postnoon e-paper for 24 february 2013

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FEBRUARY 24, 2013 HYDERABAD

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PM TAKES ACHOPPERTO BESAFE!BUT WHATABOUT THEREST OF US?

Eight million Hyderabadis have tochance their luck, but as fresh terror warnings come in, securityagencies skip the PM’s 16-km roadroute from Begumpet toDilsukhnagar and airlift him fromthe airport to a garden in Kothapet.

REPORT ON PG 3

In a development, investigatingagencies probing the City

blasts arrested MohammedRayeesuddin, an accused in the

2007 Macca Masjid blasts, justas the PM landed at the airportaround 11am. Rayeesuddin was

picked up from his in-laws’house in Hasham Nagar of

Chandrayangutta.

IS THIS THECULPRIT?

PG

3

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

Lane Adjacent to C-Bay Banjara Hills

When: Weekends,Up to February 24

Contact: 96427 31329

The Landmark saleLandmark announces its sale of Upto 70 per cent off. Bestsellingbooks starting at `49, 3 for 2 onthe top 500 new releases are justsome of the offers. Where: Landmark,

HyderabadWhen: Up to February 25

Filmmaking workshopAlliance Francaise along withYavanika Films is conducting a filmappreciation course over two week-ends and a filmmaking workshop

DarpanaExhibition of paintings byJayadevanna TS, an artist fromMysore, sponsored by Kanasa andCulture Department, Bangalore.Where: Rainbow Art Gallery,

GMC Paryataka Bhavan Begumpet

When: February 20-25

For the love of fauna ‘For the love of fauna’ is a groupart exhibition by G Jagadeesh, JayaPrakash and Maddileti Gaddam.Where: Residence Inn,

Opp SBH Bank,Kavuri Hills,Jubilee Hills

When: Up to March 611am to 7pm

Contact: (040) 2311 3709

Return Of InnocenceSculptural paintings by Lester Paulwill be on display.Where: Iconart Gallery,

Banjara Hills When: Up to March 2,

11.30am to 7pmContact: www.iconart.in

Solo art showDisplay of works by Saraswathi L.Where: Muse,

Marriott Hotel & Convention Centre

When: Up to March 2

Saree Draping WorkshopTopics covered will include styles ofsari draping (regular, gujrati, cock-tail, ghaGRA) and tips. It will alsocover the use of scarfs and stolls. Where: Panache, The Finishing

School,Road no. 7,Banjara Hills

When: February 28,Contact: (040) 6673 3451

Double the lovePapa John’s offers heart shapedthin crust pizza for an entiremonth. It is available in all existentflavours and at no extra cost.Where: All Papa John’s outletsWhen: February

Korean PromotionFlavours of authentic family styleKorean cuisine prepared by nativechefs from Hyatt Regency Incheon.Where: Oriental Bar & Kitchen When: Lunch: 12.30pm onwards

Dinner: 19.30pm onwards Contact: (040) 4949 1204

Samahaara workshopSamahaara is organising‘Samahaara Weekend TheatreWorkshops.’ Apart from acting, itincludes outdoor theatre activities,readings, analysis and discussions. Where: Lamakaan,

Off Road no. 1,

Cyberabad Post Office When: March 15,,Contact: (040) 2355 4486

HWMF-Listening PostListening to classical and jazzmusic recordings with visual aids,notes, question-answer sessionsand discussion on the same. Where: Lamakaan,

Off Road no. 1,Lane Adjacent to C-Bay Banjara Hills,Hyderabad

When: February 24,4pm onwards

Contact: 96427 31329

Music for charityStray Train Trio's charity concert,composed by Krishna (vocal andguitar), Mark (bass) and Riccardo(percussion). It is an Indo-Italian collaboration.Where: Lamakaan,

Off Road no. 1,Lane Adjacent to C-Bay Banjara Hills

When: February 24,7pm onwards

Contact: 96427 31329

The Oath of VayuputrasThere is a discount on the lastbook in the Shiva trilogy.Landmark is running a pre-booking

offer.Where: Landmark,

HyderabadWhen: Up to February 26

The First CutA festival of short films and docu-mentaries, where amateurs canshowcase their talents. Where: St Francis College for

Women, Uma Nagar,Begumpet

When: March 4,10.30am onwards

over four weekends for adults. When: Weekends starting from

February 23, 11am onwards

Contact: 94901 00404

ANANTA Opus 195Concerto for Sarod electronic andsymphonic orchestra by UstadAmjad Ali Khan and Pierre Thilloy.Where: Shilpa Kala Vedika, When: March 1Contact: (040) 2355 4486

ImanyWorld music- jazz and soul.Where: Hyderabad International

Convention CentreNovotel & HICC complex Near Hitec City P.O Bag 1101

CITY 2SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2013

GHMC mayor Mohd Majid Hussain administers polio drops at UPHC Chintal Basthi,Khairatabad.

PULSE POLIO

M A

NIL

KU

MA

R

Headdown toSyn at

the Taj Deccanwhere a Korean

feast of flavour awaitsyou. Korean cuisine is unfor-tunately the step child ofAsian cuisine in Hyderabad,but Syn will change that view,charged with flavour andspicy enough to tantaliseeven the most spice-dam-aged Indian taste buds. Thefestival runs for dinners onlytill February 28, so be thereto experience the Seoul offood (see what we did there!).You can read the full reviewby The Foodist on page 15.

City’s#1

spot

CITY 3SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2013

TDP MP T Devender Goud andleader of Opposition in the

Legislative Council DadiVeerabhadra Rao squarely blamed theCM and his Cabinet for the blasts and

demanded their resignation. “Theblasts occurred solely because of theState government’s failure. The entire

Cabinet should own responsibility andquit,” Goud said.

CM should quit: TDP

The State Election Commissionissued notifications for conductof elections in Ward No 108

(Borabanda), Circle No 10, GHMC.Elections will be conducted on March17. Counting will be held on March 19. The election is being conducted inthe backdrop of Congress corporatorG Vanaja’s disqualification in a court ruling.

Polls in Borabanda ward

Alabourer, G Ravi, 33, has com-mitted suicide by hanging him-self at his home situated in Afzal

Sagar of Habeebnagar area. An alco-holic, Ravi reportedly came home lateon Friday night and demanded `1,000from his wife. She refused to give himmoney. Angry, he is said to have taken the extreme step in an inebriat-ed condition.

Labourer commits suicide

In a curious development, theinvestigating agencies probingthe City blasts took

Mohammed Rayeesuddin, anaccused in Macca Masjid (2007)blasts, into custody, just asPrime Minister ManmohanSingh landed at the Hyderabadairport around 11am. He waspicked up around 10 minutespast 10 this morning from his in-laws house in Hasham Nagar ofChandrayangutta.

Rayeesuddin, 30, is an elec-trician working at a shop at TVTower. He was one of thosearrested in the 2007 blasts, butwas acquitted for want of evi-dence. After his acquittal, he hadshifted his residence toShamshabad.

Scapegoator culprit?Macca Masjid suspectarrested again.

Postnoon [email protected]

The State intelligence andNIA have suddenly takenan about-turn on the Prime

Minister’s visit to the City blastvenue today. Redrawing his

road-route from Begumpet air-port to Dilsukhnagar, the agen-cies arranged a direct airliftfrom the airport to VictoriaMemorial grounds, four kilome-tres from Dilsukhnagar area, inthe wake of a fresh terror strikewarning.

It is learnt that the CentralIntelligence Bureau had issueda fresh alert to the City policelast evening that led to thechange in the PM’s tour route.Chief Minister N Kiran KumarReddy held a high-level meetingin Secretariat in the wake of

the fresh alert received from IB.The meeting was attended byState home minister SabitaIndra Reddy, DGP Dinesh Reddy,State intelligence chiefMahender Reddy and policecommissioners of City andCyberabad.

Rahul [email protected]

Prime MinisterManmohan Singh todayarrived here from Delhiin a special aircraft tovisit Thursday’s blast

sites in the City. Governor ESLNarasimham, Chief Minister NKiran Kumar Reddy, MayorMohd Majid Hussain and otherdignitaries received him at theBegumpet airport.

Immediately after arriving atthe airport, he took off in theIAF helicopter kept ready thattook him to Victoria MemorialHome grounds, from where hewas driven a couple of kilome-

tres to the ground zero atDilsukhnagar. The whole areawas barricaded and declared outof bounds for traffic. All shopsremained closed. The roadlooked deserted. He was led tothe ground zero just in front ofAnand Tiffins and after the chief

minister explained how it allhappened, the PM and hisentourage left for Omni andYashoda hospitals nearby, wheresome of the injured are beingtreated. The PM reportedly pro-poses to visit two more hospitalsnearby and drive to the chief

minister’s camp office for abriefing with the top securitychiefs and the Cabinet.

The PM’s itinerary was aclosely guarded secret. Policechiefs and government PRs left alot of red herrings to thwart themedia and possible threats.

Dilsukhnagar was declared out-of-bounds to traffic as the PrimeMinister arrived to assess the extent of Thursday’s blasts.

PM arrives in City

Cityunsafefor PM

So what of the eight million residents? Fresh terror warning compels security agencies to skip the 16-km road route from Begumpet to Dilsukhnagar and directly airlift him from the Begumpet

airport to a garden in Kothapet area.

MPs not allowed nearblast site, protest

MP V Hanumanth Rao,ministers Sudhir Babu,

Danam Nagender and ahost of other ministers andleaders were prevented bySPG near the blast centre.Mediapersons too were keptout of the scene. This pro-voked the leaders to shouton top of their voices to reg-ister their protest. The noiseattracted the attention ofthe prime minister, but hedid not pay any heed.

MOHAMMEDRAYEESUDDIN WASARRESTED AFTER THE2007 BLASTS, ANDLATER RELEASED FORWANT OF EVIDENCE.

M ANIL KUMAR

CITYSUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2013

REMOVING THE SAFETY NETS

Hawkers who were evicted fromDilsukhnagar last week by corrupt

officials say they could have spottedunusual activity had they been there.

Aleena [email protected]

What the new rulers ofthe country, be it thepolitician or the police-

men, don’t realise is that eachethnic activity serves the peopleand has a purpose.

Hawkers along the streetsare one example how thought-less action and corrupt police-men remove some safety netsavailable to the masses. TheDilsukhnagar blasts perhapswould not have happened if the‘cut demanding’ police had notcruelly removed vendors on thepavement, who act as the eyes

Porous security While illegal immigrants and residents without refugee status flood the City, hawkers who claim they could

No checkon refugees

In a knee-jerk reaction, theCity’s special branch,

whose job is to keep aneye on illegal immigrants

and unlawful settlers, has beguna round of the City after the

blasts, collecting details aboutPakistanis and Bangladeshis

who hide in the City or overstaytheir visa. But no special effort

is being made to check therefugees coming in from Burma,who neither a refugee status noran official recognition, Postnoon

enquiries reveal.The joint commissioner of

police, special branch, MaheshMurlidhar Bhagwat, said, “Wehave a special cell to keep vigil

over the Pak and Bangla nation-als and our men keep an eye on

them.” He insisted that Burmesesettlers have refugee status but

enquiries revealed otherwise. The arrest of Dr Atiya

Jabeen, a Pakistani woman, andher differently-abled son, is the

only incident police recordedrecently. The doctor’s case is ahuman rights issue as she was

kicked out by her Pakistani hus-band and in-laws. She was a

Hyderabadi before marrying aPak national.

Burmese nationals keepcoming in. From a few hundred

last year, the number has goneup 1,500, and more people are

coming in. It is said that somelocal Muslim leaders are taking

the initiative to bring them, disregarding national interests.

They are settled in HafizBabanagar, Balapur, Kishanbagh

and surrounding ares. Around1,000 have refugee cards but others still do not have any. They say the Buddhist gov-

ernment of Myanmar is still per-secuting the minority Muslimsand they are unable to go back.

Since they are unable to pursuetheir mother tongue, the refugee

children are given Arabic lan-guage education, which detrac-

tors of the Congress governmentfeel was one step away from

Indianising them with rationcard and aadhar card. Therefugees, however, said the

Kanchanbagh police summonthem to the station once in awhile but after the blasts no

police check was conducted. “Weare happy,” remarked Zubair

Mohammed, one of the refugeesin the camp.

[email protected] SUBHAN

So much for the police’s claims of keepingvigil. There is no check on the Rohingya

refugees who keep pouring in fromBurma, except occasional police visits.

SRINIVAS SETTY

4&5

and ears of the cops, if theycare.

The road behind the bus stopat the Venkatadri theatre inDilsukhnagar used to bebustling with nearly 150 streethawkers who sell everythingfrom bangles to bakery itemsand freshly made food. However,just a week before the unfortu-nate serial blasts inDilsukhnagar, the hawkers wereevicted. Though it appeared tobe a normal activity, this gave achance to the bomb planters tosafely deposit their deadly mate-rial without a hitch.

“If we were there, we couldhave spotted unusual activity,”regrets an evicted hawker, Illyas

Ahmed. The hawkers allege thatmore than the regular checks,the cops would collect a sum of`300 per vendor a day or takeaway their gas cylinders. Thesepoor chaps, who earned a livingwithout being a burden on thegovernment and society, aretreated badly by greedy inspec-tors of the stations nearby.

“Every other day, the copswould come on their regularrounds. However, if we had tocontinue selling, we had to paythem a sum of `300, or our pushcarts would be taken to the sta-tion and we would be harassed,”said a pani puri hawker, Ramu(pictured).

Stating that the blast would

not have occurred if they werenot evicted, S Santosh Kumar,who owns a shop in the complexmeters away from the theatre,says, “The road is usually occu-pied by hawkers on their pushcarts, who sell variety of items.The entire stretch on this nar-row road is so chock-a-block thatthere would be no place for acustomer to even stand and bar-gain for long. The hawkerswould not allow any customer orany person to stop their vehicleon that stretch. The reasonbeing, if that happens, the policewould ask the hawkers to clearthe street and would take awaytheir push carts. So to save theirskin, the hawkers would make

sure that no vehicle was parked.Had the hawkers continued sell-ing that day, there would be noscope for any person to park acycle with the bombs.”

So what was the reason forthe anti-hawker drive?According to the hawkers, theonly reason was because thecops, instead of collecting `300started demanding `500, whichthey refused to pay.

“There was a new circleinspector who was posted in thearea. Hence the rate for themamool increased. When thehawkers who could not afford it,refused, the police asked themto evacuate the place,” alleged SSantosh Kumar.

Immigrants cram City

With any terrorthreat or incidenceof violence in theCity, fingers are

naturally pointed at foreignnationals living here. Giventhe huge number of Burmeseimmigrants living illegally inthe City or the manyBangladeshis, Pakistanis andAfrican nationals residinghere, there is no cognitiveaction or surveillance takeneither by the State govern-ment or the local law andorder enforcement agencies. Itis not legitimate foreigners,but the illegal immigrantswho are a cause of concern.

Postnoon visited Balapur,where a huge number ofRohingya Muslims have set-tled; at least about 1,500Burmese nationals who havetravelled all the way fromBurma to Delhi and havemigrated to the City. In a spanof two months, their numbershave increased from 400 to1,500. They have no refugeestatus, residential proofs orration cards. In short, they donot exist as citizens ofHyderabad on record.

What does the police orour public representatives doabout the weak state of law

and order enforcement? Howdo we tackle the issue of ille-gal immigration before it hasdisastrous consequences? Weask our elected leaders andhere is what they have to say.

MP from Nalgonda, GutthaSukendar Reddy, says, “ Thecause of a major trouble inthe country has been illegalimmigrants. We, as politicalrepresentatives, have no ideaof the number of immigrantswho have overstayed theirvisit in the City or the coun-try. In Old City, there is noeffective policing or monitor-ing of the number of illegalsettlements of foreign nation-als. They could possibly har-bour anti-social elements.There have been several dis-cussions and debates over thisissue in the parliament.Proper governance andenforcement alone can solvethis issue.”

