salman khan getting married in 2015?

CIRCULATED THROUGH : TORONTO, MARKHAM, SCARBOROUGH, RICHMOND HILL, VAUGHAN, WOODBRIDGE, ETOBICOKE, NORTH YORK, MALTON, REXDALE, BRAMPTON, MISSISSAUGA, OAKVILLE, HAMILTON, MILTON, STONEY CREEK, BURLINGTON

VANCOUVER- A TUBA PLAYER PERFORMS CHRISTMAS CAROLS AND SONGS DURING THE 41ST ANNUAL TUBA CHRISTMAS 2014 EVENTNEXT TO THE ROBSON SQUARE ICE RINK IN VANCOUVER, CANADA (XINHUA/SERGEI BACHLAKOV/IANS)

SALMAN KHANGETTING MARRIED

IN 2015?

OSGC DELEGATION MET WITH INDIAN CONSUL GENERAL AKHILESH MISHRA AND SUBMITTED A MEMORANDUM FOR INDIANPRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI. I DETAILS ON PAGE 5

MUMBAI (IANS): Superstar Salman Khan, who is often calledBollywood's most eligible bachelor, says in the New Year, he'd rathersee himself getting married than doing a movie starring the threeKhans together. Salman was present at the Big Star Enter tainmentAwards 2014 in Mumbai recently.Here, he was asked about what would he like to see happening in2015 -- whether Salman Khan getting married or Bollywood's threeKhans -- Salman, Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan -- doing a filmtogether. To that, the "Dabangg" star said: "I would rather see myselfgetting married than the three Khans doing a film together."Meanwhile, on the big screen, Salman will next be seen sharing screenspace with Kareena Kapoor in "Bajrangi Bhaijaan". The film is slatedto hit screens on July 17, 2015.

NRIs will get VOTINGRIGHTS soon

NEW DELHI: Ahead of Pravasi Bhar tiya Divas next month,External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today voiced confi-dence about finding a solution to voting by NRIs without com-ing to India.The Election Commission was considering the issue, shesaid."The Election Commission could not take a decision so far.There are two-three suggestions. I think a solution will befound out soon to address the difficulty of coming here andvote," Swaraj said responding to a question on the issue at apress conference here.Elaborating on the suggestions, Swaraj said there was a viewthat Electronic Voting Machines can be kept in embassieswhile another view was that right of proxy voting can begiven to NRIs so that they can authorise people to vote ontheir behalf.The 13th edition of three-day Pravasi Bhar tiya Divas will beheld from January 7 in Gandhinagar in Gujarat. It has been along-standing demand of NRIs to facilitate voting in theircountries of residence.In July, Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath had saidthat the Election Commission favours proxy voting and e-ballot for NRIs but not voting in Indian embassies abroad.He had said that any move to allow NRIs use proxy voting onthe lines of defence personnel and e-ballot facility will re-quire changes in the law.As per provisions of the Representation of People Act, a per-son who is a citizen of India and who has not acquired thecitizenship of any other country and is otherwise eligible tobe registered as a voter and who is absent from his place ofordinary residence in India owing to employment, educationor otherwise, is eligible to be registered as a voter.The provision says he will able to vote in the place which ismentioned in his passpor t as place of residence in India.

KASHMIR - Hung house,PDP on top, BJPsecond, JHARKHAND gets BJP government

I CONTD. ON PAGE 11

Srinagar/Jammu, (IANS) Jammu and Kashmir got a hung assemblyTuesday, with the PDP becoming the single largest group and the BJPmaking history by finishing a close second in a verdict that exposedthe deep divide between the largely Muslim Kashmir Valley and Hindu-majority Jammu region.With no single par ty in a position to form a government on its own, thePeoples Democratic Par ty with 28 of the 87 seats hinted it was notaverse to sailing with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which bagged all its25 seats from Jammu region.The National Conference of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah -- who won fromBeerwah but lost in Sonwar -- won 15 seats, disproving critics who felt itmight be wiped out. Its estranged ally Congress finished with 12 seats -- fiveless than last time.Seven seats went to smaller parties and independents including two baggedby the People's Conference of Sajjad Lone, a former separatist leader. YusufTarigami, a veteran Marxist, won again from the valley.While Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the record voter turnout in Kash-mir as a sign of people's faith in democracy, BJP president Amit Shah cred-ited the unprecedented showing by his party in the state to the six months ofgood governance by Modi.Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh, a Lok Sabhamember from Udhampur in Kashmir, said: "This will be a turning point for BJPand for Jammu and Kashmir politics."

The BJP, until now considered a bit player in Kashmir that too only in Jammuregion, not only increased its seat tally from 11 in 2008 to 25 now, but polledthe maximum votes - over 23 percent.The BJP had hoped to win 44 seats -- enough to take power on its own inJammu and Kashmir. That did not happen.The BJP did not field any senior leader or known face in the election. Instead,the party projected Modi as the answer to Kashmir's long-standing prob-lems.Modi visited the state six times to campaign and focussed mainly on issuesof development. He also spoke against corruption and dynastic rule.On his par t, outgoing Chief Minister Abdullah said "I have acceptedthe people's verdict," he said. "But those who thought we would dobadly very badly have been proved wrong."Riding on the Modi wave, the BJP won its 25 seats in the Jammuregion, where only six Congress candidates won. But the BJP got onlytwo percent of votes in the Kashmir Valley.The National Conference and PDP won two seats each in Jammuregion and got the rest in the valley, the epicentre of a dragging sepa-ratist campaign.Three of the four seats in the Buddhist-dominated Ladakh region wentto the Congress. The four th seat was taken by an independent sup-por ted by the National Conference.

2 MidWeek MIDWEEK NEWS WEEKLY

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2014

MidWeek 3MIDWEEK NEWS WEEKLY

TUESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2012

MIDWEEK NEWS WEEKLY


PAGE 3 'ALONE' TRAILERCROSSES FOURMILLION MARK

SALMAN CAN'T HOST 'BIGGBOSS 8' FROM JANUARY 2015

Mumbai (IANS): Superstar Salman Khan, who has been hosting thereality show "Bigg Boss 8" for the past several seasons, has con-firmed that he won't be able to anchor the last four episodes of theshow's "Weekend Ka Vaar" due to prior commitments with the mak-ers of film "Bajrangi Bhaijaan". He says filmmaker Farah Khan maystep into his shoes."From January (2015), I'll get busy with 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan'. I'm shoot-ing for that film in Rajasthan and up and down from there would bedifficult for me. "So, I won't be able to do the last four episodes (of theshow)," Salman said on the sidelines of the Big Star Enter tainmentAwards 2014 here. "I think Farah is doing those episodes," he added.Directed by Kabir Khan, "Bajrangi Bhaijaan" also stars Kareena Kapoorand it will hit screens in mid-2015.

'ALONE' TRAILER CROSSESFOUR MILLION MARKMumbai (IANS): Actress Bipasha Basu is on cloud nine as the trailerof her for thcoming film "Alone" has been viewed more than four mil-lion times on YouTube. Published on Dec 9, the trailer has been viewed4,058,867 times and has received thumbs up from celebrities likeShah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Hrithik Roshan and Arjun Kapoor."Our trailer of #Alone is the fastest to cross the 4 million mark!Woohoo! Now keep 16th jan to watch the film!," she tweeted Wednes-day. Also starring Karan Singh Grover, the story revolves around con-joined twins Anjana and Sanjana, who had promised to be togetherand how the death of one sister leads to a series of chilling incidents.

B-Town continuesmourning for Peshawar

attack victimsMumbai (IANS): A day after 132 children were brutally killed ina gruesome Taliban attack on a school in Pakistan's Peshawarcity, Bollywood celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan and Shah RukhKhan are still in shock and feel "anger" and "disgust" for the"monstrous" act.Bollywood thespian and now ailing Dilip Kumar, who was bornin Peshawar, said Thursday that he longed to reach out to theparents of the children massacred in the Pakistani city. Speak-ing on his behalf, his wife and former actress Saira Banu saidDilip Kumar, who real name is Yusuf Khan, was shocked by thesavagery at the Peshawar school.The 92-year-old Dilip Kumar said: "I was born in the charmingcity of Peshawar in undivided India and I still have many specialmemories of the place. What the Taliban terrorists of Pakistandid to the school children in Peshawar is unforgivable and sinful.The massacre has wounded me beyond words. My hear t longsto reach out to the parents who lost their sons and daughters inthe worst crime any country has witnessed in recent years,"said Dilip Kumar, whose ancestral house is still in Peshawar.Here's what other stars shared about the act on digital platforms:Amitabh Bachchan: When innocence is silenced...There can bejust silence.Shah Rukh Khan: The soul is healed by being with children.Extreme anger & disgust for all those who took our children, ourfuture, our healers away.Aamir Khan: Just heard about the innocent children being killedin Peshawar. I'm devastated.Shekhar Kapur: Killings of innocent children is not justified inany religion or culture. It's an act by depraved desperate andGodless men #PeshawarAttackAnupam Kher: Today the world is so sad. Those children de-served a long & happy life. #SADShahid Kapoor: Black day. Innocence lost. Where is humanityheading. No religion no God could ever want this. Peshawar.Prayers. Shock.Anushka Sharma: This is the cruellest most inhuman cowardiceact. It pains me so much. Prayers & strength with the families ofthe innocent kids killed.Sonu Nigam: Morning. New agendas. New dreams. World moveson. How sad. But 4 sm, world ended yesterday. Now they shalllive with d corpse of their life.Alia Bhatt: No such thing as humanity. Its appalling to even thinkthat we are capable of being so monstrous and so majorlyMESSED UP!!!#PeshawarAttackVarun Dhawan: Darkest day of the human race. No RELIGIONtells you to kill children. cant believe someone is capable of thismonstrosity#PeshawarAttackRannvijay Singha: Can't imagine what the parents are goingthrough, they just sent their kids to school...what wrong canchildren do? so angry.. #PeshawarAttack

RANDEEP HOODA'S SOCIALMEDIA NIGHTMAREMumbai (IANS): Actor Randeep Hooda is said to have been joltedto learn that various fake accounts in his name are floating incyberspace. He is now repor tedly getting his genuine accountsverified. While imposters aren't new to celebrities, what upset Randeepwas when he learnt that some of them have been trying to dupe younggirls, promising them roles in films, said a source close to Randeep."Given the ramifications of such heinous plans of his imposters, Randeephas taken the matter in his hands and has been verifying his accountnow," the source added. The actor's Facebook address is and his Twit-ter handle is - @RandeepHoodaIn 2014, Randeep was seen on the big screen in films like "Highway","Kick", "Ungli" and "Rang Rasiya".

KIM'S FAN SPENDS $150K TOLOOK LIKE HERLos Angeles (IANS): Kim Kardashian's 23-year-old fan JordanJames Parke has spent a whopping $150,000 on cosmetic pro-cedures to look like the Reality TV star.Kim graces several magazine covers a month and has her ownreality show, clothing and make-up brand so perhaps it's nosurprise that Parke wants to be just like Kim. The British make-up ar tist has gone to extreme lengths to replicate Kim's uniquepouty image including more than 50 cosmetic procedures in-cluding Botox, lip and cheek fillers, eyebrow tattoos and laserhair removal, repor ts dailymail.co.uk. Parke told The Sun news-paper that he fell in love with 33-year-old Kim after watching anepisode of "Keeping Up With The Kardashians"."I love everything about Kim. She's the most gorgeous womanever. Her skin is per fect, her hair, everything about her," hesaid.

DIANNA AGRON SELLS KISSFOR $23,000Los Angeles (IANS): Actress Dianna Agron has sold a kiss for$23,000 to raise money for charity. The "Glee" star, who re-cently split from her actor boyfriend Thomas Cocquerel, puck-ered up to a guest at a gala held by social networking siteASma l lWor ld i n Gs taad , Sw i t ze r l and , r epo r tscontactmusic.com. The event was par t of a fundraising auc-tion for the War Child organization and hosted by War Childambassador Carey Mulligan.

SHAH RUKH KHAN WITH THE STUDENTS OF THE STANFORD UNIVERSITY DURING A PROGRAMME IN MUMBAI (IANS).

Ranbir Should Get Married Soon : Neetu Singh

As per Indian Media Reports are that Ranbir & Katrina are planning to taketheir relationship to the next level, early next year. It is not just the lovebirdswho intend on getting hitched, Ranbir's mother and veteran actress Neetu Singhtoo seems to be a hurry for him to get settled. Where earlier, Neetu was heardsaying that she wants Ranbir to get married by 2016, she wants this to happensoon now. Well, this might probably be because he has finally found the girl hewants to spend his life with. At a recently held event Neetu said, "See

whenever he is ready, we are ready. It's all up to him…I really have no clue.Because aaj kal ke bachchon ka kuch pata nahi hota. When they get ready…whenthey gonna get married…what they want to do. They are absolutely on their owntrip so I don't know. As a mother of course I do want him to get married soon. ButI don't think he is ready. I don't know maybe in a year or two." Now that we knowthere isn't enough time for Ranbir to get married, let's see when will the dayfinally arrive.


TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2014s p e c i a l r e p o r t

TORONTO: Grand Challenges Canada, funded by the Government of Canada, hasannounced an investment of up to $3.1 million CADin 11 innovations in India,designed to save and improve the lives of women and children.Ten proof-of-concept projects will receive $112,000 CAD each and one Bangalore-based project, proven successful in trials, is now deemed ready for a $2 millionCAD scale-up. It enables a mobile phone to work as a glucose metre for diabetics.The funding was announced by the Honourable Chris Alexander, Minister of Citi-zenship and Immigration, during the Grand Challenges Canada India Health Inno-vation Summit in Toronto, hosted by Grand Challenges Canada and the NationalCouncil of Indo Canadians.More than 125 guests from over 27 Indo-Canadian organizations, including AkhileshMishra, Consul General of India and Dr. Peter A. Singer, CEO of Grand ChallengesCanada, attended the Summit on Monday, December 15th in Toronto, celebratingand showcasing global health innovators from India and Canadian innovators fromIndian descent who are working to improve the health of the most vulnerable inIndia.This event and the funding announcement builds on the Programme of Cooperationthat was signed in February 2014 between Grand Challenges Canada and theGovernment of India's Department of Biotechnology, in order to promote the devel-opment of long-term cooperation between Canada and India in the fields of globalhealth, early child development, women and children's health and mental health."Canada has welcomed generations of newcomers from India who have helpedbuild a pluralistic and prosperous Canada. Both Canada and India share a mutualregard for innovation, and the valuable benefits it brings to our lives and ourcommunities. By working together, we can leverage the expertise of our countries,through innovation and technology, for best practices to improve the health of ourcitizens," said the Honourable Chris Alexander, Canada's Citizenship and Immigra-tion Minister.To date, Grand Challenges Canada has funded 80 innovations in India, for a totalinvestment of more than $16 million CAD. These projects are being implementedby institutions based in India and by institutions based in Canada or other countries,in partnership with Indian institutions. Many of these innovations are improvingmaternal, newborn and child health, which is Canada's flagship developmentpriority.Jana Care, a company based in Bangalore, India, secured a $2 millionCADinvestment commitment for the development of the Aina device, a mobileblood monitoring device that plugs into a smartphone and enables the testing of sixbasic blood parameters. This innovation can be easily used in home, clinical orremote settings, and allows for transmission of medical data directly from patientsto health professionals.Grand Challenges Canada's $1 million CADcommitment comes from funds avail-able under a $10 million CAD strategic partnership between Grand ChallengesCanada and Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD). These fundsaim to accelerate the scale-up of highly promising health innovations in developingcountries. The $1 million CADcommitment by Grand Challenges Canada in JanaCare will bematched by a syndicate of investors, including Unitus Impact. UnitusImpact is a venture capital firm investing in scalable businesses that increaseincomes and improve the livelihoods of the working poor in Asia's fastest growingeconomies.Unitus Impact will invest through its recently launched LivelihoodImpact Fund, which had its first close in July 2014 with investments from promi-nent family offices, foundations and high net worth individuals in Australia, Europe,Indonesia, Singapore and the United States."Canada is pleased to support the Aina device, a health innovation that promises toimprove the quality of health of individuals in India suffering from diabetes," said theHonourable Christian Paradis, Minister of International Development and LaFrancophonie. "Through innovation we have the potential to transform the healthand lives of people in developing countries. This is what our Government's partner-ship with Grand Challenges Canada is all about."Geoff Woolley, Unitus Impact CEO, said, "We are very excited to partner with GrandChallenges Canada to support Jana Care in its mission to improve the quality ofdiabetes care in India and other developing countries. The company's innovativetechnology,combined with its lifestyle coaching curriculum,has the potential toimprove the livelihoods of millions of patients. The focus of our Livelihood ImpactFund is to partner with high-quality entrepreneurs who are tackling critical societalissues, and we are proud to support Sidhant Jena and his team."Under Grand Challenges Canada's Stars in Global Health program, a total of teninnovators were awarded seed grants of $112,000 CAD each: two Canadian inno-vators (Hamilton, Toronto) and eight innovators based in India. The projects includea neonatal wrist band that monitors an infant's temperature and alerts the motherto warm her child, and a tele-controlled ophthalmology slit lamp that makes eyeexams for patients in remote locations a reality.Said Akhilesh Mishra, Consul General of India, "I would like to compliment andapplaud Grand Challenges Canada for the initiative to strengthen cooperation be-tween India and Canada in finding sustainable, long-term solutions in global healththrough integrated science, technology, social and business innovation to improvelives of people at the grass-roots level."Said SudhirHanda, Chair, National Council of Indo Canadians, "Canada and Indiahave long-standing relations, built upon strong interpersonal connections with anIndian diaspora of more than one million in Canada. These existing and new

innovations are a testimony to the fact that attracting the best and the brightest talentfrom India and Indo-Canadians can make a big impact.""We thank the Government of Canada for its commitment to innovative projectsthat address health and development challenges in India, thus helping to save andimprove the lives of so many, including, newborns, women and children," said Dr.Peter A. Singer, Chief Executive Officer of Grand Challenges Canada.SCALE-UP PROJECTMobile phone platform for affordable glucose monitoring and cost-effective diabe-tes managementJana Care, India (http://bit.ly/1zFEEby)Diabetes is one of the leading causes of death around the world. In India alone,there are nearly 62 million diabetic patients, a number that is expected to rise to 80million by 2030. There is a large unmet need to provide an affordable, simple andintelligent blood glucose monitoring solution to patients and healthcare workers,and to couple these diagnostics with clinical decision support tools that can allowthe transmission of data to specialists, along with public health agencies.After an initial proof-of-concept grant under Grand Challenges Canada's Stars inGlobal Health Program, Jana Care is now scaling up the development of the Ainadevice, a mobile blood monitoring tool that plugs into a mobile phone. The deviceturns any mobile phone into a basic blood analyzer enabling lay users like healthcareworkers and patients to measure blood glucose and five other basic blood param-eters. The deviceand platform also integrates decision support and lifestyle track-ing tools with a web-based patient management system for remote physicianfeedback.Jana Care will be undertaking pilots with both the Indian Ministry of Health and withtwo large hospital chains and the Public Health Foundation of India.The project aims to directly impact one million diabetic patients using the Ainadevice for self-management over the next three years. Additionally, another twomillion patients could be screened and managed through healthcare workers, aspart of government screening programs and hospitals.Jana Care is a diabetes technology company that is building mobile diagnosticsand evidence-based lifestyle coaching programs, with an initial focus on develop-ing countries and India in particular. The company is based in Bangalore.PROOF-OF-CONCEPT PROJECTS" Taking Eye Care to Rural Populations with Tele-ophthalmic Slit LampBiomicroscopeLV Prasad Eye Institute(http://bit.ly/1vEVtEk)While 70% of India's population lives in rural areas, 90% of the secondary andtertiary healthcare facilities are in urban areas, far away from the rural population.With this project, LV Prasad Eye Institute intends to integrate the community care bytaking eye care to rural populations in remote locations, with the tele-ophthalmicstereoscopic slit lamp biomicroscope that connects patients in remote areas withophthalmologists across distances and in real time. This makes a full eye exami-nation from any place or distance a reality.

