postnoon e-paper for 20 december 2012

REPORT ON P4

American Olivia Culpowas crowned MissUniverse 2012, beatingbeauties from around theworld to claim the coveted title. The title offirst runner-up went tothe Miss Philippines,Janine Tugonon.It is the first win for anAmerican woman since1997, when the title waswon by Brook Lee.Miss Venezuela, IreneSofia Esser Quintero,placed third in the con-test. Fourth place went toMiss Australia RenaeAyris, and fifth to MissBrazil, Gabriela Markus.

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is allset for a third term in office, underscored byhis 70,000-plus vote victory over Congresscandidate Shweta Bhatt, wife of suspendedpolice officer Sanjeev Bhatt. At the timeof going to press, the BJP wasleading/set-to-win in at least 117 seatsout of 182. The Congress, marginallybetter off than 2007, was leading/set towin in at least 61 seats. The ruling partyhas a reason to cheer in Himachal as itestablished a clear lead over the incum-bent BJP. The Congress was leading/set-to-win in at least 39 seats out of68. The saffron party’s for-tunes went downhill as itlost many strongholds by aconsiderable margin.

AMERICAN OLIVIA IS MISS UNIVERSE HAT-TRICK FOR MODI

HYDERABAD’S FIRST COMPACT AFTERNOON NEWSPAPER

PG 12

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012 HYDERABAD WWW.POSTNOON.COM WEATHER: A MIX OF CLOUDY AND CLEAR SKIES; 21°C 32 PAGES `3

After all theenthusiasmthat was seenjust beforethe globalbiodiversityconclave,City’s waterbodieshave returnedto their original state— of officialneglect.

REDUCED TO PUDDLES

CONGRESS SNATCHES HIMACHAL

FULL REPORT ON P11

city eventsTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012

2

AROUND THE CITY: YOUR GUIDE TO THE TWIN CITIES

A-Bong LiveA-Bong is a group of music enthusi-ast Bengalis from Hyderabad.Where: La Makaan,

Lane Adjacent To C-Bay ,Banjara Hills.

When: January 65pm onwards

Contact: 93965 55888

Christmas carolsChristmas carols will be sung byGlobal Edge school till the end ofDecember at The Lobby. Where: Novotel & HICC Complex,

PO Bag No 1101, Cyberabad Post Office, Near Hitec City

When: December 3-31Contact: (040) 6682 4422

AlexanderJaya Prakash Reddy is performing a100 minute solo. He plays a retiredarmy officer who wants to help people with their problems by starting a helpline. It is scripted bywriter Pusala. Where: Ravindra Bharathi,

Public Gardens,Nampally,H-01, Abids

When: January 6,7pm to 9pm

Contact: (040) 2324 9045

Inertia Photography Photography exhibition on India by

Lona Lohan till December 31.Where: Rajiv Gandhi Airport,

ShamshabadWhen: Up to December 31

11am to 7pmContact: (040) 6625 0000

DelineationHaris Srinivas's art will be on displayat this exhibition at Taj Deccan.Where: Taj Deccan,

Road No 1 ,Banjara Hills

When: Ongoing,11am to 10pm

Contact: (040) 6652 3939

Art exhibitionArtist M Narayan’s work is on display.Narayan graduated from the KenSchool of Art. He has participated inover 30 solo exhibitions and isknown for his rural depictions. Where: Shrishti Art Gallery,

Road no. 15, Jubilee Hills When: Up to January 2Contact: (040) 2354 0023

Christmas Eve buffetTraditional turkey buffet and unlimit-ed beverages will be served atDeccan Pavilion. There will also belive entertainment. Where: Deccan Pavilion,

BegumpetWhen: December 24 Contact: (040) 2340 0132

Christmas brunchThere is a Christmas Day TurkeyBrunch at Marriott Hotel andConvention Center. European-inspired Ginger Bread House startedfrom December 15. Where: Okra,

Hyderabad Marriott Hoteland Convention Center

When: December 25,12.30pm to 4pm

Chai-Pakora RunTo spread the word about India BikeWeek being held in Goa on 2-3February 2013, a chai-pakora run willbe organised in Hyderabad. Where: Secunderabad Parade

Ground, War Memorial on Lamba Theatre Road Opp. cricket ground.

When: December 236am onwards

Contact: indiabikeweek.in/calendar

Transpersonal sessionArt & Science of Self-Actualization isa foundation course in transpersonal

counselling, by clinical psychologistSujata Potay. Life skills, self aware-ness skills will be imparted, amongothers.Where: Center for Organization

Development, Madhapur

When: January 19 to April 27Contact: 98494 53045

Christmas hampersTaj Krishna is giving out Luxury SantaHampers and Deluxe Santa Hampers,which include Remy Martin Xo,Lagavulin 16, luxury Canali tie, Rosepetal jam with cane sugar, KalmataOlives, assorted Christmas chocolateand plum cakes to name a few. Where: Taj Krishna When: OngoingContact: (040) 6666 2323

Jewels by QueenieQueenie Singh, jewellery designerfrom Mumbai is having a privateviewing of her signature diamondcollection.Where: Kimaya store,

Shangrila Plaza,Near check post, Road no 2,Banjara hills

When: December 19 to 20

Photo competitionAlliance Francaise, Hyderabad, isconducting a photo competition. Thetheme is Professions of the world.The winning entries will be sent toParis.Where: http://hyderabad.afindia.orgWhen: December 3 to January 6

SHOWS

GAS BOOKING IVRS NO HP 9666023456Indane 9848824365

BSNL Complaints 198HMWS & SB Complaints 155313

POLICE CONTROL ROOMHyderabad 27852435Traffic Control Room 27852482DCP Traffic 23234065, 23243499FPollution Control Board 23887500

ELECTRICITYGeneral Complaints 155333Breakdown Section 23431178

23431179

MUNICIPAL CORPORATION

Commissioner & Spl Officer 2326226624166666R

ENC 23225267Engineering 23220418MCH Tankbund 23225397Emergency MCH Circle I&II 24525842MCH Circle III 24736912MCH Circle IV 23326975MCH Circle V 23326976MCH Circle VI MCH Complaints 1100Head Office 23225397

IVRS CUM MANUAL ENQUIRYPHONE NUMBERS(TRAIN & RESERVATION)RAILWAYSRail Nilayam 27833169, 27824216Railway Information 131Reservations 135Recorded Information 1345Enquiry (IVRS) 1331, 1332, 1333

WATER SUPPLYComplaint Cell 155313Sewerage Complaint 23307328Hyd. Water Supply 23313163

HOSPITALGeneral Hospital, Sec-bad 27505566Niloufer Hospital, Red Hills 23314095NIMS, Director, Punjagutta 23390933Osmania General Hospital 24600146Railway Hospital, Lalaguda 27001134Apollo, Jubilee Hills 23607777Care Hospital, Banjara Hills 30418888Care Hospital, Nampally 30417777Care Hospital, Musheerabad 30419000Care Hospital, Sec-bad 30416666Kamineni Hospital, LB Nagar 39879999

BLOOD BANKSBlood Bank,Narayanguda 27567892Chiranjeevi Blood Bank 23559555Blood Bank Mediton Goal 23226624Red Cross, Vidyanagar 27633087ADRM Blood Bank 27035588Mythri Charitable Trust 27550238NTR Memorial Trust 30799999Care Banjara Hills 30418296

30417445

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

AIRLINES

Airport Director 27903785, 27906001For Air India Flight Information Toll free(from any network) for IC Flights

18001801407And for All Flights: 1800227722Air India has revised its flight timings.For more information call (Toll free)18001801407, 1800227722 from BSNL/MTNL 04023430334 from otherlines and mobile Website; www.airindia.in

TOURISM OFFICESAP Tourism, Hyd 23262152/53/54Sec-bad 27893100Dept of Tourism 23453110India Tourism 23261360AP Tourism information Centre (24x7) 23450444, 23455999

UK VISA OFFICEVFS India Pvt Ltd Building, 8-2-542/A,Sunil Chamber, Road No. 7

Beside Meridian School, Banjara Hills-34. Working hours are from 8 AM to1 PM And 2 PM to 3PM.

MUSEUMSSalar Jung Museum 24523211AP State Museum 232431300/7641Nizams Museum 24521029

Helpline

Readers’ viewsWe invite you to write to

us comments, suggestions,viewpoint or just about

anything [email protected]

or #1246, Level 3, Jubilee Casa,

Road No 62, Jubilee Hills,Hyderabad – 500 033

or even by way ofa call on 4067 2222

MUSICAL NIGHTThere will be a night of ghazals by singer Hariharan at ChowmahallaPalace. Hariharan is one of the renowned ghazal singers of India withover 30 albums to his credit. The event is on December 23 from 7pm

to 10pm.

BangaloreMax 28Min 16

Partly cloudy.

ChennaiMax 31Min 24

Partly cloudy.

MumbaiMax 32Min 22

Sunny, clear skies.

New DelhiMax 21Min 8

Clear skies.

21°CA mix of clear and

cloudy skies.

16°CA mix of clear and

cloudy skies

21°CA mix of cloud

and sun.

30°CMostly sunny.

Weather for HyderabadEvening Overnight Morning Afternoon

STUDY TIME: Students study near Gulzar House fountain in Old City. M ANIL KUMAR

DINING

MISCELLANEOUSARTS

CRIME

CRIME

CRIME

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012

3City YESTERDAY’S QUESTIONSHOULD RAPISTS BE GIVEN CAPITAL PUNISHMENT?

YES (A)

NO (B)

TODAY’S QUESTIONWILL THE GUJARAT POLL RESULTS REFLECT ON RAHUL GANDHI’S LEADERSHIPA) YES B) NO

To vote visit www.postnoon.com

89%

11%

Marrying secondtime cost his lifeUnable to bear his sister’s misery, Firdoze killedhis brother-in-law with a boulder.

POSTNOON [email protected]

Aman by name SyedYounus was allegedlymurdered by his brother-

in-law, Firdoze, in broad day-light on Tuesday at Darabgunjcolony of Madanapet.

Younus, an auto driver, hadmarried for the second time acouple of years ago. Neglect andinsult to the first wife causedmuch anguish to her brother.Unable to suffer the agony of hissister, Firdoze is said to havedone his brother-in-law to death.

Younus, 35, was an auto driv-er and lived in Hafizbaba Nagar.He married Shabana and has twochildren. He married a secondtime disregarding the protests ofhis first wife. He was unable toprovide for the families andShabana suffered a lot due to his

negligence, police said. On Tuesday, Younus was

coming home after meeting thesecond wife when Firdoze out ofpain and frustration attackedhim with a boulder. The bleedingand screaming Younus was takento a hospital but he died. Policehave arrested Firoze.

It is in their blood

Mohd [email protected]

An entire family of fivehas found a vocationin picking pocket fora living. This came

out after the arrest of a mother-daughter duo by the Langer

House police recently.G Ramanujamma and her

daughter Laxmi were arrestedwhile in the act of swiping apurse from a woman passengerat Bapunagar bus stop. Somecash and ornaments wereseized from their possession.

Sub-inspector T Gopal said,

only after interrogation, did thepolice realise that the family offive — husband, wife, daughterand two cousins — have beenindulging in picking valuablesfrom rail and bus passengers.By the time the police went afterthe other three, the trio hadescaped.

According to details the 45-year-old Ramanujamma is thenative of Padmavathypet ofAnanthapur district. Shebelongs to a poor family. Theycame to the City a few monthsago in search of a livelihood butfound a lucrative profession inpick pocketing. While motherand daughter ‘worked’ amongwomen passengers, the otherthree zeroed in on men. Theystayed in the outskirts and cameby train to the City and by nightwould return with the loot.Police believe the family syndi-cate is behind at least 20 cases ofpick pocketing or stealing.

VICTORY DANCE

BJP party workers celebrate as the party took a decisive lead in Gujarat elections. N SHIVA KUMAR

LOKAYUKTA

Young hubby blameswife, ends life


In a reversal of roles, a youngman wrote a death note inwhich he accused his wife of

cruelty, and jumped to his deathbefore a speeding train on the

tracks between Sanathnagar andFatehnagar railway stations onTuesday night.

K Vijay Raju, 28, got marriedto Vasantha, 27, a distant relative,only eight months ago. Aftermarriage Raju lived with his in-laws in Fatehnagar. Vasantha isalleged to have harassed himmentally and her father, James, seemingly supported hisdaughter.

She demanded divorce buthe was unwilling to yield. Afterhe parried the demand, thefather and daughter had threat-ened to get him arrested.

Sub-inspector of railwaypolice V Madhusudan Rao saidthe death note recovered fromhis pocket only said he was sorryto end his life but there was noalternative. He regretted his mar-riage with Vasantha. “If only Iknew her character I would nothave married her,” he wrote.What precisely was the issue isas yet unknown.

Fed up by his wife’s cruelty, a young man committed suicide by jumping in front of a train.

Lokayukta issues warrant against SETaking cognisance of a news-

item that appeared in aTelugu daily in August lastyear, Lokayukta Justice BSubhashan Reddy registered acomplaint suo-motu.

The news-item had stated

that though the governmentsanctioned YT Cheruvu Projectto provide Protected WaterSupply to meet the needs of 20fluoride affected villages ofGuntakal Division in 2004-05,the project was not completed

as funds were not releasedunder Phase-III. The govern-ment has spent `11 crore andstill 25km pipeline is to be laid.People were waiting for yearsfor drinking water, but the pro-ject remained incomplete.

Cops recently arrested two of a family of five that has made pick pocketing it’s profession, usually targeting rail and bus passengers.

The column that teaches everyonesomething new about the way theCity functions.

1 Cruelty need not always bemeted out by the man.

A young man recently jumped tohis death leaving family shocked.His suicide note blamed his wifefor cruelty and the reason for hisresorting to such an extreme step.

2 Family business seems to bethe lure here.

A family of five recently zeroed inon its vocation — pickpocketing!This interesting fact came to lightwhen the mother and daughterwere nabbed when they were inthe act of relieving somebody ofhis wallet.

3 GHMC’s tall claims rarelyever materialise.

The civic body had set up a lakeprotection committee, but to datelittle has been done.

4 It’s a world of perfection,even if it is artificial.

Gone are the days when Christmastrees were the real deal. Today it’sall plastic and perfect.

5Have holiday plans? Headwhere the world is heading.

According to a travel website thereare a bunch of places that are themost visited this year.

city THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012 4

Blame game rules the skyLast year we had reported how air

passengers were left in a lurchwhen flights were being cancelled atthe last minute. While they scrambledto rejig their schedules at the lastminute, the airlines and Met depart-ment chose to play the blame game.Airlines demanded that the Met pre-dict fog early while the latter chose tolook on helplessly.

DECEMBER 20, 2011

Carcasses found indrinking waterIn a shocking example of civic

neglect, dead bodies of animals —dogs and birds — were found in thewater tank of the board inChanchalguda on Wednesday. Theincident came to light when a teamof board officials led by local corpo-rator Amjadullah Khan undertook acleaning operation. This water is supplied to residents in the area.