Jayaprakash Narayan,MLA from Kukatpally con-stituency ,says, “Before wetackle the issue of illegalimmigration, we muststrengthen our police services.Conclusions must not be madeto ostracise some community,but rather it should be evi-dence-based. If the Londonpolice could survey three ter-rorists for two months andtake them into custody swiftly,why can’t we function in asimilar manner? Secondly, thecase of illegal immigration ispresent world-wide. If I wereto know that there was a com-munity of immigrants living

in the City in my constituency,I would check to see if theywere citizens of the countryfirst. Not all immigrants areforeign nationals. Secondly, Iwould keep the Centre and theState government informedabout this and conduct regu-lar surveys to check for eco-nomic, political and civicproblems within the commu-nity. If no mischief is found,they would very gladly be inte-grated into our City.”

State BJP president GKishan Reddy says, “We havebeen the only political party toraise this issue several timesduring the Assembly proceed-ings. That does not mean thatthey are responsible for anyanti-social activity. Our ques-tion is, why do our cities andthe country have to be turnedinto lodges to accommodatethese people? The governmentshould take strict measures tocontrol this issue.”

have spotted suspicious activity were evicted from the road behind Venkatadri theatre before the blast.

leaves City exposed

[email protected] RAMAKRISHNA

“Why do our cities and the country have to be turned into lodges to accommodate illegal immigrants?” asks BJP president Kishan Reddy.

M ANIL KUMAR

M ANIL KUMAR

N SHIVA KUMAR

READERS’ LETTERS 6SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2013

Congressshiftstowardsrich, as itsees nouse foraam admi That the Congress wants to nowfocus on roping in the influentialmight have taken many by sur-prise (as per the article Congresswants only the rich and influen-tial as candidates? On Feb 19).But for some readers, this is justa reminder of the fact that in anIndia with a class and caste-sys-tem past, this is not unexpected.

It is not all a surprising news asit came to this stage graduallyfrom the time we got indepen-

dence. Democracy has turned toa mere game of numbers andmajority gets more significancehere than morality. In such a sit-uation, we need a lot of moneyand muscle power to createmajority in our favour.

If you look closely into ourhistory you can see that majorityof the leaders of INC are fromthe influential class. It is not thatthe common man did not fightfor independence. There aremany unsung heroes amongthem too, but the lack of glam-our and money left them with nofollowers. This attitude to followthe rich and beautiful paved theway for the entry of many filmactors and bureaucrats to poli-tics. These babies born with sil-ver spoons in their mouths donot understand the woes of thecommon man. The economicaltheories taught in Western uni-versities and the lessons theylearn from the daily news in dif-ferent channels will not helpthem to understand the same too.

This is not our fate. We areresponsible for it.

RAVI KUMAR AMBADIVia e-mail

The column can be read athttp://postnoon.com/2013/02/19/congress-wants-only-the-rich-and-

powerful-as-candidates/109544

EThe T-activists are eatingaway the time and space ofnot only the govt, but the

common man too. The dastard-ly act in Dilsukhnagar was amatter of few seconds. Citizensare scared for a moment buthave to live with it. But T-activists are a constant trouble.This is happening for years.The loss caused by the T-trou-ble is several times bigger thanthe unfortunate incident wehad in Hyd. So it would be wisenot to comment on the intelli-

gence. But self realizationwould really do good. Commonman is not the one who cangive or deny Telangana. Butthey target this common man.Rail Roko, Sadak Roko, BandhKaro… who is ultimately suf-fering in this whole process?

SABHAPATHYVia e-mail

Read athttp://postnoon.com/2013/02/22

/telangana-over-terror-for-gov-ernment/110299

The state has been riddled bytrouble ranging from

Telangana bandhs to terrorattacks for quite some time

now. And its people, thoughresilient have started to grow

tired. It doesn’t help, sayreaders, that the government

can’t get its priorities rightand chooses to focus on agi-

tators rather than attackwarnings (see Telangana

over terror for government?on Feb 22)

TOP LETTER

Ah! Finally someone is tak-ing a positive lesson fromModi, rather than always

bashing him for his imaginaryinvolvement in riots in the dis-tant past. Thumbs up to Reddyfor taking a positive look atModi’s Gujarat. Modi will onlybe happy to have someone join-ing in the development politicsof AP, I believe.

MEHTAVia e-mail

The column can be read athttp://postnoon.com/2013/02/20/andhra-pradesh-chief-minister-needs-modis-

help/109752

As per a recent survey, APis the second state inincome tax collection,

which clearly reflects that thestate is capable of handling anycrisis. The state has good infra,

technology and naturalresources with the help of whichit can generate abundant energy.I still remember, during the CBNaidu’s reign, the Gujarat gov-ernment and its leaders used tocopy the schemes and technolo-gies launched by Naidu andimplement them in theirregions. And when I was inGujarat in those days, I heard

Gujarat praising AP. Such wasthe pride of AP. Unfortunately,today the scenario has beenflipped. Looking at the presentscenario I strongly feel that thestate of Andhra Pradesh iscursed! God bless the state.

YOGESH DEVVia e-mail

The column can be read at

http://postnoon.com/2013/02/20/andhra-pradesh-chief-minister-needs-modis-

help/109752

There are many ways by wh ichthe government can im p roveproduction and reduce the

burden of consumption. Whycan’t the government use solarenergy in government offices?Why can’t the government askthe educational institutions toinstall solar panels and produceenergy for their consumption.Incapability and lack of properplanning are the only reasons forthis crisis in the state.

VAMSYVia e-mail

The column can be read athttp://postnoon.com/2013/02/20/andhra-pradesh-chief-minister-needs-modis-

help/109752

Kiran at Modi’s mercy!This particular article seems to have caught a lot of readers’ fancy. After years of Modi bashing, people are bemused that our very own chief

minister seems to be borrowing a leaf out of his book when it comes to developing AP. Read some of their thoughts in response to the article AndhraPradesh Chief Minister needs Modi’s help! (Feb 20)

Drop this ‘ji’businessIt’s about time things changed onthe political front but ancestralpolitics still seems to strike achord with most readers. Here area few responses to Postnoon’s arti-cle on YSR is Congress property,not Jagan’s (Feb 18).

It’s sad to see that even theyoung leaders are susceptible tothe “ji” culture of the INC. If

the idea is to serve as a servantwithout an individual personali-ty how does it matter if you areyoung or old? Beats me.

SHYAM REDDYVia e-mail

Read the report at http://post-noon.com/2013/02/18/ysr-is-

congress-property-not-jagans/109286

YSR was a Congress leader andthe party should be proud ofhis legacy. YSR’s legacy is still

under investigation and hopefullyCBI will clear father and son.

SATISHVia e-mail

Read the report at http://post-noon.com/2013/02/18/ysr-is-

congress-property-not-jagans/109286

This is called politics. Chan dra -babu back-stabbed NTR andthat is what caused NTR’s

death. Ms Laxmi Parvathi mar-ried NTR and helped him duringhis old age. Now NTR is Chan -drababu’s property. YSR died andhis son can’t own him according toCongress. That’s a joke.

RAMA BHASKARVia e-mail

Win `500every weekWe are giving `500 to thereader who writes in thebest letter every week. So

get to work. You can e-mailus at

[email protected], orwrite to us at Postnoon,#1246, Level 3, JubileeCasa, Rd nos 62, Jubilee

Hills, Hyderabad, 500033.ALSO SEND US YOUR

PHOTOGRAPHS.

T OVER TERRORATTACKS?

7SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2013

NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunalhas asked the ministry of environment and

forests (MoEF) to explain how inaccurateand incomplete documents were uploadedon its website on various subjects falling in

its domain. The NGT was hearing a pleachallenging the environmental clearance

(EC) granted to fell trees in the Parsa Eastand Kanta Besan coal blocks in

Chhattisgarh.

Green Tribunal raps MoEFTHANE: Doubting her fidelity, an elder-ly man allegedly murdered his 61-year-old wife here, police said today. Thecouple, who have three married chil-dren, used to have frequent quarrels asthe man suspected his wife's character.After a similar argument last night,Pawar, in a fit of rage, brutally assaultedhis wife with a sharp weapon and fledfrom the spot.

Man stabs wife to deathJAIPUR: A low-intensity earthquakemeasuring 4.1 on the Richter Scale wastoday felt in parts of Rajasthan. Theepicentre was Tonk in the eastern partof the state. The tremor was felt inJaipur and nearby region in the morning at 6.27am. However, there isno report of loss from anywhere, according to the state police controlroom.

4.1 quake in Rajasthan

NATION

TN Youth Congprez suspendedNEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu YouthCongress president M Yuvaraja, a sup-porter of Union minister GK Vasan, hasbeen suspended from the post on "disci-plinary grounds". The decision to sus-pend Yuvaraja, who was elected to thepost for second time in October last year,was taken by Indian Youth Congress at ahigh-level meeting yesterday.This is per-haps for the first time that a state YouthCongress leader is suspended on “disci-plinary grounds” especially after RahulGandhi democratised the functioning ofsuch units across the country.

NEW DELHI: BJP president RajnathSingh has said his party will focus onimproving its electoral prospects in thesouthern states and the North-East inthe next general elections. "We havehad our government in Karnataka andwe will try to retain the number ofseats we had won last time. Our perfor-mance in AP and Tamil Nadu canimprove from what it was last time andefforts are on for that. As for theNorth-East, four MPs won from therelast time and I hope that the numberwill not decrease," Singh told PTI.

BJP to focuson South, NE

5

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NEW DELHI: Over 1,400instances of terror financing incountry's economic channelswere red-flagged by intelligenceand security agencies last year, alatest report of the FinanceMinistry says, marking a 300 percent jump in such suspicioustransactions.

The Financial IntelligenceUnit (FIU), which functionsunder the ministry, has reportedthat it had received 1,444 reportsduring 2011-12 from agencies likethe IB, the RAW and those in theeconomic domain and affiliatedto the I-T and Customs depart-ments. The figure of suchreports from these agenciesstood at 428 during 2010-11.

"The FIU also supports theefforts of domestic intelligenceand law enforcement agencies

against terror financing by pro-viding information specificallyrequested by them, either bysearching its database or by call-ing specific information fromthe reporting entities," thereport says.

The FIU is the national agen-cy responsible for receiving,analysing and disseminatingsuspicious transaction reports(STRs) to security and anti-money laundering and tax eva-sion departments of the country.

The agency also reported amore than 100 per cent rise inthe number of STRs receivedduring 2011-12 as it collected atotal of 69,224 such reports dur-ing this period as compared to20,698 STRs during 2010-11.

The instances of reportageof fake currency in Indian bank-ing channels are also on the rise,the FIU says. Indian banks —both private and public — sentacross more than three lakhinstances of detection of fakecurrency notes in their channelsduring the same period, a 30 percent increase from the last time.

While a total of 3,27,382counterfeit currency reportswere reported to FIU in 2011-12,these reports stood at 2,51,448during 2010-11.

A fake currency report

includes instances of counterfeitcurrency detected by a bank.Since 2008, the FIU has receivedreports of fake currency with aface value of over `60 crore.

"The FIU, however, does itsdue diligence while processingthese requests by intelligenceagencies as a number of thesesuspicious transactions may notturn out to be actually a potentthreat to national security butmay have been done in circum-stances of unjustified complexi-ty ringing alarm bells," a seniorfinance ministry official said.

He added that the increase innumber of terrorist financing-related requests is also due tosecurity agencies working tocrack on the funding route of anumber of home-grown and for-eign terror modules. PTI

300% jump in terror financing cases

Indian’s tune drivesShahbagh Movement

NEW DELHI:Bangladesh's Shahbaghmovement may be home-grown but the songwhich has almost becomeits anthem is written andcomposed by a leadingIndian folk artiste.

The Shahbagh move-ment began on February5, hours after fundamen-talist Jamaat-e-Islamileader Abdul QuaderMollah was sentenced tolife in prison for genocideduring Bangladesh'sLiberation War in 1971.The demonstrators aredemanding death penaltyto all war criminals and aban on the politics of

religion."I have written and

composed the songShahbagh Dicchay Daak(Shahbagh Calling)expressing solidaritywith the Shahbagh move-ment. Organisers of themovement have told methat the song has goneviral on the cyber worldand mainstream media.Demonstrators were alsoseen rendering the songat the venue,"KalikaprasadBhattacharjee of Banglafolk band Dohar told PTIfrom Kolkata.

"Actually, we were toperform in Bangladesh

on February 15 but theprogramme got can-celled. Since then, I wasthinking being a Bengalihow to contribute to oneof South Asia's biggestmass movements inrecent times. Then theidea of the song cameinto my mind,"Bhattacharjee, the leadvocalist of the band, said.

Assam-bornBhattacharjee, regardedan authority in Banglafolk music and other folkforms of northeast India,said he has dedicated thesong to the people ofBangladesh.

PTI

COMMENT 8SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2013

EDITORIALS

A MODERN DAY Animal FarmWhat is happening in

Bengal? A few weeks ago it wasa Union minister of state that

acted like a rowdy. Now thestate’s ruling party is acting likethey own the state with next tozero tolerance for members of

Opposition parties. A brick kilnworker lost sight in one eye in

an attack by TMC workers. Thereason? He participated in the

Bharath Bandh called by centraltrade unions.The law and order

situation has been looking shakyever since Didi assumed power.

Neither has she eyes to seewhat’s happening, nor ears tohear the wails of those stifledand oppressed. She sees and

hears all right, but what shewants to see and hear. And any-

thing that stands in contradic-tion to her views and ways, Didiwon’t stand it. For instance, thePark Street rape case. If the vic-tim expected sympathy from a

government led by woman, shewas grossly deluded. Not onlydid she suffer abject apathy atthe hands of the government,

the officer who cracked thecase, another woman, was rele-gated to some inconsequential

desk job. All this because thedevelopment of the case went

against the initial claims of thoseresponsible to protect the

woman and when the truthemerged, the gross neglect ofDidi and her government was

exposed. Mamata Banerjee willdo well to remember that she isnot in power that her men may

run amok and blind and mutilatepeople who are not her support-

ers and party members. She isthe chief minister for the whole

state and she must behave assuch. She could start by muz-zling fanatic party workers. It’swell known that Didi and the

CPM go back a long way andthe dealings have not been very

pleasant. But the ‘punishment’that the man suffered for not

being a TMC-backer is toosevere and unjustifiable. There is

also the case of a governmentofficial who had not appearedfor work on one of the days ofthe bandh being attacked. His

ear was chopped off. Incidentsthere are redolent of passages

from Animal Farm. If you are notwith us, then you have no rea-son to exist. And there reignsone supreme who constantly

declares any anomaly to be theresult of conspiracies of his or

her rivals.

Despite a moderate percapita income, Kerala isan economic marvel.Spread of education

among all sections of the popu-lation, a large non-resident pop-ulation and their remittancesback home, successful cultiva-tion of commercial crops, espe-cially rubber and spices, spreadof co-operative movement, ser-vices of social organisations ineducation and healthcare andfairly high wages for labourersmakes Kerala a model of devel-opment comparable to those ofthe developed countries.Different global and nationalagencies have given the greenstate the following credits.1. Highest Human Development

Index in India; higher thanthat of most developed coun-tries.

2. Highest literacy rate in Indiaand achieved total literacytwo decades ago.

3. Hopes to be the first e-literatestate in India.

4. Only state to have bankingfacilities in every village.

5. Every village has a publiclibrary.

6. India's cleanest state.

7. Least corrupt state in India;according to TransparencyInternational in 2005.

8. Highest thorium deposit inthe world and with the tech-nology of laser isotope sepa-ration of thorium, will fetchan economic bonanza equal ormore to that of oil in gulfcountries.

