e-paper pakistantoday 07th august, 2012

supreme Court takes notice of faisal

Raza abidi’s rantPAGE |04PAGE |19

gurdawara attackerserved in united states military

Pakistan facing gravechallenges, saysaltaf Hussain

tuesday, 7 august, 2012 Ramadan 18, 1433Rs 15.00 Vol iii no 42 19 pages Lahore edition

Sharifsmust appearin court,judge rulesg Accountability court judge hearing corruption

references against Sharifs refuses to exemptthem from personal appearance

g NAB prosecutor decries Sharifs’ request for partial treatment for being ‘national leaders’

RAWALPINDIAPP

An accountability judge on Monday refused toexempt former prime minister nawaz Sharif andhis brother, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Shariffrom personal appearance in court even thoughtheir lawyer insisted that his clients were leaders

of ‘national caliber’ and a senior lawyer should be allowedto appear on their behalf. As Special Accountability Court Judge Chaudhry Abdul Haqtook up petitions requesting reopening of references againstthe Sharif family’s alleged corruption, the Sharifs’ lawyerinformed the court that the Sharif family members wereleaders of a national level and senior advocate AkramSheikh would appear before the court on their behalf in thereferences. However, the judge said that appearance of anaccused before the court in criminal cases was mandatory,as he adjourned the petitions against the alleged corruptiondone by the Sharif family vis-à-vis the Hudaibia PaperMills, Ittefaq Foundries and lands in Raiwind.The judge said the accused could be summoned once thepetitions were admitted for hearing.

PASADENAAFP

NASA on Sunday successfully landedits $2.5 billion Mars ScienceLaboratory and Curiosity rover onthe surface of the Red Planet,marking the most ambitious attemptto reach Mars in history.“Touchdown confirmed,” said amember of mission control atNASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory asthe room erupted in cheers. “We arewheels down on Mars. Oh, my God.”A dusty image of the rover’s wheelon the surface, taken from a rearcamera on the vehicle, confirmedthe arrival of the car-sized rover andits sophisticated toolkit designed tohunt for signs that life once existedthere. A second image arrived withinseconds, showing the shadow of therover on Mars. When the landingwas announced after a tense, seven-minute process known as entry,descent and landing, the room filledwith jubilation as the mission teamcheered, exchanged hugs and chiefscientists handed out Mars chocolatebars. President Barack Obamadescribed the feat as a singularsource of American pride. “Thesuccessful landing of Curiosity — themost sophisticated roving laboratoryever to land on another planet —marks an unprecedented feat oftechnology that will stand as a pointof national pride far into the future,”he said in a statement.“It proves that even the longest ofodds are no match for our uniqueblend of ingenuity anddetermination.” Charles Bolden, theNASA administrator, echoed thatsentiment and applauded all thenations who contributed to science

experiments on board the rover. “Itis a huge day for the nation, it is ahuge day for all of our partners whohave something on Curiosity and it isa huge day for the Americanpeople,” Bolden said.Obama’s science adviser JohnHoldren described the landing as “anenormous step forward in planetaryexploration. Nobody has ever doneanything like this. We are actuallythe only country that has landedsurface landers on any otherplanet”, he told NASA television.“But this lander is vastly bigger,

vastly more capable and much morecomplicated to bring in,” he added.“It was an incredible performance.”However, success was anything butcertain with this first-of-its-kindattempt to drop a six-wheeledchemistry lab by rocket-powered skycrane on an alien planet. NASA’smore recent rover drop offs weredone with the help of airbags. In thefinal moments, the spacecraftaccelerated with the pull of gravityas it neared Mars’ atmosphere,

CuRiosity RoVER Lands on maRsNASA’s Mars Science Laboratory rover “Curiosity” will determine if the building blocks of life are present on the Red Planet

LaunCHEd: noVEmbER 26, 2011

Payload separates after 38 minutes

Cruise stage traveldistance to mars: 570 million km

PHoEnixLanded: May 2008

Viking 1July/Aug 1976

Viking 2July/Aug 1976

PatHfindER*Sept 1997

oPPoRtunityJan 2004

CuRiosity August 6, 2012

maRs

sPiRitJAN 2004

Enters martian atmosphere

Rover and crane separateCrane rockets fire

up for powered descent

Rover emerges from crane

sky crane suspendsdescending rover

SOURCE: NASA/NEW SCIENTIST: afP

Study Gale Crater (154 km diameter) forsigns that life may once have existed

wEigHt: 899 kgCost: $2.5 billion

Look for clues about past and presenthabitable environment

mission:

touchdown 7 minutes afterentering martian atmosphere

n Previous landing sites for roversand landers

DeployedSojourner rover

Heat shield separates

Designed to function for 2 years

EnoRmous stEP foRwaRdAS NASA LANDS ROVER ON MARS

Car-sized rover, sophisticatedtoolkit to hunt for signs that life once existed on the Red Planet

Continued on page 04 8Continued on page 04

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02News

Today’s

LookQuick

NewS

Story on Page 05

CARTOON

Page 11

iNfOTAiNmeNT

Story on Page 14

Alternative energy sources to solve the energy crisis? For Olympic fencers, only steel will do

Tuesday, 7 August, 2012

Creation of 7 new ministries unconstitutional: RabbaniISLAMABAD: Calling the creation of seven new ministries unconsti-tutional, parliamentary Standing Committee on national SecurityChairman Raza Rabbani on Monday said certain politicians and bu-reaucrats were the major hurdle in transfer of powers to the provinces.Talking to the committee’s review meeting on transfer of powers toprovinces, Rabbani said certain powers tried to obstruct implementingof the 18th Amendment and they used various tactics to save ministries.Rabbani said 17 ministries had been taken to provinces after the ap-proval of the 18th Amendment but the power of provinces had beenrobbed by creating seven new ministries. Rabbani also expressed con-cern about the non-implementation of Article 172 of the constitutiondespite the passage of two years. Senator Raja Zafarul Haq said an im-pression was being generated that obstacles were being created in theimplementation of 18th Amendment. The committee called for submis-sion of a report about the bottlenecks in the implementation of the 18thAmendment in its next meeting. INP

Quetta doctors continue to boycott OPDs

QUETTA: Balochistan doctors continued to boycott OPds on Monday,but provided emergency services in government and private hospitalsover the abduction of dr Ghulam Rasool. The boycott of OPds enteredsixth day on the call of the Pakistan Medical Association, Young doc-tors, Baloch doctors Forum and Paramedics Staff Association, whileemergency wards in the government hospitals kept functioning as usualand patients were being provided medical assistance. However, due tothe closure of the OPds, unavailability of doctors in wards and para-medical staff also abstaining from their duties, patients were compelledto leave the wards. Balochistan PMA leaders said they would continuetheir protests until the safe return of dr Rasool. INP

Gunmen kill suspected ‘NATO’ driver in JamrudPESHAWAR: Gunmen on Monday killed a truck driver in KhyberAgency’s Jamrid tehsil over suspicions that he was transporting sup-plies for nATO troops in Afghanistan, officials said. Officials first re-ported the incident as an attack on a nATO supply truck but laterconfirmed the truck was carrying “commercial goods for Afghanistan”.Pakistan had closed the Torkham border crossing, the quickest routefrom Pakistan’s port of Karachi to the Afghan capital, for nine daysafter gunmen killed a nATO supply truck driver on July 24. Local gov-ernment official Bakhtiar Khan told AFP that three gunmen in a jeepfired on the truck, killing its driver. nATO traffic was very briefly sus-pended after the incident. Pakistan reopened the Torkham crossing onSaturday, having signed a deal with the united States last Tuesday al-lowing nATO convoys to travel into Afghanistan until the end of 2015.Islamabad in July lifted a seven-month blockade on nATO goods pass-ing overland through Pakistan, imposed after botched uS air raidskilled 24 Pakistani troops in november. AFP

KARACHI: Religious activists shout slogans against the reopening of NATO supplies during a protest on Monday. AFP

MoNItoRINg DESk

MuTTAHIdA QaumiMovement chief AltafHussain has warnedthat the country wasfacing grave challenges.

In a telephonic address on Monday, Altafsaid chief justice of Pakistan had taken ac-tion against the prime minister verypromptly, but what of the action againstkillers of people who were roaming freeacross the country.

He said terrorists and killers were re-leased by courts on simple production of annIC card as a surety bond.

About the ongoing row between the ju-diciary and parliament, he said it wouldsoon be established who was supreme.

Addressing Interior Minister RehmanMalik, Altaf said: “Rehman Bhai, you aregood, but the conditions in the country arenot good.” “When I warned about theworsening conditions in the country I wasnot taken seriously and people made fun ofmy statement, but now things are clear to

everybody,” Altaf said. He said extortionists in Karachi had

prohibited weapons, and extorted moneywas being transferred to Indonesia.

Altaf said businesses and industrieshad been destroyed by extortion mafia.

He added that people were suffering

due to price hike, load shedding and law-lessness.

About the Balochistan situation, hesaid the Balochistan and Karachi situationswere interlinked.

“We do not want to divide Pakistan orSindh,” he said.

Pakistan facing gravechallenges, says Altaf


03NewseDiTORiAlA road leading to nowhere:

COmmeNT

Articles on Page 14

Judicial wrangling has to stop.

Dr Faisal Bari says;Suicide at 14?: Where should the responsibility lie?

M J Akbar says;

Powerless in office: Woes of governance from across the border.

ARTS & eNTeRTAiNmeNT

Story on Page 12

buSiNeSS

Story on Page 18

SPORTS

Story on Page 15

Aishwarya Rai Bachan faces camera New Delhi presses the restart button… system crashes Team Pakistan’s moment to seize


LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-nawazPresident nawaz Sharif has said that the countryhad reached the brink of destruction and con-certed struggle was needed to rid it from corruptrulers and ongoing problems. nawaz was talkingto independent MnA Sardar Amjad Farooq KhanKhosa who called on the PML-n president at hisJati umra residence in Raiwind on Monday and

announced his decision to join the party. nawazsaid the PML-n believed in politics of principlesand honesty and because of these principles peo-ple from various schools of thought were joiningthe party. He said the PML-n would not allow therulers to damage the constitution, democracy andjudiciary and would stand like a solid rock againstsuch conspiracies. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz

Sharif, Opposition Leader nisar Ali khan and oth-ers were also present. Political observers are call-ing the joining of Sardar Amjad Farooq KhanKhosa in the PML-n as an important develop-ment, as he is a strong opponent of former partyveteran Sardar Zulfikar Khosa in dera GhaziKhan, who recently quit the PML-n over differ-ences with the top leadership. INP

Concerted struggle neededto save Pakistan: Nawaz

Yes I can! Water car inventoraccepts Physics teacher’schallenge to run car on water

kARACHIsTAFF RePORT

‘Bring it on’ was Agha Waqar’s reply to thechallenge posed by a Physics professor to runhis car on water.

According to a private TV channel,Waqar not only accepted Professor RanomalMalani’s challenge but also promised to runall the cars of Pakistan People’s Party MPA’sbrother on water.

Earlier, Malani had held a press confer-ence claiming that Waqar was a fraud andhad fooled everyone, including Federal Min-ister Khursheed Shah, and he had saved theparty from fraud. He gave a cheque of Rs 5million to the Press Club administration and

asked them to keep it for 15 days.Waqar generously rejected the prize

money and asked the money to be distrib-uted among the needy. “He hid a Hydrogencylinder in his demonstration on TV. Hefooled everyone. I know it because I teachPhysics. This is impossible,” alleged Malanishowing delight over Waqar’s decision of nottaking the money and gave him 10 days toprepare the kits.

Waqar claimed that he will run the carsolely on distilled water and will not add fuelor anything else to it. He previously said thathe can run a 1,000CC vehicle till 40 kilometreswith one litre of water by attaching a smallwater kit in the car that separates hydrogenfrom water and supplies it to the engine.

CHARSADDAAgeNCIes

A small aircraft of the Pak-istan Air Force (PAF)made an emergency land-ing in the Turangzai areaof Charsadda district onMonday. According to po-lice sources, the Mashakaircraft was partially dam-aged while making theemergency landing.PAF spokesman said thatthe aircraft made theemergency landing due toa technical fault, but boththe pilots are safe.The police rushed to thespot and cordoned off thearea.

PAF aircraft makes emergencylanding in Charsadda


News04


WASHINgtoNsPeCIAl CORResPONDeNT

POLICE have identifiedthe dead attacker, whokilled six people inside a

Sikh Gurdwara in Wisconsinstate as a military veteran, whileAmerican leaders expressedtheir sorrow to the shockedSikh community struggling tocope with Sunday’s tragedy.

Police Chief in OakCreek, Milwaukee area of theMidwest American state,John Edwards named thedead suspect as WadeMichael Page, 40, a six-yearArmy enlistee. A senior lawenforcement official saidPage rose to the rank of ser-geant before being demoted

to specialist and leaving themilitary in 1998, The Wash-ington Post reported. Pageshot the first police officer toarrive on the scene eight ornine times at close range afterthe officer went to render aidto a victim of the shooting hefound in the parking lot, Ed-wards said. The shooter alsofired at two police cars anddisobeyed commands to drophis weapon before an officerfatally shot him with a squadrifle, the police chief said.

Police said five Sikh menand one woman ranging in agefrom 39 to 84 were killed in theshooting rampage. Three otherpeople were wounded, and twoare in critical condition, Ed-wards said. Page “was the only

shooter that was involved atthe temple,” Edwards told re-porters, according to the Postreport. Police said Page re-ceived a “general discharge”from the military and was “in-eligible for reenlistment.”

Earlier, Police sourcestold Cnn the army veteranmay have been a white su-premacist. The Post quotedan unnamed defense depart-ment official as disclosingthat Page was in the Armyfrom 1992 to 1998. Hetrained at Fort Sill, Okla., andserved at Fort Bliss in Texasand Fort Bragg in north Car-olina. Page worked as a repairtechnician for the Hawk mis-sile system and later was de-tailed to Psychological

Operations as a specialist, theofficial said. Meanwhile, rela-tives of Satwant Kaleka, thepresident of the gurdwara inOak Creek, Wisconsin, saidMonday that he was killedfighting the attacker. “Fromwhat we understand, he basi-cally fought to the very endand suffered gunshot woundswhile trying to take down thegunman,” Kanwardeep SinghKaleka, his nephew, said ac-cording to a Cnn report.

“He was a protector of hisown people, just an incredibleindividual who showed hislove and passion for our peo-ple, our faith, to the end,” hesaid, near tears. The FBI saidit had not determined a mo-tive for the Sunday morning

shooting and that investiga-tors were looking into whetherthe attack might be classifiedas domestic terrorism. Kaleka,a member of the temple, saidthose inside the gurdwara, orSikh temple of worship, de-scribed the attacker as a baldwhite man, dressed in a whiteT-shirt and black pants andwith a 9/11 tattoo on one arm— which “implies to me thatthere’s some level of hatecrime there.” Because of theircustomary beards and tur-bans, Sikh men are oftenconfused with Muslims, andthey have been the targets ofhate crimes since the Sep-tember 11, 2001, attacks onnew York and Washington,the Cnn reported.

