Evening dailyNSSO faces staff shortage P 3

Vol. 1, Issue 327 n Saturday n July 23, 2011 No. of pages: 8 n Price: Rs 2BangaloreBeat

Swank to star in ‘Shrapnel’ P8

TOTAL KANNADA,NOTHING ELSE FOR HIM

How crazy can you get about a language... Here is Lak-shmikanth V, who has quit his well-paying IT job inthe US, to start a shop that stores stuff only with Kan-nada on them, says Aknisree Karthik. Page 5

Beyond Beat

Teenagerʼsbody foundnear waterfalls

Bangalore Beat Bureau

Bangalore: An 18-year-old boy who had gonemissing for the last three days was found deadnear a waterfalls at Kanakapura this morning.

The police are yet to ascertain whether thedeceased Manjunath has been murdered orcommitted suicide.

The police said they would be able to givethe exact reason once the postmortem wasconducted.

A student at Harohalli ITI, he had gonemissing since Tuesday. His body was found atChunchi Falls this morning.

He was a resident of Yelagalli coming un-der Sathanur police station.

SC IS MY ONLYHOPE: LOKAYUKTADoubts state govt will accept report on illegal mining

Bangalore: Expressing doubts over thestate government implementing his re-port on the mining scam in Karnataka,state Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegdetoday said his only hope is the SupremeCourt.

“The government will not act on it,”Justice Hegde said on the report whichis expected to be submitted to the Gov-ernment next week.

“My only hope is the Supreme Court,”he said.

He, however, said it is not mandato-ry for the government to accept his re-port, which has indicted chief minister

B S Yeddyurappa.Four ministers, including three from

the mineral-rich Bellary district, havealso been indicted by the Lokayukta,whose findings say that the “huge rack-et”has caused a loss of Rs 1,800 crore tothe exchequer in 14 months since March2009.

Hegde, a former Supreme Court judge,said the apex court is monitoring the il-legal activity in mining area in Karnatakaand it has expressed very strongly thatthe government completely stop miningin Bellary.

“And I have evidence and other

things of illegality going on in Bellary;I have put it in my report. And I am sure(the Supreme Court appointed) Cen-tral Empowered Committee which is col-laborating with us (Karnataka Lokayuk-ta) also... Their object is the same as mine(of) curbing illegal mining. They maytake the report (to be submitted nextweek) and place it before the SupremeCourt”.

As an “agency” created by theSupreme Court, the CEC can “straightaway” take the report and does nothave to apply under the Right to Infor-mation Act, he said.

“As much as the Government is enti-tled to a copy, the Supreme Court is also(entitled),” he said, noting the CEC hastaken his first report on illegal miningsubmitted in December 2008, and “re-lied upon it” and he expects it to do itthis time as well.

Hegde is not surprised by chief min-ister’s statement that he would not re-sign. “...and each one when it comes torespective political parties... when itcomes to their personal conduct and allthat... they will justify it anyway (thatthey have done no wrong)”, he said.

Continued on page 4

TWIN ATTACKSKILL 91 INNORWAY

Oslo: At least 91 people werekilled last night in “catastrophic”twin attacks in Norway – a mas-sive bomb explosion in the cap-ital here and a shooting at a gov-erning Labour Party youth camp,police said. This is the first timesuch an apparent terrorist inci-dent has happened in this Scan-dinavian nation of five millionpeople, one of the least denselypopulated countries in Europe.

A 32-year-old ethnic Norwe-

gian has been arrested for open-ing fire at the youth camp. He isalso believed to have been be-hind the bombing here, policesaid.

“There has never been a sim-ilar situation like this in Nor-way,” the NRK TV channel quot-ed police chief Oystein Maelandas saying during a news confer-ence. “It’s a black day for Nor-way. This is an event of a cata-strophic scope.” Continued on

WOMAN KIDNAPPED; BLACK MAGIC IN FRONT OF HER HOUSE

Bangalore Beat Bureau

Bangalore: Vanajasree, a resi-dent of Gottigere in Hulimavu,was kidnapped this morning.Vinay, Vanajasree’s husband,

has lodged a complaint withthe police saying she steppedout in the morning on some er-rand and never returned. The in-cident occurred around 7 am.

Vanajasree’s father now

blames Vinay for the incident.The couple has a four-year-oldchild.

Vinay has told the police thathe heard the sound of a vehicledriving away. When he came

out, the vehicle had gone awayand his wife was missing. Infront of his house, he foundremnants of a black magic ritu-al conducted in front of hishouse. Broken egg, cut lemons

and vermillion were foundthrown in front of the house.

The police suspect that itcould be a diversionary tactic forthe police to pursue anotherline of investigation.

Cong protests report leak

Bangalore Beat Bureau

Bangalore: The Congress led by itsstate party president Dr K.Parmeshwarastaged a protest demanding the resigna-tion of chief minister B S Yeddyurappa atFreedom Park this morning.

Senior Congress leader C Ugrappa saidthey were staging the protest against theleakage of Lokayuktha report on illegalmining in the State holding the chiefminister responsible for the same. “When

Lokayukta has maintained confidential-ity, how the report was leaked. This is dis-turbing,” he said.

He alleged that leaking of the report is nothing but the government’s il-legal act under the direction of Yeddyu-rappa.

The chief minister instead of main-taining confidentiality of the report hashelped the leak for which the Congress isseeking an explanation and a detailed en-quiry, Ugrappa said.

Smoke pores out of a building in the centre of Oslo, yesterday after an explosion that tore open several buildings

including the Prime Minister’s office, shattering windowsand covering the street with documents.

Congress state president G Parameshwara, leader of the opposition in theassembly Siddaramaiah and senior leader D K Shivakumar along with

senior members of the Congress stage protest at Freedom Park this morningdemanding resignation of chief minister B S Yeddyurappa.

Gangadhar Pujar

JUSTICE GOWDATO BE NEXTLOKAYUKTA?

Manjunath SharmaBangalore Beat Bureau

Bangalore: Orissa High CourtChief Justice Gopala Gowda,who was a judge at the Kar-nataka High Court before histransfer, is being consideredfor the post of the Lokayukta,sources in the government haveindicated.

Justice Gowda joins others inthe race, Supreme Court judgeJustice A R Raveendran, for-mer judges Shivaraj Patil and SR Bannurmath, for the post.Lokayukta Justice SantoshHegde is ending his term on Au-gust 2.

Representatives from thechief minister B S Yeddyurap-pa’s close quarters have alreadymet the judge and told himabout the chief minister’s in-tentions, said Raghunath Gow-da, a relative of Justice Gowda.

There is a good reason behindchoosing Justice Gowda as he isknown for his skills to balancevarious forces. But he may nottake over immediately after Jus-tice Hegde relinquishes office.

Justice Raveendran could bethe immediate choice of thegovernment as the post can-not be left vacant. Justice Gow-da, in the interim, could takeover as Supreme Court judge inplace of JusticeRaveendran,who may serve apart of his term as Lokayukta.He could then vacate it for Jus-tice Gowda, sources in the knowof developments said.

In a development that couldbe related to the appointment ofthe Lokayukta, Justice Gowda isarriving in the city tomorrow. He

is visiting his relative’s house inChintamani which is in AndhraPradesh, Raghunath relativesaid.

Justice Bannurmath is lead-ing the race for the post as ofnow. The Yeddyurappa gov-ernment is sounding out variouslikely judicial officers for thepost. With the naming of JusticeGowda, the race has only hot upfor the top post now.

MY PHONETOO IS BEINGTAPPED: HDK

Bangalore Beat Bureau

Former chief minister andJD(S) state president H D Ku-maraswamy today alleged thathis phone too is being tapped. “Ithas been going on for the last oneto one-and-a-half years.”

“Whenever I make a call, Icannot hear the person from theother side talking, while he canhear me. It will be perfectly okayonce I redial the number. This isan indication that my phone isbeing tapped,” he alleged.

Urging chief minister B S Yed-dyurappa to quit immediatelyfollowing the phone tapping al-leged by Lokayukta Justice San-tosh Hegde, Kumaraswamy said,“The intelligence department

comes directly under the chiefminister. He can ask the sleuthsto tap anyone’s phone.”

Continued on page 4

6 Ugandans arrested for attacking cops

Bangalore: Six Ugandan collegestudents, including three women,were arrested in Bangalore earlySaturday for attacking four po-licemen, police said.

The incident occurred in thecity’s northeast suburb ofSampighalli, Inspector K. Nan-

junde Gowda said.“The accused were arrested in

the wee hours for attacking ourpatrolling squad when they wereasked to stop their vehicle, whichwas moving in a suspicious man-ner,” he said. The accused, intheir early twenties, are collegestudents here and were drunk, he

said. The accused were identifiedas Rony, Brian, Hussain, Diana,Anjal and Mary.

They were arrested and takeninto custody under sections 353and 333 of the Indian Penal Codefor attacking and obstructingpublic servants from doing theirjob, Gowda said.

CITY 2Saturday, July 23, 2011

Contact: M : 9900948514

9742918562

Bangalore Beat

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638 ERS SBC SPL Ernakulam Jn 0430 000637 SBC ERS SPL Bangalore City 000 17156228 BANGALORE EXP Shimoga Town 0430 0006227 SHIMOGA EXP Bangalore City 000 23306222 MYSORE EXPRESS Chennai Central 0500 05306221 CHENNAI EXPRESS Mysore Jn 2300 23456517 BANGALORE MAIL Chennai Central 0525 0002657 BANGALORE MAIL Chennai Central 0535 0002658 CHENNAI MAIL Bangalore City 000 22452607 LALBAGH EXPRESS Chennai Central 2125 0002608 LALBAGH EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 06306021 BANGALORE EXPRESS Chennai Central 0735 (Sunday) 0006022 CHENNAI EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 2130 (Sunday)101S RMAS SBC PASSENGER Chennai Central 1900 000102SR SBC MAS PASSENGER Bangalore City 000 09152008 SHATABDI EXPRESS Chennai Central 1050 and2230 0002008 SHATABDI EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 1615 and 06002639 BRINDAVAN EXPRESS Chennai Central 1320 0002640 BRINDAVAN EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 14306523 BANGALORE EXPRESS Chennai Central 2005 0006524 CHENNAI EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 08005626 GUWAHATI-BANGALORE Chennai Central 1840 (Tue, Thu) 0005625 BANGALORE - GUWAHATI Bangalore City 000 2330 (Wed, Fri)2429 RAJDHANI EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 1835 (Sun, Mon, Wed, Thu)2430 RAJDHANI EXPRESS Hazrat Nizamuddin 0725(Mon, Tue, Fri, Sat) 0002627 KARNATAKA EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 18302628 KARNATAKA EXPRESS Hazrat Nizamuddin 1340 0006217 SWARNA JAYANTHI EXP Bangalore City 000 1925 (Fri)6218 SWARNA JAYANTHI EXP Hazrat Nizamuddin 0830(Wed) 0002647 KONGU EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 2315 (Sun)2648 KONGU EXPRESS Hazrat Nizamuddin 0200 (Fri) 0001013 COIMBATORE EXPRESS Mumbai 2215 23001014 LOKMANYA TILAK EXP Coimbatore 1225 12456529 UDYAN EXPRESS Mumbai Central 0905 0006530 UDYAN EXPRESS Bangalore City 00000 20006507 JU BANGALORE EXPRESS Jodhpur Jn 0400(Sat, Mon) 0006508 JODHPUR EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 2125 (Mon, Wed)1017 CHALUKYA EXPRESS Dadar Mumbai 2225(Except Wed) 0001018 CHALUKYA EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 0620 (Except Thu)6509 AII SBC EXPRESS Ajmer Jn 0400 (Sun, Tue) 0006510 AJMER EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 2125 (Tue, Thu)6501 AHMEDABAD EXPRESS Ahmedabad 0800 (Thu) 000

