Postnoon E-Paper for May 16th 2013

THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013 HYDERABAD

A tragedy waiting to happen Jubilee Bus Station, with a daily a footfall of over 45,000, has pitiable security set up.

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WWW.POSTNOON.COM

WEATHER: A MIX OF CLOUDY AND CLEAR SKIES; 37°C

SC slams Facebook arrests Coming down heavily on the abuse of Section 66A of the IT Act, the Supreme Court today ruled that ‘No person should be arrested for posting objectionable comments on social networking sites without permission of senior police officials’. The apex court also directed all states to comply with the Centre's advisory.

FLASH

HYDERABAD’S FIRST COMPACT AFTERNOON NEWSPAPER

In a sensational development, Indian paceman S Sreesanth and two of his Rajasthan Royals teammates Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan were arrested by the Delhi police on the charges of spot fixing in the ongoing Indian Premier League. The special cell of the Delhi police arrested Sreesanth from his friend’s home in Mumbai while the other two cricketers were arrested last night from the team hotel at Nariman Point for their alleged role in spot fixing.

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SREESANTH

ARRESTED!

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THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

city events

THE JOY OF READING

A two-day reading workshop for children will be held at Lamakaan, Banjara Hills on May 15 and May 16 from 10 am to 12 noon.

Weather for Hyderabad

Evening

Overnight

37°C

29°C

Cloudy

Cloudy

Morning

Afternoon

35°C

43°C

A mix of cloud and sun.

A mix of cloud and sun.

New Delhi Mumbai Max 41 Max 32 Min 27 Min 27 Clear

Chennai Max 39 Min 31

Mostly cloudy

Cloudy

Bangalore Max 33 Min 20 Partly cloudy

AROUND THE CITY: YOUR GUIDE TO THE TWIN CITIES mango gateau, mango almond tart, mango milk shake and others.

Where: Le Cafe, Novotel.

When: May 31.

The joy of reading A two-day reading workshop for children will be held.

Where: Lamakaan, Banjara Hills When: May 15 and May 16, 10 am to 12 noon.

WORKSHOPS

Play pursuits Children’s theatre workshop by Samahaara.

Where: Lamakaan, Banjara Hills When: Till June 1, 5 pm to 7 pm Fit as a fiddle A zumba fitness workshop by Vijaya.

Where: Hard Rock Cafe, Banjara Hills When: May 17, 7.30 pm to 9 pm Art and craft A five-day craft camp for kids above the age of 8. Kids will get to learn punch craft, quilling and stocking flowers.

Where: PANACHE - The Finishing School, Banjara Hills.

When: May 27 to May 31, 2 pm to 4 pm

Ocean’s Eleven Eleven of the finest prawns are on offer.

Where: Lacantina, Novotel.

When: Till May 31, 7 pm to 11 pm

Sweet tooth Dessert making workshop for teenagers and adults will be held.

Where: PANACHE - The Finishing School, Banjara Hills When: May 17, 2 pm to 4 pm

MISCELLANEOUS

ART

Carnival time Chota Bheem carnival that will feature solo dance, solo singing, fancy dress and drawing competitions will be held. Online registration is on till May 25.

Where: Inorbit Mall, Hitech City When: May 27

Beautiful lights Candle making workshop.

Where: PANACHE - The Finishing School, Banjara Hills.

When: May 18, 2 pm to 4 pm Dish out Biscuit-making classes are on.

Where: Colorama Printers, Begumpet.

When: Till May 16, 10 am to 1 pm.

Art attack Khaandikaa, works of artist Aditi Gemini are on display.

Where: Muse Art Gallery, Tank Bund Road When: Till May 18, 11 am to 7 pm Traditional Beats Exhibition of paintings by Anuradha Thakur is on.

Where: Novotel, Shamshabad When: Till May 18, 9 am to 9 pm

DINING BBQ night Commissioner & Spl Officer

Helpline GAS BOOKING IVRS NO HP 9666023456 Indane 9848824365 BSNL Complaints HMWS & SB Complaints

198 155313

POLICE CONTROL ROOM Hyderabad 27852435 Traffic Control Room 27852482 DCP Traffic 23234065, 23243499F Pollution Control Board 23887500 ELECTRICITY General Complaints Breakdown Section

155333 23431178 23431179

MUNICIPAL CORPORATION

23262266 24166666R ENC 23225267 Engineering 23220418 MCH Tankbund 23225397 Emergency MCH Circle I&II 24525842 MCH Circle III 24736912 MCH Circle IV 23326975 MCH Circle V 23326976 MCH Circle VI MCH Complaints 1100 Head Office 23225397 IVRS CUM MANUAL ENQUIRY PHONE NUMBERS (TRAIN & RESERVATION) RAILWAYS Rail Nilayam 27833169, 27824216 Railway Information 131 Reservations 135 Recorded Information 1345 Enquiry (IVRS) 1331, 1332, 1333

Astronomy talk Talks and practical sessions on basic astronomy by Dr Priya Hasan and Dr SN Hasan.

Where: Lamakaan, Banjara Hills When: May 18, 4.30 pm

RIDING HIGH: An NCC cadet rides a horse during practice session at SRINIVAS SETTY Gymkhana Grounds on Wednesday.

Saturday Sunset BBQ will be held.

Where: The Square, Kondapur When: May 18, 7 pm

Where: The Westin Hyderabad Mindspace When: On till May 31

King of fruits Mango food festival is on.

Mango Mania You can ask for mango cheese cake,

WATER SUPPLY Complaint Cell Sewerage Complaint Hyd. Water Supply HOSPITAL General Hospital, Sec-bad Niloufer Hospital, Red Hills NIMS, Director, Punjagutta Osmania General Hospital Railway Hospital, Lalaguda Apollo, Jubilee Hills Care Hospital, Banjara Hills Care Hospital, Nampally Care Hospital, Musheerabad Care Hospital, Sec-bad Kamineni Hospital, LB Nagar

155313 23307328 23313163

27505566 23314095 23390933 24600146 27001134 23607777 30418888 30417777 30419000 30416666 39879999

BLOOD BANKS Blood Bank,Narayanguda Chiranjeevi Blood Bank Blood Bank Mediton Goal Red Cross, Vidyanagar ADRM Blood Bank Mythri Charitable Trust NTR Memorial Trust Care Banjara Hills

27567892 23559555 23226624 27633087 27035588 27550238 30799999 30418296 30417445

AMBULANCES Apollo 23548888, 23607777 Kamineni 24022222 Medwin 23202902, 23204616 Smile Line Dental Hospital 23747979 Red Cross 27627973 Niloufer Hospital 23314095 Gandhi 23320332 AIRLINES

Airport Director 27903785, 27906001 For Air India Flight Information Toll free (from any network) for IC Flights 18001801407 And for All Flights: 1800227722 Air India has revised its flight timings.

For more information call (Toll free) 18001801407, 1800227722 from BSNL/MTNL 04023430334 from other lines and mobile Website; www.airindia.in TOURISM OFFICES AP Tourism, Hyd 23262152/53/54 Sec-bad 27893100 Dept of Tourism 23453110 India Tourism 23261360 AP Tourism information Centre (24x7) 23450444, 23455999 UK VISA OFFICE VFS India Pvt Ltd Building, 8-2-542/A, Sunil Chamber, Road No. 7

Beside Meridian School, Banjara Hills34. Working hours are from 8 AM to 1 PM And 2 PM to 3PM. MUSEUMS Salar Jung Museum AP State Museum Nizams Museum

24523211 232431300/7641 24521029

Readers’ views

We invite you to write to us comments, suggestions, viewpoint or just about anything to feedback@postnoon.com or #1246, Level 3, Jubilee Casa, Road No 62, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad – 500 033 or even by way of a call on 4067 2222

THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

news

YESTERDAY’S QUESTION

DO YOU THINK INDO-PAK RELATIONS WILL IMPROVE WITH SHARIF TAKING CHARGE? 29%

YES (A)

NO (B)

71%

TODAY’S QUESTION

DO YOU THINK STRINGENT CRIMINAL ACTION IS REQUIRED AGAINST CRICKET MATCH-FIXING? A)

YES

B)

NO

To vote visit www.postnoon.com

POLITICS

Polls bring sanity to politics Polls to local bodies will prove the grassroots strength of each party and will hold sway over the Assembly elections.

Md. INKESHAF AHMED ahmed.m@postnoon.com HYDERABAD: The Key political parties in the State whose only job seems to have been criticising each other have now shifted their focus to a different task altogether. The announcement of local body elections for thousands of villages and Mandal and Zilla Parishads of AROUND THE

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the State in June is giving sleepless nights to these political bosses.

With an objective to secure majority number of seats in the local body elections, the key political players have given up complaints and begun to prepare strategies to outnumber each other. All the important political parties like ruling

Congress, opposition Telugu Desam Party, YSR Congress, TRS, BJP and the Left parties know the crucial nature of local polls which will have a decisive say in the ensuing General Elections.

Most of the headquarters of these parties have turned into beehives of activities. Congress party has decided to hold its extended meeting on May 22.

Speaking to Postnoon APCC spokesperson Dr N Tulasi Reddy said nothing matters more than the local body polls.

“The meeting will set an agenda for all leaders but it will also act as a platform to devise innovative strategy to defeat antiincumbency factor.”

The main opposition TDP has primarily decided to come up with an action plan to face the local body elections during its annual conference, Mahanadu, which is scheduled to be held on May 27 and 28. It is

ENQUIRY

British diplomats reveal weird requests AROUND THE

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coming up with a series of resolutions related to various issues including glaring public problems during the annual conference. The conference is expected to be participated by thousands of party workers. On the other hand, other parties like the YSR Congress Party and the BJP are holding an extended meeting of party’s State committee on May 17.

For the YSRCP, the local body elections have become a challenge to keep its dominance

in Andhra and Rayalaseema, where the party enjoys massive public support. Similar is the case with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi in the T-region.

The party president K Chandrasekhara Rao has already kicked off the process of training party workers in 119 Assembly constituencies of the Telangana region with a view to prepare these workers not only for the local body elections but also utilize their services in the General Elections.

HEALTH

Victory boosts testosterone level WASHINGTON: Testosterone levels increase when men defeat rivals in competitions, but not after they compete against friends, a new study claims.

A University of Missouri study has found that testosterone levels during group competition are modulated depending on the relationships among the competitors.

"One interesting thing about humans is that we are the only animal that competes in teams,"

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said Mark Flinn, professor of anthropology at MU. "Our hormonal reactions while competing are part of how we evolved as a cooperative species. What we found in our study is that although male's testosterone levels increase when men are victori-

ous against strangers or rivals, levels of the hormone tend to stay the same when competing against friends," said Flinn.

His team studied males from varying age groups on the island of Dominica while they played dominoes or cricket.

Flinn found that when males competed against a group outside of their community, their testosterone levels rose if they won, but diminished following a defeat.

PTI

LONDON: British embassies were asked if they could silence a cockerel and order an unfit husband to shape up, among other ‘bizarre’ requests for help in the last 12 months, the Foreign Office said Thursday.

A man asked consular staff in Rome to translate a phrase for a tattoo he wanted, while another man asked the Stockholm embassy if they could check out the credentials of a woman he met online.

In February 2011, the Foreign Office established a contact centre in Malaga on the southern Spanish coast to help cope with the volume of non-consular enquiries received by British missions in southern Europe.

Diplomats in several countries were also asked where the best place to watch football was, while they were also pestered for London 2012 Olympics tickets and contact details for Beatles legend Paul McCartney's wife Nancy Shevell.

Beijing consular staff was asked to help a woman who had bought a pair of football boots that were ‘Made in China’ but were poor quality.

AFP

CITY BRIEFS GHMC sets up committee on transfers

Task force police bust gambling syndicates

Four workers hurt in fire mishap

TDP’s woman wing mulls bus yatra

LVP eye institute takes part in awareness week

T

T

F

F

T

he GHMC Commissioner Krishna Babu has constituted a committee to effect transfer of long standing employees of different categories, working in various circles and zones and head office.

Committee will be headed by Special Commissioner and Additional Commissioners of Administration, Finance and Works.

ask force team of North Zone raided many gaming dens in Secunderabad on Tuesday and busted gambling syndicates. In all 72 persons were arrested and huge cash seized while they were playing games. They have been booked under the Andhra Pradesh Gambling Act and produced them in City court.

our workers of a restaurant, which is located at Tukaramgate in Secunderabad, sustained burns on Tuesday while they were preparing food. The owner of restaurant Khaja Miyan was changing the cylinder when the gas leaked and fire mishap occurred. Cook Mahboob and three others were injured. They have been shifted to hospital.

ollowing in the footsteps of the TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, who created a record in walkathon, the Mahila Morcha of the TDP is mulling over undertaking a Statewide bus campaign. The meeting of the Mahila morcha held in the City on Wednesday decided to organise the yatra to boost the winning chances of the party in elections.

he LV Prasad Eye Institute is being taking part in the World Seventh World Retinoblastoma Awareness Week from May 12-18 by conducting activities aimed at spreading awareness about Retinoblastoma, an eye cancer which occurs in kids. The institute sees about 250 cases a year and has a success percentage of about 85.

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News THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013 LAST YEAR... HERE Double Murder

L

ast year we had reported how two people were brutally murdered by an unknown assassin outside their home. After investigation, the police claimed that not one, but probably the victim was assassinated by a gang of 3-4 people. The limbs and necks of the victims were severed with a sharp weapon, yet nothing was known about the culprits.

MAY 16, 2012

NUMEROLOGY

$23.5 mn

was ticketed in for a colourless, pear shaped diamond recently at Christie’s auction in Geneva. The diamond weighing 101.73 carats becomes the highest ever paid gem.

Tagore was more of an intuitive philosopher rather than an analytical and methodical thinker.

One should not expect clear-cut foreign policy prescriptions from him.

S Tripathi, former Ambassador

See page 9

THINGS WE 5LEARNT TODAY The column that teaches everyone something new about the way the world functions.

1

Man held after girl makes false rape allegation.

A man was held after a girl, 19, who wanted to marry him, pressed false charges against him of sexual assault. City police are now in a fix.

CIVIC

ART

OLD IS GOLD, SAYS GHMC

GHMC decides to overhaul half of its fleet of 700 vehicles which have crossed their stipulated period of 15 years Md NIZAMUDDIN nizamuddin.a@postnoon.com HYDERABAD: Having got its demand note for buying 100 new vehicles for solid waste disposal turned down by the State Government, the GHMC did the next best thing. It went ahead with overhauling the existing vehicles. This is the first time the corporation decided not to run after the government and do what it can.

The fleet of 695 vehicles engaged in garbage collection is going through the overhauling process with the help of maintenance staff deputed from the APSRTC. According to officials, vehicles from all the three major depots, Kavadiguda, Khairatabad and Malakpet are being upgraded daily with an average expenditure of `5055,000 per vehicle. “This is the first time we have launched this drive in the history of GHMC”, says A Ashwin Kumar, superintending engineer (solid waste management and transport).

