358, 24831809 (after 3pm)

AL SHATTI PLAZA:

24607360, 24692656 (after 2pm)

STARS CINEMA:

24791641, 24792360

CINEMA

Hospital. . . . . . Board . . . . . . . EmergencyRoyal. . . . . . . .24599000 . . . .24590491 Health Services DepartmentMuttrah . . . . . .24797602Quriyat . . . . . .24845001 . . . .24845003 SQH, Salalah .23211555 . . . .23211151Police . . . . . . .24603988 . . . .24603980Al Nahda. . . . .24831255 . . . .24837800Ibn Sina . . . . .24876322 . . . .24877361Nizwa . . . . . . .25439361 . . . .25425033Al Rustaq . . . .26875055 . . . .26877186Sumayil. . . . . .25350055 . . . .25350022Izki . . . . . . . . .25340033 . . . .25340033Haima . . . . . . .23436013 . . . .23436055Sohar . . . . . . .26840022 . . . .26840099

Al Buraimi . . . .25650855 . . . .25652319

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

Tanam. . . . . . .25499011 . . . .25499033

Masirah. . . . . .25404018 . . . .25404018

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

Adam . . . . . . .25434167 . . . .25434055

Bidiya . . . . . . .25483535 . . . .25483535

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

Saham . . . . . .26854427 . . . .26855148

Khasab . . . . . .26830187 . . . .26830187

Dibba . . . . . . .26836443 . . . .26836443

Burkha . . . . . .26828397 . . . .26828397

Sinaw . . . . . . .25474338

OTHER HOSPITALS

Private & Other WardsWorking Days: 16:00-18:00. Weekends & Public Holidays: 10:-12:00, 16:00-18:00

ICUWorking Days: 16:00-17:00. Weekends & Public Holidays: 16:00-17:00

Special Care Baby UnitWorking Days: Parents may visit at any time. Weekends & Public Holidays: Parents may visit at any time

KHOULA HOSPITAL VISITING HOURS

CRYPTIC PUZZLEACROSS

1 Something filling you can get at the station (6)

7 Take shocking precautions? (8)

8 The only one to lose out (4)

10 Kicked a fellow with a derisive cry (6)

11 Was he led far astray? (6)14 Sound catty (3)16 Not the full name? (5)17 Changed in appearance as

the eddy swirled (4)19 Partly undress and return

to bed at some stage (5)21 Mark, the officer

commanding half London (5)

22 Two letters relating to legs (5)

23 A crew member with taste (4)

26 Stuffed and framed (3,2)28 The point of cannibalism

(3)29 Something lower than a

work of art? (6)30 Samuel’s servant? (6)31 No longer an incomplete

concept (4)32 Check what the reserves

do between matches (8)33 Mid-summer, to ride

around recklessly is not so bright! (6)

DOWN 1 Delved into a professional

plot (6) 2 In Detroit, endlessly,

caused great commotion (6)

3 Told fibs to music? (4) 4 Sleeping in such a car was

a moving experience (7) 5 Youngster in the Inland

Revenue during Prohibition (5)

6 Darling, she is, in Peter Pan (5)

8 Thus, at half-time, there’s evidently more to come (4)

9 He left contradictory directions (3)

12 As blamed by a fathead for scoring at the wrong end? (3)

13 She’ll give a bit of discreet help (5)

15 Unites meltingly (5)18 Sing high in the Alps? (5)19 He has a bit of fun at a

party (3)20 A backward yob? (3)21 Catch something and

there’s apt to be a remedy going around (7)

22 Chelsea hair-style? (3)23 Series based on familiar

shortcomings? (6)24 Skilled in bale bundling?

(4)25 Painter of what might be

true about the navy? (6)26 It’s fun touring around, I

see, in the tropics (5)27 Happy to give advice to a

Yankee (5)28 Lady in a brown uniform

(3)

30 Fictional operative in carbon dating (4)

EASY PUZZLEACROSS

1 Yarn (6) 7 Creator (8) 8 Stalk (4)10 Stop working (6)11 Royal residence (6)14 Mineral (3)16 Called (5)17 Adhesive strip (4)19 Sensational (5)21 Italian city (5)22 Dead language (5)23 Injury (4)26 Take unlawfully (5)28 Brown (3)29 Using plants (6)30 Hark (6)31 Performs (4)32 Catered (8)33 Over there (6)

DOWN 1 Tower (6) 2 Whole (6) 3 US coin (4) 4 Skin pigment (7) 5 Vapour (5) 6 Avarice (5)

8 Cease (4) 9 Before (3)12 Boy (3)13 Tree (5)15 Flower (5)18 Gemstone (5)19 Illuminated (3)20 Sprinted (3)21 Infectious disease (7)22 Scientist’s room (3)23 Hurry (6)24 Insects (4)25 Trusted adviser (6)26 Form (5)27 Mistake (5)28 Twitch (3)30 Titled woman (4)

YESTERDAY’S CRYPTIC SOLUTIONS

ACROSS: 1, Smash 6, Ea-gle 9, Weeding 10, Chain 11, Ten-Ch. 12, Beard 13, Discard 15, Bet 17, Arch 18, Banana 19, Unlit 20, C-rusty 22, Bare 24, Ea.-t 25, Pop-u-lar 26, Sedan 27, Abler 28, Earth 29, We-stern 30, Stand 31, Read-y.DOWN: 2, Mohair 3, SW-itch 4, Hen 5, Edged 6, En-treat 7, Aged 8, Lichen 12, BR-in-y 13, Dance 14, Scout 15, Ban-a-L 16, Taper 18, Bi-son 19, Ut-ter-ed 21, Rabbit 22, But-a-NE 23, Ran-Ted 25, Paste 26, SEWN 28, E-rr.

YESTERDAY’S EASY SOLUTIONS

ACROSS: 1, Float 6, Circa 9, Bighead 10, Pagan 11, Plead 12, Haste 13, Benefit 15, Bed 17, Arid 18, Divine 19, Pecan 20, Others 22, Tome 24, Nee 25, Learner 26, Cited 27, Hades 28, Avian 29, Debacle 30, Steed 31, Plied.

DOWN: 2, Leader 3, Abated 4, Tin 5, Cheat 6, Captain 7, Idle 8, Craven 12, Hives 13, Baton 14, Niche 15, Bison 16, Defer 18, Dated 19, Praised 21, Tenant 22, Travel 23, Menace 25, Legal 26, Cede 28, Alp

CROSSWORDACROSS

2 Fruit (5) 7 Against (4) 8 Tool (6) 9 Thrust (5)11 Aged (3)13 Nourished (3)15 Trudge (4)16 Undergarment (3)18 Travelled (4)19 Bedroom (7)20 Fake (4)22 Look (4)23 Swellings (7)25 Consumed (4)27 Headgear (3)28 Strongbox (4)30 Spoil (3)31 Bundle (3)33 Leader (5)36 Cake (6)37 Instrument (4)38 Reverence (5)

DOWN 1 Toll (5) 2 Afflict (3) 3 Joke (3)

4 Sheep (3) 5 Black (3) 6 Suffered (5)10 Teacher (4)11 Marsupial (7)12 Widow (7)13 Predicted (7)

14 Ordered (7)16 Branch (5)17 Allow (5)18 Tear (3)21 Insane (3)24 Fasten (4)26 Stories (5)

29 Confidence (5)32 Bench (3)33 Prize (3)34 Decorate (3)35 Insect (3)

YESTERDAY’S QUICK SOLUTION

ACROSS: 1, Strip 5, Cosmos 8, Madly 10, Topple 11, Ajar 14, Novice 15, Biscuit 18, Yet 19, Dog 21, Sell 23, Merry 24, Axle 27, Duo 29, Oak 31, Sweater 32, Lessee 34, Sign 35, Nearly 38, Dogma 39, Pearls 40, Urged.DOWN: 2, Too 3, Im-pact 4, Pal 5, Cyan 6, Slaves 7, Squeal 9, De-cided 12, Joy 13, Rite 16, Ibex 17, Torus 20, Growing 22, Lope 24, Asleep 25, Loss 26, Easier 28, Bazaar 30, Keg 33, Ends 36, Emu 37, Lie.

QUICK CROSSWORD

PISCES(February 20-March 20) An additional financial com-mitment may put a heavy

strain on your resources just now so don’t let anybody persuade you to sign any-thing.

ARIES(March 21-April 20)If you bicker over every tri-fle in your business dealings

you may overlook the more important aspects and prejudice your advantage on important issues.

TAURUS(April 21-May 20)Realise that you have neglect-ed your correspondence very

badly and do something about it unless you can afford to lose a number of useful contacts.

GEMINI(May 21-June 21)Don’t allow yourself to become too preoccupied

with worries about your health. If you have any medical problems consult your doctor straight away.

CANCER(June 22-July 21)You’ll find that your family don’t seem to want to listen

to your exciting plans. You will either have to keep them to yourself or wait un-til someone asks about them.

LEO(July 22-August 21)Your friends will be just as pleased to come to your

home over the Easter weekend if you make them really welcome even if you don’t indulge in extravagantly expensive hospitality.

VIRGO(August 22-September 22)A confidential discussion

will be more productive of results over a luncheon table than in the businesslike atmosphere of the office.

LIBRA(September 23-Oct 22)An urgent domestic ex-penditure may be more than

you had anticipated and it may be nec-essary to practise some economies for a while.

SCORPIO(October 23-November 21)If you have received an in-

vitation you are unable to accept try to transfer it to a friend or relation who is in need of a treat.

SAGITTARIUS(November 22-December 21)You will be able to resolve

an emotional conflict in short order by making a difficult decision without fur-ther upset or delay.

CAPRICORN(December 22-January 20)An important letter should

be written on Easter and it is essential for you to be sincere and truthful in whatever you have to say.

AQUARIUS(January 21-Feb 19)Information received in a roundabout way may prove

most helpful in connection with a busi-ness deal, which had been meeting ob-stacles.

I was always ready to fight. But I have reached the limits of my strength.

