Science
News This Week:
1) Rosetta
spacecraft confabs with a comet:
After
10-year chase, ESA probe meets up with comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The
Rosetta spacecraft has caught up with comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
The
spacecraft has been chasing the comet for 10 years, and on August 6, the
European Space Agency (ESA) released detailed images and data showing that the
probe had come within 100 kilometers of the space rock and is ready to enter
into orbit around it. The meeting marks the closest a spacecraft has come to a
comet without slamming into it and could reveal whether the space rocks ferried
water and other ingredients for life to Earth billions of years ago.
2) Link
between vitamin D, dementia risk confirmed:
Vitamin D
deficiency is associated with a substantially increased risk of dementia and
Alzheimer's disease in older people, according to the most robust study of its
kind ever conducted.An international team, led by Dr David Llewellyn at the
University of Exeter Medical School, found that study participants who were
severely Vitamin D deficient were more than twice as likely to develop dementia
and Alzheimer's disease.The team studied elderly Americans who took part in the
Cardiovascular Health Study. They discovered that adults in the study who were
moderately deficient in vitamin D had a 53 per cent increased risk of
developing dementia of any kind, and the risk increased to 125 per cent in
those who were severely deficient.Similar results were recorded for Alzheimer's
disease, with the moderately deficient group 69 per cent more likely to develop
this type of dementia, jumping to a 122 per cent increased risk for those
severely deficient.
The study
was part-funded by the Alzheimer's Association, and is published in Neurology,
the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. It looked at 1,658
adults aged 65 and over, who were able to walk unaided and were free from
dementia, cardiovascular disease and stroke at the start of the study. The participants
were then followed for six years to investigate who went on to develop
Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.Dr Llewellyn said: "We
expected to find an association between low Vitamin D levels and the risk of
dementia and Alzheimer's disease, but the results were surprising -- we
actually found that the association was twice as strong as we
anticipated."Clinical trials are now needed to establish whether eating
foods such as oily fish or taking vitamin D supplements can delay or even prevent
the onset of Alzheimer's disease and dementia. We need to be cautious at this
early stage and our latest results do not demonstrate that low vitamin D levels
cause dementia. That said, our findings are very encouraging, and even if a
small number of people could benefit, this would have enormous public health
implications given the devastating and costly nature of dementia."
Research
collaborators included experts from Angers University Hospital, Florida
International University, Columbia University, the University of Washington,
the University of Pittsburg and the University of Michigan. The study was
supported by the Alzheimer's Association, the Mary Kinross Charitable Trust,
the James Tudor Foundation, the Halpin Trust, the Age Related Diseases and Health
Trust, the Norman Family Charitable Trust, and the National Institute for
Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Research and Care South
West Peninsula (NIHR PenCLAHRC).Dementia is one of the greatest challenges of
our time, with 44 million cases worldwide -- a number expected to triple by
2050 as a result of rapid population aging. A billion people worldwide are
thought to have low vitamin D levels and many older adults may experience
poorer health as a result.
The
research is the first large study to investigate the relationship between
vitamin D and dementia risk where the diagnosis was made by an expert
multidisciplinary team, using a wide range of information including
neuroimaging. Previous research established that people with low vitamin D
levels are more likely to go on to experience cognitive problems, but this
study confirms that this translates into a substantial increase in the risk of
Alzheimer's disease and dementia.
Vitamin D
comes from three main sources -- exposure of skin to sunlight, foods such as
oily fish, and supplements. Older people's skin can be less efficient at
converting sunlight into Vitamin D, making them more likely to be deficient and
reliant on other sources. In many countries the amount of UVB radiation in
winter is too low to allow vitamin D production.
The study
also found evidence that there is a threshold level of Vitamin D circulating in
the bloodstream below which the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer's
disease increases. The team had previously hypothesized that this might lie in
the region of 25-50 nmol/L, and their new findings confirm that vitamin D
levels above 50 nmol/L are most strongly associated with good brain
health.Commenting on the study, Dr Doug Brown, Director of Research and Development
at Alzheimer's Society said: "Shedding light on risk factors for dementia
is one of the most important tasks facing today's health researchers. While
earlier studies have suggested that a lack of the sunshine vitamin is linked to
an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease, this study found that people with
very low vitamin D levels were more than twice as likely to develop any kind of
dementia."During this hottest of summers, hitting the beach for just 15
minutes of sunshine is enough to boost your vitamin D levels. However, we're
not quite ready to say that sunlight or vitamin D supplements will reduce your
risk of dementia. Large scale clinical trials are needed to determine whether
increasing vitamin D levels in those with deficiencies can help prevent the
dementia from developing."