WORLD

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Only 10-15 selected vehicles are taken for upgrading daily without impacting the regular sanitation work. The vehicle is then taken for the RTA check at Nagole office to certify the suitability of vehicle for road by examining its condition.

In the first phase, 200 vehicles will pass through this process. The remaining vehicles

Sip beer in the ‘coffee’ shop

The man behind the launch of many imported beer brands has now made beer more enjoyable in the ambience of a coffee shop with ‘The Pint Room’.

3

Security lapse at Jubilee Bus Stand.

Authorities were to receive 39 CCTV cameras and 25 handheld devices for security at the station, which has a daily footfall of over 45,000. But these promises have not been fulfilled.

5

Would a racecourse make a good public garden?

The BJP demands that Mahalaxmi racecourse be made into a park to stop gambling. But will that work?

will be upgraded, but with less frequency, owing to the festival season in the offing.

“We have more than hundred vehicles , but we cannot take all at a time as it would affect the sanitation work”, says Ramachandra Reddy, consulting engineer on deputation from RTC. GHMC has 163 dumper placer vehicles which were bought during the year 2007.

Out of 695 vehicles, there are 358 vehicles, which are more than 15 years old.

The painting which was expected to sell between $25 million to $35 million rose to set a new auction high for the artist.

The previous top auction price for a Pollock had been $40.4 million last year, although his paintings are said to have been sold for heavier prices in unconfirmed private deals.

Christie's called it the fruit of "a legendary three-year burst of creativity between 1947 and 1950 that completely revolutionized American painting and reshaped the history of 20th century art."

Basquiat's "Dustheads"set another highest auction price ever for the artist, who died in 1988, at the age of 27, of a heroin overdose.

AFP

THE PINT ROOM

2

Obama is in a spot now over the IRA scandal.

This is Obama’s greatest moment of crisis. If it’s proved he is involved, it means eternal infamy.

NEW YORK: A Jackson Pollock drip painting sold on Wednesday at Christie's in New York set a record $58.4 million, followed by one-time graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat at $48.8 million.

"Number 19, 1948" features Pollock's iconic drip-paint style, creating a shimmering mixture of silver, black, white, red and green.

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Winning over rivals boosts testosterone levels.

A recent study has found out that the testosterone levels in males rises when they compete with rivals and defeat them.

4

Pollock sets a record of $58.4 million

Pradeep Gidwani at The Pint Room - Panchkula

JAIDEEP SARIN feedback@postnoon.com CHANDIGARH: Fancy drinking a beer but not in the chaos of a pub? Here's the answer: A beer parlour with the ambience - and

variety - of a coffee shop!

Pradeep Gidwani, a beer enthusiast and the man behind the launch of leading imported brands like Carlsberg, Tuborg and Foster's in India, says that he wants to "make fine beer as famil-

iar and as accessible as your favourite cup of coffee".

Gidwani, who has set up The Pint Room, an exclusive joint for select beers from around the world, in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Panchkula (near Chandigarh), says that the experience being offered by his chain is very different from the noisy music associated with pubs.

The first Pint Room was opened in New Delhi last year.

"The Pint Room is India's first attempt at a coffee shop of beers.

My aim is to make it the perfect place to meet, mingle and discover the intriguing beverage. This place is devoid of loud music, dim lighting and the nightclub vibe," Gidwani told IANS. "From the legendary Trappist Ales brewed in Belgian monasteries, Japanese "dry" beer to German wheat beers, stouts,

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lagers and ice-cold brews from frosted beer-taps, you'll find them all at The Pint Room.

Flipping through the menu is a treat in itself as there is bit of history which accompanies each beer. ”.

"The potential for the growth of beer in India is fantastic.

The only thing slowing growth of beer is extremely high taxation and complicated rules and regulations," he noted.

Gidwani is planning more Pint Room outlets in Gurgaon, Mumbai and Pune.

"We are aggressively exploring further opportunities for expansion across the country" he said.

IANS

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News THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

SECURITY LAPSE

A tragedy waiting to happen Jubilee Bus Station, with a daily a footfall of over 45,000, has pitiable security set up.

RAHUL RAMAKRISHNA rahul.r@postnoon.com HYDERABAD: Despite the threat of terror attacks and the loss of many lives, our authorities refuse to learn. Jubilee Bus Station is one of the three important bus terminals in the City. The lives of over 40,000 visitors is entrusted in the hands of a sub inspector and two home guards!

The absence of Door Frame Metal Detector (DFMD) at the entrance makes this vital transit point a grave threat to security.

Post Dilsukhnagar bomb blasts, the bus station was supposed to receive 25 CCTV cameras and 39 handheld devices. Even a fraction of these promises have not been fulfilled so far.

Commuters voice their feeling of insecurity at the bus station. “After the bomb blasts, the police conduct random checks on

roads but I don’t see any security here. There are not even enough police to lodge a complaint of missing baggage or theft,” says M Vijay Sai, a regular commuter to Karimnagar.

“During rush hours, crowd control is absent. At night, there is little or no protection for

women travelling to other districts. Vehicles are parked here for weeks together and there is no check on the parking slots.

Catching a bus at any of the big terminals does not assure us any safety,” says Keerthi Bhandari, a native of Medak district.

The average footfall of this

bus station is over 45,000 per day, informs the assistant station manager. On weekends and festivals, the number reaches over 55,000. Most of the bus services here cater to the Telangana region. On an average, a daily influx of 540 buses to over 3,000 bus stations in rural and semiurban areas is registered at the JBS. Add to this its close proximity to the Secunderabad-Paradise main road; this bus station is a hub of activity.

A senior RTC police official says, “We admit there is lacunae in security set up. We have managed to install five CCTV cameras and sent proposals requesting installation of DFMDs at the bus station. But it seems those at the top will only budge after something grave happens.”

Officials from the RTC too are aware of the problem, but say they are helpless. “The previous

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The City will get 830 news buses this year, following APSRTC’s decision to introduce a new fleet of buses.

How officials plan to ensure safety is anybody’s guess. board decision promised to increase security and provide us with DFMDs. But nothing has reached us so far. What we require right now is increased police checks and at least one DFMD and two security personnel to man it,” says Satya Sai, assistant station manager of JBS.

NEW DEMAND

‘Make Mahalaxmi Racecourse a park’ Opposition BJP demand that the famous Mahalaxmi Racecourse here be converted into a public garden.

stern India Turf Club (RWITC), which manages the 225acre Mahalaxmi Racecourse, one of the landmarks of the metropolis.

The lease period expires on May 31, 2013.

However, Munde refused to state unambiguously whether such public garden be named after late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray.

"He (Bal Thackeray) devoted his life for the people. He was a leader of great stature and had saved the city during riots. If names of Yashwantrao (Chavan), Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi could be given to various places then there should not be any objection to name the garden after Bal Thackeray," Munde said.

BJP's alliance partner Shiv Sena too proposed that the Racecourse premises be devel-

2 minors die after mum jumps in well with them

India abstains from UN resolution on Syria

15,000 US students to Five killed as old wall in come to India every year UP collapses

Hero cop of Gurdwara shootout retires

JAIPUR: Two minor boys died yesterday after their mother allegedly jumped in a well with them in Model Thana area in Bhilwara district, police said.

The woman and her children were rescued by villagers. The two boys, aged seven years and nine years, were declared dead at the hospital while the woman is out of danger.

UNITED NATIONS: Calling it a "sleight of hand" and a "dangerous precedent which we cannot acquiesce in", India abstained on a resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly calling for a political transition in Syria, saying "unilateral action" will not resolve the crisis and would only exacerbate the problem.

WASHINGTON: The United States is looking to triple the number of Americans going to India for higher studies in the next five years.

"That is still far from our goal of 15,000 in five years," said Tara Sonenshine, under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs. Only 4,300 American students studied here in 2011-12.

WASHINGTON: Brian Murphy, the police officer who was shot 12 times by the lone gunman as he tried to save Sikh worshippers from the unprovoked firing at a Wisconsin Gurdwara last year, has announced his retirement. Murphy told the local WISN TV that he submitted his resignation yesterday and would retire on June 12.

MUMBAI: Opposition BJP demanded that the famous Mahalaxmi Racecourse here be converted into a public garden on the lines of Mysore garden.

"At present, people interested in horse-racing only go at the Racecourse, which is more of gambling. Since the lease period is ending, a beautiful garden on the lines of the ones in Mysore and Lucknow be built there," senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde told reporters here.

BJP's demand came ahead of the expiry of the 99-year-old lease the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had signed in 1914 with the Royal We-

n n

n

Built in 1883 and modelled on the Caulfield Racecourse in Melbourne The track is oval shaped with 2,400 metres (7,900 ft) straight chute, spread over approximately 225 acres The Grandstand, off the course, is a designated heritage structure.

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oped into a public gardencum-theme park.

Shiv Sena leader and Mumbai Mayor Sunil Prabhu recently wrote to BMC com-

missioner Sitaram Kunte asking him not to renew the lease of the Royal Western India Turf Club.

Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray yesterday said that his party would back any proposal seeking to name the public garden after the late party patriarch.

PTI

NATION BRIEFS LUCKNOW: Five passers-by were buried alive when an old wall of a house collapsed in Uttar Pradesh's Bhadohi town, police said Thursday. The incident took place late Wednesday in Nehrunagar area of Bhadohi. Inspector general of police (law and order) RK Vishwakarma said the wall was very old.

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News THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

PAYBACK TIME

FOR PEACE

Security beefed up for Dutt surrender

The authorities are taking no chances after an anonymous letter was received a few days back alleging threat to the actor’s life.

In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, Pope Francis frees a dove during his weekly general audience in St. Peter Square at the Vatican on.

PTI

MUMBAI: A large posse of policemen has been deployed outside actor Sanjay Dutt’s residence at Imperial Heights building in suburban Bandra ahead of his surrender before a designated TADA court here in the 1993 serial blasts case today.

The security has been beefed in the wake of alleged threat to Dutt’s life and protest by little known organisation “Hindu Rashtra Sena” outside his residence yesterday demanding that the actor should not be granted any VIP treatment.

Dutt is slated to surrender before a designated TADA court today as the apex court on May 14 refused to grant him more time to surrender for undergoing remainder of the three-and-ahalf-year jail term. On May 10, the Supreme Court had dis-

CRIME

Girl puts cop in a fix A girl’s charge against her lover of illegal detention and sexual assault turns out false.

Mohd SUBHAN mohd.s@postnoon.com HYDERABAD: City police commissioner Anurag Sharma faces an unenviable situation. A teenage girl approached him a while ago and sobbed out a story of her lover and his two friends kidnapping her and sexually assaulting her for 10 days.

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Investigation revealed the girl had concocted the sexual assault but she was indeed in love with a youth of 24 and was eager to marry him. It was also true that they had physical contacts.

However, having detained the youngsters on charge of mass rape, the police are struggling hard to wriggle out of the situation.

The 19-year-old girl, a resident of Ram Nagar in Musheerabad is the oldest of three daughters of a poor parents.

Recently her father died leaving the burden of the family on her tender shoulders.

She stopped studying and started working in a commercial outlet.

Recently she came in contact with one

Sai Kumar, 24, of the same colony and the two developed intimate relationship. She said Sai had promised her marriage and she was happy as he is financially well off and she thought she could save her family.

According to her the two had met at a KFC restaurant in Secunderabad and she claimed two of his friends joined them and they took her to a lodge in Yadgirigutta where the trio kept her in illegal custody and sexually abused for several days. Later they dropped her back warning her not to say a word to

Having detained the youngsters on charge of mass rape, the police are struggling hard to wriggle out of the situation. anybody or she would be killed.

Chikalguda police checked the CCTV footage of the restaurant and found the two of Sai’s friends having dinner with her. Based on the evidence the police picked up Sai Kumar and his friends for interrogation. In the questioning it came out that the illegal detention part was false. She went on her own believing that she was going to marry the man anyway.

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missed Dutt’s plea seeking review of its judgement.

Dutt’s staff has put up a green cloth on the compound wall of his residence at Pali Hill to avoid media glare as media personnel have been camping at

Imperial Heights since last night.

Meanwhile, security has also been beefed up at Arthur Road Central Jail where Dutt is likely to be lodged after he gives himself up before the court. Jail authorities received an anonymous letter some days back alleging threat to Dutt’s life.

The letter said Dutt would be harmed if he was lodged in Arthur Road Jail. Dutt had earlier filed an application in TADA court, saying he faced threat to his life from “fundamentalist groups” and hence he may be allowed to give himself up before Yerwada jail authorities in Pune instead of surrendering before the TADA court.

However, Dutt withdrew his plea abruptly yesterday without assigning any reason to the court.

PTI

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News THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

ABUSES IN THE TAX AGENCY

Obama fires tax chief Obama said that evidence of abuses in the tax agency, revealed in a report by a government watchdog released on Tuesday, were ‘inexcusable’.

STEPHEN COLLINSON feedback@postnoon.com WASHINGTON: An angry President Barack Obama sacked the acting head of the US internal revenue service on Wednesday over a fast moving scandal sparked when officials unfairly targeted conservative groups.

Obama said Treasury Secretary Jack Lew had asked for and received the resignation of tax agency chief Steven Miller and promised a new system of checks and safeguards.

“Given the controversy surrounding this audit, it’s important to institute new leadership that can help restore confidence going forward,” Obama said.

The president, who has dismissed Republican attempts to link him to the scandal at the independent IRS agency, also pledged to work directly with Congress as it carries out its AROUND THE

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oversight duties in the matter.

Obama said that evidence of abuses in the tax agency, revealed by a report by a government watchdog released on Tuesday, were “inexcusable.”

“Americans have a right to be angry about it, and I am angry about it, “ he said.

“I will not tolerate this kind of behaviour in any agency, but especially in the IRS,” he said.

Scandal erupted when it emerged that officials studying tax exempt status applications singled out groups with names including phrases like “Tea Party” or “Patriots,” which could thus be expected to be fiercely opposed to Obama.

Republican congressman Darrell Issa promised a robust congressional probe into the scandal.

Republicans meanwhile

Media protection Americans have a right to be angry about it, and I am angry about it. I will not tolerate this kind of behaviour in any agency, but especially in the IRS. Barack Obama about the scandal in which IRS officials unfairly targeted conservative groups.

White House releases Benghazi emails WASHINGTON: The White House released 100 pages of emails Wednesday designed to defuse Republican claims of a cover-up over the attack on the US mission in Benghazi last year that killed four Americans.

They were released as President Barack Obama battled Republican charges that his aides, concerned about damage to his re-election campaign, played down the idea that the attack was an organised operation by terrorists.

The correspondence details a spirited debate between top US officials in several agencies about how to publicly describe the attack and its causes.

It appears to show that the CIA, and not senior White House and state department officials, took the lead in developing the talking points and in omitting key information about

possible extremist action.