4 new polio cases confirmed in fATA, KP

PESHAWAR: Four new cases of polio were identified inFATA and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Monday. The poliomonitoring and coordination cell confirmed the cases afterwhich the total number of polio cases has mounted to 27across the country. Polio virus was detected in 18-month-old Haneefullah of Bara, 2.5-year -old Salam of Salarzai, six-month-old Saleem of Mardan and six month-old naureenof Lakki Marwat. The total number of polio cases in KhyberPakhtunkhwa has risen to six while thirteen polio caseshave been reported in FATA. Among the 27 cases, two caseswere identified earlier in Punjab. AgenCIeS

Robbers injure mother of SSP motorway

Two robbers riding a motorbike stopped the family of SSPMotorway Intisar Hussain in defence area of Lahore at theirdoorstep and robbed jewelry, cash and other valuables, ac-cording to City 42. The family was returning home after Eidshopping. The criminals opened fire on the SSP’s motherwhen she offered resistance, resulting in bullet injuries toher arm and leg. MonITorIng DeSk

AMRItSAR/oAk CREEk/WASHINgtoNAFP

Indian Sikhs, led by PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh,voiced shock and anger onMonday at the killing ofworshippers at a Sikh templein the uS, with somesuggesting Muslims may havebeen the intended target. “Iam deeply shocked andsaddened to learn of theshooting incident that hasresulted in the loss of preciouslives,” Singh, himself a Sikh,said in a statement.“That this senseless act ofviolence should be targetedat a place of religiousworship is particularlypainful,” Singh said. InSunday’s attack, a gunmanshot worshippers at asuburban Sikh temple inWisconsin, in the mid-western united States,killing at least six peoplebefore he was shot dead bypolice. “I hope the Americanauthorities would investigatewho is behind this dastardlyattack on innocent devoteesand that they will ensurethat such ghastly events donot take place,” Singh toldreporters later. In the unitedStates they have often been

confused with Muslims andtargeted by anti-Islamactivists, particularly after theSeptember 11, 2001 attacks.Leading Sikh politicians inIndia said the templeshooting in Wisconsin mayhave followed a similarpattern. “I think it is a case ofmistaken identity. Sikhs areoften mistaken to be from theMiddle East,” ManpreetSingh Badal, founder-president of the People’sParty of Punjab, told AFP.“This is an opportunity,although a very sad one, toraise awareness amongAmericans about the Sikhculture and identity,” he said.At Sikhdom’s holiest shrine,the Golden Temple in thenorthern Indian city ofAmritsar, the atmosphere wastense and sombre as shockedSikh devotees went to offertheir prayers, amid the dailyinflux of tourists. GianiGurbachan Singh, head priestat the Akal Takht, Sikhdom’shighest seat of religious andtemporal authority, urged allSikhs in the united States to“remain vigilant”. “This is asecurity lapse on the part ofuS government whereinSikhs have become thevictims of violence,” Singh

said, adding that a “chain ofprayers” would be held inSikh temples across India,including the Golden Temple.“This attack on Sikhs in theuS is shameful. People cometo the gurudwara (temple) tofind peace. It is a holy place,”said Kulwinder Singh, 50.“Sitting in India we arehelpless,” said nita Singh, 45.“What happened in the uShas hurt Sikh sentiments. TheuS government must takesteps to see such incidentsnever occur in the future.”PROTESTS: In Indian-held Kashmir, which has alarge Sikh community,protesters blocked a nationalhighway and brandishedbanners calling for strongeruS gun laws. In delhi,several dozen Sikhsdemonstrated outside the uSembassy and chantedslogans denouncing “hatecrimes”. “Sikhs contribute alot to America, they are animportant part of America,”said Manjit Singh, presidentof a delhi-based Sikh party.“This is a racially motivatedcase and the (uS)government needs toeducate people aboutdifferent communities so itdoesn’t happen again.”

Sharifs must

“It is mandatory for theaccused to appear before thecourts in criminal cases. Incase of absence, the accusedmay be declaredabsconders,” the judge saidwhile reviewing the power ofattorney submitted bycounsel of the Sharif family,Chaudhry Hassan,empowering Akram Sheikhto appear before the court onbehalf of Pakistan MuslimLeague-nawaz (PML-n)President nawaz Sharif,Shahbaz Sharif and threeothers. nAB AdditionalProsecutor GeneralChaudhry Riaz objected tothe power of attorney, sayingeveryone was equal in eyes ofthe law and there was noexemption to anyone,particularly in criminal cases.Hassan argued on the meritsof the petitions aboutreopening of corruptionreferences, saying the Shariffamily always respected thecourts. Judge Abdul Haqadjourned the hearing untilSeptember 15, directing theaccused and defence counselto come fully prepared asthere would be nounnecessary delay inadvancing the proceedinginto the cases. On July 18, thecourt had issued notices tonawaz Sharif, Shahbaz Sharif,MnA Hamza Shahbaz and sixother family members in theHudaibia Paper Mills, IttefaqFoundry and Raiwind landcorruption cases. On July 28, fresh noticeswere issued as no accusedhad appeared before thecourt as asked.The petitions had requestedthe court to reopenreferences pertaining toIttefaq Foundries andRaiwind assets.In the reference relating toRaiwind assets, the mainallegation is that nawaz hadacquired vast tracts of landupon which a number ofpalatial houses and mansionswere built with resourceswhich appeared to be grosslydisproportionate to hisknown sources of income.Apart from Sharif, hismother is an accused in thecase. Moreover, in the stateversus Ittefaq Foundriesetc case, nawaz, hisbrother Abbas Sharif andKamal Qureshi are accusedof committing corruptionof Rs 1,063 million. Themain allegation in the caseis that Ittefaq FoundriesLtd obtained cash financefrom the national Bankand per nAB’s allegations,the company willfullydefaulted to pay back theamount in 1994.

mother strangles 2sons over disputewith husband

MoNItoRINg DESk

A mother strangled twosons, aged 7 and 5, andburied them in the courtyardof her house in Shujaabad,Multan, a private TVchannel reported onMonday. According to thechannel, the woman, Aasia,had frequent domesticdisputes with her husband, alaborer, who worked inKarachi. Police were toldthat the mother killed hersons in frustration.Investigations into the caseare underway.The channelquoted the residents of thearea as saying that both boyshad been missing sincemorning.

Enormous

making a fiery entry at aspeed of 13,200 miles(21,240 kilometers) per hourand then slowing down withthe help of a supersonicparachute. After that, anelaborate sky crane poweredby rocket blasters kicked in,and the rover was lowereddown by nylon tethers,apparently landing uprighton all six wheels. Scientistsdo not expect Curiosity tofind aliens or livingcreatures. Rather they hopeto use it to analyze soil androcks for signs that thebuilding blocks of life arepresent and may havesupported life in the past.The project also aims tostudy the Martianenvironment to prepare for apossible human missionthere in the coming years.It has already been collectingdata on radiation during itseight and a half monthjourney following launch innovember 2011 from CapeCanaveral, Florida.Earlier on Sunday, Marsprogram director dougMcCuistion called the science“absolutely crucial” tofinding out if Earthlings arealone, how Mars evolvedfrom a wet to a dry planetand how accessible Mars maybe for human explorers inthe future.“If we succeed, it will be oneof the greatest feats inplanetary exploration ever,”he told reporters. “Oursuccess rate has been prettydarn good recently.”Attempts by global spaceagencies since 1960 haveresulted in a near 40 percentsuccess rate in sendinglanders, orbiters or otherspacecraft for flybys to Mars.nASA has the best record.

CCP slams Abidi’s

attack on CJP

The vitriolic attack on thechief justice of Pakistan bySenator Raza Abedi is whollyunprecedented and in factunbelievable, the ConcernedCitizens of Pakistan (CCP)said in a statement onMonday. Abedi reportedlycalled upon the CJP to stepdown, warning that otherwise“he would throw him out ofthe court”. “A more blatantpublic contempt of court hasnever been committed in thehistory of the country. As asenator he should know thatif anyone has anythingagainst a member of thesuperior judiciary, the routelies through the SupremeJudicial Council. The methodis not to throw him out of thecourt. The people shoulddemand from him anunconditional apology,otherwise the law of contemptshould take its course,” CCPPresident nasira Iqbal said. Pr

CHINIOT: Farmers of Jandwala village walk through flooded fields as flood water entered their village on Monday. AFP

kARACHIONlINe

defense Minister Syed naveed Qamar onMonday said the Balochistan issue wascomplicated and Indian interference in thetroubled province could not be ruled out.In a meeting with Law Minister Farooqnaik, Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shahand Balochistan Governor Zulfiqar AliMagsi, Qamar discussed with them in

detail the overall political scenario in thecountry and worsening law and order ofBalochistan. Talking to reporters, Qamarsaid the PPP government was well aware ofthe ongoing situation in Balochistan,adding that, “We intend to find out thesolution of issues in Balochistan throughconstitutional and democratic means.”Moreover the parliamentary committeewas holding talks with all stakeholders inthis regard, he added.

Indian Sikhs shocked and

angered by US temple shooting

Gurdawara attacker served in US military

Indian meddling in Balochistan

cannot be ruled out: Qamar

Continued fRom page 01 Continued fRom page 01


05


BAHAWAlPUR: Young doctors hold a demonstration against Punjab Chief Minister shahbaz sharif on Monday. onLIne

PHC grants interimbail to Sherpao inbugti ‘murder’ case

PESHAWAR:The PeshawarHigh Court(PHC) onMondaygranted in-terim bail toformer interiorminister AftabAhmed Sher-pao in AkbarBugti murdercase. Sherpao

submitted petition in the PHC for interimbail and PHC Justice ShahjehanAkhundzada, accepting the petition,granted it until August 30. Later, Sherpaotold reporters that his name was not men-tioned in the FIR of Bugti murder case.He said the military operation inBalochistan was conducted for maintain-ing law and order and it was a provincialissue. He said he had submitted his state-ment in the Balochistan High Court inthis regard and had fully cooperated inthe investigation conducted until now. APP

Alternative energy sources to solve the energy crisis?ISLAMABAD

AgeNCIes

Rich in solar and wind energy resources,with the capacity to generate around143,000MW of electricity, the governmenthas embarked on a project to attract foreigninvestment to help bridge the demand-sup-ply gap by exploiting alternative energysources. As per official estimates, the gov-ernment is eyeing around $1.2 to $ 2.7 bil-lion investment merely in the wind energysector, and dozens of similar projects, to wooforeign investment in the solar energy sec-tor, are in progress.

Pakistan is currently developing windpower plants in Jhimpir, Gharo, Keti Bandarand Bin Qasim in Sindh. The governmentbelieves this would not only help reduceelectricity shortage, but would also help easethe burden of oil imports, that cost over $12billion annually.The average wind speed inmost parts of the world is between 6.2 and6.9 meters per second (fair category). Thereare a few places that fall under ‘good’ cate-gory where the wind speed is between 7 and7.3 m/s. However, the wind speed in theSindh corridor is stronger than the above

two categories as it stands in the ‘excellent’category of 7.5 to 7.7 m/s. According to auSAId report, Pakistan has the potential ofproducing 150,000 megawatts of wind en-ergy, of which only the Sindh corridor canproduce 40,000 megawatts. Keeping inview this rich potential, the government hasplanned to achieve electric power of up to2500 MW by the end of 2015, from wind en-ergy to ease the energy shortage. Earlier, for-mer Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani hadinaugurated the country’s first-ever windenergy scheme `Zorlu Energy Wind PowerProject’ with a generation capacity of 50MWin Jhimpir, on April 2009. The project isnearly 60 per cent complete and will start itstrial production this year.

This 60 kilometer long and 170 kilometerdeep corridor alone has the potential to gen-erate over 50,000 megawatts of electricity.Pakistan Alternative Energy developmentBoard (AEdB) recently approved the newPark Energy Phase I, a 400-MW wind proj-ect, near Port Qasim. With the help of China3 Gorges Corporation, a 50 MW wind energyplan at Jhimpir in Sindh will be completednext year. The wind power pilot project hasbeen made operational by installing a wind

turbine at daman-i-Koh in Islamabad. Re-cently, an Mou had been signed at the two-day second Pak-ChinaJoint Energy Group(JEWG) for setting up wind energy projectsof an accumulative capacity of 550MW ini-tially. Moreover, the government has also cre-ated a fund to implement alternative energytechnology in the country. According to astudy, the country has identified the cumula-tive potential of generating 3.2 million MWfrom various renewable energy resources.

As per breakup, 340,000 MW could begenerated from Wind, 2,900,000 fromSolar, 50,000 MW from Hydro (large),3,100 MW from Hydro (Small), 1800 MWfrom Bagass Cogeneration, 500 MW fromWaste while 550 MW could be generatedfrom Geothermal power sources. A numberof countries have successfully developed re-newable energy sources from wind, solar,biomass, geothermal, ocean tides and biofuels to minimize dependence on fossil fuels.

Sources in the energy sector said thatcurrently 11 wind projects, with a cumulativecapacity of 556 MW, have reached an ad-vanced stage of completion and some ofthese would start supplying electricity bydecember this year, whereas the others

would be functional by 2013. The govern-ment is determined to overcome the energycrisis in the country. It has taken severalmeasures in the past and has been carryingout several programs to provide relief to thecommon man and help boost industry in thecountry, the sources added. Efforts werealso being made to convince the owners ofsugar mills to use cane waste for power gen-eration. One of the advantages of using solarenergy is that apart from the initial installa-

tion and maintenance costs, solar energy isone hundred percent free and does not re-quire expensive and constant raw materiallike oil or coal, and requires significantlylower operational labor than conventionalpower production. Realizing country’s grow-ing demand for power, in the industrial andagricultural sectors, and growing domesticconsumption, the government has initiatedseveral solar power projects to address thepower and energy crisis.

MUZAFARABADAPP

PRIME Minister Raja Per-vez Ashraf on Monday saidthe government had beenmaking sincere efforts toresolve the energy crisis

and a number of projects, especially inthe hydro sector, were in progress,adding that the power shortage shouldnot be used for political motives.

Addressing a function after inaugu-rating tunnel breaking machines at theneelum Jhelum Hydroelectric Project,the prime minister said, “Every oneshould join hands to find the solution tothe energy crisis, instead of doing politicson this issue.” The prime minister saidPresident Asif Ali Zardari had been tak-ing personal interest in finding a perma-nent solution to the energy crisis.

He said the president had directed

the government to focus on increasingpower generation, especially hydel, whichwas the cheapest mode.

Ashraf said the government was alsoworking to genearte electricity throughalternative resources like solar and wind.

He said thermal power generationwas costly and the government was pro-viding Rs 209 billion annual subsidy.

He regretted that the previous gov-ernments did not pay any attention toimprove the power generation in thecountry. Ashraf said though the presentgovernment added more than3,000MW to the national grid, thecountry was still facing power shortagedue to huge demand. The prime minis-ter said he was pleased to observe thatwork on the neelum Jhelum projectwas in full swing despite some prob-lems during initial stages. He said theproject that would generate about1,000MW would help reduce load shed-

ding in the country. He said the 65 km-tunnel would be the first experience inthe country and its powerhouse wouldbe underground. The water of neelumwould be diverted to Jhelum river, be-sides producing 1,000MW, he added.

He appreciated the contribution ofPakistani and Chinese engineers and es-pecially thanked China for cooperationand assistance in the project. Referring tothe energy crisis, the prime minister saidthe government was sincerely takingpractical steps to overcome it.

Speaking on the occasion, Ministerfor Water and Power Chaudhry AhmadMukhtar said the government had initi-ated a number of projects that wouldgenerate 20,000MW of electricity in thenext couple of years. He said thatpresently the hydel sector’s share was 32percent and the government hadplanned to increase the share to 66 per-cent by 2025.

Power ministry claims to have ended unscheduledoutages

ISLAMABADAPP

The Ministry for Water and Power hasclaimed that it has ended unsched-uled power cuts across the countrybut scheduled load shedding will con-tinue to bridge the gap between elec-tricity production and consumption.In a statement issued on Monday, aministry spokesman said load shed-ding was due to shortage of electric-ity but some elements werepoliticizing it for personal and partyinterests.He said protest was a basic right ofthe masses but no one would be al-lowed to damage the public propertyin the name of protests.The spokesman said unscheduledelectricity load shedding had beenended, however to balance the powerproduction gap routine power cutwould persist.He said the power shortfall hadreached 3,410MW as the country wasproducing 14,191MW of electricitywhile demand stood at 17,601MW,adding that urban and rural areas ofthe country were facing eight and 12hours of power cuts.

interim bail for musaGilani, makhdoomShahab extended

RAWALPINDIONlINe

A division bench of the Lahore HighCourt in Rawalpindi on Monday ex-tended the interim bail of Ali MusaGilani, son of former PM Yousaf RazaGilani, and former health ministerMakhdoom Shahabuddin in theephedrine quota case until August 13.Musa and Shahab had appeared be-fore the LHC bench of Justice Syednajamul Hassan and Justice ShahzadAhmed Khan.Both have been on interim bail andappeared before the bench for its ex-tension.Earlier on July 30, the bench had di-rected Shahab and Musa to cooperatewith the investigation team of theAnF in connection with the con-trolled chemical ephedrine scam.The court had warned both that theirnon-cooperation would result in thecancellation of their interim bails andsubsequent arrest by the AnF.upon assurances by counsel ofMakhdoom Shahab and Musa forjoining the investigation, the courthad extended their interim bailuntil Aug 6.

Power shortage should not beused for political motives: PMg Ashraf says president taking personal interest in power crisis


sEHER

iftaR 06:56

fiqaH-E-Hanfi fiqaH-E-jafRia

03:49 sEHER

iftaR 07:06

03:39


LAHoREsTAFF RePORT

DEnGuE larva wasfound on Monday indifferent parts of thecity on Monday. Lar-vae were found in the

house of Mahmood dilawar, resi-dent of Cha-Mira, and two otherhouses at Ghosia Colony in SharifPark.City district management reachedthe spot with sprays and disposedthe larva from both places.Meanwhile, Punjab Chief MinisterShahbaz Sharif has directed allthe concerned departments tocomplete their arrangements andremain fully alert to cope withany possible outbreak of dengue. He said that due to heavy rainsthere was a need to remain morecareful about dengue and theprocess of indoor and outdoordengue vector surveillance shouldbe further accelerated. While giving approval for daily al-lowance to lady health workersfor indoor surveillance in theprovincial metropolis, he saidthat their services should be fullyutilized for vector surveillance inthe houses. He directed the concerned de-partments should work collec-tively for draining the water fromthose areas where it is still accu-mulated and should be dried atthe earliest.