o A Low-Cost Generic Cervical Cancer Vaccine Made With MicroalgaeAlgaeneers Inc., Canada (http://bit.ly/1ucbDzs)Cervical cancer is a leading cause of cancer mortality among women, with morethan 85% of the deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries. Effectivecommercial vaccines against cervical cancer exist but are expensive. Theseinnovators, linked with McMaster University, will use microalgae to produce vac-cines against cervical cancer that cost less than $1 CAD per dose.o Waste Ventures: Empowering India's waste managers with mobileinformationInternational Development Enterprises (http://bit.ly/1wpt6Mf)Urban India produces 69 million tons of waste annually, most of which is dumped,causing hazards to public health. In collaboration with HasiruDala and I Got Gar-bage, this project will prototype waste picker-owned franchises to collect, com-post and recycle up to 85% of waste. A mobile metrics tool will track operations todevelop a rapidly replicable model.o Locally made fabric glucose sensors to diagnose diabetesAchira Labs Private Limited (http://bit.ly/1ucbDzt)Many diabetics in India cannot afford diagnostic strips to monitor glucose levels.Low-cost fabric glucose sensors developed by Achira Labs can be manufacturedlocally by weaving communities, which are widespread in India and other parts ofthe developing world. Working with anon-governmental organization that repre-sents women weavers, the distributed manufacturing model for glucose sensorswill be rolled out in at least five locations.o Early intervention programs for children with developmental delays inrural communitiesAmar Seva Sangam (http://bit.ly/1wpt6Me)In Tamil Nadu, India, nearly half of all children with disabilities lack basic education.This exclusion is even more profound in rural communities. This novel project willempower local rehabilitation workers to implement early intervention programsfor children with developmental delays. Customized tablet applications are used tocoordinate with specialists located remotely, to tailor individualized programs foridentified children.o Delivering TB Care to Maoist-Affected Tribal Regions in India and Track-ing Patient Adherence to Treatment with Text-Free Biometric Technology

Operation Asha (http://bit.ly/1yHIF0M)Many TB patients in India are not adequately monitored, leading to complicationssuch as multidrug-resistance. This project will address this problem in the tribaland poor regions of Madhya Pradesh, India, by training local healthcare providersto deliver TB treatment and equipping them with low-cost biometric technologythat suits the needs of illiterate users. Using patient's fingerprints during eachscheduled dose will automatically notify providers when a dose is missed so thattimely action can be taken.o SAFE: Supporting Addiction-Affected Families Effectively (SAFE)Sangath (http://bit.ly/12if9BW)In India, like everywhere else, families affected by the addictions of their lovedones experience high levels of stress. SAFE aims to adapt and adjust the evidence-based supportive intervention, the Five Step Method, to make it acceptable, safeand feasible to be delivered by lay counsellors in developing countries.o Mobile App for accurate and simple Disability Assessment and Sup-portPublic Health Foundation of India (http://bit.ly/12ifa98)Disability certification guidelines are a complex set of mathematical calculations,based on expert assessment of physical parameters and range of movements.This project proposes to develop a mobile application that can automate calcula-tion, provide instant analysis, certify, link to customized benefits and continuouslytrack the outcomes. The app brings inclusion and existing benefits to the doorstepof the enduser.o Cleaning Water, Saving Lives, and Creating Opportunity, One CleanCubeat a TimeThe Ontario College of Art and Design University, Toronto, Canada (http://bit.ly/1ucbDzp)Dropped into any shape and size of water bottle, CleanCube is designed to removepathogens that cause illness and can lead to preventable death. The goal of thissocially innovative product is to provide clean water in the Global South, whileleveraging sales from the North American market in order to spur economicopportunity and save lives.o A Life-Saving Baby Temperature Band (*)BEMPU (http://bit.ly/1wpt6Mg)Bempu is developing a novel neonatal temperature monitoring device that continu-ously measures the infant's temperature and uses intuitive alarms to alert amother to warm her child, when needed. The device aims to drastically and cost-effectively reduce the rates of neonatal hypothermia and severe infection.(*) Pending successful grant negotiationsAll new seed grants announced today are part of Grand Challenges Canada's Starsin Global Health program, which seeks groundbreaking and affordable ideas thatcan transform the way low-resource nations address disease and health issues -innovations that can often benefit the developed world as well.For more information, visit grandchallenges.caand look for us on Facebook, Twit-ter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

CANADA FUNDS ELEVEN NEW GLOBALHEALTH INNOVATIONS IN INDIA

NEW FUNDING ANNOUNCED AT EVENT IN TORONTO COOPERATIONBETWEENCANADA AND INDIA IN THE FIELDS OF GLOBAL HEALTH

ALI KHAN WITH HIS GUESTS.

CG WITH MEMBERS OF NCIC.

TAHIR GORA, HARB KAHLON , VIJAY SAPPANI.

MINISTER ALEXANDER TAKING A SELFIE WITH ONE OF THE INNOVATORS.



MIDWEEK NEWS WEEKLY

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2014 community

OSGC Submits a Memorandum to PMNarendra Modi through CGI Akhilesh Mishra

Ontario Sikhs & Gurdwara Council (OSGC) on behalf of thousands ofSikhs Living in the province of Ontario, Canada submitted a Memo-randum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi through Consulate Generalof India Mr. Akhilesh Mishra to do justice and release those prisonersfor whom Bhai Gurbaksh Singh is struggling for. It has been conveyedthat Prime Minister's intervention in this matter will go a long way tohelp those suffering in jails along with their families.While receiving the memorandum Consul General Mishra told theOSGC delegation:"I appreciate the visit of the esteemed representatives of OSGC to the

Consulate to share with me some concerns of the Sikh community inOntario. The grassroot level feedback about public sentiments is veryimpor tant to us. Today itself I will send the memorandum of the Coun-cil to Delhi.I have profound respect for Sikh religion and teachings of Sikh GuruNanak Dev ji. I feel deeply grateful to Sikh brothers and sisters ofOntario for the kindness, love and hospitality extended to me. I amreally inspired by their love & goodwill and remain committed todoing everything in my power to serve them better and try to addresstheir problems."

IWD: Nominations for “DD WomenAchiever 2015 Awards” invited!Toronto: March 8th, International Women's Day! A special day for womento celebrate! Dancing Damsels Inc, an incorporated non profit DancePromotions Company for Women Empowerment is set ready to cel-ebrate IWD 2015 with vivid programs. This resplendent event will beheld at The Meeting House (2700 Bristol Circle) Oakville from 5:00pmonwards. The theme of the event will be: “Equality for women is progressfor all”. Most often people think that such celebrations are nothing but aproclamation by a group of feminists for women's independence. How-ever Dancing Damsels Inc. sees these celebrations as means of em-powerment and inspiration for women to pursue their dreams. Theyhope to encourage women to stay confident without spoiling their indi-viduality, to express the human emotions and enjoy the beauty of life.As more women are becoming educated and financially independentwe need to bring a change in society and its outlook on women. Whenwe say “change”, it doesn’t mean to challenge men or create rivalry butto encourage them to see that women are not a sexual object only but anindividual who has desires, aspirations, dreams and talents just asmen. This new face of women has to be understood and the approachto women should be changed. Through this celebration Dancing Dam-sels Inc. hopes to facilitate and inspire that change.Womanhood will become strong only when women support, encour-age, empower and accept each other. We hear of abuse, tor ture,inequality of women and sadly we too are responsible for this.For any positive outcome we too have to accept and change ouroutlook. If we respect ourselves as women, suppor t other womenand remain united as women then all the atrocities against womenwill be terminated. Through this event Dancing Damsels hope to advo-cate and inspire that change.Dance is the initial emotion that holds the activities of all the membersof Dancing Damsels Inc. This company has grown and reached a stagewhere encouragement is given for an inspiring change. Each year, onInternational Women’s Day, 12 successful women are honored with anachievement award; to celebrate their success and to empower otherwomen to exercise equal opportunities in their chosen line of work.Rathika Sitsabaiesan M.P (Politics), Nirmala Thomas (Literature), MercyElengikal (Leadership), Jennifer Prasad (Volunteering), Maria EasowJobson (Health care), Reshmi Nair (Media), Minu Jose (Engineering),Mala Pisharody (Arts), Sonijya Raj (Self Employment), KanmaniDhanasekar (Marketing), Uma Suresh (Social Service) and MeenaMulpury (Charity) were last year's award winners.Dancing Damsels Inc. is inviting nominations for DD Women Achiev-ers Award 2015 in any of the following 12 categories: Politics, Litera-ture, Leadership, Volunteering, Health care, Hospitality, Media, Per-forming Arts, Self-Employment, Science & Technology, Marketing, SocialService; Charity and Sports. “Awards will be given to 12 women whohave made a difference in our community. They should be Citizens ofCanada with a minimum of 5 years service in the concerned field. Youmay nominate someone you believe should be recognized for the con-tribution in their field of work, with their permission...” the ManagingDirector of Dancing Damsels Inc., Mary Ashok said.


TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2014community

Vivek Murthy makes history as first Indian 'America's doctor'

MISSISSAUGA - This New Year's Eve, be a par t of the celebrationon Mississauga Celebration Square with 30,000 residents and visi-tors. The free event features live musical performances, an outdoorskating par ty, food trucks and a spectacular fireworks show at mid-night.WHAT:New Year's Eve at Mississauga Celebration Square, sponsored byBell.WHO:

Mayor Bonnie CrombieWard 1 Councillor Jim ToveyWard 6 Councillor Ron StarrSpecial guestsMC - Scott WillatsWHEN:Wednesday, December 31TIME:8pm to midnight

Activities are weather permitting.The event is hosted by Scott Willats from Mississauga. 8pm -- insauga.com NYE PreShow hosted by Khaled Iwamura 9 pm -- DJ DVS spins live 9:30pm -- Ain't No Love performance10:30pm -- Shawn Hook performance11:10pm -- Keys 'N Krates performance11:55pm -- Countdown to midnight, including greetings from MayorBonnie CrombieWHERE:Mississauga Celebration Square300 City Centre DrMississauga, ONCOST:FreeTRANSPORTATION:Please be advised that road closures will be in effect in the down-town core between December 31 and January 1. For a map of theclosures, visit mississaugacelebrationsquare.ca. Let MiWay dothe driving to Celebration Square and ride free across the cityon New Year's Eve! Free service on all routes runs from 7 p.m.on December 31 until 4 a.m. on January 1. If your plans involvetravelling after midnight, extended evening service details onselect routes is available at miway.ca/holidayservice.Mississauga Celebration Square is ready for a season of dy-namic w in te r even ts . Fo r a fu l l l i s t i ng o f even ts , v i s i tmississaugacelebrationsquare.ca. For the latest updates, 'like'M iss issauga Ce leb ra t i on Squa re on Facebook . Fo l l ow@mcsevents on Twitter and use the hashtag #MCSNYE.Free events l ike New Year's Eve at Mississauga CelebrationSquare are possible through the generous suppor t from our lo-cal community sponsors such as Bell, media sponsors such asinsauga.The annual Mayor's New Year's Day Levee is on January 1. Fordetails, visit mississauga.ca.

New Year's Eve on Mississauga Celebration Square

BY ARUN KUMAR / WASHINGTON, (IANS)

Vivek Hallegere Murthy has made history as the youngest US SurgeonGeneral and the first of Indian descent with his Senate confirmation inthe teeth of strong opposition of powerful gun lobby.The Democratic controlled Senate voted Monday 51-43 to confirmMurthy, 37 as 'America's doctor' more than a year after his nominationwith the Republicans dead set against him because of his support forgun control and President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law.Born in England, Murthy moved with his Indian parents to Miami whenhe was three.He would become the leading US spokesperson on matters of publichealth.He will also be the operational head of the 6,500-strong US PublicHealth Service Commissioned Corps, one of the seven uniformedservices including army, navy, air force and marines.Murthy, a bachelor, has said he will focus on preventing chronicdiseases, efforts to curb smoking, and programmes to improve dietsand combat obesity.Applauding the Senate for confirming Murthy, Obama said "as'America's Doctor,' Vivek will hit the ground running to make sureevery American has the information they need to keep themselves andtheir families safe.""He'll bring his lifetime of experience promoting public health to bearon priorities ranging from stopping new diseases to helping our kidsgrow up healthy and strong," he said in a statement.""Vivek will also help us build on the progress we've made combattingEbola, both in our country and at its source," Obama said "Combinedwith the crucial support for fighting Ebola included in the bill to fund our

government next year, Vivek's confirmation makes us better positionedto save lives around the world and protect the American people here athome," he added.A physician with the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and aninstructor at Harvard Medical School, he co-founded an advocacygroup in 2008 called Doctors for Obama, a national organization of16,000 doctors and medical students.It later became Doctors for America and promoted the Affordable CareAct nicknamed Obamacare.Murthy has also founded two other organizations. Visions Worldwidefocuses on rural health in India and on HIV/AIDS education in India andthe US, while TrialNetworks is a software company focused on makingdrug development and clinical trials more efficient.Murthy's confirmation Monday on a 51-43 vote was largely along partylines. Just one Republican voted for him, while three Democrats votedagainst his confirmation.Democrat party leaders had delayed a vote on Murthy's confirmationuntil the lame duck session fearing some party members running forre-election from conservative states may not vote for him.Several members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus(CAPAC) welcomed Murthy's confirmation.The lone Indian-American Congressman Ami Bera, CAPAC Health CareTask Force Co-Chair, called Murthy "an excellent choice for this role"saying "his appointment is historic for the Indian American commu-nity."CAPAC Chair Judy Chu said Murthy's confirmation "is a testament toboth his own distinguished career and the great strides made by theAsian American and Pacific Islander community."Joseph Crowley, Democratic Co-Chair of Congressional Caucus on

India and Indian-Americans said "the confirmation of the first surgeongeneral of Indian descent is a victory for the entire Indian-Americancommunity, whose young children will grow up knowing that anythingis within their reach."Congresswoman Grace Meng said Murthy's confirmation just a weekafter that of Richard Verma as the first Indian-American ambassador toIndia illustrated "the continued growth and influence of Indian-Ameri-can community, and highlights the exceptional contributions thatIndian-Americans make to our nation."



MIDWEEK NEWS WEEKLY

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2014 community

PREMIER WYNNE LIT A MENORAH AND HELD A CHANUKAH RECEPTION IN QUEEN'S PARK, CELEBRATING THE START OF THEJEWISH HOLIDAY. PREMIERPHOTOS.COM

Mississauga Receives Awards forActive and Sustainable Transportation

CITY OF MISSISSAUGACHRISTMAS AND HOLIDAYHOURS OF OPERATIONMississauga - City of Mississauga administrative offices will close atnoon on Wednesday, December 24. They will reopen on Friday, Janu-ary 2, 2015. A number of public and recreation services will operate ona Christmas and holiday schedule during the closure period. A list ofCity services and hours of operation for the closure period can be foundon the 2014/2015 Christmas and Holiday Hours schedule.In the 2014 Christmas and Holiday Hours schedule, you will find thehours of operation for:· Recreation Services, Animal Services, BraeBen Golf Course,Lakeview Golf Course, Mississauga's Seniors' Centre, MississaugaLibrary System, Museums of Mississauga and the Provincial OffencesOffice.· The Art Gallery of Mississauga· C Cafe· MiWay - Visit www.miway.ca/holidayservice for transit servicelevels from December 24, 2014 to January 5, 2015. Free and extendedevening service is offered on New Year's Eve.Visit www.mississauga.ca for more details.

MISSISSAUGA - At a recent City Council meeting, Mississauga cel-ebrated three awards for active and sustainable transpor tation." Mississauga's Silver WALK Friendly Community Designa-tion from the WALK Friendly Ontario Program of Green CommunitiesCanada" 2014 Smar t Commute Peel Region Employer of the Year" 2014 Smar t Commute Regional Employer of the Year.Silver WALK Friendly Community DesignationTalking on this occasion, Mayor Bonnie Crombie said: "The SilverWALK Friendly Community Designation shows the steps we havetaken as a City to become more walkable. Our Official Plan leads to amore pedestrian friendly environment with more transit and activetranspor tation oppor tunities. We will continue this work that helpsthe environment and quality of life in our City."The City received the designation for work from its Strategic Plan,Downtown21 Master Plan, traffic calming initiatives, school travelplanning and walkable neighbourhoods."The City of Mississauga is to be congratulated for creating outstand-ing plans and policies that will result in a vibrant city centre withwalk-friendly block lengths, mixed uses, and an animated pedestrianenvironment. Their effor ts to become more walkable will suppor t theCity's significant investment in the transitway initiative - all transittrips begin and end with a walk. This is a city to watch." Kate Hall BA,MSc Pl Program Manager, WALK Friendly Ontario Canada Walks,Green Communities CanadaSmar t Commute Awards"It is an honour the City of Mississauga is being recognized for en-

couraging and suppor ting commuting choices for employees," saidJanice Baker, City Manager and CAO. "Smar t Commute is valued byour employees. A 2013 survey found the program had a 90 per centapproval rating among City staff. Whether it is to reduce costs or toimprove health we are hearing more from staff who are choosing tocarpool, take transit or bike to work. It's becoming par t of our cul-ture."BackgroundWALK Friendly Ontario ProgramThe goal of the program offered through Green Communities Canadais to provide recognition, encouragement and feedback to municipali-ties that are committed to improving the conditions for walking fortranspor tation and recreation.Green Communities CanadaGreen Communities Canada is a national association of communityorganizations that help people go green - in their homes and gardens,on the road, at work, and in the community.Smar t Commute AwardsThe Smar t Commute Awards were introduced in 2007 to recog-nize the top employer in each region implementing Smar t Com-mute programs. The Regional Employer of the Year Award recognizes theoverall highest achievement of any Smart Commute employer across theGreater Toronto and Hamilton Area in which there are currently more than340 employers implementing Smart Commute programs. Winners are se-lected for outstanding achievement in the areas of commitment, leadership,innovation and results. Smart Commute is a Program of Metrolinx and themunicipalities in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.