Also in early versions of the talking points, developed on September 14 and 15, was a warning about references to previous attacks on foreigners in Benghazi and a suggestion that extremists had surveyed US facilities.

That bullet point was also missing from the final version of the document.

But the emails make clear that then CIA director David Petraeus, who later resigned over a sex scandal, did not agree with the final version of the talking points.

The White House had previously declined to detail the emails, between members of President Barack Obama’s National Security Council, the State Department, the CIA and other agencies.

Obama’s critics said that the release of the documents did not end questions.

AFP

WASHINGTON: The White House threw its weight today behind a bid to pass a law to strengthen journalists’ rights to protect their sources, amid controversy over the seizure of a news agency’s phone records.

Following allegations that federal investigators had gone too far in their move against the Associated Press, a spokesman said President Barack Obama had contacted lawmakers to ask that the bill be brought forward.

Press secretary Jay Carney insisted that the White House was not involved in the justice department investigation against the AP. AFP

HEALTH

Fish oil may stall junk food effects on brain AROUND THE

WORLD

WASHINGTON: Fish oil could minimise the damaging effects that junk food can have on the brain, according to new research.

Scientists at the University of Liverpool analysed several research papers to substantially confirm the aiding of weight loss by omega-3s Previous research has indicated that high-fat diets could disrupt neurogenesis, a process that generates new nerve cells, but diets rich in omega-3s could prevent these negative effects by stimulating the areas of the brain that control feeding, learning

My question isn’t about who is going to resign. My question is: ‘Who’s going to jail over this scandal?

John Boehner House Speaker sought to spin the IRS scandal, and other recent controversies currently hampering the administration, into a wider narrative, suggesting systematic abuse of power within the administration.

“My question isn’t about who is going to resign. My question is: ‘Who’s going to jail over this scandal?’” House Speaker John Boehner said.

The White House says no one in Obama’s governing or political team had anything to do with targeting the groups over their tax-free status.

AFP

and memory.

Data from 185 research papers revealed, however, that fish oils do not have a direct impact on this process, but significantly help in stalling refined sugars and saturated fats’ ability to inhibit the brain’s control on the body’s intake of food.

“They seem to mimic the effects of calorie restrictive diets and including more oily fish or it’s supplements could certainly be a positive step towards improving your general health” said Dr Lucy Pickavance, from the University’s Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease. PTI

WORLD BRIEFS OJ Simpson says he didn’t break law

Egypt gunmen kidnap policemen

Peru gets first female foreign minister

One dead as cyclone hits Bangladesh

UN slams Assad ‘escalation’ in Syria war

LOS ANGELES: Jailed sports star OJ Simpson insisted Wednesday he did nothing illegal on the night of a September 2007 casino hotel robbery, and had no idea men with him had guns, as he sought a retrial. The 65-year-old former American footballer appeared relaxed as he gave a blow-by-blow account of the events of that night.

CAIRO: Unidentified gunmen on Thursday captured three Egyptian policemen and four soldiers in the Sinai peninsula, security officials said. The servicemen were travelling to Cairo when the minibus they were in was stopped at gunpoint in Al-Wadi al-Akhdar region which lies east of El-Areesh in north Sinai, they said.

LIMA: Former justice minister Eda Rivas took the oath of office Wednesday as Peru’s foreign minister, becoming the first woman to hold the top diplomatic post.

President Ollanta Humala administered the oath to Rivas, 61. Rivas replaces Rafael Roncagliolo, who resigned following diplomatic spats with Ecuador and Venezuela.

CHITTAGONG: One person was killed Thursday as Cyclone Mahasen hit Bangladesh’s southern Patuakhali coast, packing winds of up to 90 km per hour, officials said.

“Cyclone Mahasen started crossing the Patuakhali coast at 0300 GMT Thursday,” Shamsuddun Ahmed, deputy director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, said.

UNITED NATIONS: The UN General Assembly condemned President Bashar al-Assad’s “escalation” of the Syrian war on Wednesday as rebels battled to free inmates from a prison in the key city of Aleppo. The vote came on the eve of talks between US President Barack Obama and Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

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News THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

BREAST CANCER is the most common cancer to strike women.

Detection: Early detection remains the cornerstone of controlling the disease.

Anatomy of the Female Breast Chest wall

Ribs

Fatty tissue

Muscle

Lobe Ducts Areola Nipple Lobules

Breast cancer screening & diagnosis 1. Before testing or screening nKnow if you should be tested and why. nKnow the right age to start getting tested.

2. Getting a mammogram test nA mammogram (X-ray of the breast) is taken by a female health professional.

The mammogram is then studied to look for any abnormalities.

3. If the first test suggests cancer nThe results maybe normal or not normal. Try not to panic. nAsk what the mammogram results mean. nMake and follow up with doctors’ appointments. nAsk close family and friends for support.

4. If the doctor tells you it's cancer nAsk all the questions you want. nExpect to be referred to a cancer specialist who will discuss the best treatment options and take over your care for a while.

Malignant Growth: Cells spread in and outside the duct.

IN NUMBERS n More than 1.58 million cases detected worldwide. n Around 4,58,000 deaths a year. n Around 270,000 deaths each year occur in low and middleincome countries lacking in early detection services.

Benign Growth: Cells do not spread outside the duct.

THE ‘M’ WORD

With a celebrity like Angelina Jolie now bringing the issue of breast cancer and mastectomy out in the public, a lot of women have woken up to reality.

There is no reason to press the panic button; just keep yourself well informed and follow your doctor’s advice.

FLEME VARKEY fleme.v@postnoon.com

T

he mastectomy procedure, thanks to Angelina Jolie, is in the limelight now. While there has been news of how supportive Brad Pitt has been of Jolie in her trying times, not many women are as lucky as her. The procedure leads to a lot of changes within a woman.

Whatever the reason for the surgery, there are changes to a woman's body image, selfesteem, libido and sex life.

Parvati Sharma (name changed), a teacher in her late 40s, was diagnosed with breast cancer a year ago. She shares her experience with us. “I was shattered.

My first reaction was to call my husband and then my children. It made me feel as if I were already dead. My breasts just felt like two lumps to me. When the doctor advised mastectomy, I came to know I had lumps in my left breast, but on her advice I decided to go for a double mastectomy, in order to reduce future risk. The

What is Mastectomy?

In medicine, mastectomy is the term for the surgical removal of one or both breasts, partially or completely. Mastectomy is usually done to treat breast cancer; in some cases, women and some men believed to be at high risk of breast cancer have the operation prophylactically, i.e, to prevent cancer rather than treat it.

days after the surgery, I just could not come to terms with myself.

Questions like ‘Will my husband love me? What will the relatives say? What will my children think? How do I explain things at school? How am I going to face the awkward glances? I am no longer perfect— I have a deformity,’ flooded my mind. It was a traumatic time for me. But thanks to my family, I was able to overcome it.”

But there have been cases where women have been abandoned by their partners after getting mastectomy done.

Dr Suddha Rao, a psychologist in Delhi, says that in most cases the psychological effects of a mastectomy can be devastating to a woman. She says, “Women are image conscious and with their ‘sign of feminity’ being removed, many go into depression and question their worth and tend to become withdrawn, in turn damaging their interpersonal relationships. What she needs most at this time is confidence and support.”

Breast cancer myth vs reality Myth 1: Young women do not get it.

Breast cancer is more common in post menopausal women. However, people of any age can get breast cancer.

Women under the age of 50, make up 25 per cent of breast cancer cases.

Myth 2: Plastic surgery causes breast cancer.

There is no relation between breast augmentation and increased cancer risk. Those who undergo breast reduction surgery could be at less risk.

Myth 3: Breast cancer comes only in the form of lumps.

A lump can indicate that you have breast cancer but women should also be aware of other bodily signals like swelling, dimpling, skin irritation, nipple/breast pain, a nipple that’s turned inward, scaliness, redness, thickening of the breast skin/nipple and discharge that isn’t milk.

Myth 4: Women with small breasts are at reduced risk.

There is no known connection between the likelihood of getting breast cancer and a woman’s breast size. Large breasts, however, may be more difficult to examine.

Other celebrities who have undergone mastectomy Christina Applegate

Sharon Osbourne

Wanda Sykes

Giuliana Rancic

The actress learned in 2008 that she had an early stage of breast cancer.

While the cancer was only found in one breast, she opted to have a double mastectomy in light of the fact that her mother had also battled breast cancer.

Applegate happily announced she was "100 per cent clear" three weeks later.

The former America's Got Talent judge and wife of Ozzy Osbourne underwent a double mastectomy after doctors discovered she carried a gene that made her susceptible to breast cancer. The decision came 10 years after she survived a battle with colon cancer.

The comedian revealed in an interview on Ellen in 2011 that she was diagnosed with breast cancer in February of that year and underwent a double mastectomy, saying she didn't want to take any chances of a recurrence."I have a lot of breast cancer history on my mother's side of the family," she said.

The E! News host revealed in October 2011 that she was in the early stages of battling breast cancer. “It was just a kick in the stomach,” she told Today after learning she had been diagnosed with cancer. “That was definitely the hardest day.” She subsequently underwent a successful double mastectomy.

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News THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

EDUCATION

RESEARCH

Sesame Workshop brings early education to kids MD of Sesame Workshop India, Sashwati Banerjee, the woman behind Galli Galli Sim Sim, the Indian adaptation of American TV series Sesame Street, talks about their new venture Sesame Street Pre-schools.

AMY ROSE THOMAS amyrose.t@postnoon.com HYDERABAD: Children’s face lit at the very mention of the name Galli Galli Sim Sim, the Indian adaptation of famous children’s TV series Sesame Street. At the slightest provocation, kids would go on relating the tales of Champi and Googly with unbridled glee and excitement.

Sashwati Banerjee, Managing Director of Sesame Workshop India, is the woman behind Galli Galli Sim Sim. In an interview with Postnoon she explains about their new venture.

Sashwati says, “We get many calls from our fans and when we pick the calls they ask if we are Chumpy’s mother or aunt. These calls are not just made by chil-

Mission

S

esame Workshop is a missionary organisation at heart and there are many areas when it works handin-hand with the government to strengthen the preprimary and primary grade quality.

dren but adults too and many of the times, they are from villages.

It feels really good when you know your show has reached to every nook and corner of the country,” she says.

After Galli Galli Sim Sim that uses multi-media platform to prepare children for school and life, Sesame Workshop has started a new venture Sesame Schoolhouse through which the organisation has opened early education centres, Sesame Street Pre-schools.

The programme at these preschools will bring to life furry characters of Sesame Street and intends to instil a strong understanding of science and maths concept among students through activity-based learning methodology. First three Sesame Street Pre-school franchise centres have come up in Chanda Nagar, Kondapur and Manikonda.

“Our aim is to provide early childhood education in order to help children realise their highest potential. We have three main fields where we work-the media through which we provide content to children, we work with the government to strengthen the preprimary and primary grade quality and also to improve early grade

Most men expect more from female pals LONDON: Most women want their friendship with male friends to stay platonic, says a research. The research carried by dating site Canoodle.com reveals that only 27 per cent of women would say yes to something more than friendship with their closest male friend, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

Most women are completely happy for their friendship with a male friend to stay as it is rather than progress to romance and beyond.

Men, on the other hand, AROUND THE

WORLD

AROUND THE

CITY

readers and help children to become school ready. Keeping this in mind, we have started the new venture, Sesame Street Preschools which is looking at providing high quality early childhood education,” she says.

“Our latest work was in Bihar

involved the start of a new campaign Learn to Read, Read to Learn. Most of the schools we visited, children did not even know which side the book opens.

We launched Learn to Read, Read to Learn programme in 375 primary schools spread across rural and urban areas in Bihar.

We gave every student an education kit and teacher a document through which we integrate our curriculum,” she added.

are swinging the other way and are more likely to seduce their female friends.

Over half of the men surveyed said that they would want more than friendship from their close female friends.

Sean Wood, communications director of Cupid Plc, who conducted the research, said: “By and large, men are more likely to find their female friends attractive than the other way around, but sometimes this can lead to love. So you should always keep an eye on your Facebook friends list.”

IANS

TRIBUTE

Meet mulls Tagore’s outlook

Tagore’s vision of global and Asian unity contributed to shaping the tenets and ethos of the foreign policy of independent India and ignited the debate regarding their relevance in the contemporary world.

NEW DELHI: Did Rabindranath Tagore make a mistake by meeting Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in Rome and seeking financial help for starting Italian studies department in his Visva Bharati? Was Tagore well-versed with the prevailing situations in the countries that he had visited between 1878 and 1932?

And is Tagore’s rejection of aggressive nationalism within confines of geography and ideals of internationalism and humanism, which had inspired India’s foreign policy for a long time

after independence still relevant and not out of sync with hard realities of international politics?

These and many other searching questions came up for a threadbare debate at a two-day AROUND THE

NATION

international conference organised by premiere think-tank Indian Council for World Affairs here recently for a relatively less explored area of Tagore’s life— his contribution to relevance to

India’s foreign policy. ICWA Director General, Rajiv K Bhatia pointed out that Tagore’s vision of global and Asian unity contributed to shaping the tenets and ethos of the foreign policy of independent India and ignited the debate regarding their relevance in the contemporary world.

Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, Secretary (Economic Relations) in the External Affairs Ministry, said, “We have much to learn from his powerful message of having a world without barriers”.

PTI

10

News THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013 RENOVATION

Lenin tomb reopens

TOP SECRET

BORDER TALKS

Coke recipe on e-Bay auction

AROUND THE

AROUND THE

WORLD

MOSCOW: The tomb of Russia’s revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin reopened Wednesday after major repairs for water damage to its foundation, media reports said. The project underscored that authorities are in no hurry to respond to calls for the communist icon’s remains to be buried, a debate that began with the fall of communism in 1991. The Lenin Mausoleum, just outside the Kremlin walls on Red Square, had not seen any major works for 80 years.

WORLD

Indian Army delegation led by a Brigadier rank officer holds a border meeting with members of Chinese Army at Nathula, India on Wednesday.

PTI

WASHINGTON: What could be a World War II era recipe for Coca-Cola’s secret formula found a buyer Wednesday on eBay — a 15-year-old who now has three days to come up with $15 million to pay for it. Georgia antiques dealer Cliff Kluge listed the yellowing typewritten document with an opening bid of $5 million and a buy-it-now price of $15 million as a publicity stunt.

Coca-Cola says its formula of natural ingredients is kept in a vault at its World of Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta.

ALL THAT GLITTERS...

The Afghan gold rush BEN SHEPPARD Agence France-Presse KABUL: After scrambling up a steep mountainside in north Afghanistan, Morad Ali crouches beside a gap cut in the slope and touches some reddish-brown rock. “The gold is in here,” he says.

Ali was one of generations of local men who used chisels and pickaxes to extract gold from the forbidding peaks above the village of Qara Zaghan on the edge of the Hindu Kush mountains.