YSRC demands fund for farmersDemanding adequate price for

cotton farmers, the YSRC askedthe government to stop exploitationby traders. YSRC farmers cell con-venor MVS Nagi Reddy pointed outthat Cotton Corporation of India(CCI) was being unresponsive tofarmers needs. The party demands a`3,000 crore market stabilisationfund to help the farmers.

Bike-borne men snatchsix tola gold chainAwoman by name Srilaxmi, 35,

lost her six tola gold chain onWednesday evening at the OUcolony in Shaikpet when it wassnatched by bikers. She was goingto her local tailor when two bike-borne men closed in and snatchedthe gold chain from her person andescaped. The Golconda police haveregistered a case.

Railway police arrest 2for stealing debit cardThe Kacheguda railway police

have arrested two thieves,Srikanth, 35, and Chitti Babu, 32,both residents of NTR Nagar. Theduo had stolen an ATM card from aperson who was fast asleep in thewaiting hall of the railway stationand then withdrew an amount of`35,000. Investigation led to theirarrest.

LAST YEAR... HERE GHMC

NEWS BRIEFS

501are the number of lakes under theGHMC limits. Of these at least 169are more than 10 hectares in area.

5THINGS WELEARNT TODAY

NUMEROLOGY

YSRC is a coverfor Congress and

it will merge with theCongress before orafter the elections.The Congress is soanaemic that itwill be sick of itsown weakness.

Dr Kodela Sivaprasad RaoSee page 5

Despite having a lake protection committee,little is being done to preserve the rapidlyshrinking water bodies in the City.

M ANIL KUMAR

City lakes lie orphaned

Md [email protected]

The last the LakeProtection Committeeheld a meeting wasabout four months ago,

as part of the CoP preparations.Ever since, no serious discus-sions have taken place on theissue.

It has been almost a year,since the GHMC commissionerMT Krishna Babu has spokenabout various protection mea-sures for 169 lakes in theGHMC limits but most of thelakes continue to be underencroachments. Saving Westzone, the other four zones have

taken no steps to pro-tect this precious

common wealth.According to sources, lack

of coordination between depart-ments of irrigation, revenue andGHMC is the biggest bane.While some of the tanks got abudget approval, and fencing isundertaken in the West zone(Seringampally), other zoneslag behind. Each day shrinksthe lake areas in the City.

While circles 12, 13 and 14in West Zone made someprogress, officials are neverthe-less facing problems from thelocals. Seven tanks of Circle 11,three of Circle 12, three of circle13 and 10 of Circle 14 got a bud-get approval and officials willbe completing the task of fenc-ing soon.

Lack of manpower is cited

as the biggest hurdle for theirrigation department for deter-mining the FTL of lakes. Theseand several other reasons haveput the issue on back burner.

Though in March this year,the commissioner had called forthe involvement of NGOs, theactively involved organisationslike SOUL have not been invit-ed to any of the meetings held

under the auspices of ‘LakeProtection Committee’.

There are a total of 501 lakesunder the GHMC limits andamongst them 169 are of morethan 10 hectares area. “Howmuch has been encroached willbe clear when the FTL isknown,” says Rama Krishna,co-convenor of SOUL.

Meanwhile the GHMC offi-cials directly point out the lackof support from the irrigationand revenue in determining theFTL of lakes. “All the 169 lakescannot be taken at time. Wehave taken up 35 lakes and theprocess is going on. First wehave to identify the FTL, whichshould be done by the irrigationdepartment,” says K SureshKumar, chief engineer.

Though the commis-sioner had called forthe involvement ofNGOs, they have notbeen invited to any ofthe meetings thathave been held.

city THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012 5

POLITICS

EXCLUSIVE

INKESHAF [email protected]

Going by the reports ofTDP leaders beinglured away by otherparties, one would

have thought the TDP leadershipis dejected beyond words. Butthe party leaders are found to bein high spirits and say their partyleads and others follow.

Once party chiefChandrababu Naidu’s padayatraends next month, the party willbe getting ready for what theycall “premature elections.”Party’s senior leader and formerminister Dr Kodela SivaprasadRao (right) says initiating RahulGandhi into electoral politics isthe clear indication that the partywill go to polls with him as theprime ministerial candidate andmidterm elections are not unlikely.

The most shocking statementRao made is that the TDP doesnot consider YSRC as a party.Nor does it consider theCongress a strong opponent atthe next general elections!“YSRC is a cover for Congressand it will merge with theCongress before or after the elec-tions. The Congress is soanaemic that it will be sick of itsown weakness by the next elec-tions. TRS is a family party, thepatriarch of which is a stooge ofthe Congress. We will tell peopleof Telangana they are beingtaken for a ride by KCR.”

Talking to Postnoon onWednesday, Rao said that hisparty was getting ready to repeat

1994 when it won two-thirdmajority under the leadership ofNT Rama Rao.

Rao, considered very close tothe party chief and Nandamurifamily, said KCR was one of themost snobbish and selfish lead-ers of today who is hand-in-glove with the Congress.

“The TRS is a B-team of theCongress. The decision of KCR toattend the all-party meet is thelatest example of this. How canhe attend the meeting called bythe Union government whichrefused a T state? Does he everremember the martyrdom of somany young men for the cause?

If he has any self respect, he’dhave spurned the offer.”

The TDP was happy thatRahul Gandhi was being broughtin. The man, said the Desamleader, has proved a failure and itwould be easy for us to defeatsuch a one. Kiran governmenthas been a repeated failure on allfronts — power, farmers’ issues,welfare of women and children.

Rao confirms the initiation ofNaidu’s son Lokesh into activepolitics soon and sees nothingwrong in that.

If Rahul Gandhi, AkhileshYadav and Naveen Patnaik couldinherit, why not Lokesh?Besides, he said, unlike others,Lokesh has been renderinginvaluable contributions in ideo-logical and philosophical planesof the party. In fact, Naidu’spadayatra is giving Lokesh first-hand experience of people andtheir issues, he said.


The IV World TeluguConference scheduled to beheld from December 27 to

29th has already earned a contro-versial status. The reason for thisis a directive of the State govern-ment to all its employees todonate their one-day salary forthe conduct of the function.While the directive did not findany opposition from Andhra andRayalaseema employees, theTelangana employees havestirred up hornet’s nest by reject-ing it as an authoritarian move.

Speaking to Postnoon,Telangana Non-GazettedOfficers’s Union (TNGO) leaderG Devi Prasad said theTelangana employees are

opposed to conducting theWorld Telugu Conference. “Whyshould we give our hard earnedmoney for this function?”

“When we asked the govern-ment to donate one-day salary ofall employees for the families ofTelangana martyrs, the staterejected our request. Now, it isasking us to donate money forthe Telugu conference. We willnot donate at any cost,” he said.

Telangana Gazetted OfficersAssociation president V SrinivasGoud also said they can’t donateand be a part of the World TeluguConference until the separateTelangana issue is resolved.

The stand of the Telanganaemployees has come as a shockfor the State government, whichis expected to collect hugeamounts of donations from itsemployees. The total employeehead count of the State govern-ment stands at about 11 lakh.

The figure also includes out-sourcing and contract employ-ees. The State government had sofar allocated `25 crore for theorganisation of the Telugu con-ference. The conference will beheld at the world-renowned tem-ple town of Tirupathi. A total of10,000 delegates are expected toattend the meeting.

TDP hopes to get 200 seats

T-union not to donate to conferenceThe Telangana

union thumbs itsnose at the

government anddecides to

boycott the WorldTelugu Conference,refusing to donate

their one-day salaryto it as directed by

the State government.

“When we asked thegovernment to donateone-day salary of allemployees for the fam-ilies of Telangana mar-tyrs, the state rejectedour request withouteven considering it.”

YSRC is a coverfor Congress and

it will merge with theCongress before orafter the elections.The Congress is soanaemic that itwill be sick of itsown weakness .

Sivaprasad RaoSenior TDP leader

TRS party is a B- team of the

Congress. The deci-sion of KCR to attendthe all party meet isthe latest example ofthis. How can heattend the meeting?

Sivaprasad RaoSenior TDP leader

Despite allegations that Telugu Desam Party leaders are being lured away by YSRC, the party remains confident of mopping up seats. A senior party leader says TDP does not consider YSRC as a party.

city THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012 6ACTIVISM

5

A FRESH NEW POINT OF VIEW

You can also call or email us at: 040 - 4067 [email protected]

TO SUBSCRIBE, CALL US ON 80082 00713or SMS „Postnoon‰ to 56161

Cover Price: Rs.1095/-

Offer Price: Rs.549/-

Total Saving: 50%

Rahul Ramakrishna metRahul Buddala (pictured),newly-elected president ofIt’s Time to Make a Difference(ITMD), a city youth initia-

tive, and discussed about RTI activism,politics and the group’s plans for thefuture. ITMD is Hyderabad’s mostproactive RTI activism group that hasaddressed, fought and brought resultson scores of issues. ITMD recently com-pleted four years of public service.

What is your plan now that you havebeen elected president for 2012-2013?

We want to expand the scope ofITMD. We want to take it to the studentsin our City, considering we have over200 engineering colleges in Hyderabad.We want to involve the youth in civicissues and also help them address theirown problems in education.

Apart from the youth, do you plan toexpand to other target groups? Whatabout the people in the rural areasaround Hyderabad?

So far, ITMD has had a strong pres-ence in Infosys. We now want to expandit to other companies and also othercities. There are a lot of educated, like-minded people who care about theproblems of this country. And most of

them are young and desirous of doingsome service to the society. RTI is onemajor weapon to fight corruption. Weare also planning to fan out to the ruralareas of Hyderabad to help the localssolve their problems. We want them totaste the successes of RTI and work theirproblems out by themselves.

Do you see yourself getting into poli-tics or supporting any political party,now or later on in the future?

As a team, we have no political lean-ings. Personally, some people might beinclined to support some party or theother, but as a team we are completelyapolitical. And personally, I do not seemyself being a politician or being asso-ciated with politics. I am just a responsi-ble citizen fighting for problems and Iwould like to keep it that way. There areample number of politicians. Right now,what we need are responsible citizens.

Counting your experience as beingpart of an activist group, there must bemany things that deter the group’sprogress.

Yes. Motivation is an issue. When anRTI is filed, there is a response time ofanywhere between six months to fiveyears or more. So the motivation keepsfizzling out sometimes, in some people.

‘Use RTI to fight corruption’Rahul Buddala, president of It’s Time to Make a Difference, a Right To Information activism group in theCity, talks to Postnoon about the group’s motivation, current projects, future plans and long-term goals.

I am not saying all of us need to be constant-ly motivated. Some of our group’s membersare highly passionate individuals who haveshown no signs of being dejected. So yes,success stories need longevity. And we havealways kept the motivation pot boilingbecause without immediate success stories,the drive dies out. Success stories for moti-vating people is a formula we have thoughtof right now.

What inspired you into taking up socialissues?

When 26/11 happened, I got to knowabout the policemen who were killed onduty because they were ill-equipped. Thatshook me. It was followed by the 2G scamwhen I realised that our money was beingeaten away by the corrupt. That is when theRTI movement began.

Some issues you are going to take up in thenext two months?

There are a few issues that we have beenpreparing for. For instance, the H-TRIMStraffic coordination system that wasplanned for CoP-11 was supposed to havefinished before September. That has not

materialised yet. We have filed RTIs andhave got some unsatisfactory replies. That isone among the many issues we plan to takeup shortly.

If not for ITMD, you said you wanted to bea management graduate. So if you were toshift base from Hyderabad in pursuit ofMBA, what are your plans for the future?

I will fight and address issues whereverI go, be it Mumbai, Chennai or Pune. It isperhaps one reason I have stayed back inIndia despite being part of the Great IndianDream where I wanted to go to America andsettle down happily. I might still go, but thatwill be a short visit, just to see the life outthere.

“We are also planning to fanout to the rural areas ofHyderabad to help the localssolve their problems. We wantthem to taste the successes ofRTI and work their problemsout by themselves.”

classifieds THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012 7

To advertise on thispage,

contact:

F o r C y b e r a b a d -9 8 6 6 6 9 8 8 7 9

9866074747

For H y d e r a b a d -9 8 6 6 6 6 3 2 1 2

F o rS e c u n d e r a b a d -

9 2 9 0 2 0 4 0 3 0

HEALTH/CLINIC

CLASSIFIEDS

INTERIOR

ANUBHA K [email protected]

It’s that time of the year whenmost trees are bare, exceptone — the Christmas tree.Decorating the tree and placing

gifts beneath it is probably the bestcustom of this festive season. Thecustom of decorating the Christmastree can be traced back to an ancientpagan ritual celebrating renewal oflife. Back then the Christmas tree would be decorated withapples, nuts, dates, fruits and paperflowers.

Remember the popular song O!Christmas tree! Thy leaves are sounchanging? It perfectly evokes themagic of Christmas. However, thetree now seems to be undergoing achange. Artificial trees are nowreplacing the real ones in mosthomes as the demand for the realdeal has reduced.

“We stopped selling Christmastrees for the last two years as thereis no demand for the real tree in theCity,” says Shanti Bhushan, horti-culture officer at Bhavani Nursery,

Abids. “The reason being, the realtree is not as conical as it is shownin books or television. A tree gainsthe perfect conical shape only whenit reaches more than 30 feet. Peoplehere look for the conical tree in asize that will fit in their homes andthat is not possible with the realtree. This is one of the reason theoriginal tree is less in demand sowe now dont have stock of originalchristmas tree.”

“In contrast to the originalChristmas tree, the artificial treecomes in perfect conical shape andsize and the price range from `200to `5,000 depending on the size,shape and some extra decorationsso people prefer buying artificialtrees,” he adds.

Subhash Rao of PragatiGardening nursery, says, “People inthe twin cities don’t prefer buyingthe original tree as there is very lessoption of decorating it as comparedto artificial ones. The latter can bereused every year and that’s onereason people here don’t preferbuying an original tree. We broughtoriginal trees from Bangalore lastyear and we were suffered lossesbecause there was no demand. Thisyear we dropped the plan of sellingoriginal christmas trees.”

In the recent years, the artificialChristmas tree has made its way inthe City market. There are manyvariety of artificial trees available inthe market and the newest addi-tions are the fibre optic and whitechristmas tree varieties. For a fibreoptic tree you don’t have to worryabout hanging twinkling lights onthe tree, just plug in and the end ofeach leaf of the tree glows innumerous colours. This tree alsohas the option of rotating.Traditionally, gifts are put underthe tree on the Christmas eve afterit’s decked up for the eve.

As the market isflooded with

artificial trees,City folk choose

them over thereal deal. Their

perfect shapeand ornaments

make themmore lucrative.

Endowments minister CRamachandraiah (pictured)has said that he stuck to his

remarks against former chief minis-ter late YS Rajasekhara Reddy thatthe latter was corrupt.