DENGUE LARVAE MAKE A COMEBACK g larvea found in various houses after the weekend’s heavydownpour g Shahbaz tightens precautionary arrangements

LAHoREsTAFF RePORT

unknown armed men onMonday robbed PakistanMuslim League-nawaz(PML-n) lawmakerSumaira Yasir of valuableitems and money.

According to reports,MnA Sumaira Yasir wason her way to home withher husband when thearmed riders interceptedthem.

The robber snatchedher hand bag, mobilephone, cash and valuableitems and managed to fleefrom the spot.

However, it was yet tobe ascertained as to howmuch money was looted.

Separately, gunmenopened fire on a privatecompany manager onMonday.

Police said employeesof a private company weretransferring Rs 4 millioncash of the firm in Shahmnagar at Bilal Park areawhen three armed men ina car intercepted them andattempted to snatch thecash on gun point.

Officials said the rob-bers opened fire when thecompany manager Sam-dani Butt resisted their at-tempt. He was killed onthe spot whereas the com-pany cashier, Musharraf

and a security guard,Zaman Shah, were injured.

Guard Zaman’s retalia-tory fire killed one of therobbers.

dIG Operations RaiMuhammad Tahir said in-vestigations are being car-ried out and that thedacoit has not yet beenidentified, adding that thedead bodies were shiftedto civil hospital formedico-legal formalities.

Talking to the media,company owner ShakeelButt expressed his graveconcern over the securitysituation, saying that thecompany had experiencedmore than 20 robbery inci-dents over the past threemonths.

It must be noted thatcrime average and theft in-cidents are increasing inprovincial capital day byday.

g Valuables snatched from MPA in broad daylight, private company manager shot dead

PPP is schizophrenic,says Liaqat BalochLAHORE: Jamaat e Is-lami General Secretary Li-aqat Baloch on Mondaysaid that Pakistan Peo-ple’s Party (PPP) hasschizophrenia because onone hand, it is targetingand insulting the SupremeCourt and on the other, itis filing an appeal beforethe same. Speaking at an Iftar party,he said the entire popula-tion of the country stoodbehind the judiciary and aconfrontation with theapex court would be disas-trous for both PresidentZardari and the PPP. Baloch remarked that theonly education PresidentZardari has on law isthrough his experience inprison and is threateningthe judges and making ap-peals to them at the sametime. sTAFF RePORT


07


Lahore

CiNe STAR THe AmAziNG SPiDeRmAN 03:00 PmPH: 35157462 PiRANHA 3D 02:15 Pm

COCKTAil 09:00 PmCOCKTAil 11:45 Pm

CiNe GOlD ROwDY RATHORe 12:30AmPH: 35340000 ROwDY RATHORe 06:30 Pm

COCKTAil 9:00 PmTHe AmAziNG SPiDeRmAN 1:00 PmTHe AmAziNG SPiDeRmAN 3:30 Pm

SOzO wORlD COCKTAil 09:00 PmPH: 36674271 bOl bACHAN 08:30 Pm

COCKTAil 11:30 PmmADAGASCAR 3 04:45 Pm

SOzO GOlD bOl bACHAN 12:00 Pm, 03:00 PmPH: 36674271 COCKTAil 09:30 Pm, 11:30 Pm

COCKTAil 12:30 Pm, 03:30 Pm

LAHoREAgeNCIes

PROVInCIAL Minis-ter for Law, RanaSanaullah has saidthat Punjab ChiefMinister Muham-

mad Shahbaz Sharif was anasset of country who had

achieved this high status due tohis hard work and implementa-

tion of merit and trans-parency in the

province. He saidthe CM hadtaken worth em-ulating steps bycompletingmega projectsexpeditiouslyin a transpar-ent mannerthroughout

the province. Sanaullah said that the initiatives likedanish Schools, Educational Endowment Fund, IT labs,distribution of laptops among students on merit, rapidtransport facilities and promotion of e-governmenthave not only been appreciated inside the country onevery forum but also abroad and other provinces hadalso followed these steps. He said that some elementsunder a planned conspiracy were trying to harm the po-sition of the CM which he has achieved through his un-tiring efforts and promoting transparency but theywould not succeed in their nefarious designs. He saidPML-n would respond to those elements in befittingmanner who were issuing statements against the CMfor gaining cheap popularity.

Everybody lovesshahbaz: sana

LAHoREsTAFF RePORT

Provincial disaster Management Authority, director

General, Mujahid Sherdil has said that besides rivers

monsoon rains have also affected hill torrents and

water channels. He said that flow of water has in-

creased in the rivers as a result of release of water by

India. He said that in order to avoid misleading and

exaggerated news items, people should contact phone

number 99205371 of Flood Warning Centre for gain-

ing up to date information about water flow in the

rivers. He said that only Lahore Flood Warning Cen-

tre can provide up to date information about river

situation in the province. He said that water level has

started normalising in all rivers of the province. He

said that relief camps have been set up in the flood-

prone districts besides staff of PdMA, other con-

cerned departments and district administration are

also present at the camps.

HaVE no fEaR,Pdma is HERE


low

High

280CweDNeSDAY THuRSDAY fRiDAY37°C i 28°C 37°C i 28°C 36°C i 28°C

PRAYeR TimiNGSfajr Sunrise zuhr Asr maghrib isha

03:54 05:22 12:09 16:48 18:54 20:23

CiTY DiReCTORY

ReSCue 1122eDHi CONTROl 115mOTORwAY POliCe 130POliCe 15GOVeRNOR’S HOuSe 99200081-7CHief miNiSTeR’S HOuSe 99203226fiRe bRiGADe 16bOmb DiSPOSAl 99212111mCl COmPlAiNTS 99211022-29lAHORe wASTe DiSPOSAl 1139

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CiTY STATiON (eNQuiRY) 117ReSeRVATiON 99201772RAilwAY POliCe 1333

AiRPORT

fliGHT eNQuiRY 114PiA ReSeRVATiON 111-786-786

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PuNJAb uNiVeRSiTY 99231257KiNNAiRD COlleGe 99203781-4QueeN mARY COlleGe 36362942GOVT. COlleGe uNiVeRSiTY 111-000-010umT 35212801-10lumS 35608000ueT 36288666lCwu 99203072SuPeRiOR COlleGe 111-000-078

miD CiTY 37573382-3SeRViCeS 99203402-11mAYO 99211100-9GeNeRAl 35810892-8SHeiKH zAiD 35865731SiR GANGA RAm 99200572uCH 35763573-5iTTefAQ 35881981-85CmH 366996168-72SHOuKAT KHANum 35945100JiNNAH 111-809-809ADil (DefeNCe) 36667275CHilDReN’S 99230901-3DefeNCe NATiONAl HOSPiTAl 111-17-18-19

PARTlY ClOuDY

weATHeR uPDATeS

36°C

08Lahore

YoGA AnD mEDITATIon CLAssEs

DATe: APRil 01 TO DeCembeR 30, 2012VeNue: fAiz GHAR, lAHORe

A unique blend of Yoga, meditation, Neuro-linguisticProgramming, Sufism & more.Achieve self-insight, mind-body harmony & betterhealth.

Yoga master Shamshad Haider

100 GHAZALs oF mAuLAnA rumI

Hast-o-Neest Centre for Traditional Art & Cultureinvites you to its monthly Saturday Sitting withJanab Ahmed Javed Sahib(Director, iqbal Academy Pakistan)on 100 Ghazals of maulana Rumi3:30 to 5:00 pm, last Saturday of every month

DATe: mARCH 31 TO DeCembeR 29, 2012 VeNue: HAST-O-NeeST CeNTRe, lAHORe

CALLIGrAPHY & ArAbIC CLAssEs

Hast-o-NeestONe mONTH COuRSeS: ARAbiC, fARSi & CAlliGRAPHY:

1. Arabic Saturdays & Sundays, 2:00 to 3:00 pm, 2. farsi Tuesdays & wednesdays, 3:00 to 4:00 pm 3. Calligraphy fridays & Saturdays, 2:00 to 4:00 pm Contact:[email protected]

DATe: JulY 20 TO AuGuST 18VeNue: 10 COmmeRCiAl builDiNG, OlD ANARKAli


LAHoREMAHeeN AWAN

THEATRE is the mostexpressive form of art.unfortunately, in Pak-istan certain negativestereotypes have been

associated with theatrical plays.Stage dramas do not come close torepresenting what this art really is,and to prove this point, young andtalented students have taken upthe task to reinstate the true mean-ing of theatre.

An effort to dissociate nega-tive stereotypes from theatre, acollaboration of young studentscalling themselves Theatre Hubhas emerged.

Theatre Hub recently producedan intensely engaging play “KhelJari Hai”, spread over a 5 day span,at Alhamra Mall Road Hall 2 from16th to 20th July. The play turnedout to be a great success amongstthe theatre goers of Lahore since thestory revolved around how a groupof actors led by an incessantly hard-working director and an extremelyannoying writer, try to stage a playand make a whole mess out of it. Itmust be said that to take up thistheme was a gamble that paid off asit deviated from the standard realmson which plays attract the audience.But with the remarkable perform-ances and the incorporation of orig-inally composed soundtracks, theyraised the bar to a whole new levelfor all other theatre groups.

The play was originally writ-

ten in English by Rick Abbott bythe name of ‘Play On’ and wastranslated in urdu.

Beautifully choreographedmimes and live music compliment-ing each act gave a whole Broadwaytouch to the play. What was reallyimpressive from the audience’spoint of view was that each charac-ter had a very original and well builtpresence on the stage. during theacts, there was some indomitabledrumming by one of the actors, EiceKhatana, who had the audiencehooting and shouting at the top oftheir lungs. The whole performancewas a blend of wonderful acting anda well charted incorporation of cre-ative ideas. Worth mentioning isTalal Ali Jan’s direction, because it

was his creativity that came up withan integrated mix of well choreo-graphed mimes, original sound-tracks, brilliant acting and maturecomedy all on one stage by puttingtogether a flawless performance.

One of the actors, MinahilZaman, describes her experience:“It was a great change from a mo-notonous routine. I learned a lot:how to be an actor, how to be a bet-ter performer and how to be a teamplayer. I made great friends andeverlasting memories. Theatre Hubhas opened up a new dimension tomy life after this production and Ihold it very close to my heart.”

It should be noted that it wasTheatre Hub’s first commercial ven-ture where they had tickets for each

show rather than free passes. Hatsoff to the producer Ahmer ZamanKhan and his team who managed tograb hold of full houses on 3 of the 5days! not only was the hall wellmanaged with such a huge crowd,but there were people so happy withthe play that they came back nextday in larger groups to watch theplay again. This was a huge achieve-ment on Theatre Hub’s part.

All in all, such theatrical playsgive off a new ray of hope that thereis still a surviving ground in Pak-istan for theatre. The basis of thedramatic form of entertainment isthe emotional catharsis experiencedby the audience. As long as qualityplays are provided, theatre culturewill successfully thrive in Pakistan.

The ‘khel’ conTinuesn after the roaring success of ‘khel jari Hay’, theatre Hub vows to continue to perform playsthat will help revive the image of theatre as something much more than vulgar stage dramas


09


Foreign News

france calls on myanmarto protect muslims after new deaths

PARISAFP

France called Monday for Myanmar authorities to protectcivilians of all ethnic groups “without discrimination” afterreports of renewed deadly violence between Buddhists andMuslim Rohingya. “France attaches great importance to apeaceful and concerted resolution to ethnic questions inBurma, in order to achieve national reconciliation,” foreignministry deputy spokesman Vincent Floreani said in astatement. The ministry called for the status of Muslims inMyanmar’s western Rakhine state “to be clarified with regardto right to nationality and for them to enjoy, whatever theirstatus, full respect for human rights.” “There are reports ofworrying acts of violence by security forces against civilians.We call on the Burmese authorities to protect all civilianpopulations, without discrimination, and to investigatepossible abuses,” Floreani said. Fighting in western Rakhinestate has killed 80 people from both sides since June, with sixreportedly killed on Sunday, although authorities say thesituation has been generally calm in recent weeks.

Libya’s interim rulers tohand over power

tRIPoLIAFP

Libya’s interim authorities said they will hand over powerto a newly elected congress on Wednesday, less than ayear after its fighters overthrew the regime of MoamerKadhafi. “We affirm that August 8, 2012 will be the daythat power will be transferred peacefully,” Salehdarhoub, spokesman for the outgoing nationalTransitional Council (nTC), told journalists in Tripoliearly Monday. Libyans cast ballots on July 7 in their firstfree election since a popular uprising last year thatescalated into a civil war and ousted the regime of nowslain dictator Kadhafi. They elected a 200-memberlegislative assembly comprising party and independentrepresentatives, which will replace the nTC and lead thecountry until fresh elections can be held on the basis of anew constitution. The transition comes against abackdrop of heightened insecurity. Three men suspectedof planning bomb attacks were killed in a sting operationoutside the capital on Sunday. “The brain of theoperation refused to surrender and fought fiercely whichresulted in the death of three people, including him,”darhoub said.

iran president to attendsaudi summit

tEHRANAFP

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to attend anextraordinary summit of Muslim leaders in the holy city ofMecca next week at the invitation of the Saudi king, an aidesaid on Monday. Ahmadinejad will attend the summit “todiscuss the development in Muslim countries,” MohammadReza Forqani, head of international affairs in the president’soffice, told the official IRnA news agency. Forqani said thetwo-day summit will start on August 14. Saudi Arabia lastmonth called for the summit with the aim of “unifying theranks” of Muslims. It hosts the headquarters of the 57-member pan-Muslim body, the Organisation of IslamicCooperation, in the Red Sea city ofJeddah. King Abdullah invitedAhmadinejad, theofficial Saudi PressAgency reported onSunday, despiteheightened tensionsbetween the Sunni-dominated kingdomand the predominantlyShiite Islamic republic.

CAIRoAFP

EGYPT’S army vowed Mon-day to “avenge” the killingof 16 guards by gunmennear the Israeli border, asPresident Mohamed Morsi

ordered security forces to take full controlof the increasingly lawless Sinai Penin-sula on the frontier.

In Sunday’s attack, gunmen inBedouin attire drove up to a border post

and opened fire before crossing into theJewish state in an armoured vehicle,Egyptian officials said. Israel said fivegunmen were killed on its side.

The 1979 peace treaty between Egyptand Israel, under which Israel withdrewfrom the Sinai which it had occupied in the1967 Middle East war, set strict limits onEgyptian troop numbers in the peninsula.

But Israel has complained of growinglawlessness on its southern border since theoverthrow of veteran strongman HosniMubarak early last year and called for ac-

tion by Cairo. “We swear in the name ofGod to avenge them,” the army said.

“Egyptians will not have to wait longbefore they see a reaction to this attack byterrorists,” it said in a statement carriedby the official MEnA news agency.

“Anyone liaising with these groupsthat have attacked our troops in the Sinaiin recent months will pay dearly, be it in-side Egypt or abroad,” it added.

Israel said two armoured vehicleswere seized, one of which exploded by it-self and the other of which was destroyed

by a helicopter.“The bodies of the five gunmen have

been found by the Israeli army,” an Israelimilitary spokesman said, but did not givedetails. Israeli military spokesman YoavMordechai told army radio: “We wereready because we had previous informa-tion from Shin Bet (security service) andfrom military intelligence services, whichallowed us to thwart a bloody attack.”

The armoured vehicle that crossedthe border “fired in every direction afterentering Israeli territory before being at-

tacked by tanks and from the air,” saidMordechai. The gunmen were “membersof the global jihad based in Sinai, whichhas become a hothouse for world terror-ism because of the weak control exer-cised” by Egypt, he added.

President Morsi said he had given “clearinstructions” that Egypt must take “full con-trol of the Sinai.” “Those responsible for thiscrime will be hunted down and arrested,” hesaid. “Everybody will see that the Egyptianmilitary and police forces can get these crim-inals wherever they are,” he said.

MUMBAI: Indian students, their faces painted with anti-nuclear messages, march on Monday during a rally marking the 67th anniversary of the world’s first

atomic bombing over Hiroshima by the Us. AFP

LoNDoNAFP

High-profile British lawmaker Louise Mensch, whoplayed a leading role in parliamentary hearings overthe phone-hacking scandal, announced Monday thatshe is quitting to move to new York with her family.

Mensch, 41, a prominent presence on Twitterwho recently set up her own social network, tweeted:“I am devastated by the necessary decision that I havehad to announce today. “It has, however, proved im-possible to balance the needs of my family.” The Con-servative MP’s husband Peter Mensch is the managerof hard rock band Metallica and lives in new York.