Now a dirt track has been carved up to the spot, and professional surveying is underway as

part of efforts to assess how Afghanistan’s vast mineral wealth could be exploited as the country seeks a more stable and prosperous future.

“I started mining when I was aged about 12,” said Ali, now in his late thirties. “We would find tiny flakes of gold, or we would crush rocks and then wash the AROUND THE

WORLD

Afghan miner Morad Ali ,30, stands where he was searching for gold in a mountainside near the village of Qara Zaghan.

AFP/SHAH MARAI

powder to pan out little grains.”

Ali’s knowledge of the landscape and its history of small-scale “artisanal” mining is a valuable asset for Afghan Gold and Minerals (AGM), the Afghan-owned company that in 2011 won the licence to dig for gold in Qara Zaghan.

“We know from the locals that there is gold and our own studies show good potential. Now we need to explore further,” said Dusko Ljubojevic, a South African geologist at AGM. Business wentures face major challenges in Afghanistan, ranging from the risk of attack by Taliban insurgents and criminal gangs to poor infrastructure, power shortages and widespread corruption.

Rumours of a “gold rush” attract inevitable attention, and AGM’s convoys use armoured vehicles and gun-toting guards to make the eight-hour journey to Baghlan province from Kabul over the snow-capped Salang Pass — only 85 miles (140 kilometres) on the map.

T

he US conducted an aerial survey of Afghanistan in 2006, building on data from the Soviet occupation of the 1980s, and found evidence of $1 trillion of minerals deposits with particularly strong results for copper and iron.

Such potential wealth offers a glimmer of hope to a country ravaged by decades of war and facing further turmoil as 100,000 international troops fighting the Islamist insurgents head home by the end of next year.

Samples collected from an Afghan gold mine, for testing, placed on a mountainside.

AGM is majority-owned by Sadat Nadari, a 36-year-old Afghan entrepreneur who runs a supermarket chain and insurance company in the capital as well as investing in construction, telecoms and fuel distribution.

From a prominent Ismaili family, Nadari exemplifies the sleek, foreign-educated business class that could flee Afghanistan when US-led troops pull out in 2014, but he says he is determined to stay and to invest.

“I will always live and work in Afghanistan,” he said at his large top-floor office in Kabul.

“Mining is Afghanistan’s

future. If there is one sector that can take this country forward and make a difference, it is mining.

“We are at the exploration stage in Qara Zaghan. We are hoping to find a commercially viable deposit, then get into production, start paying our shareholders and generate revenue for the government of Afghanistan.”

Reflecting how big business is done in the country, AGM was formed after Nadari “bumped into” Ian Hannam, then a JP Morgan banker with a legendary reputation for dealmaking, at a cocktail party at the American Embassy.

“I said I owned a small gold mine and I could see his facial reaction,” Nadari recalled with a laugh.

JP Morgan then created a consortium of investors to take 49 percent ownership of AGM, which has since secured six other mining licences across Afghanistan: four gold concessions in Badakhshan and two copper ones in the mid-north.

The US conducted an aerial survey of Afghanistan in 2006, building on data from the Soviet occupation of the 1980s, and found evidence of $1 trillion of minerals deposits with particularly strong results for copper and iron.

Such wealth offers a glimmer of hope to a country ravaged by decades of war and facing further turmoil as 100,000 international troops fighting the Islamist insurgents head home by the end of next year.

AFP

11

News THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

REAL PROPERTY

RED HOT FURY

Once landowners, now work as guards

A cloud of ash belches out of Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano, some 55 km from Mexico City, as seen from Cholula, in the Mexican central state of Puebla, on Wednesday. The volcano spewed a new column of ash late Tuesday, with some of the material falling on three towns while glowing rocks landed on the towering mountain’s slope. Authorities have raised the alert level to “Yellow Phase Three,” the fifth of a seven-stage warning system, restricting access to an area of 12 km around the volcano while preparing evacuation routes and shelters.

AFP PHOTO/ARTURO ANDRADE

US CONFIRMATION

‘Chem arms used in Syria’ WASHINGTON: Small amounts of chemical weapons have been used at least twice in Syria, but Washington is seeking more information as it mulls its response, a top US official said Wednesday.

“The intelligence community has agreed with varying levels of confidence that chemical weapons were used in small amounts in at least two instances in Syria,” Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told US lawmakers.

AROUND THE

WORLD

“But having high confidence up in the intelligence community, for which I have great admiration, is not in fact all that one needs to take some of the actions that many people have contemplated.”

Sherman did not say which side was believed to have used the weapons in the bloody conflict in Syria now in its third year, in which rebels are seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad.

But she told the House for-

Turkish policeman fires tear gas at demonstrating students in Ankara who had gathered on Wednesday to protest against government policies they say resulted in last weekend’s deadly twin bombings. Some 300 students hurled stones at the police as they vowed that those behind the car bombs in Reyhanli, near the Syrian border, “will pay a price” and demanded the resignation of foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

AFP/ADEM ALTAN

eign affairs committee that US President Barack Obama — who has said the use of chemical weapons would be a red line for the international community — was right to proceed cautiously.

“We have unfortunate experience in our history, where we’ve

Pick

taken action and it turned out that the intelligence assessment was either misinterpreted or not accurate,” Sherman said.

“So I think he is being very thoughtful about how he is proceeding here.”

AFP

at the

GURGAON: They once owned the land where swanky high-rises have come up in this corporate hub adjoining the national capital. Injudicious use of the money they earned from developers has now seen many of them working as security guards in those very buildings.

“Illiterate or less-educated farmers are now working as private security guards or driving autos to earn their livelihood,” Omprakash Yadav, president of the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, farmers’ organisation, told IANS. “I got more than `2 crore by selling nearly 3 acres of agricultural land at Sihi village, now Sector 83-84. I purchased 6 acres in a village in Mahendergarh district, built up a ‘kothi’ (bungalow) and bought a SUV,” Kanwar Yadav, 48, told IANS. “I never thought that money would finish one day. I had to sell my SUV after oneand-a-half years. Now I am working as a private security guard in a building on my own land,” he added. His story is similar to that of many farmers who once owned land on the stretch between Gurgaon and Manesar.

Rajender Singh, Kanwar Yadav, Dharmender, Ramesh, Omprakash, Leela Ram, Narender Singh and Mahesh Yadav, to name just a few, are from villages like Sikanderpur, Badha, Nawada, Rampura,

Many of the semiilliterate farmers and their families, in the absence of proper guidance, got into the habit of overspending without generating proper sources of regular income, Anurag Bakshi, a former Indian Revenue service (IRS) officer, said.

airport,

Nakhrolla, Narsinghpur, Mohamadpur and Naurangpur. About 90 per cent of the farmers from these villages sold their agricultural land to private builders either out of fear or willingness or greed. Mahesh Yadav, 34, quit his job as a Haryana police constable a few years ago when he received more than `1.5 crore by selling land. “He used to celebrate and give parties on the birthdays of his family members. Once, he organised a party to celebrate the birthday of his pet. He drove a Mahindra Scorpio for two years. Now, he works as the driver of a private vehicle,” said an elderly resident of Sikanderpur village.

AROUND THE

NATION

Mahender Singh, 50, received close to `4 crore by selling nearly 5 acres of land in July 2008. After buying 10 acres of cultivable land in a village near Dharuhera, he bought a Mitsubishi Pajero. After 18 months, he replaced it with a Tata Safari that he sold in early 2012 and now drives a Maruti Swift.”My 7-member family survives on the little rent that comes from my plot in Gurgaon. I had never thought it would come to this,” Mahender Singh rued.

Ramesh, 38, after getting `80 lakh in 2006, he purchased some agriculture land in Rewari district, opened a hardware store and bought a Hyundai Santro car. By 2011, he closed the store, sold the Santro, and now he drives a three-wheeler of his own.

Omprakash, 40, of Rampura village now works as the assistant of a sub-contractor, building flats on the land that includes five acres that were once his. “I had an emotional attachment with my land, but I sold it, as there were rumours the government would acquire it. We insisted on buying costly cars and building a bigger house than our neighbours.”

IANS

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News THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING NT BALANARAYAN

BEST OF THE BEST

NWPLYNG

STREAMING ISSUES

Let the music play

Streaming sites continue to ignore India, but they are the ones losing out as the nation moves on.

T

his mobile app lets you tell the world which song you’re listening to, using a check-in system much like Foursquare. When you play a song on your Android or iOS device, the app will suggest that you tell the world about it. You can add text or a small audio clip of your own while checking-in, but that is optional. The app is developed by an Indian company and is one of the best designed apps available for Android as of now.

You also have the option to share the check-in on Twitter and Facebook. With the latest update you can also listen to the song your friends have checked in to.

Attendees visit the Google Play booth during the Google I/O developers conference.

FITBIT FLEX

T

he latest fitness tracking device from Fitbit is a wristband that costs $99. It is very similar to other devices the company made in the past in terms of functionality. The new wristband form factor makes it easier to take care of; earlier models had to be clipped on to clothes which meant it would fall down often. Flex will be competing with Nike’s Fuelband and a few other fitness bands that have hit the market recently. The device displays most of the information it gathers through the mobile app it tethers to. The same data is also uploaded online and can be accessed from a browser.

T

hink about this scenario, you pick up your Android phone and ask it to play your favourite song from the default music app. Then you can ask the app to play songs similar to the one you just heard and it will pull in information from the Internet and keep you entertained for as long as you desire. Hold that thought for a second, do you like it? Well too bad, like most music and movie related services online, customers in India won’t get access to it at least for a few more years.

Google announced their new service yesterday during Google I/O, a conference they organise annually for developers. The new music subscription service adds on top of a music locker service the company had built a

Like most music and movie related services online, customers in India won’t get access to it at least for a few more years. while back. The company said that those in US will be able to start using the service now and added that it’ll be launched in other countries soon enough. In this case I can bet that India won’t on that list. Don’t believe me, lets look at the other services in the market.

Netflix lets you watch unlimited movies and TV shows online and on any device that is connected to the Internet, all you need to pay is $7.99 a

month. Now you’ll be quick to point out that the cost of movies in India is very low, but then you forget that someone who likes to watch a movie every day will end up spending much more if they go ahead and buy DVDs or soft copies from iTunes.

Xbox Music, earlier known as Zune Pass, is a subscription service that let you listen to unlimited music for a monthly fee. It is quite similar to Google’s offering in terms of usability except the company was charging $10 a month. It is not the best pricing out there, but still reasonable for a good streaming service. This service too is unavailable in India.

What about Pandora and Spotify two other services that offer streaming audio, again no show.

It’s like all these companies decided India just wasn’t worth the effort, but they are missing a big point here.

Music prices are already very low here, so the amount they’ll need to pay as licensing fee will be even lower.

More and more people are now using Internet on their mobile phones in India and by ignoring this big market they are missing out. Apple already launched iTunes service in India, though they are competing with services such as Flyte from Flipkart that sells DRM-free music.

Indian companies such as Saavn are doing a good job but the song collection leaves much to be desired. At this point all we can do is hope that Indian streaming sites improve the quality of their library as soon as possible, because we might be kept in the dark for a few more years by the bigger companies

UPDATES GALORE

WHAT’S NEW GOOGLE?

Here are the major announcements that were made at Google I/O. nVIDIA SHIELD

I

f you have a really fast processor that would be great for gaming, would you wait for others to make a portable gaming console or will you make one yourself? Nvidia decided to go ahead and make their own console, which looks like a cross between an Xbox 360 controller and Nintendo DS. It is powered by their latest Tegra 4 processor and runs on stock Android. The console is currently open for pre-order at a price of $349 and will be shipped in June. The display on the device is of 720p resolution, but it can output ultraHD (4k resolution) quality video.

NEW MESSAGING SYSTEM

Google announced a new messaging system called Hangouts which will combine Google Chat and Messenger while offering video and voice chat facility. This unified solution can be used on mobile as well as via browser.

GAME CENTRE

The new game centre brings leaderboards, achievements, multiplayer and trophies to Android. The service is a layer than can be built on top of

any Android game in the market according to the company.

MAPS

The Maps service has gone through a dramatic redesign, not only is the look cleaner but also faster. With the new maps it’ll easier for you to find places near you based on your past outings. The new maps improves location and drastically reduces the amount of battery consumed to get your location.

NEW NEXUS?

Google will soon start selling boot unlocked Samsung Galaxy S4 in US that’ll run on stock Android.

BETTER PHOTOS

Google Plus will have a better photo editing tool that will make your photos much better with a single click.

The service had photo editing capabilities for a while, but the new servic blows every other service out of the water.

THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

Business

IMF RELEASES FUNDS FOR CYPRUS

The IMF approved a $1.33 billion (bailout loan for Cyprus on Wednesday and released the first $110.7 million to the government. The loan is part of a combined $13 billion emergency financing deal set by the IMF and the European Stability Mechanism.

PERSONAL FINANCE

AVIATION

Qatar Airways seeks more traffic routes from India NEW YORK: Qatar Airways, one of the world's fastest growing airlines, has sought more traffic routes and seats from India to serve two-tier cities, a top airline official has said.

Akbar-Al-Baker, the Chief Executive Officer told the PTI yesterday that Qatar Airways has exhausted all the traffic routes allotted by the Government of India.

"We hope Indian Civil Aviation authorities will give additional access to other Gulf carriers in India and if that happens we would like to operate more flights.

We would like to operate more flights out of India to cater to the demands of global traffic," Al-Baker said "We would love to serve more Indians in their travel needs. I am willing to take any number of seats offered to Qatar Airways. Sky is the limit," he said.

India's annual airline passengers, both domestic and international, number only 160 million. The Center for Aviation predicts that number will nearly triple to 450 million by 2020.

Answering questions on Ethihad Airways picking up 24 percent stake of Jet Airways for $379 million, the first foreign investment in an Indian airline since India eased restrictions on aviation deals, Al-Baker said Qatar Airways has no such plans to enter into any arrangement the moment in India and is watching the market.

"We are only requesting the Government of India to give us additional flying rights taking into consideration the growing air traffic and have no other plans in that country."

TOYOTA ASIA'S BIGGEST

Demat account for investing in stocks The government has made it mandatory to have a demat account to make investments in shares.

MONEY MATTERS Nupur Pavan Bang

Prof. Nicky was distracted by the knock on her door.

Vishal, a first year MBA student, with a rich dad, was peeping through the door.

Prof. Nicky: Come in.

What brings you here?

Vishal: Professor, I have some spare pocket money with me, say around `50,000.

I am quite fascinated by the world of the stock markets and wanted to invest in a few shares. But I don't know from where to start. Could you help me please?

Nicky: Do you have a demat account?

Vishal: No I don't.

How do I get one? And why do I need one?

Nicky: You need a demat account because the shares are stored in an electronic dema-

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terialised form now a days.

Paper shares are no longer issued. So to ensure that the shares bought by you are properly credited in your account, the demat account is mandatory.

You have to first select a Depository Participant (DP).

Then fill up the Demat account opening form given by the DP that you choose.

