Epaper 25 august 2013

Reports of parts of the Yosemite National Park in Southern California plagued by wildfires are worrying, because places like this where several facets of nature’s beauty converge are rare. We attempt to show some of it and the things you may do there.

NATURE IN ALL ITS GLORY

PG 16&17 WWW.POSTNOON.COM

WEATHER: MOSTLY CLOUDY, 28°C

Hyderabad’s first compact afternoon newspaper

AUGUST 25, 2013 HYDERABAD

`3

32 PAGES

ON SUNDAY

CONGRESS REPORT

TO CLAIM

ON PG 3

PARENTHOOD OF T After a confused pause, the Congress decides to take the full credit for Telangana state. It was undecided after Seemandhra erupted.

SEEKING THE DANCER WITHIN Odissi dancer Jyoti Rout believes that dance is so much more than just a set of movements.

Through her years of performing and teaching, she has delved into the true meaning of the self through dance.

PG 11

MONEY MANIA IN MORGUE

At the mortuary in Osmania hospital, every bit of service has a price and it has to be paid.

PG 4

COPENHAGEN'S LITTLE MERMAID TURNS 100 Perched on a rock just off Kastellet fortress near the city's harbour, the bronze-skinned sculpture has become a Danish icon.

BRINGING INFLATION

PG 12

Had the government banned POP Ganesha idols, devotees wouldn’t have to shell out more, observe greens.

PG 4

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CITY SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

SRINIVAS SETTY

A VISUAL FEAST

Dancethon Dancethon 2013 with Baba Sehgal. tÜÉêÉW=Nizam College Grounds, Basheerbagh tÜÉåW August 25, 5 pm to 9 pm `çåí~ÅíW 9664-04456

Art exhibition Art exhibition Artist Chinna and his friends will be held. tÜÉêÉW=Alliance Française of Hyderabad, Plot No. 4, Aurora Colony tÜÉåW 22nd August till August 31. `çåí~ÅíW On Facebook

Art show A solo show by Devangana Kumar, Pageants of the Raj will be held. tÜÉêÉW=Kalakriti Art Gallery, Banjara Hills tÜÉåW Till August 25, 11 am to 7 pm `çåí~ÅíW 66564466

A photographer spotted looking into the sunset at People's Plaza, Necklace Road. `çåí~ÅíW 1800-200-8171

Fish fest To showcase a slice of Indian culinary heritage, Taj Krishna is hosting the Simply Fish Festival. tÜÉêÉW=Firdaus, Taj Krishna tÜÉåW Lunch and dinner, Till August 31 `çåí~ÅíW +91 9246 21 5332

Play pursuits Miya Biwi, a play in Hydrerabadi Hindi will be staged. tÜÉêÉW=Lamakaan, Banjara Hills tÜÉåW August 30, 7.30 pm to 8.30 pm `çåí~ÅíW Saurabh, at 9290013166

Talks A talk on Thalassemia by Dr Suman Jain will be held. tÜÉêÉW=Lamakaan, Banjara Hills tÜÉåW August 31, 5 pm to 6 pm `çåí~ÅíW 96427-31329

Sizzling South This food festival will focus on South Indian specialties and gourmet delicacies from interiors of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. tÜÉêÉW=Chill Restaurant and Terrace, Radisson Blue tÜÉåW Till August 30 `çåí~ÅíW 7799917999

Tea flavours Try the tea flavours of Budlabeta, Hapjan, Khobong and Sessa. A portion of the proceeds will be contributed to WWF India's onehorned Rhino Conservation project in Assam. tÜÉêÉW=Oxford Bookstore, The Park, 22 Rajbhavan Road tÜÉåW Ongoing `çåí~ÅíW 8790432354

CINEMAS

Story writing Short story writing contest for children. tÜÉêÉW=Oakridge International School, Gachibowli tÜÉåW August 25, 10 am

Flavours to savour Unique flavours of Pondicherry. tÜÉêÉW=Dakshin, ITC Kakatiya, Begumpet tÜÉåW August 30 `çåí~ÅíW 789301 3000

Yoga classes A culinary journey across the country at The Square. tÜÉêÉW= The Square, Novotel `çåí~ÅíW 8686080577

Prenatal yoga classes will be held. tÜÉêÉW=The Birthplace, Banjara Hills tÜÉåW August 31, 11.30 am `çåí~ÅíW 98855-69459

Gig in town

Delectable fare

India on a Platter

Alter Egoz – Tribute to Pink Floyd will be performing. tÜÉêÉW=Hard Rock Cafe, Banjara Hills tÜÉåW August 30, 9 pm `çåí~ÅíW + 91 88864 80007

Oriental food festival is on. tÜÉêÉW=Nautanki Galli, Madhapur tÜÉåW Zodiac Hall, Golkonda Hotel. `çåí~ÅíW 12 noon, Till August 31

Big Cinemas, Ameerpet, 30581470; Cinemax, Banjara Hills, 44565555; Cine Planet , Kompally, 61606060; INOX, Banjara Hills, 447677770, Prasads, Tank Bund Rd, 23448888; PVR, Punjagutta, 08800900009; Talkie Town, Miyapur, 40214175; Tivoli, Secunderabad 27844973

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CITY SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

T-ministers meet on Aug 28

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inisters from Telangana region will meet on August 28 to discuss the future strategy to be adopted on the statehood issue. They would ask the Congress high command to take required measures to implement the decision taken by the Congress Working Committee to bifurcate AP to carve out Telangana State.

The ministers are also likely to discuss a proposal of taking out a bus yatra.

We have moved Postnoon now has a brand new office. If you wish to contact us, you can write to us or visit us at Plot no. 550-A1, Third floor, Road No 92, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad-500033.

‘Withdraw suspension’

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orried over its negative impact on the party’s electoral prospects, PCC president Botsa Satyanarayana has asked for withdrawal of the suspension of 12 MPs from Lok Sabha.

Botsa said that he has written to the Parliamentary Affairs minister Kamal Nath to help withdraw the suspension of Seemandhra MPs. The suspension has only sent wrong signals to the people, he argued.

Congress to claim parenthood of T After a confused pause, the Congress decides to take full credit for Telangana state. It was undecided after the Seemandhra region erupted.

Md INKESHAF AHMED

ahmed.m@postnoon.com

I

t’s official now. The ruling Congress has decided to implement its master plan of taking the full credit for the creation of separate Telangana state.

Notwithstanding the reports of a possible merger of rival Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) into its fold, the Cabinet ministers from Telangana region have finally decided to hit the roads with the sole aim of turning the wave of public support in their party’s favour by banking upon the creation of separate Telangana state.

The T-ministers have decided to hold a series of promotional programmes to take the message to the people telling them how the party has fulfilled their cherished dream of a separate state.

The programmes will also try to stymie the opposition. The party will tell people that it was neither the TRS nor the BJP that achieved Telangana state but it was the good work of the TCongress leaders. “Yes, we are responsible for the achievement of Telangana state. The credit goes to us solely and not to any other person. We will take this message to every nook and cranny of the Telangana region,” minister for BC welfare Baswaraju Saraiah told Postnoon.

Another Cabinet minister,

Sunitha Laxma Reddy

THE PARTY WILL TELL PEOPLE THAT IT WAS NEITHER TRS NOR BJP THAT ACHIEVED T-STATE BUT IT WAS THE GOOD WORK OF T-CONGRESS LEADERS.

DK Aruna

Nocturnal auto snatchers’ gang arrested

Geetha Reddy

Ponnala Lakshmaiah, also expressed similar views. He said that the party would hold party flag-hoisting programmes in every village of Telangana and hold public meetings. “We went to the people by telling them that we alone can fulfil their dream and we did it finally. Now, we will strive to see that our hard work gets its due recognition,” he noted. The T-Congress leaders are also planning to hold a bus yatra across the region.

VICTORY MEETINGS UNDERWAY A section of party leaders have already held victory meetings in their respective districts to celebrate the success of T-ministers.

Among the ministers, the supporters of Sunitha Lakshma Reddy, DK Aruna and Dr J Geeta Reddy held these meetings at various places. The celebrations will pick up momentum once other programmes are launched.

SWEEPING FOR UNITY

Using autorickshaws for snatching and stealing is a new crime trend seen in the City, police report.

Mohd Subhan

mohd.s@postnoon.com

THE GANG PICKED UP

T

PEOPLE LOOKING FOR SHARE AUTOS AT NIGHT AND WOULD STEAL FROM THEM.

he Begum Bazaar police arrested a four-member gang of auto drivers, including one minor, that has been charged with many snatching cases in various parts of the City.

One dozen mobile phones, cash and other valuables have been seized from them, inspector of Begum Bazaar KM Kiran Kumar said.

The arrested are identified as Shaik Javed, 20, a resident of Amaan Nagar colony in Mangal Hatt, and his friends — Mohammed Azhar, 22, resident of Kalapathar; Tajamul Baig, 19, resident of Amaan Nagar; and

one 16-year-old. Javed is said to be the gang leader. Javed and Azhar had been involved in thefts and offences earlier.

Police said the gang would roam about the City at night in an autorickshaw. Javed would drive and the other three would sit like legitimate passengers and they would target vulnerable looking people seeking a share-ride to the City. Once in,

the gang would steal the new passenger’s valuables.

They drove the three-wheeler in this manner in bus station areas near Koti, Mehdipatnam and Towlichowki. The gang members are found to belong to poor families and they have admitted to over 12 robberies and thefts so far. Their style of work is to sleep or rest the whole day and work at night.

Snatching cases have been on the increase in the City and the police had never before suspected autorickshaw operators in this crime. This has opened a new avenue for the police to check, the inspector said. Police have warned against sharing autos at night.

Samakyandhra electricity board employees strike work at Khairatabad head office on August 24.

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CITY SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

Money mania in morgue Greed over grief is how a photographer described the mortuary situation in Osmania hospital.

Every bit of service has a price and it has to be paid.

N SHIVA KUMAR

ALEENA ALICE

aleena.t@postnoon.com

A

t Osmania General Hospital (OGH) mortuary, everything comes at a price. The place has now turned into a money-making racket. Unless the relatives of the victims of unnatural deaths pay the staff huge amounts of money, they can’t get hold of the body.

The stricken relatives not only have to deal with the loss of their loved one but also the deadpan mortuary workers who boldly seek and take money for every single service, be it for seeing the body or getting the postmortem done.

Ironically, a board placed in the administrative building at the OGH Mortuary asks people not to encourage corruption, but under-the-table business is brisk at the morgue. Though the officials concerned, including the police, know about it, they choose to look the other way. Initially a charitable practice giving a bit to those who do the unpleasant

task, it has now been institutionalised. Since the relatives are already in grief, they do not fight nor question, just give in.

“This practice has been going on for some years now.

The government as well as the authorities at the hospital are well aware of the illegal practices taking place at the morgue, yet no action has been taken so far. There have been times when the wives who did not have money to claim their husbands’ dead body, hurled their mangal-

Price Tag n n

n

n

THE MORGUE STAFF OPENLY STATE THAT THEY ARE FORCED TO COLLECT MONEY FROM THE PUBLIC SINCE THEY ARE NOT BEING PAID FOR THE BASIC NECESSITIES. sutra at the doctors who demand bribe. It’s greed over grief at the OGH mortuary,” says K Mahesh Kumar, a photographer at the OGH morgue.

If any relatives have to see and identify the body, they have to pay `25 to `50 per person. An hassle-free post-mortem is anything between `1,500 to `5,000.

Interestingly, the police accompanying the relatives also force them to pay up to avoid delays.

According to sources, the money that is demanded from the relatives is shared between the Class IV employees and the doctors.

“Those who can afford it would not mind paying up such an amount, but for middle-class people, this is a huge amount. If we give away such huge amounts, we have to take money on loan to conduct the last rites

of our relatives,” said L Narsaiah, who was present at the morgue to claim the body of his relative.

Once the post-mortem is conducted, the relatives have to shell out another `800 for shrouding and cleaning the bodies. “If we question them as to why the additional money, they taunt us by saying, how we cannot do it, so we have no other option,” adds L Narsaiah.

The staff at the morgue

Seeing and identifying the body: `25-`50 Getting the post-mortem conducted without any delay: `1,500-`5,000 Cleaning the body and handing over after the post-mortem: `800-`1,000 Additional chai-pani ka kharcha

openly state that they are forced to collect money from the public since they are not being paid for the basic necessities.

“Technically, the government should be providing the cloth, shampoo, gloves for cleaning and shrouding the dead bodies, but that does not happen. This is the reason we have to collect money from the relatives,” says V Lingamraju, the morgue incharge at OGH. When Postnoon contacted the forensic department at OGH, the officials chose to remain tightlipped and refused to comment on this extortion. As one put it, it is rather more apt for the authorities to put up a public board with tariff written over it.

Bringing prosperity, inflation N SHIVA KUMAR

Had the government banned POP Ganesha idols and encouraged clay models, devotees wouldn’t have to shell out more, observe greens.

Postnoon News feedback@postnoon.com

T

his time, Ganapati Bappa seems to be coming at a heavier price along with good tidings. The prices of idols this year have gone up by 30-35 per cent compared to last year.

Though the demand for clay

idols is slowly increasing, POP idols still continue to rule the market and the strain on the wallet is dampening the festive spirit. Most of the idol-makers in the City have been complaining that this year, sales have been very poor when compared to the last few years.

The cost of a foot-high

Ganesh idol, which was `1,000`1,500 last year, is going up to `2,000 depending upon the design. Every year, there is an increase of about 10 per cent in the price of Ganesh idols. “A 10kg sack of POP, which would cost us `150, has now tripled in price.The increase in the diesel price and the rates of raw material is the reason we have increased our rates,” says Vijay Thakur, an artisan in Dhoolpet.

This apart, many sculptors have been complaining of how labourers are demanding more money and the higher rents they have to pay at sites where they construct the idols.

Dhoolpet, which is generally the hub for huge Ganesh idols above 11 feet, is having a variety of smaller idols for customers.