6502 AHMEDABAD EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 1330 (Sun)6831 MYSORE EXPRESS Thanjavur 0555 06306832 THANJAVUR EXPRESS Mysore 1845 19007086 SECUNDERABAD EXP Bangalore City 000 17007085 BANGALORE EXPRESS Secunderabad 0715 000790 KACHEGUDA EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 1800 (Sat)789SC MYS Secunderabad 1030 (Sun) 1020 (Sun)9775 JAIPUR EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 1100 (Thu, Sat)9776 JP BANGALORE EXPRESS Jaipur 1630 (Wed, Fri) 0007209 SESHADRI EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 13157210 SESHADRI EXPRESS Kakinada Town 1235 0006525 KANYAKUMARI EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 2145 6526 BANGALORE EXPRESS Kanyakumari 0655 0008563 PRASHANTHI EXPRESS Vishakapatnam 1000 0008564 PRASHANTHI EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 14006732 TUTICORIN EXPRESS Mysore City 2100 21156731 BANGALORE EXPRESS Tuticorin City 0635 06500621 SBC TVC EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 2215 (Sun)6321 TRIVANDRUM EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 1845 (Thu)6322 BANGALORE EXPRESS Trivandrum 0940 (Thu) 0002079 JAN SHATABDI EXP Bangalore City 000 0600 (Except Tue)2080 JAN SHATABDI EXP Hubli City 2030 (Except Tue) 0006591 HAMPI EXPRESS Hubli City 0630 0006592 HAMPI EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 22056593 HAMPI LINK EXPRESS Nanded 0630 0006589 RANI CHENAMMA EXP Bangalore City 000 21006590 RANI CHENAMMA EXP Kolhapur 740 0002725 HUBLI EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 14302726 INTERCITY EXPRESS Hubli City 1350 000213 TIPUPATI PASSENGER Mysore Jn 2015 2030214 SCMYSORE PASSENGER Tipupathi 0725 08106205 TIPPU EXPRESS Mysore Jn 1325 0006205 TIPPU EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 14156215 CHAMUNDI EXPRESS Mysore Jn 0950 0006216 CHAMUNDI EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 18156519 JTJ SBC EXPRESS Jolarpettai 0815 0006520 SBC JOLARPET EXPRESS Bangalore City 000 17300235 BANGALORE PASSENGER Mysore Jn 0400 0000236 MYSORE PASSENGER Bangalore City 000 2355571SR SA SBC PASSENGER Salem Jn 1850 000572SR SBC SA PASSENGER Bangalore City 000 0730584SW SBC FAST PASSENGER Hospet Jn 0610 000

Train No. Train Name Station Arrival B’lore Departure B’lore Train No. Train Name Station Arrival B’lore Departure B’lore

TRAIN SCHEDULE

YOGARAJ BUT...!Bhaathi (11,2.30,6,9.15PM) Govard-han Theatre (11.30 am, 2.30, 6 , 9pm) Krishna (KR Puram) (10.30 am,2,5,8PM) Kamakya (10.45 am, 1.45,5.45, 8.45 pm) Triveni (10.30 am,1.30, 4.30, 7.30 pm) Veeresh (10.15am,1.15 pm)

KRISHNA N MARRIAGE STORY (U)Ganesh, Yami GauthamBalaji (Tavarekre) (11 am, 2.30, 6.30,9.30 pm) Ganesh (11 am, 2, 6, 9pm) Krishna (KR Puram) (10.30 am) Manasa (10.30 am) Maruthi (11.30am, 2.30 pm, 6.30 pm, 9.30 pm)Nandini (11 am, 2, 5, 8 pm) Sagar(10.30 am, 1.30, 4.30, 7.30 pm) Sid-dheshwara (11.30 am, 2.30, 6.30,9.30 pm) Srinvasa (Gowdanapalya)(11.30 am, 2.30, 6.30, 9.30 pm)Ullas (5.45, 8.45 pm) Vijayalakshmi(Garudacharpalya) (11 am, 2.30 pm)Vajreshwari (11 am, 2.30, 6, 9.15pm) Inox (Jayanagar) (4 pm) Inox(JP Nagar) (12.50 pm, 6.30 pm) Inox(Malleswaram) (10.15 am, 3.55, 6.40,9.25 pm)

POLICE STORY 3 (U/A)SudeepAdarsh (10.30 am, 1.30, 4.30, 7.30pm) Anupama (10.30 am, 1.30, 4.30,

7.30 pm) Nartaki (10.30 am, 1.30,4.30, 7.30 pm) Uma (10.15, 1,4, 7pm)

SHRIMATHI (A)Upendra, Priyanka UpendraAdarsh (11.30 am, 2.30, 6, 9 pm)Bharathi (11 am, 2.30, 6, 9.15 pm)Eshwari (11.00 am) Inox (Malle-swaram) (12.30 pm) Manasa (11.30am) Mohan (11 am, 2.30, 6, 9.15pm) Nartaki (10.30 am, 1.30, 4.30,7.30 pm) Prasanna (10.15 am, 1.15,4.15, 7.15 pm) Uma (10.15 am, 1, 4,7 pm) Veerabhadreshwara (10.30am, 1.30 pm) Vaibhav (11.30 am)

BANNA BANNADHA LOKA ANNABANNADHA LOKA BHUMIKABhumika (10.30 am, 1.30, 4.30,7.30,) Ullas (10.45 am, 1.45 pm)Vishal (11 am, 2.30, 6, 9.15 pm)

KIRATAKA (U/A)Yash, Oviya Helen, T S Nagab-haranaGoverdhan (10.30 am, 1.30, 4.30,7.30 pm) Kapali (10.30 am, 1.30,4.30, 7.30 pm)

DHAN DHANA DHAN (U)Prem Kumar, Sharmila MandreBanashankari (Hongasandra) (11am, 2.15, 6.15, 9.15 pm).

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLYHALLOWS (U/A)Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson,Rupert Grint“3D” Cinepolis (10.20 am, 11.40,3, 5.30, 7.40, 10 pm) Fame (Lido)(11.15 am, 1.45, 4.20, 6.55, 9.30pm) Fame (Shankarnag) (9.40 pm)Fun Cinemas (10.30 am, 3.45, 6.30,9.25 pm) Gopalan Cinemas (Ban-

nerghatta Road) (10 am, 5.30, 7.30,10 pm) Gopalan Cinemas (MysoreRoad) (10 am, 5.20, 7.40, 10 pm)Gopalan (Innovation Mall) (10.20am, 5, 7.30, 10 pm) Innovative Mul-tiplex (11.15 am, 1.45, 6.45, 9.30pm)Inox (Magrath Road) (10.35 am,4.10, 6.50, 9.30 pm) Inox (Malle-swaram( (0 am, 2.05, 7.20, 9.45pm)

LARRY CROWNE (U/A) Tom Hanks, Julia RobertFame Lido (12.35 pm, 7.35 pm) PVRCinemas (10 am, 2.40, 7.20, 10 pm)

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THEMOON (U/A)Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley“3D” Cinemax (2.15 pm, 7.15, 10pm) Fame Lido (10.15 am, 3.25,6.20, 9.15 pm) Fun Cinemas (12.45pm, 3.50, 6.55, 10 pm pm) GopalanCinemas (B’ghatta Road) (10 am,4.30, 7.15, 10 pm) Gopalan Cinemas(Mysore Road) (11 am, 1.45, 9.30)

Movie ListingsKANNADA

ENGLISH

ZINDAGI NA MILEGI DOBARA (U/A)Katrina, Farhan Akhtar, Hrithik,Abhay Deol and Kalki KoechlinAbhinav (10 am, 1.30, 4.30, 7.30pm) Cauvery (11.30 am, 2.30, 6,9.15 pm) Cinemax (10 am, 1, 3.30,4.30, 6.30, 9.30 pm) Cinepolis (10am, 11 am, 12.55, 3.30, 4.10, 6.25,7.05, 9.20 pm) Eshwari (11.15 am,2.15, 6.15, 9.15 pm) Everest (FraserTown) (11.30 am, 2.30, 6.15, 9.30pm) Fun Cinemas (10 am, 12.45, 4,7, 10 pm) Gopalan Cinemas (Ban-nerghatta Road) (10.15 am, 1.10,4.10, 9.45 pm) Gopalan (LegacyMall) (10 am, 4, 7, 9.15 pm) Gopalan(Mysore Road) (10.15 am, 1.15, 7,9.50) HMT Cinemas (1.30 pm, 7.15pm) Innovative Multiplex (11 am,

1.45, 4.30, 7.15, 10 pm) Inox (Jayana-gar) (10 am, 12.25, 3.20, 6.15, 9pm) Inox (JP Nagar) (10 am, 12, 3,4.35, 6, 9 pm) MURDER 2 (A) Emraan Hashmi, Jacqueline Fer-nandezApsara (11.30 am, 2.15, 5.30, 8.30pm) Abhinay (10.30 am, 1.30, 4.30,7.30 pm) Abhiman (Goripalya) (11am, 2.30, 6.30, 9.30 pm) Anand(3.30 pm, 6.30, 9.30 pm) Fame Forum Value Mall (10.30 am, 2.50,4, 7, 9.30 pm) Fame Lido (10 am,2.35, 5, 9.35 pm) Fame (Shankarnag)(2 pm) Fun Cinemas (10.10 am,4.30, 7.30 pm) HMT Cinemas (Jala-halli) (10.45 am, 9.45 pm) Inox(Jayanagar) (10.30 pm) Inox (JP Na-gar) (10 am, 7.30 pm).

HINDI

TELUGU

KANCHANA MUNI 2 Lawrence Raghavendra, Lakshmi Rai

Chandrodaya (11.30 am, 2.30pm)Murali (Gokula) (11 am, 2.30pm)Movieland (10.30 am, 1.30, 4.30,7.30 pm) Renukaprasanna (11 am,2.30 pm) Radhakrishna (11.30 am,2.45 pm) Vaishnavi (11.30 am, 2.30,6.30, 9.30 pm) Venkateshwara (KRPuram) (6.30 pm, 9.30 pm)

NAANNA Vikram, Anushka Anjan (10.30 am, 1.30, 4.30, 7.30pm) Chandrodaya (4.30 pm, 7.30pm) Renukaprasanna (6, 9.15 pm)Rajarajeshwari (11 am, 2.30, 6.30,9.30 pm) Tulasi (Marathahalli) (11.30am, 2.30, 6.30, 9.30 pm)Tirumala (10 am, 1.45, 5.30, 8.45pm)

SINGHAM (U/A)Ajay Devgan, Kajal Agarwal

Apsara (KR Market) (11.30 am,2.30, 5.30, 8.30 pm) Cauvery(Sankey Town) (11.30 am, 2.30,6, 9.30 pm) Cinepolis (Ban-nerghatta Road) (10.40 am, 12.45,1.20, 3.50, 6.35, 9.20, 10 pm)Everest (11.30 am, 2.30, 6.30,9.30 pm) Gopalan (Arcade Mall)(10 am, 12.30, 4.50, 7.25, 10 pm)Gopalan Cinemas (BannerghattaRoad) (10 am, 12.25, 3.10, 7.10,9.50 pm) Gopalan (Legacy Mall)(10.15 am, 1, 3.45, 6.30, 10 pm)HMT (Jalahalli) (10.45 am, 4.15,9.45 pm) Innovative (10.15 am,

12.45, 5, 7.30, 10 pm) Lakshmi(10.15 am, 1.15, 5.15, 8.15 pm)Manasa (11.30 am, 2.30, 6.30,9.30 pm) Radhakrishna (11.30am, 2.45, 6.30, 9.30 pm) Rex(2.15, 7.10 pm) Navarang (10.15am, 1.15, 4.15, 10 pm) Srinagraja(11 am, 2, 5, 8 pm) Sri Srinivasa(11.30 am, 2.30, 6.30, 9.30 pm)Tribhuvan (10. 30 am, 1.30, 4.30,7.30 pm) Vaibhav (11.30 am, 2.30,6, 9.30 pm) Varjeshwari (4.30,7.30 pm) Veeresh (10 pm) Vinayaka (11.15 am, 2.30, 6.30,9.30 pm)

Eurocopter, HAL tostrengthen industrial co‑op

Bangalore: Eurocopter, world’sleading helicopter manufacturer,and Bangalore-headquarteredHindustan Aeronautics Limited,are in the process of signingagreements to further strengthentheir industrial cooperation andlinks.

“This association will focuson increasing existing collabo-ration and exploring new po-tential business areas to serveboth Indian and internationalmarkets,” Eurocopter said.

It said in a statement that thelong-time partners have reiteratedtheir commitment to take theirfive-decade-long relationship tothe next level.

“HAL is fast developing intoa major player in the aerospacesector. With this increasing paceof growth, HAL welcomes op-portunities for joining handswith a global player like Euro-copter,” said HAL chairmanAshok Nayak.

Since 1962, Eurocopter haspartnered with HAL, throughtwo co-operation agreements,enabling HAL to manufacturemore than 600 helicopters basedon the Alouette 3 and Lama,more popularly known in Indiaas the Cheetah and Chetak, itsaid.

India was the first nation withwhich Eurocopter signed a li-cence agreement which includedtechnology transfer. In 1984, HALhas been supported by Euro-copter in the development of theAdvanced Light Helicopter, afive-tonne twin-engine transporthelicopter.

