Epaper 23 august 2013

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013 HYDERABAD

TRACKING THE

SANDS OF TIME

From the time of the Pharaohs to the invasion of Alexander, to the coming of the Brits for oil, to the civilian uprising of now, Egypt is a very ‘happening’ place. We go back in time to learn more about it.

P16&17

WEATHER: HAZE; 27°C

WWW.POSTNOON.COM

32 PAGES

SINGING CHOPS

`3

P15

Actor Robert Pattinson is reportedly concentrating on his singing career and working with some top names in the music industry. Let us look at some stars who tried their hand at the music industry.

HYDERABAD’S FIRST COMPACT AFTERNOON NEWSPAPER

REPORT ON P4 Despite excess rains, City’s lifeline reservoirs — Osmansagar and Himayathsagar — hold enough water only for 45 and 85 days respectively. As authorities twiddle their thumbs, encroachers are eating away at the catchment areas, preventing adequate inflow.

HUMAN GREED WASTES

NATURE’S BOUNTY

ON A WILD SCALE

Different animals are being weighed and measured during the London Zoo's annual weigh-in that began on Wednesday. The information is then shared with zoos across the world, allowing them to compare data on thousands of endangered species.

PG 10&11

RYTHU BAZAAR ONION RATIONING BRINGS OUT TEARS While Rythu Bazaars are rationing low-quality ‘fair price’ onions at 2kg per person at `31/kg, high-quality ones are available for `70/kg — literally around the corner.

PG 6

FLASH

SLOGANEERING SEEMANDHRA MPs SUSPENDED

Six MPs from Congress and four from TDP have been suspended from Lok Sabha for five days for disrupting the functioning of the House. Lok Sabha was adjourned twice after Seemandhra MPs kept raising slogans against formation of Telangana state.

PG 9

BEN AFFLECK

SUCCEEDS CHRISTIAN BALE AS BATMAN

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

city events

FLAVOURS TO SAVOUR

Unique flavours of Pondicherry.

Where: Dakshin, ITC Kakatiya, Begumpet When: August 30 Contact: 789301 3000

Weather for Hyderabad

Evening

Overnight

24°C

20°C

A mix of cloudy and clear skies

A mix of clear and cloudy skies

Morning

Afternoon

24°C

29°C

New Delhi Max 34 Min 26

A mix of sun and cloud

Slight chance of showers

Mostly cloudy

Mumbai Max 29 Min 25

Chennai Max 35 Min 26

Thunderstorms likely

Showers likely

Bangalore Max 26 Min 19

Cloudy with chances of showers

AROUND THE CITY: YOUR GUIDE TO THE TWIN CITIES Hapjan, Khobong and Sessa. A portion of the proceeds will be contributed to WWF India's one-horned Rhino Conservation project in Assam.

Where: Oxford Bookstore, The Park, 22 Rajbhavan Road When: Ongoing Contact: 8790432354

SHOWS

India on a Platter A culinary journey across the country at The Square.

Where: The Square, Novotel Contact: 8686080577

WORKSHOPS Dance performance Kathak dancer Mangala Bhatt and Odissi dancer Jyoti Rout will be putting up a performance.

Where: Our Sacred Space, Secunderabad When: August 24, 7 pm Contact: 90300-13344

HONING TALENT: Children pose with their certificates after the essay writing competition organised by Telangana Language and Cultural Society at NTR auditorium on Thursday.

Art show A solo show by Devangana Kumar, Pageants of the Raj will be held.

Where: Kalakriti Art Gallery, Banjara Hills When: Till August 25, 11 am to 7 pm Contact: +9140.66564466 Art exhibition Art exhibition Artist Chinna and his friends will be held.

Where: Alliance Française of Hyderabad, Plot No. 4, Aurora Colony When: 22nd August till August 31.

Contact: On Facebook Art of the matter Solo art exhibition by Anisha Tandon is on.

Where: Hyderabad Marriott Hotel and Convention Centre, Secunderabad When: Till August 24, 11 am to 7 pm

Gigs in town Alter Egoz – Tribute to Pink Floyd will be performing.

Where: Hard Rock Cafe, Banjara Hills When: August 30, 9 pm Contact: + 91 88864 80007

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

155333 23431178 23431179

MUNICIPAL CORPORATION

umentary film by Shravan Katikaneni will be screened.

Where: Lamakaan, Banjara Hills When: August 25, 8 pm to 10 pm Contact: 96427-31329

Documentary screening Chronicles Of A Temple Painter, doc-

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

Comicon workshop Comic Con India in association with The Coffee Cup presents a special workshop on Graphic Novel Project conducted by Jaideep Khare.

Where: The Coffee Cup, Sainikpuri When: August 24, 1 pm till 3 pm Contact: +91-9711335505

DINING Fish fest To showcase a slice of Indian culinary heritage, Taj Krishna is hosting the Simply Fish Festival.

Where: Firdaus, Taj Krishna When: Lunch and dinner, Till August 31 Contact: +91 9246 21 5332

Commissioner & Spl Officer

Helpline

ELECTRICITY General Complaints Breakdown Section

Contact: 93964-44424

Delectable fare Oriental food festival is on.

Where: Zodiac Hall, Golkonda Hotel.

When: 12 noon, Till August 31.

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

Sizzling South This food festival will focus on South Indian specialties and gourmet delicacies from interiors of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.

Where: Chill Restaurant and Terrace, Radisson Blue When: Till August 30 Contact: 7799917999 Tea flavours Try the tea flavours of Budlabeta,

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

Yoga classes Parental yoga classes will be held.

Where: The Birthplace, Banjara Hills When: August 24, 11.30 am Contact: 98855-69459 Story-telling workshop Creative story-telling workshop by Deepa Kiran will be held.

Where: Shwaas - Centre for Inspired Learning, Jubilee Hills When: August 23, 10 am to 1 pm Contact: Salil, at 94405-00277 or Anita, at 99593-83947

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

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

news

YESTERDAY’S QUESTION

SHALL BJP GAIN ANY TRACTION IN OLD CITY, MIM HUB? 33% 67%

YES (A) NO (B)

TODAY’S QUESTION

IS GOVT ON THE RIGHT TRACK ON TACKLING SEEMANDHRA AGITATION? A)

YES

NO

CRIME

CRIME

Man arrested for marrying thrice When his wife discovered that he had been married before and had married again, she approached the police.

3

Doctor swindled Mohd SUBHAN mohd.s@postnoon.com HYDERABAD: The police are looking into the case of a man who was swindled by his close friend of `2.2 lakh promising

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POSTNOON NEWS feedback@postnoon.com HYDERABAD: A man who duped three women into marrying him was arrested by the Uppal police on the complaint of his second wife. He has been sent to prison.

The accused, Ramesh, 40, is a resident of Osman Khanguda village and has been working as a clerk in the Uppal gram panchayat office.

According to the details, Ramesh married Manjula in 1996. At the time of the wedding, Majula’s parents gave them `5 lakh in cash, gold ornaments and other valuables.

They soon had a son, who is now 12 years old.

A few years after getting married, Ramesh started harassing Manjula for more dowry. Then Manjula discovered that Ramesh had been married before. He had divorced her after six months of

B)

To vote visit www.postnoon.com

him goods at cheaper rates.

The victim, Dr Srikanth, a resident of Padmarao Nagar, was told by Praveen Kumar, a medical rep with Ranbaxy, that an electronic company has started a

scheme in which ACs, laptops, televisions, refrigerators and other items were being sold at cheaper rates. The doctor, who knew Praveen Kumar for some years, trusted him and gave him `2.2 lakh as advance.

When the items were not delivered, the doctor tried to contact Praveen Kumar. He learned that he had quit his job and moved out. When he tried to reach him over the mobile phone, he found it switched off.

It was then that Dr Srikanth approached Chilkalguda authorities and filed a petition against his close friend.

Woman beats up harasser POSTNOON NEWS feedback@postnoon.com

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marriage and then went on to marry Manjula.

Later, when Manjula did not fulfill his dowry demands, Ramesh married another woman, Karuna, who lives in the same village. A few days

ago, Manjula discovered that Ramesh had married again. She watched him for a few days and caught him with his new wife.

She started beating up Karuna, when locals intervened.

When they informed the Uppal police about the incident, Manjula lodged a complaint against Ramesh. The police registered a cheating case against him and sent him to prison.

HYDERABAD: A home guard was beaten up by a woman who she claims used to harass her.

Ravinderamma caught hold of Narayana while he was on driver duty in a police jeep on LB Nagar main road. None of the onlookers stepped in to help him. The LB Nagar police have registered cases against both of them and started investigation.

In her complaint, Ravinderamma, 45, said that Narayana,

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30, had quarreled with her some days ago. For the past few days, Narayana had been making harassing phone calls to her. He used to call even at night and use filthy language, she alleged. This continued till the point where she decided to take matters into her own hands and beat him up.

The two have lodged complaints against each other and the police are looking into it.

Oz police seize 750 kg cocaine worth $334 million SYDNEY: Australian police said Friday they had seized 750 kg of cocaine in Vanuatu following a multinational investigation into yachts trafficking drugs in the South Pacific.

Australian Federal Police, Australian Customs and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration said they had collaborated

with South Pacific countries for several years to target criminal organisations using the region as a transit point.

The probe led officers to a yacht called the “Raj” docked in Vanuatu’s capital Port Vila earlier this week and it was seized by local authorities.

Australia and US officers travelled to Vanuatu on

Monday and discovered an estimated 750 kilograms of cocaine worth some Aus$370 million (US$334 million) hidden in the lower engine compartments and the keel area of the hull.

Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Ramzi Jabbour said criminal networks would find it harder and harder to operate given the cooperation between of multiple law enforcement and border protection agencies in the South Pacific.

“We are well aware that international criminals see

Australia as a lucrative market for their drugs, but we will continue to work closely with our partners to identify syndicates such as these,” he said.

The agencies said since they began cooperating on Project Cringle in 2010, close to two tonnes of cocaine destined for Australia had been seized from five vessels.

AFP

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WORLD

CITY BRIEFS Man hangs self in Serilingampally

Regularise water connections in 15 days

Jilted 24-year-old commits suicide

Two thieves on a bike snatch purse

Semifinals of Metro ambassadors contest

A

H

A

T

T

33-year-old mason, P Krishna, committed suicide by hanging himself from the ceiling of his home in Serilingampally. His wife, Laxmi, had left him six years ago. Since then, he has been living with another woman, Aruna. A few days ago, Aruna also left him. He was depressed and took the extreme step, police said.

MWS&SB is providing a facility to consumers to regularise the illegal connections within 15 days by paying the penalty. The board urges the users, who are indulging in obtaining illegal water supply connection in violation of rules, to utilise the facility. It warned of booking criminal cases after the expiry of the deadline.

24-year-old man, S Shiva committed suicide by consuming poison at his home near General Bazaar, Secunderabad. Shiva used to work at a private firm and fell in love with a girl who worked in the same office. He asked her to marry him but she rejected him. Upset and insulted, he killed himself. The Market police are looking into it.

wo unidentified persons on a bike snatched a purse containing `2,000 and a cheque from one Nagaraju, 25, a resident of Nalgonda. He was near Clock Tower Road in Secunderabad on Thursday for some work when the incident happened. Later, he lodged a complaint with the Gopalpuram police, who are investigating.

he semi-finals of Hyderabad Metro Rail’s brand ambassadors contest will be held in the City on August 24-25. The contest is being held for all categories of people like students, executives, housewives, senior citizens and entrepreneurs.

The objective of the contest is to select a brand ambassador for the prestigious project.

4

News FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013 LAST YEAR... HERE Mischief managed

L

ast year we had reported how in a bizarre turn of events, a baby is believed to have prophesied that anyone who slept that would be killed.

The rumour kept half the Old City awake that night. People were just not willing to take a risk. The funniest part is that the baby is a new-born. Police suspected that it was the doing of some mischief makers in Shaheen Nagar, Old City.

AUGUST23, 2012

NUMEROLOGY

600,000

is the estimated number of people in the Philippines that remained in temporary shelters or with relatives on Friday after days of heavy rain, officials said, Twenty people have died in these rains so far.

There is a huge stock of onions stuck in Andhra which couldn't reach the City due to the agitation. This can be done if the transportation is made smooth as we get 50 per cent of the onions from Kurnool itself.

Israr Ahemd, director for agriculture and marketing On Page 6

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

1

City will have to gear up for less water supply Low water levels in the Osmansagar and Himayathsagar can cause water shortage.

2

A man commits the same mistake thrice, gets caught A man who duped three women into marrying him was arrested by the Uppal police on the complaint of his second wife.

WATER SCARCITY?

Low dam levels leaving City dry Low levels of water at the Osmansagar and Himathsagar are giving rise to fears of a shortage. Officials say the water in the two dams may last till October only.

Md INKESHAF AHMED ahmed.m@postnoon.com HYDERABAD: The status of the historic twin reservoirs— Osmansagar and Himayathsagar — of Hyderabad are giving sleepless nights to water board officials these days. The reason for the worries of the officials is the fact that these two reservoirs that were built by the erstwhile nizam are yet to reach their Full Tank Level (FTL) even after the half of the monsoon is over this year.

According to the official statistics available with Postnoon, the water levels at Osmansagar are at 1,758 feet against the FTL of 1,790 ft. as on Thursday.

When it came to the Himayathsagar reservoir, the water levels stood at 1,735 ft as against the FTL of 1,763 ft.

Interestingly, this was not the case last year. Both the reservoirs were brimming with water in August despite last year recording below normal rainfall. The water levels at Osmansagar stood at 1,771ft as against the FTL and in Himayathsagar, it stood at 1,748 ft. The statistics further reveal that the current storage level of water at Osmansagar would be enough to supply water for 45 days where in case of Himayathsagar reservoir, it would give only 85 days of water supply.

REDUCTION IN CATCHMENT AREA Giving reasons for the state of both the reservoirs, the officials at the water board said that the reduction in catchment areas led to the reduced inflow of rain and flood waters.

“The catchment area got narrowed due to unprecedented encroachments in and around the villages of Himayathsagar and Osmansagar reservoirs.