Sundar Kalakar, one of the most famous artisans in the City, says, “Till last year, I never made idols less than 18 feet, but this year, since there is a demand for

smaller idols, I have made idols starting from 11 feet. The 11-foot idols are starting from `25,000 and goes up depending on the design and the model.” he says.

Pandal organisers too are opting for smaller Ganesh idols

MANY SCULPTORS HAVE BEEN COMPLAINING OF HOW LABOURERS ARE DEMANDING MORE MONEY AND THE HIGH RENTS THEY HAVE TO PAY AT SCULPTURE SITES. in many parts of the City. “This year, an eight-foot Ganesh is starting from `20,000. Every year, we have a 15-foot pandal put up, but this year we chose to go for a smaller one,” says B Prasad Goud, a resident of New Venkateshwar Colony.

Apart from the inflation rate,

another reason various community pandal organisers are opting for smaller Ganesh idols is transportation of the idols. “We had a very tough time while taking the idol for immersion last year because of the wires and tree branches. Many untoward incidents take place in such situations. To avoid this, we are opting for smaller Ganesh idols this year,” said Rajkanth Babu, a pandal organiser in Moulali.

The rain is another reason for artisans to worry. “Because of the weather conditions, the idols are not drying quickly. We have to use gas flames and heaters to dry the idols quickly.

This will be an additional burden on us,” says Thakur Vikas, an artisan in Dhoolpet.

Environmentalists say if the social and religious leaders pushed aggressively for clay Ganesh idols, prices would have been within reach and also would have spared the environment.

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READERS’ LETTERS SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

Not a chance!

What BJP thinks is one thing, but many do not buy that the saffron party can do much in MIM’s backyard eople here in Old City are broad-minded about politics; they know better whom should they vote for, for the development of society.

P

HYDERABAD HAI SABKA

FASAHAT

in response to BJP to move into MIM’s backyard don’t think BJP can win in MIM-dominated constituencies.

There is a huge bitterness in youth and elders towards BJP. It was indeed incited by MIM brothers citing Gujarat riots.

They have brainwashed the entire Muslim youth in Old City.

I say this because I’m from there and have seen a lot.

I

SHIVA SUBRAMANYAM ongress general secretary Digvijay Singh, who has been unsparing in his criticism of Narendra Modi, today compared him to Adolf Hitler saying he was following the disgraced dictator in many ways to grab power. “I feel that there are a lot of similarities between the two as Modi is trying to follow Hitler in his bid to capture power,” he told reporters. I’m sure if BJP contests from Chandrayantgutta, Charminar, Karwaan, Bahadurpura and Nampally they will lose their deposits also.

MIM is too strong in all these areas.

C

This reader argues that Hyderabad belongs to all the three regions, as all the three have done their bit to make Hyderabad what it is today.

TOP LETTER

wonder how can Hyderabad go to Telangana. Andhra Pradesh is constituted by the Republic Of India. The erst while zones of Hyderabad State’s Aurangabad Division that included Aurangabad, Beed, Nanded, and Parbhani districts merged to Maharashtra. The Gulbarga Division that comprised Bidar District, Gulbarga, Osmanabad, and Raichur District merged to Karnataka. The Gulshanabad Division or Medak Division that comprised Hyderabad (Atraf-i-Baldah), Mahbubnagar district, Medak district, Nalgonda district (Nalgundah), and Nizamabad districts and Warangal Division included Adilabad, Karimnagar, and Warangal. Khammam district was part of

I

Warangal district, too. Later, Gulshanabad Division and Warangal division merged to Telangana which then became a part of Andhra Pradesh, a state formed based on the principle of the people speaking the same language. But three divisions Telangana, Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra have equal right over Hyderabad, as the three regions have played a role in developing it. The capital of India is geographically located in UP — does that mean that Delhi belongs to UP? No. So the best solution is to make Hyderabad a Union territory and give the region equal rights over it.

SURESH

in response to Hyderabad sirf hamara

SHAH

Win `500 every week

We are giving `500 to the reader who writes in the best letter every week. So get to work.

You can e-mail us at feedback@postnoon.com, or write to us at Postnoon, #1246, Level 3, Jubilee Casa, Rd no 62, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, 500033.

ALSO SEND US YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS.

It’s the same he situation of all the hospitals in AP are same. Gandhi Hospital, the best example, is notorious for non-cooperation of the staff with patients.

Corruption is rampant.

T

MD YOUNUS

in response to Lack of facilities plague eye hospital

Orange is good This reader professes to be fascinated by the lead in the new TV series Orange is the New Black.

Here’s why... happen to like Piper Chapman very much.

Initially, she seemed like the kind of spoiled, naive whiner that gets on my nerves, but Taylor Schilling’s hilarious performance made me fall in love with the character (and

I

I’m not alone). Her decisions can sometimes be disappointing, but that doesn’t make her un-relatable and unlikable. It also doesn’t hurt that Piper looks completely adorable in her prison uniform — especially when imitating Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” dance.

HEATHER

in response to New colours of prison

6

NATION SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

Chennai autos GPS-fitted, costlier

Maharashtra bans black magic

NEW DELHI: Twenty-five fire tenders

CHENNAI: Auto-rickshaws in Chennai will be

are still trying to put out the fire that broke out Saturday night at a godown for electronics goods in south Delhi.

No casualties were reported.

According to fire service, the incident was was reported at 9.30pm, Saturday.

“It is too early to reveal the reason for the fire. It may be due to electrical short circuit,” an official said.

fitted with a meter with global positioning system and electronic digital printer, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa said Sunday. The travelling public will be given a receipt with the distance travelled and the tariff rate. She said the government has fixed the minimum tariff rate at `25 for the first 1.8 km and `12 for every additional km. For night travel the tariff will be higher by 50 percent.

MUMBAI: Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan signed an Ordinance Saturday evening which will curb all these practices, and award stringent punishment for practitioners. The state government is likely to notify the law, which stipulates a maximum sentence of up to seven years in jail for various practices, by Monday. The state is the first to introduce such a legislation.

Fire in Delhi godown

Ceasefire violations continue along LoC JAMMU: After violating

Ayodhya yatra: VHP chief arrested At least 500 people have been arrested across the state as they were trying to travel to Ayodhya.

LUCKNOW: The entire top leadership of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) was Sunday arrested in the temple town of Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh as they tried to proceed for “Saryu Pujan”, ahead of the “84 kosi parikrama yatra”.

The yatra, set to begin from the banks of River Saryu, had earlier been banned by the Akhilesh Yadav government.

While Mahant Nritya Gopal Das was detained with 100 supporters and followers after he set out from his ashram for Saryu Pujan, marking the beginning of

EVEN THOUGH A HEAVY POLICE POSSE WAS PRESENT AT VANTAGE POINTS IN AYODHYA, OVER TWO DOZEN VHP WORKERS AND A GROUP OF FOUR SEERS DID MANAGE TO GIVE THEM A SLIP, TAKING A BATH AT THE SARYU RIVER AND PERFORMING ‘SARYU PUJA’. the yatra, Pravin Togadia was arrested from outside the Satguru Sharan temple.

Police had a tough time as supporters of the VHP leader raised anti-government slogans and tried to prevent the police from whisking Togadia away.

Senior VHP leader Ashok Singhal was arrested at the Chowdhary Charan Singh Amausi international airport in Lucknow, and was not even allowed to come out of the airport.

The district officials told him that he cannot proceed towards Ayodhya.

Officials told IANS that the state government had instructed police officials to arrest him at the airport and ask him to fly back to New Delhi by the 1 p.m. flight.

Togadia, meanwhile, told reporters that the state government was depriving the community of ascetics their basic religious rights by clamping down on the proposed yatra.

“The state government has made a political issue out of something entirely non-political, and this is being done to appease a particular community,” Togadia said.

Even though a heavy police posse was present at vantage points in Ayodhya, over two dozen VHP workers and a group of four seers did manage to give them a slip, taking a bath at the Saryu river and performing “Saryu Puja”. They were later arrested and taken to an undisclosed destination.

A home department official said more than 500 religious men and VHP workers had been arrested across the state as they were trying to travel to Ayodhya.

The Akhilesh Yadav government had last week banned the proposed ritual, citing fears that it would disturb communal harmony in the state.

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court (HC) had Saturday dismissed a petition against the ban on the yatra, being held in support of the Ram Mandir at the disputed IANS site.

the ceasefire thrice Saturday in Poonch and Rajouri districts, Pakistan troops resorted to unprovoked firing at Indian positions in the Mendhar sector of the Line of Control (LoC) Sunday, a defence spokesperson said.

Col RK Palta, defence spokesperson, told IANS: “The exchange of fire in Balakot area of the LoC in Rajouri district stopped at 10.30pm. yesterday.

Pakistan again violated the ceasefire by firing at our positions in Mendhar sector of Poonch at 3am today.

Our troops have retaliated effectively to Pakistan’s firing. Exchange of fire is still going on in the area”.

Pakistan had violated the bilateral ceasefire in Trikundi Gali and Balakot areas of Rajouri district Saturday, and also in Poonch district.

The bilateral ceasefire agreement signed by India and Pakistan in November 2003 had resulted in effective cessation of hostilities on the LoC. India has been blaming Pakistan of violating the ceasefire agreement, especially since the beginning of 2013.

Intelligence agencies believe Pakistan resorts to firing on the LoC and the international border in Jammu and Kashmir to sneak trained guerrillas from across the border into Indian territory.

IANS

7

WORLD SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

Suu Kyi starts campaigning

Abbas ready to meet Israeli PM

BEIJING: China has detained a journal-

RAMALLAH: Palestinian President Mahmoud

ist for “fabricating rumours", police said Sunday after he made online accusations of wrongdoing against a former senior official in Chongqing, the megacity once headed by Bo Xilai.

Police said the journalist “has been put under criminal detention according to the law for fabricating and spreading rumours".

Abbas said Saturday that he does not mind meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should newly-resumed peace talks proceed. “There are no obstacles or barriers for us to meet in the time that we think we should meet," Abbas told reporters here, according to Xinhua. He was speaking at a joint press conference with visiting French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

Mubarak, Brotherhood chiefs due in court today

‘Pyongyang values peace’ SEOUL: North Korea’s top military official said Pyongyang did not want war and valued peace above all, as the two Koreas forge ahead with plans for their first family reunions in three years.

Friday’s agreement to hold the reunion event has deepened signs of rapprochement after months of tension, with Pyongyang also offering to revive Kesong joint industrial project.

US, Britain say ‘increasing signs’ Syria behind attack

CAIRO: Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak returns to court Sunday to face charges over protester deaths, as Muslim Brotherhood leaders make their first appearances in court on similar but unrelated charges.

Separate hearings in different parts of the capital come against the backdrop of continued tension in the country, which has been rocked by political turmoil since the army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in a July 3 coup.

Mubarak, who left prison for house arrest this week, is scheduled to appear at a hearing in his retrial on charges of complicity in the deaths of protesters during the 2011 uprising that forced him to resign.

Meanwhile, Brotherhood supreme guide Mohamed Badie and two deputies — Rashad Bayoumi and Khairat al-Shater — are to make their first appearance before another court on charges of inciting the murder of protesters.

Badie was taken into custody last week — the first time a Brotherhood supreme guide has been arrested since 1981.

Shater and Bayoumi were rounded up earlier, following the ouster of Morsi, a fellow Brotherhood member.

They are accused of inciting the murder of protesters who died outside their Cairo headquarters on the evening of June 30, when millions of Egyptians attended anti-Morsi protests.

AFP

Around 3,600 patients displaying “neurotoxic symptoms” flooded into three Syrian hospitals on the day of alleged chemical weapons attacks, and 355 of them died, Doctors without Borders (MSF) said.

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron inched closer Saturday to attributing blame for a massive chemical weapons attack near Damascus to Bashar al-Assad’s armed forces.

A Downing Street statement said the US and British leaders “are both gravely concerned by... increasing signs that this was a significant chemical weapons attack carried out by the Syrian regime against its own people."

“The fact that President Assad has failed to cooperate with the UN suggests that the regime has something to hide," it added, noting that “significant use of chemical weapons would merit a serious response from the international community."

Obama and Cameron spoke by phone and will “continue to consult closely” regarding the reported massacre, a more circumspect White House statement said, after the US president met with his top security aides.

The Syrian government and its foes, meanwhile, accused each other of using chemical weapons, as Doctors Without Borders said 355 people had died of “neurotoxic” symptoms stemming from Wednesday’s incident, with thousands more

being treated in hospital.

If confirmed, the attack would be the deadliest use of chemical agents since Saddam Hussein gassed Iranian troops and Kurdish rebel areas in northern Iraq in the 1980s.

Obama’s talks with security advisers came a day after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the Pentagon had presented options to the president and strongly suggested US forces were being moved ahead of any possible decision on taking

PENTAGON HAD PRESENTED OPTIONS TO THE PRESIDENT AND STRONGLY SUGGESTED US FORCES WERE BEING MOVED AHEAD OF ANY POSSIBLE DECISION ON TAKING ACTION. action in Syria.

So far, despite the reports of Wednesday’s chemical attack on rebel-held areas near Damascus, Obama has continued to voice caution, warning that a hasty military response could have unforeseen consequences, including embroiling the United States in another prolonged Middle East conflict.

“The president has directed the intelligence community to gather facts and evidence so that we can determine what occurred in Syria. Once we ascertain the facts, the president will make an informed decision about how to respond," a White House official said earlier Saturday.

“We have a range of options available, and we are going to act very deliberately so that we’re making decisions consistent with our national interest as well as our assessment of what can advance our objectives in Syria.”

Syrian opposition groups say the attack killed as many as 1,300 people and US Secretary of State John Kerry also entered the international

search for an explanation from Damascus, after it emerged that he spoke to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem on Thursday about the incident.