Speaking to the media at theCLP office on Wednesday,Ramachandraiah said that he wasthe man who had opposed the pro-posal of merger of PRP in Congresswhen YSR was alive. He said thathe did not know if any minister hada role in YSR’s corrupt deals. Hesaid that the party would decidewhether to continue the ministers,who worked in late YSR’s cabinet ornot now. He said the CBI probewould reveal whether any ministerswere involved in corrupt practicesof late chief minister.

Lashing out at TDP chief NChandrababu Naidu for allegingthat Chiranjeevi committed consti-tutional betrayal by merging erst-while PRP into the Congress,Ramachandraiah said the formerhimself was involved in the consti-tutional betrayal by dethroning late NTR.

Finding fault with TDP presi-dent Chandrababu Naidu for stat-ing that the present Congress partywas copying his ideas,

Ramachandraiah said there was nocopy master like Chandrababu. Hehas alleged that ChandrababuNaidu aped YSR by taking up“Vastunna Meekosam padayatra”.He has alleged that ChandrababuNaidu also copied YSR by forgingan alliance with the TRS in 2004elections and TRS, CPI and CPM in2009 elections in the name of ‘Maha Kootami’.

The minister also ridiculedChandrababu Naidu for stating thatInformation Technology, which was

introduced by Rajiv Gandhi andDWCRA introduced by PVNarasimha Rao as his own.Chandrababu was now stating thatCash Transfer Scheme was his own,he said and alleged thatChandrababu has lost his mentalbalance. He also alleged thatChandrababu, who had neglected

the poor people during his regime,was speaking lies and sheddingcrocodile tears on the plight of thepoor people.

He said that there were nomovements demanding separateRayalaseema State and no leaderwas taking into account the peo-ple’s opinion. He said the leaderswere claiming their personal viewsas public opinion. He said therewere no movements in theRayalaseema region like Telanganamovement. NSS

CR sticks to remarksagainst YSR; slams Naidu

Minister for culturalaffairs and tourism VattiVasanta Kumar today

said the Kakatiya Festival wasbeing organised to highlight thegreatness of the Kakatiya empireand its contribution to Teluguculture from December 21.

Talking to the media alongwith ministers PonnalaLakshmaiah, B Saraiah andtourism secretary ChandanaKhan, Vatti said the festival willbe organised from December 21to 23 in Warangal. Chief MinisterN Kiran Kumar Reddy will inau-gurate it. The festival will contin-ue at Kotagallu Ramappa templeon the second day.

He said Union Ninister ofState for Tourism K Chiranjeeviand Tamil Nadu Governor KRosaiah would participate in thefestival. A website was launchedto provide information about thehistory of the Kakatiya rulersand the festival details. He alsosaid that the tourism departmentwill be operating packages fromHyderabad to Warangal and alocal package for tourists.

Ponnala Lakshmaiah recalledthat Rani Rudrama Devi ruledthe empire 750 years ago anddemonstrated the power ofwomen to the world.

NSS

Kakatiya festival fromDec 21: Vatti

CHRISTMAS

POLITICS

Fakes take over this Xmas

There are many varietyof artificial trees avail-able in the market andthe newest additions arethe fibre optic and whitechristmas tree varieties.

FESTIVAL

The endowments minister remained firm on his stance against YSR.

The minister ridiculedChandrababu Naidu forstating that InformationTechnology, which wasintroduced by RajivGandhi as being his own.

`200 to `5000is the price of artificial christmas trees

depending on the shape, size andaccessories that go along with them.

S BALAKRISHNA

HOLIDAYERSPLAN BIG FOR 2013

Though 2012 began on an upbeat note for holiday planning, rising airfares and expenditure forced many

to cut back. However, travellers are bullish on 2013 plans.

city THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012 8TRAVEL


India Travel TrendsSurvey for 2013conducted among3,200 online respon-dents by TripAdvisor

shows backing out of apromise the intending trav-ellers did in 2012.

Despite an optimistic dis-position on their holidayplans at the beginning of2012 and being upbeat abouttheir holiday calendar evenmid-year, people have actual-ly cut back on vacation timein 2012. However, travellerscontinue to be bullish abouttheir holiday plans for 2013with 41 percent respondentsplanning to increase theirvacation time next year.

THE YEAR THAT WASAccording to last year’s sur-vey, 64 per cent holidaymak-ers took an international holi-day in 2011. At the beginningof 2012 people were confi-dent of their travel plans and85 per cent respondents esti-mated they will take at leastone international holiday. Inreality however, internationaltravel is much lower this yearwith 50 per cent respondentswho will actually take to for-eign land. Domestic holidaystaken this year matched trav-eller estimates at the begin-ning of 2012 and stayed sta-ble compared to 2011 as well.

While only 7 per centtravellers said at the begin-ning of the year that they willundertake lesser leisure trav-el in 2012 compared to theprevious year, actually 28 percent actually took fewer holi-days this year.

At least 60 per centrespondents made some kindof change to their travelplans, of which 17 per centcancelled a domestic trip and,

16 per cent reduced the dura-tion of their trip, 11 per centcanned a foreign holiday,21percent changed their desti-nation and 10 per cent tradedan international destinationfor a domestic holiday.

WHAT DISCOURAGED THEMAt the start of 2012, 44 percent respondents thoughtthey would spend more ontheir holidays this year com-pared to 2011. However, 56per cent actually stretchedtheir budget beyond lastyear’s. The top three factorsholidaymakers attributedtheir increased spend towere:

HIGHER HOTEL ROOM COSTS l Significantly higher air

fares l Higher cost of eating out

on holidayThose who took fewer

holidays this year comparedto 2011 cited not gettingleaves from work and holi-days plans clashing with offi-cial/personal commitmentsas the biggest reason. Thenext key factor was highinflation eating into holidaybudget and high airfares. 60 per cent respondentsclaimed they made somechange to their travel plansin 2012. The top three rea-sons according to them foraltering travel plans were:l Expensive flight ticketsl Alternate plans clashing

with travel datesl Not getting leaves

TripAdvisor saysAccording to Nikhil Ganju,country manager-TripAdvisorIndia, “Rising airfares, highhotel room costs and persis-tent inflation appear to be themain issues daunting holidaygoers this year and travellershave expressed their concernabout these trends continuingin the coming year. However,for now holiday intent for 2013looks promising, with 41 percent leisure vacationers lookingat travelling more compared tothis year.”

He further added, “Anotherstriking trend is the 40 per centrespondents who experiencedsome form of adventure activi-ty on their holidays this year,indicating adventure travelclearly to be a growing drivingforce for domestic vacationers.”

TOP 10 DESTINATIONSINDIA ABROAD n Goa Singaporen Munnar Dubain Ooty Londonn Manali Bangkokn Jaipur Hongkongn Ladakh Parisn Srinagar New Yorkn Darjeeling Balin Agra Phuketn Pondicherry Sydney

With work clashingwith holidays andinflation eating intoholiday budgets,many cancelledtheir 2012 plans.

NOT SINGLE, BUT READY TO MINGLE

NATALIA RAMOSAgence France-Presse

SAO PAULO: Want to cheat onyour partner? Then the onlinedating service Ashley Madison isthe perfect place for you.

Since it arrived in Brazil 15months ago, the website hasattracted one million lustyBrazilians, turning this SouthAmerican country of 194 millionpeople into one of the biggestmarkets for the Canadian com-pany.

Created 10 years ago, AshleyMadison and its slogan: “Life isshort. Have an affair” is nowpresent in 24 countries, witheight million members in theUnited States and six million inCanada.

But Brazil has seen the firm’smost explosive growth in termsof number of clients — 70 per-cent of whom are men — and inmoney spent to finance the temp-tations the site offers.

“Brazilians have a verystrong propensity for pleasure,sex and fun,” said EduardoBorges, the company’s represen-tative in this body-consciouscountry famous for its exuberantsamba dancing and carnival.

“Add to this a fascination fortechnology, for communicatingand meeting other people,” henoted.

The country has around 80million Internet users and isamong world leaders in the useof social networks such asFacebook and Twitter.

This provides a combinationwhich, according to Borges, doesnot promote infidelity but offersalternatives to practise it in a“proper manner.”

Know-how is precisely thebasis for Ashley Madison’s mar-keting appeal, including refer-ences to famous cases of infideli-ty such as those of former USpresident Bill Clinton and PrinceCharles.

‘LOVER GUARANTEED’“We started in Brazil in lateAugust 2011. I expected 500,000subscribers in a year, but we gotmore than 800,000. And we aregoing to close 2012 with morethan one million, a much biggergrowth than what we anticipat-ed,” Borges added.

With 17 million subscribers

worldwide, the website willgross $120 million this year, butBorges would not say how muchis generated in Brazil.

“Brazil is our second largestmarket in terms of income,” hesaid, adding that before the end

of the year, the company hopesto open an office in Sao Paulo,the first outside Canada.

“Brazil is the apple of oureye,” he added.

There are many other leadingdating sites in Brazil such as

eHarmony or Second Love.Ashley Madison was created

with women in mind. They donot pay to subscribe or makecontacts with men, who are theones who must pay to sendemails, chat messages, drawhearts or use other techniques ofvirtual seduction.

Its business model is basedon credits rather than monthlysubscriptions.

For a conversation betweentwo members, one of the mem-bers must pay five credits to initi-ate the conversation. Any follow-up messages between the twomembers are free after the com-munication has been initiated.

A pack of 100 credits, whichallows a man to contact 20women on average, costs $25.

Bare chest pictures, faceswith piercing looks, adjectivessuch as “sensitive and affection-ate, creative and adventurous,”anything goes.

“Send me a picture?” saidone subscriber named “Guto”

when contacted by AFP. Heclaimed to have been married for21 years, said he joined the site inMarch and bought 4,000 credits.

“I spent more than I wanted,but I got a few contacts. So far Ihave had two cases of casual sex,pretty good experiences,” hecrowed. To mark its first year inBrazil, Ashley Madison launched“Lover guaranteed”, a programoffering the money back guaran-tee of an affair.

“So far no one has asked fortheir money back,” said Borges.

David Benoliel, the compa-ny’s vice-president for LatinAmerica, said acceptance in theregion has been amazing“despite many social and reli-gious taboos”.

Company officials see infi-delity as the perfect recipe tosave marriage from boredom. “Ifthere is something missing inyour marriage but you do notwant a divorce, here we havewhat you are looking for,”Borges insisted.

E-dating service thrives in Brazil

focusTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012

9THE BUSINESS MODELAshley Madison was created with women in mind. They do not pay to subscribe or makecontacts with men, who are the ones who must pay to send emails, chat messages, drawhearts or use other techniques of virtual seduction. Its business model is based on cred-its rather than monthly subscriptions.

Since Ashley Madison arrived in Brazil 15 months ago, the website has attracted one million lustyBrazilians, turning this South American country of 194 million people into one of the biggest markets for it.

Brazilians have avery strong

propensity for plea-sure, sex and fun. Addto this a fascinationfor technology, forcommunicatingand meetingother people

Eduardo BorgesAM representative

BusinessTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012

10VODAPHONE SPECIAL OFFERVodafone India has launched a special offer for all new post-paidcustomers in Andhra Pradesh. A customer who activates a newpost paid connection with a rental plan of `149 or above inDecember will get a free Lotto Watch worth `2799.

Goa government has decided to pump in ` 100-150 crore in various developmental works in mining belt of the state, whichhas been hit with recession due to closure of iron ore extractionactivity. Initially, at least 10,000-12,000 people would be benefited in the form of various government contracts awardedto them for implementation of these projects, Chief MinisterManohar Parrikar said.

Goa to invest `100 crore in mining belt

Activate sun shieldSolar electric fencing is increasingly gaining popularity for

its crime disruption and asset protection capabilities.

Since our country is a union of states, weabide by its federal character and, there-fore, are bound by the consensus on theissue,

ANAND SHARMA,COMMERCE MINISTER

ANAND SHARMA,COMMERCE MINISTERBSE 17,179.95

98.90 NSE 5,209.0533.65SILVER `53,000 for 1kg

GOLD `29,500 for 10gPOUND `86.60DOLLAR`55.14

BSE 19,361.69114.31

NSEPOUND `89.18DOLLAR `54.84

SILVER `60,000 for 1kg24CGOLD`31,200 for 10g

5,891.0038.80

PRUDHVI RAJU [email protected]

Are you living in fear of bur-glary at your independenthouse or office? Do youwant to safeguard you

manufacturing unit or your farm?Here is one of the trending securityapplications.

Solar electric fencing is increas-ingly gaining popularity for its crimedisruption and asset protection capa-bilities. Features such as spot alarms,automatic switching of zone lights,intrusion detection through monitorand mobile alerts are making it afavourite security application forbanks, defence properties, residencesof celebrities and politicians.

“It is the new alternative to thetraditional type of perimeter func-tion. Earlier, the owners wouldincrease the height of the compoundwall or install Closed Circuit TVcameras. However, that may fail attimes and cannot give the completeprotection. But this solar fencingapplication gives a guaranteed pro-tection and deters the intruders.

“It is also cost effective com-pared to increasing the height ofthe compound wall or employingfour to five security guards. Thecentral monitoring function helpsto find out even the minute detailthrough the cameras fixed around

the wall,” says P Rama KrishnaNaidu, proprietor, Silicon SolarSystems

“The energiser sends short puls-es for 0.3 milli seconds duration of 4to 9 KV in an interval of 1.2 seconds.It almost takes 10 minutes to recoverfrom that shock and the resident canbecome alert in the meantime by thesiren, which can be heard for a very

long distance (0.5 km to 1 km) andby observing through a central mon-itoring the system. The alarm is sen-sitive to any type of tampering of thefence.

“Though this fence is non-lethal,it is recommended to have five feetwall height to completely preventchildren or pets getting shock,” headvises. The system has low mainte-nance costs with an average life spanof 20 years. Anti-corrosive and waterresistant properties will also increasethe life of fence.

On prices, he says, “Price variesaccording to the purpose. The cost ofcrop protection electric fence, whichonly deters animals, can be up to `95per running meter (RM) excluding25 per cent subsidy provided by APAgros (with out poles). It alsodoesn’t have various alert features.Security fence for residences canrange any where between `300-1,000per RM based on the featuresrequired and location of the installa-tion. The system should also meetBIS, ISI and IEC standards not onlyfor safety but also for quality of theproduct.”

SECURITY REHABILITATION

Various features such asspot alarms, automaticswitching of zone lights,intrusion detectionthrough monitor andmobile alerts are makingit a favorite securityapplication.

A H M E D A B A D / S H I M L A :Gujarat Chief Minister NarendraModi looked set for a third consecu-tive victory in the Assembly elec-tions and leading the race for PrimeMinisterial candidate in BJP in 2014while Congress appeared to bewresting power from the saffronparty in Himachal Pradesh.

