Postnoon E-Paper for 24 January 2013

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013 HYDERABAD

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WEATHER: CLEAR. WINDY AT TIMES; 24°C

32 PAGES

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FLASH

CAREY, MINAJ TURN IDOL SET BLUE IN FRACAS

As American Idol's talent search headed to Charlotte, North Carolina, on Wednesday, the already-tense relationship between judges Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj went even further south. Things got so heated that the production had to shut down for a bit, leaving a speedway full of aspiring singers sitting idle. It came to a head over contestant Summer Cunningham. "Why are we picking her apart?" Minaj asked after Carey questioned whether the contestant's voice was best-suited for country music. "We're trying to help her as opposed to just talk about her outfit," responded Carey. "Oh, you're right. I'm sorry I can't help her. Maybe I should just get off the [BLEEP] panel," said Minaj and walked off.

HYDERABAD’S FIRST COMPACT AFTERNOON NEWSPAPER

MIM LEFT WEAK AND EXPOSED

With the arrest of the Owaisi brothers, Cong’s estranged partner is left headless, with no secondin-command to handle party affairs.

P5

YOUR CHILDREN SUFFER

AS 900

The ASER report 2012 that has revealed the abysmal reading and arithmetic skills of government school children has put the spotlight back on the people with the answers — the teachers.

TEACHING POSTS LIE VACANT REPORT ON P8

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

city events

BUY ART

Buy Art is an anniversary art show of affordable art by 30 artists. All artworks are priced between `1,000 to `10,000. The exhibition is at Iconart Gallery, Banjara Hills. It started on January 18 and will go on till February 18, from 11:30am to 7pm.

Weather for Hyderabad

Evening

Overnight

Morning

Afternoon

24°C

16°C

22°C

30°C

Mostly clear. Windy at times.

Mostly clear.

Mostly sunny.

Windy at times.

Sunny.

New Delhi Mumbai Max 17 Max 30 Min 7 Min 15 Clear.

Chennai Max 30 Min 23

Clear with chances of rain.

Mostly sunny.

Bangalore Max 28 Min 16 Mostly clear.

AROUND THE CITY: YOUR GUIDE TO THE TWIN CITIES Where: Truffles cafe Plot no. 376, Road no. 10, Jubilee Hills, When: Up to February 10 Contact: (040) 2355 0105

ART Rural Excerpts An exhibition of paintings and sculptures, of village depictions and life in rural areas, by Narsimlu Kandi. The preview is on January 19.

Where: Aalankritha Art Gallery When: Up to January 30, 11am to 7pm Contact: www.alankritha.in

MISCELLANEOUS Numaish Numaish is the 73rd All India Industrial Exhibition is an ongoing event in the City.

Where: Exhibition Ground, Mukarramjahi Road, Nampally, When: Up to February 15, 4pm to 11pm Contact: (040) 2460 3015

Diva Divine Deified An exhibition of ceramic and terrakota sculptures by artist Jayaprakash.

Where: Iconart Gallery, Banjara Hills When: Ongoing Contact: www.iconart.in Code Red Countdown Code Red Countdown is an art collection revolving around ecology, by New York based artist Asher Jay. The theme is endangered wildlife.

Where: Lalitha Kala Thoranam, Public gardens When: January 27 6pm to 9:30pm Contact: 93965 55888

SHOWS Earth Flight Earth flight is a British nature documentary that shows a flight from the view of the wings of birds across six continents, showing some of the world's greatest natural spectacles from a bird's-eye view.

Where: Goethe-Zentrum

FROM THE INSIDE LOOKING OUT: A tourist gets her picture taken at Charminar, Hyderabad.

20, Journalist colony, Banjara Hills When: January 24, 6pm onwards Contact: (040) 2335 0473 Uranium Film Festival The Uranium Film Festival that started in Rio, Brazil. It includes various animations, short films, documentaries and feature films on nuclear fuel chain and radioactivity.

Where: La Makaan, Banjara Hills When: January 25, 6:30pm onwards.

Contact: 96427 31329 The Monsoon Oracle The Monsoon Oracle is a factual film based on ritualistic practices that take places in the country. It revolves around the rituals performed, predicting the arrival of monsoon.

Where: NIFT,

Commissioner & Spl Officer

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

198 155313

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

155333 23431178 23431179

MUNICIPAL CORPORATION

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

Madhapur When: January 25, Contact: (040) 2311 4537 Tribute to Rajesh Khanna There will be dance performances on Rajesh Khanna’s songs to pay tribute to the superstar. The dance will be choreographed by Mahesh L Munde, who has choreographed national and international performances.

Where: Lalitha Kala Thoranam, Public gardens, Hyderabad When: January 27 6pm to 9:30pm Contact: 93965 55888

DINING Hot Dog food festival ITC Kakatiya’s multi restaurant, Deccan Pavilion, is organising a hot dog festival. Hollywood hot dog, Philadelphia cheese steak dog,

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

155313 23307328 23313163

27505566 23314095 23390933 24600146 27001134 23607777 30418888 30417777 30419000 30416666 39879999

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

Garden Dog and Arizona rush are some of the items on the menu.

Where: Deccan Pavilion, ITC Kakatiya When: 18-27 Contact: (040) 4008 1816 Kashmiri Food Festival Wazas, who are the Master Chefs of the Wazwan cuisine, are specially flown down from Kashmir to prepare a royal Kashmiri cuisine.

Where: Ohri’s Jalvihar, Necklace Road When: Up to January 27, 1pm onwards

The Republic Ride The biggest corporate cycling event at Hyderabad is being organized by The Atlanta Foundation on republic day. The aim is to promote educational programs for underprivileged children.

Where: Gachibowli Stadium, Hyderabad When: January 26, 6:15am onwards Contact: atlantafoundation.org

Cafe Classics Month Truffles cafe pays tribute to some selective cafes and restaurants in India and the world. The cafe will be serving some of their special dishes.

This weekend starts with Britannia restaurant & cafe located in Bombay, with delicious Parsi dishes.

27567892 23559555 23226624 27633087 27035588 27550238 30799999 30418296 30417445

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

M ANIL KUMAR

Shoppers Stop sale Sale up to 51 per cent off on international and Indian brands across categories at Shoppers Stop, HomeStop and Mothercare outlets with Shoppers Stop.

Where: Shoppers Stop outlets, Hyderabad When: from January 12 Contact: www.shoppersstop.com

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

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

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

24523211 232431300/7641 24521029

Readers’ views

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

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city THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

GHMC

LAST YEAR... HERE Traffic woes everywhere

L

ast year we had reported how parents were forced to battle chaotic traffic outside schools every single day. With school buses, autorickshaws and private vehicles crowding the narrow streets where schools are located, the situation was a dismal one. This made it difficult for parents of students and motorists alike to navigate through the area.

HAJ Application forms for Haj from Feb

‘We’re upgrading’ The civic body is all set to procure new technology and overhaul its hardware in a bid to improve interaction between citizens and the corporation.

JANUARY 24, 2012

NUMEROLOGY

T

he Haj application forms for ‘Haj- 2013’ will be issued at Nampally, AP State Haj Committee Office, and at the district Haj societies in the state at free of cost from February 6 to March 20. It is decided that this year the applications will be received only from those applicants who have never performed Haj in their lifetime through the Haj committee.

Syed Khaleeluddin Ahmed, Chairman, AP Haj Committee, in a statement said that the applicants would have to submit an affidavit to this

M ANIL KUMAR

53.2%

of all children enrolled in class V of government schools cannot even read a class II text book, while an equal percentage cannot even solve a simple two-digit subtraction problem.

It is clear that there is no second line of leaders in the party to manage things when a crisis arises. We could not do much as there was nobody to lead agitations.

MIM leader See page 5

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

1

Stay fit and help raise funds for a good cause.

Atlanta Foundation is organising a corporate cycling event in the City on January 26 to raise funds for underprivileged children. There will be a short film screening at the event.

2

Are we leaving behind government school children?

Recent Annual Status of Education report reveals that most government schools lack basic facilities and the do not maintain the teacher:student ratio are mentioned in the RTE Act.

3

Beware of fake insurance dealers in City The police busted a racket involving in preparation of fake insurance certificates for vehicles and arrested four people.

4

Lawyers turn counsellors at family courts.

Due to shortage of counsellors, lawyers have started a legal cell.

5

GHMC goes tech savvy to improve public interaction..

Holistic and Integrated Greater Hyderabad E-governance Solution will be implemented in a year.

Md NIZAMUDDIN nizamuddin.a@postnoon.com

T

he implementation of the Holistic and Integrated Greater Hyderabad Egovernance Solution (HIGH eGOV) will be a reality by the beginning of the next financial year.

As part of the National Mission Mode Project (NMMP) for e-Governance in municipalities the nodal agency AP Technology Services (APTS) is in the final stages of bidding with private companies.

According to officials, the tender process is on and financial bidding is going on.

“It will provide the corporation with completely new technology, including an overhaul of existing hardware. If everything goes smoothly, it will be functional within the next three months,” said Ashok Reddy, additional commissioner (Finance).

The significance of the pro-

Key Measures n Minimising the number of customer visits n Reducing the time required to request the service n Reducing the time required to deliver a service n Reducing the costs associated with a service n Reducing the time spent by the customer to follow-up and track the progress of the requested service ject lies in improving interaction between citizens and the GHMC when it comes to providing basic services for millions. It aims at providing more ‘efficient’, ‘convenient’ and ‘transparent’ services to citizens and businesses.

According to officials, in order to automate departmental procedures and to leverage advancements in IT for effective administration, the GHMC has taken up several initiatives to

This year applications will be received only from those who have never performed Haj through the Haj committee.

computerise its business processes for improving the efficiency in administration and service delivery.

The GHMC claims that this project will strengthen governance and broaden public participation by leveraging the ICT (Information Communication Technology) for sustained improvement in service delivery. The process of system integrator for design development and maintenance of software, hardware and network is being taken care of by APTS. For the development of the project the GHMC will be footing 50 per cent cost, 25 per cent by the State government and the remaining 25 per cent by the Central government respectively.

By facilitating the corporation to network with all zones and circles, the GHMC aims at bringing the services of the government closer to the door steps of the citizens through ‘One click Interaction’.

effect. This year only two categories of accommodation i.e.

Green and Azeezia will be available to the pilgrims.

He added that applicants under Reserved Categories should submit their original Passports along with the Haj Application Forms.

Abdul Hameed, executive officer, AP Haj committee detailed that all the applicants are required to have necessary documents like valid passport, voter-ID or address proof, a blank cheque and pay- in-slip of SBI for `300 per applicant.

He informed that the forms could be down loaded from www.hajcommittee.com.

The applications should be submitted along with all the necessary documents on or before March 20 at the State Haj Committee office, Haj House Nampally Hyderabad.

NSS

NEWS BRIEFS Jagan’s bail plea rejected once again

Action against ‘hate speeches’

Jewellery stolen from woman in RTC bus

Minor girl hangs herself at employer’s home

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E

A

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he Andhra Pradesh High Court rejected the bail petition of Kadapa MP and YSRC party president YS Jaganmohan Reddy this morning. The court, while citing the existing Supreme Court Orders and ongoing investigation of CBI in the cases related to the Kadapa MP, said that the bail petition is not maintainable.

minent personalities including Mahesh Bhatt (Mumbai), Praful Bidwai (Delhi), Dr Ram Punyani (Mumbai), Dr Mazher Hussain (Hyderabad) and Dr Sandeep Panday (Lucknow) have condemned the ‘double standards’ of govt. They demanded immediate action against organisations, whose leaders engaged in hate speeches.

60-year-old woman P Lopa Mudra lost her gold jewellery when she was travelling in an RTC bus. The resident of Petbasheerabad had taken a bus from Balanagar to her home. However, when she reached Bowenpally she noticed that her gold ornaments, amounting to four tolas, had been stolen. She lodged a complaint with the police.

minor girl committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling on Wednesday morning at her employer’s home in Kukatpally. The girl, 16, had been employed as a maid at the home of G Gurunatham for the past few years. She had been ill for some time. Upset with this she resorted to the extreme step. The KPHB police have registered a case.

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city THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

POLITICS

MIM left weak and exposed

With the arrest of the Owaisi brothers, the ruling party’s estranged partner is left headless, with no second in command to handle party affairs.

INKESHAF AHMED ashmed.m@postnoon.com

T

he All India Majlis Itehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), a party which has been playing an active role in the political canvass of the State for the last five decades by having elected members to the legislative bodies at various levels, seems to have suffered from the biggest public relations disaster ever since its inception.

The arrest of party chief Asaduddin Owaisi and his younger brother Akbaruddin Owaisi (left) in two different cases has not only dealt a huge blow to the party but also exposed its basic weakness — lack of alternative leadership to effectively run the party affairs.

Unlike other political parties like Congress and TDP, the MIM, apart from the Owaisi brothers, hardly has any charismatic leader to handle the affairs of the party. The lack of alternative leaders has hit the party so hard that doubts are being cast over

the conducting of the party’s proposed two-day conference.

Party chief Asaduddin had decided to hold this conference before his arrest. Speaking to Postnoon party general secretary and Charminar MLA Ahmed Pasha Quadri (right), who is now in-charge of MIM’s day-to-day affairs, expressed confidence that Asaduddin would be granted bail before the conference. “We

The lack of alternative leaders in the absence of the Owaisi brothers has hit the party so hard that doubts are being cast over the conducting of the party’s proposed two-day conference.

LAW AND ORDER

are making all efforts for the release of our party president.

We hope that he will be released and will preside over the meeting,” Quadri said. He however, declined to comment further on the lack of alternative leadership.

Another MIM leader, on the condition anonymity, said that the party is indeed suffering from a leadership crisis. “It is clear that there is no second line

of leaders in the party to manage things when a crisis arises. We could not do much as there was nobody to lead agitations after the arrest of our leaders. In fact, our bandh call also received lukewarm response in many parts of the City,” he said.

According to a political analyst, who closely observed the history of the party, when it comes to any political party, one would think that there would be at least a firm party structure and a system of grooming able leaders. But MIM is an exception to it.

“Although the Owaisi brothers are well educated, they are evidently hesitant to deviate from their father’s style of functioning like a one man show,” he said. The analyst further noted that these policies of the MIM may guarantee that they remain safe in their bastion — Old City.

But with the party’s new found ambition to explore greener pastures, one would wonder if it can ever achieve this without learning from these grave mistakes and flawed policies adopted by it.

POLITICS

Security beefed up for T ‘T’ decision may not

Bureaucrats have requested the Centre to inform them about bifurcation in advance so that they can make the requisite arrangements.

POSTNOON NEWS feedback@postnoon.com

W

ith reports of the State being bifurcated gaining momentum, the State administration is on guard. State authorities, especially law and order, are preparing themselves to face any situation. Authorities have requested the Center to inform them about their decision in advance.