3) Photon
hunting in the twilight zone: Visual features of bioluminescent sharks:
The eyes
of deep-sea bioluminescent sharks have a higher rod density when compared to
non-bioluminescent sharks, according to a study published August 6, 2014 in the
open-access journal PLOS ONE by Julien M. Claes, postdoctoral researcher from
the FNRS at Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium), and colleagues. This
adaptation is one of many these sharks use to produce and perceive bioluminescent
light in order to communicate, find prey, and camouflage themselves against
predators.
The mesopelagic twilight zone, or about
200-1000 meters deep in the sea, is a vast, dim habitat, where, with increasing
depth, sunlight is progressively replaced by point-like bioluminescent
emissions. To better understand strategies used by bioluminescent predators
inhabiting this region that help optimize photon capture, the authors of this
study analyzed the eye shape, structure, and retinal cell mapping in the visual
systems of five deep-sea bioluminescent sharks, including four Lanternsharks
(Etmopteridae) and one kitefin shark (Dalatiidae).The researchers found that
the sharks' eyes contained a translucent area present in the upper eye orbit of
the lantern sharks, which might aid in adjusting counter-illumination, or in
using bioluminescence to camouflage the fish. They also found several ocular
specializations, such as a gap between the lens and iris that allows extra
light to the retina, which was previously unknown in sharks. Comparisons with
previous data on non-bioluminescent sharks reveals that bioluminescent sharks
possess higher rod densities in their eyes, which might provide them with
improved temporal resolution, particularly useful for bioluminescent
communication during social interactions.
"Every
bioluminescent signal needs to reach a target photoreceptor to be ecologically
efficient. Here, we clearly found evidence that the visual system of
bioluminescent sharks has co-evolved with their light-producing capability,
even though more work is needed to understand the full story," said Dr.
Claes.These results reveal an unexpected diversity of photon capture strategies
and indicate that like other deep-sea animals, deep-sea sharks possess a number
of adaptations to cope with the twilight zone.
4)
Shrinking dinosaurs evolved into flying birds:
A new
study involving scientists from the University of Southampton has revealed how
massive, meat-eating, ground-dwelling dinosaurs evolved into agile flying
birds: they just kept shrinking and shrinking, for over 50 million years.
Today, in the journal Science, the researchers present a detailed family tree
of dinosaurs and their bird descendants, which maps out this unlikely
transformation.They showed that the branch of theropod dinosaurs, which gave
rise to modern birds, were the only dinosaurs that kept getting inexorably
smaller.
"These
bird ancestors also evolved new adaptations, such as feathers, wishbones and
wings, four times faster than other dinosaurs," says co-author Darren
Naish, Vertebrate Palaeontologist at the University of Southampton."Birds
evolved through a unique phase of sustained miniaturisation in dinosaurs,"
says lead author Associate Professor Michael Lee, from the University of
Adelaide's School of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the South Australian
Museum.
"Being
smaller and lighter in the land of giants, with rapidly evolving anatomical
adaptations, provided these bird ancestors with new ecological opportunities,
such as the ability to climb trees, glide and fly. Ultimately, this
evolutionary flexibility helped birds survive the deadly meteorite impact which
killed off all their dinosaurian cousins."Co-author Gareth Dyke, Senior
Lecturer in Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Southampton, adds:
"The dinosaurs most closely related to birds are all small, and many of
them -- such as the aptly named Microraptor -- had some ability to climb and
glide."The study examined over 1,500 anatomical traits of dinosaurs to
reconstruct their family tree. The researchers used sophisticated mathematical
modelling to trace evolving adaptions and changing body size over time and
across dinosaur branches.The international team also included Andrea Cau, from
the University of Bologna and Museo Geologico Giovanni Capellini.
The study
concluded that the branch of dinosaurs leading to birds was more evolutionary
innovative than other dinosaur lineages. "Birds out-shrank and out-evolved
their dinosaurian ancestors, surviving where their larger, less evolvable
relatives could not," says Associate Professor Lee.