— Germany’s popular defence minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg

quits over accusations hecheated on his doctorate.

QUOTATIONS FOR TODAY

FAISAL BIN ALI AL SAID MUSEUM,

Tel: 24641650

MUSEUM OF OMANI HERITAGE,

Tel: 24600946

CHILDREN’S SCIENCE MUSEUM.

Tel: 24605368

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM,

Tel: 24641374

NATIONAL MUSEUM, Tel: 24701289

SULTAN’S ARMED FORCES

MUSEUM, Tel: 24312646

CURRENCY MUSEUM,

Tel: 24796102

MUSCAT GATE MUSEUM,

Tel: 24739005.

OMANI-FRENCH MUSEUM (Bait

Fransa), Tel: 24736613

BAIT AL ZUBAIR, Tel: 24736688

BAIT A’NAMAN, Tel: 24641300

SOHAR FORT MUSEUM.

Tel: 26844758

NAHKAL FORT, Tel: 26781384

BAIT AL MAKHAM. Tel: 24641300

BAIT ADAM MUSEUM, QURUM,

Tel: 24605033, 24605013

OIL AND GAS EXHIBITION

CENTRE AND PLANE-TARIUM,

Tel: 24677834.

PLANETARIUM, Tel: 24675542.

AQUARIUM at the Marine Science

and Fisheries Centre (located next to

Marina Bandar Rowdha, Sidab).

SALALAH MUSEUM, Tel: 23294549

CULTURAL CENTRE, Tel: 23294549.

SUR MARITIME MUSEUM,

Tel: 24541466.

BAIT AL BARANDA, Tel: 24714262.

M U S E U M S I N O M A N

EMERGENCY 9 9 9 9

DG of Passports & Residency, 24569603DG of Customs, 24714626Traffic offences, 24510227/228ROP Public Relations, 24569270Consumer Complaints Cell, 24817013

Muscat Governorate Headquarters, 24560021

Muscat, 24736611

Wattayah, 24677990

Ruwi, 24701099

Muttrah, 24712211

Bausher, 24600099

Al Amerat, 24875999

Qurayat, 24845555

A’Seeb, 24420099

Al-Athaiba, 24521099

AI-Khodh, 24425012

Directorate of the University Security, 24513999

Directorate of Traffic Muscat, 24567898

Al Batinah Headquarters, 26840096

Al Rustaq Division, 26875099

Al Dakhiliyah, 25425099

Nizwa Division, 25425099

Samayil Division, 25350099

Al Sharqiyah Headquarters, 25545070

Ibra Division, 25570100

Al Dhahirah Headquarters, 25650099

Al Buraimi Division, 25650199

Ibri Division, 25689099

Al Wusta Headquarters, 23436099

Haima Division, 23436211

Special Task Force, 24560088

Coastguard Headquarters, 24714888

Dhofar Governorate Headquarters, 23234599

Salalah Police Station, 23290099

Thamrait Division, 23279099

Musandam Governorate Headquarters, 26730299

Khasab Division, 26731502

ROYAL OMAN POLICE

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

e-mail: ropnet@omantel.net.om

IF IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY: The first few weeks of the coming year will be quite uneventful and you will have a good chance to attend to some chores which you feel have been neglected in the rush of the recent past.

Control your expenses carefully and don’t let anybody persuade you that their ways are best.

YOUR STARS

ARRIVALS — TUESDAY

Flight No Aircraft From / Via STA

KQ318 B737-8 Dubai 0005WY682 B737-8 Riyadh 0005WY672 B737-8 Jeddah 0010WY670 B737-8 Doha 0010WY648 B737-8 Kuwait 0010WY660 B737-8 Bahrain 0010BG021 A310 Dacca-Chittagong 0145TK858 A320 Istanbul 0210QR170 A320 Doha 0315EK866 A330 Dubai 0355EY384 A320 Abu Dhabi 0400GF560 E190 Bahrain 0420MS930 B737-8 Cairo 0450WY322 B737-8 Karachi 0630WY122 A330 Malpensa-Munich 0715WY114 A330 Frankfurt 0740WY132 A330 Paris 0750WY632 ATR42 Abu Dhabi 0755WY652 B737-8 Bahrain 0800FZ043 B737-8 Dubai 0800WY602 B737-8 Dubai 0800WY674 B737-8 Jeddah 0800WY202 B737-8 Bombay 0800WY902 B737-8 Salalah 0800WY102 A330 London Heathrow 0840WY662 B737-8 Doha 0855WY272 B737-8 Jaipur 0900WY326 B737-8 Islamabad 0920EK862 A330 Dubai 0930QR166 A321 Doha 0950EY382 A320 Abu Dhabi 1000WY818 A330 Bangkok 1000G9113 A320 Sharjah 10059W530 B737-8 Trivandrum 1025WY604 B737-8 Dubai 1040PK191 ATR42 Gwadur 1045DHX881 SA227F Bahrain 1130GF562 A319 Bahrain 1250IX815C B737-8 Mangalore 1255WY3302 ATR42 Mukhaizna 1330WY918 ATR42 Khasab 1330WY606 B737-8 Dubai-Abu Dhabi 1450RJ600 ERJ175 Amman 1515FZ045 B737-8 Dubai 1545WY664 B737-8 Doha-Bahrain 1550WY906 A330 Salalah 1615WY294 B737-8 Calicut 1640WY204 B737-8 Bombay 1700IC885 A320 Delhi 1700WY244 B737-8 Delhi 1710WY214 B737-8 Trivandrum 1745WY264 B737-8 Lucknow 1750WY284 B737-8 Bangalore 1755WY3304 ATR42 Mukhaizna 1800GF564 A320 Bahrain 1820WY224 B737-8 Cochin 1855G9117 A320 Sharjah 1855SV534 EMB170 Riyadh 1900WY404 A330 Cairo 1900WY312 B737-8 Chittagong 1905FZ047 B737-8 Dubai 2020TG507 A330 Bangkok-Karachi 2035WY254 B737-8 Madras 2045WY336 B737-8 Kathmandu 2115WY610 B737-7 Dubai 2145IC923 A319 Madras 2200WY381 A330 Male-Colombo 2220WY908 A330 Salalah 2230LH618 A340 Frankfurt-Abu Dhabi 2230BA073 B777 London Heathrow-Abu Dhabi 2230QR168 A320 Doha 2235EY388 A320 Abu Dhabi 2240GF566 E190 Bahrain 2250WY624 ATR42 Al Ain 2300IC685 A319 Ahmedabad-Bombay 2310WY234 B737-8 Hyderabad 2310WY636 B737-8 Abu Dhabi 2310WY626 ATR42 Ras Al Khaima 23109W534 B737-8 Cochin 2315LX242 A330 Zurich-Dubai 2320WY910 B737-8 Salalah 2325WY612 B737-8 Dubai 2330WY684 B737-8 Dammam 23359W540 B737-8 Bombay 2340WY702 B737-8 Dar-es-Salaam 2355

DEPARTURES

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BA072 B777 Abu Dhabi-London Heathrow 0015IC686 A319 Bombay-Ahmedabad 0015LX243 A330 Dubai-Zurich 00209W539 B737-8 Bombay 0040WY631 ATR42 Abu Dhabi 0055WY661 B737-8 Doha 0055WY651 B737-8 Bahrain 0055KQ318 B737-8 Nairobi 0105WY601 B737-8 Dubai 01109W529 B737-8 Trivandrum 0115WY201 B737-8 Bombay 0130WY321 B737-8 Karachi 0200WY271 B737-8 Jaipur 0220WY325 B737-8 Islamabad 0240TK859 A320 Istanbul 0300BG022 A310 Chittagong-Dacca 0315EK867 A330 Dubai 0500EY385 A320 Abu Dhabi 0530MS931 B737-8 Cairo 0545QR171 A320 Doha 0550GF561 E190 Bahrain 0655WY603 B737-8 Dubai 0730FZ044 B737-8 Dubai 0840WY293 B737-8 Calicut 0900WY823 A330 Kuala Lumpur 0900WY311 B737-8 Chittagong 0905WY403 A330 Cairo 0920WY213 B737-8 Trivandrum 0945WY243 B737-8 Delhi 0950WY263 B737-8 Lucknow 1000WY3301 ATR42 Mukhaizna 1000WY381 A330 Male-Colombo 1020WY283 B737-8 Bangalore 1020WY663 B737-8 Doha-Bahrain 1020WY101 A330 London Heathrow 1030WY917 ATR42 Khasab 1030WY605 B737-8 Dubai-Abu Dhabi 1040WY203 B737-8 Bombay 1040EK863 A330 Dubai 1045G9114 A320 Sharjah 1045WY223 B737-8 Cochin 1045EY383 A320 Abu Dhabi 1050QR167 A321 Doha 11109W533 B737-8 Cochin 1125PK192 ATR42 Gwadur-Turbat 1130WY905 A330 Salalah 1130WY335 B737-8 Kathmandu 1145WY701 B737-8 Dar-es-Salaam 1210DHX886 SA227F Abu Dhabi 1230WY253 B737-8 Madras 1235WY101 A330 London Heathrow 1305GF563 A319 Bahrain 1340IX816C B737-8 Abu Dhabi-Mangalore 1345WY3303 ATR42 Mukhaizna 1430WY233 B737-8 Hyderabad 1550RJ601 ERJ175 Amman 1600FZ046 B737-8 Dubai 1630WY671 B737-8 Jeddah 1650WY907 A330 Salalah 1745IC886 A320 Delhi 1800WY609 B737-8 Dubai 1800WY681 B737-8 Riyadh 1850WY647 B737-8 Kuwait 1900GF565 A320 Bahrain 1905WY683 B737-8 Dammam 1915WY909 B737-8 Salalah 1920G9118 A320 Sharjah 1935SV535 EMB170 Riyadh 2000WY669 B737-8 Doha 2005WY635 B737-8 Abu Dhabi 2010WY659 B737-8 Bahrain 2010WY625 ATR42 Ras Al Khaima 2010WY623 ATR42 Al Ain 2015WY611 B737-8 Dubai 2030FZ048 B737-8 Dubai 2105TG508 A330 Karachi-Bangkok 2140WY901 B737-8 Salalah 2245IC924 A319 Madras 2300EY381 A320 Abu Dhabi 2330GF567 E190 Bahrain 2335QR169 A320 Doha 2335LH619 A340 Abu Dhabi-Frankfurt 2355

24-HOUR

PHARMS SLS — TUESDAY

om / Via STA

SDEPARTURES

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FFLIGHTLIGHT S SCHEDULECHEDULE

STONE SOUP by Jan Eliot

GARFIELD by Jim Davis

CALVIN AND HOBBES by Bill Watterson

ADAM @ HOME by Brian Basset

C A R TO O N SC A R TO O N S

OMAN DAILY Observer

17SPORTTUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

MUSCAT — NBO maintained their unbeaten record in the Al Ansari Group of Companies-sponsored ‘C’ Division T20 tournament with a convincing seven- wicket win against Dy-namos cricket team in a morning match played during the week-end at the OACIII grounds.