This industrial partnershipwas strengthened in 2005 withthe manufacturing of compositeassemblies. Today, HAL is man-ufacturing 100 shipsets of theseassemblies per year for theAS550/AS350 helicopters, andcontributes to Eurocopter globalsupply chain. PTI

2‑day dance festbegins today

Bangalore: Central SangeetNatak Academy and the Kar-nataka Bharatagama Prathistanaare organising a two-day con-vention and classical dance fes-tival Nrithya Karnataka todayand tomorrow at Nayana Audi-torium.

The unique convention is firstof its kind in the field of classicaldance (bharathan-atyam) as allthe four prominent classicaldance traditions of Karnataka (originated in differentregions of the state) are beingshowcased on one platform tohighlight the rich contributionof the state to the world of dance.

In the two-day convention,top artistes, critics and otherprominent personalities will fo-cus on the tradition of danceforms, present research papers,deliver lecture demonstrationsof unique dance forms of Karnataka and give dance per-formances. Well-known art his-torian Sunil Kothari will attendas an observer. Veena exponentand member of the CentralSangeet Natak Academy SumaSudhindra; deputy director-gen-eral, Doordarshan, Bangalore,Mahesh Joshi; dance and musiccritic Prof Mysore V Subramanyawill be part of the event.

A special publication, Classical Dance Heritage of Kar-nataka, will be brought by the

Karnataka Bharathagama Prath-ishtana, with articles contributedby various artistes.

It focuses on research, docu-mentation, revival and recon-struction in context with thepresent-day dance forms.

It has been edited by art his-torian and scholar ChudamaniNandagopal and will be releasedby V Subramanya.

Vijaya Bank,LIC enter into

agreementKochi: Vijaya Bank, the Banga-lore-based Public sector bank,recently entered into a orporateagency arrangement with insur-ance behemoth Life InsuranceCorporation of India (LIC) forthe distribution of Banassuranceproducts of LIC of India whichhitherto was being done on re-ferral basis by the Bank.

H S Sheshadri, Regional Head,

Vijaya Bank, said the corporateagency agreement with LIC offersimmense scope to enhance valueaddition to the customers, a pressrelease said.

With more than 8 million cus-tomers spread across over 1,200pan India CBS networkedbranches, the Bank will haveenormous scope for catering tothe varied Life Insurance require-ments of the customers throughthe quality products of LIC, heobserved.

The initial response has beenencouraging with a large numberof customers evincing interestin various LIC products beingdistributed by the Bank underthe Corporate agency arrange-ment, he added.

S Chandrasekhar, senior di-visional manager, LIC said thecoming together of the two majorentities has enabled them tocombine and utilize the strengthsof both the organisations for en-hancing customer satisfactionand for serving the social objec-tives of the nation.

Even after a decade of openingup of the insurance sector, LICremains the market leader witha current market share of 75.68per cent in premium and 78.32per cent in the number of poli-cies, through a network of 2,048branches and 1,000 satellite of-fice, adding that he was confidentthat the corporate agencyarrangement with Vijaya Bankwill benefit the customers of Vi-jaya Bank immensely. PTI

Varsha wins 3rdtitle in national

billiards, snookerChennai: Bangalore schoolgirlVarsha Sanjeev registered acome-from-behind victory toclinch her third title in the on-going National billiards andsnooker championship here yes-terday.

Varsha, the 15-year-old fromSophia’s High School, defeatedKeerath Bhandaal from Delhi127-97 in the junior girls’ billiardsfinal. She had earlier won thesub-junior girls billiards andsnooker crowns.

Varsha posted breaks of 14,12 and 15 in the one-hour timeformat final to emerge victori-ous.

The event received only nineentries of whom three pulledout.

I Lahari of Andhra Pradeshbeat Arya Pimple 126-86 in thethird place match. PTI

New train between city,

Ernakulam Kochi: Union minister of statefor consumer affairs, food andpublic distribution K V Thomaswill flag off the inaugural serviceof Train No.22607/22608 Ernaku-lam-Bangalore weekly superfastexpress at Ernakulam Junctionin a function here on Sunday.

The new weekly TrainNo.22607/22608 Ernakulam-Ban-galore- Ernakulam weekly ex-press will commence its run fromErnakulam on Sunday and reachBangalore on the next day.

Train No. 22607 will leave Er-nakulam at 17.00-hrs and willreach Bangalore City at 04.20-hrs.

Train No.22608 will leave Ban-galore City at 17.15-hrs and willreach Ernakulam Junction at04.20-rs.

The train comprises of oneAir-conditioned two-tier, TwoAir-conditioned three-tier, four-teen sleeper class coaches, Threegeneral second class and twoluggage cum second class coach-es. This train will have stoppagesat Aluva, Thrissur, Ottapalam,palakkad, Podanur, Tiruppur,Erode, Salem, Tirupattur, Ban-garpet Krishnarajapuram andBangalore Conton- ment.

Panelists discuss ways toinclude disabled in mainstreamBangalore: 'Never-the-less' –the movement for inclusion ofpersons with disabilities in main-stream society – brought togethermultiple stakeholders, includingrepresentatives from education,government, transportation, cor-porate and NGOs at a conferenceheld yesterday at Christ Univer-sity auditorium. Their goal wasto set a five-year agenda for in-clusion of persons with disabil-ities in mainstream education,workplaces, public spaces andtransportation.

The movement, an initiativeof the Fourth Wave Foundation,has been working in associationwith the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan,department for the empower-ment of the differently abled andsenior citizens; office of the statecommissioner for persons withdisabilities; NSS, Bangalore Uni-versity; Christ University; Nass-com and supported by 50 NGOs.It aims to rope in more organi-sations.

The conference shared successstories and engaged key decisionmakers from stakeholder organ-isations in two panel discussionsto examine the landscape forpersons with disabilities; theneed, reality and delivery systemsrequired for scaling up inclusionof persons with disabilities ineducation, workplaces, publicspaces and transportation.

Delivering the keynote ad-

dress, Cheriyil Chacko Joseph,director, Fourth Wave Foundationand co-founder, 'never-the-less'said, “Our ignorance of whatpersons with disabilities can andcannot do and lack of facilitiesthat make life simpler is a chal-lenge in their day to day lives.Persons with disabilities are per-fectly capable of making valuablecontribution to society given con-veniences similar to that enjoyedby the mainstream.”

He added, “The priority is toaddress inclusion at the elemen-tary and primary levels atschools, and accessibility at col-leges. We will be working to setup Office of Disability Servicesat campuses and also bringingtogether multiple players to en-

able access in education andwork-places through informationand communication technology(ICT).

Both initiatives will be in con-sultation with Office of DisabilityServices that already exists atIIM Bangalore and with supportfrom government institutionsand departments, and manymore organisations.”

Prior to the Conference, 'nev-er-the-less' conducted a month-and-a-half long campaign thatreached out to and engaged6,000 government, aided andprivate schools in partnershipwith Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan;students and managements at200 colleges; 300 corporate andinvolved 1,500 volunteers.

Panelists taking part in the discussion.

City teen Bharath secures 8th positionkarta: After a series of disappointments,there was at last some good news for In-dia’s lone driver in the fray, Raj Bharathas he secured the eighth position in thequalifying round of the JK Racing AsiaSeries rally at the Sentul InternationalCircuit, here today.

With as many as six drivers clockingtimes in the 1:32 bracket at the qualifiers,the Bangalore teenager relished the con-ditions here to clock a timing of 1:32.694sand give himself a fair chance of addingto the two points he has earned so far.

The pole position, however, went toAfiq Ikhwan Yazid of Meritus Racing,who put behind a dismal finish in hislast race in Sepang, Malaysia by claimingthe top position ahead of Austrian teenagewonder Lucas Auer of EuroInternational

in the third round to be held this weekendat the Sentul International Circuit in

Bogor near here.Yazid timed 1:30.918 to beat the qual-

ifying lap record, held by Sean McDonagh,who set the record back in 2008 by 1.1sec-ond.

Yazid finished with just six points inthe last race in Sepang and saw PetronasMR’s Irfan Ilyas and Nabil Jeffri sneakahead of him in the championship tablebut today, he finished half a second fasterthan Auer, who has won five races in arow and has a 49-point lead after sixraces run over two rounds.

“I am so happy! We really workedhard for this weekend. We tried a fewset-ups and this one really suits me. I amloving the track right now. We hope wecan do well tomorrow and I’ll try mybest to keep my pace and keep it consis-tent to win every race,” Yazid said afteryesteday’s qualifying round. PTI

CITYSaturday, July 23, 2011 3CITY EVENTSGeneralThe Bangalore Science Fo-rum: Talk on 50 years of hu-man space flight by K ShivaKumar of Isro, H N MultimediaHall, Basavangudi 6 pm.

Sevak: World Family Day 2011,presided over by Police Com-missioner Jyothiprakash Mirjiand GKVK Vice ChancellorNarayana Gowda at Town Hall,JC Road, 4 pm. (9845366097)

Nagarabhavi 2nd Stage SeniorCitizens Forum: Nage Habba- third anniversary celebrationat Karnataka Commercial TaxServices Officers Associationpremises, BDA 10th Block, Na-garabhavi 2nd Stage, 5 pm.

CulturalSuchitra Kala Kendra:‘Sahitya Sanje’ by L Hanu-manthaiah, 36, 9th Main Road,BSK II Stage, 5.30 pm

Shrusti Kalalayam: Stagingof play ‘Baduku Jataka Bandi’,directed by Krishnamurthy Ka-vathar, H N Kalakshetra,Jayanagar, 6.30 pm.

Karnataka Yakshagana Bay-alata Academy: Yakshagana,‘Chitrapete Ramayana’ by Yak-shagana Kendra troupe fromUdupi, Swami Vivek anandaSadhana Kendra Trust, Hava-nur Layout, Hesarghatta Road,T Dasarahalli, 4.30 pm.

BTM Cultural Academy: Con-cert by veena, violin and fluteartistes at Shree Ramana Ma-harshi Academy for the Blind,3rd Cross, 3rd Phase, JP Nagar(near Ragigudda), 5.30 pm.

The Indian Institute of WorldCulture: Bharatnatyam per-formance by Samyukta Rao atWadia Hall, 6, Sri B P WadiaRoad, 6 pm.

Sri Ganapati Sachchidanana-da Gnana Bodha Sabha Trust:Carnatic vocal programme atSri Karyasiddhi Mantap, 6.30pm.

Indian Council for CulturalRelations: Bharatnatyamdance recital by Navia Natara-jan at the Khincha Auditorium,Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, RaceCourse Road, 6.30 pm.

ReligiousSri Shankara Jayanthi Man-dali: Discourse on Prash-nothara Rathnavali, S Ran-ganath, Sri Shankara Krupa,45, 16th Cross, 3rd Block,Jayanagar, 6.30 pm.

Exhibitions Cultural Connections: Satur-day, July 23rd, 2011. 10 a.m. to6 p.m. Gallerie Third Eye, NoA-1 Epsilon Office Block,Yemalur Main Road, YemalurAn exhibition of contemporaryIndian paintings by ParmeshD Jolad and Sudeep Mukerjee,curated by Jasmine Khanna.

Recorder of Life, Beauty andTruth: Saturday, July 23rd,2011. 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tasveer,No 26/1, Kasturba Cross Road,Tasveer presents an exhibitionof photographs by TS Satyan,one of India's first photojour-nalists.

Tête-à-tête @ Apparao: Sat-urday, July 23rd, 2011. 10 a.m.to 8 p.m. Apparao Galleries,No 82 The Presidency, St MarksRoad, Apparao Galleries pres-ents 'Tête-à-tête', an exhibitionof paintings and sculpturesby eleven artists includingAltaf, Anjolie Ela Menon, FNSouza, George K, K Muralidhar,Laxma Goud, Shipra Bhat-tacharya and Sunil Padwal.

Cartoon Exhibition: Saturday,July 23rd, 2011. 11 a.m. to 8p.m. Indian Cartoon Gallery,Midford House, Midford Gar-den, MG Road, An exhibitionof cartoon illustrations byAmerican cartoonist MelvinMathew.

A Slice of Life @ Veda: Satur-day, July 23rd, 2011. 11 a.m. to6 p.m. Veda Art Gallery, PalaceView Builidng, Sankey Road,Kumara Park West Veda ArtGallery presents 'A Slice ofLife', an exhibition of art workby JMS Mani, Laxman Aelay,Kishan Kappari and Muruge-san.

Food

Kerala Food Festival: Bon-South presents its first Keralafood festival, Kerala cuisinehas a lot of varieties from dif-ferent regions of the State.