9. First state in the country toimplement land reforms.

10. System of decentraliseddevelopment has been lookedupon as a model by otherstates and foreign countries.

11. The only state with hospitalfacility in every village.

12. Women outnumber men.13. Most Googled Indian destina-

tion.14. State with the least number

of poor people, despite acutepoverty across South Asia.

15. Lowest infant mortality rate.16. Life expectancy is above 74

years for both male andfemale; highest in India.

17. Maternal mortality rate isthe lowest.

18. Lowest birth rate.19. Densest cluster of Science &

Technology personnel in thecountry.

20. Highest per capita consump-tion of newspapers in India.Paradoxically, the globally

lauded state also has many dis-credits to its name. Gradually,this God’s Own Country is los-ing the Midas touch and its glit-ter in the bargain. Currently the

state hits headlines for rapecases and irresponsible politi-cians making foot-in-mouthstatements further aggravatingthe conditions of marginalisedwomen in the state.1. Number 1 state in India for

criminality, according toNational Crime RecordsBureau Report 2012.

2. Records the highest unem-ployment rate in India, fol-lowed by West Bengal.

3. Highest individual suiciderates (25.3 per cent), withKollam being highest of 53mega cities.

4. Of the 1,791 cases registeredin India during 2011 under theIT Act of 2000, 227 cases werefrom Kerala, second toKarnataka.

5. Highest crime rate of 11.2 ascompared to the national aver-age of 3.6 in cases related tomolestation of women.

6. Highest number of ‘mandays’lost due to lay-offs; 5 lakh fol-lowed by Uttar Pradesh’s 1.37lakh.

7. Diabetes capital of India.8. Highest alcohol per capita

consumption per person ayear — in the nation; overtak-ing traditionally hard-drink-ing states like Punjab andHaryana.

9. Rising numbers of divorces inKerala are linked to alcoholabuse.

10. Majority of road deaths inthe state are due to drunken

driving.11. Waste disposal system is

touted as worse than that inBangalore.

12. Poorest state in record toprosecute child labour viola-tors.

13. Highest number of denguecases in India.

14. Roads recorded as one of theworst in the world.

15. Highest political murders inthe country.

16. State average in road acci-dents is twice the nationalaverage.

17. Religious polarisation grow-ing by leaps and bounds,according to BBC News.

18. Thiruvananthapuram is thefirst among five cities inIndia in prevalence ofdomestic violence afterBhopal, Lucknow, Nagpurand Vellore.

19. Decline of agriculture hasresulted in high wages andhigh cost of living.

20. Tsunami-hit Kerala is a frag-ile waterlogged land-mass.

Now it’s left to you whether tolaud or loathe what NobelLaureate economist Dr AmartyaSen vaunted as the Keralamodel of economic develop-ment. Social issues are spoilingthe celebrations of a state thatwas supposed to be different!What exactly are the otherstates in the country looking upto?

Model state on aTwenty20 scale

From the hipSYED SHOAIB

9SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2013

SYDNEY: Thousands of people onAustralia’s east coast were cut off by

floodwaters today, with the heavy rainclaiming two lives as extreme thunder-storms damaged homes and brought

down trees in Sydney. StateEmergency Services said the Macleay

River peaked lower than had beenforecast in the northern New South

Wales town of Kempsey.

Oz floods: Thousands hitNICOSIA: Cyprus votes in a left-rightpresidential runoff on Sunday to elect anew leader to seal a crucial bailout forthe EU state on the brink of bankruptcy.The vote, being closely watched inEuropean Union capitals, pits rightwingopposition leader Nicos Anastasiadesagainst Stavros Malas, who is backed bythe communist party Akel in power dur-ing the island’s economic downturn.

Cyprus to pick new leaderTOKYO: Japan said a Chinese govern-ment ship briefly entered its territorialwaters off disputed islands in the EastChina Sea on Sunday. The fisheriespatrol boat entered the waters east ofKuba, one of the Senkaku islands, atabout 8:21 am and sailed out of thezone after 16 minutes. Beijing claimsthe Japanese-controlled isles, which itcalls the Diaoyus.

Japan irked by China ships

WORLD

ROME: Italians head to the polls on Sunday andMonday for their first general election since the oustingof Silvio Berlusconi in a climate of economic crisis andamid fears of fresh political instability. European capi-tals will be watching closely since, whatever the result,there is likely to be a change from outgoing technocrat-ic premier Mario Monti’s agenda of austerity and eco-nomic reforms. The most likely winner is centre-leftleader Pier Luigi Bersani who says he will stick toMonti’s budget rigour but also create more growth andjobs. But the scandal-tainted Berlusconi, a three-timeprime minister who is also a defendant in two trials fortax fraud and having sex with an underage prostitute,could come a close second.

Pope to lead lastSunday prayersVATICAN CITY: Crowds were expected for PopeBenedict XVI’s last Sunday prayers, as cardinals fromaround the world began arriving in Rome to elect his suc-cessor and the Vatican battled reports of high intrigue.The 85-year-old pope will read out his traditional Angelusprayer and messages to Catholic faithful in different lan-guages from the window of his apartment high above thecrowd in St Peter’s Square. The prayer begins at 1100GMT and usually lasts only a few minutes. City authori-ties have announced tight security in and around the Vatican, with more than 100 police officers and snipers on surrounding buildings, as well as two field hospitals and hundreds of volunteers to help pilgrims.

JERUSALEM: A Palestinian prisoner died in anIsraeli jail on Saturday, sparking violence in the WestBank city of Hebron, his home town, and a call fromthe Territories’ prime minister for a full inquiry. ThePalestinian Prisoners’ Club meanwhile said the num-ber of inmates on hunger strike had climbed to 11.Israel Prisons Service spokeswoman Sivan Weizmansaid prisoner Arafat Jaradat, a 30-year-old father oftwo, had died suddenly at Megiddo detention centre innorthern Israel. “It was probably a cardiac arrest. Idon’t have additional details at the moment,” Weizmansaid. A statement from the office of Palestinian primeminister Salam Fayyad said he “expresses his deepsorrow and shock”.

Palestinian inmateson hunger strike

Italians head topoll booths

LOS ANGELES: US officialsmade two secret visits to NorthKorea last year in an effort toimprove relations after NorthKorea leader Kim Jong Unassumed power, the Los AngelesTimes reported Saturday.

Citing unnamed former USofficials familiar with the trips,the newspaper said the visits inApril and August were aimed atencouraging the new leadershipin Pyongyang to moderate itsforeign policy.

The April trip was led byJoseph DeTrani, who at the timeheaded the NationalCounterproliferation Center inthe Office of the Director ofNational Intelligence, the reportsaid. It was unclear who led theAugust trip, the paper noted.

The Times quotes the offi-cials as saying that SydneySeiler, a veteran CIA analyst,who speaks fluent Korean and isin charge of Korea policy at theNational Security Council, wenton both trips. DeTrani left thegovernment last year and nowheads the Intelligence andNational Security Alliance, anindustry group, the newspapernoted. “There are certain thingsI just won’t talk about, and thisis one subject I really feel it’s notappropriate for me to commenton,” the report quotes him assaying in a telephone interview.

DeTrani said he and otherUS experts initially saw signsthat Kim Jong Un might behaveless rigidly than his father,including putting moderate fig-ures in key government posi-tions.

US officialvisited N Korea

Iran, world set forKazakh showdown

Western diplomats have said that Iran will be presented with an offer with significant new elements to coax it into a concession.

MOSCOW: World powers meetnegotiators from Iran inKazakhstan on Monday in thehope of curbing Tehran’s nucle-ar ambitions by advancing a“significant” new offer, despitelow expectations of a break-through after years of dashedhopes.

The meeting under theshadow of the Tien Shan moun-tains in the Kazakh city ofAlmaty comes as sanctions biteagainst the Islamic republicand Israel still refuses to ruleout air strikes to knock outIran’s suspected nuclearweapons drive.

Little apparent progress hasbeen made since the last suchsession of talks in Moscow inJune 2012 ended without anybreakthrough and the crux ofthe dispute remains Iran’sinsistence on not abandoninguranium enrichment opera-tions.

Western diplomats havesaid that Iran will be presentedwith an offer with significantnew elements to coax it into aconcession and end a stalematethat has lasted almostunchanged since 2002.

“We are approaching thesetalks with a sense of urgency.But this is not necessarily asprint,” one Western diplomatsaid.

Western capitals have beentight-lipped about the nature ofthe offer but it reportedly mayinvolve an easing of sanctionson Iran’s gold and preciousmetals trading in exchange forthe closure of a major uraniumenrichment plant.

Iran wants sanctions liftedbefore it negotiates anddemands recognition of itsright to enrich uranium to lev-els that could feed its electricitygrid and provide isotopes for amedical research plant.

The positions are too farapart

The atmosphere has alreadybeen clouded by a UN nuclearwatchdog report saying Iranstarted installing next-genera-tion centrifuges at its Natanznuclear plant, a moveWashington said would be“provocative”.

“Both sides want a deal, buton their own terms,” saidInternational Institute forStrategic Studies analyst MarkFitzpatrick.

An overhead view of one of Iran’s nuclear sites.

Iran’s nukefacilities

Natanz, near Isfahan:Iran enriches uranium hereto both 3.5 and 20 percentlevels, using in total morethan 12,000 IR-1 first-gener-ation centrifuges, machinesthat spin uranium gas atsupersonic speeds.

Fordo, near Qom::Iran has 696 IR-1 cen-trifuges at this fortifiedbunker facility, whose dis-covery in 2009 triggeredalarm among world pow-ers. Dug under a mountainto be protected from airstrikes, the site is used toproduce 20 percent-enriched uranium, with apotential capacity of up to3,000 centrifuges.High-level enrichment:Iran has produced 280 kilosof 20 percent-enriched ura-nium at Natanz and Fordosince February 2011, andcurrently makes another 15kilos every month.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2013

US authorities plan to propose a $16 billion settlement toBritish energy giant BP for civil claims related to the

disastrous 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a mediareport said. Citing people familiar with the discussions, The

Wall Street Journal said late Friday that the settlement wouldcover fines BP owes under the Clean Water Act, a federal

water pollution law, as well as payments under the NaturalResources Damage Assessment, an environmental evaluation.

But the Journal noted that it remained unclear whether thegovernment had formally proposed the offer to BP.

US, BP in $16 bn deal on 2010 oil spill?

Overseas investors have pouredin more than $4 billion intoIndian equities in February, tak-

ing the investment tally to $8.4 billionfor calendar year 2013 so far. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs)infused a net amount of $4.31 billion(about `23,035 crore) in Indian equitiesin February so far, taking the total forthe year to $8.4 billion (`45,094 crore).

FIIs pump in $4 bn in Feb

EPFO's trustees are likely to decideon Monday the payment of 8.5 percent interest to its over five crore

subscribers on their PF deposits for2012-13, higher than 8.25 per cent pro-vided in the previous fiscal. Accordingto EPFO estimates, 8.6 per cent inter-est rate would result in a deficit of`240.49 crore whereas 8.5 per centwould leave a surplus of `4.13 crore.

PF rate decision tomorrow

BUSINESS

Shwe Yinn Mar [email protected]

While other coun-tries may be morereliable and betterequipped,Myanmar has

emerged as the new promisedland for global oil and gas giantsunperturbed by a lack of data onits proven energy reserves.

Since political reformshelped Myanmar shed its pariahstatus and prompted interna-tional sanctions to be lifted, theworld’s major energy firms havebeen eyeing the potentially oil-and-gas-rich country tuckedbetween China and India.

Thai explorer PTTEP, EPIHoldings of Hong Kong, Swissfirm Geopetro InternationalHolding and Petronas ofMalaysia were among a slew ofcompanies to strike explorationdeals last June.

In September, French giantTotal bought a 40 percent stakein an offshore exploration ven-ture, soon followed byAustralia’s biggest energy firmWoodside — while severalAmerican and European majorsare reportedly poised to join in.

The surge in interest is set tocontinue following Myanmar’sinvitation for tenders for 18onshore oil blocks last month,with offers for a further 50 or sooffshore blocks pending.

Yangon will host an interna-tional conference for the sectorin March, as the buzz over thecountry’s hydrocarbon reservesintensifies — even though verylittle is known about them.

“Due to the impact of eco-nomic sanctions on Myanmarfor many years, there has beenvery limited recent investment,”said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-PacificChief Economist for IHS GlobalInsight.

“Myanmar’s oil and gasreserves have not been suffi-ciently explored using modernseismic technology, making it an

exciting prospective explorationtarget.”

Myanmar is one of the rarecountries in the world that hasnot been fully surveyed and“there is huge interest in explor-ing what we call ‘frontierbasins’”, said the spokesman ofa foreign oil company.

“There is very little informa-tion. Prospects are wide open,”he added, requesting anonymity.

The CIA estimates thatMyanmar is sitting on some 50million barrels of oil and some283.2 billion cubic metres of nat-ural gas.

On its webpage, the state-runMyanmar Oil and GasEnterprise (MOGE) cites a 2006estimate of proven reserves,which stood at 226 million bar-rels of oil and 457 billions cubicmeters of gas.

But sources interviewed byAFP admitted that there figures

raised more questions thananswers. The only widely agreedassumption is that offshorereserves are more promisingthan onshore, and gas probablysupersedes oil.

Authorities “have been verycautious lately by not quotingany evaluation of discoveredreserves or potential resourcesyet to be discovered,” said MyoTin, manager of the MyanmarPetroleum Exploration andProduction Company Limited,which operates an oil field in thecentre of the country.

Foreign firms must beencouraged to enter the sector,he said, citing the “technologyintensive” nature of offshoresites that needs major firms “totransfer knowledge in explo-ration techniques, drilling anddevelopment”.

More companies will alsoreduce the chance of oil giantsmonopolising territory, he said.

In fact, Myanmar has beenkeenly waiting for interest fromthe global petro-giants to materi-alise.

Over the last two decades,

only Asian companies, led by theChinese, have dared venture intoa country demonised by theinternational community for itshuman rights violations.

The two Western groupswith a long-term presence inMyanmar, Total and Chevron,entered before sanctions wereimposed and then stood accusedof serving the interests of thejunta and closing their eyes toforced labour.

Today, however, politicalreforms have taken off andBurmese companies are jostlingto offer partnership deals to for-eigners.

This new mood owes muchto Thein Sein, a former generalturned reformist president, whohas made it clear the time hasarrived for transparency.

A tender offer in 2012 wasreportedly delayed to meet inter-national standards.

“It was postponed becausethe ministry wanted to improvetransparency,” said Kyaw KyawHlaing, Chairman of SmartGroup of Companies and formergeologist for MOGE, the highlycontroversial state-run company.

“They want all the proce-dures and systems to be bullet-proof which means no one canbe blamed... It is very goodnews,” he said.

In the current atmosphere,all bets are on.

For Burmese, it seems thatnow is the moment to finallyfully exploit their naturalresources. The sector represents34 percent of the country’sexports and is set to grow.

But transparency must comein tandem as part of “the path todemocracy,” said Chit Khaing,Chairman of Eden Group, whichruns a joint venture withVietnam’s state-run oil giantPetroVietnam at an offshore sitesince 2008. “In our language, wecall (oil and gas fields) ‘treasuretroves’ as we can expect thatthey can bring us a largeamount of treasure.” AFP

Myanmar: Shining newhope for global oil giants

10

The CIA estimates that Myanmar is sitting on some 50 million barrels of oiland some 283.2 billion cubic metres of natural gas.

SINCE POLITICALREFORMS HELPEDMYANMAR SHED ITSPARIAH STATUS ANDPROMPTED INTERNATION-AL SANCTIONS TO BELIFTED, THE WORLD’SMAJOR ENERGY FIRMSHAVE BEEN EYEING THEPOTENTIALLY OIL-AND-GAS-RICH COUNTRYTUCKED BETWEENCHINA AND INDIA.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 201311INTERVIEW

Reaching for the cosmosAt the helm of India’s first space start-up, Sanjay Nekkanti and Narayan Prasad aim to

unleash the potential of private space research and development in the country.