Winning the toss and decid-ing to bat, Dynamos with con-tributions from opening bats-man skipper M G Shankar 49 (47b, 4x4), his partner Anishad K P 39 (27b, 1x6 and 7x4) and Shameer K C 21 (15b, 3x4) scored 163 for six wickets off the 20 stipulated overs.

The bowling honours were shared by Punit Mehta two for 24, skipper Anil Koshy two for 28 and Abhishek Prafull two for 36 off four overs each.

NBO in their turn lost both openers with 18 runs on the board but recovered through a third wicket partnership of 125 between Khurram Bilal 93 not out (43b, 3x6 and 13x4) and opening batsman Nayaz Mo-hammed 50 (44b, 4x4) to make 167 for three wickets off 18.1 overs. Anishad K P claimed all three wickets to fall conceding 23 runs off four overs.

Brief score Dynamos CT 163 for three wickets off 20 overs (M G Shankar 49, Anishad K P 39 and Shameer K C 21; Punit Mehta 2/24, Anil Koshy 2/28 and Abhishek Pra-full 2/36) lost to NBO 167 for three wickets off 18.1 overs (Khurram Bi-lal 93 n.o and Mohammed Nayaz 50; Anishad K P 3/23).

Points NBO 2 pts (6 games, 12 pts) and Dynamos 0 pt (7 games, 6 pts).

ENHANCE EAGLES WIN Enhance Eagles registered

a thumping nine-wicket win against Sarco OCT Hatat when the teams met in a Raha Poly Products-sponsored ‘D’ Divi-sion T20 match played in the afternoon at the same venue.

Electing to bat after win-ning the toss, Sarco OCT Hatat made 164 for six wick-ets off the 20 allotted overs with Nadil Yousuf making a top- score of 52 (23b, 6x4). The other batsman to make major contributions were opening batsman Sameer Me-hrab 39 (25b. 4x4), Abdullah Mohammed 21 (28b, 2x4) and Mohammed Ali 20 (8b, 3x4).

Sharath Krishnamoorthy and Ikram Nasir claimed two wickets each conceding 25 and 38 runs respectively off four overs each.

Enhance Eagles started off

briskly with opening batsmen skipper Jaison Manjila strik-ing an elegant unbeaten 76 (43b, 13x4) and his partner Sharath Krishnamoorthy mak-ing 29 the duo putting together 60 runs for the first wicket off six overs. Deepak Nicholas joined Jaison and remained unbeaten on 50 (36b, 2x6 and 1x4) the pair were associated in an unfinished partnership of 105 runs for the second wicket taking the score to 165 for 1 wicket off 17.2 overs.

Brief scores Sarco OCT Hatat 164 for six wickets off 20 overs (Nadil Yousuf 52, Sameer Mehrab 39, Abdullah Mohammed 21 and Mohammed Ali 20; Sharath Krishna-moorthy 2/25 and Ikram Nasir 2/38) lost to Enhance Eagles 165 for 1 wicket off 17.2 overs (Jaison Man-jila 76 n.o, Deepak Nicholas 50 n.o and Sharath Krishnamoorthy 29).

Points Enhance Eagles 2 pts (5 games, 6 pts) and Sarco OCT Hatat 0 pt (7 games, 8 pts).

SHEHBAZ STARS Opening batsman Shehbaz

Butt with a brilliant 54 (34b, 2x6 and 6x4) and a haul of two for six off three overs helped Al Hassan defeat Ceva Lo-gistics by 42 runs in an Oman Cricket-organised ‘E’ Division T20 match played at the PDO grounds during the weekend.

Batting first after winning the toss, Al Hassan scored 177 for seven wickets off their quota of 20 overs, thanks to the contributions from open-ing batsman Shehbaz Butt and his partner Nasir Awan36 (28b, 5x4) and Ghulam Abbas 32 (22b, 5x4).

Praveen Lewis picked up three wickets conceding 23 runs off four overs.

With a required run rate of less than eight runs per over Ceva Logistics fared disastrous-ly and managed to reach 135 for eight wickets at the end of 20 overs. The major contributors were Daley Mathias 41 (48b, 1x4), Praveen Edatt 31 (13b, 2x6 and 1x4) and Nitin Cherukupalli a run a ball 22 (2x4). Shehzad two for 17 off three and Ghulam Abbas two for 25 were amongst the wickets.

Brief scores Al Hassan 177 for seven wickets off 20 overs (Shehbaz Butt 54, Nasir Awan 39 and Ghulam Abbas 32; Praveen Lewis 3/23) bt Ceva Logistics 135 for eight wick-ets off 20 overs (Daley Mathias 41, Praveen Edatt 31 and Nitin Cheruku-palli 22; Shehbaz Butt 2/6, Shehzad 2/17 and Ghulam Abbas 2/25).

Points Al Hassan 2 pts (4 games, 6 pts) and Ceva Logistics 0 pt (5 games, 2 pts).

NBO maintain unbeaten record

ACTION during the BTT-Oman Cement match at the OCCI basketball championship yesterday. BTT won

70-55. In the other match, FILCOSOC defeated TAISM 106-61.

MADRID — Karim Benzema scored twice as Real Madrid survived without Cristiano Ronaldo to win 3-1 at Racing Santander and close the gap on La Liga leaders Barcelona to seven points on Sunday.

Ronaldo, who has netted 27 goals this season, missed his first league game of the cam-paign with a muscle strain, but Benzema and Emmanuel Ade-bayor led Jose Mourinho’s side on to 67 points with 11 games left.

The leaders beat Real Zaragoza 1-0 at home on Sat-urday. Real made a flying start at the Sardinero, hitting the crossbar twice before Adebay-

or scored in the 23rd minute following the type of move more usually associated with their arch-rivals Barca.

The outstanding Mesut Ozil was at the centre of a series of one-touch passes which sliced Racing open and he finished by squaring for Adebayor to sidefoot into the empty net.

Three minutes later, the Germany midfielder set up Benzema to score the second.

Racing, who had not lost under new coach Marcelino, spurned a chance to hit back when Pablo Pinillos’s weak penalty was saved after the break, but Kennedy Bakirci-oglu threatened a comeback

when he scored from a fine move in the 70th.

Benzema curled in his second soon after following a counter-attack and Adebayor also missed a late penalty.

“We played very well, very compact and control-led the game,” Mourinho told reporters.

Earlier, a Sevilla own-goal and a late penalty from Ando-ni Iraola gave Athletic Bilbao a 2-0 home win which lifted them to fifth. The Basque club moved on to 41 points from 27 games, nine short of Vil-larreal and the last Champions League qualification slot. The fourth-placed side lost 3-1 at

Atletico Madrid on Saturday.Sevilla’s Argentine defend-

er Federico Fazio knocked a cross into his own net with his knee after 66 minutes, in a bruising encounter at San Mames. Julien Escude brought down Oscar de Marcos for a penalty which Iraola, wearing a head bandage after a colli-sion with Sevilla’s Alvaro Ne-gredo, converted in the 88th.

Almeria climbed two points above Malaga into 19th with a 2-1 comeback win at Hercules, who now occupy the last relega-tion place in 18th on 26 points. Sporting Gijon moved out of the bottom three with a 2-0 home win over Getafe. — Reuters

Benzema double helps Real outplay Racing

MEXICO CITY — Sev-en-times world champion Sebastien Loeb won the Rally of Mexico for the fifth year in a row on Sun-day after overnight leader Sebastien Ogier crashed out on the first stage of the final day.

Finns Mikko Hirvo-nen, winner of the season-opening race in Sweden last month, and Jari-Matti Latvala were second and third respectively in the race in the state of Guana-juato.

Loeb moved up into second place in the stand-ings with 35 points, eight behind Hirvonen.

“It was a very difficult weekend, the fight with Ogier was fierce,” Loeb, who was one minute 38.40 seconds faster than Hirvo-nen at the finish in Leon, told reporters.

“We had an almost per-fect weekend. I’m happy with the new car, it’s very fast,” added Loeb of the brand new Citroen DS3 car’s first victory.

Ogier went off the road 13 kms into the 20th stage and broke his front left wheel, handing the lead to fellow-French-man and Citroen team-mate Loeb. — Reuters

Loeb wins Rally of Mexico

AL Hassan players pose for a photo.

SAN ANTONIO — The Los Angeles Lakers brushed aside NBA leaders San Antonio Spurs 99-83 to record their seventh consecutive win on Sunday and bring the Spurs’ hot home streak to a halt.

The Pacific-division lead-ing Lakers still trail the Spurs by six and a half games in the Western Conference but ended San Antonio’s record home winning streak at 22 games.

Kobe Bryant led the Lak-ers with 26 points and Pau Gasol scored 21. Tony Park-er was the only Spurs starter to score in double digits.