This has led to the present crisis,” a senior official of the water board told Postnoon. He further expressed the helplessness of

the board as it does not have the power to remove these encroachments."We cannot remove these encroachments The power to remove all the encroachments are in the hands of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority and revenue officials. But they are not acting on the issue despite the seriousness of the situation," he added.

The official pointed out that

A THING OF THE PAST However, what is worrying the residents of the City is that if the encroachments continue unabated, like this, the two reservoirs would be a thing of past. The officials have estimated that the water in the two reservoirs would mostly last till October.

US has world’s most accurate clock AROUND THE

WORLD

Yachts are luxury, but thy also give you a high Australian police on Friday seized 750 kg of cocaine in Vanuatu following an investigation into yachts trafficking drugs in the South Pacific.

4

City making do without onions in their food?

Due to onion shortage in various parts of the country, tiffin centers and houses have started cooking their dishes without onions.

A rather surprising choiceBen Affleck for Batman Breaking a billion hearts and shocking Batman followers worldwide, Ben Affleck will be succeeding Christian Bale as the caped crusader.

CITY

the encroachments are being made in gross violation of the GO. NO111. The GO prohibits any and all kinds of activities in 10 km radius of the two reservoirs.

EXAMPLE OF PRECISION

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5

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WASHINGTON: US scientists said Thursday they have built the world’s most precise clock, whose ticking rate varies less than two parts in one quintillion, or 10 times better than any

other, says a study in the journal Science.

The clock, made from the element ytterbium, could be used for technological advancements beyond timekeeping,

such as navigation systems, magnetic fields and temperature.

“The stability of the ytterbium lattice clocks opens the door to a number of exciting practical applications of highperformance timekeeping,” National Institute of Standards and Technology physicist, and co-author of the study revealing the clock, Andrew Ludlow said in a statement.

While mechanical clocks use the movement of a pendulum to keep time, atomic clocks use an electromagnetic signal of light emitted at an exact frequency to move electrons in cesium atoms.

The physicists built their ytterbium clocks using about 10,000 rare-earth atoms cooled to 10 microkelvin (10 millionths of a degree above absolute zero) and trapped in an optical lattice made of laser light. Another laser that “ticks” 518 trillion times per second triggers a transition between two energy levels in the atoms. The clock’s high stability is owed to the large number of atoms.

The new clocks can achieve precise results very quickly.

Technicians must average the current US civilian time standard, the NIST-F1 cesium fountain clock, for about 400,000 seconds to obtain its best performance. But the new ytterbium clocks can achieve that same result in about one second of averaging time.

AFP

5

News FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013 MONDAY BLUES

Woman ties herself up to skip work AROUND THE

WORLD

TOKYO: A young Tokyo businesswoman tied herself up at home because she did not want to go to work, Japanese media reported Friday.

The woman in her 20s was found with her hands and legs bound with ropes and belts at her apartment in the capital’s west on Monday, the Sankei Shimbun said.

The apartment owner discovered her unconscious but otherwise unhurt, the newspaper said, adding that the landlord called

Detectives grew suspicious of the young tenant’s story when they failed to turn up any evidence of forced entry to the flat.

During questioning, she broke down and admitted no one else was involved. the police and the ambulance, fearing the woman had been the victim of a vicious home robbery.

But detectives grew suspicious of the young tenant’s story when they failed to turn up any evidence of forced entry to the flat. During questioning, the woman broke down and admitted there was nobody else involved.

“I did not want to go to work, so I did it as an excuse for absence without due notice,” she told officers, according to the paper.

Police, who declined to confirm the report when contacted

by AFP, issued a reprimand but decided the woman should not face charges.

AFP

ENVIRONMENT

Ex-servicemen regreening Himachal

SHIMLA: A task force comprising ex-servicemen is playing an important role in regreening the denuded hills of Himachal Pradesh with the plantation of over 11 lakh saplings, the state forest minister said here.

“Two Ecological Task Force companies are currently involved in carrying plantation drives in the state. In the

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past three years, they have planted saplings on 1,026.8 hectares,” Forest Minister Thakur Singh Bharmouri informed the assembly during Question Hour Thursday.

“From planting a sapling to nurturing it, they are doing it.

The success rate of the survival of saplings planted by them is quite high as compared to the plantation carried out by the forest department itself.

The success rate of the survival of saplings planted is quite high as compared to the plantation carried out by the forest department itself,” he said.

Col Narasimhan G, Commanding Officer of the 133 Infantry Battalion Ecological Task Force, called on the CM and sought sanction of two more companies for Rampur, Chamba and Kinnaur.

IANS

POLITICS

The new protest central When you think dharnas, you think Indira Park. Not anymore. The State Secretariat is the new hub for political protesters in the City.

Md INKESHAF AHMED ahmed.m@postnoon.com HYDERABAD: Indira Park is famous for dharnas and protest programmes by political parties and civil society organisations.

But these days, it is the AP State Secretariat, the nerve centre of State administration, which has turned into a hot spot of bitter agitations.

The announcement of ruling Congress to create a separate Telangana state led to this tricky situation at the Secretariat. The Secretariat, which houses about 4,500 employees from all the three regions, is now witnessing a spate of protest programmes since the last couple of days.

Almost all blocks of Secretariat are witnessing a war-like situation every day, causing fear among the scores of visitors who come to Secretariat with their problems.

While the Seemandhra employees are already organising agitation programmes within the premises, employees from Telangana also jumped on to the bandwagon on Thursday. The Temployees held a huge public meeting of the employees in front of ‘C’ Block of the Secretariat and warned the Seemandhra employees of dire

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consequences if they did not stop their protest programmes immediately.

The T-employees also said that they would not tolerate the dominance of Seemandhra people any more and would raise their voices on a continuous basis till they realised a separate Telangana state. Interestingly,

the T-employees’ biggest protest programme comes after repeated requests to their Seemandhra counterparts to stop their protest programmes.

FIGHT FOR DOMINANCE The employees are not confining themselves to holding only protest programmes. They are also making it a point to squat before all the blocks of the Secretariat in an attempt to prove their supremacy.

Apart from this, the employ-

ees are holding blood donation camps and silent protest programmes in an attempt to outdo each other. The fresh agitation by the T-employees has further aggravated the already bad situation at the Secretariat, affecting the movement of files from one department to another.

Majority of the employees prefer to spend their time participating in the dharna programmes after marking their attendance.

Reacting to the issue, Telangana Non-Gazetted Employees’ Union (TNGOA) secretariat branch president B Shravan Kumar Reddy blamed the Seemandhra employees for the worsening situation at the Secretariat.

“Initially, we appealed to them to stop their agitation and assured them that we would treat them as our siblings in Telangana state. But, they gave utter disrespect to our appeals and adamantly continued their agitation. We will not allow it to happen any more and will continue our agitation till the return of normalcy in the Secretariat,” he said. The proand anti-Telangana agitation also led to a vertical division among the employees, who were working in cohesion and unity a couple of days ago.

NATION BRIEFS India gets third military transport heavylifter

Jaya, Madhuri to get Lacchu Maharaj Award

147 Maruti workers to stand murder trial

Hospital told to pay `2 lakh for boy’s death

Five held for stealing precious idols

WASHINGTON: The Indian Air Force has received its third Boeing C17 Globemaster III, a large, versatile military transport aircraft capable of carrying heavy, oversize loads long distances and landing on rough and unprepared surfaces. The plane, which departed for India August 20 joins the first and second India C-17 airlifters.

LUCKNOW: Film actress and Rajya Sabha member Jaya Bachchan, along with actress Madhuri Dixit, will be getting the prestigious Lacchu Maharaj award this year. An announcement to this effect was made by the organisers, Shakuntala Neeruj Sansthan. Jaya Bachchan would be awarded for 2012, Dixit will be given the honour for 2013.

GURGAON: A Gurgaon court Thursday framed murder charges against 147 jailed Maruti workers allegedly involved in the July 18, 2012 violence at Manesar car plant that left a company executive dead and 100 others injured, said a lawyer. All the accused would be tried for murder. The next proceeding is scheduled for September 9.

NEW DELHI: A private hospital in Haryana has been asked to pay `2 lakh for negligence leading to the death of a 10-year-old boy, with the top consumer commission slamming its doctors for attempting to suppress facts about the treatment given to the fever-afflicted patient.

The commission upheld the lower fora directing the hospital to pay.

BAHRAICH (UP): Five persons have been arrested after two mixedmetal idols worth `17 crore were found in their possession here, police said today. Additional SP, Vikas Kumar Vaidya told reporters that two ashtdhatu idols of Lakshman and Sita, weighing about 17 kg, were recovered from their possession.

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News FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

NO GARNISH AT HOME

Onion rationing brings tears The price hit the roof within two weeks, as it was `35 per kg earlier, now it is pegged at `60 to 70 kg in the retail market and the best quality is being sold at `80 in some stores. onion is an essential item which used in every dish at home. It has almost become a nightmare for middle class families but in the Rythu bazaar they are selling just one kg per head. This is not enough, it should be 5 kg at least.” Another lady in the Erragadda Rythu bazaar said, “If onions are not at home in the vegetable basket, we can’t decide what to cook. Now I am using onions very stingily while cooking, I take two onions instead of four.”

Many hotels, tiffin and fast food centers in the City have put up notices saying “no onions please”. Some of them are providing limited quantity onions.

Dosas are not being sold as tiffin centers owners are saying that already the cost of the dosa is high, they can’t increase it further, so they have stopped selling onion dosas.

Krishna, who sell bhajjis at Mohsin Ali ali@postnoon.com

W

ith onion prices skyrocketing due to supply shortage in various parts of the country, people are now preferring to have their food without onions. A move that is being followed by the tiffin centres here as well.

The price hit the roof within two weeks, as it was `35 per kg earlier, now it is pegged at `60 to 70 kg in the retail market and the best quality is being sold at `80 in some stores.

The situation is not exclusive to Hyderabad only but other states of the country like Delhi and Maharashtra too are facing a shortage. The reason being the recent heavy rains in Maharashtra.

There is a huge gap between supply and demand which caused the price rise and the shortage of the onion is about 40 per cent currently. The wholesale price of onion is `4,800 per quintal when earlier the same was `4,000.

Explaining about the supply shortage, deputy director Mahboob Mansion market M Kalpana, said, “We expect the shortage to last for another 15 to 20 days. Due to heavy rains in Maharashtra we are facing such a problem but once the fresh crop arrives in the market, the rates will come down.”

Israr Ahmed, director for agriculture marketing, said that heavy rainfall in Maharashtra is just one of the reasons for the price hike. Apart from that there is also the strike affect which is going on in the Andhra region since a couple of days. “There is a huge stock of onions stuck in the Andhra region which couldn’t reach the City due to the agitation. It can be brought here if the transportation is made smooth, as we get 50 per cent of

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the onion stock from Kurnool itself,” he added. Speaking about the supply of onion through the Rythu bazaars, he said, “We have 10 Rythu bazaars across the City in which we are providing onions at `35 per kg— two kg per head.

From today we are going to start the same in the Rythu bazaars in Vijayawada, Vizag and Tirupati.”

But the actual picture is quite different in these Rythu bazaars. Customers claim that the farmers are selling onions from just a bag or two, the remaining they are selling to the retailers for huge profits. Lavanya, a housewife, who was in the queue to buy onions at Mehdipatnam Rythu bazaar rues, “The

Many hotels, tiffin and fast food centers in the City have put up notices saying “no onions please”.

Kukatpally said,”I am not providing diced onions with bhajjis due to which my business is affected little bit but I am not really bothered about that because if I provide onions then I lose `150-200 from the profit.”

The same cannot be said of the panipuri walas, who are bearing these expenses because they can’t make anything without the onion. Vithal, a panipuri seller said, “We are now spending `400-500 per day as the onion prices have touched `55. sually the expenses would be `200, but what can be done, we have to satisfy the customers.”

7

News FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

REPORTERS’ DIARY

An officer and a gentleman E

id is a time when the rich and famous host lavish parties. While most attend every party they are invited to, deputy commissioner of police (south) Dr Tarun Joshi has a different view.

The official recently turned down an invitation to an Eid Milap party hosted by a prominent business family that has a chain of opticals stores. His reason? “I don’t want to entertain criminals.

If I attend the function, then I have lost my image in front of my subordinates. Policemen would then think they are also free to entertain such type of people,” is what he reportedly said.

It turns out that two months ago, a criminal case was booked against a few people of this group in Dabeerpura police station on the complaint of Kashif Qureshi, a Bigg Boss 6 contestant.

In the eyes of the law, this makes them criminals.

This, of course, did not deter other police officials. Several IPS

officers, including former City police commissioners, attended because the family is very well known in Hyderabad.

When Postnoon spoke to a few senior IPS officers, they said that if senior police officers entertain such persons, then automatically, subordinate police officers will get a chance to insult the department.

Along with Dr Tarun Joshi, a few other police officers, including additional commissioner of police (traffic) Ameet Garg, also didn’t attend the party. It’s nice to see that we have some men of honour in our police force.

MS

thrills, but at a heavy price.

But there is no need to worry.

It is now possible for everyone to enjoy adventure rides, and that too free of cost! Surprised? Well, the GHMC is here to provide such facilities to all its citizens.

All you need to do is go on to the City roads, and you’ll have the ride of your life.

Of course, such adventure comes at a price. Body pain and back aches due to the potholes, skin diseases from the dust are common complaints among citizens, especially senior citizens.

Over a month after the GHMC commissioner promised to repair the roads during a dry

spell, nothing has been done. So enjoy your bumpy ride!

MA

SLOW AND STEADY Recently, the road works department had organised a late-night field trip for inspection of roads in the City. The inspection was scheduled for 10.30pm and mediapersons were invited to join the inspection.

However, going by Indian Standard Time, most officials reached the venue late, while a few reporters, hoping that the inspection would be as per schedule, reached the venue half an hour early. However, by the time the event started, it was past

THE RIDE OF YOUR LIFE Everyone loves adventure rides.