“When we tellpeople wedesign satel-lites, they askus what our

app is called. And we have toexplain there is no app, that wedesign actual satellites that will gointo space. Then, the reaction setsin and they go ‘oh’,” grins the duobehind Dhruva Space, the firststart-up of its kind in the countrywhich is dedicated to R&D in spacescience and technology.

Sanjay Nekkanti and NarayanPrasad met in 2010, when they wereamong the 10 Indians to be chosenfor the coveted Erasmus MundusSpaceMaster programme. The inter-national course enabled them tostudy, work and network with spacecommunities in various countriesincluding Germany, Sweden, Franceand Singapore. Over the course ofthe next two years, they realised theimmense and untapped potential ofthe private space industry, especial-ly in the Indian arena, and decidedto do something about it.

“We realised that we couldeither do what all the previousbatches of Indian spacemasters haddone before us — work for someinternational space agency — or wecould start something new. Thechoice was easy,” says Narayan.Turning down extremely lucrativework offers and PhD invitations,they returned to India immediatelyand launched their start-up,Dhruva, in Bangalore.

But the decision was hardlyimpulsive. Having already designeda satellite in his college days forSRM University, Sanjay gained valu-able experience studying the play-ing field. “There is a huge demandfor satellites, especially small satel-lite technology in the world today.India is an especially huge market,considering that it is among thecheapest launchers in the world.Not to mention the tremendousprice parity between a satellite builtsay, in Europe, and here. We aim tobridge the demand-supply gap,”

explains Sanjay.But it’s not just satellites that

interests the two unconventionalengineers. Their portfolio seeks toinclude a host of products and ser-vices using space-based technolo-gies for the benefit of emergingeconomies. One of their latest pro-jects nearing implementation, forinstance, are devices on balloon-based platforms that would providecontinuous and real-timeimagery/data to be used in times ofnatural calamities or intelligencegathering for various purposes, athalf the cost of a satellite orbitingin space.

But by the virtue of havingventured into uncharteredterritory, the duo first has amore immediate mission to accom-

plish before their plans can takeflight — create public awarenessand garner interest in the subjectamong the academic communityand of course, the powers that be.“The first challenge is getting peo-ple to understand what we do. Next,there has been this incredulityabout our projects which has ledpeople to believe it cannot be possi-ble. But almost all of the players inother countries who serve as pri-vate counterparts to their nationalagencies have been college spin-offs,just like ours. So, we have to showthat it’s very much possible,” saysthe duo.

In the four months since theylaunched, they’ve already had thedistinction of holding India’s firstSpace Up, an ‘unconference’ focusedon space exploration, which was arunaway hit. Their next project isYuri’s night — a global celebrationof Yuri Gagarin’s birthday on April12. It is, however, one of the manythings in the pipeline for Dhruva,which is already a team of four

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Stores Across Twin Cities

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staffers and seven consul-tants.

“In the beginning, itwas a little shaky. Oneweek, I would be down inthe dumps and Sanjaywould pull me up and thenext week, it was vice

versa. But now, we’ve set-tled a little bit. Looking atthe pace of things, it looks like we’re here for thelong haul. But that’s okay,there’s nowhere else we’drather be,” they say with a smile.

BEFORE THEY VENTUREINTO SPACE, THE DUO HASTO FIRST CREATE PUBLICAWARENESS AND GARNERINTEREST IN THE SUBJECTAMONG THE ACADEMICCOMMUNITY.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 201312ART AND CULTURE

Tonalism is an Americanprogressive art move-

ment that developed inthe 1880s out of an abiding spir-

itual feeling for the intimaciesof the human landscape —

often scenes at dawn or dusk ofabandoned farms littered with

stone walls and old orchards.Tonalism is rooted in the

French Barbizon movement,which emphasised atmosphere

and shadow. The Tonalist styleemploys a distinctive technique

by the use of colour’s middlevalues as opposed to stronger

contrast and high chroma,resulting in a understated andcompelling overall effect. The

tonalist subject matter is neverentirely apparent; there is noeffort to communicate a mes-

sage or narrate a story. Insteadof relating a story, each sensi-

tively chosen colour, composi-tion, and line is arranged

to create an intriguing visual poem.

The interiors of Tonalistpaintings are generally elegantand sparsely decorated, tonally

uniform, simplified and indis-tinct; the figures are usually

presented alone in silent con-templation. Landscapes are typ-

ically luscious and luminous

with evocative atmosphericeffects featuring misty

backgrounds illuminated bymoonlight.

Tonalists painters weredrawn to both the natural andspiritual realms. They sought

to awaken the viewers con-sciousness by shrouding thesubject in a misty indistinct

veil of emotionalism. Thepalette is minimal, character-ized by warm hues of brown,

soft greens, gauzy yellows andmuted grays. Preferred themes

were evocative moonlightnights and poetic, vaporous

landscapes. Tonalist paintersseemed to favoured uncon-

scious states and psychologicalexperiences over reality.

Tonalism is a style of painting in which landscapes are depictedin soft light and shadows.

A play of shadows ART FOR DUMMIES

Agnew’s gallery in London, which willcease trading on April 30, plans to sell

its extensive archive, says JulianAgnew, the chairman of the gallery.

Trade figures consider the archive tobe one of the most important and

complete records of art market deal-ings over the past two centuries. A

likely bidder is the Getty Institute inLos Angeles.

Agnew to sell archive A collection of 57 old masters wortharound £100m – some bought for aslittle as £100 apiece by art historian SirDenis Mahon – are to be formallygiven to Britain, reports Guardian. Ifany attempt is made by the hostmuseum to charge for admission; orany item from their collection is put upfor sale, the Art Fund, the charity thatis donating them, can take them back.

Britain gets £100m paintings UNESCO has launched a $11m rescueproject for Timbuktu, following ameeting in Paris. Key heritage expertstravelled from Mali to report on thedamage to ancient manuscripts andhistorical sites in the ancient city, whichlies on the edge of the Sahara. 3,000manuscripts had been destroyed byrebels at Ahmed Baba Institute of Hig -her Learning and Islamic Research.

UNESCO to save heritage

THE ART OF MANIPULATIONAn exhibition traces the history of image modification before Photoshop made it so easy.

In this era of Photoshopand Instagram, shouldpeople recoil at the notionof photo manipulation?

Not at all, said the cura-tor of an exhibition on thetopic that opened in Washi -ngton. After all, we’ve beenliving with altered imagessince photography wasinvented in the 19th century.

Faking It: ManipulatedPhotography BeforePhotoshop at the NationalGallery of Art brings togeth-er some 200 works to docu-ment the history of airbrush-ing, double exposures and all

kinds of darkroom wizardry.“Technology has helped

create a shift in attitudesabout photography, and it’sbrought about a greaterskepticism,” curator MiaFineman said.

“The fact that this tech-nology is accessible, thatanybody can get it on theirown computers, has madepeople more aware of howpictures can be altered.”

Initially pitched atgraphic artists, Photoshopnow is available in a varietyof professional and con-sumer versions, while a raftof smartphone apps have

put photo manipulation lit-erally at users’ fingertips.

But as Faking It tells it,the first doctored imageswere motivated by pragmat-ic considerations.

Mid-19th century land-scape photographers likeGustave Le Gray and Carlet onWatkins got around exposurelimits of primitive glass nega-tives by taking separategroup and sky images, fusingthem for dramatic effect.

When a Union army offi-cer failed to turn up for agroup portrait, photogra-pher Mathew Brady snappedthe other seven subjects first— then did a separate imageof the latecomer to superim-pose on the final image.

In the 20th century, sur-realists inspired by psycho-

analysis embraced photomanipulation as a means todepict their sleeping dreams,while novelty images — fore-runners of memes — found abroad popular following.

Faking It goes on totouch upon the use of air-brushing and retouching incommunist regimes toenhance the stature of lead-ers like Stalin and erase thevirtual existence of theirpolitical rivals.

But it also addresses thethen-shameless doctoring ofnews photos in the 1930sand 1940s to illustrate zep-pelins docking atop theEmpire State Building —they never did — or NewYork engulfed in an atomic-bomb mushroom cloud.

In a final section titled

Protoshop, the showexplores manipulated photosas an accepted means ofartistic self-expression inthe 1960s by Yves Klein andDuane Michals.

And, in a nod to a pecu-liar American obsession withaliens, there’s a hauntingimage of a UFO skimmingEarth’s surface, assembledwith distorted found ima gesby Oliver Wasow in 1987.

Fineman said she spentmore than three years criss-crossing North America andEurope to put togetherFaking It. “I knew that pho-tographs had always beenaltered and manipulated,but I didn’t really know howprevalent it was and howmuch a part of the history itwas,” Fineman said.

“When I learned aboutphotography at university,this kind of thing was hard-ly ever discussed,” added thecurator. AFP


The same gelatinous sea creatures thatclogged the intake at California's Diablo

Canyon nuclear power plant last spring haveshown up this winter on the Washington coast,

marine life experts say. The harmless jellyfish-like animals are called salps.A salp is a

pelagic tunicate. That means it lives in theopen ocean and has a tube-like body that

pumps water for locomotion and to filter theplankton on which it feeds.

Gelatinous sea creatures wash upChina's environment ministry appearsto have acknowledged the existenceof so-called "cancer villages" afteryears of public speculation about theimpact of pollution in certain areas.For years campaigners have said can-cer rates in some villages near facto-ries and polluted waterways have shotup. But the term "cancer village" hasno technical definition.

China’s ‘cancer villages’Invasive alien species pose a greaterrisk to Europe's biodiversity, economyand human health than previouslythought, a report has concluded. TheEuropean Environment Agency (EEA)has compiled a list of 28 invaders thathighlight the range of threats facingecosystems in the continent. Non-native species, such as food crops, canalso be beneficial, the study adds.

Ecosystems facing threat

ENVIRONMENT

More than 500 speciesof rare orchids and collectibleplants are beingshown during the

Blooms on Broadway: New YorkBotanical Expo at Gotham Hallin Midtown. The lineup includesorchids, African violets, raretropical plants and other exoticblooms popular with collectors.Vendors from as far as Japanand Ecuador will be showing offtheir buds.

Blooms on Broadway resur-rects the annual New YorkInternational Orchid Show,which closed six years ago. Theevent offers something for every-one from the casual gardener tothe orchid enthusiasts to thosewho are just curious. “We haveall types of plants. The $5African violet, which you grow

RARE COLLECTIBLES Despite the cold

temperatures, hundreds of rareflowers will be infull bloom this

weekend inManhattan.

on your kitchen window sill to the$4,000 fragmen pedium whichgrows on a stream in Peru to abeautiful neo phoenecia fromJapan. We have vendors from allover the world," said Elle Ronis ofBlooms on Broadway.

Ronis, who founded the succes-sor with Brian Fischer, a floralexpert, detailed what makes thisshow different. All the plants arefor sale — not just orchids, but anassortment of exotic houseplantsand perennials.

Roughly 30 vendors are ready toimpart their wisdom.

"Creating hybrids and stuffwhen you see them bloom for thefirst time it's just... especially ifyou have something like the ravenclaws, the first time that this flowerbloomed was just amazing," saidJohn Leathers, a flower growerbased in San Francisco.

TIMOTHY A CLARY/AFP

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 201314FOOD

Eat All You Can: The name says it all. At HolyBasil in Radisson Blu, the menu is designed

such that by the end you are done, youshall have completed a Pan Asian gastronomic tour.

The menu comprises stunning dishes from thecuisines of Japan, China and Thailand. Now the

catch: Each of the dishes you have ordered from thefive-course meal, you may have as much as you want

of that dish, meaning unlimited. For the non-vegmeal, it’s Rs 699 plus taxes; for veg it’s 599 plus taxes.

‘Eat All You Can’ at Holy Basil

Action Against HungerInternational (ACF) workers dis-tributed guinea pigs to commu-

nity members as part of a food securityprogramme in Karete, Congo. Over500 guinea pigs were distributed to thelocals by the non-profit organisationthat focuses their programmes andactivities in the field mainly of nutritionand prevention of malnutrition.

Preventing malnutrition

In Japan, Hachikyo, a restaurant actu-ally fines customers who don’t finishall of their fish roe in one of their

specialty dishes. This beautiful dish issimplicity itself, white rice topped withwell seasoned fish roe, so few find ithard to finish. Reason being the work-ing conditions of the fishermen whocaught the fish for the roe were harshand that it was dangerous work.

Fine food in Japan

Fondant covered cakes arebecoming a rage inHyderabad, and person-alised ones, more so. How

customised, intricate and elabo-rate a cake gets is entirely pro-portional to how creative youcan be.

“A lot of people are trying toexplore and experiment. I did acake for a sangeet. The couplewere movie buffs. So we had popcorn, movie reel, movie poster ofDilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayengeand a curtain raiser. We alsoenjoy making such cakes think-ing how creative the customermust be,” says Shruti Syala ofMiss Muffins.

Birthday parties have alwayshad birthday cakes. When we

were little, our parents went aday before to the trusted bakerynearby and ordered our pre-ferred flavour of cake. As wegrew older, our friends went andbought the readily available onesone hour before midnight. Nowthings have changed. Cakes areordered, thought of, workedupon at least ten days inadvance. These customisedcakes are as good as birthdaypresents now. Where did thistrend start from? “Five yearsago, people ordered whateverwas available. Now people havetravelled. They are more exposedto the western culture throughTV shows and internet. Nowthey want cakes and dessertscustomised. We say ‘why not’? Sowe don’t even maintain a stan-dard menu,” explains Swati (inpic) from Concu. “I think thetrend has always been there. Thedemand existed but we neverhad anyone doing it unless some-one took the first step and people

went crazy about it,” adds RuthKhanna of Ruthie’s. “I wanted todo this for a very very long time.I only do customised orders.When I started, I was apprehen-sive if customers would want it.Turns out the demand was huge.People want variation in every-thing these days,” shares Shruti.

There are very few peopleand fewer patisseries that youcan go to knowing your brilliantidea for a cake will be materi-alised. Who are these people andwhere can you find them? “ Ihave always been an enthusias-tic home cook. I love baking andmaking Continental food. Overthe years, people have asked meto go commercial but I keptrejecting the idea,” says Ruth.But because her food is so popu-lar, she was of course cookingand baking for her friends andfriends’s friends and in no time,the word spread and she had nochoice but to form Ruthie’s.

While this is Ruth’s story, a fewothers have acquired these skillsfrom culinary academies or sole-ly from having travelled exten-sively. A large chunk of theirclientele is young and comesfrom upper middle class andabove. Although these cakes arealmost double the price of regu-lar ones, the trend is fast catch-ing up. Not only do these cakeslook spectacular, there is nocompromise on the taste as well.“The idea is to keep the classicsalive. We don’t use commercialfondant at all. We use pure andimported chocolate, pure cocoa,even. We are very particularabout things being fresh. Peopleshould get a proper taste of thecake,” says Ruth. From what itseems, people don’t mind spend-ing so much. So what is it thathas made these cakes such afrenzy in the City? “When youlove what you do, people seethat,” comments Ruth.

Bake me a shoe, will you?

Miss Muffins, Shruti Syala: 9000006858

Pink Cupcakes: 9963003904Ruthie’s, Ruth Khanna:

9949453558Concu: 9985800031

Order here

CAKES ARE ORDERED,THOUGHT OF, WORKEDUPON AT LEAST TEN DAYSIN ADVANCE. THEY AREAS GOOD AS PRESENTS.