CITY TO MAKE CHANGES TOCOMMITTEES OF COUNCILMississauga - The Mississauga City Council recently approvedrecommendations to change the Committee of Council structure bydissolving the Transportation Committee and direct staff to further re-view adding a Transportation Advisory Committee with citizen mem-bers. "Transit and transportation are among the biggest issues facingour city and it is critically important that we receive as much feedbackand input as possible to ensure we get it right," said Mayor BonnieCrombie. "I look forward to working with City staff and Council to createa committee that will allow residents and stakeholders to have theirsay about the future of transit and transportation in our City."The City's committee meeting calendar will change from the currentthree week cycle, to a two week cycle, for General Committee andCouncil meetings as of the January 14, 2015 General Committee meet-ing. For more information read the corporate repor t, Transpor tationCommittee Review.

SMALL AXE TO BE STAGED AT THE THEATRECENTRE FROM JAN 17 TO FEB 1, 2015Toronto - In January The Theatre Cen-tre and Project: Humanity presentSmall Axe, a new piece of documen-tary theatre that brings to the stagestories of lesbian, gay andtransgender (LGBT) people of colourfrom Jamaica and the Jamaican-Ca-nadian Diaspora. Their voices, along-side the voice of playwright AndrewKushnir, contribute to an unflinchingand timely exploration of what itmeans for a white queer artist to en-gage with injustice in a black com-munity. Investigating homophobiaand racism, intersectionality andprivilege, Small Axe is on stage Jan.17 to Feb. 1 at The Theatre Centre(1115 Queen St. W.)."Over the last four years Andrew andI have undergone an extraordinarilypersonal creative journey," said di-rector, Alan Dilworth. "I am thrilled tobring Small Axe to the stage with the

perfect cast and creative team to tellthis extremely human and complexand critical story. I would liken it to adocu-theatre Oedipus for the 21stCentury."In Small Axe, a queer white docu-mentary theatre-maker (Kushnir)begins investigating homophobia andhomophobic violence in Jamaica. Butwhat starts as a quest to expose aninjustice that outrages him, turns intoa burning call for his own personal

transformation. In the documentarystyle, Small Axe is a powerful dia-logue about how race, privilege andappropriation can frame one's per-spective. Project: Humanity and TheTheatre Centre are partnering withthe Black Coalition for AIDS Preven-tion (Black CAP) to bring a widercommunity into the discussionaroundSmall Axe, as part of theircommitment to involve a variety ofvoices in these conversations.

City Looks to Establish Diversity andInclusion Advisory CommitteeMississauga - Mississauga City Council has approved a recom-mendation to establish the City of Mississauga's first Diversityand Inclusion Advisory Committee (DIAC). According to the Termsof Reference introduced earlier in the week by Mayor BonnieCrombie at Governance Committee, the goal of the commit-tee is to "ensure the City's Master Plans…are executed withan emphasis on improving diversity and fostering greaterinclusion of all residents and stakeholders." "Every resident's voiceshould be heard at City Hall," said Mayor Bonnie Crombie. "We live in adiverse and vibrant City and it is important that our government is responsiveto our residents. Through the Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee,residents will have an oppor tunity to have their say."

THIS YEAR, ENJOY CHRISTMASWITH 'SANTA SINGH'New Delhi, (IANS) Live up the Christmas fever by raising a toastof Santa Singh -- a special hot chocolate cocktail, launched forthe festive season by popular gastropub Monkey Bar."From Dec 24 to Dec 31, 2014, only at Monkey Bar, ConnaughtPlace - we present #SantaSingh, the perfect hot chocolate cock-tail that promises to get you into the Christmas spirit," said astatement released on behalf of the gastropub.The cocktail will also be dressed up a la the beloved SantaClaus."We're combining our favourite food -- chocolate, with alcohol,and turning it into a festive and heady concoction of decadentmelted dark chocolate, cinnamon dust and Absolute Vanilla."This dandy fellow even comes in his own jaunty red scar f,accessorized with a cheery red straw, to lif t your spirits. Mon-key Bar's #SantaSingh truly is jolly," the statememt fur ther reads.The adults only drink will be available for just a week, and at theprice of Rs.450 exclusive of taxes.


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Anand model: Community approach willwork best for Swachh Bharat campaign

BY ANIMESH BANERJEE

During his first Independence Day speech on Aug 15, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi gave a clarion call for a nationwide cleanliness drive,emphasising the imperative of cleanliness in our lives and its role inimproving the overall health and hygiene of the nation. In order tomake it more inclusive and driven by citizens, he then invited severalleaders, celebrities and noted citizens to par ticipate in pushing thismovement fur ther in their regions of influence.The initiative has evoked high levels of adhesion among the generalpublic. However, some sections of society have raised doubts on thelikely success of such a gargantuan project. Such scepticism mani-fests itself out of past failures of similar attempts launched by suc-cessive governments since independence. Consider programmes inthe recent past like the Central Rural Sanitation Programme (1986-99), the Total Sanitation Campaign (1999-2012) and the Nirmal BharatAbhiyan (2012 till 2022), all of which failed to create any credibleimpact.Exper ts believe the most challenging aspect of the present cleanli-ness drive will be its propagation among the urban poor and ruralsocieties, in general, in the country. They argue that the single largestimpediment to the programme's success is to make it work amongthe constituencies where most dwellings are missing even the basicprovision for sanitation and hygiene. Repor ts indicate that close to600 million people defecate in the open every day in India and almost50 percent of them are women, young girls and children - makingthem susceptible to crimes like rapes and sexual harassment.In contrast, urban societies fare comparatively better due to someaccess to drainage and piped water systems and toilets. However,the municipal delivery systems are in general ineffective and riddledwith political interference and corruption. It is, therefore, unlikely that

the existing public delivery practices can address the enormity of themission for Swachh Bharat.The objectives of Swachh Bharat as set for th by the urban develop-ment ministry can be classified into three baskets. The first relates towaste management and linked practices (conver ting insanitary toi-lets to flush toilets, no manual scavenging, 100 percent collectionand scientific disposal). The second concerns structural issues(strengthening of local bodies to design, execute and operate sys-tems and enable private sector par ticipation). The third relates tobehavioural change (eliminate open defecation, building awarenessand change in sanitation habits).Considering the need to engage with citizens and a need for the changeto come from within, a bottom-up grassroots development model willbe most appropriate for managing the Swachh Bharat movement.I am inclined to believe that despite cer tain limitations, the Anandcooperative model is perhaps the most successful one for socialchange that has achieved greatest grassroots empowerment whencompared to the available alternatives. The model drives sustenancethrough inbuilt extension and motivation modules that can be suitablymodified for any form of social engineering.In the spirit of a cooperative movement I would consider the model inbuilding community toilets besides incentivising the local commu-nity to take ownership of their upkeep. Central toilets in the shor t andmedium term would reduce the cost of establishing a network ofsewage pipes across the village and minimize collection effor ts. Themodern community toilets, once established, would not only makethe whole community aware of the necessities of cleanliness, hy-giene and health but also encourage the community to abstain fromopen defecating.The entire awareness campaign can be managed along similar linesas the extension workers have done in propagating the dairy coopera-tive movement. Once established in this manner, it will be easier todemonstrate to the communities the impor tance of a modern toilet asa proper place for defecating and also the impact it has on health andhygiene.Consider that dealing with waste is at the core of the Swachh Bharatmovement. It is my opinion that we can learn from the Anand model(Anand in Gujarat is known as the milk capital of India and famous forpioneering India's milk revolution through its Amul cooperative diary-based project), and follow it to ensure the waste management prac-tices are modern and scientific, so that the waste can then be pro-cessed for value added multiple applications, as was done inmodernising the conventional milk supply system, in India.A modern and progressive waste management industry in India will

definitely remove the stigma associated with the waste collectionprocess and in turn assist in altering social views on scavenging andscavengers. Global models for waste management are moving to-wards zero waste and there is a strong interest in waste-to-energy,with many private companies investing in the domain. The coopera-tive approach could potentially create micro-energy plants throughthe bio waste and drive other aspects of social change especially inthe rural areas.The objective, that of behavioural change, is best brought about withpar ticipation from the rank and file of the entire ecosystem. As morepeople see their neighbours and relatives associate with cleaner andmore hygienic practices, they too will embrace them and make thema regular practice.The single biggest learning from the Anand model is that empoweringlocal communities and creating an incentive for them to work to-gether drives long lasting social change. Having been associatedwith the replication of the Anand model across the country, I am con-fident that a similar pattern can be used to ensure the success of theSwachh Bharat initiative. I look forward to the success of this initia-tive, which is not only brave but long due.(IANS - 10-12-2014- Animesh Banerjee is a former executive directorof the National Dairy Development Board, president of the Indian DairyAssociation and advisor on public policies. The views expressed arepersonal)

Taiwan's inclusion in the TPP could be Canada's winBy Laura Dawson (dawsonstrat.com)

In trade, the more partners you bring to the dance the better off you'll be.Canada has quite rightly prioritized the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) nego-tiations as the key to increasing its business around the world but the dancedoesn't end there. International trade experts are turning their attention towidening the TPP list. We need to be leaders in extending open trade toeconomies of the future. Taiwan is key among them.Taiwan, already Canada's fourth largest trading partner in Asia, is a naturalgateway to China. A country with a strong rule of law, well-educated workforce and reliable transportation infrastructure, Taiwan sits at the very centreof all trade in Asia. It should be the next country on the list of TPP countries andCanada should be at the front of the line in promoting its membership.Simply ask one of the Canadian companies who has benefited from itsrelationship with Taiwan and the business potential for Canada is clear. McCainFoods Limited, an international leader in the frozen food industry, has found alucrative market for its products in the bustling country for more than twentyyears.Laipac Technology Inc., a leader in personal emergency response systemdevices, sells its products in 80 countries around the world and has over 20employees divided between its headquarters in Richmond Hill, Ontario, andits office in Taiwan. Doing business in Taiwan was a natural fit for Laipac co-founder Diego Lai, who grew up in Taiwan before moving to Canada. Mr. Laicites culture as the single biggest advantage for a Canadian company doingbusiness in Taiwan. In 2013, Laipac moved its manufacturing to Taiwan. Therise in Chinese labour costs in recent years made this an attractive option. Inaddition to its role in manufacturing, Laipac's owners see Taiwan as animportant market for their products and a hub through which their productscan be sold throughout the region.Freer access to Taiwan's markets would create investment opportunities,increase demand for Canadian goods and services, and facilitate partner-ships for Canadian innovators looking to commercialize their products.Taiwan's accession to the TPP would benefit Canada, Taiwan, and all TPPpartners.The TPP without Taiwan will generate limited economic gains because mostcountries involved already have free trade agreements with each other. Theaddition of Taiwan will increase potential trade liberalization benefits by nearly30%.Between 2001 and 2013, Taiwan outpaced the current TPP members in termsof growth of its import market for goods, with an 8% average growth, com-pared to 7.2% average growth for other original TPP members.A little digging reveals the emerging success story between Canada andTaiwan. Canada's leading exports to Taiwan are commodities and raw mate-rials but Canadian firms also take advantage of Taiwan's ingenuity and mar-ket access advantages through investment in financial services, tradingcompanies, electronics and electrical products, plastics and transportation.Taiwan's world-class information and communications technology industryprovides manufacturing, research and development, and distribution sup-port for some of the world's leading technology companies including: Corn-ing, Micron, HTC, Acer, Asus, D-Link, and Logitech.Taiwan is one of the largest investors in mainland China and is a vital link toAsian supply chains serving as a contract manufacturer for major foreignbrands. Taiwan's intellectual property rights regime is aligned with the highstandards of G7 trading partners.

Taiwan is a member of the WTO and has recently concluded comprehensivetrade liberalizing agreements with Singapore and New Zealand. Pursuant tothe Cross-Straits Economic Framework Agreement with China, Taiwan isnegotiating expanded preferential access to the world's most dynamiceconomy. The Taiwan-U.S. Trade and Investment Framework Agreementprovides Taiwan with a strong base for future North American trade.Robust participation in external trade negotiations and a top-to-bottominternal review of domestic reform priorities underscores Taiwan's readi-ness to meet the high standards of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) com-mitments.Canada should recognize Taiwan's impressive commitment to regula-tory reform and encourage continued liberalization as a pathway to theTPP and begin negotiations for a Canada-Taiwan Foreign Investment Pro-motion and Protection Agreement (FIPA).Canada's economic growth in the world depends on stretching itself beyondits trade comfort zone and looking ahead to the next step and new partners,like Taiwan for success.Laura Dawson, PhD, is president of Dawson Strategic and an expert ininternational trade and cross-border issues.The views expressed are personal.

HOWEVER, SOME SECTIONS OF SOCIETY HAVE

RAISED DOUBTS ON THE LIKELY SUCCESS OF

SUCH A GARGANTUAN PROJECT. SUCH SCEP-

TICISM MANIFESTS ITSELF OUT OF PAST

FAILURES OF SIMILAR ATTEMPTS LAUNCHED

BY SUCCESSIVE GOVERNMENTS SINCE INDE-

PENDENCE. CONSIDER PROGRAMMES IN THE

RECENT PAST LIKE THE CENTRAL RURAL

SANITATION PROGRAMME (1986-99), THE

TOTAL SANITATION CAMPAIGN (1999-2012)

AND THE NIRMAL BHARAT ABHIYAN (2012

TILL 2022), ALL OF WHICH FAILED TO CREATE

ANY CREDIBLE IMPACT.

“



MIDWEEK NEWS WEEKLY


416-907-4420

canada EXPANDING THE CHILDCARE EXPENSEDEDUCTION

MPP MALHI PASSESRESOLUTION SUPPORTINGDUMP TRUCK OPERATORSIN ONTARIOQUEEN'S PARK - MPPHarinder Malhi introduced andpassed a Resolution in theOntario Legislature today sup-por ting dump truck operatorsin Ontario.The dump truck dr ivers -most ly owner/operators -work on sites across Ontario,hauling away aggregate ma-terials. Weight complianceand safety issues are major concerns for the drivers as they areoften leaving sites with heavier loads than they are authorizedto carry. Many of the sites within the GTA operate without nec-essary scales which would allow the drivers/loaders to deter-mine and accurately distribute the weight of the aggregate acrossthe axles of the truck.Currently it is the driver's responsibility to ensure the vehiclemeets all road safety standards which include the weight oftheir load. The drivers say, in practice, it is difficult to knowexactly how much weight has been loaded for them to carry asthey are restricted from interfering in the loading process. Loadsmay also shift to the front or rear of the truck while in transitwhich dramatically alters the distribution between axles. As aresult, drivers can be issued tickets, fines and infractions ontheir driving abstract if stopped by police or the MTO.This past May over 150 truck drivers went on strike due to theirconcerns that employers are illegally overloading their trucks,causing damage to vehicles, and threatening road safety.Thedrivers acknowledge that some companies reimburse the costof any fines,however the demerit points for offences hur t driv-ers' records.Demerit points can result in higher insurance fees,and lead to possible sanctions or suspensions from the Minis-try of Transportation. The Drivers also had concerns about theirrate of pay, as they have not seen an increase in four years,despite increased fuel, licensing, insurance and maintenancecosts.MPP Malhi is working with the Minister of Transportation, TheMinister of Labour and other stakeholders to review currentregulations and to consider viable solutions to resolve some ofthe truck drivers' concerns. It has been proposed that the siteshold shared responsibility in the weight of trucks they haveloaded; and that the definitions of aggregate and excavationmaterials be updated.QUOTE"I'm pleased and encouraged that the House agrees with andhas passed my Resolution to help dump truck operators inBrampton and across the province. I'm working with the Minis-ter of Transpor tation and the Minister of Labour to make surethat both the trucking and aggregate industries remain safe,strong and prosperous. Together, we are working to improvelong-term business practices and implement effective safetymeasures." - MPP Malhi.