Results: Chicago Bulls bt Mi-ami Heat 87-86, Detroit Pistons bt Washington Wizards 113-102, New Orleans Hornets bt Cleve-land Cavs 96-81, Los Angeles Lakers bt San Antonio Spurs 99-83. — Reuters

Lakers brush aside Spurs

NEW YORK — The New Jersey Devils maintained their recent sizzling form with a 3-2 shoot-out victory over the New York Islanders on Sunday. Brian Rolston scored the deciding goal in the sixth round of the shoot-out. The Devils continue to make an improbable charge towards a play-off position.

Results NY Rangers bt Phila-delphia Flyers 7-0, Washington Capitals bt Florida Panthers 3-2, New Jersey Devils bt New York Islanders 3-2. — Reuters

Devils maintain sizzling form

PARIS — Kazakhstan shocked the Czech Republic 3-2 in Ostrava in their Davis Cup World Group first round tie to enter the quarterfinals on Sunday. Andrey Golubev, ranked 43, shocked Tomas Berdych 7-5, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, in the day’s first reverse singles as the world No 7 showed the strain of playing three days in a row.

Mikhail Kukushkin, ranked 63, was then feted as a hero by dominating Jan Hajek 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (10/8), 6-0 to seal the decisive point.

The Kazakhs next meet Argentina after the South Americans beat Romania 4-1 in Buenos Aires.

Eduardo Schwank eased past Victor Crivoi 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 with Adrian Ungur getting a point back for the visitors with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 win over Juan Monaco. Last year’s runners-up France, mean-

while, battled into the next round with Jeremy Chardy scoring the decisive point with a 2-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3, 6-3 win over Martin Fischer which sets up a meeting with Germany in July. “The important thing is to advance. Next time maybe it will be another who will get two points,” said Chardy, who was the hero of the weekend as he also achieved their first point by beating Jurgen Melz-er in Friday’s opening match.

“We qualified with extraor-dinary matches,” said France captain Guy Forget. — AFP

Kazakhs shock Czech Republic, France to face Germany

QUARTERFINALS DRAWSweden v Serbia

Kazakhstan v ArgentinaUnited States v Spain

Germany v France

LONDON — Injury doubt Robin van Persie has been added to Arsenal’s squad for the second leg of their Champions League last-16 clash in Barcelona to-day night.

Van Persie had been ex-pected to miss the tie after injurying his knee during Arsenal’s League Cup final defeat against Birmingham on February 27.

But his inclusion was an-other boost to manager Ar-sene Wenger. — AFP

Van Persie in squad to face Barca

QUARTERFINALS DRAW

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TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

PALLEKELE, Sri Lanka — In-form Pakistan batsman Misbah-ul Haq said his team was ready for the double chal-lenge of facing New Zealand as well as a mystery World Cup pitch today.

The Group ‘A’ rivals meet at the newly-built Pallekele Stadium in the first-ever one-day match at the venue, a fac-tor which vice-captain Misbah believes will give both teams plenty to think about.

“Of course, it adds to the challenge because we don’t know how the pitch will be-have but that’s the same for both teams, and as far as we are concerned we are up to the challenge,” Misbah said yes-terday.

The 36-year-old has an-chored the Pakistan team in the World Cup with two half-centuries against Kenya and Sri Lanka and a hard-fought 37 in the last match against Canada.

Pakistan sit top of Group ‘A’ with six points after three matches, followed by co-hosts Sri Lanka (five points in four) and defending champions Aus-tralia (five after three), with New Zealand fourth with four in three matches.

Misbah said Pakistan’s re-cent one-day series win over New Zealand will count for nothing.

“We have done well against them in World Cups and in the recent series there but that win will count for nothing as it’s a new game at a new place,” said

Misbah, of Pakistan’s 3-2 win in New Zealand last month.

Pakistan will bring in paceman Shoaib Akhtar after resting him in the last match against Canada, while left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman will also be available after miss-ing the last match due to a leg muscle injury.

Led by skipper Shahid Af-ridi’s leg-spin, which has gar-nered a tournament-leading 14 wickets, Pakistan possess variety in their bowling with

off-spinners Saeed Ajmal and Mohammed Hafeez, coupled with a strong new-ball attack of Akhtar, Umar Gul and Wa-hab Riaz.

“I think we know how good their bowling can be,” said New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori. “They can probably defend any score because of the nature of their bowlers. They bring a lot to the table.”

Pakistan successfully de-fended a below-par 185-run target against Canada and 278

against co-hosts Sri Lanka in the two of their three matches.

New Zealand, who lost to Australia by seven wickets but eased past Kenya and Zim-bawe by 10 wickets in each game, have four points after three matches.

“We know to win these big games it needs complete team performances and that’s what we have done.

“It’s a matter of stepping up against the harder teams,” said Vettori, whose country has lost

six World Cup matches against Pakistan since winning their first in 1983.

Unlike the bowling head-to-head, New Zealand hold the upper hand in batting, with openers Martin Guptill (86) and Brendon McCullum (76) chasing a 186-run target against Zimbabwe without be-ing separated.

“I’m not sure you could ask for too much more, we wanted complete performances out of ourselves and that we gave

in the last match,” said Vet-tori, whose team have made the semifinals in the last three World Cups.

The hill town of Kandy has suffered from persistent rains and the only international match here, a Test between Sri Lanka and the West Indies in December, was drawn with-out a single innings completed in five days. The warm-up matches before the World Cup were also moved because of bad weather. — AFP

Pak ready for Kiwis on mystery pitch

MUMBAI — Cricket’s controversial Decision Review System (DRS) has improved correct umpiring verdicts by more than seven per cent in the World Cup, the game’s governing body said yesterday.

For the first time at a World Cup, each team has the right to question at least two de-cisions which go against it during an innings.

A third umpire uses the available technology to determine if the on-field officials were cor-rect. But it has not been an easy debut for DRS in the showpiece event.

The Indian Cricket Board, infuriated by Ian Bell’s apparent let-off for lbw in the tied India vs England match, wrote an angry letter to ICC chief ex-ecutive Haroon Lorgat pointing out the inad-equacy it perceives in the system.

The statistics will calm the nerves a bit for the ICC, which re-vealed that correct deci-sions in the World Cup have risen from an av-erage of 90.18 per cent to 97.82 per cent due to the DRS.

“It is a fact that the number of (appealed) decisions in this event is way above the nor-mal average for ODIs,” ICC general manager Dave Richardson said in the statement. “This is because of the type of wickets that prevail in the subcontinent where the bounce is often lower and where there is a greater amount of turn.” — Reuters

DRS has improved correct

decisions by over 7 pct, says ICC

CHITTAGONG — Bangla-desh opener Tamim Iqbal has called on fans to cool their passions and be patient if the World Cup co-hosts do not meet their sky-high expecta-tions.

Their supporters in Dhaka reacted with fury on Friday after the nine-wicket Group ‘B’ defeat by West Indies with stones thrown at the visiting team’s bus.

“I request the fans not to do any silly things,” Tamim told reporters in Chittagong yesterday.

So far, Bangladesh have won one of their three games, losing also by 87 runs to co-hosts India in the tournament opener on February 19 but beating Ireland in between their defeats.

“We will win some days and lose some days as that is cricket and they need to sup-port us through good times as well as bad times,” said the left-hander.

Bangladesh faced the wrath of fans after a rampant West Indies attack skittled them out for their lowest ever ODI total of 58 runs.

The fans booed the Bang-ladesh team at the ground and threw their shoes on to the road in front of their bus on their return to the team hotel, a huge insult in the country.

The attack on the West In-dies team bus was taken very seriously by Bangladesh se-curity forces and politicians, leading to the tightening of safety measures including the introduction of armoured per-sonnel carriers to accompany team buses.

Bangladesh’s elite force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested at least 28 in connection with the stoning of the bus, though local media said all of them were released on bail.

Police said they also de-tained a fan in Chittagong on Sunday for showing his thumbs to Bangladesh play-ers, again a big insult in the country.

“He (the fan) realised his mistake and was also repentant. We released him following a request by the players,” Deputy Police Com-missioner of Chittagong told reporters.

Vice-captain Tamim hoped a good show against England in their next match on Friday in Chittagong would change the perception of fans about the Bangladesh team.

“I am sure one good game will change the total scenario and you will see a different Bangladesh team,” he said. — Reuters

Tamim urges emotional Bangladesh fans

to calm down

CHENNAI — Whatever pretensions South Africa had of having overcome their tendency to crack under pressure in big tournaments lay shattered after their demoralising six-run de-feat by England in Sunday’s thriller.

The team did not put a foot wrong against West Indies and the Netherlands but suddenly came unstuck chasing a modest 172-run target. Their brittle middle and lower order batting was exposed in the process and the result threw open Group ‘B’.

In the post-match press conference, South African captain Graeme Smith was invariably posed the question he is now tired of answering — whether his team choked yet again.

“I would not say so, we have handled ourselves well in a number of situ-ations over the last couple of years to be able to say we can cope with pressure,” he said.

The match, however, suggested otherwise.The team seemed to have inherited the big

stage fright that led to their World Cup semifi-nal heart-breaks in 1992, 1999 and 2007.

Seeking a third successive win in the tour-nament, South Africa’s batting frailties were laid bare by England’s inspired bowling attack on Sunday.

The pattern so far suggests South Africa’s total depends on the start provided by Hash-im Amla up front and then AB de Villiers at number four.

The team owe their victories against West Indies and the Netherlands to De Villiers’ back-to-back centuries. The right-handed batsman, battling a back problem, could not make much

of an impact on Sunday and that effectively led to South Africa’s downfall.

In fact, De Villiers’ rich form glossed over some of South Africa’s batting vulnerability which the English attack so cruelly exposed.

As his scores of two, four and 15 in the three matches so far would sug-gest, Jacques Kallis has been woefully out of form since joining the squad af-ter an injury lay-off.

Also the comprehen-sive victories in the first two matches meant their lower middle order was not really tested.

So when the chips were down on Sunday, JP Duminy or Morne van Wyk could not guide them home.