According to highly placed sources, the request was made by chief secretary Minnie Mathew and DGP V Dinesh Reddy (pictured) during a meeting with the Union home ministry officials. The Union government immediately agreed to the request and promised that they would let them know about their decision at least two days before they announce it.

“We have requested the home ministry to inform us so we can make arrangements to maintain law and order. They immediately agreed,” a senior

police official told Postnoon.

The recent meeting of the State government’s officials with the Union home ministry reportedly revolved mainly around how to tackle the situation arising out of the division of the State. The Center also promised to send as many para military companies as required to maintain the law and order in

the State.

However, the State government has not yet made any specific request regarding how many companies of para military it required. A senior police official told Postnoon that they are in the process of assessing requirements of the forces and would send a report to the Center accordingly.

be possible by Jan 28

NEW DELHI: AICC general secretary and state party affairs incharge Ghulam Nabi Azad (right) has indicated that a solution to the Telangana issue might not be announced by January 28, as was being speculated.

Referring to the announcement of the home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde during the allparty meeting on December 28 that a decision would be announced in a month, Azad said the word ‘one month’ should not be taken as 30 days. It should be taken as ‘as early as possible’.

Talking to the media on Wednesday, he said when some one says ‘one week’, it need not necessarily mean a week. It could mean two weeks also. He told the media that the Congress high command was taking the issue seriously and would announce a solution at the earliest. He said Telangana was a serious and delicate issue and needed discussions. He said there was need for arriving at a decision at

the national level and added that serious discussions were continuing on the issue.

He added that a decision could not be made simply because the media asked for it.

Stating that there were holidays on January 25, 26 and 27, Azad said discussions were in progress to find an early solution.

NSS

6

city THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

FAMILY COURTS

Lawyers turn counsellors

With cases piling up in family courts due to shortage of counsellors, advocates start a legal cell to help people solve family disputes outside court.

ALEENA ALICE aleena.t@postnoon.com

“W

e had filed a petition for separation at a family court and were referred for counselling.

However, we were turned down every time we went to the counselling centre, for nearly four months, due to the lack of counsellors and other facilities at the centre.

It is very frustrating to have to wait at a time when we are going through a lot of trauma,” said Kannika (name changed).

It is not just Kannika who is frustrated with the way her divorce case is heading. At present, there are four family courts in the City, which handle about 70 cases every day pertaining to separation and other family disputes. These cases are referred for counselling before considering the petition. However, due to insuf-

ficient number of counsellors, the cases get piled up and shelved.

“There is a requirement for well trained counsellors, and the number of counselling centres should be increased. The main problem is that cases are prolonged for years due to various reasons, as a result of which the case files are stacked. By the time one case is solved there are 10 more cases pending,” said advocate P Nirmala.

Thankfully, a legal aid which works as a free legal cell and a counselling centre at Vidya Nagar helps petitioners who approach them with family disputes settle the issue within weeks.

“We help petitioners, especially the ones who come from far off villages, to solve the dispute. If the parties have to run around the courts it will only be a loss of money and time for them. So to avoid that, every evening a few advocates come together to conduct legal sessions

and settle the dispute,” said advocate and counsellor Ramani Jonna.

“We counsel the clients who approach us, and try our best to mediate between the couple. Our basic intention is to help them reunite in the interest of their families. However, if they still insist on getting separated, we consider the petition and direct the case to the court,” she said.

The legal aid functions from 4pm to 7pm on weekdays and offers free counselling to anyone who has a family dispute before they approach the court.

Speaking on how the legal aid helped her solve her family dispute, Radha (name changed) said, “I was told about the legal aid centre. I did not want to run around the courts.

So I approached the advocates at the centre with my problem. They immediately summoned my husband and in-laws for counselling and helped me,” she said.

POLITICS

Owaisi’s bail rejected

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Asaduddin Owaisi’s bail petition was rejected again by the Sangareddy court.

T

he Sangareddy court has once again rejected the bail petition of the MIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi, who was sent to jail on remand for his alleged abuse of the then collector of Medak in 2005.

After rejection of the bail plea on Tuesday, Asaduddin’s lawyers once again filed a bail petition before the Sangareddy first class judge Maruti Devi on Wednesday. But it was rejected again.

Police had shown in the records that the MP was absconding, as he had not responded to earlier summons. After his surrender, the court remanded him to judicial custody till February 2.

In 2005, when the Medak district authorities demolished the compound wall of a place of worship in Muttangi, under Patancheru mandal, as part of road widening work, Asaduddin and his brother and MLA Akbaruddin allegedly abused the then collector and the joint collector. The brothers were also booked for obstructing government authorities in performing their duties.

Cases under sections 163A, 147, 149 and 341 were booked against the brothers.

Akbar attended the case once and then abstained. There was a warrant pending against him. However, after he was arrested in the hate speech case, police brought him to Sangareddy from the Adilabad district jail and produced him before the local court. As Asad also had not attended the court when summoned, police got non-bailable warrant against him. Asad surrendered before the court, to avoid arrest.

NSS

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7

city THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

CORPORATE EVENTS

Cycle for a good cause A republic day cycle ride will be held at Gachibowli stadium to raise funds for the education of poor children.

APARNA SAI aparna.s@postnoon.com

T

he Atlanta Foundation, along with industry forums NASSCOM, ITsAP, TiE, FICCI and SAAP, are set to conduct the biggest corporate cycling event of the country on January 26, on the occasion of Republic Day. It is being conducted in association with the District Cycling Association of Hyderabad.

The event will be held at the Gachibowli Stadium from 6.30am.

The ride, which is in its fourth year, comprises of different distances – 100kms, 75kms, 50kms and 25kms - from which the participants can choose what

they like. While the above mentioned distance would see the ride begin at the stadium and also conclude at the same place, the shorter distances of 2kms, 5kms and 10kms will be held within the stadium premises.

The route map for this event is available on www.atlantafoundation.org/cycling/eventdetails.php.

Participants taking part in the cycling event will have to pay an entry fee of `1,250, while those who will be competing in the criterium event will have to pay `500. Those who intend to participate in the latter event will have to bring their own cycles and the distance to cover would be 24kms (2kms x 12 laps).

The ride, which is being conducted to raise funds to support

the education of underprivileged students, has participants including people from ADP, GE, Deloitte, Broadridge, Invesco, DuPont, CA, Infosys, TCS, Wells Fargo, Franklin Templeton and many other well known organisations.

The event also includes the screening of an award winning short film, ‘Jana Gana Mana’ followed by a program in which a

State meet to curb fake currencies A

AP Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy toured Medak district to participate in Revenue Sadassu on Tuesday.

He participated in the launch of Bhoomi; citizen charter, besides Pala Pragathi Kendram. He gave `20lakh to physically handicapped children.

First of its kind knee surgery A

pollo Health City today announced the performing of a revolutionary minimally invasive knee replacement (resurface) surgery (MIKRS), using OrthoGlide Medial Knee system.

This surgery was successfully performed for the first time in Andhra Pradesh by a team of

cycling team, comprising 100women, will take part to spread the message of ‘Strong Woman, Strong Nation’.

This will be followed by the Aero Skippers, which has fourtime national award winning young children from Bhimavaram, performing energetic rope skipping acts.

For more details one can visit atlantafoundation.org.

GOVERNANCE

VILLAGE TOUR

POSTNOON NEWS feedback@postnoon.com

A cycling team, comprising of 100 women, will be participating in the cycle ride to spread the message of ‘Strong women, strong nation.’ A short film will also be screened

orthopedic surgeons led by Dr Prabhat Lakkireddi, consultant keyhole and minimally invasive orthopedic surgeon. The team performed a bilateral (on both the knees) OrthoGlide knee surgery for the first in India.

The most common cause of knee pain is arthritis, where the joint lining called cartilage is damaged due to wear and tear, causing inflammation and pain.

In India, 50 per cent of the gen-

eral population develops arthritis during their lifetime and it is the second largest ailment after diabetes. OrthoGlide, a metallic, wedge-shaped device, is a novel implant that replaces worn cartilage inside the knee.

It offers patients a less invasive alternative to total knee replacement. This device is inserted into the knee through a five to seven centimetre incision, which relieves pressure.

state level committee for detection and seizures of counterfeit notes of fake Indian currency notes (FICN) was convened by its chairman and the addl DGP, CID, AP, Sri T. Krishna Prasad, IPS, at RBI on January 22.

The committee resolved to coordinate in an effective manner and through sharing of data strategically to counter the menace. Other decisions that were taken were to have more stringent checks at the airport by the customs and the airport security through better coordination.

The discussions were mainly on the recent trends of circulation of fake currency in AP and other parts of India. Strategies were worked out to counter the same in high prone areas like Hyderabad, Nalgonda, West Godavari, East Godavari, Visakhapatnam City and Guntur.

It is revealed that most of the currency is manufactured in one place and distributed to various places through different persons.

It is also noticed that some of the notes were high quality notes

which are pumped into India from across the border, mainly through Malda District of West Bengal, by air, sea and train routes. The Committee also discussed various issues requiring coordination among different agencies, relating to lodging of FIRs and investigation in cases.

Measures to curb the menace of circulation of forged notes were reviewed. It is seen that compared to other denominations, incidence of counterfeiting is higher in cases of notes of `500 denomination.

In 2012, `75,22,000 was seized mainly from Hyderabad, West Godavari, Visakhapatnam, Adilabad and Vijayawada units.

NIA had seized `1,28,23,200.

It was cautioned that people who indulge in counterfeiting currency notes, thereby using them as genuine, knowing fully well that they are counterfeit notes, or those possessing them, can be punished with imprisonment for life or with imprisonment for a term which may extended to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.

NSS

8

city THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

SPECIAL REPORT

Long way to go for govt schools The Annual Status of Education report (ASER) 2012, which reveals the abysmal reading and arithmetic skills of government school children, puts the spotlight back on the people with the answers — the teachers.

PADMINI C padmini.c@postnoon.com

he can’t be compared with a child from a private school with unlimited resources. Different students come into class with different standards and we do the best that we can, given what we have. That’s not to say, there’s nothing more to be done. Of course there is. I think the biggest change will come if we can provide residential facilities for the extremely underprivileged and we make all government schools English medium, which will make our children more confident and employable and also make recruitment into government teaching of a higher standard,” sayss Annapurna Devi, English teacher at Gandhi Bhavan.

C

onsider this number.

ASER 2012 found that 53.2 per cent of all children enrolled in class V of government schools cannot even read a class II text book, while an equal percentage cannot even solve a simple two-digit subtraction problem. The report, which came out earlier in the week, has proved what we had feared all along: The learning outcomes of government school children across the nation are not improving and are also on a gaining decline.

While Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are not among the states which have contributed significantly to this decline, learning levels of children are still alarmingly low and remain largely unchanged.

Hyderabad, in particular, is a cause for concern, having recorded in the past year the lowest pass percentage than any other district in the State.

The success or failure of the educational machinery of a state, at its core, is as much about its teachers as it is about its policies and frameworks. The AP story is no different. In the wake of the report, the teaching fraternity and educationists here reveal that the current state of affairs is dismal, with noticeable understaffing, rampant confusion in the ranks, a challenging student body and the jarring contrasts between educational ideals set in conference rooms and the practical realities of the classroom.

900 POSITIONS VACANT

The Right To Education Act 2009 stipulates that the ideal teacher pupil ratio be no more than 1:40.

But that is far from reality, allege teachers’ unions. “In many schools, there are anywhere between 60 and 90 students per teacher. There are the Vidya volunteers, appointed by the Rajiv Vidya Mission, but they can only control a class, not teach. In such a scenario, how much attention can we give each one?” asks a primary school teacher, Rukmini R. To compound the problem, a long standing intra-department dispute currently still in the Supreme Court means that there have been no promotions to the upper echelons in the past five to six years. Add retirements and there are estimated to be as many as 900 supervisory positions currently vacant.

‘MINDSET HAS TO CHANGE’

School enrolment and out of school children Percentage of children in different types of schools (2012) Age Govt Private Not in Other school 6-14 60.3 36.5 2.6 0.6 7-10 57.6 40.9 0.4 1.2 11-14 65.3 29.3 0.8 4.5 15-16 51.5 31.3 0.4 16.8

“Head Masters are functioning as Dy DEOs, deputy head masters as head masters, senior teachers are deputy HMs and so on. It has affected the whole system,” says M Ravindar, general secretary of Andhra Pradesh Teaching Federation.

TRAINING FAILS, CONFUSION PREVAILS In 2009, with RTE, a new initiative known as the Continuos and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) was introduced, which was implemented fully across government schools in the 2012 academic year. The programme was designed to identify a child’s learning difficulties from the beginning of the academic year and at regular time intervals, employ suitable remedial measures to enhance his/her learning performance.

“CCE means that there are only grades, no marks. But we received the instructions only after the half yearly examinations, which meant that we had to manually convert each student’s marks into grade points

and then grades. There was no training, no awareness. There is just no clarity,” rues Ramanandiah, headmaster of a government high school, Devaljamsingh.

“There are no clear cut instructions on deliverables. So we don’t know when to send what.

Additionally, they demanded that it be done online.

Many of us don’t have computer facilities, not to mention knowledge on how to use the software!” says Gautami Naidu, a primary teacher in the government high school, Langar House.

“We had little to no training when this system was introduced. Even after the switch, we still received the question papers with so-and-so marks attached to each section, while we had to mark the answer papers in grade points. Do you see our confusion? We spent most of our teaching time worrying over these things,” remarks a frustrated headmaster, Jayachander, of Govt St Peters High School.

CHALLENGING STUDENT BODY First generation learning, parent disinterest, socio-economic conditions, child labour are all issues that affect a child’s productivity, say teachers. “Government school teachers are capable, committed, experienced and well qualified. But even we can do only so much. Our access to the child is only for a few hours a day. He receives no help at home.

He drops out of school whenever his parents move. So naturally,

“It’s true that there are vacancies.

The numbers are important, obviously. But that said, it’s not like schools which have more number of teachers are doing better. However, government schools in many places are doing better than private schools. Even in challenging conditions and no infrastructure to speak of, some teachers are showing great results while others are just not motivated enough. Their mindset has to change. They are looking to the top for instructions instead of just concentrating on doing their jobs well, which is to teach and ensure that the learning outcome of the students is optimal,” says Sushinder Rao, project officer from Rajiv Vidya Mission, responding to the teachers’ allegations. Speaking about the ASER, he adds, “The biggest challenge for us is socio-economic conditions of the students. But we are working to rectify that. So we are very hopeful we will get better results this year.”

THE LAST WORD

There are no immediate or absolute solutions. But as Madhav Chavan of Pratham, the foundation behind the ASER report writes, “big changes are happening in education and they are happening rapidly. Any long term plans of building or strengthening institutions must take these changes into account or else we will end up creating more dysfunctional white elephants all over the country that are not suitable for the next half a century and longer. There is a need to keep a close watch and have a vision of the future with feet firmly planted on the ground today.”