PM ANNOUNCES SUPPORT TO PRE-SERVE THE HERITAGE OF QUÉBEC CITY

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, joined by Denis Lebel,Minister of Infrastructure, Communities and Intergovernmental Affairs and Minister of the Economic Develop-

ment Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, and RégisLabeaume, Mayor of Québec City, is given a tour of Saint-Louis For ts and Châteaux by Rober t Gauvin, Archaeologist,Parks Canada, prior to announcing suppor t for the restorationof three impor tant historic landmarks in Québec City. (PMOphoto by Jason Ransom)Québec - Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently announcedsuppor t for the restoration of three impor tant historic land-marks in Québec City, with a view to preserving their heritageand culture for generations to come. He was joined by DenisLebel, Minister of Infrastructure, Communities and Intergov-ernmental Affairs and Minister of the Economic DevelopmentAgency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, Steven Blaney,Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness,Jacques Gourde, Parliamentary Secretary to the PrimeMinister, for Official Languages and for the Economic Devel-opment Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, andRégis Labeaume, Mayor of Québec City.This suppor t will contribute to the restoration of the historicwalls around Old Québec City, rehabilitate the DauphineRedoubt military for tification, and restore elements of theMaillou House National Historic Site. Activities will includerepairing and stabilizing the masonry in walls, strengtheningfoundations and improving cladding and drainage.Restoration activities will help ensure that the history, cultureand beauty of Québec City are respected and preserved for theenjoyment of Quebecers, Canadians and international visitorsfor years to come. The for tifications being restored surround

Old Québec. This is par t of the Old Québec historic districtwhich has been designated as a UNESCO World HeritageSite. Restoration activities will also generate more than 500jobs and promote economic development and tourism.Cultural resources management exper ts (architects, archae-ologists, historians and engineers) from Parks Canada andPublic Works and Government Services Canada are involvedin the planning process and the drafting of project specifica-tions. These exper ts will help ensure the historical integrityof these iconic sites.The restoration projects, which are being managed by ParksCanada, will be funded using a por tion of the infrastructureinvestment announced by the Prime Minister on November24, 2014.Prime Minister Stephen Harper said: "I am pleased to behere in Québec City to announce impor tant suppor t topreserve the heritage and culture of this world heritage site.Our Government is proud to be helping restore the for tifica-tions and heritage buildings around the Old City so thatQuebecers, Canadians and international tourists will be ableto enjoy this architectural treasure for years to come. Thiswork is par ticularly timely given that in a little more thantwo shor t years we will be celebrating the 150th anniversaryof Confederation."Our Government is under taking the largest and longestinfrastructure plan in Canada's history. We are proud thatsignificant resources are being dedicated to preservinghistorical heritage sites across the country, such as OldQuébec's for tifications. This will enable Canadians to learnabout and appreciate our proud past."Source: pm.gc.ca

EXPANDING THE CHILD CAREEXPENSE DEDUCTIONBy Chris Alexander, Minister of Citizenship and ImmigrationOttawa - The Child Care Expense Deduction (CCED) allows childcare expenses to be deducted from income when those ex-penses are incurred to earn employment or business income,pursue education or perform research. Generally, only the lower-income spouse can claim the CCED.Currently, the maximum amount that can be claimed under theCCED each year is limited to the least of:" the total amount spent on child care expenses;" two-thirds of the lower-income taxpayer's earned in-come; and" the total of the maximum dollar limits for all children,that is $7,000 per child under age 7, $4,000 for each child aged7 through 16 (and for infirm dependent children over age 16),and $10,000 for children who are eligible for the Disability TaxCredit, regardless of their age.The Government proposes to increase the dollar limits of theCCED by $1,000-i.e., to $8,000 from $7,000 per child under age7, to $5,000 from $4,000 for each child aged 7 through 16 (andfor infirm dependent children over age 16), and to $11,000 from$10,000 for children who are eligible for the Disability Tax Credit.These changes would apply for the 2015 and subsequent taxa-tion years, and would benefit more than 200,000 families.Source: chrisalexander.ca

Students in Bramalea-Gore-Malton Invited toSubmit Design for Canada 150 Logo ChallengeMalton - Students in Bramalea-Gore-Malton will have a chance to bepar t of history in the making. Bal Gosal MP is encouraging all Cana-dian post-secondary students over the age of 18 to take par t in theCanada 150 Logo Design Contest. Students will have the oppor tunityto submit a design for the logo that will be a key element in the multi-year effor t to bring Canadians together for our country's ongoing cel-ebration of 150 years of Confederation.Quick Factso Submissions for the Canada 150 Logo Design Contest will be ac-cepted from December 5, 2014, to January 23, 2015.o The logo should evoke feelings of pride, unity and celebration, andit should reflect Canada as a diverse nation with a rich past and apromising future.o A judging committee made up of community leaders and represen-tatives from the ar ts, heritage and educational sectors will develop a

shor tlist of qualified entries for final consideration.o In addition to the prestige and recognition of having his or her logoused as the Government of Canada's brand for the 150th anniversaryof Confederation, the winner will receive $5,000 and a display in oneof Canada's national institutions.o For more details and information on how to apply, see Canada.ca/150."I invite all Canadian post-secondary students in Bramalea-Gore-Malton especially our up-and-coming graphic designers-to take par tin the Canada 150 Logo Design Contest. What does Canada mean toyou? Be par t of history in the making! As we prepare to celebrateCanada's 150th anniversary in 2017, creating a national, recognizablebrand that Canadians can identify will encourage par ticipation in thissignificant milestone."- Bal Gosal, MPNote: All Kathleen Wynne images are from premierphotos.com


TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2014c a n a d a

Payroll Earnings - Which Sectors andProvinces get you maximum earnings ?Average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees were$942 in October, little changed from $939 the previous month.Average weekly earnings have hovered around $940 since July.Compared with 12 months earlier, weekly earnings increased2.8%.The 2.8% increase in weekly earnings during the 12 months toOctober reflected a number of factors, including wage growth,changes in the composition of employment by industry, occupa-tion, and level of job experience, as well as average hoursworked per week. Non-farm payroll employees worked anaverage of 33.0 hours in October, little changed from theprevious month and up from the 32.8 hours observed in October2013.In the 12 months to October, average weekly earnings in-creased in 8 of the 10 largest industrial sectors, led by retailtrade. Compared with 12 months earlier, average weeklyearnings in retail trade increased 4.6% to $554. Earnings growthwas widespread in this sector, led by gains in general mer-chandise stores. Average weekly earnings in retail trade havebeen on an upward trend since the spring.Compared with a recent low in October 2013, average weeklyearnings in manufacturing were up 3.4% to $1,047 in October2014. Gains in this sector were led by the chemical, paper, andmiscellaneous manufacturing subsectors. In accommodationand food services, average weekly earnings rose 3.1% on ayear-over-year basis to $377 in October. Gains in averageweekly earnings in this sector were mainly driven by full-service restaurants and limited-service eating places. Averageweekly earnings in Manitoba were $873 in October, up 5.5%compared with 12 months earlier. Year-over-year earningsgrowth in Manitoba has been the highest among the provincessince August. In the 12 months to October, growth was spread

across most sectors in the province, led by health care andsocial assistance, and educational services.In Saskatchewan, average weekly earnings rose 4.5% year overyear to $985, with growth spread across most sectors. Earningsin this province have been trending upward since October 2013.In the 12 months to October, average weekly earnings inAlber ta increased 4.4% to $1,172. Most of the gains in theprovince were among high-earning industries such as realestate and rental and leasing; mining, quarrying, and oil andgas extraction; transpor tation and warehousing; and manufac-turing.Year over year, average weekly earnings in New Brunswickwere up 4.3% to $843, reflecting earnings growth in administra-tive and suppor t services, manufacturing, and educationalservices.Average weekly earnings in Canada's two largest provincesrecorded the lowest year-over-year growth. Compared withOctober 2013, average weekly earnings increased 1.9% to $941in Ontario and 0.8% to $858 in Quebec.Compared with a year earlier, average weekly earnings inhealth care and social assistance rose 3.0% to $866. Year-over-year earnings growth was led by nursing and residential carefaci l i t ies.In the 12 months to October, average weekly earnings werelittle changed in educational services as well as administrativeand suppor t services. These 2 sectors have recorded thelowest year-over-year average weekly earnings growthamongst the 10 largest industrial sectors since May 2014.Year over year, average weekly earnings of non-farm payrollemployees increased in every province in October. The gainswere led by Manitoba, while Ontario and Quebec had the lowestearnings growth.

President's MessageIndia Mission 2015Indo Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC) will lead the trademission to India from 06-13 January 2015, which will providean oppor tunity to Canadian small businesses to explore theIndian market. The India Mission 2015 will visit Ahmedabad,Gandhinagar, Jaipur and New Delhi. Delegates will par ticipatein the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) and Vibrant Gujarat 2015in Gandhinagar, where Canada is declared as par tner country.Hon. Deepak Obhrai, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister ofForeign Affairs has kindly consented to be co-leader of thedelegation.The mission will provide golden oppor tunity to meet captains ofindustry, government officials, diplomatic corps, and vibrantleaders of India. There will be briefing sessions by Canadiandiplomats from trade commissioner's office and network withlocal chambers of commerce and industry association.The trade mission will focus on energy, education, science &technology, bilateral investment and other sectors. ICCCwelcomes the leaders in the Canadian Small and Mediumsectors to join the India Mission 2015 and explore the emergingoppor tunities in India.For registration and other information please contact ICCC officeor send an e-mail to [email protected]'s lapel pins:

New lapel pins are available at chamber's office for its activemembers. New members are receiving them in their welcomepackage. Those who do not have they can contact chamber'soffice for collecting one. All members are requested to wear thepin with great pride while attending chamber's events.Know your OrganizationIndo-Canada Chamber of Commerce is a 37-year-old organiza-tion with twin objectives of fostering bilateral trade betweenCanada and India and creating entrepreneurial and professionaloppor tunities for Indo-Canadians. It is run by an elected boardwith the help of various committees involving member.Visit: www.iccconline.orgACTIVITIES IN NOVEMBER 2014November 13: Dharma P Jain President, ICCC and Mr. Tony Chawla,VP-Event, ICCC met Mr. Bob Delaney, MPP and discussed with the roleof chamber in the development of Canada India relations. Chamber isworking as a bridge builder through its vibrant members especially inthe business sector.November 14: Dharma P Jain President, Mr. Tony Chawla, VP-EventICCC, has successful meetings with Susan Viegas, City of Toronto,BDC, Mississauga Branch and Mr. Anil Arora, India Tourism regardingthe different opportunities for sponsoring ICCC.November 14: Dharma P Jain President, and Mr. Brij Sharma,VP, Finance & SME, ICCC met with Drake International foraffinity par tnership for HR solutions to benefit the ICCC mem-

bership in the coming years.November 14: Dharma P Jain President, and Mr. HardeshMarwaha, Director - IT, ICCC has a meeting with Dr. GurmeetBambrah for exploring the possibilities for the governmentfunding for the chamber's promotional activities and also for theupcoming 'Centre for Excellence'. She has already arrangedfunding for CAPE and other organisations.November 26: Indo Canada Chamber of Commerce's YoungProfessional Committee organised its first networking event'Meet & Greet' on 26 November 2014 in Brampton. The eventprovided a platform for young entrepreneurs to network anddiscussion about their future plans to grow their career, profes-sional and business endeavours. Mr. Sameer Sharma, Chair,Young Professionals Committee welcomed all the guests andinformed to host events such as "Chai with CEO" and careerfairs. Dharma P Jain, President of ICCC appreciated thecommittee's initiative and congratulated them for the success-ful event. Mr. Tony Chawla, Vice President of the chamberinformed the upcoming mega event of the chamber 'Winter Gala2014'. The event was attended by over 50 young professionals.November 27: Indo Canada Chamber of Commerce organized aninteractive panel discussion on, "Women in Business - Breakingthe Glass Ceiling" on 27 November 2014 at the ICCC headquar-ter in Toronto. The session was par t of ICCC-CIBC speakerseries. It was focussed on the ICCC's Women EntrepreneursProfessionals (WEP). Ms. Ginni Sethi, Director WEP of theChamber welcomes all par ticipants and said that the paneldiscussion will provide information on how women can getsuccess in their businesses to scale new heights. Ms. GillianWhitebread, Vice President- Diversity & Inclusion and ExecutiveTalent Management was the main speaker. Ms. HazelFernandes, Senior Director- Executive Talent Management, Ms.Supreet Warna, Senior Director, Frontline Effectiveness andFahra Murad, Manager, Sponsorship Marketing were the otherpanelist.UPCOMING EVENTS6-13 January 2015-India Mission 2015For details please see www.iccconline.orgICCC in newshttp://canadianimmigrant.ca/work-and-education/ethnic-connections-pros-and-cons-of-community-specific-mentoringInterview-South Asian Week-14-Nov-14.pdfSUGGESTIONSYour new board is committed to make this esteemed organiza-tion member friendly, open, transparent, and truly a businessorganization working to achieve its mission and vision.Board is considering of -i) Publishing achievements of members in the upcoming issuesof ICCC newsletter. Therefore, members are advised to sendtheir achievements such as new position, additional qualifica-tion, awards etc. at [email protected]) Publishing ar ticles on different topics involving trade,commerce, tax etc. Interested writers can send their ar ticles(500 words) at [email protected]) Star ting blogs on Chamber's website. Send your resumesand subjects you wish to write a blog.iv) Constituting a newsletter committee. Those who have flareof writing, designing and passionate about this, send in theirresumes at [email protected] is there to steer this august body in the direction pro-vided by ar ticles and by-laws and ensuring that interest ofvarious stakeholders is protected.Board invites your suggestions and opinions regarding futureevents, newsletter content, and ask you to get engaged moreand more and par ticipate in Chamber events. You are the trueambassador of Chamber and your board is working for you in.Please feel free in contacting any board member.Please feel free in sending your suggestions and recommenda-tions at [email protected] or [email protected].

ICCC NEWSLETTER DECEMBER 2014



MIDWEEK NEWS WEEKLY


MUMBAIKARS STAGE ADEMONSTRATIONAGAINST TALIBANIP12india

BANGLADESH PRESIDENT ABDUL HAMID CALLS ON PRESIDENT PRANAB MUKHERJEE AT RASHTRAPATI BHAVAN IN NEW DELHI.ALSO SEEN RASHIDA KHANAM.

AMIT SHAH TO LEAD BJPCHARGE IN DELHI TOO

BY RAHUL VAISHNAVINew Delhi: Miffed with infighting and lack of coordination amongstate leaders that may harm the party's prospects in the upcoming Delhiassembly polls, BJP president Amit Shah has decided to take charge of theelection machinery in the capital from Dec 25, a top source said.According to a senior party leader who is in the know of the development,Shah is currently occupied with the polls in Jharkhand and Jammu andKashmir but once the results are out Tuesday, he will shift focus to Delhi anddedicate at least two months to the city before the assembly election areheld, likely in February 2015."The Delhi BJP needs direction and guidance from a single authority. Atpresent, everyone is acting like he is the captain of the ship which is resultingin utter confusion," the source told IANS.The source informed that owing to the threat from the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP), Shah started keeping an eye on the political developments in Delhi -where the BJP has remained out of power for the last 15 years - since hebecame the party president in July.(The December 2013 polls threw up a hung 70-member house, with the BJPwinning 31 seats, the AAP 28 and the Congress eight, with three seats goingto other parties and independents. The AAP formed a government that lasted49 days, necessitating fresh polls)"He (Shah) knows that Delhi is not like other states where the contest isbetween BJP and Congress. The general anti-Congress mood prevailingacross the nation has helped BJP but in Delhi, it's the AAP that is the mainopponent of the BJP," the source added."Therefore, the party needs to put in much more effort but Shah knows that

the party is struggling with infighting and poor coordination," said the leader.Though, such allegations have been leveled against the party earlier as well,this time the cracks are showing.A couple of weeks back a party leader, in charge of an event, openly chideda party spokesperson for talking to the media about the preparations.He was unhappy with the spokesperson hogging the limelight and insteadwanted the media to give him footage.Furthermore, in a meeting held between Shah and the Delhi BJP leaders andoffice bearers in November, it was decided that all the party parliamentarianswould hold 2,700 public meetings across the city.However, a month later, that figure has been reduced to around 1,400, thesource said."The state unit has failed in successfully organizing these meetings andmanaging to gather enough crowds. Their management has been sloppy andhence the MP's lost interest," said the source.Furthermore, sources said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachh BharatAbhiyan too has been reduced to mere photo opportunities by some whichhas further added to the woes of the Delhi BJP's leadership.Though, Shah is a tough taskmaster and has set a 60-seat goal in Delhi andhence, he is all set to take charge of Delhi after Dec 25, another source toldIANS.According to par ty leaders, Shah believes in working at the groundlevel and has directed the Delhi leaders, at a meeting Thursday, to dothe same. Shah had earlier met the leaders in November.The source fur ther said that a major reshuffle in the Delhi BJP is in theoffing once the election is over.

GDP likely to grow 5.5 per centin 2015: Mid-year reviewNew Delhi (IANS): India's economy is likely to grow at around5.5 per cent in the current fiscal year, the finance ministry saidin mid-year review tabled in parliament Friday.It projected that a 7-8 per cent economic growth was reach-able in the coming years and said inflation has fallen dra-matically, while declining oil prices will help in containingthe current account deficit (CAD) at around 2 per cent ofGDP. In the first six months of 2014-15, economy grew at anannual 5.5 per cent, the repor t said. "Investment is yet topick up significantly. But on the upside, inflation has comedown dramatically. The year (2014-15) could end with growtharound 5.5 per cent," it added.Based on the trend of receipts and expenditure relative tothe budget, the finance ministry said the budget deficit tar-get is in line with estimates. The repor t added that the gov-ernment expected no change in interest rates till the fiscalyear ends in March. Presenting the repor t, Finance MinisterArun Jaitley told the Lok Sabha that lower international crudeprices will help keep down the current account deficit. Priceshave plunged to a five-year low from over $100 a barrel inJune to $58. The Indian economy logged 5.3 per cent growthin the second quar ter of this fiscal, against 5.7 percent inthe first quar ter.Consumer price index-based inflation, meanwhile, eased toa record low of 4.38 per cent during November - from 11.16per cent during the corresponding month last year - on theback of lower food prices. Industry's pitch for rate cuts andeconomic reforms has become sharper, with factory outputslipping fur ther to log a 4.2 per cent drop in October even asretail inflation eased fur ther to a historic low of 4.38 percent in November, official data showed earlier this month.The tax base was weaker than expected due to "unantici-pated moderation in inflation" and revenue projections were"over-optimistic", the repor t said.

Navi Mumbai airport to takeoff by 2019: Maharashtra CMNagpur (IANS): The decks have been cleared for star ting workon the proposed Navi Mumbai International Airpor t (NMIA)and it will be operational by 2019, Maharashtra Chief Min-ister Devendra Fadnavis said here Thursday."All obstacles to the project have been overcome and weplan to make it (NMIA) functional by 2019," Fadnavis in-formed the Maharashtra Legislative Council here.He was replying to a call ing attention motion moved bysenior Congress member Sanjay Dutt, asking the state gov-ernment to make a statement on the current status of NMIA,coming up in Raigad district on the mainland.Fadnavis said the greenfield airpor t - to be of world-classstandards - is expected to cost around Rs.14,500 crore, inthe public-private-par tnership mode on a design, build, fi-nance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis.In preparations for the upcoming NMIA, the City and Indus-trial Development Corporation (CIDCO), which is oversee-ing the construction of the project, has already embarkedon a Rs.20,000 crore infrastructure development of the nodesit manages in the airpor t vicinity.These would include a Rs.2,100 crore Metro Rail, a Rs.1,400crore Ner ul-Uran ra i lway connect iv i ty, Rs.1,450 croreBalganga Dam for providing drinking water to Navi Mumbai,an airpor t township, coastal roads and bridges, besides theupcoming Mumbai Trans Harbour Link.