Attach all the documents required by them like proof of identity and address. You will also need to produce your original Permanent Account Number (PAN) card while opening your account.

Vishal: The procedure seems similar to opening a bank account! Will the DP do the transactions for me?

Nicky: Once the account is opened, the DP will provide you a Unique Beneficial Owner Identification (BO ID) to quote while making transactions. While selling and buying

shares, you need to specify your BO ID and provide the DP with instructions to buy or sell, for example, which company, how many shares, at what price, which exchange, etc. Following which your demat account will get updated and payment for the transaction will be made through broker/sub broker/ bank.

Vishal: How will I be able to keep a track of my transactions then? How much will they charge me?

Nicky: The DP will provide you with periodic statements of your stock holdings and transactions. The charges for opening and maintaining the demat account differs with DPs. A fair idea of comparative rates can be obtained from the NSDL and CDSL websites.

Vishal: How do I choose a company to invest in?

Nicky: There are various ways of valuing a stock. You can do it personally with the help of past records of the companies or you can take the help of an advisor/broker. But, to begin with, go get a demat account opened.

Vishal: Sure Prof.!

PTI

GOLD `26,162 10g SILVER `43,118 1kg

24C

for

for

DOLLAR `54.71 POUND `83.34

TOKYO: Toyota has accelerated past South Korea's Samsung Electronics to become Asia's biggest company by market value, after the Japanese automaker's shares doubled in the past year. On Thursday morning, Toyota's market capitalisation stood at 21.89 trillion yen ($214 billion), beating out the Galaxy smartphone and tablet computer giant, which was worth the equivalent of 20.26 trillion yen.

Toyota, also the world's biggest automaker, has seen its shares jump on the back of ever-improving financial results with the Corolla and Camry maker saying last week its full-year net profit more than tripled.

Samsung overtook the Japanese giant in the market value table in 2011, according to the leading Nikkei business daily, as the South Korean conglomerate notched up huge profits in its global battle with US rival Apple.

NUMEROLOGY

$100

mn

is what Russian state-run oil giant Rosneft has pledged to invest in geological prospecting and drilling off Vietnam.

NZ HEADS BACK TO BLACK WELLINGTON: New Zealand on Thursday bucked the international trend toward austerity budgets and lifted spending modestly, while still predicting its books will be back in the black within two years. Finance Minister Bill English said that after taking a battering from the global financial crisis and the deadly Christchurch earthquake in 2011, prospects were looking good for New Zealand's economy. "Budget 2013 enhances the momentum that is building across the New Zealand economy," he said. "That momentum can be seen in some recent favourable data and can be felt in a growing sense of confidence and security about our economic position."

BSE NSE

20,280.13 67.17

6,173.85 27.10

THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

Comment Look within.

Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.

THE H7N9 CURSE

Agence France-Presse

P

resident Francois Hollande’s nagging headache to reboot the French economy has turned into a migraine as the economy slipped into its second recession in four years, fuelling speculation of an impending cabinet reshuffle.

Having just marked his first year as French president, Hollande’s ambition to reverse the trend of soaring unemployment is now deemed an impossible task by many economists who say the government’s efforts to create more jobs will at best limit the damage.

The national statistics agency, INSEE, said Wednesday the eurozone’s second-largest economy fell into recession -- two consecutive quarters of contraction -- in the first three months of the year with the economy shrinking by 0.2 percent, just as the eurozone posted its sixth straight quarter of economic contraction.

The French opposition was quick to pounce on the news, with ex-prime minister Francois Fillon of the right-wing UMP blaming the recession on Socialist government inaction since Hollande took power.

“Francois Hollande’s government stopped all reforms, cancelled them, and did not replace them with any real initiative for competitiveness,” Fillon told news website lopinion.fr.

But Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici insisted that the recession was “not a surprise” and was “largely due to the environment in the eurozone”.

He also maintained the government’s promise of stemming the rise in unemployment by the end of the year.

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China bird flu devastates Shanghai family LETTER FROM CHINA

Marcus Aurelius Philosopher

Hollande’s headache LOUISE NORDSTROEM

HIGH-FLYING THOUGHTS There’s news that Coke’s secret recipe is on sale on eBay. The representatives of the company has responded saying that they sleep well at night that the recipe is secure at some vault in a museum in Atlanta. For all we know it could be like the dragon scroll in Kung Fu Panda.

Bill Savadore

T

he virus has already killed her mother, and Kelly Gu’s father lies critically ill with H7N9 bird flu in a Shanghai hospital bed — the only couple both infected in China’s outbreak of the disease.

As her mother lay dying Gu was urgently summoned back to Shanghai from her doctoral studies in chemistry in France, but she was too late, missing the chance to say goodbye by a day.

In her first interview with Western media, she told AFP she knew her mother was dead when her father, already showing symptoms of fatigue and fever, told her by phone: “It’s just like winning a lottery, it’s a lottery of very bad luck.”

The Gu family’s experience portrays a government-run health system battling a new disease, while sometimes showing a lack of empathy for victims and their kin.

The H7N9 strain of bird flu has sickened 130 people in mainland China and killed 35 of them, according to the latest available national figures.

The government and World Health Organization (WHO) have repeatedly said there is no

evidence of sustained humanto-human transmission, but Gu’s parents could be a rare “family cluster”.

Experts of the US government’s Centers for Disease Control public health agency say such clusters could represent limited spread between people caused by prolonged, unprotected exposure.

If the virus were to mutate into a form easily transmissible among humans it could trigger a pandemic.

Gu, 26, said her father, who works in a property management office, was sad about his only child living overseas -- a fact that may have saved her life.

Her mother, a 52-year old housewife she described as an optimist with a knack for technology, was probably infected on her daily trip to market near their home in western Shanghai.

She had already been ill for five days by the time the central government revealed the H7N9 outbreak, going twice to a district-level hospital. The next day, having trouble breathing and suffering from fever, she went to one of Shanghai’s finest hospitals, Huashan.

But the emergency room doctor sent her home, ordering three days rest. She was dead in two.

Beijing has been praised by the WHO for openness over

H7N9, in contrast to its cover-up a decade ago of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which originated in China and killed 800 people globally.

But critics question why it took the government three weeks to make an announcement after the first deaths, despite Internet postings describing a mysterious illness at a Shanghai hospital.

And the case of Gu’s parents — she declined to give their full names — reflects how the government-run health system struggled in the early stages. “(The doctor) hadn’t seen the scanning result of my mother’s lung and he hadn’t asked her to take another one. He just judged it was a normal fever and sent her back home,” Gu said. Her mother died on April 3

of acute respiratory distress, and was confirmed to have the H7N9 virus a day later, one of Shanghai’s earliest cases. Her father had started showing symptoms on April 1.

There are only two other such “family clusters”, a father and two sons in Shanghai and another father and son in Shandong province.

Gu’s father has defied doctors’ expectations by clinging to life, but is under sedation on a respirator and does not respond when she tries to talk with him on a video link. She makes a daily trek to see him at an isolation hospital in southwest Shanghai, where green lawns give it the atmosphere of a country club, and consult with doctors who say there is little they can do.

AFP

EDITORIALS The inglorious case of Sreesanth Obama’s moment of crisis

I

t may be said there was something amiss about the way S Sreesanth’s career spanned out. He was the hope of a whole state that had never seen any of its cricketers hold their place in the national team. Once there was time when vernacular papers and sports magazines debated deeply about why Kerala could not produce a cricketer of international calibre. The only exceptions were Abe Kuruvila and Tinu Yohannan. When Sreesanth arrived, many thought he would change all that. But what got Sreesanth in the news were his maverick behaviour and hysterics on the field — there was an occasion when skipper MS Dhoni had to inadvertently warn him that he ought to simmer down a bit.

Then slapgate happened and instead of commiseration what Sreesanth got was ridicule, as if he deserved it. With the latest accusation of spot-fixing and arrest, it could end a career that may be called inglorious at best.

READERS’ VIEWS

T

his must be the greatest moment of crisis that Barack Obama has faced till now in his entire time at the White House. There’s the tax agency scandal, 100 emails regarding the Benghazi attacks have been released and also the scandal of the justice department hacking the phones of reports of the nation’s biggest news agency. Obama denies he has done anything wrong and says he was not aware of the happenings. But if it turns out that he was even remotely in the know-how of especially the targeting of conservative groups and the phone-hacking, that could very well seal his fate and blast his legacy.

We invite you to write to us comments, suggestions, viewpoint or just about anything to feedback@postnoon.com or #1246, Level 3, Jubilee Casa, Road No 62, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad – 500 033 or even by way of a call on 4067 2222.

Editor: Dean Williams

THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

tELEVISION

SPLITSVILLA IS BACK

Splitsvilla, MTV's hot and happening Romance reality show is back again with season 6. This time the show is said to have eight boys and eight girls playing this game of love and war in Kerala, the land of back-waters, house-boats, spices and romance. This season's theme for Splitsvilla being 'Hot As Hell', the viewers are guaranteed some super hot love-war.

BUCKING UP

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COMEBACK MAN

TV companies get a rival in online videos Samir Soni to make a comeback Actor Samir Soni would soon be making a comeback on the Indian television with Somersault's upcoming show which would be telecast on Life OK. Somersault has been known for its thriller show Fear Files and it is said that this new show featuring Samir Soni would also belong to the same genre. The yet to be titled show would come up with 12 different episodes and would be aired twice a week.

DID YOU KNOW....

Abhay

The evolving TV and video industry faces uncertainty as it embraces new technology like wireless streaming, as traditional US broadcasters urged lawmakers Tuesday to help preserve their marketplace primacy.

MICHAEL MATHES Agence France-Presse

I

n a wide-ranging hearing on the state of video, communications company executives debated the role of government in regulating the huge American market, with cable and broadcast groups stressing that legislative changes are not needed to fix a system they insist is working as it should.

"The system is not broken, (and) changing these laws is not in the public's best interest," Gordon Smith, president of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), told the Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet.

Broadcast TV, he stressed, has remained a paramount form of programming distribution, especially for millions of elderly and poor households.

The pressure to accommodate increasing numbers of

new platforms has surged in an ever-changing and highly competitive environment that now includes basic cable, satellite, Internet video and broadband wireless streaming, many of which want to muscle in on the spectrum currently licensed to traditional broadcasters.

The Obama administration has sought to line up a "voluntary" auction by broadcast companies to provide more spectrum to the surging market in wireless gadgets like iPads and other mobile devices.

No broadcaster or cable operator has come forward, and Smith said such an auction "will present a challenge" for NAB members, who insist spectrum is vital for their programming, including localised content like emergency and weather alerts.

"Our spectrum comes with public service obligations that only we can deliver," he said.

Cable operators are also for the most part opposed to changes in laws governing the airwaves, said Michael Powell, president of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA).

Also testifying Tuesday was Senator John McCain, who introduced the Television Consumer Freedom Act last week to counter the soaring costs of cable by letting consumers purchase channels individually rather than in a bundle.

"Consumers shouldn't have to pay for television channels they don't watch," McCain said. Basic cable TV costs to consumers have risen an average of 6.1 per cent annually since 1995, he said.

Cable giants like Comcast and Time Warner Cable Inc, represented by the NCTA, stand opposed to McCain's bill, saying it would end up pushing costs even higher.

But John Bergmayer, senior

attorney at Public Knowledge, which advocates for more open Internet policies, backs it.

"A lot of people today feel like they're getting ripped off," he said.

Bergmayer also testified he would like to see changes to the "outdated regulatory structure" that offers competitive advantage to cable companies, many of which also act as Internet service providers offering broadband to their customers.

He said such firms discriminate against online video services through data caps that stifle competition.

Internet video has soared in popularity, with studies showing more than 65 percent of all current web traffic is video. But the majority of popular shows, including sports, are available only on broadcast or cable TV, or online through a major cable company that serves as Internet service provider.

Deol will soon be the celebrity host for a show on six courageous women of different ages and at different stages in their lives,who have dared to bare it all - their hopes, their worst fears, their insecurities, their mistakes, their triumphs, their joys and sorrow - on national television for the world to see. The show is called Connected Hum Tum.

TRENDING...

Jonathan Groff is coming back to TV. EW has confirmed that HBO has picked up eight episodes of a gaythemed dramedy starring the former Glee actor. The series, set to air in 2014, is not currently titled.

The show centers on three friends living in San Francisco and explores “the fun and sometimes overwhelming options available to a new generation of gay men.”

Once Upon a Time is set to make Michael RaymondJames a series regular for Season 3, TVLine has learned exclusively. After making his debut as Emma’s ex/Henry’s father Neal Cassidy aka Baelfire, Michael heavily recurred in the last string of Season 2 episodes, as Rumple discovered his son in New York City and circumstances then led them back to Storybrooke.

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THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

spotlight

PARTY UP

Firangi Paani is dedicating the night for the ladies in the house. Dance to the songs churned out by DJ Shafi and have a blast at the pub.

STAR-STUDDED SOIREE

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Wedding bliss Wedding reception of Varsha and movie producer Chinna Srisailam Yadav’s son Naveen was a glittering affair. Dr Rajasekar, Bandaru Dattatreya and Ramanaidu were some of the guests who turned up for the do.

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7

8

9

10

1 Deepa, Divya 2 Srinath 3 Naveen, Varsha 4 Surya Tej 5 Sweta, Swati 6 Lakshmi Parvati, Jeevita,

Dr Rajasekhar 7 Ramanaidu 8 Babu Mohan 9 Bandaru Dattatreya 10 Shanker 11 Shailaja 12 Parineeta

FUN UNPLUGGED Maxxport organised 'Cricket Mania Challenge' for cricket lovers at Prasad's IMAX. Winners of the event will meet Maxxport brand ambassador Rahul Dravid.

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THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

health

KERALA TO PROMOTE ‘NEERA’ AS HEALTH DRINK

The Kerala government will promote the state's coconut water-based drink "Neera" as a non-alcoholic health drink. Neera has body-building proteins. It turns into toddy after it is fermented four hours after being taken from the coconut tree and has an alcohol content of five to eight per cent.

IANS

DEMENTIA AND THE GENETIC LINK

POSTNOON NEWS feedback@postnoon.com

disease if you live long enough.

However, having the abnormal gene does not always predict when you will start showing the symptoms or how rapidly the disease progresses. A minority of people with an abnormal gene may never show the symptoms. n Should I go for genetic counselling and testing?

Genetic testing can identify specific changes in a person’s genes. This test can tell if a person has FAD and if a child has inherited the changed gene from a parent and will develop the disease in the future. It cannot determine when the symptoms will begin o show.

The decision to undergo testing for FAD is very complex and the advantages and disadvantages must be carefully considered. Knowing that you are carrying the gene may help some people plan for the future. To help people consider these issues, specialised genetic counselling is essential.

G

enetic research is concentrating on the role of heredity — the transmission of qualities and illnesses from parents to children — in determining risk for, and development of, Alzheimer's disease.

Dementia may occur in an individual without a family history of the disease — this is called “sporadic” dementia.