THE AP STORY

75.5%

children enrolled in class I-V

78.0%

enrolled in class VI-VIII

84.8%

teachers present in class I-V

79.6%

teachers present in class VI-VIII

56.4%

of schools with teacher:pupil ratio 1:40

66.3%

of schools with drinking water

98.3%

of schools with mid-day meal

67.7%

of schools with playground

47.7%

have toilets available and usable

38.2% have girls’ toilet

20.3% have a library

4.3%

have a computer Lab

649

schools were visited

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

focus

WHAT IS ALCOHOLISM?

Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing. It is medically considered a disease, specifically an addictive illness.

CURSE OF ADDICTION

9

Russian alcoholics turn to AA The Alcoholics Anonymous method of treating alcoholism first came to Russia from the United States more than 20 years ago, but is still not mainstream in a country where hard drinking is often viewed as inevitable and ingrained in the national psyche.

MOSCOW: One-time Russian prisoner Andrei tried to quit drinking 22 times, going for cures that lasted from one to six months. But each time, he went back to the bottle.

Then 14 years ago, the 58year-old tried Alcoholics Anonymous, attracted by the different approach, which was not about doctors reprimanding the drinker, but taking personal responsibility.

And after going through the 12-step programme five times, the Muscovite with deeply furrowed face and intense dark eyes, said he felt confident he could stay dry.

The Alcoholics Anonymous method of treating alcoholism first came to Russia from the United States more than 20 years ago, but is still not mainstream in a country where hard drinking is often viewed as inevitable and ingrained in the national psyche.

The AA movement of “mutual aid” groups created in the United States in the 1930s arrived in Russia at the end of the 1980s during the perestroika era, as the country opened up under the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.

Yet more than 20 years later, Russia has just 400 AA groups with 10,000 members — a tiny number for a population of 143 million where alcohol abuse and its social effects are a national

scourge.

“The AA groups do not have much success in Russia, while 2.5 million Russians are registered as addicted to alcohol, and almost one in two Russian men regularly abuse alcohol,” said Alexander Nemtsov, an expert on alcoholism at the Institute of Psychiatry in Moscow.

“The Russians’ mentality opposes this American programme, which is based on extremely extrovert behaviour within a group,” said Nemtsov.

“Besides that, going through the AA cycle demands working with one’s self, while Russians prefer a passive role during their treatment.”

Russian alcoholics often choose treatments such as hypnosis, used by doctors to make them develop an aversion to alcohol and lose the urge to drink.

Another treatment involves under-the-skin implants of capsules containing a substance that allegedly produces negative physical effects if the patient drinks alcohol.

— ‘An illness, not a sin’ — Andrei, who has spent nine years in jail for robbery, said that Russian methods were based on making him feel guilt and repentance, “which prevented me from stopping.”

He said he was attracted by the AA programme because it portrays alcoholism as an illness,

History

T

he Alcoholics Anonymous method of treating alcoholism first came to Russia from the United States more than 20 years ago, but is still not mainstream in a country where hard drinking is often viewed as inevitable and ingrained in the national psyche.

The AA movement of “mutual aid” groups created in the United States in the 1930s arrived in Russia at the end of the 1980s during the perestroika era, as the country opened up under the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev.

AFP

not a sin. But it was not smooth sailing.

“To start off, I found it horrible to tell my life story in front of 20 other alcoholics,” said Andrei.

“Everything about it, like the meetings where you buy tea and biscuits for everyone and then you tidy up the room together... made me think of our subbotniks,” he said, referring to a Soviet custom of making people volunteer to do community service on Saturday.

Today, though, he said he no longer felt guilty and was comfortable in his group, which meets two or three times a week in a basement in central Moscow.

The tight-knit atmosphere of such groups is viewed with suspicion by some in the Russian medical establishment, who perceive it as “foreign.”

“With its pragmatism, rationalism, individualism, its cult of material success, the AA is hard pushed to take root in Russia,” said Andrei Igonin, head of the alcohol dependency department of the Serbsky Centre, the country’s best-known psychiatric hospital.

Russians “are more emotional, open and confident, and at the same time they are more turned towards authority. They are altruists in search of spiritual protection,” the scientist claimed in an article in Toxicology journal.

Some Russians are more

inclined to turn for spiritual help to the Russian Orthodox Church.

“I went to the AA and I couldn’t believe my ears. They have no God and they say that they conquer alcoholism themselves. That fills them with pride,” one Orthodox believer wrote in a blog.

“I went back to the Church.

There, they conquer it with prayer and fasting. Why reinvent the bicycle?” he asked.

Nevertheless, some AA groups meet on premises owned by the Church, which in 2010 described the AA as an “effective instrument in rehabilitating drug and alcohol addicts”, while stressing the need to develop its own anti-alcohol programme.

A 2011 WHO report found that every fifth male death in Russia was attributable to the effects of alcohol, with the average male drinker knocking back 35.40 litres of pure alcohol per year. Many Russians take a fatalistic attitude to this, or half-admire it as something suffered by people who also have great talents. Russian literature from 19th-century novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky to Venedikt Yerofeyev — who wrote a cult Soviet “prose poem” about an alcoholic’s meditations on a Moscow suburban train — overflows with memorable characters who are drinkers.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

Business

TOSHIBA, GE EXPANDING POWER GENERATION TIES

Japanese industrial giant Toshiba and General Electric (GE) on Thursday announced plans to widen a thermal power generation alliance, after rivals Hitachi and Mitsubishi Heavy joined forces.

Hot T singes realtors

10

APPLE PROFIT $13.1 BN

The real estate sector, which has picked up its sales after five years of downturn, is in a Catch-22 situation right now.

PRUDHVI RAJU K prudhvi.k@postnoon.com

T

he State real estate industry is facing hard times with uncertainty and fears over the intensification of Telangana storm.

The industry, which has picked up its sales after five years of downturn, is in a Catch-22 situation right now.

“The NRI community from coastal Andhra Pradesh drove most of the real estate sales in the City. There was always an emotional connect to these people that attracted sales and investments in the realty by these people. With these agitations, the emotional connect is at stake and further division may divert business to the coastal belt, Chennai and Bangalore, whichever is closer to their location,” says a real estate developer from the city.

Potential buyers from the City have decided to wait and watch and postpone their purchase decision with these talks at the Centre. In the current scenario, neither investors nor locals are attracted to the sales, he adds.

Talking about the future of the industry, an other industry leader said, “If there is a decision for a separate state, the industry has to face tough time and there will be not much of growth for at least three years. The industry may pick up gradually and get stable in the course of time.

There are also chances of around 20 per cent of the people shifting from the City to the new capital.

This will be clearly visible in State and Central government employees and also the labourers, who look for daily wages.”

A decision for unified state is not giving any surety for the growth of industry either, says another realty developer.

“There are also doubts over the repercussions of providing certain definite Constitutional/

Apple posted record profits and sales of its iPhones and iPads, but offered a disappointing forecast for the coming months. Apple said it made a profit of $13.l billion on revenue of $54.5 billion in the fiscal quarter that ended on December 29 as sales of iPhones and iPads set quarterly records. The California-based company reported that it sold 47.8 million iPhones and 22.9 million iPad tablet computers in the closing months of last year. Some investors soured on Apple, however, after it forecast that revenue for the current quarter would range from $41 to $43 billion and a gross margin of from 37.5 to 39.5 per cent.

NUMEROLOGY

$21

trillion

is the estimated value of an oil deposit in the Australia’s outback.

RELIEF FOR SAMSUNG?

Statutory measures for socioeconomic development of the region. The government should have taken such decision long back. The delay has created expectations for a separate state.

Now, the course of industry depends on the peaceful agreement between the two parties. If there is no consensus on the decision taken by the government, the industry will again suffer with bandhs and other disturbances,” he says.

The developers agree that industry will grow much faster if Hyderabad granted Union Territory status. However, this is least likely to happen as nobody is in favour of it.

The only opportunity in this grim situation is the growth of realty industry in the newly formed capital and surrounding districts.

As separate state talks are in full swing, potential buyers have decided to postpone their purchase till a decision is taken.

“Even this may not happen in the immediate future because a separate state does not make people shift from here overnight.

Especially, residential real state sector in the newly formed capital will be only driven by the newly formed industries in that capital. Availability of raw material, policies, resources and other infrastructure will attract the growth of the industry, which can be only known in due course. The residential real estate will push the growth of retail real estate (malls) over time.

“Any decision of the government will not push the sector in the City in immediate future.

The security and peace in the region over a period of time only will help the buyers to gain confidence and revive the industry,” he added.

GOLD`31,100 10g 1kg `60,100 1kg SILVER `59,900

24C

for

for for

DOLLAR `53.79 `53.87 `85.15 POUND `85.27

The US International Trade Commission on Wednesday ordered review of a ruling that Samsung violated Apple patents for smartphones and tablet computers. Apple filed a complaint with the quasi-official federal agency in 2011, accusing Samsung of patent violations and asking that infringing devices be barred from the US market. An ITC judge late last year issued a tentative ruling dismissing some of the claims but agreeing with Apple regarding four patents.

Both Apple and Samsung asked that the decision be given a second look.

The ITC directed the administrative law judge to review the entire ruling, according to a document filed in the case Wednesday by acting commission secretary Lisa Barton.

THUS SPAKE "The space for further policy easing has diminished, while supply bottlenecks and policy uncertainty have hampered growth in some economies (India and Brazil), IMF REPORT

BSE 6,057.70 6,022.20 NSE

20,025.67 19,938.01 44.10 88.60 9.20 32.10

11

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

nation

WILL CHALLENGE VISHWAROOPAM BAN: KAMAL Actor-director Kamal Hassan today said he will take legal recourse on Tamil Nadu government's ban on screening of his film 'Vishwaroopam' following protests by Muslim outfits, saying "such cultural terrorism" should stop.

CHINA HONOURS CNR RAO

IAF'S C-17 READY FOR FLIGHT TESTS

The first of 10 C-17 Globemaster III airlifters for the Indian Air Force (IAF) is all set to enter a US Air Force flight test programme at Edwards Base in Palmdale, California. Boeing delivered India's first C-17 Tuesday at its facility in Long Beach, California, and is on track to deliver four more C-17s to the IAF this year and five in 2014, the company said in a media release. India signed an agreement with the US government June 15, 2011, to acquire 10 C-17 airlifters, making India the largest C-17 customer outside the US. IANS

NEWS BRIEFS Seven dead in two road mishaps THANE: Atleast seven persons

were killed and three injured in separate road accidents on the Mumbai-Agra-Ahmedabad highway here, police said today. Both the mishaps took place yesterday and locals staged a 'rasta roko' in protest, disrupting traffic for hours, they said.

Fire damages Kashmir school building SRINAGAR: A fire broke out in a school in north Kashmir's Baramulla district early today, police said. Fire broke out in the Government Boys Higher Secondary School in Diwan Bagh area of Baramulla district at 7.30 am, partially damaging the building, the police said. He said the rooftop and the second floor of the building was damaged in the fire which has been brought under control now.

IAF rescues 203 people trapped in snow JAMMU: The Indian Air Force on Wednesday rescued 203 civilians, including children and patients, trapped in snow in a remote part of mountainous Kishtwar district in Jammu and Kashmir, a defence spokesman said. "Joint efforts by the government of Jammu and Kashmir and 130 Helicopter Unit of Air Force Station Jammu rescued all the 203 civilians trapped in snow," he added.

UNITED NATIONS

Noted Indian scientist CNR Rao has been conferred with China's top science award for his important contributions in boosting Sino-India scientific cooperation.

Chinese Academy of Sciences yesterday gave its 2012 Award for International Scientific Cooperation to three scientists from India, Germany, and Russia.

He is currently the Head of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. The awards are given every year by the CAS, which is China's top academic and research institution for natural sciences.

Will tackle rape effectively, vows India `15 lakh NUMEROLOGY

UNITED NATIONS: India has vowed to ensure that the culprits involved in December's horrific gang rape and subsequent death of an Indian woman in Delhi are brought to speedy justice to send out a sternest possible message.

"The Government of India will ensure that the culprits are brought to speedy justice, and the sternest possible message sent out by giving them the punishment they deserve," India's permanent representative to UN, Hardeep Singh Puri, said Wednesday.

"The Government of India shares the collective anguish of all Indians, on this most horrific incident," he said participating in the first regular session of UN Women Executive Board where a reference was made to the Delhi gang rape.

Justice JS Verma's Committee, Puri noted, has suggested ways to initiate a series of steps to ensure that such crimes do not happen again.

Earlier, in her opening statement, Michelle Bachelet, Under Secretary General and Executive Director of UN Women, referred to the "tragic news from India that ignited public outrage in that country, which echoed around the world."

Edifice of the Indian society is premised on the all embracing power of the Indian woman, Hardeep Singh Puri Indian UN envoy "I am speaking of the brutal gang rape and death of a 23year-old student in New Delhi," she said and referred to the case of a gang rape of a 16-year-old girl in Ohio and the tragic shooting in Pakistan of girls' educa-

Pick

tion activist, Malala Yousafzai.

Noting that "violence against women is rampant everywhere, in all countries," Bachelet said UN Women is calling on governments everywhere to commit to end violence against women and girls. So far, 16 governments have announced new commitments and UN Women will keep pushing, as a priority, to end violence against women in all its forms, she said.

In response, Puri said the "edifice of the Indian society is premised on the all embracing power of the Indian woman — which in our ancient thought and religious belief, bestows her the power to create, nurture and transform. "She is not only worshipped as 'Durga' the goddess of creation, but also as 'Saraswati' — the inspiration for all music, poetry, science and learning. It is therefore absolutely reprehensible that such an horrific tragedy happened on Indian soil." PTI

at the

is the worth of charas seized froma Nepalese national in Uttar Pradesh. Seven kilogrammes of the contraband substance was seized.

VERMA SPARES NO ONE The JS Verma Committee tasked to look into possible amendments to the criminal law for quicker trial and enhanced punishment for rapists, Wednesday slammed Delhi's police, public and the administration for not acting promptly to help the December 16 gang-rape victim.

Using strong words, the three-member committee that submitted its 631-page report to Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Wednesday, said: "practically every serious breach of the rule of law can be traced to the failure of performance by the persons responsible in its implementation." In its recommendations, the panel came down heavily on the administration, including police as well as citizens, for not helping the grievously wounded young woman and her friend who were thrown off the bus after the brutal gang-rape.

airport,

-

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

World HISTORIC MOMENT

ANTARCTIC SEARCH FOR MISSING PLANE A search is under way for a plane with three Canadians that has gone missing in Antarctica, officials say. The Twin Otter aircraft was flying from the South Pole to an Italian Antarctic base when its emergency beacon was activated at 10:00 GMT on Wednesday.