Youngsters, especially, are willing to shell out huge amounts for go-karting, mud racing and other such games.

In Hyderabad, such adventure sports are not cheap. Some clubs in the City outskirts offer

11.30pm. When someone at the venue questioned the officials about the delay, they causally replied that no programme starts on time in India, so there should be no hurry for anything. AA

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS Politicians are known opportunists. And the division of State issue seems to have provided some great opportunities.

Keeping the intense continuous agitation of people from Seemandhra region in mind, some politicians who openly supported the division of the State are now leaving no stone unturned to keep their vote-bank intact. While YSR Congress launched an indefinite strike by its honorary president YS Vijayamma, the main opposition TDP is planning to undertake Telugu Vari Atma Gourava Yatra from August 25. The yatra will be undertaken by president N Chandrababu Naidu.

IA Contributed by Inkeshaf Ahmed, Aleena Alice, Mohsin Ali and Mohd Subhan.

BOLD ESCAPE

URUGUAY SAYS YES

N Korean man defects through sea

Rodrigo Borda, left, and Sergio Miranda pose after drinking a toast after getting married at the civil registry in Montevideo, Uruguay on August 22. It was the first gay marriage in the country.

AFP/PABLO PORCIUNCULA

SEOUL: A North Korean man turned up at a house on a South Korean island Friday having apparently succeeded in defecting overnight via a rare and dangerous sea border crossing.

The man knocked on the door of a home on Gyodong island at 3.40am and identified himself as a defector from the North, military authorities said.

He is in custody and being questioned, a defence official told AFP, adding that it was not immediately clear "how he made the crossing" during a stormy night with powerful tides.

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Defections across the sea or land border between the two Koreas are rare. Most defectors flee to China and then a third country such as Thailand before coming to the South.

The incidents, which came at a time of heightened military tension, sparked public concerns about security lapses and led to the dismissal of a South Korean army division commander.

AFP

WORLD BRIEFS North, South Korea hold talks on family reunions

Spain firefighters tame Majorca wild blaze

Gazan starts hunger strike in Israel prison

Colombia's Santos seeks referendum

Troops thwart Shebab attack in Somali port

SEOUL: North and South Korea held talks Friday on resuming reunions for families separated for decades by the 1950-53 Korean War as they seek to build on a recent easing of cross-border tensions. The reunion programme was suspended after the North's shelling of a South Korean border island in November 2010.

MADRID: Firefighters on Thursday tamed a wildfire that ravaged 480 hectares (1,180 acres) of land and drove 200 people from their homes on the Spanish holiday island of Majorca, authorities said.

The fire had burned 480 hectares of which 95 percent was scrubland and five percent pine forest, the statement said.

JERUSALEM: A Palestinian from Gaza who was snatched from Ukraine and is being held in an Israel prison has begun refusing food, a prison spokeswoman said on Thursday. Abu Sisi, an engineer who was former technical director at Gaza's sole electricity plant, created a sensation when in early 2011 he disappeared.

BOGOTA: Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos said Thursday he would put any peace agreement reached with leftist FARC rebels to a national referendum. Santos said he was introducing legislation that would stipulate that the referendum be held at the same time as parliamentary or presidential elections scheduled for next year.

NAIROBI: African troops in Somalia said they thwarted an attack Thursday by Islamist Shebab fighters on their base in the southern port city of Kismayo. The vehicle used by the assailants — the type of four-wheel drive favoured by NGOs but mounted with a machine gun — was destroyed, AMISOM said.

8

News FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

HALL OF SHAME

FISHERMEN’S KILLING

Four held for Mumbai journalist's gangrape

Not sending marines as witness, says Italy leagues Salvatore Girone and Massimiliano Latorre while the marines were guarding an oiltanker.

Bonino, who recently discussed the case with her Indian counterpart Salman Khurshid, said it was “possible” that the Indian investigation would be completed without the interrogations of the four witnesses.

“We just have to hope for and work towards the timely

AROUND THE

NATION

MUMBAI: Four people have been detained for the alleged gangrape of a woman photojournalist in an abandoned mill compound late Thursday, police said here Friday. The 22-year old woman, who suffered grievous internal injuries, has been admitted to the Jaslok Hospital along with her colleague who was brutally thrashed. Both are in a state of shock.

According to police, the woman who works for an English magazine was on a shooting assignment in the Shakti Mills compound at Mahalaxmi around 7 pm Thursday. She was accompanied by her male colleague.

Around that time, about five unidentified people accosted them and thrashed the male colleague, and later tied him up.

They grabbed the victim, and at least three of them raped her in turns. Her fervent cries for help went unheard in the sprawling, deserted mill compound.

The men fled after committing the crime.

IANS

WILD COLLISION

Biker slams into bear OTTAWA: Police released a video Thursday showing a speeding motorcyclist crashing into a bear on a Canadian highway, as a warning to distracted drivers — and wildlife.

The video shows the motorcycle taking off and accelerating to 140 kilometres per hour in less than 20 seconds on Highway 7 AROUND THE

WORLD

near Hope, British Columbia.

A young black bear that appears to have been spooked by a train running parallel to the road suddenly darts into view and collides with the bike.

Police said in a statement that the driver was focused on his speedometer as part of a stunt and failed to see the bear until the last minute.

He ended up with non-lifethreatening injuries while the bear walked away.

AFP

AROUND THE

WORLD

Politicians aghast NEW DELHI: Political leaders cut across party lines Friday to condemn the gangrape of a photojournalist in Mumbai. "It will be dealt in the most severe manner.

Our country cannot afford to have our women and children insecure in the hands of the attackers," said Kapil Sibal, communications and IT minister.

Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar said: "It is very unfortunate and the more we talk about it is not enough. When the December 23 gangrape occurred in Delhi, within a few days a new legislation was proposed in the parliament. I am hopeful that the legislation will now be soon implemented."

BJP demanded answers from the Maharashtra government. "The gangrape that has happened is beyond tolerance. A photojournalist goes for work and if she is not safe who is safe then?" asked BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar.

BJP MP Smriti Irani too questioned the government. "What step is the government taking to stop such actions? The legislation introduced in parliament had changed the definition of rape, but there was no structural relief, so that the earlier pending cases could be expedited in the lower court. How many more daughters will be sacrificed, when will the government rise?"

ROME: Italy has reiterated its refusal to send four Italian marines to India for questioning by prosecutors investigating two of their colleagues for murder.

“We not do rule out cooperation via rogatory or written questioning,” Italy's Minister for Foreign Affairs Emma Bonino told Rai1 public radio, echoing comments made to the station Wednesday by Italy's Minister of Defence Mario Mauro.

Mauro had suggested that Indian prosecutors could interview in Italy or via video link the witnesses to the fatal shootings of two fishermen off the coast of south Indian state of Kerala last year by their col-

EVE POWER

Tomb find confirms women ruled Peru

LIMA: The discovery in Peru of another tomb belonging to a pre-Hispanic priestess, the eighth in more than two decades, confirms that powerful women ruled this region 1,200 years ago, archeologists said.

The remains of the woman from the Moche — or Mochica — civilisation were discovered in late July in an area called La Libertad in the country’s northern Chepan province.

In 2006, researchers came across the famous “Lady of Cao” — who died about 1,700 years ago and is seen as one of the first female rulers in Peru.

“It is the eighth priestess to be discovered,” project director Luis Jaime Castillo said.

“Our excavations have only turned up tombs with women, never men,” he added.

AFP

completion of the investigation and the start of the trial,” Bonino stated said in the radio programme broadcast Thursday.

She said she would Friday hold talks on the case with Italy's Prime Minister Enrico Letta and other top government officials.

Girone and Latorre say they mistook the unarmed fishermen for pirates.

Italy claimed the February 2012 incident took place in international waters, meaning India should not have jurisdiction over the case, which was at the centre of a diplomatic row between the two countries earlier this year.

IANS

ROCKET ATTACK

Israel strikes Lebanon JERUSALEM: The Israeli air force carried out an attack in Lebanon on Friday, the army said, hours after militants there fired four rockets at the Jewish state.

Two of the four rockets fired from Lebanon on Thursday had hit populated areas, causing damage but no injuries.

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WORLD

The attack was claimed by the Abdullah Azzam Brigades — an Al-Qaeda-linked group which had claimed similar rocket fire on Israel in 2009 and 2011.

The Israeli army reiterated in its Friday statement it “holds the Lebanese government accountable for the attack”.

Lebanese President Michel Sleiman had called the Thursday rocket fire a violation of UN resolutions and of Lebanese sovereignty.

AFP

9

News FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

SNOWDEN REVELATIONS

CHEMICAL ATTACK

Crime against humanity, says Ban

British station taps undersea cables

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WORLD

The information thus obtained is passed to British eavesdropping agency GCHQ, which in turn passes it to the American NSA.

DAMASCUS: The use of chemical weapons in Syria would constitute a “crime against humanity”, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Friday, adding there was “no time to lose” in investigating an attack which the opposition says killed hundreds.

Ban described reports of the incident near Damascus on Wednesday as “very alarming and shocking” and urged the regime to allow a UN inspection team, already on the ground in Syria, to begin a probe without delay.

Footage distributed by activists show unconscious children, people foaming around the mouth and doctors apparently administering oxygen to help them breathe.

The US said it has yet to “conclusively determine” such weapons were used.

President Barack Obama has ordered US spy agencies to urgently probe the claims, aides said.

AFP

LONDON: Britain is running a secret Internet surveillance station in the Middle East, a report said Thursday citing the latest leaked documents obtained by fugitive US security contractor Edward Snowden.

The Independent newspaper said it was not disclosing the country where the base is located, but said the facility can intercept emails, telephone calls and web traffic for the United States and other intelligence agencies.

The British base taps into underwater fibre-optic cables in the region, the newspaper said.

It passes the information back to the British electronic eavesdropping agency GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters), which then shares it with the US National Security Agency.

Britain’s Foreign Office said when contacted by AFP about the report that “we do not comment on intelligence matters”.

British counter-terror police launched a criminal investigation into documents seized from the boyfriend of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, the reporter who broke the Snowden story.

AROUND THE

WORLD

The Independent did not say how it obtained the details from the Snowden files.

Snowden, a former NSA contractor, first released details of US and British surveillance activities through the Guardian

SPIRITED DEFENCE

Defiant Bo Xilai hears further bribery claims JINAN: Fallen Chinese politician Bo Xilai resumed his defence against bribe-taking charges on Friday, a court said, after he mounted a feisty performance on the trial’s opening day.

“The court has resumed its investigation of the facts of defendant Bo Xilai’s bribery as outlined by the prosecution,” the court in Jinan in eastern China said on its verified account on Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter.

Bo presented an unexpectedly spirited defence against bribery charges as the trial began on Thursday, comparing one witness, businessman Tang Xiaolin, to a “mad dog” who appeared to have “sold his soul”.

State broadcaster CCTV on Friday released video of one of the trial’s most dramatic moments, when Bo cross-examined witness Xu Ming, who pros-

AROUND THE

WORLD

Bo presented an unexpectedly spirited defence, comparing one witness, businessman Tang Xiaolin, to a “mad dog” who appeared to have “sold his soul”.

ecutors said had bribed him to the tune of 20.7 million yuan.

But in a colourful exchange — which touched on a football club, a hot air balloon and the purchase of a French villa — Bo argued that Xu had not made him aware of the transactions.

Bo’s populist politics won supporters across China but alienated top party leadership who saw his brash approach as a return to a bygone era of strongman rule.

Backroom political discussions ahead of the trial have ensured that a guilty verdict from the court is almost certain, with a lengthy prison sentence likely to follow, analysts say.

Police blocked off roads around the court again on Friday morning, with the only journalists able to gain entry to the proceedings from state-run media.

AFP

newspaper earlier this year.

Russia has granted him temporary asylum as he bids to avoid prosecution in the United States.

British counter-terror police on Thursday launched a criminal investigation into documents seized from the boyfriend of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, the reporter who broke the Snowden story.

The Guardian said this week

that GCHQ experts had on July 20 supervised the destruction of the hard drives and memory chips on which its Snowden material had been saved.

The government has confirmed that Cabinet Secretary Jeremy Heywood, was sent to tell the Guardian they had to either destroy or return the material, or face legal action.

AFP

NEW ROLE Ben Affleck succeeds Christian Bale as Batman LOS ANGELES: US actor Ben Affleck will replace Christian Bale in the next Batman film, Warner Bros. Pictures said.

Affleck will appear in a Batman-Superman mega flick slated for release in 2015 that follows on the heels of this summer’s Superman hit Man of Steel.

Bale, who played the title role in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, had left the doors wide open for a new successor.

“We knew we needed an extraordinary actor to take on one of DC Comics’ most enduringly popular super heroes, and Ben Affleck certainly fits that bill and then some,” said Warner Bros. president Greg Silverman in a statement.

The film, which is not yet titled, will be directed by Zack Snyder, who was behind this summer’s Man of Steel starring Henry Cavill of Britain.

Cavill will appear alongside Affleck in the 2015 film.

Man of Steel has earned some

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$650 million worldwide and $290 million in North America alone. Affleck is no stranger to superheros, having played Matt Murdock in the 2003 flop Daredevil. More notably, Affleck arrived at the pinnacle of Hollywood accomplishment in 2013 when his movie Argo won the Oscar for best film last February.

AFP

News FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

ON A WILD SCALE Different animals are being weighed and measured during the London Zoo's annual weigh-in that began Wednesday. The information is then shared with zoos across the world, allowing them to compare data on thousands of endangered species. AFP/LEON NEAL

10&11

12

News FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

ART FOR A CAUSE

Colourful murals show Nepal’s dark side Nepal’s capital has been given a facelift thanks to a team of artists who painted dozens of elaborate and metres-high murals on walls, some depicting social issues like child trafficking.

KATHMANDU: Gone are political flyers, movie posters and other advertisements slapped on some of Kathmandu’s drab walls, replaced by colourful paintings, some as high as 25 feet (7.6 metres).

Some 60 artists have been involved in the project called “Kolor Kathmandu” which began in January and will culminate on Thursday with the launch of a book of photographs on the murals.