From the Moplah and the Syr-ian Christian specialities tothe vegetarian delicacies ofNamboodiri cuisine. Each ofthese regional varieties has adistinctive taste and flavour.The cuisine is a delight forfood lovers, for both vegetari-ans and non vegetarians. Avail-able both at lunch and dinner,the Buffet is priced at Rs. 350plus taxes. BonSouth, No 1Sampige road, Mantri Square,3rd Floor next to Oval bar. call: 080 22667377 & for Homedelivery 080 22667378.

Mama Mia! Introduces theIce-cream Cakes: which aregreat for any celebration ditchthe regular creamy cake onyour next birthday for a deli-cious frozen icecream cake.These yummy cakes are greatas a party dessert as well! Cur-rent Flavours available by theslice or whole Fererro RocherCake, Cookie Crumble Cake,After Eight Cake, WildberriesCake, Chocolate Marble Cake,Belgian Chocolate Hoopla!Price: Rs 389 for 1 kg and Rs699 for 2 kg and Rs 59 perslice. Indiranagar Call 4114-9423, Koramangala. Tel: 93794-16398, Jyoti Niwas CollegeRoad. Koramangala Tel:40981868.

Shopping Crimson's Annual MonsoonSale: Saturday, July 23rd, 2011.11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Crimson ArtGallery, The Hatworks Boule-vards, No 32, CunninghamRoad, Vasanthnagar Paintingsat discount rates, along withan additional offer where pa-trons get 50% off every secondpurchase.

Lifestyle presents Watch Fest:Saturday, July 23rd, 2011. 10a.m. to 9 p.m. Lifestyle, AdarshOpus, Campbell Road, AustinTown Offers and discounts ona wide range of watches.

Sale @ Esprit: Saturday, July23rd, 2011. 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.Esprit, No 10 Ananda Bhavan,Vittal Mallya Road, Esprit an-nounces a sale where patronscan avail discounts of up to50% on apparel and acces-sories, and a flat 25% off watch-es.

Lee Sale: Saturday, July 23rd,2011. 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Lee,Royal Meenakshi Mall, NoE1/16, Syndicate Bank Colony,1st Cross, Bennerghatta RoadLee merchandise at discountsof up to 50%.

3 for 2 offer: Saturday, July23rd, 2011. 10:30 a.m. to 9p.m. Landmark, The ForumMall, No 21, Hosur Road, Ko-ramangala Landmark presentsthe 3 for 2 offer, where readerscan choose from a collectionof over 200 best sellers andnew releases and get threebooks with the offer stickerfor the price for two.

Sale @ French Connection:Saturday, July 23rd, 2011. 10a.m. to 9 p.m. French Con-nection, Adarsh Opus, Camp-bell Road, Austin Town Menget a flat 30% off, while womenare entitled to discounts up to50% on all merchandise atFrench Connection’s end ofseason sale across all outlets.

Van Heusen Sale: Saturday,July 23rd, 2011. 10 a.m. to 9p.m. Van Heusen, No 194,Brigade Road, Discounts of upto 40% on all apparel. Thesale is on across all outlets.

Happiness Sale: Saturday, July23rd, 2011. 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.Bangalore Central, No 47/48Victoria Embassy, ResidencyRoad, Bangalore Central an-nounces the Happiness Sale,featuring apparel and acces-sories at discounts of up to 61percent. The sale is on acrossall outlets.

TheatreGood Hands/Godspeed: Sat-urday, July 23rd, 2011. 7:30 p.m.to 9 p.m. Ranga Shankara,No 36/1 2nd Phase, 8th Cross,JP Nagar Two monologues thatare built around the ideas ofrecollection and the sharingof experience.

Eating Out Power Lunch: July 23rd, 2011.1 p.m. to 4 p.m. City BarKaraoke + Grill, UB City, No24, Vittal Mallya Road, Nowbe connected even during thequick business lunch. Free wi-fi access while you fill up inthe middle of the day. Delec-table starters with a variety ofveg/ non veg main course op-tions along with draught beer.

Inter‑statedacoit gang

busted Honnali: An interstate gang offour dacoits was arrested heretoday. The four arrested dacoitswere moving around in their carwhen they were arrested nearthis town in Davanagere district,the police said. The arrested havebeen identified as Santosh,Sathish, Raghavendra andAyyappa. The police have seized21 mobile phones, a car and sev-eral deadly weapons from them.

Man robbed ofover `1 lakh

Bangalore: A man, who was re-turning home after work, wasrobbed of more than Rs 1 lakhwith him on Mysore road lastnight.

Jagadish was accosted by agang of four persons near Vinaya-ka cinema and ran away withhis R 1.09 lakh he had with him.

The surprising fact is that theincident has occurred around 9pm when the city roads are stillcrowded.

EMBEDDED TECH DELIVERS ENERGY EFFICIENT DEVICES

L RaghunandaBangalore Beat Bureau

Bangalore: Embedded software architecturewould define the next generation of com-puting and would find application in variousplatforms, said two domain experts.

Speaking on the sidelines of embeddedsystems conference in the city, they saidthe embedded technology has an edge andwould drive the growth of information tech-nology.

It would help in increasing the processingefficiency of microchips, semiconductorsand other circuits of devices. It cuts downenergy consumption of and pares the costof electronic devices in the long run.

On power management for embeddedsystems, Gajanan Bhatarkar, lead embeddedarchitect, Eaton India Engineering Centre,said, “Future devices have to be energy effi-cient. Designers have to plan what kind ofpower budgeting they have thought for thedevices, be it the main or peripheral com-

ponent of the embedded technology platform.Controllers which help in supplying andregulating power to microchips should bedesigned at given specific level.

“The devices need to have switch-offmodes when the supply is not needed or in

sufficient amount.”Jasraj Dalvi, system applications engineer,

Texas Instruments India, told BangaloreBeat how depleting resources have madeeveryone look for non-conventional energysystems. “Photo-voltaic cells have beenmade more efficient with the use of embed-ded technology. Now, we can tap solarenergy in a more useful manner.”

Dalvi said, “The maximum power pointtracker system, use of topologies to convertDC into AC and extensive utilisation of mi-crocontrollers have meant that time takento charge battery in solar lighting has beenreduced. Even energy efficiency has beenmaintained with the device consuming lesspower.”

He said, “The technology is new to India,but has been in vogue in the US and Europefor a long time.”

One of the prominent electric appliancescompany has asked Texas Instruments toadopt advanced technologies in their solarpower devices, he added.

TWIN ATTACKSKILL 87 INNORWAY

Continued from page 1At least 80 people died in the

shooting at the youth summercamp on the Utoeya island, Mae-land said.

Xinhua news agency said agunman wearing police uniformand with police identificationlanded on the small island, about40 km west of Oslo, shootingpeople at the camp two hoursafter the deadly bomb explosionrocked the government buildingquarters in the Norwegian capi-tal.

The gunman in his 30s wasdescribed to be carrying a pistoland a rifle with telescopic sight.He started shooting a few min-utes after he landed on Utoeyain the Buskerud county, Xinhuasaid.

Eyewitnesses said the manfired several shots into partici-pants of an annual event of theWorkers’ Youth League. Someterrified young people jumpedinto water for safety.

“We have no adequate recordof the number of injured now.Many of those seriously injuredare under treatment,” the policechief said.

The death toll in the bomb at-tack at the government head-quarter is reported to be seven.The mayor’s office told CNN

about 90 people had been injuredin the attack.

Police said early today thatthe deadly blast that shook theOslo city centre last night wascaused by a car bomb.

The arrested man, an Oslo res-ident, is believed to belong toright-extremist groups in easternNorway.

Stratfor, the global intelligencethink tank, said in an early analy-sis: “The significance of theevents in Norway for the rest ofEurope will depend largely onwho is responsible, and the iden-tity of the culprits is still un-clear.

“A transnational militant plotagainst a European country inthe contemporary context couldalso be significant for Europeandefence policy. When the 2004Madrid attack and 2005 Londonattack happened, many in Eu-rope argued that the attacks werea result of European govern-ments’ support for US militaryoperations in the Middle East. This is no longer really thecase for Europe, although Euro-pean forces are still inAfghanistan.”

Norwegian Prime Minister JensStoltenberg called on Norwegiansto remain calm and not to letpanic spread. IANS

Women from Sudham Nagar protest against water problem in their area by holding emptypots, in front of the BBMP head office today.

No water...

NSSO FACES SEVERE STAFFSHORTAGE FOR ITS SURVEY

L RaghunandaBangalore Beat Bureau

Bangalore: It is one of the biggest sur-veys in the country to understand theconsumer behaviour. But the NationalSample Survey Organisation (NSSO)has been facing a severe shortage ofworkforce in the state.

B G Krishnamurthy, deputy director,directorate of economics and statistics,attached to NSSO, says, “There is aproblem. Everyone has a problem. NSSODelhi is facing its own set of issues, weare facing our own problems. Even thegeneral census faces shortage of staff.We, at times, rope in primary schoolteachers, who are not needed other-wise.”

But what helps getting primary schoolteachers is that they are aware of thetopography, hamlets, households andvillages, which is invaluable during theeconomic sample survey. The familiaritywith villagers also helps in getting in-formation easily, he added.

“But whatever data given by theseteachers have to be checked randomlyby someone from NSSO or the direc-torate of economics and statistics tocheck whether it is fine,” he said.

District statistical officer of Tumkur,Kushalappa, said, “NSSO staff is not infull strength and there are quite a fewvacancies. It has been more than 5years since recruitments have been car-

ried out. Already, the number of em-ployees has come down with the intro-duction of computers. It is not justNSSO which is feeling the pinch, almost

all the government departments arefacing staff shortage with the govern-ment policy to cut down the staff by 6percent.”

The staff at NSSO, who spoke to Ban-galore Beat, said that the governmenthad promised to fill 2,000 field staff forthe organisation. The pressure has been

too high on the existing staff. The gov-ernment has to fill the vacancies andgive us some relief, they added.

Also, NSSO and the city-based Insti-tute for Social and Economic Change(ISEC) are at loggerheads over gettingdata about migrant labourers.

Whether there is staff shortage ornot, the sample survey would be com-pleted by June 30 of next years, saidzonal officer for southern region NSSO,K P Unni Krishna.

The 68th round of sample surveyholds importance for two reasons, firstdetermining the labour work force, andthe second data about the employedand unemployed persons in the country.But ISEC, which is affiliated to BangaloreUniversity, is seeking right statisticsfrom NSSO or any nodal state. It hasbeen arguing with NSSO for not col-lecting information about “floating pop-ulation”. But NSSO takes into consid-eration only those who have been stay-ing in a particular city for more thansix months.

The survey should cover especiallythose who have come to Bangalore orany major second tier or third tier citiesor towns, as construction workers, livedin makeshift tents and never returnedto their place of origin, ISEC feels.

The slum clearance board too hasexpressed similar view and has said itneeded the data on the floating popu-lation to take policy decisions.

City needs more distribution centresto streamline power supply: Shobha

Bangalore Beat Bureau

Bangalore: The city will needat least another 22 more powerdistribution centres to streamlineand ensure regular power supply,said energy minister ShobhaKarandlaje here this morning.

Such distribution centreswould be constructed in otherparts of the state too. She saidthe government purchased 1,000mw of power every day betweenNovember and December of lastyear. But from January it had tobe increased by another 300 mwduring the summer months. “Wewill ensure enough power forthe state and will purchase moreif the need arises,” she added.

She was inaugurating a mul-tipurpose hall and guestroomson the premises of the KarnatakaElectricity Board Engineers’ As-sociation today.

Karandlaje said, “The gue-strooms are a necessity for thosewho come from other parts of

the state to attend meetings andother programmes in the city.The multipurpose hall will helpI holding functions.”

“Association members haveasked me to look at the transferpolicy in the electricity compa-

nies and tweak it. While someof the employees are being shunt-ed around frequently, others havebeen staying in their positionsfor over 20 years. I have toldthem that the transfer policywould be made transparent.

“They have also petitionedme about the low salaries inKPTCL and electricity companies.I have told them that the remu-neration would be increased,”she said.

The association that was es-tablished in 1941 with just fivemembers now has over 4,000and is spread across the state.The association aims to improvethe lot of electricity companyworkers, from engineers to thelinesmen. The association hasnine branches. Mysore and Man-galore branches already havemultipurpose halls and gue-strooms. Association memberssaid such facilities would be con-structed in other places too.

L Ravi, president, KarnatakaElectricity Board Engineers’ As-sociation, and director of Kar-nataka Power Transmission Cor-poration Limited; P Ravi Kumar,mangaging director, KPTCL,Bescom MD P Manivanan werepresent.

Energy minister Shobha Karandlaje inaugurates the multipurpose hall and guestrooms at the Karnataka

Electricity Board Engineers’ Association today.