12

SONNETS ‘DNA’ED

MISSION SHACKLETON

US to lift ban on women in combat WASHINGTON: US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will lift a ban on women serving in combat, officials said Wednesday — a ground-breaking move after a decade of war that saw female troops thrust onto the battlefield.

The decision marks yet another sweeping change for the US military under President Barack Obama, who led a drive to end a prohibition on openly gay troops.

Panetta and General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, “are expected to announce the lifting of the direct combat exclusion rule for women in the military,” one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters.

“This policy change will initiate a process whereby the services will develop plans to implement this decision, which was made by the Secretary of Defense upon the recommendation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” the official said in an email.

Panetta and Dempsey were set to officially announce the move, which would open up hundreds of thousands of combat posts to women, on Thursday, officials said.

A British-Australian expedition recreating Ernest Shackleton’s perilous 1916 crossing of the Southern Ocean in a small boat set off on Thursday, braced for fearsome seas and icy, bleak conditions.

Led by renowned adventurer Tim Jarvis, the team of six plans to sail 800 nautical miles (1,480 kilometres) in a spartan lifeboat from Elephant Island off the Antarctic Peninsula to rugged South Georgia, their support team said. While there were unusually moderate winds and a small swell as they pushed off, the team was heading for looming pack ice to the east as they bid to relive part of what is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever survival tales. They plan to only use the equipment, navigational instruments and food available to Shackleton during his 16-day voyage before facing a two day climb to 900 metres (2,950 feet) over the mountainous, crevassed interior of South Georgia.

PYONGYANG’S REPLY TO SANCTION

N Korea to US: NUKE U

SEOUL: North Korea said Thursday it planned to carry out a nuclear test and more rocket launches aimed at its “arch-enemy” the United States in response to tightened UN sanctions, but offered no timeframe.

“We do not hide that the various satellites and longrange rockets we will continue to launch, as well as the highlevel nuclear test we will proceed with, are aimed at our arch-enemy the United States,” the National Defence Commission said.

The mention of the test, which would mark the North’s third detonation of a nuclear device, came towards the end of a commission statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The statement was entitled:

“Enter all-out confrontation to safeguard the sovereignty of the nation and people.”

It gave no indication of when the test might be carried out, or explain the meaning of “high-level”. The North’s two previous nuclear tests were held in 2006 and 2009.

Much of the statement was devoted to condemning Tuesday’s announcement by the UN Security Council of expanded sanctions against Pyongyang in response to its long-range rocket launch last month.

AFP

This satellite handout file photo taken on October 16, 2006 and made available on October 24 by South Korea’s Korea Aerospece Research Institute and the Arirang 2 satellite shows a three-dimensional description of North Korea’s suspected nuclear test site in P’unggyeyok Kilju county.

NEWS BRIEFS Clinton: Will use social media to fight Qaeda

Taiwan activists off to Japan-controlled isles

Bulgaria for referendum on new nuclear plant

Mexico frees French woman in kidnap case

WASHINGTON: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised that the US would use the Internet and social media in its fight against AlQaeda and other extremist Islamist groups. The outgoing top diplomat said the US State Department had “started two organizations to deal with countering violent extremism” on the Internet.

TOKYO: A boatload of Taiwanese activists protected by the island’s coastguard was Thursday heading for Japanese-held islands at the centre of a row involving Tokyo, Beijing and Taipei. The seven activists left port in Taiwan on a fishing vessel in the early hours and were expected to arrive around the uninhabited islands about noon.

SOFIA: Polls indicate that Bulgarians will on Sunday vote “yes” to a second nuclear power plant in a referendum, in a closely watched contest between the government and opposition ahead of polls in July. Bulgaria’s first plebiscite since the fall of communism in 1989 concerns reviving a long-delayed project at the northern site of Belene.

MEXICO: A French woman was freed from Mexican prison Wednesday after the Supreme Court ruled that police violated her rights by staging her arrest for kidnapping on national television seven years ago. After facing 60 years in jail, Florence Cassez, 38, took a flight to Paris with her father Bernard.

The entire collection of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets has been spelled out in DNA by scientists in Cambridge to demonstrate the vast potential of genetic storage. Huge quantities of information could be written into specks of DNA and archived for tens of thousands of years, the researchers claim. Also, the scientists made strands of DNA that stored part of an audio file of Martin Luther King’s 1963 speech “I have a dream”.

NUMEROLOGY

1,000

troops from West African countries and Chad have arrived in Mali as pressure grew on Malian troops over summary killings and rights abuses in a French-led assault on Al Qaedalinked groups.

SILVIO CLOSING IN Former premier Silvio Berlusconi’s zealous campaigning is closing the gap between the centre-right and left a month before the Italian general elections, though the scandaltainted media magnate still trails cigar-chomping former Communist Luigi Bersani. “The right has certainly been boosted by Silvio Berlusconi’s television campaign,” poll expert Renato Mannheimer told AFP. Silvio, who is angling for a return to politics in the February 24 and 25 elections, spent 63 hours and 19 minutes campaigning on 54 television and radio programmes.

America’s daughters are just as capable of defending liberty as her sons. Lifting the ban on women in combat is good for our nation.

Tammy Duckworth Democratic lawmaker

13

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

Technology RICH ROCKS

COSMIC BOUNTY The Great Platinum Question

6% The annual supply of platinum is the equivalent of 6% of the Western world’s gold mining.

A US company said it plans to send a fleet of spacecraft into the solar system to mine asteroids for metals and other materials in the hopes of furthering exploration of the final frontier. We take a look at how its success could save us a lot of trouble.

Untapped potential C-TYPE ASTEROIDS Carbonaceous-type asteroid, composed mainly of carbon.

Resources: Water, Ammonia, Methane, Nitrogen M-TYPE ASTEROID Metal-type asteroid, made of pure nickel-iron (stainless steel) Resources: Iron, Nickel, Cobalt, Platinum group metals S-TYPE ASTEROID Stony-type asteroid, made mostly of iron and magnesium ores Resources: Iron, Nickel, magnesium, Titanium

88%

3554 Amun

The proportion of the world’s platinum that comes from just three mines in South Africa

3554 Amun is an M-type Aten asteroid (meaning it crosses Earth's orbit) and a Venuscrosser. It was discovered on 4 March 1986 by Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker at Mount Palomar Observatory. In Mining the Sky, planetary scientist John S Lewis calculated the value of 3554 Amun at $20 trillion dollars.

30 Platinum is 30 times rarer than gold.

$8,000bn HOW TO MINE AN ASTEROID AND LIVE TO TELL THE TALE

30yrs Platinum is expected to be depleted in the next 20 to 30 years.

Strip mining

desired ore to the processing facility.

Material is successively scraped off the surface in a process comparable to strip mining. There is strong evidence that many asteroids consist of rubble piles, making this approach possible.

Magnetic rakes

Shaft mining

Heating

A mine can be dug into the asteroid, and the material extracted through the shaft. This requires precise knowledge to engineer accuracy of astro-location under the surface regolith and a transportation system to carry the

Asteroids with a high metal content may be covered in loose grains that can be gathered by means of a magnet.

For volatile materials in extinct comets, heat can be used to melt and vaporize the matrix.

Self-replicating machines A 1980 NASA study entitled Advanced Automation for Space

Missions proposed a complex automated factory on the Moon that would work over several years to build a copy of itself.

Exponential growth of factories over many years could refine large amounts of lunar regolith.

The power of self-replication is compelling. For example, a 1 kg solar-powered self-replicating machine that takes one month to make a copy of itself would, after just two and a half years (30 doublings), refine over one billion kilograms of asteroidal material without any human intervention.

Is how much Amun’s Iron and Nickel deposits are worth.

Earth’s current deposits are worth $340bn.

$6,000bn Is how much Amun’s Cobalt deposits are worth. Earth’s current deposits are worth $1.3bn.

$6,000bn Is how much Amun’s Platinum deposits are worth. Earth’s current deposits are worth $12bn.

EARTH’S METAL DEPLETION: KEY ELEMENTS NEEDED FOR MODERN INDUSTRY ARE DUE TO RUN OUT IN THE NEXT 100 YEARS

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

Comment A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.

Mark Twain Author

Being Frank Gallagher THE HUMAN CONDITION Dean Williams

O

ur love affair with troubled, flawed (anti) heroes continued this week with the new US TV series The Following making its premiere to positive reviews. Kevin Bacon plays a disgraced FBI agent, Ryan Hardy, recalled to track down an escaped serial killer, he helped catch. So far so formulaic, but you see Bacon is struggling with his inner demons and has turned to drink to help him through it. Like the irrepressible and cringeinducing dipsomaniac Frank Gallagher of Shameless, TV heroes are regressing into reality at fast as their image is sending ratings through the roof.

What is it about these anti-heroes that makes for such riveting viewing? One reason could be that most of us know at least one person in our lives that reflect their selfish pot-boilers. Another is that it’s far easier for us to empathise with them than we would a moral rock with a clear line differentiating right from wrong. That’s probably why Bruce Wayne and Logan garner more support from the young fanboy brigade than Clarke Kent and Peter Parker. Both Wayne and Logan are misfits in society; their moral conundrums are visible, not brushed under a carpet of stoic idealism. We never want to end up like Frank or Ryan, but we can’t deny our curtain-twitching tendencies. When Frank steals his mother’s much-needed painkillers it’s horrifying, but we also know that Frank is an addict, and so somewhere, we make an allowance. We are too judgemental as a species; thankfully we can get rid of that yoke in front of the telly.

HIGH-FLYING THOUGHTS

Looks like the Captain Cool can talk philosophy, too. “When you are going through a lean patch, you get only good deliveries, your edges invariably find those in the slips.” Of all the men in the team, he should know. He’s just out of one and it was a very bad one.

OBAMA AND NETANYAHU

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BACK TO SQUARE ONE FROM THE MIDDLE EAST Stephen Collinson

A

tempestuous US and Israeli election season left Barack Obama and B e n j a m i n Netanyahu back where they started -- staring at each other over a gulf of mistrust and still at odds over Iran.

The US president is in solid political shape after winning a second term in an election in which Netanyahu appeared to root for his foe Mitt Romney, and Republicans used his strained ties with Israel as campaign fodder.

Netanyahu emerged weaker after a rebuke from voters in Tuesday’s polls, but is set to stay on as prime minister, atop a possibly more centrist but less resilient coalition.

So there are new questions for Obama and his soon-to-be secretary of state John Kerry.

-- Does Netanyahu’s more perilous position and Obama’s luxury of not having to face voters again offer the White House new leverage over the Israelis?

-- Will Netanyahu, who may have paid a price for at the polls for Israel’s increasing isolation, adopt a more conciliatory pose towards Obama?

-- How will Netanyahu’s more perilous position impact his strategic calculations as he mulls a unilateral strike on Iran’s nuclear program.

-- Will new centrist factions in Netanyahu’s coalition lend hope to US or Western initiatives on Palestinian statehood?

The answers are on hold until Israeli coalition horsetrading plays out.

For instance, despite the strong showing of the centrist Yesh Atid Party, a right wing group, which would pressure Netanyahu on settlements, could still hold the balance of power.

What is clear is that the

power dynamic between Netanyahu and Obama has changed.

“Two years ago, a year ago, even six months ago, the person who seemed guaranteed to be in office for another term was Netanyahu and not Obama,” said Daniel Levy, an Israel analyst at the New America Foundation.

“Obama is now in office until the beginning of 2017 -that would be a bold prediction to make about Netanyahu.”

With elections behind them, Obama and Netanyahu now face the most crucial test of their relationship as they seek to reconcile common views of the Iranian threat but differing perceptions of its imminence.

“2013 is going to be the year that Netanyahu and Obama, not known for their close personal relationship are going to be brought together ... and grapple (with) this very pressing question,” said David Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Netanyahu wasted no time in naming Iran as his top priority Tuesday, despite having his political wings clipped.

Obama and Netanyahu are at odds over the impact of nuclear sanctions, which Washington says are hammering Tehran’s economy — though they have yet to prompt the Islamic Republic to fold at the negotiating table.

Israel has refused to rule out a unilateral military strike and Netanyahu warned at the United Nations in September Tehran could have enough material for a first bomb by the middle of this year.

Obama, wary of another Middle East war, wants more time for sanctions to squeeze Iran into concessions, but has not ruled out the use of force.

He has repeatedly warned he will not allow Iran to get a “nuclear weapon” -- a more elongated timetable than Israel’s position that Tehran should not be allowed to reach the “ability” to make such a bomb.

EDITORIALS Make them suffer for life

J

ustice Verma’s observations in his report pertaining to punitive measures in cases of sexual offence and rape are very important. Favouring comprehensive amendment to criminal laws, he states that rape, sexual assault, eve-teasing and stalking are matters of concern, not only because of the physical emotional and psychological trauma that they engender in the victim, but also as these are practices being tolerated by a society ostensibly wedded to the rule of law. Now that’s significant, that despite being a machinery in place to redress issues, offences of this nature are rampant and do not deter the perpetrators and society tolerates them, which is proved by the repeated occurrence of rapes and other sexual offences. Justice Verma’s report does not propose death sentence for rapists. Many will be miffed about this.

READERS’ VIEWS

All through the days of protest after the Delhi bus rape, this was one of the main demands, that rapists and sexual offenders deserve no less than death. However, we think that capital punishment is not the answer — whatever be the crime. However, increasing the number of years of the sentence is not the answer, too. There was a report that a man convicted for rape committed it again after he was set free after serving his time shows that a longer jail term won’t help. Offenders should not just be let to see the light of the day. Losing freedom is a far worse punishment than death; capital punishment will be a gift to rapists which will be an instant deliverance from their troubles. They should serve for life in bone-breaking labour camps where life is living death.

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

Editor: Dean Williams

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

tELEVISION

‘ARROW’ SCOOP

Former ER series regular Alex Kingston is joining The CW’s breakout superhero drama Arrow in a recurring guest star role.

The British actress will play Dinah Lance — Laurel’s (Katie Cassidy) mum.

SERIES REVIEW

Manhattan fairy tale

A prequel to the famous Sex and the City series, Carrie Diaries takes you back in time, to a 16-year-old Carrie Bradshaw.

ABC evicts Apt. 23 The low-rated series Apt. 23 is being removed from the network’s primetime schedule.

There’s eight episodes left in the can (13 were ordered and shot this season; plus six were leftover from last season). The network hasn’t decided when/if they’re going to see daylight. The network will air two episodes of the similarly struggling Happy Endings instead. Now, it should be noted here that an ABC rep says the comedy is not cancelled.

KANCHAN AGARWAL kanchan.a@postnoon.com

T

he year is 1984; Carrie lives with her father and younger sister Dorrit Bradshaw. She has her trusted girlfriends Jill Chen, Maggie and Walt Reynolds, a deep love for clothes, shoes and all things fashionable and a dream to chase. The dream of course, is to be a writer in Manhattan.

Three months ago, she lost her mother to cancer and now it is time to go back to high school.