“Kathmandu used to be a city of art and culture,” said Yuki Poudyal, director of the project.

“But when I returned home after five years studying in the United States, I saw that it was bombarded with posters and negative visuals,” said Poudyal.

The artists targeted the walls of public and private buildings, in a months-long project that features 75 murals on religious and abstract themes but also on some of Nepal’s problems including caste discrimination.

Poudyal said the artists, from some 20 countries, have tried to represent Nepal’s 75 districts in the paintings so that Kathmandu residents can “know stories

from different parts of the country”.

One mural shows girls displaced from their families, during annual flooding that

occurs in Banke district on the Indian Nepal border, and falling into the hands of human traffickers.

Poudyal, who studied sociology at St Lawrence University in New York state, said she launched the project after drawing inspiration from street art in US cities like Philadelphia.

“Art like this was limited to the Western world. But now we have introduced it in Kathmandu,” she said.

The project received financial backing from Prince Claus Fund, a Dutch charity, and artists were encouraged to apply to take part. Permission was gained from the buildings’ owners before the artists started work on their murals, some of which took two weeks to complete.

“Curiosity is a hallmark of street arts and murals. People would stop and watch,” the artists work, Poudyal said.

She said the murals also appear to have impressed the poster boys who slap flyers on walls around the city as well as graffiti artists, who have left the murals alone.

“Not a single mural has been painted over by someone. People seem to respect our works,” she said.

AFP

13

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

business

NOIDA TO GET A MAKEOVER SOON

The Uttar Pradesh government is set to unveil a host of initiatives in the New Okhla Industrial Development Area (Noida), as part of a bid to attract investment by showcasing it as a hub for industry, officials said on Friday.

WEB WARS

JOIN THE CXO RUN

Yahoo tops Web traffic A comScore survey showed Yahoo edged past Google with 195.6 million unique US Web visitors; and its shares powered high.

NEW YORK CITY: Yahoo shares powered higher on Thursday after a survey showed the struggling Internet giant topped a survey for US Web visitors for the first time since 2011.

In late morning trade, Yahoo was up 2.99 per cent at $27.87.

The comScore survey showed Yahoo edged past Google with 195.6 million unique US Web visitors. It was the first time Yahoo was on top since May 2011. The figures exclude Yahoo's newly acquired Tumblr blog sites.

The report provides a modest victory for Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer, who moved from Google a year ago. But Yahoo still trails Google in revenues and advertising, particularly in the key search segment.

A comScore survey earlier this month on search engines showed Google on top with a commanding 67 per cent market share, followed by Microsoft with 17.9 per cent, and Yahoo in third place with 11.3 per cent.

Still, Paul Ausick at 24/7 Wall Street said the new figures are significant.

"The rankings are worth

Bharti Airtel, a leading integrated telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, will host its first ‘CXO Run’ during the forthcoming 2013 edition of Airtel Hyderabad Marathon slated for August 25. As a part of this, the marathon this year will see corporate heads of several leading companies (including Google, Facebook, Int’l Paper, Netxcell, Invesco, Pramati Technologies, among others) participate in the exclusive ‘CXO Run’ at the third leg of the Airtel Hyderabad Marathon — and step forward to celebrate as well as encourage the spirit of running among employees and others in the City.

NUMEROLOGY

$124 mn

more than just bragging rights, too," he said, adding, “Yahoo has taken over the top spot in comScore's Ad Focus rankings as well with an 87.2 per cent reach.

That means that a page owned by a Yahoo site was viewed by 87.2 per cent of the 225 million total Web visitors in July. That is well ahead of Google's 80.6 per

cent reach. And that translates into higher ad rates and more revenue for Yahoo."

Last month, Yahoo said its second-quarter profit rose sharply from a year ago, but revenues lagged. Net profit rose 46 per cent from a year ago to $331 million, slightly better than expected, but revenues exclud-

ing payments to partners fell one per cent to $1.07 billion. Since taking over, Mayer has been on a buying spree, and has also sold shares in China's Alibaba to boost its cash. Its most publicised deal was a billion-dollar acquisition of the blogging platform Tumblr, expected to help bring a younger audience to Yahoo. AFP

BREAK IN FALL

Rupee slide takes breather on govt reassurance MUMBAI: The rupee recovered against the dollar in early trade on Friday, with investors reassured by comments from Finance Minister P Chidambaram and the central bank which lifted the currency off its historic lows, analysts said.

The rupee, one of the worst performing currencies in Asia, hit a new lifetime low of 65.56 , but was trading at 64.34 to the dollar on Friday morning.

"There is a bit of steadiness in trade, volatility is lower," said Param Sarma, chief executive with consultancy firm NSP Forex. The FM's statements seem to have led to some calm.

The rupee can't just keep falling one way," Sarma said.

The rupee has shed a fifth of its value this year, which Chidambaram said was "undervalued and overshot the reasonable and appropriate level".

Chidambaram also said there was no plan to resort to more capital controls and that reviving growth, which has slumped to a decade low of five percent in the year to March, would remain the focus of government. RBI governor Duvvuri Subbarao on Thursday dismissed fears that the country was hurtling towards a balance of payments crisis similar to the one seen in 1991.

AFP

GOLD`31,420 10g SILVER `51.557 1kg

24C

for

for

DOLLAR `64.34 POUND `101.78

in taxable earnings over a five-year period is what Tokyo’s tax officials have found that Olympus Corp failed to declare.

NZ TELECOM SLUMPS New Zealand's Telecom Corp. said on Friday that annual net profit dived nearly 80 per cent as it undergoes a "challenging" restructure designed to boost long-term competitiveness. The country's dominant telecoms player said net profit for the year to June 30 was NZ$236 million ($185 million), down from NZ$1.16 billion a year earlier, a plunge of 79.6 per cent. It said profit fell 23.6 per cent when restructuring and one-off costs were stripped out. Chief executive Simon Moutter said Telecom was intent on becoming more than a mobile and fixed-line infrastructure provider, branching out into areas such as entertainment.

THUS SPAKE Failure to raise the debt ceiling would force cuts to many parts of the government and have disastrous effects for our nation.

JACOB LEW, US TREASURY SECRETARY

BSE NSE

18,376.19 70.02

432.95 23.50

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Comment Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.

SYRIA

March on Washington security fears unfounded IVAN COURONNE Agence France-Presse

I

t came to be remembered as one of the defining moments in American history, with 250,000 people flooding into the nation's capital to call peacefully for change.

But as America marks the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and Martin Luther King Jr's iconic "I Have a Dream Speech," the nervous backdrop to the demonstration is often forgotten.

"Can you guarantee categorically that there will be no violence?" US Senator Winston Prouty asked in The AfroAmerican on August 3, 1963, reflecting the widely-held concern that the event might descend into bloodshed.

Prouty's question, directed at Roy Wilkins, executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), came after several violent clashes elsewhere in the country in the months leading up to the march.

Wilkins, however, was in no mood to grant Prouty's request.

"We can make no such guarantee or claim," he replied. "The colored American has been waiting upon voluntary action since 1876. He has found what other Americans have discovered: voluntary action has to be sparked by something stronger than prayers, patience and lamentations."

Many newspapers and politicians, including some of those who had openly championed the civil rights movement's cause.

14

ALLEGED GAS ATTACK EXPOSES WEST'S LIMITS CECILE FEUILLATRE

George Bernard Shaw Irish playwright

HIGH-FLYING THOUGHTS

It doesn’t take a genius to understand how two news items in today’s City dailies are connected: that of a middle-aged gentleman committing suicide because of not finding an alliance and that of a newborn being abandoned in a garbage bin — because it is a female!

Agence France Presse

A

year after Washington said using chemical weapons would cross a "red line", the alleged gas attack outside Damascus has exposed how few options the West has to try to end Syria's violence.

Diplomatic sources say the shocking images of the alleged victims of the attack, which the Syrian opposition claims killed more than 1,300 people in rebelheld towns east of Damascus, leave little doubt about the use of chemical weapons.

President Bashar al-Assad's regime has vehemently denied it unleashed chemical weapons and Russia, the regime's key international ally, has denounced the opposition claims as a "premeditated provocation".

But French President Francois Hollande, in talks with UN Secretary General Ban Kimoon, denounced the "likely use of chemical weapons" in the attack, as Syria came under intense pressure to allow UN inspectors access to the site.

And several top Western officials, including French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, have already compared

the assault to the infamous 1988 gas attack by Saddam Hussein's regime against Iraq's Kurdish town of Halabja, which killed some 5,000 people.

Fabius said Thursday that if the massacre is confirmed, there should be a reaction "with force", though he ruled out the use of ground troops.

Sources among French authorities said possible military options were already wellknown: arms deliveries to Syrian rebel fighters; the establishment of a no-fly zone; and targeted air strikes.

"If there is a military option, it will be the minimum," a French military source said.

"The only question is: What do the politicians and the international community want?

There are scenarios among Western general staffs, but no real option has yet been settled on," the source said.

Military and diplomatic sources said nothing can be done without the involvement of Washington, which has so far been cautious in reacting to the reports, despite President Barack Obama's promise last year that the use of chemical weapons would be a "red line".

"I'm not talking of red lines.

I'm not having a debate or conversation about red lines. I'm not setting red lines," State department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. We've seen from President Obama's attitude to the Syrian

conflict that he and his military are extremely reluctant to be drawn into any kind of military activity in Syria," Jeremy Greenstock, the former British ambassador to the United Nations, told BBC radio.

Paul Freiherr von Maltzahn, of the German Council on Foreign Relations, said Western military action in Syria was currently "unimaginable".

"What could we expect? This will not stop the conflict, the war will continue," he said, adding that the focus for now should be on ensuring UN inspectors can investigate.

Lord Mark Malloch Brown, the former UN deputy secretary general, agreed, saying a diplomatic solution was still possible.

"We need to bring the rhetoric down from red line and military intervention to try and find common ground that we can agree on with the Russians and the Chinese, which is: Let's establish the facts," he told BBC radio.

"But at the moment this is already morphing into 'what next?' And that of course immediately raises the hackles of the West's opponents on the Security Council, risking therefore an inspection.”

EDITORIALS Can we first secure food we pay double for please?

T

here are more than one thousand complaints about sub-standard food and lack of hygienic conditions in premier and other long-distance trains received by railways in 2012, Lok Sabha has been informed. That sure must be news to the supreme house that decides the fate of a billion plus population and the 25 million that travel by the Indian Railways on a daily basis. If that is news to our policy makers, they may as well be also told that for every person that has felt responsible to report the goings-on on wheels, there are scores who can’t be bothered and hundreds, perhaps thousands who simply do not trust the treatment onboard a train and carry their own stuff. It takes but one random visit to educate one of the conditions in which food is prepared in a pantry car, and no more than a mouthful of tasting what the average passenger has to endure.

But perhaps that is too much to ask from the inspection tribe who have not been able to plug pilferage in children’s midday meals.

READERS’ VIEWS

The weird case of Modi

T

here is a contemporary saying, “If you cannot convince the masses, then confuse them.” That seems what Narendra Modi has managed — not just to us Indians, but to citizens of other nations as well. How else would one explain the UK high commissioner saying that any engagement with him was not an endorsement of him, only days after the Gujarat CM got an invitation to visit Britain. And, he is not to be blamed for this. However good a politician may be, one is never out of range of controversy.

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

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

music

BAN AGAINST HONEY SINGH

Members of the Punjabi community in Canada's Ontario province are opposing a show by Punjabi rapper Honey Singh on the grounds that his lyrics are violent. Over 1,100 Punjabis have signed a petition to stop a performance by Honey Singh at Punjabi Virsa Day 2013, an annual event, to be held at the Wonderland theme park in Vaughan Saturday..

BRUCE WILLIS

Before Bruce Willis became a bona fide action hero due to 1988’s Die Hard, he had a go at being an R’n’B star. He was already a recognisable face thanks to playing the lead in Moonlighting, so Motown Records asked him to record an album of blues and soul. Titled The Return Of Bruno, Willis’ debut album is a mish-mash of covers and original songs, and… it’s not terrible?

His cover of Respect Yourself reached number seven in the UK singles chart, while his version of Under The Boardwalk was one of the biggest selling singles in the UK in 1987.

ROBERT DOWNEY JUNIOR

If you were an Ally McBeal fan, you might remember Robert Downey Jr singing Every Breath You Take (with a guest appearance from Sting, at that). That song choice tells you all you need to know about Downey’s musical career, too: it’s all kind of soft rock, and his voice sounds exactly as you’d expect from his speaking voice. Downey put out a full length album, The Futurist, in 2004, to mixed reviews. The following year, he told Contact Music that although he’d like to pursue his music career more fully, he couldn’t afford to.

SINGING CHOPS

Actor Robert Pattinson is reportedly concentrating on his singing career and working with some top names in the music industry. Whether his singing is better than his acting is yet to be seen, but let us look at some stars who tried their hand at the music industry .

VKEVIN BACON AND THE BACON BROTHERS A band with the best name in the showbiz. Like Billy Bob Thornton, Kevin Bacon knows he is now a singer, but like Russell Crowe he does use his style to boost the band’s sound. With the incredibly funny and cool take on music, the Bacon Brothers are just too nice not to be liked.

RUSSELL CROWE & THE ORDINARY FEAR OF GOD The actor has a talent to use his disadvantages to his advantage. His cool voice and great writing talent makes the Ordinary Fear of God a very unique band which tracks are just perfect for a long car ride

JACKIE CHAN

What is it with famous martial artists also having a go at a career in music? Unlike Steven Seagal though, Jackie Chan has been cutting his musical chops for quite some time, taking vocal lessons from an early age. Having been recording music since the 1980s, Chan is actually quite a well regarded and popular music star in his native Hong Kong and China. Chan has also performed the theme music for many of his films also, though many audiences missed out on his performance of the song I’ll Make a Man Out of You in Disney’s Mulan, after it was dubbed over in the American release.

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MILLA JOVOVICH Everyone’s favourite zombie-killer Milla Jovovich tried her hand at pretty much everything in the 90s: she was a model, she was an actress, and she also put out an album, The Divine Comedy.