The BJP was leading in 118 ofthe 182 seats in Gujarat whileCongress was ahead in 59. FormerChief Minister Keshubhai Patel's

GPP on which the Congress hopedto defeat Modi fared very badly.The NCP and JDU were leading inone seat each. In 2007, the BJP hadwon 117 seats and Congress 59.However, the party was set for adebacle in Himachal Pradesh, astate which has stuck to its habit ofvoting out anincumbent govern-ment. The Congress, which put upa spirited campaign under formerChief Minister Virbhadra Singh, isall set to return to power.

nationTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012

11PLEA FOR DEADLINE EXTENTION DISMISSEDIn the high-profile case involving repayment of money to bondholders oftwo Sahara group firms, the Securities and Appellate Tribunal today dis-missed a plea for extension of deadline for submitting investor documentsto the market regulator Sebi.

PICK YOUR

@

Stores Across Twin Cities

BALASORE (ODISHA): India onThursday successfully test-fired itsindigenously developed nuclearcapable Prithvi-II missile with astrike range of 350 km from a testrange at Chandipur near here.

The surface-to-surface missilewas test fired from a mobile launch-er in salvo mode from launch com-plex-3 of Integrated Test Range atabout 9.21am, defence sources said.

The launch of the sophisticatedmissile, conducted as part of opera-tional exercise by the Strategic ForceCommand (SFC) of the defence ser-vices, was successful, they said.

“The missile was randomly cho-sen from the production stock and

the total launch activities were car-ried out by the specially formed SFCand monitored by the scientists ofDefence Research & DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO) as part ofpractice drill,” sources said.

The Prithvi-II missile, developedby the DRDO, is already inductedinto the Indian Armed forces.

Prithvi, the first missile devel-oped under India’s prestigiousIntegrated Guided MissileDevelopment Programme (IGMDP),is capable of carrying 500 kg to 1000kg of warheads and thrusted by liq-uid propulsion twine engines, usesadvanced inertial guidance systemwith manoeuvring trajectory. PTI

N-capable Prithvi-IItest successful

HuJI manarrestedKOLKATA: A HuJI militantwanted in the abduction case ofshoe baron Partha Pratim RoyBurman in 2001 was arrested bythe Special Task Force of theKolkata Police.

During a raid in port area ofthe city, the militant identified asMuijanur Rehman, 45, wasarrested late last night, JointCommissioner of Police (STF)Rajeev Mishra told PTI.

The HuJI militant was want-ed in connection with the abduc-tion of Khadim's owner Burmanand is a co-associate of anothermilitant Amir Reja Khan.

Some “suspicious objects”and pamphlets were found in hispossession, Mishra said.

PTI

Gujarat retains Modification,Congress wrests Himachal

ODISHABURMAN CASE

Gujarat

Alliances Leads Results TotalCong 19 19 38BJP 12 12 24Others 3 3 6

Alliances Leads Results Change TotalBJP 71 49 +3 120Cong 33 26 -3 59Others 2 2 3

Himachal Pradesh

Gujarat

BJP120

BJP24

Other6

Cong38

CONG59

OTHER3

Keshubhai Patel threat comes a cropper as Narendra Modileads BJP to a comfortable victory, completing a hat-trick.

No need oflooking

beh-ind...FOR-WARD...wewant infiniteenergy, infinitecourage,infinitepatience...

Narendra Modivia Twitter

AMERICAN OLIVIA IS MISS UNIVERSE

American Olivia Culpo was crowned Miss Universe 2012 late Wednesday, beating out beau-ties from around the world to claim the coveted title. The title of first runner-up went to thecontestant from the Philippines, Janine Tugonon. Last year’s winner Leila Lopes of Angola,crowned jubilant Culpo, 20 years old, to succeed her in a year-long reign. It is the first winfor an American woman since 1997, when the title was won by Brook Lee. Miss Venezuela,Irene Sofia Esser Quintero, placed third in the contest. AFP/JOE KLAMAR

WorldTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012

12$900 MILLION IN WORLD AID FOR IRAQThe World Bank announced Tuesday a $900 million support plan for Iraq aimedat helping the war-ravaged country better manage its human and vast oilresources. The World Bank’s four-year support for Iraq, through 2016, will focuson job creation, social inclusion and building stronger institutions.

CLINTON GROUNDEDUS Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,the most traveled US top diplomatever, has had her wings clipped byill-health and will not be able tomake any trips for several weeks, atop aide said Wednesday. “Given hercondition, the secretary’s doctorshave advised that she may not flyfor any significant duration in thecoming weeks,” her closest aide,Philippe Reines said in a statement.“So as things stand we are not plan-ning any travel through mid-January.” The news will come as ablow for Clinton who has flownalmost a million miles in duty.

President Francois Hollandearrived in Algeria on Wednesdayfor a landmark visit to the formerFrench territory, amid hopes of anew phase in relations but persis-tent bitterness over crimes com-mitted during colonial rule.Hollande was received with fullhonours by his Algerian counter-part Abdelaziz Bouteflika as hegot off the plane, and a largecrowd cheered them as their con-voy passed along the capital’s historic corniche.

HOLLANDE IN ALGERIA

NUMEROLOGY

$525 mnis the price at which US photogra-phy giant Eastman Kodak said onWednesday it had agreed sell its

digital imaging patents.

What separates usis probably a few

hundred billion dollars.The idea we would putour economy at riskbecause you can’tbridge that gapdoesn’t make a lotof sense.

Barack ObamaUS President

Australia customsupheaval over graftSYDNEY: Australia announced anoverhaul of its customs serviceThursday after eight people werearrested in a corruption investiga-tion linked to an alleged drugs ringat Sydney airport. “I am working onmajor structural and culturalreforms to Customs and willannounce them next year,” HomeAffairs Minister Jason Clare said.

Mexico empties prisonof its inmates after riotsDURANGO, MEXICO:Officials on Wednesday removed allof the prisoners — about 500inmates — from a prison in north-ern Mexico, one day after the facilityerupted in violence, leaving 15inmates and nine guards dead. Theprison “has been totally emptied asa preventive measure,” a publicsafety spokesman said.

Head of top Singaporeschool named in graftSINGAPORE: The principal of atop Singapore high school wasThursday removed from his postand being investigated by the anti-corruption bureau, authorities toldAFP, in the latest such scandal to hitthe city-state. Former headmaster ofRiver Valley High School Steven KohYong Chiah, 58, was replaced “witheffect from 20 December 2012”.

US for death penalty inAfghan massacre caseLOS ANGELES: Prosecutors willseek the death penalty for anAmerican soldier accused of killing16 Afghan villagers in one of themost appalling atrocities of the war,the US military said Wednesday.Staff Sergeant Robert Bales faces 16murder charges, six of attemptedmurder, seven of assault and two ofusing drugs.

NEWS BRIEFS

STRICTER GUN LAWS

STEPHEN COLLINSONAgence France-Presse

WASHINGTON: PresidentBarack Obama put ending an“epidemic” of gun violence atthe top of his second term agen-da Wednesday, denying he was“on vacation” on the issuebefore last week’s school mas-sacre.

Obama called for “concrete”proposals within a month from anew task force that will be led byVice President Joe Biden that willexamine new gun control laws,better mental health access andthe impact of violent culture.

“I will be putting forward

very specific proposals. I will betalking about them in my Stateof the Union, and we will beworking with interested mem-bers of Congress to try to getsomething done,” Obama said.

The president said thekillings of 20 children aged sixand seven and six adults in anelementary school last weekshould give lawmakers a potentincentive for action, even wheninitial shock fades.

“The fact that this problem iscomplex can no longer be anexcuse for doing nothing. Thefact that we can’t prevent everyact of violence doesn’t mean we

can’t steadily reduce the vio-lence, and prevent the veryworst violence.”

Obama said he welcomedpublic support for measures likethe banning of assault weapons,like the one used by gunmanAdam Lanza in Connecticut lastFriday, and also on outlawingthe sale of high-capacity ammu-nition clips.

He said a majority ofAmericans also supported back-ground checks for all gun pur-chases and signaled an effort toexpand mental health care, in aneffort to deter psychologicallytroubled people from turning tomass violence.

Biden to lead Obama’s teamUS President calls for “concrete” proposals within a month.

Bullet-proof backpacksWASHINGTON: On theheels of the deadly shootingtragedy in Connecticut, par-ents’ anxiety is driving asurge in sales of bullet-proofbackpacks, in the hope thearmored bags can give theirkids a safety edge. For under$300, the companyAmendment II — a play onthe Second Amendment tothe US constitution, whichguarantees the right to beararms — is selling a boys’pack with Avengers charac-ters on it.

If you’ve been naughty this yearand not expecting any gifty fromSanta, then here’s a chance to talkthings out with Santa. Googlewants gmail users to call up Santaby visiting http://is.gd/callsanta andmake their requests. Last year, usersof Google Voice in US got a callfrom US, though Google may notcontinue that practice this year. Youalso can create and send a cus-tomised call from Santa to anyoneyou know, in US by visitinghttp://is.gd/customsanta.


Samsung has overtaken Nokia tobecome the top mobile phonebrand of 2012, according to aresearch firm. The Finland-basedNokia has been struggling for thepast two years and their shift toWindows operating system hasn’thelped them fight their way backto the top. Samsung on the otherhand has become synonymouswith Android phones and itsdevices have been sellingextremely well worldover, espe-cially the Galaxy SIII and Note.Samsung is expected to accountfor 29 per cent of global mobileshipments, up from 24 per cent in2011, according to the IHS, whichsaid Nokia’s share dropped to 24percent from 30 per cent.

Call him maybe

SAMSUNG LEADS

Looks like a bunch of guys reallywanted to play a few Wii Ugames for Christmas. A truck fullof Nintendo’s Wii U gaming con-soles were stolen from Seattle.The console were stored in twotrucks and the thieves drove off inthese trucks before the lawenforcement could catch up withthem. They are currently lookingfor these trucks and are alsokeeping an eye on ebay andCraiglist as they suspect theywould offload their loot on thesesites. The original ABC report did-n’t specify whether it was Wii U orthe older Wii that had beenstolen, but Kotaku confirmed withthe police that it was in fact theWii U.

GRAND THEFT CONSOLE

Technology 13PRIVACY WARS

Insta apology

Instagram yields touser outrage overpolicy change.

SAN FRANCISCO: Instagrambacked down from a plannedpolicy change that appeared toclear the way for the mobilephoto sharing service to sell pic-tures without compensation,after users cried foul.

“The language we proposedalso raised questions aboutwhether your photos can bepart of an advertisement,”Instagram co-founder KevinSystrom said in a blog post.

“We do not have plans foranything like this and becauseof that we’re going to removethe language that raised thequestion,” he continued. “To beclear: it is not our intention tosell your photos.”

Changes to the Instagramprivacy policy and terms of ser-

vice set to take effect January 16had included wording thatappeared to allow people’s pic-tures to be used by advertisersat Instagram or Facebookworldwide, royalty-free.

Twitter and Instagram for -ums were abuzz over the phras-ing, as users debated whether todelete their accounts before thenew rules kicked in.

“Bye-bye Instagram,” tweet-ed Scott Ninness. “Who in theirright mind will use a servicethat allows your images (to) besold with no financial remuner-ation to you?”

“Everybody should contin-ue using Instagram but just takeblurry photos of sandwiches,”suggested a Twitter user withthe screen name MicheleCatalano.

Systrom did not specify howthe terms of service wordingwould be changed.

Originally proposed por-tions of the new policy that ran-kled users included “You here-by grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royal-ty-free, transferable, sub-licens-able, worldwide license to usethe content that you post on orthrough the service.”

The terms also stated that “abusiness or other entity may

pay us to display your user-name, likeness, photos, and/oractions you take, in connectionwith paid or sponsored contentor promotions, without anycompensation to you.”

Instagram contended that itwas not claiming ownership ofpeople's pictures.

“Our intention in updatingthe terms was to communicatethat we’d like to experiment wi -th innovative advertising thatfe els appropriate on Instagram,”Systrom said.

“Instead it was interpretedby many that we were going tosell your photos to others with-out any compensation. This isnot true and it is our mistakethat this language is confusing.”

Some people tweeted in de -fense of Instagram, arguing thatit was a “mega-business” thatneeds to make money.

“I quit Instagram on princi-ple,” Twitter user Liz Heronsaid on the popular messageservice. “I’m tired of contribut-ing to the commodification (sic)of my own existence.”

Instagram said that thechanges were part of a move tobetter share information withFacebook, which bought thecompany this year.

AFP

575likes and 81 comments by

Instagram users every second

7.3 milliondaily active users on an

average

5 millionphotos uploaded every day.

4 billionphotos shared since its

beginning

NUMEROLOGY

WHEN WORDS DO NOT FLOW

CommentTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012

14HIGH-FLYING THOUGHTS"I've got to be goofy about this or I'll get emotional up here,” said MikeTyson, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame of boxing. And this was theman who was dubbed the baddest man on the planet. Tyson proves everyman deserves a second chance and anyone is capable of change.

It’s just been one of thoseweeks. Sunday night Ithought I would get a headstart on preparing my arti-cle for this week. I had it all

planned out. I would have mydinner, watch some TV and thenwrite my article. Sunday night Iate my dinner, watched someTV, played Call of Duty 2- BlackOps online (which is prettygood but not as good as COD 3-Modern Warfare). There was noinspiration to write my article,but that’s ok since I have twodays left.

Monday morning, oh how Idespise thee! In a recent surveyMonday Morning was nominat-ed as the worse time of theweek. Second place went toThursday afternoon, as peopleoften wish it was Friday after-noon by Thursday. So myMonday morning started offbad. Leaving my house I discov-ered one of our vehicle’s backglass had been shattered, and tomake matters worse it was doneby my nephew’s friend. Irestrained myself from going tomy nephew’s room and kickinghim in his gulab jamoons.Driving to work I realized therewas a chip on my windshieldfrom their work, so that just

made me more irate. Work wasgoing ok until a patient decidedto vomit in my office. I comehome looking for my nephewwho is now in hiding. Honestly,Monday night I completely for-got I had an article to write oreven the fact that I left my coffeein the microwave.

Tuesday morning started abit better. No broken glass todeal with. Besides being busy,nothing really exciting at work. Idid manage to walk into theadjoining kitchen where theywere frying fish (something I’mallergic to) and within seconds Istarted sneezing. That led to metaking an allergy medicationwhen I got home that made mesleepy. In my semi-consciousstate I did have some, whatappeared to be, brilliant ideasbut I failed to write down theideas or the articles on the ideas.If memory serves me right, oneof the ideas was about a “Letterto Santa”. It just so happens thatthe one idea I remembered isactually based on an article I justwrote last week.

Wednesday morning. Nobroken glass but I was low onpetrol. I don’t think there aremany people in the hustle andbustle on India can make thestatement I’m about to make. Ican leave my house at 7.58amand drive to work and get thereby 8 am. So there wasn’t anyreal concern about running outof gas, but I did make a mental

note to fill up later that day. Hada small discussion about why Ithought Rani Mukherjee was abetter actress than KarinaKapoor. Drove to go pick up my

jeans that I gave for tailoring.Ate some dessert at my friend’srestaurant and started to drawup plans for a Bar B Q pit smok-er (because when doctors getbored we work on engineeringdesigns).