The show starts off with Carrie looking for her mother’s purse so she can keep up the tradition of back-to-school shopping with her mother. However, she can’t find it and knows for sure that her younger sister, a rebellious teenager, has taken it.

If the absence of this one piece to hold onto her mother wasn’t enough, there are those piteous stares at school she has to face. But Carrie is not complaining. New chapters are only unfolding for her. A dashing young man named Sebastian who was also her first kiss last summer has joined her school.

Her father has been thoughtful enough to arrange an internship for her in the city of her dreams—Manhattan. Larissa Loughlin who is the editor of a cutting-edge magazine Interview, helps her explore life in New York and is someone Carrie seems to look up to.

Carrie has still not lost her virginity and has naive ideas about relationships and love.

She is just beginning to find herself, to be who she wants to be.

The responsibility of looking out for her younger sister is on her and she is doing well at it, assuring her that their mum loved them both equally. She has a sexually active friend

CANNED

DID YOU KNOW..

Cher Lloyd

has signed up to guest star in an episode of Big Time Rush. The Want U Back singer and X Factor UK alum will appear in the Nickelodeon series. The episode will see boyband member Jamesand Katie coming up with a lie that he and Lloyd are releasing a new video.

TRENDING...

Maggie who is cheating on her other best friend Walt Reynolds, who is secretly gay. Jill too has just lost her virginity and has had her first heartbreak too.

Like a typical teenage drama, there is also the most popular girl in school Donna LaDonna— who is fashion forward, pretentious and has her nose in Carrie’s business and eyes on her crush pretty much all the time. Sebastian, Carrie’s first kiss, seems to be into her and she likes him too but won’t hurry into it.

The feel of the show is much

the same as in Sex and The City.

It is Carrie’s journey into finding answers and discovering many questions. Anna Sophia Robb who is playing Carrie does not resemble Sarah Jessica Parker much but for her bushy curly hair. The narration by Carrie is just as familiar retaining the spark of SATC. She manages to convey both the youthful innocence of high school and the spirit of a girl who’s grown up too fast.

Women who have loved SATC will like it as long as they are curious about Carrie before

she was a sex columnist. The Carrie Diaries, while using some of stylistic devices of Sex and the City, departs from its predecessor in content. Now, we get more teen drama as it is highly relatable to young girls who are just beginning to deal with their first crush, first love, first heartbreak and the first job! It is a refreshing show nothing like those set in contemporary times which drip of crumbling drama of rich high school students and mess created by technology and social media.

(Episodes available online)

Glee star Chris Colfer has described singing as his “biggest fear”.

The actor has appeared on Fox’s musical series Glee since 2009 but told Vulture that he has “never” conquered his fear of performing in public. “I do [Glee] to conquer my fear, my fear of public singing, and I never actually do conquer it,” he says.

Marcia Gay Harden is to join the cast of The Newsroom. The Oscar-winning actress will replace Rosemarie DeWitt, who was confirmed to be leaving HBO drama. Harden will replace DeWitt in the role of Rebecca Halliday, a lawyer who defends the Atlantis Cable News channel during a lawsuit for wrongful dismissal.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

spotlight

LOUD & CLEAR

Contemporary carnatic rock band from Bangalore AGAM will be performing live at Hard Rock Cafe tonight. Head to the pub for a night of fun and frolic.

KISMET NIGHTS

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The place to be on a Wednesday night is Kismet pub where glamorous ladies and dapper men turn up to let go and have a blast. Spotted were Sofia, Sonal, Yashoda and others.

DANCE-FLOOR DIVAS 3

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1 Ali, Tamanna 2 Karen, Sheeba 3 Lavanya 4 Varshika 5 Piyush, Shreya

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11

12

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6 Kaneka 7 Mahij, Rosi

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11 Tina

8 Yashoda

12 Sofia 13 Sonal

9 Priyanka 10 Anusha

14 Pooja 15 Isha

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JOINT MISSION

Apollo Health City announced the success of minimally invasive knee replacement surgery that was performed by a team of orthopaedic surgeons led by Dr Prabhat Lakkireddi.

SKY HIGH MUSIC

The much-awaited launch of Sky Lounge at Hotel Avasa turned out to be a gala do. Celebrity DJ Nikhil Chinappa performed at the lounge for the after-party.

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

health

TWITTER CAN HELP TRACK DISEASE OUTBREAKS

A bout of flu may prompt people to post their symptoms on Twitter and also enable health officials track the outbreak in real time, says a new study. Brigham Young University researchers sampled 24 million tweets from 10 million users. They determined that accurate location information is available for about 15 per cent of tweets.

OPHTHALMOLOGY

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Treat trachoma on time DEEPASHRI V

deepashri.v@postnoon.com

WHO declares trachoma as the leading cause of preventable blindness in the world, especially in areas with water scarcity and poor health care.

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rachoma is a contagious bacterial infection of the eye caused by Chlamydia trachomatis.

According to World Health Organisation, the infection begins during infancy or childhood and worsens over the years, eventually leading to irreversible blindness by 30 or 40, if left untreated. The eyelids turn inwards and the lashes rub against the eyeball, causing pain and scarring. It can also spread from child to mother or child to child.

The WHO website also calls it the “quiet disease” as it silently progresses over the years, resulting in total blindness if not treated, and re-infections occur even if a person has been treated once.

The infection spreads through contact with infected person (their discharge), infected objects, and sometimes even by certain flies.

According to MedlinePlus, symptoms include cloudy cornea, discharge from the eye, swelling of lymph nodes just in front of the ears, swollen eyelids, and turned-in eyelashes.

“Age is not a criterion,” said Dr Padmaja, an ophthalmologist at Maxivision Eye Hospital.

“There can be watering of the eye, conjunctival discharge, stickiness of the eye and foreign body sensation.”

She said azithromycin or doxycycline is given, along with ointments, for treatment.

“Improper sanitation and crowded conditions are the main cause.

Proper hygiene should be maintained.”

Trachoma is mostly reported

from developing countries. It is very rare to find a case of trachoma these days, said Dr Manoj Chandra Mathur ophthalmologist at Swarup Eye Centre, adding it is still there is some part of sub Himalayan regions.

“Mild cases can be resolved.

Complications occur in older people,” Dr Padmaja said.

“Unless hygiene is maintained, there are chances of re-infection.”

It can be prevented by not shar-

ing towels, clothes are other objects with infected people.

Medscape summarises the treatment strategy listed by WHO. It includes surgical care, antibiotics, facial cleanliness and environmental hygiene (SAFE).

It also recommends oral azithromycin and tetracycline eye ointment. Facial cleanliness is also found to decrease the severity of the disease in children.

ANEWS PP-LYBRIEFS YOURSELF

HOUSECALL

Everyday First Aid HD

Mononucleosis

People do not seek emergencies but emergencies find them! Are you adequately prepared to care for a family member or stranger? Arriving on the scene of an emergency is both time sensitive and stressful.

Whether you are home, on vacation, or in transit, Everyday First Aid HD offers clear, concise and well-organised info.

Mononucleosis is a viral infection causing fever, sore throat, and swollen lymph glands, especially in the neck.

Mononucleosis, or mono, is often spread by saliva and close contact. It is known as "the kissing disease," and occurs most often in those age 15 to 17. However, the infection may develop at any age. Mono is usually linked to the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), but can also be caused by other organisms.

Fact file n

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Trachoma is a bacterial infection of the eye caused by Chlamydia trachomatis. It can lead to total blindness if not treated.

A person who has had trachoma once can be re-infected with the disease if he/she comes in contact with an infected person.

DID YOU KNOW? It takes 200 muscles to walk Your body has about 650 muscles. It doesn't matter that you only care about few of them. You need every one in order to perform the normal functions.

The 200 muscles involved in walking do the job whether you monitor them or not.

n

n

Symptoms include watering of the eye, conjunctival discharge, stickiness of the eye and foreign body sensation, doctors say.

It can be prevented by maintaining proper hygiene and sanitation and not sharing towels, clothes or other objects with an infected person

PIONEERS Edward Jenner As a youth, Edward Jenner noticed that people who caught the relatively harmless disease cowpox did not contract smallpox. In 1796 he inoculated a young boy with matter taken from a dairymaid's fresh cowpox lesions. The boy caught cowpox and, when subsequently inoculated with smallpox, did not contract the deadlier disease. The procedure spread and the death rate from smallpox fell.

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health THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

RESEARCH

STUDY

ALCOHOL MAY ROB you of a deep sleep Drinking was found to increase tiredness by reducing the length of time in deep sleep, which is important in allowing the body and mind to relax.

LONDON: Alcohol may help you fall asleep but it leads to a disrupted night’s rest, a new study has claimed.

Drinking was found to increase tiredness by reducing the length of time in deep sleep, which is important in allowing the body and mind to relax.

Irshaad Ebrahim, of the London Sleep Centre and coauthor of the report, found the higher the consumption of alcohol the less deep - or Rapid eye movement (REM) - sleep takes place.

Lack of proper sleep can have a detrimental effect on concentration, motor skills and memory.

Ebrahim said he hoped the research would help people understand that short-term alco-

Researchers found that though alcohol brings on sleep quicker, it leads to an increase in sleep disturbance in people. hol use only gives the impression of improving sleep and should not be used as a sleep aid, the ‘Daily Mail’ reported.

“Alcohol on the whole is

sleep. “This review confirms that the immediate and short-term impact of alcohol is to reduce the time it takes to fall asleep,” Ebrahim said.

“In addition, the higher the dose, the greater the impact on increasing deep sleep. This effect on the first half of sleep may be partly the reason some people with insomnia use alcohol as a sleep aid,” Ebrahim added.

“However, the effect of consolidating sleep in the first half of the night is offset by having more disrupted sleep in the second half of the night,” he said.

The study will be published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

PTI

Doctor’s Corner I am 32 and pregnant with my first child. My doctor asked me to get a triple test and my friends tell me there is a double marker and a quad test also. Which should I get done?

The body, as it makes a baby, has certain levels of chemicals that it releases into the mother’s blood. These hormones or chemical markers are tested at specific intervals to let us know if the growing foetus is alright.

There are different changes in the marker levels with refer-

not useful for improving a whole night’s sleep,” researcher Chris Idzikowski, of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre, added.

“Sleep may be deeper to start with, but then becomes disrupted. Additionally, that deeper sleep will probably promote snoring and poorer breathing. So, one shouldn’t expect better sleep with alcohol,” Idzikowski said.

The research found that at all dosages, alcohol brings on sleep quicker, but leads to an increase in sleep disruption in the second half of

Fast food linked to asthma, eczema WELLINGTON: Eating fast food thrice a week or more elevates the risk of asthma and eczema, while eating fruit with the same frequency provides a protective effect, says a study.

The findings of the research led by professor Innes Asher and Philippa Ellwood from the University of Auckland’s department of paediatrics could have huge implications for public health.

Data was collected on more than 319,000 teenagers (13-14 years of age) from 107 centres in 51 countries, and more than 181,000 children (6-7 year-olds) from 64 centres in 31 countries, the respiratory journal Thorax reports.

All the participants were involved in the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC).

The teenagers and their parents were quizzed about the prevalence of symptoms of asthma (wheeze), rhinoconjunctivitis (runny or blocked nose accompanied by itchy and watery eyes) and eczema, and about their weekly diet.

These included meat, fish, fruits and vegetables, pulses, cereals, bread and pasta, rice, butter, margarine, nuts, potatoes, milk, eggs, and fast food/burgers.

Participants were asked to assign their consumption of each of these foods to one of the following categories: never; occasionally; once or twice a week; three or more times a week.

After taking account of factors likely to influence results, the analysis showed that fast food was the only food type to show the same associations across both age groups, prompting the authors to suggest that “such consistency adds some weight to the possible causality of the relationship”.

IANS

Dr Divya T Sudarshan

WHICH PREGNANCY TEST TO GO FOR?

ence to different periods of gestation, maternal age and chromosomal anomalies.

The test can screen trisomy 21 (Downs syndrome). The triple and quadruple tests screen for foetal trisomy 18 (Edward`s syndrome), open neural tube defects, and may also detect an increased risk of turner syndrome[X0], triploidy, trisomy 16, mosaicism, and

enzyme deficiencies. The double marker (for alpha feto protein AFP and HCG) is usually done at a fetal age of 11-13 weeks. The triple marker test is best done between 15-20 weeks and checks for AFP, HCG and unconjugated estriol. The levels of independent markers, help predict Downs syndrome or neural tube defects. The values in the case of multiple

pregnancies are different, thus a scan is always mandatory before the test. The quadruple marker is the triple marker with another test for INHIBIN, which helps to differentiate between trisomy 18 and 21.

This is a screening test and therefore its predictive value is less than amnioscentess and chorion villus biopsy, which are better for confirming a

diagnosis. The only negative is both these are invasive, and have a potential risk of abortion and injury. Speak to your doctor about your doubts, and go ahead with it.

The writer is a gynaecologist and obstetrician at Happy Women Clinic. You can write in to her at happywomenclinic@gmail.com or call her on 9959729444

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

Entertainment CINE BYTES

Nara Rohit’s new film launched

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new film starring Nara Rohit and Regina Cassandra was launched earlier today in Prasad Labs, Hyderabad. The film is going to be directed by Tatineni Satya and it is being touted as an action thriller. RVCH Prasad and KS Rama Rao are producing the film.

Nikhil croons for Swamy Ra Ra

Pawan Kalyan is back in action

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he principal shooting of Pawan Kalyan’s new film began yesterday. Trivikram Srinivas is directing this family entertainer and it also stars Samantha and Praneetha Subhash in lead roles. The film will also be shot in Spain at a later point of time.

N

ikhil has turned singer for his upcoming film Swamy Ra Ra. He has sung a song along with Swati, who’s the lead actress in the film.

The duo even sang the song at the audio launch held last night at Taj Deccan, Hyderabad. Sudheer Verma has directed the film.

WHO WILL WIN BIG?

TOLLYWOOD GEARS UP

FOR AN UNUSUAL FEBRUARY AHEAD

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record number of new releases featuring some top stars are lined for release in February.

Traditionally, most of the big budgeted films or those featuring top stars vie for audience’s attention in January and it’s quite uncommon to see a film starring the likes of Ram and

Prabhas releasing in February.

This year, Naayak and Seethamma Vaakitlo Sirimalle Chettu occupied almost all the screens in Andhra Pradesh in January for nearly two weeks and from this week onwards several films which were in queue are getting a wide release. Shatruvu, Vetadu Ventadu and Vishwaroopam are lined for release this week.

Starting from February 1, audience in AP will be spoilt for choice with films like Ongole Githa, Kadali, David, Any Body Can Dance, Mirchi, Jabardasth, Gundello Godari, D for Dopidi, Swamy Ra Ra, Naughty Boys, Bad Boy, Gauravam, Bangadu Kodi Petta and few more films lined up for release.