S Radhakrishna

Gangadhar Pujar

Printed and published by B M Arun Kumar vide RNI Registration No. KARENG/2010/33126. Published by SAM Global Media, # 37, 1 Floor, 2nd Main, N. R. Colony, Bangalore - 560 019. Editor: B M Arun Kumar Printed at Lavanya Mudrana, #19, 15th Cross, Thyaarajanagar, Bangalore – 560 028. All rights reserved. Reproduction or translation in any language in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. The publisher assumes no responsibility for the return of unsolicited material or for material lost or damaged in transit. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Bangalore only.

NEWSSaturday, July 23, 2011 4

Draft land acquisition bill inpublic domain next week

New Delhi: The much-awaitedLand Acquisition Bill is in thefinal stages of preparation andis expected to be placed in publicdomain soon, incorporating sug-gestions made by Sonia Gand-hi-led National Advisory Council.An Indian government sourcesaid rural development ministerJairam Ramesh will hold “onemore round of discussion” withofficials as part of drafting thebill before making it public “earlynext week.”

The final round of discussionon the bill is likely to be held onSunday, the source said.

Immediately after taking overas the rural development minister

last week, Ramesh decided toredraft the bill prepared by hispredecessor Vilasrao Deshmukhto incorporate recommendationsby NAC. The NAC had favoured100 per cent land acquisition bythe government for land meantfor private projects to ensure thatfarmers are not exploited by mid-dle-men. The bill prepared byDeshmukh had set aside recom-mendations of the NAC and stuckto the 70-30 formula on land ac-quisition that mandates a privatecompany to buy 70 percent landfor its projects. Some reports sayRamesh has broadly stuck to therecommendations of the NACthat calls for 100 per cent land

acquisition by the government.He is also planning to add a pro-vision making consent of 80 percent of the land owners to theacquisition mandatory.

The ministry also agreed tothe NAC’s another recommen-dation to integrate in one billprovisions for land acquisitionand rehabilitation.

Deshmukh was against theidea and had prepared two sep-arate bills for land acquisitionand rehabilitation.

Ramesh, however, has madeit clear that he will come up witha separate rehabilitation and re-settlement bill for large projectslike power and irrigation. PTI

Medical and district incharge minister S A Ramadass flagged off ‘Our City Mysore cyclerally’ at Mysore city corporation premises this morning. High school students

participated in the rally.

Cylce for better future

Income tax sleuthsquestion Mammooty

Kochi: Income tax officials, whohad conducted raids at the resi-dence and business establish-ments of Malayalam superstarMamooty, questioned him fornearly seven hours till early thismorning. The actor who returnedfrom Chennai by 9 pm last nightwas questioned by IT officialsat his residence at PanampillyNaagar here till 3 am today, topIT sources told PTI.

Mammooty “cooperated fullywith the officials”, the sourcessaid. Large number of Mam-mooty fans had gathered at theairport to express solidarity withthe actor, when he arrived herewith his wife from Chennai lastnight. Some more searches willbe conducted at his house inChennai after the actor returnsthere, R Mohan, Additional Di-

rector General, Income Tax told.“We have taken some documentspertaining to landed properties.It is too early to comment now.A final picture would emerge byWednesday, he said.

IT Officials had yesterday raid-ed the offices, residences, andbusiness establishments of Mam-mooty and Mohanlal at variousplaces in Kochi, Thiruvanantha-puram, Chennai, Bangalore andUdhagamandalam (Ooty).

The raids would not be heldtoday, the sources said.

Mohanlal, who is in Ramesh-waram in connection with ashoot, would be questioned atChennai on July 25 and in Kochion July 26, Mohan said.

The two actors were under I-T scanner for the past few monthsand the raids, as per Section 132of the Income Tax Act (relatingto search and seizure), cameafter ‘specific information’ thatthey had wealth disproportionateto their known sources of income,the sources said. PTI

Fire in hospital, two dead

Chennai: Two women were killedand two men were critically in-jured after a fire broke out at theICU of a hospital here this morn-ing, police said.

According to police, the inci-dent took place at around 5 a.m.at Kilpauk Medical Hospital.Eight patients from the ICU wereshifted to a nearby facility.

The victims were identified asTamil Selvi, 45, and Krishna Bai,72. Fire officials suspect that ashort circuit caused the fire. IANS

Police curbMannʼs

movement

Srinagar: Police today put re-strictions on the movement ofShiromani Akali Dal (Mann) Pres-ident Simranjeet Singh Mann ashe was planning to visit a Sikhvillage in Baramulla district ofnorth Kashmir.

“As we were preparing to leavefor Baramulla, two senior officersof police informed us that wecannot leave the Gurudwarapremises,” SAD (M) General Sec-retary Jaskaran Singh Kahans-inghwala said.

He said a large posse of policepersonnel have been deployedoutside the Gurudwara at BaghatBarzulla in the city to preventthe Sikh leader from moving out.

However, Sub-Divisional PoliceOfficer (SDPO) Saddar ShabirAhmad said he requested Mannnot to got to Baramulla today inview of the situation due to strikein the Valley.

“There is no question of de-taining him. He is on a peacemission,” the officer said.

Mann has met several sepa-ratist leaders since his arrival inKashmir yesterday. PTI

Arrest of Failong overdue:

Home secyThimphu: India today said thearrest of Kashmiri separatistleader Ghulam Nabi Fai in theUS was long overdue as therehas been suspicion for a longtime that he was getting fundsfrom Pakistani agencies.

“Yes, his (Fai) arrest was longoverdue,” Union home secretaryR K Singh said when asked aboutthe arrest of the US-based chiefof a Kashmir advocacy group inAmerica.

“Because we had fair degreeof suspicion that the money heused to get was given by theagencies in Pakistan,” Singhsaid.

Singh is in Thimphu to attendthe 4th meeting of the SAARCinterior/ home ministers.

Fai was arrested by the FBIon Tuesday for illegally lobbyingfor Pakistan and its spy agencyto influence US policy on Kash-mir. Reports also suggested thatFai made donations to US Congressmen and presidential candidates, and organised con-ferences and seminars to reflectthe viewpoint of Pakistan onKashmir.

Earlier, India had refused tocomment on Fai’s arrest, saying “facts speaks for themselves”. PTI

My phone too isbeing tapped: HDK

Continued from page 1With the allegation from theLokayukta, the Yeddyurappagovernment should not stay inpower for even a minute. “SinceYeddyurappa and his men arenot willing to quit, the centralgovernment should bring in Pres-ident’s rule on the state. Thegovernor (H R Bhardwaj) tooshould send a report recom-mending President’s rule. TheBJP government does not haveany respect for democracy.”

Asked whether the BJP highcommand should ask Yeddyu-rappa to resign, he said, “Thehigh command has moved fromNew Delhi to Bangalore. The

BJP leaders in Delhi have givencomplete powers to the chiefminister.”

On the allegation that hisname too finds a mention in thereport to be filed by JusticeHegde, he said, “These are re-ports based on the leaked in-formation. Let the report comeout officially. I am ready to besubjected to any kind of an in-quiry or action within the frame-work of the law.

“I am ready to face any con-sequence if I had done anythingwrong as far as illegal mining isconcerned during my tenure aschief minister. This is not theright time to discuss it.”

On the Congress’ fight against the phone tapping issue,he said, “I don’t want to talk about the protest being held by that party now. Everyoneknows what kind of a fight they are indulging in.” The issues that have been raised by the media based on the leakedparts of the Lokayukta reportreveals that these had beenbrought to light by the JD(S) in-side and outside the assembly,he said.

On the possibility of the gov-ernment rejecting the Lokayuktareport, he said, “They cannotreject the report. It is not in theirhands to reject it.”

Shutdown over alleged rape affects

life in KashmirSrinagar: Normal life acrossKashmir Valley was affected Sat-urday following a shutdowncalled by separatists against thealleged abduction and rape of awoman by army personnel inJammu and Kashmir’s Kulgamdistrict.

Markets and educational in-stitutions remained closed whilethin attendance was recorded ingovernment offices because ofnon-availability of public trans-port in this Jammu and Kashmirsummer capital and other towns.

Police and Central Reserve Po-lice Force (CRPF) were deployedin Srinagar city and other majortowns of the valley to ensurelaw and order during the shut-down.

“We are keeping a close watchon the situation. Sufficient pre-cautions have been taken to en-sure that anti-social elementsand miscreants are preventedfrom creating a law and ordersituation, a police officer toldIANS.

“Continuing peace in the val-ley has already frustrated ele-ments inimical to peace,” headded.

Almost all separatist organi-

sations and leaders -- hardlineSyed Ali Geelani, moderate Mir-waiz Umer Farooq, pro-AzadiJammu and Kashmir LiberationFront (JKLF), religious organi-sation, Jamait-e-Ahlehadis andother separatist groups have ap-pealed the people for a protestshutdown.

Reports from the south Kash-mir’s Kulgam town indicated ten-sions were running high afterFriday’s clashes between the se-curity forces and protesters whichleft 10 people injured.

The protesters had torchedthe official vehicle of an executivemagistrate in the town.

“Nobody was grievously hurtduring yesterday’s (Friday’s)protests as the security forcesused utmost restraint duringcrowd control,” said a police of-ficer.

A 30-year-old married tribalwoman has alleged that twoarmy personnel had abductedher Tuesday evening and rapedher by holding her hostage for48 hours in a meadow hutment.

Police have registered a com-plaint in the case and a specialinvestigating team has beenformed to nab the culprits.

Tourism ministry promises `300for Shirdi temple

Shirdi: Union tourism ministerSubodh Kant Sahay today saidhis ministry would provide Rs300 crore for the developmentof Saibaba temple premises andthe town. Talking to reportersafter visiting the temple here,Sahay said the development ofShirdi had been rather slow, con-

sidering that nearly 30,000 devo-tees come to the town every day.He said that the town must havebetter road-links and assuredthat he would discuss the issuewith Maharashtra chief ministerPrithviraj Chavan.

Talking about the tourism sec-tor in the country, he said if we

could double the sector's con-tribution to GDP, lakhs of newjobs would be created.

As to the Saibaba Temple Trustgiving money to Maharashtragovernment for proposed airportat Shirdi, he said it was not rightfor the government to turn tothe Trust for this purpose. PTI

Gunmanʼs backgroundpuzzles Norway police

Stockholm: The 32-year-old sus-pected of massacring at least 80young people at a summer campand setting off a bomb in down-town Oslo that killed at leastseven is a mystery to investiga-tors: a right-winger with anti-Muslim views but no knownlinks to hardcore extremists.

“He just came out ofnowhere,” a police official said.

Public broadcaster NRK andseveral other Norwegian mediaidentified the suspected attackeras Anders Behring Breivik, ablond and blue-eyed Norwegianwho expressed right-wing andanti-Muslim views on the Inter-net.

Norwegian news agency NTBsaid Breivik legally owned sev-eral firearms and belonged to agun club. He ran an agriculturalfirm growing vegetables, an en-terprise that could have helpedhim secure large amounts of fer-tiliser, a potential ingredient inbombs.

But he didn’t belong to anyknown factions in Norway’ssmall and splintered extreme

right movement, and had nocriminal record except for someminor offences, the police officialtold AP.

“He hasn’t been on our radar,which he would have been ifwas active in the neo-Nazi groupsin Norway,” he said. “But he

still could be inspired by theirideology.”

He spoke on condition ofanonymity because those detailshad not been officially releasedby police. He declined to namethe suspect.

Neo-Nazi groups carried out

a series of murders and robberiesin Scandinavia in the 1990s buthave since kept a low profile.

“They have a lack of leader-ship. We have pretty much con-trol of those groups,” the policeofficial said.

Breivik’s registered address isat a four-story apartment build-ing in western Oslo. A police carwas parked outside the brickbuilding early Saturday, withofficers protecting the entrance.

National police chief SveinungSponheim told public broadcast-er NRK that the gunman’s Inter-net postings “suggest that hehas some political traits directedtoward the right, and anti-Mus-lim views, but whether that wasa motivation for the actual actremains to be seen.”

A Facebook page underBreivik’s name was taken downlate yesterday. A Twitter accountunder his name had only oneTweet, on July 17, loosely citingEnglish philosopher John StuartMill: “One person with a beliefis equal to the force of 100,000who have only interests.”

SC is my only hope: LokayuktaContinued from page 1

Hegde agreed that it’s not manda-tory for the Government to accepthis report. “Lokayukta reportwill only recommend what’s hap-pened and what should be doneabout it, and anybody who isaccountable or responsibleshould take action on that...” .