Majority of dementia cases are sporadic. Dementia that runs in families is called genetic or familial. This affects only a small number of families. Less than half of all people with frontotemporal degeneration have a parent with similar illness.

THE GENE FACTOR

The basic material of inheritance, DNA, is passed on from our natural parents in the form of genes.

Genes are delivered in packages called chromosomes, which are long chains of genetic instructions.

We all inherit 23 pairs of chromosomes. One half of each pair comes from each parent.

There are just fewer than 20,000 genes in the human genome. It is difficult to say just how many of these will influence one’s risk of developing dementia, but it could be over a hundred.

If a parent has dementia, their illness is most likely due to a combination of many genes working together with lifestyle factors. It is unlikely that the child of this parent would inherit all the disease susceptibility genes, although the risk of disease is slightly higher compared to someone without a relative with dementia.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia.

Medical research has identified four genes that influence disease development, labelled numerically as 1, 14, 19, and 21. Three of these genes affect younger people, and one affects older people.

ANSWERING SOME QUESTIONS n Does it skip a generation?

There is usually a strong family history of the illness and you may know of cousins, aunts/uncles and grandparents who are affected. The disease may appear to skip a generation if a person with the faulty gene dies of another cause before the illness develops. n If I inherit the gene, will I get the disease?

If you have an abnormal gene, you will probably develop the

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EARLY ONSET ALZHEIMER'S

Tracing the gene If your mum has dementia, is it possible that you inherit the disease and pass it on to your children?

Genes do play some role in the development of dementia, but their specific effects vary considerably. Postnoon finds out more.

The three genes that have a major effect on risk of Alzheimer’s disease are the amyloid precursor protein (APP) gene and two presenilin genes (PSEN-1 and PSEN-2). People with any of these genes tend to develop the disease in their 30s or 40s, and come from families in which several members also have early onset of the disease.

All of these risk genes are very rare in a population. They account for less than one in 1,000 cases of Alzheimer’s disease.

On average, half of the children of a person with one of these rare genetic defects will inherit the disease. Probably all those who inherit the genetic defect develop Alzheimer’s disease at a comparatively early age. People who do not inherit the disease cannot pass it on.

The prevalence of these genes is as follows: n A small number of families worldwide have a genetic fault on chromosome 21 in the APP gene, which affects production of the protein amyloid. Amyloid build-up in the brain has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease. The chromosome 21 gene also plays a role in Down syndrome. n A slightly larger number of families carry a fault on chromosome 14 (PSEN-1) causing early onset familial Alzheimer’s disease. n A very small group of families has a fault on chromosome 1 (PSEN-2), causing early onset familial Alzheimer’s disease.

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THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

Technology MUSIC

BEYOND MP3 IS THIS A NEW ERA FOR MUSIC? Advertisements

Downloads 2011

Subscription for streaming services

Digital music revenue 2012

2012

SUCCESS OF STREAMING MUSIC SERVICES STRONG SOCIAL FACTOR

ADS ARE OKAY Following Google's demands for Microsoft to remove its Windows Phone YouTube app, Microsoft has responded saying it's happy to include advertising. Google sent a cease and desist letter to Microsoft recently, with concerns that the Windows Phone YouTube app does not display ads. "We’d be more than happy to include advertising but need Google to provide us access to the necessary APIs," says a Microsoft spokesperson."In light of Larry Page’s comments today calling for more interoperability and less negativity, we look forward to solving this matter together for our mutual customers."

Zen’s new phone

Digital music revenue MAKES IT POSSIBLE TO LISTEN TO MUSIC ANYWHERE WITH A SMARTPHONE

General smartphone activities Social Gaming networking News

social

Music listening

User friendly interface

Legality

10 most viewed videos of all time

>50% of the global smartphone users

Germany

UK

Spain

Mexico

Italy

France

USA

Brazil

USERS WHO LISTEN TO MUSIC FROM THEIR OWN SMARTPHONE 1 PSY - Gangnam Style 2 Justin Beiber - Baby 3 Jennifer Lopez - On the floor 4 Eminem - Love the way you lie 5 LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem 6 Shakire - Waka Waka 7 Charlie bit my finger, again! HDCYT 8 Lady Gaga - Bad Romance 9 Michel Telo - Ai se eu te pego 10 Don Imar - Danza Koduro

Zen Mobile announced the launch of their new series of Smart phones called "Ultrafone".

The series was launched with Ultrafone 701HD that is prices at `11,999 and runs on Android 4.2.

Designed for faster browsing, the 3G enabled Ultrafone 701HD is powered by a 1.2 GHz Quad-core processor and has a 5” IPS capacitive screen. It also supports two sim cards and runs on a 2000mAh battery. It has 1GB of RAM and 4GB in-built storage space, with an option to expand it up to 32GB. It has an 8 megapixel camera at the back and a 3.2 megapixel one in front. The handset also has full HD video recording capability, panorama shot, and burst shot with up to 99 shots on the go.

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THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

Entertainment TWITTER, TWITTER LITTLE STAR

CINE BYTES

SAMANTHA drops the bomb!

S

amantha is one of the most sought after actresses in Telugu cinema and she has had a dream run at boxoffice over the past three years. This year, she has so has so many big ticket films in her kitty, some of which are already under production, that she has decided not to sign any new film . “I haven’t signed any new films... will not be signing any new films this year... Too much work already...(sic),” she confessed on Twitter. Recently, there were rumours that she’s in talks with Koratala Siva for his upcoming film with Ram Charan. Given her popularity, Samantha’s name pops up everytime there’s a new film featuring some of the top stars in the industry.

Currently, Samantha is juggling between the sets of Pawan Kalyan’s film and NTR’s upcoming film titled Ramayya Vastavayya.

“Currently shooting for ramayya vastavaiya, attarintiki daredi..starting manam with the akkineni household next month and rabhasa with ntr. August starts Suriya s film with lingu sir..and vinayak sirs film,.. So a big FULL STOP... Only coz I ll need two of me to take up more work (sic),” she added on Twitter. For the past couple of months, there have been plenty of rumours about her personal life and her sparkling chemistry with Siddharth, at an awards ceremony in Chennai, had set the tongues wagging.

Considering the number of projects she has lined up this year, it looks like marriage is definitely not on the cards this year. “So marriage rumours take a break until further notice...FROM ME (sic),” she quipped.

Ram, Venky’s film titled Garam Masala?

R

am and Venkatesh will soon be seen in the Telugu remake of Bol Bachchan. Buzz is that, the Telugu version has been titled as Garam Masala. Vijay Bhaskar is directing the remake and it also stars Anjali and Shazahn Padamsee in lead roles. D Suresh Babu and Sravanthi Ravi Kishore are producing the film.

Lakshmi Rai to make a cameo in Balupu

L

akshmi Rai is going to make a special appearance in Ravi Teja’s upcoming film Balupu. Shruti Haasan and Anjali are playing the lead roles and Gopichand Malineni is directing this action entertainer. Currently, it is being shot in Bangkok and is expected to wrap up soon.

Balupu will release in June.

Bhai’s shoot nears completion

N

agarjuna’s upcoming film Bhai is nearing completion.

Currently, a song is being shot with Nagarjuna and the female lead Richa Gangopadhyay in Slovenia. Veerabhadram is directing the film and Nagarjuna is producing the film under Annapurna Studios banner. Devi Sri Prasad is scoring the music. The film will hit the screens later this year.

THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

fashion

MIRANDA WAS A TARGET OF THE BLING RING GANG

MIRANDA KERR has been revealed as one of the real-life targets of the Hollywood Bling Ring gang — a group of teenagers that used to break into the houses of celebrities and steal their belongings. The group forms the basis of Sophia Coppola's upcoming film of the same name, starring Emma Watson.

A touch of ROYALTY This is the second year that the Rajasthan Fashion Week 2013, a three-day rich, extravagant exhibition of royal lifestyle and fashion, was held at Jaipur. We bring you the event in snapshots.

22&23

THE NEW GIANNI VERSACE?

AFP

DONATELLA VERSACE has offered her new protégé and Versus designer, JW Anderson, the ultimate praise by comparing him to her late brother, Gianni. Anderson unveils his debut collection for Versus tonight in New York.

A

fter celebrating the triumphant first season in 2012 RFW is now established as a recognised brand across the fashion industry of India and soon it will be projected to the international world of fashion. RFW is not simply restricted to the glitter of established designer brands and other creative talents of the fashion industry but it has set its aim higher, raising a platform for the emerging and aspiring talents who fail to bloom for the lack of ample opportunities.

Several designers like Ritu Kumar, Vikram Phadnis, Pallavi Jaipuria, Payal Jain, Charu Parashar and Mandira Wirk put on display the best of Rajasthan’s embroidery and prints in their collections. Sameera Reddy, R Madhavan, Rohit Roy, Anjana Sukhani, Hrishitaa Bhatt, Krishika Lulla, Shibani Kashyap, Tusshar Kapoor, among others walked the ramp at the second edition of Rajasthan Fashion Week.

Entertainment THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

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Entertainment THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

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THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

Chai Time

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.

Oscar Widle

KAKURO

QUICK CROSSWORD

26

SUDOKU How to play kakuro Kakuro is a popular game similar to sudoku in some ways. But is also suitably different. The key question: ‘How do you play kakuro?’, well here are the rules of kakuro. The answer: The kakuro grid, unlike in sudoku, can be of any size. It has rows and columns, and dark cells like in a crossword. And, just like in a crossword, some of the dark cells will contain numbers. Some cells will contain two numbers.

However, in a crossword the numbers reference clues. In a kakuro, the numbers are all you get! They denote the total of the digits in the row or column referenced by the number.

Within each collection of cells — called a run — any of the numbers 1 to 9 may be used but, like sudoku, each number may only be used once.

Let’s have an example to explain this concept more clearly: In the image above, which shows a section of a kakuro puzzle, you will see the numbers ‘26’ and ‘14’ in the top row. Look at the 14. This means that the total of the three cells underneath must sum to 14. Therefore 9, 4, 1 could be the answer, or perhaps 7, 4, 3 and so on...

So, how do you work out the actual combination? Well, this is done through elimination and cross-referencing. For instance, as you work out the answers for other kakuro clues, this will naturally limit the valid combinations, and hence the answer for this particular run.

Note the second cell in row two — it contains two numbers, 30 and 11. The 30 refers to the vertical run underneath the number 30 and the 11 refers to the two cells to the right, horizontally, of the number 11.

ACROSS

PREVIOUS PUZZLE ANSWER

SCRIBBLING PAD

1 Sweeping sagas 6 Woodworking files 11 ___ Tuesday (Mardi Gras) 14 Polite female title 15 Dagger partner 16 Midori on ice 17 Suited to a person’s strengths 19 Supporting 20 Stopped standing 21 Right-angle wing 22 It does blowups 23 Dry, cold northerly wind 27 Cuts, as prices 29 Tenth mo.

30 “... lived happily ___ after” 32 Word with “gray” or “rest” 33 Opposite of “‘neath” 34 Greyhound stop 36 Costner of film 39 Two-star performance?

41 Accounting entry 43 You may get a hand here 44 Emulates an active volcano 46 Event that throws a lot of people 48 “The Matrix” role for Keanu 49 Pinball machine violation 51 Slender-billed seabird 52 Coffee dispenser 53 Buzzard relative 56 Exhaust, as a supply 58 New Haven Ivy Leaguer 59 Drilling apparatus 60 ___ chi (martial art form) 61 Chang’s twin 62 What crews with tar make 68 Syllable from the stands 69 The youngest Munster 70 Invest with a trait 71 Decide on, as a date

72 “Fix” a pet 73 Dreadlocks wearer, briefly

DOWN

1 Tall Australian bird 2 Baby food 3 “Don’t mind if ___” 4 Is able to, Shakespearean-style 5 Applied liberally 6 NBC’s former owner 7 Tie term, in sports 8 They often hit the ground running 9 Spanish rice dish 10 Bird known to sing while flying 11 Big Apple parade site 12 Advice to sinners 13 Legal wrongs 18 ___ off (repelled) 23 Imperative and subjunctive, e.g.

24 Become slippery, in winter 25 It improves night vision 26 Ben-Hur’s mother becomes one 28 Divination practitioner 31 Sci-fi maid, maybe 35 ___ over (assisted through difficulty) 37 Like xenon 38 Zero population 40 Silly sort 42 Cylindrical shape with tapered ends 45 Like drink-affected speech 47 Where some bad ideas look good 50 Vacuum tube type 53 Changes course suddenly 54 Half of the forearm bones 55 Mild expletive 57 Tropical vine 63 “___ Hard” (Willis film) 64 Tyrannosaurus ___ 65 Age proofs, briefly 66 Boring daily routine 67 ___ breeze (vodka cocktail)

Chai Time THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013 Thiruvaikumar

STAR POWER for 17-5-2013

27

As per Hindu panchang thiruvaikumar@yahoo. co. in, 040-27177230 / 9177596118

ARIES

TAURUS

GEMINI

CANCER

LEO

VIRGO

LIBRA

SCORPIO

SAGITTARIUS

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

PISCES

You will spend good time with family members. Govt officials will be of great help. Expected transfer and promotion are on the cards for employees.

Colleagues will be very much cooperative.. Businessmen will win over the competitors.

STRIP TEASE AGNES

All the challenging tasks undertaken by you will get completed successfully. You will spend good time with family and children which make them cheerful.

Relationship with blood relatives is cordial.

Some have bright chance to buy a vehicle. Journey undertaken will be successful.

Employees will get appreciation from superiors as they work hard. Demands put by them also will be accepted by the management.

Financial position will improve considerably. Politicians are advised to keep away from the internal controversies within the party. Businessmen are advised to keep their records updated or else chances of getting penalized.

Good events to take place at home. Blood relatives will help you in performing good events that are to take place at home.

Increased workload is likely for the employees, but they will also be rewarded suitably by the employers.

Businessmen might face tougher competition.

Employees will manage the problems faced in a wise manner. Deficit financial flow is most likely as expected payments might get further delayed.

Avoid handing over important works to colleagues which if executed by you may yield the best results. Parents will support and extend their wholehearted help to you. Those planning to shift their homes are advised to postpone.

Employees will be under pressure from superiors. Financial position will be satisfactory. You will take part in religious and temple renovation activities.

Businessmen will get good support from their staff as they take care of them.

Family members will be cooperate with you well. Chance of theft or losses is likely; need to be careful and protect your household items and movable assets with foolproof methods.

Employees are likely to get promotion and pay hike.

TAROT READ

Sumaa Tekur

tarotreadhyd@gmail. com

ARIES:

GEMINI:

Page of Swords – You may be asked to attend a summit or conference to network with business associates and build contacts.

LEO:

Two of Cups – Life is pretty much like a pack of Tarot cards. What you pick at any given time will have an impact on your frame of mind. Play it right.

LIBRA:

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE

King of Cups – A number of brainstorming sessions at the office will be good for your work.