5) A
hellacious two weeks on Jupiter's moon Io:
Three
massive volcanic eruptions occurred on Jupiter's moon Io within a two-week
period in August of last year. This led astronomers to speculate that such
"outbursts," which can send material hundreds of miles above the
surface, might be much more common than they thought. "We typically expect
one huge outburst every one or two years, and they're usually not this
bright," said Imke de Pater, professor and chair of astronomy at the
University of California, Berkeley, and lead author of one of two papers
describing the eruptions. "Here we had three extremely bright outbursts,
which suggest that if we looked more frequently we might see many more of them
on Io."
Io, the
innermost of Jupiter's four large "Galilean" moons, is about 2,300 miles
across (3,630 kilometers). Aside from Earth, it is the only known place in the
solar system with volcanoes erupting extremely hot lava like that on Earth.
Because of Io's low gravity, large eruptions produce an umbrella of debris that
rises high into space.
De
Pater's long-time colleague and coauthor Ashley Davies, a volcanologist with
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said that the recent
eruptions match past events that spewed tens of cubic miles of lava over
hundreds of square miles in a short period of time.
"These
new events are in a relatively rare class of eruptions on Io because of their
size and astonishingly high thermal emission," Davies said. "The
amount of energy being emitted by these eruptions implies lava fountains
gushing out of fissures at a very large volume per second, forming lava flows
that quickly spread over the surface of Io."
All three
events, including the largest, most powerful eruption of the trio on Aug. 29,
2013, were likely characterized by "curtains of fire" as lava blasted
out of fissures perhaps several miles long.The papers, one with lead author
Katherine de Kleer, a UC Berkeley graduate student, and coauthored by UC
Berkeley research astronomer Máté Ádámkovics, and the other coauthored by Ádámkovics
and David R. Ciardi of the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute/California
Institute of Technology, Pasadena, have been accepted for publication in the
journal Icarus.
Movie
Release This Week:
The city
needs heroes. Darkness has settled over New York City as Shredder and his evil
Foot Clan have an iron grip on everything from the police to the politicians.
The future is grim until four unlikely outcast brothers rise from the sewers
and discover their destiny as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Turtles must
work with fearless reporter April and her wise-cracking cameraman Vern Fenwick
to save the city and unravel Shredder's diabolical plan.
Sean
brings his dance crew known as The Mob to Los Angeles to try and make it. But
they haven't had much luck, eventually the Mob decides it's time to go back to
Miami but Sean decides to stay. He learns of a dance competition is Las Vegas
wherein the winner will get a three year contract. Sean needs a new crew so he
asks fellow dancer Moose for help. And Moose introduces him to Andie, another
friend and dancer who got injured a few years ago and is now ready to get back
in. He recruits some other friends and they head Las Vegas as Lmmental. When
they get there, they discover that the Mob too is also there, which is very
touchy for Sean.
In “The
Hundred-Foot Journey,” Hassan Kadam (Manish Dayal) is a culinary ingénue with
the gastronomic equivalent of perfect pitch. Displaced from their native India,
the Kadam family, led by Papa (Om Puri), settles in the quaint village of
Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val in the south of France. Filled with charm, it is both
picturesque and elegant – the ideal place to settle down and open an Indian
restaurant, the Maison Mumbai. That is, until the chilly chef proprietress of
Le Saule Pleureur, a Michelin starred, classical French restaurant run by
Madame Mallory (Helen Mirren), gets wind of it. Her icy protests against the
new Indian restaurant a hundred feet from her own escalate to all out war
between the two establishments – until Hassan’s passion for French haute
cuisine and for Mme. Mallory’s enchanting sous chef, Marguerite (Charlotte Le
Bon), combine with his mysteriously delicious talent to weave magic between
their two cultures and imbue Saint-Antonin with the flavors of life that even
Mme. Mallory cannot ignore. At first Mme. Mallory's culinary rival, she
eventually recognizes Hassan's gift as a chef and takes him under her wing.
Young
Colombian immigrant Drina lands a job as a live-in housekeeper for the wealthy
Crawford family's luxurious weekend home in the Hamptons. The job seems
stress-free, but the Crawford's son Brandon shows up unexpectedly from college
and Drina witnesses him committing a horrible crime. Drina knows that if she
reports Brandon she'll lose her job, and the Crawfords show the dark side of
family loyalty by closing ranks and insinuating that they will do whatever it
takes to protect one of their own. (c) Cinema Village
A
diplomatic official is captured and imprisoned while touring a war zone, so a
team of elite female commandoes is assembled to infiltrate a women's prison for
a daring rescue.