KASHMIR - Hung house,PDP ontop, BJP second, JHARKHAND getsBJP governmentCONTD. FROM PAGE 1BJP general secretary P. Muralidhar Rao said: "More impor-tant than winning is the fact that the BJP's acceptability has in-creased in the state in an exponential way."What will be important for us (when we decide on alliances) is howto fight terrorism and insurgency... Jammu and Kashmir is not likeany other state. We need to see the options available (to us)."The BJP Tuesday emerged victorious and prepared to form its gov-ernment in Jharkhand, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi sayingthe people have "voted for stability which is essential to realise thetrue potential of the state".The BJP won 42 seats , while its pre-poll alliance partner the AllJharkhand Students Union (AJSU) got 4 Seats -- taking them com-fortably past the magic halfway mark of 41 in the 81-member as-sembly."People of Jharkhand have voted for stability which is essential torealise the true potential of the state. I congratulate them," said Modiwho had campaigned vigorously in Jharkhand, a state that is hometo 3.2 million. The vote share of the BJP went up from last time's 24percent to 31 percent now. The party also did remarkably well in thetribal Santhal Pargana region that has 18 assembly segments. TheBJP won seven seats in the tribal belt, a marked improvement fromjust two seats it held earlier.The ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) failed to improve itsperformance, winning 19 seats "We are disappointed with our per-formance. We were expecting 30 plus seats... We are hopeful ofgetting more than 20 seats two more than that in the previous polls,"Supriyo Bhattacharya, general secretary of the JMM, told IANS.Headded: "The alliance with Congress and RJD could have keptthe BJP away from power. The Congress stand to par t wayshelped the BJP win in Jharkhand."The Congress-RJD combine bagged a miserable 6 seats .


TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2014i n d i a

80 PERTOSA DRIVE, UNIT 12,BRAMPTON ONT., L6X 5E9

MEMBERS OF THE UK MEN'S AND WOMEN'S UNDER 15 HOCKEY TEAM VISITED THE GOLDEN TEMPLE IN AMRITSAR (IANS).

COMMUTERS STRANDED ASKOLKATA TAXIS GO ON STRIKEKolkata (IANS): Commuters were left in a lurch with trade unionscalling a 24-hour taxi strike - the ninth since August - to press fora fare hike and to protest "police excesses". Unions have hinted atanother strike on Jan 6, 2015.Commuters were stranded and harried as taxis stayed off theroads again following the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU)and All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC)-sponsored strike.CITU leader and former minister Anadi Sahu said that as manyas 50,000 cabs were pulled off the streets in the districts ofHowrah, Hooghly, and South and Nor th 24 Parganas in addi-tion to Kolkata. "Our demands include a revised fare structureand stopping police tor ture on our drivers," Sahu told IANS.ACITU volunteers took out a protest march during the day to thestate secretariat at Nabanna in Howrah and submitted a memo-randum, which was received by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee'sofficials.Meanwhile, the AITUC held a separate march from its office tothe Y-channel area in the central hub of the city. According toAITUC general secretary Nawal Kishore Srivastav, the marchis a protest against alleged police atrocities on cab drivers.

DESPITE INTELLIGENCE, 26/11

ATTACK WASN'T FOILED: NYTNew Delhi, (IANS) In one of the "most devastating near-misses in spycraft",intelligence agencies of India, the US and Britain failed to stop the 2008Mumbai terrorist attack despite information from high-tech surveillanceand other tools, The New York Times reported Monday.The daily said it had pieced together the story from classified documents,court files and dozens of interviews with current and former Indian, Brit-ish and American officials.According to the Times, 30-year-old computer expert Zarrar Shah "roamedfrom outposts in the northern mountains of Pakistan to safe houses nearthe Arabian Sea in the fall of 2008, plotting mayhem in Mumbai".The lead conspirators were alleged to be Shah, another Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT) chief Sajid Mir and Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, reported Pro Publica,which conducted the investigation along with the Times.Shah, the technology chief of the Pakistani terrorist group, and fellowconspirators used Google Earth to show terrorists the routes to theirtargets in the city, it said.Videos, maps and reconnaissance reports had been supplied to Mir byDavid Coleman Headley, the Pakistani-American who scouted targets."(Ajmal) Kasab was trained to locate everything in Mumbai before hewent," said Deven Bharti, a Mumbai police official who investigated theattacks, said."He (Shah) set up an internet phone system to disguise his location byrouting his calls through New Jersey," the Times report said.

"Shortly before (the) assault (on Mumbai) that would kill 166 people,including six Americans, Shah searched online for a Jewish hostel andtwo luxury hotels, all sites of the eventual carnage," the Times reportsaid.But he did not know that by September the British were spying on manyof his online activities, tracking his internet searches and messages,according to former American and Indian officials and classified docu-ments from former American security contractor Edward J. Snowden.Shah also drew similar scrutiny from an Indian intelligence agency, ac-cording to a former official briefed on the operation, the Times said."The US was unaware of the two agencies' effor ts, American officialssay, but had picked up signs of a plot through other electronic and humansources, and warned Indian security officials several times in the monthsbefore the attack," it said.The Times said: "What happened next may rank among the most devas-tating near-misses in the history of spycraft."The intelligence agencies of the three nations did not pull together all thestrands gathered by their high-tech surveillance and other tools, whichmight have allowed them to disrupt a terror strike so scarring that it isoften called India's 9/11."The reason: No one fully grasped the developing Mumbai conspiracy."They either weren't looking or didn't understand what it all meant," saidone former American official who had access to the intelligence and

would speak only on the condition of anonymity. "There was a lot morenoise than signal. There usually is."The daily quoted India's former national security advisor ShivshankarMenon as saying: "No one put together the whole picture. Not the Ameri-cans, not the Brits, not the Indians."Menon added that only after the shooting star ted in Mumbai in November2008 that everyone shared what they had, largely in meetings betweenBritish and Indian officials, and then "the picture instantly came into fo-cus".The British had access to a trove of data from Shah's communicationsbut contend that the information was not specific enough to detect thethreat."The Indians did not home in on the plot even with the alerts from the US,"the Times said.Pro Publica said that the CIA Nov 18 -- eight days before the terror attackin Mumbai -- reported the location of a Pakistani vessel linked to aLashkar threat against the city to Indian counter-terror agencies."It turned out to be Pakistani waters, so we could not do much more," asenior Indian counter-terror official was quoted as saying.The Times said that Headley, who scouted targets in Mumbai, exchangedincriminating emails with plotters that went unnoticed until before hisarrest in Chicago in late 2009."US counterterrorism agencies did not pursue reports from his unhappywife, who told American officials long before the killings began that hewas a Pakistani terrorist conducting mysterious missions in Mumbai."That hidden history of the Mumbai attacks reveals the vulnerability aswell as the strengths of computer surveillance and intercepts as acounterterrorism weapon," it said.However, later cooperation among the spy agencies helped analystsretrospectively piece together "a complete operations plan for the at-tacks", a top-secret NSA document said.



MIDWEEK NEWS WEEKLY

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2014 i n d i a

MUMBAIKARS STAGE A DEMONSTRATION AGAINST TALIBAN POST TERROR ATTACKS ON A PESHAWAR SCHOOL, IN MUMBAI (IANS)

BADAL RULES OUTMAJITHIA'S RESIGNATIONChandigarh, (IANS) Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal Mon-day said there was no question of Revenue Minister Bikram SinghMajitha resigning over his alleged involvement in a drug racket."I have never demanded resignation from anybody," Badal said whenjournalists wanted to know if Majitha would be asked to step down tillthe investigation into the charges against him got over.Badal's comments came a day after his Akali Dal's ally, the BharatiyaJanata Par ty, joined forces with the Congress and the Aam AadmiPar ty (AAP) to demand that Majitha quit as minister.The Enforcement Directorate has summoned Majithia to appear be-fore it in Jalandhar Dec 26 in connection with the case.Majithia did not attend the assembly session Tuesday. Deputy ChiefMinister Sukhbir Singh Badal was also absent.Chief Minister Badal met the media after attending a meeting of theruling Akali-BJP alliance following the first sitting of the three-daywinter session of the assembly.He asser ted that the Shiromani Akali Dal would reply during the win-ter session to all the issues raised by the opposition.When it was pointed out that senior Akali Dal leader Sarwan SinghPhillaur had resigned in May after his son was named in a drugracket, Badal said: "Phillaur resigned on his own. I never asked himto resign." Akali Dal general secretary Daljeet Singh Cheema added:"You cannot punish anybody merely on the basis of summons. Thereis no need for Majithia to resign. If something concrete comes up,then we will see."

Delhi colder than London, ShimlaNEW DELHI: On a fogged out Monday, when the minimum tem-perature plunged to a season's low of 4.2 degrees Celsius, Delhiwas colder than hill stations such as Mussoorie and Shimla. Itwas chillier than even the British capital, London, where the day'slow was predicted to be 10 degrees C.While the maximum temperature in the capital remained at anuncomfor tably low 15.8 degrees C, Mussoorie was decidedlymilder at a temperature range of 9 to 16 degrees C. Shimla toohad a higher minimum (6.2) than Delhi, though the maximumtemperature there was a notch lower at 14 degrees C.The cold spell in the capital, now into its ninth day, appears to beonly getting worse. Monday opened with the season's severestspell of fog that lasted till around noon, making conditions harshfor schoolchildren and office-goers. For the four th consecutiveday, the Met depar tment declared 'cold day' conditions in Delhi— meaning the day's highest temperature was more than 5 de-grees below normal.

'INDIA TO OVERTAKE US INSMARTPHONES BY 2016'Bengaluru, (IANS) India willover take the US as the secondlargest market forsmar tphones in the world by2016 as smar t mobile devicesbecome affordable, globalresearch firm eMarketer saidMonday."India will exceed 200 millionsmar tphone users, topping theUS as the world's secondlargest smar tphone market by2016 due to increasingpenetration of affordablesmar t mobile devices in thecountry," the US-basedresearch firm said in a repor t.By this year-end, China willhave 519.7 million

smar tphone users, followedby the US at 165.3 million,India with 123.3 million, Japanwith 50.8 million and Russiawith 49 million.Russia will, however, surpassJapan as the four th largestsmar tphone user population in2015 and the US will surpass200 million smar tphone usersby 2017, accounting for 65percent of its population."China will continue to leadthe world rankings in 2016with 624.7 millionsmar tphone, followed by India(204.1 million), the US (198.5million), Russia (65.1 million)and Japan (61.2 million)," therepor t said.Globally, there will be 1.91billion smar tphone users in2015 and increase by 12.6percent the following year totouch 2.16 billion in 2016.The number of activesmar tphone users globallytouched the one billion-mark

(1.31 billion) in 2013 for thefirst time, with China in thelead at 436.1 million, followedby the US (143.9 million),India (76 million), Japan (40.5million) and Russia (35.8mill ion)."Over a quar ter of the globalpopulation will usesmar tphones in 2015 and by2018 one-third of consumersworldwide (2.56 billionpeople) will do so," the repor tnoted.Indonesia will pass 100million smar tphone users in2018 to become the world'sfour th largest user country ofsmar t mobile handsets."While smar tphones areshifting the paradigm forconsumer media usage inmature markets, cheaperhandsets are creating oppor-tunities in emerging marketswhere many users of smar tdevices had no access to theinternet," the repor t added.

NDA HASN’T FULFILLEDPROMISES: OPPOSITIONNEW DELHI: A united opposition cornered the government in Parlia-ment, accusing it of focusing on issues like religious conversionsinstead of fulfilling promises of bringing back black money and cre-ating jobs.Charging the government with allowing conversions and remainingsilent on poll promises like bringing back black money and providingemployment oppor tunities, the Opposition in both Houses did notallow it to respond, leading to three adjournments in the pre-lunchperiod in Rajya Sabha. In Lok Sabha, members from SamajwadiParty, JD(U), RJD and TMC shouted slogans and staged a walkout.The Upper House was adjourned once during the Zero Hour andtwice during Question Hour when members of SP, JD(U) and TMCrushed to the Well raising slogans and holding placards highlightingunfulfilled promises made by government.In Lok Sabha, members of Samajwadi Party, RJD and JD-U staged awalkout after Mulayam Singh Yadav (SP) accused the governmentand Prime Minister Narendra Modi of not fulfilling the poll promises.The SP chief said promises were made that farmers would get moneyin their accounts and that land encroached by China and Pakistanwould be taken back. "These promises have not been fulfilled... Ekkaam karke dikhaye (at least fulfil one promise)," he said.



world ARREST WARRANTAGAINST TALIBANCHIEF, PAKISTANASSURES LAKHVI INJAIL IP15

A PAKISTANI CHILD DURING A POTEST RALLY CONDEMNING TALIBAN ATTACK ON THE ARMY PUBLIC SCHOOL IN PESHAWAR (IANS).

Pakistan executes four terror convictsIslamabad, (IANS) Four convicts, involved in an attack on formerPakistan president Pervez Musharraf 11 years ago, were hanged todeath Sunday at a district jail in Faisalabad following approval by thegovernment to implement executions in terrorism-related cases.Zubair Ahmed, Rasheed Qureshi, Ghulam Sarwar Bhatti and Russiancitizen Akhlaque Ahmed were shifted from the central jail in Faisalabadto another district jail late Saturday to be hanged, Dawn online re-por ted.The family members were allowed to meet the convicts before thehanging.Strict security measures were put in place with additional contin-

gents of security personnel deployed on the routes leading to thedistrict jail.The militants' death penalties were signed by Pakistan's Chief of ArmyStaff General Raheel Sharif.Musharraf narrowly escaped when two suicide car bombers rammedtheir vehicle into his motorcade Dec 25, 2003, in Rawalpindi.Fifteen people, including soldiers, were killed in the attack whichwas the second attempt on Musharraf's life that month.Following the attack, several militants, including the four hanged Sun-day, were arrested.Preparations are underway in Lahore for the execution of four other

prisoners in Kot Lakhpat Central Jail. The executions are expected tobe carried out within the next one or two days, media repor ts said.All the roads leading to the detention facility in Lahore have beenblocked and mobile phone jammers have been installed around thejail premises.In Sindh province's Sukkur city, two terrorists belonging to the out-lawed Lashkar-i-Jhangvi will be executed Tuesday. Attaullah aliasQasim and Mohammad Azam alias Sharif were given death sentenceby an anti-terrorism cour t in 2004 for killing a person on sectariangrounds in 2001.On Friday, two former soldiers were executed in Faisalabad.One of them was executed for the 2009 attack on the Pakistan ArmyGeneral Headquarters in Rawalpindi. Another was hanged for his rolein an attempt to kill Musharraf in 2003.Pakistan has star ted executing terrorists sentenced to death after aterrorist attack left over 140 students and teachers dead in a Peshawarschool Dec 16.The government was keeping a moratorium on death penalty since2008, due to which their execution could not take place earlier. PrimeMinister Nawaz Sharif Wednesday announced the lifting of the mora-torium on executions in Pakistan.The Taliban group in Pakistan has said it would avenge the deaths ofits members.Officials say that security has also been tightened in jails acrossPakistan in view of the possible hanging of more convicted militants.

UN AGENCY SEEKSGLOBAL FUNDING FORGAZA DESTRUCTIONGaza (IANS): UN Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) for Palestin-ian Refugees in the Near East Thursday called on internationaldonors to help deal with the unprecedented destruction in theGaza Strip.The UNRWA said in an emailed press statement that more thantwice as many refugee family homes in Gaza were damaged ordestroyed during this summer's Israel-Palestine conflict thanhad initially been estimated.From July 8, the Israeli army waged a large-scale military airand ground offensive on the Gaza Strip, which lasted for 50 daysand left large-scale destruction in housing and infrastructure.Tens of thousands of people remained homeless. Many of themare still taking shelters in schools run by the UNRWA in Gaza.According to the UNRWA's estimates, the total funding for rentalsubsidies, reconstruction and repair would cost $720 million.The statement said that the UNRWA has already received dona-tions from several countries that would add up to $100 million,while the remaining $620 million are still needed."Based on satellite imagery and preliminary field work conductedimmediately after the conflict, we estimated about 42,000 refu-gee family shelters had been affected by the war," Xinhua quotedthe statement as saying. The UNRWA estimated that over 7,000refugee homes were completely destroyed, affecting some10,000 families. An additional 89,000 homes suffered damage,about 10,000 of which were seriously damaged."These numbers are huge and represent both a major challengeto the agency as it works to provide transitional shelter andrepair and reconstruction suppor t, and clear physical evidenceof the ferocity and widespread nature of the conflict," the state-ment quoted Rober t Turner, director of operations for UNRWA inGaza, as saying. "The main concern right now is not only thescale of the requirement but the pace at which we will be able toaddress the needs," Turner added.

POPE WELCOMESRESUMPTION OFUS-CUBA TIESVatican City (IANS/EFE): Pope Francis Thursday welcomed thedecision of the US and Cuba to take steps towards normalizingrelations, noting that "we are all happy to see how two peopleswho had been distant for years have moved a step closer".US sources credit the Vatican and Pope Francis personally foracting as go-between in organising secret talks and facilitatingthe breakthrough that could begin to thaw over half a century offrosty hostility between Cuba and the US.That this was possible was thanks to the effor ts of ambassadorsand international diplomacy, the first Latin American pontiff com-mented during a Vatican ceremony Thursday at which severalnew ambassadors presented their credentials to the Holy See.Pope Francis highlighted the role of diplomacy in solving con-flicts, noting that taking small steps towards achieving one'sgoals is the best way to achieve peace and approach the hear tsof people.Diplomacy "is a very lofty, noble work", the pontiff said.On Tuesday, Cuba agreed to the release of US citizen Alan Gross,imprisoned in the island for subversive acts for five years; andWashington freed three jailed Cubans convicted of espionage.Both US President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpar tRaul Castro thanked the Pope separately for his suppor t in bring-ing about the rapprochement between the two countries.Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi revealed Wednesday thatPope Francis made the initial overtures to both Castro and Obama,"inviting them to find solutions to humanitarian issues, such asthe situation of cer tain prisoners, so as to star t a new phase intheir relationship".