Kerry sought “to make clear that if, as they claimed, the Syrian regime has nothing to hide, it should have allowed immediate and unimpeded access to the site rather than continuing to attack the affected area to block access and destroy evidence," a senior US State Department official said.

The Syrian government has denied using chemical weapons, and state television said Saturday that soldiers entering a rebel-held area had “suffocated” on poison gases deployed by “terrorists.”

Crocodile takes man in Australia

Navi in Lanka to look into war crime charges

FARC kills 13 Colombian troops

SYDNEY: A 24-year-old man was snatched by a

COLOMBO: The UN’s top human rights official begins a fact-finding mission to Sri Lanka on Sunday after the government dropped public hostility towards her and promised access to former war zones. Navi Pillay is on a week-long mission that will include talks with President Mahinda Rajapakse and trips to the former war zones in the north and east. The government’s U-turn came as Canada leads calls for a boycott of a Commonwealth summit scheduled to take place in the Sri Lankan capital later this year. Sri Lanka has resisted pressure from the UN and Western nations for a credible investigation into allegations that up to 40,000 civilians were killed in the final months of its separatist war, which ended in 2009.

BOGOTA: FARC guerrillas killed 13 soldiers in an attack on a Colombian army patrol shortly after officials announced talks with the leftist rebels would resume Monday. The incident took place in a rural area in the Arauca department town of Tame.

Although the army did not specify the circumstances of the attack, military sources quoted by the media said it was an ambush. “In this same terrorist act, a soldier who was wounded and evacuated from the site is being treated by medical personnel," the army statement said. The attack came on the heels of a separate assault on Wednesday claimed by the FARC’s 10th Front that left 15 soldiers dead. And in May, a FARC attack killed 11 troops.

crocodile in front of at least 15 onlookers as he swam across a northern Australian river with a friend, police said Sunday. Northern Territory police said the man was with a group celebrating a birthday at the Mary River Wilderness Retreat, about 110 kilometres from Darwin, on Saturday when he decided to plunge into the water. “They were watching him swim across," senior sergeant Geoff Bahnert told AFP of the group.

“And they just saw a crocodile with him in its jaws."

Police conducted a search for the man, but were unsuccessful. The search was continuing Sunday, Bahnert said, adding that the largest crocodile at the site had been shot and killed as a precaution.

8

COMMENT SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

EDITORIALS

UNDERDOG makes a point After being in the news for the wrong reasons Osmania University finally gets mentioned for a feat that will make every Andhraite proud of it.

Teaming up with political parties on questionable agendas of politicians is not what parents send their children to university for. But that’s what has been happening at the university campus of late.

If the wily politician wants numbers to endorse his voice, there are many unemployed and hungry people who can form their crowd. Let the politician pay for such acts, like a film producer pays extras.

Most OU students come from poor or middle-class backgrounds with a burning desire to excel and that is the driving force. If these students are allowed to concentrate on their studies and careers, there is a lot they can achieve as proved by a survey findings.

Engineering graduates from the university are proving to be more successful than IITians in the Silicon Valley, says the survey by professors of various US varsities.

The study revealed that people who graduated from smaller institutions like Osmania University, Bombay University and Delhi University outnumbered their IIT peers in setting up companies there.

It has also dawned that more than half of the founders of these firms had come to the USA for higher education. Very few came with the sole purpose of beginning an enterprise, meaning that the OUCE graduates who migrated to USA used the opportunities that came their way.

WHY WE LOVE... saffron theatrics The much-hyped Ayodhya yatra by Hindu rightwing organisations fools none. The sudden spurt in affection for the Lord, that too with General Elections less than a year away, is too clear to anyone with abovebird IQ level. What’s happening buddies? Ain’t the weed that is available to your ‘think-tanks’ not good anymore?

Pension for sportspersons is a much-needed scheme

From the hip

SYED SHOAIB

T

he country cheers as one, at each of the sporting victories unanimously, all difference of opinions forgotten for a little while, each of us filled with joy. In fact we recount with great pride how the player was from our shanty or that he played marbles with us, or brushed by us at the luggage counter at the airport.

Their victory is as personal as we had won it ourselves.

But alas, public memory is weak. Glory soon fades. For the adulating fan, sportspersons are larger than life. No one thinks that out of the arena, they are just ordinary beings grappling with the daily business of living and for which one needs money. Spending many hours working to excel at sports leaves these people very little time to work on academics or attain any skill for a vocation.

Makhan Singh’s wife has said, “I have no ‘roti’ to eat. I am willing to auction his

medals for the money.” He is the one who defeated another legend Milkha Singh. And we all know such examples are many.

While some popular sports stars such as cricketers and tennis players manage to lead luxurious lifestyles, others are not even recognised.

What a shame. Oh great nation! The home that they made so proud, to forget or rather ignores its heroes in so short a while.

“The sports ministry should help not just Makhan Singh, but all sportspersons. There should be a policy on awardees so that they and their families get pension,” Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj has said, demanding a pension scheme for at least award-winning sportspersons.

The government has agreed to take steps to formulate a policy in this regard besides announcing that the sports federation of oil PSUs had decided to extend immediate relief to the family of Makhan Singh.

But I ask. Why relief ? What compensation or support?

Haven’t they earned all of that?

They have dedicated their lives for the country, worked as hard or more than any of us, injured their bodies and spirit several

times in the process. So what makes a lazy office-going clerical employee more deserving of a regularly salaried job and subsequent pension, and a sportsperson less so?

Yes, agreed a marginal number of sports people are given compensatory jobs in random fields. Since these people may not have the skill set for the job, they are just there as proxies and made to feel like they don’t

FOR THE ADULATING FAN, SPORTSPERSONS

ARE LARGER THAN LIFE.

NO ONE THINKS THAT OUT OF THE ARENA,

THEY ARE JUST ORDINARY BEINGS GRAPPLING WITH THE DAILY BUSINESS OF LIVING AND FOR WHICH ONE NEEDS MONEY. deserve it. All policies and pension schemes make it sound like charity. No! It must not be so, because they have earned every bit of it.

Here the government must acknowledge and rectify a great

mistake that has been made.

Our leaders have always been wise and farsighted. Even when resources were limited, a substantial chunk was set aside for research and development and their farsightedness has paid dividends. Once again the situation calls for the wisdom and experience of our leaders to be put to good use. We are a fairly stable economy now. In fact we can spare enough for a more holistic development of the nation’s sportspersons.

So my argument is, why not accept the sport as their job?

After all they are at it most of their lives or at least the most productive years of their lives.

Sports people must be employed by the government for just that.

They must enjoy all the privileges a government employee enjoys, regular salary, promotions, allowances for travel and equipment, pensions and also some additional benefits such as free health care and disability insurance life long, jobs given to the spouse or children on compassionate grounds in case of death or disability. We can always add more luxuries as the need arises and the budget allows.

Let’s not deny these great people what they have rightfully earned.

9

BUSINESS SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

Iraq assures safety

Google buys imaging patents

MUMBAI: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamil al-Maliki Saturday assured a secure investment and business climate and asked Indian companies to participate in the rebuilding of the war-ravaged country. He said there were many opportunities in the energy, oil exploration, refineries, petrochemicals and fertilizers sectors of the Gulf nation.

SA auto makers raise wages

WASHINGTON: Google has bought

PORT ELIZABETH: South African

virtual imaging patents from Taiwanese supplier Foxconn that could be used in its interactive “Google Glass” devices, according to a document acquired by AFP on Saturday. No details were released on the amount of the transaction. The patents relate to a technology that permits virtual images to be super-imposed over real ones.

motor industry bosses have doubled a wage offer to striking workers, a union said on Saturday, raising hopes of a breakthrough in a crippling freeze at major car makers. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa said the auto manufacturers had put forward a 10 per cent pay increase.

Analysts say market turmoil not an Asian currency crisis The rupee has so far taken the worst beating, falling nearly 15 per cent against the US dollar over the past three months.

Aurélia End

now faced with structural problems. In the absence of remedies to cure the problem, they have corrected this through exchange rates," he said.

Simon Derrick, chief currency strategist at BNY Mellon said that “letting the currency take the strain might be the smartest move for some emerging market nations".

He noted that in 2008, when emerging markets last tried to stop the outflow of funds, they failed despite spending up to 20 per cent of their foreign currency reserves.

feedback@postnoon.com

PARIS: Plunging emerging market currencies on the prospect of US stimulus tapering have stirred memories of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, but analysts doubt a similar catastrophe is in the making.

“There are negative linkages (now) but I don’t think that we are in a repetition of the 1990s crisis," said Jean Medecin, a member of the investment committee at the Carmignac Gestion asset manager.

While the Indian rupee has so far taken the worst beating, falling nearly 15 per cent against the US dollar over the past three months, Indonesia’s rupiah and the Brazilian real are down 10 per cent, and the Turkish lira over 5 per cent in a trend that is frightfully reminiscent of the crisis that began in Thailand in mid-1997.

Back then, investors reacted by panicking, withdrawing funds en masse, resulting in the Thai bath eventually collapsing.

The phenomenon then spread like a wildfire throughout Asia, and even to Russia, with foreign capital vanishing almost with the blink of an eye.

Short of capital, emerging countries suffered acute shortages of credit, plunging them even deeper into the crisis.

Fifteen years on, India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week said emerging countries are now much better equipped.

In 1991, India had only 15 days worth of foreign exchange reserves, he said.

BURSTING

OF BUBBLE WON ’ T BE CATASTROPHIC

This week, Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman wrote on his New York Times blog that in retrospect, the flood of money into emerging markets looks like

INDIA’S CENTRAL BANK HAS TRIED TO STABILISE THE RUPEE FOR MONTHS WITH MEASURES LIKE HIKING SHORT-TERM INTEREST RATES AND IMPOSING CAPITAL CONTROLS. a bubble.

But Krugman said “for the moment, I don’t see a good reason to believe that the bursting of this particular bubble will be catastrophic".

Standard & Poor’s rating agency agreed.

In a report it called the capital outflows “disruptive not destructive", and said most Asian developing nations will “weather the disruption without a sharp slowdown in economic growth or prolonged financial volatility".

Krugman said “what made the Asian crisis of 1997-8 so bad was the high level of foreign-currency denominated debt, and that seems less of an issue now".

The Economist’s Ryan Avent wrote on his blog that a bigger concern are potential policy errors on behalf of governments and central banks as they try to stem the slide of their curren-

cies.

“Recklessly imposed capital controls could fuel panic and impair long-run growth," he said.

India’s central bank has tried to stabilise the rupee for months with measures like hiking short-term interest rates and imposing capital controls.

“Worse still, central banks may strangle their economies with high rates in an attempt to protect their currencies’ values," Avent said.

Thus the end of US monetary stimulus “risks squeezing demand around the world” when its purpose was to prop it up in rich countries.

Ratings agency Fitch said that “policy management will be the key factor in determining whether economic and financial stability is maintained in India and Indonesia following the intensified pressure on curren-

cies and asset prices".

Recent developments have not prompted it to revise ratings, it added.

So far, however, central banks seem to prefer hiking short-term rates rather than their main rates, which would slow investment, consumption and growth.

Turkey took that tack this week, hiking its overnight rate and shutting off other shortterm rates to deter speculation against the lira, while keeping its main rate on hold.

LETTING CURRENCIES ‘SMARTEST MOVE’

SLIDE

However, the current situation is “a painful adjustment phenomenon” for emerging nations, said strategist Maarten-Jan Bakkum at Dutch bank ING IM. “After years of rising currencies, emerging economies are

Derrick suggested that central bank forex intervention during a time when easy money poured in only gave investors an artificially cheap exchange rate to enter the markets.

“It also provides an artificially advantageous price at which to leave now."

Still, several countries have moved to defend their currencies.

Brazil, which had led emerging market complaints that Western stimulus measures had resulted in the appreciation of their currencies and eroded its competitiveness, turned around, saying it would make $55 billion available to prop up the real.

The investment outflow poses immediate risks for Turkey and India as they rely heavily on short-term foreign funds to cover their large current account deficits (6.5 per cent of GDP for Turkey and 4.8 per AFP cent for India).

10

FOCUS SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

AFP PHOTO / DIMITAR DILKOFF

The highlight of the day is “paneurhythmy”, a dance-like ritual that pilgrims perform in large concentric circles, creating a striking image on the verdant mountain plain.

Pilgrims flock to Bulgarian mountains to cleanse spirit Diana Simeonova

Agence France-Presse

SEVEN RILA LAKES: The sounds of women singing to the strains of violins fill the clear air of Bulgaria’s Rila mountains as 2,000 white-clad pilgrims move gracefully in a series of rhythmic meditation exercises.

Every August, followers of the Universal White Brotherhood converge from across the world on the Rila lakes, at an altitude of 2,100m, to celebrate the beginning of their new year at the height of summer.

The highlight of the day is

“paneurhythmy”, a dance-like ritual that pilgrims perform in large concentric circles, creating a striking image on the verdant mountain plain.

The esoteric society, combining Christianity and Indian mysticism, believes that positive cosmic energy is at its strongest here around August 19 and that paneurhythmy will help them channel it and spread it around the world.

“We come to Rila before the feast to cleanse ourselves from the mud of everyday big-city life with the energy of this place and with positive thinking,”

Alexandrina Stoilova, 80, told AFP, adjusting her widebrimmed white hat before joining in the rituals.

The pilgrims, who address each other as “brother” and “sister”, camp near the Seven Rila Lakes, greeting the sunrise with prayers and meditation before hiking up to the nearby plateau to practise paneurhythmy. They also attend lectures to open their souls and fill them with positive energy.

The spiritual school, founded

by Bulgarian theologian Peter Deunov in 1897, emphasises brotherly love, healthy habits, positive thinking and living in harmony with nature.

It does not keep track of its numbers but is believed to have tens of thousands of followers worldwide, possibly more.

Deunov — also known as Master Beinsa Douno — began developing paneurhythmy and taking his followers camping to Rila in the 1930s, by which time they numbered around 40,000.