Political
News This Week:
1)
Congress stonewalling Insurance Bill to deny Modi credit: Govt:
Rejecting
the demand for referring Insurance Bill to a Select Committee, the government
on Thursday said the Congress was 'stonewalling' the key reform measure to deny
credit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi before he goes to the United States.
Minister
of State for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman also said the government felt let down
by the Congress stonewalling its own proposal to hike FDI in insurance to 49
per cent from current 26 per cent."Of course, there are whispers that it
could be because they do not want to give credit to Modi before he goes to the
US. I have reasons to suspect that is true. So, I can't see otherwise any
substantial reason for them to say we oppose," she told PTI.
Sitharaman,
however, hoped the Bill will be passed in the current session of Parliament
which ends on August 14, saying the opposition to the Bill was crumbling and
many parties such as the Nationalist Congress Party are willing to support the
Bill.
The Congress,
which had supported a hike in FDI cap when it was in power, now wants the Bill
to be referred a Parliamentary Select Committee for threadbare examination of
the issue since the government has brought some amendments.
"We
don't see a need. How much time has been spent on it," she said when asked
if there is a need to refer the Bill to a Select Committee. "Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley has been talking to all the parties and I feel let down.
The Congress which opposed the Bill when first time National Democratic
Alliance brought it in. And (subsequently) when they brought it in we opposed.
"Let
us assume that the scores have settled. After we opposed, the Bill went to the
Standing Committee and came back with many recommendations. The United
Progressive Alliance government then accepted the recommendations made by the
Standing Committee, incorporated all the changes. A changed, tweaked Bill was
ready for being tabled in the (Rajya Sabha) House. They did not bring it,"
she said.
2) US
defence secretary arrives in India on 3-day visit:
US
Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel arrived in New Delhi on Thursday on a three-day
visit and is expected to discuss regional security situation, defence deals
worth over Rs 20,000 crore and joint military hardware development projects
with the Indian political and military leadership.
Before
leaving for India, Hagel had said the US is looking for new partners and
relationships in Asia Pacific region which represents both opportunities and
challenges.
During
his talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, the two sides are expected to discuss
the regional security situation including the fallout of the American troop
withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Hagel is
also scheduled to hold discussions with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval
and Chairman, Chiefs of Staffs Committee Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, defence
ministry officials said.
3) BSF
trooper captured by Pakistan to be released on Friday:
Pakistani
authorities on Thursday assured their Border Security Force counterparts that a
jawan, who was captured in their territory after being swept away by a strong
current of the Chenab river in Jammu and Kashmir, will be handed back on
Friday.
BSF
sources said a company commander level flag meeting was held at 02.45 pm in the
Nikowal border post area in Jammu’s Sunderbani sector between Border Security
Force and the Pak Rangers who said the BSF jawan Satyasheel Yadav, 30, would return
on Friday.
“The
stipulated time of handover of our trooper has been set at 3 pm. Some
formalities will be done by the rangers and then they would hand over Yadav
back to us,” sources said.
Officials
said they were informed that Yadav was in good condition and he is understood
to have gone through some rounds of questioning by Pakistan intelligence and
security sleuths.
Yadav was
out on a patrol with three other personnel in the Paragwal-Khour sub-sector of
general area Akhnoor when the boat they were travelling in developed a problem
on Wednesday.
Officials
said when the patrol squad was negotiating a narrow bend in the river in this
sector, the engine of the motorboat failed. A rescue boat later sent to fetch
the BSF men was taken by three personnel but Yadav was swept in the strong
current as the rope holding him snapped and he subsequently landed 400 metres
away in the Sialkot sector of Pakistan where he was picked up by the villagers
initially and then handed over to the rangers, they said.
BSF
Director General D K Pathak had earlier said that the force was making all
efforts to secure its jawan. “We have sent a request note through our Wagah
frontier and have also requested for a Commandant level flag meeting. We are
making all efforts to secure our trooper and I hope that he will sent back to
us very soon,” Pathak had said.
The BSF
chief added that the trooper had reached the Pakistan territory “accidentally”
and he was not part of any “action” that the border guarding force was
conducting on Wednesday when the incident happened.
In
Lahore, a senior rangers official said, “We have decided to free the Indian
soldier. We have completed his interrogation. He will be handed over to the BSF
tomorrow in the presence of the media after a flag meeting with BSF in Sialkot
on Friday morning.”