MIDWEEK NEWS WEEKLY

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2014 w o r l d

Arrest warrant against Taliban chief,Pakistan assures Lakhvi in jail

Islamabad: An anti-terrorism cour t (ATC) in Pakistan Saturday is-sued non-bailable arrest warrants against Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan(TTP) chief Mullah Fazlullah, spokesman Shahidullah Shahid and nineothers even as Pakistan assured India that Mumbai terror attack mas-termind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi has not been released.The arrest warrants were issued against Fazlullah and the others forstorming the Karachi airpor t in June 2014, Dawn online repor ted. Anearlier unconfirmed report, however, had said that the TTP chief haddied in an airstrike in Afghanistan early Saturday.At least 30 people, including all 10 attackers, were killed after an all-night gunfight with militants who besieged Karachi airpor t's old ter-minal.Claiming responsibility for the attack, TTP spokesman ShahidullahShahid had said that the attack was carried out to avenge the death ofHakimullah Mehsud, former TTP chief who was killed in a US dronestrike earlier this year.Meanwhile, Sar taj Aziz, the Pakistani prime minister's advisor onnational security and foreign affairs, said that Lakhvi has not beenreleased and the government was reviewing a petition regarding hiscase.An anti-terrorism cour t in Islamabad Thursday had granted bail toLakhvi, one of the seven people charged with planning and helping tocarry out the Nov 26-29, 2008, Mumbai terror attack that killed 166people.India had expressed its strong concern over bail being granted toLakhvi.On Saturday, a dozen terrorists were killed in separate operationsacross the country, including in Peshawar where 132 school childrenwere massacred by the Taliban.As Pakistan battled terrorists, news came in that TTP chief Fazlullahwas killed in an airstrike inside Afghanistan early Saturday.An unverified Twitter account of the Pakistan defence ministry statedearly Saturday: "News of Fazlullah's killing is being confirmed byMinistry of Defence."The army has been waging a major offensive against the Taliban andother militant strongholds in the restive tribal areas along the Afghanborder for the last six months.Pakistan President Mamnoon Hussain Saturday said that the wholenation was united in the fight against terrorism which would be elimi-nated from the country at all costs.

He said the Peshawar tragedy has united the nation and people werenow seeking the complete elimination of terrorists to make the coun-try safe.Repor ts from different par ts of the country showed that security forceswere determined to take on all terrorists.Meanwhile, at least four militants were killed in a US drone strike inNor th Waziristan region.Intelligence sources said the drone fired a missile at a compound inDatta Khel area which killed the militants.At least five militants were killed in a clash between security forcesand militants in Peshawar city.The clash took place near Darra Adam Khel town, leaving five mili-tants, including key commander Mustafa alias Manan of Darra AdamKhel Taliban, dead.The police, which has been on its toes since the horrific terror strikein Peshawar, killed two terrorists following a gun battle in the por tcity of Karachi.With a fierce battle being waged against the terrorists, Umar Mansoor,the terrorist who supervised the Peshawar school massacre, hasthreatened more attacks if the military and the intelligence agenciesdid not stop anti-terror operations.Now that the moratorium on capital punishment has been lifted byPrime Minister Nawaz Sharif following the attack on the Peshawarschool, Punjab Home Minister Shuja Khanzada said terrorists ondeath row in Pakistan would be executed in prisons.A Pakistani anti-terrorism cour t Friday ordered the execution of twoother terrorists who had been sentenced to death in 2004 on chargesof sectarian murder. Both have been shifted to Faisalabad jail fromLahore and are scheduled to be executed Tuesday.The Sukkur jail authorities in Karachi also requested another anti-terrorism cour t to order the execution of two prisoners, Behram Khanand Shafqat Hussain, in separate cases.Two convicted terrorists were executed Friday.The executed terrorists were Usman, who was sentenced to death forhis role in the 2009 attack on the Pakistani Army headquar ters inRawalpindi and Arshad Mehmood, a security force personnel, for hisinvolvement in the 2003 assassination bid on then military ruler Gen-eral Pervez Musharraf.Both executions took place in Faisalabad after their death warrantswere signed by Army Chief General Raheel Sharif late Thursday night.

KURDS FREE LARGE PART OFIRAQ'S SINJAR TOWN FROM ISBaghdad, (IANS) Kurdish forces took over most of the town ofSinjar in the Nineveh province in nor thern Iraq Sunday, theKurdish official website and a security source said.A day earlier, the Kurdish forces gained foothold in the townafter fierce clashes with the Islamic State (IS) militants.Heavy gunfire and loud explosions continued during the day inSinjar, as the Kurdish forces, known as the Peshmerga, foughtto free the remaining pockets inside the town, some 100 kmwest of Mosul, the provincial capital of Nineveh, Xinhuarepor ted, citing the official website of the Kurdistan Demo-cratic Par ty (KDP).The Kurdistan Democratic Par ty (KDP) is a major Kurdishpar ty led by Masoud Barzani.Teams of explosive exper ts defused many landmines androadside bombs, which the extremists planted in the town, thewebsite said."The terrorists planted a (number) of landmines and bombs inthe houses and the streets of the town, but immediately afterwe entered the town, we star ted cleaning (them)," the websitequoted Qasim Shasho, a Peshmerga leader in the town, assaying.Shasho also said that his troops found a mass grave in avillage outside the town containing 70 to 80 bodies, most ofwhich were of women and children.A Kurdish security source told Xinhua that the Peshmergaforces managed to free several neighbourhoods in central

Sinjar, including the government building, where the Kurdishfighters raised the flag of the Kurdistan region.On Saturday, Kurdish forces advanced to free the town ofSinjar after retaking several villages from the Islamic State(IS) mlitants in Iraq's Nineveh province.The Peshmerga, backed by US-led coalition aircrafts, ad-vanced from three directions in the area between the towns of Rabiaand Sinjar before they entered Sinjar and seized a part of it.The battles in Sinjar were par t of a major offensive launchedWednesday when thousands of Peshmerga fighters retookcontrol of the town of Zumar, located about 70 km nor thwestof Mosul, and then the nearby town of Sunoni Friday.The main aim of the offensive was to seize the town of Sinjarafter seizing the roads and villages leading to the town, whichis home to the Iraqi minority of Yazidis who have beendisplaced several months ago.The Yazidis comprise primarily ethnic Kurds whose religionincorporates elements of many faiths. There are about600,000 Yazidis lef t in Iraq with around 80 percent of themliving in the towns of Sinjar and Bashika in the Ninevehprovince.The Kurds had demanded the expansion of their sovereignregion in nor thern Iraq to include the oil-rich province ofKirkuk and other areas in the Iraqi provinces of Nineveh,Salahudin and Diyala, but their request was fiercely opposedby the Iraqi government.

PESHAWAR, IMRAN KHAN , CHAIRMAN OF PAKISTAN TEHRIK-E-INSAF (PTI) POLITICAL PARTY, ARRIVES AT ARMY PUBLIC SCHOOLDURING A MEMORIAL CEREMONY IN NORTHWEST PAKISTAN'S PESHAWAR, DEC. 22, 2014. AT LEAST 141 PEOPLE, MOSTLY CHIL-DREN, WERE KILLED BY TALIBAN TERRORISTS WHO ATTACKED THE ARMY-RUN SCHOOL IN PAKISTAN'S NORTH-WESTERN PROVIN-CIAL CAPITAL OF PESHAWAR ON DEC. 16. (XINHUA/UMAR QAYYUM/IANS)

Hillary Clinton backs shift inUS policy toward CubaWashington (IANS/EFE): Former US Secretary of State HillaryClinton, widely considered the Democratic frontrunner for the2016 White House race, said that she suppor ted PresidentBarack Obama's decision to "change course" in Washington'spolicy vis-a-vis Cuba."Despite good intentions, our decades-long policy of isolationhas only strengthened the Castro regime's grip on power," Clintonsaid in a statement."As I have said, the best way to bring change to Cuba is toexpose its people to the values, information and material com-for ts of the outside world," she added.She said that the aim of increasing US involvement with Cubashould encourage lasting reforms for the Cuban people. Shealso called upon the other nations of the Americas to join Wash-ington in this effor t.In addition, Clinton said that the "principal objective" of the USshould be to suppor t "the aspirations of the Cuban people forfreedom". Obama and his Cuban counterpar t Raul Castro an-nounced Wednesday the beginning of a process to normalisediplomatic relations between the two nations, which were bro-ken in 1961, a move that would include opening embassies inWashington and Havana in the coming months.The secret talks between the US and Cuba to explore the idea ofnormalising ties began more than a year ago and were con-ducted mainly in Canada. The Vatican also facilitated the con-tacts, receiving delegations from both countries, and PopeFrancis personally involved himself in the matter to push thenegotiations forward.One of the main obstacles to the process, however, as Obamaacknowledged, was the imprisonment in Cuba of US subcon-tractor Alan Gross, who was sentenced to 15 years behind barsfor subversive activities. Gross was freed and Wednesday re-turned to the US after having been imprisoned in Cuba for morethan five years, while three convicted Cuban spies who hadbeen serving sentences in the US since 2001 also were re-leased and returned to the island.

US slaps sanctions againstmilitants in Egypt, YemenWashington (IANS): The US Thursday slapped sanctions on anEgyptian extremist group and a senior leader of the Yemen-basedAl Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the State Depar t-ment said in a statement.The State Depar tment blacklisted the Ajnad Misr group andIbrahim al-Rubaysh as specially designated global terrorists, amove that entails sanctions freezing all of their assets under USjurisdiction and barring American citizens from doing businesswith them, Xinhua repor ted. Ajnad Misr announced its formationin January after breaking away from Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, agroup seen by Washington as a foreign terrorist organisation.The militant group has since claimed numerous attacks on Egyp-tian security forces, government buildings, public spaces anduniversities, the statement said. Al-Rubaysh is described as asenior advisor for AQAP operational planning who had called onMuslims to wage war against the US. The depar tment offered areward of $5 million for information on him in October. TheObama administration is helping Yemen fight the AQAP by step-ping up the use of drones.

EU BANS EXPORT OF 200ITEMS TO CRIMEABrussels (IANS/TASS): The European Union (EU) has imposed aban on the supply of more than 200 items to Crimea in easternUkraine. The items range from cigarette lighters to yachts, ships,floating structures, planes, spacecraft to spare par ts. The fulllist of the new trading restrictions for Crimea agreed Thursdaywas published by the EU's official journal. The goods are groupedinto eight classes, but as a matter of fact the supply of anyindustrial product to Crimea is prohibited.The EU also banned its companies from providing tourist ser-vices in Crimea and the cruise ships belonging to the Europeancompanies or flying the EU flag, from visiting seven por ts --Sevastopol, Kerch, Yalta, Feodosiya, Yevpatoria, Chernomorskand Kamysh-Burun.The European companies are not allowed to provide knowhowand equipment for transpor t, telecommunications, energy, hy-drocarbons and minerals exploration and development, as wellas assistance and mediatory services in creating related infra-structures.

Pentagon authorises 1,300additional troops for IraqWashington (IANS): Up to 1,300 additional troops, includingnearly 1,000 soldiers will star t to be deployed in Iraq, in lateJanuary, to help in the fight against the Islamic State (IS), thePentagon said."Their mission will be to train, advise and assist the Iraqi secu-rity forces," Pentagon press secretary, John Kirby said, acoordingto a Xinhua repor t.This deployment will be par t of the additional 1,500 troops thatUS President Barack Obama authorised in November, he said."What makes this (deployment) different is simply the geogra-phy," Kirby explained. According to a top US political website,The Hill, the troops will likely be allocated to four sites in Iraqwhere they will train, advise and assist the Iraqi forces. Theoverall mission is designed around training 12 Iraqi brigades,including nine from the Iraqi security forces and three from thePeshmerga (Kurdish fighters), Kirby said. The IS militants, this year,mounted several attacks on Ramadi, one of the last major urban areasin the crucial Anbar province under Baghdad's control, as it seeks toconsolidate its grip on the Anbar area.While the training mission is ongoing, the US military continues toconduct airstrikes at an appropriate pace and with an appropriate senseof precision and urgency, the spokesman said. "It's two-fold," he said."It's to go after them where we know we can and we should, but also tosupport the Iraqi security forces on the ground."

SHAH RUKH KHAN KHAN PERFORMS DURING THE PRE-WEDDING CEREMONY OF UDAY SINGH - THE BROTHER OF ACTOR VIKRAMSINGH - AND SHIRIN MORANI IN MUMBAI.

Sonakshi happy withresponse to 'Lingaa'

EROS INTERNATIONALPARTNERS WITHSALMAN KHAN FILMSMumbai: Eros International Media Ltd (Eros International), lead-ing Indian enter tainment company has announced its collaborationon the two maiden productions of Salman Khan Films - BajrangiBhaijaan and Hero.Kabir Khan teams up with Salman once again in the eagerlyawaited Bajrangi Bhaijaan. The film has already created hugeanticipation since it star ted shooting earlier this month andis set for an Eid release in July 2015. Bajrangi Bhaijaan isproduced by Salman Khan and Rockline Venkatesh Films.Nikhi l Advani 's Hero, which is a modern day remake ofSubhash Ghai's classic of the same name, will see the launchof two new stars and is set to engage youth audiences whenit releases in summer 2015.Jyoti Deshpande, Group CEO Eros International said: "We aredelighted and excited to par tner with Salman Khan for hisfirst home productions and showcase this brilliant line-up toa global audience with our worldwide marketing, digital anddistribution network. We are equally excited to launch brightnew talent with Hero and are positive the audiences will em-brace Nikhil's interpretation of the classic musical romantichit."Amar Butala COO Salman Khan Films said: "These are excit-ing times at Salman Khan Films as we launch our first twohome productions. Salman and Director Kabir Khan have cometogether again for the much awaited 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan' which re-leases on Eid 2015, starring Kareena Kapoor and NawazuddinSiddiqui. Our second production 'Hero' is a co-production with MuktaArts, and is a modern day adaptation of Subhash Ghai's classic ofthe same name being directed by Nikhil Advani. The company isalso launching two new stars Sooraj Pancholi and Athiya Shetty inthis film. We are happy to collaborate with Eros for both the filmsto fulfill our vision and ensure the maximum global exposure forour films."

Mumbai (IANS): Actress Sonakshi Sinha is content and happy withthe way her Tamil cinematic debut "Lingaa", starring the phenomenalRajinikanth, has been received by the audience."So happy to see #Lingaa doing so well!!! And thank u all for theamazing response to my work! Couldn't be happier," the actress, who'snow looking forward to the release of her Hindi movie "Tevar", postedon Twitter recently. Sonakshi has earlier said she doesn't want "Lingaa"to a one-off film in her career as she's keen to find more work in thesouthern film industry, which she finds to be "content-rich".

SRK to romance Mahira in 'Raees'

Producer Ritesh Sidhwani Tuesday confirmed that Pakistani actress Mahira Khan, who impressed Indianaudiences with her work in popular Pakistani TV show

"Humsafar", will be Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan'sleading lady in "Raees".Sidhwani took to social networking site Twitter to share thenews and wrote: "Our leading lady in #Raees @themahirakhan@iamsrk @rahuldholakia @FarOutAkhtar," Sidhwani posted on

Twitter Tuesday.To be directed by Rahul Dholakia and co-produced by FarhanAkhtar, "Raees" will see Mahira as Shah Rukh's wife. Anddirector Rahul Dholakia says the unusual choice has nothingto do with Mahira's popularity in India post the telecast of thePakistani serial Humsafar. "Mahira's popularity is beyondquestion. But that is only an added bonus. We signed herbecause the film is set in a Muslim ghetto of Gujarat and thecharacter needs to possess a cer tain look."More impor tantly Raees is set in the 1980s. Dholakia wantedan actress who would look convincing as a Muslim girl inGujarat in the '80s. The usual names from Deepika Padukoneand Katrina Kaif to Priyanka Chopra and Anushka Sharmawere quickly rejected. The pairing this time had to be abso-lutely fresh. Luckily Mahira said yes.Apparently, Mahira said no to a few Bollywood offers in thepast. A looks-test featuring Mahira with SRK has proven thepair to be refreshing and real.Rahul anticipates no visa problems for the Pakistani beauty."There are no problems with American actors coming here.Why should there be a problem with a neighbouring country?Having said that, let me add that her presence is the produc-ers' issue. My job is to shoot the film.

Bigg Boss 8: Rivals Gautam-Karishma holdhands and dance on romantic songs

As a par t of the luxury budget task of the week -Bhavishyavania, the housemates have to prove thepredictions on the Bigg Boss wall to be wrong. Onesuch prediction was that Gautam-Karishma wouldn'thold hands and dance three times a day, which obvi-ously implied that they would have to. Karishma,who is always for thcoming about the tasks, went upto Gautam and asked him to dance but Gautam de-cided to act pricey and claimed to not be in the moodto shake a leg. Later, Gautam approached Karishmafor a dance and while the latter was reluctant sheeventually agreed to it. Soon, the rivals were seenholding hands and dancing while Ali and Gautamsang, 'Tumko paya hai... ' from Om Shanti Om.Karishma too sang her favorite song, 'Main tenusamjhawan...' from Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania forGautam.With these two rivals suddenly singing and dancingtogether, will we see them being more tolerant ofeach other? Only time will tell.


TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2014b o l l y w o o d

UpcomingBOLLYWOOD Movies

Movie Review

PK, which came out Friday, has managedto gross Rs.95.21 crore in three days

CAST: AAMIR KHAN, ANUSHKA SHARMA,

SANJAY DUTT AND SUSHANT SINGH

RAJPUT

DIRECTOR: RAJKUMAR HIRANI

RATING: ****

BOXER VIJENDER SINGH WITH ACTORS RANNVIJAY SINGH AND ESHA DEOL DURING A PROGRAMME IN KOLKATA (IANS).