Last year, Poola Rangadu and

Ishq did quite well at box office out of 11 releases, whereas in 2011, films like Aha Naa Pellanta and Prema Kavali went on to become hits at box office and Gaganam was very well received.

In 2010, Leader and Ye Maya Chesave grabbed people’s attention out of 9 releases and in 2009 only Koncham Ishtam Koncham

Kashtam was a noticeable release in February. There’s a lot at stake for Tollywood and producers of all these films which are lined up for release in February. It remains to be seen if any of these films pull out at the last minute, but all said and done, it’s going to be quite an uphill task to get people back to theatres in February.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

fashion

RETIRING FASHION

J CREW IS retiring first lady Michelle Obama and daughter Malia’s fashions from inauguration day.

"The lady day coat that Malia was wearing has been in our line for years, and we'll continue that. But we'll retire the colour," the company's creative director, Jenna Lyons, told TODAY. "We won't do the colour again, just out of respect for the first family.”

The writer SURABHI CHAUHAN feedback@postnoon.com

is a fashion blogger (www.lovestruckcow.blogspot.com) who attempts to bridge the gap between creator and consumer. As a fashion writer, she hopes to promote Indian fashion among Indians and on a global level too.

Couture

GIAMBATTISTA VALLI

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alli made a signature style for himself early on in his career that very few have been able to achieve. The future looks bright for the Italian designer and the Couture collection 2013 was another sign of his creative prowess. Bell shaped shirts and sculpted jackets in a variety of colours and fabrics. The show opened with a black and white animal print silk jacket that could double as a couture dress. Valli is also recognised for his feminine floral motifs and applique work, which was seen this season as well. The dresses varied from short cape like to vintage below the knee silhouettes. Adding to the luxe element was the intricate gold and bronze floral motif jewelled headgear, neckpieces and belts.

The cascading hemlines amped up the style quotient, not that the beautiful detailing and fabrics were not sufficient.

CHANEL CHRISTIAN DIOR

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his was Raf Simons’ second couture showing at the house of Dior and it is pretty safe to say the critics have given their go ahead to the genius’ talent at the iconic Parisian house. This couture show had a bit more exuberance and flounce than last year while keeping intact the skillful tailoring of Raf and DNA of Dior. Models sported a cropped hairdo with crystallized lips and an otherwise clean face. The runway designed around a garden highlighted the beautiful shapes of the garments as they sat on the female body. The floral beading details somehow made a fresh impact. Raf Simons has already set a new landmark designing couture for Dior.

K

arl Lagerfeld’s latest collection for Chanel paid homage to William Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. In true Chanel style, the stage was a grand setting of a forest. The fashion was however hardly referential to the past, perhaps only to the part where it never showed much skin. The genius of Lagerfeld lies in recreating the heritage

22&23

H&M CONSCIOUS COLLECTION

VANESSA PARADIS is the new face of H&M's Conscious collection. The Vogue cover girl stars in the new campaign for the ethical clothing range — part of H&M's "ongoing commitment to a more sustainable fashion future". Paradis models a series of womenswear apparel and accessories in the campaign — pieces due to land in-store from March.

extravaganza

Here is a look at the highlights from the Haute Couture 2013 shows held in Paris earlier this week.

GIORGIO ARMANI PRIVE

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he Asian influence over Armani continues with slick silk pants and matching blouse-jackets. Armani Prive is for the put together power women who know their style sensibility and who live on fuel from the couture house for fresh designs. The predominant colour tones were steel gray and silver with rich geometric patterns in the auspicious tone of red. Intrinsic beadwork seen on hand held purses and blouses was the main differentiator from the House’s ready to wear line. The usual sleek lines of straight cut pants and blouse were given a break with peplum and flouncy pleats on gowns.

Perhaps the entire collection was best summed up by the concluding look of a strapless maroon gown that the model glided in onto the runway, which on a closer take highlighted intrinsic beaded diamante work all over.

VERSACE

S of such an iconic brand season after season without repeating. The signature tweed in colours like black, ivory, crème, snow-white were the predominant looks.

The highlights were the wild flowers motifs dresses and gowns in organza, chiffon, lace and sequins. The closing looks comprised of precious wedding dresses in white with delicate feathers and pearl beading detailing.

ignature Versace style translated into expensive couture.

The show though with fewer pieces than most couture shows was fast to communicate what they were feeling for Couture 2013. Short, tight, skin revealing, gold and fur in a few words was what the show was about.

Donatella Versace has recently been reflecting on the 80s signature Gianni Versace sensibility successfully. This was another example of the same. Strong looks with hand detailing and ornamentation were seen. Neon fur was used on dresses and jackets. Belted waists with the company logo medusa head. The hair and make-up were strong as well with focus on eyes and hair swept back. This would be an easy choice for an opulent hip hop artist or for wearing while party hopping at night.

Entertainment THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

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Entertainment THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

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THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

Chai Time

Play & Win

Please send in your filled-in entries to Postnoon, #1246, Level 3, Jubilee Casa, Road No 62, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad – 500033. The winners will be announced on this page in Sunday’s edition.

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

Some cells will contain two numbers.

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

QUICK CROSSWORD enced by the number.

Within each collection of cells — called a run — any of the numbers 1 to 9 may be used but, like sudoku, each number may only be used once.Let’s have an example to explain this concept more clearly: In the image above, which shows a section of a kakuro puzzle, you will see the numbers ‘26’ and ‘14’ in the top row. Look at the 14. This means that the total of the three cells underneath must sum to 14. Therefore 9, 4, 1 could be the answer, or perhaps 7, 4, 3 and so

on...

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

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

Play & Win

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ACROSS

SCRIBBLING PAD

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SUDOKU

PREVIOUS PUZZLE ANSWER

26

Play & Win voucher from VENKEY’S VEG Restaurant, Nampally

1 Russian summer home 6 Marshy areas 10 Spider-Man’s creations 14 Received by ear 15 Hurry-up acronym 16 Rescuer, eg 17 Baby bird?

18 Smudge 19 Diva’s performance 20 Buffalo Bob Smith’s puppet 22 Arena level 23 Zodiac lion 24 Also-rans 26 Feature of new bedsheets 30 Amphibious South American rodent 32 King’s position, in a game 33 Cherished 35 ___-ski party (lodge gathering, perhaps) 39 Luminous 41 Cell stuff, for short 42 Drug used in treating Parkinson’s 43 Titled Turk 44 Wallpaper unit 46 Subject to further consideration 47 Greet the dawn 49 Was the host of 51 Diminish

54 Another Turkish title 55 Exude 56 Carol Channing musical 63 Currency of Samoa 64 Make a long story short?

65 ‘Farewell’ 66 Handle of a sword 67 Auberjonois of ‘Benson’ 68 Edible mushroom 69 ‘Will there be anything ___?’

70 Certain Ga Tech grad 71 Undo, as writing

DOWN

1 It’s a smidgen in the kitchen 2 Garage contents 3 Cornfield bird 4 Brain-busting 5 Carbon-based free radicals 6 Hindu gentleman (Var) 7 Capital of Norway 8 Flashy trinket 9 In a nimble manner 10 Question from Bugs Bunny 11 Like ‘Tales from the Darkside’ 12 Thorny patch (Var) 13 Ascends to a height 21 Safe document

25 Fiery gem 26 Crack and redden in the cold 27 Letts live here 28 90-degree building extensions 29 Words on a Hawaiian license plate 30 Boat that’s paddled 31 Verbal exam 34 Screws up 36 Climbing gear 37 Summer Games sword competition 38 Beach feature 40 Suffix with ‘soft’ or ‘flat’ 45 Toy building block brand 48 Answer from a different room 50 Bovary or Butterfly 51 River of forgetfulness 52 It may have an attachment 53 Places to cool pies 54 Change to fit 57 Sistine Chapel depiction 58 Suffix with ‘weak’ or ‘Earth’ 59 Nose detection 60 Italian coin, once 61 Cask dregs 62 Christmas season

Chai Time THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013 Thiruvaikumar

STAR POWER for 25-1-2013

27

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

ARIES

TAURUS

GEMINI

CANCER

LEO

VIRGO

LIBRA

SCORPIO

SAGITTARIUS

CAPRICORN

AQUARIUS

PISCES

You look very active, hale and healthy. Your influence will see an upward trend. Undertaken journey will bring desirable results. Students will do well in studies. Those expecting admission in institutions abroad are likely to get favourable news.

STRIP TEASE AGNES

Your administrative skills will bring name and fame. Many friends and wellwishers seek your advice. You will march ahead by keeping enemies at bay. Those in love will succeed.

If planning a new venture, start it and success will be yours.

Those involved in foreign trade will be big gainers. Media persons and artists will have handful of good opportunities and move forward with determination. Businessmen are likely to face minor losses if proper focusing is not done.

Unexpected financial gain is likely. Creative skills will be at its high and you will receive overwhelming response from all circles. Your charisma is set to improve, which will help you achieve goals both at home and office. You excel in organising.

Your kind gesture and timely help extended to friends, wellwishers and close relatives will now help you in a difficult phase. Couples are advised to support their children, which will cheer them. Promotion or additional responsibility likely.

Surprisingly you gain through enemies. Be alert and clear all obstacles that come your way when carrying out big assignments without giving up. Some have a bright chance to buy a new car. Romantic relationships will get closer.

Businessmen will see a flourishing time and profits are likely to jump. You will also involve in devotional and charitable activities, which will bring you a good name. Artists face a very good time. A trip abroad will materialise now.

Health needs to be taken care of immediately and properly to avoid major problems. Insurance agents and FMCG traders will make good gains. You need to value friends and wellwishers’ feelings and spend time, which will cheer them.

Businessmen will do well by putting in earnest effort. You will be attracted by members of the opposite sex bringing you cheer. Avoid unwanted apprehensions that might bog you down. The medical fraternity will have a good time.

TAROT READ

Sumaa Tekur

tarotreadhyd@gmail. com

ARIES:

GEMINI:

Queen of Wands – You’re happiest when you’re surrounded by people you like. They shower you with attention and you love when the spotlight is on you.

LEO:

Ten of Swords – Are you having nightmares about something from your past? It may be a fear or some worry about the future.

Learn to relax and de-stress.

LIBRA:

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE

Knight of Cups – You’re feeling sullen but may not be able to identify the cause. Make use of your emotions to understand yourself better. Don’t hurt anyone.

SAGITTARIUS:

The Moon – You and your significant other are going through some ups and downs.

This difficult phase brings you closer together and your bond deepens.

TAURUS:

Temperance – You’re on a short fuse and tend to snap easily. Exercise patience, especially when meeting clients or work associates. Reputation is at stake.

CANCER:

Ten of Cups – This is family time. You feel emotional about your family members and are in the mood to go the extra mile for them.

VIRGO:

Nine of Cups – This is a lucky phase and what you need and wish for is coming your way. Take Make sure you really need what you’re wishing for.

SCORPIO:

The Sun – Your cheer and happiness are infectious.

People around you will draw this positive energy from you. Health is doing great. Don’t worry about it.

CAPRICORN:

Five of Swords – Avoid arguments and conflicts that don’t really matter and won’t get you anywhere. You might be feeling a little low today. Cheer up!

PREVIOUS SOLUTIONS

PISCES:

Two of Swords – You need to make a strong decision about something important. Ignoring the problem will not make it go away. Take a stand and go with it.

NUMBER GAME

– You’re worrying about what you haven’t done instead of just doing it.

Focus on the action points rather than dwelling on the amount of work.

SCRABBLE

AQUARIUS: Ten of Wands

POOCH CAFE

You take bold but wise decisions, which will definitely yield better results. Relatives, wellwishers and friends will be happy with your actions. Delayed marriage talks will resume and end favourably. Your pleasant approach cheers all.

for 25-1-2013

Two of Wands – Things may not go as planned today.

But then, not every day can plans go perfectly. Keep a Plan B and work around delays and obstacles.

NON SEQUITUR

Professionals like lawyers and doctors have a flourishing time.

Some will change residence to a place more comfortable.

Employees will be very successful in discharging their duties and get recognition from the management.

SUDUKO

Those wishing to go abroad either for studies or career can start planning as the time is ripe for it. Some have a bright chance to buy jewels or house.

Never go after money; value friends and wellwishers. Health might need urgent attention.

Boggle LEAK DRIP SINK PIPE WATER DRAIN Vol: 2, No 188 RNI No: APENG/2011/39337 Published for the proprietors, Scribble Media and Entertainment Pvt Ltd, by V Harshavardhan Reddy, at #1246, Level 3, Jubilee Casa, Road No 62, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad – 500033 and printed by him at Jagati Publications Ltd, Plot No D-75&E-52, APIE Industrial Estate, Balanagar, Ranga Reddy Dist, Hyderabad – 500037, Editor: Dean Williams – Responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act All rights reserved.

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

28

Entertainment THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

THE RIGHT KIND OF ROLE

CINE BYTES

Modelled to be a hero SUNORY DUTT feedback@postnoon.com

I

f you’re a supermodel who rules the circuit and has pretty much done everything possible from numerous print ads to 10 seasons of fashion weeks and commercials for multinational brands, what’s next? The best bet would be to either model internationally or give Bollywood a shot. Namit Khanna willingly chose the latter.

And with the shift in focus came an opportunity to star in Vikram Pradhan’s Bang Bang Bangkok, which releases in June this year. Says Namit, “It's important for me to work with the right kind of people on my first film and that played a vital role in my decision-making. So besides being one of the most hilarious scripts I’ve ever read, the conviction and belief that Vikram had in me from our very first meeting made me sign the film.”

But Namit didn’t jump in feet first into the big picture. He’s equipped himself well with an acting course conducted by noted theatre director and teacher Barry John, and also enrolled in various dance classes knowing that it would eventually come handy. Namit believes, “No hard work is ever wasted. I continued working as a model but my perseverance to make that transition continued wholeheartedly knowing that I’d do a movie without any

Making a calculated transition from the ramp to the big screen, Namit Khanna might just be the next superstar.

Govinda’s comedy is rustic, says Juhi Chawla

A

ctress Juhi Chawla, who has entertained audiences with her impeccable comic timing in many films, says she is a great fan of Govinda when it comes to comedy. "His lifestyle is also like any common man. He does all that what his fans like. So I really think he is a fine actor," she added.

IANS

Priyanka not worried about release delay

A

doubt. It was only a matter of time. So the rounds of auditions, meetings etc continued and I kept learning from each experience.”

More than just eye candy, this cool dude’s got as much brain as brawn. Armed with a degree in Business Administration from Kingston University, London, Namit put his knowledge in marketing, branding and advertising to good use at Ogilvy & Mather, Delhi, over two years. In the midst of the fulltime job Namit also took up modelling assignments: “Eventually it became hard for me to juggle both careers so I quit and moved to Mumbai in 2007.”