You can get many more ideas on how to grow the business.

SAGITTARIUS:

Knight of Swords – Those who have a way with words must find an outlet to release pent-up emotions through writing. It need not be a literary piece.

TAURUS:

Four of Pentacles –Rights come with responsibility. Just because you have the power to do certain things does not mean you can use it as a licence to do more.

CANCER:

Justice – Take up a hobby so you can divide your life into different compartments. This is necessary in order to add a larger perspective to your life.

VIRGO:

The Fool – You may be see-sawing between one extreme and another. This is not doing good for your emotions because it is unsettling you.

SCORPIO:

Four of Wands – You may be blaming someone for something. But it may actually be an accident and you may be mistaken.

Clear your doubts.

CAPRICORN:

The Hanged Man– Don’t get muddled up in your head. Deal with one creative idea at a time. You are full of ideas and need to juice them properly.

PREVIOUS SOLUTIONS

PISCES:

The Chariot – In your profession, you will meet a cross-section of people from society.

Seeing society from very close has its advantages and disadvantages.

NUMBER GAME

Pentacles – Being too idealistic will only harm your chances of progress.

You need to keep a practical foot firmly in the world that you live in.

SCRABBLE

AQUARIUS: Page of

POOCH CAFE

Those suffering with chronic disease will get a major relief.

Employees might be overburdened.Transfer to an unfavourable destination is likely. But keep your cool and be cordial with colleagues as well as superiors.

for 17-5-2013

Ace of Pentacles – A new member arrives into the family. This bundle of joy will give you a lot of happiness. It could even be a relative in the extended family.

NON SEQUITUR

Blood relatives will be more affectionate towards you and extend good support. You will get due share of the ancestral property without much efforts.

Employees will be entrusted with new and challenging responsibilities

SUDUKO

Politicians are likely to face a tough time. Avoid unwanted apprehensions that are worrying you a lot. You need to be cheerful as you will get support from parents. Self confidence level will increase with which you will be able to handle.

Boggle EGYPT MALI LIBYA ALGERIA MAURITANIA Vol: 2, No 300 RNI No: APENG/2011/39337 Published for the proprietors, Scribble Media and Entertainment Pvt Ltd, by V Harshavardhan Reddy, at #1246, Level 3, Jubilee Casa, Road No 62, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad – 500033 and printed by him at Jagati Publications Ltd, Plot No D-75&E-52, APIE Industrial Estate, Balanagar, Ranga Reddy Dist, Hyderabad – 500037, Editor: Dean Williams – Responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act All rights reserved.

Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. For feedback, please write to: feedback@postnoon. com and for subscription, please call 040-4067 2222, Fax: 040-4067 2211

28

Entertainment THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

SMALL SCREEN DEBUT

CINE BYTES

Not late, just had no small screen plans:

ABHAY DEOL

I’m neither macho nor metrosexual: Rampal

O

ne of the most good looking actors of Hindi cinema model-turned Arjun Rampal, also known for his fashion sense, doesn’t take the titles given to him seriously. “I am not metrosexual. I am not macho. I am normal.

I don’t even wear nail paint,” Arjun, 40, face of Nivea Men’s cream, told reporters at the announcement of new global brand position here Tuesday.

Bobby Deol dances a la Salman Khan

B

obby Deol, who is playing a huge Salman Khan fan in his forthcoming comedy Yamla Pagla Deewana 2, will be seen imitating the superstar’s signature steps in the song Changli changli. A source said that the song will see Bobby replicating Salman’s Dabangg styles to impress his on-screen girlfriend, played by Neha Sharma.

‘Fukrey’ music launched with band, baja, horses!

M

A

bhay Deol, who is set to make his small screen debut as a host, says he is not late for TV, it’s just that it didn’t feature in his scheme of

things.

Abhay will be seen as a host on Zee TV’s reality show Connected Hum Tum. “I didn’t have a plan to come on TV, so there is no point of coming late to TV. It’s just that I liked the show, so I gave the nod to it. I never thought that I will ever be doing a reality show or will host a show on televi-

The music of forthcoming movie Fukrey was launched with the lead actors of film making a grand entry at the venue on horses. It is produced by Excel Entertainment, a joint venture of Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani. Farhan, who himself came on a cycle, joked: “The budget of the movie is so big that we invested everything in it. So we could only afford horses. “ IANS sion,” the 37-year-old actor told reporters here Monday.

“It’s not a question of time, it’s a question of subject and project. When I came across a good project, I said yes,” he added.

The show will feature six women from different walks of life with the camera constantly following them.

On the big screen, Abahy will be seen when Anand L Rai-directed Raanjhanaa, also starring Sonam Kapoor and southern star Dhanush, will come out June 21.

IANS

29

sports THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

ROAD TO OLYMPICS

India's ban likely to be lifted

In a major breakthrough, a crucial meeting between Indian sports officials and IOC in Lausanne, agreed in principle to draw a roadmap to bring India back in the Olympic fold.

NEW DELHI: In a major breakthrough, a crucial meeting between Indian sports officials and International Olympic Committee in Lausanne today agreed in principle to draw a roadmap to bring India back in the Olympic fold. The meeting, which assumed great importance for India's sporting future, has worked out the exact details and the timeframe to get the ban lifted ever since it was imposed on December 4 last for India's failure to adhere to the Olympic Charter.

Sports Minister Jitendra Singh, who headed a delegation of the Sports Ministry, said that the ban on India will be lifted

after going through a process.

"We had a very positive meeting and I had a fruitful meeting with the IOC chief Jacques Rogge. We have found a roadmap of India getting into the Olympic fold. The ban will be lifted through a process," he said after the meeting.

"Age and tenure restriction rules have been agreed to. We discussed the ethics issues also and there had been agreement on those also," he added.

The IOC also issued a statement elaborating on the salient points covered during the meeting, which it described as fruitful.

"The main purpose of today's

Jitendra Singh, Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports and Olympian Abhinav Bindra meeting IOC officials Christophe de Kepper and Jerome Poivey at International Olympic Committee Headquarters at Lausanne, Switzerland on Wednesday.

PTI

NBA Heat close out Bulls to advance MIAMI: LeBron James finished with 23 points and eight assists as the Miami Heat held on after blowing an 18-point lead to beat the Chicago Bulls 94-91 Wednesday and advance to the NBA semi-finals.

Dwyane Wade played through a nagging knee injury to finish with 18 points and six assists and Chris Bosh had 12 points and seven rebounds for the Heat, who won four straight games against the under-manned Bulls after dropping the opener in Miami. "We knew right from the very beginning of this series that we would have to earn everything and that proved to be true," said Miami coach Erik Spoelstra.

Heat will face either the Indiana Pacers or the New York Knicks in the semis. The Pacers lead that quarter-

final series 3-1 with game five set for Thursday at Madison Square Garden.

James also had seven rebounds for the Heat who reached their third straight Eastern Conference final series.

The injury-plagued Bulls had two chances in the final seconds to tie it, but Nate Robinson and Jimmy Butler both missed from beyond the arc.

Carlos Boozer finished with a game high 26 points and 14 rebounds while Robinson had 21 points and Butler 19 for the Bulls, who played the entire series without Derrick Rose, Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich.

The have been decimated by injuries. Derrick Rose hasn't played since he tore his ACL in the first playoff game last season.

AFP

BOSTON CUP

Winners of the 14th Boston Cup, Meridian High School pose with their trophies in the City. Also seen is the Mayor, Mohd Majid Hussain.

meetings was to explore the possibility for the suspended IOA to hold free, fair, democratic and transparent elections on the basis of a revised IOA constitution and the Olympic Charter, with no outside interference, that could pave the way for the IOC to consider lifting its suspension of the IOA," it said in the statement.

The IOC also said that Sports Minister had given guarantees and a clear commitment that the government will fully respect the the principle of autonomy of the Olympic Movement. "In addition, a mutual understanding was reached to establish close cooperation between all parties concerned,� the statement said.

TT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Chinese stars dominate openers MARTYN WOOD Agence France-Presse

PARIS: Defending champion and world number one Ding Ning of China continued the quest to defend her world championship title in Paris as she cruised into the third round on Wednesday after brushing aside Thailand's Nanthana Komwong.

Top seed Ding, who triumphed over countrywoman Li Xiaoxia for the world crown two years ago in Rotterdam, swept aside 102nd-ranked Komwong 11-3, 11-6, 11-3, 11-4 to set up a last-32 showdown with another Chinese Hu Limei.

Petra Lovas of Hungary provided minimal resistance faced with her daunting second-round opponent Liu Shiwen as the two-time World Cup winner powered to a commanding 11-3, 11-2, 11-2, 11-6 win.

Olympic title-holder Li Xiaoxia proved far too strong for another Hungarian Krisztina Toth as the 25-year-old steamrolled her way to an 11-7, 11-2, 11-2, 11-4 whitewash, while there were also convincing victories for the other members of the imposing Chinese squad Zhu Yuling, Wu Yang, Chen Meng and qualifier Hu Limei.

Feng Tianwei of Singapore, the highest non-Chinese entrant in the women's draw as the fourth seed, survived a scare to outlast Misaki Morizono of Japan 11-8, 4-11, 611, 11-8, 11-8, 11-8. Shen Yanfei of Spain, the top-rated European, was made to work hard for her place in the third round as she battled past Poland's Natalia Partyka 6-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-5, 5-11, 11-6.

Meanwhile, 10th seed Ai Fukuhara was the day's standout casualty as she crashed to a first-round defeat at the hands of South Korean Park Seonghye, leaving Kasumi Ishikawa left to shoulder Japanese hopes

China's player Ding Ning plays against Australia's Zhenhua Dederko on Wednesday in Paris.

AFP/JACQUES DEMARTHON

after the world number eight battled past Czech Renata Strbikova to reach the last 32.

Earlier, men's title-holder Zhang Jike of China began the defence of his crown with a routine victory over Sweden's Fabian Akerstrom. Seeded fourth in the French capital following a string of inconsistent displays this year Zhang, who triumphed over compatriot Wang Hao to claim the Olympic title in London and complete a career Grand Slam, experienced little trouble in his opening-round encounter against world number 321 Akerstrom as he prevailed 11-5, 11-1, 12-10, 11-7.

Next up for Zhang is 79th-ranked Gustavo Tsuboi of Brazil. World number one and top seed Xu Xin also eased through to the second round after brushing aside Steffen Mengel 11-5, 11-8, 11-2, 11-8.

Wang Hao recovered from losing the opening game to Mexican Marcos Madrid before advancing 9-11, 11-7, 11-1, 11-9, 11-9 while Ma Long saw off India's Soumyajit Ghosh 11-8, 11-4, 11-3, 11-9.

AFP

sports

30

THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

ROME MASTERS

ASHES TOUR

Andy likely to pull out World number two Andy Murray admitted Wednesday that he could miss the French Open after a long-term back injury forced him to quit the Rome Masters.

ROME: World number two Andy Murray admitted Wednesday that he could miss the French Open after a longterm back injury forced him to quit the Rome Masters.

“I’d be very surprised if I was playing in Paris,” a subdued Murray said after retiring from a second-round start at the Foro Italico, handing a 6-3, 6-7 (5/7) win to Spain’s Marcel Granollers.

Murray, who was celebrating his 26th birthday on Wednesday, said that pain in his lower left back, which has bothered him since late 2011, has been flaring recently, bringing on the Rome pullout.

“I felt pain today, the same as in Madrid. I hit yesterday and played some points. But I was still sore today,” added Murray, with the French Open

Andy Murray receives treatment during a break during his match against Marcel Granollers at the Rome Masters on Wednesday. AFP/TIZIANA FABI

due to start on May 26.

There were no such problems for Madrid Masters champion Rafael Nadal who began laying the groundwork for a dream seventh Rome title, hammering Italian Fabio

GIRO D’ITALIA

Navardauskas wins 11th stage VAJONT: Lithuanian Ramunas Navardauskas of Garmin won the 11th stage of the Giro d’Italia on Wednesday following a 182km ride from Tarvisio to Vajont.

Navardauskas pulled clear of escape companion Daniel Oss 5km from home on a steep climb to win by more than a minute.Italian Vincenzo Nibali of Astana kept hold of the leader’s pink jersey ahead of Australian Cadel Evans.

The main peloton, including Nibali, Evans and Britain’s 2012 Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins, came across the line just under six minutes off the winner’s pace.

Nibali said his day’s riding had been “tranquil”.

“We needed it. We arrive late at the hotel after the transfers,” he said.

“If I have the chance to take more time, I’ll do it.”

Stage winner Navardauskas added: “We as a team haven’t had much luck in recent days.

“The goal this morning was to go and get a result. We wanted to show we were worth it.

“The day was long but it ended well.”

After an extremely rapid start to the stage, with 53.5km covered in the first hour, a group of 20 riders broke away at the 71km mark.

German Patrick Gretsch led down the first descent, 50km from the finish, but he was reeled back in by Navardauskas and Oss a further 30km down the road.

The 25-year-old Lithuanian pulled away in the steep climb up towards Vajont for his first stage win on the Giro.

Thursday’s 12th stage sees the riders tackle a 134km course from Longarone to Treviso, featuring a 400m run-in to the finish line.

Fognini 6-1, 6-3.

Nadal owns five titles since making his return after seven months out with a knee injury.

The Spaniard, who has now won his 32nd match of the season against two defeats, will

next play Ernests Gulbis, a winner over Serb Viktor Troicki 6-1, 6-1.

“Tomorrow I play against an opponent who is very dangerous,” said Nadal.

“He’s having a great season and we had a tough match in Indian Wells this year.

“He’s aggressive with a big serve, big shots from the baseline. I have to be playing great if I want to have any chance.”

Murray said the back problem is the same one which required him to take a painkilling injection last spring in order to play Roland Garros in 2012 where he reached the quarter-finals. “We will have to wait and see on Paris. I’ll try to make a decision after the next five days or so. I need some days off for it to hopefully settle down,” he added.

Oz unveils dates for tour SYDNEY: England’s Ashes tour to Australia Test series: November 21-25: 1st Test Gabba, Brisbane December 5-9: 2nd Test Adelaide Oval, Adelaide December 13-17: 3rd Test WACA Ground, Perth December 26-30: 4th Test MCG, Melbourne January 3-7: 5th Test SCG, Sydney ODIs: January 12: MCG, Melbourne January 17: Gabba, Brisbane January 19: SCG, Sydney January 24: WACA Ground, Perth January 26: Adelaide Oval, Adelaide T20 Internationals: January 29: Blundstone Arena, Hobart January 31: MCG, Melbourne February 2: Stadium Australia, Sydney Tour matches: Oct 31-Nov 2: Western Australian XI v England, WACA Ground, Perth Nov 6-9: Australia A v England, Blundstone Arena, Hobart Nov 13-16: NSW XI v England, SCG, Sydney Nov 29-30: Chairman’s XI v England, Traeger Park, Alice Springs Jan 14: PM’s XI v England (50 overs), Manuka Oval, Canberra

TOUR OF CALIFORNIA

Farrar clinches 4th stage

Tyler Farrar sprinted to victory in the fourth stage of the Tour of California giving Garmin a transatlantic double after their same-day Tour of Italy stage win.