Based on the information inthe report, he said Lokayuktacan certainly prosecute thosewho had been named in it butadded that the first opportunityis for the Government to act uponit.

“If criminal activities are no-ticed, liability is noticed, we canprosecute” but it’s “left to thenext man (his successor)”.Hegdeis retiring on August 2.

Hegde said he is concerned

about the physical safety andcareer prospects of the fiveLokayukta officials under himwho probed the illegal miningfor the latest report, and recom-mended to the government totreat them as “whistle-blowers”.

“It’s not only physical harmthat I apprehend, I am appre-hending much more than that,because their entire career couldbe spoiled.

They have stepped on the toesof very many people.. powerfulpeople..People who are in poli-tics...there are (their) seniors...all based on evidence...they onlygave fodder (evidence and in-formation) and I solved the fod-der”, he said.

Hegde referred to an attackon U V Singh, a senior forest of-

ficial and key investigator on theillegal mining, by a BangaloreCorporator when he was probingdischarge of polluted water afew months ago, and said the il-legal mining issue is much moreserious.

“Mining people are a differentkind of people altogether”, heremarked.

Hegde said his endeavour isto submit the report on Mondayor Tuesday but indicated thatthere could be some delay.

“Unfortunately, it’s not in myhands”, he said, adding, theprinting of the report needs tobe under the scrutiny of Lokayuk-ta officers “not that we havemore to be released (leaked reporthas it all)”. PTI

New policy to ensureuniform sand supply

Bangalore Beat Bureau

Mysore: Medical education anddistrict incharge minister S ARamadass has said that the gov-ernment would discuss withbuilders for formulating a uni-form sand policy so as to ensureavailability of sand for construc-tion purposes for the next 10years.

Inaugurating the ‘Con 2011’,the first state level builders con-ference organised by the con-federation of real estate devel-opers association of India(Credai) here this morning, Ra-madass said the objective of thenew policy is to ensure uninter-rupted supply of sand for build-ing and construction activities.

He said the government is se-riously exploring possibilities of

making artificial sand as thesand reserves in the state aredepleting fast and expected tobe exhausted in the next 10 years.A committee will be set up withinAugust 2nd week to discuss thedetails, he said. Ramadass saidby October 1 he would elicitviews of public on the growthand development of Mysore sothat this heritage city will notgo Bangalore’s way resulting inhaphazard development. Hewould then invite representativesof Credai for further discussion,he said.

He said any violation in con-struction rules would be seriouslydealt with and penal actionwould be taken against such vi-olators including the buildingcontractor.

Forest minister Vijayashankar

said buildings constructed bymaharajas are still intact whilethose constructed in recent timeshave deteriorated due to poorquality of material used in con-struction. Credai should joinhands with the government forgrowth and progress of construc-tion industry in Karnataka. “InIndia only 22.5 per cent area iscovered with forests, we need toincrease the forest and greencover,” he said. Vijayashankarsaid the government is planningto build a 500 acre park in Ilavalafor the benefit of the public thedetails of which will be unveiledshortly.

Mayor Pushpalatha Chikkan-na, Sunil Mantri, president ofCredai and Nagakumar, presidentof Credai, Mysore unit were pres-ent on the occasion.

G S Ravishankar

Thousands of fish died and seen floating in Hebbal Lake, Mysore this morning. Locals allege that the deaths were due toeffluents being diverted to the lake from the nearby industries.

Mysore tank polluted G S Ravishankar

Now trouble brews overNHPC projects in Orissa

Bhubaneswar: After protestsagainst Posco steel, the state-run NHPC Ltd’s plan to set upthree hydropower plants in Orissacould face opposition, with socialactivists and a former MP sayingthe projects would submergeagricultural lands.

NHPC Ltd yesterday signed apact with the state governmentto set up the hydropower plantsin Subarnapur (100 MW), Sam-balpur (100 MW) and Boudh (120MW) districts across Mahanadiriver in western parts of the state.

The hydropower generatingcompany will build the plantsin five years time in a joint ven-ture with the Orissa state-runHydro Power Corporation with

a combined investment ofRs.2,600 crore to generate 320MW power.

State energy minister AtanuSabyasachi Nayak said there willbe no displacement due to theseprojects. However, Ranjan Panda,convenor of Water Initiative – anetwork of NGOs working onwater related issues, said theprojects will submerge thousandsof acres of agricultural lands.

“No doubt these are smallplants and will be comparativelyless destructive compared to thecoal-fired plants. However, theseprojects too have socio-economicand ecological consequences,”Panda told IANS.

“We cannot see any justifica-

tion as to why more power proj-ects are required which will sub-merge fertile agricultural land,displace people and affect localecology.

“The government has also notcome out with any cost-benefitanalysis of the said plants. Norhas it given out anything on thepossible displacement, loss ofland and number of people tobe affected,” he said.

Bhabani Shankar Hota, a for-mer MP from the region, saidthe projects will hit at least 118villages wholly or partially.

“The projects, if implemented,would bring untold miseries anddevastation to the people of thearea,” he said.

Mumbai blastsdeath toll

climbs to 22Mumbai: Another victim of theJuly 13 serial blasts who was ad-mitted to the J J hospital heresuccumbed to his injuries today,taking the death toll in the terrorattack to 22.

Surender Singh (30) sufferedmajor burn injuries in the blastat Zaveri Bazaar and died thismorning, hospital sources said.

Also, 22 other people are un-dergoing treatment in J J Hospitalof which eight are still in criticalcondition, the sources said.

Last night, Shripal Mujhapura(35), who suffered severe headinjuries in the blast at OperaHouse, died at Harkisandas Hos-pital. Of the 12 injured personsadmitted to Harkisandas Hospi-tal, five are still in critical condi-tion, hospital sources said.

A total of 129 persons wereinjured in the blasts while 22have lost their lives till now. PTI

Beyond BeatSaturday, July 23, 2011

Bangalore Beat Bureau

How many people do what theylove? And even among those,how many would let go of theirwell-paying jobs, foreign na-tionality and pocket full of dol-

lars? Here is one from that rare species. Lak-

shmikanth V, who loves Kannada so muchthat he has set up a store, Total Kanna-da.com, that stocks nothing but stuff relatedto Kannada.

If you are a true lover of Kannada, thenhis store in Jayanagar is the place to be. Youwill find all Kannada books, movies andCDs.

But how did all this come about?Lakshmikanth, who happens to be a soft-

ware engineer, quit his well-paying job inthe United States and came all the way backto ‘Namma Bengaluru’ to contribute some-thing worthy for the language he lovedright from his childhood. “I always had thepassion for Kannada. But I could not doanything about it. When I visited bookstoresacross the city, the selection of Kannadabooks under the regional category was dis-appointing. That is what prompted me tostart a store exclusively for Kannada,where lovers of the language get all the stuffthey want at one place.”

His shop is truly a great experience andhis collection is quite mindboggling too.Lakshmikanth says he has a collection of9,000 books, 2,500 movies, 500 audioCDs, CD ROMs, greetings, T shirts, wristwatches, tidbits, and almost everythingwith Kannada on them.

He proudly says: “Till now, around3,000 movies have been released in Kan-nada. Of them, I have a collection of 2,500.Even during my pre-university days, Iused to be crazy about Kannada. I wrote let-ters regularly to theatre owners, requestingthem to run Kannada movies. But that wasall I could do. Now I want to get all themovies released in Kannada. But I havebeen finding it difficult. I have been strug-gling hard to get copyrights of many Kan-nada movies to convert them into DVDs.The response has been tepid at best.”

Before the brick and mortar store cameinto existence, he started the website,totalkannada.com, in 2001. “When I wasworking in the US, I used to regularly vis-it book stores there. I used to see books fromall other languages from India, exceptKannada. That is why I started a website –Total Kannada.com in 2001.

“I stared with posting articles on Kan-nada. I gradually started importing Kan-nada books to the United States and sell-ing them. As days passed, my collection ofbooks grew and I had no place to storethem. Something struck me and I thoughtwhy should I not go back home to my coun-try and start my own bookstore exclu-sively for Kannada. So here I am now,” hesays proudly.

The T-shirts which are sold here containKannada quotes printed on them like“Monday Bisi”, “Wonder Gannu (Won-dereye)”, “Ella Okay, Ellendaralli KasaBisakodu Yaake” and other humorousand interesting quotes.

He also has audio CDs that give mean-ings of the poems, line by line, and DVDsof your favourite tele-serials. Ravikanth nowhas plans of converting great novels into au-dio. Masti Venkatesh Iyengar’s-SannaKathegalu, stories of Ganesh Ayya andBeechi etc are in his list.

Lakshmikanth and his team also havemobile vans that go around the city sellingthe ware from Total Kannada.com. You canalso place your orders online by logginginto www.totalKannada.com.

Caffeine can drive

female infertilityWashington: Caffeine reduces muscle activity inthe fallopian tubes that carry eggs from a woman’sovaries to her womb, which can reduce a woman’schance of becoming pregnant.

“This finding goes a long way towards ex-plaining why drinking caffeinated drinks can re-duce a woman’s chance of becoming pregnant,”says Sean Ward, who led the study.

Ward is professor of physiology and cell biolo-gy at the University of Nevada School of Medicinewho conducted these experiments on mice.

Human eggs are microscopically small, but needto travel to a woman’s womb if she is going to havea successful pregnancy, according to a Nevadastatement.

Although the process is essential for a successfulpregnancy, scientists know little about how eggsmove through the muscular Fallopian tubes, re-ports the British Journal of Pharmacology.

It was generally assumed that tiny hair-like pro-jections, called cilia, in the lining of the tubes, wafteggs along assisted by muscle contractions in thetube walls.

By studying tubes from mice, Ward and his teamdiscovered that caffeine stops the actions of spe-cialised cells in the wall of the tubes.

These cells coordinate tube contractions so thatwhen they are inhibited, eggs can’t move down thetubes. In fact, these muscle contractions play a big-ger role than the beating cilia in moving the eggtowards the womb.

“This provides an intriguing explanation as towhy women with high caffeine consumption of-ten take longer to conceive than women who donot consume caffeine,” said Ward.

“As well as potentially helping women who arefinding it difficult to get pregnant, a better un-derstanding of the way Fallopian tubes workwill help doctors treat pelvic inflammation and sex-ually-transmitted disease more successfully,”said Ward. IANS

Secondhandclothes pose

health hazardsMexico City: Wearing second hand clothes can

expose people to health hazards.“Such clothes can be infested with mites and

lice, and can contain some kind of chemical andeven bacteria,” EFE quoted the Mesican healthcareagency as saying.

Many poor and working-class Mexicans buyclothes from street vendors whose stock consistslargely of used garments imported in bulk from theUS.

It is best to avoid buying second hand clothes,said Diana Castillo Martinez, a dermatologist.

For those who do buy used garments, she ad-vised washing them thoroughly and said shoesshould be left out in the sun for several days be-fore wearing.

Under no circumstances, according to Castillo,should consumers purchase underwear from anyinformal outlet.

Without proper cleaning, second hand under-garments can spread gonorrhea, “a chronic illnessthat is difficult to diagnose”. IANS

Energy from air couldpower your mobile

London: A revolutionary new devicewould only need air to keep your mo-bile phones, wireless sensors andcommunication chips going.

These ‘energy scavenging’ devicescould even be stored in places likeshoes and can be operated by them-selves or with other generating tech-nologies.

Said Manos Tentzeris, professor atthe Georgia Tech School of Electricaland Computer Engineering: “Thereis a large amount of electromagnet-ic energy all around us but nobodyhas been able to tap into it,” the Dai-ly Mail reports.

If a battery or a solar-collector orbattery package failed completely,scavenged energy could allow thesystem to transmit a wireless distresssignal while also maintaining criti-cal functionalities, according to aGeorgia Tech statement.

Tentzeris and his team have usedinkjet printers to combine sensors,antennas and energy scavengingcapabilities on paper or flexible poly-mers.

So far, the energy captured isminute – measured in microwattsand milliwatts, not megawatts – but

is able to gather enough juice topower small sensors and RFID tags.

For example, the researchers lastweek said they had managed togather enough energy from a TVstation half a km away to power asmall temperature sensor. IANS

TOTAL KANNADA, NOTHING ELSE FOR HIM

How crazy can you get about a language... Here is Lakshmikanth V, who has quit his well‑paying IT job in the US, to start a shop that stores stuff only

with Kannada on them, says Aknisree Karthik

Staring at screenstaxes your eyes

Washington: Prolonged viewing onmobile devices and other 3D de-vices taxes your eyes, bringing on dis-comfort, fatigue and even headaches.

The root cause may be the demandon our eyes to focus on the screenand simultaneously guage the depthof the content.