“I think this is the first (outing) they had af-ter a long time. But I think we need to show a little more faith in the guys, it’s just one game,” Smith assured. — Reuters

England expose S Africa’s batting vulnerabilities

PAKISTAN’S Misbah-ul Haq (centre) and coach Waqar Younis (right) play football during a team training session at the Pallekele Stadium yesterday. Pakistan are set to face New Zealand today. PICTURE RIGHT: New Zealand’s coach John Wright (left) and team captain Daniel Vettori

watch other players during a practice session at the Pallekele Stadium yesterday. — AFP

Group ‘A’ P W L T NR NRR PtsPakistan 3 3 0 0 0 1.747 6Sri Lanka 4 2 1 0 1 2.663 5Australia 3 2 0 0 1 1.813 5New Zealand 3 2 1 0 0 1.584 4Zimbabwe 3 1 2 0 0 -0.079 2Canada 4 1 3 0 0 -2.083 2Kenya 4 0 4 0 0 -3.403 0

Group ‘B’ P W L T NR NRR PtsIndia 3 2 0 1 0 0.786 5England 4 2 1 1 0 0.054 5West Indies 3 2 1 0 0 2.667 4South Africa 3 2 1 0 0 1.754 4Ireland 3 1 2 0 0 -0.296 2Bangladesh 3 1 2 0 0 -1.764 2Netherlands 3 0 3 0 0 -3.058 0

(Played, won, lost, tied, no result, net run rate and points)

STANDINGSCHENNAI — England’s star batsman Kevin Pie-tersen has been ruled out of the World Cup with a hernia condition and Eoin Morgan will replace him.

Pietersen’s hernia prob-lem surfaced during the tournament, but England’s medical team thought the surgery could be postponed till after the World Cup.

Pietersen was, however, struggling in the match against South Africa which England won by six runs. A re-look by the medical team indicated that the surgery need to be done immedi-ately to avoid further com-plications.

“I fly home tonight. Out of the WC (World Cup)

and IPL (Indian Premier League). Sad to leave India. Love the people & the hos-pitality. Absolutely devas-tated!!” Pietersen posted on Twitter.

International Cricket Council granted England the replacement.

“The Event Techni-cal Committee of the ICC Cricket World Cup has ap-proved Eoin Morgan as a replacement player for the injured Kevin Pietersen in the England squad,” an ICC statement said.

Morgan, 24, is a middle-order batsman and has played in 38 ODIs for Eng-land, scoring 1,160 runs at an average of 40. He was in-cluded in the original World

Cup squad but missed out after breaking a finger in the build-up to the tourna-ment.

England team director Andy Flower said the team was losing an important player in Pietersen, who was promoted to open the batting, where he was doing a good job.

“He’s a world-class play-er,” Sky Sports News quoted Flower as saying.

“I thought he was form-ing an interesting opening partnership with Andrew Strauss. In three of the four games they’ve played together they have looked good up front and they put on significant partner-ships that have kicked off

good batting performanc-es.”

“We’re moving on now and Eoin Morgan is an ex-citing cricketer. It’s good to have him back,” said Flower.

Flower said Pietersen had been struggling with the injury for some time but remains hopeful that he will return in time for a busy summer.

“He’s got a problem and I’ve seen the scan myself. It’s a problem that he has been dealing with for a number of weeks now so he has got to go and get that sorted out and hopefully he will be ready for the first Test against Sri Lanka in the English sum-mer.” — IANS

Kevin Pietersen out with injury, Morgan is replacement

BANGALORE — An un-beaten run in the World Cup is enough to paper over most cracks and India so far have managed to hide the lack of a wicket-taking bowling line-up by piling on the runs.

Throw a stone at India’s 15-man squad and you will almost certainly hit a batsman who can walk into any interna-tional team. With a careful aim and some luck, you might also just find one such bowler.

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has categorically said that his side will at all times have seven batsmen and four bowlers, with a couple who can turn their arm over a bit making up the fifth bowler.

On Sunday one of those part-timers put in a sterling all-round performance that saved India’s blushes and covered up the disturbing fact that India simply do not have a front-line bowler who can run through a batting line-up.

Yuvraj Singh took a career-best five for 31 with his slow left-arm off spin to weave a web around Ireland on a track that was conducive to spin-

ners, while the regular tweak-ers went wicketless.

The only other bowler worth a mention in the match, and indeed who has been In-dia’s saviour more than once with the ball this tournament, was speedster Zaheer Khan.

It was Khan’s impeccable bowl-ing that tamed the Bangladeshi fight back, and his sen-sational three-wicket burst that halted England’s charge, and again it was his two wickets at the start of the innings to that firmly pushed the Irish on the back foot.

On all three occasions, the lack of any genuine wicket-taking bowler to partner Khan and really nail the opposition with a couple of more wickets almost cost India the match.

While the Bangladeshi’s fearless batting succumbed to the chase rather than the bowl-ing, England’s lower order swatted the Indian bowlers to eke out a draw and the Irish milked the bowling until Yu-

vraj came into the attack.Khan has picked up eight

wickets in the tournament so far to lead India’s bowling charts and no surprise then that he has bowled most of the

overs (29) along with off-spinner Harbhajan Singh.ECONONICAL

FIGURESThe next best

bowling figures belong to fast bowlers Munaf

Patel (seven wickets) followed by Yuvraj (six wickets), but with more economical figures.

That a part-timer has a bet-ter analysis than the front-line bowlers underlines the lack of depth in India’s bowling.

In fact the part-timer spin-ners, Yuvraj and Yusuf Pathan, have between them taken al-most double the wickets than full time spinners Harbhajan and Piyush Chawla and they have conceded fewer runs per over.

That, though, is mostly be-cause of Chawla, who prom-ised much after a five-wicket haul in a warm-up match

against Australia, but has de-livered little — two wickets and leaking over seven runs per over.

Harbhajan has been the most economical Indian bowl-er but only has a modest two wickets so far which is very surprising. Not for nothing has he been nicknamed the ‘turba-nator’ over the years though that sounds a misnomer right now.

It is said that fast bowlers hunt in pairs but that saying has clearly fallen on deaf ears in the Indian camp.

Khan’s choices to lead the attack are:

Patel, who is leaking al-most a run-a-ball and has at no point looked even remotely threatening; Sreesanth, who runs his mouth at almost the same rate he gives away runs and Ashish Nehra, who is on a well paid medical leave.

The lack of a Malinga, Steyn or Tait to partner Khan coupled with the lack of a Mu-ralitharan, Swann or Tahir to partner Harbhajan might come back to haunt India. Sooner rather than later. — Reuters

Yuvraj Singh’s bowling exploits can’t hide attack weaknesses

TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

NEW DELHI — Canada overcame some early jitters with the bat to eventually win the battle of the associates by beating Kenya by five wickets and register their first win in the World Cup yesterday at the Ferozeshah Kotla.

Right-handed batsman Jimmy Hansra (70) and cap-tain Ashish Bagai (64 not out) stitched together a 132-run partnership for the fourth wicket that sealed the Group 'A' match for the North Ameri-cans.

They sur-passed Kenya's total of 198 with 27 balls to spare.

Hansra and Bagai consoli-dated hard after Canada were reduced to 48 for three and bat-ted intelligently thereafter to wrest the control back in their hands, helped in part by a few dropped catches.

“I made sure I made them pay after the dropped catch. It was good to be positive at the start,” a content looking Hansra said.

“I hit the shots that I was comfortable with, pushed the field back and rotated the sin-gles in the middle.”

Paceman Henry Osinde took four wickets as Canada shot out the Africans for a pal-try 198 runs after they opted to bat first on winning the toss.

The burly fast bowler got the ball to move a bit at the start to take three quick wick-ets in his opening spell and re-turned to add one more to his tally off his last over.

Medium pacers Harvir Baidwan and Rizwan Cheema also chipped in with two wick-

ets apiece.“The whole

World Cup our bowlers have done a fantas-tic job and our fielding too. Our batting had let us down so I am happy that

we worked things out today,” Hansra said.

Kenya had been bundled out for scores of 69, 112 and 142 — amassing just 323 runs in their last three outings be-fore yesterday and they once again got off to a sorry start and tottered at 57 for five at one stage.

But a patient 52-run partner-ship between Tanmay Mishra (51) and captain Kamande for the sixth wicket weathered the storm and ensured respectabil-

ity for the African nation.Tanmay Mishra also added

57 runs with Thomas Odoyo for the seventh wicket before he fell while trying to up the tempo.

Odoyo (51) looked the most fluent Kenyan batsman on the

pitch and with five boundaries and one six managed to take Kenya close to the 200-run mark.

SCOREBOARD

KenyaM Ouma c Baidwan b Osinde ........0

S Waters b Osinde .........................2C Obuya b Baidwan ....................31D Obuya c Bagai b Osinde ............2S Tikolo lbw Cheema ..................12T Mishra c Surkari b Davison .....51J Kamande c Bagai b Rao ...........22T Odoyo b Baidwan ....................51N Odhiambo b Osinde ..................4E Otieno c Hansra b Cheema ........8

J Ngoche (not out) .........................1Extras: (lb-4, w-10) ....................14Total: (all out; 50 overs) ...........198Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-7, 3-21, 4-41, 5-57, 6-109, 7-166, 8-171, 9-193.Bowling: Osinde 10-2-26-4 (w-3); Baidwan 10-1-41-2 (w-2); Desai 3-0-20-0; Cheema 9-1-30-2; Hansra 3-0-15-0; Balaji Rao 10-0-36-1 (w-

5), Davison 5-0-26-1.CanadaR Gunasekera st Ouma b Ngoche 18R Cheema b Etieno .....................17Z Surkari run out .........................10A Bagai (not out) .........................64J Hansra c Ngoche b Odhiambo ..70T Gordon b Odhiambo ..................3J Davison (not out) ........................4

Extras: (b-1, w-11, nb-1) ............13Total: (5 wkts; 45.3 overs) ........199Fall of wickets: 1-19, 2-37, 3-48, 4-180, 5-186.Bowling: Odoyo 5-1-18-0; Etieno 8.3-0-45-1 (nb-1, w-4); Odhiambo 10-0-45-2; Ngoche 10-2-26-1 (w-1); Kamande 5-0-25-0 (w-1); Obuya 2-0-15-0 (w-1); Tikolo 5-1-24-0.