Tyler Farrar (R) riding for Garmin-Sharp celebrates with teammate David Zabriskie (L) during Stage Four of the Tour of California on Wednesday. AFP/DOUG PENSINGER

SANTA BARBARA: Tyler Farrar sprinted to victory in the fourth stage of the Tour of California on Wednesday, giving Garmin a transatlantic double after their same-day Tour of Italy stage win. America’s Farrar was a clear winner over US criterium champion Ken Hanson of Optum, with Belgian Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma) third in the 134 kilometer stage, which brought the riders from Santa Clarita in suburban Los Angeles west to the seaside town of Santa Barbara.

Colombian Janier Acevedo (Jamis) finished in the main pack to retain the leader’s yellow jersey, which he claimed with his victory in the second

stage on Monday at Palm Springs.

Acevedo maintained a 12-second lead over American Tejay van Garderen of BMC, who also finished in the main pack. Earlier Wednesday, Garmin’s Ramaunas Navardauskas of Lithuania won the 11th stage of the Tour of Italy. “Waking up to the news that Ramaunas had won the stage in the Giro was a big morale boost to the team, and it was cool we were able to double up today,” Farrar said.

Thursday’s fifth leg of America’s most prestigious stage race takes the riders 185.7km from Santa Barbara to Avila Beach. The race concludes on Sunday in Santa Rosa.

MONEY TALKS

Floyd highest-paid sportsman LOS ANGELES: Unbeaten boxer Floyd Mayweather tops Sports Illustrated’s list of highest-paid pro sportsmen for the second straight year, according to the list released by the magazine on Wednesday.

Mayweather stretched his perfect record to 44-0 with a 12-round unanimous decision over Robert Guerrero on May 4, the first fight in his new megadeal with Showtime television that guarantees him at least $32 mil-

Unbeaten boxer Floyd Mayweather tops the Sports Illustrated’s list of highest-paid pro sportsmen for the second straight year, according to the list released by the magazine.

lion per fight over six bouts.

In compiling its Fortunate 50 list, Sports Illustrated reckoned Mayweather would earn $90 million in 2013. Tiger Woods, who was number one on the Fortunate 50 every year from 2004-11, falls to his lowest ranking ever at number five with estimated earnings this year of $40.8 million.

LeBron James is second on the list with projected earnings of $56.5 million.

AFP

IPL 6

METRE

6 S 574

We have been informed that 3 of our players have been called in for investigation on spot fixing in matches. We are completely taken by surprise...

The management at RR has a zero-tolerance approach to anything against the spirit of the game.

Press Statement released by RR

Chris Gayle (RCB) 680 runs

Dwayne Bravo (CSK) 24 wickets

Pollard gets under Watson's skin

W

est Indies all-rounder Kieron Pollard on Wednesday successfully got under the skin of Rajasthan Royals' batting mainstay Shane Watson which eventually led to the Aussie being dismissed and eventually leaving the dug-out in disgust. It all started in the fifth over after Royals' Sanju Samson got out. It seemed that Pollard said something to Watson which the Aussie certainly didn't find amusing enough.

While Pollard sported a huge grin, Watson angrily walked upto umpire Asad Rauf complaining about the opposition fielder. Such was Watson's anger that om-field umpires decided to call up MI captain Rohit Sharma and told him to be careful about his player's conduct.

PTI P

31

BATTLE OF THE TITANS

W

L

T PT

MI

15 11

4

0

22 +0.640

NR

CSK

15 11

4

0

22 +0.625

RR

15 10

5

0

20 +0.423

RCB

15

8

7

0

16 +0.387

SRH

14

8

6

0

16 -0.117

KXIP 14

6

8

0

12 +0.046

KKR

15

6

9

0

12 -0.065

DD

14

3

11 0

6 -0.804

PWI

15

3

12 0

6 -1.203

P-played; W-win; L-lost; T-tie; NR-net run rate; PT-points

Chris Gayle (RCB),

47 4S 1795

Michael Hussey (CSK)

70

HIGHEST SCORE

THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

175*

Chris Gayle (RCB)

BEST BOWLER

5-20

James Faulkner (RR)

SREESANTH ARRESTED

NEW DELHI: In a sensational development, Indian paceman S Sreesanth and two of his Rajasthan Royals teammates Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan were arrested by the Delhi police on the charges of spot fixing in the ongoing Indian Premier League.

The special cell of the Delhi police arrested Sreesanth from his friend's place in Mumbai while the other two cricketers were arrested last night from the team hotel at Nariman Point for their alleged role in spot fixing.

The arrest took place immediately after the players returned to their team hotel, following their match against Mumbai Indians at Wankhede stadium. The hosts won by 14 runs.

The Delhi police source said that these players were under the scanner for their role in spot fixing in some of the earlier IPL match although they did not elaborate which matches were under scrutiny.

The police have also arrested seven bookies in Mumbai and

three bookies in Delhi in connection with the same case. They are looking for two more bookies in Delhi.

The development comes as a shock for the IPL authorities

SCORECARD KKR VS PWI

who have time and again grappled with controversies and scandals ever since the league was launched in 2008.

IPL Chairman Rajiv Shukla said he was awaiting details on

the incident.

Rajasthan Royals CEO Raghu Iyer said that the three players were picked up by Delhi police last night and the team management was co-operating with the investigation.

"Rajasthan Royals has zero tolerance for corruption and we will take action, if charges are proved," he said.

Rajasthan Royals also issued a statement in which they said that they are shocked by the development.

"We have been informed that three of our players have been called in for investigation on spot fixing in matches. We are completely taken by surprise.

We do not have the full facts at this point and are unable to confirm anything.

"We are in touch with the BCCI on this matter. We will fully cooperate with the authorities to ensure a thorough investigation. The management at Rajasthan Royals has a zero-tolerance approach to anything that is against the spirit of the game," the statement said.

KXIP in do or die clash

MI VS RR

Pune Warriors innings (20 overs maximum) RV Uthappa† b Senanayake 25 AJ Finch* b Balaji 48 MK Pandey run out (†Bisla/Kallis) 66 Yuvraj c ten Doeschate b Kallis 30 LJ Wright not out 0 Extras (w 1) 1 Total (4 wickets; 20 overs) 170 Bowling O M R W Econ L Balaji 4 0 41 1 10.25 Senanayake 4 0 22 1 5.50 SP Narine 4 0 26 0 6.50 JH Kallis 4 0 48 1 12.00 R Bhatia 3 0 26 0 8.66 RN ten Doeschate1 0 7 0 7.00 Kolkata Knight Riders innings (target: 171 runs from 20 overs) Gambhir* c Yuvraj b IC Pandey 12 MS Bisla† lbw b Parnell 1 JH Kallis b Parnell 1 YK Pathan obstructing the field 72 RN ten Doeschate run out (Murtaza/†Uthappa) 42 MK Tiwary c MK Pandey b Kumar 0 DB Das not out 8 R Bhatia run out (Wright/†Uthappa/Mathews) 10 SMSM Senanayake not out 2 Extras (lb 4, w 11) 15 Total (7 wickets; 20 overs) 163 Bowling O M R W Econ B Kumar 4 0 22 1 5.50 WD Parnell 4 0 34 2 8.50 IC Pandey 2 0 17 1 8.50 AD Mathews 3 0 25 0 8.33 AG Murtaza 4 0 34 0 8.50 Yuvraj Singh 1 0 11 0 11.00 LJ Wright 1 0 11 0 11.00 RV Gomez 1 0 5 0 5.00

Mumbai Indians innings (20 overs maximum) GJ Maxwell lbw b Watson 23 AP Tare c Watson b Cooper 59 KD Karthik† c Samson b Tambe 21 RG Sharma* c Watson b Faulkner 14 KA Pollard run out (Cooper) 17 AT Rayudu c Samson b Watson 7 Harbhajan Singh not out 15 MG Johnson c Hodge b Faulkner 2 SL Malinga run out (Watson/Faulkner/†Yagnik) 1 Extras (lb 3, w 4) 7 Total (8 wickets; 20 overs) 166 Bowling O M R W Econ AA Chavan 3 0 25 0 8.33 JP Faulkner 4 0 32 2 8.00 SR Watson 4 0 30 2 7.50 STR Binny 1 0 11 0 11.00 PV Tambe 4 0 38 1 9.50 K Cooper 4 0 27 1 6.75 Rajasthan Royals innings (target: 167 runs from 20 overs) R Dravid* c †Karthik b Johnson 4 AM Rahane c Malinga b Kulkarni 4 JP Faulkner c Maxwell b Kulkarni 12 SV Samson c Ojha b Johnson 4 SR Watson c Pollard b Ojha 19 STR Binny not out 37 DH Yagnik† b Harbhajan Singh 10 BJ Hodge lbw b Malinga 39 K Cooper not out 7 Extras (b 4, lb 4, w 8) 16 Total (7 wickets; 20 overs) 152 Bowling O M R W Econ MG Johnson 4 0 23 2 5.75 DS Kulkarni 4 0 21 2 5.25 Harbhajan 4 0 29 1 7.25 SL Malinga 4 0 35 1 8.75 P Ojha 4 0 36 1 9.00

Pune Warriors won by 7 runs

Mumbai Indians won by 14 runs

APARNA G SAI aparna.s@postnoon.com

K

ings XI Punjab, who are currently placed sixth ont he points table, need to win today’s match in order to hold on to their hopes of making it to the playoffs.

The Punjab side, who have 12 points from 14 matches, are set to take on Delhi Daredevils in Dharamshala today.

The Kings need to win both their remaining matches and Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad need lose all their matches in order for KXIP to stand a chance to make it to the next stage of the tournament.

Although the chance are very small, yet KXIP would

KXIP VS DD AT 8PM ON SET MAX want to believe that they can still make it.

But, there is a possiblity that Delhi Daredevils, could play spoilsports and ruin the party for the Kings, in a manner similar to what Pune Warriors India did to Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday.

A defeat today will narrow down the fight for the playoffs to two teams, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sunrisers Hyderabad.

While all eyes would be on the outcome of today’s match, the ultimate result of the playoffs would depend on the performance of SRH.

THURSDAY, MAY 16, 2013

sports

ROONEY IN LINE FOR ENGLAND CAPTAINCY BOOST Wayne Rooney could be handed the England captaincy for the May 29 friendly against the Republic of Ireland as national team boss Roy Hodgson looks to boost the star's flagging confidence. Rooney was dropped by Alex Ferguson for Manchester United's final home game.

EUROPA LEAGUE FINAL

THE NIGHT EUROPA

TURNED BLUE TOM WILLIAMS Agence France-Presse AMSTERDAM: A 93rdminute header from Branislav Ivanovic gave Chelsea a stunning 2-1 victory over Benfica in the Europa League final on Wednesday as the London club claimed the trophy for the first time in heart-stopping fashion.

The game in Amsterdam seemed destined for extra time after Fernando Torres' superb 60th-minute opener for Chelsea was cancelled out by an Oscar Cardozo penalty, only for Ivanovic to net a dramatic winner with a looping header in stoppage time.

Club captain John Terry

sat the game out with an ankle injury, but just as he had done after last season's Champions League final, which he missed through suspension, he donned his full kit to lift the trophy alongside fellow Chelsea stalwart Frank Lampard.

"It's a great feeling," said Ivanovic. "This team deserved this, because we have had a very difficult season and a lot of games."

Victory made Chelsea the first team to simultaneously hold the Champions League

Branislav Ivanovic’s stoppage time goal saw Chelsea — last year’s Champions League winners — lift the Europa League title in an open encounter against Benfica.

and Europa League titles, although they will relinquish their Champions League crown in 10 days.

More lasting is the statistic that they are only the fourth club to have claimed Europe's three major trophies — including the now-defunct Cup Winners' Cup — after Ajax, Bayern Munich and Juventus.

Chelsea's interim manager Rafael Benitez, meanwhile, joins Giovanni Trapattoni as one of only two coaches to have won the trophy with two

different clubs, following his 2004 success with Valencia.

"That was a great performance in the second half, against a very good team," said the Spaniard, who has already fulfilled his primary objective of qualifying the club for next season's Champions League, despite lingering opposition from fans.

"The players have worked so hard, all season. I am proud — it was not easy. I'm really pleased, really proud."

The manner of defeat was cruel on Jorge Jesus' enterprising side and means that Benfica have now lost seven consecutive European finals.

32 Chelsea Factfile Name: Chelsea Football Club Founded: 1905 Stadium: Stamford Bridge, London, England (capacity 41,837) Nickname: The Blues, The Pensioners Colours: blue shirts, blue shorts, white socks Division: English Premier League Chairman: Bruce Buck (USA) Technical director: Michael Emenalo (NGR) Interim manager: Rafael Benitez (ESP) Assistant manager: Boudewijn Zenden (NED) Captain: John Terry (ENG) Major honours: Premier League (4): 1954-55, 2004-05, 2005-06, 2009-10 FA Cup (7): 1969-70, 1996-97, 1999-2000, 2006-07, 2008-09, 2009-10, 2011-12 League Cup (4): 1964-65, 1997-98, 2004-05, 2006-07 Community Shield (4): 1955, 2000, 2005, 2009 European Cup/Champions League (1): 2011-12 Europa League (1): 2013 European Cup Winners' Cup (2): 1970-71, 1997-98 European Super Cup (1): 1998 Most appearances: Ron Harris (ENG): 795 Most goals: Frank Lampard (ENG): 203

Europa League winners 2012-13: Chelsea (ENG) 2011-12: Atletico Madrid (ESP) 2010-11: Porto (POR)

Just the facts, with Rafa Benitez With a team in transition, with young players, it was really difficult. But we are still winning and you saw the commitment of the players on the pitch.

When you have a manager who is going to leave at the end of the season and they still fight on the pitch, you have to be pleased.

People said Rafa was appointed to get the best out of Fernando, and I think he's improved a lot. He's worked a lot with the fitness coaches and I was happy for him.

Lampard may stay at Chelsea Lampard's contract expires at the end of the campaign, but he has enjoyed a fine season.

AMSTERDAM: Frank Lampard suggested that he may be close to agreeing a new contract with Chelsea.

Lampard recently became Chelsea's all-time scorer after registering his 202nd and 203rd goals for the club. He expressed hope that that would be the case.

2009-10: Atletico Madrid (ESP) 2008-09: Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR) 2007-08: Zenit Saint Petersburg (RUS) 2006-07: Sevilla (ESP) 2005-06: Sevilla (ESP) 2004-05: CSKA Moscow (RUS) 2003-04: Valencia (ESP) 2002-03: Porto (POR)

"I really, really hope to be around next year," he told ITV after the game.

2001-02: Feyenoord (NED) 2000-01: Liverpool (ENG)