[email protected] AGARWAL

A cake is more than just dessert. It is a collage, a sort of scrapbook, a delicious installation art, even. You like shoesor cars, your cake will be made looking like those Jimmy Choos you have always wanted or that Porsche you admire

so much or your Nikon camera you can’t go anywhere without. Here’s more about this trendy art.

THE KOREAN

ART OF FOODThis week at Syn, the streets of Korea come alive at their food festival titled Seoul Temptation.Korean cuisine itself might be intimidating for

newcomers, but rest assured, an experience with the food here will entice even the most reticent of diners.

Ask anyone to namesome types ofAsian cuisine thatthey enjoy and it’slikely that Korean

will not be among them. Thereason for that is a dog. Overthe years Koreans have gotsome pretty bad press forchomping on man’s bestfriend. But take, for amoment if you will, Rover offthe menu and what you’re leftwith is an outstanding anddelectable array of food fromthe Korean peninsula.

Syn has long been knownfor its attachment to flavourand its reluctance to tamperwith cuisine to suit

intolerant palates — thisnewspaper voted it the best

restaurantin the city

in

2012. In Hyderabad’s restau-rant business that’s one ofthe greatest virtues.

And at the SeoulTemptation, Syn’s Koreanstreet food festival, all therestaurant’s highlights are inthe proverbial spotlight. Themenu is sharp and unclut-

tered, and the meal startsoff with kimchi two

ways: a regularkimchi (spicy

and sourenough tobe yourmother-in-law)and Kim

bap (kim-chi in a

rice roll).Far from

numbing thepalate both dishes

serve as gastronomicwhetters.

If you like soup opt

for the Jogaetang, a clambroth with noodles that’s sub-tle enough not to permeatethrough every taste bud, butjust enough to conjureimages of an Incheon sea.

The main courses are con-summately street; from theBulgoggi (barbecued chicken)and the Soegogi-Jangjorim(tenderloin braised in soya)to the Bibimbap (fried rice)and Japache (noodle stir-fry)all the dishes are braziers offlavour. Like any great dish,heat simmers around it but isnot the epicentre.

The crowning glory of themenu, however, is theOjingeo muchim (spicysquid). Now let me explainfor a moment why I’m ravingabout a cephalopod that inmost restaurants resemblesthe underside of a tramp’sboot. Squid is difficult to cookto perfection — undercook itand its raw, overcook it andyou need to be shot. At Syn,its perfection personified. Infact, a couple of cold beers(or five) and a heap ofOjingeo is more than enoughto transport you toTongdaemun under a clearSeoul sky.

One thing you can be sureof, this Korean food festival—Seoul Temptation will haveyou talking about Korean cuisine long after you’ve left.

Andrew JosefTHE FOODIST

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 201315FOOD

SEOUL TEMPTATION

Place: Syn, Taj DeccanPrice: Meal for two `2,500Time: 7.30pm-11.45pm

(Dinner only)

Ingredients n Chicken

1 medium sized (Cut into 8 pieceswithout skin)

n Hung curd 1/2 cupn Thick full fat curd 1/2 cup n Cornflour mixed with yogurt

1 tbspn Oil 1 tbspn Chopped onions 1/2 cupn Green chillies 2 to 3n Ginger 1 inch piecen Garam masala powder 1 tspn Mixed whole garam masala 1 tspn Salt to tasten Mint leaves, kasuri meethi

for garnishingn Fresh thick cream for garnishing

Proceduren Grind into a fine paste—onions,

green chillies and ginger.n Heat oil, put in the whole garam

masala and add the above paste.n Fry the chicken pieces, add salt

and cook along with hung curdand whole garam masala powdertill soft and tender.

n Add cornflour to the curd and mixit with the chicken, cover it for awhile and switch off the gas.

n Let the curd gravy remain thick andcreamy.

n Sprinkle some kasuri meethi. n Garnish with mint leaves and

whisked cream.

Chef’s Note:n It’s a mildly spiced dish with low

calories, best served with parathaor tandoori naan.

Noor’s KitchenNOOR JAFRI

DahiMurgh

Chicken with yogurtgravy.

DINI

NG W

ITH

THE

MAS

TERS

PANCAKE Dietician from Apollo Hospital Priyanka Shukla gives a recipe for a healthy start to the day.

Ingredients Qtyn Rava 40gmsn Curd 30gms n Oats 15gmsn Carrot 5gms n Capsicum 5gmsn Cabbage 5gms n Onion 5gmsn Salt As per taste n Red Chili 1/2 tspn Oil 3gms

Methodn Take Rava, Oats & Curd

in a bowl & mix well putwater for consistency,keep it for one hour.

n Chop all vegetables andadd salt & chili powder.

n In a non-stick pan putbatter in a round shape,put vegetables on thetop, put oil in & aroundand cook both sides.

n Serve hot with greenchutney.

Nutritive value:n Energy - 248 kcaln Protein - 10.2gms n Fibre - 6.8gm

Priyanka Shukla

For more healthy food do pick up Freedom Refined Sunflower Oil’s unique Healthy Recipe Book.The book contains 11 recipes.

SRINIVAS SETTY

Contact us @ Noor kitchen -Mobile + 91 9441282318

Residence + 91 40 23356947

Like us @ https://www.face-book.com/

Noorkitchen

18HISTORY

1953: CambridgeUniversity scien-tists James DWatson andFrances HC Crickannounce thatthey have deter-mined the dou-ble-helix structureof DNA, themolecule contain-ing human genes.The formalannouncementtakes place onApril 25 followingpublication inApril’s edition ofNature magazine.


Feb 251964: Cassius Clay, now better known asMuhammed Ali, is crowned the worldheavyweight champion after a shock winover reigning favourite Sonny Liston.

Feb 251570: Pope Pius V excommunicates QueenElizabeth I of England. He issues a papalbull accusing her of heresy and releasing allher subjects from allegiance to her.

Feb 261991: After 208 days of occupation, Iraqiforces leave Kuwait City. The retreat wasordered because of the aggression of 30countries and the economic blockade.

Feb 272002: 58 Hindu pilgrims are burnt to deathwhen a Muslim mob sets fire to a trainreturning from Ayodhya. The Godhra trainburning set off communal riots in Gujarat.

Feb 271986: Prime Minister of Sweden, OlafPalme, is assassinated while walking downa street in Stockholm. His wife, Lisbeth,was wounded. Palme was known for walk-ing around with no major security.

Mar 11932: The 20-month old son of famous avi-ator Charles Lindbergh is kidnapped fromthe family’s mansion. Though a massiveransom was paid, the child was found mur-dered less than a mile from home.

Mar 11961: President John F Kennedy issues anexecutive order establishing the PeaceCorps. The three goals of the organisationinclude providing technical assistance andunderstanding other cultures.

Mar 22004: The Ashura massacre takes place inIraq, killing 178 and injuring over 500 Shi’aMuslims commemorating the Day ofAshura. Nine explosions took place inKarbala and three in Baghdad.

FEB28

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 201319SPOTLIGHT

Foodie fadA new outlet of fast food restaurant chainPollitos opened at SR Nagar on Saturday.

Vivek Goud and politician DanamNagender inaugurated the restaurant.

And the award goes to...The inaugural session of 7th Global Communication Conclave 2013 was organ-ised by Public Relations Council of India. IAS Officer Bharat Lal Meena receivedthe PRCI Chanakya Award 2013 for Good Governance and Public Administration.

Dancing up a stormSalsa guru Alex Diaz

got the crowd grooving at Salsa

Upanishads workshoporganised at Tease.

Spotted were Kalpana,Aditya, Divya Sharma

and others.

Kalpana, Sowjanya, Alex YatinRanand, Divya Sharma

Himmat, Raphni

Sanjay, Deepsha

Aditya with a friend

1 2

3

4

5

1

2 3

4

5

CINEMA 20

Nani, who turns 29 today, ison a high these days. He’scurrently shooting forSamuthirakani’s JendaPai Kapiraju and another

film titled Paisa is expected torelease later this summer. The firstlook of Paisa is going to belaunched later today. Apart fromthese two films, the project he’smost excited about is the officialremake of Band Baaja Baarat. “Iam eagerly looking forward tobegin this project. The film willmark the foray of Yash Raj Films inSouth India and it’ll be primarilymade in Tamil. It’s a privilege to actin a film that is being backed by aproduction house like Yash RajFilms,” Nani said. He recently metAditya Chopra in Mumbai to dis-cuss about the film and the duo,apparently, bonded quite well. “Iwas told that Aditya Chopra lovedmy performance in Ala Modalaindiand when they were planning toremake Band Baaja Baarat inTamil, Aditya Chopra felt that Iwould suit the role perfectly. Wespoke a lot about adapting the filmto suit the local sensibilities, mylook and the film is going to shapeup. Aditya Chopra is all the moreexcited about the film and he is notgoing to compromise on anything,”he revealed.

When we asked if the remakeof Band Baaja Baarat hasalready lost its freshness sincethe basic plot has already beenplagiarised, Nani remarked, “The

best part about Band Baaja Baaratwas the chemistry which the leadpair share. That worked wonders inthe original film and we are confi-dent that if the audience relates tothe chemistry between the lead pairin the remake then it doesn’t reallymatter if other films had a similarplot. For that matter, there are somany films which are simply arehash of hit films from the past.”The team is yet to finalise the leadheroine in the film. Gokul, a formerassistant of Vishnu Vardhan, isgoing to direct the film. “Moreover,this remake will be my first fullfledged film in Tamil. Although Ihad acted in Veppam and played asmall part in Rajamouli’sNaan Ee, I haven’t donea mainstream film inTamil,” he says.


Nithin starrer GJGnears completion

Nithin, Nithya Menen star-rer Gunde JaariGallanthayindhe is in the

last leg of shooting. VijayKumar Konda is directing thefilm and it’s his first film as adirector. Isha Talwar is playingthe second lead in this romanticentertainer. Nikitha Reddy isproducing it. The film’s talkiepart has been wrapped up andthe lead cast will soon fly toDubai to shoot a couple ofsongs. Nithin is going to shoot asong each with Nithya Menenand Isha Talwar and these twosongs will be shot in Dubai,Abu Dhabi and Muscat. AnupRubens has scored the music.Post the success of Ishq, Nithinand Nithya Menen have becomea hit pair in the industry andthere’s a good buzz aboutGunde Jaari Gallanthayindheas well. The first look of thefilm was received quite well andNithin is confident about thefilm’s success. The film’s audiowill be launched in early Marchand the film might hit thescreens in the third week ofApril.

Jabardasth off to ashaky start

Nani is on a high

Siddharth, Samantha andNithya Menen starrerJabardasth has gotten off to

a slow start at the box office. Thefilm released a day after the twinblasts rocked Hyderabad andmost people seemed to havestayed away from the theatresyesterday. Despite the presenceof Siddharth and Samantha veryfew theatres registered full occu-pancy in the first couple ofshows on February 22. However,sources say that the occupancyin theatres increased consider-ably in the evening. “Here you

go. Despite the fact that we lost achunk of our Nizam openingowing to the blasts,Jabardastgrossed over `5cr on its first day.By Monday morning, Jabardastwill be a break even film for allinvolved. That’s the only good Ihave to share…(sic),” Siddharthposted on Twitter. NandiniReddy has directed the film.Although the performances bythe lead pair and Nithya Menenreceived a good response, thefilm has been facing a lot criti-cism for it’s similarities withBand Baaja Baarat.


CINEMA 21

Sonakshi was my only choice forHimmatwala song: Sajid Khan

Bollywood actress Sonakshi Sinhawill be seen dancing in a retropeppy number, Thank God ItsFriday in film Himmatwala and

filmmaker Sajid Khan says that theactress was his first and last choice forthe song.

“Sonakshi was my first and last choicefor the song. I had decided that if shedoesn’t say yes, I’ll drop the song,” he saidat the launch of the song held on Fridayevening.

Sonakshi has donned two looks in thesong. The first one has been inspired fromParveen Babi’s look in Shaan and the sec-ond one is similar to Sridevi fromChaalbaaz.

“The first outfit has been taken fromwhat Parveen Babi wore in Shaan, but wehave changed it a bit. The next one isfrom Sridevi’s look in her filmChaalbaaz,” Sonakshi said.

Sonakshi was recently also seen in thesong Go Go Govinda from the film, Oh MyGod. Asked if the actress was planning tobecome a queen of item songs, she saidthat the song had to be special for her tobe a part of it.

“I like dancing but the song has to bespecial for me to be a part of it. Even GoGo Govinda had something special and sodoes Thank God Its Friday,” she said.

The actress also added that she didn’thave to put in much preparation for thesong.

“I just reached the sets. I did not doany kind of preparation. I have seen thesesongs before. People say I have the oldworld charm and I used that,” she said.

Directed by Sajid Khan, Himmatwalastars Ajay Devgn and Tamannaah and isall set to release on March 29. IANS

Madhuri has surprise for

buddingdancers?

Post-Kai Po Che!,UTV signsAbhishek Kapoorfor new filmBuoyed by the response to Kai Po

Che!, movie production bannerUTV Motion Pictures has signed

director Abhishek Kapoor to helmanother film for it. The deal wassigned Friday, when Kai Po Che!,based on Chetan Bhagat’s novel The 3Mistakes Of My Life, hit the screens.

“With Kai Po Che!, Abhishek hasmanaged to marry commercial suc-cess with critical acclaim seamlessly.We are thrilled to be collaboratingwith him on another film and look for-ward to many more in the future,”Siddharth Roy Kapur, managing direc-tor - Studios, Disney UTV, said. “He isan incredibly gifted filmmaker. Hisclarity of vision as a storyteller andhis ability to faithfully translate thatvision from script to celluloid isremarkable,” added Kapur.

Kai Po Che!, starring SushantSingh Rajput, Amit Sadh and RajKumar Yadav in key roles, isAbhishek’s third film as a director.In the past, he helmed Aryan andthe successful Rock On!!. IANS

Bollywood’s dancing divaMadhuri Dixit says

there is a “huge sur-prise” for dance enthusiasts in the

country.“We have a huge surprise in store

for all you dancers and buddingdancers! Watch for news on Monday,”

Madhuri tweeted Friday.Perhaps it could be the

announcement of a new season of adance reality show she has judged

before. For now, she is heading to

Lucknow to shoot for VishalBhardwaj’s Dedh Ishqiya.The

Mehmoodabad palace nearBarabanki has been spruced up for

the shoot, which, according tosources, will begin on February 26.

There are also rumours thatMadhuri is likely to feature in a fic-tion TV show. However, there is no

confirmation on the front. IANS

Anne Hathaway dreameda dream... of singingagain! And it looks like

that dream is comingtrue.The Les Miserables staris letting her impressive setof pipes take her places asshe’s signed on to star (andsing in) Song One, accordingto Daily Mail. Song One willfeature Hathaway as anarchaeologist who abandonsher dig in Morocco andreturns to the States afterher brother is injured. Oncehome, she falls for her broth-er’s favourite musician, to beplayed by singer-songwriterJohnny Flynn, who (in reallife) fronts the folk bandJohnny Flynn and the SussexWit. Johnathan Rice and

Jenny Lewis are writ-ing songs for Flynn

to perform, withone track beingreserved forHathaway. The

award-winningactress original-ly showed inter-

est in SongOne lastMay.

Emma Stone has declaredthat she was amazed whenshe watched her new ani-mated film, The Croods, for

the first time. The Croods featuresthe voices of Stone, Nicolas Cageand Ryan Reynolds in the tale ofa caveman family who explore theworld after a severe earthquake.In an interview with Flicks andBits, Stone reflected on her firstviewing of the DreamWorks com-edy. “That was incredible, it wasamazing,” she recalled. “I thinkThe Croods has elements of all ofmy favourite movies, which isthat it’s not just funny and it’s notjust heartbreaking, it takes you

on a journey throughout theentire film.”