The Bulgarian government later recognised the positive health effects of his “cosmic rhythm” exercises, and paneurhythmy was experimentally taught in a Sofia school as a physical education option.

But World War II and the installation of communist rule in Bulgaria in 1944 drove the movement underground.

“Paneurhythmy was practised in secret and people still came to Rila even if it was officially banned,” said 68-year-old Hristo Madjarov, one of the movement’s lecturers and a longtime follower.

“Things got worse after 1957, when the authorities confiscated and burned our books and many brothers and sisters were sacked from their jobs.”

THE SCHOOL, FOUNDED

BY THEOLOGIAN PETER DEUNOV IN 1897, EMPHASISES BROTHERLY LOVE, HEALTHY HABITS, POSITIVE THINKING AND LIVING IN HARMONY. Authorities closely monitored meetings in Sofia, and the secret police often questioned members, Madjarov added.

Even now, the Universal White Brotherhood remains at odds with the Christian Orthodox Church, which has dismissed it as a sect.

After the fall of communism in 1989, however, the brotherhood was officially registered as a religious movement, and by 2007 Deunov had gained so much stature that he ranked second

among the greatest Bulgarians in a 2007 state television poll.

His movement has also grown abroad: from France — where Deunov’s disciple Mihail Ivanov, better known as Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov, first spread his teachings — to Belgium and Switzerland, and as far as Canada, Mexico, Iceland and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“This is my second time in Rila, and I would like to keep coming, as dancing paneurhythmy in the mountains here is a lot different from practising it back in Switzerland,” David Gerard, who joined the brotherhood 37 years ago, told AFP. Maria Jesus, a 43-year-old economist from Granada, said she had practised paneurhythmy in Spain for eight years and that it gave her “spiritual harmony and vitality”.

In a new study published this month, Bulgarian Sports Academy professor Lyudmila Chervenkova noted the benefits of attending just a six-month beginners’ course in paneurhythmy, whatever the learner’s age.

Deunov’s simple exercises improve balance and physical endurance while lowering aggression levels, boosting optimism and battling depression, she found.

11

INTERVIEW SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

SEEKING THE DANCER WITHIN JYOTSNA NAMBIAR

Odissi dancer Jyoti Rout believes that dance is so much more than just a set of movements.

Through her years of performing and teaching, she has delved into the true meaning of the self through dance.

jyotsna.n@postnoon.com

“A

fter all, what is dance? It is about counting time, drawing in space and projecting from your mind,” said Jyoti Rout, explaining why collaborating with different dance forms isn't as difficult as a lay person would think.

Jyoti, a renowned Odissi dancer and teacher, was recently in the City to hold a series of workshops on classical dance. The highlight of her visit was her jugalbandi performance with well-known Kathak dancer Mangala Bhatt on Saturday evening at Our

Sacred Space, Secunderabad.

A shared cultural background might make collaborations between different Indian classical dance forms easier, but Jyoti has, over the years, performed with ballet, jazz and flamenco dancers as well. She smiles when asked about how the fusion works. “Physically, the forms are different. At a little more subtle level, the core, they are absolutely the same.

My work with diverse art forms has taught me that,” she says.

YOU FIRST HAVE TO GIVE A 100 PER CENT

TO EVERY MOVEMENT — 100 PER CENT OF LIFE, 100 PER CENT OF YOU. ONLY THEN CAN YOU GO BEYOND THE STEP. Getting to the core of what dance is forms the basis of Jyoti’s approach to Odissi. “My aim is to find who the dancer is, inside. Dance is like becoming one with yourself, understanding who you are. Sometimes, when I teach my students, they ask me: ‘Should I keep my hand like this? Should I express more happiness?’ I tell them that they are still worried about the technical side, but the essence is missing.”

Explaining how to get to the essence of the dance, she says, “You first have to give 100 per cent to every movement — 100 per cent of life, 100 per cent of you. Only then can you go beyond the step.”

Jyoti certainly knows a

thing or two about training dancers. In 1993, she set up Jyoti Kala Mandir in California. The close-knit Indian community there has come to appreciate how her teaching goes beyond just giving their children a grounding in dance. “The people see how my students approach life — how they approach relationships, how they take on responsibilities. There is a struggle between Indian values and American values. I believe that my work is not just a job, it is a responsibility,” she says.

That her students occupy a very special place in her heart is obvious.

She speaks of a student who followed her for six years back and forth from India to the US. “This student was around 45-years-old when she saw me perform. She later told me that after the performance, she went to the bathroom and cried for three hours straight. She told her friends that she had to meet me and learn from me.” For six years, the student faithfully followed her guru. “There was nothing else in her life. She put in a lot of effort. There was no limit. She used to have a lot of difficulty

remembering the steps because her mind was not focused. So I decided to create a new dance style for her, so that her love for the dance, her passion, would show,” Jyoti says. Now, a proud Jyoti adds, the student learns complex dance pieces and makes them look effortless!

Most teachers will tell you the earlier you start learning a dance form, the better.

Jyoti agrees, but she is quite pragmatic about it. “It all depends on the student and the teacher.

If you start early, the digging is done, the seeding is done. But a 13-year-old does not know heartbreak.

They will not know the pain of someone walking out on them.

Every dancer will understand and learn according to their situation,” she says.

She ends by praising her students. “There is no competition in my school.

The students hold each others’ hands, they help each other through problems. The thing is that there is no reason for one person to fail and one to succeed.

That leads to an unbalanced performance.

I want everyone to shine, equally.”

PICK YOUR

@

Across Stores

ities Twin C

12

ART AND CULTURE SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

‘Preserve cultural heritage’

A very very big art show

Baghdad to get new library

Acclaimed writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar Friday stressed the urgent need to preserve the country's heritage and offered his aid in archiving cultural relics. “Our heritage was never needed as much as it is needed now,” Akhtar said while inaugurating 'Voices of India' exhibition, which archived and digitised recordings of 56 musicians belonging to the early 20th century.

The Art Everywhere project in England fuses art and commerce on a grand scale, with reproductions of 57 popular works — ranging from the 16th century to modern times — replacing ads on 22,000 ad sites, including billboards, bus shelters, tube-station walls and other locations like shopping malls and office buildings. Some $4.7 million worth of ad space is being used.

A vast public library planned for Baghdad will be the centerpiece of a new culture hub under an ambitious new masterplan driven by the Iraqi Ministry of Youth and Sport. The dropshaped building will house up to three million books, including rare manuscripts. The project is due to go out to tender for a contractor, and is expected to be completed in three years.

Copenhagen's Little Mermaid

C

TURNS 100

openhagen's Little Mermaid statue celebrated her 100th birthday on Friday with parties for children as well as grownups, illustrating the universal appeal of Hans Christian Andersen's poignant fairytale.

Perched on a rock in the water just off the star-shaped Kastellet fortress near the city's harbour, the small bronze-skinned sculpture has become a Danish icon on a par with Carlsberg, the brewery once owned by the man who financed it.

Today, millions of children know the Little Mermaid from the Disney movie and the merchandise it spawned, but the original story lacks the happy ending of the animated film.

In the Danish saga, the mermaid rescues a prince at sea and falls in love, giving up her aquatic life to be with him on land.

However, to turn her fishtail into legs, she has to give up her voice, and speechlessly she watches her prince marry someone else. In sorrow, she throws herself back into the ocean and turns into foam.

With their unique blend of satire, warmth and humour, Andersen's fairytales revolutionised children's literature.

Born in the central city of

Odense, Andersen's penchant for making the underdog the protagonist of his stories helped the tales spread around the world, said Per-Olof Mattsson, a lecturer at the Department of Literature and History of Ideas at Stockholm University.

"Andersen was a pioneer in

SHE HAS ALSO HAD PAINT POURED OVER HER SEVERAL TIMES, BEEN PUSHED INTO THE WATER AND WAS EVEN DRESSED IN A BURKA IN 2004. creating an interest for fairytales, which were previously instructive, authoritarian and moralistic," Mattson said.

"He let the weakest steer the perspectives, with sympathy for the vulnerable," he added.

The mermaid, or Den lille havfrue, as she's known to the

Danes, is still a major tourist attraction in the Danish capital.

The neat figure with the heartbroken gaze, unveiled a century ago on August 23, 1913, has become the symbol of the city of Copenhagen just like the Eiffel Tower has in Paris and Big Ben in London.

Earlier this week, visitors were jostling on the shore to get the best photo of the 100year-old lady.

Cai Kewen, a Chinese tour guide, said she always brought visitors to the small statue at the Langelinje quay.

"Many people have read the stories by Andersen and want to see the Little Mermaid," said Cao, who has shown the 1.25-metre (4.1-feet) tall mermaid to sightseers for the last ten years.

"But visitors always ask me, 'Why is it so small?'.

They believe it would be much larger."

Others praised its simplicity. "We loved it," said American Irmgard Alberts who had joined a canal cruise in the city. "The statue is so simple and well displayed."

The tale of the statue began in 1909, when brewer Carl Jacobsen, of the Carlsberg beer, saw ballerina Ellen Price perform the Little Mermaid at Copenhagen's

100 girls jump in the water behind Copenhagen's landmark "Little Mermaid" at Langelinie in Copenhagen, as the statue celebrates her 100th birthday.

AFP PHOTO / SCANPIX DENMARK/ NIKOLAI LINARES DENMARK OUT

Royal Theatre.

Jacobsen, an avid art collector, was so impressed by what he had seen that he commissioned artist Edvard Eriksen to create a sculpture of the mermaid as a gift to the city.

Since then the mermaid's storied life on land has included meetings with vandals and a trip abroad.

In 1964, her head was stolen and a new one had to be made for her. She lost her arm in 1984 and was decapitated a second time in 1998, but this time the culprits seemingly had a change of heart and returned the loot anonymously.

She has also had paint poured over her several times, been pushed into the water and was even dressed in a burka in 2004 to protest plans for Turkey to join the EU. In 2006, a dildo was attached to her hand on International Women's Day. Denmark's most popular centenarian saw the world with her own eyes in 2010 after crossing the seas to be part of the Danish pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo.

During

Perched on a rock in the water just off the star-shaped Kastellet fortress near the city's harbour, the bronze-skinned sculpture has become a Danish icon. her time away, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei exhibited a multimedia installation at the Copenhagen site.

But for her birthday, the Little Mermaid was back in the spotlight, and still bringing in the crowds.

Celebrations were scheduled throughout Friday, including Tivoli Garden's traditionally dressed boy guards singing birthday songs for her.

One hundred live “mermaids” were also due to swim in the water around her, forming the number 100.

AFP

13

ENVIRONMENT SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

Shark fin removal banned India Friday put a ban on the removal of shark fins on board a vessel on the sea in a move to stop the inhuman hunting of sharks. The ministry of environment and forest cleared a policy prohibiting removal of shark fins, which is a delicacy in many countries. The policy calls for concerted action and implementation by the state governments concerned.

Save Yasuni national park

Tibet tackles garbage

Green groups have been campaigning for a petition to force a national referendum to block Ecuador president Rafael Correa's unilateral sanction for drilling for oil in YasunĂ­ national park.

Yasuni National Park is arguably the most biologically diverse spot on Earth. The park holds a world record 150 amphibian species for places with comparable landscapes.

Tibet has started operating its first renewable resources recycling market in Lhasa to reduce garbage, authorities said Friday. Currently, Tibet generates 350,000 tonnes of renewable waste and recycles only 200,000 tonnes annually, while most waste generated in Tibet is transported to other regions and recycled there, Xinhua reported.

JAPAN SEEDS CLOUDS TO BOOST TOKYO RAIN TOKYO: Japanese scientists have fired cloud seeding equipment to help top up reservoirs serving the 35 million people of greater Tokyo, officials said Friday, amid a sweltering summer dry spell.

Months of below normal rainfall and soaring temperatures have left supplies around 60 per cent of the average for the time of year, sparking calls to economise on water in the heaving Japanese capital.

Using a piece of equipment nearly half a century old, the Bureau of Waterworks sent a plume of silver iodide up through a chimney over an area outside of Tokyo, an official told AFP. Around 17.5 millimetres (two thirds of an inch) of rain was recorded over the following two hours, the Asahi Shimbun reported.

"It's difficult to judge whether the machine was

Even as Japanese scientists turn to cloud seeding to end the dry spell, Postnoon takes a look at the various facets of the process.

AFP

How to seed clouds

But does it work?

T

here are three main ways of seeding clouds.

Static: It involves spreading a chemical like silver iodide into the clouds.

The particle forms a nucleus around which moisture can condense.

Dynamic: A much more complicated process, dynamic cloud seeding involves around 11 steps.

The aim is to boost vertical air currents, which makes more air pass through the clouds, which in turn causes rain.

Hygroscopic: Salts are dispersed in the lower portion of clouds through flares or explosives. Like in the static method, the salts form the nucleus around which the moisture condenses.

Howstuffworks.com

direct cause of the rain, but we'd like to think that the run was effective," the official said.

A bakingly hot summer has seen the mercury go as high as a record 41 degrees Celsius (106 Fahrenheit) in Japan this month.

Around 47,000 people have been taken to hospital nationwide suffering from heatstroke or exhaustion, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said. More than 100 people have died because of the heat in the capital alone, Tokyo government figures show.

Seeding is commonly carried out by planes spraying substances directly into the air. The idea is that the silver iodide provides something for water molecules to bind to.

When the droplets become large enough, they fall as rain.

A AFP PHOTO/MANJUNATH KIRAN

CLOUD SEEDING EXPLAINED

C

loud seeding, a form of intentional weather modification, is the attempt to change the amount or type of precipitation that falls from clouds, by dispersing substances into the air that serve as cloud condensation or ice nuclei, which alter the microphysical processes within the cloud.

The usual intent is to increase precipitation (rain or snow), but hail and fog suppression are also widely practised in airports.