Scientifically referred to as ver-gence-accommodation, this conflictand its effect on viewers of stereo 3Ddisplays are detailed in a recentJournal of Vision.

“When watching stereo 3D dis-plays, the eyes must focus — that is,accommodate — to the distance ofthe screen because that’s where thelight comes from,” said Martin S.Banks, who led the study at Univer-sity of California, Berkeley.

“At the same time, the eyes mustconverge to the distance of the stereocontent, which may be in front of or

behind thescreen,” addedBanks, professorof optometry andvision science, ac-cording to a Cali-fornia statement.

“Discomfort as-sociated withviewing stereo 3Dis a major prob-

lem that may limit the use of tech-nology,” he said. “We hope that ourfindings will inspire more research inthis area.”

With the explosion of stereo 3D im-agery in entertainment, communi-cation and medical technology, thestudy authors proposed guidelines beestablished for the range of dispar-ities presented on such displays andthe positioning of viewers relative tothe display. IANS

Solar panels keepbuildings cool

Washington: Solar panels onyour rooftop aren’t just providingclean, inexpensive power, theyare doing more – cooling yourhouse and keeping expensesdown on air conditioning.

Jan Kleissl, professor of envi-ronmental engineering a the Uni-versity of California and his teamhave come up with the first evermeasurements of the coolingbenefits provided by solar pho-tovoltaic panels.

As solar panels sprout on anincreasing number of residentialand commercial roofs, it becomesmore important to consider theirimpact on buildings’ total ener-gy costs, Kleissl said in the jour-nal Solar Energy.

His team determined that theamount saved on cooling thebuilding amounted to getting afive percent discount on the so-lar panels’ price, over the panels’lifetime, according to a Californiastatement.

Data for the study was gath-ered over three days on the roofof the Powell Structural SystemsLab at the Jacobs School of En-gineering with a thermal infraredcamera.

The building is equipped withtilted solar panels and solar pan-els that are flush with the roof.Some portions of the roof are notcovered by panels. The panels es-sentially act as roof shades, saidAnthony Dominguez, the gradu-ate student involved in the proj-ect.

Rather than the sun beatingdown onto the roof, which caus-es heat to be pushed through theroof and inside the ceiling of thebuilding, photovoltaic panelstake the solar beating. IANS

Gangadhar Pujar

NEWS & FEATURESSaturday, July 23, 2011 6

Actress Sarah Jessica Parker smilesduring a press conference in Shanghai,China, yesterday. Parker is in Shanghai

as a special guest of a figure skatingshow called Artistry on Ice.

AP-PTI

world briefs

NASA pickslanding site

for next Mars probe

Washington: NASA’s next Mars rover willland at the foot of a mountain inside theplanet’s Gale crater, the US space agencyhas announced.

The car-sized Mars Science Laboratory– or Curiosity – is scheduled to be launchedlater this year and land in August 2012,Xinhua reported.

The target crater spans 154 km in diameterand holds a mountain rising from the craterfloor. The crater is named after Australianastronomer Walter F Gale.

“Mars is firmly in our sights,” said NASAadministrator Charles Bolden in a state-ment.

“Curiosity not only will return a wealthof important science data, but it will serveas a precursor mission for human explo-ration to the Red Planet,” he said.

Curiosity is about twice as long and morethan five times as heavy as any previousMars rover. Its 10 science instrumentsinclude two for ingesting and analyzingsamples of powdered rock that the rover’srobotic arm collects.

“Scientists identified Gale as their topchoice to pursue the ambitious goals ofthis new rover mission,” said Jim Green,director for the Planetary Science Divisionat the NASA headquarters in Washington.

“The site offers a visually dramatic land-scape and also great potential for significantscience findings,” he said.

The rover and other spacecraft compo-nents are being assembled and undergoingfinal testing. The mission is targeted tolaunch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Sta-tion in Florida between Nov 25 and Dec 18.IANS

17 dead inChina floods

Beijing: Floods and landslides triggeredby torrential rains in China’s 11 provinceshave left at least 17 people dead, includingfour children, officials said.

The ministry of civil affairs said thatsince July 14, persistent rains in Beijing,Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning,Jilin, Heilongjiang, Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxiaand Xinjiang, have affected around 3.94million people, Xinhua reported.

The disasters have also caused economiclosses of 4.63 billion yuan (around $713million), the ministry said.

At least five people, including four chil-dren, were flushed away by floods Fridayafter continuous rain in Guizhou province,a witness said.

Luo Yuankun, a local patrolman, sawthe four children being carried away bythe flooded Xiangjiang river in Zunyi city.

“The flood roared down and the childrenwere gone in a flash,” he said.

Rescue workers said some local people,who were fishing near the riverside werealso swept away. However, they could notconfirm exactly how many people weremissing.

About 300 rescuers have been sent tosearch for the missing people, said ZhangQian, the vice-mayor of the city. IANS

UN seeks $4baid fund

New York: The UN needs $4.3 billion inthe next six months to carry out humani-tarian work, the world body says.

Valerie Amos, the UN under secretarygeneral for humanitarian affairs, said Thurs-day that donors have made available just45 percent of the funds requested at thestart of 2011.

She said the UN had asked for $7.4 billionin 2011, but that figure has since risen to$7.9 billion due to a severe humanitariancrisis in some parts of the world, like theHorn of Africa, where droughts affected 11million people.

About $3.6 billion has been received sofar, she told reporters in Geneva after pre-senting a mid-year review of the status ofhumanitarian funding to member states.

More than 100,000 malnourished childrenhad been treated in 800 nutrition centresthroughout Somalia between January andMay 2011. A total of 554,000 children insouthern Somalia are suffering from mal-nutrition, she added.

Other drought-affected countries that re-quire humanitarian assistance are Djibouti,Ethiopia and Kenya. South Sudan, Yemen,and Libya, among others, also require helpthis year, she said. IANS

Why some scents drive females into frenzy?Washington: TV commercialsfeature a young man set uponby a bunch of frenzied, goodlooking girls, overpowered bythe heady fragrance that hehas sprayed himself with.

Male birds, too, deploy asimilar tactic when they releasetheir cologne or preen oil, se-creted from a gland at the baseof their tail. It draws the at-tention of not only femalebirds, but unwittingly also thatof males, researchers said.

“It’s kind of like the ‘Axeeffect’, in that females wereattracted to the scent and didn’tseem to care where it camefrom, meaning their own pop-ulation or a different one...,”

said study author Danielle Whit-taker.

“And I think the males weredrawn in as an aggressive re-sponse to the scent of anothermale,” added Whittaker, MD,Michigan State University’s BEA-CON Centre for the Study of Evo-lution in Action.

Scents are used in all organ-isms for finding, attracting andevaluating mates, reports thejournal Behavioural Ecology.

But this is the first study thatshows what is happening amongsongbirds, even though they pos-sess the smallest olfactory bulbsrelative to brain size among allbirds.

Recently, however, researchers

have discovered that songbirds har-bour a high number of olfactory re-ceptors, and they’ve been able toprove that the birds are capable ofusing odours to help find their way.

So, Whittaker and her collaboratorsin Ellen Ketterson’s lab at IndianaUniversity weren’t surprised to dis-cover that the birds used scent in at-tracting mates.

Another interesting find was thatwhen given a choice, the female birdspreferred the odour of the smallermales, Whittaker said.

“Based on these results, I’m hopingto find out how and why small, unattractive males overcom-pensate by producing greateramounts of an attractive scent,” saidWhittaker. IANS

This stainlesssteel is bacteria

resistant London: A new bacteria-resistantsteel developed by a British uni-versity is likely to be useful inhospitals and other places toprevent the spread of bacterialdiseases.

Researchers have developeda technique that not only killsbacteria but is very hard and re-sistant to wear and tear duringcleaning as it introduces silveror copper into the steel surfacerather than coating it on the sur-face, said a statement by Birm-ingham university.

“Bacteria resistant surfacescould be used in hospitals toprevent the spread of superbuginfections on stainless steels sur-faces, as well as in medical equip-ment, for example, instrumentsand implants. They would alsobe of use to the food industryand in domestic kitchens,” it

added. Researchers said the antibac-

terial properties of the stainlesssteel did not wither even aftercleaning the treated instruments120 times.

“Previous attempts to makestainless steel resistant to bacteriahave not been successful as thesehave involved coatings whichare too soft and not hard-wear-ing. Thin antibacterial coatingscan be easily worn down wheninteracting with other surfaces,which leads to a low durabilityof the antibacterial surface,” saidHanshan Dong, professor of Sur-face Engineering at the Universityof Birmingham.

“Our technique means thatwe avoid coating the surface,instead we modify the top layersof the surface,” Dong added.IANS

Now, new softwarethat helps kids to read!

Washington: Here’s some goodnews for worried parents – re-searchers have come up with aninnovative way to help childrenlearn to read.

A team of Waikato Universityhas developed a software, “Book-ieMonster”, which they claimacts as a reading coach for kids– in fact, it computerises a provenmethod of learning tuition,dubbed “repeated reading” usingcomputer-generated voices andspeech recognition.

Children using the softwarelisten to text being read aloudby the computer, following thewords as they are progressivelyhighlighted on-screen in timewith the voice, similar to karaoke,say its developers.

After hearing a text read tothem a few times, they then readit back to the computer via a mi-crophone. The software recog-nises their speech and providesthe same progressive text high-lighting that they received whilebeing read to.

The students now have a work-ing prototype and are setting uptrials in local schools. Ultimatelythey hope to see their softwaredistributed via existing initiativesin developing nations where lit-

eracy in some places is as lowas 50 per cent, say the re-searchers.

It also has the potential to as-sist in teaching a second language, they say. PTI

You can now raisethe perfect toast

London: Guess what could be the best thing sincesliced bread? Well, a formula for the perfect toast –it’s best cooked for exactly 3 minutes and 36 seconds,say scientists.

Their study found this amount of time created theperfect “golden-brown” colour with the “ultimate bal-ance of external crunch and internal softness”.

The optimum thickness of the bread should be 14mm and the ideal amount of butter 0.44 gm persquare inch. The toaster dial must also be set to fiveout of six on a 900-watt appliance to achieve 154C.

Once the perfect slice has popped out it should bebuttered immediately, sliced once diagonally, andthen served on a plate warmed to 45C, to minimisecondensation beneath the toast, the ‘Daily Express’reported. Lead author Dr Dom Lane, a consultantfood researcher, spent a week toasting and tasting2,000 slices to find the right cooking formula. Hefound if more or less than 216 seconds was taken tocook the toast, it would lose the desired 12:1 exteriorto interior crispiness.

The best bread to toast he found was a pale seededloaf taken fresh from a fridge at 3C. And both sideshad to be cooked at the same time rather than on oneside to help “curtail excessive moisture loss”.

The study for Vogel’s bread firm polled 1,913 peopleand found Britain’s preferred shade of toasted breadwas “builder’s brew”. Dr Lane said: “Taking the mostpopular mid-point toast tone and the complicatedmaths, we derived the formula for the perfect slice oftoast. It’s then relatively straight-forward to develop afive-step process, allowing toast lovers to replicateour laboratory method in their own kitchens.” PTI

Obama callsfor co‑op afterOslo bombing

Washington: US PresidentBarack Obama Friday sent con-dolences to Norway after thedeadly bombing and shootingin the capital city of Oslo. Obamacalled on the world to work to-gether to fight terrorism.

After a meeting with NewZealand PM John Key, Obamasaid “our hearts” go to the peo-ple of Norway, pledging to pro-vide support to the investigation,Xinhua reported.

He said the attacks were areminder that the whole worldhas “a stake” in stopping thiskind of terror from happening.

“We have to work coopera-tively together on intelligenceand in terms of prevention ofthese kinds of horrible attacks,”Obama said. IANS

UN condemns attacksUnited Nations: UN General As-sembly President Joseph Deiss

has expressed shock over thedeadly attacks in Norway, Xin-hua reported.

A statement released by hisspokesperson said Deiss wasdeeply shocked to learn aboutthe violent attacks.

“President Deiss is particu-larly distressed that one of theattacks has targeted young peo-ple, and that this has happenedon the eve of the High-LevelMeeting on Youth convened bythe General Assembly in NewYork on July 25 and 26, 2011 tomark the International Year ofYouth,” the spokesman said.

“The president of the GeneralAssembly strongly condemnsthese attacks and offers his con-dolences to the people and gov-ernment of Norway,” he added.

A bomb exploded Friday indowntown Oslo near govern-ment offices, killing and injuringmany. IANS

The scene after an explosion in Oslo, Norway, yesterday. A loud explosion shattered windows at the government headquarters in Oslo which includes the prime minister’s office, injuring several people.