4) Flood
situation grim in Odisha as toll mounts to 34:
Flood
waters engulfed vast areas of the delta region of Mahanadi river system in
Odisha even as the death toll due to heavy rains and floods in the state climbed
to 34.As many as 9.95 lakh people in 1,553 villages of 89 blocks in 23
districts have so far been affected due to the floods, the special relief
commissioner said. “Though river Mahanadi is flowing above danger mark at
several places, there is no threat of substantial damage as the water flow into
Hirakud reservoir has come down,” Special Relief Commissioner P K Mohapatra
said.The death toll due to floods and heavy rain in different parts of the
state went up to 34 with seven fresh deaths reported since Wednesday, the SRC
said, adding, most of the casualties were due to drowning and wall collapse.
“It is a
matter of relief that fear of a major high flood has been averted. Volume of
water flowing down Mahanadi at Munduli stood at around 11 lakh cusec as against
over 12 lakh cusec anticipated earlier,” he said.The level in Hirakud reservoir
stood at 628.08 feet as against its full capacity of 630 feet and 50 of the 64
sluice gates were opened for discharge of excess water, said Biswajit Mohanty,
Chief Engineer of Hirakud dam.However, as flow of water into the river went
down, it has been decided to first close three gates and subsequently more
gates after assessing the situation, he said, adding flow into the reservoir
from upper catchment areas was now around 7.8 lakh cusec.
5) The
Ebola virus threat knocks at India's doorstep:
The
deadly Ebola virus that has claimed 932 lives so far is now closer to home than
imagined. Union Health Minister on Wedensday in a letter to Parliament said
that a total of 44,700 Indians are living in different countries affected by
Ebola.
Vardhan
added that India is ready and has prepared all measures to deal with any case
of the virus imported to India. He also announced that the government had asked
people to defer non-essential travel to Ebola-affected regions.
“In view
of the reports of outbreak of the Ebola virus disease in 4 countries of West
Africa, namely, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, it is recommended
that non-essential travel to these countries be deferred till such time that
the Ebola virus disease outbreak situation is brought under control,” he
said.He also assured the Parliament that the country was ready to deal with the
virus, in case it was imported to the country. “Even though there is no vaccine
or curative therapy yet for the disease, I want to apprise this house that
outbreaks can be contained through early detection and isolation of cases,
contact tracing and monitoring, and following rigorous procedures for infection
control, if such cases were to report in our country," he added.Vardhan
added that in light of the disease spreading and claiming lives, mandatory
self-reporting by passengers coming from or transiting through the affected
countries would be required at the time of immigration check.
Explaining
further about the disease and the danger it poses to Indians, the Health
Minister said that of the 44,700 who were at threat, 300 are troops from the
Central Reserve Police Force deployed in Liberia for UN peacekeeping
operations.
He
further said that the Armed Forces would be taking action to suitably advise
their personnel in the affected region for appropriate health precautions and
to apprise them about reducing the risk of contracting this infection.
The Ebola
disease is dangerous and the World Health Organisation has reported 1,603 cases
and 887 deaths till August 4 in four countries -- Guinea (485 and 358), Liberia
(468 and 255), Sierra Leone (646 and 273) and Nigeria (4 and 1).
Many
parts of Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Khurda and Puri districts were hit
by flood in Mahanadi, even as the situation in Jajpur and Bhadrak districts
continued to be grave due to submergence of vast areas by flood in Baitarani
though water level in the river is slowly falling, the SRC said. Around 1.11
lakh people have been evacuated from low-lying areas to safe places and about
240 kitchens were now operating to provide them free cooked food. As many as
2,41,658 people were marooned in 398 villages as surging water of Baitarani and
Mahanadi and their tributaries flooded vast areas in Jajpur, Bhadrak, Cuttack,
Khurda, Nayagarh, Angul, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur districts, he said.
Two
helicopters of the Indian Air Force have been kept on stand-by for use in
relief operation, if necessary, the SRC said, adding at present the entire
operation was being carried out with the help of boats. Union Home Minister
Rajnath Singh had on Wednesday called up Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik
and pledged all necessary assistance in relief operations in flood-hit
areas.Around 30 units of Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force were also deployed
in vulnerable areas, SRC office said, adding fire brigade personnel were put on
stand by.
6) Uttar
Pradesh tops the list for most riots in India:
With 247
incidents of communal violence, Uttar Pradesh has earned the dubious
distinction of topping the list of states that witnessed riots in 2013 and the
situation is no different in 2014 too.
Communal
violence claimed 133 lives across the country last year which include 77 deaths
in UP.