A 2010 Israel University study

revealed that the common practice of cloud seeding with materials such as silver iodide and frozen carbon dioxide may not be as effective as it had been hoped. Clouds were seeded during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing using rockets, so that there would be no rain during the opening and closing ceremonies. The largest cloud seeding system in the world is that of the People's Republic of China.

AFP PHOTO / JAY DIRECTO

Wikipedia.org

lthough the principles behind it are well established, it is difficult to prove that a given round of cloud seeding produced a particular effect, because it is difficult to know what would have happened otherwise due to natural variability. Major research projects including the National Hail Research Experiment, operated in northeast Colorado by the National Center for Atmospheric Research, failed to confirm the effectiveness of cloud seeding in increasing precipitation or reducing hail. Clouds, whether in summer or winter, are not perfectly efficient at producing precipitation, says Scientific American.

14

FOOD SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

Plant info at a click

Fruits cut bladder cancer

PlantVillage creates connections between people who want information about the food they grow. It's a free, open-access knowledge base about edible plants. On their website or on their app, you can participate in a worldwide Q&A and there's a growing library section. Now a justlaunched mobile app is available in the iTunes Store.

It is a tactic you employ subconsciously. The dishes you have, you compare them to your mental benchmark and rate them. And Som Tam salad at Golconda hands down made my mental benchmark for oriental salad.

Researchers in the United States say their studies suggest that greater consumption of fruits and vegetables may reduce the risk of developing invasive bladder cancer in women. After adjusting for variables related to cancer risk, such as age, the researchers found that women who consumed the most fruits and vegetables had the lowest bladder risk.

$6.8bn worth food wasted Food grains, fruits and vegetables worth $6.8 billion go to waste every year in India because of inadequate storage facilities, a minister said on Friday. Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said the country's storage requirement was 61.3 million tonnes against the current capacity of around 29 million tonnes, citing a report commissioned last year.

All’s well that begins well

AMY ROSE THOMAS

amyrose.t@postnoon.com

I

t is a tactic you employ subconsciously. The dishes you have, you compare them to your mental benchmark and rate them.

And Som Tam salad at Golconda hands down made my mental benchmark for oriental salad. Cooked with papaya salads as the base and fresh red chilli, garlic, coriander stem, sugar beans and crushed peanuts the ingredients, Som Tam is deliciously different.

At

Melange at Golconda, it’s not pompous, or grandiose, which sometimes are the traits some five-star restaurants use to cover their flaws. Melange does not need such pretences, for the food here is excellent.

As it is customary in a Thai household, where the family sit together and start their

meal with a salad, we did the same.

Som Tam salad set the tone for the evening. There are other lip-smacking salad treats that you can choose including Yum Pla Krob, Thai Chicken Bang Bang Salad, Vietnamese Chicken Salad Korean Khimchi and Penang Rojak that take

root in East Asian countries.

Then the soup arrived.

Tom Yam Kai, Thai Style spicy chicken soup flavoured with lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime marinated with lemon juice is delectable to the say the least. As we took our last sips of the soup, we eagerly awaited what would come next. And every wait was worth it.

The Thai originated Vietnamese chicken curry with wok tossed chicken in ginger, lemongrass, and coriander roots (all of which are imported as per the chef to meet the clientele taste expectations) is a hearty dish that pairs well with the jasmine rice.

There are several options for vegetarians too including Khang kiew waan phak, Dofu Gratium prik Thai, Kacang Pendek, Sayur Campur and so on.

All said and done, our

favourite of the whole lot was Som Tam salad. We were so hooked that the very next day we were on a wild-goose chase visiting several other restaurants hoping to find another salad that tastes almost like the one at Melange.

You can say I was charmed. I was floored by the strong yet unsuspecting flavours of the dishes on offer at the festival. As I think back, a delicious meal has a lot to do with a favourable beginning. You enter a restaurant and the find your first dish there unappealing, you can as well say your prayers about what follows and look for slightest chance to exit.

However, here, dish after dish, the chef at Melange, Anurudh Kumar Gupta, did not disappoint. Dish after dish, we were bowled over by the wonderful melange of flavours he conjured.

There is good news for those who have already made their visit and fallen in love with ‘tasties’ here, for the chef will be retaining some of the 'hit' dishes in their regular menus. And those who haven't yet been to the festival, there is a lot you are missing out.

15

FOOD SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

SOUTHERN SPICE! With South Indian specialities and gourmet delicacies from the interiors of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh on offer, Sizzling South food festival at Chill, Radisson Blu, is delectable fare.

The food festival boasted of live starters in the form of Kuzhi Paniyaram for the ARUN YELLAMATY vegetarians and for the non-vegetarians, Kheema arunyellamaty@postnoon.com Vadai. The Kuzhi Paniyaram, also known adisson Blu Plaza Hotel, as Guntha Ponganalu in which is known to surTelugu, is made by prise one and all with steaming batter, tradisome great diversity in tionally made from pulsfood, this time around invited es, specifically black GRT Chennai’s celebrity chef, lentils and rice, using a Chef Virgil James, to celebrate mould. It can be made sweet south Indian food with the or spicy.

‘Sizzling South’ food festival.

The spicy version of the My friend and I decided to starter had sautéed onions and partake in this festival which green chillies mixed with the focuses on South Indian specialbatter. Kheema Vadai was defities and gourmet delicacies nitely a hit among the guests. from the interiors of Tamil The vegetarians had a Nadu, Kerala and Andhra variety to choose from in the Pradesh. main course, ranging from Our meal began with the Paruppu Kadaisal, the well waiters dressed in the textured dal; Palkatti traditional lungis welBattani Chops, a coming us with a tasty paneer dish melon-flavoured unlike the drink, usually usual paneer served on the birth dishes; Kai of Lord Ram, Kari Mochai Panagam. Then, Mandi; a spicy Where: Radisson Blu Plaza came the Nattu mixed vegetable Hotel Kodi Charu, a curry; Kalan richly flavoured Varutha Curry, On till: August 30 country chicken another spicy Price: `1,150 excluding taxes soup or rasam dish but this one which is to be made with relished. mushrooms and

R

the Urulai Idicha Masala. The best of the vegetarian dishes were the Bonda More Kolambu, a lentil dumpling in yogurt curry and the Kaikari Sodhi, a classic recipe from Tirunelveli.

On the non-vegetarian end, we saw dishes like the Achi Vettu Meen Arisi Varai, a fish delicacy; and Kodal Yeral Surakai Melagitadu, which is definitely one of the best prawn dishes I’ve tasted and the famous Tamil dish, Chettinatu Kozhi Sukka, chicken made in Chettinad style. The main course was topped off with steaming hot Karikaudi Mutton Biryani.

The desserts showed a good variety. Ukkarai, a traditional

sweet, would remind any Tamilian of Diwali. Pal Kozhukattai, made using coconut milk, and Rawa ladoo were also hits. The best of the desserts were the Semiya Kesari with its silky texture and the Elaneer Payasam, which is a must try.

For a wonderful culinary experience across South India, the ‘Sizzling South’ food festival is a must-try as it definitely sizzles.

INDULGE YOUR DESI PALATE

Postnoon Team

feedback@postnoon.com

N

ovotel Hyderabad Convention Centre is paying tribute to the rich Indian heritage by celebrating the culinary diversity of our nation in the seven day food festival, ‘India on a Platter’.

This ‘desi’ food festival hosted at The Square, NHCC, under the guidance of Rajkumar Mandal, NHCC Master Chef, is an opportu-

nity to savour lovely delicacies from all across the nation.

For the ‘India on a Platter’ food festival, the chef decided to showcase 15 different types of cuisines from 15 locations in India, which included Rajasthan, Punjab, Lucknow, Bihar, Kashmir, Bengal and Hyderabad. There was a well structured spread of traditional Indian dishes. The chef welcomed us with a few of his signature dishes and

highly recommended that we grab a bite of Lamb Badami curry, Tala Lamb Chop, Lucknowi Jhinga (prawn) and asked us not to miss the Dum ka Parda biryani.

Indian Master Chef Rajkumar Mandal, an expert in Indian cuisine, believes in making his own spices for the dishes. He said, “This festival is very special because it is an amalgamation of the cuisines of the different cities in India on one table. I recommend to all the lovers of the Indian palate to drop in here as they definitely won’t be disappointed.”

I mostly stuck to the chef ’s recommendations and am glad I did. For the starter, the lamb chop was the best lamb dish I have had so far. The meat was tender and the spices were right on the spot for me. I couldn't help but grab two more help-

ings of the starter.

Non-vegetarians can also indulge their senses in intensely flavoured dishes like Lamb Rogan Josh, Chingri Malai curry, Dum ka Murgh and so on. Vegetarians can treat their taste buds to some great tasting paneer pasanda, Dum aloo banarasi, Subz tehari for the main.

Even though I have had Biryani in many places, this mutton parda biryani has to be one of my favourites.

The live jalebi counter is not to be missed.

So for the ultimate Indian cuisine experience, the Square at Novotel is the place to be.

The seven-day food festival, India on a Platter, at The Square, NHCC, is an opportunity to savour lovely delicacies from all across the nation.

18

HISTORY SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

August 26 1944: French General Charles de Gaulle enters Paris, which had formally been liberated the day before. "There are many moments that go beyond each of our poor little lives," he was quoted at the time. "Paris outraged! Paris broken! Paris martyrized!

But Paris liberated!"

August 27

August 27

August 28

August 29

1979: A Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb kills British World War II admiral Louis Mountbatten and three others while they are boating on holiday in Sligo, Republic of Ireland.

1896: Anglo-Zanzibar War: the shortest war in world history (09:00 to 09:45) between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar, begins and ends.

The sultan's forces sustained roughly 500 casualties, while only one British sailor was injured.

1963: The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his “I Have a Dream speech�, in which he called for an end to racism in the United States. The speech was a defining moment of the American Civil Rights Movement.

2005: Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the US Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing more than 1,836 and causing over $80 billion in damage.

August 30 1983: U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Guion S Bluford becomes the first African American to travel into space.

August 31 August 31 1997: Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul die in a car crash in Paris.

Although the media pinned the blame on the paparazzi, the crash was ultimately found to be caused by the reckless actions of the chauffeur.

1888: Mary Ann Nichols is murdered. She is the first of Jack the Ripper's confirmed victims. Attacks ascribed to the Ripper typically involved female prostitutes who lived and worked in the slums of London and whose throats were cut prior to abdominal mutilations.

Sept 1 August 30 August 30 30 BC: Cleopatra, queen of Egypt and lover of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, takes her life following the defeat of her forces against Octavian, the future first emperor of Rome.

2004: The Beslan school hostage crisis commences when armed terrorists take children and adults hostage in Beslan in North Ossetia, Russia. It lasted three days and involved the capture of over 1,100 people as hostages, ending with the death of over 380 people.

19

SPOTLIGHT SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

RUN HYD RUN Third edition of Airtel Hyderabad Marathon at People Plaza, Necklace Road was a well-attended event. Over 5,000 runners, both professional and amateur took part in the event.

PLAY PURSUITS

City-based theatre group Dramanon organised a short play competition at Hyderabad International Convention Centre on Saturday. Tollywood actor Harshvardhan Rane was present at the do.

20

CINEMA SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

NUSHRAT BHARUCHA DEBUTS IN TAMIL CINEMA

A

kash Vaani and Love, Sex Aur Dhoka girl Nushrat Bharucha is all set to foray into Tamil cinema with upcoming romantic-comedy Valeba Raja, which also features Vishaka Singh.

“We have roped in Nushrat in an important role. We are currently shooting with her in Puducherry. Both

Vishaka and Nushrat are playing roles with equal importance,” the film’s director Sai Gokul Ramnath told IANS. Produced by H Murali, Valeba Raja also stars Sethu, Santhanam, Jayaprakash and Chitra Lakshman in important roles.

Radhan has composed music for the film. IANS

Working on a script for

ARYA:

Murugadoss

T

Thailand stunt master Kecha for Doosukeltha

T

hai stunt master Kecha Khamphakdee, who had previously worked in films such as Iddarammayilatho and Billa 2, has been roped in to choreograph the climax sequence of upcoming Telugu action comedy Doosukeltha. “Kecha was the obvious choice for the director.

The climax scene will look very real with Vishnu Manchu (hero) and 30 men pitting against each other. The climax action sequence will be one of the highlights of the film," said a

statement. “A big set has been created in Hyderabad to can the action sequence for the film, which is in the last lap of the shoot.”

Directed by Veeru Potla, Doosukeltha also features Lavanya Tripathi, Brahmanadam, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Pankaj Tripathi and Vennela Kishore. Produced by M Mohan Babu under 24 Frames Factory, Vishnu’s daughters Arianna and Viviana will be presenting Doosukeltha.

IANS

amil filmmaker AR Murugadoss, known for films such as Ghajini and Thuppakki, Friday said he is working on a script for actor Arya. “Arya has been asking me to direct him for many years, but I have asked him to act in my home production first. Since he has acted in my production venture (Raja Rani), I have started working on a script for him,” Murugadoss told reporters at the audio launch of Tamil romantic-comedy Raja Rani.

Directed by debutant Atlee Kumar, Raja Rani is jointly produced by Murugadoss and Fox Star Studios. The multi-starrer film features Arya, Jai, Nayanthara, Nazriya Nizam, Sathyan, Sathyaraj and Santhanam in important roles.

Speaking at the event, Arya said: “I have always wanted to work with Murugadoss sir. I hope I get that opportunity soon.” GV Prakash Kumar has composed the music for Raja Rani, which has cinemato graphy by George Williams.

Meanwhile, Murugadoss is busy with the Hindi remake of Thuppakki with Akshay Kumar.

It is being rumoured that he is likely to team up with actor Vijay soon.

IANS

21

CINEMA SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

Farah hopes SRK will loosen the purse strings

Madras Cafe: No show in Tamil Nadu

Ajay Devgn to co-host Gumrah 3 with Karan

T C

horeographer-director Farah Khan hopes the success of Chennai Express helps her next directorial venture Happy New Year, which she is making with Shah Rukh Khan in the lead role.