They were married a year ago in Manhattan, butLouise Mensch has three children from a previousmarriage who live with her in Britain.

Since her election in 2010 Mensch has become awell-known Conservative figure and was seen as a po-

tential minister. She came under the spotlight as alawmaker on parliament’s Culture, Media and SportCommittee, which has questioned Rupert Murdochover the hacking scandal that forced him to close hisnews of the World tabloid. Australian-born media ty-coon Murdoch, 81, shut the 168-year-old newspaperin July last year after revelations that it accessed thevoicemail messages of a murdered schoolgirl sparkeda wave of public disgust. Mensch set up her own po-litically-focused social networking website, Menshn,in June. She has also published 14 “chick-lit” novelsunder her maiden name, Louise Bagshawe.

Prime Minister david Cameron said he was ac-cepting her resignation “with enormous regret”.

“It goes without saying that I had wished to seeyou serve for longer and at a more senior level,” hesaid. Her departure will trigger a by-election in themarginal constituency of Corby and East northamp-tonshire seat in central England.

Hiroshima marks

anniversary of

atomic bombingHIRoSHIMA

AFP

A bell tolled to mark a moment ofsilence while people joined hands inprayer as tens of thousands markedthe anniversary of the atomicbombing of Hiroshima on Monday.Ageing survivors, relatives,government officials and foreigndelegates attended an annualceremony at Hiroshima PeaceMemorial Park commemorating theuS bombing of the city nearly sevendecades ago, as a rising tide of anti-nuclear sentiment swells inpost-Fukushima Japan. “On this day,in this city, let me proclaim again:there must never be another nuclearattack — never,” said Angela Kane,un high representative fordisarmament affairs, reading amessage from Secretary General BanKi-moon. “Such weapons have nolegitimate place in our world. Theirelimination is both morally right anda practical necessity in protectinghumanity.” An American B-29bomber named Enola Gay dropped anatomic bomb on August 6, 1945,turning the western Japanese city intoa nuclear inferno and killing anestimated 140,000 in the finalchapter of World War II. At 8:15 am(2315 GMT Sunday) on Monday, thetime of detonation, the toll of a bellset off the minute of silence aspedestrians came to a standstill andbowed slightly, linking hands under ascorching sun. Some 50,000 peopleattended the official ceremony, whilethousands of others joineddemonstrations, marches, forums,and concerts held across the city, along-time focal point for the globalmovement against nuclear weapons.

tEHRANAFP

Iranian state television on Monday showed severalIranians alleged to be part of a group of 13 who “con-fessed” to killing four Iranian nuclear scientists afterbeing trained by Israeli intelligence.

It said the network received orders from “Wash-ington and London.”

The television report, available online(http://www.yjc.ir/fa/news/4047313), showed thesuspects speaking of how they purportedly preparedto murder the scientists, and broadcast a re-enact-ment of assassins on a motorbike fixing a magneticbomb to a victim’s car, while dramatic music playedin the background.

It also showed images of a number of prefab-ricated temporary buildings in an arid area and

said the site was an Israeli military camp used fortheir training.

The 40-minute report, which was broadcastovernight, said the 13 comprised eight men and fivewomen, all of whom were named.

One of them was Majid Jamali Fashi, who was ex-ecuted on May 15 after being found guilty of spyingfor Israel’s Mossad spy service and playing a key rolein the January 2010 murder of a top nuclear scientistin return for payment of $120,000.

Iran’s intelligence service recently said it hadbroken a ring of other “spies” linked to the scien-tists’ slayings, which it blamed on Israel and theunited States.

The united States vehemently denied any in-volvement in the most recent assassination, on Jan-uary 11 this year. Israel has refused to confirm ordeny involvement in any of the killings.

Egyptian army vows to avenge deadly Sinai attack

iranians ‘confess’ to nuclear

scientist murders

British lawmaker with leadingrole in hacking hearings quits


Arif NizamiEditor

Lahore – Ph: 042-36298305-10 Fax: 042-36298302Karachi – Ph: 021-34330811-3 Fax: 021-34330900Islamabad – Ph: 051-2287414-6 Fax: 051-2287417

Web:www.pakistantoday.com.pk Email: [email protected]

Dedicated to the legacy of the late Hameed Nizami

Judicial wrangling has to stop

A road leading to nowhere

If the idea was to bring back millions of dollars allegedlylooted and deposited by Zardari in Swiss banks, thedirection taken by the Supreme Court over the period hasbrought it nowhere near the goal. With nRO declared null

and void in december 2009, a war of nerves started betweenthe SC and PPP. This was followed by the nRO implementationjudgment in April. It was believed by the apex court that anorder to the chief executive would be enough to make him writethe Swiss letter. This has failed to happen and there is littlelikelihood that the move would produce the desired result indays to come. A prime minister has been sacked in the processwhile another one faces the axe. If the purpose was to conveythe message to all and sundry that even the most powerfulcannot escape the law, few would be persuaded by what has sofar happened. President Zardari, the principal target, remainsunaffected by the efforts made by the apex court. Meanwhile,the criteria for the choice of cases taken up by the court havebeen questioned. The shenanigans on the part of the holiest ofthe holy cows have gone unnoticed. nobody has cared to findhow much money has been pocketed in defence deals or if thecase of the ex-generals involved in a multi billion rupee nLCscam is being pursued satisfactorily.

The PPP has decided to move a petition in the SupremeCourt seeking review of the order striking down the Contemptof Court Act 2012. This is what any law abiding party should dowhen it does not agree with a verdict. The new PM shouldattend the court when called in deference to the highest court inthe country. Fearing that the SC might turn down the petition,there are also attempts by some of the PPP leaders to pressurizethe court. A number of party leaders who are unhappy over theway the elected PM was sacked have issued statements. Thereare expressions of dismay over the perceived prejudice on thepart of the court which the PPP thinks is softer on its politicalopponents. An unrealistic demand has been made forlegislation to allow the government to remove the judges. Thecriticism is not fair in all cases. There is therefore a need on thepart of the PPP to discourage any attempt to scandalise thejudges or the apex court.

The parliament, executive and judiciary are presentlyenjoying freedom and tasting power that they had neverexperienced before. All the three have to realize that while it isexcellent to have a giant’s strength, it is tyrannous to use it likea giant.

Suicide at 14?Where should the responsibility lie?

There were small reports,barely noticeable, on thecity pages of a couple ofnational dailies a few daysback. And almost no fol-

low up since. Tanvir, son of Allahditta, resident of Okara, a 14-year-old suffering from cancer, committedsuicide by throwing himself from afourth floor window of the JinnahHospital in Lahore. This news hasnot caused any ripples in the newsworld or in the policy circles at theprovincial level.

One of the reports just men-tioned that the head of Jinnah Hos-pital, has constituted a committee tolook into whether there was any neg-ligence on the part of the hospitalstaff or not. Tanvir had been undertreatment at the hospital for the last10 days. He had attempted to killhimself a day earlier too, but that at-tempt had been foiled by staff onduty. At 2.45 am on the morning ofthe incident he was successful. Hereached a window and threw himselffrom it and suffered serious head in-juries and succumbed to them at thespot. The administration at JinnahHospital also made the point thatthey had mentioned to the family ofthe deceased that he had been quitedepressed and had attempted to killhimself a day earlier too.

Though the hospital administra-tion took the plea that the child wasvery depressed at the diagnosis ofcancer and the depression was thecause of the act, the newspaper re-ports also mentioned that thoughTanvir had been at the hospital forthe last 10 days he had not been get-ting requisite medicines for thetreatment of his cancer and he wasalso very worried that this would put

significant financial pressure on hisfather and family as well. The reportsalso said that Allah ditta, Tanvir’s fa-ther, works as a labourer.

The diagnosis of cancer is defi-nitely a grave event. A lot of cancersare still not very amenable to treat-ments, and even where treatmentsare available they are expensive andrequire significant resources of time,energy and money to manage. Itwould not be surprising at all if overthe 10 days that Tanvir was in JinnahHospital and would have heard doc-tors/nurses discuss his case that hemight have become depressed. Butthis should have been anticipated bythe medical team. And if he was in-deed depressed, as the hospital ad-ministration maintains, it should beeasy to see what steps, if any, themedical team had taken or wereplanning to take to address the issue.Just saying that the medical teamhad conveyed news of Tanvir’s de-pression to the family is not sayinganything at all: the medical teamcannot pass on the responsibility ofTanvir’s care, whether he was de-pressed or not, to the family while hewas admitted in the hospital.

But one of the reports also saidthat Tanvir committed suicide as hewas not getting any treatment or med-ications for his ailment over the 10days that he had been there. If true,this could cause a depression too. Itwas also reported that he also felt thathis ailment would impose a heavyburden on the family as well. Theseclaims need to be investigated. Whatsort of cancer did Tanvir have? CouldJinnah Hospital have helped Tanvir?What diagnostic investigations didthey do over the 10 days that he wasthere? If they could have helped him,did they? And if they could not havehelped him, did they convey this toTanvir’s father (as Tanvir was still aminor), and could they have referredTanvir’s case to any other institutionwithin Lahore? Could ShaukatKhanum have helped Tanvir?

Tanvir had attempted to kill him-self a day earlier too but his attempthad been foiled by the staff presentat the time. Again, the hospital staffholds that they had conveyed this tothe family. But if Tanvir was de-pressed and had already attemptedkilling himself once, had the hospitalinitiated or implemented any proto-

cols to keep an eye on him or to dealwith the issue medically? Just lettingthe family know that their loved onehad tried to commit suicide is surelynot the only or the right way to dealwith the issue.

One of the reports did mentionthat the Principal of Jinnah Hospitalhas given instructions to have grillsinstalled on all third and fourth floorwindows so that a repeat of such anincident does not take place. This isan administrative way of addressingthe issue that ensures that the insti-tution and people working there arenot held responsible, especiallylegally. But surely the responsibilityof the hospital and the medical teamis much more than that. They haveto see whether they had done every-thing for Tanvir that could havebeen done and/or if they missed outon things there.

It is hard to imagine the despairthat Tanvir must have felt. The deci-sion to end a life and that too by one-self and at the age of 14 does nothappen easily. Was it his cancer diag-nosis alone that drove him to this de-cision? Or was it lack of facilities andtreatment options and his worriesabout the financial implications forthe family that were factors too. If thelatter were also reasons, this needs tobe investigated. Public hospitals dooffer free or subsidized services to thepoor, or so they claim, across Pak-istan. If they do why did Tanvir feelthat he was not getting treatment?

The news of Tanvir’s suicide willnot trigger any major media followup or any major investigation. Thereports from the day showed thateveryone was ready to move on bypointing out that Tanvir had cancer,that he was depressed and he had al-ready attempted to end his life once.The implication was that Tanvir him-self was responsible for what hap-pened to him. But it is a sadreflection on the state of our healthsystems: another reminder of wherewe are as a society and polity. Eventhe suicides of the poor and the illare not enough to shake us.

The writer is an AssociateProfessor of Economics at LUMS(currently on leave) and a SeniorAdvisor at Open Society Foundation(OSF). He can be reached [email protected]

By Dr Faisal Bari

Comment10


Politics brings out the meanstreak in people, and a nasty,selfish streak it is. Take the

Olympics for example.In 1972 at Munich, in the then

West Germany, terrorists belong-ing to the organisation ‘Black Sep-tember’ broke into the Athletes’village and took some of the Israelicontingent hostage. The standofflasted several hours, leaving elevenhostages and a West German policeofficer dead. Five of the hostagetakers also died.

Forty years later at a ceremonyat the London 2012 Athletes’ vil-lage, the President of the (IOC)President Mr Jacques Rogge men-tioned those events in a shortspeech, and led a moment of si-lence in memory of those who diedin 1972. As well, the IsraeliOlympic contingent wore blackarmbands at the otherwise festiveopening ceremony of the games.

The many who condemned thiscommemoration, said that by re-minding the world of divisive is-sues, such displays at the Olympicsundermined the aims for which thegames exist, of peace, friendship

and respect, and a joint participa-tion in the joy of sport. Obviously,if one team is allowed to use theOlympics as a political platform,others (some would say more de-serving) ought to be granted theopportunity as well, because thereis always another side to each coin,and many coins in the mint (dis-placed Palestinians, Burmese Mus-lims, the residents of Aleppo, thelist goes on).

Besides, there are other, moreappropriate platforms.

The Israeli contingent mayhave reminded the world, lest itforget, and the spirit of theOlympics suffered as a result, butthe Israelis shot themselves in thefoot and suffered most of all, be-cause of their tasteless timing.

Similarly, here in the Punjab,one Khwaja Asif of the PML(n)may be seen hopping around, anaxe stuck through his bleeding footas in the urdu idiom, after accus-ing Imran Khan of ‘gambling away’funds donated for the ShaukatKhanum Hospital.

At a press conference in La-hore, Khwaja Asif alleged that

Imran Khan had used Zakat dona-tions to make foreign investmentswhich later failed, in the face of op-position from the hospital’s boardof governors. He also made allega-tions, of nepotism at ShaukatKhanum.

He should have criticisedImran the leader of the PTI, notImran the founder of the hospital,because the PTI Imran shoots hismouth too often, has an unfortu-nate predilection for khaki and abit of a mullah streak, alas; butmost people give him credit for ameasure of integrity and few willor can criticise his greatestachievement, the Shaukat KhanumMemorial Cancer Hospital and Re-search Centre, in Lahore, all elsenotwithstanding.

Those allegations have sincebeen responded to, and most prop-erly relegated to the electioneeringbin, as they should.

In a country where politiciansswitch allegiances with monoto-nous predictability, where fewprojects progress beyond the highlevel meeting stage, or if they doare rife with corrupt practice from

the start, these accusations aredefinitely a bit rich, and malicious.Also, like with the Israelis at theOlympics, their timing is deliber-ately hurtful, with electionsaround the corner and the PTIgaining ground, and particularlybecause they have been made dur-ing Ramzan, when people opentheir purses wider than usual togive Zakat.

Pakistanis are generous incharity. Approximately half ofShaukat Khanum Hospital’s rev-enue is obtained from the servicesit offers. The rest of its costs aremet by Zakat and charitable dona-tions from all over the world. As aresult of PML-n’s Khwaja Asif’s al-legations, these donations maydrop this year, with a subsequentdrop in the hospital’s capacity totreat its patients. The ones reallyhurt therefore are not Imran andthe PTI, but Shaukat Khanum Hos-pital’s poor and sick cancer pa-tients. That is what our politiciansdo best, isn’t it? Hurt the poor.

Imran Khan began the hospi-tal project as far back as 1989. It isa measure of his dedication that he

has stuck unwaveringly with thisproject for more than twentyyears. now that the hospital hascome into being, a beautiful, welladministered hospital, staffedwith qualified and dedicated per-sonnel, it is comparable to othersimilar hospitals anywhere in theworld.

The SKMCH, a cancer hospital,treats patients with a very highstandard of care…free of charge ifthey are financially unable to pay,which is a large percentage of thoseseen. The poor and sick people ofPakistan, whose options wouldotherwise be limited to facilitiesprovided by a government thatcouldn’t care less are indebted toImran Khan for his dedication andperseverance in this cause.

Whatever lustre remained tothe PML(n) has been dimmed bythese remarks. For the discerning,this should go a long way towardshelping them fill out that ballotpaper come election time.

The writer is a freelancecolumnist. Read more by her athttp://rabia-ahmed.blogspot.com/

It seems to be nothing

What politicians do bestBy Rabia Ahmed


Comment 11


islam-the road to prosperityAs the day of Independence of Pakistan

reaching closer and faster, the thought begins torevolve in one’s mind, considering why ourancestors did liberate this part of land? Whatmade them to spend their blood and sweat justfor a separate piece of earth? did they face somany hardships and brutality from the Hindusand British just to see Pakistan on the verge ofdisaster or their vision was something else?

These are some thought provoking questionsthat we have still not been able to answer. We arestill been incapable to decide the path to follow,the system to adopt and the ideology to accept.

Since the independence, we have tried andtested every form of government, from one manshow to a parliament of hundreds, but stillnothing has got changed. Before 1947 Britishruled us and now we are the slaves of America.

We have witnessed well accepted first PMLiaquat Ali Khan, uS puppet Field MarshallAyub Khan, pro-Soviet Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, socalled Islamist General Zia-ul-Haq, corruptBenazir, nationalistic nawaz Sharif, cowardPervez Musharraf and now shameless currentPPP government.

It’s been long sixty five years we have notfound the key to success and the way to prosper.When we see China that was founded two yearslater after Pakistan’s independence, we feelmuch pity.

The core reason behind the calamity facedby Pakistan and the Muslim world is thecontradiction between its ideology and thesystem being implemented in those countries.Capitalism and democracy have failed to suitour belief. The basic tenets of these two notionslike majority rule, personal freedom, freedom ofexpression, freedom of religion, freedom ofownership, federalism, sovereignty of man andothers are in contradiction with Islam.