Canada down Kenya to win battle of associates

CANADA’S Henry Osinde (centre) celebrates with team-mates after taking the wicket of Kenya’s Seren Waters during their match at the Ferozeshah Kotla in New Delhi yesterday. — AFP

Tuesday, March 8, 2011Tuesday, March 8, 2011

New transformer protector EXPANDING on its top of the range safety and security product portfolio in Oman, Amanco (National Factory for Security and Safety Equipment) has earned sole representative status to introduce SERGI — France’s Transformer Protector (TP) in the Sultanate. Amanco has been operational since 1998. ● Page 23

Carillion Alawi office in Salalah THE newly established regional office of Carillion Alawi in Salalah was officially launched at an event in Hilton Salalah

Resort recently. The event was attended by government officials, business partners and members of the local

community. ● Page 23

By Conrad Prabhu

MUSCAT — The race for a licence to build a huge Inde-pendent Power Project (IPP) at Sur, on the Sultanate’s Sharqiyah coast, has whittled down to five bidders.

AES Oasis Energy, one of six energy firms prequalified to bid for the licence, opted out of the contest, leaving fellow contenders Marubeni Corporation (Japan), Siemens LLC, Sembcorp Utilities, Enka (Turkey) and Mitsui & Co in the fray.

Envelopes containing the financial offers and final tech-nical submissions from the lat-ter five bidders were opened at the Tender Board yesterday, as the competition for the pres-tigious licence now enters its final phase.

The successful bidder will secure a licence to build the country’s largest green-field power project with an installed generation capacity

ranging from 1,500 to 2,000 megawatts (MW). Project costs are estimated to range from $1.6 billion to $1.8 bil-lion on a 1,500MW project, which could escalate to nearly $2 billion at the higher capac-ity limit.

Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co has joined hands with Oman Oil Company and Taqa in bidding for the IPP mandate. Siemens LLC heads a consortium that includes Saudi Oger and Korean East-West Power. Japanese corpo-

ration Marubeni has teamed up with Qatar Electricity and Water, Chubu Electric and Multitech in its bid.

The state-owned electric-ity off-taker, Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP), is overseeing the implementation of the IPP at Sur in line with its mandate to procure all new electricity and related water capacity.

OPWP is eyeing a March 30 deadline to finalise a short-list of bidders, who will then be called for final negotiations leading to the selection of a preferred bidder by April 16. The execution of project doc-uments is slated for April 30, paving the way for construc-tion work on the IPP to begin in earnest.

Underscoring efforts to fast-track the implementation of the project, OPWP has set a Q1 2013 time frame for part of the IPP’s output, equiva-lent to roughly 400 MW of generation capacity, to be

brought into operation ahead of summer peak demand that year. The IPP’s full capacity of 1,500-2,000MW is slated for full commissioning ahead of peak summer demand in 2014.

The Sur IPP, as well as a pair of recently awarded IPPs (Barka 3 and Sohar 2) under development in the Batinah region, will go a long way in meeting the galloping demand for electricity within the Main Interconnected System (MIS). An estimated half a million customers are served by the MIS, an area encompassing the Governorates of Muscat and Buraimi, and most of the South Batinah, Dakhiliyah, Sharqiyah, North Batinah and Dhahirah regions.

According to OPWP, elec-tricity demand in the MIS is projected to rise from 3,424 MW in 2009 to 6,043 MW by 2016, representing an average increase of around 8.5 per cent or 374 MW per year.

By A Staff Reporter

MUSCAT — General cargo volumes handled at the Port of Salalah surged 68 per cent to over six million tonnes dur-ing 2010, according to a top official of Salalah Port Services Co SAOG, which operates and manages Oman’s largest container transshipment terminal on the Sultanate’s southern coast.

Abdul Aziz bin Ali al Shanfari, Chairman of Board of Directors, said rising general cargo volumes were fuelled by a hefty increase in commod-ity exports.

“The General Cargo business has been growing rapidly and the main fac-

tors driving the growth are commodi-ties such as limestone and cement that are exported from Oman to developing economies surrounding Oman. The growth of the Salalah Free Zone also contributed to the excellent results,” Al Shanfari stated in the Director’s Report on the company’s performance during the financial year ended December 31, 2010.

Container traffic on the hand re-mained unchanged at 3.48 million TEUs during 2010 when compared to 2009. “This continues to make Salalah Oman’s largest port by over 10 times compared to any other port. The lack of volume change was a result of the substantial growth being offset by a

strategy change implemented by one customer from transshipment to direct shipping. Despite this, revenue growth was significant in 2010,” the Chairman said.

Consolidated revenues rose 10.4 per cent to RO 52.7 million last year, while the consolidated net profit was record-ed at RO 5.76 million, an impressive 27 per cent increase over 2009 results, Al Shanfari stated.

“Though the volumes at the contain-er terminal remained similar to previ-ous year, the efforts undertaken by the management in taking costs out, driv-ing performance, and unparalleled per-formance by the general cargo business have made it possible to achieve the

record profitability in 2010,” he said.Energetic efforts to boost productiv-

ity also resulted in improving the crane moves per hour by over 11 per cent. Improvements in efficiency were also achieved through the sale of unused as-sets, while further gains were made in sustainable savings of financing costs and the ability to turn rights for interest in a small terminal in Jordan, the Chair-man said.

The outlook for the company, Al Shanfari said, was positive with the management keen on pursuing strategic initiatives that balance risk and reward, creating a ‘Process Excellence’ culture within the organisation, and exploring newer markets and products.

Contest for Sur IPP down to five bidders

Strong growth in general cargo traffic at Salalah Port

23OMAN TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

By A Staff Reporter

SALALAH — The newly established regional office of Carillion Alawi in Salalah was officially launched at an event in Hilton Salalah Re-sort recently. The event was attended by government of-ficials, business partners and members of the local com-munity.

Company’s partner and sponsor Alawi bin Qais al Zawawi welcomed the guests and briefed the gathering on the history and progress of Carillion Alawi in Oman since 1965.

In his address, Regional Managing Director of Caril-lion Alawi, Andy Jones, men-tioned in detail the plans of the company for the Salalah region. “The company, which has a reputation for high quality construction, safety standards and quality, hopes to better support construction

contracts in the Dhofar Gov-ernorate,” he said.

Andy said Carillion Alawi offers professional services such as pre-construction tasks with in-house design, MEP services, joinery and facilities management.

“With expertise in all ar-eas of construction and glo-bal procurement capabilities, we can employ and move key professionals quickly to suit the needs of specific projects,” he added.

Reiterating company’s commitment to Oman, he said, “Carillion Alawi is one of the largest and most reput-ed construction companies in Oman. We have a portfolio of prestigious landmark projects for key clients in public and private sectors like Grand Mosque, Barr Al Jissah Re-sort, The Royal Opera House and Majlis Oman.”

Omanisation Manager of Carillion Alawi Mohammed

al Ghafri, said the new Sala-lah office of the company has presently achieved 50 per cent Omanisation. “We regularly provide training to Omani nationals through our training centres located in various regions of the Sul-tanate and we will replicate the success in Dhofar region too,” he added.

The launch event was fol-lowed by dinner and later the guests had an opportunity to meet the senior management team of Carillion Alawi.

The construction sector in Oman is set to derive the maximum benefit from the 8th Five-Year Plan as the government is ramping up spending on infrastructure development. The Sultan-ate’s construction industry was valued at $3.7 billion in 2010 and is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 5.8 per cent between 2010 and 2014.

By A Staff Reporter

MUSCAT — Expanding on its top of the range safety and security product portfolio in Oman, AMANCO (National Factory for Security and Safety Equipment) has earned sole representa-tive status to introduce SERGI — France’s Transformer Protector (TP) in the Sultanate.

AMANCO has been operational since 1998 and enjoys the reputation of being the only company in Oman manufacturing fire-fighting equipment under all relevant licence catego-ries. Over the years the company has supplied to almost all major players in the country who required fire-fighting equipment.

“Transformer Protector is a product that addresses the need of the hour in fire-fighting technology. The quality and innovative tech-nology that drives this product makes it indis-pensable in this market,” said Salman Rashid al Fannah al Araimi, Chairman, AMANCO.

“It is a privilege that AMANCO has been chosen to introduce this technology in Oman. SERGI-France has always provided us with top quality products which we have been privi-leged to bring to the market here,” said G Mu-rali Das, General Manager, AMANCO.

“We rarely find companies working togeth-er with sincere consideration for each other's needs. I believe that, this is what the winning equation for SERGI — France and AMANCO has been,” Das added

This partnership has been announced in line with the arrival of Arnaud Magnier, CEO, SERGI — France in Muscat to participate in the International Workshop on Fire Safety En-gineering and Management organised by Sul-tan Qaboos University. Arnaud will be present-ing the innovative technology of transformer protection during this conference today, March

8, from 3:30-4:10 pm.The Chairman adds, “We have strengthened

our top management team by positioning expe-rienced professionals with varied skill sets and exposure in different markets on board. We have declared 2011 as Customer Satisfaction Year to be more pro-active in addressing our customers’ needs and issues.”

The product is set to face the home-run challenges that are typical for any new item in the market, but AMANCO is equipped to move ahead through the challenges by ensur-ing zero compromise on the quality of the product which in turn assures people and en-vironment safety.

Carillion Alawi office launched in Salalah

Amanco introduces France’s transformer protector

Wave of women-centric films

Page 28

Sudden impact to kids’ chest can prove fatal

Page 28

100th year of International Women’s Day

Page 27Isla Fisher writes own comedy script

Page 28

Fea uresTuesday, March 8, 2011

Witherspoon carries her make-up kit Page 28

By Kaushalendra Singh

OMANI workforce is ready to take up any challenge and this has been proved

by the hard work of an entrepre-neur who established his own oil and gas company. Oilfield services

company Midwest does not only meet international standards, it has the credit of being the only Omani company in the sector when it start-ed in 2001.