He’s also an avid photographer with a keen eye for detail: “As I had the good fortune to work with some of the best national and international photographers, I’d always observe them and ask questions both technical and generic. That’s how I continued to nourish my passion for photography. Every chance I got to travel for work was an opportunity to enhance my photography skills. I love the fact that I’m able to capture a moment of life for eternity.

Revisiting those moments is sheer bliss.”

In an industry obsessed with appearances how does Namit deal with all the admiration? “Only few people can actually point out the ads that they’ve seen me in, for the rest it’s just a sense of déjà vu.

I’m not a celebrity yet for people to recognise who I am. Being a top model in India doesn't mean much to the masses. But I believe being as grounded as possible is the key to succeed and withstand any storms or obstacles that will come in the future. The deeper the roots in the ground of a tree, the higher it grows. I’m training myself to become a man who doesn’t get swayed by admiration or criticism.”

ctress Priyanka Chopra is elated that her much delayed movie Deewana Main Deewana is now set for release and says the long gap hasn't lessened her enthusiasm for the film."When a film takes a lot of time, there are many reasons — why it happened and how it happened but that doesn't mean that the hard work and the love you have poured in that film will lessen," the 31-yearold said.

IANS

Tiger Shroff finally gets a leading lady

I

t's been six months since Tiger Shroff's debut in Sabir Khan's Heropanti was announced. A leading lady has finally been found for Jackie Shroff's son — she is model-actress Kriti Sanon.

The film was all set to take off this month without a leading lady for Tiger. All the reports claiming that Suniel Shetty's daughter is a prime candidate for the heroine's position were false. It was Kriti who was finalised for the role.

IANS

sports

29

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

NBA

BOXING

Lakers lose in Memphis Howard played only 14m before being injured, managing a mere two points, and with him gone, Memphis defeated the Lakers 106-93.

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE: Los Angeles Lakers centre Dwight Howard (right) again injured his right shoulder on Wednesday in the second quarter of their 106-93 loss at Memphis, the struggling club’s 10th loss in 12 games.

Hours after Howard vowed to “bring it” against the Grizzlies to show that the injury-hit Lakers could achieve the greatness once expected of them, the big man re-aggravated a torn labrum in the shoulder 2:21 before half-time.

The shoulder, which Howard injured January 4 when he tangled with Caron Butler of the Los Angeles Clippers, will be examined by doctors in Los Angeles on Thursday.

The Lakers fell to 17-25, their second-worst 42-game start to a season

since moving from Minneapolis to California in 1960. The only worse start was a 14-28 effort in 1993-94 and that team failed to reach the playoffs.

It was the fourth loss in a row for the Lakers and their seventh consecutive road defeat, the team’s worst losing streak away from home in eight seasons.

Kobe Bryant, who led the Lakers with 29 points, was so angry at having a shot blocked in the fourth quarter that he swung his right fist in the air in frustration to draw a technical foul.

Memphis improved to 27-14, fourth in the Western Conference, with Darrell Arthur coming off the bench to lead the Grizzlies with 20 points.

AFP

HYDERABAD TRACK WORK

Manyatta in impressive form Manyatta, Shivalik Star, Tintinnabulation, Decathlon, Plenipotent and Our Mascot impressed when horses exercised at Malakpet.

Winning Strides (rb) 57, 600/42 Moved well. Okai Okai Okai (rb) 58, 600/44 Easy. Best Pal (rb) 57, 600/43 Urged. Sincara (ImranKhan) 57.5, 600/43 Moved on the bit. Gold Medal (Anil) 58, 600/43 Unextended. Nano Storm (Ajit Kumar) 58, 600/44 Urged.

Genius Empress (Ravinder Singh) 57, 600/43 Moved well. Al Sarraah (Kiran Naidu) 58.5, 600/44 Moved freely. Fighting Fit (S Nayak) Globe Trotter (Parmar) 1-2, 600/46 They moved freely.

Manyatta (D.Grant) 54, 600/40 Impressed. Shivalik Star (N Rawal) 55, 600/39.5 Caught the eye.

Kohinoor Revanta (Ravinder Singh) 55.5, 600/40.5 Moved well.

Kohinoor Desire (N Rawal) 1-1, 600/46 Easy. Brianna (rb) 1-2, 600/45 Easy. Deal Maker (Anil) 11, 600/45 Moved freely. Sporting Star (Deep Shanker) 58, 600/43 Un-extended.

Aphrodisiac (rb) 56, 600/42 Pleased. Shadow In The Mist (Ravinder Singh) 1-2.5, 600/47 Easy. Pacific Star (Joshi) 57, 600/43 Moved well. Speed Striker (K Alam) 1-1, 600/45 Easy. Our Mascot (Imran Khan) 54, 600/40 Caught the eye. Khabza (M Mark) 57.5, 600/44 Moved well. Blazing Asian (Chary) 56, 600/42 Moved attractively. Azaiba (Joshi) 1-1, 600/46 Easy. One One One (app) 1-1, 600/45 Handy. Khalis Gold (rb) 59, 600/45 Easy. Vijays Best (Ravinder Singh) 54, 600/40.5 Moved fluently. Vijays Winner

(Tograllu) 58, 600/44 Handy.

Scubarioo (rb) Riverdale (Kuldeep Singh) 57, 600/41 They finished together. Fastest Finger (Joshi) 58, 600/42 Moved on the bit. Any Given Time (P Venkat) 58, 600/42 Moved well. Ocean Side (Kuldeep Singh) Bloody Mary (rb) 55.5, 600/41 They finished together. Ice Barrier (Anil) Lona Dona (rb) 56.5,600/42 Former finished in front. Fairy Emperor (rb) 55, 600/41 Pleased. Par Excellence (Parmar) Exclusive (S Nayak) 58, 600/42 Former finished in front.

Plenipotent (Ravinder Singh) 52.5 600/38.5 Caught the eye.

Midnight in Paris (K Alam) 3y.MullOf Kintyre/Serious Trouble (Parmar) 57, 600/41 They moved together. Garibaldi (S Nayak) 58, 600/42 Speedy. Aware (rb) Lucy Diamond (Ramana) 58.5, 600/43 They finished together. Smashing Beauty (rb) Saint Luis (Nitin Singh) 1-1, 600/45 They moved freely.

Golden Rule (Kuldeep Singh) 58.5, 600/44 Moved on the bit. Ciel Blue (Kiran Naidu) Spirited (Chary) 1-3, 600/46 They finished together. Shamrock Lady (P Venkat) Laguna Beach (Joshi) 1-0, 600/46 They moved freely. Golden Art (Ajit Kumar) 58, 600/43 Urged.

Amicable Advisory (rb) True Haven (Ravinder Singh) 1-2, 600/46 They finished together.

Wow O Wow (Joshi) 55, 600/41 Pleased. Brahmani (app) Devils Advocate (rb) 59, 600/45 They moved freely.

Sand track 1000 metres Over Shadow (rb) 1-14, 800/59, 600/46 Easy. Prince Of Arabia (S Nayak) Perfect (rb) 1-14, 800/57.5, 600/44 They moved together.

Vijaysheel (Tograllu) 1-13, 800/57, 600/44 Moved on the bit. Home Town (Imran Khan) 1-14, 800/58, 600/44 Moved freely. So Super (Chary) 1-12, 800/55, 600/41 Pleased. Goldie (S Nayak) Sherman Oaks (Parmar) 112.5,800/55, 600/41 They moved well and finished together.

Allendale (rb) 1-17, 800/1-1, 600/45 Easy. Big Boss (Kuldeep Singh) Grenada (rb) 1-12, 800/56.5, 600/42 A fit pair. Winds Of Glory (Joshi) Play The Music (P Venkat) 1-16, 800/1-0, 600/45 They moved together.

Sand track 1200 metres Decathlon (Joshi) 1-27.5,1000/111.5, 800/55.5,6 00/42.5 Moved on the bit. Westminister (rb) 1-31, 1000/1-17 800/1-2, 600/48 Easy.

Amber Flame (app) 1-33.5, 1200/600 in 43.5 Moved freely.

Sheikhs Emperor (Ajit Kumar) 132, 1000/1-17, 800/1-1, 600/45 Easy. Light Blue Sky (Imran Khan) Skylight Express (Chary) 1-28.5, 1000/1-12.5, 800/57.5, 600/41.5 They moved well and finished together. Tintinnabulation (Ravinder Singh) 1-23, 1000/1-7, 800/52, 600/39 An attractive display. Roma Rouge (Henrique) 133, 1000/1-18, 800/1-1, 600/45 Urged.

Olympic champ Zou turns pro

LOS ANGELES: Twotime Olympic champion and three-time world amateur champion Zou Shiming is becoming a professional boxer, with US promoter Bob Arum announcing on Wednesday that he has signed the Chinese star.

“Zou is an incredible talent who is beloved in China,” Arum said. “We will make every effort to make certain that he has a spectacular career as a professional.”

The 31-year-old fighter won Olympic light flyweight gold at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics after taking a

bronze in Athens in 2004.

He won world amateur crowns in 2005, 2007 and 2011. Zou became China’s first Olympic boxing medalist, first world amateur boxing champion and first Olympic boxing champion.

LEAGUE CRICKET Andhra emerge champs South zone interstate under-14 cricket tournament Round 5, Day 2 Hyderabad 206 in 89.5 overs Beat Tamil Nadu 194 in 87.3 overs (U Mukilesh 35, M Leo Sachin 61, Sohail 3 for 53, Surya Teja 2 for 46) Kerala 226 in 88.2 overs Beat Goa 101 in 58.1 overs

(Manthan Khutkar 28, Vrusaj Talaulikar 42, Advath Murali 5 for 28) Final standing (team, name, matches, won, lost, points Andhra Hyderabad Tamil Nadu Kerala Goa

4 4 4 4 4

4 3 2 1 0

0 1 2 3 4

16 12 8 4 0

HOCKEY INDIA LEAGUE Waveriders beat Rhinos RANCHI: Rupinder Pal Singh scored twice as Delhi Waveriders maintained their unbeaten record in the Hero

Hockey India League by beating Ranchi Rhinos 5-4 in a thrilling match here on Wednesday.

PTI

TRIPLE DELIGHT

Aakula Sreeja of Global Table Tennis Academy displays the three medals she won at the sub-junior nationals held in Gandhidham (Gujarat) earlier this week. The AP team spearheaded by Sreeja won gold.

sports

30

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

AUSTRALAIN OPEN

NA SHOCKS SHARAPOVA, IN FINAL MELBOURNE: China’s Li Na stormed into the final of the Australian Open Thursday with a straight-sets upset win over Maria Sharapova, leaving her one victory away from her second major title.

Li defeated the world number two 6-2, 6-2 in 1hr 33min and will now meet the winner of Thursday’s second semi-final between world number one Victoria Azarenka and American teenager Sloane Stephens.

“Every time I’m back in Australia, I always feel something here,” said Li, the 2011 runnerup. “I always play well here.

Everyone can be nervous in a final, so I have to enjoy it. I’m looking forward to the final.”

Sharapova had lost only nine games in her march to the semi-finals but Li was going to provide a far sterner test despite trailing 4-8 in their head-to-

head. And Sharapova started disastrously with consecutive double faults as she was broken in the opening game.

Sharapova could have returned to world number one if she had won her second Australian Open title, but Li’s ball-striking had her on the back foot from the beginning.

Benefiting from her intense off-season fitness training under new coach Carlos Rodriguez, Li was untroubled by sweltering heat in Melbourne and broke for a second time to take a 4-1 lead.

Her serving was steady, and her groundstrokes were probing. Two close video rulings went against Li, and Sharapova retrieved one of the service breaks, only to hand it straight back. China’s 2011 French Open champion closed out the opening set in 48 minutes.

AFP

Bryan bros close in on Grand Slam record Statistics:

Li Na (CHN x6) bt Maria Sharapova (RUS x2) 6-2, 6-2 Time: 1hr 33min Li Na Sharapova 2 Aces 3 1 Double Faults 6 21 Winners 17 18 Unforced Errors 32 5/10 Break Point Conversions 1/7 74 Total Points Won 58

Women ‘more unstable emotionally’: Tsonga “But, I mean, it’s just about hormones and all this stuff. We don’t have all these bad things, so we are physically in good shape every time, and you (women) are not. That’s it.”

Men’s tennis has an established ‘Big Four’ in Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal, and the top four men’s seeds are into the Australian Open semi-finals.

“In tennis, you cannot lie.

You cannot lie. If they are number one, number two, number three, number four, it’s because they deserve it and because they are the best players at the

MELBOURNE: France’s JoWilfried Tsonga has risked igniting a gender relations storm by provocatively suggesting women’s players are more “unstable emotionally” than the men.

Tsonga, speaking after he bowed out of the Australian Open quarters against Roger Federer, was asked why the women’s game does not have a settled top three or four like the men.

“You know, the girls, they are more unstable emotionally than us. I’m sure everybody will say it’s true, even the girls,” he said, to laughter in the press room.

“No? No, you don’t think?

moment,” Tsonga said.

Federer, when asked about the phenomenon, said women’s tennis was “not far off”.

Azarenka, Sharapova and Serena have recently emerged as a dominant trio.

“They’re not that far off. Of course, Serena’s ranking wasn’t always what it was supposed to be, let’s say, so that obviously broke the mould,” he said. “For us, it’s become very much a game of movement. Maybe the top guys just move a tiny bit better than the rest of the guys. I’m not sure about that, but seems like it.”

AFP

MELBOURNE: America’s Bryan brothers reached the Australian Open semi-finals Wednesday as they neared a new all-time record for Grand Slam men’s doubles titles.

The identical twins, 34, beat Italy’s Daniele Bracciali and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy 6-3, 7-5 to reach Thursday’s semis, where they will attempt to reach their 23rd Grand Slam final.

Victory in Melbourne would give the Bryans a new record of 13 major titles. They currently share the record of 12 with the Australian pairing of John Newcombe and Tony Roche.

The top seeds will play the unseeded Italian duo of Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini on Rod Laver Arena on Thursday.

The other semi-final pits Spanish Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez against the Netherlands’ Robin Haase and Igor Sijsling, who are unseeded.

In the women’s, Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, fresh from their defeat of Serena and Venus Williams, beat Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 6-2, 6-4 to book a berth in the final.

They will face the winner of the second semi-final, in which Australians Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua face China’s Zheng Saisai and American Varvara Lepchenko.

AFP

Federer, Murray in semis clash ROBERT SMITH Agence France-Presse

MELBOURNE: Roger Federer survived a searching examination from Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to win a gripping five-setter and set up an Australian Open semi-final showdown with Andy Murray on Wednesday.

Federer was pushed all the way and needed five match points before dousing seventh-seeded Tsonga to win 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 7-

6 (7/4), 3-6, 6-3 in 3hr 34min. His victory has set up a rematch of last year’s Wimbledon final with Murray in Friday’s semi-final.

World number one Novak Djokovic will play Spanish fourth seed David Ferrer in the other semi-final on Thursday.