SRK co-produced his Chennai Express, which had Deepika Padukone in the female lead, with UTV and the romantic comedy is reaping gold at the box office. Farah is interpreting the success of the film as a good news for her movie because Bollywood Badshah is producing her project as well.

“I am very happy at the success of Chennai Express. It has broken all records. Shah Rukh is the hero and producer of my film. Now he will come on the sets of my film filled with more energy and hopefully will shell out more money for my film. I am very happy,” Farah told reporters.

Farah is repeating the hit pair of SRK-Deepika in Happy New Year. She worked with them in Om Shanti Om, which also marked Deepika's debut.

Farah also informed Happy New Year, which also stars Abhishek Bachchan, is set to go on floors next month.

IANS

heatres have been permitted to screen both the Hindi and Tamil versions of John Abraham-starrer Madras Cafe, but the political thriller was shunned in TN fearing protests from Tamil activists.

The Shoojit Sircar-directed film had received the green signal by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), which gave the Tamil version a U/A certificate, but no bookings were done for the film in either multiplexes or single screen theatres.

A senior member of the Theatre Owners' Association, told IANS: “The decision to release the film has been given to individual theatres. Since the government has not banned the film, the theatres are free to screen. But if they feel they might face the wrath of protestors, then we can’t do anything.”

Madras Cafe is set against the Sri Lankan civil war and also depicts the 1991 assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. It came under the scanner after Tamil activists alleged that it portrays the LTTE cadres as terrorists.

“I haven’t watched Madras Cafe, but I have been told that it is antiTamil. I don’t know if that’s true but if it is, then we should definitely not encourage its release in the state,” Tamil actor Sathyaraj told reporters Friday at an audio launch.

Multiplexes fear that releasing the film could make matters worse.

IANS

B

ollywood actor Ajay Devgn will be seen co-hosting an episode of crime show Gumrah 3 with Karan Kundra Sunday. Ajay’s appearance is part of an integration of his upcoming film Satyagraha with the show.

Karan, who is making his Bollywood debut with Horror Story, is very excited about hosting the show with Ajay.

“He’s very down-to-earth and never makes you feel that he’s a superstar. The experience was really nice and I had an amazing time shooting with him,” he said in a statement.

Prem Kamath, general manager and channel head of Channel V, said: “Television has always been a desired platform for Bollywood to connect with its audience, now Bollywood has realised that to connect with the youth of the country they would have to integrate with youth centric content which has a wide enough audience.

Channel V is the preferred choice when it comes to such content, our shows are widely watched and focus on the youth.”

The episode will air August 25 at 7pm IANS

22

CINEMA SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

'Boss' made Akshay nostalgic S

Anil feels good looks equal good acting: Tisca T

isca Chopra reveals that Anil Kapoor pushed her to lose weight for his debut TV production 24 as he believed that good looks complement good work.

“He has always encouraged me. He came and saw me in a play and said, ‘you do good work and keep doing it’.

Then when I got signed for the show, he told me, ‘you will do great work if you lose weight. Work hard, good looking, good acting, that is the mantra’,” the 39-year-old said here Thursday at the promo launch of the show.

“Sharp at 8am, I would get an SMS, ‘how is the diet going?’ and I would stop eating the whole day,” she said.

Anil plays the lead Jai Singh Rathod, the chief of anti-terrorist unit of India in 24, while Tisca plays his wife.

“What was challenging for me was to bring the quality of cinema into the hours of television, to not let go of a single moment of authenticity of that feeling, intensity and to continue it in the structure of television, the hours and all that,” she said.

Tisca had been part of TV soap Kahaani Ghar Ghar Ki. The serial 24 is an adaptation of the hit US TV series by the same name and Anil was part of the eighth season of the show. The Indian adaptation is being directed by Abhinay Deo. It will go on air in October on Colors TV. Initially, it will have 24 IANS episodes.

hooting for action-comedy Boss was almost like going down memory lane for Bollywood’s ‘khiladi’ Akshay Kumar as he shot a major part of the movie in Bangkok and Delhi — two important cities in his life's journey.

Akshay grew up in Delhi's Chandni Chowk area, and it was in Bangkok that he worked as a chef and learnt martial arts. The actor had even once become emotional while shooting for the movie, said a source close to the project's unit.

"We were shooting for a scene in Chandni Chowk and it was hardly some 200 metres away from Akshay's old house. That was the place where he grew up... Akshay wanted a glimpse of his old house as he hadn't visited the place for a few years now.

"But it was

impossible for him to reach his old house in Chandni Chowk in the day as he would get mobbed by the crowd. So one early morning, at 4 am, Akshay drove the car himself and went outside his house, stood there for 30 minutes and relived the old happy days," said the source.

While the experience left Akshay all emotional, he has made sure Boss tickles the funny bone of the audiences.

Directed by Anthony D'Souza, the film also stars Mithun Chakraborty, Shiv Pandit, Aditi Rao Hydari, Danny Denzongpa, Ronit Roy and Johnny Lever.

Co-produced by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, Cape Of Good Films and Ashwin Varde Productions, Boss will release in October.

Another kind gesture by Madhuri Dixit B

e it saving seven street dogs or donating generous funds for the Uttarkhand flood victims, Bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit is always willing to help. Most recently, the diva took some sick children to watch the dance reality show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 6, which she judges.

A source from the set revealed that Madhuri invited the children suffering from brain tumour to watch the shoots of celebrity dance reality show Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 6.

The actress wanted the children to enjoy and have IANS fun.

CINEMA SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

23

CINEMA SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

24

25

CINEMA

Daughter wants to be Angelina’s maid of honour

SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

A

ctors Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s daughter Zahara wants to be the maid of honour at her parents wedding.

The couple is said to be in the final stages of wedding plans and Zahara, 8, has expressed her desire to be her mother’s maid of honour.

The couple together raises six children — Maddox, 11, Pax, 8, Zahara, 8, Shiloh, 6, and four-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne.

“Zahara wants to be maid of honour and knowing Angelina she’ll let her.

Shiloh wants to be an usher and Pax and Maddox have said they’ll help Brad’s brother Doug be best man," Ok magazine quoted a source as saying.

“The wedding is mainly for their children and they want it to happen at home in Los Angeles," the source IANS added.

Jeremy Renner’s missing dog, Hemi, found J eremy Renner has been reunited with his precious pooch!

The actor’s dog Hemi — who went missing July 19 — has been found.

“Hemi is back home,” the Avengers star’s rep confirms

to E! News. “He was found yesterday.”

Additionally, Renner’s rep tells E! News, “Jeremy is so happy to have his dog back home” The Bourne Legacy star’s 1-year-old French Bulldog was found 189 miles from Los Angeles after he got out of Renner’s LA home near Runyon Canyon earlier this summer when a power failure occurred and the front gate slid open. Renner, said People, offered a $5,000 reward for the dog’s safe return — no questions asked.

S

inger Lady Gaga says performing on stage makes her feel alive.

The 27-year-old has developed a huge fan following by giving hit tracks like Judas, You and I and Born this way.

“When I’m not on the stage, I don’t feel alive. But when I hit the stage, it’s like everything that I’m thinking and feeling, where I belong — that’s where it is,” femalefirst.co.uk quoted Gaga as saying.

She is now gearing up to give her first live rendition of her new single Applause from her album ARTPOP at the MTV Video Music Awards August 25.

IANS

Lady Gaga feels alive on stage

26

CHAI TIME SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

SUNDAY CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Composure 6 Forms droplets 11 Bricklayer 16 Facing the pitcher (2 wds) 21 Surveyor’s units 22 Kitchen tool 23 Speaker’s need 24 Gator cousins 25 Lama’s melody 26 Ms Massey of films 27 Look of loathing 28 Very 29 Long, long time 30 Viper 32 Fallen-rock debris 34 Hair foam 36 Spring forecast 38 Player’s rep 40 Lettuce buys 42 Wrote bad checks 43 Nash of limericks 45 Best possible 47 Substantial 49 Mild onion 52 Epic by Homer 53 Blair and Danza 54 Microscopic 57 Down-under flier 58 Lens setting (hyph) 59 Gulls’ perch 60 Antlered ruminant 61 Implored 62 Dangerfield persona 63 Silt deposit 64 Wish 65 Imitate 66 Weighed anchor 68 Just picked 69 Big wheel?

70 Weevil nosh 72 902, to Cicero 73 Writer — Jong 74 Computer file 75 Improvised (2 wds) 77 Visual aid 78 Half diameters 79 Chatterboxes 82 Meditation guides 83 Perturb 84 ‘The — -Motion’ 88 Humiliated 89 Wailed 90 Scooter cousins 92 Benedictine title 93 Sheba, today 94 Rake over the coals 95 ‘Final answer?’ asker 96 Pop singer — Marie 98 Modem-speed unit 99 Nurse’s concern 100 Miffed 101 Weasel relative 102 Rescue squad mem 103 Grass-skirt dances 104 Ardently 105 Easter Island statues, eg 106 Discussion site 107 Tragic Montague 108 Europe-Asia divider 109 Large aquarium fish 111 Fallback (2 wds) 113 Amazons 115 Washstand item 119 Cell parts 121 Sandwich cookies 123 Muscle cramp

125 Rap-sheet letters 126 Raccoon cousin 127 Mariah of ‘American Idol’ 129 Permitted by law 131 Get going 133 Acrylic fiber 134 Bogart in ‘High Sierra’ 135 Conscious 136 Parallel with 137 ‘The Wreck of the Mary —’ 138 ‘I thought — never leave!’

139 Studied hard 140 Char DOWN 1 Indiana cager 2 LPGA star Lorena — 3 Person from Qom 4 Capitol VIP 5 This, to Pedro 6 ‘— Jones’s Diary’ 7 Ford of modeling 8 Chipmunk snack 9 Cave, often 10 Ladies, in Sp 11 Interpret wrongly 12 Toughen 13 Fiery horse

14 Source of iron 15 ‘Cheers’ regular 16 Finds not guilty 17 Dependable 18 Idaho capital 19 Took steps 20 Mao — -tung 31 Carpentry grooves 33 Stingy 35 Approvals 37 ‘Lorenzo’s Oil’ star 39 Sloped 41 Urbane 44 Tall flowers 46 Designer label 48 ‘Orinoco Flow’ artist 49 Young pigeon 50 Zeppo’s brother 51 Any of Charlie’s girls 52 Japanese immigrant 53 Golden Hurricane city 54 Has on 55 Chilling 56 — & Young (accounting firm) 58 B-vitamin acid 59 Gray-barked tree 60 Wreck, as a train 62 VIPs’ transport 63 Roof problems 64 Sherpa’s sighting 67 Needed liniment

68 Hoax 69 Sun-bleached 71 Wasn’t renewed 73 Goofed up 74 Bewilders 76 ‘Ich —,’ Prince of Wales’ motto 77 Cunning 78 Part of REM 79 Equivocator’s reply 80 Crosswise 81 Entire spectrum 82 Make before taxes 83 Stick-in-the-mud 85 ‘Waiting for Lefty’ author 86 Traffic pylons 87 Rial spender 89 Mini-vise (hyph) 90 Laid-back 91 Play for time 94 Crewmate of Uhura 95 Catch a wave 97 Notched, as a leaf 99 Food-processor setting 100 Stallone role 101 Ghostly noises 103 Cold War phone (2 wds) 104 Rich 105 Dreamed up

106 Wind chill — 107 Seldom 108 Foul-ball caller 109 Night racket 110 — Lumpur, Malaysia 112 Sinister Peter of films 114 Muppet grouch 116 Police van 117 Barely scraping by

118 Cowboy’s beat 120 Rap-music star (hyph) 122 Wallop 124 CEO degrees 126 Not prepaid 128 Ooh companion 130 — Jima 132 Yale alumnus PREVIOUS PUZZLE ANSWER

27

CHAI TIME SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

STAR POWER Date 26-8-2013

As per Hindu panchang

THIRUVAIKUMAR

thiruvaikumar@yahoo. co. in 040-27177230 / 9949870449

TAURUS

GEMINI

A comfortable financial position is likely. Your son has a bright chance to buy a house or vehicle. Strained relationships will resume. You will get good response in a function or get together.

Spouse is likely to get a good job.

Employees will gain an upper hand by completing their jobs in time. They will get closer to their superiors. Promotion too is on the cards.

Money will come from all the expected sources. Health problems likely.

You will have a needless fear about the future. A minor issue will surface; deal with it with wisely.

CANCER

LEO

VIRGO

Work might get delayed but situation will change soon. Those planning to renovate or construct a house need to plan it properly. Unexpected financial opportunity is likely to surprise you.

You will learn many important things from experience. Politicians might have to struggle to complete commitments. Businessmen will earn good profits. You will befriend VVIPs.

Be careful and alert in financial transactions. Frequent misunderstanding is likely between couples. Take good care of spouse’s health. Be careful while driving to avoid a mishap.

LIBRA

SCORPIO

SAGITTARIUS

Be careful in legal issues. Avoid talking against children’s wishes as they will and get hurt; you need to give support them and fulfil their wishes and also take them into confidence.

You will put more efforts to increase income. Some have a chance to buy immovable assets. You will have your vehicle repaired. Housing plan will get approval and loan will get sanctioned.

Business likely to get govt sops.

Change of residence will materialise now. You will take certain bold and proper decisions. Inferiority complex in you will disappear. Support likely.

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

PISCES

Your experience will help deal with difficult situations. Burden will increase for employees. Eye infection is likely for some; don’t let it aggravate. Deficit financial situation will improve.

You might get confused thinking that you are sidelined by others. This is just a doubt. Be cordial with all to achieve your goals. Avoid being too emotional and sentimental.

Misunderstanding between couples is likely. Do not spend from your savings to boast as this is not advisable. Avoid criticising or hurting others with harsh talks.