As the literary title suggests, it wasn’t exactly chart-bothering material; Jovovich listed Kate Bush, Sinead O’Connor, and the Cocteau Twins among her influences.

KEANU REEVES

You can sort of imagine Keanu Reeves as a rock star. He’s got the right kind of look for it.

Unfortunately, things didn’t quite work out when he tried it. During the late 90s, Reeves played bass guitar for the grunge band Dogstar. The band has some minor successes, including supporting Bon Jovi on a world tour, but their own support bands, who included Rancid and Weezer, ended up being more successful than Dogstar.

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

spotlight

SRINIVAS SETTY

STATE OF ART

Picture perfect Tollywood actors were in attendance at Beyond Coffee for the inauguration of Maya Nelluri's art show. Spotted at the do were Nani, Madhu Shalini and others.

SRINIVAS SETTY

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HOT WHEELS

Mukesh Kumar Meena, IAS, launched New Maruti Suzuki Stingray at Varun Motors showroom, Begumpet on Thursday.

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1 Madhu Shalini 2 Maya Nelluri, Nani 3 Baladitya 4 Samrat Reddy 5 Siddu 6 Rohit Reddy, Paulin 7 Bobby 8 Gautam

IN FULL GLORY

Taj Krishna has been named as 14th National Award winner for Excellence in Energy Efficiency 2013

by CII, under building category. The hotel has been recognised for its achievement in energy conservation and stood one among five top excellence energy efficient units in the country.

High-tech, savvy Actress Priyanka Rao launched the second Samsung Plaza at Kompally. Spotted there were S Raj Kumar, MD of Pai International Electronics and Atul Jain, Sr VP of Samsung India Electronics.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

health

NEW BIRD FLU STRAIN FOUND IN CHINA

A new strain of bird flu that can infect and kill animals has been discovered in chickens in poultry markets in China, according to a new study.Having studied samples from birds for the H7N9 virus, researchers at the University of Hong Kong said genetic tests suggested that the virus entered domestic ducks from wild birds and then infected chickens, which are probably the origin of infection in humans, says the study.

A STRANGE PSYCHOLOGY

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Used and misused, the Stockholm Syndrome turns 40 POSTNOON NEWS feedback@postnoon.com

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ut one man knows exactly how it works.

Jan-Erik Olsson remembers clearly the strange things that happened after he walked into a bank in the Swedish capital on August 23, 1973, pulled out a submachine gun and took four employees hostage.

“The hostages more or less sided with me, protecting me in some situations so that the police wouldn’t shoot me," said Olsson, then a convict on furlough from prison, and now a peaceful 72-year-old.

“They even went down to use the bathroom and the police wanted to keep them there, but they all came back," he told AFP. The five-day hostage crisis, the first to be broadcast live to a mesmerised Swedish nation, created even more drama after police agreed to Olsson’s demand to have one of the country’s most notorious criminals, bank robber Clark Olofsson, brought there from prison.

Olsson, much less of a celebrity at the time, had kicked off the drama with the memorable line, “The party has only started!", and initially he had scared the hostages.

“You could see the fear in their eyes," Olsson said. “I only wanted to scare them. I’ve never done time for anything particularly violent."

After a while, however, the fear turned into other more complex feelings, as a shocked Swedish public learned from one of the first telephone interviews with hostage Kristin Enmark.

“I’m not the least bit afraid of Clark and the other guy, I’m afraid of the police. Do you understand? I trust them completely. Believe it or not, but we’ve had a really nice time here," she said.

Olsson and Olofsson eventually surrendered, and all the hostages were rescued. But that was not the end of the story.

SYNDROME’S THREE ELEMENTS From then on, the roles of captor and captive have been seen in an entirely different light, and the “Stockholm Syndrome” still conveys expert status to Frank Ochberg, the American psychiatrist who coined the expression.

Ochberg, who testified during the recent trial of Ariel Castro, the 53-year-old Cleveland man who abducted and tormented three young women for a decade, said the Stockholm Syndrome has three elements.

First, there are “the parts that generate attachment and even love on the part of the hostage for the hostage holder," he said.

The second part is the reverse — when the kidnapper reciprocates and begins to care about the victim.

“That’s the reason we sometimes want to generate the

But she admitted Forty years after a Swedish crying when hearing hostage drama gave rise to the about the death of her tormentor, and has term "Stockholm Syndrome", the said she has “grown apart” from her parphenomenon is still being used, ents, leading to specuand misused, to explain the lation that she might be suffering from Stockholm reactions of kidnap Syndrome. victims.

“Once a person is set free,

Stockholm Syndrome if we can, w h e n we’re dealing with a hostage situation," he said.

The third element is both parties’ mutual contempt for the outside world.

Typically, the event happens very suddenly and hostages are terrified to the point where they have a sense of knowing, not just thinking, they are going to die, according to Ochberg.

“Very early on, they are denied the ability to speak, to move, to use the toilet, to eat. And then they are given those gifts of life, and as they receive them they have the feelings... we have when we are infants and close to our mother," he said.

Since it was first identified, experts have disagreed on just how common the Stockholm

Syndrome is.

At first, there was a “pendulum swing” to always look for it, but after FBI negotiators questioned its prevalence, it “swung back to where I think it should be, somewhere in the middle," Ochberg said.

The term has filtered into everyday language and is sometimes used incorrectly.

Austrian teenager Natascha Kampusch emerged in 2006 after being held captive for eight years in an underground bunker, where she was abused, starved and raped.

they may feel closer to their captor than to those who were prior friends and family. I wouldn’t call this Stockholm Syndrome," Ochberg said.

“I don’t think I would like to have (the robbery) undone because it’s been a large part of my life and a lot of things have happened afterwards," Olson said, but added that he did regret all the years of his life he spent in prison — even though two of his hostages came to visit him there.

Asked if he thought the condition really did exist, he said: “What the heck is a syndrome anyway? I don’t know."

AFP

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Technology LET THE RACE BEGIN

Carmakers seek new routes to young hearts

ICAHN TO MEET COOK

Carmakers are finding new ways to popularise their products among the younger lot: what better way than vidoegames.

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he spoiler popped up automatically when the speedometer of the new Audi RS7 Sportback moved past 130 kilometres an hour on Charles Bridge in central Prague, creating just enough downforce to ensure the tyres gripped the road around the next turn.

Racing through the city’s scenic old quarter in the “Forza Motorsport 5” videogame is unnervingly realistic — not least thanks to the force-feedback steering wheel that makes the speeding driver struggle to keep control.

The upcoming Microsoft (MSFT.O) Xbox One game is also just one example of an increasingly symbiotic relationship between software developers and the auto industry. Together they get games fans behind the wheel and carmakers in pole position to woo today’s younger consumers as tomorrow’s car buyers. Even if many of the players may not be able to afford to buy a car now, Volkswagen’s (VOWG_p.DE) Audi sponsors the game since it can start winning brand loyalty for the future.

It is also well aware that driving games are not just enjoyed by the young.

“It’s not just about reaching the youth — an Audi in a video

It’s not just about reaching the youth – an Audi in a videogame also reaches our core target group. Unlike in a movie where there is a straight narrative, a videogame is interactive and the storyline is not defined in advance.

Kai Mensing International Product Placement chief, Audi

game also reaches our core target group. Unlike in a movie where there is a straight narrative, a videogame is interactive and the storyline is not defined in advance,” said Kai Mensing, head of International Product Placement at the company.

Meanwhile, Nissan (7201.T) competes on screens as a partner in Sony’s (6758.T) rival PlayStation game “Gran Turismo”, giving gamers the chance to enter a competition which starts with driving a Leaf electric car in their living rooms and could lead to actually racing a real 370Z sports car on Britain’s Silverstone circuit.

“We take you all the way through to being a racing driver,” said Gareth Dunsmore, general manager for marketing in Europe, adding that its “GT Academy” finalist Lucas Ordonez went on to a real world podium finish at the Le Mans 24 hour race in 2011. Nissan’s digital advertising expenditure has trebled in the last five years and is expected to top $500 million this year, roughly 25 per cent of Nissan’s overall advertising outlay.

“GT Academy is a great way for us to attract the gaming community to the brand. A million people have experienced this

Racing through the city’s scenic old quarter in the “Forza Motorsport 5” videogame is unnervingly realistic – not least thanks to the forcefeedback steering wheel that makes the speeding driver struggle to keep control. year driving an electric vehicle in a game,” Dunsmore said.

PRODUCT PLACEMENT

Consultancy Pricewater house Coopers PWC.UL estimates ingame advertising will be a $2.8 billion industry worldwide this year. Carmakers say it is cheaper than product placement in films and they can even collect licensing fees for handing over their vehicle specifications to game developers.

Games industry analyst Brian Blau of Gartner, who once worked on licensing deals with carmakers, said auto companies are willing to pay as much as a

million dollars if one of their cars is deeply integrated into the storyline of a video game, all the way down to appearing on the cover of the box. “Advertisers are very keen on these kinds of immersive technologies,” he said. And carmakers need to stimulate demand amongst younger drivers.

In Germany, Europe’s largest auto market and home to major car companies like VW, sales of vehicles to younger people have been in decline, with official data showing the share of new cars sold to people aged between 21 and 39 dropping each year since 2009 from 19.8 percent to 16.2 percent currently.

Whereas car sales have stagnated at around 3 million vehicles for years, video game sales in Germany rose for a third straight year in 2012 to a record 73.7 million. More importantly, over a quarter of the 26 million Germans that regularly played videogames last year earn above-average incomes, taking home over 3,000 euros after tax every month. For carmakers this means an audience expanding in size, increasing in affluence and diversifying in its base; experts agree that product placement in videogames can be an extremely effective tool to promote a brand.

Activist investor Carl Icahn said on Thursday he would meet Apple chief executive Tim Cook in September and discuss the “magnitude” of a share repurchase plan. Icahn made his announcement in a tweet, just over a week after he indicated he had taken a stake in the US tech giant, which he called “extremely undervalued.” “Spoke to Tim. Planning dinner in September.

Tim believes in buyback and is doing one. What will be discussed is magnitude,” his Twitter message said. Icahn indicated last week he would press Apple to increase its stock buyback, in which the company purchases its own shares in a bid to boost its value. Earlier this year, Apple yielded to pressure from the hedge fund Greenlight Capital, agreeing to return some $100 billion to shareholders over the next two years, including $60 billion in share repurchases.

DELHI METRO LAUNCHES APP Delhi Metro Thursday said its commuters using smartphones can get to know fares and train timings with the help of a new mobile application that can be downloaded from its web site. “The application will provide information about nearest metro station, fare, timings of last and first train at stations, travel time, route information, metro map and parking availability on the station premises,” Delhi Metro managing director Mangu Singh said. The mobile application can be downloaded by commuters who have iPhone and android phone. The users can also find tourist spots near metro stations.

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Entertainment A SINGER IN THE MAKING

SURIYA

CROONS A COFFEE JINGLE

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amil actor Suriya Sivakumar, known for versatile performances in films such as Kaakha Kaakha and Singam, has lent his voice to a jingle for a popular coffee brand.

Suriya was roped in for the song by singer-composer Karthik. The video featuring the jingle-making exercise was released online on Tuesday. In the video, Suriya is seen singing for the advertisement, which is being directed by Rajiv Menon. In the beginning of the video, Suriya is shown to be feeling apprehensive about his singing abilities but later manages to floor everyone with his confidence as a singer. The advertisement is expected to go on air soon.

On the career front, Suriya still hasn't confirmed about his next project after the highly successful Tamil actiondrama Singam 2.

IANS

CINE BYTES Rajinikanth invited for Raja Rani audio launch

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ebutant director Atlee Kumar has extended a personal invitation to superstar Rajinikanth to attend the audio launch of his upcoming Tamil romantic-comedy Raja Rani, scheduled to take place on Friday. The news was confirmed on the film's official Twitter handle. IANS

My figure is perfect for item songs: Shriya

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part from acting opposite the biggest stars in Kollywood and Tollywood, Shriya Saran has also appeared in several item numbers throughout her career.

She says, ““My figure is perfect for item songs and that is why I accepted to do them.”

Chennai, please support Madras Cafe: John

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ollywood actor-producer John Abraham urged "all of Chennai" to support the release of his film Madras Cafe, which Tamil activists have denounced as "antiTamil". "I would like to urge all of Chennai to support Madras Cafe as a film and release it as it is a credible film made with a lot of heart,” he says.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

fashion

ALEXANDER WANG’S CROWD-SOURCED CHARITY BAG

ALEXANDER WANG and Samsung Electronics have collaborated to create the world’s first crowd-sourced fashion bag which will be sold to raise funds for New York-based charity Art Start.

Vintage British homeware firm Cath Kidston blooms

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he world of Cath Kidston is instantly identifiable, full of bright colours, cheerful prints and nostalgia for an imagined English way of life — and has made the homeware company one of Britain’s global success stories.

A cult following for the vintage-themed bags, clothes and kitchenware, particularly in Asia, helped the company break through the £100 million ($155 million, 117 million euro) sales barrier this year for the first time.

It is a milestone for the brand as it celebrates 20 years since Kidston, an interior designer with connections to the English aristocracy, opened a “glorified junk shop” in west London.

There are now 118 Cath Kidston stores, more than half of them outside Britain. It’s a particular hit in Japan where there are

Fitting room glimpses of Hyderabad based designers, Anushree Reddy and Shilpa Reddy who will be showcasing their collections at Lakme Fashion Week Winter/Festive 2013 to be held between 23-27 August in Mumbai.

more than 30 stores, while there are a dozen in South Korea and the company has plans to boost its presence in China and expand into Singapore and Indonesia.

“They love the Britishness of the brand — the quirky, quintessential British nature of us.

They love the practical nature of our product,” chief executive Kenny Wilson said.

“And like customers around the world, they just love the distinctiveness of our print design.”

CHEERFUL OR TWEE

Kidston was a pioneer of vintage style, and stocked her first shop with second-hand items that she transformed using updated English heritage designs. Her first creation was an ironing board cover in what became a signature rose print, and the 1,000-strong product line now includes every-

thing from tea cups to towels.