Stone went on to reveal thatshe even shed a tear while watch-ing the prehistoric family’s jour-ney to find a new home. “I criedwatching it, and I laughed, and Ijust went along for the ride andenjoyed myself the entire time,”she admitted. “It’s different thanany other animated movie thatI’ve seen, in a sense that it feelsso true to life the whole entiretime — even though we are in theStone Age.” Catherine Keener,Clark Duke and Cloris Leachmanalso lend their voices to the ani-mated film.

I WASAMAZEDBY THE CROODS


CINEMA 22E

MM

AS

TO

NE

: ANNE TO SINGAGAIN!

Adam Sandler has beentapped to star in anupcoming romantic

comedy for Warner Bros, ithas been reported. Theuntitled project — whichwas originally calledBlended — tells the story ofa man and woman who gettrapped at a resort withtheir children from previ-ous marriages after a bad

first date. Sandler’s HappyMadison company will pro-duce the movie in conjunc-tion with GulfstreamPictures, according to TheHollywood Reporter. SandraBullock was attached to theproject back in 2007, but hassince dropped out of thefilm. Casting is currently inprogress for Sandler’sfemale lead.

ADAM BACK ONSCREEN


CINEMA 23


CINEMA 24

Johnny Depp appeared on the LateShow with David Letterman,Thursday night. At a certain pointduring the interview, Depp talkedabout a close call he had on the

set of his new movie, The Lone Ranger,in which he was nearly trampled by ahorse. While riding his horse in the film, Depp saysthe animal decided to jump over a couple of bumps in thetrail. He was riding on a special saddle, which makes it appearas if he's riding bareback, but isn't safe on a jumping horse.During one of the jumps, the saddle slid to the left, leaving Depphanging off the side of the horse, with no way to pull himselfback up. He says he had to make a decision, “Will I go with thebeast until someone wrangles it, or will I drop?” Depp chose the lat-ter, falling on his back under the horse. The horse lifted its frontlegs, stepping over Depp, but did clip him a bit with its back legs. “Ifigured that fear would kick in, but it didn't,” Depp says. Lettermanasked the question on everyone's mind, “Where are the stunt people forheaven's sakes? You're Tonto!” “That's the exact same question I had,”Depp said, as he and Letterman shared a laugh. The Lone Ranger, also star-ring Armie Hammer as the Lone Ranger himself, is in theatres July 3.

HAD ACLOSE CALL

ON LONERANGER

JOHNNY DEPP


CINEMA 25

Going to jail was sobering: Wahlberg

Actor Mark Wahlberg saysbeing jailed at the age of 17was a “sobering” moment

for him. The 41-year-old was sen-tenced to two years in prison forassault and attempted murderafter he beat up a stranger dur-ing his growing up days inBoston, reports femalefirst.co.uk.“There were moments where Iknew I needed to get on the rightcourse. Very sobering moments.As a 17-year-old adolescent goingto jail, that’s a very soberingmoment,” Wahlberg said onITV’s Daybreak. “I had a veryspecific moment where I knew Ineeded to change my life, butwhen you decide to change yourlife then actually doing it, thatbecomes a very challenging anduphill battle that you need totake on a day-to-day basis," headded. IANS

Nick isengagedNick Carter is taken! The

Backstreet Boys singerrevealed to People maga-

zine Friday that he recentlypopped the big question to hisgirlfriend Lauren Kitt during atrip to the Florida Keys. In thecompany of close friends,Carter dropped down on oneknee to the utter shock of hisoverjoyed lady love. “I wasn’texpecting it. It just felt very sur-real,” said Kitt. “We both arejust so happy in love right nowand on cloud nine.” Carter saysthe romantic spot, an island heused to visit as a child, has nowbeen dubbed ‘EngagementIsland’. As for their weddingdate, the couple told Peoplethey’re still working out a datethat doesn’t conflict withrecording Backstreet Boys’ newalbum or their sold-out fancruise in October.

CHAI TIME 26SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2013

ACROSS1 Ski slope bump6 Cartoon hunter

surname10 Plains harvest15 Digging tool20 Invisible swimmer (var)21 More balanced22 Hagar’s comics wife23 An archangel24 Kitchen wrap25 Banquet host26 Dendrite opposites27 Alice’s cat28 Gumshoe attire

(2 wds)30 Deep-blue mineral

(2 wds)32 Get ready (2 wds)33 Type of jacket35 ‘— kleine Nachtmusik’36 Actress — Andersson39 Brown of renown40 MGM motto word41 Chatty alien of TV42 Gold deposit46 Single-strand

molecule47 Bunkhouse item48 Eject51 Hard to climb53 Chicago Fire starter54 Not these or those56 — does it!57 Old-fashioned59 Rich kid in ‘Nancy’61 Don Diego masked62 Sandy expanse63 Bassoon cousin64 Most taxies65 Spend like crazy67 From square one68 Half a fly69 Manage somehow72 Pub pint73 Tells76 Not moving (2 wds)80 Ms Gardner81 Fill-ins82 Decompose83 Freight rider85 Dent86 Rummage sale88 Grew, as interest92 Winner’s take93 Doozy94 One half of

Ward/Deschanel duet95 Homeboy’s turf96 Jet set destination99 Deadly102 Wyo neighbour103 Common door sign104 Orange-yellow108 Wickerwork twig109 Picket-line crossers110 Elvis swiveled them111 Compliments112 Klutz113 Showbiz org115 Ocean fishes116 Mediocre grade117 Hosp staffer118 Wisp of smoke120 S&L offering121 Norm, briefly123 Mammal’s need124 Remain undecided125 Hindu royalty

127 Not Ionic orCorinthian

129 The Great Caruso131 Having fun (2 wds)135 Rappel pro (2 wds)140 Surrounded by141 Jrs’ exams142 On — — (winning)143 Holstein’s home144 Snapshot145 Pismire146 Brawl147 Goggle-eyed Cantor148 Solitude enjoyer149 Hits the books150 Bard or minstrel151 Is stinky

DOWN1 Crow’s-nest locale2 Little on ‘The Wire’3 ‘Primal Fear’ lead4 Pierced-lip people5 Knight’s weapon6 Prominent7 Open, as a bottle8 Bug repellent9 Treat a wound10 Ahab, for instance11 Groups of six12 Flee to the JP13 Hindu god of fire

14 Blossomed, as corn15 Red Sea country16 Valued greatly17 Aborigine of Japan18 Wheel and —19 Grades 1-1221 Something to keep29 Moon rings31 Vitality34 Motor City union36 Marshal Tito37 Gung-ho about38 Former NFL kicker

Matt —41 Suits to — —43 Kareem’s alma mater44 Ans45 Low cards47 Give a crew cut48 Thick carpeting49 Harness racer50 Archaic verb ending51 Vermont ski resort52 On the double55 Gaelic language56 Avila saint57 Be generous58 Aid and —60 Frankfurt’s river62 Thermometer base64 Unchanging66 Victor’s wreath

67 For all to hear69 Hired vehicle70 Caviar, actually71 La —, Bolivia74 Mistakes75 Eschews a beard77 Outback bird78 ‘My gal’ of song79 Play about Capote81 Bedouin’s domain84 — Dutra of golf87 Netster of note89 For a song90 Lee J —91 Sci-fi gofer93 Prayer-wheel turner97 Little rascals98 Steakhouse order99 Stunt-plane maneuver100 Hairy twin101 Petty quarrel102 Orange Bowl org103 Grinch victim105 Digestive juice106 ‘PTI’ network107 Tear to pieces109 Economical one111 Danger114 Join the chorus115 401, to Flavius116 Compass creation119 Kind of benefit

121 Did a laundrychore

122 Rendezvous123 Harem jewelry124 Brilliantine126 Infuriate127 Theater offering128 Muscle spasm129 Quebec school130 Kind of vinegar

131 Junk or snail —132 BBs133 Zen question134 Salinger heroine136 Black-and-white

snack137 Wait awhile138 Composer — Satie139 Blended whiskeys

PREVIOUS PUZZLE ANSWER

SUNDAY CROSSWORD

CHAI TIME 27SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2013

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TAROT READ

Seven of Wands –Expect some goodnews in an email orletter from overseas.Consider all optionscarefully before yougo ahead with amajor move.

Queen of Wands –Your imagination ishigh. It’s likely thatyour mind is cookingup situations that arenot for real. Don’tconfront anyone orinvite conflict.

The Wheel ofFortune – Nothingever stays the same.You need to realizeand appreciate thefact that bad timeswill eventually giveway to good times.

ARIESDon’t neglect even minor health prob-lems; take necessary treatment. Somein for a surprise as they get an oppor-tunity to go abroad. As financial situa-tion looks strong you will feel cheerful.

CANCER

LIBRAAvoid financial help to anyone as yoursavings might erode and you will havedifficulty in getting it back. Financial orjob opportunity likely through friends.Tensions and hurdles disappear.

CAPRICORNMinor clashes and misunderstandingwith spouse will be resolved. Avoidgiving importance to minor tensions athome as they will be automatically res -o l ved. Need to pay attention to health.

TAURUSMarriage talk will resume and progressin the right direction. Employees mighthave to struggle hard to get recogni-tion; will be entrusted increased tasks.Children will make you happy.

LEOBe careful while travelling as a minoraccident is likely. Govt officials will bepromoted as per expectations. Neverhurt anyone with harsh talk. Studentswill receive many good news.

SCORPIOTension all along will start disappearing.Transfer as expected and promotion onthe cards for employees. Unexpectedinflux of visitors will increase expenses.Children will make you proud.

AQUARIUSThough there will be misunderstandingbetween you and spouse, both needto adjust to sort out issues and lead ahappy life. All difficult tasks undertakenby you will end successfully.

GEMINIMisunderstanding with mother likely;avoid this. You plan renovation of thehouse and furnish it well. Never sharesecrets with a third person. Stu d e n tswill do well and earn appreciation.

VIRGOA very happy atmosphere will prevail athome. If planned activities are carriedout well, success will be certainly yours.Expenses will rise but it is necessary tokeep them under strict control.

SAGITTARIUSThose planning to apply for a loan cango ahead as the time is favourable.Some employees are forced to stayaway from family as they will bedeputed to some other state.

PISCESYour mannered approach will be appr -e ciated by everyone and work will getcompleted easily. Drive away unw ant -ed apprehensions in your mind. Avoidgetting addicted to bad habits.

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The Magician – Youcome across synch -ronicity. The y werealways there. Younotice them now.You now have theability to make themost of your talents.

Page of Swords –Watch out for signsof a burn out. You’vebeen spending waytoo much time in theoffice. Take a longbreak and returnrenewed.

Seven of Swords –Avoid any kind ofconflict, whether athome or work. Youwill find yourself in asticky situation,unable to get outeasily. Act smart.

Two of Pentacles –Though the financialburden has been he -a vy on you the pastfew months, your pl -anning has been go -o d and it takes youthrough tight spots.

The World – Con -quer your fear andgo ahead with whatyou’ve wanted to dofor a long time. Haveconfidence that theplans will work outjust fine.

Six of Wands – Youkeep busy with anumber of commit-ments, prior appoi -ntments and deliver-ies both at work andat home. Take fewercoffee breaks today.

King of Pentacles –Your work is beingnoticed by influentialpeople in the busi-ness. You hear of anauthoritative personpraising your work.New contacts help.

The High Priestess –You achieve calman d peace throughfamiliarity of routine.It’s like Zen medita-tion. Stick to theroutine if it makesyou feel good.

Seven of Pentacles –You are putting allyour skills to gooduse. There are timeswhen you feel disap-pointed about notbeing able to achi -eve to your max.

STAR POWER SUMAA TEKURtarotreadhyd@gmail. com

THIRUVAIKUMARthiruvaikumar@yahoo. co. in

040-27177230 / 9949870449

Avoid expressing opinions openly with-out substantiation proof as you mightbe misunderstood. Strained relation-ship will resume. Self-confidence levelwill be at its high. Do duties diligently.

Date 25-2-2013 Date 25-2-2013

Q: Doctor, how many autopsieshave you done on dead people?A: All my autopsies are per-formed on dead people.Q: Do you recall the time thatyou examined the body?A: The autopsy started around8:30 pm.Q: And Mr Dennington wasdead at the time?A: No, he was sitting on thetable wondering why I wasdoing an autopsy.Q: Doctor, before you per-formed the autopsy, did youcheck for a pulse?A: No.Q: Did you check for blood

pressure?A: No.Q: Did you check for breath-ing?A: No.Q: So, then it is possible thatthe patient was alive when youbegan the autopsy?A: No.Q: How can you be so sure,Doctor?A: Because his brain was sittingon my desk in a jar.Q: But could the patient havestill been alive nevertheless?A: It is possible that he couldhave been alive and practicinglaw somewhere.

Some actual trial transcripts, honest!

Vol: 2, No 219 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 himat 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

As per Hindu panchang

CAPRICORN AQUARIUS PISCES

SAGITTARIUSSCORPIOLIBRA

CANCER

ARIES TAURUS GEMINI

LEO VIRGO

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2013 28Les Misérables is an epic saga oflove and sacrifice set against the

backdrop of a rebellion in Francein early 19th century where people aspire to dethrone a

tyrannical monarch.

[email protected] KUMAR

An EpicSaga of

Love

Les Misérables can be quite a daunting experiencefor those who have never had a taste of musicals.Every conversation and monologue in the film isa song and the responsibility to make the film anengrossing experience, as much as the stage play

it has been adapted from, falls upon its ensemble cast,led by Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe. It’s a miraclethat almost all of them pull it off, but the film is extraor-dinarily superficial precisely because it’s a musical.

Hugh Jackman stars as Jean Valjean, a convict whowas sent to prison for stealing a loaf of bread to savehis sister’s child. He is relentlessly pursued byInspector Javert (Russell Crowe). The latter believesthat a thief will never change and that upholding thelaw is paramount. However, Jean reforms himself aftera Bishop pardons him despite stealing silver from thechurch. Several years later, Jean becomes the mayor ofa town and runs a factory where Fantine (AnneHathaway) works tirelessly to send money for the well-being of her child, Cosette. When Jean comes to knowabout Cosette, he promises Fantine that he’ll take careof her and the rest of the film is about how the destiniesof Jean, Cosette, Javert and Marius, a student who fallsin love with Cosette, crisscross each other while anuprising led by students breaks out.

The film’s director, Tom Hooper, who has earlierhelmed The King’s Speech, has a fascinating story and agreat cast in hand to adapt the musical play of the samename, which itself is an adaptation of Victor Hugo’snovel of the same name, on to the big screen. The open-ing scene, where hundreds of slaves pull a ship into thedockyard while they sing ‘Look Down’, is a sight tobehold and it triggers a plethora of emotions about thetimes the story is set in. In another stunning scene,Fantine gives away her hair, teeth and becomes a prosti-tute out of desperation to save her child. It makes yourstomach churn and Anne Hathway is so brilliant in herbrief role that even her songs, which are filled withpathos, sound passionate. The film’s standout perfor-mance, however, is from Hugh Jackman. He’s almostperfect as Jean Valjean, a reformed man who strugglesto hide his past. Russell Crowe is perhaps the leastimpressive of all the actors in the film when it comes tosinging. Among others, Samantha Barks shines asEponine and so do Helena Bonham Carter and SachaBaron Cohen.

Les Misérables is brilliantly shot and the sets aregorgeous, but it’s almost a crime to indulge in singingfor 157 minutes. The movie boasts of 52 songs. Evenfilms made by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and AshutoshGowarikar never felt so long and superficial. There’sonly so much one can take, even if it’s an epic film.


SPORTS 29PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA:

Dwyane Wade had a game-high 33 pointsand LeBron James (right) notched a triple-double as the NBA champions Miami Heat

downed Philadelphia 114-90 on Saturday tostretch their winning streak to 10. Mario

Chalmers scored 14 points and Chris Boshadded 13 for the Heat, who improved to

39-14 and have a comfortable 5 1/2-gamelead over Indiana in the Eastern

Conference.