On my way home I reallycouldn’t think of anything Iwanted to write about, it’s 5pmhere and 5am in India. I haveabout an hour before my articleis due. Thank you, thank youthe article is now finished.

For the record, my nephewpacked up and left to go staywith my parents in anothertown for fear of what was goingto happen to him.

She wants to live though her world is encompassed in darkness, thework of some demons in the garb of humans. “I want to live,” said

she weakly, “tears trickling down”, in her mother’s ear, when sheregained consciousness as she lay fighting for her life at the SafdarjungHospital in Delhi. In the span of four days, she had been operated upontwo times. The doctors have not said anything definite, but their words

do not give much hope. Almost all of her intestines have had to beremoved as gangrene had set in. Meanwhile, as the nation stays in

shock over the horror, cases of rape are still being reported. A five-year-old girl was raped by a man who is a close acquaintance of the victim’sfamily. She too lies in a hospital bed fighting for her life. This is becom-ing shockingly commonplace: rapes in India. It has become somethingto spend our finest sensibilities feeling outrage and shame, yet we do

nothing to change. One of the men involved in the dastardly act inDelhi has sought death penalty for himself when he was presented in

court. He says he did nothing to the girl but was involved only in layingthe poor boy who was with her to waste. Does that absolve him of his

crime? Does that make what he did any less evil? NO. As his friends torethe girl apart, he did nothing to stop them, did nothing to save her, buttook the one person noble in that situation of hell to task for trying to

protect her. He is equally in this despite his denials. To think up ofdevices to punish such monsters, those on the other side will have to

cross the line that divides good and evil. If that must happen, cross wemust, for evil worked on the evil is good, for let them have a taste of

their own medicine. It may not right them, but it will give their victimsthe solace that those who wronged themgot what they deserve.

Impaling is the least they deserve

EDITORIALS

READERS’ VIEWSWe invite you to write to us comments, suggestions, viewpoint or just about anything to [email protected] or#1246, Level 3, Jubilee Casa, Road No 62, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad – 500 033 or even by way of a call on 4067 2222. Editor: Dean Williams

The truemeasure of a

man is how hetreats someonewho can do himabsolutely nogood.

Samuel JohnsonEnglish writer

BUT SERIOUSLYAjay Hotchandani

MY LACKLUSTERARTICLE

Park faces theN Korea testPARK [email protected]

South Korean president-electPark Geun-Hye will strug-

gle to fulfil an election vowof engagement with North

Korea given the global fury overPyongyang's recent rocket

launch, analysts said Thursday.Park, the daughter of former

military ruler Park Chung-Hee,won a slim but historic election

victory Wednesday over her lib-eral rival Moon Jae-In to becomethe country's first woman presi-

dent.Domestically, her main challengewill be addressing the issues thatdominated the campaign: reviv-ing a slowing economy, creatingmore jobs and funding a grow-

ing welfare burden.But the international focus willbe on her stance towards North

Korea at a time when the UNSecurity Council is struggling to

find a consensus on punishingPyongyang over its rocket

launch last week.The launch, labelled a peacefulsatellite mission by the North,

was condemned by most of theinternational community as a

disguised missile test that violat-ed UN resolutions triggered by

the North's nuclear tests in 2006and 2009.

During her campaign, Park had distanced herself from out-

going President Lee Myung-Bak's hardline policy

towards Pyongyang and spokenof the need for greater engagement with the

North.But in her first post-victory poli-cy statement on Thursday, Park

made it clear she still viewedPyongyang as a serious threat

and would put the South'snational security before anytrust-building programme.

AFP

Monday morning, ohhow I despise thee! Ina recent surveyMonday Morning wasnominated as theworse time of theweek. Second placegoes to Thursdayafternoon.

DID YOU KNOW...

Scrubs'medical advisers (in the credits)

include Dr. Jonathan Doris, Dr. JonTurk and Dr. 'Dolly Klock' (v), obvi-ously serving as the basis for the

names of Zach Braff, Donald Faisonand Heather Graham's characters.

Charlie’s AngelsCharlie's Angels is an Americancrime drama television seriesabout three women who work fora private investigation agency, andis one of the first shows to show-case women in roles traditionallyreserved for men. This ABC crimeseries began in September 1976introducing three stunning, sexyand young former policewoman,private detectives. The trio ofAngels featured Sabrina Duncan;the "cool, smart, multilingual lead-er," Jill Munroe; the "athletic angel"and finally Kelly Garrett; the "streetwise angel."

Chris Colfer haslent his support for

Bette Midler toguest star on Glee.

Co-creator RyanMurphy invited

Midler to appearon the series earli-er this year, but the

actress revealedthis week that she

didn't get a follow-up call about the

role. Colfer hasnow assured

Access Hollywoodthat Midler's guestappearance is stillin the works and

even hinted aboutwhat role she

might play.

The WalkingDead televisionshow will beconverted intoblack and whitefor its reruns.Beginning inFebruary, thefirst two seasonsof the hit AMCshow will airwithout colour.It is yet to berevealed whether the firsttwo WalkingDead seasonswill be madeavailable in blackand white onDVD and Blu-ray.

CLASSIC TELEVISION

TRENDING...

SERIES REVIEW

tELEVISIONTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012

'GAME OF THRONES' GETS ITS OWN OFFICIAL BEERGame of Thrones will be launching its own brand of beer, it has been reported. According to the New York Times, the HBO fantasy drama is collaborating withCooperstown, New York company Brewery Ommegang on specially-themed ales. 15

Dysfunctional is coolHEMANTH [email protected]

There have been severalTV shows centred aroundthe concept of dysfunc-tional families, but

Shameless takes this to a wholenew level. Created by PaulAbbott, Shameless, is a US remakeof a British TV series of the samename and it narrates the story ofFrank Gallagher, a perennialdrunkard, and his six childrenwho live in a poor neighbour-hood in Chicago. The cast com-prises William H. Macy, EmmyRossum, Jeremy Allen White,Justin Chatwin, Ethan Cutkosky,Shanola Hampton, Steve Howey,Emma Kenney, CameronMonaghan and the show hasbeen developed by John Wells.

Frank Gallagher (William H.Macy) is an alcoholic, whospends most of his time getting

wasted at bars, and he leaves hisentire family to fend for them-selves. His eldest daughter FionaGallagher (Emmy Rossum) runsthe house and never complainsabout the responsibility on hershoulders. As she continues tojuggle between her jobs to makeends meet, her brothers Phillip"Lip" Gallagher (Jeremy AllenWhite) and Ian Gallagher(Cameron Monaghan) lend hersupport by working as a tutorand at a departmental storerespectively. Fiona's three othersiblings Debbie, Carl and Liamhave absolutely no clue what'shappening around them,although Debbie is extremelygood at heart and keeps collectingmoney for charity. Fiona's neigh-bours Kevin and Veronica are apillar of support for her and shetreats them like family. One night,Fiona meets Steve (JustinChatwin), who's head over heels

for her and after spending a nighttogether, Steve goes all out toimpress her. Eventually, Fionafalls for him after he reveals thetruth about how he earns money.Elsewhere, Phillip finds out thathis brother Ian is a homosexual;however, he doesn't tell his sisterabout it.

William H. Macy is perfect asan alcoholic, who has no sense ofmorality and drinks all day, butthe show belongs to EmmyRossum. Her rock solid perfor-mance as Fiona gives rise to some

of the best and most electrifyingmoments in the initial episodes ofthe TV series. Emmy Rossum andJustin Chatwin share a greatonscreen chemistry and it getsbetter that both of them believe infree spirit and not letting the factthat their economic condition is indoldrums get into their heads.The subplots involving Phillipand Ian, the roles which areplayed by Jeremy and Cameron,complete the circle for this dys-functional family. So is there anysense of morality among thesecharacters? Absolutely not andthat's what makes it so exciting.Shameless, as the name suggests,is about people who live theirlives on the edge and have noqualms about it. Two big thumbsup for Shameless. It really is one ofthe best shows on TV and it's amust watch, if you are looking forsome edgy content on the tube.

(Shameless is available online)

Shameless, the US remake of a British TV series of the same name, isabsolutely electrifying and is one of the best shows on TV today.

The show belongs toEmmy Rossum whoserock solid perfor-mance as Fiona givesrise to some of thebest moments.


18TUNE INDelhi-based band Barefaced Liars will be performing live at Hard RockCafe tonight. This band traverses through genres ranging from Blues toClassic Rock and Heavy Metal.spotlight

DIVA IN THE CITYBollywood star Aishwarya Rai Bachchan inaugu-rated Longines’ new boutique at Jubilee Hills onWednesday.

SCINTILLATINGMOVESA two-day Kathakfestival, Antarang,dedicated to KathakMaestro Pt. Durga Lalis being organised atNIFT. Rani Khanam, adisciple of Pt BirjuMaharaj performedduring the event.

BOYS’FAVOURITETOYSMINI launched itsfirst KUNExclusive MINIshowroom in theCity onWednesday. Ablue MINIConvertible wason display at thedo. FUN & REVELRY

Dance group from Eastern Europe, Duo-Effekt, performed at Funival, international carnival organised atHITEX Grounds. The carnival is on till December 23.

FESTIVE CHEERDressed in red, members of Kakatiya Ladies Club

got together for a pre-Christmas party. Spottedwere Manjula Narsa, Esha and others.

Manjula Narsa

Harsha

Shalini

Sonal Desai

Namita

Reena

Thrishna

Preeti

Riya, Preethi, Sushila,Anu, Mehak

Hema, Shashi,Shobha, Shermila

Esha

Varthika, Reema

Rummy Azad

1

2

3

6

7

4

5

8

9

10

11

12

13

1

2

3

4

5 6 7 8

9

10

11 12 13

SRIN

IVAS

SET

TY

S BA

LAKR

ISHN

A

S BALAKRISHNA

S BALAKRISHNA

PAINTING THE TOWN RED

CHOLESTEROL PATTERNS REFLECTED IN GUT BUGSJens Walter and researchers at the University of Nebraska show thatchanges in cholesterol metabolism induced by diet can also alter gutflora. What that means, practically speaking, is that microbial inhabitantsof the gut are actually part of the body's metabolic system.health


19

Chew on thisAddictions can be strange, we never denied it. But an addiction to chew on ice?

Now that is extreme. We speak to doctors about why this happens.

ADDICTIONS

StravaYou can track your rides,see distance, speed, ele-vation gained and calo-ries burned, view maps,collect heart rate, powerand cadence data from

sensors. You can also see all of yourrecent rides and get accumulated statsand set personal records and earnachievements for outstanding performances.

Lichen sclerosusLichen sclerosus mostly affects the skinaround the genital and anal areas. Somepeople have the condition but have nosymptoms at all. Many, however, experi-ence inflammation and often agonising,intractable itching for long periods oftime. The rash usually begins as whiteirregular spots that join together to formplaques. While the genital area is partic-ularly affected, the disease may befound anywhere on the body.

A foetus’s fingerprints A small way through itsdevelopment, a foetus willhave already developedone of the most uniquehuman traits. At only 6-13weeks of development,the whorls of what will be

fingerprints have already developed.Those will not change throughout theperson’s life and will be one of the lastthings to disappear after death.

Patricia BathPatricia Era Bath is an ophthalmologistand the first woman to serve on the staffof the Jules Stein Eye Institute and beelected to the honorary staff of theUCLA Medical Center. Before Bath, noblack person had served as a resident inophthalmology at New York. HerLaserphaco Probe is used to treatcataracts. The holder of four patents, sheis also the founder of the AmericanInstitute for the Prevention of Blindness.

NEWS BRIEFSAPP-LY YOURSELF HOUSECALL DID YOU KNOW? PIONEERS

Aditya and his friendswere watching theirfavourite moviewhen he realised that

he was being shot dirty looksby those sitting around him.Wondering why, he continuedwatching the movie until oneof his friends nudged himsharply and asked him to stopchewing so loudly on icecubes. Aditya, was one ofthose few people who areaddicted to chewing on ice andthis habit was proving to be ahuge problem both health-wise and in social set-ups.

Sounds like a strangeaddiction? Nobody ever saidthat an addictions could onlyrevolve around drugs and alco-hol. Certain deficiencies inthe human body cancause a person

to get addicted to unusualfoods. As weird as it maysound for some people icechewing is an addiction, ahabit they absolutely cannotdo without. Like most addic-tions go, they feel a compul-sive need to chew on ice at alltimes and needless to say thisneed can take over their lives.However, like most addictionsgo, this one has it’s pitfalls too.

Commonly known aspagophagia, this is a form ofthe disorder pica and itinvolves compulsive consump-tion of ice or iced drinks.According to researchpagophagia has been linked toanaemia. However, theAmerican DentalAssociation rec-ommends not tochew on ice as itcan inflict

harm to the teeth and strip itoff its enamel layer.

“Pica is a disorder wherechildren eat unusual thingslike ice, nails and even chewon their skin. In extreme casesthey can even rip off their toenails. Pica is often seen in chil-dren with calcium, vitamins oriron deficiencies. But anothermajor contributing factor tothis disorder is an emotionalproblem,” says S Jayanti, con-sultant psychologist at Roshnicounselling centre.

She goes on to add thatPica is a manifestation of mis-trust or the lack of emotional

bonding between

children and their care-givers.“Sometimes when the child isvery young and is not provid-ed with enough care and lovethey begin to develop suchproblems. It continues in totheir adulthood and theybecome very anxious. Theyalways seek others’ approvaland rarely does this problembegin all of a sudden,” sheexplains.

Cognitive behaviour thera-py and relaxation techniquesare the way to go, she says.“They need to be trained tochange their negative thinkingand deal with their insecuri-ties. Apart from that support

from the family is alsovery important. In

some cases medica-tion may also be

prescribed,” shesays.

RANJANI [email protected]

Icy Factsn Damage to Teeth:

Crunching ice damagesteeth. The hard, rigidcubes wear away theenamel on your teeth,causing them to weaken,chip and crack. The risk oftooth damage increaseswith the amount of iceyou chew, so it is best notto crunch ice at all.

n Malnutrition: In severecases of pagophagiawhen people eat ice allday, they suffer from mal-nutrition. It is unclearwhether the ice itself hin-ders nutrient absorptionor if the craving overpow-ers the desire for nutri-ent-rich foods. Moderateand infrequent ice chew-ing poses little threat tooverall health and nutrition.

n Social Impact: Chewingice causes problemssocially as well. Crunchingice during a movie or reli-gious ceremony disturbsthose seated nearby, andcrunching ice during aconversation can limityour ability to hearanother person speaking,making it difficult to carryon a conversation. Inextreme cases, peoplemay limit contact withyou because of an uncon-trolled desire to munchon ice.

Source: www.ehow.com

health THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012 20

LONDON: Regular intake of the“wonder drug” aspirin for 10years could more than doublethe risk of sight loss, a newstudy has claimed.