It was Federer’s composure under pressure that won the day in the fifth set against the explosive Frenchman, who frequently gave the Swiss major problems with his big serve and all-court

It was Federer’s composure under pressure that won the day in the fifth set against the explosive Frenchman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. game. Federer handled the tension of the deciding set and got a crucial break in the fourth game to take control, but was forced to

five match points before he could put Tsonga away to improve his five-set record to 21-16.

“It was a tough close, for sure, the whole match was tough and any set could have gone either way,” Federer said. “It’s tough because you never know what Joe is going to come up with. I hit three great serves there in the fifth set and every time he got them back, and that’s what he can do and that’s why he remains dangerous throughout a match.”

Roger Federer celebrates after beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga during their singles match of the Australian Open on Wednesday.

AFP/MANAN VATSYAYANA

sports

31

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

ENGLAND’S TOUR OF INDIA

Rohit, Raina steer India to victory India rode on the heroics of Rohit and Raina to script a comfortable win.

MOHALI: India clinched the one-day series against England as the hosts rode on the batting heroics of Rohit Sharma (83) and Suresh Raina (89 not out) to fashion a comfortable five-wicket victory in the penultimate game and take an

unassailable 3-1 lead here on Wednesday.

The Indians first restricted the visitors to 257 for seven and then overcame some anxious moments before overhauling the target with 15 balls to spare in a floodlit contest played in cold conditions

‘Rohit most god-gifted talent’ MOHALI: Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni today praised Rohit Sharma for his contribution in India’s comprehensive five-wicket victory over England in the fourth ODI here and described him as the “most god-gifted talent around”.

“I am glad he (Rohit) scored runs because he is one of the most god-gifted talent that is around. Of course an innings like this was very much needed for him. It will give him a lot of confidence and also time at the top level.

Personally I am very happy for him,” Dhoni said at the post-match press conference.

PTI

Brief Scores England 257/7 in 50 overs (Alastair Cook 76, Kevin Pietersen 76, Ravindra Jadeja 3/39) lost to India 258/5 in 47.3 overs (Suresh Raina 89 n.o., Rohit Sharma 83; James Tredwell 2/54).

Raina celebrates after India defeated England in the fourth ODI in Mohali on Wednesday.

BCCI

at the PCA stadium.

Though the hosts had the game in control after putting England into bat, they conceded as many as 100 runs in the last ten overs with unheralded Joe Root (57 not out off 45 balls) and Kevin Pietersen (76) providing the late sparks with some lusty hits.

Captain Alastair Cook was another notable performer with a knock of 76.

But the Indians held their nerve during the run chase and it was ultimately Raina who guided the team home.

It was a creditable series victory for Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men who had come under fire for indifferent performances in recent times, which saw the team lose a Test series to England and an ODI series defeat against arch rivals Pakistan at home.

It was Rohit Sharma, rated as highly talented but one who has seldom delivered, who turned the spotlight on himself as he grabbed with both hands an unexpected opportunity to feature in the playing eleven as an opener in place of Ajinkya Rahane.

Sharma proved his class with some delightful shots to lay the foundation for the chase and his show will enhance his chances of cementing a place in the ODI team.

PTI

IOC EVALUATION

McQuaid steps down

LAUSANNE: Embattled cycling chief Pat McQuaid stepped down from the IOC body evaluating candidate cities for the ‘20 Olympics on Wednesday as the fallout from the Lance Armstrong scandal took another twist.

International Cycling Union (UCI) president McQuaid said he was unable to join his colleagues evaluating Tokyo, Madrid and Istanbul — the three cities bidding to host the 2020 Games — in March.

The Irishman will be replaced by Patrick Baumann, the secretary general of FIBA, the international basketball fed-

eration.

“Pat McQuaid has decided to step down from the IOC Evaluation Commission as he was unable to attend the three visits to the Candidate Cities in

March,” said a statement released by the IOC. “He has been replaced by FIBA Secretary General and IOC Member Patrick Baumann.”

The UCI has been fighting a rearguard action in the aftermath of the Lance Armstrong scandal.

The American, who was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned for life after being accused of widespread and systematic doping, last week finally confessed to using drugs to fuel his victories.

AFP

India lucky to have Dhoni: Boycott

LONDON: The Indian cricket team is “very average” at the moment and is “lucky” to have a captain like Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who is coping the blame for “lack of quality in the side”, feels former England skipper Geoffrey Boycott. “...Do you judge captains on their win and loss ratio, or do you take into account or consideration the quality, or lack of quality, in his team? If you’re thinking about India, there’s a lack of quality at the moment, lack of quality seam bowling, lack of quality spin bowling, and in some cases your best players are beginning to retire after getting past their sell-by date. Aren’t they?” Boycott told ESPNCricinfo. “(Rahul)Dravid and (VVS) Laxman are gone, (Sachin) Tendulkar hasn’t got any runs recently, so is it his [Dhoni’s] fault?,” he asked.

“I don’t think so. I don’t judge people on the loss and win ratio of the team.

You have to look at the team. You are damn lucky you’ve got MS Dhoni,” he asserted. Dhoni has been under severe scrutiny after the recent home Test debacle against England even though he has been in decent form personally.

PTI

EUROPEAN TOUR

Garrido joins 500 club

DOHA: Spaniard Ignacio Garrido on Wednesday became a member of an exclusive club of professionals who have played 500 European Tour events.

The 40-year-old is the 23rd player in history to reach the milestone of 500 or more appearances on The European Tour.

“I didn’t know about my 500th appearance until I got here, but it’s nice to know that I’ve been around so long — let’s hope it’s not the last 500 and there are many more,” said Garrido, after hitting a 71 on the opening day of the Qatar Masters. “I guess it’s not easy to reach that many tournaments and it’s nice to get there.

But the main thing is not only to play the tournaments, but to stay competitive and keep having a chance to win some of them at some point.” Garrido made his first appearance on the Tour in the 1990 Spanish Open before joining the paid ranks at the 1993 Iberia Open.

AFP

SPORTS BRIEFS PGA could drop anchor on proposed rule

Dravid to play T20 match for MCC

Paul jittery ahead of Dharamsala ODI

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA: US PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem said Wednesday that the circuit possibly could refuse to adopt a proposed new rule on anchored putting but would prefer to follow the rules. The US Golf Association (USGA) and Royal and Ancient, the sport’s rulemaking bodies, have proposed banning anchored strokes.

The subject was a major topic at a mandatory players meeting on Tuesday ahead of the Farmers Insurance Open, a $6.1 million event that begins Thursday at Torrey Pines.

Finchem said he wants to keep the PGA in line with the same rules used by players at other levels rather than not adopt the anchored stroke ban.

“Technically there is that possibility,” Finchem said.

“However it certainly wouldn’t be our objective. Our objective is to follow the rules and keep the rules together.”

LONDON: Former Indian captain Rahul Dravid will feature in a Twenty20 tournament in Dubai in March as a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club.

Dravid, who retired from international cricket last year, has confirmed to play for the MCC team which will take on Sussex, Warwickshire and 2011 County Champions Lancashire in Emirates Airline Twenty20 Trophy which will he held on March 21 and 22 at 7he Sevens Stadium in Dubai.

Australian fast-bowler Shaun Tait will also play in MCC’s T20 side for the second year running in the tournament, the MCC said in a statement. The Twenty20 tournament is being held before the four-day (March 24-27) Champion County game, which will be a day-night match between MCC and Warwickshire to be played with a pink ball at the Zayed International Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

MOHALI: Former England skipper Paul Collingwood today joked that he might need to buy a “snow suit” for the final ODI between India and England to be held at Dharamsala where there is a forecast of snowfall. Located in the foothills of the Himalayas, 1317 metres above sea level, Dharamsala was selected as the last venue for the five-match series but with temperature dropping to sub-zero, hosting the fifth ODI there remains a concern. “Think I’ll need my snow suit for Dharamsala #freezing #IndvEng,” tweeted Collingwood.

“Shopping trip needed before Dharamsala then! #snowcricket Might try to do the pitch report with an ice pick,” joked the 36-year-old, who is here as ESPN-Star Sports TV expert. In the morning today, Collingwood had tweeted: “It was a tad nippy this morning I have to say, should have packed my Barbour jacket #underclubbed #IndvEng.”

THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013

sports

BECKHAM TO CHELSEA — BROOKLYN, THAT IS David Beckham’s eldest son Brooklyn has had a trial with Premier League giants Chelsea, according to reports in the British media on Wednesday.

The 13-year-old reportedly took part in an under-14s match at the European champions’ training ground in Surrey on Tuesday.

PREMIER LEAGUE

Arsenal nail Hammers

32

ENGLISH LEAGUE CUP

Arsenal, finding a spark and much-needed self-belief after successive league defeats by title-chasing Manchester City and Chelsea, ran riot with four goals after the break.

STEVE GRIFFITHS Agence France-Presse LONDON: Olivier Giroud (right) helped Arsenal silence their critics as the France striker’s double inspired a muchneeded 5-1 victory over West Ham on Wednesday.

Arsene Wenger’s side had been subjected to scathing criticism from fans and pundits after successive defeats against Manchester City and Chelsea seriously damaged their bid to finish in the Premier League’s top four.

Wenger was reported to have held crisis talks with his players this week and the Gunners looked set to hit a new low when Jack Collison gave West Ham a shock firsthalf lead at the Emirates Stadium.

But Arsenal bounced back in emphatic fashion, equalising

Wenger relieved as rampant Arsenal bounce back LONDON: Arsene Wenger believes Arsenal’s 5-1 demolition of West Ham proves they are mentally strong enough to cope with the pressure of battling to finish in the

Premier League’s top four.

“We got a good response, I watched the Chelsea game again and felt in the second half we were good and we continued that here,” he said.

through Lukas Podolski and then taking the points after Giroud sparked an astonishing spree of four goals in 10 secondhalf minutes, with Santi Cazorla and Theo Walcott on the scoresheet before Giroud completed the rout.

Arsenal remain in sixth place but their first league win in four matches moves them within four points of fourthplaced Tottenham in the race to qualify for the Champions League.

It was a remarkable turnaround after Wenger’s team were initially caught cold in the freezing conditions.

The trademark of every Sam Allardyce side is an ability to cause chaos from set-pieces and West Ham are no different.

When Carlton Cole’s header was only half-cleared, Matt Taylor pounced to fire in a volley that deflected just over.

MONEY SPINNER

Madrid break 500m-euro mark to stay atop LONDON: Real Madrid have become the first club in any sport to generate more than 500 million euros in revenue in a single year, according to the business advisory firm Deloitte.

The company’s Football Money League, published for the 16th time on Thursday, sees Spanish champions Madrid retain their hold on first place ahead of perennial rivals Barcelona.

Seven of the 20 clubs hail from the Premier League.

Deloitte Football Money League ’13 (position, previous year’s position, club, country, revenue in ’11-’12) 1. (1) Real Madrid (ESP) 512.6 million euros (£414.7 million) 2. (2) Barcelona (ESP) 483 million (390.8 million) 3. (3) Manchester United (ENG) 395.9 million (230.3 million) 4. (4) Bayern Munich (GER) 368.4 million (298.1 million) 5. (5) Chelsea (ENG) 322.6 million (261 million) 6. (6) Arsenal (ENG) 290.3 million (234.9 million) 7. (12) Manchester City (ENG) 285.6 million (231.1 million)

8. (7) AC Milan (ITA) 256.9 million (207.9 million) 9. (9) Liverpool (ENG) 233.2 million (188.7 million) 10. (13) Juventus (ITA) 195.4 million (158.1 million) 11. (16) Borussia Dortmund (GER) 189.1 million (153 million) 12. (8) Inter Milan (ITA) 185.9 million (150.4 million) 13. (11) Tottenham Hotspur (ENG) 178.2 million (144.2 million)

14. (10) Schalke 04 (GER) 174.5 million (141.2 million) 15. (20) Napoli (ITA) 148.4 million (120.1 million) 16. (14) Marseille (FRA) 135.7 million (109.8 million) 17. (17) Lyon (FRA) 131.9 million (106.7 million) 18. (18) Hamburg (GER) 121.1 million (98 million) 19. (15) Roma (ITA) 115.9 million (93.8 million) 20. (new) Newcastle United (ENG) 115.3 million (93.3 million)

FOOTBALL BRIEFS Real Madrid, Sevilla into S Africa end 9-year wait Spanish Cup semis for Nations Cup win

Roma edge Inter, result waits three months

Frustrated Baggio quits Italian federation post

MADRID: Real Madrid advanced to the semi-finals of the Spanish Cup on Wednesday after a 1-1 draw at Valencia saw Jose Mourinho’s side progress 3-1 on aggregate. Leading 2-0 from the first leg in Madrid, Karim Benzema gave Real the lead a minute before half-time but Tino Costa levelled for the home side on 52 minutes.

ROME: AS Roma defeated Inter Milan 2-1 in the Italian Cup semifinal first leg on Wednesday, but face a wait of almost three months to play the second leg. Four days after the two sides drew 1-1 in Serie A, Roma were worthy winners creating a host of opportunities. Both Roma’s goals came in the first half of the match.

ROME: Former great Roberto Baggio quit his technical post with the Italian football federation on Wednesday, claiming he was deliberately prevented from carrying out his job. “They didn’t let me do the job I wanted to do. I am not in a mind to continue,” the 45-year-old, who had been hired as president of the FIGC’s technical sector, said.

DURBAN, SA: South Africa won an Africa Cup of Nations match for the first time in nine years by outplaying Angola 2-0 to go top of Group A on Wednesday. Bafana Bafana (The Boys), whose last success came against Benin at the 2004 tournament, triumphed through goals from centre-back Siyabonga Sangweni and Lehlohonolo Majoro.

Chelsea’s Belgium midfielder Eden Hazard (R) is sent off for kicking a AFP/ A YATES ball boy in the match.

Laudrup fears Swansea will miss headlines

SWANSEA, UK: Swansea boss Michael Laudrup was overjoyed with his team’s League Cup semi-final conquest of Chelsea, but feared the Eden Hazard affair will overshadow their Wembley qualification.

Belgian midfielder Hazard was sent off for kicking out at a ball boy as his team, 2-0 down from the first leg of the semifinal, sought an elusive breakthrough in the return tie which ended 0-0 in Wales.

“Well, I know it’s going to take some headlines,” admitted Laudrup.

“I just want to say that, first of all, a situation like that you have to try and understand what went through the head of the man committing the thing.

“I was a player and I can understand he was frustrated and you want the ball boy to give him the ball. I can understand it to a certain extent, but there are things you can never do.”

Swansea will be playing in their first major final when they tackle fourth division Bradford at Wembley on February 24.

“To be in a final for the first time is absolutely fantastic. To have beaten the European champions over two games, it’s really incredible,” he added.

I can understand he was frustrated and you want the ball boy to give him the ball. I can understand it to a certain extent, but there are things you can never do.

Michael Laudrup Swansea City manager