Heat scorch SixersDAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA:Twenty-eight race fans were injured onSaturday when a crash sent Kyle Larson’scar airborne and debris flew into the standsat the end of the NASCAR stock carNationwide Series season-opener. JoieChitwood, president of Daytona Internatio -nal Speedway, said 14 injured fans hadbeen transported from the circuit for treat-ment at local hospitals and 14 more weretreated at the track’s medical facility.

Fans hurt in race crashZURICH (SWITZERLAND): Worldchampion Viswanathan Anand played outan easy draw with Fabiano Caruana of Italyin the first round of the Zurich ChessChallenge that got underway here.Playingblack in the opener of his third super tour-nament of the year, Anand was seen push-ing for an advantage as black and Caruanahad to defend precisely from a difficultposition but the Italian held fort to forcethe split of the point.

Anand draws with Caruana

1stRace: The Gold Sovereign Plate (about) 1600 metres, Cat-III. A handicap for horses, 4 year olds and upward, ratedupto 25. 1-40pm1 Fashionista 60.6 (KV Srinivas) AM Tograllu 22 Bernabeu 59 (Silvester) K Anil 13 Jaz Elle 59 (Z Shaikh) Ch K Chary 34 Classic Wish 58 (Prasad R) PS Chopuhan 65 Khalis Gold 56.5 (Hassan) Asbar 56 Architect 53.5 (Srinagesh) Nitin Singh 77 Kohinoor Adhira 53.5 (Vatsalya) Ajit Kumar 98 Great Guns 53 (Hassan) J Vikas 89 Anagalekha 50.5 (A Sharma) Khurshad Alam 4Selections: 1 Classic Wish 2 Khalis Gold 3 Jaz Elle

2nd Race: The Super Brave Plate (Div-I) (about) 1400 metres,Cat-II. Terms for Maiden horses 3 year olds only. 2-10pm1 Aware 55 (Hassan) P S Chouhan 12 Half Moon Bay 55 (D’Silva) Kuldeep Singh 63 Midnight In Paris 55 (S’narayan) Khurshad Alam 84 Ranjah 55 (Laxman S) AMTograalu 35 Concours 53.5 (D’Silva) S Nayak 26 Goldie 53.5 (D’Silva) R Vaibhav 47 Ice Barrier 53.5 (Satheesh) Deep shanker 78 Kohinoor Punch 53.5 (Vatsalya) Ajit Kumar 99 Princess Cruise 53.5 (Netto) KiranNaidu 5Selections: 1 Goldie 2 Ranjah 3 Princess Cruise

3rd Race; The Super Brave Plate (Div-II) (about) 1400 metres,Cat-II. Terms for Maiden horses 3 year olds only. 2-40pm1 Flamboyant Star 55 (Satheesh) Deep Shanker 32 Magical Punch 55 (D’Silva) Kuldeep Singh 43 Racing Ahead` 55 (Deshmukh) P S Chouhan 84 Vocation 55 (D’Silva) R Vaibhav 15 Golden Art 53.5 (Vatsalya) Ajit Kumar 66 Most Impressive 53.5 (Netto) KiranNaidu 27 Over Look 53.5 (Satheesh) KAnil 58 Par Excellence 53.5 (D’Silva) S Nayak 99 Royal Glory 53.5 Prasad R) P Sai Kumar 7

Selections: 1 Vocation 2 Racing Ahead 3 Most Impressive

4th Race: The Pelican Plate (Div-II) (about) 1200 metres, Cat-II. A handicap for horses, 4 year olds and upward, rated upto75. 3-10pm1 Bloody Mary 60 (D’silva) KuldeepSingh 32 Hurricane Dancer 57 (S Abbas) A Imran Khan 23 Shatakshi 54.5 (A Sharma) C Henrique 9

4 Prince Prashant 53 (D’Silva) A K Pawar 45 Pacific Star 52.5 (Srinivas R) P s Chouhan 56 True Friend 52 (Hassan) Asabr 17 Sweet Candy 51.5 (Satheesh) K anil 68 Cannon Ten 50 (Prasad R) P Sai Kumar 79 Sun Bird 50 (Netto) Harinder Singh 8

Selections: 1 Hurricane Dancer 2 Pacific Star 3 Bloody Mary

5th Race: The Eagle Eye Plate (about) 1400 metres, Cat-III. Ahandicap for horses, 4 year olds and upward, rated upto 50.`3-40pm1 Big Boss 61 (D’Silva) R Vaibhav 82 Golden Dash 61 (Vatsalya) Ajit Kumar 73 Lady Luck 60 (Netto) P Sai Kumar 54 Montego Bay 60 (Prasad R) J Vikas 105 Ace Star 57.5 (N Rao) DK Ashish 136 Bang OnTarget 56 (Kassam) K Anil 97 Sitting Pretty 55.5 (S Abbas) A Imrankhan 38 Stolen Date 54 (Netto) KiranNaidu 129 Symbol Of Honour 53 (A Sharma) C Henrqiue 410 Foudre Rouge 52.5 (Prasad R) G Sai Vamshi 111 Ground Crew 51.5 (Satheesh) AK Pawar 212 Kohinoor Revanta 51.5 (Vatsalya) AM Tograllu 1113 Silver Arnage 49.5 (Kassam) Khurshad Alam 1414 In Reality 49 (Netto) Harinder Singh 2

Selections: 1 Ground Crew 2 Symbol Of Honour 3 Lady Luck

6th Race: The Circar Cup (about) 1400 metresx, Cat-II. Termsfor horses 4 year olds and upward. 4-15pm1 Ashwa Shakti 61 (Deshmukh) PS Chouhan 12 Chal Bhai Chal 61 (Netto) A Imran Khan 63 Cristiano 61 (S Abbas) Ch K chary 54 Silver Crown 61 (S’narayan) NS Parmar 45 Da Xia 59 (Vatsalya) Ajit Kumar 96 Dusty Lady 59 (Sequeria) PTrevor 27 Oasis Vision 57.5 (Deshmukh) A M tograllu 78 Aerosmith 56.5 (Prasad R) S John 39 Jewel In The Crown55 (NRao) G Sai Vamshi 8

Selections: 1 Silver Crown 2 Chal Bhai Chal 3 Dusty Lady

7th Race: The Prince Mouzam Jah Bahadur Memorial Cup(about) 1200 metres, Cat-I. A handicap for horses, 4 year oldsand upward, 4-45pm1 Proof 62 (Sequeria) PS Chouhan 92 Vijays Conquer 60.6 (Laxman S) AM Tograalu 13 Al Sarraah 54.5 (S Abbas) A ImranKhan 7

4 Days Of Thunder 52.5 (Prasad R) P Trevor 45 Molecule 52.5 (NRao) DK Ashish 36 Anacostia 50.5 (D’Silva) Kuldeep Singh 117 Alberton Star 50 (Prasad R) P Sai Kumar 108 Aphrodisiac 50 (S Abbas) Ch K Chary 129 Indian Epic 50 (Prasad R) GSai Vamshi 510 Key Note 50 (Netto) Harinde rSingh 211 Ice Lolly 49 (D’silva) AK Pawar 812 Rio Grande 49 (D’Silva) R Vaibhav 6

Selections: 1 Vijays Conquer 2 Al Sarraah 3 Proof

8th Race: The Hot Chocolate Plate (about) 1200 Metre, Cat-II. Terms for horses, 3 year olds only. 5-15pm1 Baazigar 59 (Z Shaikh) A Imrankhan 12 Black Bolt 55 (Laxman S) Harinde rsingh 73 Chocolate Soldier 55 (A Sharma) AMTograalu 34 Dandelion 55 (Prasad R) PS Chouhan 45 Field Smasher 55 (N Rao) DK Ashish 26 Greek Star 55 (NRao) G Sai Vamshi 67 Nano Belle 53.5 (Vatsalya) C Henrique 58 Power Drive 53.5 (Netto) KiranNaidu 89 Sherman Oaks 53.5 (D’Silva) AK Pawar 9

Selections: 1 Baazigar 2 Dandelion 3 Black Bolt

9th Race: The Pelican Plate (Div-I) (about) 1200 metres, Cat-II.A handicap for horses, 4 year olds and upward, rated upto75. 5-45pm1 Secret angel 60 (Laxamn S) PS Chouhan 22 Scubarioo 58.5 (D’Silva) KuldeepSingh 93 Elegant Approach 55.5 (Prasad R) S John 44 Power Planet 51.5 (S’narayan) KiranNaidu 55 Robust 51.5 (Srinivas R) AMtograalu 106 Hidden Power 51 (NRao) DK Ashish 37 Mr.Glorious 50.5 (Hassan) Asbar 78 Speed Striker 49.5 (Prasad R) Khurshad Alam 19 Exclusive 49 (d’Silva) AK Pawar 810 Gold Medal 49 (satheesh) Harinder Singh 6

Selections: 1 Secret Angel 2 Hidden Power 3 Mr.Glorius

Days Best: Silver CrownJackpot Race Nos: 5, 6, 7, 8 and 91st Treble Race Nos: 1, 2 and 32nd Treble Race Nos: 4, 5 and 63rd Treble Race Nos: 7, 8 and 9Tanala pool will operate on all races where there arefive or more starters.No False Rails.

Vijays Conquer for main eventLaxman Singh-trained Vijays Conquer, who won comfortably in race No 218, retains form for a repeat performance in The

Prince Mouzam Jah Bahadur Memorial Cup, the feature event of Monday afternoon races here at Malakpet.

HYDERABAD: Spirited, AshwaShakti, Surya Lakshmi and SilverCrown impressed when horseswere exercised here on Satur -day morning at the racecoursein Malakpet.

Sand track 800 metresAerosmith (N Rawal) ClassicWish (Sai Kumar) 1-2, 600/45They moved together. AshwaShakti (Tograllu) 54, 600/40Pleased. Flamboyant Star(Deep Shanker) 58, 600/44Moved freely. Sitting Pretty(Chary) 1-0, 600/44 Easy.

Hurricane Dancer (Kiran Naidu)1-1, 600/46 Moved freely.Mukhtar (app) 57, 600/43Moved well. Spirited (chary)56.5, 600/41 Pleased. BoundFor Glory (Tograllu) 58, 600/43Moved well. Mr. Glorious (rb)59, 600/45 Easy. Star Value(Chary) 58, 600/43 Moved onthe bit. Silver Crown (K Alam)57, 600/43 Moved well. Baba’s

Gift (rb) Silver Arnage (rb) 58,600/43 They finished together.True Friend (Tograllu) 56.5,600/42.5 Moved well. Cristiano(Chary) 59, 600/44 Easy.Staying The Best (N Rawal) 57,600/41 Pleased.

Sand track 1000 metresSurya Lakshmi (Harinder Singh)1-11, 800/54, 600/40 Pleased.

1200 Metres:Aware (M.Mark) Khalids Gold(rb) 1-27, 1000/1-11, 800/56,600/43 They moved well. AllPepper (Kiran Naidu) 1-34.5,1000/1-18.5, 800/1-1, 600/46Easy. Flower Drum (M.Mark)Great Guns (app) 1-33.5,1000/1-16, 800/58.5, 600/43.5They finished together.

Sand track 1200 metresThe Himalayas (app) Symbol ofHonour (Ajit Kumar) 1-44.5,1200/1-28.5, 1000/1-13.5,800/58.5, 600/45 They movedtogether. Ciel Blu (Kiran Naidu)1-48.5, 1200/1-33, 1000/1-18,800/1-2, 600/47 Moved well.Winter outer ace grass1000 metresAnn Arbor (NS Parmar) 1-14,800/58, 600/43 Moved freely.Half Moon Bay (S Nayak) Magi -cal Punch (NS Parmar) 1-12.5,800/56, 600/41 Moved well.

Spirited pleases


SPORTS 30

Richard Eaton

DUBAI: Former Wimbledon championPetra Kvitova (right) scored her bigge -st success in 15 months when a 6-2, 1-6,6-1 victory over Sara Errani earnedher the Dubai Open title on Saturday.

There were moments in the firstand third sets when Kvitova looked asthough she could become a GrandSlam challenger, but in between shewas thankful that she could discoverenough mental strength to recoverfrom a rocky mid-match spell.

It means that the fierce-hitting 22-year-old Czech has now won eight ofher 10 career titles at Premier orGrand Slam level, a statistic whichsays something about her capacity fordelivering when it matters most.

Italian Errani, who was voted thetour’s most improved player last year,played with surprising courage toabandon her patient rallying in favourof flatter hitting and net attacks.

Although this did not turn thematch completely around it did pre-vent it becoming a rout.

“It was up and down, but I can sayI was focussed and calm, which wasimportant after the second set,” saidKvitova. “It was important to stay inthe game and to do my best and to beaggressive.”

It was also notable that Kvitova’sresilience was achieved without theservices of her coach David Kotyzawhom, she said, was on holiday.

“I hope he is happy," she comment-ed. “It was something special. I amhere alone. Sometimes it is difficult togo on court and think about the gameby myself.”

The hard-hitting Czech lookedas though she was going to swampthe French Open finalist when she trampled her way through thefirst four games in 15 minutes andtook the first set in little more thanhalf an hour.

During that time Errani, the loserof all six previous sets against Kvito -va, managed just a single winner, andlooked almost certain to lose two more.But Errani adapted her tactics well inthe second set, taking time away fromKvitova’s brilliant ball-striking.

Then in the fourth game she pro-duced a brilliant lob-approach-stop vol-ley sequence which roused the crowdfor the first time and for a whilechanged the mood of the match.

Kvitova conceded that game witha double fault, delivered another dou-ble fault in her next service game,which she also dropped, and beganmaking many more errors, bothforced and unforced.

Kvitova beats Erranito capture Dubai title

Erakovic wins Memphis title over ailing Lisicki MEMPHIS: Marina Erakovic became the first NewZealander since 1989 to win a WTA title onSaturday, lifting her first career trophy with a trun-cated triumph over third-seeded German SabineLisicki in Memphis. Erakovic confidently raced to a6-1 first-set victory, and the title was hers when thestruggling Lisicki retired. The big-hitting Germanhad been battling an undisclosed illness for severaldays. In men’s action in this combined ATP andWTA event, fifth-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japanadvanced to Sunday’s final after a short day’s work.He had won the first set against Marinko Matosevic6-4 when the Australian retired.

Somdev, Yuki return for Davis Cuptie against Indonesia NEW DELHI: Top singles players SomdevDevvarman and Yuki Bhambri today made a returnto the Indian Davis Cup team even as MaheshBhupathi and Rohan Bopanna continued to bepariahs for the crucial tie against Indonesia in April.The national selectors met here today and, asexpected, picked Somdev, Yuki, Sanam Singh andexperienced campaigner Leander Paes for theAsia/Oceania Zone Group I relegation play-off firstround tie against Indonesia in Bangalore from April5-7. The All India Tennis Association’s selectioncommittee also named Vijayant Malik and N SriramBalaji as reserves.

Djokovic aims to takeFederer’s title DUBAI: Novak Djokovic’s first tournament since hissuccessful defence of the Australian Open titleoffers him a chance to show why he could remainthe world number one for the forseeable future.The 25-year-old Serbian’s triumph in Melbournesaw him avenge a defeat in the US Open final tohis most contemporary rival, Andy Murray, makinghim an even stronger favourite to win back the titleat the Dubai Open, which starts on Monday.To do that Djokovic will probably need to over-come the man who took it away from him — RogerFederer, the world number two, who has a home inDubai, often plays outstandingly well here.

Sania teams with Bethanieto win doubles title

India’s Sania Mirza todayclinched her second doubles

title of the season after shecombined with partner BethanieMattek-Sands to defeat NadiaPetrova and Katarina Srebotnikin the title clash of the DubaiDuty Free Tennis Champion -ships, here.