CRAZY CUKKAD FAMILYRELEASE DATE: Jan 16,2015

STAR CAST: Swanand Kirkire,Shilpa Shukla,

Ninad Kamat,Kushal Punjabi

DIRECTOR(S): Ritesh Menon

GENRE: Action / Drama

MUMBAI CAN DANCE SAALAARELEASE DATE: Dec 26, 2014

STAR CAST: Ashima Sharma,Prashant Narayanan,

Aditya Pancholi,Shakti Kapoor,Rakhi Sawant,

DIRECTOR(S): Sachindra Sharma

PRODUCER(S): Ranjeet Sharma

ALONERELEASE DATE: Jan 16,2014

STAR CAST: Karan Singh Grover, Bipasha Basu

DIRECTOR(S): Bhushan Patel

PRODUCER(S): Kumar Mangat Pathak, Abhishek Pathak

Pradeep Agarwal

UGLYRELEASE DATE: Dec 26,2014

STAR CAST: Ronit Roy,Tejaswini Kolhapure,

Vipin Sharma, Surveen Chawla, Rahul Bhat,

Abir Goswami

DIRECTOR(S): Anurag Kashyap

TEVARRELEASE DATE: Jan 09,2015

STAR CAST: Arjun Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha,

Manoj Bajpai

DIRECTOR(S): Amit Sharma

Noticed how the word god rhymes with fraud? Tired of anaemic films in2014? Then here comes the year-end heartwarmer about the fraud that'spulled on unsuspecting humanity in the name of that overworked miracle-maker called god."PK" is a film designed to warm the cockles of the heart. And I use the word'designed' on purpose, and with emphasis. Many times you feel that the auraof childlike innocence that emanates from Aamir Khan's character, is deliber-ately manipulating our feelings by questioning the sacred cows and haloedinstitutions in that tone we often hear little children adopt in ads for insuranceschemes.Let's straightaway say this. Rajkumar Hirani and Abhijat Joshi's writing issmooth, skilled and sexy....Quite like what Katrina Kaif achieved in her "Chiknichameli" item song. You can see the words being polished, sparkled andflaunted, just like Katrina's waist line. She gyrated with her hips. Aamir doesfrom the lips.In his state of innocence, accentuated by his Dr.Spock ears, Aamir looks asspaced out as Munnabhai on speed. And that is not an undesirable thing at all.The film requires the outsider to be chronically bewildered by all the thingsthat we earthlings take for granted.Why do we depend on god-men to take us to god when god is supposed to beomnipresent? This is not the first time that theological questions have beenraised in a satirical film. Umesh Shukla did it with a lot of....to use a a termfrom "Haider"....chutzpah."PK" does it with a lot more tenderness. In fact, the mood gets perceptiblytreacly specially towards the end when our alien hero turns all moony-eyedover the television-journalist. He's in love although he thinks it's 'bhest oftime'.The story moves forward in episodic abundance, not caring whether it wouldall finally come together at the end or not. Of course, it all does. Effortlessly.The plot winds breezily through episodes like 'PK Meets Bhairav Singh' (cuefor Sanjay Dutt to get all bovine and boisterous as a traditionally-dressedRajasthani), 'PK Challenges Godman Tapsavi' (Saurabh Shukla plays thereligious fraud without cheesy overtures).This could well have been a television serial about an alien who deliverssome down-to-earth homilies. While Aamir owns most of the narrative asthough born to play the alien, the film's most tightly narrated episode is theSushant-Anushka Indo-Pak love story. The efficacy of the relationship issubstantially dependent in Sushant Singh Rajput, who brings an endearingand effortless warmth to what would otherwise have been just a boyfriend'srole.Watch out for an amusing cameo by Ram Sethi (the Big B's sidekick in manyPrakash Mehra blockbusters) in the Sushant-Anushka episode. And yes,watch out for a very prominent mention of the father and son Harivansh RaiBachchan and Amitabh Bachchan in this episode.

There are dozens of brilliant actors making fleeting appearances in whatmust have seemed like a god-sent opportunity to work with one of India'sfinest filmmakers. I wish Hirani wouldn't be so conscious of his reputation asa creative genius whose films are extended 'jadoo ki jhappis'. Many of thebenign characters in "PK" seem like they are spillovers from "Munna Bhai"and "3 Idiots", making an all-out effort to be good souls.Sadly, even the brilliant Boman Irani is reduced to a playing a minuscule partas Anushka's channel boss. But here's the thing. Watch Boman respond toAamir's blatantly glorified theological arguments in their sequence together,and you realise why capable stars need brilliant supporting actors to shineon screen.And shine, Aamir certainly does, in spite of the exaggerated Bhojpuri dialectthat seems to have been put there to get applause. And yes, those crimson-red lips look like they've been designed by lipstick rather than stained bypaan.And what, pray, is that cameo by Ranbir Kapoor in the end? A signal for asequel? Not such a bad idea.Even though "PK" left me underwhelmed at times, there is no denying its uttersincerity of purpose. That feeling when you're effortlessly floating in the air.In "PK", director Rajkumar Hirani makes us feel good about life. And that, inthese troubled times, is not short of a miracle. Following the zany, kookyescapades of an alien, PK takes us into everyday life as seen through theeyes of a gentle compassionate outsider. This is revisionist cinema at itsmost inspiring.It tells us, life is beautiful even when it seems to suck. Provocative and yetgentle, evocative and quite often, heartbreakingly artless, "PK" is just whatthe healers ordered after the savagery in Peshawar.

JAI JAWAAN JAI KISAANRELEASE DATE: Jan 23,2015

STAR CAST: Jatin Khurana, Om Puri, Prem Chopra,

Rati Agnihotri, Rishi Bhutani

DIRECTOR(S): Milan Ajmera

PRODUCER(S): Madan Lal Khurana,

'PK' - PROVOCATIVE, YET

GENTLE AND CUTE



MIDWEEK NEWS WEEKLY

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2014 e n t e r t a i n m e n t

BHARTI SINGH DURING THE SPREAD CHEER CAMPAIGN ORGANISED BY COMEDY CENTRAL CHANNEL AT TIHAR JAIL IN NEWDELHI (IANS)

2014 IN RETROSPECTHollywood films you Don't want to Miss

BY ARUN KUMARWashington, (IANS) Notching successes in fields as diverse as po-etry and politics, some three million- strong Indian American com-munity packed more power and influence far beyond their numbers inthe year gone by.A record 30 Indian Americans jumped into November's electoral battlewith Republican Nikki Haley and Democrat Kamala Harris handilywinning back their jobs as South Carolina governor and California'sattorney general respectively.But Republican Neel Tushar Kashkari lost an uphill battle againstCalifornia's popular governor Jerry Brown, while Rohit 'Ro' Khannanearly upset seven-term incumbent Mike Honda in a Democrat ver-sus Democrat House contest in Silicon Valley.Amiresh 'Ami' Bera, the lone Indian American in the US House ofRepresentatives, repeated history by winning a tight California Houserace two weeks after the elections as he had four years ago.Eight Indian Americans scored victories in the states with 23-year-old law student Niraj Antani, a Republican, creating history by win-ning a House seat in Ohio to become one of America's youngestlawmakers.President Barack Obama, whose administration has more IndianAmericans than any other before, added many more, including formerkey Hillary Clinton aide Richard Rahul Verma as the first envoy fromthe community to New Delhi.With Nisha Desai Biswal heading the State Depar tment's South Asiabureau, Indian Americans would be watching US interests in bothWashington and New Delhi when Verma takes up his post.Puneet Talwar took over as assistant secretary for political-militaryaffairs to serve as a bridge between the State and Defence depart-ments, while Arun Madhavan Kumar became assistant secretary ofcommerce and director general of the US and Foreign CommercialService."Vivek Mur thy became the youngest US Surgeon General and the firstof Indian descent after cooling his heels for more than a year forSenate confirmation as 'America's doctor' in the face of strong oppo-sition by powerful gun lobby."Software giant Microsoft named Hyderabad-born Satya Nadella as itsnew CEO in place of Steve Ballmer, making him perhaps the mostpowerful Indian-born tech executive in the world.Indian Americans yet again paid a price for running more than half ofAmerica's 150,000 convenience stores with many of them becomingtargets when Ferguson exploded after a white policeman killed anunarmed black teenager in August.Amid growing protests over the treatment of blacks, Obama namedVanita Gupta to lead the US justice depar tment's civil rights divisioncharged with enforcing laws that prevent discrimination.Kerala-born Stanford University Professor Thomas Kailath receivedthe Medal of Science from Obama for his "transformative contributionto science and technology", while Arun Majumdar, an Indian Instituteof Technology-Bombay alumni, was chosen to serve as one of four USScience Envoys.Chennai-born scientist Subra Suresh was inducted into the Institute ofMedicine (IOM), making him the only university president to be electedto all three national academies.Delhi-born Sujit Choudhry, a noted exper t in comparative constitu-tional law, became the first Indian American dean of the University ofCalifornia-Berkeley, School of Law, a top US law school.Indira Talwani and Manish Shah became the first Asian Americanfederal judges in Massachusetts and Obama's home state of Illinoisrespectively.Bengaluru-born Indian American poet Vijay Seshadri won the 2014Pulitzer Prize for poetry while the New York Times included the worksof Indian historian Ramachandra Guha and five Indian American writ-ers in its list of 100 notable books of 2014.Two Indian American youngsters made history as Sriram Hathwarand Ansun Sujoe were declared co-champions in the Scripps Na-tional Spelling Bee contest after 52 years and for just the four th time

in the contest's history.New York's US attorney Preet Bharara, known in India for his doggedprosecution of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, tasted his firstdefeat in July after winning 85 insider trading cases.Among those he sent to jail were Rajat Gupta, the former Indian Ameri-can director of Goldman Sachs Group, and Mathew Mar toma, formerpor tfolio manager SAC Capital Advisors.But Dinesh D'Souza, maker of a highly critical 2012 documentary onObama, escaped jail time after pleading guilty to violating the federalcampaign finance law.High-profile hotel magnate Sant Singh Chatwal also awaited sentenc-ing after pleading guilty to federal campaign finance fraud.Recognising the contributions of Indian Americans from workers whobuilt some of the first railroads in the West to the creator of Hotmail,Smithsonian mounted a first of its kind exhibition called "BeyondBollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation".Highlights:* Record 30 Indian Americans jump into November's electoral battle* Republican Nikki Haley and Democrat Kamala Harris handily winback their jobs as South Carolina governor and California's attorneygeneral respectively* Amiresh 'Ami' Bera, the lone Indian American in the US House ofRepresentatives, repeats history with a narrow win* Eight Indian Americans win in the states* Niraj Antani, 23, creates history by becoming one of America'syoungest lawmakers in Ohio.* Former key Hillary Clinton aide Richard Rahul Verma is confirmedas the first Indian American envoy to New Delhi* Vivek Mur thy became the youngest surgeon general and the first ofIndian descent, but after waiting for more than a year for Senate con-firmation.* Software giant Microsoft names Hyderabad-born Satya Nadella asits new CEO* Kerala-born Stanford University's Professor Thomas Kailath receivesthe Medal of Science from Obama* Delhi-born Sujit Choudhry becomes the first Indian American deanof Berkeley School of Law* Indira Talwani and Manish Shah became the first Asian Americanfederal judges in Massachusetts and Illinois respectively* Bangalore born Indian American poet Vijay Seshadri wins the 2014Pulitzer Prize for poetry* Sriram Hathwar and Ansun Sujoe make history as they are de-clared co-champions in the Scripps National Spelling Bee contestafter 52 years.

FINDING BOLLYWOOD STARS'ROOTS IN PESHAWARNew Delhi (IANS): Celebrities from the Indian film world havecondemned the recent bloodbath in Pakistan's Peshawar city,which has a strong connect to Bollywood. From Prithiviraj Kapoorto Dilip Kumar to Shah Rukh Khan -- they all have their roots inthe city that is mourning the death of 148 people, mostly chil-dren, slaughtered by the Pakistani Taliban.For years, Pakistan has loved the glitz and glamour of the Hindifilm industry, but Bollywood's relationship with Peshawar as wellas some other cities, is far more organic, given the fact thatseveral of its noted icons hail from them.Prithviraj Kapoor, considered a pioneer of Indian film and theatreworld and whose family has continued to enter tain global audi-ences through cinema till date, came to India from Peshawar,which houses the famous Kapoor haveli.It is there that the actor Prithviraj's son Raj Kapoor, who went onto become of India's youngest and most successful actor-direc-tor, was born.In the same neighbourhood in Peshawar, another Bollywood leg-end Dilip Kumar, born Yusuf Khan, came into the world and spenthis early years.In his autobiography "Dilip Kumar - The Substance And TheShadow", the 92-year-old recounts: "We were living in undividedIndia at the time and there was a sizeable Hindu population andthe menfolk as well as women mingled freely with Muslims inthe market square, wishing each other and exchanging pleasant-ries ever so cheer fully."Aghaji (my father) had many Hindu friends, and one of themwas Basheshwarnathji, who held an impor tant job in the civilservices. His elder son came to our house with him a few timesand he stunned the ladies with his handsome appearances. Thatwas Raj Kapoor's father Prithviraj Kapoor."Film historian S.M.M. Ausaja says "the greatest of stars inBollywood" have roots in what is now Pakistan."Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor are both Peshawari Pathans. Then,Dev Anand, who was born in a par t of Gurdaspur now in Paki-stan, studied at Lahore University. Rajesh Khanna's parents be-longed to Burewala (of then Multan district) and AmitabhBachchan's mother Teji Bachchan spent her early years at Lyallpur(now Faisalabad) and Lahore before marrying Dr. Harivansh RaiBachchan," Ausaja told IANS."Shah Rukh Khan's paternal family also belongs to Peshawar.The Bollywood connect is too pronounced to be ignored," he said.Bollywood arch villain Pran also star ted his career in the Lahorefilm industry before translocating to Bombay in wake of the Par-tition.Past reports suggest that the homes of the three legends -- DilipKumar, Raj Kapoor and Shah Rukh Khan -- are just apar t by a fewminutes on foot in Peshawar.SRK's father Taj Mohammad Mir was born and brought up inPeshawar, and they had a business in Qissa Khwani Bazaar,which is still a major market in Peshawar, the latter's closeassociate Trilochan Singh had once told IANS.Just about a year back, the superstar had shared fond memoriesof visiting Peshawar as a teenager with his father, and had saidthat he harbours a hope to take his three children to visit hisfamily's hometown.During a conference here, Pakistan's former foreign ministerHina Rabbani Khar had asked him about visiting her country andSRK responded: "I'd love to! My family is from Peshawar andfew of them still live there. I would love to come to Peshawar andbring my children over because my father took me when I was15 or 16."I still have some of the greatest memories of the time I spentwith my father in Peshawar, Karachi and Lahore."But once culturally rich city of Peshawar became a scene ofshock and despair when a usual day at an army-run school turnedgory with its floor and staircases strewn with the blood of inno-cent children, the walls left with bullet marks and the glass of thewindow panes broken -- much like the hopes of the several par-ents who lost their offspring in the massacre.Hindi film celebrities outpoured their agony and disgust at theepisode in the city, from where more names like Anil Kapoor'sfather and film producer Surinder Kapoor, Indian cinema's 'Ve-nus' Madhubala, and Bollywood's 'Gabbar Singh' Amjad Khan,belong to.Bollywood itself has had a lasting impact on the country."Indian films have a loyal following since the par tition as mostHindi/Urdu films were made in India, specifically then Bombay.Lahore had a film industry too. Since most stars remained inBombay, the fan following continued to thrive in Pakistan," vet-eran film writer-filmmaker-lyricist Amit Khanna, told IANS."Until recently, Pakistani films were terrible and illicit DVDs andTV channels ensured Bollywood popularity. For a few years now,about 25 Hindi films are released (there) every year. The marketis growing and can fetch Rs.2 crore to Rs.3 crore for a big film,"Khanna added.Khanna, who worked closely with the legendary Dev Anand, toldIANS that Dev Anand and his elder brother Chetan Anand studiedin Government College, Lahore."Balraj Sahni, who hailed from Rawalpindi, and B.R. Chopra werealso the alumni of the same college."

KHAMOSHIYAN, A SEQUEL TOHAUNTED: VIKRAM BHATTNew Delhi (IANS): Filmmaker Vikram Bhatt says he had origi-nally written "Khamoshiyan" to make a sequel of 2011 "Haunted- 3D". "Khamoshiyan was my 'Haunted 2'. I wanted to make it asthe sequel to 'Haunted'," Vikram said in a statement.Vikram had a discussion with Vishesh Films' Mahesh andMukesh Bhatt on making a supernatural film and when he nar-rated the script to them, they loved it. "The script was then named'Khamoshiyan' and Karan (Darra) became the director of thefilm. I'm thrilled to see how my script has shaped up and thereaction to the trailer for a non-star cast film is just outstanding,"said Vikram.Produced by Vishesh Films and presented by Fox Star Studios,"Khamoshiyan" stars Ali Fazal, Gurmeet Choudhary and SapnaPabbi. It will release Jan 30, 2015.

Never said no to workingwith Kareena: Shahid KapoorMumbai (IANS): Actor Shahid Kapoor, who once dated actressKareena Kapoor, has said that he has never refused to work withthe latter and that he is not sure about her joining the cast of "UdtaPunjab".Rumours are abuzz that Shahid and Kareena have been signedfor "Udta Punjab" to be helmed by director Abhishek Chaubey. Onbeing asked about pairing with Kareena, Shahid said: "I havenever said no (to working with Kareena Kapoor)...In 'Udta Punjab',I am there and that's all I know. Rest the film's producer anddirector will reveal when the time will come," he added.Shahid and Kareena, who dated for more than four years, brokeup in 2007. Together, they worked in films like "Fida", "36 ChinaTown", "Milenge Milenge" and "Chup Chup Ke", among others.Post break-up, their last movie together was Imtiaz Ali's "Jab WeMet", which was a runaway success. Currently, Shahid is shoot-ing for Vikas Bahl's "Shaandaar".

where south asians meet daily

JUST SPORT

INDIA LOST TWO TESTS

THEY SHOULD NOT HAVE

MORGAN APPOINTED ENGLAND ONE-DAY CAPTAIN

century came when his team was 84 for five and went on to post 680runs to deny India a massive victory.Similarly, in England, India began the series well, scoring 400 in thefirst innings at Nottingham and close to another 400 in the second inthe drawn Test and then won the second Test at Lord's. After that theusual sob story. The team was unrecognisable.So, it is not that the Indians cannot bowl or bat on overseas pitches, itis just that they can't sustain this for the entire series. It is under-standable you can miss out in two-Test series as they did in SouthAfrica and New Zealand, but not in a four or five-Test series aftermaking decent star ts and even looking like winning.Dhoni had answers for the "debacle" as he termed it on the penultimateday. He was open in saying that there was a communication problemwhen Shikhar Dhawan did not want to resume his innings on thefour th morning, having injured his wrist at he nets. Virat Kohli wastold about going out a few minutes before the star t of play and thatsurely would upset any batsman. Worse, when Dhawan came out hebatted fluently, raising doubts about his mental makeup.The Test was lost in the second session on the third day when StevenSmith and Mitchell Johnson pulled their side out of serious trouble.When both were dismissed the Indian team looked like gaining ahandy lead but it allowed the tail to wag and lost the initiative. Whatthey did is to get Johnson to get back his bowling rhythm and also hisbatting touch.Of course, some will complain about the umpiring and justifiably soas they were mostly at the receiving end. Most cricketers worldwidemust be having a chuckle in vicarious pleasure seeing the misery ofthe Indian batsmen as it was the Indian board that is opposed to theDecision Review System (DRS).Players have pulled their hair in frustration when they were at therough end of the umpiring in international matches against India be-cause they don't have the benefit of DRS. Even the majority of theIndian players have been unhappy at times but they had to give in tothe whims and fancies of some senior players.The philosophy that everything evens out may be true when individu-als count their good and bad umpiring decisions. But in the overallcontext of the match, these decisions surely have an impact. A legiti-mate question is why can't the umpires check with the third umpire ifthey are in doubt just as they do in the case of low catches and the no-ball after a wicket falls?The umpires must check the bat-pad-glove decisions with the thirdumpire just as they do with run-outs and stumpings even if they aresure the batsman is out by yards.India should set out to make amends for the two losses which theyshould not have with a little care and application. They should go toMelbourne with the knowledge that they can take on this team. Andthey should.