The company understands that Omanis are prepared to take up any job without caring for the difficul-

ties. The employees at Midwest are

so qualified that none of them gets less than RO 500 and all those who were getting RO 300 are now get-

ting RO 500. The company has en-sured a hike of 30 to 50 per cent to all the employees.

The company has exhorted peo-ple not to overreact and urged them to try and address the needs of edu-cation and training to get better po-sition in companies.

The company has an Omanisation level of 90 per cent and none of them is inferior to anyone. The company keeps them abreast with the latest in the market and every six months the company sponsors college and uni-versity students for short-term on-

the-job training. During the time of training the company identifies the talent and offers them jobs as and when vacancy arises.

The company is strict on not

compromising on quality while of-fering jobs. The company’s policy is a trained and educated Omani does

not carry any complex and he is as good as a trained expatriate worker. So the need of the hour is emphasis on better training and education.

The company favours summer camps for training and advises the youth to chart out their proper ca-reer plan.

The company responsibilities do not end with earning money and finding some jobs for youths to meet the present crisis. It insists on better training and education to en-sure that Omanis can match anyone in the job market and do not carry the stigma of being inferior to any-one.

The company has its own for-mula for success: “Hard work and only hard work,” can lead anyone to success. “Luck may be one of the factors, but it comes only when you are prepared to do hard work.”

The company suggests that

young entrepreneurs work until it hurts, as in its scheme of things nothing comes easy.

Midwest Oilfield Services is the first 100 per cent Omani owned lo-cal company to specialise in per-formance drilling services, turbine drilling services, directional drill-ing services and supervision.

Midwest is equipped with high-ly experienced, competent and dedicated staff. The company is reputed in maintaining the highest levels in business conduct, quality and HSE.

The company knows that there are Omani companies meeting in-ternational standards that are still facing hurdles. It has strong faith in the capabilities of Omanis and sug-gests the authorities to give them proper education and training to meet the requirements of the job market.

It urges the big companies to un-derstand their Corporate Social Re-sponsibility. It also feels the need of

realising the human side of the job issue with a “need to operate and deliver in a controlled manner.”

Omani workforce ready for any corporate challenge

Oilfield services company Oilfield services companyMidwest meets internationalMidwest meets international

standards. It has also thestandards. It has also thecredit of being the only credit of being the onlyOmani company in the Omani company in the

ssector when it started in 2001ssector when it started in 2001

‘A trained and‘A trained andeducated Omanieducated Omanidoes not carrydoes not carryany complex and any complex andhe is as good he is as goodas a trainedas a trainedexpatriateexpatriateworker. So the worker. So theneed of the hour need of the hour is emphasis on is emphasis onbetter trainingbetter trainingand education’and education’

27SPOTLIGHT TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

By Maryam Khalfan

IN observation of this great day the Sultanate joins the rest of the world in a spe-

cial programme held in the Wilayat of Rustaq to mark the significant progress that has been achieved by Omani women through determined advocacy, practical action and

enlightened policy making. The observation of the day is indeed one of the fruitful achievements in the education of Omani women under the guidance of His Majesty the Sultan.

The empowerment in-vested in women’s education has not only enabled them to be knowledgeable, self reli-ant and reputable in their own right, but it has significantly enabled women to effectively contribute to their social wel-fare, development and pros-perity of their nation in all walks of life.

The access to gender equal-ity in areas of education and empowerment that women in this country currently enjoy is of no doubt the results of the blessed Renaissance of His Majesty the Sultan.

Omani women have gained prominence and are benefiting from the equal rights in educa-tion, social and health services, as well as from the employ-ment opportunities facilitated in all provinces and regions of the Sultanate.

Since 1976, the Sultanate’s strategies and development plans has taken on board the aspect of human resource de-velopment as one of its basic elements to accord special care and rights to women in many walks of life. Further, the 7th Development Plan (2006- 2010) has given an important place for the advancement of Omani women.

Women’s rightsThe Sultanate has taken

significant measures to en-sure women’s rights in several areas of the legislative field and that of the State’s Basic Statute, which emphasises the principle of complete gender equality in rights and duties in public office, and in areas of social development.

Omani women are also en-titled to pension benefits and comprehensive social secu-rity system, which guarantees them the right to pension and compensation of the insured upon death, the right of women to receive early old age pen-sion, the right of an unmarried woman in the pension of the pensioner, the deceased, re-gardless of age.

Other women’s rights in-clude the right to have ad-ditional grants, rights to all forms of social welfare for

women as applied in the prin-ciple set forth in the Statute of the State.

The Omani labour law

also offers Omani women the right to work in the private sector and many mechanisms were also improved to expand women’s participation in pri-vate businesses and Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) with the support of the Youth Development Fund, Intilaqaah Projects which works to encourage the Omani youth (both male and female) to engage in entrepreneurship and ownership of small and medium SMEs and the Sanad projects among others.

A study for the development of Omani women in entrepre-neurship was also established to upgrade Omani women’s participation in private busi-

nesses and a committee was formed to facilitate access for loans and to facilitate training and other kinds of material support in addition to enhanc-ing the role of Omani Wom-

en’s Association in wilayats in regards to terms of raising women’s awareness about the procedures related to applica-

tion for a loan.International Conven-

tions In 1979 the UN agreement

was formed to Eliminate of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) — a Treaty for the Rights of Women and the International Bill of Rights for Women. The treaty addresses the advance-ment of women, describes the meaning of equality and sets forth guidelines on how to achieve it.

The Sultanate Ratified the CEDAW Convention in May 2005 up on the completion of the first national report on the legislative, judicial, admin-istrative, and that comes as a

result of co-operation between governmental and private in-stitutions.

The Sultanate also formed a special committee to follow-up the implementation of the CEDAW provisions, taking advantage of available in-ternational experience. The committee was tasked to pre-pare the first national report to monitor the Sultanate’s im-plementation of the provisions of the Convention and other periodic reports. The commit-tee is also obliged to follow-up implementation and effective-ness of the provisions of the Convention; promote aware-ness among the public, and the relevant authorities of the rights, and provisions of the Convention through appropri-ate means of notification.

Since the Sultanate rati-fied the Convention, the state has played a significant role to implement the international agreements in accordance to the Sultanate’s laws, which re-sulted in the establishment of a national committee to address all sorts of human rights.

The committee compris-ing of representatives from concerned government es-tablishments and the Non-Governmental Organisations was further expanded in three teams comprising of the me-dia, law and research and stud-ies sections, which were far-ther tasked to raise awareness about the rights of the women.

The articles of the CEDAW are not only restricted to ad-dress women’s rights but also involves a broad spectrum of issues in addressing other aspects related to health, edu-cation, law, human rights, agriculture and many other aspects.

In fact, since the launch of the UNFPA GCC office in 2006, collaboration began with the Ministry of Social Development in all aspects of concern to women’s issues and gender.

The UN office also played a significant role in assisting the National CEDAW Committee in preparation and drafting the Sultanate’s first official report of the treaty on the rights of women.

THE Prophet Muhammed (Peace and Blessing Be Upon Him) addressed a messenger of his who was beaten and

verbally abused, saying, “Had you been sent to the people of Oman, you wouldn’t have been harmed”. This is the land of Al Qubairaa, Oman, the land of the people who believed in the prophet and his heavenly message right from the beginning, about whom the prophet said, “May God bless the people of Al Qubairaa who believed in my message without seeing me”.

So this is the kind of ethics that distinguishes the people of Oman. The Omani people are civilised, tolerant tightly adherent to their land and to the nation they built over four decades, we are utterly proud of the good reputation we enjoy among the nations. We have developed throughout history a remarkable ability to cope with the toughest of conditions, and we have maintained our national unity in an astonishing way.

The nation is not just geographical boundaries, it’s the history of our forefathers, it is a set of cultural values that lies deep in our collective mindset, we all belong to this land, and we are firmly tied to the nation. A sound sense of belonging to the country entails relentless efforts on the part of the citizens to build the nation, and to maintain the spirit of solidarity and national identity among themselves under the banner of national unity.

Those who lived in Oman in the pre-Renaissance era are the ones who feel the true value of the nation. The young-sters who travel abroad feel nostalgic of Oman in the di-asporas, that’s because they savoured the fruit of the land and relished its water in the days of childhood.

As far as history is concerned, all civilisations were built and made strong only by the faithful efforts of the people, and by work that is based on tolerance and national unity which is the most important pillar of nation building.

The genuine citizenship manifests itself when every in-dividual stands firm in the face of attempts aiming to dwarf the nation or hinder its progress. The good citizen should have a great love of the country; he should not resort to vandalism and destruction. The people have to be aware that dialogue is the best way to achieve their demands.

Modern technology has turned the world into a small global village, where we can easily make our voice heard. What we need is to express our opinion in a responsible way, and in such a manner that doesn’t affect the people’s freedom or damage their properties. We are allowed to de-liver whatever message we want on one condition, protect the common interest.

These days the habit of emulation has prevailed in the Arab world, the people tend to clone the events in other countries, ignoring the fact that every nation has its special conditions that are not necessarily similar to other nations’. This has led many countries to fall in the trap of violence and chaos.

His Majesty Sultan Qaboos will remain the aspiring leader of Oman, and the symbol of the nation. Oman will be as stable and great as it is. The Omani people will never derail from the track of civilisation. We will be strong in the face of crises as we did when adverse weather conditions hit us. We have to take a stop and rethink the events so as to know what we did wrong.

Also we have got to know that the process of nation building cannot be achieved overnight. Great missions can be accomplished only when we come together. May God safeguard the nation and protect His Majesty the Sultan, architect of its blessed Renaissance, whose farsightedness and wise leadership ushered in the stability and welfare of Oman.

— Translated by Khalid al Kush

By Mirfat al Araimiyamirfat@omandaily.om

TODAY is International Women’s Day (IWD). In fact, it happens to be centenary year of the annual

observance that began in 1911. The Day reminds the world of its responsibility towards the welfare of women. While celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women all over, the Day reminds us of the disparities still to be redressed.