According
to latest Union home ministry statistics, a total of
823 such
incidents were reported from across the country in 2013 in which 2,269 people
were injured.
Apart
from Uttar Pradesh, the other states where maximum number of communal violence
took place included Maharashtra (88), Madhya Pradesh (84), Karnataka (73) and
Gujarat (68) While the data for this year is still being compiled by the MHA, a
rough estimate put the number of communal clashes reported this year to around
65 in which at least 15 people lost their lives.
Riots in
UP's Muzaffarnagar and its adjoining areas had claimed over 60 lives during
August-September last year. More than 90 people were also injured and over
50,000 people were displaced due to the communal violence then.
A maximum
of 360 people were injured in these incidents in Uttar Pradesh in 2013.
The state
also registered a maximum of 118 communal incidents in 2012 in which 39 people
were killed and 500 were injured.
While 12
people were killed in Maharashtra in these incidents, 11 people were killed in
MP during in 2013.
During
April-June this year, the most number of communal violence incidents were
reported from Uttar Pradesh (32) followed by Maharashtra (26), Rajasthan (18)
and Madhya Pradesh (17).A total of 149 communal incidents were reported across
the country in April-June this year.
Cartoonist
Pran, creator of iconic Chacha Chaudhury, dies:
Eminent
cartoonist Pran Kumar Sharma, popularly known as Pran, who gave life to lovable
comic characters Chacha Chaudhury and his friend Sabu, is no more.
Pran
succumbed to cancer early on Wednesday morning at a hospital in Gurgaon,
according to his publisher Diamond Comics. He was 75."Pran passed away at
9 am at the Medanta hospital. He had been suffering from cancer of the
intestine for the past eight months. He is survived by a son and a
daughter," Gulshan Rai, publisher, Diamond Comics, told PTI.Prime Minister
Narendra Modi took to Twitter to express his grief over the passing away of the
cartoonist.
Modi
described Pran "as a versatile cartoonist who brought smiles on the faces
of people through his rich work."Born in Kasur, near Lahore in Pakistan in
1938, Pran began his career in 1960 as a cartoonist for the Delhi-based
newspaper Milap with the comic strip 'Daabu'. In 1969, Pran sketched Chacha Chaudhary
for the Hindi magazine Lotpot, which made him famous.
"Pran
was making small cartoons for newspapers when I first contacted him in 1981. At
that time there were no Indian comics, it was all reproductions of foreign
titles. For the last 35 years we have been the sole publisher of his
cartoons," said Rai.
With a
career spanning over five decades, Pran employed a simple style of art and
sense of humour to create a family of characters like Shrimatiji, Pinki,
Billoo, Raman and Channi Chachi, which are regularly published in Indian
magazines.
Sports News
This Week:
1) India
lose six wickets for 63 on Day One of Old Trafford Test:
India got
off to their worst start in the ongoing series against England on Thursday,
when they lost six wickets on the first day of the fourth Test match being
played here.At the time of the filing of this report shortly after lunch, India
were precariously placed at 63 for six. Indian openers Gautam Gambhir and
Murali Vijay lost their wickets cheaply, for individual scores of four and
zero. Thereafter, one drop Virat Kohli and two down Chesteshwar Pujara both
scored ducks. There was a half century partnership between Ajinkya Rahane and
skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni before Rahane was snared in the slips for his
individual score of 24. All rounder Ravindra Jadeja is the latest wicket to
fall for a duck.For England, fast bowlers James Anderson and Stuart Broad
claimed three and two wickets respectively, while Chris Jordan claimed one.
Skipper
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is still not out on 25.Earlier, after winning the toss and
choosing to bat first India lost three crucial wickets in the form of Murali
Vijay, Chateshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli were out for duck. Gautam Gambhir who
made a comeback by replacing Shikhar Dhawan, failed to generate any turnaround
for the team as he was dismissed for four
2) Paes to
skip Davis Cup:
Tennis
great Leander Paes will skip India's Davis Cup World Group playoff against
Serbia to be held at the KSLTA Tennis Stadium in Bangalore Sep 12-14.The All
India Tennis Association (AITA), which will meet here Aug 13 to select the team
for the crucial tie, said that though Paes wanted to play, he will be
unavailable due to "personal compulsions".
However,
the Olympic medallist will play in the Sep 19-Oct 4 Incheon Asian Games.The
Davis Cup selection committee meeting will choose Aug 13 the team for the tie
against Serbia, AITA secretary general Bharat Oza said.