The unseeded Indo-American duo prevailed overthe Russian-Slovenia combo 6-42-6 10-7 in a tightly-contestedfinal of the USD 2,000,000 hardcourt event. The match lastedfor one hour and 32 minute.

The two had won the Bris -bane International last month.

HONG KONG: A 101-year-old Sikh believed to be theworld’s oldest distance run-ner retired on Sunday afterending his last race in HongKong on a high, describing itas one of the “happiest days”of his long life.

Fauja Singh (left), nick-named the TurbanedTornado, finished the 10-kilo-metre run at the Hong KongMarathon in one hour, 32minutes and 28 seconds —

half a minute faster than atthe same event last year.

“Today is one of my hap-piest days,” the Indian-bornBritish national, who onlyspeaks Punjabi, said throughhis interpreter after hecrossed the finishing linewith a broad smile and wav-ing the Hong Kong flag. “Ifelt so fresh and so good. Ifelt I’m full of power today.

“I will remember this dayand I will miss it, but I will

not stop running for charity,”added Singh, who was mobb -ed by supporters when he co -m pleted his final competitiveevent. The centenarian, whowas a farmer in his homestate of Punjab before set-tling in England, began run-ning at 89 and has since com-pleted nine 42-kilometre (26mile) marathons in London,Toronto and New York.

His best time was inToronto, where he clocked

five hours, 40 minutes andfour seconds. The great-great-grandfather, who turns102 on April 1, has said thatwhile he is quitting competi-tive events, he will not stoprunning for personal fitness.

He was inspired to takeup marathons after he sawtelevision coverage of one 12years ago, not long after thedeath of his wife and a son,at a time when he said heneeded a new focus in life.

Marathon runner shines at last race

KINGSTON: Jamaican sprint hero Usain Bolt (left)continued his low-key early-season programmeSaturday, running in the heats of the 4x400m relay atthe Gibson Relays athletics meeting.

Bolt clocked a 45.7sec split running the third legfor the Racers Lions squad, which won their heat in3:06.9 ahead of a Dominican Republic team that wastimed in 3:08.6. Bolt spectacularly defended his threegold medals — in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m — in theLondon Olympics last summer.

The runner’s decision to skip Saturday’s final wasthe plan all along, his coach Glen Mills said, tellingjournalists he was “only down to run the heats”. AFP

James succeeds Victoria as sprint queen MINSK: Great Brita -in’s Becky James (left)succeeded VictoriaPendleton as worldsprint champion onSaturday, breakingthe six-year iron-gripon the event held bythe retired Englishgolden girl andAustralia’s AnnaMeares. The 21-year-

old Welsh cyclistJames edged outGermany’s KristinaVogel in the final,making the most ofthe absence of thenow-retired Pendletonand Olympic champi-on Meares, the duowho had shared all the major titlessince 2007.

New Zealand’s AaronGate stunned Olympicchampion Lasse Han -sen of Denmark to winomnium gold at thewo rld track cycling ch -ampionships on Sat u -rday. Gate, 22, edgedout Hansen by threepoints.

Gate wins omnium

Bolt stretches legs with win


SPORTS 31

WELLINGTON: New Zealandhave chosen three new play-ers, dropped two veteransand will experiment with anew opening partnership ina squad named Sunday forthe upcoming England Testseries.

Hamish Rutherford, TomLatham and Bruce Martinare elevated to the Testranks while all-rounderJames Franklin and spinnerJeetan Patel are omittedfrom the 12-man squad.

Latham, however, isunlikely to make the playingXI after coach Mike Hessonindicated Rutherford and therecalled Peter Fulton were“most likely” to open againstthe tourists.

New Zealand have strug-gled for several years toestablish a productive open-ing pair with Martin Guptilland Brendon McCullum aver-aging 16.5 in eight inningsduring the recent seriesagainst Sri Lanka and SouthAfrica.

Guptill has now beensidelined by injury and cap-tain McCullum has droppeddown the order opening theway for Fulton to be recalledthree years after he playedthe last of his 10 Tests.

Rutherford, the son offormer New Zealand openerKen Rutherford, has playedagainst England in the one-day and Twenty20 serieswhile 20-year-old Lathamlast played for New Zealandin an ODI against Sri Lankain November.

Hesson said another fastbowler would be added to thesquad following England’sfour-day match against aNew Zealand XI starting onWednesday where MarkGillespie leads contenders.

Kiwistoy withchanges

WELLINGTON: New Zealand have chosenthree new playChennai: India were comfort-ably placed at 263 for four at the end of themorning session on day three of the firstTest match against Australia, here, onSunday.

Virat Kohli (R in pic) and skipper,Mahendra Singh Dhoni, were batting on 37and 83 runs respectively.

Beginning the day at 182 for three, Indiaadded another 81 runs losing the wicket ofSachin Tednulkar.

Earlier, Kohli along with Tendulkar,steadied the Indian innings after they werestaggering at 105 for three on Saturday.Playing patient yet well paced knocks, theduo added another 77 runs before the end ofthe day’s play.

But both the batsmen seemed to have a

little difficult time on Sunday morning,struggling to score easy runs. NathanLyon’s bowling seemed to threatenTendulkar and the batsman soon fell to abrilliantly bowled ball off the Australianspinner.

Earlier, the Master Blaster looked all setto get to his 101st international hundred.With just another 29 runs needed to reachhis ton this morning, most anticipated himto get there with ease. Huge crowdsthronged the stadium but all were left dis-appointed when Tendulkar fell short of hiscentury by 19 runs.

Fortunately, Tendulkar’s dismissal didnot apply the brakes on the scoring rate ofthe Indians. Mahendra Singh Dhoni whocame in after Tendulkar’s dismissal, raced

to 37 off just 42 balls, an innings whichincluded four fours.

The Indian skipper missed no opportu-nity of taking on the Australian bowlers.He even hammered Lyon to a couple ofboundaries, hardly threatened by thebowler, who just a few overs earlier hadsent back Tendulkar.

Meanwhile, Kohli supported Dhoni wellat the other end. The Delhi also got into thegroove and manoeuvred the ball all acrossthe field. His well-paced innings included 10fours and the young batsman seems allgeared to score his fifth Test century.

If the hosts do not lose wickets soon,they stand a very good chance of taking thefirst innings lead and also seeing that thematch heads for a tight finish.

SCOREBOARDAustralia 1st innings from 380India 1st innings (overnight score 183/3)M Vijay b Pattinson 10V Sehwag b Pattinson 2CA Pujara b Pattinson 44SR Tendulkar b Lyon 81V Kohli not out 83MS Dhoni*† not out 37Extras (lb 3, w 3) 6Total (4 wickets) 263Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-12, 3-105, 4-196Bowling O M R WMA Starc 18 2 46 0JL Pattinson 14 3 41 3PM Siddle 14 4 38 0NM Lyon 22 0 96 1MC Henriques 9 2 25 0MJ Clarke 2 0 14 0

A dream debut nearly missedCOLIN BRYDEN

CENTURION, SA: WhenKyle Abbott’s mobile phone

rang at his Durban home earlyon Tuesday morning he didn’trecognise the number, stoppedthe call, switched his phone tosilent and went back to sleep.

What he didn’t realise wasthat the mystery caller was

Andrew Hudson, convener ofthe South African selectors,

informing him that he neededto get on a flight to

Johannesburg to join the squadfor the third Test against

Pakistan at Centurion.Six days later he is a new

South African sports hero after

taking seven for 29 on his Testdebut, enabling his country to

enforce the follow-on and pressfor a series whitewash.

“When I woke up there wasa voice message and I thought I

had better phone back quick-ly,” said Abbott, 25.

At that stage he was desig-nated as a back-up player and

he was happy just to be wel-comed by the national players,

“seeing how the number oneteam in the world prepares forTest matches and how they go

about their business”.On Thursday, the day beforethe Test, coach Gary Kirstentold him that Jacques Kallis

had a minor injury and that hemight be in the team.

Abbott didn’t get his hopesup too high.

“Jacques went for a scanand I thought he would pull

through.”But later that afternoon

Kirsten told him he would beplaying.

“I still didn’t quite believeit until I was in the bus coming

to the ground the next morn-ing,” he said.

Out on the field, he said helived by a motto passed on tohim by former South African

fast bowler Friedel de Wet.“He told me, ‘Always give a

hundred percent and expectnothing in return’. I have done

that the whole season. I havegone out there and left nothing

on the table.”Vice-captain AB de Villiersdescribed Abbott’s perfor-

mance as amazing.“He was really consistent.

He didn’t show any signs ofnerves. It was what you expect

at Test level, hitting the deckhard and hitting good areas

more often than not,” said DeVilliers, a century-maker on

Saturday.“He got a few really big

wickets for us. He’s a captain’sdream,” he added. AFP

Sachin falls short of tonWhile the maestro fell short of a deserving century, Virat Kohli was inching towards what could prove to be a match-saving hundred.

G APARNA SAI

from Chennai


SPORTS 32

Martyn Wood

PARIS: David Beckham’s (right)eagerly anticipated Paris Saint-Germain debut is set to coincidewith French football’s biggestfixture as the Ligue 1 leaderslock horns with arch-rivalsMarseille on Sunday.

Beckham was included inCarlo Ancelotti’s provisional 19-man squad for the clash —referred to as “Le Classique” inFrance — at Parc des Princes,marking the first time the for-mer England captain has fea-tured in the Italian’s plans sincehis arrival at the end of January.

“He will be available but Idon’t want to reveal the team. Hehas worked well (in training)and is in a good state physicallyand mentally. He wants to playand he is in a condition to start,”Ancelotti said.

“He is capable of playing afull match,” added the PSG boss,quashing concerns over Beck -ham’s fitness despite the mid-fielder’s last competitive outingcoming on December 1 when hisformer side Los Angeles Galaxydispatched Houston Dynamo 3-1to defend their MLS Cup title.

Ancelotti also went on to dis-miss suggestions that the club’s

hierarchy could pressure theItalian to hand Beckham a start-ing berth.

“I know that (he) has a greatimage to everyone but for me, ifa player deserves to play, he will.

If he doesn’t deserve it, he won’tplay,” summarised Ancelotti.

A product of the ManchesterUnited youth academy where hestarred at Old Trafford for thebest part of a decade before mov-

ing on to Real Madrid, LosAngeles and AC Milan, Beckhamis more than accustomed tointense rivalries that are thefocus of much media scrutiny.

“I have played in a lot of bigmatches in my career, gameslike AC Milan against Inter, RealMadrid against Barcelona, andthe (Los Angeles) Galaxy againstChivas,” Beckham told PSG’sofficial website.

“For me, it is very exciting toplay in another very specialmatch.”

Beckham is destined to comeup against fellow Englishmanand midfield Joey Barton.

Miguel Delaney

LONDON: Santi Cazorla easedthe pressure on under-fireArsenal boss Arsene Wenger asthe Spanish midfielder’s doubleclinched a crucial 2-1 win overAston Villa on Saturday.

Anything but a victoryagainst struggling Villa wouldhave given Wenger’s critics moreammunition to attack theFrenchman, so there was a senseof relief all around the EmiratesStadium when Cazorla baggedthe winner with five minutesremaining.

Until then Arsenal hadlaboured to kill off third bottomVilla, who recovered fromCazorla’s first half opener toequalise through AndreasWeimann after the break.

Cazorla’s efforts movedArsenal within one point offourth placed Tottenham,although their north Londonrivals can reopen a four-pointadvantage if they beat WestHam on Monday. Arsenal cer-tainly started as if they had apoint to prove. Within minutesof kick-off, Jack Wilshere force-fully got on the end of a mis-placed Joe Bennett pass to bringa fine save from Brad Guzan.

Only moments later, in thesixth minute, Wenger’s men tookthe lead when Cazorla had a shotblocked and then immediately

collected the loose ball and guid-ed his shot around Guzan.

Villa looked to capitalise onArsenal left-back NachoMonreal’s frequent forays for-ward. The Spaniard was oftensuperb when contributing toattack but lacked a little defen-sively. It was through his flankthat Villa created a series ofchances for Gabriel Agbonlahorand Charles N’Zogbia, withWojciech Szczesny forced intotwo excellent stops.

The lively Weimann was alsounlucky when a particularlyimpressive quick interchangewith N’Zogbia ended with hisrun being forced wide.

At the other end, Arsenal didput together some nice passagesof play themselves but too oftena crucial touch was slightly offor a pass underhit.

Arsenal’s Spanish midfielder Santi Cazorla celebrates scoring the secondgoal during their match against Aston Villa at the Emirates Stadium. AFP

Cazorla’s double easespressure on Wenger

Arsene Wenger had faced renewed calls for his resignation after last weekend’s embarrassing FA Cup exit against second-tier Blackburn.

United not home and dry yet, warns Ferguson

Ian Winrow

LONDON: ManchesterUnited manager AlexFerguson says the PremierLeague title race is far fromover despite seeing his sidemove 15 points clear ofManchester City after a 2-0win at Queens Park Rangers.

With 11 games remaining,and City due to face third-place Chelsea on Sunday,Ferguson’s side are in a dom-inant position, but the man-

ager refused to declare hisside to be champions-elect.

“We’re in a better posi-tion today (Saturday) than wewere yesterday,” he said.

Rafael da Silva set Unitedon course for victory at QPRwith an outstanding openinggoal before Ryan Giggsmarked his 999th appearancein senior football with thesecond 10 minutes from time.

Ferguson praised thecontribution of Rafael.

Arsenal 2 Vs Aston Villa 1Fulham 1 Vs Stoke 0

Norwich 2 Vs Everton 1 QPR 0 Vs Manchester Utd 2

Reading 0 Vs Wigan 3West Brom 2 Vs Sunderland 1Sunday fixtures (both 1330GMT)

Manchester City v Chelsea,Newcastle v Southampton

Collated English PremierLeague results on Saturday

Beckham braced for French adventure ANCELOTTI ALSO WENTON TO DISMISS SUGGES-TIONS THAT THE CLUB’SHIERARCHY COULDPRESSURE THE ITALIANTO HAND BECKHAM ASTARTING BERTH.

Messi winnerstretches

Barça leadThe Catalans had tocome from behindafter Alberto Botiaheaded the lead.

Kieran Canning

MADRID: Barcelonastretched their advantage atthe top of La Liga to 15points as two goals in eightminutes just before the hourmark from David Villa andLionel Messi (above) handedthem a 2-1 win over Sevillaon Saturday.

Barca star JavierMascherano said it wasimportant to get the equalis-er quickly after the break.

“I think we were awarethat we didn’t pay well in thefirst-half and we neededmore,” he told Canal Plus.

“In the second-half Ithink we started with moreintensity and luckily man-aged to find the equaliserquickly.”

Barca now face a hugeSpanish Cup semi-final sec-ond-leg with Real Madrid onTuesday with the tie finelybalanced a 1-1 and Masche -rano believes home advan-tage and an away goal givesthem the upper hand.

Neil Johnston

MANCHESTER, UK: RobertoMancini (left) says Manchester

City are continuing to makeprogress under his leadership

even though he is ready to con-cede the Premier League title

race this weekend. City will startSunday’s home game with Chel -

sea 15 points behind ManchesterUnited if Alex Ferguson’s leaders

win at bottom club Queens ParkRangers on Saturday.

Should that happen, and Cityfail to defeat Chelsea at the

Etihad Stadium, then Mancinisays the title race will be over,with 11 games remaining after

the weekend.The Italian says City are mak-ing progress and he will onlyquit if he can no longer move

them forward.

Mancini ready to concede title to United

Saturday resultsReal Mallorca 1 Vs

Getafe 3Real Zaragoza 2 Vs

Valencia 2Deportivo La Coruna 1

Vs Real Madrid 2Barcelona 2 Vs Sevilla 1

postnoon e-paper for 24 february 2013

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