“Our signature look is colourful, cheerful, witty, but never too fussy, too pretty or too twee,” she has wrote in a book marking the 20th anniversary.

The image Cath Kidston projects of England, of country house kitchens and rose-filled gardens, bears no resemblance to most Britons’ lives — but that is part of the appeal.

“I love the vintage feel, the floral fabrics are really homely and they are also good quality,” said Rose Baylis, a 33-year-old nurse and mother of two from Oxford.

At an outlet in Tokyo’s hip Shinjuku district, 23-year-old office worker Kaori Nishida picks up a lunchbox, and a parasol to beat the Japanese capital’s sweltering summer heat.

She says she liked the “pretty

designs — they’re not radical or avant-garde. It’s attractive without being glitzy.”

The kitsch look is not for everyone, and for many, Cath Kidston is the antithesis of cool.

Her critics say she promotes a rose-tinted view of 1950s domesticity that is affordable only to middle-class consumers who have the cash to spend £16 on a floral cookie jar. But the company is thriving in an economic climate that has felled many bigger retailers.

FOCUS ON KEY MARKETS

Kidston built the company up slowly, fearful of accumulating debt and of diluting the brand — she designed a floral print for Ikea but would not let it use her name. She sold a majority stake in 2003 to allow the company to grow, and now 54, remains full-

time creative director. Initially it overstretched itself, opening and then closing two stores in New York and Los Angeles, and the firm now focuses on the key markets of Britain and Asia.

“The affordable luxury positioning fits the budgets of a consumer base which appreciates luxury items but cannot always spend money on high-price products,” said Antonia Branston, analyst at Euromonitor International.

The success of the company is reflected in the sheer number of cheap, knock-off Cath Kidston products which fill street stalls across Asia — and even at home.

AFP

J CREW CEO TURNS ACTOR

J. CREW CEO Mickey Drexler has filmed a guest appearance on hit television series Breaking Bad. The episode featuring the businessman will air in America on Sunday. Drexler met with Sony Television executives Steve Mosko and Zack Van Amburg earlier this year

22&23

World shoe aficionados flock to ITALIAN MASTERS A

stone’s throw from the Duomo in Florence, students from around the world are learning the art of shoemaking from an Italian master and bringing fresh hope to an artisan trade in crisis.

Bukola Asafa, a 30-year-old mother-of-two from Nigeria, stitches a deep red lining for a pair of made-to-measure grey moccasins, while around her others mould wooden models for high heels or shape leather on thunderous fleshing machines.

“I studied for an MBA at Liverpool University then opened my own company making bags in Lagos. Now I’m here to get that ‘Made in Italy’ touch for shoes.

The designs will be mine, but influenced by Gucci!” she said with a wide grin.

She is not alone in travelling to Florence to learn from master cobbler Angelo Imperatrice, 75, who was taught the trade aged 11 by his uncles. Some of his students go on to sell their shoes for 3,000 euros ($3,991) a pair.

Imperatrice is from the

Basilicata region in southern Italy but grew up in the Tuscan city famed for leather-working, where the cobbled streets “once thrived with artisans, from silversmiths to watchmakers and knife-sharpeners”, he said.

The bustling streets near Michelangelo’s statue of David may sport trendy shops with dazzling shoe displays, but it is the Oltrarno area on the other side of the river where the heart of Florence’s ancient artisan sector thrived.

“Crafts like these have fallen out of fashion, but young people would do well to consider cobbler apprenticeships. They could become the next Salvatore Ferragamo,” he said, referring to the Florentine designer loved by A-listers.

The blue-eyed master teaches up to eight students at a time at the Accademia Riaci — there is a long waiting list — and around 100 have graduated so far. Amid the rolls of suede, calfskin leather and cord stand finished models, from a pair of towering

patent-red heels with a seductive, winding ankle-strap to a lowerheeled blue velvet-lined court shoe with a small gold fork as a clasp.

Mashizan Masjum, a television producer from Singapore, said he had long dreamt of designing women’s shoes — “elegant, but with an edge” — and believes he and his fellow students from Japan to South America will help keep Italian shoemaking alive.

RETURNING TO THE OLD TRADES Imperatrice says that while cobbler apprentices used to work unpaid for four years on repairs

before they were allowed to begin shoemaking, freshly trained shoemakers can now set up shop fairly quickly for between 4,000 and 5,000 euros.

Elderly masters of his generation often cannot read or write and are unwilling to face the bureaucratic hassle which modern apprenticeships bring, he says, but they still have a huge amount to teach about the ancient craft.

Several students say their interest in a hands-on trade has raised eyebrows.

Dana Alseif, 25, from Saudi Arabia, worked for a while in private banking before risking the wrath of her engineering family to do an intensive Italian language course and indulge her passion for classic men’s shoes at Riaci.

The only Italian on the eight-week course — which costs 5,100 euros — is Daniele Ortolani, a 31year-old who had been

repairing shoes for eight years when he decided to learn how to make custom-made models for people with orthopaedic conditions.

“Some of my friends were surprised when I chose to become a cobbler, but others are now considering the old trades. Being an upholsterer or rag-and-bone man is an increasingly appealing way to beat the economic crisis,” he said.

Imperatrice has high hopes for Ortolani, who he hopes will become the next Stefano Bemer, a renowned Tuscan cobbler who boasted Oscar-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis among his pupils, before dying in 2012 aged just 48. Bemer took the British actor in as an apprentice for eight months between 1999 and 2000, welcoming him in to his tiny workshop at 8:00 am every day.

“I want to join the greats some day,” Ortolani said.

“I fear there will always be fewer Italian cobblers, but I hope the Tuscan expertise will somehow survive.”

AFP

Entertainment FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

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Entertainment FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

Chai Time

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

Nothing can do what a book can do. Lifts you out of your life... to a whole new world, whole new perspective. A book is like a dream you're borrowing from a friend.

Dave Kellett

KAKURO

QUICK CROSSWORD

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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 Some custard pastries 6 Jeweled crown 11 ‘___ got high hopes ...’ (song lyric) 14 Bounce at the pool hall 15 Brother of Simon and Theodore 16 ‘Who ___ to judge?’

17 Everyday 19 Major ATM manufacturer 20 Now’s partner 21 More challenging 23 Cattle motivator 26 One of the TV Bradys 28 Catch a second airing of 29 Occupational suffix 30 Marine mayday 32 Portend, as ill 33 Far from cloud nine 34 Kangaroo’s pouch 38 Venezuelan river in an Enya song 40 Fishes of the perch family 43 It may be on a door 45 Rio 2016 org 46 Headliner 48 The end of the world?

49 R-V filler 50 Concealed, or the last word in a Proust title 52 They outrank pvts 55 Bartender’s measure 56 ‘Do I have a volunteer?’

58 Cockney’s challenge 60 British rule in India, once 61 Considerable bit of money 66 Commercial word with ‘Cone’ or ‘Cat’ 67 Georgia of ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ 68 ‘Jurassic Park’ mosquito preserver 69 Summer on the Seine 70 ‘Hey, long time ___’ 71 French WWI fighter planes

DOWN

1 Org that fines for obscenities 2 Chinese philosopher ___-tze 3 Adirondack chair feature 4 Desert drifter 5 Emissions consequence 6 Animal with a thick hide 7 Health problem 8 Actress Gardner 9 Having money to burn 10 Words after ‘bend’ or ‘lend’ 11 Like a fairly good-looking man 12 Introduced performers 13 ‘Yes ___, Bob!’ 18 Overworked horse 22 Counter, as an argument 23 Monetary unit of Mexico 24 What a startled horse might do 25 Man in the street 27 Hard cheese from Holland 31 Uttered with contempt 34 Stereotypical tattoo 35 Didn’t just pass 36 Boxer’s supports 37 Rage relative 39 Character Elaine in ‘Taxi’ 41 ‘Tiller’ opening 42 Hare tail, eg 44 Beneficiary 46 Limited in number 47 Walk-up dweller 51 Free 53 Words on the spine 54 Hog’s home 55 A Stooge 57 Rubik of cube fame 59 Apr workhorses 62 ‘For example’ abbrs 63 Pro hoops org 64 Flanders on ‘The Simpsons’ 65 52-wk periods

Chai Time FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013 Thiruvaikumar

STAR POWER for 24-8-2013

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

ARIES

TAURUS

GEMINI

CANCER

LEO

VIRGO

LIBRA

SCORPIO

SAGITTARIUS

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

PISCES

Politicians are advised to be cordial with party men. Those in love will be happy as support from both families is likely. Businessmen might face hurdles and minor tension but will come out with wise actions. Your charisma is likely to increase.

STRIP TEASE AGNES

Avoid giving up tasks because you face hurdles. Employees feel comfortable despite a deficit in finances. Avoid taking new debts. Planning is a must or else consequences will be bad. Businessmen will get good opportunities via new contacts.

Employees will have a favourable time. Health problems will be over. However, you need to eat more fruits and vegetables, which are rich in calcium. Some have a bright chance to buy a new house or land, which will bring cheer to family members.

Health problems are likely; take immediate care. Self-confidence and courage levels are set to increase. Avoid being headstrong and lazy. Employees are likely to get promotion and pay hike. Hurdles in performing happy events will end.

Health looks fine hence don’t worry. Those in foreign trade will be big gainers. Media persons and artists will have a handful of good opportunities. Businessmen are likely to face minor losses if proper focusing is not done in all operations.

Avoid unwanted arguments.

Hurdles in performing good events will be over. Debt issue will be under control. Financial position will be strong with which you make good progress.

Good turning points make your life very cheerful.

Employees will get support from their colleagues and superior. Misunderstanding between couples will end. A major debt will be cleared, which will cheer you. Those faced with chronic disease will very soon feel a major relief.

Health problems cannot be ignored. Need to take good care by consulting a doctor. To decide on an important issue may not be ease; proceed exactly as per your plans. It is also advisable to postpone the decision for the time being.

Expected money will be come to make you financially strong. You will be very generous but at the same time remain stubborn in your decisions. You might worry over the future. Sudden travel is likely, but will yield desired results.

TAROT READ

Sumaa Tekur

tarotreadhyd@gmail. com

ARIES:

GEMINI:

Knight of Pentacles – You are mad at someone for the way he/she treated you. Retreat from the situation and look at the big picture. You won’t be so mad.

LEO:

Queen of Cups – You focus more on the long term and tend to ignore the short term factors that could affect your immediate dayto-day living. Think of today as well.

LIBRA:

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE

Nine of Wands – Your biggest strength is the number of options before you. You can plan and execute ideas better than ever before without pressure.

SAGITTARIUS:

The Devil – You are tempted to take the easy route out. But there is no shortcut to success. You will have to continue working hard, which you’re good at.

TAURUS:

Seven of Cups – You seem obsessed with making money. You are caught in the trappings of the material world and all that it has to offer.

CANCER:

The Hermit – You are likely to meet a gorgeous person, who will change the way you think and make you look at life in a very different way.

VIRGO:

Four of Cups – If you have a passion, this is the right time to make adjustments in your schedule to follow it. Painting, music or anything will get your attention.

SCORPIO:

Seven of Swords – You are a believer in working towards gaining better social status. It may not necessarily be a bad thing because it motivates you to achieve.

CAPRICORN:

Queen of Swords – You must get into the habit of making donations or any charity in cash or kind. Build this into annual investment plan for the long term.

PREVIOUS SOLUTIONS

PISCES:

Five of Cups – You must learn to sugar-coat what you tell people. They are likely to find your words too harsh. Be a little sensitive to others’ feelings.

NUMBER GAME

nds – While it might seem great fun to have someone as a puppet in your hands, it is not a pleasant thing in the long term. Credibility is at stake.

SCRABBLE

AQUARIUS: Knight of Wa-

POOCH CAFE

Politicians need to maintain a low profile and maintain cordial relationship with seniors to avoid any action. Businessmen need to work focused and daringly to achieve their planned goals. They can be sure of good profits.

for 24-8-2013

Ten of Pentacles – Finances are on control and this gives you confidence to do as you please and take off on the road less travelled. This is a great time to socialise.

NON SEQUITUR

Be careful while driving as a minor accident is likely. Avoid emotional outbursts. Newlyweds will be blessed with an offspring soon. Avoid interfering in anyone’s personal issue and a third person’s interference in your personal life.

SUDUKO

Some have a bright chance to buy a new vehicle. Worries likely, but keep your cool and proceed with work as the situation will change soon. Businessmen will gain profits with innovative schemes. A comfortable financial situation is likely.

Boggle GRIN SMIRK SMILE FROWN GRIMACE Vol: 3, No 34 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 FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

STRONG CUPPA

CINE BYTES

It's time now to get off the Chennai Express and get into Madras Cafe for a cup of the compelling.

Sunny Deol to dub for Diesel in Riddick?

B

TAUT, EXCEPTIONAL POLITICAL THRILLER Movie: Madras Café Cast: John Abraham, Nargis Fakhri and Raashi Khanna Directed by: Shoojit Sircar Rating:

I

f only history could be changed by art. Cinema is a powerful medium for socio-political expression and revolution. Alas, in this country, entertainment engages all other aspects of life on celluloid.We need a reality check.

And we need to regain a sense of history in Bollywood cinema which seems lost in the hoary art of streetside tamasha, glorified and aggrandised by processes of cinematics that are perceived to be the elixir of pop culture.

The trenchant script, cowritten by Somnath Dey and Shubendu Bhattacharya, attempts and succeeds in building the same spiral of pseudo-history that Oliver Stone built in "JFK".

Our cinema tends to dilute, simplify and trivialise history because we are much too wary of and lazy about getting involved. Not Shoojit Sircar. Not Madras Cafe. Not John Abraham. What a courageous producer and actor John has proven himself to be!

More of that later. But first the plot. Let me say right away, that to understand the enormity of the story told in Madras Cafe, the audience ought to be familiar with the

ollywood actor Sunny Deol is said to be in talks to lend his heavy baritone to the voice of Hollywood star Vin Diesel's character in the Hindi dubbed version of sci-fi action film Riddick.