Pakistan could not prosper until weeliminate Interest based Capitalist economicsystem where more than 65% of revenue of thecountry comes from taxes on the people. Out ofthese taxes 70% are indirect taxation that are tobe paid by even a beggar, unemployed,handicapped, widow, elderly people andchildren without any differentiation.

While, Islam apply no taxes on commonman and taxes like GST, Income tax,withholding tax, toll taxes etc are all illegal andwill be abolished in Islamic system. The

permanent sources of revenue would only beKharaj, Jizya, ushr, the fifth of Al-Rikaz (hiddentreasures minerals), import and export duty onforeign traders, Zakat on import and export ofthe Muslim Trader and Hima (protecting frompublic properties). The rules related tocollection of funds and its distributionconstitutes “Economic System” and cannot betaken from other than Islam.

In democracy, the human needs are unlim-ited while there are limited resources to fulfill, inresult the needs of all the people won’t be fulfilledand the solution lies in the increase in productionto fulfill needs of as many people as possible.

SYED HASSAM AHMEDKarachi

empowering the womenThe other day, I had read in the newspapers

that President Asif Ali Zardari has announcedthat the government has decided to appointwomen to the judiciary. This is indeed awelcome and long overdue move. It is likesaying better late than never.

President Zardari made the muchappreciable announcement, which amountsempowering the women in all spheres ofnational life, at the concluding ceremony of“One Million Signatures Campaign” which wasaimed at creating awareness regarding violenceand discrimination against women.

The President on this occasion, as per themedia reports, quite rightly pointed out thatsuch practices are just not a problem forPakistan but are common elsewhere in the sub-continent as well . discrimination againstwomen, be it in terms of their education, job orpromotion opportunities, rights of inheritanceor reproductive health care is one of the greatestimpediments in our overall development.

President Zardari also availed theopportunity to recall and laud the achievementsof his government citing the passage of theProtection Against Harassment of Women at theWorkplace Act 2010, Criminal Law AmendmentAct 2010, Criminal Law Second Amendment Act2011 and Women in distress and detentionFund Act 2011.

While welcoming the President’s announce-ment, it is sincerely hoped that his announce-ment will be turned into reality and the FederalGovernment would soon be taking practicalsteps for inducting women in the judiciary.

We have had distinguished women judges inthe past, though not in appreciable number, andour future women justices could do well bylearning some valuable lessons from their expe-riences in the males dominated society of ours.

But still the credit goes to President Asif AliZardari for taking a step further to enhancementof empowering of the women . Theimplementation of the President’sannouncement is keenly awaited now.

SAADIA AHSANLahore

Editor’s mailSend your letters to: Letters to Editor,

Pakistan Today, 4-Shaarey Fatima Jinnah,Lahore, Pakistan.

Fax: +92-42-36298302. E-mail: [email protected]. Letters

should be addressed to

Pakistan Today exclusively.

Woes of governance from across the border

Powerless in office

Time heals, but, regret-tably, rather more so inproverbs than in politics.

Time is rarely on the side of gov-ernments in desperate need of it.When the ship of state begins toleak, time, being a rascal, punc-tures a few extra holes in thehull. Any pragmatic captainknows that a limping ship mustreturn to port or sink. But polit-ical captains tend to be counter-intuitive. Loath to surrendercontrol of the steering wheel,they head straight for icebergs inthe hope that some miracle willsave the crew and passengers.

The evidence against illusionis compelling. do the math fromthe news floating in the air, andI am discounting the impact ofAnna Hazare since conventionaldelhi wisdom dismisses him asa has-been. I would not be toocomplacent about his silent im-pact, but let us leave this to oneside. Examine the obvious.

If uPA had either opted foror been forced into a generalelection in, say, March this year,Congress would probably havewon 11 out of Assam’s 14 LokSabha seats. After the massacresand calamities of July, it will belucky to win three. Time hasstolen seats of an already embat-tled party, not revived its spirits.A train accident in nellore re-minded the country that it doesnot have a minister for railways,at least one who sits in office.The massive blackout which wasreported across the world, but

was invisible to Congressspokesman Manish Tewari, gen-erated widespread anger. Everystory, from disparate corners, isthreaded by one fact: Gover-nance has collapsed.

Prime Minister ManmohanSingh can’t help looking help-less. He has a problem he can-not quite discuss in public butdoes surely admit in the privacyof his drawing room: The Con-gress has run out of talent. Hedid not promote power ministerSushilkumar Shinde to thehome ministry on the very dayof the blackout because he hassome macabre sense of humor.He did so because he has noother option. Shinde is perhapsthe only Cabinet minister leftwith both the experience andmaturity to glide calmly intothis office. His has been a quietbut remarkable journey fromconstable to the man in execu-tive charge of India’s policeforces. Some of the names circu-lating in delhi for finance andhome before Chidambaram andShinde were given the jobs, aretoo embarrassing to repeat.There was a time when therewere enough Congress stalwartsto fill two Cabinets. But Con-gress has almost systematicallydegraded its ranks to the pointwhere even its chief ministersdo not quite measure up to ahome ministry’s needs. Theycould have looked towardsSharad Pawar, of course; butCongress culture forbids any-thing but second class jobs tothose who keep it in office.

Congress did have one excel-lent option. Power would havebeen the perfect portfolio forRahul Gandhi. The failure of hispredecessors was precisely thekind of space for him to displayadministrative mettle, and set uphis claim for leadership of thecountry. Someone has persuadedRahul Gandhi that he can be-come Prime Minister of India ifhe dips his toe in the water nowand then, in front of exulting tel-evision cameras, without actu-

ally going through the bother oflearning how to swim.

It is not easy to govern India,or even broad parts of it. YoungAkhilesh Yadav is discoveringthat chief ministership requiressomething more than a broadsmile after being sworn in. Theprice of poor administration issteep, and extracted quickly.Rarely has any stock plummetedas fast as that of Akhilesh Yadavin uttar Pradesh. He has been inoffice for only some 20 weeks, sohe has a chance to recover, butthat will not be easy. You have torule with both hands, think uponyour feet; and work around theclock. Governance is about man-aging people, and the first thingthey want is undivided atten-tion. Then they want decisions,particularly those that affect lifeand death, such as security dur-ing communal tension.

The last phase of the uPAGovernment will begin when theprime minister shifts from help-less to hopeless. He has not quitemade the transition, since hethinks there is some hope left inhis Pakistan visit in late novem-ber. Asif Zardari used AjmerSharif as a cloak; religion is drSingh’s excuse as well. Senti-ment is no bad thing, but cos-metics do not heal wounds. Theyare ephemeral. The bubbles thatswarmed across front pageswhen dr Singh became financeminister for a month have evap-orated. If any animal spirits werereleased, they are not yet visible.

When dr Singh returns fromPakistan, he will have a year ofreal time left, if he is allowed tocomplete his full term. Sixmonths are always hostage to ageneral election. One wonderswhat uPA can achieve in oneyear that was beyond its capacityin the previous four.

The columnist is editor ofThe Sunday Guardian, publishedfrom Delhi, India on Sunday,published from London andEditorial Director, India Todayand Headlines Today.

Third eyeBy M J Akbar


12


aishwarya Rai bachanfaces camera

AISHWARyA Rai Bachchan returns to face the

camera nine months after giving birth to

Beti B, Aaradhya. The last time the actress

faced the camera was when she was six months

pregnant and it was for a commercial. Post-

delivery, she chose to stay away from the arclights

completely so she could be with her bundle of joy.

A source revealed, “Ash did a photo-shoot for a

jewellery brand. Having lost oodles of weight, there

is a marked glow on her face and she looks even

more ravishing now.” Shrikumar, who shot the

commercial in mumbai said, “This is my first ad

with Ash. What impressed me about her was a

passion for detailing.” Adds Shrikumar, “There are a

few interesting underwater shots in the ad too. For

me, it has been the most memorable experience

shooting with her.” NeWs DesK

mika and shaan turn actors

HAVInG carved a niche as singers, mika

Singh and Shaan are all set to act now in

Balwinder Singh... Famous Ho Gaya,

directed by Sunil Agnihotri. Said Agnihotri, “ Justin

Timberlake, Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, mark Wahlberg,

Frank Sinatra, Snoop Dog, to name a few, who were

primarily known for their singing turned successful

actors. I am sure mika and Shaan too will succeed in

creating space for themselves in the acting arena.

Also, I wanted to come up with an interesting cast

and they fit the bill perfectly. Once they heard the

script, they found it to so hilarious that they

instantly agreed to be a part of the film. What’s

interesting is that they will be dancing to songs sung

by themselves.” mika told us, “Though I have made

appearances in films earlier, this is my first venture

where I will actually be acting and playing a

character. Besides an interesting script, Shaan, who

is my co-star in the film, is like a brother to me. It’s

great to do a film together.” Shaan’s equally excited.

“I was looking for a right script and this is just the

perfect one,” he said. Balwinder Singh... Famous Ho

Gaya, produced by Sunil Agnihotri Productions in

association with Vandana motion Pictures Pvt Ltd,

will hit the floors soon. NeWs DesK

diane kruger cast as abrahamLincoln’s stepmother

GeRmAn actress Diane Kruger will star in The

Green Blade Rises, produced by Terrence

malick, according to Deadline.com. Kruger,

36, will play Sarah Bush Lincoln, a widow who

became Abraham Lincoln’s stepmother in 1819. AJ

edwards will direct this indie movie about the strong-

willed woman who played a role in shaping the future

US President’s character. The film will start shooting

in the fall in black and white. With its focus on

Lincoln’s formative years, The Green Blade Rises sets

itself apart from two other films about the 16th

President of the United States. Timur Bekmambetov

turned the historical figure into a axe-wielding

vampire slayer in this year’s Abraham Lincoln:

Vampire Hunter, while Steven Spielberg went for a

classic biopic simply titled Lincoln, set to hit theaters

in november. NeWs DesK

R OBERT Pattinson must be having a hardtime, trying to recuperate from the happen-ings of the last fortnight. With Reese With-erspoon providing him with a kind shoulder

to cry on, his friends are not far behind. They aretrying their best to get Robert Pattinson’s mind offhis girlfriend Kristen Stewart cheating with directorRupert Sanders by taking him to a cowboy danceand music club, as reported by RadarOnline.com.He was spotted at The deer Lodge in Ojai, Califor-nia, 90 minutes from the house he used to sharewith estranged girlfriend Kristen Stewart. “I’ve beentold by several people that Robert Pattinson washere enjoying the music with his friends. He seemedin good sprits,” a deer Lodge employee toldRadarOnline.com. “I wasn’t on that night so I didn’tpersonally see him, but several others did.” RobertPattinson has been reportedly staying at his Waterfor Elephants co-star Reese Witherspoon’s Ojairanch. The deer Lodge has been a popular localhangout spot and offers live music, dancing andbeer. “Awesome night in Ojai. Got to hang with arowdy bunch of Brits & one of them happened to beEdward,” a fellow visitor to the club tweeted after

bumping into the star - who playsEdward Cullen in the pop-ular Twilight movies,as reported byRadarOnline.com.The tweet contin-ued, “He wasn’tmoping and thegirls were defi-nitely just hisfriend, the girlswere drunk and liter-ally danced on thefloor.” Adding further, thevisitor posted on Twitter,“The girls were nice. I stood nextto them at the bar. He wasn’t drunk.Just taking in the scene. Smoked nextto him outside.” Robert Pattinson hasbeen keeping an extremely low profilesince his girlfriend, Kristen Stewart,was publically exposed in the newsthat she had an affair with her SnowWhite and the Huntsman director,

Rupert Sanders. As Robert Pattinson takes his firststep towards re-gaining normalcy and living life oneday at a time, the girlfriend Kristen Stewart is strug-gling to come to terms with her infidelity with direc-tor Rupert Sanders. The actress is ‘crying non-stop’at the home of producer Giovanni Agnelli who she

has been staying with since thesplit. NeWs DesK

RobERt Pattinson sPottEd in a CLub Post bREak uP

Actor Jeremy Renner says he is “married” to his career. The 41-year-old is cur-

rently single and has never married and says he made a decision to put work first in his

life after seeing many of his family go through divorces. ‘I come from a large, large family

with many divorces so I chose not to go down that route straight away. Instead I essen-

tially got married to my career,” contactmusic.com Renner as saying. NeWs DesK

to my CaREER

I don’t want to be a clone ofAditya Chopra: Uday Chopraa dMITTInG he’d never make it big

in Bollywood, uday Chopra goes toHollywood, but not as actor. In asummer green shirt and faded

denims, uday Chopra is comfortable in hissprawling office that looks out to acarefully tended terrace garden. You senseit is a season of change — the gardenersare pruning the rambunctious monsoonplants while the scion of one ofBollywood’s most influential families ischipping away at his new role as CEO ofYash Raj Entertainment (YRE).He’s heading the banner’s international filmproducing and financing subsidiary that’sworking with Olivia Wilde, nicole Kidmanand Olivier dahan of La Vie En Rose fame.He has just launched a comic book labelcalled Yomics (“pronounce it y-yomics;there is a nice lilt to it”) that draws fromcharacters of famous Yash Raj films, whilehe continues to be occasional actor in filmslike the dhoom franchise.“Of the three, acting will remain my firstlove. But it has taken a back seat,” saysChopra, who hasn’t been a favourite withthe box office. “There came a point when Ihad to be realistic. I knew I would neverreally hit stardom or make a successfulcareer out of acting. I had to change

tracks,” he says.It was five years ago, during a casual chatwith older brother Aditya Chopra, that theidea of creating a presence in the “world’smost competitive film industry” was born.“We knew we wanted to do something inHollywood, but didn’t know how. Itwas impossible for Aditya to shutshop and move to LA. I could havedone it, but I wasn’t ready then.”Significant flops (neal ‘n’ nikki,Pyar Impossible), and a heartbreaklater (he dated actress TanishaMukherjee for two years), Choprawas left with two options. “Icould go behind the scenes,and turn filmmaker. Or dosomething radical.” Thefirst option wasruled out,consideringfather YashChopra andAditya’stowering legacy.“I didn’t want to beAditya Chopra’s clone. Atbest, I would have beenanother Aditya Chopra. Thatmay be great for a lot of people,

but not for me,” he says with startlinghonesty. Chopra’s decision to start fromscratch in 2010 — he began by signing upfor a film course at the university ofCalifornia, Los Angeles, before launching

YRE — was met with resistance. “Myfather thought I was mad,” he smirks.

“In LA, no one knows YRF. Theymight agree to grant you onemeeting. But the brand does notopen doors the way it does here.”

Clinching his first deal for TheLongest Week was tough

for someone who hadno idea how to make

a perfect pitch. Butthat seems tohave changed.Hear him speakabout how hemanaged tosecure thescript for

Kidman-starrer Grace of

Monaco in the faceof furious bidding,and you know hehas come of age.

NeWs DesK


13


brad Pitt plans wedding in free time

BRAD Pitt is reportedly utilising his free time to

plan his wedding with Angelina Jolie. The 48-

year-old has taken charge of preparations for

the wedding that is expected to take place end of

September. “Angelina isn’t so bothered about when

they tie the knot, it’s Brad who is piling on the

pressure,” says a source, adding, “He wants

everything to be absolutely perfect.” NeWs DesK

kristen stewart to play leadrole in Lie down in darkness

AmeRICAn actress Kristen Stewart just

snatched the leading role in Lie Down in

Darkness, a film based on the novel of the

same name by Sophie’s Choice author William

Styron. In spite of her much publicized fall-out with

Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart is on track

professionally. According to new york magazine’s

movie blog Vulture, the 22-year-old will play the

leading role in the family drama produced by Open

Road media. Vulture reports that Jennifer Lawrence

(The Hunger Games) had also been eyeing the role

in this indie movie, set in Virginia, about a

beautiful young woman called Peyton Loftis whose

jealous mother and alcoholic father push her to

commit suicide. NeWs DesK

story set for new x-men movie

THe next flick in the X-men franchise will be

based on the Days of Future Past storyline,

a favorite among marvel Comics fans.

Bryan Singer, who served as a producer on the

previous X-men movies and directed the first two,

officially announced to Ign.com plans to base the

next movie on Days of Future Past, a story arc

set in the future, where mutants are hunted

down by giant robots called Sentinels and sent to

concentration camps. matthew Vaughn is back

behind the camera after directing X-men: First

Class. James mcAvoy and michael Fassbender will

also come back in the roles of Professor X and

magneto. The plot will open the door for

comebacks by actors in the first three films, since

it switches between two periods, past and future.