Suspect held is NorwegianOslo: A man police arrested following adeadly bombing in Oslo and a series of shoot-ings on an island just outside the capital is aNorwegian, Justice Minister Knut Storbergetsaid.

“A person has been arrested... I have beeninformed that he is a Norwegian,” Storbergettold a press conference yesterday.

“It would not be fair of me to go into moredetail about this,” he added.

Storberget said the city centre blast hadkilled seven people and about 10 people hadbeen seriously wounded.

Of the shootings at a youth camp held bythe ruling Labour Party on the island ofUtoeya, he said: “Several of our young peopleare dead and several others are missing.”

Police arrested a man wearing a pulloverwith a police symbol on it on the island andbelieve he was involved in both attacks.

The suspect had never worked for thepolice, said Sveinung Sponheim, acting com-missioner for the Oslo police.

So far, officers have put the death toll fromthe shootings at “nine to 10” people but havewarned that that figure could rise.

Witnesses to the shootings described thegunman as Northern European-looking andsaid he spoke Norwegian.

“It is too early to say what is behind this,”Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said duringa joint press conference with his justice min-ister.

“The answer to violence is more democracy,more humanity, but not more naivety.

“You will not destroy us. We are a smallnation, but a proud nation. No one will reduceus to silence us with bombs. No one will stopNorway from being itself,” he added. AFP

AP-PTI

LIFESTYLE 7Saturday, July 23, 2011

Singer Paul McCartney willmarry US heiress NancyShevell in a small ceremony

here.The 69-year-old, who has been

married twice before, is planningan intimate ceremony before fly-ing to New York to celebrate withShevell’s family and friends.

“Paul loves Nancy very much,but does not want a big wed-ding,” femalefirst.co.uk quoteda source as saying.

Shevell, who has been in arelationship with the singer forfour years, previously admittedthe couple were planning a civilceremony for marriage.

“It will be small. Just our fam-ilies. I don’t know the exact date.And don’t ask what I’ll wear be-cause how dressy do you get tostand before a Justice of thePeace in his chambers, which isexactly what we’re going to do,”said the 51-year-old.

J ennifer Lopez was readyto leave her estranged hus-band Marc Anthony last

year, says the singer’s friend.JLo marriage had been in

trouble for some time and onJuly 15 the couple announcedthey were splitting.

“Jen told him she wantedout of the marriage late lastyear, but he begged her tostay. She stayed, but she wasmiserable until finally shecouldn’t take it anymore,” fe-malefirst.co.uk quoted a friendas saying.

It has also been reportedthe couple nearly split in 2009,over Anthony’s alleged affairwith an airline stewardess.

“Jennifer was going to leavehim then, but Marc beggedher to stay. They went to mar-riage counselling and she de-cided to give it another shot.He was someone she trulyloved,” said a source.

The man who attacked actorKal Penn has been sen-tenced to three years be-

hind bars.Marcellus Chambers pulled a

gun on the “The Namesake” ac-tor when he was working asPresident Barack Obama’s as-sociate director of the WhiteHouse Office of Public Engage-ment in April last year.

The thief took the cash andPenn’s government issued cellphone, reports Tmz.com.

Chambers pleaded guilty ofrobbery and assault with a dead-ly weapon.

Kal Pennʼs attacker jailed

Craig wasnʼt interested in James Bond role

Britney Spearsis obnoxious: Bodyguard

Indian designer Amit GT, who styled forthe likes of Katrina Kaif, DeepikaPadukone and Kareena Kapoor, is set to

showcase at the Saatchi Gallery in London.The designer will exhibit his pre-spring

Summer 2012 collection for three days start-ing Aug 7.

“It is an arts meet fashion event for trenddefining designers and luxury brands. Therewill be a list of international icons in designindustry like Vivienne Westwood, and brandslike Kenzo, Pucci, Valentino, Givenchy whowill be showing alongside,” Amit told IANS.

The designer, who was showered withappreciation and accolades soon afterlaunching his own prêt label called Sensesby Amit GT in January 2003, has participatedin fashion weeks at Paris, Milan, Londonand Dubai.

However, making collection for the artgallery is a challenge for him.

“The biggest challenge in designing thiscollection was to how I could use my recentlove affair with minimal chic in myriadways to suit different moods and occasions.I wanted to design a complete wardrobe forwomen who like fuss free yet elegant lookswhich they can wear for day or for chicevenings or when they take some time offfor a luxe safari,” said the designer.

“I wanted to create eclectic wardrobe sothat they don’t have to follow same lookeach day. There are prints in the collectionthat were inspired by exotic flora and faunaor there are hand-painted intriguing printsor abstracts that take you on a galactic trailbut all of them have a sense of escapism,”he added.

JLo wanted divorce last year, says friend

Indian designer to showat Londonʼs art gallery

Sonam Kapoor is face of jewellery week

Sonam Kapoor is the face ofthe India International Jew-ellery Week (IIJW) after de-

signer Farah Khan Ali, who createdwaves at the inaugural edition lastyear decided to give it a miss thistime due to other commitments.

The five-day event, organised bythe Gems & Jewellery Export Pro-motion Council (GJEPC)begins inMumbai July 31.

"I am not showcasing at the sec-ond edition of the jewellery weekas I am working on a bigger projectwhich requires time and concen-tration," Farah, was in the newsrecently after international singerBeyonce Knowles wore a crowndesgined by her for a new musicalbum "4", told IANS.

The jewellery at Mumbai's GrandHyatt hotel will see collections fromdesigners like Varuna D. Jani andbrands like Amrapali, Tanishq andGanjam.

Top Bollywood celebrities, mod-els and some international icons,whose names are being kept underwraps, have been roped in to walkthe ramp during the event.

S inger Britney Spears refusedto wash for days and pickedher nose “unselfconsciously”,

says her former bodyguard who issuing her for harassment.

Fernando Flores launched a law-suit last year alleging the “Toxic”hitmaker repeatedly exposed herselfand made unwanted sexual advancestowards him when he worked forher. Now Flores claims the singerhad poor personal hygiene, frequent-ly used offensive language, failed tobrush her teeth or use deodorantand reeked of cigarette smoke, innew papers filed at the Los AngelesSuperior Court, reports contactmu-sic.com.

“The sexual advances were un-wanted for a variety of reasons.Spears had obnoxious habits, suchas chain-smoking – making her smellcontinually of stale tobacco,” Floresstated in the document. “She brokewind or picked her nose unselfcon-sciously and unapologetically andshe was constantly and gratuitouslyloud and profane. She did not bathefor days, did not use deodorant, didnot brush her teeth, did not fix herhair, did not wear shoes or socks,”he added.

Actor Daniel Craig says hewas initially reluctant totake over the role of James

Bond from Pierce Brosnan.The British actor was one of

the first actors Bond producersturned to when they decided tolook for Brosnan’s successor, buthe wasn’t interested in playingthe iconic movie super spy, reportscontactmusic.com.

“I was like, ‘This is silly. I’vegot a career. I mean, lovely, thankyou very much, I’m very honouredthat you would even consider it,but I can’t do it – sorry.’,” Craigtold Entertainment Weekly mag-azine.

“(But) it was a good script. Iwent, ‘OK, yeah, I understand.’,”he said.

No big fat weddingfor McCartney, Shevell

Saturday, July 23, 2011 8LIFESTYLE

Imranʼs stylish tribute to three Khans

Aniston loved playing a nymphomaniac

Actress Jennifer Anistonsays she loved playinga nymphomaniac in her

forthcoming film “HorribleBosses”.

The 42-year-old played therole of a sex-crazed dentist.

“You can’t ever have any re-grets. The best thing aboutplaying this role was gettingto play an absolute crazy sexualnymphomaniac. Parts like thataren’t written for women thatoften,” contactmusic.com quot-ed her as saying.

In the film, Aniston’s char-acter, Dr. Julia Harris, tries toentice her assistant, Dale –played by Charlie Day – awayfrom his fiancee.

While shooting Aniston wasafraid of embarrassing her co-star and kept apologising tohim.

“I was constantly apologis-ing to Charlie for what my char-acter was doing to him,” shesaid.

Lindsay Lohan facinglawsuit from rehab workerTroubled actress Lindsay Lo-

han is facing a million dol-lar lawsuit from a rehabil-

itation worker who alleges theactress assaulted her. The “MeanGirl” star was accused of lashingout at Dawn Bradley in Decem-ber, last year, during her stint atthe Betty Ford clinic in California.The actress was serving threemonths of court-ordered treat-ment at the clinic.

Bradley was fired for talkingto the media about the allegedincident and took her complaint

to police, but later dropped herclaims, insisting she no longerwanted to co-operate with theinvestigation.

However the former rehabworker has now set out a lawsuitagainst the actress, alleging Lo-han was violent towards herwhen she tried to administer abreathalyzer test, grabbing herwrist and “twisting and pullingit for 8-10 seconds”, reportsTmz.com.

The lawsuit seeks at least $1million and was filed Thursday.

Teen sensation JustinBieber is planning to takea month off before he

starts working on his next al-bum.The “Baby” hitmaker has hireda series of rap and R&B super-stars to collaborate with himon the upcoming record, in-cluding Kanye West, Drake andChris Brown.

Bieber is hoping an extendedbreak will help him mature be-fore he starts the studio ses-sions.

“I’ve been working so hard,I’m taking a month off. It’sbeen great to just think andenjoy hanging out with myfriends,” dailystar.co.uk quotedhim as saying.

“I’m still growing up, andwhen you’re working every day,you don’t really get a chanceto figure out who you are. Sowith the time off, I’m able tothink, pray and just kind ofgrow up,” he said.

Justin Bieber takingmonth off from work

Cynthia Nixon tomake Broadway debut

Actress Cynthia Nixon isset to make her Broad-way debut with “Wit”.

The Manhattan Theater Clubannounced that Nixon will playProfessor Vivian Bearing in“Wit”. The play is about anEnglish professor who spe-cialises in poetry and is battlingstage-four ovarian cancer, re-ports nytimes.com.

The show is scheduled toopen Jan 26 at the Samuel J.Friedman Theater.

LOVATO RETURNS TO RED CARPET

Actress Demi Lovatohas made her firstred carpet appear-

ance after a much publicisedstint in rehabilitation.

The 18-year-old was ad-mitted to a clinic last yearto deal with a number ofpersonal issues, includingself-harming, depressionand an eating disorder.

Lovato attended the HtcStatus Social launch eventin Hollywood Tuesday,where she revealed that shefound her return to the spot-light “kind of nerve rack-ing”, but is now more com-fortable at public events.

“I’m more relaxed thistime around. I’m not asstressed and freaking out,like ‘Do I look okay here?’I’m like, whatever. What yousee is what you get and I’mhaving fun,” she told UsWeekly.

Actress Hilary Swank hassigned up to produce andstar in the big screen adap-

tation of the graphic novel trilogy“Shrapnel”.

“I am a fan of the work thatRadical Pictures are doing in thecomic and action arena. ‘Shrapnel’and specifically the character ofSam offer me the opportunity todive into an exciting characterwith many layers and depth thatare rarely found in this genre,”contactmusic.com quoted Swankas saying.

The actress will take on thelead role of a former military offi-cial who leads an uprising on theplanet Venus in the year 2250.

Radical Publishing’s presidentBarry Levine – who is developingthe movie through Radical Pictures– said: “Hilary came to Radicalexcited to find a project with astrong female protagonist thatcould show off her abilities to doaction films.”

Hilary Swank to star in

ʻSHRAPNELʼYoung actor Imran Khan has paid a

tribute to Bollywood’s three Khans– Aamir, Salman and Shah Rukh –

through the title song of his upcomingfilm “Mere Brother Ki Dulhan” by copyingsteps from their popular songs“Paathshaala”, “Munni” and “Chhaiyanchhaiyan”, respectively. Imran, who fea-tures in the Yash Raj Films project opposite

Katrina Kaif, shot for the peppy song inMumbai, New Delhi and Dehradun. Inthe song, Imran goes searching for theideal bride for his brother. He dances atan airport, mimicking his maternal uncle,Aamir, by performing the same steps thatthe latter did in the song “Paathshaala”in “Rang De Basanti”. On the road, hecopies Salman’s famous steps from the

blockbuster “Dabangg”, and he has alsoshot atop a train a la Shah Rukh’s “Chhaiyachhaiya” from “Dil Se”.

He may not be a great dancer, but the28-year-old has managed to copy the threeKhans quite well.

“Mere Brother Ki Dulhan” also featuresPakistani actor-musician Ali Zafar. Theromantic comedy will release Sep 9.