SUMAA TEKUR

tarotreadhyd@gmail. com

ARIES

TAURUS

GEMINI

Ace of Cups – You have an exterior personality style that you use as a mask to shield people from knowing the real person you are. Why the fear?

Ace of Wands – If something has been troubling you, you have to take proactive measures to end the problem.

Sort it out and put a lid on it.

CANCER

LEO

VIRGO

Two of Cups – If you have issues with the way a system is working – either in your building association or with the local civic body office, lodge a complaint.

Two of Pentacles – There will be one person who is more dominating in a relationship. To avoid being bullied, make your stand clear at the beginning.

Five of Cups – You find opportunities to bond with likeminded people. Use it well and do your best to get useful information out of these sessions.

LIBRA

SCORPIO

SAGITTARIUS

Strength – There is a serious problem with the manner in which you perceive people and relationships.

Put yourself in the other’s shoes and think how he feels.

Knight of Swords – Become a member of a club where you are likely to meet interesting people who will be good for your business. Take steps to network.

Six of Cups – You tend to be moody, and your saturnine behavior is often dictated by the changing moon phases.

Try to ensure it does not affect others.

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

PISCES

The World – You must be having some high expectations out of something that you worked on. Best to keep expectations low. Not much will come out of it.

Two of Swords – Conduct some preliminary enquiries and ensure you are on the way to a secure and safe deal before you transfer any money.

Judgment – A general discussion about something may give you clues on how to further your career.

One thing leads to another and you follow the path.

Knight of Wands – You are hanging on the fringes of an interesting topic of discussion, and are too scared to dive into it. Engage in intellectual talk.

NON SEQUITUR PEARLS BEFORE SWINE POOCH CAFE

STRIP TEASE

AGNES

ARIES

TAROT READ Date 26-8-2013

Since laughter is the best medicine Thoughts to ponder over ~ Tomorrow is just a future yesterday. ~ What disease did cured ham actually have? ~ Women are angels. And when someone breaks our wings, we simply continue to fly ... on a broomstick. We're flexible like that. ~ Yesterday I lost all self-control, but I found it today. It was under the couch. ~ Your child needs your love the most when they deserve it the least.

Walter came across an article about a beautiful actress

and model who married a boxer who was noted for his IQ. "I'll never understand," he said to his wife, "why the biggest jerks get the most attractive wives." His wife replied, "Why, thank you, dear."

A warthog hits this lady and the husband calls 911.

The operator asks, "Where are you at"?

The husband replies, "I'm on Eucolipstic Road."

The operator asks, "Can you spell that for me?"

"Well... I'll just drag her over to Oak so you can you pick her up there?"

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28

CINEMA

R

obert Pattinson put a sparkle in the eyes of a group of young people when he visited the Children's Hospital Los Angeles. The Twilight star made a surprise trip to the hospital's Teen Lounge, and joined patients who were decorating picture frames.

The 27-year-old, who is currently filming Maps to the Stars in LA, created a pink frame decorated with hearts, and laughed at his own “terrible” artistic skills before posing for photos and signing each kid’s picture frame.

“Robert was so nervous about meeting the kids — he didn't want to let them down — which is a testament to how humble he is,” Child Life specialist Ana Vega said. “He was incredibly gracious and kind.”

Pattinson also visited two cystic fibrosis patients — huge Twilight fans — who were unable to leave their rooms.

“We couldn’t help laughing and smiling when one of the patients was so starstruck that she couldn’t speak. You could tell it meant the world to her — she was tearing up and smiling ear to ear,” said Lyndsay Hutchinson, the hospital’s public information officer.

says no to ivory

Robert Pattinson

surprises kids at hospital

Chinese actress Li Bingbing

SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

W

hen not shooting movies around the world, Chinese star Li Bingbing devotes much of her time to environmental and animal rights causes. The Resident Evil: Retribution and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan actress called from Chicago, where she is filming Transformers 4, to talk to The Hollywood Reporter about her other latest project: joining nearly 40 artists and celebrities

in the Elephant Parade, an internationally touring art exhibition to raise awareness and aid for the Asian elephant.

“The threat of extinction is more real than many realise,” says Li. Threats including ivory poaching and deforestation have caused the Asian elephant population to shrink by over 90 per cent in the last century, dwindling to just 3,500 individuals today, only 1,500 of which live in the wild. “And the dam-

age done to elephants directly leads to destruction of the ecosystem.”

Each Elephant Parade artist has designed a life-size, handpainted baby elephant sculpture (six feet long and five feet high).

The elephants are displayed in open-air exhibitions, or “Parades,” that have been held in various Asian and European cities since 2010, and today the Parade comes to the United States for the first time.

I WORK OUT LIKE A GUY

SCARLETT JOHANSSON

A

ctress Scarlett Johansson says she exercises like a man because she likes to lift weights in the gym. The 28year-old actress said that she heads straight to the weights room when she hits the gym and prefers to sculpt her body than do cardio exercises, reports contactmusic.com.

“I go to the gym twice a week, but if I’m preparing for a role, I sometimes go every day. I’m not a fan of cardio, I like lifting weights and doing exercises to work my core muscles. To be honest, I work out like a guy!” she told French Elle.

However, the actress is far more feminine when it comes to her beauty routine.

“I’ve always loved eyeshadow. When I was younger, my mother would always get dolled up before she went out, I’ve inherited the same habit.

“In the evening, I wear bright red lipstick and accentuate my eyes. I like to have an expressive gaze, with lots of layers of mascara,” she said.

IANS

29

SPORTS SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

Sagan wins stage six

Santa Cruz fells Terrazas

FORT COLLINS: Peter Sagan won his third stage of the USA Pro Challenge, holding off a late charge from Rory Sutherland in stage six as Tejay van Garderen held onto the overall lead. Tour de France sprint jersey winner Sagan, who also won stage one and three of this seven-stage event, finished the 185.4 km stage six in four hours, one minute and 33 seconds. The Cannondale rider edged out runner-up Luka Mezgec and Greg van Avermaet.

SONOMA: Scotland’s Dario Franchitti won

melled Victor Terrazas with a third round knockout Saturday to capture the World Boxing Council’s junior featherweight crown. Referee Lou Moret stopped the fight at 2:09 of the third with Terrazas defenseless and unable to see out of his right eye after being knocked down previously in the round. “I was not expecting a knockout this early in the fight, I thought it would be later,” Santa Cruz said.

the pole and teammate Scott Dixon of New Zealand was second-quickest Saturday in qualifying for the Sonoma Raceway IndyCar race. Franchitti, a four-time champion in the North American open-wheel series, lapped the 3.84 km, 12-turn road course in 1.17.52 seconds for his fourth pole win of the season and the 33rd of his IndyCar career.

Franchitti has not won a race since the 2012 Indianapolis 500.

Hedwall takes the lead

Sindhu tames Tine

NZ moves closer to finals SAN FRANCISCO: Team New Zealand moved within one victory of reaching the America’s Cup finals on Saturday, their latest win giving them a 6-1 lead over Luna Rossa in the challenger finals.

However, the Kiwis will have to wait for a chance to clinch the series after Saturday’s second race was postponed because of strong winds on San Francisco Bay. Regatta officials rescheduled race eight in the best-of-13 Louis Vuitton Cup finals for Sunday because the wind was blowing in excess of the 22knot limit.

Once racing does resume, Team New Zealand are poised to book their slot in September’s America’s Cup finals against defenders Oracle Team USA. They further underscored their dominance in the Louis Vuitton Cup finals Saturday as they reached their fastest inrace speed to date in their AC72 catamaran — 47.18 knots at the third mark rounding.

That’s equivalent to 54 miles per hour (87.3 km/h) or 79 feet per second, and improved on their previous fastest of 44.15 knots.

“It’s a shame we didn’t hit 50,” said Kiwi bowman Adam Beashel. “It’d be nice to be the first ones to do that. We’ll keep AFP pressing on.”

Franchitti wins at Sonoma

LOS ANGELES: Leo Santa Cruz pum-

Sindhu, the Awadhe Warriors icon player, led her team to a much needed 3-2 victory over the Mumbai Masters.

BANGALORE: A week after Tine Baun said that PV Sindhu is still going through a learning curve, the Indian beat the Danish great in straight games in an Indian Badminton League (IBL) match at the Sree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium here Saturday.

Sindhu, the Awadhe Warriors icon player, led her team to a much needed 3-2 victory over the Mumbai Masters. In the process, the Lucknow-based team bagged four points and are fourth in the team standings with 12.

The Masters, on the other hand, are tied-first with Hyderabad Hotshots with 15 points.

In the opening men’s singles match, Masters’ Vladimir Ivanov, who has had an outstanding IBL so far, again came out on top beating World No.20 R.M.V. Gurusaidutt in a tough encounter. Guru managed to save a matchpoint and pushed the rubber into the decider but the Russian eventually won 21-18, 20-21, 11-9.

In women’s singles action, a very aggressive Sindhu led from the start

IN THE OPENING MEN’S SINGLES MATCH, MASTERS’ VLADIMIR IVANOV AGAIN CAME OUT ON TOP BEATING WORLD #20 GURUSAIDUTT IN A TOUGH ENCOUNTER. and was 7-4 ahead at the first break of the first game. The Hyderabadi completely outplayed her 34-year-old oppo-

nent and was 14-9 ahead at the second break. A couple of wrong line decisions by Tine led her to lose the first game 12-21.

However, the three-time All England Open champion came back strongly in the second game matching shotfor-shot against her 16 years younger opponent.

Ahead 17-16, the 18-yearold Sindhu gave away the lead to a forceful Tine, who went on to clinch the game 21-19 and push the match IANS into the decider.

EDMONTON: Swedish Solheim Cup star Caroline Hedwall fired a six-under par 64 on Saturday to grab a one-stroke lead after three rounds of the LPGA Canadian Women’s Open.

Hedwall, seeking the first LPGA title of her career, had seven birdies and just one bogey at Royal Mayfair Golf Club on Saturday and had a 54-hole total of 10-under par 200.

She was one stroke in front of Solheim Cup teammate Suzann Pettersen of Norway who carded a five-under 65 and defending champion Lydia Ko, the New Zealand teen phenom who posted a 67.

Ko’s victory in this event last year at the age of 15 years and four months made her the youngest player to win an LPGA title.

Although Hedwall has never won on the US women’s tour, she is a five-time winner on the Ladies European Tour and arrived in Canada after a blockbuster performance in Europe’s Solheim Cup match play triumph over the United States in Colorado.

She was the only player on either team to play all possible five matches and became the first player in the history of the trans-Atlantic match play duel to go 5-0.

“I was a little tired on Monday, Tuesday and also Wednesday, but when the tournament starts I think last week just AFP gave me a lot of energy.”

Woodland, Kuchar share lead on Barclays Another marathon day on Saturday got the tournament back on schedule for the first time since weather delays totalling nearly six hours on Thursday.

JERSEY CITY: Gary Woodland rolled in a four-foot par putt on the 18th to post a three-under 68 Saturday and take a share of the lead at The Barclays with fellow American Matt Kuchar.

Kuchar, who led after the second round concluded on Saturday morning, fired a one-under 70 in round three.

He and Woodland finished 54 holes at 12-under par 201.

Another marathon day on Saturday got the tournament back on schedule for the first time since weather delays totalling nearly six hours on Thursday.

Kevin Chappell moved into contention by firing a course-record, nine-under 62 in the third round. That vaulted him into third place at minus-11.

Playing with a sore back, Tiger Woods shot a two-under 69 and was four shots back of Kuchar and Woodland.

England’s David Lynn also posted a 69 Sunday afternoon and joined Woods in a tie for fourth at eight-under 205.

Defending champion Nick Watney shared 13th place after a third-round 69 for 207.

PLAYING WITH A SORE BACK, TIGER WOODS SHOT A TWO-UNDER 69 AND WAS FOUR SHOTS BACK OF KUCHAR AND WOODLAND.

Despite the back pain, Woods climbed up the leaderboard with four birdies in his final 11 holes.

“It starts off great every day, and then it progressively deteriorates as the day goes on,” said Woods, who had trouble bending over at times on the course.

“Hopefully tomorrow it will be one of those days again and fight through it and see if I can win a tournament.”

Woods was pleased with the way he toughed it out Saturday. He hit all but two fairways and 13 of 18 greens.

He also adjusted his swing slightly to put less pressure on his sore back.

“I mean, once you start off with it and then you keep playing on it, practicing, I’m loading it pretty good,” said Woods.

30

SPORTS SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

Novak hopes for a Djoker in the pack The Serbian, who won his fourth Australian Open title and sixth Grand Slam crown earlier this year, fell to Britain’s Andy Murray in last month’s Wimbledon final.

Jim Slater Agence France-Presse

NEW YORK CITY: World number one Novak Djokovic could not reach the final of his two US Open tune-ups, but he likes his chances to reach a fourth consecutive US Open final.

The 26-year-old Serbian star, who won his fourth Australian Open title and sixth Grand Slam crown earlier this year, fell to eventual winner Rafael Nadal in a French Open semi-final and to Britain’s Andy Murray in last month’s Wimbledon final.

Since then, however, he has fallen to Nadal in a Montreal semi-final and John Isner in a Cincinnati quarter-final.

“I thought I played quite decent in these two weeks, just that both matches that I lost were 7-6 or 7-5 in the third set and in important moments I wasn’t finding that maybe extra strength to be calm and to play the right shots,” said Djokovic.

“That’s what happens. You go through these periods. But my confidence is still there.

This is a Grand Slam, so it is different from any other event.”

While he has not won a title since April on Monte Carlo clay, Djokovic has not lost confidence in the form that put him atop the tennis world.

Djokovic reached his first

Slam final at the 2007 US Open, losing to Roger Federer. He lost to Nadal in the 2010 US Open final, beat Nadal in the 2011 final rematch and fell last year to Murray.

“Last year was a very interesting match, a very close match from two sets down coming back and playing a fifth against Murray and 2010 against Rafa was also close,” Djokovic said.