"Leander
Paes will play the Asian Games and was desirous of playing Davis Cup as well.
However, due to personal compulsions, AITA has decided to accept his request to
not play in the Davis Cup tie against Serbia," Oza said in a statement.
The
winning country will qualify for the 2015 World Group while the losing country
will contest in the Zone Groups.
India qualified
for the playoff when they beat South Korea 3-1 at Busan in the second round of
Group I Asia/Oceania in April.
The 2013
finalists, Serbia will travel to India looking to continue their seven-year
presence in the World Group. Serbia has made it to the quarterfinals or more
every year since 2010.For India, this tie represents a chance to return to the
Davis Cup's top table. Serbia hold a 2-1 head-to-head over India in Davis Cup.
3)
Commonwealth Games 2014: India celebrate Parupalli Kashyap's historic gold,
finishes fifth at CWG:
Parupalli
Kashyap brought the curtains down on India's campaign in the 20th Commonwealth
Games to a thunderous applause, winning a historic gold in the men's singles
badminton here today, as the country earned a fifth-place finish with 64
medals, including 15 yellow metals.The quest for a CWG hockey gold though
remained unfulfilled as the Indian men's team went down tamely 0-4 to title
holders and world champions Australia in the final. The country managed to get
64 medals this time with 15 gold medals!
Likewise,
the women's doubles combo of Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, too, had to be
content with a silver medal at the Emirates Arena here.
The story
on the final day of the Games revolved around Kashyap. Playing like a man
possessed, the 27-year-old stole the limelight as he etched his name firmly in
the history books by becoming the first Indian male shuttler in 32 years to win
a gold in the Commonwealth Games.
The three
podium finishes on the final day of the Games meant India ended with 30 silver
and 19 bronze, apart from the 15 top prizes.Traditional powerhouse England led
the overall standings with 171 medals, followed by Australia (135), Canada (82)
and hosts Scotland, which ended the multi-sport extravaganza with 53 medals.
A
bronze-medallist at the Delhi Games, Kashyap rose to the occasion and played a
sensational game of nerves to eke out a breath-taking 21-14 11-21 21-19 triumph
over Derek Wong of Singapore in the final showdown, which lasted over an hour.
The
shuttler from Hyderabad thus joined badminton legend Prakash Padukone and the
late Syed Modi, who had won the title in the past. While Padukone had won the
men's singles gold medal at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Canada, Modi
retained it four years later.
It turned
out to be a red letter day for World No. 22 Kashyap who bagged the biggest
title of his career. He had reached the quarterfinals of the London Olympics
and won the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold in 2012.
Just
after Kashyap's moment of triumph, Jwala and Ponnappa lost their summit showdown
with Malaysian combo of Vivian Kah Mun Hoo and Khe Wei Woon 17-21 21-23,
leaving the holders' title defence in tatters.
4) Lampard
begins six-month loan spell at Man City:
Former
Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard began his loan spell at Premier League champions
Manchester City on Wednesday, just two weeks after joining Major League Soccer
club New York City FC.
Lampard,
36, left Chelsea in June after 13 years at the club but will be back in the
Premier League for six months before joining up with City's affiliate club New
York for their inaugural season."Joining up with Manchester City is a
fantastic opportunity for me to continue to train and play at the top level and
make sure I am in top condition for New York City," Lampard, who trained with
City for the first time on Wednesday, said."It has been an amazing few
days for me since the unveiling in Brooklyn and everyone connected with both
clubs has been fantastic to me. This is a new chapter of my career and I'm
really excited about the experience."I met (City manager) Manuel
Pellegrini and some of the players in New York and I'm looking forward to
getting into training and making a contribution for Manchester City ahead of my
move over to New York."The move was welcomed by New York City FC sporting
director Claudio Reyna.
"This
is the perfect opportunity for Frank. He is in great shape following the World
Cup, and training and playing with our colleagues in Manchester will enable
Frank to be fit and ready for our inaugural training camp," he said.Lampard,
who scored a record 211 goals in all competitions for Chelsea, will be
available for City's opening game of the season against Newcastle United and
could feature against FA Cup winners Arsenal in next week's season-opening
Community Shield.
5) Man Utd
left in pole position to land Angel Di Maria as PSG withdraw interest:
MANCHESTER
UNITED have been handed a massive boost after Paris Saint-Germain pulled out of
a deal for Real Madrid winger Angel Di MariaReports yesterday suggested that
Real were keen to push through a deal for Di Maria so they could look to bring
in other targets, namely Monaco's Radamel Falcao.But PSG continue to have their
hands tied by Financial Fair Play restrictions.