No sphere of human endeavour is today beyond the reach of women given the right opportunities. The concept of male-only domains is fast vanishing. Sky is the limit for those with a will to succeed.

All the same, we realise that despite the undisputed con-tributions made by women, for centuries they were denied equal rights and opportunities. They had to struggle hard to win even the minimum rights. There are still parts of the world where this demand for justice and equality remains a distant dream. But wherever they have access to the right kind of education they can hope to achieve economic inde-pendence which in turn ensures equality.

IWD was originally called International Working Wom-en’s Day. In1913 the observance was moved to March 8. Today it is observed worldwide and is an official holiday in several countries.

The UN has been playing a key role in the promotion of the objectives of celebrating this day and had even des-ignated 1975 as ‘International Women’s Year’. It comes up with specific themes for each year to focus attention on dif-ferent areas of women empowerment that demand urgent attention. The theme for 2011 is: Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women.

It is said that ‘Behind every successful man there is a woman’. Well, it works the other way round as well. With more and more women taking up challenging careers and pursuits it is easier for a woman to become high achiever and trail blazer if there is a supportive male — the spouse, father or brother — backing her.

There are, of course, women who have created history even when this was not so. But that called for greater de-termination, struggle and strength of character on their part. But if men are positively inclined towards the legitimate needs and aspirations of women, the entire community stands to gain.

A few of the outstanding examples of women of sub-stance who overcame heavy odds and prejudices to make this world a better place for all are Helen Keller, Marie Cu-rie, Mother Teresa and Kiran Bedi, the Indian super cop.

In Oman women have been accorded dignity and equal opportunities in crucial areas like education and healthcare in the Renaissance era and the results are there for all to see. The recognition of their importance was demonstrated last year by the institution of October 17 as Omani Women’s Day (OWD). This is in addition to Oman’s active participa-tion in the annual global celebration on March 8.

Even where the status of women is fairly satisfactory, disparities exist in salary structure and representation in vi-tal spheres like business and politics. In many developing and under-developed nations the degree of discrimination and exploitation are far worse.

Changes are definitely taking place. It is a positive sign that on this day, we are moving away from concentrating on the negatives to a celebration of the positive achievements by women. Yet, we ought not to ignore the implicit call to think globally and act locally. We must do all we can to help women realise their full potential to build a vibrant and happy world.

Quotes: • A woman is like a tea bag. She knows her strength

only when put in hot water. — Nancy Reagan • Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it con-

sists principally in dealing with men. — Joseph Conrad

Dr Rajan Philipsrajanph@yahoo.co.uk

IN a historical occasion marking the 100th an-niversary of the Interna-

tional Women’s Day (IWD), today, the world unites to observe this day under the entitle: ‘Equal access to ed-ucation, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women’. This year’s theme will re-flect upon the role that en-hanced access to these fields for women and girls which plays on the economic growth of developing coun-tries, especially the Least Developed Countries. It will also focus on the policy mechanisms that need to be put in place to make it hap-pen.

Enhancing policy meas-ures can ensure equal op-portunities and treatment for women and men when it comes to jobs and work-ing conditions through skills development and training policies. According to the International Labour Organ-ization (ILO), the economic downturn has served to un-derscore and aggravate pre-existing inequality therefore achieving gender equality remains a major challenge; as well as securing a sustain-able and equitable recovery and a fair globalisation de-mand for gender-aware re-sponses.

The 100th year com-memoration comes at the

heels of the establishment of ‘UN Women’, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empow-erment of Women, in July 2010 by the United Nations General Assembly. In doing so, UN member states took a historic step in accelerat-ing the Organisation’s goals on gender equality and the empowerment of women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bring-ing together resources and mandates for greater im-pact. Significant Progress has been made in advancing gender equality, including landmark agreements such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

Remarking on the occa-sion, Dr Laila Omar Gad, Unicef Representative in the Sultanate said: “Gen-der equality is not only a basic human right, but its achievement has enormous socio-economic ramifica-tions. Empowering women fuels thriving economies, spurring productivity and growth.”

The Government of Oman has demonstrated political commitment and will, to promote the rights of women and His Majesty Sultan Qaboos is dedicated to building the nation’s edu-

cation and empowerment of women. In the past four decades, women have paved new paths on the socio-economic front including the right to vote, the right to stand for the membership of the Consultative Council, State Council, the Board of Oman Chamber of Com-merce & Industry and other bodies.

In an effort to promote women to be part of the country’s development process, the government also ratified the CEDAW convention in 2005.

Major progress has been achieved in education, healthcare, as well as politi-cal and economic participa-tion of women; however despite these achievements, some challenges still re-main.

The Omani Women’s Symposium held in 2009 had set a platform for dis-cussing and addressing the issues and challenges faced to further enhance the role of national women and em-power them in all spheres of life, and mark October 17 of every year as Omani Women’s Day.

Unicef has been working in partnership with the Gov-ernment of Oman since 1971 with the aim of improving health, education and social services for children and women in the Sultanate.

Omani women have gained prominence and are benefiting Omani women have gained prominence and are benefitingfrom the equal rights in education, social and healthfrom the equal rights in education, social and health

services, as well as from the employment opportunities services, as well as from the employment opportunitiesfacilitated in all provinces and regions of the Sultanate facilitated in all provinces and regions of the Sultanate

28ENTERTAINMENT TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 2011

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NO One Killed Jessica, Mirch, Turning 30 and 7 Khoon Maaf — all

women-centric films in the last few months show the fe-male leads in strong and pow-erful roles. Film-makers and actors hope this trend contin-ues in future.

On the silver screen wom-en are usually seen as a help-less mother, submissive wife,

devoted girlfriend, overcaring sister, daughter or a vamp, but directors like Vishal Bharad-waj and Alankrita Shrivastava are trying to break the mould and present women in a more realistic, vibrant and uncon-ventional way.

One-film-old Rajkumar Gupta’s No One Killed Jessica was an attempt to bring alive the struggle of Sabrina Lall’s

fight with the Indian judici-ary for years to get justice for her murdered sister. Starring Vidya Balan and Rani Muk-erji, the movie created a buzz as it was inspired by the 1999 murder of model Jessica Lall and the director was never ap-prehensive that his film won’t do well without a strong male character.

“The protagonists in my movie were two leading la-dies who were very powerful in whatever they did. It’s not easy to make a film on such a theme, but times are chang-ing and people are accepting it with open arms,” Gupta said.

Director Vinay Shukla, best known for his 1999, mul-tiple National Award-winning project Godmother, is confi-dent there will be more suc-cessful women-centric films in the years to come.

“At the moment, the number of women-centric movies is less, but it will grow with time because actresses nowadays have got huge po-tential to run a movie on their shoulders much like their male counterparts,” said Shukla, whose latest film Mirch dealt with four stories of women’s emancipation. — IANS

Wave of women-centric films

ONE of the dangers young sports enthusiasts should

watch out for are blunt blows to the chest region, according to Germany’s Association of Paediatricians. A collision with another player, a ball or a puck could induce life-threatening heart fibrillations.

“Fibrillation can lead to death within minutes if it’s not quickly treated by a med-ical professional,” warns the association’s Herman Josef Kahl.

However, accidents like these are very rare, ac-cording to the cardiologist. That’s because the blow must occur at a certain point on the chest, with a certain degree of force and during a specific 10 to 20 millisecond phase of the heart’s electrical activity.

In most people a heart-beat lasts about 1,000 mil-liseconds but during sport it can speed up to 500 mil-liseconds. A number of cir-cumstances must coincide before a heart can be thrown off rhythm by a sudden im-pact to the chest.

“Trainers should warn children about the risks as-sociated with a blow to the chest region and advise them not to fend off an op-ponent, a ball or a puck with their chests. They should try another form of defence instead,” says Kahl. Chest-protectors available in stores cannot guarantee that a blow to the chest will not induce fibrillation (Commotio cordis).

A much thicker protector must be used instead. Balls with a lighter centre and softer covering or a lighter puck can also help protect your child.

A study of data contained on a register compiled by the US Heart Institute Founda-tion in Minneapolis showed that young boys between 10 and 18 years old are at a higher risk of experiencing Commotio cordis.

A quarter of the record-ed cases involved children under the age of ten years. Young adults aged 25 years and above made up just nine per cent of cases.

— dpa

Sudden impact to the chest can prove fatal for children ACTRESS Isla Fisher was so frustrated with

the lack of good comedy scripts for actresses that she wrote a script on her own. The Wedding Crashers star, who is married to actor Sacha Baron Cohen, felt the only way she could get a good role was to pen Groupies, which she will co-star in with Amy Poehler, reports contactmusic.com.

On how her script is developing, Isla replied: “Oh you mean Groupies? After Wedding Crashers I was just surprised as to the lack of comedic female mate-rial there is. So I had to start working and getting stuff out there for myself”. Groupies is pretty close to being ready and I’ve got another movie called Life Coach which I’ve been working on. Hopefully one of them will go soon.

It’s more frustrating being in development than it is just to be cast in something. It’s a lot of things involved. The movie talks about Isla’s and comedienne Amy’s rock groupie characters, and they are also set to produce it. This isn’t Isla’s first foray into writing — the 35-year-old actress has also written two novels but has previously revealed she has no plans to return to her old job.

Witherspoon carries her make-up kitACTRESS Reese Witherspoon always carry her make-

up kit with her whenever she goes out. Witherspoon, who is engaged to Hollywood agent Jim Toth, hates to be caught without her favourite cosmetics, though she insists she tries to limit what she takes with her, reports femalefirst.co.uk “I have a bunch of different make-up bags — one in my car, one in my handbag and one at home. I try to keep them small, but I have about five lipglosses, mascara, cover-up, lipstick and blush,” she told Glamour magazine.

The actress also doesn’t forget to keep a white eyeliner pencil, as she believes it keeps her looking re-freshed. — IANS

Isla Fisher writes own comedy script

Gul Panag in Turning 30