“When I play Rafa, Roger, Andy, it’s very few points that really decide a winner. You can’t really say who is the clear favorite, because it always goes down the wire who is going to win it. That’s the beauty of the sport. That’s the beauty of the rivalries we have at the present moment.”

Djokovic practiced after a hectic Friday that saw him speak to the United Nations and join a gathering of men who had all reached world number one.

“It was an unbelievable day,” Djokovic said. “I was blown away by these wonderful opportunities, that I got personally to speak at the UN in the name of the global family of athletes.

“I know that many big world decisions are made at that place so I had a feeling all of us who came, we were part of something really big, so it was a fantastic occasion.”

Federer out to prove critics wrong NEW YORK CITY: Roger Federer plans to prove doubters wrong at the US Open despite having fallen to a seventh seed, the 17time Grand Slam’s champion’s lowest US Open spot since 2002.

The 32-year-old Swiss star will open Monday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium against Slovenian Grega Zemlja in hopes of bouncing back after a second-round exit at Wimbledon — his earliest Grand Slam ouster since winning his first slam title in 2003 at the All England Club.

“The rankings, they fluctuate a lot, especially if you don’t play so well,” Federer said. “If you play great you move up or go down rather quickly.”

Federer sees his ranking fall as only a small stumble.

“Number seven I don’t think is a huge drop from number four, but people

are going to say what they like,” he said.

“What’s important is that I concentrate on my game and that the passion is there, that I work the right way, that I’m prepared, and then that I feel like I can win a tournament. Then the ranking actually itself is secondary.”

With only one title in his past 14 Slam starts, Federer has seemed more like a victim of Father Time than the superstar who once dominated the sport.

“Federer is having, results-wise, probably the worst year in probably the last 10 years,” said world number one Novak Djokovic.

“It is unusual to see that he’s number seven after being so dominant and so consistent every year in last 10 years, always being one or two in the world.

“You can’t always expect somebody to be at the highest level. It’s normal to go up and down. That’s why this sport is so very demanding, physically, emotionally.”

Retired legend John McEnroe also doubts Federer has what it takes at this stage in his career to win seven matches at a Grand Slam event.

AFP

Serena favourite, but rivals close in Williams is seeking her 17th Grand Slam singles crown and fifth US Open title, which would move her one shy of Chris Evert’s Open-era record for most titles at the year’s final major event.

NEW YORK CITY: World number one Serena Williams enters the US Open as a heavy favorite to defend her title, but secondranked Victoria Azarenka leads a host of rivals looking to dethrone her.

Williams is seeking her 17th Grand Slam singles crown and fifth US Open title, which would move her one shy of Chris Evert’s Open-era record for most titles at the year’s final major event on the Flushing Meadows hardcourts.

“I’m definitely prepared. I’m definitely ready for New York,” Williams said. “I definitely had more matches than I could want, but I’m definitely prepared for the US Open.”

The 31-year-old American has been on an amazing run

over the past 14 months, going 77-4 and capturing last year’s Wimbledon, London Olympic and US Open titles, plus this year’s French Open crown.

But two of those defeats came at the hands of Azarenka, in February’s Doha final and last Sunday at the WTA final in Cincinnati by a score of 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (8/6).

“It’s just always good to play such great players like Victoria who really plays well and makes me lift my game to a new level,” Williams said.

It was only the third victory for the 24-year-old from Belarus over the American but with the two having won five of the past seven Grand Slam titles, it sets the stage for a potential rematch of last year’s US Open final.

Williams beat Azarenka 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 in last year’s US Open final but the effort in defeat resonates with Azarenka to this day.

“It will always be a special moment, for sure, because I felt like that whole tournament, that final match left a big mark on my future career,” Azarenka said. “I still feel that way.”

Williams sees no influence from prior meetings in a potential New York final with Azarenka again this year.

“It would be totally different circumstances,” Williams said.

“It’s just a new event. You just got to go in there with a fresh mind.”

Williams will go into the Open without a win streak such as she had the past few Grand AFP Slam events.

URN

SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

IT ASHES 2013

31

Gooch defends go-slow Gooch, however, accepted improvement was required if England were to win a fourth straight Ashes campaign when they faced their arch-rivals in a return series starting at Brisbane in November.

Julian Guyer Agence France-Presse

LONDON: Batting coach Graham Gooch defended England’s go-slow tactics in the fifth and final Test as Australia’s James Faulkner warned the return Ashes ‘Down Under’ later this year would be “played on our terms".

England captain Alastair Cook, Gooch’s Essex protege, set the tone with 25 off 88 balls as his poor series with the bat — the left-handed opener has made just 243 runs in nine innings at an average of 27 — continued.

Saturday’s washout means England will resume Sunday on 247 for four, still 245 runs behind Australia’s first innings 492 for nine declared but needing just 46 more runs to avoid the follow-on.

Ian Bell, looking to become only the fourth man after Australia’s Don Bradman and England’s Herbert Sutcliffe and Walter Hammond to score four hundreds in an Ashes series, is 29 not out and Test debutant Chris Woakes 15 not out.

Former England captain

Gooch refused to apologise for the team’s approach at The Oval.

“You go out there and do the best you can every day and, at the end of the series, if you are in front then you have played some decent cricket obviously," said Gooch.

“The Australian fast bowlers have bowled exceptionally in the last two or three Tests and have really put our top order under pressure so credit to them," explained Gooch, whose own Test career started with a pair — two noughts — against Australia at Edgbaston in 1975.

“You can’t play the ideal game every day. We are the ones with three Test wins and they are the ones with nil Test wins," added former opening batsman Gooch of an Australia side seeking a first victory in nine Tests.

However, Gooch accepted improvement was required if England were to win a fourth straight Ashes campaign.

“We know that to beat Australia in their own back yard we are going to have to be a lot better both with the bat and the ball."

Faulkner warns ‘boring’ England LONDON: Australia debutant James Faulkner warned England they’d be in for a “hell of a challenge” in the return Ashes ‘Down Under’ later this year as he castigated their goslow approach in the fifth Test at The Oval.

England, who’ve already retained the Ashes, were all but assured of a 3-0 series win after Saturday’s fourth day of the fifth and final Test at the south London ground was washed out without a ball bowled.

Friday saw England’s scoring slow to a crawl, their runrate for the day standing at barely more than two an over.

Saturday’s washout means England will start Sunday’s final day of the series on 247 for four, still 245 behind Australia’s first innings 492 for nine declared but needing just 46 more runs to avoid the follow-on.

Friday’s play was one for the purists and a throwback to the

Friday saw England’s scoring slow to a crawl, their run-rate for the day standing at barely more than two an over.

grim Ashes struggles of the 1960s.

England captain Alastair Cook set the tone with 25 off 88 balls while his opening partner, Joe Root, took 184 balls over his 68.

Meanwhile the South Africaborn duo of Jonathan Trott (40

off 134 balls) and Kevin Pietersen (50 off 133) were unable to raise the tempo even though, before the match started, England had promised they’d go all out for a victory that would see them win four Tests in a home Ashes for the first time.

“If you are three-up there is

no reason you shouldn’t try to get four-nil up. That’s their choice," Tasmania quick Faulkner said Saturday.

“If you face 116 overs for 240 it is a pretty boring day."

The 23-year-old, whose maiden Test innings saw him make 23 off just 21 balls, added Friday’s capacity crowd were just as deserving of financial compensation as that going to their

Saturday counterparts for the lack of any cricket at all on the fourth day.

“I know the fans get a refund for their ticket today but maybe they should get a refund for yesterday."

Meanwhile Faulkner was left lamenting how rain, which denied the tourists the chance to press for victory in the drawn third Test at Old Trafford, had again frustrated an Australia side now looking for their first win in nine Tests following a 4-0 series loss in India earlier this year.

“Any time you make close to 500 you must have batted exceptionally well," said Faulkner of an Australia first innings at The Oval featuring Shane Watson’s Test-best 176 and Steven Smith’s 138 not out — his maiden Test century. We are in a good position, it’s just a shame about the rain. The third Test was another time when the weather stitched AFP us up.”

32

SPORTS SUNDAY, AUGUST 25, 2013

Moyes braces for Jose In Mourinho, Chelsea boasts a coach who has a history of upsetting United’s best-laid plans.

Tom Williams Agence France-Presse

LONDON: For his first competitive home game as Manchester United manager, David Moyes could be forgiven for wishing the fixture computer had not spat out a game against Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea.

Not only have Chelsea improved their formidable squad during the close season and started the new campaign with back-to-back wins, but in Mourinho they boast a coach who has a history of upsetting United’s best-laid plans.

It was Mourinho who led Porto to a sensational success at Old Trafford in 2004, Mourinho who momentarily knocked United off their pedestal in his first stint at Chelsea, and Mourinho who guided Real Madrid to a smashand-grab win over United in last season’s Champions League.

He was also, briefly, touted as a possible successor to Alex Ferguson as manager of the English champions, before United plumped for tradition over razzmatazz and went for the comparatively untested Moyes.

Ronaldo wants to return to Manchester

C

ristiano Ronaldo has informed Manchester United he would like to return to the club one day, probably to end his career, after a summer in which the Premier League champions have explored the possibilities behind the scenes of bringing him back from Real Madrid.

United have been closely monitoring Ronaldo’s position

Wengers praises Podolski brace With Podolski coming into form, Wenger believes the best could still be coming from him and Giroud.

Ed Aarons Agence France-Presse

LONDON: Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger saluted Lukas Podolski after his brace helped the Gunners pick up their first Premier League points of the season in a 3-1 win at Fulham.

While Olivier Giroud opened the scoring in the 14th minute, it was two brilliant finishes from the German forward either side of half-time that saw off Fulham, who could only respond with a consolation strike from substitute Darren Bent on his debut.

All the talk over the summer has been about Arsenal’s inability to attract new star names to the club, but with Giroud having scored three goals in his first three matches and Podolski coming into

form, Wenger believes the best could still be to come from both players in their second seasons in north London.

“I’m pleased for Lukas because he did not always start recently, but more for the balance of the team than for his personal performance,” Wenger said.

“He has always a very high spirit and is a very important person in the team. Everybody loves Lukas in the squad and it’s important to keep him.”

Coming on the back of Wednesday’s victory over Fenerbahce in the Champions League play-off round, Saturday’s result at Craven Cottage provided further relief for Wenger.

He saw his side dominate a Fulham side being watched for the first time by new owner Shahid Khan.

for the best part of a year and, while that has not resulted in a hard offer, their clear information is that he is open to the idea of moving back to Manchester, albeit not for at least one more season. The expectation at Old Trafford is that he will shortly commit himself to a new contract that recognises his status as Madrid’s outstanding player.

The former Everton manager saw his new side run out convincing 4-1 winners at Swansea City in their opening Premier League game last weekend, but Monday’s match is unlikely to be quite so straightforward.

Chelsea already have two wins behind them — Wednesday’s 2-1 defeat of Aston Villa having been brought forward due to the London club’s involvement in the UEFA Super Cup — and they can move six points clear of United with a win at Old Trafford.

Moyes, though, is relishing the challenge.

“There have been a lot of things I have been looking forward to: taking the team on tour, leading them out at Wembley,” he said. “But to do it at Old Trafford for the first game against Chelsea is a thrill for me, it really is.”

The television cameramen at Old Trafford will be primed for the slightest hint of bonhomie between Mourinho and Wayne Rooney, who has been the subject of two failed bids from Chelsea in recent weeks.

Mourinho promised not to make a third offer for the unsettled striker prior to Monday’s game.

Tevez scores on debut Justin Davis Agence France-Presse

MILAN: Argentine striker Carlos Tevez scored on his Serie A debut for Juventus in a 1-0 win at Sampdoria as AC Milan stumbled on the opening day of the new campaign with a 2-1 away defeat to new boys Verona.

Tevez, who scored when the champions secured the Italian Super Cup with a 4-0 rout of Lazio last weekend, was partnered up front by Mirko Vucinic as Spaniard Fernando Llorente was left on the sidelines.

And the former Manchester City striker, one of the few big names to make his way to Italy’s top flight over the summer, made the most of his few chances when he tapped home a Paul Pogba ball just before the hour.

“It was the perfect night, especially as it’s not an easy stadium to come to,” said Tevez. “I still don’t know my teammates well enough but I’m trying.”

Juve coach Antonio Conte said: “The more Carlo plays, the more he will get used to our way of playing, along with the other new players. They will all struggle at the start because our game is based on the collective and everyone has his part to play.”

Sampdoria were the only team last season to beat Juventus both home and away, making sure the defending champions’ 29th league crown came with a bitter aftertaste.

Liverpool must keep going This was the first time the club have tasted victory in their opening two league games in five years and have avoided defeat in their last 10 games.

BIRMINGHAM: Brendan Rodgers has urged Liverpool to build on their perfect start to the season as they attempt to establish themselves as top four contenders.

Daniel Sturridge was the Reds’ scorer for the second successive weekend with the winner against Aston Villa as they joined Chelsea as the second side to date to claim maximum points from their opening two matches.

Whether 1-0 victories over Villa and Stoke provide sufficient evidence to suggest Rodgers’ team can be Champions League contenders this term remains to be seen.

Next weekend’s meeting with Manchester United should provide a better benchmark, yet after a sluggish start to last season which saw the Anfield club fail to win a match until 29 September, the signs are certainly pointing in the right direction.

This was the first time they have tasted victory in their opening two league games in five years and they have avoided

defeat in their last 10 league games.

“The mentality of the group is to win together. That is important. We have to keep it going,” said Rodgers.

“We didn’t have a good start at all last year. Since the turn of the year we’ve been getting better and better.”

England international

Sturridge made it eight strikes in his last seven Premier League appearances with a fine 21stminute solo effort, capping an impressive first half from Liverpool. He had Philippe Coutinho to thank after the Brazilian cleverly dummied Jose Enrique’s low cross, yet he still had much to do, jinking around two defendAFP ers and Brad Guzan.