The shooting is expected to start in January

2013. NeWs DesK

a CTRESS Charlize Theron isreportedly not comfortablewith her bald look and wants

her golden locks to grow back reallysoon. The 36-year-old had shavedher head for a role in her upcomingfilm Mad Max: Fury Road and eventhough she is glad with her action,she does not like her bald look per-sonally, reports femalefirst.co.uk.“She is not going out in public asmuch because of her hair. She’sgrowing it out as soon as possible,”national enquirer magazine quoteda source as saying. Theron admitsshe worked very hard for the movieand waited for three years for the

movie to come together.“It’s been three years. It’stime to skin this cat al-ready! I’m very excitedabout it. The originalMad Max created such avivid world, so to go backand re-imagine it and re-play in that sandboxsounds like fun to me. It’sa really challenging piece ofmaterial,” she said. The ac-tress will be seen as Furiosain the action film, which alsostars actor Tom Hardy. Thefilm is the fourth movie in theMad Max series. NeWs DesK

not HaPPy witHnEw Look CHaRLizE tHERon


14Infotainment

a quarter of germany’s powernow produced by renewables

GERMAnY hasannounced that it'smanaged to hit an

ambitious target for powergeneration producing 25percent of the country'senergy from renewables,up from 21 percent in 2011.The country produced 67.9billion kilowatt hours ofclean energy in the first half of 2012 -an increase of19.5 percent from the same period the year before.Wind energy is the largest contributor, accountingfor 9.2 percent of energy output, and biomassaccounted for 5.7 percent. Solar power comprised 5.3percent of the total, and also saw the biggest increase-- rising 47 percent. That makes Germany the biggestmarket globally for solar power, with its installedcapacity accounting for more than a third of the totalcapacity of the entire world. The rest of the 25percent total was made up of contributions fromhydroelectric power and waste incineration plants.The country's energy industry association, BdEW,said in a statement that the milestone reinforcedGermany's position as a leader in green technology.However, the country remains ten percent short of itsprimary target of achieving 35 percent of its totalenergy needs from renewables by 2035. NeWs DesK

For Olympic fencers, only steel will do

governor quits after controversialvideo shown to kids on sex-ed

Aschool governor has quit his role over thedecision to show a controversial sexeducation video to children as young as Five.

The Living and Growing dVd has caused uproararound the uK for its graphic sex scenes usingcartoon couples. It has received such strongcriticism from parents and even governmentminister nick Gibbs that the Channel 4-produceddVd was removed from sale. But Westbury LeighPrimary School in Wiltshire, which bought it beforeit was withdrawn, has decided to show the film to itspupils. The decision has prompt furious KeithMiller, a governor at the school for 12 years, to quithis role. Miller, 75, said: "Sex education in schools isessential and I am not against it. "But the importantthing is the way it is done, and this film wasshowing far too much to children at far too youngan age. "I wanted to see it for myself after hearingabout the content, which I could have done, but wastold I couldn't go along to a showing of the film toparents, which seemed very wrong to me.” NeWs DesK

dangling toddler rescued from balcony in China

Afour-year-old girl hanging precariously byher head from railings of a second floorbalcony in China has been rescued by

emergency services. Passers-by called the policeimmediately after noticing the four-year-old, whowas home alone, crying as she hung from thebalcony rails last Friday. “I drove by with my friendsin the morning and happened to hear the girl crying.Looking up, I saw her neck stuck in the protectiverails and so I soon called police,” said Zheng Shuqi,a resident of Xiaochang city in Hubei. Residentsreacted quickly. Receiving no response from withinthe flat they used a ladder from a nearby store toprop up the child’s legs. A police officer thensucceeded in freeing the child after clambering ontothe railings himself. The young girl was taken tohospital where doctors said she was unharmed asidefrom a slight abrasion on her cheek. NeWs DesK


O LYMPIC fencing mixes the ancient andthe modern, combining rules laid downmore than 500 years ago with elec-tronic scoring systems and Kevlar jack-ets. The delicate balance of old and new

has sustained the sport since its debut at the firstmodern Olympics in 1896.

The sport’s three disciplines — sabre, foil andepee — require weapons of differing sizes andstyles, but they share one thing in common: Thebest blades are made from maraging steel, a high-strength alloy used in everything from airplanelanding gear to missile casings. What makes thissteel ideal for fencing is a crack in the blade tendsto spread 10 times slower than a crack in carbonsteel, so the blades are more robust and won’tbreak as often. Manufacturers have experimentedwith other materials, like carbon-fiber compos-ites, but for fencers, nothing beats the feel of steel.

“Your sword is basically an extension of yourown arm,” said Eric Mallet, a former member ofFrance’s Junior national team who now runs theAustin Fencers Club in Austin, Texas. “There areways to make blades with different materials, butfencers are unanimous about not liking the waythose blades feel, the way they bend, the way theyrespond to your hand.” Of the three weapons, thesabre is the shortest with a maximum blade lengthof 88 centimetres and a weight limit of 500 grams.Points are scored by a combination of sticking and

slashing, a style that honors the sabre’s ancestor,the cavalry sword. The best sabreists, like two-time gold medalist Mariel Zagunis (whom we’llsee competing in the 2012 Summer Games), are atightly knit combination of quickness and explo-siveness as they target the opponent’s upper body.

The medium-sized weapon is the foil, originallyused as a training weapon for the other disciplines. Ithas the same 500-gram weight limit as the sabre, butits tapering blade is about 2.5 centimetres longer.Practically all Olympic-level foilists, including 2012Olympian Alexander Massialas, use a pistol-stylegrip, rather than the traditional straight handle, forimproved strength and control. Control is paramount,as points are scored only with the tip of the blade,which must be placed in a small target area. And thelargest of the three is the epee, which can weigh up to770 grams and has a maximum blade length of 90centimetres. The epee, used by athletes like MayaLawrence and Seth Kelsey, is the closest peer to thehistorical dueling sword, with a stiff triangular bladefor stabbing the opponent anywhere on the body.

To keep track of the action, fencing employs ascoring system based on opening or closing electriccircuits. In sabre, fencers wear electrically conduc-tive jackets, masks, and gloves. Each sword is wiredthrough a socket in the handguard, so when theblade strikes an area of the opponent’s body coveredby conductive material, a current flows through acord and illuminates a light on the scoring box.

Any part of the blade might set off a scoringtouch in sabre, but to suit the thrusting style ofepee and foil, the blades are equipped with a push-button tip. In foil, the circuit is complete when thefoilist plugs the weapon in to a wire that runs to thescoring machine. A hit depresses the tip, breakingthe circuit and tripping a scoring light: Red orgreen for hits within the target area, covered by aconductive vest; and white or yellow for off-targethits. Fencers forgo wearing conductive material inthe epee, where the entire body is a target, and relyagain on wired blades with push-button tips thatregister a hit on any non-grounded surface.

At the Olympics and the World Championships,fencing does away with many of the wires by usinga wireless scoring system, but such a system canonly be used in situations where few people arecompeting simultaneously. Too many people intro-duces interference that disrupts the system.

Spectators may worry about the safety of thefencers in the middle of all that flashing steel, butthose uniforms are made of Kevlar and other bal-listic-grade fabrics, and masks must be able tosupport 12 kilograms of force. A 2008 study by theunited States Fencing Association found that thesport was significantly safer than football, socceror basketball. “In the last 20 years, the Interna-tional Fencing Federation has made a tremendousamount of effort to make equipment and the fightsextremely safe,” Mallet said.

A flag malfunction punctures SerenaWilliams’ golden moment on the podiumafter her triumph over Maria Sharapova inthe London 2012 Ladies Gold Medal match.

As the Star Spangled Banner sounded inSW19, the moment should have been one tosavour for Serena Williams after she claimedher first singles Olympic gold following her6-0 6-1 demolition of Maria Sharapova onSaturday. However, the gusty conditions thathad previously worked to the American’s ad-vantage by upsetting her Russian opponent’s

notoriously fragile service game turnedagainst her. The watching crowds gasped asthe uS flag blew free and fluttered into thestand leaving only the standards of Russiaand Belarus to fly proudly during the anthem.

Thankfully for the organisers, Williams,who became only the second female playerafter Steffi Graf to complete a Golden GrandSlam with the win, said she was not upset bythe incident. “Oh God, no. It was amazing tojust be up there for the uSA and hold thismedal,” she said. NeWs DesK

33-year-old renowned pianistfound dead in her apartment

i NTeRNATIONALLy renowned Romanian pianist

Mihaela Ursuleasa has been found dead in her

apartment in the Austrian capital, Vienna. She

was 33. The musician's agent, Andreea Butucariu,

said in a statement from Berlin Friday that Ursuleasa

had died on Thursday from the effects of a cerebral

hemorrhage and asked for her family's privacy to be

respected. Police in Vienna confirmed the cause of

death. Butucariu told Romanian media that

Ursuleasa had recently cancelled two concerts in the

Romanian capital, Bucharest, on unspecified health

grounds. Ursuleasa began playing the piano at 5

years old under the guidance of her Gypsy jazz

musician father in then communist Romania. She

obtained a grant to study in Vienna at 12, a year after

communism collapsed. She went on to play at Ny's

Carnegie Hall, with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester

in Berlin, with Orchestre National de France and also

with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. NeWS DeSk

Olympic flag fail


LoNDoNAFP

A man was in police custody Mondayafter being arrested for throwing abottle onto the track the second themen's Olympic 100m final was aboutto start, London police said.

The man shouted abuse thenthrew the bottle just as the show-piece final was about to get underway, a Scotland Yard spokesmansaid.

As the starter called "set" andthe athletes rose to wait for the bang,the bottle landed behind the blocksin lane five, a few metres (yards) be-hind Jamaica's Yohan Blake, whowent on to take the silver medal.

It came to a halt just as thesprinters set off.

Blake said: "I was so focused Ididn't see anything. I was so focusedon just running to the line."

The police spokesman told AFPthat the man was arrested inside theOlympic Stadium "on suspicion ofcausing a public nuisance".

"He had been heard to shout

abuse and then threw a plastic bottleon to the track," he said.

"That was immediately prior tothe start of the men's 100m final. Heremains in custody at an east Lon-don police station."

Jamaica's usain Bolt defendedhis Olympic title, winning the race ina new Olympic record of 9.63 sec-onds.

Speaking afterwards, Bolt toldreporters he had been unaware ofthe incident.

"I keep hearing that. I don'tknow who would have done that," hesaid. uS sprinter Justin Gatlin, whowon bronze, said: "It was a little dis-traction and I didn't know what itwas.

"But when you're in those blocksand the whole stadium's quiet youcan hear a pin drop."

Gatlin said the incident had notaffected the race.

"You just have to block it out andgo out there and do what you got todo. You can't complain about that,the race went on and it was a greatrace."


Page 18

lightning bolt flashesto london gold

Man arrested for throwing bottle on 100m track

LoNDoNAgHA AKBAR

AT the start of their campaignthe Aussies looked formida-ble, even insuperable. Theirrecord since 2010 had been

awesome, and proclaimed WorldChampions they strutted as insufferablyas only Aussie sportsmen can. And itseemed becoming: after all they hadkept on winning everything post-delhiWorld Cup – the Commonwealth goldand the Champions Trophy etc.

Here they pummeled the SouthAfricans 6-0 in the opener, and humil-iated Spain 5-0 to confirm that theywere by far the favourites.

Sean Kerly, the great Great BritainOlympic gold winning striker of the1980s, had similar thoughts. But hav-ing been around for as long as he hasbeen, and with a Pom’s insight aboutthe arch rival, Kerly was quick to adda proviso: “With the Aussies you never

know… At times they can be their ownworst enemy”.

Prophetic words? Or had the goldshirts peaked too early? We shall see.In their last two matches, a 2-2 drawversus Argentina another 3-3 resultagainst Great Britain – both from avantage of 2-0 and 3-0 respectively,they seem to have forgotten how towin a game.

It may be deceptive, but the Aussiesnow do look vulnerable. And for boththeir last pool game, it is Pakistan thatfaces them today. Can Team Pakistanseize the moment and revive itsprospects of sneaking into the semis orwill it be the Aussies stamping their au-thority once again, remains to be seen.

But the group has been thrownwide open by the daring Great Britaindraw with all three goals in the secondhalf that restricted the Aussies to eightpoints – level with GB, with Pakistanand Spain trailing at three and fourwith seven points apiece.

Pakistan take on the Aussies in thefirst game, and whatever the result,until the evening game between Spainand Britain is not played out, whostands where would not be clear.

There is no gainsaying that despitethe two confounding results, theAussies are still far better equipped totrounce Pakistan and reassert them-selves. Regardless Pakistan should stillgo out with ambition burning bright.As is their wont, the Aussies would tryto bully them into submission. But ifthe aggression and a good tempo weremaintained by Sohail Abbas and hischarges, with the mantle of unassail-ability already having slipped, theAussies might feel the heat. At suchtimes, they also become edgy. If any-thing, the Brits have proved that onsuch occasions they can be stopped intheir tracks – and even be bested.

It is going to be one tense 70 min-utes, and a win can do Pakistan awhole world of good.

Team Pakistan’smoment to seize

lONDON: A man is detained by security shortly after a bottle has been thrown onto the track the second the men's 100m final at the athleticswas about to start on August 5, 2012 in london, during the london 2012 Olympic Games. AFP

indian hockey coachfeels the heat ofteam’s early exit

LoNDoNAFP

India hockey coach Michael nobbs has apol-ogised for his team's embarrassing OlympicGames performance, claiming they have letdown the entire nation. Eight-time champi-ons India have lost all four of their prelimi-nary round matches in London and are indanger of finishing last in the 12-team tour-nament. The national mood has not beenimproved by seeing bitter rivals Pakistanmove to the brink of qualifying for the semi-finals. India's 4-1 defeat to South Korea onSunday left them with a record of six goalsscored against 15 conceded and sitting rockbottom of Group B. Meanwhile, Pakistan,the three-time champions, find themselveson the verge of a semi-final place in GroupA, although they face a tough task if they areto get through to Thursday's knockoutround. Pakistan, gold medallists in 1960,1968 and 1984, stepped back into con-tention with a nail-biting 5-4 win over SouthAfrica. It took their points tally to sevenfrom four matches -- one behind World Cupwinners Australia and Great Britain. OnTuesday, Pakistan tackle Australia whileSpain, the Beijing 2008 silver medallistswho also have seven points, face the hosts.Both Australia and Britain are unbeaten inthe tournament. "Australia are one of thebest sides here. We cannot make any mis-takes in that match," said Pakistan coachAkhtar Chaudhry. "We have to play verycarefully and if my forwards move like theydid against South Africa, it will be a verygood match." Two goals in the last 10 min-utes saved Pakistan's chances of making thesemi-finals in Sunday's win over SouthAfrica, the tournament's highest-scoringmatch so far. Captain Sohail Abbas made it4-4 in the 64th minute with a trademarkpenalty corner flick into the top corner be-fore Waseem Ahmad claimed Pakistan'swinner three minutes later. "It's do-or-diegame against Australia but our spirits arevery high," said Pakistan star Rehan Butt.

HOCKeY POINTs TABle gROUP A

RK TeAM MP W T l gF gA DIFF PTs1 Australia 4 2 2 0 16 5 11 82 Great britain 4 2 2 0 13 7 6 83 Pakistan 4 2 1 1 9 9 0 74 Spain 4 2 1 1 7 9 -2 75 Argentina 4 0 1 3 4 11 -7 16 South Africa 4 0 1 3 8 16 -8 1

gROUP B1 Netherlands 4 4 0 0 14 5 9 122 Germany 4 3 0 1 9 6 3 93 Korea 4 2 0 2 7 4 3 64 belgium 4 1 1 2 5 7 -2 45 New zealand 4 1 1 2 5 9 -4 46 india 4 0 0 4 6 15 -9 0

Only win ensuresPakistan placein last four

Pakistan will play their last leaguematch against World Champions Aus-tralia at Riverbank Arena on Tuesday(August 7). This group A match willstart at 14.45 hours (PST).Pakistan has won five and Australiafour in nine matches played betweenthe two teams in Olympics. Pakistanhas scored 16 and conceded 19 goals inthese matches.After losing four successive matchesagainst Pakistan, Australia went to wintheir first match at Montreal in 1976.Australia beat Pakistan 2-1 in the semifinal.The Aussies defeated Pakistan 3-1 whentwo teams played last time at BeijingOlympics four years ago.Group A is still wide open after GreatBritain staged the best comeback of thisOlympic hockey tournament to date,scoring three goals in a 19-minute spanto recover from a three-goal deficit anddraw current World Champion Aus-tralia, 3-3. James Tindall’s goal with4:30 left in regulation capped the im-probable comeback and threw theGroup A standings back into chaos.Australia and Great Britain now leadthe hotly contested group with eightpoints, while Pakistan and Spain haveseven points each. It means the twosemi-final spots all come down to Tues-day’s preliminary round matches whenAustralia takes on Pakistan and GreatBritain faces Spain.Australia entered the tournament look-ing invincible with an extremely strongstart and every recent title under thesun, but the preliminary round actionhas chipped away at the armor and nowthey find themselves in an unusual tightspot for the last game of the group.Pakistan’s win against Australia willmake sure that Pakistan qualifies forthe semi final of the London Olympics2012.