Scientists say taking aspirincould increase the chance ofdeveloping wet age-related mac-ular degeneration (AMD) - aneye condition that can lead toblindness. Researchers from theUniversity of Wisconsin useddata from the Beaver Dam EyeStudy on age-related eye dis-eases. Eye exams were per-formed every five years over a20-year period on nearly 5,000participants, the Daily Mailreported.

Volunteers, aged 43 to 86,were then asked if they had reg-ularly used aspirin at least twicea week for more than threemonths. The average duration offollow-up was 14.8 years.

Researchers measured theincidences of different types ofAMD. Wet AMD makes up just10 per cent of cases but causessevere vision loss, while dryAMD is more common andmilder -although it can developinto wet AMD at any time.

Results showed there were512 cases of dry AMD and 117

cases of wet AMD over the courseof the study, the report said.

Researchers found those whotook aspirin for 10 years had a1.4 per cent risk of developingwet AMD compared to just 0.6per cent of non-users. However,there was no association foundbetween taking aspirin anddeveloping dry AMD.

“The results of cross-section-al studies of aspirin use and itsrelation to age-related maculardegeneration (AMD) have beeninconsistent,” Dr Barbara Kleinsaid.

“AMD is a potentially blind-ing condition for which preva-lence and incidence are increas-ing with the increased survivalof the population, and regularuse of aspirin is common andbecoming more widespread inpersons in the age range at high-est risk for this disease.

Researchers said furtherstudies would be needed to con-firm the findings. If true it couldhelp develop ways to preventwet AMD. PTI

Aspirincould lead toblindness

STUDYRESEARCH

WEIGHT WATCH

Black and white can lead you to make extreme judgements, according to a newstudy. Those presented with dilemmas in monochrome put forward polarised views.LONDON: Colours can actuallyaffect your judgement and expo-sure to black and white leadspeople to hold more extremeviews, a new study has claimed.

Participants in the studywere offered moral dilemmasprinted against either a blackand white or neutral back-ground.

Those presented inmonochrome put forward morepolarised views, according tothe research by Dr TheodoraZarkadi, of Anglia RuskinUniversity, and Dr SimoneSchnall, of the University ofCambridge, the Daily Mailreported.

“The two experimentsshowed that priming partici-

pants with a black and whitebackground resulted in themmaking judgements in a ‘blackand white’ and thereforeextreme manner, by givingresponses closer to the scale’send points,” Zarkadi said.

“The results indicate that theblack and white metaphor wasnot driven solely by contrastbecause there was no compara-ble effect for the blue and yellowpattern in the first experiment,”she said.

“Instead, there appears to bea specific connotation of blackand white that relates to judge-ment extremity,” Zarkadiadded.

She added that the fact thatcolour can affect people’s per-

ceptions of right or wrong couldhave important practical impli-cations, for example in contextswhich involve judgements ofothers’ guilt or innocence.

“Subtle perceptual stimuli ina courtroom, even in fairlyinnocuous objects such as thecolour of floor tiles, might sub-consciously influence peopleinvolved in legal proceedings,leading to biased judgementsand decisions when objectivity isof utmost importance,” she said.

In one experiment partici-pants were asked to rate a moraldilemma involving a man calledHeinz, whose wife is dying ofcancer.

Since the pharmacist whosells the life-saving cancer drug

charges more than Heinz canafford, he decides to steal thedrug.

For participants in the exper-imental condition, the Heinzdilemma was presented on ablack and white chequeredbackground, whereas for partic-ipants in the control condition itwas presented on a uniformgrey background.

The study found that partici-pants in the black and white setgave more extreme judgementsthat were significantly furtherfrom the scale’s midpoint, com-pared with participants in thegrey or the blue and yellow sets.

The research was publishedin the Journal of ExperimentalSocial Psychology. PTI

Curb car use to cut down X-mas calories WASHINGTON: Curbing cartravel could be one way of cut-ting down calories and main-taining a healthy weight dur-ing holiday fests, says a study.

The study, led by SheldonH. Jacobson, computer scienceand mathematics professor atthe University of Ilinois, sug-gests that both daily automo-bile travel and calories con-sumed are related to bodyweight. Lowering either one,even by a fraction, reducesbody mass index (BMI).

“We’re saying that makingsmall changes in travel or dietchoices may lead to compara-ble obesity reduction, whichimplies that travel-based inter-ventions may be as effective asdietary interventions,” saidgraduate student and studyco-author Banafsheh Behzad,the journal Preventive Medicinereports.

Obesity is a multi-dimen-sional problem with manysocial and medical factors, butmaintaining body weight

essentially is a result of energyconsumed and energy expend-ed, according to an Illinoisstatement.

“An easy way to be morephysically active is to spendless time in an automobile. Anytime a person sits behind thewheel of a car, it’s one of themost docile activities they cando in a day,” Jacobson said.

“The automobile is thequickest mode of transporta-tion we have. But a conse-quence of this need for speed

in getting things done may bethe obesity epidemic,” addedJacobson.

Researchers found that if alladults in the US drove a mileless per day, the national aver-age BMI would decrease in sixyears.

“One mile is really notmuch,” Behzad said. “If theywould just consider even tak-ing the bus, walking the dis-tance to the bus stop couldhave an impact like eating 100calories less per day.” IANS

BLACK AND WHITE VIEWS

EntertainmentTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012

21

Genius set to releaseon December 28

The theatrical release ofpopular anchor turned

director Omkar's debut filmGenius has been pushed toDecember 28. Havish andSanoosha have played thelead roles in this actiondrama. Dasari Kiran Kumar,the film's producer, hasreportedly pumped in `12crore for this film. JoshuaSridhar has composed themusic.

Sarocharu gets Ucertificate

Ravi Teja, Kajal and Richa starrerSarocharu has been censored

and it has been given a clean Ucertificate. Directed by Parasuram,this romantic entertainer hasbeen produced by Priyanka Dutton Three Angels Studio Pvt Ltd.Devi Sri Prasad has composed themusic. Sarocharu will hit thescreens on December 21.

Lawrence-Taapsee’s filmlaunched

Raghava Lawrence's upcomingfilm, which is the third install-

ment in Muni series, waslaunched yesterday morning inHyderabad. Lawrence andTaapsee are playing the leadroles. Bellamkonda Suresh isgoing to produce it. The film'sofficial title will be announcedsoon and the principal shootingof the film will begin in January.

CINE BYTESKITCHEN ATTRACTION

has apassion for

cooking

PRAKASH RAJ

Prakash Raj, apartfrom being an

actor, producer,director and a

TV host, is alsoan expert cook. On manyoccasions, he has spoken

about his penchant forcooking and we hear that

every time he goes to arestaurant, the first thing hedoes is visiting the kitchen.

Interestingly, one of hisupcoming films, is a food

film titled UlavacharuBiryani. The film is a

remake of a hit Malayalamfilm titled Salt N' Pepper.

Prakash Raj and Sneha aregoing to play the lead roles

in this film and two otheractors are yet to be finalised.Prakash Raj is also going to

direct the film and it'll goon floors shortly.

Meanwhile, Gauravam, afilm which he has produced,

is gearing up for release inJanuary, 2013.

fashionTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012

LOUIS VUITTON CEO FORCED TO EXITJORDI CONSTANS has been forced to step down from his position as Louis

Vuitton CEO after just one month, due to medical reasons. He will be replaced byformer Bulgari CEO and long-standing LVMH employee Michael Burke.

Fashion show at Prishtina organised this week witnessed the

designers in the country makingtheir presence felt in the world

fashion arena.

TrendsTheTheTheTheTheTheTheTheTheTheTheThe

22&23MARGIELA AND MABILLE AWARDED COUTURE STATUSMAISON MARTIN MARGIELA and Alexis Mabille have both been awardedhaute couture appellation by The Commission de Classement CoutureCréation in Paris — marking their official welcome into the couture world.

While fashion capitals are pre-senting Spring/Summer 2012collections, stylists in Kosovodisplayed their designs atPrishtina Fashion Show that

was organised at Prishtina, thecapital of Kosovo on December16.The colour of the eveningwas white and beige with mod-els sashaying down the ramp inthese colours. According to theorganisers, Prishtina FashionShow is growing by the yearsince there is an increase in thenumber of audience. Designersexpressed their style with a“guilty” inspiration, derivingfrom the notion of colours andstyles of our “Grandparents

times”. Bold styles and designsthat takes you back to the pastwere the main feature of theshow.

sAs for designers’ creations,they each presented a style oftheir own and had somethingspecial in itself, which made theshow unique. Meanwhile, mod-els were seen carrying off thedresses with attitude whilewalking down the ramp. Thebridal designs stole the lime-light at the show.

setters

ARMEND NIMANI-AFP

Entertainment THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012 24

Chai TimeTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012

26

ACROSS1 Get-off-drugs facility6 Computer program-

ming language11 DC clock setting14 Looking shocked15 Analyse

grammatically16 Wonder17 State bordering on

Canada19 ‘Get the point?’20 Reed in music21 Sheep in its second

year22 Perfect score,

sometimes23 Buffalo’s home27 Too proud29 From day ___ (since

the start)30 Bass ___ (stringed

instrument)32 ___ the Hyena (‘Li’l

Abner’ character)33 Curved letter34 Concluded36 Hindquarters39 Some party snacks41 MacLeod of ‘The

Love Boat’43 Surprisingly agile44 Color scheme,

curtains, etc46 Pueblo Indian

structures48 252 gallons49 Shaded51 Egg locale

52 Lennon’s wife53 Grass-covered plains

of Siberia56 Like outcasts58 ‘___ gratia artis’

(MGM motto)59 ___-Locka, Fla60 ET’s transportation61 Comedian’s routine62 It surrounds Lesotho68 Director Ang or

Spike69 Bud Grace comic

strip70 Peach State university71 Write down the

wrong answer, eg72 Place for a witness73 ‘Divine Comedy’

writer

DOWN1 Got ruined in the

wash2 Feature of many a

prima donna3 Belly-laugh sound4 In an appropriate way5 Serve well6 Audit rep7 Source of acorns8 Chicken soup, for the

most part9 Pertaining to bone10 ‘Little’ or ‘major’

follower11 City in W

Massachusetts, ironically

12 Like many kids’ cereals

13 Itsy-bitsy18 In the course of23 ‘... with ___ in sight’24 Occur as a result25 City in SE

Pennsylvania, ironically

26 Big name in cameras28 African beasts with

curved horns31 ‘Rosemary’s Baby’

author Ira35 Plunges into water37 Danish fruit?38 Meeting of the rite

people?40 ‘Du jour’ item42 City on the

Merrimack River45 Peaceful states47 Unable to eat another

bite50 Banish an immigrant53 Expensive fur54 Judge, at times55 Perspiration-

inducing bathhouse57 Oscar winner ‘___

Rae’63 ___ Pan Alley (song-

writers’ district)64 ‘___ give you the

shirt off his back!’65 Particle accelerator

particle66 PC monitor of old67 Yes vote

KAKURO QUICK CROSSWORD

PREVIOUS PUZZLE ANSWER

How to playkakuroKakuro is a populargame similar to sudokuin some ways. But is alsosuitably different. Thekey question: ‘How doyou play kakuro?’, wellhere are the rules ofkakuro. The answer: Thekakuro grid, unlike insudoku, can be of anysize. It has rows andcolumns, and dark cellslike in a crossword. And,just like in a crossword,some of the dark cellswill contain numbers.Some cells will containtwo numbers.

However, in a cross-word the numbers refer-ence clues. In a kakuro,the numbers are all youget! They denote thetotal of the digits in therow or column refer-

enced by the number.Within each collection

of cells — called a run— any of the numbers 1to 9 may be used but,like sudoku, each num-ber may only be usedonce.Let’s have anexample to explain thisconcept more clearly:

In the imageabove, which shows asection of a kakuro puz-zle, you will see thenumbers ‘26’ and ‘14’ inthe top row. Look at the14. This means that thetotal of the three cellsunderneath must sum to14. Therefore 9, 4, 1could be the answer, orperhaps 7, 4, 3 and so

on... So, how do you work

out the actual combina-tion? Well, this is donethrough elimination andcross-referencing. Forinstance, as you workout the answers forother kakuro clues, thiswill naturally limit thevalid combinations, andhence the answer forthis particular run.

Note the second cellin row two — it containstwo numbers, 30 and11. The 30 refers to thevertical run underneaththe number 30 and the11 refers to the two cellsto the right, horizontally,of the number 11.

Play & Winvoucher from VENKEY’S VEG Restaurant, Nampally


SUDOKU


Please send in your filled-in entries toPostnoon, #1246, Level 3, Jubilee Casa, Road No 62,

Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad – 500033. The winners will beannounced on this page in Sunday’s edition.

SCRIBBLING PAD

Play & Win

TAROT READ

Chai Time THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012 27

STAR POWER

STRIP TEASE

Vol: 2, No 154 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 – 500033and printed by him at Jagati Publications Ltd, Plot No D-75&E-52, APIE Industrial Estate, Balanagar, Ranga Reddy Dist, Hyderabad – 500037, Editor: Dean Williams – Responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act All rights reserved.

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

Thiruvaikumar

Sumaa Tekur

thiruvaikumar@yahoo. co. in, 040-27177230 / 9177596118

tarotreadhyd@gmail. com

for 21-12-2012 As per Hindu panchang

for 21-12-2012

ARIESApplied bank loan will getsanctioned. Never be negligentin govt-related work. Maintaincool as even if you feel angry.You will get a solution to clearyour debts. Court verdicts will go in your favour. Speculativedeals will yield moderate gains.

ARIES: Two of Swords – Ex -tremes are indicated. You either abso-lutely love someone or hate him/ her.There is no middle path in your unde -r standing of how things ought to be.

GEMINI: Love is in the air.You plan a string of parties in thishappy holiday season and in one ofthose gatherings you meet the loveof your life.

LEO: Page of Swords – Thefocus is on intellectual conversations.You meet someone who will chal-lenge your intellect and help youdiscover new thoughts and ideas.

LIBRA: Seven of Pentacles –You’re exhausted by the routine andneed a break but find that you’re un -able to slow down because of all thecommitments. Use sense of humour.

TAURUS: Three of Wands– Success is imminent. All your plansare working out fine and yourpatience in the last few weeks is pay-ing off. Don’t be in a hurry.

CANCER: Judgement – Adifficult situation comes to a head an -d it starts to get resolved. It may ormay not go exactly as you had plan -ned. But a resolution comes through.

VIRGO: The Emperor –You’re in control of all aspects ofyour life and you’re admired by yourpeers for these very qualities. Yourleadership skills are put to the test.

SCORPIO: The Wheel ofFortune – Only thing permanent ischange. If things have been bad, the -y won’t for long. The days will lookup and it all changes for the better.

CAPRICORN: Four of Sw -o rds – You’re feeling stable and secu -re in your current job profile. You’vereached a comfort zone and reallydon’t want to move away from it.