Riddick is the third film in The Chronicles of Riddick series, starring Diesel as the title character. It will be released by PVR Pictures in India September 6 into — English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.

Jr B happy to be acting with Shah Rukh

A

violent history of the Sri Lankan civil war. But even if you don't know that thousands of Tamilians died in the war of separatism, it is no sweat off the screenplay's back.

Tucked away in the compelling creases of the plot is a terrific thriller about the assassination of a prime minister. Nor are the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam), Prabakaran and the other key players. But then this is India. Here, secrecy and stealth are the founding fathers of any political expose.But you can't escape the clutches of history's tyranny. Sircar's skillful interweaving of fact and fiction leaves little room for scepticism. We know as we watch with helpless astonishment, that the 'Prime Minister' will die, that the hero in this case won't be able to save him. Such are the heroes in real life. Unsung, sizes smaller than life. John Abraham skips into the part of the RAW agent Vikram Singh with an ease and comfort of a natural-born secret agent.

Every actor seems to take a cue from the vast resources of authenticity at their disposal.

Specially riveting is Prakash

Belawade as John's associate, who seems to drink hard to escape from the enormity of his compromise. Even Nargis Fakhri, so self-consciously affected as Ranbir Kapoor's doomed soul-mate in Rockstar, nails her war correspondent's part with her radiant presence. But I have a quibble with her character Jaya. Why does Jaya speak in English while Vikram answers in Hindi? The linguistic puzzle never quite obstructs the devastating drama of war violence conspiracy and betrayal. These are dramatic points of political reckoning. And yet Sircar keeps the proceedings subdued and low-key.

Plenty of the credit for the tonal correctness of the narrative must go to Kamaljeet Negi's brilliantly unadorned cinematography, which locks in on stunning visuals of violence and espionage-related action without falling into the mistake of making the frames look prettier than the grim situation.

Sircar's editor Chandrashekhar Prajapati imbues a documentary style mood to the footage. But the sense of cinematic expansiveness is retained in the way the

camera moves through the characters' restless lives, searching for positions of comfort in a situation laden with desperate anxiety.

There's a whole lot of stifled drama in Madras Cafe. When a key character dies in the second-half, the tragedy is handled without fuss. John's tight-lipped performance gives the film a sense of tragic grandeur. We constantly feel we are in a territory where drama has no place. The soundtrack is exceptionally honest.

Madras Cafe is a dark deep and satisfying film about the politics of separatism. The film doesn't take sides. If it is against anything, it is the culture of violence that nations often feed into neighbouring countries for their own gains.

This film opens up the hitherto unexplored genre of political drama in Bollywood. After Vicky Donor, we know Sircar is comfortable exploring innovative cinematic territory.

Here, he tells an edgy disturbing provocative but rational and fair-minded story that takes mainstream Bollywood cinema kicking and screaming into a new horizon.

This is arguably the best political thriller so far.

IANS

bhishek Bachchan has said he is happy to work with Shah Rukh Khan again after a gap of seven years.

The two actors last shared screen space in the 2006 film Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna.. "I am very excited to work with Farah. Farah is a dear friend and I am very excited to be part of Happy New Year and I love Shah Rukh," Bachchan told IANS.

Nervous Anubhav gives sneak peek of Warning

F

ilmmaker Anubhav Sinha gave the media a sneak peek of his debut production venture Warning by unveiling its trailer here Wednesday. He admitted he was very scared. He was hesitant about showing the trailer, and said that he was feeling just as scared as how he felt when his first directorial Tum Bin was being presented to the audience in 2001.

sports

29

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

ELECTION TROUBLE

India in a fix over IOC’s ethics diktat KULDIP LAL Agence France-Presse NEW DELHI: India’s suspended Olympic administration is set for a showdown with the Games’ world governing body over electing tainted officials — with its insistence on “innocent until proven guilty” threatening its return to the fold.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) in December after it elected Lalit Bhanot — who is charged with corruption linked to the 2010 Commonwealth Games — as its secretary-general.

The world body wants the IOA to ban anyone charged with

The IOC wants the IOA to ban anyone charged with corruption or criminal offences from contesting elections, but Indian officials are unsure the rule would pass legal scrutiny.

corruption or criminal offences from contesting elections, but Indian officials are unsure the rule would pass legal scrutiny.

The general body of the IOA is due to meet in New Delhi on Sunday to discuss a new 43-page

constitution drafted by the IOC, which keeps tainted officials out of the election process.

If the constitution is not adopted before the IOA’s next elections in September, India will remain outside the Olympic fold.

Several IOA officials fear the proposed constitution could be challenged in court because Indian law does not bar officials facing criminal charges from holding office, or even a parliamentary seat.

Tarlochan Singh, 80, one of the IOA’s eight vice-presidents, said it was difficult to predict

USA PRO CHALLENGE

Acevedo wins fourth stage

Janier Acevedo #131 of Columbia riding for Jamis-Hagens Berman approaches the finish line just in front of Tejay van Garderen #31 of the United States riding for BMC Racing Team during Stage Four of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge on Thursday. AFP/GARRETT ELLWOOD

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS: Climbing specialist Janier Acevedo powered his way to victory in the fourth stage of the USA Pro Challenge on Thursday as Tejay van Garderen grabbed the overall leader’s yellow jersey. Colombia’s Acevedo, of team Jamis-Hagens Berman, finished the 166-kilometre (103-mile) stage from Steamboat Springs to the ski resort of Beaver Creek in four hours, nine minutes and eight seconds.

After a steep climb, he edged out runner-up van Garderen (BMC Racing) by just a half wheel at the finish line.

Van Garderen took the yellow leader’s jersey in the seven-day tour.

Mathias Frank (BMC Racing) was third in the stage and Tom Danielson (Garmin-Sharp) finished fourth.

Van Garderen leads Frank in the overall standings by just four seconds.

Acevedo is third, 30 seconds adrift and Danielson is fourth, 40 seconds behind.

AFP

BOXING

Unbeaten Mares set to defend crown LOS ANGELES: Undefeated Abner Mares defends his World Boxing Council featherweight title on Saturday against Jhonny Gonzalez in one of two all-Mexican title bouts at the Home Depot Center stadium.

Other bouts at the home stadium of the Major League Soccer champion Los Angeles Galaxy include unbeaten Leo Santa Cruz, a former bantamweight world champion, facing WBC junior featherweight champion Victor Terrazas.

Former world bamtamweight and super bantamweight champion Mares, 26-0 with one draw and 14 knockouts, has won six fights in a row — all for

Undefeated Abner Mares is set to defend his World Boxing Council featherweight title against Jhonny Gonzalez in one of two allMexican title bouts. world titles — since a draw against Colombia’s Yonhy Perez in a 2010 world title fight.

“I’ve learned from every fight,” Mares said. “I’ve gained experience and I haven’t been beat up in any of my fights. I’ve learned a lot, gained experi-

ence and continue getting better and better.”

Gonzalez, 54-8 with 46 knockouts, tries to regain the crown he lost last September to compatriot Daniel Ponce de Leon, who was beaten by Mares last May. “In that fight with Ponce De Leon I wasn’t 100 percent mentally and physically there,” Gonzalez said. “I am coming in 100 percent mentally and physically prepared.”

Mares, at 27, is four years younger than his rival, who vows that retirement is not on his mind, although moving up in weight class is in Gonzalez’s sights.

AFP

how Sunday’s meeting would go. “We all want India back in the Olympics and the general body is capable of taking the best course towards it,” Singh told AFP. “But there is definitely a problem because the law says a person is innocent till proved guilty. What will happen if a person is barred from contesting elections and he goes to court and earns a verdict in his favour?

We need to take everything into account.”

Former IOA boss Suresh Kalmadi, who has also been charged in the Commonwealth Games scandal, opted out of the December elections where his protege, Abhay Chautala, was elected president.

AFP

League cricket A DIVISION TWO DAYS

Sultanshahi 386 (Ch Prasad Yadav 56, E Mahesh Kumar Goud 60, Sai Kumar 65, Yogi 95, Chandrakanth Dixit 5/113) vs Hyderabad Titans 55/5 Balaji Colts 294 (Navdeep Singh 130, Amit Yadav 38, Bhaskar 34, MD Taquiuallah 6/92) vs P&T Colony Gemini Friends 217 (Cristy Victor 71, Chandrasekhar 40, Abdul Shakeel 42, Sami Ali 4/51) vs Cambridge XI 49/1 Vijay Hanuman 150 (Sukhain Jain 55) vs Brothers XI 99/6 (Md Saleem 57 n.o., Sri Mukh Reddy 4/15) Zinda CC 395/9 (Azhar 57, Hussain 62, Faraaz Naveed 159, Mohammed Faraaz 44, Mohammed Omer Khan 8/109) vs HBCC Osmania 404 (Siddhant 119, Ramprasad 76, Srujan 32, Dinesh Kumar 31, M Sriram 3/85) vs Raju CC

HCA COCA COLA U-16 INTER SCHOOL

Adilabad 87 (K Sai Harshavardhan 3/9, Mayank Gupta 4/18) bt Chirec Public School 49(Sadan 3/10)

SUPER LEAGUE QUARTER FINALS

St Patricks High School 168 (Hrishikesh 35, Saathyakhi 41, Anirudh 39) lost to Cal Public School 169/3 (Vigneshwar 67, Purshottham 66) HPS Ramanthapur 110 (HK Simha 69, G Aniketh Reddy 3/27) lost to Nizamabad 112/3 (G Akhil 55, SK Majid 42 n.o.)

Boys Town High School 123 (Varun Goud 5/24) lost to Gowtham Model High School 127/3 (MSR Charan 48, Md Abrar 3/14) St Johns Church Junior College 300/3 (Mickhil Jaiswal 129, Nikhil Parwani 138) bt Johnson Grammer High School 60 (Ch Rithwik 5/24, Rajamani Prasad 3/13)

U-19

Day 3: Andhra 244 drew with Baroda 408 all out (Akshay Brahmabhatt 137 n.o., Jitin 49, K Harish 3.58, Kalyan Raman 3/86) Day 2: Kerala under-19 299 all out (Balu Babu 84, Shinas Hassim 30) vs Hyderabad under-19 187/3 (Akarsh Kulkarni 51, Anirudh 67, Rahul 24 n.o., Chaitanya Reddy 21n.o.).

sports

30

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

INDIAN BADMINTON LEAGUE

CARIBBEAN PREMIER LEAGUE

Warriors beat Smashers Awadhe Warriors won their first tie of the Indian Badminton League in style by drubbing Krrish Delhi Smashers 4-1 in Pune.

PUNE: Awadhe Warriors won their first tie of the Indian Badminton League (IBL) in style by drubbing Krrish Delhi Smashers 4-1 at the Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex here Thursday.

With the victory, the Lucknowbased team bagged five points (four with each match win and a bonus point) to jump to fourth place in the points table while the Smashers are fifth with eight points.

In the men’s singles rubber, Warriors’ Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold winner K. Srikanth gave his team a winning start by coming out victorious against compatriot and friend B. Sai Sai Praneeth of the Smashers 21-14, 21-9.

Awadhe’s icon player P.V. Sindhu gave her team a 2-0 lead when she beat Arundhati Pantawane 21-16, 21-17.

This was the World Championship bronze medallist’s first victory of the tournament.

However, experienced Malaysian pair Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Hoeng kept the Smashers alive in the tie by winning the men’s doubles match 21-16, 21-19 against Markis

Kido and Mathias Boe of the Warriors.

Awadhe Warriors World No.20 R.M.V. Gurusaidutt (above) clinched the second men’s doubles rubber against Daren Liew to seal the tie for his team. Gurusaidutt won 21-16, 21-20.

CANADIAN WOMEN’S OPEN

Lydia Ko gets off to rousing start EDMONTON: Kiwi Lydia Ko (below) got off to a successful start in her title defence at the Canadian Women’s Open, firing a five-under par 65 to grab a share of the lead Thursday. The 16-year-old defending champion is tied for the lead after the first round at Royal Mayfair Golf Club with American Angela Stanford and Cristel Boeljon of The Netherlands.

“It was a pretty special week last year ... so to kind of have that kind of week again this week would be like a double miracle for myself,” said Ko, of Auckland, New Zealand.

Paula Creamer and Cristie Kerr carded matching four-under 66s to share fourth, while world No. 1 Park In-Bee, Choi Na-Yeon, Karine Icher and 22year-old Canadian Jennifer Kirby, who played alongside Ko, all shot three-under 67s.

“I felt very comfortable out there and ended up making a few putts, and good round,” said Kirby.

Ko was paired with 17-year old and European Solheim Cup team member Charley Hull (69) and Kirby. She said when everyone in the group is playing well like Thursday it usually translates into more birdies. “I started off really well with a birdie, but when I have a birdie on the first hole I haven’t really played that well,” said Ko. AFP

In the dead mixed doubles rubber, brother-sister of pairing of Kido and Pia Bernadet won a tough match 21-20, 21-19 against V. Diju and Prajakta Sawant to give the Warriors one more crucial point.

AFP

Top cricketers encouraged by massive turnout

PORT-OF-SPAIN (TRINIDAD): Leading international cricketers say they are encouraged by the massive fan support for the inaugural Limacol Caribbean Premier League (LCPL) tournament.

“To get such a huge turnout in the CPL is fantastic. The only other place where you get these sorts of crowds is in the Indian Premier League,” said West Indies opener and Jamaica Tallawahs captain Chris Gayle, reports CMC. “So the CPL ranks right up there with the other tournaments, which is really great to see.

I am really happy that things have progressed and it can only get bigger and better from here on,” Gayle said. Officials say the CPL is set to finish with a bang after the two semis and final at the Queen’s Park Oval are sold out.

“In international games this year (in the Caribbean) and in the years before, we (the West Indies) have not gotten this type of support and this type of crowds,” said Barbados Tridents captain Kieron Pollard.