While the
French club had proposed an initial loan move and also looked closely at trying
to offload Edinson Cavani, Ezequiel Lavezzi or Javier Pastore it seems that a
stalemate has now been reached.
PSG
president Nasser Al Khelaifi said: "We discussed Angel di Maria with Real
Madrid. He was very expensive and we have stopped discussions."Monaco
could now step into the void to try and land Di Maria, with the possibility
that Falcao could head the other way in a straight swap deal.
But with
Monaco denying that the Colombian striker will leave this summer, United could
be left as the last man standing in the race for Di Maria.
Reports
yesterday suggested that the Red Devils were preparing to up their wage offer
to £120,000-a-week to entice Di Maria to England.And it now seems that a deal
really could be in the offing following PSG's withdrawal.
Book of The
Week:
The
Sandcastle Girls:By Chris Bohjalian
Over the
course of his career, New York Times bestselling novelist Chris Bohjalian has
taken readers on a spectacular array of journeys. Midwives brought us to an
isolated Vermont farmhouse on an icy winter’s night and a home birth gone
tragically wrong. The Double Bind perfectly conjured the Roaring Twenties on
Long Island—and a young social worker’s descent into madness. And Skeletons at
the Feast chronicled the last six months of World War Two in Poland and Germany
with nail-biting authenticity. As The Washington Post Book World has noted,
Bohjalian writes “the sorts of books people stay awake all night to finish.”
In his
fifteenth book, The Sandcastle Girls, he brings us on a very different kind of
journey. This spellbinding tale travels between Aleppo, Syria, in 1915 and
Bronxville, New York, in 2012—a sweeping historical love story steeped in the
author’s Armenian heritage, making it his most personal novel to date.
When
Elizabeth Endicott arrives in Syria, she has a diploma from Mount Holyoke
College, a crash course in nursing, and only the most basic grasp of the
Armenian language. The First World War is spreading across Europe, and she has
volunteered on behalf of the Boston-based Friends of Armenia to deliver food
and medical aid to refugees of the Armenian genocide. There, Elizabeth becomes
friendly with Armen, a young Armenian engineer who has already lost his wife
and infant daughter. When Armen leaves Aleppo to join the British Army in
Egypt, he begins to write Elizabeth letters, and comes to realize that he has
fallen in love with the wealthy, young American woman who is so different from
the wife he lost.Flash forward to the present, where we meet Laura Petrosian, a
novelist living in suburban New York. Although her grandparents’ ornate Pelham
home was affectionately nicknamed the “Ottoman Annex,” Laura has never really
given her Armenian heritage much thought. But when an old friend calls,
claiming to have seen a newspaper photo of Laura’s grandmother promoting an
exhibit at a Boston museum, Laura embarks on a journey back through her
family’s history that reveals love, loss—and a wrenching secret that has been
buried for generations.
Chris
Bohjalian :
Chris
Bohjalian graduated from Amherst College, where he was a member of the Phi Beta
Kappa Society. In the mid-1980s, he worked as an account representative for J.
Walter Thompson, an ad agency, in New York.After a threatening incident in
town, he moved with his wife to Lincoln, Vermont, in 1987.
In
Lincoln, Bohjalian began writing weekly columns for local newspaper and
magazine about living in the small town, which had a population of about 975 residents.
The column has run in the Burlington Free Press since 1992. Bohjalian has also
written for such magazines as Cosmopolitan, Reader's Digest, The New York
TImes, and the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine.
Bohjalian's
first novel, A Killing in the Real World, was released in 1988. His third
novel, Past the Bleachers, was released in 1992 and was adapted to a Hallmark
Channel television movie in 1995.
In 1998,
Bohjalian wrote his fifth book, Midwives, a novel focusing on rural Vermont
midwife Sibyl Danforth, who becomes embroiled in a legal battle after one of
her patients died following an emergency Caesarean section. The novel was
critically acclaimed and was selected by Oprah Winfrey as the October 1998
selection of her Oprah's Book Club, which helped push the book to great
financial success. It became a New York Times and USA Today bestsellers. In
2001, the novel was adapted into a Lifetime Movie Network television film
starring Sissy Spacek in the lead role. Spacek said the Danforth character
appealed to her because "the heart of the story is my character's inner
struggle with self-doubt, the solo road you travel when you have a secret.
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