PAK-AUs IN OlYMPIC HOCKeY:

YeAR VeNUe ROUND ResUlT sCORe

1960 Rome Group match Pak beat Aus 3-0

1964 Tokyo Group match Pak beat Aus 2-1

1968 mexico Group match Pak beat Aus 3-2

1968 mexico final Pak beat Aus 2-1

1976 montreal Semi final Aus beat Pak 2-1

1984 lA Semi final Pak beat Aus 1-0

1988 Seoul Group match Aus beat Pak 4-0

2000 Sydney Third place Aus beat Pak 6-3

2008 beijing Group match Aus beat Pak 3-1

S.PERvEZ QAISER

stats corner


LoNDoNAgeNCIes

The Russian duo have dominatedtoday's Synchronised Swimming action,with their free routine judged near per-fect.

natalia Ischenko and Svetlana Ro-mashina compete in the duets Synchro-nised Swimming free routinepreliminary on day 10 of the London2012 Olympic Games.

Russia has been the nation to beat inSynchronised Swimming since winningtheir first gold at Sydney 12 years agoand are the clear favourites at London2012.

natalia Ishchenko and Svetlana Ro-mashina concluded a nigh-on perfectlyexecuted, haunting routine to the musicof the film Sleepy Hollow today.

Their technical routine was judgedto have been just 1.800 off perfectionyesterday and today the judges awardedthem a total of 98.600.

When combined with yesterday'smark, that gave them an overall result of196.800 out of 200. China go into thefinal in second place, with Spain third.

Ischenko said: 'Today we are maybeabout 90 per cent happy. We have smallthings to fix for the final. I hope thejudges did not see the mistakes ourcoach saw.'

Sports 16


QUEENSLANDsTAFF RePORT

THE ICC u19 Cricket WorldCup 2012 officially opened inBrisbane with representativesfrom the 16 competing sides

urged to “enjoy every moment’’ of theninth edition of the event to be stagedfrom August 11 to 26 in Queensland.

The Welcome Function, hosted inthe Century Room, over-looking theAllan Border Field at the Queensland

Cricket Headquarters, had legendarypresences and of individuals wholoomed large wherever the players,coaches and team officials looked.

Paintings of noted Queenslandcricket identities such as Matthew Hay-den, Andrew Symonds, Martin Love andJimmy Maher, who had played 100 ormore first-class matches for their State,looked down from the walls as pastgreats paid tribute to the next genera-tion of potential stars from the 10 FullMembers and six qualifiers from the As-

sociate and Affiliate Member countries.International cricket identities such

as Courtney Walsh, david Boon, GeoffLawson, Chris Harris, Greg Chappelland local heroes Ian Healy, MichaelKasprowicz, Stuart Law (another two tohave their paintings on display in theCentury Room) mixed with the youngmen who will represent their countrieswhen the tournament gets underwaythis week. Harris (Zimbabwe), Lawson(Afghanistan) and Law (Australia) willhave coaching roles for the World Cupwhile Chappell (Australia) and Walsh(West Indies) occupy managementroles. The theme from all speakers at theopening ceremony was a simple one –enjoyment. The traditional custodians ofthe land where the ceremony took place,the Turrbal people, provided the “wel-come to country” ceremony courtesy ofelder ‘uncle’ Joe Kirk, whose grandsonsdanced a welcome to the teams gath-ered. Kasprowicz, speaking as the offi-cial representative from CricketAustralia, where he is one of twoQueensland based directors, highlightedthe friendships he made when he playedat u19 level for Australia, where his cap-tain was damien Martyn and his wicket-keeper was Adam Gilchrist.

Boon, one of the three match refer-ees for the tournament, urged all teamsto play hard, be competitive, but aboveall to enjoy their experience.

Master of Ceremonies Healy said thechance to play in three different areas ofQueensland, with matches hosted in

Brisbane, on the Sunshine Coast and inTownsville, would provide teams with awonderful chance to enjoy the Queens-land surrounds.

Kasprowicz congratulated all of thesides upon reaching the tournament,and emphasised that this event couldwell be the stepping stone for a numberof players to return for the ICC CricketWorld Cup 2015 to be hosted in Aus-tralia and new Zealand. “This tourna-ment will provide the best youngcricketers in the world with an ideal op-portunity to enjoy international expo-sure, showcase their skills and lay aclaim for higher honours in their fu-ture,’’ he said. If past ICC u19 CricketWorld Cups are any guide, there are anumber of young men that we will see inthe next few weeks who will be well incontention to be back in Australia andnew Zealand in 2015 when the biggestevent on the international cricketing cal-endar, the World Cup, will be staged.”

He made special mention of the sixqualifying nations – Papua new Guinea,nepal, namibia, Scotland, Ireland andAfghanistan – and wished them luck forthe next two weeks.

Kasprowicz also praised the army ofvolunteers from Queensland who willgive of their time during the tourna-ment. “As we all know, volunteers arethe lifeblood of our game and this eventis the perfect example of all those hard-working individuals who give so freely oftheir time to make our game as strong asit is,” he said.

ICC U19 Cricket World Cup2012 opens in Queensland

Russian pair near perfect yet again

kHABEER UL tANWIR

The Pakistan hockey team startedits Olympic quest as underdogs.Their performance in the first

four games even though cannot becalled as extraordinary but they havestill kept the country’s hopes alive.

Pakistan started its Olympic cam-paign after a dismal performance atthe Azlan Shah Cup at Ipoh, Malaysiawhere Pakistan which is currentlyranked eighth in the hockey worldfinished rock bottom. They faced con-secutive defeats at the hands ofMalaysia, South Korea, Britain, Indiaand new Zealand. Apart fromMalaysia, all the other teams had aplace in the Olympics. The team man-agement and the PHF in particulargave same old lame excuses to theirdismal performance. One of them wasof the blue turf but one fails to under-stand why the turf was blamed fortheir own follies like crucial missingas it is just the change of colour oth-erwise the surface is the same.

Hockey pundits believe the sack-ing dutch coach Michel van den justbefore team’s Olympics preparationdented the team’s progress but theyshould understand that at that pointin time the team was being built undernew management. Although under thedutch coach, the team regained the2010 Asian Games gold medal at

Guangzhou, China after a lapse of 20years and qualified for the LondonOlympics and also won silver in the2011 edition of the Azlan Shah Cupbut they should also understand theimplication the PHF was facing for hisnon-cooperation in team’s training.

Pakistan though began itsOlympics campaign with a drawagainst Spain but it showed glimpsesof its past by winning against Ar-gentina and South Africa. But theirspineless loss to Great Britain in be-tween made things hard for them andhas put them in a do-or-die situation

in their last league match againstAustralia.

Their defeat to Britain yielded im-mense criticism from Olympians butthe mix of seniors and juniorsbrought Pakistan back into con-tention with win over South Africaand the odds turned slightly in Pak-istan’s favour after Australia played adraw against Argentina. And now allthe top four teams of Pool A Pakistan,Australia, Great Britain and Spainwould be dying to earn a place in thelast four. Australia and Great Britaincan also rest with a draw but Pakistanand Spain are in a must win situation.

All Pakistan need is the keep itsdefence knitted stronger and the mid-field and forwards work with coordi-nation with the latter finding a properopening to land home the ball. Onemust remind that Pakistan is the onlyteam that has surprised the Aus-tralians in Australia to win a tri-na-tion tournament recently and asManzoor Junior, the team captain of1984 Gold Medalist Olympic team,puts it that if Pakistan plays its tradi-tional game of through passes andrapid attacks their place in the semi-final is certain.

So Pakistan’s only hope at theLondon Olympics lies with the GreenShirts who have the fire and all theyneed is to advocate it in practical onthe field.

Medal hope is still aliveengland, SA secondtest ends in a draw

LEEDSAFP

The second test between England andSouth Africa ended in a draw o the fifthand final day of the match here at the atthe Headingley o Monday Earlier, KevinPietersen enjoyed rare success as abowler and Stuart Broad took fourquick wickets to give South Africa someanxious moments just before tea. de-spite their efforts, the match was almostcertain to end in a draw. South Africawere 239 for seven at tea, a lead of 233with a possible 44 overs remaining.Pietersen followed up a thrilling cen-tury in the first innings by taking thefirst three wickets with his occasionaloff-spin bowling. He had never takenmore than one wicket in an innings in87 previous Test matches. WhilePietersen prised open the South Africanbatting, dismissing Jacques Rudolph,Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla, heleaked runs with some loose deliveries.After he had taken three for 52 in nineovers, captain Andrew Strauss took himoff and brought back fast bowler Broad.With his fourth ball Broad trapped ABde Villiers leg before wicket.

sOUTH AFRICA, FIRsT INNINgs: 419, eNglAND, FIRsT INNINgs:

425, sOUTH AFRICA, seCOND INNINgs (OVeRNIgHT 39-0)

JA Rudolph lbw b Pietersen 69

gC smith c Taylor b Pietersen 52

HM Amla c Cook b Pietersen 28

AB de Villiers lbw b Broad 44

JH Kallis c †Prior b Broad 27

JP Duminy lbw b Broad 0

VD Philander lbw b Broad 6

AN Petersen not out 16

DW steyn c & b Anderson 3

M Morkel c Cook b Broad 10

eXTRAs: (lb 2, w 1) 3

TOTAl: (9 wickets dec; 67.4 overs) 258

Fall of wickets 1-120 (Rudolph, 37.2 ov), 2-129 (smith, 41.5 ov),

3-182 (Amla, 51.5 ov), 4-209 (de Villiers, 55.4 ov),5-209 (Duminy,

55.5 ov), 6-223 (Philander, 59.1 ov), 7-230 (Kallis, 61.5 ov), 8-247

(steyn, 66.1 ov), 9-258 (Morkel, 67.4 ov)

BOWlINg: JM Anderson 19-7-40-1, sCJ Broad 16.4-2-69-5, sT

Finn 14-2-55-0, TT Bresnan 9-2-40-0, KP Pietersen 9-1-52-3

eNglAND 2ND INNINgs (TARgeT: 253 RUNs)

KP Pietersen c Imran Tahir b Philander 12

AN Cook c Rudolph b steyn 46

AJ strauss c & b Duminy 22

IJl Trott not out 30

MJ Prior run out (smith/†de Villiers) 7

IR Bell not out 3

eXTRAs (lb 8, w 1, nb 1) 10

TOTAl (4 wickets; 33 overs) 130

Fall of wickets 1-21 (Pietersen, 3.1 ov), 2-75 (strauss, 13.6 ov), 3-

90 (Cook, 17.4 ov), 4-106 (Prior, 19.4 ov)

BOWlINg: M Morkel 10-4-33-0, VD Philander 6-1-26-1, DW steyn

7-1-26-1, Imran Tahir 4-0-20-0, JP Duminy 2-0-10-1, JH Kallis 4-

2-7-0, Toss: england, Match drawn

sCOReBOARD

Ostapchukwins women’sshot put gold

LoNDoNAFP

Belarus' nadezhda Ostapchuk won thewomen's Olympic shot put title here onMonday with a throw of 21.36m. The 31-year-old inflicted the first defeat in nearlytwo years on defending champion ValerieAdams of new Zealand, who took silver with20.70m, while Russia's Yevgeniya Kolodkotook bronze with a personal best of 20.48m.

Noroozi winssecond gold for iran

LoNDoNAgeNCIes

Iran won their second Greco-RomanWrestling gold in two days after Omidnoroozi beat Georgia's Revaz Lashkhi in the60kg category this evening. despite beingone of the powerhouses of Olympic wrestling,Iran had not won Olympic gold in the Greco-Roman discipline before London, but nowthey have two after noroozi followed compa-triot Hamid Soryan by winning at the ExCeL.

Kom sets upboxing medal

LoNDoN AgeNCIes

Mary Kom guaranteed India an Olympic FlyWeight Boxing medal as she booked herplace in the semis by defeating Tunisia'sMaroua. The 29-year-old five-time championfought her way to a 15-6 win and there wasno disguising her delight. She said: 'I'm so, sohappy. This is the first time women's boxinghas been included in the Olympics. I waitedfor so many years to be a part of the Olympicsand when I have become a part of it, it feelsso good to go back home with a medal.'

QueeNSlAND: The participating captains and other players of the iCC u19 Cricket world Cup2012 at the Allan border field, brisbane. The iCC u19 Cricket world Cup 2012 will be staged inQueensland August 11 to 26 and Australia will defend the title.

FINAL RESULTS TILL 1:00 AM


Sharapova now No 2

PARIS: Russia's Maria Sharapova, winner of thesilver medal at the London Olympics, moved upone place to world number two in the latest WTArankings released on Monday. Belarussian Victo-ria Azarenka, winner of bronze in London, holdsthe world number one ranking, as Poland's Ag-nieszka Radwanska paid the price for her firstround defeat as she fell one spot to world numberthree. Olympic champion Serena Williams, win-ner of the singles gold and the doubles with sisterVenus, has moved closer to the leading trio.Williams is less than 800 points off the top spotwhich she hasn't held since October 2010. AFP

RANKINgs1. ViCTORiA AzAReNKA (blR) 8820 PTS2. mARiA SHARAPOVA (RuS) 8720 (+1)

3. AGNieSzKA RADwANSKA (POl) 8260 (-1)4. SeReNA williAmS (uSA) 80455. SAmANTHA STOSuR (AuS) 61956. PeTRA KViTOVA (Cze) 52757. ANGeliQue KeRbeR (GeR) 52258. CAROliNe wOzNiACKi (DeN) 42069. SARA eRRANi (iTA) 362010. mARiON bARTOli (fRA) 340011. li NA (CHN) 324512. ANA iVANOViC (SRb) 308513. DOmiNiKA CibulKOVA (SVK) 2945 (+1)14. mARiA KiRileNKO (RuS) 2835 (+1)15. VeRA zVONAReVA (RuS) 2800 (-2)16. KAiA KANePi (eST) 251417. flAViA PeNNeTTA (iTA) 2270 (+2)18. JeleNA JANKOViC (SRb) 2220

ATP world rankings

PARIS: Andy Murray's Olympic gold medal win inLondon on Sunday has allowed him to close the gap

on Rafael nadal for third place in the world rank-ings. The Scot, who defeated world no.1 Roger Fed-erer in straight sets to record the biggest win of hiscareer, is now just 785 points behind the Spaniardgoing into the buildup to the uS Open which startsin late August. nadal has already said he will notplay in the Masters series events in Toronto andCincinnati to fully recover from strained knee mus-cles. Federer retained the top ranking but hasnovak djokovic breathing down his neck. AFP

ATP WORlD RANKINgs TOP 20

1. ROGeR feDeReR (Sui) 11435 PTS2. NOVAK DJOKOViC (SRb) 112703. RAfAel NADAl (eSP) 89054. ANDY muRRAY (GbR) 81205. DAViD feRReR (eSP) 54556. JO-wilfRieD TSONGA (fRA) 52307. TOmAS beRDYCH (Cze) 45158. JuAN mARTíN Del POTRO (ARG) 3340 (+1)9. JANKO TiPSAReViC (SRb) 3320 (-1)10. JuAN mONACO (ARG) 269511. NiCOlAS AlmAGRO (eSP) 2575 (+1)12. JOHN iSNeR (uSA) 2440 (-1)13. mARDY fiSH (uSA) 2135 (+2)14. GilleS SimON (fRA) 2070 (-1)15. mARiN CiliC (CRO) 2015 (-1)16. OleKSANDR DOlGOPOlOV JR. (uKR) 1940 (+9)17. Kei NiSHiKORi (JPN) 177018. PHiliPP KOHlSCHReibeR (GeR) 1685 (-2)

Sports17

bolt sets OlympicRecord to retain title

usain Bolt emphatically confirmed his status as thegreatest sprinter in history as he retained his Olympic100m title in peerless fashion at London 2012, winningSunday’s final in an Olympic record time of 9.63 sec-onds. The Jamaican, who holds the world record, fin-ished ahead of countryman Yohan Blake and AmericanJustin Gatlin. Seven of the eight finalists ran under 10seconds in what was the fastest Olympic 100m final inhistory. But usain Bolt came home first, clocking the sec-ond quickest time in history. Yohan Blake equalled hispersonal best of 9.75 in second, with Justin Gatlin alsosetting a new personal best of 9.79 as he took the bronze.