SAGITTARIUS: Eight ofPentacles – Try to upgrade your skillsor learn something new to improveyour job prospects. Even volunteerwork will do you a world of good.

AQUARIUS: The Lovers –Decision time. You need to decidewh at you want to do with your lifethe ne xt few years. Take a pen andpencil and plan your options.

PISCES: Five of Cups – Yo -u’re feeling low and out of sorts bec -a use of some disappointment. Som -e one you trusted deeply has let youdown. Move on, don’t get negative.

TAURUSEmployees will be overburden -ed. Daughter is likely to get ajob of her choice. You will suc-cessfully perform marriage ofyour sister. Politicians advisedto avoid unwanted discussions.Administrative abilities go up.Court verdict will go in favour.

GEMINIYou might face some obstruc-tion in the construction of yourhouse. Real-estate deals will gothrough profitably. Children'shigher studies and marriagematters will go in the rightdirection. Politicians' sugges-tions will be well received.

CANCEREmployees will be entrustedwith new responsibilities. Sud -den expenses likely to upsetyou. Avoid anger and unwant-ed arguments. Some old issuesmight resurface and scare you.Businessmen will sign newcontract agreements.

LEOWomen will take certain impor-tant decision regarding theirfuture. Businessmen will addnew customers and sell all theirproducts at attractive offers.Artists will get good opportuni-ties and with guidance fromsenior artists, achieve success.

VIRGOYou might not be able to sellthe old property for the expect-ed price. You manage all prob-lems well. Help will come fromthe expected sources. Some ha -ve a bright chance to get agood career opening. You willbenefit through friends abroad.

LIBRAIncome from shares and com-missions likely. Your long-timedream of purchasing a housewill be realised. Son will join auniversity of his choice for hig -h er studies. Court matters endin your favour. Busi n e s s menhave partners’ co-operation.

SCORPIOFinancial position will improve.Businessmen will identify culpr i -ts who leaked their business se -crets and chuck them out. Em -ployees to maintain cool, unmi -n d ful of criticism against them;superiors will support. Govt offi-cials will get powerful post.

SAGITTARIUSVIP friends will help and extendtheir wholehearted support. Apeaceful atmosphere will pre-vail in the family. Friends andrelatives who severed relation-ship with you will come back ontheir own. Marriage talks willend favourably.

CAPRICORNComforts will improve. Thosewho graduated recently will befavoured with a job soon. So -m e are certain to change theirresidence. Be careful whiledriving as a minor accident islikely. Plan all work to comple -te them without hurdles.

AQUARIUSBe careful in financial transac-tions. Written-off dues will co -me to your surprise. Your stockis set to pile up. Politicians willlead meetings and agitations.Employees will get tensed dueto work load. Differences withsuperiors likely.

PISCESBusinessmen will have a boomtime and profits will soar. Spo -use's health may be a cause forconcern; take care and treatwithout delay. Employees willbe active and do all work intime and earn a name. Wo -men's wishes will be fulfilled.

AGNES

NON SEQUITUR

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE

POOCH CAFE

BoggleSWAN DUCK GOOSE STORK

SUDU

KO

NUM

BER

GAM

ESC

RABB

LE

PREVIOUS SOLUTIONS


Actress Naomi Watts, whohas got her first GoldenGlobe nomination forThe Impossible, not only

enjoyed sightseeing and shoppingduring her India visit, but was alsoimpressed by the “strength anddetermination” of HIV motherswhom she met in the capital.

She visited the country with herhusband Liev Schreiber last year.

“In Rajasthan, I visited JalMahal. It was so beautiful. I wasawestruck. The beauty of the ter-race garden, Chameli Bagh, wasenthralling. I also shopped forJaipuri quilts from Chaura Rasta inJaipur. My mother and both mychildren, Kai and Sasha, had a greattime," Watts said in a statement.

Schreiber was shooting in thecapital for Mira Nair’s The

Reluctant Fundamentalist and the44-year-old actress also visited ahospital, where she met a few HIVmothers.

“The hospital staff welcomedme warmly," she said.

Talking about her interactionwith the mothers there, Watts said:“My heart went out to them. I couldsee their struggles and challengesthat they faced. But what movedme was their strength and determi-nation to raise a healthy child. Ihave great respect for them."

In The Impossible, the actresswill be seen as a mother who is sep-arated from her family duringtsunami. It is based on real lifetsunami survivor Maria Belon.

PVR Pictures will release TheImpossible in India on January 4.

IANS

No more ‘bad influences’ for LiLo

Actress Lindsay Lohan has stoppedtaking calls of some of her friends

in a bid to remove bad influences fromher life and get herself back on track.The 26-year-old actress, has realisedthat not all of her friends want what isbest for her, and so she is cutting themout of her life. “She hasn’t been textingand calling back some of the peoplewho she just parties with," contactmu-sic.com quoted a source as saying. IANS

Plot details from Transformers4 emerged on the internet

recently, but director MichaelBay says it is all fake. Bay has

dismissed reports that an earlycopy of the script for his new

Transformers movie has leakedonline. He says only he and

screenwriter Ehren Kruger are inpossession of the storyline,

reports dailystar.co.uk.

Leaked Transformers 4 script fake Rihanna’s burned out schedule

CINE BYTES

‘THE LESS CLOTHES THE BETTER’

Pop star Rihanna fears thather busy work schedule

and chaotic love life is leadingher to a burnout. The 24-year-

old posted cryptic tweetsrecently after a rumoured rift

with boyfriend Chris Brown,Daily Star reported. “If we do

the same thing over and over,we get burned out. Outta

place all the time, in a worldthat wasn’t mine.... is this my

life?" she tweeted. PTI

INDIA VISITA MEMORABLE

EXPERIENCE FORNAOMI WATTS

Entertainment THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012 29APOLOGISING FOR A REASON

Vegan shoes for AnneHathaway

When Anne Hathawaytook to the red carpet

in a fab pair of faux leatherTom Ford knee-high gladi-ator sandals for the NewYork premiere of Les Misé -rables last week, it was thefirst time many of us hadever heard of vegan foot w -e ar. But as it turns out, thehard-core vegan has beenrocking custom-made cru-elty-free kicks for quitesome time.

Angelina Jolie to directbiopic Unbroken

Angelina Jolie is poised todirect a new biopic film called

Unbroken, based on the life ofWWII veteran Louis Zamperini.Jolie made her directorial debutwith the 2011 drama In the Landof Blood and Honey, and is nowin final talks to direct Unbrokenbased on a treatment she wrotefor bosses at Universal, accordingto Deadline.

Oz The Great AndPowerful: new posterrevealed

Walt Disney Studios hasreleased a new poster for Oz

The Great and Powerful. Whileshe’s still green, the wicked witchin this installment, which starsJames Franco, Mila Kunis, RachelWeisz, Michelle Williams and ZachBraff, is positively voluptuous. Thenew film, directed by Sam Raimi,is an imagined tale of the originsof the classic L. Frank Baum char-acter — the Wizard of Oz.

CINE BYTES

Ke$ha RESPONDS TO ‘DIE

YOUNG’ CONTROVERSY

Following the shooting atSandy Hook Elementarylast week, Ke$ha’s sin-gle Die Young was taken

out of rotation in radio stationsacross the country, according toMTV News. Now, Ke$ha hasresponded to the controversy,claiming that she neverapproved of the lyrics in thefirst place. “I understand. I hadmy very own issue with DieYoung for this reason. I didNOT want to sing those lyricsand I was FORCED TO,"Ke$ha wrote before adding,

“I’m so so so sorry for anyonewho has been affected by thistragedy, and I understand whymy song is now inappropriate.Words cannot express."Predictably, since the song haslost airtime, it has plummetedon music charts. Miley Cyrus,no stranger to controversy,offered encouraging advice tothe singer, replying to Ke$ha’stweet with a message of herown, writing, “Don’t be hardon yourself. Just a goodreminder to always listen toyour [heart].”

sports 30THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012

HYDERABAD: N. KrishnaTeja of Tadepalligudemwon the gold medal inchess under-15 catego-ry of the Asian SchoolGames Classical 20122012 at New Delhi. Inthis tournament hebeat Fide MasterBilgunn Sumia ofMangolia (2265),Isakjanov Kilsenberk ofKirgygistan, Tze HowDilwen Ding of

Malaysia and scored 7.5points out of 9 rounds

with out loosing a sin-gle round. Earlier hehadthat he also wonthe silver medal in theunder-15 category ofAsian School gamesrapid championship

2012 and also the AsianBlitz championship atschool games under-15

category.

Krishna Teja claims titleHYDERABAD TRACK WORK

HYDERABAD: Vijays Champ,Noble Honour, FearlessMoments, Precisely That andPacific Star caught the eye withimpressive runs when horseswere exercised at the Malakpetracecourse in the City thismorning.

Sand Track 800 Metres:Magic Million (Kuldeep Singh)Prince of Arabia (rb) 58, 600/43Former finished a length infront. Sheer Genius (rb) 1-1,600/45 Easy. Trustful (Anil) IceRain (Dileep) 57.5, 600/43Former finished a length infront. Golden Rule (KuldeepSingh) 1-2.5, 600/45 Easy.Ocean Side (Christopher)Atternborough (S Nayak) 56,600/43 They moved together.Best Pal (rb) 1-0, 600/45 Easy.Custodian (app) Promotion

(Anil) 57, 600/43 Formerfinished 2 lengths in front.Mount Titlis (Togrolu) 58.5,600/44 Moved freely. Exclusive(Kuldeep Singh) Perfect (app)57.5, 600/42 They finishedtogether. Bloody Mary (SNayak) Golden Palace(Christopher) 55.5, 600/41 They

moved well and finishedtogether. Betty Prior (K Alam)Jamie (Ali Khan) 59, 60/44Former finished in front. Stridesof Glory (N Rawal) 58, 600/44Un-extended. Vijayshaurya(Togrolu) 1-0, 600/46 Easy.Incredible India (Kiran Naidu)1-0, 600/44 Easy. Azaiba (Joshi)56, 600/42 Moved well. GroundCrew (app) Fair And Square(Anil) 58, 600/44 Former fin-ished in front. Jabel Queen(Joshi) 57, 600/42.5 Moved onthe bit. Ciel Blu (Kiran Naidu)Spirited (Chary) 1-2, 600/46They moved freely. Cherry Hill(S Nayak) 57, 600/42 Movedwell.

Sand Track 1000 Metres:Noble Honour (K Alam) JadenGil (rb) 1-10, 800/53, 600/40Former outpaced companion.Fearless Moments (Chary)Baazigar (Imran Khan) 1-9,800/55, 600/42 Former finished3 lengths in front. Precisely

That (Joshi) 1-10, 800/53,600/40 Impressed. So Super(Kiran Naidu) 1-12, 800/56.5,600/42 Moved well. MagicalSpell (Joshi) Silver Lid (app) 1-

12.5, 800/57, 600/42 Formerfinished a length in front.

Rainbow In The Sky (AliKhan) 1-12.5, 800/57, 600/43Moved well. Kohinoor Wish (NRawal) 1-15, 800/58.5,600/44.5 Moved on the bit.Winjoy (Joshi) 1-12, 800/58,600/43 Easy. Pacific Star (Joshi)1-10, 800/54.5, 600/42 Caughtthe eye.

Sand track 1200 Metres:Racing Queen (Joshi) 1-30,1000/1-13, 800/58, 600/45Moved on the bit. Blazing Asian(rb) Lots Of Love (Kiran Naidu)1-33, 1000/1-15, 800/58,600/43 They moved together.Salvadore (Ajit Kumar) 1-33,1000/1-18, 800/1-2, 600/47Easy. Staminoizd (app) LucyDiamond (Ramana) 1-31,1000/1-14.5, 800/58, 600/43Former finished in front. SuryaLakshmi (Ramana) 1600/400 in1-25 Eased.

Sand 1400 Metres:Vijays Champ (Joshi) 1-42,1200/1-25, 1000/1-10.5,800/57, 600/42.5 Slightlypushed.

Vijays Champ andNoble Honour excel

BROTHER JOHN OF GOD HCA U-14Johnson Grammer School 100(Syed Azmath 5/36) lost toJanapriya High School 102/1.

Bhegas 113 (Rajashekar 53,

Akhil 3/15, Zubair 3/29 lost toMahaboobnagar 116/3 (Sainath39)

Nijambad 138 (Sawan 39,Vamshi37, Adithya 3/26) btIndus World School 123 (NitishReddy 44, Prem Reddy 3/35).

LEAGUE CRICKET

Group A:Mane India bt Monarch Infotech(super over) - C Sreedhar 31(49)and 22/3, G Rama Rao 27(23)HCCL bt Value Labs by 33 runs -Omkar Avhad 41(31) and 8/2,Yaqub Maqsusi 4 overs 17/3Tata Advanced Systems btWorldview by 5 wickets -Sarvottam P 34(40), Omkar Bhise21/3.

Group B:Phoenix bt Deccan Rangers by 47 runs - Fiyazuddin Amer 43 (30), Ravi Kiran J 25/4.Pete Transformers bt Zonah by 11 runs - Mithun 47(37) and 29/1, Hasan Azam 50(41).Hyderabad House bt Avengers by34 runs - Imran Khan 23/4,Himanshu Kaushik 52(45).

ZINDA TILISMATH CUP

Krishna Teja

JUSTIN DAVIS Agence France-Presse

MILAN: Credited with one ofthe greatest comebacks in sport,the Tour de France icon that wasLance Armstrong finished 2012with a reputation as arguably itsgreatest fraud.

By the end of yet another tur-bulent year, Bradley Wigginsjoined Australian track starAnna Meares, Sir Chris Hoy andDutchwoman Marianne Vos inoffering some cheer to a sportleft in disarray by the sport'sbiggest PR disaster.

Wiggins, the down-to-earthLondoner with a keen eye formusic and the 'Mod' culture ofthe Sixties, followed his historicTour de France triumph by win-ning Olympic time trial gold athis home Olympics.

"I cannot put it into words. Iwouldn't do it justice," Wigginssaid after adding that Olympicgold to the three had had previ-

ously won on the track forBritain.

As a federal investigationinto Armstrong and his formerteam US Postal appeared to stall,other, more deserving champi-ons emerged with SlovakianPeter Sagan winning threestages at the Tour de France,where he beat British sprint kingMark Cavendish to the covetedgreen jersey.

Cavendish, who in Octoberwas succeeded as world champi-on by Belgium's PhilippeGilbert, failed in his bid forOlympic road race gold, won instylish fashion by controversialKazakhstan rider AlexandreVinokourov.

Britain, however, went on tomake amends by winning sevenof the 10 events at the Londonvelodrome.

Sir Chris Hoy won two fromthe team sprint and keirin whileVictoria Pendleton ended hercareer by losing her sprint title

to Meares.The Scot cried

tears of joy as he,too, waved good-bye to the Gameswith a sixth goldwhich allowed himto surpass formerrower Sir SteveRedgrave's five-gold haul tobecome Britain'smost successfulOlympic champion.