BY VETURI SRIVATSA

Another Test is behind India, leaving a lot of ifs and buts. SkipperMahendra Singh Dhoni is right it doesn't matter how close you wereto winning - what matters is the end result. India were beaten by fourwickets to go down 0-2 in the four-match series.Looking at the Australia's scorecard in the second innings, losing sixwickets to get to the target of 128 might make fans wonder whatwould have happened if India had scored another 50 or 100 runs. Thenthe Australians would have found their tail wagging as it did in thefirst innings to take their side to cross the line.This business of the team being young and inexperienced or someplayers being at the end of their careers is unacceptable once theyare selected to do a job. In 2011, it was said the seniors had little

motivation as they were on their last tour Down Under. Now the sideis raw, the average age being 26-27. By the time they again go toAustralia four years down the line, they will be into their 30s and byIndian standards will be too old unless one is a Sachin Tendulkar,Rahul Dravid or a V.V.S. Laxman with loads of talent.If anyone thought the series would be very close and even that evenIndia can win, it is only because the Australians do not have a teamthat looks as good as any of their predecessors. In both the Tests,India appeared to have thrown it away from positions of strength.If it is any consolation, the Indians had more than their moments inboth the Adelaide and Brisbane Tests. But then, this is not the firsttime they looked good to win. It happened in South Africa and it alsohappened in New Zealand when Brendon McCullum was allowed toscore double and triple centuries in the two Tests. That the triple

MITCHELL MARSH AND MITCHELL JOHNSON CELEBRATE AUSTRALIA'S VICTORY, AUSTRALIA V INDIA, 2ND TEST, BRISBANE.

ECB announced that EoinMorgan has replacedAlastair Cook as England

One-Day captain with immediateeffect. England selectors met topick a 15-man one-day squad forthe tour to Australia and the ICCCricket World Cup. Selectors rec-ommended to Managing DirectorEngland Cricket Paul Downton achange in captaincy which hasnow been approved by the ECBChairman. Cook will continue asEngland Test captain.Morgan has captained England'sone-day side on eight previousoccasions. The 28 year old lefthander, who made his Englanddebut in 2009, will lead the side

in a tri-series against Australiaand India in January ahead of theICC Cricket World Cup in Austra-lia and New Zealand beginning inFebruary.

James Whitaker, National Selec-tor, said: "We spent a consider-able time yesterday discussingthe make up of a squad that givesEngland the best possible chanceof success at the World Cup whichbegins in less than two months.Having reviewed the recent se-ries against Sri Lanka we cameto the conclusion that there wasno place for Alastai r Cookamongst our strongest 15 one-dayplayers and therefore recom-

mended Eoin Morgan be ap-pointed One-Day captain."Paul Downton, Managing Direc-tor England Cricket, said: "I havecomplete confidence in the deci-sion made by the selectors andhaving spent time with Alastairyesterday he accepts that it hasbeen made in the best interestsof the one-day side."Eoin has held a senior role in ourlimited overs teams for sometime and has impressed on theoccasions he has led the side. Iwould like to congratulate him onthe appointment and wish him,Peter Moores and the rest of thesquad all the very best over thenext three months.

"Alasta i r remains an integra lpar t of England cricket and con-t inues to have a vi ta l role indeveloping our emerging Testside. I would like to thank himfor his leadership of the one-day side since 2011, a periodwhich saw the team reach num-ber one in the world, Alastairlead the team to more wins thanany previous England captainand also make the final of theICC Champions Trophy. Alastairwill now focus on an excitingand chal lenging year of Testcricket beginning with a seriesagainst West Indies followed by

an Ashes summer culminatingin a series against South Af-rica next winter."Eoin Morgan said: "It is a hugehonour to captain England andI am delighted to be leadingthe one-day side. I firmly be-lieve that with the players cur-rently involved in the one-dayset up we have the makingsof a very good one-day side, ayoung side that can surprisepeople at the World Cup. Weall recognise we stil l have alot of work to do on our one-day game but the potential ofthis group of players is huge

and it is now up to us as play-ers to turn that potential intoconsistent per formances on theinternational stage star ting nextmonth against Australia and In-dia."Alastair Cook said: "I am gut-ted to be left out of the WorldCup squad and i t is l ikely totake me a while to get over thed isappo in tmen t . Tha t sa id Iwish Peter, Eoin and the ladsall the best for the World Cup. Iwould also like to thank all theplayers and fans who have sup-por ted me during my time asOne-Day captain."

ISL GIVES INDIAN FOOTBALLA RE-LAUNCH PAD

BY SANTOSH RAO

New Delhi, (IANS) Football in India will never be the same again andIndian Super League (ISL) can take all plaudits for this monumentalchange in the country's sporting culture.The inaugural ISL - a tournament borrowing on cricket's incredibly popular IndianPremier League (IPL) concept - has managed to recapture the imagination offootball fans and effected a dramatic turnround in it, shattering old biases.Football had largely become a 'sofa sport' in India -- fans sitting at home watchingand debating about European leagues rather than going out to watch Indian players.ISL, however, managed to turn these couch potatoes into stadium goers and thiswas clear from the average attendance of the tournament being the fourth highestof all leagues in the world.The average match attendance for the tournament since its commencement Oct12 is 24,357, the highest across Asia, and according to the organisers the leaguetrailed only Germany's Bundesliga, the Barclays Premier League and Spain's LaLiga.The tournament kicked off with 65,000 people attending the opening game betweenAtletico de Kolkata and Mumbai City FC Oct 12.Only in its nascent stage, the football league definitely has had its fair share ofissues but when a country, which is ranked 170th in the world, has a league thathas an attendance more than the Italian Serie A and French Ligue 1, there is littleyou can fault ISL with.The league also recorded over 16 million online video views through the course ofthe tournament. Additionally, the official ISL online channel registered 28.7 millionvisits.

On social media too, the ISL captured the minds of football fans, recording over 1.8million conversations, 10 billion impressions and 275,000-plus unique authors.ISL's football semi-final clash between Chennaiyin FC and Kerala Blasters FCrecorded the highest number of online video views - 1.1 million - ever witnessedin India for any single sport game.These numbers indicate that football has managed to create a huge fan followingacross India and is a step closer towards its ultimate goal of placing India on theglobal football map.Besides making football popular again, the most important thing ISL did was tomake young footballers see the sport as a viable career and this in turn isexpected to increase the pool of players and improve the quality of thenational team.One of the many attractive features of the tournament was the constantpresence of Bollywood celebrities like Ranbir Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan,John Abraham and cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly,backing teams and flocking to their matches.Bollywood played a similar role in the IPL and that has attracted non-football and sports fans to the stadia.Also, the presence of high-profile names like Rober t Pires, FreddieLjunberg, Nicolas Anelka, Elano, David James, Luis Garcia and AlessandroDel Piero, among others, whetted the appetite of football fans around the countryand also the world.Suddenly sports media around the globe star ted noticing and taking inter-est in the football happenings in the country.The ISL has kicked the Indian football into the global limelight andgiven it the new goal: To become the top spor t in the country.

AFRIDI TO RETIRE FROM ODISAFTER 2015 WORLD CUPLahore, (IANS) Pakistan's veteran all-rounder Shahid Afridi Sun-day announced he will retire from One-Day International (ODI)cricket after the 2015 World Cup to be held Feb 14-March 29 inAustralia and New Zealand."My journey has seen many ups and downs but I am feelingsatisfied that I am leaving on my own terms," Afridi wrote onTwitter.The 34-year-old Afridi, who quit Tests in 2010, said the decisionwas "hard" but he decided to leave with an eye to the future of theteam."My 18 years' dream dedicated to Pakistan. First ever player(respect) to have taken such a hard decision but (it) will paveway for many new talents."Afridi, who captained thenational team to the semi-finals in the 2011 WorldCup, has played 389 ODIssince hit t ing the fastestcentury (off 37 deliveries)on his debut in October1996 against Sri Lanka inNairobi. The record stoodfor more than 17 years be-fore New Zealand's CoreyAnderson broke it in Janu-ary this year." I am happy about myachievements and recordsbut the only regret I have islosing fastest ODI centuryrecord," he said.He has scored 7,870 ODIruns at an average of 23.49and a strike-rate of 116.29.He has also taken 391 wick-ets, the sixth-highest in ODIs,at 33.89 and an economy-rate of 4.62."Thank you so much for all yoursupport and prayers throughoutmy ODI career ... it means alotto me ... love you all!"

ATLETICO DE KOLKATA BEATKERALA BLASTERS 1-0 TOBECOME ISL CHAMPIONSMumbai, Atletico de Kolkata defeated Kerala Blasters FC 1-0 inthe final to lift the Indian Super League (ISL) football trophy at theD.Y Patil stadium here Saturday. A last gasp goal from forwardMohammed Rafique helped the Sourav Ganguly par t-owned fran-chise clinch the inaugural edition of the tournament.

MUMBAI: ATLETICO DE KOLKATA PLAYERS CELEBRATES AFTER DEFEATING KERALA BLASTERS FC TO CLINCH THE FIRST ISL TROPHYAT AT D.Y PATIL STADIUM, IN MUMBAI ON DEC 20, 2014. (PHOTO: IANS)


TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2014e n t e r t a i n m e n t

2 PK Chaar Kadam

3 Action Jackson Aaja meri gaali

4 Ungli Dance Basanti

5 Ungli Pakeeza

6 Mein Aur Mr Right Yaar Bina Chain Kahan Re

7 Mein Aur Mr Right Desi Daru

8 Happy Ending Mileya Mileya

9. Happy Ending Khamma Ghani

10 PK Love is Waste of Time

top

10

HIT OR FLOP MIDWEEKHAPPY NEW YEAR SUPERHIT

MEIN AUR MR RIGHT AVERAGE

UNGLI HIT

HAPPY ENDING AVERAGE

PK SUPERHIT

FILM

songsSONG

LOVE IS WASTEOF TIME

Film: PK

MIDWEEK BOX

OFFICE REPORTPK 97.00 CR

ACTION JACKSON 75.00 CR

UNGLI 20.00 CR

HAPPY ENDING 23.00 CR

1

PRIYANKA CHOPRA LAUNCHES LATEST GRAZIA MAGAZINE COVER AT RELIANCE DIGITAL STORE IN MUMBAI (IANS).

RAKHI SAWANT AND SALMA AGHA AT THE LAUNCH OF MERE AANSOO ALBUM BASED ON NIRBHAYA GANGRAPE IN NEW DELHI(IANS).

PITT, CLOONEY RAISE A TOASTFOR THEIR NUPTIALS

Los Angeles (IANS): Hollywood stars Brad Pitt and George Clooneycame together to celebrate their marriages over a dinner.Pitt and Clooney tied the knot earlier this year to their respectivepar tners - actress Angelina Jolie and British human rights lawyerAmal Alamuddin.They dined at Clooney's mansion here with their wives as they hadbeen unable to attend one another's nuptials due to busy schedules,repor ts femalefirst.co.uk.Sparing no expense for the get together, Clooney called in the headchef from one of his favourite restaurants to whip up a seafood dinner.

"The head chef from George's favourite restaurant, The Musso &Frank Grill, cooked up a huge meal for the two couples with oystersand lobsters. "As a nice touch George had shipped over some ofAngelina's wine from her and Brad's French vineyard," a source toldThe Sun newspaper.Pitt and Clooney are said to have been "desperate" to get togetherwhen they both missed out on each other's big days. "They had beendesperate to get something in the diary since George's Venice bash.Brad and Angie's children were invited over as well and got to enjoysome wedding cake," the source added.

Mel B's husband 'would take abullet for her'London (IANS): Mel B's husband Stephen Belafonte says thathe loves his wife to the point that he can even take a bulletfor the former Spice girl.There have been rumours that the couple are going thorughtroubled married life but Belafonte denies the repor ts bysaying that he "had nothing to do with hur ting my wife.""I did not touch Mel. I didn't hit her. I wasn't cheating oranything. There was no girl involved. How long have youbeen married? How many arguments do you have? I find itreally sad nobody would like for Mel, or us, to be happy."You think about where you've been and what you've beenthrough. I love my wife. I care about my wife. I'd take abullet for her. I've got to consistently grow a little bit. But I dowant to get old with my wife and have grandchildren," he toldThe Sun newspaper.

'Broken Horses' impresses Hol-lywood filmmakersNew Delhi (IANS): Indian filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra'sHollywood film "Broken Horses" has impressed acclaimedHollywood directors James Cameron and Alfonso Cuaron.Cameron, known for blockbusters like "Avatar" and"Titanic", and "Gravity" fame director Cuaron, were thrilledto see "Broken Horses" when it was recently screened forthem. "'Broken Horses' is an ar tistic triumph. Beautifullywritten, acted and imaged, this film wraps slowly aroundyou like a king snake and squeezes," Cameron said in astatement. Set for April 10, 2015, release, the movie"overwhelmed" Cuaron too. "The greatness of Vidhu VinodChopra's films comes from the act that all his charactersare driven by love," said Cuaron. Set in the shadows of theUS-Mexico border gang wars, "Broken Horses" is an epicthriller about the bonds of brotherhood, the laws of loyalty, andthe futility of violence.

SUNIL DATWANI, ILEANA D`CRUZ, KARAN JOHAR, NIMRAT KAUR AND KIRAN DATWANI DURING KARAN JOHAR'S JEWELLERY LINEIN MUMBAI (IANS)



MIDWEEK NEWS WEEKLY


Schedule - India, Australia & England ODIsand India Vs Australia -Test Matches,

ENGLAND NAME IN 15-MANWORLD CUP SQUAD

England selectors today announced a 15-man squad for thetri-series against Australia and India next month and theICC Cricket World Cup.

Selectors have made three changes to the one-day squad thatlost 5-2 to Sri Lanka earlier this month. Led by Eoin Morgan,James Anderson and Stuar t Broad return from injury withbatsman Gary Ballance also included. Alastair Cook, Ben

Stokes and Harry Gurney are the three players to miss out fromthe most recent one-day squad.The squad will leave for Australia on 6 January for a tri-series againstAustralia and India ahead of the World Cup. England will open theirWorld Cup campaign on 14 February against Australia in Melbourne.National Selector, James Whitaker, said: "We have had to makesome difficult decisions to get to our final squad but firmly

believe that the 15 players selected offer the very best chanceof success at the World Cup.England One-Day Squad:Eoin Morgan (Capt), Moeen Ali , James Anderson , GaryBallance , Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara ,Stuar t Broad ,Jos ButtlerSteven Finn ,Alex Hales ,Chris Jordan ,Joe Root ,JamesTaylor,James Tredwell ,Chris Woakes

WEST INDIES ODI & T20 TeamsBravo, Sammy & Pollard OUT , Holder CaptainSt. John's (Antigua), (IANS/CMC)Uncapped all-rounder JonathanCarter has received his maiden call-up while highly regarded all-rounderCarlos Brathwaite and seasonedcampaigner Narsingh Deonarinehave been recalled to the West IndiesOne-Day International (ODI) squadto face South Africa.All three players were named Satur-day in the 15-man squad to contestthe five-match series in South Africastarting next month, reports CMC.In a surprise move, the WICB namedrookie fast bowler Jason Holder tolead the squad, axing the experienced

Dwayne Bravo after just 19 monthsin charge and also dropping him fromthe squad.Big-hitter Kieron Pollard has alsobeen dropped from the one-daysquad. He averages 25 from 91matches."We have decided to introduce a fewnew players to the international stageand once they deliver the perfor-mances we are looking for we be-lieve we have the right kind of foun-dation to take the game forward,"chief selector Clive Lloyd said."We are in a situation where we wantto go up the ladder in all three for-

mats and aim to form teams whichwill take us there."Carter has campaigned extensivelywith the West Indies A team in recentyears, and has been knocking at thedoor of the senior team for some time.Brathwaite, on the other hand, whoplayed one ODI and a Twenty20 forthe West Indies three years ago, hasfound his way back into the squad,after captaining the A team in recentseries.The powerful lower order batsman,can produce explosive spells with hislively pace, and is regarded as a fu-ture captain.

Deonarine, also called up Saturdayto replace the injured Assad Fudadinin the Test squad in South Africa, isback in the ODI set-up a year afterplaying the last of his 29 ODIs.Fast bowler Kemar Roach's ankle in-jury has ruled him out of the one-dayline-up, with the WICB set to name hisreplacement shortly.Former captain Sammy has also beendropped from the ODI squad but remainsin charge of the Twenty20 unit whichwas also announced Saturday.Notably missing are leg-spinner

New Zealand 275-4 (Kane Williamson 97, Ross Taylor 88*) beat Pakistan 207 all out in 43.3 overs(Matt Henry 5-30, Haris Sohail 65, Nathan McCullum 2-59) by 68 runs in Abu Dhabi.New Zealand wrapped up the One Day International series against Pakistan 3-2 with a 68 run win in AbuDhabi. Kane Williamson lead from the front with 97, backed up by Ross Taylor's 88 not out, while MattHenry lead a powerful effor t from the bowling with 5-30.

Samuel Badree and left-arm seamerKrishmar Santokie, both of whom areinjured.Champion off-spinner Sunil Narine, un-der international scrutiny over his ac-tion, has not been picked in eithersquad. The West Indies face SouthAfrica in three Twenty20s nextmonth, prior to the start of the ODIseries.West Indies' squad for the ODIs &T 20s West Indies ODI squad Ja-son Holder (capt), Sulieman Benn,Carlos Brathwaite, Jonathan Carter,

Sheldon Cottrell, Narsingh Deonarine,Leon Johnson, Chris Gayle, DeneshRamdin, Andre Russell, MarlonSamuels, Lendl Simmons, DwayneSmith, Jerome TaylorWest Indies T20 squad DarrenSammy (capt), Sulieman Benn,Carlos Brathwaite, Dwayne Bravo,Sheldon Cottrell, Andre Fletcher, ChrisGayle (subject to fitness test), JasonHolder, Ashley Nurse, Kieron Pollard,Denesh Ramdin, Andre Russell,Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons,Dwayne Smith.

New Zealand beat Pakistan 3-2 in ODI series

THE NEW ZEALAND PLAYERS CELEBRATE WITH THE SERIES TROPHY, PAKISTAN V NEW ZEALAND,5TH ODI, ABU DHABI,

salman khan getting married in 2015?

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