“It is good for us as cricketers and good for the Caribbean people and hopefully it can continue and get bigger.” Organisers say the “full house” signs going up for the three matches confirm a trend that has been clear throughout the event, that began July 30, involving six regional franchises. Most recently it was sellout on successive days at Sabina Park last weekend, and the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua Saturday saw its first sell-out. AFP

WINSTON-SALEM OPEN

Monfils reaches semifinals WINSTON-SALEM: Gael Monfils (in pic) won an error-filled match over Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 6-7 (8/10), 6-4, 6-4 on Thursday to reach the semi-finals of the ATP Winston-Salem Open.

The 15th seeded Monfils will Friday face off for a place in the final when he takes on Ukrainian tenth seed Alexandr Dolgopolov, who beat Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan 7-6 (7/2), 6-3. “It’s always good to be in the semis after two big wins,” said Monfils.

Austrian Jurgen Melzer came through three rain interruptions to take out Russian Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-3. He will play sixth seed Sam Querrey, a winner over Ricardas Berankis 6-3, 6-4.

Querrey repeated his winning scenario over the Lithuanian after dominating him for the Los Angeles title in July, 2012. The Califonian winner fired ten aces

and broke four times.

Berankis entered the match without having lost serve all week, but dropped to 1-7 in quarter-finals over his career with the loss in 69 minutes.

Monfils and seventh seeded Verdasco seemed to play their third match as if neither wanted to win in the closing stages.

The Frenchman, who is back this week after an ankle injury which forced him to miss the two Masters 1000 events this month, could not take advantage of many of the mistakes by Verdasco, whose unforced error count totalled well over 60 in the over two hour contest.

AFP

US PGA TOUR PLAYOFFS Stadler leads weather-disrupted event

JERSEY CITY: Kevin Stadler fired a bogey-free 64 to seize the lead Thursday in the weather-disrupted first round of The Barclays, the $8 million opening event of the US PGA Tour playoffs.

Stadler had a one-stroke lead over Sweden’s Henrik Stenson, Ryan Palmer and

Colombian Camilo Villegas.

Australian Jason Day and American Matt Kuchar were a stroke further back at 66.

Stadler parred the final five holes. “I hit the ball pretty well. It was a fun, enjoyable round,” said Stadler. “I know I have to play well just to move on to next week. At

the same time, it’s out of my control. “It’s to the point where I was going to get what I was going to get. Anything past here is probably a bonus the way I was going.”

World number one Tiger Woods, whose five victories this season sent him into the playoffs atop the points

standings, also played without a bogey, posting a fourunder 67 at Liberty National Golf Club. He was tied in the clubhouse with Zimbabwe’s Brendon de Jonge, Canadian Graham DeLaet and fellow Americans Nicholas Thompson, Matt Every and Morgan Hoffman.

AFP

URN

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

IT ASHES 2013

31

Ton-up Smith strengthens grip Australia’s Steven Smith’s maiden Test hundred ensured that his side maintained their grip after Shane Watson’s century got them the advantage over rivals England in the Ashes finale.

JULIAN GUYER Agence France-Presse

Bird joins bowling casualty list

LONDON: Steven Smith’s maiden Test hundred ensured Australia maintained their grip on the Ashes finale at The Oval on Thursday.

Smith’s 138 not out powered Australia to an imposing first innings total of 492 for nine declared on the second day as they sought a consolation win after England had already taken the series at 3-0 up.

When bad light ended play for the day, England were 32 without loss, a deficit of 460 runs.

England captain Alastair Cook was 17 not out and Joe

SCOREBOARD Australia 1st Innings (overnight: 307-4) S Smith not out 138 P Siddle b Anderson 23 B Haddin b Trott 30 J Faulkner c Trott b Woakes 23 M Starc b Swann 13 R Harris c and b Anderson 33 N Lyon not out 0 Extras (b1, lb12, w2, nb5) 20 Total (9 wkts dec) 492 Bowling: Anderson 29.5-4-95-4 (1w); Broad 31-4-128-1 (4nb); Swann 33-4-95-2; Woakes 24-796-1 (1w); Kerrigan 8-0-53-0 (1nb); Trott 3-0-12-1; England 1st Innings A. Cook not out 17 J. Root not out 13 Extras (b1, lb1) 2 Total (0 wkts, 17.3 overs) 32 Bowling: Starc 5-1-10-0; Harris 4-3-2-0; Faulkner 3-0-8-0; Siddle 5.3-1-10-0.

Australia’s Steven Smith (R) celebrates with Brad Haddin after reaching his century during play on Day two of the AFP/IAN KINGTON fifth Ashes Test match against England at The Oval cricket ground in London on Thursday.

Root 13 not out.

For Smith, a first hundred in his 12-Test career was all the more welcome as he’d fallen 11 runs short during the drawn third Ashes match in Manchester.

But he achieved the coveted landmark in style Thursday with an on-driven six off occasional medium-pacer Jonathan Trott.

“I was a bit nervous after getting out for 89 at Old Trafford but

Lehmann fined for Broad blast LONDON: Australia coach Darren Lehmann was fined 20 per cent of his match fee by the ICC on Thursday after accusing England’s Stuart Broad of “blatant cheating”. The 27year-old Broad angered Australia during England’s narrow 14-run first Test win at Trent Bridge when he refused to walk after a thick edge deflected off the wicketkeeper’s gloves to slip. Victory sent England on their way to taking an unbeatable 3-0 series lead in the Ashes heading into the ongoing fifth and final Test at The Oval, which started on Wednesday.

After Broad defended his actions earlier this week, an unimpressed Lehmann told Australia radio station Triple M in an interview broadcast on Wednesday: “Certainly our players haven’t forgotten, they’re calling him everything under the sun as they go past. I hope the Australian public are the same because that was just blatant cheating. I don’t advocate walking but when you hit it to first slip it’s pretty hard,” he said. “From my point of view I just hope the Australian public give it to him right from the word go for the whole summer (during the return series in Australia in November) and I hope he cries and he goes home,” Lehmann added.

AFP

I had a chat with Hads (Brad Haddin) and said with Trotty bowling I thought I’d give it a go,” Smith told BBC Radio’s Test Match Special.

“I’m very happy to get the hundred under my belt, I feel like my game’s going OK at the moment, I’m probably leaving the ball better than I have done before.

“The pitch is still pretty good, while the ball is still hard it will

be important to take a few wickets in the morning,” he added.

Meanwhile England’s Australian bowling coach David Saker admitted: “We’re a bit behind at the minute but there’s still a long way to go. It is a very good batting wicket so we hope we can push forward from here.”

Australia resumed wellplaced on their overnight 307 for four after rain delayed Thursday’s start by three-and-a-

LONDON: Jackson Bird became the latest Australia bowler to leave the Ashes tour of England early when Cricket Australia announced Thursday he was returning home due to a back injury.

“Cricket Australia (CA) advises that Jackson Bird will return home to Australia today to receive further assessment and treatment on a low back injury,” a CA statement said.

Australia physiotherapist Alex Kountouris added: “Jackson has had low back pain over the past week of The Ashes tour and will return to Australia today to begin the process of investigating the source of the pain and rehabilitation.” The 26-year-old paceman’s only appearance in the ongoing Ashes series was during the fourth Test in Durham where he took two for 58 and none for 67 in a match England won by 74 runs to take an unbeatable 3-0 lead.

Bird was not selected for the fifth and final match of the Ashes series.

AFP

half hours.

Smith was 66 not out and nightwatchman Peter Siddle 18 not out following Shane Watson’s Test-best 176 on Wednesday.

The overcast conditions, despite the glare of floodlights, were more friendly to the bowlers, especially the seamers, than Wednesday’s blue skies when England debutant bowlers Chris Woakes and Simon Kerrigan struggled.

Boycott slams slow over-rate

Saker takes ‘educated’ guess on over rates

LONDON: England’s great Geoffrey Boycott accused Alastair Cook’s men of “poor cricket” as the over-rate slowed to a crawl on the second day of the fifth and final Ashes Test against Australia at The Oval on Thursday. Hosts England may have already won the series at 3-0 up but they have so far been on the ropes in this match.

That was apparent after tea on Thursday’s second day when England captain Cook set excessively defensive fields even when Australia’s tailenders, rather than century-maker Steven Smith, were on strike.

England bowled just 11.5 overs in 64 minutes after tea, but still conceded 95 runs in the process, before Australia captain Michael Clarke declared on 492 for nine with Smith, whose hundred was his maiden Test century, 138 not out.

AFP

LONDON: England’s Australian bowling coach David Saker risked angering fans by saying “educated” spectators would have understood why the over-rate slowed to a crawl during the Ashes finale at The Oval on Thursday.

Hosts England may have already won the series at 30 up but they have so far been on the defensive in this match. That was apparent after tea on Thursday’s second day when England captain Alastair Cook set excessively defensive fields even when Australia’s tailenders, rather than century-maker Steven Smith, were on strike.

England bowled just 11.5 overs in 64 minutes, but still conceded 95 runs in the process, before Australia captain Michael Clarke declared the first innings on 492 for nine with Smith on 138 not out. Under ICC regulations, teams are meant to bowl 15 overs an hour. If not, they can be fined and, ultimately, see their captain banned from matches for repeat offences, although regulations do give scope for officials to apply ‘allowances’ for third umpire referrals and injuries.

AFP

FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2013

sports

BALE’S REAL SHIRTS FOR SALE AS RECORD DEAL NEARS

Real Madrid put shirts bearing the name of Wales winger Gareth Bale up for sale on Thursday as a world record deal for the Tottenham player appeared to enter its closing stages. Negotiations between the two sides over a potential record move are believed to be in advanced stages.

PREMIER LEAGUE

INJURY WOES

Utd to take on Chelsea The Premier League will witness its first major head-to-head of the campaign when Chelsea face off against defending champions Manchester United.

TOM WILLIAMS Agence France-Presse LONDON: Just a week into the new season, the Premier League will witness its first major headto-head of the campaign when Chelsea (above) face off against champions Manchester United on Monday.

United began their title defe-

nce with an impressive 4-1 win at Swansea City, but Chelsea’s visit marks the start of a testing four-game sequence that includes matches against Liverpool and Manchester City.

United manager David Moyes could not have asked for a sterner start to the season and in Chelsea he faces a side who are already building up a head of

steam. Chelsea won 2-0 against Hull City on manager Jose Mourinho’s return to Stamford Bridge last weekend and followed that up with a gritty 2-1 success at home to Aston Villa on Wednesday, in a game brought forward due to the Europa League champions’ involvement in the UEFA Super Cup.

It means the London side can open up a six-point lead over their title rivals by winning at Old Trafford, and having seen United twice left in the starting blocks by Chelsea during Mourinho’s first stint at the club, United midfielder Ryan Giggs is determined not to let it happen again.

“In Mourinho’s first spell at Chelsea, they obviously got off to a few good starts and we didn’t manage to catch them,” said the Welsh veteran.

“You always want to get off to a good start. It has obviously been well documented that we have got a tough start, but we started well with a good win at Swansea on Saturday and hopefully we can carry that on.”

Although it is early in the season, Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech knows that a positive result in Manchester would give his side an early advantage in the fledgling title race.

“We’ve won games at Manchester United and we’ve lost games there. It’s always tight,” Cech told the Chelsea website, www.chelseafc.com.

“It’s still at an early stage of the season, but any advantage you can gain over your rival is always good.”

TRANSFER ISSUES

Rodgers for defensive swoop CHRIS MCKENNA Agence France-Presse BIRMINGHAM: Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers admits he plans to sign a centre back before the transfer window closes with his defensive options limited for Saturday’s trip to Aston Villa.

Rodgers confirmed on Thursday that Uruguayan defender Sebastian Coates will miss most of the season after picking up an anterior cruciate knee ligament problem while playing for his country against Japan recently.

That has left Rodgers with Daniel Agger, Kolo Toure, Martin Skrtel and Andre

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Wisdom as his centre back options, with Martin Kelly still not fully fit after a cruciate problem of his own.

The former Swansea boss also wants to send Wisdom,

20, out on loan for first-team experience while Skrtel, 28, has recently had a knee problem and also been linked with a move to Napoli.

Rodgers denied that the Serie A side have made an approach but revealed his transfer plans before the window closes again.

“It’s something that we’re looking at, certainly, a player to come into that position,” Rodgers said. “It’s to strengthen the squad but also to allow some of our younger players to develop.

“For us to maximise Andre Wisdom and his talent, I need to get him some games.

“The idea is to get him out

on loan, but I can only do that if we bring in someone with a bit more experience to come in and support the group.

“It’s two-fold really. It’s certainly a position we’re looking at.”

Liverpool impressed in their opening day win over Stoke last weekend, but Rodgers is wary of Villa striker Christian Benteke this weekend after the Belgium international fired in three goals in their opening two games.

“There’s no doubt Benteke is the reference point for the team - the ball goes up to him and he holds it up well. He’s a big, powerful boy,” Rodgers said.

AFP

Injured Messi a doubt MADRID: Lionel Messi (in pic) is a major doubt for Barcelona’s trip to Malaga on Sunday after he was again forced off with bruising on his hamstring during the Catalans’ 1-1 draw with Atletico Madrid on Wednesday.

Messi has now played the 90 minutes in just one of Barcelona and Argentina’s last 27 matches stretching back to when he initially picked up a hamstring strain against Paris Saint-Germain in April.

Should the 26-year-old not recover in time to play on Sunday against a much changed Malaga side to the one that made the Champions League quarter-finals last season, Neymar could be handed

his first start after coming off the bench to salvage a draw for Gerardo Martino’s men with his first goal for the club against Atletico in the Super Cup. “I hope it will be the first goal of many,” he told Spanish television station TVE. “I score very few goals with my head so they are even more valuable. I am happy to have got my first goal.

“It is a shame that I haven’t been able to play with Messi yet, he is the best in the world and everyone wants to play with him.”

Whilst Neymar has so far been Barca’s only new recruit during the transfer window, there has been a revolving door of comings and goings at La Rosaleda with new boss Bernd Schuster welcoming eight new signings to replace the likes of Isco, Jeremy Toulalan, Martin Demichelis and Julio Baptista who left over the past few months.

AFP