"This is the per-fect end to myOlympic career," saidHoy. While Wigginsstands next in line fora possible knighthood,Armstrong will godown as the cancer sur-vivor who cheated hisway to global stardomand success and wasbrought downwithout failinga dope test.

Lance picks up the piecesBranson tobe AirAsiastewardess

KUALA LUMPUR: Britishbillionaire Richard Bransonwill finally wear a red skirtand serve as a stewardess onMalaysian budget carrierAirAsia in May after losing aGrand Prix bet with thefounder of the airline.

Virgin boss Branson andAirAsia chief executive TonyFernandes had agreed in 2010that whichever of their teams(then Virgin and Lotus) fin-ished lower in the construc-tors' championship in theirdebut season, the losingowner would serve on theother's airline.

Branson lost as Lotus fin-ished 10th and Virgin 12th,but the trip was postponed inearly 2011 after he injuredhimself while skiing.

Fernandes said Bransonhad contacted him to honourhis bet. "He will be an Airasiastewardess in May onAirasia. 2 years late but mainpoint he hasn't forgotten,"Fernandes tweeted. AFP

2012 AT A GLANCE

HCCL beat Value Labs

Credited with one of the greatest comebacks in sport, Lancefinished 2012 with a reputation as arguably its greatest fraud.

sports 31STEPS FOR IMPROVEMENT

BOXING


LAS VEGAS: Legendary fight-ers Mike Tyson (in pic), Oscarde la Hoya, “Sugar” Ray Leona -rd, Larry Holmes and Julio Ces -ar Chavez were among the ina -ugural inductees named Wed -nesday to the Nevada BoxingHall of Fame. Voting was doneby the group’s board of direc-tors with enshrinement cere-monies to be staged in 2013.

Also inducted were fightersDiego Corrales and Mike McC a -llum, trainers Eddie Futch andFreddie Roach, promoters DonKing and Bob Arum, referees Joe

Cortez and Mills Lane,executiv es Marc Ratnerand James Nave,reporters Al Ber nsteinand Royce Feour andcontributors Ki rk Kirk -orian and Sig Rogi ch.

Former undisputedheavyweight championTyson went 50-6 with44 knockouts and wasthe youngest man to hold thecrown while Holmes, 69-6 with44 knockouts, owned theheavyweight title from 1978through 1985. Leonard, 36-3

with one drawn and25 knockouts, was a1976 MontrealOlympic champ anda 1980s star.

“Golden Boy” Dela Hoya, 39-6 with 30knockouts, won 10world titles in sixweight divisions andhas become a top

promoter while Chavez, 107-6with two drawn and 88 knock-outs, was a Mexican legend andalso a three-division worldchampion. AFP

Tyson, Leonard, De la Hoyaenter Nevada Hall of Fame

MUMBAI: India’s ‘SprintQueen’ PT Usha (in pic) onWednesday said there is a needto have more participation inathletics to promote competitionand improve the performance.

“The problem in our countryis that there is no competition. Inother countries they have manysprinters and they don’t have togo out to have competition (toimprove themselves)," Usha saidat the KOOH Sports event, wh -ere she is roped in as the brandambassador for an initiative.

“Jessi (Joseph) is coming upvery well and in two years shewill give competition to Tintu(Luka). It is not only good forthem but also the country."

Elaborating further, she said,“For example, Tintu is the lonerunner in 800 m. There is no com-

petition for her over here. Youtake Kenya, they have 200 run-ners. They are getting competi-tion. Like that we need to im -

prove. That will only help. Gra -ss root level competition isimportant." The Olympianadded that the facilities providedare better than what they wereearlier but not to the standard ofEuropean nations.

“Compared to 70s and 80s,the infrastructure has improved.We are also sending the athletesout to get exposure. But still thefacilities we have can’t be comp -a red to that in Europe," she said.

KOOH Sports that is engagedin the business of sports promo-tion and education in the countrytoday launched an initiative toscout talent at school level called‘SpeedStar'.

The talent hunt will identifythe fastest 100-meter runner inthree categories—under 12,under 14 and under 16.

The programme will berolled out in 11 cities, with closeto 20,000 children participatingand six of the national winners(boy and girl in each of the cate-gory) will travel to Australia fora week, where they will train atSports Credentials (Gold Coast,Queensland).

On the initiative, PT Ushasaid, “We are confident thatSpeedStar will mark the first stepof celebrating the importance ofathletics. We know the history ofIndian athletics and how it hasbeen limited to the select few. Toimprove our performance atinternational level, it is essentialto take mini steps. Sports is notjust about basking in the glory ofwell earned victories, but equallyabout teaching oneself about thesetbacks and then winning.”

‘More participation needed’The problem in our country is that there is no competition. In other countries they have

many sprinters and they don’t have to go out to have competition, said PT Usha.

KARACHI: PCB is still awaitingthe 3000 tickets promised to it bythe BCCI for the much-anticipat-ed T20 and ODI series in Indialater this month. A PCB sourcetold PTI that although a long listof requests had been received bythe three travel agencies desig-nated to handle the requestsfrom Pakistanis wishing to travelto India for the matches, nonehad been processed due to nonavailability of tickets.

“The process outlined by theIndian High Commission is clear,the special visas will only be pro-cessed and issued if the appli-cants apply with tickets for thevenues they want to travel to,"the source disclosed.

“The problem facing the PCBand the travel agencies is thatsince they haven’t got the ticketsas yet from the BCCI, they can’tprocess any of the requests."

Another source said the BCCIhad recommended names of so -me hotels where the Pakistani vi -sitors can stay during their visitto India but even they are not yetcomplete. PTI

PCB awaitsIndia seriestickets

ATLANTA, GEORGIA: KevinDurant scored 41 points andgrabbed 13 rebounds and theOklahoma City Thunderstretched its NBA win streak to 12games by defeating the AtlantaHawks 100-92 on Wednesday.

Durant hit 14-of-23 shots fromthe field and 9-of-10 from the freethrow line while LondonOlympic gold medal teammateRussell Westbrook added 27points and 11 assists for theThunder, who improved to anNBA-best 21-4 overall.

Serge Ibaka, whose Spanish

side lost to Durant and theAmericans in the final for the sec-ond Olympics in a row, contribut-ed 14 rebounds for OklahomaCity.

Jeff Teague led Atlanta with19 points and 12 rebounds whileJosh Smith added 17 points andnine assists and Zaza Pachuliahad 10 rebounds for the Hawks,who fell to 15-8.

Oklahoma City led 55-41 athalf-time but the host Hawkspulled within 73-66 entering thefourth quarter only to falter in thefinal minutes.

Kevin Durant #35 of the Oklahoma City Thunder drives against RussellWestbrook #0 of the Oklahoma City Thunder at Philips Arena onWednesday in Atlanta, Georgia. KEVIN C. COX/GETTY IMAGES/AFP

London to host 2017IPC worldsLONDON: London was rewar -ded for its successful organisa-tion of the Paralympic Games onWednesday when it was namedas the host city of the 2017 IPCAthletics World Championships.

The event, organised underthe banner of the IPC, will takepl ace at London’s Olympic Stadi -um, just a month before the Wo -rld Athletics Championships getsunder way at the same ven ue.The move means London willbecome the first city to host thetwo championships concurrently.“This year London just staged thebest spectacle of sport the worldhas seen," said London mayorBoris Johnson, who is also chair-man of the London LegacyDevelopment Corporation.

“By bringing the IPC AthleticsWorld Championships to our wo -nderful Queen Elizabeth OlympicPark just a month before the Wo -rld Athletics Championships, thecapital is poised to recreate themagic of 2012. London’s Paraly -mpic Games were the first ever tosell out, and theseChampionships provide a perfectchance to build on that enthusi-asm for disabled sport, bringingback the world’s greatestParalympians to the OlympicStadium.” AFP

Sri Lanka’sHathurusinghe namedcoach for NSWSYDNEY: Former Sri LankanTest player ChandikaHathurusinghe has been appoint-ed head coach of the NSW Bluesuntil the end of the season afterAnthony Stuart was sacked.At a NSW Cricket board meetingthis week, it was decided thatStuart’s contract would not berenewed and the 42-year-oldstepped down immediately.“NSW Blues assistant coach, andformer Sri Lankan Test player,Chandika Hathurusinghe hasbeen appointed acting headcoach until the conclusion of the2012-13 season," the team saidon its website Thursday.Stuart had been in the job for 18months. AFP

SPORTS BRIEFS

INDO-PAK SERIES

NBAThunder stretch win streak to 12

sportsTHURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2012

32BRAZIL TUMBLE DOWN FIFA RANKINGS Brazil slumped five places to an all-time low 18th in the latest FIFA WorldCup rankings as they struggle to regroup under new manager Felipe Scolari.Ranking: 1 Spain, 2 Germany, 3 Argentina, 4 Italy (+1 place), 5 Colom bia(+3) 6, England 7, Portugal (-3), 8 Netherlands, (-1) 9 Russia, 10 Croatia.

Barca coach sufferscancer relapse – reports BARCELONA: Barcelona coachTito Vilanova has suffered a relapseof cancer a year after surgeonsremo ved a tumour from his salivarygland, the club said Wednesday, in apotentially bitter blow for the Span -ish league leaders. Messages of sup-port poured in for the 44-year-old,whose team is flying nine pointshigh at the top of La Liga.

Wilshere and Brit packsign new Arsenal deals LONDON: Arsenal were given amajor fillip on Wednesday whenthey announced that English mid-fielder Jack Wilshere and four otherplayers have agreed new long-termcontracts with the club. Wilsherejoins fellow England internationalsAlex Oxlade-Chamberlain, KieranGibbs and Carl Jenkinson and Welshmidfielder Aaron Ramsey.

Bologna shock Napoli in Italian Cup ROME: Lazio and Fiorentinareached the Italian Cup quarter-finals on Wednesday — but Napolifell by the wayside after a 2-1 homeloss to Bologna in the round of 16,Greek star Panagiotis Kone nettingan injury-time winner. Lazio neededpenalties to beat Siena after a 1-1stalemate over 120 minutes whileFiorentina won 1-0 at Udinese.

Arsenal postpone West Ham game LONDON: Arsenal have post-poned their Premier League gamewith West Ham United on Decem -ber 26 due to planned industrialaction affecting London’s Undergro -und transport network, the clubannounced on Wednesday. Arsenalsaid the disruption meant that sup-porter safety at their EmiratesStadium could not be guaranteed.

BRIEFS

Ronaldounruffledabout awardLISBON: Portugal captainCristiano Ronaldo (above) saidin an interview published onWednesday that he would loveto win this year’s Ballon d’Or butit would not be the end of theworld if the prize went else-where.

“If I win, perfect. If I don’t,never mind, life goes on. Butobviously I’d love to win. I’m notgoing to lie or be hypocritical,”the 27-year-old Real Madrid for-ward was quoted as saying onthe Portuguese football federa-tion website.

“Fair or unfair, the decisionwill be what it will be... I’ll maybebe very happy or maybe verysad,” the 2008 winner added.

LEAGUE CUP BALLON D’OR

HILLSBOROUGH RUMBLING

TOM WILLIAMS Agence France-Presse

LONDON: Families of 96Liverpool fans crushed to deathat the Hillsborough football sta-dium in 1989 welcomed aBritish court decision Wednes -day to quash accidental deathverdicts from the disaster, but

say their fight is far from over.High Court judges annulled

the inquest verdicts delivered inthe immediate aftermath of the tragedy and called for fresh inquests to be held, whilepolice also launched a newinvestigation.

“If there is sufficient evi-dence to bring charges against

those who were in the wrong,then they have to be heldaccountable in law,” said BarryDevonshire, whose 18-year-oldson Christopher perished in thetragedy. “I am not on a witch-hunt and I don’t want peoplelocked up for the sake of it, butif there is evidence, they shouldbe before a court.”

Court quashes disaster verdicts A panel found that police tried to divert blame for the tragedy on to the victims.

JASON MELLOR Agence France-Presse

LEEDS, UK: Chelsea won theirmatch against old rivals Leedsand made it to the semi-finalsthanks to an emphatic 5-1 victoryat Elland Road on Wednes day.

Leeds, currently mid-table inthe Championship, sensed aquarter-final shock when theytook a 38th-minute lead thanksto a 15th goal of the season fromArgentinian striker LucianoBecchio, who slid the ball homefrom 12 yards as he met aJerome Thomas cross to round-off a length of the field move.

But defender Tom Leesmissed a great chance to doublethe advantage in first-half stop-page-time, heading over froman El Hadji-Diouf cross as theYorkshire club attempted toemulate their neighboursBradford City, who booked theirsemi-final place with a stunningupset over Arsenal.

Chelsea refused to go thesame way as their Premier Lea -gue rivals, moving through thegears to score five second-halfgoals to make it through to thelast four in January in some style.

“The team was quite good inthe first half and the reaction ofthe team in the second half wasfantastic after coming back fromJapan with jet lag and changingsome players,” interim managerBenitez said.

“The reaction was amazing.We were looking for characterand we talked about it at half-time.”

Leeds boss Neil Warnockadded: “If Tom Lees’ header hadgone in when the score was 1-0

it would have been a differentgame.

Branislav Ivanovic stole in atthe near post to head home acorner on 64 minutes to give thevisitors a lead they wouldn’trelinquish as they moved a stepcloser to claiming their first sil-verware under Benitez.

Substitute Eden Hazard(scoring above) made it fourwith a calm finish beyond astranded Ashdown inside thebox to take it away from Leeds.

Balotellidrops appealover fineLONDON: Manchester City’swayward striker Mario Balotelli(above) has accepted a two-weekfine over his poor disciplinaryrecord and dropped an appeal toa Premier League tribunal, theclub announced on Wednesday.

Lawyers representing theItaly international had been dueto present an appeal on his behalfto a tribunal on Wednes day, afterCity reportedly fined him twoweeks’ wages for his on-pitchmisdemeanours last season.

However, following talksbetween Balotelli and the club,the 22-year-old agreed to with-draw his case and accept hispunishment. AFP

DISCIPLINARY ACTION

Chelsea face Swansea,Bradford Villa in semis LONDON: Chelsea interimmanager Rafael Benitez sethis sights on League Cup glo -ry after his side were handeda semi-final clash with Swan -sea. Benitez’s hopes of land-ing the Chelsea job on a per-manent basis would be incre -ased if he can put some silver-ware in the Stam ford Brid getrophy cabinet. After crash ingout of the CL, the League Cuprepresents their next chance.

Chelsea eased the pressure onRafael Benitez and sealed theirplace in the League Cup semi-

finals with a 5-1 win overLeeds.

















High Court judgesannulled the inquestverdicts delivered inthe immediate after-math of the tragedyand called for freshinquests to be held.



Chelsea rout Leeds

postnoon e-paper for 20 december 2012

Documents

christmas brunchthere

taj deccan

miss venezuela

title waswon

christmas day turkeybrun

art exhibitionartist

coveted title

tothe miss philippines