FAsTesT 100M TIMes:

TIMe ATHleTe VeNUe DATe9.58 secs usain bolt berlin 16-08-20099.63secs usain bolt london 05-08-20129.69secs usain bolt beijing 16-08-20089.69secs Tyson Gay Shanghai 20-09-20099.71secs Tyson Gay berlin 16-08-2009

MeN's 100 MeTRes WINNeRs IN OlYMPIC

YeAR VeNUe WINNeR TIMINgs1896 Athens Thomas burke (uSA) 12.01900 Paris frank Jarvis (uSA) 11.01904 St louis Archie Hahn (uSA) 11.01908 london Reginald walker (RSA) 10.71912 Stockholm Ralph Craig (uSA) 10.81920 Antwerp Charles Paddock (uSA) 10.81924 Paris Harold Abrahams (britain) 10.6 (OR)1928 Amsterdam Percy williams (Canada) 10.81932 los Angeles eddie Tolan (uSA) 10.3 (wR)1936 berlin Jesse Owens (uSA) 10.3 (ewR)1948 london Harrison Dillard (uSA) 10.3 (eOR)1952 Helsinki lindy Remigino (uSA) 10.41956 melbourne bobby-Joe morrow (uSA) 10.51960 Rome Armin Hary (Germany) 10.2 (OR)1964 Tokyo bob Hayes (uSA) 10.0 (wR)1968 mexico City James Hines (uSA) 9.9 (wR)1972 munich Valeriy borzov (Soviet union) 10.141976 montreal H Crawford (Trinidad & Tobago) 10.061980 moscow Allen wells (Great britain) 10.251984 los Angeles Carl lewis (uSA) 9.991988 Seoul Carl lewis (uSA) 9.92 (wR)1992 barcelona linford Christie (Great britain) 9.961996 Atlanta Donovan bailey (Canada) 9.84 (wR)2000 Sydney maurice Greene (uSA) 9.872004 Athens Justin Gatlin (uSA) 9.852008 beijing usain bolt (Jamaica) 9.69 (wR)2012 london usain bolt (Jamaica) 9.63 (OR)

SLOG and exhilaration, moreslog, more exhilaration, yetmore slog and yet more exhil-aration. After a time, such is

the grind that fatigue sets in. The mindand the body say: stop and escape tocomfort and relax. The spirit says, per-severe and participate – after all, it’sonly another few days, and then it wouldall be gone, for four years, no less.

This is how it goes at every OlympicGames. You come enthused, you get ex-hausted but then you continually getrecharged – by a sporting endeavourthat trumps the best one had seen andleaves an indelible imprint, by a volun-teer who is as bone tired as one is yet notallowing the smile to fade away, by a col-league who stays gamely engaged de-spite working against time, his own

deadline haunting him.Above everything else feet hurt. That

happens regardless of where the Gamesare held – Atlanta, Sydney, Beijing or nowat London. The newest bugbear is security– and the onus to keep the Games inci-dent-free takes precedence over all else.

At Beijing, the security was a no-non-sense affair. But with their eye for foren-sic detail, or perhaps out of practice abetter nuanced approached, it was not re-ally visibly ubiquitous and overbearing.But the Brits are so absolutely paranoidabout terror, and their obsession for se-curity knows no bounds.

Their solution to this, like almost ourentire dMG class (perhaps it was passedon to them from the days of the Raj) is tosegregate and lock people out.

The consequence is more steellocking people from stepping out oftheir assigned areas than in perhaps allthe jails on this planet locking the

criminals in. This translates into walksfor miles to get from one point to an-other, and in between going throughunending stairs everywhere – tempo-rary steel bridges erected to providecumbersome detours – when actuallyone just intended to go next door.

What indeed is mindboggling is thevolume of security once you get into thelocked-in areas, your baggage screenedand accreditation already checkedscores of times, and you still cannot goanywhere close to the athletes withwhom you want to converse, chat upwith the officials who belong to yourcountry and whose responses are essen-tial to provide insight and depth.

The amazing part is that this is beingdone to nearly 27,000 athletes, officialsand media when each one of them is ac-credited and security cleared!

But the spectacle is really very pow-erful. Last night I spent three hours to getto and get back from the Olympic Sta-dium (since one had arrived late and allseats had been taken, watched it standingwith hundreds of other journalists barelyable to stand after a long, tough day at theoffice) for an event that lasted only nineseconds and a bit.

But to watch usain Bolt thunder out ofthe blocks and defend his 100-metre sprintcrown in the presence of others all eightwho were good enough to win gold thoughonly fractions of a second slower and stillfaster than blinking of an eye was superb.

Bolt clocked his second best timeever, the new Olympic record. Witnessingit from a vantage point was glorious – thewhole pack getting out of the blocks atlightening pace and then the winner sep-arated from the second best by 12 frac-tions of a second.

A moment of exhilaration that wouldremain etched to memory. And it paid athousand times back for the pain.


LoNDoNAFP

Britain's Andy Murray believes his Olympic triumphwill provide the perfect springboard to break his GrandSlam drought. Murray produced the performance of alifetime to win his first Olympic gold medal with acrushing 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 demolition of world number oneRoger Federer in the men's final on Sunday. The 25-year-old's astonishing display avenged his heart-break-ing Wimbledon final defeat against Federer last month,but more importantly for Murray it provided concreteevidence that he can win these kind of high-stakes en-counters with the world's best players. Murray has beenbeaten in four Grand Slam finals and some suggestedthe world number four was destined to be rememberedas a nearly-man who fell short of the standards set byFederer, Rafael nadal and novak djokovic.

At times, Murray has also doubted whether hecould match-up to those three giants of the men'sgame and that nagging feeling triggered his tearful re-action to losing the Wimbledon final. But now Murray

has banished those demons by humiliating seven-time Wimbledon champion Federer on Centre Courtand he believes that is the perfect preparation for a re-newed assault on the majors, starting at the uS Openin new York later this month. "It will help with theway I go into this kind of match," Murray said. "ComeuS Open time I hope this will have given me the con-fidence to go in there and believe in myself a bit morethan I have in the past. "I should give myself a shot at

winning there. I played very well at the uS Open inthe past. It's a surface I like playing on. I hope I canhave a good run there." Murray's dominance of Fed-erer was so complete that he didn't drop a serve in theentire match and lost only one point on his serve inthe final set. Federer has rarely been so brutally dis-patched and it was the kind of jaw-dropping displaythat took even Murray by surprise.

"I have lost some tough matches and I've had a lotof questions asked about me many times," said Murray,the first British man to win Olympic singles gold sinceJosiah Ritchie in 1908. "So I'm just glad I managed toput on a performance I've been waiting for. "To winagainst Roger in straight sets on Centre Court, it prob-ably hasn't happened for years, so I must have played avery good match. "It was a big match for both of us. Sojust to win in the way that I did makes those losses a biteasier to take." There has been a new-found maturityand muscularity about Murray's play since losing atWimbledon and he believes his positive reaction to thatdefeat -- so different to his response to past let-downs -- was the key to the way he thrived at the Games.

Golden glory can spark more success, says Murray

Exhilaration, slogand magnificent Bolt

S. PERvEZ QAISER

stats corner

AgHA AkBAR

London diary


RANK COUNTRY g s B TOTAl1 China 31 19 14 642 uSA 28 14 19 613 Great britain 16 11 11 384 South Korea 11 5 6 225 france 8 8 9 256 italy 7 5 4 167 Kazakhstan 6 0 0 68 Russia 5 17 15 379 Germany 5 10 7 2210 Hungary 4 1 3 811 North Korea 4 0 1 512 Netherlands 3 2 4 913 South Africa 3 1 0 414 New zealand 3 0 4 715 Japan 2 12 13 2716 Denmark 2 4 2 816 Romania 2 4 2 818 belarus 2 2 3 719 Cuba 2 2 1 520 brazil 2 1 5 821 Jamaica 2 1 1 421 Poland 2 1 1 423 ukraine 2 0 6 824 ethiopia 2 0 1 325 Australia 1 12 7 20

TOP 25 MeDAl COUNTRIes UNTIl lAsT UPDATe

MeDAls TABle

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LONDON OLYMPIC

08:00AM

Sports 18

LoNDoNAFP

U SAIn Bolt stormed to a success-ful defence of his Olympic 100mcrown in the second-fastest time

ever recorded Sunday as the Jamaicansuperstar confirmed his status as thegreatest sprinter of all time. Bolt made ahesitant start but left the field for deadfrom 60 metres to win by two metres(yards) in 9.63sec, slower only than hisworld record of 9.58sec set in 2009.

Jamaican compatriot and trainingpartner Yohan Blake, long tipped asBolt's successor as the fastest man inthe world, claimed silver afterequalling his personal best of 9.75sec.American 2004 Olympic gold medal-

list Justin Gatlin completed his re-markable comeback from a four-yeardoping ban by taking the bronzemedal in a personal best of 9.79sec.The victory crushed pre-Olympicsconcerns that Bolt was suffering a cri-

sis of form and fitness after his defeatto Blake in the Jamaican trials and in-jury concerns. "I tell you people, whenit comes to the championships it'sabout business for me -- and I broughtit," said Bolt, who kissed the trackafter his win and performed his trade-mark bow-and-arrow celebration.

With Bolt, Tyson Gay, Asafa Powelland Blake topping the all-time 100mlist, the final featured the four fastestmen in history. "usain has been to thislevel and he knows what it takes, he's aworld beater and he's fastest man in theworld," said Blake. The 2007 doubleworld champion Tyson Gay came infourth, one hundredth of a second off histeammate Gatlin in 9.80sec, with a thirdAmerican, Ryan Bailey, fifth in 9.88.

Title favouritesPearson, Rudisha,Adams coast

LoNDoNAFP

Title favourites Sally Pearson of Australia,Kenyan david Rudisha and new ZealanderValerie Adams all sailed through their re-spective Olympic qualifying heats on Mon-day. The trio nailed world golds in daegu,South Korea, last year and again showedtheir class in front of another packed morn-ing session at the Olympic Stadium in eastLondon. Pearson clocked the leading timein the 100m hurdles, timing 12.57sec to fin-ish ahead of American duo Lolo Jones andKellie Wells, and Turkey's two-time defend-ing European champion nevin Yanit. "I wasquite nervous and I'm glad it's over," saidPearson. "I can go back and fix my body fortomorrow now. "There's no more work todo. This is it. Tomorrow is another day atthe office and I'll see what I can do." Alsomaking the cut was reigning Olympicchampion dawn Harper, but one to missout was 2009 world champion BrigitteFoster-Hylton, the 37-year-old Jamaicanclipping a hurdle to limp home well off thepace in 13.98. To the crowd's dismay,there was no Jessica Ennis, the recently-crowned heptathlon gold medallist havingopted out of the individual hurdles despiterunning a blistering 12.54sec en route towinning the mutli-discipline event.

LIGHTNING BOLTFLASHES TO LONDON GOLD


minxia overcomespersonal sacrificeto win sixth medal

LoNDoNeDNA ZHOU

Wu Minxia took gold in women'sthree-meter springboard last night,making diving history and continu-ing China’s winning streaks in thesport. Her successes here in Londonhave come at great personal sacri-fice. Wu began training when shewas six years old, and at 16 she lefthome to train a government-spon-sored facility. Last week, after win-ning the 3m synchronizedspringboard final, Wu’s parents fi-nally revealed the news of her grand-parents’ death over a year ago, aswell as her mother’s eight-year battlewith breast cancer, which is cur-rently in remission. The family hadkept the news secret from her inorder to not affect her performancein London 2012. The 26-year oldfrom Shanghai easily won thewomen’s three-metre springboardwith 414.00 points, making this hersixth medal and first individual gold.She ties with her former synchro-nized diving partner Guo Jingjing asthe most-decorated diver of all time.Wu’s current synchro partner He Ziwon silver, while Mexico’s LauraSanchez Soto captured bronze in anupset over Italy's Tania Cagnotto.Earlier in the week, Wu also wonthe 3m synchronized springboardtitle with He, making her the firstwoman to win three consecutiveOlympic synchronized titles. She isalso the only other woman besidesGuo to have won both the 3mspringboard and 3m synchronizedspringboard at the Olympic Games.It was impossible to watch Wu’sperformance over the past weekand not expect her to win gold.

LONDON: Usain Bolt

crosses the finish line

with other runners. AFP

lONDON: Jamaica’s usain bolt celebrates after winning the gold medal in the men's 100m final at the athletics event duringthe london 2012 Olympic Games on August 5, 2012 in london. AFP

Gold medallist minxia wu of China poseson the podium in the medal ceremonyfor the women's 3m Springboard Divingfinal at the Aquatics Centre.



19

Published by Arif Nizami at Qandeel Printing Press, 4 Queens Road, Lahore. Editor: Arif Nizami

ISLAMABADAgeNCIes

THE Supreme Court on Mondayasked for the record of PakistanPeople’s Party (PPP) Senator Faisal

Raza Abidi’s press conference in which hecalled for the resignation of Chief JusticeIftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.

The CJ sought the footage of thepress briefing to see whether it cameunder contempt of court or not. Abidion Sunday held a press conference atthe national Press Club in Islamabadand accused the CJ of acquitting a ter-rorist who allegedly killed 100 people.He also said he would soon table a billagainst the judges who had taken oathunder the Provisional ConstitutionOrder (PCO).

A petition was filed in the SupremeCourt, seeking the initiation contempt of

court proceedings against Senator Abidiover his press conference. The petitionalso named the PEMRA chairman and aprivate TV anchor as respondents. Peti-tioner Tariq Asad pleaded the court thatstrict action should be taken against theparties involved under the Contempt ofCourt Law. He said criticism of the chiefjustice could not be termed justified.

The petition said the private TVchannel failed to take precautionarymeasures in this regard. Meanwhile, TVchannels reported that following theserving of a show-cause notice on Abidiby the PPP, the ruling party decided tothrow him out of the PPP core commit-tee, with the PM saying he did not en-dorse Abidi’s views regarding the CJ.The PPP leadership also announced aban on Abidi’s entry to the Presidency,some channels claimed.

In a brief chat with reporters, the

PM also said that Abidi was not thePPP’s official spokesman and did notrepresent the government or the rulingparty. However, Abidi told ARY newsthat the party had only issued him ashow-cause notice and he would re-spond to it. He denied that he had beenbarred from visiting the Presidency orthat he had been struck off from theparty’s core committee. “I’m a memberof the PPP and will remain so until mylast breath…I met President Zardari justthree days ago,” he said.

Speaking in the same program, Pres-ident’s Spokesman Farhatullah Babarsaid no notifications are issued regard-ing permission or restriction on anyonevisiting the Presidency. He also said thatthe core committee was not a formalbody so no notifications are issued re-garding induction or removal of mem-bers from the committee.

Syria Pm defects,accuses Assadregime of ‘genocide’

DAMASCUSAFP

Syrian Prime Minister Riad Hijab announcedhe was joining the rebels on Monday afterslipping across the border into Jordan duringthe night in the highest-ranking defection ofthe nearly 17-month uprising. Hijab was oneof the leading Sunni Muslims in PresidentBashar al Assad’s minority Alawite-dominated regime. He accused his formermaster of carrying out “genocide” against hisown people but said four decades of Assadfamily rule were collapsing. “I announce mydefection today (Monday) from the regime ofkilling and terror, and I join the ranks of therevolt,” Hijab said in statement read by hisspokesman Mohammed al-Otri on Al-Jazeeranews channel from Amman. “Syria is passingthrough the most difficult war crimes,genocide, and barbaric killings and massacresagainst unarmed citizens,” he said. Hijab’shome province of deir Ezzor in the northeasthas been one of the key battlegrounds of theconflict and seen a mounting death toll fromoperations by the army in recent weeks. ASSAULT: Word of Hijab’s defectioncame as the army readied a major groundassault against rebels in commercial capitalAleppo, who say they control half of thecity of some 2.7 million people.

CJP orders action againstobscenity on TV channels

ISLAMABADAPP

The Supreme Court has ordered thePakistan Electronic Media RegularityAuthority (PEMRA) chairman to takemeasures to stop obscenity on TVchannels. The orders came during thehearing of a petition against obscenity onTV channels. An SC bench headed by ChiefJustice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry washearing the case. The CJ remarked: “Wecan’t watch TV with our families due to thisvulgarity.” He said PEMRA would beresponsible if obscenity was shown on TVchannels. The PEMRA chairman told thecourt: “We are also family men and we takeaction over any such programme.” The CJasked what action was taken against thechannels to which the PEMRA chief said anumber of TV channels had been fined andbanned by the regulatory body.

g TV reports say PPPhas thrown party firebrand out of core committee, bannedentry in Presidency

g President’sspokesman says no notification issued regarding Abidi’s ousterfrom core committee,entry in Presidency

HIROsHIMA: girls pray for victims of a 1945 atomic

bombing as they release paper lanterns to float on

the Motoyasu River in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome

in Hiroshima on Monday. AFP


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